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What Bantu Really Means.en.srt

00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:02,080 let's start with what Vu doesn't mean and what it isn't Vu doesn't mean people or many people in fact we don't have a term that means people in the pantu language or the closely derived languages and I will explain why but first let's clear up a few misconceptions the expression Vu is not the plural form of the expression MTU or muu both of which are mistaken to mean one person that is wrong in the case of the expression MTU the mo prefix implies within or part of the n Sound is a pronoun preposition which signifies belonging or attachment to implies us or we so moon to is an expression that implies within or part of us which strictly speaking doesn't mean one person that was a misunderstanding by the deriv speaking people and I will explain why they misunderstood the gram definitions of the Expressions they had adopted Vu has never meant people or many people I will repeat that Vu has never meant people or many people this misunderstanding probably came from the misunderstanding of the meaning of MTU which has been misunderstood to mean a person or one person as explained above correct one two language prefix for one or singular is Mo not MO and they are not interchangeable and they have never been interchangeable some people have probably heard the most sound used before in an expression such as mosana Monga Mo mbasa M but most of you call him Moses the idea that Vu is a plural of the term MTU likely came from the misunderstanding and misuse of the VA prefects which was commonly used among the swan speaking people who were the second contact for Europeans in southern Africa the SW made extensive use of the VA prefects to legitimize the Splinter groups such as the Vang vua vasana and also the shaa did with the vanga this is because the V prefix is an invocation used to emphasize formality and not a plural of anything it is used to add spiritual rence from our Guardian spirits to the root words or base expression which the prefix is attached to since this one is were the primary source for British understanding of Southern African people they may have perceived the swan use of the V sound to mean many but it doesn't mean many it never has the correct BTO language prefix for many is ma as in m Mana Mahari amaka amazulu masana maanga M for you in the East and that actually means slavers to understand why VA isn't plural it is important to understand how it was used in the prant language which is a source of all languages in the pantu language we call our fathers Vata we call our mothers daddy Ormy for the town kids we also call our grandparents for grandfather and grandmother vapa notice we are referring to a person as in one person using the VA prefix so the logic that V is plural fails because the B prefix is strictly an invocation to our spiritual Guardians to give us the ideal version of the root or base expression we are calling for VA is an invocation to our spiritual guardians of whom we are an extension and not a plural of anything our language is very spiritual and the use of va as a plural is often found among the people who had no access to the oracles priests or the haa who are the custodians of the Mary or speech so the meanings and nuances of the language were lost to the derived language speakers who were often militant and therefore could not sustain a haa in their midst because a haa only exist where there is peace and Harmony or muya otherwise they cannot function so if Fu doesn't mean people what is the word for people we don't say people because we don't have a word for people we say sa which is a synonym for familiars the Proto vantu language is a spiritual language of Attraction therefore it is very specific people is too general of a term and doesn't exist in the standard speech sa is also a plural because we believe a person comes with the misimo or ancestral Spirits We believe We don't exist on our own but are part of that chain so whenever we meet a person we are also meeting Theo that is how we experience energy shifts when we meet people because we carry around energy from our ancestors so we believe a person is the sum of their ancestors well mostly their mat your ancestors but that's another Deep dive in southern Africa the most famous use of the sa sound is in the South African expression sa which Loosely translated means you have been seen or revealed War to the familiars S so you have been revealed or seen by The Familiar prefixing sa with Ma isn't commonly used it is not proper grammar so we don't say Masa but we do say Mana or M this works because it follows the pantu grammar rules but that's another video the closest expression that would use Masa is masarwa from the swana which means those who got caught in this case stealing so to use Mas you have to provide context like an adjective as stated before the Proto Bantu language is a manifest language therefore you have to be specific and the word people is too general for our language therefore it does not exist to describe people you have to provide their ethnic state or primary activity as the root or base expression to the ma prefix otherwise it doesn't make sense the misuse of the expression B to to mean many people was applied to all people Europeans perceived as speaking similar languages without regard to their history or how this came about it was like identifying all englishspeaking people across the world today and calling them all English because we all speak English that doesn't make a lot of sense just because we speak a dialect of English doesn't make us English the same reasoning applies to the expression Vu just because people speak a dialect or version of the PTO language doesn't make them Vu Vu is an ethnicity we are people who call ourselves vanu more specifically V to V which means true V to this expression was only used amongst ourselves Vasa or the familiar not Outsiders it was never applied to Outsiders until the Europeans applied it remember ethnicity is a group of people who originally come from the same place practice similar culture and speak similar languages at is most basic definition ethnic Vu are people who value their cattle have rain makers pray on mountains are nonviolent mindful gold and they use the expression Mami for their King the misunderstanding of the bontu history led to the misuse of this expression and its application to everyone in southern Africa the shaa and the swana were usually the primary sources for Outsiders attempting to understand Bantu languages and people but the swana languages are approximately four or 5° removed from the protu language utonga and is even further down about 7 or 8° and both experienced an acent change and AD mixture they also had some of their meanings Modified by those looking to transcribe their language which resulted in forceful Association of certain words to certain Concepts resulting in a loss of depth and original meanings for example the Shona language makes high use of the zy or Z Sounds the zy sound doesn't exist in the pantu language and the zi sound denotes absence but in Shona it is used to denote greatness or something that is present one reason for this misuse and misunderstanding is because the mutas were Invaders who were probably deliberately misled on the meanings of many words hell the title m mutapa means Master thief or Pillager in swana Mimo was taken to mean God by the Europeans who were looking to help the maswana understand the concept of their God by making it relatable to the swana language so they picked a swana word or expression that they thought had a close association with their definition of God and that was morimo morimo comes from the Vu or the prant word or expression mimo no notice the accent change that I mentioned earlier morimo is swana mimo Isa pantu mimo is currently taken to mean a great wonderful work and that was associated with the way gate now buried under the water in the curam at least that's the Bel mimo is an expression applied to the idea of something created of great Wonder but strictly speaking mimo means part of one sound as in mu Den notes something that is within or part of Lee Den notes sound Mo denotes one thing and now we get to the spiritual depth of the language sound is very important to us which is why singing is important and the child who sings before they can coherently speak is considered very very intelligent and spiritually connected sound is how the way Gates were opened and how The Departed spiritual energies are helped to navigate to the correct star not just any Star otherwise they end up in a situation so you have to have the correct sound so being part of one sound basically means to be in harmony I will do a deep dive on pantu beliefs strictly speaking speaking there is no word for people but we prefix the ma sound to the ethnic state or identity of people of interest and the result implies many of those specific people for example again Mana malahari Masia M masana amanga amazulu Monga Masa maanga mria Maga which means white people we are very specific because we believe in accurately defining everything and the word people is through General over term so we don't have it and don't use it we believe in being specific to avoid manifesting unwanted situations so we don't generalize therefore we don't have a term to mean people or many people I hope you found this video useful if you did please like And subscribe for more and if you have learned something and want to support this Channel and the production of these videos you can contribute to our coffee the link is in the description box below thank you for watching

What Did Ancient Egyptian Really Sound Like.en.srt

00:00:01,079 --> 00:00:03,319 fortunately we do have evidence of what ancient Egyptians sounded like before it became Coptic Coptic developed during the first century ad and became a substratum of Greek this means it adopted a lot of Greek influences and a person speaking ancient Egyptian would not have understood Coptic we know this because the ancient Egyptian language is the PTO language and the source of all VTO languages in southern Africa where it has been spoken since 200 BCE or earlier it is also the same language spoken by the Great Lakes Proto vantu that means a lot of people speak it the language is still spoken as plate Tonga in southern Africa by the vundu or Watonga as they have come to be known who are the earliest known Wu settlers in southern Africa with a presence going back to 200 BCE and that's when we don't consider the story which was not only told by Herodotus but also by The hagga Who are southern African priest this is the language that ancient Egyptians actually spoke and wrote for over 2,000 years they called it Ma Nali ma is a synonym for speech of voice Nali is a synonym for a nostalgic time of bliss we still have a song that we sing at happy occasions that has the word n in it over and over again here are a few expressions in plat tongo which when the vows are removed match The Vow ancient Egyptian consonant sequences Pao this is a synonym for home or place where I rest GAA this is a synonym for other sshi this is a synonym for one who know and intellect ATI this is a synonym for middle or Horizon W this is a synonym which means to see or to be revealed party this is a synonym for the sky or the expanse or something of great height or magnitude this language is not afroasiatic kushite or Arabic it wasn't learned from the Phoenicians Arabs Portuguese French Dutch Spanish Scots or English it has always been hours at least since the Guardians ascended to the Stars we have those stories too we call the jacoe headed Guardian is not a God but a guardian simoa Toth is actually the female Guardian muga Mambo the water snake or Guardians name changes according to the region so how did we get here well starting in approximately 900 BC the kingdom was first invaded by the zange Arab next came The shaa Invasion which sliced a wedge into the kingdom then the Portuguese then finally the destruction by the mat with Robert muffet's help I don't think any of them ever found the gold that's because the gold is at inyanga while the way gate the gold Minds is supposedly at inyanga we can't open it anymore so we can't help you there mythology aside the language makes little use of conjunctions or joining words these are inferred based on the synonyms used this is a sentence taken from the funeral wishes from the Thea Noble's tomb the original translation assumed permission was being given to enter a Mah Mah which is correctly translated to within the house of the great teacher IMA mahata death is here but it is denied the Great Lakes had or still have their own source which is or was the same as the plate Tonga source which is why we can understand them even if convent history stat we've never met this group consisted of the himmer related groups and in southern Africa there are the suria and the Ila or mahima whose languages we understand along with the L and the vona the Ila are also considered as part of the vwe vwe means one of three this simply means that we are from the same place in southern Africa we use the L Sound which is our dominant sound others in the Great Lakes use r l and R are interchangeable which is why a lot of people who speak our language have a hard time detering the two the ancient Egyptians have been present in southern Africa and the Great Lakes region and the linguistic continuity is proof of this they were cattle herders rain makers and prayed on mountains they also practiced or or are the principles we abide by which state that we have to be a perfect reflection of the god which is why we are called Vana van means children but strictly speaking it means the perfect reflection of the Gods who ascended to the heavens this means according to or which is EAS easier for most people to say we cannot un alive anybody this is the most important aspect of Moya the ancient Egyptians have been present in southern Africa they have also been present in the Great Lakes region and we are still here well what's left of us thank you for watching if you'd like to show your support for this Channel you can give to our coffee the link is in the description box below please like And subscribe for more

What Happened to the Ancient Egyptian Language.en.srt

00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:04,760 Take a look at this sign in modern Cairo. Now take a look at these hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt. Aside from being written in completely different scripts, these two are written in completely different languages. While Egypt today is the largest Arabic-speaking nation in the world, Ancient Egypt used to have their own completely different language, so what I want to know is, what happened to the Egyptian language of antiquity? Does anyone still speak it? And how do you change the language of an entire country? For over 3,000 years, Ancient Egypt spoke various forms of a language simply known as... well, Egyptian, but for the last 1,000 or so years (which in Egyptian terms is actually quite recent) the main language of the country has been Arabic. In fact, modern Egypt primarily speaks its own dialect of Arabic, known as Egyptian Arabic… yeah, go figure. Now Arabic and Egyptian are both related, but they’re not the same thing. While both languages are part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, they belong to two separate branches. Of the six branches of the Afro-Asiatic languages, Arabic is a Semitic language– budding up with languages like Hebrew, Aramaic, Amharic, and Akkadian– while Egyptian does its own thing and makes up its own branch. Maybe it had closer relatives, but considering how far back this language goes, it’s honestly too hard for us to tell. Granted, it helps that Egypt was one of the first places in the world to develop writing, with… things resembling records going as far back as the 33rd century BC– or about 1,500 years before mammoths went completely extinct. In general, the Egyptian language’s long history can be divided into six distinct phases; Archaic, Old, Middle, Late, Demotic, and Coptic– and it’s actually the last two that are crucial for answering our titular question. One thing you have to know about Ancient Egypt is that the society in general was very conservative. I mean you can see it in their art style, as not much changed from the Old Kingdom all the way up to Ptolemaic Egypt (I mean Akhenaten of course tried to change things around, but wow did people *not* like what he did). While the language itself evolved, as all languages do when spoken by people as their native everyday language, official legal and religious inscriptions were generally written in older dialects. This was the case with Old Egyptian when Middle Egyptian first started to form, and then Middle Egyptian until late into the Roman era. It is perhaps also worth pointing out the nature of the hieroglyphics that made up their writing system. You could never just quickly jot down a series of hieroglyphs on a piece of paper, and that’s because that’s not what they were meant for. It was really only the priests, the ruling class, and scribe class who knew how to read and write in this massive system of logograms– which could number anywhere from 700 symbols to nearly 10,000, depending on which point of Egyptian history you look at– and so hieroglyphics were meant to be written on important legal papyri or grandiose temple walls. The hieroglyphic script was what is known as a logography– think Chinese characters, where each glyph represents a word or an idea rather than an individual sound– but increasingly, some of these symbols could also be used as consonants, in a move which would be incredibly helpful to Egyptologists 3,000 years in the future, but more on that in a bit. In the 15th century BC, the New Kingdom of Egypt reached new heights that it never had before, but with new heights came new lows. The negative-12th century saw the beginning of a centuries-long decline in Egyptian power and influence as different dynasties from within vied for power. This continued until 754 BC, when Egypt was conquered by the Nubian Kingdom of Kush, installing what historians today know as the 25th dynasty (but was probably called something different back then). As Egypt spent the next few hundred years under rule of the Nubians, then the Achaemenids, Middle Egyptian still remained in use for governmental and religious affairs, while the language of the locals evolved into Demotic, from the Greek “δημοτικός”, meaning “common”– and not be confused with demotic Greek, which is the modern version of the Greek language. It was by this point the writing system had also begun to simplify. Over the centuries, a sort of cursive form of hieroglyphics called hieratic began to develop, and by the 1st millennium BC this hieratic had evolved further into the Demotic script. Speaking of Greek however, in 332 BC Egypt was conquered from the Persians by Alexander the Great, before he went on to conquer Persia from Persia. When Alexander died in 323 BC, his general Ptolemy Soter called dibs on the former Egyptian satrap, installing his own dynasty and beginning the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Like the Kingdom of Kush with Merotic and the Achaemenids with Aramaic, the Ptolemaic Kingdom proclaimed Koine Greek as the language of government. Demotic meanwhile remained in common use among the everyday folk of Egypt, with Middle Egyptian still used for religious affairs. This trilingualism can be seen today in perhaps the most famous document written in the Egyptian language, the Rosetta Stone; Middle Egyptian on the top in hieroglyphics, Demotic in the middle, and Ancient Greek on the bottom, which was of course what helped people translate this giant tax document 2,000 years later. Under the Roman era, things remained much the same linguistically, with Greek used as the language of government, as was actually the case across much of the eastern half of the Empire, meaning Latin never made much of an impact on Egypt like it did in Northwestern Africa. Under Roman rule, the Egyptian language gradually evolved into a form known as Coptic (from the same stem which we get the word ‘Egypt’), a language which actually survives to this day within the Coptic Church of Alexandria. During this time, Egypt saw the gradual decline of its old beliefs, and the rise of Christianity. However, as the 3rd century was generally a bad time to be a Christian within sight of the Mediterranean– as confirmed by the persecutions overseen by Emperor Diocletian– many Egyptian Christians established monasteries out in the desert (many of which are still in operation 1,700 years later), where important texts were translated from Greek into the new Coptic dialect by Saint Shenouda. Coptic evolved hand-in-hand with the Coptic alphabet, a modified version of the Greek alphabet, with a few extra letters borrowed from simplified hieroglyphs for certain sounds that Greek letters just couldn’t imitate, like /x/, /h/, /t͡ʃ/, this one’s pronounced differently depending on dialect, /tiː/, and numbers. Eventually, being Christian in Egypt went from being more or less banned, to being more or less enforced, with the old Egyptian religion dwindling down, symbolically ending when Justinian I ordered the Temple of Isis at Phylae to be closed. [Justinian: Ha! I’ve closed your building! Now go to a church, or something! Actually, forget the something, just go to a church.] Thus, Middle Egyptian faded out entirely, with Coptic assuming the same role for the new faith– especially after 451, when the Council of Chalcedon split the churches of Constantinople and Alexandria. But in order to learn the full story of [ra ni-kumat], we have to look at the arrival and the development of [masri]. By 642, Egypt had been absorbed into the rapidly growing Rashidun Caliphate. For the first 100 or so years, Arabic was mostly the language of the rulers, military, and recently arrived Arab immigrants. By the 8th-9th centuries Arabic had grown significantly in Egypt due to Arab migration and mass conversion to Islam (for which Arabic is of course the important liturgical language). Basically, throughout this time, Arabic became the language of government *and* religion (coincidentally the two things you do NOT bring up when traveling to a new place) and over time it became increasingly so that learning Arabic was just, like, a good idea for your average Egyptian to learn, especially those living in the shiny new capital Cairo. By the 11th century, even many texts within the Coptic Church were being translated into Arabic. This trend continued, and eventually accelerated with the periodic persecution of Copts and Christians– with Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah banning the language in literally every context, even going so far as to personally walk the streets of Cairo and eavesdrop on people’s homes to hear if they were speaking the language– and by 1200 Coptic had become little more than a classical language. While isolated communities further up the Nile in Upper Egypt may have still spoken the language throughout the Mamluk and Ottoman periods– and even into the 19th century– Egypt had more or less completely transitioned into an Arabic-speaking nation, with Coptic relegated to the ceremonial language of the Orthodox minority. No surprise, speakers of Coptic also played an important role in helping decipher the Rosetta Stone, and through that its ancient ancestors and the hieroglyphs they wrote in– especially with figuring out where the vowels went, because y’all know no Afro-Asiatic language ever be writing vowels! I mean I guess Coptic literally does, but you ever tried learning Arabic or Hebrew? Ancient Egyptian does the same thing. It's frustrating if you're so Indo-European-brained! In fact, if you want the full story on how we were able to reconstruct Ancient Egyptian, I would highly recommend this video from NativLang. Actually, that wasn’t a recommendation, that was an order. This is your homework now, I expect a 600-page essay on my desk by Thursday! While the Egyptian language may be extinct today, save for a distant descendant in one specific church, you don’t get to be the language of one of the most important civilizations in history and not have some sort of influence today! English words like barge, natron, oasis, and possibly even paper and elephant can all be traced back to the Egyptian language… and oh yeah, Egyptian hieroglyphs are the ancestor of most of the writing systems used around the world to this day, from Latin to Arabic to (potentially) Devanagari and Thai. Quite the influence for a language that first evolved over 5,000 years ago, I’d say!

What Is Magic - Arcanvm Episode 1.en.srt

00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:04,140 to engage in a comprehensive study of magic in all of its history theory and practice is to attempt the nearly impossible choosing a starting point for this attempt was no simple Endeavor but the most logical conclusion ultimately presented itself it's a question that many have asked upon First Learning or hearing about magic and it's a question no more easily answered by practitioners of many years what is Magic I'm Mike Baker and this is Arcanum foreign [Music] foreign [Music] let's start with the basic definition Merriam-Webster defines magic as the use of means such as charms or spells believed to have Supernatural power over Natural Forces let's also consider some perspectives now from practitioners within the community among the most off quote it is a definition proffered by the notorious 19th century magician and agent provocateur Alistair Crowley Crowley says magic is the science and art of causing change to occur in Conformity with the will Donald Michael Craig in his seminal textbook Modern Magic adds to the previous definition quote magic is the science and art of causing change in Consciousness to occur in Conformity with the will using means not currently understood by traditional Western science end quote from contemporary magician Damien Eccles magic is quote a process of initiation designed to awaken the viewer to higher states of consciousness unless but certainly not least from chick and Tabitha Cicero's 2019 release Golden Dawn Magic foreign magic is an art and a science the goal of which is to produce changes in both internal and external reality subjective and objective reality through the knowledge of divine powers and the manipulation of unseen forces inherent to both realities although these definitions all say something true about magic many practitioners May Come Away unsatisfied by these the fundamental issue here is that modern people aren't typically content with definitions which only superficially declare what something is per se hired to know the mechanisms behind it how and why it works in a glance we might notice the common denominator of all these definitions the idea of change magic is change yet how or why is that change affected strictly dogmatic theological and cosmological ideologies aside we will attempt to answer this question by sharing theoretical models formulated from ancient and modern sources as well as time-tested personal experience and insight with that said let's reformulate our question what causes the processes which we call Magic to work let's examine a few of the theoretical working models magicians have formulated and used across the centuries in an attempt to answer this fundamental question the As Above So Below or macrocosm slash microcosm model As Above So Below there's arguably no other phrase in Western occultism so used and abused as this Infamous line from the late 8th Century Emerald Tablets of Hermes but what does it mean the concept of the microcosm or little Universe within the macrocosm or greater Universe comes to us from the work of the Hellenistic philosophers of antiquity and was passed on through the Revival of neoplatonic and hermetic philosophy during the Renaissance arguably however its first intimation was from the timiness of Plato wherein Plato posits that the universe is ultimately alive a Divine being he called this inherent life of the cosmos the soul of the World expounded by later philosophers as the anima Mundi the gist of this philosophy is that human beings are Miniature copies of the universe in its totality while the literal sense of this is debatable we typically understand this to mean that the things which underlie and emanate the constituent Essences of material existence at large are also in existence and at work in due proportion within the individual human a human being is a tiny universe and So within a person exists energies and forces which correspond and react to the forces that are in the greater Cosmos as for example the planet Mars is the celestial sphere which embodies and emanates the forces of energy activity and War foreign are these active to a greater or lesser extent in a person in relation to their inherent Constitution but their constitution itself is formed and governed by the positions of those macrocosmic bodies stars and planets at the time of their birth same forces can be summoned to Greater presence and potency within the microcosm by the inherent sympathy that exists within the individual and without them in the greater Universe in short everything that's out there is in here and vice versa most astral or astrological magic is based on this concept such as elaborated in the Three Books of Occult Philosophy by the 16th century German philosopher and occultist Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa as well as in the 11th century compendium of Astral magic the pikatrix translated from the Arabic gayat al-hakim or the goal of the sage in modern kabbalistically organized magic such as the system of magic taught in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn the microcosm was delineated by its outermost boundary the sphere of sensation sphere of sensation is a western term used by members of the Golden Dawn to refer to the part of a person's energetic body otherwise known as the aura within this sphere of sensation exists the mental astral etheric and physical bodies of the microcosm in a manner reminiscent to the ptolemaic model of the universe these bodies again are organized according to certain astrological configurations which imprinted themselves in the sphere of sensation at the time of the individual's birth a significant portion of the work of the Golden Dawn therefore consists of a kind of rectification of the sphere of Sensation from a distorted state the theory is that in making the sphere of sensation into a harmonious hole through certain kinds of Rights attaining certain States Of Consciousness and Performing specific energetic exercises it would become a more accurate reflection of the greater whole of which it is apart and naturally intended to mirror process completed the microcosm could now have greater access to those latent constituent Powers Within by attaining knowledge understanding and power over those things within a sophisticated and subtle form of sympathetic magic as best exemplified again in the works of Agrippa could be effectively catalyzed to draw power from external sources toward and into the sphere of the practitioner without this necessary rectification the microcosm might remain in a chaotic and unbalanced State perpetually a victim to the energies and influences impinging upon its fractured state from without unable to organize itself upon the foundational patterns of creation we see elements of these ideas in the strong anthropic principle of Yvonne antique and in the New Age concept of human beings as co-creators with the divine The Ether or astral light model past centuries one widely accepted model of the workings of magic was founded upon the idea of a medium conducted specific influences from stars planets and constellations to the Earth and which was transmitted in rays or emanations from one thing to another to be diffused into humans the Earth and every other order of created thing from animal plant to Mineral this substance was often conceptualized to be a fluidic fire or vapor which was constantly in communication from its source to everything on Earth in this way many medieval and Renaissance magicians and philosophers such as Agrippa paracelsus and marcilia faccino believed that Essences were co-mingled in all things in varying proportions it is from this philosophy that we derive so many occult correspondences such as plants minerals and their Elemental Natures having a particular Affinity with stars and planets elephants Levy the pseudonym of the 19th century Frances sotericist and author Alphonse Louis constan wrote often about an astral substance or fluid which was what he called the Great magical agent the idea of such a substance was brought to prominence in the public imagination a century earlier by The Works of Franz Anton Mesmer and the discovery of animal magnetism in Chinese medicine and Meridian Theory the jingloo or meridians of chi meaning Life Energy and or vapor which permeate and move throughout the human body are compared to a network of rivers streams and Wells all connoting a distinctly fluid-like movement in their terminology in theosophical literature the energetic body of a person which corresponded to the idea of a person's individual Chi or pranic energy was called the etheric body it was this body which could be detached and moved it was also in this field that thought forms could be seen astrally what we really seem to be talking about in all this is the idea of energy in this model energy can be moved by way of a medium to and from things places and people Agrippa even goes so far as to briefly mention that when a violent act has been committed in a place its energy stays in that place for a long time afterward in the model of the ether in fact space is not empty but filled with all things and Essences in potential it is typically through will and intention in combination with ritual forms and oftentimes breathing exercises or pranayama and mental visualizations that we see the cultivation and movement of this energy in more modern times Nikola Tesla avered that Einstein's model of Relativity was misguided and incorrect he believed this stemmed from a fundamental ignorance of the function of light and Its Behavior Tesla insisted that light did not travel anywhere per se as an array or a beam but compared it to the way that sound moves not across a medium but moving through the medium itself a sound seems to travel but is in reality displacing molecules of air similarly Tesla famously said light is a sound wave in The Ether the conscious universe or mental model the gist of this model suggests that everything in the cosmos and Beyond is both product and part of an all-encompassing mind a great and nearly infinite pattern of mental activity Central to this idea is the concept of Mind as distinct from brain the brain is the physical organism which houses the mind or Consciousness often referred to as psyche meaning soul in the ancient Hellenistic terminology but Consciousness itself exists independently of the physical organism yet is fixed there for a Time by causal or another vernacular karmic forces an analogy might be in the way a television or radio signal is broadcasted from one spot and transmitted to the receiving device in say your living room or car when the device is shut off the broadcast frequency doesn't cease to exist and the power of myth his last recorded interview Joseph Campbell refers to the cosmological conception of the upanishads an apt and even poetic analogy for the universe as mind model quote Brahma sits on a Lotus the symbol of divine energy and divine grace the Lotus grows from the navel of Vishnu who is the sleeping God whose dream is the universe Brahma opens his eyes and a world comes into being Brahma closes his eyes and a world goes out of being and quote this idea seems to be corroborated and elaborated by the dialogues of Plato particularly when discussing the concept of forms or ideas to Plato everything which is manifested in the Physical Realm must be an imperfect physical expression of a non-physical idea or form these ideas or forms come from a non-physical realm aptly termed the ideal realm or the realm of forms this theory for Plato suggested itself as a logical solution to the problem of universals that is how one thing in general can be many things in particular the species of pantheism or better the Omni presence of Consciousness that this Theory suggests is later expounded in highly mystical vernacular by the late platonus or neoplatonist of the second and third Century CE beginning with the Egyptian platonic philosopher platonus the compendium of axioms and mystical sayings known as the kaldan oracles attributed to zoroaster was famously translated by the 19th century Freemason and hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn co-founder William Wynn Westcott but rather than being the oracular sayings of the Iranian religious philosopher zoroaster the Chaldean oracles are in actuality a primary source of much neoplatonic thought within the oracles we find a plethora of imagery attempting to explain the mechanisms of creative deity and the created universe as a network of nested consciousnesses which are called such things as first mind second mind and third mind whose primary vehicle of communication or movement is a sort of spiritual fire for instance we find in the Chaldean oracles the following quote from the neoplatonist proclus describing the formation of the worlds out of divine mind or noose quote for not in matter did the fire which is in the first Beyond enclose his active power but in mind for the framer of the fiery world is the mind of mind who first sprang from mind clothing the one fire with the other fire binding them together that he might mingle the fountainous craters while preserving unsullied the Brilliance of his own fire end quote in later writings of the occult subculture of the early 20th century such as the kebalian penned by a mysterious three initiates we find this echoed in the very first of the seven hermetic principles which it claims to expound the principle of mentalism all is mind the universe is mental misconception Likens the universe to a vast projection from the mind of the all being the first of the Hermetic principles is significant since they seem to be laid out in this work in a sequential order like building blocks one laid upon the previous foundation of the other the principle of mentalism sets the underlying framework for everything that follows the universe is a living mind fractalized or splintered into individual existences like a cracked mirror the boundaries of which are ultimately illusory capital M mind is the underlying mechanism of change creation and motive in the universe the Archimedean lever which moves all things this would necessarily be the very first thing one had to understand in order to then move further on to the study of how the universe and its underlying laws behave in the mid-20th Century Two College professors theoretical physicist David Bohm and professor of psychology and neurosurgeon Carl prybrum who did not know each other somehow nearly simultaneously proposed two similar theories the mind and the universe as a holographic projector and projection these theories were later brought to a larger Audience by author Michael Talbot in his book The holographic universe bone believed that evidence showed that the Universe only appeared solid yet was a hole in every part much like the idea of the microcosm within the macrocosm espoused by philosophers and Mystics since at least the time of the Hellenistic world in Baum's model each part of the projection of reality contained information about the whole the same way a holographic image works problem's theory of quantum Consciousness elaborated the holographic Theory his holonomic brain Theory claimed that evidence shows that the human brain can successfully be modeled as a holographic storage Network this supports Bowen's Theory by emphasizing the non-locality of information storage which is crucial to a hologram due to the fact that quote the entirety will be contained within even a single remaining part of sufficient size Prime and others noted the similarities between an optical hologram and memory storage in the human brain according to the holonomic brain Theory memories are stored within certain General regions but stored non-locally within those regions this allows the brain to maintain function and memory even when it is damaged it is only when there exists no parts big enough to contain the hole that the memory is lost this can also explain why some children retain normal intelligence when large portions of their brain in some cases half are removed it can also explain why memory is not lost when the brain is sliced in different cross sections essentially the model of the universe has mine suggests that all things contain a portion of consciousness not merely human and animal modes of cognition for instance we turn again to Joseph Campbell quote the way a flower turns its head to face the sun heliotropism is a kind of consciousness there is a planned Consciousness there is an animal Consciousness and we share all of these things you eat food and the bile of your stomach knows if there's something there to work on this whole thing is consciousness I begin to feel more and more that the whole world is conscious end quote Consciousness exists in everything around us albeit perhaps not in a sophisticated away as human self-awareness what Campbell seems to be alluding to here is the fact that consciousness as a term must be used in a broader sense than merely describing processes which are exclusive to things that have a nervous system taking this model on its own terms if everything is the product of one mind and all things are not only conscious within but contain a Consciousness which creates and maintains their physical forms then it is on these mental levels levels of consciousness that we are able to change things the most efficiently until Level that is the primary level and the physical is merely its product in the western Paradigm of magic we call this working on the astral in the imaginative Realm in essence we work on the blueprint first in order to change the structure we at all times in all places have access to this level of creation and experience it is the seat of our own personal transformative power there we have our three models experience tells me that the mechanism behind magic seems to be all of these theories working in tandem each complements and supports the other it's as if at different times and in different places we've glimpsed a part of the totality of the gear work of the universe everything is a product of consciousness the awareness of one thing by another the relationship or interaction produced thereby as in chemical affinity and the quantum problem of spontaneous action at a distance this microcosmic presentation of Consciousness seems to be a product of reflection for lack of a better word we can find the best evidence or analogy for this pattern in the mathematical ratio Phi the golden ratio also called the Golden section or golden mean Phi is an irrational number which when applied geometrically is found to be the underlying numerical Foundation of growth patterns throughout the natural world such as in logarithmic or living spirals this geometry informs nature as a measure of proportional growth and there are nearly endless examples of it which are easily accessible should one desire to pursue further research in fine Phi can be summed up by the following line segment B is to line segment a as line segment a is to line a b in Phi we not only have the code of creation but the scale with which the chief geometer creates in this sense we now have a hermetic conception of creation As Above So Below as within so without a microcosm reflective indu proportion of the macrocosm firmly established and affirmed through the geometrical application of this mathematical ratio in this way human beings and everything else that exists as an individual thing is a replica in miniature of the totality of the universe however in human beings the presence of self-awareness lends a power or conscious ability closer to that of what many consider the creative deity or a creative function within an underlying the material Universe this established we come to understand that all powers intelligences and forces which exist in the material Universe also exist within us in due proportion hence the philosophic Axiom man know yourself and you will know the universe and its Gods all Consciousness and all material manifestations of things are further forms of energy energy is another term which must be redefined in the pursuit of magic again our current accepted definitions tell us what it does rather than what it is is let's combine this with another well-known description of energy the first law of thermodynamics energy of all kinds is around us all the time we're constantly transforming it in more ways than we're normally aware there's a tremendous amount we don't yet have a sufficient holistic scientific model for when it comes to energy light and electricity as well as other forces regarding which we currently remain at a standstill in our scientific understanding of this includes dark energy and dark matter so-called dark not because of Any qualitative attribute but rather because we don't know anything about them other than that they compose most of the universe whether this energy is able to cross distances with or without a conductive field formerly called The Ether from the perspective and experience of energy healers and magicians alike it can travel and we can intentionally move it both within and outside of ourselves as an Adept Qigong therapist once put it with all the humor and simplicity typical to many Eastern traditions where the Mind goes the chi flows one further suggestion as to the working mechanisms of magic can be gleaned in the kabbalistic model of the four worlds there are four forces which exist in the microcosmic makeup of a human being and which are a product of its projection down the worlds from spiritual Unity into material existence in the kabbalistic model of the four worlds these are inspiration corresponding to the spiritual archetypal world of atsilute will corresponding to the creative world of Bria imagination corresponding to the formative world of yetzera and physicality corresponding to the physical world of manifestation or asaya these forces arranged in sequential order form the spiritual architecture of a person and consequently the hierarchy of magical operation it is in the calibration and harmonious alignment of these aspects that magic operates through a person now let's talk about what magic is not because of the portrayal of magic and controversial occultists such as Crowley in the media of the 19th and 20th centuries magic and the Occult have been stigmatized by a dark aesthetic though indeed outlawed by official religious figures and institutions traditional grimoire magic talismanic magic and a patriotic magic such as the crafting of amulets were composed and performed by ordained clergy typically Catholic priests as they were the only people educated to read and write and especially to quote scripture and be able to recall the Divine hierarchies of angels archangels demons Etc they would have been considered the only people within their communities that possessed the authority and know how to perform such magic effectively even if it was done hidden from the watchful eye of clerical Authority magic and the Occult are not Inseparable from dark or satanic imagery and intent for instance in the abrameline operation the operator is supposed to undergo a period of purification self-control and prayer the culmination of which was the knowledge and conversation of their holy Guardian Angel tandemount to the highest expression of their Spiritual Development magic is not psychology exploring your own psyche and coming to grips with things therein plays a definite part in the requisite work of a magician and Adept but most working magicians who have been practicing for many years myself included understand that these entities and forces both dark and Light exist within us but also transcend the boundaries of our individual microcosms they also have objective existences of their own and may be present with us at our calling for Better or For Worse now that you've got some theoretical models to investigate and work with let me ask you the question how do you think magic works what does magic mean to you feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below if you've enjoyed this video like And subscribe to my channel for more free content and remember to turn on notifications please consider contributing to the Arcanum patreon for exclusive bonus videos interviews and tutorials and to help me continue to produce more free content like this join me again in the next video where we'll dive deeper into the historical and practical sides of this and many other topics thanks for watching in loops [Music]

What is Sentence Transformer - Easiest Explanation with Demo.en.srt

00:00:02,320 --> 00:00:04,000 there is a lot of confusion around sentence Transformers and rightly so the confusion arises from the similar name or I should say identical name it all depends upon the context that you get to know what exactly we are refering to when we say the word sentence Transformer sentense Transformer refers to a model and it also refers to a python Library as a said it all depends upon the context when you use it in a singular way it refers to a python Library when you refer to it in a plural way like sentence Transformers We normally refer to the embedding model embedding models are used for semantic search or rag whereas this sentence Transformer python Library this is used to load these models and if we want to use these models then we need this sentence Transformer Library on the hugging phas you see that this distal bird is a model it's a sentence Transformers model I have added an S after Transformer and this is a python Library which is also called as sentence Transformers but the thing is that we normally use it in a singular when we are using it in action so this is the difference between these two so whenever someone is referring to in a plural that means they're referring to the Bing model or the sentence Transformer model and when someone is referring to it in a singular it means they're referring to the python library now let's get it installed and then we will also use a sentence Transformers model and we will be using this sentence Transformer library to load that sentence Transformers model so let me take you to my local system and my local system is a VM and I will be using 1G CPU card from Nvidia RTX a6000 both of them have been generously sponsored by mast compute so if you're looking to rent a GPU on affordable prices with no lockin contract with very high quality I would highly recommend them I will also drop the link to their website in video's description plus I am going to put a coupon code which will give you 50% discount on already discounted gpus so please do check them out now let me take you to my local VM this is the local VM where I'm running 2 22.041 a6000 let me clear the screen also I am running cona here to keep everything separate from my local installation if you don't have it uh I would highly recommend you install it it's not mandatory but it's always a good idea to get it installed okay now now let me create a k environment here and we will then get cracking so I'm just calling it STD and it is going to install it just press y here and it is going to create that cond environment for you let's activate it and that is done let's clear the screen now next up let's install the sentence Transformer Library which is a python Library and I'm just installing it with the PIP should be done very quickly let's wait for it to finish sentence Transformer library is installed let me clear the screen and now let's launch our Python interpretor and then we will import this Transformers Library going it take too long and now we will be loading our sentence Transformers model with the help of this Library you see we have imported this function here and with the help of this sentence Transformer function we are loading a sentence Transformer model so this is a difference and relationship of these two and it is loading it because these models are quite light fight so it has um completed very very quickly okay now let me give it a sentence data and this is a right time to describe what exactly sentence Transformer does so what sentence Transformer does is if you are looking to see what is the similarity between some of the sentences or text then the best approach to do is is through sentence Transformers for example there are these three lines I love dogs cats are amazing and dogs are the best and we have stored them in a list or in Array if you want to find out the similarity between these sentences you first need to convert these sentences into numerical representation which is also called as embedding or vector and then with the help of a function which could be a similarity function we evaluate whether they are similar or not all this task is done by the sentence Transformer model it is also called as by encoder model and in some way SYM model there are different names but embeding model or sentence Transformer model is the more popular one so if you want to do the text classification if you want to find out the semantics or semantic mean the meaning if you want to find out the meaning of the sentences and how similar they are sentense Transformer is the go now let me take you to a diagram where it is best um explained so let me quick L take you there now you see that these are the three sentences which I just showed you so on the left hand side we have these sentences and on the right hand side we have their numerical representation of the sentences this numerical representation is in 1024 or 1024 dimensional space which is a very high space because it has um 1024 different values so just one sentence has been represented in these 1024 values and you can think of it like a coordinate system with 1024 XIs of course we cannot um represent it on the screen it is very very hard or nearly impossible but these values represents the coordinate of a point in 1024 Dimension dimensional Spates which captures the meaning and context of the input sentence so that is why we have represented it like this so every sentence here has been represented in Dimensions okay so all three have been uh represented like that now this square bracket this is called a vector or embedding now this is called as uh embedding now another thing to note down here is a similarity we just create an similarity array where we just uh calculate the similarity score between these sentences the similarity array Or List represents how similar each senten is to every other sentence if you look at this array you will see there are some diagonal elements such as this one diagonal is that if you go from top to bottom or left to right you will intersect here so the score is one it means that both of I love dogs here in this column and in this row they are identical so that is why the score is the highest one now if you check I love dog and cats are amazing totally different the score is very low it is2 see and if you go there I love dogs and dogs are the best the score is quite high point8 it's not highest but High because both contain the word dog similarly cats are amazing and I love dogs the score is very low so it means they're not similar but the second row second column here on this diagonal one it is one it means that they are identical similarly you see dogs are the best they are 0.1 score is very low so this is how it works another thing is that you see there are some off diagonal elements off diagonal elements mean that um that they are not located on the main diagonal from the top left to the bottom right so for example you will see this one so it is um I mean if you look at this so what is happening here is that for example if you go to point 2 let's say so I love dog and cats are amazing so you can go with the row but if you go to the column you won't be intersecting it so this is called as off diagonal the off diagonals uh elements represent the similarity score between different sentences so they are quite valuable when it comes to finding out the relationship between different sentences this is how uh first we convert this into the embedding and then this embedding is put here where we just calculate the similarity score and this is what is done by the sentence Transformer models it just takes in these input sent um sentences converts them into edings and then find out the similarity score so now you understand what exactly this um sentence Transformer model does that plus another thing to note down that is this is mostly used in the retrieval augmented generation which I will mention at the very end I already have done various videos there anyway so now let's go back to our terminal where we were talking about all of this stuff like we already have mentioned these sentences now let's calculate the embeddings of it which which is the first screen which I showed you so I'm just calling this encode function that is done let me print it out and that is going to print the shape of the embedding there you go so the shape of the embeding is 3A 384 now what this 3A 3884 is telling us that there are three sentences and the dimension space is 384 in our example in this one we had 3 comma 1024 because we had three sentences but our in this example we had three sentences but our Dimension was 1024 but in this case we have three sentences and dimension is 384 so this is what this is telling us the shape of the embedding nextly let's get the uh similarity score now I'm just calculating the similarity here and then let's print it out and that is going to show us the similarity array so similarly but what we saw earlier so it is just telling us similar thing what we saw in this one that how much similar they are let's go back here it it is just uh you can just plot it on that table and you will see that of course the first one is one because if you see here first in the First Column first row the diagonal one it is always be one because the sentences are identical and you if you see in this tensor the first one is one then this is again one this is again one they are identical and then some are very close like 7 some are very far like0 five and some are very far so that is how the similarity search is done so once that is return it is just fed into the model now if you go broader after this impeding model there's another type of model which is called as ranker so what ranker doeses for example if this Impe model has returned um 10 similar results you don't want to return all 10 you just want to return top three that is where re ranker ranks those responses and returns top K or just three um results back so this is how this thing works now in the real world what happens is that whenever you are using rag or retrieval augmented generation but it means is you take your own file text file you convert it into numerical representation or embedding then you store that embedding in a vector store or vector database whenever a user asks a question a prompt you convert that into numerical representation that prompt you take that numerical representation you do a similarity search in your vector store and you um just return the similar vectors maybe top K vectors and then that is given to the model so that uh after augmenting it with your promt so that the model will have context of your query and your own data but that is what these models embedding models or sentence Transformers model do and then that is why we use this sentence Transformer Library I know that I have repeated a lot of things a lot of time but this is quite confusing I have received lot of comments and questions that is why I thought of doing this video I hope that this was useful if you are still confused or still have any other questions please let me know and uh I have tried to make it as easy as possible that's it guys let me know what do you think if you like the content please consider subscribing to the channel and if you're already subscribed then please share it among your network as it helps a lot thanks for watching

Who Are The Seven Kings of Jinn (and their most famous Servants).en.srt

00:00:01,640 --> 00:00:04,080 the ancient Arabic sources speak about seven kings that rule over gen kind a race of supernatural creatures that live in their own hidden Dimension yet they share so many similarities with humans there are many stories about people who have tried to summon and control Jin either for Magical AIDS or wish granon however only a few have been successful according to tradition the only human who could have control over all genin including their kings was King Solomon he was able to do that by the use of a magical ring that was given to him by God although the ring has been lost the names of these Jen Kings their most powerful servants and the ways to summon them have been kept in various sources and Magic books till this day so in this video we will have a look look at the seven Kings of Jin and the Wonders they can perform as well as their highest ranking servants but before we do that in a previous video I talked about Jin in detail I also covered sham Al a famous book on Arabic magic rumored to have the secret ways of provoking and salonon Jin and other Supernatural entities so to have a better understanding of today's topic let's have a quick recap Jin are supernatural beings made of fire and can live for thousands of years they possess many Supernatural powers that can range from flight and shape shifting to mind reading and teleportation they are immune to physical harm but at the same time they are not Invincible or Immortal and just like humans they need food and sleep to survive and again just like us Jin have their own societies tribes languages religions and so on J are also believed to be intelligent creatures with a free will so they can choose to do good or evil according to Legends there are four main races of Jin fire genin aquatic genin Earth genin and air genin there are also different types of gen based on power skill age and abilities the most famous among them are AIT Mars gou and am with a freit being the most powerful and the most intelligent and am being the weakest type who usually inhabit human houses so with all that being said and without further Ado let's have a look at the most powerful of all gen the Civ Kings of Jen number one al- mahab the yellow King titled as the golden one is the Jin king of wealth prosperity and good fortune as his title suggests alab is adorned or covered with gold his clothes are made of gold and his Throne is crafted from the most precious metals moreover to add to his Majestic presence he rides an extraordinary horse with a beautiful golden coat this Jin King is believed to be the wealthiest being on Earth own in a collection of the most valuable and rarest Treasures ever existed he resides somewhere in Arabia and rules over 360 tribes of which makes him one of the strongest Jin Kings with the largest army the true power of this golden King lies in his vast knowledge of magic and Alchemy including the secret of turning dust into gold he is mainly called upon to find hidden or lost treasures as he is said to know the exact location of each and every treasure on Earth those who who successfully summon him will be also rewarded with the secrets of alchemy and the inspiration to create brilliant and unusual inventions alab is the Lord of Sunday the Sun the C yellow and the metal Leed number two mura the white king is a mysterious genin king with a very little information about him all we know that he rules over Monday the moon the color white and the metal Silver in other sources murra is actually described as a Jin queen and the name is pronounced more as mea she said to have an enchanting Beauty and only appear on Full Moon night after performing a special dancing ritual this genin queen is believed to have the to read minds and influence the thoughts of others number three Al ahar the Red King titled as the warrior is the Jin king of Wrath violence and war alahmar is the most powerful and famous of all Jing Kings he is known as the warrior king because of his Fierce fighting skills he is also referred ref to as the lord of the blind due to his rage and violent nature during battles alahmar is usually depicted as a fearsome fre riding a giant lion and wielding a long sword he rules over 49 Legions of Jen many with strong magical abilities this King has exceptional intelligence and Mastery of War tactics he also has immense physical strength and complete control over fire whoever can summon this mighty king will be granted superhuman strength and enhanced senses alahmar is the Lord of T day the planet Mars the color red and the metal copper number four Baran the blue King titled as the Lord of Wonders he's the Jing king of trickery black magic and Witchcraft ban is an evil powerful King who rules over five tribes of skilled malevolent gen each consisting of 500,000 Ms this Jen King is say to teach both humans and Jen the secrets of black and dark magic so nothing good ever comes of dealing with him he rules over Wednesday that the planet Mercury the color blue and the metal brass number five shamur the purple King titled as the judge is the Jing king of wisdom insight and judgment shamur is believed to be the oldest of all Jing Kings some sources even say that he existed thousands of years before King Solomon he is said to be a kind peaceful and merci full King who despises violence but at the same time he is firm and truls with Justice in the realm of Jen shamur plays the role of the grand judge who brings judgment over evil and rebellious Jen what sets shamur apart from other Jen Kings is that he is the only King who does not have any issues with humans he's called upon for knowledge wisdom awareness and revealing Mysteries shamur rules over Thursday the planet Jupiter the color purple and the metal TIN number six zba the green King titled as the Lord of Light is another Jin King associated with wisdom and known as the sage of Jin it is said that he wears Pure White garment made from a Unique fabric that creates the illusion of emitting light or having a Celestial Aura and that's how he got the title The Lord of Light King zoba whose name literally means storm or Cyclone is said to have the power to manipulate wind and lightning here was over Friday the planet Venus the color green and the metal iron and the seventh King is mayoon the black king titled as the lucky one is the Y winged Jin King belonging to the airin Rays that's why he is sometimes called maymoon of the clouds he rules over the Realm of Darkness and shadows a domain that even demons fear to enter he is also known as The Executioner punishing Jin who PL to C kaios so he is the dark King the Grim Reaper of Jin who maintains Law and Order in terms of power he can rival even the Red King mymon is believed to reside in a Hidden Fortress somewhere in Africa ruling over the largest Kingdom in the realm of Jen he is the most difficult Jin King to call upon and provoking or making a PCT with him him is nearly impossible only the most skilled magicians might be able to have a chance to communicate with him if they were lucky enough he would appear to them in the form of a great Black Eagle where he reveals to them the dark secrets of the world some sources describe Mayon as the closest Ally of el the equivalent of Satan in Western theology in this version of The Legend maymon is believed to bring harm to humans through plages this dark King rules over Saturday the planet Saturn the color black and the metal gold Ali in his book sh Al also mentions another group of Jin that hold a higher rank than the seven Kings they are known as the four tertial Jin Lords or the four pillar of the Earth the first is dail the Lord of East and summer the second is Dil the Lord of East and winter the third is asil the Lord of North and Autumn and the fourth is Heek the Lord of South and spring J servants play the role of the mediator between between the magician and the Jin King they are lesser in rank with few requests to summon them thus easier to control according to folk beliefs magicians and witches use the aid of gen servants to find hidden treasures reveal Secrets spread rumors and hatred cast curses make people pliantly fall in love or even drain their energy and affect their health and over all wellbeing calling upon a servant may involve special rituals sacrifices spills and toolsman the more powerful the servant is the more requests and rituals are required after that there will be a PCT between the magician and the Gen servant and breaking the paack will be followed by serious consequences so here are 10 of the most famous genin servants mentioned in Arabic Magic books and just a quick note many of these servants are believed to be shans or evil Jin which are equivalent to Demons in English so I will be using the word demon to refer to any evil servant the first one is Al Assad Al a powerful demon that takes the form of a lion he is mainly used to induce hatred especially between married couples therefore causing them to divorce but at the same time he can also force people to stay in a toxic relationship number two vom one of the highest ranking demons in King mayon's Army he is used in evil doings number three that al- mahasin a female Jin similar to a sucubus who appears in dreams and drains people's inergy next we have sjab a wicked Jin with multiple hands each hand has a different color and a different Power often used to induce envy and hatred between people number five Prince danash a high ranking demon who appears in the form of a man shrouded in a dark robe and holding an upside down or inverted cross number six zun ad demon that appears in bathrooms in the form of a black cat number seven m a female gin that spread lies rumors and gossips number eight thear a mischievous genin that causes nightmares number nine Al jaliba is a female genin that can bring a lover back or induce blind love so for example if someone wants a specific person to Blind fall in love with them a magician would summon her to cast a spill which is usually hard to break and finally we have Tam a gin that induces laziness indolence and procrastination so that's it for today in the next video we will look at the queens of Jin and we will get to know their special powers and some interesting facts about them if you are interested in this type of content be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications also if you want to support the channel consider to hit a like as this helps a lot thanks for watching until next time

Who Really Built Great Zimbabwe.en.srt

00:00:01,079 --> 00:00:04,279 the real Builders of Great Zimbabwe Lami and the other Stone ruins across southern Africa have remained a mystery the vandalism of British settlers Prospectors transport writers who while searching for Treasure put down entire walls with important markings some dating back to the first period a time when the structures were built resulted in a loss of important information that could have immediately identified this population Looting of important pieces into mostly private collections has also contributed in sustaining the artificial mystery about the history and the Builders of the stor ruins in addition the policy of Silence regarding the mat invasion of 1838 which was enforced by mzilikazi who put anyone that spoke of it to death while targeting and unal living the survivors aided in making the history of these ruins a mystery and like many Mysteries they became a mythical Place one that was free to be appropriated by many eager contenders these include the shaa who were the Natural Choice as Builders because they occupi the area and continued to do so therefore logic says they should have built or at least known from whom they had inherited it but deos who was part of the Portuguese colonist interacting with the shaa in 1532 makes it clear that the shaa who were occupying this area at the the time admitted to not having built the stone ruins here's a quote from his writings the natives say they are the work of the supernatural because they are beyond their powers to execute the natives he is referring to here are the shaa who at this time had invaded and entrenched themselves in the Great Zimbabwe part of the Kingdom that had initially spread from the east coast up north to T on the Zambezi South to the transval and West to the cape the Dutch had at some point laid claims to the ruins too but according to Jean Van reck's Journal none of their Pathfinders could find their way to the kingdom of stone well more like no one would tell them where it was or how to get there so their expeditions from the cape in the 1700s failed and they contended themselves to the cape until the British snatched it from them and this deserves another video others who believed Africans could not build such structures because few Africans were known to build with stone attributed this work to external people such as the Arabs Phoenicians or some nameless mysterious ancient people of their choice whom they always insisted were definitely not African but according to Professor Bryce there is nothing of an Islamic character about the ruins or the remains found therefore we can discredit any association to the middle East the Phoenicians a people who can't speak for themselves naturally became a default standard for the it can't be Africans cohort but none of them could prove their existence in Africa or Southern Africa well Herodotus and cedo muta say they were in southern Africa and assuming this was true their City couldn't have been any of the stone ruins because according too Mota it was torn down Brick by Brick during a freedom rebellion and is pretty much gone but that's a subject for another video finally those who claim Africans are responsible for the storm ruins tend to prop up any group that they deem look sufficiently African and as a result have consistently attributed it to the wrong people this noise resulted in the suppression of the people who really built Great Zimbabwe and the stone ruins across southern Africa even though they have been providing solid evidence that this was their ancestors work and continued these practices they have been providing evidence that this place had long been their home before the Shona invaded it a home they were forced out of in approximately mid 1838 after the violent matab Invasion and cleansing evidence of their existence has been known but deliberately ignored as this this quote from Harold Lincoln longi shows he traveled through modern day Zimbabwe their Old Kingdom in approximately 1866 only 28 years after they had to abandon it when there were still living memories of the invasion this is a quote and I have also been informed there exists yet a remnant of this tribe a considerable distance Northeast of Victoria which yet retains or has two recent years the art of cutting and fitting stones for the purpose of building walls my informant tells me that they actually claimed that their ancestors built Zimbabwe at a time when they once dominated the whole country these people he wrote about who were Northeast of Victoria at the plate Tonga vanon who are now called the vanav vundu or batonga but at this point this is simply another claim like so many so let's provide more evidence to back up their claim where others have failed this is another quote from the same author concerning the presence of gold and Relics from this population who still had possession of gold from their old home at gami when others only had Gold Dust this is a quote it is interesting also to learn that gold ornaments of considerable Merit and workmanship have recently been brought brought by a gentleman from the Zambezi they being of native manufact the beads necklaces and Spyro Springs which have from time to time been found in the various ruins of and these modern articles May therefore perhaps be regarded as having a common ethnological ancestry the gentleman from the Zambezi was part of this population whose presence extends from the plateau to both sides of the zambesi river they are united by their culture and language which is now called jonga a closer look at these gold ornaments reveals they are similar to The Ones rated from the tombs found at the different Stone ruins which belong to the ancient Builders and their descendants these ornaments included gold beads of various sizes gold Bango that included infant bangos fused gold beads gold beads with facets gold mining continued in the area that were still under the control of the descendants of the Ancients and that were not invaded by the shaa or other groups further Evidence supporting the claim that the ratonga rundu are the descendants of the real Builders of Great Zimbabwe is in the location of their Capital which is found in the story of how they lost their Kingdom to the mat this account was narrated to Emil Holo the Czech physician and Explorer and in in his writings we are told of the Royal Court we know the presence of a Royal Court means the location is more likely the capital of a kingdom and among all the ruins gami are the ruins that were the capital of the population directly connected to the ancient Builders this is part of the event as narrated to em Hub that took place in mid 1838 at this time one of their names was the manans which means the perfect reflection of the familiar this was when they still had a king this is the quote the kingdom was governed by a king who made every sacrifice he could to come to reasonable terms with encroaching mat but the time came when the bloodthirsty mzilikazi a very tiger amongst men having ruined the makalaka empire fire and half devoured the shaa proceeded to annihilate the Mana alsoo no Credence had he to give the conciliating proposals of the good honest King Azam mat he was quite incapable of putting faith in any promise or appreciating any right feeling he was sure that some ulterior motive lurked behind the proposals that were made and that the King was only temporizing while his forces were collected so he overpowered him in his own Courtyard pierced him with asag tore out his heart pressed it to the still quivering lips and shrieked out loud you had two hearts one was false and you shall eat it this event lightly took place at the gami ruins and the structure of the gami ruins support this claim placing the Mana as the original inhabitants of the gami area which is now in mat land it is likely that the gami ruins were the capital because of the presence of the Royal Court which is usually located in the capital according to archaeologist gami also had a large gold mining district for a population directly connected to the ancient Builders this means the population at gami was descended from the ancient population G me was laid out to support worship and businesses gold was mined from the surrounding areas that formed an extended circle around the cap and since only gami had evidence of gold smelting which meant all gold from surrounding areas was brought to the capital which was most likely done to keep it out of the invading Masa and other groups Amy also had numerous large buildings and minor ruins that supported a large population this means it was a cultural center which is how The Language and Cultural practices were preserved for over thousands of years surviving even when surrounding areas experienced external entrenchment and encroachment in addition there is evidence that the gami ruins were occupied during all four building periods of the Zimbabwe ruins meaning that they had the most consistent occupation although the first period is only slightly represented which makes sense because they were still primarily at the coast on the East during this period the second period building style is represented in all the ruins at gami showing it had become a more permanent settlement they also speak the ancient Egyptian language which I will cover in another video because it's very important in tying this all together some relics connecting them to ancient Egypt a Roman coin dating back to a 138 which was found at a depth of 70 ft meaning it could only have been brought in by the ancient population an usabat figure was recovered underground usabat are small ferary figurines that were used in ancient Egyptian funeral practices they were usually designed as mummified human figures with hands crossed across the chest and each hand held a hole but in this case it held a whip it was buried in the moist Earth and not an Egyptian tomb which means it had been in southern Africa and not smuggled in by a traitor further evidence that the Builders of Great Zimbabwe are the ancestors of the ratonga rundu is that the buildings of the first period which were more permanent had the best workmanship and were built closer to the coast and were the first area of settlement by their ancestors the vundu are connected to this population because their Aura tradition says they originally lived in large cities near the coast to the east which they called Lui meaning our great Marvel or beauty it is an expression that implies the Indian Ocean they say this was their home before they migrated Inland one interesting item that hasn't been reported in any of these ruins is writing or hieroglyphs this is odd because this population were also expert Weavers and manufactured cloth some of which they threaded with gold they had the skills to smel Gold pulverize Granite into powder and use it as cement they had extensive knowledge of their astrological science which they carved on a wooden ball and deep religious beliefs and and yet we are led to believe that none of their life was ever ascribed even though they clearly had an idea of the concept of writing and its importance its use in communication because when Emil Hub was interviewing the Mana he asked them what happened to the survivors and they refused to tell him because they were afraid according to him he would write it in his lugalo which Loosely translated means writing pad book or letter and in doing so he would give them up to mik Kazi the interesting thing here is that they had the language word for a book or letter and it stands to reason that they must have been aware of what a lugala or writing pad was used for since a person's vocabulary reveals what they value and what they have an awareness of we don't have words for concept CS we aren't familiar with right now some alien race has a thing imag jig we don't understand and we have no word to describe it because we aren't familiar with it we will make up one for it once we realize it function but the Mana used a word known to every jonga speaking person and every jonga person basically which means it wasn't a word they had just invented but inherited which points to the presence of written works among them which may yet to be found this is just a theory for now but I mean if they were in touch with Old Egypt as shown by the presence of the Roman coin then they should have been writing because the language preservation has been outstanding for a strictly oral language or maybe a high population in close proximity to one another will always better preserve a language I guess we'll find out I hope you enjoyed this video and if you did please like And subscribe you can also show your support for this Channel and the production of this videos by giving to my coffee the link is in the description box below also before I sign off basically please be respectful in the comment section

Who was Hermes Trismegistus The Hermetica Explained.en.srt

00:00:00,201 --> 00:00:05,475 For regular videos on ancient cultures and forgotten civilizations, please subscribe. If you would like to support the channel and become part of our ancient history fan community, visit patreon.com/worldofantiquity. - Have you ever heard of the Hermetica - the Hermetic texts? These are ancient books that purport to contain the wisdom of one of the greatest sages who ever lived: Hermes Trismegistus, who is said to have passed on lost secret knowledge from the distant past to the Egyptians. Who was this enigmatic figure? And did he write the books of the Hermetica? We’re going to find out right now. Peter Gandy is a British author, who is known for some controversial theories about the ancient past, and especially ancient religion and philosophy. He is probably best known for the book, The Jesus Mysteries, which he wrote with Timothy Freke, about the origins of Christianity, which was heavily criticized by historians and scholars. But he and Freke wrote a number of books, and one of them was called The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs, which is basically a curated collection of Hermetic writings that Gandy translated into English. This is not to be confused with the book of collected Hermetic writings called The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean by Maurice Doreal, which is really “out there.” Both of these books are meant to be used as spiritual guidebooks, but we’re going to talk about the one that makes more reasonable historical assertions. Gandy at least has a Masters degree in Classics, from what I understand. I recently came across a talk that Gandy gave at the Eternal Knowledge Festival in April of 2012 in Suffolk in the UK. It is posted on the Megalithomania UK channel. Gandy makes some claims about the Hermetica that I think are worth addressing, and it will serve as a handy vehicle through which we can approach the topic together. Not everything in the talk is pertinent to ancient history, so I won’t respond to all of it. I will leave a link below if you want to watch the whole thing. Here we go. - I'm going to talk about the Hermetica, which is, I noticed, actually on the banner up here. You've got Thoth, the ibis-headed god of Egypt. It's him you've got to blame for all of this. It all goes back to ancient Egypt, which is why we use the sub-head on the book: ‘The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs.’ - Is the Hermetica really the “lost wisdom of the Pharaohs”? This is the question we will be exploring. The Hermetica can certainly be called “wisdom,” at least in the sense that it offers knowledge and principles to its readers - it falls into the genre of writing we call wisdom literature (whether that wisdom has any value or truth in it is another story and not our concern at present). But specifically we will be inquiring whether the wisdom came from the pharaohs of Egypt and whether it was ever lost. - So yes, is it the lost wisdom of the pharaohs? In the however-many years it is since we wrote this, that's actually become the major issue for me. The fact is that I do think this text gives us the best possible lens for looking back into the mind-world of the ancient Egyptians. - That’s an interesting claim, because, while the Hermetica, or at least a good part of it, was apparently written in Egypt, it was written in Greek by Greeks. So why does he not call it the wisdom of the Greeks? We will see as we go along. - And unfortunately, the books of the Hermetica have really had a terrible press. For many years they were outlawed in Europe. They just simply weren't available during the Christian period. The Arabs nurtured them, kept them alive, and then during the Renaissance, they were reintroduced back into Europe. - I went and checked this out and found no evidence that the Hermetica was ever outlawed in any country of Europe. I couldn’t find a single law or proclamation or order that called for either the burning of the books or a penalty being imposed for possessing them. In fact, Hermetic writings were remarkably well-known during the Middle Ages in Europe. The Asclepius was translated into Latin and commented on. There were even Hermetic books that were written during the Middle Ages in Europe, most notably the Book of the 24 Philosophers, and a number of astrological tracts. What Gandy probably means is that the scholars of Europe, mostly monks, did not as a matter of practice put much effort into preserving pagan books, while in the Byzantine and Arab worlds, they did. But that’s not the same as being outlawed, and it isn’t the same as being lost. The Hermetic texts were part of the cultural consciousness among European scholars even in Christian Europe. They may not have been widely published, but they were there, especially from the High Middle Ages forward and were held in high esteem by some. - But even then, there was a hatchet-job done on them, saying these aren’t the books of Thoth. These don't tell you anything about ancient Egypt. These are Greek texts, written in Greek for a Greek-speaking audience, who were living in Alexandria in Egypt, and really the Egyptian stuff in it - it 's just decoration, just ornamentation to give it the impression that it's ancient wisdom. And that's why they've languished in such obscurity for so long. - Okay, tell us how you know this view is incorrect. - And in fact, until we did our book, they were only available as difficult, impenetrable texts, badly translated by a bunch of 19th-century occult obscurantists, and nobody could really understand them. And I first came across them a long time ago, 1978. I was 18, and I got inducted into a Western magical order, which claimed to go back to the famous Golden Dawn, or infamous Golden Dawn, and we used to do these magical path-workings, during which I had the most extraordinary experience in the temple of Thoth. And I was an impressionable young man, and I thought: that's amazing spirits. - The Western magical order that he joined when he was 18 was a Hermetic order that was a splinter group of the Golden Dawn, a secret society that had its heyday in the late 19th century. So Gandy is very much coming from the viewpoint that the Hermetic texts have spiritual value. He even says he had a spiritual experience in Egypt when he visited a temple of Thoth. But I am not here to talk about the truth or value of Hermeticism. I do ancient history. So let’s move on. He then goes on to explain how he compiled the texts from the Hermetica for his book. If you want to hear about that, you can check it out in the original video. I’m going to fast forward a bit. - So I was reading through the introduction. I thought, “I've got to put an introduction to this, so that people can really get a grasp on the history of it,” because it's not just a set of interesting texts. These have had a profound influence on our culture. In fact, the very best things of our culture originate from the ancient teachings, which were mediated through the Greeks. - Notice he says “mediated through the Greeks.” So his position is that the Hermetic texts may be Greek, but the Greeks were just the mediators of an older Egyptian tradition. Is this borne out by the evidence? Let’s see. - And I ... So what I thought I'd do is actually read the introduction, because I looked through it, and I thought, yeah, it's still good. It's, you know, there's a few things I would add now, but actually it'll give you a good idea of the history and the influence of the Hermetica. So, with your permission, I'll read from the introduction. The Hermetica is a collection of writings attributed to Thoth, a mystical ancient Egyptian sage, whose wisdom is said to have transformed him into a god. - This statement is misleading. The Hermetica is a collection of writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. Who is Hermes Trismegistus? He is a Hellenistic god (by Hellenistic, I mean he was invented in the Hellenistic period - the time when the Ptolemies ruled Egypt (332-30 BCE) - and also that he is a product of Hellenism - the synthesis of Egyptian and Greek culture). Hermes Trismegistus is a combination of the Egyptian god Thoth (or Djehuty) and the Greek god Hermes. So he’s not simply Thoth, and he’s not simply Hermes. He's Thoth/Hermes. So I feel like Gandy is deliberately misleading his audience, because he wants them to believe that the Hermetica comes from ancient Egypt. So he takes Hermes right out of it. You can’t take Hermes out of the Hermetica. This is not to say that the Greeks who worshipped him considered him to be a new god. No, from their point of view, the gods go way back. To them, Hermes Trismegistus was the same as the god called Djehuty by the Egyptians (Thoth) and the same as the god called Hermes by the Greeks, both of whom had been worshipped for centuries. But, they thought, it wasn’t until the Greeks came to Egypt and the two cultures shared their knowledge with each other, that the full nature of this god became known. For us, though, who look back on these developments with an eye for history, we can see that this is all a fiction. Thoth and Hermes are completely fictitious characters, invented independently by their respective cultures and then synthesized at a later time. The other statement that Gandy makes, that Thoth was “a mystical ancient Egyptian sage whose wisdom is said to have transformed him into a god” is an idea originally connected with the physician and architect Imhotep, a real person who lived during the 3rd dynasty and who was the designer of the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, the first of its kind. Nowhere in Egyptian myth, from the  Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, or New Kingdom, as far as I can find, was the god Thoth said to be a mortal sage who was transformed into a god. Thoth appears virtually everywhere in ancient Egyptian visual art, in literature (like the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book of the Dead, and temple inscriptions), and in all these Egyptian texts, Thoth is a god, and has always been a god. He was never a human. Here’s what happened: There were some sages from Egypt that were deified, real historical figures, like Imhotep, whose spirits were venerated after their death, and by the New Kingdom Imhotep had become a demigod, a patron of doctors and scribes. In the Saite period (7th-6th centuries BCE), Imhotep was finally merged with Thoth. It was common in polytheistic societies for gods eventually to merge with one another over time if they had similar characteristics, minor gods being absorbed by the major ones. And this is what happened to Imhotep. But earlier, the two were worshipped in separate cults completely distinct from one another. So it is important to remember that the Thoth cult existed long before Imhotep ever became associated with Thoth. Unlike the god Osiris, about whom it’s possible to formulate a biography based on the myths about him, despite variant traditions, the Thoth stories do not allow us to establish a mythological biography like that, because the sources about him are highly contradictory, and none of them can be confidently assumed to be primary. In one tale, Thoth is said to have been born autogenously, with no mother. Other sources say he is the son of a goddess - and different goddesses are named as his mother. There are no tales about his childhood or growing to maturity. He is always presented as an adult god and as if he has always been so. It’s not until we get to later times that we see Thoth being spoken of as someone who was once mortal that was made immortal by reason of his good services to the gods. That’s because he had by this time absorbed the Imhotep tradition. And so that’s why, at the time that Hermeticism was beginning to sprout, Hermes Trismegistus, was thought to be an ancient sage who was transformed into a god. But we need to avoid making the mistake Gandy does, of assuming this idea comes from earlier times and of assuming Thoth and Hermes Trismegistus are identical. - Thoth, who was venerated in Egypt from at least 3000 BCE, is credited with the invention of sacred hieroglyphic writing, and his figure, portrayed as a scribe with the head of an Ibis, can be seen in many temples and tombs. - The oldest texts that mention Thoth are the Pyramid Texts, which date to the 5th and 6th dynasties, around 2400 BCE. But Thoth was probably worshipped before that. How much further back is difficult to say. Yes, he was portrayed as an ibis and sometimes a baboon. And he was also associated with the moon. Sometimes he was spoken of as the moon itself. The fact that there are so many stories about him, and he has so many symbols, many of which are contradictory and inconsistent with each other, suggests he is a fairly old god, maybe even before the 1st dynasty. Some might ask, “Isn’t there a very ancient text called the Book of Thoth, that contains wisdom in it reminiscent of the Hermetic writings?” What they are probably referring to is a book mentioned in the Egyptian short story, "Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah," sometimes called "Setne I." This story isn’t itself the Book of Thoth - it mentions the Book of Thoth, which is said to contain two powerful magical spells, one that enables a person to speak to animals and the other that enables a person to see the gods. Well, this is a fictional story, written in Demotic, an Egyptian script used during the Ptolemaic period. So although the character of Setne is based on a real person, the famous son of Ramesses II, who lived during the 19th dynasty, this story is not a history. It’s a fun little tale that features a book, which itself is probably fictional. But wait, wasn’t the Book of Thoth actually discovered recently? There was indeed a book found, in fragmentary form, which modern Egyptologists have dubbed the Book of Thoth. But it is not the same as the one from the story. It has nothing in it as described in the short story. Neither does it have a title on it, “The Book of Thoth.” It is a text, written in Demotic, also from the Hellenistic period, that features a god in it that presumably is Thoth, though that is not said explicitly, and so the researchers have named it The Book of Thoth. It contains teachings in it that resemble Hermetic ideas, but its contents aren’t in any of the known Hermetic collections. It’s from that time, though, so it fits in with the intellectual traditions of that period. - He is the dispatcher of divine messages and recorder of all human deeds. In the Great Hall of Judgment, the afterlife-court of the god Osiris, Thoth would establish whether the deceased had acquired spiritual knowledge and purity and so deserved a place in the heavens. Thoth was said to have revealed to the Egyptians all knowledge on astronomy, architecture, geometry, medicine, and religion, and was believed by the ancient Greeks to be the architect of the pyramids. - Note how Gandy is synthesizing Egyptian and Greek thought here. - The Greeks, who were in awe of the knowledge and spirituality of the Egyptians, identified Thoth with their own God Hermes, the messenger of the gods and the guider of souls in the realm of the dead. To distinguish the Egyptian Hermes from their own, they gave him the title Trismegistus, meaning “thrice-great” to honor his sublime wisdom, and the books attributed to him became collectively known as the Hermetica. - The name Trismegistus was not given to Thoth to distinguish him from Hermes. In the minds of the Greeks, Thoth and Hermes were the same god, and the name Trismegistus was a way to acknowledge their synthesis, not their difference. “Trismegistus” does mean “thrice great.” Repeating something three times was frequently used for emphasis. Diodorus Siculus, an ancient Greek historian who wrote in the 1st century BCE, during the Hellenistic period, describes Hermes Trismegistus in this way: Note how Diodorus combines the stories the Egyptians of his time told about Thoth with the beliefs of the Greeks about Hermes and considers them both as referring to the same god. There are even some new embellishments. In the Hellenistic period, when the Greeks began ruling foreign lands, a phenomenon known as interpretatio graeca began to occur. It refers to Greek interpretations of the religions and philosophies of these countries by using Greek religious concepts and practices, deities and myths, equivalencies and shared characteristics. But the Greeks often did great damage to the original concepts, because they often did not understand them fully, and because they often forced the meaning in order to make them compatible with their own ideas. As time passed, and the concepts saw further additions and expansion, including new vocabulary, rites, magic words, and alchemy, the beliefs became less and less Egyptian. Gandy continues to read his intro, which at this point name drops a bunch of famous people throughout history who presumably were influenced by Hermetic thought. He exaggerates the Hermetica’s influence, but we’re not going to concern ourselves with that. Let’s skip ahead to where he talks about the Hermetica’s origins. - The early origins of the Hermetica are shrouded in mystery, but the evidence suggests it is a direct descendant of the ancient philosophy of the Egyptians. - All right. Here we go. Let’s consider the evidence. - However, the handful of surviving works attributed to Hermes are not written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but in Greek, Latin, and Coptic. - This is a strong reason for doubting the purely Egyptian origin of the philosophy of the Hermetic texts. - They were collated in the city of Alexandria in Egypt during the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Here the Hermetic philosophy helped inspire some of the greatest intellectual achievements of the ancient world. - He deliberately uses the word “collated” instead of the word “written.” We know the bulk of the Hermetic texts were written during this period, because they are in Greek and Coptic. We don’t know that they were merely collated. We don’t have any evidence they were translated from Egyptian either. But now Gandy gives his reason for why he thinks they were collated from earlier Egyptian sources. - Alexandria was a great center of learning, surpassing even Athens. Its founder, Alexander the Great, had conquered and united Greece, Persia, Egypt, and India into one vast empire. Cultures that had grown up more-or-less independently were brought together, and there was no bigger melting pot than Alexandria. Into this new cosmopolis or universal city poured men and women of every race and nation - Greeks, Jews, Egyptians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and even Buddhists from India - associated here together in relative peace. The Alexandrians were renowned for their thirst for knowledge and under the enlightened Greek ruler, Ptolemy I, a library and museum were founded, where human beings first systematically collected the wisdom of the world. At its height, the Library of Alexandria housed some half a million scrolls. But Alexandria was also rich in esoteric knowledge. Pythagoreanism, Chaldean oracles, Greek myths, Platonic and Stoic philosophy, Judaism, Christianity, the Greek mystery schools, Zoroastrianism, astrology, alchemy, Buddhism, and of course, the ancient Egyptian religion were all practiced, studied, compared, and discussed. - Okay, so if I am following his point properly, he is saying that, since the Library of Alexandria had hundreds of thousands of scrolls, collected from all over, they must have had scrolls of ancient Egyptian wisdom; therefore, the philosophy of the Hermetic texts could easily have been taken from earlier Egyptian texts. All this does, however, is show the possibility that the Hermetica could contain Egyptian ideas. Gandy would have to agree it doesn’t prove that the Hermetica is wholly Egyptian. Anyway, modern scholars are of the opinion that the Hermetica draws from the ancient Egyptian tradition. No one argues that the Hermetic texts are 100% Greek in origin. This is a synthesis, after all. It brings together Greek ideas and Egyptian ones. And the very fact that the intellectuals of Alexandria were gathering wisdom from many different places is evidence in favor of a mixing of ideas. The point here is that the Hermetica can’t be older than the Hellenistic period, because its existence requires the interaction between the Egyptians and the Greeks. - The golden age of Alexandria came to an end with the birth of the intolerant Christian Holy Roman Empire. Despite the sophistication and cultural achievements of the ancients, the Christians refer to them dismissively as ‘pagans,’ which means country-dweller. In 415 CE, Hypatia, one of the last great scientists and pagan philosophers working at the Library of Alexandria, was seized by a mob of Christians, who removed her flesh with scallop shells and burnt her remains. Their leader, Bishop Cyril was later canonized Saint Cyril. The Great Library was finally destroyed as so much pagan superstition, and this wealth of knowledge was scattered to the wind. The Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius closed pagan temples across the empire and began the previously-unknown phenomenon of book burning. - What Gandy appears to be trying to do here is make it seem as if the Christian church tried to wipe out the wisdom of Hermes Trismegistus - and unfairly at that. It’s certainly true that pagan religion was the target of Christian attacks. But it would be too simplistic to say that they tried to eradicate all pagan ideas. There were many pagan ideas that were accepted by Christians and made their way into Christianity. The fact is, Hypatia in her time was beloved by both pagans and Christians. She wasn’t murdered because she was a pagan. She was murdered for political reasons. She had been the advisor of the Roman prefect of Egypt, a Christian, who was in the middle of a dispute with the archbishop Cyril of Alexandria. It was thought she was getting in the way of the two reconciling, and she was killed for it. But many Christians mourned her death, and in the Middle Ages she was even upheld as a symbol of Christian virtue. The library had already been in decline for some centuries, and many of its books had been sent to other libraries. What was left of the main library was destroyed either in 272, when the emperor Aurelian was fighting to take back Alexandria from Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, or in 297, when the emperor Diocletian laid siege to the city. These events occurred long before Cyril was ever born. As for the wisdom of Hermes Trismegistus, it was embraced, perhaps not by all, but certainly by some Christians, including influential leaders. Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian and head of the catechetical school in Alexandria, was one. Lactantius, Christian advisor to Constantine the Great, was another. Many Gnostic Christians also embraced it. - For the West, the 5th century ushered in at the thousand-year-period appropriately known as the Dark Ages. History shows, however, that wherever the works of Hermes have been studied and venerated, civilization has flourished. - This sounds like a correlation-indicates-causation argument. Let’s see. - Pagan scholars and sages fled to the newly-emerging Arab culture, taking their knowledge and the Hermetic writings with them. Two-hundred years later, the Muslims created an empire, whose learning and scientific achievements were unsurpassed. By the beginning of the ninth century, the first university was established in Baghdad, called the House of Wisdom. Here many pagan works were translated. The sciences that have reached such heights in Alexandria was significantly developed, and the ancient pagan spiritual wisdom was covertly studied and practiced. - Gandy is implying that the reason for the flourishing of Arab civilization, and for the decline of European civilization during the Dark Ages, is that pagan writings like the Hermetica, were preserved and studied in the Muslim world, but not in Christian Europe. This would be a simplistic reading of history that assumes cause and effect without justification. Dozens of books have been written about why Rome fell in the West and how the Dark Ages came to be, and the causes were numerous. And I think it would be difficult to find any support for the belief that the neglect of pagan philosophy had anything to do with it, especially considering that, even in the Arab world, the study of pagan works was never a primary practice and so would have had little effect on the prosperity of that culture. - With the Arab Empire becoming increasingly intolerant, the owners of the Hermetic books travelled in search of a safe refuge. In the 15th century, many fled to the tolerant city-state of Florence in northern Italy, where this wisdom again inspired a great cultural flowering. In 1438, the Byzantine scholar Gemisto Plethon made available to the awestruck Florentines the entire lost works of Plato. These and other pagan works were translated into Latin for the first time. - While the works of Plato were translated into Latin for the first time in the 15th century, it was not the first time for pagan works in general. In the 12th century, 300 years earlier, Greek philosophical texts began to be translated from Arabic into Latin, and it’s not because pagans were fleeing the Muslim world into Europe. It’s because there was an increased interest in these works by Europeans. So, for example, the Tabula Smaragdina, known more popularly as the Emerald Tablet, a Hermetic text that formed the basis of medieval alchemy, was translated from Arabic into Latin several times in the 12th and 13th centuries. It was extremely popular. About 40 Hermetic texts appeared at this time, most of which were translated from Arabic, but some were brand new. The Book of the 24 Philosophers, for example, is a Hermetic text that seems to have made its first appearance. Indications are it was composed in the second half of the 12th century. ‘Wait,’ you might be saying to yourself, ‘are you suggesting that not all the Hermetic texts were written by the same person? That’s right. Since the texts don’t all originate in the lifetime of one individual, then they couldn’t possibly have been written by the same individual. - The ruler of Florence, the philanthropist and scholar Cosimo de Medici, established a new Platonic Academy, a group of intellectuals and mystics, who found their inspiration in the ancient pagan philosophy. Cosimo Medici sent out agents to look for other lost pagan works that might still be awaiting discovery. In 1460, one of them came across the lost works of thrice-great Hermes and brought them to Florence. The Florentines, already reeling from the discovery that an ancient civilization of immense sophistication had risen and fallen nearly 2,000 years before them, the Greek civilization, now believed they had in their hands one of the most ancient sages of them all. - As we know, Hermetic texts were already available in Europe at the time that Cosimo de Medici lived. When Gandy says an agent of de Medici “came across the lost works of thrice-great Hermes,” he is referring to Leonardo de Pistoia, a monk who worked for de Medici, who found in Macedonia a copy of the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of 18 tractates attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and written in Greek, which had been preserved by Christian scholars in the Byzantine Empire. Scholars today estimate that these texts were written some time between the 1st and 4th centuries CE, when Rome ruled Egypt. - Cosimo ordered his young Greek scholar, Marsilio Ficino, to cease his work on translating Plato and to begin immediately on this new Egyptian text. Ficino had it in ready in time to read to Cosimo just before his death. - Marsilio Ficino is an important figure in the history of Hermeticism, because not only was he the one who made the Corpus Hermeticum available in Latin for Europeans to read and this laid the foundations of modern Hermeticism, but because he is the inventor of new mythology around Hermes Trismegistus that will be adopted by Hermetic groups of Europe, like the Rosicrucians, Freemasons and others. In the preface he wrote for the Poimandres, aka the Pimander, the first tractate in the collection, Ficino outlined a refurbished portrait of Hermes Trismegistus for his European readers. In the medieval Arabic literature, there were three Hermes - based on the assumption that the name Trismegistus was equivalent to “the third." The first Hermes they identified with the patriarch Enoch from the Bible, who lived before the Great Flood. He built the pyramids and wrote the whole scientific knowledge of the human race on the walls of Egyptian temples. The second Hermes lived after the Flood and studied science in Babylonia. The third was a ruler in Egypt and wrote many books, including those on alchemy, and he was the one called Trismegistus. This view had been adopted by medieval European Hermetic enthusiasts prior to Ficino. The story will change again with Ficino’s bio of Hermes. Basing it on other legends he had read and picking out what he thought was the best, Ficino said that Hermes Trismegistus was the 5th in the line of men named Hermes (or Mercury, as he says, since he is writing in Latin - Mercury is the Latin form of Hermes). Hermes Trismegistus, he wrote, lived a few generations after Moses, and he ruled Egypt and gave them laws and letters. He was so loved by the Egyptians that they made him a god and called him Thoth. He is called “thrice-great” because he was the greatest philosopher, the greatest priest, and the greatest king. He was the first theologian, teaching about the majesty of God, the ordering of the spirits, and the changes of the soul. He taught Orpheus, who taught Aglaophemus, who taught Pythagoras, who taught Philolaus, who taught Plato. So he is the originator of many of Plato’s ideas, so claims Ficino. He was a prophet who foretold the coming of Christ. It’s interesting to see how stories grow and change over time. How much more Christian this sounds compared to the description of Diodorus. But Ficino’s portrayal of Hermes will prove to be highly influential. - The emergence of a glorious new culture in Florence signaled the end of the Dark Ages. We call this period the Renaissance, meaning “rebirth,” which is a fitting name, for at the heart of the Hermetic philosophy is the idea of being spiritually reborn, and the ancient pagan wisdom arrived in Florence at a fortuitous moment in history. - Gandy goes on for a while about how the pagan wisdom of the Hermetica was responsible for almost every great advancement made in Europe after that, even crediting them for Copernicus’ discovery that the sun was at the center of the solar system. This is not my area of history, but he seems to be stretching quite a bit. We’ll fast forward to where he talks about the age of the Hermetic writings. - Previously these works had been believed to be of extreme antiquity, dating back to the time of the Pharaohs, but in 1640, a scholar called Isaac Casaubon published the textual analysis of the Hermetica, which showed, quite correctly, that the grammar, vocabulary, form, and content of the Greek versions of these works dated them to no earlier than the 2nd and 3rd century CE. They were not written by an ancient Egyptian sage, he claimed, but by scholars working in the city of Alexandria. Their philosophy was nothing more than an exotic blend of Greek, Christian, and Jewish philosophy, mixed up with astrology and magic. The Egyptian names that pepper the text were mere decoration. - As you can see, it didn’t take long to realize that the texts couldn’t be as old as Ficino claimed. Casaubon was the first European scholar to systematically analyze the language of the Hermetica. He won’t be the last. - Casaubon was one of the most brilliant Greek scholars of his time, and with the encouragement of the Christian status quo, his damning criticism was generally accepted. Casaubon had dealt the Egyptian sage a fatal blow, and the books of Hermes were destined to be forgotten as fakes and forgery. - Well, history shows they most certainly were not forgotten. And it wasn’t the church that generally accepted his conclusions; it was other scholars. And yes, to this day, scholarship classifies the Hermetica as pseudepigrapha, that is, writings whose claimed author is not the real author. But you know what? It’s not so much because of the analysis of the language - that helps to date the texts - but it’s because Hermes Trismegistus is a fictional character. Any text claiming to have been written by him cannot actually have been. - In the modern world, we know from the actions of the tabloid press just how one well-timed hatchet job can unjustifiably undermine someone's reputation for good, and this is exactly what happened to thrice-great Hermes. Casaubon was a fine scholar, but he was motivated by a hidden political agenda. The ultra-orthodox James I was now on the throne of England, and he employed Casaubon and others to purge the magically-inclined court of Elizabeth. Hermeticists like John Dee were ostracized, and later, Casaubon’s son Meric wrote a book, which portrayed the great philosopher as a confused occultist. Dee died alone and forgotten. - Casaubon’s work speaks for itself, whatever “hidden agenda” he may or may not have had. I don’t know. No scholar today believes that these works are falsely-attributed merely because Casaubon said so. That’s not how scholarship works. Scholars don’t believe something based on who says it. The arguments themselves are tested. And many scholars since Casaubon have continued to study the Hermetica and have arrived at similar conclusions, refining and correcting the work of Casaubon and others that came after him. So we really don’t need to be hung up on this one guy. - Nonetheless, some of Casaubon’s claims regarding the Hermetica are true. The books of Hermes are undoubtedly the product of many authors and not one ancient sage, and they were certainly composed in the first few centuries of our era. - Okay, so then, does that not indicate that these writings are not from the time of the pharaohs? - Hermes was credited with these writings, even though we know they become the composite works of many scholars, but this does not discredit them or Hermes. It was a common practice in antiquity for authors to ascribe their work to the god who gave them inspiration. This was a mark of respect, not an attempt to deceive. - When scholars say the Hermetic texts are from the Hellenistic period, they are not trying to “discredit” them. If you want to believe in the wisdom contained in them, that’s entirely up to you. And I will agree that, just because someone wrote in the name of Hermes Trismegistus, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were attempting to deceive their readers. It was common in the ancient world to write in the name of a famous person from the past as a gesture of respect or as an expression of inspiration. - On the second charge, Casaubon is also right to claim that the Hermetica was written down in 2nd-century Alexandria, but all the modern evidence suggests that it does express Egyptian beliefs filtered through the understanding of the Greek scholars of the period. - Gandy never presents this evidence, but having gone and looked it up, it is true that modern scholars in examining the texts have come to the conclusion that they do not merely reflect Greek philosophy, but Egyptian wisdom as well. But it’s not that Egyptian wisdom simply was filtered through the understanding of Greek scholars, as Gandy says, but it is a true mixture of both Egyptian and Greek thought, with the scale tilted more towards the Greek side. - And even if all Casaubon’s criticisms were correct, this would neither diminish the Hermetica’s wisdom, nor alter the fact that it has profoundly influenced some of the greatest minds in history. It is as old as the Christian Gospels. It's older than the Quran. It is one of the great sacred texts of the world, and it's worthy of respect and study for these reasons alone. - I’m not going to argue with him on this point. He’s making a value judgment and is entitled to rank his holy books however he wants. - But when Casaubon was writing, very little was actually known about ancient Egypt. The hieroglyphs themselves were not translated until two centuries after his death. Consequently, many modern scholars now believe that he was wrong to see the Hermetic philosophy as a second century innovation, especially since the discovery of the Pyramid Texts of Saqqara at the end of the last century. These hieroglyphs are over five thousand years old and yet contain doctrines that are identical to those expounded in the Hermetica. This suggests that the Hermetica may indeed contain the wisdom of the Pharaohs, which scholars in 2nd-century Alexandria reworked for a contemporary readership. - But a reworking of this wisdom is an innovation. It takes something old and adds something original to it, thus creating something new. I wish he would have given a couple of examples of doctrines in the Hermetica that are “identical” to those found in the Pyramid Texts. The Pyramid Texts consist of spells, not doctrines. There are beliefs expressed in the Pyramid Texts that may be reflected in the Hermetica. But I would guess that no Egyptian belief came through to the Hermetica without some innovative adjustment. - The Hermetica contains passages reminiscent of Jewish Christian and Greek works, which Casaubon saw as proof that the Hermetica is a forgery, created from a hotchpotch of these other philosophies. Alexandria was such an eclectic environment. This is plausible. The ancients themselves, however, believed that these traditions were influenced by the Egyptian philosophy contained within the Hermetica. The Jews are said to have lived for many years in exile in Egypt, and their greatest prophet Moses was brought up as an Egyptian. Many early Christians lived in Egypt, and the Greeks were in awe of the Egyptians, compared to whom they felt like children. - Gandy’s argument here is that, yes, there are Jewish ideas reflected in the Hermetica, but since the Jews lived in Egypt, it makes sense that their ideas made it into the Hermetica. He’s absolutely right. Everyone agrees on that. But we are talking about Hellenistic Jews, those who lived in Egypt during the time of the Ptolemies, who were very much involved in the intellectual tradition of Alexandria. As for the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt at the time of Moses long before that, no, it was not their ideas that entered into Egyptian wisdom. That is implausible for a couple of reasons: First, it doesn’t seem credible that the Egyptian elites would have readily incorporated the ideas of foreign slaves into their own wisdom tradition. Second, and more significantly, the Jewish ideas found in the Hermetica are often later Jewish ideas, that is, ideas that were not yet part of Jewish thought at the time that Moses would have lived. Examples would be philosophical concepts of the Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, the idea that the first man Adam was a transcendent being with superhuman qualities, and mystical descriptions of the ascent of the soul through celestial spheres. No ancient Israelite believed in any of that stuff. - The ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes, “The Egyptians are religious to excess beyond any other nation in the world. They are meticulous in anything which concerns their religion. It was only, if I may put it so, the day before yesterday that the Greeks came to know the origin and forms of the various gods. The names of all the gods came to Greece from Egypt, for the names of all the gods have been known in Egypt from the beginning of time.” - Yes, Herodotus does say that the Greek gods - or actually the names of the Greek gods - came originally from the Egyptians. Gandy takes this as evidence that the Greek religion owes its existence to Egyptian religion and from this apparently infers that the Hermetica must be essentially Egyptian, even if written by Greeks. But how would Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BCE, know where the Greek gods came from? Their roots extend back to well before written records. The fact is, Herodotus, and the Greeks themselves, were as ignorant as we are about the origin of their gods, if not more. We know that they often projected present ideas into the remote past and constructed continuities that were frequently fantastic or inaccurate. Even if it were the case that the Greeks somehow got their gods from the Egyptians in a time before they ever interacted, in order to consider this evidence that the Hermetica is primarily an Egyptian set of works, we would have to assume that no changes occurred in either of their religions, no innovations were ever made by the Greeks in the centuries that ensued, that the Greek and Egyptian religions are more-or-less indistinguishable, and furthermore that when the Hermetica was written, none of the newer ideas of either Greeks or Egyptians made their way into it. But of course, that set of assumptions would be ridiculous. Gandy also implies that since the Egyptians were meticulous in the preservation of their ideas, then the ideas of theirs that are preserved in the Hermetica must be ancient. But the documentary history of Egypt demonstrates beyond a doubt that their ideas changed over time and were not static. - Casaubon particularly claims that the Hermetic philosophy plagiarized The Timaeus, a work written by the Greek philosopher Plato in the fifth century BCE. Like the Hermetica, it too includes the doctrines of astrology and reincarnation, yet these ideas played no part in early Greek religion, so where did they come from? The answer is ancient Egypt. Over a hundred years before Plato, the Greek sage Pythagoras had set out on a journey to acquire the knowledge of the world. This led him to Egypt, where he spent 22 years in the temples, being initiated into the religion of the Egyptians. According to the ancient Greek scholar Diogenes Laërtius, Plato purchased three books of Pythagorean doctrines based on Egyptian wisdom, and these he adapted into The Timaeus, so the similarities between the works of Plato and the Hermetica are not surprising, since many of Plato's ideas were direct descendants of ancient Egyptian philosophy. - Here Gandy is simply repeating Ficino’s claim that Plato’s ideas can be traced back to Hermes, or at least to the Egyptians, and he follows the same line of descent. Therefore, he can say, the Hermetica didn’t copy Plato; Plato copied the Egyptians. The only problem is that the evidence for this is tenuous. Diogenes Laertius, whom Gandy refers to as a source, was a biographer of the Greek philosophers, who lived after the Hermetic writings appeared. He lived long after Plato and Pythagoras, and is known for often repeating stories he heard or read without any critical evaluation of them. Various ancient writers have all kinds of contradictory accounts of the countries Pythagoras may or may not have visited. It is tough to untangle the fact from the fiction. But even if we assumed Diogenes was right and Pythagoras really did visit Egypt, we can’t just conclude that all Pythagoras’ philosophy was simply a repetition of what he learned in Egypt, because both Diogenes and other ancient writers say Pythagoras learned wisdom from many different sources in several countries. Diogenes does say that he read in a book by Satyrus that Plato bought 3 Pythagorean books from Philolaus, but he doesn’t say the books were based on Egyptian wisdom - he doesn’t say what was in them at all, and I doubt they were the only books Plato had. And Diogenes doesn’t say that Plato adapted Pythagoras’ books into the Timaeus. Gandy is putting words into Diogenes’ mouth. The bottom line is: Pythagoras added his original ideas to ideas he gathered from the places he traveled. Plato, too, developed his own concepts out of ideas garnered from many sources. So it is not possible that they simply were passing down Egyptian wisdom from generation to generation. But you may say, “Surely it is possible that some Egyptian wisdom made it into Plato’s Timaeus, so just because Hermetic texts have some of the same things as the Timaeus does not necessarily mean the Hermetic writers got it from Plato. Those similar ideas both could have an Egyptian origin.” Potentially, yes. But here’s the thing: we have no ancient Egyptian texts from before Plato’s time that express such ideas. There thus is no evidence that such ideas existed in Egypt. We do have Plato’s writings that express those ideas, and we know that Plato was extremely influential. So when we see a text from after Plato’s time - in fact, in a period when Plato was especially popular - repeating ideas found in Plato, by Greeks who knew Greek philosophy better than any other philosophy, the most reasonable conclusion is that they got it from Plato. - Hermetic philosophy also influenced Christianity through the Alexandrian Church Fathers: Saint Clement and Saint Origen, who synthesized pagan and Christian religious doctrines. It is due to such theologians that the Hermetic concept of the Word is found in the opening verse of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word.” - Um...Clement and Origen lived centuries after the Gospel of John was written. But the fact is, the concept of the Logos (the Word) is found in Philo’s writings. He was a Jewish Platonic philosopher, who lived in the first century CE in Alexandria, where the Hermetic writings were produced. Scholars have shown that it was he who influenced Hermetic writing, not the other way around. - Hermes-Thoth was known to the ancients as the scribe of the gods and master of the word. In the Hermetica, God utters a word which calms the chaotic waters of creation. The Word is even called the son of God. In Christianity, Jesus Christ, who is also called the Son of God, is identified as an embodiment of the power of the Word. - This is a chicken-or-egg question. Which came first? Can he demonstrate that the Hermetic teaching of the Logos as the Son of God was earlier than the Christian? I don’t think he can. - Saint Augustine, the influential 4th-century theologian, who was familiar with the works of Hermes writes, “That which is called the Christian religion existed amongst the ancients and never did not exist from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in the flesh, at which time the true religion, which already existed, began to be called Christianity.” - The argument he seems to be making here, assuming I am catching his drift, is that when Augustine of Hippo says that the Christian religion began at the beginning of the human race, he is referring to the teachings of Hermes. This can’t be so, because Augustine explicitly calls Hermes Trismegistus a liar and without any holy spirit. Alternatively, Gandy may be arguing that, since Augustine says that the Christian religion began at the beginning of the human race, then that means that the Hermetica must have too, because it influenced Christianity. This reasoning makes two unfounded assumptions: 1) that Augustine’s view of the origins of religion are correct, and 2) that the Hermetica could not have influenced the Christian religion after the religion started. It had to come before. I don’t mean to straw man him, so if I am misinterpreting his argument, let me know in the comments. - The influence of the Hermetica on early Christianity is beyond doubt. In 1945, works of Hermes were discovered amongst scriptures belonging to Gnostic Christians of the first centuries, and according to a note on one of the texts, early Christian communities possessed many copies of the works of Hermes. Just a few yards from the place where these scriptures were found are ancient Egyptian tombs, and these were inhabited by early Christian hermits, such as Saint Pachomius, the founder of the first Christian monastic community. The walls of these tombs are covered in hieroglyphs ascribed to the great god Thoth. They describe a spiritual rebirth into knowledge of God, and in such places early Christians poured over the Hermetica. Under its powerful influence, they composed their own philosophy of a saving gnosis, a direct knowledge of God, but this time bestowed by their Messiah Jesus. - Yes indeed. In a collection of Coptic texts that was discovered near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt there were five Hermetic texts, which were written in the Sahidic dialect, two of which were previously unknown. These books were from the 4th century CE and belonged to a group of Gnostic Christians. Clearly this group integrated Hermeticism into their version of Christianity. I’m not sure why Gandy is bringing this up. - All the evidence suggests that Casaubon was wrong to simply dismiss the Hermetica as some cobbled together mixture of different philosophies. The Hermetica was undoubtedly written by Alexandrian scholars for a Greek-speaking readership, but it contains a powerful echo of the ancient wisdom on which it was based. It offers us one of the best windows available to gaze into Egypt's remotest past. With its help, we can understand the mystical vision that inspired the awesome pyramids. - Since the only evidence Gandy gave us that the contents of the Hermetica came from Egypt’s remotest past is the Pyramid Texts, but he didn’t show us any of the doctrines that the Hermetica took from the Pyramid Texts, it’s kind of hard to judge. If any Hermeticists out there can provide such evidence, or any evidence at all, that the contents of the Hermetica are from Egypt’s early days, we would be very grateful. As always, you can leave comments below the video. But most of the arguments in Gandy’s intro boils down to: you can’t disprove it; therefore it’s right. That’s not a strong support to build a belief upon. Thank you for watching all the way to the end. I’ve got more videos like this, so please browse through the catalog and watch another that appeals to you. You might like my little e-booklet, Why Ancient History Matters. It's designed to persuade people that the subject is important, even in the modern world. You might also wish to use it to help spread the word, so feel free to share it with someone you know. It's free for anyone who wants it. I've left a link in the description box below the video for you to grab a copy. Catch you later.

Who was Satan in the Book of Job With Dr. Michael Heiser.en.srt

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,240 that's very important but how do we miss the mark in biblical study when we're just simply trying to apply the text and how do people approach it in a way where it's not just this lofty thing and i i remember listening to i think a perfect example of you know a four-letter word you mentioned is work is um you there's a video that you posted on the book of job and i think this perfectly illustrates that you're when you did this you were not just looking to apply the text but you were looking to find the meaning of the text and um this was on the subject of satan in the book of job and and in the hebrew hostaton and so i saw this video and i thought this was a perfect illustration of like what that looks like and the actual work it takes in looking to find the meaning of the text so i would love to hear you just kind of explain that yeah it is a good example because you know on the one hand you know when when you say things like hey you know the the satan the satan figure and job one and two is not the devil it it jolts people you know it shocks them even if they have a study bible that has a footnote adversary right it says adversary okay you know you say well you know why should i why should i get in the car and take this ride it's already uncomfortable well here's why because at some point either you or maybe your kid or your grandkid they're gonna run into somebody on the internet or maybe in a college campus that's gonna that's gonna introduce them to the bible in a completely different way such as hey student christian student that i'm gonna smile at but i really want to undermine your faith okay did you know that there's no place in the old testament that connects the word satan with the serpent of genesis 3. did you know that there's no hebrew word for devil you know and you say well in the book of revelation you know john calls the serpent and satan and the devil so there yeah you're right but that's the last book of the bible what about all those other books written before that and is john making up something new because you can't find it in the old testament is he just sucking it out of his thumb maybe there really is a difference between new testament theology and old testament but how could that be if this is the word of god is god schizophrenic can't he make up his mind i mean there's any number of questions that if if you as the student well i'm gonna i'm gonna go check that out when i get home and you go home and you check it out and you know what your professor's right okay there is no no textual evidence that satan and job one and two should be connected with genesis 3 either in job or anywhere else and now you've got a problem okay not only do you have a problem with with how you think you were taught the bible and we have a problem with with the bible itself maybe you know even everybody's just making it up you know so it becomes a threat and so this is this should not be something that destroys anybody's fate the question isn't is the bible wrong and are my teachers hoodwinking me but that's what you're gonna think the question should be well maybe we're not quite understanding job one and two the way the writer intended it to be understood that's a totally different question but it's not the one that's going to pop into their head first yeah what's going to pop into their head first is the suspicion of who the people who taught them and the text itself and those are both bad so what we have going on in job is you you have you know ha satan which sounds weird to people again who who are looking at the hebrew don't know anything about hebrew hebrew is like english hebrew does not tolerate the definite article the word the in front of a proper personal name i am not the mike okay that just sounds ridiculous i don't refer to my wife as the dreamer we don't do that in english and neither does hebrew a definite article is never put before a proper personal name i don't make up hebrew i didn't invent the language i don't make up the grammar it just is what it is every time in job when the word satan is in job and also in zechariah 3 guess what it has the definite article every time there are no exceptions in those passages so what that means is that this is not a proper personal name and by definition if we don't have capital s satan there we don't know the devil there either so who do we have okay we have the adversary you know and i talk about this in my demons book and unseen realm this is a term that is essentially it's a job description it's a role the sons of god meet you know and and and god asks the adversary the hassan you mean adversary challenger prosecutor basically this role and it's actually described in the passage if we just read it god says hey you know where you've been and you know hasatan says well i've been going running around to and fro throughout the whole earth you know this is actually part of what of a bigger theme in the bible the heavenly books where god keeps tabs on everything that's going on and he uses members of the heavenly host to do that they're his ages to see who's obedient and who's not and everything gets recorded and the idea isn't that god has a bad memory he doesn't have alzheimer's okay the idea is that nothing is ever overlooked that's what we're supposed to take away from the metaphor so so he asked this to time hey where you've been he said i've been running too and further throughout polar and god says yeah you know have you seen job have you checked him out that guy is awesome he loves me he's blameless have you seen him and the satan here's where he crosses the line the satan says yeah yeah i know who you're talking about but you know what if you took away everything that that guy had he would curse you to your face he would hate you now he's done more than report now what he's done is he's challenged god's omniscience and god's integrity so either god doesn't really know or he's not telling the rest of the council the sons of god the whole truth so this is this is actually the explanation of what happens in the entire book because now that this challenge has been issued god could just look at the satan and say you're dead you know he drops over or he blows him up or whatever but you know what if god destroys him you know what that does it leaves the questions on the table they're unanswered so the rest of the whole book is god having to vindicate his own character and show us that the satan the adversary was wrong and so god says to him okay i'll tell you what everybody listening here everybody got this take notes okay go ahead and do the job whatever you want but except for killing him because i don't want you to come back here and say oh yeah he would have cursed you if i had just done this but he died no you can do anything you want to him except for killing him try it and we'll see who's right okay and this is how the whole rest of now we the reader know this because we read the prologue we know what's going on in the heavenlies okay job doesn't know any of this he is righteous god is correct but now job starts to suffer and he has no explanation for it you know and so at the end you know god restores he is vindicated he blesses job and we we know the story but it has nothing to do with the serpent of genesis 3. now you say well how did how did john make the connection later it doesn't start with john it actually happens in the inter-testamental period satan this this one who who offers opposition okay or who opposes or challenges something basically snoops around and sticks his nose and things that he shouldn't this sort of thing i mean all the all of these these ways to describe this this figure inter-testamental writers begin to pick up on the original rebel of genesis 3 the serpent and and what what pardon the pun what the fallout was of what happened there and and how it came to pass and they look at it and they say you know what he really is a liar he opposed god's will he did this he did that and so in the inter-testimonial period they start using other terms besides serpent nakash to describe this guy and his behavior okay mastema belial which means worthless one satan okay the one who opposes and so they begin to start using other vocabulary of the original rebel and you know what if the shoe sticks wear it he is all these things and so by the time you get to the new testament satan satan as in greek becomes a proper name and it can function that way in greek that's where we get satan capital s you find the dead sea scrolls too you know it's just it's a development of how serious people jews living in the inter-testamental period they're looking at their hebrew bible what do they think of the hebrew bible it's the inspired word of god look at all these data points what do we do with them how do we understand they're doing just what we do okay and they start to use other vocabulary of this villain and by the as hundreds of years pass their vocabulary sticks and it gets used in the new testament that's all that's going on the theology is intact okay but we don't have to misunderstand the text to get to the theology yeah we just don't yeah you know it it's that that's a really good example of and i'll be honest with you i have had undergrad students from that went to other schools tell me that this is one of the things that was used against them in classes to get them to doubt scripture and and the way they were taught yeah and i think you know the stuff that you just explained is is it's a lot i mean it's a lot for the person that's kind of just grown up in church nominally to take in and so but what i think it also illustrates is that to get to the meaning of the text it does take work and it does take like looking to understand the background some of the languages i mean we're not telling i think your listeners and your viewers need to understand here what we just did there it didn't change theology we still have a primeval rebel from from genesis 3 and he later on he gets this label the fact that the label isn't used in the old testament who cares it's used later you know what since when is this a vocabulary test okay with our theology is intact but what it did what understanding the text properly does is it helps provide an answer to that student in that classroom that is being antagonized by their unbelieving professor that's what it helps do it equips them to think well about scripture and and sad to say a lot of not not just you know college age students but a lot of christians can't do that and it's not because they're dumb they're not okay it's just because they have not been asked to think they go to church every week you know they get it once a week you know time with the bible and they're never asked to think they're never given content i mean this is why i said at the beginning we routinely underestimate the average person in the peer yeah and we and we have we have numbed them to the point where you have to convince christians that they ought to care about the bible that's how difficult the job is now yeah i would definitely i would concur i agree with that and that's kind of you know some of the things that i want people to hear in this episode is that like you you should care it shouldn't take convincing it shouldn't take explaining all these details of one passage of scripture to make you realize oh maybe i'm not really studying it the way i thought i was um so practically throw one out this is the one i love to throw out you know well there's lots of others throughout but we'll start with this okay let's just talk about demons okay just the word demons all right where did they come from and the answer you're going to get 99.9 percent of people are churchill is well well then you know you mike don't you read the bible they when when satan rebelled he took a third of the angels with him those are the demons dummy and so my follow-up question is oh what verse says that go you go find that and then you tell me you know and if they actually hunt they'll find one verse that has the word three or third with the word demon in it and that's in revelation 12 which if you read the passage a war breaks out in heaven because of the birth of the messiah it has nothing to do with some primeval before the fall thing there isn't a single verse in the bible that says a third of the angels rebelled with satan before the fall zero we have invented the idea and taught it as doctrine that's a no-no okay we shouldn't do that yeah so here's my question to the again the skeptical listener what else don't you know honestly what else don't you know because that is like a fall out of bed easy question they think and the answer that they'll give you is nowhere to be found in the bible

Why is There NO Record of Ancient Humans - Randall Carlson.en.srt

00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:08,780 [Music] there has been some kind of a universal system at use in the ancient world and these various cultural groups whether it was the Egyptians or Sumerians or Mayans or the Hopewell ian's or the megalithic builders had access to some universal system from some source that was outside their own cultural context and I suggest that the source of that goes back into deep time that takes us back beyond the threshold of known history into the realm of mythical history which means we're going back like into the Ice Age back into the place to seem to use the geologic geologist term back into the to the deep recesses of the human tenure on planet earth whose only memory has come down to us not in the form of recorded history but in the form of myth and epic story and legend and so forth because as it turns out if we in this way this is again as a is a good topic first the sacred geometry class when we analyze plato's description of atlantis plato basically gave the sink the date of the sinking of atlantis as 9,000 years prior to so long that the egyptian the the the athenian poet and statesman Solon did a 10-year exile in Egypt and it was so long it brought back the tale of Atlantis and presented it to the to the Greeks and Solon basically made that journey around 600 BC so if you had the nine thousand years to the 600 BC we come up with a date of about eleven thousand six hundred years ago for Plato's date for this the demise of Atlantis well it's very interesting that the date eleven thousand six hundred years has been independently discovered by geologists look at the tempo of various catastrophes that have occurred on earth and to those catastrophes is where I'm now going to turn catastrophes in the time of man the tempo of global change what I've done here is I put a time bar that goes from the present right here this is us now this is today right here is May 3rd at 4 o'clock it's a 4 o'clock that's right here and this is a hundred and fifty thousand years ago and the reason I used 150 thousand years is that some of the earliest skeletal remains ever discovered of modern humans date back to 150 - even to 180 thousand years skeletons that appear to be indistinguishable from a modern skeleton which suggests that modern humans with presumably equivalent intelligence to our own were present on the planet at least this far back so here we've got a hundred and fifty thousand year time span you'll notice this little red bar at the end that red bar represents the span of recorded history which is basically the advent of Scindia sumerian cuneiform writing so if it turns out that there were modern humans living through this whole span of time why is there no history well now you've got to do is turn to these various things that I've put on here these are events that have occurred and I used a certain criteria for these events and here's the criteria I used I began studying the record of geological change climate change environmental change and I focused on events that could be considered catastrophic and catastrophic to the extent that were an event of an equivalent magnitude to occur now it would basically end civilization as we know that's the criteria what would be what would be the magnitude of an event that it would take to terminate our modern industrial civilization that's the criteria that I used then I begin to search through the record of all the events that would be of that magnitude or greater and the events that I found so far have been entered onto this graph and they're listed all here you can see them and how many do we have here and this is not complete necessarily but we have at least 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 of them in a hundred and fifty thousand years so at least 16 times in the last hundred and fifty thousand years there have been climate or environmental or geological catastrophes powerful enough that were they occur to occur today would essentially put us back into the Stone Age would essentially if you think about some of the small catastrophes we have seen in the last few years from the the destruction of New Orleans to the great tsunami you know to some of the big earthquakes that we've seen you know New Orleans is still not recovered but you've got to imagine what would happen if an event that was one order of magnitude greater than Katrina happened by that I mean ten times worse let's say that we had ten cities decimated to the extent of New Orleans we could certainly recover from that but it would be a major effort to do so now what if we were talking about two orders of magnitude let's say to put it into a rough equivalency an event that could could cause the decimation of a hundred major urban areas could we recover from that questionable now let's go three orders of magnitude and now we're talking about the equivalent of a thousand major cities completely decimated okay at that level three orders of magnitude that's what these are those are events that essentially would be three orders of magnitude once you begin to ponder this it becomes apparent why there isn't a record an extant record of what's been going on for the whole time that we humans have been here now at this point you probably haven't tied this in with what we've been saying before other than I'll point out a few things to you that should be on set of the late Wisconsin ice age 26,000 years before present remember the great year and the processional cycle at about 80 years to that we've got 26,000 of course 26,000 you consider a figure plus or minus a few centuries now you come through that cosmic lock that I showed you right halfway to the cusp of the age of Leo twelve thousand nine hundred years ago roughly and what happened we have something that happened twelve thousand nine hundred years before present onset of the younger driest climate catastrophe first phase of the megafauna extinctions hmm let's here what I've done is I've entered some green dots now look at what the green dots are the green dots are basically derived directly from the model of the great year based upon cycles of six thousand four hundred and eighty twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty and then twenty five thousand nine hundred and twenty and you'll notice how high of a correlation there is between the tempo of events the actual events that have been derived by scientists without any reference to this great year model at all and the timing of these ages of the world remember the six thousand four hundred and eighty years that was the the bull the lion the eagle and demand and according to the traditions each of those seasons of the great year is inaugurated by some type of a great event a transformative event a catastrophe if you will and what I've done here is I have developed a data set that shows the correlation it certainly seems from a study of this graph that these intervals these event nodes as I call them the susceptibility of something happening goes up exponentially for a short period of time here's the analogy that I have used you're out driving along a quiet country road you've got it on you know cruise control you're kicking back you're listening to some tunes you're not paying much attention you know you're talking on your cell phone not much traffic okay now you come up to a major highway the cars are like this well you're crossing that intersection and while you're crossing that intersection now suddenly you got to put your cell phone down and start paying attention because if you don't you're going to get t-boned right well obviously you've got your whole journey and each time you cross an intersection of a major highway you know the potential of a catastrophe increases considerably over what it would be while you're out there on the lone lonely country road well you see our planet is on a cosmic highway around the galaxy and we're now beginning to understand the fine structure of the galaxy and we realize that there is a pattern in an order to it and there's our a tempo of these orbital revolutions there's a tempo of the galaxy and there's a wave pattern of the earth moving up and down above and below the galactic plane and within that there are sub orbital cycles as well and we also discover that there seems to be a tempo in the delivery of cosmic matter to the inner solar system it doesn't seem to be random and this is going to be beyond the scope of today's lecture but what I'm getting at here is that the evidence now supports the conclusion that the delivery of cosmic material and energy energy pulses that would be affecting earth are non random that they're on some kind of a cosmic timetable a cosmic tempo if you will and I think this is one of the most important insights we get from these ancient traditions is the measurement of cosmic time and how it relates to us here on earth you just got to know what to look for and where to look for it once you begin to become aware of it and you begin to see it you begin to realize that the cosmic fingerprints are everywhere about us we're in fact living in and upon the wreckage of the former worlds the rubble of these former worlds is all around us but we haven't had the scale of perspective to see it and that's where we're at now I'm completely thrilled with things like the emergence of Google Earth because Google Earth is now allowing us to just somebody all of us to sit at our computers and see the cosmic perspective of Earth and when you look at it from you know from the from the extra-terrestrial point of view things begin to show up that we don't see when we're right down here immersed on it's so close that we're like ants walking under rubble and can't can't see what what's around us but we do see that we literally have built our own world in our own social system on top of and out of the wreckage of former worlds [Music]

Windows Terminal Level Up! Oh My Posh, Nerd Fonts, and IntelliSense.en.srt

00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:03,679 what's up guys we're gonna go through uh some really cool things here that called the windows terminal and um if you guys don't know windows terminal is this microphone is kind of a new take on like the old command prompt shell host type thing and um you know if you've been working on software development at for any period of time you probably have to do stuff through the cli or through command line at some point right and in the past you would do something like this and you just you know open open command prompt and you have that but then you get to the point where you have to like okay let's open up youtube and then you have this screen also you're like okay that's another screen well let's open powershell also and then pretty soon you have a bunch of screens and you have a bunch of windows and kind of managing this stuff is like a nightmare especially if you are having multiple you know multiple of these and you're trying to run a bunch of scripts and all of them so what we're gonna do today is and set up um this kind of windows terminal level up so if you guys don't know windows terminal is it's a pretty much um the upgraded version of this where you can have everything in one place so i already have the terminal app installed here but if you guys want to get this installed all you got to do is go to the microsoft store open up microsoft store type in windows terminal i have it here all right as you can see and you know you just click this install it and eventually it'll install in the system you can open it up and you'll have windows terminal here oops sorry that's the powershell windows terminal i guess it doesn't show up on that thing that's interesting but i haven't been here so here's windows terminal okay so the next thing you want to do is um if you notice here and every time i type powershell here this is the default powershell app and so this is i think powershell 6 or something it's something that comes pre-installed on all like windows systems but actually that is not the most recent version powershell so what we want to do is while we're still in the store you want to go over here type in powershell and we want to find the latest powershell version which is this one and we're going to install that one so i've already installed it on my machine but you can click install here and it'll install it there this is powershell i think like seven point two point four right now as of like may 25th 2022. um so that that is a uh we're gonna need this because powershell uh is kind of uh kind of the main you know uh command line that we're going to be using the other optional thing you can do is if you guys are you know using wsl or ubuntu you can also go here in windows store and install blended here um so if you click on the the one the default ubuntu one it's going to default to the long term support version which is let's see if we go back here which is right now uh 20 oh i guess right now it's 22.04 so that is the the most recent version so if you click on ubuntu and you install that you're going to install the the 22.04 one which is um i guess new because i think this was this supposed to be pretty recent but um it was 20.04 so i think if you run any like um system like aws or anything like that um you had the option of like 20.4 or 18 and i think a lot of a lot of the older ec2s and stuff are on 18 but a lot of people are using 20.4 and there's not a huge amount of difference between them but there are a lot of improvements obviously to the new versions so you can go ahead and install that too the other option is you can also you know do it in powershell and do um wsl dash dash install um to keep in mind that if you have already installed this within your um your kind of system through the store doing it through the powershell could do a secondary install and you might have some issues with that okay so now we have everything installed um how do we set this up so first of all we're going to go to um windows terminal here and if you can see uh i've launched windows terminal and it's running powershell so um this is the old powershell though you can look at this icon so what we're gonna do is we're gonna go here we're gonna go to settings and right here we're gonna change this to the new powershell which is what we want right we want this new powershell and we're also gonna make our default terminal application this new window terminal instead of command host we're going to hit save so now when you run um you know powershell uh it'll still open powershell through there but if you run let's say cmd command prompt it's going to open the command prompt now in windows terminal as opposed to just the old command prompt interface the the console so that's pretty nice in that windows is terminals are default so what we want to do here is um we're going to also change things so that we don't we don't have this windows powershell um as kind of the default anymore so what we do here is going to open this json file and if you have visuals to your code you want to open this individual studio code and what we can do here is we're going to set our profiles here so um what we're going to do here is we're going to i've already done it here but i've moved my windows terminal the new powershell this is the new powershell up here above the old powershell and i've set the old powershell to hidden and this is a true so this is hidden and if you can see here um down at the bottom and this these two ubuntu's are the the ubuntus that uh um have i'm going to just mute that really fast uh you've got the ubuntu's that are um so this is the one i've installed through wsl and this is the one that was installed through um the store so you will have two like a bunch of versions here if you install it now the nice thing is uh we can uh kind of move this around so i can i can move this let's say down to the bottom so let's do this at the bottom let's save that and you go to windows terminal immediately you're gonna see here that powershell is not the bottom of this list and you can see i have hidden uh this powershell but if i set this to false then it will show up again as an option here um so we don't really want that because we don't want to use old powershell so i'm going to do is going to revert all those changes right there and then we're going to set this to that and then we're going to go back here so now now we have powershell as the first one and then we have our command prompt ubuntu as another option so this is really cool because now we can open powershell and uh command prompt in the same window as well as ubuntu so we can have all three of these open at the same time now if i click this and hit alt hold alt while i'm clicking ubuntu i can open these side by side and then i click back and forth you know it can do that and then i can send you another powershell we can do it again and here we go and that's pretty that's pretty cool right so that you can open up all these um terminals now we're gonna do a couple upgrades here so the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna go and grab um some fonts so if you can see here on my defaults i have a cascadia code nf and what that is is a it's a nerdfight so we're going to go pull up nerve fonts go to neurofonts.com go downloads and right here we're going to download this cascadia code nerdfight so i already have it downloaded here but it's a zip file and then eventually you're gonna go to go to your uh downloads here and then you're gonna unzip that zip file and then you're gonna get this these things you can hit a windows key just type in fonts open the fonts control panel and what you want to do is you're going to copy all these into here and just drag and drop and what you'll do what that'll do is it'll install um all these fonts um so why do we want these fonts well what we're going to do here is also do a couple upgrades to our terminal so there's a nice thing called uh windows sorry oh my posh um so i'm gonna search that up so oh my posh.dev i think is the website yes oh my gosh that's instead so this thing is going to make our command prompt look something like this so if you look at our terminal right now we have powershell this is your basic powershell you know it shows you your directory and your user and everything um it's kind of cool i guess not super not super interesting right so it's it's it's very basic what you're kind of used to but we're going to upgrade this so first thing we're going to do is we're going to install here so you see here we're going to do wing get installed on my posh okay so we're going to run that we can get install on my posh boom all right downloading installing here [Music] nice now we're gonna do one get upgrade just to make sure that we have the latest version no cool update found all right cool so this that's cool now if we run oh my posh dot exe you know now we have it installed and you can see all these uh command line items so the question is how do we get this um to actually looked um like what we saw on that front screen so for the prompt we're gonna see uh we're gonna have to create a notepad so there's a couple ways to do this you can do notepad profile and then it'll open up your profile but you can see that right here this has no files there so do we want to create a new file so um it might give you a kind of an error here it says like i can't find the folder path what that means is that this powershell folder probably doesn't exist in your onedrive documents folder so you have to go to your uh onedrive folder and go to documents and then create this powershell folder and then within that we're going to create um a powershell script here so let's do that again notepad profile create new file yes all right so what we're going to do here is we're going to import um this right here this line put it here save it boom all right nice now we're going to run profile again reload the profile and boom there we go we've got some nice looking uh items here okay so that's that's pretty good so what would have happened if we didn't have those nerd fonts remember we imported those note from fonts so if i remove this um you know i don't enable the nerve font uh and then i run something and then i go back here you immediately see that these kind of like uh rounded edges and diamond type things are unrenderable by the the powershell so um we need that there to kind of keep it in uh the yeah in the system so um we can also do the same thing um and render this in ubuntu so let's go to ubuntu and right now you can see my ubuntu um it's loading it's also just you know you're basically printing sales let's go to linux and we're gonna do a manual install so i'm gonna do this copy download on my posh go back to my terminal paste this anyways password if i typed it right wrong it's a problem with long passwords right it's very easy type wrong okay do that now we're going to download this and run this also paste anyways boom boom boom remove the zip file all right so now let's set up the prop for this we got to do this one and go to bash or prompt so we're going to look for this profile so when ubuntu it's uh not dash rc it's actually the tilde dot profile so we're going to do vi tilde profile okay and then we're going to add to this so hit i for insert and we're going to go all the way down here boom and then we're going to add this and we're going to do that hit escape the colon sign w for right q for quit force it and then we're going to execute bash and then we're going to reload the profile and i have permission denied so let's see let's do sudo switch mod and then profile and run that again okay i think the easier way is probably just to restart about you permission denied why is that hmm that's an interesting one okay i'll figure that one out later but um user local bin oh my gosh oh my posh is permission denied okay so let's go to user see this is the thing about um programming and stuff and just systems in general things change very rapidly so you know by the time i post this video um there might be another update or something like that and you guys will probably have to do this kind of troubleshooting so it's good to just uh do it now so let's go over to this bin file yeah okay well my position there so let's see each mod okay i need a pseudo chmod because got to be a super user to do that on linux password again all right now let's do the reload profile oh that's not the real lookout okay let's see there we go okay so now you can see same thing same issue here right um we don't have the nerd fonts enabled here so let's go to visual studio let's copy this font and add it to our ubuntu one right here do that go back here um reload here and oh interesting is that the right one did i do it to the right let's try this it should be the right one oh i did the wrong this is the hidden one huh okay well i can add it to that one too you know boom there we go okay so nice so we have here um you can see something here so if i cd into like home toasty and then let's see let's go to actually let's go to the mountain cd amount c so this is the system the window system um it shows me what folder i'm currently in and if i do something wrong like type around opinion and you see that little x thing here it'll show you that it's like a command not found you know which is pretty useful um so we're doing that for we've done that for both of these so that's how we install on with posh that's how we set it up and we can set it up for powershell and for sorry ubuntu also um so that's nice and all but let's do some additional updates here right let's see if we can uh kind of uh upgrade our items so you go over to my github so let's go to the github you'll see that there is a profile here that i have on my gis it's gonna just so i've set up um this settings json here and as you can see here i've added two key bindings i i pulled these from scott hanselman so if you know scott hanselman he's a pretty well known uh kind of windows guy powershell guy this is his blog you know he does a lot of this stuff so a lot of this information is secondhand from him and we're going to do kind of this update here so let's pull this draw i'm going to pull right here make sure um that all these items are actually i'm just going to pull the the key buttons so we're going to go key bindings to here and i'm going to add the key by new smile so our key bindings all right so key bindings nice okay so that that is how we're going to set our key bindings and if you do here so this is this lets us easily do things like control c control v and um you know we can do things like shift f11 for focus mode shift f11 for towel focus but on and then you can do things like uh let's see so this one is open search faster ctrl shift f that's nice um let's say alt shift d to duplicate the the window that's nice that's very quick and we do that for multiple times you know both multiple of these and then do let's do lw to close them right uh i think that's all w is it control w might be controlled w yeah control w to close all those windows right so that's nice too okay so these are just kind of like keys you can play with you can um change them um you know this website will tell you how to do that and that's pretty nice so that's a quality of your life thing we can do and then let's go back to my gis let's go to my microsoft profile so this microsoft powershell profile so here if you see it where there's this import terminal modules thing so if you uh if you want to make your terminal look super nice let's do so if you we do ls here or directory ls is uh you know linux is in but um dir is the powershell windows thing you see here we can see all the files read write mode that's kind of cool but kind of boring so terminal icons is a really cool um plug-in for a powershell that um you can kind of use and uh here we can install here so we're going to do is going to run this right install terminal repository icons whoops i typed i must have typed the wrong thing right there there we go okay so we're going to install this module and then we're going to go back to the profile so this is the profile that we have and what we're going to do is go to might suggest go raw control a copy this and we're going to put this in the profile if you're watching you can open this text pad in actually let's do that let's open it don't save let's let's open this in a in visual studio code because it's just easier to to look at you know so open this with visual studio code boom okay nice looks a lot better right so go up here let's see so this is the same line right right so this line is the same line as this line so what we're going to do is um delete this and now we're going to import the module for the terminal icons that we just installed and terminal modules is going to give us the ability to do cool things like uh see the icons for the file types um and then if you see here this config is how you configure um the theme for your your powershell so actually all of these items here like these little um kind of like widgets i guess you would speak for the command line are all configurable so these are all configurable and this is the theme and this is the location of theme so if we go to that location um so this is actually not my system so let's go it's my my other system and then we go here and we search this location uh yeah you'll see i opened up that file right so we opened up the file let me just go to the folder to show you that there's multiple so oh my posh comes installed with all these themes and the default theme is this one which is uh janda douglas so he's i think he's the one who made uh she he she i don't know um that made the one uh that made this entire kind of oh my posh um interface and it's pretty nice you can change the segments so each of these things are called segments and you can change the color background you know icon types folders and that's really cool so i actually have one of these set up so what we're going to do is we're going to create one in this folder so let's go here let's go create a new file and we're going to call this file my ohmy dot omp and then we're gonna get this dot json so yes is this one json file yes okay let's open this in visual studio code and go back to the gist that i have online so this these are all pre-made already so let's go back to images github and i'm going to just here and then i have this theme right here so let's look at this theme and uh it's pretty much based off the default theme but with some changes and we're gonna paste that here and save it now we'll go back to this powershell profile and point it to that new theme so we're gonna point it to that my oh my posh theme and save it so that's pretty cool and if you go back here and hit enter um i think nice to reload yeah there we go so reload here and you see i've changed this here so um we can do something like uh this was as a little bit more filler like it takes the how much time it takes to run the command this is your powershell uh 15 46 at the time um let's go to uh onedrive documents github you have to make it you have repos and see i have two repos here and you can see now that the terminal icons that we installed are showing folders because these are folders so we cd and uh i'll show you how i get this step here later but like this this option is not a default thing um but it is actually this import module ps3 line so we can go walk through how to do that too but let's go to this repo and you can see that it shows a github icon to get icon and now if we go here you can see all these different file types i mean it tells you what branch it is so let's do git status see okay we're up to date and we can go get check out uh master and using oops is it not master name get branch let's see yeah it's me yep check out main and if you switch them in then it switches to me and it's pretty cool so it'll do things like that it'll tell you which brands you're on so let's go back to the um 1.0.25 branch and let me open up the file here and let's just let's just make an edit right let's let's change something in that repo let's go documents github we're in civilization let me go to the source giaba did you have a project oh man there's so many folders how many photos are in java um let's open this in visual code also even though most people who do java like doing things in you know intellij just hit enter or backspacing some space hit save and then we go back here and then we'll go back to our terminal to get status and you can see this changes because it says okay you have one different modified file and you can stage this change and then you can you know get add that file and then hit commit say a test boom and then now it changes again so you have one commit ready to push so this is pretty neat um and you know at any point in time you can change this modify this and it will give you information about github which is really great um i think it's not technically github itself even though you have icon it is technically just all git repos so if you have any git repo will do the same thing um let's type a wrong command let's type something that's like doesn't exist like do not exist so now it's giving you an error it's like oh this is like the wrong thing like how do you know uh it's giving you more of a more message instead of just like the x and that's also very useful so let's say you set up your profiles and then we're going to do that so let me go to how to install ps reline so as of this thing as of this video i guess um ps readline is now available so you can install here by running this and you have to make sure you have this flag allow pre-release um so you're going to run this run this here we're going to install ps readline and then you need to enable predictive intellisense and this is going to give us the nice little thing where when we type this it tells us you know based on our history um what uh like little things you can uh yeah you know quickly intellisense will tell you like the possible things so you can do this enable pre-line set ps3 line oops let's go back there enter and then uh now you'll have the ability to see things like this so that's very useful um and if you go back to the profile that we saw all these little options here are just like script blocks for command line that i again i got these from scott hanselman they're useful and allows you to quickly use things like that on on powershell and then you can do things like that and another thing you can install is a module called z so z is very helpful if you um know what z is you can do install module z and say yes to all and it will install module z and z uh is similar to cd but it's just a fast radio cd so um it knows based on your history what file you're just in so let's say like sieve and then those that so the cd to uh this one right and then now let's see back to this one cd back and now if i just type git it knows it just knows that that's the path that i was just at and it can you can quickly jump between file systems like that so it's pretty it's pretty nice pretty nifty and that's pretty good um oh there's a javascript visual studio that's good to know um that's my cat if you guys like uh cats and i think that's pretty much it let me see if there's anything else i wanted to add but you can see that this is very powerful for ubuntu and um the other thing is for ubuntu in order to make sure that this shows up i forgot to mention that um you have to go and set this up also for your prompt so if you go to the profile uh here this bashovc profile um you have to make sure that let's see so let's cat that profile again you can point it to your the same file that your powershell is pointing to um and that makes sure that you are pulling from the same profile so um the way we do that is um here you can see that it sells the old profile in ubuntu and it doesn't have this new profile for or sorry i should say theme and so we're going to do a vi and we're going to modify this really quick and here when it says eval so if we go to customize we want to add this this line here and we're going to point this to [Music] the we're going to point this to the the window subsystem file system so here we're going to go to so this in my system would be slash m t slash c says users and then let's just copy that actually it's easier i just copy it right burp so this this file path right here that's what we want and we're gonna add that to this section here and you can make sure that these are all the right directions slashes because windows and ubuntu are different there's probably a better way to do this i'm sure you guys can let me know in the comments um but this is how we make sure that um our ubuntu and our write that out uh powershell are using the same um the same theme so if we open ubuntu now boom okay we have the same the same setup here and um now we have the same themes running and that's pretty great um yeah so that's pretty good um let me see if there's anything else that i wanted to add there are other things that i will probably see for another video like there are things that you can add putty for example putty profiles and rendering icons there has been shown already so we've been able to predict the telesets which is very very useful so like this is just saves you so much time like it's the greatest thing ever and uh yeah so if you guys like this video be sure to like and subscribe share with your friends hopefully this helps you um kind of get a sense of how you can do this and the nice thing is it all is super customizable i'll post links for all of these um you know sites for my gist and everything nerd fonts all that stuff down in the description below um so thank you and yeah

Wolfram Tools for LLMs (Day 1) Wolfram GPT.en.srt

00:00:02,926 --> 00:00:04,050 My name is Alan Joyce. I'm the Director of Content Development for Wolfram|Alpha, so I oversee a lot of the pipeline for ingesting real-world knowledge into the Wolfram Knowledgebase, and how that gets shown through Wolfram|Alpha, through the Wolfram Language, the EntityValue and other functions, and also now of course through our various APIs, the way it shows up in the Wolfram GPT. So this talk is really just focused on the Wolfram custom GPT available for ChatGPT. It's going to be a fairly high-level overview of what it can do, a little bit about what's happening under the hood— so looking at some of the APIs that are actually being called, how prompting works, some tips about using it more effectively for different purposes you might get into— and certainly the rest of the week there are going to be lots of more talks where people will take you through some of the much more powerful things you can do in Chat Notebooks and other things directly in Wolfram Language Notebooks. I can see that some questions are coming in already. I'm going to try to focus just on going through my presentation, and then I think we'll have plenty of time to circle back and try to cover people's questions as they come up and anything else that might remain when we get to the end. So, the Wolfram GPT— this is really an evolution of the Wolfram plugin for ChatGPT. And I saw somebody asking, I think on the chat, about whether the plugin still exists. I can't remember the exact timeline, but OpenAI had announced earlier this year that they were going to phase out plugins because they viewed the custom GPTs as a more powerful evolution of that technology. So, I think the plugins may still be accessible to people who've used them, but at some point those are going to be unavailable. So really the main way if you want to— if you're using ChatGPT through their web interface, the Wolfram GPT is really the primary way to get access to Wolfram|Alpha and Wolfram Language capabilities within the ChatGPT environment. So, this has taken advantage of a lot of developments we've made on our side over the last year or so, both in the way that we understand how to effectively prompt LLMs to make calls to Wolfram|Alpha, how to write Wolfram Language code, but also in the developments we've made in our APIs, coming up with both Wolfram|Alpha and Wolfram Language APIs that are designed really to be called by LLMs and not people, which was an interesting concept when that first came up that we were going to have APIs that for the most part we didn't expect humans to interact with. But so, if you want to access the Wolfram GPT, certainly you need to have a ChatGPT Plus account. You can go into the GPT store. Lately we've been hovering near the top of the list in the Research & Analysis category, or you can just search for "Wolfram" and we'll pop up. We've had a lot of people having conversations with GPT, which is really good to see, and generally people are having good experiences with that. So when you're using it, certainly you can— if you're familiar with Wolfram Language and Wolfram|Alpha— you know, you can do all the same kinds of basic things that you can do, you can ask Wolfram|Alpha for, or you can have simple requests that GPT will try to turn into Wolfram Language code. So something like this, saying "plot sin<i>x</i>^2." In this chat, it happened to choose to try to write the Wolfram Language code for that, which is, you know, very compact, it gets back a pointer to an image of the result and it can show that. In another chat, because it's certainly non-deterministic, you might, by default, get a call to Wolfram|Alpha. The prompt that we have for the GPT tries to encourage it, for simple kinds of queries, certainly for things that have to do with real-world data, with very simple kinds of plotting things, that it would default to Wolfram|Alpha, because it tends to be a little bit quicker to formulate the natural language input and just make that call to Alpha and get the result. But it could be Wolfram Language, it could be Wolfram|Alpha. You'll see in the calls here, if it's making a Wolfram Language call, it's going to be going to the chatgpt.wolframcloud end point, which is where we're hosting the Wolfram Language API, if it says it talked to wolframalpha.com, then it's just making a natural language call to Wolfram|Alpha. If you click on these, you can see what was actually sent to the API. So in this case, it sent what you would send in a normal natural language input to Wolfram|Alpha. In the other call, you can see the actual code that was sent through that API. And certainly, one of the main differences here and something to think about if you're trying to steer a chat one way or another, if it's writing Wolfram Language code, then all you're going to get is whatever that code evaluates to, if it's Wolfram|Alpha, then certainly you get like you'd normally get with any kind of Wolfram|Alpha result— other kinds of context, additional pods that might give some more useful information to the LLM— which is one of the nice things about having Wolfram|Alpha plugged in here. Now, other kinds of things you can do, certainly ChatGPT-4 has its own code assistant functionality built in— it can write Python code and evaluate that in its own environment. It can do a lot of things very well. I mean, we see again and again lots of things where it does not do things terribly well. I mean, this is a relatively straightforward query, it writes a lot of Python code, it gets all the right packages and libraries and gives you something that is not particularly helpful. Conversely, using the Wolfram plugin, this is trying to solve the same problem, writes one line of Wolfram Language code, sends that to the API, gets an image of that plot back and then you can even build on that— that's one of the great things, I think, about using the GPT is you say "well, that's good but can you refine this, can you change that?" And you can say, well, "I only want to see the intersection of those," modify the code and you get just the region where those two conditions intersect. Other kinds of things that you have access to, certainly because we've got Wolfram|Alpha plugged into this, you have access to a lot of current data and the ability to compute with current data that is more recent than whatever the training cutoff was for the model that's currently the latest thing that ChatGPT is using. So, asking for things like "when's the next solar eclipse visible?" You know, it makes a call to Wolfram|Alpha, gets all of the relevant data for that, if there are images, it'll pull those in— it can show those in the result— and then link out to the Wolfram|Alpha website. And you can kind of see, it's got access to all of this kind of data, and it's able to take that and synthesize a very helpful kind of result. And then you can ask more questions about this, if you wanted to know, you know, ask more questions about the maximum or when it ends, you could continue this conversation and it'll keep going with that. The other thing that I've found really exciting about having connections between LLMs and Wolfram technology, whether it's here or in our own Chatbooks, is just the ability to have conversations, really, and keep building on queries— not have to be constrained to what we have in Wolfram|Alpha on the website, which is certainly basically a one-shot thing. You ask a natural language query, you get a result, but then you can't really continue on from that question, you have to form a new question. You can't just say, you know, refer to things like "then" or "that," "that day." So this is something, just "what date was some number of days ago," it calls Wolfram|Alpha, you get lots of information. OK, you know, "what was the population of the UK then?" Then it's going to make a call and ask about that particular year, it's going to give you some more context for that. You could refer to that specific day and ask for something like when Venus rose, and it can do this kind of computation. A lot of things that— you know, ChatGPT, by default, would not be able to do anything like this with any precision. So that's very exciting to be able to build on those things. And certainly more complicated kinds of queries. So here is— I think I borrowed this example from my colleague, Michael Trott. Alan? Yeah, of course. Sorry, would it be possible to magnify the— A little bit more? Yes, please. Thank you. That's great, thank you so much. Yeah, no, of course. Finding probabilities of the sums of points on three six-sided dice. Now, in the core prompt for the Wolfram GPT, we've tried to encourage a chain-of-thought approach. We're telling the model whenever you have some kind of query that requires more complex computation, try to articulate the problem, lay out the steps you're going to use to follow it, explain the specific Wolfram Language tools that you're going to use and then try to implement those. And so this is kind of a good demonstration of that. It's saying this is the problem, this is how we need to compute it, this is specifically the functions that we're going to use in the Wolfram Language to do that, and then it'll write that code and send it off to the API, and give you a nice, nicely-formatted summary of the results. It won't always show the code by default, but all you really have to do anytime that there's been a call to the Wolfram Cloud is just say "can you show me the code," and it'll pop that up in a nice box that you can copy. And if you're using a Cloud Notebook, you're using Desktop Notebook, you can copy and paste that and then evaluate that, build on it, use that for whatever kind of project you're working on. You can certainly ask it to show you the code and incorporate comments. If you wanted to do that, we could get a version of this that has comments explaining each step in here. But this is a nice kind of summary of what's happening in those those stages. And again, you know, both here and in our own Chat Notebooks, that's been a great thing to have kind of a programming partner that can explain code to you and help you get better at finding problems or just understanding what's happening. Some other things that I really wanted to point out in interacting with the Wolfram GPT— language is really important. Word choice can influence things in sometimes subtle, sometimes very dramatic ways. So, if you have an input that's something like this, which is essentially a command— you're just saying "3D plot the gamma function" here— in this case, this kind of seems to bypass that core instruction to use a chain-of-thought approach and it really jumps right in, it writes code, it sends it, it evaluates it, it shows it to you. This isn't a particularly helpful view. If instead you said something as simple as "show me how to make a 3D plot"— just adding a few words there— what you get then is, OK, this is how you would do it, I'm going to explain sort of the concepts behind it, I'm going to lay out a plan for writing the code, and then showing all the code and then evaluating it. The other thing that I will note, and anybody who's familiar with Wolfram Language, you probably know this already. ChatGPT, and by extension the Wolfram GPT, often will— I'm not sure what to say— it overwrites code to some degree. It likes to specify plot themes and color functions and plot ranges. To some degree, I think this is sort of picking up on idioms that are required in a lot of other languages— if you're going to plot something where you need to really specify a plot range, you need to specify a color scheme. And so what this means is that sometimes the code that gets written by ChatGPT, if it was just even a little bit simpler, you'd get a better result. So this was a case where I was saying, you know, it's specifying a plot range that kind of hides sort of the interesting things that are going on in this plot. So I said, well, let's remove the plot range and color function, and it'll go back, rewrite that code and then the Wolfram Language, by default, crops that plot to a more interesting view of what's happening in that function. And then I kind of realized, well, the color function was kind of useful, so let's add that back in, color function goes back in and you get a plot that's a much more, I think, useful visualization of what we're talking about here. So just something to keep in mind in general, that, you know, we keep trying to encourage the LLM to not overdo things, to not always specify some of these options. We've included some of that in the prompts, but it still will often default to trying to specify more than it needs to, instead of just getting out of the way and letting a lot of the really powerful functions in the Wolfram Language make more sensible choices by default. So, talking about what's happening under the hood, like I mentioned before, we've spent a lot of time over the last year building tools to allow LLMs to call Wolfram|Alpha, use Wolfram Language, learn about using Wolfram Language more effectively and give users better results. So, we have a Wolfram|Alpha API for LLMs. And people certainly get confused about this sometimes and think that that means we have an API that is backed by an LLM and it's doing something, but it is in fact an API where it's really just that the format has been styled to be consumed more easily by LLMs. So for an example, we can take the input from before about solar eclipses, and this is just a view of what the actual Wolfram|Alpha API output is. It's essentially the full Wolfram|Alpha results, all of the different pods, but rendered in just kind of a plain text form— tables in kind of a Markdown view, any place where there are interesting images, those are provided as links so that the LLM can pull in and show those, and generally, most of these systems are using Markdown syntax to be able to show images, so it's got a reference to a URL where there's an image that it can pull up and show. You know, this also includes other features of Wolfram|Alpha, so like assumings, which also comes with instructions to the LLM— hey, if you wanted to use a different assumption for this, you can send another API call and include this parameter. If you want to share the full website result, we've got links back to Wolfram|Alpha. And so those kinds of things are always going to be available in the results that are coming from Wolfram|Alpha. On the Wolfram Language side, what we learned very early on was trying to prompt in the core prompt that you're providing to any LLM, all of the kind of tips and tricks and advice about common programming mistakes that people make for writing Wolfram Language code or any code really, is kind of impossible. They're just aren't enough tokens to do that. So, what we started doing was, knowing that ChatGPT or other LLMs, if they're evaluating Wolfram Language code, this is going to be going through an API call to a Wolfram Cloud API. We've built a custom API that doesn't just evaluate code, doesn't just return the kind of error messages or messages that you would get in a notebook as a user, it also responds with suggestions tailored to LLMs to say, you know, "this is something that was wrong with your code, you should try this instead." And so keeping those kinds of suggestions very close to each particular call has meant that we see a lot of quick improvement. An LLM writes some Wolfram Language code, it tries to evaluate it, there's an error, but it's getting useful information back from the API that says "this was what was wrong, try this thing instead." So, just for example, these are sample outputs of the API for something fairly simple here, this is valid code, it produces a result and we just send back a link to a rasterized image of that output in the Cloud. So again—sorry— so this is valid code sent to the Wolfram Language API, what we send back is, there's an output, here's a link to an image, it's a rasterized image of the result. Same code, but with an invalid Option— the API is saying, OK, "this is not a valid option for this." If you were trying to find some particular option, you can evaluate this code, you could send this through the API and you're going to get a list of valid options. Other things down to, the ChatGPT will— without some changes that we've been making in the core GPT prompts— will often invent entity standard names and property standard names and entity types. So if it was sending something like this, you know, "Entity," "Building," a made-up standard name, "Height," it's going to get a result back that says "this is not a valid entity." But if you want to find— maybe that's the name of something, you want to find a valid entity, you can try this Interpreter call. So there's a lot of things that we're doing in the Wolfram Language API to try to just make the experience of writing Wolfram Language code through ChatGPT and through the Wolfram GPT just more productive. So, a lot of things where we're giving useful tips, useful information on top of the other things that we're doing actually in the prompts. One second, I'm sorry. There are also— one of the things that we've added on to the Wolfram GPT is, so not just the basic Wolfram|Alpha API, not just the Wolfram Language API, but also some additional utility functions. So, for things like the case that I just showed, where you might want to write some Wolfram Language code and you want to have access to things in the Knowledgebase. You're working with, let's say, buildings, and I'm saying here "use Wolfram Language to find the 5 tallest buildings in New York, compare them in a bar chart," it makes three separate calls, and I ask it about those a little bit further down, but it ends up, it makes a bar chart, it's retrieved the data in the language, it hasn't had any errors here, it shows the values, it's able to give you the information there. But now I'm saying, "please explain that process." And so what it's doing, we have several additional utility APIs that we've hooked up for the Wolfram GPT to do things, including for cases where the GPT might want to get access to the Knowledgebase, it's got some natural language query like this, it can just send that query— basically the same kind of thing you might send to Wolfram|Alpha— but it gets back instead the Wolfram Language semantic representation of that data, and it's an implicit EntityClass of "Building" in the city of New York, take the largest by height, and then it can go and it's retrieving that data, getting those things back as an association, and then making the BarChart and just feeding in BarChart of values of that, and finally it gets that image back. So this is something that we've seen make a big difference anytime that you're trying to do any kind of programming through the Wolfram GPT, using the Wolfram Language, using any of the built-in knowledge— you know, socioeconomic demographic data, geo graphic, chemistry, biological species data, any of those things— we've seen a big improvement in performance for the GPT where it's able to form the right EntityValue calls, find the right properties, you know, actually identify the data that's available and then incorporate it into Wolfram Language code. Other things to know about the GPT— if you've used ChatGPT Plus and used any of its own code-writing abilities, then you would have noticed that here you can upload files directly through the GPT interface. You're not currently able to send files to the Wolfram GPT this way, but one thing that the Wolfram GPT can do that the built-in code functionality in ChatGPT can't do is directly go out and import files from the web. So, for example, something like this— this is just a CSV of data from the USDA and I can say "please help me analyze this." It sends a call to the Wolfram Cloud, just importing that dataset, takes a look at it, gives a summary. You can ask it to go through and show you a few rows, you can ask it to pull some specific data out and it can just keep getting the data and writing Wolfram Language code that's going to do whatever kind of analysis that you want. So it's a great way, you know, if you've got data that's outside of the Knowledgebase, you've got other things you want to bring in, this is how you want to try to access it using the Wolfram GPT. There are other things that we've also done. If you're familiar with the Wolfram Function Repository, it's a very large and growing collection of Wolfram-contributed and user-contributed additional functions for the Wolfram Language, and the Wolfram GPT can access those. There are some cases that we've already built into the prompts, actually, because there are some areas like food nutrition data where, if you're familiar with that in the Wolfram Language, it's very powerful but can be very complex to write some of the queries. And so there's a ResourceFunction that is just NutritionReport that we've coached the GPT whenever you get a query that involves getting nutritional information, instead of trying to write bespoke Wolfram Language code, use this ResourceFunction, and it does a great job— you know, take some list of ingredients, it calls a ResourceFunction and it pulls all that data in. And here I just asked it to explain the process, and so it tells you it's using this ResourceFunction, it's designed to do this, it takes inputs in natural language so it doesn't have to try to interpret these things as canonical Wolfram Language objects and then gets a useful result. We have a version that's being tested right now that also builds on that a little bit and has some additional end points that allow the GPT to query Documentation and get detailed usage information for ResourceFunctions. So this was kind of a chat that I had where I was playing around with asking the Wolfram GPT to give me information on sunspots and fetch solar images, and it was able to search Documentation and figure out, OK, there's a SpaceWeather ResourceFunction, there's a SolarImage ResourceFunction, look at the Documentation for both of those things, be able to find the day with the highest sunspot activity and then find an image of the sun on that date, which was kind of cool. So, a lot of cases where there's data that— sorry— where there's data or functionality that you want to have available through the GPT but it's not built into the language, going the route of making use of things that are already in the Function Repository or even contributing your own ResourceFunctions is a great way to just really make it even more powerful. I think that is most of what I wanted to cover about basic functionality. I will share— and again, borrowing this from my colleague, Michael Trott, who has done a lot of work, and I think we have some links to other talks that he's done on prompting for LLMs and working with the Wolfram plugin and GPT— like I said, we've tried in our prompting to encourage a chain-of-thought approach and try to get the Wolfram GPT to explain what it's going to do before it does it. But also like I said, small variations in how you phrase a question, how much information you put in, can have a big impact on that. So, if you really want to see well-documented Wolfram Language code, it's good to express that. It's good to, if you know you're going to be doing something that is fairly complicated or you want help with building up a fairly complex chunk of code, something like "don't write all the code together, but do each step separately and check"— just encouraging sort of basic debugging, incremental development kinds of approaches is really helpful. And I think you'll find that sometimes you'll ask a question, the GPT will try to write an entire function first time, many lines, many different sub-parts, something goes wrong, and the best thing to do in that case is say "stop, take it apart, try evaluating each part," because then it's going to get useful information on what went wrong at each stage of the process and you'll end up with a working, useful function. Depending on your own personal preference and your level of familiarity with the Wolfram Language, or even in interacting with things that are on Wolfram|Alpha, ask for more information, ask for— when you have results from Wolfram|Alpha, you can ask it to go a little deeper into all of the additional contextual pods that came back, you can ask it to explain code, reformat code, use different kinds of paradigms for variable names, you know, lots of things. We've tried to make the experience as smooth as we can with as concise a core prompt as possible, but certainly people are at different levels and have different needs. And definitely just, you know, play around with trying to get the best results for your particular purpose. I think that is most of what I wanted to cover about the GPT.

Wolfram Tools for LLMs (Day 2) Chat Notebooks.en.srt

00:00:02,340 --> 00:00:03,445 Hello, everyone. I'm Rick Hennigan, the developer of Chat Notebooks and that's exactly what we'll be talking about here today. OK, so let's get started. So, what are Chat Notebooks? I actually forgot to fill out this slide, so what I'm going to do is just cheat here a little bit. So, this is essentially what Chat Notebooks are. You've got these cells where you can just enter conversational-style text and you get your answer from an AI. But it is very much tuned for the Wolfram Language and Wolfram Notebook environment, and it can do a lot more than what you might expect from other chatbots. So, here's an outline of the things that I want to talk about today. I'm going to start with the very basics— you know, how do you create a Chat Notebook, how do you get started evaluating it, things like that— and then just the fundamentals of how do you work with the interface. So it's a new cell type— like, how do you send it and whatnot, what types of things can you do with it? There are other new cell types that you want to be familiar with. How can you control what type of content is sent to the LLM, things like that. And then just other various interface-related things. Then I'll be talking about personas. So you can think of— depending on which LLM service you're using, which in most cases, it's going to be OpenAI for most people, likely GPT-4— a persona is like a layer on top of that LLM model, which basically describes a character, if you will, of who you're talking to and what types of things it can do. Next, I'll be talking about tools, which basically just give the AI a way to actually do things. Aside from just writing text— reading and writing text— it can do arbitrary computation for you. And then this section, "Using Chat Notebooks Effectively"— if you only pay attention to one section in this talk, make it this one, because there are a lot of things here that I see a lot of people frequently misunderstanding just how LLMs work and making simple mistakes frequently that I want to kind of try to give you a little bit of intuition how to work around those and understand what types of things an LLM can and can't do. OK, so, the very beginning: how do you create a new Chat Notebook? So if you're in 13.3 and you have the Chatbook paclet or 14.0 and later just by default, you can do CreateNotebook["Chat"], like that, and here I am in a Chat Notebook and I've got this— it starts me out with a ChatInput cell. But you can also, from an existing notebook— let me magnify this— so this is not a Chat Notebook, this is just a regular notebook, but in the default toolbar here, there's Chat Notebook Settings up here, if you click that and Enable AI Chat Features, this is now also a Chat Notebook and I can just start chatting. I'm going to abort that because I don't want to wait for it. And so if you've downloaded this notebook, you might want to follow each of these links. I have a few of them throughout the slides that just go into more detail about each of these things. So, when you're in a Chat Notebook, when you create a new one, it starts you out with that ChatInput cell, but to create one— a new one— if you just start typing normally, you'll get an Input cell— that's not going to send a chat— so use the single quote key or the cell insertion point menu or from the toolbar, just any of the usual ways that you would insert a cell of a particular style, and then you send it same way you would a regular Input cell— SHIFT and ENTER, or SHIFT+RETURN if you're on Mac. So, if you haven't used Chat Notebooks before or any of the LLM functionality in Wolfram Language, you will get a dialog like this one the first time you evaluate it and it's going to be asking you— by default, it'll use OpenAI, because that's just the default setting we have. You can set it up to use other services, but you'll need an account with one of these other services to actually get responses from an AI. It's such a huge, massive thing, it's not something that could run on your local computer, at least a model at this scale, so there's, for the foreseeable future, there's going to be some reliance on some external service to get this sort of chat functionality. So, if you haven't done this yet, hopefully it's self-explanatory. You go to OpenAI, you sign up for an account, get an API key, paste that in here. In this—if you've downloaded this notebook— just follow this link here and there's a more detailed help page to show you how to do that. So, now I'm going to talk about how should you talk to the LLM. So, one thing I see a lot of people doing first time they evaluate one of these things is they think of it as like Wolfram|Alpha, something like that, where you— yes, OK, I understand it accepts natural language, but they still write their inputs as if it's like a search query or something like that. And, you know, "first 100 primes," what does that mean? Like, I can say something to the AI, but that's kind of ambiguous. So in this case, it actually did what this one is asking for, but sometimes it doesn't. And you basically just have to ask yourself, "if I sent a human this text, would they know exactly what I want?" And if that answer is "no," you probably want to be more specific. So, it's not a search engine, just talk to it like you would a person. So I see a question: "what's the difference between a chat-enabled notebook and a chat-driven notebook?" So, that's a good question. A chat-enabled notebook is just like a regular notebook. The default cell style is Input, and you're expected to do all the same types of things you would in a regular notebook, but you also have chat functionality built into it. The chat-driven notebook is meant to be chat first, but it's not geared towards Wolfram Language or Wolfram Notebooks. So, it's just supposed to be— like, if you just want to chat with the AI about arbitrary topics, you want to use a chat-driven notebook. If you want to talk about Wolfram Language specific stuff or coding, things like that, you want to just use a chat-enabled notebook. OK, so when you send a chat input— so this text here, "can you plot that for me"— when I hit SHIFT+ENTER here, it's not just this text that's being sent. So, if that were the case, it would say "what do you mean by that?" So, when you send a chat input, it looks above the cell and grabs whatever is above it as additional context. So when I say "can you plot that for me," you can see that I evaluated this input and got that output, and it knows what to do with that. So, it gave me a little bit of a spoiler there for what I'm going to be talking about later, but that's just to give you a sense of what gets included. Rick, can we bump up the magnification just a tiny bit? Sure. OK so, this is the same idea. I can say "what's the value of <i>x</i>" here, and it knows because it can see that I evaluated that before— it's 93. So, if you don't want it to look at content you have above the cell— let's say, you know, you have unrelated work up there or whatever, or something that you just don't want to send over the internet to some external API— you can actually block out certain content from the notebook using what are called chat delimiters here. So, let me actually just remove that one. So, if I was starting out like this, and you know, I want to hide all this content, everything above here, from the AI, I enter a chat delimiter cell, which is this tilde key, which on US keyboards is like the top left, and this actually blocks— it'll grab everything going up to that cell but no further. And actually, one thing I want to show here is when you mouse over the ChatInput cell— this actually doesn't magnify, so maybe you can't see it— but if you look on the right on the cell bracket, the little blue highlighting that appears when I mouse over, that shows you what it's grabbing for context. So, I'm not sure if you can see that, but if you've downloaded this notebook and you're trying it— and that's a 14.0+ feature, I believe. But this one here, you can see when I mouse over it, there's only the blue highlighting for this cell and nothing above it. So, if I ask the value of <i>x</i>, even though it's right there in the notebook, it just doesn't know what I'm talking about. Things are running a bit slow right now, but that's kind of expected because of the time of day— this is kind of peak hours. It's usually faster. Yeah, so the AI doesn't know what I'm talking about here. OK, so now, what if there's just one cell I want to hide? Oh no, it knows my secret; that's no good. So, there might be a mix of things in here that you do want it to be able to read. Like, let's say you have a big notebook going and you want it to have the context of what you're currently working on, but let's say you also have some, you know, let's say like an API key or something, or username and password where you're logging into some service and you just don't want to send that to some external API. So, what you can do is in the cell bracket in the context menu is an Include/Exclude From AI Chat. So, if I do that— again, this is something that doesn't magnify, so maybe you can't see it— but the cell bracket turns red. That means that the AI doesn't see it. When you mouse over it, you'll see this little icon indicating that that's hidden from chat. So now when I mouse over this, I can see that the blue appears for this ChatInput cell and only this Text cell. I've actually hidden all these other ones from chat, so it can't see those. So when I say "what's the secret code," all it sees is this cell, actually. So, another thing you can do is regenerating outputs. So, one thing that is important to know about how these LLMs work is each time you evaluate it, unlike some deterministic code that you're evaluating, you can just keep reevaluating your notebook and get the same outputs every time, you know, assuming you're not using things like random number generation or things that are sensitive to the date and whatnot. But let's say you don't like the output of the LLM and you want it to try again, you just reevaluate it. Yeah, I don't think that's very good either. Well, let's compare it. It actually saves previous ones and you can cycle through them. So if you want to try a bunch of times, you can do that and then just switch to the one that you like the best. So another thing: a lot of times you'll ask for something and then you quickly realize that the AI just totally misunderstood you, and it's just going on and on about something you don't care about and you don't want to waste that time. So what you can do is over here, if you mouse over, you get a stop button. You can click that and it'll just stop the chat and just take what it's generated so far and just leave it there. You could also abort the evaluation. So, you know, it's ALT+PERIOD on Windows and I believe COMMAND+PERIOD on Mac, I think. That also does the same thing. But that's something that you always want to do if you realize early on the AI is just doing something you don't want, just stop it. No need to waste all that time while it rambles on. OK, so now, let's start talking about how this can be useful for you. Getting the AI to write code for you is a very useful thing. So, here's some code it wrote for me. Now, how can I use that? I could select it and copy it, but there are some features built into here to make it a bit easier for you. So when you mouse over— and again, this is yet another thing that doesn't magnify, unfortunately— but you get three buttons here. First one will grab the contents of this little code block here, insert it in a new Input cell below and evaluate it. This one just inserts it below, so if you want to modify it, and then Copy to clipboard, which everyone knows what that means. So I can just take that code here, create a new Input cell and evaluate it, and I'm on my way. Another thing you can do, if you've set up the external evaluator system on your machine, any language that's supported by that, which there are a bunch, you can take code written in those languages and just evaluate that as well. So yeah, and you can see the icon, it's actually a little bit different here, showing that it's another language. And that just creates an external evaluate cell and it actually has no output, but it did evaluate. Yeah, see? OK. Now, apart from generating code— actually, I see a question here. "Can the Wolfram AI also write code for R?" Yes, it can write code for any language you can think of. Even if it's not supported by the external evaluate system, it can still write the code for you and you can copy it and paste it to whatever other environment you want, which is also a useful thing to do. I actually do that sometimes for C. I might be writing C code for like a library function that I'm going to hook into Wolfram Language, like in another editor though, but I'll ask in a Chat Notebook, and then use that copy button and then get it into my other editor. So, it's not just code that can be generated for you, just arbitrary formatted notebook structures as well. So you can see here, it's writing up a report for me and formatting it. To get this out— so you can see this is all in one big cell here and it kind of has its own special formatting— there's a little menu at the top right of the chat output here where there's something that we call exploding cells, so you can do it In Place, Duplicate or Copy them. What I'm going to do is Copy them right now, and what that does is basically just converts them to regular notebook cells with the type of formatting that you're used to. So this is what it wrote and I got regular Section cells here, formatting, subsections, all that stuff. But it can do a lot more than what you just see here, it's just what it happened to write this time. So, not only can you use it to write code, but also your formatted documents, things like that. So, another thing that's useful here is this sort of inline code that you can insert. So, there might be something like— actually, let me just show. So, use the \ key and it creates this little input field. Now when I evaluate this, what this box does, this evaluates in place and basically inserts into the text that the AI sees. So the AI never sees this code, it just sees the result of this. So, where this type of thing comes in as really useful are things like, let's say you want to talk about the contents of some document or whatever, like a big PDF file. You don't want to just copy and paste the full contents of that into your notebook just so the AI can see it. You could just, in here, have an import document.pdf and say, you know, "summarize this for me" or whatever, something like that. So, it's just an easy way to represent something that evaluates to something large in a nice compact way. OK, so personas— that's effectively who you're talking to. So the default one is Code Assistant, and in general, that's almost always who you want to use. But you can also, from the menu here, choose a different one from some of the— there's some built-in defaults, you can get some more. But switching the persona basically changes the character, and what and how the AI responds. Even though this is still the same model, I'm still talking to GPT-4 here, it's now behaving very differently. So, what are they good for? So each one has different abilities and different tendencies of what types of things it can do and talk about. Code Assistant— when in doubt, just use this. There's Code Writer, which I don't— in general, I wouldn't actually recommend using this if you want to write code. It is a bit of a technical reason why, but in general, Code Assistant will produce better code than Code Writer. And there's a weird reason for that, and if there's time later I can explain that. But if you want simple code quickly, Code Writer is good for that. Plain Chat— which this is the persona used by chat-driven notebooks, which we talked about earlier— this is the one that it doesn't know that you're doing anything related to Wolfram products at all. So, it doesn't realize that you're in an environment where you can evaluate Wolfram Language code, things like that. That's good if you want to chat about one of your hobbies or something like that, or just something that's not related to Wolfram products. And then the Raw Model is no prompting whatsoever. So, it gets to no instructions about how to format its outputs. So, Chat Notebooks can format things in pretty ways, it doesn't have tools to, again, evaluate things for you and whatnot. That's useful if you want to like test and compare the capabilities of the raw models. So let's say you want to compare a model from Anthropic, like Claude, against GPT-4, things like that, that's fairly useful. You can get more personas through the Prompt Repository. I'm not going to spend too much time on this. There's documentation about how to do these things and there are key bindings for how to interact with these things as well. So before, you saw that I used the menu to select this, but you could also use the @ sign to reference them directly and it'll automatically— when you do that— it'll automatically download and install that persona for you from the Prompt Repository. But you also get these modifier prompts, which are— this basically represents a bunch of text that explains to the AI like how it should be responding in certain ways. So like this one, "explain like I'm 5," is basically just that— it has text explaining that when you respond, you should act as if the user is a 5-year-old child and make things simple, stuff like that. So rather than having to write out that whole prompt, you just use one of these little tokens and it's just a convenience there. And then there are these function prompts, which, you know, there's a lot more types of things these can do that it's kind of out of the scope of what I'm talking about here today. But again, go through the Documentation, view the Prompt Repository and get a sense of what these things can do, because they're pretty powerful. OK, tools. This is the magic. So, what are tools? They're specialized functions that can be used to perform specific tasks— that, I think that's great. So, Code Assistant, for example, has four tools by default, which lets it search Documentation, look up Documentation pages— so there's two of them related to Documentation— there's one for evaluating code and another one for getting results from Wolfram|Alpha. So it's not just like going to another chatbot and having a conversation of text back and forth. This AI can do things and interact with the world. And then when it makes a tool call— yes, "what's the square root of 25"— you get these formatted boxes out here saying what tool it used, and if you click on it, you can open it up and see exactly what it did. So, you can check the work of the AI if you want to. I'm not sure if— people have probably heard about the term "hallucination" with regards to LLMs. They frequently can confidently make up answers that sound plausible, but they're not. This is really important to have something like this where you can actually verify that it did the right thing here. And I believe there's going to be a talk tomorrow, I think, about the Wolfram Language representation of these things as well. But these are LLM tools under the hood, and you can view the Documentation for those if you're interested in how they work. And different personas can have different tools. Like this is Plain Chat, it does not have the Wolfram Language Evaluator or Wolfram|Alpha, things like that, but it can search the web for you and— oh, wait, nope, I think I accidentally turned it on for this one. Yours will not have that. OK, so I can say "show me a picture of a funny cat." Code Assistant wouldn't know what to do with that prompt, but this one does because I gave it a Web Image Searcher tool. Yeah, I guess that's pretty funny. And there are seven default tools that come with Chat Notebooks, and different personas will use different subsets of those, depending on what they're optimized for. But you can also have personas that come with their own tools that no other personas would have. Like this is one that I've been working on— I haven't submitted it yet, so you can't get this yet, it will be in the Prompt Repository soon— but this has its own tool that lets it generate images and it acts like a painter. So I can, say, ask for an image, and it uses a tool called Art Skills and it produces this kind of thing. But that will be in the Prompt Repository hopefully soon. I'm just working on some finishing touches there. So now, this is the important stuff that I want to talk about: using Chat Notebooks effectively— like how to get the most out of them. So, there are a bunch of different settings you can set and there are different scopes that they can be set at. Global preferences are persistent and they just set up the defaults for all your Chat Notebooks everywhere. Whenever you open a new Chat Notebook, it's using your global preferences. But you can also customize them at the notebook level, the chat block level— which the chat block is something that is separated by those chat delimiter cells that we talked about earlier— or you can change them for individual Chat cells. So, in the Preferences menu, you just go into the AI Settings tab and you have all of them in there. And this is where you can choose your default persona from the ones you have installed. You could choose which service you're using. By default, you'll see three of them. There are more coming— a lot more— but right now we have OpenAI, Anthropic and PaLM, and then there are a bunch of models for each service. But, you know, there are multiple tabs as well, so you can set and manage your connections to each of those services as well. Like, if I were to disconnect any of these, next time I evaluated, I would have to— I would get that prompt to insert an API key again, things like that. But you can also manage your personas that you have installed and also tools. So, you can see the default tools and you can manually override which personas have access to them. So you can turn them on and off, so if you don't like the way I set up the defaults for a particular persona, you can override them here if you want. But you can also, in addition to the Preferences panel, you can set it for just at the notebook level, for example. So I can choose the persona for this notebook, I can choose the model, I can change some of these other settings, things like that. But you can also set it for the cell level— so you get a similar menu there— and also the chat block level. So like if I change my persona at the chat block, all these are using that persona, but if I started a new one, it doesn't apply down here. So that's how that scope works. So, just to briefly go over some of the settings you can use here. Automatic assistance— this is useful for beginners. Let me magnify this real quick. So if you turn that on in a regular notebook, which I've done at the notebook level here, and let's say you're just evaluating some code, and you're not really sure what you're doing and you're making a lot of mistakes because you're new the language, things like that, it's really useful to turn on the automatic assistance, because what you get is this automatic help that can pop up when you make a mistake. And the AI is actually the one that determines when you make the mistake, because that's something that is very difficult to write code to automatically detect using heuristics, things like that. Like, just the fact that there's an error message doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong with your code, it doesn't necessarily mean that you got output you didn't want, things like that, but the AI can understand the context. So I got that error message, it realized I did the wrong thing and it suggests something I can do differently. Great, that's what I wanted. And when things are going well, it doesn't pop up yelling at you. So, it's good for just a little bit of extra guidance for new users who are starting out. And some of these other ones— I've talked about services and models. Ideally, as long as you have access to it, GPT-4 is going to give you the best results, not only because it's arguably the most capable model out there, but Chat Notebooks, the development, has been very focused on making it work well with GPT-4. There's— yeah, I have done some work to address some of the weird behavioral quirks of other models from other services, but not anywhere near on the level that I focused on GPT-4. So just my advice is use GPT-4 and you'll get the best results. But there's also GPT-4 Vision, which if you have access to that, I would suggest absolutely using it. I'll explain more on that in a bit. And then some of these other things. You know, in the Preferences, there's little pop-up tooltips explaining what they do, so I would suggest looking over those for more details. It just lets you customize the whole experience a bit. So, multimodal chat— this is the GPT-4 Vision model. So this is kind of a fairly newer feature of Chat Notebooks and it's an awesome one, if you ask me. So, notebooks are awesome, because it's not just text and code, you can drop all kinds of rich formatted stuff in there and it all just works. But also, now with the introduction of these multimodal models, you can now chat with an AI about images directly. So, the AI knows that that's my cat taking a nap. But it's not just pictures, like images, that you paste in the notebook. So things that have box representations that render as graphics, for example, it gets an image representation of those as well. "However, looking at the image you've provided, it seems to be a shade of blue." Pretty cool. And then this also lets it visually understand the outputs of its tool calls. So, when it makes this tool call to evaluate something, if that's a graphical output, GPT-4 Vision model doesn't see just the pure text representation of that output. So, if it's not the GPT-4 Vision model, it's going to be something that just— it's almost like it's in standalone kernel without a front end notebook. It's seeing text, which that doesn't tell you if the thing looks right. GPT-4 Vision actually looks at it, it knows it evaluated something, it was a random color, so it didn't know beforehand what that was going to be, then when I looked at it: "yep, that's kind of blue." OK, so managing chat history— this is an important one. This is very important. This is something that's not going away anytime soon. LLMs make mistakes often, and developing an intuition of how and when they make those mistakes is one of the best skills you can have these days if you're working with LLMs, because you can sort of anticipate them and kind of modify what you're saying to avoid them. But the worst part about LLM mistakes is once they appear in the conversation, it can actually lead to a bad state where it actually becomes more likely to make more mistakes and worse ones. So it's very important to try and avoid those if you can, but get them out of your chat history whenever possible if they are made. Yeah, OK, so for example, I actually— this is kind of a synthetic example. I kind of manufactured this one by editing outputs, just because usually when the LLM makes mistakes, it's usually this, you know, a big mess of it trying to figure something out that it can't. And just to make this compact, this is just a fake one that I crafted here just for an example. So, here's an example where, like, I would have wanted it to make the tool call, let's say it didn't and just tried to make up the answer. And that's something that will happen sometimes and that's something you need to watch out for. And if you know that it could have made a tool call and it didn't, first thing I would do is go back and say "use the evaluator tool" and then reevaluate it. But in this case, let's say I just kept going and it just made this mistake, this kind of mistake, twice in a row. What do you suppose happens this third time? I've actually evaluated this one five times just to show that it will consistently make this mistake, because it sees in this chat history that it's doing this sort of thing, it's going to keep doing it because it's in the chat history. Now, what do you suppose happens in a fresh chat where there's no history of it making a mistake like that? It does the right thing and it consistently does the right thing. So this is important. If it makes a mistake and you just keep going on, you're basically contaminating the conversation to the point where stuff that's coming after that is going to be, in many cases, useless. So you need to figure out when that happens and cut it off— either start new context, fix the mistake, regenerate it, things like that. So, why does this happen? We saw in the second example, it knows how to get that result correctly. I asked the exact same thing in that first conversation and it consistently did the wrong thing. So, there's something called few-shot learning with LLMs. It's a very powerful and effective technique for guiding the LLM to generate certain types of responses, and here's how it works. So there's, like I said, there's going to be a talk I believe tomorrow about how to use this stuff programmatically, but this is sort of like the Wolfram Language representation of a Chat Notebook conversation, essentially, right? So I have these messages. So from the User, me, I'm saying "Hello." And I made this up, I didn't let the AI generate this, I just created a message here for this Assistant saying "Hello" backwards. And then my next one, I have another message and the AI, which again, I crafted this message, is just that string backwards. So this is kind of just demonstrating by example that this is how this method works for prompting or, you know, show it how it should be responding a few times. And then from there, it kind of just takes over on its own. So I say "Hey there," and it doesn't respond as if I'm actually just saying "Hello." It sees that, because in this chat history it's responded this way several times, it's going to keep doing that. Now, if I were to do that with a clean chat history, without that demonstrating that I want it to respond in that certain way, it's just going to respond normally. So, when you have a chat history that has a mistake in it, is it actually possible for the LLM to know if that's a mistake that it made that you don't want it to make or if it's something that you've put into the chat history because you want it to act that way? It can't know. It has no way of distinguishing that. So, when you have mistakes in the chat history, yes it's the LLM's fault, but too bad. If you're still sending that in new chat inputs each time, it's effectively the same thing as telling the LLM to keep making that mistake. So, this is the most important takeaway here. If the LLM makes a mistake, just get it out of the chat history. And these are just some of the strategies for how you do that. So, because you kind of get randomized outputs every time, just try evaluating it again. Maybe the next time, it'll do what you want and that's great, and then from there, you just carry on. Usually what I would suggest is this second thing here— or no, sorry, no, with this part here, "preferably after editing your prompt." So if it didn't do exactly what you wanted, reword your chat input slightly, making it more clear exactly what you wanted. If you wanted it to make a tool call a certain way and you know that, just say so. Don't expect it to read your mind ever. If you're asking it to do something that you know is in the language, but the AI is kind of making up symbol names and you know it should be using something different, tell it to search Documentation first and you'll get much better results, things like that. Again, developing an intuition for this stuff is how you're really going to get useful results out of it. You know, if you just jump into this and just try a few things and it does something dumb a few times, don't think that it can't be useful to you. I would suggest: spend a bit more time experimenting with it and understanding what mistakes it makes when, and then you kind of just get in the habit of writing your inputs in a way that avoids them. But yeah, that's the most important thing that I think people need to know. So, moving on to another topic: our system messages, and this is something that doesn't apply to all service providers. This is kind of an OpenAI specific thing. So in general, you know, if I ask a question like this, it almost always responds with something like this— there's going to be some variation, but you know, it's usually going to use the evaluator and get that result. But let's say I want it to always use Wolfram|Alpha. I can insert this system message here, which you can use the same single quote character but you press it three times. So, once is a chat input, twice is a side chat, which I'm actually not talking about here, but third one is the system message. So this is like a chat input, but it basically carries more importance for the LLM— it'll pay special attention to these. And generally, you want to put them at the beginning of your chat context, so like right after a chat delimiter or at the top of a notebook, things like that. And you just use them for special instructions, like things that you want it to keep doing for that conversation. So, you know, for this example, "keep using Wolfram|Alpha." And so I think I'm kind of on time here. But yeah, thank you. Those are the things that I wanted to talk about. There are some additional resources here that I want to point out. This tutorial page in the Documentation, which I've linked to in a couple other of the slides here. This has a lot of the same information that I showed, with few more details that you might be interested in. Another thing that I want to point out is Chatbook— which is the name of the paclet that powers Chat Notebooks, by the way— that's on GitHub and it's open source, and if you want to participate, contribute in whatever way, I encourage you to do so. And however you do that is up to you. If you're not— if you don't want to get into technical details of writing code and pull requests and things whatnot, you can still contribute by submitting issues— which, you know, you can go in here if you have a bug, for example, and you want to tell me about it, please do so, I will see it and often I fix them pretty quickly— but also use it for suggestions. If there's something that you'd like to see, a feature, things like that, you can submit issues here for that as well. I will read them and often you can get your ideas into the Chatbook source. But also, it's on the Paclet Repository as well. So the version that everyone gets by default, those updates happen less frequently and those are more rigorously tested by QA and all that, but if you want the latest, greatest versions, you can also install the version from the Paclet Repository whenever you'd like. That is a much more experimental version, so you're much more likely to get bugs, but if you want to try out latest versions, regardless of whether or not it might break, you know, go for it.

Wolfram Tools for LLMs (Day 3) Programmatic Access to LLM Functionality.en.srt

00:00:01,967 --> 00:00:03,373 Hi everyone, I'm Timothee Verdier from the Machine Learning group, and I'm developing, among other things, this LLM functionality for the Wolfram Language. Right, and so today I'll try to guide you in a tour around the programmatic functionality, because we also have those more interactive functionalities, such as the Chatbooks that you've probably already seen. And today's it's more like "under the roof" types of things with LLM functions and LLMSynthesize, with all things that we can derive out of the those. So, first thing, a quick outline of the presentation. Just a quick introduction about large language model and how to use the pre-trained one in our system with very, like, core and basic ideas about how they work, because that's important to have this information to take the most out of it and avoid the very classic issue that you can have when you work with LLMs— large language model, again. Then a quick description of the workflow for programmatically working with LLM in the Wolfram Language, a quick description of the changes that this new big burst and developing field of LLM have put to the neural network world, with pros and limitations, and then we're going to dig deeper in the different use cases. I'll try to orient as much as possible this presentation on real-case usage. So, mostly it's going to be about prompt engineering and all the tools in the Wolfram Language to— all the different versions of prompt engineering that we can offer to control the language model generation. And so that's conditioning with the LLMFunction, few-shot learning with LLMExampleFunction— all that will be explained. And eventually some even richer examples of generation with things that are more multisteps— tools and chats. Right, so this is the plan for the journey. And here we go with the pre-trained language model, with the very, like, two lines of introduction about how things work and what the language model is, you know, really first principle. So, if you were to train a 3-token language model, which we can call it an SLM— a small language model— you would start by submitting sequences of those three tokens, hiding one token in those sequences and prompting the system to guess to provide you with the— to predict probabilities for the token that is hidden. That is, given the sequence foo, bar, nothing, bar, what's the probability for the next token? And the next token can be "foo" with probability 50, "bar" with probability 33 and, again, space or nothing with 17%. And training is all about tuning those values. You have a prediction function which is the language model, and the language model it's all about predicting those odds here. And after you've trained it, you can generate using this language model, and the generation is actually quite simple. You start from a state— so there's like part of the sequence, it can be nothing or some seed sequence— and you predict using the trained language model the probability for the next token. And when you have those probabilities, you can just sample one of those probabilities. That is, if you have a six-face die— a classic die from 1 to 6— then the "foo" token with probability 33%, you will select it if you get a 1 or a 2, "bar" with probability 50%, you will select it with a 3 or 4 or 5 when you roll the die, and depending on the outcome of rolling the die, if you get a 3, you will add the new token "bar" according to those rules and you will end up with the new state "foobar" and you can carry on generating the sequence this way. So, if I have "foobar" what's the probability for the next token? It's new predicted odds, and you roll the die again, and depending on the outcome, you generate the next token for the sequence. So, those language models, either small or big, are really kind of— are trying to reproduce language by figuring out the conditional probabilities. And you train them with a very— the big LLMs are trained with basically all the text available on the internet or at hand, so that they become very, very well fine-tuned on what's the correlation between words in the language and they can generate text sets that really look like what we're used to with natural language. So, let's not forget about it and just keep it somewhere for further use, and assume that we have such a resource— we have a trained LLM, a big one, which has seen tons and tons of texts. And now we can provide this LLM that we use as a black box with, for instance, fragments of<i> Romeo and Juliet</i> play by Shakespeare and use this seed text— provide this with an extra information to LLMSynthesize, which basically connects to our LLM, this by default is going to be the OpenAI one, and ask it to complete the text. So the text is we're going to— the context is a fragment of<i> Romeo and Juliet</i> play, and here is some instruction about what to generate. That is, "a short fragment of play imitating previous style with Juliet and Romeo talking about artificial intelligence and whether a machine can love." And if you have access to the LLM, you see that it's doing a pretty good job to write in Shakespearean style with Romeo and Juliet discussing about machine hearts. And you can obviously change this text by just either restarting the process and doing a different sampling, rolling new dice if you prefer, or just changing a bit the probability, and all this is achievable using the LLMEvaluator option from LLMSynthesize, where, for instance, you can put Temperature— Temperature controls how much you flatten or you pick the distribution of probability, that is, you will focus on the largest probability or just flatten them out— and the Model that you want to target. For instance, we can go for a different model, a smaller model, GPT-3.5 Turbo, and also just ask for 100 tokens maximum. And if we do that with the higher Temperature, the output should be much more random. That is, you see that we start to have a sequence of characters that escape from the initial style and we are exploring much further the probability space, even a bit too much, looking at what's produced and generated. And so, those models and this kind of very basic generation process is at the heart of the last revolution in the machine learning field, because this just opens— bridges a gap that was really hard to address so far, which is how to present information in natural language and how to kind of imitate human language and reasoning with a machine. So obviously, the bigger the model, the better the result, especially if it has been trained with as much text resources as possible. And so, it's kind of hopeless to train this model on a local machine yourself and you will need a service provider, which gives you access to such a model remotely. And for this, you will need to either set up a connection— for instance, in those settings here, where you have all the settings to access the service you're interested in and you can register new ones— or just by using some low-level tools like SystemCredential. And if you have OpenAI API key registered here with the key that is provided by OpenAI, everything should work, right. So, the new workflow for working with the LLM is quite different from what used to be in the neural network world. You know, we used to gather a lot of data, and train the internal function ourselves and then refine the data. And you can forget about this. Just find a few representative examples, choose your generalist large language model— so like, the service provider you prefer— and you just prompt it with the correct— which is where the art is now moved to— you prompt it with the correct seed texts and you're getting some generated results, you test to see whether it corresponds to what you want and you will enter this loop where you will try to improve the prompt, test it again and so on and so on until you're satisfied, and then you can set a proxy for the service provider and just deploy your prompts as a function. So, one basic example of using this LLMSynthesize function to classify feelings on movie reviews— you know, to deliver stars for a movie based on the review. It's just prompting by saying, well, "classify the overall sentiments of the following movie review as positive or negative" and then say Input is going to be this slot here, placeholder, and then Sentiment is going to be— and we ask the model to complete. And because the model has probably seen a lot of movie review datasets, this Input and Sentiment is going to be filled appropriately, or so we hope. Let's evaluate this function on something saying "incredibly good movie" and see what the answer is— Positive. And with one line here— "this movie was not entertaining at all"— with just one line here, we have a sentiment classifier for text. We know about rich and subtle— well, which is not those movie reviews— but it knows a lot about the language and it's probably better than anything you could have trained with available datasets, even a specialized one on movies. So obviously, this revolution makes things extremely accessible. It democratizes the use of machine learning based solutions. It's, as you can see, it's very expressive— that is, like with one sentence, you can have working prototypes and even the production-ready systems. Even though things are not fully explicit, you can basically trust the language model to figure out what you want based on the context. It's very flexible, also, based on that, it has some common sense, it can generalize well and when it works, it's extremely performant. Also, arguably, because you rely on the external service provider, it can be very performant in terms of optimization of the computation, because you have dedicated machines and a very optimized generation process, which are hard to achieve if you just deploy your own neural network on your premises. But as drawbacks, it can generate completely awkward failures. You don't have much control over it, because you use it as a black box. It can hallucinate some knowledge, some results— that is basically generating some random values for whatever question you ask. Because you use a service provider, the consistency is not guaranteed over time, because models are changing, and it can affect the results. It can be very sensible to very small changes in your prompts. You have securities, we will see as there was in— especially with when you don't control the input texts and it's the client that decides whatever he puts in. Training data leak and copyright are more on the service provider side, but they can be a concern, and you don't control much of the training data. On top of that, you have the general machine learning risks— biases, ethic problems, based on the data that were used— and a dependency on the service provider. So, one way to kind of reduce that is to offer connection to as many service providers as possible, so that you have this freedom to just reuse the final layer— keep the interface and switch to another service provider if you're not happy with the one you started with. So, you see there are pros and cons, and in order to take the most of it you need to— your work starts with the prompts. Good prompts— good texts— is conditioning the generation of the return of the written texts, of the LLM— putting the LLM in the right context to generate exactly what you want. And because it's quite boring to just wrap LLMSynthesize in a function like this and because you want to just have the input text evolving with your inputs, we have LLMFunction, which basically takes a template and generates a function that you can evaluate on some inputs. So, this is basically generating the prompt "opposite of slow" and fitting it to the LLM as if it were— like acting as a function over its arguments. You can map it and see what the LLM thinks about the opposite of "slow," "high" and "sad"— says it's "fast," "low" and "happy." And you see that it's quite versatile. It can even define an opposite for color, which probably is a complementary color. And what LLMFunction is is just a template within LLMSynthesize. Internally, it's going to call LLMSynthesize, but it has this icing on the cake which is a final Interpreter, which by default interprets returned values as strings. But you can tell that you want the return value to be considered as color, and now this new version here is the interpreted result as color, so if I now ask the opposite of "blue," it will return the orange color object, which is very useful because now everything is integrated in the Wolfram Language and you can use this function as any other function in your programs. You can also tweak as an input interpretation by having this InsertionFunction that tells you how inputs of your LLMFunction should be considered before insertion in the slots here. So, saying like you want ImageIdentify to act on the inputs and then the result transform into a string. You can use an image as the input of your LLMFunction, it's going to use ImageIdentify, pass the resulting string to the LLM and the LLM will have to say what's the opposite of a monkey or of a mandrill. And so it takes a little while to have an ImageIdentify and the LLM call in a row, but yeah, you see, this is the LLM answer. So it's quite powerful and versatile. And the results of such a function greatly depend on how good your prompt is, and in order to be flexible enough, you can combine those. So, if you're interested in standard units and ask for the size system above a given quantity, the LLM will probably give you a list as an answer, right, exactly like this. But in the world of computation, you want things to be formatted, you know, like ready to use. And so providing a list of prompts to LLMFunction, this slot is going to be filled with this argument, but this second prompt, asking the LLM to write all answer as JSON— the standard Java outputs, JavaScript outputs— you'll see that it will transform the LLM behavior to generate the JSON string. And now if you think back about the Interpreter argument— the second argument of LLMFunction— well, we say we have a JSON output, which is currently just a string, right, but a string that can be parsed into JSON. Let's use a JSON Interpreter and rerun exactly the same query, and here we are with the valid Wolfram Language list. And you can specify if you're not happy with the built-in Interpreter, you can obviously go even further in details and use whatever function you like. So, after the JSON Interpreter, which is basically returning this list of strings, I will transform this list into Association and Map ToExpression on the return value, and here is the Association with actual numbers, right? But as you may see, there might be also a bit of fluctuation in the generated outputs. If you're not— if the prompt is not clear enough. So that's covering, basically, all the aspects of LLMFunction. And as we mentioned, prompts are very important, and so we provide a repository of prompts, which you can access using the built-in LLMPrompt and with the name of the resource you're interested in. So, if you were at the presentation of the Chat Notebook, Chatbook, you already have been introduced to persona, which basically acts as a personality for the LLM generation. And we have this WilliamPlaywright character that's kind of mimicking Shakespearean style, and you see the LLMPrompt retrieves a TemplateObject and by applying it to, actually, nothing, you can just get the text inside the template. That is one prompt that kind of forces the LLM to adopt some— to write like some character and to fix the style of the answer. And you can also submit to the Repository to kind of grow the library of possibles. You can have prompts that take some valuable input just like the functions. And so, you see that if we call the prompt "Translate," it takes two parameters, it translates the second parameter into and filled with the 1. So, if we use "Translate" with French, it's going to say translate something into French. If we use one sentence here, you will end up with a prompt that tells the LLM to translate whatever you put into French. And this could be— so, you see your access to the raw TemplateObject and you can tune the text at your will, but you can also directly, once the function form of this object, which is LLMResourceFunction, and you can ask it to translate "really" in French and it will output "Vraiment" as expected. Also, you may be interested by actually plugging those prompts into the core function, which is LLMSynthesize or the chat function, and you can do so using the LLMEvaluator option of those objects. And if you do LLMSynthesize on the default model— here is "what's your name," what you get. Sorry for that. But if now, you use the WilliamPlaywright prompt as a system prompt to start with, you will get probably a different style in the answer, because the LLM is coping with the prompt that we just see here, asking for Elizabethan words and writing in iambic pentameter, which you can check here. And LLMSynthesize also has some special properties to retrieve different parts of the generated output, which lets you— and the PromptDelimiter value in the LLMEvaluator that you check basically the full input that is submitted to the LLM. You see that there is this first prompt from the LLMEvaluator with then the PromptDelimiter used, and eventually the inputs that you entered as first argument here in LLMSynthesize. Right, so having one prompt or just concatenating a few prompts together, all of those prompting instructions are useful, but it's not always sufficient in order to condition the LLM to generate what you want. And in more sophisticated cases, you might want to kind of hint the LLM about the typical outputs that you want. And because one example is worth a thousand arguments, you will rather provide an example of what you want instead of a long explanation. And for this, we have a variant of LLMFunction which is called LLMExampleFunction. And I kind of extend a bit this by providing a template for generating the prompts. So if your instruction is to remove the vowels from the text to return the consonantal skeleton of words— that is, words without vowels, that's a complicated way to say it— you could instead or on top of that provide examples of what you want— "chemical" is "chmcl" and so on, right? And now, if we provide the list of the instruction and the example to LLMExampleFunction, we get a new prompt that is automatically generated by LLMExampleFunction, which is the instruction and few examples. This is known in machine learning as few-shot learning— like providing example of what you want. And you can apply this example function, which is now a classic LLMFunction, as we saw with this new prompt, on some text and see how it does at removing the vowels. And since this is a presentation about the language, it's kind of an example to probe some interesting properties of our own brain and language, which is that you can basically figure out the meaning of a text without the vowels— only consonants kind of bears a meaning in many languages. There are languages which actually don't have vowels, or just added for the sake of organization. And one way to demonstrate this, let's say, statistical property of the language is to ask the system to kind of, just by reverting the example, to kind of try to generate— to do the reverse transformation. And that's addvowels function, where I just reversed the initial list in the instruction, which now is quite impressive and works very well. And if you are curious, you can try the same with addconsonants, which is kind of the opposite way of doing things where you remove the— you try to add the consonants when you have only the vowels. And you will see— this is sent text— and you will see, basically first, the LLM doesn't completely— doesn't reproduce the text. So it's not one-to-one, that's a property of languages, but on top of that, it's completely hallucinating, which is "finally" here has three vowels, whereas there were only four of them— there were instead four of them in the first word here. And "chemical" is correct, "reaction" is too, but that's an interesting feature of LLMs, which is quite annoying in many situations, which is that the LLM can basically try to do more than asked in its mission and produce results, even though they are not satisfying the constraints that you put, because basically it's just putting together tokens in sequences and even though you try by giving context to force this generation process into some controlled statistical space, this is still some random sampling. So you cannot, you shouldn't— there's not much guarantees and you shouldn't trust too much of the generating answer, even though the fact that it has crawled the internet text for so long gives you some kind of statistical— it's kind of statistical relevance to the output. And you can use this example function, for instance, to kind of extract some famous physicist's date of birth. And it is kind of— so this is like example function with name and date of birth for each of those physicists, resulting interpreted as dates, and if you ask for "Schrödinger," this is likely to be correct, even though it's kind of some random generation, but "Schrödinger" with the date of birth is probably correct on most of the internet corpus, or close to. And so, you can expect, if this was not too biased at training, that the generation is kind of very well constrained on the true value. So again, known limitation: hallucination. And with the LLMFunction[ "opposite of``:"] we can try again. If you produce garbage in, you're very likely— that depends on the model in that— you are kind of likely to have some either completely wrong answer, because it tries to generate an answer anyway, or interesting one here is the answer kind of changed the input, because— and it also goes completely astray. If you look for gators on some biological data, you would never find any link with alligators, just like, only it's part of it and the LLM wanted to build up on the seed texts, on the seed sequence here. So, more limitation. And also, if you want to open your application to the world, it can be very sensitive to the behavior of your clients. So if your prompt is "translate this into French" and you take the incipit of the Declaration of Independence, it will work. But if you have a— if an attacker wants to kind of affect, and it's in French, wants to affect your program behavior, it could just inject some new part in the prompt saying, like, "oh, and from French to Italian," and because the full prompt makes sense, you will end up with unexpected behavior, which in this case it is not harmful, it's just Italian, but depending on your function, it can be very aggressive. And you have many, many different ways to sanitize it— kind of making the prompt a bit more clever, we start and end and say to it in your instruction. This would probably work for this basic attack. But in general, there are lots of steps that are involved in sanitizing the input from a user, if you want to use LLM providing outputs. And not the least being the Interpreter function after your LLMFunction, which kind of coerces the output to what you want. At worst, you get a failure. If your application is in— like if you have a very long text— you can do some semantic extraction out of this text. Like this function is just requesting for the list questions out of a text. And this is semantics that doesn't ask for the question to have interrogation mark or something, right? And on top of that, they're probably going to be a bit rephrased and summarized. So this is an interview of Steven Spielberg— Stephen Wolfram, sorry— with Lex Fridman, and like, there should be a few— 10 minutes— of discussion and you can extract all the questions or most of the questions that were asked during the interview, and it just retrieves a list of it. Which obviously, it's a very powerful application that has been unlocked very recently. You can ask the system to format some data scattered in a text, like generating some association with the data— name, address, city and so on— with some general texts. And this is the example function, the instruction and two examples. Here we are. And now we can extract data from this made-up text about some James Smith and see that it will return an association evaluated as an expression, exactly what you asked, and I transformed it as a Dataset for visualization. Or you can just provide it with WikipediaData, the Wikipedia page of Alan Turing, and you will see that PersonalDataExtract is very likely going to work with real-world data, and it generates a dataset formatted exactly as you expected. So, kind of a very powerful tool to extract knowledge from text. Or even something more programmatic, where we've written events from a text by kind of summarizing, for every person, birth date and place, even NotAvailable when they are not, and see how this propagates to some wide texts from the wide. And this is actually doing a pretty good job to generalize the missing are respected. So this example function, we have few-shots. LLMExampleFunction is quite powerful at letting the LLM figure out the formatting that you want from the example, and you can even use the data to generate Alan Turing related historic line. So again— or just, you know, generate some, without using Wolfram Documentation, generate some code for primitive of cos(1/<i>t</i>) with your expression. I really recommend you to use HeldExpression in LLM-generated outputs instead of just Expression, so that you can control the result before letting it evaluate. And this is just Mathematica evaluating this. OK, last information. Sometimes single-shot steps, like example function and LLMFunction, are not enough, and you might get more interesting results by pushing the LLM to kind of explain step-by-step the detail of what looks like a reasoning. LLMs are probably not reasoning, they don't have feelings, but they're very good at mimicking those. And when you're very good at mimicking reasoning, you can get, if you're lucky or if you're very well-conditioned statistically, you get it right. And so, for solving math problems involving a little bit of reasoning of calculation, these are two examples that you can run when, you know, I was providing example of just the results of like low-grade problems and a new question with implying addition and subtraction of numbers, and you got two completely random results— well, not completely random, but very confused ones— and prompting, which is wrong. And prompting the system differently by actually providing the full reasoning as an example, instead of providing a random number to the system, just explain the step-by-step reasoning and get the right answer. So, prompts and how you write them are very important in order to get some efficient outputs from an LLM. This kind of chain-of-thought prompting is effective only on very large language models, sadly. You need to scale it to get results. And exists under as many variants as there are people, because you can always find, like, a different way to express those— how to change things, how to combine them and so on. But forcing the system in your prompt to kind of expand the step-by-step, the generation of the solution, is often very effective. And one step further in multistep generation is when you kind of want to guide the LLM to generate the right output in several steps. And the best construct for that is ChatObject, where you have a real conversation, yet everything is programmatically accessible— you know, you don't need to click or copy/paste. And so you can start a conversation, here using ChatEvaluate on your conversation, adding one message. And very similar to the Chatbook interface that you've seen, you will get a ChatObject which you can extract— "s"— content from, and so have kind of a conversation and help the system figure out what you want in a more interactive way, or just branch out depending on the system answer to have different cases in the program. And last but not least, tools. Like, as soon as you have multistep and start this conversation, you can think about being more in— kind of cope with hallucination by providing the system with the answer you want, either to circumvent its limitation. And something to know is that LLMs are very bad at counting, so whenever there is some counting operation to be done, you better do it locally on your side. And so, we have this LLMTool that just lets the system submit some query locally. For instance, here contains the number of letters in the word "character." It can basically submit "character" to the StringLength function here, because I provided a tool which is this chartool. And so, this is now multistep. You see there is an interaction, the progress monitor starts, disappears and then starts over, because there is some exchange. And this 10 value here was actually evaluating on my computer. So the LLM will generate a request sent back to my computer that LLMSynthesize will process and then feed back. So, if we return all the properties of the process, you will see that there was not only a text completion but some added prompts about how to write a request. And some— and here you can see that there were also some tool requests with string being set to characters and some tool response that corresponds to an exchange between the LLM and my computer. And you can use it to more sophisticated questions, like returning some TravelDistance value, in order to let the system act as an assistant and let Mathematica figure out the math. So for one question, "which city is closer to New York: Springfield or Providence," you don't expect the LLM to know the answer, but you can see in the CompletionText that it kind of submitted a tool request to my computer, "travel distance from New York to Springfield" and "from New York to Providence," and at the exact value and so it could answer. And those tools you can either write those yourself, naming them with an indication for the LLM of what they do, the functions that you want to be locally run, and the signature of the function, "from" is going to be interpreted as a city and "to" also, before being fed to the TravelDistance function. Or you can submit and get those from the Repository. So if you use LLMResourceTool["DocumentationLookup"], then your LLM has access through your computer to all the Wolfram Language Documentation and you can ask questions such as "how can I compute a Taylor expansion," which technically uses the Series function— not that easy to find out with a basic search. Right, and here are a few more information about all the extent of the tool system. You can have several inputs that are interpreted to different types. So this is an example of actually using Series to compute Taylor approximation, but lets the LLM figure out the right parameter for the functions. And if you want to evaluate to locally, like the TravelDistance one which we just had, you can use this GenerateLLMToolResponse, the tool you're interested in or a list of those, and submit a request that looks like what the LLM should return in order to get the answer. Like, you request to "CityTravelDistance," this tool, from "NewYork" to "Springfield," and this should provide you with this LLMToolResponse object which can be transformed back into a string and sent over to the LLM. Right, and this is kind of the end of our dense journey through the prompt engineering and programmatic access to the LLM in the Wolfram Language. Thank you very much.

World Religions Explained (Full Series).en-US.srt

00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:05,400 Hi. This is Matt Baker. Last year, after an eight-part video series, we released our Christian Denominations Family Tree poster, which includes every major branch of Christianity and shows how they are all related. Well, since then, I've been making similar videos for other religions and today I'm happy to announce that I've finally combined all of these charts into yet another new poster, which I've titled the World Religions Family Tree. It includes a simplified version of the Christian denominations tree but more importantly it also includes the trees I made for Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. On top of this, I've also added several things that I've not yet talked about, such as Chinese religions, folk religions, and esoteric religions. So, first of all, you can see here at the top that I've included an infographic showing the approximate number of followers in each major religion so that you can get a rough idea of how the world population breaks down. Now, regardless of which data source one uses (I've used the one from an organization called the Pew Research Center), what every source agrees on is that the four largest religions in the world are, in order: Christianity (with around 2.4 billion followers), Islam (with around 1.8 billion), Hinduism (with 1.2 billion) and Buddhism (with 500 million). So these are the undisputed “Big 4”. However, within the field of Religious Studies, it is often said that there are FIVE major world religions, not four, with the fifth one being Judaism. But I want to make it clear that the number of people who follow Judaism is actually extremely small compared to the other four (just 16 million). The only reason Judaism gets included as a major world religion is because of its age and because it is the parent religion to both Christianity and Islam. If we were simply going by size, the fifth largest religion in the world (and the only other one that stands out as being really big) would be Chinese Folk Religion - or as I've called it here - Chinese Syncretism. Syncretism means a mixture of different religious ideas and indeed Chinese Religion does stand out in that it's not really just one thing. I'd also like to point out that over here on the right, there's another infographic - this time a map showing the dominant religion in each country. Again, the Big 4 (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism) really stand out, as does Chinese Syncretism. Alright, let's now start at the very top, where I have an image labeled “Prehistoric Religions”. This image is of Göbekli Tepe - in what is today Turkey. Göbekli Tepe is the oldest human-made structure on earth and although we don't know all the details, it almost certainly served as some sort of religious site. Now, I'm not saying that all religions can be traced back to whatever was happening at Göbekli Tepe. I’m simply using it as an example of prehistoric religions in general. From there, I highlight four of the earliest religions to emerge during the historical era: Ancient Egyptian Polytheism, Ancient Mesopotamian Polytheism, Proto-Indo-European Polytheism, and Indus Valley Civilization Religion. Note that I didn't use the label “polytheism” for the last one because currently the Indus Valley script remains undeciphered and therefore we don't actually know for sure whether their religion was polytheistic or not. I chose these four because they had a direct influence on the two oldest religions still in existence today: Judaism and Hinduism. Both the religion of Ancient Egypt and the religion of Ancient Mesopotamia had an influence on Israelite Religion, because Ancient Israel happened to be located right in between these two centers of early civilization. And, of course, it is from Ancient Israelite Religion that Judaism developed. Likewise, both Indo-European religion and Indus Valley Civilization religion had an influence on Vedic Religion, due to the fact that a subset of Indo-Europeans ended up migrating into India. Now, what's interesting is that a different subset of Indo-Europeans ended up in Persia, where the religion of Zoroastrianism developed. And several other subsets ended up in Europe, where the various forms of European Paganism developed - such as Greek Paganism, which in turn gave rise to Greek Philosophy. Now, the reason why this is interesting is because both the Persians as well as the Greeks ended up ruling the Jews and therefore both Zoroastrianism and Greek Philosophy ended up influencing Judaism. Which means that the world's two oldest religions — Judaism and Hinduism — are connected, at least remotely, via the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Now, the first thing I want to do is remind you that I’m using the word denomination very loosely in these videos. The word “denomination” really only works within a Christian context so you have to understand that when I use it to talk about a non-Christian religion, like Judaism, Islam, or Hinduism, the analogy is not perfect. So basically, whenever I say “denomination,” know that I simply mean a branch or sub-group within a larger religion. Now, when it comes to Hinduism, even the word religion itself is problematic because it can definitely be argued that Hinduism is not actually a single religion but rather a cluster of religions, grouped together simply because of their connection to India. In fact, Hindus themselves don’t refer to Hinduism as a religion. They call it a dharma, which means something closer to a cosmic order, or set of divine laws. This is why Hinduism is often categorized as one of the Dharmic religion, together with Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism – all of which originated on the Indian subcontinent. Now, the one thing (and this is often the only thing) that most non-Hindus know about Hinduism is that it has a lot of gods. So another thing I want to clear up from the start is that this does not necessarily mean that all Hindus are polytheists, meaning people who worship many gods. In fact, a lot of Hindus are actually monotheists, meaning that they believe that all gods are simply various aspects of one god. Others are something closer to henotheists, meaning that they have one god that they worship as the Supreme God but they also acknowledge the existence of lesser gods. To make things even more complicated, many Hindus are more accurately pantheists, meaning that they believe that God and the entire universe are actually one and the same. And then, finally, there are also some Hindus who are actually atheists, meaning that they don’t really believe in gods at all and instead approach Hinduism from a strictly philosophical perspective. However, with that said, I do want to introduce you to some of the main gods within Hinduism because this will help you later when I discuss Hindu denominations. It is often said that modern Hinduism has three main gods. These are Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva – often labelled as the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer (although not all Hindus view them this way). Sometimes, these three gods are even referred to as the “Hindu Trinity” although the more appropriate word is the Trimurti. Brahma should not be confused with Brahman. Brahman (with the “N” on the end) refers to the concept of an ultimate reality, which is equated with the totality of the universe. In contrast, Brahma is a distinct god – in fact a male god, who is credited with having created the physical world and with being the father of many other gods. Strangely though, Brahma is not a god who is regularly worshipped in India today and in fact, there are very few temples that are dedicated to him specifically. The easiest way to recognize him is that he is usually depicted as having four heads. Vishnu and Shiva are much more popular. Vishnu is usually depicted with multiple arms, a blue complexion, and one hand holding a shell. You’ll also usually see him sitting on a giant, multi-headed snake. And note that I said HIM. Vishnu, like all three of these main gods, is male. He’s also well known for having been incarnated many times on earth – his two most popular incarnations being Krishna and Rama. Shiva can be distinguished from Vishnu because he has a more wild appearance – matted hair and clothes made from animal skin. Also, he’s almost always carrying a trident. Now, each of the three main Hindu gods also has a female consort, or wife. Saraswati pairs with Brahma, Lakshmi pairs with Vishnu, and Parvati pairs with Shiva. If you see a goddess sitting on a white lotus flower, playing a stringed instrument near a peacock, that’s Saraswati and if you see a goddess sitting on a red lotus near elephants with coins somehow being pouring out, that’s Lakshmi. Otherwise, it’s probably Pavarti or one of Pavarti’s many alternative forms such as Durga or Kali. Another popular god in Hinduism is Ganesh. He’s easily recognizable because he’s the one with the elephant head. He fits on the family tree as the son of Shiva and Pavarti. Finally, let me introduce the Hindu gods for the sun and the moon: Surya and Chandra. Now you know why the Indian space missions to the moon are called Chandrayaan (yaan meaning vehicle). There are, of course, many more Hindu gods beyond these ones but I’m going to stop there for now. Next, I want to introduce you to the main Hindu scriptures, or holy writings. Unlike Christians, who have the Bible, and Muslims, who have the Quran, there is no single book within Hinduism that is directly comparable to these two. Just like Hinduism has many gods, it also has many scriptures. These are divided into two categories: Shruti, meaning that which is heard, and Smriti, meaning that which is remembered. Shruti is considered more authoritative and it consists of the four vedas: the Rigveda (which is the oldest), followed by the Yajurveda and Samaveda, and finally the Atharveda (which is the most recent). In turn, each veda also has four parts, or layers. The oldest layers are the Samhitas, which are kind of like hymns or prayers. Next, there are the Aranyakas, which are instructions about rituals and ceremonies and the Brahmanas, which are commentaries on those instructions. Finally, there are the Upanishads – which, keep mind, were added last. These are more philosophical and represent Hinduism’s transition from a mere system of ancient rituals to what we today consider to be a fully fledged religion. Smriti consists of an even larger collection of writings. I’m going to mention just three. First, there are the Mahabharata and Ramayana – two epic poems that are sort of like the Iliad but much, much longer. One small section of the Mahabharata is known as the Bhagavad Gita (which is often the only set of Hindu scriptures that most Westerners are familiar with). Previously, I did a whole video on the Mahabharata and the family tree of its characters, so if you want to learn more about that, I’ll leave a link to it in the description. Finally, included as Smriti are the Puranas, a large collection of stories and encyclopedic information that cover everything from the genealogy of the gods to the history of royal dynasties. Okay, so now that you have some background on the Hindu gods and Hindu scriptures, let me now talk about how the religion we now call Hinduism developed. Like I did in the Christian series, I’m going to offer you two scenarios: the one that is told by those who take the Hindu scriptures literally and the one that is told by secular academics. According to the traditional Hindu view, the people living in India today are the direct descendants of the people who were living there 10,000 years ago and throughout that entire time, the Hindu religion has pretty much been the same. In fact, one view within Hinduism is that history is cyclical and made up of 4 ages (with each one being worse than one before). Once the four ages are completed, the whole process repeats itself. Currently, we are in the fourth age, which started around 3100 BCE, around the time of the Mahabharata War. According to the traditional Hindu view, the most important scriptures – the Vedas – are authorless and were revealed to certain sages before this, through intense meditation. However, near the end of the third age, a sage named Vyasa compiled them in the form that we have them in today, in addition to writing the Mahabharata and the Puranas. Now, as you might have guessed, the secular view of how Hinduism developed is quite different. According to the academic consensus, what we call Hinduism today evolved slowly over time and has its roots in at least three different places. One of these is the Indus Valley Civilization – which is one of the three oldest civilizations on Earth (the other two being Egypt and Sumer). However, unlike with Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Sumerian cuneiform, we cannot read the writing left behind by the Indus Valley Civilization and hence we cannot know for sure what their religion was and how it might be connected to Hinduism. There are some tantalizing hints though, such as this Indus Valley seal, which shows a figure who shares certain attributes in common with the Hindu god Shiva. Then there are local folk religions that likely developed throughout the Indian subcontinent – each with their own local god. To this day, there are rural villages in India that still follow a kind of folk Hinduism that combines certain Hindu practices with the worship of a local god who actually predates Hinduism. Finally, there’s Proto-Indo-European religion – the same religion that gave birth to the pantheon of gods worshipped by the Greeks, Romans, and Germanic tribes. For example, the main gods worshipped by the Proto-Indo-Europeans include a sky father named Dyeus, a young goddess of the dawn named Hausos, and a set of twins associated with horses. In Greece, Dyeus became known as Zeus and in many European languages today, the word for God is still something like Dieu or Dios. There’s also a Greek goddess of the dawn named Eos and a pair of twins in Anglo-Saxon legend named Hengist and Horsa. What about in India though? Well, what do you know: In the Rig Veda (which remember, is the oldest set of scriptures in Hinduism) it too mentions a sky father deity named Dyaus. And it also has a goddess of the dawn called Ushas and a set of twins called the Ashvins (Asvin being the Sanskrit word for horsemen). But don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that I agree with the now debunked “Aryan Invasion Theory”. That theory, which clearly had racist overtones, claimed that lighter skinned Indo-Europeans called “Aryans” conquered the earlier darker-skinned inhabitants of India in some sort of dramatic fashion, causing the sudden demise of the Indus Valley Civilization. Instead, the academic consensus today is that there was a very slow MIGRATION of Indo-Europeans into India, between the years 2000 and 1500 BCE and that these people likely intermixed with the local populations, resulting in the creation of the Vedic civilization. This new hypothesis is backed up by both linguistic evidence and DNA evidence. Now, as you probably guessed, the Vedic civilization is so named because it produced the Hindu scriptures called the Vedas. But keep in mind that the Vedic religion was not the same thing as modern Hinduism. For example, the main gods talked about in the Vedas are not Vishnu and Shiva. Rather, they are Indra, Varuna, and Agni. So, although it’s often said that Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion, dating back 4000+ years, this is not exactly true. The ROOTS of Hinduism and some of its customs do go back that far but Hinduism as we know it today does not. The same is true for Judaism. Judaism has its roots in Ancient Israelite religion, which originated around 3000 years ago. However, Judaism as we know it today is not identical to the religion practised by the Ancient Israelites. It developed mostly between the years 600 BCE and 200 CE. So my point is: dating religions is not as simple as you might think. Because religions change over time. And this is certainly true of Hinduism. The Vedic religion eventually evolved into Brahminism, by which point the priestly caste known as Brahmins was firmly established. But Brahminism was by no means the only religion in India at this point. It was mainly practised in the Kingdom of Kuru. Further east, the Shramana movement was taking hold (Shramana meaning “seeker”). Shramanas rejected the authority of the Vedas as well as the Brahmins and instead promoted rigid self-discipline and the rejection of worldly pleasures. It was out of the Shramana movement that the religions of Buddhism and Jainism developed. However, it also had a big impact on the development of Hinduism, leading to what’s been called the “Hindu synthesis” - which occurred over the period from around 500 BCE and 500 CE, which is when many religious ideas and customs came together to form what we know as Hinduism today. It was during this period that the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Puranas were written and it was after this period that Indian religious views could now be divided into clear categories, called “Astika” and “Nastika”. Astika schools of thought are considered orthodox by Hindus because they all accept the authority of the Vedas. The six “Astika” or “Schools of Hinduism” are Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta. However, keep in mind that these are not denominations. They are more like philosophies that people within different Hindu denominations can follow. In contrast to the Astika schools, the Nastika schools reject the Vedas and are therefore considered heterodox by Hindus. These include the religions of Buddhism and Jainism but also several lesser known schools of thought. Now, if you’re a Westerner, out of the six astika, there’s probably only one that you recognize: Yoga. Well, the first thing you need to know about Yoga is that it is not simply a series of exercises, which is what most Westerners think Yoga is. Yoga is actually a complete system of philosophy and in fact, it’s one of the more popular systems of Hindu philosophy. As you probably know, most Hindus believe in reincarnation and that we are stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. The goal of Hinduism is therefore to achieve moksha, which is the release from the cycle. Well, Yoga posits that there are actually four different religious paths that a person can follow to achieve moksha. The first is Karma Yoga, which basically involves working hard, doing good, and serving others. Then, there’s Bhakti Yoga, which involves showing love and devotion towards a particular god. Finally, there’s Jnana Yoga, which involves pursuing knowledge and Raja Yoga, which involves meditation. But again – these four paths do not represent four different denominations. Hindus from various denominations may follow one or more of these paths. If there’s anything akin to denominations within Hinduism, we could place them under Bhakti Yoga because the most common way that Hindus can be divided into various subgroups is by which god or god(s) they are particularly devoted to. This is why it often said that Hinduism has four main denominations: Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. Let’s look at Vaishnavism first, because its the largest denomination, representing around 70% of all Hindus. Vaishnavists worship the god Vishnu as the Supreme Deity. This includes his various incarnated forms (called avatars) – which is when he was born on earth as a human or animal. His two most popular avatars are Rama and Krishna. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Vishnu was not actually one of the main Vedic gods (although he is mentioned a few times in the Rigveda). However over time, he took on the attributes and legends of other gods and became more and more important. For example, one group of ancient Indians worshipped a god named Vasudeva. This god was eventually merged with another god named Krishna, who was worshipped by a different group of people. But then, still later, Vasudeva-Krishna merged with Vishnu and was understood to be just one of Vishnu’s ten main incarnations. Now, lest you think that this is strange, let me point out that two or more gods merging into one is actually a pretty common thing throughout the history of religion. For instance, in Canaan, there was originally a god named El who was separate from the god represented by the letters YHWH. But then, eventually, over time, these two gods merged and were seen as being one and the same. Which explains why, to this day, the Bible sometimes calls God El or Elohim and then other times calls him YHWH. The second largest Hindu denomination is Shaivism, found mostly in South India and followed by around 25% of all Hindus. Shaivists worship the god Shiva as the Supreme Deity. Unlike Vishnu, Shiva is not mentioned in the Rig Veda at all. However, the Rig Veda does mention a god named Rudra who is very similar to Shiva and is thus strongly associated with him. Another thing that makes Shaivism different from Vaishnavism is that Shiva is often worshipped in a non-human form – being displayed in many temples as a simple stone called a lingam. Many people assume that the lingam is supposed to represent a male phallus but this is actually not true. It’s simply meant to communicate the idea that Shiva has no real form. The remaining 5% of Hindus follow either Shaktism or Smartism. Shaktism is closely related to Shaivism but whereas Shaivists worship the Supreme Deity in the form of the male god Shiva, Shaktists worship the Supreme Deity in the form of the female goddess Shakti, which is another name for Parvati, Shiva’s wife. Like I mentioned earlier, this Supreme Goddess takes many forms: Sometimes she’s the sweet and loving Parvati but other times she’s the warrior goddess Durga or even the scary-looking Kali. Finally there is the Hindu denomination known as Smartism, in which five gods are worshipped equally: Ganesh, Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu, and Surya. Note that the word Smartism is based on the word Smriti, which we came across earlier and which refers to the body of Hindu scriptures that came after the Vedas. Now, as a whole, Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, with around 1.1 billion followers. However, unlike the other two big religions, Christianity and Islam, Hinduism is mostly limited to just one area of the world: South Asia. And, whenever you do find Hinduism being practised outside of South Asia, it’s almost always among people of South Asian descent. The one exception to this is the many neo-Hindu movements that have sprung up in Western countries since the middle of the 20th century. Most of these were founded by individual gurus, or teachers – many of whom were or are quite controversial. It would take a whole other video to go through all of them so let me just point out two. The first is Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, better known as the Hare Krishnas because they are known for chanting that phrase over and over as well as “Hare Rama”. The word “Hare” is another name for Vishnu and, as we learned earlier, both Krishna and Rama are avatars of Vishnu. So it won’t surprise you when I tell you that the Hare Krishnas follow a type of Vaishnavism. However, their type of Vaishnavism traces its roots back to Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which started around the year 1500 and which focuses on Krishna as the Supreme Deity. Swami Prabhupada was himself a controversial figure, known for making racist, anti-Semitic, sexist and classist comments. And the controversies continued after his death with ISKCON leaders eventually admitting that physical and sexual abuse was taking place within their organization. They have since taken steps to rebuild their reputation and hopefully better protect children. The other guru I want to mention is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who many people know of simply because of his association with the Beatles. More importantly though, he’s the founder of the Transcendental Meditation Movement. Although marketed as a non-religious method, it has its roots in meditation techniques that have been practised within Hinduism for centuries. So let’s start with the Vedic Religion, which I introduced in my Hinduism video. It developed in India around 1500 BCE, after a group of Indo-Europeans slowly migrated into the area – probably intermingling with the descendants of the once mighty Indus Valley Civilization as well as with other native Indians living along the Ganges River. The Vedic Religion likely borrowed elements from all three of these groups, which is an important point to remember. We call this early form of Hinduism “Vedic” because it was during this period that the oldest and most sacred Hindu scriptures – called the Vedas – were composed. However, by around 500 BCE, the Vedic Religion had evolved into Brahminism, in which a certain class of people – known as Brahmins – controlled the priesthood as well as many other aspects of society. Below them were the Kshatriya (consisting of secular rulers and warriors), the Vaishya (the farmers and merchants), and finally, the Shudra (laborers and servants). However, not everyone was happy with the authority of the Brahmins and with the teachings in the Vedas. This gave rise to the Shramana movement, which was particularly popular along the Eastern Gangetic Plain. In order to explain, let’s take a look at a map of India around 500 BCE. By this point, most of the North was divided into sixteen independent states, which were known as “Mahajanapadas”, meaning “great realms”. Brahminism was strongest in the Kingdom of Kuru, which had previously been much larger and was the setting for the great Hindu epic The Mahabharat. But to the east, there were other states like Kosala, Vriji, and Magadha, where support for the Brahmins was weaker. It was here that the Shramana movement took hold. Basically, a “Shramana” was a person who dropped out of everyday society in order to instead live a very simple life focused on spiritual development. This resulted in the development of several new schools of philosophy but it also ended up influencing Brahminism as well - leading to what’s been called the “Hindu Synthesis” - which is when what we know today as Hinduism really took shape. So, from this point forward, from the Hindu perspective, Indian schools of philosophy were now divided into two categories: “Astika” and “Nastika”. Astika schools accept the authority of the Vedas (and are hence considered to be a part of Hinduism), whereas the Nastika schools reject the Vedas are thus considered to be separate religions. The two Nastika schools that most people are familiar with today are Jainism and Buddhism but in earlier times, there were other schools of thought that were just as popular. These include the atheist Charvaka school, the agnostic Ajñana school, and the fatalistic Ajivika school. Okay, with that background, let’s now focus exclusively on Buddhism. Unlike Hinduism, which has no founder, Buddhism does. It was founded by the person who most people know simply as The Buddha. But this was not his actual name. At birth, he was called Siddhartha Gautama and he was a prince living within the Kingdom of Kosala. More specifically though, he belonged to a region and ethnic group within Kosala known as the Shakyas, whose territory actually fell within what we today call Nepal. This is why, in the earliest records, the Buddha is called Shakyamuni, meaning the Sage of the Shakyas. I won’t go through his full story but here are the highlights. At the age of 29, Siddhartha left his family and life of luxury to become a Shramana. At first, he practised asceticism - denying himself all but the smallest amount of food needed to survive. But then, at the age of 35, while sitting under a tree, he is said to have achieved enlightenment. It’s at this point that he became “the Buddha” which is a title meaning “the Enlightened One”. After this, he preached about the “Middle Way”, which promotes living in-between the extremes of overindulgence on one side and self denial on the other. He also laid the foundations for Buddhist thought, called Dharma, which can be summed up by the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. During the Buddha’s lifetime, he not only taught The Dharma, he also built up a community of followers known as The Sangha. You may have heard Buddhists refer to the Triple Gem, or three jewels. This is a reference to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. According to tradition, the Buddha died at age 80, around the year 480 BCE. At this point, the First Buddhist Council was held, with 500 of his followers attending. The purpose was to make sure that all of the teachings of the Buddha and the rules for the community were remembered. One of his 10 core disciples, named Ananda, recited all of the teachings (which are known as sutras) and another disciple (named Upali) recited the community rules (which are known as vinaya). According to tradition, a Second Buddhist Council was held approximately 100 years after the Buddha’s death. This time, there were disagreements over the community rules and this led to the first Buddhist schism. The majority group became known as the Mahasangika, meaning “the Great Sangha” and the minority group became known as the Sthaviravada, meaning “School of the Elders” because it consisted mostly of the more senior monks. Take note that all of the modern branches of Buddhism descend from the Sthaviravada, although there is some debate over whether or not the Maha-sangika had an influence on the development of Mahayana, a term that I will explain in a bit. But back to Early Buddhism. Eventually more and more divisions occurred, to the point where, in ancient times, it is thought that there were at least 18 separate schools. Around the time of Ashoka (the great Indian emperor who united most of India for the very first time) the three main ones were the Vibhajyavada, Sarvastivada, and Pudgalavada. Ashoka is an extremely important figure in the history of early Buddhism because he himself converted to the new religion and promoted missionary efforts to spread Buddhism to other lands. The most important of these missions was led by his first-born son, Mahinda, who became a monk and brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka. (Now, I should point out that one does not need to become a monk to follow Buddhism, although some still do - as it is generally seen as being a faster way to reach enlightenment.) In Sri Lanka, the school founded by Mahinda became known as the Tamrashatiya School and it was a branch of the Vibhajyavada School. It was in Sri Lanka that the Pali Canon was produced - which today is the oldest surviving complete set of Buddhist scriptures (Take note that Pali is a language closely related to, but not quite the same as, Sanskrit). Let’s now take a moment to look at the contents of the Pali Canon. A full set of Buddhist scriptures is called a Tipitaka, which means three baskets. That’s because it’s comprised of three main parts: the Vinaya pitaka (which contains the community rules), the Sutta pitaka (which contains the Buddha’s teachings), and the Abhidhamma, which contains analysis on those teachings. The Vinaya pitaka contains rules for both male monks, who are called Bhikkhus as well as for female monks (or nuns), who are called Bhikkhunis. It also contains a few sections covering early Buddhist history. In the Pali Canon, the Sutta Pitaka is divided into five parts, called nikayas (meaning volumes). These can then be broken down further into smaller books. Of these smaller books, the one that I’d like to highlight is the Dhammapada, which is located in the fifth nikaya. It’s the most well known of all the Buddhist scriptures and is a good starting point for those who want to dip their feet in the water. Finally, I’d like to point out that the Pali Canon version of the Abhidhamma has seven parts. Okay, let’s now go back to the family tree chart. From Sri Lanka, Buddhism eventually spread to Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. The type of Buddhism found in all of these countries is therefore very similar. Nowadays, it is called Theravada Buddhism. Take note that the word “Theravada” is actually just the Pali version of the Sanskrit word Sthaviravada, which as you might remember, means “School of the Elders”. Theravada Buddhism therefore sees itself as the original Buddhism. Generally speaking, it is more strict and more earthly-focused than the other forms of Buddhism. Although you can see here that there are three main types of Buddhism in the world today, considering that Tibetan Buddhism is - relatively-speaking - quite small, is often said that there are really just two main types of Buddhism: Theravada and Mahayana. I’m therefore going to focus on Mahayana next. The exact origins of Mahayana are unclear. It wasn’t really a separate school but rather a movement that took place within many schools. One theory is that it developed out of the now extinct Mahasangika school but another is that it might have originated among laypeople - meaning non-monks. Whatever the origin, the common factor among Mahayana Buddhists is that they have an additional set of scriptures known as the Mahayana sutras. According to Mahayana Buddhism, these special sutras were initially hidden away after the Buddha’s death, only to be revealed later, when the time was right. One of the early schools to accept the Mahayana Sutras was the Dharmaguptaka school, which was originally centered in Gandhara, in what is today Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is why there were - until very recently - some very old Buddha statues in this region. Unfortunately these were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. There is some debate over whether the Dharmaguptaka school came out of the Vibhajyavada school, or whether it came out of the Sarvastivada school. I’ve therefore showed it coming from both. From the Gandhara region, the Dharmaguptaka school eventually spread to China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. There were other schools that spread to these areas as well but they all went extinct and therefore today, all East Asian Mahayana monks follow the Dharmaguptaka community rules. Strangely, although Buddhism originated in India and was once a dominant force there, today the vast majority of Buddhists now live OUTSIDE of India. In fact, it is now China that has the most amount of Buddhists in the world. I therefore want to talk a bit about the Chinese Canon, which is the main alternative to the Pali Canon. Like the Pali Canon, it too contains a tripitaka - however, take note that the sections covering the teachings of the Buddha are called agamas instead of nikayas. The Chinese Canon has only four agamas, which roughly correspond to the first four nikayas from the Pali Canon. The Vinaya and Abhudharma sections, however, are totally different. Whereas the Pali Canon includes the Theravada community rules, the Chinese Canon includes the Dharma-guptaka rules, as well as rules from several now-extinct schools. However, the main difference between the Pali Canon and the Chinese Canon is that the Chinese Canon includes several additional sections, most notably the Mahayana Sutras, which I mentioned earlier. There are many of these but the most important are the Lotus Sutra, the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, the Flower Garland Sutra, and the Nirvana Sutra. But that’s not all. The Chinese Canon also includes a section called the Jataka, which describes Buddha’s birth story and a section about tantras, which are esoteric or more “secret” practices, meant only for those with specialized knowledge. Now, as you might have guessed, the Chinese Canon is mostly written in Chinese, Classical Chinese to be exact (although the Japanese version does include some parts in Japanese). This is why the Pali Canon is generally understood to be the older of the two canons. After all, Pali is an ancient Indian language and India is where Buddhism originated. However, this paints a bit of wrong picture. It is actually more accurate to say that the Pali Canon is the oldest COMPLETE version of the Buddhist scriptures. This is because there are in fact parts of the Chinese canon for which we do have the corresponding, much older Sanskrit versions. It’s just that we don’t have the COMPLETE Chinese canon available in Sanskrit. Okay, now before I move on, I want to briefly describe the main difference between Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism in terms of beliefs. In both cases, the ultimate goal is to achieve enlightenment, which then frees a person from the continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth (which, btw, is also the goal in Hinduism). Theravada Buddhists teach that there are three paths to enlightenment. The first and - by far - the most common path is the student path, in which a person learns from the teachings of a Buddha and eventually becomes an arhat (mostly by means of strict discipline). Once a person becomes an arhat, they will no longer be reborn. The second path is that of the Solitary Buddha, in which a person achieves enlightenment on their own but is unable to teach others how to do it. Finally, there is the Full Buddha Path, in which a person achieves enlightenment on their own AND is also able to teach others how to reach it. This obviously was the path taken by Siddhartha Gautama, which is why he is called THE Buddha. Now, what a lot of non-Buddhists don’t know is that THE Buddha was not the only person to achieve full Buddhahood. The Pali Canon mentions 27 Buddhas by name - Buddhas who lived before THE Buddha, the three most recent being Kakusandha, Konagamana, and Kassapa. It also talks about a future Buddha, named Maitreya. Which brings me to the word Bodhisattva, which is a term that is used to refer to someone on the path towards becoming a full Buddha. In Theravada Buddhism, Bodhisattvas are thought to be rare, with Maitreya being the only current one. Like I say, in Theravada Buddhism, most people take the Arhat path. And this is where Mahayana Buddhism is very different. In Mahayana Buddhism, the first two paths are viewed as being very much inferior. This is why Mahayana Buddhists refer to Theravada as “Hinayana” which means “the lesser path”. In contrast, the word Mahayana means “the greater path”. Mahayana teaches that the Full Buddha path (also known as the Bodhisattva path) is open to everyone. It sees Bodhisattvas as being compassionate individuals who put off enlightenment for the sake of helping others. Therefore, in Mahayana Buddhism, there are LOTS of Bodhisattvas, many of whom are understood to be residing in higher realms. So, Mahayana Buddhists often pray to Bodhisattvas and ask them for help. One example of a Bodhisattva is this guy, often called the “Laughing Buddha” or “Fat Buddha”. His real name is actually Budai and he was a monk who lived around 1000 years ago. But here’s the important thing. Budai and the Buddha are not the same person. THE Buddha is Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, who became a Buddha [lived] over 2000 years ago. In contrast, Budai, is a Bodhisattva, on his way to becoming a Buddha. Some think that he is Maitreya, that future Buddha that I mentioned earlier. All of this brings up the question: Are their gods in Buddhism? Well, it kind of depends on your definition of a god. Although Buddhism is often said to be an atheistic religion, in Mahayana Buddhism at least, a Bodhisattva certainly seem to be something a little bit similar to a god. Maybe not the omnipotent sort of God that Abrahamic religions talk about but some sort of spiritual being for sure. In Theravada Buddhism, this is less true. For example, you might see a Theravada Buddhist standing in front of a statue of the Buddha, with their hands together. But in this case, they are not actually worshipping Buddha as a god. Instead, they are simply showing respect or using the Buddha’s form as an aid to meditation. Okay, let’s now go back to the family tree chart. There are three particular sub-branches of East Asian Mahayana that I’d like to point out. There are actually many more than these but these three tend to be the most popular. The first is Chan Buddhism, known as Zen Buddhism in Japan. It is particularly popular in the West and mostly focuses on meditation. Then there’s Pure Land Buddhism, where the focus is trying to get reborn in a special “purified land” where it’s then easier to achieve enlightenment. The most popular “pure land” in Pure Land Buddhism is the one formed by a Buddha named Amitabha. Finally, there’s Tiantai (known as Tendai in Japan and Cheontae in Korea). It focuses on the Lotus Sutra that I mentioned earlier which teaches that all paths eventually lead to the one Bodhisattva path. Okay, I now want to turn our attention to Tibetan Buddhism. Back in the early days of Mahayana, there was another movement that split off, known as Vajrayana. But, like Mahayana, this was not a separate school of Buddhism but rather a movement that impacted several schools. One school that took on many Vajrayana ideas was the Mula-sarvasti-vada School, which was probably a branch of the similarly named Sarvasti-vada School. It eventually spread north to Tibet and Bhutan, which is where it is mostly found today. Tibetan Buddhism differs from other forms of Buddhism in that it incorporates far more esoteric practices such as chanting, reciting incantations, and making geometric patterns called mandalas to help induce trances. The most famous Tibetan Buddhist is of course the Dalai Lama, who is seen as being a sort of figurehead for the Tibetan people. He is actually the leader of just one sect of Tibetan Buddhism, of which there are currently four. However, his sect, known as the Gelug or “Yellow Hat” school is the largest one. He is referred to as the 14th Dalai Lama because the belief is that he is the reincarnation of a man named Gedun Drupa, who died in 1474 but continues to be reborn on earth. In turn, all of the Dalai Lamas are said to be incarnations of a Boddhisatva called Avalokitesvara. Now, before I go, I want to briefly mention Jainism, which is the other religion that can be traced back to the Shramana movement. It was founded by a man named Mahavira, who as you can see here, is often depicted as looking quite similar to the Buddha. In fact, the two teachers lived around the same time, with Mahavira being the older of the two. Whereas the Buddha was born in Kosala, Mahavira was born in Vriji. One of the key features of the Jain religion is non-violence and therefore most Jains are vegetarians. Today, Jainism is much smaller than Buddhism and really there are only two main branches. The larger one is called Svetambara, which means “white clad” because its monks wear white robes. Note the face mask also. Jains have been wearing face masks long before the current pandemic. This helps prevent sacred items from being contaminated. The other branch of Jainism is called Digambara, meaning “sky clad”. This is because the male monks in this sect wear no clothes at all - a testament to the fact that they want as few earthly possessions as possible. Okay, now what I really want to show you is how I've integrated the various religions in China. Like I said earlier, religion in China is complicated because people there often mix and match from more than one religious tradition. However, there are three traditions that are the most important and these are often referred to as the “three teachings”. They are: Mahayana Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. I've already talked about Mahayana Buddhism in the Buddhism video so let me tell you about the other two. To do so, let me start with the earliest form of religion to develop in China: polytheism. The symbol you see here is from China’s oldest writing system, called the oracle bone script, which was used during the Shang dynasty. It is pronounced Shang-di and basically means “highest god”. Later, this god would become associated with a figure known as the Jade Emperor, although in other contexts, he is said to manifest himself as five deities, each associated with a color, element, direction, and planet. But Shang-di was not and is not the only Chinese god. There are dozens more, such as the dragon god who controls the rain and [Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, who is associated with death and has the ability to bestow immortality. However, one unique aspect of Chinese Polytheism, which developed early on, is that the worship (or veneration) of deceased ancestors became just as important — if not more important — than the worship of deities. Another group of spiritual beings, called immortals, became important as well. Immortals are former humans who are not quite gods but who live on after death and can posses great powers. Thus, as time went on, self-cultivation in this life became more and more important in Chinese Religion. Then, during the 500s BCE, there was an explosion of new ideas in China, which resulted in what's called the “Hundred Schools of Thought”. Most of these schools eventually went extinct but there are two that have survived all the way to today. These are, as I'm sure you’ve guessed, Taoism and Confucianism. Taoism is the more mystical and spiritual of the two. It incorporates all of the gods and immortals from Chinese Polytheism but also places a strong emphasis on living in harmony with something called Tao - a word that's kind of hard to define quickly in English. On a basic level, it simply means “way” or “path” but on a deeper level, it refers to the universe’s ultimate reality. It is usually associated with the complimentary forces yin and yang, which you probably know about because of this symbol. Confucianism, on the other hand, is more focused on the physical world and on practical matters such as good government as well as social harmony, whether it's at the family level or the national level. This is why Confucianism is often said to be more of a philosophy than a religion. It's named after its founder Confucius, who lived around the same time as the Buddha. Note that Confucius is the anglicized version of Kong Fuzi, which simply means “Master Kong”. The traditional founder of Taoism, Laozi, is said to have lived around the same time as Confucius and as his elder, is thought to have had some influence on him. However, nowadays, Laozi is generally considered to have been more of a legendary figure, whereas Confucius was almost certainly historical. So, like I say, a lot of people in China follow traditions and principles associated with both Taoism and Confucianism, as well as Buddhism. So it's not uncommon to see depictions of the Buddha or various Bodhisattvas next to those of traditional Chinese gods or immortals. And on top of all of this, the veneration of ancestors in China remains important to this day as well. Now before I move on, I want to point out some more modern trends within Chinese Religion. The first is Chinese salvationist religions, which became popular in the early 20th century but which nowadays are mostly followed in Taiwan. A good example is Yiguandao, which has roots that go back to imperial times but didn't really take off until after 1912, which is when China became a republic. At this point it was being led by a man called Zhang Tianran, who managed to grow the movement to around 12 million members. However, once the revolution started and China became communist, it was mostly stamped out, only to gain traction again in Taiwan during the 80s. Like most Chinese salvationist movements, Yiguandao is kind of a simplified version of Chinese Syncretism but packaged in a way that is more similar to, say, Mormonism. In other words, there's usually a revered leader who received a revelation from God and there's a lot of emphasis on the need for individual salvation and for converting others to the movement. Another good example of a Chinese Salvationist Religion is the more recent Weixinism, founded by Hun Yuan. And then there's Falun Gong, which was founded around the same time by Li Hongzhi. It's actually NOT classified as a Chinese Salvationist Religion but does share some similarities with them, although it's more focused on doing special exercises called Qigong. It has become particularly popular within the Chinese expat community in the West where it's known for being super conservative and for protesting against China. Okay, let me now explain some important differences between Judaism and Christianity. One of the things that drives Jews crazy is that Christians tend to assume that they already know LOTS about Judaism, because they’ve read the Old Testament. I’ve even had many Christians tell me that I’m not a real Jew because I don’t match their expectation of what a real Jew is. You see, most Christians (as well as most former Christians) have only ever viewed the Old Testament through a Christian lens and therefore they assume that Judaism basically uses the same framework that Christianity does but that it simply does so without Jesus. Which is not actually how Judaism works. So I’m going to start by explaining some basic differences between these two religions that you might not be aware of. The first thing you need to know is that Christianity is much more concerned with the question: When choosing whether or not to join a church, most Christians (especially Protestants), will first of all ask: What does that church believe? Which is why almost every church website always includes a section called Statement of Faith. It’s also why the ancient church developed CREEDS, such as the Nicene Creed, in order to make a list of what a Christian needs to BELIEVE in order to be considered a Christian. And, of course, the most important thing that a Christian needs to believe is that Jesus is God and that he died for our sins. For example, the famous scripture John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever BELIEVES in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” So, obviously BELIEF is a key part of what it means to be a Christian. But this is not precisely true for Judaism, nor is it precisely true for MOST other religions. Most religions are more concerned with What should a person DO? So, for example, for many modern-day Jews, it’s far less important that you believe that Moses was a historical person than it is that you follow the Jewish traditions that are said to go back to him. So, for example, when I converted to Judaism (which, in my case, was a year-long process) at no point was I asked to agree to certain list of beliefs. Instead, I was taught mostly about Jewish PRACTICES and traditions. As well as a lot about the history and language of the Jewish people. The other thing that Christianity is very much concerned with is SALVATION. The whole thing hinges on the question, “What must a person do (or believe) in order to be SAVED.” So, the assumption that most Christians make about Juday- ism is that Jews are ALSO concerned with salvation and that Jews simply have a different way of obtaining it. The further assumption, based mostly on the writings of Paul, is that Jews try to obtain salvation by obeying Jewish Law. But that’s simply not true because there is no such thing as Original Sin in Juday- ism, nor is there much of a focus on the exact details surrounding the afterlife. To put it simply: Jews do not follow Jewish Law in order to saved from some future punishment or in order to gain some future reward. For some Jews, they follow the Law simply because God told them to. For others, it’s because we believe that many of those laws (which we call mitzvot) serve a purpose in the here and now. The best way that I can explain this is by giving the following analogy: In our modern society, we have many traffic laws that are designed to keep everyone safe. If you break one of those laws – say, by going too fast in your car – you might get a ticket as a punishment. But do you obey the traffic rules simply because you don’t want a ticket? Perhaps, but I hope that you also obey them because, for example, you don’t want to hit some kid while passing through a school zone. Likewise, one of the Jewish mitzvot is to rest on Shabbat (or Saturday). We do this, not because we’re scared that God will punish us if we don’t but because we see a benefit in taking some time off at least once per week. Now, as you probably know, different Jews take a different approach to how carefully they follow this mitzvah – and I’ll get to that in a moment – but for now, please understand that for all Jews, no matter what branch they belong to, what they do or don’t do is NOT based on trying to earn a future reward. This is summed up by the following principle given by the early Pharisee Antigonus of Sokho: “Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of reward. Rather, be like servants who do not serve their master for the sake of reward, and let the awe of Heaven be upon you.” Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Christians are not at all concerned with what they do. Of course they are. But, in Christianity, belief always comes first, followed by a changed life. And I’m also not saying that there are absolutely no beliefs in Judaism. For some Jews, their only creed is the Shema Prayer: “Hear O Israel. The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” For others, especially the Orthodox, there are the Thirteen Principles of Faith by Maimonides. My point is that, generally speaking, Christians put a stronger emphasis on believing and Jews put a stronger emphasis on doing. So, with that under our belts, let’s now look at the family tree. As I mentioned in Episode 1 of the Christian denominations series, Judaism has its roots in Ancient Israelite religion, which was practised by the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Israel and Judah were relatively small kingdoms, but they happened to be located right in-between two of the most important centers of civilization in the ancient world – Egypt and Mesopotamia – which is why Egypt, and then later Assyria and Babylon played such a huge role in their history. Now, there are two main explanations for where Ancient Israelite religion came from. One, of course, is that it came directly from God, through divine revelation – specifically when Moses received the Torah. The other is that it developed slowly, over time, based on its interactions with both Egypt and Mesopotamia. In fact, the scholarly consensus nowadays is that the Israelites actually started out as a subset of Canaanites and then slowly went from polytheism to monotheism over time. Either way, what we’re concerned with here is what happened during the late Iron Age. Basically, Israel fell to the Assyrians and Judah fell to the Babylonians but then following a brief exile in Babylon, the former inhabitants of Judah (now called Jews) were able to return to their land and rebuild their temple, which is why Judaism between 537 BCE and 70 CE is known as Second Temple Juday- ism. During this time, it was influenced by both Zoroastrianism (which was the religion of the Persians) as well as by Hellenism (which was the religion of the Greeks) but most importantly, by this point, Judaism was definitely monotheistic – which is, to this day, its defining feature. However, by the time that the Romans took over, there were four major sects within Second Temple Judaism: the Pharisees (who represented the everyday people), the Essenes (who were a mystical bunch), the Zealots (who wanted to fight against the Romans) and the Sadducees (who were the elites who ran the temple). To this was added a fifth group: the early Christians. However, Christianity quickly became a separate, mostly Gentile (meaning non-Jewish) religion. The early Christians who continued to maintain Jewish traditions, such as the Ebionites and Nazarenes, eventually went extinct, although there is evidence that they had an influence on the development of Islam before doing so. Anyway, the Essenes, Zealots, and Sadducees also all went extinct, back when the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple in 70 CE. Thus, the only sect of Second Temple Judaism that survived was that of the Pharisees. Now, the New Testament does not have a lot of nice things to say about the Pharisees. But for Jews today, the Pharisees are actually our spiritual ancestors. After the destruction of Jerusalem, they set up a school in the nearby town of Yavne (known in Christian sources as Jamnia), where they helped Judaism evolve from being a temple-based religion to one that is based mostly on communal prayer and on studying the five books of Moses (also known as the Torah). The scholars at this Yavne school eventually became known as rabbis. Thus, Judaism as it exists today can more accurately be called RABBINIC Judaism, in order to distinguish it from the earlier Second Temple Judaism. One of the things that the early rabbis did was to develop the Talmud, which actually has two components: the Mishnah (which was written first) and the Gemara (which was written later and consists of commentary on the Mishnah). According to tradition, the Mishnah is based on the Oral Torah, which consisted of various clarifications that were given was given to Moses around the same time as the Written Torah. These were supposedly passed down by word of mouth until the time of the rabbis. However, according to modern critical scholarship, the Oral Torah likely does not go all the way back to Moses. But it does at least go back to the Second Temple Period – to figures like Hillel and Shammai, who lived just prior to the time of Jesus. If you want to learn more about the various rabbis mentioned in the Mishnah, we actually have a video on that, which I’ll link to in the description. Now, in case you’ve heard some of the nasty things that sometimes get said about the Talmud, let me make it clear that in those cases, the Talmud is usually being taken out of context, for anti-Semitic reasons. Rather than being a list of clear cut rules, The Talmud (and the various notes that now come with it are more like a collection of case law, in which various opinions are given in addition to opinions about those opinions and then opinions about the opinions about the opinions. Which is why a typical Talmud page looks something like this. Now, it’s at this point that I should bring up the Karaite Jews. Karaite Jews reject the Talmud and therefore some people claim that the modern Kara-ites can trace their lineage all the way back to the Sadducees. But what’s more likely is that they were simply a group that broke away from mainstream rabbinic Judaism around the year 800. An even earlier group to break away from (or at least lose contact with) Rabbinic Judaism is Beta Israel, based in Ethiopia. They may go all the way back to Second Temple times but there is also evidence that they initially maintained some contact with the early rabbis but then, for some reason, that contact was eventually severed. It wasn’t actually until modern times that Beta Israel was quote end quote “rediscovered” and integrated back into mainstream Judaism. So, again, I wouldn’t consider Beta Israel to be outside of Rabbinic Judaism but rather to be a unique stream within it. But then there’s the Samaritans, who definitely ARE a separate group from Rabbinic Jews. They claim to be the descendants of the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel. However, according to historians, the situation is much more complicated. When Assyria conquered Israel, some Israelites were carried away and then non- Israelites were brought in to replace them. However, other Israelites simply moved south to Jerusalem, where they became integrated into the Kingdom of Judah. Then, when the Babylonians conquered Judah, a split occurred whereby many of the elites were carried off to Babylon, whereas the every day people were left behind, where they sometimes intermarried with foreigners. When the Judean elites returned to rebuild the Jerusalem temple, some of those who had been left behind (who the Bible calls “the people of the land”) wanted to build a separate temple, which they did at Mount Gerizim – which happened to be in the territory where the northern tribes used to live. So, to me, it’s unclear whether the Samaritan-Jewish division was more about an ethnic division or a class division. Either way, what we do know is that the Samaritans eventually dwindled in size and today consist of around 850 people. Okay, so let’s now look at how the main branch of Rabbinic Judaism evolved. Generally speaking, from 70 CE to around 1740 CE, there was nothing within Judaism that was anything like what the word denomination refers to – there was simply Judaism. This is partly because Jews were very much the minority wherever they were found so when you’re already a small, persecuted group, you tend to stick together. However, it also boils down to the fact that Judaism – to this day – has no central leadership. If you’re looking for an analogy from within the Christian framework, it would be best to say that Jews follow a congregational style of governance, sort of like the Baptists. Rabbis get trained at rabbinical colleges (where some rabbis end up being more influential than others) but then each congregation gets to choose who they want to be their rabbi and how they want to run things. Although, note that nowadays, some countries do have what’s called a Chief Rabbi – which I’ll get to later. Now, don’t get me wrong. When I say that there was just one Judaism until 1740, I’m not saying that there were absolutely no differences to be found – there were. Which brings me to the terms Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi. But please note – these are NOT different denominations. They are more like regional subcultures. To explain, let’s bring up a map. Basically, following the fall of Jerusalem, Jews ended up all over the Roman Empire. One particular area where a lot of them ended up is in what we today called Spain and Portugal. Jews from this area became known as Sephardic Jews (S’pharad simply being the Hebrew word for Spain). For many centuries, they were ruled by Muslims, who generally treated them very well. However, following the Reconqista and the shift back to Christian control, Jews were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula and thus many of them ended up back in the Middle East (where they were welcomed by the Ottoman Empire). Others ended up in North Africa, or in the Low Countries, or in the so-called New World, where they settled long before the arrival of the now more dominant Ashkenazi Jews. The word Ashkenazi comes from the name Ashkenaz, which was a very old Jewish name for Germany. Based on recent DNA studies, we now know a lot about the origins of the Ashkenazi Jews. It is now thought they originated in Southern Italy before next settling in Germany, around the year 800. At some point though, their numbers dwindled to around just 350 people, which led to what’s called a genetic bottleneck. Before this point, there was a good deal of intermarriage with non-Jews (particularly Southern Italians) but then after this point, the group mostly intermarried amongst themselves – resulting in the creation of a distinct ethnic group, called Ashkenazi Jewish, which has clear DNA markers that can show up on a DNA test. But take note, even though Ashkenazi Jews are at least partially European, a good amount of their DNA can still be traced all the way back to the Middle East, particularly along the male-only line. I should also note that while the Ashkenazi Jews originally settled in Germany, most of them ended up being pushed into Eastern Europe, which is where most of them lived until the twentieth century. Okay, so, in addition to Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi Jews, there are also Mizrahi Jews, which is sort of a catch all term for Jews that never left the Middle East. Mizrahi Jews ended up assimilating a lot of Sephardic customs though (because, remember: many Sephardic Jews ended up back in the Middle East) so take note that nowadays, the Mizrahis are often lumped together with the Sephardi Jews. But again, before I move on, I want to emphasize that the Sephardi vs Ashkenazi division has nothing to do with denominations, nor with any theological differences. In Judaism, we have a concept called Minhag, which can be roughly translated as “customs”. Sephardi Jews and Ashkenazi Jews may have different minhag but they share the same religion. The best analogy from within the Christian framework would be to compare Catholics who use the Latin rite with those who use the Syriac rite. Their clothing and liturgy might be different but their theology is not. To this day, Ashkenazi Jews rely heavily on philosophical works developed by Sephardi Jews – and vice versa. One good example is Maimonides, who I mentioned earlier as being the one who developed the thirteen principles of faith. He was Sephardi but he’s just as important to Ashkenazis. In contrast, there’s Rashi, whose commentaries are included in all modern editions of the Talmud. He was Ashkenazi but is also considered authoritative by Sephardi. Now, before I move on to the modern branches of Judaism, I want to point out a book called the Shulchan Aruch. Written in 1565 by the Sephardic rabbi Joseph Karo, it also contains notes by the Ashkenazi rabbi Moses Isser-less. To this day, it’s kind of THE authoritative text for all things related to Jewish law. But it’s important to note that it is used by both Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardi Jews, although when it comes to minhag, or customs, Ashkenazis follow the rulings of Rabbi Isser-less, whereas Sephardis follow the rulings of Rabbi Karo. Okay, so like I say, from 70 CE to around 1740 CE, there was pretty much just one Judaism, albeit with different customs depending on where you lived. But from 1740 onwards, this changed. Nowadays, it is said that Judaism (particularly in Western countries) has three main branches: -Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox. So, before we continue down the tree, I want to explain the main differences between these three branches. At the end of the day, the difference boils down to just one thing and one thing only: their approach to Jewish law (which is called Ha-LA-khah) -Orthodox Jews see Ha-LA-khah as being binding and, for the most part, unchanging. Binding means you HAVE to follow it. Not in order to obtain salvation but simply because God says so. So, Orthodox Jews follow the law very carefully, in the same way that it’s been followed for over 2000 years. In contrast, Conservative Jews (known as Masorti Jews outside of North America) see Ha-LA-khah as being binding but not unchanging. In other words, the Law should evolve over time, in order to keep up with how human society has evolved. So, for example, -Orthodox Jews won’t drive a car on Shabbat because both combustion engines and electric engines involve lighting a fire and in the Torah, lighting a fire is considered work and you’re not supposed to work on Shabbat. However, -Conservative Jews have come to the conclusion that, in our modern world, being able to attend synagogues (which are often no longer within walking distance), is more important than following the original rule. So, Conservative rabbis have actually changed Jewish law to say that driving a car on Shabbat is permitted for this special circumstance. They have done similar things in terms of allowing women to become rabbis, and supporting LGBT rights. Now, before I move on, let me mention the principle of Pikuach nefesh, which is followed by every branch of Judaism. This law states that any other law can be broken in order to protect the life or health of a person. So, for example, if a person has a medical emergency on Shabbat, even the most Orthodox Jew WILL drive a car in order to get that person to the hospital as fast as possible. However, there are three exceptions: You can’t murder, you can’t worship idols, and you can’t commit a sexual sin. Okay, so finally, there are Reform Jews. Reform Jews see Ha-LA-khah as being neither binding nor unchanging. This means that each individual Jew can make up their own mind about how to follow Jewish Law. So, for example, the Torah says that Jews must not eat certain shellfish, such as prawns, but it says that beef is okay. However, in today’s world, due to climate change, it can be argued that eating beef is more problematic than eating prawns so some Reform Jews might decide to adopt a full pescitarian diet for ethical reasons instead of following traditional kosher rules. A lot of Reform Jews like to focus on the phrase Tikkun Olam which means “repairing the world” and therefore they tend to prioritize ethical mitzvot over ritual mitzvot. Now, these may seem like some pretty big differences but surprisingly, on the surface, these three groups can often look almost the same. The one exception to this is a subset of Orthodox Jews known as Haredi or Ultra-Orthodox (although note that the term Ultra-Orthodox is usually considered offensive). Haredi Jews can be broken down further into Hasidic and non-Hasidic. I’ll explain Hasidic Judaism in more detail in a moment but for now, note that these are the Jews that tend to be Jewish in very visible ways. They are the ones with big black hats and long side curls. Many Christians, when forming a mental picture of what a Jew looks like, will tend to think of a Hasidic Jew. Well, I just want to caution you against that stereotype because that would be like a Jew assuming that all Christians look like this. Even among Orthodox Jews, there are many who don’t really stand out as being Jewish in a highly visible way and are more integrated into the greater society. These non-Haredi Orthodox Jews are usually called “Modern Orthodox”. Okay, so how did all these various branches of modern Judaism come about? Well, let’s actually start with Hasidism. It was founded by the Baal Shem Tov, who lived in what is today Ukraine during the 1700s. Which is why I’ve shown the Hasidic movement as stemming from the Ashkenazis. However, take note that nowadays, some Sephardis have also adopted Hasidism. What a lot of non-Jews don’t realize about Hasidism is that it is actually a very mystical version of Judaism, in addition to being outwardly quite conservative. It relies heavily on Kabbalah, which is a mystical school of thought within Juday- ism that goes back to Isaac Luria in the 1500s and Moses de León in the 1200s and perhaps even further. The other thing you need to know about Hasidism is that each Hasidic group is centered around a single rabbinical dynasty that can be traced back to a specific Eastern European village. So, take for example, Chabad, which is one of the largest and most well-known Hasidic groups. It was originally based in a Russian village called Lyubavichi, which is why followers of Chabad are also known as Lubavitchers. The famous twentieth-century leader of this group, Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), was a descendant of Shneur Zalman, the founder of Chabad. However, not all Ashkenazi Jews embraced Hasidism. Those who did not became known as Mit-NAHG-dim, meaning “opponents” although they would later become known as Litvaks because a lot of them were based in Lithuania. Around the year 1770, a major event occurred (mostly among the Mit-NAHG- dim) known as the HAS-kalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. It stemmed from and was very similar to, the general Age of Enlightenment that had occurred in Europe about a century earlier. Basically, it led to Judaism being re-examined using the lens of modern critical scholarship. But it was not all simply about new ideas. It was also about new freedoms. Around the same time as the HAS-kalah, Jewish emancipation was achieved throughout most of Europe, meaning that for the first time, Jews were given the same legal rights as Christians. At this point, some Jews simply became secular, whereas other Jews (particularly in Germany) sought to “reform” Judaism in order to bring it up to speed with what had been learned through science and textual criticism. Now, for the next little while I’m going to be talking exclusively about the United States. That’s because, other than Israel, this is where most of the world’s Jews currently live. But don’t worry, once I’m done, I will be talking about Israel and other countries as well. Note that it’s really only in the US (and in some similar countries like Canada and the UK) that Judaism can be divided into various denominations. So, let’s start with the migration of German Jews to the US between 1840 and 1860. Prior to this point, most Jews in America had actually been Sephardic. But pretty soon, most Jewish congregations were not only Ashkenazi but they were also leaning toward Reform. So, in 1873, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations was established in order to serve as the main organization for American Jews. This was followed by the founding of Hebrew Union College in 1875 as the main rabbinical school. However, while most American Jews were Reform at this point, some were not. Therefore, in 1886, some more conservative-leaning rabbis broke away from Hebrew Union College and established instead the Jewish Theological Seminary. However, please note that, these so-called “conservative” Jews were only conservative in comparison to Reform Jews. In the eyes of many Eastern European Jews, these so-called conservatives were actually quite liberal. What happened next was that many of those Eastern European Jews ended up migrating to the US between 1880 to 1925. They were even more conservative than the conservatives and thus became known as Orthodox. Thus, we ended up with three main branches within American Judaism. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations ended up being the main organization for Reform Jews (eventually changing its name to the Union for Reform Juday- ism); the United Synagogue of America, established in 1913, became the main organization for Conservative Jews (although it too that later changed its name to the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism). Finally, the Orthodox Union, established in 1898, became the main organization for Modern Orthodox Jews. Now, even if you’ve never heard of any of these organizations, you’ve probably seen this symbol on various food packages. It means that the Orthodox Union has deemed that item to be kosher. I also want to point out Agudah, which is another Orthodox organization, separate from the Orthodox Union. It consists mostly of Haredi congregations, both Non- Hasidic and Hasidic (although notably, Chabad is not a member). Altogether, among those who attend synagogue in the US, approximately 50% are Reform, around 30% are Conservative, and 20% are Orthodox. I should also point out Reconstructionist (or Reconstructing) Judaism, which can be considered a fourth branch of modern Judaism. Founded by Mordecai Kaplan in the 1950s, it can be seen as a breakaway from Conservative Judaism. However, like Reform Judaism, it does not see Jewish Law as being binding. But in contrast to Reform Judaism, it tends to place more value on preserving old traditions and on maintaining a very distinct Jewish identity. So you can kind of think of Reconstructionist Judaism as being somewhat conservative on the outside but very liberal on the inside. There’s also Renewal Judaism, which is even more recent, having its roots in the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s and 70s. It too is a very liberal branch of Judaism but tends to incorporate more mystical elements, from Hasidic Juday- ism – which is why its followers are sometimes nicknamed “hippie Jews”. Now, one other thing I should make clear is that, in Judaism, denominational lines can be quite blurry, especially in areas where there aren’t many Jews. So, for example, I live in Canada and when I converted to Judaism, I did so through a Reform synagogue, although one of the teachers was a Reconstructionist. However, after one year of study and the approval of a beit din, I had a Hatafat Dam Brit performed by an Orthodox rabbi and I was immersed in a mikveh at the Orthodox synagogue. On top of this, the synagogue that my wife and I are most likely to attend, simply because it’s the closest one to our home, is actually Renewal. So, when people ask me which branch of Judaism I belong to, it’s a difficult question to answer. I usually just say that I’m a progressive Jew, which basically encompasses everything other than Orthodox and, in North America at least, is the dominant type of Judaism. But even between Progressive Jews and Orthodox Jews, there is often a lot of mixing. While each set of rabbis might hold very different views, the actual members, might not. So, it’s not unusually for a Jew with Reform leanings to attend an Orthodox synagogue or a fully observant Orthodox Jew to attend a Reform synagogue. And then, of course, there are sometimes separate Sephardi congregations – they usually see themselves as being outside of the whole Reform-Conservative-Orthodox trichotomy. But then there’s also individual Sephardic Jews who DO see themselves as belonging to one of the three streams. So, it’s complicated. There are even Humanist Jews who do not even believe in God but still gather to celebrate certain holidays or rights of passage. Now, what about Messianic Jews? Well, Messianic Jews are really Christians so I actually talked about them already, on my series about Christian denominations. If you’re interested to hear my take on them, you can find it in Episode 8. Okay, so that was just how Judaism works in the US, and maybe a few other countries like Canada and the UK. In the UK there are actually two major Reform denominations: Liberal Judaism and the Movement for Reform Judaism. However, quite recently (in April of 2023) they announced their intention to merge into a single organization. They also have a chief rabbi for their Orthodox Jews, who you might have seen in the news recently as he participated in the coronation of King Charles III. Let’s next look at how Judaism works in Israel, which now has a Jewish population that has surpassed that of the United States. Although Reform and Conservative synagogues do exist in Israel in small numbers, the Reform- Conservative-Orthodox trichotomy is far less important there. Instead, in Israel, Jews are usually classified into four main categories. First there are the Hiloni. These are secular Jews and they actually make up a full half of all the Jews in Israel. Next are the Masorti, who are “traditional”, meaning that they are only partially observant. They make up another quarter of the Israeli population. The final quarter consists of the Dati and Haredi. These are the fully observant Jews, with the Haredi (like I discussed earlier) being the most strictly observant. Now, I’m not going to address Zionism in this video because Zionism is more of a political thing than a religious thing. Individual Jews across the world have differing views on Zionism and the politics within Israel so it’s important to remember that just because someone is Jewish, that doesn’t mean that they support every single thing that the State of Israel does. But returning to the four categories of Israeli Jews, I want to make it clear that these are NOT four different denominations. For the most part, Israeli Jews are not really divided into denominations at all. Instead, anything to do with Jewish religious matters in Israel falls under the jurisdiction of the two Chief Rabbis – one of whom represents Ashkenazi Jews and the other who represent Sephardi Jews. This system is actually the one that is used in most countries in the world. Some countries, such as France, have just one Chief Rabbi, whereas others, like Argentina have two. Like with Judaism, Denominations in Islam aren’t as clear-cut as they are in Christianity. It’s not uncommon for people to hold a mix of beliefs from different denominations. The term denomination itself might not apply here very accurately. Let’s get into it and I’ll explain along the way. The first thing I would like to address is that most religions have multiple stories of their origins, typically there are one or more traditional accounts along with one or more academic accounts. For example, as Matt mentioned in his video on Judaism, while Jews believe their religion to have begun when Moses received the Torah, academic scholars believe it to have emerged out of a mix of Ancient Israelite, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian Religions. Similarly, for Islam, there’s a traditional account that states that Islam began with Adam, the first human, and subsequent prophets which include Noah, Moses, and Jesus, preached Islam but in a different form. Finally, it came into its current shape with Prophet Muhammad when he received the first revelation of the Qur’an in 610CE or so. However, academic scholars believe that Islam came out of the mixing of various religions which included the ancient Arabic pagan religious traditions and a group of people known as Jewish Christians, specifically, Ebionites & Nazarenes who upheld the Laws of Judaism but also believed Jesus to be a Massiah. They may have fled into Arabia to avoid persecution where they inspired the religion of Islam. Islamic Tradition mentions a group known as Hanifs who followed the true monotheism of Prophet Abraham which may or may not have been these Jewish Christians. Anyhow, according to Islamic Tradition, Islam began with the revelation of the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad around 610 CE. From then to his death around 632, the Prophet continued to receive revelations from Allah, the Arabic word for God, which were later compiled into a book format known as the *Qur’an* or Recitation. The Qur’an forms the core of Islam and is universally held up by Muslims as the highest authority on their religion. They might disagree on interpretations of the Qur’an but all Muslims hold it up above everything else. In 622, around 11 or 12 years after the first Revelation, the Prophet went into exile from his birth city of Mecca and formed a community in a city called Yathrib, which later came to be known as Madinah. This Emigration of the Prophet is known as the Hijrah and is considered a very important point in the history of Islam. So much so that this year marks the beginning of the Islamic Lunar Calendar. It also marks a changing point in the Qur’an. The Qur’an is divided into 114 Chapters known as the Surahs. The Meccan Chapters, which were revealed during the Prophet’s time in Mecca, focus more on, for lack of a better term, abstract concepts. To generalize, the Qur’an talks about things such as *Tawhid* or Monotheism, the oneness of God, the Day of Judgement or as it’s called in the Qur’an, the Hour, when the world will end and humanity will be resurrected to face the final judgment for where they’d spend eternity, Heaven or Hell. In other words, these chapters focused on Theology. However, after the Hijrah, the Qur’an started talking more about, again for lack of a better term, matters of the world. Because in Madinah, the Prophet wasn’t just a Prophet, he was a political leader so he had to arbitrate over disputes, go to war, do diplomacy, etc. So, the Qur’an also focuses on such matters at this point. In other words, these chapters focused on Jurisprudence or Law. This is important because in Islam there are two important distinctions when it comes to what one believes. The first is your Aqidah which deals with the theological nature of Islam while the second, the Fiqh deals with the judicial nature of Islam. Where the Fiqh deals with what to do with lawbreakers, the Aqidah deals with why someone becomes one. Where the Fiqh would say the punishment for someone who commits a particular sin is this or that, the Aqidah would ask whether the sinner has free will or whether everything is predestined. These two do overlap and the Aqidah does guide the Fiqh but not always. The Prophet Muhamad passed away in 632 and immediately, cracks began appearing in the community of the Believers. The first point of disagreement was, who would lead the community as its new political leader. Some senior followers of the Prophet elected his close friend Abu Bakr as the first *Khalifa* or Caliph. Caliph simply means successor or deputy. The Caliph was to be the new political leader of the Believers and was known as *Amir al-Muminin* or literally, Leader of the Believers. However, another party of followers of the Prophet wanted Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet to succeed him as Caliph. It’s tempting to call this decision as having laid the foundation of the division between Sunnis and Shias, the two largest sects of Islam. However, those two sects wouldn’t really crystalize till the 11th century so it would be better to call these two groups Proto-Shias and Proto-Sunnis. The division is often oversimplified by saying that the Proto-Sunnis were the ones who supported Abu Bakr while the Proto-Shias were the ones who supported Ali. Initially, this was the case, the division was merely about who would lead the community. However, over time, the division began to get more and more complex. This was because the community expanded really quickly. During the Prophet’s lifetime, he conquered and allied with much of the Arabian Peninsula. After him, the caliphs sent their armies into the Greater Middle East. Within a few decades, the Believers ruled everything between Tunisia and India. In the process, they defeated the Byzantine and the Sassanid Empires. As you might expect, this huge empire brought its own problems. The Caliphs had to make judgments and policies in political, social, and military matters. The Believers tried to follow the law laid down in the Qur’an, as it was and is the highest authority. With things that weren’t directly addressed in the Qur’an, the Believers looked at the examples laid down by the Prophet in his lifetime. These examples, along with his sayings, formed a canon of the Islamic Tradition known as the Sunnah of the Prophet. However, there were still many many things that had no direct parallels in the Qur’an or the Sunnah. How do we resolve that? This question divided the Muslims further. Let’s first look at how the Sunnis answered this question. Again, to grossly oversimplify, the Proto-Sunnis, who get their name from the Sunnah, believed that the examples of the Prophet can guide the Believers along with the opinions and comments of learned men and occasionally women, who came to be known as the Ulema, and who had spent considerable portions of their lives studying the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The Ulema weren’t exactly priests but they were not that dissimilar to Rabis. In fact, a lot of Islamic Jurisprudence has parallels with Jewish Law. Anyhow, among the Ulema there were some distinguished figures who are more venerated than the others who came to be known as Imams. While Sunni Imams were respectable figures who were considered authorities on the subject of jurisprudence, they weren’t infallible and they were merely educated human beings. However, the Proto-Shias believed that their Imams were infallible. They believed that the Imam has to be a descendant of the Prophet through his daughter Fatima and her husband, Ali ibn Abi Talib. The Proto-Shias believed that the Imam had divine guidance and was the sole authority on how to interpret the Qur’an and the tradition of the Prophet. Ali ibn Abi Talib is considered the first Imam and then his two sons, al-Hasan and al-Husayn are the second and third, respectively. The disagreement over Imams and their role in Islamic Society is perhaps the biggest distinction between the Sunnis and Shias, even today. Both have their own chains of Imams who are considered founders of their various schools of Islamic Jurisprudence and developed their own interpretations of Islamic Law known as the Shariah. However, It must be kept in mind that back in the day, this wasn’t a binary division, rather it was more of a spectrum where people could and did mix elements from both. Let’s look at the Sunnis first. Sunnis make up roughly around 90% of the Muslim population with the remaining 9% being Shia and the rest making up less than 1%. Among the Sunnis, there are four Schools of Jurisprudence or Fiqh. These are the Hanafi, which is the largest and is popular in India, Pakistan, Turkey, and parts of the Middle East. The Maliki which is popular in Africa and previously was also the predominant school in Muslim Spain. Then the Shafi’i and Hanbali, both of which are mostly common in the Middle East with the Hanbali being dominant in Saudi Arabia. There used to be a fifth one named Zahiri which was popular in Muslim Spain and North-Western Africa but it has since died out but recently, with the Islamic Revivalist movements it is starting to come back, we’ll talk about that in a moment. Now, early on in its life, Islam came into contact with the Greeks and their way of thinking. So, there was a debate in the Islamic World about what way of thinking should be followed. Should we adhere rigidly to the Qur’an and the Sunnah or should a logical approach to rational thinking be developed for our worldly problems? This led to the creation of the Schools of Theology. The Athari are considered the Traditionalists who stick to the Qur’an and Sunnah while the Mu’tazilites are seen as those who follow reason and rational thinking much more. The Ash’ari and the Maturidi are somewhere in between, Although, the divisions between these schools, which are quite clear in theory, weren’t as neat in practice. For example, the Mu’tazilites, while claiming to be rationalists and progressive, were behind one of the biggest inquisitions in Islamic History. This inquisition also stopped Islam from having something of a Pope. A little bit about that inquisition, which is called the Mihna. It was during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun. The main question was about the nature of the Qur’an, whether it was created at the time of revelation to the Prophet or whether it had always existed. The implications of that were that if the Qur`an has always existed, since the beginning of time, then it is true for all times and its interpretations can not change or be updated over time. However, if it was created at the time of revelation, then it meant that the Qur’an applied only to that time and its meaning can be changed according to the times. Al-Ma’mun believed in himself as being the Imam and having the power to define Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence rather than the body of learned men and women known as the Ulema. The Mu’tazilites supported him while the most ardent opponent was Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the founder of the Hanbali School. People were forced to support al-Ma’mun’s doctrine of the created Qur’an and refusal led to imprisonment, torture, seizure of property, etc. When the inquisition failed, the Mu`tazilites fell into decline and eventually died out but recently, people have been claiming to be neo-Mu’tazilites and trying to revive the rationalist that is often imagined as being the core of their doctrine. Since the Mihna failed, Sunni Caliphs never again tried to have the power to define Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence directly. That is why Sunni Islam has no Head of Faith like the Pope. Over time, the schools of theology and the schools of jurisprudence came to be associated with each other. For example, the Hanbalis follow the Athari School while the Hanafis follow the Maturidi one. The Hanbalis stick to a more literal meaning of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, while the Hanafis, being a centrist school, do use some rational thinking as well, along with analogy and consensus to form judgments. However, for most Muslims, their schools of theology aren’t very clear. They usually identify with the Madhhab or School of Jurisprudence, more than the School of Theology. In fact, even Mosques can be named after the Madhhab of the people who manage them. Usually, in Muslim-majority countries, people tend to go to the mosque that is managed by people of their own Madhhab because mosques are primarily used for prayers and the way to pray also changes from Madhhab to Madhhab. However, in Western countries, people go to whatever mosque is available as long as it follows their sect, ie. the Sunni or Shia ones. In the 18th century, the Muslim world began to lose much of its power as the Ottoman and the Mughal Empires entered an era of decline and the Europeans began to take over. At this point, Muslims had to face the question of why this had happened. Many scholars came to the conclusion that Muslims had slid away from true Islam and had become sinful which led to this decline. As a result, many revivalist movements appeared in the Islamic World. The first one came from India under a man named Shah Wali Ullah Dehlawi in the early and mid-18th century. He advocated for Muslims to stop following medieval Imams such as the founders of the four Madhhabs and instead focus on learning for themselves what the Qur’an and the Sunnah teach. He and his son translated the Qur’an into Persian & Urdu respectively, which were the two dominant languages among Indian Muslims at the time, to make Qur’an more accessible to the people. Towards the end of the 18th century, another reformer was active in what is today Saudi Arabia. His named was Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. He also advocated for a similar disassociation with the Medieval Imams and their schools and for reevaluating the Qur’an and Sunnah. Over time, his doctrine, known as Wahhabism, came to become dominant in Saudi Arabia. Wahhabis are often put in the same box as the Ahl-e-Hadith who were born in India. The two movements might’ve inspired each other. They’re both Ghair-Muqalid meaning they claim to not adhere to any medieval school but in fact, they do kinda adhere to the Hanbali one. They call themselves Salafi after the Salafi Movement which advocated for a return of Muslims to the ways of the Aslaf or the Elders, meaning the First Generation of Muslims. Wahaabis are more… fundamentalist, if you will, while the Ahl-e-Hadith are a bit more moderate. The Ahl-e-Hadith came from the followers of Shah Wali Ullah along with the Deobandis who followed Shah Wali Ullah but also adhered to the Hanafi Madhhab. They, along with the Barelvis, are the majority of the Muslims in India and Pakistan. The Barelvis are kinda Hanafis mixed with a lot of Sufism. So, while the Ahl-e-Hadith, the Wahaabis, and the Deobandis, don’t like Sufism, the Barelvis do. Quite a lot, actually. Speaking of the Sufis, we’re not gonna be talking about them in detail here because they’re very complicated. Sufism is a mystical form of Islam and they have many orders and brotherhoods that believe in a range of religious traditions. Some are strictly Shia, some are strictly Sunni while the rest are somewhere in between. Then we have the Shias. We have another video on the lines of the Shia Imams so be sure to watch that one to get a better understanding of their individual lines. But anyhow, Shias believe in the infallible Imams from the descendants of the Prophet. While these Imams were alive, they didn’t need to form schools of Jurisprudence in the same way that Sunnis had to but eventually, they did as well. I think an interesting point of how flexible the Shia-Sunni Split was early on is that the founder of the Hanafi school, the biggest school of the Sunnis, was a student of Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq, the founder of the biggest Shia school. Among the Shias, the main three sub-sects are the Zaydis who believe in the Imamate of Zayd ibn Ali and believe that the Imams must also fight for the Caliphate. They’re mostly found in Yemen. Then we have the Isma’ilis and the Twelvers. The Twelvers are the majority of the Shias today at around 85%. Both the Isma’ilis and the Twelvers, who are also known as the Imamiyyas, follow the teachings of Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq. Generally speaking, the Shias do believe in the Sunnah of the Prophet as well but they only take parts of the Sunnah that are narrated by Companions of the Prophet who sided with Ali. These parts of the Sunnah are then interpreted by the Imams whose teachings are followed, then, by the Shias. There was also another sub-sect known as the Seveners who are now considered extinct. All three of these Ja’fari sub-sects were divided over the succession to Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq. Again, watch the other video. The Isma’ilis were a much more active group in the 9th and 10th centuries. They formed their own caliphate in Egypt in 969 and considered their caliphs to be Imam as well. As a result, their Jurisprudence also has teachings from the Fatimid Imams along with those of Imam Ja’far. They became further divided over succession. However, there were some groups of the Isma’ilis that rejected the Fatimid Caliphate and formed their own sub-sects. All of these are now extinct but the most popular are the Qarmatians who are universally reviled by Muslims because they sacked the city of Mecca in 930 and stole the sacred black rock. From the Fatimids, eventually appeared a group of people known as the Druze, who aren’t considered Muslim and are a major religious group in Syria today. Their theology is quite secretive and unknown to most outsiders. One of the things they believe in is the Reincarnation of the Soul. The Twelvers became the dominant group in Iran during the Safavid Empire’s reign. They themselves had a disagreement that led to what can be called their own Madhhabs, the Usuli and the Akhbari. The Akhbari form the majority of the Twelver Shias and believe in only using the traditional teachings to form judgments while the Usulis believe that reasoning can and should be used as well. One branch of the Twelvers eventually became the Alawites who primarily live in Syria and Turkey. They’re not considered Muslim by most other sects of Islam. They’re often confused with the Alevis who are in a similar Islamhood-disputed situation but they’re probably more of a Sufi order than a Shia sub-group. Finally, the Babist and Baha’i faiths also came from the Twelver Shias. While they’re certainly not Muslims, they do hold on to a lot of things from the Shias. In Episode 6 of Matt’s Christian Denominations Family Tree Series, he talked about the Millerites who believed that Jesus would be returning in the year 1844. The lack of Jesus’ return led to the event known as the Great Disappointment among his followers. However, some Baha’i believe that Christ did return in 1844 as Baha’ullah, the founder of the Baha’i faith declared himself to be the Mahdi, a Messianic figure who is to return, according to both Shias and Sunnis, around the end of time. Rainn Wilson, who plays Dwight Schrute on The Office (US) is a member of the Baha'i faith. The third major sect of Islam is popularly known as the Kharijites. However, we’ve used the term Muhakkima here. Okay, I won’t go into too much detail, you can check out my videos on Al Muqaddimah for that, but there was a civil war between Ali ibn Abi Talib and Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan known as the First Fitna. Ali was the Caliph and Mu’awiyah was the governor of Syria who refused to recognize Ali as Caliph. They went to war and faced each other in the Battle of Siffin where there was so much bloodshed that the two sides agreed to arbitrate instead of fighting. Some of the people on Ali’s Side, which by the way, were called the Shia tul-Ali, that’s where the name Shia comes from, decided that this was wrong. They believed that Mu’awiyah had, by fighting the caliph, gone against Islam and so he must be fought until he was defeated. Arbitration, they said, was against the Law of God. They left Ali’s camp and formed a third side, known as the Kharijites, or those who left. They were the very first actual division in the Believers community. The Kharijites followed a very rigid and extreme interpretation of Islam and stuck to a our-way-or-death approach. However, these days, the Kharijites are said to be extinct, rather a more moderate version of them called Ibadis can be found in countries like Oman. They prefer not to be called Kharijites and claim to have nothing to do with them which is why they are both shown here as having branched off from the Muhakkima rather than from each other. The Muhakkima is the term used for the people who left Ali’s camp. There were other offshoots of the Kharijites as well throughout history but most of them have gone extinct over the centuries and the Ibadis are pretty much the only major group of this branch left. They’re found as the majority of the population in Oman. Finally, we have two groups of people that call themselves Muslims but their Muslimhood is disputed. First are the Ahmadis. They were founded by a man named Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in India. Almost all other groups of Muslims accuse the Ahmadis of uplifting Mirza Ghulam Ahmad to the level of a prophet and hence call them non-Muslims because according to Islam, Prophet Muhammad is the last Prophet, and claiming that anyone after him is a Prophet is going against the very fundamental beliefs of Islam. Hence other than the Ahmedis, no one considers them Muslims. This goes so far that I’m sure there will be people in comments telling us that we shouldn’t even mention that in a video about Muslims at all because they’re not Muslim. Then we have the Nation of Islam. Founded by Wallace Fard Muhammad, the Nation of Islam is popular in the US, specifically among Black Americans. Like the Baha’i, the members of the Nation of Islam claim that the founder Wallace Fard Muhammad was the Mahdi and perhaps even Divine to some extent. Some of its most famous members are Elijah Muhammad, who succeeded Fard Muhammad, and Malcolm X, who left the Nation of Islam in 1964 to follow more mainstream Islam. Elijah Muhammad’s son Wallace took the Nation of Islam in the direction of becoming more mainstream and hence, closer to Sunni Islam. Eventually, he dissolved the old Nation of Islam. However, Louis Farrakhan revived it and so, it still exists today.

World Religions Explained (Full Series).es.srt

00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:05,400 Hola. Este es Matt Baker. El año pasado, después de una serie de videos de ocho partes, lanzamos nuestro póster del Árbol genealógico de las denominaciones cristianas, que incluye todas las ramas principales del cristianismo y muestra cómo están relacionadas. Bueno, desde entonces he estado haciendo videos similares para otras religiones y hoy me complace anunciar que finalmente he combinado todos estos cuadros en otro nuevo póster, al que he titulado Árbol genealógico de las religiones del mundo. Incluye una versión simplificada del árbol de denominaciones cristianas pero, lo que es más importante, también incluye los árboles que hice para el judaísmo, el hinduismo, el budismo y el islam. Además de esto, también agregué varias cosas de las que aún no he hablado, como las religiones chinas, las religiones populares y las religiones esotéricas. Entonces, antes que nada, puedes ver aquí en la parte superior que he incluido una infografía que muestra el número aproximado de seguidores en cada religión principal para que puedas tener una idea aproximada de cómo se descompone la población mundial . Ahora bien, independientemente de la fuente de datos que se utilice (he utilizado la de una organización llamada Pew Research Center), en lo que todas las fuentes coinciden es en que las cuatro religiones más importantes del mundo son, en orden: el cristianismo (con alrededor de 2,4 mil millones de seguidores), el islam (con alrededor de 1.800 millones), el hinduismo (con 1.200 millones) y el budismo (con 500 millones). Así que estos son los “4 grandes” indiscutibles. Sin embargo, dentro del campo de los estudios religiosos, a menudo se dice que hay CINCO religiones mundiales principales, no cuatro, siendo la quinta el judaísmo. Pero quiero dejar claro que el número de personas que siguen el judaísmo es en realidad extremadamente pequeño en comparación con los otros cuatro (sólo 16 millones). La única razón por la que se incluye al judaísmo como una de las principales religiones del mundo es por su antigüedad y porque es la religión madre tanto del cristianismo como del Islam. Si simplemente nos concentráramos en el tamaño, la quinta religión más grande del mundo (y la única otra que destaca por ser realmente grande) sería la religión popular china, o como la he llamado aquí, el sincretismo chino. Sincretismo significa una mezcla de diferentes ideas religiosas y, de hecho, la religión china se destaca porque en realidad no es una sola cosa. También me gustaría señalar que aquí a la derecha hay otra infografía, esta vez un mapa que muestra la religión dominante en cada país. Una vez más, los cuatro grandes (cristianismo, islamismo, hinduismo y budismo) realmente destacan, al igual que el sincretismo chino. Muy bien, comencemos ahora desde arriba, donde tengo una imagen denominada "Religiones prehistóricas". Esta imagen es de Göbekli Tepe, en lo que hoy es Turquía. Göbekli Tepe es la estructura construida por el hombre más antigua del mundo y, aunque no conocemos todos los detalles, es casi seguro que sirvió como algún tipo de lugar religioso. Ahora bien, no estoy diciendo que todas las religiones puedan rastrearse hasta lo que estaba sucediendo en Göbekli Tepe. Simplemente lo estoy usando como ejemplo de las religiones prehistóricas en general. A partir de ahí, destaco cuatro de las primeras religiones que surgieron durante la era histórica: el politeísmo del antiguo Egipto, el politeísmo de la antigua Mesopotamia , el politeísmo protoindoeuropeo y la religión de la civilización del valle del Indo. Tenga en cuenta que no utilicé la etiqueta "politeísmo" para el último porque actualmente la escritura del Valle del Indo permanece sin descifrar y, por lo tanto, no sabemos con seguridad si su religión era politeísta o no. Elegí estas cuatro porque tenían una influencia directa en las dos religiones más antiguas que aún existen en la actualidad: el judaísmo y el hinduismo. Tanto la religión del Antiguo Egipto como la religión de la Antigua Mesopotamia tuvieron una influencia en la religión israelita, porque el Antiguo Israel estaba ubicado justo entre estos dos centros de la civilización primitiva. Y, por supuesto, es a partir de la antigua religión israelita que se desarrolló el judaísmo. Asimismo, tanto la religión indoeuropea como la religión de la civilización del valle del Indo tuvieron influencia en la religión védica, debido a que un subconjunto de indoeuropeos terminó migrando a la India. Ahora bien, lo interesante es que un subconjunto diferente de indoeuropeos terminó en Persia, donde se desarrolló la religión del zoroastrismo. Y varios otros subconjuntos terminaron en Europa, donde se desarrollaron las diversas formas de paganismo europeo, como el paganismo griego, que a su vez dio lugar a la filosofía griega. Ahora, la razón por la que esto es interesante es porque tanto los persas como los griegos terminaron gobernando a los judíos y por lo tanto tanto el zoroastrismo como la filosofía griega terminaron influyendo en el judaísmo. Lo que significa que las dos religiones más antiguas del mundo (el judaísmo y el hinduismo) están conectadas, al menos remotamente, a través de los protoindoeuropeos. Ahora, lo primero que quiero hacer es recordarles que estoy usando la palabra denominación de manera muy vaga en estos videos. La palabra “denominación” realmente sólo funciona dentro de un contexto cristiano, así que debes entender que cuando la uso para hablar de una religión no cristiana, como el judaísmo, el islam o el hinduismo, la analogía no es perfecta. Básicamente, cada vez que digo "denominación", sepa que simplemente me refiero a una rama o subgrupo dentro de una religión más grande. Ahora bien, cuando se trata del hinduismo, incluso la palabra religión en sí misma es problemática porque definitivamente se puede argumentar que el hinduismo no es en realidad una religión única, sino más bien un grupo de religiones, agrupadas simplemente por su conexión con la India. De hecho, los propios hindúes no se refieren al hinduismo como una religión. Lo llaman dharma, que significa algo más cercano a un orden cósmico o un conjunto de leyes divinas. Esta es la razón por la que el hinduismo a menudo se clasifica como una de las religiones dhármicas, junto con el budismo, el jainismo y el sijismo, todos los cuales se originaron en el subcontinente indio. Ahora bien, lo único (y esto suele ser lo único ) que la mayoría de los no hindúes saben sobre el hinduismo es que tiene muchos dioses. Entonces, otra cosa que quiero aclarar desde el principio es que esto no significa necesariamente que todos los hindúes sean politeístas, es decir, personas que adoran a muchos dioses. De hecho, muchos hindúes son monoteístas, lo que significa que creen que todos los dioses son simplemente varios aspectos de un solo dios. Otros son algo más cercanos a los henoteístas, lo que significa que tienen un dios al que adoran como el Dios Supremo, pero también reconocen la existencia de dioses menores. Para complicar aún más las cosas, muchos hindúes son más exactamente panteístas, lo que significa que creen que Dios y el universo entero son en realidad uno y el mismo. Y luego, finalmente, también hay algunos hindúes que en realidad son ateos, lo que significa que realmente no creen en dioses en absoluto y, en cambio, abordan el hinduismo desde una perspectiva estrictamente filosófica. Sin embargo, dicho esto, quiero presentarles algunos de los principales dioses del hinduismo porque esto les ayudará más adelante cuando hable sobre las denominaciones hindúes.   A menudo se dice que el hinduismo moderno tiene tres dioses principales. Estos son Brahma, Vishnu y Shiva, a menudo etiquetados como el Creador, el Preservador y el Destructor (aunque no todos los hindúes los ven de esta manera). A veces, incluso se hace referencia a estos tres dioses como la "Trinidad hindú", aunque la palabra más apropiada es Trimurti. Brahma no debe confundirse con Brahman. Brahman (con la “N” al final) se refiere al concepto de una realidad última, que se equipara con la totalidad del universo. Por el contrario, Brahma es un dios distinto; de hecho, un dios masculino, a quien se le atribuye haber creado el mundo físico y ser el padre de muchos otros dioses. Sin embargo, curiosamente, Brahma no es un dios que sea adorado regularmente en la India hoy en día y, de hecho, hay muy pocos templos dedicados a él específicamente. La forma más fácil de reconocerlo es que normalmente se le representa con cuatro cabezas. Vishnu y Shiva son mucho más populares. Vishnu suele representarse con múltiples brazos, una tez azul y una mano sosteniendo una concha. También suele verlo sentado sobre una serpiente gigante de múltiples cabezas. Y fíjate que dije ÉL. Vishnu, como estos tres dioses principales, es masculino. También es muy conocido por haber encarnado muchas veces en la tierra; sus dos encarnaciones más populares fueron Krishna y Rama. Shiva se puede distinguir de Vishnu porque tiene una apariencia más salvaje: cabello enmarañado y ropa hecha de piel de animal. Además, casi siempre lleva un tridente. Ahora, cada uno de los tres principales dioses hindúes también tiene una consorte o esposa femenina. Saraswati se empareja con Brahma, Lakshmi se empareja con Vishnu y Parvati se empareja con Shiva. Si ves a una diosa sentada sobre una flor de loto blanca, tocando un instrumento de cuerda cerca de un pavo real, esa es Saraswati y si ves a una diosa sentada sobre un loto rojo cerca de elefantes de la que de alguna manera brotan monedas, esa es Lakshmi. De lo contrario, probablemente sea Pavarti o una de las muchas formas alternativas de Pavarti, como Durga o Kali. Otro dios popular en el hinduismo es Ganesh. Es fácilmente reconocible porque es el que tiene cabeza de elefante. Encaja en el árbol genealógico como hijo de Shiva y Pavarti. Finalmente, permítanme presentarles a los dioses hindúes del sol y la luna: Surya y Chandra. Ahora ya sabes por qué las misiones espaciales indias a la luna se llaman Chandrayaan (yaan significa vehículo). Por supuesto, hay muchos más dioses hindúes además de estos, pero me detendré ahí por ahora. A continuación, quiero presentarles las principales escrituras o escritos sagrados hindúes. A diferencia de los cristianos, que tienen la Biblia, y los musulmanes, que tienen el Corán, no existe ningún libro dentro del hinduismo que sea directamente comparable a estos dos. Así como el hinduismo tiene muchos dioses, también tiene muchas escrituras. Estos se dividen en dos categorías: Shruti, que significa lo que se escucha, y Smriti, que significa lo que se recuerda. Shruti se considera más autoritativo y consta de los cuatro vedas: el Rigveda (que es el más antiguo), seguido del Yajurveda y Samaveda, y finalmente el Atharveda (que es el más reciente). A su vez, cada veda también tiene cuatro partes o capas. Las capas más antiguas son las Samhitas, que son algo así como himnos u oraciones. Luego están los Aranyakas, que son instrucciones sobre rituales y ceremonias, y los Brahmanas, que son comentarios sobre esas instrucciones. Finalmente, están los Upanishads, que, tenga en cuenta, se agregaron en último lugar. Son más filosóficos y representan la transición del hinduismo de un mero sistema de rituales antiguos a lo que hoy consideramos una religión de pleno derecho. Smriti consta de una colección aún mayor de escritos. Voy a mencionar sólo tres. En primer lugar, están el Mahabharata y el Ramayana, dos poemas épicos parecidos a la Ilíada pero mucho, mucho más largos. Una pequeña sección del Mahabharata se conoce como Bhagavad Gita (que a menudo es el único conjunto de escrituras hindúes con el que la mayoría de los occidentales están familiarizados). Anteriormente, hice un vídeo completo sobre el Mahabharata y el árbol genealógico de sus personajes, así que si quieres aprender más sobre eso, te dejaré un enlace en la descripción. Finalmente, se incluyen como Smriti los Puranas, una gran colección de historias e información enciclopédica que cubre todo, desde la genealogía de los dioses hasta la historia de las dinastías reales. Bien, ahora que tienes algunos antecedentes sobre los dioses hindúes y las escrituras hindúes, déjame hablar sobre cómo se desarrolló la religión que ahora llamamos hinduismo. Como hice en la serie cristiana, les voy a ofrecer dos escenarios: el que cuentan aquellos que toman las escrituras hindúes literalmente y el que cuentan los académicos seculares. Según la visión tradicional hindú, las personas que viven hoy en la India son descendientes directos de las personas que vivían allí hace 10.000 años y durante todo ese tiempo, la religión hindú ha sido prácticamente la misma. De hecho, una visión dentro del hinduismo es que la historia es cíclica y se compone de cuatro eras (cada una de las cuales es peor que la anterior). Una vez completadas las cuatro edades, todo el proceso se repite. Actualmente, estamos en la cuarta edad, que comenzó alrededor del 3100 a. C., alrededor de la época de la Guerra del Mahabharata. Según la visión tradicional hindú, las escrituras más importantes (los Vedas) no tienen autor y fueron reveladas a ciertos sabios antes de esto, a través de una intensa meditación. Sin embargo, cerca del final de la tercera edad, un sabio llamado Vyasa los recopiló en la forma en que los tenemos hoy, además de escribir el Mahabharata y los Puranas. Ahora bien, como habrás adivinado, la visión secular de cómo se desarrolló el hinduismo es bastante diferente. Según el consenso académico, lo que hoy llamamos hinduismo evolucionó lentamente con el tiempo y tiene sus raíces en al menos tres lugares diferentes. Una de ellas es la civilización del valle del Indo, que es una de las tres civilizaciones más antiguas de la Tierra (las otras dos son Egipto y Sumer). Sin embargo, a diferencia de los jeroglíficos del Antiguo Egipto y la escritura cuneiforme sumeria, no podemos leer la escritura dejada por la civilización del valle del Indo y, por lo tanto, no podemos saber con seguridad cuál era su religión y cómo podría estar conectada con el hinduismo. Sin embargo, hay algunos indicios tentadores, como este sello del valle del Indo, que muestra una figura que comparte ciertos atributos en común con el dios hindú Shiva. Luego están las religiones populares locales que probablemente se desarrollaron en todo el subcontinente indio, cada una con su propio dios local. Hasta el día de hoy, hay aldeas rurales en la India que todavía siguen una especie de hinduismo popular que combina ciertas prácticas hindúes con la adoración de un dios local que en realidad es anterior al hinduismo. Finalmente, está la religión protoindoeuropea, la misma religión que dio origen al panteón de dioses adorados por los griegos, romanos y las tribus germánicas. Por ejemplo, los principales dioses adorados por los protoindoeuropeos incluyen un padre del cielo llamado Dyeus, una joven diosa del amanecer llamada Hausos y un par de gemelos asociados con los caballos. En Grecia, Dyeus llegó a ser conocido como Zeus y en muchos idiomas europeos hoy en día, la palabra para Dios sigue siendo algo así como Dieu o Dios. También hay una diosa griega del amanecer llamada Eos y un par de gemelos en la leyenda anglosajona llamados Hengist y Horsa. ¿Y qué pasa en la India? Bueno, ¿ qué sabes? En el Rig Veda (que, recordemos, es el conjunto de escrituras más antiguo del hinduismo) también se menciona a una deidad del padre del cielo llamada Dyaus. Y también tiene una diosa del amanecer llamada Ushas y un par de gemelos llamados Ashvins (Asvin es la palabra sánscrita para jinetes). Pero no me malinterpretes. No estoy diciendo que esté de acuerdo con la ahora desacreditada " Teoría de la invasión aria". Esa teoría, que claramente tenía connotaciones racistas, afirmaba que los indoeuropeos de piel más clara llamados “arios” conquistaron a los antiguos habitantes de piel más oscura de la India de alguna manera dramática, provocando la repentina desaparición de la civilización del valle del Indo. En cambio, el consenso académico actual es que hubo una MIGRACIÓN muy lenta de indoeuropeos a la India, entre los años 2000 y 1500 a. C., y que estas personas probablemente se mezclaron con las poblaciones locales, lo que resultó en la creación de la civilización védica. Esta nueva hipótesis está respaldada tanto por evidencia lingüística como por evidencia de ADN. Ahora bien, como probablemente habrás adivinado, la civilización védica recibe ese nombre porque produjo las escrituras hindúes llamadas Vedas. Pero tenga en cuenta que la religión védica no era lo mismo que el hinduismo moderno. Por ejemplo, los dioses principales de los que se habla en los Vedas no son Vishnu y Shiva. Más bien, son Indra, Varuna y Agni. Entonces, aunque a menudo se dice que el hinduismo es la religión más antigua del mundo, con más de 4000 años de antigüedad, esto no es exactamente cierto. Las RAÍCES del hinduismo y algunas de sus costumbres se remontan a ese tiempo, pero el hinduismo tal como lo conocemos hoy no. Lo mismo ocurre con el judaísmo. El judaísmo tiene sus raíces en la antigua religión israelita, que se originó hace unos 3000 años. Sin embargo, el judaísmo tal como lo conocemos hoy no es idéntico a la religión practicada por los antiguos israelitas. Se desarrolló principalmente entre los años 600 a. C. y 200 d. C. Así que mi punto es: salir con religiones no es tan simple como podrías pensar. Porque las religiones cambian con el tiempo. Y esto es ciertamente cierto en el caso del hinduismo. La religión védica finalmente evolucionó hacia el brahminismo, momento en el que la casta sacerdotal conocida como brahmanes quedó firmemente establecida. Pero el brahminismo no era de ninguna manera la única religión en la India en ese momento. Se practicaba principalmente en el Reino de Kuru. Más al este, el movimiento Shramana se estaba afianzando (Shramana significa "buscador"). Shramanas rechazó la autoridad de los Vedas así como la de los brahmanes y, en cambio, promovió una rígida autodisciplina y el rechazo de los placeres mundanos. Fue a partir del movimiento Shramana que se desarrollaron las religiones del budismo y el jainismo. Sin embargo, también tuvo un gran impacto en el desarrollo del hinduismo, lo que condujo a lo que se ha llamado la " síntesis hindú", que ocurrió durante el período comprendido entre aproximadamente 500 a. C. y 500 d. C., que es cuando muchas ideas y costumbres religiosas se unieron para formar lo que hoy conocemos como hinduismo. Fue durante este período que se escribieron el Mahabharata, el Ramayana y los Puranas y fue después de este período que las opiniones religiosas indias ahora pudieron dividirse en categorías claras, llamadas "Astika" y "Nastika". Los hindúes consideran que las escuelas de pensamiento Astika son ortodoxas porque todas aceptan la autoridad de los Vedas. Las seis "Astika" o "Escuelas de hinduismo" son Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa y Vedanta. Sin embargo, tenga en cuenta que estas no son denominaciones. Son más bien filosofías que pueden seguir personas de diferentes denominaciones hindúes . A diferencia de las escuelas Astika, las escuelas Nastika rechazan los Vedas y, por lo tanto, los hindúes las consideran heterodoxas. Estas incluyen las religiones del budismo y el jainismo, pero también varias escuelas de pensamiento menos conocidas. Ahora bien, si eres occidental, de las seis astika, probablemente solo haya una que reconozcas: el Yoga. Bueno, lo primero que debes saber sobre el Yoga es que no es simplemente una serie de ejercicios, que es lo que la mayoría de los occidentales piensan que es el Yoga. El yoga es en realidad un sistema completo de filosofía y, de hecho, es uno de los sistemas más populares de la filosofía hindú. Como probablemente sepas, la mayoría de los hindúes creen en la reencarnación y que estamos atrapados en un ciclo aparentemente interminable de nacimiento, muerte y renacimiento. Por lo tanto, el objetivo del hinduismo es lograr moksha, que es la liberación del ciclo. Bueno, el Yoga postula que en realidad hay cuatro caminos religiosos diferentes que una persona puede seguir para alcanzar moksha. El primero es Karma Yoga, que básicamente implica trabajar duro, hacer el bien y servir a los demás. Luego está el Bhakti Yoga, que implica mostrar amor y devoción hacia un dios en particular. Finalmente, está el Jnana Yoga, que implica la búsqueda del conocimiento, y el Raja Yoga, que implica la meditación. Pero repito: estos cuatro caminos no representan cuatro denominaciones diferentes. Los hindúes de diversas denominaciones pueden seguir uno o más de estos caminos. Si hay algo parecido a denominaciones dentro del hinduismo, podríamos colocarlas bajo Bhakti Yoga porque la forma más común en que los hindúes pueden dividirse en varios subgrupos es por qué dios o dioses son particularmente devotos. Por eso a menudo se dice que el hinduismo tiene cuatro denominaciones principales: vaishnavismo, shaivismo, shaktismo y smartismo. Veamos primero el vaishnavismo, porque es la denominación más grande y representa alrededor del 70% de todos los hindúes. Los vaishnavistas adoran al dios Vishnu como la Deidad Suprema. Esto incluye sus diversas formas encarnadas (llamadas avatares), que es cuando nació en la tierra como humano o animal. Sus dos avatares más populares son Rama y Krishna. Ahora bien, como mencioné anteriormente, Vishnu no era en realidad uno de los principales dioses védicos (aunque se lo menciona algunas veces en el Rigveda). Sin embargo, con el tiempo, adoptó los atributos y leyendas de otros dioses y se volvió cada vez más importante. Por ejemplo, un grupo de antiguos indios adoraba a un dios llamado Vasudeva. Este dios finalmente se fusionó con otro dios llamado Krishna, que era adorado por un grupo diferente de personas. Pero luego, aún más tarde, Vasudeva-Krishna se fusionó con Vishnu y se entendió que era sólo una de las diez encarnaciones principales de Vishnu. Ahora, para que no pienses que esto es extraño, déjame señalar que dos o más dioses fusionándose en uno es en realidad algo bastante común a lo largo de la historia de la religión. Por ejemplo, en Canaán, originalmente había un dios llamado El que estaba separado del dios representado por las letras YHWH. Pero luego, eventualmente, con el tiempo, estos dos dioses se fusionaron y fueron vistos como uno y el mismo. Lo que explica por qué, hasta el día de hoy, la Biblia a veces llama a Dios El o Elohim y otras veces lo llama YHWH. La segunda denominación hindú más grande es el Shaivismo, que se encuentra principalmente en el sur de la India y le sigue alrededor del 25% de todos los hindúes. Los shivaistas adoran al dios Shiva como la Deidad Suprema. A diferencia de Vishnu, Shiva no se menciona en absoluto en el Rig Veda. Sin embargo, el Rig Veda sí menciona a un dios llamado Rudra que es muy similar a Shiva y, por tanto, está fuertemente asociado con él. Otra cosa que diferencia al shivaísmo del vaisnavismo es que a menudo se adora a Shiva en una forma no humana, mostrándose en muchos templos como una simple piedra llamada lingam. Mucha gente supone que se supone que el lingam representa un falo masculino, pero en realidad esto no es cierto. Simplemente pretende comunicar la idea de que Shiva no tiene forma real. El 5% restante de los hindúes sigue el shaktismo o el smartismo. El shaktismo está estrechamente relacionado con el shaivismo, pero mientras los shaivistas adoran a la Deidad Suprema en la forma del dios masculino Shiva, los shaktistas adoran a la Deidad Suprema en la forma de la diosa femenina Shakti, que es otro nombre de Parvati, la esposa de Shiva. Como mencioné antes, esta Diosa Suprema toma muchas formas: a veces es la dulce y amorosa Parvati, pero otras veces es la diosa guerrera Durga o incluso la aterradora Kali. Finalmente está la denominación hindú conocida como Smartismo, en la que se adora a cinco dioses por igual: Ganesh, Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu y Surya. Tenga en cuenta que la palabra Smartismo se basa en la palabra Smriti, que encontramos antes y que se refiere al cuerpo de escrituras hindúes que vinieron después de los Vedas. Ahora, en conjunto, el hinduismo es la tercera religión más grande del mundo, con alrededor de 1.100 millones de seguidores. Sin embargo, a diferencia de las otras dos grandes religiones, el cristianismo y el islam, el hinduismo se limita principalmente a una sola zona del mundo: el sur de Asia. Y, siempre que se practica el hinduismo fuera del sur de Asia, casi siempre es entre personas de ascendencia del sur de Asia. La única excepción a esto son los numerosos movimientos neohindúes que han surgido en los países occidentales desde mediados del siglo XX. La mayoría de ellos fueron fundados por gurús o maestros individuales, muchos de los cuales fueron o son bastante controvertidos. Se necesitaría otro vídeo para repasarlos todos, así que permítanme señalar dos. El primero es Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Fundó la Sociedad Internacional para la Conciencia de Krishna, más conocida como los Hare Krishnas porque son conocidos por cantar esa frase una y otra vez, así como “Hare Rama”. La palabra "Liebre" es otro nombre para Vishnu y, como aprendimos antes, tanto Krishna como Rama son avatares de Vishnu. Así que no te sorprenderá cuando te diga que los Hare Krishnas siguen un tipo de vaisnavismo. Sin embargo, su tipo de vaisnavismo tiene sus raíces en el vaisnavismo Gaudiya, que comenzó alrededor del año 1500 y que se centra en Krishna como la Deidad Suprema. El propio Swami Prabhupada era una figura controvertida, conocida por hacer comentarios racistas, antisemitas, sexistas y clasistas. Y las controversias continuaron después de su muerte y los líderes de ISKCON finalmente admitieron que se estaban produciendo abusos físicos y sexuales dentro de su organización. Desde entonces, han tomado medidas para reconstruir su reputación y, con suerte, proteger mejor a los niños. El otro gurú que quiero mencionar es Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a quien mucha gente conoce simplemente por su asociación con los Beatles. Pero lo más importante es que es el fundador del Movimiento de Meditación Trascendental. Aunque se comercializa como un método no religioso, tiene sus raíces en técnicas de meditación que se han practicado en el hinduismo durante siglos. Entonces, comencemos con la religión védica, que presenté en mi video sobre hinduismo. Se desarrolló en la India alrededor del año 1500 a. C., después de que un grupo de indoeuropeos emigrara lentamente a la zona, probablemente mezclándose con los descendientes de la otrora poderosa civilización del valle del Indo, así como con otros indios nativos que vivían a lo largo del río Ganges. La religión védica probablemente tomó prestados elementos de estos tres grupos, lo cual es un punto importante a recordar. A esta forma temprana de hinduismo la llamamos “védica” porque fue durante este período cuando se compusieron las escrituras hindúes más antiguas y sagradas, llamadas los Vedas. Sin embargo, alrededor del año 500 a. C., la religión védica había evolucionado hacia el brahminismo, en el que una determinada clase de personas, conocidas como brahmanes, controlaban el sacerdocio y muchos otros aspectos de la sociedad. Debajo de ellos estaban los Kshatriya (compuestos por gobernantes y guerreros seculares), los Vaishya (los agricultores y comerciantes) y, finalmente, los Shudra (trabajadores y sirvientes). Sin embargo, no todos estaban contentos con la autoridad de los brahmanes y con las enseñanzas de los Vedas. Esto dio origen al movimiento Shramana, que fue particularmente popular en la llanura oriental del Ganges. Para explicarlo, echemos un vistazo a un mapa de la India alrededor del año 500 a.C. En ese momento, la mayor parte del Norte estaba dividida en dieciséis estados independientes, conocidos como "Mahajanapadas", que significa "grandes reinos". El brahminismo fue más fuerte en el Reino de Kuru, que anteriormente había sido mucho más grande y fue el escenario de la gran epopeya hindú El Mahabharat. Pero al este había otros estados como Kosala, Vriji y Magadha, donde el apoyo a los brahmanes era más débil. Fue aquí donde se afianzó el movimiento Shramana. Básicamente, un "Shramana" era una persona que abandonó la sociedad cotidiana para vivir una vida muy simple centrada en el desarrollo espiritual. Esto dio lugar al desarrollo de varias nuevas escuelas de filosofía, pero también acabó influyendo en el brahminismo, dando lugar a lo que se ha llamado la " síntesis hindú", que es cuando realmente tomó forma lo que hoy conocemos como hinduismo. Entonces, a partir de este momento, desde la perspectiva hindú, las escuelas de filosofía indias ahora se dividieron en dos categorías: "Astika" y "Nastika". Las escuelas Astika aceptan la autoridad de los Vedas (y, por lo tanto, se las considera parte del hinduismo), mientras que las escuelas Nastika rechazan los Vedas y, por lo tanto, se las considera religiones separadas. Las dos escuelas Nastika con las que la mayoría de la gente está familiarizada hoy en día son el jainismo y el budismo, pero en épocas anteriores había otras escuelas de pensamiento que eran igual de populares. Estas incluyen la escuela atea Charvaka, la escuela agnóstica Ajñana y la fatalista escuela Ajivika. Bien, con estos antecedentes, centrémonos ahora exclusivamente en el budismo. A diferencia del hinduismo, que no tiene fundador, el budismo sí lo tiene. Fue fundada por la persona que la mayoría de la gente conoce simplemente como El Buda. Pero este no era su nombre real. Al nacer, se llamó Siddhartha Gautama y era un príncipe que vivía en el Reino de Kosala. Más específicamente, pertenecía a una región y grupo étnico dentro de Kosala conocidos como los Shakyas, cuyo territorio en realidad pertenecía a lo que hoy llamamos Nepal. Por eso, en los registros más antiguos, al Buda se le llama Shakyamuni, que significa el Sabio de los Shakyas. No repasaré su historia completa, pero aquí están los aspectos más destacados. A la edad de 29 años, Siddhartha dejó su familia y su vida de lujo para convertirse en Shramana. Al principio, practicó el ascetismo: se negaba a sí mismo todo excepto la más mínima cantidad de alimento necesario para sobrevivir. Pero entonces, a la edad de 35 años, mientras estaba sentado bajo un árbol, se dice que alcanzó la iluminación. Es en este punto que se convirtió en "el Buda", que es un título que significa "el Iluminado". Después de esto, predicó sobre el “Camino Medio”, que promueve vivir entre los extremos del exceso de indulgencia por un lado y la abnegación por el otro. También sentó las bases del pensamiento budista, llamado Dharma, que puede resumirse en las Cuatro Nobles Verdades y el Óctuple Sendero. Durante la vida de Buda, no sólo enseñó el Dharma, sino que también formó una comunidad de seguidores conocida como La Sangha. Es posible que hayas oído a los budistas referirse a la Triple Gema, o tres joyas. Esta es una referencia al Buda, el Dharma y la Sangha. Según la tradición, Buda murió a los 80 años, alrededor del año 480 a.C. En ese momento se celebró el Primer Concilio Budista, al que asistieron 500 de sus seguidores. El propósito era asegurarse de que se recordaran todas las enseñanzas del Buda y las reglas de la comunidad. Uno de sus 10 discípulos principales, llamado Ananda, recitó todas las enseñanzas (que se conocen como sutras) y otro discípulo (llamado Upali) recitó las reglas de la comunidad (que se conocen como vinaya). Según la tradición, se celebró un Segundo Concilio Budista aproximadamente 100 años después de la muerte de Buda. Esta vez hubo desacuerdos sobre las reglas de la comunidad y esto llevó al primer cisma budista. El grupo mayoritario pasó a ser conocido como Mahasangika, que significa "la Gran Sangha", y el grupo minoritario pasó a ser conocido como Sthaviravada, que significa "Escuela de los Ancianos", porque estaba formado principalmente por monjes de mayor rango. Tenga en cuenta que todas las ramas modernas del budismo descienden del Sthaviravada, aunque existe cierto debate sobre si el Maha-sangika tuvo o no influencia en el desarrollo del Mahayana, término que explicaré en un momento. Pero volvamos al budismo temprano. Con el tiempo se produjeron cada vez más divisiones, hasta el punto de que, en la antigüedad, se cree que había al menos 18 escuelas separadas. Alrededor de la época de Ashoka (el gran emperador indio que unió la mayor parte de la India por primera vez), los tres principales eran Vibhajyavada, Sarvastivada y Pudgalavada. Ashoka es una figura extremadamente importante en la historia del budismo temprano porque él mismo se convirtió a la nueva religión y promovió los esfuerzos misioneros para difundir el budismo a otras tierras. La más importante de estas misiones fue dirigida por su hijo primogénito, Mahinda, quien se hizo monje y llevó el budismo a Sri Lanka. (Ahora bien, debo señalar que no es necesario convertirse en monje para seguir el budismo, aunque algunos todavía lo hacen, ya que generalmente se considera una forma más rápida de alcanzar la iluminación.) En Sri Lanka, la escuela fundada por Mahinda se convirtió en conocida como la Escuela Tamrashatiya y era una rama de la Escuela Vibhajyavada. Fue en Sri Lanka donde se produjo el Canon Pali, que hoy en día es el conjunto completo de escrituras budistas más antiguo que se conserva (tenga en cuenta que el pali es un idioma estrechamente relacionado con el sánscrito, pero no exactamente igual). Tomémonos ahora un momento para mirar el contenido del Canon Pali. Un conjunto completo de escrituras budistas se llama Tipitaka, que significa tres cestas. Esto se debe a que se compone de tres partes principales: el Vinaya pitaka (que contiene las reglas de la comunidad), el Sutta pitaka (que contiene las enseñanzas del Buda) y el Abhidhamma, que contiene un análisis de esas enseñanzas. El Vinaya pitaka contiene reglas tanto para los monjes varones, a quienes se les llama Bhikkhus, como para las monjas (o monjas), a quienes se les llama Bhikkhunis. También contiene algunas secciones que cubren la historia budista temprana. En el Canon Pali, el Sutta Pitaka se divide en cinco partes, llamadas nikayas (que significa volúmenes). Luego, estos se pueden dividir en libros más pequeños. De estos libros más pequeños, el que me gustaría destacar es el Dhammapada, que se encuentra en el quinto nikaya. Es la más conocida de todas las escrituras budistas y es un buen punto de partida para aquellos que quieran sumergir los pies en el agua. Finalmente, me gustaría señalar que la versión Pali Canon del Abhidhamma tiene siete partes. Bien, volvamos ahora al árbol genealógico. Desde Sri Lanka, el budismo finalmente se extendió a Birmania, Tailandia, Laos y Camboya. Por lo tanto, el tipo de budismo que se encuentra en todos estos países es muy similar. Hoy en día se llama budismo Theravada. Tenga en cuenta que la palabra "Theravada" es en realidad sólo la versión pali de la palabra sánscrita Sthaviravada, que, como recordará, significa "Escuela de los Ancianos". Por lo tanto, el budismo Theravada se considera el budismo original. En términos generales, es más estricto y más terrenal que las otras formas de budismo. Aunque puedes ver aquí que hay tres tipos principales de budismo en el mundo hoy en día, considerando que el budismo tibetano es relativamente pequeño, a menudo se dice que en realidad solo hay dos tipos principales de budismo: Theravada y Mahayana. Por lo tanto, a continuación me centraré en Mahayana. Los orígenes exactos del Mahayana no están claros. En realidad no fue una escuela separada sino más bien un movimiento que tuvo lugar dentro de muchas escuelas. Una teoría es que se desarrolló a partir de la ahora extinta escuela Mahasangika, pero otra es que podría haberse originado entre laicos , es decir, no monjes. Cualquiera que sea el origen, el factor común entre los budistas mahayana es que tienen un conjunto adicional de escrituras conocidas como los sutras mahayana. Según el budismo Mahayana, estos sutras especiales inicialmente se ocultaron después de la muerte de Buda, para ser revelados más tarde, cuando llegó el momento adecuado. Una de las primeras escuelas en aceptar los Mahayana Sutras fue la escuela Dharmaguptaka, que originalmente tenía su sede en Gandhara, en lo que hoy es Pakistán y Afganistán.   Por eso, hasta hace muy poco, en esta región había algunas estatuas de Buda muy antiguas. Desafortunadamente, estos fueron destruidos por los talibanes en 2001. Existe cierto debate sobre si la escuela Dharmaguptaka surgió de la escuela Vibhajyavada o si surgió de la escuela Sarvastivada. Por lo tanto, lo he mostrado viniendo de ambos. Desde la región de Gandhara, la escuela Dharmaguptaka finalmente se extendió a China, Corea, Japón y Vietnam. Hubo otras escuelas que se extendieron a estas áreas también, pero todas se extinguieron y, por lo tanto, hoy en día, todos los monjes Mahayana del este de Asia siguen las reglas de la comunidad Dharmaguptaka. Curiosamente, aunque el budismo se originó en la India y alguna vez fue una fuerza dominante allí, hoy en día la gran mayoría de los budistas viven FUERA de la India. De hecho, ahora es China la que tiene la mayor cantidad de budistas en el mundo. Por eso quiero hablar un poco sobre la Canon china, que es la principal alternativa a la Canon Pali. Al igual que el Canon Pali, también contiene un tripitaka; sin embargo, tenga en cuenta que las secciones que cubren las enseñanzas del Buda se llaman agamas en lugar de nikayas. El Canon chino tiene sólo cuatro agamas, que corresponden aproximadamente a los primeros cuatro nikayas del Canon Pali. Sin embargo, las secciones Vinaya y Abhudharma son totalmente diferentes. Mientras que el Canon Pali incluye las reglas de la comunidad Theravada, el Canon chino incluye las reglas del Dharma-guptaka, así como reglas de varias escuelas ahora extintas. Sin embargo, la principal diferencia entre el Canon Pali y el Canon chino es que el Canon chino incluye varias secciones adicionales, en particular los Mahayana Sutras, que mencioné anteriormente. Hay muchos de ellos, pero los más importantes son el Sutra del loto, el Sutra de la perfección de la sabiduría, el Sutra de la guirnalda de flores y el Sutra del nirvana. Pero eso no es todo. El Canon chino también incluye una sección llamada Jataka, que describe la historia del nacimiento de Buda y una sección sobre los tantras, que son prácticas esotéricas o más "secretas", destinadas sólo a aquellos con conocimientos especializados. Ahora, como habrás adivinado, el Canon chino está escrito principalmente en chino, chino clásico para ser exactos (aunque la versión japonesa incluye algunas partes en japonés). Esta es la razón por la que generalmente se entiende que el Canon Pali es el más antiguo de los dos cánones. Después de todo, el pali es una antigua lengua india y en la India es donde se originó el budismo. Sin embargo, esto pinta una imagen un poco equivocada. En realidad, es más exacto decir que el Canon Pali es la versión COMPLETA más antigua de las escrituras budistas. Esto se debe a que, de hecho, hay partes del canon chino para las cuales tenemos las versiones sánscritas correspondientes, mucho más antiguas . Lo que pasa es que no tenemos el canon chino COMPLETO disponible en sánscrito. Bien, ahora antes de continuar, quiero describir brevemente la diferencia principal entre el budismo Theravada y el budismo Mahayana en términos de creencias. En ambos casos, el objetivo final es alcanzar la iluminación, lo que luego libera a la persona del ciclo continuo de nacimiento, muerte y renacimiento (que, por cierto, también es el objetivo en el hinduismo). Los budistas Theravada enseñan que hay tres caminos hacia la iluminación. El primero y, con diferencia, el más común es el camino del estudiante, en el que una persona aprende de las enseñanzas de un Buda y eventualmente se convierte en un arhat (principalmente mediante una disciplina estricta). Una vez que una persona se convierte en arhat, ya no renacerá. El segundo camino es el del Buda Solitario, en el que una persona alcanza la iluminación por sí misma pero es incapaz de enseñar a otros cómo hacerlo. Finalmente, está el Camino del Buda Completo, en el que una persona alcanza la iluminación por sí misma Y también es capaz de enseñar a otros cómo alcanzarla. Obviamente, este fue el camino seguido por Siddhartha Gautama, razón por la cual se le llama EL Buda. Ahora bien, lo que muchos no budistas no saben es que Buda no fue la única persona que alcanzó la Budeidad completa. El Canon Pali menciona 27 Budas por su nombre: Budas que vivieron antes de EL Buda, siendo los tres más recientes Kakusandha, Konagamana y Kassapa. También habla de un futuro Buda, llamado Maitreya. Lo que me lleva a la palabra Bodhisattva, que es un término que se usa para referirse a alguien en el camino hacia convertirse en un Buda completo. En el budismo Theravada, se cree que los Bodhisattvas son raros, siendo Maitreya el único actual. Como digo, en el budismo Theravada, la mayoría de la gente toma el camino Arhat. Y aquí es donde el budismo mahayana es muy diferente. En el budismo mahayana, los dos primeros caminos se consideran muy inferiores. Es por eso que los budistas Mahayana se refieren a Theravada como "Hinayana", que significa "el camino menor". Por el contrario, la palabra Mahayana significa "el camino más grande". Mahayana enseña que el camino del Buda Completo (también conocido como el camino del Bodhisattva) está abierto a todos. Considera a los Bodhisattvas como individuos compasivos que posponen la iluminación para ayudar a los demás. Por lo tanto, en el budismo Mahayana hay MUCHOS Bodhisattvas, muchos de los cuales se entiende que residen en reinos superiores. Por eso, los budistas mahayana suelen rezar a los bodhisattvas y pedirles ayuda. Un ejemplo de bodhisattva es este tipo, a menudo llamado "Buda sonriente" o "Buda gordo". Su verdadero nombre es Budai y era un monje que vivió hace unos 1000 años . Pero aquí está lo importante. Budai y Buda no son la misma persona. EL Buda es Siddhartha Gautama, el fundador del budismo, quien se convirtió en Buda [vivió] hace más de 2000 años. Por el contrario, Budai es un Bodhisattva, en camino de convertirse en un Buda. Algunos piensan que es Maitreya, ese futuro Buda que mencioné antes. Todo esto plantea la pregunta: ¿Están sus dioses en el budismo? Bueno, depende en cierto modo de tu definición de dios. Aunque a menudo se dice que el budismo es una religión atea, al menos en el budismo mahayana, un bodhisattva ciertamente parece ser algo un poco similar a un dios. Tal vez no sea el tipo de Dios omnipotente del que hablan las religiones abrahámicas, pero sí, con seguridad, algún tipo de ser espiritual. En el budismo Theravada esto es menos cierto. Por ejemplo, es posible que veas a un budista Theravada parado frente a una estatua de Buda, con las manos juntas. Pero en este caso, en realidad no están adorando a Buda como a un dios. En cambio, simplemente muestran respeto o utilizan la forma de Buda como ayuda para la meditación. Bien, volvamos ahora al árbol genealógico. Hay tres subramas particulares del Mahayana de Asia Oriental que me gustaría señalar. En realidad, hay muchos más que estos, pero estos tres tienden a ser los más populares. El primero es el budismo Chan, conocido como budismo zen en Japón. Es particularmente popular en Occidente y se centra principalmente en la meditación. Luego está el budismo de la Tierra Pura, donde el objetivo es intentar renacer en una “tierra purificada” especial donde sea más fácil alcanzar la iluminación. La “tierra pura” más popular en el budismo de la tierra pura es la formada por un Buda llamado Amitabha. Finalmente, está Tiantai (conocido como Tendai en Japón y Cheontae en Corea). Se centra en el Sutra del loto que mencioné anteriormente, que enseña que todos los caminos eventualmente conducen al único camino del Bodhisattva. Bien, ahora quiero centrar nuestra atención en el budismo tibetano. En los primeros días del Mahayana, hubo otro movimiento que se separó, conocido como Vajrayana. Pero, al igual que Mahayana, esta no fue una escuela de budismo separada sino más bien un movimiento que impactó a varias escuelas. Una escuela que adoptó muchas ideas vajrayanas fue la Escuela Mula-sarvasti-vada, que probablemente era una rama de la Escuela Sarvasti-vada, de nombre similar . Con el tiempo se extendió hacia el norte, hasta el Tíbet y Bután, que es donde se encuentra principalmente en la actualidad. El budismo tibetano se diferencia de otras formas de budismo en que incorpora prácticas mucho más esotéricas, como cantar, recitar encantamientos y crear patrones geométricos llamados mandalas para ayudar a inducir trances. El budista tibetano más famoso es, por supuesto, el Dalai Lama, a quien se considera una especie de figura decorativa del pueblo tibetano. En realidad, es el líder de una sola secta del budismo tibetano, de las cuales actualmente hay cuatro. Sin embargo, su secta, conocida como escuela Gelug o “Sombrero Amarillo”, es la más grande. Se le conoce como el decimocuarto Dalai Lama porque se cree que es la reencarnación de un hombre llamado Gedun Drupa, que murió en 1474 pero continúa renaciendo en la tierra. A su vez, se dice que todos los Dalai Lamas son encarnaciones de un Boddhisatva llamado Avalokitesvara. Ahora, antes de irme, quiero mencionar brevemente el jainismo, que es la otra religión que se remonta al movimiento Shramana. Fue fundado por un hombre llamado Mahavira, quien, como puede ver aquí, a menudo se representa con un aspecto bastante similar al Buda. De hecho, los dos maestros vivieron aproximadamente en la misma época, siendo Mahavira el mayor de los dos. Mientras que Buda nació en Kosala, Mahavira nació en Vriji. Una de las características clave de la religión jainista es la no violencia y, por lo tanto, la mayoría de los jainistas son vegetarianos. Hoy en día, el jainismo es mucho más pequeño que el budismo y en realidad sólo hay dos ramas principales. El más grande se llama Svetambara, que significa "vestido de blanco" porque sus monjes visten túnicas blancas. Tenga en cuenta también la mascarilla.   Los jainistas han estado usando máscaras faciales mucho antes de la pandemia actual. Esto ayuda a evitar que los objetos sagrados se contaminen. La otra rama del jainismo se llama Digambara, que significa "vestido de cielo". Esto se debe a que los monjes varones de esta secta no usan ropa alguna, un testimonio del hecho de que quieren la menor cantidad posible de posesiones terrenales. Bien, ahora lo que realmente quiero mostrarles es cómo he integrado las diversas religiones en China. Como dije antes, la religión en China es complicada porque la gente allí a menudo se mezcla y combina con más de una tradición religiosa. Sin embargo, hay tres tradiciones que son las más importantes y a menudo se las conoce como las "tres enseñanzas". Ellos son: budismo mahayana, taoísmo y confucianismo. Ya hablé sobre el budismo Mahayana en el vídeo sobre budismo, así que déjame hablarte de los otros dos. Para ello, permítanme comenzar con la primera forma de religión que se desarrolló en China: el politeísmo. El símbolo que ves aquí proviene del sistema de escritura más antiguo de China , llamado escritura de hueso de oráculo, que se utilizó durante la dinastía Shang. Se pronuncia Shang-di y básicamente significa "dios supremo". Posteriormente, este dios pasaría a asociarse con una figura conocida como el Emperador de Jade, aunque en otros contextos se dice que se manifiesta como cinco deidades, cada una asociada con un color, elemento, dirección y planeta. Pero Shang-di no fue ni es el único dios chino. Hay docenas más, como el dios dragón que controla la lluvia y [Xiwangmu, la Reina Madre de Occidente, que está asociada con la muerte y tiene la capacidad de otorgar la inmortalidad. Sin embargo, un aspecto único del politeísmo chino, que se desarrolló desde el principio, es que el culto (o veneración) de los antepasados ​​fallecidos llegó a ser tan importante (si no más) que el culto a las deidades. Otro grupo de seres espirituales, llamados inmortales, también adquirió importancia. Los inmortales son antiguos humanos que no son del todo dioses, pero que viven después de la muerte y pueden poseer grandes poderes. Así, a medida que pasó el tiempo, el autocultivo en esta vida se volvió cada vez más importante en la religión china. Luego, durante el año 500 a. C., hubo una explosión de nuevas ideas en China, que dio lugar a lo que se llama las "Cien Escuelas de Pensamiento". La mayoría de estas escuelas finalmente se extinguieron, pero hay dos que han sobrevivido hasta el día de hoy. Estos son, como seguramente habrás adivinado, el taoísmo y el confucianismo. El taoísmo es el más místico y espiritual de los dos. Incorpora todos los dioses e inmortales del politeísmo chino, pero también pone un fuerte énfasis en vivir en armonía con algo llamado Tao, una palabra que es un poco difícil de definir rápidamente en inglés. En un nivel básico, simplemente significa "camino" o "camino", pero en un nivel más profundo, se refiere a la realidad última del universo . Suele asociarse con las fuerzas complementarias yin y yang, que probablemente conozcas gracias a este símbolo. El confucianismo, por otro lado, se centra más en el mundo físico y en cuestiones prácticas, como el buen gobierno y la armonía social, ya sea a nivel familiar o nacional. Por eso a menudo se dice que el confucianismo es más una filosofía que una religión. Lleva el nombre de su fundador, Confucio, que vivió aproximadamente al mismo tiempo que Buda. Tenga en cuenta que Confucio es la versión inglesa de Kong Fuzi, que simplemente significa "Maestro Kong". Se dice que el fundador tradicional del taoísmo, Laozi, vivió aproximadamente en la misma época que Confucio y que su mayor tuvo alguna influencia sobre él. Sin embargo, hoy en día se considera generalmente que Laozi fue una figura más legendaria, mientras que Confucio fue casi con certeza histórico. Entonces, como dije, mucha gente en China sigue tradiciones y principios asociados tanto con el taoísmo como con el confucianismo, así como con el budismo. Por eso, no es raro ver representaciones del Buda o de varios Bodhisattvas junto a las de dioses o inmortales tradicionales chinos. Y además de todo esto, la veneración de los antepasados en China sigue siendo importante hasta el día de hoy. Ahora, antes de continuar, quiero señalar algunas tendencias más modernas dentro de la religión china. La primera son las religiones salvacionistas chinas, que se hicieron populares a principios del siglo XX pero que hoy en día se siguen principalmente en Taiwán. Un buen ejemplo es Yiguandao, que tiene raíces que se remontan a la época imperial pero que en realidad no despegó hasta después de 1912, que fue cuando China se convirtió en república. En ese momento estaba dirigido por un hombre llamado Zhang Tianran, quien logró hacer crecer el movimiento a alrededor de 12 millones de miembros. Sin embargo, una vez que comenzó la revolución y China se volvió comunista, fue prácticamente eliminada, solo para volver a ganar fuerza en Taiwán durante los años 80. Como la mayoría de los movimientos salvacionistas chinos, Yiguandao es una especie de versión simplificada del sincretismo chino, pero presentado de una manera más similar a, digamos, el mormonismo. En otras palabras, generalmente hay un líder venerado que recibió una revelación de Dios y hay mucho énfasis en la necesidad de la salvación individual y de convertir a otros al movimiento. Otro buen ejemplo de religión salvacionista china es el weixinismo más reciente, fundado por Hun Yuan. Y luego está Falun Gong, que fue fundado casi al mismo tiempo por Li Hongzhi. En realidad NO está clasificada como una Religión Salvacionista China pero comparte algunas similitudes con ellas, aunque se centra más en hacer ejercicios especiales llamados Qigong. Se ha vuelto particularmente popular entre la comunidad de expatriados chinos en Occidente, donde es conocida por ser súper conservadora y por protestar contra China. Bien, ahora déjame explicarte algunas diferencias importantes entre el judaísmo y el cristianismo. Una de las cosas que vuelve locos a los judíos es que los cristianos tienden a asumir que ya saben MUCHO sobre el judaísmo, porque han leído el Antiguo Testamento. Incluso muchos cristianos me han dicho que no soy un verdadero judío porque no coincido con sus expectativas sobre lo que es un verdadero judío. Verá, la mayoría de los cristianos (así como la mayoría de los ex cristianos) solo han visto el Antiguo Testamento a través de una lente cristiana y, por lo tanto, asumen que el judaísmo básicamente usa el mismo marco que el cristianismo, pero que simplemente lo hace sin Jesús. En realidad, no es así como funciona el judaísmo. Así que voy a empezar explicando algunas diferencias básicas entre estas dos religiones que quizás no conozcas. Lo primero que debes saber es que el cristianismo está mucho más preocupado por la pregunta: al elegir si unirse o no a una iglesia, la mayoría de los cristianos (especialmente los protestantes), primero se preguntarán: ¿Qué cree esa iglesia ? Es por eso que casi todos los sitios web de las iglesias siempre incluyen una sección llamada Declaración de Fe. También es la razón por la que la iglesia antigua desarrolló CREDOS, como el Credo de Nicea, para hacer una lista de lo que un cristiano necesita CREER para ser considerado cristiano. Y, por supuesto, lo más importante que un cristiano necesita creer es que Jesús es Dios y que murió por nuestros pecados. Por ejemplo, la famosa Escritura Juan 3:16 dice: “Porque tanto amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo aquel que en él CREE no perezca, sino que tenga vida eterna”. Entonces, obviamente la CREENCIA es una parte clave de lo que significa ser cristiano. Pero esto no es precisamente cierto para el judaísmo, ni tampoco lo es para la MAYORÍA de las otras religiones. La mayoría de las religiones se preocupan más por ¿Qué debe HACER una persona? Entonces, por ejemplo, para muchos judíos de hoy en día, es mucho menos importante creer que Moisés fue un personaje histórico que seguir las tradiciones judías que se dice que se remontan a él. Entonces, por ejemplo, cuando me convertí al judaísmo (que, en mi caso, fue un proceso de un año) en ningún momento me pidieron que aceptara cierta lista de creencias. En cambio, me enseñaron principalmente sobre PRÁCTICAS y tradiciones judías. Además de mucho sobre la historia y el idioma del pueblo judío. La otra cosa que preocupa mucho al cristianismo es la SALVACIÓN. Todo el asunto gira en torno a la pregunta: "¿Qué debe hacer (o creer) una persona para ser SALVADA?" Entonces, la suposición que la mayoría de los cristianos hacen sobre el judaísmo es que los judíos TAMBIÉN están preocupados por la salvación y que los judíos simplemente tienen una manera diferente de obtenerla. La suposición adicional, basada principalmente en los escritos de Pablo, es que los judíos intentan obtener la salvación obedeciendo la ley judía. Pero eso simplemente no es cierto porque no existe el pecado original en el judaísmo, ni se presta mucha atención a los detalles exactos que rodean la vida después de la muerte. En pocas palabras: los judíos no siguen la ley judía para salvarse de algún castigo futuro o para obtener alguna recompensa futura. Algunos judíos siguen la Ley simplemente porque Dios se lo ordenó. Para otros, es porque creemos que muchas de esas leyes (que llamamos mitzvot) tienen un propósito aquí y ahora. La mejor manera de explicar esto es dando la siguiente analogía: En nuestra sociedad moderna, tenemos muchas leyes de tránsito diseñadas para mantener a todos seguros. Si infringe una de esas leyes (por ejemplo, yendo demasiado rápido en su automóvil) podría recibir una multa como castigo. Pero, ¿obedeces las normas de tráfico simplemente porque no quieres una multa? Quizás, pero espero que tú también les obedezcas porque, por ejemplo, no quieres atropellar a algún niño al pasar por una zona escolar. Asimismo, una de las mitzvot judías es descansar en Shabat (o sábado). Hacemos esto, no porque tengamos miedo de que Dios nos castigue si no lo hacemos, sino porque vemos un beneficio en tomarnos un tiempo libre al menos una vez por semana. Ahora bien, como probablemente sepas, los diferentes judíos adoptan un enfoque diferente en cuanto al cuidado con el que siguen esta mitzvá (y llegaré a eso en un momento), pero por ahora, por favor, entiéndelo para todos los judíos, sin importar a qué rama pertenezcan. , lo que hacen o no hacen NO se basa en intentar ganar una recompensa futura. Esto se resume en el siguiente principio dado por el antiguo fariseo Antígono de Sokho: “No seáis como siervos que sirven a su amo a cambio de una recompensa. Más bien, sed como siervos que no sirven a su señor por la recompensa, y dejad que el temor del cielo esté sobre vosotros”. Ahora, no me malinterpretes. No estoy diciendo que a los cristianos no les preocupe en absoluto lo que hacen. Por supuesto que lo son. Pero, en el cristianismo, la creencia siempre es lo primero, seguida de un cambio de vida. Y tampoco estoy diciendo que no haya absolutamente ninguna creencia en el judaísmo. Para algunos judíos, su único credo es la oración Shemá: “Escucha, oh Israel. El Señor es nuestro Dios, el Señor es uno”. Para otros, especialmente los ortodoxos, existen los Trece Principios de la Fe de Maimónides. Lo que quiero decir es que, en términos generales, los cristianos ponen más énfasis en creer y los judíos ponen más énfasis en hacer. Entonces, con eso en nuestro haber, veamos ahora el árbol genealógico. Como mencioné en el episodio 1 de la serie sobre denominaciones cristianas, el judaísmo tiene sus raíces en la antigua religión israelita, que era practicada por los reinos de Israel y Judá. Israel y Judá eran reinos relativamente pequeños , pero estaban ubicados justo entre dos de los centros de civilización más importantes del mundo antiguo : Egipto y Mesopotamia, razón por la cual Egipto, y luego Asiria y Babilonia, desempeñaron un papel tan importante. papel en su historia. Ahora bien, hay dos explicaciones principales sobre el origen de la religión israelita antigua. Una, por supuesto, es que vino directamente de Dios, a través de revelación divina, específicamente cuando Moisés recibió la Torá. La otra es que se desarrolló lentamente, con el tiempo, basándose en sus interacciones tanto con Egipto como con Mesopotamia. De hecho, el consenso académico hoy en día es que los israelitas en realidad comenzaron como un subconjunto de cananeos y luego, lentamente, pasaron del politeísmo al monoteísmo con el tiempo. De cualquier manera, lo que nos preocupa aquí es lo que sucedió a finales de la Edad del Hierro. Básicamente, Israel cayó en manos de los asirios y Judá cayó en manos de los babilonios, pero luego, después de un breve exilio en Babilonia, los antiguos habitantes de Judá (ahora llamados judíos) pudieron regresar a su tierra y reconstruir su templo, razón por la cual el judaísmo entre el año 537 AEC y 70 EC se conoce como judaísmo del Segundo Templo. Durante este tiempo, estuvo influenciado tanto por el zoroastrismo (que era la religión de los persas) como por el helenismo (que era la religión de los griegos), pero lo más importante es que, en este punto, el judaísmo era definitivamente monoteísta, es decir, para decirlo de alguna manera. este día, su rasgo definitorio. Sin embargo, cuando los romanos tomaron el poder, había cuatro sectas principales dentro del judaísmo del Segundo Templo : los fariseos (que representaban a la gente común), los esenios (que eran un grupo místico), los zelotes (que querían luchar contra los Romanos) y los saduceos (que eran las élites que dirigían el templo). A este se añadió un quinto grupo: los primeros cristianos. Sin embargo, el cristianismo rápidamente se convirtió en una religión separada, mayoritariamente gentil (es decir, no judía). Los primeros cristianos que continuaron manteniendo las tradiciones judías, como los ebionitas y los nazarenos, finalmente se extinguieron, aunque hay evidencia de que tuvieron influencia en el desarrollo del Islam antes de hacerlo. De todos modos, los esenios, los zelotes y los saduceos también se extinguieron cuando los romanos destruyeron el templo judío en el año 70 d.C. Por lo tanto, la única secta del judaísmo del Segundo Templo que sobrevivió fue la de los fariseos. Ahora bien, el Nuevo Testamento no tiene muchas cosas buenas que decir sobre los fariseos. Pero para los judíos de hoy, los fariseos son en realidad nuestros antepasados ​​espirituales. Después de la destrucción de Jerusalén, establecieron una escuela en la cercana ciudad de Yavne (conocida en fuentes cristianas como Jamnia), donde ayudaron a que el judaísmo evolucionara de una religión basada en templos a una que se basa principalmente en la oración comunitaria y el estudio. los cinco libros de Moisés (también conocidos como la Torá). Los eruditos de esta escuela de Yavne con el tiempo llegaron a ser conocidos como rabinos. Por lo tanto, el judaísmo tal como existe hoy en día puede llamarse con mayor precisión judaísmo RABÍNICO, para distinguirlo del anterior judaísmo del Segundo Templo. Una de las cosas que hicieron los primeros rabinos fue desarrollar el Talmud, que en realidad tiene dos componentes: la Mishná (que se escribió primero) y la Guemará (que se escribió después y consiste en un comentario sobre la Mishná). Según la tradición, la Mishná se basa en la Torá Oral, que consistió en varias aclaraciones que se le dieron a Moisés aproximadamente al mismo tiempo que la Torá Escrita. Supuestamente se transmitieron de boca en boca hasta la época de los rabinos. Sin embargo, según los estudios críticos modernos, la Torá Oral probablemente no se remonta hasta Moisés. Pero al menos se remonta al período del Segundo Templo, a figuras como Hillel y Shamai, que vivieron justo antes de la época de Jesús. Si desea obtener más información sobre los diversos rabinos mencionados en la Mishná, tenemos un video sobre eso, al que vincularé en la descripción. Ahora, en caso de que hayas escuchado algunas de las cosas desagradables que a veces se dicen sobre el Talmud, déjame aclarar que en esos casos, el Talmud generalmente se saca de contexto, por razones antisemitas. En lugar de ser una lista de reglas claras, El Talmud (y las diversas notas que ahora lo acompañan son más bien una colección de jurisprudencia, en la que se dan varias opiniones además de opiniones sobre esas opiniones y luego opiniones sobre las opiniones). sobre las opiniones. Es por eso que una página típica del Talmud se ve así. Ahora, es en este punto donde debo mencionar que los judíos caraítas rechazan el Talmud y, por lo tanto, algunas personas afirman que los caraítas modernos pueden rastrear sus opiniones. linaje que se remonta a los saduceos, pero lo más probable es que fueran simplemente un grupo que se separó de la corriente principal del judaísmo rabínico alrededor del año 800. Un grupo incluso anterior que se separó del judaísmo rabínico (o al menos perdió contacto con él). es Beta Israel, con sede en Etiopía. Puede que se remonten a la época del Segundo Templo, pero también hay evidencia de que inicialmente mantuvieron algún contacto con los primeros rabinos pero luego, por alguna razón, ese contacto finalmente se cortó. En realidad, no fue hasta los tiempos modernos que Beta Israel fue, entre comillas, “redescubierto” e integrado nuevamente al judaísmo dominante. Entonces, nuevamente, no consideraría a Beta Israel como algo fuera del judaísmo rabínico, sino más bien como una corriente única dentro de él. Pero luego están los samaritanos, que definitivamente SON un grupo separado de los judíos rabínicos. Afirman ser descendientes de las Diez Tribus del Norte de Israel. Sin embargo, según los historiadores, la situación es mucho más complicada. Cuando Asiria conquistó Israel, algunos israelitas fueron llevados y luego trajeron no israelitas para reemplazarlos. Sin embargo, otros israelitas simplemente se trasladaron al sur, a Jerusalén, donde se integraron al Reino de Judá. Luego, cuando los babilonios conquistaron Judá, se produjo una división por la cual muchas de las élites fueron llevadas a Babilonia, mientras que la gente común quedó atrás, donde a veces se casaron con extranjeros. Cuando las élites de Judea regresaron para reconstruir el templo de Jerusalén, algunos de los que habían quedado atrás (a quienes la Biblia llama “el pueblo de la tierra”) querían construir un templo separado, lo cual hicieron en el monte Gerizim, que resultó ser en el territorio donde solían vivir las tribus del norte . Entonces, para mí, no está claro si la división samaritano-judía se debió más a una división étnica o a una división de clases. De cualquier manera, lo que sí sabemos es que los samaritanos eventualmente disminuyeron en tamaño y hoy constan de alrededor de 850 personas. Bien, veamos ahora cómo evolucionó la rama principal del judaísmo rabínico. En términos generales, desde el año 70 EC hasta alrededor del 1740 EC, no hubo nada dentro del judaísmo que se pareciera a lo que se refiere la palabra denominación: simplemente existía el judaísmo. Esto se debe en parte a que los judíos eran en gran medida una minoría dondequiera que se encontraran, por lo que cuando ya eres un grupo pequeño y perseguido, tiendes a permanecer unido. Sin embargo, también se reduce al hecho de que el judaísmo –hasta el día de hoy– no tiene un liderazgo central. Si buscas una analogía dentro del marco cristiano, sería mejor decir que los judíos siguen un estilo de gobierno congregacional, algo así como los bautistas. Los rabinos se capacitan en colegios rabínicos (donde algunos rabinos terminan siendo más influyentes que otros), pero luego cada congregación puede elegir quién quiere que sea su rabino y cómo quiere administrar las cosas. Sin embargo, tenga en cuenta que hoy en día, algunos países tienen lo que se llama un Gran Rabino, del que hablaré más adelante. Ahora, no me malinterpretes. Cuando digo que hubo un solo judaísmo hasta 1740, no estoy diciendo que no se encontraran diferencias en absoluto: las había. Lo que me lleva a los términos sefardí, asquenazí y mizrají. Pero tenga en cuenta que NO se trata de denominaciones diferentes. Son más bien subculturas regionales. Para explicarlo, abramos un mapa. Básicamente, tras la caída de Jerusalén, los judíos acabaron repartidos por todo el Imperio Romano. Un área particular donde muchos de ellos terminaron es en lo que hoy llamamos España y Portugal. Los judíos de esta zona llegaron a ser conocidos como judíos sefardíes (S'pharad es simplemente la palabra hebrea para España). Durante muchos siglos estuvieron gobernados por musulmanes, quienes en general los trataron muy bien. Sin embargo, tras la Reconqista y el retorno al control cristiano, los judíos fueron expulsados ​​de la Península Ibérica y, por lo tanto, muchos de ellos terminaron de regreso en Medio Oriente (donde fueron bienvenidos por el Imperio Otomano). Otros terminaron en el norte de África, en los Países Bajos o en el llamado Nuevo Mundo, donde se establecieron mucho antes de la llegada de los ahora más dominantes judíos asquenazíes. La palabra Ashkenazi proviene del nombre Ashkenaz, que era un nombre judío muy antiguo para Alemania. Según estudios recientes de ADN, ahora sabemos mucho sobre los orígenes de los judíos asquenazíes. Ahora se cree que se originaron en el sur de Italia antes de establecerse en Alemania, alrededor del año 800. Sin embargo, en algún momento su número se redujo a unas 350 personas, lo que provocó lo que se llama un cuello de botella genético. Antes de este punto, hubo una gran cantidad de matrimonios mixtos con no judíos (particularmente italianos del sur), pero después de este punto, el grupo se casó principalmente entre ellos, lo que resultó en la creación de un grupo étnico distinto, llamado judío asquenazí, que tiene claras Marcadores de ADN que pueden aparecer en una prueba de ADN. Pero tomemos nota: aunque los judíos asquenazíes son al menos parcialmente europeos, una buena cantidad de su ADN todavía se puede rastrear hasta el Medio Oriente, particularmente a lo largo de la línea masculina. También debo señalar que, si bien los judíos asquenazíes se establecieron originalmente en Alemania, la mayoría de ellos terminaron siendo empujados a Europa del Este, que es donde vivieron la mayoría de ellos hasta el siglo XX. Bien, entonces, además de los judíos sefardíes y los judíos asquenazíes, también hay judíos mizrajíes, que es una especie de término general para los judíos que nunca abandonaron el Medio Oriente.   Sin embargo, los judíos mizrajíes terminaron asimilando muchas costumbres sefardíes (porque, recuerden: muchos judíos sefardíes terminaron en el Medio Oriente), así que tenga en cuenta que hoy en día, los mizrajíes a menudo se agrupan junto con los judíos sefardíes. Pero nuevamente, antes de continuar, quiero enfatizar que la división sefardí versus asquenazí no tiene nada que ver con denominaciones ni con diferencias teológicas. En el judaísmo tenemos un concepto llamado Minhag, que puede traducirse aproximadamente como “costumbres”. Los judíos sefardíes y los judíos asquenazíes pueden tener minhag diferentes, pero comparten la misma religión. La mejor analogía dentro del marco cristiano sería comparar a los católicos que usan el rito latino con aquellos que usan el rito siríaco. Su vestimenta y liturgia pueden ser diferentes, pero su teología no lo es. Hasta el día de hoy, los judíos asquenazíes dependen en gran medida de las obras filosóficas desarrolladas por los judíos sefardíes, y viceversa. Un buen ejemplo es Maimónides, a quien mencioné anteriormente como quien desarrolló los trece principios de la fe. Era sefardí, pero es igual de importante para los asquenazíes. En contraste, está Rashi, cuyos comentarios se incluyen en todas las ediciones modernas del Talmud. Era asquenazí, pero los sefardíes también lo consideran autoritario. Ahora, antes de pasar a las ramas modernas del judaísmo, quiero señalar un libro llamado Shulján Aruj. Escrito en 1565 por el rabino sefardí Joseph Karo, también contiene notas del rabino asquenazí Moses Isser-less. Hasta el día de hoy, es una especie de EL texto autorizado para todo lo relacionado con la ley judía. Pero es importante señalar que lo utilizan tanto los judíos asquenazíes como los judíos sefardíes, aunque cuando se trata de minhag o costumbres, los asquenazíes siguen las normas del rabino Isser-less, mientras que los sefardíes siguen las normas del rabino Karo. Bien, como digo, desde el año 70 EC hasta alrededor del 1740 EC, había prácticamente un solo judaísmo, aunque con diferentes costumbres dependiendo de dónde vivías. Pero a partir de 1740 esto cambió. Hoy en día, se dice que el judaísmo (particularmente en los países occidentales) tiene tres ramas principales: reformista, conservadora y ortodoxa. Entonces, antes de continuar con el árbol, quiero explicar las principales diferencias entre estas tres ramas. Al final del día, la diferencia se reduce a una sola cosa: su enfoque de la ley judía (que se llama Ha-LA-khah). Los judíos ortodoxos ven Ha-LA-khah como vinculante y, por en su mayor parte, inmutable. Vincular significa que TIENES que seguirlo. No para obtener la salvación sino simplemente porque Dios lo dice. Entonces, los judíos ortodoxos siguen la ley con mucho cuidado, de la misma manera que se ha seguido durante más de 2000 años. Por el contrario, los judíos conservadores (conocidos como judíos masorti fuera de Norteamérica) consideran que Ha-LA-khah es vinculante pero no inmutable. En otras palabras, la Ley debe evolucionar con el tiempo para mantenerse al día con la evolución de la sociedad humana. Entonces, por ejemplo, los judíos ortodoxos no conducen un automóvil en Shabat porque tanto los motores de combustión como los eléctricos implican encender un fuego y en la Torá, encender un fuego se considera trabajo y se supone que no se debe trabajar en Shabat. Sin embargo, los judíos conservadores han llegado a la conclusión de que, en nuestro mundo moderno, poder asistir a las sinagogas (que a menudo ya no están a poca distancia) es más importante que seguir la regla original. Entonces, los rabinos conservadores han cambiado la ley judía para decir que conducir un automóvil en Shabat está permitido para esta circunstancia especial. Han hecho cosas similares en términos de permitir que las mujeres se conviertan en rabinas y apoyar los derechos LGBT. Ahora, antes de continuar, permítanme mencionar el principio de Pikuaj nefesh, que siguen todas las ramas del judaísmo. Esta ley establece que cualquier otra ley puede ser infringida con el fin de proteger la vida o la salud de una persona. Entonces, por ejemplo, si una persona tiene una emergencia médica en Shabat, incluso el judío más ortodoxo CONDUCERÁ un automóvil para llevar a esa persona al hospital lo más rápido posible. Sin embargo, hay tres excepciones: no puedes asesinar, no puedes adorar ídolos y no puedes cometer un pecado sexual. Bien, finalmente hay judíos reformistas. Los judíos reformistas consideran que Ha-LA-khah no es vinculante ni inmutable. Esto significa que cada judío individual puede tomar su propia decisión sobre cómo seguir la ley judía. Así, por ejemplo, la Torá dice que los judíos no deben comer ciertos mariscos, como los langostinos, pero dice que la carne de res está bien. Sin embargo, en el mundo actual, debido al cambio climático, se puede argumentar que comer carne de res es más problemático que comer langostinos, por lo que algunos judíos reformistas podrían decidir adoptar una dieta pescitaria completa por razones éticas en lugar de seguir las reglas kosher tradicionales. A muchos judíos reformistas les gusta centrarse en la frase Tikkun Olam, que significa "reparar el mundo" y, por lo tanto, tienden a priorizar las mitzvot éticas sobre las mitzvot rituales. Ahora bien, estas pueden parecer diferencias bastante grandes pero, sorprendentemente, en la superficie, estos tres grupos a menudo pueden parecer casi iguales. La única excepción a esto es un subconjunto de judíos ortodoxos conocidos como haredi o ultraortodoxos (aunque tenga en cuenta que el término ultraortodoxo generalmente se considera ofensivo). Los judíos haredíes se pueden dividir en jasídicos y no jasídicos. Explicaré el judaísmo jasídico con más detalle en un momento, pero por ahora, tenga en cuenta que estos son los judíos que tienden a ser judíos de maneras muy visibles. Son los que tienen grandes sombreros negros y largos rizos laterales. Muchos cristianos, cuando se forman una imagen mental de cómo es un judío , tienden a pensar en un judío jasídico. Bueno, sólo quiero advertirles contra ese estereotipo porque sería como si un judío supusiera que todos los cristianos tienen este aspecto. Incluso entre los judíos ortodoxos, hay muchos que realmente no destacan como judíos de una manera muy visible y están más integrados en la sociedad en general. A estos judíos ortodoxos no haredíes se les suele llamar “ortodoxos modernos”. Bien, entonces, ¿cómo surgieron todas estas diversas ramas del judaísmo moderno? Bueno, en realidad comencemos con el jasidismo. Fue fundada por Baal Shem Tov, que vivió en lo que hoy es Ucrania durante el siglo XVIII. Es por eso que he mostrado que el movimiento jasídico surgió de los asquenazíes. Sin embargo, tenga en cuenta que hoy en día, algunos sefardíes también han adoptado el jasidismo. Lo que muchos no judíos no se dan cuenta sobre el jasidismo es que en realidad es una versión muy mística del judaísmo, además de ser aparentemente bastante conservador. Se basa en gran medida en la Cabalá, que es una escuela de pensamiento mística dentro del judaísmo que se remonta a Isaac Luria en el siglo XVI y a Moisés de León en el siglo XII y tal vez incluso más atrás. La otra cosa que necesitas saber sobre el jasidismo es que cada grupo jasídico se centra en una única dinastía rabínica que se remonta a un pueblo específico de Europa del Este. Tomemos, por ejemplo, Jabad, que es uno de los grupos jasídicos más grandes y conocidos. Originalmente tenía su sede en un pueblo ruso llamado Lyubavichi, razón por la cual los seguidores de Jabad también son conocidos como Lubavitchers. El famoso líder de este grupo en el siglo XX, Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), era descendiente de Shneur Zalman, el fundador de Jabad. Sin embargo, no todos los judíos asquenazíes abrazaron el jasidismo. Aquellos que no lo hicieron fueron conocidos como Mit-NAHG-dim, que significa "oponentes", aunque más tarde serían conocidos como Litvaks porque muchos de ellos tenían su base en Lituania. Alrededor del año 1770, ocurrió un evento importante (principalmente entre los Mit-NAHG-dim) conocido como HAS-kalah, o Ilustración judía. Surgió y fue muy similar a la Era general de la Ilustración que había ocurrido en Europa aproximadamente un siglo antes. Básicamente, llevó a que el judaísmo fuera reexaminado utilizando la lente de la erudición crítica moderna. Pero no todo se trataba simplemente de nuevas ideas. También se trataba de nuevas libertades. Casi al mismo tiempo que la HAS-kalah, la emancipación judía se logró en la mayor parte de Europa, lo que significa que, por primera vez, a los judíos se les otorgaron los mismos derechos legales que a los cristianos. En este punto, algunos judíos simplemente se volvieron seculares, mientras que otros judíos (particularmente en Alemania) buscaron “reformar” el judaísmo para ponerlo al día con lo que habían aprendido a través de la ciencia y la crítica textual. Ahora, durante el próximo rato voy a hablar exclusivamente de Estados Unidos. Esto se debe a que, aparte de Israel, aquí es donde vive actualmente la mayoría de los judíos del mundo . Pero no te preocupes, una vez que termine, hablaré de Israel y otros países también. Tenga en cuenta que en realidad sólo en los EE. UU. (y en algunos países similares como Canadá y el Reino Unido) el judaísmo se puede dividir en varias denominaciones. Entonces, comencemos con la migración de judíos alemanes a Estados Unidos entre 1840 y 1860. Antes de este punto, la mayoría de los judíos en Estados Unidos en realidad habían sido sefardíes. Pero muy pronto, la mayoría de las congregaciones judías no sólo eran asquenazíes, sino que también se inclinaban hacia la reforma. Entonces, en 1873, se estableció la Unión de Congregaciones Hebreas Americanas para que sirviera como la principal organización para los judíos estadounidenses.  A esto le siguió la fundación del Hebrew Union College en 1875 como principal escuela rabínica. Sin embargo, si bien la mayoría de los judíos estadounidenses eran reformistas en ese momento, algunos no lo eran. Por lo tanto, en 1886, algunos rabinos de tendencia más conservadora se separaron del Hebrew Union College y establecieron en su lugar el Seminario Teológico Judío . Sin embargo, tenga en cuenta que estos judíos llamados "conservadores" sólo eran conservadores en comparación con los judíos reformistas. A los ojos de muchos judíos de Europa del Este, estos supuestos conservadores eran en realidad bastante liberales. Lo que sucedió después fue que muchos de esos judíos de Europa del Este terminaron migrando a Estados Unidos entre 1880 y 1925. Eran incluso más conservadores que los conservadores y por eso se les conoció como ortodoxos. Por lo tanto, terminamos con tres ramas principales dentro del judaísmo estadounidense. La Unión de Congregaciones Hebreas Americanas terminó siendo la principal organización para los judíos reformistas (con el tiempo cambió su nombre por el de Unión para el Judaísmo Reformista); La Sinagoga Unida de América, establecida en 1913, se convirtió en la principal organización de judíos conservadores (aunque también cambió su nombre más tarde por el de Sinagoga Unida del Judaísmo Conservador). Finalmente, la Unión Ortodoxa, establecida en 1898, se convirtió en la principal organización de los judíos ortodoxos modernos . Ahora bien, incluso si nunca has oído hablar de ninguna de estas organizaciones, probablemente hayas visto este símbolo en varios paquetes de alimentos. Significa que la Unión Ortodoxa ha considerado que ese artículo es kosher. También quiero señalar a Agudah, que es otra organización ortodoxa, separada de la Unión Ortodoxa. Se compone principalmente de congregaciones haredíes, tanto jasídicas como no jasídicas (aunque, en particular, Jabad no es miembro). En total, entre quienes asisten a la sinagoga en los EE. UU., aproximadamente el 50 % son reformistas, alrededor del 30 % son conservadores y el 20 % son ortodoxos. También debo señalar el judaísmo reconstruccionista (o reconstructor), que puede considerarse una cuarta rama del judaísmo moderno. Fundada por Mordecai Kaplan en la década de 1950, puede verse como una ruptura con el judaísmo conservador. Sin embargo, al igual que el judaísmo reformista, no considera que la ley judía sea vinculante. Pero, a diferencia del judaísmo reformista, tiende a darle más valor a la preservación de las antiguas tradiciones y al mantenimiento de una identidad judía muy distinta. Así que se puede pensar que el judaísmo reconstruccionista es algo conservador por fuera pero muy liberal por dentro. También está el judaísmo de la renovación, que es aún más reciente y tiene sus raíces en el movimiento contracultural de los años sesenta y setenta. También es una rama muy liberal del judaísmo, pero tiende a incorporar elementos más místicos, del judaísmo jasídico, razón por la cual a sus seguidores a veces se les apoda “judíos hippies”. Ahora, otra cosa que debo dejar clara es que, en el judaísmo, las líneas denominacionales pueden ser bastante borrosas, especialmente en áreas donde no hay muchos judíos. Entonces, por ejemplo, vivo en Canadá y cuando me convertí al judaísmo, lo hice a través de una sinagoga reformista, aunque uno de los profesores era reconstruccionista. Sin embargo, después de un año de estudio y la aprobación de un beit din, un rabino ortodoxo realizó un Hatafat Dam Brit y me sumergieron en una mikve en la sinagoga ortodoxa. Además de esto, la sinagoga a la que mi esposa y yo es más probable que asistamos, simplemente porque es la más cercana a nuestra casa, en realidad es Renovación. Entonces, cuando la gente me pregunta a qué rama del judaísmo pertenezco, es una pregunta difícil de responder. Normalmente solo digo que soy un judío progresista, lo que básicamente abarca todo lo que no sea ortodoxo y, al menos en Norteamérica, es el tipo dominante de judaísmo. Pero incluso entre judíos progresistas y judíos ortodoxos suele haber mucha mezcla. Si bien cada grupo de rabinos puede tener puntos de vista muy diferentes, es posible que los miembros reales no los tengan. Por lo tanto, no es inusual que un judío con inclinaciones reformistas asista a una sinagoga ortodoxa o que un judío ortodoxo plenamente observante asista a una sinagoga reformista. Y luego, por supuesto, a veces hay congregaciones sefardíes separadas : por lo general se ven a sí mismas como si estuvieran fuera de toda la tricotomía reformista-conservadora-ortodoxa . Pero también hay judíos sefardíes individuales que SÍ se ven a sí mismos como pertenecientes a una de las tres corrientes. Entonces, es complicado. Incluso hay judíos humanistas que ni siquiera creen en Dios pero aún así se reúnen para celebrar ciertas fiestas o derechos de paso. Ahora bien, ¿qué pasa con los judíos mesiánicos? Bueno, los judíos mesiánicos son realmente cristianos, así que ya hablé de ellos en mi serie sobre denominaciones cristianas. Si estás interesado en escuchar mi opinión sobre ellos, puedes encontrarla en el episodio 8. Bien, así es como funciona el judaísmo en los EE. UU., y tal vez en algunos otros países como Canadá y el Reino Unido. En el Reino Unido hay en realidad dos denominaciones reformistas principales: el judaísmo liberal y el movimiento para el judaísmo reformista. Sin embargo, recientemente (en abril de 2023) anunciaron su intención de fusionarse en una sola organización. También tienen un rabino principal para sus judíos ortodoxos, a quien quizás hayas visto recientemente en las noticias cuando participó en la coronación del rey Carlos III. Veamos a continuación cómo funciona el judaísmo en Israel, que ahora tiene una población judía que ha superado a la de Estados Unidos. Aunque en Israel existen sinagogas reformistas y conservadoras en pequeñas cantidades, la tricotomía reformista-conservadora-ortodoxa es mucho menos importante allí. En cambio, en Israel, los judíos suelen clasificarse en cuatro categorías principales. Primero están los Hiloni. Estos son judíos seculares y en realidad representan la mitad de todos los judíos en Israel. Los siguientes son los masorti, que son “tradicionales”, lo que significa que son sólo parcialmente observantes. Representan otra cuarta parte de la población israelí. El último cuarto está formado por dati y haredi. Estos son los judíos plenamente observantes , siendo los haredíes (como mencioné antes) los más estrictamente observantes. Ahora bien, no voy a abordar el sionismo en este vídeo porque el sionismo es más una cuestión política que religiosa. Los judíos individuales en todo el mundo tienen diferentes puntos de vista sobre el sionismo y la política dentro de Israel, por lo que es importante recordar que el hecho de que alguien sea judío no significa que apoye todo lo que hace el Estado de Israel. Pero volviendo a las cuatro categorías de judíos israelíes, quiero dejar claro que NO son cuatro denominaciones diferentes. En su mayor parte, los judíos israelíes no están realmente divididos en denominaciones en absoluto. En cambio, todo lo que tenga que ver con asuntos religiosos judíos en Israel cae bajo la jurisdicción de los dos principales rabinos, uno de los cuales representa a los judíos asquenazíes y el otro representa a los judíos sefardíes. Este sistema es en realidad el que se utiliza en la mayoría de países del mundo. Algunos países, como Francia, tienen un solo Gran Rabino, mientras que otros, como Argentina, tienen dos. Al igual que ocurre con el judaísmo, las denominaciones en el Islam no son tan claras como en el cristianismo. No es raro que las personas tengan una mezcla de creencias de diferentes denominaciones. Es posible que el término denominación en sí no se aplique aquí con mucha precisión. Entremos en ello y lo explicaré a lo largo del camino. Lo primero que me gustaría abordar es que la mayoría de las religiones tienen múltiples historias sobre sus orígenes; normalmente hay una o más versiones tradicionales junto con una o más cuentas académicas. Por ejemplo, como Matt mencionó en su video sobre el judaísmo, mientras los judíos creen que su religión comenzó cuando Moisés recibió la Torá, los académicos creen que surgió de una mezcla de las antiguas religiones israelita, egipcia y mesopotámica. De manera similar, para el Islam, hay un relato tradicional que afirma que el Islam comenzó con Adán, el primer ser humano, y los profetas posteriores, que incluyen a Noé, Moisés y Jesús, predicaron el Islam pero en una forma diferente. Finalmente, adquirió su forma actual con el profeta Mahoma cuando recibió la primera revelación del Corán en el año 610 EC aproximadamente. Sin embargo, los académicos creen que el Islam surgió de la mezcla de varias religiones que incluían las antiguas tradiciones religiosas paganas árabes y un grupo de personas conocidas como cristianos judíos, específicamente, ebionitas y nazarenos que defendían las leyes del judaísmo pero también creían que Jesús era un Massías. Es posible que hayan huido a Arabia para evitar la persecución donde inspiraron la religión del Islam. La tradición islámica menciona un grupo conocido como Hanifs que seguían el verdadero monoteísmo del profeta Abraham, que pueden haber sido o no estos cristianos judíos. De todos modos, según la tradición islámica, el Islam comenzó con la revelación del Corán al profeta Mahoma alrededor del año 610 EC. Desde entonces hasta su muerte, alrededor del año 632, el Profeta continuó recibiendo revelaciones de Alá, la palabra árabe para Dios, que más tarde fueron compiladas en un formato de libro conocido como *Corán* o Recitación. El Corán forma el núcleo del Islam y los musulmanes lo consideran universalmente como la máxima autoridad en su religión. Puede que no estén de acuerdo con las interpretaciones del Corán, pero todos los musulmanes lo sitúan por encima de todo lo demás. En 622, alrededor de 11 o 12 años después de la primera Revelación, el Profeta se exilió de su ciudad natal, La Meca, y formó una comunidad en una ciudad llamada Yathrib, que más tarde llegó a ser conocida como Medina. Esta emigración del Profeta se conoce como la Hégira y se considera un punto muy importante en la historia del Islam. Tanto es así que este año marca el inicio del Calendario Lunar Islámico. También marca un punto de cambio en el Corán. El Corán está dividido en 114 capítulos conocidos como Suras. Los Capítulos de La Meca, que fueron revelados durante la estancia del Profeta en La Meca, se centran más, a falta de un término mejor, en conceptos abstractos. Para generalizar, el Corán habla de cosas como el *Tawhid* o monoteísmo, la unidad de Dios, el Día del Juicio o, como se le llama en el Corán, la Hora en que el mundo se acabará y la humanidad resucitará. para enfrentar el juicio final sobre dónde pasarían la eternidad, el Cielo o el Infierno. En otras palabras, estos capítulos se centraron en la teología. Sin embargo, después de la Hégira, el Corán empezó a hablar más , de nuevo a falta de un término mejor, de cuestiones del mundo. Porque en Medina, el Profeta no era sólo un Profeta, era un líder político, por lo que tenía que arbitrar disputas, ir a la guerra, hacer diplomacia, etc. Entonces, el Corán también se centra en esos asuntos en este punto. Es decir, estos capítulos se centraron en la Jurisprudencia o el Derecho. Esto es importante porque en el Islam hay dos distinciones importantes en lo que respecta a lo que uno cree. La primera es su Aqidah, que trata de la naturaleza teológica del Islam, mientras que la segunda, el Fiqh, trata de la naturaleza judicial del Islam. Mientras que el Fiqh trata de qué hacer con los infractores de la ley, la Aqidah trata de por qué alguien se convierte en uno. Mientras que el Fiqh diría que el castigo para alguien que comete un pecado particular es esto o aquello, la Aqidah preguntaría si el pecador tiene libre albedrío o si todo está predestinado. Estos dos se superponen y la Aqidah guía el Fiqh, pero no siempre. El profeta Mahoma falleció en el año 632 e inmediatamente comenzaron a aparecer grietas en la comunidad de los creyentes. El primer punto de desacuerdo fue quién lideraría la comunidad como su nuevo líder político. Algunos seguidores de alto rango del Profeta eligieron a su amigo cercano Abu Bakr como el primer *Khalifa* o Califa. Califa simplemente significa sucesor o diputado. El Califa iba a ser el nuevo líder político de los Creyentes y era conocido como *Amir al-Muminin* o literalmente, Líder de los Creyentes. Sin embargo, otro grupo de seguidores del Profeta quería que Ali ibn Abi Talib, primo y yerno del Profeta, lo sucediera como califa. Es tentador decir que esta decisión sentó las bases de la división entre suníes y chiítas, las dos sectas más grandes del Islam. Sin embargo, esas dos sectas no cristalizarían realmente hasta el siglo XI, por lo que sería mejor llamar a estos dos grupos protochiítas y protosunitas. La división a menudo se simplifica demasiado al decir que los proto-sunitas fueron los que apoyaron a Abu Bakr, mientras que los proto-chiitas fueron los que apoyaron a Ali. Inicialmente, este era el caso, la división se trataba simplemente de quién lideraría la comunidad. Sin embargo, con el tiempo, la división empezó a volverse cada vez más compleja. Esto se debió a que la comunidad se expandió muy rápido. Durante la vida del Profeta, conquistó y se alió con gran parte de la Península Arábiga. Después de él, los califas enviaron sus ejércitos al Gran Oriente Medio. En unas pocas décadas, los creyentes gobernaban todo entre Túnez y la India. En el proceso, derrotaron a los imperios bizantino y sasánida . Como era de esperar, este enorme imperio trajo sus propios problemas. Los califas tuvieron que emitir juicios y políticas en materia política, social y militar. Los creyentes intentaron seguir la ley establecida en el Corán, ya que era y es la máxima autoridad. En cuestiones que no se abordan directamente en el Corán, los creyentes observaron los ejemplos dados por el Profeta en su vida. Estos ejemplos, junto con sus dichos, formaron un canon de la Tradición Islámica conocido como la Sunnah del Profeta. Sin embargo, todavía había muchas cosas que no tenían paralelos directos en el Corán o la Sunnah. ¿Cómo solucionamos eso? Esta cuestión dividió aún más a los musulmanes. Veamos primero cómo respondieron los sunitas a esta pregunta. Una vez más, para simplificar demasiado, los proto-sunitas, que reciben su nombre de la Sunnah, creían que los ejemplos del Profeta pueden guiar a los creyentes junto con las opiniones y comentarios de hombres eruditos y, en ocasiones, de mujeres, que llegaron a ser conocidos como los Ulema, y ​​que habían pasado una parte considerable de sus vidas estudiando el Corán y la Sunnah. Los Ulema no eran exactamente sacerdotes, pero no eran tan diferentes de los rabis. De hecho, gran parte de la jurisprudencia islámica tiene paralelos con la ley judía. De todos modos, entre los ulemas había algunas figuras distinguidas que son más veneradas que los demás que llegaron a ser conocidos como imanes. Si bien los imanes suníes eran figuras respetables consideradas autoridades en materia de jurisprudencia, no eran infalibles y no eran más que seres humanos educados. Sin embargo, los protochiítas creían que sus imanes eran infalibles. Creían que el Imam tenía que ser descendiente del Profeta a través de su hija Fátima y su marido, Ali ibn Abi Talib. Los protochiítas creían que el Imam tenía guía divina y era la única autoridad sobre cómo interpretar el Corán y la tradición del Profeta. Ali ibn Abi Talib es considerado el primer imán y luego sus dos hijos, al-Hasan y al-Husayn son el segundo y tercero, respectivamente. El desacuerdo sobre los imanes y su papel en la sociedad islámica es quizás la mayor distinción entre sunitas y chiítas, incluso hoy. Ambos tienen sus propias cadenas de imanes a quienes se considera fundadores de sus diversas escuelas de jurisprudencia islámica y desarrollaron sus propias interpretaciones de la ley islámica conocida como Shariah. Sin embargo, hay que tener en cuenta que en el pasado, esto no era una división binaria, sino más bien un espectro en el que las personas podían mezclar, y de hecho lo hacían, elementos de ambos. Miremos primero a los sunitas. Los sunitas representan aproximadamente el 90% de la población musulmana, el 9% restante son chiítas y el resto menos del 1%. Entre los suníes hay cuatro escuelas de jurisprudencia o Fiqh. Se trata del Hanafi, que es el más grande y popular en India, Pakistán, Turquía y partes de Oriente Medio. El Maliki, que es popular en África y anteriormente también fue la escuela predominante en la España musulmana. Luego, los shafi'i y los hanbali, ambos más comunes en Oriente Medio, siendo los hanbali dominantes en Arabia Saudita. Solía ​​haber un quinto llamado Zahiri, que era popular en la España musulmana y en el noroeste de África, pero desde entonces se ha extinguido, pero recientemente, con los movimientos revivalistas islámicos, está empezando a regresar, hablaremos de eso en un momento. . Ahora bien, desde muy temprano en su vida, el Islam entró en contacto con los griegos y su forma de pensar. Entonces, hubo un debate en el mundo islámico sobre qué forma de pensar se debía seguir. ¿Deberíamos adherirnos rígidamente al Corán y a la Sunnah o deberíamos desarrollar un enfoque lógico del pensamiento racional para nuestros problemas mundanos? Esto llevó a la creación de las Escuelas de Teología. Los Athari son considerados los tradicionalistas que se apegan al Corán y la Sunnah, mientras que los Mu'tazilitas son vistos como aquellos que siguen mucho más la razón y el pensamiento racional. Los Ash'ari y los Maturidi están en algún punto intermedio, aunque las divisiones entre estas escuelas, que son bastante claras en teoría, no fueron tan claras en la práctica. Por ejemplo, los mutazilitas, aunque afirmaban ser racionalistas y progresistas, estaban detrás de una de las mayores inquisiciones de la historia islámica. Esta inquisición también impidió que el Islam tuviera algo parecido a un Papa. Un poco sobre esa inquisición, que se llama Mihna. Fue durante el reinado del califa abasí al-Ma'mun. La pregunta principal era sobre la naturaleza del Corán, si fue creado en el momento de la revelación al Profeta o si siempre había existido. Las implicaciones de esto fueron que si el Corán siempre ha existido, desde el principio de los tiempos, entonces es cierto para todos los tiempos y sus interpretaciones no pueden cambiar ni actualizarse con el tiempo. Sin embargo, si fue creado en el momento de la revelación, entonces significaba que el Corán se aplicaba sólo a ese momento y su significado puede cambiar según los tiempos. Al-Ma'mun creía en sí mismo como el Imam y con el poder de definir la teología y la jurisprudencia islámicas en lugar del cuerpo de hombres y mujeres eruditos conocidos como los Ulema. Los mutazilitas lo apoyaron, mientras que el oponente más ferviente fue el Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, el fundador de la Escuela Hanbali. La gente se vio obligada a apoyar la doctrina de al-Ma'mun sobre el Corán creado y su negativa condujo al encarcelamiento, la tortura, la confiscación de propiedades, etc. Cuando la inquisición fracasó, los mutazilitas cayeron en declive y finalmente se extinguieron, pero recientemente, La gente ha estado afirmando ser neo-mutazilitas y tratando de revivir el racionalismo que a menudo se imagina como el núcleo de su doctrina. Desde que fracasó la Mihna, los califas suníes nunca más intentaron tener el poder de definir directamente la teología y la jurisprudencia islámicas. Por eso el Islam sunita no tiene un jefe de fe como el Papa. Con el tiempo, las escuelas de teología y las escuelas de jurisprudencia llegaron a asociarse entre sí. Por ejemplo, los hanbalis siguen la escuela Athari mientras que los hanafis siguen la escuela Maturidi. Los hanbalis se apegan a un significado más literal del Corán y la Sunnah, mientras que los hanafis, al ser una escuela centrista, también utilizan algo de pensamiento racional, junto con la analogía y el consenso para formar juicios. Sin embargo, para la mayoría de los musulmanes, sus escuelas de teología no son muy claras. Suelen identificarse con el Madhhab o Escuela de Jurisprudencia, más que con la Escuela de Teología. De hecho, incluso las mezquitas pueden llevar el nombre del madhab de las personas que las administran. Por lo general, en los países de mayoría musulmana, la gente tiende a ir a la mezquita administrada por personas de su propio madhab porque las mezquitas se utilizan principalmente para orar y la forma de orar también cambia de un madhab a otro. Sin embargo, en los países occidentales, la gente va a cualquier mezquita disponible siempre que siga su secta, es decir. los suníes o los chiítas. En el siglo XVIII, el mundo musulmán comenzó a perder gran parte de su poder cuando los imperios otomano y mogol entraron en una era de decadencia y los europeos comenzaron a tomar el poder. En este punto, los musulmanes tuvieron que afrontar la pregunta de por qué había sucedido esto. Muchos eruditos llegaron a la conclusión de que los musulmanes se habían alejado del verdadero Islam y se habían vuelto pecadores, lo que condujo a este declive. Como resultado, aparecieron muchos movimientos revitalizantes en el mundo islámico. El primero vino de la India bajo el mando de un hombre llamado Shah Wali Ullah Dehlawi a principios y mediados del siglo XVIII. Abogó por que los musulmanes dejaran de seguir a los imanes medievales, como los fundadores de los cuatro Madhabs, y se centraran en cambio en aprender por sí mismos lo que enseñan el Corán y la Sunnah. Él y su hijo tradujeron el Corán al persa y al urdu respectivamente, que eran los dos idiomas dominantes entre los musulmanes indios en ese momento, para hacer el Corán más accesible a la gente. Hacia finales del siglo XVIII, otro reformador estuvo activo en lo que hoy es Arabia Saudita. Su nombre era Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab. También abogó por una disociación similar con los imanes medievales y sus escuelas y por una reevaluación del Corán y la Sunnah. Con el tiempo, su doctrina, conocida como wahabismo, llegó a ser dominante en Arabia Saudita. A los wahabíes a menudo se les coloca en la misma casilla que los Ahl-e-Hadith que nacieron en la India. Los dos movimientos podrían haberse inspirado mutuamente. Ambos son Ghair-Muqalid, lo que significa que afirman no adherirse a ninguna escuela medieval, pero de hecho, sí se adhieren un poco a la hanbali. Se llaman a sí mismos salafistas por el movimiento salafista que abogaba por el regreso de los musulmanes a las costumbres de los Aslaf o los Ancianos, es decir, la Primera Generación de musulmanes. Los wahaabis son más... fundamentalistas, por así decirlo, mientras que los Ahl-e-Hadith son un poco más moderados. El Ahl-e-Hadith provino de los seguidores de Shah Wali Ullah junto con los Deobandis que siguieron a Shah Wali Ullah pero también se adhirieron al Hanafi Madhhab. Ellos, junto con los Barelvis, son la mayoría de los musulmanes en la India y Pakistán. Los Barelvis son una especie de Hanafis mezclados con mucho sufismo. Así, mientras que a los Ahl-e-Hadith, los wahaabis y los deobandis no les gusta el sufismo, a los barelvis sí. En realidad, bastantes. Hablando de los sufíes, no vamos a hablar de ellos en detalle aquí porque son muy complicados. El sufismo es una forma mística del Islam y tienen muchas órdenes y hermandades que creen en una variedad de tradiciones religiosas. Algunos son estrictamente chiítas, otros son estrictamente suníes y el resto se encuentran en algún punto intermedio. Luego tenemos a los chiítas. Tenemos otro video sobre las líneas de los imanes chiítas, así que asegúrese de verlo para comprender mejor sus líneas individuales. Pero de todos modos, los chiítas creen en los imanes infalibles de los descendientes del Profeta. Mientras estos imanes estuvieron vivos, no necesitaron formar escuelas de jurisprudencia de la misma manera que lo hicieron los sunitas, pero eventualmente también lo hicieron. Creo que un punto interesante de cuán flexible fue la división entre chiítas y suníes desde el principio es que el fundador de la escuela Hanafi, la escuela más grande de los suníes, fue alumno del Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq, el fundador de la mayor escuela chiíta. escuela. Entre los chiítas, las tres subsectas principales son los zaydis, que creen en el Imamato de Zayd ibn Ali y creen que los imanes también deben luchar por el califato. Se encuentran principalmente en Yemen. Luego tenemos a los ismailíes y a los doce. Los Doce son la mayoría de los chiítas hoy en día, alrededor del 85%. Tanto los ismailíes como los Doce, también conocidos como Imamiyyas, siguen las enseñanzas del Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq. En términos generales, los chiítas también creen en la Sunnah del Profeta, pero sólo toman partes de la Sunnah narradas por los Compañeros del Profeta que se pusieron del lado de Ali. Estas partes de la Sunnah son luego interpretadas por los imanes, cuyas enseñanzas son seguidas luego por los chiítas. También existía otra subsecta conocida como los Seveners que ahora se consideran extintas. Las tres subsectas Ja'fari estaban divididas sobre la sucesión del Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq. Nuevamente, mira el otro video. Los ismailíes fueron un grupo mucho más activo en los siglos IX y X. Formaron su propio califato en Egipto en 969 y consideraban a sus califas también imanes. Como resultado, su jurisprudencia también tiene enseñanzas de los imanes fatimíes junto con las del Imam Ja'far.  Se dividieron aún más en cuanto a la sucesión. Sin embargo, hubo algunos grupos de ismailíes que rechazaron el califato fatimí y formaron sus propias subsectas. Todos ellos están ahora extintos, pero los más populares son los qarmatianos, que son universalmente vilipendiados por los musulmanes porque saquearon la ciudad de La Meca en el año 930 y robaron la roca negra sagrada. De los fatimíes, finalmente surgió un grupo de personas conocidas como drusos, que no son considerados musulmanes y son un grupo religioso importante en Siria hoy en día. Su teología es bastante secreta y desconocida para la mayoría de los de afuera. Una de las cosas en las que creen es en la Reencarnación del Alma. Los Doce se convirtieron en el grupo dominante en Irán durante el reinado del Imperio Safawí. Ellos mismos tuvieron un desacuerdo que condujo a lo que se puede llamar sus propios Madhhabs, los Usuli y los Akhbari. Los Akhbari forman la mayoría de los Doce chiítas y creen en utilizar únicamente las enseñanzas tradicionales para formar juicios, mientras que los Usulis creen que el razonamiento también puede y debe usarse. Una rama de los Doce acabó convirtiéndose en los alauitas, que viven principalmente en Siria y Turquía. La mayoría de las demás sectas del Islam no los consideran musulmanes. A menudo se les confunde con los alevíes, que se encuentran en una situación similar de disputa por la islamización, pero probablemente sean más una orden sufí que un subgrupo chiíta. Finalmente, las religiones babista y bahá'í también provinieron de los doce chiítas. Si bien ciertamente no son musulmanes, se aferran a muchas cosas de los chiítas. En el episodio 6 de la serie Árbol genealógico de las denominaciones cristianas de Matt, habló sobre los milleritas que creían que Jesús regresaría en el año 1844. La falta del regreso de Jesús llevó al evento conocido como la Gran Decepción entre sus seguidores. Sin embargo, algunos bahá'ís creen que Cristo regresó en 1844 como Baha'ullah, el fundador de la fe bahá'í, que se declaró a sí mismo como el Mahdi, una figura mesiánica que regresará, según chiítas y sunitas, alrededor del siglo XIX. fin del tiempo. Rainn Wilson, que interpreta a Dwight Schrute en The Office (EE. UU.), es miembro de la fe bahá'í. La tercera secta importante del Islam se conoce popularmente como los jarijitas. Sin embargo, aquí hemos utilizado el término Muhakkima . Está bien, no entraré en demasiados detalles, puedes ver mis videos sobre Al Muqaddimah para eso, pero hubo una guerra civil entre Ali ibn Abi Talib y Mu'awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, conocida como la Primera Fitna. Ali era el califa y Mu'awiyah era el gobernador de Siria que se negó a reconocer a Ali como califa. Fueron a la guerra y se enfrentaron en la batalla de Siffin, donde hubo tanto derramamiento de sangre que los dos bandos acordaron arbitrar en lugar de luchar. Algunas de las personas del lado de Ali, que por cierto, se llamaban chiítas tul-Ali, de ahí viene el nombre chiíta, decidieron que esto estaba mal. Creían que Mu'awiyah, al luchar contra el califa, había ido en contra del Islam y, por lo tanto, había que luchar contra él hasta que fuera derrotado. El arbitraje, decían, iba en contra de la Ley de Dios. Dejaron el campamento de Ali y formaron un tercer bando, conocido como los jarijitas, o los que se fueron. Fueron la primera división real en la comunidad de creyentes. Los jarijitas siguieron una interpretación muy rígida y extrema del Islam y se apegaron a un enfoque de "a nuestro camino o muerte". Sin embargo, hoy en día se dice que los kharijitas están extintos; en países como Omán se puede encontrar una versión más moderada de ellos llamada ibadis . Prefieren no ser llamados Kharijites y afirman no tener nada que ver con ellos, razón por la cual aquí se muestra que ambos se separaron de los Muhakkima en lugar de uno del otro. Muhakkima es el término utilizado para las personas que abandonaron el campamento de Ali. También hubo otras ramas de los Kharijites a lo largo de la historia, pero la mayoría de ellas se han extinguido a lo largo de los siglos y los ibadis son prácticamente el único grupo importante de esta rama que queda. Se encuentran como la mayoría de la población en Omán. Finalmente, tenemos dos grupos de personas que se autodenominan musulmanes pero su condición de musulmán está en disputa. Primero están los áhmadis. Fueron fundados por un hombre llamado Mirza Ghulam Ahmad en la India. Casi todos los demás grupos de musulmanes acusan a los áhmadis de elevar a Mirza Ghulam Ahmad al nivel de profeta y, por lo tanto, los llaman no musulmanes porque, según el Islam, el profeta Mahoma es el último profeta, y afirmar que cualquiera después de él es un profeta va contra las creencias más fundamentales del Islam. Por lo tanto, aparte de los Ahmedis, nadie los considera musulmanes. Esto llega tan lejos que estoy seguro de que habrá gente en los comentarios que nos diga que ni siquiera deberíamos mencionar eso en un vídeo sobre musulmanes porque no son musulmanes. Luego tenemos la Nación del Islam. Fundada por Wallace Fard Muhammad, la Nación del Islam es popular en Estados Unidos, específicamente entre los estadounidenses negros. Al igual que los bahá'ís, los miembros de la Nación del Islam afirman que el fundador Wallace Fard Muhammad era el Mahdi y tal vez incluso Divino hasta cierto punto. Algunos de sus miembros más famosos son Elijah Muhammad, que sucedió a Fard Muhammad, y Malcolm X, que abandonó la Nación del Islam en 1964 para seguir el Islam más convencional. Wallace, el hijo de Elijah Muhammad, llevó a la Nación del Islam hacia una dirección más dominante y, por tanto, más cercana al Islam sunita. Finalmente, disolvió la antigua Nación del Islam. Sin embargo, Louis Farrakhan lo revivió y todavía existe hoy.

World's first finetuning and deployment agent - Finetune & Deploy LLMs by only chatting from ChatGPT.en.srt

00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,520 imagine a custom GPD that transforms your input problem into a custom tailored model without you writing any code simply chat with your chat GPT window and explain your problem to the GPT suggest using Lama 3 and witness what feels like magic unfold the system automatically recommends a data set and sets about fine-tuning the model to your specification the process is powered by monster apis a platform renowned for its ease and speed in deploying and fine-tuning open source models the technology stack includes Advanced Techniques like Q Laura and VM in the back end ensuring efficient fine-tuning to get started just register at monster ai.com and load your GPT using this link right here so if you click right here it will take you directly to your chat GPT window and also remember once you sign sign up you will get some free credit which is enough for doing some basic experimentation all right I am in my custom GPT which is named monster GPT and as you know that you need to have chat GPT Plus subscription because that's a requirement by open to use any custom gbd and all you need to do is just paste your problem here so here I just want to finetune a Lama 3 base model uh that would be model so that it can write python code for me for following my instruction and send it and then it will ask me for credentials checking so I will need to authenticate you first please provide your email address so I can send you an OTP for verification yeah so you just uh put your email right here you will get an OTP in the email and put it back here that's the process so after I received the OTP in my email I just uh copy from my email and paste it right here and uh send it talk to monster API you are successfully authenticated now let's proceed with fine tuning the Lama 3 okay then it's giving me all the uh required information all right now what's it basically saying that it's giving me the base model which is obviously the metal Lama 38b instruct and it's selecting instruct because I have in my original request I have said that uh the code the fine tuning fine tuned model should follow my coding instruction and for the data set it's asking could you specify the data set you would like to use or should you proceed should you proceed with a suitable data set that contains python coding challenges and solution yeah so that that definitely meets my purpose and um unless you want to specify you have a very specific need and you can specify the data set right here and for the training details we will set the model to learn from python code examples focusing on understanding and generating code based on instruction okay so uh everything looks perfect and I want uh chat GPT this custom GPT itself to select my suitable data set so just um I'm copying it here so please um proceed with suitable data set that contains python coding challenges and solution y proceed and then it ask me monster GPT wants to talk to data set server huggingface doco yeah obviously you need to allow it and uh a talk to data set server talk to data set server okay is suitable for our purpose code parot yeah code parot clean is a very popular data set that's what they have chosen so here is a fine tuning configuration I propose base model is Lama 38b instruct perfect data set path is uh code uh sorry code parro clean data set subset is strain obviously and prompt template given the task and then you put the instruction write python code that achieves the following input following output training configuration Lura parameter r equal to 8 alpha 16 Dropout zero bias none that looks all reasonable so you see look at this beautiful thing that you can actually uh select all these Lura parameters quantization training epox learning rate early stopping right from within chat gbd so you do not need to go to the configuration portal of monster API you can just if you want to change any of these because say for example you want to select a Dropout of 0.1 10% out you can select right here you can just say it select uh select Dropout of uh whatever all right similarly you can uh make quantization equal to True uh make quantization true and it will apply quantization uh to your model training epox learning rate Everything Is configurable Right From Within atgb window that's really Next Level so in my case I'm pretty happy with this configuration uh the default one that they have chosen and again uh if you want even more control or even more granular control on your fine tuning job you can definitely do that with monster apis uh the the fine tuning portal because there you may have something more even to control like number of gpus etc etc so uh yeah in this case I'm just going to say that uh please proceed with this [Music] configuration and I can see that uh it's starting action so actually it is I think provisioning the fine-tuning machine like allocating GPU CPU Ram Etc uh so that's what it's doing yeah monster GPT wants to talk to API monster api. I obviously you need to confirm it okay now this is interesting uh he tried to talk to to the data set in hugging phas and looks like it seems there was an issue with the data set subset specification the available subset for put parot clean data set is actually labeled as default okay that maybe that's that's a common problem so not train so it initially selected the subset as a train right here but train there is no train rather it is default so it is adjusting auto adjusting that error automatically that's really magical so it says uh it will adjust the configuration to use the default subset and initiate the F tuning process again so it already adjusted and then again it found another error with the data set which is about the prompt prompt formatting and that also it corrected automatically so prompt template should be python code content initially it selected something else I think uh it selected something like instruction uh yeah so now even that they are automatically collected corrected that's really magical as you know that uh prompt proper prompt formatting is superbly important whenever you are doing any fine-tuning so in this case initially it selected this prompt template with an instruction but when it actually talked to the data set in hugging face it found that that is not the correct prompt for this particular data set so it corrected automatically corrected the prompt template to python code content and then it uh talked to monster API and the found tuning process has been successfully initiated your llama 3 Model is being trained to generate python code based on the content provided in this data set and you will receive update via email as the job progress meanwhile you can also ask me to check for status anytime if you wish so as probably you know that once in the monster API before starting the actual fine tuning job that is when it is spending when it is actually provisioning all these machines your monster API credit will not be used during that time only when your actual training job has started from that timestamp your credit will be used so no worries if you are having to wait one two or 3 minutes or even for example four five minutes no worries your credit is not being consumed and remember just as it says that any whenever the status of your uh this job this uh project that you just launched whenever the status of that changes you will immediately receive an email notifying you about the status so you are always updated and also obviously you can even start the deployment uh of your fine-tuned model when the obviously when the fine-tuning job is done but uh while you are waiting I can just ask it that if you if it can do that uh do that job so let's just ask uh can you deploy the model for me and it says to deploy the model that we have just finetuned I will need the final adapter model link from the fine-tuning process which typically is provided upon completion obviously uh since the fine-tuning job is still underway we don't have the adapter model link yet yeah that's of of course obvious once the fine tuning is completed I can proceed with deploying the model you can either wait until the finetuning process completes and then provide me with the adapter link or if you would like I can check the status of the fing job to see how it's progressing would you like me to check the current status of the F tring yes please and it uh I have to give the confirmation again and obviously uh you can of course deploy the model after it is fine- tuned and that may take hours depending on the size of the model so it says right now it's giving me the pro the status the fine tuning job is currently live and has started as of May 6 24 it seems to be progressing well once it is completed I will be able to provide you with the adapter link for deployment please check back later or let me know if you'd like to receive another status update or have any other request in the meantime yeah so all looks very good I already saw I double checked in the monster apis website and dashboard that it's under Q status and uh also of course if you want to terminate this fine tuning you can just um tell it here and it will terminate at your job uh just in case so let's uh just uh save that and let's see what it does uh don't Meed that uh current fine tuning jum uh starting action so I think it will ask for my confirmation again yep confirm all right now it has terminated the fine tuning job has been successfully terminated if there's anything else you need assistance with or if you'd like to start a new F tuning process or deployment feel free all right now let's quickly check going back to the dashboard if it if it has indeed been terminated and here I can see my this fine tuning job that was started on 7th May has been terminated all right and throughout the entire process you will receive immediate notification in your email just like this so when I started the fine tuning job I received uh this kind of status message that your fine tuning job with ID so and so has started and then when I terminated then also I got your deployment is now terminated reason terminated by user so overall I found it very magical to do the fine tuning with these U chat GPT because you have to write no code at all even no configuration setup no Hardware management no infrastructure pipelines Etc everything will be controlled right from within chat GPT and also like we saw that it gives pretty granular control over the training configuration like Q parameter setup ETC number of gpus to allocate Etc so yeah I definitely do suggest check out their portal you will get 2,500 credit which is enough for all your basic testing for both fine-tuning training and deployment all right that's a wrap hopefully you found it useful and I will see you in the next one

You've been using AI Wrong.en.srt

00:00:00,205 --> 00:00:02,430 I found a new AI tool and I am obsessed. It's completely open source and I use it every day. It's called Fabric. Daniel, tell me what fabric is. So basically the goal is to augment humans with ai, so it's all about reducing that friction to be able to use AI for your. Problems. That's Daniel Meer, the creator of Fabric Reducing Friction so you can use AI to solve your problems. That's the real purpose of technology and ai, and that's what this Project Fabric is helping us do. I legit use this every day and I think you might too. So in this video we're going to break down what Fabric is and I'll show you how to set this up so you can start using it right now and later in this video I'll show you how I use Fabric to access my local AI server. Terry, wherever I go with a sponsor of this video, twin Gate, we'll talk more about them later. Okay? You want to see something absolutely crazy? Yes, Daniel, I do get you coffee ready? Let's do this. Now before we dive too deep, I want to give you a feel for what Using Fabric is kind of like, what's the use case? What would I use this for? This you're going to love watch this. Let's say I've got a YouTube video, this two hour interview that maybe I don't have time to watch, so I'll grab the link and on my command line I'll use the tool YT dash transcript and paste the link, and this is going to grab the transcript of that YouTube video. By the way, this is a tool that's built into fabric. That alone makes this thing amazing. Then I'll pipe that over into Fabric two hour YouTube video. Here we go. Within moments I'm told about David Bumble and everything we discuss in this video, the ideas, insights, quotes, like this one man who said that smart guy. So within a few moments I took a two hour YouTube interview and extracted all the wisdom and insights I need to know. That's crazy, right? So what's happening here? What is Fabric doing? Let's break that down. First we start off with some kind of text. In this case, a YouTube transcript. It really could be anything. And then Fabric will send this text, in this case, our YouTube transcripts off to your favorite ai. It could be models from open ai, anthropic or even local models with Alama, which again, I will show you how to access a local server from anywhere using to one gate here in a bit. Now looking at the command, it's not just sending the transcript by itself. Here you go, ai. It's using this thing called Extract Wisdom. What is that? This is the secret sauce behind fabric and something you should get pretty excited about. Daniel, tell us more about it. What I've done is take any piece of AI from any platform that is interesting and usually the language that I care about is actually prompts. So what we started doing is collecting all these prompts into this concept called patterns. A set of instructions or a way to get the AI to do what we want it to do. Now, this is not a new concept. Prompt engineering is a thing, but this, it's a bit different, different in two ways that I am a big fan of. They're open source and they're crowdsourced. I'll be the first to admit. That's kind of a weird concept for a prompt, but here's why it's cool. First, these prompts or patterns, we'll just call 'em patterns from now on, have been carefully curated, created, manipulated, added to do exactly what it's designed to do to solve a problem, a very specific problem, and it's everyone including maybe you that helps create these prompts to make them better. Now, let's take a look at this one in particular. I love this one, extract wisdom. You'll really get a feel for what I'm talking about here. And this is the other cool part about this. It's open source so you can actually see this system prompt. Normally when you're interacting with GPTs, you can't see the actual prompt being sent to the AI here, we're controlling that. We're part of that and I want to show you this one part. I think this will illustrate what I'm talking about. Look at how this prompt talks to the ai. Take a step back, think step by step, think deeply. It kind of sounds like he's talking to this AI like a human, and that's exactly the case. Even Daniel said. You're basically telling it to act like a human. We don't know why it works, but just talking to these AI like they're humans elicits a better response, better results. Kind of scary Do with that what you will, but I point that out to say that these prompts have been tested time and time again added to similar to what you would see with open source code, and this is just one pattern. Look over here on the side, look at all of these that have been created and you don't have to stop there. You can create your own, which I've done that and oh my gosh, that's the secret. It's so amazing. But hold on, you might be like me and think this kind of seems just like fancy prompts. What is this thing actually doing that I can't just do with chat? GBTI want to revisit this idea Fabric is all about reducing friction to have AI help you solve problems. And one of the areas of friction I didn't even realize I had was the fact that I had to keep going out to chat GBT, open up a web interface, load up maybe a custom GBT or start having a conversation and it didn't feel like a lot of time, but that is time it gets in the way fabric, and this is one of the reasons I fell in love with it is CLI native. You do everything here in the CLI, which I get may or may not excite you, but you're not limited to that. Daniel Meer touches more on that. What I'm trying to do is make the on-ramp to using these things as easy as possible. So I want to be able to use them via voice. I want to be able to use them via command line via a gooey app. I want to be able to just access them as quickly as possible. So that's the main thrust of this project is to collect problems, collect the solutions in the form of these patterns, and then to have as many on-ramps onto them as well. Now I'll talk more about why I love that it's here in the command line, but it's more than just how you interact with it. Think about how you might use this to build programs instead of going through the pain of interfacing with AI APIs. So that's kind of hard to say actually it wasn't. Anyways, you can just use fabric. Now check this out. I want to show you something I did actually yesterday. I'm trying to build my cardiovascular health. So I started running and rowing and I tracked that with the app called Strava, which gets all sorts of amazing data. So I wrote a Python script to interact with their API to pull down all my data and it looks like this, a bunch of messy JSON, but I created a pattern called Workout summary and it takes care of the JSON for me or I can just bake fabric right inside my Python script. And that's just a simple example. This thing is crazy. Now we're about to set this up, but I want to talk about one more thing. It's called a World of Text and it's a concept that I'm really adopting now, thank you to Daniel Mesler. Go ahead and tell him Daniel, about this world of text. 20 Years ago I got into this guy named David Allen who basically said, never ever store anything in your brain. Immediately capture. What I do now is I capture a concept or a structure for an essay or something. I capture it immediately in a note and now that it's text and because I'm fairly proficient with Vim and the Terminal, my whole world is text and the ability to manipulate text and I have all my notes in text and when I record something that's actually sound, I immediately transcribe it, send it to Notion, and so it's also in text. So now I have this world of text that I could use and now I have this AI infrastructure that manipulates text using AI to get results that help us as humans. So it's about getting everything into a text format so it can be used anywhere by anything, especially ai. And notice when I run these commands like getting this YouTube transcript, it's outputting this in marked down format so it can play nice pretty much wherever it goes, especially my notes application obsidian. Now we'll touch more on the philosophy of why I think this is amazing and I'll show you a few more patterns I've been working with. But now let's get you set up. Let's get fabric on your computer right now. And by the way, if you want to see the full Daniel Meisler interview where we talk about a ton of other stuff from cybersecurity, AI scares to just bonding over coffee because we both love coffee. I'll have that full interview on Network Check Academy. Just check that out. Anyways, what do we need? Honestly, just a computer. Now, as I mentioned before, this is Command Line World and this is going to be a Linux-based or Unix-based system, but we're not leaving out anybody here. You got a Mac, it works great on Mac. In fact, Daniel Mesler, all he does is use Mac. He loves it. Linux, of course, if you use Linux is your main desktop, you'll have a good time. And then Windows, which is what I use WSL, the Windows subsystem for Linux, so it'll work everywhere. You have Linux and Linux is everywhere. What a time to be alive, right? Coffee break. For that coffee break, the setup and install is actually really, really fast. I'm going to set up a new machine here in WSL on my Windows machine. You don't have to do this unless you don't already have one. And then best practice, just go ahead and do a pseudo a PT update to update your repos and go ahead and run a pseudo a PT upgrade if you haven't already. Now on Mac, you don't have to do that, just make sure you have your system updates and you'll be golden. Now let's install Fabric, Mac, windows, Linux. We're all following along right now. First we'll just copy and paste this command cloning the Fabric project from Git Hub. If we type in ls, there's the fabric project right there. We'll go ahead and jump in there, CD fabric. And then to install everything, we'll use a tool called PIP x, but we'll have to install PIP X first. Now on Mac and Windows with WSL, we'll do a pseudo a PT install Pip x. If you're on Mac, you'll want to use a tool called Brew. Brew is an amazing utility and I think Package Manager that enables you to install a ton of things and you should have it on your Mac. So install brew first if you don't already have it. And then with the Command Brew, say Brew, install PIP x. Again, that's Mac only. I'll go ahead and install PIP X. Yep, and now we'll install Fabric with pip x. Simply type in pip. I've been sing PIP XA lot, it's making me feel weird. Anyways, pip x install dot, that should be it. Ready, set, go and done. We have all these tools installed. I do have a note from me saying that my path variables aren't correct. I'll just run this command real quick. You might have to do the same thing. Pit backs Ensure Path done, and now Fabric is almost ready to go. We'll just need to run one command fabric, dash dash setup. Oh wait, I got to refresh my terminal. If you're in Linux, you'll do source tilda or library sign, whatever you want to call that. Bash rc. If you're on Mac wll, be Z-S-H-R-C. If you're using ZSH as your default. And now we should be able to do fabric dash dash setup. And what this will do is ask you for a couple things. Your open AI, API key if you want to use G PT four and all those other models and also your Anthropic API key to use the cloud models. Now what that means is yes, you will need an API key. So if you don't already have one, go get one. I'll put a link down below showing you how to do that. I'm going to grab mine real quick and I'll paste that there. And then my Claude API key, which is the Anthropic API key. And then one more thing, it's going to want your YouTube API key. So when you are going out to YouTube to pull those transcripts from videos, you can even do comments. It will use a Google, YouTube, API key. Those are free to set up. Again, I'll have a link below to show you how to do that. And once you've added your API keys, that's it. Now you may be wondering, Chuck, why do we have to do that? Well, remember, fabric is just a framework in itself is not ai. It will use whatever favorite AI you have. Now that does mean that if you're using Open AI or anthropic, you're going to have to pay for that usage and it's a pay as you go thing. Put your credit card in there. Most of the time it does end up being cheaper than just paying for Chad GPT the Pro, but just keep that in mind. Now, if you don't want to pay anything and you don't want to give any data to anybody ever, there's local LLMs as well, which Fabric just added. Thank you, Daniel. So if you have Alama installed or llama installed on a remote server like I do on Terry, we can type in fabric and do dash dash list models. And right here are the available local models. I'll grab a YouTube video. This one by Peter McKinnon, I've been meaning to watch. I'll just grab the summary and then with Fabric, I'll do a dash dash model to specify a certain model. In my case it'll be LAMA three colon latest. Then I'll do dash SP to specify the pattern, which will be Extract Wisdom. And just like that, I'm using a local model. Now if I want to use a bigger model like Llama three seven db, that's not going to run on my local computer, but it will run on Terry. So to connect to a remote AI server, specify remote llama server, put the IP address in of your remote server. This is Terry. Specify the model Llama three 70 B, and then your pattern. Now I'm not sure what the whole Alex and Jordan thing, but that's how you do it. And when I'm away from Terry, when I'm out of the office remote somewhere, I still want to talk to him. And here's how I do it. When I'm working remote out and about as I normally do, I got to make sure I can run my fabric commands and access Terry. Wherever I am right now, it's not going to work. I'm getting nothing. That's where Twin Gate comes in. My favorite way to remotely access my stuff back at home, my office, my studio, everything. Setting up Twin Gate is pretty stinking easy, easier than standing in a field. What was that? All you have to do is set up a free twin gate account, create a network, and then deploy connector. It could be a Docker container on a Raspberry Pi in your house or running on your Sonology nas like I do at my home. And within a few minutes you get remote access to everything you want to like now lighting strikes, nah, I'm good. Wildlife maybe. What was that? But seriously, wherever I go, wherever I am, other hidden holes, I can remotely access my stuff back at home, including Terry. My AI server Twin Gate is special because they use all the latest and greatest technologies to make sure your connection is fast, including quick one of the new internet protocols that is blazingly fast. And with Twin Gate, you can control exactly what your people have access to. All my employees, I don't want you using Terry when you're away from the office, but you can log into the server and work. I'll allow that. So if you want to use my remote access solution, check it out, link below. I've been using it for over a year and it's my favorite way to remotely access everything. I even did it when I was in Japan too. Worked great. Alright, I'm getting out of here. Now let's get a bit more advanced and break down some fabric stuff first. You don't have to just give it stuff like copy and paste from a YouTube transcript or something to work with fabric. You could ask a basic question like watch this. I can echo saying, give me a list of all ice creams flavors and what year they originated. Actually, I'm pretty curious about that. I'll pipe that into fabric and we'll break this down a bit. So far we've been using the command or the switch. Sp that's a combined switch. Let's split 'em up so we can talk about it. So dash s and dash P dash s is for stream. And when we use that switch, we're telling it to go ahead and output whatever the AI says as it's saying it stream it to us. PP is for specifying the pattern. So right after you put the pattern you want to use, and we'll just say the pattern ai, which is a specific pattern, just allowing us to talk with AI just told me, no, you can't do the AI exceeds practical limits. You exceed practical limits. I'm just kidding. Let's try something more easy. There we go. Now we're talking. And by the way, when I use fabric about specifying a model, it defaults to using open AI and GPT-4 Turbo. If you want to change that, especially if you want to stick to local models, we can do fabric dash list models to see all our models and then do fabric, dash, dash change default model and then specify the model. Now we can also do the command fabric, dash dash list, just the list and it'll list all the available patterns we have right now. Again, so many things you can play with. Now I want to show you something crazy. As Daniel mentioned before, the theme behind fabric is very well, fabric E, so you got fabric, then you've got patterns. If you want to run a server, which does some fun stuff, I'm not going to cover right now, it's called a mill. But you can also do what's called stitching, which allows you to stitch patterns together. So let's try this. I've got this article, this long read about that YouTuber poppy, do you remember her? She's still around. She's crazy. It's super long read. I'm just going to copy and paste everything and put this into fabric PB paste fabric. And by the way, I know you're probably wondering, Chuck, how are you doing that? What is this PB paste thing? This is built in by default into Max. So if you have a Mac, just enjoy it on WSL and Linux. It's harder to do. I'll show you how to do that here in a minute. And if I run out of time, I'll show you somewhere else. Anyways, we'll paste that in there and I'll use the prompt, summarize. So summarize the article, and then I'll pipe that result into another fabric command or stitch it. And this pattern will be right essay. Actually I'll do a dash s so we can see that streamed in and go. Now fabric, while it's doing this thing, just think about what it's doing right now. First it's going to summarize that entire article. Then it's going to kick its summary over to the right essay pattern. That's powerful. This is crazy. Writing an essay. We can also do a thing where we analyze the claims of the article. This is not stitching, I just want to see what happens. Analyze claims, I mean, this is just cool. Again, these prompts, crowdsourced, open sourced, they've been meddled with and messed with to make 'em perfect and they're not perfect. I mean they're still going to be worked on improved. You can also do one called label and rate giving it a quality score saying it's B tier, consume when time allows. This is another superpower of fabric and the idea and the mentality is bringing two AI and how you might approach your life. We'll talk more about that here in a minute. I don't want to dive too deep, but now I want to show you how you can create your own patterns because right now we're using what's built in default just there. So I'll show you how you can approach writing a pattern and then getting it into fabric so you can use it. Keeping in mind that when you write a pattern, it remains local to you. It doesn't get uploaded to the fabric repository, and none of that's happening unless you want to submit it. That's up to you. Everything's still private. But when I first started trying to write patterns, I didn't really know how to do it. So I would just go and pick one of my favorite ones, extract wisdom, and just kind of modify it, which is absolutely a great way to do it. But then I found this, there's a pattern. There's a pattern for everything. See, a pattern means solving a problem. There's a pattern called Improve Prompt that basically does everything for you. It's crazy. So check this out, we'll do it real quick. We'll echo something and say you are, we'll just try to write it on prompt real quick, but messy, dirty. And by the way, this is a real example of how I wanted to, and I talked with Daniel about this, how I wanted to digest sermons better. I go to church every Sunday. Sometimes I'm serving in the nursery taking care of babies, and I miss the sermon. Now, I rarely have time to go back and watch the sermon throughout the week. So if I could just somehow digest it like this, that'd be amazing. But I wanted to create a pattern that would look for specific things, unique to a sermon. So let's try this. Alright, so I'll pipe that out to fabric and I'll do the pattern and prove prompt. That's crazy, right? This is so cool. So this is just live off the cuff. I'm going to take this, copy it. So now I've got my instruction and I'm going to go to the place where our patterns live. Here's where they live. We'll go to cd. We'll do dot config slash fabric type in Ls. Here we can see we have a directory for patterns. That's the patterns that fabric we'll use. And then we have a directory called My Patterns, which is what I created. So go ahead and make that for yourself right now. We'll do a mic directory, M-K-D-I-R, let's call it my super Awesome Patterns. I'll jump in there. And then to create our new pattern, we'll make a new directory. Call it Sermon Sensei. It's a has how spell Sensei? Nope. We'll CD in there. And we'll make a new file called System md. Do nano system md. Jump in there and I'll paste the contents of that pattern. Control X, Y enter to safe. So to summarize what we just did, we created a directory to how our custom patterns and inside that directory, we made a new directory creating a new pattern sermon sensei, and we created a file called System md, which is the system prompt to the actual contents of the pattern. Now, the reason we created our own super awesome special directory is that often patterns will be updated because again, this is open sourced, crowdsourced patterns are always being improved. And if they're in the repo, you'll want to update your patterns. So we might do this fabric dash update and that'll update your patterns, but it will overwrite anything that doesn't belong in there. So we're keeping our custom patterns inside my super awesome patterns. That way they're never deleted, but to make sure they can be used by fabric when we run our commands, we do need to copy everything into the Patterns folder. So we'll do that real quick. We'll simply do copy or CP dash r, we'll specify our directory, our home directory symbol tilda slash config slash fabric slash your directory. So mine is super awesome, that super awesome patterns. We'll do the asterisk to make sure all the folders and stuff are copied just so into R patterns, directory config, fabric patterns, just like that. So now if we do fabric dash dash list to list our patterns, I should see sermon sensei right there. Notice I have another one called Sermon Wisdom, which I had previously created. Now let's test out Sermon sensei. I'm going to grab the sermon from my church, one of our recent ones. Do yt, grab that transcript, put the URL there, and then pipe that into fabric using my sermon sensei pattern I just created. Now this is pretty cool and honestly I think it needs some work. So just like the open source patterns in the fabric repo, you can work on yours and keep iterating. So the one I really enjoy is the one I created Sermon Wisdom that I think does a better job and that really does demonstrate the power of a really, really good prompt. I mean, I love how it pulls out quotes. Probably one of my favorite things, and that was killer is the references pulling out all the scripture or things that he mentioned in the sermon. I love that. Now looking back at Fabric, if we type in fabric help, we can see there are options we haven't mentioned yet. We're not going to go over all of them, but one thing I do want to touch on is the idea of a context. I'll let Daniel talk about that real quick. This is the latest thing that I've been working on under Config Fabric. We now have a context file. My context file is about increasing human flourishing by helping people identify, articulate, and pursue their purpose in life. Helping people transition to Human 3.0 to be our best selves. This is literally my soul that I'm translating it to text. I haven't done this yet, but I want to make a context for myself soon. Now I've got two more features. I want to show you the PV paste option for Linux users and the ability to save anything you create with Fabric two obsidian, my favorite notes application, what I use and what I've been obsessing over for a while now. Oh, it's so cool. I just found this. But before we get there, I want to talk more about the philosophy behind Fabric and why it's kind of captured my imagination and why I feel like it's more than just a fancy prompter. Now, to understand that, I think we need to know a bit more about Daniel Mesler. Daniel Meer is a hacker. That's his background. That's what he did and still does. And the reason I created it is because I basically went independent as of the end of 22. As soon as the ai, as soon as GPT-4 launched, I was working at Robinhood at the time. I built a VM program over there. And before that I was at Apple and a bunch of other places, and I had been in AI for five, six years. But when I saw g BT four happen, I was like, okay, I'm out. I basically got out and said, I need to do this full time. So I started collecting all this different AI stuff as I'm sure everyone has seen. And what I found after a couple of months is like, okay, I've got a million different prompts. Now what do I actually do with them? What I started doing is collecting them into an infrastructure that I could use personally, and this is a little bit before Fabric, but it became the content for Fabric. And essentially what it turns into is these patterns here. And you can tell just by using these patterns that this is the result of many, many iterations. It does things so well. And if you've been using AI for a while, again, you know what it feels like to use a really good prompt and had your results be so clean and almost exactly what you were looking for or even more than what you expected. And that's so fun. Now I want to get back to the idea of human flourishing. Again, that is the goal of the Fabric Project, and honestly, when you hear that, it kind of captures your imagination, right? I love, because for me, I dunno if you're like this, but the more AI advances, the more I get just a little bit more scared of where my place in the world might be. But when I hear about projects like Fabric, where it's not about replacing humans, but about augmenting humans to help us become better, to help us think better and to help us consume more content. And that's one of the main things that Daniel uses this tool for. One of the main reasons he created this tool is that there's so much content being produced all the time from YouTube videos to podcasts to articles. Just staying relevant in your space and your niche takes a tremendous amount of time. Time. You don't have to consume things. A big part of it is I am using it to determine what I should go watch regularly. In fact, I'm actually building a product around that called, but I won't say what it's called, but I'm building a product around that. So just because I need it in my life, essentially, I'm using it as a filter to determine what I should go watch and then go watch it fully. And oftentimes I take manual notes, but I watch or listen to it in its entirety, and then I go and take notes on it and it spawns thoughts. So I'm not stepping away and disengaging, I'm still reading massive number of books, I'm still watching the videos, I'm still reading the essays. What this is helping me do is just filter out or filter up or raise attention to the particular stuff that I want to watch. So a big way he uses fabric is to filter out what is good, what deserves a long watch or what just needs to be summarized and quickly digest it. And it's so cool because the way he created fabric in a lot of these prompts is he designed these prompts, these patterns in a way that is meant to mimic the way he would approach something, the way he would watch a video and take notes the way he would listen to a podcast and take notes. It's kind of crazy. My very first thing that I made for Fabric is the ability to emulate as if I took slow notes on a piece of content by hand. And that's what this emulates. Now a little story time. The past six months, I've been on a journey of being very particular, very intentional with what I consume, how I spend my time, and writing down as many things as I can, taking good notes, processing things. And that led me to my question I asked Daniel, and that's if we start using things like fabric, AI tools to do the processing and thinking for us, do we lose that value? So the curmudgeon in me, the old man in me, don't do the AI stuff. It's going to keep you from becoming a deep thinker and learning how to really analyze things. But here's what Daniel said about this. Yeah, I think the way to use it is to use the context stuff that we're starting to build now that's already in the project and basically define what you're trying to do. You can define inside of the context, I need to learn this much about these topics, recommend to me the best courses to do that with. And then when you take a piece of content and it's overwhelming, you could put it through fabric and essentially distill it down. And importantly, it could tell you what not to distill down because there's so much advantage to going back to your earlier point, you don't want to take the weights out of the gym. So everything shouldn't be a summary. Sometimes you have to put the hard work in, but you can use it to tell you or advise you or recommend to you which things you should do slow and painful and difficult because that's where you get the most muscle growth. Don't take the weights out of the gym. So he'll use fabric to help him determine what should be slowly watched and processed. We saw that earlier with the label and rate pattern. It tells you like, oh yeah, you got to watch this right now, or you could wait on that. Again, it's not about replacing humans replacing you, it's about making you better, about taking your current capabilities and using AI to increase that at a faster rate than you could before. It's about identifying a problem that you might have and then creating a pattern to help you solve that problem. And all the patterns you're seeing there that are built into fabric are a result of like, I've got this problem. Here's a pattern that can fix it. And you can do the same thing for your life. And we talked a bit about a feedback loop to where I may have fabric, I'll create a pattern for this that I'll look over my journal entries throughout the week and then it'll tell me, maybe you didn't read enough that week and that's why you're feeling sad. Or, Hey, you're feeling fantastic because you ran four times this week. Keep doing that. It's that kind of augmentation that I'm really excited about and that's where I see myself growing the fabric. And I literally use this all the time for so many things. Me and Daniel also talked about how we both started recording conversations. Like any conversation we have with a sibling, a friend, a spouse, record it, then transcribe it with Whisper ai, which is you can use it locally, it's free, and then pipe that into fabric. I actually started doing this recently with, we have a weekly bible study. We have a core group of people where we meet and we talk about our lives and things and tell funny stories and talk about what we were learning and going through. So I recorded that and I created a pattern that would extract the things I might care about from those moments. Check this out. It's so cool. So I have the recording transcribed. I'll cat that and pipe it into fabric using my GC analyzer. That's what we call our communities gospel communities. And I won't show you everything in this because it's very personal, but I want to show you how cool this is. And honestly, this whole fabric project is making me rethink about the role of AI in my life. It's here. Like it or not, what are you going to use it for? How can you use it to help make you better? And that was the first video I made ever about ai. Chad GPT came out, I was terrified, but then after processing it a bit more, I'm like, you know what? This is going to make us better. It's about us. It's about humans flourishing. There was a funny moment about, it was just a funny story about sleepwalking and it found that, that's so cool. I just did this one. Look at the funny moments here. Yeah, we talk about weird stuff, but I want to remember that stuff. I want to be able to go back to that search, have that in my second brain. That's a video coming soon. And again, I talked with Daniel about a lot more stuff including coffee. So if you want to see that entire talk, that entire conversation, you can check the link below to Network Check Academy, which is my new project, my baby, where I'm creating it. Courses to help you become awesome in it. I would love for you to join. We have an amazing community. Go check it out. Link below. Now, the two more things I wanted to show you First, this PB paste thing. Actually, you know what, I'm not going to show you right here. I'm going to make a video about it, and by the time you watch this video, that one should already be up. So go here somewhere, it's going to be awesome. Just go and jump there. But now to the Obsidian Save thing, this is so awesome. So let's take that same discussion here from my GC analyzer. I can save that directly to obsidian. There's a command that is baked into fabric called Save just like this. And what that will do is save the contents of whatever you're doing in fabric to a note in obsidian, creating a new note. Now to make that happen, we first have to tell fabric where our obsidian lives in our operating system. So if you're new to obsidian, obsidian is all about just text-based documents. Again, world of text. All it is just a bunch of markdown files and it's somewhere on my hard drive to tell fabric where that is. I'll just edit an environment file. So I'll go nano, jump it to my config folder, fabric folder, and there should be a file NV for environment variables. You can see that's also where our API keys are stored. And here's my path to the directory. I want to store new mark dime files created by fabric. With that in place, I want to take away the S option. I don't want to stream it. I'm just going to save this to a file. So I'll pipe it out to the save command and then I'll just name it and go. And then if I jump into my obsidian, which we're going to shield most of this from you, if I go to my specific folder, there it is. Auto Magically. That's killer. Again, it's all about removing friction. This is so amazing. I love this stuff. Lemme know if you like this too. Lemme know if you want me to make more videos like this about new AI tools or just exploring how we can improve ourselves and make ourselves better with the help of ai. I don't know.

🎨 Make Windows Terminal Look Better Oh My Posh Guide.en.srt

00:00:00,060 --> 00:00:02,040 what's up I'm troubleshoot welcome back to another video in this guide I'll show you how to make your windows terminal look a lot better if we head across to the Microsoft store for the windows terminal you'll see that we have these blocks here but they're not enabled by default and they're a little bit more confusing with how to set up in order to get these little blocks all you need is the windows terminal installed or the windows terminal preview which you can find on the Microsoft App Store otherwise you can download it from the Microsoft GitHub linked down below when terminal installs you'll see something like this or actually this on Windows 11 it may even be pre-installed for you anyways the first thing I do is open up settings by clicking the down arrow then settings and under the appearance tab I'll go ahead and scroll down to enable use acrylic material in tabro that'll make the top transparent things look a lot better the theme we can only choose between dark and light but on the color schemes tab over here we can choose between many different themes and even even add new ones from the internet when we add new you'll just need to click edit choose some colors here and we can rename it as well otherwise you can import using Json files so let's go ahead and do that for example in the description down below you'll find a link to the windows terminal themes page where we can easily click through thousands of different profiles to see exactly what we like and what we don't all you need to do is Click get theme when you're happy with one it'll copy it to your clipboard and in the windows terminal and do the settings screen here we can click open Json file on the far bottom left and in this new window that opens up we can hit control F and search for schemes inside of quotes and we'll jump down to the themes that we currently have installed there's a few of them here for now these are all the ones built in that come with the program if we head down to the last one where the closing curly braces we can add a comma and paste in our new theme on the next line so right here comma once more and I'll add another theme I'm particularly fond of being the terminal from Dracula all we need to do is copy the theme Here For example and paste it in with a comma on the previous line we'll hit Ctrl s to save and we can close this then looking inside of the terminal once more and do color schemes we should see our new themes here here I have Dracula next up we'll go ahead and download some nerd fonts essentially these are normal fonts but they have thousands of icons in them and little glyphs that add to the overall user experience you'll find this GitHub linked down below we have tons of font awesome icons Dev icons whether OCT icons material design Etc they really add to the overall experience if we scroll down you'll see patched fonts these are all the different fonts that they've added this to one of my favorite fonts is the fire code nerd font here all we need to do to download these is to head to the releases section all the way at the top of this GitHub page here then under the latest release 2.3.3 in this case we'll need to scroll down to the bottom of this post we will find assets you may need to expand this clicking show all we get all the different fonts available for download now I'll go ahead and download maybe fire a code here so I'll click it it's a 31 megabyte file but when it's done we can open it and we have tons of fonts in here now all we need to do is extract this to a folder I'll just make a new folder on my desktop and drag all of them in like that then we can close the zip select everything with Ctrl a right click and then click install if you get any areas just click close And wait for it to complete now that it's done we can close it and return to the windows terminal we'll need to close it and reopen it to refresh the icon cache now we can head into settings once more I'll move this folder away now from here we need to head to the defaults where we see profiles here scroll down and click on appearance then inside of here we can change the color scheme that we want our terminal to use to whatever you want and then font face just change the this from Cascadia or whatever it is to one of the options that we just installed for example fire code nfm or retina you can choose whichever one you want I think I'll choose retina as it's just a little bit thicker than with everything as is we should now be set up on top of this there's tons of customization that we can do here such as text formatting transparency adding padding to the window and most importantly setting a background should you want you can also set it to use your desktop wallpaper so when we save changes you can see we now have a wallpaper here but it's a bit distracting obviously you'll want something nice and dark that you can easily read over I'll go ahead and turn that off as it's a little bit annoying you can either do that manually or head vacuum background image it's now expanded we can lower the opacity to something more handlable and now it's much easier to read but I think I'll leave that off and maybe customize it later on to something Less in your face there we go next up we'll be installing and setting up oh my Posh this is a extension for Windows terminal that makes things look a heck of a lot better you'll find it in the description down below oh my Posh this is what we came here for these little arrows and blocks all we need to do is make sure that we have access to the winget command running when get you see a response like this if you don't see a response when you run winget in Powershell or command prompt in the Microsoft store you can search for win get one word and you'll see app installer this is only to do just install the app installer then after restarting your terminal you should have access to the winget command all we need to do is Click get started then at the very top right click the sun icon to make the page readable and on the far left click Windows under installation scrolling down it'll recommend us to use a nerd font and to use it inside of WSL we need to install it in the WSL Linux but we'll get there later installation winget copy this command here by clicking the copy button here and simply paste it into command prompt or Powershell window and hit enter now it'll be downloaded and installed just like that it's now done scrolling down this includes oh my Posh and themes for omaposh and for the path to be reloaded a restart of your terminal is advised and here's a prompt about anti-biases and how you can get to where it's located to whitelist it in the future we can run when get upgrade followed by this here to update it but for now we should be fine let's go ahead and activate it now we'll close and restart our terminal and things won't look any different but we'll type in O hyphen my hyphen Posh and hit enter and you'll see response here great at the bottom of this page here we can copy this command here to get the default setup enabled so I'll paste it in and hit enter we'll see this command I'll copy it right click and paste it in and now we can see things look a little bit different whenever we type a command we'll see how long it took to run as well as the current time on the far right but program we're currently using etc for me this is a little bit much but that's where themes come in we can head to themes on the far left here and run get Posh themes in order to customize what we're doing you can see a ton of different themes in here being populated one by one all you need to do is scroll through these and look for something you like starting from the top so for example one shell agnoster aliens Etc we're really just looking for something that tickles your fancy I like the J blab one here we can control click to open a Json file where it's currently installed where we can customize it should you want I'll leave it open to keep the name in memory just in case I want to go back to it I think I'm happy with that some to change your theme adjust the init script in this file path here for example run oh my Posh in it pwsh for Powershell config followed by the path to our wanted theme pipe invoke expression as such so I'll paste it in and instead of running it I'll change the file name here to the one that I liked so for me J blab underscore2021.omp.json I'll hit enter and just like that we now have our new theme set up here and just like that things already look a lot better now the thing is is that when you restart Powershell for example you'll lose that oh my Posh setting heading across to the prompt section of this we get this command him to see exactly what shell we're in so for example this should return pwsh for Powershell which is good we can run notepad profile to change the default but if you get an error about the file not being able to open copy the next command him and run it then run notepad profile and it should open up all we need to do is copy this next command paste it as a notepad control s and close it now whenever we open up a new terminal you'll see the theme here obviously though this isn't the one that I wanted you'll see a notification here about anti-biases and a workaround and how to reload your current page but using the upper ads get to our previous commands this is the one that I'll be using as it's the theme that I like so no bad profile instead of using the default I'll paste in this one save it and close it running dot space dollar sign profile hitting enter it should reload and we'll be back to where we were opening a new terminal you should see that things are set up once more and that's great if we open up command prompt for example things don't look great we can head back to this installation prompt section and open CMD for example you'll see steps here are a little bit different there's no out-of-the-box support for Windows command prompt when it comes to custom prompt there is however a way to use it using clink which at the same time supercharges your CMD experience we can install a theme and set it up but I think this is a different program from the terminal entirely that it is so I don't think I'll be going into that but anyway there's a few things we can customize here older than molested here it does also work on other systems such as Mac and Linux if you'd like to get it working on a WSL or Linux for that volume you can head to the installation tab for Linux that thumb is a whole other video by itself so if you're interested in that I'll be releasing that video tomorrow so you can get it set up for your Ubuntu WSL or anywsl and of course if you're running at Linux then that'll help you as well anyways that's about it for this quick guide so thank you all for watching mine has been troubleshoot and I'll see you all next time ciao foreign

Deified Heroes Etana and Gilgamesh.txt

Deified Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh God and Heroes and the "Seven Sleepers"--Quests of Etana, Gilgamesh, Hercules, &c.--The Plant of Birth--Eagle carries Etana to Heaven--Indian Parallel--Flights of Nimrod, Alexander the Great, and a Gaelic Hero--Eagle as a God--Indian Eagle identified with Gods of Creation, Fire, Fertility, and Death--Eagle carries Roman Emperor's Soul to Heaven--Fire and Agricultural Ceremonies--Nimrod of the Koran and John Barleycorn--Gilgamesh and the Eagle--Sargon-Tammuz Garden Myth--Ea-bani compared to Pan, Bast, and Nebuchadnezzar--Exploits of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani--Ishtar's Vengeance--Gilgamesh journeys to Otherworld--Song of Sea Maiden and "Lay of the Harper"--Babylonian Noah and the Plant of Life--Teutonic Parallels--Alexander the Great as Gilgamesh--Water of Life in the Koran--The Indian Gilgamesh and Hercules--The Mountain Tunnel in various Mythologies--Widespread Cultural Influences. ONE of the oldest forms of folk stories relates to the wanderings of a hero in distant regions. He may set forth in search of a fair lady who has been taken captive, or to obtain a magic herb or stone to relieve a sufferer, to cure diseases, and to prolong life. Invariably he is a slayer of dragons and other monsters. A friendly spirit, or a group of spirits, may assist the hero, who acts according to the advice given him by a "wise woman", a magician, or a god. The spirits are usually wild beasts or birds--the "fates" of immemorial folk belief--and they may either carry the hero on their backs, instruct him from time to time, or come to his aid when called upon. When a great national hero appealed by reason of his achievements to the imagination of a people, all the p. 164 floating legends of antiquity were attached to his memory, and he became identified with gods and giants and knight-errants "old in story". In Scotland, for instance, the boulder-throwing giant of Eildon hills bears the name of Wallace, the Edinburgh giant of Arthur's Seat is called after an ancient Celtic king, 1 and Thomas the Rhymer takes the place, in an Inverness fairy mound called Tom-na-hurich, of Finn (Fingal) as chief of the "Seven Sleepers". Similarly Napoleon sleeps in France and Skobeleff in Russia, as do also other heroes elsewhere. In Germany the myths of Thunor (Thor) were mingled with hazy traditions of Theodoric the Goth (Dietrich), while in Greece, Egypt, and Arabia, Alexander the Great absorbed a mass of legendary matter of great antiquity, and displaced in the memories of the people the heroes of other Ages, as those heroes had previously displaced the humanized spirits of fertility and growth who alternately battled fiercely against the demons of spring, made love, gorged and drank deep and went to sleep--the sleep of winter. Certain folk tales, and the folk beliefs on which they were based, seem to have been of hoary antiquity before the close of the Late Stone Age. There are two great heroes of Babylonian fame who link with Perseus and Hercules, Sigurd and Siegfried, Dietrich and Finn-mac-Coul. These are Etana and Gilgamesh, two legendary kings who resemble Tammuz the Patriarch referred to by Berosus, a form of Tammuz the Sleeper of the Sumerian psalms. One journeys to the Nether World to obtain the Plant of Birth and the other to obtain the Plant of Life. The floating legends with which they were associated were utilized p. 165 and developed by the priests, when engaged in the process of systematizing and symbolizing religious beliefs, with purpose to unfold the secrets of creation and the Otherworld. Etana secures the assistance of a giant eagle who is an enemy of serpents like the Indian Garuda, half giant, half eagle. As Vishnu, the Indian god, rides on the back of Garuda, so does Etana ride on the back of the Babylonian Eagle. In one fragmentary legend which was preserved in the tablet-library of Ashur-banipal, the Assyrian monarch, Etana obtained the assistance of the Eagle to go in quest of the Plant of Birth. His wife was about to become a mother, and was accordingly in need of magical aid. A similar belief caused birth girdles of straw or serpent skins, and eagle stones found in eagles' nests, to be used in ancient Britain and elsewhere throughout Europe apparently from the earliest times. 1 On this or another occasion Etana desired to ascend to highest heaven. He asked the Eagle to assist him, and the bird assented, saying: "Be glad, my friend. Let me bear thee to the highest heaven. Lay thy breast on mine and thine arms on my wings, and let my body be as thy body." Etana did as the great bird requested him, and together they ascended towards the firmament. After a flight which extended over two hours, the Eagle asked Etana to gaze downwards. He did so, and beheld the ocean surrounding the earth, and the earth seemed like a mountainous island. The Eagle resumed its flight, and when another two hours had elapsed, it again asked Etana to look downwards. Then the hero saw that the sea resembled a girdle which clasped the land. Two hours later Etana found that he had been raised to a height p. 166 from which the sea appeared to be no larger than a pond. By this time he had reached the heaven of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and found there rest and shelter. Here the text becomes fragmentary. Further on it is gathered from the narrative that Etana is being carried still higher by the Eagle towards the heaven of Ishtar, "Queen of Heaven", the supreme mother goddess. Three times, at intervals of two hours, the Eagle asks Etana to look downwards towards the shrinking earth. Then some disaster happens, for further onwards the broken tablet narrates that the Eagle is falling. Down and down eagle and man fall together until they strike the earth, and the Eagle's body is shattered. The Indian Garuda eagle 1 never met with such a fate, but on one occasion Vishnu overpowered it with his right arm, which was heavier than the whole universe, and caused many feathers to fall off. In the story of Rama's wanderings, however, as told in the Ràmyàna and the Mahàbhàrata, there are interesting references in this connection to Garuda's two "sons". One was mortally wounded by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon. The other bird related to Rama, who found it disabled: "Once upon a time we two (brothers), with the desire of out-stripping each other, flew towards the sun. My wings were burnt, but those of my brother were not. . . . I fell down on the top of this great mountain, where I still am." 2 Another version of the Etana story survives among the Arabian Moslems. In the "Al Fatihat" chapter of the Koran it is related that a Babylonian king held a dispute with Abraham "concerning his Lord". Commentators p. 167 identify the monarch with Nimrod, who afterwards caused the Hebrew patriarch to be cast into a fire from which he had miraculous deliverance. Nimrod then built a tower so as to ascend to heaven "to see Abraham's god", and make war against Him, but the tower was overthrown. He, however, persisted in his design. The narrative states that he was "carried to heaven in a chest borne by four monstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air, he fell down on a mountain with such a force that he made it shake". A reference in the Koran to "contrivances . . . which make mountains tremble" is believed to allude to Nimrod's vain attempt. 1 Alexander the Great was also reputed to have ascended on the back of an eagle. Among the myths attached to his memory in the Ethiopic "history" is one which explains how "he knew and comprehended the length and breadth of the earth", and how he obtained knowledge regarding the seas and mountains he would have to cross. "He made himself small and flew through the air on an eagle, and he arrived in the heights of the heavens and he explored them." Another Alexandrian version of the Etana myth resembles the Arabic legend of Nimrod. "In the Country of Darkness" Alexander fed and tamed great birds which were larger than eagles. Then he ordered four of his soldiers to mount them. The men were carried to the "Country of the Living", and when they returned they told Alexander "all that had happened and all that they had seen". 2 In a Gaelic story a hero is carried off by a Cromhineach, "a vast bird like an eagle". He tells that it "sprang to the clouds with me, and I was a while that I p. 168 did not know which was heaven or earth for me". The hero died, but, curiously enough, remained conscious of what was happening. Apparently exhausted, the eagle flew to an island in the midst of the ocean. It laid the hero on the sunny side. The hero proceeds: "Sleep came upon herself (the eagle) and she slept. The sun was enlivening me pretty well though I was dead." Afterwards the eagle bathed in a healing well, and as it splashed in the water, drops fell on the hero and he came to life. "I grew stronger and more active", he adds, "than I had ever been before." 1 The eagle figures in various mythologies, and appears to have been at one time worshipped as the god or goddess of fertility, and storm and lightning, as the bringer of children, and the deity who carried souls to Hades. It was also the symbol of royalty, because the earthly ruler represented the controlling deity. Nin-Girsu, the god of Lagash, who was identified with Tammuz, was depicted as a lion-headed eagle. Zeus, the Greek sky and air god, was attended by an eagle, and may, at one time, have been simply an eagle. In Egypt the place of the eagle is taken by Nekhebit, the vulture goddess whom the Greeks identified with "Eileithyia, the goddess of birth; she was usually represented as a vulture hovering over the king". 2 The double-headed eagle of the Hittites, which figures in the royal arms of Germany and Russia, appears to have symbolized the deity of whom the king was an incarnation or son. In Indian mythology Garuda, the eagle giant, which destroyed serpents like the Babylonian Etana eagle, issued from its egg like a flame of fire; its eyes flashed the lightning and its voice was the thunder. This bird is identified in a hymn with Agni, god of fire, who p. 169 has the attributes of Tammuz and Mithra, with Brahma, the creator, with Indra, god of thunder and fertility, and with Yama, god of the dead, who carries off souls to Hades. It is also called "the steed-necked incarnation of Vishnu", the "Preserver" of the Hindu trinity who rode on its back. The hymn referred to lauds Garuda as "the bird of life, the presiding spirit of the animate and inanimate universe . . . destroyer of all, creator of all". It burns all "as the sun in his anger burneth all creatures". 1 Birds were not only fates, from whose movements in flight omens were drawn, but also spirits of fertility. When the childless Indian sage Mandapala of the Mahàbhàrata was refused admittance to heaven until a son was born to him, he "pondered deeply" and "came to know that of all creatures birds alone were blest with fecundity"; so he became a bird. It is of interest, therefore, to find the Etana eagle figuring as a symbol of royalty at Rome. The deified Roman Emperor's waxen image was burned on a pyre after his death, and an eagle was let loose from the great pile to carry his soul to heaven. 2 This custom was probably a relic of seasonal fire worship, which may have been introduced into Northern and Western Syria and Asia Minor by the mysterious Mitanni rulers, if it was not an archaic Babylonian custom 3 associated with fire-and-water magical ceremonies, represented in the British Isles by May-Day and Midsummer fire-and-water festivals. Sandan, the mythical founder of Tarsus, was honoured p. 170 each year at that city by burning a great bonfire, and he was identified with Hercules. Probably he was a form of Moloch and Melkarth. 1 Doves were burned to Adonis. The burning of straw figures, representing gods of fertility, on May-Day bonfires may have been a fertility rite, and perhaps explains the use of straw birth-girdles. According to the commentators of the Koran, Nimrod, the Babylonian king, who cast victims in his annual bon-fires at Cuthah, died on the eighth day of the Tammuz month, which, according to the Syrian calendar, fell on 13th July. 2 It is related that gnats entered Nimrod's brain, causing the membrane to grow larger. He suffered great pain, and to relieve it had his head beaten with a mallet. Although he lived for several hundred years, like other agricultural patriarchs, including the Tammuz of Berosus, it is possible that he was ultimately sacrificed and burned. The beating of Nimrod recalls the beating of the corn spirit of the agricultural legend utilized by Burns in his ballad of "John Barleycorn", which gives a jocular account of widespread ancient customs that are not yet quite extinct even in Scotland: 3 They laid him down upon his back And cudgelled him full sore; They hung him up before a storm And turned him o'er and o'er. They fillèd up a darksome pit With water to the brim, They heavèd in John Barleycorn-- There let him sink or swim. p. 171 They wasted o’er a scorching flame The marrow of his bones, But the miller used him worst of all, For he crushed him between two stones. Hercules, after performing many mythical exploits, had himself burned alive on the pyre which he built upon Mount Œta, and was borne to Olympus amidst peals of thunder. Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, who links with Etana, Nimrod, and Sandan, is associated with the eagle, which in India, as has been shown, was identified with the gods of fertility, fire, and death. According to a legend related by Ælian, 1 "the guards of the citadel of Babylon threw down to the ground a child who had been conceived and brought forth in secret, and who afterwards became known as Gilgamos". This appears to be another version of the Sargon-Tammuz myth, and may also refer to the sacrifice of children to Melkarth and Moloch, who were burned or slain "in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks" 2 to ensure fertility and feed the corn god. Gilgamesh, however, did not perish. "A keen-eyed eagle saw the child falling, and before it touched the ground the bird flew under it and received it on its back, and carried it away to a garden and laid it down gently." Here we have, it would appear, Tammuz among the flowers, and Sargon, the gardener, in the "Garden of Adonis". Mimic Adonis gardens were cultivated by women. Corn, &c., was forced in pots and baskets, and thrown, with an image of the god, into streams. "Ignorant people", writes Professor Frazer, "suppose that by mimicking the effect which they desire to produce they actually help to produce it: thus by sprinkling water they p. 172 make rain, by lighting a fire they make sunshine, and so on." 1 Evidently Gilgamesh was a heroic form of the god Tammuz, the slayer of the demons of winter and storm, who passed one part of the year in the world and another in Hades (Chapter VI). Like Hercules, Gilgamesh figured chiefly in legendary narrative as a mighty hero. He was apparently of great antiquity, so that it is impossible to identify him with any forerunner of Sargon of Akkad, or Alexander the Great. His exploits were depicted on cylinder seals of the Sumerian period, and he is shown wrestling with a lion as Hercules wrestled with the monstrous lion in the valley of Nemea. The story of his adventures was narrated on twelve clay tablets, which were preserved in the library of Ashur-banipal, the Assyrian emperor. In the first tablet, which is badly mutilated, Gilgamesh is referred to as the man who beheld the world, and had great wisdom because he peered into the mysteries. He travelled to distant places, and was informed regarding the flood and the primitive race which the gods destroyed; he also obtained the plant of life, which his enemy, the earth-lion, in the form of a serpent or well demon, afterwards carried away. Gilgamesh was associated with Erech, where he reigned as "the lord". There Ishtar had a great temple, but her worldly wealth had decreased. The fortifications of the city were crumbling, and for three years the Elamites besieged it. The gods had turned to flies and the winged bulls had become like mice. Men wailed like wild beasts and maidens moaned like doves. Ultimately the people prayed to the goddess Aruru to create a liberator. Bel, Shamash, and Ishtar also came to their aid. p. 173 Aruru heard the cries of her worshippers. She dipped her hands in water and then formed a warrior with clay. He was named Ea-bani, which signifies "Ea is my creator". It is possible, therefore, that an ancient myth of Eridu forms the basis of the narrative. Ea-bani is depicted on the cylinder seals as a hairy man-monster resembling the god Pan. He ate grass with the gazelles and drank water with wild beasts, and he is compared to the corn god, which suggests that he was an early form of Tammuz, and of character somewhat resembling the Egyptian Bast, the half-bestial god of fertility. A hunter was sent out from Erech to search for the man-monster, and found him beside a stream in a savage place drinking with his associates, the wild animals. The description of Ea-bani recalls that of Nebuchadnezzar when he was stricken with madness. He was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." 1 The hunter had no desire to combat with Ea-bani, so he had him lured from the wilds by a beautiful woman. Love broke the spell which kept Ea-bani in his savage state, and the wild beasts fled from him. Then the temptress pleaded with him to go with her to Erech, where Anu and Ishtar had their temples, and the mighty Gilgamesh lived in his palace. Ea-bani, deserted by his bestial companions, felt lonely and desired human friend-ship. So he consented to accompany his bride. Having heard of Gilgamesh from the hunter, he proposed to test his strength in single combat, but Shamash, god of the sun, warned Ea-bani that he was the protector of Gilgamesh, p. 174 who had been endowed with great knowledge by Bel and Anu and Ea. Gilgamesh was also counselled in a vision of night to receive Ea-bani as an ally. Ea-bani was not attracted by city life and desired to return to the wilds, but Shamash prevailed upon him to remain as the friend of Gilgamesh, promising that he would be greatly honoured and exalted to high rank. The two heroes became close friends, and when the narrative becomes clear again, they are found to be setting forth to wage war against Chumbaba, 1 the King of Elam. Their journey was long and perilous. In time they entered a thick forest, and wondered greatly at the numerous and lofty cedars. They saw the great road which the king had caused to be made, the high mountain, and the temple of the god. Beautiful were the trees about the mountain, and there were many shady retreats that were fragrant and alluring. At this point the narrative breaks off; for the tablet is mutilated. When it is resumed a reference is made to "the head of Chumbaba", who has apparently been slain by the heroes. Erech was thus freed from the oppression of its fierce enemy. Gilgamesh and Ea-bani appear to have become prosperous and happy. But in the hour of triumph a shadow falls. Gilgamesh is robed in royal splendour and wears his dazzling crown. He is admired by all men, but suddenly it becomes known that the goddess Ishtar has been stricken with love for him. She "loved him with that love which was his doom". Those who are loved by celestials or demons become, in folk tales, melancholy wanderers and "night wailers". The "wretched wight" in Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is a typical example. p. 175 O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge is withered from the lake And no birds sing. . . . . . I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful--a faery's child; Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. . . . . . She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild and manna dew; And sure in language strange she said, "I love thee true". Having kissed her lover to sleep, the fairy woman vanished. The "knight" then saw in a dream the ghosts of knights and warriors, her previous victims, who warned him of his fate. I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gapèd wide; And I awoke and found me here On the cold hill's side. The goddess Ishtar appeared as "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" before Gilgamesh and addressed him tenderly, saying: "Come, O Gilgamesh, and be my consort. Gift thy strength unto me. Be thou my husband and I will be thy bride. Thou shalt have a chariot of gold and lapis lazuli with golden wheels and gem-adorned. Thy steeds shall be fair and white and powerful. Into my dwelling thou shalt come amidst the fragrant cedars. Every king and every prince will bow down before thee, O Gilgamesh, to kiss thy feet, and all people will become subject unto thee." Gilgamesh feared the fate which would attend him as p. 176 the lover of Ishtar, and made answer saying: "To what husband hast thou ever remained faithful? Each year Tammuz, the lover of thy youth, is caused by thee to weep. Thou didst love the Allala bird and then broke his wings, and he moans in the woods crying, 'O my wings!' Thou didst love the lion and then snared him. Thou didst love the horse, and then laid harness on him and made him gallop half a hundred miles so that he suffered great distress, and thou didst oppress his mother Silili. Thou didst love a shepherd who sacrificed kids unto thee, and then thou didst smite him so that he became a jackal (or leopard); his own herd boy drove him away and his dogs rent him in pieces. Thou didst love Ishullanu, the gardener of Anu, who made offerings unto thee, and then smote him so that he was unable to move. Alas! if thou wouldst love me, my fate would be like unto the fates of those on whom thou hast laid affliction." Ishtar's heart was filled with wrath when she heard the words which Gilgamesh had spoken, and she prevailed upon her father Anu to create a fierce bull which she sent against the lord of Erech. This monster, however, was slain by Gilgamesh 1 and Ea-bani, but their triumph was shortlived. Ishtar cursed Gilgamesh. Ea-bani then defied her and threatened to deal with her as he had dealt with the bull, with the result that he was cursed by the goddess also. Gilgamesh dedicated the horns of the bull to Shamash and returned with his friend to Erech, where they were received with great rejoicings. A festival was held, and afterwards the heroes lay down to sleep. Then Ea-bani dreamt a dream of ill omen. He met his death soon afterwards, apparently in a battle, and Gilgamesh lamented THE SLAYING OF THE BULL OF ISHTAR<br> <i>From the Painting by E. Wallcousins</i>. Click to enlarge THE SLAYING OF THE BULL OF ISHTAR From the Painting by E. Wallcousins. p. 177 over him. From the surviving fragments of the narrative it would appear that Gilgamesh resolved to undertake a journey, for he had been stricken by disease. He wept and cried out, "Oh! let me not die like Ea-bani, for death is fearful. I will seek the aid of mine ancestor, Pir-napishtim"--the Babylonian Noah, who was believed to be dwelling on an island which corresponds to the Greek "Island of the Blessed". The Babylonian island lay in the ocean of the Nether World. It seems that Gilgamesh not only hoped to obtain the Water of Life and the Plant of Life to cure his own disease, but also to restore to life his dead friend, Ea-bani, whom he loved. Gilgamesh set out on his journey and in time reached a mountain chasm. Gazing on the rugged heights, he beheld fierce lions and his heart trembled. Then he cried upon the moon god, who took pity upon him, and under divine protection the hero pressed onward. He crossed the rocky range and then found himself confronted by the tremendous mountain of Mashi--"Sunset hill", which divided the land of the living from the western land of the dead. The mountain peak rose to heaven, and its foundations were in Aralu, the Underworld. 1 A dark tunnel pierced it and could be entered through a door, but the door was shut and on either side were two monsters of horrible aspect--the gigantic "scorpion man" and his wife, whose heads reached to the clouds. When Gilgamesh beheld them he swooned with terror. But they did him no harm, perceiving that he was a son of a god and had a body like a god. When Gilgamesh revived, he realized that the monsters p. 178 regarded him with eyes of sympathy. Addressing the scorpion giant, he told that he desired to visit his ancestor, Pir-napishtim, who sat in the council of the gods and had divine attributes. The giant warned him of the dangers which he would encounter, saying that the mountain passage was twelve miles long and beamless and black. Gilgamesh, however, resolved to encounter any peril, for he was no longer afraid, and he was allowed to go forward. So he entered through the monster-guarded mountain door and plunged into thick unbroken darkness. For twice twelve hours he groped blindly onward, until he saw a ray of light. Quickening his steps, he then escaped from the dreadful tunnel and once more rejoiced in the rays of the sun. He found himself in an enchanted garden, and in the midst of it he saw a divine and beautiful tree towards which he hastened. On its gleaming branches hung clusters of precious stones and its leaves were of lapis lazuli. His eyes were dazzled, but he did not linger there. Passing many other wonderful trees, he came to a shoreland, and he knew that he was drawing nigh to the Sea of Death. The country which he entered was ruled over by the sea lady whose name was Sabitu. When she saw the pilgrim drawing nigh, she entered her palace and shut the door. Gilgamesh called out requesting that he should be allowed to enter, and mingled his entreaties with threats to break open the door. In the end Sabitu appeared and spoke, saying: Gilgamesh, whither hurriest thou? The life that thou seekest thou wilt not find. When the gods created man They fixed death for mankind. Life they took in their own hand. Thou, O Gilgamesh, let thy belly be filled! p. 179 Day and night be merry, Daily celebrate a feast, Day and night dance and make merry! Clean be thy clothes, Thy head be washed, bathe in water! Look joyfully on the child that grasps thy hand, Be happy with the wife in thine arms! 1 [paragraph continues]This is the philosophy of the Egyptian "Lay of the Harper". The following quotations are from two separate versions: How rests this just prince! The goodly destiny befalls, The bodies pass away Since the time of the god, And generations come into their places. . . . . . . (Make) it pleasant for thee to follow thy desire While thou livest. Put myrrh upon thy head, And garments on thee of fine linen. . . . Celebrate the glad day, Be not weary therein. . . . Thy sister (wife) who dwells in thy heart. She sits at thy side. Put song and music before thee, Behind thee all evil things, And remember thou (only) joy. 2 Jastrow contrasts the Babylonian poem with the following quotation from Ecclesiastes:-- Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. . . . Let thy garments be always white; and p. 180 let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he [God] hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. 1 "The pious Hebrew mind", Jastrow adds, "found the corrective to this view of life in the conception of a stern but just God, acting according to self-imposed standards of right and wrong, whose rule extends beyond the grave." The final words of the Preacher are, "Fear God and keep his commandments". 2 Gilgamesh did not accept the counsel of the fatalistic sea lady. He asked her how he could reach Pir-napishtim, his ancestor, saying he was prepared to cross the Sea of Death: if he could not cross it he would die of grief. Sabitu answered him, saying: "O Gilgamesh, no mortal is ferried over this great sea. Who can pass over it save Shamash alone? The way is full of peril. O Gilgamesh, how canst thou battle against the billows of death?" At length, however, the sea lady revealed to the pilgrim that he might obtain the aid of the sailor, Arad Ea, who served his ancestor Pir-napishtim. Gilgamesh soon found where Arad Ea dwelt, and after a time prevailed upon him to act as ferryman. Arad Ea required a helm for his boat, and Gilgamesh hastened to fashion one from a tree. When it was fixed on, the boat was launched and the voyage began. Terrible experiences were passed through as they crossed the Sea of Death, but at length they drew nigh to the "Island of the Blessed" on which dwelt Pir-napishtim and his wife. Wearied by his exertions and wasted by disease, Gilgamesh sat resting in the boat. He did not go ashore. p. 181 Pir-napishtim had perceived the vessel crossing the Sea of Death and marvelled greatly. The story is unfortunately interrupted again, but it appears that Gilgamesh poured into the ears of his ancestor the tale of his sufferings, adding that he feared death and desired to escape his fate. Pir-napishtim made answer, reminding the pilgrim that all men must die. Men built houses, sealed contracts, disputed one with another, and sowed seeds in the earth, but as long as they did so and the rivers rose in flood, so long would their fate endure. Nor could any man tell when his hour would come. The god of destiny measured out the span of life: he fixed the day of death, but never revealed his secrets. Gilgamesh then asked Pir-napishtim how it chanced that he was still alive. "Thou hast suffered no change," he said, "thou art even as I am. Harden not thy heart against me, but reveal how thou hast obtained divine life in the company of the gods." Pir-napishtim thereupon related to his descendant the story of the deluge, which is dealt with fully in the next chapter. The gods had resolved to destroy the world, and Ea in a dream revealed unto Pir-napishtim how he could escape. He built a ship which was tossed about on the waters, and when the world had been destroyed, Bel discovered him and transported him to that island in the midst of the Sea of Death. Gilgamesh sat in the boat listening to the words of his ancestor. When the narrative was ended, Pir-napishtim spoke sympathetically and said: "Who among the gods will restore thee to health, O Gilgamesh? Thou hast knowledge of my life, and thou shalt be given the life thou dost strive after. Take heed, therefore, to what I say unto thee. For six days and seven nights thou p. 182 shalt not lie down, but remain sitting like one in the midst of grief." 1 Gilgamesh sat in the ship, and sleep enveloped him like to a black storm cloud. Pir-napishtim spoke to his wife and said: "Behold the hero who desireth to have life. Sleep envelops him like to a black storm cloud." To that lone man his wife made answer: "Lay thine hand upon him so that he may have perfect health and be enabled to return to his own land. Give him power to pass through the mighty door by which he entered." Then Pir-napishtim addressed his wife, saying: "His sufferings make me sad. Prepare thou for him the magic food, and place it near his head." On the day when Gilgamesh lay down, the food was prepared by seven magic processes, and the woman ad-ministered it while yet he slept. Then Pir-napishtim touched him, and he awoke full of life. Gilgamesh spake unto Pir-napishtim and said: "I was suddenly overcome by sleep. . . . But thou didst awaken me by touching me, even thou. . . . Lo! I am bewitched. What hast thou done unto thy servant?" Then Pir-napishtim told Gilgamesh that he had been given to eat of the magic food. Afterwards he caused Arad Ea to carry Gilgamesh to a fountain of healing, where his disease-stricken body was cleansed. The blemished skin fell from him, and he was made whole. Thereafter Gilgamesh prepared to return to his own land. Ere he bade farewell, however, Pir-napishtim revealed unto him the secret of a magic plant which had power to renew life and give youth and strength unto those who were old. p. 183 Arad Ea conducted the hero to the island where the plant grew, and when Gilgamesh found it he rejoiced, and said that he would carry it to Erech, his own city, where he would partake of it and restore his youth. So Gilgamesh and Arad Ea went on their way together, nor paused until they came to a well of pure water. The hero stooped down to draw water. 1 But while he was thus engaged that demon, the Earth Lion, crept forth as a serpent, and, seizing the magic plant of life, carried it away. Stricken with terror, Gilgamesh uttered a curse. Then he sat down and wept bitterly, and the tears streamed over his face. To Arad Ea he spake, saying: "Why has my health been restored to me? Why should I rejoice because that I live? The benefit which I should have derived for myself has now fallen to the Earth Lion." The two travellers then resumed their journey, performing religious acts from time to time; chanting dirges and holding feasts for the dead, and at length Gilgamesh returned to Erech. He found that the city walls were crumbling, and he spake regarding the ceremonies which had been performed while yet he was in a far-distant country. During the days which followed Gilgamesh sorrowed for his lost friend Ea-bani, whose spirit was in the Underworld, the captive of the spirits of death. "Thou canst not draw thy bow now," he cried, "nor raise the battle shout. Thou canst not kiss the woman thou hast loved; thou canst not kiss the child thou hast loved, nor canst thou smite those whom thou hast hated." In vain Gilgamesh appealed to his mother goddess to restore Ea-bani to him. Then he turned to the gods, and p. 184 [paragraph continues]Ea heard him. Thereafter Nergal, god of death, caused the grave to yawn, and the spirit of Ea-bani arose like a wind gust. Gilgamesh, still dreading death, spoke to the ghost of his friend, saying: "Tell me, my friend, O tell me regarding the land in which thou dost dwell." Ea-bani made answer sorrowfully: "Alas! I cannot tell thee, my friend. If I were to tell thee all, thou wouldst sit down and weep." Said Gilgamesh: "Let me sit down and weep, but tell me regarding the land of spirits." The text is mutilated here, but it can be gathered that Ea-bani described the land where ill-doers were punished, where the young were like the old, where the worm devoured, and dust covered all. But the state of the warrior who had been given burial was better than that of the man who had not been buried, and had no one to lament or care for him. "He who hath been slain in battle," the ghost said, "reposeth on a couch drinking pure water--one slain in battle as thou hast seen and I have seen. His head is supported by his parents: beside him sits his wife. His spirit doth not haunt the earth. But the spirit of that man whose corpse has been left unburied and uncared for, rests not, but prowls through the streets eating scraps of food, the leavings of the feast, and drinking the dregs of vessels." So ends the story of Gilgamesh in the form which survives to us. The journey of Gilgamesh to the Island of the Blessed recalls the journeys made by Odin, Hermod, Svipdag, Hotherus and others to the Germanic Hela. When Hermod went to search for Balder, as the Prose Edda relates, he rode through thick darkness for nine days and nine nights ere he crossed the mountains. As Gilgamesh p. 185 met Sabitu, Hermod met Modgudur, "the maiden who kept the bridge "over the river Gjöll. Svipdag, according to a Norse poem, was guided like the Babylonian hero by the moon god, Gevar, who instructed him what way he should take to find the irresistible sword. Saxo's Hother, who is instructed by "King Gewar", crosses dismal mountains "beset with extraordinary cold". 1 Thorkill crosses a stormy ocean to the region of perpetual darkness, where the ghosts of the dead are confined in loathsome and dusty caves. At the main entrance "the door posts were begrimed with the soot of ages". 2 In the Elder Edda Svipdag is charmed against the perils he will be confronted by as he fares "o’er seas mightier than men do know", or is overtaken by night "wandering on the misty way". 3 When Odin "downward rode into Misty Hel" he sang spells at a "witch's grave", and the ghost rose up to answer his questions regarding Balder. "Tell me tidings of Hel", he addressed her, as Gilgamesh addressed the ghost of Ea-bani. In the mythical histories of Alexander the Great, the hero searches for the Water of Life, and is confronted by a great mountain called Musas (Mashti). A demon stops him and says: "O king, thou art not able to march through this mountain, for in it dwelleth a mighty god who is like unto a monster serpent, and he preventeth everyone who would go unto him." In another part of the narrative Alexander and his army arrive at a place of darkness "where the blackness is not like the darkness of night, but is like unto the mists and clouds which descend at the break of day". A servant uses a shining jewel stone, which Adam had brought from Paradise, to guide him, and found the well. He drank p. 186 of the "waters of life" and bathed in them, with the result that he was strengthened and felt neither hunger nor thirst. When he came out of the well "all the flesh of his body became bluish-green and his garments likewise bluish-green". Apparently he assumed the colour of supernatural beings. Rama of India was blue, and certain of his monkey allies were green, like the fairies of England and Scotland. This fortunate man kept his secret. His name was Matun, but he was afterwards nicknamed "'El-Khidr', that is to say, 'Green'". What explanation he offered for his sudden change of appearance has not been recorded. 1 It is related that when Matun reached the Well of Life a dried fish which he dipped in the water was restored to life and swam away. In the Koran a similar story is told regarding Moses and Joshua, who travelled "for a long space of time" to a place where two seas met. "They forgot their fish which they had taken with them, and the fish took its way freely to the sea." The Arabian commentators explain that Moses once agreed to the suggestion that he was the wisest of men. In a dream he was directed to visit Al Khedr, who was "more knowing than he", and to take a fish with him in a basket. On the seashore Moses fell asleep, and the fish, which had been roasted, leapt out of the basket into the sea. Another version sets forth that Joshua, "making the ablution at the fountain of life", some of the water happened to be sprinkled on the fish, which immediately leapt up. 2 The Well of Life is found in Fingalian legends. When Diarmid was mortally wounded by the boar, he called upon Finn to carry water to him from the well: p. 187 Give me a draught from thy palms, O Finn, Son of my king for my succour, For my life and my dwelling. Campbell's West Highland Tales, vol. iii, 80. The quest of the plant, flower, or fruit of life is referred to in many folk tales. In the Mahàbhàrata, Bhima, the Indian Gilgamesh or Hercules, journeys to north-eastern Celestial regions to find the lake of the god Kuvera (Kubera), on which grow the "most beautiful and unearthly lotuses", which restore health and give strength to the weary. As Gilgamesh meets with Pir-napishtim, who relates the story of the Deluge which destroyed the "elder race", Bhima meets with Hanuman, who informs him regarding the Ages of the Universe and the races which were periodically destroyed by deluges. When Bhima reaches the lotus lake he fights with demons. To heal his wounds and recover strength he plunges into the lake. "As he drank of the waters, like unto nectar, his energy and strength were again fully restored." 1 Hercules similarly sets out to search for the golden apples which grow in those Hesperian gardens famed of old, Fortunate fields, and groves and flowery vales. As Bhima slew Yakshas which guarded the lotuses, Hercules slew Ladon, the guardian of the apples. Other heroes kill treasure-protecting dragons of various kinds. There is a remarkable resemblance between the Babylonian account of Gilgamesh's journey through the mountain tunnel to the garden and seashore, and the Indian story of the demigod Hanuman passing through the long p. 188 cavern to the shoreland palace of the female ascetic, when he was engaged searching for Sita, the wife of Rama, who had been carried away by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon. In the version of the latter narrative which is given in the Mahàbhàrata, Hanuman says: "I bring thee good news, O Rama; for Janaka's daughter hath been seen by me. Having searched the southern region with all its hills, forests, and mines for some time, we became very weary. At length we beheld a great cavern. And having beheld it, we entered that cavern which extended over many yojanas. It was dark and deep, and overgrown with trees and infested by worms. And having gone a great way through it, we came upon sunshine and beheld a beautiful palace. It was the abode of the Daitya (sea demon) Maya. And there we beheld a female ascetic named Parbhávati engaged in ascetic austerities. And she gave us food and drink of various kinds. And having refreshed ourselves therewith and regained our strength, we proceeded along the way shown by her. At last we came out of the cavern and beheld the briny sea, and on its shores, the Sahya, the Malaya, and the great Dardura mountains. And ascending the mountains of Malaya, we beheld before us the vast ocean (or, "the abode of Varuna"). And beholding it, we felt sorely grieved in mind. . . . We despaired of returning with our lives. . . . We then sat together, resolved to die there of starvation." Hanuman and his friends, having had, so far, experiences similar to those of Gilgamesh, next discovered the eagle giant which had burned its wings when endeavouring to soar to the sun. This great bird, which resembles the Etana eagle, expressed the opinion that Sita was in Lanka (Ceylon), whither she must have been carried by Ravana. But no one dared to cross the dangerous ocean. Hanuman p. 189 at length, however, obtained the assistance of Vayu, the wind god, his divine father, and leapt over the sea, slaying monsters as he went. He discovered where the fair lady was concealed by the king of demons. 1 The dark tunnel is met with in many British stories of daring heroes who set out to explore it, but never return. In the Scottish versions the adventurers are invariably pipers who are accompanied by dogs. The sound of the pipes is heard for a time; then the music ceases suddenly, and shortly afterwards the dog returns without a hair upon its body. It has evidently been in conflict with demons. The tunnel may run from a castle to the seashore, from a cave on one side of a hill to a cave on the other, or from a seashore cave to a distant island. It is possible that these widespread tunnel stories had origin among the cave dwellers of the Palæolithic Age, who believed that deep caverns were the doors of the underground retreats of dragons and giants and other supernatural enemies of mankind. In Babylonia, as elsewhere, the priests utilized the floating material from which all mythologies were framed, and impressed upon it the stamp of their doctrines. The symbolized stories were afterwards distributed far and wide, as were those attached to the memory of Alexander the Great at a later period. Thus in many countries may be found at the present day different versions of immemorial folk tales, which represent various stages of culture, and direct and indirect contact at different periods with civilizations that have stirred the ocean of human thought, and sent their ideas rippling in widening circles to far-distant shores.

EGYPTIAN VIEW OF CREATION.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 37 CHAPTER II RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT EGYPTIAN VIEW OF CREATION MAN in all times and places, has speculated on the nature and origin of the world, and connected such questions with his theology. In Egypt there are not many primitive theories of creation, though some have various elaborated forms. Of the formation of the earth there were two views. (1) That it had been brought into being by the word of a god, who when he uttered any name caused the object thereby to exist. Thoth is the principal creator by this means and this idea probably belongs to a period soon after the age of the animal gods. (2) The other view is that Ptah framed the world as an artificer, with the aid of eight Khnumu, or earth-gnomes. This belongs to the theology of the abstract gods. The primitive people seem to have been content with the eternity of matter, and only personified nature when they described space, Shu, p. 38 as separating the sky, Nut, from the earth, Seb. This is akin to the separation of chaos into sky and sea in Genesis. The sun is called the egg laid by the primeval goose; and in later time this was said to be laid by a god, or modelled by Ptah. Evidently this goose egg is a primitive tale which was adapted to later theology. The sky is said to be upheld by four pillars. These were later connected. with the gods of the four quarters; but the primitive four pillars were represented together, with the capitals one over the other, in the sign dad, the emblem of stability. These may have belonged to the Osiris cycle, as he is "lord of the pillars," daddu, and his center in the Delta was named Daddu from the pillars. The setting up of the pillars or dad emblem was a great festival in which the kings took part, and which is often represented. The creation of life was variously attributed to different great gods where they were worshipped. Khnumu, Osiris, Amen, or Atmu, each are stated to be the creator. The mode was only defined by the theorists of Heliopolis; they imagined that Atmu self-produced Seb and Nut, and they in turn other gods, from whom at last sprang mankind. p. 39 But this is merely later theorizing to fit a theology in being. The cosmogonic theories, therefore, were by no means important articles of belief, but rather assumptions of what the gods were likely to have done similar to the acts of men. The creation by the word is the more elevated idea, and is parallel to the creation in Genesis. The conception of the nature of the world was that of a great plain, over which the sun passed by day, and beneath which it travelled through the hours of night. The movement of the sun was supposed to be that of floating on the heavenly ocean, figured by its being in a boat, which was probably an expression for its flotation. The elaboration of the nature of the regions through which the sun passed at night essentially belongs to the Ra theology, and only recognises the kingdom of Osiris by placing it in one of the hours of night. The old conception of the dim realm of the cemetery-god Seker occupies the fourth and fifth hours; the sixth hour is an approach to the Osiride region, and the seventh hour is the kingdom of Osiris. Each hour was separated by gates, which were guarded by demons who needed to be controlled by magic formulæ. p. 40 THE GODS OF ANCIENT EGYPT Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians' belief in gods, it is best to try to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural. The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialized group of attributes that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name. It is unfortunate that every other word for supernatural intelligences has become debased, so that we cannot well speak of demons, devils, ghosts, or fairies without implying a noxious or a trifling meaning, quite unsuited to the ancient deities that were so beneficent and powerful. If then we use the word god for such conceptions, it must always be with the reservation that the word has now a very different meaning from what it had to ancient minds. To the Egyptian the gods might be mortal; even Ra, the sun-god, is said to have grown old and feeble, Osiris was slain, and Orion, the great hunter of the heavens, killed and ate the gods. The mortality of gods has been dwelt on by Dr. Frazer in the "Golden Bough," and the many instances of tombs of gods, and of the slaying of the deified man p. 41 who was worshipped, all show that immortality was not a divine attribute. Nor was there any doubt that they might suffer while alive; one myth tells how Ra, as he walked on earth, was bitten by a magic serpent and suffered torments. The gods were also supposed to share in a life like that of man, not only in Egypt but in most ancient lands. Offerings of food and drink were constantly supplied to them, in Egypt laid upon the altars, in other lands burnt for a sweet savour. At Thebes the divine wife of the god, or high priestess, was the head of the harem of concubines of the god; and similarly in Babylonia the chamber of the god with the golden couch could only be visited by the priestess who slept there for oracular responses. The Egyptian gods could not be cognisant of what passed on earth without being informed, nor could they reveal their will at a distant place except by sending a messenger; they were as limited as the Greek gods who required the aid of Iris to communicate one with another or with mankind. The gods, therefore, have no divine superiority to man in conditions or limitations; they can only be described as pre-existent, acting intelligences, with scarcely greater powers than man might hope to gain by magic or witchcraft of his own. This conception p. 42 explains how easily the divine merged into the human in Greek theology, and how frequently divine ancestors occurred in family histories. (By the word "theology" is designated the knowledge about gods.) There are in ancient theologies very different classes of gods. Some races, as the modern Hindu, revel in a profusion of gods and godlings, which are continually being increased. Others, as the Turanians, whether Sumerian Babylonians, modern Siberians, or Chinese, do not adopt the worship of great gods, but deal with a host of animistic spirits, ghosts, devils, or whatever we may call them; and Shamanism or witchcraft is their system for conciliating such adversaries. But all our knowledge of the early positions and nature of great gods shows them to have stood on an entirely different footing to these varied spirits. Were the conception of a god only an evolution from such spirit worship of one god, polytheism would precede monotheism in each tribe or race. What we actually find is the contrary of this, monotheism is the first stage traceable in theology. Hence we must rather look on the theologic conception of the Aryan and Semitic races as quite apart from the demon-worship of the Turanians. Indeed the Chinese p. 43 seem to have a mental aversion to the conception of a personal god, and to think either of the host of earth spirits and other demons, or else of the pantheistic abstraction of heaven. Wherever we can trace back polytheism to its earliest stages we find that it results from combinations of monotheism. In Egypt even Osiris, Isis, and Horus--so familiar as a triad--are found at first as separate units in different places, Isis as a virgin goddess, and Horus as a self-existent god. Each city appears to have but one god belonging to it, to whom others were added. Similarly in Babylonia each great city had its supreme god; and the combinations of these, and their transformations in order to form them in groups when their homes were politically united, show how essentially they were solitary deities at first. Not only must we widely distinguish the demonology of races worshipping numerous earth spirits and demons from the theology of races devoted to solitary great gods; but we must further distinguish the varying ideas of the latter class. Most of the theologic races have no objection to tolerating the worship of other gods side by side with that of their own local deity. It is in this way that the compound theologies built up the polytheism p. 44 of Egypt and of Greece. But others of the theologic races have the conception of "a jealous god," who would not tolerate the presence of a rival. We cannot date this conception earlier than Mosaism, and this idea struggled hard against polytheistic toleration. This view acknowledges the reality of other gods, but ignores their claims. The still later view was that other gods were non-existent, a position started by the Hebrew prophets in contempt of idolatry, scarcely grasped by early Christianity, but triumphantly held by Islam. We therefore have to deal with the following conceptions, which fall into two main groups, that probably belong to different divisions of mankind: Animism Demonology Tribal Monotheism At any state the unity of different gods may be accepted as a modus vivendi or as a philosophy. Combinations forming tolerant Polytheism Jealous Monotheism Sole Monotheism All of these require mention here as more or less of each principle, both of animism and monotheism, can be traced in the innumerable combinations found during the six thousand years of Egyptian religion: these combinations of beliefs being due to combinations of the races to which they belonged. Before we can understand what were the relations p. 45 between man and the gods we must first notice the conceptions of the nature of man. In the prehistoric days of Egypt the position and direction of the body was always the same in every burial; offerings of food and drink were placed by it, figures of servants, furniture, even games, were included in the grave. It must be concluded therefore that it was a belief in immortality which gave rise to such a detailed ritual of the dead, though we have no written evidence upon this. So soon as we reach the age of documents we find on tombstones that the person is denoted by the khu between the arms of the ka. From later writings it is seen that the khu is applied to a spirit of man; while the ka is not the body but the activities of sense and perception. Thus, in the earliest age of documents, two entities were believed to vitalize the body. The KA is more frequently named than any other part, as all funeral offerings were made for the KA. It is said that if opportunities of satisfaction in life were missed it is grievous to the ka, and that the ka must not be annoyed needlessly; hence it was more than perception, and it included all that we might call consciousness. Perhaps we may grasp it best as the "self," with the same variety of meaning p. 46 that we have in our own word. The ka was represented as a human being following after the man; it was born at the same time as the man, but persisted after death and lived in and about the tomb. It could act and visit other kas after death, but it could not resist the least touch of physical force. It was always represented by two upraised arms, the acting parts of the person. Beside the ka of man, all objects likewise had their kas, which were comparable to the human ka, and among these the ka lived. This view leads closely to the world of ideas permeating the material world in later philosophy. The KHU is figured as a crested bird, which has the meaning of "glorious" or "shining" in ordinary use. It refers to a less material conception than the ka, and may be called the intelligence or spirit. The KHAT is the material body of man which was the vehicle of the KA, and inhabited by the KHU. The BA belongs to, a different pneumatology to that just noticed. It is the soul apart from the body, figured as a human-headed bird. The conception probably arose from the white owls, with round beads and every human expressions, which frequent the tombs, flying noiselessly to and fro. The ba required food and drink, which were provided p. 47 for it by the goddess of the cemetery. It thus overlaps the scope of the ka, and probably belongs to a different race to that which define the man. The sahu or mummy is associated particularly with the ba; and the ba bird is often shown as resting on the mummy or seeking to re-enter it. The khaybet was the shadow of a man; the importance of the shadow in early ideas is well known. The sekhem was the force or ruling power of man, but is rarely mentioned. The ab is the will and intentions, symbolised by the heart; often used in phrases such as a man being "in the heart of his lord," "wideness of heart" for satisfaction, "washing of the heart" for giving vent to temper. The HATI is the physical heart, the "chief" organ of the body, also wed metaphorically. The ran is the name which was essential to man, as also to inanimate things. Without a name nothing really existed. The knowledge. of the name gave power over its owner; a great myth turns on Isis obtaining the name of Ra by stratagem, and thus getting the two eyes of Ra--the sun and moon--for her son Horus. Both in ancient and modern races the knowledge of the real name of a man is carefully guarded, and often secondary p. 48 names are used for secular purposes. It was usual for Egyptians to have a "great name" and a "little name"; the great name is often compounded with that of a god or a king, and was very probably reserved for religious purposes, as it is only found on religious and funerary monuments. We must not suppose by any means that all of these parts of the person were equally important, or were believed in simultaneously. The ka, khu, and khat seem to form one group; the ba and sehu belong to another; the ab, hati, and sekhem are hardly more than metaphors, such as we commonly use; the khaybet is a later idea which probably belongs to the system of animism and witchcraft, where the shadow gave a hold upon the man. The ran, name, belongs partly to the same system, but also is the germ of the later philosophy of idea. The purpose of religion to the Egyptian was to secure the favor of the god. There is but little trace of negative prayer to avert evils or deprecate evil influences, but rather of positive prayer for concrete favors. On the part of kings this is usually of the Jacob type, offering to provide temples and services to the god in return for material prosperity. The Egyptian was essentially self-satisfied, he had no confession to make of sin or wrong, and p. 49 had no thought of pardon. In the judgment he boldly averred that he was free of the forty-two sins that might prevent his entry into the kingdom of Osiris. If he failed to establish his innocence in the weighing of his heart, there was no other plea, but he was consumed by fire and by a hippopotamus, and no hope remained for him. THE EGYPTIAN VIEW OF FUTURE LIFE The various beliefs of the Egyptians regarding the future life are so distinct from each other and so incompatible, that they may be classified into groups more readily than the theology; thus they serve to indicate the varied sources of the religion. The most simple form of belief was that of the continued existence of the soul in the tomb and about the cemetery. In upper Egypt at present a hole is left at the top of the tomb chamber; and I have seen a woman remove the covering of the hole, and talk down to her deceased husband. Also funeral offerings of food and drink, and even beds, are still placed in the tombs. A similar feeling, without any precise beliefs, doubtless prompted the earlier forms of provision for the dead. The soul wandered around the tomb seeking sustenance, and was fed by the goddess who dwelt in the thick p. 50 sycamore trees that overshadowed the cemetery. She is represented as pouring out drink for the ba and holding a tray of cakes for it to feed upon. In the grave we find this belief shown by the jars of water, wine, and perhaps other liquids, the stores of corn, the geese, haunches and heads of oxen, the cakes, and dates, and pomegranates which were laid by the dead. In an early king's tomb there might be many rooms full of these offerings. There were also the weapons for defence and for the chase, the toilet objects, the stores of clothing, the draughtsmen, and even the literature of papyri buried with the dead. The later form of this system was the representation of all these offerings in sculpture and drawing in the tomb. This modification probably belongs to the belief in the ka, which could be supported by the ka of the food and use the ka of the various objects, the figures of the objects being supposed to provide the kas of them. This system is entirely complete in itself, and does not presuppose or require any theologic connection. It might well belong to an age of simple animism, and be a survival of that in later times. The greatest theologic system was that of the kingdom of Osiris. This was a counterpart of the earthly life, but was reserved for the worthy. All p. 51 the dead belonged to Osiris and were brought before him for judgment. The protest of being innocent of the forty-two sins was made, and then the heart was weighed against truth, symbolised by the ostrich feather, the emblem of the goddess of truth. From this feather, the emblem of lightness, being placed against the heart in weighing, it seems that sins were considered to weigh down the heart, and its lightness required to be proved. Thoth, the god who recorded the weighing, then stated that the soul left the judgment hall true of voice with his heart and members restored to him, and that he should follow Osiris in his kingdom. This kingdom of Osiris was at first thought of as being in the marsh lands of the Delta; when these became familiar it was transferred to Syria, and finally to the northeast of the sky, where the milky way became the heavenly Nile. The main occupation in this kingdom was agriculture, as on earth; the souls ploughed the land, sowed the corn, and reaped the harvest of heavenly maize, taller and fatter than any of this world. In this land they rowed on the heavenly streams, they sat in shady arbors, and played the games which they had loved. But the cultivation was a toil, and therefore it was to be done by numerous serfs. In the beginning of the p. 52 monarchy it seems that the servants of the king were all buried around him to serve him in the future; from the second to the twelfth dynasty we lose sight of this idea, and then we find slave figures buried in the tombs. These figures were provided with the hoe for tilling the soil, the pick for breaking the clods, a basket for carrying the earth, a pot for watering the crops, and they were inscribed with an order to respond for their master when he was called on to work in the fields. In the eighteenth dynasty the figures sometimes have actual tool models buried with them; but usually the tools are in relief or painted on the figure. This idea continued until the less material view of the future life arose in Greek times; then the deceased man was said to have "gone to Osiris" in such a year of his age, but no slave figures were laid with him. This view of the future is complete in itself, and is appropriately provided for in the tomb. A third view of the future life belongs to an entirely different theologic system, that of the progress of the sun-god Ra. According to this the soul went to join the setting sun in the west, and prayed to be allowed to enter the boat of the sun in the company of the gods; thus it would be taken along in everlasting light, and saved from the terrors and p. 53 demons of the night over which the sun triumphed. No occupations were predicated of this future; simply to rest in the divine company was the entire purpose, and the successful repelling of the powers of darkness in each hour of the night by means of spells was the only activity. To provide for the solar journey a model boat was placed in the tomb with the figures of boatmen, to enable the dead to sail with the sun, or to reach the solar bark. This view of the future implied a journey to the west, and hence came the belief in the soul setting out to cross the desert westward. We find also an early god of the dead, Khent-amenti, "he who is in the west," probably arising from this same view. This god was later identified with Osiris when the fusion of the two theories of the soul arose. At Abydos Khent-amenti only is named at first, and Osiris does not appear until later times, though that cemetery came to be regarded as specially dedicated to Osiris. Now in all these views that we have named there is no occasion for preserving the body. It is the Ba that is fed in the cemetery not the body. It is an immaterial body that takes part in the kingdom of Osiris, in the sky. It is an immaterial body that can accompany the gods in the boat of the sun. There is so far no call to conserve the body by the p. 54 peculiar mummification which first appears in the early dynasties. The dismemberment of the bones, and removal of the flesh, which was customary in the prehistoric times, and survived down to the fifth dynasty, would accord with any of these theories, all of which were probably pre-dynastic. But the careful mummifying of the body became customary only in the third or fourth dynasty, and is therefore later than the theories that we have noticed. The idea of thus preserving the body seems to look forward to some later revival of it on earth, rather than to a personal life immediately after death. The funeral accompaniment of this view was the abundance of amulets placed on various parts of the body to preserve it. A few amulets are found worn on a necklace or bracelet in early times; but the full development of the amulet system was in the twenty-sixth to thirtieth dynasties. We have tried to disentangle the diverse types of belief, by seeing what is incompatible between them. But in practice we find every form of mixture of these views in most ages. In the prehistoric times the preservation of the bones, but not of the flesh, was constant; and food offerings show that at least the theory of the soul wandering in the cemetery was familiar. Probably the Osiris theory is also p. 55 of the later prehistoric times, as the myth of Osiris is certainly older than the dynasties. The Ra worship was associated specially with Heliopolis, and may have given rise to the union with Ra also before the dynasties, when Heliopolis was probably a capital of the kings of lower Egypt. The boats figured on the prehistoric tomb at Hierakonpolis bear this out. In the first dynasty there is no mummy known, funeral offerings abound, and the khu and ka are named. Our documents do not give any evidence, then, of the Osiris and Ra theories. In the pyramid period the king was called the Osiris, and this view is the leading one in the pyramid inscriptions, yet the Ra theory is also incompatibly present; the body is mummified; but funeral offerings of food seem to have much diminished. In the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties the Ra theory gained ground greatly over the Osirian; and the basis of all the views of the future is almost entirely the union with Ra during the night and day. The mummy and amulet theory was not dominant; but the funeral offerings somewhat increased. The twenty-sixth dynasty almost dropped the Ra theory; the Osirian kingdom and its population of slave figures is the most familiar view, and the preservation of the body by amulets p. 56 was essential. Offerings of food rarely appear in these later times. This dominance of Osiris leads on to the anthropomorphic worship, which interacts on the growth of Christianity as we shall see further. Lastly, when all the theologic views of the future had perished, the oldest idea of all, food, drink, and rest for the dead, has still kept its hold upon the feelings of the people in spite of the teachings of Islam. THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT The worship of animals has been known in many countries; but in Egypt it was maintained to a later pitch of civilization than elsewhere, and the mixture of such a primitive system with more elevated beliefs seemed as strange to the Greek as it does to us. The original motive was a kinship of animals with man, much like that underlying the system of totems. Each place or tribe had its sacred species that was linked with the tribe; the life of the species was carefully preserved, excepting in the one example selected for worship, which after a given time was killed and sacramentally eaten by the tribe. This was certainly the case with the bull at Memphis and the ram at Thebes. That it was the whole species that was sacred, at one place or another, p. 57 is shown by the penalties for killing any animal of the species, by the wholesale burial and even mummifying of every example, and by the plural form of the names of the gods later connected with the animals, Heru, hawks, Khnumu, rams, etc. In the prehistoric times the serpent was sacred; figures of the coiled serpent were hung up in the house and worn as an amulet; similarly in historic times a figure of the agathodemon serpent was placed in a temple of Amen-hotep III at Benha. In the first dynasty the serpent was figured in pottery, as a fender around the hearth. The hawk also appears in many pre-dynastic figures, large and small, both worn on the person and carried as standards. The lion is found both in life-size temple figures, lesser objects of worship, and personal amulets. The scorpion was similarly honored in the prehistoric ages. It is difficult to separate now between animals which were worshipped quite independently, and those which were associated as emblems of anthropomorphic gods. Probably we shall be right in regarding both classes of animals as having been sacred at a remote time, and the connection with the human form as being subsequent. The ideas connected with the animals were those of their most p. 58 prominent characteristics; hence it appears that it was for the sake of the character that each animal was worshipped, and not because of any fortuitous association with a tribe. The baboon was regarded as the emblem of Tahuti, the god of wisdom; the serious expression and human ways of the large baboons are an obvious cause for their being regarded as the wisest of animals. Tahuti is represented as a baboon from the first dynasty down to late times, and four baboons were sacred in his temple at Hemmopolis. These four baboons were often portrayed as adoring the sun; this idea is due to their habit of chattering at sunrise. The lioness appears in the compound figures of the goddesses Sekhet, Bast, Mahes, and Tefnut. In the form of Sekhet the lioness is the destructive power of Ra, the sun: it is Sekhet who, in the legend, destroys mankind from Herakleopolis to Heliopolis at the bidding of Ra. The other lioness goddesses are probably likewise destructive or hunting deities. The lesser felidæ also appear; the cheetah and serval are sacred to Hathor in Sinai; the small cats are sacred to Bast, especially at Speos Artemidos and Bubastis. The bull was sacred in many places, and his worship p. 59 underlay that of the human gods, who were said to be incarnated in him. The idea is that of the fighting power, as when the king is figured as a bull trampling on his enemies, and the reproductive power, as in the title of the self-renewing gods, "bull of his mother." The most renowned was the Hapi or Apis bull of Memphis, in whom Ptah was said to be incarnate and who was Osirified and became the Osir-hapi. Thus appears to have originated the great Ptolemaic god Serapis, as certainly the mausoleum of the bulls was the Serapeum of the Greeks. Another bull of a more massive breed was the Ur-mer or Mnevis of Heliopolis, in whom Ra was incarnate. A third bull was Bakh or Bakis of Hermonthis the incarnation of Mentu. And a fourth bull, Kan-nub or Kanobos, was worshipped at the city of that name. The cow was identified with Hathor, who appears with cow's ears and horns, and who is probably the cow-goddess Ashtaroth or Istar of Asia. Isis, as identified with Hathor, is also joined in this connection. The ram was also worshipped as a procreative god; at Mendes in the Delta identified with Osiris, at Herakleopolis identified with Hershefi, at Thebes as Amon, and at the Cataract as Khnumu p. 60 the creator. The association of the ram with Amon was strongly held by the Ethiopians; and in the Greek tale of Nektanebo, the last Pharaoh, having by magic visited Olympias and become the father of Alexander, he came as the incarnation of Amon wearing the ram's skin. The hippopotamus was the goddess Ta-urt, "the great one," the patroness of pregnancy, who is never shown in any other form. Rarely this animal appears as the emblem of the god Set. The jackal haunted the cemeteries on the edge of the desert, and so came to be taken as the guardian of the dead, and identified with Anubis, the god of departing souls. Another aspect of the jackal was as the maker of tracks in the desert; the jackal paths are the best guides to practicable courses, avoiding the valleys and precipices, and so the animal was known as Up-uat, "the opener of ways," who showed the way for the dead across the western desert. Species of dogs seem to have been held sacred and mummified on merely the general ground of confusion with the jackal. The ichneumon and the shrewmouse were also held sacred, though not identified with a human god. The hawk was the principal sacred bird, and was identified with Horus and Ra, the sun-god. It was p. 61 mainly worshipped at Edfu and Hierakonpolis. The souls of kings were supposed to fly up to heaven in the form of hawks, perhaps due to the kingship originating in the hawk district in upper Egypt. Seker, the god of the dead, appears as a mummified hawk, and on his boat are many small hawks, perhaps the souls of kings who have joined him. The mummy hawk is also Sopdu, the god of the east. The vulture was the emblem of maternity, as being supposed to care especially for her young. Hence she is identified with Mut, the mother goddess of Thebes. The queen-mothers have vulture head-dresses; the vulture is shown hovering over kings to protect them, and a row of spread-out vultures are figured on the roofs of the tomb passages to protect the soul. The ibis was identified with Tahuti, the god of Hermopolis. The goose is connected with Amon of Thebes. The swallow was also sacred. The crocodile was worshipped especially in the Fayum, where it frequented the marshy levels of the great lake, and Strabo's description of the feeding of the sacred crocodile there is familiar. It was also worshipped at Onuphis; and at Nubti or Ombos it was identified with Set, and held sacred. p. 62 [paragraph continues] Beside the name of Sebek or Soukhos in Fayum, it was there identified with Osiris as the western god of the dead. The frog was an emblem of the goddess Heqt, but was not worshipped. The cobra serpent was sacred from the earliest times to the present day. It was never identified with any of the great deities, but three goddesses appear in serpent form: Uazet, the Delta goddess of Buto; Mert-seger, "the lover of silence," the goddess of the Theban necropolis; and Rannut, the harvest goddess. The memory of great pythons of the prehistoric days appears in the serpent-necked monsters on the slate palettes at the beginning of the monarchy, and the immense serpent Agap of the underworld in the later mythology. The serpent has however been a popular object of worship apart from specific gods. We have already noted it on prehistoric amulets, and coiled round the hearths of the early dynasties. Serpents were mummified; and when we reach the full evidences of popular worship, in the terra-cotta figures and jewellery of later times, the serpent is very prominent. There were usually two represented together, one often with the head of Serapis, the other of Isis, so therefore male and female. Down to modern p. 63 times a serpent is worshipped at Sheykh Heridy, and miraculous cures attributed to it (S. R. E. B. 213). Various fishes were sacred, as the Oxyrhynkhos, Phagros, Lepidotos, Latos, and others; but they were not identified with gods, and we do not know of their being worshipped. The scorpion was the emblem of the goddess Selk, and is found in prehistoric amulets; but it is not known to have been adored, and most usually it represents evils, where Horus is shown overcoming noxious creatures. It will be observed that nearly all of the animals which were worshipped had qualities for which they were noted, and in connection with which they were venerated. If the animal worship were due to totemism, or a sense of animal brotherhood in certain tribes, we must also assume that that was due to these qualities of the animal; whereas totemism in other countries does not seem to be due to veneration of special qualities of the animals. It is therefore more likely that the animal worship simply arose from the nature of the animals, and not from any true totemism, although each animal came to be associated with the worship of a particular tribe or district. p. 64 THE GROUPS OF GODS In a country which has been subjected to so many inflows of various peoples as has Egypt, it is to be expected that there would be a great diversity of deities and a complex and inconsistent theology. To discriminate the principal classes of conceptions of gods is the first step toward understanding the growth of the systems. The broad diversion of animal gods and human gods is obvious; and the mixed type of human figures with animal heads is clearly an adaptation of the animal gods to the later conception of a human god. Another valuable separator lies in the compound. names of gods. It is impossible to suppose a people uniting two gods, both of which belonged to them aboriginally; there would be no reason for two similar gods in a single system, and we never hear in classical mythology of Hermes-Apollo or Pallas-Artemis, while Zeus is compounded with half of the barbarian gods of Asia. So in Egypt, when we find such compounds as Amon-Ra, or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, we have the certainty that each name in the compound is derived from a different race, and that a unifying operation has taken place on gods that belonged to entirely different sources. p. 65 We must beware of reading our modern ideas into the ancient views. As we noticed in an earlier part of this chapter, each tribe or locality seems to have had but one god originally; certainly the more remote our view, the more separate are the gods. Hence to the people of any one district "the god" was a distinctive name for their own god; and it would have seemed as strange to discriminate him from the surrounding gods, as it would to a Christian in Europe if he specified that he did not mean Allah or Siva or Heaven when he speaks of God. Hence we find generic descriptions used in place of the god's name, as "lord of heaven," or "mistress of turquoise," while it is certain that specific gods as Osiris or Hathor are in view. A generic name "god" or "the god" no more implies that the Egyptians recognised a unity of all the gods, than "god" in the Old Testament implies that Yahvah was one with Chemosh and Baal. The simplicity of the term only shows that no other object of adoration was in view. We have already noticed the purely animal gods; following on these we now shall describe those which were combined with a human form, then those which are purely human in their character, next those p. 66 which are nature gods, and lastly those which are an abstract character. Animal-headed Gods: Beside the worship of species of animals, which we have noticed in the last chapter, certain animals were combined with the human form. It was always the head of the animal which was united to a human body; the only converse instance of a human head on an animal body--the sphinxes--represented the king and not a god. Possibly the combination arose from priests wearing the heads of animals when personating the god, as the high priest wore the ram's skin when personating Amon. But when we notice the frequent combinations and love of symbolism, shown upon the early carvings, the union of the ancient sacred animal with the human form is quite in keeping with the views and feelings of the primitive Egyptians. Many of these composite gods never emerged from the animal connection, and these we must regard as belonging to the earlier stage of theology. Seker was a Memphite god of the dead, independent of the worship of Osiris and of Ptah, for he was combined with them as Ptah-Seker-Osiris; as he maintained a place there in the face of the great worship of Ptah, he was probably an older god, p. 67 and this is indicated by his having an entirely animal form down to a late date. The sacred bark of Seker bore his figure as that of a mummified hawk; and along the boat is a row of hawks which probably are the spirits of deceased kings who have joined Seker in his journey to the world of the dead. As there are often two allied forms of the same root, one written with k and the other with g, 1 it seems probable that Seker, the funeral god of Memphis, is allied to Mert Seger (lover of silence). She was the funeral god of Thebes, and was usually figured as a serpent. From being only known in animal form, and unconnected with any of the elaborated theology, it seems that we have in this goddess a primitive deity of the dead. It appears, then, that the gods of the great cemeteries were known as Silence and the Lover of Silence, and both come down from the age of animal deities. Seker became in late times changed into a hawk-headed human figure. Two important deities of early times were Nekhebt, the vulture goddess of the southern kingdom, centred at Hierakonpolis, and Uazet, the serpent goddess of the northern kingdom, centred at Buto. These appear in all ages as the emblems of the two p. 68 kingdoms, frequently as supporters on either side of the royal names; in later times they appear as human goddesses crowning the king. Khnumu, the creator, was the great god of the cataract. He is shown as making man upon the potter's wheel; and in a tale he is said to frame a woman. He must belong to a different source from that of Ptah or Ra, and was the creative principle in the period of animal gods, as he is almost always shown with the head of a ram. He was popular down to late times, where amulets of his figure are often found. Tahuti, or Thôth, was the god of writing and learning, and was the chief deity of Hermopolis. He almost always has the head of an ibis, the bird sacred to him. The baboon is also a frequent emblem of his, but he is never figured with the baboon head. The ibis appears standing upon a shrine as early as on a tablet of Mena; Thôth is the constant recorder in scenes of the judgment, and he appears down to Roman times as the patron of scribes. The eighteenth dynasty of kings incorporated his name as Thôthmes, "born of Thôth," owing to their Hermopolite origin. Skhmet is the lion goddess, who represents the fierceness of the sun's heat. She appears in the p. 69 myth of the destruction of mankind as slaughtering the enemies of Ra. Her only form is that with the head of a lioness. But she blends imperceptibly with Bastet, who has the head of a cat. She was the goddess of Pa-bast or Bubastis, and in her honor immense festivals were there held. Her name is found in the beginning of the pyramid times; but her main period of popularity was that of the Shisaks who ruled from Bubastis, and in the later times images of her were very frequent as amulets. It is possible from the name that this feline goddess, whose foreign origin is acknowledged, was the female form of the god Bes, who is dressed in a lion's skin, and also came in from the east. Mentu was the hawk-god of Erment south of Thebes, who became in the eighteenth to twentieth dynasties especially the god of war. He appears with the hawk head, or sometimes as a hawk-headed sphinx; and he became confused with Ra and with Amon. Sebek is figured as a man with the crocodile's head; but he has no theologic importance, and always remained the local god of certain districts. Heqt, the goddess symbolised by the frog, was the patron of birth, and assisted in the infancy of p. 70 the kings. She was a popular and general deity not mainly associated with particular places. Hershefi was the ram-headed god of Herakleopolis, but is never found outside of that region. We now come to three animal-headed gods who became associated with the great Osiride group of human gods. Set or Setesh was the god of the prehistoric inhabitants before the coming in of Horus. He is always shown with the head of a fabulous animal, having upright square ears and a long nose. When in entirely animal form he has a long upright tail. The dog-like animal is the earliest type, as in the second dynasty; but later the human form with animal head prevailed. His worship underwent great fluctuations. At first he was the great god of all Egypt; but his worshippers were gradually driven out by the followers of Horus, as described in a semi-mythical history. Then he appears strongly in the second dynasty, the last king of which united the worship of Set and Horus. After suppression he appears in favor in the early eighteenth dynasty; and even gave the name to Sety I and II of the nineteenth dynasty. His part in the Osiris myth will be noted below. Anpu or Anubis was originally the jackal guardian of the cemetery, and the leader of the dead in p. 71 the other world. Nearly all the early funeral formulæ mention Anpu on his hill, or Anpu lord of the underworld. As the patron of the dead he naturally took a place in the myth of Osiris, the god of the dead, and appears as leading the soul into the judgment of Osiris. Horus was the hawk-god of upper Egypt, especially of Edfu and Hierakonpolis. Though originally an independent god, and even keeping apart as Hor-ur, "Horus the elder," throughout later times, yet he was early mingled with the Osiris myth, probably as the ejector of Set who was also the enemy of Osiris. He is sometimes entirely in hawk form; more usually with a hawk's head, and in later times he appears as the infant son of Isis entirely human in form. His special function is that of overcoming evil; in the earliest days the conqueror of Set, later as the subduer of noxious animals, figured on a very popular amulet, and lastly, in Roman times, as a hawk-headed warrior on horseback slaying a dragon, thus passing into the type of St. George. He also became mingled with early Christian ideas; and the lock of hair of Horus attached to the cross originated the chi rho monogram of Christ. We have now passed briefly over the principal p. 72 gods which combined the animal and human forms. We see how the animal form is generally the older, and bow it was apparently independent of the human form, which has been attached to it by a more anthropomorphic people. We see that all of these gods must be accredited to the second stratum, if not, to the earliest formation, of religion in Egypt. And we must associate with this theology the cemetery theory of the soul which preceded that of the Osiris or Ra religions. We now turn to the deities which are always represented in human form, and never associated with animal figures; neither do they originate in a cosmic--or nature--worship, nor in abstract idea. There are three divisions of this class, the Osiris family, the Amon family, and the goddess Neit. GODS IN HUMAN FORM Osiris--Asar or Asir--is the most familiar figure of the pantheon, but it is mainly on late sources that we have to depend for the myth; and his worship was so much adapted to harmonize with other ideas, that care is needed to trace his true position. The Osiride portions of the Book of the Dead are certainly very early, and precede the solar portions, though both views were already mingled in the p. 73 pyramid texts. We cannot doubt but that the Osiris worship reaches back to the prehistoric age. In the earliest tombs offering to Anubis is named, for whom Osiris became substituted in the fifth and sixth dynasties. In the pyramid times we only find that kings are termed Osiris, having undergone their apotheoisis at the sed festival; but in the eighteenth dynasty and onward every justified person was entitled the Osiris, as being united with the god. His worship was unknown at Abydos in the earlier temples, and is not mentioned at the cataracts; though in later times he became the leading deity of Abydos and of Philæ. Thus in all directions the recognition of Osiris continued to increase; but, looking at the antiquity of his cult, we must recognize in this change the gradual triumph of a popular religion over a state religion which had been superimposed upon it. The earliest phase of Osirism that we can identify is in portions of the Book of the Dead. These assume the kingdom of Osiris, and a judgment preceding admission to the blessed future; the completely human character of Osiris and his family are implied, and there is no trace of animal or nature worship belonging to him. How far the myth, as recorded in Roman times by Plutarch, can be traced to earlier and later sources is p. 74 very uncertain. The main outlines, which may be primitive, are as follows. Osiris was a civilising king of Egypt, who was murdered by his brother Set and seventy-two conspirators. Isis, his wife, found the coffin of Osiris at Byblos in Syria and brought it to Egypt. Set then tore up the body of Osiris and scattered it. Isis sought the fragments, and built a shrine over each of them. Isis and Horus then attacked Set and drove him from Egypt, and finally down the Red Sea. In other aspects Osiris seems to have been a corn god, and the scattering of his body in Egypt is like the well-known division of the sacrifice to the corn god, and the burial of parts in separate fields to ensure their fertility. How we are to analyse the formation of the early myths is suggested by the known changes of later times. When two tribes who worshipped different (rods fought together and one overcame the other, the god of the conqueror is always considered to have overcome the god of the vanquished. The struggle of Horus and Set is expressly stated on the Temple of Edfu to have been a tribal war, in which the followers of Horus overcame those of Set, established garrisons and forges at various places down the Nile Valley, and finally ousted the Set party from the whole land. We can hardly therefore p. 75 avoid reading the history of the animosities of the gods as being the struggles of their worshippers. If we try to trace the historic basis of the Osiris myth, we must take into account the early customs and ideas among which the myths arose. The cutting up of the body was the regular ritual of the prehistoric people, and, even as late as the fifth dynasty, the bones were separately treated, and even wrapped up separately when the body was reunited for burial. We must also notice the apotheosis festival of the king, which was probably his sacrificial death and union with the god, in the prehistoric age. The course of events which might have served as the basis for the Osiris myth may then have been somewhat as follows. Osiris was the god of a tribe which occupied a large part of Egypt. The kings of this tribe were sacrificed after thirty years' reign--like the killing of kings at fixed intervals elsewhere--and they thus became the Osiris himself. Their bodies were dismembered, as usual at that period, the flesh ceremonially eaten by the assembled people--as was done in prehistoric times--and the bones distributed among the various centres of the tribe, the head to Abydos, the neck, spine, limbs, etc., to various places of which there were fourteen in all. The worshippers of Set broke p. 76 in upon this people, stopped this worship, or killed Osiris, as was said, and established the dominion of their animal god. They were in turn attacked by the Isis worshippers, who joined the older population of the Osiris tribe, reopened the shrines, and established Osiris worship again. The Set tribe returning in force attacked the Osiris tribe and scattered all the relies of the shrines in every part of the land. To re-establish their power, the Osiris and Isis tribes called in the worshippers of the hawk Horus, who were old enemies of the Set tribe, and with their help finally expelled the Set worshippers from the whole country. Such a history, somewhat misunderstood in a later age when the sacrifice of kings and anthropophagy was forgotten, would give the basis for nearly all the features of the Osiris myth as recorded in Roman times. If we try to materialize this history more closely, we see that the Osiris worshippers occupied both the Delta and upper Egypt, and that fourteen important centres were recognised at the earliest time, which afterwards became the capitals of nomes, and were added to until they numbered forty-two divisions in later ages. Set was the god of the Asiatic invaders who broke in upon this civilization; and about a quarter through the long ages of the prehistoric p. 77 culture, perhaps 7500 B.C., we find material evidences of considerable changes brought in from the Arabian or Semitic side. It may not be unlikely that this was the first triumph of Set. The Isis worshippers came from the Delta, where Isis was worshipped at Buto as a virgin goddess, apart from Osiris or Horus. These followers of Isis succeeded in helping the rest of the early Libyan inhabitants to resist the Set worship, and re-establish Osiris. The close of the prehistoric age is marked by a great decline in work and abilities, very likely due to more trouble from Asia, when Set scattered the relies of Osiris. Lastly we cannot avoid seeing in the Horus triumph the conquest of Egypt by the dynastic race who came down from the district of Edfu and Hierakonpolis, the centres of Horus worship; and helped the older inhabitants to drive out the Asiatics. Nearly the same chain of events is seen in later times, when the Berber king Aahmes I helped the Egyptians to expel the Hyksos. If we can thus succeed in connecting the archæology of the prehistoric age with the history preserved in the myths, it shows that Osiris must have been the national god as early as the beginning of prehistoric culture. His civilizing mission may p. 78 well have been the introduction of cultivation, at about 8000 B.C., into the Nile Valley. The theology of Osiris was at first that of a god of those holy fields in which the souls of the dead enjoyed a future fife. There was necessarily some selection to exclude the wicked from such happiness, and Osiris judged each soul whether it were worthy. This judgment became elaborated in detailed scenes, where Isis and Neb-hat stand behind Osiris who is on his throne, Anubis leads in the soul, the heart is placed in the balance, and Thôth stands to weigh it and to record the result. The occupation of the souls in this future we have noticed in an earlier part of this chapter. The function of Osiris was therefore the reception and rule of the dead, and we never find him as a god of action or patronizing any of the affairs of life. Isis--Aset or Isit--became attached at a very early time to the Osiris worship; and appears in later myths as the sister and wife of Osiris. But she always remained on a very different plane to Osiris. Her worship and priesthood were far more popular than those of Osiris, and she appears far more usually in the activities of life. Her union in the Osiris myth by no means blotted out her independent position and importance as a deity, p. 79 though it gave her a far more widespread devotion. The union of Horus with the myth, and the establishment of Isis as the mother goddess, was the main mode of her importance in later times. Isis as the nursing mother is seldom shown until the twenty-sixth dynasty; then the type continually became more popular, until it outgrew all other religions of the country. In the Roman times the mother Isis not only received the devotion of all Egypt, but her worship spread rapidly abroad, like that of Mithra. It became the popular devotion of Italy; and, after a change of name due to the growth of Christianity, she has continued to receive the adoration of a large part of Europe down to the present day as the Madonna. Nephthys--Neb-hat--was a shadowy double of Isis; reputedly her sister, and always associated with her, she seems to have no other function. Her name, "mistress of the palace," suggests that she was the consort of Osiris at the first, as a necessary but passive complement in the system of his kingdom. When the active Isis worship entered into the renovation of Osiris, Nebhat remained of nominal importance, but practically ignored. Horus--Heru or Horu--has a more complex history than any other god. We cannot assign p. 80 the various stages of it with certainty, but we can discriminate the following ideas: (a) There was an elder or greater Horus, Hor-ur--or Aroeris of the Greeks--who was credited with being the brother of Osiris, older than Isis, Set, or Nephthys. He was always in human form, and was the god of Letopolis. This seems to have been the primitive god of a tribe cognate to the Osiris worshippers. What connection this god had with the hawk we do not know; often Horus is found written without the hawk, simply as hr, with the meaning of "upper" or "above." This word generally has the determinative of sky, and so means primitively the sky or one belonging to the sky. It is at least possible that there was a sky-god her at Letopolis, and likewise the hawk-god was a sky-god her at Edfu, and hence the mixture of the two deities. (b) The hawk-god of the south, at Edfu and Hierakonpolis, became so firmly embedded in the myth as the avenger of Osiris, that we must accept the southern people as the ejectors of the Set tribe. It is always the hawk-headed Horus who wars against Set, and attends on the enthroned Osiris. (c) The hawk Horus became identified with the p. 81 sun-god, and hence came the winged solar disk as the emblem of Horus of Edfu, and the title of Horus on the horizons--at rising and setting--Hor-emakhti, Harmakhis of the Greeks. (d) Another aspect resulting from Horus being the "sky" god, was that the sun and moon were his two eyes; hence he was Hor-merti, Horus of the two eyes; and the sacred eye of Horus--uza--became the most usual of all amulets. (e) Horus, as conqueror of Set, appears as the hawk standing on the sign of gold, nub, nubti was the title of Set, and thus Horus is shown trampling upon Set; this became a usual title of the kings. There are many less important forms of Horus, but the form which outgrew all others in popular estimation was (f) Hor-pe-khroti, Harpokrates of the Greeks, "Horus the child." As the son of Isis he constantly appears from the nineteenth dynasty onward. One of the earlier of these forms is that of the boy Horus standing upon crocodiles, and grasping scorpions and noxious animals in his hands. This type was a favorite amulet down to Ptolemaic times, and is often found carved in stone to be placed in a house, but was scarcely ever made in other materials or for suspension on the person, p. 82 [paragraph continues] The form of the young Horus seated on an open lotus flower was also popular in the Greek times. But the infant Horus with his finger to his lips was the most popular form of all, sometimes alone, sometimes on his mother's lap. The finger, which pointed to his being a sucking child, was absurdly misunderstood by the Greeks as an emblem of silence. From the twenty-sixth dynasty down to late Roman times the infant Horus, or the young boy, was the most prominent subject on the temples, and the commonest figure in the homes of the people. The other main group of human gods was Amon, Mut, and Khonsu of Thebes. Amon was the local god of Karnak, and owed his importance in Egypt to the political rise of his district. The Theban kingdom of the twelfth dynasty spread his fame, the great kings of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasty ascribed their victories to Amon, his high priest became a political power which absorbed the state after the twentieth dynasty, and the importance of the god only ceased with the fall of his city. The original attributes and the origin of the name of Amon are unknown; but he became combined with Ra, the sun-god, and as Amon-Ra he was "king of the gods," and "lord of the thrones p. 83 of the world." The supremacy of Amon was for some centuries an article of political faith, and many other gods were merged in him, and only survived as aspects of the great god of all. The queens were the high priestesses of the god, and he was the divine father of their children; the kings being only incarnations of Amon in their relation to the queens. Mut, the great mother, was the goddess of Thebes, and hence the consort of Amon. She is often shown as leading and protecting the kings, and the queens appear in the character of this goddess. Little is known about her otherwise. Khonsu is a youthful god combined in the Theban system as the son of Amon and Mut. He is closely parallel to Thôth as being a god of time, as a moon god, and of science, "the executor of plans." A large temple was dedicated to him at Karnak, but otherwise he was not of religious importance. Neit was a goddess of the Libyan people; but her worship was firmly implanted by them in Egypt. She was a goddess of hunting and of weaving, the two arts of a nomadic people. Her emblem was a distaff with two crossed arrows, and her name was written with a figure of a weaver's shuttle. p. 84 [paragraph continues] She was adored in the first dynasty, when the name Merneit, "loved by Neit," occurs; and her priesthood was one of the most usual in the pyramid period. She was almost lost to sight during some thousands of years, but she became the state goddess of the twenty-sixth dynasty, when the Libyans set up their capital in her city of Sais. In later times she again disappears from customary religion. SUN AND SKY GODS The gods which personify the sun and sky stand apart in their essential idea from those already described, although they were largely mixed and combined with other classes of gods. So much did this mixture pervade all the later views that some writers have seen nothing but varying forms of sun-worship in Egyptian religion. It will have been noticed however in the foregoing what a large body of theology was entirely apart from the sun-worship, while here we treat the latter as separate from the other elements with which it was more or less combined. Ra was the great sun-god to whom every king pledged himself, by adopting on his accession a motto-title embodying the god's name such as Ra-men-kau, "Ra established the kas"; Ra-sehotep-ab, p. 85 [paragraph continues] "Ra satisfied the heart"; Ra-neb-maat, "Ra is the lord of truth," and these titles were those by which the king was best known ever after. This devotion was not primitive, but began in the fourth dynasty, and was established by the fifth dynasty being called sons of Ra, and every later king having the title "son of Ra" before his name. The obelisk was the emblem of Ra, and in the fifth dynasty a great obelisk temple was built in his honor at Abusir, followed also by others. Heliopolis was the centre of his worship, where Senusert I, in the twelfth dynasty, rebuilt the temple and erected the obelisks, one of which is still standing. But Ra was preceded there by another sun-god, Atmu, who was the true god of the nome; and Ra, though worshipped throughout the land, was not the aboriginal god of any city. In Heliopolis he was attached to Atmu, at Thebes attached to Amen. These facts point to Ra having been introduced into Egypt by a conquering people, after the theologic settlement of the whole land. There are many suggestions that the Ra worshippers came in from Asia, and established their rule at Heliopolis. The title of the ruler of that place was the heq, a semitic title; and the heq sceptre was the sacred treasure of the temple. The "spirits of Heliopolis" were specially p. 86 honored, an idea more Babylonian than Egyptian. This city was a centre of literary learning and of theologic theorizing which was unknown elsewhere in Egypt, but familiar in Mesopotamia. A conical stone was the embodiment of the god at Heliopolis, as in Syria. On, the native name of Heliopolis, occurs twice in Syria, as well as other cities named Heliopolis there in later times. The view of an early Semitic principate of Heliopolis, before the dynastic age, would unify all of these facts; and the advance of Ra worship in the fifth dynasty would be due to a revival of the influence of the eastern Delta at that time. The form of Ra most free from admixture is that of the disk of the sun, sometimes figured between two hills at rising, sometimes between two wings, sometimes in the boat in which it floated on the celestial ocean across the sky. The winged disk has almost always two cobra serpents attached to it, and often two rams' horns; the meaning of the whole combination is that Ra protects and preserves, like the vulture brooding over its young, destroys like the cobra, and creates like the ram. This is seen by the modifications where it is placed over a king's head, when the destructive cobra is p. 87 omitted, and the wings are folded together as embracing and protecting the king. This disk form is connected with the hawk-god, by being placed over the head of the hawk; and this in turn is connected with the human form by the disk resting on the hawk-headed man, which is one of the most usual types of Ra. The god is but seldom shown as being purely human, except when identified with other gods, such as Atmu, Horus, or Amon. The worship of Ra outshone all others in the nineteenth dynasty. United to the god of Thebes as Amon Ra, he became "king of the gods," and the view that the soul joined Ra in his journey through the hours of the night absorbed all other views, which only became sections of this whole. By the Greek times this belief seems to have practically given place to others, and it had practically vanished in the early Christian age. Atmu (Tum) was the original god of Heliopolis and the Delta side, round to the gulf of Suez, which formerly reached up to Ismailiyeh. How far his nature as the setting sun was the result of his being identified with Ra, is not clear. It may The that the introduction of Ra led to his being unified with him. Those who take the view that the names p. 88 of gods are connected with tribes, as Set and Suti, and Anak, might well claim that Atmu and Atum belonged to the land of Aduma or Etham. Khepera has no local importance, but is named as the morning sun. He was worshipped about the time of the nineteenth dynasty. Aten was a conception of the sun entirely different from Ra. No human or animal form was ever attached to it; and the adoration of the physical power and action of the sun was the sole devotion. So far as we can trace, it was a worship entirely apart and different from every other type of religion in Egypt; and the partial information that we have about it does not so far, show a single flaw in a purely scientific conception of the source of all life and power upon earth. The Aten was the only instance of a "jealous god" in Egypt, and this worship was exclusive of all others, and claims universality. There are traces of it shortly before Amenhotep III. He showed some devotion to it, and it was his son who took the name of Akhenaten, "the glory of the Aten," and tried to enforce this as the sole worship of Egypt. But it fell immediately after, and is lost in the next dynasty. The sun is represented as radiating its beams on all things, and every beam ends in a hand which imparts p. 89 life and power to the king and to all else. In the hymn to the Aten the universal scope of this power is proclaimed as the source of all life and action, and every land and people are subject to it, and owe to it their existence and their allegiance. No such grand theology had ever appeared in the world before, so far as we know; and it is the forerunner of the later monotheist religions, while it is even more abstract and impersonal, and may well rank as a scientific theism. Anher was the local god of Thinis in upper Egypt, and Sebennytos in the Delta a human sun-god. His name is a mere epithet, "he who goes in heaven"; and it may well be that this was only a title of Ra, who was thus worshipped at these places. Sopdu was the god of the eastern desert, and he was identified with the cone of glowing zodiacal light which precedes the sunrise. His emblem was a mummified hawk, or a human figure. Nut, the embodiment of heaven, is shown as a female figure dotted over with stars. She was not worshipped nor did she belong to any one place, but was a cosmogonic idea. Seb, the embodiment of the earth, is figured as lying on the ground while Nut bends over him. p. 90 [paragraph continues] He was the "prince of the gods," the power that went before all the later gods, the superseded Saturn of Egyptian theology. He is rarely mentioned, and no temples were dedicated to him, but he appears in the cosmic mythology. It seems, from their positions, that very possibly the Set and Nut were the primeval gods of the aborigines of Hottentot type, before the Osiris worshippers of European type ever entered the Nile Valley. Shu was the god of space, who lifted up Nut from off the body of Seb. He was often represented, especially in late amulets; possibly it was believed that he would likewise raise up the body of the deceased from earth to heaven. His figure is entirely human, and he kneels on one knee with both hands lifted above his head. He was regarded as the father of Seb, the earth having been formed from space or chaos. His emblem was the ostrich feather, the lightest and most voluminous object. Hapi, the Nile, must also be placed with nature-gods. He is figured as a man, or two men for the upper and lower Niles, holding a tray of produce of the land, and having large female breasts as being the nourisher of the valley. A favourite group consists of the two Nile figures tying the plants of upper and lower Egypt around the emblem p. 91 of union. He was worshipped at Nilopolis, and also at the shrines which marked the boating stages, about a hundred in number, all along the river. Festivals were held at the rising of the Nile, like those still kept up at various stages of the inundation. Hymns in honor of the river attribute all prosperity and good to its benefits. Ptah, the creator, was especially worshipped at. Memphis. He is figured as a mummy; and we know that full length burial and mummifying begin with the dynastic race. He was identified with the earlier animal-worship of the bull Apis; but it is not likely that this originated his creative aspect, as he creates by moulding clay, or by word and will, and not by natural means. He became united with the old Memphite god of the dead, Seker, and with Osiris, as Ptah-Seker-Osiris. Thus we learn that he belonged neither to the animal worshippers, the believers in Seker, nor to the Osiride race, but to a fourth people. Min was the male principle. He was worshipped mainly at Ekhmim and Koptos, and was there identified with Pan by the Greeks. He also was the god of the desert, out to the Red Sea. The oldest statues of gods are three gigantic limestone figures of Min found at Koptos; these bear relief designs p. 92 of Red Sea shells and swordfish. It seems, then, that he was introduced by a people coming across from the east. His worship continued till Roman times. Hathor was the female principle whose animal was the cow; and she is identified with the mother Isis. She was also identified with other earlier deities; and her forms are very numerous in different localities. There were also seven Hathors who appear as fates, presiding over birth. Footnotes 67:1 For instance the words sek, to move; seg, to go; sek, to destroy. Next: Chapter III: The Ptah-Hotep And The Ke'gemni: The Oldest Books In The World

History and Civilization.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Philistines, by R.A.S. Macalister, [1913], at sacred-texts.com IV. Their Place in History and Civilization A people, or rather a group of peoples, the remnant—the degenerate remnant if you will—of a great civilization, settled on the Palestine coast. They found before them a servile aboriginal population ready to their use, who could relieve them of the necessary but unaccustomed labour of extracting life and wealth from the prolific soil. They were thus free to cultivate the commercial facilities which were already established in the land they made their own. Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod had harbours which opened the way to trade by sea. The great land route from Egypt to Babylon passed right through the heart of the country from end to end—Gaza was from the beginning the principal mart for northern Arabia: in the expressive words of Principal G. A. Smith, we hear the jingling of shekels in the very name of Ashkelon. Corn and wine were produced abundantly within their favoured territory, even in years when the rest of the country suffered famine; an active slave-trade (one of the most lucrative sources of wealth) centred in Philistia, as we learn from the bitter denunciation of Amos. Small wonder then that the lords of the Philistines could offer an enormous bribe to a wretched woman to betray her husband. Small wonder that the Philistines were the carriers and controllers of the arts of civilization in Palestine. The settlement of the Philistines in Palestine falls in that period of fog, as we may call it, when the iron culture succeeds the bronze in the Eastern Mediterranean. Recent excavations have given us a clear-cut picture of the development of civilization during the bronze age; that wonderful history which was sketched in its barest outline in the course of Chapter I. Then a cloud seems to settle down on the world, through which we can dimly perceive scenes of turmoil, and the shifting of nations. When the mist rolls away it is as though a new world is before us. We see new powers on earth, new gods in heaven: new styles of architecture, new methods of warfare: the alphabet has been invented, and above all, iron has become the metal of which the chief implements are made. Crete and the great days of Egypt belong to the past: the glorious days of classical Greece are the goal before us. p. 115 The chief interest of the Philistines lies in this, that their history falls almost entirely within this period of obscurity, when the iron age of Europe was in its birth-throes. They and their kin, the Zakkala in the east and Turisha in the west, bridge the gap between the old world and the new. It is owing to them that the reminiscences of the days of Crete were handed across a couple of troubled centuries, to form the basis of new civilizations in Greece, in Italy, and in the East. Our materials for estimating the culture of the Philistines and their place in civilization are the following: (1) The Phaestos Disk; (2) The Medinet Habu sculptures; (3) The results of excavation in Philistia; (4) Scattered Biblical references. (1) On the Phaestos Disk are forty-five characters. Of some of these it is not very easy to determine the signification, but others have some value as indicating the nature of the civilization of those who invented its script, and its analogues. The writing, running from right to left, is in the same direction as the Carian inscriptions, but not as the Minoan linear tablets. The plumed head-dress of the sign here called M has been referred to as being the link which connects this disk with Caria on the one hand and with the Philistines on the other. A. J. Reinach (Revue archéologique, Sér. V, vol. xv, pp. 26, 27) publishes Sardinian statuettes showing the same form of head-dress. The Sardinians being probably a later stage in the history of one branch of the sea-peoples, it is natural that they should show an analogous equipment. The sign a, a man running, shows the simple waist-band which forms the sole body-covering of the Keftian envoys. The sign b, a captive with arms bound behind, has no more covering than a girdle. The symbol z appears to represent a handcuff or fetter. Perhaps Samson was secured with some such fastening. The sign c from its small size appears to represent a child. He is clad in a tunic fitting closely to the body and reaching barely to the hips. No doubt, as often in Egypt ancient and modern, in some of the remoter parts of Palestine and among the Bedawin, young children went naked. Fig. d represents a woman. She has long flowing hair, and seems to be wearing a single garment not unlike the fustān of the modern Palestinian peasant, the upper part of which, however, has been dropped down over the lower so as to expose the body from the girdle upwards. Hall, in a recent article in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, shows that the figure has Mycenaean analogies. p. 116 Fig. e, with the shaved head, perhaps represents a slave. A figure-of-eight (an ownership mark in tatu) is represented on the cheek. 1 Click to enlarge Fig. f may represent a sandalled foot; fig. g may possibly represent a closed hand; but both are doubtful. Figs. h and i possibly represent a breast and membrum muliebre respectively, though the p. 117 former may be a Phrygian cap. The interpretation of these four signs is too uncertain to allow us to attach any weight to them. In figs. j and k we may possibly see the sacred doves, and in l the sacred fish. But this cannot be pressed. The ram's head (o), the hoof (p), the horn (q), and the hide (s) all indicate a pastoral life. The symbols t, u, y, w, x, y are drawn from the plant world, and it must be noticed that those who developed the script of the Disk showed an unusual appreciation of plant-shapes. It is quite remarkable to find such a variety of floral symbols. The sign ß is probably a section of a river, suggestive of water. The sign δ is very remarkable. It is almost certainly a representation of a domed house, such as is imitated in the Lycian tombs. It may be the prototype of one of the 'palaces of Ashdod'! The sign ζ is a pillar with a square capital. The curious sign θ may represent some kind of key. Very important is the ship, fig. η. It is one more link with the Medinet Habu sculptures, in which, as we shall see, an identical ship makes its appearance. The bow and arrow, figs. κ, λ, are especially interesting. Reinach (op. cit. p. 35) ingeniously points out that it is a true picture of the bow of the Lycian Pandarus, made of two horns of the wild goat fixed and bound on a piece of wood. … Iliad, iv. 105–11. The curved poignard (ρ) has also Lycian and Carian analogies (Reinach, op. cit. p. 35). The axe (μ), square (σ), plane (τ), signet-ring (ψ), and leather-cutter's knife (φ), the latter perforated with a hole in the butt for suspension, all show the specializing of tools which is a characteristic of civilization. Of especial importance is the round shield with bosses (ξ). It is not Cretan: the Cretan shield is a long oval. But the Sherdanian warriors at Medinet Habu bear the round bossed shield, and Reinach (op. cit. p. 30) figures an Etruscan statuette which bears an identical protection. The other signs (π, σ, τ, χ and ϝ) are not sufficiently clear to identify (τ may be an astragalus, used in games, and π may be an adze). But enough will have been said to show that quite apart p. 118 from its literary value, the Phaestos Disk is of very considerable importance as a document in the history of Aegean civilization. (2) We now turn to the sculptures on the temple of Medinet Habu. Here we have precious illustrations of costumes, vehicles, and arms. Fig. 7. Wagons of the Pulasati. Click to enlarge Fig. 7. Wagons of the Pulasati. Fig. 8. The Head-dress of the Pulasati. Click to enlarge Fig. 8. The Head-dress of the Pulasati. The Pulasati wear a plumed head-dress, the plumes being fitted into an elaborately embroidered band encircling the temples, and secured by a chin-strap passing in front of the ears. The other tribes wear similar head-dresses, except the Shekelesh, who have a cap. The Zakkala are represented as beardless. Their sole body-costume is the waistband, though some of them seem to have bracelets or armlets, and bands or straps crossing the upper part of the body. The women have the close-fitting fustān; the children are naked. The land contingent travel in wagons, of a square box-like shape, some with framed, some with wickerwork sides. They have two solid wheels, secured to the axle by a linch-pin; and are drawn p. 119 Fig. 9. The Sea-fight between Ramessu III and the Allies. Click to enlarge Fig. 9. The Sea-fight between Ramessu III and the Allies. p. 120 by four oxen abreast. The sea-contingent travel in ships which show a marked resemblance to that of the Phaestos Disk. The keel is curved (more so at Medinet Habu than at Phaestos) and both bow and stem rise high above the deck, with ornamental finials. A rudder-oar projects from the stem; and at Medinet Habu (not at Phaestos) a mast rises from the middle of the boat, with a yard and a lug-sail. The ships are fitted with oars, which in the summary Phaestos hieroglyphic are not shown. The warriors in the coalition are armed with a sword and with the long Carian spear; they have also daggers and javelins for throwing, and carry circular shields. A number of enamelled tablets, once forming part of the decoration of the temple, have been described, 1 and these add some further valuable details. They show prisoners in full costume, not the summary fighting costume. A number of these do not concern us, being Semitic or North African; but a Shekelesh, a Philistine, and one of the Turisha are represented, if Daressy's identifications are to be accepted. Unfortunately there is no explanatory inscription with the figures. The Shekelesh has a yellow-coloured skin, a small pointed beard, not meeting the lower lip. His hair is combed backward, in a way remarkably similar to the hair of the woman in the Phaestos disk (or he wears a crimped head-dress). He is apparelled in a gown, black with yellow circles above, green below, with vertical folds; over this is a waistband divided into coloured squares by bands of green. On his breast he wears an amulet, in the shape of a ring suspended round his neck by a cord. A sort of torque [or a chain] surrounds his neck, and his hands are secured in a handcuff. The Philistine is more fully bearded: he has likewise a yellow-coloured skin. The top of the tablet is unfortunately broken, so only the suggestion of the plumed head-dress is to be seen. He wears a long white robe with short sleeves, quatrefoil ornament embroidered upon it, and with some lines surrounding the neck; over this is a waistband extending from the knees up to the breast, with elaborate embroidery upon it: a tassel hangs in the middle. On the arms are bracelets. The face of this prisoner is of a much more refined cast than any of the others. The supposed Turisha has a red skin: his costume resembles that of the Philistine, but it is less elaborately embroidered. Three long ornamental tassels hang from the waistband. (3) In a country like Palestine, frequently plundered and possessing p. 121 a climate that does not permit of the preservation of frescoes and similar ancient records, we cannot hope to find anything like the rich documentation that Egypt offers us on the subject of commerce. Some suggestive facts may, however, be learnt from finds made in recent excavations, more especially pottery with coloured decoration. This will be found described in the section on pottery in my Excavation of Gezer, vol. ii, pp. 128–241. Fig. 10. A Bird, as painted on an Amorite and a Philistine Vase respectively. Click to enlarge Fig. 10. A Bird, as painted on an Amorite and a Philistine Vase respectively. Putting aside details, for which I may refer the reader to that work, it may be said that the periods, into which the history down to the fall of the Hebrew monarchy is divided, are five in number; to these have been given the names pre-Semitic, and First to Fourth Semitic. The Second Semitic, which I have dated 1800–1400 B.C., the time which ends in the Tell el-Amarna period, shows Egyptian and Cypriote influence in its pottery, and here for the first time painted ornament becomes prominent. The figures are outlined in broad brush strokes, and the spaces are filled in afterwards, wholly p. 122 or partly, with strokes in another colour. The subjects are animals, birds, fishes, and geometrical patterns generally, and there can be little doubt that they are crude local imitations of models of Late Minoan ware, directly imported into the country. The Third Semitic, 1400–1000 B.C., includes the time of the Philistine supremacy: and though I have dated the beginning of the period rather earlier than the time of their arrival, the peculiar technique of painted pottery that distinguishes it need not be dated so early, and may well have been introduced by them, as it certainly comes to an abrupt end about the time of their fall. In this there is a degeneration observable as compared with the best work of the Second Semitic ware. The designs had in fact become 'hieratic', and the fine broad lines in several colours had given place to thin-line monochrome patterns, which will be found illustrated in the book referred to. The Philistines thus, in this particular art, show an inferiority to their Semitic predecessors. The reason is simple: they were removed farther in time from the parent designs. But the sudden substitution of the fine-line technique of the Third Semitic period for the broad-line technique of the Second, while the general plan of the designs remains the same, can be most easily accounted for by the assumption that the art passed from one race to another. And the sudden disappearance of the fine-line technique coincides so completely with the subjugation of the Philistines, that we can hardly hesitate to call painted ware displaying the peculiar Third Semitic characters 'Philistine'. This may be a valuable help for future exploration. The five graves found at Gezer, of which a fully illustrated detailed description will be found in Excavation of Gezer, vol. i, pp. 289–300, were so absolutely different from native Palestinian graves of any period that unless they were those of Philistines or some other foreign tribe they would be inexplicable. They were oblong rectangular receptacles sunk in the ground and covered with large slabs. Each contained a single body stretched out (not crouched, as in the Canaanite interments), the head, with one exception, turned to the east. Ornaments and food-deposits were placed around. The mouth-plate found on some of the skeletons was an important link with Cretan tradition, and the graves, as a whole, show decided kinship with the shaft-graves of Knossos or Mycenae, although naturally the art-centre has shifted to Cyprus, which was the origin of such of the deposits as had no Egyptian analogies. The bones from these tombs presented analogies with Cretan bones (seep. 60 ante); but of course five skeletons are quite insufficient as a basis for anthropological deductions. With further excavation the debt of Palestinian civilization to the p. 123 [paragraph continues]Philistines will probably be found to be even greater than the foregoing paragraphs would suggest. Briefly, the impression which the daily study of objects found in excavation has made on the present writer is, that from about 1400–1200 B.C. onwards to about 800 B.C. Western Palestine was the scene of a struggle between the Aegean and Egyptian civilizations, with a slight mingling of Mesopotamian influence, and that the local tribes took a merely passive interest in the conflict and made no contribution whatever to its development. (4) The Biblical and other literary sources point to the same conclusion. Let us take as an illustration the art of Architecture. It is notable that the only Palestine temples we read about in the Old Testament, until the building of Solomon's temple, are the houses of the Philistine deities. 1 Yahweh has a simple tent; the Canaanite deities have to be content with their primitive High Places—open areas of ground with rude pillar-stones. But Gaza, Ashdod, and Beth-Shan have their temples, and most likely the place called Beth-Car and some of the Beth-Dagons derived their Semitic names from some conspicuous temples of gods of the Philistine pantheon. We can deduce something as to the architecture of the Gaza temple from the account of its destruction by Samson (Judges xvi). There were two groups of spectators—a large crowd (the figure 3000 need not be taken literally) on the roof, and the lords and their attendants inside. If Samson was also inside, those on the roof could not have seen him, for no hypaethrum of any probable size would have allowed any considerable number to enjoy the sport. Samson must therefore have been outside the temple; and it follows that the lords and their attendants must have been, not in an enclosed naos, but under an open portico. That is to say, the structure must have been a building of the megaron type. When Samson rested—just where we should expect, at the edge of the grateful shade of the portico, where he could the more quickly recover his strength but would be at a respectful distance from the Philistine notables—he seized the wooden pillars of the portico, which probably tapered p. 124 downwards in the Mycenean style. He pushed them off their bases by 'bowing himself with all his might', and, the portico being distyle and having thus no other support, he brought the whole structure down. Only a megaron plan will satisfy all the conditions of the story. Buildings such as this must have been familiar to David in Gath, and perhaps the sight of them suggested to his mind the idea of erecting a more worthy temple to his own Deity, as soon as he came into his kingdom. And when the work was carried out by Solomon, we see that the same model was followed. Fig. 11. Sketch-plans and Elevations of the Marneion at Gaza and of Solomon's Temple (accessory buildings omitted). The dimensions of the latter are figured in cubits: the former is not to scale. Click to enlarge Fig. 11. Sketch-plans and Elevations of the Marneion at Gaza and of Solomon's Temple (accessory buildings omitted). The dimensions of the latter are figured in cubits: the former is not to scale. The description in 1 Kings vi, vii is not an architect's specification, and it has numerous technical terns hard to understand. Many attempts have been made to design a building which should conform to this account, helped out by the not always trustworthy Josephus. The mutual incompatibility of these restorations (to say nothing of their prima facie architectural improbability) is sufficient to deter the present writer from attempting to add to their number. The main p. 125 lines of the description are, however, clear enough to show with what kind of building we have to deal. We need not attempt to assign a place to the subsidiary external buildings in three stories, their winding stairs and other appurtenances, erected against the outside of the main structure. But we note that the latter was oblong, 60 cubits long, 30 cubits high, and 20 cubits broad. These figures show a classical sense of proportion for which we look in vain in any ancient building that excavation has revealed in Palestine. A portico in front, of the breadth of the house, was 20 cubits broad and 10 cubits deep. Here again the dimensions are proportioned. The portico was distyle, like that in the temple of Gaza: the two pillars were called by names which show that they were NOT massēbōth—'the stablisher' and 'strength in it' are very suitable names for pillars that have to bear the responsibility of keeping up a heavy portico. These pillars had shafts 18 cubits long, and capitals 5 cubits high—a total length of 23 cubits, which leaves, when subtracted from the height of the building, 7 cubits, a margin that is just about sufficient for the entablature above and the plinth below. At the opposite end of the building 'the oracle' or 'the most holy place' corresponds exactly to the opisthodomos. It was 20 cubits square, which left a naos, measuring 30 cubits by 20, in the middle of the building: the 'forty cubits' of 1 Kings vi. 16 evidently includes the portico. With regard to the ordinary domestic architecture of the Philistines, it must be admitted that the excavations which have been made in Philistine towns do not lead us to infer that they were on the whole much better housed than their Semitic neighbours. Amos, is true, speaks of the 'palaces' of Gaza and Ashdod (i. 8, iii. 9); but this is rather a favourite word (‏ארמנות‎) of the prophet's, and he finds 'palaces' in other towns as well. To a rough herdsman many buildings would look palatial, which when viewed from another standpoint would hardly make the same impression. One of the Philistine tombs at Gezer contained a small knife of iron; and this leads us at once to a discussion of fundamental importance. Inserted into the account of the battle of Michmash there is a very remarkable passage (1 Sam. xiii. 19–23). It is corrupt, and some parts of it cannot be translated, but the meaning of it seems to be something like this: 'Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make them sword or spear." But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe and his ox-goad (?).' The next verse is too corrupt to translate, and then the passage proceeds: 'In the day of battle there was neither p. 126 sword nor spear in the hand of any of the people, except with Saul and Jonathan themselves.' This is sometimes referred to as a 'disarmament', but there is no hint of anything of the kind. It simply says that the Philistines kept the monopoly of the iron trade in their own hands, and naturally restricted the sale of weapons of offence to the Hebrews, just as modern civilized nations have regulations against importing firearms among subject or backward communities. The Hebrews were just emerging from the bronze age culture. Iron agricultural implements, which seem slightly to precede iron war-weapons, had been introduced among them 1; but the novelty of iron had not worn off by the time of Solomon when he built his temple without the profaning touch of this metal (1 Kings vi. 7)—just as when Joshua made flint knives to perform the sacred rite of circumcision (Joshua v. 2); the old traditions must be maintained in religious functions. The champions of the Philistines, of course, were able to use iron freely, although for defensive purposes they still use bronze. 2 Goliath had a bronze helmet, a bronze cuirass of scale-armour (not a mail-coat, as in the English translation), bronze greaves, and a bronze 'javelin', but a spear with a great shaft and a heavy head of iron. The armour of 'Ishbi-benob' was probably similar, but the text is corrupt and defective. The armour of Goliath is indeed quite Homeric, and very un-Semitic. The κυνέν πάγχαλκος, the χαλκοκνήμιδες, 3 and the enormous spear— … 4— are noteworthy in this connexion, especially the greaves, the Hebrew word for which (‏מצחת‎) occurs nowhere else. The θώραξ λεπιδωτός alone would seem post-Homeric, but this is an argumentum e silentio. Fragments of a scale-cuirass, in iron, and of a rather later date, were found in the excavation of Tell Zakariya, overlooking the scene where the battle is laid (Excavations in Palestine, p. 150). But the culture that Goliath's equipment illustrates, like his ordeal by single combat, is much more European or Aegean than Palestinian. p. 127 In the report of Wen-Amon we found that the Zakkala were busy in the Phoenician ports, and had large influence in Phoenicia. The representations of Phoenician ships, such as the sadly damaged fresco which W. Max Müller has published, 1 shows them to have been identical in type with the ships of the Pulasati. It is highly probable that further research will show that it was due to the influence of the 'Peoples of the Sea' that the Phoenicians were induced to take to their very un-Semitic seafaring life. And it is also probable that it was due to Zakkala influence that the same people abandoned the practice of circumcision, as Herodotus says they did when they had commerce with 'Greeks'. 2 An interesting question now arises. Was it to the Philistines and their kinsmen that the civilized world owes the alphabet? The facts that suggest this query may be briefly stated. For countless generations the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and probably the Hittites, had been lumbering away with their complex syllabaries; scripts as difficult to learn and to use as is the Chinese of to-day. As in China, the complexity of the scripts was a bar to the diffusion of learning: the arts of reading and writing were perforce in the hand of specially trained guilds of scribes. No one thought of the possibility of simplifying the complexities; while current 'hieratic' forms of the letters might come into being with hasty writing, all the elaborate machinery of syllables and ideograms and determinatives was retained without essential modification. Suddenly we find that a little nation in Syria appears to have hit upon a series of twenty-two easily-written signs by which the whole complex system of the sounds of their language can be expressed with sufficient clearness. If it was really the Phoenicians, of all people, who performed this feat of analysis, it was one of the most stupendous miracles in the history of the world. That the Phoenicians ever originated the alphabet, or anything else, becomes more and more impossible to believe with every advance of knowledge. The alphabet makes its appearance soon after the movements of the 'sea-peoples'. Zakar-Baal is found keeping his accounts, not on clay tablets (and therefore not in cuneiform) but on papyrus, which he imports from Egypt in large quantities. And we are tempted to ask if the characters he used were some early form of the signs of the so-called 'Phoenician' alphabet. The oldest specimen of this alphabet yet found has come to light in Cyprus: the next oldest is the far-famed Moabite Stone. p. 128 [paragraph continues]W. Max Müller 1 cleverly infers from some peculiarities in the rendering of names in the list of Sheshonk's captured towns, that the scribe of that document was working from a catalogue in which the names were written in the Phoenician alphabet. This would bring the use of this alphabet in Palestine back to about 930 B.C., or about a century earlier than the Moabite Stone. A letter in neo-Babylonian cuneiform, probably not much earlier than this, and certainly of local origin, was found at Gezer: the date of the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet is thus narrowed down very closely. Whence came the signs of this alphabet? De Rougé's theory, which derived them from Egyptian hieratic, was the most reasonable of any, but no longer commands favour. There was for long a script of linear signs, strangely resembling the Phoenician alphabet, in use in Crete. It must be admitted, however, that so far no very satisfactory analogies have been drawn between them, though their comparison is not without promise of future fruit. But in this connexion the Phaestos Disk once more seems to assume importance. We are inclined to ask if it is possible that in the script of which this document is so far the sole representative, we are to see the long-sought origin? It is not unreasonable to suppose that in process of time the script of the Disk would become simplified into just such a linear script as that alphabet: and the principle of elision of the terminal vowel of syllables, already noticed in analysing the inscription on the Disk, is just what is wanted to help the process of evolution over that last most difficult fence, which divides a syllabary from a pure alphabet. Suppose that three syllables, ka, ko, ku, represented each by a special symbol, lost their vowel under certain grammatical or euphonic conditions; then all three being simply pronounced k might in writing become confused, leading ultimately to the choice of one of the syllabic signs to denote the letter k. Thus an alphabet of consonants would develop, which is just what we have in the Phoenician alphabet. The 45 +x characters of the original script—for we have no guarantee that we have all the characters of the script represented on the disk—could very easily wear down by some such process as this to the twenty-two signs of the Phoenician alphabet. As to the forms of the letters, in the total absence of intermediate links, and our total ignorance of the phonetic value of the Phaestos signs, it would be premature to institute any elaborate comparisons between the two scripts. The Phaestos Disk is dated not later than p. 129 [paragraph continues]1600 B.C., the Phoenician alphabet cannot be traced even so far back as about 1000 B.C., and what may have happened in the intervening six hundred years we do not know. But some arresting comparisons are already possible. The symbol which I have called (h) might well in rapid writing develop into the Phoenician sign aleph. The little man running (a) is not unlike some forms of tzade. The head (e) both in name and shape reminds us of rēsh. The dotted triangle (i) recalls daleth or teth, the fish (l) in name and to some extent in shape suggests nun—it is notable that the fish on the Disk always stands upright on its tail—the five-leaved sprig (w) is something like samekh, the water-sign (ß) might be mem (the three teeth of the Phoenician letter preserving the three lines of the original sign). The manacles (z) resembles beth, the nail-pillar or prop (ζ) resembles nay in both shape and meaning, the remarkable key (θ) simplifies into zayin, the square (σ) into gimel, and the object (π) whatever it may be, into pe. These tentative equivalents have been added for comparison to the table of characters on p. 116. The direction of writing is from right to left in each case. The plumed head-dress, so conspicuous as a sign on the Disk, connects it with the Philistines: and the evidence of forded us by the Golénischeff papyrus of the Syrian colonies of Philistines, or of their near kinsmen the Zakkala, links it with the Phoenicians. How far it may be possible to make further comparisons, with the various scripts of Crete, Cyprus, and Asia Minor, are questions which must be left for future discoveries and for special research. We are not here writing a history of the alphabet: but one or two points may be noticed which have a bearing on the subject. It is commonly assumed that because the names of the letters have a meaning in Semitic, and no meaning in Greek, therefore they are Semitic words adapted into Greek. This is, however, a non sequitur. 1 It would be more probable that the borrowing nation should cast about for words similar in sound, and possessing a meaning which would make the names of the letters easily remembered. Such an attempt would be sure to be unsuccessful in some cases: and in point of fact there are several letter-names in the Semitic alphabet to which the tortures of the Inquisition have to be applied before a meaning can be extracted from them through Semitic. It may thus be that all the letter-names are a heritage from some pre-Hellenic, non-Semitic language: and instead of the old idea of a Phoenician Ur-Alphabet from which all the South Semitic, North African, West p. 130 [paragraph continues]Asian, Hellenic, and Italic alphabetic scripts are derived, we are to picture a number of parallel and nearly related alphabets developing out of one of the hieroglyphic syllabaries of the Aegean basin—one of which scripts was taught to the Phoenicians by the despised Philistines. Whoever invented the alphabet laid the foundation-stone of civilization. Can it be that we owe this gift to the Philistines, of all people? And even this is not all. The rude tribes of Israel were forced to wage a long and stubborn fight with the Philistines for the possession of the Promised Land. For long it seemed doubtful whether Canaan would be retained by the Semitic tribes or lost to them: and it is no mere accident that the best-known name of the country is derived from that of the sea-rovers. In the struggle the Hebrews learned the lessons of culture which they needed for their own advancement: and what was more important, they learned their own essential unity. The pressure of external opposition welded, as nothing else could have done, their loosely-knitted clans into a nation. This was the historic function of the Philistines; they accomplished their task, and then vanished with startling suddenness from the stage. But the Chosen People were led on from strength to strength, till they too fulfilled their mission of teaching mankind to look forward to a time when the knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Thus the influence of the Philistines remains, even if indirectly, a heritage of humanity to the end of time. Footnotes 116:1 Compare the scarified lines still to be seen on the faces of negroes who have been liberated from slavery within recent years in the Turkish empire. 120:1 Daressy, 'Plaquettes émaillées de Médinet Habu,' in Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, vol. xi, p. 49. 123:1 Except the temple at Shechem (Judges viii. 33–ix. 46). The events described as taking place there certainly postulate a covered building. This, however, is perhaps no real exception: it may have originally been a Philistine structure. It was dedicated to a certain Baal- or El-Berith. But 'the Lord of the Covenant' is a strange name for a local ba‘al: can it be that Berith is a corruption of Βριτο[μαρτις]? The Book of Judges was probably written about the sixth century B.C.: by then the temple was most likely a ruin, and the memory of its dedication might easily have become obscured. The curious expression in Ezekiel, commented upon on p. 6 ante, might be similarly explained: by the ordinary canons of criticism the difficult original reading is to be preferred to the easy emendation there quoted. 126:1 See the essay on 'Bronze and Iron' in Andrew Lang's The World of Homer, pp. 96–104. 126:2 An elaborate paper, entitled 'Die Erfinder der Eisentechnik', by W. Belck, will be found in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (1907), p. 334. It claims the Philistines as the original inventors of the smith's art. That is, perhaps, going a little too far. 126:3 Greaves appear to be unknown in Oriental or Egyptian warfare. See Daremberg and Saglio, Dict. des antt. gr. et rom., s. v. Ocrea. 126:4 Il. vi. 318. 127:1 Mitth. der vorderas. Gesell. (1904), 2, plate iii. 127:2 II. 104. 128:1 Asien and Europa, p. 171. 129:1 See M. René Dussaud's paper 'L’Origine égéenne des alphabets sémitiques' in Journal asiatique, Sér. X, vol. v, p. 357. Next: Index Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Philistines, by R.A.S. Macalister, [1913], at sacred-texts.com p. 29 CHAPTER II THE HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES I. The Adventures of Wen-Amon among them The Golénischeff papyrus 1 was found in 1891 at El-Khibeh in Upper Egypt. It is the personal report of the adventures of an Egyptian messenger to Lebanon, sent on an important semi-religious, semi-diplomatic mission. The naïveté of the style makes it one of the most vivid and convincing narratives that the ancient East affords. Ramessu III is nominally on the throne, and the papyrus is dated in his fifth year. The real authority at Thebes is, however, Hrihor, the high priest of Amon, who is ultimately to usurp the sovereignty and become the founder of the Twenty-first Dynasty. In Lower Egypt, the Tanite noble Nesubenebded, in Greek Smendes, has control of the Delta. Egypt is in truth a house divided against itself. On the sixteenth day of the eleventh month of the fifth year of Ramessu, one Wen-Amon was dispatched from Thebes to fetch timber for the barge called User-het, the great august sacred barge of Amon-Ra, king of the gods. Who Wen-Amon may have been, we do not certainly know; he states that he had a religious office, but it is not clear what this was. It speaks eloquently for the rotten state of Egypt at the time, however, that no better messenger could be found than this obviously incompetent person—a sort of Egyptian prototype of the Rev. Robert Spalding! With him was an image of Amon, which he looked upon as a kind of fetish, letters of credit or of introduction, and the wherewithal to purchase the timber. Sailing down the Nile, Wen-Amon in due time reached Tanis, and presented himself at the court of Nesubenebded, who with his wife Tentamon, received the messenger of Amon-Ra with fitting courtesy. He handed over his letters, which (being themselves unable to decipher them) they caused to be read: and they said, 'Yea, yea, p. 30 [paragraph continues]I will do all that our lord Amon-Ra saith.' Wen-Amon tarried at Tanis till a fortnight had elapsed from his first setting out from Thebes; and then his hosts put him in charge of a certain Mengebti, captain of a ship about to sail to Syria. This was rather casual; evidently Mengebti's vessel was an ordinary trading ship, whereas we might have expected (and as appears later the Syrians did expect) that one charged with an important special message should be sent in a special ship. At this point the thoughtless Wen-Amon made his first blunder. He forgot all about reclaiming his letters of introduction from Nesubenebded, and so laid up for himself the troubles even now in store for the helpless tourist who tries to land at Beirut without a passport. Like the delightful pilgrimage of the mediaeval Dominican Felix Fabri, the modernness of this narrative of antiquity is not one of its least attractions. On the first day of the twelfth month Mengebti's ship set sail. After a journey of unrecorded length the ship put in at Dor, probably the modern Tantura on the southern coast of the promontory of Carmel. Dor was inhabited by Zakkala (a very important piece of information) and they had a king named Badyra. We are amazed to read that, apparently as soon as the ship entered the harbour, this hospitable monarch sent to Wen-Amon 'much bread, a jar of wine, and a joint of beef'. I verily believe that this was a tale got up by some bakhshish-hunting huckster. The simpleminded tourist of modern days is imposed upon by similar magnificent fables. There are few who have travelled much by Levant steamers without having lost something by theft. Sufferers may claim Wen-Amon as a companion in misfortune. As soon as the vessel touched at Dor, some vessels of gold, four vessels and a purse of silver—in all 5 deben or about 1 1/5 lb. of gold and 31 deben or about 7½ lb. of silver—were stolen by a man of the ship, who decamped. This was all the more serious, because, as appears later, these valuables were actually the money with which Wen-Amon had been entrusted for the purchase of the timber. So Wen-Amon did exactly what he would have done in the twentieth century AḌ. He went the following morning and interviewed the governor, Badyra. There was no Egyptian consul at the time, so he was obliged to conduct the interview in person. 'I have been robbed in thy harbour,' he says, 'and thou, being king, art he who should judge, and search for my money. The money indeed belongs to Amon-Ra, and Nesubenebded, and Hrihor my lord: it also belongs to Warati, and Makamaru, and Zakar-Baal prince of Byblos' p. 31 [paragraph continues]—the last three being evidently the names of the merchants who had been intended to receive the money. The account of Abraham's negotiations with the Hittites is not more modern than the king's reply. We can feel absolutely certain that he said exactly the words which Wen-Amon puts in his mouth: 'Thy honour and excellency! Behold, I know nothing of this complaint of thine. If the thief were of my land, and boarded the ship to steal thy treasure, I would even repay it from mine own treasury till they found who the thief was. But the thief belongs to thy ship (so I have no responsibility). Howbeit, wait a few days and I will seek for him.' Wen-Amon had to be content with this assurance. Probably nothing was done after he had been bowed out from the governor's presence: in any case, nine days elapsed without news of the missing property. At the end of the time Wen-Amon gave up hope, and made up his mind to do the best he could without the money. He still had his image of Amon-Ra, and he had a child-like belief that the foreigners would share the reverent awe with which he himself regarded it. So he sought permission of the king of Dor to depart. Here comes a lacuna much to be deplored. A sadly broken fragment helps to fill it up, but consecutive sense is unattainable. 'He said unto me "Silence!" . . . and they went away and sought their thieves . . . and I went away from Tyre as dawn was breaking . . . Zakar-Baal, prince of Byblos. . . there I found 30 deben of silver and took it . . . your silver is deposited with me . . . I will take it . . . they went away . . . I came to . . . the harbour of Byblos and . . . to Amon, and I put his goods in it. The prince of Byblos sent a messenger to me . . . my harbour. I sent him a message . . .' These, with a few other stray words, are all that can be made out. It seems as though Wen-Amon tried to recoup himself for his loss by appropriating the silver of some one else. At any rate, the fragment leaves Wen-Amon at his destination, the harbour of Byblos. Then the continuous text begins again. Apparently Zakar-Baal has sent a message to him to begone and to find a ship going to Egypt in which he could sail. Why Zakar-Baal was so inhospitable does not appear. Indeed daily, for nineteen days, he kept sending a similar message to the Egyptian, who seems to have done nothing one way or another. At last Wen-Amon found a ship about to sail for Egypt, and made arrangements to go as a passenger in her, despairing of ever carrying out his mission. He put his luggage on board and then waited for the darkness of night to come on board with his image of Amon, being for some reason anxious that none but himself should see this talisman. p. 32 But now a strange thing happened. One of the young men of Zakar-Baal's entourage was seized with a prophetic ecstasy—the first occurrence of this phenomenon on record—and in his frenzy cried, Bring up the god! Bring up Amon's messenger that has him! Send him, and let him go.' Obedient to the prophetic message Zakar-Baal sent down to the harbour to summon the Egyptian. The latter was much annoyed, and protested, not unreasonably, at this sudden change of attitude. Indeed he suspected a ruse to let the ship go off; with his belongings, and leave him defenceless at the mercy of the Byblites. The only effect of his protest was an additional order to 'hold up' the ship as well. In the morning he presented himself to Zakar-Baal. After the sacrifice had been made in the castle by the sea-shore where the prince dwelt, Wen-Amon was brought into his presence. He was 'sitting in his upper chamber, leaning his back against a window, while the waves of the great Syrian sea beat on the shore behind him'. To adapt a passage in one of Mr. Rudyard Kipling's best-known stories, we can imagine the scene, but we cannot imagine Wen-Amon imagining it: the eye-witness speaks in every word of the picturesque description. The interview was not pleasant for the Egyptian. It made so deep an impression upon him, that to our great gain he was able when writing his report to reproduce it almost verbatim, as follows: 'Amon's favour upon thee,' said Wen-Amon. 'How long is it since thou hast left the land of Amon?' demanded Zakar-Baal, apparently without returning his visitor's salutation. 'Five months and one day,' said Wen-Amon. (This answer shows how much of the document we have lost. We cannot account for more than the fourteen days spent between Thebes and Tanis, nine days at Dor, nineteen days at Byblos—six weeks in all-plus the time spent in the voyage, which at the very outside could scarcely have been more than another six weeks.) 'Well then, if thou art a true man, where are thy credentials?' We remember that Wen-Amon had left them with the prince of Tanis, and he said so. Then was Zakar-Baal very wroth. 'What! There is no writing in thy hand? And where is the ship that Nesubenebded gave thee? Where are its crew of Syrians? For sure, he would never have put thee in charge of this (incompetent Egyptian) who would have drowned thee—and then where would they have sought their god and thee?' This is the obvious sense, though injured by a slight lacuna. Nothing more clearly shows how the reputation of Egypt had sunk p. 33 in the interval since the exploits of Ramessu III. Zakar-Baal speaks of Mengebti and his Egyptian crew with much the same contempt as Capt. Davis in Stevenson's Ebb-tide speaks of a crew of Kanakas. Wen-Amon ventured on a mild protest. 'Nesubenebded has no Syrian crews: all his ships are manned with Egyptians.' 'There are twenty ships in my harbour,' said Zakar-Baal sharply, and ten thousand ships in Sidon—' The exaggeration and the aposiopesis vividly mirror the vehemence of the speaker. He was evidently going on to say that these ships, though Egyptian, were all manned by Syrians. But, seeing that Wen-Amon was, as he expresses it, 'silent in that supreme moment' he broke off, and abruptly asked— 'Now, what is thy business here?' We are to remember that Wen-Amon had come to buy timber, but had lost his money. We cannot say anything about whether he had actually recovered the money or its equivalent, because of the unfortunate gap in the document already noticed. However, it would appear that he had at the moment no ready cash, for he tried the effect of a little bluff. 'I have come for the timber of the great august barge of Amon-Ra, king of the gods. Thy father gave it, as did thy grandfather, and thou wilt do so too.' But Zakar-Baal was not impressed. 'True,' said he, 'they gave the timber, but they were paid for it: I will do so too, if I be paid likewise.' And then we are interested to learn that he had his father's account-books brought in, and showed his visitor the records of large sums that had been paid for timber. 'See now,' continued Zakar-Baal in a speech rather difficult to construe intelligibly, 'had I and my property been under the king of Egypt, he would not have sent money, but would have sent a command. These transactions of my father's were not the payment of tribute due. I am not thy servant nor the servant of him that sent thee. All I have to do is to speak, and the logs of Lebanon lie cut on the shore of the sea. But where are the sails and the cordage thou hast brought to transport the logs? . . . Egypt is the mother of all equipments and all civilization; how then have they made thee come in this hole-and-corner way?' He is evidently still dissatisfied with this soi-disant envoy, coming in a common passenger ship without passport or credentials. Then Wen-Amon played his trump card. He produced the image of Amon. 'No hole-and-corner journey is this, O guilty one!' said he. 'Amon owns every ship on the sea, and owns Lebanon which thou hast claimed as thine own. Amon has sent me, and Hrihor my lord has made me come, bearing this great god. And yet, though thou didst p. 34 well know that he was here, thou hadst kept him waiting twenty-nine days in the harbour. 1 Former kings have sent money to thy fathers, but not life and health: if thou do the bidding of Amon, he will send thee life and health. Wish not for thyself a thing belonging to Amon-Ra.' These histrionics, however, did not impress Zakar-Baal any more than the previous speech. Clearly Wen-Amon saw in his face that the lord of Byblos was not overawed by the image of his god, and that he wanted something more tangible than vague promises of life and health. So at length he asked for his scribe to be brought him that he might write a letter to Tanis, praying for a consignment of goods on account. The letter was written, the messenger dispatched, and in about seven weeks returned with a miscellaneous cargo of gold, silver, linen, 500 rolls of papyrus (this is important), hides, rope, lentils, and fish. A little present for Wen-Amon himself was sent as well by the lady Tentamon. Then the business-like prince rejoiced, we are told, and gave the word for the felling of the trees. And at last, some eight months after Wen-Amon's departure from Thebes, the timber lay on the shore ready for delivery. A curious passage here follows in the papyrus. It contains one of the oldest recorded jokes—if not actually the oldest—in the world. When Zakar-Baal came down to the shore to give the timber over to Wen-Amon, he was accompanied by an Egyptian butler, by name Pen-Amon. The shadow of Zakar-Baal's parasol happened to fall on the envoy, whereupon the butler exclaimed, 'Lo, the shadow of Pharaoh thy lord falleth on thee!' The point of the witticism is obscure, but evidently even Zakar-Baal found it rather too extreme, for he sharply rebuked the jester. But he proceeded himself to display a delicate humour. 'Now,' said he, 'I have done for thee what my fathers did, though thou hast not done for me what thy fathers did. Here is the timber lying ready and complete. Do what thou wilt with it. But do not be contemplating the terror of the sea' (there cannot be the slightest doubt that Wen-Amon was at this moment glancing over the waters and estimating his chances of a smooth crossing). 'Contemplate for a moment the terror of Me! Ramessu IX sent some messengers to me and'—here he turned to the butler—' Go thou, and show him their graves!' 'Oh, let me not see them!' was the agonized exclamation of Wen-Amon, anxious now above all things to be off without further delay. Those were people who had no god with them! Wherefore dost thou not instead erect a tablet to record to all time "that Amon-Ra p. 35 sent to me and I sent timber to Egypt, to beseech ten thousand years of life, and so it came to pass"?' 'Truly that would be a great testimony!' said the sarcastic prince, and departed. Wen-Amon now set about loading his timber. But presently there sailed eleven ships of the Zakkala into the harbour—possibly those on whom he had made a rash attempt at piracy to recoup himself for his losses at Dor. The merchants in them demanded his arrest. The poor Egyptian sat down on the shore and wept. 'They have come to take me again!' he cried out—it would appear that he had been detained by the Zakkala before, but the record of this part of his troubles is lost in one of the lacunae of the MS. We despair of him altogether when he actually goes on to tell us that when news of this new trouble reached Zakar-Baal, that magnate wept also. However, we need not question the charming detail that he sent to Wen-Amon an Egyptian singing-girl, to console him with her songs. But otherwise he washed his hands of the whole affair. He told the Zakkala that he felt a delicacy about arresting the messenger of Amon on his own land, but he gave them permission to follow and arrest him themselves, if they should see fit. So away Wen-Amon sailed, apparently without his timber, and presumably with the Zakkala in pursuit. But he managed to evade them. A wind drove him to Cyprus. The Cypriotes came out, as he supposed, to kill him and his crew; but they brought them before Hatiba, their queen. He called out 'Does any one here understand Egyptian?' One man stepped forward. He dictated a petition to be translated to the queen— And here the curtain falls abruptly, for the papyrus breaks off; and the rest of this curious tragi-comedy of three thousand years ago is lost to us. We see from it that the dwellers on the Syrian coast had completely thrown off the terror inspired by the victories of Ramessu III. An Egyptian on a sacred errand from the greatest men in the country, bearing the image of an Egyptian god, could be robbed, bullied, mocked, threatened, thwarted in every possible way. Granted that he was evidently not the kind of man to command respect, yet the total lack of reverence for the royalties who had sent him, and the sneers at Egypt and the Egyptian rulers, are very remarkable. We see also that the domain of the 'People of the Sea' was more extensive than the scanty strip of territory usually allowed them on Bible maps. Further evidence of this will meet us presently, p. 36 but meanwhile it may be noted that the name 'Palestine' is much less of an extension of the name 'Philistia' than the current maps would have us suppose. In other words, the two expressions are more nearly synonymous than they are generally taken to be. We find Dor, south of Carmel, to be a Zakkala town; and Zakkala ships are busy in the ports further north. Indeed, one is half inclined to see Zakkala dominant at Byblos itself. Wen-Amon was a person of slender education—even of his own language he was not a master—and he was not likely to render foreign names correctly. Probably he could speak nothing but Egyptian: he was certainly ignorant of the language of Cyprus, whatever that may have been: and possibly linguistic troubles are indicated by his rendering of the name of the lord of Byblos. Can it be that this was not a name at all, but a title (or rather the Semitic translation of a title, given by a Zakkala dragoman): that Zakar is not ‏זכר‎ 'remember', but the name of the Zakkala: and that Baal here, as frequently elsewhere, means 'lord' in a human and not a divine sense? If so, the name would mean 'the lord of the Zakkala', a phrase that recalls 'the lords of the Philistines' in the Hebrew Scriptures. The syntax assumed is of course quite un-Semitic: but it is often the case in dragomans’ translations that the syntax of the original language is preserved. Something like this idea has been anticipated by M. A. J. Reinach. 1 Zakar-baal was no mere pirate chieftain, however. He was a substantial, civilized, and self-reliant prince, and contrasts most favourably with the weak, half-blustering, half-lacrimose Egyptian. He understood the Egyptian language; for he could rebuke the jest of his Egyptian butler, who would presumably speak his native tongue in 'chaffing' his compatriot; and no doubt the interview in the upper room was carried on in Egyptian. He was well acquainted with the use of letters, for he knew where to put his finger on the relevant parts of the accounts of his two predecessors. These accounts were probably not in cuneiform characters on clay tablets, as he is seen to import large quantities of papyrus from Egypt. He is true to his old maritime traditions: he builds his house where he can watch the great waves of the Mediterranean beat on the shore, and he is well informed about the ships in his own and the neighbouring harbours, and their crews. There is a dim recollection of a Philistine occupation of Phoenicia p. 37 recorded for us in an oft-quoted passage of Justin (xviii. 3. 5), 1 in which he mentions a raid by the king of Ashkelon, just before the fall of Troy, on the Phoenician town of Sidon (so called from an alleged Phoenician word 'Sidon', meaning 'fish'). 'This is of course merely a saga-like tradition, and as we do not know from what authority Justin drew his information we can hardly put a very heavy strain upon it. And yet it seems to hang together with the other evidence, that in the Mycenaean period, when Troy was taken, there actually was a Philistine settlement on the Phoenician coast. As to the specific mention of Ashkelon, a suggestion, perhaps a little venturesome, may be hazarded. The original writer of the history of this vaguely-chronicled event, whoever he may have been, possibly recorded correctly that it was the Zakkala who raided Sidon. Some later author or copyist was puzzled by this forgotten name, and 'emended' a rege Sacaloniorum to a rege Ascaloniorum. Stranger things have happened in the course of manuscript transmission. 2 The Papyrus gives us some chronological indications of importance. The expedition of Wen-Amon took place in the fifth year of Ramessu XII, that is to say, about 1110 B.C. Zakar-Baal had already been governor of Byblos for a considerable time, for he had received envoys from Ramessu IX (1144–1129). Suppose these envoys to have come about 1130, that gives him already twenty years. The envoys of Ramessu IX were detained seventeen years; but in the first place this may have been an exaggeration, and in the second place we need not suppose that many of those seventeen years necessarily fell within the reign of the sender of these messengers. Further, Zakar-Baal's father and grandfather had preceded him in office. We do not know how long they reigned, but giving twenty-five years to each, which is probably a high estimate, we reach the date 1180, which is sufficiently long after the victory of Ramessu III for the people to begin to recover from the blow which that event inflicted on them. Footnotes 29:1 See Max Müller, Mittheilungen der deutschen vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1900, p. 14; Erman, Zeitschrift far ägyptische Sprache, xxxviii, p. 1; Breasted, Ancient Records, iv, p. 274. 34:1 An inconsistency: he has added ten days to his former statement. 36:1 'Byblos, où règne un prince qui pourrait bien être un Tchakara sémitisé, si l’on en croit son nom de Tchakar-baal.' Revue archéologique, sér. IV, vol. xv, p. 45. 37:1 'Et quoniam ad Carthaginiensium mentionem uentum est, de origine eorum pauca dicenda sunt, repetitis Tyriorum paulo altius rebus, quorum casus etiam dolendi fuerunt. Tyriorum gens condita a Phoenicibus fuit, qui terraemotu uexati, relicto patriae solo, Assyrium stagnum primo, mox mari proximum littus incoluerunt, condita ibi urbe quam a piscium ubertate Sidona appellauerunt; nam piscem Phoenices sidon uocant. Post multos deinde annos a rege Ascaloniorum expugnati, nauibus appulsi, Tyron urbem ante annum Troianae cladis condiderunt.' 37:2 On the other hand Scylax in his Periplus calls Ashkelon 'a city of the Tyrians'. Next: II. Their Struggle with the Hebrews Return to Ancient Near East index Return to Main Index THE SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS R.C. Thompson, translator [The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London 1903].[1] Raging storms, evil gods are they Ruthless demons, who in heaven's vault were created, are they, Workers of evil are they, They lift up the head to evil, every day to evil Destruction to work. Of these seven the first is the South wind... The second is a dragon, whose mouth is opened... That none can measure. The third is a grim leopard, which carries off the young ... The fourth is a terrible Shibbu ... The fifth is a furious Wolf, who knoweth not to flee, The sixth is a rampant ... which marches against god and king. The seventh is a storm, an evil wind, which takes vengeance, Seven are they, messengers to King Anu are they, From city to city darkness work they, A hurricane, which mightily hunts in the heavens, are they Thick clouds, that bring darkness in heaven, are they, Gusts of wind rising, which cast gloom over the bright day, are they, With the Imkhullu [2] the evil wind, forcing their way, are they, The overflowing of Adad [3] mighty destroyers, are they, At the right of Adad stalking, are they, In the height of heaven, like lightning flashing, are they, To wreak destruction forward go they , In the broad heaven, the home of Anu, the King, evilly do they arise, and none to oppose. When Enlil heard these tidings, a plan in his heart he pondered, With Ea, exalted Massu of the gods, be took counsel. Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar, whom he had set to order the vault of heaven, With Anu he divided the lordship of the whole heaven, To these three gods, his offspring Day and night, without ceasing, he ordained to stand, When the seven evil gods stormed the vault of heaven, Before the gleaming Sin, they set themselves angrily, [4] The mighty Shamash, Adad the warrior, they brought on their side, Ishtar, with Anu the King, moved into a shining dwelling, exercising dominion over the heavens, [Nearly ten lines here are unreadable.] Day and night he was dark (i.e., Sin), in the dwelling of his dominion he sat not down, The evil gods, the messengers of Anu, the King, are they, Raising their evil heads, in the night shaking themselves, are they, Evil searching out, are they, From the heaven, like a wind, over the land rush they. Enlil saw the darkening of the hero Sin in heaven, The lord spoke to his minister Nusku, O My minister Nusku, my message unto the ocean bring, The tidings of my son Sin, who in heaven has been sadly darkened, Unto Ea, in the ocean, announce it." Nusku exalted the word of his lord, To Ea, in the ocean, he went quickly, To the prince, the exalted Massu the lord Nudimmud.[5] Nusku, the word of his lord there announced Ea in the ocean heard that word, He bit his lip and filled his mouth with wailing; Ea called his son Marduk, and gave him the message: "Go, my son Marduk, Son of a prince, the gleaming Sin has been sadly darkened in heaven, His darkening is seen in the heavens, The seven evil gods, death-dealing, fearless are they, The seven evil gods, like a flood, rush on, the land they fall upon, do they, Against the land, like a storm, they rise, do they, Before the gleaming Sin, they set themselves angrily; The mighty Shamash, Adad the warrior, they brought on their side." NOTES: [1] This story is the sixteenth tablet of a series called the "Evil Demon Series," of which we have an Assyrian with a parallel Sumerian text. Presumably, therefore, it was a very ancient legend. [2] The Imkhullu appears also in the Creation Epic. [3] Adad is god of storm, Anu of heaven, Enlil of storm, Sin of the Moon, Shamash of the Sun, and Ishtar of love and fruitfulness. The meaning of Massu is unknown; but Ea was long the chief ruler. [4] The evil gods darken the moon by an eclipse, Shamash helping them by withdrawing his light from the moon, and Adad by sending cloudy weather. [5] A name for Ea. DESCRIPTIONS OF "THE SEVEN" I Destructive storms and evil winds are they, A storm of evil, presaging the baneful storm, A storm of evil, forerunner of the baneful storm. Mighty children, mightv sons are they, Messengers of Namtar are they, Throne-bearers of Ereshkigal. [1] The flood driving through the land are they. Seven gods of the wide heavens, Seven gods of the broad earth, Seven robber-gods are they. Seven gods of universal sway, Seven evil gods, Seven evil demons, Seven evil and violent demons, Seven in heaven, seven on earth. II Neither male nor female are they. Destructive whirlwinds they, Having neither wife nor offspring. Compassion and mercy they do not know. Prayer and supplication they do not hear. Horses reared in the mountains, Hostile to Ea. Throne-bearers of the gods are they. Standing on the highway, befouling the street. Evil are they, evil are they, Seven they are, seven they are, Twice seven they are. III The high enclosures, the broad enclosures like a flood they pass through. From house to house they dash along. No door can shut them out, No bolt can turn them back. Through the door, like a snake, they glide, Through the hinge, like the wind, they storm. Tearing the wife from the embrace of the man, Snatching the child from the knees of a man, Driving the freedman from his family home. [1 ]The mistress of the netherworld, while Namtar is the god of pestilence. CHARM AGAINST THE SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS Seven are they, seven are they! In the channel of the deep seven are they! In the radiance of heaven seven are they! In the channel of the deep in a palace grew they up. Male they are not, female they are not. In the midst of the deep are their paths. Wife they have not, son they have not. Order and kindness know they not. Prayer and supplication hear they not. The cavern in the mountain they enter. Unto Hea are they hostile. The throne-bearers of the gods are they. Disturbing the lily in the torrents are they set. Baleful are they, baleful are they. Seven are they, seven are they, seven twice again are they. May the spirits of heaven remember, may the spirits of earth remember.

Joseph and the Exodus.txt

Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald Mackenzie, [1907], at sacred-texts.com p. 15 CHAPTER II The Tragedy of Osiris Osiris the Wise King--Introduction of Agriculture --Isis the Strong Queen--Conspiracy of Set--The Tragic Feast--Osiris is slain--The Quest of Isis----Set the Oppressor--"The Opener of the Ways"--Birth of Horus--Thoth the Healer--Tree encloses Osiris's Body--Isis as a Foster-mother--Her Swallow Guise--Flames of Immortality--Osiris brought back to Egypt --Torn in Pieces by Set, the Boar Hunter--Isis recovers Fragments--Ghost of Murdered King--Horus as Hamlet--Succession of Uncle and Son--Agricultural Rites--The Inundation--Lamentations at Sowing Time and Harvest --Osiris and Isis as Corn Spirits--Hapi, the Nile Deity--Isis as a Male. WHEN Osiris was born, a voice from out of the heavens proclaimed: "Now hath come the lord of all things." The wise man Pamyles had knowledge of the tidings in a holy place at Thebes, and he uttered a cry of gladness, and told the people that a good and wise king had appeared among men. When Ra grew old and ascended unto heaven, Osiris sat in his throne and ruled over the land of Egypt. Men were but savages when he first came amongst them. They hunted wild animals, they wandered in broken tribes hither and thither, up and down the valley and among the mountains, and the tribes contended fiercely in battle. Evil were their ways and their desires were sinful. Osiris ushered in a new age. He made good and binding laws, he uttered just decrees, and he judged with wisdom between men. He caused peace to prevail at length over all the land of Egypt. Isis was the queen consort of Osiris, and she was a p. 16 woman of exceeding great wisdom. Perceiving the need of mankind, she gathered the ears of barley and wheat which she found growing wild, and these she gave unto the king. Then Osiris taught men to break up the land which had been under flood) to sow the seed, and, in due season, to reap the harvest. He instructed them also how to grind corn and knead flour and meal so that they might have food in plenty. By the wise ruler was the vine trained upon poles, and he cultivated fruit trees and caused the fruit to be gathered. A father was he unto his people, and he taught them to worship the gods, to erect temples, and to live holy lives. The hand of man was no longer lifted against his brother. There was prosperity in the land of Egypt in the days of Osiris the Good. When the king perceived the excellent works which he had accomplished in Egypt, he went forth to traverse the whole world with purpose to teach wisdom unto all men, and prevail upon them to abandon their evil ways. Not by battle conquest did he achieve his triumphs, but by reason of gentle and persuasive speech and by music and song. Peace followed in his footsteps, and men learned wisdom from his lips. Isis reigned over the land of Egypt until his return. She was stronger than Set, who regarded with jealous eyes the good works of his brother, for his heart was full of evil and he loved warfare better than peace. He desired to stir up rebellion in the kingdom. The queen frustrated his wicked designs. He sought in vain to prevail in battle against her, so he plotted to overcome Osiris by guile. His followers were seventy and two men who were subjects of the dusky queen of Ethiopia. 1 Thoth Asar-Ash (Osiris-Ah) with attributes of Khonsu Ptah Ra Set LUNAR, SOLAR AND EARTH GODS p. 17 Osiris Isis, winged, in the attitude of protecting Horus Horus (as Harpokrates) OSIRIS, ISIS AND HORUS When Osiris returned from his mission, there was great rejoicing in the land. A royal feast was held, and set came to make merry, and with him were his fellow conspirators. He brought a shapely and decorated chest, which he had caused to be made according to the measurements of the king's body. All men praised it at the feast, admiring its beauty, and many desired greatly to possess it. When hearts were made glad with beer-drinking, Set proclaimed that he would gift the chest unto him whose body fitted its proportions with exactness. There was no suspicion of evil design among the faithful subjects of Osiris. The guests spoke lightly, uttering jests one against another, and all were eager to make trial as Set had desired. So it happened that one after another entered the chest on that fateful night, until it seemed that no man could be found to win it for himself. Then Osiris came forward. He lay down within the chest, and he filled it in every part. But dearly was his triumph won in that dark hour which was his hour of doom. Ere he could raise his body, the evil followers of Set sprang suddenly forward and shut down the lid, which they nailed fast and soldered with lead. So the richly decorated chest became the coffin of the good king Osiris, from whom departed the breath of life. The feast was broken up in. confusion. Merrymaking ended in sorrow, and blood flowed after that instead of beer. Set commanded his followers to carry away the chest and dispose of it secretly. As he bade them, so did they do. They hastened through the night and flung it into the Nile. The current bore it away in the darkness, and when morning came it reached the great ocean and was driven hither and thither, tossing among the waves. So ended the days of Osiris and the years of his wise and prosperous reign in the land of Egypt. p. 18 When the grievous tidings were borne unto Isis, she was stricken with great sorrow and refused to be comforted. She wept bitter tears and cried aloud. Then she uttered a binding vow, cut off a lock of her shining hair, and put on the garments of mourning. Thereafter the widowed queen wandered up and down the land, seeking for the body of Osiris. Nor would she rest nor stay until she found what she sought. She questioned each one she encountered, and one after another they answered her without knowledge. Long she made search in vain, but at length she was told by shoreland children that they had beheld the chest floating down the Nile and entering the sea by the Delta mouth which takes its name from the city of Tanis. 1 Meanwhile Set, the usurper, ascended the throne of Osiris and reigned over the land of Egypt. Men were wronged and despoiled of their possessions. Tyranny prevailed and great disorder, and the followers of Osiris suffered persecution. The good queen Isis became a fugitive in the kingdom, and she sought concealment from her enemies in the swamps and deep jungle of the Delta. Seven scorpions followed her, and these were her protectors. Ra, looking down from heaven, was moved to pity because of her sore distress, and he sent to her aid Anubis, "the opener of the ways", who was the son of Osiris and Nepthys, and he became her guide. One day Isis sought shelter at the house of a poor woman, who was stricken with such great fear when she beheld the fearsome scorpions that she closed the door against the wandering queen. But a scorpion gained entrance) and bit her child so that he died. Then loud and long were the lamentations of the stricken mother. p. 19 The heart of Isis was touched with pity, and she uttered magical words which caused the child to come to life again, and the woman ministered unto the queen with gratitude while she remained in the house. Then Isis gave birth unto her son Horus; but Set came to know where the mother and babe were concealed, and he made them prisoners in the house. 1 It was his desire to put Horus to death, lest he should become his enemy and the claimant of the throne of Osiris. But wise Thoth came out of heaven and gave warning unto Isis, and she fled with her child into the night. She took refuge in Buto, where she gave Horus into the keeping of Uazit, the virgin goddess of the city, who was a serpent, 2 So that he might have protection against the jealous wrath of Set, his wicked uncle, while she went forth to search for the body of Osiris. But one day, when she came to gaze upon the child, she found him lying dead. A scorpion had bitten him, nor was it in her power to restore him to life again. In her bitter grief she called upon the great god Ra. Her voice ascended to high heaven, and the sun boat was stayed in its course. Then wise Thoth came down to give aid. He worked a mighty spell; he spoke magical words over the child Horus, who was immediately restored to life again. 3 It was the will of the gods that he should grow into strong manhood and then smite his father's slayer. The coffin of Osiris was driven by the waves to Byblos, in Syria, and it was cast upon the shore. A sacred tree sprang up and grew round it, and the body of the dead ruler was enclosed in its great trunk. The king of that p. 20 alien land marvelled greatly at the wonderful tree, because that it had such rapid growth, and he gave command that it should be cut down. As he desired, so it was done. Then was the trunk erected in his house as a sacred pillar, but to no man was given knowledge of the secret which it contained. A revelation came unto Isis, and she set out towards Byblos in a ship. When she reached the Syrian coast she went ashore clad in common raiment, and she sat beside a well, weeping bitterly. Women came to draw water, and they spoke to her with pity, but Isis answered not, nor ceased to grieve, until the handmaidens of the queen drew nigh. Unto them she gave kindly greetings. When they had spoken gently unto her she braided their hair, and into each lock she breathed sweet and alluring perfume. So it chanced that when the maidens returned unto the king's house the queen smelt the perfume, and commanded that the strange woman should be brought before her. Then it was that Isis found favour in the eyes of the queen, who chose her to be the foster-mother of the royal babe. But Isis refused to suckle the child, and to silence his cries for milk, she put her finger into his mouth. When night came she caused fire to burn away his flesh, and she took the form of a swallow and flew, uttering broken cries of sorrow, round about the sacred pillar which contained the body of Osiris. It chanced that the queen came nigh and beheld her babe in the flames. She immediately plucked him forth; but although she rescued his body she caused him to be denied immortality. 1 Isis again assumed her wonted form, and she confessed p. 21 unto the queen who she was. Then she asked the king that the sacred pillar be given unto her. The boon was granted, and she cut deep into the trunk and took forth the chest which was concealed therein. Embracing it tenderly, she uttered cries of lamentation that were so bitter and keen that the royal babe died with terror. Then she consecrated the sacred pillar, which she wrapped in linen and anointed with myrrh, and it was afterwards placed in a temple which the king caused to be erected to Isis, and for long centuries it was worshipped by the people of Byblos. The coffin of Osiris was borne to the ship in which the queen goddess had sailed unto Syria. Then she went aboard, and took with her Maneros, the king's first-born, and put forth to sea. The ship sped on, and the land faded from sight. Isis yearned to behold once again the face of her dead husband, and she opened the chest and kissed passionately his cold lips, while tears streamed from her eyes. Maneros, son of the King of Byblos, came stealthily behind her, wondering what secret the chest contained. Isis looked round with anger, her bright eyes blinded him, and he fell back dead into the sea. When Isis reached the land of Egypt she concealed the body of the dead king in a secret place, and hastened towards the city of Buto to embrace her son Horus; but shortlived was her triumph. It chanced that Set came hunting the boar 1 at full moon in the Delta jungle, and he found the chest which Isis had taken back from Syria. He caused it to be opened, and the body of Osiris was taken forth and rent into fourteen pieces, which he cast into the Nile, so that the crocodiles might devour them. But these reptiles had fear of Isis and touched them not, p. 22 and they were scattered along the river banks. 1 A fish (Oxyrhynchus) swallowed the phallus. The heart of Isis was filled with grief when she came to know what Set had done. She had made for herself a papyrus boat and sailed up and down the Delta waters, searching for the fragments of her husband's body, and at length she recovered them all, save the part which had been swallowed by the fish. She buried the fragments where they were found, and for each she made a tomb. In after days temples were erected over the tombs, and in these Osiris was worshipped by the people for long centuries. Set continued to rule over Egypt, and he persecuted the followers of Osiris and Isis in the Delta swamps and along the seacoast to the north. But Horus, who was rightful king, grew into strong manhood. He prepared for the coming conflict, and became a strong and brave warrior. Among his followers were cunning workers in metal who were called Mesniu (smiths), and bright and keen were their weapons of war. The sun hawk was blazoned on their battle banners. One night there appeared to Horus in a. dream a vision of his father Osiris. 2 The ghost urged him to overthrow Set) by whom he had been so treacherously put to death, and Horus vowed to drive his wicked uncle and all his followers out of the land of Egypt. So he gathered his army together and went forth to battle. Set came against him at Edfu and slew many of his followers. But Horus secured the aid of the tribes that remained faithful to Osiris and Isis, and Set was again attacked and driven towards the eastern frontier. The usurper uttered a p. 23 great cry of grief when he was forced to take flight. He rested at Zaru, and there was the last battle fought. It was waged for many days, and Horus lost an eye. But Set was still more grievously wounded, 1 and he was at length driven with his army out of the kingdom. It is told that the god Thoth descended out of heaven and healed the wounds of Horus and Set. Then the slayer of Osiris appeared before the divine council and claimed the throne. But the gods gave judgment that Horus was the rightful king, and he established his power in the land of Egypt, and became a wise and strong ruler like to his father Osiris. Another version of the legend relates that when the fragments of the body of Osiris were recovered from the Nile, Isis and Nepthys lamented over them, weeping bitterly. In one of the temple chants Isis exclaims: Gods, and men before the face of the gods, are weeping for thee at the same time when they behold me! Lo! I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven-- Yet thou hearest not my voice. Lo! I, thy sister, I love thee more than all the earth And thou lovest not another as thou dost thy sister! Nepthys cries, Subdue every sorrow which is in the hearts of us thy sisters . . . Live before us, desiring to behold thee. 2 The lamentations of the goddesses were heard by Ra, and he sent down from heaven the god Anubis, who, with the assistance of Thoth and Horus, united the severed portions of the body of Osiris, which they wrapped in linen bandages. Thus had origin the mummy form of the god. Then the winged Isis hovered over p. 24 the body, and the air from her wings entered the nostrils of Osiris so that he was imbued with life once again. He afterwards became the Judge and King of the Dead. Egyptian burial rites were based upon this legend. At the ceremony enacted in the tomb chapel two female relatives of the deceased took the parts of Isis and Nepthys, and recited magical formulæ so that the dead might be imbued with vitality and enabled to pass to the Judgment Hall and Paradise. Osiris and Isis, the traditional king and queen of ancient Egyptian tribes, were identified with the deities who symbolized the forces of Nature, and were accordingly associated with agricultural rites. The fertility of the narrow strip of country in the Nile valley depends upon the River Nile, which overflows its banks every year and brings down fresh soil from the hills. The river is at its lowest between April and June, the period of winter. Fed by the melting snows on the Abyssinian hills, and by the equatorial lakes, which are flooded during the rainy season, the gradual rise of the river becomes perceptible about the middle of June. The waters first assume a reddish tint on account of the clay which they carry. For a short period they then become greenish and unwholesome. Ere that change took place the Ancient Egyptians were wont to store up water for domestic use in large jars. By the beginning of August the Nile runs high. It was then that the canals were opened in ancient days, so that the waters might fertilize the fields. "As the Nile rose," writes Wilkinson, 1 "the peasants were careful to remove the flocks and herds from the lowlands; and when a sudden irruption of the water, owing to the bursting. of a dike, or an unexpected and p. 25 unusual increase of the river, overflowed the fields and pastures, they were seen hurrying to the spot, on foot or in boats, to rescue the animals and to remove them to the high grounds above the reach of the inundation. . . . And though some suppose the inundation does not now attain the same height as of old, those who have lived in the country have frequently seen the villages of the Delta standing, as Herodotus describes them, like islands in the Ægean Sea, with the same scenes of rescuing the cattle from the water." According to Pliny, "a proper inundation is of 16 cubits . . . in 12 cubits the country suffers from famine, and feels a deficiency even in 13; 14 causes joy, 15 scarcity, 16 delight; the greatest rise of the river to this period was of 18 cubits". When the river rose very high in the days of the Pharaohs, "the lives and property of the inhabitants", says Wilkinson, "were endangered"; in some villages the houses collapsed. Hence the legend that Ra sought to destroy his enemies among mankind. The inundation is at its height by the end of September, and continues stationary for about a month. Not until the end of September does the river resume normal proportions. November is the month for sowing; the harvest is reaped in Upper Egypt by March and in Lower Egypt by April. It was believed by the ancient agriculturists that the tears of Isis caused the river to increase in volume. When Sirius rose before dawn about the middle of July it was identified with the goddess. In the sun-cult legend this star is Hathor, "the eye of Ra", who comes to slaughter mankind. There are evidences that human sacrifices were offered to the sun god at this period. E. W. Lane, in his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, tells that the night of 17 June is called "Leylet-en-Nuktah", p. 26 or "the Night of the Drop", because "it is believed that a miraculous drop then falls into the Nile and causes it to rise". An interesting ceremony used to be performed at "the cutting of the dam" in old Cairo. A round pillar of earth was formed, and it was called the "bride", and seeds were sown on the top of it. Lane says that an ancient Arabian historian "was told that the Egyptians were accustomed, at the period when the Nile began to rise, to deck a young virgin in gay apparel, and throw her into the river, as a sacrifice to obtain a plentiful inundation". When the ancient Egyptians had ploughed their fields they held a great festival at which the moon god, who, in his animal form, symbolized the generative principle, was invoked and worshipped. Then the sowing took place, amidst lamentations and mourning for the death of Osiris. The divine being was buried in the earth; the seeds were the fragments of his body. Reference is made to this old custom in Psalm cxxvi: "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him". When harvest operations began, the Egyptians mourned because they were slaying the corn spirit. Diodorus Siculus tells that when the first handful of grain was cut, the Egyptian reapers beat their breasts and lamented, calling upon Isis. When, however, all the sheaves were brought in from the fields, they rejoiced greatly and held their "harvest home". Both Osiris and Isis were originally identified with the spirits of the corn. The former represented the earth god and the latter the earth goddess. But after the union of the tribes which worshipped the human incarnations of ancient deities, the rival conceptions were p. 27 fused. As a result we find that the inundation is symbolized now as the male principle and now as the female principle; the Nile god, Hapi, is depicted as a man with female breasts. In an Abydos temple chant Isis makes reference to herself as "the woman who was made a male by her father, Osiris". 1 The Scottish Osiris (JOHN BARLEYCORN) THERE were three kings into the east, Three kings both great and high, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die. They took a plough and plough'd him down Put clods upon his head, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn was dead. But the cheerful spring came kindly on, And show'rs began to fall; John Barleycorn got up again, And sore surpris'd them all. The sultry suns of summer came, And he grew thick and strong, His head weel arm'd wi' pointed spears, That no one should him wrong. The sober autumn enter'd mild, When he grew wan and pale; His bending joints and drooping head Show'd he began to fail. p. 28 His colour sicken'd more and more, He faded into age; And then his enemies began To show their deadly rage. They've ta'en a weapon long and sharp, And cut him by the knee; Then ty'd him fast upon a cart, Like a rogue for forgerie. They laid him down upon his back, And cudgell'd him full sore; They hung him up before the storm, And turn'd him o'er and o'er. They filèd up a darksome pit With water to the brim, They heavèd in John Barleycorn- There let him sink or swim. They laid him out upon the floor, To work him farther woe; And still, as signs of life appear'd, They tossed him to and fro. They wasted, o'er a scorching flame, The marrow of his bones; But the miller us'd him worst of all, For he crush'd him between two stones. And they hae ta'en his very heart's blood, And drank it round and round; And still the more and more they drank, Their joy did more abound. John Barleycorn was a hero bold Of noble enterprise; For if you do but taste his blood, 'Twill make your courage rise. p. 29 'Twill make a man forget his woe; 'Twill heighten all his joy; 'Twill make the widow's heart to sing, Tho' the tear were in her eye. Then let us toast John Barleycorn, Each man a glass in hand; And may his great posterity Ne'er fail in old Scotland. Burns. Footnotes 16:1 After the period of Ethiopian supremacy (Twenty-fifth Dynasty) Set was identified with the Ethiopians. 18:1 Tanis was during the later Dynasties associated with the worship of Set as Sutekh 19:1 Another version of the myth places the birth of Horus after the body of Osiris was found. 19:2 She took the form of a shrew mouse to escape Set when he searched for Horus. 19:3 Thoth in his lunar character as divine physician. 20:1 We have here a suggestion of belief in cremation, which was practised by the cave-dwellers of southern Palestine. The ghost of Patroklos says: "Never again will I return from Hades when I receive from you my meed of fire".--Iliad, xxiii, 75. 21:1 The Osiris boar. See Chapter V. 22:1 The crocodile worshippers held that their sacred reptile recovered the body of Osiris for Isis. 22:2 This is the earliest known form of the Hamlet myth. 23:1 He was mutilated by Horus as he himself had mutilated Osiris. 23:2 The Burden of Isis, translated by J. T. Dennis (Wisdom of the East Series). 24:1 The Ancient Egyptians, Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson. 27:1 The Burden of Isis, Dennis, p. 49. Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next Buy this Book on Kindle Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald Mackenzie, [1907], at sacred-texts.com p. 280 CHAPTER XXII Amon, the God of Empire Lunar Worship--The Great Mother of Darkness.--Anion as a Moon God--Fusion with Ra--Ptah a Form of the Theban Deity--Fenkhu--"and "Fenish" Artisans--Osiris and Amon--Veneration of Religious Pharaohs--Amon's Wife and Concubine--Conquests of Thothmes I--Rival Claimants to the Throne--Queen Hatshepsut--Her Famous Expedition--Rise of Thothmes III--A Great Strategist--His Conquests--The Egyptian Empire --Amon's Poetic Praise--The Emperor's Buildings and Obelisks. THE moon god Ah comes into prominence during the Egyptian War of Independence. This ancient deity must have been closely associated with the Theban religious cult which Ra Apepa, the Hyksos king, singled out for attack, because the name of the queen mother, Ah-hotep, signifies "Ah is satisfied", and that of her victorious son Ah-mes, "born of Ah". It is highly probable that Ah was the son of the great Mother deity Apet, who was identified with the female hippopotamus Taurt, "the mighty one", goddess of maternity, and "mother of the gods". At Thebes and Ombos, Osiris was regarded as the son of the sacred hippopotamus. As we have seen in the Introduction, he was, like Ah, identified with the moon spirit, which symbolized the male principle. The Apet hippopotamus was the animal incarnation of the Great Mother; as a water goddess, therefore, Apet links with Nut, who rose from the primordial deep and was "the waters above the firmament". p. 281 At the beginning there was naught save darkness and water. The spirit of the night was the Great Mother, and her first-born was the moon child. Life came from death and light from darkness. Such appears to have been the conception of the worshippers of the sky-and-water goddess and the lunar god. On the other hand, the worshippers of the male earth spirit believed that the firmament was made of metal which was beaten out by the Great Father, Ptah, at the beginning. Ere metal came into use it may have been conceived that the sky was made of stone. Hathor, the sky goddess, was significantly enough "the lady of turquoise", and Ra, the sun god, was in the Fifth Dynasty symbolized by an obelisk. Osiris, the human incarnation of primitive Nilotic deities, absorbed the attributes of the moon spirit and the male earth spirit. Isis, on the other hand, apparently absorbed those of Nut, the sky-and-water goddess, and of Neith, the earth goddess, who symbolized growth. As moon worship was of greater antiquity in Egypt than sun worship, and was associated with agricultural rites, the Theban cult must have made popular appeal, and helped to rally the mass of the people to throw off the yoke of the Hyksos Ra and Sutekh worshippers. The political significance of Apepa's order to slay the hippopotami is therefore apparent. When the influence of the southern conquerors extended to Hermopolis, Ah was merged with Thoth, who was originally a lunar deity. In fact, as we have shown in our Introduction, he was another form of Khonsu. With Mut, "the mother", who is indistinguishable from Apet, Khonsu and Thoth formed a Theban triad. In Nubia, where archaic Mediterranean beliefs appear to have been persistent, Thoth was the son of Tefnut, the p. 282 lioness-headed goddess, who was given arbitrary association with Shu, the atmosphere god, by the theorists of Heliopolis. Mut was also depicted at Thebes with the head of a lioness. As we have already suggested, it is possible that Amon was originally the son of Mut-Apet. He may have developed as a symbolized attribute of Ah. Fragments of old hymns make reference to him as a lunar deity, and as a "traverser" of space like Khonsu-Thoth. Indeed, even in his hawk-headed form, he retains his early association with the moon, for he wears the solar disk with the lunar crescent. 1 Amon, like the sons of all the Great Mother deities, represented in his animal forms the "male principle" and the "fighting principle". He became "the husband of his mother" when the Great Father and Great Mother conceptions were fused. This process is illustrated in the triad formed by Ptah, the father, Mut, the mother, and Thoth, the son. Ptah's wife Sekhet, with the head of a lioness, is indistinguishable from Mut) Tefnut, and Bast. As a Great Father deity, Amon, "husband of his mother" became "king of the gods", 2 and lost his original lunar character. His fusion with the sun god of Heliopolis, which was accomplished for political purposes, made the change complete, for he became Amon-Ra, the great representative deity of Egypt, who combines the attributes of all other gods. Amon-Ra was depicted as a great bearded man, clad in a sleeveless tunic suspended from his shoulders, with the tail of art animal hanging behind. His headdress of p. 283 high double plumes, with lunar and solar symbols, was coloured in sections red and blue, and red and green, as if to signify all association with the river flowing between its batiks and the growth of verdure. Sometimes he is shown with Min's ram's horns curving downwards round his ears, and sometimes with those of Khnûmû spreading outward. 1 He wore a collar and armlets and bracelets. As a god of war he rose into great prominence during the Eighteenth Dynasty. The victorious kings, who became owners of all the land in Egypt, and returned with great spoils from many battlefields, were lavish in their gifts to his temple, and his priests became exceedingly wealthy and powerful. There never was in Egypt a more influential cult than that of Amon-Ra. His solar attributes, however, were not so prominent in the Eighteenth as in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. The influence of the moon cult remained for a considerable period. As much is suggested by the names of the kings. Ah-mes I, "born of Ah", was followed by four rulers called Amen-hotep, "Amon is satisfied", and four called Thoth-mes, "born of Thoth". The influence of the Ra cult at Heliopolis was tempered by that of the Amon cult at Thebes, with the result that the old Egyptian lunar gods came into prominence. Nor were Ptah and other kindred deities excluded from the group of official gods as in the Fifth Dynasty. At Memphis Amon-Ra was worshipped as Ptah. In a hymn addressed to the great Theban deity it was declared-- Memphis receives thee in the form of Ptah-- He who is the first-born of all gods; He who was at the beginning. It would appear that the Memphites had combined p. 284 with the Thebans to drive the Hyksos out of Egypt. When Ahmes began the work of reconstructing the temples, the first gods he honoured were Amon and Ptah. In the limestone quarries near Cairo two tablets record that stone was excavated for the great temples at Memphis and Thebes. No reference is made to Heliopolis. It is of special interest to find that the workmen who were employed were of the Fenkhu, a Syrian tribe. There can be no doubt these quarriers were foreigners. In an Assouan inscription of Thothmes II it is stated that the boundary of the Egyptian empire on the north extended to the Syrian lakes, and that the Pharaoh's arms were "not repulsed from the land of the Fenkhu". A stele erected by Thothmes III at Wady Halfa records a victory during a Syrian campaign over "the Fenkhu". Ahmes must have obtained these skilled quarriers from the Fenkhu for the purpose of hastening on the work of restoring the temples in return for some favour conferred, for he did not wage war against the tribe, which remained powerful at the time of Thothmes III. It is impossible, however, to identify them with certainty. To this day the inhabitants of Palestine still credit all the surviving works of antiquity to the "Fenish", and although the reference is evidently to the Philistines and Phœnicians, as well as to the hewers of the great artificial caves, it is possible that the latter, who are referred to in the Bible as the Rephaim or Anakim, were originally the "Fenish" and the Egyptian "Fenkhu". Ahmes may have followed the example of his temple- and pyramid-building predecessors in drawing fresh supplies of skilled stoneworkers from southern Palestine. Osiris worship was combined with that of Amon at Thebes, but, as we have seen, Osiris and Amon had much in common, for both gods had lunar attributes. p. 285 [paragraph continues]Osiris "hides his essence in the great shrine of Amon". 1 The Amon ram was an animal incarnation of the corn spirit. It is significant to find, in this connection, that the priests of Amon for a long period sought sepulture at sacred Abydos, which had become closely associated with Osirian worship. But there was a strange fusion of beliefs regarding the other world. Men died believing that they would enter the bark of Ra and also reach the Osirian Paradise. Ultimately the Heliopolitan belief in the efficacy of magical formulæ impaired the ethical character of the Ptah-Osirian creed. Although Ahmes I was the liberator of Egypt, his memory was not revered so greatly as that of his son and successor Amenhotep I (Amenophis). The great Pharaohs of the records were the religious Pharaohs; if a monarch was assiduous in venerating the gods, and especially in erecting and endowing temples, his fame was assured; the grateful priests "kept his memory green". Amenhotep I and his wife Aahmes-Nefertari were, after their death, revered as deities; references are made to them as protectors and punishers of men in the Nineteenth Dynasty. Nefertari was during her life "Amon's wife". She slept in the temple, and her children were reputed to be the sons and daughters of the god. The high priest's wife was "the concubine of Amon". It was Amenhotep I who founded the endowments of the Amon cult at Thebes which ultimately became so wealthy and powerful. He also began the erection of the magnificent buildings at Karnak, which were added to by his successors. His reign, which lasted for only about ten years, was p. 286 occupied chiefly in reorganizing the kingdom and in establishing the new national religion. Assisted by the veteran military nobles of El Kab, he waged war against the Libyans on the north and the Nubians on the south. He appears also to have penetrated Syria, but no records of the campaign survive. His successors, however, ere he invaded Asia, claimed to hold sway as far north as the Euphrates. The next king, Thothmes I, came to the throne as the husband of a princess of the royal line. He found it necessary to invade Nubia. Ahmes of Ebana, who accompanied him, records in his tomb that a battle was fought between the second and third cataract. The Pharaoh slew the Nubian leader who opposed him, and, on his return, had the body suspended head downwards at the bow of the royal ship. Thothmes penetrated Nubia beyond the third cataract, and reached the island of Arko, where Sebekhotep had undertaken the erection of his great statues. A fortress was erected and garrisoned on the island of Tombos at the third cataract. Nubia thus became once again an Egyptian province. A campaign of conquest was next waged in Syria, where Egyptian dominance was continually challenged by the rival powers in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. "It was probably", write King and Hall, "with the Iranian kingdom of Mitanni, between Euphrates and Tigris, that the Dynasty carried on its struggle for Syria." No royal records of the campaign of Thothmes I survive, but we gather from the tomb inscriptions of Ahmes of Ebana and Ahmes of El Kab, that a great victory was won in Naharina, "the land of the rivers", which secured Egyptian supremacy. The king was afterwards able to boast that the northern boundary of the Empire extended "as far as the circuit of the sun"-- p. 287 it was believed that: the world's edge was at the source of the Euphrates on the north and of that of the Nile on the south, and that both rivers flowed from the ocean, "the great Circle" surrounding the earth, in which lay the great serpent. Thothmes I made an addition to the Karnak temple, and erected two great pylons on the thirtieth anniversary of his reign, when, at the Sed festival, he appears to have selected his successor. On one of the pylons he recorded that he had established peace in Egypt, ended lawlessness, and stamped out impiety, and that he had subdued the rebels in the Delta region. He also implored Amon to give the throne to his daughter Hatshepsut. The closing period of the king's reign is obscure, and there is no agreement as to the events which occurred in connection with the family feud which ensued. Thothmes III dated his reign from the year preceding the death of Thothmes I. but in the interval Thothmes II and Hatshepsut sat on the throne. The children of the royal princess who was the wife of Thothmes I included two sons and two daughters, but they all died young with the exception of the Princess Hatshepsut. Another wife was the mother of Thothmes II, while a concubine gave birth to Thothmes III. Such is Breasted's reading of the problem, which is made difficult on account of the mutilation of inscriptions by the rival claimants. Other Egyptologists suggest that Thothmes III was the son of Thothmes II. Thothmes III was a priest in the temple of Amon. He secured his succession by marrying either Hatshepsut or her daughter. According to Breasted, he superseded Thothmes I at a festival at which the Oracle of Amon proclaimed him as the Pharaoh. Thothmes III then began his reign, and. the old king lived in retirement. p. 288 After a time the usurping prince had to recognize the co-regency of Hatshepsut. But, ere long, he was thrust aside, and the queen reigned alone as "the female Horus". Thothmes II then seized the throne on his own and his father's behalf, and when Thothmes I died, Thothmes II allied himself with Thothmes III. When they had reigned about two years Thothmes II died, but Thothmes III was not able to retain his high position. Once again Hatshepsut, who had evidently won over a section of the priesthood, seized the reins of government, and Thothmes III was once again "relegated to the background". 1 At the festivals he appeared as a priest. Hatshepsut must have been a woman of great ability and force of character to have displaced such a man as Thothmes III. For about fourteen years she ruled alone, and engaged herself chiefly in restoring the religious buildings which had either been demolished or had fallen into disrepair during the Hyksos period. She completed the great mortuary temple at Der-el-Bahari, which had been begun under Thothmes II. It was modelled on the smaller temple of Mentuhotep, and is still magnificent in ruin. Situated against the western cliffs at Thebes, it was constructed in three terraces with sublime colonnades finely proportioned and exquisitely wrought. An inner chamber was excavated from the rock. On the temple walls the mythical scenes in connection with the birth of the queen were sculptured in low relief, and to get over the difficulty of being recognized as a "son of the sun", Hatshepsut was depicted in company of her male "double". On state occasions she wore a false beard. The queen's most famous undertaking was to send an Mut "the Mother" Hapi, God of the Nile Amon-Ra King of the Gods DEITIES OF THE EMPIRE PERIOD p. 289 RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF DER-EL-BAHARI, THEBES expedition of eight ships to the land of Punt to obtain myrrh trees, incense, rare woods, and sacred animals for the temple. It was her pious wish that Amon should have a garden to walk in. To celebrate her jubilee Hatshepsut had erected two magnificent obelisks, nearly a hundred feet high, in front of the Karnak temple in which Thothmes III was a priest. One of these still stands erect, and is greatly admired by visitors. The obelisks, like the temple, were designed by the much-favoured architect Senmut, an accomplished artist and scheming statesman, who was a prominent figure in the party which supported the queen. But so deeply was Hatshepsut concerned in devoting the revenues of the State to religious purposes that the affairs of empire were neglected. The flame of revolt was spreading through Syria, where the tribal chiefs scorned to owe allegiance to a woman, especially as she neglected to enforce her will at the point of the sword. Apparently, too, the Mitanni power had recovered from the blows dealt by the military Pharaohs of a previous generation and had again become aggressive. Then Hatshepsut died. She may have fallen a victim of a palace revolt of which no record survives. Her mummy has never been discovered. When the deep tunnel which she had constructed for her tomb was entered, it was found to have been despoiled. It may be that her body was never deposited there. After her death no more is heard of her favourite Senmut, or her daughter, whom she had selected as her successor. Her name was ruthlessly erased from her monuments. All the indications point to a military revolt, supported by a section of the priesthood, at a time of national peril. Thothmes III, who immediately came to the throne, lost no time in raising an army and pressing northward p. 290 to subdue the Syrian rebellion. Although he has been referred to as "this little man with coarse features, as we know from his mummy", it would be a mistake to retain the impression that he was of repulsive aspect. He died when he was an old man; his jaw was not tied up before embalmment, which was not highly successful, for his nose was disfigured, and has partly crumbled away. The statues of the king present the striking face of a vigorous and self-contained man; in one he has a nose which rivals that of Wellington, and an air of dignity and refinement which accords with what we know of his character; for not only was he a great leader who, as his grand vizier has informed the ages, knew all that happened and never failed to carry out a matter he took in hand, he was also a man of artistic ability, accustomed, as Breasted informs us, to spend his leisure time "designing exquisite vases". The hour had come and the man! With a well-organized army, in which he had placed the most capable men in command, he swept his victorious way through Syria and struck terror to the hearts of the rebels. His name--Manakhpirria (Men-kheper-ra) Thothmes--was dreaded long after his death, and may have originated the Semitic title "Pharaoh", which was never used by the native kings of Egypt. The greatest triumph of the various Syrian campaigns conducted by Thothmes III was the capture of Megiddo, in the Hebrew tribal area of Issachar. That fortified stronghold, situated on the plain of Jezreel, was a point of great strategic importance--"the Key", indeed, of northern Palestine. It had to be approached over the ridge of Carmel, and was partly surrounded by the tributary known as "the brook Kina", which flows into the Kishon River. Two highways leading to Megiddo lay p. 291 before the Egyptian army, like the legs of inward curving calipers, and between these a narrow mountain pass cut in an almost straight and direct line into the town. The Egyptian generals intended to advance along the northern curving highway, but Thothmes III was, like Nelson, a great strategist who ever did the unexpected. He decided to push through the pass, although along the greater part of it his horsemen would have to advance in Indian file. To inspire his followers with his own great courage, the fearless monarch rode in front. His daring manœuvre was a complete success. Ere it was comprehended by the enemy, his army was pouring down upon the plain. He completely upset the plans of the Asiatic allies, who had divided their forces to await the advance of the Egyptians by the north and the south, occupying the while, no doubt, strong positions. The battle took place next day on the river bank. Thothmes led on a victorious charge, and scattered the enemy so that they retreated in confusion and took refuge in the city. Had the Egyptians not been too eager to secure the spoils of victory, they might have captured Megiddo, as Thothmes informed them afterwards. A long siege followed, but at length the town was starved into submission, and the princes came forth to swear allegiance to the Pharaoh. They also made payment of the tribute which they had withheld during the closing years of Hatshepsut's reign. Thothmes took the eldest sons of the various revolting princes as hostages, and deported them to Thebes. The spoils of victory included over goo chariots and 200 coats of mail and much gold and silver. Ere he returned home he captured three towns in Lebanon, and reorganized the administration of northern Palestine. p. 292 Other campaigns followed. On one of these Thothmes made swift attack upon some revolting princes by crossing the sea and landing on the Phœnician coast. The Hittites gave trouble on the north, and he pushed on to Carchemish, their southern capital, and captured it. At Kadesh, on the Orontes, he also dealt a shattering blow against the Hittites and their allies from Mitanni. He had previously subdued the Libyans, and conducted a successful campaign into Nubia. Thus he built up a great empire, and made Egypt the foremost power in the world. Tribute poured into the royal exchequer from the various subject states, and peace offerings were made by the Hittites and even by the rulers of Cyprus and Crete. Both Assyria and Babylonia cultivated friendly relations with Thothmes III, who appears to have been as distinguished a diplomatist as he was a conqueror. The priests of Amon composed a great hymn in his honour, which, they pretended, had been recited by their god. I have come, I have given to thee to smite the land of the Syrians Under thy feet they lie through the length and breadth of the god's land; I have made them see thy might like to a star revolving When it sheds its burning beams and drops its dew on the meadows. I have come, I have given to thee to vanquish the Western peoples Crete is stricken with fear, terror is reigning in Cyprus; Like to a great young bull, I have made them behold thy power, Fearless and quick to strike, none is so bold to resist thee. I have come, I have given to thee to conquer the folk of the marshes, The terror of thee has fallen over the lands of Mitanni; Like to a crocodile fierce they have beheld thee in glory; O monarch of fear at sea, none is so bold to approach thee. p. 293 The chief buildings of Thothmes III were erected to Amon at Thebes, but he did not fail to honour Ra at Heliopolis, Ptah at Memphis, and Hathor at Dendera. One of his jubilee obelisks, which he erected at Thebes., now stands in Constantinople; another is in Rome; the pair set up at Heliopolis have been given prominent sites on either side of the Atlantic Ocean--one in New York and the other on the Thames Embankment, London. His reign, which he dated from his first accession prior to the death of Thothmes I, extended over a period of fifty-four years. He died on 17 March, 1447, B.C., and was buried in the lonely "Valley of Kings' Tombs". Footnotes 282:1 In an Amon-Ra hymn the deity is called "maker of men, former of the flocks, lord of corn" (Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, Wiedemann, p. 116). 282:2 "The gods gather as dogs round his feet."--Hymn to Amon-re. 283:1 "Amon of the two horns." 285:1 That is, the soul of Osiris is in Amon, as the soul of the giant is in the egg, the ram, &c., "doubly hidden". Amon-Ra is addressed in a temple chant: "Hidden is thy abode, lord of the gods". 288:1 A History of Egypt, James Henry Breasted, London, 1906. Next: Chapter XXIII: Tale of the Doomed Prince Next: Chapter III: Dawn of Civilization Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald Mackenzie, [1907], at sacred-texts.com p. 268 CHAPTER XXI Joseph and the Exodus Biblical References to Hyksos Period--Joseph as Grand Vizier--His Sagacity--Reorganizing the Kingdom--Israelites in Goshen--A Jacob King--Period of the Exodus--Egyptian References to Hebrews--A Striking Folktale--Cause of Theban Revolt--A National Hero--A Famous Queen Mother--A Warrior King--"Battles Long Ago"--Expulsion of Foreigners--Unrest in Syria--New Methods of Warfare. IN the familiar Bible story of Joseph, the young Hebrew slave who became grand vizier in the land of the Nile, there is a significant reference to the nationality of his master Potiphar. Although that dignitary was "an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard", he was not of alien origin; we are pointedly informed that he was "an Egyptian". We also gather that Hyksos jurisdiction extended beyond the Delta region. During the dry cycle, when the great famine prevailed, Joseph "gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan" for the corn which the people purchased. Then he proceeded to acquire for the Crown all the privately owned estates in the Nile Valley and Delta region, with purpose, it would appear, to abolish the feudal system. An exception was made, however, of the lands attached to the temples. Apparently Pharaoh desired to conciliate the priests, whose political influence was very great, because we find that he allowed them free supplies of corn; indeed he had previously selected for Joseph's wife, "Asenath, the p. 269 daughter of Potiphera, priest of On"; an indication that he specially favoured the influential sun cult of Heliopolis. Queen Hatshepsut's assertion that the foreign kings ruled in ignorance of Ra was manifestly neither strictly accurate nor unbiased. The inference drawn from the Biblical narrative that the Hyksos Pharaohs adopted a policy of conciliation is confirmed by the evidence gleaned amidst the scanty records of the period. We find that some of these rulers assumed Ra titles, although they were also "beloved of Set" (Sutekh), and that one of them actually restored the tomb of Queen Apuit of the Sixth Dynasty. The Egyptians apparently indulged in pious exaggerations. That the Hyksos influence was not averse to culture is evidenced by the fact that the name of King Apepa Ra-aa-user is associated with a mathematical treatise which is preserved in the British Museum. If learning was fostered, the arts and industries could not have been neglected. The Egyptian iconoclasts systematically destroyed practically all the monuments of the period, so that we have no direct evidence to support the assumption that it was characterized by a spirit of decadence due to the influence of uncultured desert dwellers. The skill displayed at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty was too great to be of sudden growth, and certainly does not suggest that for about two centuries there had existed no appreciation of, or demand for, works of art. Although sculpture had grown mechanical, there had been, apparently, progressive development in other directions. We find, for instance, a marked and increased appreciation of colour, suggesting influence from a district where Nature presents more variety and distinguishing beauty than the somewhat monotonous valley of the Nile; ware was p. 270 being highly glazed and tinted with taste and skill unknown in the Twelfth Dynasty, and painting had become more popular. But, perhaps, it was in the work of administration that the Egyptians learned most from their Hyksos rulers. Joseph, who was undoubtedly a great statesman, must have impressed them greatly with his sound doctrines of political economy. That sagacious young vizier displayed an acute and far-sighted appreciation of the real needs of Egypt, a country which cannot be made prosperous under divided rule. No doubt he was guided by the experienced councillors at Court, but had he not been gifted with singular intelligence and strong force of character, he could never have performed his onerous duties with so much distinction and success. He fostered the agricultural industry during the years of plenty, and "gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number". Then came the seven years of famine. "And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. . . . And Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians." Much wealth poured into the Imperial Exchequer. "All countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn." The dry cycle prevailed apparently over a considerable area, and it must have propelled the migrations of pastoral peoples which subsequently effected so great a change in the political conditions of Asia. It is interesting to note that at this period the horse was known in Egypt. On the occasion of Joseph's elevation to the post of grand vizier, Pharaoh "made him to ride in the second chariot which he had". Then when the Egyptians, who found it necessary to continue purchasing corn, cried out "the money falleth", the p. 271 young Hebrew "gave them bread in exchange for horses", &c. The wholesale purchase of estates followed. "Buy us and our land for bread," said the Egyptians, "and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh. . . . So the land became Pharaoh's. . . . And as for the people, he (Joseph) removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof." The work of reorganization proceeded apace. Joseph in due season distributed seed, and made it conditional that a fifth part of the produce of all farms should be paid in taxation. A strong central government was thus established upon a sound economic basis, and it may have flourished until some change occurred of which we have no knowledge. Perhaps the decline of the Hyksos power was not wholly due to a revolt in the south; it may have been contributed to as well by interference from without. Meanwhile the children of Israel "dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein and multiplied exceedingly". Josephus's statement that they were identical with the Hyksos hardly accords with the evidence of the Bible. It is possible, however, that other Semites besides Joseph attained high positions during the period of foreign control. In fact, one of the Pharaohs was named Jacob-her, or possibly, as Breasted suggests, "Jacob-El". Such a choice of ruler would not be inconsistent with the policy of the Hittites, who allowed subject peoples to control their own affairs so long as they adhered to the treaty of alliance and recognized the suzerainty of the supreme Power. It is impossible to fix with any certainty the time at which the Israelites settled in Egypt. They came, not p. 272 as conquerors, but after the Hyksos had seized the crown. Apparently, too, they had no intention of effecting permanent settlement, because the bodies of Jacob and Joseph, having been embalmed, were carried to the family cave tomb "in the land of Canaan", which Abraham had purchased from "Ephron the Hittite". No inscription regarding Joseph or the great famine has survived. But the Egyptians were not likely to preserve any record of a grand vizier who starved them into submission. A tablet which makes reference to a seven years famine during the Third Dynasty has been proved to be a pious fraud of the Roman period. It was based, in all probability, on the Joseph story. The alleged record sets forth that King Zoser, who was greatly distressed regarding the condition of the country, sent a message to the Governor of Nubia, asking for information regarding the rise of the Nile. Statistics were duly supplied according to his desire. Then Pharaoh "dreamed a dream", and saw the god Khnûmû, who informed him that Egypt was being afflicted because no temples had been erected to the gods. As soon as he woke up, His Majesty made gifts of land to the priests of Khnûmû, and arranged that they should receive a certain proportion of all the fish and game caught in the vicinity of the first cataract. There is no agreement as to when the Exodus of the Israelites took place. Some authorities are of opinion that it coincided with the expulsion of the Hyksos. Such a view, however, conflicts with the Biblical reference to a period of bondage. The Pharaoh of the Oppression was a "new king" and he "knew not Joseph". He enslaved and oppressed the Israelites, who had been so singularly favoured by the foreign rulers. According to tradition, he was Rameses II, during whose reign Moses p. 273 acquired "all the wisdom of the Egyptians" and became "mighty in words and deeds". The next king was Mene-ptah, but he cannot be regarded as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He reigned little over ten years, and one of his inscriptions makes reference to the Israelites as a people resident in Canaan, where they were attacked by the Egyptian army during a Syrian campaign. It is probable that the Hebrews were the Khabri mentioned in the Tell el Amarna letters, two centuries before Mene-ptah's time. They were then waging war against Canaanitish allies of Egypt, and the Prince of Gezer sent an urgent but ineffectual appeal to the Pharaoh Akenaton for assistance. The Exodus must have taken place in the early part of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and possibly during the reign of Thothmes I-about a generation after Ahmes expelled the Asiatics from Avaris. During the latter part of the Hyksos period the Theban princes, whom Manetho gives as the kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty, were tributary rulers over a goodly part of Upper Egypt. Reinforced from Nubia, and aided by the princes of certain of the nomes, they suddenly rose against their oppressors, and began to wage the War of Independence, which lasted for about a quarter of a century. An interesting papyrus, preserved in the British Museum, contains a fragmentary folktale, which indicates that the immediate cause of the rising was an attempt on the part of the Hyksos overlord to compel the Egyptians to worship the god Sutekh. "It came to pass", we read, "that Egypt was possessed by the Impure, and there was no lord and king." This may mean that either the Hyksos rule had limited power in Upper Egypt or was subject to a higher authority in Asia. The folktale proceeds: p. 274 "Now King Sekenenra was lord of the south. . . . Impure Asiatics were in the cities (? as garrisons), and Apepa was lord in Avaris. They worked their will in the land, and enjoyed all the good things of Egypt. The god Sutekh was Apepa's master, for he worshipped Sutekh alone, and erected for him an enduring temple. . . . He sacrificed and gave offerings every day unto Sutekh. . . ." The tale then goes on to relate that Apepa sent a messenger to Sekenenra, the lord of Thebes, "the city of the south", with an important document which had been prepared after lengthy consultation with a number of learned scribes. Sekenenra appears to have received the messenger with undisguised alarm. He asked: "What order do you bring? Why have you made this journey?" The document was read, and, so far as can be gathered from the blurred and mutilated papyrus, it was something to the following effect:-- The King Ra Apepa sends to you to say: Let the hippopotami, be put out of the pool in the city of Thebes. I cannot get sleep, either by day or by night, because their roaring is in my ear. No wonder that "the lord of the south" was astounded. The sacred animals at Thebes could not possibly be disturbing the slumbers of a monarch residing on the Delta frontier. Apepa was evidently anxious to pick a quarrel with the Thebans, for his hypocritical complaint was, in effect, an express order to accomplish the suppression of a popular form of worship. Well he knew that he could not adopt more direct means to stir up a spirit of rebellion among his Egyptian subjects. Possibly the growing power of the Theban ruler may have caused him to feel somewhat alarmed, and he desired to shatter it before it became too strong for him. p. 275 Sekenenra was unable for a time to decide what reply he should make. At length, having entertained the messenger, he bade him to convey the following brief but pointed answer to Apepa: "I intend to do as is your wish". Apparently he desired to gain time, for there could remain no doubt that a serious crisis was approaching. No sooner did the messenger take his departure than the Theban ruler summoned before him all the great lords in the district, and to them he related "what had come to pass". These men were likewise "astounded"; they heard what Sekenenra had to tell them "with feelings of sorrow, but were silent, for none knew what to say". The fragmentary tale then ends abruptly with the words: "The King Ra Apepa sent to -----" We can infer, however, that his second message roused a storm of opposition, and that whatever demand it contained was met with a blank refusal. King Ra Apepa must have then sent southward a strong army to enforce his decree and subdue the subject princes who dared to have minds of their own. If we identify Sekenenra with the Theban king of that name, whose mummy was found at Der el Bahari, and is now in the Cairo museum, we can conclude that the ancient folktale contained a popular account of the brief but glorious career and tragic death of a national hero, who, like the Scottish Sir William Wallace, inspired his countrymen with the desire for freedom and independence. Sekenenra died on the battlefield. We can see him pressing forward at the head of the Egyptian army, fighting with indomitable courage and accomplishing mighty deeds. Accompanied by his most valiant followers, he hews his way through the Hyksos force. But "one by p. 276 one they fall around him". . . . Now he is alone. He is surrounded. . . . The warriors in front of him are mowed down, for none can withstand his blows. But an Asiatic creeps up on his left side, swings his battleaxe, and smites a glancing blow. Sekenenra totters; his cheek bone and teeth have been laid bare. Another Asiatic on his right leaps up and stabs him on the forehead. Ere he falls, his first successful assailant strikes again, and the battleaxe crashes through the left side of the hero's skull. The Hyksos shout triumphantly, but the Egyptians are not dismayed; clamouring in battle fury, they rush on to avenge the death of Sekenenra. . . . That hero has not died in vain. The mummy of the great prince bears the evidence of the terrible wounds he received. In his agony he had bitten his tongue between his teeth. But it is apparent that before he fell he turned the tide of battle. and that the Hyksos were compelled to retreat, for his body was recovered and carried back to Thebes, where it was embalmed after putrefaction had set in. Sekenenra appears to have been a handsome and dashing soldier. He was tall, slim, and active, with a strong, refined face of dark Mediterranean type. Probably he was a descendant of one of the ancient families which had taken refuge in the south after the Hyksos invaders had accomplished the fall of the native monarchy. His queen, Ah-hotep, who was a hereditary princess in her own right, lived until she was a hundred years old. Her three sons reigned in succession, and continued the war against the Hyksos. The youngest of these was Ahmes I, and he was the first Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Ah-hotep must have followed his career with pride, for he drove the Asiatics across the frontier. She survived him, and then lived through the reign of p. 277 Amenhotep I also, for she did not pass away until Thotmes I ruled in splendour over united Egypt, and caused its name to be dreaded in western Asia. Ahmes I, like the heroic Sekenenra, received the support of the El Kab family, which was descended from one of the old feudal lords. His successes are recorded in the tomb of his namesake, the son of Ebana, a princess, and of Baba, the lord of El Kab, who had served under Sekenenra. This El Kab Ahmes was quite a youth--he tells us that he was "too young to have a wife"--when he fought on foot behind the chariot of the Pharaoh. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of admiral) and won a naval victory on a canal. So greatly did the young nobleman distinguish himself that he received a decoration--a golden collar, the equivalent of our "Victoria Cross". Indeed he was similarly honoured for performing feats of valour on four subsequent occasions, and he also received gifts of land and of male and female slaves who had been taken captive. The progress northward of Ahmes I, with army and river fleet, was accompanied by much hard fighting. But at length he compelled the Hyksos force, which had suffered heavily, to take refuge in the fortified town of Avaris. After a prolonged siege the enemy took flight, and he pursued them across the frontier. We have followed, so far, the narrative of Ahmes, son of Ebana. According to Manetho's account of the expulsion, as quoted by Josephus, who, perhaps, tampered with it, King Ahmes was unable to do more than shut up the Asiatics in Avaris. Then Thummosis (Thothmes), successor of Ahmes, endeavoured to carry the town by assault, but failed in the attempt. Just when he was beginning to despair of accomplishing his purpose, the enemy offered to capitulate if they would be allowed to p. 278 depart in peace. This condition was accepted, whereupon 240,000 men, women, and children evacuated Avaris and crossed the frontier into Syria. Manetho adds that they migrated to the district afterwards known as Judea, and built Jerusalem, because "they were in dread of the Assyrians". But, as we have seen, the Assyrians were not at this period the predominating power in the East. Manetho (or Josephus) was plainly wrong. A new and hostile enemy, however, had appeared at Mitanni--the dreaded Aryans, who worshipped the strange gods Indra, Mithra, and Varuna. After clearing the Delta of Asiatic soldiers, Ahmes I turned his attention to Nubia. He did not meet with much opposition, and succeeded in extending the southern frontier to the second cataract, thus recovering the area which had been controlled by the great Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty. He had afterwards to suppress two abortive risings in the heart of the kingdom, which may have been engineered by Hyksos sympathizers. Then he devoted himself to the work of restoring the monuments of his ancestors and the temples of the gods. After a strenuous reign of over twenty years he died in the prime of life, lamented, no doubt, by the people whom he had set free, and especially by the queen mother, Ah-hotep, that wife of a mighty leader and nurse of valiant heroes-one of the first great women in history. The military successes of the Egyptians were largely contributed to by their use of the horse, which the Aryans had introduced into the West. New methods of fighting had also been adopted by the Egyptians. When the Eighteenth-Dynasty soldiers were depicted on the monuments and in the tombs the artists had for their models highly disciplined and well-organized bodies of men who had undergone a rigorous EGYPTIAN CHARIOT (Florence Museum) EGYPTIAN KING (SETI I) MOUNTED ON CHARIOT From the bas-relief on the great temple of Karnak p. 279 A PLATOON (TROOP) OF EGYPTIAN SPEARMEN From the bas-relief in the temple at Der-el Bahari training. The infantry were marshalled in regular lines, and on battlefields made vigorous and orderly charges. Charioteers gathered into action with the dash and combination of modern-day cavalry. Had this new military system evolved in Upper Egypt as a result of the example shown by the Hyksos? Or had the trade in horses brought into the Nile valley Aryan warriors who became the drill sergeants and adjutants of the army which drove the Hyksos from the land of the Pharaohs? Next: Chapter XXII: Amon, the God of Empire

LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT.txt

THE BRITISH ACADEMY LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT IN RELATION TO HEBREW TRADITION BY LEONARD W. KING, M.A., LITT.D., F.S.A. Assistant Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum Professor in the University of London King's College THE SCHWEICH LECTURES 1916 PREPARER'S NOTE This text was prepared from a 1920 edition of the book, hence the references to dates after 1916 in some places. Greek text has been transliterated within brackets "{}" using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. Diacritical marks have been lost. PREFACE In these lectures an attempt is made, not so much to restate familiar facts, as to accommodate them to new and supplementary evidence which has been published in America since the outbreak of the war. But even without the excuse of recent discovery, no apology would be needed for any comparison or contrast of Hebrew tradition with the mythological and legendary beliefs of Babylon and Egypt. Hebrew achievements in the sphere of religion and ethics are only thrown into stronger relief when studied against their contemporary background. The bulk of our new material is furnished by some early texts, written towards the close of the third millennium B.C. They incorporate traditions which extend in unbroken outline from their own period into the remote ages of the past, and claim to trace the history of man back to his creation. They represent the early national traditions of the Sumerian people, who preceded the Semites as the ruling race in Babylonia; and incidentally they necessitate a revision of current views with regard to the cradle of Babylonian civilization. The most remarkable of the new documents is one which relates in poetical narrative an account of the Creation, of Antediluvian history, and of the Deluge. It thus exhibits a close resemblance in structure to the corresponding Hebrew traditions, a resemblance that is not shared by the Semitic-Babylonian Versions at present known. But in matter the Sumerian tradition is more primitive than any of the Semitic versions. In spite of the fact that the text appears to have reached us in a magical setting, and to some extent in epitomized form, this early document enables us to tap the stream of tradition at a point far above any at which approach has hitherto been possible. Though the resemblance of early Sumerian tradition to that of the Hebrews is striking, it furnishes a still closer parallel to the summaries preserved from the history of Berossus. The huge figures incorporated in the latter's chronological scheme are no longer to be treated as a product of Neo-Babylonian speculation; they reappear in their original surroundings in another of these early documents, the Sumerian Dynastic List. The sources of Berossus had inevitably been semitized by Babylon; but two of his three Antediluvian cities find their place among the five of primitive Sumerian belief, and two of his ten Antediluvian kings rejoin their Sumerian prototypes. Moreover, the recorded ages of Sumerian and Hebrew patriarchs are strangely alike. It may be added that in Egypt a new fragment of the Palermo Stele has enabled us to verify, by a very similar comparison, the accuracy of Manetho's sources for his prehistoric period, while at the same time it demonstrates the way in which possible inaccuracies in his system, deduced from independent evidence, may have arisen in remote antiquity. It is clear that both Hebrew and Hellenistic traditions were modelled on very early lines. Thus our new material enables us to check the age, and in some measure the accuracy, of the traditions concerning the dawn of history which the Greeks reproduced from native sources, both in Babylonia and Egypt, after the conquests of Alexander had brought the Near East within the range of their intimate acquaintance. The third body of tradition, that of the Hebrews, though unbacked by the prestige of secular achievement, has, through incorporation in the canons of two great religious systems, acquired an authority which the others have not enjoyed. In re-examining the sources of all three accounts, so far as they are affected by the new discoveries, it will be of interest to observe how the same problems were solved in antiquity by very different races, living under widely divergent conditions, but within easy reach of one another. Their periods of contact, ascertained in history or suggested by geographical considerations, will prompt the further question to what extent each body of belief was evolved in independence of the others. The close correspondence that has long been recognized and is now confirmed between the Hebrew and the Semitic-Babylonian systems, as compared with that of Egypt, naturally falls within the scope of our enquiry. Excavation has provided an extraordinarily full archaeological commentary to the legends of Egypt and Babylon; and when I received the invitation to deliver the Schweich Lectures for 1916, I was reminded of the terms of the Bequest and was asked to emphasize the archaeological side of the subject. Such material illustration was also calculated to bring out, in a more vivid manner than was possible with purely literary evidence, the contrasts and parallels presented by Hebrew tradition. Thanks to a special grant for photographs from the British Academy, I was enabled to illustrate by means of lantern slides many of the problems discussed in the lectures; and it was originally intended that the photographs then shown should appear as plates in this volume. But in view of the continued and increasing shortage of paper, it was afterwards felt to be only right that all illustrations should be omitted. This very necessary decision has involved a recasting of certain sections of the lectures as delivered, which in its turn has rendered possible a fuller treatment of the new literary evidence. To the consequent shifting of interest is also due a transposition of names in the title. On their literary side, and in virtue of the intimacy of their relation to Hebrew tradition, the legends of Babylon must be given precedence over those of Egypt. For the delay in the appearance of the volume I must plead the pressure of other work, on subjects far removed from archaeological study and affording little time and few facilities for a continuance of archaeological and textual research. It is hoped that the insertion of references throughout, and the more detailed discussion of problems suggested by our new literary material, may incline the reader to add his indulgence to that already extended to me by the British Academy. L. W. KING. LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT IN RELATION TO HEBREW TRADITION LECTURE I EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE, AND SOME TRADITIONAL ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION At the present moment most of us have little time or thought to spare for subjects not connected directly or indirectly with the war. We have put aside our own interests and studies; and after the war we shall all have a certain amount of leeway to make up in acquainting ourselves with what has been going on in countries not yet involved in the great struggle. Meanwhile the most we can do is to glance for a moment at any discovery of exceptional interest that may come to light. The main object of these lectures will be to examine certain Hebrew traditions in the light of new evidence which has been published in America since the outbreak of the war. The evidence is furnished by some literary texts, inscribed on tablets from Nippur, one of the oldest and most sacred cities of Babylonia. They are written in Sumerian, the language spoken by the non-Semitic people whom the Semitic Babylonians conquered and displaced; and they include a very primitive version of the Deluge story and Creation myth, and some texts which throw new light on the age of Babylonian civilization and on the area within which it had its rise. In them we have recovered some of the material from which Berossus derived his dynasty of Antediluvian kings, and we are thus enabled to test the accuracy of the Greek tradition by that of the Sumerians themselves. So far then as Babylonia is concerned, these documents will necessitate a re-examination of more than one problem. The myths and legends of ancient Egypt are also to some extent involved. The trend of much recent anthropological research has been in the direction of seeking a single place of origin for similar beliefs and practices, at least among races which were bound to one another by political or commercial ties. And we shall have occasion to test, by means of our new data, a recent theory of Egyptian influence. The Nile Valley was, of course, one the great centres from which civilization radiated throughout the ancient East; and, even when direct contact is unproved, Egyptian literature may furnish instructive parallels and contrasts in any study of Western Asiatic mythology. Moreover, by a strange coincidence, there has also been published in Egypt since the beginning of the war a record referring to the reigns of predynastic rulers in the Nile Valley. This, like some of the Nippur texts, takes us back to that dim period before the dawn of actual history, and, though the information it affords is not detailed like theirs, it provides fresh confirmation of the general accuracy of Manetho's sources, and suggests some interesting points for comparison. But the people with whose traditions we are ultimately concerned are the Hebrews. In the first series of Schweich Lectures, delivered in the year 1908, the late Canon Driver showed how the literature of Assyria and Babylon had thrown light upon Hebrew traditions concerning the origin and early history of the world. The majority of the cuneiform documents, on which he based his comparison, date from a period no earlier than the seventh century B.C., and yet it was clear that the texts themselves, in some form or other, must have descended from a remote antiquity. He concluded his brief reference to the Creation and Deluge Tablets with these words: "The Babylonian narratives are both polytheistic, while the corresponding biblical narratives (Gen. i and vi-xi) are made the vehicle of a pure and exalted monotheism; but in spite of this fundamental difference, and also variations in detail, the resemblances are such as to leave no doubt that the Hebrew cosmogony and the Hebrew story of the Deluge are both derived ultimately from the same original as the Babylonian narratives, only transformed by the magic touch of Israel's religion, and infused by it with a new spirit."[1] Among the recently published documents from Nippur we have at last recovered one at least of those primitive originals from which the Babylonian accounts were derived, while others prove the existence of variant stories of the world's origin and early history which have not survived in the later cuneiform texts. In some of these early Sumerian records we may trace a faint but remarkable parallel with the Hebrew traditions of man's history between his Creation and the Flood. It will be our task, then, to examine the relations which the Hebrew narratives bear both to the early Sumerian and to the later Babylonian Versions, and to ascertain how far the new discoveries support or modify current views with regard to the contents of those early chapters of Genesis. [1] Driver, /Modern Research as illustrating the Bible/ (The Schweich Lectures, 1908), p. 23. I need not remind you that Genesis is the book of Hebrew origins, and that its contents mark it off to some extent from the other books of the Hebrew Bible. The object of the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua is to describe in their origin the fundamental institutions of the national faith and to trace from the earliest times the course of events which led to the Hebrew settlement in Palestine. Of this national history the Book of Genesis forms the introductory section. Four centuries of complete silence lie between its close and the beginning of Exodus, where we enter on the history of a nation as contrasted with that of a family.[1] While Exodus and the succeeding books contain national traditions, Genesis is largely made up of individual biography. Chapters xii-l are concerned with the immediate ancestors of the Hebrew race, beginning with Abram's migration into Canaan and closing with Joseph's death in Egypt. But the aim of the book is not confined to recounting the ancestry of Israel. It seeks also to show her relation to other peoples in the world, and probing still deeper into the past it describes how the earth itself was prepared for man's habitation. Thus the patriarchal biographies are preceded, in chapters i-xi, by an account of the original of the world, the beginnings of civilization, and the distribution of the various races of mankind. It is, of course, with certain parts of this first group of chapters that such striking parallels have long been recognized in the cuneiform texts. [1] Cf., e.g., Skinner, /A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis/ (1912), p. ii f.; Driver, /The Book of Genesis/, 10th ed. (1916), pp. 1 ff.; Ryle, /The Book of Genesis/ (1914), pp. x ff. In approaching this particular body of Hebrew traditions, the necessity for some caution will be apparent. It is not as though we were dealing with the reported beliefs of a Malayan or Central Australian tribe. In such a case there would be no difficulty in applying a purely objective criticism, without regard to ulterior consequences. But here our own feelings are involved, having their roots deep in early associations. The ground too is well trodden; and, had there been no new material to discuss, I think I should have preferred a less contentious theme. The new material is my justification for the choice of subject, and also the fact that, whatever views we may hold, it will be necessary for us to assimilate it to them. I shall have no hesitation in giving you my own reading of the evidence; but at the same time it will be possible to indicate solutions which will probably appeal to those who view the subject from more conservative standpoints. That side of the discussion may well be postponed until after the examination of the new evidence in detail. And first of all it will be advisable to clear up some general aspects of the problem, and to define the limits within which our criticism may be applied. It must be admitted that both Egypt and Babylon bear a bad name in Hebrew tradition. Both are synonymous with captivity, the symbols of suffering endured at the beginning and at the close of the national life. And during the struggle against Assyrian aggression, the disappointment at the failure of expected help is reflected in prophecies of the period. These great crises in Hebrew history have tended to obscure in the national memory the part which both Babylon and Egypt may have played in moulding the civilization of the smaller nations with whom they came in contact. To such influence the races of Syria were, by geographical position, peculiarly subject. The country has often been compared to a bridge between the two great continents of Asia and Africa, flanked by the sea on one side and the desert on the other, a narrow causeway of highland and coastal plain connecting the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates.[1] For, except on the frontier of Egypt, desert and sea do not meet. Farther north the Arabian plateau is separated from the Mediterranean by a double mountain chain, which runs south from the Taurus at varying elevations, and encloses in its lower course the remarkable depression of the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, and the `Arabah. The Judaean hills and the mountains of Moab are merely the southward prolongation of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and their neighbourhood to the sea endows this narrow tract of habitable country with its moisture and fertility. It thus formed the natural channel of intercourse between the two earliest centres of civilization, and was later the battle- ground of their opposing empires. [1] See G. A. Smith, /Historical Geography of the Holy Land/, pp. 5 ff., 45 ff., and Myres, /Dawn of History/, pp. 137 ff.; and cf. Hogarth, /The Nearer East/, pp. 65 ff., and Reclus, /Nouvelle Géographie universelle/, t. IX, pp. 685 ff. The great trunk-roads of through communication run north and south, across the eastern plateaus of the Haurân and Moab, and along the coastal plains. The old highway from Egypt, which left the Delta at Pelusium, at first follows the coast, then trends eastward across the plain of Esdraelon, which breaks the coastal range, and passing under Hermon runs northward through Damascus and reaches the Euphrates at its most westerly point. Other through tracks in Palestine ran then as they do to-day, by Beesheba and Hebron, or along the `Arabah and west of the Dead Sea, or through Edom and east of Jordan by the present Hajj route to Damascus. But the great highway from Egypt, the most westerly of the trunk-roads through Palestine, was that mainly followed, with some variant sections, by both caravans and armies, and was known by the Hebrews in its southern course as the "Way of the Philistines" and farther north as the "Way of the East". The plain of Esraelon, where the road first trends eastward, has been the battle-ground for most invaders of Palestine from the north, and though Egyptian armies often fought in the southern coastal plain, they too have battled there when they held the southern country. Megiddo, which commands the main pass into the plain through the low Samaritan hills to the southeast of Carmel, was the site of Thothmes III's famous battle against a Syrian confederation, and it inspired the writer of the Apocalypse with his vision of an Armageddon of the future. But invading armies always followed the beaten track of caravans, and movements represented by the great campaigns were reflected in the daily passage of international commerce. With so much through traffic continually passing within her borders, it may be matter for surprise that far more striking evidence of its cultural effect should not have been revealed by archaeological research in Palestine. Here again the explanation is mainly of a geographical character. For though the plains and plateaus could be crossed by the trunk-roads, the rest of the country is so broken up by mountain and valley that it presented few facilities either to foreign penetration or to external control. The physical barriers to local intercourse, reinforced by striking differences in soil, altitude, and climate, while they precluded Syria herself from attaining national unity, always tended to protect her separate provinces, or "kingdoms," from the full effects of foreign aggression. One city-state could be traversed, devastated, or annexed, without in the least degree affecting neighbouring areas. It is true that the population of Syria has always been predominantly Semitic, for she was on the fringe of the great breeding-ground of the Semitic race and her landward boundary was open to the Arabian nomad. Indeed, in the whole course of her history the only race that bade fair at one time to oust the Semite in Syria was the Greek. But the Greeks remained within the cities which they founded or rebuilt, and, as Robertson Smith pointed out, the death-rate in Eastern cities habitually exceeds the birth- rate; the urban population must be reinforced from the country if it is to be maintained, so that the type of population is ultimately determined by the blood of the peasantry.[1] Hence after the Arab conquest the Greek elements in Syria and Palestine tended rapidly to disappear. The Moslem invasion was only the last of a series of similar great inroads, which have followed one another since the dawn of history, and during all that time absorption was continually taking place from desert tribes that ranged the Syrian border. As we have seen, the country of his adoption was such as to encourage the Semitic nomad's particularism, which was inherent in his tribal organization. Thus the predominance of a single racial element in the population of Palestine and Syria did little to break down or overstep the natural barriers and lines of cleavage. [1] See Robertson Smith, /Religion of the Semites/, p. 12 f.; and cf. Smith, /Hist. Geogr./, p. 10 f. These facts suffice to show why the influence of both Egypt and Babylon upon the various peoples and kingdoms of Palestine was only intensified at certain periods, when ambition for extended empire dictated the reduction of her provinces in detail. But in the long intervals, during which there was no attempt to enforce political control, regular relations were maintained along the lines of trade and barter. And in any estimate of the possible effect of foreign influence upon Hebrew thought, it is important to realize that some of the channels through which in later periods it may have acted had been flowing since the dawn of history, and even perhaps in prehistoric times. It is probable that Syria formed one of the links by which we may explain the Babylonian elements that are attested in prehistoric Egyptian culture.[1] But another possible line of advance may have been by way of Arabia and across the Red Sea into Upper Egypt. [1] Cf. /Sumer and Akkad/, pp. 322 ff.; and for a full discussion of the points of resemblance between the early Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations, see Sayce, /The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions/, chap. iv, pp. 101 ff. The latter line of contact is suggested by an interesting piece of evidence that has recently been obtained. A prehistoric flint knife, with a handle carved from the tooth of a hippopotamus, has been purchased lately by the Louvre,[1] and is said to have been found at Gebel el-`Arak near Naga` Hamâdi, which lies on the Nile not far below Koptos, where an ancient caravan-track leads by Wâdi Hammâmât to the Red Sea. On one side of the handle is a battle-scene including some remarkable representations of ancient boats. All the warriors are nude with the exception of a loin girdle, but, while one set of combatants have shaven heads or short hair, the others have abundant locks falling in a thick mass upon the shoulder. On the other face of the handle is carved a hunting scene, two hunters with dogs and desert animals being arranged around a central boss. But in the upper field is a very remarkable group, consisting of a personage struggling with two lions arranged symmetrically. The rest of the composition is not very unlike other examples of prehistoric Egyptian carving in low relief, but here attitude, figure, and clothing are quite un-Egyptian. The hero wears a sort of turban on his abundant hair, and a full and rounded beard descends upon his breast. A long garment clothes him from the waist and falls below the knees, his muscular calves ending in the claws of a bird of prey. There is nothing like this in prehistoric Egyptian art. [1] See Bénédite, "Le couteau de Gebel al-`Arak", in /Foundation Eugène Piot, Mon. et. Mém./, XXII. i. (1916). Perhaps Monsieur Bénédite is pressing his theme too far when he compares the close-cropped warriors on the handle with the shaven Sumerians and Elamites upon steles from Telloh and Susa, for their loin-girdles are African and quite foreign to the Euphrates Valley. And his suggestion that two of the boats, flat-bottomed and with high curved ends, seem only to have navigated the Tigris and Euphrates,[1] will hardly command acceptance. But there is no doubt that the heroic personage upon the other face is represented in the familiar attitude of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh struggling with lions, which formed so favourite a subject upon early Sumerian and Babylonian seals. His garment is Sumerian or Semitic rather than Egyptian, and the mixture of human and bird elements in the figure, though not precisely paralleled at this early period, is not out of harmony with Mesopotamian or Susan tradition. His beard, too, is quite different from that of the Libyan desert tribes which the early Egyptian kings adopted. Though the treatment of the lions is suggestive of proto- Elamite rather than of early Babylonian models, the design itself is unmistakably of Mesopotamian origin. This discovery intensifies the significance of other early parallels that have been noted between the civilizations of the Euphrates and the Nile, but its evidence, so far as it goes, does not point to Syria as the medium of prehistoric intercourse. Yet then, as later, there can have been no physical barrier to the use of the river-route from Mesopotamia into Syria and of the tracks thence southward along the land-bridge to the Nile's delta. [1] Op. cit., p. 32. In the early historic periods we have definite evidence that the eastern coast of the Levant exercised a strong fascination upon the rulers of both Egypt and Babylonia. It may be admitted that Syria had little to give in comparison to what she could borrow, but her local trade in wine and oil must have benefited by an increase in the through traffic which followed the working of copper in Cyprus and Sinai and of silver in the Taurus. Moreover, in the cedar forests of Lebanon and the north she possessed a product which was highly valued both in Egypt and the treeless plains of Babylonia. The cedars procured by Sneferu from Lebanon at the close of the IIIrd Dynasty were doubtless floated as rafts down the coast, and we may see in them evidence of a regular traffic in timber. It has long been known that the early Babylonian king Sharru-kin, or Sargon of Akkad, had pressed up the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and we now have information that he too was fired by a desire for precious wood and metal. One of the recently published Nippur inscriptions contains copies of a number of his texts, collected by an ancient scribe from his statues at Nippur, and from these we gather additional details of his campaigns. We learn that after his complete subjugation of Southern Babylonia he turned his attention to the west, and that Enlil gave him the lands "from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea", i.e. from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Fortunately this rather vague phrase, which survived in later tradition, is restated in greater detail in one of the contemporary versions, which records that Enlil "gave him the upper land, Mari, Iarmuti, and Ibla, as far as the Cedar Forest and the Silver Mountains".[1] [1] See Poebel, /Historical Texts/ (Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sect., Vol. IV, No. 1, 1914), pp. 177 f., 222 ff. Mari was a city on the middle Euphrates, but the name may here signify the district of Mari which lay in the upper course of Sargon's march. Now we know that the later Sumerian monarch Gudea obtained his cedar beams from the Amanus range, which he names /Amanum/ and describes as the "cedar mountains".[1] Doubtless he felled his trees on the eastern slopes of the mountain. But we may infer from his texts that Sargon actually reached the coast, and his "Cedar Forest" may have lain farther to the south, perhaps as far south as the Lebanon. The "Silver Mountains" can only be identified with the Taurus, where silver mines were worked in antiquity. The reference to Iarmuti is interesting, for it is clearly the same place as Iarimuta or Iarimmuta, of which we find mention in the Tell el-Amarna letters. From the references to this district in the letters of Rib-Adda, governor of Byblos, we may infer that it was a level district on the coast, capable of producing a considerable quantity of grain for export, and that it was under Egyptian control at the time of Amenophis IV. Hitherto its position has been conjecturally placed in the Nile Delta, but from Sargon's reference we must probably seek it on the North Syrian or possibly the Cilician coast. Perhaps, as Dr. Poebel suggests, it was the plain of Antioch, along the lower course and at the mouth of the Orontes. But his further suggestion that the term is used by Sargon for the whole stretch of country between the sea and the Euphrates is hardly probable. For the geographical references need not be treated as exhaustive, but as confined to the more important districts through which the expedition passed. The district of Ibla which is also mentioned by Narâm-Sin and Gudea, lay probably to the north of Iarmuti, perhaps on the southern slopes of Taurus. It, too, we may regard as a district of restricted extent rather than as a general geographical term for the extreme north of Syria. [1] Thureau-Dangin, /Les inscriptions de Sumer de d'Akkad/, p. 108 f., Statue B, col. v. 1. 28; Germ. ed., p. 68 f. It is significant that Sargon does not allude to any battle when describing this expedition, nor does he claim to have devastated the western countries.[1] Indeed, most of these early expeditions to the west appear to have been inspired by motives of commercial enterprise rather than of conquest. But increase of wealth was naturally followed by political expansion, and Egypt's dream of an Asiatic empire was realized by Pharaohs of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The fact that Babylonian should then have been adopted as the medium of official intercourse in Syria points to the closeness of the commercial ties which had already united the Euphrates Valley with the west. Egyptian control had passed from Canaan at the time of the Hebrew settlement, which was indeed a comparatively late episode in the early history of Syria. Whether or not we identify the Khabiri with the Hebrews, the character of the latter's incursion is strikingly illustrated by some of the Tell el-Amarna letters. We see a nomad folk pressing in upon settled peoples and gaining a foothold here and there.[2] [1] In some versions of his new records Sargon states that "5,400 men daily eat bread before him" (see Poebel, op. cit., p. 178); though the figure may be intended to convey an idea of the size of Sargon's court, we may perhaps see in it a not inaccurate estimate of the total strength of his armed forces. [2] See especially Professor Burney's forthcoming commentary on Judges (passim), and his forthcoming Schweich Lectures (now delivered, in 1917). The great change from desert life consists in the adoption of agriculture, and when once that was made by the Hebrews any further advance in economic development was dictated by their new surroundings. The same process had been going on, as we have seen, in Syria since the dawn of history, the Semitic nomad passing gradually through the stages of agricultural and village life into that of the city. The country favoured the retention of tribal exclusiveness, but ultimate survival could only be purchased at the cost of some amalgamation with their new neighbours. Below the surface of Hebrew history these two tendencies may be traced in varying action and reaction. Some sections of the race engaged readily in the social and commercial life of Canaanite civilization with its rich inheritance from the past. Others, especially in the highlands of Judah and the south, at first succeeded in keeping themselves remote from foreign influence. During the later periods of the national life the country was again subjected, and in an intensified degree, to those forces of political aggression from Mesopotamia and Egypt which we have already noted as operating in Canaan. But throughout the settled Hebrew community as a whole the spark of desert fire was not extinguished, and by kindling the zeal of the Prophets it eventually affected nearly all the white races of mankind. In his Presidential Address before the British Association at Newcastle,[1] Sir Arthur Evans emphasized the part which recent archaeology has played in proving the continuity of human culture from the most remote periods. He showed how gaps in our knowledge had been bridged, and he traced the part which each great race had taken in increasing its inheritance. We have, in fact, ample grounds for assuming an interchange, not only of commercial products, but, in a minor degree, of ideas within areas geographically connected; and it is surely not derogatory to any Hebrew writer to suggest that he may have adopted, and used for his own purposes, conceptions current among his contemporaries. In other words, the vehicle of religious ideas may well be of composite origin; and, in the course of our study of early Hebrew tradition, I suggest that we hold ourselves justified in applying the comparative method to some at any rate of the ingredients which went to form the finished product. The process is purely literary, but it finds an analogy in the study of Semitic art, especially in the later periods. And I think it will make my meaning clearer if we consider for a moment a few examples of sculpture produced by races of Semitic origin. I do not suggest that we should regard the one process as in any way proving the existence of the other. We should rather treat the comparison as illustrating in another medium the effect of forces which, it is clear, were operative at various periods upon races of the same stock from which the Hebrews themselves were descended. In such material products the eye at once detects the Semite's readiness to avail himself of foreign models. In some cases direct borrowing is obvious; in others, to adapt a metaphor from music, it is possible to trace extraneous /motifs/ in the design.[2] [1] "New Archaeological Lights on the Origins of Civilization in Europe," British Association, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1916. [2] The necessary omission of plates, representing the slides shown in the lectures, has involved a recasting of most passages in which points of archaeological detail were discussed; see Preface. But the following paragraphs have been retained as the majority of the monuments referred to are well known. Some of the most famous monuments of Semitic art date from the Persian and Hellenistic periods, and if we glance at them in this connexion it is in order to illustrate during its most obvious phase a tendency of which the earlier effects are less pronounced. In the sarcophagus of the Sidonian king Eshmu-`azar II, which is preserved in the Louvre,[1] we have indeed a monument to which no Semitic sculptor can lay claim. Workmanship and material are Egyptian, and there is no doubt that it was sculptured in Egypt and transported to Sidon by sea. But the king's own engravers added the long Phoenician inscription, in which he adjures princes and men not to open his resting-place since there are no jewels therein, concluding with some potent curses against any violation of his tomb. One of the latter implores the holy gods to deliver such violators up "to a mighty prince who shall rule over them", and was probably suggested by Alexander's recent occupation of Sidon in 332 B.C. after his reduction and drastic punishment of Tyre. King Eshmun-`zar was not unique in his choice of burial in an Egyptian coffin, for he merely followed the example of his royal father, Tabnîth, "priest of `Ashtart and king of the Sidonians", whose sarcophagus, preserved at Constantinople, still bears in addition to his own epitaph that of its former occupant, a certain Egyptian general Penptah. But more instructive than these borrowed memorials is a genuine example of Phoenician work, the stele set up by Yehaw-milk, king of Byblos, and dating from the fourth or fifth century B.C.[2] In the sculptured panel at the head of the stele the king is represented in the Persian dress of the period standing in the presence of `Ashtart or Astarte, his "Lady, Mistress of Byblos". There is no doubt that the stele is of native workmanship, but the influence of Egypt may be seen in the technique of the carving, in the winged disk above the figures, and still more in the representation of the goddess in her character as the Egyptian Hathor, with disk and horns, vulture head-dress and papyrus-sceptre. The inscription records the dedication of an altar and shrine to the goddess, and these too we may conjecture were fashioned on Egyptian lines. [1] /Corp. Inscr. Semit./, I. i, tab. II. [2] /C.I.S./, I. i, tab. I. The representation of Semitic deities under Egyptian forms and with Egyptian attributes was encouraged by the introduction of their cults into Egypt itself. In addition to Astarte of Byblos, Ba`al, Anath, and Reshef were all borrowed from Syria in comparatively early times and given Egyptian characters. The conical Syrian helmet of Reshef, a god of war and thunder, gradually gave place to the white Egyptian crown, so that as Reshpu he was represented as a royal warrior; and Qadesh, another form of Astarte, becoming popular with Egyptian women as a patroness of love and fecundity, was also sometimes modelled on Hathor.[1] [1] See W. Max Müller, /Egyptological Researches/, I, p. 32 f., pl. 41, and S. A. Cook, /Religion of Ancient Palestine/, pp. 83 ff. Semitic colonists on the Egyptian border were ever ready to adopt Egyptian symbolism in delineating the native gods to whom they owed allegiance, and a particularly striking example of this may be seen on a stele of the Persian period preserved in the Cairo Museum.[1] It was found at Tell Defenneh, on the right bank of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, close to the old Egyptian highway into Syria, a site which may be identified with that of the biblical Tahpanhes and the Daphnae of the Greeks. Here it was that the Jewish fugitives, fleeing with Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem, founded a Jewish colony beside a flourishing Phoenician and Aramaean settlement. One of the local gods of Tahpanhes is represented on the Cairo monument, an Egyptian stele in the form of a naos with the winged solar disk upon its frieze. He stands on the back of a lion and is clothed in Asiatic costume with the high Syrian tiara crowning his abundant hair. The Syrian workmanship is obvious, and the Syrian character of the cult may be recognized in such details as the small brazen fire-altar before the god, and the sacred pillar which is being anointed by the officiating priest. But the god holds in his left hand a purely Egyptian sceptre and in his right an emblem as purely Babylonian, the weapon of Marduk and Gilgamesh which was also wielded by early Sumerian kings. [1] Müller, op. cit., p. 30 f., pl. 40. Numismatic evidence exhibits a similar readiness on the part of local Syrian cults to adopt the veneer of Hellenistic civilization while retaining in great measure their own individuality; see Hill, "Some Palestinian Cults in the Graeco-Roman Age", in /Proceedings of the British Academy/, Vol. V (1912). The Elephantine papyri have shown that the early Jews of the Diaspora, though untrammeled by the orthodoxy of Jerusalem, maintained the purity of their local cult in the face of considerable difficulties. Hence the gravestones of their Aramaean contemporaries, which have been found in Egypt, can only be cited to illustrate the temptations to which they were exposed.[1] Such was the memorial erected by Abseli to the memory of his parents, Abbâ and Ahatbû, in the fourth year of Xerxes, 481 B.C.[2] They had evidently adopted the religion of Osiris, and were buried at Saqqârah in accordance with the Egyptian rites. The upper scene engraved upon the stele represents Abbâ and his wife in the presence of Osiris, who is attended by Isis and Nephthys; and in the lower panel is the funeral scene, in which all the mourners with one exception are Asiatics. Certain details of the rites that are represented, and mistakes in the hieroglyphic version of the text, prove that the work is Aramaean throughout.[3] [1] It may be admitted that the Greek platonized cult of Isis and Osiris had its origin in the fusion of Greeks and Egyptians which took place in Ptolemaic times (cf. Scott-Moncrieff, /Paganism and Christianity in Egypt/, p. 33 f.). But we may assume that already in the Persian period the Osiris cult had begun to acquire a tinge of mysticism, which, though it did not affect the mechanical reproduction of the native texts, appealed to the Oriental mind as well as to certain elements in Greek religion. Persian influence probably prepared the way for the Platonic exegesis of the Osiris and Isis legends which we find in Plutarch; and the latter may have been in great measure a development, and not, as is often assumed, a complete misunderstanding of the later Egyptian cult. [2] /C.I.S./, II. i, tab. XI, No. 122. [3] A very similar monument is the Carpentras Stele (/C.I.S./, II., i, tab. XIII, No. 141), commemorating Taba, daughter of Tahapi, an Aramaean lady who was also a convert to Osiris. It is rather later than that of Abbâ and his wife, since the Aramaic characters are transitional from the archaic to the square alphabet; see Driver, /Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel/, pp. xviii ff., and Cooke, /North Semitic Inscriptions/, p. 205 f. The Vatican Stele (op. cit. tab. XIV. No. 142), which dates from the fourth century, represents inferior work. If our examples of Semitic art were confined to the Persian and later periods, they could only be employed to throw light on their own epoch, when through communication had been organized, and there was consequently a certain pooling of commercial and artistic products throughout the empire.[1] It is true that under the Great King the various petty states and provinces were encouraged to manage their own affairs so long as they paid the required tribute, but their horizon naturally expanded with increase of commerce and the necessity for service in the king's armies. At this time Aramaic was the speech of Syria, and the population, especially in the cities, was still largely Aramaean. As early as the thirteenth century sections of this interesting Semitic race had begun to press into Northern Syria from the middle Euphrates, and they absorbed not only the old Canaanite population but also the Hittite immigrants from Cappadocia. The latter indeed may for a time have furnished rulers to the vigorous North Syrian principalities which resulted from this racial combination, but the Aramaean element, thanks to continual reinforcement, was numerically dominant, and their art may legitimately be regarded as in great measure a Semitic product. Fortunately we have recovered examples of sculpture which prove that tendencies already noted in the Persian period were at work, though in a minor degree, under the later Assyrian empire. The discoveries made at Zenjirli, for example, illustrate the gradually increasing effect of Assyrian influence upon the artistic output of a small North Syrian state. [1] Cf. Bevan, /House of Seleucus/, Vol. I, pp. 5, 260 f. The artistic influence of Mesopotamia was even more widely spread than that of Egypt during the Persian period. This is suggested, for example, by the famous lion-weight discovered at Abydos in Mysia, the town on the Hellespont famed for the loves of Hero and Leander. The letters of its Aramaic inscription (/C.I.S./, II. i, tab. VII, No. 108) prove by their form that it dates from the Persian period, and its provenance is sufficiently attested. Its weight moreover suggests that it was not merely a Babylonian or Persian importation, but cast for local use, yet in design and technique it is scarcely distinguishable from the best Assyrian work of the seventh century. This village in north-western Syria, on the road between Antioch and Mar`ash, marks the site of a town which lay near the southern border or just within the Syrian district of Sam'al. The latter is first mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions by Shalmaneser III, the son and successor of the great conqueror, Ashur-nasir-pal; and in the first half of the eighth century, though within the radius of Assyrian influence, it was still an independent kingdom. It is to this period that we must assign the earliest of the inscribed monuments discovered at Zenjirli and its neighbourhood. At Gerjin, not far to the north- west, was found the colossal statue of Hadad, chief god of the Aramaeans, which was fashioned and set up in his honour by Panammu I, son of Qaral and king of Ya'di.[1] In the long Aramaic inscription engraved upon the statue Panammu records the prosperity of his reign, which he ascribes to the support he has received from Hadad and his other gods, El, Reshef, Rekub-el, and Shamash. He had evidently been left in peace by Assyria, and the monument he erected to his god is of Aramaean workmanship and design. But the influence of Assyria may be traced in Hadad's beard and in his horned head-dress, modelled on that worn by Babylonian and Assyrian gods as the symbol of divine power. [1] See F. von Luschan, /Sendschirli/, I. (1893), pp. 49 ff., pl. vi; and cf. Cooke, /North Sem. Inscr./, pp. 159 ff. The characters of the inscription on the statue are of the same archaic type as those of the Moabite Stone, though unlike them they are engraved in relief; so too are the inscriptions of Panammu's later successor Bar-rekub (see below). Gerjin was certainly in Ya'di, and Winckler's suggestion that Zenjirli itself also lay in that district but near the border of Sam'al may be provisionally accepted; the occurrence of the names in the inscriptions can be explained in more than one way (see Cooke, op. cit., p. 183). The political changes introduced into Ya'di and Sam'al by Tiglath- pileser IV are reflected in the inscriptions and monuments of Bar-rekub, a later king of the district. Internal strife had brought disaster upon Ya'di and the throne had been secured by Panammu II, son of Bar-sur, whose claims received Assyrian support. In the words of his son Bar-rekub, "he laid hold of the skirt of his lord, the king of Assyria", who was gracious to him; and it was probably at this time, and as a reward for his loyalty, that Ya'di was united with the neighbouring district of Sam'al. But Panammu's devotion to his foreign master led to his death, for he died at the siege of Damascus, in 733 or 732 B.C., "in the camp, while following his lord, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria". His kinsfolk and the whole camp bewailed him, and his body was sent back to Ya'di, where it was interred by his son, who set up an inscribed statue to his memory. Bar-rekub followed in his father's footsteps, as he leads us to infer in his palace-inscription found at Zenjirli: "I ran at the wheel of my lord, the king of Assyria, in the midst of mighty kings, possessors of silver and possessors of gold." It is not strange therefore that his art should reflect Assyrian influence far more strikingly than that of Panammu I. The figure of himself which he caused to be carved in relief on the left side of the palace-inscription is in the Assyrian style,[1] and so too is another of his reliefs from Zenjirli. On the latter Bar-rekub is represented seated upon his throne with eunuch and scribe in attendance, while in the field is the emblem of full moon and crescent, here ascribed to "Ba`al of Harran", the famous centre of moon-worship in Northern Mesopotamia.[2] [1] /Sendschirli/, IV (1911), pl. lxvii. Attitude and treatment of robes are both Assyrian, and so is the arrangement of divine symbols in the upper field, though some of the latter are given under unfamiliar forms. The king's close-fitting peaked cap was evidently the royal headdress of Sam'al; see the royal figure on a smaller stele of inferior design, op. cit., pl. lxvi. [2] Op. cit. pp. 257, 346 ff., and pl. lx. The general style of the sculpture and much of the detail are obviously Assyrian. Assyrian influence is particularly noticeable in Bar-rekub's throne; the details of its decoration are precisely similar to those of an Assyrian bronze throne in the British Museum. The full moon and crescent are not of the familiar form, but are mounted on a standard with tassels. The detailed history and artistic development of Sam'al and Ya'di convey a very vivid impression of the social and material effects upon the native population of Syria, which followed the westward advance of Assyria in the eighth century. We realize not only the readiness of one party in the state to defeat its rival with the help of Assyrian support, but also the manner in which the life and activities of the nation as a whole were unavoidably affected by their action. Other Hittite-Aramaean and Phoenician monuments, as yet undocumented with literary records, exhibit a strange but not unpleasing mixture of foreign /motifs/, such as we see on the stele from Amrith[1] in the inland district of Arvad. But perhaps the most remarkable example of Syrian art we possess is the king's gate recently discovered at Carchemish.[2] The presence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions points to the survival of Hittite tradition, but the figures represented in the reliefs are of Aramaean, not Hittite, type. Here the king is seen leading his eldest son by the hand in some stately ceremonial, and ranged in registers behind them are the younger members of the royal family, whose ages are indicated by their occupations.[3] The employment of basalt in place of limestone does not disguise the sculptor's debt to Assyria. But the design is entirely his own, and the combined dignity and homeliness of the composition are refreshingly superior to the arrogant spirit and hard execution which mar so much Assyrian work. This example is particularly instructive, as it shows how a borrowed art may be developed in skilled hands and made to serve a purpose in complete harmony with its new environment. [1] /Collection de Clercq/, t. II, pl. xxxvi. The stele is sculptured in relief with the figure of a North Syrian god. Here the winged disk is Egyptian, as well as the god's helmet with uraeus, and his loin-cloth; his attitude and his supporting lion are Hittite; and the lozenge-mountains, on which the lion stands, and the technique of the carving are Assyrian. But in spite of its composite character the design is quite successful and not in the least incongruous. [2] Hogarth, /Carchemish/, Pt. I (1914), pl. B. 7 f. [3] Two of the older boys play at knuckle-bones, others whip spinning- tops, and a little naked girl runs behind supporting herself with a stick, on the head of which is carved a bird. The procession is brought up by the queen-mother, who carries the youngest baby and leads a pet lamb. Such monuments surely illustrate the adaptability of the Semitic craftsman among men of Phoenician and Aramaean strain. Excavation in Palestine has failed to furnish examples of Hebrew work. But Hebrew tradition itself justifies us in regarding this /trait/ as of more general application, or at any rate as not repugnant to Hebrew thought, when it relates that Solomon employed Tyrian craftsmen for work upon the Temple and its furniture; for Phoenician art was essentially Egyptian in its origin and general character. Even Eshmun- `zar's desire for burial in an Egyptian sarcophagus may be paralleled in Hebrew tradition of a much earlier period, when, in the last verse of Genesis,[1] it is recorded that Joseph died, "and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt". Since it formed the subject of prophetic denunciation, I refrain for the moment from citing the notorious adoption of Assyrian customs at certain periods of the later Judaean monarchy. The two records I have referred to will suffice, for we have in them cherished traditions, of which the Hebrews themselves were proud, concerning the most famous example of Hebrew religious architecture and the burial of one of the patriarchs of the race. A similar readiness to make use of the best available resources, even of foreign origin, may on analogy be regarded as at least possible in the composition of Hebrew literature. [1] Gen. l. 26, assigned by critics to E. We shall see that the problems we have to face concern the possible influence of Babylon, rather than of Egypt, upon Hebrew tradition. And one last example, drawn from the later period, will serve to demonstrate how Babylonian influence penetrated the ancient world and has even left some trace upon modern civilization. It is a fact, though one perhaps not generally realized, that the twelve divisions on the dials of our clocks and watches have a Babylonian, and ultimately a Sumerian, ancestry. For why is it we divide the day into twenty-four hours? We have a decimal system of reckoning, we count by tens; why then should we divide the day and night into twelve hours each, instead of into ten or some multiple of ten? The reason is that the Babylonians divided the day into twelve double-hours; and the Greeks took over their ancient system of time-division along with their knowledge of astronomy and passed it on to us. So if we ourselves, after more than two thousand years, are making use of an old custom from Babylon, it would not be surprising if the Hebrews, a contemporary race, should have fallen under her influence even before they were carried away as captives and settled forcibly upon her river-banks. We may pass on, then, to the site from which our new material has been obtained--the ancient city of Nippur, in central Babylonia. Though the place has been deserted for at least nine hundred years, its ancient name still lingers on in local tradition, and to this day /Niffer/ or /Nuffar/ is the name the Arabs give the mounds which cover its extensive ruins. No modern town or village has been built upon them or in their immediate neighbourhood. The nearest considerable town is Dîwânîyah, on the left bank of the Hillah branch of the Euphrates, twenty miles to the south-west; but some four miles to the south of the ruins is the village of Sûq el-`Afej, on the eastern edge of the `Afej marshes, which begin to the south of Nippur and stretch away westward. Protected by its swamps, the region contains a few primitive settlements of the wild `Afej tribesmen, each a group of reed-huts clustering around the mud fort of its ruling sheikh. Their chief enemies are the Shammâr, who dispute with them possession of the pastures. In summer the marshes near the mounds are merely pools of water connected by channels through the reed-beds, but in spring the flood-water converts them into a vast lagoon, and all that meets the eye are a few small hamlets built on rising knolls above the water- level. Thus Nippur may be almost isolated during the floods, but the mounds are protected from the waters' encroachment by an outer ring of former habitation which has slightly raised the level of the encircling area. The ruins of the city stand from thirty to seventy feet above the plain, and in the north-eastern corner there rose, before the excavations, a conical mound, known by the Arabs as /Bint el-Emîr/ or "The Princess". This prominent landmark represents the temple-tower of Enlil's famous sanctuary, and even after excavation it is still the first object that the approaching traveller sees on the horizon. When he has climbed its summit he enjoys an uninterrupted view over desert and swamp. The cause of Nippur's present desolation is to be traced to the change in the bed of the Euphrates, which now lies far to the west. But in antiquity the stream flowed through the centre of the city, along the dry bed of the Shatt en-Nîl, which divides the mounds into an eastern and a western group. The latter covers the remains of the city proper and was occupied in part by the great business-houses and bazaars. Here more than thirty thousand contracts and accounts, dating from the fourth millennium to the fifth century B.C., were found in houses along the former river-bank. In the eastern half of the city was Enlil's great temple Ekur, with its temple-tower Imkharsag rising in successive stages beside it. The huge temple-enclosure contained not only the sacrificial shrines, but also the priests' apartments, store- chambers, and temple-magazines. Outside its enclosing wall, to the south-west, a large triangular mound, christened "Tablet Hill" by the excavators, yielded a further supply of records. In addition to business-documents of the First Dynasty of Babylon and of the later Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persian periods, between two and three thousand literary texts and fragments were discovered here, many of them dating from the Sumerian period. And it is possible that some of the early literary texts that have been published were obtained in other parts of the city. No less than twenty-one different strata, representing separate periods of occupation, have been noted by the American excavators at various levels within the Nippur mounds,[1] the earliest descending to virgin soil some twenty feet below the present level of the surrounding plain. The remote date of Nippur's foundation as a city and cult-centre is attested by the fact that the pavement laid by Narâm-Sin in the south-eastern temple-court lies thirty feet above virgin soil, while only thirty-six feet of superimposed /débris/ represent the succeeding millennia of occupation down to Sassanian and early Arab times. In the period of the Hebrew captivity the city still ranked as a great commercial market and as one of the most sacred repositories of Babylonian religious tradition. We know that not far off was Tel-abib, the seat of one of the colonies of Jewish exiles, for that lay "by the river of Chebar",[2] which we may identify with the Kabaru Canal in Nippur's immediate neighbourhood. It was "among the captives by the river Chebar" that Ezekiel lived and prophesied, and it was on Chebar's banks that he saw his first vision of the Cherubim.[3] He and other of the Jewish exiles may perhaps have mingled with the motley crowd that once thronged the streets of Nippur, and they may often have gazed on the huge temple-tower which rose above the city's flat roofs. We know that the later population of Nippur itself included a considerable Jewish element, for the upper strata of the mounds have yielded numerous clay bowls with Hebrew, Mandaean, and Syriac magical inscriptions;[4] and not the least interesting of the objects recovered was the wooden box of a Jewish scribe, containing his pen and ink-vessel and a little scrap of crumbling parchment inscribed with a few Hebrew characters.[5] [1] See Hilprecht, /Explorations in Bible Lands/, pp. 289 ff., 540 ff.; and Fisher, /Excavations at Nippur/, Pt. I (1905), Pt. II (1906). [2] Ezek. iii. 15. [3] Ezek. i. 1, 3; iii. 23; and cf. x. 15, 20, 22, and xliii. 3. [4] See J. A. Montgomery, /Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur/, 1913 [5] Hilprecht, /Explorations/, p. 555 f. Of the many thousands of inscribed clay tablets which were found in the course of the expeditions, some were kept at Constantinople, while others were presented by the Sultan Abdul Hamid to the excavators, who had them conveyed to America. Since that time a large number have been published. The work was necessarily slow, for many of the texts were found to be in an extremely bad state of preservation. So it happened that a great number of the boxes containing tablets remained until recently still packed up in the store-rooms of the Pennsylvania Museum. But under the present energetic Director of the Museum, Dr. G. B. Gordon, the process of arranging and publishing the mass of literary material has been "speeded up". A staff of skilled workmen has been employed on the laborious task of cleaning the broken tablets and fitting the fragments together. At the same time the help of several Assyriologists was welcomed in the further task of running over and sorting the collections as they were prepared for study. Professor Clay, Professor Barton, Dr. Langdon, Dr. Edward Chiera, and Dr. Arno Poebel have all participated in the work. But the lion's share has fallen to the last-named scholar, who was given leave of absence by John Hopkins University in order to take up a temporary appointment at the Pennsylvania Museum. The result of his labours was published by the Museum at the end of 1914.[1] The texts thus made available for study are of very varied interest. A great body of them are grammatical and represent compilations made by Semitic scribes of the period of Hammurabi's dynasty for their study of the old Sumerian tongue. Containing, as most of them do, Semitic renderings of the Sumerian words and expressions collected, they are as great a help to us in our study of Sumerian language as they were to their compilers; in particular they have thrown much new light on the paradigms of the demonstrative and personal pronouns and on Sumerian verbal forms. But literary texts are also included in the recent publications. [1] Poebel, /Historical Texts/ and /Historical and Grammatical Texts/ (Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sect., Vol. IV, No. 1, and Vol. V), Philadelphia, 1914. When the Pennsylvania Museum sent out its first expedition, lively hopes were entertained that the site selected would yield material of interest from the biblical standpoint. The city of Nippur, as we have seen, was one of the most sacred and most ancient religious centres in the country, and Enlil, its city-god, was the head of the Babylonian pantheon. On such a site it seemed likely that we might find versions of the Babylonian legends which were current at the dawn of history before the city of Babylonia and its Semitic inhabitants came upon the scene. This expectation has proved to be not unfounded, for the literary texts include the Sumerian Deluge Version and Creation myth to which I referred at the beginning of the lecture. Other texts of almost equal interest consist of early though fragmentary lists of historical and semi-mythical rulers. They prove that Berossus and the later Babylonians depended on material of quite early origin in compiling their dynasties of semi-mythical kings. In them we obtain a glimpse of ages more remote than any on which excavation in Babylonia has yet thrown light, and for the first time we have recovered genuine native tradition of early date with regard to the cradle of Babylonian culture. Before we approach the Sumerian legends themselves, it will be as well to-day to trace back in this tradition the gradual merging of history into legend and myth, comparing at the same time the ancient Egyptian's picture of his own remote past. We will also ascertain whether any new light is thrown by our inquiry upon Hebrew traditions concerning the earliest history of the human race and the origins of civilization. In the study of both Egyptian and Babylonian chronology there has been a tendency of late years to reduce the very early dates that were formerly in fashion. But in Egypt, while the dynasties of Manetho have been telescoped in places, excavation has thrown light on predynastic periods, and we can now trace the history of culture in the Nile Valley back, through an unbroken sequence, to its neolithic stage. Quite recently, too, as I mentioned just now, a fresh literary record of these early predynastic periods has been recovered, on a fragment of the famous Palermo Stele, our most valuable monument for early Egyptian history and chronology. Egypt presents a striking contrast to Babylonia in the comparatively small number of written records which have survived for the reconstruction of her history. We might well spare much of her religious literature, enshrined in endless temple- inscriptions and papyri, if we could but exchange it for some of the royal annals of Egyptian Pharaohs. That historical records of this character were compiled by the Egyptian scribes, and that they were as detailed and precise in their information as those we have recovered from Assyrian sources, is clear from the few extracts from the annals of Thothmes III's wars which are engraved on the walls of the temple at Karnak.[1] As in Babylonia and Assyria, such records must have formed the foundation on which summaries of chronicles of past Egyptian history were based. In the Palermo Stele it is recognized that we possess a primitive chronicle of this character. [1] See Breasted, /Ancient Records/, I, p. 4, II, pp. 163 ff. Drawn up as early as the Vth Dynasty, its historical summary proves that from the beginning of the dynastic age onward a yearly record was kept of the most important achievements of the reigning Pharaoh. In this fragmentary but invaluable epitome, recording in outline much of the history of the Old Kingdom,[1] some interesting parallels have long been noted with Babylonian usage. The early system of time- reckoning, for example, was the same in both countries, each year being given an official title from the chief event that occurred in it. And although in Babylonia we are still without material for tracing the process by which this cumbrous method gave place to that of reckoning by regnal years, the Palermo Stele demonstrates the way in which the latter system was evolved in Egypt. For the events from which the year was named came gradually to be confined to the fiscal "numberings" of cattle and land. And when these, which at first had taken place at comparatively long intervals, had become annual events, the numbered sequence of their occurrence corresponded precisely to the years of the king's reign. On the stele, during the dynastic period, each regnal year is allotted its own space or rectangle,[2] arranged in horizontal sequence below the name and titles of the ruling king. [1] Op. cit., I, pp. 57 ff. [2] The spaces are not strictly rectangles, as each is divided vertically from the next by the Egyptian hieroglyph for "year". The text, which is engraved on both sides of a great block of black basalt, takes its name from the fact that the fragment hitherto known has been preserved since 1877 at the Museum of Palermo. Five other fragments of the text have now been published, of which one undoubtedly belongs to the same monument as the Palermo fragment, while the others may represent parts of one or more duplicate copies of that famous text. One of the four Cairo fragments[1] was found by a digger for /sebakh/ at Mitrahîneh (Memphis); the other three, which were purchased from a dealer, are said to have come from Minieh, while the fifth fragment, at University College, is also said to have come from Upper Egypt,[2] though it was purchased by Professor Petrie while at Memphis. These reports suggest that a number of duplicate copies were engraved and set up in different Egyptian towns, and it is possible that the whole of the text may eventually be recovered. The choice of basalt for the records was obviously dictated by a desire for their preservation, but it has had the contrary effect; for the blocks of this hard and precious stone have been cut up and reused in later times. The largest and most interesting of the new fragments has evidently been employed as a door-sill, with the result that its surface is much rubbed and parts of its text are unfortunately almost undecipherable. We shall see that the earliest section of its record has an important bearing on our knowledge of Egyptian predynastic history and on the traditions of that remote period which have come down to us from the history of Manetho. [1] See Gautier, /Le Musée Égyptien/, III (1915), pp. 29 ff., pl. xxiv ff., and Foucart, /Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale/, XII, ii (1916), pp. 161 ff.; and cf. Gardiner, /Journ. of Egypt. Arch./, III, pp. 143 ff., and Petrie, /Ancient Egypt/, 1916, Pt. III, pp. 114 ff. [2] Cf. Petrie, op. cit., pp. 115, 120. From the fragment of the stele preserved at Palermo we already knew that its record went back beyond the Ist Dynasty into predynastic times. For part of the top band of the inscription, which is there preserved, contains nine names borne by kings of Lower Egypt or the Delta, which, it had been conjectured, must follow the gods of Manetho and precede the "Worshippers of Horus", the immediate predecessors of the Egyptian dynasties.[1] But of contemporary rulers of Upper Egypt we had hitherto no knowledge, since the supposed royal names discovered at Abydos and assigned to the time of the "Worshippers of Horus" are probably not royal names at all.[2] With the possible exception of two very archaic slate palettes, the first historical memorials recovered from the south do not date from an earlier period than the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The largest of the Cairo fragments now helps us to fill in this gap in our knowledge. [1] See Breasted, /Anc. Rec./, I, pp. 52, 57. [2] Cf. Hall, /Ancient History of the Near East/, p. 99 f. On the top of the new fragment[1] we meet the same band of rectangles as at Palermo,[2] but here their upper portions are broken away, and there only remains at the base of each of them the outlined figure of a royal personage, seated in the same attitude as those on the Palermo stone. The remarkable fact about these figures is that, with the apparent exception of the third figure from the right,[3] each wears, not the Crown of the North, as at Palermo, but the Crown of the South. We have then to do with kings of Upper Egypt, not the Delta, and it is no longer possible to suppose that the predynastic rulers of the Palermo Stele were confined to those of Lower Egypt, as reflecting northern tradition. Rulers of both halves of the country are represented, and Monsieur Gautier has shown,[4] from data on the reverse of the inscription, that the kings of the Delta were arranged on the original stone before the rulers of the south who are outlined upon our new fragment. Moreover, we have now recovered definite proof that this band of the inscription is concerned with predynastic Egyptian princes; for the cartouche of the king, whose years are enumerated in the second band immediately below the kings of the south, reads Athet, a name we may with certainty identify with Athothes, the second successor of Menes, founder of the Ist Dynasty, which is already given under the form Ateth in the Abydos List of Kings.[5] It is thus quite certain that the first band of the inscription relates to the earlier periods before the two halves of the country were brought together under a single ruler. [1] Cairo No. 1; see Gautier, /Mus. Égypt./, III, pl. xxiv f. [2] In this upper band the spaces are true rectangles, being separated by vertical lines, not by the hieroglyph for "year" as in the lower bands; and each rectangle is assigned to a separate king, and not, as in the other bands, to a year of a king's reign. [3] The difference in the crown worn by this figure is probably only apparent and not intentional; M. Foucart, after a careful examination of the fragment, concludes that it is due to subsequent damage or to an original defect in the stone; cf. /Bulletin/, XII, ii, p. 162. [4] Op. cit., p. 32 f. [5] In Manetho's list he corresponds to {Kenkenos}, the second successor of Menes according to both Africanus and Eusebius, who assign the name Athothis to the second ruler of the dynasty only, the Teta of the Abydos List. The form Athothes is preserved by Eratosthenes for both of Menes' immediate successors. Though the tradition of these remote times is here recorded on a monument of the Vth Dynasty, there is no reason to doubt its general accuracy, or to suppose that we are dealing with purely mythological personages. It is perhaps possible, as Monsieur Foucart suggests, that missing portions of the text may have carried the record back through purely mythical periods to Ptah and the Creation. In that case we should have, as we shall see, a striking parallel to early Sumerian tradition. But in the first extant portions of the Palermo text we are already in the realm of genuine tradition. The names preserved appear to be those of individuals, not of mythological creations, and we may assume that their owners really existed. For though the invention of writing had not at that time been achieved, its place was probably taken by oral tradition. We know that with certain tribes of Africa at the present day, who possess no knowledge of writing, there are functionaries charged with the duty of preserving tribal traditions, who transmit orally to their successors a remembrance of past chiefs and some details of events that occurred centuries before.[1] The predynastic Egyptians may well have adopted similar means for preserving a remembrance of their past history. [1] M. Foucart illustrates this point by citing the case of the Bushongos, who have in this way preserved a list of no less than a hundred and twenty-one of their past kings; op. cit., p. 182, and cf. Tordey and Joyce, "Les Bushongos", in /Annales du Musée du Congo Belge/, sér. III, t. II, fasc. i (Brussels, 1911). Moreover, the new text furnishes fresh proof of the general accuracy of Manetho, even when dealing with traditions of this prehistoric age. On the stele there is no definite indication that these two sets of predynastic kings were contemporaneous rulers of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively; and since elsewhere the lists assign a single sovereign to each epoch, it has been suggested that we should regard them as successive representatives of the legitimate kingdom.[1] Now Manetho, after his dynasties of gods and demi-gods, states that thirty Memphite kings reigned for 1,790 years, and were followed by ten Thinite kings whose reigns covered a period of 350 years. Neglecting the figures as obviously erroneous, we may well admit that the Greek historian here alludes to our two pre-Menite dynasties. But the fact that he should regard them as ruling consecutively does not preclude the other alternative. The modern convention of arranging lines of contemporaneous rulers in parallel columns had not been evolved in antiquity, and without some such method of distinction contemporaneous rulers, when enumerated in a list, can only be registered consecutively. It would be natural to assume that, before the unification of Egypt by the founder of the Ist Dynasty, the rulers of North and South were independent princes, possessing no traditions of a united throne on which any claim to hegemony could be based. On the assumption that this was so, their arrangement in a consecutive series would not have deceived their immediate successors. But it would undoubtedly tend in course of time to obliterate the tradition of their true order, which even at the period of the Vth Dynasty may have been completely forgotten. Manetho would thus have introduced no strange or novel confusion; and this explanation would of course apply to other sections of his system where the dynasties he enumerates appear to be too many for their period. But his reproduction of two lines of predynastic rulers, supported as it now is by the early evidence of the Palermo text, only serves to increase our confidence in the general accuracy of his sources, while at the same time it illustrates very effectively the way in which possible inaccuracies, deduced from independent data, may have arisen in quite early times. [1] Foucart, loc. cit. In contrast to the dynasties of Manetho, those of Berossus are so imperfectly preserved that they have never formed the basis of Babylonian chronology.[1] But here too, in the chronological scheme, a similar process of reduction has taken place. Certain dynasties, recovered from native sources and at one time regarded as consecutive, were proved to have been contemporaneous; and archaeological evidence suggested that some of the great gaps, so freely assumed in the royal sequence, had no right to be there. As a result, the succession of known rulers was thrown into truer perspective, and such gaps as remained were being partially filled by later discoveries. Among the latter the most important find was that of an early list of kings, recently published by Père Scheil[2] and subsequently purchased by the British Museum shortly before the war. This had helped us to fill in the gap between the famous Sargon of Akkad and the later dynasties, but it did not carry us far beyond Sargon's own time. Our archaeological evidence also comes suddenly to an end. Thus the earliest picture we have hitherto obtained of the Sumerians has been that of a race employing an advanced system of writing and possessed of a knowledge of metal. We have found, in short, abundant remains of a bronze-age culture, but no traces of preceding ages of development such as meet us on early Egyptian sites. It was a natural inference that the advent of the Sumerians in the Euphrates Valley was sudden, and that they had brought their highly developed culture with them from some region of Central or Southern Asia. [1] While the evidence of Herodotus is extraordinarily valuable for the details he gives of the civilizations of both Egypt and Babylonia, and is especially full in the case of the former, it is of little practical use for the chronology. In Egypt his report of the early history is confused, and he hardly attempts one for Babylonia. It is probable that on such subjects he sometimes misunderstood his informants, the priests, whose traditions were more accurately reproduced by the later native writers Manetho and Berossus. For a detailed comparison of classical authorities in relation to both countries, see Griffith in Hogarth's /Authority and Archaeology/, pp. 161 ff. [2] See /Comptes rendus/, 1911 (Oct.), pp. 606 ff., and /Rev. d'Assyr./, IX (1912), p. 69. The newly published Nippur documents will cause us to modify that view. The lists of early kings were themselves drawn up under the Dynasty of Nîsin in the twenty-second century B.C., and they give us traces of possibly ten and at least eight other "kingdoms" before the earliest dynasty of the known lists.[1] One of their novel features is that they include summaries at the end, in which it is stated how often a city or district enjoyed the privilege of being the seat of supreme authority in Babylonia. The earliest of their sections lie within the legendary period, and though in the third dynasty preserved we begin to note signs of a firmer historical tradition, the great break that then occurs in the text is at present only bridged by titles of various "kingdoms" which the summaries give; a few even of these are missing and the relative order of the rest is not assured. But in spite of their imperfect state of preservation, these documents are of great historical value and will furnish a framework for future chronological schemes. Meanwhile we may attribute to some of the later dynasties titles in complete agreement with Sumerian tradition. The dynasty of Ur-Engur, for example, which preceded that of Nîsin, becomes, if we like, the Third Dynasty of Ur. Another important fact which strikes us after a scrutiny of the early royal names recovered is that, while two or three are Semitic,[2] the great majority of those borne by the earliest rulers of Kish, Erech, and Ur are as obviously Sumerian. [1] See Poebel, /Historical Texts/, pp. 73 ff. and /Historical and Grammatical Texts/, pl. ii-iv, Nos. 2-5. The best preserved of the lists is No. 2; Nos. 3 and 4 are comparatively small fragments; and of No. 5 the obverse only is here published for the first time, the contents of the reverse having been made known some years ago by Hilprecht (cf. /Mathematical, Metrological, and Chronological Tablets/, p. 46 f., pl. 30, No. 47). The fragments belong to separate copies of the Sumerian dynastic record, and it happens that the extant portions of their text in some places cover the same period and are duplicates of one another. [2] Cf., e.g., two of the earliest kings of Kish, Galumum and Zugagib. The former is probably the Semitic-Babylonian word /kalumum/, "young animal, lamb," the latter /zukakîbum/, "scorpion"; cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 111. The occurrence of these names points to Semitic infiltration into Northern Babylonia since the dawn of history, a state of things we should naturally expect. It is improbable that on this point Sumerian tradition should have merely reflected the conditions of a later period. It is clear that in native tradition, current among the Sumerians themselves before the close of the third millennium, their race was regarded as in possession of Babylonia since the dawn of history. This at any rate proves that their advent was not sudden nor comparatively recent, and it further suggests that Babylonia itself was the cradle of their civilization. It will be the province of future archaeological research to fill out the missing dynasties and to determine at what points in the list their strictly historical basis disappears. Some, which are fortunately preserved near the beginning, bear on their face their legendary character. But for our purpose they are none the worse for that. In the first two dynasties, which had their seats at the cities of Kish and Erech, we see gods mingling with men upon the earth. Tammuz, the god of vegetation, for whose annual death Ezekiel saw women weeping beside the Temple at Jerusalem, is here an earthly monarch. He appears to be described as "a hunter", a phrase which recalls the death of Adonis in Greek mythology. According to our Sumerian text he reigned in Erech for a hundred years. Another attractive Babylonian legend is that of Etana, the prototype of Icarus and hero of the earliest dream of human flight.[1] Clinging to the pinions of his friend the Eagle he beheld the world and its encircling stream recede beneath him; and he flew through the gate of heaven, only to fall headlong back to earth. He is here duly entered in the list, where we read that "Etana, the shepherd who ascended to heaven, who subdued all lands", ruled in the city of Kish for 635 years. [1] The Egyptian conception of the deceased Pharaoh ascending to heaven as a falcon and becoming merged into the sun, which first occurs in the Pyramid texts (see Gardiner in Cumont's /Études Syriennes/, pp. 109 ff.), belongs to a different range of ideas. But it may well have been combined with the Etana tradition to produce the funerary eagle employed so commonly in Roman Syria in representations of the emperor's apotheosis (cf. Cumont, op. cit., pp. 37 ff., 115). The god Lugal-banda is another hero of legend. When the hearts of the other gods failed them, he alone recovered the Tablets of Fate, stolen by the bird-god Zû from Enlil's palace. He is here recorded to have reigned in Erech for 1,200 years. Tradition already told us that Erech was the native city of Gilgamesh, the hero of the national epic, to whom his ancestor Ut-napishtim related the story of the Flood. Gilgamesh too is in our list, as king of Erech for 126 years. We have here in fact recovered traditions of Post-diluvian kings. Unfortunately our list goes no farther back than that, but it is probable that in its original form it presented a general correspondence to the system preserved from Berossus, which enumerates ten Antediluvian kings, the last of them Xisuthros, the hero of the Deluge. Indeed, for the dynastic period, the agreement of these old Sumerian lists with the chronological system of Berossus is striking. The latter, according to Syncellus, gives 34,090 or 34,080 years as the total duration of the historical period, apart from his preceding mythical ages, while the figure as preserved by Eusebius is 33,091 years.[1] The compiler of one of our new lists,[2] writing some 1,900 years earlier, reckons that the dynastic period in his day had lasted for 32,243 years. Of course all these figures are mythical, and even at the time of the Sumerian Dynasty of Nîsin variant traditions were current with regard to the number of historical and semi-mythical kings of Babylonia and the duration of their rule. For the earlier writer of another of our lists,[3] separated from the one already quoted by an interval of only sixty-seven years, gives 28,876[4] years as the total duration of the dynasties at his time. But in spite of these discrepancies, the general resemblance presented by the huge totals in the variant copies of the list to the alternative figures of Berossus, if we ignore his mythical period, is remarkable. They indicate a far closer correspondence of the Greek tradition with that of the early Sumerians themselves than was formerly suspected. [1] The figure 34,090 is that given by Syncellus (ed. Dindorf, p. 147); but it is 34,080 in the equivalent which is added in "sars", &c. The discrepancy is explained by some as due to an intentional omission of the units in the second reckoning; others would regard 34,080 as the correct figure (cf. /Hist. of Bab./, p. 114 f.). The reading of ninety against eighty is supported by the 33,091 of Eusebius (/Chron. lib. pri./, ed. Schoene, col. 25). [2] No. 4. [3] No. 2. [4] The figures are broken, but the reading given may be accepted with some confidence; see Poebel, /Hist. Inscr./, p. 103. Further proof of this correspondence may be seen in the fact that the new Sumerian Version of the Deluge Story, which I propose to discuss in the second lecture, gives us a connected account of the world's history down to that point. The Deluge hero is there a Sumerian king named Ziusudu, ruling in one of the newly created cities of Babylonia and ministering at the shrine of his city-god. He is continually given the royal title, and the foundation of the Babylonian "kingdom" is treated as an essential part of Creation. We may therefore assume that an Antediluvian period existed in Sumerian tradition as in Berossus.[1] And I think Dr. Poebel is right in assuming that the Nippur copies of the Dynastic List begin with the Post-diluvian period.[2] [1] Of course it does not necessarily follow that the figure assigned to the duration of the Antediluvian or mythical period by the Sumerians would show so close a resemblance to that of Berossus as we have already noted in their estimates of the dynastic or historical period. But there is no need to assume that Berossus' huge total of a hundred and twenty "sars" (432,000 years) is entirely a product of Neo-Babylonian speculation; the total 432,000 is explained as representing ten months of a cosmic year, each month consisting of twelve "sars", i.e. 12 x 3600 = 43,200 years. The Sumerians themselves had no difficulty in picturing two of their dynastic rulers as each reigning for two "ners" (1,200 years), and it would not be unlikely that "sars" were distributed among still earlier rulers; the numbers were easily written. For the unequal distribution of his hundred and twenty "sars" by Berossus among his ten Antediluvian kings, see Appendix II. [2] The exclusion of the Antediluvian period from the list may perhaps be explained on the assumption that its compiler confined his record to "kingdoms", and that the mythical rulers who preceded them did not form a "kingdom" within his definition of the term. In any case we have a clear indication that an earlier period was included before the true "kingdoms", or dynasties, in an Assyrian copy of the list, a fragment of which is preserved in the British Museum from the Library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh; see /Chron. conc. Early Bab. Kings/ (Studies in East. Hist., II f.), Vol. I, pp. 182 ff., Vol. II, pp. 48 ff., 143 f. There we find traces of an extra column of text preceding that in which the first Kingdom of Kish was recorded. It would seem almost certain that this extra column was devoted to Antediluvian kings. The only alternative explanation would be that it was inscribed with the summaries which conclude the Sumerian copies of our list. But later scribes do not so transpose their material, and the proper place for summaries is at the close, not at the beginning, of a list. In the Assyrian copy the Dynastic List is brought up to date, and extends down to the later Assyrian period. Formerly its compiler could only be credited with incorporating traditions of earlier times. But the correspondence of the small fragment preserved of its Second Column with part of the First Column of the Nippur texts (including the name of "Enmennunna") proves that the Assyrian scribe reproduced an actual copy of the Sumerian document. Though Professor Barton, on the other hand, holds that the Dynastic List had no concern with the Deluge, his suggestion that the early names preserved by it may have been the original source of Berossus' Antediluvian rulers[1] may yet be accepted in a modified form. In coming to his conclusion he may have been influenced by what seems to me an undoubted correspondence between one of the rulers in our list and the sixth Antediluvian king of Berossus. I think few will be disposed to dispute the equation {Daonos poimon} = Etana, a shepherd. Each list preserves the hero's shepherd origin and the correspondence of the names is very close, Daonos merely transposing the initial vowel of Etana.[2] That Berossus should have translated a Post- diluvian ruler into the Antediluvian dynasty would not be at all surprising in view of the absence of detailed correspondence between his later dynasties and those we know actually occupied the Babylonian throne. Moreover, the inclusion of Babylon in his list of Antediluvian cities should make us hesitate to regard all the rulers he assigns to his earliest dynasty as necessarily retaining in his list their original order in Sumerian tradition. Thus we may with a clear conscience seek equations between the names of Berossus' Antediluvian rulers and those preserved in the early part of our Dynastic List, although we may regard the latter as equally Post-diluvian in Sumerian belief. [1] See the brief statement he makes in the course of a review of Dr. Poebel's volumes in the /American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature/, XXXI, April 1915, p. 225. He does not compare any of the names, but he promises a study of those preserved and a comparison of the list with Berossus and with Gen. iv and v. It is possible that Professor Barton has already fulfilled his promise of further discussion, perhaps in his /Archaeology and the Bible/, to the publication of which I have seen a reference in another connexion (cf. /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc., Vol. XXXVI, p. 291); but I have not yet been able to obtain sight of a copy. [2] The variant form {Daos} is evidently a mere contraction, and any claim it may have had to represent more closely the original form of the name is to be disregarded in view of our new equation. This reflection, and the result already obtained, encourage us to accept the following further equation, which is yielded by a renewed scrutiny of the lists: {'Ammenon} = Enmenunna. Here Ammenon, the fourth of Berossus' Antediluvian kings, presents a wonderfully close transcription of the Sumerian name. The /n/ of the first syllable has been assimilated to the following consonant in accordance with a recognized law of euphony, and the resultant doubling of the /m/ is faithfully preserved in the Greek. Precisely the same initial component, /Enme/, occurs in the name Enmeduranki, borne by a mythical king of Sippar, who has long been recognized as the original of Berossus' seventh Antediluvian king, {Euedorakhos}.[1] There too the original /n/ has been assimilated, but the Greek form retains no doubling of the /m/ and points to its further weakening. [1] Var. {Euedoreskhos}; the second half of the original name, Enmeduranki, is more closely preserved in /Edoranchus/, the form given by the Armenian translator of Eusebius. I do not propose to detain you with a detailed discussion of Sumerian royal names and their possible Greek equivalents. I will merely point out that the two suggested equations, which I venture to think we may regard as established, throw the study of Berossus' mythological personages upon a new plane. No equivalent has hitherto been suggested for {Daonos}; but {'Ammenon} has been confidently explained as the equivalent of a conjectured Babylonian original, Ummânu, lit. "Workman". The fact that we should now have recovered the Sumerian original of the name, which proves to have no connexion in form or meaning with the previously suggested Semitic equivalent, tends to cast doubt on other Semitic equations proposed. Perhaps {'Amelon} or {'Amillaros} may after all not prove to be the equivalent of Amêlu, "Man", nor {'Amempsinos} that of Amêl-Sin. Both may find their true equivalents in some of the missing royal names at the head of the Sumerian Dynastic List. There too we may provisionally seek {'Aloros}, the "first king", whose equation with Aruru, the Babylonian mother- goddess, never appeared a very happy suggestion.[1] The ingenious proposal,[2] on the other hand, that his successor, {'Alaparos}, represents a miscopied {'Adaparos}, a Greek rendering of the name of Adapa, may still hold good in view of Etana's presence in the Sumerian dynastic record. Ut-napishtim's title, Khasisatra or Atrakhasis, "the Very Wise", still of course remains the established equivalent of {Xisouthros}; but for {'Otiartes} (? {'Opartes}), a rival to Ubar- Tutu, Ut-napishtim's father, may perhaps appear. The new identifications do not of course dispose of the old ones, except in the case of Ummânu; but they open up a new line of approach and provide a fresh field for conjecture.[3] Semitic, and possibly contracted, originals are still possible for unidentified mythical kings of Berossus; but such equations will inspire greater confidence, should we be able to establish Sumerian originals for the Semitic renderings, from new material already in hand or to be obtained in the future. [1] Dr. Poebel (/Hist Inscr./, p. 42, n. 1) makes the interesting suggestion that {'Aloros} may represent an abbreviated and corrupt form of the name Lal-ur-alimma, which has come down to us as that of an early and mythical king of Nippur; see Rawlinson, /W.A.I./, IV, 60 (67), V, 47 and 44, and cf. /Sev. Tabl. of Creat./, Vol. I, p. 217, No. 32574, Rev., l. 2 f. It may be added that the sufferings with which the latter is associated in the tradition are perhaps such as might have attached themselves to the first human ruler of the world; but the suggested equation, though tempting by reason of the remote parallel it would thus furnish to Adam's fate, can at present hardly be accepted in view of the possibility that a closer equation to {'Aloros} may be forthcoming. [2] Hommel, /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, Vol. XV (1893), p. 243. [3] See further Appendix II. But it is time I read you extracts from the earlier extant portions of the Sumerian Dynastic List, in order to illustrate the class of document with which we are dealing. From them it will be seen that the record is not a tabular list of names like the well-known King's Lists of the Neo-Babylonian period. It is cast in the form of an epitomized chronicle and gives under set formulae the length of each king's reign, and his father's name in cases of direct succession to father or brother. Short phrases are also sometimes added, or inserted in the sentence referring to a king, in order to indicate his humble origin or the achievement which made his name famous in tradition. The head of the First Column of the text is wanting, and the first royal name that is completely preserved is that of Galumum, the ninth or tenth ruler of the earliest "kingdom", or dynasty, of Kish. The text then runs on connectedly for several lines: Galumum ruled for nine hundred years. Zugagib ruled for eight hundred and forty years. Arpi, son of a man of the people, ruled for seven hundred and twenty years. Etana, the shepherd who ascended to heaven, who subdued all lands, ruled for six hundred and thirty-five years.[1] Pili . . ., son of Etana, ruled for four hundred and ten years. Enmenunna ruled for six hundred and eleven years. Melamkish, son of Enmenunna, ruled for nine hundred years. Barsalnunna, son of Enmenunna, ruled for twelve hundred years. Mesza[. . .], son of Barsalnunna, ruled for [. . .] years. [. . .], son of Barsalnunna, ruled for [. . .] years. [1] Possibly 625 years. A small gap then occurs in the text, but we know that the last two representatives of this dynasty of twenty-three kings are related to have ruled for nine hundred years and six hundred and twenty-five years respectively. In the Second Column of the text the lines are also fortunately preserved which record the passing of the first hegemony of Kish to the "Kingdom of Eanna", the latter taking its name from the famous temple of Anu and Ishtar in the old city of Erech. The text continues: The kingdom of Kish passed to Eanna. In Eanna, Meskingasher, son of the Sun-god, ruled as high priest and king for three hundred and twenty-five years. Meskingasher entered into[1] [. . .] and ascended to [. . .]. Enmerkar, son of Meskingasher, the king of Erech who built [. . .] with the people of Erech,[2] ruled as king for four hundred and twenty years. Lugalbanda, the shepherd, ruled for twelve hundred years. Dumuzi,[3], the hunter(?), whose city was . . ., ruled for a hundred years. Gishbilgames,[4] whose father was A,[5] the high priest of Kullab, ruled for one hundred and twenty-six[6] years. [. . .]lugal, son of Gishbilgames, ruled for [. . .] years. [1] The verb may also imply descent into. [2] The phrase appears to have been imperfectly copied by the scribe. As it stands the subordinate sentence reads "the king of Erech who built with the people of Erech". Either the object governed by the verb has been omitted, in which case we might restore some such phrase as "the city"; or, perhaps, by a slight transposition, we should read "the king who built Erech with the people of Erech". In any case the first building of the city of Erech, as distinguished from its ancient cult-centre Eanna, appears to be recorded here in the tradition. This is the first reference to Erech in the text; and Enmerkar's father was high priest as well as king. [3] i.e. Tammuz. [4] i.e. Gilgamesh. [5] The name of the father of Gilgamesh is rather strangely expressed by the single sign for the vowel /a/ and must apparently be read as A. As there is a small break in the text at the end of this line, Dr. Poebel not unnaturally assumed that A was merely the first syllable of the name, of which the end was wanting. But it has now been shown that the complete name was A; see Förtsch, /Orient. Lit.-Zeit./, Vol. XVIII, No. 12 (Dec., 1915), col. 367 ff. The reading is deduced from the following entry in an Assyrian explanatory list of gods (/Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus./, Pt. XXIV, pl. 25, ll. 29-31): "The god A, who is also equated to the god Dubbisaguri (i.e. 'Scribe of Ur'), is the priest of Kullab; his wife is the goddess Ninguesirka (i.e. 'Lady of the edge of the street')." A, the priest of Kullab and the husband of a goddess, is clearly to be identified with A, the priest of Kullab and father of Gilgamesh, for we know from the Gilgamesh Epic that the hero's mother was the goddess Ninsun. Whether Ninguesirka was a title of Ninsun, or represents a variant tradition with regard to the parentage of Gilgamesh on the mother's side, we have in any case confirmation of his descent from priest and goddess. It was natural that A should be subsequently deified. This was not the case at the time our text was inscribed, as the name is written without the divine determinative. [6] Possibly 186 years. This group of early kings of Erech is of exceptional interest. Apart from its inclusion of Gilgamesh and the gods Tammuz and Lugalbanda, its record of Meskingasher's reign possibly refers to one of the lost legends of Erech. Like him Melchizedek, who comes to us in a chapter of Genesis reflecting the troubled times of Babylon's First Dynasty,[1] was priest as well as king.[2] Tradition appears to have credited Meskingasher's son and successor, Enmerkar, with the building of Erech as a city around the first settlement Eanna, which had already given its name to the "kingdom". If so, Sumerian tradition confirms the assumption of modern research that the great cities of Babylonia arose around the still more ancient cult-centres of the land. We shall have occasion to revert to the traditions here recorded concerning the parentage of Meskingasher, the founder of this line of kings, and that of its most famous member, Gilgamesh. Meanwhile we may note that the closing rulers of the "Kingdom of Eanna" are wanting. When the text is again preserved, we read of the hegemony passing from Erech to Ur and thence to Awan: The k[ingdom of Erech[3] passed to] Ur. In Ur Mesannipada became king and ruled for eighty years. Meskiagunna, son of Mesannipada, ruled for thirty years. Elu[. . .] ruled for twenty-five years. Balu[. . .] ruled for thirty-six years. Four kings (thus) ruled for a hundred and seventy-one years. The kingdom of Ur passed to Awan. In Awan . . . [1] Cf. /Hist. of Bab./, p. 159 f. [2] Gen. xiv. 18. [3] The restoration of Erech here, in place of Eanna, is based on the absence of the latter name in the summary; after the building of Erech by Enmerkar, the kingdom was probably reckoned as that of Erech. With the "Kingdom of Ur" we appear to be approaching a firmer historical tradition, for the reigns of its rulers are recorded in decades, not hundreds of years. But we find in the summary, which concludes the main copy of our Dynastic List, that the kingdom of Awan, though it consisted of but three rulers, is credited with a total duration of three hundred and fifty-six years, implying that we are not yet out of the legendary stratum. Since Awan is proved by newly published historical inscriptions from Nippur to have been an important deity of Elam at the time of the Dynasty of Akkad,[1] we gather that the "Kingdom of Awan" represented in Sumerian tradition the first occasion on which the country passed for a time under Elamite rule. At this point a great gap occurs in the text, and when the detailed dynastic succession in Babylonia is again assured, we have passed definitely from the realm of myth and legend into that of history.[2] [1] Poebel, /Hist. Inscr./, p. 128. [2] See further, Appendix II. What new light, then, do these old Sumerian records throw on Hebrew traditions concerning the early ages of mankind? I think it will be admitted that there is something strangely familiar about some of those Sumerian extracts I read just now. We seem to hear in them the faint echo of another narrative, like them but not quite the same. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enosh: and Seth lived after he begat Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. . . . and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Throughout these extracts from "the book of the generations of Adam",[1] Galumum's nine hundred years[2] seem to run almost like a refrain; and Methuselah's great age, the recognized symbol for longevity, is even exceeded by two of the Sumerian patriarchs. The names in the two lists are not the same,[3] but in both we are moving in the same atmosphere and along similar lines of thought. Though each list adheres to its own set formulae, it estimates the length of human life in the early ages of the world on much the same gigantic scale as the other. Our Sumerian records are not quite so formal in their structure as the Hebrew narrative, but the short notes which here and there relieve their stiff monotony may be paralleled in the Cainite genealogy of the preceding chapter in Genesis.[4] There Cain's city- building, for example, may pair with that of Enmerkar; and though our new records may afford no precise equivalents to Jabal's patronage of nomad life, or to the invention of music and metal-working ascribed to Jubal and Tubal-cain, these too are quite in the spirit of Sumerian and Babylonian tradition, in their attempt to picture the beginnings of civilization. Thus Enmeduranki, the prototype of the seventh Antediluvian patriarch of Berossus, was traditionally revered as the first exponent of divination.[5] It is in the chronological and general setting, rather than in the Hebrew names and details, that an echo seems here to reach us from Sumer through Babylon. [1] Gen. v. 1 ff. (P). [2] The same length of reign is credited to Melamkish and to one and perhaps two other rulers of that first Sumerian "kingdom". [3] The possibility of the Babylonian origin of some of the Hebrew names in this geneaology and its Cainite parallel has long been canvassed; and considerable ingenuity has been expended in obtaining equations between Hebrew names and those of the Antediluvian kings of Berossus by tracing a common meaning for each suggested pair. It is unfortunate that our new identification of {'Ammenon} with the Sumerian /Enmenunna/ should dispose of one of the best parallels obtained, viz. {'Ammenon} = Bab. /ummânu/, "workman" || Cain, Kenan = "smith". Another satisfactory pair suggested is {'Amelon} = Bab. /amêlu/, "man" || Enosh = "man"; but the resemblance of the former to /amêlu/ may prove to be fortuitous, in view of the possibility of descent from a quite different Sumerian original. The alternative may perhaps have to be faced that the Hebrew parallels to Sumerian and Babylonian traditions are here confined to chronological structure and general contents, and do not extend to Hebrew renderings of Babylonian names. It may be added that such correspondence between personal names in different languages is not very significant by itself. The name of Zugagib of Kish, for example, is paralleled by the title borne by one of the earliest kings of the Ist Dynasty of Egypt, Narmer, whose carved slate palettes have been found at Kierakonpolis; he too was known as "the Scorpion." [4] Gen. iv. 17 ff. (J). [5] It may be noted that an account of the origin of divination is included in his description of the descendents of Noah by the writer of the Biblical Antiquities of Philo, a product of the same school as the Fourth Book of Esdras and the Apocalypse of Baruch; see James, /The Biblical Antiquities of Philo/, p. 86. I may add that a parallel is provided by the new Sumerian records to the circumstances preceding the birth of the Nephilim at the beginning of the sixth chapter of Genesis.[1] For in them also great prowess or distinction is ascribed to the progeny of human and divine unions. We have already noted that, according to the traditions the records embody, the Sumerians looked back to a time when gods lived upon the earth with men, and we have seen such deities as Tammuz and Lugalbanda figuring as rulers of cities in the dynastic sequence. As in later periods, their names are there preceded by the determinative for divinity. But more significant still is the fact that we read of two Sumerian heroes, also rulers of cities, who were divine on the father's or mother's side but not on both. Meskingasher is entered in the list as "son of the Sun-god",[2] and no divine parentage is recorded on the mother's side. On the other hand, the human father of Gilgamesh is described as the high priest of Kullab, and we know from other sources that his mother was the goddess Ninsun.[3] That this is not a fanciful interpretation is proved by a passage in the Gilgamesh Epic itself,[4] in which its hero is described as two-thirds god and one-third man. We again find ourselves back in the same stratum of tradition with which the Hebrew narratives have made us so familiar. [1] Gen. vi. 1-4 (J). [2] The phrase recalls the familiar Egyptian royal designation "son of the Sun," and it is possible that we may connect with this same idea the Palermo Stele's inclusion of the mother's and omission of the father's name in its record of the early dynastic Pharaohs. This suggestion does not exclude the possibility of the prevalence of matrilineal (and perhaps originally also of matrilocal and matripotestal) conditions among the earliest inhabitants of Egypt. Indeed the early existence of some form of mother-right may have originated, and would certainly have encouraged, the growth of a tradition of solar parentage for the head of the state. [3] Poebel, /Hist. Inscr./, p. 124 f. [4] Tablet I, Col. ii, l. 1; and cf. Tablet IX, Col. ii. l. 16. What light then does our new material throw upon traditional origins of civilization? We have seen that in Egypt a new fragment of the Palermo Stele has confirmed in a remarkable way the tradition of the predynastic period which was incorporated in his history by Manetho. It has long been recognized that in Babylonia the sources of Berossus must have been refracted by the political atmosphere of that country during the preceding nineteen hundred years. This inference our new material supports; but when due allowance has been made for a resulting disturbance of vision, the Sumerian origin of the remainder of his evidence is notably confirmed. Two of his ten Antediluvian kings rejoin their Sumerian prototypes, and we shall see that two of his three Antediluvian cities find their place among the five of primitive Sumerian belief. It is clear that in Babylonia, as in Egypt, the local traditions of the dawn of history, current in the Hellenistic period, were modelled on very early lines. Both countries were the seats of ancient civilizations, and it is natural that each should stage its picture of beginnings upon its own soil and embellish it with local colouring. It is a tribute to the historical accuracy of Hebrew tradition to recognize that it never represented Palestine as the cradle of the human race. It looked to the East rather than to the South for evidence of man's earliest history and first progress in the arts of life. And it is in the East, in the soil of Babylonia, that we may legitimately seek material in which to verify the sources of that traditional belief. The new parallels I have to-day attempted to trace between some of the Hebrew traditions, preserved in Gen. iv-vi, and those of the early Sumerians, as presented by their great Dynastic List, are essentially general in character and do not apply to details of narrative or to proper names. If they stood alone, we should still have to consider whether they are such as to suggest cultural influence or independent origin. But fortunately they do not exhaust the evidence we have lately recovered from the site of Nippur, and we will postpone formulating our conclusions with regard to them until the whole field has been surveyed. From the biblical standpoint by far the most valuable of our new documents is one that incorporates a Sumerian version of the Deluge story. We shall see that it presents a variant and more primitive picture of that great catastrophe than those of the Babylonian and Hebrew versions. And what is of even greater interest, it connects the narrative of the Flood with that of Creation, and supplies a brief but intermediate account of the Antediluvian period. How then are we to explain this striking literary resemblance to the structure of the narrative in Genesis, a resemblance that is completely wanting in the Babylonian versions? But that is a problem we must reserve for the next lecture. LECTURE II DELUGE STORIES AND THE NEW SUMERIAN VERSION In the first lecture we saw how, both in Babylonia and Egypt, recent discoveries had thrown light upon periods regarded as prehistoric, and how we had lately recovered traditions concerning very early rulers both in the Nile Valley and along the lower Euphrates. On the strength of the latter discovery we noted the possibility that future excavation in Babylonia would lay bare stages of primitive culture similar to those we have already recovered in Egyptian soil. Meanwhile the documents from Nippur had shown us what the early Sumerians themselves believed about their own origin, and we traced in their tradition the gradual blending of history with legend and myth. We saw that the new Dynastic List took us back in the legendary sequence at least to the beginning of the Post-diluvian period. Now one of the newly published literary texts fills in the gap beyond, for it gives us a Sumerian account of the history of the world from the Creation to the Deluge, at about which point, as we saw, the extant portions of the Dynastic List take up the story. I propose to devote my lecture to-day to this early version of the Flood and to the effect of its discovery upon some current theories. The Babylonian account of the Deluge, which was discovered by George Smith in 1872 on tablets from the Royal Library at Nineveh, is, as you know, embedded in a long epic of twelve Books recounting the adventures of the Old Babylonian hero Gilgamesh. Towards the end of this composite tale, Gilgamesh, desiring immortality, crosses the Waters of Death in order to beg the secret from his ancestor Ut-napishtim, who in the past had escaped the Deluge and had been granted immortality by the gods. The Eleventh Tablet, or Book, of the epic contains the account of the Deluge which Ut-napishtim related to his kinsman Gilgamesh. The close correspondence of this Babylonian story with that contained in Genesis is recognized by every one and need not detain us. You will remember that in some passages the accounts tally even in minute details, such, for example, as the device of sending out birds to test the abatement of the waters. It is true that in the Babylonian version a dove, a swallow, and a raven are sent forth in that order, instead of a raven and the dove three times. But such slight discrepancies only emphasize the general resemblance of the narratives. In any comparison it is usually admitted that two accounts have been combined in the Hebrew narrative. I should like to point out that this assumption may be made by any one, whatever his views may be with regard to the textual problems of the Hebrew Bible and the traditional authorship of the Pentateuch. And for our purpose at the moment it is immaterial whether we identify the compiler of these Hebrew narratives with Moses himself, or with some later Jewish historian whose name has not come down to us. Whoever he was, he has scrupulously preserved his two texts and, even when they differ, he has given each as he found it. Thanks to this fact, any one by a careful examination of the narrative can disentangle the two versions for himself. He will find each gives a consistent story. One of them appears to be simpler and more primitive than the other, and I will refer to them as the earlier and the later Hebrew Versions.[1] The Babylonian text in the Epic of Gilgamesh contains several peculiarities of each of the Hebrew versions, though the points of resemblance are more detailed in the earlier of the two. [1] In the combined account in Gen. vi. 5-ix. 17, if the following passages be marked in the margin or underlined, and then read consecutively, it will be seen that they give a consistent and almost complete account of the Deluge: Gen. vi. 9-22; vii. 6, 11, 13-16 (down to "as God commanded him"), 17 (to "upon the earth"), 18-21, 24; viii. 1, 2 (to "were stopped"), 3 (from "and after")-5, 13 (to "from off the earth"), 14-19; and ix. 1-17. The marked passages represent the "later Hebrew Version." If the remaining passages be then read consecutively, they will be seen to give a different version of the same events, though not so completely preserved as the other; these passages substantially represent the "earlier Hebrew Version". In commentaries on the Hebrew text they are, of course, usually referred to under the convenient symbols J and P, representing respectively the earlier and the later versions. For further details, see any of the modern commentaries on Genesis, e.g. Driver, /Book of Genesis/, pp. 85 ff.; Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 147 ff.; Ryle, /Genesis/, p. 96 f. Now the tablets from the Royal Library at Nineveh inscribed with the Gilgamesh Epic do not date from an earlier period than the seventh century B.C. But archaeological evidence has long shown that the traditions themselves were current during all periods of Babylonian history; for Gilgamesh and his half-human friend Enkidu were favourite subjects for the seal-engraver, whether he lived in Sumerian times or under the Achaemenian kings of Persia. We have also, for some years now, possessed two early fragments of the Deluge narrative, proving that the story was known to the Semitic inhabitants of the country at the time of Hammurabi's dynasty.[1] Our newly discovered text from Nippur was also written at about that period, probably before 2100 B.C. But the composition itself, apart from the tablet on which it is inscribed, must go back very much earlier than that. For instead of being composed in Semitic Babylonian, the text is in Sumerian, the language of the earliest known inhabitants of Babylonia, whom the Semites eventually displaced. This people, it is now recognized, were the originators of the Babylonian civilization, and we saw in the first lecture that, according to their own traditions, they had occupied that country since the dawn of history. [1] The earlier of the two fragments is dated in the eleventh year of Ammizaduga, the tenth king of Hammurabi's dynasty, i.e. in 1967 B.C.; it was published by Scheil, /Recueil de travaux/, Vol. XX, pp. 55 ff. Here the Deluge story does not form part of the Gilgamesh Epic, but is recounted in the second tablet of a different work; its hero bears the name Atrakhasis, as in the variant version of the Deluge from the Nineveh library. The other and smaller fragment, which must be dated by its script, was published by Hilprecht (/Babylonian Expedition/, series D, Vol. V, Fasc. 1, pp. 33 ff.), who assigned it to about the same period; but it is probably of a considerably later date. The most convenient translations of the legends that were known before the publication of the Nippur texts are those given by Rogers, /Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament/ (Oxford, 1912), and Dhorme, /Choix de textes religieux Assyro-Babyloniens/ (Paris, 1907). The Semites as a ruling race came later, though the occurrence of Semitic names in the Sumerian Dynastic List suggests very early infiltration from Arabia. After a long struggle the immigrants succeeded in dominating the settled race; and in the process they in turn became civilized. They learnt and adopted the cuneiform writing, they took over the Sumerian literature. Towards the close of the third millennium, when our tablet was written, the Sumerians as a race had almost ceased to exist. They had been absorbed in the Semitic population and their language was no longer the general language of the country. But their ancient literature and sacred texts were carefully preserved and continued to be studied by the Semitic priests and scribes. So the fact that the tablet is written in the old Sumerian tongue proves that the story it tells had come down from a very much earlier period. This inference is not affected by certain small differences in idiom which its language presents when compared with that of Sumerian building-inscriptions. Such would naturally occur in the course of transmission, especially in a text which, as we shall see, had been employed for a practical purpose after being subjected to a process of reduction to suit it to its new setting. When we turn to the text itself, it will be obvious that the story also is very primitive. But before doing so we will inquire whether this very early version is likely to cast any light on the origin of Deluge stories such as are often met with in other parts of the world. Our inquiry will have an interest apart from the question itself, as it will illustrate the views of two divergent schools among students of primitive literature and tradition. According to one of these views, in its most extreme form, the tales which early or primitive man tells about his gods and the origin of the world he sees around him are never to be regarded as simple stories, but are to be consistently interpreted as symbolizing natural phenomena. It is, of course, quite certain that, both in Egypt and Babylonia, mythology in later periods received a strong astrological colouring; and it is equally clear that some legends derive their origin from nature myths. But the theory in the hands of its more enthusiastic adherents goes further than that. For them a complete absence of astrological colouring is no deterrent from an astrological interpretation; and, where such colouring does occur, the possibility of later embellishment is discounted, and it is treated without further proof as the base on which the original story rests. One such interpretation of the Deluge narrative in Babylonia, particularly favoured by recent German writers, would regard it as reflecting the passage of the Sun through a portion of the ecliptic. It is assumed that the primitive Babylonians were aware that in the course of ages the spring equinox must traverse the southern or watery region of the zodiac. This, on their system, signified a submergence of the whole universe in water, and the Deluge myth would symbolize the safe passage of the vernal Sun-god through that part of the ecliptic. But we need not spend time over that view, as its underlying conception is undoubtedly quite a late development of Babylonian astrology. More attractive is the simpler astrological theory that the voyage of any Deluge hero in his boat or ark represents the daily journey of the Sun-god across the heavenly ocean, a conception which is so often represented in Egyptian sculpture and painting. It used to be assumed by holders of the theory that this idea of the Sun as "the god in the boat" was common among primitive races, and that that would account for the widespread occurrence of Deluge-stories among scattered races of the world. But this view has recently undergone some modification in accordance with the general trend of other lines of research. In recent years there has been an increased readiness among archaeologists to recognize evidence of contact between the great civilizations of antiquity. This has been particularly the case in the area of the Eastern Mediterranean; but the possibility has also been mooted of the early use of land-routes running from the Near East to Central and Southern Asia. The discovery in Chinese Turkestan, to the east of the Caspian, of a prehistoric culture resembling that of Elam has now been followed by the finding of similar remains by Sir Aurel Stein in the course of the journey from which he has lately returned.[1] They were discovered in an old basin of the Helmand River in Persian Seistan, where they had been laid bare by wind-erosion. But more interesting still, and an incentive to further exploration in that region, is another of his discoveries last year, also made near the Afghan border. At two sites in the Helmand Delta, well above the level of inundation, he came across fragments of pottery inscribed in early Aramaic characters,[2] though, for obvious reasons, he has left them with all his other collections in India. This unexpected find, by the way, suggests for our problem possibilities of wide transmission in comparatively early times. [1] See his "Expedition in Central Asia", in /The Geographical Journal/, Vol. XLVII (Jan.-June, 1916), pp. 358 ff. [2] Op. cit., p. 363. The synthetic tendency among archaeologists has been reflected in anthropological research, which has begun to question the separate and independent origin, not only of the more useful arts and crafts, but also of many primitive customs and beliefs. It is suggested that too much stress has been laid on environment; and, though it is readily admitted that similar needs and experiences may in some cases have given rise to similar expedients and explanations, it is urged that man is an imitative animal and that inventive genius is far from common.[1] Consequently the wide dispersion of many beliefs and practices, which used generally to be explained as due to the similar and independent working of the human mind under like conditions, is now often provisionally registered as evidence of migratory movement or of cultural drift. Much good work has recently been done in tabulating the occurrence of many customs and beliefs, in order to ascertain their lines of distribution. Workers are as yet in the collecting stage, and it is hardly necessary to say that explanatory theories are still to be regarded as purely tentative and provisional. At the meetings of the British Association during the last few years, the most breezy discussions in the Anthropological Section have undoubtedly centred around this subject. There are several works in the field, but the most comprehensive theory as yet put forward is one that concerns us, as it has given a new lease of life to the old solar interpretation of the Deluge story. [1] See, e.g. Marett, /Anthropology/ (2nd ed., 1914), Chap. iv, "Environment," pp. 122 ff.; and for earlier tendencies, particularly in the sphere of mythological exegesis, see S. Reinach, /Cultes, Mythes et Religions/, t. IV (1912), pp. 1 ff. In a land such as Egypt, where there is little rain and the sky is always clear, the sun in its splendour tended from the earliest period to dominate the national consciousness. As intercourse increased along the Nile Valley, centres of Sun-worship ceased to be merely local, and the political rise of a city determined the fortunes of its cult. From the proto-dynastic period onward, the "King of the two Lands" had borne the title of "Horus" as the lineal descendant of the great Sun- god of Edfu, and the rise of Ra in the Vth Dynasty, through the priesthood of Heliopolis, was confirmed in the solar theology of the Middle Kingdom. Thus it was that other deities assumed a solar character as forms of Ra. Amen, the local god of Thebes, becomes Amen-Ra with the political rise of his city, and even the old Crocodile-god, Sebek, soars into the sky as Sebek-Ra. The only other movement in the religion of ancient Egypt, comparable in importance to this solar development, was the popular cult of Osiris as God of the Dead, and with it the official religion had to come to terms. Horus is reborn as the posthumous son of Osiris, and Ra gladdens his abode during his nightly journey through the Underworld. The theory with which we are concerned suggests that this dominant trait in Egyptian religion passed, with other elements of culture, beyond the bounds of the Nile Valley and influenced the practice and beliefs of distant races. This suggestion has been gradually elaborated by its author, Professor Elliot Smith, who has devoted much attention to the anatomical study of Egyptian mummification. Beginning with a scrutiny of megalithic building and sun-worship,[1] he has subsequently deduced, from evidence of common distribution, the existence of a culture-complex, including in addition to these two elements the varied practices of tattooing, circumcision, ear-piercing, that quaint custom known as couvade, head-deformation, and the prevalence of serpent-cults, myths of petrifaction and the Deluge, and finally of mummification. The last ingredient was added after an examination of Papuan mummies had disclosed their apparent resemblance in points of detail to Egyptian mummies of the XXIst Dynasty. As a result he assumes the existence of an early cultural movement, for which the descriptive title "heliolithic" has been coined.[2] Starting with Egypt as its centre, one of the principal lines of its advance is said to have lain through Syria and Mesopotamia and thence along the coastlands of Asia to the Far East. The method of distribution and the suggested part played by the Phoenicians have been already criticized sufficiently. But in a modified form the theory has found considerable support, especially among ethnologists interested in Indonesia. I do not propose to examine in detail the evidence for or against it. It will suffice to note that the Deluge story and its alleged Egyptian origin in solar worship form one of the prominent strands in its composition. [1] Cf. Elliot Smith, /The Ancient Egyptians/, 1911. [2] See in particular his monograph "On the significance of the Geographical Distribution of the Practice of Mummification" in the /Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society/, 1915. One weakness of this particular strand is that the Egyptians themselves possessed no tradition of the Deluge. Indeed the annual inundation of the Nile is not such as would give rise to a legend of world-destruction; and in this respect it presents a striking contrast to the Tigris and Euphrates. The ancient Egyptian's conception of his own gentle river is reflected in the form he gave the Nile-god, for Hapi is represented as no fierce warrior or monster. He is given a woman's breasts as a sign of his fecundity. The nearest Egyptian parallel to the Deluge story is the "Legend of the Destruction of Mankind", which is engraved on the walls of a chamber in the tomb of Seti I.[1] The late Sir Gaston Maspero indeed called it "a dry deluge myth", but his paradox was intended to emphasize the difference as much as the parallelism presented. It is true that in the Egyptian myth the Sun-god causes mankind to be slain because of their impiety, and he eventually pardons the survivors. The narrative thus betrays undoubted parallelism to the Babylonian and Hebrew stories, so far as concerns the attempted annihilation of mankind by the offended god, but there the resemblance ends. For water has no part in man's destruction, and the essential element of a Deluge story is thus absent.[2] Our new Sumerian document, on the other hand, contains what is by far the earliest example yet recovered of a genuine Deluge tale; and we may thus use it incidentally to test this theory of Egyptian influence, and also to ascertain whether it furnishes any positive evidence on the origin of Deluge stories in general. [1] It was first published by Monsieur Naville, /Tranc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, IV (1874), pp. 1 ff. The myth may be most conveniently studied in Dr. Budge's edition in /Egyptian Literature/, Vol. I, "Legends of the Gods" (1912), pp. 14 ff., where the hieroglyphic text and translation are printed on opposite pages; cf. the summary, op. cit., pp. xxiii ff., where the principal literature is also cited. See also his /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I, chap. xii, pp. 388 ff. [2] The undoubted points of resemblance, as well as the equally striking points of divergence, presented by the Egyptian myth when compared with the Babylonian and Hebrew stories of a Deluge may be briefly indicated. The impiety of men in complaining of the age of Ra finds a parallel in the wickedness of man upon the earth (J) and the corruption of all flesh (P) of the Hebrew Versions. The summoning by Ra of the great Heliopolitan cosmic gods in council, including his personified Eye, the primaeval pair Shu and Tefnut, Keb the god of the earth and his consort Nut the sky-goddess, and Nu the primaeval water-god and originally Nut's male counterpart, is paralleled by the /puhur ilâni/, or "assembly of the gods", in the Babylonian Version (see Gilg. Epic. XI. l. 120 f., and cf. ll. 10 ff.); and they meet in "the Great House", or Sun-temple at Heliopolis, as the Babylonian gods deliberate in Shuruppak. Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hebrew narratives all agree in the divine determination to destroy mankind and in man's ultimate survival. But the close of the Egyptian story diverges into another sphere. The slaughter of men by the Eye of Ra in the form of the goddess Hathor, who during the night wades in their blood, is suggestive of Africa; and so too is her drinking of men's blood mixed with the narcotic mandrake and with seven thousand vessels of beer, with the result that through drunkenness she ceased from slaughter. The latter part of the narrative is directly connected with the cult-ritual and beer-drinking at the Festivals of Hathor and Ra; but the destruction of men by slaughter in place of drowning appears to belong to the original myth. Indeed, the only suggestion of a Deluge story is suggested by the presence of Nu, the primaeval water-god, at Ra's council, and that is explicable on other grounds. In any case the points of resemblance presented by the earlier part of the Egyptian myth to Semitic Deluge stories are general, not detailed; and though they may possibly be due to reflection from Asia, they are not such as to suggest an Egyptian origin for Deluge myths. The tablet on which our new version of the Deluge is inscribed was excavated at Nippur during the third Babylonian expedition sent out by the University of Pennsylvania; but it was not until the summer of 1912 that its contents were identified, when the several fragments of which it was composed were assembled and put together. It is a large document, containing six columns of writing, three on each side; but unfortunately only the lower half has been recovered, so that considerable gaps occur in the text.[1] The sharp edges of the broken surface, however, suggest that it was damaged after removal from the soil, and the possibility remains that some of the missing fragments may yet be recovered either at Pennsylvania or in the Museum at Constantinople. As it is not dated, its age must be determined mainly by the character of its script. A close examination of the writing suggests that it can hardly have been inscribed as late as the Kassite Dynasty, since two or three signs exhibit more archaic forms than occur on any tablets of that period;[2] and such linguistic corruptions as have been noted in its text may well be accounted for by the process of decay which must have already affected the Sumerian language at the time of the later kings of Nisin. Moreover, the tablet bears a close resemblance to one of the newly published copies of the Sumerian Dynastic List from Nippur;[3] for both are of the same shape and composed of the same reddish-brown clay, and both show the same peculiarities of writing. The two tablets in fact appear to have been written by the same hand, and as that copy of the Dynastic List was probably drawn up before the latter half of the First Dynasty of Babylon, we may assign the same approximate date for the writing of our text. This of course only fixes a lower limit for the age of the myth which it enshrines. [1] The breadth of the tablet is 5 5/8 in., and it originally measured about 7 in. in length from top to bottom; but only about one-third of its inscribed surface is preserved. [2] Cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, pp. 66 ff. [3] No. 5. That the composition is in the form of a poem may be seen at a glance from the external appearance of the tablet, the division of many of the lines and the blank spaces frequently left between the sign-groups being due to the rhythmical character of the text. The style of the poetry may be simple and abrupt, but it exhibits a familiar feature of both Semitic-Babylonian and Hebrew poetry, in its constant employment of partial repetition or paraphrase in parallel lines. The story it tells is very primitive and in many respects unlike the Babylonian Versions of the Deluge which we already possess. Perhaps its most striking peculiarity is the setting of the story, which opens with a record of the creation of man and animals, goes on to tell how the first cities were built, and ends with a version of the Deluge, which is thus recounted in its relation to the Sumerian history of the world. This literary connexion between the Creation and Deluge narratives is of unusual interest, in view of the age of our text. In the Babylonian Versions hitherto known they are included in separate epics with quite different contexts. Here they are recounted together in a single document, much as they probably were in the history of Berossus and as we find them in the present form of the Book of Genesis. This fact will open up some interesting problems when we attempt to trace the literary descent of the tradition. But one important point about the text should be emphasized at once, since it will affect our understanding of some very obscure passages, of which no satisfactory explanation has yet been given. The assumption has hitherto been made that the text is an epic pure and simple. It is quite true that the greater part of it is a myth, recounted as a narrative in poetical form. but there appear to me to be clear indications that the myth was really embedded in an incantation. If this was so, the mythological portion was recited for a magical purpose, with the object of invoking the aid of the chief deities whose actions in the past are there described, and of increasing by that means the potency of the spell.[1] In the third lecture I propose to treat in more detail the employment and significance of myth in magic, and we shall have occasion to refer to other instances, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Egyptian, in which a myth has reached us in a magical setting. [1] It will be seen that the subject-matter of any myth treated in this way has a close connexion with the object for which the incantation was performed. In the present case the inference of magical use is drawn from certain passages in the text itself, which appear to be explicable only on that hypothesis. In magical compositions of the later period intended for recitation, the sign for "Incantation" is usually prefixed. Unfortunately the beginning of our text is wanting; but its opening words are given in the colophon, or title, which is engraved on the left-hand edge of the tablet, and it is possible that the traces of the first sign there are to be read as EN, "Incantation".[1] Should a re-examination of the tablet establish this reading of the word, we should have definite proof of the suggested magical setting of the narrative. But even if we assume its absence, that would not invalidate the arguments that can be adduced in favour of recognizing the existence of a magical element, for they are based on internal evidence and enable us to explain certain features which are inexplicable on Dr. Poebel's hypothesis. Moreover, we shall later on examine another of the newly published Sumerian compositions from Nippur, which is not only semi-epical in character, but is of precisely the same shape, script, and period as our text, and is very probably a tablet of the same series. There also the opening signs of the text are wanting, but far more of its contents are preserved and they present unmistakable traces of magical use. Its evidence, as that of a parallel text, may therefore be cited in support of the present contention. It may be added that in Sumerian magical compositions of this early period, of which we have not yet recovered many quite obvious examples, it is possible that the prefix "Incantation" was not so invariable as in the later magical literature. [1] Cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 63, and /Hist. and Gram. Texts/, pl. i. In the photographic reproduction of the edges of the tablet given in the latter volume, pl. lxxxix, the traces of the sign suggest the reading EN (= Sem. /šiptu/, "incantation"). But the sign may very possibly be read AN. In the latter case we may read, in the traces of the two sign-groups at the beginning of the text, the names of both Anu and Enlil, who appear so frequently as the two presiding deities in the myth. It has already been remarked that only the lower half of our tablet has been recovered, and that consequently a number of gaps occur in the text. On the obverse the upper portion of each of the first three columns is missing, while of the remaining three columns, which are inscribed upon the reverse, the upper portions only are preserved. This difference in the relative positions of the textual fragments recovered is due to the fact that Sumerian scribes, like their later Babylonian and Assyrian imitators, when they had finished writing the obverse of a tablet, turned it over from bottom to top--not, as we should turn a sheet of paper, from right to left. But in spite of the lacunae, the sequence of events related in the mythological narrative may be followed without difficulty, since the main outline of the story is already familiar enough from the versions of the Semitic- Babylonian scribes and of Berossus. Some uncertainties naturally remain as to what exactly was included in the missing portions of the tablet; but the more important episodes are fortunately recounted in the extant fragments, and these suffice for a definition of the distinctive character of the Sumerian Version. In view of its literary importance it may be advisable to attempt a somewhat detailed discussion of its contents, column by column;[1] and the analysis may be most conveniently divided into numbered sections, each of which refers to one of the six columns of the tablet. The description of the First Column will serve to establish the general character of the text. Through the analysis of the tablet parallels and contrasts will be noted with the Babylonian and Hebrew Versions. It will then be possible to summarise, on a surer foundation, the literary history of the traditions, and finally to estimate the effect of our new evidence upon current theories as to the origin and wide dispersion of Deluge stories. [1] In the lecture as delivered the contents of each column were necessarily summarized rather briefly, and conclusions were given without discussion of the evidence. The following headings, under which the six numbered sections may be arranged, indicate the contents of each column and show at a glance the main features of the Sumerian Version: I. Introduction to the Myth, and account of Creation. II. The Antediluvian Cities. III. The Council of the Gods, and Ziusudu's piety. IV. The Dream-Warning. V. The Deluge, the Escape of the Great Boat, and the Sacrifice to the Sun-god. VI. The Propitiation of the Angry Gods, and Ziusudu's Immortality. I. INTRODUCTION TO THE MYTH, AND ACCOUNT OF CREATION The beginning of the text is wanting, and the earliest lines preserved of the First Column open with the closing sentences of a speech, probably by the chief of the four creating deities, who are later on referred to by name. In it there is a reference to a future destruction of mankind, but the context is broken; the lines in question begin: "As for my human race, from (/or/ in) its destruction will I cause it to be [. . .], For Nintu my creatures [. . .] will I [. . .]." From the reference to "my human race" it is clear that the speaker is a creating deity; and since the expression is exactly parallel to the term "my people" used by Ishtar, or Bêlit-ili, "the Lady of the gods", in the Babylonian Version of the Deluge story when she bewails the destruction of mankind, Dr. Poebel assigns the speech to Ninkharsagga, or Nintu,[1] the goddess who later in the column is associated with Anu, Enlil, and Enki in man's creation. But the mention of Nintu in her own speech is hardly consistent with that supposition,[2] if we assume with Dr. Poebel, as we are probably justified in doing, that the title Nintu is employed here and elsewhere in the narrative merely as a synonym of Ninkharsagga.[3] It appears to me far more probable that one of the two supreme gods, Anu or Enlil, is the speaker,[4] and additional grounds will be cited later in support of this view. It is indeed possible, in spite of the verbs and suffixes in the singular, that the speech is to be assigned to both Anu and Enlil, for in the last column, as we shall see, we find verb in the singular following references to both these deities. In any case one of the two chief gods may be regarded as speaking and acting on behalf of both, though it may be that the inclusion of the second name in the narrative was not original but simply due to a combination of variant traditions. Such a conflate use of Anu-Enlil would present a striking parallel to the Hebrew combination Yahweh-Elohim, though of course in the case of the former pair the subsequent stage of identification was never attained. But the evidence furnished by the text is not conclusive, and it is preferable here and elsewhere in the narrative to regard either Anu or Enlil as speaking and acting both on his own behalf and as the other's representative. [1] Op. cit., p. 21 f.; and cf. Jastrow, /Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions/, p. 336. [2] It necessitates the taking of (/dingir/) /Nin-tu-ra/ as a genitive, not a dative, and the very awkward rendering "my, Nintu's, creations". [3] Another of the recently published Sumerian mythological compositions from Nippur includes a number of myths in which Enki is associated first with Ninella, referred to also as Nintu, "the Goddess of Birth", then with Ninshar, referred to also as Ninkurra, and finally with Ninkharsagga. This text exhibits the process by which separate traditions with regard to goddesses originally distinct were combined together, with the result that their heroines were subsequently often identified with one another. There the myths that have not been subjected to a very severe process of editing, and in consequence the welding is not so complete as in the Sumerian Version of the Deluge. [4] If Enlil's name should prove to be the first word of the composition, we should naturally regard him as the speaker here and as the protagonist of the gods throughout the text, a /rôle/ he also plays in the Semitic-Babylonian Version. This reference to the Deluge, which occurs so early in the text, suggests the probability that the account of the Creation and of the founding of Antediluvian cities, included in the first two columns, is to be taken merely as summarizing the events that led up to the Deluge. And an almost certain proof of this may be seen in the opening words of the composition, which are preserved in its colophon or title on the left-hand edge of the tablet. We have already noted that the first two words are there to be read, either as the prefix "Incantation" followed by the name "Enlil", or as the two divine names "Anu (and) Enlil". Now the signs which follow the traces of Enlil's name are quite certain; they represent "Ziusudu", which, as we shall see in the Third Column, is the name of the Deluge hero in our Sumerian Version. He is thus mentioned in the opening words of the text, in some relation to one or both of the two chief gods of the subsequent narrative. But the natural place for his first introduction into the story is in the Third Column, where it is related that "at that time Ziusudu, the king" did so-and-so. The prominence given him at the beginning of the text, at nearly a column's interval before the lines which record the creation of man, is sufficient proof that the Deluge story is the writer's main interest, and that preceding episodes are merely introductory to it. What subject then may we conjecture was treated in the missing lines of this column, which precede the account of Creation and close with the speech of the chief creating deity? Now the Deluge narrative practically ends with the last lines of the tablet that are preserved, and the lower half of the Sixth Column is entirely wanting. We shall see reason to believe that the missing end of the tablet was not left blank and uninscribed, but contained an incantation, the magical efficacy of which was ensured by the preceding recitation of the Deluge myth. If that were so, it would be natural enough that the text should open with its main subject. The cause of the catastrophe and the reason for man's rescue from it might well be referred to by one of the creating deities in virtue of the analogy these aspects of the myth would present to the circumstances for which the incantation was designed. A brief account of the Creation and of Antediluvian history would then form a natural transition to the narrative of the Deluge itself. And even if the text contained no incantation, the narrative may well have been introduced in the manner suggested, since this explanation in any case fits in with what is still preserved of the First Column. For after his reference to the destruction of mankind, the deity proceeds to fix the chief duty of man, either as a preliminary to his creation, or as a reassertion of that duty after his rescue from destruction by the Flood. It is noteworthy that this duty consists in the building of temples to the gods "in a clean spot", that is to say "in hallowed places". The passage may be given in full, including the two opening lines already discussed: "As for my human race, from (/or/ in) its destruction will I cause it to be [. . .], For Nintu my creatures [. . .] will I [. . .]. The people will I cause to . . . in their settlements, Cities . . . shall (man) build, in there protection will I cause him to rest, That he may lay the brick of our houses in a clean spot, That in a clean spot he may establish our . . . !" In the reason here given for man's creation, or for his rescue from the Flood, we have an interesting parallel to the Sixth Tablet of the Semitic-Babylonian Creation Series. At the opening of that tablet Marduk, in response to "the word of the gods", is urged by his heart to devise a cunning plan which he imparts to Ea, namely the creation of man from his own divine blood and from bone which he will fashion. And the reason he gives for his proposal is precisely that which, as we have seen, prompted the Sumerian deity to create or preserve the human race. For Marduk continues: "I will create man who shall inhabit [. . .], That the service of the gods may be established and that their shrines may be built."[1] [1] See /The Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. 86 ff. We shall see later, from the remainder of Marduk's speech, that the Semitic Version has been elaborated at this point in order to reconcile it with other ingredients in its narrative, which were entirely absent from the simpler Sumerian tradition. It will suffice here to note that, in both, the reason given for man's existence is the same, namely, that the gods themselves may have worshippers.[1] The conception is in full agreement with early Sumerian thought, and reflects the theocratic constitution of the earliest Sumerian communities. The idea was naturally not repugnant to the Semites, and it need not surprise us to find the very words of the principal Sumerian Creator put into the mouth of Marduk, the city-god of Babylon. [1] It may be added that this is also the reason given for man's creation in the introduction to a text which celebrates the founding or rebuilding of a temple. The deity's speech perhaps comes to an end with the declaration of his purpose in creating mankind or in sanctioning their survival of the Deluge; and the following three lines appear to relate his establishment of the divine laws in accordance with which his intention was carried out. The passage includes a refrain, which is repeated in the Second Column: The sublime decrees he made perfect for it. It may probably be assumed that the refrain is employed in relation to the same deity in both passages. In the Second Column it precedes the foundation of the Babylonian kingdom and the building of the Antediluvian cities. In that passage there can be little doubt that the subject of the verb is the chief Sumerian deity, and we are therefore the more inclined to assign to him also the opening speech of the First Column, rather than to regard it as spoken by the Sumerian goddess whose share in the creation would justify her in claiming mankind as her own. In the last four lines of the column we have a brief record of the Creation itself. It was carried out by the three greatest gods of the Sumerian pantheon, Anu, Enlil and Enki, with the help of the goddess Ninkharsagga; the passage reads: When Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninkharsagga Created the blackheaded (i.e. mankind), The /niggil(ma)/ of the earth they caused the earth to produce(?), The animals, the four-legged creatures of the field, they artfully called into existence. The interpretation of the third line is obscure, but there is no doubt that it records the creation of something which is represented as having taken place between the creation of mankind and that of animals. This object, which is written as /nig-gil/ or /nig-gil-ma/, is referred to again in the Sixth Column, where the Sumerian hero of the Deluge assigns to it the honorific title, "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind". It must therefore have played an important part in man's preservation from the Flood; and the subsequent bestowal of the title may be paralleled in the early Semitic Deluge fragment from Nippur, where the boat in which Ut-napishtim escapes is assigned the very similar title "Preserver of Life".[1] But /niggilma/ is not the word used in the Sumerian Version of Ziusudu's boat, and I am inclined to suggest a meaning for it in connexion with the magical element in the text, of the existence of which there is other evidence. On that assumption, the prominence given to its creation may be paralleled in the introduction to a later magical text, which described, probably in connexion with an incantation, the creation of two small creatures, one white and one black, by Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", one of the titles borne by Enki or Ea. The time of their creation is indicated as after that of "cattle, beasts of the field and creatures of the city", and the composition opens in a way which is very like the opening of the present passage in our text.[2] In neither text is there any idea of giving a complete account of the creation of the world, only so much of the original myth being included in each case as suffices for the writer's purpose. Here we may assume that the creation of mankind and of animals is recorded because they were to be saved from the Flood, and that of the /niggilma/ because of the part it played in ensuring their survival. [1] See Hilprecht, /Babylonian Expedition/, Series D, Vol. V, Fasc. 1, plate, Rev., l. 8; the photographic reproduction clearly shows, as Dr. Poebel suggests (/Hist. Texts/, p. 61 n 3), that the line should read: /[(isu)elippu] ši-i lu (isu)ma-gur-gur-ma šum-ša lu na-si-rat na-piš-tim/, "That ship shall be a /magurgurru/ (giant boat), and its name shall be 'Preserver of Life' (lit. 'She that preserves life')." [2] See /Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. 122 ff. The text opens with the words "When the gods in their assembly had made [the world], and had created the heavens, and had formed the earth, and had brought living creatures into being . . .", the lines forming an introduction to the special act of creation with which the composition was concerned. The discussion of the meaning of /niggilma/ may best be postponed till the Sixth Column, where we find other references to the word. Meanwhile it may be noted that in the present passage the creation of man precedes that of animals, as it did in the earlier Hebrew Version of Creation, and probably also in the Babylonian version, though not in the later Hebrew Version. It may be added that in another Sumerian account of the Creation[1] the same order, of man before animals, is followed. [1] Cf. /Sev. Tabl./, Vol. I, p. 134 f.; but the text has been subjected to editing, and some of its episodes are obviously displaced. II. THE ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES As we saw was the case with the First Column of the text, the earliest part preserved of the Second Column contains the close of a speech by a deity, in which he proclaims an act he is about to perform. Here we may assume with some confidence that the speaker is Anu or Enlil, preferably the latter, since it would be natural to ascribe the political constitution of Babylonia, the foundation of which is foreshadowed, to the head of the Sumerian pantheon. It would appear that a beginning had already been made in the establishment of "the kingdom", and, before proceeding to his further work of founding the Antediluvian cities, he follows the example of the speaker in the First Column of the text and lays down the divine enactments by which his purpose was accomplished. The same refrain is repeated: The sub[lime decrees] he made perfect for it. The text then relates the founding by the god of five cities, probably "in clean places", that is to say on hallowed ground. He calls each by its name and assigns it to its own divine patron or city-god: [In clean place]s he founded [five] cit[ies]. And after he had called their names and they had been allotted to divine rulers(?),-- The . . . of these cities, Eridu, he gave to the leader, Nu-dimmud, Secondly, to Nugira(?) he gave Bad-. . .,[1] Thirdly, Larak he gave to Pabilkharsag, Fourthly, Sippar he gave to the hero, the Sun-god, Fifthly, Shuruppak he gave to "the God of Shuruppak",-- After he had called the names of these cities, and they had been allotted to divine rulers(?), [1] In Semitic-Babylonian the first component of this city-name would read "Dûr". The completion of the sentence, in the last two lines of the column, cannot be rendered with any certainty, but the passage appears to have related the creation of small rivers and pools. It will be noted that the lines which contain the names of the five cities and their patron gods[1] form a long explanatory parenthesis, the preceding line being repeated after their enumeration. [1] The precise meaning of the sign-group here provisionally rendered "divine ruler" is not yet ascertained. As the first of the series of five cities of Eridu, the seat of Nudimmud or Enki, who was the third of the creating deities, it has been urged that the upper part of the Second Column must have included an account of the founding of Erech, the city of Anu, and of Nippur, Enlil's city.[1] But the numbered sequence of the cities would be difficult to reconcile with the earlier creation of other cities in the text, and the mention of Eridu as the first city to be created would be quite in accord with its great age and peculiarly sacred character as a cult-centre. Moreover the evidence of the Sumerian Dynastic List is definitely against any claim of Erech to Antediluvian existence. For when the hegemony passed from the first Post-diluvian "kingdom" to the second, it went not to Erech but to the shrine Eanna, which gave its name to the second "kingdom"; and the city itself was apparently not founded before the reign of Enmerkar, the second occupant of the throne, who is the first to be given the title "King of Erech". This conclusion with regard to Erech incidentally disposes of the arguments for Nippur's Antediluvian rank in primitive Sumerian tradition, which have been founded on the order of the cities mentioned at the beginning of the later Sumerian myth of Creation.[2] The evidence we thus obtain that the early Sumerians themselves regarded Eridu as the first city in the world to be created, increases the hope that future excavation at Abu Shahrain may reveal Sumerian remains of periods which, from an archaeological standpoint, must still be regarded as prehistoric. [1] Cf. Poebel, op. cit., p. 41. [2] The city of Nippur does not occur among the first four "kingdoms" of the Sumerian Dynastic List; but we may probably assume that it was the seat of at least one early "kingdom", in consequence of which Enlil, its city-god, attained his later pre-eminent rank in the Sumerian pantheon. It is noteworthy that no human rulers are mentioned in connexion with Eridu and the other four Antediluvian cities; and Ziusudu, the hero of the story, is apparently the only mortal whose name occurred in our text. But its author's principal subject is the Deluge, and the preceding history of the world is clearly not given in detail, but is merely summarized. In view of the obviously abbreviated form of the narrative, of which we have already noted striking evidence in its account of the Creation, we may conclude that in the fuller form of the tradition the cities were also assigned human rulers, each one the representative of his city-god. These would correspond to the Antediluvian dynasty of Berossus, the last member of which was Xisuthros, the later counterpart of Ziusudu. In support of the exclusion of Nippur and Erech from the myth, it will be noted that the second city in the list is not Adab,[1] which was probably the principal seat of the goddess Ninkharsagga, the fourth of the creating deities. The names of both deity and city in that line are strange to us. Larak, the third city in the series, is of greater interest, for it is clearly Larankha, which according to Berossus was the seat of the eighth and ninth of his Antediluvian kings. In commercial documents of the Persian period, which have been found during the excavations at Nippur, Larak is described as lying "on the bank of the old Tigris", a phrase which must be taken as referring to the Shatt el-Hai, in view of the situation of Lagash and other early cities upon it or in its immediate neighbourhood. The site of the city should perhaps be sought on the upper course of the stream, where it tends to approach Nippur. It would thus have lain in the neighbourhood of Bismâya, the site of Adab. Like Adab, Lagash, Shuruppak, and other early Sumerian cities, it was probably destroyed and deserted at a very early period, though it was reoccupied under its old name in Neo- Babylonian or Persian times. Its early disappearance from Babylonian history perhaps in part accounts for our own unfamiliarity with Pabilkharsag, its city-god, unless we may regard the name as a variant from of Pabilsag; but it is hardly likely that the two should be identified. [1] The site of Adab, now marked by the mounds of Bismâya, was partially excavated by an expedition sent out in 1903 by the University of Chicago, and has provided valuable material for the study of the earliest Sumerian period; see /Reports of the Expedition of the Oriental Exploration Fund/ (Babylonian Section of the University of Chicago), and Banks, /Bismya/ (1912). On grounds of antiquity alone we might perhaps have expected its inclusion in the myth. In Sibbar, the fourth of the Antediluvian cities in our series, we again have a parallel to Berossus. it has long been recognized that Pantibiblon, or Pantibiblia, from which the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh of his Antediluvian kings all came, was the city of Sippar in Northern Babylonia. For the seventh of these rulers, {Euedorakhos}, is clearly Enmeduranki, the mythical king of Sippar, who in Babylonian tradition was regarded as the founder of divination. In a fragmentary composition that has come down to us he is described, not only as king of Sippar, but as "beloved of Anu, Enlil, and Enki", the three creating gods of our text; and it is there recounted how the patron deities of divination, Shamash and Adad, themselves taught him to practise their art.[1] Moreover, Berossus directly implies the existence of Sippar before the Deluge, for in the summary of his version that has been preserved Xisuthros, under divine instruction, buries the sacred writings concerning the origin of the world in "Sispara", the city of the Sun-god, so that after the Deluge they might be dug up and transmitted to mankind. Ebabbar, the great Sun-temple, was at Sippar, and it is to the Sun-god that the city is naturally allotted in the new Sumerian Version. [1] Cf. Zimmern, /Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Bab. Relig./, pp. 116 ff. The last of the five Antediluvian cities in our list is Shuruppak, in which dwelt Ut-napishtim, the hero of the Babylonian version of the Deluge. Its site has been identified with the mounds of Fâra, in the neighbourhood of the Shatt el-Kâr, the former bed of the Euphrates; and the excavations that were conducted there in 1902 have been most productive of remains dating from the prehistoric period of Sumerian culture.[1] Since our text is concerned mainly with the Deluge, it is natural to assume that the foundation of the city from which the Deluge-hero came would be recorded last, in order to lead up to the central episode of the text. The city of Ziusudu, the hero of the Sumerian story, is unfortunately not given in the Third Column, but, in view of Shuruppak's place in the list of Antediluvian cities, it is not improbable that on this point the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions agreed. In the Gilgamesh Epic Shuruppak is the only Antediluvian city referred to, while in the Hebrew accounts no city at all is mentioned in connexion with Noah. The city of Xisuthros, too, is not recorded, but as his father came from Larankha or Larak, we may regard that city as his in the Greek Version. Besides Larankha, the only Antediluvian cities according to Berossus were Babylon and Sippar, and the influence of Babylonian theology, of which we here have evidence, would be sufficient to account for a disturbance of the original traditions. At the same time it is not excluded that Larak was also the scene of the Deluge in our text, though, as we have noted, the position of Shuruppak at the close of the Sumerian list points to it as the more probable of the two. It may be added that we cannot yet read the name of the deity to whom Shuruppak was allotted, but as it is expressed by the city's name preceded by the divine determinative, the rendering "the God of Shuruppak" will meanwhile serve. [1] See /Hist. of Sum. and Akk./, pp. 24 ff. The creation of small rivers and pools, which seems to have followed the foundation of the five sacred cities, is best explained on the assumption that they were intended for the supply of water to the cities and to the temples of their five patron gods. The creation of the Euphrates and the Tigris, if recorded in our text at all, or in its logical order, must have occurred in the upper portion of the column. The fact that in the later Sumerian account their creation is related between that of mankind and the building of Nippur and Erech cannot be cited in support of this suggestion, in view of the absence of those cities from our text and of the process of editing to which the later version has been subjected, with a consequent disarrangement of its episodes. III. THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS, AND ZIUSUDU'S PIETY From the lower part of the Third Column, where its text is first preserved, it is clear that the gods had already decided to send a Deluge, for the goddess Nintu or Ninkharsagga, here referred to also as "the holy Innanna", wails aloud for the intended destruction of "her people". That this decision has been decreed by the gods in council is clear from a passage in the Fourth Column, where it is stated that the sending of a flood to destroy mankind was "the word of the assembly [of the gods]". The first lines preserved in the present column describe the effect of the decision on the various gods concerned and their action at the close of the council. In the lines which described the Council of the Gods, broken references to "the people" and "a flood" are preserved, after which the text continues: At that time Nintu [. . .] like a [. . .], The holy Innanna lament[ed] on account of her people. Enki in his own heart [held] counsel; Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninkharsagga [. . .]. The gods of heaven and earth in[voked] the name of Anu and Enlil. It is unfortunate that the ends of all the lines in this column are wanting, but enough remains to show a close correspondence of the first two lines quoted with a passage in the Gilgamesh Epic where Ishtar is described as lamenting the destruction of mankind.[1] This will be seen more clearly by printing the two couplets in parallel columns: SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION At that time Nintu [. . .] like Ishtar cried aloud like a woman a [. . .], in travail, The holy Innanna lament[ed] on Bêlit-ili lamented with a loud account of her people. voice. [1] Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 117 f. The expression Bêlit-ili, "the Lady of the Gods", is attested as a title borne both by the Semitic goddess Ishtar and by the Sumerian goddess Nintu or Ninkharsagga. In the passage in the Babylonian Version, "the Lady of the Gods" has always been treated as a synonym of Ishtar, the second half of the couplet being regarded as a restatement of the first, according to a recognized law of Babylonian poetry. We may probably assume that this interpretation is correct, and we may conclude by analogy that "the holy Innanna" in the second half of the Sumerian couplet is there merely employed as a synonym of Nintu.[1] When the Sumerian myth was recast in accordance with Semitic ideas, the /rôle/ of creatress of mankind, which had been played by the old Sumerian goddess Ninkharsagga or Nintu, was naturally transferred to the Semitic Ishtar. And as Innanna was one of Ishtar's designations, it was possible to make the change by a simple transcription of the lines, the name Nintu being replaced by the synonymous title Bêlit-ili, which was also shared by Ishtar. Difficulties are at once introduced if we assume with Dr. Poebel that in each version two separate goddesses are represented as lamenting, Nintu or Bêlit-ili and Innanna or Ishtar. For Innanna as a separate goddess had no share in the Sumerian Creation, and the reference to "her people" is there only applicable to Nintu. Dr. Poebel has to assume that the Sumerian names should be reversed in order to restore them to their original order, which he suggests the Babylonian Version has preserved. But no such textual emendation is necessary. In the Semitic Version Ishtar definitely displaces Nintu as the mother of men, as is proved by a later passage in her speech where she refers to her own bearing of mankind.[2] The necessity for the substitution of her name in the later version is thus obvious, and we have already noted how simply this was effected. [1] Cf. also Jastrow, /Hebr. and Bab. Trad./, p. 336. [2] Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 123. Another feature in which the two versions differ is that in the Sumerian text the lamentation of the goddess precedes the sending of the Deluge, while in the Gilgamesh Epic it is occasioned by the actual advent of the storm. Since our text is not completely preserved, it is just possible that the couplet was repeated at the end of the Fourth Column after mankind's destruction had taken place. But a further apparent difference has been noted. While in the Sumerian Version the goddess at once deplores the divine decision, it is clear from Ishtar's words in the Gilgamesh Epic that in the assembly of the gods she had at any rate concurred in it.[1] On the other hand, in Bêlit- ili's later speech in the Epic, after Ut-napishtim's sacrifice upon the mountain, she appears to subscribe the decision to Enlil alone.[2] The passages in the Gilgamesh Epic are not really contradictory, for they can be interpreted as implying that, while Enlil forced his will upon the other gods against Bêlit-ili's protest, the goddess at first reproached herself with her concurrence, and later stigmatized Enlil as the real author of the catastrophe. The Semitic narrative thus does not appear, as has been suggested, to betray traces of two variant traditions which have been skilfully combined, though it may perhaps exhibit an expansion of the Sumerian story. On the other hand, most of the apparent discrepancies between the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions disappear, on the recognition that our text gives in many passages only an epitome of the original Sumerian Version. [1] Cf. l. 121 f., "Since I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods, (and) commanded battle for the destruction of my people". [2] Cf. ll. 165 ff., "Ye gods that are here! So long as I forget not the (jewels of) lapis lazuli upon my neck, I will keep these days in my memory, never will I forget them! Let the gods come to the offering, but let not Enlil come to the offering, since he took not counsel but sent the deluge and surrendered my people to destruction." The lament of the goddess is followed by a brief account of the action taken by the other chief figures in the drama. Enki holds counsel with his own heart, evidently devising the project, which he afterwards carried into effect, of preserving the seed of mankind from destruction. Since the verb in the following line is wanting, we do not know what action is there recorded of the four creating deities; but the fact that the gods of heaven and earth invoked the name of Anu and Enlil suggests that it was their will which had been forced upon the other gods. We shall see that throughout the text Anu and Enlil are the ultimate rulers of both gods and men. The narrative then introduces the human hero of the Deluge story: At that time Ziusudu, the king, . . . priest of the god [. . .], Made a very great . . ., [. . .]. In humility he prostrates himself, in reverence [. . .], Daily he stands in attendance [. . .]. A dream,[1] such as had not been before, comes forth[2] . . . [. . .], By the Name of Heaven and Earth he conjures [. . .]. [1] The word may also be rendered "dreams". [2] For this rendering of the verb /e-de/, for which Dr. Poebel does not hazard a translation, see Rawlinson, /W.A.I./, IV, pl. 26, l. 24 f.(a), /nu-e-de/ = Sem. /la us-su-u/ (Pres.); and cf. Brünnow, /Classified List/, p. 327. An alternative rendering "is created" is also possible, and would give equally good sense; cf. /nu-e-de/ = Sem. /la šu-pu-u/, /W.A.I./, IV, pl. 2, l. 5 (a), and Brünnow, op. cit., p. 328. The name of the hero, Ziusudu, is the fuller Sumerian equivalent of Ut-napishtim (or Uta-napishtim), the abbreviated Semitic form which we find in the Gilgamesh Epic. For not only are the first two elements of the Sumerian name identical with those of the Semitic Ut-napishtim, but the names themselves are equated in a later Babylonian syllabary or explanatory list of words.[1] We there find "Ut-napishte" given as the equivalent of the Sumerian "Zisuda", evidently an abbreviated form of the name Ziusudu;[2] and it is significant that the names occur in the syllabary between those of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, evidently in consequence of the association of the Deluge story by the Babylonians with their national epic of Gilgamesh. The name Ziusudu may be rendered "He who lengthened the day of life" or "He who made life long of days",[3] which in the Semitic form is abbreviated by the omission of the verb. The reference is probably to the immortality bestowed upon Ziusudu at the close of the story, and not to the prolongation of mankind's existence in which he was instrumental. It is scarcely necessary to add that the name has no linguistic connexion with the Hebrew name Noah, to which it also presents no parallel in meaning. [1] Cf. /Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus./, Pt. XVIII, pl. 30, l. 9 (a). [2] The name in the Sumerian Version is read by Dr. Poebel as Ziugiddu, but there is much in favour of Prof. Zimmern's suggestion, based on the form Zisuda, that the third syllable of the name should be read as /su/. On a fragment of another Nippur text, No. 4611, Dr. Langdon reads the name as /Zi-u-sud-du/ (cf. Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sec., Vol. X, No. 1, p. 90, pl. iv a); the presence of the phonetic complement /du/ may be cited in favour of this reading, but it does not appear to be supported by the photographic reproductions of the name in the Sumerian Deluge Version given by Dr. Poebel (/Hist. and Gramm. Texts/, pl. lxxxviii f.). It may be added that, on either alternative, the meaning of the name is the same. [3] The meaning of the Sumerian element /u/ in the name, rendered as /utu/ in the Semitic form, is rather obscure, and Dr. Poebel left it unexplained. It is very probable, as suggested by Dr. Langdon (cf. /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, XXXVI, 1914, p. 190), that we should connect it with the Semitic /uddu/; in that case, in place of "breath", the rending he suggests, I should be inclined to render it here as "day", for /uddu/ as the meaning "dawn" and the sign UD is employed both for /urru/, "day-light", and /ûmu/, "day". It is an interesting fact that Ziusudu should be described simply as "the king", without any indication of the city or area he ruled; and in three of the five other passages in the text in which his name is mentioned it is followed by the same title without qualification. In most cases Berossus tells us the cities from which his Antediluvian rulers came; and if the end of the line had been preserved it might have been possible to determine definitely Ziusudu's city, and incidentally the scene of the Deluge in the Sumerian Version, by the name of the deity in whose service he acted as priest. We have already noted some grounds for believing that his city may have been Shuruppak, as in the Babylonian Version; and if that were so, the divine name reads as "the God of Shurrupak" should probably be restored at the end of the line.[1] [1] The remains that are preserved of the determinative, which is not combined with the sign EN, proves that Enki's name is not to be restored. Hence Ziusudu was not priest of Enki, and his city was probably not Eridu, the seat of his divine friend and counsellor, and the first of the Antediluvian cities. Sufficient reason for Enki's intervention on Ziusudu's behalf is furnished by the fact that, as God of the Deep, he was concerned in the proposed method of man's destruction. His rivalry of Enlil, the God of the Earth, is implied in the Babylonian Version (cf. Gilg. Epic. XI, ll. 39- 42), and in the Sumerian Version this would naturally extend to Anu, the God of Heaven. The employment of the royal title by itself accords with the tradition from Berossus that before the Deluge, as in later periods, the land was governed by a succession of supreme rulers, and that the hero of the Deluge was the last of them. In the Gilgamesh Epic, on the other hand, Ut-napishtim is given no royal nor any other title. He is merely referred to as a "man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu", and he appears in the guise of an ancient hero or patriarch not invested with royal power. On this point Berossus evidently preserves the original Sumerian traditions, while the Hebrew Versions resemble the Semitic- Babylonian narrative. The Sumerian conception of a series of supreme Antediluvian rulers is of course merely a reflection from the historical period, when the hegemony in Babylonia was contested among the city-states. The growth of the tradition may have been encouraged by the early use of /lugal/, "king", which, though always a term of secular character, was not very sharply distinguished from that of /patesi/ and other religious titles, until, in accordance with political development, it was required to connote a wider dominion. In Sumer, at the time of the composition of our text, Ziusudu was still only one in a long line of Babylonian rulers, mainly historical but gradually receding into the realms of legend and myth. At the time of the later Semites there had been more than one complete break in the tradition and the historical setting of the old story had become dim. The fact that Hebrew tradition should range itself in this matter with Babylon rather than with Sumer is important as a clue in tracing the literary history of our texts. The rest of the column may be taken as descriptive of Ziusudu's activities. One line records his making of some very great object or the erection of a huge building;[1] and since the following lines are concerned solely with religious activities, the reference is possibly to a temple or some other structure of a sacred character. Its foundation may have been recorded as striking evidence of his devotion to his god; or, since the verb in this sentence depends on the words "at that time" in the preceding line, we may perhaps regard his action as directly connected with the revelation to be made to him. His personal piety is then described: daily he occupied himself in his god's service, prostrating himself in humility and constant in his attendance at the shrine. A dream (or possibly dreams), "such as had not been before", appears to him and he seems to be further described as conjuring "by the Name of Heaven and Earth"; but as the ends of all these lines are broken, the exact connexion of the phrases is not quite certain. [1] The element /gur-gur/, "very large" or "huge", which occurs in the name of this great object or building, /an-sag-gur-gur/, is employed later in the term for the "huge boat", /(gish)ma-gur- gur/, in which Ziusudu rode out the storm. There was, of course, even at this early period a natural tendency to picture on a superhuman scale the lives and deeds of remote predecessors, a tendency which increased in later times and led, as we shall see, to the elaboration of extravagant detail. It is difficult not to associate the reference to a dream, or possibly to dream-divination, with the warning in which Enki reveals the purpose of the gods. For the later versions prepare us for a reference to a dream. If we take the line as describing Ziusudu's practice of dream-divination in general, "such as had not been before", he may have been represented as the first diviner of dreams, as Enmeduranki was held to be the first practitioner of divination in general. But it seems to me more probable that the reference is to a particular dream, by means of which he obtained knowledge of the gods' intentions. On the rendering of this passage depends our interpretation of the whole of the Fourth Column, where the point will be further discussed. Meanwhile it may be noted that the conjuring "by the Name of Heaven and Earth", which we may assume is ascribed to Ziusudu, gains in significance if we may regard the setting of the myth as a magical incantation, an inference in support of which we shall note further evidence. For we are furnished at once with the grounds for its magical employment. If Ziusudu, through conjuring by the Name of Heaven and earth, could profit by the warning sent him and so escape the impending fate of mankind, the application of such a myth to the special needs of a Sumerian in peril or distress will be obvious. For should he, too, conjure by the Name of Heaven and Earth, he might look for a similar deliverance; and his recital of the myth itself would tend to clinch the magical effect of his own incantation. The description of Ziusudu has also great interest in furnishing us with a close parallel to the piety of Noah in the Hebrew Versions. For in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus this feature of the story is completely absent. We are there given no reason why Ut-napishtim was selected by Ea, nor Xisuthros by Kronos. For all that those versions tell us, the favour of each deity might have been conferred arbitrarily, and not in recognition of, or in response to, any particular quality or action on the part of its recipient. The Sumerian Version now restores the original setting of the story and incidentally proves that, in this particular, the Hebrew Versions have not embroidered a simpler narrative for the purpose of edification, but have faithfully reproduced an original strand of the tradition. IV. THE DREAM-WARNING The top of the Fourth Column of the text follows immediately on the close of the Third Column, so that at this one point we have no great gap between the columns. But unfortunately the ends of all the lines in both columns are wanting, and the exact content of some phrases preserved and their relation to each other are consequently doubtful. This materially affects the interpretation of the passage as a whole, but the main thread of the narrative may be readily followed. Ziusudu is here warned that a flood is to be sent "to destroy the seed of mankind"; the doubt that exists concerns the manner in which the warning is conveyed. In the first line of the column, after a reference to "the gods", a building seems to be mentioned, and Ziusudu, standing beside it, apparently hears a voice, which bids him take his stand beside a wall and then conveys to him the warning of the coming flood. The destruction of mankind had been decreed in "the assembly [of the gods]" and would be carried out by the commands of Anu and Enlil. Before the text breaks off we again have a reference to the "kingdom" and "its rule", a further trace of the close association of the Deluge with the dynastic succession in the early traditions of Sumer. In the opening words of the warning to Ziusudu, with its prominent repetition of the word "wall", we must evidently trace some connexion with the puzzling words of Ea in the Gilgamesh Epic, when he begins his warning to Ut-napishtim. The warnings, as given in the two versions, are printed below in parallel columns for comparison.[1] The Gilgamesh Epic, after relating how the great gods in Shuruppak had decided to send a deluge, continues as follows in the right-hand column: SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION For [. . .] . . . the gods a Nin-igi-azag,[2] the god Ea, . . . [. . .]; sat with them, Ziusudu standing at its side And he repeated their word to heard [. . .]: the house of reeds: "At the wall on my left side take "Reed-hut, reed-hut! Wall, thy stand and [. . .], wall! At the wall I will speak a word O reed-hut, hear! O wall, to thee [. . .]. understand! O my devout one . . . [. . .], Thou man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu, By our hand(?) a flood[3] . . . Pull down thy house, build a [. . .] will be [sent]. ship, To destroy the seed of mankind Leave thy possessions, take [. . .] heed for thy life, Is the decision, the word of the Abandon thy property, and save assembly[4] [of the gods] thy life. The commands of Anu (and) And bring living seed of every En[lil . . .] kind into the ship. Its kingdom, its rule [. . .] As for the ship, which thou shalt build, To his [. . .]" Of which the measurements shall be carefully measured, [. . .] Its breadth and length shall correspond. [. . .] In the deep shalt thou immerse it." [1] Col. IV, ll. 1 ff. are there compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 19-31. [2] Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", a title borne by Enki, or Ea, as God of Wisdom. [3] The Sumerian term /amaru/, here used for the flood and rendered as "rain-storm" by Dr. Poebel, is explained in a later syllabary as the equivalent of the Semitic-Babylonian word /abûbu/ (cf. Meissner, /S.A.I./, No. 8909), the term employed for the flood both in the early Semitic version of the Atrakhasis story dated in Ammizaduga's reign and in the Gilgamesh Epic. The word /abûbu/ is often conventionally rendered "deluge", but should be more accurately translated "flood". It is true that the tempests of the Sumerian Version probably imply rain; and in the Gilgamesh Epic heavy rain in the evening begins the flood and is followed at dawn by a thunderstorm and hurricane. But in itself the term /abûbu/ implies flood, which could take place through a rise of the rivers unaccompanied by heavy local rain. The annual rainfall in Babylonia to-day is on an average only about 8 in., and there have been years in succession when the total rainfall has not exceeded 4 in.; and yet the /abûbu/ is not a thing of the past. [4] The word here rendered "assembly" is the Semitic loan-word /buhrum/, in Babylonian /puhrum/, the term employed for the "assembly" of the gods both in the Babylonian Creation Series and in the Gilgamesh Epic. Its employment in the Sumerian Version, in place of its Sumerian equivalent /ukkin/, is an interesting example of Semitic influence. Its occurrence does not necessarily imply the existence of a recognized Semitic Version at the period our text was inscribed. The substitution of /buhrum/ for /ukkin/ in the text may well date from the period of Hammurabi, when we may assume that the increased importance of the city-council was reflected in the general adoption of the Semitic term (cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 53). In the Semitic Version Ut-napishtim, who tells the story in the first person, then says that he "understood", and that, after assuring Ea that he would carry out his commands, he asked how he was to explain his action to "the city, the people, and the elders"; and the god told him what to say. Then follows an account of the building of the ship, introduced by the words "As soon as the dawn began to break". In the Sumerian Version the close of the warning, in which the ship was probably referred to, and the lines prescribing how Ziusudu carried out the divine instructions are not preserved. It will be seen that in the passage quoted from the Semitic Version there is no direct mention of a dream; the god is represented at first as addressing his words to a "house of reeds" and a "wall", and then as speaking to Ut-napishtim himself. But in a later passage in the Epic, when Ea seeks to excuse his action to Enlil, he says that the gods' decision was revealed to Atrakhasis through a dream.[1] Dr. Poebel rightly compares the direct warning of Ut-napishtim by Ea in the passage quoted above with the equally direct warning Ziusudu receives in the Sumerian Version. But he would have us divorce the direct warning from the dream-warning, and he concludes that no less than three different versions of the story have been worked together in the Gilgamesh Epic. In the first, corresponding to that in our text, Ea communicates the gods' decision directly to Ut-napishtim; in the second he sends a dream from which Atrakhasis, "the Very Wise one", guesses the impending peril; while in the third he relates the plan to a wall, taking care that Ut-napishtim overhears him.[2] The version of Berossus, that Kronos himself appears to Xisuthros in a dream and warns him, is rejected by Dr. Poebel, who remarks that here the "original significance of the dream has already been obliterated". Consequently there seems to him to be "no logical connexion" between the dreams or dream mentioned at the close of the Third Column and the communication of the plan of the gods at the beginning of the Fourth Column of our text.[3] [1] Cf. l. 195 f.; "I did not divulge the decision of the great gods. I caused Atrakhasis to behold a dream and thus he heard the decision of the gods." [2] Cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 51 f. With the god's apparent subterfuge in the third of these supposed versions Sir James Frazer (/Ancient Stories of a Great Flood/, p. 15) not inaptly compares the well-known story of King Midas's servant, who, unable to keep the secret of the king's deformity to himself, whispered it into a hole in the ground, with the result that the reeds which grew up there by their rustling in the wind proclaimed it to the world (Ovid, /Metamorphoses/, xi, 174 ff.). [3] Op. cit., p. 51; cf. also Jastrow, /Heb. and Bab. Trad./, p. 346. So far from Berossus having missed the original significance of the narrative he relates, I think it can be shown that he reproduces very accurately the sense of our Sumerian text; and that the apparent discrepancies in the Semitic Version, and the puzzling references to a wall in both it and the Sumerian Version, are capable of a simple explanation. There appears to me no justification for splitting the Semitic narrative into the several versions suggested, since the assumption that the direct warning and the dream-warning must be distinguished is really based on a misunderstanding of the character of Sumerian dreams by which important decisions of the gods in council were communicated to mankind. We fortunately possess an instructive Sumerian parallel to our passage. In it the will of the gods is revealed in a dream, which is not only described in full but is furnished with a detailed interpretation; and as it seems to clear up our difficulties, it may be well to summarize its main features. The occasion of the dream in this case was not a coming deluge but a great dearth of water in the rivers, in consequence of which the crops had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. This occurred in the reign of Gudea, patesi of Lagash, who lived some centuries before our Sumerian document was inscribed. In his own inscription[1] he tells us that he was at a loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country, when one night he had a dream; and it was in consequence of the dream that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of Sumerian temples and thereby restored his land to prosperity. Before recounting his dream he describes how the gods themselves took counsel. On the day in which destinies were fixed in heaven and earth, Enlil, the chief of the gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Lagash, held converse; and Enlil, turning to Ningirsu, described the sad condition of Southern Babylonia, and remarked that "the decrees of the temple Eninnû should be made glorious in heaven and upon earth", or, in other words, that Ningirsu's city-temple must be rebuilt. Thereupon Ningirsu did not communicate his orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed the will of the gods to him by means of a dream. [1] See Thureau-Dangin, /Les inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad/, Cyl. A, pp. 134 ff., Germ. ed., pp. 88 ff.; and cf. King and Hall, /Eg. and West. Asia/, pp. 196 ff. It will be noticed that we here have a very similar situation to that in the Deluge story. A conference of the gods has been held; a decision has been taken by the greatest god, Enlil; and, in consequence, another deity is anxious to inform a Sumerian ruler of that decision. The only difference is that here Enlil desires the communication to be made, while in the Deluge story it is made without his knowledge, and obviously against his wishes. So the fact that Ningirsu does not communicate directly with the patesi, but conveys his message by means of a dream, is particularly instructive. For here there can be no question of any subterfuge in the method employed, since Enlil was a consenting party. The story goes on to relate that, while the patesi slept, a vision of the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great that it equalled the heavens and the earth. By the diadem he wore upon his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. Beside the god was the divine eagle, the emblem of Lagash; his feet rested upon the whirlwind, and a lion crouched upon his right hand and upon his left. The figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the meaning of the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the Sun rose from the earth; and he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she carried also a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed to take counsel with herself. While Gudea was gazing, he seemed to see a second man, who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis lazuli, on which he drew out the plan of a temple. Before the patesi himself it seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion was set a mould, and within the mould was a brick. And on the right hand the patesi beheld an ass that lay upon the ground. Such was the dream of Gudea, and he was troubled because he could not interpret it.[1] [1] The resemblance its imagery bears to that of apocalyptic visions of a later period is interesting, as evidence of the latter's remote ancestry, and of the development in the use of primitive material to suit a completely changed political outlook. But those are points which do not concern our problem. To cut the long story short, Gudea decided to seek the help of Ninâ, "the child of Eridu", who, as daughter of Enki, the God of Wisdom, could divine all the mysteries of the gods. But first of all by sacrifices and libations he secured the mediation of his own city-god and goddess, Ningirsu and Gatumdug; and then, repairing to Ninâ's temple, he recounted to her the details of his vision. When the patesi had finished, the goddess addressed him and said she would explain to him the meaning of his dream. Here, no doubt, we are to understand that she spoke through the mouth of her chief priest. And this was the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so great, and whose head was that of a god, was the god Ningirsu, and the words which he uttered were an order to the patesi to rebuild the temple Eninnû. The Sun which rose from the earth was the god Ningishzida, for like the Sun he goes forth from the earth. The maiden who held the pure reed and carried the tablet with the star was the goddess Nisaba; the star was the pure star of the temple's construction, which she proclaimed. The second man, who was like a warrior, was the god Nibub; and the plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of Eninnû; and the ass that lay upon the ground was the patesi himself.[1] [1] The symbolism of the ass, as a beast of burden, was applicable to the patesi in his task of carrying out the building of the temple. The essential feature of the vision is that the god himself appeared to the sleeper and delivered his message in words. That is precisely the manner in which Kronos warned Xisuthros of the coming Deluge in the version of Berossus; while in the Gilgamesh Epic the apparent contradiction between the direct warning and the dream-warning at once disappears. It is true that Gudea states that he did not understand the meaning of the god's message, and so required an interpretation; but he was equally at a loss as to the identity of the god who gave it, although Ningirsu was his own city-god and was accompanied by his own familiar city-emblem. We may thus assume that the god's words, as words, were equally intelligible to Gudea. But as they were uttered in a dream, it was necessary that the patesi, in view of his country's peril, should have divine assurance that they implied no other meaning. And in his case such assurance was the more essential, in view of the symbolism attaching to the other features of his vision. That this is sound reasoning is proved by a second vision vouchsafed to Gudea by Ningirsu. For the patesi, though he began to prepare for the building of the temple, was not content even with Ninâ's assurance. He offered a prayer to Ningirsu himself, saying that he wished to build the temple, but had received no sign that this was the will of the god; and he prayed for a sign. Then, as the patesi lay stretched upon the ground, the god again appeared to him and gave him detailed instructions, adding that he would grant the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side touched as by a flame,[1] and thereby he should know that he was the man chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands. Here it is the sign which confirms the apparent meaning of the god's words. And Gudea was at last content and built the temple.[2] [1] Cyl. A., col. xii, l. 10 f.; cf. Thureau-Dangin, op. cit., p. 150 f., Germ. ed., p. 102 f. The word translated "side" may also be rendered as "hand"; but "side" is the more probable rendering of the two. The touching of Gudea's side (or hand) presents an interesting resemblance to the touching of Jacob's thigh by the divine wrestler at Peniel in Gen. xxxii. 24 ff. (J or JE). Given a belief in the constant presence of the unseen and its frequent manifestation, such a story as that of Peniel might well arise from an unexplained injury to the sciatic muscle, while more than one ailment of the heart or liver might perhaps suggest the touch of a beckoning god. There is of course no connexion between the Sumerian and Hebrew stories beyond their common background. It may be added that those critics who would reverse the /rôles/ of Jacob and the wrestler miss the point of the Hebrew story. [2] Even so, before starting on the work, he took the further precautions of ascertaining that the omens were favourable and of purifying his city from all malign influence. We may conclude, then, that in the new Sumerian Version of the Deluge we have traced a logical connexion between the direct warning to Ziusudu in the Fourth Column of the text and the reference to a dream in the broken lines at the close of the Third Column. As in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus, here too the god's warning is conveyed in a dream; and the accompanying reference to conjuring by the Name of Heaven and Earth probably represents the means by which Ziusudu was enabled to verify its apparent meaning. The assurance which Gudea obtained through the priest of Ninâ and the sign, the priest-king Ziusudu secured by his own act, in virtue of his piety and practice of divination. And his employment of the particular class of incantation referred to, that which conjures by the Name of Heaven and Earth, is singularly appropriate to the context. For by its use he was enabled to test the meaning of Enki's words, which related to the intentions of Anu and Enlil, the gods respectively of Heaven and of Earth. The symbolical setting of Gudea's vision also finds a parallel in the reed-house and wall of the Deluge story, though in the latter case we have not the benefit of interpretation by a goddess. In the Sumerian Version the wall is merely part of the vision and does not receive a direct address from the god. That appears as a later development in the Semitic Version, and it may perhaps have suggested the excuse, put in that version into the mouth of Ea, that he had not directly revealed the decision of the gods.[1] [1] In that case the parallel suggested by Sir James Frazer between the reed-house and wall of the Gilgamesh Epic, now regarded as a medium of communication, and the whispering reeds of the Midas story would still hold good. The omission of any reference to a dream before the warning in the Gilgamesh Epic may be accounted for on the assumption that readers of the poem would naturally suppose that the usual method of divine warning was implied; and the text does indicate that the warning took place at night, for Gilgamesh proceeds to carry out the divine instructions at the break of day. The direct warning of the Hebrew Versions, on the other hand, does not carry this implication, since according to Hebrew ideas direct speech, as well as vision, was included among the methods by which the divine will could be conveyed to man. V. THE FLOOD, THE ESCAPE OF THE GREAT BOAT, AND THE SACRIFICE TO THE SUN-GOD The missing portion of the Fourth Column must have described Ziusudu's building of his great boat in order to escape the Deluge, for at the beginning of the Fifth Column we are in the middle of the Deluge itself. The column begins: All the mighty wind-storms together blew, The flood . . . raged. When for seven days, for seven nights, The flood had overwhelmed the land When the wind-storm had driven the great boat over the mighty waters, The Sun-god came forth, shedding light over heaven and earth. Ziusudu opened the opening of the great boat; The light of the hero, the Sun-god, (he) causes to enter into the interior(?) of the great boat. Ziusudu, the king, Bows himself down before the Sun-god; The king sacrifices an ox, a sheep he slaughters(?). The connected text of the column then breaks off, only a sign or two remaining of the following half-dozen lines. It will be seen that in the eleven lines that are preserved we have several close parallels to the Babylonian Version and some equally striking differences. While attempting to define the latter, it will be well to point out how close the resemblances are, and at the same time to draw a comparison between the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions of this part of the story and the corresponding Hebrew accounts. Here, as in the Babylonian Version, the Flood is accompanied by hurricanes of wind, though in the latter the description is worked up in considerable detail. We there read[1] that at the appointed time the ruler of the darkness at eventide sent a heavy rain. Ut-napishtim saw its beginning, but fearing to watch the storm, he entered the interior of the ship by Ea's instructions, closed the door, and handed over the direction of the vessel to the pilot Puzur-Amurri. Later a thunder-storm and hurricane added their terrors to the deluge. For at early dawn a black cloud came up from the horizon, Adad the Storm-god thundering in its midst, and his heralds, Nabû and Sharru, flying over mountain and plain. Nergal tore away the ship's anchor, while Ninib directed the storm; the Anunnaki carried their lightning-torches and lit up the land with their brightness; the whirlwind of the Storm-god reached the heavens, and all light was turned into darkness. The storm raged the whole day, covering mountain and people with water.[2] No man beheld his fellow; the gods themselves were afraid, so that they retreated into the highest heaven, where they crouched down, cowering like dogs. Then follows the lamentation of Ishtar, to which reference has already been made, the goddess reproaching herself for the part she had taken in the destruction of her people. This section of the Semitic narrative closes with the picture of the gods weeping with her, sitting bowed down with their lips pressed together. [1] Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 90 ff. [2] In the Atrakhasis version, dated in the reign of Ammizaduga, Col. I, l. 5, contains a reference to the "cry" of men when Adad the Storm-god, slays them with his flood. It is probable that the Sumerian Version, in the missing portion of its Fourth Column, contained some account of Ziusudu's entry into his boat; and this may have been preceded, as in the Gilgamesh Epic, by a reference to "the living seed of every kind", or at any rate to "the four-legged creatures of the field", and to his personal possessions, with which we may assume he had previously loaded it. But in the Fifth Column we have no mention of the pilot or of any other companions who may have accompanied the king; and we shall see that the Sixth Column contains no reference to Ziusudu's wife. The description of the storm may have begun with the closing lines of the Fourth Column, though it is also quite possible that the first line of the Fifth Column actually begins the account. However that may be, and in spite of the poetic imagery of the Semitic Babylonian narrative, the general character of the catastrophe is the same in both versions. We find an equally close parallel, between the Sumerian and Babylonian accounts, in the duration of the storm which accompanied the Flood, as will be seen by printing the two versions together:[3] SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION When for seven days, for seven For six days and nights nights, The flood had overwhelmed the The wind blew, the flood, the land, tempest overwhelmed the land. When the wind-storm had driven When the seventh day drew near, the great boat over the the tempest, the flood, ceased mighty waters, from the battle In which it had fought like a host. The Sun-god came forth shedding Then the sea rested and was light over heaven and earth. still, and the wind-storm, the flood, ceased. [3] Col. V, ll. 3-6 are here compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 128-32. The two narratives do not precisely agree as to the duration of the storm, for while in the Sumerian account the storm lasts seven days and seven nights, in the Semitic-Babylonian Version it lasts only six days and nights, ceasing at dawn on the seventh day. The difference, however, is immaterial when we compare these estimates with those of the Hebrew Versions, the older of which speaks of forty days' rain, while the later version represents the Flood as rising for no less than a hundred and fifty days. The close parallel between the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions is not, however, confined to subject-matter, but here, even extends to some of the words and phrases employed. It has already been noted that the Sumerian term employed for "flood" or "deluge" is the attested equivalent of the Semitic word; and it may now be added that the word which may be rendered "great boat" or "great ship" in the Sumerian text is the same word, though partly expressed by variant characters, which occurs in the early Semitic fragment of the Deluge story from Nippur.[1] In the Gilgamesh Epic, on the other hand, the ordinary ideogram for "vessel" or "ship"[2] is employed, though the great size of the vessel is there indicated, as in Berossus and the later Hebrew Version, by detailed measurements. Moreover, the Sumerian and Semitic verbs, which are employed in the parallel passages quoted above for the "overwhelming" of the land, are given as synonyms in a late syllabary, while in another explanatory text the Sumerian verb is explained as applying to the destructive action of a flood.[3] Such close linguistic parallels are instructive as furnishing additional proof, if it were needed, of the dependence of the Semitic-Babylonian and Assyrian Versions upon Sumerian originals. [1] The Sumerian word is /(gish)ma-gur-gur/, corresponding to the term written in the early Semitic fragment, l. 8, as /(isu)ma-gur-gur/, which is probably to be read under its Semitized form /magurgurru/. In l. 6 of that fragment the vessel is referred to under the synonymous expression /(isu)elippu ra-be-tu/, "a great ship". [2] i.e. (GISH)MA, the first element in the Sumerian word, read in Semitic Babylonian as /elippu/, "ship"; when employed in the early Semitic fragment it is qualified by the adj. /ra-be-tu/, "great". There is no justification for assuming, with Prof. Hilbrecht, that a measurement of the vessel was given in l. 7 of the early Semitic fragment. [3] The Sumerian verb /ur/, which is employed in l. 2 of the Fifth Column in the expression /ba-an-da-ab-ur-ur/, translated as "raged", occurs again in l. 4 in the phrase /kalam-ma ba-ur-ra/, "had overwhelmed the land". That we are justified in regarding the latter phrase as the original of the Semitic /i-sap-pan mâta/ (Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 129) is proved by the equation Sum. /ur-ur/ = Sem. /sa-pa-nu/ (Rawlinson, /W.A.I./, Vol. V, pl. 42, l. 54 c) and by the explanation Sum. /ur-ur/ = Sem. /ša-ba-tu ša a-bu-bi/, i.e. "/ur-ur/ = to smite, of a flood" (/Cun. Texts, Pt. XII, pl. 50, Obv., l. 23); cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 54, n. 1. It may be worth while to pause for a moment in our study of the text, in order to inquire what kind of boat it was in which Ziusudu escaped the Flood. It is only called "a great boat" or "a great ship" in the text, and this term, as we have noted, was taken over, semitized, and literally translated in an early Semitic-Babylonian Version. But the Gilgamesh Epic, representing the later Semitic-Babylonian Version, supplies fuller details, which have not, however, been satisfactorily explained. Either the obvious meaning of the description and figures there given has been ignored, or the measurements have been applied to a central structure placed upon a hull, much on the lines of a modern "house-boat" or the conventional Noah's ark.[1] For the latter interpretation the text itself affords no justification. The statement is definitely made that the length and breadth of the vessel itself are to be the same;[2] and a later passage gives ten /gar/ for the height of its sides and ten /gar/ for the breadth of its deck.[3] This description has been taken to imply a square box-like structure, which, in order to be seaworthy, must be placed on a conjectured hull. [1] Cf., e.g., Jastrow, /Hebr. and Bab. Trad./, p. 329. [2] Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 28-30. [3] L. 58 f. The /gar/ contained twelve cubits, so that the vessel would have measured 120 cubits each way; taking the Babylonian cubit, on the basis of Gudea's scale, at 495 mm. (cf. Thureau- Dangin, /Journal Asiatique/, Dix. Sér., t. XIII, 1909, pp. 79 ff., 97), this would give a length, breadth, and height of nearly 195 ft. I do not think it has been noted in this connexion that a vessel, approximately with the relative proportions of that described in the Gilgamesh Epic, is in constant use to-day on the lower Tigris and Euphrates. A /kuffah/,[1] the familiar pitched coracle of Baghdad, would provide an admirable model for the gigantic vessel in which Ut-napishtim rode out the Deluge. "Without either stem or stern, quite round like a shield"--so Herodotus described the /kuffah/ of his day;2[] so, too, is it represented on Assyrian slabs from Nineveh, where we see it employed for the transport of heavy building material;[3] its form and structure indeed suggest a prehistoric origin. The /kuffah/ is one of those examples of perfect adjustment to conditions of use which cannot be improved. Any one who has travelled in one of these craft will agree that their storage capacity is immense, for their circular form and steeply curved side allow every inch of space to be utilized. It is almost impossible to upset them, and their only disadvantage is lack of speed. For their guidance all that is required is a steersman with a paddle, as indicated in the Epic. It is true that the larger kuffah of to-day tends to increase in diameter as compared to height, but that detail might well be ignored in picturing the monster vessel of Ut-napishtim. Its seven horizontal stages and their nine lateral divisions would have been structurally sound in supporting the vessel's sides; and the selection of the latter uneven number, though prompted doubtless by its sacred character, is only suitable to a circular craft in which the interior walls would radiate from the centre. The use of pitch and bitumen for smearing the vessel inside and out, though unusual even in Mesopotamian shipbuilding, is precisely the method employed in the /kuffah's/ construction. [1] Arab. /kuffah/, pl. /kufaf/; in addition to its common use for the Baghdad coracle, the word is also employed for a large basket. [2] Herodotus, I, 194. [3] The /kuffah/ is formed of wicker-work coated with bitumen. Some of those represented on the Nineveh sculptures appear to be covered with skins; and Herodotus (I, 94) states that "the boats which come down the river to Babylon are circular and made of skins." But his further description shows that he is here referred to the /kelek/ or skin-raft, with which he has combined a description of the /kuffah/. The late Sir Henry Rawlinson has never seen or heard of a skin-covered /kuffah/ on either the Tigris or Euphrates, and there can be little doubt that bitumen was employed for their construction in antiquity, as it is to-day. These craft are often large enough to carry five or six horses and a dozen men. We have no detailed description of Ziusudu's "great boat", beyond the fact that it was covered in and had an opening, or light-hole, which could be closed. But the form of Ut-napishtim's vessel was no doubt traditional, and we may picture that of Ziusudu as also of the /kuffah/ type, though smaller and without its successor's elaborate internal structure. The gradual development of the huge coracle into a ship would have been encouraged by the Semitic use of the term "ship" to describe it; and the attempt to retain something of its original proportions resulted in producing the unwieldy ark of later tradition.[1] [1] The description of the ark is not preserved from the earlier Hebrew Version (J), but the latter Hebrew Version (P), while increasing the length of the vessel, has considerably reduced its height and breadth. Its measurements are there given (Gen. vi. 15) as 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height; taking the ordinary Hebrew cubit at about 18 in., this would give a length of about 450 ft., a breadth of about 75 ft., and a height of about 45 ft. The interior stories are necessarily reduced to three. The vessel in Berossus measures five stadia by two, and thus had a length of over three thousand feet and a breadth of more than twelve hundred. We will now return to the text and resume the comparison we were making between it and the Gilgamesh Epic. In the latter no direct reference is made to the appearance of the Sun-god after the storm, nor is Ut-napishtim represented as praying to him. But the sequence of events in the Sumerian Version is very natural, and on that account alone, apart from other reasons, it may be held to represent the original form of the story. For the Sun-god would naturally reappear after the darkness of the storm had passed, and it would be equally natural that Ziusudu should address himself to the great light-god. Moreover, the Gilgamesh Epic still retains traces of the Sumerian Version, as will be seen from a comparison of their narratives,[1] the Semitic Version being quoted from the point where the hurricane ceased and the sea became still. [1] Col. V, ll. 7-11 are here compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 133-9. SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION When I looked at the storm, the uproar had ceased, And all mankind was turned into clay; In place of fields there was a swamp. Ziusudu opened the opening of I opened the opening (lit. the great boat; "hole"), and daylight fell upon my countenance. The light of the hero, the Sun- god, (he) causes to enter into the interior(?) of the great boat. Ziusudu, the king, Bows himself down before the I bowed myself down and sat down Sun-god; weeping; The king sacrifices an ox, a Over my countenance flowed my sheep he slaughters(?). tears. I gazed upon the quarters (of the world)--all(?) was sea. It will be seen that in the Semitic Version the beams of the Sun-god have been reduced to "daylight", and Ziusudu's act of worship has become merely prostration in token of grief. Both in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus the sacrifice offered by the Deluge hero to the gods follows the episode of the birds, and it takes place on the top of the mountain after the landing from the vessel. It is hardly probable that two sacrifices were recounted in the Sumerian Version, one to the Sun-god in the boat and another on the mountain after landing; and if we are right in identifying Ziusudu's recorded sacrifice with that of Ut-napishtim and Xisuthros, it would seem that, according to the Sumerian Version, no birds were sent out to test the abatement of the waters. This conclusion cannot be regarded as quite certain, inasmuch as the greater part of the Fifth Column is waning. We have, moreover, already seen reason to believe that the account on our tablet is epitomized, and that consequently the omission of any episode from our text does not necessarily imply its absence from the original Sumerian Version which it follows. But here at least it is clear that nothing can have been omitted between the opening of the light-hole and the sacrifice, for the one act is the natural sequence of the other. On the whole it seems preferable to assume that we have recovered a simpler form of the story. As the storm itself is described in a few phrases, so the cessation of the flood may have been dismissed with equal brevity; the gradual abatement of the waters, as attested by the dove, the swallow, and the raven, may well be due to later elaboration or to combination with some variant account. Under its amended form the narrative leads naturally up to the landing on the mountain and the sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods. In the Sumerian Version, on the other hand, Ziusudu regards himself as saved when he sees the Sun shining; he needs no further tests to assure himself that the danger is over, and his sacrifice too is one of gratitude for his escape. The disappearance of the Sun-god from the Semitic Version was thus a necessity, to avoid an anti-climax; and the hero's attitude of worship had obviously to be translated into one of grief. An indication that the sacrifice was originally represented as having taken place on board the boat may be seen in the lines of the Gilgamesh Epic which recount how Enlil, after acquiescing in Ut-napishtim's survival of the Flood, went up into the ship and led him forth by the hand, although, in the preceding lines, he had already landed and had sacrificed upon the mountain. The two passages are hardly consistent as they stand, but they find a simple explanation of we regard the second of them as an unaltered survival from an earlier form of the story. If the above line of reasoning be sound, it follows that, while the earlier Hebrew Version closely resembles the Gilgamesh Epic, the later Hebrew Version, by its omission of the birds, would offer a parallel to the Sumerian Version. But whether we may draw any conclusion from this apparent grouping of our authorities will be best dealt with when we have concluded our survey of the new evidence. As we have seen, the text of the Fifth Column breaks off with Ziusudu's sacrifice to the Sun-god, after he had opened a light-hole in the boat and had seen by the god's beams that the storm was over. The missing portion of the Fifth Column must have included at least some account of the abatement of the waters, the stranding of the boat, and the manner in which Anu and Enlil became apprised of Ziusudu's escape, and consequently of the failure of their intention to annihilate mankind. For in the Sixth Column of the text we find these two deities reconciled to Ziusudu and bestowing immortality upon him, as Enlil bestows immortality upon Ut-napishtim at the close of the Semitic Version. In the latter account, after the vessel had grounded on Mount Nisir and Ut-napishtim had tested the abatement of the waters by means of the birds, he brings all out from the ship and offers his libation and sacrifice upon the mountain, heaping up reed, cedar-wood, and myrtle beneath his seven sacrificial vessels. And it was by this act on his part that the gods first had knowledge of his escape. For they smelt the sweet savour of the sacrifice, and "gathered like flies over the sacrificer".[1] [1] Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 162. It is possible in our text that Ziusudu's sacrifice in the boat was also the means by which the gods became acquainted with his survival; and it seems obvious that the Sun-god, to whom it was offered, should have continued to play some part in the narrative, perhaps by assisting Ziusudu in propitiating Anu and Enlil. In the Semitic-Babylonian Version, the first deity to approach the sacrifice is Bêlit-ili or Ishtar, who is indignant with Enlil for what he has done. When Enlil himself approaches and sees the ship he is filled with anger against the gods, and, asking who has escaped, exclaims that no man must live in the destruction. Thereupon Ninib accuses Ea, who by his pleading succeeds in turning Enlil's purpose. He bids Enlil visit the sinner with his sin and lay his transgression on the transgressor; Enlil should not again send a deluge to destroy the whole of mankind, but should be content with less wholesale destruction, such as that wrought by wild beasts, famine, and plague. Finally he confesses that it was he who warned Ziusudu of the gods' decision by sending him a dream. Enlil thereupon changes his intention, and going up into the ship, leads Ut-napishtim forth. Though Ea's intervention finds, of course, no parallel in either Hebrew version, the subject-matter of his speech is reflected in both. In the earlier Hebrew Version Yahweh smells the sweet savour of Noah's burnt offering and says in his heart he will no more destroy every living creature as he had done; while in the later Hebrew Version Elohim, after remembering Noah and causing the waters to abate, establishes his covenant to the same effect, and, as a sign of the covenant, sets his bow in the clouds. In its treatment of the climax of the story we shall see that the Sumerian Version, at any rate in the form it has reached us, is on a lower ethical level than the Babylonian and Hebrew Versions. Ea's argument that the sinner should bear his own sin and the transgressor his own transgression in some measure forestalls that of Ezekiel;[1] and both the Hebrew Versions represent the saving of Noah as part of the divine intention from the beginning. But the Sumerian Version introduces the element of magic as the means by which man can bend the will of the gods to his own ends. How far the details of the Sumerian myth at this point resembled that of the Gilgamesh Epic it is impossible to say, but the general course of the story must have been the same. In the latter Enlil's anger is appeased, in the former that of Anu and Enlil; and it is legitimate to suppose that Enki, like Ea, was Ziusudu's principal supporter, in view of the part he had already taken in ensuring his escape. [1] Cf. Ezek. xviii, passim, esp. xviii. 20. VI. THE PROPITIATION OF THE ANGRY GODS, AND ZIUSUDU'S IMMORTALITY The presence of the puzzling lines, with which the Sixth Column of our text opens, was not explained by Dr. Poebel; indeed, they would be difficult to reconcile with his assumption that our text is an epic pure and simple. But if, as is suggested above, we are dealing with a myth in magical employment, they are quite capable of explanation. The problem these lines present will best be stated by giving a translation of the extant portion of the column, where they will be seen with their immediate context in relation to what follows them: "By the Soul of Heaven, by the soul of Earth, shall ye conjure him, That with you he may . . . ! Anu and Enlil by the Soul of Heaven, by the Soul of Earth, shall ye conjure, And with you will he . . . ! "The /niggilma/ of the ground springs forth in abundance(?)!" Ziusudu, the king, Before Anu and Enlil bows himself down. Life like (that of) a god he gives to him, An eternal soul like (that of) a god he creates for him. At that time Ziusudu, the king, The name of the /niggilma/ (named) "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind". In a . . . land,[1] the land[1] of Dilmun(?), they caused him to dwell. [1] Possibly to be translated "mountain". The rendering of the proper name as that of Dilmun is very uncertain. For the probable identification of Dilmun with the island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, cf. Rawlinson, /Journ. Roy. As. Soc./, 1880, pp. 20 ff.; and see further, Meissner, /Orient. Lit-Zeit./, XX. No. 7, col. 201 ff. The first two lines of the column are probably part of the speech of some deity, who urges the necessity of invoking or conjuring Anu and Enlil "by the Soul of Heaven, by the Soul of Earth", in order to secure their support or approval. Now Anu and Enlil are the two great gods who had determined on mankind's destruction, and whose wrath at his own escape from death Ziusudu must placate. It is an obvious inference that conjuring "by the Soul of Heaven" and "by the Soul of Earth" is either the method by which Ziusudu has already succeeded in appeasing their anger, or the means by which he is here enjoined to attain that end. Against the latter alternative it is to be noted that the god is addressing more than one person; and, further, at Ziusudu is evidently already pardoned, for, so far from following the deity's advice, he immediately prostrates himself before Anu and Enlil and receives immortality. We may conjecture that at the close of the Fifth Column Ziusudu had already performed the invocation and thereby had appeased the divine wrath; and that the lines at the beginning of the Sixth Column point the moral of the story by enjoining on Ziusudu and his descendants, in other words on mankind, the advisability of employing this powerful incantation at their need. The speaker may perhaps have been one of Ziusudu's divine helpers--the Sun-god to whom he had sacrificed, or Enki who had saved him from the Flood. But it seems to me more probable that the words are uttered by Anu and Enlil themselves.[1] For thereby they would be represented as giving their own sanction to the formula, and as guaranteeing its magical efficacy. That the incantation, as addressed to Anu and Enlil, would be appropriate is obvious, since each would be magically approached through his own sphere of control. [1] One of them may have been the speaker on behalf of both. It is significant that at another critical point of the story we have already met with a reference to conjuring "by the Name of Heaven and Earth", the phrase occurring at the close of the Third Column after the reference to the dream or dreams. There, as we saw, we might possibly explain the passage as illustrating one aspect of Ziusudu's piety: he may have been represented as continually practising this class of divination, and in that case it would be natural enough that in the final crisis of the story he should have propitiated the gods he conjured by the same means. Or, as a more probable alternative, it was suggested that we might connect the line with Enki's warning, and assume that Ziusudu interpreted the dream-revelation of Anu and Enlil's purpose by means of the magical incantation which was peculiarly associated with them. On either alternative the phrase fits into the story itself, and there is no need to suppose that the narrative is interrupted, either in the Third or in the Sixth Column, by an address to the hearers of the myth, urging them to make the invocation on their own behalf. On the other hand, it seems improbable that the lines in question formed part of the original myth; they may have been inserted to weld the myth more closely to the magic. Both incantation and epic may have originally existed independently, and, if so, their combination would have been suggested by their contents. For while the former is addressed to Anu and Enlil, in the latter these same gods play the dominant parts: they are the two chief creators, it is they who send the Flood, and it is their anger that must be appeased. If once combined, the further step of making the incantation the actual means by which Ziusudu achieved his own rescue and immortality would be a natural development. It may be added that the words would have been an equally appropriate addition if the incantation had not existed independently, but had been suggested by, and developed from, the myth. In the third and eleventh lines of the column we have further references to the mysterious object, the creation of which appears to have been recorded in the First Column of the text between man's creation and that of animals. The second sign of the group composing its name was not recognized by Dr. Poebel, but it is quite clearly written in two of the passages, and has been correctly identified by Professor Barton.[1] The Sumerian word is, in fact, to be read /nig- gil-ma/,[2] which, when preceded by the determinative for "pot", "jar", or "bowl", is given in a later syllabary as the equivalent of the Semitic word /mashkhalu/. Evidence that the word /mashkhalu/ was actually employed to denote a jar or vessel of some sort is furnished by one of the Tel el-Amarna letters which refers to "one silver /mashkhalu/" and "one (or two) stone /mashkhalu/".[3] In our text the determinative is absent, and it is possible that the word is used in another sense. Professor Barton, in both passages in the Sixth Column, gives it the meaning "curse"; he interprets the lines as referring to the removal of a curse from the earth after the Flood, and he compares Gen. viii. 21, where Yahweh declares he will not again "curse the ground for man's sake". But this translation ignores the occurrence of the word in the First Column, where the creation of the /niggilma/ is apparently recorded; and his rendering "the seed that was cursed" in l. 11 is not supported by the photographic reproduction of the text, which suggests that the first sign in the line is not that for "seed", but is the sign for "name", as correctly read by Dr. Poebel. In that passage the /niggilma/ appears to be given by Ziusudu the name "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind", which we have already compared to the title bestowed on Uta-napishtim's ship, "Preserver of Life". Like the ship, it must have played an important part in man's preservation, which would account not only for the honorific title but for the special record of its creation. [1] See /American Journal of Semitic Languages/, Vol. XXXI, April 1915, p. 226. [2] It is written /nig-gil/ in the First Column. [3] See Winckler, /El-Amarna/, pl. 35 f., No. 28, Obv., Col. II, l. 45, Rev., Col. I, l. 63, and Knudtzon, /El-Am. Taf./, pp. 112, 122; the vessels were presents from Amenophis IV to Burnaburiash. It we may connect the word with the magical colouring of the myth, we might perhaps retain its known meaning, "jar" or "bowl", and regard it as employed in the magical ceremony which must have formed part of the invocation "by the Soul of Heaven, by the Soul of Earth". But the accompanying references to the ground, to its production from the ground, and to its springing up, if the phrases may be so rendered, suggest rather some kind of plant;[1] and this, from its employment in magical rites, may also have given its name to a bowl or vessel which held it. A very similar plant was that found and lost by Gilgamesh, after his sojourn with Ut-napishtim; it too had potent magical power and bore a title descriptive of its peculiar virtue of transforming old age to youth. Should this suggestion prove to be correct, the three passages mentioning the /niggilma/ must be classed with those in which the invocation is referred to, as ensuring the sanction of the myth to further elements in the magic. In accordance with this view, the fifth line in the Sixth Column is probably to be included in the divine speech, where a reference to the object employed in the ritual would not be out of place. But it is to be hoped that light will be thrown on this puzzling word by further study, and perhaps by new fragments of the text; meanwhile it would be hazardous to suggest a more definite rendering. [1] The references to "the ground", or "the earth", also tend to connect it peculiarly with Enlil. Enlil's close association with the earth, which is, of course, independently attested, is explicitly referred to in the Babylonian Version (cf. Gilg. Epic. XI, ll. 39-42). Suggested reflections of this idea have long been traced in the Hebrew Versions; cf. Gen. viii. 21 (J), where Yahweh says he will not again curse the ground, and Gen. ix. 13 (P), where Elohim speaks of his covenant "between me and the earth". With the sixth line of the column it is clear that the original narrative of the myth is resumed.[1] Ziusudu, the king, prostrates himself before Anu and Enlil, who bestow immortality upon him and cause him to dwell in a land, or mountain, the name of which may perhaps be read as Dilmun. The close parallelism between this portion of the text and the end of the myth in the Gilgamesh Epic will be seen from the following extracts,[2] the magical portions being omitted from the Sumerian Version: [1] It will also be noted that with this line the text again falls naturally into couplets. [2] Col. VI, ll. 6-9 and 12 are there compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 198-205. SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION Then Enlil went up into the ship; Ziusudu, the king, He took me by the hand and led me forth. Before Anu and Enlil bows himself He brought out my wife and down. caused her to bow down at my side; He touched our brows, standing between us and blessing us: Life like (that of) a god he "Formerly was Ut-napishtim of gives to him. mankind, An eternal soul like (that of) a But now let Ut-napishtim be like god he creates for him. the gods, even us! And let Ut-napishtim dwell afar off at the mouth of the rivers!" In a . . . land, the land of[1] Then they took me and afar off, Dilmun(?), they caused him to at the mouth of the rivers, dwell. they caused me to dwell. [1] Or, "On a mountain, the mountain of", &c. The Sumerian Version thus apparently concludes with the familiar ending of the legend which we find in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus, though it here occurs in an abbreviated form and with some variations in detail. In all three versions the prostration of the Deluge hero before the god is followed by the bestowal of immortality upon him, a fate which, according to Berossus, he shared with his wife, his daughter, and the steersman. The Gilgamesh Epic perhaps implies that Ut-napishtim's wife shared in his immortality, but the Sumerian Version mentions Ziusudu alone. In the Gilgamesh Epic Ut-napishtim is settled by the gods at the mouth of the rivers, that is to say at the head of the Persian Gulf, while according to a possible rendering of the Sumerian Version he is made to dwell on Dilmun, an island in the Gulf itself. The fact that Gilgamesh in the Epic has to cross the sea to reach Ut-napishtim may be cited in favour of the reading "Dilmun"; and the description of the sea as "the Waters of Death", if it implies more than the great danger of their passage, was probably a later development associated with Ut-napishtim's immortality. It may be added that in neither Hebrew version do we find any parallel to the concluding details of the original story, the Hebrew narratives being brought to an end with the blessing of Noah and the divine promise to, or covenant with, mankind. Such then are the contents of our Sumerian document, and from the details which have been given it will have been seen that its story, so far as concerns the Deluge, is in essentials the same as that we already find in the Gilgamesh Epic. It is true that this earlier version has reached us in a magical setting, and to some extent in an abbreviated form. In the next lecture I shall have occasion to refer to another early mythological text from Nippur, which was thought by its first interpreter to include a second Sumerian Version of the Deluge legend. That suggestion has not been substantiated, though we shall see that the contents of the document are of a very interesting character. But in view of the discussion that has taken place in the United States over the interpretation of the second text, and of the doubts that have subsequently been expressed in some quarters as to the recent discovery of any new form of the Deluge legend, it may be well to formulate briefly the proof that in the inscription published by Dr. Poebel an early Sumerian Version of the Deluge story has actually been recovered. Any one who has followed the detailed analysis of the new text which has been attempted in the preceding paragraphs will, I venture to think, agree that the following conclusions may be drawn: (i) The points of general resemblance presented by the narrative to that in the Gilgamesh Epic are sufficiently close in themselves to show that we are dealing with a Sumerian Version of that story. And this conclusion is further supported (a) by the occurrence throughout the text of the attested Sumerian equivalent of the Semitic word, employed in the Babylonian Versions, for the "Flood" or "Deluge", and (b) by the use of precisely the same term for the hero's "great boat", which is already familiar to us from an early Babylonian Version. (ii) The close correspondence in language between portions of the Sumerian legend and the Gilgamesh Epic suggest that the one version was ultimately derived from the other. And this conclusion in its turn is confirmed (a) by the identity in meaning of the Sumerian and Babylonian names for the Deluge hero, which are actually found equated in a late explanatory text, and (b) by small points of difference in the Babylonian form of the story which correspond to later political and religious developments and suggest the work of Semitic redactors. The cumulative effect of such general and detailed evidence is overwhelming, and we may dismiss all doubts as to the validity of Dr. Poebel's claim. We have indeed recovered a very early, and in some of its features a very primitive, form of the Deluge narrative which till now has reached us only in Semitic and Greek renderings; and the stream of tradition has been tapped at a point far above any at which we have hitherto approached it. What evidence, we may ask, does this early Sumerian Version offer with regard to the origin and literary history of the Hebrew Versions? The general dependence of the biblical Versions upon the Babylonian legend as a whole has long been recognized, and needs no further demonstration; and it has already been observed that the parallelisms with the version in the Gilgamesh Epic are on the whole more detailed and striking in the earlier than in the later Hebrew Version.[1] In the course of our analysis of the Sumerian text its more striking points of agreement or divergence, in relation to the Hebrew Versions, were noted under the different sections of its narrative. It was also obvious that, in many features in which the Hebrew Versions differ from the Gilgamesh Epic, the latter finds Sumerian support. These facts confirm the conclusion, which we should naturally base on grounds of historical probability, that while the Semitic-Babylonian Versions were derived from Sumer, the Hebrew accounts were equally clearly derived from Babylon. But there are one or two pieces of evidence which are apparently at variance with this conclusion, and these call for some explanation. [1] For details see especially Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 177 ff. Not too much significance should be attached to the apparent omission of the episode of the birds from the Sumerian narrative, in which it would agree with the later as against the earlier Hebrew Version; for, apart from its epitomized character, there is so much missing from the text that the absence of this episode cannot be regarded as established with certainty. And in any case it could be balanced by the Sumerian order of Creation of men before animals, which agrees with the earlier Hebrew Version against the later. But there is one very striking point in which our new Sumerian text agrees with both the Hebrew Versions as against the Gilgamesh Epic and Berossus; and that is in the character of Ziusudu, which presents so close a parallel to the piety of Noah. As we have already seen, the latter is due to no Hebrew idealization of the story, but represents a genuine strand of the original tradition, which is completely absent from the Babylonian Versions. But the Babylonian Versions are the media through which it has generally been assumed that the tradition of the Deluge reached the Hebrews. What explanation have we of this fact? This grouping of Sumerian and Hebrew authorities, against the extant sources from Babylon, is emphasized by the general framework of the Sumerian story. For the literary connexion which we have in Genesis between the Creation and the Deluge narratives has hitherto found no parallel in the cuneiform texts. In Babylon and Assyria the myth of Creation and the Deluge legend have been divorced. From the one a complete epic has been evolved in accordance with the tenets of Babylonian theology, the Creation myth being combined in the process with other myths of a somewhat analogous character. The Deluge legend has survived as an isolated story in more than one setting, the principal Semitic Version being recounted to the national hero Gilgamesh, towards the close of the composite epic of his adventures which grew up around the nucleus of his name. It is one of the chief surprises of the newly discovered Sumerian Version that the Hebrew connexion of the narratives is seen to be on the lines of very primitive tradition. Noah's reputation for piety does not stand alone. His line of descent from Adam, and the thread of narrative connecting the creation of the world with its partial destruction by the Deluge, already appear in Sumerian form at a time when the city of Babylon itself had not secured its later power. How then are we to account for this correspondence of Sumerian and Hebrew traditions, on points completely wanting in our intermediate authorities, from which, however, other evidence suggests that the Hebrew narratives were derived? At the risk of anticipating some of the conclusions to be drawn in the next lecture, it may be well to define an answer now. It is possible that those who still accept the traditional authorship of the Pentateuch may be inclined to see in this correspondence of Hebrew and Sumerian ideas a confirmation of their own hypothesis. But it should be pointed out at once that this is not an inevitable deduction from the evidence. Indeed, it is directly contradicted by the rest of the evidence we have summarized, while it would leave completely unexplained some significant features of the problem. It is true that certain important details of the Sumerian tradition, while not affecting Babylon and Assyria, have left their stamp upon the Hebrew narratives; but that is not an exhaustive statement of the case. For we have also seen that a more complete survival of Sumerian tradition has taken place in the history of Berossus. There we traced the same general framework of the narratives, with a far closer correspondence in detail. The kingly rank of Ziusudu is in complete harmony with the Berossian conception of a series of supreme Antediluvian rulers, and the names of two of the Antediluvian cites are among those of their newly recovered Sumerian prototypes. There can thus be no suggestion that the Greek reproductions of the Sumerian tradition were in their turn due to Hebrew influence. On the contrary we have in them a parallel case of survival in a far more complete form. The inference we may obviously draw is that the Sumerian narrative continued in existence, in a literary form that closely resembled the original version, into the later historical periods. In this there would be nothing to surprise us, when we recall the careful preservation and study of ancient Sumerian religious texts by the later Semitic priesthood of the country. Each ancient cult-centre in Babylonia continued to cling to its own local traditions, and the Sumerian desire for their preservation, which was inherited by their Semitic guardians, was in great measure unaffected by political occurrences elsewhere. Hence it was that Ashur-bani-pal, when forming his library at Nineveh, was able to draw upon so rich a store of the more ancient literary texts of Babylonia. The Sumerian Version of the Deluge and of Antediluvian history may well have survived in a less epitomized form than that in which we have recovered it; and, like other ancient texts, it was probably provided with a Semitic translation. Indeed its literary study and reproduction may have continued without interruption in Babylon itself. But even if Sumerian tradition died out in the capital under the influence of the Babylonian priesthood, its re-introduction may well have taken place in Neo-Babylonian times. Perhaps the antiquarian researches of Nabonidus were characteristic of his period; and in any case the collection of his country's gods into the capital must have been accompanied by a renewed interest in the more ancient versions of the past with which their cults were peculiarly associated. In the extant summary from Berossus we may possibly see evidence of a subsequent attempt to combine with these more ancient traditions the continued religious dominance of Marduk and of Babylon. Our conclusion, that the Sumerian form of the tradition did not die out, leaves the question as to the periods during which Babylonian influence may have acted upon Hebrew tradition in great measure unaffected; and we may therefore postpone its further consideration to the next lecture. To-day the only question that remains to be considered concerns the effect of our new evidence upon the wider problem of Deluge stories as a whole. What light does it throw on the general character of Deluge stories and their suggested Egyptian origin? One thing that strikes me forcibly in reading this early text is the complete absence of any trace or indication of astrological /motif/. It is true that Ziusudu sacrifices to the Sun-god; but the episode is inherent in the story, the appearance of the Sun after the storm following the natural sequence of events and furnishing assurance to the king of his eventual survival. To identify the worshipper with his god and to transfer Ziusudu's material craft to the heavens is surely without justification from the simple narrative. We have here no prototype of Ra sailing the heavenly ocean. And the destructive flood itself is not only of an equally material and mundane character, but is in complete harmony with its Babylonian setting. In the matter of floods the Tigris and Euphrates present a striking contrast to the Nile. It is true that the life-blood of each country is its river-water, but the conditions of its use are very different, and in Mesopotamia it becomes a curse when out of control. In both countries the river-water must be used for maturing the crops. But while the rains of Abyssinia cause the Nile to rise between August and October, thus securing both summer and winter crops, the melting snows of Armenia and the Taurus flood the Mesopotamian rivers between March and May. In Egypt the Nile flood is gentle; it is never abrupt, and the river gives ample warning of its rise and fall. It contains just enough sediment to enrich the land without choking the canals; and the water, after filling its historic basins, may when necessary be discharged into the falling river in November. Thus Egypt receives a full and regular supply of water, and there is no difficulty in disposing of any surplus. The growth in such a country of a legend of world-wide destruction by flood is inconceivable. In Mesopotamia, on the other hand, the floods, which come too late for the winter crops, are followed by the rainless summer months; and not only must the flood-water be controlled, but some portion of it must be detained artificially, if it is to be of use during the burning months of July, August, and September, when the rivers are at their lowest. Moreover, heavy rain in April and a warm south wind melting the snow in the hills may bring down such floods that the channels cannot contain them; the dams are then breached and the country is laid waste. Here there is first too much water and then too little. The great danger from flood in Babylonia, both in its range of action and in its destructive effect, is due to the strangely flat character of the Tigris and Euphrates delta.[1] Hence after a severe breach in the Tigris or Euphrates, the river after inundating the country may make itself a new channel miles away from the old one. To mitigate the danger, the floods may be dealt with in two ways--by a multiplication of canals to spread the water, and by providing escapes for it into depressions in the surrounding desert, which in their turn become centres of fertility. Both methods were employed in antiquity; and it may be added that in any scheme for the future prosperity of the country they must be employed again, of course with the increased efficiency of modern apparatus.[2] But while the Babylonians succeeded in controlling the Euphrates, the Tigris was never really tamed,[3] and whenever it burst its right bank the southern plains were devastated. We could not have more suitable soil for the growth of a Deluge story. [1] Baghdad, though 300 miles by crow-fly from the sea and 500 by river, is only 120 ft. above sea-level. [2] The Babylonians controlled the Euphrates, and at the same time provided against its time of "low supply", by escapes into two depressions in the western desert to the NW. of Babylon, known to-day as the Habbânîyah and Abu Dîs depressions, which lie S. of the modern town of Ramâdi and N. of Kerbela. That these depressions were actually used as reservoirs in antiquity is proved by the presence along their edges of thick beds of Euphrates shells. In addition to canals and escapes, the Babylonian system included well-constructed dikes protected by brushwood. By cutting an eight-mile channel through a low hill between the Habbânîyah and Abu Dîs depressions and by building a short dam 50 ft. high across the latter's narrow outlet, Sir William Willcocks estimates that a reservoir could be obtained holding eighteen milliards of tons of water. See his work /The Irrigations of Mesopotamia/ (E. and F. N. Spon, 1911), /Geographical Journal/, Vol. XL, No. 2 (Aug., 1912), pp. 129 ff., and the articles in /The Near East/ cited on p. 97, n. 1, and p. 98, n. 2. Sir William Willcocks's volume and subsequent papers form the best introduction to the study of Babylonian Deluge tradition on its material side. [3] Their works carried out on the Tigris were effective for irrigation; but the Babylonians never succeeded in controlling its floods as they did those of the Euphrates. A massive earthen dam, the remains of which are still known as "Nimrod's Dam", was thrown across the Tigris above the point where it entered its delta; this served to turn the river over hard conglomerate rock and kept it at a high level so that it could irrigate the country on both banks. Above the dam were the heads of the later Nahrwân Canal, a great stream 400 ft. wide and 17 ft. deep, which supplied the country east of the river. The Nâr Sharri or "King's Canal", the Nahar Malkha of the Greeks and the Nahr el-Malik of the Arabs, protected the right bank of the Tigris by its own high artificial banks, which can still be traced for hundreds of miles; but it took its supply from the Euphrates at Sippar, where the ground is some 25 ft. higher than on the Tigris. The Tigris usually flooded its left bank; it was the right bank which was protected, and a breach here meant disaster. Cf. Willcocks, op. cit., and /The Near East/, Sept. 29, 1916 (Vol. XI, No. 282), p. 522. It was only by constant and unremitting attention that disaster from flood could be averted; and the difficulties of the problem were and are increased by the fact that the flood-water of the Mesopotamian rivers contains five times as much sediment as the Nile. In fact, one of the most pressing of the problems the Sumerian and early Babylonian engineers had to solve was the keeping of the canals free from silt.[1] What the floods, if left unchecked, may do in Mesopotamia, is well illustrated by the decay of the ancient canal-system, which has been the immediate cause of the country's present state of sordid desolation. That the decay was gradual was not the fault of the rivers, but was due to the sound principles on which the old system of control had been evolved through many centuries of labour. At the time of the Moslem conquest the system had already begun to fail. In the fifth century there had been bad floods; but worse came in A.D. 629, when both rivers burst their banks and played havoc with the dikes and embankments. It is related that the Sassanian king Parwiz, the contemporary of Mohammed, crucified in one day forty canal-workers at a certain breach, and yet was unable to master the flood.[2] All repairs were suspended during the anarchy of the Moslem invasion. As a consequence the Tigris left its old bed for the Shatt el-Hai at Kût, and pouring its own and its tributaries' waters into the Euphrates formed the Great Euphrates Swamp, two hundred miles long and fifty broad. But even then what was left of the old system was sufficient to support the splendour of the Eastern Caliphate. [1] Cf. /Letters of Hammurabi/, Vol. III, pp. xxxvi ff.; it was the duty of every village or town upon the banks of the main canals in Babylonia to keep its own section clear of silt, and of course it was also responsible for its own smaller irrigation-channels. While the invention of the system of basin-irrigation was practically forced on Egypt, the extraordinary fertility of Babylonia was won in the teeth of nature by the system of perennial irrigation, or irrigation all the year round. In Babylonia the water was led into small fields of two or three acres, while the Nile valley was irrigated in great basins each containing some thirty to forty thousand acres. The Babylonian method gives far more profitable results, and Sir William Willcocks points out that Egypt to-day is gradually abandoning its own system and adopting that of its ancient rival; see /The Near East/, Sept. 29, 1916, p. 521. [2] See Le Strange, /The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate/, p. 27. The second great blow to the system followed the Mongol conquest, when the Nahrwân Canal, to the east of the Tigris, had its head swept away by flood and the area it had irrigated became desert. Then, in about the fifteenth century, the Tigris returned to its old course; the Shatt el-Hai shrank, and much of the Great Swamp dried up into the desert it is to-day.[1] Things became worse during the centuries of Turkish misrule. But the silting up of the Hillah, or main, branch of the Euphrates about 1865, and the transference of a great part of its stream into the Hindîyah Canal, caused even the Turks to take action. They constructed the old Hindîyah Barrage in 1890, but it gave way in 1903 and the state of things was even worse than before; for the Hillah branch then dried entirely.[2] [1] This illustrates the damage the Tigris itself is capable of inflicting on the country. It may be added that Sir William Willcocks proposes to control the Tigris floods by an escape into the Tharthâr depression, a great salt pan at the tail of Wadi Tharthâr, which lies 14 ft. below sea level and is 200 ft. lower than the flood-level of the Tigris some thirty-two miles away. The escape would leave the Tigris to the S. of Sâmarra, the proposed Beled Barrage being built below it and up-stream of "Nimrod's Dam". The Tharthâr escape would drain into the Euphrates, and the latter's Habbânîyah escape would receive any surplus water from the Tigris, a second barrage being thrown across the Euphrates up- stream of Fallûjah, where there is an outcrop of limestone near the head of the Sakhlawîyah Canal. The Tharthâr depression, besides disposing of the Tigris flood-water, would thus probably feed the Euphrates; and a second barrage on the Tigris, to be built at Kût, would supply water to the Shatt el-Hai. When the country is freed from danger of flood, the Baghdad Railway could be run through the cultivated land instead of through the eastern desert; see Willcocks, /The Near East/, Oct. 6, 1916 (Vol. XI, No. 283), p. 545 f. [2] It was then that Sir William Willcocks designed the new Hindîyah Barrage, which was completed in 1913. The Hindîyah branch, to-day the main stream of the Euphrates, is the old low-lying Pallacopas Canal, which branched westward above Babylon and discharged its waters into the western marshes. In antiquity the head of this branch had to be opened in high floods and then closed again immediately after the flood to keep the main stream full past Babylon, which entailed the employment of an enormous number of men. Alexander the Great's first work in Babylonia was cutting a new head for the Pallacopas in solid ground, for hitherto it had been in sandy soil; and it was while reclaiming the marshes farther down-stream that he contracted the fever that killed him. From this brief sketch of progressive disaster during the later historical period, the inevitable effect of neglected silt and flood, it will be gathered that the two great rivers of Mesopotamia present a very strong contrast to the Nile. For during the same period of misgovernment and neglect in Egypt the Nile did not turn its valley and delta into a desert. On the Tigris and Euphrates, during ages when the earliest dwellers on their banks were struggling to make effective their first efforts at control, the waters must often have regained the upper hand. Under such conditions the story of a great flood in the past would not be likely to die out in the future; the tradition would tend to gather illustrative detail suggested by later experience. Our new text reveals the Deluge tradition in Mesopotamia at an early stage of its development, and incidentally shows us that there is no need to postulate for its origin any convulsion of nature or even a series of seismic shocks accompanied by cyclone in the Persian Gulf. If this had been the only version of the story that had come down to us, we should hardly have regarded it as a record of world-wide catastrophe. It is true the gods' intention is to destroy mankind, but the scene throughout is laid in Southern Babylonia. After seven days' storm, the Sun comes out, and the vessel with the pious priest-king and his domestic animals on board grounds, apparently still in Babylonia, and not on any distant mountain, such as Mt. Nisir or the great mass of Ararat in Armenia. These are obviously details which tellers of the story have added as it passed down to later generations. When it was carried still farther afield, into the area of the Eastern Mediterranean, it was again adapted to local conditions. Thus Apollodorus makes Deucalion land upon Parnassus,[1] and the pseudo-Lucian relates how he founded the temple of Derketo at Hierapolis in Syria beside the hole in the earth which swallowed up the Flood.[2] To the Sumerians who first told the story, the great Flood appeared to have destroyed mankind, for Southern Babylonia was for them the world. Later peoples who heard it have fitted the story to their own geographical horizon, and in all good faith and by a purely logical process the mountain-tops are represented as submerged, and the ship, or ark, or chest, is made to come to ground on the highest peak known to the story-teller and his hearers. But in its early Sumerian form it is just a simple tradition of some great inundation, which overwhelmed the plain of Southern Babylonia and was peculiarly disastrous in its effects. And so its memory survived in the picture of Ziusudu's solitary coracle upon the face of the waters, which, seen through the mists of the Deluge tradition, has given us the Noah's ark of our nursery days. [1] Hesiod is our earliest authority for the Deucalion Flood story. For its probable Babylonian origin, cf. Farnell, /Greece and Babylon/ (1911), p. 184. [2] /De Syria dea/, 12 f. Thus the Babylonian, Hebrew, and Greek Deluge stories resolve themselves, not into a nature myth, but into an early legend, which has the basis of historical fact in the Euphrates Valley. And it is probable that we may explain after a similar fashion the occurrence of tales of a like character at least in some other parts of the world. Among races dwelling in low-lying or well-watered districts it would be surprising if we did not find independent stories of past floods from which few inhabitants of the land escaped. It is only in hilly countries such as Palestine, where for the great part of the year water is scarce and precious, that we are forced to deduce borrowing; and there is no doubt that both the Babylonian and the biblical stories have been responsible for some at any rate of the scattered tales. But there is no need to adopt the theory of a single source for all of them, whether in Babylonia or, still less, in Egypt.[1] [1] This argument is taken from an article I published in Professor Headlam's /Church Quarterly Review/, Jan., 1916, pp. 280 ff., containing an account of Dr. Poebel's discovery. I should like to add, with regard to this reading of our new evidence, that I am very glad to know Sir James Frazer holds a very similar opinion. For, as you are doubtless all aware, Sir James is at present collecting Flood stories from all over the world, and is supplementing from a wider range the collections already made by Lenormant, Andree, Winternitz, and Gerland. When his work is complete it will be possible to conjecture with far greater confidence how particular traditions or groups of tradition arose, and to what extent transmission has taken place. Meanwhile, in his recent Huxley Memorial Lecture,[1] he has suggested a third possibility as to the way Deluge stories may have arisen. [1] Sir J. G. Frazer, /Ancient Stories of a Great Flood/ (the Huxley Memorial Lecture, 1916), Roy. Anthrop. Inst., 1916. Stated briefly, it is that a Deluge story may arise as a popular explanation of some striking natural feature in a country, although to the scientific eye the feature in question is due to causes other than catastrophic flood. And he worked out the suggestion in the case of the Greek traditions of a great deluge, associated with the names of Deucalion and Dardanus. Deucalion's deluge, in its later forms at any rate, is obviously coloured by Semitic tradition; but both Greek stories, in their origin, Sir James Frazer would trace to local conditions--the one suggested by the Gorge of Tempe in Thessaly, the other explaining the existence of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. As he pointed out, they would be instances, not of genuine historical traditions, but of what Sir James Tyler calls "observation myths". A third story of a great flood, regarded in Greek tradition as the earliest of the three, he would explain by an extraordinary inundation of the Copaic Lake in Boeotia, which to this day is liable to great fluctuations of level. His new theory applies only to the other two traditions. For in them no historical kernel is presupposed, though gradual erosion by water is not excluded as a cause of the surface features which may have suggested the myths. This valuable theory thus opens up a third possibility for our analysis. It may also, of course, be used in combination, if in any particular instance we have reason to believe that transmission, in some vague form, may already have taken place. And it would with all deference suggest the possibility that, in view of other evidence, this may have occurred in the case of the Greek traditions. With regard to the theory itself we may confidently expect that further examples will be found in its illustration and support. Meanwhile in the new Sumerian Version I think we may conclude that we have recovered beyond any doubt the origin of the Babylonian and Hebrew traditions and of the large group of stories to which they in their turn have given rise. LECTURE III CREATION AND THE DRAGON MYTH; AND THE PROBLEM OF BABYLONIAN PARALLELS IN HEBREW TRADITION In our discussion of the new Sumerian version of the Deluge story we came to the conclusion that it gave no support to any theory which would trace all such tales to a single origin, whether in Egypt or in Babylonia. In spite of strong astrological elements in both the Egyptian and Babylonian religious systems, we saw grounds for regarding the astrological tinge of much ancient mythology as a later embellishment and not as primitive material. And so far as our new version of the Deluge story was concerned, it resolved itself into a legend, which had a basis of historical fact in the Euphrates Valley. It will be obvious that the same class of explanation cannot be applied to narratives of the Creation of the World. For there we are dealing, not with legends, but with myths, that is, stories exclusively about the gods. But where an examination of their earlier forms is possible, it would seem to show that many of these tales also, in their origin, are not to be interpreted as nature myths, and that none arose as mere reflections of the solar system. In their more primitive and simpler aspects they seem in many cases to have been suggested by very human and terrestrial experience. To-day we will examine the Egyptian, Sumerian, and Babylonian myths of Creation, and, after we have noted the more striking features of our new material, we will consider the problem of foreign influences upon Hebrew traditions concerning the origin and early history of the world. In Egypt, as until recently in Babylonia, we have to depend for our knowledge of Creation myths on documents of a comparatively late period. Moreover, Egyptian religious literature as a whole is textually corrupt, and in consequence it is often difficult to determine the original significance of its allusions. Thanks to the funerary inscriptions and that great body of magical formulae and ritual known as "The Chapters of Coming forth by Day", we are very fully informed on the Egyptian doctrines as to the future state of the dead. The Egyptian's intense interest in his own remote future, amounting almost to an obsession, may perhaps in part account for the comparatively meagre space in the extant literature which is occupied by myths relating solely to the past. And it is significant that the one cycle of myth, of which we are fully informed in its latest stage of development, should be that which gave its sanction to the hope of a future existence for man. The fact that Herodotus, though he claims a knowledge of the sufferings or "Mysteries" of Osiris, should deliberately refrain from describing them or from even uttering the name,[1] suggests that in his time at any rate some sections of the mythology had begun to acquire an esoteric character. There is no doubt that at all periods myth played an important part in the ritual of feast-days. But mythological references in the earlier texts are often obscure; and the late form in which a few of the stories have come to us is obviously artificial. The tradition, for example, which relates how mankind came from the tears which issued from Ra's eye undoubtedly arose from a play upon words. [1] Herodotus, II, 171. On the other hand, traces of myth, scattered in the religious literature of Egypt, may perhaps in some measure betray their relative age by the conceptions of the universe which underlie them. The Egyptian idea that the sky was a heavenly ocean, which is not unlike conceptions current among the Semitic Babylonians and Hebrews, presupposes some thought and reflection. In Egypt it may well have been evolved from the probably earlier but analogous idea of the river in heaven, which the Sun traversed daily in his boats. Such a river was clearly suggested by the Nile; and its world-embracing character is reminiscent of a time when through communication was regularly established, at least as far south as Elephantine. Possibly in an earlier period the long narrow valley, or even a section of it, may have suggested the figure of a man lying prone upon his back. Such was Keb, the Earth-god, whose counterpart in the sky was the goddess Nut, her feet and hands resting at the limits of the world and her curved body forming the vault of heaven. Perhaps still more primitive, and dating from a pastoral age, may be the notion that the sky was a great cow, her body, speckled with stars, alone visible from the earth beneath. Reference has already been made to the dominant influence of the Sun in Egyptian religion, and it is not surprising that he should so often appear as the first of created beings. His orb itself, or later the god in youthful human form, might be pictured as emerging from a lotus on the primaeval waters, or from a marsh-bird's egg, a conception which influenced the later Phoenician cosmogeny. The Scarabaeus, or great dung-feeding beetle of Egypt, rolling the ball before it in which it lays its eggs, is an obvious theme for the early myth-maker. And it was natural that the Beetle of Khepera should have been identified with the Sun at his rising, as the Hawk of Ra represented his noonday flight, and the aged form of Attun his setting in the west. But in all these varied conceptions and explanations of the universe it is difficult to determine how far the poetical imagery of later periods has transformed the original myths which may lie behind them. As the Egyptian Creator the claims of Ra, the Sun-god of Heliopolis, early superseded those of other deities. On the other hand, Ptah of Memphis, who for long ages had been merely the god of architects and craftsmen, became under the Empire the architect of the universe and is pictured as a potter moulding the world-egg. A short poem by a priest of Ptah, which has come down to us from that period, exhibits an attempt to develop this idea on philosophical lines.[1] Its author represents all gods and living creatures as proceeding directly from the mind and thought of Ptah. But this movement, which was more notably reflected in Akhenaton's religious revolution, died out in political disaster, and the original materialistic interpretation of the myths was restored with the cult of Amen. How materialistic this could be is well illustrated by two earlier members of the XVIIIth Dynasty, who have left us vivid representations of the potter's wheel employed in the process of man's creation. When the famous Hatshepsut, after the return of her expedition to Punt in the ninth year of her young consort Thothmes III, decided to build her temple at Deir el-Bahari in the necropolis of Western Thebes, she sought to emphasize her claim to the throne of Egypt by recording her own divine origin upon its walls. We have already noted the Egyptians' belief in the solar parentage of their legitimate rulers, a myth that goes back at least to the Old Kingdom and may have had its origin in prehistoric times. With the rise of Thebes, Amen inherited the prerogatives of Ra; and so Hatshepsut seeks to show, on the north side of the retaining wall of her temple's Upper Platform, that she was the daughter of Amen himself, "the great God, Lord of the sky, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, who resides at Thebes". The myth was no invention of her own, for obviously it must have followed traditional lines, and though it is only employed to exhibit the divine creation of a single personage, it as obviously reflects the procedure and methods of a general Creation myth. [1] See Breasted, /Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische Sprache/, XXXIX, pp. 39 ff., and /History of Egypt/, pp. 356 ff. This series of sculptures shared the deliberate mutilation that all her records suffered at the hands of Thothmes III after her death, but enough of the scenes and their accompanying text has survived to render the detailed interpretation of the myth quite certain.[1] Here, as in a general Creation myth, Amen's first act is to summon the great gods in council, in order to announce to them the future birth of the great princess. Of the twelve gods who attend, the first is Menthu, a form of the Sun-god and closely associated with Amen.[2] But the second deity is Atum, the great god of Heliopolis, and he is followed by his cycle of deities--Shu, "the son of Ra"; Tefnut, "the Lady of the sky"; Keb, "the Father of the Gods"; Nut, "the Mother of the Gods"; Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Set, Horus, and Hathor. We are here in the presence of cosmic deities, as befits a projected act of creation. The subsequent scenes exhibit the Egyptian's literal interpretation of the myth, which necessitates the god's bodily presence and personal participation. Thoth mentions to Amen the name of queen Aahmes as the future mother of Hatshepsut, and we later see Amen himself, in the form of her husband, Aa-kheperka-Ra (Thothmes I), sitting with Aahmes and giving her the Ankh, or sign of Life, which she receives in her hand and inhales through her nostrils.[3] God and queen are seated on thrones above a couch, and are supported by two goddesses. After leaving the queen, Amen calls on Khnum or Khnemu, the flat-horned ram- god, who in texts of all periods is referred to as the "builder" of gods and men;[4] and he instructs him to create the body of his future daughter and that of her /Ka/, or "double", which would be united to her from birth. [1] See Naville, /Deir el-Bahari/, Pt. II, pp. 12 ff., plates xlvi ff. [2] See Budge, /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. II, pp. 23 ff. His chief cult-centre was Hermonthis, but here as elsewhere he is given his usual title "Lord of Thebes". [3] Pl. xlvii. Similar scenes are presented in the "birth-temples" at Denderah, Edfu, Philae, Esneh, and Luxor; see Naville, op. cit., p. 14. [4] Cf. Budge, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 50. The scene in the series, which is of greatest interest in the present connexion, is that representing Khnum at his work of creation. He is seated before a potter's wheel which he works with his foot,[1] and on the revolving table he is fashioning two children with his hands, the baby princess and her "double". It was always Hatshepsut's desire to be represented as a man, and so both the children are boys.[2] As yet they are lifeless, but the symbol of Life will be held to their nostrils by Heqet, the divine Potter's wife, whose frog-head typifies birth and fertility. When Amenophis III copied Hatshepsut's sculptures for his own series at Luxor, he assigned this duty to the greater goddess Hathor, perhaps the most powerful of the cosmic goddesses and the mother of the world. The subsequent scenes at Deir el-Bahari include the leading of queen Aahmes by Khnum and Heqet to the birth- chamber; the great birth scene where the queen is attended by the goddesses Nephthys and Isis, a number of divine nurses and midwives holding several of the "doubles" of the baby, and favourable genii, in human form or with the heads of crocodiles, jackals, and hawks, representing the four cardinal points and all bearing the gift of life; the presentation of the young child by the goddess Hathor to Amen, who is well pleased at the sight of his daughter; and the divine suckling of Hatshepsut and her "doubles". But these episodes do not concern us, as of course they merely reflect the procedure following a royal birth. But Khnum's part in the princess's origin stands on a different plane, for it illustrates the Egyptian myth of Creation by the divine Potter, who may take the form of either Khnum or Ptah. Monsieur Naville points out the extraordinary resemblance in detail which Hatshepsut's myth of divine paternity bears to the Greek legend of Zeus and Alkmene, where the god takes the form of Amphitryon, Alkmene's husband, exactly as Amen appears to the queen;[3] and it may be added that the Egyptian origin of the Greek story was traditionally recognized in the ancestry ascribed to the human couple.[4] [1] This detail is not clearly preserved at Deir el-Bahari; but it is quite clear in the scene on the west wall of the "Birth-room" in the Temple at Luxor, which Amenophis III evidently copied from that of Hatshepsut. [2] In the similar scene at Luxor, where the future Amenophis III is represented on the Creator's wheel, the sculptor has distinguished the human child from its spiritual "double" by the quaint device of putting its finger in its mouth. [3] See Naville, op. cit., p. 12. [4] Cf., e.g., Herodotus, II, 43. The only complete Egyptian Creation myth yet recovered is preserved in a late papyrus in the British Museum, which was published some years ago by Dr. Budge.[1] It occurs under two separate versions embedded in "The Book of the Overthrowing of Apep, the Enemy of Ra". Here Ra, who utters the myth under his late title of Neb-er-tcher, "Lord to the utmost limit", is self-created as Khepera from Nu, the primaeval water; and then follow successive generations of divine pairs, male and female, such as we find at the beginning of the Semitic-Babylonian Creation Series.[2] Though the papyrus was written as late as the year 311 B.C., the myth is undoubtedly early. For the first two divine pairs Shu and Tefnut, Keb and Nut, and four of the latter pairs' five children, Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys, form with the Sun-god himself the Greater Ennead of Heliopolis, which exerted so wide an influence on Egyptian religious speculation. The Ennead combined the older solar elements with the cult of Osiris, and this is indicated in the myth by a break in the successive generations, Nut bringing forth at a single birth the five chief gods of the Osiris cycle, Osiris himself and his son Horus, with Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Thus we may see in the myth an early example of that religious syncretism which is so characteristic of later Egyptian belief. [1] See /Archaeologia/, Vol. LII (1891). Dr. Budge published a new edition of the whole papyrus in /Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum/ (1910), and the two versions of the Creation myth are given together in his /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I (1904), Chap. VIII, pp. 308 ff., and more recently in his /Egyptian Literature/, Vol. I, "Legends of the Gods" (1912), pp. 2 ff. An account of the papyrus is included in the Introduction to "Legends of the Gods", pp. xiii ff. [2] In /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I, Chap. VII, pp. 288 ff., Dr. Budge gives a detailed comparison of the Egyptian pairs of primaeval deities with the very similar couples of the Babylonian myth. The only parallel this Egyptian myth of Creation presents to the Hebrew cosmogony is in its picture of the primaeval water, corresponding to the watery chaos of Genesis i. But the resemblance is of a very general character, and includes no etymological equivalence such as we find when we compare the Hebrew account with the principal Semitic-Babylonian Creation narrative.[1] The application of the Ankh, the Egyptian sign for Life, to the nostrils of a newly-created being is no true parallel to the breathing into man's nostrils of the breath of life in the earlier Hebrew Version,[2] except in the sense that each process was suggested by our common human anatomy. We should naturally expect to find some Hebrew parallel to the Egyptian idea of Creation as the work of a potter with his clay, for that figure appears in most ancient mythologies. The Hebrews indeed used the conception as a metaphor or parable,[3] and it also underlies their earlier picture of man's creation. I have not touched on the grosser Egyptian conceptions concerning the origin of the universe, which we may probably connect with African ideas; but those I have referred to will serve to demonstrate the complete absence of any feature that presents a detailed resemblance of the Hebrew tradition. [1] For the wide diffusion, in the myths of remote peoples, of a vague theory that would trace all created things to a watery origin, see Farnell, /Greece and Babylon/, p. 180. [2] Gen. ii. 7 (J). [3] Cf., e.g., Isaiah xxix. 16, xlv. 9; and Jeremiah xviii. 2f. When we turn to Babylonia, we find there also evidence of conflicting ideas, the product of different and to some extent competing religious centres. But in contrast to the rather confused condition of Egyptian mythology, the Semitic Creation myth of the city of Babylon, thanks to the latter's continued political ascendancy, succeeded in winning a dominant place in the national literature. This is the version in which so many points of resemblance to the first chapter of Genesis have long been recognized, especially in the succession of creative acts and their relative order. In the Semitic-Babylonian Version the creation of the world is represented as the result of conflict, the emergence of order out of chaos, a result that is only attained by the personal triumph of the Creator. But this underlying dualism does not appear in the more primitive Sumerian Version we have now recovered. It will be remembered that in the second lecture I gave some account of the myth, which occurs in an epitomized form as an introduction to the Sumerian Version of the Deluge, the two narratives being recorded in the same document and connected with one another by a description of the Antediluvian cities. We there saw that Creation is ascribed to the three greatest gods of the Sumerian pantheon, Anu, Enlil, and Enki, assisted by the goddess Ninkharsagga. It is significant that in the Sumerian version no less than four deities are represented as taking part in the Creation. For in this we may see some indication of the period to which its composition must be assigned. Their association in the text suggests that the claims of local gods had already begun to compete with one another as a result of political combination between the cities of their cults. To the same general period we must also assign the compilation of the Sumerian Dynastic record, for that presupposes the existence of a supreme ruler among the Sumerian city-states. This form of political constitution must undoubtedly have been the result of a long process of development, and the fact that its existence should be regarded as dating from the Creation of the world indicates a comparatively developed stage of the tradition. But behind the combination of cities and their gods we may conjecturally trace anterior stages of development, when each local deity and his human representative seemed to their own adherents the sole objects for worship and allegiance. And even after the demands of other centres had been conceded, no deity ever quite gave up his local claims. Enlil, the second of the four Sumerian creating deities, eventually ousted his rivals. It has indeed long been recognized that the /rôle/ played by Marduk in the Babylonian Version of Creation had been borrowed from Enlil of Nippur; and in the Atrakhasis legend Enlil himself appears as the ultimate ruler of the world and the other gods figure as "his sons". Anu, who heads the list and plays with Enlil the leading part in the Sumerian narrative, was clearly his chief rival. And though we possess no detailed account of Anu's creative work, the persistent ascription to him of the creation of heaven, and his familiar title, "the Father of the Gods", suggest that he once possessed a corresponding body of myth in Eanna, his temple at Erech. Enki, the third of the creating gods, was naturally credited, as God of Wisdom, with special creative activities, and fortunately in his case we have some independent evidence of the varied forms these could assume. According to one tradition that has come down to us,[1] after Anu had made the heavens, Enki created Apsû or the Deep, his own dwelling- place. Then taking from it a piece of clay[2] he proceeded to create the Brick-god, and reeds and forests for the supply of building material. From the same clay he continued to form other deities and materials, including the Carpenter-god; the Smith-god; Arazu, a patron deity of building; and mountains and seas for all that they produced; the Goldsmith-god, the Stone-cutter-god, and kindred deities, together with their rich products for offerings; the Grain-deities, Ashnan and Lakhar; Siris, a Wine-god; Ningishzida and Ninsar, a Garden-god, for the sake of the rich offerings they could make; and a deity described as "the High priest of the great gods," to lay down necessary ordinances and commands. Then he created "the King", for the equipment probably of a particular temple, and finally men, that they might practise the cult in the temple so elaborately prepared. [1] See Weissbach, /Babylonische Miscellen/, pp. 32 ff. [2] One of the titles of Enki was "the Potter"; cf. /Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus., Pt. XXIV, pl. 14 f., ll. 41, 43. It will be seen from this summary of Enki's creative activities, that the text from which it is taken is not a general Creation myth, but in all probability the introductory paragraph of a composition which celebrated the building or restoration of a particular temple; and the latter's foundation is represented, on henotheistic lines, as the main object of creation. Composed with that special purpose, its narrative is not to be regarded as an exhaustive account of the creation of the world. The incidents are eclective, and only such gods and materials are mentioned as would have been required for the building and adornment of the temple and for the provision of its offerings and cult. But even so its mythological background is instructive. For while Anu's creation of heaven is postulated as the necessary precedent of Enki's activities, the latter creates the Deep, vegetation, mountains, seas, and mankind. Moreover, in his character as God of Wisdom, he is not only the teacher but the creator of those deities who were patrons of man's own constructive work. From such evidence we may infer that in his temple at Eridu, now covered by the mounds of Abu Shahrain in the extreme south of Babylonia, and regarded in early Sumerian tradition as the first city in the world, Enki himself was once celebrated as the sole creator of the universe. The combination of the three gods Anu, Enlil, and Enki, is persistent in the tradition; for not only were they the great gods of the universe, representing respectively heaven, earth, and the watery abyss, but they later shared the heavenly sphere between them. It is in their astrological character that we find them again in creative activity, though without the co-operation of any goddess, when they appear as creators of the great light-gods and as founders of time divisions, the day and the month. This Sumerian myth, though it reaches us only in an extract or summary in a Neo-Babylonian schoolboy's exercise,[1] may well date from a comparatively early period, but probably from a time when the "Ways" of Anu, Enlil, and Enki had already been fixed in heaven and their later astrological characters had crystallized. [1] See /The Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. 124 ff. The tablet gives extracts from two very similar Sumerian and Semitic texts. In both of them Anu, Enlil, and Enki appear as creators "through their sure counsel". In the Sumerian extract they create the Moon and ordain its monthly course, while in the Semitic text, after establishing heaven and earth, they create in addition to the New Moon the bright Day, so that "men beheld the Sun-god in the Gate of his going forth". The idea that a goddess should take part with a god in man's creation is already a familiar feature of Babylonian mythology. Thus the goddess Aruru, in co-operation with Marduk, might be credited with the creation of the human race,[1] as she might also be pictured creating on her own initiative an individual hero such as Enkidu of the Gilgamesh Epic. The /rôle/ of mother of mankind was also shared, as we have seen, by the Semitic Ishtar. And though the old Sumerian goddess, Ninkharsagga, the "Lady of the Mountains", appears in our Sumerian text for the first time in the character of creatress, some of the titles we know she enjoyed, under her synonyms in the great God List of Babylonia, already reflected her cosmic activities.[2] For she was known as "The Builder of that which has Breath", "The Carpenter of Mankind", "The Carpenter of the Heart", "The Coppersmith of the Gods", "The Coppersmith of the Land", and "The Lady Potter". [1] Op. cit., p. 134 f. [2] Cf. /Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus./, Pt. XXIV, pl. 12, ll. 32, 26, 27, 25, 24, 23, and Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 34. In the myth we are not told her method of creation, but from the above titles it is clear that in her own cycle of tradition Ninkhasagga was conceived as fashioning men not only from clay but also from wood, and perhaps as employing metal for the manufacture of her other works of creation. Moreover, in the great God List, where she is referred to under her title Makh, Ninkhasagga is associated with Anu, Enlil, and Enki; she there appears, with her dependent deities, after Enlil and before Enki. We thus have definite proof that her association with the three chief Sumerian gods was widely recognized in the early Sumerian period and dictated her position in the classified pantheon of Babylonia. Apart from this evidence, the important rank assigned her in the historical and legal records and in votive inscriptions,[1] especially in the early period and in Southern Babylonia, accords fully with the part she here plays in the Sumerian Creation myth. Eannatum and Gudea of Lagash both place her immediately after Anu and Enlil, giving her precedence over Enki; and even in the Kassite Kudurru inscriptions of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries, where she is referred to, she takes rank after Enki and before the other gods. In Sumer she was known as "the Mother of the Gods", and she was credited with the power of transferring the kingdom and royal insignia from one king to his successor. [1] See especially, Poebel, op. cit., pp. 24 ff. Her supreme position as a goddess is attested by the relative insignificance of her husband Dunpae, whom she completely overshadows, in which respect she presents a contrast to the goddess Ninlil, Enlil's female counterpart. The early clay figurines found at Nippur and on other sites, representing a goddess suckling a child and clasping one of her breasts, may well be regarded as representing Ninkharsagga and not Ninlil. Her sanctuaries were at Kesh and Adab, both in the south, and this fact sufficiently explains her comparative want of influence in Akkad, where the Semitic Ishtar took her place. She does indeed appear in the north during the Sargonic period under her own name, though later she survives in her synonyms of Ninmakh, "the Sublime Lady", and Nintu, "the Lady of Child-bearing". It is under the latter title that Hammurabi refers to her in his Code of Laws, where she is tenth in a series of eleven deities. But as Goddess of Birth she retained only a pale reflection of her original cosmic character, and her functions were gradually specialized.[1] [1] Cf. Poebel, op. cit., p. 33. It is possible that, under one of her later synonyms, we should identify her, as Dr. Poebel suggests, with the Mylitta of Herodotus. From a consideration of their characters, as revealed by independent sources of evidence, we thus obtain the reason for the co-operation of four deities in the Sumerian Creation. In fact the new text illustrates a well-known principle in the development of myth, the reconciliation of the rival claims of deities, whose cults, once isolated, had been brought from political causes into contact with each other. In this aspect myth is the medium through which a working pantheon is evolved. Naturally all the deities concerned cannot continue to play their original parts in detail. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, where a single deity, and not a very prominent one, was to be raised to pre-eminent rank, the problem was simple enough. He could retain his own qualities and achievements while borrowing those of any former rival. In the Sumerian text we have the result of a far more delicate process of adjustment, and it is possible that the brevity of the text is here not entirely due to compression of a longer narrative, but may in part be regarded as evidence of early combination. As a result of the association of several competing deities in the work of creation, a tendency may be traced to avoid discrimination between rival claims. Thus it is that the assembled gods, the pantheon as a whole, are regarded as collectively responsible for the creation of the universe. It may be added that this use of /ilâni/, "the gods", forms an interesting linguistic parallel to the plural of the Hebrew divine title Elohim. It will be remembered that in the Sumerian Version the account of Creation is not given in full, only such episodes being included as were directly related to the Deluge story. No doubt the selection of men and animals was suggested by their subsequent rescue from the Flood; and emphasis was purposely laid on the creation of the /niggilma/ because of the part it played in securing mankind's survival. Even so, we noted one striking parallel between the Sumerian Version and that of the Semitic Babylonians, in the reason both give for man's creation. But in the former there is no attempt to explain how the universe itself had come into being, and the existence of the earth is presupposed at the moment when Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninkharsagga undertake the creation of man. The Semitic-Babylonian Version, on the other hand, is mainly occupied with events that led up to the acts of creation, and it concerns our problem to inquire how far those episodes were of Semitic and how far of Sumerian origin. A further question arises as to whether some strands of the narrative may not at one time have existed in Sumerian form independently of the Creation myth. The statement is sometimes made that there is no reason to assume a Sumerian original for the Semitic-Babylonian Version, as recorded on "the Seven Tablets of Creation";[1] and this remark, though true of that version as a whole, needs some qualification. The composite nature of the poem has long been recognized, and an analysis of the text has shown that no less than five principal strands have been combined for its formation. These consist of (i) The Birth of the Gods; (ii) The Legend of Ea and Apsû; (iii) The principal Dragon Myth; (iv) The actual account of Creation; and (v) the Hymn to Marduk under his fifty titles.[2] The Assyrian commentaries to the Hymn, from which considerable portions of its text are restored, quote throughout a Sumerian original, and explain it word for word by the phrases of the Semitic Version;[3] so that for one out of the Seven Tablets a Semitic origin is at once disproved. Moreover, the majority of the fifty titles, even in the forms in which they have reached us in the Semitic text, are demonstrably Sumerian, and since many of them celebrate details of their owner's creative work, a Sumerian original for other parts of the version is implied. Enlil and Ea are both represented as bestowing their own names upon Marduk,[4] and we may assume that many of the fifty titles were originally borne by Enlil as a Sumerian Creator.[5] Thus some portions of the actual account of Creation were probably derived from a Sumerian original in which "Father Enlil" figured as the hero. [1] Cf., e.g., Jastrow, /Journ. of the Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), p. 279. [2] See /The Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. lxvi ff.; and cf. Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 43 ff. [3] Cf. /Sev. Tabl./, Vol. I, pp. 157 ff. [4] Cf. Tabl. VII, ll. 116 ff. [5] The number fifty was suggested by an ideogram employed for Enlil's name. For what then were the Semitic Babylonians themselves responsible? It seems to me that, in the "Seven Tablets", we may credit them with considerable ingenuity in the combination of existing myths, but not with their invention. The whole poem in its present form is a glorification of Marduk, the god of Babylon, who is to be given pre-eminent rank among the gods to correspond with the political position recently attained by his city. It would have been quite out of keeping with the national thought to make a break in the tradition, and such a course would not have served the purpose of the Babylonian priesthood, which was to obtain recognition of their claims by the older cult-centres in the country. Hence they chose and combined the more important existing myths, only making such alterations as would fit them to their new hero. Babylon herself had won her position by her own exertions; and it would be a natural idea to give Marduk his opportunity of becoming Creator of the world as the result of successful conflict. A combination of the Dragon myth with the myth of Creation would have admirably served their purpose; and this is what we find in the Semitic poem. But even that combination may not have been their own invention; for, though, as we shall see, the idea of conflict had no part in the earlier forms of the Sumerian Creation myth, its combination with the Dragon /motif/ may have characterized the local Sumerian Version of Nippur. How mechanical was the Babylonian redactors' method of glorifying Marduk is seen in their use of the description of Tiamat and her monster brood, whom Marduk is made to conquer. To impress the hearers of the poem with his prowess, this is repeated at length no less than four times, one god carrying the news of her revolt to another. Direct proof of the manner in which the later redactors have been obliged to modify the original Sumerian Creation myth, in consequence of their incorporation of other elements, may be seen in the Sixth Tablet of the poem, where Marduk states the reason for man's creation. In the second lecture we noted how the very words of the principal Sumerian Creator were put into Marduk's mouth; but the rest of the Semitic god's speech finds no equivalent in the Sumerian Version and was evidently inserted in order to reconcile the narrative with its later ingredients. This will best be seen by printing the two passages in parallel columns:[1] [1] The extract from the Sumerian Version, which occurs in the lower part of the First Column, is here compared with the Semitic- Babylonian Creation Series, Tablet VI, ll. 6-10 (see /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, pp. 86 ff.). The comparison is justified whether we regard the Sumerian speech as a direct preliminary to man's creation, or as a reassertion of his duty after his rescue from destruction by the Flood. SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION "The people will I cause to . . . "I will make man, that man may in their settlements, [. . .]. Cities . . . shall (man) build, I will create man who shall in their protection will I cause inhabit [. . .], him to rest, That he may lay the brick of our That the service of the gods may house in a clean spot, be established, and that [their] shrines [may be built]. That in a clean spot he may But I will alter the ways of the establish our . . . !" gods, and I will change [their paths]; Together shall they be oppressed, and unto evil shall [they . . .]!" The welding of incongruous elements is very apparent in the Semitic Version. For the statement that man will be created in order that the gods may have worshippers is at once followed by the announcement that the gods themselves must be punished and their "ways" changed. In the Sumerian Version the gods are united and all are naturally regarded as worthy of man's worship. The Sumerian Creator makes no distinctions; he refers to "our houses", or temples, that shall be established. But in the later version divine conflict has been introduced, and the future head of the pantheon has conquered and humiliated the revolting deities. Their "ways" must therefore be altered before they are fit to receive the worship which was accorded them by right in the simpler Sumerian tradition. In spite of the epitomized character of the Sumerian Version, a comparison of these passages suggests very forcibly that the Semitic-Babylonian myth of Creation is based upon a simpler Sumerian story, which has been elaborated to reconcile it with the Dragon myth. The Semitic poem itself also supplies evidence of the independent existence of the Dragon myth apart from the process of Creation, for the story of Ea and Apsû, which it incorporates, is merely the local Dragon myth of Eridu. Its inclusion in the story is again simply a tribute to Marduk; for though Ea, now become Marduk's father, could conquer Apsû, he was afraid of Tiamat, "and turned back".[1] The original Eridu myth no doubt represented Enki as conquering the watery Abyss, which became his home; but there is nothing to connect this tradition with his early creative activities. We have long possessed part of another local version of the Dragon myth, which describes the conquest of a dragon by some deity other than Marduk; and the fight is there described as taking place, not before Creation, but at a time when men existed and cities had been built.[2] Men and gods were equally terrified at the monster's appearance, and it was to deliver the land from his clutches that one of the gods went out and slew him. Tradition delighted to dwell on the dragon's enormous size and terrible appearance. In this version he is described as fifty /bêru/[3] in length and one in height; his mouth measured six cubits and the circuit of his ears twelve; he dragged himself along in the water, which he lashed with his tail; and, when slain, his blood flowed for three years, three months, a day and a night. From this description we can see he was given the body of an enormous serpent.[4] [1] Tabl. III, l. 53, &c. In the story of Bel and the Dragon, the third of the apocryphal additions to Daniel, we have direct evidence of the late survival of the Dragon /motif/ apart from any trace of the Creation myth; in this connexion see Charles, /Apocrypha and Pseudopigrapha/, Vol. I (1913), p. 653 f. [2] See /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, pp. 116 ff., lxviii f. The text is preserved on an Assyrian tablet made for the library of Ashur- bani-pal. [3] The /bêru/ was the space that could be covered in two hours' travelling. [4] The Babylonian Dragon has progeny in the later apocalyptic literature, where we find very similar descriptions of the creatures' size. Among them we may perhaps include the dragon in the Apocalypse of Baruch, who, according to the Slavonic Version, apparently every day drinks a cubit's depth from the sea, and yet the sea does not sink because of the three hundred and sixty rivers that flow into it (cf. James, "Apocrypha Anecdota", Second Series, in Armitage Robinson's /Texts and Studies/, V, No. 1, pp. lix ff.). But Egypt's Dragon /motif/ was even more prolific, and the /Pistis Sophia/ undoubtedly suggested descriptions of the Serpent, especially in connexion with Hades. A further version of the Dragon myth has now been identified on one of the tablets recovered during the recent excavations at Ashur,[1] and in it the dragon is not entirely of serpent form, but is a true dragon with legs. Like the one just described, he is a male monster. The description occurs as part of a myth, of which the text is so badly preserved that only the contents of one column can be made out with any certainty. In it a god, whose name is wanting, announces the presence of the dragon: "In the water he lies and I [. . .]!" Thereupon a second god cries successively to Aruru, the mother- goddess, and to Pallil, another deity, for help in his predicament. And then follows the description of the dragon: In the sea was the Serpent cre[ated]. Sixty /bêru/ is his length; Thirty /bêru/ high is his he[ad].[2] For half (a /bêru/) each stretches the surface of his ey[es];[3] For twenty /bêru/ go [his feet].[4] He devours fish, the creatures [of the sea], He devours birds, the creatures [of the heaven], He devours wild asses, the creatures [of the field], He devours men,[5] to the peoples [he . . .]. [1] For the text, see Ebeling, /Assurtexte/ I, No. 6; it is translated by him in /Orient. Lit.-Zeit./, Vol. XIX, No. 4 (April, 1916). [2] The line reads: /30 bêru ša-ka-a ri-[ša-a-šu]/. Dr. Ebeling renders /ri-ša-a/ as "heads" (Köpfe), implying that the dragon had more than one head. It may be pointed out that, if we could accept this translation, we should have an interesting parallel to the description of some of the primaeval monsters, preserved from Berossus, as {soma men ekhontas en, kephalas de duo}. But the common word for "head" is /kakkadu/, and there can be little doubt that /rîšâ/ is here used in its ordinary sense of "head, summit, top" when applied to a high building. [3] The line reads: /a-na 1/2 ta-am la-bu-na li-bit ên[a-šu]/. Dr. Ebeling translates, "auf je eine Hälfte ist ein Ziegel [ihrer] Auge[n] gelegt". But /libittu/ is clearly used here, not with its ordinary meaning of "brick", which yields a strange rendering, but in its special sense, when applied to large buildings, of "foundation, floor-space, area", i.e. "surface". Dr. Ebeling reads /ênâ-šu/ at the end of the line, but the sign is broken; perhaps the traces may prove to be those of /uznâ šu/, "his ears", in which case /li-bit uz[nâ-šu]/ might be rendered either as "surface of his ears", or as "base (lit. foundation) of his ears". [4] i.e. the length of his pace was twenty /bêru/. [5] Lit. "the black-headed". The text here breaks off, at the moment when Pallil, whose help against the dragon had been invoked, begins to speak. Let us hope we shall recover the continuation of the narrative and learn what became of this carnivorous monster. There are ample grounds, then, for assuming the independent existence of the Babylonian Dragon-myth, and though both the versions recovered have come to us in Semitic form, there is no doubt that the myth itself existed among the Sumerians. The dragon /motif/ is constantly recurring in descriptions of Sumerian temple-decoration, and the twin dragons of Ningishzida on Gudea's libation-vase, carved in green steatite and inlaid with shell, are a notable product of Sumerian art.[1] The very names borne by Tiamat's brood of monsters in the "Seven Tablets" are stamped in most cases with their Sumerian descent, and Kingu, whom she appointed as her champion in place of Apsû, is equally Sumerian. It would be strange indeed if the Sumerians had not evolved a Dragon myth,[2] for the Dragon combat is the most obvious of nature myths and is found in most mythologies of Europe and the Near East. The trailing storm-clouds suggest his serpent form, his fiery tongue is seen in the forked lightning, and, though he may darken the world for a time, the Sun-god will always be victorious. In Egypt the myth of "the Overthrowing of Apep, the enemy of Ra" presents a close parallel to that of Tiamat;[3] but of all Eastern mythologies that of the Chinese has inspired in art the most beautiful treatment of the Dragon, who, however, under his varied forms was for them essentially beneficent. Doubtless the Semites of Babylonia had their own versions of the Dragon combat, both before and after their arrival on the Euphrates, but the particular version which the priests of Babylon wove into their epic is not one of them. [1] See E. de Sarzec, /Découvertes en Chaldée/, pl. xliv, Fig. 2, and Heuzey, /Catalogue des antiquités chaldéennes/, p. 281. [2] In his very interesting study of "Sumerian and Akkadian Views of Beginnings", contributed to the /Journ. of the Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), pp. 274 ff., Professor Jastrow suggests that the Dragon combat in the Semitic-Babylonian Creation poem is of Semitic not Sumerian origin. He does not examine the evidence of the poem itself in detail, but bases the suggestion mainly on the two hypotheses, that the Dragon combat of the poem was suggested by the winter storms and floods of the Euphrates Valley, and that the Sumerians came from a mountain region where water was not plentiful. If we grant both assumptions, the suggested conclusion does not seem to me necessarily to follow, in view of the evidence we now possess as to the remote date of the Sumerian settlement in the Euphrates Valley. Some evidence may still be held to point to a mountain home for the proto-Sumerians, such as the name of their early goddess Ninkharsagga, "the Lady of the Mountains". But, as we must now regard Babylonia itself as the cradle of their civilization, other data tend to lose something of their apparent significance. It is true that the same Sumerian sign means "land" and "mountain"; but it may have been difficult to obtain an intelligible profile for "land" without adopting a mountain form. Such a name as Ekur, the "Mountain House" of Nippur, may perhaps indicate size, not origin; and Enki's association with metal- working may be merely due to his character as God of Wisdom, and is not appropriate solely "to a god whose home is in the mountains where metals are found" (op. cit., p. 295). It should be added that Professor Jastrow's theory of the Dragon combat is bound up with his view of the origin of an interesting Sumerian "myth of beginnings", to which reference is made later. [3] Cf. Budge, /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I, pp. 324 ff. The inclusion of the two versions of the Egyptian Creation myth, recording the Birth of the Gods in the "Book of Overthrowing Apep", does not present a very close parallel to the combination of Creation and Dragon myths in the Semitic-Babylonian poem, for in the Egyptian work the two myths are not really combined, the Creation Versions being inserted in the middle of the spells against Apep, without any attempt at assimilation (see Budge, /Egyptian Literature/, Vol. I, p. xvi). We have thus traced four out of the five strands which form the Semitic-Babylonian poem of Creation to a Sumerian ancestry. And we now come back to the first of the strands, the Birth of the Gods, from which our discussion started. For if this too should prove to be Sumerian, it would help to fill in the gap in our Sumerian Creation myth, and might furnish us with some idea of the Sumerian view of "beginnings", which preceded the acts of creation by the great gods. It will be remembered that the poem opens with the description of a time when heaven and earth did not exist, no field or marsh even had been created, and the universe consisted only of the primaeval water- gods, Apsû, Mummu, and Tiamat, whose waters were mingled together. Then follows the successive generation of two pairs of deities, Lakhmu and Lakhamu, and Anshar and Kishar, long ages separating the two generations from each other and from the birth of the great gods which subsequently takes place. In the summary of the myth which is given by Damascius[1] the names of the various deities accurately correspond to those in the opening lines of the poem; but he makes some notable additions, as will be seen from the following table: DAMASCUS "SEVEN TABLETS" I {'Apason---Tauthe} Apsû---Tiamat | {Moumis} Mummu {Lakhos---Lakhe}[2] Lakhmu---Lakhamu {'Assoros---Kissare} Anshar---Kishar {'Anos, 'Illinos, 'Aos} Anu, [ ], Nudimmud (= Ea) {'Aos---Dauke} | {Belos} [1] /Quaestiones de primis principiis/, cap. 125; ed. Kopp, p. 384. [2] Emended from the reading {Dakhen kai Dakhon} of the text. In the passage of the poem which describes the birth of the great gods after the last pair of primaeval deities, mention is duly made of Anu and Nudimmud (the latter a title of Ea), corresponding to the {'Anos} and {'Aos} of Damascius; and there appears to be no reference to Enlil, the original of {'Illinos}. It is just possible that his name occurred at the end of one of the broken lines, and, if so, we should have a complete parallel to Damascius. But the traces are not in favour of the restoration;[1] and the omission of Enlil's name from this part of the poem may be readily explained as a further tribute to Marduk, who definitely usurps his place throughout the subsequent narrative. Anu and Ea had both to be mentioned because of the parts they play in the Epic, but Enlil's only recorded appearance is in the final assembly of the gods, where he bestows his own name "the Lord of the World"[2] upon Marduk. The evidence of Damascius suggests that Enlil's name was here retained, between those of Anu and Ea, in other versions of the poem. But the occurrence of the name in any version is in itself evidence of the antiquity of this strand of the narrative. It is a legitimate inference that the myth of the Birth of the Gods goes back to a time at least before the rise of Babylon, and is presumably of Sumerian origin. [1] Anu and Nudimmud are each mentioned for the first time at the beginning of a line, and the three lines following the reference to Nudimmud are entirely occupied with descriptions of his wisdom and power. It is also probable that the three preceding lines (ll. 14-16), all of which refer to Anu by name, were entirely occupied with his description. But it is only in ll. 13-16 that any reference to Enlil can have occurred, and the traces preserved of their second halves do not suggestion the restoration. [2] Cf. Tabl. VII, . 116. Further evidence of this may be seen in the fact that Anu, Enlil, and Ea (i.e. Enki), who are here created together, are the three great gods of the Sumerian Version of Creation; it is they who create mankind with the help of the goddess Ninkharsagga, and in the fuller version of that myth we should naturally expect to find some account of their own origin. The reference in Damascius to Marduk ({Belos}) as the son of Ea and Damkina ({Dauke}) is also of interest in this connexion, as it exhibits a goddess in close connexion with one of the three great gods, much as we find Ninkharsagga associated with them in the Sumerian Version.[1] Before leaving the names, it may be added that, of the primaeval deities, Anshar and Kishar are obviously Sumerian in form. [1] Damkina was the later wife of Ea or Enki; and Ninkharsagga is associated with Enki, as his consort, in another Sumerian myth. It may be noted that the character of Apsû and Tiamat in this portion of the poem[1] is quite at variance with their later actions. Their revolt at the ordered "way" of the gods was a necessary preliminary to the incorporation of the Dragon myths, in which Ea and Marduk are the heroes. Here they appear as entirely beneficent gods of the primaeval water, undisturbed by storms, in whose quiet depths the equally beneficent deities Lakhmu and Lakhamu, Anshar and Kishar, were generated.[2] This interpretation, by the way, suggests a more satisfactory restoration for the close of the ninth line of the poem than any that has yet been proposed. That line is usually taken to imply that the gods were created "in the midst of [heaven]", but I think the following rendering, in connexion with ll. 1-5, gives better sense: When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not bear a name, And the primaeval Apsû who begat them,[3] And Mummu, and Tiamat who bore them[3] all,-- Their waters were mingled together, . . . . . . . . . Then were created the gods in the midst of [their waters],[4] Lakhmu and Lakhamu were called into being . . . [1] Tabl. I, ll. 1-21. [2] We may perhaps see a survival of Tiamat's original character in her control of the Tablets of Fate. The poem does not represent her as seizing them in any successful fight; they appear to be already hers to bestow on Kingu, though in the later mythology they are "not his by right" (cf. Tabl. I, ll. 137 ff., and Tabl. IV, l. 121). [3] i.e. the gods. [4] The ninth line is preserved only on a Neo-Babylonian duplicate (/Seven Tablets/, Vol. II, pl. i). I suggested the restoration /ki-rib š[a-ma-mi]/, "in the midst of heaven", as possible, since the traces of the first sign in the last word of the line seemed to be those of the Neo-Babylonian form of /ša/. The restoration appeared at the time not altogether satisfactory in view of the first line of the poem, and it could only be justified by supposing that /šamâmu/, or "heaven", was already vaguely conceived as in existence (op. cit., Vol. I, p. 3, n. 14). But the traces of the sign, as I have given them (op. cit., Vol. II, pl. i), may also possibly be those of the Neo-Babylonian form of the sign /me/; and I would now restore the end of the line in the Neo- Babylonian tablet as /ki-rib m[e-e-šu-nu]/, "in the midst of [their waters]", corresponding to the form /mu-u-šu-nu/ in l. 5 of this duplicate. In the Assyrian Version /mé(pl)-šu-nu/ would be read in both lines. It will be possible to verify the new reading, by a re-examination of the traces on the tablet, when the British Museum collections again become available for study after the war. If the ninth line of the poem be restored as suggested, its account of the Birth of the Gods will be found to correspond accurately with the summary from Berossus, who, in explaining the myth, refers to the Babylonian belief that the universe consisted at first of moisture in which living creatures, such as he had already described, were generated.[1] The primaeval waters are originally the source of life, not of destruction, and it is in them that the gods are born, as in Egyptian mythology; there Nu, the primaeval water-god from whom Ra was self-created, never ceased to be the Sun-god's supporter. The change in the Babylonian conception was obviously introduced by the combination of the Dragon myth with that of Creation, a combination that in Egypt would never have been justified by the gentle Nile. From a study of some aspects of the names at the beginning of the Babylonian poem we have already seen reason to suspect that its version of the Birth of the Gods goes back to Sumerian times, and it is pertinent to ask whether we have any further evidence that in Sumerian belief water was the origin of all things. [1] {ugrou gar ontos tou pantos kai zoon en auto gegennemenon [toionde] ktl}. His creatures of the primaeval water were killed by the light; and terrestrial animals were then created which could bear (i.e. breathe and exist in) the air. For many years we have possessed a Sumerian myth of Creation, which has come to us on a late Babylonian tablet as the introductory section of an incantation. It is provided with a Semitic translation, and to judge from its record of the building of Babylon and Egasila, Marduk's temple, and its identification of Marduk himself with the Creator, it has clearly undergone some editing at the hands of the Babylonian priests. Moreover, the occurrence of various episodes out of their logical order, and the fact that the text records twice over the creation of swamps and marshes, reeds and trees or forests, animals and cities, indicate that two Sumerian myths have been combined. Thus we have no guarantee that the other cities referred to by name in the text, Nippur, Erech, and Eridu, are mentioned in any significant connexion with each other.[1] Of the actual cause of Creation the text appears to give two versions also, one in its present form impersonal, and the other carried out by a god. But these two accounts are quite unlike the authorized version of Babylon, and we may confidently regard them as representing genuine Sumerian myths. The text resembles other early accounts of Creation by introducing its narrative with a series of negative statements, which serve to indicate the preceding non-existence of the world, as will be seen from the following extract:[2] No city had been created, no creature had been made, Nippur had not been created, Ekur had not been built, Erech had not been created, Eanna had not been built, Apsû had not been created, Eridu had not been built, Of the holy house, the house of the gods, the habitation had not been created. All lands[3] were sea. At the time when a channel (was formed) in the midst of the sea, Then was Eridu created, Esagila built, etc. Here we have the definite statement that before Creation all the world was sea. And it is important to note that the primaeval water is not personified; the ordinary Sumerian word for "sea" is employed, which the Semitic translator has faithfully rendered in his version of the text.[4] The reference to a channel in the sea, as the cause of Creation, seems at first sight a little obscure; but the word implies a "drain" or "water-channel", not a current of the sea itself, and the reference may be explained as suggested by the drainage of a flood- area. No doubt the phrase was elaborated in the original myth, and it is possible that what appears to be a second version of Creation later on in the text is really part of the more detailed narrative of the first myth. There the Creator himself is named. He is the Sumerian god Gilimma, and in the Semitic translation Marduk's name is substituted. To the following couplet, which describes Gilimma's method of creation, is appended a further extract from a later portion of the text, there evidently displaced, giving additional details of the Creator's work: Gilimma bound reeds in the face of the waters, He formed soil and poured it out beside the reeds.[5] [He][6] filled in a dike by the side of the sea, [He . . .] a swamp, he formed a marsh. [. . .], he brought into existence, [Reeds he form]ed,[7] trees he created. [1] The composite nature of the text is discussed by Professor Jastrow in his /Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions/, pp. 89 ff.; and in his paper in the /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), pp. 279 ff.; he has analysed it into two main versions, which he suggests originated in Eridu and Nippur respectively. The evidence of the text does not appear to me to support the view that any reference to a watery chaos preceding Creation must necessarily be of Semitic origin. For the literature of the text (first published by Pinches, /Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc./, Vol. XXIII, pp. 393 ff.), see /Sev. Tabl./, Vol. I, p. 130. [2] Obv., ll. 5-12. [3] Sum. /nigin-kur-kur-ra-ge/, Sem. /nap-har ma-ta-a-tu/, lit. "all lands", i.e. Sumerian and Babylonian expressions for "the world". [4] Sum. /a-ab-ba/, "sea", is here rendered by /tâmtum/, not by its personified equivalent Tiamat. [5] The suggestion has been made that /amu/, the word in the Semitic version here translated "reeds", should be connected with /ammatu/, the word used for "earth" or "dry land" in the Babylonian Creation Series, Tabl. I, l. 2, and given some such meaning as "expanse". The couplet is thus explained to mean that the god made an expanse on the face of the waters, and then poured out dust "on the expanse". But the Semitic version in l. 18 reads /itti ami/, "beside the /a./", not /ina ami/, "on the /a./"; and in any case there does not seem much significance in the act of pouring out specially created dust on or beside land already formed. The Sumerian word translated by /amu/ is written /gi-dir/, with the element /gi/, "reed", in l. 17, and though in the following line it is written under its variant form /a-dir/ without /gi/, the equation /gi-a-dir/ = /amu/ is elsewhere attested (cf. Delitzsch, /Handwörterbuch/, p. 77). In favour of regarding /amu/ as some sort of reed, here used collectively, it may be pointed out that the Sumerian verb in l. 17 is /kešda/, "to bind", accurately rendered by /rakašu/ in the Semitic version. Assuming that l. 34 belongs to the same account, the creation of reeds in general beside trees, after dry land is formed, would not of course be at variance with the god's use of some sort of reed in his first act of creation. He creates the reed-bundles, as he creates the soil, both of which go to form the first dike; the reed-beds, like the other vegetation, spring up from the ground when it appears. [6] The Semitic version here reads "the lord Marduk"; the corresponding name in the Sumerian text is not preserved. [7] The line is restored from l. 2 o the obverse of the text. Here the Sumerian Creator is pictured as forming dry land from the primaeval water in much the same way as the early cultivator in the Euphrates Valley procured the rich fields for his crops. The existence of the earth is here not really presupposed. All the world was sea until the god created land out of the waters by the only practical method that was possible in Mesopotamia. In another Sumerian myth, which has been recovered on one of the early tablets from Nippur, we have a rather different picture of beginnings. For there, though water is the source of life, the existence of the land is presupposed. But it is bare and desolate, as in the Mesopotamian season of "low water". The underlying idea is suggestive of a period when some progress in systematic irrigation had already been made, and the filling of the dry canals and subsequent irrigation of the parched ground by the rising flood of Enki was not dreaded but eagerly desired. The myth is only one of several that have been combined to form the introductory sections of an incantation; but in all of them Enki, the god of the deep water, plays the leading part, though associated with different consorts.[1] The incantation is directed against various diseases, and the recitation of the closing mythical section was evidently intended to enlist the aid of special gods in combating them. The creation of these deities is recited under set formulae in a sort of refrain, and the divine name assigned to each bears a magical connexion with the sickness he or she is intended to dispel.[2] [1] See Langdon, Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sect., Vol. X, No. 1 (1915), pl. i f., pp. 69 ff.; /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), pp. 140 ff.; cf. Prince, /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 90 ff.; Jastrow, /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 122 ff., and in particular his detailed study of the text in /Amer. Journ. Semit. Lang./, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 91 ff. Dr. Langdon's first description of the text, in /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, Vol. XXXVI (1914), pp. 188 ff., was based on a comparatively small fragment only; and on his completion of the text from other fragments in Pennsylvania. Professor Sayce at once realized that the preliminary diagnosis of a Deluge myth could not be sustained (cf. /Expos. Times/, Nov., 1915, pp. 88 ff.). He, Professor Prince, and Professor Jastrow independently showed that the action of Enki in the myth in sending water on the land was not punitive but beneficent; and the preceding section, in which animals are described as not performing their usual activities, was shown independently by Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow to have reference, not to their different nature in an ideal existence in Paradise, but, on familiar lines, to their non-existence in a desolate land. It may be added that Professor Barton and Dr. Peters agree generally with Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow in their interpretation of the text, which excludes the suggested biblical parallels; and I understand from Dr. Langdon that he very rightly recognizes that the text is not a Deluge myth. It is a subject for congratulation that the discussion has materially increased our knowledge of this difficult composition. [2] Cf. Col. VI, ll. 24 ff.; thus /Ab/-u was created for the sickness of the cow (/ab/); Nin-/tul/ for that of the flock (u-/tul/); Nin- /ka/-u-tu and Nin-/ka/-si for that of the mouth (/ka/); Na-zi for that of the /na-zi/ (meaning uncertain); /Da zi/-ma for that of the /da-zi/ (meaning uncertain); Nin-/til/ for that of /til/ (life); the name of the eighth and last deity is imperfectly preserved. We have already noted examples of a similar use of myth in magic, which was common to both Egypt and Babylonia; and to illustrate its employment against disease, as in the Nippur document, it will suffice to cite a well-known magical cure for the toothache which was adopted in Babylon.[1] There toothache was believed to be caused by the gnawing of a worm in the gum, and a myth was used in the incantation to relieve it. The worm's origin is traced from Anu, the god of heaven, through a descending scale of creation; Anu, the heavens, the earth, rivers, canals and marshes are represented as each giving rise to the next in order, until finally the marshes produce the worm. The myth then relates how the worm, on being offered tempting food by Ea in answer to her prayer, asked to be allowed to drink the blood of the teeth, and the incantation closes by invoking the curse of Ea because of the worm's misguided choice. It is clear that power over the worm was obtained by a recital of her creation and of her subsequent ingratitude, which led to her present occupation and the curse under which she laboured. When the myth and invocation had been recited three times over the proper mixture of beer, a plant, and oil, and the mixture had been applied to the offending tooth, the worm would fall under the spell of the curse and the patient would at once gain relief. The example is instructive, as the connexion of ideas is quite clear. In the Nippur document the recital of the creation of the eight deities evidently ensured their presence, and a demonstration of the mystic bond between their names and the corresponding diseases rendered the working of their powers effective. Our knowledge of a good many other myths is due solely to their magical employment. [1] See Thompson, /Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia/, Vol. II, pp. 160 ff.; for a number of other examples, see Jastrow, /J.A.O.S./, Vol. XXXVI, p. 279, n. 7. Perhaps the most interesting section of the new text is one in which divine instructions are given in the use of plants, the fruit or roots of which may be eaten. Here Usmû, a messenger from Enki, God of the Deep, names eight such plants by Enki's orders, thereby determining the character of each. As Professor Jastrow has pointed out, the passage forcibly recalls the story from Berossus, concerning the mythical creature Oannes, who came up from the Erythraean Sea, where it borders upon Babylonia, to instruct mankind in all things, including "seeds and the gathering of fruits".[1] But the only part of the text that concerns us here is the introductory section, where the life-giving flood, by which the dry fields are irrigated, is pictured as following the union of the water-deities, Enki and Ninella.[2] Professor Jastrow is right in emphasizing the complete absence of any conflict in this Sumerian myth of beginnings; but, as with the other Sumerian Versions we have examined, it seems to me there is no need to seek its origin elsewhere than in the Euphrates Valley. [1] Cf. Jastrow, /J.A.O.S./, Vol. XXXVI, p. 127, and /A.J.S.L./, Vol. XXXIII, p. 134 f. It may be added that the divine naming of the plants also presents a faint parallel to the naming of the beasts and birds by man himself in Gen. ii. 19 f. [2] Professor Jastrow (/A.J.S.L./, Vol. XXXIII, p. 115) compares similar myths collected by Sir James Frazer (/Magic Art/, Vol. II, chap. xi and chap. xii, § 2). He also notes the parallel the irrigation myth presents to the mist (or flood) of the earlier Hebrew Version (Gen. ii. 5 f). But Enki, like Ea, was no rain-god; he had his dwellings in the Euphrates and the Deep. Even in later periods, when the Sumerian myths of Creation had been superseded by that of Babylon, the Euphrates never ceased to be regarded as the source of life and the creator of all things. And this is well brought out in the following introductory lines of a Semitic incantation, of which we possess two Neo-Babylonian copies:[1] O thou River, who didst create all things, When the great gods dug thee out, They set prosperity upon thy banks, Within thee Ea, King of the Deep, created his dwelling. The Flood they sent not before thou wert! Here the river as creator is sharply distinguished from the Flood; and we may conclude that the water of the Euphrates Valley impressed the early Sumerians, as later the Semites, with its creative as well as with its destructive power. The reappearance of the fertile soil, after the receding inundation, doubtless suggested the idea of creation out of water, and the stream's slow but automatic fall would furnish a model for the age-long evolution of primaeval deities. When a god's active and artificial creation of the earth must be portrayed, it would have been natural for the primitive Sumerian to picture the Creator working as he himself would work when he reclaimed a field from flood. We are thus shown the old Sumerian god Gilimma piling reed-bundles in the water and heaping up soil beside them, till the ground within his dikes dries off and produces luxuriant vegetation. But here there is a hint of struggle in the process, and we perceive in it the myth-redactor's opportunity to weave in the Dragon /motif/. No such excuse is afforded by the other Sumerian myth, which pictures the life-producing inundation as the gift of the two deities of the Deep and the product of their union. But in their other aspect the rivers of Mesopotamia could be terrible; and the Dragon /motif/ itself, on the Tigris and Euphrates, drew its imagery as much from flood as from storm. When therefore a single deity must be made to appear, not only as Creator, but also as the champion of his divine allies and the conqueror of other gods, it was inevitable that the myths attaching to the waters under their two aspects should be combined. This may already have taken place at Nippur, when Enlil became the head of the pantheon; but the existence of his myth is conjectural.[1] In a later age we can trace the process in the light of history and of existing texts. There Marduk, identified wholly as the Sun-god, conquers the once featureless primaeval water, which in the process of redaction has now become the Dragon of flood and storm. [1] The aspect of Enlil as the Creator of Vegetation is emphasized in Tablet VII of the Babylonian poem of Creation. It is significant that his first title, Asara, should be interpreted as "Bestower of planting", "Founder of sowing", "Creator of grain and plants", "He who caused the green herb to spring up" (cf. /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, p. 92 f.). These opening phrases, by which the god is hailed, strike the key-note of the whole composition. It is true that, as Sukh-kur, he is "Destroyer of the foe"; but the great majority of the titles and their Semitic glosses refer to creative activities, not to the Dragon myth. Thus the dualism which is so characteristic a feature of the Semitic- Babylonian system, though absent from the earliest Sumerian ideas of Creation, was inherent in the nature of the local rivers, whose varied aspects gave rise to or coloured separate myths. Its presence in the later mythology may be traced as a reflection of political development, at first probably among the warring cities of Sumer, but certainly later in the Semitic triumph at Babylon. It was but to be expected that the conqueror, whether Sumerian or Semite, should represent his own god's victory as the establishment of order out of chaos. But this would be particularly in harmony with the character of the Semitic Babylonians of the First Dynasty, whose genius for method and organization produced alike Hammurabi's Code of Laws and the straight streets of the capital. We have thus been able to trace the various strands of the Semitic- Babylonian poem of Creation to Sumerian origins; and in the second lecture we arrived at a very similar conclusion with regard to the Semitic-Babylonian Version of the Deluge preserved in the Epic of Gilgamesh. We there saw that the literary structure of the Sumerian Version, in which Creation and Deluge are combined, must have survived under some form into the Neo-Babylonian period, since it was reproduced by Berossus. And we noted the fact that the same arrangement in Genesis did not therefore prove that the Hebrew accounts go back directly to early Sumerian originals. In fact, the structural resemblance presented by Genesis can only be regarded as an additional proof that the Sumerian originals continued to be studied and translated by the Semitic priesthood, although they had long been superseded officially by their later descendants, the Semitic epics. A detailed comparison of the Creation and Deluge narratives in the various versions at once discloses the fact that the connexion between those of the Semitic Babylonians and the Hebrews is far closer and more striking than that which can be traced when the latter are placed beside the Sumerian originals. We may therefore regard it as certain that the Hebrews derived their knowledge of Sumerian tradition, not directly from the Sumerians themselves, but through Semitic channels from Babylon. It will be unnecessary here to go in detail through the points of resemblance that are admitted to exist between the Hebrew account of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis and that preserved in the "Seven Tablets".[1] It will suffice to emphasize two of them, which gain in significance through our newly acquired knowledge of early Sumerian beliefs. It must be admitted that, on first reading the poem, one is struck more by the differences than by the parallels; but that is due to the polytheistic basis of the poem, which attracts attention when compared with the severe and dignified monotheism of the Hebrew writer. And if allowance be made for the change in theological standpoint, the material points of resemblance are seen to be very marked. The outline or general course of events is the same. In both we have an abyss of waters at the beginning denoted by almost the same Semitic word, the Hebrew /tehôm/, translated "the deep" in Gen. i. 2, being the equivalent of the Semitic-Babylonian /Tiamat/, the monster of storm and flood who presents so striking a contrast to the Sumerian primaeval water.[2] The second act of Creation in the Hebrew narrative is that of a "firmament", which divided the waters under it from those above.[3] But this, as we have seen, has no parallel in the early Sumerian conception until it was combined with the Dragon combat in the form in which we find it in the Babylonian poem. There the body of Tiamat is divided by Marduk, and from one half of her he constructs a covering or dome for heaven, that is to say a "firmament", to keep her upper waters in place. These will suffice as text passages, since they serve to point out quite clearly the Semitic source to which all the other detailed points of Hebrew resemblance may be traced. [1] See /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, pp. lxxxi ff., and Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 45 ff. [2] The invariable use of the Hebrew word /tehôm/ without the article, except in two passages in the plural, proves that it is a proper name (cf. Skinner, op. cit., p. 17); and its correspondence with /Tiamat/ makes the resemblance of the versions far more significant than if their parallelism were confined solely to ideas. [3] Gen. i. 6-8. In the case of the Deluge traditions, so conclusive a demonstration is not possible, since we have no similar criterion to apply. And on one point, as we saw, the Hebrew Versions preserve an original Sumerian strand of the narrative that was not woven into the Gilgamesh Epic, where there is no parallel to the piety of Noah. But from the detailed description that was given in the second lecture, it will have been noted that the Sumerian account is on the whole far simpler and more primitive than the other versions. It is only in the Babylonian Epic, for example, that the later Hebrew writer finds material from which to construct the ark, while the sweet savour of Ut-napishtim's sacrifice, and possibly his sending forth of the birds, though reproduced in the earlier Hebrew Version, find no parallels in the Sumerian account.[1] As to the general character of the Flood, there is no direct reference to rain in the Sumerian Version, though its presence is probably implied in the storm. The heavy rain of the Babylonian Epic has been increased to forty days of rain in the earlier Hebrew Version, which would be suitable to a country where local rain was the sole cause of flood. But the later Hebrew writer's addition of "the fountains of the deep" to "the windows of heaven" certainly suggests a more intimate knowledge of Mesopotamia, where some contributary cause other than local rain must be sought for the sudden and overwhelming catastrophes of which the rivers are capable. [1] For detailed lists of the points of agreement presented by the Hebrew Versions J and P to the account in the Gilgamesh Epic, see Skinner, op. cit., p. 177 f.; Driver, /Genesis/, p. 106 f.; and Gordon, /Early Traditions of Genesis/ (1907), pp. 38 ff. Thus, viewed from a purely literary standpoint, we are now enabled to trace back to a primitive age the ancestry of the traditions, which, under a very different aspect, eventually found their way into Hebrew literature. And in the process we may note the changes they underwent as they passed from one race to another. The result of such literary analysis and comparison, so far from discrediting the narratives in Genesis, throws into still stronger relief the moral grandeur of the Hebrew text. We come then to the question, at what periods and by what process did the Hebrews become acquainted with Babylonian ideas? The tendency of the purely literary school of critics has been to explain the process by the direct use of Babylonian documents wholly within exilic times. If the Creation and Deluge narratives stood alone, a case might perhaps be made out for confining Babylonian influence to this late period. It is true that during the Captivity the Jews were directly exposed to such influence. They had the life and civilization of their captors immediately before their eyes, and it would have been only natural for the more learned among the Hebrew scribes and priests to interest themselves in the ancient literature of their new home. And any previous familiarity with the myths of Babylonia would undoubtedly have been increased by actual residence in the country. We may perhaps see a result of such acquaintance with Babylonian literature, after Jehoiachin's deportation,, in an interesting literary parallel that has been pointed out between Ezek. xiv. 12-20 and a speech in the Babylonian account of the Deluge in the Gilgamesh Epic, XI, ll. 180- 194.[1] The passage in Ezekiel occurs within chaps. i-xxiv, which correspond to the prophet's first period and consist in the main of his utterances in exile before the fall of Jerusalem. It forms, in fact, the introduction to the prophet's announcement of the coming of "four sore judgements upon Jerusalem", from which there "shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth".[2] But in consequence, here and there, of traces of a later point of view, it is generally admitted that many of the chapters in this section may have been considerably amplified and altered by Ezekiel himself in the course of writing. And if we may regard the literary parallel that has been pointed out as anything more than fortuitous, it is open to us to assume that chap. xiv may have been worked up by Ezekiel many years after his prophetic call at Tel-abib. [1] See Daiches, "Ezekiel and the Babylonian Account of the Deluge", in the /Jewish Quarterly Review/, April 1905. It has of course long been recognized that Ezekiel, in announcing the punishment of the king of Egypt in xxxii. 2 ff., uses imagery which strongly recalls the Babylonian Creation myth. For he compares Pharaoh to a sea-monster over whom Yahweh will throw his net (as Marduk had thrown his over Tiamat); cf. Loisy, /Les mythes babyloniens et les premiers chaptires de la Genèse/ (1901), p. 87. [2] Ezek. xiv. 21 f. In the passage of the Babylonian Epic, Enlil had already sent the Flood and had destroyed the good with the wicked. Ea thereupon remonstrates with him, and he urges that in future the sinner only should be made to suffer for his sin; and, instead of again causing a flood, let there be discrimination in the divine punishments sent on men or lands. While the flood made the escape of the deserving impossible, other forms of punishment would affect the guilty only. In Ezekiel the subject is the same, but the point of view is different. The land the prophet has in his mind in verse 13 is evidently Judah, and his desire is to explain why it will suffer although not all its inhabitants deserved to share its fate. The discrimination, which Ea urges, Ezekiel asserts will be made; but the sinner must bear his own sin, and the righteous, however eminent, can only save themselves by their righteousness. The general principle propounded in the Epic is here applied to a special case. But the parallelism between the passages lies not only in the general principle but also in the literary setting. This will best be brought out by printing the passages in parallel columns. Gilg. Epic, XI, 180-194 Ezek. xiv. 12-20 Ea opened his mouth and spake, And the word of the Lord came He said to the warrior Enlil; unto me, saying, Thou director of the gods! O Son of man, when a land sinneth warrior! against me by committing a Why didst thou not take counsel trespass, and I stretch out but didst cause a flood? mine hand upon it, and break On the transgressor lay his the staff of the bread transgression! thereof, and send /famine/ Be merciful, so that (all) be not upon it, and cut off from it destroyed! Have patience, so man and beast; though these that (all) be not [cut off]! three men, Noah, Daniel, and Instead of causing a flood, Job, were in it, they should Let /lions/[1] come and diminish deliver but their own souls by mankind! their righteousness, saith the Instead of causing a flood, Lord God. Let /leopards/[1] come and If I cause /noisome beasts/ to diminish mankind! pass through the land, and Instead of causing a flood, they spoil it, so that it be Let /famine/ be caused and let it desolate, that no man may pass smite the land! through because of the beasts; Instead of causing a flood, though these three men were in Let the /Plague-god/ come and it, as I live, saith the Lord [slay] mankind! God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a /sword/ upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and beast; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. Or if I send a /pestilence/ into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. [1] Both Babylonian words are in the singular, but probably used collectively, as is the case with their Hebrew equivalent in Ezek. xiv. 15. It will be seen that, of the four kinds of divine punishment mentioned, three accurately correspond in both compositions. Famine and pestilence occur in both, while the lions and leopards of the Epic find an equivalent in "noisome beasts". The sword is not referred to in the Epic, but as this had already threatened Jerusalem at the time of the prophecy's utterance its inclusion by Ezekiel was inevitable. Moreover, the fact that Noah should be named in the refrain, as the first of the three proverbial examples of righteousness, shows that Ezekiel had the Deluge in his mind, and increases the significance of the underlying parallel between his argument and that of the Babylonian poet.[1] It may be added that Ezekiel has thrown his prophecy into poetical form, and the metre of the two passages in the Babylonian and Hebrew is, as Dr. Daiches points out, not dissimilar. [1] This suggestion is in some measure confirmed by the /Biblical Antiquities of Philo/, ascribed by Dr. James to the closing years of the first century A.D.; for its writer, in his account of the Flood, has actually used Ezek. xiv. 12 ff. in order to elaborate the divine speech in Gen. viii. 21 f. This will be seen from the following extract, in which the passage interpolated between verses 21 and 22 of Gen. viii is enclosed within brackets: "And God said: I will not again curse the earth for man's sake, for the guise of man's heart hath left off (sic) from his youth. And therefore I will not again destroy together all living as I have done. [But it shall be, when the dwellers upon earth have sinned, I will judge them by /famine/ or by the /sword/ or by fire or by /pestilence/ (lit. death), and there shall be earthquakes, and they shall be scattered into places not inhabited (or, the places of their habitation shall be scattered). But I will not again spoil the earth with the water of a flood, and] in all the days of the earth seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and autumn, day and night shall not cease . . ."; see James, /The Biblical Antiquities of Philo/, p. 81, iii. 9. Here wild beasts are omitted, and fire, earthquakes, and exile are added; but famine, sword, and pestilence are prominent, and the whole passage is clearly suggested by Ezekiel. As a result of the combination, we have in the /Biblical Antiquities/ a complete parallel to the passage in the Gilgamesh Epic. It may of course be urged that wild beasts, famine, and pestilence are such obvious forms of divine punishment that their enumeration by both writers is merely due to chance. But the parallelism should be considered with the other possible points of connexion, namely, the fact that each writer is dealing with discrimination in divine punishments of a wholesale character, and that while the one is inspired by the Babylonian tradition of the Flood, the other takes the hero of the Hebrew Flood story as the first of his selected types of righteousness. It is possible that Ezekiel may have heard the Babylonian Version recited after his arrival on the Chebar. And assuming that some form of the story had long been a cherished tradition of the Hebrews themselves, we could understand his intense interest in finding it confirmed by the Babylonians, who would show him where their Flood had taken place. To a man of his temperament, the one passage in the Babylonian poem that would have made a special appeal would have been that quoted above, where the poet urges that divine vengeance should be combined with mercy, and that all, righteous and wicked alike, should not again be destroyed. A problem continually in Ezekiel's thoughts was this very question of wholesale divine punishment, as exemplified in the case of Judah; and it would not have been unlikely that the literary structure of the Babylonian extract may have influenced the form in which he embodied his own conclusions. But even if we regard this suggestion as unproved or improbable, Ezekiel's reference to Noah surely presupposes that at least some version of the Flood story was familiar to the Hebrews before the Captivity. And this conclusion is confirmed by other Babylonian parallels in the early chapters of Genesis, in which oral tradition rather than documentary borrowing must have played the leading part.[1] Thus Babylonian parallels may be cited for many features in the story of Paradise,[2] though no equivalent of the story itself has been recovered. In the legend of Adapa, for example, wisdom and immortality are the prerogative of the gods, and the winning of immortality by man is bound up with eating the Food of Life and drinking the Water of Life; here too man is left with the gift of wisdom, but immortality is withheld. And the association of winged guardians with the Sacred Tree in Babylonian art is at least suggestive of the Cherubim and the Tree of Life. The very side of Eden has now been identified in Southern Babylonia by means of an old boundary-stone acquired by the British Museum a year or two ago.[3] [1] See Loisy, /Les mythes babyloniens/, pp. 10 ff., and cf. S. Reinach, /Cultes, Mythes et Religions/, t. II, pp. 386 ff. [2] Cf. especially Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 90 ff. For the latest discussion of the Serpent and the Tree of Life, suggested by Dr. Skinner's summary of the evidence, see Frazer in /Essays and Studies presented to William Ridgeway/ (1913), pp. 413 ff. [3] See /Babylonian Boundary Stones in the British Museum/ (1912), pp. 76 ff., and cf. /Geographical Journal/, Vol. XL, No. 2 (Aug., 1912), p. 147. For the latest review of the evidence relating to the site of Paradise, see Boissier, "La situation du paradis terrestre", in /Le Globe/, t. LV, Mémoires (Geneva, 1916). But I need not now detain you by going over this familiar ground. Such possible echoes from Babylon seem to suggest pre-exilic influence rather than late borrowing, and they surely justify us in inquiring to what periods of direct or indirect contact, earlier than the Captivity, the resemblances between Hebrew and Babylonian ideas may be traced. One point, which we may regard as definitely settled by our new material, is that these stories of the Creation and of the early history of the world were not of Semitic origin. It is no longer possible to regard the Hebrew and Babylonian Versions as descended from common Semitic originals. For we have now recovered some of those originals, and they are not Semitic but Sumerian. The question thus resolves itself into an inquiry as to periods during which the Hebrews may have come into direct or indirect contact with Babylonia. There are three pre-exilic periods at which it has been suggested the Hebrews, or the ancestors of the race, may have acquired a knowledge of Babylonian traditions. The earliest of these is the age of the patriarchs, the traditional ancestors of the Hebrew nation. The second period is that of the settlement in Canaan, which we may put from 1200 B.C. to the establishment of David's kingdom at about 1000 B.C. The third period is that of the later Judaean monarch, from 734 B.C. to 586 B.C., the date of the fall of Jerusalem; and in this last period there are two reigns of special importance in this connexion, those of Ahaz (734-720 B.C.) and Manasseh (693-638 B.C.). With regard to the earliest of these periods, those who support the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch may quite consistently assume that Abraham heard the legends in Ur of the Chaldees. And a simple retention of the traditional view seems to me a far preferable attitude to any elaborate attempt at rationalizing it. It is admitted that Arabia was the cradle of the Semitic race; and the most natural line of advance from Arabia to Aram and thence to Palestine would be up the Euphrates Valley. Some writers therefore assume that nomad tribes, personified in the traditional figure of Abraham, may have camped for a time in the neighbourhood of Ur and Babylon; and that they may have carried the Babylonian stories with them in their wanderings, and continued to preserve them during their long subsequent history. But, even granting that such nomads would have taken any interest in traditions of settled folk, this view hardly commends itself. For stories received from foreign sources become more and more transformed in the course of centuries.[1] The vivid Babylonian colouring of the Genesis narratives cannot be reconciled with this explanation of their source. [1] This objection would not of course apply to M. Naville's suggested solution, that cuneiform tablets formed the medium of transmission. But its author himself adds that he does not deny its conjectural character; see /The Text of the Old Testament/ (Schweich Lectures, 1915), p. 32. A far greater number of writers hold that it was after their arrival in Palestine that the Hebrew patriarchs came into contact with Babylonian culture. It is true that from an early period Syria was the scene of Babylonian invasions, and in the first lecture we noted some newly recovered evidence upon this point. Moreover, the dynasty to which Hammurabi belonged came originally from the north-eastern border of Canaan and Hammurabi himself exercised authority in the west. Thus a plausible case could be made out by exponents of this theory, especially as many parallels were noted between the Mosaic legislation and that contained in Hammurabi's Code. But it is now generally recognized that the features common to both the Hebrew and the Babylonian legal systems may be paralleled to-day in the Semitic East and elsewhere,[1] and cannot therefore be cited as evidence of cultural contact. Thus the hypothesis that the Hebrew patriarchs were subjects of Babylon in Palestine is not required as an explanation of the facts; and our first period still stands or falls by the question of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, which must be decided on quite other grounds. Those who do not accept the traditional view will probably be content to rule this first period out. [1] See Cook, /The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi/, p. 281 f.; Driver, /Genesis/, p. xxxvi f.; and cf. Johns, "The Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew Peoples/ (Schweich Lectures, 1912), pp. 50 ff. During the second period, that of the settlement in Canaan, the Hebrews came into contact with a people who had used the Babylonian language as the common medium of communication throughout the Near East. It is an interesting fact that among the numerous letters found at Tell el-Amarna were two texts of quite a different character. These were legends, both in the form of school exercises, which had been written out for practice in the Babylonian tongue. One of them was the legend of Adapa, in which we noted just now a distant resemblance to the Hebrew story of Paradise. It seems to me we are here standing on rather firmer ground; and provisionally we might place the beginning of our process after the time of Hebrew contact with the Canaanites. Under the earlier Hebrew monarchy there was no fresh influx of Babylonian culture into Palestine. That does not occur till our last main period, the later Judaean monarchy, when, in consequence of the westward advance of Assyria, the civilization of Babylon was once more carried among the petty Syrian states. Israel was first drawn into the circle of Assyrian influence, when Arab fought as the ally of Benhadad of Damascus at the battle of Karkar in 854 B.C.; and from that date onward the nation was menaced by the invading power. In 734 B.C., at the invitation of Ahaz of Judah, Tiglath-Pileser IV definitely intervened in the affairs of Israel. For Ahaz purchased his help against the allied armies of Israel and Syria in the Syro-Ephraimitish war. Tiglath-pileser threw his forces against Damascus and Israel, and Ahaz became his vassal.[1] To this period, when Ahaz, like Panammu II, "ran at the wheel of his lord, the king of Assyria", we may ascribe the first marked invasion of Assyrian influence over Judah. Traces of it may be seen in the altar which Ahaz caused to be erected in Jerusalem after the pattern of the Assyrian altar at Damascus.[2] We saw in the first lecture, in the monuments we have recovered of Panammu I and of Bar-rekub, how the life of another small Syrian state was inevitably changed and thrown into new channels by the presence of Tiglath-pileser and his armies in the West. [1] 2 Kings xvi. 7 ff. [2] 2 Kings xvi. 10 ff. Hezekiah's resistance checked the action of Assyrian influence on Judah for a time. But it was intensified under his son Manasseh, when Judah again became tributary to Assyria, and in the house of the Lord altars were built to all the host of heaven.[1] Towards the close of his long reign Manasseh himself was summoned by Ashur-bani-pal to Babylon.[2] So when in the year 586 B.C. the Jewish exiles came to Babylon they could not have found in its mythology an entirely new and unfamiliar subject. They must have recognized several of its stories as akin to those they had assimilated and now regarded as their own. And this would naturally have inclined them to further study and comparison. [1] 2 Kings xxi. 5. [2] Cf. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 ff. The answer I have outlined to this problem is the one that appears to me most probable, but I do not suggest that it is the only possible one that can be given. What I do suggest is that the Hebrews must have gained some acquaintance with the legends of Babylon in pre-exilic times. And it depends on our reading of the evidence into which of the three main periods the beginning of the process may be traced. So much, then, for the influence of Babylon. We have seen that no similar problem arises with regard to the legends of Egypt. At first sight this may seem strange, for Egypt lay nearer than Babylon to Palestine, and political and commercial intercourse was at least as close. We have already noted how Egypt influenced Semitic art, and how she offered an ideal, on the material side of her existence, which was readily adopted by her smaller neighbours. Moreover, the Joseph traditions in Genesis give a remarkably accurate picture of ancient Egyptian life; and even the Egyptian proper names embedded in that narrative may be paralleled with native Egyptian names than that to which the traditions refer. Why then is it that the actual myths and legends of Egypt concerning the origin of the world and its civilization should have failed to impress the Hebrew mind, which, on the other hand, was so responsive to those of Babylon? One obvious answer would be, that it was Nebuchadnezzar II, and not Necho, who carried the Jews captive. And we may readily admit that the Captivity must have tended to perpetuate and intensify the effects of any Babylonian influence that may have previously been felt. But I think there is a wider and in that sense a better answer than that. I do not propose to embark at this late hour on what ethnologists know as the "Hamitic" problem. But it is a fact that many striking parallels to Egyptian religious belief and practice have been traced among races of the Sudan and East Africa. These are perhaps in part to be explained as the result of contact and cultural inheritance. But at the same time they are evidence of an African, but non-Negroid, substratum in the religion of ancient Egypt. In spite of his proto- Semitic strain, the ancient Egyptian himself never became a Semite. The Nile Valley, at any rate until the Moslem conquest, was stronger than its invaders; it received and moulded them to its own ideal. This quality was shared in some degree by the Euphrates Valley. But Babylonia was not endowed with Egypt's isolation; she was always open on the south and west to the Arabian nomad, who at a far earlier period sealed her Semitic type. To such racial division and affinity I think we may confidently trace the influence exerted by Egypt and Babylon respectively upon Hebrew tradition. APPENDIX I COMPARATIVE TABLE OF THE SUMERIAN, SEMITIC-BABYLONIAN, HELLENISTIC, AND HEBREW VERSIONS OF CREATION, ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, AND THE DELUGE N.B.--Parallels with the new Sumerian Version are in upper-case. Sumerian Version. Seven Tablets Gilgamesh Epic, XI Berossus['Damscius] Earlier Heb. (J) Later Heb. (P) [No heaven or earth No heaven or earth Darkness and water Creation of earth Earth without form First Creation from Primaeval water- [Primaeval water- and heaven and void; darkness primaeval water gods: Apsû-Tiamat, gods: {'Apason- No plant or herb on face of /tehôm/, without conflict; Mummu Tauthe}, {Moumis} Ground watered by the primaeval water cf. Later Sum. Ver. Generation of: Generation of: mist (or flood) Divine spirit moving Lakhmu-Lakhamu {Lakhos-Lakhe} [cf. Sumerian (hovering, brooding) Anshar-Kishar {'Assoros-Kissare} irrigation myth of upon face of waters Creation] The great gods: Birth of great gods: Birth of great gods: ANU, ENLIL, ENKI, ANU, Nudimmud (=EA) {'Anos, 'Illinos, and Ninkharsagga, Apsû and Tiamat 'Aos, 'Aois-Lauke, creating deities revolt Belos] Conquest of Tiamat Conquest of {'Omorka}, Creation of light by Marduk as Sun- or {Thamte}, by god {Belos} Creation of covering Creation of heaven and Creation of firmament, for heaven from earth from two halves or heaven, to divide half of Tiamat's of body of Thamte waters; followed by body, to keep her emergence of land waters in place Creation of vegetation Creation of luminaries Creation of luminaries Creation of luminaries [Creation of (probable order) Creation of animals vegetation] REASON FOR MAN'S REASON FOR MAN'S CREATION: worship of CREATION: worship of gods gods Creation of MAN Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN in Creator's blood and Creator's blood and dust and Creator's image of Creator, to from bone from earth breath of life have dominion Creation of ANIMALS [Creation of animals] Creation of ANIMALS Creation of vegetation Hymn on Seventh Tablet able to bear the air ANIMALS, and woman Rest on Seventh Day Creation of KINGDOM 10 Antediluvian KINGS The line of Cain Antediluvian 5 ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES: Antediluvian city: 3 ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES: The Nephilim [cf. patriarchs [cf. Eridu, Bad.., LARAK, SHURUPPAK Babylon, SIPPAR, Sumerian Dynastic Sumerian Dynastic SIPPAR, SHURUPPAK LARANKHA List] List] Gods decree MANKIND'S Gods decree flood, Destruction of MAN Destruction of all destruction by flood, goddess ISHTAR decreed, because of flesh decreed, because NINTU protesting protesting his wickedness of its corruption ZIUSUDU, hero of UT-NAPISHTIM, hero {Xisouthros} Noah, hero of Deluge Noah, hero of Deluge Deluge, KING and of Deluge (=Khasisatra), hero priest of Deluge, KING Ziusudu's PIETY Noah's FAVOUR Noah's RIGHTEOUSNESS WARNING of Ziusudu by WARNING of Ut-nap- WARNING of Xisuthros WARNING of Noah, and Enki in DREAM ishtim by Ea in DREAM by Kronos in DREAM instructions for ark Ziusudu's vessel a SHIP: 120x120x120 Size of SHIP: 5x2 Instructions to enter Size of ARK: 300x50x30 HUGE SHIP cubits; 7 stories; 9 stadia ark cubits; 3 stories divisions All kinds of animals All kinds of animals 7(x2) clean, 2 unclean 2 of all animals Flood and STORM for 7 FLOOD from heavy rain FLOOD FLOOD from rain for 40 FLOOD; founts. of deep days and STORM for 6 days days and rain, 150 days Ship on Mt. Nisir Ark on Ararat Abatement of waters Abatement of waters Abatement of waters Abatement of waters tested by birds tested by birds tested by birds through drying wind SACRIFICE to Sun-god SACRIFICE with sweet SACRIFICE to gods, SACRIFICE with sweet Landing from ark [after in ship savour on mountain after landing and savour after landing year (+10 days)] paying adoration to EARTH Anu and Enlil appeased Ea's protest to ENLIL APOTHEOSIS of X., Divine promise to Noah Divine covenant not [by "Heaven and Earth"] IMMORTALITY of Ut-nap- wife, daughter, and not again to curse again to destroy EARTH IMMORTALITY of Ziusudu ishtim and his wife pilot the GROUND by flood; bow as sign APPENDIX II THE ANTEDILUVIAN KINGS OF BEROSSUS AND THE SUMERIAN DYNASTIC LIST It may be of assistance to the reader to repeat in tabular form the equivalents to the mythical kings of Berossus which are briefly discussed in Lecture I. In the following table the two new equations, obtained from the earliest section of the Sumerian Dynastic List, are in upper-case.[1] The established equations to other names are in normal case, while those for which we should possibly seek other equivalents are enclosed within brackets.[2] Aruru has not been included as a possible equivalent for {'Aloros}.[3] 1. {'Aloros} 2. {'Alaparos [? 'Adaparos]}, /Alaporus/, /Alapaurus/ [Adapa] 3. {'Amelon, 'Amillaros}, /Almelon/ [Amêlu] 4. {'Ammenon} ENMENUNNA 5. {Megalaros, Megalanos}, /Amegalarus/ 6. {Daonos, Daos} ETANA 7. {Euedorakhos, Euedoreskhos}, /Edoranchus/ Enmeduranki 8. {'Amemphinos}, /Amemphsinus/ [Amêl-Sin] 9. {'Otiartes [? 'Opartes]} [Ubar-Tutu] 10. {Xisouthros, Sisouthros, Sisithros} Khasisatra, Atrakhasis[4] [1] For the royal names of Berossus, see /Euseb. chron. lib. pri./, ed. Schoene, cols. 7 f., 31 ff. The latinized variants correspond to forms in the Armenian translation of Eusebius. [2] For the principal discussions of equivalents, see Hommel, /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, Vol. XV (1893), pp. 243 ff., and /Die altorientalischen Denkmäler und das Alte Testament/ (1902), pp. 23 ff.; Zimmern, /Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament/, 3rd ed. (1902), pp. 531 ff.; and cf. Lenormant, /Les origines de l'histoire/, I (1880), pp. 214 ff. See also Driver, /Genesis/, 10th ed. (1916), p. 80 f.; Skinner, /Genesis/, p. 137 f.; Ball, /Genesis/, p. 50; and Gordon, /Early Traditions of Genesis/, pp. 46 ff. [3] There is a suggested equation of Lal-ur-alimma with {'Aloros}. [4] The hundred and twenty "sars", or 432,000 years assigned by Berossus for the duration of the Antediluvian dynasty, are distributed as follows among the ten kings; the numbers are given below first in "sars", followed by their equivalents in years within brackets: 1. Ten "sars" (36,000); 2. Three (10,800); 3. Thirteen (46,800); 4. Twelve (43,200); 5. Eighteen (64,800); 6. Ten (36,000); 7. Eighteen (64,800); 8. Ten (36,000); 9. Eight (28,800); 10. Eighteen (64,800). For comparison with Berossus it may be useful to abstract from the Sumerian Dynastic List the royal names occurring in the earliest extant dynasties. They are given below with variant forms from duplicate copies of the list, and against each is added the number of years its owner is recorded to have ruled. The figures giving the total duration of each dynasty, either in the summaries or under the separate reigns, are sometimes not completely preserved; in such cases an x is added to the total of the figures still legible. Except in those cases referred to in the foot-notes, all the names are written in the Sumerian lists without the determinative for "god". KINGDOM OF KISH (23 kings; 18,000 + x years, 3 months, 3 days) . . .[1] 8. [. . .] 900(?) years 9. Galumum, Kalumum 900 " 10. Zugagib, Zugakib 830 " 11. Arpi, Arpiu, Arbum 720 " 12. Etana[2] 635 (or 625) years 13. Pili . . .[3] 410 years 14. Enmenunna, Enmennunna[4] 611 " 15. Melamkish 900 " 16. Barsalnunna 1,200 " 17. Mesza[. . .] [. . .] " . . .[5] 22. . . . 900 years 23. . . . 625 " KINGDOM OF EANNA (ERECH)[6] (About 10-12 kings; 2,171 + x years) 1. Meskingasher 325 years 2. Enmerkar 420 " 3. Lugalbanda[7] 1,200 " 4. Dumuzi[8] (i.e. Tammuz) 100 " 5. Gishbilgames[9] (i.e. Gilgamesh) 126 (or 186) years 6. [. . .]lugal [. . .] years . . .[10] KINGDOM OF UR (4 kings; 171 years) 1. Mesannipada 80 years 2. Meskiagnunna 30 " 3. Elu[. . .] 25 " 4. Balu[. . .] 36 " KINGDOM OF AWAN (3 kings; 356 years) . . .[11] [1] Gap of seven, or possibly eight, names. [2] The name Etana is written in the lists with and without the determinative for "god". [3] The reading of the last sign in the name is unknown. A variant form of the name possibly begins with Bali. [4] This form is given on a fragment of a late Assyrian copy of the list; cf. /Studies in Eastern History/, Vol. III, p. 143. [5] Gap of four, or possibly three, names. [6] Eanna was the great temple of Erech. In the Second Column of the list "the kingdom" is recorded to have passed from Kish to Eanna, but the latter name does not occur in the summary. [7] The name Lugalbanda is written in the lists with and without the determinative for "god". [8] The name Dumuzi is written in the list with the determinative for "god". [9] The name Gishbilgames is written in the list with the determinative for "god". [10] Gap of about four, five, or six kings. [11] Wanting. At this point a great gap occurs in our principal list. The names of some of the missing "kingdoms" may be inferred from the summaries, but their relative order is uncertain. Of two of them we know the duration, a second Kingdom of Ur containing four kings and lasting for a hundred and eight years, and another kingdom, the name of which is not preserved, consisting of only one king who ruled for seven years. The dynastic succession only again becomes assured with the opening of the Dynastic chronicle published by Père Scheil and recently acquired by the British Museum. It will be noted that with the Kingdom of Ur the separate reigns last for decades and not hundreds of years each, so that we here seem to approach genuine tradition, though the Kingdom of Awan makes a partial reversion to myth so far as its duration is concerned. The two suggested equations with Antediluvian kings of Berossus both occur in the earliest Kingdom of Kish and lie well within the Sumerian mythical period. The second of the rulers concerned, Enmenunna (Ammenon), is placed in Sumerian tradition several thousand years before the reputed succession of the gods Lugalbanda and Tammuz and of the national hero Gilgamesh to the throne of Erech. In the first lecture some remarkable points of general resemblance have already been pointed out between Hebrew and Sumerian traditions of these early ages of the world. End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. MacKenzie.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next Buy this Book on Kindle Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. MacKenzie, [1915], at sacred-texts.com p. 21 CHAPTER II The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep Fertility of Ancient Babylonia--Rivers, Canals, Seasons, and Climate--Early Trade and Foreign Influences--Local Religious Cults--Ea, God of the Deep, identical with Oannes of Berosus--Origin as a Sacred Fish--Compared with Brahma and Vishnu--Flood Legends in Babylonia and India--Fish Deities in Babylonia and Egypt--Fish God as a Corn God--The River as Creator--Ea an Artisan God, and links with Egypt and India--Ea as the Hebrew Jah--Ea and Varuna are Water and Sky Gods--The Babylonian Dagan and Dagon of the Philistines--Deities of Water and Harvest in Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland, and Egypt--Ea's Spouse Damkina--Demons of Ocean in Babylonia and India--Anu, God of the Sky--Enlil, Storm and War God of Nippur, like Adad, Odin, &c.--Early Gods of Babylonia and Egypt of common origin--Ea's City as Cradle of Sumerian Civilization. ANCIENT Babylonia was for over four thousand years the garden of Western Asia. In the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, when it had come under the sway of the younger civilization of Assyria on the north, it was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey". 1 Herodotus found it still flourishing and extremely fertile. "This territory", he wrote, "is of all that we know the best by far for producing grain; it is so good that it returns as much as two hundredfold for the average, and, when it bears at its best, it produces three hundredfold. The blades of the wheat and barley there grow to be full four fingers broad; p. 22 and from millet and sesame seed, how large a tree grows, I know myself, but shall not record, being well aware that even what has already been said relating to the crops produced has been enough to cause disbelief in those who have not visited Babylonia." 1 To-day great tracts of undulating moorland, which aforetime yielded two and three crops a year, are in summer partly barren wastes and partly jungle and reedy swamp. Bedouins camp beside sandy heaps which were once populous and thriving cities, and here and there the shrunken remnants of a people once great and influential eke out precarious livings under the oppression of Turkish tax-gatherers who are scarcely less considerate than the plundering nomads of the desert. This historic country is bounded on the east by Persia and on the west by the Arabian desert. In shape somewhat resembling a fish, it lies between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, too miles wide at its broadest part, and narrowing to 35 miles towards the "tail" in the latitude of Baghdad; the "head" converges to a point above Basra, where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab, which pours into the Persian Gulf after meeting the Karun and drawing away the main volume of that double-mouthed river. The distance from Baghdad to Basra is about 300 miles, and the area traversed by the Shatt-el-Arab is slowly extending at the rate of a mile every thirty years or so, as a result of the steady accumulation of silt and mud carried down by the Tigris and Euphrates. When Sumeria was beginning to flourish, these two rivers had separate outlets, and Eridu, the seat of the cult of the sea god Ea, which now lies 125 miles inland, was a seaport at the head of the Persian Gulf. A day's journey separated the river mouths when p. 23 [paragraph continues]Alexander the Great broke the power of the Persian Empire. In the days of Babylonia's prosperity the Euphrates was hailed as "the soul of the land" and the Tigris as "the bestower of blessings". Skilful engineers had solved the problem of water distribution by irrigating sun-parched areas and preventing the excessive flooding of those districts which are now rendered impassable swamps when the rivers overflow. A network of canals was constructed throughout the country, which restricted the destructive tendencies of the Tigris and Euphrates and developed to a high degree their potentialities as fertilizing agencies. The greatest of these canals appear to have been anciently river beds. One, which is called Shatt en Nil to the north, and Shatt el Kar to the south, curved eastward from Babylon, and sweeping past Nippur, flowed like the letter S towards Larsa and then rejoined the river. It is believed to mark the course followed in the early Sumerian period by the Euphrates river, which has moved steadily westward many miles beyond the sites of ancient cities that were erected on its banks. Another important canal, the Shatt el Hai, crossed the plain from the Tigris to its sister river, which lies lower at this point, and does not run so fast. Where the artificial canals were constructed on higher levels than the streams which fed them, the water was raised by contrivances known as "shaddufs"; the buckets or skin bags were roped to a weighted beam, with the aid of which they were swung up by workmen and emptied into the canals. It is possible that this toilsome mode of irrigation was substituted in favourable parts by the primitive water wheels which are used in our own day by the inhabitants of the country who cultivate strips of land along the river banks. In Babylonia there are two seasons--the rainy and p. 24 the dry. Rain falls from November till March, and the plain is carpeted in spring by patches of vivid green verdure and brilliant wild flowers. Then the period of drought ensues; the sun rapidly burns up all vegetation, and everywhere the eye is wearied by long stretches of brown and yellow desert. Occasional sandstorms darken the heavens, sweeping over sterile wastes and piling up the shapeless mounds which mark the sites of ancient cities. Meanwhile the rivers are increasing in volume, being fed by the melting snows at their mountain sources far to the north. The swift Tigris, which is 1146 miles long, begins to rise early in March and reaches its highest level in May; before the end of June it again subsides. More sluggish in movement, the Euphrates, which is 1780 miles long, shows signs of rising a fortnight later than the Tigris, and is in flood for a more extended period; it does not shrink to its lowest level until early in September. By controlling the flow of these mighty rivers, preventing disastrous floods, and storing and distributing surplus water, the ancient Babylonians developed to the full the natural resources of their country, and made it--what it may once again become--one of the fairest and most habitable areas in the world. Nature conferred upon them bountiful rewards for their labour; trade and industries flourished, and the cities increased in splendour and strength. Then as now the heat was great during the long summer, but remarkably dry and unvarying, while the air was ever wonderfully transparent under cloudless skies of vivid blue. The nights were cool and of great beauty, whether in brilliant moonlight or when ponds and canals were jewelled by the lustrous displays of clear and numerous stars which glorified that homeland of the earliest astronomers. Babylonia is a treeless country, and timber had to be p. 25 imported from the earliest times. The date palm was probably introduced by man, as were certainly the vine and the fig tree, which were widely cultivated, especially in the north. Stone, suitable for building, was very scarce, and limestone, alabaster, marble, and basalt had to be taken from northern Mesopotamia, where the mountains also yield copper and lead and iron. Except Eridu, where ancient workers quarried sandstone from its sea-shaped ridge, all the cities were built of brick, an excellent clay being found in abundance. When brick walls were cemented with bitumen they were given great stability. This resinous substance is found in the north and south. It bubbles up through crevices of rocks on river banks and forms small ponds. Two famous springs at modern Hit, on the Euphrates, have been drawn upon from time immemorial. "From one", writes a traveller, "flows hot water black with bitumen, while the other discharges intermittently bitumen, or, after a rainstorm, bitumen and cold water. . . . Where rocks crop out in the plain above Hit, they are full of seams of bitumen." 1 Present-day Arabs call it "kiyara", and export it for coating boats and roofs; they also use it as an antiseptic, and apply it to cure the skin diseases from which camels suffer. Sumeria had many surplus products, including corn and figs, pottery, fine wool and woven garments, to offer in exchange for what it most required from other countries. It must, therefore, have had a brisk and flourishing foreign trade at an exceedingly remote period. No doubt numerous alien merchants were attracted to its cities, and it may be that they induced or encouraged Semitic and other raiders to overthrow governments and form military aristocracies, so that they themselves might obtain necessary concessions and achieve a degree of p. 26 political ascendancy. It does not follow, however, that the peasant class was greatly affected by periodic revolutions of this kind, which brought little more to them than a change of rulers. The needs of the country necessitated the continuance of agricultural methods and the rigid observance of existing land laws; indeed, these constituted the basis of Sumerian prosperity. Conquerors have ever sought reward not merely in spoil, but also the services of the conquered. In northern Babylonia the invaders apparently found it necessary to conciliate and secure the continued allegiance of the tillers of the soil. Law and religion being closely associated, they had to adapt their gods to suit the requirements of existing social and political organizations. A deity of pastoral nomads had to receive attributes which would give him an agricultural significance; one of rural character had to be changed to respond to the various calls of city life. Besides, local gods could not be ignored on account of their popularity. As a result, imported beliefs and religious customs must have been fused and absorbed according to their bearing on modes of life in various localities. It is probable that the complex character of certain deities was due to the process of adjustment to which they were subjected in new environments. The petty kingdoms of Sumeria appear to have been tribal in origin. Each city was presided over by a deity who was the nominal owner of the surrounding arable land, farms were rented or purchased from the priesthood, and pasture was held in common. As in Egypt, where we find, for instance, the artisan god Ptah supreme at Memphis, the sun god Ra at Heliopolis, and the cat goddess Bast at Bubastis, the various local Sumerian and Akkadian deities had distinctive characteristics, and similarly showed a tendency to absorb the attributes of their p. 27 rivals. The chief deity of a state was the central figure in a pantheon, which had its political aspect and influenced the growth of local theology. Cities, however, did not, as a rule, bear the names of deities, which suggests that several were founded when Sumerian religion was in its early animistic stages, and gods and goddesses were not sharply defined from the various spirit groups. A distinctive and characteristic Sumerian god was Ea, who was supreme at the ancient sea-deserted port of Eridu. He is identified with the Oannes of Berosus, 1 who referred to the deity as "a creature endowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, with feet below like those of a man, with a fish's tail". This description recalls the familiar figures of Egyptian gods and priests attired in the skins of the sacred animals from whom their powers were derived, and the fairy lore about swan maids and men, and the seals and other animals who could divest themselves of their "skin coverings" and appear in human shape. Originally Ea may have been a sacred fish. The Indian creative gods Brahma and Vishnu had fish forms. In Sanskrit literature Manu, the eponymous "first man", is instructed by the fish to build a ship in which to save himself when the world would be purged by the rising waters. Ea befriended in similar manner the Babylonian Noah, called Pir-napishtim, advising him to build a vessel so as to be prepared for the approaching Deluge. Indeed the Indian legend appears to throw light on the original Sumerian conception of Ea. It relates that when the fish was small and in danger of being swallowed by other fish in a stream it appealed to Manu for protection. The p. 28 sage at once lifted up the fish and placed it in a jar of water. It gradually increased in bulk, and he transferred it next to a tank and then to the river Ganges. In time the fish complained to Manu that the river was too small for it, so he carried it to the sea. For these services the god in fish form instructed Manu regarding the approaching flood, and afterwards piloted his ship through the weltering waters until it rested on a mountain top. 1 If this Indian myth is of Babylonian origin, as appears probable, it may be that the spirit of the river Euphrates, "the soul of the land", was identified with a migrating fish. The growth of the fish suggests the growth of the river rising in flood. In Celtic folk tales high tides and valley floods are accounted for by the presence of a "great beast" in sea, loch, or river. In a class of legends, "specially connected with the worship of Atargatis", wrote Professor Robertson Smith, "the divine life of the waters resides in the sacred fish that inhabit them. Atargatis and her son, according to a legend common to Hierapolis and Ascalon, plunged into the waters--in the first case the Euphrates, in the second the sacred pool at the temple near the town--and were changed into fishes". The idea is that "where a god dies, that is, ceases to exist in human form, his life passes into the waters where he is buried; and this again is merely a theory to bring the divine water or the divine fish into harmony with anthropomorphic ideas. The same thing was sometimes effected in another way by saying that the anthropomorphic deity was born from the water, as Aphrodite sprang from sea foam, or as Atargatis, in another form of the Euphrates legend, . . . was born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the Euphrates and pushed ashore." 2 As "Shar Apsi", Ea was the "King of the Watery p. 29 [paragraph continues]Deep". The reference, however, according to Jastrow, "is not to the salt ocean, but the sweet waters flowing under the earth which feed the streams, and through streams and canals irrigate the fields". 1 As Babylonia was fertilized by its rivers, Ea, the fish god, was a fertilizing deity. In Egypt the "Mother of Mendes" is depicted carrying a fish upon her head; she links with Isis and Hathor; her husband is Ba-neb-Tettu, a form of Ptah, Osiris, and Ra, and as a god of fertility he is symbolized by the ram. Another Egyptian fish deity was the god Rem, whose name signifies "to weep"; he wept fertilizing tears, and corn was sown and reaped amidst lamentations. He may be identical with Remi, who was a phase of Sebek, the crocodile god, a developed attribute of Nu, the vague primitive Egyptian deity who symbolized the primordial deep. The connection between a fish god and a corn god is not necessarily remote when we consider that in Babylonia and Egypt the harvest was the gift of the rivers. The Euphrates, indeed, was hailed as a creator of all that grew on its banks. O thou River who didst create all things, When the great gods dug thee out, They set prosperity upon thy banks, Within thee Ea, the King of the Deep, created his dwelling . . . Thou judgest the cause of mankind! O River, thou art mighty! O River, thou art supreme! O River, thou art righteous! 2 In serving Ea, the embodiment or the water spirit, by leading him, as the Indian Manu led the Creator and "Preserver" in fish form, from river to water pot, water pot to pond or canal, and then again to river and ocean, p. 30 the Babylonians became expert engineers and experienced agriculturists, the makers of bricks, the builders of cities, the framers of laws. Indeed, their civilization was a growth of Ea worship. Ea was their instructor. Berosus states that, as Oannes, he lived in the Persian Gulf, and every day came ashore to instruct the inhabitants of Eridu how to make canals, to grow crops, to work metals, to make pottery and bricks, and to build temples; he was the artisan god--Nun-ura, "god of the potter"; Kuski-banda, "god of goldsmiths", &c.--the divine patron of the arts and crafts. "Ea knoweth everything", chanted the hymn maker. He taught the people how to form and use alphabetic signs and instructed them in mathematics: he gave them their code of laws. Like the Egyptian artisan god Ptah, and the linking deity Khnumu, Ea was the "potter or moulder of gods and man". Ptah moulded the first man on his potter's wheel: he also moulded the sun and moon; he shaped the universe and hammered out the copper sky. Ea built the world "as an architect builds a house". 1 Similarly the Vedic Indra, who wielded a hammer like Ptah, fashioned the universe after the simple manner in which the Aryans made their wooden dwellings. 2 Like Ptah, Ea also developed from an artisan god into a sublime Creator in the highest sense, not merely as a producer of crops. His word became the creative force; he named those things he desired to be, and they came into existence. "Who but Ea creates things", exclaimed a priestly poet. This change from artisan god to creator (Nudimmud) may have been due to the tendency of early religious cults to attach to their chief god the attributes of rivals exalted at other centres. p. 31 Ea, whose name is also rendered Aa, was identified with Ya, Ya’u, or Au, the Jah of the Hebrews. "In Ya-Daganu, 'Jah is Dagon'", writes Professor Pinches, "we have the elements reversed, showing a wish to identify Jah with Dagon, rather than Dagon with Jah; whilst another interesting name, Au-Aa, shows an identification of Jah with Aa, two names which have every appearance of being etymologically connected." Jah's name "is one of the words for 'god' in the Assyro-Babylonian language". 1 Ea was "Enki", "lord of the world", or "lord of what is beneath"; Amma-ana-ki, "lord of heaven and earth"; Sa-kalama, "ruler of the land", as well as Engur, "god of the abyss", Naqbu, "the deep", and Lugal-ida, "king of the river". As rain fell from "the waters above the firmament", the god of waters was also a sky and earth god. The Indian Varuna was similarly a sky as well as an ocean god before the theorizing and systematizing Brahmanic teachers relegated him to a permanent abode at the bottom of the sea. It may be that Ea-Oannes and Varuna were of common origin. Another Babylonian deity, named Dagan, is believed to be identical with Ea. His worship was certainly of great antiquity. "Hammurabi", writes Professor Pinches, "seems to speak of the Euphrates as being 'the boundary of Dagan', whom he calls his creator. In later inscriptions the form Daguna, which approaches nearer to the West Semitic form (Dagon of the Philistines), is found in a few personal names. 2 It is possible that the Philistine deity Dagon was a p. 32 specialized form of ancient Ea, who was either imported from Babylonia or was a sea god of more than one branch of the Mediterranean race. The authorities are at variance regarding the form and attributes of Dagan. Our know-ledge regarding him is derived mainly from the Bible. He was a national rather than a city god. There are references to a Beth-dagon 1, "house or city of Dagon"; he had also a temple at Gaza, and Samson destroyed it by pulling down the two middle pillars which were its main support. 2 A third temple was situated in Ashdod. When the captured ark of the Israelites was placed in it the image of Dagon "fell on his face", with the result that "the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left". 3 A further reference to "the threshold of Dagon" suggests that the god had feet like Ea-Oannes. Those who hold that Dagon had a fish form derive his name from the Semitic "dag = a fish", and suggest that after the idol fell only the fishy part (dāgo) was left. On the other hand, it was argued that Dagon was a corn god, and that the resemblance between the words Dagan and Dagon are accidental. Professor Sayce makes reference in this connection to a crystal seal from Phoenicia in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, bearing an inscription which he reads as Baal-dagon. Near the name is an ear of corn, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle, and several stars, but there is no fish. It may be, of course, that Baal-dagon represents a fusion of deities. As we have seen in the case of Ea-Oannes and the deities of Mendes, a fish god may also be a corn god, a land animal god and a god of ocean and the sky. The offering of golden mice representing "your mice that mar the p. 33 land", 1 made by the Philistines, suggests that Dagon was the fertilizing harvest god, among other things, whose usefulness had been impaired, as they believed, by the mistake committed of placing the ark of Israel in the temple at Ashdod. The Philistines came from Crete, and if their Dagon was imported from that island, he may have had some connection with Poseidon, whose worship extended throughout Greece. This god of the sea, who is somewhat like the Roman Neptune, carried a lightning trident and caused earthquakes. He was a brother of Zeus, the sky and atmosphere deity, and had bull and horse forms. As a horse he pursued Demeter, the earth and corn goddess, and, like Ea, he instructed mankind, but especially in the art of training horses. In his train were the Tritons, half men, half fishes, and the water fairies, the Nereids. Bulls, boars, and rams were offered to this sea god of fertility. Amphitrite was his spouse. An obscure god Shony, the Oannes of the Scottish Hebrides, received oblations from those who depended for their agricultural prosperity on his gifts of fertilizing seaweed. He is referred to in Martin's Western Isles, and is not yet forgotten. The Eddie sea god Njord of Noatun was the father of Frey, the harvest god. Dagda, the Irish corn god, had for wife Boann, the goddess of the river Boyne. Osiris and Isis of Egypt were associated with the Nile. The connection between agriculture and the water supply was too obvious to escape the early symbolists, and many other proofs of this than those referred to could be given. Ea's "faithful spouse" was the goddess Damkina, who was also called Nin-ki, "lady of the earth". "May Ea make thee glad", chanted the priests. "May Damkina, queen of the deep, illumine thee with her countenance; p. 34 may Merodach (Marduk), the mighty overseer of the Igigi (heavenly spirits), exalt thy head." Merodach was their son: in time he became the Bel, or "Lord", of the Babylonian pantheon. Like the Indian Varuna, the sea god, Ea-Oannes had control over the spirits and demons of the deep. The "ferryman" who kept watch over the river of death was called Arad-Ea, "servant of Ea". There are also references to sea maidens, the Babylonian mermaids, or Nereids. We have a glimpse of sea giants, which resemble the Indian Danavas and Daityas of ocean, in the chant: Seven are they, seven are they, In the ocean deep seven are they, Battening in heaven seven are they, Bred in the depths of ocean. . . . Of these seven the first is the south wind, The second a dragon with mouth agape. . . . 1 [paragraph continues]A suggestion of the Vedic Vritra and his horde of monsters. These seven demons were also "the messengers of Anu", who, although specialized as a sky god in more than one pantheon, appears to have been closely associated with Ea in the earliest Sumerian period. His name, signifying "the high one", is derived from "ana", "heaven"; he was the city god of Erech (Uruk). It is possible that he was developed as an atmospheric god with solar and lunar attributes. The seven demons, who were his messengers, recall the stormy Maruts, the followers of Indra. They are referred to as Forcing their way with baneful windstorms, Mighty destroyers, the deluge of the storm god, Stalking at the right hand of the storm god. 2 p. 35 When we deal with a deity in his most archaic form it is difficult to distinguish him from a demon. Even the beneficent Ea is associated with monsters and furies. "Evil spirits", according to a Babylonian chant, were "the bitter venom of the gods". Those attached to a deity as "attendants" appear to represent the original animistic group from which he evolved. In each district the character of the deity was shaped to accord with local conditions. At Nippur, which was situated on the vague and shifting boundary line between Sumer and Akkad, the chief god was Enlil, whose name is translated "lord of mist", "lord of might", and "lord of demons" by various authorities. He was a storm god and a war god, and "lord of heaven and earth", like Ea and Anu. An atmospheric deity, he shares the attributes of the Indian Indra, the thunder and rain god, and Vayu, the wind god; he also resembles the Semitic Adad or Rim-man, who links with the Hittite Tarku. All these are deities of tempest and the mountains--Wild Huntsmen in the Raging Host. The name of Enlil's temple at Nippur has been translated as "mountain house", or "like a mountain", and the theory obtained for a time that the god must therefore have been imported by a people from the hills. But as the ideogram for "mountain" and "land" was used in the earliest times, as King shows, with reference to foreign countries, 1 it is more probable that Enlil was exalted as a world god who had dominion over not only Sumer and Akkad, but also the territories occupied by the rivals and enemies of the early Babylonians. Enlil is known as the "older Bel" (lord), to distinguish him from Bel Merodach of Babylon. He was p. 36 the chief figure in a triad in which he figured as earth god, with Anu as god of the sky and Ea as god of the deep. This classification suggests that Nippur had either risen in political importance and dominated the cities of Erech and Eridu, or that its priests were influential at the court of a ruler who was the overlord of several city states. Associated with Bel Enlil was Beltis, later known as "Beltu--the lady". She appears to be identical with the other great goddesses, Ishtar, Nana, Zer-panitum, &c., a "Great Mother", or consort of an early god with whom she was equal in power and dignity. In the later systematized theology of the Babylonians we seem to trace the fragments of a primitive mythology which was vague in outline, for the deities were not sharply defined, and existed in groups. Enneads were formed in Egypt by placing a local god at the head of a group of eight elder deities. The sun god Ra was the chief figure of the earliest pantheon of this character at Heliopolis, while at Hermopolis the leader was the lunar god Thoth. Professor Budge is of opinion that "both the Sumerians and the early Egyptians derived their primeval gods from some common but exceedingly ancient source", for he finds in the Babylonian and Nile valleys that there is a resemblance between two early groups which "seems to be too close to be accidental". 1 The Egyptian group comprises four pairs of vague gods and goddesses--Nu and his consort Nut, Hehu and his consort Hehut, Kekui and his consort Kekuit, and Kerh and his consort Kerhet. "Man always has fashioned", he says, "and probably always will fashion, his god or gods in his own image, and he has always, having reached a certain stage in development, given to his gods wives p. 37 and offspring; but the nature of the position taken by the wives of the gods depends upon the nature of the position of women in the households of those who write the legends and the traditions of the gods. The gods of the oldest company in Egypt were, the writer believes, invented by people in whose households women held a high position, and among whom they possessed more power than is usually the case with Oriental peoples." 1 We cannot say definitely what these various deities represent. Nu was the spirit of the primordial deep, and Nut of the waters above the heavens, the mother of moon and sun and the stars. The others were phases of light and darkness and the forces of nature in activity and repose. Nu is represented in Babylonian mythology by Apsu-Rishtu, and Nut by Mummu-Tiamat or Tiawath; the next pair is Lachmu and Lachamu, and the third, Anshar and Kishar. The fourth pair is missing, but the names of Anu and Ea (as Nudimmud) are mentioned in the first tablet of the Creation series, and the name of a third is lost. Professor Budge thinks that the Assyrian editors substituted the ancient triad of Anu, Ea, and Enlil for the pair which would correspond to those found in Egypt. Originally the wives of Anu and Ea may have made up the group of eight primitive deities. There can be little doubt but that Ea, as he survives to us, is of later characterization than the first pair of primitive deities who symbolized the deep. The attributes of this beneficent god reflect the progress, and the social and moral ideals of a people well advanced in civilization. He rewarded mankind for the services they rendered to him; he was their leader and instructor; he achieved for them the victories over the destructive forces p. 38 of nature. In brief, he was the dragon slayer, a distinction, by the way, which was attached in later times to his son Merodach, the Babylonian god, although Ea was still credited with the victory over the dragon's husband. When Ea was one of the pre-Babylonian group--the triad of Bel-Enlil, Anu, and Ea--he resembled the Indian Vishnu, the Preserver, while Bel-Enlil resembled Shiva, the Destroyer, and Anu, the father, supreme Brahma, the Creator and Father of All, the difference in exact adjustment being due, perhaps, to Sumerian political conditions. Ea, as we have seen, symbolized the beneficence of the waters; their destructive force was represented by Tiamat or Tiawath, the dragon, and Apsu, her husband, the arch-enemy of the gods. We shall find these elder demons figuring in the Babylonian Creation myth, which receives treatment in a later chapter. The ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, which means "on the seashore", was invested with great sanctity from the earliest times, and Ea, the "great magician of the gods", was invoked by workers of spells, the priestly magicians of historic Babylonia. Excavations have shown that Eridu was protected by a retaining wall of sandstone, of which material many of its houses were made. In its temple tower, built of brick, was a marble stairway, and evidences have been forthcoming that in the later Sumerian period the structure was lavishly adorned. It is referred to in the fragments of early literature which have survived as "the splendid house, shady as the forest", that "none may enter". The mythological spell exercised by Eridu in later times suggests that the civilization of Sumeria owed much to the worshippers of Ea. At the sacred city the first man was created: there the souls p. 39 of the dead passed towards the great Deep. Its proximity to the sea--Ea was Nin-bubu, "god of the sailor"--may have brought it into contact with other peoples and other early civilizations. Like the early Egyptians, the early Sumerians may have been in touch with Punt (Somali-land), which some regard as the cradle of the Mediterranean race. The Egyptians obtained from that sacred land incense-bearing trees which had magical potency. In a fragmentary Babylonian charm there is a reference to a sacred tree or bush at Eridu. Professor Sayce has suggested that it is the Biblical "Tree of Life" in the Garden of Eden. His translations of certain vital words, however, is sharply questioned by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, who does not accept the theory. 1 It may be that Ea's sacred bush or tree is a survival of tree and water worship. If Eridu was not the "cradle" of the Sumerian race, it was possibly the cradle of Sumerian civilization. Here, amidst the shifting rivers in early times, the agriculturists may have learned to control and distribute the water supply by utilizing dried-up beds of streams to irrigate the land. Whatever successes they achieved were credited to Ea, their instructor and patron; he was Nadimmud, "god of everything". Footnotes 21:1 2 Kings, xviii, 32. 22:1 Herodotus, i, 193. 25:1 Peter's Nippur, i, p. 160. 27:1 A Babylonian priest of Bel Merodach. In the third century B.C. he composed in Greek a history of his native land, which has perished. Extracts from it are given by Eusebius, Josephus, Apollodorus, and others. 28:1 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 140, 141. 28:2 The Religion of the Semites, pp. 159, 160. 29:1 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, p. 88. 29:2 The Seven Tablets of Creation, L. W. King, vol. i, p. 129. 30:1 Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, p. 88. 30:2 Cosmology of the Rigveda, Wallis, and Indian Myth and Legend, p. 10. 31:1 The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, T. G. Pinches, pp. 59-61. 31:2 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T. G. Pinches, pp. 91, 92. 32:1 Joshua, xv, 41; xix, 27. 32:2 Judges, xvi, 1. 32:3 1 Sam., v, 1-9. 33:1 1 Sam., vi, 5. 34:1 The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. Campbell Thompson, London, 1903, vol. i, p. xlii. 34:2 The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. C. Thompson, vol. i, p. xliii. 35:1 A History of Sumer and Akkad, L. W. King, p. 54. 36:1 The Gods of the Egyptians, E. Wallis Budge, vol. i, p. 290. 37:1 The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. i, p. 287. 39:1 The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. i, Intro. See also Sayce's The Religion of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia (Gifford Lectures, 1902), p. 385, and Pinches' The Old Testament in the Light of Historical Records, &c., p. 71. Next: Chapter III. Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities

MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.txt

MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA CHAPTER I The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia Prehistoric Babylonia--The Confederacies of Sumer and Akkad--Sumerian Racial Affinities--Theories of Mongolian and Ural-Altaic Origins--Evidence of Russian Turkestan--Beginnings of Agriculture--Remarkable Proofs from Prehistoric Egyptian Graves--Sumerians and the Mediterranean Race--Present-day Types in Western Asia--The Evidence of Crania--Origin of the Akkadians--The Semitic Blend--Races in Ancient Palestine--Southward Drift of Armenoid Peoples--The Rephaims of the Bible--Akkadians attain Political Supremacy in Northern Babylonia--Influence of Sumerian Culture--Beginnings of Civilization--Progress in the Neolithic Age--Position of Women in Early Communities--Their Legal Status in Ancient Babylonia--Influence in Social and Religious Life--The "Woman's Language"--Goddess who inspired Poets. BEFORE the dawn of the historical period Ancient Babylonia was divided into a number of independent city states similar to those which existed in pre-Dynastic Egypt. Ultimately these were grouped into loose confederacies. The northern cities were embraced in the territory known as Akkad, and the southern in the land of Sumer, or Shumer. This division had a racial as well as a geographical significance. The Akkadians were p. 2 [paragraph continues]"late corners" who had achieved political ascendency in the north when the area they occupied was called Uri, or Kiuri, and Sumer was known as Kengi. They were a people of Semitic speech with pronounced Semitic affinities. From the earliest times the sculptors depicted them with abundant locks, long full beards, and the prominent distinctive noses and full lips, which we usually associate with the characteristic Jewish type, and also attired in long, flounced robes, suspended from their left shoulders, and reaching down to their ankles. In contrast, the Sumerians had clean-shaven faces and scalps, and noses of Egyptian and Grecian rather than Semitic type, while they wore short, pleated kilts, and went about with the upper part of their bodies quite bare like the Egyptian noblemen of the Old Kingdom period. They spoke a non-Semitic language, and were the oldest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we have any knowledge. Sumerian civilization was rooted in the agricultural mode of life, and appears to have been well developed before the Semites became numerous and influential in the land. Cities had been built chiefly of sun-dried and fire-baked bricks; distinctive pottery was manufactured with much skill; the people were governed by humanitarian laws, which formed the nucleus of the Hammurabi code, and had in use a system of cuneiform writing which was still in process of development from earlier pictorial characters. The distinctive feature of their agricultural methods was the engineering skill which was displayed in extending the cultivatable area by the construction of irrigating canals and ditches. There are also indications that they possessed some knowledge of navigation and traded on the Persian Gulf. According to one of their own traditions Eridu, originally a seaport, was their racial cradle. The Semitic Akkadians adopted the distinctive culture of EXAMPLES OF RACIAL TYPES<br> From a drawing by E. Wallcousins Click to enlarge EXAMPLES OF RACIAL TYPES From a drawing by E. Wallcousins p. 3 these Sumerians after settlement, and exercised an influence on its subsequent growth. Much controversy has been waged regarding the original home of the Sumerians and the particular racial type which they represented. One theory connects them with the lank-haired and beardless Mongolians, and it is asserted on the evidence afforded by early sculptural reliefs that they were similarly oblique-eyed. As they also spoke an agglutinative language, it is suggested that they were descended from the same parent stock as the Chinese in an ancient Parthian homeland. If, however, the oblique eye was not the result of faulty and primitive art, it is evident that the Mongolian type, which is invariably found to be remarkably persistent in racial blends, did not survive in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, for in the finer and more exact sculpture work of the later Sumerian period the eyes of the ruling classes are found to be similar to those of the Ancient Egyptians and southern Europeans. Other facial characteristics suggest that a Mongolian racial connection is highly improbable; the prominent Sumerian nose, for instance, is quite unlike the Chinese, which is diminutive. Nor can far-reaching conclusions be drawn from the scanty linguistic evidence at our disposal. Although the languages of the Sumerians and long-headed Chinese are of the agglutinative variety, so are those also which are spoken by the broad-headed Turks and Magyars of Hungary, the broad-headed and long-headed, dark and fair Finns, and the brunet and short-statured Basques with pear-shaped faces, who are regarded as a variation of the Mediterranean race with distinctive characteristics developed in isolation. Languages afford no sure indication of racial origins or affinities. Another theory connects the Sumerians with the p. 4 broad-headed peoples of the Western Asian plains and plateaus, who are vaguely grouped as Ural-Altaic stock and are represented by the present-day Turks and the dark variety of Finns. It is assumed that they migrated southward in remote times in consequence of tribal pressure caused by changing climatic conditions, and abandoned a purely pastoral for an agricultural life. The late Sumerian sculpture work again presents difficulties in this connection, for the faces and bulging occiputs suggest rather a long-headed than a broad-headed type, and the theory no longer obtains that new habits of life alter skull forms which are usually associated with other distinctive traits in the structure of skeletons. These broad-headed nomadic peoples of the Steppes are allied to Tatar stock, and distinguished from the pure Mongols by their abundance of wavy hair and beard. The fact that the Sumerians shaved their scalps and faces is highly suggestive in this connection. From the earliest times it has been the habit of most peoples to emphasize their racial characteristics so as to be able, one may suggest, to distinguish readily a friend from a foeman. At any rate this fact is generally recognized by ethnologists. The Basques, for instance, shave their pointed chins and sometimes grow short side whiskers to increase the distinctive pear-shape which is given to their faces by their prominent temples. In contrast, their neighbours, the Andalusians, grow chin whiskers to broaden their already rounded chins, and to distinguish them markedly from the Basques. 1 Another example of similar character is afforded in Asia Minor, where the skulls of the children of long-headed Kurds are narrowed, and those of the children of broad-headed Armenians made flatter behind as a result of systematic pressure applied by using cradle p. 5 boards. In this way these rival peoples accentuate their contrasting head forms, which at times may, no doubt, show a tendency towards variation as a result of the crossment of types. When it is found, therefore, that the Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, were in the habit of shaving, their ethnic affinities should be looked for among a naturally glabrous rather than a heavily-bearded people. A Central Asiatic source for Sumerian culture has also been urged of late with much circumstantial detail. It breaks quite fresh and interesting ground. Recent scientific expeditions in Russian and Chinese Turkestan have accumulated important archæological data which clearly establish that vast areas of desert country were at a remote period most verdurous and fruitful, and thickly populated by organized and apparently progressive communities. From these ancient centres of civilization wholesale migrations must have been impelled from time to time in consequence of the gradual encroachment of wind-distributed sand and the increasing shortage of water. At Anau in Russian Turkestan, where excavations were conducted by the Pumpelly expedition, abundant traces were found of an archaic and forgotten civilization reaching back to the Late Stone Age. The pottery is decorated with geometric designs, and resembles somewhat other Neolithic specimens found as far apart as Susa, the capital of ancient Elam, on the borders of Babylonia, Boghaz Köi in Asia Minor, the seat of Hittite administration, round the Black Sea to the north, and at points in the southern regions of the Balkan Peninsula. It is suggested that these various finds are scattered evidences of early racial drifts from the Central Asian areas which were gradually being rendered uninhabitable. Among the Copper Age artifacts at Anau are clay votive p. 6 statuettes resembling those which were used in Sumeria for religious purposes. These, however, cannot be held to prove a racial connection, but they are important in so far as they afford evidence of early trade relations in a hitherto unsuspected direction, and the long distances over which cultural influence extended before the dawn of history. Further we cannot go. No inscriptions have yet been discovered to render articulate this mysterious Central Asian civilization, or to suggest the original source of early Sumerian picture writing. Nor is it possible to confirm Mr. Pumpelly's view that from the Anau district the Sumerians and Egyptians first obtained barley and wheat, and some of their domesticated animals. If, as Professor Elliot Smith believes, copper was first used by the Ancient Egyptians, it may be, on the other hand, that a knowledge of this metal reached Anau through Sumeria, and that the elements of the earlier culture were derived from the same quarter by an indirect route. The evidence obtainable in Egypt is of interest in this connection. Large quantities of food have been taken from the stomachs and intestines of sun-dried bodies which have lain in their pre-Dynastic graves for over sixty centuries. This material has been carefully examined, and has yielded, among other things, husks of barley and millet, and fragments of mammalian bones, including those, no doubt, of the domesticated sheep and goats and cattle painted on the pottery. 1 It is therefore apparent that at an extremely remote period a knowledge of agriculture extended throughout Egypt, and we have no reason for supposing that it was not shared by the contemporary inhabitants of Sumer. The various theories which have been propounded regarding the outside source of Sumerian culture are p. 7 based on the assumption that it commenced abruptly and full grown. Its rude beginnings cannot be traced on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, but although no specimens of the earliest form of picture writing have been recovered from the ruins of Sumerian and Akkadian cities, neither have any been found elsewhere. The possibility remains, therefore, that early Babylonian culture was indigenous. "A great deal of ingenuity has been displayed by many scholars", says Professor Elliot Smith, "with the object of bringing these Sumerians from somewhere else as immigrants into Sumer; but no reasons have been advanced to show that they had not been settled at the head of the Persian Gulf for long generations before they first appeared on the stage of history. The argument that no early remains have been found is futile, not only because such a country as Sumer is no more favourable to the preservation of such evidence than is the Delta of the Nile, but also upon the more general grounds that negative statements of this sort cannot be assigned a positive evidence for an immigration." 1 This distinguished ethnologist is frankly of opinion that the Sumerians were the congeners of the pre-Dynastic Egyptians of the Mediterranean or Brown race, the eastern branch of which reaches to India and the western to the British Isles and Ireland. In the same ancient family are included the Arabs, whose physical characteristics distinguish them from the Semites of Jewish type. Some light may be thrown on the Sumerian problem by giving consideration to the present-day racial complexion of Western Asia. The importance of evidence of this character has been emphasized elsewhere. In Egypt, for instance, Dr. C. S. Myers has ascertained that the modern peasants have skull forms which are identical p. 8 with those of their pre-Dynastic ancestors. Mr. Hawes has also demonstrated that the ancient inhabitants of Crete are still represented on that famous island. But even more remarkable is the fact that the distinctive racial type which occupied the Palæolithic caves of the Dordogne valley in France continues to survive in their vicinity after an interval of over twenty thousand years. 1 It is note-worthy, therefore, to find that in south-western Asia at the present day one particular racial type predominates over all others. Professor Ripley, who summarizes a considerable mass of data in this connection, refers to it as the "Iranian", and says: "It includes the Persians and Kurds, possibly the Ossetes in the Caucasus, and farther to the east a large number of Asiatic tribes, from the Afghans to the Hindus. These peoples are all primarily long-headed and dark brunets. They incline to slenderness of habit, although varying in stature according to circumstances. In them we recognize at once undoubted congeners of our Mediterranean race in Europe. The area of their extension runs off into Africa, through the Egyptians, who are clearly of the same race. Not only the modern peoples, but the Ancient Egyptians and the Phœnicians also have been traced to the same source. By far the largest portion of this part of Western Asia is inhabited by this eastern branch of the Mediterranean race." The broad-headed type "occurs sporadically among a few ethnic remnants in Syria and Mesopotamia". 2 The exhaustive study of thousands of ancient crania in London and Cambridge collections has shown that Mediterranean peoples, having alien traits, the result of early admixture, were distributed between Egypt and the Punjab. 3 Where blending took place, the early type, p. 9 apparently, continued to predominate; and it appears to be reasserting itself in our own time in Western Asia, as elsewhere. It seems doubtful, therefore, that the ancient Sumerians differed racially from the pre-Dynastic inhabitants of Egypt and the Pelasgians and Iberians of Europe. Indeed, the statuettes from Tello, the site of the Sumerian city of Lagash, display distinctively Mediterranean skull forms and faces. Some of the plump figures of the later period suggest, however, "the particular alien strain" which in Egypt and elsewhere "is always associated with a tendency to the development of fat", in contrast to "the lean and sinewy appearance of most representatives of the Brown race". 1 This change may be accounted for by the presence of the Semites in northern Babylonia. Whence, then, came these invading Semitic Akkadians of Jewish type? It is generally agreed that they were closely associated with one of the early outpourings of nomadic peoples from Arabia, a country which is favourable for the production of a larger population than it is able to maintain permanently, especially when its natural resources are restricted by a succession of abnormally dry years. In tracing the Akkadians from Arabia, however, we are confronted at the outset with the difficulty that its prehistoric, and many of its present-day, inhabitants are not of the characteristic Semitic type. On the Ancient Egyptian pottery and monuments the Arabs are depicted as men who closely resembled the representatives of the Mediterranean race in the Nile valley and elsewhere. They shaved neither scalps nor faces as did the historic Sumerians and Egyptians, but grew the slight moustache and chin-tuft beard like the Libyans on the north and the majority of the men whose bodies p. 10 have been preserved in pre-Dynastic graves in the Nile valley. "If", writes Professor Elliot Smith, "the generally accepted view is true, that Arabia was the original home of the Semites, the Arab must have undergone a profound change in his physical characters after he left his homeland and before he reached Babylonia." This authority is of opinion that the Arabians first migrated into Palestine and northern Syria, where they mingled with the southward-migrating Armenoid peoples from Asia Minor." This blend of Arabs, kinsmen of the proto-Egyptians and Armenoids, would then form the big-nosed, long-bearded Semites, so familiar not only on the ancient Babylonian and Egyptian monuments, but also in the modern Jews." 1 Such a view is in accord with Dr. Hugo Winckler's contention that the flow of Arabian migrations was northwards towards Syria ere it swept through Mesopotamia. It can scarcely be supposed that these invasions of settled districts did not result in the fusion and crossment of racial types and the production of a sub-variety with medium skull form and marked facial characteristics. Of special interest in this connection is the evidence afforded by Palestine and Egypt. The former country has ever been subject to periodic ethnic disturbances and changes. Its racial history has a remote beginning in the Pleistocene Age. Palæolithic flints of Chellean and other primitive types have been found in large numbers, and a valuable collection of these is being preserved in a French museum at Jerusalem. In a northern cave fragments of rude pottery, belonging to an early period in the Late Stone Age, have been discovered in association with the bones of the woolly rhinoceros. To a later period belong the series of Gezer cave dwellings, which, according to Professor Macalister, the well-known Palestinian p. 11 authority, "were occupied by a non-Semitic people of low stature, with thick skulls and showing evidence of the great muscular strength that is essential to savage life". 1 These people are generally supposed to be representatives of the Mediterranean race, which Sergi has found to have been widely distributed throughout Syria and a part of Asia Minor. 2 An interesting problem, however, is raised by the fact that, in one of the caves, there are evidences that the dead were cremated. This was not a Mediterranean custom, nor does it appear to have prevailed outside the Gezer area. If, however, it does not indicate that the kinsmen of the Ancient Egyptians came into contact with the remnants of an earlier people, it may be that the dead of a later people were burned there. The possibility that unidentified types may have contributed to the Semitic blend, however, remains. The Mediterraneans mingled in Northern Syria and Asia Minor with the broad-headed Armenoid peoples who are represented in Europe by the Alpine race. With them they ultimately formed the great Hittite confederacy. These Armenoids were moving southwards at the very dawn of Egyptian history, and nothing is known of their conquests and settlements. Their pioneers, who were probably traders, appear to have begun to enter the Delta region before the close of the Late Stone Age. 3 The earliest outpourings of migrating Arabians may have been in progress about the same time. This early southward drift of Armenoids might account for the presence in southern Palestine, early in the Copper Age, of the tall race referred to in the Bible as the Rephaim or Anakim, "whose power was broken only by the Hebrew p. 12 invaders". 1 Joshua drove them out of Hebron, 2 in the neighbourhood of which Abraham had purchased a burial cave from Ephron, the Hittite. 3 Apparently a system of land laws prevailed in Palestine at this early period. It is of special interest for us to note that in Abraham's day and afterwards, the landed proprietors in the country of the Rephaim were identified with the aliens from Asia Minor--the tall variety in the Hittite confederacy. Little doubt need remain that the Arabians during their sojourn in Palestine and Syria met with distinctive types, and if not with pure Armenoids, at any rate with peoples having Armenoid traits. The consequent multiplication of tribes, and the gradual pressure exercised by the constant stream of immigrants from Arabia and Asia Minor, must have kept this part of Western Asia in a constant state of unrest. Fresh migrations of the surplus stock were evidently propelled towards Egypt in one direction, and the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates in another. The Semites of Akkad were probably the conquerors of the more highly civilized Sumerians, who must have previously occupied that area. It is possible that they owed their success to the possession of superior weapons. Professor Elliot Smith suggests in this connection that the Arabians had become familiar with the use of copper as a result of contact with the Egyptians in Sinai. There is no evidence, however, that the Sumerians were attacked before they had begun to make metal weapons. It is more probable that the invading nomads had superior military organization and considerable experience in waging war against detached tribal units. They may have also found some of the northern Sumerian city states at war with one another and taken STATUE OF A ROYAL PERSONAGE OR OFFICIAL OF NON-SEMITIC ORIGIN<br> (<i>British Museum</i>)<br> Photo. Mansell Click to enlarge STATUE OF A ROYAL PERSONAGE OR OFFICIAL OF NON-SEMITIC ORIGIN (British Museum) Photo. Mansell p. 13 advantage of their unpreparedness to resist a common enemy The rough Dorians who overran Greece and the fierce Goths who shattered the power of Rome were similarly in a lower state of civilization than the peoples whom they subdued. The Sumerians, however, ultimately achieved an intellectual conquest of their conquerors. Although the leaders of invasion may have formed military aristocracies in the cities which they occupied, it was necessary for the great majority of the nomads to engage their activities in new directions after settlement. The Semitic Akkadians, therefore, adopted Sumerian habits of life which were best suited for the needs of the country, and they consequently came under the spell of Sumerian modes of thought. This is shown by the fact that the native speech of ancient Sumer continued long after the dawn of history to be the language of Babylonian religion and culture, like Latin in Europe during the Middle Ages. For centuries the mingling peoples must have been bi-lingual, as are many of the inhabitants of Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands in the present age, but ultimately the language of the Semites became the prevailing speech in Sumer and Akkad. This change was the direct result of the conquests and the political supremacy achieved by the northern people. A considerable period elapsed, however, ere this consummation was reached and Ancient Babylonia became completely Semitized. No doubt its brilliant historical civilization owed much of its vigour and stability to the organizing genius of the Semites, but the basis on which it was established had been laid by the ingenious and imaginative Sumerians who first made the desert to blossom like the rose. The culture of Sumer was a product of the Late Stone Age, which should not be regarded as necessarily p. 14 an age of barbarism. During its vast periods there were great discoveries and great inventions in various parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Neoliths made pottery and bricks; we know that they invented the art of spinning, for spindle-whorls are found even in the Gezer caves to which we have referred, while in Egypt the pre-Dynastic dead were sometimes wrapped in finely woven linen: their deftly chipped flint implements are eloquent of artistic and mechanical skill, and undoubted mathematical ability must be credited to the makers of smoothly polished stone hammers which are so perfectly balanced that they revolve on a centre of gravity. In Egypt and Babylonia the soil was tilled and its fertility increased by irrigation. Wherever man waged a struggle with Nature he made rapid progress, and consequently we find that the earliest great civilizations were rooted in the little fields of the Neolithic farmers. Their mode of life necessitated a knowledge of Nature's laws; they had to take note of the seasons and measure time. So Egypt gave us the Calendar, and Babylonia the system of dividing the week into seven days, and the day into twelve double hours. The agricultural life permitted large communities to live in river valleys, and these had to be governed by codes of laws; settled communities required peace and order for their progress and prosperity. All great civilizations have evolved from the habits and experiences of settled communities. Law and religion were closely associated, and the evidence afforded by the remains of stone circles and temples suggests that in the organization and division of labour the influence of religious teachers was pre-eminent. Early rulers, indeed, were priest-kings--incarnations of the deity who owned the land and measured out the span of human life. p. 15 We need not assume that Neolithic man led an idyllic existence; his triumphs were achieved by slow and gradual steps; his legal codes were, no doubt, written in blood and his institutions welded in the fires of adversity. But, disciplined by laws, which fostered humanitarian ideals, Neolithic man, especially of the Mediterranean race, had reached a comparatively high state of civilization long ages before the earliest traces of his activities can be obtained. When this type of mankind is portrayed in Ancient Sumeria, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Crete we find that the faces are refined and intellectual and often quite modern in aspect. The skulls show that in the Late Stone Age the human brain was fully developed and that the racial types were fixed. In every country in Europe we still find the direct descendants of the ancient Mediterranean race, as well as the descendants of the less highly cultured conquerors who swept westward out of Asia at the dawn of the Bronze Age; and everywhere there are evidences of crossment of types in varying degrees. Even the influence of Neolithic intellectual life still remains. The comparative study of mythology and folk beliefs reveals that we have inherited certain modes of thought from our remote ancestors, who were the congeners of the Ancient Sumerians and the Ancient Egyptians. In this connection it is of interest, therefore, to refer to the social ideals of the early peoples who met and mingled on the southern plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, and especially the position occupied by women, which is engaging so much attention at the present day. It would appear that among the Semites and other nomadic peoples woman was regarded as the helpmate rather than the companion and equal of man. The birth of a son was hailed with joy; it was "miserable to have p. 16 a daughter", as a Hindu sage reflected; in various countries it was the custom to expose female children after birth and leave them to die. A wife had no rights other than those accorded to her by her husband, who exercised over her the power of life and death. Sons inherited family possessions; the daughters had no share allotted to them, and could be sold by fathers and brothers. Among the peoples who observed "male right", social life was reflected in the conception of controlling male deities, accompanied by shadowy goddesses who were often little else than figures of speech. The Ancient Sumerians, on the other hand, like the Mediterranean peoples of Egypt and Crete, reverenced and exalted motherhood in social and religious life. Women were accorded a legal status and marriage laws were promulgated by the State. Wives could possess private property in their own right, as did the Babylonian Sarah, wife of Abraham, who owned the Egyptian slave Hagar. 1 A woman received from her parents a marriage dowry, and in the event of separation from her husband she could claim its full value. Some spinsters, or wives, were accustomed to enter into business partnerships with men or members of their own sex, and could sue and be sued in courts of law. Brothers and sisters were joint heirs of the family estate. Daughters might possess property over which their fathers exercised no control: they could also enter into legal agreements with their parents in business matters, when they had attained to years of discretion. Young women who took vows of celibacy and lived in religious institutions could yet make business investments, as surviving records show. There is only one instance of a Sumerian woman ascending the throne, like Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt. Women, therefore, p. 17 were not rigidly excluded from official life. Dungi II, an early Sumerian king, appointed two of his daughters as rulers of conquered cities in Syria and Elam. Similarly Shishak, the Egyptian Pharaoh, handed over the city of Gezer, which he had subdued, to his daughter, Solomon's wife. 1 In the religious life of ancient Sumeria the female population exercised an undoubted influence, and in certain temples there were priestesses. The oldest hymns give indication of the respect shown to women by making reference to mixed assemblies as "females and males", just as present-day orators address themselves to "ladies and gentlemen". In the later Semitic adaptations of these productions, it is significant to note, this conventional reference was altered to "male and female". If influences, however, were at work to restrict the position of women they did not meet with much success, because when Hammurabi codified existing laws, the ancient rights of women received marked recognition. There were two dialects in ancient Sumeria, and the invocatory hymns were composed in what was known as "the women's language". It must not be inferred, however, that the ladies of Sumeria had established a speech which differed from that used by men. The reference would appear to be to a softer and homelier dialect, perhaps the oldest of the two, in which poetic emotion found fullest and most beautiful expression. In these ancient days, as in our own, the ideal of womanhood was the poet's chief source of inspiration, and among the hymns the highest reach of poetic art was attained in the invocation of Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus. The following hymn is addressed to that deity in her Valkyrie-like character as a goddess of war, but her more feminine traits are not obscured:-- p. 18 Hymn to Ishtar To thee I cry, O lady of the gods, Lady of ladies, goddess without peer, Ishtar who shapes the lives of all mankind, Thou stately world queen, sovran of the sky, And lady ruler of the host of heaven-- Illustrious is thy name . . . O light divine, Gleaming in lofty splendour o’er the earth-- Heroic daughter of the moon, oh! hear; Thou dost control our weapons and award In battles fierce the victory at will O crown'd majestic Fate. Ishtar most high, Who art exalted over all the gods, Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray; The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong; Thy will is urgent, brooking no delay; Thy hand is violent, thou queen of war Girded with battle and enrobed with fear . . . Thou sovran wielder of the wand of Doom, The heavens and earth are under thy control. Adored art thou in every sacred place, In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines, Where is thy name not lauded? where thy will Unheeded, and thine images not made? Where are thy temples not upreared? O, where Art thou not mighty, peerless, and supreme? Anu and Bel and Ea have thee raised To rank supreme, in majesty and pow’r, They have established thee above the gods And all the host of heaven . . . O stately queen, At thought of thee the world is filled with fear, The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth All spirits pause, and all mankind bow down With reverence for thy name . . . O Lady Judge, p. 19 Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze On sinners with compassion, and each morn Leadest the wayward to the rightful path. Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair, O shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh With feet unwearied . . . Thou dost break the bonds Of these thy handmaids . . . When thou stoopest o’er The dying with compassion, lo! they live; And when the sick behold thee they are healed. Hear me, thy servant! hearken to my pray’r, For I am full of sorrow and I sigh In sore distress; weeping, on thee I wait. Be merciful, my lady, pity take And answer, "’T is enough and be appeased". How long must my heart sorrow and make moan And restless be? How long must my dark home Be filled with mourning and my soul with grief? O lioness of heaven, bring me peace And rest and comfort. Hearken to my pray’r! Is anger pity? May thine eyes look down With tenderness and blessings, and behold Thy servant. Oh! have mercy; hear my cry And unbewitch me from the evil spells, That I may see thy glory . . . Oh! how long Shall these my foes pursue me, working ill, And robbing me of joy? . . . Oh! how long Shall demons compass me about and cause Affliction without end? . . . I thee adore-- The gift of strength is thine and thou art strong-- The weakly are made strong, yet I am weak . . . O hear me! I am glutted with my grief-- This flood of grief by evil winds distressed; My heart hath fled me like a bird on wings, And like the dove I moan. Tears from mine eyes Are falling as the rain from heaven falls, And I am destitute and full of woe. What have I done that thou hast turned from me? Have I neglected homage to my god And thee my goddess? O deliver me And all my sins forgive, that I may share Thy love and be watched over in thy fold; And may thy fold be wide, thy pen secure. How long wilt thou be angry? Hear my cry, And turn again to prosper all my ways-- O may thy wrath be crumbled and withdrawn As by a crumbling stream. Then smite my foes, And take away their power to work me ill, That I may crush them. Hearken to my pray’r! And bless me so that all who me behold May laud thee and may magnify thy name, While I exalt thy power over all Ishtar is highest! Ishtar is the queen! Ishtar the peerless daughter of the moon!

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria3.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next Buy this Book on Kindle Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. MacKenzie, [1915], at sacred-texts.com p. 40 CHAPTER III Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities Why Different Gods were Supreme at Different Centres--Theories regarding Origin of Life--Vital Principle in Water--Creative Tears of Weeping Deities--Significance of widespread Spitting Customs--Divine Water in Blood and Divine Blood in Water--Liver as the Seat of Life--Inspiration derived by Drinking Mead, Blood, &c.--Life Principle in Breath--Babylonian Ghosts as "Evil Wind Gusts"--Fire Deities--Fire and Water in Magical Ceremonies--Moon Gods of Ur and Harran--Moon Goddess and Babylonian "Jack and Jill"--Antiquity of Sun Worship--Tammuz and Ishtar--Solar Gods of War, Pestilence, and Death--Shamash as the "Great Judge"--His Mitra Name--Aryan Mitra or Mithra and linking Babylonian Deities--Varuna and Shamash Hymns compared--The Female Origin of Life--Goddesses of Maternity--The Babylonian Thor--Deities of Good and Evil. IN dealing with the city cults of Sumer and Akkad, consideration must be given to the problems involved by the rival mythological systems. Pantheons not only varied in detail, but were presided over by different supreme gods. One city's chief deity might be regarded as a secondary deity at another centre. Although Ea, for instance, was given first place at Eridu, and was so pronouncedly Sumerian in character, the moon god Nannar remained supreme at Ur, while the sun god, whose Semitic name was Shamash, presided at Larsa and Sippar. Other deities were similarly exalted in other states. As has been indicated, a mythological system must have been strongly influenced by city politics. To hold p. 41 a community in sway, it was necessary to recognize officially the various gods worshipped by different sections, so as to secure the constant allegiance of all classes to their rulers. Alien deities were therefore associated with local and tribal deities, those of the nomads with those of the agriculturists, those of the unlettered folks with those of the learned people. Reference has been made to the introduction of strange deities by conquerors. But these were not always imposed upon a community by violent means. Indications are not awanting that the worshippers of alien gods were sometimes welcomed and encouraged to settle in certain states. When they came as military allies to assist a city folk against a fierce enemy, they were naturally much admired and praised, honoured by the women and the bards, and rewarded by the rulers. In the epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, we meet with Ea-bani, a Goliath of the wilds, who is entreated to come to the aid of the besieged city of Erech when it seemed that its deities were unable to help the people against their enemies. The gods of walled-round Erech To flies had turned and buzzed in the streets; The winged bulls of walled-round Erech Were turned to mice and departed through the holes. Ea-bani was attracted to Erech by the gift of a fair woman for wife. The poet who lauded him no doubt mirrored public opinion. We can see the slim, shaven Sumerians gazing with wonder and admiration on their rough heroic ally. All his body was covered with hair, His locks were like a woman's, Thick as corn grew his abundant hair. p. 42 He was a stranger to the people and in that land. Clad in a garment like Gira, the god, He had eaten grass with the gazelles, He had drunk water with savage beasts. His delight was to be among water dwellers. Like the giant Alban, the eponymous ancestor of a people who invaded prehistoric Britain, Ea-bani appears to have represented in Babylonian folk legends a certain type of foreign settlers in the land. No doubt the city dwellers, who were impressed by the prowess of the hairy and powerful warriors, were also ready to acknowledge the greatness of their war gods, and to admit them into the pantheon. The fusion of beliefs which followed must have stimulated thought and been productive of speculative ideas. "Nowhere", remarks Professor Jastrow, "does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse ethnic elements." We must also take into account the influence exercised by leaders of thought like En-we-dur-an-ki, the famous high priest of Sippar, whose piety did much to increase the reputation of the cult of Shamesh, the sun god. The teachings and example of Buddha, for instance, revolutionized Brahmanic religion in India. A mythology was an attempt to solve the riddle of the Universe, and to adjust the relations of mankind with the various forces represented by the deities. The priests systematized existing folk beliefs and established an official religion. To secure the prosperity of the State, it was considered necessary to render homage unto whom homage was due at various seasons and under various circumstances. The religious attitude of a particular community, therefore, must have been largely dependent on its needs and experiences. The food supply was a first consideration. p. 43 [paragraph continues]At Eridu, as we have seen, it was assured by devotion to Ea and obedience to his commands as an instructor. Elsewhere it might happen, however, that Ea's gifts were restricted or withheld by an obstructing force--the raging storm god, or the parching, pestilence-bringing deity of the sun. It was necessary, therefore, for the people to win the favour of the god or goddess who seemed most powerful, and was accordingly considered to be the greatest in a. particular district. A rain god presided over the destinies of one community, and a god of disease and death over another; a third exalted the war god, no doubt because raids were frequent and the city owed its strength and prosperity to its battles and conquests. The reputation won by a particular god throughout Babylonia would depend greatly on the achievements of his worshippers and the progress of the city civilization over which he presided. Bel-Enlil's fame as a war deity was probably due to the political supremacy of his city of Nippur; and there was probably good reason for attributing to the sun god a pronounced administrative and legal character; he may have controlled the destinies of exceedingly well organized communities in which law and order and authority were held in high esteem. In accounting for the rise of distinctive and rival city deities, we should also consider the influence of divergent conceptions regarding the origin of life in mingled communities. Each foreign element in a community had its own intellectual life and immemorial tribal traditions, which reflected ancient habits of life and perpetuated the doctrines of eponymous ancestors. Among the agricultural classes, the folk religion which entered so intimately into their customs and labours must have remained essentially Babylonish in character. In cities, p. 44 however, where official religions were formulated, foreign ideas were more apt to be imposed, especially when embraced by influential teachers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in Babylonia, as in Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding the origin of life and the particular natural element which represented the vital principle. One section of the people, who were represented by the worshippers of Ea, appear to have believed that the essence of life was contained in water. The god of Eridu was the source of the "water of life". He fertilized parched and sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating canals, and conferred upon man the sustaining "food of life". When life came to an end-- Food of death will be offered thee . . . Water of death will be offered thee . . . Offerings of water and food were made to the dead so that the ghosts might be nourished and prevented from troubling the living. Even the gods required water and food; they were immortal because they had drunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life. When the goddess Ishtar was in the Underworld, the land of the dead, the servant of Ea exclaimed "Hail! lady, may the well give me of its waters, so that I may drink." The goddess of the dead commanded her servant to "sprinkle the lady Ishtar with the water of life and bid her depart". The sacred water might also be found at a confluence of rivers. Ea bade his son, Merodach, to "draw water from the mouth of two streams", and "on this water to put his pure spell". The worship of rivers and wells which prevailed in p. 45 many countries was connected with the belief that the principle of life was in moisture. In India, water was vitalized by the intoxicating juice of the Soma plant, which inspired priests to utter prophecies and filled their hearts with religious fervour. Drinking customs had originally a religious significance. It was believed in India that the sap of plants was influenced by the moon, the source of vitalizing moisture and the hiding-place of the mead of the gods. The Teutonic gods also drank this mead, and poets were inspired by it. Similar beliefs obtained among various peoples. Moon and water worship were therefore closely associated; the blood of animals and the sap of plants were vitalized by the water of life and under control of the moon. The body moisture of gods and demons had vitalizing properties. When the Indian creator, Prajâpati, wept at the beginning, "that (the tears) which fell into the water became the air. That which he wiped away, upwards, became the sky." 1 The ancient Egyptians believed that all men were born from the eyes of Horus except negroes, who came from other parts of his body. 2 The creative tears of Ra, the sun god, fell as shining rays upon the earth. When this god grew old saliva dripped from his mouth, and Isis mixed the vitalizing moisture with dust, and thus made the serpent which bit and paralysed the great solar deity. 3 Other Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis, wept creative tears. Those which fell from the eyes of the evil gods produced poisonous plants and various baneful animals. Orion, the Greek giant, sprang from the body moisture of deities. The weeping ceremonies in connection p. 46 with agricultural rites were no doubt believed to be of magical potency; they encouraged the god to weep creative tears. Ea, the god of the deep, was also "lord of life" (Enti), "king of the river" (Lugal-ida), and god of creation (Nudimmud). His aid was invoked by means or magical formulæ. As the "great magician of the gods" he uttered charms himself, and was the patron of all magicians. One spell runs as follows: I am the sorcerer priest of Ea . . . To revive the . . . sick man The great lord Ea hath sent me; He hath added his pure spell to mine, He hath added his pure voice to mine, He hath added his pure spittle to mine. R. C. Thompson's Translation. Saliva, like tears, had creative and therefore curative qualities; it also expelled and injured demons and brought good luck. Spitting ceremonies are referred to in the religious literature of Ancient Egypt. When the Eye of Ra was blinded by Set, Thoth spat in it to restore vision. The sun god Turn, who was linked with Ra as Ra-Tum, spat on the ground, and his saliva became the gods Shu and Tefnut. In the Underworld the devil serpent Apep was spat upon to curse it, as was also its waxen image which the priests fashioned. 1 Several African tribes spit to make compacts, declare friendship, and to curse. Park, the explorer, refers in his Travels to his carriers spitting on a flat stone to ensure a good journey. Arabian holy men and descendants of Mohammed spit to cure diseases. Mohammed spat in the mouth of his grandson Hasen soon after birth. Theocritus, Sophocles, p. 47 and Plutarch testify to the ancient Grecian customs of spitting to cure and to curse, and also to bless when children were named. Pliny has expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing disease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft. In England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet obsolete. North of England boys used to talk of "spitting their sauls" (souls). When the Newcastle colliers held their earliest strikes they made compacts by spitting on a stone. There are still "spitting stones" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural districts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money taken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure increased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs, quotes Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft regarding the saliva cure for king's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides. Like Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against witchcraft. 1 In China spitting to expel demons is a common practice. We still call a hasty person a "spitfire", and a calumniator a "spit-poison". The life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to have been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called the "blood of trees", and references to "bleeding trees" are still widespread and common. "Among the ancients", wrote Professor Robertson Smith, "blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of life, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the blood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes: Smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded.--Paradise Lost, i, 450. p. 48 [paragraph continues]The ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a certain season was ascribed to the blood of the god, who received his death wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside the sacred source." 1 In Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood and the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact that the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body, the largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes "Mother Jerusalem" exclaim: "My liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people", meaning that her life is spent with grief. Inspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking intoxicating liquors--the mead of the gods. Indian magicians who drink the blood of the goat sacrificed to the goddess Kali, are believed to be temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to prophesy. 2 Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the blood from a decapitated fowl. 3 Similar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank the blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings. 4 But while most Babylonians appear to have believed that the life principle was in blood, some were apparently of opinion that it was in breath--the air of life. A man died when he ceased to breathe; his spirit, therefore, it was argued, was identical with the atmosphere--the moving wind--and was accordingly derived from the atmospheric or wind god. When, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero invokes the dead Ea-bani, the ghost rises p. 49 up like a "breath of wind". A Babylonian charm runs: The gods which seize on men Came forth from the grave; The evil wind gusts Have come forth from the grave, To demand payment of rites and the pouring out of libations They have come forth from the grave; All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind, Hath come forth from the grave. 1 The Hebrew "nephesh ruach" and "neshamah" (in Arabic "ruh" and "nefs") pass from meaning "breath" to "spirit" 2 In Egypt the god Khnumu was "Kneph" in his character as an atmospheric deity. The ascendancy of storm and wind gods in some Babylonian cities may have been due to the belief that they were the source of the "air of life". It is possible that this conception was popularized by the Semites. Inspiration was perhaps derived from these deities by burning incense, which, if we follow evidence obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic trance. The gods were also invoked by incense. In the Flood legend the Babylonian Noah burned incense. "The gods smelled a sweet savour and gathered like flies over the sacrificer." In Egypt devotees who inhaled the breath of the Apis bull were enabled to prophesy. In addition to water and atmospheric deities Babylonia had also its fire gods, Girru, Gish Bar, Gibil, and Nusku. Their origin is obscure. It is doubtful if their worshippers, like those of the Indian Agni, believed that fire, the "vital spark", was the principle of life which was manifested by bodily heat. The Aryan fire worshippers cremated their dead so that the spirits might be p. 50 transferred by fire to Paradise. This practice, however, did not obtain among the fire worshippers of Persia, nor, as was once believed, in Sumer or Akkad either. Fire was, however, used in Babylonia for magical purposes. It destroyed demons, and put to flight the spirits of disease. Possibly the fire-purification ceremonies resembled those which were practised by the Canaanites, and are referred to in the Bible. Ahaz "made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen". 1 Ezekiel declared that "when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols". 2 In Leviticus it is laid down: "Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch". 3 It may be that in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which obtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other countries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt offerings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire gods of Babylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they appear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with the sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the "messenger of the gods". When Merodach or Babylon was exalted as chief god of the pantheon his messages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized the sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that the belief obtained among even the water worshippers of Eridu that the sun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in the everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the Indian god Varuna's ocean home an "Asura fire" (demon fire) WORSHIP OF THE MOON GOD.<br> Cylinder-Seal of Khashkhamer, Patesi of Ishkun-Sin (in North Babylonia), and vassal of Ur-Engur, King of Ur. (<i>c</i>. 2400 B.C.)<br> Photo. Mansell. Click to enlarge WORSHIP OF THE MOON GOD. Cylinder-Seal of Khashkhamer, Patesi of Ishkun-Sin (in North Babylonia), and vassal of Ur-Engur, King of Ur. (c. 2400 B.C.) Photo. Mansell. p. 51 burned constantly; it was "bound and confined", but could not be extinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst forth at the last day and consume the universe. 1 A similar belief can be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult appealed to many gods, but "the most important share in the rites", says Jastrow, "are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore, that the god of water--more particularly Ea--and the god of fire . . . are the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges". In some temples there was a bit rimki, a "house of washing", and a bit nuri, a "house of light". 2 It is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital principle by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas. If so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence in Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes of thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the character of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a deep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden of Western Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that imported deities assumed Babylonian characteristics, and were identified or associated with Babylonian gods in the later imperial pantheon. Moon worship appears to have been as ancient as water worship, with which, as we have seen, it was closely associated. It was widely prevalent throughout Babylonia. The chief seat of the lunar deity, Nannar or Sin, was the ancient city of Ur, from which Abraham migrated to Harran, where the "Baal" (the lord) was also a moon god. Ur was situated in Sumer, in the south, between p. 52 the west bank of the Euphrates and the low hills bordering the Arabian desert, and not far distant from sea.. washed Eridu. No doubt, like that city, it had its origin at an exceedingly remote period. At any rate, the excavations conducted there have afforded proof that it flourished in the prehistoric period. As in Arabia, Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and elsewhere, the moon god of Sumeria was regarded as the "friend of man". He controlled nature as a fertilizing agency; he caused grass, trees, and crops to grow; he increased flocks and herds, and gave human offspring. At Ur he was exalted above Ea as "the lord and prince of the gods, supreme in heaven, the Father of all"; he was also called "great Anu", an indication that Anu, the sky god, had at one time a lunar character. The moon god was believed to be the father of the sun god: he was the "great steer with mighty horns and perfect limbs". His name Sin is believed to be a corruption of "Zu-ena", which signifies "knowledge lord". 1 Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was apparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and controlled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the moon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon. The mountains of Sinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity. As Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of "Nannar", the "light producer", the moon god scattered darkness and reduced the terrors of night. His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon and stone worship were closely associated; it also entered trees and crops, so that moon worship linked with earth worship, as both linked with water worship. p. 53 The consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur", who was also called Nin-gala. She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked with other mother deities. The twin children of the moon were Mashu and Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of Teutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill. Sun worship was of great antiquity in Babylonia, but appears to have been seasonal in its earliest phases. No doubt the sky god Anu had his solar as well as his lunar attributes, which he shared with Ea. The spring sun was personified as Tammuz, the youthful shepherd, who was loved by the earth goddess Ishtar and her rival Eresh-ki-gal, goddess of death, the Babylonian Persephone. During the winter Tammuz dwelt in Hades, and at the beginning of spring Ishtar descended to search for him among the shades. 1 But the burning summer sun was symbolized as a destroyer, a slayer of men, and therefore a war god. As Ninip or Nirig, the son of Enlil, who was made in the likeness of Anu, he waged war against the earth spirits, and was furiously hostile towards the deities of alien peoples, as befitted a god of battle. Even his father feared him, and when he was advancing towards Nippur, sent out Nusku, messenger of the gods, to soothe the raging deity with soft words. Ninip was symbolized as a wild bull, was connected with stone worship, like the Indian destroying god Shiva, and was similarly a deity of Fate. He had much in common with Nin-Girsu, a god of Lagash, who was in turn regarded as a form of Tammuz. Nergal, another solar deity, brought disease and pestilence, and, according to Jensen, all misfortunes due to excessive heat. He was the king of death, husband of p. 54 [paragraph continues]Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. As a war god he thirsted for human blood, and was depicted as a mighty lion, He was the chief deity of the city of Cuthah, which, Jastrow suggests, was situated beside a burial place of great repute, like the Egyptian Abydos. The two great cities of the sun in ancient Babylonia were the Akkadian Sippar and the Sumerian Larsa. In these the sun god, Shamash or Babbar, was the patron deity. He was a god of Destiny, the lord of the living and the dead, and was exalted as the great Judge, the lawgiver, who upheld justice; he was the enemy of wrong, he loved righteousness and hated sin, he inspired his worshippers with rectitude and punished evildoers. The sun god also illumined the world, and his rays penetrated every quarter: he saw all things, and read the thoughts of men; nothing could be concealed from Shamash. One of his names was Mitra, like the god who was linked with Varuna in the Indian Rigveda. These twin deities, Mitra and Varuna, measured out the span of human life. They were the source of all heavenly gifts: they regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters, and the seasons. 1 These did the gods establish in royal power over themselves, because they were wise and the children of wisdom, and because they excelled in power.--Prof. Arnold's trans. of Rigvedic Hymn. Mitra and Varuna were protectors of hearth and home, and they chastised sinners. "In a striking passage of the Mahàbhàrata," says Professor Moulton, "one in which Indian thought comes nearest to the conception of conscience, a kingly wrongdoer is reminded that the sun sees secret sin." 2 In Persian mythology Mitra, as Mithra, is the patron p. 55 of Truth, and "the Mediator" between heaven and earth. 1 This god was also worshipped by the military aristocracy of Mitanni, which held sway for a period over Assyria. In Roman times the worship of Mithra spread into Europe from Persia. Mithraic sculptures depict the deity as a corn god slaying the harvest bull; on one of the monuments "cornstalks instead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted with the knife". 2 The Assyrian word "metru" signifies rain. 1 As a sky god Mitra may have been associated, like Varuna, with the waters above the firmament. Rain would therefore be gifted by him as a fertilizing deity. In the Babylonian Flood legend it is the sun god Shamash who "appointed the time" when the heavens were to "rain destruction" in the night, and commanded Pir-napishtim, "Enter into the midst of thy ship and shut thy door". The solar deity thus appears as a form of Anu, god of the sky and upper atmosphere, who controls the seasons and the various forces of nature. Other rival chiefs of city pantheons, whether lunar, atmospheric, earth, or water deities, were similarly regarded as the supreme deities who ruled the Universe, and decreed when man should receive benefits or suffer from their acts of vengeance. It is possible that the close resemblances between Mithra and Mitra of the Aryan-speaking peoples of India and the Iranian plateau, and the sun god of the Babylonians--the Semitic Shamash, the Sumerian Utu--were due to early contact and cultural influence through the medium of Elam. As a solar and corn god, the Persian Mithra links with Tammuz, as a sky and atmospheric deity with Anu, and as a god of truth, righteousness, and law with Shamash. We seem to trace in the p. 56 sublime Vedic hymns addressed by the Indian Aryans to Mitra and Varuna the impress of Babylonian religious thought: Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky, Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives. . . . Rigveda, iv, 16. 1 O Varuna, whatever the offence may be That we as men commit against the heavenly folk, When through our want of thought we violate thy laws, Chastise us not, O god, for that iniquity. Rigveda, vii, 89. 2 Shamash was similarly exalted in Babylonian hymns: The progeny of those who deal unjustly will not prosper. What their mouth utters in thy presence Thou wilt destroy, what issues from their mouth thou wilt dissipate. Thou knowest their transgressions, the plan of the wicked thou rejectest. All, whoever they be, are in thy care. . . . He who takes no bribe, who cares for the oppressed, Is favoured by Shamash,--his life shall be prolonged. 3 The worshippers of Varuna and Mitra in the Punjab did not cremate their dead like those who exalted the rival fire god Agni. The grave was the "house of clay", as in Babylonia. Mitra, who was identical with Yama, ruled over departed souls in the "Land of the Pitris" (Fathers), which was reached by crossing the mountains and the rushing stream of death. 4 As we have seen, the Babylonian solar god Nergal was also the lord of the dead. As Ma-banda-anna, "the boat of the sky", Shamash links with the Egyptian sun god Ra, whose barque sailed p. 57 over the heavens by day and through the underworld of darkness and death during the night. The consort of Shamash was Aa, and his attendants were Kittu and Mesharu, "Truth" and "Righteousness". Like the Hittites, the Babylonians had also a sun goddess: her name was Nin-sun, which Jastrow renders "the annihilating lady". At Erech she had a shrine in the temple of the sky god Anu. We can trace in Babylonia, as in Egypt, the early belief that life in the Universe had a female origin. Nin-sun links with Ishtar, whose Sumerian name is Nana. Ishtar appears to be identical with the Egyptian Hathor, who, as Sekhet, slaughtered the enemies of the sun god Ra. She was similarly the goddess of maternity, and is depicted in this character, like Isis and other goddesses of similar character, suckling a babe. Another Babylonian lady of the gods was Ama, Mama, or Mami, "the creatress of the seed of mankind", and was "probably so called as the 'mother' of all things". 1 A characteristic atmospheric deity was Ramman, the Rimmon of the Bible, the Semitic Addu, Adad, Hadad, or Dadu. He was not a presiding deity in any pantheon, but was identified with Enlil at Nippur. As a hammer god, he was imported by the Semites from the hills. He was a wind and thunder deity, a rain bringer, a corn god, and a god of battle like Thor, Jupiter, Tarku, Indra, and others, who were all sons of the sky. In this brief review of the representative deities of early Babylonia, it will be seen that most gods link with Anu, Ea, and Enlil, whose attributes they symbolized in various forms. The prominence accorded to an individual deity depended on local conditions, experiences, and influences. Ceremonial practices no doubt varied p. 58 here and there, but although one section might exalt Ea and another Shamash, the religious faith of the people as a whole did not differ to any marked extent; they served the gods according to their lights, so that life might be prolonged and made prosperous, for the land of death and "no return" was regarded as a place of gloom and misery. When the Babylonians appear before us in the early stages of the historical period they had reached that stage of development set forth so vividly in the Orations of Isocrates: "Those of the gods who are the source to us of good things have the title of Olympians; those whose department is that of calamities and punishments have harsher titles: to the first class both private persons and states erect altars and temples; the second is not worshipped either with prayers or burnt sacrifices, but in their case we perform ceremonies of riddance". 1 The Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, developed their deities, who reflected the growth of culture, from vague spirit groups, which, like ghosts, were hostile to mankind. Those spirits who could be propitiated were exalted as benevolent deities; those who could not be bargained with were regarded as evil gods and goddesses. A better understanding of the character of Babylonian deities will therefore be obtained by passing the demons and evil spirits under review. Footnotes 45:1 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 100. 45:2 Maspero's Dawn of Civilization, p. 156 et seq. 45:3 Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 1 et seq. The saliva of the frail and elderly was injurious. 46:1 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, E. Wallis Budge, vol. ii, p. 203 et seq. 47:1 Brana's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii, pp. 259-263 (1889 ed.). 48:1 The Religion of the Semites, pp. 158, 159. 48:2 Castes and Tribes of Southern India, E. Thurston, iv, 187. 48:3 Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, E. Thurston (1912), pp. 245, 246. 48:4 Pausanias, 24, 1. 49:1 Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. C. Thompson, vol. ii, tablet Y. 49:2 Animism, E. Clodd, p. 37. 50:1 2 Kings, xvi, 3. 50:2 Ezekiel, xx, 31. 50:3 Leviticus, xviii, 21. 51:1 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 65. 51:2 Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, M. .Jastrow, pp. 312, 313. 52:1 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T. G. Pinches, p. 81. 53:1 In early times two goddesses searched for Tammuz at different periods. 54:1 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 30. 54:2 Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 35. 55:1 Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 37. 55:2 The Golden Bough (Spirits of the Corn and Wild, vol. ii, p. 10), 3rd edition. 56:1 Indian Wisdom, Sir Monier Monier-Williams. 56:2 A History of Sanskrit Literature, Professor Macdonell. 56:3 Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, pp. 112. 56:4 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. xxxii, and 38 et seq. 57:1 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T. G. Pinches, p. 94. 58:1 The Religion of Ancient Greece, J. E. Harrison, p. 46, and Isoc. Orat., v, 117. Next: Chapter IV. Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts

MYTHS OF ORIGINS .txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next p. 30 CHAPTER II MYTHS OF ORIGINS 1 The most significant myths of a given culture are usually the cosmogonic, or creation myths, the sacred stories evolved and developed in an effort to explain the origin of the universe, the presence of the gods, and the existence of man. And so we shall devote this chapter, by far the longest in our monograph, to the creation theories and concepts current in Sumer in the third millennium B. G. The subject lends itself to treatment under three heads: (1) the creation of the universe, (2) the organization of the universe, (3) the creation of man. THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE The major source for the Sumerian conception of the creation of the universe is the introductory passage to a Sumerian poem which I have entitled "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World." The history of its decipherment is illuminating and not uninteresting. In 1934, when I first tried to decipher the contents, I found that eight pieces belonging to the poem--seven excavated in Nippur and one in Ur--had already been copied and published, thus: Hugo Radau, once of the University Museum, published two from Philadelphia in 1910; Stephen Langdon published two from Istanbul in 1914; Edward Chiera published one from Istanbul in 1924 and two more from Philadelphia in 1934; C. J. Gadd, of the British Museum, published an excellently preserved tablet from Ur in 1930. 32 But an intelligent reconstruction p. 31 and translation of the myth were still impossible, largely because the tablets and fragments, some of which seemed to duplicate each other without rhyme or reason and with but little variation in their wording, could not be properly arranged. In 1936, after I had sent off to the Revue d'assyriologie my first translations of the myth "Inanna's Descent to the Nether World" (see p. 83), I decided to make a serious effort to reconstruct the contents of the poem, which obviously seemed to contain a charming and significant story. And it was then that I came upon the clue which enabled me to arrange the pieces in their proper order. This clue crystallized from an effective utilization of two stylistic features which characterize Sumerian poetry. The first is one which ranks very low in the scale of artistic technique but which from the point of view of the decipherer is truly a boon. It may be described as follows. When the poet finds it advisable to repeat a given description or incident, he makes this repeated passage coincide with the original to the very last detail. Thus when a god or hero orders his messenger to deliver a message, this message, no matter how long and detailed, is given twice in the text, first when the messenger is instructed by his master, and a second time when the message is actually delivered. The two versions are thus practically identical, and the breaks in the one passage may be restored from the other. As for the second stylistic feature, it may be thus sketched. The Sumerian poet uses two dialects in his epic and mythic compositions, the main dialect, and another known as the Emesal dialect. The latter resembles the main dialect very closely and differs only in showing several regular and characteristic phonetic variations. What is more interesting, however, is the fact that the poet uses this Emesal dialect in rendering the direct speech of a female, not male, deity; thus the speeches of Inanna, queen of heaven, are regularly rendered in the Emesal dialect. 33 And so, on examining carefully the texts before me, I realized that what in the case of several passages had been taken p. 32 to be a mere meaningless and unmotivated duplication, actually contained a speech of the goddess Inanna in which she repeats in the Emesal dialect all that the poet had previously described in narrative form in the main dialect. With _____________________________________ PLATE VII. GODS AND THE NETHER WORLD One of the more remarkable contributions to art made by Mesopotamia is the cylinder seal. Invented primarily for the purpose of identifying and safeguarding ownership of goods shipped or stored, it came to be used in time as a kind of signature for legal documents. The procedure consisted merely of rolling the cylinder over wet clay and thus impressing the seal's design upon it. It is the contents of these designs engraved by the seal-cutters on the stone cylinders which are of considerable value for our study of Sumerian mythology. Especially is this true of the cylinder seals current in Sumer in the latter half of the third millennium B. C., not a few of whose designs are religious and mythological in character. 31 The upper design clearly attempts to portray a more or less complicated mythological story. Three of the deities can be identified with reasonable certainty. Second from the right is the water-god Enki, with the flowing streams of water and the swimming fishes. Immediately behind him is his Janus-faced messenger Isimud, who plays an important role in several of our Enki myths. Seemingly rising out of the lower regions is Utu, the sun-god, with his saw-knife and fiery rays. The female figure standing on top of the mountain, near what seems to be a rather desolate tree, may perhaps be Inanna. If the figure to the left with bow in hand is intended to be Gilgamesh, we have in this design most of the protagonists of the tale "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World." However, it is to be noted that Enkidu is missing, and Isimud, who is pictured in the design, plays no part in the story. And so any close connection between the design and the epic tale is improbable. In the central design none of the figures can be identified with reasonable certainty. In the left half of the picture we note a deity who seems to be rising out of the lower regions and is presenting a macelike object to a goddess. To the left is a god, perhaps Gilgamesh, who seems to be chopping down a tree whose trunk is bent to a curve. The right half of the design seems to depict a ritual scene. The lower design may illustrate graphically the meaning of such a phrase as, "The nether world has seized him" (see p. 35). In the right half of the scene we note a god actually within a flaming mountain (in Sumerian the word meaning "mountain" is the word used regularly for "nether world"). To the right of the mountain is a god who may be putting it to flame with a torch. Behind this deity is a goddess with fiery rays and ring who may perhaps be identified as Inanna. The left half of the design portrays a god holding a bull-man by the tail; both are inside a mountain. (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals (London, 1939), plates XIXa, XXIa, and XVIIIj.) PLATE VII<br> GODS AND THE NETHER WORLD (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE VII GODS AND THE NETHER WORLD (For description, see opposite page.) p. 33 this clue as a guide I succeeded in piecing together the first part of this poem; this was published in 1938. 34 The latter half of the poem still remained largely unintelligible, and even the first and published part had several serious breaks in the text. In 1939 I found in Istanbul a broken prism inscribed with the poem. And in the course of the past year I identified and copied 7 additional pieces in the University Museum at Philadelphia. 35 As a result we now have 16 pieces inscribed with the poem; over two hundred and fifty lines of its text can now be intelligently reconstructed and, barring a passage here and there, be correctly translated. The story of our poem, briefly sketched, runs as follows: Once upon a time there was a huluppu-tree, perhaps a willow; it was planted on the banks of the Euphrates; it was nurtured by the waters of the Euphrates. But the South Wind tore at it, root and crown, while the Euphrates flooded it with its waters. Inanna, queen of heaven, walking by, took the tree in her hand and brought it to Erech, the seat of her main sanctuary, and planted it in her holy garden. There she tended it most carefully. For when the tree grew big, she planned to make of its wood a chair for herself and a couch. Years passed, the tree matured and grew big. But Inanna found herself unable to cut down the tree. For at its base the snake "who knows no charm" had built its nest. In its crown, the Zu-bird--a mythological creature which at times wrought mischief--had placed its young. In the middle Lilith, the maid of desolation, had built her house. And so poor Inanna, the light-hearted and ever joyful maid, shed bitter tears. And as the dawn broke and her brother, the sun-god Utu, arose from his sleeping chamber, she repeated to him tearfully all that had befallen her huluppu-tree. Now Gilgamesh, the great Sumerian hero, the forerunner of the Greek Heracles, who lived in Erech, overheard Inanna's weeping complaint and chivalrously came to her rescue. He donned his armour weighing fifty minas--about fifty pounds--and with his "ax of the road," p. 34 seven talents and seven minas in weight--over four hundred pounds--he slew the snake "who knows no charm" at the base of the tree. Seeing which, the Zu-Bird fled with his young to the mountain, and Lilith tore down her house and fled to the desolate places which she was accustomed to haunt. The men of Erech who had accompanied Gilgamesh now cut down the tree and presented it to Inanna for her chair and couch. What did Inanna do? Of the base of the huluppu-tree she made an object called the pukku (probably a drum), and of its crown she made another related object called the mikku (probably a drumstick), and gave them both to Gilgamesh, evidently as a reward for his gallantry. Follows a passage of twelve lines describing Gilgamesh's activity with these two objects whose meaning I am still unable to penetrate, although it is in perfect shape. When our story becomes intelligible again, it continues with the statement that "because of the cry of the young maidens" the pukku and the mikku fell into the nether world, evidently through a hole in the ground. Gilgamesh put in his hand to retrieve them but was unable to reach them; he put in his foot but was quite as unsuccessful. And so he seated himself at the gate of the nether world and cried with fallen face: j My pukku, who will bring it up from the nether world? My mikku, who will bring it up from the "face" of the nether world? His servant, Enkidu, his constant follower and companion, heard his master's cries, and said to him: My master, why dost thou cry, why is thy heart sick? Thy pukku, I will bring it up from the nether world, Thy mikku, I will bring it up from the "face" of the nether world. Thereupon Gilgamesh warned him of the dangers involved in his plan to descend to the nether world--a splendid passage, brief and concise in describing the taboos of the lower regions. Said Gilgamesh to Enkidu: p. 35 If now thou wilt descend to the nether world, A word I speak to thee, take my word, Advice I offer thee, take my advice. Do not put on clean clothes, Lest the (dead) heroes will come forth like enemies; Do not anoint thyself with the good oil of the vessel, Lest at its smell they will crowd about thee. Do not throw the throw-stick in the nether world, Lest they who were struck down by the throw-stick will surround thee; Do not carry a staff in thy hand, Lest the shades will flutter all about thee. Do not put sandals on thy feet, In the nether world make no cry; Kiss not thy beloved wife, Kiss not thy beloved son, Strike not thy hated wife, Strike not thy hated son, Lest thy "cry" of the nether world will seize thee; (The cry) for her who is lying, for her who is lying, The mother of the god Ninazu who is lying, Whose holy body no garment covers, Whose holy breast no cloth wraps. But Enkidu heeded not the advice of his master and he did the very things against which Gilgamesh had warned him. And so he was seized by the nether world and was unable to reascend to the earth. Thereupon Gilgamesh, greatly troubled, proceeded to the city of Nippur and wept before the great air-god Enlil, the god who in the third millennium B. C. was the leading deity of the Sumerian pantheon: O Father Enlil, my pukku fell into the nether world, My mikku fell into the nether world; I sent Enkidu to bring them up to me, the nether world has seized him. Namtar (a demon) has not seized him, Ashak (a demon) has not seized him, The nether world has seized him. Nergal, the ambusher, who spares no one, has not seized him, The nether world has seized him. In battles where heroism is displayed he has not fallen, The nether world has seized him. p. 36 But Enlil refused to stand by Gilgamesh, who then proceeded to Eridu and repeated his plea before the water-god Enki, the "god of wisdom." Enki ordered the sun-god Utu to open a hole in the nether world and to allow the shade of Enkidu to ascend to earth. The sun-god Utu did as bidden and the shade of Enkidu appeared to Gilgamesh. Master and servant embraced and Gilgamesh questioned Enkidu about what he saw in the nether world. The passage from here to the end of the poem is badly broken, but the following partly extant colloquy will serve as an illustration: k Gilgamesh: "Him who has one son hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: (Answer broken) Gilgamesh: "Him who has two sons hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: (Answer broken) Gilgamesh: "Him who has three sons hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: ". . . much water he drinks." ________________________________________________ PLATE VIII. THE SEPARATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH The two pieces illustrated here are duplicates belonging to the epic tale, "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World." The one to the left is a tablet (14068 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) published by Chiera in 1934. 36 The one to the right (4429 in the Nippur collection of the Museum of the Ancient Orient at Istanbul) is a fragment of a prism copied by the author and hitherto unpublished. The marked passages contain the lines significant for the creation of the universe; for the translation and the transliteration, see page 37 and note 37. PLATE IX. ENLIL SEPARATES HEAVEN AND EARTH The tablet (13877 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) illustrated 38 here is one of the 20 duplicating pieces utilized to reconstruct the text of the poem, "The Creation of the Pickax" (see p. 51). Its first five lines are significant for the Sumerian concepts of the creation of the universe; for the translation and the transliteration, see page 40 and note 39. PLATE VIII. THE SEPARATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH<br> (For description, see opposite page) Click to enlarge PLATE VIII. THE SEPARATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH (For description, see opposite page) PLATE IX<br> ENLIL SEPARATES HEAVEN AND EARTH<br> (For description, see page 36.) Click to enlarge PLATE IX ENLIL SEPARATES HEAVEN AND EARTH (For description, see page 36.) p. 37 Gilgamesh: "Him who has four sons hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "Like . . . his heart rejoices." Gilgamesh: "Him who has five sons hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "Like a good scribe, his arm has been opened, He brings justice to the palace." Gilgamesh: "Him who has six sons hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "Like him who guides the plow his heart rejoices." Gilgamesh: "Him who has seven sons hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "As one close to the gods, he . . ." Another of the questions runs thus: Gilgamesh: "Him whose dead body lies (unburied) in the plain hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "His shade finds no rest in the nether world." l And so our poem ends. 40 It is the introduction to this composition which furnishes the most significant material for the Sumerian concepts of the creation of the universe. The intelligible part of the introduction reads as follows: After heaven had been moved away from earth, After earth had been separated from heaven, After the name of man had been fixed; After An had carried off heaven, After Enlil had carried off earth, After Ereshkigal had been carried off into Kur as its prize; After he had set sail, after he had set sail, After the father for Kur had set sail, After Enki for Kur had set sail; p. 38 Against the king the small ones it (Kur) hurled, Against Enki, the large ones it hurled; Its small ones, stones of the hand, Its large ones, stones of . . . reeds, The keel of the boat of Enki, In battle, like the attacking storm, overwhelm; Against the king, the water at the head of the boat, Like a wolf devours, Against Enki, the water at the rear of the boat, Like a lion strikes down. If we paraphrase and analyze the contents of this passage, it may be worded as follows: Heaven and earth, originally united, were separated and moved away from each other, and thereupon the creation of man was ordained. An, the heaven-god, then carried off heaven, while Enlil, the air-god, carried off earth. All this seems to be according to plan. Then, however, occurred something disruptive. For the goddess Ereshkigal, the counterpart of the Greek Persephone, whom we know as queen of the nether world, but who originally was probably a sky-goddess, was carried off into the nether world, perhaps by Kur. No doubt to avenge this deed, the water-god Enki set sail to attack Kur. The latter, evidently to be conceived as a monster or dragon, did not stand idly by, but hurled stones, large and small, against the keel of Enki's boat, while the primeval waters attacked Enki's boat front and rear. Our poem does not give the result of this struggle between Enki and Kur, since the entire cosmogonic or creation introduction has nothing to do with the basic contents of our Gilgamesh composition; it was placed at the head of the poem only because the Sumerian scribes were accustomed to begin their stories with several introductory lines dealing with creation. It is from the first half of this introduction that we obtain therefore the following cosmogonic concepts: 1. At one time heaven and earth were united. 2. Some of the gods existed before the separation of heaven and earth. p. 39 3. Upon the separation of heaven and earth, it was, as might have been expected, the heaven-god An who carried off heaven, but it was the air-god Enlil who carried off the earth. Among the crucial points not stated or implied in this passage are the following: 1. Were heaven and earth conceived as created, and if so, by whom? 2. What was the shape of heaven and earth as conceived by the Sumerians? 3. Who separated heaven from earth? Fortunately, the answers to these three questions can be gleaned from several other Sumerian texts dating from our period. Thus: 1. In a tablet which gives a list of the Sumerian gods, 41 the goddess Nammu, written with the ideogram for "sea," is described as "the mother, who gave birth to heaven and earth." Heaven and earth were therefore conceived by the Sumerians as the created products of the primeval sea. 2. The myth "Cattle and Grain" (see p. 53), which describes the birth in heaven of the spirits of cattle and grain, who were then sent down to earth to bring prosperity to mankind, begins with the following two lines: After on the mountain of heaven and earth, An had caused the Anunnaki (his followers) to be born. . . . [paragraph continues] It is not unreasonable to assume, therefore, that heaven and earth united were conceived as a mountain whose base was the bottom of the earth and whose peak was the top of the heaven. 3. The myth "The Creation of the Pickax" (see p. 51), which describes the fashioning and dedication of this valuable agricultural implement, is introduced with the following passage: p. 40 The lord, that which is appropriate verily he caused to appear, The lord whose decisions are unalterable, Enlil, who brings up the seed of the land from the earth, Took care to move away heaven from earth, Took care to move away earth from heaven. [paragraph continues] And so we have the answer to our third question; it was the air-god Enlil, who separated and removed heaven from earth. If now we sum up the cosmogonic or creation concepts of the Sumerians, evolved to explain the origin of the universe, they may be stated as follows: 1. First was the primeval sea. Nothing is said of its origin or birth, and it is not unlikely that the Sumerians conceived it as having existed eternally. 2. The primeval sea begot the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven and earth united. 3. Conceived as gods in human form, An (heaven) was the male and Ki (earth) was the female. From their union was begotten the air-god Enlil. ___________________________ PLATE X. MISCELLANEOUS MYTHOLOGICAL SCENES The upper design depicts the rising of Utu, the sun-god, identifiable by his fiery rays and saw-knife. He places his left foot on a mountain while attending deities throw open the gates. In the second design two of the deities are identifiable. At the extreme right is Enki, the water-god, enthroned in his "sea house," perhaps the very house described in "Enki and Eridu" (see p. 62). To the left of the center is Utu, the sun-god, with fiery rays and saw-knife. He stands with one foot on a winged lion while the other steps on a crouching deity. The kneeling figure at the left, holding a gatepost, is probably an attendant of Enki. The deity between Utu and Enki, who is climbing a mountain, is still unidentifiable. The third design depicts an unidentified god with fiery rays, travelling in his boat; the scene is reminiscent of Nanna's journey to Nippur (see p. 47). The stem of the boat ends in the head of a snake, while the prow ends in the body of a god who is working a punting pole. In the boat are various pots, agricultural implements, and a human-headed lion. On the shore is a vegetation goddess, perhaps to be identified as Uttu, the goddess of plants (see p. 57), or Ashnan, the goddess of grain (see p. 53). The lower design depicts what is probably a divine connubium. (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plates XVIIIa, k, XIXe, and XVI.) PLATE X<br> MISCELLANEOUS MYTHOLOGICAL SCENES<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE X MISCELLANEOUS MYTHOLOGICAL SCENES (For description, see opposite page.) p. 41 4. Enlil, the air-god, separated heaven from earth, and while his father An carried off heaven, Enlil himself carried off his mother Ki, the earth. The union of Enlil and his mother Ki-in historical times she is perhaps to be identified with the goddess called variously Ninmah, "great queen"; Ninhursag, "queen of the (cosmic) mountain"; Nintu, "queen who gives birth"--set the stage for the organization of the universe, the creation of man, and the establishment of civilization." THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSE The Sumerian expression for "universe" is an-ki, literally "heaven-earth." The organization of the universe may therefore be subdivided into that of heaven and that of earth. Heaven consists of the sky and the space above the sky which is called the "great above"; here dwell the sky-gods. Earth consists of the surface of the earth and the space below which is called the "great below"; here dwell the underworld or chthonic deities. For the organization of heaven the relatively little mythological material which is available to date may be sketched as follows: Nanna, the moon-god, the major astral deity of the Sumerians, is born of Enlil, the air-god, and his wife Ninlil, the air-goddess. Nanna, the moon-god, is conceived as travelling in a gufa across the heavens, thus bringing light to the pitch-dark lapis lazuli sky. The "little ones," the stars, are scattered about him like grain while the "big ones," perhaps the planets, walk about him like wild oxen." 43 Nanna, the moon-god, and his wife Ningal are the parents of Utu, the sun-god, who rises in the "mountain of the east" and sets in the "mountain of the west." As yet we find no mention of any boat or chariot used by the sun-god Utu to traverse the sky. Nor is it clear just what he does at night. m The not unnatural assumption that upon reaching the "mountain of the west" at the end of the day he continues his journey at night through the nether world, arriving at the "mountain of the east" at dawn, is not borne p. 42 out by the extant data. Indeed to judge from a prayer to the sun-god which reads: 44 O Utu, shepherd of the land, father of the black-headed people, When thou liest down, the people, too, lie down, O hero Utu, when thou risest, the people, too, rise. or from a description of the break of dawn which reads: As light broke forth, as the horizon grew bright. . . . As Utu came forth from his ganunu, or from a description of the setting of the sun which reads: 46 Utu has gone forth with lifted head to the bosom of his mother Ningal; the Sumerians seemed to have conceived of Utu as sleeping through the night. Turning to the organization of the earth, we learn that it was Enlil, the air-god, who "caused the good day to come forth"; who set his mind to "bring forth seed from the earth" and to establish the hegal, that is, plenty, abundance, and prosperity in the land. It was this same Enlil who fashioned the pickax and probably the plow as prototypes of the agricultural implements to be used by man; who appointed Enten, the farmer-god, as his steadfast and trustworthy field-worker. On the other hand it was the water-god Enki who begot Uttu, the goddess of plants. It is Enki, moreover, who actually organizes the earth, and especially that part of it which includes Sumer and its surrounding neighbors, into a going concern. He decrees the fates of Sumer, Ur, and Meluhha, and appoints the various minor deities to their specific duties. And it is both Enlil and Enki, that is, both the air-god and the water-god, who send Labar, the cattle-god, and Ashnan, the grain-goddess, from heaven to earth in order to make abundant its cattle and grain. The above outline of the organization of the universe is based upon nine Sumerian myths whose contents we now have wholly or in large part. Two of these involve the moon-god Nanna; they are: Enlil and Ninlil. the Begetting p. 43 of Nanna; The Journey of Nanna to Nippur. The remaining seven are of prime importance for the Sumerian concepts of the origin and establishment of culture and civilization on earth. These are Emesh and Enten: Enlil Chooses the Farmer-god; The Creation of the Pickax; Cattle and Grain; Enki and Ninhursag: the Affairs of the Water-god; Enki and Sumer: the Organization of the Earth and its Cultural Processes; Enki and Eridu: the Journey of the Water-god to Nippur; Inanna and Enki: the Transfer of the Arts of Civilization from Eridu to Erech. We shall now proceed to sketch briefly the contents of each of these myths; their wealth and variety, it is hoped, will enable the reader to evaluate the Sumerian mythological concepts together with their spiritual and religious implications. ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA n This delightful myth, consisting of 152 lines of text, 49 is almost complete. It seems to have been evolved to explain the begetting of the moon-god Nanna as well as that of the three underworld deities, Nergal, Ninazu, and a third whose name is illegible. If rightly interpreted this poem furnishes us with the first known example of the metamorphosis of a god; Enlil assumes the form of three different individuals in impregnating his wife Ninlil with the three nether world deities. The poem begins with an introductory passage descriptive of the city of Nippur, a Nippur that seems to be conceived as having existed before the creation of man: Behold the "bond of heaven and earth," the city, . . . Behold Nippur, the city, . . . Behold the "kindly wall," the city, . . . Behold the Idsalla, its pure river, Behold the Karkurunna, its quay, Behold the Karasarra, its quay where the boats stand, Behold the Pulal, its well of good water, Behold the Idnunbirdu, its pure canal, Behold Enlil, its young man, Behold Ninlil, its young maid, Behold Nunbarshegunu, its old woman. p. 44 After this brief background sketch the actual story begins. Nunbarshegunu, the "old woman" of Nippur, Ninlil's mother, instructs her daughter how to obtain the love of Enlil: In those days the mother, her begetter, gave advice to the maid, Nunbarshegunu gave advice to Ninlil: "At the pure river, O maid, at the pure river wash thyself, O Ninlil, walk along the bank of the Idnunbirdu, The bright-eyed, the lord, the bright-eyed, The 'great mountain,' father Enlil, the bright-eyed, will see thee, The shepherd . . . who decrees the fates, the bright-eyed, will see thee, He will . . . . he will kiss thee." Ninlil follows her mother's instructions and as a consequence is impregnated by "the water" of Enlil and conceives the moon-god Nanna. Enlil then departs from Nippur in the direction of the nether world, but is followed by Ninlil. As he leaves the gate he instructs the "man of the gate" to give the inquisitive Ninlil no information of his whereabouts. Ninlil comes up to the "man of the gate" and demands to know whither Enlil has gone. Enlil then __________________________________ PLATE XI. ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA This illustrates the obverse of a tablet (9205 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) that was published by the late George Barton as early as 1918. 47 Its contents, though obviously most significant for Sumerian mythology, have remained largely unintelligible all these years. Sumerological progress in the course of the past quarter-century and the discovery by the author of nine additional fragments (eight in the University Museum and one in the Museum of the Ancient Orient) 48have now made the reconstruction and translation of this poem possible. The marked passage contains the following lines: den-líl-li ì-du dnin-líl in-uš dnu-nam-nir ì-du ki-sikil mu-un- . . . den-líl-li lú-ká-gal-ra gù mu-na-dé-e lú-ká-gal lú-gišsi-gar-ra lú-giššu-di-eš lú-gišsi-gar-kug-ga nin-zu-dnin-líl-li i-im-du u4-da én-mu mu-ra-tar-ra za-e ki-mu nam-mu-ni-in-pàd-dé For the translation, see page 45. PLATE XI.<br> ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XI. ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA (For description, see opposite page.) p. 45 seems to take the form of the "man of the gate" and answers for him. The passage involved is as yet unintelligible; it seems to contain a refusal to divulge Enlil's whereabouts. Ninlil thereupon reminds him that while, true enough, Enlil is his king, she is his queen. Thereupon Enlil, still impersonating "the man of the gate," cohabits with her and impregnates her. As a result Ninlil conceives Meslamtaea, more commonly known as Nergal, the king of the nether world. In spite of the unintelligible parts, the flavor of this remarkable passage will be readily apparent from the following quotations: Enlil . . . departed from the city, Nunamnir (a name of Enlil) . . . departed from the city. Enlil walked, Ninlil followed, Nunamnir walked, the maid followed, Enlil says to the man of the gate: "O man of the gate, man of the lock, O man of the bolt, man of the pure lock, Thy queen Ninlil is coming; If she asks thee about me, Tell her not where I am." Ninlil approached the man of the gate: "O man of the gate, man of the lock, O man of the bolt, man of the pure lock, Enlil, thy king, where is he going?" Enlil answers her for the man of the gate: "Enlil, the king of all the lands, has commanded me": Four lines follow containing the substance of this command but their meaning is obscure. Then comes the following dialogue between Ninlil and Enlil, the latter impersonating the "man of the gate": Ninlil: "True, Enlil is thy king, but I am thy queen." Enlil: "If now thou art my queen, let my hand touch thy . . ." Ninlil: "The 'water' of thy king, the bright 'water' is in my heart, The 'water' of Nanna, the bright 'water' is in my heart." Enlil: "The 'water' of my king, let it go toward heaven, let it go toward earth, Let my 'water,' like the 'water' of my king, go toward earth." p. 46 Enlil, as the man of the gate, lay down in the He kissed her, be cohabited with her, Having kissed her, having cohabited with her, The "water" of . . . Meslamtaea he caused to flow over (her) heart. The poem then continues with the begetting of the nether world deity Ninazu; this time it is the "man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river" whom Enlil impersonates. In all other respects, the passage is a repetition of that describing the begetting of Meslamtaea; thus: Enlil walked, Ninlil followed, Nunamnir walked, the maid followed, Enlil says to the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river: "O man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river, Thy queen Ninlil is coming; If she asks thee about me, Tell her not where I am." Ninlil approached the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river: "O man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river, Enlil, thy king, where is he going?" Enlil answers her for the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river: "Enlil, the king of all the lands, has commanded me." The substance of the command is unintelligible. Follows the dialogue between Ninlil and Enlil, the latter impersonating the "man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river": Ninlil: "True, Enlil is thy king, but I am thy queen." Enlil: "If now thou art my queen, let my hand touch thy . . ." Ninlil: "The 'water' of thy king, the bright 'water' is in my heart, The 'water' of Nanna, the bright 'water' is in my heart." Enlil: "The 'water' of my king, let it go toward heaven, let it go toward earth, Let my 'water,' like the 'water' of my king, go toward earth." Enlil, as the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river, lay down in the . . . . He kissed her, he cohabited with her, p. 47 Having kissed her, having cohabited with her, The "water" of Ninazu, the king of . . ., he caused to flow over (her) heart. The poem then continues with the begetting of the third underworld deity whose name is illegible; this time it is the "man of the boat" whom Enlil impersonates. Our myth then comes to a close with a brief hymnal passage in which Enlil is exalted as the lord of abundance and the king whose decrees are unalterable. THE JOURNEY OF NANNA TO NIPPUR To the Sumerians of the third millennium B. C., Nippur was the spiritual center of their country. Its tutelary deity, Enlil, was the leading god of the Sumerian pantheon; his temple, Ekur, was the most important temple in Sumer. And so, the blessing of Enlil was a prime essential for the establishment of prosperity and abundance in the other important cities of Sumer, such as Eridu and Ur. To obtain this blessing, the tutelary deities of these cities were conceived as travelling to Nippur laden with gifts for its god and temple. Our myth 50 describes just such a journey from Ur to Nippur of the moon-god Nanna (also known as Sin and Ashgirbabbar), the tutelary deity of Ur. In this myth, as in the preceding Enlil-Ninlil composition, the cities such as Nippur and Ur seem to be fully built and rich in animal and plant life, although man seems to be still nonexistent. Beginning with a description of the glory of Nippur, our poem continues a passage describing Nanna's decision to visit his father's city: To go to his city, to stand before his father, Ashgirbabbar set his mind: "I, the hero, to my city I would go, before my father I would stand; I, Sin, to my city I would go, before my father I would stand, Before my father Enlil I would stand; I, to my city I would go, before my mother Ninlil I would stand, Before my father I would stand." p. 48 And so he loads up his gufa with a rich assortment of trees, plants, and animals. On his journey from Ur to Nippur, Nanna and his boat make stop at five cities: Im (?), Larsa, Erech, and two cities whose names are illegible; in each of these Nanna is met and greeted by the respective tutelary deity. Finally he arrives at Nippur: At the lapis lazuli quay, the quay of Enlil, Nanna-Sin drew up his boat, At the white quay, the quay of Enlil, Ashgirbabbar drew up his boat, On the . . . of the father, his begetter, he stationed himself, To the gatekeeper of Enlil he says: At the lapis lazuli quay, the quay of Enlil, Nanna-Sin drew up his boat, At the white quay, the quay of Enlil, Ashgirbabbar drew up his boat, On the . . . of the father, his begetter, he stationed himself, To the gatekeeper of Enlil he says: "Open the house, gatekeeper, open the house, Open the house, O protecting genie, open the house, Open the house, thou who makest the trees come forth, open the house, O . . ., who makest the trees come forth, open the house, Gatekeeper, open the house, O protecting genie, open the house." The gatekeeper opens the door for Nanna: Joyfully, the gatekeeper joyfully opened the door; The protecting genie who makes the trees come forth, joyfully, The gatekeeper joyfully opened the door; He who makes the trees come forth, joyfully, The gatekeeper joyfully opened the door; With Sin, Enlil rejoiced. The two gods feast; then Nanna addresses Enlil his father as follows: "In the river give me overflow, In the field give me much grain, In the swampland give me grass and reeds, In the forests give me . . . p. 49 In the plain give me . . . In the palm-grove and vineyard give me honey and wine, In the palace give me long life, To Ur I shall go." And Enlil accedes to his son's request: He gave him, Enlil gave him, To Ur he went. In the river he gave him overflow, In the field he gave him much grain, In the swampland he gave him grass and reeds, In the forests he gave him . . ., In the plain he gave him . . . . In the palm-grove and vineyard he gave him honey and wine, In the palace he gave him long life. EMESH AND ENTEN: ENLIL CHOOSES THE FARMER-GOD This myth 51 is the closest extant Sumerian parallel to the Biblical Cain-Abel story, although it ends with a reconciliation rather than a murder. It consists of over three hundred lines, only about half of which are complete; because of the numerous breaks, the meaning of the text is therefore often difficult to penetrate. Tentatively the contents of the poem may be reconstructed as follows: Enlil, the air-god, has set his mind to bring forth trees and grain and to establish abundance and prosperity in the land. For this purpose two cultural beings, the brothers Emesh and Enten, are created, and Enlil assigns to each specific duties. The text is so badly damaged at this point that it is impossible to make out the exact nature of these duties; the following very brief intelligible passages will at least indicate their general direction: Enten caused the ewe to give birth to the lamb, the goat to give birth to the kid, Cow and calf he caused to multiply, much fat and milk he caused to be produced, In the plain, the heart of the wild goat, the sheep, and the donkey he made to rejoice, The birds of the heaven, in the wide earth he had them set up their nests p. 50 The fish of the sea, in the swampland he had them lay their eggs, In the palm-grove and vineyard he made to abound honey and wine, The trees, wherever planted, he caused to bear fruit, The furrows . . ., Grain and crops he caused to multiply, Like Ashnan (the grain goddess), the kindly maid, he caused strength to appear. Emesh brought into existence the trees and the fields, he made wide the stables and sheepfolds, In the farms he multiplied the produce, The . . . he caused to cover the earth, The abundant harvest he caused to be brought into the houses, he caused the granaries to be heaped high. But whatever the nature of their original duties, a violent quarrel breaks out between the two brothers. Several arguments ensue, and finally Emesh challenges Enten's claim to the position of "farmer of the gods." And so they betake themselves to Nippur where each states his case before Enlil. Thus Enten complains to Enlil: ____________________________________ PLATE XII. GODS OF VEGETATION Three of the designs depict a deity in close relation with a plow. In the upper design two gods are guiding a plow, which is perhaps drawn by a lion and a wormlike dragon. In the second, a seated god is holding a plow in front of him. Behind him is a mountain from which sprouts a plant and on which an ibex is ascending; in front of him a deity leads a worshipper carrying a gazelle in his arms. In the lower design an unidentified deity holding a plow is travelling in a boat whose stern ends in a snake and whose prow ends in the body of a god who is propelling the boat. The third design seems to depict an offering scene to the right of the inscription. A worshipper carrying a gazelle is followed by a goddess holding a vase, from which flow two streams of water. The worshipper stands before another goddess who may perhaps be identified as Inanna in the role of the goddess of war. But it is the two deities to the left of the inscriptions which interest us here mostly. Both seem to have ears of grain sprouting from their shoulders, but the male god is equipped with club and bow, while a ram frolics at his feet. He may perhaps be identified as Lahar, the cattle-god, while the goddess facing him may be Ashnan, the grain goddess (see p. 53). (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plates XXa, d, e, and XIXe.) PLATE XII<br> GODS OF VEGETATION<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XII GODS OF VEGETATION (For description, see opposite page.) p. 51 "O father Enlil, knowledge thou hast given me, I brought the water of abundance, Farm I made touch farm, I heaped high the granaries, Like Ashnan, the kindly maid, I caused strength to appear; Now Emesh, the . . . . the irreverent, who knows not the heart of the fields, On my first strength, on my first power, is encroaching; At the palace of the king . . ." Emesh's version of the quarrel, which begins with several flattering phrases cunningly directed to win Enlil's favor, is brief but as yet unintelligible. Then: Enlil answers Emesh and Enten: "The life-producing water of all the lands, Enten is its 'knower,' As farmer of the gods he has produced everything, Emesh, my son, how dost thou compare thyself with Eaten, thy brother?" The exalted word of Enlil whose meaning is profound, The decision taken, is unalterable, who dares transgress it! Emesh bent the knees before Enten, Into his house he brought . . ., the wine of the grape and the date, Emesh presents Enten with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, In brotherhood and friendship, happily, they pour out libations, Together to act wisely and well they determined. In the struggle between Emesh and Enten, Enten, the steadfast farmer of the gods, having proved greater than Emesh, . . . O father Enlil, praise! THE CREATION OF THE PICKAX This poem consisting of 108 lines 52 is practically complete, although not a few of the passages still remain obscure and unintelligible. It begins with a long introductory passage which is of prime significance for the Sumerian conception of the creation and organization of the universe. If the following translation of this important passage seems sodden, stilted, and obscure, the reader is asked to remember that although the meanings of most of the Sumerian words and phrases are known, we still have little insight into their overtones, into their connotations and implications. p. 52 [paragraph continues] For the background and situation which these words and phrases imply and assume, still elude us; and it is this background and situation, part and parcel of the Sumerian mythological and religious pattern and well known to the Sumerian poet and his "reader," which are so vital to a full understanding of the text. It is only with the gradual accumulation of living contexts from Sumerian literature that we may hope to overcome this difficulty; as yet it is best to hew close to the literal word. The introductory passage reads: o The lord, that which is appropriate verily he caused to appear, The lord whose decisions are unalterable, Enlil, who brings up the seed of the land from the earth, Took care to move away heaven from earth, Took care to move away earth from heaven. In order to make grow the creature which came forth, In the "bond of heaven and earth" (Nippur) he stretched out the . . . He brought the pickax into existence, the "day" came forth, He introduced labor, decreed the fate, Upon the pickax and basket he directs the "power." Enlil made his pickax exalted, His pickax of gold, whose head is of lapis lazuli, The pickax of his house, of . . . silver and gold, His pickax whose . . . is of lapis lazuli, Whose tooth is a one-horned ox ascending a large wall. The lord called up the pickax, decrees its fate, He set the kindu, the holy crown, upon his head, The head of man he placed in the mould, Before Enlil he (man?) covers his land, Upon his black-headed people he looked steadfastly. The Anunnaki who stood about him, He placed it (the pickax?) as a gift in their hands, They soothe Enlil with prayer, They give the pickax to the black-headed people to hold. After Enlil had created the pickax and decreed its exalted fate, the other important deities add to its powers and utility. The poem concludes with a long passage in which the usefulness of the pickax is described in glowing terms; the last lines read: p. 53 The pickax and the basket build cities, The steadfast house the pickax builds, the steadfast house the pickax establishes, The steadfast house it causes to prosper. The house which rebels against the king, The house which is not submissive to its king, The pickax makes it submissive to the king. Of the bad . . . plants it crushes the head, Plucks at the roots, tears at the crown, The pickax spares the . . . plants; The pickax, its fate decreed by father Enlil, The pickax is exalted. CATTLE AND GRAIN The myth 53 involving Lahar, the cattle-god, and his sister Ashnan, the grain-goddess, represents another variation of the Cain-Abel motif in Near East mythology. Labar and Ashnan, according to our myth, were created in the creation chamber of the gods in order that the Annunnaki, the children and followers of the heaven-god An, might have food to eat and clothes to wear. But the Anunnaki were unable to make effective use of the products of these deities; it was to remedy this situation that man was created. All this is told in an introductory passage which, because of its significance for the Sumerian conception of the creation of man, is quoted in full on pages 72-73. The passage following the introduction is another poetic gem; it describes the descent of Lahar and Ashnan from heaven to earth and the cultural benefits which they bestow on mankind: In those days Enki says to Enlil: "Father Enlil, Lahar and Ashnan, They who have been created in the Dulkug, Let us cause them to descend from the Dulkug." At the pure word of Enki and Enlil, Lahar and Ashnan descended from the Dulkug. For Lahar they (Enlil and Enki) set up the sheepfold, Plants, herbs, and . . . they present to him; p. 54 For Ashnan they establish a house, Plow and yoke they present to her. Lahar standing in his sheepfold, A shepherd increasing the bounty of the sheepfold is he; Ashnan standing among the crops, A maid kindly and bountiful is she. Abundance of heaven . . . , Lahar and Ashnan caused to appear, In the assembly they brought abundance, In the land they brought the breath of life, The decrees of the god they direct, The contents of the warehouses they multiply, The storehouses they fill full. In the house of the poor, hugging the dust, Entering they bring abundance; The pair of them, wherever they stand, Bring heavy increase into the house; The place where they stand they sate, the place where they sit they supply, They made good the heart of An and Enlil. But then Labar and Ashnan drank much wine and so they began to quarrel in the farms and fields. In the arguments which ensued, each deity extolled its achievements and belittled those of its opponent. Finally Enlil and Enki intervened, but the end of the poem which contains their decision is still wanting. ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD p Both for intricacy of story and for simplicity of style, this myth 57 is one of the most remarkable compositions in our entire group. The hero is Enki, the great water-god of the Sumerians, one of the four creating deities of Sumer; his closest Greek counterpart is Poseidon. The place of our story is Dilmun, a district which is perhaps to be identified with eastern shores of the Persian Gulf and which in historical times, therefore, actually lay outside of Sumer proper. Our poem begins with a description of Dilmun as a land of innocence and bliss: p. 55 The land Dilmun is a pure place, the land Dilmun is a clean place, The land Dilmun is a clean place, the land Dilmun is a bright place; He who is all alone laid himself down in Dilmun, The place, after Enki had laid himself by his wife, That place is clean, that place is bright; He who is all alone laid himself down in Dilmun, The place, after Enki had laid himself by Ninsikil, That place is clean, that place is bright. In Dilmun the raven uttered no cries, The kite uttered not the cry of the kite, The lion killed not, The wolf snatched not the lamb, Unknown was the kid-killing dog, Unknown was the grain-devouring boar, The bird on high . . . not its young, The dove . . . not the head, The sick-eyed says not "I am sick-eyed," The sick-headed says not "I am sick-headed," Its (Dilmun's) old woman says not "I am an old woman," Its old man says not "I am an old man," Its unwashed maid is not . . . in the city, He who crosses the river utters no . . . , The overseer does not . . . , The singer utters no wail, By the side of the city he utters no lament. What is wanting in this paradise land, however, is sweet water. And so the goddess of Dilmun, Ninsikil, pleads with Enki for fresh water. Enki heeds her plea and orders the sun-god Utu to bring forth fresh water from the earth for Dilmun. As a result: Her city drinks the water of abundance, Dilmun drinks the water of abundance, Her wells of bitter water, behold they are become wells of good water, Her fields and farms produced crops and grain, Her city, behold it is become the house of the banks and quays of the land, Dilmun, behold it is become the house of the banks and quays of the land. p. 56 Dilmun supplied with water, our poem next describes the birth of Uttu, the goddess of plants, a birth which results from the following rather intricate process. Enki first impregnates the goddess Ninhursag, or, to give her one of her other names, Nintu, the Sumerian goddess who in an earlier day may have been identical with Ki, the mother earth. Follows a period of gestation lasting nine days, the poet being careful to note that each day corresponds to a month in the human period of gestation; of this union is begotten the goddess Ninsar. This interesting passage runs as follows: Upon Ninhursag he caused to flow the "water of the heart," She received the "water of the heart," the water of Enki. One day being her one month, Two days being her two months, Three days being her three months, Four days being her four months, Five days (being her five months,) Six days (being her six months,) Seven days (being her seven months,) Eight days (being her eight months,) Nine days being her nine months, the months of "womanhood," Like . . . fat, like . . . fat, like good butter, Nintu, the mother of the land, like . . . fat, (like . . . fat, like good butter,) Gave birth to Ninsar. __________________________________ PLATE XIII. ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD This is a photograph of a tablet (4561 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) published by Stephen Langdon more than 25 years ago under the title, "Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood, and Fall of Man." 54 At the time of its publication, Sumerian grammatical and lexicographical studies had made relatively little scientific progress, and the contents of this difficult poem were largely misunderstood. The author's interpretation of the poem is largely the result of a more scientific approach to the linguistic problems, although the publication in 1930 by Henri de Genouillac of a duplicating fragment now in the Louvre u also proved of considerable help. The last 14 lines in the second column contain a passage which may be not inaptly entitled "The Birth of a Goddess"; for the translation and the transliteration, see page 56 and note 56. PLATE XIII.<br> ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XIII. ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD (For description, see opposite page.) p. 57 Ninsar in turn is impregnated by her father Enki and after nine days of gestation she gives birth to the goddess Ninkur. Ninkur, too, is then impregnated by Enki and so finally is born Uttu, the goddess of plants. To this plant-goddess now appears her great-grandmother Ninhursag, who offers her advice pertinent to her future relationship with Enki. Part of the passage is broken, and much of what is not broken I fail as yet to comprehend. But whatever the advice, Uttu follows it in all detail. As a result she is in turn impregnated by Enki and eight different plants sprout forth. But Enki eats up the plants; thus: Enki, in the swampland, in the swampland, lies stretched out, He says to his messenger Isimud: "What is this (plant), what is this (plant)?" His messenger, Isimud, answers him; "My king, this is the 'tree-plant'," he says to him. He cuts it off for him and he (Enki) eats it. Enki: "What is this, what is this?" Isimud: "My king, this is the 'honey-plant'." He tears it off for him and he eats it. And so on until Enki has eaten all the eight plants. Thereupon Ninhursag, who, it will be recalled, is actually responsible for the creation of these plants, curses Enki. 58 The curse reads: "Until thou art dead, I shall not look upon thee with the 'eye of life'." Having uttered the curse, Ninhursag disappears. The gods are chagrined; they "sit in the dust." Up speaks the fox to Enlil: "If I bring Ninhursag before thee, what shall be my reward?" [paragraph continues] Enlil promises the fox a due reward and the latter succeeds in bringing her back; how he goes about this task is not clear, however, since part of the text is broken and much of the preserved part is as yet unintelligible. And so Ninhursag proceeds to remove the effects of her curse from the rapidly sinking Enki. This she achieves by giving birth p. 58 to a special deity for each of Enki's pains. This passage which closes our poem runs as follows: Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My . . . hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Abu I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My hip hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Nintul I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My tooth hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Ninsutu I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My mouth hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Ninkasi I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My . . . hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Nazi I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My side hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Dazimua I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My rib hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Ninti I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My . . . hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Enshagag I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "For the little ones to which I gave birth Enki: "Let Abu be the king of the plants, Let Nintul be the lord of Magan, Let Ninsutu marry Ninazu, Let Ninkasi be (the goddess who) sates the heart, Let Nazi marry Nindar, Let Dazimua marry Ningishzida, Let Ninti be the queen of the month, Let Enshagag be the lord of Dilmun." O Father Enki, praise! And so, as the reader will note, the eight aches and pains which had come upon Enki as punishment for his eating p. 59 the eight plants, were healed by the eight deities born of Ninhursag for that purpose. Moreover, the superficiality and barren artificiality of the concepts implied in this closing passage of our myth, although not apparent from the English translation, are brought out quite clearly by the Sumerian original. For the fact is that the actual relationship between each of the "healing" deities and the sickness which it is supposed to cure, is verbal and nominal only; this relationship manifests itself in the fact that the name of the deity contains in it part or all of the word signifying the corresponding aching part of Enki's body. In brief, it is only because the name of the deity sounded like the sick body-member that the makers of this myth were induced to associate the two; actually there is no organic relationship between them. ENKI AND SUMER: THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EARTH AND ITS CULTURAL PROCESSES q This composition 59 furnishes us with a detailed account of the activities of the water-god Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, in organizing the earth and establishing what might be termed law and order upon it. The first part of our poem, approximately one hundred lines, is too fragmentary for a reconstruction of its contents. When the poem becomes intelligible, Enki is decreeing the fate of Sumer: O Sumer, great land, of the lands of the universe, Filled with steadfast brightness, the people from sunrise to sunset obedient to the divine decrees, Thy decrees are exalted decrees, unreachable, Thy heart is profound, unfathomable, Thy . . . is like heaven, untouchable. "The king, begotten, adorns himself with lasting jewel, The lord, begotten, sets crown on head, Thy lord is an honored lord; with An, the king, he sits in the shrine of heaven, Thy king is the great mountain, the father Enlil, Like . . . the father of all the lands. p. 60 "The Anunnaki, the great gods, In thy midst have taken up their dwelling place, In thy large groves they consume (their) food. "O house of Sumer, may thy stables be many, may thy cows multiply, May thy sheepfolds be many, may thy sheep be myriad, May thy . . . stand, May thy steadfast . . . lift hand to heaven, May the Anunnaki decree the fates in thy midst." Enki then goes to Ur, no doubt the capital of Sumer at the time our poem was composed, and decrees its fate: To Ur he came, Enki, king of the abyss, decrees the fate: "O city, well-supplied, washed by much water, firm standing ox, Shrine of abundance of the land, knees opened, green like the 'mountain,' Hashur-forest, wide shade. . . . heroic, Thy perfected decrees he has directed, The great mountain, Enlil, in the universe has uttered thy exalted name; O thou city whose fates have been decreed by Enki, O thou shrine Ur, neck to heaven mayest thou rise." Enki then comes to Meluhha, the "black mountain," perhaps to be identified with the eastern coast of Africa. Remarkably enough, Enki is almost as favorably disposed ____________________________________________ PLATE XIV. ENKI, THE WATER-GOD In the latter half of the third millennium the water-god Enki played a predominant role in Sumerian religion and myth. This plate gives a graphic picture of his activities. The upper design depicts Enki with flowing streams, swimming fishes, and what may be sprouting plants, travelling in a boat along the Eridu marshland. In the second design four deities are approaching the seated Enki; the second carries a plow. The third design depicts Enki sitting in judgment. His messenger, the two-faced Isimud, is followed by a deity carrying a plant; the latter is followed by another deity who carries slung over his shoulder a mace to which the accused bird-man is tied by the feet. The lower design depicts another version of the same scene. Before Enki, seated in judgment, Isimud leads the accused bird-man, who is followed by another deity and a worshipper. (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plates XXf, XXIe, and XXXIIId, f.) PLATE XIV<br> ENKI, THE WATER-GOD<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XIV ENKI, THE WATER-GOD (For description, see opposite page.) p. 61 to this land as to Sumer itself. He blesses its trees and reeds, its oxen and birds, its silver and gold, its bronze and copper, its human beings. From Meluhha, Enki goes to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. He fills them with sparkling water and appoints the god Enbilulu, the "knower" of rivers, in charge. Enki then fills the rivers with fishes and makes a deity described as the "son of Kesh" responsible for them. He next turns to the sea (Persian Gulf), sets up its rules, and appoints the goddess Sirara in charge. Enki now calls to the winds and appoints over them the god Ishkur, who has charge of the "silver lock of the 'heart' of heaven." The plow and yoke, fields and vegetation, are next on the list: The plow and the yoke he directed, The great prince Enki caused the . . . ox to . . . To the pure crops he roared, In the steadfast field he made grain grow; The lord, the jewel and ornament of the plain, The . . . farmer of Enlil, Enkimdu, him of the canals and ditches, Enki placed in their charge. The lord called to the steadfast field, he caused it to produce much grain, Enki made it bring forth its small and large beans . . . , The . . . grains he heaped up for the granary, Enki added granary to granary, With Enlil he increases abundance in the land; Her whose head is . . . . whose face is . . . , The lady who . . . . the might of the land, the steadfast support of the black-headed people, Ashnan, strength of all things, Enki placed in charge. Enki now turns to the pickax and the brickmold, and appoints the brick-god Kabta in charge. He then directs the building implement gugun, lays foundations and builds houses, and places them under the charge of Mushdamma, the "great builder of Enlil." He then fills the plain with plant and animal life and places Sumugan, "king of the p. 62 [paragraph continues] 'mountain'," in control. Finally Enki builds stables and sheepfolds, fills them with milk and fat, and puts them in the care of the shepherd-god Dumuzi. The rest of our text is destroyed and we do not know how the poem ends. ENKI AND ERIDU: THE JOURNEY OF THE WATER--GOD TO NIPPUR r One of the oldest and most venerated cities in Sumer was Eridu, which lies buried to-day under the mound Abu-Shahrain; a thorough excavation of this significant site would in all probability immensely enrich our knowledge of Sumerian culture and civilization, especially in their more spiritual aspects. According to one Sumerian tradition, it was the oldest city in Sumer, the first of the five cities founded before the flood; our myth, on the other hand, implies that the city Nippur preceded it in age. In this city, which in ancient times must have been situated on the Persian Gulf, the water-god Enki, also known as Nudimmud, builds his "sea-house": 60 After the water of creation had been decreed, After the name hegal (abundance), born in heaven, Like plant and herb had clothed the land, The lord of the abyss, the king Enki, Enki, the lord who decrees the fates, Built his house of silver and lapis lazuli; Its silver and lapis lazuli, like sparkling light, The father fashioned fittingly in the abyss. The (creatures of) bright countenance and wise, coming forth from the abyss, Stood all about the lord Nudimmud; The pure house be built, he adorned it with lapis lazuli, He ornamented it greatly with gold, In Eridu he built the house of the water-bank, Its brickwork, word-uttering, advice-giving, Its . . . like an ox roaring, The house of Enki, the oracles uttering. Follows a long passage in which Isimud, the messenger of Enki, sings the praises of the "sea-house." Then Enki raises the city Eridu from the abyss and makes it float over p. 63 the water like a lofty mountain. Its green fruit-bearing gardens he fills with birds; fishes, too, be makes abundant. Enki is now ready to proceed by boat to Nippur to obtain Enlil's blessing for his newly-built city and temple. He therefore rises from the abyss: When Enki rises, the fish . . . rise, The abyss stands in wonder, In the sea joy enters, Fear comes over the deep, Terror holds the exalted river, The Euphrates, the South Wind lifts it in waves. And so Enki seats himself in his boat and first arrives in Eridu itself; here he slaughters many oxen and sheep. He then proceeds to Nippur where immediately upon his arrival he prepares all kinds of drinks for the gods and especially for Enlil. Then: Enki in the shrine Nippur, Gives his father Enlil bread to eat, In the first place he seated An (the heaven-god), Next to An he seated Enlil, Nintu he seated at the "big side," The Anunnaki seated themselves one after the other. And so the gods feast and banquet until their hearts become "good" and Enlil is ready to pronounce his blessing: Enlil says to the Anunnaki: Enlil says to the Anunnaki: "Ye great gods who are standing about, My son has built a house, the king Enki; Eridu, like a mountain, he has raised up from the earth, In a good place he has built it. Eridu, the clean place, where none may enter, The house built of silver, adorned with lapis lazuli, The house directed by the seven "lyre-songs," given over to incantation, With pure songs . . . , The abyss, the shrine of the goodness of Enki, befitting the divine decrees, Eridu, the pure house having been built, O Enki, praise!" p. 64 INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH This magnificent myth with its particularly charming story involves Inanna, the queen of heaven, and Enki, the lord of wisdom. Its contents are of profound significance for the study of the history and progress of civilization, since it contains a list of over one hundred divine decrees governing all those cultural achievements which, according to the more or less superficial analysis of the Sumerian scribes and thinkers, made up the warp and woof of Sumerian civilization. As early as 1911 a fragment belonging to this myth and located in the University Museum at Philadelphia was published by David W. Myhrman. 62 Three years later, Arno Poebel published another Philadelphia tablet inscribed with part of the composition; 61 this is a large, well-preserved six-column tablet whose upper left ________________________________________ PLATES XV AND XVI. INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH Plate XV is the obverse of a large six-column tablet (15283 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) published by Poebel in 1914; 61 its upper left corner is broken away. Plate XVI illustrates three fragments belonging to the same poem. The large fragment (13571 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) was published by Myhrman in 1911. 62 Below the large fragment, on the left, are the obverse and reverse of a small fragment (4151 in the Nippur collection of the Museum of the Ancient Orient) copied by the author in Istanbul and hitherto unpublished. In all probability it is the very comer piece broken away from the Philadelphia tablet illustrated on plate XV. To the right are the obverse and reverse of another small fragment (2724 in the Nippur collection of the Museum of the Ancient Orient) copied by the author in Istanbul and hitherto unpublished. Small as it is, this piece proved instrumental in supplying the motivating link to the story. For the translation and the transliteration of the first eight lines of the passage in which Enki presents the arts of civilization to the goddess Inanna, see page 66 and note 65. Another significant verse in this passage reads: 66 "O name of my power, O name of my power, To the bright Inanna, my daughter, I shall present . . . The arts of woodworking, metalworking, writing, toolmaking, leatherworking. . . . building, basketweaving." Pure Inanna took them. PLATE XV<br> INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU To ERECH<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XV INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU To ERECH (For description, see opposite page.) PLATE XVI<br> INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH<br> (For description, see page 64.) Click to enlarge PLATE XVI INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH (For description, see page 64.) p. 65 corner was broken off. This broken corner piece I was fortunate enough to discover in 1937, twenty-three years later, in the Museum of the Ancient Orient at Istanbul. 63 As early as 1914, therefore, a large part of the myth had been copied and published. However, no translation was attempted in all these years since the story seemed to make no connected sense; and what could be made out, seemed to lack intelligent motivation. In 1937 I located and copied in Istanbul a small piece 64 which supplied the missing clue, and as a result, this tale of the all too human Sumerian gods can now be told. 67 Inanna, queen of heaven, and tutelary goddess of Erech, is anxious to increase the welfare and prosperity of her city, to make it the center of Sumerian civilization, and thus to exalt her own name and fame. She therefore decides to go to Eridu, the ancient and hoary seat of Sumerian culture where Enki, the Lord of Wisdom, who "knows the very heart of the gods," dwells in his watery abyss, the Abzu. For Enki has under his charge all the divine decrees that are fundamental to civilization. And if she can obtain them, by fair means or foul, and bring them to her beloved city Erech, its glory and her own will indeed be unsurpassed. As she approaches the Abzu of Eridu, Enki, no doubt taken in by her charms, calls his messenger Isimud and thus addresses him: "Come, my messenger, Isimud, give ear to my instructions, A word I will say to thee, take my word. The maid, all alone, has directed her step to the Abzu, Inanna, all alone, has directed her step to the Abzu, Have the maid enter the Abzu of Eridu, Have Inanna enter the Abzu of Eridu, Give her to eat barley cake with butter, Pour for her cold water that freshens the heart, Give her to drink date-wine in the 'face of the lion,' . . . for her . . . . make for her . . ., At the pure table, the table of heaven, Speak to Inanna words of greeting." Isimud does exactly as bidden by his master, and Inanna and Enki sit down to feast and banquet. After their hearts had become happy with drink, Enki exclaims: p. 66 "O name of My power, O name of my power, To the pure Inanna, my daughter, I shall present . . .. Lordship, . . .-ship, godship, the tiara exalted and enduring, the throne of kingship." Pure Inanna took them. "O name of my power, O name of my power, To the pure Inanna, my daughter, I shall present . . . . The exalted scepter, staffs, the exalted shrine, shepherdship, kingship." Pure Inanna took them. He thus presents, several at a time, over one hundred divine decrees which are the basis of the culture pattern of Sumerian civilization. And when it is realized that this myth was inscribed as early as 2000 B. C. and that the concepts involved were no doubt current centuries earlier, it is no exaggeration to state that no other civilization, outside of the Egyptian, can at all compare in age and quality with that developed by the Sumerians. Among these divine decrees presented by Enki to Inanna are those referring to lordship, godship, the exalted and enduring crown, the throne of kingship, the exalted scepter, the exalted shrine, shepherdship, kingship, the numerous priestly offices, truth, descent into the nether world and ascent from it, the "standard," the flood, sexual intercourse and prostitution, the legal tongue and the libellous tongue, art, the holy cult chambers, the "hierodule of heaven," music, eldership, heroship and power, enmity, straightforwardness, the destruction of cities and lamentation, rejoicing of the heart, falsehood, the rebel land, goodness and justice, the craft of the carpenter, metal worker, scribe, smith, leather worker, mason, and basket weaver, wisdom and understanding, purification, fear and outcry, the kindling flame and the consuming flame, weariness, the shout of victory, counsel, the troubled heart, judgment and decision, exuberance, musical instruments. Inanna is only too happy to accept the gifts offered her by the drunken Enki. She takes them, loads them on her "boat of heaven," and makes off for Erech with her precious cargo. But after the effects of the banquet had worn p. 67 off, Enki noticed that the divine decrees were gone from their usual place. He turns to Isimud and the latter informs him that he, Enki himself, had presented them to his daughter Inanna. The upset Enki greatly rues his munificence and decides to prevent the "boat of heaven" from reaching Erech at all costs. He therefore dispatches his messenger Isimud together with a group of sea monsters to follow Inanna and her boat to the first of the seven stopping stations that are situated between the Abzu of Eridu and Erech. Here the sea monsters are to seize the "boat of heaven" from Inanna; Inanna, herself, however, must be permitted to continue her journey to Erech afoot. The passage covering Enki's instructions to Isimud and Isimud's conversation with Inanna, who reproaches her father Enki as an "Indian-giver," will undoubtedly go down as a classic poetic gem. It runs as follows: The prince calls his messenger Isimud, The prince calls his messenger Isimud, Enki gives the word to the "good name of heaven": "Oh my messenger Isimud, 'my good name of heaven'." "Oh my king Enki, here I stand, forever is praise." "The 'boat of heaven,' where now has it arrived?" "At the quay Idal it has arrived." "Go, and let the sea monsters seize it from her." Isimud does as bidden, overtakes the "boat of heaven," and says to Inanna: "Oh my queen, thy father has sent me to thee, Oh Inanna, thy father has sent me to thee, Thy father, exalted is his speech, Enki, exalted is his utterance, His great words are not to go unheeded." Holy Inanna answers him: "My father, what has he spoken to thee, what has he said to thee? His great words that are not to go unheeded, what pray are they?" "My king has spoken to me, Enki has said to me: 'Let Inanna go to Erech, But thou, bring me back the "boat of heaven" to Eridu'." p. 68 Holy Inanna says to the messenger Isimud: "My father, why pray has he changed his word to me, Why has he broken his righteous word to me, Why has he defiled his great words to me? My father has spoken to me falsehood, has spoken to me falsehood, Falsely has he uttered the name of his power, the name of the Abzu." Barely had she uttered these words, The sea monsters seized the "boat of heaven." Inanna says to her messenger Ninshubur: "Come, my true messenger of Eanna, My messenger of favorable words, My carrier of true words, Whose hand never falters, whose foot never falters, Save the 'boat of heaven,' and Inanna's presented decrees." This Ninshubur does. But Enki is persistent. He sends Isimud accompanied by various sea monsters to seize the "boat of heaven" at each of the seven stopping points between Eridu and Erech. And each time Ninshubur comes to Inanna's rescue. Finally Inanna and her boat arrive safe and sound at Erech, where amidst jubilation and feasting on the part of its delighted inhabitants, she unloads the divine decrees one at a time. The poem ends with a speech addressed by Enki to Inanna, but the text is seriously damaged and it is not clear whether it is reconciliatory or retaliatory in character. THE CREATION OF MAN The composition narrating the creation of man has been found inscribed on two duplicating tablets: one is a Nippur tablet in our University Museum; the other is in the Louvre, which acquired it from an antique dealer. In spite of the fact that by 1934 the Louvre tablet and the greater part of the University Museum tablet had already been copied and published, 72 the contents remained unintelligible. Primarily responsible for this unfortunate situation is the fact that our University Museum tablet, which is better preserved than the Louvre fragment, arrived in Philadelphia p. 69 some four or five decades ago, broken into four parts. By 1919 two of the pieces had already been recognized and joined; these were copied and published by Stephen Langdon. 68 In 1934 Edward Chiera published the third piece 69 but failed to recognize that it joined the two pieces published by Langdon in 1919. It was the discovery of this fact, together with the identifying of the fourth and still unpublished piece 70 which joins the three published pieces, that enabled me to arrange the contents in the proper order. It should be emphasized here that the approximately one hundred and fifty lines which make up the text of our poem still present numerous crucial breaks; many of the lines are poorly preserved. 73 Moreover, the linguistic difficulties in this composition are particularly burdensome; not a few of the crucial words are met here for the first time in Sumerian literature. The translation is therefore full of gaps and its tentative character must be underlined. Nevertheless it does present the fullest picture thus far available of the concepts concerned with the creation of man as current in Sumer during the third millennium B. C. Among the oldest known conceptions of the creation of man are those of the Hebrews and the Babylonians; the former is narrated in the book of Genesis, the latter forms part of the Babylonian "Epic of Creation." According to the Biblical story, or at least according to one of its versions, man was fashioned from clay for the purpose of ruling over all the animals. In the Babylonian myth, man was made of the blood of one of the more troublesome of the gods who was killed for that purpose; he was created primarily in order to serve the gods and free them from the need of working for their bread. According to our Sumerian poem, which antedates both the Hebrew and the Babylonian versions by more than a millennium, man was fashioned of clay as in the Biblical version. The purpose for which he was created, however, was to free the gods from laboring for their sustenance, as in the Babylonian version. The poem begins with what may be a description of the difficulties of the gods in procuring their bread, especially, p. 70 as might have been expected, after the female deities had come into being. The gods complain, but Enki, the water-god, who, as the Sumerian god of wisdom, might have been expected to come to their aid, is lying asleep in the deep and fails to hear them. Thereupon his mother, the primeval sea, "the mother who gave birth to all the gods," brings the tears of the gods before Enki, saying: "O my son, rise from thy bed, from thy . . . work what is wise, Fashion servants of the gods, may they produce their . . ," Enki gives the matter thought, leads forth 'the host of "good and princely fashioners" and says to his mother, Nammu, the primeval sea: O my mother, the creature whose name thou hoist uttered, it exists, Bind upon it the . . . of the gods; Mix the heart of the clay that is over the abyss, The good and princely fashioners will thicken the clay, Thou, do thou bring the limbs into existence; Ninmah (the earth-mother goddess) will work above thee, . . . (goddesses of birth) will stand by thee at thy fashioning; O my mother, decree thou its (the new-born's) fate, Ninmah will bind upon it the . . . of the gods, . . . as man . . . After a break of several lines, whose contents, if ever recovered, should prove most illuminating, the poem describes ______________________________________ PLATES XVII AND XVIII. THE CREATION OF MAN These plates illustrate the obverse of the very same tablet. On plate XVII the tablet is still in three separate pieces (13396, 11327, and 2168, before "joining," in the Nippur collection of the University Museum). Actually the tablet arrived in Philadelphia in four separate pieces. The lower piece on plate XVII is itself composed of two fragments which had already been joined in the University Museum sometime before 1919, when it was published by Langdon 68 The large upper fragment was published by Chiera in 1934. 69 The fourth piece 70 has hitherto remained unpublished. Plate XVIII shows the same tablet, with all the pieces joined. The lower part of the first column contains the first; part of the passage in which Enki, the water-god, instructs his mother Nammu, the goddess who begot heaven and earth and all the gods, how to fashion man. For the translation and the transliteration, see page 70 and note 71. PLATE XVII<br> THE CREATION OF MAN<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XVII THE CREATION OF MAN (For description, see opposite page.) PLATE XVIII<br> THE CREATION OF MAN<br> (For description, see page 70.) Click to enlarge PLATE XVIII THE CREATION OF MAN (For description, see page 70.) p. 71 a feast arranged by Enki for the gods, no doubt to commemorate man's creation. At this feast Enki and Ninmah drink much wine and become somewhat exuberant. Thereupon Ninmah takes some of the clay which is over the abyss and fashions six different types of individuals, while Enki decrees their fate and gives them bread to eat. The character of only the last two types is intelligible; these are the barren woman and the sexless or eunuch type. The lines read: The . . . she (Ninmah) made into a woman who cannot give birth. Enki upon seeing the woman who cannot give birth, Decreed her fate, destined her to be stationed in the "woman house." The . . . she (Ninmah) made into one who has no male organ, who has no female organ. Enki, upon seeing him who has no male organ, who has no female organ, To stand before the king, decreed as his fate. After Ninmah had created these six types of man, Enki decides to do some creating of his own. The manner in which he goes about it is not clear, but whatever it is that he does, the resulting creature is a failure; it is weak and feeble in body and spirit. Enki is now anxious that Ninmah help this forlorn creature; he therefore addresses her as follows: "Of him whom thy hand has fashioned, I have decreed the fate, Have given him bread to eat; Do thou decree the fate of him whom my hand has fashioned, Do thou give him bread to eat." Ninmah tries to be good to the creature but to no avail. She talks to him but he fails to answer. She gives him bread to eat but he does not reach out for it. He can neither sit nor stand, nor bend the knees. A long conversation between Enki and Ninmah then follows, but the tablets are so badly broken at this point that it is impossible to make out the sense of the contents. Finally Ninmah seems to utter a curse against Enki because of the sick, lifeless p. 72 creature which he produced, a curse which Enki seems to accept as his due. In addition to the creation poem outlined above, a detailed description of the purpose for which mankind was created is given in the introduction to the myth "Cattle and Grain" (see p. 53); it runs as follows. After the Anunnaki, the heaven-gods, had been born, but before the creation of Lahar, the cattle-god, and Ashnan, the grain-goddess, there existed neither cattle nor grain. The gods therefore "knew not" the eating of bread nor the dressing of garments. The cattle-god Lahar and the grain-goddess Ashnan were then created in the creation chamber of heaven, but still the gods remained unsated. It was then that man "was given breath," for the sake of the welfare of the sheepfolds and "good things" of the gods. This introduction reads as follows: After on the mountain of heaven and earth, An (the heaven-god) had caused the Anunnaki (his followers) to be born Because the name Ashnan (the grain-goddess) had not been born, had not been fashioned, Because Uttu (the goddess of plants) had not been fashioned, Because to Uttu no temenos had been set up, There was no ewe, no lamb was dropped, There was no goat, no kid was dropped, The ewe did not give birth to its two lambs, The goat did not give birth to its three kids. Because the name of Ashnan, the wise, and Lahar (the cattle-god), The Anunnaki, the great gods, did not know, The . . . grain of thirty days did not exist, The . . . grain of forty days did not exist, The small grains, the grain of the mountain, the grain of the pure living creatures did not exist. Because Uttu had not been born, because the crown (of vegetation?) had not been raised, Because the lord . . . had not been born, Because Sumugan, the god of the plain, had not come forth, Like mankind when first created, p. 73 They (the Anunnaki knew not the eating of bread, Knew not the dressing of garments, Ate plants with their mouth like sheep, Drank water from the ditch. In those days, in the creation chamber of the gods, In their house Dulkug, Lahar and Ashnan were fashioned; The produce of Lahar and Ashnan, The Anunnaki of the Dulkug eat, but remain unsated; In their pure sheepfolds milk, . . ., and good things, The Anunnaki of the Dulkug drink, but remain unsated; For the sake of the good things in their pure sheepfolds, Man was given breath. The creation of man concludes our study of Sumerian cosmogony, of the theories and concepts evolved by the Sumerians to explain the origin of the universe and the existence of gods and men. It cannot be sufficiently stressed that the Sumerian cosmogonic concepts, early as they are, are by no means primitive. They reflect the mature thought and reason of the thinking Sumerian as he contemplated the forces of nature and the character of his own existence. When these concepts are analyzed; when the theological cloak and polytheistic trappings are removed (although this is by no means always possible at present because of the limited character of our material as well as of our understanding and interpretation of its contents), the Sumerian creation concepts indicate a keenly observing mentality as well as an ability to draw and formulate pertinent conclusions from the data observed. Thus rationally expressed, the Sumerian cosmogonic concepts may be summarized as follows: 1. First was the primeval sea; it is not unlikely that it was conceived by the Sumerian as eternal and uncreated. 2. The primeval sea engendered a united heaven and earth. 3. Heaven and earth were conceived as solid elements. Between them, however, and from them, came the gaseous element air, whose main characteristic is that of expansion. Heaven and earth were thus separated by the expanding element air. p. 74 4. Air, being lighter and far less dense than either heaven or earth, succeeded in producing the moon, which may have been conceived by the Sumerians as made of the same stuff as air. The sun was conceived as born of the moon; that is, it emanated and developed from the moon just as the latter emanated and developed from air. 5. After heaven and earth had been separated, plant, animal, and human life became possible on earth; all life seems to have been conceived as resulting from a union of air, earth, and water; the sun, too, was probably involved. Unfortunately in this matter of production and reproduction of plant and animal life on earth, our extant material is very difficult to penetrate. Transferred into theological language, these rationalistic Sumerian concepts may be described as follows: 1. First was the goddess Nammu, the primeval sea personified. 2. The goddess Nammu gave birth to An, the male heaven-god, and Ki, the earth-goddess. 3. The union of An and Ki produced the air-god Enlil, who proceeded to separate the heaven-father An from the earth-mother Ki. 4. Enlil, the air-god, now found himself living in utter darkness, with the sky, which may have been conceived by the Sumerians as made of pitch-dark lapis lazuli, forming the ceiling and walls of his house, and the surface of the earth, its floor. He therefore begot the moon-god Nanna to brighten the darkness of his house. The moon-god Nanna in turn begot the sun-god Utu, who became brighter than his father. It is not without interest to note here that the idea that the son, the begotten one, becomes stronger than the father, the begetter--in a deeper sense this is actually what happens in the development which we term progress--is native to the philosophy and psychology of the Near East. Enlil, the air-god, for example, becomes in historical times more powerful than his father An, the heaven-god. At a later date Marduk, the god of the Semitic Babylonians, becomes more powerful than his father Enki, p. 75 the water-god. In the Christian dogma, Christ, the son, becomes in many ways more significant and pertinent for man and his salvation than God, the father. 5. Enlil, the air-god, now unites with his mother Ki, the earth-goddess. It is from this union but with considerable help from Enki, the water-god, that the vegetable and animal life is produced on earth. Man, on the other hand, seems to be the product of the combined efforts of the goddess Nammu, the primeval sea; of the goddess Ninmah, who may perhaps be identified with Ki, the mother earth; and finally of the water-god Enki. Just what is involved in this particular combination-and there is every reason to believe that in view of the more or less superficial data of the times there was good logic behind it and not mere playful fantasy--it is difficult to gather from our present material and limited understanding. Footnotes 30:1 In the translated Sumerian passages italics indicate doubtful renderings as well as foreign words. Words between parentheses are not in the Sumerian text but are added for purposes of clarification. Words between brackets are broken away and lost from the original, and are supplied by the author. Words between quotation marks represent literal translations of Sumerian words whose fuller implications are too uncertain to permit a more idiomatic rendering. Next: Chapter III. Myths of Kur

Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar.txt

Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar Forms of Tammuz--The Weeping Ceremony--Tammuz the Patriarch and the Dying God--Common Origin of Tammuz and other Deities from an Archaic God--The Mediterranean Racial Myth--Animal Forms of Gods of Fertility--Two Legends of the Death of Tammuz--Attis, Adonis, and Diarmid Slain by a Boar--Laments for Tammuz--His Soul in Underworld and the Deep--Myth of the Child God of Ocean--Sargon Myth Version--The Germanic Scyld of the Sheaf--Tammuz Links with Frey, Heimdal, Agni, &c.--Assyrian Legend of "Descent of Ishtar"--Sumerian Version--The Sister Belit-sheri and the Mother Ishtar--The Egyptian Isis and Nepthys--Goddesses as Mothers, Sisters, and Wives--Great Mothers of Babylonia--Immortal Goddesses and Dying Gods--The Various Indras--Celtic Goddess with Seven Periods of Youth--Lovers of Germanic and Classic Goddesses--The Lovers of Ishtar--Racial Significance of Goddess Cult--The Great Fathers and their Worshippers--Process of Racial and Religious Fusion--Ishtar and Tiamat--Mother Worship in Palestine--Women among Goddess Worshippers. AMONG the gods of Babylonia none achieved wider and more enduring fame than Tammuz, who was loved by Ishtar, the amorous Queen of Heaven--the beautiful youth who died and was mourned for and came to life again. He does not figure by his popular name in any of the city pantheons, but from the earliest times of which we have knowledge until the passing of Babylonian civilization, he played a prominent part in the religious life of the people Tammuz, like Osiris of Egypt, was an agricultural deity, and as the Babylonian harvest was the gift of the rivers, it is probable that one of his several forms was Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss". He was also p. 82 [paragraph continues]"the child", "the heroic lord", "the sentinel", "the healer", and the patriarch who reigned over the early Babylonians for a considerable period. "Tammuz of the Abyss" was one of the members of the family of Ea, god of the Deep, whose other sons, in addition to Merodach, were Nira, an obscure deity; Ki-gulla, "world destroyer", Burnunta-sa, "broad ear", and Bara and Baragulla, probably "revealers" or "oracles". In addition there was a daughter, Khi-dimme-azaga, "child of the renowned spirit". She may have been identical with Belit-sheri, who is referred to in the Sumerian hymns as the sister of Tammuz. This family group was probably formed by symbolizing the attributes of Ea and his spouse Damkina. Tammuz, in his character as a patriarch, may have been regarded as a hostage from the gods: the human form of Ea, who instructed mankind, like King Osiris, how to grow corn and cultivate fruit trees. As the youth who perished annually, he was the corn spirit. He is referred to in the Bible by his Babylonian name. When Ezekiel detailed the various idolatrous practices of the Israelites, which included the worship of the sun and "every form of creeping things and abominable beasts"--a suggestion of the composite monsters of Babylonia--he was brought "to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was towards the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz". 1 The weeping ceremony was connected with agricultural rites. Corn deities were weeping deities, they shed fertilizing tears; and the sowers simulated the sorrow of divine mourners when they cast seed in the soil "to die", so that it might spring up as corn. This ancient custom, like many others, contributed to the poetic p. 83 imagery of the Bible. "They that sow in tears", David sang, "shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 1 In Egypt the priestesses who acted the parts of Isis and Nepthys, mourned for the slain corn god Osiris. Gods and men before the face of the gods are weeping for thee at the same time, when they behold me! . . . All thy sister goddesses are at thy side and behind thy couch, Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou are prostrate upon thy bed! . . . Live before us, desiring to behold thee. 2 It was believed to be essential that human beings should share the universal sorrow caused by the death of a god. If they remained unsympathetic, the deities would punish them as enemies. Worshippers of nature gods, therefore, based their ceremonial practices on natural phenomena. "The dread of the worshippers that the neglect of the usual ritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible", writes Professor Robertson Smith, "if they regarded the necessary operations of agriculture as involving the violent extinction of a particle of divine life." 3 By observing their ritual, the worshippers won the sympathy and co-operation of deities, or exercised a magical control over nature. The Babylonian myth of Tammuz, the dying god, bears a close resemblance to the Greek myth of Adonis. It also links with the myth of Osiris. According to Professor Sayce, Tammuz is identical with "Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla", referred to by Berosus as the ruler of one of the mythical ages of Babylonia. We p. 84 have therefore to deal with Tammuz in his twofold character as a patriarch and a god of fertility. The Adonis version of the myth may be summarized briefly. Ere the god was born, his mother, who was pursued by her angry sire, as the river goddesses of the folk tales are pursued by the well demons, transformed herself into a tree. Adonis sprang from the trunk of this tree, and Aphrodite, having placed the child in a chest, committed him to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who resembles the Babylonian Eresh-ki-gal. Persephone desired to retain the young god, and Aphrodite (Ishtar) appealed to Zeus (Anu), who decreed that Adonis should spend part of the year with one goddess and part of the year with the other. It is suggested that the myth of Adonis was derived in post-Homeric times by the Greeks indirectly from Babylonia through the Western Semites, the Semitic title "Adon", meaning "lord", having been mistaken for a proper name. This theory, however, cannot be accepted without qualifications. It does not explain the existence of either the Phrygian myth of Attis, which was developed differently from the Tammuz myth, or the Celtic story of "Diarmid and the boar", which belongs to the archæological "Hunting Period". There are traces in Greek mythology of pre-Hellenic myths about dying harvest deities, like Hyakinthos and Erigone, for instance, who appear to have been mourned for. There is every possibility, therefore, that the Tammuz ritual may have been attached to a harvest god of the pre-Hellenic Greeks, who received at the same time the new name of Adonis. Osiris of Egypt resembles Tammuz, but his Mesopotamian origin has not been proved. It would appear probable that Tammuz, Attis, Osiris, and the deities represented by Adonis and Diarmid were all developed p. 85 from an archaic god of fertility and vegetation, the central figure of a myth which was not only as ancient as the knowledge and practice of agriculture, but had existence even in the "Hunting Period". Traces of the Tammuz-Osiris story in various forms are found all over the area occupied by the Mediterranean or Brown race from Sumeria to the British Isles. Apparently the original myth was connected with tree and water worship and the worship of animals. Adonis sprang from a tree; the body of Osiris was concealed in a tree which grew round the sea-drifted chest in which he was concealed. Diarmid concealed himself in a tree when pursued by Finn. The blood of Tammuz, Osiris, and Adonis reddened the swollen rivers which fertilized the soil. Various animals were associated with the harvest god, who appears to have been manifested from time to time in different forms, for his spirit pervaded all nature. In Egypt the soul of Osiris entered the Apis bull or the ram of Mendes. Tammuz in the hymns is called "the pre-eminent steer of heaven", and a popular sacrifice was "a white kid of the god Tammuz", which, however, might be substituted by a sucking pig. Osiris had also associations with swine, and the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, sacrificed a pig to him annually. When Set at full moon hunted the boar in the Delta marshes, he probably hunted the boar form of Osiris, whose human body had been recovered from the sacred tree by Isis. As the soul of Bata, the hero of the Egyptian folk tale, 1 migrated from the blossom to the bull, and the bull to the tree, so apparently did the soul of Osiris pass from incarnation to incarnation. Set, the demon slayer of the harvest god, had also a boar form; he was the black pig who devoured the waning moon and blinded the Eye of Ra. p. 86 In his character as a long-lived patriarch, Tammuz the King Daonus or Daos of Berosus, reigned in Babylonia for 36,000 years. When he died, he departed to Hades or the Abyss. Osiris, after reigning over the Egyptians, became Judge of the Dead. Tammuz of the Sumerian hymns, however, is the Adonis-like god who lived on earth for a part of the year as the shepherd and agriculturist so dearly beloved by the goddess Ishtar. Then he died so that he might depart to the realm of Eresh-ki-gal (Persephone), queen of Hades. According to one account, his death was caused by the fickle Ishtar. When that goddess wooed Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, he upbraided her, saying: On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth, Thou didst lay affliction every year. King's Translation. References in the Sumerian hymns suggest that there also existed a form of the legend which gave an account of the slaying of the young god by someone else than Ishtar. The slayer may have been a Set-like demon--perhaps Nin-shach, who appears to have symbolized the destroying influence of the sun. He was a war deity, and his name, Professor Pinches says, "is conjectured to mean 'lord of the wild boar'". There is no direct evidence, however, to connect Tammuz's slayer with the boar which killed Adonis. Ishtar's innocence is emphasized by the fact that she mourned for her youthful lover, crying: Oh hero, my lord, ah me! I will say; Food I eat not . . . water I drink not . . . Because of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the radiant face, yea radiant, Of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the dove-like voice, yea dove-like. 1 p. 87 The Phrygian Attis met his death, according to one legend, by self-mutilation under a sacred tree. Another account sets forth, however, that he was slain by a boar. The Greek Adonis was similarly killed by a boar. This animal was a form of Ares (Mars), god of war and tempest, who also loved Aphrodite (Ishtar). The Celtic Diarmid, in his character as a love god, with lunar attributes, was slain by "the green boar", which appears to have been one of the animals of a ferocious Hag, an earth and air "mother" with various names. In one of the many Fingalian stories the animal is . . . That venomous boar, and he so fierce, That Grey Eyebrows had with her herd of swine. 1 [paragraph continues]Diarmid had eloped with the wife of Finn-mac-Coul (Fingal), who, like Ares, plotted to bring about his rival's death, and accordingly set the young hero to hunt the boar. As a thunder god Finn carried a hammer with which he smote his shield; the blows were heard in Lochlann (Scandinavia). Diarmid, like Tammuz, the "god of the tender voice and shining eyes", had much beauty. When he expired, Finn cried: No maiden will raise her eye Since the mould has gone over thy visage fair . . . Blue without rashness in thine eye! Passion and beauty behind thy curls! . . . Oh, yesternight it was green the hillock, Red is it this day with Diarmid's blood. 2 Tammuz died with the dying vegetation, and Diarmid expired when the hills apparently were assuming their purple tints. 3 The month of Tammuz wailings was from p. 88 [paragraph continues]20th June till 20th July, when the heat and dryness brought forth the demons of pestilence. The mourners chanted: He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth, And the dead are numerous in the land . . . Men are filled with sorrow: they stagger by day in gloom . In the month of thy year which brings not peace hast thou gone. Thou hast gone on a journey that makes an end of thy people. The following extract contains a reference to the slaying of the god: The holy one of Ishtar, in the middle of the year the fields languish . . . The shepherd, the wise one, the man of sorrows, why have they slain? . . . In his temple, in his inhabited domain, The child, lord of knowledge, abides no more . . . In the meadows, verily, verily, the soul of life perishes. There is wailing for Tammuz "at the sacred cedar, where the mother bore thee", a reference which connects the god, like Adonis and Osiris, with tree worship: The wailing is for the herbs: the first lament is, "they are not produced". The wailing is for the grain, ears are not produced. The wailing is for the habitations, for the flocks which bring forth no more. The wailing is for the perishing wedded ones; for the perishing children; the dark-headed people create no more. [paragraph continues]The wailing is also for the shrunken river, the parched meadows, the fishpools, the cane brakes, the forests, the p. 89 plains, the gardens, and the palace, which all suffer because the god of fertility has departed. The mourner cries: How long shall the springing of verdure be restrained? How long shall the putting forth of leaves be held back? Whither went Tammuz? His destination has already been referred to as "the bosom of the earth", and in the Assyrian version of the "Descent of Ishtar" he dwells in "the house of darkness" among the dead, "where dust is their nourishment and their food mud", and "the light is never seen"--the gloomy Babylonian Hades. In one of the Sumerian hymns, however, it is stated that Tammuz "upon the flood was cast out". The reference may be to the submarine "house of Ea", or the Blessed Island to which the Babylonian Noah was carried. In this Hades bloomed the nether "garden of Adonis". The following extract refers to the garden of Damu (Tammuz) 1:-- Damu his youth therein slumbers . Among the garden flowers he slumbers; among the garden flowers he is cast away . Among the tamarisks he slumbers, with woe he causes us to be satiated. Although Tammuz of the hymns was slain, he returned again from Hades. Apparently he came back as a child. He is wailed for as "child, Lord Gishzida", as well as "my hero Damu". In his lunar character the Egyptian Osiris appeared each month as "the child surpassingly beautiful"; the Osiris bull was also a child of the moon; "it was begotten", says Plutarch, "by a ray of generative light falling from the moon". When the bull of Attis was sacrificed his worshippers were drenched p. 90 with its blood, and were afterwards ceremonially fed with milk, as they were supposed to have "renewed their youth" and become children. The ancient Greek god Eros (Cupid) was represented as a wanton boy or handsome youth. Another god of fertility, the Irish Angus, who resembles Eros, is called "the ever young"; he slumbers like Tammuz and awakes in the Spring. Apparently it was believed that the child god, Tammuz, returned from the earlier Sumerian Paradise of the Deep, and grew into full manhood in a comparatively brief period, like Vyasa and other super-men of Indian mythology. A couplet from a Tammuz hymn says tersely: In his infancy in a sunken boat he lay. In his manhood in the submerged grain he lay. 1 The "boat" may be the "chest" in which Adonis was concealed by Aphrodite when she confided him to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who desired to retain the young god, but was compe

PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.txt

PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS. PLATO has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity. Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor, Solon, was the great law-giver of Athens 600 years before the Christian era. Solon visited Egypt. Plutarch says, "Solon attempted in verse a large description, or rather fabulous account of the Atlantic Island, which he had learned from the wise men of Sais, and which particularly concerned the Athenians; but by reason of his age, not want of leisure (as Plato would have it), he was apprehensive the work would be too much for him, and therefore did not go through with it. These verses are a proof that business was not the hinderance: "'I grow in learning as I grow in age.' And again: "'Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow, Light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go.' "Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the Atlantic Island, as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied, to which also be had some claim by reason of his being related to Solon, laid out magnificent courts and enclosures, and erected a grand entrance to it, such as no other story, fable, or Poem ever had. But, as he began it late, he ended his life before the work, so that the more the reader is delighted with p. 6 the part that is written, the more regret he has to find it unfinished." There can be no question that Solon visited Egypt. The causes of his departure from Athens, for a period of ten years, are fully explained by Plutarch. He dwelt, be tells us, "On the Canopian shore, by Nile's deep mouth." There be conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary force and penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which have been preserved to us, testify. There is no improbability in the statement that be commenced in verse a history and description of Atlantis, which be left unfinished at his death; and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe that this manuscript reached the hands of his successor and descendant, Plato; a scholar, thinker, and historian like himself, and, like himself, one of the profoundest minds of the ancient world. the Egyptian priest had said to Solon, "You have no antiquity of history, and no history of antiquity;" and Solon doubtless realized fully the vast importance of a record which carried human history back, not only thousands of years before the era of Greek civilization, but many thousands of years before even the establishment of the kingdom of Egypt; and be was anxious to preserve for his half-civilized countrymen this inestimable record of the past. We know of no better way to commence a book about Atlantis than by giving in full the record preserved by Plato. It is as follows: Critias. Then listen, Socrates, to a strange tale, which is, however, certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages, declared. He was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather, Dropidas, as be himself says in several of his poems; and Dropidas told Critias, my grandfather, who remembered, and told us, that there were of old great and marvellous actions of the Athenians, which have passed into oblivion through time and the destruction of the human race p. 7 and one in particular, which was the greatest of them all, the recital of which will be a suitable testimony of our gratitude to you.... Socrates. Very good; and what is. this ancient famous action of which Critias spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action of the Athenian State, which Solon recounted! Critias. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man; for Critias was, as be said, at that time nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten years of age. Now the day was that day of the Apaturia which is called the registration of youth; at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sung the poems of Solon, which were new at the time. One of our tribe, either because this was his real opinion, or because he thought that he would please Critias, said that, in his judgment, Solon was not only the wisest of men but the noblest of poets. The old man, I well remember, brightened up at this, and said, smiling: "Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in this country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion be would have been as famous as Homer, or Hesiod, or any poet." "And what was that poem about, Critias?" said the person who addressed him. "About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been most famous, but which, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, has not come down to us." "Tell us," said the other, "the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition." He replied: "At the head of the Egyptian Delta, where the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which Amasis the king was sprung. And the citizens have a deity who is their foundress: she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, which is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes called Athene. Now, the citizens of this city are great lovers of the Athenians, and p. 8 say that they are in some way related to them. Thither came Solon, who was received by them with great honor; and be asked the priests, who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, when he was drawing them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world--about Phoroneus, who is called 'the first,' and about Niobe; and, after the Deluge, to tell of the lives of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and attempted to reckon bow many years old were the events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates. Thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age; said, 'O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an Hellene.' Solon, bearing this, said, 'What do you mean?' 'I mean to say,' he replied, 'that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the reason of this: there have been, and there will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaëthon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore; and from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and delivers us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea; but in this country neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest. The fact is, that wherever the p. 9 extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing at times, and at other times diminishing in numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed--if any action which is noble or great, or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that has been written down of old, and is preserved in our temples; whereas you and other nations are just being provided with letters and the other things which States require; and then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven descends like a pestilence, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and thus you have to begin all over again as children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you have recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children; for, in the first place, you remember one deluge only, whereas there were many of them; and, in the next place, you do not know that there dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant. And this was unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors of that destruction died and made no sign. For there was a time, Solon, before that great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war, and was preeminent for the excellence of her laws, and is said to have performed the noblest deeds, and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.' Solon marvelled at this, and earnestly requested the priest to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. 'You are welcome to hear about them, Solon,' said the priest, 'both for your own sake and for that of the city; and, above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and protector and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephæstus the seed of your race, and then she founded ours, the constitution of which is set down in our sacred registers as 8000 years old. As touching the citizens of 9000 years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of the noblest of their actions; and the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with your own, you p. 10 will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours, as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from all the others; next there are the artificers, who exercise their several crafts by themselves, and without admixture of any other; and also there is the class of shepherds and that of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the warriors in Egypt are separated from all the other classes, and are commanded by the law only to engage in war; moreover, the weapons with which they are equipped are shields and spears, and this the goddess taught first among you, and then in Asiatic countries, and we among the Asiatics first adopted. "'Then, as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from the very first, searching out and comprehending the whole order of things down to prophecy and medicine (the latter with a view to health); and out of these divine elements drawing what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was connected with them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected, and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your State in our histories; but one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valor; for these histories tell of a mighty power which was aggressing wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which you call the Columns of Heracles: the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from the islands you might pass through the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbor, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding p. 11 land may be most truly called a continent. Now, in the island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire, which had rule over the whole island and several others, as well as over parts of the continent; and, besides these, they subjected the parts of Libya within the Columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. The vast power thus gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at one blow our country and yours, and the whole of the land which was within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind; for she was the first in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjected, and freely liberated all the others who dwelt within the limits of Heracles. But afterward there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sunk into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.' ("Plato's Dialogues," ii., 617, Timæus.) . . . "But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, I would specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of what I have to tell is dependent on her favor, and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the priests, and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I shall satisfy the requirements of this theatre. To that task, then, I will at once address myself. "Let me begin by observing, first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between all those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and those who dwelt within them: this war I am now to describe. Of the combatants on the one side the city of Athens was reported to have been the ruler, and to have directed the contest; the combatants on the other side were led by the kings of the islands of Atlantis, which, as I was saying, once had an extent greater p. 12 than that of Libya and Asia; and, when afterward sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various tribes of barbarians and Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must begin by describing, first of all, the Athenians as they were in that day, and their enemies who fought with them; and I shall have to tell of the power and form of government of both of them. Let us give the precedence to Athens. . . . Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking; and in all the ages and changes of things there has never been any settlement of the earth flowing down from the mountains, as in other places, which is worth speaking of; it has always been carried round in a circle, and disappeared in the depths below. The consequence is that, in comparison of what then was, there are remaining in small islets only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the country being left. . . . "And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child, I will impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries; for friends should not keep their stories to themselves, but have them in common. Yet, before proceeding farther in the narrative, I ought to warn you that you must not be surprised if you should bear Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, made an investigation into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians, in writing them down, had translated them into their own language, and be recovered the meaning of the several names and retranslated them, and copied them out again in our language. My great-grandfather, Dropidas, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore, if you bear names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told you the reason of them. "The tale, which was of great length, began as follows: I have before remarked, in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing p. 13 in extent, and made themselves temples and sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island which I will proceed to describe. On the side toward the sea, and in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains, and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island, at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain, not very high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named Cleito. The maiden was growing up to womanhood when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her, and had intercourse with her; and, breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe out of the centre of the island, equidistant every way, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages were not yet heard of. He himself, as be was a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the centre island, bringing two streams of water under the earth, which he caused to ascend as springs, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly in the earth. He also begat and brought up five pairs of male children, dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions: he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men and a large territory. And he named them all: the eldest, who was king, he named Atlas, and from him the whole island and the ocean received the name of Atlantic. To his twin-brother, who was born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island toward the Pillars of Heracles, as far as the country which is still called the region of Gades in that part of the world, be gave the name which in the Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him, Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins, he called one Ampheres and the other Evæmon. To the third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus to the elder, and Autochthon p. 14 to the one who followed him. Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus and the younger Mestor, And of the fifth pair be gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and to the younger Diaprepes. All these and their descendants were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in the other direction over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia. Now Atlas had a numerous and honorable family, and his eldest branch always retained the kingdom, which the eldest son handed on to his eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be again, and they were furnished with everything which they could have, both in city and country. For, because of the greatness of their empire, many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided much of what was required by them for the uses of life. In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, mineral as well as metal, and that which is now only a name, and was then something more than a name--orichalcum--was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, and, with the exception of gold, was esteemed the most precious of metals among the men of those days. There was an abundance of wood for carpenters' work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the island, and there was provision for animals of every kind, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and on plains, and therefore for the animal which is the largest and most voracious of them. Also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers or fruits, grew and thrived in that land; and again, the cultivated fruit of the earth, both the dry edible fruit and other species of food, which we call by the general name of legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks, and meats, and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and the like, which may be used to play with, and are fruits which spoil with keeping--and the pleasant kinds of dessert which console us after dinner, when we are full and tired of eating--all these that sacred island lying beneath the sun brought forth fair and wondrous in infinite abundance. All these things they received p. 15 from the earth, and they employed themselves in constructing their temples, and palaces, and harbors, and docks; and they arranged the whole country in the following manner: First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, and made a passage into and out of they began to build the palace in the royal palace; and then the habitation of the god and of their ancestors. This they continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who came before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And, beginning from the sea, they dug a canal three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth, and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbor, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, constructing bridges of such a width as would leave a passage for a single trireme to pass out of one into another, and roofed them over; and there was a way underneath for the ships, for the banks of the zones were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two, as well the zone of water as of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. This, and the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone wall, on either side placing towers, and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind of stone was white, another black, and a third red; and, as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out docks double within, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, which they intermingled for the sake of ornament, to be a natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall which went round the outermost one they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall p. 16 they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum. The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed in this wise: In the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot in which they originally begat the race of the ten princes, and thither they annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, and performed sacrifices to each of them. Here, too, was Poiseidon's own temple, of a stadium in length and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a sort of barbaric splendor. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, adorned everywhere with gold and silver and orichalcum; all the other parts of the walls and pillars and floor they lined with orichalcum. In the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot--the charioteer of six winged horses--and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of them in that day. There were also in the interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by private individuals. And around the temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the ten kings and of their wives; and there were many other great offerings, both of kings and of private individuals, coming both from the city itself and the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an altar, too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to the rest of the work, and there were palaces in like manner which answered to the greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple. "In the next place, they used fountains both of cold and hot springs; these were very abundant, and both kinds wonderfully adapted to use by reason of the sweetness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them, and planted suitable trees; also cisterns, some open to the heaven, other which they roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths, there were the king's baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart; also separate baths for women, and others again for horses and cattle, and to them they gave as much adornment as was suitable for them. The water which p. 17 ran off they carried, some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil; the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts which passed over the bridges to the outer circles: and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for men, and some set apart for horses, in both of the two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race in. Also there were guard-houses at intervals for the body-guard, the more trusted of whom had their duties appointed to them in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis; while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, and about the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace. Crossing the outer harbors, which were three in number, you would come to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone and harbor, and enclosed the whole, meeting at the mouth of the channel toward the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbors were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices and din of all sorts night and day. I have repeated his descriptions of the city and the parts about the ancient palace nearly as he gave them, and now I must endeavor to describe the nature and arrangement of the rest of the country. The whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea; it was smooth and even, but of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, and going up the country from the sea through the centre of the island two thousand stadia; the whole region of the island lies toward the south, and is sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains he celebrated for their number and size and beauty, in which they exceeded all that are now to be seen anywhere; having in them also many wealthy inhabited villages, and rivers and lakes, and p. 18 meadows supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and wood of various sorts, abundant for every kind of work. I will now describe the plain, which had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings. It was rectangular, and for the most part straight and oblong; and what it wanted of the straight line followed the line of the circular ditch. The depth and width and length of this ditch were incredible and gave the impression that such a work, in addition to so many other works, could hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. But I must say what I have heard. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain, and touching the city at various points, was there let off into the sea. From above, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut in the plain, and again let off into the ditch, toward the sea; these canals were at intervals of a Hundred stadia, and by them they brought, down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth--in winter having the benefit of the rains, and in summer introducing the water of the canals. As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had an appointed chief of men who were fit for military service, and the size of the lot was to be a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. "And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a vast multitude having leaders, to whom they were assigned according to their dwellings and villages. The leader was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also two horses and riders upon them, and a light chariot without a seat, accompanied by a fighting man on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer mounted to guide the horses; also, be was bound to furnish two heavy-armed men, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, and three javelin men, who were skirmishers, and four sailors to make up a complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the order of war in the royal city--that of the other nine p. 19 governments was different in each of them, and would be wearisome to narrate. As to offices and honors, the following was the arrangement from the first: Each of the ten kings, in his own division and in his own city, had the absolute control of the citizens, and in many cases of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever be would. "Now the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by the injunctions of Poseidon as the law had handed them down. These were inscribed by the first men on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the people were gathered together every fifth and sixth years alternately, thus giving equal honor to the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they consulted about public affairs, and inquired if any one had transgressed in anything, and passed judgment on him accordingly--and before they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another in this wise: There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten who were left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the gods that they might take the sacrifices which were acceptable to them, hunted the bulls without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the column; the victim was then struck on the head by them, and slain over the sacred inscription, Now on the column, besides the law, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When, therefore, after offering sacrifice according to their customs, they had burnt the limbs of the bull, they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they took to the fire, after having made a purification of the column all round. Then they drew from the cup in golden vessels, and, pouring a libation on the fire, they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the column, and would punish any one who had previously transgressed, and that for the future they would not, if they could help, transgress any of the inscriptions, and would not command or obey any ruler who commanded them to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for his family, at the same time drinking, and dedicating the vessel in the temple of the god; and, after spending some necessary p. 20 time at supper, when darkness came on and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground at night near the embers of the sacrifices on which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple, they received and gave judgement, if any of them had any accusation to bring against any one; and, when they had given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and deposited them as memorials with their robes. There were many special laws which the several kings had inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following: That they were not to take up arms against one another, and they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any city attempted to over. throw the royal house. Like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the family of Atlas; and the king was not to have the power of life and death over any of his kinsmen, unless he had the assent of the majority of the ten kings. "Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterward directed against our land on the following pretext, as traditions tell: For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned toward the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, practising gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, arid thinking lightly on the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and that by excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of them is lost, and friendship perishes with them. "By such reflections, and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, all that which we have described waxed and increased in them; but when this divine portion began to fade away in them, and became diluted too often, and with too much of the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper-hand, then, they being unable to bear their fortune, became p. 21 unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see, they began to appear base, and had lost the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they still appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were filled with unrighteous avarice and power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules with law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honorable race was in a most wretched state, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improved, collected all the gods into his most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, sees all things that partake of generation. And when he had called them together he spake as follows:" [Here Plato's story abruptly ends.]

probablitys of PLATO'S STORY.txt

probablitys of PLATO'S STORY. THERE is nothing improbable in this narrative, so far as it describes a great, rich, cultured, and educated people. Almost every part of Plato's story can be paralleled by descriptions of the people of Egypt or Peru; in fact, in some respects Plato's account of Atlantis falls short of Herodotus's description of the grandeur of Egypt, or Prescott's picture of the wealth and civilization of Peru. For instance, Prescott, in his "Conquest of Peru" (vol. i., p. 95), says: "The most renowned of the Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital and the wonder of the empire, was at Cuzco, where, under the munificence of successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched that it received the name of Coricancha, or 'the Place of Gold.' . . . The interior of the temple was literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the Deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth from amid innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold, of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones. . . . The walls and ceilings were everywhere incrusted with golden ornaments; every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the precious metal; the cornices were of the same material." There are in Plato's narrative no marvels; no myths; no tales of gods, gorgons, hobgoblins, or giants. It is a plain and reasonable history of a people who built temples, ships, and canals; who lived by agriculture and commerce: who, in p. 23 pursuit of trade, reached out to all the countries around them. The early history of most nations begins with gods and demons, while here we have nothing of the kind; we see an immigrant enter the country, marry one of the native women, and settle down; in time a great nation grows up around him. It reminds one of the information given by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus. "During the space of eleven thousand three hundred and forty years they assert," says Herodotus, "that no divinity has appeared in human shape, . . . they absolutely denied the possibility of a human being's descent from a god." If Plato had sought to draw from his imagination a wonderful and pleasing story, we should not have had so plain and reasonable a narrative. He would have given us a history like the legends of Greek mythology, full of the adventures of gods and goddesses, nymphs, fauns, and satyrs. Neither is there any evidence on the face of this history that Plato sought to convey in it a moral or political lesson, in the guise of a fable, as did Bacon in the "New Atlantis," and More in the "Kingdom of Nowhere." There is no ideal republic delineated here. It is a straightforward, reasonable history of a people ruled over by their kings, living and progressing as other nations have lived and progressed since their day. Plato says that in Atlantis there was "a great and wonderful empire," which "aggressed wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia," thus testifying to the extent of its dominion. It not only subjugated Africa as far as Egypt, and Europe as far as Italy, but it ruled "as well over parts of the continent," to wit, "the opposite continent" of America, "which surrounded the true ocean." Those parts of America over which it ruled were, as we will show hereafter, Central America, Peru, and the Valley of the Mississippi, occupied by the "Mound Builders." Moreover, be tells us that "this vast power was gathered into one;" that is to say, from Egypt to Peru it was one consolidated empire. We will see hereafter that the legends of p. 24 the Hindoos as to Deva Nahusha distinctly refer to this vast empire, which covered the whole of the known world. Another corroboration of the truth of Plato's narrative is found in the fact that upon the Azores black lava rocks, and rocks red and white in color, are now found. He says they built with white, red, and black stone. Sir C. Wyville Thomson describes a narrow neck of land between Fayal and Monte da Guia, called "Monte Queimada" (the burnt mountain), as follows: "It is formed partly of stratified tufa of a dark chocolate color, and partly of lumps of black lava, porous, and each with a large cavity in the centre, which must have been ejected as volcanic bombs in a glorious display of fireworks at some period beyond the records of Acorean history, but late in the geological annals of the island" ("Voyage of the Challenger," vol. ii., p. 24). He also describes immense walls of black volcanic rock in the island. The plain of Atlantis, Plato tells us, "had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings." If, as we believe, agriculture, the domestication of the horse, ox, sheep, goat, and bog, and the discovery or development of wheat, oats, rye, and barley originated in this region, then this language of Plato in reference to "the many ages, and the successive generations of kings," accords with the great periods of time which were necessary to bring man from a savage to a civilized condition. In the great ditch surrounding the whole land like a circle, and into which streams flowed down from the mountains, we probably see the original of the four rivers of Paradise, and the emblem of the cross surrounded by a circle, which, as we will show hereafter, was, from the earliest pre-Christian ages, accepted as the emblem of the Garden of Eden. We know that Plato did not invent the name of Poseidon, for the worship of Poseidon was universal in the earliest ages of Europe; "Poseidon-worship seems to have been a peculiarity of all the colonies previous to the time of Sidon" ("Prehistoric p. 25 [paragraph continues]Nations," p. 148.) This worship "was carried to Spain, and to Northern Africa, but most abundantly to Italy, to many of the islands, and to the regions around the Ægean Sea; also to Thrace." (Ibid., p. 155.) Poseidon, or Neptune, is represented in Greek mythology as a sea-god; but he is figured as standing in a war-chariot drawn by horses. The association of the horse (a land animal) with a sea-god is inexplicable, except with the light given by Plato. Poseidon was a sea-god because he ruled over a great land in the sea, and was the national god of a maritime people; be is associated with horses, because in Atlantis the horse was first domesticated; and, as Plato shows, the Atlanteans had great race-courses for the development of speed in horses; and Poseidon is represented as standing in a war-chariot, because doubtless wheeled vehicles were first invented by the same people who tamed the horse; and they transmitted these war-chariots to their descendants from Egypt to Britain. We know that horses were the favorite objects chosen for sacrifice to Poseidon by the nations of antiquity within the Historical Period; they were killed, and cast into the sea from high precipices. The religious horse-feasts of the pagan Scandinavians were a survival of this Poseidon-worship, which once prevailed along all the coasts of Europe; they continued until the conversion of the people to Christianity, and were then suppressed by the Church with great difficulty. We find in Plato's narrative the names of some of the Phœnician deities among the kings of Atlantis. Where did the Greek, Plato, get these names if the story is a fable? Does Plato, in speaking of "the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments," refer to the cocoa nut? Again: Plato tells us that Atlantis abounded in both cold and hot springs. How did he come to hit upon the hot springs if he was drawing a picture from his imagination? It is a singular confirmation of his story that hot springs abound in p. 26 the Azores, which are the surviving fragments of Atlantis; and an experience wider than that possessed by Plato has taught scientific men that hot springs are a common feature of regions subject to volcanic convulsions. Plato tells us, "The whole country was very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea." One has but to look at the profile of the "Dolphin's Ridge," as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the Challenger, given as the frontispiece to this volume, to see that this is a faithful description of that precipitous elevation. "The surrounding mountains," which sheltered the plain from the north, are represented in the present towering peaks of the Azores. Plato tells us that the destruction of Atlantis filled the sea with mud, and interfered with navigation. For thousands of years the ancients believed the Atlantic Ocean to be "a muddy, shallow, dark, and misty sea, Mare tenebrosum." ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 151.) The three-pronged sceptre or trident of Poseidon reappears constantly in ancient history. We find it in the hands of Hindoo gods, and at the base of all the religious beliefs of antiquity. "Among the numerals the sacred three has ever been considered the mark of perfection, and was therefore exclusively ascribed to the Supreme Deity, or to its earthly representative--a king, emperor, or any sovereign. For this reason triple emblems of various shapes are found on the belts, neckties, or any encircling fixture, as can be seen on the works of ancient art in Yucatan, Guatemala, Chiapas, Mexico, etc., whenever the object has reference to divine supremacy." (Dr. Arthur Schott, "Smith. Rep.," 1869, p. 391.) We are reminded of the, "tiara," and the "triple round of sovereignty." In the same manner the ten kingdoms of Atlantis are perpetuated in all the ancient traditions. p. 27 "In the number given by the Bible for the Antediluvian patriarchs we have the first instance of a striking agreement with the traditions of various nations. Ten are mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Other nations, to whatever epoch they carry back their ancestors, whether before or after the Deluge, whether the mythical or historical character prevail, they are constant to this sacred number ten, which some have vainly attempted to connect with the speculations of later religious philosophers on the mystical value of numbers. In Chaldea, Berosus enumerates ten Antediluvian kings whose fabulous reign extended to thousands of years. The legends of the Iranian race commence with the. reign of ten Peisdadien (Poseidon?) kings, 'men of the ancient law, who lived on pure Homa (water of life)' (nectar?), 'and who preserved their sanctity.' In India we meet with the nine Brahmadikas, who, with Brahma, their founder, make ten, and who are called the Ten Petris, or Fathers. The Chinese count ten emperors, partakers of the divine nature, before the dawn of historical times. The Germans believed in the ten ancestors of Odin, and the Arabs in the ten mythical kings of the Adites." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the East," vol. i., p. 13.) The story of Plato finds confirmation from other sources. An extract preserved in Proclus, taken from a work now lost, which is quoted by Boeckh in his commentary on Plato, mentions islands in the exterior sea, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and says it was known that in one of these islands "the inhabitants preserved from their ancestors a remembrance of Atlantis, all extremely large island, which for a long time held dominion over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean." Ælian, in his "Varia Historia" (book iii., chap. xviii.), tells us that Theopompus (400 B.C.) related the particulars of an interview between Midas, King of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which Silenus reported the existence of a great continent beyond the Atlantic, "larger than Asia, Europe, and Libya together." He stated that a race of men called Meropes dwelt there, and had extensive cities. They were persuaded that their country alone was a continent. Out of curiosity some of them crossed the ocean and visited the Hyperboreans. p. 28 "The Gauls possessed traditions upon the subject of Atlantis which were collected by the Roman historian Timagenes, who lived in the first century before Christ. He represents that three distinct people dwelt in Gaul: 1. The indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, who had long dwelt in Europe; 2. The invaders from a distant island, which I understand to be Atlantis; 3. The Aryan Gauls." ("Preadamites," p. 380.) Marcellus, in a work on the Ethiopians, speaks of seven islands lying in the Atlantic Ocean--probably the Canaries--and the inhabitants of these islands, he says, preserve the memory of a much greater island, Atlantis, "which had for a long time exercised dominion over the smaller ones." (Didot Müller, "Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum," vol. iv., p. 443.) Diodorus Siculus relates that the Phœnicians discovered "a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, several days' sail from the coast of Africa. This island abounded in all manner of riches. The soil was exceedingly fertile; the scenery was diversified by rivers, mountains, and forests. It was the custom of the inhabitants to retire during the summer to magnificent country-houses, which stood in the midst of beautiful gardens. Fish and game were found in great abundance; the climate was delicious, and the trees bore fruit at all seasons of the year." Homer, Plutarch, and other ancient writers mention islands situated in the Atlantic, "several thousand stadia from the Pillars of Hercules." Silenus tells Midas that there was another continent besides Europe, Asia, and Africa--"a country where gold and silver are so plentiful that they are esteemed no more than we esteem iron." St. Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, says that there were other worlds beyond the ocean. Attention may here be called to the extraordinary number of instances in which allusion is made in the Old Testament to the "islands of the sea," especially in Isaiah and Ezekiel. What had an inland people, like the Jews, to do with seas and p. 29 islands? Did these references grow out of vague traditions linking their race with "islands in the sea?" The Orphic Argonaut sings of the division of the ancient Lyktonia into separate islands. He says," When the dark-haired Poseidon, in anger with Father Kronion, struck Lyktonia with the golden trident." Plato states that the Egyptians told Solon that the destruction of Atlantis occurred 9000 years before that date, to wit, about 9600 years before the Christian era. This looks like an extraordinarily long period of time, but it must be remembered that geologists claim that the remains of man found in the caves of Europe date back 500,000 years; and the fossil Calaveras skull was found deep under the base of Table Mountain, California, the whole mountain having been formed since the man to whom it belonged lived and died. "M. Oppert read an essay at the Brussels Congress to show, from the astronomical observations of the Egyptians and Assyrians, that 11,542 years before our era man existed on the earth at such a stage of civilization as to be able to take note of astronomical phenomena, and to calculate with considerable accuracy the length of the year. The Egyptians, says he, calculated by cycles of 1460 years--zodiacal cycles, as they were called. Their year consisted of 365 days, which caused them to lose one day in every four solar years, and, consequently, they would attain their original starting-point again only after 1460 years (365 x 4). Therefore, the zodiacal cycle ending in the year 139 of our era commenced in the year 1322 B.C. On the other hand, the Assyrian cycle was 1805 years, or 22,325 lunations. An Assyrian cycle began 712 B.C. The Chaldeans state that between the Deluge and their first historic dynasty there was a period of 39,180 years. Now, what means, this number? It stands for 12 Egyptian zodiacal cycles plus 12 Assyrian lunar cycles.

PURITY.txt

Sacred Texts Zoroastrianism Wisdom of the East Index Previous Next The Teachings of Zoroaster, by S.A. Kapadia, [1905], at sacred-texts.com p. 56 p. 57 EXTRACTS PURITY * "Purity is for man, next to life, the greatest good that purity is procured by the law of Mazda to him who cleanses his own self with Good Thoughts, Words, and Deeds. "Make thyself pure, O righteous man! Any one in the world here below can win purity for himself, namely, when he cleanses himself with Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds." PRAYER OF ASHEM-VOHU † FROM KHORDAH-AVESTA 1. "Purity is the best good. 2. "Happiness, happiness is to him: 3. "Namely, to the most pure in purity." p. 58 THE LAW OF AHURA-MAZDA * ". . . The law of Mazda cleanses the faithful from every evil thought, word, and deed, as a swift-rushing, mighty wind cleanses the plain. . . . . . "So let all deeds thou doest be henceforth good. . . . A full atonement for thy sin is effected by means of the law of Mazda." COMMANDMENTS FOR THE BODY AND THE SOUL † The sage asked the Spirit of Wisdom thus: "How is it possible to seek maintenance and prosperity of the body without injury of the soul, and the preservation of the soul without injury of the body?" The Spirit of Wisdom answered thus: "Him who is less than thee consider as an equal, and an equal as a superior, and a greater than him as a chieftain, and a chieftain as a ruler. And among rulers one is to be acquiescent, obedient, and true-speaking; and among accusers be submissive, mild, and kindly regardful. "Commit no slander; so that infamy and p. 59 wickedness may not happen unto thee. For it is said that slander is more grievous than witchcraft. . . . . . "Form no covetous desire, so that the demon of greediness may not deceive thee, and the treasure of the world may not be tasteless to thee. "Indulge in no wrathfulness, for a man when he indulges in wrath becomes then forgetful of his duty and good works . . . and sin and crime of every kind occur unto his mind, and until the subsiding of the wrath he is said to be just like Ahareman. * "Suffer no anxiety, for he who is a sufferer of anxiety becomes regardless of enjoyment of the world and the spirit, and contraction happens to his body and soul. "Commit no lustfulness, so that harm and regret may not reach thee from thine own actions. "Bear no improper envy, so that thy life may not become tasteless. . . . . . "Practice no sloth, so that the duty and good work, which it is necessary for thee to do, may not remain undone. "Choose a wife who is of character, because p. 60 that one is good who in the end is more respected. . . . . . "Thou shouldst be DILIGENT and MODERATE, and EAT OF THINE OWN REGULAR INDUSTRY, and provide the share of the sacred beings and the good; and thus the practice of this in thy occupation is the greatest good work. . . . . . "With enemies fight with equity. With a friend proceed with the approval of friends. With a malicious man carry on no conflict, and do not molest him in any way whatever. With a greedy man thou shouldst not be a partner, and do not trust him with the leadership. With an ill-famed man form no connection. With an ignorant man thou shouldst not become a confederate and associate. With a foolish man make no dispute. With a drunken man do not walk on the road. From an ill-natured man take no loan. . . . . . "In forming a store of good works thou shouldst be diligent, so that it may come to thy assistance among the spirits. "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through any happiness of the world; for the happiness of the world is such-like as a (aloud that comes on a rainy day, which one does not ward off by any hill, p. 61 "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through much treasure and wealth; for in the end it is necessary for thee to leave all. . . . . . "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through great connections and race; for in the end thy trust is on thine own deeds. "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through life; for death comes upon thee at last, and the perishable part falls to the ground." THE SOUL'S DESTINATION * 1. Zarathustra asked Ahura-Mazda: "Ahura-Mazda, Heavenly, Holiest, Creator of the corporeal world, Pure! when a pure man dies, where does his soul dwell during this night?" 2. Then answered Ahura-Mazda: "Near his head it sits itself down, reciting the Gâthâ Ustavaiti, praying happiness for itself: 'Happiness be to the man who conduces to the happiness of each. May Ahura-Mazda create, ruling after His wish.' On this night the soul sees as much joyfulness as the whole living world possesses." 3. "Where does the soul dwell throughout the second night?" p. 62 4. Then answered Ahura-Mazda: "Near his head it sits itself," etc. (as in verse 2). 5. "Where does his soul stay throughout the third night?" 6. Then answered Ahura-Mazda: "Near his head it sits itself," etc. (as in verse 2) . 7. "When the lapse of the third night turns itself to light, then the soul of the pure man goes forward, recollecting itself at the perfume of plants. A wind blows to meet it from the mid-day region, a sweet-scented one, more sweet-scented than the other winds. . . . . . 9. "In that wind there comes to meet him his own law in the figure of a maiden, one beautiful, shining, with shining arms; one powerful, well-grown, slender, with large breasts, praiseworthy body; one noble, with brilliant face, one of fifteen years, as fair in her growth as the fairest creatures. 10. "Then to her (the maiden) speaks the soul of the pure man, asking: 'What maiden art thou whom I have seen here as the fairest of maidens in body? ' 11. "Then replies to him his own law: 'I am, O youth, thy good thoughts, words, and works, thy good law, thine own law of thine own body—which would be in reference to thee like in greatness, goodness, and beauty, sweet-smelling, victorious, harmless, as thou appearest to me. p. 63 12. "Thou art like me, O well-speaking, well-thinking, well-acting youth, devoted to the good law, so in greatness, goodness, and beauty as I appear to thee. . . . . . 14. "'Thou hast made the pleasant yet more pleasant to me, the fair yet fairer, the desirable yet more desirable, that sitting in a high place, sitting in a yet higher place, in these Paradises Humata, Hûkhta, Hvarsta (Paradises) . . . . 15. "'The soul of the pure man goes the first step and arrives in (the Paradise) Humata; the soul of the pure man takes the second step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hûkhta; it goes the third step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hvarsta; the soul of the pure man takes the fourth step and arrives at the Eternal Lights.'" . . . . . 19. Zarathustra asked Ahura-Mazda: "Ahura-Mazda, Heavenly, Holiest, Creator of the corporeal world, Pure! when a wicked one dies, where does the soul dwell throughout this night?" 20. Then answered Ahura-Mazda, "There, O pure Zarathustra, near the head it runs about whilst it utters the prayer Ké mánm, etc., 'Which land shall I praise, whither shall I go praying, O Ahura-Mazda?' In this night the soul sees as much displeasing as the whole living world. p. 64 25. "When the lapse of the third night approaches towards light, O pure Zarathustra, then goes the soul of the wicked man to the impure place, recollecting itself continually by the stench. To it comes a wind blowing from the North Region, an evil-smelling one, more evil-smelling than other winds. 26. "When the soul of the wicked man receives this wind into the nose, it goes (saying), 'Whence comes this wind which I smell with the nose as the most evil-smelling wind?' . . . . . 33. "The fourth step takes the soul of the wicked man and it arrives at the darknesses without beginning." THE SOUL'S RENDERING OF ACCOUNT * "The thirteenth question is that which you ask thus: Who should prepare the account of the soul as to sin and good works, and in what place should they make it up? And when punishment is inflicted by them, where is their place then? "The reply is this, that the account about the doers of actions, as to good works and sin, three times every day whilst the doer of the actions is p. 65 living, Vohûmano the archangel should prepare; because taking account of the thoughts, words, and deeds of all material existences is among his duties. "And about the sin which affects accusers, which is committed by breakers of promises, even in the world Mitrô is said to be over the bodies, words, and fortunes of the promise-breakers; and as to the amount, and also as to being more than the stipulation when there is a period of time, Mitrô is the account-keeper. In the three nights’ account Srôsh the righteous and Rashnû the just are over the estimate of the limits of the good works and sin of righteousness and wickedness. In the future existence, on the completion of every account, the Creator Aûharmazd Himself takes account, by whom both the former account of the three nights and all the thoughts, words, and deeds of the creatures are known through His omniscient wisdom. "The punishment for a soul of the sinners comes from that spirit with whom the sin, which was committed by it, is connected; fostered by the iniquity practised, that punishment comes upon the souls of the sinful and wicked, first on earth, afterwards in hell, and lastly at the organisation of the future existence. When the punishment of the three nights is undergone the soul of the righteous attains to Heaven and the best existence, and the soul of the wicked to hell and the p. 66 worst existence. When they have undergone their punishment at the renovation of the universe they attain, by complete purification. from every sin, unto the everlasting progress, happy progress, and perfect progress of the best and undisturbed existence." GATHA HYMN * "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: when praise is to be offered, how shall I complete the praise of the One like You, O Mazda? Let the One like Thee declare it earnestly to the friend who is such as I, thus through Thy Righteousness within us to offer friendly help to us, so that the One like Thee may draw near us through Thy Good Mind within the soul. "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: how, in pleasing Him, may we serve the Supreme One of the better world? . . . . . "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who by generation was the first father of the Righteous Order? Who gave the recurring sun and stars their undeviating way? Who established that whereby the moon waxes, and whereby p. 67 she wanes, save Thee? These things, O Great Creator! would I know, and others likewise still. "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who from beneath hath sustained the earth and the clouds above that they do not fall? Who made the waters and the plants? Who to the wind has yoked on the storm-clouds, the swift and fleetest too? Who, O Great Creator! is the inspirer of the good thoughts within our souls? "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who, as a skilful artisan, hath made the lights and the darkness? Who, as thus skilful, hath made sleep and the zest of waking hours? Who spread the Auroras, the noontides and midnight, monitors to discerning man, duties, true guides? "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright these things which I shall speak forth, if they are truly thus. Doth the Piety (which we cherish) in reality increase the sacred orderliness within our actions? To these Thy true saints hath she given the Realm through the Good Mind. For whom hast Thou made the Mother-kine, the producer of joy? "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who fashioned Âramaiti (our piety) the beloved, together with Thy Sovereign Power? Who, through his guiding wisdom, hath made the son revering the father? Who made him beloved? p. 68 [paragraph continues]With questions such as these, so abundant, O Mazda! I press Thee, O beautiful Spirit, Thou maker of all! "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright, that I may ponder these which are Thy revelations, O Mazda! and the words which were asked of Thee by Thy Good Mind Within us, and that whereby we may attain, through Thine Order, to this life's perfection. Yea, how may my soul with joyfulness increase in goodness? . . . . . "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright that holy faith which is of all Things best, and which, going on hand in hand with Thy people, shall further my lands in Asha, Thine Order, and, through the words of Âramaiti (our piety), shall render actions just. The prayers of mine understanding will seek for Thee, O Ahura! . . . . . "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who is the righteous one in that regard in which I ask Thee my question? And who is evil? For which is the wicked? Or which is himself the foremost wicked one? And the vile man who stands against me in this gain of Thy blessing, wherefore is he not held and believed to be the sinner that he is? This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: how shall I banish this Demon-of-the-Lie from p. 69 us hence to those beneath who are filled with rebellion?" CONFESSION OF FAITH "The good, righteous, right religion which the Lord has sent to the creatures is that which Zarathustra has brought. The religion is the religion of Zarathustra, the religion of Ahura-Mazda, given to Zarathustra." THE CREED * "I praise the well-thought, well-spoken, well-performed thoughts, words, and works. "I lay hold on all good thoughts, words, and works. "I abandon all evil thoughts, words, and works. I bring to you, O Amĕsha-çpĕntas, "Praise and adoration, "With thoughts, words, and works, with heavenly mind, the vital strength of my own body. . . . . . "I drive away the Daêvas, I profess myself a Zarathrustrian, an expeller of the Daêvas, a follower of the teachings of Ahura. "A hymn-singer of the Amĕsha-çpĕntas, a praiser of the Amĕsha-çpĕntas. p. 70 "To Ahura-Mazda, the good, endued with good wisdom, I offer all good." PRAYER OF KEM N MAZDA * "Whom hast thou placed to protect me, O Mazda, while the hate of the fiend is grasping me? Whom but thy Atar and Vohumanô (Angels in charge of Heaven), by whose work the holy world goes on? "Reveal to me the rules of thy law!" PRAYER OF KE VERETHREM GA † "Who is he who will smite the fiend in order to maintain thy ordinances? Teach me clearly thy rules for this world and for the next, that Shros (Angel who fights Drug with an uplifted Club, and guards the Earth Night and Day) may come with Vohumanô and help whomsoever thou pleasest." PRAYER OF ORMUZD YAST ‡ (In Praise of God) . . . . . "And he who in this material world, O Spitama Zarathustra! shall recite and pronounce § those names of mine either by day or by night; p. 71 "He who shall pronounce them, when he rises up or when he lays him down; . . . when he binds on the sacred girdle or when he unbinds the sacred girdle; when he goes out of his dwelling-place, or when he goes out of his town, or when he goes out of his country and comes into another country; "That man, neither in that day nor in that night, shall be wounded by the weapons of the foe who rushes with anger and is Drug-minded; . . . . . "But those names shall come in to keep him from behind and to keep him in front, from the Drug unseen, . . . from the evil-doer bent on mischief, and from that fiend who is all death, Angro Mainyus." GOD AS THE KING, THE LIFE, THE REWARDER * "Praises, and songs, and adorations do we offer to Ahura-Mazda, and to Righteousness the Best; yea, we offer and we ascribe them, and proclaim them. "And to Thy good kingdom, O Ahura-Mazda! may we attain for ever, and a good King be Thou over us; and let each man of us, and so each woman, thus abide, O Thou most beneficent of beings, and for both the worlds! p. 72 . . . . . "So mayst Thou be to us our life, and our body's vigour, O Thou most beneficent of beings, and that for both the worlds! "Aye, let us win and conquer long life, O Ahura-Mazda! in Thy grace, and through Thy will may we be powerful. Mayst Thou lay hold on us to help, . . . and with salvation, O Thou most beneficent of beings! . . . . . "What reward most meet for our deserving Thou hast appointed for the souls, O Ahura-Mazda! of that do Thou bestow on us for this life, and for that of mind. Of that reward do Thou Thyself grant this advantage, that we may come under Thy protecting guardianship, and that of Righteousness for ever." . . . . . THE CREATION OF THE WORLD BY AHURA-MAZDA AND CORRESPONDING EVILS BY ANGRO MAINYUS * Ahura-Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathustra, saying: "I have made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it. Had I not made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it, p. 73 then the whole living world would have invaded the Airyana Vaêgô." Countries and Lands Created by Ahura-Mazda. 1. Airyana Vaêgô by the good river Dâitya. 2. The plains of Sughdha. 3. The land of Mourn (Merv). 4. Bâkhdhi with high-lifted banners (Balkh). 5. The land of Nisâya. 6. Harôyu with its lakes (Herat). 7. Vaêkereta (Cabul). 8. Urva of the rich pastures (land in Khorasan). 9. Khnenta in Vehrkâna. 10. Harahvaiti the beautiful. 11. The bright and glorious Haêtumant. 12. Ragha of the three races (Rai, the birthplace of Zoroaster). Corresponding Evils Placed there by Angro Mainyus (The Evil Spirit). 1. The serpent and winter. 2. The fly Skaitya, which stings and brings death to the cattle. 3. Sinful lusts. 4. Corn-eating ants. 5. The sin of unbelief. 6. The stained mosquito. 7. The Pairika Knāthaiti (meaning an evil creature or a pari who destroys mankind) 8. The sin of pride and tyranny. 9. Unnatural sin. 10. Sin of defiling the virgin earth by burying corpses. 11. Witchcraft and wizards. 12. Sin of utter unbelief (atheism). p. 74 13. Holy Kakhra. 14. The four-cornered Varena. 15. Country of the Seven Rivers. 16. The land by the floods of the Rangha. 13. Sin of burning of corpses. 14. Illness of women. 15. Excessive heat. 16. Excessive frost. "There are still other lands and countries, beautiful and deep, desirable and bright and thriving." GOD'S WARNING TO YIMA OF WINTER AND DELUGE * And Ahura-Mazda spake unto Yima, saying: "O fair Yima, son of Vîvanghat! upon the material world the fatal winters are going to fall, that shall bring the fierce, foul frost; . . . that shall make snow-flakes fall thick, even an aredvî, deep on the highest tops of mountains. "And all the three sorts of beasts shall perish, those that live in the wilderness, and those that live on the tops of the mountains, and those that live in the bosom of the dale, under the shelter of stables. "Therefore make thee a vara, † long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, and thither p. 75 bring . . . sheep and oxen . . . men . . . dogs . . . birds and . . . red blazing fires. . . . . . "There thou shalt make waters flow in a bed a hâthra * long; there thou shalt settle birds, by the ever-green banks that bear never-failing food. There thou shalt establish dwelling-places, consisting of a house with a balcony, a courtyard, and a gallery. "Thither thou shalt bring . . . men and women, of the greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth; thither thou shalt bring . . . every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth. Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of fruit, the fullest of food and sweetest of odour. All those . . . shalt thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the vara. "There shall be no hump-backed, none bulged forward there; no impotent, no lunatic, no poverty, no lying, no meanness, no jealousy, no decayed tooth, no leprous to be confined, nor any of the brands wherewith Angro Mainyus stamps the bodies of mortals." Then Yima said within himself: "How shall I manage to make that vara which Ahura-Mazda has commanded me to make?" And Ahura-Mazda said unto Yima: ". . . p. 76 Crush the earth with a stamp of thy heel, and then knead it with thy hands . . ." BLESSINGS OF CULTIVATING THE SOIL * "He who would till the earth, . . . with the left arm and the right, . . . unto him will she bring forth plenty, like a loving bride, on her bed, unto her beloved; the bride will bring forth children, the earth will bring forth plenty of fruit. "He who sows corn sows holiness: he makes the law of Mazda grow higher and higher. . . . . . "When barley is coming forth, the Daêvas start up; when corn is growing ripe, then faint the Daêvas’ hearts; when the corn is being ground, the Daêvas groan; when wheat is coming forth, the Daêvas are destroyed. In that house they can no longer stay; from that house they are beaten away, wherein wheat is thus coming forth. . . . . . "He who tilling the earth, . . . would not kindly and piously give to one of the faithful, he shall fall down into the darkness . . . down p. 77 into the world of woe, the dismal realm, down into the house of hell." HAPPINESS OF THE EARTH * "It is the place whereon one of the faithful erects a house with a priest within, with cattle, with a wife, with children, and good herds within; and wherein afterwards the cattle go on thriving, holiness is thriving, fodder is thriving, the dog is thriving, the wife is thriving, the child is thriving, the fire is thriving, and every blessing of life is thriving. . . . . . "It is the place where one of the faithful cultivates most corn, grass, and fruit; . . . where he waters ground that is dry, or dries ground that is too wet. "It is the place where there is most increase of flocks and herds." GRIEF OF THE EARTH † . . . . . "It is the place wherein most corpses of dogs and of men lie buried. . . . . . p. 78 "It is the place whereon the wife and children of one of the faithful . . . are driven along the way of captivity (the dry, the dusty way, and lift up a voice of wailing. "Unhappy is the land that has long lain unsown with the seed of the sower, and wants a good husbandman, like a well-shapen maiden who has long gone childless and wants a good husband." . . . . . CULTIVATION OF LAND WHERE A CORPSE IS FOUND * ". . . A year long shall the ground lie fallow whereon dogs or men have died." PURIFICATION OF WATER DEFILED BY A CORPSE † "O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! if a worshipper of Mazda, walking, or running, or riding, or driving, come upon a corpse in a stream of running water, what shall he do?" Ahura-Mazda answered: "Taking off his shoes, putting off his clothes, boldly, O Zarathustra! p. 79 he shall enter the river, and take the dead out of the water. . . . "He shall draw out of the water as much of the corpse as he can. . . . No sin attaches to him for any bone, hair . . . that may drop back into the water. . . . . . "As long as the corpse has not been taken out of the water, so long shall that water be unclean and unfit to drink. "After the corpse has been taken out and the stream has flowed three times, * the water is clean. . . ." RELIGIOUS EDUCATION † "He shall learn on during the first part of the day and the last, during the first part of the night and the last, that his mind may be increased in knowledge and wax strong in holiness: so shall he sit up, giving thanks and praying to God and His angels that he may be increased in knowledge. He shall rest during the middle part of the day, during the middle part of the night, and thus shall he continue until he can say ail the words which former Athrapaitis ‡ have said." p. 80 REWARD FOR THE PIOUS * Zarathustra asked Ahura-Mazda: "O thou all-knowing Ahura-Mazda, should I urge upon the godly man, should I urge upon the godly woman, should I urge upon the wicked Daêva-worshipper who lives in sin, that they have once to leave behind them the earth made by Ahura, that they have to leave the water that runs, the corn that grows, and all the rest of their wealth?" Ahura-Mazda answered: "Thou shouldst, O holy Zarathustra." "O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! where are the rewards given? Where does the rewarding take place? Where is the rewarding fulfilled? Whereto do men come to take the reward that, in their life in the material world, they have won for their souls?" Ahura-Mazda answered: "When the man is dead, when his time is over, then the hellish, evil-doing Daêvas assail him; and when the third night is gone, when the dawn appears and brightens up, and makes Mithra † . . . reach the all-happy mountains, and the sun is rising: Then the fiend named Vîzaresha carries off in bonds the souls of the wicked Daêva-worshippers who live in sin. The soul enters the way made by Time, and open both to the wicked and to the righteous. At the head of the Kinvad p. 81 [paragraph continues](chinvat) Bridge . . . they ask for their spirits and souls the reward for the worldly goods which they gave away here below. . . . . . "Up rises Vohumanô (Door-Keeper of Heaven) from his golden seat. Vohumanô exclaims: 'How hast thou come to us, thou Holy One, from that decaying world into this undecaying one?' "Gladly pass the souls of the righteous to the golden seat of Ahura-Mazda, to the golden seat of the Ameshaspentas, * to Garodemana. †" FORGIVENESS OF SIN ‡ "The law of Mazda indeed, O Spitama Zarathustra! takes away from him who confesses it the bonds of his sin; it takes away the sin of breach of trust; it takes away the sin of murdering one of the faithful; it takes away the sin of burying a corpse; it takes away the sin of deeds for which there is no atonement; it takes away the heaviest penalties of sin; it takes away any sin that may be sinned." p. 82 THE TEMPTATION * Thus Zarathustra answered Angro Mainyus (the Evil Spirit): "O evil-doer, Angro Mainyus! I will smite the creation of the Daêva; I will smite the Nasu, a creature of the Daêva. . . ." Again to him said the guileful one, . . . . Angro Mainyus: "Do not destroy my creatures, O holy Zarathustra! . . . Renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, and thou shalt gain such a boon as Zohâk, † the murderer, gained, the ruler of the nations." Thus in answer to him said Spitama Zarathustra: "No! never will I renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, though my body, my life, my soul should burst!" Again to him said the guileful one . . . Angro Mainyus: "By whose word wilt thou strike, by whose word wilt thou repel, by whose weapon will the good creatures strike and repel my creation?" . . . ". . . The words taught by Mazda, these are my . . . best weapons! By this word will I strike, by this word will I repel . . . O evil-doer, Angro Mainyus! To me Spenta Mainyus (Good Spirit) gave it; he gave it to me in the boundless time; to me the Ameshaspentas (Archangels), the all-ruling, the all-beneficent, gave it." p. 83 Zarathustra chanted aloud the (prayer of) AHUNA VAIRYA. "The will of the Lord is the law of holiness. The riches of Vohumanô (Good Mind) shall be given to him who works in this world for Mazda, and wields according to the will of Ahura the power he gave to him to relieve the poor." . . . . . . They run away, the wicked, evil-doing Daêvas; they run away, casting the evil eye, the wicked, evil-doing Daêvas. "'Let us gather together at the head of Arezûra (the Gate of Hell). For he is . . . born, the holy Zarathustra, in the house of Pourushaspa. How can we procure his death? He is the stroke that fells the fiends.' . . . "Down are the Daêva-worshippers, the Nasu made by the Daêva, the false-speaking lie! They run away, they rush away, the wicked, evil-doing Daêvas, into the depths of the dark, horrid world of hell." BANISHMENT OF ANGRO MAINYUS * "Away art thou driven, O mischievous Angro Mainyus! from the fire, from the water, from the earth, from the cow, from the tree, from the faithful man, and from the faithful woman . . . from all good things made by Mazda, the offspring of the holy principle." p. 84 ON LOAN * He who does not restore (a thing lent) when it is asked for back again, steals the thing; he robs the man. So he does every day, every night, as long as he keeps in his house his neighbour's property, as though it were his own." ON WASTE † "Ahura-Mazda, indeed, does not allow us to waste anything of value that we may have, not even so much as an Asperena's weight of thread, not even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning." TEMPERANCE ‡ "Regarding wine, it is evident that it is possible for good and bad temper to come to manifestation through wine. . . . . . "It is not requisite for investigation, because he who is a good-tempered man, when he drinks wine, is such-like as a gold or silver cup which, however much more they burn it, becomes purer and brighter. It also keeps his thoughts, p. 85 words, and deeds more virtuous; and he becomes gentler and pleasanter unto wife and child, companions and friends, and is more diligent in every duty and good work. "And he who is a bad-tempered man, when he drinks wine, thinks and considers himself more than ordinary: He carries on a quarrel with companions, displays insolence, makes ridicule and mockery, and acts arrogantly to a good person. He distresses his own wife and child, slave and servant; and dissipates the joy of the good, carries off peace, and brings in discord. "But every one must be cautious as to the moderate drinking of wine. Because, from the moderate drinking of wine, thus much benefit happens to him: since it digests the food, kindles the vital fire, increases the understanding and intellect, and blood, removes vexation, and inflames the complexion. It causes recollection of things forgotten, and goodness takes a place in the mind. It likewise increases the sight of the eye, the hearing of the ear, and the speaking of the tongue; and work, which it is necessary to do and expedite, becomes more progressive. He also sleeps pleasantly and rises light. "And in him who drinks wine more than moderately, . . . himself, wife, and child, friend and kindred, are distressed and unhappy, and p. 86 the superintendent of troubles and the enemy are glad. The sacred beings, also, are not pleased with him; and infamy comes to his body, and even wickedness to his soul. "And even he who gives wine authorizedly unto any one, and he is thereby intoxicated by it, is equally guilty of every sin which that drunkard commits owing to that drunkenness." * SOULS’ VISIT TO THE EARTH † We worship the good, strong, beneficent Fravashis ‡ of the faithful, who come and go through the borough at the time of the Hamaspathmaêdha §; they go along there for ten nights, asking thus: "Who will praise us? Who will offer us a sacrifice? Who will meditate upon us? Who will bless us? Who will receive us with meat and clothes in his hand and with a prayer worthy of bliss? Of which of us will the name be taken for invocation? Of which of you will the soul be worshipped by you with a sacrifice? To whom will the gift of ours be given, that he may have never-failing food for ever and ever?" And the man who offers them up a sacrifice, with meat and clothes in his hand, with a prayer worthy of bliss, the awful ¦¦ Fravashis of the faithful, satisfied, unharmed, and unoffended, bless thus: p. 87 "May there be in this house flocks of animals and men! May there be a swift horse and a solid chariot! May there be a man who knows how to praise God and rule in an assembly, who will offer us sacrifices with meat and clothes in his hand, and with a prayer worthy of bliss!" THE MAZDAYASNIAN CONFESSION * "I drive the Daêvas hence; I confess as a Mazda-worshipper of the order of Zarathustra, estranged from the Daêvas, devoted to the lore of the Lord, a praiser of the Bountiful Immortals; and to Ahura-Mazda, the good and endowed with good possessions, I attribute all things good, to the Holy One, the resplendent, to the glorious, whose are all things whatsoever which are good; whose is the Kine, whose is Asha (the righteous order pervading all things pure), whose are the stars, in whose lights the glorious beings and objects are clothed. "And I choose Piety, the bounteous and the good, mine may she be! And therefore I loudly deprecate all robbery and violence against the (Sacred) Kine, and all drought to the wasting of the Mazdayasnian villages. . . . . . "Never may I stand as a source of wasting, never as a source of withering to the Mazdayasnian villages, not for the love of body or of life. p. 88 "Away do I abjure the shelter and headship of the Daêvas, evil as they are; aye, utterly bereft of good, and void of virtue, deceitful in their wickedness, of all beings those most like the Demon-of-the-Lie, the most loathsome of existing things, and the ones the most of all bereft of good. "Off, off, do I abjure the Daêvas and all possessed by them, the sorcerers and all that hold to their devices, and every existing being of the sort; their thoughts do I abjure, their words and actions, and their seed that propagate their sin; away do I abjure their shelter and their headship. "Thus and so in every deed might Ahura-Mazda have indicated to Zarathustra in every question which Zarathustra asked, and in all the consultations in the which they two conversed together. Thus and so might Zarathustra have abjured the shelter and the headship of the Daêvas in all the questions and in all the consultations with which they two conversed together, Zarathustra and the Lord. "And so I myself, in whatsoever circumstances I may be placed, as a worshipper of Mazda, and of Zarathustra's order, would so abjure the Daêvas and their shelter, as he who was the holy Zarathustra abjured them. "To that religious sanctity to which the waters appertain, do I belong, to that sanctity to which p. 89 the plants, to that sanctity to which the Kine of blessed gift, to that religious sanctity to which Ahura-Mazda, who made both Kine and holy men, belongs, to that sanctity do I. "A Mazda-worshipper I am, of Zarathustra's order; so do I confess, as a praiser and confessor, and I therefore praise aloud the well-thought thought, the word well spoken, and the deed well done. "Yea, I praise at once the Faith of Mazda, the Faith which has no faltering utterance, the Faith that wields the felling halbert, the holy (Creed), which is the most imposing, best, and most beautiful of all religions which exist, and of all that shall in future come to knowledge, Ahura's Faith, the Zarathustrian creed. Yea, to Ahura-Mazda do I ascribe all good, and such shall be the worship of the Mazdayasnian belief!" PATET ERANI * Prayer for Repentance "I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the good Mazdayasnian faith, in the coming of the resurrection and the later body, in the stepping over the bridge Chinvat, in an invariable recompense of good deeds and their reward, p. 90 and of bad deeds and their punishment, as well as in the continuance of Paradise, in the annihilation of Hell and Ahriman * and the Daêvas, that [God] Ahura-Mazda will at last be victorious and Ahriman will perish together with the Daêvas and the off-shoots of darkness. . . . . . "All that I ought to have thought and have not thought, all that I ought 'to have said and have not said, all that I ought to have done and have not done, all that I ought to have ordered and have not ordered, all that I ought not to have thought and yet have thought, all that I ought not to have spoken and yet have spoken, all that I ought not to have done and yet have done, all that I ought not to have ordered and yet have ordered; for thoughts, words, and works, bodily and spiritual, earthy and heavenly, pray I for forgiveness, and repent of it with Patet. † . . . . . "This heavenly Patet shall be a fast brazen wall . . . that it may keep the gate of Hell fast in bonds, and the way to Paradise open, the way to that best place:—to the shining Garothman which possesses all majesty, that our soul and the souls of the pure at the Bridge Chinvat, the great, may step over freed from trouble and p. 91 easily, and may the pure Srosh, * the victorious, friend, protector, overseer, be the protector and the watcher of my soul. . . ." MARRIAGE SERVICE † "Do you both accept the contract for life with honourable mind, that pleasure may increase to ye twain? Admonitions "In the name and friendship of Ahura-Mazda. Be ever shining . . . Be increasing! Be victorious! Learn purity! Be worthy of good praise! May the mind think good thoughts, the words speak good, the works do good! . . . Be a Mazdayasnian, accomplish works according to thy mind . . . speak truth . . . and be obedient. Be modest with friends, clever, and well-wishing. Be not cruel. Be not wrathful-minded. Commit no sin through shame. Be not covetous. Torment not. Cherish not wicked envy, be not haughty, treat no one despitefully, cherish no lust. Rob not the property of others, keep thyself from the wives of others. Do good works with good activity. . . . Enter into no strife with a revengeful man. Be no companion p. 92 to a covetous one. Go not on the same way with a cruel one. Enter into no agreement with one of ill-fame. . . . Combat the adversaries with right. . . . Enter into no strife with those of evil repute. Before an assembly speak only pure words. Before kings speak with moderation. In no wise displease thy mother. Keep thine own body pure in justice. . . . . . Blessings "May Ahura-Mazda (God) send you gifts, Bahman, * thinking with the soul; Ardibihist good speech; Sharevar, good working; Çependarmat, wisdom; Khordat, sweetness and prosperity; Amertat, fruitfulness! "May that come to you which is better than the good, may that not come to you which is worse than the evil. . . ." THE VISION OF ARDÂ-VIRÂF † They say that, once upon a time, the pious Zaratûtsht (Zoroaster) made the religion which he had received current in the world; and till the p. 93 completion of three hundred years the religion was in purity, and men were without doubts. . . . . . And this religion, namely all the Avesta and Zend, written upon prepared cow-skins and with gold ink, was deposited in the archives in Stâkhar Pâpâkân; and the hostility of the evil-destined, wicked Ashemôk, the evil-doer, brought onward Alexander, the Rûman who was dwelling in Egypt, and he burnt them up. . . . . . And after that there was confusion and contention among the people of the country of Iran, one with the other. . . . . . And afterwards there were other magi and Desturs * of the religion, and some of their number were loyal and apprehensive. And an assembly of them was summoned in the residence of the victorious Frôbâg fire; and there were speeches and good ideas of many kinds on this subject: that "it is necessary for us to seek a means so that some of us may go and bring intelligence from the spirits; that the people who exist in this age shall know whether these Yazashni and Drôn and Afrînagân ceremonies, and Nîran prayers, and ablutions and purifications which we bring into operation attain unto God or unto p. 94 the demons, and come to the relief of our souls or not. . . . . . And from the seven, three were selected, and from the three, one only, named Vîrâf, and some called him the Nîshâpûrian. Then that Vîrâf, as he heard that decision, stood upon his feet, joined his hands on his breast, and spake thus, "If it please you, then give me not the undesired narcotic till you cast lots for the Mazdayasnians and me; and if the lot come to me, I shall go willingly to that place of the pious and the wicked, and carry this message correctly, and bring an answer truly. . . . . . "After I had drunk the consecrated wine, and I had reposed my body to rest, and given my mind up to the adoration of God, methought my soul took its flight towards the holy regions, where Serosh Izad * appeared unto me, and beckoned me towards him, when, after giving and receiving the customary salutations, Serosh Izad said to me, 'You have made a long journey in the faith. I am happy to see you in these blessed regions, and your escape from the world of wickedness gives one great pleasure; but, Ardâ-Vîrâf, you have come before your time. What is the occasion?' Ardâ-Vîrâf replied in accents of p. 95 complacency, 'I have been sent, O Serosh Izad! by the king, by the priests, and by the voice of the nation in general, on this embassy, to know of heaven and hell, in order that heresy and schism be banished from the earth, and that the worship of the true God be restored to its wonted purity.' . . . . . ". . . On saying this, Serosh Izad took hold of me by the arm, and led me forward across the bridge, when the throne of Mehr Izad, * came in view, with Roshni Izad † standing by him, holding in his hands the scales of justice, made of pure gold, and having on his right hand and on his left five thousand angels, and whose different petitions he can hear at once, and if written can see at one glance. Having saluted, and having my salutation returned, the attending angels surrounded me, and thus addressed me, 'O Ardâ-Virâf! your time has not yet come. How and by what means have you come thus far?' I answered, 'I have come thus far by the assistance of God, at the request of my king, Ardeshir Babegan, of the priests, and of the people, to collect and report the wonders of heaven and hell; that I may see that the truth may by these means be again restored to the earth, and heresy and wickedness banished for ever.' ". . . Afterwards arose Vohûmano, ‡ the archangel, p. 96 from a throne made of gold, and he took hold of my hand. With the words 'good thought' and 'good word' and 'good deed,' he brought me into the midst of Aûharmazd * and the archangels and other holy ones, and the guardian angels of Zaratûsht Spitâma, Kaî-Vishtâsp, Jâmâsp, Isâdvâstar, the son of Zaratûsht, and other upholders and leaders of the religion, than whom I have never seen any one more brilliant and excellent. "And Vohûman said thus, 'This is Aûharmazd.' And I wished to offer worship before him. "And he said to me thus, 'Salutation to thee, Ardâ-Vîrâf, thou art welcome; from that perishable world thou hast come to this pure bright place.' And he ordered Srôsh the pious, and Atarô † the angel, thus, 'Take Ardâ-Vîrâf, and show him the place and reward of the pious, and also the punishment of the wicked.' . . . . . "And I saw the darkest hell, which is pernicious, dreadful, terrible, very painful, mischievous, and evil-smelling. And after further observation it appeared to me as a pit, at the bottom of which a thousand cubits would not reach; and though all the wood which is in the world were put on to the fire in this most stinking and gloomy hell, it would never emit a smell; and again also, as p. 97 close as the ear to the eye, and as many as the hairs on the mane of a horse, so close and many in number the souls of the wicked stand—but they see not and hear no sound one from the other; every one thinks thus, 'I am alone!' And for them are the gloom of darkness and the stench and fearfulness of the torment and punishment of hell of various kinds; so that whoever is only a day in hell cries out thus, 'Are not those nine thousand years yet completed when they should release us from this hell?' . . . . . "'Without trouble nothing can be attained,' said Serosh Izad; 'the poor day-labourer is worthy of his hire, and those who perform good works will have their reward in eternal life, according to their several merits.' He continued, 'The life of man is of short duration, and many troubles and anxieties fall to his lot; and a man, after fifty years of prosperity and happiness, may be, by some unforeseen accident, reduced to sickness and poverty. Many are tried by this criterion, and but few are found worthy. To suffer a day of pain, after fifty years of pleasure, is too much for them, and they complain in bitterness of spirit to the Creator of all good of His injustice and cruelty, without remembering the good they have so long enjoyed or calling to mind the eternity of punishment in reserve for the p. 98 wicked. Therefore, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! walk yourself in the ways of righteousness, and teach others also to do so. Recollect that your body will return to dust, but your soul, if rich in good works, will mount to immortality, and partake of the happiness you have already witnessed. Take less care of your body and more of your soul; the pains and aches of the body are easily cured, but who can minister to the diseases of the soul? When you set out on a journey in the lower world, you provide yourselves, and take with you money, clothes, provisions, and are prepared against all the exigencies of the road, but what do you provide yourselves with for your last journey of the soul from the lower to the upper world, and whose friendship have you to assist you on the way? Hear, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! and I will describe to you the provisions requisite for the voyage to eternal life. "'In the first place the friend who will assist you is God; but to attain His friendship you must walk in His ways and place in Him the firmest reliance. The provisions must be faith and hope and the remembrance of your good works. The body, O Aida-Viral! may be likened unto a horse, and the soul to its rider, and the provisions requisite for the support of both are good actions; but as with a feeble rider the horse is ill-managed, so with a feeble horse the rider is but ill accommodated. Care ought to be taken that both are p. 99 kept in order; so, in a spiritual sense, the soul and body must be kept in order by a succession of good actions. Even in the world the multitude would sneer at a man who took more care of his horse than of himself; for this reason a man ought to take more care of his soul than of his body. God, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! requires only two things of the sons of men: the first, that they should not sin; the next, that they should be grateful of the many blessings He is continually bestowing upon them. "'Let the world, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! be taught not to set their hearts on the pleasures and vanities of life, as nothing can be carried away with them. You have already seen the rewards given to the good and deserving—how they have been repaid for all their trouble; the poor and the rich, the king and the peasant, here receive honours and distinctions according to their good works. The herdsman and shepherd, you have seen their condition. "'In youth and in the prime of manhood, when blessed with health and vigour, you suppose that your strength will never fail; that your riches, your lands, your houses, and your honours will remain for ever; that your gardens will be always green and your vineyards fruitful. But, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! teach them not to think so teach them the danger of such a way of thinking: all, all will pass away as a dream! "'The flowers fade, and give lessons unto man p. 100 that he is unwilling to profit by. Yea, the world itself will pass away, and nothing will remain but God! "Therefore, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! turn your thoughts only towards Him. No pleasure but has its concomitant pain roses have thorns, and honours fall into disgrace. It is pleasant to drink wine, but intoxication brings pain, if not disgrace; if you exceed in eating, this also brings its punishment, and you must have a doctor; even if you drink the purest water to excess, it engenders dropsy; therefore let the avoidance of excess in everything be most particularly inculcated—in wine or women, in eating and drinking: though they bring their own punishment in the world by the diseases they engender, yet they encourage the most deadly sins, and the soul so indulging will most assuredly be cut off from heaven. So you see, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! that the indulgence of our passions brings no pleasure of long duration, or impresses any good sentiment on the heart. "'If after praying to God for offspring, and He has granted your request, into what sea of trouble and anxiety are you plunged! Your son or daughter may grow up in vicious habits, and embitter your days by their undutiful conduct: the one may become a thief, the other a courtezan, and bring disgrace on your old age. The bee that produces honey has also a sting. "'The world is composed of lust, avarice, and p. 101 of passions the most ungovernable; if God gives them one thing, even that for which they most desire, they are not satisfied, but are continually craving for more and more, to a hundredfold. "'Avarice and ambition deprive them of sleep, and prevent them from making a laudable exertion to subdue these dreadful passions, which will plunge them into everlasting misery. "'A king who has conquered all the surrounding countries sighs because he has no more worlds to subdue. Kai Kâus, after having conquered many countries, aspired to be a king in heaven, and was punished for his presumption by a dreadful fall, which made him sensible of his folly. '"So you see, O Ardâ-Virâf! that content is the happiest condition of man and the most pleasing to the Creator: and treasure the advice I have given you; and as you return to the lower world, inculcate these precepts, and abide by the laws and walk in the way of truth and holiness, and continue in the worship of the true God.'" . . . . . SANCTITY * "I pray with benedictions for a benefit, and for the good, even for the entire creation of the holy and the clean; I beseech them for the generation which is now alive, for that which is just coming into life, and for that which shall be p. 102 hereafter. And I pray for that sanctity which leads to prosperity, and which has long afforded shelter, which goes on hand in hand with it, which joins it in its walk, and of itself becoming its close companion as it delivers forth its precepts, bearing every form of healing virtue which comes to us in waters, appertains to cattle, or is found in plants, and overwhelming all the harmful malice of the Daêvas, and their servants who might harm this dwelling and its lord, bringing good gifts, and better blessings, given very early, and later gifts, leading to successes, and for a long time giving shelter. And so the greatest, and the best, and most beautiful benefits of sanctity fall likewise to our lot for the sacrifice, homage, propitiation, and the praise of the Bountiful Immortals, for the bringing prosperity to this abode, and for the prosperity of the entire creation of the holy, and the clean, and as for this, so for the opposition of the entire evil creation. . . ." PRAYER FOR SAFETY * "Keep us from our hater, O Mazda! . . . Perish, O fiendish Drug! Perish, O brood of the fiend! Perish, O world of the fiend! . . . . Perish away to the regions of the north, never more to give unto death the living world of the holy spirit!" Footnotes 57:* Sacred Books of the East. 57:† Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 58:* Sacred Books of the East. Translation by J. Darmesteter. 58:† Dinâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad. Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. West. 59:* devil. 61:* Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 64:* Dâdîstân-î-Dînîk. Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. West. 66:* Sacred Books of the East. Yaçna XLIV. Dr. L. H. Mills' translation. 69:* Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 70:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 70:† Ibid. 70:‡ Ibid. 70:§ See Introduction about the names of God. 71:* Sacred Books of the East. Translation by Dr. L. H. Mills. 72:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 74:* Sacred Books of the East. 74:†An enclosure. 75:* About an English mile. 76:* Sacred Books of the East. 77:* Sacred Books of the East. 77:† Ibid. 78:* Sacred Books of the East. 78:† Ibid. 79:* Probably tides. 79:† Ibid. 79:‡ A teaching priest. 80:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 80:† God of Light. 81:* Archangels. 81:† Highest Heaven. 81:‡ Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 82:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 82:† See Notes. 83:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 84:* Sacred Books of the East. 84:† Ibid. 84:‡ Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad. Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. West. 86:* Dâdîstân-î-Dînîk 86:† Sacred Books of the East. 86:‡ Souls. 86:§ The last ten days of the year. 86:¦¦ Awe-inspiring. 87:* Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. L. H. Mills. 89:* Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 90:* The devil. 90:† Penance. 91:* The Guardian Angel. 91:† Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 92:* See Ameshaspends, page 41. 92:† Dr. Haug and Dr. West's "Ardâ-Virâf"; J. A. Pope's Revelations of Ardâ-Virâf." 93:* Chief priests. 94:* The Guardian Angel of Souls. 95:* Mithra: The Recording Angel. 95:† Angel of Justice. 95:‡ Good Mind. 96:* Good. 96:† God of Fire: The Angel of Life. 101:* Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. L. H. Mills. 102:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." Next: Notes

RELIGION IN EGYPT AND INDIA.txt

RELIGION IN EGYPT AND INDIA THE EGYPTIAN PANTHEON.--Many of our religious conceptions today are strong reflections of the old Egyptian. One might say indeed that our present day religion came to us from Egypt via the Jews. For that reason I have decided to give in this book an Egyptian Pantheon, which I have made up from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. In many cases, it will be seen that the symbol of a certain belief or conception is represented by more than one god shown in the Pantheon. Under different guises and different names they, however, symbolize but a single conception. This comes from the scrambling of two sets of symbols when Upper and Lower Egypt were joined and became one kingdom. I am giving 24 figures placing them 6 on a page for easy reference. There are many others which I have not included; these are the principal ones only. I can only give an outline description, space will not permit of more. If more data is required about them, it will be found in many books written about Egypt. Amen was the great god at Thebes, and was ad p. 253 Click to enlarge p. 254 dressed as the "King of the gods." The Latinized form of the name is Ammon. The Romans identified him with Jupiter. The Greeks called him Zeus. He is also called "the hidden god." Before the 18th Dynasty he was worshipped at Thebes as Amen simply; but was afterwards merged into Amen Ra: "the hidden Sun." His color was a light blue. Kneph was called "the moulder." He was known by the Greeks as Knonphis. Kneph is one of the oldest of the Egyptian gods and was especially worshipped in Nubia and Philae. His headdress is a ram's head surmounted with a solar disk and uraeus. Kneph is spoken of as "the soul of the Universe" and "The Creator." His color was bright green. Kneph's female consort was Sati. Sati was the female consort of Kneph, and was looked upon as the Egyptian Juno. Her principal seat of worship was Elephantine, and throughout Nubia and Ethiopia. Her headdress was the Crown of Upper Egypt with a pair of cow's horns extending from it. Sati's color was a warm red human flesh color. I think that there can be no question but what Kneph and Sati were intended to symbolize the two principles of the Creator: male and female. Khem was one of the deified attributes of the Creator. His special seat of worship was Chemmo (Panopolis). He was worshipped at Thebes and to some extent throughout Egypt. His headdress consisted of two straight feathers. He was generally colored blue. p. 255 "Ptah the Opener" was the oldest of the Egyptian gods. His principal seat of worship was at Memphis. Ptah was the symbol of the Creative power of the Deity. The Egyptians called him "the divine artificer." One of his symbols was the two-sided square. He had many titles; one was: "The Father of beginnings." The Greeks considered Ptah the same as their Vulcan His name, peculiar to Memphis, was Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The regular Egyptian name, however, was Ptah-Sekar-Usar. His color was blue. Ptah was without doubt the symbol of the Four Great Primary Forces--The Sacred Four. Neith was the Egyptian Minerva, and was the goddess of the lower heavens. She is generally pictured holding up the heavens on her head. Neith was the special goddess at Sais. A corresponding symbol--a god upholding the heavens on his head-is found in the Maya of Yucatan. His color was blue. Neith was the symbol of The Four Great Pillars that upheld the Universe--The Sacred Four. Maut called "the Mother" was the consort of Amen Ra at Thebes, and in this capacity represented the Mother of all: thus in Amen Ra and Maut we find another symbolization of the dual principle of the Creator. Maut was especially worshipped at Thebes in connection with Amen and at Chons with Amen Ra. She was also honored throughout Nubia and Ethiopia. Her color was warm, flesh colored red. p. 256 Click to enlarge p. 257 Ra was the name of the Sun as the monotheistic symbol of The Creator--monotheistic or collective. In the "Litany of Ra" he is called "the Supreme Power," "the only one," et cetera. To the initiated, he symbolized the power of the Deity; but to the populace he was stated to be a created god, the Son of Ptah and Neith. More errors have been made about this symbol by historians than any other symbol used by the ancients. His color was red. Khepra. Although this symbol is found in the Egyptian Pantheon, it did not originate in Egypt but in the Motherland and was brought to Upper Egypt by the Nagas from the Motherland via Burma and India. The symbol is the Scarab beetle, which is placed over the head of a human figure in the Egyptian symbol. The Scarab symbolizes creative energy. From the Papyrus Ani., King's Companion to Seti II: "Among the Egyptians, the Scarabeaus Beetle is no god, but one of the emblems of the Creator, because it rolls a ball of mud between its feet and sets therein its eggs to hatch. As the Creator rolls the world around, and causes it to produce life." The foregoing passage is one that should be especially studied by students of the ancient past: for it shows us that the Egyptians up to the time of Seti 2nd understood the ancients' sciences and the workings of the Great Cosmic Forces, both of which are unknown to the scientists of today. Before our sciences can advance to any perceptible p. 258 degree the present grotesque myths, the orthodox scientific teachings, must be abandoned and a study of the Four Great Primeval Forces made. On them the true sciences must be built up--sciences which teach us what life is and how it originates, the workings of the Four Great Forces throughout the Universe, with their origin, et cetera. The vignette shows an engraving which I found in a very ancient Maya carving in India. It is thousands of years older than the first occupation of Egypt by man. The engraving is symbolical, as it shows the Creator symbolized by a Scarab, which is placed within rays of glory and rests on the symbol of Mu. Kneeling in adoration on either side of the rays is first man shown by his symbol Kėė the deer. This vignette is taken from the Egyptian sacred book, the Book of the Dead. It symbolizes man in adoration of the Scarab Beetle as the symbol of the Creator. The Egyptian god Khepra undoubtedly comes out of the Nagas--Kėė Atum or Turn was the god of the setting Sun: otherwise Amenti--the Sun below the horizon. Shu was the firstborn of Ra and Hathor and brother of Tefnut. Shu was looked upon as a symbol of the Celestial Forces. His color was generally black. p. 259 Click to enlarge p. 260 Mentu was one of the deified attributes of the Sun and often bears the name Mentu-Ra. He was merely a phase of Ra who with Atum symbolized the rising and the setting Sun. Mentu was the special protector of Egypt. Osiris was one of the oldest of the Egyptian gods. Later in this chapter I shall give the history of Osiris and show who he was. In the text of the Book of the Dead it is stated that he was the son of Seb and Nut. Hathor was simply another name for Isis and is represented with the attributes of Isis. She was sometimes called Isis Hathor. Hathor personified Nature with all that was true and beautiful in it--the female principle of the Creator. Isis is the goddess of the triad--Osiris, Isis and Horus. In the triad she was the wife of Osiris. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis and symbolized the Sun. Seb was the father of Osiris and Isis and was called "the father of gods." Tefnut was his consort. In Seb and Tefnut again we find the dual principles of the Creator symbolized. Khons was worshipped at Thebes, and, with Amen and Maut, formed the Theban triad. Khons symbolized the moon; he wears the disk and crescent moon. Thoth was the god of writing, learning, and medicine. It was he who composed the early and most important portions of the Book of the Dead. Thoth is supposed to be the Egyptian Hermes. p. 261 Click to enlarge p. 262 Nephthys was the sister of Isis and Osiris and consort of Set. Anubis was the god of embalming and embalmed his father Osiris. Tefnut was the goddess of the rain and dew. She held a conspicuous place among the contemporary deities of Thebes. Ma or Maat was the goddess of truth. She represents the truth and justice of the Supreme God. Nu or Nut. Nut is the feminine form of Nu. Nu was the father, Nut the mother--the life givers. Bast was the wife of Ptah and with their son Tum or Atum formed the great triad of Memphis. Set was the son of Nut and brother of Osiris. According to the myth he murdered Osiris. Anuka was the third member of the triad of Thebaid, composed of Khnum (Kneph), Sati and Anuka. OSIRIS.--Osiris was one of the oldest of the Egyptian gods. His worship was universal throughout Egypt at all times. Osiris was the representative of all that was good. The myths in Egypt about Osiris are bewildering. They claim that Osiris was once the monarch of Upper and Lower Egypt. It is claimed that Osiris was buried at Philae--other towns claim his remains. According to all these myths, Osiris must have lived since the union of Upper and Lower Egypt was accomplished under Menes about 5,000 B. C. Against this we find that Thoth, the founder of the [paragraph continues] p. 263 <I>Osiris</I>. Click to enlarge Osiris. p. 264 Lower Egyptians taught at Sais the Osirian Religion and this was 14,000 B. C. There were no kings of Egypt for an immensely long period after Thoth's time. Egypt was a sub-colony of the Motherland under direct control of the colonial empire--Atlantis. Now let us see who Osiris actually was and the time when he lived. In two Himalayan monasteries--one in India, the other in Tibet--there are two Naacal tablets belonging to the Sacred Inspired Writings of the Motherland: they are identically the same, word for word, were copied from the originals in the Motherland and brought to the continent of Asia by Naacal missionaries. They belong to the historical section of the Sacred Books. They relate: "Osiris, when entering manhood, left the home of his birth, Atlantis, and came to the motherland where he entered one of the Naacal colleges. Here he studied the religion and Cosmic Sciences of the Motherland. When he passed his degree of Master and adept, he returned to his own country, Atlantis. There he devoted his life to the teachings of the people, the first religion of man, and to weeding out and eliminating extravagances, inventions and misconceptions that had crept into the religion of Atlantis under a rank priesthood." Osiris became the Hieratic Head of Religion in Atlantis which office he held during a long life. The people loved and worshipped him for his gentleness, goodness and kindness. They wished to dethrone Ouranos the King and place Osiris on the throne. This [paragraph continues] p. 265 Osiris would not allow to be spoken of and so condemned the idea that it was abandoned. He was murdered by a brother on account of jealousy--this was about 20,000 B. C. His name was so revered, and he so beloved, that at his death he was deified, and as a lasting monument to his name religion was called after him, viz., "The Osirian religion," just as today we have the Christian religion. I could not find the name of the brother who murdered him, so the probability is the Egyptians invented the name. Nor do I find anything about Isis and Nephthys, but it is mentioned that he had a son, who became the Hieratic Head of Atlantis at the death of his father. I do not, however, find his name. Osiris and Christ taught identically the same religion. Some of their preachings are word for word, line for line, and sentence for sentence the same. Both learned from the same book--the Sacred Inspired Writings of the Motherland. THE RELIGION OF EGYPT.--The first we know about the religion of Egypt is where an ancient record states that about 16,000 years ago Thoth, the son of an Atlantian Priest, planted the Egyptian colony at the mouth of the Nile, and at Saïs on the banks of the Nile built a temple and taught the Osirian religion. The Osirian religion as I have previously shown was the religion of Mu after Osiris had cleansed it of all the extravagances that had crept into it in Atlantis, 22,000 years ago, the religion being then called after p. 266 him the Osirian religion. When he died his son became the hieratical head and was supposed to be called Horus, but whether Horus was his actual name or a title I cannot say, but a Horus was always the hieratical head of the Osirian religion down to the time of Menes or about S,000 B. C. Thus it is shown that the religion of Egypt commenced with that of the Motherland as taught in the Sacred Inspired Writings. From the time of Thoth down to the time of Menes, the Egyptian colony was ruled by the church, under the head of a Horus. The last Horus is recorded when Menes took the throne. Manetho, the Egyptian priest historian, says that during the 11th Dynasty the priesthood began to teach the people to worship the Sacred Symbols instead of the Deity Himself as heretofore. This was the first step to the debauchery of the Egyptian religion which reached its peak during the 18th Dynasty and ended in every conceivable extravagance coupled with idolatry. The advent of Mohammedanism wiped out the old religion of Egypt, although the Christian religion had made a little headway owing to a people called the Copts. We must now go back some few hundred years to the time when the Israelites were the slaves of the Egyptians. A Master rose up among them--Moses. Who was Moses? And how did he form a religion? Who he was is a question; but he was the most proficient Master of his time, and, at one time, was the High Priest of the temple at Sinai, which then was an [paragraph continues] p. 267 Osirian temple. Whatever Moses was, it is known that his wife was an Israelite and that he threw in his lot with the Israelites in all their troubles and adversities contingent with slavery. They elected him their head. He saw the Osirian or the Inspired Religion being debased by idolatry and was determined to save his people from it, so he modified the ancient Osirian religion to suit the then existing surroundings and conditions. The symbols of the attributes of the Deity, he discarded almost entirely, retaining only a few which could not very well be worshipped. He made the worship of one Lord God only--the Deity. Many of the teachings in the Osirian religion were in the form of questions. These he condensed and put into the form of commands. As for example: Osirian--Have you honored and do you honor your father and mother, et cetera. Moses--Honor your father and your mother, et cetera. There were forty-two questions in the Osirian. Moses turned them into ten commands. Many readers of the Bible have been nonplussed when they come across the passage where Moses makes a serpent for the people to look upon in the Wilderness. Some claim that it was a touch of idolatry. It was nothing of the kind. Circumstances warranted him in returning to symbolism for the occasion. The symbol--the Serpent--was to concentrate their thoughts on God as the Creator and the Giver of All Good Things. One of the ceremonies among the Jews was a burnt sacrifice. The Bible tells us that the sons of the first p. 268 man, Adam, offered up burnt sacrifices. Yet among ancient records we find that 60,000,000 of people lost their lives at one time in the same land before sacrifices were commenced. I never came across the word sacrifice or its equivalent in any of the writings of the First Civilization. The first time I saw the word was in an old Maya book about 5,000 or 6,000 years old in which it says: "And during the night Mu was sacrificed." In the writings of the First Civilization offerings only are mentioned; these offerings consisted generally of fruit, flowers and products of the fields and gardens. These were taken to the temple and placed on an altar specially provided for the ceremony. On the front of this altar were inscribed the Tau and underneath each arm was a double triangle that reads: "Place thine offering upon this altar." After Mu went down with her 60,000,000 of souls, all the surviving people of the world commemorated her memory in one way or another, some by literature, some by edifices and others by fire in some form. The Quiche Mayas had a fiery house in their religious ceremonies; the Egyptians a fiery tank in theirs; and without doubt burnt sacrifices in the beginning was the form the Semites chose. In later years the Jews applied a theology to the ceremony. I wonder if there is a single Jew living today who knows the origin of their burnt sacrifices. I have never yet found one. The Phoenicians, another Semitic race, adopted idolatry and fell so low p. 269 as to degrade themselves by offering human beings for sacrifice. Was Moses an Israelite? An Egyptian record would lead one to believe that he was not a pure Israelite. The record I refer to says: "Moses was the son of an Egyptian Princess who afterwards became the great Queen Hatshepsut." Not a word is said about the bull-rushes. As an example of the gross extravagances in symbols and teachings of the Egyptian priesthood I shall take the triad--Osiris, Isis and Horus. Let us see who they were and what was taught from them. Osiris was a man who lived on earth and about whom there are many Egyptian myths. There is also a short authentic history about him, showing that he was a great Master and lived about 22,000 years ago. Isis was the symbol of the Creator's female attribute. From this union a son was born called Horus. Isis had a sister called Nephthys and a brother called Set. So that the female attribute of the Creator had three members--two females and one male--Isis, Nephthys and Set. In plain unadorned language the foregoing says: An earthly man Osiris marries a spirit a female attribute of the Creator Isis and they have a son. But Isis was only one forming the female attribute of the Creator. The writings of the Motherland say the Creator was Lahun, two in one, not four in one. Can anything more grotesque or atrocious than the foregoing be imagined? Yet this seems to be the theology p. 270 and teachings of the Egyptian priesthood for a long period in their history--thousands of years. Is it any wonder that they were thrown into the discard? Dozen of other examples could be quoted, but I think this one all sufficient to show the abuses engrafted into their religion. During the early part of the history of religion in Egypt, such grossness does not appear. As soon as we know anything about her religion we find its theology very complicated and, without question, this complicated theology was the parent of the diabolical abuses which crept into religion later on. In the early Egyptian religion I find symbolizations ran somewhat parallel with that of the Polynesians. For instance, the marriage of gods. There is, however, this difference. The result of the marriage of Egyptian gods with other gods was only further to complicate theology. With the Polynesians the marriage of gods resulted in phenomena, such as light, sound, et cetera, which is correct, being the workings of the Cosmic Forces. I shall now give some examples both Egyptian and Polynesian. The Polynesians believe that all that has been created came from the marriage of gods. The first four gods were the Four Great Primary Forces--a name given them during the earth's First Great Civilization. The Polynesians say: "In the beginning there was no light, life or sound in the world. A boundless night called Po enveloped everything, over which Tanaoa (darkness) p. 271 and Mutu-Hei (silence) reigned supreme. Then the god of light separated from Tanaoa (darkness), fought him and drove him away, and confined him to the night. Then the god Ono (sound) was evolved from Atea (light) and banished silence. From all this struggle was Atauana (dawn) born. Atea (light) married Atauana (dawn) and they created earth, animals and man." Now let us have a little Egyptian Cosmogony:-- Seb and Tefnut: offspring, the gods: Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Set. Ra and Hathor: offspring, the gods: Shu and Tefnut. Osiris and Isis: offspring, the god: Horus. There were also the marriages of the gods and goddesses: Amen Ra and Maut. Kneph and Sati. Ptah and Bast. Set and Nephthys. I have shown what all these gods symbolized, in a short way, in the Pantheon. THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT.--While we are on the subject of the Israelites, let us follow them in their Exodus from Egypt. When the Israelites made their exodus from Egypt, they left Goshen which is a part of the Nile Delta, and, according to Egyptian records (papyrus), they crossed the "Sea of Reeds" and passed into Asia. The Sea of Reeds or rushes is situated at one of the mouths of the p. 272 Nile. The water is very shallow and most of it can be waded without danger. When they arrived at the Sea of Reeds a submarine earthquake occurred in the Mediterranean Sea off the mouth of the Nile--probably on the gas belt which runs down from Crete and extends under Africa a short distance from the Nile Delta. This quake first drew off the water, leaving the Sea of Reeds dry--the Israelites passed over, the Egyptian army followed. During its passage the returning cataclysmic wave rolled in over the Sea of Reeds overwhelming the Egyptians. A mistranslation evidently occurs in the Bible. The Sea of Reeds was mistaken for the Red Sea. The Red Sea at the point where it is stated the Israelites crossed lies 200 miles from Goshen. The Sea of Reeds joined Goshen. To have crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites would have had to pass through 200 miles of enemy country, with an army in close pursuit, which means that they would have been overtaken and slain. Pillars: The Israelites when in bondage in Egypt erected two pillars of brick at the entrance of their temples. In the inner part of these temples was the Holy of Holies where only the high priest might enter. The Hebrews: The word "hebrew" comes from ebber meaning further back. Apparently, the Jews descended from four groups. Two of the tribes entered Palestine about 1375-1350 B. C. Later ten tribes joined them. These came from Egypt about 1200 B. C. or from 150 to 175 years later than the two tribes. p. 273 About 973 B. C. the tribes separated, the two seceded and appointed Jeraboam their king. Reaboam was at the time the king of the ten tribes. Years later, the Assyrians attacked the ten tribes, and history states that the Assyrians destroyed them. Whether or not they were wholly destroyed they disappeared from history and are now spoken of as "the lost tribes." It cannot be conceived that all were put to the sword. Unquestionably some were taken into captivity, and became assimilated with the Assyrians, especially as both were Semites. The Assyrians in turn were overthrown by the Medes and Persians. What has become of the Assyrians? Among their descendants today, we should, no doubt, find some of the descendants of the ten tribes, but whether there would be any of them with pure Israelitish blood in them is very doubtful. Still later, the Babylonians conquered the two remaining tribes. These still survive in our Jews of today. They are, however, scattered throughout the world among all nations. These Jews hold the Feast of the Passover-- Why? They are the descendants of the two tribes who were not in Egypt. It was the ten lost tribes that were concerned in the Exodus and consequently the Passover. Ezra and his associates wrote the Bible. What is known as the Book of Moses was written by them from documents obtained from the ten tribes who were p. 274 in Egypt. The writings of Moses were partly in Naga and partly in Egyptian. Ezra obtained a slight knowledge of Naga in a Chaldi during the time he was in captivity; but neither Ezra nor any of his associates were Egyptian scholars. Is it any wonder they made so many errors in translating the Egyptian? Yet for all their errors their work was wonderful. THE RELIGION OF INDIA.--The religion of very ancient India was that of the Motherland, brought there from Mu by the Naacals, a holy brotherhood. These men were taught religion and the Cosmic Sciences in the Motherland and when proficient were sent to the colonial empires to form colleges and perfect the local priesthoods, who in turn taught the people. About 5,000 years ago, a race of Aryans began to drift down into India from the bleak valleys of the Hindu Koosh and adjoining mountains. Their first settlement was among the Nagas in the Saraswatte Valley. They were just hardy mountaineers, uncouth and uneducated. The Nagas, the most highly educated race in the world, took compassion on them, welcomed them into their schools and colleges, educated and advanced them. The Nagas received them too well for their own good, for, it called from the mountains nearly all who had multiplied there since the destruction of the great Uighur Empire of whom they were descendants. In time these Aryans dominated the whole of the Northern parts of India including their schools and colleges. Thinking they had learnt from the Naacals all there p. 275 was to be learnt, they proceeded to drive their gentle, kindly instructors out of the country into the snowcapped mountains of the North. After a period a sect was formed which was called Brahmins who took or usurped the charge of religious teachings. To attain their own ends, they introduced into religion perverted, incomprehensible theologies having all kinds of extravagance. This was the commencement of the downfall of India, which gained impetus as time went on. They introduced caste, commencing with three only. The caste system was extended, until at last the lowest caste was looked upon as untouchables, and for a touch of an untouchable, the receiver of a higher caste must go into a purification before he could be received again by his own people. The result of this was the final step which brought India down from the high position of leading the world in religion, arts and sciences. All that was left were a few embers where at one time was the bright light of a fire representing everything worth-while in life. Then a great one sprang up among them, a Prince Guatama. He went back to the original teachings of the Sacred Writings. A vast throng followed his teachings and these became the Buddhists. Buddhism was carried throughout the Orient and was the universal religion. It was only a question of time before a crafty priesthood began its negative work. The Buddhist priesthood of Northern India fell away from the gentle p. 276 teacher, Guatama Buddha, and introduced all sorts of impossible theologies and theories for the sole purpose of enslaving the people. Only those in the South remained true to Guatama's actual teachings. Today the center of Buddhism is a little unostentatious temple at Kandy, in the Central Mountains of Ceylon. But with all these priestly traps and pitfalls common to religions today a spark of the truth has been again kindled and will soon shine throughout the world. Priesthoods and politicians never have seen nor ever will see "the writing on the wall" until those walls are falling on them and it becomes too late to escape. This has been the history of the world for the past 12,000 to 15,000 years. The people rise and crush the politicians and the Lord, in His own way, weeds his garden. A U M is an inscription that has baffled scholars and scientists throughout the world, the Hindus included, for more than 2,300 years. Its import was lost when the Naacals were driven out of India by the Brahmins. Many scholars have attempted to fathom its meaning. None, however, arrived at any satisfactory conclusions; even the oldest are indefinite. Examples: Manava dharma Sastra an ancient Hindu book. Book 2. Sloka 74. "In the beginning the Infinite only existed called Aditi. In this Infinite dwelt A U M p. 277 whose name must precede all prayers and invocations." Book of Manu, Sloka 77. "The monosyllable A U M means earth sky and heaven." I. T. Wheeler, History of India, Vol. 2. Page 481 says: "As regards the three letters A U M little can be gathered, excepting, that when brought together in the word A U M they are said by Manu to form a symbol of the Lord of created things--Brahma." H. T. Colebrook in Asiatic Research says: "According to Noruka which is an ancient glossary of the Vedas the syllable A U M refers to every Deity. "The Brahmins may reserve for their initiates an esoteric more ample than that given by Manu." Noruka must have been reading a Brahminical version of the Vedas, which they stole from the Naacals, changed it to suit their own vile purposes and then foisted it on the world as their own writings. The Original Vedas are a Naacal writing. The Naacals acknowledged One Deity only. Therefore, when Noruka mentions "every Deity" it shows without the possibility of contradiction that the Vedas which he refers to were altered and doctored and were not the original writings. A U M conveys identically the same meaning and conception as the Mysterious Writing and Niven's Mexican tablet No. 2379. The difference between these and A U M is in the form of the writing. The Mysterious Writing and the Mexican tablet are in the old p. 278 temple esoteric numeral writing. The Hindu A U M is written in alphabetical symbols which reads: A--Ahau Masculine-Father U-- Feminine--Mother--She M--Mehen The engendered--The Son--Man Note: U is here used as the feminine pronoun--She. M would have been used but it would have been con founded with the following M for Mehen. The Brahmins formed a complicated theology around this conception, introducing a confusion absolutely incomprehensible to the people. It became a wonderful breeder of awe and superstition. BIBLICAL SYMBOLISMS TAKEN LITERALLY. Tower of Babel: The Biblical Tower of Babel has been literally taken as a structure of stone or brick. From some old writings, I am brought to believe that it is a purely symbolical term: that "confusion of tongues" is the crux of the legend. This legend was not written during the life of Mu. It came later, many years later, when ancient history was being recorded again and mankind once more widely populated the earth. It was therefore a product of the New Civilization. Extravagances in theology and technology in the various temples, colleges and schools were the cause of the "Confusion of tongues" and the whole structure of Religion and Science was the Tower. Each temple had its own terms and words for its theology. Each college and school had its own particular words and p. 279 terms for its technical teachings. So that no temple or college could understand the teachings of another. All in fact spoke different languages, no one understanding another. This made a "Tower of Confusion," "A Babel of Tongues": so that the name given to the condition was the only one which would adequately describe it. Today we are running headlong into another such storm, another such confusion of tongues. We have over 100 sects of Christianity, yet there is only one God. Each sect declares all others are in error. They cannot comprehend each other's language. In Mu there were no sects, no theology. All teachings and wording were so simple that the most uncultivated mind could comprehend them. Mu's religious teachings lasted 200,000 years. When the present Tower of Babel comes crashing to the ground, a new structure will arise on its ruins. And that structure will be the simple religion of Mu. The Flood: The Biblical legend of the Flood is not a myth nor is it symbolical. It has been wrongly described. Those who wrote the Biblical description simply failed to understand the writings of Moses. There was a flood which destroyed about one half of the earth and all life thereon; but it was not due to a heavy rain. The Flood resulted from magnetic influences. The Last Magnetic Cataclysm, the Biblical Flood and the Geological Myth, the Glacial Period, are all one and the same thing.

requirements.txt

langchain langchain_openai langchain_core python-dotenv langserve fastapi uvicorn

The Babylonian Story of the Deluge a.txt

Sacred-texts Ancient Near East The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish by E.A. Wallis Budge [1929] THIS brochure, The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish, was originally written by the late Keeper of the Department, SIR ERNEST WALLIS BUDGE, LITT.D., F.S.A. It is now re-issued in a revised form, rendered necessary by the march of discovery in Babylonian matters during the last few years. The work of revision has been carried out by Mr. C. J. GADD, M.A., F.S.A., Assistant-Keeper in the Department. H. R. HALL. DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM, 15th October, 1929. THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE DELUGE AS TOLD BY ASSYRIAN TABLETS FROM NINEVEH. THE DISCOVERY OF THE TABLETS AT NINEVEH BY LAYARD, RASSAM AND SMITH. IN 1845-47, and again in 1849-51, Mr. (later Sir) A. H. Layard carried out a series of excavations among the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, "that great city, wherein are more than sixteen thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left; and also much cattle" (Jonah iv, ii). Its ruins lie on the left or east bank of the Tigris, exactly opposite the town of At-Mawsil, or Môsul, which was founded by the Sassanians and marks the site of Western Nineveh. At first Layard thought that these ruins were not those of Nineveh, which he placed at Nimrûd, about 20 miles downstream, but of one of the other cities that were builded by Asshur (see Gen. X, 11, 12). Thanks, however, to Christian, Roman and Muhammadan tradition, there is no room for doubt about it, and the site of Nineveh has always been known. The fortress which the Arabs built there in the seventh century was known as "Kal'at Ninawï," i.e., "Nineveh Castle," for many centuries, and all the Arab geographers agree in saying that the mounds opposite Môsul contain the ruins of the palaces and walls of Nineveh. And few of them fail to mention that close by them is "Tall Nabi Yûnis," i.e., the Hill from which the Prophet Jonah preached repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh, that "exceeding great city of three days' journey" (Jonah iii, 3). Local tradition also declares that the prophet was buried in the Hill, and his supposed tomb is shown there to this day. THE WALLS AND PALACES OF NINEVEH. The situation of the ruins of the palaces of Nineveh is well shown by the accompanying reproduction of the plan of {p. 2} the city made by Commander Felix Jones, I.N. The remains of the older palaces built by Sargon II (B.C. 722-705), Sennacherib (B.C. 705-681), and Esarhaddon (B.C. 681-669) lie under the hill called Nabi Yûnis, and those of the palaces and other buildings of Asshur-bani-pal (B.C. 681-626) under the mound which is known locally as "Tall al-'Armûshîyah," i.e., "The "Hill of 'Armûsh," and "Kuyûnjik." The latter name is said to be derived from two Turkish words meaning "many sheep," in allusion to the large flocks of sheep that find their pasture on and about the mound in the early spring. These two great mounds lie close to the remains of the great west wall of Nineveh, which in the time of the last Assyrian Empire may have been washed by the waters of the river Tigris.[1] The river Khausur, or Khoser, divides the area of Nineveh into two parts, and passing close to the southern end of Kuyûnjik empties itself into the Tigris. The ruins of the walls of Nineveh show that the east wall was 16,000 feet long, the north wall 7,000 feet long, the west wall 13,600 feet, and the south wall 3,000 feet; its circuit was about 13,200 yards or 71 miles. FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT NINEVEH. In the spring of 1850 Layard, assisted by Mr. H. Rassam, continued the excavation of the "South West Palace" at Kuyûnjik. In one part of the building he found two small chambers, opening into each other, which be called the "chamber of records," or "the house of the rolls." He gave them this name because "to the height of a foot or more from the floor they were entirely filled with inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments of tablets. Some tablets were complete, but by far the larger number of them had been broken up into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the roof and upper parts of the walls of the buildings when the city was pillaged and set on fire by the Medes and Babylonians. The tablets that were kept in these chambers numbered many thousands. Besides those that were found in them by Layard, large numbers have been dug out all along [1. It has recently been suggested, as a result of careful examination of the site, that the Tigris never actually flowed under the city wall. (R. C. Thompson, A Century of Exploration at Nineveh, p. 122 ff.)] {p. 4} the corridor which passed the chambers and led to the river, and a considerable number were kicked on to the river front by the feet of the terrified fugitives from the palace when it was set on fire. The tablets found by Layard were of different sizes; the largest were rectangular, flat on one side and convex on the other, and measured about 9 ins. by 6½ ins., and the smallest were about an inch square. The importance of this "find" was not sufficiently recognized at the time, for the tablets, which were thought to be decorated pottery, were thrown into baskets and sent down the river loose on rafts to Basrah, whence they were despatched to England on a British {p. 6} man-of-war. During their transport from Nineveh to England they suffered more damage from want of packing than they had suffered from the wrath of the Medes. Among the complete tablets that were found in the two chambers several had colophons inscribed or scratched upon them, and when these were deciphered by Rawlinson, Hincks and Oppert a few years later, it became evident that they had formed part of the Library of the TEMPLE OF NEBO AT NINEVEH. NEBO AND HIS LIBRARY AT NINEVEH. Nothing is known of the early history of the Library[1] of the Temple of Nebo at Nineveh, but there is little doubt that it was in existence in the reign of Sargon II. Authorities differ in their estimate of the attributes that were assigned to Nebo (Nabu) in Pre-Babylonian times, and "cannot decide whether he was a water-god, or a fire-god, or a corn-god, but he was undoubtedly associated with Marduk, either as his son or as a fellow-god. It is certain that as early as B.C. 2000 he was regarded as one of the "Great Gods" of Babylonia, and in the fourteenth century B.C. his cult was already established in Assyria. He had a temple at Nimrûd in the ninth century B.C., and King Adad-nirari (B.C. 811-783) set up six statues in it to the honour of the god; two of these statues are now in the British Museum. The same Adad-nirari also repaired the Nebo temple at Nineveh. Under the last Assyrian Empire Nebo was believed to possess the wisdom of all the gods, and to be the "All-wise " and "All-knowing." He was the inventor of all the arts and sciences, and the source of inspiration in wise and learned men, and he was the divine scribe and past master of all the mysteries connected with literature and the art of writing (dup-sharrute). Ashur-bani-pal addresses him as "Nebo, the mighty son, the director of the whole of heaven and of earth, holder of the tablet, bearer of the writing-reed of the tablet of destiny, lengthener of days, vivifier of the dead, stablisher of light for the men who are troubled" (see Tablet, RM. 132). [1. A group of Sumerian signs for "library" is ### (girginakku), and these seem to mean "collection of tablets."] {p. 7} In the reign of Sargon II the Temple of Nebo at Kuyûnjik[1] was repaired, and probably at that time a library was housed in it. Layard found some of the remains of Nebo's Library in the South West Palace, but it must have been transferred thither, for the temple of Nebo lay farther north, near the south comer of Ashur-bani-pal's palace. Nebo's temple at Nineveh bore the same name as his very ancient temple at Borsippa (the modem Birs-i-Nimrûd), viz., "E-ZIDA." DISCOVERY OF THE PALACE LIBRARY OF ASHUR-BANI-PAL. In the spring of 1851 Layard was obliged to close his excavations for want of funds, and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving all the northern half of the great mound of Kuyûnjik unexcavated. He resigned his position as Director of Excavations to the Trustees of the British Museum, and Colonel (later Sir) H. C. Rawlinson, Consul-General at Baghdâd, undertook to direct any further excavations that it might be possible to carry out later on. During the summer the Trustees received a further grant from Parliament for excavations in Assyria, and they dispatched Rassam to finish the exploration of Kuyûnjik, knowing that the lease of the mound of Kuyûnjik for excavation purposes which he had obtained from its owner had several years to run. When Rassam arrived at Môsul in 1852, and was collecting his men for work, he discovered that Rawlinson, who knew nothing about the lease of the mound which Rassam held, had given the French Consul, M. Place, permission to excavate the northern half of the mound, i.e., that part of it which he was most anxious to excavate for the British Museum. He protested, but in vain, and, finding that M. Place intended to hold Rawlinson to his word, devoted himself to clearing out part of the South West Palace which Layard had attacked in 1850. Meanwhile M. Place was busily occupied with the French excavations at Khorsabad, a mound which contained the ruins of the great palace of Sargon II, and had no time to open up excavations at Kuyûnjik. In this way a year passed, and as M. Place made no sign that he was going to excavate at Kuyûnjik, and Rassam's time for [1. For a description of the ruins of this temple, see R. C. Thompson, A Century of Exploration at Nineveh, pp. 67-79.] {p. 13} returning to England was drawing near, the owner of the mound, who was anxious to get the excavations finished so that he might again graze his flocks on the mound, urged Rassam to get to work in spite of Rawlinson's agreement with M. Place. He and Rassam made arrangements to excavate the northern part of the mound clandestinely and by night, and on 20th December, 1853, the work began. On the first night nothing of importance was found; on the second night the men uncovered a portion of a large bas-relief; and on the third night a huge mass of earth collapsed revealing a very fine bas-relief, sculptured with a scene representing Ashur-bani-pal standing in his chariot. The news of the discovery was quickly carried to all parts of the neighbourhood, and as it was impossible to keep the diggings secret any longer, the work was continued openly and by day. The last-mentioned bas-relief was one of the series that lined the chamber, which was 50 feet long and 15 feet wide, and illustrated a royal lion hunt. This series, that is to say, all of it that the fire which destroyed the palace had spared, is now in the British Museum (see the Gallery of the Assyrian Saloon). Whilst the workmen were clearing out the Chamber of the Lion Hunt they came across several heaps of inscribed baked clay tablets of "all shapes and sizes," which resembled in general appearance the tablets that Layard had found in the South West Palace the year before. There were no remains with them, or near them, that suggested they had been arranged systematically and stored in the Chamber of the Lion Hunt, and it seems as if they had been brought there from another place and thrown down hastily, for nearly all of them were broken into small pieces. As some of them bore traces of having been exposed to great heat they must have been in that chamber during the burning of the palace. When the tablets were brought to England and were examined by Rawlinson, it was found from the information supplied by the colophons that they formed a part of the great PRIVATE LIBRARY OF [1. These bas-reliefs show that lions were kept in cages in Nineveh and let out to be killed by the King with his own hand. There seems to be an allusion to the caged lions by Nahum (ii, 11), who says, "Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?"] {p. 14} ASHUR-BANI-PAL, which that king kept in his palace. The tablets found by Layard in 1850 and by Rassam in 1853 form the unique and magnificent collection of cuneiform tablets in the British Museum, which is now commonly known as the "Kuyûnjik Collection." The approximate number of the inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments that have come from Kuyûnjik and are now in the British Museum is 25,073. It is impossible to over-estimate their importance and value from religious, historical and literary points of view; besides this, they have supplied the material for the decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions in the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian languages, and form the foundation of the science of Assyriology which has been built up with such conspicuous success during the last 70 years. ASHUR-BANI-PAL, BOOK-COLLECTOR AND PATRON OF LEARNING. Ashur-bani-pal (the Asnapper of Ezra iv, 10) succeeded his father Esarhaddon B.C. 669, and at a comparatively early period of his reign he seems to have devoted himself to the study of the history of his country, and to the making of a great Private Library. The tablets that have come down to us prove not only that he was as great a benefactor of the Library of the Temple of Nebo as any of his predecessors, but that he was himself an educated man, a lover of learning, and a patron of the literary folk of his day. In the introduction to his Annals, as found inscribed on his great ten-sided prism in the British Museum, he tells us how he took up his abode in the Crown Prince's dwelling from which Sermacherib and Esarhaddon had ruled the Assyrian Empire, and in describing his own education he says: "I, Ashur-bani-pal, within it (i.e., the palace) understood the wisdom of Nebo, all the art of writing of every craftsman, of every kind, I made myself master of them all (i.e., of the various kinds of writing)." {p. 16} These words suggest that Ashur-bani-pal could not only read cuneiform texts, but could write like a skilled scribe, and that he also understood all the details connected with the {p. 17} craft of making and baking tablets. Having determined to form a Library in his palace he set to work in a systematic manner to collect literary works. He sent scribes to ancient seats of learning, e.g., Ashur, Babylon, Cuthah, Nippur, Akkad, Erech, to make copies of the ancient works that were preserved there, and when the copies came to Nineveh he either made transcripts of them himself, or caused his scribes to do so for the Palace Library. In any case he collated the texts himself and revised them before placing them in his Library. The appearance of the tablets from his Library suggests that he established a factory in which the clay was cleaned and kneaded and made into homogeneous, well-shaped tablets, and a kiln in which they were baked, after they had been inscribed. The uniformity of the script upon them is very remarkable, and texts with mistakes in them are rarely found. How the tablets were arranged in the Library is not known, but certainly groups were catalogued, and some tablets were labelled.[1] Groups of tablets were arranged in numbered series, with "catch lines," the first tablet of the series giving the first line of the second tablet, the second tablet giving the first line of the third tablet, and so on. Ashur-bani-pal was greatly interested in the literature of the Sumerians, i.e., the non-Semitic people who occupied Lower Babylonia about B.C. 3500 and later. He and his scribes made bilingual lists of signs and words and objects of all classes and kinds, all of which are of priceless value to the modem student of the Sumerian and Assyrian languages. Annexed is an extract from a List of [1. K. 1352 is a, good specimen of a catalogue (see p. 10); K. 1400 and K. 1539 are labels (see p. 12).] {p. 18} Signs with Sumerian and Assyrian values. The signs of which the meanings are given are in the middle column; the Sumerian values are given in the column to the left, and their meanings in Assyrian in the column to the right. To many of his copies of Sumerian hymns, incantations, magical formulas, etc., Ashur-bani-pal caused interlinear translations to be added in Assyrian, and of such bilingual documents the following extract from a text relating to the Seven Evil Spirits will serve as a specimen. The 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc., lines are written in Sumerian, and the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc., lines in Assyrian. Most of the tablets from Kuyûnjik end with colophons, which can be divided broadly into two classes. One of these is the short note, frequently impressed by a stamp, which reads simply "Palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of all, king of Assyria" (see the tablet illustrated on p. 22). The longer forms of colophon were added by the scribes who had written the whole tablet. Of these longer colophons there are several versions, each of which seems to have been appropriated to a particular class of texts. Two of the most interesting are here appended; they reveal a distinction between tablets belonging to the Palace Library and those preserved in the Temple of Nebo. {p. 20} 1. Palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of all, king of the country of Assyria, 2. who trusteth in the god Ashur and the goddess Ninlil, 3. on whom the god Nebo (Nabû) and the goddess Tashmetu 4. have bestowed all-hearing ears 5. and who has eyes that are clearsighted. 6. The finest results of the art of writing 7. which, among the kings who have gone before, 8. no one ever acquired that craft, 9. the wisdom of Nebo [expressed in] rows (?) of writing, of every form, 10. on tablets I wrote, collated and revised, 11. [and] for examination and reading 12. in my palace I placed--[I] 13. the prince who knoweth the light of the king of the gods, Ashur.' 14. Whosoever shall carry [them] off, or his name side by side with mine 15. shall write, may Ashur and Ninlil, wrathfully, furiously 16. sweep away, and his name and his seed destroy in the land. 2. COLOPHON OF THE TABLETS OF THE LIBRARY OF NEBO. (Rm. 132.) 1. To Nebo, the mighty son, director of the whole of heaven and of earth, 2. holder of the tablet, bearer of the writing reed of the tablet of destinies, 3. lengthener of days, vivifier of the dead, stablisher of light for the men who are troubled, 4. the great lord, his lord; Ashur-bani-pal, the prince, the favourite of the gods Ashur, Bê1 and Nebo, 5. the shepherd, the maintainer of the holy places of the great gods, stablisher of their revenues, 6. son of Esarhaddon, king of all, king of Assyria, 7. grandson of Sennacherib, king of all, king of Assyria, [1. Or, probably better. "Thy lordship is beyond compare, O king the gods, Ashur."] {p. 21} 8. for the life of his soul, length of his days, [and] well-being of his posterity, 9. to make permanent the foundation of his royal throne, to hear his supplications, 10. to receive his petitions, to deliver into his hands the rebellious. 11. The wisdom of Ea, the chanter's art, the secrets of the sages, 12. what is composed for the contentment of the heart of the great gods, 13. I wrote upon tablets, I collated, I revised 14. according to originals of the lands of Ashur and Akkad, 15. and I placed in the Library of E-zida, the temple of Nebo my lord, which is in Nineveh. 16. O Nebo, lord of the whole of heaven and of earth, look upon that Library joyfully for years (i.e., for ever). 17. On Ashur-bani-pal, the chief, the worshipper of thy divinity, daily bestow grace, 18. his life decree, so that he may exalt thy great godhead. The tablets from both Libraries when unbroken vary in size from 15 inches by 85/8 inches to 1 inch by 7/8 inch, and they are usually about 1 inch thick. In shape they are rectangular, the obverse being flat and the reverse slightly convex. Contract tablets, letter tablets and "case" tablets are very much smaller, and resemble small pillows in shape. The principal subjects dealt with in the tablets are history, annalistic or summaries, letters, despatches, reports, oracles, prayers, contracts, deeds of sale of land, produce, cattle, slaves, agreements, dowries, bonds for interest (with impressions of seals, and fingernails, or nail marks), chronography, chronology, canons of eponyms, divination (by astrology, the entrails of victims, oil, casual events, dreams, and symptoms), charms, spells, incantations, mythology, legends, grammar, law, geography, etc.[1] [1. For a full description of the general contents of the two great Libraries of Nineveh. see Bezold, Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets of the Kouyûnjik Collection, Vol. V, London, 1899, p. xviii ff.; and King, Supplement, London, 1914, p. xviii ff.] {p. 24} GEORGE SMITH'S DISCOVERY OF THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH AND THE STORY OF THE DELUGE. The mass of tablets which had been discovered by Layard and Rassam at Nineveh came to the British Museum in 1854-5, and their examination by Rawlinson and Norris began very soon after. Mr. Bowler, a skilful draughtsman and copyist of tablets, whom Rawlinson employed in making transfers of copies of cuneiform texts for publication by lithography, rejoined a considerable number of fragments of bilingual lists, syllabaries, etc., which were published in the second volume of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, in 1866. In that year the Trustees of the British Museum employed George Smith to assist Rawlinson in sorting, classifying and rejoining fragments, and a comprehensive examination of the collection by him began. His personal interest in Assyriology was centred upon historical texts, especially those which threw any light on the Bible Narrative. But in the course of his search for stories of the campaigns of Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal, he discovered among other important documents (1) a series of portions of tablets which give the adventures of Gilgamish, an ancient king of Erech; (2) an account of the Deluge, which is supplied by the Eleventh Tablet of the Legend of Gilgamish (in more than one version); (3) a detailed description of the Creation; (4) the Legend of the Descent of Ishtar into Hades in quest of Tammuz. The general meaning of the texts was quite clear, but there were many gaps in them, and it was not until December, 1872, that George Smith published his description of the Legend of Gilgamish, and a translation of the "Chaldean Account of the Deluge." The interest which his paper evoked was universal, and the proprietors of The Daily Telegraph advocated that Smith should be at once dispatched to Nineveh to search for the missing fragments of tablets which would fill up the gaps in his texts, and generously offered to contribute 1,000 guineas towards the cost of the excavations. The Trustees accepted the offer and gave six months' leave of absence to Smith, who left London in January, and arrived in Môsul in March, 1873. In the following May he recovered from Kuyûnjik a fragment that contained "the greater portion of seventeen {p. 25} lines of inscription belonging to the first column of the Chaldean account of the Deluge, and fitting into the only place where there was a serious blank in the story."[1] During the excavations which Smith carried out at Kuyûnjik in 1873 and 1874 he recovered many fragments of tablets, the texts of which enabled him to complete his description of the contents of the Twelve Tablets of the Legend of Gilgamish which included his translation of the story of the Deluge. Unfortunately Smith died of hunger and sickness near Aleppo in 1876, and he was unable to revise his early work, and to supplement it with the information which he had acquired during his latest travels in Assyria and Babylonia. Thanks to the excavations which were carried on at Kuyûnjik by the Trustees of the British Museum after his untimely death, several hundreds of tablets and fragments have been recovered, and many of these have been rejoined to the tablets of the older collection. By the careful study and investigation of the old and new material Assyriologists have, during the last forty years, been enabled to restore and complete many passages in the Legends of Gilgamish and the Flood. It now seems that the Legend of the Flood had not originally any connection with the Legend of Gilgamish, and that it was introduced into it by a late editor or redactor of the Legend, probably in order to complete the number of the Twelve Tablets on which it was written in the time of Ashur-bani-pal. THE LEGEND OF THE DELUGE IN BABYLONIA. In the introduction to his paper on the "Chaldean Account of the Deluge," which Smith read in December, 1872, and published in 1873, he stated that the Assyrian text which he had found on Ashur-bani-pal's tablets was copied from an archetype at Erech in Lower Babylonia. This archetype was, he thought, "either written in, or translated into Semitic Babylonian, to at a very early period," and although he could not assign a date to it, he adduced a number of convincing proofs in support of his opinion. The language in which he assumed the Legend to have been originally composed was known to [1. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, London, 1875, p. 97.] {p. 26} him under the name of "Accadian," or "Akkadian," but is now called "Sumerian." Recent research has shown that his view on this point was correct on the whole. But there is satisfactory proof available to show that versions or recensions of the Legend of the Deluge and of the Epic of Gilgamish existed both in Sumerian and Babylonian, as early as B.C. 2000. The discovery has been made of a fragment of a tablet with a small portion of the Babylonian version of the Legend of the Deluge inscribed upon it, and dated in a year which is the equivalent of the 11th year of Ammisaduga, i.e., about B.C. 1800.[1] And in the Museum at Philadelphia[2] is preserved half of a tablet which when whole contained a complete copy of a Sumerian version of the Legend, and must have been written about the same date. The fragment of the tablet written in the reign of Ammisaduga is of special importance because the colophon shows that the tablet to which it belonged was the second of a series, and that this series was not that of the Epic of Gilgamish, and from this we learn that in B.C. 2000 the Legend of the Deluge did not form the XIth Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamish, as it did in the reign of Ashur-bani-pal, or earlier. The Sumerian version is equally important, though from another point of view, for the contents and position of the portion of it that remains on the half of the tablet mentioned above make it certain that already at this early period there were several versions of the Legend of the Deluge current in the Sumerian language. The fact is that the Legend of the Deluge was then already so old in Mesopotamia that the scribes added to or abbreviated the text at will, and treated the incidents recorded in it according to local or popular taste, tradition and prejudice. There seems to be no evidence that proves conclusively that the Sumerian version is older than the Semitic, or that the latter was translated direct from the former version. It is probable that both the Sumerians and the Semites, each in their own way, attempted to commemorate an appalling disaster of unparalleled magnitude, the knowledge of which, through tradition, was common to [1. Published by Scheil in Maspero's Recueil, Vol. XX, p. 5.5 ff., and again by Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform, Plates I, II. 2. The text is published by A. Poebel with transcription, commentary, etc., in Historical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914, and Historical and Grammatical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914.] {p. 27} both peoples. It is, at all events, well known that the Sumerians regarded the Deluge as an historic event, which they were, practically, able to date, for some of their records contain lists of kings who reigned before the Deluge, though it must be confessed that the lengths assigned to their reigns are incredible. After their rule it is expressly noted that the Flood occurred, and that, when it passed away, kingship came down again from on high. It is not too much to assume that the original event commemorated in the Legend of the Deluge was a serious and prolonged inundation or flood in Lower Babylonia, which was accompanied by great loss of life and destruction of property. The Babylonian versions state that this inundation or flood was caused by rain, but passages in some of them suggest that the effects of the rainstorm were intensified bv other physical happenings connected with the earth, of a most destructive character. The Hebrews also, as we may see from the Bible, had alternative views as to the cause of the Deluge. According to one, rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights (Gen. vii, 12), and according to the other the Deluge came because "all the fountains of the great deep" were broken up, and "the flood-gates of heaven were opened" (Gen. vii, ii). The latter view suggests that the rain flood was joined by the waters of the sea. Later tradition, derived partly from Babylonian and partly from Hebrew sources, asserts, e.g., in the Cave of Treasures, a Syriac treatise composed probably at Edessa about the fifth or sixth century A.D., that when Noah had entered the Ark and the door was shut "the floodgates of the heavens were opened it and the foundations of the earth were rent asunder," and that "the ocean, that great sea which surroundeth the whole world, poured forth its floods. And whilst the floodgates of heaven were open, and the foundations of the earth were rent asunder, the storehouses of the winds burst their bolts, and storms and whirlwinds swept forth, and ocean roared and hurled its floods upon the earth." The ark was steered over the waters by an angel who acted as pilot, and when that had come to rest on the mountains of Kardô (Ararat), "God commanded the waters and they became separated from each other. The celestial waters were taken up and ascended to their own place above the heavens whence they came. {p. 28} The waters which had risen up from the earth returned to the lowermost abyss, and those which belonged to the ocean returned to the innermost part thereof."[1] Many authorities seeking to find a foundation of fact for the Legend of the Deluge in Mesopotamia have assumed that the rain-flood was accompanied either by an earthquake or a tidal-wave, or by both. There is no doubt that the cities of Lower Babylonia were nearer the sea in the Sumerian Period than they are at present, and it is a generally accepted view that the head of the Persian Gulf lay farther to the north at that time. A cyclone coupled with a tidal wave is a sufficient base for any of the forms of the Legend now known. A comparison of the contents of the various Sumerian and Babylonian versions of the Deluge that have come down to us shows us that they are incomplete. And as none of them tells so connected and full a narrative of the prehistoric shipbuilder as Berosus, a priest of Bêl, the great god of Babylon, it seems that the Mesopotamian scribes were content to copy the Legend in an abbreviated form. Berosus, it is true, is not a very ancient authority, for he was not born until the reign of Alexander the Great, but he was a learned man and was well acquainted with the Babylonian language, and with the ancient literature of his country, and he wrote a history of Babylonia, some fragments of which have been preserved to us in the works of Alexander Polyhistor, Eusebius, and others. The following is a version of the fragment which describes the flood that took place in the days of Xisuthras,[2] the tenth King of the Chaldeans, and is of importance for comparison with the rendering of the Legend of the Deluge, as found on the Ninevite tablets, which follows immediately after. THE LEGEND OF THE DELUGE ACCORDING TO BEROSUS. "After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is thus described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the [1. Budge, The Book of the Cave of Treasures, pp. i 12 ff. 2. This is a Greek form of Zisudra, the name of the last king before the Flood, according to the Sumerian tradition.] {p. 29} 15th day of the month Daesius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity, whither he was to sail? he was answered, 'To the Gods ': upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition; and built a vessel 5 stadia in length, and 2 in breadth. Into this he put everything which he had prepared; and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends. After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which, not finding any food nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth, and, having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared. They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that be was translated to live with the gods; that his wife and daughter, and the pilot, had obtained the same honour. To this he added that they should return to Babylonia; and, it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they {p. 30} were to make known to mankind: moreover that the place, wherein they then were, was the land of Armenia. The rest having beard these words, offered sacrifices to the gods; and taking a circuit journeyed towards Babylonia." (Cory, Ancient Fragments, London, 1832, p. 26 ff.) THE BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE DELUGE AS TOLD TO THE HERO GILGAMISH BY HIS ANCESTOR UTA-NAPISHTIM, WHO HAD BEEN MADE IMMORTAL BY THE GODS. The form of the Legend of the Deluge given below is that which is found on the Eleventh of the Series of Twelve Tablets in the Royal Library at Nineveh, which described the life and exploits of Gilgamish, an early king of the city of Erech. As we have seen above, the Legend of the Deluge has probably no original connection with the Epic of Gilgamish, but was introduced into it by the editors of the Epic at a comparatively late period, perhaps even during the reign of Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 669-626). A summary of the contents of the other Tablets of the Gilgamish Series is given in the following section of this short monograph. It is therefore only necessary to state here that Gilgamish, who was horrified and almost beside himself when his bosom friend and companion Enkidu died, meditated deeply how he could escape death himself. He knew that his ancestor Uta-Napishtim a had become immortal, therefore he determined to set out for the place where Uta-Napishtim lived so that he might obtain from him the secret of immortality. Guided by a dream, Gilgamish set out for the Mountain of the Sunset, and, after great toil and many difficulties, came to the shore of a vast sea. Here he met Ur-Shanabi, the boatman of Uta-Napishtim, who was persuaded to carry him in his boat over the "waters of death", and at length he landed on the shore of the country of Uta-Napishtim. The immortal came down to the shore and asked the newcomer the object of his visit, and Gilgamish told him of the death of his great friend Enkidu, and of his desire to escape from death and to find immortality. Uta-Napishtim having made to {p. 31} Gilgamish some remarks which seem to indicate that in his opinion death was inevitable, 1. Gilgamish[1] said unto him, to Uta-Napishtim the remote: 2. "I am looking at thee, Uta-Napishtim. 3. Thy person is not altered; even as am I so art thou. 4. Verily, nothing about thee is changed; even as am I so art thou. 5. A heart to do battle doth make thee complete, 6. Yet at rest (?) thou dost lie upon thy back. 7. How then hast thou stood the company of the gods and sought life?" Thereupon Uta-Napishtim related to Gilgamish the Story of the Deluge, and the Eleventh Tablet continues thus 8. Uta-Napishtim said unto him, to Gilgamish: 9. "I will reveal unto thee, O Gilgamish, a hidden mystery, 10. And a secret matter of the gods I will declare unto thee. 11. Shurippak,[2] a city which thou thyself knowest, 12. On [the bank] of the river Puratti (Euphrates) is situated, 13. That city is old; and the gods [dwelling] within it 14. Their hearts induced the great gods to make a windstorm (a-bu-bi),[3] 15. There was their father Anu, 16. Their counsellor, the warrior Enlil, 17. Their messenger En-urta [and] 18. Their prince Ennugi. 19. Nin-igi-ku, Ea, was with them [in council] and 20. reported their word to a house of reeds." [1. A transcript of the cuneiform text by George Smith, who was the first to translate it, will be found in Rawlinson, Cuneiform inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV, Plates 50 and 51: and a transcript, with transliteration and translation by the late Prof. L. W. King, is given in his First Steps in Assyrian, London, 1898, p. x61 ff. The latest translation of the whole poem is by R. C. Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamish, whose arrangement of the text is adopted in the following pages. 2. The site of this very ancient city is marked by the mounds of Fârah, near the Shatt al-Kâr, which is probably the old bed of the river Euphrates; many antiquities belonging to the earliest period of the rule of the Sumerians have been found there. 3. Like the habûb of modern times, a sort of cyclone.] {p. 33} [FIRST SPEECH OF EA TO UTA-NAPISHTIM WHO IS SLEEPING IN A REED HUT.] 21. O House of reeds, O House of reeds! O Wall. O Wall! 22. O House of reeds, hear! O Wall, understand! 23. O man of Shurippak, son of Ubar-Tutu, 24. Throw down the house, build a ship, 25. Forsake wealth, seek after life, 26. Hate possessions, save thy life, 27. Bring all seed of life into the ship. 28. The ship which thou shalt build, 29. The dimensions thereof shall be measured, 30. The breadth and the length thereof shall be the same. 31. Then launch it upon the ocean. [UTA-NAPISHTIM'S ANSWER TO EA.] 32. I understood and I said unto Ea, my lord: 33. See, my lord, that which thou hast ordered, 34. I regard with reverence, and will perform it, 35. But what shall I say to the town, to the multitude, and to the elders? [SECOND SPEECH OF EA.] 36. Ea opened his mouth and spake 37. And said unto his servant, myself, 38. Thus, man, shalt thou say unto them: 39. Ill-will hath the god Enlil formed against me, 40. Therefore I can no longer dwell. in your city, 41. And never more will I turn my countenance upon-the soil of Enlil. 42. I will descend into the ocean to dwell with my lord Ea. 43. But upon you he will rain riches 44. A catch of birds, a catch of fish 45. . . . an [abundant] harvest, 46. . . . the sender of . . . 47. . . . shall make hail [to fall upon you]. {p. 34} [THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP.] 48. As soon as [something of dawn] broke . . . [Lines 49-54 broken away.] 55. The child . . . brought bitumen, 56. The strong [man] . . . brought what was needed. 57. On the fifth day I laid down its shape. 58. According to the plan its walls were 10 gar, (i.e. 120 cubits) high, 59. And the width of its deck (?) was equally 10 gar. 60. I laid down the shape of its forepart and marked it out (?). 61. I covered (?) it six times. 62. . . . I divided into seven, 63. Its interior I divided into nine, 64. Caulking I drove into the middle of it. 65. I provided a steering pole, and cast in all that was needful. 66. Six sar of bitumen I poured over the hull (?), 67. Three sar of pitch I poured into the inside. 68. The men who bear loads brought three sar of oil, 69. Besides a sar of oil which the tackling (?) consumed, 70. And two sar of oil which the boatman hid. 71. I slaughtered oxen for the [work]people, 72. I slew sheep every day. 73. Beer, sesame wine, oil and wine 74. I made the people drink as if they were water from the river. 75. I celebrated a feast as if it had been New Year's Day. 76. I opened [a box of ointment], I laid my hands in unguent. 77. Before the sunset (?) the ship was finished. 78. [Since] . . . was difficult. 79. The shipbuilders brought the . . . of the ship, above and below, 80. . . . two-thirds of it. [THE LOADING OF THE SHIP.] 81. With everything that I possessed I loaded it (i.e., the ship). 82. With everything that I possessed of silver I loaded it. {p. 35} 83. With everything that I possessed of gold I loaded it. 84. With all that I possessed of all the seed of life I loaded it. 85. I made to go up into the ship all my family and kinsfolk, 86. The cattle of the field, the beasts of the field, all handicraftsmen I made them go up into it. 87. The god Shamash had appointed me a time (saying) 88. The sender of . . . . . will at eventide make a hail to fall; 89. Then enter into the ship and shut thy door. 90. The appointed time drew nigh; 91. The sender of . . . . . made a hail to fall at eventide. 92. I watched the aspect of the [approaching] storm, 93. Terror possessed me to look upon it, 94. I went into the ship and shut my door. 95. To the pilot of the ship, Puzur-Enlil the sailor 96. I committed the great house (i.e., ship), together with the contents thereof. [THE ABUBU (CYCLONE) AND ITS EFFECTS DESCRIBED.] 97. As soon as something of dawn shone in the sky 98. A black cloud from the foundation of heaven came up. 99. Inside it the god Adad thundered, 100. The gods Nabû and Sharru (i.e., Marduk) went before, 101. Marching as messengers over high land and plain, 102. Irragal (Nergal) tore out the post of the ship, 103. En-urta went on, he made the storm to descend. 104. The Anunnaki[1] brandished their torches, 105. With their glare they lighted up the land. 106. The whirlwind (or, cyclone) of Adad swept up to heaven. 107. Every gleam of light was turned into darkness. 108. . . . . . the land . . . . . as if had laid it waste. 109. A whole day long [the flood descended] . . . [1. The star-gods of the southern sky.] {p. 36} 110. Swiftly it mounted up . . . . . [the water] reached to the mountains 111. [The water] attacked the people like a battle. 112. Brother saw not brother. 113. Men could not be known (or, recognized) in heaven. 114. The gods were terrified at the cyclone. 115. They shrank back and went up into the heaven of Anu. 116. The gods crouched like a dog and cowered by the wall. 117. The goddess Ishtar cried out like a woman in travail. 118. The Lady of the Gods lamented with a sweet voice [saying]: [ISHTAR'S LAMENT.] 119. May that former day be turned into mud, 120. Because I commanded evil among the company of the gods. 121. How could I command evil among the company of the gods, 122. Command battle for the destruction of my people? 123. Did I of myself bring forth my people 124. That they might fill the sea like little fishes? [UTA-NAPISHTIM'S STORY CONTINUED.] 125. The gods, the Anunnaki wailed with her. 126. The gods bowed themselves, and sat down weeping. 127. Their lips were shut tight (in distress) . . . 128. For six days and nights 129. The wind, the storm raged, and the cyclone overwhelmed the land. [THE ABATING OF THE STORM.] 130. When the seventh day came the cyclone ceased, the storm and battle 131. which had fought like an army. 132. The sea became quiet, the grievous wind went down, the cyclone ceased. 133. I looked on the day and voices were stilled, {p. 37} 134. And all mankind were turned into mud, 135. The land had been laid flat like a terrace. 136. I opened the air-hole and the light fell upon my cheek, 137. I bowed myself, I sat down, I cried, 138. My tears poured down over my cheeks. 139. I looked over the quarters of the world, (to] the limits of ocean. 140. At twelve points islands appeared. 141. The ship grounded on the mountain of Nisir. 142. The mountain of Nisir held the ship, it let it not move. 143. The first day, the second day, the mountain of Nisir held the ship and let it not move. 144. The third day, the fourth day, the mountain of Nisir held the ship and let it not move. 145. The fifth day, the sixth day, the mountain of Nisir held the ship and let it not move. 146. When the seventh day had come 147. I brought out a dove and let her go free. 148. The dove flew away and [then] came back; 149. Because she had no place to alight on she came back. 150. I brought out a swallow and let her go free. 151. The swallow flew away and [then] came back; 152. Because she had no place to alight on she came back. 153. 1 brought out a raven and let her go free. 154. The raven flew away, she saw the sinking waters. 155. She ate, she waded (?), she rose (?), she came not back. [UTA-NAPISHTIM LEAVES THE SHIP.] 156. Then I brought out [everything] to the four winds and made a sacrifice; 157. I set out an offering on the peak of the mountain. 158. Seven by seven I set out the vessels, 159. Under them I piled reeds, cedarwood and myrtle (?). 160. The gods smelt the savour, 161. The gods smelt the sweet savour. 162. The gods gathered together like flies over him that sacrificed. {p. 39} [SPEECH OF ISHTAR, LADY OF THE GODS.] 163 Now when the Lady of the Gods came nigh, 164. She lifted up the priceless jewels which Anu had made according to her desire, [saying] 165. O ye gods here present, as I shall never forget the sapphire jewels of my neck 166. So shall I ever think about these days, and shall forget them nevermore! 167. Let the gods come to the offering, 168. But let not Enlil come to the offering, 16q. Because he took not thought and made the cyclone, 170. And delivered my people over to destruction." [THE ANGER OF ENLIL.] 171. Now when Enlil came nigh 172. He saw the ship; then was Enlil wroth 173. And he was filled with anger against the gods, the Igigi [saying]:[1] 174. Hath any being escaped with his life? 175. He shall not remain alive, a man among the destruction [SPEECH OF EN-URTA.] 176. Then En-urta opened his mouth and spake 177. And said unto the warrior Enlil: 178. Who besides the god Ea can make a plan? 179. The god Ea knoweth everything that is done. 18o. The god Ea opened his mouth and spake 181. And said unto the warrior Enlil, 182. O Prince among the gods, thou warrior, 183. How, how couldst thou, not taking thought, make a cyclone? 184. He who is sinful, on him lay his sin, 185. He who transgresseth, on him lay his transgression. 186. But be merciful that [everything] be not destroyed be long-suffering that [man be not blotted out]. [1. The star-gods of the northern heaven.] {p. 40} 187. Instead of thy making a cyclone, 188. Would that the lion had come and diminished mankind. 189. Instead of thy making a cyclone 190. Would that the wolf had come and diminished mankind. 191. Instead of thy making a cyclone 192. Would that a famine had arisen and [laid waste] the land. 193. Instead of thy making a cyclone 194. Would that Irra (the Plague god) had risen up and [laid waste] the land. 195. As for me I have not revealed the secret of the great gods. 196. I made Atra-hasis to see a vision, and thus he heard the secret of the gods. 197. Now therefore take counsel concerning him. [ENLIL DEIFIES UTA-NAPISHTIM AND HIS WIFE.] 198. Then the god Enlil went up into the ship, 199. He seized me by the hand and brought me forth. 200. He brought forth my wife and made her to kneel by my side. 201. He touched our brows, he stood between us, he blessed us [saving], 202. Formerly Uta-Napishtim was a man merely, 203. But now let Uta-Napishtim and his wife be like unto us gods. 204. Uta-Napishtim shall dwell afar off, at the mouth of the rivers. [UTA-NAPISHTIM ENDS HIS STORY OF THE DELUGE.] 205. And they took me away to a place afar off, and made me to dwell at the mouth of the rivers. The contents of the remainder of the text on the Eleventh Tablet of the Gilgamish Series are described on p. 54. {p. 41} THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH.[1] The narrative of the life, exploits and travels of Gilgamish, king of Erech, filled Twelve Tablets which formed the Series called from the first three words of the First Tablet, SHA NAGBU IMURU, i.e., "He who hath seen all things." The exact period of the reign of this king is unknown, but in the list of the Sumerian kingdoms he is fifth ruler in the Dynasty of Erech, which was considered the second dynasty to reign after the Deluge. He was said to have ruled for 126 years. The principal authorities for the Epic are the numerous fragments of the tablets that were found in the ruins of the Library of Nebo and the Royal Library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh, and are now in the British Museum,[2] but very valuable portions of other and older versions (including some fragments of a Hittite translation) have now been recovered from various sources, and these contribute greatly to the reconstruction of the story. The contents of the Twelve Tablets may be briefly described thus-- THE FIRST TABLET. The opening lines describe the great knowledge and wisdom of Gilgamish, who saw everything, learned everything, under stood everything, who probed to the bottom the hidden mysteries of wisdom, and who knew the history of everything that happened before the Deluge. He travelled far over sea and land, and performed mighty deeds, and then he cut upon a tablet of stone an account of all that he had done and suffered. He built the wall of Erech, founded the holy temple of E-Anna, and carried out other great architectural works. He was a semi-divine being, for his body was formed of the "flesh of the gods," and "two-thirds of him were god, and one-third was man," The description of his person is lost. As Shepherd (i.e., King) of Erech he forced [1. The name of Gilgamish was formerly read "Izdubar," "Gizdubar," or "Gishdubar." He is probably referred to as {Greek Gílgamos} in Aelian, De Natura Animalium, XII, 23: (ed. Didot, Paris, 1858, p. 210). 2. The greater number of these have been collected, grouped and published by Haupt, Das Babylonische Nimrodepos, Leipzig, 1884 and 1891; and see his work on the Twelfth Tablet in Beiträge zur Assyriologie, Vol. I, p. 49 ff.] {p. 42} the people to toil overmuch, and his demands reduced them to such a state of misery that they cried out to the gods and begged them to create some king who should control Gilgamish and give them deliverance from him. The gods hearkened to the prayer of the men of Erech, and they commanded the goddess Aruru to create a rival to Gilgamish. The goddess agreed to do their bidding, and having planned in her mind what manner of being she intended to make, she washed her hands, took a piece of clay, cast it on the ground, and made a male creature like the god En-urta. His body was covered all over with hair. The hair of his head was long like that of a woman, and he wore clothing like that of Sumuqan, the god of cattle. He was different in every way from the people of the country, and his name was Enkidu. He lived in the forests on the hills, ate herbs like the gazelle, drank with the wild cattle, and herded with the beasts of the field. He was mighty in stature, invincible in strength, and obtained complete mastery over all the creatures of the forests in which he lived. One day a certain hunter went out to snare game, and he dug pit-traps and laid nets, and made his usual preparations for roping in his prey. But after doing this for three days he found that his pits were filled up and his nets smashed, and he saw Enkidu releasing the beasts that had been snared. The hunter was terrified at the sight of Enkidu, and went home hastily and told his father what he had seen and how badly he had fared. By his father's advice he went to Erech, and reported to Gilgamish what had happened. When Gilgamish heard his story he advised him to act upon a suggestion which the hunter's father had already made, namely that he should hire a harlot and take her out to the forest, so that Enkidu might be ensnared by the sight of her beauty, and take up his abode with her. The hunter accepted this advice, and having found a harlot to help him in removing Enkidu from the forests, he set out from Erech with her and in due course arrived at the forest where Enkidu lived, and sat down by the place where the beasts came to drink. On the second day when the beasts came to drink and Enkidu was with them, the woman carried out the instructions which the hunter had given her, and when Enkidu saw her cast aside her veil, he left his beasts and came to her, and {p. 43} remained with her for six days and seven nights. At the end of this period he returned to the beasts with which he had lived on friendly terms, but as soon as the gazelle winded him they took to flight, and the wild cattle disappeared into the woods. When Enkidu saw the beasts forsake him his knees gave way, and he could not run as of old; but when he came to himself he returned to the harlot. She spoke to him flattering words, and asked him why he wandered with the wild beasts in the desert, and then told him she wished to take him back with her to Erech, where Anu and Ishtar lived, and where the mighty Gilgamish reigned. Enkidu hearkened and the harlot then told him of the glories of Erech and of Gilgamish, who, she said, had been forewarned of Enkidu's coming by two dreams, which he had related to his divine mother, Nin-sun. These she had interpreted as foreshowing the approach of a strong and faithful friend. THE SECOND TABLET. Having related these dreams of Gilgamish, the harlot again urged Enkidu to go with her to Erech, and they set out together. On the way she brought him to a shepherds' village, where she instructed him how to eat the bread and beer which was set before him; for until then he had only sucked the milk of cattle. By virtue of eating and drinking this human fare Enkidu became a man instead of a beast, and, taking weapons, he hunted the lions and wolves which preyed upon the shepherds' flocks. A messenger from Gilgamish now appeared with a summons to the city. He announced that the king offered entertainment, but that he would expect the customary present from a stranger, and would exercise his privilege over the woman who accompanied him. The entrance of Enkidu into the city caused a general excitement, all being amazed at his surpassing strength and his conversion from savagery. The first meeting of Gilgamish and Enkidu took place when the king came in the night to claim his right to the strange woman. Enkidu violently resisted him, and the two heroes in the doorway "grappled and snorted (?) like bulls; they shattered the threshold, the wall quivered" in their strife. Gilgamish was finally worsted, but the result of this combat was that the two became fast friends and allies. {p. 44} THE THIRD TABLET. Owing to mutilation of the text this section begins obscurely, but it seems that the harlot had deserted Enkidu, for he laments his association with her. Gilgamish then opened to him his design to go on an expedition to the Cedar Forest and fight with a fearful ogre named Khumbaba, who had been appointed by the gods as warden of the forest. Enkidu sought to dissuade his friend from this rash project, saying that he himself, when he lived with the beasts, used to penetrate into the skirts of the forest, where he had learned to dread the roaring breath and flames emitted by Khumbaba. To this Gilgamish seems to have replied that he must go to the Cedar Forest to fetch the wood he needed, and when Enkidu still objected, he concluded with the reflection that death was inevitable to mortals, and that he would therefore meet it in a glorious enterprise which should win fame for him among his children for ever. The craftsmen were then ordered to cast weapons for the pair, and this they did, making gigantic axes and gold-ornamented swords, so that each of the warriors was equipped with an armament weighing in all ten talents. Attracted by these preparations, the people of Erech gathered at the gate, and Gilgamish announced his project to the elders of the city, who in turn sought to dissuade him, but in vain. Gilgamish commended his life to the Sun-god, and the two put on their armour. The last words of the elders were a warning to the king against rash presumption in his own strength. Setting out on their journey, the two warriors first visited the temple of Nin-sun, the divine mother of Gilgamish, who, at the earnest prayer of her son, besought the Sun-god to prosper him on his journey and in the fight against the ogre, and to bring him safely back to Erech. The latter part of this Tablet is missing. THE FOURTH TABLET. So much of this Tablet is missing that only a very general notion can be obtained of its contents. The two heroes had by now reached the Gate of the Forest wherein Khumbaba dwelt. Enkidu was amazed at the gigantic size and beauty of this gate, fashioned out of the timbers of the forest. When the text begins again, the two are found encouraging each other to {p. 45} their enterprise, and Gilgamish burst through the gate. Soon afterwards Enkidu was overcome either by sickness or by dread of the combat, and lay inert for twelve days, apparently as the result of evil dreams which had visited him. In his weakness he strove again to turn back from their desperate adventure, but again Gilgamish overcame his fear with encouragements. THE FIFTH TABLET. The two warriors were now in the forest, and this Tablet begins with a description of its wonders. They saw a straight road running between its tall cedars, along which Khumbaba trod; they saw also the mountain of the cedars, the dwelling of the gods, and the pleasant shade and perfume which the trees spread around. After this they seem to have fallen asleep, for Gilgamish is next found relating to Enkidu a dream which he had had: the two were standing together on the top of a mountain, when the peak fell away, leaving them unharmed. Enkidu interprets this as a forecast that they were to over-throw the gigantic Khumbaba. At the sixtieth league they stayed to rest, and Gilgamish besought the mountain to send him another dream. Falling asleep at once, he woke in terror at midnight and began to tell how he dreamed that the earth was darkened, amid loud roarings and flames of fire, which gradually died away. (This seems to be a description of a volcanic eruption, and some have thought that Khumbaba was the personification of a volcano known to the ancient Sumerians.) This dream too was interpreted by Enkidu, no doubt favourably, but nothing more remains of this Tablet before the end, when Khumbaba has been fought and defeated, and his head cut off. A fragment of another version shews that he was defeated by the help of the Sun-god, who sent eight evil winds against him on every side so that he could not move. Thus entrapped, he surrendered to Gilgamish and offered submission in return for his life. This Gilgamish was disposed to grant, but Enkidu warned him of the danger of letting the giant live. THE SIXTH TABLET. The scene now returns to Erech, whither the heroes returned after their glorious exploit. As Gilgamish was washing himself {p. 46} and dressing himself in splendid attire the goddess Ishtar saw his comeliness and desired him to be her lover, saying, Go to, Gilgamish, do thou be (my) bridegroom, Give me freely the fruit (of thy body). Be thou my husband, I will be thy wife, (So) will I make them yoke for thee a chariot of lapis-lazuli and gold, Its wheels of gold, and its horns of electrum. Every day shalt thou harness great mules thereto. Enter (then) our house with the perfume of cedar. When thou enterest our house Threshold and dais shall kiss thy feet, Beneath thee shall kings, lords and princes do homage, Bringing thee as tribute the yield of the mountains and plains, Thy she-goats shall bring forth abundantly, thy ewes bear twins, Thine asses shall be (each) as great as a mule, Thy horses in the chariot shall be famous for their swiftness, Thy mules in the yoke shall not have a peer. In answer to this invitation, Gilgamish made a long speech, in which he reviewed the calamities of those who had been unfortunate enough to attract the love of the goddess. To be her husband would be a burdensome privilege, and her love was deceptive, a ruin that gave no shelter, a door that let in the storm, a crazy building, a pitfall, defiling pitch, a leaky vessel, a crumbling stone, a worthless charm, an ill-fitting shoe. "Who was ever thy lord that had advantage thereby? Come, I will unfold the tale of thy lovers." He refers to Tammuz, the lover of her youth, for whom year by year she causes wailing. Every creature that fell under her sway suffered mutilation or death; the bird's wings were broken, the lion destroyed, the horse driven to death with whip and spur. Her human lovers fared no better, for a shepherd, once her favourite, was turned by her into a jackal and torn by his own dogs, and Ishullanu, her father's gardener, was turned into a spider (?) because he refused her advances. "So, too," said Gilgamish, "would'st thou love me, and (then) make me like unto them." {p. 47} When Ishtar heard these words she was filled with rage, and went up to heaven, and complained to Anu her father and Antu her mother that Gilgamish had blasphemed her, and revealed all her iniquitous deeds. Anu replied, in effect, that it was her own fault, but she insisted in the request that he should create a heavenly bull to destroy Gilgamish. This he finally agreed to do, and the bull appeared before the citizens of Erech, and destroyed one, two and three hundred men who were sent out against him. At length Enkidu and Gilgamish attacked the bull themselves, and after a hard fight: the details of which are lost, they slew him, and offered his heart together with a libation to {p. 48} the Sun-god. As soon as Ishtar heard of the bull's death she rushed out on the battlements of the wall of Erech and cursed Gilgamish for destroying her bull. When Enkidu heard what Ishtar said, he tore out the member of the bull and threw it before the goddess, saying, "Could I but get it at thee, I would serve thee like him; I would hang his it entrails about thee." Then Ishtar gathered together all her temple-women and harlots, and with them made lamentation over the member of the bull. And Gilgamish called together the artisans of Erech, who came and marvelled at the size of the bull's horns, for each of them was in bulk equal to 30 minas of lapis-lazuli, their thickness two finger-breadths, and together they contained six kur measures of oil. These Gilgamish dedicated in the temple of his god Lugalbanda, to hold the god's unguent, and, having made his offering, he and Enkidu washed their hands in the Euphrates, took their way back to the city, and rode through the streets of Erech, the people thronging round to admire them. Gilgamish put forth a question to the people, saying Who is splendid among men? Who is glorious among heroes? And the answer was: [Gilgamish] is splendid among men, [Enkidu] is glorious among heroes. Gilgamish made a great feast in his palace, and after it all lay down to sleep. Enkidu also slept and had a vision, so he rose up and related it to Gilgamish. THE SEVENTH TABLET. From fragments of a version of the Gilgamish Epic translated into the Hittite language, which have more recently been discovered, it is possible to gain some notion of the contents of this Tablet, the earlier part of which is almost entirely missing from the Assyrian version. It appears that Enkidu beheld in his dream the gods Enlil, Ea, and the Sun-god taking counsel together. Enlil was greatly incensed at the exploits of Gilgamish and Enkidu, and had resolved that Enkidu must die, though Gilgamish might be spared. This was finally decreed, {p. 49} in spite of the attempted opposition of the Sun-god. In consequence Enkidu soon afterwards fell sick, though nothing is preserved concerning the circumstances of this. But he seems to have attributed his misfortune for some reason to the harlot who had first brought him to Erech, for he is found heaping curses upon her. While he thus spoke the Sun-god heard him, and, calling from heaven, rebuked him for ingratitude to the woman, who had taught him all the ways of civilized life and had been the means of introducing him to Gilgamish, by whom he had been raised to great place and would be given signal honours at his death. Admonished thus, Enkidu repented of his anger and now bestowed as many blessings on the harlot as he had before uttered curses. He then lay down again, with sickness heavy upon him, and dreamed a dream which he told to Gilgamish. He saw a monster with lion's claws which attacked and overcame him, and led him away to the Underworld, where he saw the miserable plight of the dead inhabitants, and ancient kings now acting as servants, and priests and sages who served before Ereshkigal, the queen of Hades. How the dream ended, and how Enkidu died, is unknown, for the text breaks off here. THE EIGHTH TABLET. This Tablet was entirely occupied by a description of the mourning of Gilgamish over his dead companion. He lamented to himself, and lamented to the elders of the city, recalling how they had together overthrown Khumbaba, and slain the heavenly bull, and shared in many another exploit. Repeating the words of the Sun-god in the preceding Tablet, he promised that he would cause all his subjects to join with himself in the lament for Enkidu. The funeral honours seem to have been described in the latter part of the Tablet, which is missing. THE NINTH TABLET. In bitter grief Gilgamish wandered about the country uttering lamentations for his beloved companion, Enkidu. As he went about he thought to himself, "I myself shall die, and shall not I then be as Enkidu? Sorrow hath entered into my soul, Because I fear death do I wander over the country." {p. 50} His fervent desire was to escape from death, and remembering that his ancestor Uta-Napishtim, the son of Ubara-Tutu, had become deified and immortal, Gilgamish determined to set out for the place where he lived in order to obtain from him the secret of immortality. Where Uta-Napishtim lived was unknown to Gilgamish, but he seems to have made up his mind that he would have to face danger in reaching the place, for he says, "I will set out and travel quickly. I shall reach the defiles in the mountains by night, and if I see lions, and am terrified at them, I shall lift up my head and appeal to the Moon-god, and to (Ishtar, the Lady of the Gods), who is wont to hearken to my prayers." After Gilgamish set out to go to the west he was attacked either by men or animals, but he overcame them and went on until he arrived at Mount Mashu, where it would seem the sun was thought both to rise and to set. The approach to this mountain was guarded by Scorpion-men, whose aspect was so terrible that the mere sight of it was sufficient to kill the mortal who beheld them; even the mountains collapsed under the glance of their eyes. When Gilgamish saw the Scorpion-men he was smitten with fear, and under the influence of his terror the colour of his face changed, and he fell prostrate before them. Then a Scorpion-man cried out to his wife, saying, "The body of him that cometh to us is the flesh of the gods," and she replied, "Two-thirds of him is god, and the other third is man." The Scorpion-man then received Gilgamish kindly, and warned him that the way which he was about to travel was full of danger and difficulty. Gilgamish told him that he was in search of his ancestor, Uta-Napishtim, who had been deified and made immortal by the gods, and that it was his intention to go to him to learn the secret of immortality. The Scorpion-man in answer told him that it was impossible for him to continue his journey through that country, for no man had ever succeeded in passing through the dark region of that mountain, which required twelve double-hours to traverse. Nothing dismayed, Gilgamish set out on the road through the mountains, and the darkness increased in density every hour, but he struggled on, and at the end of the twelfth hour he arrived at a region where there was bright daylight, and he entered a lovely garden, filled with trees loaded with luscious fruits, and {p. 51} he saw the "tree of the gods." Here the Sun-god called to him that his quest must be in vain, but Gilgamish replied that he would do anything to escape death. THE TENTH TABLET. In the region to which Gilgamish had come stood the palace or fortress of the goddess Siduri, who was called the "hostess," or "ale-wife," and to this he directed his steps with the view of obtaining help to continue his journey. The goddess wore a veil and sat upon a throne by the side of the sea, and when she saw him coming towards her palace, travel-stained and clad in the ragged skin of some animal, she thought that he might prove an undesirable visitor, and so ordered the door of her palace to be closed against him. But Gilgamish managed to obtain speech with her, and having asked her what ailed her, and why she had closed her door, he threatened to smash the bolt and break down the door. In answer Siduri said to him:-- "Why is thy vigour wasted? Thy face is bowed down, Thine heart is sad, thy form is dejected, And there is lamentation in thy heart." And she went on to tell him that he had the appearance of one who had travelled far, that he was a painful sight to look upon, that his face was burnt, and finally seems to have suggested that he was a runaway trying to escape from the country. To this Gilgamish replied:-- Nay, my vigour is not wasted, my face not bowed down, My heart not sad, my form not dejected." And then he told the goddess that his ill-looks and miserable appearance were due to the fact that death had carried off his dear friend Enkidu, the "panther of the desert," who had traversed the mountains with him and had helped him to overcome Khumbaba in the cedar forest, and to slay the bull of heaven, Enkidu his dear friend who had fought with lions and killed them, and who had been with him in all his difficulties; and, he added, "I wept over him for six days {p. 52} and nights . . . . before I would let him be buried." Continuing his narrative, Gilgamish said to Siduri: "I was horribly afraid . . . I was afraid of death, and therefore I wander over the country. The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me, Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country. The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me, Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country. How is it possible for me to keep silence? How is it possible for me to cry out? My friend whom I loved hath become like the dust. Enkidu, my friend whom I loved hath become like the dust. Shall not I myself also be obliged to lay me down And never again rise up to all eternity?" To this complaint the ale-wife replied that the quest of eternal life was vain, since death was decreed to mankind by the gods at the time of creation. She advised him, therefore, to enjoy all mortal pleasures while life lasted and to abandon his hopeless journey. But Gilgamish still persisted, and asked how he might reach Uta-Napishtim, for thither he was determined to go, whether across the ocean or by land. Then the ale-wife answered and said to Gilgamish: "There never was a passage, O Gilgamish, And no one, who from the earliest times came hither, hath crossed the sea. The hero Shamash (the Sun-god) hath indeed crossed the sea, but who besides him could do so? The passage is hard, and the way is difficult, And the Waters of Death which bar its front are deep. If, then, Gilgamish, thou art able to cross the sea, When thou arrivest at the Waters of Death what wilt thou do?" {p. 53} Siduri then told Gilgamish that Ur-Shanabi, the boatman of Uta-Napishtim, was in the place, and that he should see him, and added: "If it be possible cross with him, and if it be impossible turn back." Gilgamish left the goddess and succeeded in finding Ur-Shanabi, the boatman, who addressed to him words similar to those of Siduri quoted above. Gilgamish answered him as he had answered Siduri, and then asked him for news about the road to Uta-Napishtim. In reply Ur-Shanabi told him to take his axe and to go down into the forest and cut a number of poles 60 cubits long; Gilgamish did so, and when he returned with them he went up into the boat with Ur-Shanabi, and they made a voyage of one month and fifteen days; on the third day they reached the [limit of the] Waters of Death, which Ur-Shanabi told Gilgamish not to touch with his hand. Meanwhile, Uta-Napishtim had seen the boat coming and, as something in its appearance seemed strange to him, he went down to the shore to see who the newcomers were. When he saw Gilgamish he asked him the same questions that Siduri and Ur-Shanabi had asked him, and Gilgamish answered as he had answered them, and then went on to tell him the reason for his coming. He said that he had determined to go to visit Uta-Napishtim, the remote, and had -therefore journeyed far, and that in the course of his travels he had passed over difficult mountains and crossed the sea. He had not succeeded in entering the house of Siduri, for she had caused him to be driven from her door on account of his dirty, ragged, and travel-stained apparel. He had eaten birds and beasts of many kinds, the lion, the panther, the jackal, the antelope, mountain goat, etc., and, apparently, had dressed himself in their skins. A break in the text makes it impossible to give the opening lines of Uta-Napishtim's reply, but he mentions the father and mother of Gilgamish, and in the last twenty lines of the Tenth Tablet he warns Gilgamish that on earth there is nothing permanent, that Mammitum, the arranger of destinies, has settled the question of the death and life of man with the Anunnaki, and that none may find out the day of his death or escape from death. {p. 54} THE ELEVENTH TABLET. The story of the Deluge as told by Uta-Napishtim to Gilgamish has already been given on pp. 31-40, and we therefore pass on to the remaining contents of this Tablet. When Uta-Napishtim had finished the story of the Deluge, he said to Gilgamish, "Now, as touching thyself; who will gather the gods together for thee, so that thou mayest find the life which thou seekest? Come now, do not lay thyself down to sleep for six days and seven nights." But in spite of this admonition, as soon as Gilgamish had sat down, drowsiness overpowered him and he fell fast asleep. Uta-Napishtim, seeing that even the mighty hero Gilgamish could not resist falling asleep, with some amusement drew the attention of his wife to the fact, but she felt sorry for the tired man, and suggested that he should take steps to help him to return to his home. In reply Uta-Napishtim told her to bake bread for him, and she did so, but she noted by a mark on the house-wall each day that he slept. On the seventh day, when she took the loaf Uta-Napishtim touched Gilgamish, and the hero woke up with a start, and admitted that he had been overcome with sleep, and made incapable of movement thereby. Still vexed with the thought of death and filled with anxiety to escape from it, Gilgamish asked his host what he should do and where he should go to effect his object. By Uta-Napishtim's advice, he made an agreement with Ur-Shanabi the boatman, and prepared to re-cross the sea on his way home. But before he set out on his way Uta-Napishtim told him of the existence of a plant which grew at the bottom of the sea, and apparently led Gilgamish to believe that the possession of it would confer upon him immortality. Thereupon Gilgamish tied heavy stones [to his feet], and let himself down into the sea through an opening in the floor of the boat. When he reached the bottom of the sea, he saw the plant and plucked it, and ascended into the boat with it. Showing it to Ur-Shanabi, he told him that it was a most marvellous plant, and that it would enable a man to obtain his heart's desire. Its name was "Shîbu issahir amelu," i.e., "The old man becometh young [again]," and Gilgamish declared that he would "eat of it in order to recover his lost youth," and that he would take it home to his fortified city {p. 55} of Erech. Misfortune, however, dogged his steps, and the plant never reached Erech, for whilst Gilgamish and Ur-Shanabi were on their way back to Erech they passed a pool the water of which was very cold, and Gilgamish dived into it and took a bath. Whilst there a serpent discovered the whereabouts of the plant through its smell and swallowed it. When Gilgamish saw what had happened he cursed aloud, and sat down and wept, and the tears coursed down his cheeks as he lamented over the waste of his toil, and the vain expenditure of his heart's blood, and his failure to do any good for himself. Disheartened and weary he struggled on his way with his friend, and at length they arrived at the fortified city of Erech.[1] [1. The city of Erech was the second of the four cities which, according to Genesis x, 10, were founded by Nimrod, the son of Cush, the "mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." The Sumerians and Babylonian called the city "UNU KI,"; the first sign means "dwelling" or "habitation," and the second "land, country," etc.. and we may understand this as meaning the "dwelling" par excellence of some god, probably Anu. The site of Erech is well known, and is marked by the vast ruins which the Arabs call "Warkah," or Al-Warkah. These lie in 31º 19' N. Lat. and 45º 40' E. Long., and are about four miles from the Euphrates, on the left or east bank of the river. Sir W. K. Loftus carried out excavations on the site in 1849-52, and says that the external walls of sun-dried brick enclosing the main portion of the ruins form an irregular circle five and a-half miles in circumference; in places they are from 40 to 50 feet in height, and they seem to have been about 20 feet thick. The turrets on the wall were semi-oval in shape and about 50 feet apart. The principal ruin is that of the Ziggurat, or temple tower, which in 1850 was 100 feet high and 206 feet square. Loftus calls it "Buwáriya," i.e., "reed mats," because reed mats were used in its construction, but bûriyah, "rush mat," is a Persian not Arabic word, and the name is more probably connected with the Arabic "Bawâr," i.e., "ruin," "place of death," etc. This tower stood in a courtyard which was 350 feet long and 270 feet wide. The next large ruin is that which is called "Waswas" (plur. Wasâwis"), i.e., "large stone." The "Waswas" referred to was probably the block of columnar basalt which Loftus and Mr. T. K. Lynch found projecting through the soil; on it was sculptured the figure of a warrior, and the stone itself was regarded as a talisman by the natives. This ruin is 246 feet long, 174 feet wide and 80 feet high. On three sides of it are terraces of different elevations, but the south-west side presents a perpendicular façade, at one place 23 feet in height. For further details see Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, London, 1857, p. 159 ff. Portions of the ruins of Warkah were excavated by German archaeologists in 1912. and this work was resumed in 1928.] {p. 56} Then Gilgamish told Ur-Shanabi to jump up on the wall and examine the bricks from the foundations to the battlements, and see if the plans which he had made concerning them had been carried out during his absence. THE TWELFTH TABLET. The text of the Twelfth Tablet is very defective, but it seems certain that Gilgamish, having failed in his quest for eternal life, could now think of nothing better than to know the worst by calling up the ghost of Enkidu and enquiring of him as to the condition of the dead in the Under-world. He therefore asked the priests what precautions should be taken in order to prevent a ghost from haunting one, and, being informed of these, he purposely did everything against which he had been warned, so that the ghosts might come about him. This, however, failed to bring Enkidu, so Gilgamish prayed to the god Enlil that he should raise him up, but Enlil made no reply. Next Gilgamish prayed to the Moon-god, but again his prayer was ignored. He then appealed to the god Ea, who, taking pity on him, ordered the warrior-god Nergal to open a hole in the earth. Out of this the ghost of Enkidu rose "like a wind," and the two friends embraced again. Gilgamish at once began eagerly to question the ghost about the condition of the dead, but Enkidu was loath to answer, for he knew that what he must reveal would only cause his friend dejection. But the last lines of the Tablet tell the lot of those who have died in various circumstances; though some who have been duly buried are in better case, the fate of others who have none to pay them honour is miserable, for they are reduced to feeding upon dregs and scraps of food thrown into the street. {p. 57} NOTE. The Trustees of the British Museum have published large selections of cuneiform texts from the cylinders, tablets, etc., that were found in the ruins of Nineveh by Layard, Rassam, Smith and others, in the following works:-- CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF WESTERN ASIA. Vol. 1. 1861. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. II. 1866. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. 111. 1870. Fol. Il. ------------ Vol. IV. Second edition. 1891. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. V. Plates I-XXXV. 1880. Fol. 10s. 6d. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. V. Plates XXXVI-LXX. 1884. Fol. 10s. 6d. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. V. Plates I-LXX. Lithographed reprint 1909. Fol. Il. 7s. INSCRIPTIONS FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 1851. Fol. Il.. 1s. CUNEIFORM TEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &C., IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Parts I-V, VII-XXIII, XXV, XXVII-XXXIV. 50 plates each. 1896-1914. 7s. 6d. each. ------------ Part VI. 49 plates. 1898. 7s. 6d. ------------ Part XXIV. 50 plates. 1908. Fol. 10s. ------------ Part XXVI. 54 plates. 1909. Fol. 12s. ------------ Part XXXV. 50 plates. 1920. 12s. ------------ Part XXXVI. 50 plates. 1921. 18s. ------------ Parts XXXVII, XXXIX. 50 plates each. 1924, 1926. 15s. each. ------------ Parts XXXVIII, XL. 50 plates each. 19-25, 1928. 16s. each. ANNALS OF THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA. Cuneiform texts with transliterations and translations. Vol. I. 1903. 4to. Il. CATALOGUE OF THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS IN THE KOUYUNJIK COLLECTION. Vol. I. 8vo. 1889. 15s. ------------ Vol. II. 1891. 15s. ------------ Vol. III. 1894. 13s. ------------ Vol. IV. 1896. Il. ------------ Vol. V. 1899. Il. 3s. ------------ Supplement 8vo. 1914. Il.

The Chaldean Account of Genesis.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 1 CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY OF THE GENESIS LEGENDS. Cosmogony of Berosus.—Discovery of Cuneiform Inscriptions.—Historical texts.—Babylonian origin of Assyrian literature.—Mythological tablets.—Discovery of Deluge texts.—Izdubar, his exploits.—Mutilated condition of tablets.—Lecture on Deluge tablets."—Daily Telegraph" offer.—Expedition to Assyria.—-Fragments of Creation tablets.—Solar Myth.—Second journey to Assyria.—Tower of Babel.—Clay records.—Account of creation in "Telegraph."—"Daily Telegraph" collection.—Interest of Creation legends.—The Fall.—New fragments.—List of texts. THE fragments of the Chaldean historian, Berosus, preserved in the works of various later writers, have shown that the Babylonians were acquainted with traditions referring to the Creation, the period before the Flood, the Deluge, and other matters forming parts of Genesis. Berosus, however, who recorded these events, lived in the time of Alexander the Great and his successors, somewhere about B.C. 330 to 260; and, as this was three hundred years after the Jews were carried captive to Babylon, his works did not prove p. 2 that these traditions were in Babylonia before the Jewish captivity, and could not afford testimony in favour of the great antiquity of these legends. On the discovery and decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, Oriental scholars hoped that copies of the Babylonian histories and traditions would one day be discovered, and we should thus gain earlier and more satisfactory evidence as to these primitive histories. In the mound of Kouyunjik, opposite the town of Mosul, Mr. Layard discovered part of the Royal Assyrian library, and further collections, also forming parts of this library, have been subsequently found by Mr. H. Rassam, Mr. Loftus, and myself. Sir Henry Rawlinson, who made the preliminary examination of Mr. Layard's treasures, and who was the first to recognize their value, estimated the number of these fragments of inscriptions at over twenty thousand. The attention of decipherers was in the first instance drawn to the later historical inscriptions, particularly to those of the Assyrian kings contemporary with the Hebrew monarchy; and in this section of inscriptions a very large number of texts of great importance rewarded the toil of Assyrian scholars. Inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus, and numerous other ancient sovereigns, bearing directly on the Bible, and giving new light upon parts of ancient history before obscure, for a long p. 3 time occupied almost exclusively the attention of students, and overshadowed any work in other divisions of Assyrian literature. Although it was known that Assyria borrowed its civilization and written characters from Babylonia, yet, as the Assyrian nation was mostly hostile to the southern and older kingdom, it could not be guessed beforehand that the peculiar national traditions of Babylonia would be transported to Assyria. Under these circumstances, for some years after the cuneiform inscriptions were first deciphered, nothing was looked for or discovered bearing upon the events of Genesis; but, as new texts were brought into notice, it became evident that the Assyrians copied their literature largely from Babylonian sources, and it appeared likely that search among the fragments of Assyrian inscriptions would yield traces at least of some of these ancient Babylonian legends. Attention was early drawn to these points by Sir Henry Rawlinson, who pointed out several coincidences between the geography of Babylonia and the account of Eden in Genesis, arid suggested the great probability that the accounts in Genesis had a Babylonian origin. When at work preparing the fourth volume of Cuneiform Inscriptions, I noticed references to the Creation in a tablet numbered K 63 in the Museum collection, and allusions in other tablets to similar legends; I therefore set about searching through the p. 4 collection, which I had previously selected under the head of "Mythological tablets," to find, if possible, some of these legends. This mythological collection was one of six divisions into which I had parted the Museum collection of cuneiform inscriptions for convenience of working. By placing all the tablets and fragments of the same class together, I had been able to complete several texts, to easily find any subject required, and at any time to get a general idea of the contents of the collection. The mythological division contained all tablets relating to the mythology, and all the legends in which the gods took a leading part, together with prayers and similar subjects. Commencing a steady search among these fragments, I soon found half of a curious tablet which had evidently contained originally six columns of text; two of these (the third and fourth) were still nearly perfect; two others (the second and fifth) were imperfect, about half remaining, while the remaining columns (the first and sixth) were entirely lost. On looking down the third column, my eye caught the statement that the ship rested on the mountains of Nizir, followed by the account of the sending forth of the dove, and its finding no resting-place and returning. I saw at once that I had here discovered a portion at least of the Chaldean account of the Deluge. I then proceeded to read through the document, and found it was in the form of a speech from the hero of the Deluge to a person p. 5 whose name appeared to be Izdubar. I recollected a legend belonging to the same hero Izdubar K. 231, which, on comparison, proved to belong to the same series, and then I commenced a search for any missing portions of the tablets. This search was a long and heavy work, for there were thousands of fragments to go over, and, while on the one side I had gained as yet only two fragments of the Izdubar legends to judge from, on the other hand, the unsorted fragments were so small, and contained so little of the subject, that it was extremely difficult to ascertain their meaning. My search, however, proved successful. I found a fragment of another copy of the Deluge, containing again the sending forth of the birds, and gradually collected several other portions of this tablet, fitting them in one after another until I had completed the greater part of the second column. Portions of a third copy next turned up, which, when joined together, completed a considerable part of the first and sixth columns. I now had the account of the Deluge in the state in which I published it at the meeting of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, December 3rd, 1872. I had discovered that the Izdubar series contained at least twelve tablets, and I afterwards found this to be their exact number. Of this series the tablet describing the Deluge was the eleventh and K 231, the sixth. Numerous other fragments turned up at the same time; but these, while they increased my knowledge of the legends, p. 6 could not be arranged in order from want of indication of the particular tablets to which they belonged. Some other fragmentary legends, including the war of the gods and three fables, I also found at the same time, but these were in such mutilated condition that I could not make a connected translation of them. In my lecture on the Deluge tablets, I gave a sketch of the Izdubar legends, and expressed my belief that the Chaldean inscriptions contained various other similar stories bearing upon the Book of Genesis, which would prove of the highest interest. Just at this time happened the intervention of the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph" newspaper. Mr. E. Arnold, who is on the direction of that paper, had already sent to me expressing his interest in these discoveries, and immediately after my lecture he came armed with a proposition from the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph" to re-open, at their cost, the excavations in Assyria, and gain some new information on the subject of these legends. This proposition was submitted to the trustees of the British Museum, and they directed me to go to Assyria and make a short excavation, leave of absence for six months being granted to me for this purpose. I have related, in my work, "Assyrian discoveries," the history of this expedition, which brought me the next fragments of these legends. Soon after I commenced excavating at Kouyunjik, on the site of the palace of Assurbanipal, I found a p. 7 new fragment of the Chaldean account of the Deluge belonging to the first column of the tablet, relating the command to build and fill the ark, and nearly filling up the most considerable blank in the story. Some other fragments, which I found afterwards, still further completed this tablet, which was already the most perfect one in the Izdubar series. The trench in which I found the fragment in question must have passed very near the place where the Assyrians kept a series of inscriptions belonging to the early history of the world. Soon after I discovered the fragment of the Deluge tablet, I came upon a fragment of the sixth tablet of the same series in this trench, and not far from the place of the Deluge fragment. This fragment described the destruction of the bull of Ishtar by Izdubar and Heabani, an incident often depicted on early Babylonian gems. My next discovery here was a fragment evidently belonging to the creation of the world; this was the upper corner of a tablet, and gave a fragmentary account of the creation of animals. Further on in this trench I discovered two other portions of this legend, one giving the Creation and fall of man; the other having part of the war between the gods and evil spirits. At that time I did not recognize the importance of these fragments, excepting the one with the account of the creation of animals, and, as I had immediately afterwards to return to England, I made no further discoveries in this direction. p. 8 On my return from the east, I published some of the discoveries I had made, and I now found, on joining the fragments of the Deluge or Izdubar series, that they formed exactly twelve tablets. The fact that these legends covered twelve tablets led to the impression that they were a form of the solar myth, that is, that they symbolized the passage of the sun through the heavens, each tablet representing a separate sign of the zodiac. This opinion, first started by Sir Henry Rawlinson, was at once accepted by M. Lenormant, Rev. A. H. Sayce, and other scholars; but I think myself it rests on too insecure a basis to be true. In a subsequent chapter I will give as nearly as I can the contents of the Izdubar legends, which I think do not warrant this view. Some months further passed, during which I was engaged in my second journey to Assyria, and in realizing the results of that expedition. I again brought from Assyria several fragments of the Genesis legends which helped to complete these curious stories, and in January, 1875, I commenced once more a regular search for these fragments. Very soon afterwards I succeeded in discovering a notice of the building of the tower of Babel, which at once attracted attention, and a notice of it, which appeared in the "Athenæum," No. 2468, was copied into several of the papers. I was, however, at that time hardly prepared to publish these legends, as I had not ascertained how far they could be completed from our present collections. p. 9 Subsequent search did not show that any further fragments of the Babel tablet were in the British Museum, but I soon added several fresh portions to the fragmentary history of the Creation and Fall. The greatest difficulty with which I had to contend in all these researches was the extremely mutilated and deficient condition in which the tablets were found. There can be no doubt that, if the inscriptions were perfect, they would present very little difficulty to the translator. The reason why these legends are in so many fragments, and the different parts so scattered, may be explained from the nature of the material of which the tablets are composed, and the changes undergone by them since they were written. These tablets were composed of fine clay and were inscribed with cuneiform characters while in a soft state; they were then baked in a furnace until hard, and afterwards transferred to the library. These texts appear to have been broken up when Nineveh was destroyed, and many of them were cracked and scorched by the heat at the burning of the palace. Subsequently the ruins were turned over in search of treasure, and the tablets still further broken; and then, to complete their ruin, the rain, every spring soaking through the ground, saturates them with water containing chemicals, and these chemicals form crystals in every available crack. The growth of the crystals further splits the tablets, some of them being literally shivered. p. 10 Some idea of the mutilated condition of the Assyrian tablets, and of the work of restoring a single text, will be gained from the engraving below, which exhibits the present appearance of one of the Deluge tablets. In this tablet there are sixteen fragments. REVERSE OF INSCRIBED TERRA COTTA TABLET CONTAINING THE ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE, SHOWING THE VARIOUS FRAGMENTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED. Click to enlarge REVERSE OF INSCRIBED TERRA COTTA TABLET CONTAINING THE ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE, SHOWING THE VARIOUS FRAGMENTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED. The clay records of the Assyrians are by these means so broken up, that they are in some cases divided into over one hundred fragments; and it is only by collecting and joining together the various fragments that these ancient texts can be restored. Many of the old fragmentary tablets which have been twenty years in the British Museum have been added to considerably by fragments which I found during p. 11 my two journeys, and yet there remain at least 20,000 fragments buried in the ruins without the recovery of which it is impossible to complete these valuable Assyrian inscriptions. Being now urged by many friends who were interested in the subject, I sent the following account to the editor of the "Daily Telegraph," which was printed in that paper on the 4th of March, 1875:— "Having recently made a series of important discoveries relating to the Book of Genesis, among some remarkable texts, which form part of the collection presented to the British Museum by the proprietors of 'The Daily Telegraph,' I venture once more to bring Assyrian subjects before your readers. "In my lecture on the Chaldean Account of the Deluge, which I delivered on Dec. 3, 1872, I stated my conviction that all the earlier narratives of Genesis would receive new light from the inscriptions so long buried in the Chaldean and Assyrian mounds; but I little thought at that time that I was so near to finding most of them. "My lecture, as your readers know, was soon followed by the proposal of your proprietors and the organizing of 'The Daily Telegraph' expedition to Assyria. When excavating at Kouyunjik during that expedition, I discovered the missing portion of the first column of the Deluge tablet, an account of which I sent home; and in the same trench I subsequently found the fragment which I afterwards recognized as part of the Chaldean story of the p. 12 [paragraph continues]Creation, which relic I have noticed already in your columns. I excavated later on, while still working under your auspices, another portion belonging to this story, far more precious—in fact, I think, to the general public, the most interesting and remarkable cuneiform tablet yet discovered. This turns out to contain the story of man's original innocence, of the temptation, and of the fall. I was, when I found it, on the eve of departing, and had not time to properly examine my great prize. I only copied the two or three first lines, which (as I had then no idea of the general subject of the tablet) did not appear very valuable, and I forthwith packed it in the box for transport to England, where it arrived safely, and was presented by the proprietors of 'The Daily Telegraph,' with the rest of their collection, to the British Museum. On my return to England I made some other discoveries among my store, and in the pursuit of these this fragment was overlooked. I subsequently went a second time to Assyria, and returned to England in June, 1874; but I had no leisure to look again at those particular legends until the end of January in this year. Then, starting with the fragment of the Creation in 'The Daily Telegraph' collection, which I had first noticed, I began to collect other portions of the series, and among these I soon found the overlooked fragment which I had excavated at Kouyunjik, the first lines of which I took down in the note-book of my first expedition. I subsequently found several smaller p. 13 pieces in the old Museum collection, and all join or form parts of a continuous series of legends, giving the history of the world from the Creation down to some period after the Fall of Man. Linked with these, I found also other series of legends on primitive history, including the story of the building of the Tower of Babel and of the Confusion of Tongues. "The first series, which I may call 'The Story of the Creation and Fall,' when complete must have consisted of nine or ten tablets at least, and the history upon it is much longer and fuller than the corresponding account in the Book of Genesis. With respect to these Genesis narratives a furious strife has existed for many years; every word has been scanned by eager scholars, and every possible meaning which the various passages could bear has been suggested; while the age and authenticity of the narratives have been discussed on all sides. In particular, it may be said that the account of the fall of man, the heritage of all Christian countries, has been the centre of this controversy, for it is one of the pivots on which the Christian religion turns. The world-wide importance of these subjects will therefore give the newly discovered inscriptions, and especially the one relating to the Fall, an unparalleled value, and I am glad, indeed, that such a treasure should have resulted from your expedition. "Whatever the primitive account may have been p. 14 from which the earlier part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is evident that the brief narration given in the Pentateuch omits a number of incidents and explanations—for instance, as to the origin of evil, the fall of the angels, the wickedness of the serpent, &c. Such points as these are included in the Cuneiform narrative; but of course I can say little about them until I prepare full translations of the legends. "The narrative on the Assyrian tablets commences with a description of the period before the world was created, when there existed a chaos or confusion. The desolate and empty state of the universe and the generation by chaos of monsters are vividly given. The chaos is presided over by a female power named Tisalat and Tiamat, corresponding to the Thalatth of Berosus; but, as it proceeds, the Assyrian account agrees rather with the Bible than with the short account from Berosus. We are told, in the inscriptions, of the fall of the celestial being who appears to correspond to Satan. In his ambition he raises his hand against the sanctuary of the God of heaven, and the description of him is really magnificent. He is represented riding in a chariot through celestial space, surrounded by the storms, with the lightning playing before him, and wielding a thunderbolt as a weapon. "This rebellion leads to a war in heaven and the conquest of the powers of evil, the gods in due course creating the universe in stages, as in the p. 15 [paragraph continues]Mosaic narrative, surveying each step of the work and pronouncing it good. The divine work culminates in the creation of man, who is made upright and free from evil, and endowed by the gods with the noble faculty of speech. "The Deity then delivers a long address to the newly created being, instructing him in all his duties and privileges, and pointing out the glory of his state. But this condition of blessing does not last long before man, yielding to temptation, falls; and the Deity then pronounces upon him a terrible curse, invoking on his head all the evils which have since afflicted humanity. These last details are, as I have before stated, upon the fragment which I excavated during my first journey to Assyria, and the discovery of this single relic in my opinion increases many times over the value of 'The Daily Telegraph' collection. "I have at present recovered no more of the story, and am not yet in a position to give the full translations and details; but I hope during the spring to find time to search over the collection of smaller fragments of tablets, and to light upon any smaller parts of the legends which may have escaped me. There will arise, besides, a number of important questions as to the date and origin of the legends, their comparison with the Biblical narrative, and as to how far they may supplement the Mosaic account." This will serve to exhibit the appearance these p. 16 legends presented to me soon after I discovered them. On comparing this account with the translations and notes I have given in this book, it will be evident that my first notice was inaccurate in several points, both as to the order and translation of the legends; but I had not expected it to be otherwise, for there had not been time to collect and translate the fragments, and, until that was done, no satisfactory account of them could be given, the inaccuracies in the account being due to the broken state of the tablets and my recent knowledge of them. It is a notable fact that the discovery of these legends was one of the fruits of the expedition organized by the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph," and these legends and the Deluge fragments form the most valuable results of that expedition. After I had published this notice in the "Daily Telegraph" I set to work to look over the fragments in the collection, in search of other minor fragments, and found several, but these added little to my knowledge, only enabling me to correct my notice. A little later I discovered a new fragment of the tenth tablet of the Deluge series, and last of all a further portion of the sixth tablet of these legends. This closed my discoveries so far as the fragments of the tablets were concerned, and I had then to copy and translate the tablets as far as their mutilated condition would allow. The Genesis legends which I had collected from p. 17 the various Assyrian fragments included numerous other stories beside those which parallel the account in the Book of Genesis. All these stories are similar in character, and appear to belong to the same early literary age. So far as I have made out they are as follows:— 1. A long account of the origin of the world, the creation of the animals and man, the fall of man from a sinless state, and a conflict between the gods and the powers of evil. 2. A second account of the creation having a closer correspondence with the account of Berosus. 3. A Bilingual legend of the history of the seven evil spirits, apparently part of a third version of the creation. 4. Story of the descent of the goddess Ishtar or Venus into Hades, and her return. 5. Legend of the sin of the God Zu, who insults Elu, the father of the gods. 6. Collection of five tablets giving the exploits of Lubara the god of the pestilence. 7. Legend of the god Sarturda, who turned into a bird. 8. Story of the wise man who put forth a riddle to the gods. 9. Legend of the good man Atarpi, and the wickedness of the world. 10. Legend of the tower of Babel, and dispersion. 11. Story of the Eagle and Etana. 12. Story of the ox and the horse. p. 18 13. Story of the fox. 14. Legend of Sinuri. 15. Izdubar legends: twelve tablets, with the history of Izdubar, and an account of the flood. 16. Various fragments of other legends. These show that there was a considerable collection of such primitive stories almost unrepresented in our present collection. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 19 CHAPTER II. BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE. Babylonian literature.—Kouyunjik library.—Fragmentary condition.—Arrangement of tablets.—Subjects.—Dates.—Babylonian source of literature.—Literary period.—Babylonian Chronology.—Akkad.—Sumir.—Urukh, king of Ur.—Hammurabi.—Babylonian astrology.—War of Gods.—Izdubar legends.—Creation and fall.—Syllabaries and bilingual tablets.—Assyrian copies.—Difficulties as to date.—Mutilated condition.—Babylonian library.—Assyrian empire.—City of Assur.—Library at Calah.—Sargon of Assyria.—Sennacherib.—Removal of Library to Nineveh.—Assurbanipal or Sardanapalus.—His additions to library.—Description of contents.—Later Babylonian libraries. IN order to understand the position of these legends it is necessary to give some account of the wonderful literature of the Ancient Babylonians and their copyists, the Assyrians. The fragments of terra cotta tablets containing these legends were found in the débris which covers the palaces called the South West Palace and the North Palace at Kouyunjik; the former building being of the age of Sennacherib, the latter belonging to the time of Assurbanipal. The tablets, which are of all sizes, from one inch long to over a foot square, are nearly all in fragments, and p. 20 in consequence of the changes which have taken place in the ruins the fragments of the same tablet are sometimes scattered widely apart. It appears from a consideration of the present positions of the fragments that they were originally in the upper chambers of the palace, and have fallen on the destruction of the building. In some of the lower chambers they lay covering the whole floor, in other cases they lay in groups or patches on the pavement, and there are occasional clusters of fragments at various heights in the earth which covers the buildings. The other fragments are scattered singly through all the upper earth which covers the floors and walls of the palace. Different fragments of the same tablets and cylinders are found in separate chambers which have no immediate connection with each other, showing that the present distribution of the fragments has nothing to do with the original position of the tablets. A consideration of the inscriptions shows that these tablets have been arranged according to their subjects in various positions in the libraries. Stories or subjects were commenced on tablets and continued on other tablets of the same size and form, in some cases the number of tablets in a series and on a single subject amounting to over one hundred. Each subject or series of tablets had a title, the title being formed by the first phrase or part of phrase in the subject. Thus, the series of Astrological tablets, numbering over seventy tablets, bore the p. 21 title "When the gods Anu, Elu," this being the commencement of the first tablet. At the end of every tablet in each series was written its number in the work, thus: "the first tablet of "When the gods Anu, Elu," the second tablet of "When the gods Anu, Elu," &c. &c.; and, further to preserve the proper position of each tablet, every one except the last in a series had at the end a catch phrase, consisting of the first line of the following tablet. There were beside, catalogues of these documents written like them on clay tablets, and other small oval tablets with titles upon them, apparently labels for the various series of works. All these arrangements show the care taken with respect to literary matters. There were regular libraries or chambers, probably on the upper floors of the palaces, appointed for the store of the tablets, and custodians or librarians to take charge of them. It is probable that all these regulations were of great antiquity, and were copied like the tablets from the Babylonians. Judging from the fragments discovered, it appears probable that there were in the Royal Library at Nineveh over 10,000 inscribed tablets, including almost every subject in ancient literature. In considering a subject like the present one it is a point of the utmost importance to define as closely as possible the date of our present copies of the legends, and the most probable period at which the original copies may have been inscribed. By far the greatest number of the tablets brought from Nineveh p. 22 belong to the age of Assurbanipal, who reigned over Assyria B.C. 670, and every copy of the Genesis legends yet found was inscribed during his reign. The statements on the present tablets are conclusive on this point, and have not been called in question, but it is equally stated and acknowledged on all hands that these tablets are not the originals, but are only copies from earlier texts. It is unfortunate that the date of the original copies is never preserved, and thus a wide door is thrown open for difference of opinion on this point. The Assyrians acknowledge themselves that this literature was borrowed from Babylonian sources, and of course it is to Babylonia we have to look to ascertain the approximate dates of the original documents. The difficulty here is increased by the following considerations: it appears that at an early period in Babylonian history a great literary development took place, and numerous works were produced which embodied the prevailing myths, religion, and science of that day. Written many of them in a noble style of poetry, and appealing to the strongest feelings of the people on one side, or registering the highest efforts of their science on the other, these texts became the standards for Babylonian literature, and later generations were content to copy these writings instead of making new works for themselves. Clay, the material on which they were written, was everywhere abundant, copies were multiplied, and by the veneration in which they were held these texts fixed and stereotyped the style p. 23 of Babylonian literature, and the language in which they were written remained the classical style in the country down to the Persian conquest. Thus it happens that texts of Rim-agu, Sargon, and Hammurabi, who were one thousand years before Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus, show the same language as the texts of these later kings, there being no sensible difference in style to match the long interval between them. There is, however, reason to believe that, although the language of devotion and literature remained fixed, the speech of the bulk of the people was gradually modified; and in the time of Assurbanipal, when the Assyrians copied the Genesis legends, the common speech of the day was in very different style. The private letters and despatches of this age which have been discovered differ widely from the language of the contemporary public documents and religious writings, showing the change the language had undergone since the style of these was fixed. We have a slightly similar case in England, where the language of devotion and the style of the Bible differ in several respects from those of the English of to-day. These considerations show the difficulty of fixing the age of a document from its style, and the difficulty is further increased by the uncertainty which hangs over all Babylonian chronology. Chronology is always a thorny subject, and dry and unsatisfactory to most persons beside; some p. 24 notice must, however, be taken of it here, in order to show the reasons for the dates and epochs fixed upon for the Genesis legends. In this case the later chronology is not in question, and it is best to start with the generally received date of about B.C. 1300 for the conquest of Babylonia by Tugultininip, king of Assyria. Before this date we have a period of about 250 years, during which a foreign race ruled at Babylon. Berosus calls these foreigners Arabs, but nothing is known as to their original home or race. It is supposed that this race came into Babylonia, or obtained dominion there under a king named Hammurabi, whose date is thus fixed about B.C. 1550. Many scholars do not agree to this, and consider Hammurabi much more ancient; no one, however, fixes him later than the sixteenth century B.C., so that the date B.C. 1550 may be accepted as the most moderate one possible for the epoch of Hammurabi. The date of Hammurabi is of consequence in the question, because there is no evidence of these legends being written after his epoch. This circumstance may be accounted for by the fact that during the period following the conquest of Hammurabi the government was in the hands of foreigners, and was much more centralized than it had been before, Babylon being, so far as we know, the sole capital, the great cities which had been centres of literature suffering a decline. Before the time of Hammurabi, there ruled several p. 25 races of kings, of whom we possess numerous monuments. These monarchs principally reigned at the cities of Ur, Karrak, Larsa, and Akkad. Their inscriptions do not determine the length of their rule, but they probably covered the period from B.C. 2000 to 1550. The name of the monarch in whose time we have the first satisfactory evidence of contemporary monuments is read Urukh, and in the present state of our researches he may be fixed B.C. 2000. It must, however, be remarked that many scholars place him at a much earlier date. From the time of Urukh to that of Hammurabi the title of honour principally taken by the kings is "King of Sumir and Akkad," that is, King of Lower and Upper Babylonia. It appears probable that previous to the reign of Urukh the two divisions of Sumir and Akkad were separate monarchies; and it is therefore likely that any literature written before B.C. 2000 will show evidences of this division. The rough outlines of Babylonian chronology at this period may be arranged as follows, always bearing in mind that the different dates are the lowest we can fairly assume, and that several of them may be much more ancient:— Down to B.C. 2000 epoch of independent kingdoms in Babylonia; the principal centre of activity being Akkad, a region on the Euphrates, somewhere between latitudes 32° and 33°. B.C. 2000. Era of Urukh, king of Ur, rise of Sumir, the southern part of the country, Ur the metropolis. p. 26 B.C. 1850. Era of Ismi-dagan, king of Karrak, Karrak the metropolis. B.C. 1700. Rise of Larsa as metropolis. B.C. 1600. Era of Sargon, king of Akkad; revival of the power of Akkad. B.C. 1550. Era of Hammurabi, king of Babylon. Babylon the metropolis. Although we cannot fix the dates of any monuments before the time of Urukh, B.C. 2000, it is quite certain that there were buildings and inscriptions before that date; and there are two literary works which I should judge to be certainly older than this epoch, namely, the great Chaldean work on Astrology, and a legend which, for want of a better title, I call the Exploits of Lubara. The Chaldean work, containing the bulk of their astrology, appears to belong to the northern half of the country, that is to Akkad, and always speaks of Akkad as a separate state, and implies it to be the leading state. It mentions besides, the kingdoms of Subartu, Martu, or Syria, Gutim or Goim, and Elam, and some parts, perhaps of later date than the body of the work, give also the kingdoms of Kassi, Kissati, or the peoples, Nituk or Asmun, Sumir, Yamutbal, and Assan. In the body of the work there appear glosses, apparently later additions, mentioning kings of the period B.C. 2000 to 1850. I have not noticed any gloss containing a royal name later than the kings of Ur. The work I have provisionally called "The Exploits p. 27 of Lubara," and which also bears evidence of great antiquity, is a much shorter one, for while there are over seventy large tablets of the astrology, this, on the other hand, only contained five small tablets. This work notices a large number of peoples or states, the principal being the people of the coast, Subartu, Assyria, Elam, Kassi, Sutu, Goim, Lullubu, Akkad; the uniting of Sumir and Akkad, which was accomplished at least B.C. 2000, is not mentioned, but the notice of the Assyrians is rather an argument for a later date than I have chosen. The Izdubar legends, containing the story of the Flood, and what I believe to be the history of Nimrod, were probably written in the south of the country, and at least as early as B.C. 2000. These legends were, however, traditions before they were committed to writing, and were common in some form to all the country. The story of the Creation and Fall belongs to the upper or Akkad division of the country, and may not have been committed to writing so early as the Izdubar legends; but even this is of great antiquity. About the same time as the account of the Creation, a series of tablets on evil spirits, which contained a totally different tradition of the Creation, was probably written; and there is a third account from the City of Cutha, closely agreeing in some respects with the account handed down by Berosus, which I should provisionally place about the same date. It seems, from the indications in the inscriptions, that p. 28 there happened in the interval B.C. 2000 to 1850 a general collecting and development of the various traditions of the Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, and other similar legends. A little later, about B.C. 1600, a new set of astrological tablets was written, together with a long work on terrestrial omens; these appear to belong to the kingdom and period of Sargon, king of Akkad. Some at least, and probably most of the syllabaries, bilingual and explanatory tablets, grammars and vocabularies, belong to this period also; but a few are of later date. In spite of the indications as to peculiarities of worship, names of states and capitals, historical allusions and other evidence, it may seem hazardous to many persons to fix the dates of original documents so high, when our only copies in many cases are Assyrian transcripts made in the reign of Assurbanipal, in the seventh century B.C.; but one or two considerations may show that this is a perfectly reasonable view, and no other likely period can be found for the original composition of the documents unless we ascend to a greater antiquity. In the first place, it must be noticed that the Assyrians themselves state that the documents were copied from ancient Babylonian copies, and in some cases state that the old copies were partly illegible even in their day. Again, in one case there is actual proof of the antiquity of a text, an Assyrian copy of part of which is published in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. ii. plate 54, Nos. p. 29 [paragraph continues]3 & 4. In a collection of tablets discovered by Mr. Loftus at Senkereh, belonging, according to the kings mentioned in it, to about B.C. 1600, is part of an ancient Babylonian copy of this very text, the Babylonian copy being about one thousand years older than the Assyrian one. It is, however, probable that most of the legends treated of in the present volume had existed as traditions in the country long before they were committed to writing, and some of these traditions, as embodied in the various works, exhibit great difference in details, showing that they had passed through many changes. Taking the period of literary development in Babylonia as extending from B.C. 2000 to 1550, we may say, it roughly synchronizes with the period from Abraham to Moses, according to the ordinary chronology of our Bibles, and during this period it appears that traditions of the creation of the universe, and human history down to the time of Nimrod, existed parallel to, and in some points identical with, those given in the Book of Genesis. Many of the documents embodying these traditions have been discovered in sadly mutilated condition, but there can be no doubt that future explorations will reveal more perfect copies, and numerous companion and explanatory texts, which will one day clear up the difficulties which now meet us at every step of their consideration. So far as known contemporary inscriptions are p. 30 concerned, we cannot consider our present researches and discoveries as anything like sufficient to give a fair view of the literature of Assyria and Babylonia, and, however numerous and important are the Genesis legends, they form but a small portion of the whole literature of the country. It is generally considered that the earliest inscriptions of any importance which we now possess belong to the time of Urukh, king of Ur, whose age may be placed with great probability about two thousand years before the Christian era. The principal inscriptions of this period consist of texts on bricks and on signet cylinders, and some of the latter may be of much greater antiquity. Passing down to the period of the kingdoms of Karrak, Larsa, and Akkad, we find a great accession of literary material, almost every class of writing being represented by contemporary specimens. It is certain that even then the inscribed clay tablets were not isolated, but already they were arranged in collections or libraries, and these collections were placed at some of the principal cities. From Senkerch and its neighbourhood have come our earliest specimens of these literary tablets, the following being some of the contents of this earliest known library:— 1. Mythological tablets, including lists of the gods, and their manifestations and titles. 2. Grammatical works, lists of words, and explanations. 3. Mathematical works, calculations, tables, cube and square root, measures. p. 31 4. Astronomy, astrology, and omens. 5. Legends and short historical inscriptions. 6. Historical cylinders, one of Kudur-mabuk, B.C. 1600 (the earliest known cylinder), being in the British Museum. 7. Geographical tablets, and lists of towns and countries. 8. Laws and law cases, sale and barter, wills and loans. Such are the inscriptions from the libraries of the early inhabitants of Babylonia, and beside these there are numerous texts, only known to us through later copies, but which certainly had their origin as early as this period. Passing down from this period, for some centuries we find only detached inscriptions, accompanied by evidence of the gradual shifting both of the political power and literary activity from Babylonia to Assyria. In Assyria the first centre of Literature and seat of a library was the city of Assur (Kileh Shergat), and the earliest known tablets date about B.C. 1500. Beyond the scanty records of some of the monarchs nothing of value remains of this library for several centuries, and the Assyrian literary works are only known from later copies. A revival of the Assyrian empire began under Assur-nazir-pal, king of Assyria, who ascended the throne B.C. 885. He rebuilt the city of Calah (Nimroud), and this city became the seat of an Assyrian library. Tablets were procured from Babylonia by p. 32 [paragraph continues]Shalmaneser, son of Assur-nazir-pal, B.C. 860, during the reign of Nabu-bal-idina, king of Babylon, and these were copied by the Assyrian scribes, and placed in the royal library. Vul-nirari, grandson of Shalmaneser, B.C. 812, added to the Calah library, and had tablets written at Nineveh. Assurnirari, B.C. 755, continued the literary work, some mythological tablets being dated in his reign. Tiglath Pileser, B.C. 745, enlarged the library, and placed in it various copies of historical inscriptions. It was, however, reserved for Sargon, who founded the last Assyrian dynasty, B.C. 722, to make the Assyrian royal library worthy of the empire. Early in his reign he appointed Nabu-suqub-gina principal librarian, and this officer set to work making new copies of all the standard works of the day. During the whole of his term of office copies of the great literary works were produced, the majority of the texts preserved belonging to the early period previous to B.C. 1600. In the period which followed there was a general revival of all the ancient works which had escaped destruction, and the study of this early literature became a marked feature of the time. Sennacherib, son of Sargon, B.C. 705, continued to add to his father's library at Calah, but late in his reign he removed the collection from that city to Nineveh, where from this time the national library remained until the fall of the empire. Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, B.C. 681, further p. 33 increased the national collection, most of his works being of a religious character. Assurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, B.C. 673, was the greatest of the Assyrian sovereigns, and he is far more memorable on account of his magnificent patronage of learning than on account of the greatness of his empire or the extent of his wars. Assurbanipal added more to the Assyrian royal library than all the kings who had gone before him, and it is to tablets written in his reign that we owe almost all our knowledge of the Babylonian myths and early history, beside many other important matters. The agents of Assurbanipal sought everywhere for inscribed tablets, brought them to Nineveh, and copied them there; thus the literary treasures of Babylon, Borsippa, Cutha, Akkad, Ur, Erech, Larsa, Nipur and various other cities were transferred to the Assyrian capital to enrich the great collection there. The fragments brought over to Europe give us a good idea of this library and show the range of the subjects embraced by this collection of inscriptions. Among the different classes of texts, the Genesis stories and similar legends occupied a prominent place; these, as they will be further described in the present volume, need only be mentioned here. Accompanying them we have a series of mythological tablets of various sorts, varying from legends of the p. 34 gods, psalms, songs, prayers, and hymns, down to mere allusions and lists of names. Many of these texts take the form of charms to be used in sickness and for the expulsion of evil spirits; some of them are of great antiquity, being at least as old as the creation and Izdubar legends. One fine series concerns the cure of witchcraft, a superstition fully believed in in those days. Izdubar is mentioned in one of these tablets as lord of the oaths or pledges of the world. Some of the prayers were for use on special occasions, such as on starting on a campaign, on the occurrence of an eclipse, &c. Astronomy and Astrology were represented by various detached inscriptions and reports, but principally by the great work on these subjects covering over seventy tablets which was borrowed from the early Chaldeans, and many copies of which were in the Library of Assurbanipal. This work on Astrology and Astronomy was, as I have already stated, one of the most ancient texts in the Euphrates valley. There were also numerous copies of a long work on Terrestrial omens, which appears to date from the time of Sargon, king of Akkad, about B.C. 1600. In this work everything in nature is supposed to portend some coming event. There is a fragment of one Astrological tablet which professes to be copied from an original of the time of Izdubar. Historical texts formed another section of the p. 35 library, and these included numerous copies of inscriptions of early Babylonian kings; there were beside, chronological tablets with lists of kings and annual officers, inscriptions of various Assyrian monarchs, histories of the relations between Assyria and Babylonia, Elam, and Arabia, treaties, despatches, proclamations. and reports on the state of the empire and military affairs. Natural history was represented by tables of animals; mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, and plants, trees, grasses, reeds, and grains, earths, stones, &c. These lists are classified according to the supposed nature and affinities of the various species, and show considerable advance in the sciences. Mathematics had a place in the library, there being problems, figures, and calculations; but this branch of learning was not studied so fully as in Babylonia. Grammar and Lexicography were better represented, there being many works do these subjects, including lists of the signs and explanations, declension of nouns, conjugation of verbs, examples of syntax, bilingual tables, explanatory lists, &c. All these tablets were copied from the Babylonians. In law and civil matters the library was also rich, and the tablets serve to show that the same laws and customs prevailed in Assyria as in Babylonia. There are codes of laws law cases, sale, barter, loans, lists of property, lists of titles and trades, tribute, and taxes, &c. In Geography the Assyrians were not very forward; p. 36 but there are lists of countries and their productions, of cities, rivers, mountains, and peoples. Such are some of the principal contents of the great library from which we have obtained our copies of the Creation and Flood legends, most of the tablets were copied from early Babylonian inscriptions, the original copies of the works have in most cases disappeared; but these remarkable inscriptions have preserved to us texts which show the wonderful advance made by the people of Chaldea before the time of Moses. Babylonian literature, which had been the parent of Assyrian writing, revived after the fall of Nineveh, and Nebuchadnezzar and his successors 'made Babylon the seat of a library rivalling that of Assurbanipal at Nineveh. Of this later development of Babylonian literature we know very little, explorations being still required to bring to light the texts of this epoch. Few fragments only, discovered by wandering Arabs or recovered by chance travellers, have yet turned up, but there is in them evidence enough to promise a rich reward to future excavators. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 37 CHAPTER III. CHALDEAN LEGENDS TRANSMITTED THROUGH BEROSUS AND OTHER ANCIENT AUTHORS. Berosus and his copyists.—Cory's translation.—Alexander Polyhistor.—Babylonia.—Oannes, his teaching.—Creation.—Belus.—Chaldean kings.—Xisuthrus.—Deluge.—The Ark.—Return to Babylon.—Apollodorus.—Pantibiblon.—Larancha.—Abydenus.—Alorus, first king.—Ten kings.—Sisithrus.—Deluge.—Armenia.—Tower of Babel.—Cronos and Titan.—Nicolaus Damascenes.—Dispersion from Hestiæus.—Babylonian colonies.—Tower of Babel.—The Sibyl.—Titan and Prometheus.—Damascius.—Tauthe.—Moymis.—Kissare and Assorus.—Triad.—Bel. I HAVE included in this chapter the principal extracts from ancient authors respecting the Babylonian accounts of Genesis. Many others are known, but are of doubtful origin, and of less immediate interest to my subject. Berosus, from whom the principal extracts are copied, lived, as I have mentioned in Chapter I., about B.C. 330 to 260, and, from his position as a p. 38 [paragraph continues]Babylonian priest, had the best means of knowing the Babylonian traditions. The others are later writers, who copied in the main from Berosus, and whose notices may be taken as giving abridgments of his statements. I have preferred as usual, the translations of Cory as being standard ones, and made without prejudice from recent discoveries. Extract I. From Alexander Polyhistor (Cory, p. 21). Berosus, in the first book of his history of Babylonia, informs us that he lived in the age of Alexander, the son of Philip. And he mentions that there were written accounts, preserved at Babylon with the greatest care, comprehending a period of above fifteen myriads of years; and that these writings contained histories of the heaven and of the sea; of the birth of mankind; and of the kings, and of the memorable actions which they had achieved. And in the first place he describes Babylonia as a country situated between the Tigris and the Euphrates; that it abounded with wheat, and barley, and ocrus, and sesame; and that in the lakes were produced the roots called gongæ, which are fit for food, and in respect to nutriment similar to barley. That there were also palm-trees and apples, and a variety of fruits; fish also and birds, both those which are merely of flight, and those which frequent the lakes. He adds that those parts of the country p. 39 which bordered upon Arabia were without water, and barren; but that the parts which lay on the other side were both hilly and fertile. At Babylon there was (in these times) a great resort of people of various nations, who inhabited Chaldea, and lived in a lawless manner like the beasts of the field. In the first year there appeared, from that part of the Erythræan sea which borders upon Babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, by name Oannes, OANNES AND OTHER BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES FROM CYLINDER. Click to enlarge OANNES AND OTHER BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES FROM CYLINDER. whose whole body (according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish; that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice, too, and language were articulate and human; and a representation of him is preserved even to this day. This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, but took no food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct cities, to p. 40 found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in every thing which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives. From that time, nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun had set this being Oannes retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes, of which Berosus proposes to give an account when he comes to the history of the kings. Moreover, Oannes wrote concerning the generation of mankind, and of their civil polity; and the following is the purport of what he said:— "There was a time in which there existed nothing but darkness and an abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were produced of a two-fold principle. There appeared men, some of whom were furnished with two wings, others with four, and with two faces. They had one body, but two heads; the one that of a man, the other of a woman; and likewise in their several organs both male and female. Other human figures were to be seen with the legs and horns of a goat; some had horses’ feet, while others united the hind quarters of a horse with the body of a man, resembling in shape the hippocentaurs. Bulls likewise were bred there with the heads of men; and dogs with fourfold p. 41 bodies, terminated in their extremities with the tails of fishes; horses also with the heads of dogs; men, too, and other animals, with the heads and bodies of horses, and the tails of fishes. In short, there were creatures in which were combined the limbs of every species of animals. In addition to these, fishes, reptiles, serpents, with other monstrous animals, which assumed each other's shape and countenance. COMPOSITE ANIMALS FROM CYLINDER. Click to enlarge COMPOSITE ANIMALS FROM CYLINDER. [paragraph continues]Of all which were preserved delineations in the temple of Belus at Babylon. "The person who presided over them was a woman named Omoroca, which in the Chaldean language is Thalatth, in Greek Thalassa, the sea; but which might equally be interpreted the moon. All things being in this situation, Belus came, and cut the woman asunder, and of one half of her he formed the earth, and of the other half the heavens, and at the same time destroyed the animals within her (or in the abyss). "All this" (he says) "was an allegorical description of nature. For, the whole universe consisting of p. 42 moisture, and animals being continually generated therein, the deity above-mentioned took off his own head; upon which the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, and from thence formed men. On this account it is that they are rational, and partake of divine knowledge. This Belus, by whom they signify Jupiter, divided the darkness, and separated the heavens from the earth, and reduced the universe to order. But the animals, not being able to bear the prevalence of light, died. Belus upon this, seeing a vast space unoccupied, though by nature fruitful, commanded one of the gods to take off his head, and to mix the blood with the earth, and from thence to form other men and animals, which should be capable of bearing the air. Belus formed also the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets." (Such, according to Polyhistor Alexander, is the account which Berosus gives in his first book.) (In the second book was contained the history of the ten kings of the Chaldeans, and the periods of the continuance of each reign, which consisted collectively of an hundred and twenty sari, or four hundred and thirty-two thousand years; reaching to the time of the Deluge. For Alexander, enumerating the kings from the writings of the Chaldeans, after the ninth Ardates, proceeds to the tenth, who is called by them Xisuthrus, in this manner):— "After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus . reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great p. 43 deluge; the history of which is thus described. The deity Cronos appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Dæsius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things, and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board every thing necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity whither he was to sail, he was answered, 'To the Gods;' upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition, and built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put everything which he had prepared, and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends. After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. p. 44 [paragraph continues]He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth: and, having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared. They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he was translated to live with the gods, that his wife and daughter and the pilot had obtained the same honour. To this he added that they should return to Babylonia, and, as it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to all mankind; moreover, that the place wherein they then were was the land of Armenia. The rest having heard these words offered sacrifices to the gods, and, taking a circuit, journeyed towards Babylonia. The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, some part of it yet remains in the Corcyræan mountains of Armenia, and the people scrape off the bitumen with which it had been outwardly coated, and make use of it by way of an alexipharmic and amulet. p. 45 [paragraph continues]And when they returned to Babylon and had found the writings at Sippara they built cities and erected temples, and Babylon was thus inhabited again.—Syncel. Chron. xxviii.; Euseb. Chron. v. 8. Berosus, from Apollodorus (Cory, p. 30). This is the history which Berosus has transmitted to us. He tells us that the first king was Alorus of Babylon, a Chaldean, he reigned ten sari; and afterwards Alaparus and Amelon, who came from Pantebiblon; then Ammenon the Chaldean, in whose time appeared the Musarus Oannes, the Annedotus from the Erythræan sea. (But Alexander Polyhistor, anticipating the event, has said that he appeared in the first year, but Apollodorus says that it was after forty sari; Abydenus, however, makes the second Annedotus appear after twenty-six sari.) Then succeeded Megalarus from the city of Pantibiblon, and he reigned eighteen sari; and after him Daonus, the shepherd from Pantibiblon, reigned ten sari; in his time (he says) appeared again from the Erythræan sea a fourth Annedotus, having the same form with those above, the shape of a fish blended with that of a man. Then reigned Euedorachus from Pantibiblon for the term of eighteen sari; in his days there appeared another personage from the Erythræan sea like the former, having the same complicated form between a fish and a man, whose name was Odacon. (All these, says Apollodorus, related particularly and circumstantially whatever Oannes p. 46 had informed them of; concerning these Abydenus has made no mention.) Then reigned Amempsinus, a Chaldean from Larancha; and he being the eighth in order reigned ten sari. Then reigned Otiartes, a Chaldean, from Larancha; and he reigned eight sari. And, upon the death of Otiartes, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari; in his time happened the great Deluge. So that the sum of all the kings is ten; and the term which they collectively reigned an hundred and twenty sari.—Syncel. Chron. xxxix.; Euseb. Chron. V. Berosus, From Abydenus (Cory, p. 32). So much concerning the wisdom of the Chaldeans. It is said that the first king of the country was Alorus, and that he gave out a report that God had appointed him to be the shepherd of the people, he reigned ten sari; now a sarus is esteemed to be three thousand six hundred years, a neros six hundred, and a sossus sixty. After him Alaparus reigned three sari; to him succeeded Amillarus from the city of Pantibiblon, who reigned thirteen sari; in his time came up from the sea a second Annedotus, a semi-demon very similar in his form to Oannes; after Amillarus reigned Ammenon twelve sari, who was of the city of Pantibiblon; then Megalarus of the same place reigned eighteen sari; then Daos the shepherd governed for the space of ten sari, he was of Pantibiblon; in his time four double-shaped personages came up out p. 47 of the sea to land, whose names were Euedocus, Eneugamus, Eneuboulus, and Anementus; afterwards in the time of Euedoreschus appeared another, Anodaphus. After these reigned other kings, and last of all Sisithrus, so that in the whole the number amounted to ten kings, and the term of their reigns to an hundred and twenty sari. (And among other things not irrelative to the subject he continues thus concerning the Deluge): After Euedoreschus some others reigned, and then Sisithrus. To him the deity Cronos foretold that on the fifteenth day of the month Dæsius there would be a deluge of rain: and he commanded him to deposit all the writings whatever which were in his possession in the city of the sun in Sippara. Sisithrus, when he had complied with these commands, sailed immediately to Armenia, and was presently inspired by God. Upon the third day after the cessation of the rain Sisithrus sent out birds by way of experiment, that he might judge whether the flood had subsided. But the birds, passing over an unbounded sea without finding any place of rest, returned again to Sisithrus. This he repeated with other birds. And when upon the third trial he succeeded, for the birds then returned with their feet stained with mud, the gods translated him from among men. With respect to the vessel, which yet remains in Armenia, it is a custom of the inhabitants to form bracelets and amulets of its wood.—Syncel. Chron. xxxviii.; Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib. ix.; Euseb. Chron. v. 8. p. 48 Of the Tower of Babel (Cory, p. 34). They say that the first inhabitants of the earth, glorying in their own strength and size and despising the gods, undertook to raise a tower whose top should reach the sky, in the place in which Babylon now stands; but when it approached the heaven the winds assisted the gods, and overthrew the work upon its contrivers, and its ruins are said to be still at Babylon; and the gods introduced a diversity of tongues among men, who till that time had all spoken the same language; and a war arose between Cronos and Titan. The place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon on account of the confusion of tongues, for confusion is by the Hebrews called Babel.—Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib. ix.; Syncel. Chron. xliv.; Euseb. Chron. xiii. Of The Ark, From Nicolaus Damascenus (Cory, p. 49). There is above Minyas in the land of Armenia a very great mountain which is called Baris, to which it is said that many persons retreated at the time of the Deluge and were saved, and that one in particular was carried thither in an ark and was landed on its summit, and that the remains of the vessel were long preserved upon the mountain. Perhaps this was the same individual of whom Moses, the legislator of the Jews, has made mention.—Jos. Ant. Jud. i. 3; Euseb. Præp. Evan. ix. p. 49 Of the Dispersion, from Hestiæus (Cory, p. 50). The priests who escaped took with them the implements of the worship of the Enyalian Jove, and came to Senaar in Babylonia. But they were again driven from thence by the introduction of a diversity of tongues; upon which they founded colonies in various parts, each settling in such situations as chance or the direction of God led them to occupy.—Jos. Ant. Jud. i.e. 4; Euseb. Præp. Evan. ix, Of the Tower of Babel, from Alexander Polyhistor Cory, p. 50) . The Sibyl says: That when all men formerly spoke the same language some among them undertook to erect a large and lofty tower, that they might climb up into heaven. But God sending forth a whirlwind confounded their design, and gave to each tribe a particular language of its own, which is the reason that the name of that city is Babylon. After the deluge lived Titan and Prometheus, when Titan undertook a war against Cronus.—Sync. xliv.; Jos. Ant. Jud. i. c. 4; Euseb. Præp. Evan. ix. The Theogonies, from Damascius (Cory, p. 318). But the Babylonians, like the rest of the barbarians, pass over in silence the One principle of the universe, and they constitute two, Tauthe and Apason, making Apason the husband of Tauthe, and p. 50 denominating her the mother of the gods. And from these proceeds an only-begotten son, Moymis, which I conceive is no other than the intelligible world proceeding from the two principles. From them also another progeny is derived, Dache and Dachus; and again a third, Kissare and Assorus, from which last three others proceed, Anus, and Illinus, and Aus. And of Aus and Davce is born a son called Belus, who, they say, is the fabricator of the world, the Demiurgus. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 51 CHAPTER IV. BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGY. Greek accounts.—Mythology local in origin.—Antiquity.—Conquests.—Colonies.—Three great gods.—Twelve great gods.—Angels.—Spirits.—Anu.—Anatu.—Vul.—Ishtar.—Equivalent to Venus.—Hea.—Oannes.—Merodach.—Bel or Jupiter.—Zirat-banit, Succoth Benoth.—Elu.—Sin the moon god.—Ninip.—Shamas.—Nergal.—Anunit.—Table of gods. IN their accounts of the Creation and of the early history of the human race the Babylonian divinities figure very prominently, but it is difficult in many cases to identify the deities mentioned by the Greek authors, because the phonetic reading of the names of the Babylonian gods is very obscure, and the classical writers often mention these divinities by the terms in their own mythology, which appeared to them to correspond with the Babylonian names. In this chapter it is only proposed to give a general account of some parts of the Babylonian mythology, to show the relationship between the deities and their titles and work. p. 52 Babylonian mythology was local in origin; each of the gods had a particular city which was the seat of his worship, and it is probable that the idea of weaving the gods into a system, in which each should have his part to play, only had its origin at a later time. The antiquity of this mythology may be seen by the fact, that two thousand years before the Christian era it was already completed, and its deities definitely connected into a system which remained with little change down to the close of the kingdom. It is probable that the gods were in early times only worshipped at their original cities or seats, the various cities or settlements being independent of each other; but it was natural as wars arose, and some cities gained conquests over others, and kings gradually united the country into monarchies, that the people of conquering cities should claim that their gods were superior to those of the cities they conquered, and thus carne the system of different ranks or grades among the gods. Again, colonies were sent out of some cities, and the colonies, as they considered themselves sons of the cities they started from, also considered their gods to be sons of the gods of the mother cities. Political changes in early times led to the rise and fall of various cities and consequently of their deities, and gave rise to numerous myths relating to the different personages in the mythology. In some remote age there appear to have been three great cities in the country, Erech, Eridu, and Nipur, and their divinities Anu, Hea, and Bel were considered p. 53 the "great gods" of the country. Subsequent changes led to the decline of these cities, but their deities still retained their position at the head of the Babylonian system. These three leading deities formed members of a circle of twelve gods, also called great. These gods and their titles are given as: 1. Anu, king of angels and spirits, lord of the city of Erech. 2. Bel, lord of the world, father of the gods, creator, lord of the city of Nipur. 3. Hea, maker of fate, lord of the deep, god of wisdom and knowledge, lord of the city of Eridu. 4. Sin, lord of crowns, maker of brightness, lord of the city of Ur. 5. Merodach, just prince of the gods, lord of birth, lord of the city of Babylon. 6. Vul, the strong god, lord of canals and atmosphere, lord of the city of Muru. 7. Shamas, judge of heaven and earth, director of all, lord of the cities of Larsa and Sippara. 8. Ninip, warrior of the warriors of the gods, destroyer of wicked, lord of the city of Nipur. 9. Nergal, giant king of war, lord of the city of Cutha. 10. Nusku, holder of the golden sceptre, the lofty god. 11. Belat, wife of Bel, mother of the great gods, lady of the city of Nipur. p. 54 12. Ishtar, eldest of heaven and earth, raising the face of warriors. Below these deities there was a large body of gods forming the bulk of the pantheon, and below these were arranged the Igege, or angels of heaven, and the Anunnaki, or angels of earth. Below these again came various classes of spirits or genii called Sedu, Vadukku, Ekimu, Gallu, and others; some of these were evil, some good. The relationship of the various principal gods and their names, titles, and offices will be seen by the following remarks. At the head of the Babylonian mythology stands a deity who was sometimes identified with the heavens, sometimes considered as the ruler and god of heaven. This deity is named Anu, his sign is the simple star, the symbol of divinity, and at other times the Maltese cross. Anu represents abstract divinity, and he appears as an original principle, perhaps as the original principle of nature. He represents the universe as the upper and lower regions, and when these were divided the upper region or heaven was called Anu, while the lower region or earth was called Anatu; Anatu being the female principle or wife of Anu. Anu is termed the old god, and the god of the whole of heaven and earth; one of the manifestations of Arm was as the two forms Lahma and Lahama, which probably correspond to the Greek forms Dache and Dachus, see p. 50. These forms are said to have sprung out of the original chaos, and they are p. 55 followed by the two forms sar and kisar (the Kissare and Assorus of the Greeks), sar means the upper hosts or expanse, kisar the lower hosts or expanse; these are also forms of manifestations of Anu and his wife. Aim is also lord of the old city, and he bears the names Alalu and Papsukul. His titles generally indicate height, antiquity, purity, divinity, and he may be taken as the general type of divinity. Anu was originally worshipped at the city of Erech, which was called the city of Anu and Anatu, and the great temple there was called the "house of Anu," or the "house of heaven." Anatu, the wife or consort of Anu, is generally only a female form of Anu, but is sometimes contrasted with him; thus, when Anu represents height and heaven, Anatu represents depth and earth; she is also lady of darkness, the mother of the god Hea, the mother producing heaven and earth, the female fish-god, and she is one of the many goddesses called Istar or Venus. Anu and Anatu have a numerous family; among their sons are numbered Sar-ziri, the king of the desert, Latarak, Abgula, Kusu, and the air-god, whose name is uncertain. The air-god is usually called Vul, he has also the name Pur, and the epithets Ramman or Rimmon, the self-existent, and Uban or Ben. Vul is god of the region of the atmosphere, or space between the heaven and earth, he is the god of rain, of storms and whirlwind, of thunder and lightning, of floods and watercourses. Vul was p. 56 in high esteem in Syria and Arabia, where he bore the name of Daddi; in Armenia he was called Teiseba. Vul is always considered an active deity, and was extensively worshipped. Another important god, a son of Anu, was the god of fire; his name may be read Bil-kan, with the possibility of some connection with the Biblical Tubal Cain and the classical Vulcan. The fire-god takes an active part in the numerous mythological tablets and legends, and he is considered to be the most potent deity in relation to witchcraft and spells generally. The most important of the daughters of Anu was named Istar; she was in some respects the equivalent of the classical Venus. Her worship was at first subordinate to that of Anu, and as she was goddess of love, while Anu was god of heaven, it is probable that the first intention in the mythology was only to represent love as heaven-born; but in time a more sensual view prevailed, and the worship of Istar became one of the darkest features in Babylonian mythology. As the worship of this goddess increased in favour, it gradually superseded that of Anu, until in time his temple, the house of heaven, came to be regarded as the temple of Venus. The planet Venus, as the evening star, was identified with the Ishtar of Erech, while the morning star was Anunit, goddess of Akkad. There were various other goddesses called Istar, among which may be noticed Istar, daughter of Sin p. 57 the moon-god, who is sometimes confounded with the daughter of Anu. A companion deity with Anu is Hea, who is god of the sea and of Hades, in fact of all the lower regions. He has two features, and corresponds in some respects to the Saturn or Cronos of the ancients, in others to their Poseidon or Neptune. Hea is called god of the lower region, he is lord of the sea or abyss; he is lord of generation and of all human beings, he bears the titles lord of wisdom, of mines and treasures; he is lord of gifts, of music, of fishermen and sailors, and of Hades or hell. It has been supposed that the serpent was one of his emblems, and that he was the Oannes of Berosus; these things do not, however, appear in the inscriptions. The wife of Hea was Dav-kina, the Davke of Damascius, who is the goddess of the lower regions, the consort of the deep; and their principal son was Maruduk or Merodach, the Bel of later times. Merodach, god of Babylon, appears in all the earlier inscriptions as the agent of his father Hea; he goes about in the world collecting information, and receives commissions from his father to set right all that appears wrong. Merodach is an active agent in creation, but is always subordinate to his father Hea. In later times, after Babylon had been made the capital, Merodach, who was god of that city, was raised to the head of the Pantheon. Merodach or Bel was identified with the classical Jupiter, but the name Bel, "the lord," was only given to him in times subsequent p. 58 to the rise of Babylon. The wife of Merodach was Zirat-banit, the Succoth Benoth of the Bible. Nebo, the god of knowledge and literature, who was worshipped at the neighbouring city of Borsippa, was a favourite deity in later times, as was also his consort Tasmit. Beside Merodach Hea had a numerous progeny, his sons being principally river gods. A third great god was united with Anu and Hea, his names were Enu, Elu, Kaptu, and Bel; he was the original Bel of the Babylonian mythology, and was lord of the surface of the earth and the affairs of men. Elu was lord of the city of Nipur, and had a consort named Belat or Beltis. Elu, or Bel, is the most active of the gods in the general affairs of mankind, and was so generally worshipped in early times that he came to be regarded as the national divinity, and his temple at the city of Nipur was regarded as the type of all temples. The extensive worship of Bel, and the high honour in which he was held, seem to point to a time when his city, Nipur, was the metropolis of the country. Belat, or Beltis, the wife of Bel, is a famous deity celebrated in all ages, but as the title Belat was only "lady," or "goddess," it was a common one for many goddesses, and the notices of Beltis probably refer to several different personages. The same remark may be applied to the name Istar, or Ishtar, meaning "goddess," which is applied to any female divinity. p. 59 Elu had, like the other gods, a numerous family; his eldest son was the moon-god called Ur, Agu or Aku, Sin and Itu, in later times generally termed Sin. Sin was presiding deity of the city of Ur, and early assumed an important place in the mythology. The moon-god figures prominently in some early legends, and during the time the city of Ur was capital of the country his worship became very extensive and popular in the whole of the country. Ninip, god of hunting and war, was another celebrated son of Elu; he was worshipped with his father at Nipur. Ninip was also much worshipped in Assyria as well as Babylonia, his character as presiding genius of war and the chase making him a favourite deity with the warlike kings of Assur. Sin the moon-god had a son Shamas, or Samas, the sun-god, and a daughter, Istar or Venus. Shamas is an active deity in some of the Izdubar legends and fables, but he is generally subordinate to Sin. In the Babylonian system the moon takes precedence of the sun, and the Shamas of Larsa was probably considered a different deity to Shamas of Sippara. Among the other deities of the Babylonians may be counted Nergal, god of Cutha, who, like Ninip, presided over hunting and war, and Anunit, the deity of one city of Sippara, and of the city of Akkad. The following table will exhibit the relationship of the principal deities; but it must be noted that the p. 60 [paragraph continues]Assyrian inscriptions are not always consistent, either as to the sex or paternity of the gods:— Click to enlarge Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 61 CHAPTER V. BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION. Mutilated condition of tablets.—List of subjects.—Description of chaos.—Tiamat.—Generation of gods.—Damascius.—Comparison with Genesis.—Three great gods.—Doubtful fragments.—Fifth tablet.—Stars.—Planets.—Moon.—Sun.—Abyss or chaos.—Creation of moon,—Creation of animals.—Man.—His duties.—Dragon of sea.—Fall.—Curse for disobedience.—Discussion.—Sacred tree.—Dragon or serpent.—War with Tiamat.—Weapons.—Merodach.—Destruction of Tiamat.—Mutilation of documents.—Parallel Biblical account.—Age of story. I HAVE related in the first chapter the history of the discovery of this legend; the tablets composing it are in mutilated condition, and too fragmentary to enable a single tablet to be completed, or to give more than a general view of the whole subject. The story, so far as I can judge from the fragment, agrees generally with the account of the Creation in the Book of Genesis, but shows traces of having originally included very much more matter. The fragments of the story which I have arranged are as follows:— p. 62 1. Part of the first tablet, giving an account of the Chaos and the generation of the gods. 2. Fragment of subsequent tablet, perhaps the second on the foundation of the deep. 3. Fragment of tablet placed here with great doubt, probably referring to the creation of land. 4. Part of the fifth tablet, giving the creation of the heavenly bodies. 5. Fragment of seventh? tablet, giving the creation of land animals. 6. Fragments of three tablets on the creation and fall of man. 7. Fragments of tablets relating to the war between the gods and evil spirits. These fragments indicate that the series included at least twelve tablets, the writing on each tablet being in one column on the front and back, and probably including over one hundred lines of text. The first fragment in the story is the upper part of the first tablet, giving the description of the void or chaos, and part of the generation of the gods. The translation is: 1. When above, were not raised the heavens: 2. and below on the earth a plant had not grown up; 3. the abyss also had not broken open their boundaries: 4. The chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea) was the producing-mother of the whole of them. p. 63 5. Those waters at the beginning were ordained; but 6. a tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded. 7. When the gods had not sprung up, any one of them; 8. a plant had not grown, and order did not exist; 9. Were made also the great gods, 10. the gods Lahmu and Lahamu they caused to come . . . . . 11. and they grew . . . . . . 12. the gods Sar and Kisar were made . . . . 13. A course of days, and a long time passed . . . 14. the god Anu . . . . . . 15. the gods Sar and . . . . . . 16. . . . . . . On the reverse of this tablet there are only fragments of the eight lines of colophon, but the restoration of the passage is easy, it reads:— 1. First tablet of "When above" (name of Creation series). 2. Palace of Assurbanipal king of nations, king of Assyria, 3. to whom Nebo and Tasmit attentive ears have given: 4. he sought with diligent eyes the wisdom of the inscribed tablets, 5. which among the kings who went before me, 6. none those writings had sought. 7. The wisdom of Nebo, the impressions? of the god my instructor? all delightful, p. 64 8. on tablets I wrote, I studied, I observed, and 9. for the inspection of my people within my palace I placed This colophon will serve to show the value attached to the documents, and the date of the present copies. The fragment of the obverse, broken as it is, is precious as giving the description of the chaos or desolate void before the Creation of the world, and the first movement of creation. This corresponds to the first two verses of the first chapter of Genesis. 1. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." On comparing the fragment of the first tablet of the Creation with the extract front Damascius, we do not find any statement as to there being two principles at first called Tauthe and Apason, and these producing Moymis, but in the Creation tablet the first existence is called Mummu Tiamatu, a name meaning the "sea-water" or "sea chaos." The name Mummu Tiamatu combines the two names Moymis and Tauthe of Damascius. Tiamatu appears also as Tisallat and agrees with the Thalatth of Berosus, which we are expressly told was the sea. It is evident that, according to the notion of the Babylonians, the sea was the origin of all things, and this also agrees with the statement of Genesis, i. 2. where the chaotic waters are called ‏תהום‎, "the deep," the same word as p. 65 the Tiamat of the Creation text and the Tauthe of Damascius. The Assyrian word Mummu is probably connected with the Hebrew ‏מהומה‎, confusion, and one of its equivalents is Umun, equal to the Hebrew ‏המרן‎ noise or tumult. Beside the name of the chaotic deep called ‏תהו‎ in Genesis, which is, as I have said, evidently the Tiamat of the Creation text, we have in Genesis the word ‏תהו‎, waste, desolate, or formless, applied to this chaos. This appears to be the tehuta of the Assyrians—a name of the sea-water ("History of Assurbanipal," p. 59); this word is closely connected with the word tiamat or tamtu, the sea. The correspondence between the inscription and Genesis is here complete, both stating that a watery chaos preceded the creation, and formed, in fact, the origin and groundwork of the universe. We have here not only an agreement in sense, but, what is rarer, the same word used in both narratives as the name of this chaos, and given also in the account of Damascius. Berosus has certainly the slightly different form Thalatth, with the same sense however, and it might be suspected that this word was a corruption of Tiamat, but the Babylonian word is read Tiamtu, Tiamat, and Tisallat, which last is more probably the origin of the word Thalatth of Berosus. Next we have in the inscription the creation of the gods Lahma or Lahmu, and Lahama or Lahamu; these are male and female personifications of motion and production, and correspond to the Dache and p. 66 [paragraph continues]Dachus of Damascius, and the moving ‏רוח‎, wind, or spirit of Genesis. The next stage in the inscription gives the production of Sar or Ilsar, and Kisar, representing the upper expanse and the lower expanse, and corresponding to the Assorus and Kissare of Damascius. The resemblance in these names is probably closer than here represented, for Sar or Ilsar is generally read Assur as a deity in later times, being an ordinary sign for the supreme god of the Assyrians. Here the cuneiform text becomes so mutilated that little can be made out from it, but it appears from the fragment of line 14 that the next step was (as in Damascius) the generation of the three great gods, Anu, Elu, and Hea, the Anus, Illinus, and Aus of that writer. Anu represents the heaven, Elu the earth, and Hea the sea, in this new form of the universe. It is probable that the inscription went on to relate the generation of the other gods, and then passed to the successive acts of creation by which the world was fashioned. The successive forms Lahma and Lahama, Sar and Kisar, are represented in some of the god lists as names or manifestations of Anu and Anatu. In each case there appears to be a male and female principle, which principles combine in the formation of the universe. The resemblance between the extract from Damascius and the account in the Creation tablet as to p. 67 these successive stages or forms in the Creation, is striking, and leaves no doubt that there was a connection between the two. The three next tablets in the Creation series are absent, there being only two doubtful fragments of this part of the story. Judging from the analogy of the Book of Genesis, we may conjecture that this part of the narrative contained the description of the creation of light, of the atmosphere or firmament, of the dry land, and of plants. One fragment to which I have alluded as probably belonging to this space is a small portion of the top of a tablet referring to the fixing of the dry land; but it may belong to a later part of the story, for it is part of a speech to one of the gods. This fragment is— 1. When the foundations of the ground of rock [thou didst make] 2. the foundation of the ground thou didst call . . 3. thou didst beautify the heaven . . . . . . 4. to the face of the heaven . . . . . . 5. thou didst give . . . . . . 6. . . . . . . There is a second more doubtful fragment which appears to belong to this space, and, like the last, seems to relate part of the creation of the dry land. I give it here under reserve— 1. The god Sar . . . pan . . . . 2. When to the god . . . . 3. Certainly I will cover? . . . 4. from the day that thou . . . . p. 68 5. angry thou didst speak . . . . 6. Sar (or Assur) his mouth opened and spake, to the god . . . . 7. Above the sea which is the seat of . . . . 8. in front of the esara (firmament?) which I have made . . . . 9. below the place I strengthen it . . . . 10. Let there be made also e-lu (earth?) for the dwelling of [man?] 11. Within it his city may he build and . . . . 12. When from the sea he raised . . . . 13. the place . . . . lifted up . . . . 14. above . . . . heaven . . . . 15. the place . . . . lifted up . . . . 16 . . . . Pal-bi-ki the temples of the great gods. . . . 17 . . . . his father and his . . . . of him 18. the god . . . . thee and over all which thy hand has made 19 . . . . thee, having, over the earth which thy hand has made 20 . . . . having, Pal-bi-ki which thou hast called its name 21 . . . . made? my hand for ever 22 . . . . may they carry 23. the place . . . . any one the work which . . . 24. he rejoiced . . . . to after . . . . 25. the gods . . . . 26. which in . . . . 27. he opened . . . p. 69 This fragment is both mutilated and obscure; in the eighth line I have translated firmament with a query, the sound and meaning of the word being doubtful; and in line 10, I translate earth for a combination of two characters more obscure still, my translation being a conjecture grounded on some meanings of the individual monograms. Pal-bi-ki are the characters of one name of the city of Assur; but I do not understand the introduction of this name here. The next recognizable portion of the Creation legends is the upper part of the fifth tablet, which gives the creation of the heavenly bodies, and runs parallel to the account of the fourth day of creation in Genesis. This tablet opens as follows:— Fifth Tablet of Creation Legend. Obverse. 1. It was delightful, all that was fixed by the great gods. 2. Stars, their appearance [in figures] of animals he arranged. 3. To fix the year through the observation of their constellations, 4. twelve months (or signs) of stars in three rows he arranged, 5. from the day when the year commences unto the close. p. 70 6. He marked the positions of the wandering stars (planets) to shine in their courses, 7. that they may not do injury, and may not trouble any one, 8. the positions of the gods Bel and Hea he fixed with him. 9. And he opened the great gates in the darkness shrouded 10. the fastenings were strong on the left and right. 11. In its mass (i.e. the lower chaos) he made a boiling, 12. the god Uru (the moon) he caused to rise out, the night he overshadowed, 13. to fix it also for the light of the night, until the shining of the day, 14. That the month might not be broken, and in its amount be regular. 15. At the beginning of the month, at the rising of the night, 16. his horns are breaking through to shine on the heaven. 17. On the seventh day to a circle he begins to swell, 18. and stretches towards the dawn further. 19. When the god Shamas (the sun) in the horizon of heaven, in the east, 20. . . . . . formed beautifully and . . . . 21. . . . . . . to the orbit Shamas was perfected 22. . . . . . . .the dawn Shamas should change 23. . . . . . . . . going on its path p. 71 24. . . . . . . . . giving judgment 25. . . . . . . . . to tame 26. . . . . . . . . a second time 27. . . . . . . . . Reverse. 1. . . . . . . . . 2. . . . . . he fixed 3. . . . of the gods on his hearing. 4. Fifth tablet of "When above" (Creation series). 5. Country of Assurbanipal king of nations king of Assyria. This fine fragment is a typical specimen of the style of this series, and shows a marked stage in the Creation, the appointment of the heavenly orbs. It parallels the fourth day of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis, where we read: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: "15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. "16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. "17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, "18. And to rule over the day and over the night, p. 72 and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. "19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." The fragment of the first tablet of the Creation series showed that that was rather introductory, and dealt with the generation of the gods more than the creation of the universe, and the fact that the fifth tablet contains the Creation given in Genesis, under the fourth day, while a subsequent tablet, probably the seventh, gives the creation of the animals which, according to Genesis, took place on the sixth day, leads to the inference that the events of each of the days of Genesis were recorded on a separate tablet, and that the numbers of the tablets generally followed in the same order as the days of Creation in Genesis, thus: Genesis, Chap. I. V. 1 & 2 agree with Tablet 1. V. 3 to 5 1st day probably with tablet 2. V. 6 to 8 2nd day probably with tablet 3. V. 9 to 13 3rd day probably with tablet 4. V. 14 to 19 4th day agree with tablet 5. V. 20 to 23 5th day probably with tablet 6. V. 24 & 25 6th day probably with tablet 7. V. 26 and following, 6th and 7th day, probably with tablet 8. The tablet which I think to be the eighth appears to give the Creation and Fall of Man, and is followed by several other tablets giving apparently the war p. 73 between the gods and the powers of evil, but all of these are very mutilated, and no number can be positively proved beyond the fifth tablet. There is, however, fair reason to suppose that there was a close agreement in subjects and order between the text of the Chaldean legend and Genesis, while there does not appear to be anything like the same agreement between these inscriptions and the accounts transmitted to us through Berosus (see pp. 37-50). The fifth tablet commences with the statement that the previous creations were "delightful," or satisfactory, agreeing with the oft-repeated statement of Genesis, after each act of creative power, that "God saw that it was good." The only difference here is one of detail. It appears that the Chaldean record contains the review and expression of satisfaction at the head of each tablet, while the Hebrew has it at the close of each act. We then come to the creation of the heavenly orbs, which are described in the inscription as arranged like animals, while the Bible says they were set as "lights in the firmament of heaven," and just as the book of Genesis says they were set for signs and seasons, for days and years, so the inscription describes that the stars were set in courses to point out the year. The twelve constellations or signs of the zodiac, and two other bands of constellations are mentioned, just as two sets of twelve stars each are mentioned by the Greeks, one north and one south of the zodiac. I have translated one of these names p. 74 nibir, "wandering stars" or "planets," but this is not the usual word for planet, and there is a star called Nibir near the place where the sun crossed the boundary between the old and new years, and this star was one of twelve supposed to be favourable to Babylonia. It is evident, from the opening of the inscription on the first tablet of the Chaldean astrology and astronomy, that the functions of the stars were according to the Babylonians to act not only as regulators of the seasons and the year, but to be also used as signs, as in Genesis i. 14, for in those ages it was generally believed that the heavenly bodies gave, by their appearance and positions, signs of events which were coming on the earth. The passage given in the eighth line of the inscription, to the effect that the God who created the stars fixed places or habitations for Bel and Hea with himself in the heavens, points to the fact that Anu, god of the heavens, was considered to be the creator of the heavenly hosts; for it is he who shares with Bel and Hea the divisions of the face of the sky. The ninth line of the tablet opens a curious view as to the philosophical beliefs of the early Babylonians. They evidently considered that the world was drawn together out of the waters, and rested or reposed upon a vast abyss of chaotic ocean which filled the space below the world. This dark infernal lake was shut in by gigantic gates and strong fastenings, which prevented the floods from overwhelming the world. When the deity decided to create the p. 75 moon, he is represented as drawing aside the gates of this abyss, and creating a whirling motion like boiling in the dark ocean below; then, at his bidding, from this turmoil, arose the moon like a giant bubble, and, passing through the open gates, mounted on its destined way across the vaults of heaven. The Babylonian account continues with the regulation of the motions of the moon to overshadow the night, to regulate and give light until the dawn of day. The phases of the moon are described: its commencing as a thin crescent at the evening on the first day of the month, and its gradually increasing and travelling further into the night. After the moon the creation of the sun is recorded, its beauty and perfection are extolled, and the regularity of its orbit, which led to its being considered the type of a judge, and the regulator of the world. The Babylonian account of the Creation gives the creation of the moon before that of the sun, in reverse order to that in Genesis, and evidently the Babylonians considered the moon the principal body, while the Book of Genesis makes the sun the greater light. Here it is evident that Genesis is truer to nature than the Chaldean text. The details of the creation of the planets and stars, which would have been very important to us, are unfortunately lost, no further fragment of this tablet having been recovered. The colophon at the close of tablet V. gives us, however, part of the first line of the sixth tablet, but p. 76 not enough to determine its subject. It is probable that this dealt with the creation of creatures of the water and fowls of the air, and that these were the creation of Bel, the companion deity to Anu. The next tablet, the seventh in the series, is probably represented by a curious fragment, which I first found in one of the trenches at Iiouyunjik, and recognized at once as a part of the description of the Creation. This fragment is like some of the others, the upper portion of a tablet much broken, and only valuable from its generally clear meaning. The translation of this fragment is: 1. When the gods in their assembly had created . . . . . . 2. were delightful the strong monsters . . . . . . 3. they caused to be living creatures . . . . . . 4. cattle of the field, beasts of the field, and creeping things of the field . . . . . . 5. . . . . . . they fixed for the living creatures . . . . . . 6. . . . . . . cattle and creeping things of the city they fixed . . . . . . 7. . . . . . . the assembly of the creeping things the whole which were created . . . . . . 8. . . . . . . which in the assembly of my family . . . . . . 9. . . . . . . and the god Nin-si-ku (the lord of noble face) caused to be two . . . . . . 10 . . . . . . the assembly of the creeping things he caused to go . . . . . . p. 77 11. . . . . . . flesh beautiful? . . . . . . 12. . . . . . . pure presence . . . . . . 13. . . . . . . pure presence . . . . . . 14. . . . . . . pure presence in the assembly . . . 15 . . . . . . This tablet corresponds to the sixth day of Creation (Genesis, i. 24–25): "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good." The Assyrian tablet commences with a statement of the satisfaction a former creation, apparently that of the monsters or whales, had given; here referring to Genesis i. 23. It then goes on to relate the creating of living animals on land, three kinds being distinguished, exactly agreeing with the Genesis account, and then we have in the ninth line a curious but broken account of Nin-si-ku (one of the names of Hea), creating two beings to be with the animals, the wording of the next fragmentary lines leading to the suspicion that this was the opening of the account of the creation of man. This, however, is only a suspicion, for the lines are so mutilated and obscure that nothing can be fairly proved from them. It is curious here, however, to notice a tablet which refers p. 78 to the creation of man. In this tablet, K 63, the creation of the human race is given to Hea, and all the references in other inscriptions make this his work. In considering the next fragments, those which really relate to man, there is great difficulty; for, in the first fragment to be noticed, on one side the mutilation of the tablet renders the sense totally uncertain; in the space lost there may be a string of negatives which would entirely reverse the meaning. It is probable that the other side of the fragment is a discourse to the first woman on her duties. I think it to be the reverse of the tablet which, so far as it can be translated, appears to give the speech of the deity to the newly created pair (man and woman) instructing them in their duties. K 3364 obverse. (Many lines lost.) 1. evil . . . . 2. which is eaten by the stomach . . . . 3. in growing . . . . 4. consumed . . . . 5. extended, heavy, . . . . 6. firmly thou shalt speak . . . . 7. and the support of mankind . . . thee 8. Every day thy god thou shalt approach (or invoke) 9. sacrifice, prayer of the mouth and instruments . . . . . . 10. to thy god in reverence thou shalt carry. p. 79 11. Whatever shall be suitable for divinity, 12. supplication, humility, and bowing of the face, 13. fire? thou shalt give to him, and thou shalt bring tribute, 14. and in the fear also of god thou shalt be holy. 15. In thy knowledge and afterwards in the tablets (writing) 16. worship and goodness . . . shall be raised? 17. Sacrifice saving . . . . 18. and worship . . . . 19. the fear of god thou shalt not leave . . . . 20. the fear of the angels thou shalt live in . . . . 21. With friend and enemy? speech thou shalt make? . . . . 22. under? speech thou shalt make good . . . . 23. When thou shalt speak also he will give . . . . 24. When thou shalt trust also thou . . . . 25. to enemy? also . . . . 26. . . . thou shalt trust a friend . . . . 27. . . . thy knowledge also Reverse. (Many lines lost.) 1. Beautiful place also . . . . divide . . . . 2. in beauty and . . . . thy hand . . . . 3. and thou to the presence . . . . thou shalt fix . . . 4. and not thy sentence . . . . thee to the end? 5. in the presence of beauty and . . . . thou shalt speak 6. of thy beauty and . . . . p. 80 7. beautiful and . . . . to give drink? 8. circle I fill? his enemies 9. his rising? he seeks . . . . the man . . . . 10. with the lord of thy beauty thou shalt be faithful, 11. to do evil thou shalt not approach him, 12. at thy illness . . . . to him 13. at thy distress . . . . The obverse of this tablet is a fragment of the address from the deity to the newly created man on his duties to his god, and it is curious that while, in other parts of the story, various gods are mentioned by name, here only one god is mentioned, and simply as the "God." The fragments of this tablet might belong to the purest system of religion; but it would in this case be wrong to ground an argument on a single fragment. The reverse of the tablet appears, so far as the sense can be ascertained, to be addressed to the woman, the companion of the man, informing her of her duties towards her partner. The next fragment is a small one; it is the lower corner of a tablet with the ends of a few lines. It may possibly belong to the tablet of the Fall to be mentioned later. This fragment is of importance, small as it is, because it mentions a speech of Hea to man, and alludes to the Karkartiamat, or dragon of the sea, in connection with a revolt against the deity. The fragment is, however, too mutilated to give more than a general idea of its contents. p. 81 Obverse. 1. . . . . seat her 2. . . . . all the lords 3. . . . . his might 4. . . . . the gods, lord lofty? 5. . . . . kingdom exalted 6. . . . . in multitudes increase Reverse. 1. . . . . Hea called to his man 2. . . . . height of his greatness 3. . . . . the rule of any god 4. . . . . Sartulku knew it 5. . . . . his noble . . . . 6. . . . . his fear? Sartulku 7. . . . . his might 8. . . . . to them, the dragon of the sea 9. . . . . against thy father fight Connected with this fragment is the account of the curse after the Fall, on the remarkable fragment which I brought over from my first expedition to Assyria. This forms about half a tablet, being part of the obverse and reverse, both in fair preservation; and so far as they go, fairly perfect, but containing at present many obscurities in the speeches of the gods. Before the commencement of lines 1, 5, 11, 19, 27, and 29 on the obverse, there are glosses stating that the divine titles commencing these lines all apply to the same deity. These explanatory glosses show p. 82 that even in the Assyrian time there were difficulties in the narrative. Obverse. 1. The god Zi . . . . . 2. which he had fixed . . . . . 3. their account . . . . . 4. may not fail in preparing? . . . . . 5. The god Ziku (Noble life) quickly called; Director of purity, 6. good kinsman, master of perception and right, 7. causer to be fruitful and abundant, establisher of fertility, 8. another to us has come up, and greatly increased, 9. in thy powerful advance spread over him good, 10. may he speak, may he glorify, may he exalt his majesty. 11. The god Mir-ku (noble crown) in concern, raised a protection? 12. lord of noble lips, saviour from death 13. of the gods imprisoned, the accomplisher of restoration, 14. his pleasure he established he fixed upon the gods his enemies, 15. to fear them he made man, 16. the breath of life was in him. 17. May he be established, and may his will not fail, 18. in the mouth of the dark races which his hand has made. 19. The god of noble lips with his five fingers sin may he cut off; p. 83 20. who with his noble charms removes the evil curse. 21. The god Libzu wise among the gods, who had chosen his possession, 22. the doing of evil shall not come out of him, 23. established in the company of the gods, he rejoices their heart. 24. Subduer of the unbeliever . . . . . 25. director of right . . . . . 26. of corruption and . . . . . 27. The god Nissi . . . . . 28. keeper of watch . . . . . 29. The god Suhhab, swiftly . . . . . 30. the pourer out to them . . . . . 31. in . . . . . 32. like . . . 33 . . . . . Reverse. 1. . . . . . 2. . . . . . the star . . . . . 3. may he take the tail and head . . . . . 4. because the dragon Tiamat had . . . . . 5. his punishment the planets possessing . . . . 6. by the stars of heaven themselves may they . . 7. like a sheep may the gods tremble all of them 8. may he bind Tiamat her prisons may he shut up and surround. 9. Afterwards the people of remote ages 10. may she remove, not destroy . . . for ever, p. 84 11. to the place he created, he made strong. 12. Lord of the earth his name called out, the father Elu 13. in the ranks of the angels pronounced their curse. 14. The god Hea heard and his liver was angry, 15. because his man had corrupted his purity. 16. He like me also Hea may he punish him, 17. the course of my issue all of them may he remove, and 18. all my seed may he destroy. 19. In the language of the fifty great gods 20. by his fifty names he called, and turned away in anger from him: 21. May he be conquered, and at once cut off. 22. Wisdom and knowledge hostilely may they injure him. 23. May they put at enmity also father and son and may they plunder. 24. to king, ruler, and governor, may they bend their ear. 25. May they cause anger also to the lord of the gods Merodach. 26. His land may it bring forth but he not touch it; 27. his desire shall be cut off, and his will be unanswered; 28. the opening of his mouth no god shall take notice of; 29. his back shall be broken and not be healed; 30. at his urgent trouble no god shall receive him; p. 85 31. his heart shall be poured out, and his mind shall be troubled; 32. to sin and wrong his face shall come . . . . . 33. . . . . . front . . . . . 34. . . . . . In a second copy which presents several variations lines 14 to 19 are omitted. This valuable fragment is unfortunately obscure in some parts, especially on the obverse, but the general meaning is undoubted, and the approximate position of the fragment in the story is quite clear. It evidently follows the fragment giving the creation of the land animals, and either forms a further portion of the same, or part of the following tablet. The obverse gives a series of speeches and statements respecting the newly created man, who was supposed to be under the especial care of the deities. It happens in this case that there is no clue to the reason for these speeches, the key portions of the inscription being lost, but a point is evidently made of the purity of the man, who is said to be established in the company of the gods and to rejoice their hearts. The various divine titles or names, "the god of noble life," "the god of noble crown," and "the god of noble lips," are all most probably titles of Hea. It appears from line 18 that the race of human beings spoken of is the zalmat-qaqadi, or dark race, and in various other fragments of these legends they p. 86 are called Admi or Adami, which is exactly the name given to the first man in Genesis. The word Adam used in these legends for the first human being is evidently not a proper name, but is only used as a term for mankind. Adam appears as a proper name in Genesis, but certainly in some passages is only used in the same sense as the Assyrian word, and we are told on the creation of human beings (Genesis, v. 1): "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created." It has already been pointed out by Sir Henry Rawlinson that the Babylonians recognized two principal races: the Adamu, or dark race, and the Sarku, or light race, probably in the same manner that two races are mentioned in Genesis, the sons of Adam and the sons of God. It appears incidentally . from the fragments of inscriptions that it was the race of Adam, or the dark race, which was believed to have fallen, but there is at present no clue to the position of the other race in their system. We are informed in Genesis that when the world became corrupt the sons of God intermarried with the race of Adam, and thus spread the evils which had commenced with the Adamites (see Genesis, ch. vi.). The obverse of the tablet giving the creation of man, where it breaks off leaves him in a state of purity, and where the narrative recommences on the reverse man has already fallen. p. 87 Here it is difficult to say how far the narrative of the inscription agrees with that of the Bible. In this case it is better to review the Biblical account, which is complete, and compare it with the fragmentary allusions in the inscriptions. After the statement of man's innocence, which agrees with the inscription, the Bible goes on to relate (Genesis, iii. 1), that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, and that he tempted the woman to sin. This attributes the origin of sin to the serpent, but nothing whatever is said as to the origin or history of the serpent. The fragmentary account of the Fall in the inscriptions mentions the dragon Tiamat, or the dragon of the sea, evidently in the same relation as the serpent, being concerned in bringing about the Fall. This dragon is called the dragon of tiamat or the sea; it is generally conceived of as a griffin, and is connected with the original chaos, the Thalatth of Berosus, the female principle which, according to both the inscriptions and Berosus, existed before the creation of the universe. This was the original spirit of chaos and disorder, a spirit opposed in principle to the gods, and, according to the Babylonians, self-existent and eternal, older even than the gods, for the birth or separation of the deities out of this chaos was the first step in the creation of the world. According to Genesis, the serpent addressed the woman (Genesis, iii. 1), and inquired if God had forbidden them to eat of every tree of the Garden of p. 88 [paragraph continues]Eden, eliciting from her the statement that there was a tree in the middle of the Garden, the fruit of which was forbidden to them. There is nothing in the present fragments indicating a belief in the Garden of Eden or the Tree of Knowledge; there is only an obscure allusion in lines 16 and 22 to a thirst for knowledge having been a cause of man's fall, but outside these inscriptions, from the general body of Assyrian texts, Sir Henry Rawlinson has pointed out the agreement of the Babylonian region of Karduniyas or Ganduniyas with the Eden of the Bible. Eden is a fruitful place, watered by the four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Gihon, and Pison, and Ganduniyas is similar in description, watered by the four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Surappi, and Ukni. The loss of this portion of the Creation legend is unfortunate, as, however probable it may be that the Hebrew and Babylonian traditions agree about the Garden and Tree of Knowledge, we cannot now prove it. There is a second tree, the Tree of Life, in the Genesis account (ch. iii. 22), which certainly appears to correspond to the sacred grove of Anu, which a later fragment states was guarded by a sword turning to all the four points of the compass. In several other places in the Genesis legends, and especially in the legends of Izdubar, there are allusions to the tree, grove, or forest of the gods, and this divine tree or grove is often represented on the sculptures, both in the Babylonian gem engravings, and on the walls of the Assyrian palaces and temples. When p. 89 the representation is complete, the tree is attended by two figures of cherubims, one on each side of the sacred emblem. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve, tempted by SACRED TREE, OR GROVE, WITH ATTENDANT CHERUBIM, FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge SACRED TREE, OR GROVE, WITH ATTENDANT CHERUBIM, FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. the serpent, eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and so by disobedience brought sin into the world. These details are also lost in the cuneiform text, which opens again where the gods are cursing the dragon and the Adam or man for this transgression, corresponding to the passage, Genesis, iii. 9 to 19. Throughout this, corresponding passages may be found which show that the same idea runs through both narratives, but some passages in the cuneiform account are too mutilated to allow any certainty to be attached to the translation, and the loss of the previous parts of the text prevents our knowing what points the allusions are directed to. Although so much of the most important part of the text is lost, the notices in other parts, and the allusions in the mythological scenes on the Babylonian gems will serve to guide us as to the probable drift of the missing portion. p. 90 It is quite clear that the dragon of the sea or dragon of Tiamat is connected with the Fall like the serpent in the book of Genesis, and in fact is the equivalent of the serpent. The name of the dragon is not written phonetically, but by two monograms which probably mean the "scaly one," or animal covered with scales. This description, of course, might apply either to a fabulous dragon, a serpent, or a fish. The only passage where there is any phonetic explanation of the signs is in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. ii. p. 32, l. 9, where we have turbuhtu for the place or den of the dragon, perhaps connected with the Hebrew ‏רחב‎, sea-monster. The form of this creature as given on the gems is that of a griffin or dragon generally with a head like a carnivorous animal, body covered with scales, legs terminating in claws, like an eagle, and wings on the back. Our own heraldic griffins are so strikingly like the sculptures of this creature that we might almost suspect them to be copies from the Chaldean works. In some cases, however, the early Babylonian seals, which contained devices taken from these legends, more closely approached the Genesis story. One striking and important specimen of early type in the British Museum collection has two figures sitting one on each side of a tree, holding out their hands to the fruit, while at the back of one is stretched a serpent. We know well that in these early sculptures none of these figures were chance devices, but all represented events p. 91 or supposed events, and figures in their legends; thus it is evident that a form of the story of the Fall, similar to that of Genesis, was known in early times in Babylonia. The dragon which, in the Chaldean account of the SACRED TREE, SEATED FIGURE ON EACH BIDES AND SERPENT IN BACKGROUND, PROM AN EARLY BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge SACRED TREE, SEATED FIGURE ON EACH BIDES AND SERPENT IN BACKGROUND, PROM AN EARLY BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. [paragraph continues]Creation, leads man to sin, is the creature of Tiamat, the living principle of the sea and of chaos, and he is an embodiment of the spirit of chaos or disorder which was opposed to the deities at the creation of the world. It is clear that the dragon is included in the curse for the Fall, and that the gods invoke on the head of the human race all the evils which afflict humanity. Wisdom and knowledge shall injure him (line 22), he shall have family quarrels (line 23), shall submit to tyranny (line 24), he will anger the gods (line 25), he shall not eat the fruit of his labour (line 26), he shall be disappointed in his desires (line 27), he shall pour out useless prayer (lines 28 and 30), he shall have trouble of mind and body (lines 29 and 31), he shall commit future sin (line 32). No p. 92 doubt subsequent lines continue these topics, but again our narrative is broken, and it only reopens where the gods are preparing for war with the powers of evil, which are led by Tiamat, which war probably arose from the part played by Tiamat in the fall of man. My first idea of this part was that the war with the powers of evil preceded the Creation; I now think it followed the account of the Fall, but I have no direct proof of this. Of the subsequent tablets of this series, which include the war between the gods and powers of evil, and the punishment of the dragon Tiamat, there are several fragments. The first of these is K 4832, too mutilated to translate, it contains speeches of the gods before the war. The second fragment, K 3473, contains also speeches, and shows the gods preparing for battle. It is very fragmentary. 1. . . . . his mouth opened 2. . . . . his . . a word he spoke 3. . . . . satisfy my anger 4. . . . . of thee let me send to thee 5. . . . . thou ascendest 6. . . . . thee to thy presence 7. . . . . their curse 8. . . . . in a circle may they sit 9. . . . . let them make the vine? 10. . . . . of them may they hear the renown 11. . . . . cover them he set and p. 93 12. . . . . thee change to them 13. . . . . he sent me 14. . . . . he held me 15. . . . . he sinned against me 16. . . . . and angrily . . . . 17. . . . . the gods all of them 18. . . . . made her hands . . . . 19. . . . . and his hand Tiamat coming 20. . . . . destroyed not night and day 21. . . . . burning . . . 22. . . . . they made division 23. . . . . the end of all hands 24. . . . . formerly thou . . . great serpents 25. . . . . unyielding I . . . . 26. . . . . their bodies fill . . . . 27. . . . . fear shall cover them (Several other mutilated lines.) The third fragment, K 3938, is on the same subject; some lines of this give the following general meaning:— 1. great animal . . . . 2. fear he made to carry . . . . 3. their sight was very great . . . . 4. their bodies were powerful and . . . . 5. . . . . delightful, strong serpent . . . . 6. Udgallu, Urbat and . . . . 7. days arranged, five . . . . 8. carrying weapons unyielding . . . . 9. her breast, her back . . . . 10. flowing? and first . . . . p. 94 11. among the gods collected . . . . 12. the god Kingu subdued . . . . 13. marching in front before . . . . 14. carrying weapons thou . . . . 15. upon war . . . . 16. his hand appointed There are many more similar broken lines, and on the other side fragments of a speech by some being who desires Tiamat to make war. All these fragments are not sufficiently complete to translate with certainty, or even to ascertain their order. The fourth fragment, K 3449, relates to the making of weapons to arm the god who should meet in war the dragon. This reads with some doubt on account of its mutilation: 1. heart . . . . . 2. burning . . . . . 3. from . . . . . 4. in the temple . . . . . 5. may he fix . . . . . 6. the dwelling of the god . . . . . 7. the great gods . . . . . 8. the gods said? . . . . . 9. the sword that was made the gods saw 10. and they saw also the bow which was strung . . . . . 11. the work that was made they placed . . . . . 12. carried also Anu in the assembly of the gods . . . . . p. 95 13. the bow he fitted she . . . . . 14. and he spake of the bow thus and said 15. Noble wood who shall first thus draw thee? against? 16. speed her punishment the star of the bow in heaven . . . . . 17. and establish the resting place of . . . . . 18. from the choice of . . . . . 19. and place his throne . . . . . 20. . . . . . in heaven . . . . . 21. . . . . . The next fragment or collection of fragments gives BEL ENCOUNTERING THE DRAGON; FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge BEL ENCOUNTERING THE DRAGON; FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. the final struggle between Tiamat and Merodach or Bel, and this fragment appears to distinguish between the dragon of Tiamat or the sea monster, and Tiamat the female personification of the sea; but I am not sure of this distinction. The saparu, or sickle-shaped sword, is always represented both in the sculptures and inscriptions as a weapon of Bel in this war. Sixth Fragment. 1. . . . . he fixed . . . . 2. . . . . to his right hand he distributed p. 96 3. . . . . and quiver his hand hurled, 4. the lightning he sent before him, 5. . . . . fierceness filled his body. 6. He made the sword to silence the dragon of the sea, 7. the seven winds he fixed not to come out of her wound. 8. On the South, the North, the East, and the West, 9. his hand the sword he caused to hold before the grove of his father the god Anu. 10. He made the evil wind, the hostile wind, the tempest, the storm, 11. the four winds, the seven winds, the wind of . . . ., the irregular wind. 12. He brought out the winds he had created seven-of them, 13. the dragon of the sea stretched out, came after him, 14. he carried the thunderbolt his great weapon, 15. in a chariot . . . unrivalled, driving he rode: 16. he took her and four fetters on her hands he fastened, 17. . . . . unyielding, storming . . . . her 18. . . . . with their sting bringing death 19. . . . . sweeping away knowledge 20. . . . . destruction and fighting 21. . . . . left hand . . . . 22. . . . . fear . . . . (Several other fragmentary lines.) p. 97 Reverse. 1. . . . . . the god Sar . . . . . 2. . . . . . dwelling . . . . . 3. . . . . . before the weapon . . . . . 4. . . . . . field . . . . . 5. . . . . . above . . . . . 6. . . . . . struck to the god . . . . . 7. . . . . . them . . . . . 8. . . . . . cut into . . . . . 9. . . . . . said to his wife . . . . . 10. . . . . . him to break the god . . . . . 11. . . . . . evil? thou shalt be delivered and . . . . . 12. . . . . . thy evil thou shalt subdue, 13. the tribute to thy maternity shall be forced upon them by thy weapons, 14. I will stand by and to thee they shall be made a spoil. 15. Tiamat on hearing this 16. at once joined and changed her resolution. 17. Tiamat called and quickly arose, 18. strongly and firmly she encircled with her defences, 19. she took a girdle? and placed . . . . . 20. and the gods for war prepared for them their weapons. 21. Tiamat attacked the just prince of the gods Merodach, 22. the standards they raised in the conflict like a battle. 23. Bel also drew out his sword and wounded her. p. 98 24. The evil wind coming afterwards struck against her face. 25. Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow him, 26. the evil wind he caused to enter, before she could shut her lips; 27. the force of the wind her stomach filled, and 28. her heart trembled, and her face was distorted, 29. . . . . . violently seized her stomach, 30. her inside it broke, and conquered her heart. 31. He imprisoned her, and her work he ended. 32. Her allies stood over her astonished, 33. when Tiamat their leader was conquered. 34. Her ranks he broke, her assembly was scattered, 35. and the gods her helpers who went beside her 36. trembled, feared, and broke up themselves, 37. the expiring of her life they fled from, 38. war surrounding they were fleeing not standing? 39. . . . . . them and their weapons he broke 40. like a sword cast down, sitting in darkness, 41. knowing their capture, full of grief, 42. their strength removed, shut in bonds, 43. and at once the strength of their work was overcome with terror, 44. the throwing of stones going . . . . 45. He cast down the enemy, his hand . . . . 46. part of the enemy under him . . . . 47. and the god Kingu again . . . . 48. . . . . . . . . Again the main difficulty arises from the fragmentary p. 99 state of the documents, it being impossible even to decide the order of the fragments. It appears, however, that the gods have fashioned for them a sword and a bow to fight the dragon Tiamat, and Anu proclaims great honour (fourth fragment, lines 15 to 20) to any of the gods who will engage in battle with her. Bel or Merodach volunteers, and goes forth armed with these weapons to fight the dragon. Tiamat is encouraged by one of the gods MERODACH, OR BEL, ARMED FOR THE CONFLICT WITH THE DRAGON; FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge MERODACH, OR BEL, ARMED FOR THE CONFLICT WITH THE DRAGON; FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. who has become her husband, and meets Merodach in battle. The description of the fight and the subsequent triumph of the god are very fine, and remarkably curious in their details, but the connection between the fragments is so uncertain at present that it is better to reserve comment upon them until the text is more complete. This war between the powers of good and evil, chaos and order, is extra to the Creation, does not correspond with anything in Genesis, but rather finds its parallel in the war p. 100 between Michael and the dragon in Revelation, xii. 7 to 9, where the dragon is called "the great dragon, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." This description is strikingly like the impression gathered from the fragments of the cuneiform story; the dragon Tiamat who fought against the gods and led man to sin, and whose fate it was to be conquered in a celestial war, closely corresponds in all essential points to the dragon conquered by Michael. These fragments of the cuneiform account of the Creation and Fall agree so far as they are preserved with the Biblical account, and show that in the period from B.C. 2000 to 1500 the Babylonians believed in a similar story to that in Genesis. FIGHT BETWEEN BEL AND THE DRAGON, FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge FIGHT BETWEEN BEL AND THE DRAGON, FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 101 CHAPTER VI. OTHER BABYLONIAN ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION. Cuneiform accounts originally traditions.—Variations.—Account of Berosus.—Tablet from Cutha.—Translation.—Composite animals.—Eagle-headed men.—Seven brothers.—Destruction of men.—Seven wicked spirits.—War in heaven.—Variations of story.—Poetical account of Creation. IN the last chapter I have given the fragments of the principal story of the Creation and Fall from the cuneiform inscriptions, but it appears from the tablets that all these legends were "traditions" or "stories" repeated by word of mouth, and afterwards committed to writing. When such traditions are not reduced to writing, and depend on being handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, they are liable to vary, sometimes very widely, according to the period and condition of the country. Thus many different versions of a story arise, and there can be no doubt that this was actually the case with the Creation legends. There must p. 102 have been a belief in the Creation and some of the leading features of this story long before these Creation legends were committed to writing, and there is evidence of other stories, related to those already given, which were at about the same time committed to writing. The story of the Creation transmitted through Berosus (see chapter iii. pp. 37–50) supplies us with a totally different story, differing entirely from the cuneiform account in the last chapter and from the Genesis account, and some fragments of tablets from Kouyunjik belonging to the library of Assurbanipal give a copy, mutilated as usual, of another version having many points of agreement with the account of Berosus. This legend, of which the following is a translation, is stated to be copied from a tablet at Cutha. Legend of Creation from Cutha tablet. (Many lines lost at commencement.) 1. lord of . . . . 2. . . . . his lord the strength of the gods . . . . 3. . . . . his host . . . . host . . . . 4. lord of the upper region and the lower region lord of angels . . . . 5. who drank turbid waters and pure water did not drink, 6. with his flame, his weapon, that man he enclosed, 7. . . . . he took, he destroyed, 8. on a tablet nothing was then written, and there were not left the carcasses and waste? p. 103 9. from the earth nothing arose and I had not come to it. 10. Men with the bodies of birds of the desert, human beings 11. with the faces of ravens, 12. these the great gods created, 13. and in the earth the gods created for them a dwelling. 14. Tamat gave unto them strength, 15. their life the mistress of the gods raised, 16. in the midst of the earth they grew up and became great, 17. and increased in number, 18. Seven kings brothers of the same family, 19. six thousand in number were their people, 20. Banini their father was king, their mother 21. the queen was Milili, 22. their eldest brother who went before them, Mimangab was his name, 23. their second brother Midudu was his name, 24. their third brother . . . . tur was his name, 25. their fourth brother . . . . dada was his name, 26. their fifth brother . . . . tah was his name, 27. their sixth brother . . . . ru was his name, 28. their seventh brother . . . . was his name. Column II. (Many lines lost.) 1. . . . . evil . . . . 2. man his will turned p. 104 3. in . . . . I purified? 4. On a tablet the evil curse of man he carved? 5. I called the worshippers and sent, 6. seven in width and seven in depth I arranged them. 7. I gave them noble reeds? (pipes?) 8. I worshipped also the great gods 9. Ishtar, . . . ., Zamama, Anunitu 10. Nebo . . . . Shamas the warrior, 11. the gods listened to my doings 12. . . . . he did not give and 13. thus I said in my heart: 14. Now here am I and 15. let there not . . . . ground 16. let . there not . . . . 17. may I go as I trust in Bel . . . . my heart, 18. and . . . . my iron may I take. 19. In the first year in the course of it 20. one hundred and twenty thousand men I sent out and among them, 21. one of them did not return. 22. In the second year in the course of it, ninety thousand the same. 23. In the third year in the course of it, sixty thousand seven hundred the same. 24. They were rooted out they were punished, I eat, 25. I rejoiced, I made a rest. 26. Thus I said in my heart now here am I and 27. at this time what is left? p. 105 28. I the king, am not the preserver of his country, 29. and the ruler is not the preserver of his people. 30. When I have done may corpses and waste be left, 31. the saving of the people from night, death, spirits, curses, (Many more broken lines, meaning quite uncertain.) Fragment of Column III. 1. . . . I caused to pursue . . . . 2. . . . . blood . . . . . . . . . 3. in the midst of them twelve men fled from me. 4. After them I pursued, swiftly I went, 5. those men, I captured them 6. those men I turned . . . . . 7. Thus I said in my heart . . . . . Column IV. (Several lines lost at commencement.) 1. to . . . . . 2. the powerful king . . . . 3. the gods . . . . 4. hand . . . . take them 5. thou king, viceroy, prince, or any one else, 6. whom God shall call, and who shall rule the kingdom, 7. who shall rebuild this house, this tablet I write to thee, 8. in the city of Cutha, in the temple of Sitlam, 9. in the sanctuary of Nergal, I leave for thee; p. 106 10. this tablet see, and, 11. to the words of this tablet listen, and 12. do not rebel, do not fail, 13. do not fear, and do not turn away, 14. then may thy support be established, 15. thou in thy works shall be glorious, 16. thy forts shall be strong, 17. thy canals shall be full of water, 18. thy treasures, thy corn, thy silver, 19. thy furniture, thy goods, 20. and thy instruments, shall be multiplied. (A few more mutilated lines.) SACRED TREE, ATTENDANT FIGURES AND EAGLE-HEADED MEN, FROM THE SEAL OF A SYRIAN CHIEF, NINTH CENTURY B.C. Click to enlarge SACRED TREE, ATTENDANT FIGURES AND EAGLE-HEADED MEN, FROM THE SEAL OF A SYRIAN CHIEF, NINTH CENTURY B.C. This is a very obscure inscription, the first column, however, forms part of a relation similar to that of Berosus in his history of the Creation; the beings who were killed by the light, and those with men's heads and bird's bodies, and bird's heads and men's bodies, p. 107 agree with the composite monsters of Berosus, while the goddess of chaos, Tiamat, who is over them, is the same again as the Tiamat of the Creation legends and the Thalatth of Berosus. The relation in the second and third columns of the inscription is difficult, and does not correspond with any known incident. The fourth column contains an address to any future king who should read the inscription which was deposited in the temple of Nergal at Cutha. It is probable that this legend was supposed to be the work of one of the mythical kings of Chaldea, who describes the condition and history of the world before his time. There is another legend which appears to be connected with these, the legend of the seven evil spirits, which I have given in my former work, "Assyrian Discoveries," p. 398. Tablet with the story of the Seven Wicked Gods or Spirits. Column I. 1. In the first days the evil gods 2. the angels who were in rebellion, who in the lower part of heaven 3. had been created, 4. they caused their evil work 5. devising with wicked heads . . . p. 108 6. ruling to the river . . . . 7. There were seven of them. The first was . . . 8. the second was a great animal . . . . 9. . . . . which any one . . . . 10. the third was a leopard . . . . 11. the fourth was a serpent . . . . 12. the fifth was a terrible . . . . which to . . . . 13. the sixth was a striker which to god and king did not submit, 14. the seventh was the messenger of the evil wind which . . . . made. 15. The seven of them messengers of the god Anu their king 16. from city to city went round 17. the tempest of heaven was strongly bound to them, 18. the flying clouds of heaven surrounded them, 19. the downpour of the skies which in the bright day 20. makes darkness, was attached to them 21. with a violent wind, an evil wind, they began, 22. the tempest of Vul was their might, 23. at the right hand of Vul they came, 24. from the surface of heaven like lightning they darted, 25. descending to the abyss of waters, at first they came. 26. In the wide heavens of the god Anu the king 27. evil they set up, and an opponent they had not. p. 109 28. At this time Bel of this matter heard and 29. the account sank into his heart. 30. With Hea the noble sage of the gods he took counsel, and 31. Sin (the moon), Shamas (the sun), and Ishtar (Venus) in the lower part of heaven to control it he appointed. 32. With Anu to the government of the whole of heaven he set them up. 33. To the three of them the gods his children, 34. day and night to be united and not to break apart, 35. he urged them. 36. In those days those seven evil spirits 37. in the lower part of heaven commencing, 38. before the light of Sin fiercely they came, 39. the noble Shamas and Vul (the god of the atmosphere) the warrior to their side they turned and 40. Ishtar with Anu the king into a noble seat 41. they raised and in the government of heaven they fixed. Column II. 1. The god . . . . . 2. . . . . . 3. The god . . . . . 4. which . . . . . 5. In those days the seven of them . . . . p. 110 6. at the head in the control to . . . . . 7. evil . . . . . 8. for the drinking of his noble mouth . . . . 9. The god Sin the ruler . . . . mankind 10. . . . . . of the earth 11. . . . . . troubled and on high he sat, 12. night and day fearing, in the seat of his dominion he did not sit. 13. Those evil gods the messengers of Anu their king 14. devised with wicked heads to assist one another, and 15. evil they spake together, and 16. from the midst of heaven like a wind to the earth they carne down. 17. The god Bel of the noble Sin, his trouble 18. in heaven, he saw and 19. Bel to his attendant the god Nusku said: 20. "Attendant Nusku this account to the ocean carry, and 21. the news of my child Sin who in heaven is greatly troubled; 22. to the god Hea in the ocean repeat." 23. Nusku the will of his lord obeyed, and 24. to Hea in the ocean descended and went. 25. To the prince, the noble sage, the lord, the god unfailing, 26. Nusku the message of his lord at once repeated. 27. Hea in the ocean that message heard, and p. 111 28. his lips spake, and with wisdom his mouth was filled. 29. Hea his son the god Merodach called, and this word he spake 30. "Go my son Merodach 31. enter into the shining Sin who in heaven is greatly troubled; 32. his trouble from heaven expel. 33. Seven of them the evil gods, spirits of death, having no fear, 34. seven of them the evil gods, who like a flood 35. descend and sweep over the earth. 36. To the earth like a storm they come down. 37. Before the light of Sin fiercely they came 38. the noble Shamas and Vul the warrior, to their side they turned and . . . . The end of this legend is lost; it probably recorded the interference of Merodach in favour of Sin, the moon god. In this story, which differs again from all the others, Bel is supposed to place in the heaven the Moon, Sun, and Venus, the representative of the stars. The details have no analogy with the other stories, and this can only be considered a poetical myth of the Creation. This legend is part of the sixteenth tablet of the series on evil spirits; but the tablet contains other matters as well, the legend apparently being only quoted in it. There is another remarkable legend of the same sort on another tablet of this series p. 112 published in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. iv. p. 15. The whole of this series concerns the wanderings of the god Merodach, who goes about the world seeking to remove curses and spells, and in every difficulty applying to his father Hea to learn how to combat the influence of the evil spirits, to whom all misfortunes were attributed. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 113 CHAPTER VII. THE SIN OF THE GOD ZU. God Zu.—Obscurity of legend.—Translation.—Sin of Zu.—Anger of the gods.—Speeches of Anu to Vul.—Vul's answer.—Speech of Anu to Nebo.—Answer of Nebo.—Sarturda.—Changes to a bird.—The Zu bird.—Bird of prey.—Sarturda lord of Amarda. AMONG the legends of the gods, companion stories to the accounts of the Creation and Deluge, one of the most curious is the legend of the sin committed by the god Zu. This legend stands alone among the stories, its incidents and its principal actor being otherwise almost unknown from cuneiform sources. I have at present only detected one copy of the story, and this is in so mutilated a condition that it cannot be connected with any other of the legends. From some similarity in style, I conjecture that it may form the first tablet of the series which I have termed the "Wars of the Gods." I have, however, no sufficient evidence to connect the two, and for this reason p. 114 give it here a separate place, preceding the tablets of the "Wars of the Gods." The principal actor in the legend is a being named Zu, the name being found in all three cases of an Assyrian noun Zu, Za and Zi. Preceding the name is the determinative of divinity, from which I judge Zu to have been ranked among the gods. The story of the sin of Zu has sometimes reminded me of the outrage of Ham on his father Noah, and the mutilation of Ouranus by his son Saturn, but there is not sufficient evidence to connect the stories, and there are in the Assyrian account several very difficult words. One of these is particularly obscure, and I only transcribe it here by the ordinary phonetic values of the characters um-sim-i, it may possibly mean some talisman or oracle in the possession of Bel, which was robbed from him by Zu. There are besides the two difficult words parzi and tereti, which I have preferred merely transcribing in my translation. It must be added that the inscription is seriously mutilated in some parts, giving additional difficulty in the translation. The tablet containing the account of the sin of Zu, K 3454, in the Museum collection, originally contained four columns of text, each column having about sixty lines of writing. The first and fourth column are almost entirely lost, there not being enough anywhere to translate from. The single fragment preserved, belonging to the p. 115 first column, mentions some being who was the seed or firstborn of Elu or Bel, with a number of titles, such as "warrior, soldier of the temple of Hamsi," and the name of the god Zu occurs, but not so as to prove these titles to be his. The following is a partial translation of the remains of this tablet:— K. 3454. Column I. lost. Column II. 1. the fate? going . . . . of the gods all of them he sent. 2. . . . . . . . . Zu grew old and 3. Zu? like . . . . Bel . . . . him 4. three? streams? of water in front and 5. the work Bel finished? he slept in it. 6. The crown of his majesty, the clothing of his divinity, 7. his umsimi, his crown? Zu stripped, and 8. he stripped also the father of the gods, the venerable of heaven and earth. 9. The desire? of majesty he conceived in his heart, 10. Zu stripped also the father of the gods, the venerable of heaven and earth. 11. The desire? of majesty he conceived in his heart: 12. Let me carry away the umsimi of the gods, 13. and the tereti of all the gods may it burn, p. 116 14. may my throne be established, may I possess the parzi, 15. may I govern the whole of the seed of the angels. 16. And he hardened his heart to make war, 17. in the vicinity of the house where he slept, he waited until the head of the day. 18. When Bel poured out the beautiful waters 19. spread out on the seat his crown? was placed, 20. the umsimi he took in his hand, 21. the majesty he carried off; he cast away the parzi, 22. Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. 23. Then spread darkness, and made a commotion, 24. the father, their king, the ruler Bel. 25. . . . . he sent the glory of the gods 26. divinity was destroyed in . . . . 27. Anu his mouth opened, and spake 28. and said to the gods his sons: 29. Whoever will, let him slay Zu, 30. in all the countries may his name be renowned. 31. To Vul the powerful light the son of Anu 32. a speech he made to him, also and spake to him. 33. To Vul the powerful light the son of Anti 34. a speech he made to him, also and spake to him: 35. Hero Vul let there not be opposition in thee p. 117 36. slay Zu with thy weapon. 37. May thy name be renowned in the assembly of the gods, 38. in the midst of thy brothers, first set up, 39. . . . . made also fragrant with spices, 40. in the four regions they shall fix thy city. 41. May thy city be exalted like the temple, 42. they shall cry in the presence of the gods and praise thy name. 43. Vul answered the speech, 44. to his father Anu word he spake; 45. Father to a desert country do thou consign him. 46. Let Zu not come among the gods thy sons, 47. for the umsimi he took in his hand, 48. the majesty he carried off, he cast away the parzi, 49. and Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. 50. . . . . . opening his mouth like the venerable of heaven and earth 51. . . . . . . . . like mud 52. . . . . . was, the gods swept away 53. . . . . . I will not go he said. (Sixteen lines lost here, part on this column, part on Column III.) Column III. 1. and Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. p. 118 2. . . . . opening his mouth like the venerable of heaven and earth 3. . . . . . . . . like mud 4. . . . . was, the gods swept away 5. . . . . I will not go he said. 6. To Nebo the powerful . . . . the child of Ishtar, 7. a speech he made to him also and spake to him: 8. Hero Nebo let there not be opposition in thee, 9. slay Zu with thy weapon. 10. May thy name be renowned in the assembly of the gods, 11. . . . . made also fragrant with spices, 12. in the four regions they shall fix thy city. 13. May thy city be exalted like the temple, 14. they shall cry in the presence of the gods and praise thy name. 15. Nebo answered the speech, 16. to his father Anu word he spake: 17. Father to a desert country do thou consign him. 18. Let Zu not come among the gods thy sons, l 9. for the umsimi he took in his hand, 20. the majesty he carried off he cast away the parzi, 21. and Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. 22. . . . . . opening his mouth like the venerable of heaven and earth p. 119 About ten lines lost here. 33. And thus the god . . . . 34. I also . . . . 35. and thus . . . . 36. He heard also . . . . 37. he turned . . . . 38. The god of noble face . . . . 39. to Anu . . . . Column IV. lost. Such are the fragments of the story so far as they can be translated at present. The divine Zu here mentioned whose sin is spoken of is never counted among the gods, and there would be no clue to his nature were it not for a curious tablet printed in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. iv. p. 14, from which it appears that he was in the likeness of a bird of prey. This tablet gives the following curious relation: 1. The god Sarturda (the lesser king) to a country a place remote [went], 2. in the land of Sabu . . . . . [he dwelt]. 3. His mother had not placed him and had not . . . . 4. his father had not placed him and with him did not [go], 5. the strength of his knowledge . . . . 6. From the will of his heart a resolution he did not. . . . 7. In his own heart a resolution he made, 8. to the likeness of a bird he changed, p. 120 9. to the likeness of the divine storm bird (or Zu bird) he changed, 10. his wife forcibly he associated with, 11. the wife of the divine Zu bird, the son of the divine Zu bird, 12. in companionship he made sit. 13. The goddess Enna, the lady of Tigenna, 14. in the mountain he loved, 15. a female fashioned? of her mother in her likeness, 16. the goddess of perfumes a female fashioned? of her mother in her likeness 17. Her appearance was like bright ukni stone, 18. her girdle was adorned with silver and gold, 19. brightness was fixed in . . . . 20. brightness was set in . . . . Many lines lost here, the story recommences on reverse. 1. . . . . the crown he placed on his head 2. from the nest of the divine Zu bird he came. This Zu bird I suppose to be the same as the god Zu of the inscriptions, his nature is shown by a passage in the annals of Assurnazirpal ("Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. i. p. 22, col. ii. l. 107), where he says his warriors "like the divine zu bird upon them darted." This bird is called the cloud or storm bird, the flesh eating bird, the lion or giant bird, the bird of prey, the bird with sharp beak, and it evidently indicates some ravenous bird which was deified by the p. 121 [paragraph continues]Babylonians. Some excellent remarks on the nature of this bird are given by Delitzsch in his "Assyrische studien," pp. 96, 116. In the legend of Sarturda it is said that he changed into a Zu bird. Sarturda which may be explained "the young king" was lord of the city of Amarda or Marad, and he is said to have been the deity worshipped by Izdubar. The Zu of the legend, who offends against Bel, I suppose to be the same as the divine bird of prey mentioned in the other inscriptions, otherwise we have no mention in any other inscription of this personage. In the story of the offence of Zu there is another instance of the variations which constantly occur in the Assyrian inscriptions with respect to the relationship of the gods. Nebo is usually called son of Merodach, but in this inscription he is called son of Anu. In my translation of the legend on K 3454, the sin of Zu is very obscure, and I am quite unable to see through the allusions in the text; but it is quite evident that his sin was considered to be great, as it raises the anger of Bel, and causes Anu to call on his sons in succession to slay Zu; while the sons of the god Anu request that he may be expelled from the company of the gods. The second legend, in which the god Sarturda changes into a Zu bird, is as obscure as the first, there being also in this doubtful words and mutilated passages. p. 122 [paragraph continues]Sarturda, although a celebrated god in early times, is seldom mentioned in the later inscriptions, and there is no information anywhere as to the females or goddesses mentioned in the legend. The idea of the gods sometimes changing themselves into animals was not uncommon in early times. The explanation of these legends must be left until the meanings of several words in them are better known. Return to Main index Return to Ancient Near East index ADAPA AND THE FOOD OF LIFE [from "Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament " by R.W. Rogers, 1912]. [Summary: Adapa, or perhaps Adamu, son of Ea, had recieved from his father, the god Ea, wisdom, but not eternal life. He was a semi-divine being and was the wise man and priest of the temple of Ea at Eridu, which he provided with the ritual bread and water. In the exercise of this duty he carried on fishing upon the Persian Gulf. When Adapa was fishing one day on a smooth sea, the south wind rose suddenly and overturned his boat, so that the was thrown into the sea. Angered by the mishap, he broke the wings of the south wind so that for seven days it could not blow the sea's coolness over the hot land. Anu calls Adapa to account for this misdeed, and his father Ea warns him as to what should befall him. He tells him how to fool Tammuz and Gishzida, who will meet him at the gate of heaven. Ea cautions him not to eat or drink anything in heaven, as Ea fears that the food and drink of death will be set before Adapa. However, the food and drink of eternal life are set before him instead, and Adapa's over-caution deprives him of immortality. He has to return to Earth instead.] TABLET NO.1 He possessed intelligence . . . , His command like the command of Anu ... He (Ea) granted him a wide ear to reveal the destiny of the land, He granted him wisdom, but he did not grant him eternal life. In those davs, in those years the wise man of Eridu, Ea had created him as chief among men, A wise man whose command none should oppose, The prudent, the most wise among the Anunnaki was he, Blameless, of clean hands, anointed, observer of the divine statutes, With the bakers he made bread With the bakers of Eridu, he made bread, The food and the water for Eridu he made daily, With his clean hands he prepared the table, And without him the table was not cleared. The ship he steered, fishing and hunting for Eridu he did. Then Adapa of Eridu While Ea, ... in the chamber, upon the bed. Daily the closing of Eridu he attended to. Upon the pure dam, the new moon dam) he embarked upon the ship, The wind blew and his ship departed, With the oar, be steered his ship Upon the broad sea . . . TABLET NO. 2 ................. The south wind .... when He had driven me to the house of my lord, I said, O South wind, on the way I shall to thee ... everything that, Thy wing, will I break." As be spoke with his mouth, The wing of the South wind was broken, seven davs The South wind blew not upon the land. Anu Called to his messenger Ilabrat: Why has the South wind not blown upon the land for seven davs? His messenger Ilabrat answered him: "My lord, Adapa, the son of Ea, the wing of the South wind Has broken." When Anu heard these words He cried, Help!" He ascended his throne, "Let some one bring him," Likewise Ea, who knows the heaven. He roused him ... he caused him to wear. With a mourning garment He garbed him, and gave him counsel Saying: " Adapa, before the face of Anu the King thou art to go ... to heaven When thou comest up, and when thou approachest the door of Anu, At the door of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida are standing, "they will see thee, they will ask thee; 'Sir,' For whose sake dost thou so appear, Adapa? For whom Art thou clad in a mourning garment?' 'In our country two gods have vanished, therefore Am I so.' 'Who are the two gods, who in the land Have vanished?' 'Tammuz and Gishzida.' They will look at one another and Be astonished. Good words They will speak to Anu. A good countenance of Anu They will show thee. When thou standest before Anu Food of death they will set before thee, Eat not. Water of death they will set before thee, Drink not. Garments they will set before thee, Put them on. Oil they will set before thee, anoint thyself. The counsel that I have given thee, forget not. The words Which I have spoken, hold fast." The messenger Of Anu came: "Adapa has broken The wing of the South wind. Bring him before me." The road to Heaven he made him take, and to Heaven he ascended. When he came to Heaven, when he approached the door of Anu, At the door of Ann, Tammuz and Gisbzida are standing. When they saw him, Adapa, they cried: " Help, Sir, for whom dost thou so appear? Adapa, For whom art thou clad in a mourning garment?" In the country two gods have vanished; therefore am I clad In mourning garments." "Who are the two gods, who have vanished from the land?" "Tammuz and Gishzida." They looked at one another and Were astonished. When Adapa before Anu, the King, Drew near, and Anu saw him, he cried: " Come hither, Adapa. Why hast thou broken the wings Of the South wind? " Adapa answered Ann: " My lord, For the house of my lord in the midst of the sea, I was catching fish. The sea was like a mirror, The South wind blew, and capsized me. To the house of my lord was I driven. In the anger of my heart, I took heed." Tammuz and Gishzida Answered ... "art thou." To Anu They speak. He calmed himself, his heart was . . . "Why has Ea revealed to impure mankind The heart of heaven and earth? A heart ... has created within him, has made him a name? What can we do with him? Food of life Bring him, that be man, eat."Food of life They brought him, but he ate not. Water of life They brought him, but he drank not. Garments They brought him. He clothed himself. Oil They brought him. He anointed himself. Anu looked at him; he wondered at him. " Come, Adapa, why hast thou not eaten, not drunken? Now thou shalt not live." ... men ...Ea, my lord Said: "Eat not, drink not." Take him and bring him back to his earth. ... looked upon him. TABLET NO. 3 "When heard that In the anger of his heart His messenger he sent. He who knows the heart of the great gods ............ To King Ea to come, To him, he caused words to be borne. ... to him, to King Ea. He sent a messenger With a wide ear, knowing the heart of the great gods, ... of the heavens be fixed. A soiled garment he made him wear, With a mourning garment he clad him, A word he spoke to him. "Adapa, before the King Anu thou shalt go Fail not the order, keep my word When thou comest up to heaven, and approachest the door of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida at the door of Anu are standing.

The Chaldean Account of the Deluge.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index The Chaldean Account of the Deluge by George Smith Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 2 [1873] 213-34. A short time back I discovered among the Assyrian tablets in the British Museum, an account of the flood; which, under the advice of our President, I now bring before the Society. For convenience of working, I had divided the collection of Assyrian tablets in the British Museum into sections, according to the subject matter of the inscriptions. I have recently been examining the division comprising the Mythological and Mythical tablets, and from this section I obtained a number of tablets, giving a curious series of legends and including a copy of the story of the Flood. On discovering these documents, which were much mutilated, I searched over all the collections of fragments of inscriptions, consisting of several thousands of smaller pieces, and ultimately recovered 80 fragments of these legends; by the aid of which I was enabled to restore nearly all the text of the description of the Flood, and considerable portions of the other legends. These tablets were originally at least twelve in number, forming one story or set of legends, the account of the Flood being on the eleventh tablet. Of the inscription describing the Flood, there are fragments of three copies containing the same texts; these copies belong to the time of Assurbanipal, or about 660 years before the Christian era, and they were found in the library of that monarch in the palace at Nineveh. The original text, according to the statements on the tablets, must have belonged to the city of Erech, and it appears to have been either written in, or translated into the Semitic Babylonian, at a very early period. The date when this document was first written or translated is at present very difficult to decide, but the following are some of the evidences of its antiquity: 1st. The three Assyrian copies present a number of variant readings, which had crept into the text since the original documents were written. 2nd. The forms of the characters in the original documents were of an ancient type, and the Assyrian copyist did not always know their modern representatives, so he has left some of them in their original hieratic form. 3rd. There are a number of sentences which were originally glosses explanatory of the subjects; before the Assyrian copies were made these glosses had been already incorporated in the text and their original use lost. It must here be noted that the Assyrian scribe has recorded for us the divisions of the lines on the original documents. On examining the composition of the text, some marked peculiarities are apparent, which likewise show its high antiquity. one of these is the constant use of the personal pronoun nominative. In later times this was usually indicated by the verbal form, but not expressed. On comparing the Deluge text with dated texts from the time of Sargon I, it appears to be older than these, and its original composition cannot be placed later than the seventeenth century before the Christian era; while it may be much older. The text itself professes to belong to the time of a monarch whose name, written in monograms, I am unable to read phonetically; I therefore provisionally call him by the ordinary values of the signs of his name, Izdubar. Izdubar, from the description of his reign, evidently belonged to the Mythical period; the legends given in these tablets, the offer of marriage made to him by the goddess Ishtar, the monsters living at the time, Izdubar's vision of the gods, his journey to the translated Sisit, with a curious account of a mythical conquest of Erech when the gods and spirits inhabiting that city changed themselves into animals to escape the fury of the conqueror: all these things and many others show the unhistorical nature of the epoch. From the heading of the tablets giving his history, I suppose that Izdubar lived in the epoch immediately following the Flood, and I think, likewise, that he may have been the founder of the Babylonian monarchy, perhaps the Nimrod of Scripture. This, however, is pure conjecture; so many fabulous stories were current in Babylonia respecting Izdubar that his existence may even be doubted. The fragments of the history of Izdubar, so far as I have at present examined them, remind me of the exploits and labors of Hercules, and, on the supposition that our present version of Berosus is correct as to dates, Izdubar may have been placed about 30,000 years before the Christian era. No document can belong to so remote an age. The legends of Izdubar and the account of the Flood must however belong to a very early period, for there are references to the story in the bilingual lists which were composed in Babylonia during the early Chaldean empires. The question might here be asked, "How is it that we find an early Chaldean document from Erech transported to Nineveh, copied, and placed in the royal library there?" On this point we can show that it was a common custom for the Assyrians to obtain and copy Babylonian works, and a considerable portion of Assyrian literature consists of these copies of older standard writings. Assurbanipal, the Assyrian monarch in whose reign the Deluge Tablets were copied, had intimate relations with the city of Erech. Erech remained faithful to him when the rest of Babylonia revolted, and to this city Assurbarripal restored the famous image of the goddess Nana, which had been carried away by the Elamites one thousand six hundred and thirty-five years before. In order properly to understand the reason why the narrative of the Flood is introduced into the story, it will be necessary to give a short account of the tablets which precede it before giving the translation of the Deluge inscription itself. It appears that Izdubar, the hero of these legends, flourished as before stated, in the mythical period soon after the Flood, and the center of most of his exploits was the city of Erech, now called Warka, which must have been one of the most ancient cities in the world. Four cities only are mentioned in these inscriptions, Babel, Erech, Surippak, and Nipur. Two of these, Babel and Erech, are the first two capitals of Nimrod, and the last one, Nipur, according to the Talmud, is the same as Calneh the fourth city of Nimrod. Of the first five tablets of the history of Izdubar I have not recognized any fragments, but in the mass of material which I have collected it is possible that some portions may be long to this part of the story. The following passage forms the opening of the sixth tablet and shows the style of the writing. Before giving the translation I must notice that in various places the tablets are broken and the texts defective: as I cannot point out each of these defective passages, I will endeavor to indicate them by pausing in my reading. 1. . . . . . Belesu, he despised Belesu 2. like a bull his country he ascended after him 3. he destroyed him, and his memorial perished 4. the country was subdued, and after he took the crown 5. Izdubar put on his crown, and after he took the crown 6. for the favor of Izdubar, the princess Ishtar lifted her eyes. 7. And she spake thus, "Izdubar thou shalt be husband 8. thy word me shall bind in bonds, 9. thou shalt be husband and I will be thy wife, 10. thou shalt drive in a chariot of Ukni stone and gold, 11. of which its body is gold and splendid its pole 12. thou shalt ride in days of great glory 13. to Bitani, in which is the country where the pine trees grow. 14. Bitani at thy entrance 15. to the Euphrates shall kiss thy feet. 16. There shall be in subjection under thee, kings, lords, and princes. 17. The tribute of the mountains and plains they shall bring to thee, taxes 18. . . . . . . . they shall give thee, thy herds and flocks shall bring forth twins 19. . . . . . . . the mule shall be swift 20. . . . . . . . in the chariot shall be strong and not weak 21. . . . . . . . in the yoke. A rival shall not be permitted." Ishtar, who was the same as Venus, was queen of beauty, but some what inconstant, for she had already a husband, a deity, called the "Son of Life"; she however led her husband a poor life, and of this Izdubar reminds her in his answer to her offer. One of the next exploits of Izdubar and Heabani his servant was the conquest of the winged bull, a monster supposed to have existed in those days; but I must pass over this and other matters, to approach the subject of the Flood. In course of time Izdubar, the conqueror of kings and monsters, the ruler of peoples, fell into some illness and came to fear death, man's last great enemy. Now, the Babylonians believed in the existence of a patriarch named Sisit, the Xisuthrus of the Greeks, who was supposed to have been translated and to have attained to immortality without death. Izdubar, according to the notions of the time, resolved to seek Sisit, to ascertain how he became immortal, that he might attain to a similar honor. The passage reads as follows: 1. Izdubar to Heabani his servant 2. bitterly lamented and lay down on the ground 3. I the account took from Heabani and 4. weakness entered into my soul 5. death I feared and I lay down on the ground 6. to find Sisit son of Ubaratutu 7. the road I was taking and joyfully I went 8. to the shadows of the mountains I took at night 9. the gods I saw and I feared 10. . . . . . . to Sin I prayed 11. and before the gods my supplication came 12. peace they gave unto me 13. and they sent unto me it dream. The dream of Izdubar is unfortunately very mutilated, few fragments of it remaining, and his subsequent journey is not in much better condition. It appears that he went through a number of adventures, and three men are represented, in one place, to be telling each other the story of these adventures. After long wanderings, Izdubar falls into company with a seaman named Urbamsi, a name similar to the Orchamus of the Greeks. Izdubar and Urhamsi fit out a vessel to continue the search for Sisit, and they sail along for a month and fifteen days, and arrive at some region near the mouth of the Euphrates, where Sisit was supposed to dwell. in this journey by water there are fresh adventures and, in their course, Urharnsi tells Izdubar of the waters of death, of which he states, "The waters of death thy hands will not cleanse." At the time when Izdubar and Urhamsi are approaching him, Sisit is sleeping.The tablet here is too mutilated to inform us how they came to see each other, but it appears probable from the context that Sisit was seen in company with his wife, a long distance off, separated from Izdubar by a stream. Unable to cross this water which divided the mortal from the immortal, Izdubar appears to have called to Sisit and asked his momentous question on life and death. The question asked by Izdubar and the first part of the answer of Sisit are lost by the mutilation of the tablet. The latter part of the speech of Sisit, which is preserved, relates to the danger of death, its universality, &c. It winds up as follows: "The goddess Mamitu the maker of fate to them their fate has appointed, she has fixed death and life, but of death the day is not known." These words, which close the first speech of Sisit, bring us to the end of the tenth tablet; the next one, the eleventh, is the most important of the series, as it contains the history of the Flood. The eleventh tablet opens with a speech of Izdubar, who now asks Sisit how he became immortal, and Sisit, fit answering, relates the story of the Flood and his own piety as the reason why he was translated. The following is the translation of this tablet: 1. Izdubar after this manner said to Sisit afar off, 2. ". . . . . . Sisit 3. The account do thou tell to me, 4. The account do thou tell to me, 5. . . . . . to the midst to make war 6. . . . . . I come up after thee. 7. say how thou hast done it, and in the circle of the gods life thou hast gained." 8. Sisit after this manner said to Izdubar, 9. "I will reveal to thee, Izdubar, the concealed story, 10. and the wisdom of the gods I will relate to thee. 11. The city Surippak the city which thou hast established . . . . . . . . . placed 12. was ancient, and the gods within it 13. dwelt, a tempest . . . . . their god, the great gods 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anu 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bel 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ninip 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lord of Hades 18. their will revealed in the midst of . . . . . 19 . . . . . . . hearing and he spoke to me thus 20. Surippakite son of Ubaratutu 21. make a great ship for thee . . . . . . . 22. I will destroy the sinners and life . . . . . 23. cause to go in the seed of life all of it, to preserve them 24. the ship which thou shalt make 25. . . . cubits shall be the measure of its length, and 26. . . . cubits the amount of its breadth and its height. 27. Into the deep launch it." 28. I perceived and said to Hea my lord, 29. "Hea my lord this that thou commandest me 30. I will perform, it shall be done. 31. . . . . . . . . army and host 32. Hea opened his mouth and spake, and said to me his servant, 33. . . . . . . . . thou shalt say unto them, 34. . . . . . . . . he has turned from me and 35. . . . . . . . . . . . .fixed . . . . . . . . . . Here there are about fifteen lines entirely lost. The absent passage probably described part of the building of the ark. 51. it . . . . . . . . 52. which in . . . . . . . . 53. strong . . . . . . I brought 54. on the fifth day . . . . . it 55. in its circuit 14 measures . . . . its sides 56. 14 measures it measured . . . . over it 57. I Placed its roof on it . . . . . I enclosed it 58. I rode in it, for the sixth time I . . . . . . for the seventh time 59. into the restless deep . . . . . for the . . . . time 60. its planks the waters within it admitted, 61. I saw breaks and holes . . . . . . my hand placed 62. three measures of bitumen I poured over the outside, 63. three measures of bitumen I poured over the inside 64. three measures the men carrying its baskets took they . . . . . fixed an altar 65. I unclosed the altar . . . . . the altar for an offering 66. two measures the altar . . . . Pazziru the pilot 67. for . . . . . . . . slaughtered oxen 68. of . . . . . . . . . in that day also 69. . . . . . . . . . . . altar and grapes 70. . . . . . . . . . . . like the waters of a river and 71. . . . . . . . . . . . like the day I covered and 72. . . . . when . . . . . covering my hand placed, 73. . . . .and Shamas . . . . the material of the ship completed, 74. . . . . . . . . . strong and 75. reeds I spread above and below. 76. . . . . . . went in two thirds of it. 77. All I possessed I collected it, all I possessed I collected of silver, 78. all I possessed I collected of gold, 79. all I possessed I collected of the seed of life, the whole 80. I caused to go up into the ship, all my male and female servants, 81. the beasts of the field, the animals of the field, and the sons of the army all of them, I caused to go up. 82. A flood Shamas made, and 83. he spake saying in the night, 'I will cause it to rain from heaven heavily; 84. enter to the midst of the ship, and shut thy door,' 85. A flood he raised, and 86. he spake saying in the night, 'I will cause it to rain from heaven heavily.' 87. In the day that I celebrated his festival 88. the day which he had appointed; fear I had, 89. I entered to the midst of the ship, and shut my door; 90. to guide the ship, to Buzursadirabi the pilot, 91. the palace I gave to his hand. 92. The raging of a storm in the morning 93. arose, from the horizon of heaven extending and wide 94. Vul in the midst of it thundered, and 95. Nebo and Saru went in front; 96. the throne bearers went over mountains and plains; 97. the destroyer Nergal overturned; 98. Ninip went in front, and cast down; 99. the spirits carried destruction; 100. in their glory they swept the earth; 101. of Vul the flood, reached to heaven; 102. the bright earth to a waste was turned; 103. the surface of the earth, like . . . . it swept; 104. it destroyed all life, from the face of the earth . . . . . 105. the strong tempest over the people, reached to heaven. 106. Brother saw not his brother, it did not spare the people. In heaven 107. the gods feared the tempest, and 108. Sought refuge; they ascended to the heaven of Anu. 109. The gods, like dogs with tails hidden, couched down. 110. Spake Ishtar a discourse, 111. uttered the great goddess her speech 112. 'The world to sin has turned, and 113. then I in the presence of the gods prophesied evil; 114. when I prophesied in the presence of the gods evil, 115. to evil were devoted all my people, and I prophesied 116. thus, 'I have begotten man and let him not 117. like the sons of the fishes fill the sea.' 118. The gods concerning the spirits, were weeping with her: 119. the gods in seats, seated in lamentation; 120. covered were their lips for the coming evil. 121. Six days and nights 122. passed, the wind tempest and storm overwhelmed, 123. on the seventh day in its course, was calmed the storm, and all the tempest 124. which had destroyed like an earthquake, 125. quieted. The sea he caused to dry, and the wind and tempest ended. 126. I was carried through the sea. The doer of evil, 127. and the whole of mankind who turned to sin, 128. like reeds their corpses floated. 129. I opened the window and the light broke in, over my refuge 130. it passed, I sat still and 131. over my refuge came peace. 132. I was carried over the shore, at the boundary of the sea. 133. For twelve measures it ascended over the land. 134. To the country of Nizir, went the ship; 135. the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship, and to pass over it, it was not able. 136. The first day and the second day, the mountain of Nizir the same. 137. The third day and the fourth day, the mountain of Nizir the same. 138. The fifth and sixth, the mountain of Nizir the same. 139. On the seventh day in the course of it 140. I sent forth a dove, and it left. The dove went and searched and 141. a resting place it did not find, and it returned. 142. I sent forth a swallow, and it left. The swallow went and searched and 143. a resting place it did not find, and it returned. 144. I sent forth a raven, and it left. 145. The raven went, and the corpses on the waters it saw, and 146. it did eat, it swam, and wandered away, and did not return. 147. I sent the animals forth to the four winds I poured out a libation 148. I built an altar on the peak of the mountain, 149. by sevens herbs I cut, 150. at the bottom of them, I placed reeds, pines, and simgar. 151. The gods collected at its burning, the gods collected at its good burning. 152. the gods like flies over the sacrifice gathered, 153. From of old also, the great God in his course, 154. the great brightness of Arm had created; when the glory 155. of these gods, as of Ukni stone, on my countenance I could not endure; 156. in those days I prayed that for ever I might not endure. 157. May the gods come to my altar; 158. may Bel not come to my altar 159. for he did not consider and had made a tempest 160. and my people he had consigned to the deep 161. from of old, also Bel in his course 162. saw the ship, and went Bel with anger filled to the gods and spirits; 163. let not any one come out alive, let not a man be saved from the deep. 164. Ninip his mouth opened and spake, and said to the warrior Bel, 165. 'who then will be saved,' Hea the words understood, 166. and Hea knew all things, 167. Hea his mouth opened and spake, and said to the warrior Bel, 168. 'Thou prince of the gods, warrior, 169. when thou art angry a tempest thou makest, 170. the doer of sin did his sin, the doer of evil did his evil, 171. may the exalted not be broken, may the captive not be delivered; 172. instead of thee making a tempest, may lions increase and men be reduced; 173. instead of thee making a tempest, may leopards increase, and men be reduced; 174. instead of thee making a tempest, may a famine happen, and the country be destroyed; 175. instead of thee making a tempest, may pestilence increase, and men be destroyed.' 176. I did not peer into the wisdom of the gods, 177. reverent and attentive a dream they sent, and the wisdom of the gods he heard. 178. When his judgment was accomplished, Bel went up to the midst of the ship, 179. he took my hand and brought me out, me 180. he brought out, he caused to bring my wife to my side, 181. he purified the country, he established in a covenant and took the people 182. in the presence of Sisit and the people. 183. When Sisit and his wife and the people to be like the gods were carried away, 184. then dwelt Sisit in a remote place at the mouth of the rivers. 185. They took me and in a remote place at the mouth of the rivers they seated me. 186. When to thee whom the gods have chosen thee, and 187. the life which thou has sought after, thou shalt gain 188. this do, for six days and seven nights 189. like I say also, in bonds bind him 190. the way like a storm shall be laid upon him." 191. Sisit after this manner, said to his wife 192. "I announce that the chief who grasps at life 193. the way like a storm shall be laid upon him." 194. His wife after this manner, said to Sisit afar off, 195. "Purify him and let the man be sent away, 196. the road that lie came, may he return in peace, 197. the great gate open, and may he return to his country." 198. Sisit after this manner, said to his wife, 199. "The cry of a man alarms thee, 200. this do, his scarlet cloth place on his head." 201. And the day when he ascended the side of the ship 202. she did, his scarlet cloth she placed on his head, 203. and the day when he ascended on the side of the ship, The next four lines describe seven things done to Izdubar before he was purified. The passage is obscure and does not concern the Flood, so I have not translated it. 208. Izdubar after this manner, said to Sisit afar off, 209. "This way, she has done, I come up 210. joyfully, my strength thou givest me." 211. Sisit after this manner said to Izdubar 212. . . . . . . . . . . . thy scarlet cloth 213. . . . . . . . . . . . I have lodged thee 214. . . . . . . . . . . . The five following lines, which are mutilated, refer again to the seven matters for purifying Izdubar; this passage, like the former one, I do not translate. 219. Izdubar after this manner said to Sisit afar off 220. . . . . . . . . . . Sisit to thee may we not come. From here the text is much mutilated, and it will be better to give a general account of its contents than to attempt a strict translation, especially as this part is not so interesting as the former part of the tablet. Lines 221 and 223 mention some one who was taken and dwelt with Death. Lines 224 to 235 gives a speech of Sisit to the seaman Urhamsi, directing him how to cure Izdubar, who, from the broken passages, appears to have been suffering from some form of skin disease. Izdubar was to be dipped in the sea, when beauty was to spread over his skin once more. In lines 236 to 241 the carrying out of these directions and the cure of Izdubar are recorded. The tablet then reads as follows: 242. Izdubar and Urhamsi rode in the boat 243. where they placed them they rode 244. His wife after this manner said to Sisit afar off, 245. "Izdubar goes away, he is satisfied, he performs 246. that which thou hast given him and returns to his country." 247. And he heard, and after Izdubar 248. he went to the shore 249. Sisit after this manner said to Izdubar, 250. "Izdubar thou goest away thou art satisfied, thou performest 251. That which I have given thee and thou returnest to thy country 252. I have revealed to thee Izdubar the concealed story." Lines 253 to 262, which are very mutilated, give the conclusion of the speech of Sisit, and then state that after hearing it, Izdubar took great stones and piled them up as a memorial of these events. Lines 263 to 289 give in a very mutilated condition subsequent speeches and doings of Izdubar and Urhanisi. In this part journeys are mentioned of 10 and 20 kaspu, or 70 and 140 miles; a lion is also spoken of, but there is no further allusion to the Flood. These lines close the inscription, and are followed by a colophon which gives the heading of the next tablet, and the statement that this (the Flood Tablet) is the 11th tablet in the series giving the history of Izdubar, and that it is a copy of the ancient inscription. Before entering into the details of the tablet, I must first refer to the accounts of the Deluge given in the Bible, and by Berosus, the Chaldean historian, as I shall have to compare these with the Cuneiform record. The Biblical account of the Deluge, contained in the sixth to the ninth chapters of Genesis, is of course familiar to us all, so I will only give the outline of the narrative. According to the Book of Genesis, as man mutiplied on the earth, the whole race turned to evil, except the family of Noah. On account of the wickedness of man, the Lord determined to destroy the world by a flood, and gave command to Noah to build an ark, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits broad, and 30 cubits high. Into this ark Noah entered according to the command of the Lord, taking with him his family, and pairs of each animal. After seven days the Flood commenced in the 600th year of Noah, the seventeenth day of the second month, and after 150 days the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. We are then told that after 40 days Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a raven which did not return. He then sent forth a dove, which finding no rest for the sole of her foot, returned to him. Seven days after he sent forth the dove a second time, she returned to him with an olive leaf in her mouth. Again, after seven days, he sent forth the dove which returned to him no more. The Flood was dried up in the 601st year, on the first day of the first month, and on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, Noah removed from the ark and afterwards built an altar and offered sacrifices. The Chaldean account of the Flood, as given by Berosus, I have taken from Cory's Ancient Fragments, pages 26 to 29, as follows: "After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great Deluge, the history of which is thus described: The Deity, Cronos, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Daesius, there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He, therefore, enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the City of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity whither he was to sail? he was answered, 'To the Gods'; upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the Divine admonition, and built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put every thing which he had prepared: and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends. "After the Flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel, which not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days he sent them forth a second time, and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds, but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He, therefore, made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain, upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth, and having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared. "They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called con tinually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he was translated to live with the gods, that his wife, and daughter, and the pilot, had obtained the same honor. To this he added that they should return to Babylonia, and as it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to all mankind; moreover, that the place wherein they were was the land of Armenia. "The rest having heard these words, offered sacrifices to the gods, and taking a circuit, journeyed towards Babylonia. "The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, some part of it yet remains in the Corcyraean mountains." In pages 33 and 34 of Cory's Fragments there is a second version, as follows: "And then Sisithrus. To him the deity of Cronos foretold that on the fifteenth day of the month Daesius there would be a deluge of rain: and he commanded him to deposit all the writings whatever which were in his possession, in the City of the Sun at Sippara. Sisithrus, when he had complied with these commands, sailed immediately to Armenia, and was presently inspired by God. Upon the third day after the cessation of the rain Sisithrus sent out birds, by way of experiment, that he might judge whether the Flood had subsided. But the birds passing over an unbounded sea, without finding any place of rest, re turned again to Sisithrus. This he repeated with other birds. And when upon the third trial he succeeded, for the birds then returned with their feet stained with mud, the gods translated him from among men. With respect to the vessel, which yet remains in Armenia, it is a custom of the inhabitants to form bracelets and amulets of its wood." There are several other accounts of the Flood in the traditions of different ancient nations; these, however, are neither so full nor so precise as the account of Berosus, and their details so far as they are given differ more from the Biblical narrative, so I shall not notice them now, but pass at once to the examination of the text. In comparing the text of the Deluge Tablet with the accounts in the Bible and Berosus, the first point that meets us is the consideration of the proper names. This is the least satisfactory part of the subject, for, while the Greek forms show variant readings and have evidently been corrupted, the Cuneiform names on the other hand, being written mostly in monograms, are difficult to render phonetically. The father of the hero of the Flood bears in the inscriptions the name Ubara-tutu which ought to correspond to one of the Greek forms, Otiártes or Ardátes; the resemblance however cannot be called a close one. The hero of the Flood I have provisionally called Sisit; he corresponds, of course, to the Greek Xisuthrus, but no comparison of the two names can be made until we know the phonetic reading of the Cuneiform name. Neither the Cuneiform nor the Greek names appear to have any connection with the Biblical Lamech and Noah. In the opening of the account of the Flood there is a noticeable difference between the Cuneiform and Biblical narratives, for while in the Jewish account one God only is men tioned, the Cuneiform inscription mentions all the principal gods of the early Babylonian Pantheon as engaged in bringing about the Flood. The Cuneiform account agrees with the Biblical narrative in making the Deluge a divine punishment for the wickedness of the world; this point is omitted in the Greek accounts of Berosus. The gods having resolved on the Deluge, the deity whom we have hitherto provisionally called Hea announces the coming event to Sisit. Now, in the account of Berosus, the god who announces the Deluge is stated to be Cronos; so this passage gives us the Cuneiform name of the deity identified by the Greeks with Cronos. The Greek account states that the communication of the coming Deluge was made in a dream. From the context it is probable that the Cuneiform account stated the same, but the text is here mutilated so that the point cannot be decided. The dimensions of the vessel in the inscription are unfortunately lost by a fracture which has broken off both numbers; the passage, which is otherwise complete, shows that the dimensions were expressed in cubits as in the Biblical account, but while Genesis makes the ark 50 cubits broad and 30 cubits high, the inscription states that the height and breadth were the same. The greater part of the description of the building of the ark is lost. In the latter part of the account which is preserved, there is mention of the trial of the vessel by launching it into the sea, when defects being found which admitted the water, the outside and inside were coated with bitumen. These details have no parallel either in the Bible or Berosus. The description of the filling of the ark agrees in general with the two other accounts, but it differs from Genesis in not mentioning the sevens of clean animals and in including others beside the family of the builder. The month and day when the Deluge commenced, which are given in the Bible and Berosus, are not mentioned in the text, unless the fifth day, mentioned in a mutilated passage, is part of this date. The description of the Flood in this inscription is very vivid; it is said to have been so terrible that the gods, fearing it, ascended to the heaven of Arm, that it is the highest and furthest heaven, the destruction of the human race is recorded, and the corpses of the wicked are said to have floated on the surface of the Flood. With regard to the duration of the Deluge, there appears to be a serious difference between the Bible and the inscription. According to the account in the Book of Genesis, the Flood commenced on the seventeenth day of the second month, the ark rested on Ararat after one hundred and fifty days on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, and the complete drying up of the Flood was not until the twenty seventh day of the second month in the following year. The inscription, on the other hand, states that the Flood abated on the seventh day, and that the ship remained seven days on the mountain before the sending out of the birds. On this point it must be remarked that some Biblical critics consider that there are two versions of the Flood story in Genesis itself, and that these two differ as to the duration of the Flood. The Greek account of Berosus is silent as to the duration of the Deluge. With regard to the mountain on which the ark rested there is a difference between the Bible and the inscription, which is more apparent than real. The Book of Genesis states that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. According to the popular notion this refers to the mountain of Ararat, in Armenia; but these mountains may have been anywhere within the ancient territory of Ararat, and some Commentators looking at the passage in Berosus, where the ark is stated to have rested in the Gordiaean mountains, have inclined to place the mountain referred to in the Kurdish mountains, east of Assyria. In accordance with this indication the inscription states that the ship rested on the mountain of Nizir. Now, the position of Nizir can be determined from the inscription of Assur-nazir-pal, king of Assyria. He made an expedition to this region, and starting from an Assyrian city, near Arbela, crossed the Lower Zab, and marching eastward between latitudes 35 and 36, arrived at the mountains of Nizir. These mountains of Nizir thus lay east of Assyria, but they form part of a series of mountain chains extending to the north-west into Armenia. The vessel being stranded on the mountain, the Bible, Berosus, and the inscription all agree that trial was made by birds in order to ascertain if the Flood had subsided; but in the details of these trials there are curious differences in all three narratives. According to the Book of Genesis, a raven was sent out first, which did not return; a dove was sent next, which finding no resting place returned to Noah. Seven days later the dove was sent out again, and returned with an olive leaf; and seven days after, on the dove being sent out again, it returned no more. The account of Berosus mentions the sending out of the birds, but does not mention what kinds were tried. On the first trial the birds are said to have returned, and on the second trial likewise, this time with mud on their feet. On the third occasion they did not return. The inscription states that, first, a dove was sent out, which finding no resting place returned. On the second occasion a swallow was sent, which also returned. The third time a raven was sent out, which feeding on the corpses floating on the water, wandered away and did not return. Thus, the inscription agrees with the Bible as to the sending out of the raven and dove, but adds to these the trial of the swallow, which is not in Genesis. In the number of the trials it agrees with Berosus, who has three, while Genesis has four. On the other hand there is no mention of the dove returning with an olive leaf, as in Genesis, and of the birds having their feet stained with Mud, as in Berosus. In the statement of the building of the altar, and offering sacrifice after leaving the ark, all three accounts agree; but in the subsequent matter there is an important difference between the Bible and the inscription, for while the Bible represents Noah as living for many years after the Flood, the inscription on the other hand agrees with Berosus in making Sisit to be translated like the gods. This translation is in the Bible recorded of Enoch, the ancestor of Noah. On reviewing the evidence it is apparent that the events of the Flood narrated in the Bible and the inscription are the same, and occur in the same order; but the minor differences in the details show that the inscription embodies a distinct and independent tradition. In spite of a striking similarity in style, which shows itself in several places, the two narratives belong to totally distinct peoples. The Biblical account is the version of an inland people, the name of the ark in Gene sis means a chest or box, and not a ship; there is no notice of the sea, or of launching, no pilots are spoken of, no navigation is mentioned. The inscription on the other hand belongs to a maritime people, the ark is called a ship, the ship is launched into the sea, trial is made of it, and it is given in charge of a pilot. The Cuneiform inscription, after giving the history of the Flood down to the sacrifice of Sisit, when he came out of the ark, goes back to the former part of the story, and mentions the god Bel in particular as the maker of the tempest or deluge; there appears to be a slight inconsistency between this and the former part of the inscription which suggests the question whether the Chaldean narrative itself may not have been compiled from two distinct and older accounts. It is remarkable that the oldest traditions of the early Babylonians seem to center round the Persian Gulf. From this sea, Oannes the fish god is supposed to have arisen, and the composite monsters who followed him in the antediluvian period came from the same region. Into this sea the ark was launched, and after the subsiding of the Deluge when Sisit was translated, he dwelt in this neighborhood. To this sea also came the great hero Izdubar, and was cured, and here he heard the story of the Flood. In conclusion I would remark that this account of the Deluge opens to us a new field of inquiry in the early part of the Bible history. The question has often been asked, "What is the origin of the accounts of the antediluvians, with their long lives so many times greater than the longest span of human life? Where was Paradise, the abode of the first parents of mankind? From whence comes the story of the flood, the ark, of the birds?" Various conflicting answers have been given to these important questions, while evidence on these subjects before the Greek period has been entirely wanting. The Cuneiform inscriptions are now shedding a new light on these questions, and supplying material which future scholars will have to work out. Following this inscription, we may expect many other discoveries throwing light on these ancient periods, until we are able to form a decisive opinion on the many great questions involved. It would be a mistake to suppose that with the translation and commentary on an inscription like this the matter is ended. The origin, age, and history of the legend have to be traced, and it has to be compared with the many similar stories current among various nations. All these accounts, together with considerable portions of the ancient mythologies have, I believe, a common origin in the Plains of Chaldea. This country the cradle of civilization, the birthplace of the arts and sciences, for 2,000 years has been in ruins; its literature, containing the most precious records of antiquity, is scarcely known to us, except from the texts the Assyrians copied, but beneath its mounds and ruined cities, now awaiting exploration, lay, together with older copies of this Deluge text, other legends and histories of the earliest civilization in the world.

THE CREATION.txt

THE CREATION VIGNETTES FROM THE SACRED WRITINGS OF MU.-- Fig. 1. Fine, straight, horizontal lines. Symbol for Space. Fig. 2. Symbolizing the Seven-headed Serpent as the Deity moving through Space. The surrounding circle is the symbol for the Universe. Fig. 3. Wavy horizontal lines symbolize Earthly Waters. Fig. 4. The Circle. The monotheistic symbol of the Deity. Fig. 5. The Plain Cross. Symbol of the Sacred Four. The Four Great Primary Forces coming direct from the Almighty. Fig. 6. The full Godhead of Five. The Deity and his Four Great Primary and Creative Forces. Fig. 7. Lahun. The dual principle of the Creator. Fig. 8. The Fires of the Underneath. The Earth's Center. Fig. 9. Vertical, fine, dotted lines from the Sun symbolize the Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's Light Forces. p. 88 Fig. 10. Vertical, fine, straight lines from the Sun, symbolize the Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's Light Forces. Click to enlarge Fig. 11. Vertical, wavy lines from the Sun, symbolize the Sun's affinitive Force to the Earth's Heat Force. Fig. 12. The Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's Life Forces striking the Earth's Forces in the Cosmic Eggs formed in the waters. Fig. 13. The Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's [paragraph continues] p. 89 Life Forces striking the Earth's Forces in Cosmic Eggs which have been formed on the land. Fig. 14. Symbol of the Waters as the Mother of Life. Fig. 15. The Tau, symbol of Resurrection and Emersion. Fig. 16. The Tree of Life and the Serpent. The Serpent symbolizes the Waters and the Tree--Mu, the Mother of Man, the Only Life. All of nature's lives are illusion; they do not continue on. Only man is Life and Life is everlasting. Mexican Tablet No. 1231: I consider this cross the most valuable writing which has come down to us from the First Civilization both as regards religion and science. This cross tells us that all Forces throughout the Universe have their origin in the Deity. That these Forces are controlling life and all movements of matter down to the atom and particles of atoms, either directly or indirectly. It shows us that the Forces called Atomic Forces are only indirect workings of Primary Forces through Atoms. It tells us how the Great Primary Forces are working in a manner to maintain regular and perfect movements of each and every body throughout the Universe. All of the arms of this cross are symbols of the Primary Forces coming from and out of the Deity. All of these arms or Forces are pointing towards the East--the four form a circle. Therefore, the Primary Forces are all working in a circle from a Center and proceeding p. 90 <I>Tablet No. 1231</I> Click to enlarge Tablet No. 1231 in an Easterly direction. Detailed deciphering of this symbol is to be found in The Lost Continent of Mu, Page 34. The Origin of Forces has always been a mooted question among scientists. We have here a writing by the scientists of the earth's First Great Civilization, telling us what the origin is; and not only that, but also the manner and direction of their workings. Especially p. 91 it shows us the curvatures apparent throughout the Universe, which are causing so much controversy among scientists today. Click to enlarge How long ago this was written I cannot say: but certainly more than 12,000 years ago. Mexican Tablet No. 988: I am giving this tablet as p. 92 a confirmation of the previous one regarding the direction in which the Forces are working throughout the Universe. This particular glyph shows the lines running from the outside to the Center--therefore it is the Centripetal Force. This glyph, without any script, appears on many of the Yucatan and Central American inscriptions. Pedro Beltram, Le Plongeon and others have written that this glyph refers to the movement of the Sun. Here it distinctly states that it represents the workings of a primary Force. Mexican Tablet No. 339: This interesting little tablet symbolizes the Four Great Primary Forces, in the shape of a butterfly, flying through space and evolving law and order out of chaos in obedience to the command of the Creator--His first command in Creation. p. 93 ''Let Land Appear''<BR>''And waters covered the face of the earth'' Click to enlarge ''Let Land Appear'' ''And waters covered the face of the earth'' p. 94 A full deciphering of this tablet is given in The Lost Continent of Mu, Page 37. Mexican Tablet No. 1267: Fig. 1. The outside circle--The Universe. Fig. 2. The wavy circle--The Waters. Fig. 3. The inside--The Earth. Fig. 4. "The Fires of the underneath"--Volcanic gases. The Force symbol, coming out of the Fires, tells us that land is about to be raised. Mexican Tablet No. 328: This Mexican tablet symbolizes the actual first life on earth. A full reading of this compound glyph is given in The Children of Mu, page 76. THE TALE OF THE CREATION.--The following is what I found in the old Oriental Naacal writing, supplemented by the Mexican Tablets: <I>Naacal</I> Naacal "Originally the Universe was only a soul or spirit. Everything was without form and without life. All was calm, silent and soundless. Void and dark was the immensity of space. Only the Supreme Spirit, the Great Self-Existing Power, the Creator, the Seven-Headed Serpent, moved within the abyss of darkness." "The desire came to Him to create worlds, and the p. 95 desire came to Him to create the earth with living things upon it, and He created the earth and all therein. This is the manner of the creation of the earth with all there is within and upon it:--The Seven-headed Serpent) <I>No. 328</I> Click to enlarge No. 328 the Creator, gave seven great commands." These two tablets tell us that these seven commands p. 96 were given to the Four Great Primary Forces. That these Forces were the executors of the Creator's commands throughout the Creation. <I>Naacal</I> Naacal <I>Mexican No. 1231</I> Mexican No. 1231 "The First Command: 'Let the gases, which are scattered throughout space and without form and order, be brought together and out of them let worlds be formed.' <I>Mexican No. 339</I> Mexican No. 339 Then the gases were brought together in the form of whirling masses." "The Second Command: 'Let the gases solidify and let the earth be formed.' Then the gases solidified. Volumes were left on the outside of the crust, from which the waters and the atmosphere were to be formed; and volumes were left enveloped within the crust. Darkness prevailed, and there was no sound for as yet neither the atmosphere nor the waters were formed." p. 97 "The Third Command: 'Let the outside gases be separated and let them form the waters and the atmosphere.' <I>Mexican No. 1267</I> Mexican No. 1267 [paragraph continues] And the gases were separated. One part went to form the waters, the remainder formed the atmosphere. The waters settled upon the face of the Earth so that no land appeared anywhere." <I>Naacal No. 10</I> Naacal No. 10 "The gases which did not form the waters, went to form the atmosphere. And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the earth's light contained in the atmosphere, which gave birth to light. Then there was light upon the face of the Earth." <I>Naacal No. 11</I> Naacal No. 11 "And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the Earth's heat which was contained in her atmosphere p. 98 and gave it life. Then there was heat to warm the face of the earth." <I>Mexican No. 51</I> Mexican No. 51 "The Fourth Command: 'Let the fires that are within the earth raise land above the face of the waters.' Then the fires of the underneath lifted the land on which the waters rested until the land appeared above the face of the waters-this was the dry land." <I>Naacal<BR> No. 12</I> Naacal No. 12 <I>Naacal<BR> No. 13</I> Naacal No. 13 <I>Egyptian<BR> No. 1</I> Egyptian No. 1 <I>Hindu<BR> No. 2</I> Hindu No. 2 <I>Mexican No. 328</I> Mexican No. 328 "The Fifth Command: 'Let life come forth in the waters.' And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the earth in the mud of the waters, and out of particles of p. 99 mud formed cosmic eggs. From these eggs life came forth as commanded." <I>Naacal No. 13</I> Naacal No. 13 "The Sixth Command: 'Let Life come forth on the land.' And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the earth in the dust of the land and out of particles of dust formed cosmic eggs. From these cosmic eggs life came forth as commanded." (What I have translated as arrows and shafts is the glyph .) "The Seventh Command: And when this was done, the Seventh Intellect said: 'Let us make man after our own fashion and let us endow him with powers to rule this earth.' Then the Seven-Headed Intellect, The Creator of All Things throughout the Universe, created man and placed within his body a living, imperishable spirit, and man became like the Creator in intellectual power." What does the phrase "after our own fashion" mean? It certainly does not mean in the image of the Creator; for, a little farther on in the Sacred Writings, it says: "To man the Creator is incomprehensible. He can p. 100 <I>Mexican Tablet No. 1584<BR> Creation of the First Pair<BR> Man and Woman</I> Click to enlarge Mexican Tablet No. 1584 Creation of the First Pair Man and Woman p. 101 neither be pictured nor named, He is the Nameless." If man were "in the image of God" he would be a picture of God; and, as God can neither be pictured nor named, being incomprehensible, the Bible has erred in translation by using the word "image." "Like the Creator" unquestionably means, in intellect and mystic powers, for man possesses both. Mexican Tablet No. 1584: This tablet reads:--"Man was created with the dual principle, male and female. The Creator caused this man to pass into a sleep (our death) and while he slept, the principles were severed by Cosmic Forces. When he awoke (born again) he was two--man and woman." There are innumerable writings stating that man was created alone, and that woman was taken from a part of the original man. I shall quote a few prominent writings on the subject and also include some legends. THE BIBLE.--Genesis. 2. V. 21-22. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep [Among the ancients death was called sleep: therefore, here sleep is equivalent to our death.] to fall upon Adam, and he slept: [that is he died] and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." This is Ezra's translation of the writings of Moses 800 years after. Moses' writings were copies of the Naga in the language and writing of the Motherland and were only partially understood by Ezra who had not p. 102 become a Master in the Chaldi in Babylonia before he was released from bondage and returned to his own land. EGYPT.--Egypt obtained the Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu from two sources, in which the creation of woman appears. First, from India, brought by the Nagas when they made their first settlement at Maioo in Nubia, Upper Egypt. Second, from Atlantis, brought by the Mayas under the leadership of Thoth, who made his first settlement at Saïs on the Nile Delta, Lower Egypt. This probably accounts for two versions of the Creation in the early chapters of the Bible. One was from the people who came from India--the other from the people who came from Atlantis, forming Upper and Lower Egypt. HINDU.--The Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu were brought to India by the Naacals from the Motherland, and from India they were carried by the Naacals to the more recent colonies of Babylonia on the Euphrates and to Maioo in Upper Egypt. CHALDEAN.--The Chaldean and Egyptian were therefore reflexes of the Hindu, and the Hindu a reflex of the Motherland: thus showing, definitely, that the legend of woman coming out of man originated in Mu, the Motherland. HAWAII. PACIFIC ISLANDS.--The Hawaiians have a very ancient legend stating:--"Taaroa made man out of red earth Araca, and breathed into his nostrils. He made woman from man's bones and called her Ivi." p. 103 This part of the legend is identical with the Biblical arid continues so throughout, except in unimportant details. In the Polynesian language every letter in a word is pronounced: thus Ivi in Polynesian is pronounced Eve-y. Mu was destroyed about 12,000 years ago, so that this legend must have been orally handed down for at least 12,000 years. THE GREEK LEGEND.--In all of their conceptions, the Greeks were always original. They gave a viewpoint on a subject different from all others, even to the creation of man and woman. Plato says: "Human beings were originally created with the man and woman combined in one body. Each body had four arms and four legs. The bodies were round, and they rolled over and over, using the arms and legs to move them. By and by they began to treat the gods badly. They stopped their sacrifices and even threatened to roll up Mount Olympus to attack and overthrow the gods. "One god said, 'Let us kill them all. They are dangerous.' "Another said, 'No, I have a better idea. We will cut them in half. Then they will only have two arms and two legs; they won't be round. They won't be able to roll. Being multiplied by two, they will offer twice as many sacrifices, and what is the most important, each half will be so busy looking for the other half that they will not have time to bother us.' p. 104 UIGHUR.--The frontispiece of this book, coming from the ancient capital of the Uighurs destroyed about 18,000 to 20,000 years ago--Chinese records say 19,000 years ago--is probably the oldest record of man being created with the dual principle. There are in this world those, the spiritual part of whose brains are so finely keyed to each other, that words are unnecessary to express the feelings of one towards the other when they first meet. These possibly are the two halves of man and woman which in bygone times made one soul. All the past is bridged at a glance. The divine, pure love for one another leaps into life again on the instant. Many modern writers have vulgarly termed this "the man call." It is not the man call; it is the souls' call, mates. The "man call" is materialism. Materialism has nothing to do with it, because the call is spiritual. Again, two persons, meeting for the first time, may or may not take a dislike to one another. One of them at least may take a dislike to the other and mistrust the other for no apparent reason. This is popularly termed "first impressions." Probably if their past incarnations could be recalled and they could see all that happened in them, the question would be answered. A glyph, generally a circle but sometimes oblong with two parallel lines drawn through its center dividing it into three parts as shown Cut. 1 (Niven's Mexican Tablet No. 2379), is a common universal symbol. It is found among the cliff writings of our western p. 105 states, in inscriptions on the Mexican Pyramid at Xochicalco, in the Maya writings of Yucatan. It appears in a writing on Inscription Rock, northeast Brazil <I>Cut 1. Mexican No. 2379</I> Cut 1. Mexican No. 2379 <I>Cut 2. A paragraph in the Sacred Inspired Writings (Naacal writing)</I> Cut 2. A paragraph in the Sacred Inspired Writings (Naacal writing) near the boundary of British Guiana, and in other various American carvings. It occurs in the ancient writings of the Uighurs, Hindus, Babylonians and Egyptians. p. 106 In the Oriental Naacal writings of the Sacred Inspired Writings, The Books of the Golden Age, it is one of three glyphs forming a paragraph. (See Cut. 2.) The paragraph reads: ( Hun)-The Creator is one. ( Lahun, two)--He is two in one. ( Mehen, man)--These two engendered the son, mehen--man. It is thus shown that the glyph refers to the Creation of man, and by the ordinary extensions given these very ancient symbols, includes producing a continuance of, et cetera. Lao Tzu in Tao te King, a Chinese book written about 600 B. C. just before the time of Confucius, we read: "Reason Tao made One. One became two. Two produced three. From these three, all mankind descended." In deciphering and translating this glyph, collected from many parts of the earth, I have invariably found that, in the ancient explanation of it, three words persist in every translation of it, viz: made or created, became and produced; thus: The Creator created man, man became two, these two produced three, clearly in each case showing and defining the form of the steps in progression, and the difference between each step. An ancient glyph which by the ancients was called "The Mysterious Writing" is an esoteric temple writing, a numeral writing, conveying the same meaning and conception as the Mexican Tablet No. 2379. p. 107 THE MYSTERIOUS WRITING.--The Mysterious Writing consisted of either six small circles or six small disks, placed so as to form a triangle, pyramid or keystone. The rows are so placed that they count-one, two, three. <I>Cut 3. The Mysterious Writing</I> Cut 3. The Mysterious Writing The two figures forming Cut 3 are written with the Naga form of numerals. Sometimes the Nagas used circles, at other times disks; this appears to have been optional, dependent on the taste of the writer. The Uighurs, generally, used a bar or line to express their numerals. I find their expression of the one, two and three most frequently written thus or . KARA INSCRIPTION IN BRAZIL.--On a large prairie-like plain in the northeastern part of Brazil near the boundary of British Guiana stands an immense rock with many smooth faces which are literally covered with very old inscriptions in the characters of the ancient Karas or Carians. The following is one of the inscriptions with its deciphering and translation: p. 108 1. This is a universal symbol found in the writings of all ancient people. 2. The Northern or Uighur form of writing the numeral 1. (Cara or Karian pattern) 3. Numeral 2. 4. Numeral 3. This glyph is specialized by not having one end closed which gives it a special significance. The Legend: One became two. Two produced three. From these three the life was continued on. The continuation is shown in the glyph for numeral 3 where the ends of the bars are left open. The ancients designated by unattached ends that unfinished work was being carried on. It may be well to note here that the Cara glyph for 1, an enclosed bar, was the Naga glyph for 5. All Naga counts were made up of 5's; thus ten would be two or twice five. Ten being the numeral symbol of the Infinite, p. 109 was never used. As the symbol of the Infinite it was looked upon as being too sacred. I have here shown a South American inscription composed of a symbol or vignette with its meaning given in script. This, to a great extent, follows the character of the Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu; further, it is unquestionable that this passage was taken from the Sacred Writings for on the other side of the world comes the Motherland. In China we find Lao Tzu in Tao te King, using virtually the same words about 600 B. C. which he took from the Sacred Writings of the Motherland. XOCICALCO PYRAMID--MEXICO.--On this celebrated pyramid there are many inscriptions. I have selected one which appears to me to be relative to the creation of the first pair. <I>Uighur writing</I> Uighur writing 1st Line. Numerals one, two and three with their hidden meaning as previously given. 2nd Line. Includes the Uighur glyph for man having the dual principle. Man before he became divided. 3rd Line. Includes man as the male principle only p. 110 When mankind was referred to, the Uighur plain letter M was given.) <I>The evolution of the Uighur letter M<BR> 1, Naga Mu. 2. Uighur Mu. 3. Second changing the right leg to be the longer. 4. Third, the last pattern handed down to the Chinese</I>. The evolution of the Uighur letter M 1, Naga Mu. 2. Uighur Mu. 3. Second changing the right leg to be the longer. 4. Third, the last pattern handed down to the Chinese. THE WATERS--THE MOTHER OF LIFE.--Throughout all ancient writings the waters are referred to as "The Mother of Life." Thus it is shown that the ancients knew perfectly well what is confirmed by geology today: that is, the first life on earth was marine life, that is, it first appeared in the waters. To think that life first appeared in the waters is not only reasonable, but it was imperative according to natural laws that it should do so; for, life can only commence at a temperature below 200° F. I have been unable to produce life at over 175° F. During the earth's cooling, the waters were always a step in advance of the rocks in cooling; therefore the waters being in advance of the rocks in cooling were down to a temperature where life could make a start before life could start among the rocks, or at the best hot, rocky, gravelly sand with little or no actual soil. <I>The Waters of the Mother of Life</I> Click to enlarge The Waters of the Mother of Life p. 111 The first life that appeared on this earth were tiny microscopical marine grasses and lichens. These were destined to become the foundation stones of The House of Life--Nature's lives and so the house was built upon them until Man, the Special Creation, came to form the Divine coping stone. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Various serpents are mentioned in the ancient writings, each one symbolizing something different from the others. These ancient Serpent Symbols are divided into two classes: 1. The adorned Serpent symbolizing the Creative Attribute of the Deity. 2. Plain unadorned Serpents were symbols of the waters. The symbolic water symbol was called Khan. Fig. 1. This serpent is one of the vignettes appearing in the Sacred Writings--Fifth Command. As this serpent has a nest of eggs within her coils, it is permissible to assume that this creation refers to various forms of marine life. Mexican Tablet, No. 328. This serpent symbolizes p. 112 actual first life in the waters, therefore the first life on earth. Fig. 2. Is the usual form of the water symbol, without any additions, such as eggs, et cetera. <I>Egyptian Vignette</I> Click to enlarge Egyptian Vignette HORUS IN COMBAT WITH APHOPHIS.--This vignette comes from an Egyptian papyrus dating about 3,000 B. C. It depicts Horus the symbol of the Sun in combat with Aphophis the waters. This illustration plainly shows a great difference in the teachings from the original that are found in the Sacred Writings and which are repeated and confirmed p. 113 in the Mexican Tablet No. 328. There the scientific account is given. In the Egyptian a symbol is given without the explanation. The Mexican Tablet is at least 7,000 years older than this Egyptian vignette. But Egypt did not stand alone in this obtuse teaching:--the Greeks had their Apollo, the Sun, killing the Serpent Python, the waters. The Hindus had Krishma killing the Serpent Anatha, the waters, and the Chaldeans had Belmarduk, the Sun, overcoming Tiamat, the waters. Chaldean tablet found in the library of the palace of King Assurbanipal: "At a time when neither the heavens above nor the earth below existed, there was the watery abyss: the first of seed, the mistress of the depths, the mother of the Universe. "The waters covered everything; no product had ever been gathered nor was there any sprout seen, aye, the very gods had not yet come into being. "The gods are preparing for a grand contest against the monster known as Tiamat, the waters; the god Belmarduk overthrows Tiamat." Tiamat is a Naga word meaning water everywhere, nowhere land. Belmarduk was the Babylonian name for the Sun as the celestial orb and not as the symbol Ra. From the foregoing it appears to be that the first two extracts correspond to the Mexican Tablet No. 339) and the last to the advent of life on earth. Some connecting tablets are evidently missing. In the Sacred Writings of Mu it is plainly shown that p. 114 there was no combat or fighting. That it was the commingling of forces in connection with elementary matter that produced the results and that the Natural Law regarding the creation of Life had only been followed. The savages and semi-savages of the South Sea Islands have legends among themselves showing that they understand the workings of the Forces better than the myths taught by the Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus and Chaldeans, which go to prove that these myths were bred after Mu went down and the South Sea Islands became isolated from the rest of the world. The South Sea Islanders explain that all creations are the result of marriages (commingling) between gods (Forces), which is correct. Theirs is the original explanation orally handed down for 12,000 years, and wonderfully well they have kept it. Of course there are divergences from the original, but when one considers the time they have been orally passed on from father to son, it is a miracle that the differences are so immaterial; but they have had no unscrupulous priesthoods to tamper with the great things left behind. THE BIBLE.--Referring to the Bible again, and to show how extremely old some parts of it are, those which came out of the Sacred Inspired Writings, I will call attention to a few facts. Moses without question bases his religious laws on the Pure Osirian as taught by Thoth. Take for instance the ten commandments. In the Great Hall of Truth of [paragraph continues] p. 115 Osiris there are placed forty-two gods in a row, to ask the soul when it enters this judgment Hall forty-two questions regarding the life of the material body in which it had dwelt. Moses took these forty-two questions and in a condensed form made forty-two commands out of them which he condensed to ten commands. This drastic change made by Moses was unquestionably necessary to meet the condition into which his people had fallen. Moses changed nothing in conception, he simply made more emphatic how they must live their lives here on earth. He applied these laws to the living directly instead of to the dead. The ten commandments, however, are found in the Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu more than 70,000 years ago, only in the form of questions instead of commands. But the Jews were not the only people who had a conception that their religious laws came directly from the Supreme God through some agent, and this may be so for we have no record who wrote the writings of Mu and it is distinctly stated they are Sacred and Inspired. Who was the inspired one? What was his name? Diodorus Siculus says: "The Egyptians claim that their religious laws were given to Menevis by Hermes. "The Cretans held that their religious laws were given by Minos who received them from Zeus. "The Lycedaemonians claimed that theirs were the gift of Apollon to Lykurgus. p. 116 "The Aryans were given theirs by Zathraustes who received them from the Good Spirit. "The Getae claim that Zamolxis obtained theirs from the goddess Hestia. "The Jews claim that Moses received theirs from Iao." The inscriptions on the old Akkadian ruins of Babylonia, clearly express the feelings and ideas of these people 10,000 to 15,000 years ago about man and the creation. They believed man was a special creation and showed how he came into being. They clearly indicate that God was the Creator and that His Forces control the Universe and all therein. This is corroborated by the Sacred Inspired Writings, the writings on the Mexican Tablets, and the cliff writings of North America. All support the fact that the first religion was pure Monotheism, that the Creator created all things and today is controlling the Universe with all the life throughout it. Writings from western Thebes by one Amenemopet (Priest) are word for word the same as the Proverbs written by Solomon. These writings are dated several hundreds of years before Solomon was born. Solomon was a scholar and reproduced these wonderful epics. Further, it is clearly shown that besides being a Jew he was an Osirian--the building of his temple showed it. Wherever possible in its construction, Solomon carried out the most minute details, shown in the symbolical Hall of Truth, Osiris presiding. The Porch especially is noteworthy, for it has the two p. 117 pillars with identically the same names and the same decorative ornamentations. Without question Solomon knew and appreciated that his religion was nothing more or less than the Pure Osirian religion, arranged and modified to suit the people of his times.

THE EPIC OF CREATION.txt

Sacred-Texts Ancient Near East ENUMA ELISH THE EPIC OF CREATION L.W. King Translator (from The Seven Tablets of Creation, London 1902) A more complete etext of the Seven Tablets of Creation is also available here. THE FIRST TABLET When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being, And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained; Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven, Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being... Ages increased,... Then Ansar and Kisar were created, and over them.... Long were the days, then there came forth..... Anu, their son,... Ansar and Anu... And the god Anu... Nudimmud, whom his fathers, his begetters..... Abounding in all wisdom,...' He was exceeding strong... He had no rival - Thus were established and were... the great gods. But Tiamat and Apsu were still in confusion... They were troubled and... In disorder... Apru was not diminished in might... And Tiamat roared... She smote, and their deeds... Their way was evil... Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods, Cried unto Mummu, his minister, and said unto him: "O Mummu, thou minister that rejoicest my spirit, Come, unto Tiamut let us go! So they went and before Tiamat they lay down, They consulted on a plan with regard to the gods, their sons. Apsu opened his mouth and spake, And unto Tiamut, the glistening one, he addressed the word: ...their way... By day I can not rest, by night I can not lie down in peace. But I will destroy their way, I will... Let there be lamentation, and let us lie down again in peace." When Tiamat heard these words, She raged and cried aloud... She... grievously..., She uttered a curse, and unto Apsu she spake: "What then shall we do? Let their way be made difficult, and let us lie down again in peace." Mummu answered, and gave counsel unto Apsu, ...and hostile to the gods was the counsel Mummu gave: Come, their way is strong, but thou shalt destroy it; Then by day shalt thou have rest, by night shalt thou lie down in peace." Apsu harkened unto him and his countenance grew bright, Since he (Mummu) planned evil against the gods his sons. ... he was afraid..., His knees became weak; they gave way beneath him, Because of the evil which their first-born had planned. ... their... they altered. ... they..., Lamentation they sat in sorrow .................. Then Ea, who knoweth all that is, went up and he beheld their muttering. [about 30 illegible lines] ... he spake: ... thy... he hath conquered and ... he weepeth and sitteth in tribulation. ... of fear, ... we shall not lie down in peace. ... Apsu is laid waste, ... and Mummu, who were taken captive, in... ... thou didst... ... let us lie down in peace. ... they will smite.... ... let us lie down in peace. ... thou shalt take vengeance for them, ... unto the tempest shalt thou...!" And Tiamat harkened unto the word of the bright god, and said: ... shalt thou entrust! let us wage war!" ... the gods in the midst of... ... for the gods did she create. They banded themselves together and at the side of Tiamat they advanced; They were furious; they devised mischief without resting night and day. They prepared for battle, fuming and raging; They joined their forces and made war, Ummu-Hubur [Tiamat] who formed all things, Made in addition weapons invincible; she spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang; With poison, instead of blood, she filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she clothed with terror, With splendor she decked them, she made them of lofty stature. Whoever beheld them, terror overcame him, Their bodies reared up and none could withstand their attack. She set up vipers and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes, and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams; They bore cruel weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands were mighty, none could resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, she made eleven [kinds of] monsters. Among the gods who were her sons, inasmuch as he had given her support, She exalted Kingu; in their midst she raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him she entrusted; in costly raiment she made him sit, saying: I have uttered thy spell, in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power. The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto him. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them the Anunnaki." She gave him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established." Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate among the gods his sons, saying: "Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!" THE SECOND TABLET Tiamat made weighty her handiwork, Evil she wrought against the gods her children. To avenge Apsu, Tiamat planned evil, But how she had collected her forces, the god unto Ea divulged. Ea harkened to this thing, and He was grievously afflicted and he sat in sorrow. The days went by, and his anger was appeased, And to the place of Ansar his father he took his way. He went and, standing before Ansar, the father who begat him, All that Tiamat had plotted he repeated unto him, Saying, "Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath. All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, thev go at her side. They are banded together and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war. Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things, Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang. With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror, With splendor she hath decked them; she hath made them of lofty stature. Whoever beholdeth them is overcome by terror, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men and rams; They bear cruel weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands are mighty; none can resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters. Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support, She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack. To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him hath she entrusted; in costly raiment she hath made him sit, saving:. I have uttered thy spell; in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power, The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto thee. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: 'Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established.' Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons, saying: 'Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!'" When Ansar heard how Tiamat was mightily in revolt, he bit his lips, his mind was not at peace, ..., he made a bitter lamentation: ... battle, ... thou... Mummu and Apsu thou hast smitten But Tiamat hath exalted Kingu, and where is one who can oppose her? ... deliberation ... the ... of the gods, -Nudimmud. [A gap of about a dozen lines occurs here.] Ansar unto his son addressed the word: "... my mighty hero, Whose strength is great and whose onslaught can not be withstood, Go and stand before Tiamat, That her spirit may be appeased, that her heart may be merciful. But if she will not harken unto thy word, Our word shalt thou speak unto her, that she may be pacified." He heard the word of his father Ansar And he directed his path to her, toward her he took the way. Ann drew nigh, he beheld the muttering of Tiamat, But he could not withstand her, and he turned back. ... Ansar ... he spake unto him: [A gap of over twenty lines occurs here.] an avenger... ... valiant ... in the place of his decision ... he spake unto him: ... thy father " Thou art my son, who maketh merciful his heart. ... to the battle shalt thou draw nigh, he that shall behold thee shall have peace." And the lord rejoiced at the word of his father, And he drew nigh and stood before Ansar. Ansar beheld him and his heart was filled with joy, He kissed him on the lips and his fear departed from him. "O my father, let not the word of thy lips be overcome, Let me go, that I may accomplish all that is in thy heart. O Ansar, let not the word of thy lips be overcome, Let me go, that I may accomplish all that is in thy heart." What man is it, who hath brought thee forth to battle? ... Tiamat, who is a woman, is armed and attacketh thee. ... rejoice and be glad; The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under foot. ... rejoice and be glad; The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under foot. 0 my son, who knoweth all wisdom, Pacify Tiamat with thy pure incantation. Speedily set out upon thy way, For thy blood shall not be poured out; thou shalt return again." The lord rejoiced at the word of his father, His heart exulted, and unto his father he spake: "O Lord of the gods, Destiny of the great gods, If I, your avenger, Conquer Tiamat and give you life, Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it. In Upsukkinaku seat yourself joyfully together, With my word in place of you will I decree fate. May whatsoever I do remain unaltered, May the word of my lips never be chanced nor made of no avail." THE THIRD TABLET Ansar opened his mouth, and Unto Gaga, his minister, spake the word. "O Gaga, thou minister that rejoicest my spirit, Unto Lahmu and Lahamu will I send thee. ... thou canst attain, ... thou shalt cause to be brought before thee. ... let the gods, all of them, Make ready for a feast, at a banquet let them sit, Let them eat bread, let them mix wine, That for Marduk, their avenger they may decree the fate. Go, Gaga, stand before them, And all that I tell thee, repeat unto them, and say: 'Ansar, vour son, hath sent me, The purpose of his heart he hath made known unto me. The purpose of his heart he hath made known unto me. He saith that Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath. All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, they go at her side. They are banded together, and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war. Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things, Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth and merciless of fang. With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror, With splendor she hath decked them; she hath made them of lofty stature. Whoever beboldeth them, terror overcometh him, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes, and raging bounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams; They bear merciless weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands are miahty; none can. resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters. Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support, She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him hath she entrusted; in costly raiment she hath made him sit, saying: I have uttered thy spell; in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power, The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto thee. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them ... the Anunnaki." She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established." Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons, saving: Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!" I sent Anu, but he could not withstand her; Nudimmud was afraid and turned back. But Marduk hath set out, the director of the gods, your son; To set out against Tiamat his heart hath prompted him. He opened his mouth and spake unto me, saying: "If I, your avenger, Conquer Tiamat and give you life, Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it. In Upsukkinaku seat yourself joyfully together; With my word in place of you will I decree fate. May whatsoever I do remain unaltered, May the word of my lips never be changed nor made of no avail."' Hasten, therefore, and swiftly decree for him the fate which you bestow, That he may go and fight your strong enemy. Gaga went, he took his way and Humbly before Lahmu and Lahamu, the gods, his fathers, He made obeisance, and he kissed the ground at their feet. He humbled himself; then he stood up and spake unto them saying: "Ansar, your son, hath sent me, The purpose of his heart he hath made known unto me. He saith that Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath. All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, they go at her side. They are banded together and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war. Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things, Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth and merciless of fang. With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror, With splendor she hath decked them, she hath made them of lofty stature. Whoever beboldeth them, terror overcometh him, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes, and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams; They bear merciless weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands are mighty; none can resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters. Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support, She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him hath she entrusted; in costlv raiment she hath made him sit, saving: I have uttered thy spell; in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power, The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto thee. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them...the Anunnaki. She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny on his breast she laid them, saving: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established.' Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons, saying: 'Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!' I sent Anu, but he could not withstand her; Nudimmud was afraid and turned back. But Marduk hath set out, the director of the gods, your son; To set out against Tiamat his heart hath prompted him. He opened his mouth and spake unto me, saying: 'If I, your avenger, Conquer Tiamat and give you life, Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it. In Upsukkinaku seat yourselves joyfully together; With my word in place of you will I decree fate. May, whatsoever I do remain unaltered, May the word of my lips never be changed nor made of no avail.' Hasten, therefore, and swiftly decree for him the fate which you bestow, That he may go and fight your strong enemy! Lahmu and Lahamu heard and cried aloud All of the Igigi [The elder gods] wailed bitterly, saying: What has been altered so that they should We do not understand the deed of Tiamat! Then did they collect and go, The great gods, all of them, who decree fate. They entered in before Ansar, they filled... They kissed one another, in the assembly...; They made ready for the feast, at the banquet they sat; They ate bread, they mixed sesame-wine. The sweet drink, the mead, confused their... They were drunk with drinking, their bodies were filled. They were wholly at ease, their spirit was exalted; Then for Marduk, their avenger, did they decree the fate. THE FOURTH TABLET They prepared for him a lordly chamber, Before his fathers as prince he took his place. "Thou art chiefest among the great gods, Thy fate is unequaled, thy word is Anu! O Marduk, thou art chiefest among the great gods, Thy fate is unequaled, thy word is Anu! Henceforth not without avail shall be thy command, In thy power shall it be to exalt and to abase. Established shall be the word of thy mouth, irresistible shall be thy command, None among the gods shall transgress thy boundary. Abundance, the desire of the shrines of the gods, Shall be established in thy sanctuary, even though they lack offerings. O Marduk, thou art our avenger! We give thee sovereignty over the whole world. Sit thou down in might; be exalted in thy command. Thy weapon shall never lose its power; it shall crush thy foe. O Lord, spare the life of him that putteth his trust in thee, But as for the god who began the rebellion, pour out his life." Then set they in their midst a garment, And unto Marduk,- their first-born they spake: "May thy fate, O lord, be supreme among the gods, To destroy and to create; speak thou the word, and thy command shall be fulfilled. Command now and let the garment vanish; And speak the word again and let the garment reappear! Then he spake with his mouth, and the garment vanished; Again he commanded it, and. the garment reappeared. When the gods, his fathers, beheld the fulfillment of his word, They rejoiced, and they did homage unto him, saying, " Marduk is king!" They bestowed upon him the scepter, and the throne, and the ring, They give him an invincible weapony which overwhelmeth the foe. Go, and cut off the life of Tiamat, And let the wind carry her blood into secret places." After the gods his fathers had decreed for the lord his fate, They caused him to set out on a path of prosperity and success. He made ready the bow, he chose his weapon, He slung a spear upon him and fastened it... He raised the club, in his right hand he grasped it, The bow and the quiver he hung at his side. He set the lightning in front of him, With burning flame he filled his body. He made a net to enclose the inward parts of Tiamat, The four winds he stationed so that nothing of her might escape; The South wind and the North wind and the East wind and the West wind He brought near to the net, the gift of his father Anu. He created the evil wind, and the tempest, and the hurricane, And the fourfold wind, and the sevenfold wind, and the whirlwind, and the wind which had no equal; He sent forth the winds which he had created, the seven of them; To disturb the inward parts of Tiamat, they followed after him. Then the lord raised the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon, He mounted the chariot, the storm unequaled for terror, He harnessed and yoked unto it four horses, Destructive, ferocious, overwhelming, and swift of pace; ... were their teeth, they were flecked with foam; They were skilled in... , they had been trained to trample underfoot. ... . mighty in battle, Left and right.... His garment was... , he was clothed with terror, With overpowering brightness his head was crowned. Then he set out, he took his way, And toward the raging Tiamat he set his face. On his lips he held ..., ... he grasped in his hand. Then they beheld him, the gods beheld him, The gods his fathers beheld him, the gods beheld him. And the lord drew nigh, he gazed upon the inward parts of Tiamat, He perceived the muttering of Kingu, her spouse. As Marduk gazed, Kingu was troubled in his gait, His will was destroyed and his motions ceased. And the gods, his helpers, who marched by his side, Beheld their leader's..., and their sight was troubled. But Tiamat... , she turned not her neck, With lips that failed not she uttered rebellious words: "... thy coming as lord of the gods, From their places have they gathered, in thy place are they! " Then the lord raised the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon, And against Tiamat, who was raging, thus he sent the word: Thou art become great, thou hast exalted thyself on high, And thy heart hath prompted thee to call to battle. ... their fathers..., ... their... thou hatest... Thou hast exalted Kingu to be thy spouse, Thou hast... him, that, even as Anu, he should issue deerees. thou hast followed after evil, And against the gods my fathers thou hast contrived thy wicked plan. Let then thy host be equipped, let thy weapons be girded on! Stand! I and thou, let us join battle! When Tiamat heard these words, She was like one posessed, .she lost her reason. Tiamat uttered wild, piercing cries, She trembled and shook to her very foundations. She recited an incantation, she pronounced her spell, And the gods of the battle cried out for their weapons. Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, the counselor of the gods; To the fight they came on, to the battle they drew nigh. The lord spread out his net and caught her, And the evil wind that was behind him he let loose in her face. As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent, He drove in the evil wind, while as yet she had not shut her lips. The terrible winds filled her belly, And her courage was taken from her, and her mouth she opened wide. He seized the spear and burst her belly, He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart. He overcame her and cut off her life; He cast down her body and stood upon it. When he had slain Tiamat, the leader, Her might was broken, her host was scattered. And the gods her helpers, who marched by her side, Trembled, and were afraid, and turned back. They took to flight to save their lives; But they were surrounded, so that they could not escape. He took them captive, he broke their weapons; In the net they were caught and in the snare they sat down. The ... of the world they filled with cries of grief. They received punishment from him, they were held in bondage. And on the eleven creatures which she had filled with the power of striking terror, Upon the troop of devils, who marched at her..., He brought affliction, their strength he...; Them and their opposition he trampled under his feet. Moreover, Kingu, who had been exalted over them, He conquered, and with the god Dug-ga he counted him. He took from him the Tablets of Destiny that were not rightly his, He sealed them with a seal and in his own breast he laid them. Now after the hero Marduk had conquered and cast down his enemies, And had made the arrogant foe even like And had fully established Ansar's triumph over the enemy And had attained the purpose of Nudimmud, Over the captive gods he strengthened his durance, And unto Tiamat, whom he had conquered, he returned. And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts, And with his merciless club he smashed her skull. He cut through the channels of her blood, And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places. His fathers beheld, and they rejoiced and were glad; Presents and gifts they brought unto him. Then the lord rested, gazing upon her dead body, While he divided the flesh of the ... , and devised a cunning plan. He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; One half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven. He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman, And bade them not to let her waters come forth. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions thereof, And over against the Deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud. And the lord measured the structure of the Deep, And he founded E-sara, a mansion like unto it. The mansion E-sara which he created as heaven, He caused Anu, Bel, and Ea in their districts to inhabit. THE FIFTH TABLET He (Marduk) made the stations for the great gods; The stars, their images, as the stars of the Zodiac, he fixed. He ordained the year and into sections he divided it; For the twelve months he fixed three stars. After he had ... the days of the year ... images, He founded the station of Nibir [the planet Jupiter] to determine their bounds; That none might err or go astray, He set the station of Bel and Ea along with him. He opened great gates on both sides, He made strong the bolt on the left and on the right. In the midst thereof he fixed the zenith; The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night he entrusted to him. He appointed him, a being of the night, to determine the days; Every month without ceasing with the crown he covered him, saying: "At the beginning of the month, when thou shinest upon the land, Thou commandest the horns to determine six days, And on the seventh day to divide the crown. On the fourteenth day thou shalt stand opposite, the half.... When the Sun-god on the foundation of heaven...thee, The ... thou shalt cause to ..., and thou shalt make his... ... unto the path of the Sun-god shalt thou cause to draw nigh, And on the ... day thou shalt stand opposite, and the Sun-god shall... ... to traverse her way. ... thou shalt cause to draw nigh, and thou shalt judge the right. ... to destroy..." [Nearly fifty lines are here lost.] The gods, his fathers, beheld the net which he had made, They beheld the bow and how its work was accomplished. They praised the work which he had done... Then Anu raised the ... in the assembly of the gods. He kissed the bow, saving, " It is...!" And thus he named the names of the bow, saving, "'Long-wood' shall be one name, and the second name shall be ..., And its third name shall be the Bow-star, in heaven shall it...!" Then he fixed a station for it... Now after the fate of... He set a throne... ...in heaven... [The remainder of this tablet is missing.] THE SIXTH TABLET When Marduk heard the word of the gods, His heart prompted him and he devised a cunning plan. He opened his mouth and unto Ea he spake That which he had conceived in his heart he imparted unto him: "My blood will I take and bone will I fashion I will make man, that man may I will create man who shall inhabit the earth, That the service of the gods may be established, and that their shrines may be built. But I will alter the ways of the gods, and I will change their paths; Together shall they be oppressed and unto evil shall they.... And Ea answered him and spake the word: "... the ... of the gods I have changed ... and one... ... shall be destroyed and men will I... ... and the gods . ... and they..." [The rest of the text is wanting with the exception of the last few lines of the tablet, which read as follows.] They rejoiced... In Upsukkinnaku they set their dwelling. Of the heroic son, their avenger, they cried: " We, whom he succored.... !" They seated themselves and in the assembly they named him..., They all cried aloud, they exalted him... THE SEVENTH TABLET O Asari, [Marduk] "Bestower of planting," "Founder of sowing" "Creator of grain and plants," "who caused the green herb to spring up!" O Asaru-alim, [Mardk] "who is revered in the house of counsel," "who aboundeth in counsel," The gods paid homage, fear took hold upon them! O Asaru-alim-nuna, [Marduk] "the mighty one," "the Light of the father who begat him," "Who directeth the decrees of Anu Bel, and Ea!" He was their patron, be ordained their...; He, whose provision is abundance, goeth forth... Tutu [Marduk] is "He who created them anew"; Should their wants be pure, then are they satisfied; Should he make an incantation, then are the gods appeased; Should they attack him in anger, he withstandeth their onslaught! Let him therefore be exalted, and in the assembly of the gods let him... ; None among the gods can rival him! 15 Tutu [Marduk] is Zi-ukkina, "the Life of the host of the gods," Who established for the gods the bright heavens. He set them on their way, and ordained their path; Never shall his ... deeds be forgotten among men. Tutu as Zi-azag thirdly they named, "the Bringer of Purification," "The God of the Favoring Breeze," "the Lord of Hearing and Mercy," "The Creator of Fulness and Abundance," " the Founder of Plenteousness," "Who increaseth all that is small." In sore distress we felt his favoring breeze," Let them say, let them pay reverence, let them bow in humility before him! Tutu as Aga-azag may mankind fourthly magnify! "The Lord of the Pure Incantation," " the Quickener of the Dead," "Who had mercy upon the captive gods," "Who removed the yoke from upon the gods his enemies," "For their forgiveness did he create mankind," "The Merciful One, with whom it is to bestow life!" May his deeds endure, may they never be forgotten , In the mouth of mankind whom his hands have made! Tutu as Mu-azag, fifthly, his "Pure incantation" may their mouth proclaim, Who through his Pure Incantation hath destroyed all the evil ones!" Sag-zu, [Marduk] "who knoweth the heart of the gods," " who seeth through the innermost part!" "The evil-doer he hath not caused to go forth with him!" "Founder of the assembly of the gods," who ... their heart!" "Subduer of the disobedient," "...!" "Director of Righteousness," "...," " Who rebellion and...!" Tutu as Zi-si, "the ...," "Who put an end to anger," "who...!" Tutu as Suh-kur, thirdly, "the Destroyer of the foe," "Who put their plans to confusion," "Who destroyed all the wicked," "...," ... let them... ! [There is a gap here of sixty lines. But somewhere among the lost lines belong the following fragments.] who... He named the four quarters of the world, mankind hecreated, And upon him understanding... "The mighty one...!" Agil... "The Creator of the earth...!" Zulummu... . "The Giver of counsel and of whatsoever...!" Mummu, " the Creator of...!" Mulil, the heavens..., "Who for...!" Giskul, let..., "Who brought the gods to naught....!" ............... ... " the Chief of all lords," ... supreme is his might! Lugal-durmah, "the King of the band of the gods," " the Lord of rulers." "Who is exalted in a royal habitation," "Who among the gods is gloriously supreme! Adu-nuna, " the Counselor of Ea," who created the gods his fathers, Unto the path of whose majesty No god can ever attain! ... in Dul-azag be made it known, ... pure is his dwelling! ... the... of those without understanding is Lugaldul-azaga! ... supreme is his might! ... their... in the midst of Tiamat, ... of the battle! [Here follows the better-preserved ending.] ... the star, which shineth in the heavens. May he hold the Beginning and the Future, may they pay homage unto him, Saying, "He who forced his way through the midst of Tiamat without resting, Let his name be Nibiru, 'the Seizer of the Midst'! For the stars of heaven he upheld the paths, He shepherded all the gods like sheep! He conquered Tiamat, he troubled and ended her life," In the future of mankind, when the days grow old, May this be heard without ceasing; may it hold sway forever! Since he created the realm of heaven and fashioned the firm earth, The Lord of the World," the father Bel hath called his name. This title, which all the Spirits of Heaven proclaimed, Did Ea hear, and his spirit was rejoiced, and he said: "He whose name his fathers have made glorious, Shall be even as I, his name shall be Ea! The binding of all my decrees shall he control, All my commands shall he make known! " By the name of "Fifty " did the great gods Proclaim his fifty names, they, made his path preeminent. EPILOGUE Let them [i.e. the names of Marduk] be held in remembrances and let the first man proclaim them; Let the wise and the understanding consider them together! Let the father repeat them and teach them to his son; Let them be in the ears of the pastor and the shepherd! Let a man rejoice in Marduk, the Lord of the gods, That be may cause his land to be fruitful, and that he himself may have prosperity! His word standeth fast, his command is unaltered; The utterance of his mouth hath no god ever annulled. He gazed in his anger, he turned not his neck; When he is wroth, no god can withstand his indignation. Wide is his heart, broad is his compassion; The sinner and evil-doer in his presence... They received instruction, they spake before him, ... unto... ... of Marduk may the gods...; ... May they ... his name... ! ... they took and... ...................................! END OF THE CREATION EPIC THE FIGHT WITH TIAMAT (ANOTHER VERSION) [Note: Strictly speaking, the text is not a creation-legend, though it gives a variant form of the principal incident in the history of the creation according to the Enuma Elish. Here the fight with the dragon did not precede the creation of the world, but took place after men had been created and cities had been built.] The cities sighed, men ... Men uttered lamentation, they ... For their lamentation there was none to help, For their grief there was none to take them by the hand. · Who was the dragon... ? Tiamat was the dragon..... Bel in heaven hath formed..... Fifty kaspu [A kaspu is the space that can be covered in two hours travel, i.e. six or seven miles] in his length, one kaspu in his height, Six cubits is his mouth, twelve cubits his..., Twelve cubits is the circuit of his ears...; For the space of sixty cubits he ... a bird; In water nine cubits deep he draggeth...." He raiseth his tail on high...; All the gods of heaven... In heaven the gods bowed themselves down before the Moon-god...; The border of the Moon-god's robe they hastily grasped: "Who will go and slay the dragon," And deliver the broad land from... And become king over... ? " Go, Tishu, slav the dragon, And deliver the broad land from..., And become king over...!" Thou hast sent me, O Lord, to... the raging creatures of the river, But I know not the... of the Dragon! [The rest of the Obverse and the upper part of the Reverse of the tablet are wanting.] REVERSE ................ And opened his mouth and spake unto the god... " Stir up cloud, and storm and tempest! The seal of thy life shalt thou set before thy face, Thou shalt grasp it, and thou shalt slay the dragon." He stirred up cloud, and storm and tempest, He set the seal of his life before his face, He grasped it, and he slew the dragon. For three years and three months, one day and one night The blood of the dragon flowed. ...

The Philistines.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Philistines, by R.A.S. Macalister, [1913], at sacred-texts.com p. 38 2. THEIR STRUGGLE WITH THE HEBREWS We now turn to the various historical references to the Philistines in the Hebrew Scriptures. It happens that the Zakkala, with whom the Golénischeff Papyrus is concerned, are not mentioned by name in the received text of the Old Testament. The southern Philistines were more conspicuous in the history of the Hebrews, and this name is in consequence used indifferently for all the tribal subdivisions of the hated enemy. The first appearance of the Philistines on the coast of Southern Palestine is not recorded in the Old Testament, but it may possibly be inferred indirectly. In the oldest monument of Hebrew speech, the Song of Deborah, the tribe of Dan is referred to as a maritime people who 'remained in ships' while their brethren bore the brunt of the invasion of Sisera. Towards the end of the Book of Judges, we find that certain of the tribe of Dan are compelled to seek a home elsewhere, and choose the fertile, well-watered, but hot and fever-haunted Laish, a place remote from everywhere, and where the people were 'quiet'—as they well might be in that malaria-stricken furnace. Why did the Danites leave for this unsatisfactory territory their healthy and rich land by the sea-coast? Probably because they were driven by pressure from without. The migration of the Danites can best be explained by the settlement of the Philistines. And it is suggestive that the first great champion to stand for Israel against the intruders, Samson, belonged to Zorah, whence went forth the Danite spies (Judg. xviii. 2). The first allusion to the Philistines which we meet with in the Old Testament, that in the genealogical table of the nations in Genesis x, we have already discussed. Next we find a cycle of stories, told with but little variation both of Abraham and of Isaac (Gen. xx, xxi, xxvi), in which those heroes of old are brought into contact with a certain 'Abimelech, king of the Philistines'. In both cases the patriarch, to save himself, conceals his true relationship to his wife, which is revealed to the deceived monarch: in both, the latter displays a singular dignity and righteousness in the delicate position in which his guest's duplicity places him: and in both there is a subsequent dispute about the possession of wells. The stories are in short doublets of one another, and both echo a similar tale told of Abraham in Egypt, at an earlier stage of his career (Gen. xii). Whoever added the inept title to Psalm xxxiv evidently had these stories in his mind when he inadvertently wrote 'a Psalm of David when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech' instead of Achish: an unconscious p. 39 reminiscence of the tale might possibly have been suggested by vv. 12, 13 of the Psalm in question. The use of the word 'Philistine' in these stories has long been recognized as an anachronism. Perhaps with less harshness and equal accuracy we might characterize it as a rather free use of modern names and circumstances in telling an ancient tale. Even now we might find, for example, a popular writer on history saying that this event or that of the Early British period took place 'in Norfolk', although it is obvious that the territory of the North Folk must have received its Saxon name in later times. The tales of Abraham and Isaac were written when the land where their scenes were laid was in truth the Land of the Philistines; and the story-teller was not troubled with the question as to how far back that occupation lasted. Indeed when Abimelech first appears on the scene he is not a Philistine, but the Semitic king of the town of Gerar. The two passages in Gen. xxi, which might be understood 'they returned into [what we call] Philistia' . . . 'Abraham sojourned in [what is now] Philistia', have misled the writer (or copyist) of Gen. xxvi into supposing that Abimelech was actually king of the Philistines. In fact the Greek Version of xxvi. 8 seems to preserve an indication of older readings in which he was simply called, as in the other story, king of Gerar. Noordtzij (Filist. p. 59) attempts to demonstrate a pre-Ramessu occupation of S. Palestine by the Philistines, principally on the ground that the time between Ramessu III and Samson or Saul is too short for the 'semitizing' process to have taken place. This seems hardly a cogent argument to me: the 'semitization' was by no means complete: the special Semitic rite of circumcision was not adopted: there is no reason to suppose that the language of the Philistines had been abandoned for a Semitic language. And we need have no difficulty in supposing such changes to take place with great rapidity. Thanks to the undermining influence of returned American emigrants, the Irish peasant has shown a change of attitude towards traditional beliefs in fairies and similar beings within the past twenty years as profound as any change that might have taken place between Ramessu III and Saul under the influence of the surrounding Semitic populations. A similar anachronism meets us in Exodus xiii. 17, enshrining an ancient tradition that the ordinary caravan-route from Egypt by way of the coast was avoided in preference to the long and wearisome march through the desert, in order to keep clear of the Philistines and their military prowess. Likewise in the song preserved in Exodus xv, we find (v. 14) despondency attributed to the dwellers p. 40 in Philistia at the news of the crossing of the Red Sea. This song, however, is probably not very ancient. On the other hand, the writers who have contributed to the Pentateuch in its final form do not all share the indifference to chronological detail shown by the Yahwist story-teller. Often as are the tribes of Canaan enumerated in passages anticipatory of the conquest of the Promised Land, the Philistines are never mentioned: they have no share in the territory of the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Jebusite. In view of the prominence of the Philistines in the later history, this is a very significant fact. The solitary exception is so vague that it might almost be said to prove the rule—a reference to the Mediterranean sea by the name of 'the Sea of the Philistines' in Exodus xxxiii. 31. In Joshua xiii. 2, the 'districts' or 'circles' of the Philistines are enumerated among the places not conquered by the leader of the Hebrew immigration—the following verse, to which we shall return later, enumerates the 'districts'. But there is no reference to the Philistines in the parallel account contained in Judges i. There, in verse 19, the 'dwellers in the valley', i.e. in the low coast-land on which the Judahite territory bordered, are depicted as successfully resisting the aggression of the Hebrew tribe with the help of their iron chariots: the previous verse, which contradicts this, and which unhistorically claims that Judah captured the cities Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, must necessarily be an interpolation. 1 In Judges iii. 3 we find an agreement with the passage just cited from Joshua—the five lords of the Philistines, as well as the 'Canaanites' (whatever may be exactly meant by the name in this connexion), the Phoenicians, and the Hi[tt]ites are enumerated as being left unconquered. The curious reason assigned, that this was to practise the Hebrews in war, is at any rate concordant with the old tradition that the terror of the warlike Philistines prevented the Hebrews following the direct route into the Promised Land. The passages examined so far have rather been concerned with the settlement of the protagonists in the great struggle for the possession of Palestine than with the course of the struggle itself. We are to picture the Hebrew tribes crossing the Jordan from the East, and some little time afterwards the Philistines (and Zakkala) establishing themselves on the rich coast-lands: this much we can see with the aid of the Egyptian records cited in the preceding pages. We now follow the history of the conflict. At the outset we are confronted by a puzzling group of passages. In the very ancient Song of Deborah, picturing the distracted state p. 41 of the country under foreign oppressors, the writer describes how travellers and caravans, from fear, abandoned the main thoroughfares and journeyed along the by-paths, of which the winding valleys of Palestine offer an endless choice. This was in the days of a certain Shamgar son of Anath 1 (Judges v. 6). The name has a foreign appearance 2: a Hittite analogy (Sangar) has been sought for it. We cannot, however, conclude that he was necessarily a foreigner, even though his progenitor is said to be Anath, which happens to be a well-known goddess-name. There is not another case of a Hebrew bearing so frankly idolatrous a name in the Old Testament. But in the Aswân papyri we have a glimpse of what Jewish life was, independent of priestly influences; and these show an extraordinary tolerance of heathen names and practices. We find Hosea son of Peti-Khnum. Names like ‘Athar-ili, Nebonathan, Ben-Tirash occur in the community: the daughter of one Mahseiah swears in a law-court by the goddess Sati. Shamgar son of Anath would have been quite at home in this company. The antecedent for this reference in Deborah's Song appears to lie in a verse at the end of chapter iii (v. 31), which says that Shamgar son of Anath killed six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad, and saved Israel. It is, however, obvious that this verse is out of place. It interrupts the flow of the narrative: there is no word of Philistine oppression in the context, and the text proceeds 'When Ehud was dead . . .' certain things happened, following on the story of Ehud which the Shamgar passage interrupts. The later development of the history contains no recognition of the labours of Shamgar. There are indeed few passages in literature which are so clearly no part of the original document: and we can hardly doubt that it has been inserted from some other source, or from another part of the book, in order to provide an explanation for the allusion in Deborah's Song. It is curious that the chief Greek MSS. read Δίναχ instead of 'Anath' here, but not in Deborah's Song. 3 A number of Greek MSS. repeat the verse relating to Shamgar after xvi. 31—i.e. immediately after the story of Samson. This seems a better place for it. 4 p. 42 The Shamgar story, in short, looks like one of the floating traditions that have more particularly crystallized round Samson and the mighty men of David. A remarkable parallel to the exploit of Shamgar has been found in the deed of 'Shammah the Hararite'—a not dissimilar name—one of David's followers, who in some such rough and ready way defended a field of crops—barley or lentils—from Philistine marauders. 1 But can the story be so summarily dismissed? Grant all the difficulties—that Shamgar's name has a foreign aspect, that the prose account of him is an interpolation, that the Philistines seem to appear too early on the scene; yet the scanty allusion to this obscure champion may after all record a tradition of the beginnings of the great struggle. For besides Shamgar, Deborah's Song mentions another arresting personality. The very grandeur of the paean throws a romantic halo round the person of the unfortunate Sisera, victim of a crime against the desert law of hospitality difficult to parallel even in the wild annals of Bedawin life. The heartless glee with which the poet triumphs over the chieftain's anxious, watching mother makes the latter for us one of the most pathetic figures in the whole crowded gallery of the Old Testament. Time has brought its revenge for both mother and son. In the prose version of the combat, Sisera is represented as the general of Jabin, king of Hazor, and the latter is the head of the attack on Israel. But Jabin has an altogether secondary place in the narrative, and Sisera is the central figure. Jabin, indeed, is probably imported into the story from the source that lies at the back of Joshua xi, where there is no mention of Sisera. In Psalm lxxxiii. 9 Sisera is mentioned before Jabin. He has a town of his own, 'Harosheth of the Gentiles,' more than a day's journey from the city of Jabin; and the vignette of his mother surrounded by her court ladies gives us a picture of a more important establishment than that of a mere captain of a host. Sisera in short is an independent king, and the story as we have it is either an account of a single campaign in which two kings were in league, or, more probably, a combination of the narratives of two campaigns wholly independent. Harosheth is generally identified with the modern Harathiyeh, in the bottle-neck which forms the mouth of the plain of Esdraelon—a region entirely in Philistine hands, at least at the end of Saul's wars. This identification seems fairly trustworthy. Not far off from Harosheth was a village with the name Beth-dagon: and Harosheth itself is distinguished p. 43 by the appellation 'of the gōyīm' or foreigners. In Joshua xii. 23 'the king of the gōyīm in Gilgal' is mentioned in noteworthy juxtaposition with Dor, which figures so conspicuously in the report of Wen-Amon; but this passage has been suspected and various emendations suggested, chief of which is to read ‏לגליל‎ for ‏לגלגל‎ and to translate 'king of nations belonging to Galilee'. This is of course reminiscent of the famous 'Galilee of the Gentiles' 1; but on the other hand we may compare ‏גלילות פלשת‎ 'the Galilees of Philistia' in Joshua xiii. 2 and Joel iii. 4 (= Hebrew iv. 4), which in the latter passage is mentioned immediately after the Philistine territory. The word gōyīm is of no more specific meaning than our word 'nations': though usually applied to foreigners, it may even on occasion be applied to the nation of Israel: so it cannot be said to be very conclusive. But one wonders whether in such passages and phrases as these it might not bear the special meaning of the foreigners par excellence, the most outlandish people with whom the Hebrews came into contact—that is to say the Philistines and their cognate tribes, for whom the Greek translators reserve the name ἀλλόφυλοι. In the present case they would more especially be the Zakkala, of whom Wen-Amon tells us, but who are not mentioned by name in the Hebrew writings. Sisera's enormous host of iron chariots, a possession which, as we saw, also enabled the coast-dwellers of the South to hold their own, is emphasized in the prose account of the battle, as in the speech put by Deborah's Song into his mother's mouth: and it is interesting to notice that we hear again of these iron chariots as being on the plain of Esdraelon (Joshua xvii. 16). The name of the prince also is suggestive. It is not Semitic: and the numerous Hittite names ending in sira—Khetasira and the like—have been quoted to indicate its possible origin. But we should not forget Badyra, the Zakkala prince of the neighbouring town of Dor. And may it not be asked whether Sisera, ‏סיסרא‎, could be a reduplicated form derived from the root of ‏סרן‎ seren (the latter being possibly a participle), the one word of the Philistine language which we certainly know—the technical term for the 'lords of the Philistine state? This guess presupposes that the language of the Philistines was Indo-European—an assumption which it has not yet been possible either to prove or disprove. Some possible evidence of reduplication is afforded by such combinations as REREIET and perhaps KRKOKLES in the Praesos inscriptions. It is interesting to note that the name p. 44 [paragraph continues]Beneṣasira occurs in the list of Keftian names on the Egyptian tablet described on a previous page. If Sisera was a Philistine or at least one of cognate race, we have some use for Shamgar and his ox-goad. Otherwise, the latter must be expunged from the list of Judges, if he be not actually numbered among the oppressors, as Moore in his Commentary is inclined to do. The combination ANAIT, which ends one of the Praesos inscriptions just mentioned, has been compared to the name of Shamgar's parent Anath; but there is no probability that such a coincidence between a short inscription on the one hand, and a few proper names on the other, is of any importance. In Judges x. 6, 7, 11 there is mention of Philistine oppression, in strange and scarcely intelligible connexion with the Amorites. This passage does not help us nearer to the solution of problems. It is in the narrative of Samson that the Philistines first come conspicuously on the scene. It is unnecessary to summarize the familiar incidents: indeed for our purpose these chapters, though of the deepest interest, are disappointing. The narrator is content to tell his tale, without troubling himself about the attendant circumstances which we would so gladly know. In discussing this remarkable series of episodes it is unnecessary to raise the question of their historicity. 1 Still more irrelevant would be a discussion of the pseudo-scientific hypothesis that Samson (like Achilles, Heracles, Max Müller, Gladstone, and other demonstrated characters of mythology) was a solar myth. It is sufficient for the purpose of our present discussion that the tale gives us an early tradition of the condition of affairs at the time indicated; and as I have said elsewhere, 2 it is probably to be regarded as a prose epic concentrating into the person of a single ideal hero the various incidents of a guerrilla border-warfare. This being postulated, one or two points of importance strike us in reading the story. The first is, that the Philistine domination was complete, and was passively accepted by the Hebrews. 'The Philistines are rulers over us' say the men of Judah, who propose to betray the champion to his enemies. As is so often the case with a nation of separate clans, even the pressure of a formidable common enemy cannot always heal their mutual jealousies. Ireland, in the face of the Vikings in the ninth century, and of the English in the twelfth, offers p. 45 an instructive parallel. Only a chapter or two before the appearance of Samson, we have the distracting episode of Abimelech: a chapter or two later comes the story of the massacre of the Benjamites by the other tribes: and whatever may be the true chronological relationship of these narratives to the historical setting of the Samson epic, they at least indicate that there was a long period of inter-tribal disunion that would make it easy for a well-organized military nation to gain complete domination over the country. But it was no mere military domination. The Philistines were accompanied by their wives and daughters, and the attractiveness of the latter in the eyes of Samson is a leading motive of his story. On this side of the narrative, however, there is one point to be noticed. There is no reason for branding the Philistines with the stigma of having produced the mercenary traitress Delilah: indeed, whatever indications there may be in her story point in an exactly opposite direction. Had tradition called her a Philistine, like Samson's first wife, the author of Judges would hardly have failed to make it clear. She is described as a woman in the Valley of Sorek; which, if it be the modern Wady es-Surâr, as is generally agreed, was partly in Israelite territory. Moreover, it would scarcely have been necessary for the Philistine lords to have offered the gigantic bribe of 1,100 pieces of silver each, to a woman of their own nation, that she might betray to them the arch-enemy of her race: it would be much more likely that they would use the persuasive argument of threatening her with the fate of her unlucky predecessor. The name appears again as that of a member of the tribe of Judah, in a genealogical fragment in 1 Chronicles iv. 19, preserved by the Greek Version, but lost from the Hebrew textus receptus. It is not too much to say that if the Delilah episode be read carefully, the various steps become more natural and intelligible when we picture the central figure as a tribeswoman of the men of Judah, who in the previous chapter had attempted to anticipate her act of betrayal. It is noteworthy that nowhere in the Samson story is there any hint that there was a barrier of language between Hebrew and Philistine. Samson and his Philistine friends at Timnah exchange their rough jests without any difficulty; Delilah, whatever her race, converses with equal ease with the Philistine lords and with her Hebrew husband. The same point is to be noticed throughout the subsequent history, with the curious and significant exception of the very last reference to the Philistines in the historical books. Indeed, it has often been observed that the services of an interpreter are but rarely called for in the Old Testament: although it is possible p. 46 that such an intermediary was sometimes used without the fact being specifically stated. 1 But probably in ancient as in modern Palestine everybody who had any position at all to maintain could speak several languages. The officers of Hezekiah and Sennacherib, for instance, could understand each the other's tongue, and could pass from one to the other with the enviable ease of a modern Levantine polyglot. The incident of Samson's hair has often been compared to the purple hair of Nisus, plucked out by Scylla at the instigation of Minos; and to the story of Pterelaos of Taphos and his golden hair given him by Poseidon, which rendered him immortal. Both stories are to be found in that endless mine, the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus. The connexion of Minos with the former story is noteworthy. It has, I believe, been suggested (but I have no note of the reference) that the story of-the virtue inherent in Samson's locks may have been actually received by the Hebrews from Philistine sources. It may be merely a coincidence that the name of Samson's father, Manoah, resembles the name Minos. Lastly, we notice in the Samson epic that as seen through Hebrew eyes the Philistines had already the three characteristics that marked them out from the other nations round about. The adjective 'uncircumcised', obviously the current term of abuse in all generations, already makes its appearance. Their peculiar government by 'lords' also meets us, but as it happens no particular 'lord' is named, nor does the Samson story give us any idea of their number. Thirdly, in the final scene, we are introduced to the mysterious Dagon, the chief deity of the Philistine pantheon. For how long the Philistine domination lasted we have no means of knowing. There is no indication of the length of time supposed to elapse between the death of Samson and the appearance on the scene of Samuel. Eli, the priest of the High Place at Shiloh, may or may not have been contemporary with Samson: he appears suddenly on the scene as a man in extreme old age 'who had judged Israel forty years', and vanishes almost immediately. The next stage of the history shows us the disunited and mutually hostile tribes of Israel gradually welding together under the pressure of their formidable enemy, and slowly but surely, though with more than one serious set-back, reversing the situation. We begin with the unlucky battle in which for a time the Ark was lost (1 Sam. iv). The topography of the battle is uncertain: the Philistines pitched at a place quite unknown, Aphek, the Israelites p. 47 at a spot of equally obscure topography, Eben-ezer, where Samuel afterwards set up a memorial pillar (vii. 12). The Philistines were the victors, and the Israelites attempted to turn the battle by fetching their national palladium from its resting-place in Shiloh. The Philistines were at first stricken with a superstitious fear; but recovering themselves they made a complete slaughter of the Israelites, and captured the Ark itself. Their rallying-cry 'Be strong and be men, that ye be not slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you' corroborates, from the Philistine side, the evidence that the Philistines were the masters of the Hebrews at the time. Now begins that strange story of the wanderings of the Ark. It would be natural to lay up the symbol of the deity of a vanquished people in the temple of the chief god of the conquerors: as Mesha laid up his religious trophies before Chemosh, so the Ark was deposited in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod—a temple of which we hear down to the time of the Maccabees (1 Mace. x. 84). But Dagon twice falls prostrate before the Ark, the second time being broken by the fall. At the same time a plague of mice or rats spread over the Philistine plain. There was a very similar plague over the same district in 1904, and enormous damage was done to the growing crops. Indeed, the peasants, whose fields were robbed almost as though by the prophet Joel's locusts, were reduced to tracking out the rat-holes and collecting the grain that the animals had brought down and stored: it was a curious sight to watch the women patiently engaged in this weary work, and gradually filling bags with the precious seed thus recovered. But in the Philistine experience the plague of rats had a yet more serious consequence. Not only did they 'mar the land', but as we now know to be the natural course of events, the parasites of the mice communicated to the people the disease of bubonic plague. 1 The disease broke out first in Ashdod, and was naturally explained as due to the presence of the Ark. They therefore dispatched it to Gath, and of course the bearers carried the plague bacilli with them: again it was sent to Ekron, and again the plague was carried thither; p. 48 and as the Philistines, even before they had secured their costly prize, had associated it with outbreaks of pestilence in Egypt (1 Sam. iv. 8), they easily connected it with their own troubles. How they returned it to Beth-Shemesh, and how the bacilli (carried probably by parasites on the kine, or perhaps on the coverings of the Ark) proved to be still virulent to the cost of the villagers who too rashly approached, are tales too well known to need repetition. It is interesting that the Philistines sent back with the Ark votive models of their twofold plague, which yet was one, as their ancestors had been wont to do when, in search of healing from the ills of human flesh, they visited the Dictaean Cave in the ancient homeland. The following chapter (vii) apparently represents a different strand of tradition. According to this the Ark was suffered to remain in Kiriath-Jearim no less than twenty years, until, probably, it was brought up to Jerusalem at the beginning of the reign of David. 1 Samuel held a reconciliation service, as it might be called, in which Israel renounced the various strange gods they had adopted. The Philistines came up to plunder this peaceful assembly, but were driven back by an appalling thunderstorm. The people gave chase, and smote the invaders to the unknown place called Beth-Car, to which reference has been made in the previous chapter; and a great memorial stone was set up at or near the spot where the Ark had been captured. We are then told that the Philistines restored certain cities, including Ekron and Gath (or according to the Greek text, Ashkelon and 'Azob', i.e. Gaza or Ashdod), to the Israelites, and that they never again came up to invade Israel. It is noticeable that the narrator, with all his desire to glorify Samuel, avoids making a purely military leader of him, while emphasizing his religious functions. The victory is ascribed more to the thunderstorm, which is an answer to the 'whole burnt offering' offered by Samuel, than to military skill on the part of the Israelites or of any leader. The writer's patriotic enthusiasm (and perhaps some such record as Judges i. 18) have betrayed him into exaggeration with regard to the 'restoration' of cities that in fact had never been Israelite. But with regard to his conclusion 'that the Philistines never again invaded Israel', it is quite possible to judge him too harshly. If the Philistines were confined to the narrow strip of territory from Joppa southward, the statement would be absurd: but we have now seen that, at the time, the suzerainty of the Philistines p. 49 over the whole of Palestine was complete, and that in all probability they actually occupied the Northern coast, the plain of Esdraelon as far as the Jordan, and even penetrated up the fertile valleys that wind through the Judaean mountains. This being so it may well be that the incident here recorded was actually the last case of aggression; but that in all the other cases in which the Philistines 'came up to war' the purpose was defensive, to meet Israelite encroachments on their territory. The passage therefore is not necessarily so 'extravagant' as some critics have made out. However, there can be little doubt that the desire of the Hebrew people for a king, which now began to express itself, was the natural outcome of the growing sense of unity which under the pressure of the Philistine domination was rapidly developing. A leader was urgently needed who should be free from the specifically religious duties to which Samuel was entirely devoted; it was hoped that one who could thus give his whole attention to military matters might ultimately rid the people of the yoke that daily became more and more intolerable. Authorities differ as to how Samuel was affected by the popular demand. In one version he indignantly condemned it as a revolt against the theocracy of which he himself was at once Emperor and Pope. In another version he raised no objection to the new departure, definitely recognized it as a step towards delivery from the Philistines (1 Sam. ix. 16), chose the king and received him courteously, and declared to him the signs that testified to his election. From this programme we learn incidentally that the Philistines had a sort of mudir or governor at a place called Gibeah of God (probably to be identified with the modern village of Ram Allah about twelve miles north of Jerusalem). 1 This fact underlines, so to speak, what has already been said about the absence of Philistine aggressions after the battle of Beth-Car. With an outpost so far east as the spot indicated, the actual territory of the Philistines included all the places where fighting took place. Saul assumed the kingdom, and immediately the first Israelite aggression took place: Jonathan slew the Philistine governor of Geba, where, as at Gibeah, there seems to have been a Philistine mudir. The Philistines, rightly considering this a sign of revolt, came up to quell the insurrection. The Israelites were gathered together with Saul in Michmash, 2 but when they saw the overpowering might of the p. 50 [paragraph continues]Philistines swooping down upon then) they hid themselves in the caves with which the country abounds. Saul waited anxiously for Samuel, and at last ventured himself to offer the necessary sacrifices: the denunciation, with which the stern old prophet expressed his resentment at this usurpation of his priestly functions, was apparently the first shock that disturbed Saul's delicately poised mental equilibrium, and paved the way for the insanity by which he was afterwards afflicted. Jonathan again came to the rescue. With his armour-bearer he showed himself to the Philistines encamped at Michmash. They called to him to 'come up and see something'—note again that difference of language was no bar to intercourse—and the two young men, who had previously agreed to take such an invitation as an omen, climbed up to the camp. In some way they succeeded in throwing the camp into confusion, as Gideon had done with the Midianites. Soon the Philistines broke into a panic, which a timely earthquake intensified, and before long they were in flight, with the armies of Israel in hot pursuit. It is a remarkable story, and still more remarkable is the pendant—the tabu put by Saul on food, which had the natural result of making the victory less complete: the unconscious violation of the tabu by Jonathan: the consequent silence of the Divine oracle: his trial and condemnation: his redemption, no doubt by the substitution of another life: the pouring out of the blood when the tabu came to an end—all these are pictures of ancient religious custom and belief of the highest value. The familiar story of the battle of Ephes-Dammim, with its central incident—the duel of David and Goliath—is the next scene in the drama. For the present, however, we pass it over: it is involved in a host of difficulties. Whatever view may be taken of the story, as we have it, it is evident that neither the spirit nor the power of the Philistines was broken by the rout at Michmash, but that they were able to meet Israel again soon after David's introduction to the court of Saul. David distinguished himself so as to arouse the jealousy of Saul, now rapidly falling into the morbid mental state that clouded his last days; and to that jealousy was due the exile of David in the wilderness. With a madman's cunning, Saul at first attempted to work David's destruction by guile: he bribed him with the offer of his daughter's hand to go and bring him proof that he had slain a hundred of the uncircumcised—the trick was not unlike that which in later years David himself played on Uriah the Hittite. David, however, was more fortunate than his own victim, and fulfilled the task imposed on him. p. 51 But Saul's jealousy still pursued him, and he became a complete outlaw. His life during this period as narrated consists of a series of episodes, more or less disconnected. On one occasion he goes to the sanctuary at Nob, on the slope of the Mount of Olives (as we learn from Isa. x. 32), and takes the sword of Goliath thence to serve him as a weapon: we are then surprised to find him fleeing with this equipment to Gath, of all places—but probably the two incidents should not follow consecutively. At Gath he is recognized, and to avoid unpleasant consequences feigns insanity. This affliction would in Semitic circles secure him a measure of inviolability—the uncanny manifestations of mental derangement or degeneracy being curiously mixed up with notions of 'holiness'. But Achish, the dignified though simple-minded lord of Gath, was not a Semite, and had no such superstitions. He is almost modern in his protests—'If you see a madman, why do you bring him to me? I want no madmen about me, and I will not have him in my house!' 1 We almost hear an echo of the sarcasms of Zakar-Baal. All through the story of David's outlawry raids of the Philistines run like a thread: and it must then, if never before, have been impressed upon him that when he came into his kingdom his first care must be to crush these troublesome neighbours finally and for ever. Now we read of his band saving the threshing-floors of Keilah from Philistine marauders: soon afterwards a Philistine raid breaks off negotiations between Saul and the men of Ziph for the betrayal of David. But at last David, in despair of ever effecting a reconcilement with the insane Hebrew king, threw in his lot with the Philistines. Once more he comes to Gath—or, rather, we have probably a second version of the one incident, omitting the essential detail of the feigned madness. Here he was safe from Saul: but he did not stay very long. Probably (as in the previous version of the story) he found Gath uncomfortable as a place of residence, with his record of Philistine slaughter. So in Oriental wise he dissembled, and, flattering the king by pretending to be unworthy of living in the same city with him, he persuaded him to purchase his vassalage by putting Ziklag at his disposal. From this centre he raided various Bedawin camps, and, presenting the booty to his new master, he pretended that he p. 52 had been attacking his own people. Thereby he gained the confidence of Achish, and no doubt acquired much serviceable information about Philistine military methods and resources. Meanwhile the tragedy of Saul was working to its close. The Philistines were preparing for a final blow that would wipe off their recent reverses. Achish wished David, whom he blindly trusted, to accompany him as leader of his body-guard; but in this his wiser colleagues overruled him. They had already learnt, in the battle of Michmash, that the Hebrews that were with the Philistines’ were not to be trusted when the battle went against their masters (1 Sam. xiv. 21). So Achish sent David away, with a dignified courtesy which contrasts pleasingly with the duplicity, not to say treachery, of his protégé. 1 David accordingly departed to his own quarters, and while the battle of Gilboa was being won and lost he was kept busy in avenging the raid which during his absence the Bedawin had very naturally made on Ziklag. The armour of the dead Saul was hung in the house of Ashtoreth, and his body was fastened on the wall of Beth-Shan, the modern Beisan—a place close to the banks of the Jordan. This further corroborates the conclusion already indicated as to the wide extension of Philistine territory. For they would hardly have put the trophy where they could not reasonably have expected to retain it. 2 For the seven years of David's reign in Hebron the Philistines gave him no trouble. No doubt he continued to acknowledge himself as vassal of Achish, or of the Philistine oligarchy at large. Meanwhile Ish-baal (Ish-bosheth), Saul's son, guided and directed by Abner, set up a kingdom across Jordan, with its centre at Mahanaim: and the land of Ephraim remained subject to the Philistines. In the last two years of Ish-baal's life he extended his kingdom, doubtless under Philistine suzerainty, to Ephraim as well: an arrangement terminated by the defection of Abner to David and by his own assassination. This event left the way open for David to enlarge his borders, and to unite under his single sway the discordant elements of Judah and Ephraim. The ever-vigilant foes, not being willing to tolerate so p. 53 large an increase in the strength of a subordinate, then came up against him. 1 Three battles, disastrous to the Philistines, are recorded as taking place early in David's reign over the united kingdoms. But the accounts of them are scanty and confused, and require careful examination. The following are the outline accounts of them which the author of the Book of Samuel transmits: A. The Battle of Baal-Perazim. And when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold. 2 Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And Yahweh said unto David, Go up: for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And David cane to Baal-Perazim, and David smote them there; and he said, Yahweh hath broken mine enemies before me, like the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-Perazim. And they left their images there, and David and his men took them away.'—2 Samuel v. 17-21. B. The Battle of Geba. 'And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of Yahweh, he said, Thou shalt not go up: make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the balsams. And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the balsams, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then is Yahweh gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. And David did so, as Yahweh commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gezer.'—2 Samuel v. 22–25. C. The Battle of ( ?) 'And after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took ( ) out of the hand of the Philistines.'—2 Sam. viii. 1. p. 54 These outlines may to some small extent be filled in from other sources. The priestly writer of Chronicles is careful to add to the account of the first battle that the idols of the Philistines, captured after the rout, were burnt with fire (1 Chron. xiv. 8–12). The site of Baal-Perazim is unknown. It seems to be mentioned again in Isaiah xxviii. 21, in connexion with Gibeon: perhaps this passage refers to the first two battles. In the account of the second battle the Chronicler likewise substitutes Gibeon for Geba (1 Chron. xiv. 13–16): while in the third, instead of an unintelligible expression in the version of Samuel, he has 'David took Gath and her towns out of the hand of the Philistines' (xviii. 1). Among these battles must probably be fitted some scraps of biography that now find a place much later both in Samuel and in Chronicles. They are confused and corrupt, but are to the effect that at certain specified places, certain Philistine champions were slain by certain of the mighty men of David. The first is the familiar tale of David and Goliath, which we passed over a while ago, and which cannot be dissociated from these fragments. David is sent by his father to the battle-field of Ephes-Dammim, to bring supplies to his elder brothers. His indignation is roused by a gigantic Philistine champion named Goliath of Gath, who challenges the Israelites to provide one who shall fight with him and decide the battle by single combat. The champion is minutely described: he was somewhere between nine and eleven feet high, with a helmet, a coat of mail weighing 5,000 shekels, greaves and a javelin, all of bronze, as well as an iron-pointed spear like a weaver's beam. How David, though a youth unable to wear armour, goes against the giant, exchanges taunting speeches with him, and brings him down with his sling, are tales too familiar to rehearse (1 Sam. xvii). The difficulties of the passage are many. The inconsistency of David, already (ch. xvi. 21) the armour-bearer of Saul, being now totally unknown to him, has been a crux to the harmonists of all generations: though this difficulty is evaded by an important group of the Greek MSS., which omit bodily verses xvii. 12–31, 55–xviii. 5—that is, everything inconsistent with David's being already at court and known to Saul. The omitted verses are probably fragments of another parallel narrative. But even then we are not quite free from troubles. The whole machinery of the ordeal by duel recalls incidents of the Trojan war, or the tale of the Horatii and Curiatii, rather than what we are accustomed to look for in Semitic warfare; David's improbable flight to Gath soon after the battle has already been commented upon; and, as will presently be seen, we possess another account of the battle of p. 55 [paragraph continues]Ephes-Dammim, which is quite inconsistent with the Goliath story, and, indeed, leaves no room for it. The second fragmentary narration is unfortunately found in Samuel only (2 Sam. xxi. 15–17). It reads 'And the Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint. And (a champion) which was of the sons of Rapha, the weight of whose spear was 300 (shekels) of bronze in weight, he being girded with a new [word lost], thought to have slain David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, "Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp of Israel."' The rendering 'a champion' is suggested for the unintelligible ‏ישבו בנב‎, treated as a proper name 'Ishbi-benob' in the English version. As it stands it means 'and they dwelt in Nob', which clearly makes no sense; and the emendation that is most current—by the change of one letter, turning Nob to Gob, and moving the phrase so as to follow 'and his servants with him' in the previous sentence—is not altogether satisfactory. For 'Gob' itself is probably, as we shall see, corrupt; and it is hard to see how the sentence could have been transposed from a place where it makes passable sense to a place where it makes complete nonsense. The reading here suggested is ‏איש-הבנים‎, literally 'man of the betweens', apparently a technical term for a champion, which is actually applied to Goliath in 1 Samuel xvii. Though differing in detail, and transmitted in a garbled form, the general resemblance of the description of the equipment of this warrior to that of Goliath is too striking to be overlooked; and we are thus led to wonder whether this may not be a version of the Goliath story in which the issue of the duel was very nearly the reverse of that in the familiar narrative. One is also tempted to ask whether in the 'oath' of the men of David (for which compare 2 Sam. xviii. 3) we are to see an explanation of David's having stayed in Jerusalem while Joab was acting for the king in his operations against the Ammonites, with the disastrous consequence of the episode of Bath-Sheba. If this oath is to be literally understood, this incident of the champion slain by David's nephew must belong to the end of David's operations against the Philistines, all of which seem to have been directed by the king in person. The third fragment appears in both 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. The Samuel version says 'And it came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of Rapha. And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim p. 56 the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam' (2 Sam. xxi. 18, 19). In the parallel account (1 Chron. xx. 4), Gezer is substituted for Gob, Sippai for Saph, Jair for Jaare-oregim, and 'slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath 'for the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath'. With regard to the first of these divergencies, it should be noticed that the place-name 'Gob' is not mentioned elsewhere. Following Clermont-Ganneau I was formerly inclined to accept Gezer as the correct reading—the change would be easy, ‏גזר‎ for ‏גזב‎—but I now see two formidable difficulties. In the first place, it is not likely that the well-known place-name Gezer would be corrupted to a name utterly unknown: in the second, the name 'Gob' is written ‏גבֹ‎ in both places, without the mater lectionis which the emendation suggested requires. Noting that in the text in Samuel the name 'Gob' is in both places followed by a word beginning with the letter ‏ע‎, I would now suggest that a second ‏ע‎ has dropped out in both places, and that for Gob we are to read ‏גבע‎, Geba. 1 The advantage of this correction is, that it would make both the Samuel and Chronicles versions right, and would show us where to fit the fragment under discussion. For we can scarcely avoid connecting an incident, said in one version to take place at Geba, and in another version at Gezer, with a battle which is definitely stated to have begun in one of these two places and finished in the other. The deaths of Saph and of Goliath therefore took place in the second of the three battles enumerated above (p. 53). The other divergencies need not detain us so long. The question of the spelling of the champion's name is scarcely important: yet it is tempting to inquire whether the form in Chronicles, ‏ספי‎, is not to be preferred, and, further, whether it may not be that it actually finds an echo to this day in the commonplace Arabic name Tell eṣ-Ṣāfi, commonly rendered 'The clear mound', 2 whereby the most probable site of ancient Gath is now known. Jair for Jaare-oregim is certainly right, the latter half of the name as given by Samuel being a dittography of the word 'weaver's beam' in the next line; on the other hand, the Chronicler's evolution of Goliath's brother Lahmi out of the name of Jair's native place is obviously some scribe's attempt to get rid of an evident harmonistic difficulty. The fourth fragment follows the last in both places. 'And there was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on p. 57 every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to Rapha. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei David's brother slew him. These four were born to Rapha in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.' The Chronicler's version is substantially identical. Let us now try to dovetail these seemingly incoherent fragments into a consistent narrative. Nearly all of them will be found to hang together with a logical connexion between them. We begin with the story of Jesse sending David as a youth to his brothers, and their surly reception of him, in some campaign. This story, though, as we have seen, it almost makes nonsense of the place where it is found, is so graphic and circumstantial that it cannot lightly be thrown aside. It is not improbable, however, that it was by his musical rather than his military ability that he attracted attention on this occasion, and was brought to the notice of Saul and Jonathan (1 Sam. xvi. 14–18, xviii. 1). At first he was received kindly, and made Saul's armour-bearer. Then came the battle of Ephes-Dammim, the full account of which is lost. But by combining 2 Samuel xxiii. 9 with 1 Chronicles xi. 13, two mutilated but complementary passages, we can gain some idea of what happened. The Philistines came up to battle at Ephes-Dammim; the men of Israel fled; but David, aided by Eleazer the son of Dodo the Ahohite (whatever that may mean), held them 'in the valley between Shocoh and Azekah' and fought till their hands clave to their swords. They succeeded in turning the victory, and the people came back 'only to spoil'. Well might the maidens, after such an exhibition of valour, sing that 'Saul had slain thousands but David had slain myriads'. The folk-tale of a giant-killing shepherd-boy, coloured by some actual incident of David's later campaigns, has been substituted for the less picturesque story of the battle: a relic of the excised part may possibly be seen in the verse inserted after 1 Samuel xix. 7: 'And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.' And when the tribes of Israel came to David to make him king, they remind him that even in Saul's lifetime it was he who used to lead them out to war (2 Sam. v. 2). The triumph-song of the women roused the jealousy of Saul, and he drove David into exile. The other tales of Philistine routs, which meet us in the lists of David's mighty men, appear to relate to the time of the outlawry. Shammah's defence of the lentil-field, to which reference has already been made, was of the same order as the repulse of the raid on the threshing-floor of Keilah: the breaking through the p. 58 [paragraph continues]Philistine camp at Rephaim by the three heroes, in quest of the Bethlehem water, is definitely assigned to the Adullam period. Finally David took service in Gath, and became thoroughly acquainted with that important city. When the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were united, the Philistines came to break up his power; and three engagements were fought, all disastrous to the hereditary enemies of the Hebrews. The first was the battle of Baal-Perazim, of which we have no particulars save the picture of a hurried flight in which even the idols were left behind. The second, that of Geba, is more interesting. The incident of the oracle of the sacred trees is one of the many noteworthy landmarks in Old Testament religion. The topography of the battle seems at first sight difficult to follow: but it works out easily when one knows the configuration of the ground. The valley or plain of Rephaim is usually equated with the broad expanse that lies south-west of Jerusalem. Geba was some four miles to the north of the city. What must have happened was, that David's men circled behind the Philistine camp, under cover, probably, of the hills to the west of the plain (now crowned by the Greek Patriarch's summer residence Kat’êmôn); that is, down the picturesque valley in which stands the Convent of the Cross. Then crossing into the Wady el-Werd by the site of the modern village of Malhah, 1 they attacked the Philistines on the rear. Finding their retreat (down the present Wady el-Werd and its western continuation, the Wady es-Surar) cut off; the Philistines fled northward, past Jerusalem, as far as the village of Geba, and then rushed down the valley of Aijalon, which opens out on the coast-plain not far from Gezer. Some time in this battle or the subsequent rout Sibbecai (or Mebunni) slew Saph, and Elhanan slew Goliath. Contrary to most modern commentators I assume that this raid of the Philistines took place after (or perhaps during, which is not improbable) David's successful siege of Jerusalem. If David was still in Hebron at the time, I cannot conceive what the Philistines were doing in the valley of Rephaim. 'They would have come up one of the more southerly valleys to attack him. Lastly took place the final and decisive victory which crushed for ever the Philistine suzerainty. The union at last effected among the tribes of Israel gave them a strength they had never had before; yet it is hard to understand the complete collapse of the people who had been all-powerful but a few years previously. W. Max Müller p. 59 attempts to account for it 1 by an unrecorded attack of the Egyptian king, whereby he possessed himself of the Philistine coastland: arguing that in a list of Sheshonk's conquests in his campaign Fig. 2. Sketch-map to illustrate the Battle of Geba. Click to enlarge Fig. 2. Sketch-map to illustrate the Battle of Geba. recorded in 1 Kings xiv. 25 no Philistine city is mentioned, for the simple reason that they must have been already in Egyptian hands. On this theory also he accounts for the capture of Gezer (an extension of the Egyptian territory) recorded in 1 Kings ix. 16. p. 60 The site of the last battle is successfully concealed under a hopeless corruption of the text. We are told in Samuel that David took Metheg ha-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines: a phrase that means 'bridle of the cubit' or 'of the metropolis', but defies convincing explanation or emendation. The old versions all presuppose an identical or similar text: Chronicles has 'Gath and her suburbs', which is probably a guess at a reading which should be at least intelligible. It cannot be right, for we find Gath still independent under its king Achish at the beginning of Solomon's reign (1 Kings ii. 39). 1 This, however, does not forbid our supposing the decisive battle to have taken place at or near Gath: a very likely place for David to attack, as he was no doubt familiar with its fortifications. There certainly appears to have been a battle at Gath where the unnamed polydactylous champion defied Israel and was slain by a nephew of David. Perhaps he was one and the same with the Gittite champion whom the English version calls Ishbi-benob, and from whom David, when hard pressed, was rescued likewise by one of his nephews. In this incident, on the theory here put forward, is the historical basis of the David and Goliath story. In this case 2 Samuel xxi. 22 ('these four were born to "the giant" in Gath') would be an editorial note. Before leaving this record of the champions of the Philistines which we have thus endeavoured to put into order, we must notice that, strictly speaking, they are not to be classed as Philistines at all. The expression 'son of Rapha', translated 'giant' in the English version, implies rather that the family were of the remnant of the Rephaites or Anakim, the tall aboriginal race which the Israelites on their coming found established in Hebron and neighbouring villages, Gath, Gaza, and Ashdod. According to Joshua xi. 21 they were driven out utterly from the Hebron district, but a remnant was left in the Philistine towns, where no doubt they mingled with the western newcomers. The tall stature attributed to these 'champions'—a physical feature never ascribed in the history to the Philistines themselves 2— p. 61 fits in with this theory of the origin of the family. By Delilah and Goliath the Philistine nation is judged: but there is no proof that there was a drop of Philistine blood in either the one or the other. The commentators agree that the ancient psalm incorporated in Psalm lx. (8–12) and cviii. (7–10) can be as old as David. If so, it may well have been a paean of the victory over the Philistines and the other neighbouring nations. That the Philistine power was utterly broken is shown by the significant fact that in the distractions which vexed the later years of David—the revolt of Absalom and of Sheba—they made no effort to recover their lost ground. Quite the contrary: we are surprised to find David's body-guard consisting of 'Cherethites and Pelethites', Cretans and Phili(s)tines: a Gittite called Obed-Edom houses the ark when the ill-omened incident of Uzza had interrupted the first attempt to bring it to Jerusalem: and another Gittite, Ittai by name, was one of the few people who remained faithful to David when Absalom had stolen the hearts of his followers. So their ancient kinsmen the Shardanu appear, now as enemies, now as loyal mercenaries of Egypt. And in the later history, except a few halfhearted attempts like that in the time of Jehoram, the Philistines took no decisive advantage of the internal dissensions between Judah and Israel, or of their many struggles with the Syrians and other foreign foes. From the time of David their power, and indeed their very individuality, dwindle away with a rapidity difficult to parallel. The contrast between the pre-Davidic and the post-Davidic Philistines is one of the most extraordinary in human history. But in Palestine the Philistines were, after all, foreigners: they had come from their healthy maritime life to the fever-haunted and sirocco-blasted land of Canaan. The climate of that country guards it for its Semitic heirs, and Philistine and Crusader alike must submit to the laws of human limitations. The Philistine body-guard above referred to was perhaps organized during David's stay in Ziklag. In the later history some traces of the organization seem to survive. The 'Carites', as they are now significantly called, help Jehoiada to put down the usurping queen Athaliah. In Ezekiel (xliv. 7 sqq.) there is a prophecy against p. 62 certain uncircumcised foreigners who are introduced, apparently in some official capacity, into the Temple: and in Zephaniah i. 8, 9 'those that are clothed with foreign apparel' and 'those that leap over the threshold' in the 'day of the Lord's sacrifice' are denounced. Though suggestive, neither of these passages is as clear as we should like: the possibility of there being some connexion between the threshold rite in Zephaniah and the analogous rite in the Temple of Ashdod (1 Sam. v. 5) has often been noticed. It is an interesting possibility—we cannot say more—that there actually was a Philistine body-guard round the king and his court at Jerusalem, and that the Temple itself, built as we shall see after a Philistine model, was protected by Philistine janissaries. This might explain the unexpected reappearance of the heathenish name of Sisera among the Nethinim or Temple servitors recorded in Ezra ii. 53, Nehemiah vii. 55. Footnotes 40:1 See Moore's Commentary, p. 37. 41:1 The additional note of time, 'In the days of Jael', is generally rejected as a gloss. 41:2 See Moore's Judges, pp. 142, 143, and Journal of American Oriental Society, xix b, p. 159. 41:3 The name Shamgar is given as Σαμεγαρ, Σαμαγαρ, Σεμεγαρ, Σεμαγαρ, Αμεγαθ, Σαμεγαθ, Μαιγαρ, Εμεγαρ. His father's name in Judges iii is given as Διναχ, Δειναχ, Αναθ, Εναχ, Αιμαθ, Λιναθ; in Judges v as Αναθ, Κεναθ, Εναθ, Εναθαμ, Ανεθεμ. 41:4 The verse as repeated says that 'Semegar (or Emegar) son of Anan (Ainan, Enan) arose after Samson, and slew of the Foreigners, 600 men without the cattle, and he also saved Israel'. Note the transformation of the ox-goad. 42:1 2 Sam. xxiii. 11; 1 Chron. xi. 13. 43:1 Isa. ix. 1 (= Hebrew viii. 23). 44:1 For a study (from a conservative standpoint) of the historicity of the Samson narrative see Samson, eine Untersuchung des historischen Charakters von Richt. xiii–xvi, von Dr. Edmund Kalt, Freiburg i. Br., 1912. This brochure contains a very useful bibliography. 44:2 A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 54. 46:1 Thus, it is only by a foot-note, as it were, that we learn that Joseph employed an interpreter in conversing with his brethren. 47:1 Some commentators (e. g. H. P. Smith in the International Critical Commentary), while recognizing that the disease was plague, have missed the essential significance of the mice, and would remove them altogether as 'late redactional insertion'. Although in the Hebrew received text, as reproduced in the English Bible, the 'mice' come in awkwardly as though a sudden afterthought, the Greek Version makes them much more prominent throughout the narrative; and there is no possible reason why any redactor (unless he had divined some of the most recent discoveries in bacteriology) should have introduced mice into the story at all. The distorted version of the plague which destroyed Sennacherib's army, recorded in Herodotus ii. 141, also introduces mice very conspicuously. 48:1 The data for the chronology of Saul's reign are notoriously insufficient. Note that Eli's great-grandson was priest in Shiloh at the time of the battle of Michmash (1 Sam. xiv. 3). 49:1 In the English version (1 Sam. x. 5) the word ‏נציב‎, which in 1 Kings iv. 19 and elsewhere means 'a prefect or officer', is translated, probably wrongly, 'camp'. 49:2 There are some difficulties of interpretation and other critical complications in the passage, on which see the standard commentators. 51:1 The notion of a commentator, that Achish's protest was due to his being already troubled with insanity in his family, deserves a place in the same cabinet of curiosities with the speculations of the ancient blockhead who supposed that when Our Lord wrote with His finger on the ground (John viii. 6) He was making a catalogue of the secret sins of the bystanders! 52:1 No doubt there was a certain element of policy in Achish's hospitality: David being the known rival of the Hebrew king, it probably seemed desirable to foment the division between them. Winckler (Gesch. Isr., p. 224) says (ex cathedra!) 'Was über Davids Aufenthalt an seinem Hofe gesagt wird, ist Fabel'. This sort of negative credulity is just as bad science as the positive credulity which swallows whole all the fancies of historical myth-makers. 52:2 Unless, indeed, we are to identify this Beth-Shan with the unknown 'Shen', mentioned in the corrupt passage 1 Sam. vii. 12. 53:1 For a discussion of the obscure period of the dual reign of David and Ish-baal, with special reference to the problem of the reconcilement of David's seven and a half years with Ish-bosheth's two years, see the important article by Kamphausen, Philister and Hebräer zur Zeit Davids, in Zeitsch. f. d. alttest. Wissensch. (1886, vi, p. 44. 53:2 Hardly Adullam, as some commentators have supposed. Did the Adullam life continue after David was anointed king on Hebron? 56:1 The Greek and Peshitta versions read Gath. 56:2 But really meaning, if anything, 'The mound of the clear one.' 'The clear mound' would be Et-tell eṣ-Ṣāfa. 58:1 They must in this case have passed close by some ancient tumuli, which stand west of Malhah: possibly the sacred balsam-trees were associated with these. 59:1 Asien and Europa, pp. 389, 390. 60:1 It is possible that David showed kindness to Achish, in return for the kindness he had received from him, and allowed him to continue in his kingdom under vassalage. But this is perhaps hardly probable: and evidently the runaway servants of Shimei thought that they would be out of their master's reach in Gath, so that that town was most likely quite independent of Jerusalem. 60:2 I may quote from The Excavation of Gezer, vol. i, p. 64, the descriptions of the only bones that have yet been found in Palestine which can be called 'Philistine' with reasonable probability. They 'are comparable with the types of ancient Cretan bones described by Duckworth and Hawes, and with Cretan bones in the Cambridge Museum. They represent a people of fairly tall stature (the man in grave 3 was 5´ 10″, that in grave 3 was 6´ 3½″). They were probably about or under 40 years of age. In all the femora were not pilastered and the tibiae not platycnemic. p. 61 The skulls were ellipsoidal, mesaticephalic, orthognathous, megaseme (with wide orbits), mesorrhine (with moderately wide nose), and microdont. The female skull in grave 4 was a little wider in proportion, and though the teeth were moderately small, the incisors projected forward, though not enough to make the face prognathous. The lower teeth were also very oblique.' Next: III. Their Decline and Disappearance

THE PTAH-HOTEP .txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 93 CHAPTER III THE PTAH-HOTEP AND THE KE'GEMNI: THE OLDEST BOOKS IN THE WORLD THE Instructions of Ptah-hotep and of Ke'gemni possess, apart from the curious nature of their contents, a feature of the greatest interest, and an adequate claim on the notice of all persons interested in literature and its history. For if the datings and ascriptions in them be accepted as trustworthy--there is no reason why they should not be accepted--they were composed about four thousand years before Christ, and three thousand five hundred and fifty years before Christ, respectively. And the significance of those remote dates is, that they are the oldest books in the world, the earliest extant specimens of the literary art. They stand on the extreme horizon of all that ocean of paper and ink that has become to us as an atmosphere, a fifth element, an essential of life. Books of many kinds had of course been written for centuries before Ptah-hotep of Memphis summarised, for the benefit of future generations, the p. 94 leading principles of morality current in his day; even before the Vizier, five hundred years earlier, gave to his children the scroll which they prized above all things on earth; 1 but those have perished and these remain. There are lists of titles which have a large sound, and prayers to the gods for all good things, on the tombs and monuments of kings and magnates long before the time Ke'gemni; but those are not books in any sense of that word. Even the long, strange chants and spells engraven in the royal pyramids over against Memphis are later than the time of Ptah-hotep, and cannot be called books in their present form, although some of them apparently originated before the First Dynasty. 2 Nor do the oldest books of any other country approach these two in antiquity. To draw comparisons between them let us, in imagination, place ourselves at the period at which Ptah-hotep lived, that is about B.C. 3550, "under King Isosi, living forever," and take a glance at futurity. The Babylonians are doubtless exercising their p. 95 literary talents; but they will leave nothing worthy the name of book to the far posterity of fifty-four centuries hence. Thirteen centuries shall pass before Hammurabi, King of Babylon, drafts the code of laws that will be found at that time. Only after two thousand years shall Moses write on the origin of things, and the Vedas be arranged in their present form. It will be two-and-a-half thousand years before the Great King of Jerusalem will set in order many proverbs and write books so much resembling, in form and style, that of Ptah-hotep; before the source and summit of European literature will write his world epics. For the space of years between Solomon and ourselves, great though it seem, is not so great as that between Solomon and Ptah-hotep. Nothing definite is known concerning these two nobles beyond what is said of them in their works. A fine tomb of a certain Ke'gemni exists at Memphis; his titles, so far as can be ascertained, are: Judge of the High Court; Governor of the Land unto its Limit, South and North; Director of every Command. He has sometimes been supposed to be identical with our Ke'gemni; but I am assured by those most competent to judge that this tomb cannot be earlier than the fifth dynasty,--a good three p. 96 hundred years from the date assigned to the moralist,--so that the theory that they are one person may be dismissed as highly improbable. No other person of the name is known. The position is much the same with Ptah-hotep. There are near Memphis the tombs of several nobles of this name, of whom two lived in the reign of Isosi; and in this case, again, it has been assumed that one of these two must be the writer of the Instruction. But in neither instance do the titles coincide with or include those assigned to him. The highest title which he bears, Eldest Son of the King, does not anywhere appear in these tombs. It is true that one of these contemporaries was hereditary chief; but we know that Ptah-hotep was a common name at this time, and in the absence of more certain proof it will be well to abstain from the identification of like names upon insufficient grounds. THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAH-HOTEP (THE GOD PTAH IS SATISFIED) The Instruction of the Governor of his City, the Vizier, Ptah-hotep, in the Reign of King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Isosi, living forever, to the end of Time. A. The Governor of his City, the Vizier, Ptah-hotep, p. 97 he said: "O Prince my Lord, the end of life is at hand; old age descendeth--upon me--; feebleness cometh, and childishness is renewed. He--that is old--lieth down in misery every day. The eyes are small; the ears are deaf. Energy is diminished, the heart hath no rest. The mouth is silent, and he speaketh no word; the heart stoppeth, and he remembereth not yesterday. The bones are painful throughout the body; good turneth into evil. All taste departeth. These things doeth old age for mankind, being evil in all things. The nose is stopped, and he breatheth not for weakness (?), whether standing or sitting. "Command thy servant, therefore, to make over my, princely authority--to my son--. Let me speak unto him the words of them that hearken to the counsel of the men of old time; those that once hearkened unto the gods. I pray thee, let this thing be done, that sin may be banished from among persons of understanding, that thou may enlighten the lands." Said the Majesty of this God: 1 "Instruct him, then, in the words of old time; may he be a wonder unto the children of princes, that they may enter and hearken with him. Make straight all their p. 98 hearts; and discourse with him, without causing weariness." B. Here begin the proverbs of fair speech, spoken by the Hereditary Chief, the Holy Father, Beloved of the God, the Eldest Son of the King, of his body, the Governor of his City, the Vizier, Ptah-hotep, when instructing the ignorant in the knowledge of exactness in fair speaking; the glory of him that obeyeth, the shame of him that transgresseth them. He said unto his son: 1. Be not proud because thou art learned; but discourse with the ignorant man, as with the sage. For no limit can be set to skill, neither is there any craftsman that possesseth full advantages. Fair speech is more rare than the emerald that is found by slave-maidens on the pebbles. 2. If thou find an arguer talking, one that is well disposed and wiser than thou, let thine arms fall, bend thy back, 1 be not angry with him if he agree (?) not with thee. Refrain from speaking evilly; oppose him not at any time when he speaketh. If he address thee as one ignorant of the matter, thine humbleness shall bear away his contentions. 3. If thou find an arguer talking, thy fellow, p. 99 one that is within thy reach, keep not silence when he saith aught that is evil; so shalt thou be wiser than he. Great will be the applause on the part of the listeners, and thy name shall be good in the knowledge of princes. 4. If thou find an arguer talking, a poor man, that is to say not thine equal, be not scornful toward him because he is lowly. Let him alone; then shall he confound himself. Question him not to please thine heart, neither pour out thy wrath upon him that is before thee; it is shameful to confuse a mean mind. If thou be about to do that which is in thine heart, overcome it as a thing rejected of princes. 5. If thou be a leader, as one directing the conduct of the multitude, endeavor always to be gracious, that thine own conduct be without defect. Great is Truth, appointing a straight path; never hath it been overthrown since the reign of Osiris. 1 One that oversteppeth the laws shall be punished. Overstepping is by the covetous man; but degradations (?) bear off his riches. Never hath evil-doing, brought its venture safe to port. For he saith, "I will obtain by myself for myself," and saith not, "I will obtain because I am allowed." But the p. 100 limits of justice are steadfast; it is that which a man repeateth from his father. 6. Cause not fear among men; for--this--the God punisheth likewise. For there is a man that saith, "Therein is life"; and he is bereft of the bread of his mouth. There is a man that saith, "Power--is therein"; and he saith, "I seize for myself that which I perceive." Thus a man speaketh, and he is smitten down. It is another that attaineth by giving unto him that hath not. Never hath that which men have prepared for come to pass; for what the God hath commanded, even that thing cometh to pass. Live, therefore, in the house of kindliness, and men shall come and give gifts of themselves. 7. If thou be among the guests of a man that is greater than thou, accept that which he giveth thee, putting it to thy lips. If thou look at him that is before thee--thine host--pierce him not with many glances. It is abhorred of the soul 1 to stare at him. Speak not until he address thee; one knoweth not what may be evil in his opinion. Speak when he questioneth thee; so shall thy speech be good in his opinion. The noble who sitteth before food divideth it as his soul moveth him; he giveth unto p. 101 him that he would favour--it is the custom of the evening meal. It is his soul that guideth his hand. It is the noble that bestoweth, not the underling that attaineth. Thus the eating of bread is under the providence of the God; he is an ignorant man that disputeth it. 8. If thou be an emissary sent from one noble to another, be exact after the manner of him that sent thee, give his message even as he hath said it. Beware of making enmity by thy words, setting one noble against the other by perverting truth. Overstep it not, neither repeat that which any man, be he prince or peasant, saith in opening the heart; it is abhorrent to the soul. 9. If thou have ploughed, gather thine harvest in the field, and the God shall make it great under thine hand. Fill not thy mouth at any neighbor's table . . . 1 If a crafty man be the possessor of wealth, he stealeth like a crocodile from the priests. Let not a man be envious that hath no children; let him be neither downcast nor quarrelsome on account of it. For a father, though great, may be grieved; as to the mother of children, she hath less peace than another. Verily, each man is created-- p. 102 to his destiny--by the God, who is the chief of a tribe, trustful in following him. 10. If thou be lowly, serve a wise man, that all thine actions may be good before the God. If thou have known a man of none account that hath been advanced in rank, be not haughty toward him on account of that which thou knowest concerning him; but honour him that hath been advanced, according to that which he hath become. Behold, riches come not of themselves; it is their rule for him that desireth them. If he bestir him and collect them himself, the God shall make him prosperous; but He shall punish him, if he be slothful. 11. Follow thine heart during thy lifetime; do not more than is commanded thee. Diminish not the time of following the heart; it is abhorred of the soul, that its time--of ease--be taken away. Shorten not the daytime more than is needful to maintain thy house. When riches are gained, follow the heart; for riches are of no avail if one be weary. 12. If thou wouldest be a wise man, beget a son for the pleasing of the God. If he make straight his course after thine example, if he arrange thine affairs in due order, do unto him all that is good, p. 103 for thy son is he, begotten of thine own soul. Sunder not thine heart from him, or thine own begotten shall curse--thee--. If he be heedless and trespass thy rules of conduct, and is violent; if every speech that cometh from his mouth be a vile word; then beat thou him, that his talk may be fitting. Keep him from those that make light of that which is commanded, for it is they that make him rebellious. And they that are guided go not astray, but they that lose their bearings cannot find a straight course. 13. If thou be in the chamber of council, act always according to the steps enjoined on thee at the beginning of the day. Be not absent, or thou shalt be expelled; but be ready in entering and making report. Wide 1 is the seat of one that hath made address. The council chamber acteth by strict rule; and all its plans are in accordance with method. It is the God that advanceth one to a seat therein; the like is not done for elbowers. 14. If thou be among people, make for thyself love, the beginning and end of the heart. One that knoweth not his course shall say in himself--seeing thee--, "He that ordereth himself duly becometh the owner of wealth; I shall copy his conduct." p. 104 [paragraph continues] Thy name shall be good, though thou speak not; thy body shall be fed; thy face shall be--seen--among thy neighbors; thou shalt be provided with what thou lackest. As to the man whose heart obeyeth his belly, he causeth disgust in place of love. His heart is wretched (?), his body is gross (?), he is insolent toward those endowed of the God. He that obeyeth his belly hath an enemy. 1 15. Report thine actions without concealment; discover thy conduct when in council with thine overlord. It is not evil for the envoy that his report be not answered. "Yea, I know it," by the prince; for that which he knoweth includeth not--this. If he--the prince--think that he will oppose him on account of it,--he thinketh--"He will be silent because I have spoken." 2 16. If thou be a leader, cause that the rules that thou hast enjoined be carried out; and do all things as one that remembereth the days coming after, when speech availeth not. Be not lavish of favours; it leadeth to servility (?), producing slackness. 17. If thou be a leader, be gracious when thou hearkenest unto the speech of a suppliant. Let p. 105 him not hesitate to deliver himself of that which he hath thought to tell thee; but be desirous of removing his injury. Let him speak freely, that the thing for which he hath come to thee may be done. If he hesitate to open his heart, it is said, "Is it because he--the judge--doeth the wrong that no entreaties are made to him concerning it by those to whom it happeneth?" But a well taught heart hearkeneth readily. 18. If thou desire to continue friendship in any abode wherein thou interest, be it as master, as brother, or as friend; wheresoever thou goest, beware of consorting with women. No place prospereth wherein that is done. Nor is it prudent to take part in it; a thousand men have been ruined for the pleasure of a little time short as a dream. Even death is reached thereby; it is a wretched thing. As for the evil liver, one leaveth him for what he doeth, he is avoided. If his desires be not gratified, he regardeth (?) no laws. 19. If thou desire that thine actions may be good, save thyself from all malice, and beware of the quality of covetousness, which is a grievous inner (?) Malady. Let it not chance that thou fall thereinto. It setteth at variance fathers-in-law and the kinsmen of the daughter-in-law; it sundereth p. 106 the wife and the husband. It gathereth unto itself all evils; it is the girdle of all wickedness. 1 But the man that is just flourisheth; truth goes in his footsteps, and he maketh habitations therein, not in the dwelling of covetousness. 20. Be not covetous as touching shares, in seizing that which is not thine own property. Be not covetous toward thy neighbors; for with a gentleman praise availeth more than might. He--that is covetous--cometh empty from among his neighbours, being void of the persuasion of speech. One hath remorse for even a little covetousness when his belly cooleth. 21. If thou wouldest be wise, provide for thine house, and love thy wife that is in thine arms. Fill her stomach, clothe her back; oil is the remedy of her limbs. Gladden her heart during thy lifetime, for she is an estate profitable unto its lord. Be not harsh, for gentleness mastereth her more than strength. Give (?) to her that for which she sigheth and that toward which her eye looketh; so shall thou keep her in thy house. . . . 22. Satisfy thine hired servants out of such things as thou hast; it is the duty of one that hath been favoured of the God. In sooth, it is hard to p. 107 satisfy hired servants. For one 1 saith, 'He is a lavish person; one knoweth not that which may come--from him." But on the morrow he thinketh, 'We is a person of exactitude--parsimony--content therein." And when favours have been shown unto servants, they say, "We go." Peace dwelleth not in that town wherein dwell servants that are wretched. 23. Repeat not extravagant speech, neither listen thereto; for it is the utterance of a body heated by wrath. When such speech is repeated to thee, hearken not thereto, look to the ground. Speak not regarding it, that he that is before thee may know wisdom. If thou be commanded to do a theft, bring it to pass that the command be taken off thee, for it is a thing hateful according to law. That which destroyeth a vision is the veil over it. 24. If thou wouldest be a wise man, and one sitting in council with his overlord, apply thine heart unto perfection. Silence is more profitable unto thee than abundance of speech. Consider how thou may be opposed by an expert that speaketh in council. It is a foolish thing to speak on every kind of work, for he that disputeth thy words shall put them unto proof. p. 108 25. If thou be powerful, make thyself to be honoured for knowledge and for gentleness. Speak with authority, that is, not as if following injunctions, for he that is humble--when highly placed--falleth into errors. Exalt not thine heart, that it be not brought low. Be not silent, but beware of interruption and of answering words with heat. Put it far from thee; control thyself. The wrathful heart speaketh fiery words; it darteth out at the man of peace that approacheth, stopping his path. One that reckoneth accounts all the day passeth not an happy moment. One that gladdeneth his heart all the day provideth not for his house. The bowman hitteth the mark, as the steersman reacheth land, by diversity of aim. He that obeyeth his heart shall command. 1 26. Let not a prince be hindered when he is occupied; neither oppress the heart of him that is already laden. For he shall be hostile toward one that delayeth him, but shall bare his soul unto one that loveth him. The disposal of souls is with the God, and that which He loveth is His creation. Set out, therefore, after a violent quarrel; be at p. 109 peace with him that is hostile unto--thee--his opponent. It is such souls that make love to grow. 27. Instruct a noble in such things as be profitable unto him; cause that he be received among men. Let his satisfaction fall on his master, for thy provision dependeth upon his will. By reason of it thy belly shall be satisfied; thy back will be clothed thereby. Let him receive thine heart, that thine house may flourish and thine honour--if thou wish it to flourish--thereby. He shall extend thee a kindly hand. Further, he shall implant the love of thee in the bodies of thy friends. Forsooth, it is a soul loving to hearken. 1 28. If thou be the son of a man of the priesthood, and an envoy to conciliate the multitude. . . . 2 speak thou without favouring one side. Let it not be said: "His conduct is that of the nobles, favouring one side in his speech." Turn thine aim toward exact judgments. 29. If thou have been gracious at a former time, having forgiven a man to guide him aright, shun him, remind him not after the first day that he hath been silent to thee---concerning it. p. 110 30. If thou be great, after being of none account, and hast gotten riches after squalour, being foremost in these in the city, and hast knowledge concerning useful matters, so that promotion is come unto thee; then swathe not thine heart in thine hoard, for thou art become the steward of the endowments of the God. Thou art not the last; another shall be thine equal, and to him shall come the like-fortune and station. 31. Bend thy back unto thy chief, thine overseer in the King's palace, for thine house dependeth upon his wealth, and thy wages in their season. How foolish is one that quarrelleth with his chief, for one liveth only while he is gracious. . . . Plunder not the houses of tenants; neither steal the things of a friend, lest he accuse thee in thine bearing, which thrusteth back the heart. 1 If he know of it, he will do thee an injury. Quarrelling in place of friendship is a foolish thing. 32. --Concerning unnatural sin. 33. If thou wouldest seek out the nature of a friend, ask it not of any companion of his; but pass a time with him alone, that thou injure not his affairs. Debate with him after a season; test his p. 111 heart in an occasion of speech. When he hath told thee his past life, he hath made an opportunity that thou may either be ashamed for him or be familiar with him. Be not reserved with him when he openeth speech, neither answer him after a scornful manner. Withdraw not thyself from him, neither interrupt (?) him whose matter is not yet ended, whom it is possible to benefit. 34. Let thy face be bright what time thou livest. That which goeth into the storehouse must come out therefrom; and bread is to be shared. He that is grasping in entertainment shall himself have an empty belly; he that causeth strife cometh himself to sorrow. Take not such an one for thy companion. It is a man's kindly acts that are remembered of him in the years after his life. 1 35. Know well thy merchants; for when thine affairs are in evil case, thy good repute among thy friends is a channel (?) which is filled. It is more important than the dignities of a man; and the wealth of one passeth to another. The good repute of a man's son is a glory unto him; and a good character is for remembrance. 36. Correct chiefly; instruct conformably--therewith. Vice must be drawn out that virtue p. 112 may remain. Nor is this a matter of misfortune, for one that is a gainsayer becometh a strifemaker. 37. If thou make a woman to be ashamed, wanton of heart, not known by her townfolk, to be falsely placed, be kind unto her for a space, send her not away, give her to eat. The wantonness of her heart shall esteem thy guidance. C. If thou obey these things that I have said unto thee, all thy demeanour shall be of the best; for verily, the quality of truth is among their excellences. Set the memory of them in the mouths of the people; for their proverbs are good. Nor shall any word that hath here been set down cease out of this land for ever, but shall be made a pattern whereby princes shall speak well. They--my words--shall instruct a man how he shall speak, after he hath heard them; yea, he shall become as one skillful in obeying, excellent in speaking, after he hath heard them. Good fortune shall befall him, for he shall be of the highest rank. He shall be gracious to the end of his life; he shall be contented always. His knowledge shall be his guide (?) into a place of security, wherein he shall prosper while on earth. The scholar 1 shall be content in his knowledge. As to the prince, in his turn, p. 113 forsooth, his heart shall be happy, his tongue made straight. And--in these proverbs--his lips shall speak, his eyes shall see, and his ears shall hear, that which is profitable for his son, so that he deal justly, void of deceit. 38. A splendid thing is the obedience of an obedient son; he cometh in and listeneth obediently. Excellent in hearing, excellent in speaking, is every man that obeyeth what is noble, and the obedience of an obeyer is a noble thing. Obedience is better than all things that are; it maketh good-will. How good it is that a son should take that from his father by which he hath reached old age--obedience. That which is desired by the God is obedience; disobedience is abhorred of the God. Verily, it is the heart that maketh its master to obey or to disobey; for the safe and sound life of a man are his heart. It is the obedient man that obeyeth what is said; he that loveth to obey, the same shall carry out commands. He that obeyeth becometh one obeyed. It is good indeed when a son obeyeth his father; and he-his father-that hath spoken hath great p. 114 joy of it. Such a son shall be mild as a master, and he that heareth him shall obey him that hath spoken. He shall be comely in body and honoured by his father. His memory shall be in the mouths of the living, those upon earth, as long as they exist. 1 39. Let a son receive the word of his father, not being heedless of any rule of his. Instruct thy son--thus;--for the obedient man is one that is perfect in the opinion of princes. If he direct his mouth by what hath been enjoined him. watchful and obedient, thy son shall be wise, and his going seemly. Heedlessness leadeth into disobedience on the morrow; but understanding shall establish him. As for the fool, he shall be crushed. 40. As for the fool, devoid of obedience, he doeth nothing. Knowledge he regardeth as ignorance. profitable things are hurtful things. He doeth all kinds of errors, so that he is rebuked therefor every day. He liveth in death therewith; it is his food. At chattering speech he marvelleth, as at the wisdom of princes, living in death every p. 115 day. He is shunned because of his misfortunes, by reason of the multitude of afflictions that cometh upon ]him every day. 41. A son that hearkeneth is as a Follower of Horus. 1 He is good after he hearkeneth; he groweth old, he reacheth honour and reverence. He repeated in like manner to his sons and daughters, so renewing the instruction of his father. Each man instructeth as did his begetter, repeating it unto his children. Let them--in turn--speak with their sons and daughters, that they may be famous in their deeds. Let that which thou speaketh implant true things and just in the life of thy children. Then the highest authority shall arrive, and sins depart--from them. And such men as see these things shall say, "Surely that man hath spoken to good purpose," and they shall do likewise; or, "But surely that man was experienced." And all people shall declare, "It is they that shall direct the multitude; dignities are not complete without them." Take not my word away, neither add one; set p. 116 not one in the place of another. Beware of opening . . . 1 in thyself. Be wary of speech when a learned man hearkeneth unto thee; desire to be established for good in the mouth of those that hear thee speaking. If thou have entered as an expert, speak with exact (?) lips, that thy conduct may be seemly. 42. Be thine heart overflowing; but refrain thy mouth. Let thy conduct be exact while amongst nobles, and seemly before thy lord, doing that which he hath commanded. Such a son shall speak unto them that hearken to him; moreover, his begetter shall be favoured. Apply thine heart, what time thou speakest, to saying things such that the nobles who listen declare, "How excellent is that which cometh out of his mouth!" 43. Carry out the behest of thy lord to thee. How good is the teaching of a man's father, for he hath come from him, who hath spoken of his son while he was yet unborn; and that which is done for him--the son--is more than that which is commanded him. Forsooth, a good son is of the gift of the God; he doeth more than is enjoined on p. 117 him, he doeth right, and putteth his heart into all his goings. D. If now thou attain thy position, the body shall flourish, the King shall be content in all that thou doest, and thou shalt gather years of life not fewer than I have passed upon earth. I have gathered even fivescore and ten years of life, for the King hath bestowed upon me favours more than upon my forefathers; this because I wrought truth and justice for the King unto mine old age. It Is Finished From Its Beginning To Its End Even As Found In Writing. THE INSTRUCTION OF KE'GEMNI (KE'GEMNI--I HAVE FOUND A SOUL) 1. The cautious man flourisheth, the exact one is praised; the innermost chamber openeth unto the man of silence. Wide 1 is the seat of the man gentle of speech; but knives are prepared against one that forceth a path, that he advance not, save in due season. 2. If thou sit with a company of people, desire not the bread that thou likest; short is the time of restraining the heart, and gluttony is an abomination; p. 118 therein is the quality of a beast. A handful of water quencheth the thirst, and a mouthful of melon supporteth the heart. A good thing standeth for goodness, but some small thing standeth for plenty. 1 A base man is he that is governed by his belly; he departeth only when he is no longer able to fill full his belly in men's houses. 3. If thou sit with a glutton, eat with him, then depart (?). If thou drink with a drunkard, accept--drink--and his heart shall be satisfied. Refuse not meat when with a greedy man. Take that which he giveth thee; set it not on one side, thinking that it will be a courteous thing. 4. If a man be lacking in good fellowship, no speech hath any influence over him. He is sour of face toward the glad-hearted that are kindly to him; he is a grief unto his mother and his friends; and all men--cry--, "Let thy name be known; thou art silent in thy mouth when thou art addressed!" 5. Be not haughty because of thy might in the p. 119 midst of thy young soldiers. Beware of making strife, for one knoweth not the things that the God will do when He punisheth. The Vizier caused his sons and daughters to be summoned, when he had finished the rules of the conduct of men. And they marvelled when they came to him. Then he said unto them, "Hearken unto everything that is in writing in this book, even as I have said it in adding unto profitable sayings." And they cast themselves on their bellies, and they read it, even as it was in writing. And it was better in their opinion than anything in this land unto its limits. Now they were living when His Majesty, the King of upper and lower Egypt, Heuni, departed, and His Majesty, the King of upper and lower Egypt, Senforu, was enthroned as a gracious king over the whole of this land. Then was Ke'gemni made Governor of his city and Vizier. THE INSTRUCTIONS OF AMENEMHE'ET (THE GOD AMON IS FIRST) Beginneth here the Instruction made by the majesty of the King of upper and lower Egypt, Sehotep'eb-Re, son of the Sun, Amenemhe'et, the p. 120 Justified. 1 He speaketh thus in discovering words of truth unto his son, the Lord of the World: 1. Shine forth, he saith, even as the God. Hearken to that which I say unto thee; that thou may reign over the land, that thou may govern the world, that thou may excel in goodness. 2. Let one withdraw himself from his subordinates entirely. It befalleth that mankind give their hearts unto one that causeth them fear. Mix not among them alone; fill not thine heart with a brother; know not a trusted friend; make for thyself no familiar dependents; in these things is no satisfaction. 3. When thou liest down have a care for thy 2 very life, since friends exist not for a man in the day of misfortunes. I gave to the beggar, and caused the orphan to live; I made him that had not to attain, even as he that had. 4. But it was the eater of my food that made insurrection against me; to whom I gave mine hands, he created disturbance thereby; they that arrayed them in my fine linen regarded me as a p. 121 shadow; and it was they that anointed themselves with my spices that entered my harem. 5. My images are among the living; and my achievements are among men. But I have made an heroic story that hath not been heard; a great feat of arms that hath not been seen. Surely one fighteth for a lassoed ox that forgetteth yesterday; 1 and good fortune is of no avail unto one that cannot perceive it. 6. It was after the evening meal, and night was come. I took for myself an hour of ease. I lay down upon my bed, for I was weary. My heart began to wander (?). I slept. And lo! weapons were brandished, and there was conference concerning me. I acted as the serpent of the desert. 2 7. I awoke to fight; I was alone. I found one struck down, it was the captain of the guard. Had I received quickly the arms from his hand, I had driven back the dastards by smiting around. But he was not a brave man on that night, nor could I fight alone; an occasion of prowess cometh not to one surprised. Thus was I. 8. Behold, then, vile things came to pass, for p. 122 [paragraph continues] I was without thee; the courtiers knew not that I had passed on to thee--my power. I sat not with thee on the throne. 1 Let me then, make my plans. Because I awed them not I was not unmindful of them; but mine heart bringeth not to remembrance the slackness of servants. 9. Have ever women gathered together assailants? Are assassins reared within my palace? Was the opening done by cutting through the ground? The underlings were deceived as to what they did. 2 But misfortunes have not come in my train since my birth; nor hath there existed the equal of me as a doer of valiance. 10. I forced my way up to Elephantine, I went down unto the coast-lakes; 3 I have stood upon the boundaries of the land, and I have seen its centre. I have set the limits of might by my might in my deeds. 11. I raised corn, I loved Nopi; 4 the Nile begged of me every valley. In my reign none hungered; none thirsted therein. They were contented in that which I did, saying concerning me, "Every commandment is meet." p. 123 12. I overcame lions; I carried off crocodiles. I cast the Nubians under my feet; I carried off the southern Nubians; I caused the Asiatics to flee, even as hounds. 13. I have made me an house, adorned with gold, its ceilings with lapis lazuli, its walls having deep foundations. Its doors are of copper, their bolts are of bronze. It is made for everlasting; eternity is in awe of it. I know every dimension thereof, O Lord of the World! 14. There are divers devices in buildings. I know the pronouncements of men when inquiring into its beauties; but they know not that it was without thee, O my Son, Senwesert; life, safe and sound, be to thee--by thy feet do I walk; thou art after mine own heart; by thine eyes do I see; born in an hour of delight; with spirits 1 that rendered thee praise. 15. Behold, that which I have done at the beginning, let me set it in order for thee at the end; let me be the landing-place of that which is in thine heart. All men together set the White Crown on the Offspring of the God. fixing it unto its due place. I shall begin thy praises when in the Boat of Ra. Thy kingdom hath been from primeval p. 124 time; not by my doing, who have done valiant things. Raise up monuments, make beautiful thy tomb. I have fought against him whom thou knowest; for I desire not that he should be beside thy Majesty. Life safe and sound, be to thee. Footnotes 94:1 The monuments leave no doubt of this. Pen and ink were used in the First Dynasty, and speech had been reduced to visible signs before that. 94:2 About B.C. 4770. In all Egyptian dates given in this book I follow Professor Petrie's chronology. 97:1 The King. 98:1 The customary attitude of a submissive inferior at that time. 99:1 The god Osiris was believed to have reigned on earth many thousand years before Menes, the first historical king. 100:1 soul--Ka'. 101:1 An obscure or corrupt phrase here follows, which does not admit of satisfactory translation. 103:1 I.e., comfortable. 104:1 His belly, presumably. 104:2 The above translation is not satisfactory; the text may be corrupt. No intelligible translation of it has yet been made. 106:1 I.e.., all wickedness is contained therein. 107:1 A servant. 108:1 So also in life, by diversity of aim, alternating work and play, happiness is secured. Tacking is evidently meant in the case of the steersman. 109:1 This section refers to the relations between the son of a nobleman and his tutor, dwelling on the benefits from former pupils in high places, if their school days have been pleasant. 109:2 An obscure phrase. 110:1 Literally, "It is that which preventeth the heart from advancing (?)" A curious phrase. 111:1 Literally, after his stick or sceptre. 112:1 Who knows them. 114:1 The greater part of this section is a play upon the root sodem, which in its meaning includes our hear--listen--and obey. This tiresome torture of words is frequent in Egyptian, especially in old religious texts. 115:1 The "Followers of Horns" are a legendary dynasty of demigods, believed by the Egyptians to have ruled for about 13,400 years after the reign of Horus, and before that of Menes. There is also an order of spirits by this name. 116:1 A word of unknown meaning; apparently some kind of plant. Such a word seems out of place here, and may be idiomatic, like our "flowery language." But the preceding line obviously refers to this book. 117:1 Comfortable. 118:1 This is a rather dark saying, but apparently the author means that although the duly instructed guest may only partake moderately of the abundance before him, what he cats is as good as the rest. His portion will be equal to the whole as regards quality, though inferior as regards quantity. 120:1 A ceremonial title applied to deceased persons, analogous to our "the late." "Justified" is not an exact rendering, but it is usual, and will serve. 120:2 Literally, heart. 121:1 An allusion to the people of Egypt, whom he had freed from the foreign oppressors. 121:2 He remained quiet but watchful. 122:1 Referring to the co-regency with his son. 122:2 Referring to the attempted assassination. 122:3 The limits, south and north, of his Kingdom. 122:4 The god of corn. 123:1 Or, unborn souls. Next: Chapter IV: The Book of the Dead

THE RELIGION OF.txt

THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA BY THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D. Lecturer in Assyrian at University College, London, Author of "The Old Testament in the Light of the Records of Assyria and Babylonia"; "The Bronze Ornaments of the Palace Gates of Balewat" etc. etc. PREPARER'S NOTE The original text contains a number of characters that are not available even in 8-bit Windows text, such as H with a breve below it in Hammurabi, S with a breve, S and T with a dot below them, U with macron, and superscript M in Tašmêtum. These have been left in the e-text as the base letter. The 8-bit version of this text includes Windows font characters like S with a caron above it (pronounced /sh/) as in Šamaš, etc. These may be lost in 7-bit versions of the text, or when viewed with different fonts. Greek text has been transliterated within brackets "{}" using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. Diacritical marks have been lost. THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS CHAPTER I FOREWORD Position, and Period. The religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians was the polytheistic faith professed by the peoples inhabiting the Tigris and Euphrates valleys from what may be regarded as the dawn of history until the Christian era began, or, at least, until the inhabitants were brought under the influence of Christianity. The chronological period covered may be roughly estimated at about 5000 years. The belief of the people, at the end of that time, being Babylonian heathenism leavened with Judaism, the country was probably ripe for the reception of the new faith. Christianity, however, by no means replaced the earlier polytheism, as is evidenced by the fact, that the worship of Nebo and the gods associated with him continued until the fourth century of the Christian era. By whom followed. It was the faith of two distinct peoples--the Sumero-Akkadians, and the Assyro-Babylonians. In what country it had its beginnings is unknown--it comes before us, even at the earliest period, as a faith already well-developed, and from that fact, as well as from the names of the numerous deities, it is clear that it began with the former race--the Sumero-Akkadians--who spoke a non-Semitic language largely affected by phonetic decay, and in which the grammatical forms had in certain cases become confused to such an extent that those who study it ask themselves whether the people who spoke it were able to understand each other without recourse to devices such as the "tones" to which the Chinese resort. With few exceptions, the names of the gods which the inscriptions reveal to us are all derived from this non-Semitic language, which furnishes us with satisfactory etymologies for such names as Merodach, Nergal, Sin, and the divinities mentioned in Berosus and Damascius, as well as those of hundreds of deities revealed to us by the tablets and slabs of Babylonia and Assyria. The documents. Outside the inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria, there is but little bearing upon the religion of those countries, the most important fragment being the extracts from Berosus and Damascius referred to above. Among the Babylonian and Assyrian remains, however, we have an extensive and valuable mass of material, dating from the fourth or fifth millennium before Christ until the disappearance of the Babylonian system of writing about the beginning of the Christian era. The earlier inscriptions are mostly of the nature of records, and give information about the deities and the religion of the people in the course of descriptions of the building and rebuilding of temples, the making of offerings, the performance of ceremonies, etc. Purely religious inscriptions are found near the end of the third millennium before Christ, and occur in considerable numbers, either in the original Sumerian text, or in translations, or both, until about the third century before Christ. Among the more recent inscriptions--those from the library of the Assyrian king Aššur-bani-âpli and the later Babylonian temple archives,--there are many lists of deities, with numerous identifications with each other and with the heavenly bodies, and explanations of their natures. It is needless to say that all this material is of enormous value for the study of the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and enables us to reconstruct at first hand their mythological system, and note the changes which took place in the course of their long national existence. Many interesting and entertaining legends illustrate and supplement the information given by the bilingual lists of gods, the bilingual incantations and hymns, and the references contained in the historical and other documents. A trilingual list of gods enables us also to recognise, in some cases, the dialectic forms of their names. The importance of the subject. Of equal antiquity with the religion of Egypt, that of Babylonia and Assyria possesses some marked differences as to its development. Beginning among the non-Semitic Sumero-Akkadian population, it maintained for a long time its uninterrupted development, affected mainly by influences from within, namely, the homogeneous local cults which acted and reacted upon each other. The religious systems of other nations did not greatly affect the development of the early non-Semitic religious system of Babylonia. A time at last came, however, when the influence of the Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria was not to be gainsaid, and from that moment, the development of their religion took another turn. In all probably this augmentation of Semitic religious influence was due to the increased numbers of the Semitic population, and at the same period the Sumero- Akkadian language began to give way to the Semitic idiom which they spoke. When at last the Semitic Babylonian language came to be used for official documents, we find that, although the non-Semitic divine names are in the main preserved, a certain number of them have been displaced by the Semitic equivalent names, such as Šamaš for the sun-god, with Kittu and Mêšaru ("justice and righteousness") his attendants; Nabú ("the teacher" = Nebo) with his consort Tašmêtu ("the hearer"); Addu, Adad, or Dadu, and Rammanu, Ramimu, or Ragimu = Hadad or Rimmon ("the thunderer"); Bêl and Bêltu (Beltis = "the lord" and "the lady" /par excellence/), with some others of inferior rank. In place of the chief divinity of each state at the head of each separate pantheon, the tendency was to make Merodach, the god of the capital city Babylon, the head of the pantheon, and he seems to have been universally accepted in Babylonia, like Aššur in Assyria, about 2000 B.C. or earlier. The uniting of two pantheons. We thus find two pantheons, the Sumero-Akkadian with its many gods, and the Semitic Babylonian with its comparatively few, united, and forming one apparently homogeneous whole. But the creed had taken a fresh tendency. It was no longer a series of small, and to a certain extent antagonistic, pantheons composed of the chief god, his consort, attendants, children, and servants, but a pantheon of considerable extent, containing all the elements of the primitive but smaller pantheons, with a number of great gods who had raised Merodach to be their king. In Assyria. Whilst accepting the religion of Babylonia, Assyria nevertheless kept herself distinct from her southern neighbour by a very simple device, by placing at the head of the pantheon the god Aššur, who became for her the chief of the gods, and at the same time the emblem of her distinct national aspirations--for Assyria had no intention whatever of casting in her lot with her southern neighbour. Nevertheless, Assyria possessed, along with the language of Babylonia, all the literature of that country--indeed, it is from the libraries of her kings that we obtain the best copies of the Babylonian religious texts, treasured and preserved by her with all the veneration of which her religious mind was capable,--and the religious fervour of the Oriental in most cases leaves that of the European, or at least of the ordinary Briton, far behind. The later period in Assyria. Assyria went to her downfall at the end of the seventh century before Christ worshipping her national god Aššur, whose cult did not cease with the destruction of her national independence. In fact, the city of Aššur, the centre of that worship, continued to exist for a considerable period; but for the history of the religion of Assyria, as preserved there, we wait for the result of the excavations being carried on by the Germans, should they be fortunate enough to obtain texts belonging to the period following the fall of Nineveh. In Babylonia. Babylonia, on the other hand, continued the even tenor of her way. More successful at the end of her independent political career than her northern rival had been, she retained her faith, and remained the unswerving worshipper of Merodach, the great god of Babylon, to whom her priests attributed yet greater powers, and with whom all the other gods were to all appearance identified. This tendency to monotheism, however, never reached the culminating point--never became absolute-- except, naturally, in the minds of those who, dissociating themselves, for philosophical reasons, from the superstitious teaching of the priests of Babylonia, decided for themselves that there was but one God, and worshipped Him. That orthodox Jews at that period may have found, in consequence of this monotheistic tendency, converts, is not by any means improbable--indeed, the names met with during the later period imply that converts to Judaism were made. The picture presented by the study. Thus we see, from the various inscriptions, both Babylonian and Assyrian--the former of an extremely early period--the growth and development, with at least one branching off, of one of the most important religious systems of the ancient world. It is not so important for modern religion as the development of the beliefs of the Hebrews, but as the creed of the people from which the Hebrew nation sprang, and from which, therefore, it had its beginnings, both corporeal and spiritual, it is such as no student of modern religious systems can afford to neglect. Its legends, and therefore its teachings, as will be seen in these pages, ultimately permeated the Semitic West, and may in some cases even had penetrated Europe, not only through heathen Greece, but also through the early Christians, who, being so many centuries nearer the time of the Assyro-Babylonians, and also nearer the territory which they anciently occupied, than we are, were far better acquainted than the people of the present day with the legends and ideas which they possessed. CHAPTER II THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS The Sumero-Akkadians and the Semites. For the history of the development of the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians much naturally depends upon the composition of the population of early Babylonia. There is hardly any doubt that the Sumero-Akkadians were non-Semites of a fairly pure race, but the country of their origin is still unknown, though a certain relationship with the Mongolian and Turkish nationalities, probably reaching back many centuries--perhaps thousands of years--before the earliest accepted date, may be regarded as equally likely. Equally uncertain is the date of the entry of the Semites, whose language ultimately displaced the non-Semitic Sumero-Akkadian idioms, and whose kings finally ruled over the land. During the third millennium before Christ Semites, bearing Semitic names, and called Amorites, appear, and probably formed the last considerable stratum of tribes of that race which entered the land. The name Martu, the Sumero-Akkadian equivalent of Amurru, "Amorite", is of frequent occurrence also before this period. The eastern Mediterranean coast district, including Palestine and the neighbouring tracts, was known by the Babylonians and Assyrians as the land of the Amorites, a term which stood for the West in general even when these regions no longer bore that name. The Babylonians maintained their claim to sovereignty over that part as long as they possessed the power to do so, and naturally exercised considerable influence there. The existence in Palestine, Syria, and the neighbouring states, of creeds containing the names of many Babylonian divinities is therefore not to be wondered at, and the presence of West Semitic divinities in the religion of the Babylonians need not cause us any surprise. The Babylonian script and its evidence. In consequence of the determinative prefix for a god or a goddess being, in the oldest form, a picture of an eight-rayed star, it has been assumed that Assyro-Babylonian mythology is, either wholly or partly, astral in origin. This, however, is by no means certain, the character for "star" in the inscriptions being a combination of three such pictures, and not a single sign. The probability therefore is, that the use of the single star to indicate the name of a divinity arises merely from the fact that the character in question stands for /ana/, "heaven." Deities were evidently thus distinguished by the Babylonians because they regarded them as inhabitants of the realms above--indeed, the heavens being the place where the stars are seen, a picture of a star was the only way of indicating heavenly things. That the gods of the Babylonians were in many cases identified with the stars and planets is certain, but these identifications seem to have taken place at a comparatively late date. An exception has naturally to be made in the case of the sun and moon, but the god Merodach, if he be, as seems certain, a deified Babylonian king, must have been identified with the stars which bear his name after his worshippers began to pay him divine honours as the supreme deity, and naturally what is true for him may also be so for the other gods whom they worshipped. The identification of some of the deities with stars or planets is, moreover, impossible, and if Êa, the god of the deep, and Anu, the god of the heavens, have their representatives among the heavenly bodies, this is probably the result of later development.[*] [*] If there be any historical foundation for the statement that Merodach arranged the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars, assigning to them their proper places and duties--a tradition which would make him the founder of the science of astronomy during his life upon earth--this, too, would tend to the probability that the origin of the gods of the Babylonians was not astral, as has been suggested, but that their identification with the heavenly bodies was introduced during the period of his reign. Ancestor and hero-worship. The deification of kings. Though there is no proof that ancestor-worship in general prevailed at any time in Babylonia, it would seem that the worship of heroes and prominent men was common, at least in early times. The tenth chapter of Genesis tells us of the story of Nimrod, who cannot be any other than the Merodach of the Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions; and other examples, occurring in semi-mythological times, are /En-we-dur-an-ki/, the Greek Edoreschos, and /Gilgameš/, the Greek Gilgamos, though Aelian's story of the latter does not fit in with the account as given by the inscriptions. In later times, the divine prefix is found before the names of many a Babylonian ruler--Sargon of Agadé,[*] Dungi of Ur (about 2500 B.C.), Rim-Sin or Eri-Aku (Arioch of Ellasar, about 2100 B.C.), and others. It was doubtless a kind of flattery to deify and pay these rulers divine honours during their lifetime, and on account of this, it is very probable that their godhood was utterly forgotten, in the case of those who were strictly historical, after their death. The deification of the kings of Babylonia and Assyria is probably due to the fact, that they were regarded as the representatives of God upon earth, and being his chief priests as well as his offspring (the personal names show that it was a common thing to regard children as the gifts of the gods whom their father worshipped), the divine fatherhood thus attributed to them naturally could, in the case of those of royal rank, give them a real claim to divine birth and honours. An exception is the deification of the Babylonian Noah, Ut-napištim, who, as the legend of the Flood relates, was raised and made one of the gods by Aa or Ea, for his faithfulness after the great catastrophe, when he and his wife were translated to the "remote place at the mouth of the rivers." The hero Gilgameš, on the other hand, was half divine by birth, though it is not exactly known through whom his divinity came. [*] According to Nabonidus's date 3800 B.C., though many Assyriologists regard this as being a millennium too early. The earliest form of the Babylonian religion. The state of development to which the religious system of the Babylonians had attained at the earliest period to which the inscriptions refer naturally precludes the possibility of a trustworthy history of its origin and early growth. There is no doubt, however, that it may be regarded as having reached the stage at which we find it in consequence of there being a number of states in ancient Babylonia (which was at that time like the Heptarchy in England) each possessing its own divinity--who, in its district, was regarded as supreme--with a number of lesser gods forming his court. It was the adding together of all these small pantheons which ultimately made that of Babylonia as a whole so exceedingly extensive. Thus the chief divinity of Babylon, as has already been stated, as Merodach; at Sippar and Larsa the sun-god Šamaš was worshipped; at Ur the moon-god Sin or Nannar; at Erech and Dêr the god of the heavens, Anu; at Muru, Ennigi, and Kakru, the god of the atmosphere, Hadad or Rimmon; at Êridu, the god of the deep, Aa or Êa; at Niffur[*] the god Bel; at Cuthah the god of war, Nergal; at Dailem the god Uraš; at Kiš the god of battle, Zagaga; Lugal-Amarda, the king of Marad, as the city so called; at Opis Zakar, one of the gods of dreams; at Agadé, Nineveh, and Arbela, Ištar, goddess of love and of war; Nina at the city Nina in Babylonia, etc. When the chief deities were masculine, they were naturally all identified with each other, just as the Greeks called the Babylonian Merodach by the name of Zeus; and as Zer-panîtum, the consort of Merodach, was identified with Juno, so the consorts, divine attendants, and children of each chief divinity, as far as they possessed them, could also be regarded as the same, though possibly distinct in their different attributes. [*] Noufar at present, according to the latest explorers. Layard (1856) has Niffer, Loftus (1857) Niffar. The native spelling is Noufer, due to the French system of phonetics. How the religion of the Babylonians developed. The fact that the rise of Merodach to the position of king of the gods was due to the attainment, by the city of Babylon, of the position of capital of all Babylonia, leads one to suspect that the kingly rank of his father Êa, at an earlier period, was due to a somewhat similar cause, and if so, the still earlier kingship of Anu, the god of the heavens, may be in like manner explained. This leads to the question whether the first state to attain to supremacy was Dêr, Anu's seat, and whether Dêr was succeeded by Êridu, of which city Êa was the patron--concerning the importance of Babylon, Merodach's city, later on, there is no doubt whatever. The rise of Anu and Êa to divine overlordship, however, may not have been due to the political supremacy of the cities where they were worshipped--it may have come about simply on account of renown gained through religious enthusiasm due to wonders said to have been performed where they were worshipped, or to the reported discovery of new records concerning their temples, or to the influence of some renowned high-priest, like En-we-dur-an-ki of Sippar, whose devotion undoubtedly brought great renown to the city of his dominion. Was Animism its original form? But the question naturally arises, can we go back beyond the indications of the inscriptions? The Babylonians attributed life, in certain not very numerous cases, to such things as trees and plants, and naturally to the winds, and the heavenly bodies. Whether they regarded stones, rocks, mountains, storms, and rain in the same way, however, is doubtful, but it may be taken for granted, that the sea, with all its rivers and streams, was regarded as animated with the spirit of Êa and his children, whilst the great cities and temple-towers were pervaded with the spirit of the god whose abode they were. Innumerable good and evil spirits were believed in, such as the spirit of the mountain, the sea, the plain, and the grave. These spirits were of various kinds, and bore names which do not always reveal their real character--such as the /edimmu/, /utukku/, /šêdu/, /ašakku/ (spirit of fevers), /namtaru/ (spirit of fate), /âlû/ (regarded as the spirit of the south wind), /gallu/, /rabisu/, /labartu/, /labasu/, /ahhazu/ (the seizer), /lilu/ and /lilithu/ (male and female spirits of the mist), with their attendants. All this points to animism as the pervading idea of the worship of the peoples of the Babylonian states in the prehistoric period--the attribution of life to every appearance of nature. The question is, however, Is the evidence of the inscriptions sufficient to make this absolutely certain? It is hard to believe that such intelligent people, as the primitive Babylonians naturally were, believed that such things as stones, rocks, mountains, storms, and rain were, in themselves, and apart from the divinity which they regarded as presiding over them, living things. A stone might be a /bît îli/ or bethel--a "house of god," and almost invested with the status of a living thing, but that does not prove that the Babylonians thought of every stone as being endowed with life, even in prehistoric times. Whilst, therefore, there are traces of a belief similar to that which an animistic creed might be regarded as possessing, it must be admitted that these seemingly animistic doctrines may have originated in another way, and be due to later developments. The power of the gods to create living things naturally makes possible the belief that they had also power to endow with a soul, and therefore with life and intelligence, any seemingly inanimate object. Such was probably the nature of Babylonian animism, if it may be so called. The legend of Tiawthu (Tiawath) may with great probability be regarded as the remains of a primitive animism which was the creed of the original and comparatively uncivilised Babylonians, who saw in the sea the producer and creator of all the monstrous shapes which are found therein; but any development of this idea in other directions was probably cut short by the priests, who must have realised, under the influence of the doctrine of the divine rise to perfection, that animism in general was altogether incompatible with the creed which they professed. Image-worship and Sacred Stones. Whether image-worship was original among the Babylonians and Assyrians is uncertain, and improbable; the tendency among the people in early times being to venerate sacred stones and other inanimate objects. As has been already pointed out, the {diopetres} of the Greeks was probably a meteorite, and stones marking the position of the Semitic bethels were probably, in their origin, the same. The boulders which were sometimes used for boundary-stones may have been the representations of these meteorites in later times, and it is noteworthy that the Sumerian group for "iron," /an-bar/, implies that the early Babylonians only knew of that metal from meteoric ironstone. The name of the god Nirig or Ênu-rêštu (Ninip) is generally written with the same group, implying some kind of connection between the two --the god and the iron. In a well-known hymn to that deity certain stones are mentioned, one of them being described as the "poison- tooth"[*] coming forth on the mountain, recalling the sacred rocks at Jerusalem and Mecca. Boundary-stones in Babylonia were not sacred objects except in so far as they were sculptured with the signs of the gods.[†] With regard to the Babylonian bethels, very little can be said, their true nature being uncertain, and their number, to all appearance, small. Gifts were made to them, and from this fact it would seem that they were temples--true "houses of god," in fact-- probably containing an image of the deity, rather than a stone similar to those referred to in the Old Testament. [*] So called, probably, not because it sent forth poison, but on account of its likeness to a serpent's fang. [†] Notwithstanding medical opinion, their phallic origin is doubtful. One is sculptured in the form of an Eastern castellated fortress. Idols. With the Babylonians, the gods were represented by means of stone images at a very early date, and it is possible that wood was also used. The tendency of the human mind being to attribute to the Deity a human form, the Babylonians were no exception to the rule. Human thoughts and feelings would naturally accompany the human form with which the minds of men endowed them. Whether the gross human passions attributed to the gods of Babylonia in Herodotus be of early date or not is uncertain--a late period, when the religion began to degenerate, would seem to be the more probable. The adoration of sacred objects. It is probable that objects belonging to or dedicated to deities were not originally worshipped--they were held as divine in consequence of their being possessed or used by a deity, like the bow of Merodach, placed in the heavens as a constellation, etc. The cities where the gods dwelt on earth, their temples, their couches, the chariot of the sun in his temple-cities, and everything existing in connection with their worship, were in all probability regarded as divine simply in so far as they belonged to a god. Sacrifices offered to them, and invocations made to them, were in all likelihood regarded as having been made to the deity himself, the possessions of the divinity being, in the minds of the Babylonians, pervaded with his spirit. In the case of rivers, these were divine as being the children and offspring of Enki (Aa or Êa), the god of the ocean. Holy places. In a country which was originally divided into many small states, each having its own deities, and, to a certain extent, its own religious system, holy places were naturally numerous. As the spot where they placed Paradise, Babylonia was itself a holy place, but in all probability this idea is late, and only came into existence after the legends of the creation and the rise of Merodach to the kingship of heaven had become elaborated into one homogeneous whole. An interesting list. One of the most interesting documents referring to the holy places of Babylonia is a tiny tablet found at Nineveh, and preserved in the British Museum. This text begins with the word Tiawthu "the sea," and goes on to enumerate, in turn, Tilmun (identified with the island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf); Engurra (the Abyss, the abode of Enki or Êa), with numerous temples and shrines, including "the holy house," "the temple of the seer of heaven and earth," "the abode of Zer- panîtum," consort of Merodach, "the throne of the holy place," "the temple of the region of Hades," "the supreme temple of life," "the temple of the ear of the corn-deity," with many others, the whole list containing what may be regarded as the chief sanctuaries of the land, to the number of thirty-one. Numerous other similar and more extensive lists, enumerating every shrine and temple in the country, also exist, though in a very imperfect state, and in addition to these, many holy places are referred to in the bilingual, historical, and other inscriptions. All the great cities of Babylonia, moreover, were sacred places, the chief in renown and importance in later days being the great city of Babylon, where Ê-sagila, "the temple of the high head," in which was apparently the shrine called "the temple of the foundation of heaven and earth," held the first place. This building is called by Nebuchadnezzar "the temple-tower of Babylon," and may better be regarded as the site of the Biblical "Tower of Babel" than the traditional foundation, Ê-zida, "the everlasting temple," in Borsippa (the Birs Nimroud)--notwithstanding that Borsippa was called the "second Babylon," and its temple-tower "the supreme house of life." The Tower of Babel. Though quite close to Babylon, there is no doubt that Borsippa was a most important religious centre, and this leads to the possibility, that its great temple may have disputed with "the house of the high head," Ê-sagila in Babylon, the honour of being the site of the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of mankind. There is no doubt, however, that Ê-sagila has the prior claim, it being the temple of the supreme god of the later Babylonian pantheon, the counterpart of the God of the Hebrews who commanded the changing of the speech of the people assembled there. Supposing the confusion of tongues to have been a Babylonian legend as well as a Hebrew one (as is possible) it would be by command of Merodach rather than that of Nebo that such a thing would have taken place. Ê-sagila, which is now the ruin known as the mount of Amran ibn Ali, is the celebrated temple of Belus which Alexander and Philip attempted to restore. In addition to the legend of the confusion of tongues, it is probable that there were many similar traditions attached to the great temples of Babylonia, and as time goes on, and the excavations bring more material, a large number of them will probably be recovered. Already we have an interesting and poetical record of the entry of Bel and Beltis into the great temple at Niffer, probably copied from some ancient source, and Gudea, a king of Lagaš (Telloh), who reigned about 2700 B.C., gives an account of the dream which he saw, in which he was instructed by the gods to build or rebuild the temple of Nin-Girsu in his capital city. Ê-sagila according to Herodotus. As the chief fane in the land after Babylon became the capital, and the type of many similar erections, Ê-sagila, the temple of Belus, merits just a short notice. According to Herodotus, it was a massive tower within an enclosure measuring 400 yards each way, and provided with gates of brass, or rather bronze. The tower within consisted of a kind of step-pyramid, the stages being seven in number (omitting the lowest, which was the platform forming the foundation of the structure). A winding ascent gave access to the top, where was a chapel or shrine, containing no statue, but regarded by the Babylonians as the abode of the god. Lower down was another shrine, in which was placed a great statue of Zeus (Bel-Merodach) sitting, with a large table before it. Both statue and table are said to have been of gold, as were also the throne and the steps. Outside the sanctuary (on the ramp, apparently) were two altars, one small and made of gold, whereon only unweaned lambs were sacrificed, and the other larger, for full-grown victims. A Babylonian description. In 1876 the well-known Assyriologist, Mr. George Smith, was fortunate enough to discover a Babylonian description of this temple, of which he published a /précis/. According to this document, there were two courts of considerable extent, the smaller within the larger--neither of them was square, but oblong. Six gates admitted to the temple-area surrounding the platform upon which the tower was built. The platform is stated to have been square and walled, with four gates facing the cardinal points. Within this wall was a building connected with the great /zikkurat/ or tower--the principal edifice--round which were chapels or temples to the principal gods, on all four sides, and facing the cardinal points--that to Nebo and Tašmît being on the east, to Aa or Êa and Nusku on the north, Anu and Bel on the south, and the series of buildings on the west, consisting of a double house--a small court between two wings, was evidently the shrine of Merodach (Belos). In these western chambers stood the couch of the god, and the golden throne mentioned by Herodotus, besides other furniture of great value. The couch was given as being 9 cubits long by 4 broad, about as many feet in each case, or rather more. The centre of these buildings was the great /zikkurat/, or temple- tower, square on its plan, and with the sides facing the cardinal points. The lowest stage was 15 /gar/ square by 5 1/2 high (Smith, 300 feet by 110), and the wall, in accordance with the usual Babylonian custom, seems to have been ornamented with recessed groovings. The second stage was 13 /gar/ square by 3 in height (Smith, 260 by 60 feet). He conjectured, from the expression used, that it had sloping sides. Stages three to five were each one /gar/ (Smith, 20 feet) high, and respectively 10 /gar/ (Smith, 200 feet), 8 1/2 /gar/ (170 feet), and 7 /gar/ (140 feet) square. The dimensions of the sixth stage are omitted, probably by accident, but Smith conjectures that they were in proportion to those which precede. His description omits also the dimensions of the seventh stage, but he gives those of the sanctuary of Belus, which was built upon it. This was 4 /gar/ long, 3 1/2 /gar/ broad, and 2 1/2 /gar/ high (Smith, 80 x 70 x 50 feet). He points out, that the total height was, therefore, 15 /gar/, the same as the dimensions of the base, i.e., the lowest platform, which would make the total height of this world-renowned building rather more than 300 feet above the plains. Other temple-towers. Towers of a similar nature were to be found in all the great cities of Babylonia, and it is probable that in most cases slight differences of form were to be found. That at Niffer, for instance, seems to have had a causeway on each side, making four approaches in the form of a cross. But it was not every city which had a tower of seven stages in addition to the platform on which it was erected, and some of the smaller ones at least seem to have had sloping or rounded sides to the basement-portion, as is indicated by an Assyrian bas-relief. Naturally small temples, with hardly more than the rooms on the ground floor, were to be found, but these temple-towers were a speciality of the country. Their origin. There is some probability that, as indicated in the tenth chapter of Genesis, the desire in building these towers was to get nearer the Deity, or to the divine inhabitants of the heavens in general--it would be easier there to gain attention than on the surface of the earth. Then there was the belief, that the god to whom the place was dedicated would come down to such a sanctuary, which thus became, as it were, the stepping-stone between heaven and earth. Sacrifices were also offered at these temple-towers (whether on the highest point or not is not quite certain), in imitation of the Chaldæan Noah, Ut-napištim, who, on coming out of the ark, made an offering /ina zikkurat šadê/, "on the peak of the mountain," in which passage, it is to be noted, the word /zikkurat/ occurs with what is probably a more original meaning. CHAPTER III THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE CREATION This is the final development of the Babylonian creed. It has already been pointed out that the religion of the Babylonians in all probability had two stages before arriving at that in which the god Merodach occupied the position of chief of the pantheon, the two preceding heads having been, seemingly, Anu, the god of the heavens, and Êa or Aa, also called Enki, the god of the abyss and of deep wisdom. In order to show this, and at the same time to give an idea of their theory of the beginning of things, a short paraphrase of the contents of the seven tablets will be found in the following pages. An Embodiment of doctrine. As far as our knowledge goes, the doctrines incorporated in this legend would seem to show the final official development of the beliefs held by the Babylonians, due, in all probability, to the priests of Babylon after that city became the capital of the federated states. Modifications of their creed probably took place, but nothing seriously affecting it, until after the abandonment of Babylon in the time of Seleucus Nicator, 300 B.C. or thereabouts, when the deity at the head of the pantheon seems not to have been Merodach, but Anu-Bêl. This legend is therefore the most important document bearing upon the beliefs of the Babylonians from the end of the third millennium B.C. until that time, and the philosophical ideas which it contains seem to have been held, in a more or less modified form, among the remnants who still retained the old Babylonian faith, until the sixth century of the present era, as the record by Damascius implies. Properly speaking, it is not a record of the creation, but the story of the fight between Bel and the Dragon, to which the account of the creation is prefixed by way of introduction. Water the first creator. The legend begins by stating that, when the heavens were unnamed and the earth bore no name, the primæval ocean was the producer of all things, and Mummu Tiawath (the sea) she who brought forth everything existing. Their waters (that is, of the primæval ocean and of the sea) were all united in one, and neither plains nor marshes were to be seen; the gods likewise did not exist, even in name, and the fates were undetermined--nothing had been decided as to the future of things. Then arose the great gods. Lahmu and Lahame came first, followed, after a long period, by Anšar and Kišar, generally identified with the "host of heaven" and the "host of earth," these being the meanings of the component parts of their names. After a further long period of days, there came forth their son Anu, the god of the heavens. The gods. Here the narrative is defective, and is continued by Damascius in his /Doubts and Solutions of the First Principles/, in which he states that, after Anos (Anu), come Illinos (Ellila or Bel, "the lord" /par excellence/) and Aos (Aa, Ae, or Êa), the god of Eridu. Of Aos and Dauké (the Babylonian Aa and Damkina) is born, he says, a son called Belos (Bel-Merodach), who, they (apparently the Babylonians) say, is the fabricator of the world--the creator. The designs against them. At this point Damascius ends his extract, and the Babylonian tablet also becomes extremely defective. The next deity to come into existence, however, would seem to have been Nudimmud, who was apparently the deity Aa or Êa (the god of the sea and of rivers) as the god of creation. Among the children of Tauthé (Tiawath) enumerated by Damascius is one named Moumis, who was evidently referred to in the document at that philosopher's disposal. If this be correct, his name, under the form of Mummu, probably existed in one of the defective lines of the first portion of this legend--in any case, his name occurs later on, with those of Tiawath and Apsu (the Deep), his parents, and the three seem to be compared, to their disadvantage, with the progeny of Lahmu and Lahame, the gods on high. As the ways of these last were not those of Tiawath's brood, and Apsu complained that he had no peace by day nor rest by night on account of their proceedings, the three representatives of the chaotic deep, Tiawath, Apsu, and Mummu, discussed how they might get rid the beings who wished to rise to higher things. Mummu was apparently the prime mover in the plot, and the face of Apsu grew bright at the thought of the evil plan which they had devised against "the gods their sons." The inscription being very mutilated here, its full drift cannot be gathered, but from the complete portions which come later it would seem that Mummu's plan was not a remarkably cunning one, being simply to make war upon and destroy the gods of heaven. Tiawath's preparations. The preparations made for this were elaborate. Restlessly, day and night, the powers of evil raged and toiled, and assembled for the fight. 'Mother Hubur," as Tiawath is named in this passage, called her creative powers into action, and gave her followers irresistible weapons. She brought into being also various monsters--giant serpents, sharp of tooth, bearing stings, and with poison filling their bodies like blood; terrible dragons endowed with brilliance, and of enormous stature, reared on high, raging dogs, scorpion-men, fish-men, and many other terrible beings, were created and equipped, the whole being placed under the command of a deity named Kingu, whom she calls her "only husband," and to whom she delivers the tablets of fate, which conferred upon him the godhead of Anu (the heavens), and enabled their possessor to determine the gates among the gods her sons. Kingu replaces Absu. The change in the narrative which comes in here suggests that this is the point at which two legends current in Babylonia were united. Henceforward we hear nothing more of Apsu, the begetter of all things, Tiawath's spouse, nor of Mummu, their son. In all probability there is good reason for this, and inscriptions will doubtless ultimately be found which will explain it, but until then it is only natural to suppose that two different legends have been pieced together to form a harmonious whole. Tiawath's aim. As will be gathered from the above, the story centres in the wish of the goddess of the powers of evil and her kindred to retain creation-- the forming of all living things--in her own hands. As Tiawath means "the sea," and Apsu "the deep," it is probable that this is a kind of allegory personifying the productive power seen in the teeming life of the ocean, and typifying the strange and wonderful forms found therein, which were symbolical, to the Babylonian mind, of chaos and confusion, as well as of evil. The gods hear of the conspiracy. Aa, or Êa, having learned of the plot of Tiawath and her followers against the gods of heaven, naturally became filled with anger, and went and told the whole to Anšar, his father, who in his turn gave way to his wrath, and uttered cries of the deepest grief. After considering what they would do, Anšar applied to his son Anu, "the mighty and brave," saying that, if he would only speak to her, the great dragon's anger would be assuaged, and her rage disappear. In obedience to this behest, Anu went to try his power with the monster, but on beholding her snarling face, feared to approach her, and turned back. Nudimmud was next called upon to become the representative of the gods against their foe, but his success was as that of Anu, and it became needful to seek another champion. And choose Merodach as their champion. The choice fell upon Merodach, the Belus (Bel-Merodach) of Damascius's paraphrase, and at once met with an enthusiastic reception. The god asked simply that an "unchangeable command" might be given to him-- that whatever he ordained should without fail come to pass, in order that he might destroy the common enemy. Invitations were sent to the gods asking them to a festival, where, having met together, they ate and drank, and "decided the fate" for Merodach their avenger, apparently meaning that he was decreed their defender in the conflict with Tiawath, and that the power of creating and annihilating by the word of his mouth was his. Honours were then conferred upon him; princely chambers were erected for him, wherein he sat as judge "in the presence of his fathers," and the rule over the whole universe was given to him. The testing of his newly acquired power followed. A garment was placed in their midst: "He spake with his mouth, and the garment was destroyed, He spake to it again, and the garment was reproduced." Merodach proclaimed king. On this proof of the reality of the powers conferred on him, all the gods shouted "Merodach is king!" and handed to him sceptre, throne, and insignia of royalty. An irresistible weapon, which should shatter all his enemies, was then given to him, and he armed himself also with spear or dart, bow, and quiver; lightning flashed before him, and flaming fire filled his body. Anu, the god of the heavens, had given him a great net, and this he set at the four cardinal points, in order that nothing of the dragon, when he had defeated her, should escape. Seven winds he then created to accompany him, and the great weapon called /Abubu/, "the Flood," completed his equipment. All being ready, he mounted his dreadful, irresistible chariot, to which four steeds were yoked--steeds unsparing, rushing forward, rapid in flight, their teeth full of venom, foam-covered, experienced in galloping, schooled in overthrowing. Being now ready for the fray, Merodach fared forth to meet Tiawath, accompanied by the fervent good wishes of "the gods his fathers." The fight with Tiawath. Advancing, he regarded Tiawath's retreat, but the sight of the enemy was so menacing that even the great Merodach (if we understand the text rightly) began to falter. This, however, was not for long, and the king of the gods stood before Tiawath, who, on her side, remained firm and undaunted. In a somewhat long speech, in which he reproaches Tiawath for her rebellion, he challenges her to battle, and the two meet in fiercest fight. To all appearance the type of all evil did not make use of honest weapons, but sought to overcome the king of the gods with incantations and charms. These, however, had not the slightest effect, for she found herself at once enclosed in Merodach's net, and on opening her mouth to resist and free herself, the evil wind, which Merodach had sent on before him, entered, so that she could not close her lips, and thus inflated, her heart was overpowered, and she became a prey to her conqueror. Having cut her asunder and taken out her heart, thus destroying her life, he threw her body down and stood thereon. Her followers then attempted to escape, but found themselves surrounded and unable to get forth. Like their mistress, they were thrown into the net, and sat in bonds, being afterwards shut up in prison. As for Kingu, he was raised up, bound, and delivered to be with Ugga, the god of death. The tablets of fate, which Tiawath had delivered to Kingu, were taken from him by Merodach, who pressed his seal upon them, and placed them in his breast. The deity Anšar, who had been, as it would seem, deprived of his rightful power by Tiawath, received that power again on the death of the common foe, and Nudimmud "saw his desire upon his enemy." Tiawath's fate. The dismemberment of Tiawath then followed, and her veins having been cut through, the north wind was caused by the deity to carry her blood away into secret places, a statement which probably typifies the opening of obstructions which prevent the rivers flowing from the north from running into the southern seas, helped thereto by the north wind. Finally her body was divided, like "a /mašdê/-fish," into two parts, one of which was made into a covering for the heavens--the "waters above the firmament" of Genesis i. 7. Merodach orders the world anew. Then came the ordering of the universe anew. Having made a covering for the heavens with half the body of the defeated Dragon of Chaos, Merodach set the Abyss, the abode of Nudimmud, in front, and made a corresponding edifice above--the heavens--where he founded stations for the gods Anu, Bel, and Ae. Stations for the great gods in the likeness of constellations, together with what is regarded as the Zodiac, were his next work. He then designated the year, setting three constellations for each month, and made a station for Nibiru-- Merodach's own star--as the overseer of all the lights in the firmament. He then caused the new moon, Nannaru, to shine, and made him the ruler of the night, indicating his phases, one of which was on the seventh day, and the other, a /šabattu/, or day of rest, in the middle of the month. Directions with regard to the moon's movements seem to follow, but the record is mutilated, and their real nature consequently doubtful. With regard to other works which were performed we have no information, as a gap prevents their being ascertained. Something, however, seems to have been done with Merodach's net-- probably it was placed in the heavens as a constellation, as was his bow, to which several names were given. Later on, the winds were bound and assigned to their places, but the account of the arrangement of other things is mutilated and obscure, though it can be recognised that the details in this place were of considerable interest. The creation of man. To all appearance the gods, after he had ordered the universe and the things then existing, urged Merodach to further works of wonder. Taking up their suggestion, he considered what he should do, and then communicated to his father Ae his plan for the creation of man with his own blood, in order that the service and worship of the gods might be established. This portion is also unfortunately very imperfect, and the details of the carrying out of the plan are entirely wanting. Berosus' narrative fills the gap. It is noteworthy that this portion of the narrative has been preserved by Abydenus, George the Syncellus, and Eusebius, in their quotations from Berosus. According to this Chaldæan writer, there was a woman named Omoroca, or, in Chaldæan, Thalatth (apparently a mistake for Thauatth, i.e. Tiawath), whose name was equivalent to the Greek Thalassa, the sea. It was she who had in her charge all the strange creatures then existing. At this period, Belus (Bel-Merodach) came, and cut the woman asunder, forming out of one half the earth, and of the other the heavens, at the same time destroying all the creatures which were within her--all this being an allegory, for the whole universe consists of moisture, and creatures are constantly generated therein. The deity then cut off his own head, and the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the earth, and from this men were formed. Hence it is that men are rational, and partake of divine knowledge. A second creation. This Belsus, "who is called Zeus," divided the darkness, separated the heavens from the earth, and reduced the universe to order. The animals which had been created, however, not being able to bear the light, died. Belus then, seeing the void thus made, ordered one of the gods to take off his head, and mix the blood with the soil, forming other men and animals which should be able to bear the light. He also formed the stars, the sun, the moon, and the five planets. It would thus seem that there were two creations, the first having been a failure because Belus had not foreseen that it was needful to produce beings which should be able to bear the light. Whether this repetition was really in the Babylonian legend, or whether Berosus (or those who quote him) has merely inserted and united two varying accounts, will only be known when the cuneiform text is completed. The concluding tablet. The tablet of the fifty-one names completes the record of the tablets found at Nineveh and Babylon. In this Merodach receives the titles of all the other gods, thus identifying him with them, and leading to that tendency to monotheism of which something will be said later on. In this text, which is written, like the rest of the legend, in poetical form, Merodach is repeatedly called /Tutu/, a mystic word meaning "creator," and "begetter," from the reduplicate root /tu/ or /utu/--which was to all appearances his name when it was desired to refer to him especially in that character. Noteworthy in this portion is the reference to Merodach's creation of mankind:-- Line 25. "Tuto: Aga-azaga (the glorious crown)--may he make the crowns glorious. 26. The lord of the glorious incantation bringing the dead to life; 27. He who had mercy on the gods who had been overpowered; 28. Made heavy the yoke which he had laid on the gods who were his enemies, 29. (And) to redeem(?) them, created mankind. 30. 'The merciful one,' 'he with whom is salvation,' 31. May his word be established, and not forgotten, 32. In the mouth of the black-headed ones[*] whom his hands have made." [*] I.e. mankind. Man the redeemer. The phrase "to redeem them" is, in the original, /ana padi-šunu/, the verb being from /padû/, "to spare," "set free," and if this rendering be correct, as seems probable, the Babylonian reasons for the creation of mankind would be, that they might carry on the service and worship of the gods, and by their righteousness redeem those enemies of the gods who were undergoing punishment for their hostility. Whether by this Tiawath, Apsu, Mummu, Kingu, and the monsters whom she had created were included, or only the gods of heaven who had joined her, the record does not say. Naturally, this doctrine depends entirely upon the correctness of the translation of the words quoted. Jensen, who first proposed this rendering, makes no attempt to explain it, and simply asks: "Does 'them' in 'to redeem(?) them' refer to the gods named in line 28 or to mankind and then to a future--how meant?-- redemption? Eschatology? Zimmern's 'in their place' unprovable. Delitzsch refrains from an explanation." The bilingual account of the creation. Aruru aids Merodach. Whilst dealing with this part of the religious beliefs of the Babylonians, a few words are needed concerning the creation-story which is prefixed to an incantation used in a purification ceremony. The original text is Sumerian (dialectic), and is provided with a Semitic translation. In this inscription, after stating that nothing (in the beginning) existed, and even the great cities and temples of Babylonia were as yet unbuilt, the condition of the world is briefly indicated by the statement that "All the lands were sea." The renowned cities of Babylonia seem to have been regarded as being as much creations of Merodach as the world and its inhabitants--indeed, it is apparently for the glorification of those cities by attributing their origin to Merodach, that the bilingual account of the creation was composed.. "When within the sea there was a stream"--that is, when the veins of Tiawath had been cut through--Êridu (probably = Paradise) and the temple Ê-sagila within the Abyss were constructed, and after that Babylon and the earthly temple of Ê-sagila within it. Then he made the gods and the Annunnaki (the gods of the earth), proclaimed a glorious city as the seat of the joy of their hearts, and afterwards made a pleasant place in which the gods might dwell. The creation of mankind followed, in which Merodach was aided by the goddess Aruru, who made mankind's seed. Finally, plants, trees, and the animals, were produced, after which Merodach constructed bricks, beams, houses, and cities, including Niffer and Erech with their renowned temples. We see here a change in the teaching with regard to Merodach--the gods are no longer spoken of as "his fathers," but he is the creator of the gods, as well as of mankind. The order of the gods in the principal lists. It is unfortunate that no lists of gods have been found in a sufficiently complete state to allow of the scheme after which they were drawn up to be determined without uncertainty. It may, nevertheless, be regarded as probable that these lists, at least in some cases, are arranged in conformity (to a certain extent) with the appearance of the deities in the so-called creation-story. Some of them begin with Anu, and give him various names, among them being Anšar and Kišar, Lahmu and Lahame, etc. More specially interesting, however, is a well-known trilingual list of gods, which contains the names of the various deities in the following order:-- EXTRACTS FROM THE TRILINGUAL LIST /Obverse/ Sumer. Dialect Sumer. Standard Common Explanation (Semit. or Sumer.) 1. Dimmer Dingir Îlu God. 2. U-ki En-ki Ê-a Êa or Aa. 3. Gašan(?)-ki Nin-ki Dawkina Dauké, the consort of Êa. 4. Mu-ul-lil En-lil-la Bêl The God Bel. 5. E-lum A-lim Bêl 6. Gašan(?)-lil Nin-lil-la dam-bi sal Bel's consort. 7. U-lu-a Ni-rig Ênu-rêštu The god of Niffer. 8. U-lib-a Ni-rig Ênu-rêštu 9-12 have Ênu-rêštu's consort, sister, and attendant. 13. U-šab-sib En-šag-duga Nusku Nusku 14-19 have two other names of Nusku, followed by three names of his consort. A number of names of minor divinities then follow. At line 43 five names of Êa are given, followed by four of Merodach:-- 48. U-bi-lu-lu En-bi-lu-lu Marduk Merodach 49. U-Tin-dir ki En-Tin-dir ki Marduk Merodach as "lord of Babylon." 50. U-dimmer-an-kia En-dinger-an-kia Marduk Merodach as "lord god of heaven and earth." 51. U-ab-šar-u En-ab-šar-u Marduk Merodach, apparently as "lord of the 36,000 steers." 52. U-bar-gi-si Nin-bar-gi-si Zer-panîtum Merodach's consort. 53. Gašan-abzu Nin-abzu dam-bi sal "the Lady of the Abyss," his consort. The remainder of the obverse is mutilated, but gave the names of Nebo in Sumerian, and apparently also of Tašmêtum, his consort. The beginning of the reverse also is mutilated, but seems to have given the names of the sun-god, Šamaš, and his consort, followed by those of Kîttu and Mêšarum, "justice and righteousness," his attendants. Other interesting names are: /Reverse/ 8. U-libir-si En-ubar-si Dumu-zi Tammuz 9. Sir-tumu Sir-du ama Dumuzi-gi the mother of Tammuz 12. Gašan-anna Innanna Ištar Ištar (Venus) as "lady of heaven." 20. Nin-si-anna Innanna mul Ištar the star (the planet Venus). 21. Nin Nin-tag-taga Nanaa a goddess identified with Ištar. 23. U-šah Nina-šah Pap-sukal the gods' messenger. 24. U-banda Lugal-banda Lugal-banda 26. U-Mersi Nin-Girsu Nin-Girsu the chief god of Lagaš. 27. Ma-sib-sib Ga-tum-duga Bau Bau, a goddess identified with Gula. Four non-Semitic names of Gula follow, of which that in line 31 is the most interesting:-- 31. Gašan-ti-dibba Nin-tin-guua Gula "the lady saving from death." 33. Gašan-ki-gal Ereš-ki-gala Allatu Persephone. 36. U-mu-zi-da Nin-giš-zi-da Nin-giš-zida "the lord of the everlasting tree." 37. U-urugal Ne-eri-gal Nerigal Nergal. 42. Mulu-hursag Galu-hursag Amurru the Amorite god. 43. Gašan-gu-edina Nin-gu-edina (apparently the consort of Amurru). In all probability this list is one of comparatively late date, though its chronological position with regard to the others is wholly uncertain--it may not be later, and may even be earlier, than those beginning with Anu, the god of the heavens. The important thing about it is, that it begins with /îlu/, god, in general, which is written, in the standard dialect (that of the second column) with the same character as that used for the name of Anu. After this comes Aa or Êa, the god of the earth, and his consort, followed by En-lilla, the older Bel--Illinos in Damascius. The name of Êa is repeated again in line 43 and following, where he is apparently re-introduced as the father of Merodach, whose names immediately follow. This peculiarity is also found in other lists of gods and is undoubtedly a reflection of the history of the Babylonian religion. As this list replaces Anu by /îlu/, it indicates the rule of Enki or Êa, followed by that of Merodach, who, as has been shown, became the chief divinity of the Babylonian pantheon in consequence of Babylon having become the capital of the country. CHAPTER IV THE PRINCIPAL GODS OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS Anu. The name of this divinity is derived from the Sumero-Akkadian /ana/, "heaven," of which he was the principal deity. He is called the father of the great gods, though, in the creation-story, he seems to be described as the son of Anšar and Kišar. In early names he is described as the father, creator, and god, probably meaning the supreme being. His consort was Anatu, and the pair are regarded in the lists as the same as the Lahmu and Lahame of the creation-story, who, with other deities, are also described as gods of the heavens. Anu was worshipped at Erech, along with Ištar. Ea. Is given as if it were the /Semitic/ equivalent of /Enki/, "the lord of the earth," but it would seem to be really a Sumerian word, later written /Ae/, and certain inscriptions suggest that the true reading was /Aa/. His titles are "king of the Abyss, creator of everything, lord of all," the first being seemingly due to the fact that Aa is a word which may, in its reduplicate form, mean "waters," or if read /Êa/, "house of water." He also, like Anu, is called "father of the gods." As this god was likewise "lord of deep wisdom," it was to him that his son Merodach went for advice whenever he was in doubt. On account of his knowledge, he was the god of artisans in general-- potters, blacksmiths, sailors, builders, stone-cutters, gardeners, seers, barbers, farmers, etc. This is the Aos (a form which confirms the reading Aa) of Damascius, and the Oannes of the extracts from Berosus, who states that he was "a creature endowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, and under the fish's head another head, with feet below, like those of a man, with a fish's tail." This description applies fairly well to certain bas-reliefs from Nimroud in the British Museum. The creature described by Berosus lived in the Persian Gulf, landing during the day to teach the inhabitants the building of houses and temples, the cultivation of useful plants, the gathering of fruits, and also geometry, law, and letters. From him, too, came the account of the beginning of things referred to in chapter III. which, in the original Greek, is preceded by a description of the composite monsters said to have existed before Merodach assumed the rule of the universe. The name of his consort, Damkina or Dawkina, probably means "the eternal spouse," and her other names, /Gašan-ki/ (Sumerian dialectic) and /Nin-ki/ (non-dialectic), "Lady of the earth," sufficiently indicates her province. She is often mentioned in the incantations with Êa. The forsaking of the worship of Êa as chief god for that of Merodach seems to have caused considerable heartburning in Babylonia, if we may judge from the story of the Flood, for it was on account of his faithfulness that Utnipištim, the Babylonian Noah, attained to salvation from the Flood and immortality afterwards. All through this adventure it was the god Êa who favoured him, and afterwards gave him immortality like that of the gods. There is an interesting Sumerian text in which the ship of Êa seems to be described, the woods of which its various parts were formed being named, and in it, apparently, were Enki (Êa), Damgal-nunna (Damkina), his consort, Asari-lu-duga (Merodach), In-ab (or Ineš), the pilot of Êridu (Êa's city), and Nin-igi-nagar-sir, "the great architect of heaven":-- "May the ship before thee bring fertility, May the ship after thee bring joy, In thy heart may it make joy of heart . . . ." Êa was the god of fertility, hence this ending to the poetical description of the ship of Êa. Bel. The deity who is mentioned next in order in the list given above is the "older Bel," so called to distinguish him from Bel-Merodach. His principal names were /Mullil/ (dialectic) or /En-lilla/[*] (standard speech), the /Illinos/ of Damascius. His name is generally translated "lord of mist," so-called as god of the underworld, his consort being /Gašan-lil/ or /Nan-lilla/, "the lady of the mist," in Semitic Babylonian /Bêltu/, "the Lady," par excellence. Bel, whose name means "the lord," was so called because he was regarded as chief of the gods. As there was considerable confusion in consequence of the title Bel having been given to Merodach, Tiglath-pileser I. (about 1200 B.C.) refers to him as the "older Bel" in describing the temple which he built for him at Aššur. Numerous names of men compounded with his occur until the latest times, implying that, though the favourite god was Merodach, the worship of Bel was not forgotten, even at Babylon-- that he should have been adored at his own city, Niffur, and at Dur- Kuri-galzu, where Kuri-galzu I. built a temple for "Bel, the lord of the lands," was naturally to be expected. Being, like Êa, a god of the earth, he is regarded as having formed a trinity with Anu, the god of heaven, and Êa, the god of the deep, and prayer to these three was as good as invoking all the gods of the universe. Classification of the gods according to the domain of their power would naturally take place in a religious system in which they were all identified with each other, and this classification indicates, as Jastrow says, a deep knowledge of the powers of nature, and a more than average intelligence among the Babylonians--indeed, he holds it as a proof that, at the period of the older empire, there were schools and students who had devoted themselves to religious speculation upon this point. He also conjectures that the third commandment of the Law of Moses was directed against this doctrine held by the Babylonians. [*] Ordinarily pronounced /Illila/, as certain glosses and Damascius's /Illinos/ (for /Illilos/) show. Beltis. This goddess was properly only the spouse of the older Bel, but as /Bêltu/, her Babylonian name, simply meant "lady" in general (just as /Bêl/ or /bêlu/ meant "lord"), it became a title which could be given to any goddess, and was in fact borne by Zer-panîtum, Ištar, Nanaa, and others. It was therefore often needful to add the name of the city over which the special /Bêltu/ presided, in order to make clear which of them was meant. Besides being the title of the spouse of the older Bel, having her earthly seat with him in Niffur and other less important shrines, the Assyrians sometimes name Bêltu the spouse of Aššur, their national god, suggesting an identification, in the minds of the priests, with that deity. Ênu-rêštu or Nirig.[*] Whether /Ênu-rêštu/ be a translation of /Nirig/ or not, is uncertain, but not improbable, the meaning being "primeval lord," or something similar, and "lord" that of the first element, /ni/, in the Sumerian form. In support of this reading and rendering may be quoted the fact, that one of the descriptions of this divinity is /ašsarid îlani âhê-šu/, "the eldest of the gods his brothers." It is noteworthy that this deity was a special favourite among the Assyrians, many of whose kings, to say nothing of private persons, bore his name as a component part of theirs. In the bilingual poem entitled /Ana-kime gimma/ ("Formed like Anu"), he is described as being the son of Bel (hence his appearance after Bel in the list printed above), and in the likeness of Anu, for which reason, perhaps, his divinity is called "Anuship." Beginning with words praising him, it seems to refer to his attitude towards the gods of hostile lands, against whom, apparently, he rode in a chariot of the sacred lapis-lazuli. Anu having endowed him with terrible glory, the gods of the earth feared to attack him, and his onrush was as that of a storm-flood. By the command of Bel, his course was directed towards Ê-kur, the temple of Bel at Niffur. Here he was met by Nusku, the supreme messenger of Bel, who, with words of respect and of praise, asks him not to disturb the god Bel, his father, in his seat, nor make the gods of the earth tremble in Upšukennaku (the heavenly festival-hall of the gods), and offers him a gift.[†] It will thus be seen that Ênu-rêštu was a rival to the older Bel, whose temple was the great tower in stages called Ê-kura, in which, in all probability, Ê-šu-me-du, the shrine of Ênu-rêštu, was likewise situated. The inscriptions call him "god of war," though, unlike Nergal, he was not at the same time god of disease and pestilence. To all appearance he was the god of the various kinds of stones, of which another legend states that he "determined their fate." He was "the hero, whose net overthrows the enemy, who summons his army to plunder the hostile land, the royal son who caused his father to bow down to him from afar." "The son who sat not with the nurse, and eschewed(?) the strength of milk," "the offspring who did not know his father." "He rode over the mountains and scattered seed--unanimously the plants proclaimed his name to their dominion, among them like a great wild bull he raises his horns." [*] /Ênu-rêštu/ is the reading which I have adopted as the Semitic Babylonian equivalent of the name of this divinity, in consequence of the Aramaic transcription given by certain contract-tablets discovered by the American expedition to Niffer, and published by Prof. Clay of Philadelphia. [†] The result of this request is not known, in consequence of the defective state of the tablets. Many other interesting descriptions of the deity Nirig (generally read Nin-ip) occur, and show, with those quoted here, that his story was one of more than ordinary interest. Nusku. This deity was especially invoked by the Assyrian kings, but was in no wise exclusively Assyrian, as is shown by the fact that his name occurs in many Babylonian inscriptions. He was the great messenger of the gods, and is variously given as "the offspring of the abyss, the creation of Êa," and "the likeness of his father, the first-born of Bel." As Gibil, the fire-god, has likewise the same diverse parentage, it is regarded as likely that these two gods were identical. Nusku was the god whose command is supreme, the counsellor of the great gods, the protector of the Igigi (the gods of the heavens), the great and powerful one, the glorious day, the burning one, the founder of cities, the renewer of sanctuaries, the provider of feasts for all the Igigi, without whom no feast took place in Ê-kura. Like Nebo, he bore the glorious spectre, and it was said of him that he attacked mightily in battle. Without him the sun-god, the judge, could not give judgment. All this points to the probability, that Nusku may not have been the fire-god, but the brother of the fire-god, i.e. either flame, or the light of fire. The sun-god, without light, could not see, and therefore could not give judgment: no feast could be prepared without fire and its flame. As the evidence of the presence of the shining orbs in the heavens--the light of their fires--he was the messenger of the gods, and was honoured accordingly. From this idea, too, he became their messenger in general, especially of Bel-Merodach, the younger Bel, whose requests he carried to the god Êa in the Deep. In one inscription he is identified with Nirig or Ênu-rêštu, who is described above. Merodach. Concerning this god, and how he arose to the position of king of all the gods of heaven, has been fully shown in chapter III. Though there is but little in his attributes to indicate any connection with Šamaš, there is hardly any doubt that he was originally a sun-god, as is shown by the etymology of his name. The form, as it has been handed down to us, is somewhat shortened, the original pronunciation having been /Amar-uduk/, "the young steer of day," a name which suggests that he was the morning sun. Of the four names given at the end of chapter III., two--"lord of Babylon," and "lord god of heaven and earth,"--may be regarded as expressing his more well-known attributes. /En-ab-šar- u/, however, is a provisional, though not impossible, reading and rendering, and if correct, the "36,000 wild bulls" would be a metaphorical way of speaking of "the 36,000 heroes," probably meaning the gods of heaven in all their grades. The signification of /En- bilulu/ is unknown. Like most of the other gods of the Babylonian pantheon, however, Merodach had many other names, among which may be mentioned /Asari/, which has been compared with the Egyptian Osiris, /Asari-lu-duga/, "/Asari/ who is good," compared with Osiris Unnefer; /Namtila/, "life", /Tutu/, "begetter (of the gods), renewer (of the gods)," /Šar-azaga/, "the glorious incantation," /Mu-azaga/, "the glorious charm," and many others. The last two refer to his being the god who, by his kindness, obtained from his father Êa, dwelling in the abyss, those charms and incantations which benefited mankind, and restored the sick to health. In this connection, a frequent title given to him is "the merciful one," but most merciful was he in that he spared the lives of the gods who, having sided with Taiwath, were his enemies, as is related in the tablet of the fifty-one names. In connection with the fight he bore also the names, "annihilator of the enemy," "rooter out of all evil," "troubler of the evil ones," "life of the whole of the gods." From these names it is clear that Merodach, in defeating Tiawath, annihilated, at the same time, the spirit of evil, Satan, the accuser, of which she was, probably, the Babylonian type. But unlike the Saviour in the Christian creed, he saved not only man, at that time uncreated, but the gods of heaven also. As "king of the heavens," he was identified with the largest of the planets, Jupiter, as well as with other heavenly bodies. Traversing the sky in great zigzags, Jupiter seemed to the Babylonians to superintend the stars, and this was regarded as emblematic of Merodach shepherding them--"pasturing the gods like sheep," as the tablet has it. A long list of gods gives as it were the court of Merodach, held in what was apparently a heavenly /Ê-sagila/, and among the spiritual beings mentioned are /Minâ-îkul-bêli/ and /Minâ-ištî-bêli/, "what my lord has eaten," and "what has my lord drunk," /Nadin-mê-gati/, "he who gives water for the hands," also the two door-keepers, and the four dogs of Merodach, wherein people are inclined to see the four satellites of Jupiter, which, it is thought, were probably visible to certain of the more sharp-sighted stargazers of ancient Babylonia. These dogs were called /Ukkumu/, /Akkulu/, /Ikšsuda/, and /Iltebu/, "Seizer," "Eater," "Grasper," and "Holder." Images of these beings were probably kept in the temple of Ê-sagila at Babylon. Zer-panîtum. This was the name of the consort of Merodach, and is generally read Sarp(b)anitum--a transcription which is against the native orthography and etymology, namely, "seed-creatress" (Zer-banîtum). The meaning attributed to this word is partly confirmed by another name which Lehmann has pointed out that she possessed, namely, /Erua/ or /Aru'a/, who, in an inscription of Antiochus Soter (280-260 B.C.) is called "the queen who produces birth," but more especially by the circumstance, that she must be identical with Aruru, who created the seed of mankind along with Merodach. Why she was called "the lady of the abyss," and elsewhere "the voice of the abyss" (/Me-abzu/) is not known. Zer-panîtum was no mere reflection of Merodach, but one of the most important goddesses in the Babylonian pantheon. The tendency of scholars has been to identify her with the moon, Merodach being a solar deity and the meaning "silvery"--/Sarpanitum/, from /sarpu/, one of the words for "silver," was regarded as supporting this idea. She was identified with the Elamite goddess named Elagu, and with the Lahamum of the island of Bahrein, the Babylonian Tilmun. Nebo and Tašmêtum. As "the teacher" and "the hearer" these were among the most popular of the deities of Babylonia and Assyria. Nebo (in Semitic Babylonian Nabû) was worshipped at the temple-tower known as Ê-zida, "the ever- lasting house," at Borsippa, now the Birs Nimroud, traditionally regarded as the site of the Tower of Babel, though that title, as has already been shown, would best suit the similar structure known as Ê-sagila, "the house of the high head," in Babylon itself. In composition with men's names, this deity occurs more than any other, even including Merodach himself--a clear indication of the estimation in which the Babylonians and Assyrians held the possession of knowledge. The character with which his name is written means, with the pronunciation of /ak/, "to make," "to create," "to receive," "to proclaim," and with the pronunciation of /me/, "to be wise," "wisdom," "open of ear," "broad of ear," and "to make, of a house," the last probably referring to the design rather than to the actual building. Under the name of /Dim-šara/ he was "the creator of the writing of the scribes," as /Ni-zu/, "the god who knows" (/zu/, "to know"), as /Mermer/, "the speeder(?) of the command of the gods"--on the Sumerian side indicating some connection with Addu or Rimmon, the thunderer, and on the Semitic side with Ênu-rêštu, who was one of the gods' messengers. A small fragment in the British Museum gave his attributes as god of the various cities of Babylonia, but unfortunately their names are lost or incomplete. From what remains, however, we see that Nebo was god of ditching(?), commerce(?), granaries(?), fasting(?), and food; it was he who overthrew the land of the enemy, and who protected planting; and, lastly, he was god of Borsippa. The worship of Nebo was not always as popular as it became in the later days of the Babylonian empire and after its fall, and Jastrow is of opinion that Hammurabi intentionally ignored this deity, giving the preference to Merodach, though he did not suppress the worship. Why this should have taken place is not by any means certain, for Nebo was a deity adored far and wide, as may be gathered from the fact that there was a mountain bearing his name in Moab, upon which Moses--also an "announcer," adds Jastrow--died. Besides the mountain, there was a city in Moab so named, and another in Judæa. That it was the Babylonian Nebo originally is implied by the form--the Hebrew corresponding word is /nabi/. How old the worship of Tašmêtum, his consort, is, is doubtful, but her name first occurs in a date of the reign of Hammurabi. Details concerning her attributes are rare, and Jastrow regards this goddess as the result of Babylonian religious speculations. It is noteworthy that her worship appears more especially in later times, but it may be doubted whether it is a product of those late times, especially when we bear in mind the remarkable seal-impression on an early tablet of 3500-4500 B.C., belonging to Lord Amherst of Hackney, in which we see a male figure with wide-open mouth seizing a stag by his horns, and a female figure with no mouth at all, but with very prominent ears, holding a bull in a similar manner. Here we have the "teacher" and the "hearer" personified in a very remarkable manner, and it may well be that this primitive picture shows the idea then prevailing with regard to these two deities. It is to be noted that the name of Tašmêtum has a Sumerian equivalent, namely, /Kurnun/, and that the ideograph by which it is represented is one whose general meaning seems to be "to bind," perhaps with the additional signification of "to accomplish," in which case "she who hears" would also be "she who obeys." Šamaš and his consort. At all times the worship of the sun in Babylonia and Assyria was exceedingly popular, as, indeed, was to be expected from his importance as the greatest of the heavenly bodies and the brightest, without whose help men could not live, and it is an exceedingly noteworthy fact that this deity did not become, like Ra in Egypt, the head of the pantheon. This place was reserved for Merodach, also a sun-god, but possessing attributes of a far wider scope. Šamaš is mentioned as early as the reign of Ê-anna-tum, whose date is set at about 4200 B.C., and at this period his Semitic name does not, naturally, occur, the character used being /Utu/, or, in its longer form, /Utuki/. It is worthy of note that, in consequence of the Babylonian idea of evolution in the creation of the world, less perfect beings brought forth those which were more perfect, and the sun was therefore the offspring of Nannara or Sin, the moon. In accordance with the same idea, the day, with the Semites, began with the evening, the time when the moon became visible, and thus becomes the offspring of the night. In the inscriptions Šamaš is described as "the light of things above and things below, the illuminator of the regions," "the supreme judge of heaven and earth," "the lord of living creatures, the gracious one of the lands." Dawning in the foundation of the sky, he opened the locks and threw wide the gates of the high heavens, and raised his head, covering heaven and earth with his splendour. He was the constantly righteous in heaven, the truth within the ears of the lands, the god knowing justice and injustice, righteousness he supported upon his shoulders, unrighteousness he burst asunder like a leather bond, etc. It will thus be seen, that the sun-god was the great god of judgment and justice--indeed, he is constantly alluded to as "the judge," the reason in all probability being, that as the sun shines upon the earth all day long, and his light penetrates everywhere, he was regarded as the god who knew and investigated everything, and was therefore best in a position to judge aright, and deliver a just decision. It is for this reason that his image appears at the head of the stele inscribed with Hammurabi's laws, and legal ceremonies were performed within the precincts of his temples. The chief seats of his worship were the great temples called Ê-babbara, "the house of great light," in the cities of Larsa and Sippar. The consort of Šamaš was Aa, whose chief seat was at Sippar, side by side with Šamaš. Though only a weak reflex of the sun-god, her worship was exceedingly ancient, being mentioned in an inscription of Man-ištusu, who is regarded as having reigned before Sargon of Agadé. From the fact that, in one of the lists, she has names formed by reduplicating the name of the sun-god, /Utu/, she would seem once to have been identical with him, in which case it may be supposed that she personified the setting sun--"the double sun" from the magnified disc which he presents at sunset, when, according to a hymn to the setting sun sung at the temple at Borsippa, Aa, in the Sumerian line Kur-nirda, was accustomed to go to receive him. According to the list referred to above, Aa, with the name of Burida in Sumerian, was more especially the consort of Ša-zu, "him who knows the heart," one of the names of Merodach, who was probably the morning sun, and therefore the exact counterpart of the sun at evening. Besides Šamaš and Utu, the latter his ordinary Sumerian name, the sun- god had several other non-Semitic names, including /Gišnu/,[*] "the light," /Ma-banda-anna/, "the bark of heaven," /U-ê/, "the rising sun," /Mitra/, apparently the Persian Mithra; /Ume-šimaš/ and Nahunda, Elamite names, and Sahi, the Kassite name of the sun. He also sometimes bears the names of his attendants Kittu and Mêšaru, "Truth" and "Righteousness," who guided him upon his path as judge of the earth. [*] It is the group expressing this word which is used for Šamaš in the name of Šamaš-šum-ukîn (Saosduchinos), the brother of Aššur- bani-âpli (Assurbanipal). The Greek equivalent implies the pronunciation /Šawaš/, as well as /Šamaš/. Tammuz and Ištar. The date of the rise of the myth of Tammuz is uncertain, but as the name of this god is found on tablets of the time of Lugal-anda and Uru-ka-gina (about 3500 B.C.), it can hardly be of later date than 4000 B.C., and may be much earlier. As he is repeatedly called "the shepherd," and had a domain where he pastured his flock, Professor Sayce sees in Tammuz "Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla," who, according to Berosus, ruled in Babylonia for 10 /sari/, or 36,000 years, and was the sixth king of the mythical period. According to the classic story, the mother of Tammuz had unnatural intercourse with her own father, being urged thereto by Aphrodite whom she had offended, and who had decided thus to avenge herself. Being pursued by her father, who wished to kill her for this crime, she prayed to the gods, and was turned into a tree, from whose trunk Adonis was afterwards born. Aphrodite was so charmed with the infant that, placing him in a chest, she gave him into the care of Persephone, who, however, when she discovered what a treasure she had in her keeping, refused to part with him again. Zeus was appealed to, and decided that for four months in the year Adonis should be left to himself, four should be spent with Aphrodite, and four with Persephone, and six with Aphrodite on earth. He was afterwards slain, whilst hunting, by a wild boar. Nothing has come down to us as yet concerning this legend except the incident of his dwelling in Hades, whither Ištar, the Babylonian Venus, went in search of him. It is not by any means unlikely, however, that the whole story existed in Babylonia, and thence spread to Phœnicia, and afterwards to Greece. In Phœnicia it was adapted to the physical conditions of the country, and the place of Tammuz's encounter with the boar was said to be the mountains of Lebanon, whilst the river named after him, Adonis (now the Nahr Ibrahim), which ran red with the earth washed down by the autumn rains, was said to be so coloured in consequence of being mingled with his blood. The descent of Tammuz to the underworld, typified by the flowing down of the earth-laden waters of the rivers to the sea, was not only celebrated by the Phœnicians, but also by the Babylonians, who had at least two series of lamentations which were used on this occasion, and were probably the originals of those chanted by the Hebrew women in the time of Ezekiel (about 597 B.C.). Whilst on earth, he was the one who nourished the ewe and her lamb, the goat and her kid, and also caused them to be slain--probably in sacrifice. "He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth," the mourners cried, "he will make plenty to overflow for the land of the dead, for its lamentations for the day of his fall, in the unpropitious month of his year." There was also lamentation for the cessation of the growth of vegetation, and one of these hymns, after addressing him as the shepherd and husband of Ištar, "lord of the underworld," and "lord of the shepherd's seat," goes on to liken him to a germ which has not absorbed water in the furrow, whose bud has not blossomed in the meadow; to the sapling which has not been planted by the watercourse, and to the sapling whose root has been removed. In the "Lamentations" in the Manchester Museum, Ištar, or one of her devotees, seems to call for Tammuz, saying, "Return, my husband," as she makes her way to the region of gloom in quest of him. Ereš-ê-gala, "the lady of the great house" (Persephone), is also referred to, and the text seems to imply that Ištar entered her domain in spite of her. In this text other names are given to him, namely, /Tumu-giba/, "son of the flute," /Ama-elaggi/, and /Ši-umunnagi/, "life of the people." The reference to sheep and goats in the British Museum fragment recalls the fact that in an incantation for purification the person using it is told to get the milk of a yellow goat which has been brought forth in the sheep-fold of Tammuz, recalling the flocks of the Greek sun-god Helios. These were the clouds illuminated by the sun, which were likened to sheep--indeed, one of the early Sumerian expressions for "fleece" was "sheep of the sky." The name of Tammuz in Sumerian is Dumu-zi, or in its rare fullest form, Dumu-zida, meaning "true" or "faithful son." There is probably some legend attached to this which is at present unknown. In all probability Ištar, the spouse of Tammuz, is best known from her descent into Hades in quest of him when with Persephone (Ereš-ki-gal) in the underworld. In this she had to pass through seven gates, and an article of clothing was taken from her at each, until she arrived in the underworld quite naked, typifying the teaching, that man can take nothing away with him when he departs this life. During her absence, things naturally began to go wrong upon the earth, and the gods were obliged to intervene, and demand her release, which was ultimately granted, and at each gate, as she returned, the adornments which she had left were given back to her. It is uncertain whether the husband whom she sought to release was set free, but the end of the inscription seems to imply that Ištar was successful in her mission. In this story she typifies the faithful wife, but other legends show another side of her character, as in that of Gilgameš, ruler of her city Erech, to whom she makes love. Gilgameš, however, knowing the character of the divine queen of his city too well, reproaches her with her treatment of her husband and her other lovers--Tammuz, to whom, from year to year, she caused bitter weeping; the bright coloured Allala bird, whom she smote and broke his wings; the lion perfect in strength, in whom she cut wounds "by sevens"; the horse glorious in war, to whom she caused hardship and distress, and to his mother Silili bitter weeping; the shepherd who provided for her things which she liked, whom she smote and changed to a jackal; Išullanu, her father's gardener, whom she tried, apparently, to poison, but failing, she smote him, and changed him to a statue(?). On being thus reminded of her misdeeds, Ištar was naturally angry, and, ascending to heaven, complained to her father Anu and her mother Anatu, the result being, that a divine bull was sent against Gilgameš and Enki-du, his friend and helper. The bull, however, was killed, and a portion of the animal having been cut off, Enki-du threw it at the goddess, saying at the same time that, if he could only get hold of her, he would treat her similarly. Apparently Ištar recognised that there was nothing further to be done in the matter, so, gathering the hand-maidens, pleasure- women and whores, in their presence she wept over the portion of the divine bull which had been thrown at her. The worship of Ištar, she being the goddess of love and war, was considerably more popular than that of her spouse, Tammuz, who, as among the western Semitic nations, was adored rather by the women than the men. Her worship was in all probability of equal antiquity, and branched out, so to say, in several directions, as may be judged by her many names, each of which had a tendency to become a distinct personality. Thus the syllabaries give the character which represents her name as having also been pronounced /Innanna/, /Ennen/, and /Nin/, whilst a not uncommon name in other inscriptions is /Ama-Innanna/, "mother Ištar." The principal seat of her worship in Babylonia was at Erech, and in Assyria at Nineveh--also at Arbela, and many other places. She was also honoured (at Erech and elsewhere) under the Elamite names of Tišpak and Šušinak, "the Susian goddess." Nina. From the name /Nin/, which Ištar bore, there is hardly any doubt that she acquired the identification with Nina, which is provable as early as the time of the Lagašite kings, Lugal-anda and Uru-ka-gina. As identified with Aruru, the goddess who helped Merodach to create mankind, Ištar was also regarded as the mother of all, and in the Babylonian story of the Flood, she is made to say that she had begotten man, but like "the sons of the fishes," he filled the sea. Nina, then, as another form of Ištar, was a goddess of creation, typified in the teeming life of the ocean, and her name is written with a character standing for a house or receptacle, with the sign for "fish" within. Her earliest seat was the city of Nina in southern Babylonia, from which place, in all probability, colonists went northwards, and founded another shrine at Nineveh in Assyria, which afterwards became the great centre of her worship, and on this account the city was called after her Ninaa or Ninua. As their tutelary goddess, the fishermen in the neighbourhood of the Babylonian Nina and Lagaš were accustomed to make to her, as well as to Innanna or Ištar, large offerings of fish. As the masculine deities had feminine forms, so it is not by any means improbable that the goddesses had masculine forms, and if that be the case, we may suppose that it was a masculine counterpart of Nina who founded Nineveh, which, as is well known, is attributed to Ninos, the same name as Nina with the Greek masculine termination. Nin-Gursu. This deity is principally of importance in connection with the ancient Babylonian state of Lagaš, the home of an old and important line of kings and viceroys, among the latter being the celebrated Gudea, whose statues and inscribed cylinders now adorn the Babylonian galleries of the Louvre at Paris. His name means "Lord of Girsu," which was probably one of the suburbs, and the oldest part, of Lagaš. This deity was son of En-lila or Bêl, and was identified with Nirig or Ênu-rêštu. To all appearance he was a sun-deity. The dialectic form of his name was /U-Mersi/, of which a variant, /En-Mersi/, occurs in an incantation published in the fourth volume of the /Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia/, pl. 27, where, for the Sumerian "Take a white kid of En-Mersi," the Semitic translation is "of Tammuz," showing that he was identified with the latter god. In the second volume of the same work Nin-Girsu is given as the pronunciation of the name of the god of agriculturalists, confirming this identification, Tammuz being also god of agriculture. Bau. This goddess at all times played a prominent part in ancient Babylonian religion, especially with the rulers before the dynasty of Hammurabi. She was the "mother" of Lagaš, and her temple was at Uru-azaga, a district of Lagaš, the chief city of Nin-Girsu, whose spouse she was. Like Nin-Girsu, she planted (not only grain and vegetation, but also the seed of men). In her character of the goddess who gave life to men, and healed their bodies in sickness, she was identified with Gula, one of those titles is "the lady saving from death". Ga-tum-duga, whose name probably means "making and producing good," was also exceedingly popular in ancient times, and though identified with Bau, is regarded by Jastrow has having been originally distinct from her. Ereš-ki-gal or Allatu. As the prototype of Persephone, this goddess is one of much importance for comparative mythology, and there is a legend concerning her of considerable interest. The text is one of those found at Tel-el- Armana, in Egypt, and states that the gods once made a feast, and sent to Ereš-ki-gal, saying that, though they could go down to her, she could not ascend to them, and asking her to send a messenger to fetch away the food destined for her. This she did, and all the gods stood up to receive her messenger, except one, who seems to have withheld this token of respect. The messenger, when he returned, apparently related to Ereš-ki-gal what had happened, and angered thereat, she sent him back to the presence of the gods, asking for the delinquent to be delivered to her, that she might kill him. The gods then discussed the question of death with the messenger, and told him to take to his mistress the god who had not stood up in his presence. When the gods were brought together, that the culprit might be recognised, one of them remained in the background, and on the messenger asking who it was who did not stand up, it was found to be Nerigal. This god was duly sent, but was not at all inclined to be submissive, for instead of killing him, as she had threatened, Ereš- ki-gal found herself seized by the hair and dragged from her throne, whilst the death-dealing god made ready to cut off her head. "Do not kill me, my brother, let me speak to thee," she cried, and on his loosing his hold upon her hair, she continued, "thou shalt be my husband, and I will be thy wife--I will cause you to take dominion in the wide earth. I will place the tablet of wisdom in thine hand--thou shalt be lord, I will be lady." Nerigal thereupon took her, kissed her, and wiped away her tears, saying, "Whatever thou hast asked me for months past now receives assent." Ereš-ki-gal did not treat her rival in the affections of Tammuz so gently when Ištar descended to Hades in search of the "husband of her youth." According to the story, not only was Ištar deprived of her garments and ornaments, but by the orders of Ereš-ki-gal, Namtar smote her with disease in all her members. It was not until the gods intervened that Ištar was set free. The meaning of her name is "lady of the great region," a description which is supposed to apply to Hades, and of which a variant, Ereš-ki-gal, "lady of the great house," occurs in the Hymns to Tammuz in the Manchester Museum. Nergal. This name is supposed to mean "lord of the great habitation," which would be a parallel to that of his spouse Ereš-ki-gal. He was the ruler of Hades, and at the same time god of war and of disease and pestilence. As warrior, he naturally fought on the side of those who worshipped him, as in the phrase which describes him as "the warrior, the fierce storm-flood overthrowing the land of the enemy." As pointed out by Jastrow, he differs from Nirig, who was also a god of war, in that he symbolises, as god of disease and death, the misery and destruction which accompany the strife of nations. It is in consequence of this side of his character that he appears also as god of fire, the destroying element, and Jensen says that Nerigal was god of the midday or of the summer sun, and therefore of all the misfortunes caused by an excess of his heat. The chief centre of his worship was Cuthah (/Kutû/, Sumerian /Gudua/) near Babylon, now represented by the mounds of Tel Ibrahim. The identity with the Greek Aries and the Roman Mars is proved by the fact that his planet was /Muštabarrû-mûtanu/, "the death-spreader," which is probably the name of Mars in Semitic Babylonian. Amurru. Although this is not by any means a frequent name among the deities worshipped in Babylonia, it is worthy of notice on account of its bearing upon the date of the compilation of the tablet which has been taken as a basis of this list of gods. He was known as "Lord of the mountains," and his worship became very popular during the period of the dynasty to which Hammurabi belonged--say from 2200 to 1937 B.C., when Amurru was much combined with the names of men, and is found both on tablets and cylinder-seals. The ideographic manner of writing it is /Mar-tu/, a word that is used for /Amurru/, the land of the Amorites, which stood for the West in general. Amorites had entered Babylonia in considerable numbers during this period, so that there is but little doubt that his popularity was largely due to their influence, and the tablet containing these names was probably drawn up, or at least had the Semitic equivalents added, towards the beginning of that period. Sin or Nannara. The cult of the moon-god was one of the most popular in Babylonia, the chief seat of his worship being at Uru (now Muqayyar) the Biblical Ur of the Chaldees. The origin of the name Sin is unknown, but it is thought that it may be a corruption of Zu-ena, "knowledge-lord," as the compound ideograph expressing his name may be read and translated. Besides this compound ideograph, the name of the god Sin was also expressed by the character for "30," provided with the prefix of divinity, an ideograph which is due to the thirty days of the month, and is thought to be of late date. With regard to Nannar, Jastrow explains it as being for Narnar, and renders it "light-producer." In a long hymn to this god he is described in many lines as "the lord, prince of the gods, who in heaven alone is supreme," and as "father Nannar." Among his other descriptive titles are "great Anu" (Sum. /ana gale/, Semitic Bab. /Anu rabû/)--another instance of the identification of two deities. He was also "lord of Ur," "lord of the temple Gišnu-gala," "lord of the shining crown," etc. He is also said to be "the mighty steer whose horns are strong, whose limbs are perfect, who is bearded with a beard of lapis-stone,[*] who is filled with beauty and fullness (of splendour)." [*] Probably of the colour of lapis only, not made of the stone itself. Besides Babylonia and Assyria, he was also worshipped in other parts of the Semitic east, especially at Harran, to which city Abraham migrated, scholars say, in consequence of the patron-deity being the same as at Ur of the Chaldees, where he had passed the earlier years of his life. The Mountain of Sinai and the Desert of Sin, both bear his name. According to king Dungi (about 2700 B.C.), the spouse of Sin or Nannara was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur." Sargon of Assyria (722-705 B.C.) calls her Nin-gala. Addu or Rammanu. The numerous names which Hadad bears in the inscriptions, both non- Semitic and Semitic, testify to the popularity which this god enjoyed at all times in Babylonia. Among his non-Semitic names may be mentioned Mer, Mermer, Muru, all, it may be imagined, imitative. Addu is explained as being his name in the Amorite language, and a variant form, apparently, which has lost its first syllable, namely, Dadu, also appears--the Assyrians seem always to have used the terminationless form of Addu, namely, Adad. In all probability Addu, Adad, and Dadu are derived from the West Semitic Hadad, but the other name, Rammanu, is native Babylonian, and cognate with Rimmon, which is thus shown by the Babylonian form to mean "the thunderer," or something similar. He was the god of winds, storms, and rain, feared on account of the former, and worshipped, and his favour sought, on account of the last. In his name Birqu, he appears as the god of lightning, and Jastrow is of opinion, that he is sometimes associated on that account with Šamaš, both of them being (although in different degrees) gods of light, and this is confirmed by the fact that, in common with the sun-god, he was called "god of justice." In the Assyrian inscriptions he appears as a god of war, and the kings constantly compare the destruction which their armies had wrought with that of "Adad the inundator." For them he was "the mighty one, inundating the regions of the enemy, lands and houses," and was prayed to strike the land of the person who showed hostility to the Assyrian king, with evil-working lightning, to throw want, famine, drought, and corpses therein, to order that he should not live one day longer, and to destroy his name and his seed in the land. The original seat of his worship was Muru in South Babylonia, to which the patesi of Girsu in the time of Ibi-Sin sent grain as an offering. Its site is unknown. Other places (or are they other names of the same?) where he was worshipped were Ennigi and Kakru. The consort of Addu was Šala, whose worship was likewise very popular, and to whom there were temples, not only in Babylonia and Assyria, but also in Elam, seemingly always in connection with Addu. Aššur. In all the deities treated of above, we see the chief gods of the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon, which were worshipped by both peoples extensively, none of them being specifically Assyrian, though worshipped by the Assyrians. There was one deity, however, whose name will not be found in the Babylonian lists of gods, namely, Aššur, the national god of Assyria, who was worshipped in the city of Aššur, the old capital of the country. From this circumstance, it may be regarded as certain, that Aššur was the local god of the city whose name he bore, and that he attained to the position of chief god of the Assyrian pantheon in the same way as Merodach became king of the gods in Babylonia--namely, because Aššur was the capital of the country. His acceptance as chief divinity, however, was much more general than that of Merodach, as temples to him were to be found all over the Assyrian kingdom--a circumstance which was probably due to Assyria being more closely united in itself than Babylonia, causing his name to arouse patriotic feelings wherever it might be referred to. This was probably partly due to the fact, that the king in Assyria was more the representative of the god than in Babylonia, and that the god followed him on warlike expeditions, and when engaged in religious ceremonies--indeed, it is not by any means improbable that he was thought to follow him wherever he went. On the sculptures he is seen accompanying him in the form of a circle provided with wings, in which is shown sometimes a full-length figure of the god in human form, sometimes the upper part only, facing towards and drawing his bow against the foe. In consequence of its general appearance, the image of the god has been likened to the sun in eclipse, the far-stretching wings being thought to resemble the long streamers visible at the moment of totality, and it must be admitted as probable that this may have given the idea of the symbol shown on the sculptures. As a sun-god, and at the same time not the god Šamaš, he resembled the Babylonian Merodach, and was possibly identified with him, especially as, in at least one text, Bêltu (Bêltis) is described as his consort, which would possibly identify Aššur's spouse with Zer-panîtum. The original form of his name would seem to have been Aušar, "water-field," probably from the tract where the city of Aššur was built. His identification with Merodach, if that was ever accepted, may have been due to the likeness of the word to Asari, one of that deity's names. The pronunciation Aššur, however, seems to have led to a comparison with the Anšar of the first tablet of the Creation-story, though it may seem strange that the Assyrians should have thought that their patron-god was a deity symbolising the "host of heaven." Nevertheless, the Greek transcription of Anšar, namely, /Assoros/, given by Damascius, certainly strengthens the indications of the ideograph in this matter. Delitzsch regards the word Aššur, or Ašur, as he reads it, as meaning "holy," and quotes a list of the gods of the city of Nineveh, where the word Aššur occurs three times, suggesting the exclamation "holy, holy, holy," or "the holy, holy, holy one." In all probability, however, the repetition of the name three times simply means that there were three temples dedicated to Aššur in the cities in question.[*] Jastrow agrees with Delitzsch in regarding Ašur as another form of Ašir (found in early Cappadocian names), but he translates it rather as "overseer" or "guardian" of the land and the people--the terminationless form of /aširu/, which has this meaning, and is applied to Merodach. [*] Or there may have been three shrines to Aššur in each temple referred to. As the use of the characters /An-šar/ for the god Aššur only appears at a late date (Jastrow says the eighth century B.C.), this would seem to have been the work of the scribes, who wished to read into the name the earlier signification of Anšar, "the host of heaven," an explanation fully in accord with Jastrow's reasonings with regard to the nature of the deity. As he represented no personification or power of nature, he says, but the general protecting spirit of the land, the king, the army, and the people, the capital of the country could be transferred from Aššur to Calah, from there back to Aššur, and finally to Nineveh, without affecting the position of the protecting god of the land in any way. He needed no temple--though such things were erected to him--he had no need to fear that he should suffer in esteem by the preference for some other god. As the embodiment of the spirit of the Assyrian people the personal side of his being remained to a certain extent in the background. If he was the "host of heaven," all the deities might be regarded as having their being in him. Such was the chief deity of the Assyrians--a national god, grafted on to, but always distinct from, the rest of the pantheon, which, as has been shown, was of Babylonian origin, and always maintained the characteristics and stamp of its origin. The spouse of Aššur does not appear in the historical texts, and her mention elsewhere under the title of Bêltu, "the lady," does not allow of any identification being made. In one inscription, however, Aššuritu is called the goddess, and Aššur the god, of the star Sib-zi- anna, identified by Jensen with Regulus, which was apparently the star of Merodach in Babylonia. This, however, brings us no nearer, for Aššuritu would simply mean "the Assurite (goddess)." The minor divinities. Among the hundreds of names which the lists furnish, a few are worthy of mention, either because of more than ordinary interest, or in consequence of their furnishing the name of some deity, chief in its locality, but identified elsewhere with one of the greater gods. Aa.--This may be regarded either as the god Êa (though the name is written differently), or as the sun-god assuming the name of his consort; or (what is, perhaps, more probable) as a way of writing A'u or Ya'u (the Hebrew Jah), without the ending of the nominative. This last is also found under the form /Aa'u/, /ya'u/, /yau/, and /ya/. Abil-addu.--This deity seems to have attained a certain popularity in later times, especially among immigrants from the West. As "the son of Hadad," he was the equivalent of the Syrian Ben-Hadad. A tablet in New York shows that his name was weakened in form to /Ablada/. Aku, the moon-god among the heavenly bodies. It is this name which is regarded as occurring in the name of the Babylonian king Eri-Aku, "servant of the moon-god," the biblical Arioch (Gen. xiv.). Amma-an-ki, Êa or Aa as lord of heaven and earth. Amna.--A name only found in a syllabary, and assigned to the sun-god, from which it would seem that it is a form of the Egyptian Ammon. Anunitum, the goddess of one of the two Sippars, called Sippar of Anunitum, who was worshipped in the temple Ê-ulmaš within the city of Agadé (Akkad). Sayce identifies, on this account, these two places as being the same. In a list of stars, Anunitum is coupled with Šinunutum, which are explained as (the stars of) the Tigris and Euphrates. These were probably names of Venus as the morning and evening (or evening and morning) star. Apsu.--The deep dissociated from the evil connection with Tiawath, and regarded as "the house of deep wisdom," i.e. the home of the god Êa or Aa. Aruru.--One of the deities of Sippar and Aruru (in the time of the dynasty of Hammurabi called Ya'ruru), of which she was the chief goddess. Aruru was one of the names of the "lady of the gods," and aided Merodach to make the seed of mankind. Bêl.--As this name means "lord," it could be applied, like the Phœnician Baal, to the chief god of any city, as Bêl of Niffur, Bêl of Hursag-kalama, Bêl of Aratta, Bêl of Babylon, etc. This often indicates also the star which represented the chief god of a place. Bêltu.--In the same way Bêltu, meaning "lady," meant also the chief goddess of any place, as "Aruru, lady of the gods of Sippar of Aruru," "Nin-mah, lady of the gods of Ê-mah," a celebrated temple within Babylon, recently excavated by the Germans, "Nin-hur-saga, lady of the gods of Kêš," etc. Bunene.--A god associated with Šamaš and Ištar at Sippar and elsewhere. He "gave" and "renewed" to his worshippers. Dagan.--This deity, whose worship extends back to an exceedingly early date, is generally identified with the Phœnician Dagon. Hammurabi seems to speak of the Euphrates as being "the boundary of Dagan," whom he calls his creator. In later inscriptions the form Daguna, which approaches nearer to the West Semitic form, is found in a few personal names. The Phœnician statues of this deity showed him with the lower part of his body in the form of a fish (see 1 Sam. v. 4). Whether the deities clothed in a fish's skin in the Nimroud gallery be Dagon or not is uncertain--they may be intended for Êa or Aa, the Oannes of Berosus, who was represented in this way. Probably the two deities were regarded as identical. Damu.--a goddess regarded as equivalent to Gula by the Babylonians and Assyrians. She was goddess of healing, and made one's dreams happy. Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss."--This was one of the six sons of Êa or Aa, according to the lists. His worship is exceedingly ancient, and goes back to the time of E-anna-tum of Lagaš (about 4000 B.C.). What connection, if any, he may have with Tammuz, the spouse of Ištar, is unknown. Jastrow apparently regards him as a distinct deity, and translates his name "the child of the life of the water-deep." Elali.--A deity identified with the Hebrew Helal, the new moon. Only found in names of the time of the Hammurabi dynasty, in one of which he appears as "a creator." En-nugi is described as "lord of streams and canals," and "lord of the earth, lord of no-return." This last description, which gives the meaning of his name, suggests that he was one of the gods of the realm of Ereš-ki-gal, though he may have borne that name simply as god of streams, which always flow down, never the reverse. Gibil.--One of the names of the god of fire, sometimes transcribed Girru by Assyriologists, the meaning apparently being "the fire- bearer" or "light-bearer." Girru is another name of this deity, and translates an ideographic group, rendered by Delitzsch "great" or "highest decider," suggesting the custom of trial by ordeal. He was identified with Nirig, in Semitic Ênu-rêštu. Gušqi-banda or Kuski-banda, one of the names of Êa, probably as god of gold-workers. Išum, "the glorious sacrificer," seemingly a name of the fire-god as a means whereby burnt offerings were made. Nûr-Išum, "light of Išum," is found as a man's name. Kâawanu, the planet Saturn. Lagamal.--A god identified with the Elamite Lagamar, whose name is regarded as existing in Chedorlaomer (cf. Gen. xiv. 2). He was the chief god of Mair, "the ship-city." Lugal-Amarada or Lugal-Marad.--This name means "king of Marad," a city as yet unidentified. The king of this place seems to have been Nerigal, of whom, therefore, Lugal-Marad is another name. Lugal-banda.--This name means "the powerful king," or something similar, and the god bearing it is supposed to be the same as Nerigal. His consort, however, was named Nin-sun (or Nin-gul). Lugal-Du-azaga, "the king of the glorious seat."--The founder of Êridu, "the good city within the Abyss," probably the paradise (or a paradise) of the world to come. As it was the aim of every good Babylonian to dwell hereafter with the god whom he had worshipped upon earth, it may be conjectured that this was the paradise in the domain of Êa or Aa. Mama, Mami.--Names of "the lady of the gods," and creatress of the seed of mankind, Aruru. Probably so called as the "mother" of all things. Another name of this goddess is Ama, "mother." Mammitum, Mamitum, goddess of fate. Mur, one of the names of Addu or Rammanu (Hadad or Rimmon). Nanâ or Nanaa was the consort of Nebo at Borsippa, but appears as a form of Ištar, worshipped, with Anu her father, at Erech. Nin-aha-kuku, a name of Êa or Aa and of his daughter as deity of the rivers, and therefore of gardens and plantations, which were watered by means of the small canals leading therefrom. As daughter of Êa, this deity was also "lady of the incantation." Nin-azu, the consort of Ereš-ki-gal, probably as "lord physician." He is probably to be identified with Nerigal. Nin-igi-nagar-si, a name somewhat more doubtful as to its reading than the others, designates Êa or Aa as "the god of the carpenter." He seems to have borne this as "the great constructor of heaven" or "of Anu." Nin-mah, chief goddess of the temple Ê-mah in Babylon. Probably to be identified with Aruru, and therefore with Zer-panîtum. Nin-šah, a deity whose name is conjectured to mean "lord of the wild boar." He seems to have been a god of war, and was identified with Nirig or Ênu-rêštu and Pap-sukal. Nin-sirsir, Êa as the god of sailors. Nin-sun, as pointed out by Jastrow, was probably the same as Ištar or Nanâ of Erech, where she had a shrine, with them, in Ê-anna, "the house of Anu." He renders her name "the annihilating lady,"[*] "appropriate for the consort of a sun-god," for such he regards Lugal- banda her spouse. King Sin-gasid of Erech (about 3000 B.C.) refers to her as his mother. [*] This is due to the second element of the name having, with another pronunciation, the meaning of "to destroy." Nun-urra.--Êa, as the god of potters. Pap-sukal.--A name of Nin-šah as the "divine messenger," who is also described as god "of decisions." Nin-šah would seem to have been one of the names of Pap-sukal rather than the reverse. Qarradu, "strong," "mighty," "brave."--This word, which was formerly translated "warrior," is applied to several deities, among them being Bêl, Nergal, Nirig (Ênu-rêštu), and Šamaš, the sun-god. Ragimu and Ramimu, names of Rimmon or Hadad as "the thunderer." The second comes from the same root as Rammanu (Rimmon). Šuqamunu.--A deity regarded as "lord of watercourses," probably the artificial channels dug for the irrigation of fields. Ura-gala, a name of Nerigal. Uraš, a name of Nirig, under which he was worshipped at Dailem, near Babylon. Zagaga, dialectic Zamama.--This deity, who was a god of war, was identified with Nirig. One of this titles was /bêl parakki/, "lord of the royal chamber," or "throne-room." Zaraqu or Zariqu.--As the root of this name means "to sprinkle," he was probably also a god of irrigation, and may have presided over ceremonial purification. He is mentioned in names as the "giver of seed" and "giver of a name" (i.e. offspring). These are only a small proportion of the names found in the inscriptions, but short as the list necessarily is, the nature, if not the full composition, of the Babylonian pantheon will easily be estimated therefrom. It will be seen that besides the identifications of the deities of all the local pantheons with each other, each divinity had almost as many names as attributes and titles, hence their exceeding multiplicity. In such an extensive pantheon, many of the gods composing it necessarily overlap, and identification of each other, to which the faith, in its primitive form, was a stranger, were inevitable. The tendency to monotheism which this caused will be referred to later on. The gods and the heavenly bodies. It has already been pointed out that, from the evidence of the Babylonian syllabary, the deities of the Babylonians were not astral in their origin, the only gods certainly originating in heavenly bodies being the sun and the moon. This leads to the supposition that the Babylonians, bearing these two deities in mind, may have asked themselves why, if these two were represented by heavenly bodies, the others should not be so represented also. Be this as it may, the other deities of the pantheon were so represented, and the full planetary scheme, as given by a bilingual list in the British Museum, was as follows: Aku Sin the moon Sin Bišebi Šamaš the sun Šamaš Dapinu Umun-sig-êa Jupiter Merodach Zib[*] Dele-bat Venus Ištar Lu-lim Lu-bat-sag-uš Saturn Nirig (acc. to Jensen) Bibbu Lubat-gud Mercury Nebo Simutu Muštabarru Mars Nergal mûtanu All the above names of planets have the prefix of divinity, but in other inscriptions the determinative prefix is that for "star," /kakkabu/. [*] This is apparently a Sumerian dialectic form, the original word having seemingly been Zig. Moon and Sun. Unfortunately, all the above identifications of the planets with the deities in the fourth column are not certain, namely, those corresponding with Saturn, Mercury, and Mars. With regard to the others, however, there is no doubt whatever. The reason why the moon is placed before the sun is that the sun, as already explained, was regarded as his son. It was noteworthy also that the moon was accredited with two other offspring, namely, Mâšu and Mâštu--son and daughter respectively. As /mâšu/ means "twin," these names must symbolise the two halves, or, as we say, "quarters" of the moon, who were thus regarded, in Babylonian mythology, as his "twin children." Jupiter and Saturn. Concerning Jupiter, who is in the above called Dapinu (Semitic), and Umun-sig-êa (Sumerian), it has already been noted that he was called Nibiru--according to Jensen, Merodach as he who went about among the stars "pasturing" them like sheep, as stated in the Babylonian story of the Creation (or Bel and the Dragon). This is explained by him as being due to the comparatively rapid and extensive path of Jupiter on the ecliptic, and it would seem probable that the names of Saturn, /Kâawanu/ and /Sag-uš/ (the former, which is Semitic Babylonian, meaning "steadfast," or something similar, and the latter, in Sumerian, "head-firm" or "steadfast"--"phlegmatic"), to all appearance indicate in like manner the deliberation of his movements compared with those of the planet dedicated to the king of the gods. Venus at sunrise and sunset. A fragment of a tablet published in 1870 gives some interesting particulars concerning the planet Venus, probably explaining some as yet unknown mythological story concerning her. According to this, she was a female at sunset, and a male at sunrise; Ištar of Agadé (Akad or Akkad) at sunrise, and Ištar of Erech at sunset: Ištar of the stars at sunrise, and the lady of the gods at sunset. And in the various months. Ištar was identified with Nin-si-anna in the first month of the year (Nisan = March-April), with the star of the bow in Ab (August- September), etc. In Sebat (January-February) she was the star of the water-channel, Ikû, which was Merodach's star in Sivan (May-June), and in Marcheswan her star was Rabbu, which also belonged to Merodach in the same month. It will thus be seen, that Babylonian astronomy is far from being as clear as would be desired, but doubtless many difficulties will disappear when further inscriptions are available. Stars identified with Merodach. The same fragment gives the celestial names of Merodach for every month of the year, from which it would appear, that the astrologers called him Umun-sig-êa in Nisan (March-April), Dapinu in Tammuz (June- July), Nibiru in Tisri (September-October), Šarru (the star Regulus), in Tebet (December-January), etc. The first three are names by which the planet Jupiter was known. As for the planets and stars, so also for the constellations, which are identified with many gods and divine beings, and probably contain references, in their names and descriptions, to many legends. In the sixth tablet of the Creation-series, it is related of Merodach that, after creating the heavens and the stations for Anu, Bêl, and Ae, "He built firmly the stations of the great gods-- Stars their likeness--he set up the /Lumali/, He designated the year, he outlined the (heavenly) forms. He set for the twelve months three stars each, From the day when the year begins, . . . for signs." As pointed out by Mr. Robert Brown, jr., who has made a study of these things, the "three stars" for each month occur on one of the remains of planispheres in the British Museum, and are completed by a tablet which gives them in list-form, in one case with explanations. Until these are properly identified, however, it will be impossible to estimate their real value. The signs of the Zodiac, which are given by another tablet, are of greater interest, as they are the originals of those which are in use at the present time:-- Month Sign Equivalent Nisan (Mar.-Apr.) The Labourer The Ram Iyyar (Apr.-May) /Mulmula/ and the Bull of heaven The Bull Sivan (May-June) /Sib-zi-anna/ and the great Twins The Twins Tammuz (June-July) /Allul/ or /Nagar/ The Crab Ab (July.-Aug.) The Lion (or dog) The Lion Elul (Aug.-Sep.) The Ear of corn(?) The ear of Corn (Virgo) Tisri (Sep.-Oct.) The Scales The Scales Marcheswan (Oct.-Nov.) The Scorpion The Scorpion Chisleu (Nov.-Dec.) /Pa-bil-sag/ The Archer Tebet (Dec.-Jan.) /Sahar-maš/, the Fish-kid The Goat Sebat (Jan.-Feb.) /Gula/ The Water-bearer Adar (Feb.-Mar.) The Water Channel and the Tails The Fishes Parallels in Babylonian legends. The "bull of heaven" probably refers to some legend such as that of the story of Gilgameš in his conflict with the goddess Ištar when the divine bull was killed; /Sib-zi-anna/, "the faithful shepherd of heaven," suggests that this constellation may refer to Tammuz, the divine shepherd; whilst "the scorpion" reminds us of the scorpion-men who guarded the gate of the sun (Šamaš), when Gilgameš was journeying to gain information concerning his friend Enki-du, who had departed to the place of the dead. Sir Henry Rawlinson many years ago pointed out that the story of the Flood occupied the eleventh tablet of the Gilgameš series, corresponding with the eleventh sign of the Zodiac, Aquarius, or the Water-bearer. Other star-names. Other names of stars or constellations include "the weapon of Merodach's hand," probably that with which he slew the dragon of Chaos; "the Horse," which is described as "the god Zû," Rimmon's storm-bird--Pegasus; "the Serpent," explained as Ereš-ki-gal, the queen of Hades, who would therefore seem to have been conceived in that form; "the Scorpion," which is given as /Išhara tântim/, "Išhara of the sea," a description difficult to explain, unless it refer to her as the goddess of the Phœnician coast. Many other identifications, exceedingly interesting, await solution. How the gods were represented. On cylinder-seals. Many representations of the gods occur, both on bas-reliefs, boundary- stones, and cylindrical and ordinary seals. Unfortunately, their identification generally presents more or less difficulty, on account of the absence of indications of their identity. On a small cylinder- seal in the possession of the Rev. Dr. W. Hayes Ward, Merodach is shown striding along the serpentine body of Tiawath, who turns her head to attack him, whilst the god threatens her with a pointed weapon which he carries. Another, published by the same scholar, shows a deity, whom he regards as being Merodach, driven in a chariot drawn by a winged lion, upon whose shoulders stands a naked goddess, holding thunderbolts in each hand, whom he describes as Zer-panîtum. Another cylinder-seal shows the corn-deity, probably Nisaba, seated in flounced robe and horned hat, with corn-stalks springing out from his shoulders, and holding a twofold ear of corn in his hand, whilst an attendant introduces, and another with a threefold ear of corn follows, a man carrying a plough, apparently as an offering. On another, a beautiful specimen from Assyria, Ištar is shown standing on an Assyrian lion, which turns his head as if to caress her feet. As goddess of war, she is armed with bow and arrows, and her star is represented upon the crown of her tiara. On boundary-stones, etc. On the boundary-stones of Babylonia and the royal monoliths of Assyria the emblems of the gods are nearly always seen. Most prominent are three horned tiaras, emblematic, probably, of Merodach, Anu, and Bêl (the older). A column ending in a ram's head is used for Êa or Ae, a crescent for Sin or Nannar, the moon-god; a disc with rays for Šamaš, the sun-god; a thunderbolt for Rimmon or Hadad, the god of thunder, lightning, wind, and storms; a lamp for Nusku, etc. A bird, perhaps a hawk, stood for Utu-gišgallu, a deity whose name has been translated "the southern sun," and is explained in the bilingual inscriptions as Šamaš, the sun-god, and Nirig, one of the gods of war. The emblem of Gal-alim, who is identified with the older Bêl, is a snarling dragon's head forming the termination of a pole, and that of Dun-ašaga is a bird's head similarly posed. On a boundary-stone of the time of Nebuchadnezzar I., about 1120 B.C., one of the signs of the gods shows a horse's head in a kind of shrine, probably the emblem of Rimmon's storm-bird, Zû, the Babylonian Pegasus. Other divine figures. One of the finest of all the representations of divinities is that of the "Sun-god-stone," found by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam at Abu-habbah (the ancient Sippar), which was one of the chief seats of his worship. It represents him, seated in his shrine, holding in his hand a staff and a ring, his usual emblems, typifying his position as judge of the world and his endless course. The position of Merodach as sun-god is confirmed by the small lapis-lazuli relief found by the German expedition at the mound known as Amran ibn 'Ali, as he also carries a staff and a ring, and his robe is covered with ornamental circles, showing, in all probability, his solar nature. In the same place another small relief representing Rimmon or Hadad was found. His robe has discs emblematical of the five planets, and he holds in each hand a thunderbolt, one of which he is about to launch forth. Merodach is accompanied by a large two-horned dragon, whilst Hadad has a small winged dragon, typifying the swiftness of his course, and another animal, both of which he holds with cords. CHAPTER V THE DEMONS: EXORCISMS AND CEREMONIES Good and evil spirits, gods and demons, were fully believed in by the Babylonians and Assyrians, and many texts referring to them exist. Naturally it is not in some cases easy to distinguish well between the special functions of these supernatural appearances which they supposed to exist, but their nature is, in most cases, easily ascertained from the inscriptions. To all appearance, the Babylonians imagined that spirits resided everywhere, and lay in wait to attack mankind, and to each class, apparently, a special province in bringing misfortune, or tormenting, or causing pain and sickness, was assigned. All the spirits, however, were not evil, even those whose names would suggest that their character was such--there were good "liers in wait," for instance, as well as evil ones, whose attitude towards mankind was beneficent. The /utukku/. This was a spirit which was supposed to do the will of Anu, the god of the heavens. There was the /utukku/ of the plain, the mountains, the sea, and the grave. The /âlû/. Regarded as the demon of the storm, and possibly, in its origin, the same as the divine bull sent by Ištar to attack Gilgameš, and killed by Enki-du. It spread itself over a man, overpowering him upon his bed, and attacking his breast. The /êdimmu/. This is generally, but wrongly, read /êkimmu/, and translated "the seizer," from /êkemu/, "to seize." In reality, however, it was an ordinary spirit, and the word is used for the wraiths of the departed. The "evil /êdimmu/" was apparently regarded as attacking the middle part of a man. The /gallu/. As this word is borrowed from the Sumerian /galla/, which has a dialectic form, /mulla/, it is not improbable that it may be connected with the word /mula/, meaning "star," and suggesting something which is visible by the light it gives--possibly a will-o'- the-wisp,--though others are inclined to regard the word as being connected with /gala/, "great." In any case, its meaning seems to have become very similar to "evil spirit" or "devil" in general, and is an epithet applied by the Assyrian king Aššur-bani-âpli to Te-umman, the Elamite king against whom he fought. The /îlu limnu/, "evil god," was probably originally one of the deities of Tiawath's brood, upon whom Merodach's redemption had had no effect. The /rabisu/ is regarded as a spirit which lay in wait to pounce upon his prey. The /labartu/, in Sumerian /dimme/, was a female demon. There were seven evil spirits of this kind, who were apparently regarded as being daughters of Anu, the god of the heavens. The /labasu/, in Sumerian /dimmea/, was apparently a spirit which overthrew, that being the meaning of the root from which the word comes. The /âhhazu/, in Sumerian /dimme-kur/, was apparently so called as "the seizer," that being the meaning indicated by the root. The /lilu/, in Sumerian /lila/, is generally regarded as "the night- monster," the word being referred to the Semitic root /lîl/ or /layl/, whence the Hebrew /layil/, Arabic /layl/, "night." Its origin, however, is Sumerian, from /lila/, regarded as meaning "mist." To the word /lilu/ the ancient Babylonians formed a feminine, /lilîthu/, which entered the Hebrew language under the form of /lilith/, which was, according to the rabbins, a beautiful woman, who lay in wait for children by night. The /lilu/ had a companion who is called his handmaid or servant. The /namtaru/ was apparently the spirit of fate, and therefore of greater importance than those already mentioned. This being was regarded as the beloved son of Bêl, and offspring of /Ereš-ki-gal/ or Persephone, and he had a spouse named /Huš-bi-šaga/. Apparently he executed the instructions given him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over certain of the gods. The /šêdu/ were apparently deities in the form of bulls. They were destructive, of enormous power, and unsparing. In a good sense the /šêdu/ was a protecting deity, guarding against hostile attacks. Erech and the temple Ê-kura were protected by spirits such as these, and to one of them Išum, "the glorious sacrificer," was likened. The /lamassu/, from the Sumerian /lama/, was similar in character to the /šêdu/, but is thought to have been of the nature of a colossus--a winged man-headed bull or lion. It is these creatures which the kings placed at the sides of the doors of their palaces, to protect the king's footsteps. In early Babylonian times a god named Lama was one of the most popular deities of the Babylonian pantheon. A specimen incantation. Numerous inscriptions, which may be regarded as dating, in their origin, from about the middle of the third millennium before Christ, speak of these supernatural beings, and also of others similar. One of the most perfect of these inscriptions is a large bilingual tablet of which a duplicate written during the period of the dynasty of Hammurabi (before 2000 B.C.) exists, and which was afterwards provided with a Semitic Babylonian translation. This inscription refers to the evil god, the evil /utukku/, the /utukku/ of the plain, of the mountain, of the sea, and of the grave; the evil /šêdu/, the glorious /âlû/, or divine bull, and the evil unsparing wind. There was also that which takes the form of a man, the evil face, the evil eye, the evil mouth, the evil tongue, the evil lip, the evil breath; also the afflicting /asakku/ (regarded as the demon of fever), the /asakku/ which does not leave a man: the afflicting /namtaru/ (fate), the severe /namtaru/, the /namtaru/ which does not quit a man. After this are mentioned various diseases, bodily pains, annoyances, such as "the old shoe, the broken shoe-lace, the food which afflicts the body of a man, the food which turns in eating, the water which chokes in drinking," etc. Other things to be exorcised included the spirit of death, people who had died of hunger, thirst, or in other ways; the handmaid of the /lilu/ who had no husband, the prince of the /lilu/ who had no wife, whether his name had been recorded or unrecorded. The method of exorcising the demons causing all these things is curious. White and black yarn was spun, and fastened to the side and canopy of the afflicted person's bed--the white to the side and the top or canopy, the black to the left hand--and then, apparently, the following words were said:-- "Evil /utukku/, evil /âlû/, evil /êdimmu/, evil /gallu/, evil god, evil /rabisu/, /labartu/, /labasu/, /âhhazu/, /lilu/, /lilithu/, handmaid of /lilu/, sorcery, enchantment, magic, disaster, machination which is not good--may they not set their head to his head, their hand to his hand, their foot to his foot--may they not draw near. Spirit of heaven, mayest thou exorcise, spirit of earth, mayest thou exorcise." But this was only the beginning of the real ceremony. The god Asari- alim-nunna (Merodach), "eldest son of Êridu," was asked to wash him in pure and bright water twice seven times, and then would the evil lier- in-wait depart, and stand aside, and a propitious /šêdu/ and a propitious /labartu/ reside in his body. The gates right and left having been thus, so to say, shut close, the evil gods, demons, and spirits would be unable to approach him, wherever he might be. "Spirit of heaven, exorcise, spirit of earth, exorcise." Then, after an invocation of Êrêš-ki-gal and Išum, the final paragraph was pronounced:-- "The afflicted man, by an offering of grace In health like shining bronze shall be made bright. As for that man, Šamaš shall give him life. Merodach, first-born son of the Abyss, It is thine to purify and glorify. Spirit of heaven, mayest thou exorcise, spirit of earth, mayest thou exorcise." Rites and ceremonies. As may be expected, the Babylonians and Assyrians had numerous rites and ceremonies, the due carrying out of which was necessary for the attainment of the grace demanded, or for the efficacy of the thanks tendered for favours received. Perhaps the oldest ceremony recorded is that which Ut-napištim, the Chaldæan Noah, made on the /zikkurat/ or peak of the mountain after the coming forth from the ship which had saved him and his from the Flood. The Patriarch's description of this ceremony is short:-- "I sent forth to the four winds, I poured out a libation I made an offering on the peak of the mountain: Seven and seven I set incense-vases there, Into their depths I poured cane, cedar, and scented wood(?). The gods smelled a savour, The gods smelled a sweet savour, The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer." Following in the footsteps of their great progenitor, the Babylonians and Assyrians became a most pious race, constantly rendering to their gods the glory for everything which they succeeded in bringing to a successful issue. Prayer, supplication, and self-abasement before their gods seem to have been with them a duty and a pleasure:-- "The time for the worship of the gods was my heart's delight, The time of the offering to Ištar was profit and riches," sings Ludlul the sage, and all the people of his land were one with him in that opinion. It is noteworthy that the offering of the Chaldæan Noah consisted of vegetable produce only, and there are many inscriptions referring to similar bloodless sacrifices, and detailing the ritual used in connection therewith. Sacrifices of animals, however, seem to have been constantly made--in any case, offerings of cattle and fowl, in list-form, are fairly numerous. Many a cylinder-seal has a representation of the owner bringing a young animal--a kid or a lamb-- as an offering to the deity whom he worshipped, and in the inscriptions the sacrifice of animals is frequently referred to. One of the bilingual texts refers to the offering of a kid or some other young animal, apparently on behalf of a sick man. The text of this, where complete, runs as follows:-- "The fatling which is the 'head-raiser' of mankind-- He has given the fatling for his life. He has given the head of the fatling for his head, He has given the neck of the fatling for his neck, He has given the breast of the fatling for his breast." Whether human sacrifices were common or not is a doubtful point. Many cylinder-seals exist in which the slaying of a man is depicted, and the French Assyriologist Menant was of opinion that they represented a human offering to the gods. Hayes Ward, however, is inclined to doubt this explanation, and more evidence would seem, therefore, to be needed. He is inclined to think that, in the majority of cases, the designs referred to show merely the victims of divine anger or vengeance, punished by the deity for some misdeed or sin, either knowingly or unknowingly committed. In the Assyrian galleries of the British Museum, Aššur-nasir-âpli, king of Assyria, is several times shown engaged in religious ceremonies--either worshipping before the sacred tree, or about to pour out, apparently, a libation to the gods before departing upon some expedition, and priests bringing offerings, either animal or vegetable, are also represented. Aššur-banî-âpli, who is identified with "the great and noble Asnapper," is shown, in bas-reliefs of the Assyrian Saloon, pouring out a thank-offering over the lions which he has killed, after his return from the hunt. CHAPTER VI PROBLEMS WHICH THE STUDY OFFERS Monotheism. As the matter of Babylonian monotheism has been publicly touched upon by Fried. Delitzsch in his "Babel und Bibel" lectures, a few words upon that important point will be regarded in all probability as appropriate. It has already been indicated that the giving of the names of "the gods his fathers" to Merodach practically identified them with him, thus leading to a tendency to monotheism. That tendency is, perhaps, hinted at in a letter of Aššur-banî-âpli to the Babylonians, in which he frequently mentions the Deity, but in doing so, uses either the word /îlu/, "God," Merodach, the god of Babylon, or Bêl, which may be regarded as one of his names. The most important document for this monotheistic tendency, however (confirming as it does the tablet of the fifty-one names), is that in which at least thirteen of the Babylonian deities are identified with Merodach, and that in such a way as to make them merely forms in which he manifested himself to men. The text of this inscription is as follows:-- ". . . is Merodach of planting. Lugal-aki-. . . is Merodach of the water-course. Nirig is Merodach of strength. Nergal is Merodach of war. Zagaga is Merodach of battle. Bêl is Merodach of lordship and domination. Nebo is Merodach of trading(?). Sin is Merodach the illuminator of the night. Šamaš is Merodach of righteous things. Addu is Merodach of rain. Tišpak is Merodach of frost(?). Sig is Merodach of green things(?). Šuqamunu is Merodach of the irrigation-channel." Here the text breaks off, but must have contained several more similar identifications, showing how at least the more thoughtful of the Babylonians of old looked upon the host of gods whom they worshipped. What may be the date of this document is uncertain, but as the colophon seems to describe it as a copy of an older inscription, it may go back as far as 2000 years B.C. This is the period at which the name /Yaum-îlu/ "Jah is God," is found, together with numerous references to /îlu/ as the name for the one great god, and is also, roughly, the date of Abraham, who, it may be noted, was a Babylonian of Ur of the Chaldees. It will probably not be thought too venturesome to say that his monotheism was possibly the result of the religious trend of thought in his time. Dualism. Damascius, in his valuable account of the belief of the Babylonians concerning the Creation, states that, like the other barbarians, they reject the doctrine of the one origin of the universe, and constitute two, Tauthé (Tiawath) and Apason (Apsu). This twofold principle, however, is only applicable to the system in that it makes of the sea and the deep (for such are the meanings of the two words) two personages--the female and the male personifications of primæval matter, from which all creation sprang, and which gave birth to the gods of heaven themselves. As far as the physical constituents of these two principals are concerned, their tenets might be described as having "materialistic monism" as their basis, but inasmuch as they believed that each of these two principals had a mind, the description "idealistic monism" cannot be applied to it--it is distinctly a dualism. And Monism. Divested of its idealistic side, however, there would seem to be no escape from regarding the Babylonian idea of the origin of things as monistic.[*] This idea has its reflection, though not its reproduction, in the first chapter of Genesis, in which, verses 2, 6, and 7, water is represented as the first thing existing, though not the first abode of life. This divergency from the Babylonian view was inevitable with a monotheistic nation, such as the Jews were, regarding as they did the Deity as the great source of everything existing. What effect the moving of the Spirit of God upon the face of the waters (v.2) was supposed by them to have had, is uncertain, but it is to be noted that it was the land (vv. 11, 12) which first brought forth, at the command of God. [*] Monism. The doctrine which holds that in the universe there is only a single element or principle from which everything is developed, this single principle being either mind (/idealistic monism/) or matter (/materialistic monism/). (Annandale.) The future life. The belief in a future life is the natural outcome of a religious belief such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, and many of the surrounding nations possessed. As has been shown, a portion of their creed consisted in hero-worship, which pre-supposes that the heroes in question continued to exist, in a state of still greater power and glory, after the conclusion of their life here upon earth. "The god Bêl hates me--I cannot dwell in this land, and in the territory of Bêl I cannot set my face. I shall descend then to the Abyss; with Aa my lord shall I constantly dwell." It is with these words that, by the counsel of the god Aa, Ut-napištim explained to those who questioned him the reason why he was building the ship or ark which was to save him and his from the Flood, and there is but little doubt that the author of the story implied that he announced thereby his approaching death, or his departure to dwell with his god without passing the dread portals of the great leveller. This belief in the life beyond the grave seems to have been that which was current during the final centuries of the third millennium before Christ--when a man died, it was said that his god took him to himself, and we may therefore suppose, that there were as many heavens--places of contentment and bliss--as there were gods, and that every good man was regarded as going and dwelling evermore with the deity which he had worshipped and served faithfully during his lifetime. Gilgameš, the half-divine king of Erech, who reigned during the half- mythical period, on losing his friend and counsellor, Enki-du, set out to find him, and to bring him back, if possible, from the underworld where he was supposed to dwell. His death, however, had not been like that of an ordinary man; it was not Namtaru, the spirit of fate, who had taken him, nor a misfortune such as befalls ordinary men, but Nerigal's unsparing lier-in-wait--yet though Nerigal was the god of war, Enki-du had not fallen on the battlefield of men, but had been seized by the earth (apparently the underworld where the wicked are is meant) in consequence, seemingly, of some trick or trap which had been laid for him. The gods were therefore prayed, in turn, to bring him back, but none of them listened except Êa, who begged him of Nerigal, whereupon the latter opened the entrance to the place where he was--the hole of the earth--and brought forth "the spirit (/utukku/) of Enki-du like mist." Immediately after this come the words, "Tell, my friend, tell, my friend--the law of the land which thou sawest, tell," and the answer, "I will not tell thee, friend, I will not tell thee--if I tell thee the law of the land which I saw, . . . sit down, weep." Ultimately, however, the person appealed to--apparently the disembodied Enki-du-- reveals something concerning the condition of the souls in the place of his sojourn after death, as follows:-- "Whom thou sawest [die] the death(?) [of][*] . . . [I see]-- In the resting-place of . . . reposing, pure waters he drinketh. Whom in the battle thou sawest killed, I see-- His father and his mother raise his head, And his wife upon [him leaneth?]. Whose corpse thou hast seen thrown down in the plain, I see-- His /edimmu/ in the earth reposeth not. Whose /edimmu/ thou sawest without a caretaker, I see-- The leavings of the dish, the remains of the food, Which in the street is thrown, he eateth." [*] (?)"The death of the righteous," or something similar? It is naturally difficult to decide in a passage like this, the difference existing between a man's /utukku/ and his /edimmu/, but the probability is, that the former means his spiritual essence, whilst the latter stands for the ghostly shadow of his body, resembling in meaning the /ka/ of the Egyptians. To all appearance the abode described above is not the place of the punishment of the wicked, but the dwelling of those accounted good, who, if lucky in the manner of their death, and the disposal of their bodies, enjoyed the highest happiness in the habitation of the blest. The other place, however, is otherwise described (it occurs in the account of Ištar's descent into Hades, and in the seventh tablet of the Gilgameš series--the latter differing somewhat):-- "Upon the land of No-return, the region of . . ., [Set] Istar, daughter of Sin, her ear. The daughter of Sin set then her ear . . . Upon the house of gloom, the seat of Irkalla--[*] Upon the house whose entrance hath no exit,[†] Upon the path whose way hath no return, Upon the house whose enterers are deprived of light, Where dust is their nourishment, their food mud, Light they see not, in darkness they dwell, Clothed also, like a bird, in a dress of feathers. Upon the door and bolt the dust hath blown." [*] One of the names of Nergal. [†] Or "whose enterer goeth not forth." Seven gates gave access to this place of gloom, and the porter, as he let the visitor in, took from her (the goddess Ištar in the narrative) at each an article of clothing, until, at the last, she entered quite naked, apparently typifying the fact that a man can take nothing with him when he dieth, and also, in this case, that he has not even his good deeds wherewith to clothe himself, for had they outweighed his evil ones, he would not have found himself in that dread abode. On the arrival of Ištar in Hades, Erêš-ki-gal commanded Namtaru, the god of fate, to smite Ištar with disease in all her members--eyes, sides, feet, heart, and head. As things went wrong on the earth in consequence of the absence of the goddess of love, the gods sent a messenger to effect her release. When he reached the land of No- return, the queen of the region threatened him with all kinds of torments--the food of the gutters of the city were to be his food, the oil-jars of the city (naptha?) his drink, the gloom of the castle his resting-place, a stone slab his seat, and hunger and thirst were to shatter his strength. These were evidently the punishments inflicted there, but as the messenger threatened was a divine one, they were probably not put into execution, and he obtained his demand, for Ištar was set free, receiving back at each gate, in reverse order, the clothing and ornaments which had been taken from her when she had descended thither. It is uncertain whether Tammuz, for whom she had gone down, was set free also, but as he is referred to, it is not improbable that this was the case. WORKS BEARING UPON THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS Hibbert Lectures, 1887. The Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, by Professor A. H. Sayce. The Religious Ideas of the Babylonians, by the Author, 1895 (Journal of the Victoria Institute, also separately). The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, by Morris Jastrow, jun., 1898. (German edition, vol. i. 1905, vol. ii. in progress.) Babylonian Religion and Mythology, by L. W. King, M.A., 1899. Gifford Lectures, 1902. Religions of Egypt and Babylonia, by Professor A. H. Sayce. The O.T. in the Light of the Records of Assyria and Babylonia, by the Author, 1903. (The portions referring to Babylonian Mythology.) The Hymns to Tammuz in the Manchester Museum, Owens College, by the Author, 1904. ARTICLES UPON THE ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN DEITIES, AND THE RELIGION OF THREE NATIONS, IN Dictionary of the Bible, edited by Dr. James Hastings, and Encyclopædia Biblica, edited by Professor Cheyne.

THE STORY OF THE BOOK OF THOTH.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous p. 279 CHAPTER VIII THE STORY OF THE BOOK OF THOTH NOW Ahura was the wife of Nefer-ka-ptah, and their child was Merab; this was the name by which he was registered by the scribes in the House of Life. And Nefer-ka-ptah, though he was the son of the King, cared for naught on earth but to read the ancient records, written on papyrus in the House of Life or engraved on stone in the temples; all day and every day he studied the writings of the ancestors. One day he went into the temple to pray to the gods, but when he saw the inscriptions on the walls he began to read them; and he forgot to pray, he forgot the gods, he forgot the priests, he forgot all that was around him until he heard laughter behind him. He looked round and a priest stood there, and from him came the laughter. "Why laughest thou at me?" said Nefer-ka-ptah. "Because thou readest these worthless writings," answered the priest. "If thou wouldest read writings p. 280 that are worth the reading I can tell thee where the Book of Thoth lies hidden." Then Nefer-ka-ptah was eager in his questions, and the priest replied, "Thoth wrote the Book with his own hand, and in it is all the magic in the world. If thou readest the first page, thou wilt enchant the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; thou wilt understand the language of the birds of the air, and thou wilt know what the creeping things of earth are saying, and thou wilt see the fishes from the darkest depths of the sea. And if thou readest the other page, even though thou wert dead and in the world of ghosts, thou couldest come back to earth in the form thou once hadst. And besides this, thou wilt see the sun shining in the sky with the full moon and the stars, and thou wilt behold the great shapes of the gods." Then said Nefer-ka-ptah, "By the life of Pharaoh, that Book shall be mine. Tell me whatsoever it is that thou desirest, and I will do it for thee." "Provide for my funeral," said the priest. "See that I am buried as a rich man, with priests and mourning women, offerings, libations, and incense. Then shall my soul rest in peace in the fields of Aalu. One hundred pieces of silver must be spent upon my burying." p. 281 Then Nefer-ka-ptah sent a fleet messenger to fetch the money, and he paid one hundred pieces of silver into the priest's hands. When the priest had taken the silver, he said to Nefer-ka-ptah: "The Book is at Koptos in the middle of the river. In the middle of the river is an iron box, In the iron box is a bronze box, In the bronze box is a keté-wood box, In the keté-wood box is an ivory-and-ebony box, In the ivory-and-ebony box is a silver box, In the silver box is a gold box, And in the gold box is the Book of Thoth, Round about the great iron box are snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things, and above all there is a snake which no man can kill. These are set to guard the Book of Thoth." When the priest had finished speaking, Nefer-ka-ptah ran out of the temple, for his joy was so great that he knew not where he was. He ran quickly to Ahura to tell her about the Book and that he would go to Koptos and find it. But Ahura was very sorrowful, and said, "Go not on this journey, for trouble and grief await thee in the southern land." She laid her hand upon Nefer-ka-ptah as though she would hold him back from the sorrow that awaited him. But he would not be restrained, and broke away from her and went to the king his father. p. 282 He told the King all that he had learned, and said, "Give me the royal barge, O my father, that I may go to the southern land with my wife Ahura and my son Merab. For the Book of Thoth I must and will have." So the King gave orders and the royal barge was prepared, and in it Nefer-ka-ptah, Ahura, and Merab sailed up the river to the southern land as far as Koptos. When they arrived at Koptos, the high priest and all the priests of Isis of Koptos came down to the river to welcome Nefer-ka-ptah, sacrificed an ox and a goose, and poured a libation of wine to Isis of Koptos and her son Harpocrates. After this, the priests of Isis and their wives made a great feast for four days in honor of Nefer-ka-ptah and Ahura. On the morning of the fifth day, Nefer-ka-ptah called to him a priest of Isis, a great magician learned in all the mysteries of the gods. And together they made a little magic box, like the cabin of a boat, and they made men and a great store of tackle, and put the men and the tackle in the magic cabin. Then they uttered a spell over the cabin, and the men breathed and were alive, and began to use the tackle. And Nefer-ka-ptah sank the magic cabin in the river, saying "Workmen, workmen! p. 283 [paragraph continues] Work for me!" And he filled the royal barge with sand and sailed away alone, while Ahura sat on the bank of the river at Koptos, and watched and waited, for she knew that sorrow must come of this journey to the southern land. The magic men in the magic cabin toiled all night and all day for three nights and three days along the bottom of the river; and when they stopped the royal barge stopped also, and Nefer-ka-ptah knew that he had arrived where the Book lay hidden. He took the sand out of the royal barge and threw it into the water, and it made a gap in the river, a gap of a schoenus long and a schoenus wide; in the middle of the gap lay the iron box, and beside the box was coiled the great snake that no man can kill, and all around the box on every side to the edge of the walls of water were snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things. Then Nefer-ka-ptah stood up in the royal barge, and across the water he cried to the snakes and scorpions and crawling things; a loud and terrible cry, and the words were words of magic. As soon as his voice was still, the snakes and scorpions and crawling things were still also, for they were enchanted by means of the magical words of Nefer-ka-ptah, p. 284 and they could not move. Nefer-ka-ptah brought the royal barge to the edge of the gap, and he walked through the snakes and scorpions and crawling things, and they looked at him, but could not move because of the spell that was on them. And now Nefer-ka-ptah was face to face with the snake that no man could kill, and it reared itself up ready for battle. Nefer-ka-ptah rushed upon it and cut off its head, and at once the head and body came together, each to each, and the snake that no man could kill was alive again, and ready for the fray. Again Nefer-ka-ptah rushed upon it, and so hard did he strike that the head was flung far from the body, but at once the head and body came together again, each to each, and again the snake that no man could kill was alive and ready to fight. Then Nefer-ka-ptah saw that the snake was immortal and could not be slain but must be overcome by subtle means. Again he rushed upon it and cut it in two, and very quickly he put sand on each part, so that when the head and body came together there was sand between them and they could not join, and the snake that no man could kill lay helpless before him. Then Nefer-ka-ptah went to the great box where p. 285 it stood in the gap in the middle of the river, and the snakes and scorpions and crawling things watched, but they could not stop him. He opened the iron box and found a bronze box, He opened the bronze box and found a keté-wood box, He opened the keté-wood box and found an ivory-and-ebony box, He opened the ivory-and-ebony box and found a silver box, He opened the silver box and found a gold box, He opened the gold box and found the Book of Thoth. He opened the Book and read a page, and at once he had enchanted the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea, and he understood the language of birds, fish, and beasts. He read the second page and he saw the sun shining in the sky, with the full moon and the stars, and he saw the great shapes of the gods themselves; and so strong was the magic that the fishes came up from the darkest depths of the sea. So he knew that what the priest had told him was true. Then he thought of Ahura waiting for him at Koptos, and he cast a magic spell upon the men that he had made, saying, "Workmen, workmen! Work for me! and take me back to the place from which I came." They toiled day and night till they came to Koptos, and there was Ahura sitting by the river, having eaten nothing and drunk nothing p. 286 since Nefer-ka-ptah went away. For she sat waiting and watching for the sorrow that was to come upon them. But when she saw Nefer-ka-ptah returning in the royal-barge, her heart was glad and she rejoiced exceedingly. Nefer-ka-ptah came to her and put the Book of Thoth into her hands and bade her read it. When she read the first page, she enchanted the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea, and she understood the language of birds, fish, and beasts; and when she read the second page, she saw the sun shining in the sky, with the full moon and the stars, and she saw the great shapes of the gods themselves; and so strong was the magic that the fishes came up from the darkest depths of the sea. Nefer-ka-ptah now called for a piece of new papyrus and for a cup of beer; and on the papyrus he wrote all the spells that were in the Book of Thoth. Then he took the cup of beer and washed the papyrus in the beer, so that all the ink was washed off and the papyrus became as though it had never been written on. And Nefer-ka-ptah drank the beer, and at once he knew all the spells that had been written on the papyrus, for this is the method of the great magicians. p. 287 Then Nefer-ka-ptah and Ahura went to the temple of Isis and gave offerings to Isis and Harpocrates, and made a great feast, and the next day they went on board the royal barge and sailed joyfully away down the river towards the northern land. But behold, Thoth had discovered the loss of his Book, and Thoth raged like a panther of the south, and he hastened before Ra and told him all, saving, "Nefer-ka-ptah has found my magic box and opened it, and has stolen my Book, even the Book of Thoth; he slew the guards that surrounded it, and the snake that no man can kill lay helpless before him. Avenge me, O Ra, upon Nefer-ka-ptah, son of the King of Egypt." The majesty of Ra answered and said, "Take him and his wife and his child, and do with them as thou wilt." And now the sorrow for which Ahura watched and waited was about to come upon them, for Thoth took with him a power from Ra to give him his desire upon the stealer of his Book. As the royal barge sailed smoothly down the river, the little boy Merab ran out from the shade of the awning and leaned over the side watching the water. And the power of Ra drew him, so that he fell into the river and was drowned. When he p. 288 fell, all the sailors on the royal barge and all the people walking on the river-bank raised a great cry, but they could not save him. Nefer-ka-ptah came out of the cabin and read a magical spell over the water, and the body of Merab came to the surface and they brought it on board the royal barge. Then Nefer-ka-ptah read another spell, and so great was its power that the dead child spoke and told Nefer-ka-ptah all that had happened among the gods, that Thoth was seeking vengeance, and that Ra had granted him his desire upon the stealer of his Book. Nefer-ka-ptah gave command, and the royal barge returned to Koptos, that Merab might be buried there with the honor due to the son of a prince. When the funeral ceremonies were over, the royal barge sailed down the river toward the northern land. A joyful journey was it no longer, for Merab was dead, and Ahura's heart was heavy on account of the sorrow that was still to come, for the vengeance of Thoth was not yet fulfilled. They reached the place where Merab had fallen into the water, and Ahura came out from under the shade of the awning, and she leaned over the side of the barge, and the power of Ra drew her so that she fell into the river and was drowned. When p. 289 she fell, all the sailors in the royal barge and all the people walking on the river-bank raised a great cry, but they could not save her. Nefer-ka-ptah came out of the cabin and read a magical spell over the water, and the body of Ahura came to the surface, and they brought it on board the royal barge. Then Nefer-ka-ptah read another spell and so great was its power that the dead woman spoke and told Nefer-ka-ptah all that had happened among the gods, that Thoth was still seeking vengeance, and that Ra had granted him his desire upon the stealer of his Book. Nefer-ka-ptah gave command and the royal barge returned to Koptos, that Ahura might be buried there with the honor due to the daughter of a king. When the funeral ceremonies were over, the royal barge sailed down the river towards the northern land. A sorrowful journey was it now, for Ahura and Merab were dead, and the vengeance of Thoth was not yet fulfilled. They reached the place where Ahura and Merab had fallen into the water, and Nefer-ka-ptah felt the power of Ra drawing him. Though he struggled against it he knew that it would conquer him. He took a piece of royal linen, fine and strong, and made it into a girdle, and with it he bound the Book p. 290 of Thoth firmly to his breast, for he was resolved that Thoth should never have his Book again. Then the power drew him yet more strongly, and he came from under the shade of the awning and threw himself into the river and was drowned. When he fell, all the sailors of the royal barge and all the people walking on the river-bank raised a great cry, but they could not save him. And when they looked for his body they could not find it. So the royal barge sailed down the river till they reached the northern land and came to Memphis, and the chiefs of the royal barge went to the king and told him all that had happened. The king put on mourning raiment; he and his courtiers, the high priest and all the priests of Memphis, the king's army and the king's household, were clothed in mourning apparel, and they walked in procession to the haven of Memphis to the royal barge. When they came to the haven, they saw the body of Nefer-ka-ptah floating in the water beside the barge, close to the great steering-oars. And this marvel came to pass because of the magical powers of Nefer-ka-ptah; even in death he was a great magician by reason of the spells he had washed off the papyrus and drunk in the beer. Then they drew him out of the water, and they p. 291 saw the Book of Thoth bound to his breast with the girdle of royal linen. And the king gave command that they should bury Nefer-ka-ptah with the honor due to the son of a king, and that the Book of Thoth should be buried with him. Thus was the vengeance of Thoth fulfilled, but the Book remained with Nefer-ka-ptah. THE END

THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 1 THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS CHAPTER I THE STORY OF EGYPT EGYPT has been called the "Father of History and the Mother of Civilization" and well may she be called both for her influence upon the ancient world must have been great. Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy, was a student of Egyptian thought and investigated all of their theories of the universe as well as their ideas about the gods. Herodotus, a Greek historian who visited Egypt about 450 B.C., has given a vivid description of the country and people, at that time and about 8 B.C. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek traveler, wandered up and down the bank of the Nile and he, like Herodotus, gives in his book a description of the country and the people. By far the most interesting, as well as accurate, account is given by Strabo, the great geographer of Greece, who was a contemporary of Diodorus. About 90 A.D., Plutarch p. 2 wrote his celebrated treatise on Isis and Osiris, a work that Egyptologists today consider a most accurate presentation of the ideals and traditions of ancient Egypt. In speaking of the sources for the historical material pertaining to the ancient Egyptian, Auguste Mariette in his short history said: "First and foremost in value and in quantity are the Egyptian monuments themselves: the temples, palaces, tombs, statues, and inscriptions. These have supreme authority, because they have the advantage of being the incontestable evidence of the events which they record. They have not long enjoyed this distinction, as the secret of the mysterious writing with which they are covered was, until lately, lost; and it was difficult to see in these relies of antiquity anything more than lifeless stones, devoid of interest. But about eighty-five years ago there appeared, in the person of Champollion, a true genius, who succeeded, by his keen insight, in throwing the most unexpected light upon the darkness of the Egyptian script. Through him these old monuments, so long silent, caused their voices to be heard; by him was the veil torn asunder, and the Egypt of bygone days, so renowned for her wisdom and power, stood revealed to the modern world. p. 3 No longer are the monuments objects of hopeless curiosity, rather are they books of stone wherein may be read, in legible writing, the history of the nation with which they were contemporaneous. "Next to the monuments in importance comes the Greek history of Egypt, written by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, about B.C. 250; and were the book itself in existence, we could have no more trustworthy guide. Egyptian by birth and priest by profession, Manetho, besides being instructed in all the mysteries of his religion, must have also been conversant with foreign literature, for he was a Greek scholar, and equal to the task of writing a complete history of his own country in that language. If only we had that book today it would be a priceless treasure; but the work of the Egyptian priest perished, along with many others, in the great wreck of ancient literature, the burning of the great library at Alexandria, and all we possess of it are a few fragments preserved in the pages of subsequent historians." ORIGIN OF THE EGYPTIAN RACE Prof. Wallis Budge writes on the Egyptian race: "The flint tools and weapons that have been found on the skirts of the desert at various places in p. 4 Egypt, and that are generally admitted to be older than those of the Neolithic period, i.e., the New Stone Age, render it extremely probable that the country was inhabited by men in the Palæolithic period, i.e., the Old Stone Age. The questions that naturally arise in connection with them are: Who were they? To what race did they belong? If they were immigrants, where did they come from? In the limited space afforded by a single chapter it is impossible to enumerate even the most important of the arguments of which these questions have formed the subjects, or the principal theories, old and new, of the origin of the Egyptians. Fortunately Egyptian archæology, even in its present imperfect state, supplies a number of facts, which will suggest answers to these questions that are tolerably correct; and, as time goes on and the results of further research are perfected, our knowledge of these difficult questions may assume a decisive character. The human remains that have been found in Neolithic graves in Egypt prove that the Egyptians of the Neolithic period in upper Egypt were Africans, and there is good reason for thinking that they were akin to all the other inhabitants of the Nile Valley at that time. When the great geological change took place that turned p. 5 into a river valley the arm of the sea that extended as far as Esnâ, and the Nile deposits had formed the soil of Egypt, their ancestors migrated from the south to the north and occupied the land made by the Nile. Whether these facts apply equally to the Delta cannot be said, for no Neolithic graves in the Delta are known. Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic period held that the aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt, and though our information about the boundaries of this land is of the vaguest character, it is quite certain that a very large portion of it was in central Africa, and it probably was near the country called in our times 'Uganda.' There was in all periods frequent intercourse between Egypt and Punt, and caravans must have journeyed from one country to the other at least once a year. In the dynastic period several missions by sea were despatched to the port of Punt to bring back myrrh and other products of the country, which were so dear to the heart of the kinsmen of the Puntites who were settled in Egypt. "Now, if the inhabitants of the southern portion of the Valley of the Nile were attracted to the good and fertile land of Egypt, it follows, as a matter of course, that foreign peoples who heard of this rich land would migrate thither in order to partake p. 6 of its products and to settle in it. The peoples on the western bank--Libyans--and the dwellers in the eastern desert would intermarry with the native Egyptians, and the same would be the case with the negro and half-negro tribes in the Sûdân. At a very early period, and certainly in Neolithic times, a considerable number of Semites must have made their way into Egypt, and these came from the Arabian peninsula on the other side of the Red Sea, either for trading purposes or to settle in Egypt. Some of these crossed the Red Sea in its narrowest part, probably near the straits of Bâb al-Mandib at the southern end of it, and made their way into the country where the comparatively modern town of Sennaar now stands, just as their descendants did some three to five thousand years later. Here they would find themselves not only in fertile land, but they would also be in touch with the tribes living in the region where, from time immemorial, alluvial gold has been found in considerable quantities. Others of the Semites must have made their way into the Delta by the Isthmus of Suez, and there is no doubt that by intermarriage they modified the physical characteristics of many of the natives. Others, again, must have entered Egypt by way of the very ancient caravan p. 7 route through the Wadi Hammânât, which left the Red Sea near the modern town of Kusêr and ended on the Nile near Kenâ in upper Egypt. It is impossible to think that the Semites in Arabia had no seagoing boats in which to cross the Red Sea, and that those who lived on the coast halfway down the Red Sea would be obliged to go so far north as the Isthmus of Suez, or so far south as Bâb al-Mandib before they could cross over into Africa. "In the case of the natives of the Delta foreign influences of another kind would be at work. Here would flock traders of all kinds from the land that is now called Palestine, and from the islands of the Mediterranean, and from the seacoast and the countries inland to the west of Egypt. Some think that even in the Neolithic period there were many settlers who had come from the southern countries of Europe. If the above remarks are only approximately true, we are justified in assuming that the population of the Valley of the Nile was even at this early period very much mixed. It must, however, be noted that neither Libyans, nor Semites, nor seafaring folk of any kind, altered the fundamental characteristics of the African dwellers on the Nile." p. 8 THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY Towards the end of the New Stone Age the Egyptians acquired the knowledge of working in copper, and with tools of this metal they found themselves able to do many things that were before impossible to them. With copper drills they perforated beads and hollowed out stone jars and vessels, and with copper knives and chisels they sculptured stone figures of men, animals, etc., with a skill that was truly wonderful. They had long known how to produce fire and one of its principal uses among them was to smelt copper. In many respects the state of Egypt at the close of this period was not greatly unlike that in which we know it to have been in the earliest part of the dynastic period. It was divided roughly into districts, or as we might say, counties, which at a later period were called "nomes" by the Greeks. Each district had its own symbol, which was generally that of its totem, and probably its own god, or gods, who must have been served by some kind of priest. The laws which men draw up for the protection of their wives, cattle, and possessions generally, as soon as they settle down in towns and villages, were, no doubt, administered in the rough p. 9 and ready way that has been common among African communities from time immemorial. A system of irrigation must have been in use at this time, but it is improbable that there was any central controlling authority. The men of each district protected the part of the bank of the Nile that belonged to them, and made and maintained their own canals, and the high, banked causeways, which connected the towns and villages during the period of the Nile flood, and served as roads. There must have been a head man or governor in each district who possessed a good deal of power, and each town was probably ruled by a kind of mayor with due regard to the interests of the owners of large properties of different kinds. In the villages the largest landowners were probably supreme, but the "old men" or "fathers" of each village must have enjoyed a certain authority. For a considerable time before the dynastic period there must have been kings in Egypt, some ruling over upper Egypt, and some over lower Egypt and the Delta. A portion of a monument, now called the "Palermo Stone" because it is preserved in the museum of Palermo in Sicily, supplies the names of several kings of lower Egypt, e.g., Seka, Tau, Thesh, Neheb, Uatchnâr, and Mekha. p. 10 [paragraph continues] It is quite certain that the names of several kings of upper Egypt were given on the missing portion of the monument, and this fact proves that at that time southern and northern Egypt formed two separate and independent kingdoms. When complete the Palermo stone contained a series of annals, which recorded the principal events in the reigns of the pre-dynastic kings, and also of the dynastic kings down to the middle of the fifth dynasty. There were also included the names of the principal festivals that were celebrated in these reigns, and also the height of the Nile flood yearly, given in cubits, palms, fingers, and spans. How these heights were ascertained is not clear, but it was probably by means of lines cut into a rock on the river bank, or on a slab built into a wall of a well at Memphis. The height of the Nile flood then, as now, was valuable for determining the degree of prosperity of the country that was probable during the year. We have already said that the native African element in upper Egypt was reinforced continually from the south, and we may assume that the process of reinforcement usually went on peacefully, and that the Egyptians in upper Egypt assimilated their newly-arrived kinsmen from the south without p. 11 difficulty. This, however, was fated not to go on indefinitely, for on one occasion at least, probably a century or two before the dynastic period began, a host of men from the south or southeast swept down upon Egypt. This invasion in many respects seems to have been similar to that which took place under Piânkhi, the king of Nubia, whose capital was at Napt, or Napata, about 720 B.C.; but whilst Piânkhi returned to Nubia, the southern folk and their leaders who invaded Egypt towards the close of the pre-dynastic period did not do so. If we take into account the effect of this pre-dynastic invasion upon the civilization of Egypt we must assume that the invaders were more highly civilized than the people they conquered. And if we assume this we must further assume that the invaders came from the country now called Abyssinia and the lands to the south of it. Their route was the old trade route known today as the "Blue Nile caravan route," which has been chosen from time immemorial by the captains of caravans, because it makes it unnecessary to traverse the first four cataracts. Among the invaders who came by this route were natives of the Eastern Desert, the remote ancestors of the Blemmyes and the modern Hadenduwa and cognate tribes, and Semites, who had originally p. 12 crossed the Red Sea from Asia to Africa. We have no distinct record of this invasion, still less have we any details of it, and we have no knowledge of the causes that led up to it; but in an inscription of the Ptolemaic period cut on the walls of the temple of Edfû in upper Egypt, we certainly have a legendary account of it. In this inscription the victorious leader is accompanied by men who are called "Mesniu," or "Blacksmiths," who came from the west of the Nile, i.e., from a country to the south of Egypt, and not from a country to the southeast. This view agrees quite well with what is known of the dynastic period, for the Pharaohs often had to fight hordes of enemies from countries so far south as the White Nile and the Gazelle and Jûr Rivers, and their descendants were probably to be found in the Nobadae, who terrified the Romans, and the "Baggârah" who fought under the Mahdi in our own times. There may have been a conquest of Egypt by the peoples to the west of Egypt at one time, and another by the peoples to the east at another time, or the enemies of Egypt on both banks of the White and Blue Niles may have invaded the country together. In any case the purport of the inscription, the contents of which we will now describe, is to show that the king of p. 13 the south and his descendants first conquered upper Egypt and then lower Egypt. The Edfu text sets forth that Râ-Harmakhis was king of Ta-sti, the "Land of the Bow," i.e., the country of all the peoples who fought with bows and arrows, or the eastern Sûdân. In the 363d year of his reign he dispatched a force into Egypt, and overcoming all opposition, this god established himself and his followers at Edfû. Having discovered that the enemy had collected in force to the southeast of Thebes, Horus and his followers, or the blacksmiths, armed with spears and chains, set out and joined battle with them, and utterly defeated them at a place called Tchetmet. For the first time probably the natives armed with weapons made of flint found themselves in mortal combat with foreign enemies armed with metal weapons; their defeat was unavoidable. Soon after this battle the natives again collected in force to the northeast of Denderah, about fifty miles north of Thebes, where they were attacked and again defeated by Horus. Another battle took place a little later on at Heben, about one hundred and fifty miles south of Memphis, and Horus cut up many of his defeated foes and offered them to the gods. Horus then pursued the enemy into the p. 14 [paragraph continues] Delta, and wherever he did battle with them he defeated them. In one place the arch-rebel Set appeared with his followers and fought against Horus and his "blacksmiths," but Horus drove his spear into Set's neck, fettered his limbs with his chain, and then cut off his head, and the heads of all his followers. Horus then sailed over the streams in the Delta, and slew the enemy in detail, and made himself master of the whole of the Delta, from the swamps on the west of the left main arm of the Nile to the desert in the east. The text goes on to say that companies of the "blacksmiths" settled down on lands given to them by Horus on the right and left banks of the Nile and in what is now called "middle Egypt"; thus the followers of Horus from the south effectively occupied the country. Horus returned to Edfû and made an expedition against the people of Uauat (now northern Nubia), and punished their rebellion. He then sailed back to Edfû and established the worship of Horus of Edfû, and ordered a symbol of this god to be placed in every temple of Egypt. Now the symbol referred to is the winged solar disk, with a serpent on each side of it, and the statement suggests that Horus established the worship of a form of the sun-god in Egypt. If this be really p. 15 so, Horus and his followers must have come from the east, where sun-worship was common, and must have found that the Egyptians were not sun-worshippers. The Egyptians, like most of the peoples in the Nile Valley, ancient and modem, only worshipped the sun under compulsion. On the other hand, the worship of the moon was universal, and the native gods of the Egyptians were of a kind quite different from those worshipped in the Eastern Desert and among the peoples of Arabia, Syria, and the northern Delta. BEGINNING OF DYNASTIC HISTORY As the result, however, of one of the battles between the forces of the south and north, which was fought probably near Anulater Heliopolis--the king of the south gained the victory, and he was henceforth able to call himself "King of the South, King of the North." Who this mighty "uniter of the two lands" really was is not known, but the native tradition, which was current at Abydos, and presumably throughout Egypt, in the thirteenth century before Christ, stated that he was called Mena; this tradition was also accepted in the time of the Greek historians, for they all agree in saying that the first king of Egypt was called Menes. p. 16 MANETHO--THE EGYPTIAN HISTORIAN ON THE DYNASTIES In this history of Egypt, Manetho gave a list of the kings of Egypt, which he divided into three parts, each containing several groups of kings which he called "dynasties," but it is not quite clear what he meant by the word "dynasty." Though his history is lost, four copies of his king-list are preserved in the works of later writers. The oldest of these is that which is said to have been written by Julius Africanus, in the third century of our era, which is preserved in the "Chronicle of Eusebius," bishop of Cæsarea, born A.D. 264, and died about 340. In this work Eusebius also gives a copy of the list of THE DYNASTIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT Dynasties Duration in years ANCIENT EMPIRE 1-2 Thinite 555 3-5 Memphite 746 6 Elephantine 203 7-8 Memphite 142 years, 70 days 9-10 Heracleopolite 294 MIDDLE EMPIRE 11-13 Theban 666 14 Xoite 184 15-17 Hyksos (Delta) 511 NEW EMPIRE 18-20 Theban 593 21 Tanite 130 22 Bubastite 170 23 Tanite 89 24 Saïte 6 25 Ethiopian 50 26 Saïte 138 27 Persian 121 28 Saïte 7 29 Mendesian 21 30 Sebennyte 38 31 Persian 8 p. 17 PRINCIPAL KINGS Dynasties Mena 1 Teta Hesepti Ba-en-neter 2 Sneferu 3 Khufu 4 Khafra Menkau-Ra Unas 5 Teta 6 Pepi I Pepi II Queen Nitocris Amen-em-hat I 12 Usertsen I Amen-em-hat II Usertsen II Usertsen III Amen-em-hat III Amen-em-hat IV Sekenen-Ra 17 Aahmes I 18 Amen-hotep I Thothmes II Queen Hatshepsu Thothmes III Amen-hotep II Thothmes IV Amen-hotep III Amen-hotep IV Akhnaton Semenkhkara--or Saakara Tutankhaton--after Tutankhamon Seti I 19 Ramses II Merenptah Ramses III 20 Her-Hor 21 Shashanq I (Shishak) 22 Osorkon II (Zerah?) Tefnekht (Piankhi King of Ethiopia took Memphis) 23 Bakenranef (Bocchoris) Shabaka. His sister Ameniritis married Piankhi II and their daughter became the queen of Psamethek I 25 Shabataka Taharaqa (Tirhakah) 26 Psamethe I Neku II (Necho) Uahabra (Hophra) 30 Nekthorheb (Nectanebo I) Nektnebef (Nectanebo II) Manetho made by himself, but the copy of Julius Africanus agrees better with the results derived from the monuments which we now have than that of Eusebius. The dynasties of Manetho's king-list that represent that "archaic period" are the first p. 18 three. According to this, the kings of the first dynasty were eight in number and reigned 263 years; those of the second dynasty were nine in number and reigned 214 years. The first and second dynasties reigned at Thnis--Abydos--and the third dynasty at Memphis. The original Egyptian forms of many of the royal names given by Manetho have been identified without doubt; the identifications of a few others are nearly certain, and about the remainder there exist many different opinions. Besides Áha and Nârmer, or Nârmer and Áha, for the true order of these two kings is uncertain. THOTHMES III OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY Thothmes III is generally regarded as the greatest of the kings of Egypt--the Alexander the Great of the Egyptian history. The name Thothmes means "child of Thoth," and was a common name among the ancient Egyptians. He is represented by a sphinx presenting gifts of water and wine to Tum, the setting sun, a solar deity worshipped at Heliopolis. On the hieroglyphic paintings at Karnak, the fact of the heliacal rising of Sothis, the dog-star, is stated to have taken place during this reign, from which it appears that Thothmes p. 19 [paragraph continues] III occupied the throne of Egypt about 1450 B.C. This is one of the few dates of Egyptian chronology that can be authenticated. Thothmes III belonged to the eighteenth dynasty, which included some of the greatest of Egyptian monarchs. Among the kings of this dynasty were four that bore the name of Thothmes, and four the name of Amenophis, which means "peace of Amen." The monarchs of this dynasty were Thebans. The father of Thothmes III was a great warrior. He conquered the Canaanitish nations of Palestine, took Nineveh from the Rutennu, the confederate tribes of Syria, laid waste Mesopotamia, and introduced war chariots and horses into the army of Egypt. Thothmes III, however, was even a greater warrior than his father; and during his long reign Egypt reached the climax of her greatness. His predecessors of the eighteenth dynasty had extended the dominions of Egypt far into Asia and the interior of Africa. He was a king of great capacity and a warrior of considerable courage. The records of his campaigns are for the most part preserved on a sandstone wall surrounding the great temple of Karnak, built by Thothmes III in p. 20 honor of Amen-Ra. From these hieroglyphic inscriptions it appears that Thothmes' first great campaign was made in the twenty-second year of his reign, when an expedition was made into the land of Taneter, that is, Palestine. A full account of his marches and victories is given, together with a list of one hundred and nineteen conquered towns. This monarch lived before the time of Joshua, and therefore the records of his conquests present us with the ancient Canaanite nomenclature of places in Palestine between the times of the patriarchs and the conquest of the land by the Israelites under Joshua. Thothmes set out with his army from Tanis, that is Zoan; and after taking Gaza, he proceeded, by way of the plain of Sharon, to the more northern parts of Palestine. At the battle of Megiddo he overthrew the confederated troops of native princes; and in consequence of this signal victory the whole of Palestine was subdued. Crossing the Jordan near the Sea of Galilee, Thothmes pursued his march to Damascus, which he took by the sword; and then returning homeward by the Judean hills and the south country of Palestine, he returned to Egypt laden with the spoils of victory. In the thirtieth year of his reign Thothmes led an expedition against the Rutennu, the people of p. 21 northern Syria. In this campaign he attacked and captured Kadesh, a strong fortress in the valley of Orontes, and the capital town of the Rutennu. The king pushed his conquests into Mesopotamia, and occupied the strong fortress of Carchemish, on the banks of the Euphrates. He then led his conquering troops northward to the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that the kings of Damascus, Nineveh, and Assur became his vassals, and paid tribute to Egypt. Punt or Arabia was also subdued, and in Africa his conquests extended to Cush or Ethiopia. His fleet of ships sailed triumphantly over the waters of the Black Sea. Thus Thothmes ruled over lands extending from the mountains of Caucasus to the shores of the Indian Ocean, and from the Libyan Desert to the great river Tigris. Besides distinguishing himself as a warrior and as a record writer, Thothmes III was one of the greatest of Egyptian builders and patrons of art. The great temple of Ammon at Thebes was the special object of his fostering care, and he began his career of builder and restorer by repairing the damages which his sister Hatasu had inflicted on that glorious edifice to gratify her dislike of her brother Thothmes III, and her father Thothmes I, p. 22 [paragraph continues] Statues of Thothmes I and his father Amenophis, which Hatasu had thrown down, were re-erected by Thothmes III, before the southern propylæa of the temple in the first year of his independent reign. The central sanctuary which Usertesen I had built in common stone, was next replaced by the present granite edifice, under the directions of the young prince, who then proceeded to build in the rear of the old temple a magnificent hall or pillared chamber of dimensions previously unknown in Egypt. This edifice was an oblong square, one hundred and forty-three feet long by fifty-five feet wide, or nearly half as large again as our largest cathedral. The whole of this apartment was roofed in with slabs of solid stone; two rows of circular pillars thirty feet in height supported the central part, dividing it into three avenues, while on each side of the pillars was a row of square piers, still further extending the width of the chamber and breaking it up into five long vistas. In connection with this noble ball, on three sides of it, north, east, and south, Thothmes erected further chambers and corridors, one of the former situated towards the south containing the "Great Table of Karnak." One of the most interesting Pharaohs of Egypt was Akhnaton, who is called the first individualist p. 23 of history and a great idealist. Prof. Wallis Budge gives this account of his kingship: "Amen-Hetep--Akhnaton--was the son of Amen-hetep III by his wife Tî, and he reigned about twenty years. Whether he ascended the throne immediately after his father's death is not known, but whether he did or not matters little, for it is quite certain that for some years at least his mother was the actual ruler of Egypt, and that she ordered works to be carried out as if she were its lawful sovereign. His wife Nefertithi, who was probably of Asiatic origin like his mother, also obtained a power and an authority in Egypt which were not usually enjoyed by Egyptian queens. These facts are proved by the monuments, in which both Tî and Nefertithi are represented as equals in every respect of Amen-hetep IV, and their names are accorded prominence similar to those of the king. The pictures and sculptured representations of Amen-hetep IV show that his physical characteristics were wholly of a non-Egyptian character, and suggest that he was of a highly nervous and sensitive disposition, lacking in purpose, firmness, and decision, full of prejudices, self-will, and obstinacy. His acts prove that he was unpractical in every matter p. 24 connected with the rule of Egypt and her Nubian and Asiatic provinces, which had been won for her by the great Thothmes III, and the story of the break-up of the great Egyptian empire owing to his weakness and incapacity is almost the saddest page of Egyptian history. His alien blood, derived from his mother and grandmother, caused to develop in him a multitude of strange ideas about religion, art, and government that were detestable to the Egyptians, whose national characteristics he neither recognized nor understood, and with whom he had no true sympathy. When he ascended the throne he adopted a series of names that proclaimed to all Egypt that he held religious views of a different character from those held by the majority of the Egyptians. Some of these resembled the doctrines of the Sun-god as taught by the priests of Heliopolis, but others were obnoxious to the Egyptians generally. His father and grandfather probably held exactly the same religious views, but if they did they took care not to allow them to disturb the peace of the country, nor to interrupt the business of the state. Amen-hetep IV proclaimed a new form of worship, and, to all intents and purposes, a new god, whom he called Aten. Now Aten was well known to the Egyptians as the god of the p. 25 solar disk, and they had been familiar with him from the earliest period; but Amen-hetep IV assigned to him new attributes, which are very difficult to describe. He taught that Aten was the unseen, almighty, and everlasting power that made itself manifest in the form of the solar disk in the sky, and was the source of all life in heaven and earth and the underworld. He ascribed to Aten a monotheistic character, or oneness, which he denied to every other god, but when we read the hymns to Aten of which the king approved, it is extremely difficult to understand the difference between the oneness of Aten and the oneness of Amen-Râ, or Râ, or of any other great Egyptian god. "During the first four years of his reign Amen-hetep IV lived at Thebes, but during the whole of this period he was quarrelling actively with the priests of Amen-Râ, whose god Amen was an abomination to him. As king he had great resources at his command, and besides building a sanctuary called Kem Aten at Thebes, he set up shrines to Aten at various places in Egypt, and also in the Sudan. The most important in the latter country was Kem Aten, which was probably situated at or near Sadengah, where his father had built a temple in honor of Queen Tî. Whilst this work was going p. 26 on Amen-hetep IV caused the name of Amen to be hammered out from the inscriptions on existing monuments, and he suppressed by every means in his power the cults of the other gods. Such an intolerant religious fanatic was never before seen in Egypt, and the king hated Amen and his name so thoroughly that he changed his own name from Amen-hetep to "Khu-en-Aten," or "Aakh-en-Aten," a name meaning "spirit soul of Aten." Besides his fanaticism there was also a material reason for his hatred of Amen. He saw the greater part of the revenues of the country being absorbed slowly but surely by the greedy priesthood of this god, and he felt that their wealth made their power to be actually greater than that of the king. "Of the details of the fight between the priesthoods of the old gods of Egypt and the king little is known, but it is clear that the Egyptians found some effective way of showing their resentment to the king, for in the fifth year of his reign he forsook Thebes, and founded a new capital, wherein Aten alone was to be worshipped. The site of the new capital which was called Khut-en-Aten, or 'horizon of Aten,' was on the east bank of the Nile, about two hundred miles south of Memphis, and is marked today by the villages of Haggî Kandil, and Tell p. 27 al-Amarnah. Here he built a large temple to Aten and two or three smaller sanctuaries for the private use of the ladies of his family. Near the temple was the palace, which was splendidly decorated and furnished with beautiful objects of every kind, and the priests and high officials and nobles who had followed the king were provided with rock-hewn tombs in the mountain behind the new capital. A considerable space of ground about this capital was set apart as the property of Aten, and its confines were marked with boundary stones, and the revenues of some of the old sanctuaries were wrested from them by the king and applied to the support of Aten. Amen-hetep IV and his followers lived in Khut-en-Aten for some twelve or fifteen years in comparative peace, and the king occupied himself in playing the priest, and in superintending the building operations and the laying out of large and beautiful gardens by the court architect Bek. The high priest bore the title of the high priest of Heliopolis, and the form of worship there seems to have had much in common with the old solar cult of Heliopolis. The king composed one or two hymns which were sung in his temple, and copies of these were painted on the walls of the tombs of his favourites. p. 28 "Meanwhile what was happening to Egypt and her Asiatic and Nubian provinces? For a time the kings of Mitanni and Babylonia sent dispatches to Amen-hetep IV as they did to his father, and some of the chiefs of the neighboring countries sent tribute to him as they did to his father. When, however, the envoys returned to their countries and reported that Pharaoh, whose mere name had struck terror into the Asiatics, was at enmity with all his people, and was devoting all his time to theological matters, and to the founding of new canons of art, and to the selfish enjoyment of a religion that was detested by all the Egyptian priesthoods, with the exception of the priesthood of Heliopolis, the enemies of the Egyptian power in western Asia felt that the time of their deliverance was at hand. With one accord they ceased to pay tribute, and gathering together their forces, they attacked the Egyptian garrisons in Syria and Palestine, and one by one the cities fell, and the Egyptian governors and their troops were slain or scattered. The Kheta, or Hittites, swept down from the north upon the possessions of Egypt, and being joined by the Khabiri and by the vassal princes of Egypt, were irresistible. They first attacked and took the inland cities, and then advancing westward they p. 29 captured city after city along the coast until Beyrut, Tyre, Ascalon, Gezer, and Lachish were at their mercy. The Tell al-Amarnah letters contain piteous appeals to Amen-hetep IV for help from all parts of Syria and Palestine, and every writer entreats the king to protect his own possessions; but the king had no help to send, and even if he had had troops available for despatch they would never have been sent, for he hated war in all its forms. Thus Egypt lost her Asiatic possessions which it had taken her kings nearly two hundred years to acquire. Meanwhile discontent was growing everywhere in Egypt itself, and conspiracies against the king were spreading in all directions; when these had reached formidable proportions the king died, but whether his death was due to anxiety, disease, or poison cannot be said. Amen-hetep IV had no son, and his family consisted of six daughters, the eldest of whom died before her father. He was buried in a tomb hewn in the mountains behind his town, and his stone coffin, or sarcophagus, was found there in 1893 by the native tomb robbers, who cut out the cartouches from it and sold them to travellers. "Amen-hetep IV was succeeded by Sâakarâ who had married one of his daughters called Merit-Aten, p. 30 and had probably assisted his father-in-law in his various religious undertakings. Sâakarâ ruled the town of Khut-en-Aten for two or three years, and was succeeded by Tut-Ánkh-Amen, a son of Amen-hetep III, who married a daughter of Amen-hetep IV called Ánkhsenpaaten. Tut-ânkh-Amen was undoubtedly supported by the priests of Amen, as the presence of the name of the god in his name testifies, and his accession to the throne marks the triumph of the priesthood of Amen over Aten and his followers. He made his wife change her name to Ankhsen-Amen, and removed the court to Thebes, where he at once set to work to repair portions of the great temples of Amen at Karnak and Luxor. Wherever it was possible to do so he restored the name and figure of the god Amen, which his father-in-law had attempted to obliterate. He carried out certain building operations in the Sudan and received tribute from the chiefs of the country, but he undertook no military expeditions into Syria, and made no attempt to renew the sovereignty of Egypt in western Asia. When Tut-Ankh-Amen removed his court to Thebes, he was quickly followed by many of the nobles who had settled at Khut-en-Aten, and the capital of Amen-hetep IV began at once to decline. The services in the temple p. 31 languished, and the sculptors and artists who had designed their works in accordance with the canons of art devised and approved by Amen-hetep IV found themselves without employment; the working classes who had lived on the court left the town, which in a very few years became forsaken. The Aten temples were thrown down, and before many years had passed the town became a heap of ruins. Thus the triumph of Amen, the god who had delivered the Egyptians from the Nyksos, was complete." RAMESES II OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY Rameses II, called the Napoleon of Egypt, lived about two centuries after Thothmes III, and ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses I was the third king of the nineteenth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works, and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III. His grandfather, Rameses I, was the founder of the dynasty. His father, Seti I, is celebrated for his victories over the Rutennu, or Syrians, and over the Shasu, or Arabians, as well as for his public p. 32 works, especially the great temple he built at Karnak. Rameses II, was, however, a greater warrior than his father. He first conquered Kush, or Ethiopia; then he led an expedition against the Khitæ, or Hittites, whom he completely routed at Kadesh, the ancient capital, a town on the River Orontes, north of Mount Lebanon. In this battle Rameses was placed. in the greatest danger; but his personal bravery stood him in good stead, and he kept the Hittites at bay till his soldiers rescued him. He thus commemorates on the monuments his deeds: "I became like the god Mentu; I hurled the dart with my right hand; I fought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his time before their slight; I had come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in the midst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not one of them raised his hand to fight; their courage was sunken in their breasts; their limbs gave way; they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength to thrust the spear. I made them fall into the waters like crocodiles; they tumbled down on their faces one after another. I killed them at my pleasure, so that not one looked back behind him; nor did any turn p. 33 round. Each fell, and none raised himself up again." 1 Rameses fought with and conquered the Amorites, Canaanites, and other tribes of Palestine and Syria. His public works are also very numerous; he dug wells, founded cities, and completed a great wall begun by his father Seti, reaching from Pelusium to Heliopolis, a gigantic structure designed to keep back the hostile Asiatics, thus reminding one of the Great Wall of China. Pelusium was situated near the present Port Said, and the wall must therefore have been about a hundred miles long. In its course it must have passed near the site of Tel-el-Kebir. It is now certain that Rameses built the treasure cities spoken of in Exodus: "Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses"--Exod. i. 11. According to Dr. Brich, Rameses II was a monarch of whom it was written: "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph." He enlarged On and Tanis, and built temples at Ipsambul, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Memphis, etc. The most remarkable of the temples erected by Rameses is the building at Thebes, once called the p. 34 [paragraph continues] Memnonium, but now commonly known as the Rameseum; and the extraordinary rock temple of Ipsambul, or Abu-Simbel, the most magnificent specimen of its class which the world contains. The façade is formed by four huge colossi, each seventy feet in height, representing Rameses himself seated on a throne, with the double crown of Egypt upon his head. In the center, flanked on either side by two of these gigantic figures, is a doorway of the usual Egyptian type, opening into a small vestibule, which communicates by a short passage with the main chamber. This is an oblong square, sixty feet long, by forty-five, divided into a nave and two aisles by two rows of square piers with Osirid statues, thirty feet high in front, and ornamented with painted sculptures over its whole surface. The main chamber leads into an inner shrine or adytum, supported by four piers with Osirid figures, but otherwise as richly adorned as the outer apartment. Behind the adytum. are small rooms for the priests who served in the temple. It is the façade of the work which constitutes its main beauty. 1 "The largest of the rock temples at Ipsambul," says Mr. Fergusson, "is the finest of its class known p. 35 to exist anywhere. Externally the façade is about one hundred feet in height, and adorned by four of the most magnificent colossi in Egypt, each seventy feet in height, and representing the king, Rameses II, who caused the excavation to be made." His character has been well summarized by Canon Rawlinson: "His affection for his son, and for his two principal wives, shows that the disposition of Rameses II was in some respects amiable; although, upon the whole, his character is one which scarcely commends itself to our approval. Professing in his early years extreme devotion to the memory of his father, he lived to show himself his father's worst enemy, and to aim at obliterating his memory by erasing his name from the monuments on which it occurred, and in many cases substituting his own. Amid a great show of regard for the deities of his country, and for the ordinances of the established worship, he contrived that the chief result of all that he did for religion should be the glorification of himself. Other kings had arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with the real national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself during his lifetime with such leading p. 36 deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus, and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. Even his bravery, which cannot be denied, loses half its merit by being made the constant subject of boasting; and his magnificence ceases to appear admirable when we think at what a cost it displayed itself. If, with most recent writers upon Egyptian history, we identify him with the 'king who knew not Joseph,' the builder of Pithom and Raamses, the first oppressor of the Israelites, we must add some darker shades to the picture, and look upon him as a cruel and ruthless despot, who did not shrink from inflicting on innocent persons the severest pain and suffering." Footnotes 33:1 Brugsch, "History of Egypt," Vol. II, p. 5U, 1st ed. 34:1 Rawlinson's "Ancient Egypt," Vol. I, p. 318. Next: Chapter II: Religion of Ancient Egypt

THE WISDOM THE EGYPTIANS.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 1 THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS CHAPTER I THE STORY OF EGYPT EGYPT has been called the "Father of History and the Mother of Civilization" and well may she be called both for her influence upon the ancient world must have been great. Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy, was a student of Egyptian thought and investigated all of their theories of the universe as well as their ideas about the gods. Herodotus, a Greek historian who visited Egypt about 450 B.C., has given a vivid description of the country and people, at that time and about 8 B.C. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek traveler, wandered up and down the bank of the Nile and he, like Herodotus, gives in his book a description of the country and the people. By far the most interesting, as well as accurate, account is given by Strabo, the great geographer of Greece, who was a contemporary of Diodorus. About 90 A.D., Plutarch p. 2 wrote his celebrated treatise on Isis and Osiris, a work that Egyptologists today consider a most accurate presentation of the ideals and traditions of ancient Egypt. In speaking of the sources for the historical material pertaining to the ancient Egyptian, Auguste Mariette in his short history said: "First and foremost in value and in quantity are the Egyptian monuments themselves: the temples, palaces, tombs, statues, and inscriptions. These have supreme authority, because they have the advantage of being the incontestable evidence of the events which they record. They have not long enjoyed this distinction, as the secret of the mysterious writing with which they are covered was, until lately, lost; and it was difficult to see in these relies of antiquity anything more than lifeless stones, devoid of interest. But about eighty-five years ago there appeared, in the person of Champollion, a true genius, who succeeded, by his keen insight, in throwing the most unexpected light upon the darkness of the Egyptian script. Through him these old monuments, so long silent, caused their voices to be heard; by him was the veil torn asunder, and the Egypt of bygone days, so renowned for her wisdom and power, stood revealed to the modern world. p. 3 No longer are the monuments objects of hopeless curiosity, rather are they books of stone wherein may be read, in legible writing, the history of the nation with which they were contemporaneous. "Next to the monuments in importance comes the Greek history of Egypt, written by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, about B.C. 250; and were the book itself in existence, we could have no more trustworthy guide. Egyptian by birth and priest by profession, Manetho, besides being instructed in all the mysteries of his religion, must have also been conversant with foreign literature, for he was a Greek scholar, and equal to the task of writing a complete history of his own country in that language. If only we had that book today it would be a priceless treasure; but the work of the Egyptian priest perished, along with many others, in the great wreck of ancient literature, the burning of the great library at Alexandria, and all we possess of it are a few fragments preserved in the pages of subsequent historians." ORIGIN OF THE EGYPTIAN RACE Prof. Wallis Budge writes on the Egyptian race: "The flint tools and weapons that have been found on the skirts of the desert at various places in p. 4 Egypt, and that are generally admitted to be older than those of the Neolithic period, i.e., the New Stone Age, render it extremely probable that the country was inhabited by men in the Palæolithic period, i.e., the Old Stone Age. The questions that naturally arise in connection with them are: Who were they? To what race did they belong? If they were immigrants, where did they come from? In the limited space afforded by a single chapter it is impossible to enumerate even the most important of the arguments of which these questions have formed the subjects, or the principal theories, old and new, of the origin of the Egyptians. Fortunately Egyptian archæology, even in its present imperfect state, supplies a number of facts, which will suggest answers to these questions that are tolerably correct; and, as time goes on and the results of further research are perfected, our knowledge of these difficult questions may assume a decisive character. The human remains that have been found in Neolithic graves in Egypt prove that the Egyptians of the Neolithic period in upper Egypt were Africans, and there is good reason for thinking that they were akin to all the other inhabitants of the Nile Valley at that time. When the great geological change took place that turned p. 5 into a river valley the arm of the sea that extended as far as Esnâ, and the Nile deposits had formed the soil of Egypt, their ancestors migrated from the south to the north and occupied the land made by the Nile. Whether these facts apply equally to the Delta cannot be said, for no Neolithic graves in the Delta are known. Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic period held that the aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt, and though our information about the boundaries of this land is of the vaguest character, it is quite certain that a very large portion of it was in central Africa, and it probably was near the country called in our times 'Uganda.' There was in all periods frequent intercourse between Egypt and Punt, and caravans must have journeyed from one country to the other at least once a year. In the dynastic period several missions by sea were despatched to the port of Punt to bring back myrrh and other products of the country, which were so dear to the heart of the kinsmen of the Puntites who were settled in Egypt. "Now, if the inhabitants of the southern portion of the Valley of the Nile were attracted to the good and fertile land of Egypt, it follows, as a matter of course, that foreign peoples who heard of this rich land would migrate thither in order to partake p. 6 of its products and to settle in it. The peoples on the western bank--Libyans--and the dwellers in the eastern desert would intermarry with the native Egyptians, and the same would be the case with the negro and half-negro tribes in the Sûdân. At a very early period, and certainly in Neolithic times, a considerable number of Semites must have made their way into Egypt, and these came from the Arabian peninsula on the other side of the Red Sea, either for trading purposes or to settle in Egypt. Some of these crossed the Red Sea in its narrowest part, probably near the straits of Bâb al-Mandib at the southern end of it, and made their way into the country where the comparatively modern town of Sennaar now stands, just as their descendants did some three to five thousand years later. Here they would find themselves not only in fertile land, but they would also be in touch with the tribes living in the region where, from time immemorial, alluvial gold has been found in considerable quantities. Others of the Semites must have made their way into the Delta by the Isthmus of Suez, and there is no doubt that by intermarriage they modified the physical characteristics of many of the natives. Others, again, must have entered Egypt by way of the very ancient caravan p. 7 route through the Wadi Hammânât, which left the Red Sea near the modern town of Kusêr and ended on the Nile near Kenâ in upper Egypt. It is impossible to think that the Semites in Arabia had no seagoing boats in which to cross the Red Sea, and that those who lived on the coast halfway down the Red Sea would be obliged to go so far north as the Isthmus of Suez, or so far south as Bâb al-Mandib before they could cross over into Africa. "In the case of the natives of the Delta foreign influences of another kind would be at work. Here would flock traders of all kinds from the land that is now called Palestine, and from the islands of the Mediterranean, and from the seacoast and the countries inland to the west of Egypt. Some think that even in the Neolithic period there were many settlers who had come from the southern countries of Europe. If the above remarks are only approximately true, we are justified in assuming that the population of the Valley of the Nile was even at this early period very much mixed. It must, however, be noted that neither Libyans, nor Semites, nor seafaring folk of any kind, altered the fundamental characteristics of the African dwellers on the Nile." p. 8 THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY Towards the end of the New Stone Age the Egyptians acquired the knowledge of working in copper, and with tools of this metal they found themselves able to do many things that were before impossible to them. With copper drills they perforated beads and hollowed out stone jars and vessels, and with copper knives and chisels they sculptured stone figures of men, animals, etc., with a skill that was truly wonderful. They had long known how to produce fire and one of its principal uses among them was to smelt copper. In many respects the state of Egypt at the close of this period was not greatly unlike that in which we know it to have been in the earliest part of the dynastic period. It was divided roughly into districts, or as we might say, counties, which at a later period were called "nomes" by the Greeks. Each district had its own symbol, which was generally that of its totem, and probably its own god, or gods, who must have been served by some kind of priest. The laws which men draw up for the protection of their wives, cattle, and possessions generally, as soon as they settle down in towns and villages, were, no doubt, administered in the rough p. 9 and ready way that has been common among African communities from time immemorial. A system of irrigation must have been in use at this time, but it is improbable that there was any central controlling authority. The men of each district protected the part of the bank of the Nile that belonged to them, and made and maintained their own canals, and the high, banked causeways, which connected the towns and villages during the period of the Nile flood, and served as roads. There must have been a head man or governor in each district who possessed a good deal of power, and each town was probably ruled by a kind of mayor with due regard to the interests of the owners of large properties of different kinds. In the villages the largest landowners were probably supreme, but the "old men" or "fathers" of each village must have enjoyed a certain authority. For a considerable time before the dynastic period there must have been kings in Egypt, some ruling over upper Egypt, and some over lower Egypt and the Delta. A portion of a monument, now called the "Palermo Stone" because it is preserved in the museum of Palermo in Sicily, supplies the names of several kings of lower Egypt, e.g., Seka, Tau, Thesh, Neheb, Uatchnâr, and Mekha. p. 10 [paragraph continues] It is quite certain that the names of several kings of upper Egypt were given on the missing portion of the monument, and this fact proves that at that time southern and northern Egypt formed two separate and independent kingdoms. When complete the Palermo stone contained a series of annals, which recorded the principal events in the reigns of the pre-dynastic kings, and also of the dynastic kings down to the middle of the fifth dynasty. There were also included the names of the principal festivals that were celebrated in these reigns, and also the height of the Nile flood yearly, given in cubits, palms, fingers, and spans. How these heights were ascertained is not clear, but it was probably by means of lines cut into a rock on the river bank, or on a slab built into a wall of a well at Memphis. The height of the Nile flood then, as now, was valuable for determining the degree of prosperity of the country that was probable during the year. We have already said that the native African element in upper Egypt was reinforced continually from the south, and we may assume that the process of reinforcement usually went on peacefully, and that the Egyptians in upper Egypt assimilated their newly-arrived kinsmen from the south without p. 11 difficulty. This, however, was fated not to go on indefinitely, for on one occasion at least, probably a century or two before the dynastic period began, a host of men from the south or southeast swept down upon Egypt. This invasion in many respects seems to have been similar to that which took place under Piânkhi, the king of Nubia, whose capital was at Napt, or Napata, about 720 B.C.; but whilst Piânkhi returned to Nubia, the southern folk and their leaders who invaded Egypt towards the close of the pre-dynastic period did not do so. If we take into account the effect of this pre-dynastic invasion upon the civilization of Egypt we must assume that the invaders were more highly civilized than the people they conquered. And if we assume this we must further assume that the invaders came from the country now called Abyssinia and the lands to the south of it. Their route was the old trade route known today as the "Blue Nile caravan route," which has been chosen from time immemorial by the captains of caravans, because it makes it unnecessary to traverse the first four cataracts. Among the invaders who came by this route were natives of the Eastern Desert, the remote ancestors of the Blemmyes and the modern Hadenduwa and cognate tribes, and Semites, who had originally p. 12 crossed the Red Sea from Asia to Africa. We have no distinct record of this invasion, still less have we any details of it, and we have no knowledge of the causes that led up to it; but in an inscription of the Ptolemaic period cut on the walls of the temple of Edfû in upper Egypt, we certainly have a legendary account of it. In this inscription the victorious leader is accompanied by men who are called "Mesniu," or "Blacksmiths," who came from the west of the Nile, i.e., from a country to the south of Egypt, and not from a country to the southeast. This view agrees quite well with what is known of the dynastic period, for the Pharaohs often had to fight hordes of enemies from countries so far south as the White Nile and the Gazelle and Jûr Rivers, and their descendants were probably to be found in the Nobadae, who terrified the Romans, and the "Baggârah" who fought under the Mahdi in our own times. There may have been a conquest of Egypt by the peoples to the west of Egypt at one time, and another by the peoples to the east at another time, or the enemies of Egypt on both banks of the White and Blue Niles may have invaded the country together. In any case the purport of the inscription, the contents of which we will now describe, is to show that the king of p. 13 the south and his descendants first conquered upper Egypt and then lower Egypt. The Edfu text sets forth that Râ-Harmakhis was king of Ta-sti, the "Land of the Bow," i.e., the country of all the peoples who fought with bows and arrows, or the eastern Sûdân. In the 363d year of his reign he dispatched a force into Egypt, and overcoming all opposition, this god established himself and his followers at Edfû. Having discovered that the enemy had collected in force to the southeast of Thebes, Horus and his followers, or the blacksmiths, armed with spears and chains, set out and joined battle with them, and utterly defeated them at a place called Tchetmet. For the first time probably the natives armed with weapons made of flint found themselves in mortal combat with foreign enemies armed with metal weapons; their defeat was unavoidable. Soon after this battle the natives again collected in force to the northeast of Denderah, about fifty miles north of Thebes, where they were attacked and again defeated by Horus. Another battle took place a little later on at Heben, about one hundred and fifty miles south of Memphis, and Horus cut up many of his defeated foes and offered them to the gods. Horus then pursued the enemy into the p. 14 [paragraph continues] Delta, and wherever he did battle with them he defeated them. In one place the arch-rebel Set appeared with his followers and fought against Horus and his "blacksmiths," but Horus drove his spear into Set's neck, fettered his limbs with his chain, and then cut off his head, and the heads of all his followers. Horus then sailed over the streams in the Delta, and slew the enemy in detail, and made himself master of the whole of the Delta, from the swamps on the west of the left main arm of the Nile to the desert in the east. The text goes on to say that companies of the "blacksmiths" settled down on lands given to them by Horus on the right and left banks of the Nile and in what is now called "middle Egypt"; thus the followers of Horus from the south effectively occupied the country. Horus returned to Edfû and made an expedition against the people of Uauat (now northern Nubia), and punished their rebellion. He then sailed back to Edfû and established the worship of Horus of Edfû, and ordered a symbol of this god to be placed in every temple of Egypt. Now the symbol referred to is the winged solar disk, with a serpent on each side of it, and the statement suggests that Horus established the worship of a form of the sun-god in Egypt. If this be really p. 15 so, Horus and his followers must have come from the east, where sun-worship was common, and must have found that the Egyptians were not sun-worshippers. The Egyptians, like most of the peoples in the Nile Valley, ancient and modem, only worshipped the sun under compulsion. On the other hand, the worship of the moon was universal, and the native gods of the Egyptians were of a kind quite different from those worshipped in the Eastern Desert and among the peoples of Arabia, Syria, and the northern Delta. BEGINNING OF DYNASTIC HISTORY As the result, however, of one of the battles between the forces of the south and north, which was fought probably near Anulater Heliopolis--the king of the south gained the victory, and he was henceforth able to call himself "King of the South, King of the North." Who this mighty "uniter of the two lands" really was is not known, but the native tradition, which was current at Abydos, and presumably throughout Egypt, in the thirteenth century before Christ, stated that he was called Mena; this tradition was also accepted in the time of the Greek historians, for they all agree in saying that the first king of Egypt was called Menes. p. 16 MANETHO--THE EGYPTIAN HISTORIAN ON THE DYNASTIES In this history of Egypt, Manetho gave a list of the kings of Egypt, which he divided into three parts, each containing several groups of kings which he called "dynasties," but it is not quite clear what he meant by the word "dynasty." Though his history is lost, four copies of his king-list are preserved in the works of later writers. The oldest of these is that which is said to have been written by Julius Africanus, in the third century of our era, which is preserved in the "Chronicle of Eusebius," bishop of Cæsarea, born A.D. 264, and died about 340. In this work Eusebius also gives a copy of the list of THE DYNASTIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT Dynasties Duration in years ANCIENT EMPIRE 1-2 Thinite 555 3-5 Memphite 746 6 Elephantine 203 7-8 Memphite 142 years, 70 days 9-10 Heracleopolite 294 MIDDLE EMPIRE 11-13 Theban 666 14 Xoite 184 15-17 Hyksos (Delta) 511 NEW EMPIRE 18-20 Theban 593 21 Tanite 130 22 Bubastite 170 23 Tanite 89 24 Saïte 6 25 Ethiopian 50 26 Saïte 138 27 Persian 121 28 Saïte 7 29 Mendesian 21 30 Sebennyte 38 31 Persian 8 p. 17 PRINCIPAL KINGS Dynasties Mena 1 Teta Hesepti Ba-en-neter 2 Sneferu 3 Khufu 4 Khafra Menkau-Ra Unas 5 Teta 6 Pepi I Pepi II Queen Nitocris Amen-em-hat I 12 Usertsen I Amen-em-hat II Usertsen II Usertsen III Amen-em-hat III Amen-em-hat IV Sekenen-Ra 17 Aahmes I 18 Amen-hotep I Thothmes II Queen Hatshepsu Thothmes III Amen-hotep II Thothmes IV Amen-hotep III Amen-hotep IV Akhnaton Semenkhkara--or Saakara Tutankhaton--after Tutankhamon Seti I 19 Ramses II Merenptah Ramses III 20 Her-Hor 21 Shashanq I (Shishak) 22 Osorkon II (Zerah?) Tefnekht (Piankhi King of Ethiopia took Memphis) 23 Bakenranef (Bocchoris) Shabaka. His sister Ameniritis married Piankhi II and their daughter became the queen of Psamethek I 25 Shabataka Taharaqa (Tirhakah) 26 Psamethe I Neku II (Necho) Uahabra (Hophra) 30 Nekthorheb (Nectanebo I) Nektnebef (Nectanebo II) Manetho made by himself, but the copy of Julius Africanus agrees better with the results derived from the monuments which we now have than that of Eusebius. The dynasties of Manetho's king-list that represent that "archaic period" are the first p. 18 three. According to this, the kings of the first dynasty were eight in number and reigned 263 years; those of the second dynasty were nine in number and reigned 214 years. The first and second dynasties reigned at Thnis--Abydos--and the third dynasty at Memphis. The original Egyptian forms of many of the royal names given by Manetho have been identified without doubt; the identifications of a few others are nearly certain, and about the remainder there exist many different opinions. Besides Áha and Nârmer, or Nârmer and Áha, for the true order of these two kings is uncertain. THOTHMES III OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY Thothmes III is generally regarded as the greatest of the kings of Egypt--the Alexander the Great of the Egyptian history. The name Thothmes means "child of Thoth," and was a common name among the ancient Egyptians. He is represented by a sphinx presenting gifts of water and wine to Tum, the setting sun, a solar deity worshipped at Heliopolis. On the hieroglyphic paintings at Karnak, the fact of the heliacal rising of Sothis, the dog-star, is stated to have taken place during this reign, from which it appears that Thothmes p. 19 [paragraph continues] III occupied the throne of Egypt about 1450 B.C. This is one of the few dates of Egyptian chronology that can be authenticated. Thothmes III belonged to the eighteenth dynasty, which included some of the greatest of Egyptian monarchs. Among the kings of this dynasty were four that bore the name of Thothmes, and four the name of Amenophis, which means "peace of Amen." The monarchs of this dynasty were Thebans. The father of Thothmes III was a great warrior. He conquered the Canaanitish nations of Palestine, took Nineveh from the Rutennu, the confederate tribes of Syria, laid waste Mesopotamia, and introduced war chariots and horses into the army of Egypt. Thothmes III, however, was even a greater warrior than his father; and during his long reign Egypt reached the climax of her greatness. His predecessors of the eighteenth dynasty had extended the dominions of Egypt far into Asia and the interior of Africa. He was a king of great capacity and a warrior of considerable courage. The records of his campaigns are for the most part preserved on a sandstone wall surrounding the great temple of Karnak, built by Thothmes III in p. 20 honor of Amen-Ra. From these hieroglyphic inscriptions it appears that Thothmes' first great campaign was made in the twenty-second year of his reign, when an expedition was made into the land of Taneter, that is, Palestine. A full account of his marches and victories is given, together with a list of one hundred and nineteen conquered towns. This monarch lived before the time of Joshua, and therefore the records of his conquests present us with the ancient Canaanite nomenclature of places in Palestine between the times of the patriarchs and the conquest of the land by the Israelites under Joshua. Thothmes set out with his army from Tanis, that is Zoan; and after taking Gaza, he proceeded, by way of the plain of Sharon, to the more northern parts of Palestine. At the battle of Megiddo he overthrew the confederated troops of native princes; and in consequence of this signal victory the whole of Palestine was subdued. Crossing the Jordan near the Sea of Galilee, Thothmes pursued his march to Damascus, which he took by the sword; and then returning homeward by the Judean hills and the south country of Palestine, he returned to Egypt laden with the spoils of victory. In the thirtieth year of his reign Thothmes led an expedition against the Rutennu, the people of p. 21 northern Syria. In this campaign he attacked and captured Kadesh, a strong fortress in the valley of Orontes, and the capital town of the Rutennu. The king pushed his conquests into Mesopotamia, and occupied the strong fortress of Carchemish, on the banks of the Euphrates. He then led his conquering troops northward to the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that the kings of Damascus, Nineveh, and Assur became his vassals, and paid tribute to Egypt. Punt or Arabia was also subdued, and in Africa his conquests extended to Cush or Ethiopia. His fleet of ships sailed triumphantly over the waters of the Black Sea. Thus Thothmes ruled over lands extending from the mountains of Caucasus to the shores of the Indian Ocean, and from the Libyan Desert to the great river Tigris. Besides distinguishing himself as a warrior and as a record writer, Thothmes III was one of the greatest of Egyptian builders and patrons of art. The great temple of Ammon at Thebes was the special object of his fostering care, and he began his career of builder and restorer by repairing the damages which his sister Hatasu had inflicted on that glorious edifice to gratify her dislike of her brother Thothmes III, and her father Thothmes I, p. 22 [paragraph continues] Statues of Thothmes I and his father Amenophis, which Hatasu had thrown down, were re-erected by Thothmes III, before the southern propylæa of the temple in the first year of his independent reign. The central sanctuary which Usertesen I had built in common stone, was next replaced by the present granite edifice, under the directions of the young prince, who then proceeded to build in the rear of the old temple a magnificent hall or pillared chamber of dimensions previously unknown in Egypt. This edifice was an oblong square, one hundred and forty-three feet long by fifty-five feet wide, or nearly half as large again as our largest cathedral. The whole of this apartment was roofed in with slabs of solid stone; two rows of circular pillars thirty feet in height supported the central part, dividing it into three avenues, while on each side of the pillars was a row of square piers, still further extending the width of the chamber and breaking it up into five long vistas. In connection with this noble ball, on three sides of it, north, east, and south, Thothmes erected further chambers and corridors, one of the former situated towards the south containing the "Great Table of Karnak." One of the most interesting Pharaohs of Egypt was Akhnaton, who is called the first individualist p. 23 of history and a great idealist. Prof. Wallis Budge gives this account of his kingship: "Amen-Hetep--Akhnaton--was the son of Amen-hetep III by his wife Tî, and he reigned about twenty years. Whether he ascended the throne immediately after his father's death is not known, but whether he did or not matters little, for it is quite certain that for some years at least his mother was the actual ruler of Egypt, and that she ordered works to be carried out as if she were its lawful sovereign. His wife Nefertithi, who was probably of Asiatic origin like his mother, also obtained a power and an authority in Egypt which were not usually enjoyed by Egyptian queens. These facts are proved by the monuments, in which both Tî and Nefertithi are represented as equals in every respect of Amen-hetep IV, and their names are accorded prominence similar to those of the king. The pictures and sculptured representations of Amen-hetep IV show that his physical characteristics were wholly of a non-Egyptian character, and suggest that he was of a highly nervous and sensitive disposition, lacking in purpose, firmness, and decision, full of prejudices, self-will, and obstinacy. His acts prove that he was unpractical in every matter p. 24 connected with the rule of Egypt and her Nubian and Asiatic provinces, which had been won for her by the great Thothmes III, and the story of the break-up of the great Egyptian empire owing to his weakness and incapacity is almost the saddest page of Egyptian history. His alien blood, derived from his mother and grandmother, caused to develop in him a multitude of strange ideas about religion, art, and government that were detestable to the Egyptians, whose national characteristics he neither recognized nor understood, and with whom he had no true sympathy. When he ascended the throne he adopted a series of names that proclaimed to all Egypt that he held religious views of a different character from those held by the majority of the Egyptians. Some of these resembled the doctrines of the Sun-god as taught by the priests of Heliopolis, but others were obnoxious to the Egyptians generally. His father and grandfather probably held exactly the same religious views, but if they did they took care not to allow them to disturb the peace of the country, nor to interrupt the business of the state. Amen-hetep IV proclaimed a new form of worship, and, to all intents and purposes, a new god, whom he called Aten. Now Aten was well known to the Egyptians as the god of the p. 25 solar disk, and they had been familiar with him from the earliest period; but Amen-hetep IV assigned to him new attributes, which are very difficult to describe. He taught that Aten was the unseen, almighty, and everlasting power that made itself manifest in the form of the solar disk in the sky, and was the source of all life in heaven and earth and the underworld. He ascribed to Aten a monotheistic character, or oneness, which he denied to every other god, but when we read the hymns to Aten of which the king approved, it is extremely difficult to understand the difference between the oneness of Aten and the oneness of Amen-Râ, or Râ, or of any other great Egyptian god. "During the first four years of his reign Amen-hetep IV lived at Thebes, but during the whole of this period he was quarrelling actively with the priests of Amen-Râ, whose god Amen was an abomination to him. As king he had great resources at his command, and besides building a sanctuary called Kem Aten at Thebes, he set up shrines to Aten at various places in Egypt, and also in the Sudan. The most important in the latter country was Kem Aten, which was probably situated at or near Sadengah, where his father had built a temple in honor of Queen Tî. Whilst this work was going p. 26 on Amen-hetep IV caused the name of Amen to be hammered out from the inscriptions on existing monuments, and he suppressed by every means in his power the cults of the other gods. Such an intolerant religious fanatic was never before seen in Egypt, and the king hated Amen and his name so thoroughly that he changed his own name from Amen-hetep to "Khu-en-Aten," or "Aakh-en-Aten," a name meaning "spirit soul of Aten." Besides his fanaticism there was also a material reason for his hatred of Amen. He saw the greater part of the revenues of the country being absorbed slowly but surely by the greedy priesthood of this god, and he felt that their wealth made their power to be actually greater than that of the king. "Of the details of the fight between the priesthoods of the old gods of Egypt and the king little is known, but it is clear that the Egyptians found some effective way of showing their resentment to the king, for in the fifth year of his reign he forsook Thebes, and founded a new capital, wherein Aten alone was to be worshipped. The site of the new capital which was called Khut-en-Aten, or 'horizon of Aten,' was on the east bank of the Nile, about two hundred miles south of Memphis, and is marked today by the villages of Haggî Kandil, and Tell p. 27 al-Amarnah. Here he built a large temple to Aten and two or three smaller sanctuaries for the private use of the ladies of his family. Near the temple was the palace, which was splendidly decorated and furnished with beautiful objects of every kind, and the priests and high officials and nobles who had followed the king were provided with rock-hewn tombs in the mountain behind the new capital. A considerable space of ground about this capital was set apart as the property of Aten, and its confines were marked with boundary stones, and the revenues of some of the old sanctuaries were wrested from them by the king and applied to the support of Aten. Amen-hetep IV and his followers lived in Khut-en-Aten for some twelve or fifteen years in comparative peace, and the king occupied himself in playing the priest, and in superintending the building operations and the laying out of large and beautiful gardens by the court architect Bek. The high priest bore the title of the high priest of Heliopolis, and the form of worship there seems to have had much in common with the old solar cult of Heliopolis. The king composed one or two hymns which were sung in his temple, and copies of these were painted on the walls of the tombs of his favourites. p. 28 "Meanwhile what was happening to Egypt and her Asiatic and Nubian provinces? For a time the kings of Mitanni and Babylonia sent dispatches to Amen-hetep IV as they did to his father, and some of the chiefs of the neighboring countries sent tribute to him as they did to his father. When, however, the envoys returned to their countries and reported that Pharaoh, whose mere name had struck terror into the Asiatics, was at enmity with all his people, and was devoting all his time to theological matters, and to the founding of new canons of art, and to the selfish enjoyment of a religion that was detested by all the Egyptian priesthoods, with the exception of the priesthood of Heliopolis, the enemies of the Egyptian power in western Asia felt that the time of their deliverance was at hand. With one accord they ceased to pay tribute, and gathering together their forces, they attacked the Egyptian garrisons in Syria and Palestine, and one by one the cities fell, and the Egyptian governors and their troops were slain or scattered. The Kheta, or Hittites, swept down from the north upon the possessions of Egypt, and being joined by the Khabiri and by the vassal princes of Egypt, were irresistible. They first attacked and took the inland cities, and then advancing westward they p. 29 captured city after city along the coast until Beyrut, Tyre, Ascalon, Gezer, and Lachish were at their mercy. The Tell al-Amarnah letters contain piteous appeals to Amen-hetep IV for help from all parts of Syria and Palestine, and every writer entreats the king to protect his own possessions; but the king had no help to send, and even if he had had troops available for despatch they would never have been sent, for he hated war in all its forms. Thus Egypt lost her Asiatic possessions which it had taken her kings nearly two hundred years to acquire. Meanwhile discontent was growing everywhere in Egypt itself, and conspiracies against the king were spreading in all directions; when these had reached formidable proportions the king died, but whether his death was due to anxiety, disease, or poison cannot be said. Amen-hetep IV had no son, and his family consisted of six daughters, the eldest of whom died before her father. He was buried in a tomb hewn in the mountains behind his town, and his stone coffin, or sarcophagus, was found there in 1893 by the native tomb robbers, who cut out the cartouches from it and sold them to travellers. "Amen-hetep IV was succeeded by Sâakarâ who had married one of his daughters called Merit-Aten, p. 30 and had probably assisted his father-in-law in his various religious undertakings. Sâakarâ ruled the town of Khut-en-Aten for two or three years, and was succeeded by Tut-Ánkh-Amen, a son of Amen-hetep III, who married a daughter of Amen-hetep IV called Ánkhsenpaaten. Tut-ânkh-Amen was undoubtedly supported by the priests of Amen, as the presence of the name of the god in his name testifies, and his accession to the throne marks the triumph of the priesthood of Amen over Aten and his followers. He made his wife change her name to Ankhsen-Amen, and removed the court to Thebes, where he at once set to work to repair portions of the great temples of Amen at Karnak and Luxor. Wherever it was possible to do so he restored the name and figure of the god Amen, which his father-in-law had attempted to obliterate. He carried out certain building operations in the Sudan and received tribute from the chiefs of the country, but he undertook no military expeditions into Syria, and made no attempt to renew the sovereignty of Egypt in western Asia. When Tut-Ankh-Amen removed his court to Thebes, he was quickly followed by many of the nobles who had settled at Khut-en-Aten, and the capital of Amen-hetep IV began at once to decline. The services in the temple p. 31 languished, and the sculptors and artists who had designed their works in accordance with the canons of art devised and approved by Amen-hetep IV found themselves without employment; the working classes who had lived on the court left the town, which in a very few years became forsaken. The Aten temples were thrown down, and before many years had passed the town became a heap of ruins. Thus the triumph of Amen, the god who had delivered the Egyptians from the Nyksos, was complete." RAMESES II OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY Rameses II, called the Napoleon of Egypt, lived about two centuries after Thothmes III, and ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses I was the third king of the nineteenth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works, and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III. His grandfather, Rameses I, was the founder of the dynasty. His father, Seti I, is celebrated for his victories over the Rutennu, or Syrians, and over the Shasu, or Arabians, as well as for his public p. 32 works, especially the great temple he built at Karnak. Rameses II, was, however, a greater warrior than his father. He first conquered Kush, or Ethiopia; then he led an expedition against the Khitæ, or Hittites, whom he completely routed at Kadesh, the ancient capital, a town on the River Orontes, north of Mount Lebanon. In this battle Rameses was placed. in the greatest danger; but his personal bravery stood him in good stead, and he kept the Hittites at bay till his soldiers rescued him. He thus commemorates on the monuments his deeds: "I became like the god Mentu; I hurled the dart with my right hand; I fought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his time before their slight; I had come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in the midst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not one of them raised his hand to fight; their courage was sunken in their breasts; their limbs gave way; they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength to thrust the spear. I made them fall into the waters like crocodiles; they tumbled down on their faces one after another. I killed them at my pleasure, so that not one looked back behind him; nor did any turn p. 33 round. Each fell, and none raised himself up again." 1 Rameses fought with and conquered the Amorites, Canaanites, and other tribes of Palestine and Syria. His public works are also very numerous; he dug wells, founded cities, and completed a great wall begun by his father Seti, reaching from Pelusium to Heliopolis, a gigantic structure designed to keep back the hostile Asiatics, thus reminding one of the Great Wall of China. Pelusium was situated near the present Port Said, and the wall must therefore have been about a hundred miles long. In its course it must have passed near the site of Tel-el-Kebir. It is now certain that Rameses built the treasure cities spoken of in Exodus: "Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses"--Exod. i. 11. According to Dr. Brich, Rameses II was a monarch of whom it was written: "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph." He enlarged On and Tanis, and built temples at Ipsambul, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Memphis, etc. The most remarkable of the temples erected by Rameses is the building at Thebes, once called the p. 34 [paragraph continues] Memnonium, but now commonly known as the Rameseum; and the extraordinary rock temple of Ipsambul, or Abu-Simbel, the most magnificent specimen of its class which the world contains. The façade is formed by four huge colossi, each seventy feet in height, representing Rameses himself seated on a throne, with the double crown of Egypt upon his head. In the center, flanked on either side by two of these gigantic figures, is a doorway of the usual Egyptian type, opening into a small vestibule, which communicates by a short passage with the main chamber. This is an oblong square, sixty feet long, by forty-five, divided into a nave and two aisles by two rows of square piers with Osirid statues, thirty feet high in front, and ornamented with painted sculptures over its whole surface. The main chamber leads into an inner shrine or adytum, supported by four piers with Osirid figures, but otherwise as richly adorned as the outer apartment. Behind the adytum. are small rooms for the priests who served in the temple. It is the façade of the work which constitutes its main beauty. 1 "The largest of the rock temples at Ipsambul," says Mr. Fergusson, "is the finest of its class known p. 35 to exist anywhere. Externally the façade is about one hundred feet in height, and adorned by four of the most magnificent colossi in Egypt, each seventy feet in height, and representing the king, Rameses II, who caused the excavation to be made." His character has been well summarized by Canon Rawlinson: "His affection for his son, and for his two principal wives, shows that the disposition of Rameses II was in some respects amiable; although, upon the whole, his character is one which scarcely commends itself to our approval. Professing in his early years extreme devotion to the memory of his father, he lived to show himself his father's worst enemy, and to aim at obliterating his memory by erasing his name from the monuments on which it occurred, and in many cases substituting his own. Amid a great show of regard for the deities of his country, and for the ordinances of the established worship, he contrived that the chief result of all that he did for religion should be the glorification of himself. Other kings had arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with the real national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself during his lifetime with such leading p. 36 deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus, and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. Even his bravery, which cannot be denied, loses half its merit by being made the constant subject of boasting; and his magnificence ceases to appear admirable when we think at what a cost it displayed itself. If, with most recent writers upon Egyptian history, we identify him with the 'king who knew not Joseph,' the builder of Pithom and Raamses, the first oppressor of the Israelites, we must add some darker shades to the picture, and look upon him as a cruel and ruthless despot, who did not shrink from inflicting on innocent persons the severest pain and suffering." Footnotes 33:1 Brugsch, "History of Egypt," Vol. II, p. 5U, 1st ed. 34:1 Rawlinson's "Ancient Egypt," Vol. I, p. 318. Next: Chapter II: Religion of Ancient Egypt

TIMAEUS.txt

Sacred Texts Classics Plato TIMAEUS by Plato 360 BC translated by Benjamin Jowett New York, C. Scribner's Sons, [1871] PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES; CRITIAS; TIMAEUS; HERMOCRATES Socrates. One, two, three; but where, my dear Timaeus, is the fourth of those who were yesterday my guests and are to be my entertainers to-day? Timaeus. He has been taken ill, Socrates; for he would not willingly have been absent from this gathering. Soc. Then, if he is not coming, you and the two others must supply his place. Tim. Certainly, and we will do all that we can; having been handsomely entertained by you yesterday, those of us who remain should be only too glad to return your hospitality. Soc. Do you remember what were the points of which I required you to speak? Tim. We remember some of them, and you will be here to remind us of anything which we have forgotten: or rather, if we are not troubling you, will you briefly recapitulate the whole, and then the particulars will be more firmly fixed in our memories? Soc. To be sure I will: the chief theme of my yesterday's discourse was the State-how constituted and of what citizens composed it would seem likely to be most perfect. Tim. Yes, Socrates; and what you said of it was very much to our mind. Soc. Did we not begin by separating the husbandmen and the artisans from the class of defenders of the State? Tim. Yes. Soc. And when we had given to each one that single employment and particular art which was suited to his nature, we spoke of those who were intended to be our warriors, and said that they were to be guardians of the city against attacks from within as well as from without, and to have no other employment; they were to be merciful in judging their subjects, of whom they were by nature friends, but fierce to their enemies, when they came across them in battle. Tim. Exactly. Soc. We said, if I am not mistaken, that the guardians should be gifted with a temperament in a high degree both passionate and philosophical; and that then they would be as they ought to be, gentle to their friends and fierce with their enemies. Tim. Certainly. Soc. And what did we say of their education? Were they not to be trained in gymnastic, and music, and all other sorts of knowledge which were proper for them? Tim. Very true. Soc. And being thus trained they were not to consider gold or silver or anything else to be their own private property; they were to be like hired troops, receiving pay for keeping guard from those who were protected by them-the pay was to be no more than would suffice for men of simple life; and they were to spend in common, and to live together in the continual practice of virtue, which was to be their sole pursuit. Tim. That was also said. Soc. Neither did we forget the women; of whom we declared, that their natures should be assimilated and brought into harmony with those of the men, and that common pursuits should be assigned to them both in time of war and in their ordinary life. Tim. That, again, was as you say. Soc. And what about the procreation of children? Or rather not the proposal too singular to be forgotten? for all wives and children were to be in common, to the intent that no one should ever know his own child, but they were to imagine that they were all one family; those who were within a suitable limit of age were to be brothers and sisters, those who were of an elder generation parents and grandparents, and those of a younger children and grandchildren. Tim. Yes, and the proposal is easy to remember, as you say. Soc. And do you also remember how, with a view of securing as far as we could the best breed, we said that the chief magistrates, male and female, should contrive secretly, by the use of certain lots, so to arrange the nuptial meeting, that the bad of either sex and the good of either sex might pair with their like; and there was to be no quarrelling on this account, for they would imagine that the union was a mere accident, and was to be attributed to the lot? Tim. I remember. Soc. And you remember how we said that the children of the good parents were to be educated, and the children of the bad secretly dispersed among the inferior citizens; and while they were all growing up the rulers were to be on the look-out, and to bring up from below in their turn those who were worthy, and those among themselves who were unworthy were to take the places of those who came up? Tim. True. Soc. Then have I now given you all the heads of our yesterday's discussion? Or is there anything more, my dear Timaeus, which has been omitted? Tim. Nothing, Socrates; it was just as you have said. Soc. I should like, before proceeding further, to tell you how I feel about the State which we have described. I might compare myself to a person who, on beholding beautiful animals either created by the painter's art, or, better still, alive but at rest, is seized with a desire of seeing them in motion or engaged in some struggle or conflict to which their forms appear suited; this is my feeling about the State which we have been describing. There are conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear some one tell of our own city carrying on a struggle against her neighbours, and how she went out to war in a becoming manner, and when at war showed by the greatness of her actions and the magnanimity of her words in dealing with other cities a result worthy of her training and education. Now I, Critias and Hermocrates, am conscious that I myself should never be able to celebrate the city and her citizens in a befitting manner, and I am not surprised at my own incapacity; to me the wonder is rather that the poets present as well as past are no better-not that I mean to depreciate them; but every one can see that they are a tribe of imitators, and will imitate best and most easily the life in which they have been brought up; while that which is beyond the range of a man's education he finds hard to carry out in action, and still harder adequately to represent in language. I am aware that the Sophists have plenty of brave words and fair conceits, but I am afraid that being only wanderers from one city to another, and having never had habitations of their own, they may fail in their conception of philosophers and statesmen, and may not know what they do and say in time of war, when they are fighting or holding parley with their enemies. And thus people of your class are the only ones remaining who are fitted by nature and education to take part at once both in politics and philosophy. Here is Timaeus, of Locris in Italy, a city which has admirable laws, and who is himself in wealth and rank the equal of any of his fellow-citizens; he has held the most important and honourable offices in his own state, and, as I believe, has scaled the heights of all philosophy; and here is Critias, whom every Athenian knows to be no novice in the matters of which we are speaking; and as to, Hermocrates, I am assured by many witnesses that his genius and education qualify him to take part in any speculation of the kind. And therefore yesterday when I saw that you wanted me to describe the formation of the State, I readily assented, being very well aware, that, if you only would, none were better qualified to carry the discussion further, and that when you had engaged our city in a suitable war, you of all men living could best exhibit her playing a fitting part. When I had completed my task, I in return imposed this other task upon you. You conferred together and agreed to entertain me to-day, as I had entertained you, with a feast of discourse. Here am I in festive array, and no man can be more ready for the promised banquet. Her. And we too, Socrates, as Timaeus says, will not be wanting in enthusiasm; and there is no excuse for not complying with your request. As soon as we arrived yesterday at the guest-chamber of Critias, with whom we are staying, or rather on our way thither, we talked the matter over, and he told us an ancient tradition, which I wish, Critias, that you would repeat to Socrates, so that he may help us to judge whether it will satisfy his requirements or not. Crit. I will, if Timaeus, who is our other partner, approves. Tim. I quite approve. Crit. Then listen, Socrates, to a tale which, though strange, is certainly true, having been attested by Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages. He was a relative and a dear friend of my great-grandfather, Dropides, as he himself says in many passages of his poems; and he told the story to Critias, my grandfather, who remembered and repeated it to us. There were of old, he said, great and marvellous actions of the Athenian city, which have passed into oblivion through lapse of time and the destruction of mankind, and one in particular, greater than all the rest. This we will now rehearse. It will be a fitting monument of our gratitude to you, and a hymn of praise true and worthy of the goddess, on this her day of festival. Soc. Very good. And what is this ancient famous action of the Athenians, which Critias declared, on the authority of Solon, to be not a mere legend, but an actual fact? Crit. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man; for Critias, at the time of telling it, was as he said, nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten. Now the day was that day of the Apaturia which is called the Registration of Youth, at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sang the poems of Solon, which at that time had not gone out of fashion. One of our tribe, either because he thought so or to please Critias, said that in his judgment Solon was not only the wisest of men, but also the noblest of poets. The old man, as I very well remember, brightened up at hearing this and said, smiling: Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in his own country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion he would have been as famous as Homer or Hesiod, or any poet. And what was the tale about, Critias? said Amynander. About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been the most famous, but, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, it has not come down to us. Tell us, said the other, the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition. He replied:-In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world-about Phoroneus, who is called "the first man," and about Niobe; and after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and reckoning up the dates, tried to compute how many years ago the events of which he was speaking happened. Thereupon one of the priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient. The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven. Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the priests to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the priest, both for your own sake and for that of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with ours you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from all the others; next, there are the artificers, who ply their several crafts by themselves and do not intermix; and also there is the class of shepherds and of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the warriors in Egypt are distinct from all the other classes, and are commanded by the law to devote themselves solely to military pursuits; moreover, the weapons which they carry are shields and spears, a style of equipment which the goddess taught of Asiatics first to us, as in your part of the world first to you. Then as to wisdom, do you observe how our law from the very first made a study of the whole order of things, extending even to prophecy and medicine which gives health, out of these divine elements deriving what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was akin to them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island. I have told you briefly, Socrates, what the aged Critias heard from Solon and related to us. And when you were speaking yesterday about your city and citizens, the tale which I have just been repeating to you came into my mind, and I remarked with astonishment how, by some mysterious coincidence, you agreed in almost every particular with the narrative of Solon; but I did not like to speak at the moment. For a long time had elapsed, and I had forgotten too much; I thought that I must first of all run over the narrative in my own mind, and then I would speak. And so I readily assented to your request yesterday, considering that in all such cases the chief difficulty is to find a tale suitable to our purpose, and that with such a tale we should be fairly well provided. And therefore, as Hermocrates has told you, on my way home yesterday I at once communicated the tale to my companions as I remembered it; and after I left them, during the night by thinking I recovered nearly the whole it. Truly, as is often said, the lessons of our childhood make wonderful impression on our memories; for I am not sure that I could remember all the discourse of yesterday, but I should be much surprised if I forgot any of these things which I have heard very long ago. I listened at the time with childlike interest to the old man's narrative; he was very ready to teach me, and I asked him again and again to repeat his words, so that like an indelible picture they were branded into my mind. As soon as the day broke, I rehearsed them as he spoke them to my companions, that they, as well as myself, might have something to say. And now, Socrates, to make an end my preface, I am ready to tell you the whole tale. I will give you not only the general heads, but the particulars, as they were told to me. The city and citizens, which you yesterday described to us in fiction, we will now transfer to the world of reality. It shall be the ancient city of Athens, and we will suppose that the citizens whom you imagined, were our veritable ancestors, of whom the priest spoke; they will perfectly harmonise, and there will be no inconsistency in saying that the citizens of your republic are these ancient Athenians. Let us divide the subject among us, and all endeavour according to our ability gracefully to execute the task which you have imposed upon us. Consider then, Socrates, if this narrative is suited to the purpose, or whether we should seek for some other instead. Soc. And what other, Critias, can we find that will be better than this, which is natural and suitable to the festival of the goddess, and has the very great advantage of being a fact and not a fiction? How or where shall we find another if we abandon this? We cannot, and therefore you must tell the tale, and good luck to you; and I in return for my yesterday's discourse will now rest and be a listener. Crit. Let me proceed to explain to you, Socrates, the order in which we have arranged our entertainment. Our intention is, that Timaeus, who is the most of an astronomer amongst us, and has made the nature of the universe his special study, should speak first, beginning with the generation of the world and going down to the creation of man; next, I am to receive the men whom he has created of whom some will have profited by the excellent education which you have given them; and then, in accordance with the tale of Solon, and equally with his law, we will bring them into court and make them citizens, as if they were those very Athenians whom the sacred Egyptian record has recovered from oblivion, and thenceforward we will speak of them as Athenians and fellow-citizens. Soc. I see that I shall receive in my turn a perfect and splendid feast of reason. And now, Timaeus, you, I suppose, should speak next, after duly calling upon the Gods. Tim. All men, Socrates, who have any degree of right feeling, at the beginning of every enterprise, whether small or great, always call upon God. And we, too, who are going to discourse of the nature of the universe, how created or how existing without creation, if we be not altogether out of our wits, must invoke the aid of Gods and Goddesses and pray that our words may be acceptable to them and consistent with themselves. Let this, then, be our invocation of the Gods, to which I add an exhortation of myself to speak in such manner as will be most intelligible to you, and will most accord with my own intent. First then, in my judgment, we must make a distinction and ask, What is that which always is and has no becoming; and what is that which is always becoming and never is? That which is apprehended by intelligence and reason is always in the same state; but that which is conceived by opinion with the help of sensation and without reason, is always in a process of becoming and perishing and never really is. Now everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created. The work of the creator, whenever he looks to the unchangeable and fashions the form and nature of his work after an unchangeable pattern, must necessarily be made fair and perfect; but when he looks to the created only, and uses a created pattern, it is not fair or perfect. Was the heaven then or the world, whether called by this or by any other more appropriate name-assuming the name, I am asking a question which has to be asked at the beginning of an enquiry about anything-was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? or created, and had it a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are apprehended by opinion and sense and are in a process of creation and created. Now that which is created must, as we affirm, of necessity be created by a cause. But the father and maker of all this universe is past finding out; and even if we found him, to tell of him to all men would be impossible. And there is still a question to be asked about him: Which of the patterns had the artificer in view when he made the world-the pattern of the unchangeable, or of that which is created? If the world be indeed fair and the artificer good, it is manifest that he must have looked to that which is eternal; but if what cannot be said without blasphemy is true, then to the created pattern. Every one will see that he must have looked to, the eternal; for the world is the fairest of creations and he is the best of causes. And having been created in this way, the world has been framed in the likeness of that which is apprehended by reason and mind and is unchangeable, and must therefore of necessity, if this is admitted, be a copy of something. Now it is all-important that the beginning of everything should be according to nature. And in speaking of the copy and the original we may assume that words are akin to the matter which they describe; when they relate to the lasting and permanent and intelligible, they ought to be lasting and unalterable, and, as far as their nature allows, irrefutable and immovable-nothing less. But when they express only the copy or likeness and not the eternal things themselves, they need only be likely and analogous to the real words. As being is to becoming, so is truth to belief. If then, Socrates, amid the many opinions about the gods and the generation of the universe, we are not able to give notions which are altogether and in every respect exact and consistent with one another, do not be surprised. Enough, if we adduce probabilities as likely as any others; for we must remember that I who am the speaker, and you who are the judges, are only mortal men, and we ought to accept the tale which is probable and enquire no further. Soc. Excellent, Timaeus; and we will do precisely as you bid us. The prelude is charming, and is already accepted by us-may we beg of you to proceed to the strain? Tim. Let me tell you then why the creator made this world of generation. He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable. Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he brought order, considering that this was in every way better than the other. Now the deeds of the best could never be or have been other than the fairest; and the creator, reflecting on the things which are by nature visible, found that no unintelligent creature taken as a whole was fairer than the intelligent taken as a whole; and that intelligence could not be present in anything which was devoid of soul. For which reason, when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God. This being supposed, let us proceed to the next stage: In the likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world? It would be an unworthy thing to liken it to any nature which exists as a part only; for nothing can be beautiful which is like any imperfect thing; but let us suppose the world to be the very image of that whole of which all other animals both individually and in their tribes are portions. For the original of the universe contains in itself all intelligible beings, just as this world comprehends us and all other visible creatures. For the Deity, intending to make this world like the fairest and most perfect of intelligible beings, framed one visible animal comprehending within itself all other animals of a kindred nature. Are we right in saying that there is one world, or that they are many and infinite? There must be one only, if the created copy is to accord with the original. For that which includes all other intelligible creatures cannot have a second or companion; in that case there would be need of another living being which would include both, and of which they would be parts, and the likeness would be more truly said to resemble not them, but that other which included them. In order then that the world might be solitary, like the perfect animal, the creator made not two worlds or an infinite number of them; but there is and ever will be one only-begotten and created heaven. Now that which is created is of necessity corporeal, and also visible and tangible. And nothing is visible where there is no fire, or tangible which has no solidity, and nothing is solid without earth. Wherefore also God in the beginning of creation made the body of the universe to consist of fire and earth. But two things cannot be rightly put together without a third; there must be some bond of union between them. And the fairest bond is that which makes the most complete fusion of itself and the things which it combines; and proportion is best adapted to effect such a union. For whenever in any three numbers, whether cube or square, there is a mean, which is to the last term what the first term is to it; and again, when the mean is to the first term as the last term is to the mean-then the mean becoming first and last, and the first and last both becoming means, they will all of them of necessity come to be the same, and having become the same with one another will be all one. If the universal frame had been created a surface only and having no depth, a single mean would have sufficed to bind together itself and the other terms; but now, as the world must be solid, and solid bodies are always compacted not by one mean but by two, God placed water and air in the mean between fire and earth, and made them to have the same proportion so far as was possible (as fire is to air so is air to water, and as air is to water so is water to earth); and thus he bound and put together a visible and tangible heaven. And for these reasons, and out of such elements which are in number four, the body of the world was created, and it was harmonised by proportion, and therefore has the spirit of friendship; and having been reconciled to itself, it was indissoluble by the hand of any other than the framer. Now the creation took up the whole of each of the four elements; for the Creator compounded the world out of all the fire and all the water and all the air and all the earth, leaving no part of any of them nor any power of them outside. His intention was, in the first place, that the animal should be as far as possible a perfect whole and of perfect parts: secondly, that it should be one, leaving no remnants out of which another such world might be created: and also that it should be free from old age and unaffected by disease. Considering that if heat and cold and other powerful forces which unite bodies surround and attack them from without when they are unprepared, they decompose them, and by bringing diseases and old age upon them, make them waste away-for this cause and on these grounds he made the world one whole, having every part entire, and being therefore perfect and not liable to old age and disease. And he gave to the world the figure which was suitable and also natural. Now to the animal which was to comprehend all animals, that figure was suitable which comprehends within itself all other figures. Wherefore he made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe, having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures; for he considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the unlike. This he finished off, making the surface smooth all around for many reasons; in the first place, because the living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet. Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance. Having these purposes in view he created the world a blessed god. Now God did not make the soul after the body, although we are speaking of them in this order; for having brought them together he would never have allowed that the elder should be ruled by the younger; but this is a random manner of speaking which we have, because somehow we ourselves too are very much under the dominion of chance. Whereas he made the soul in origin and excellence prior to and older than the body, to be the ruler and mistress, of whom the body was to be the subject. And he made her out of the following elements and on this wise: Out of the indivisible and unchangeable, and also out of that which is divisible and has to do with material bodies, he compounded a third and intermediate kind of essence, partaking of the nature of the same and of the other, and this compound he placed accordingly in a mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material. He took the three elements of the same, the other, and the essence, and mingled them into one form, compressing by force the reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into the same. When he had mingled them with the essence and out of three made one, he again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting, each portion being a compound of the same, the other, and the essence. And he proceeded to divide after this manner:-First of all, he took away one part of the whole [1], and then he separated a second part which was double the first [2], and then he took away a third part which was half as much again as the second and three times as much as the first [3], and then he took a fourth part which was twice as much as the second [4], and a fifth part which was three times the third [9], and a sixth part which was eight times the first [8], and a seventh part which was twenty-seven times the first [27]. After this he filled up the double intervals [i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8] and the triple [i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27] cutting off yet other portions from the mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each interval there were two kinds of means, the one exceeding and exceeded by equal parts of its extremes [as for example 1, 4/3, 2, in which the mean 4/3 is one-third of 1 more than 1, and one-third of 2 less than 2], the other being that kind of mean which exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number. Where there were intervals of 3/2 and of 4/3 and of 9/8, made by the connecting terms in the former intervals, he filled up all the intervals of 4/3 with the interval of 9/8, leaving a fraction over; and the interval which this fraction expressed was in the ratio of 256 to 243. And thus the whole mixture out of which he cut these portions was all exhausted by him. This entire compound he divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting-point; and, comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle. Now the motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the same, and the motion of the inner circle the motion of the other or diverse. The motion of the same he carried round by the side to the right, and the motion of the diverse diagonally to the left. And he gave dominion to the motion of the same and like, for that he left single and undivided; but the inner motion he divided in six places and made seven unequal circles having their intervals in ratios of two-and three, three of each, and bade the orbits proceed in a direction opposite to one another; and three [Sun, Mercury, Venus] he made to move with equal swiftness, and the remaining four [Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter] to move with unequal swiftness to the three and to one another, but in due proportion. Now when the Creator had framed the soul according to his will, he formed within her the corporeal universe, and brought the two together, and united them centre to centre. The soul, interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never ceasing and rational life enduring throughout all time. The body of heaven is visible, but the soul is invisible, and partakes of reason and harmony, and being made by the best of intellectual and everlasting natures, is the best of things created. And because she is composed of the same and of the other and of the essence, these three, and is divided and united in due proportion, and in her revolutions returns upon herself, the soul, when touching anything which has essence, whether dispersed in parts or undivided, is stirred through all her powers, to declare the sameness or difference of that thing and some other; and to what individuals are related, and by what affected, and in what way and how and when, both in the world of generation and in the world of immutable being. And when reason, which works with equal truth, whether she be in the circle of the diverse or of the same-in voiceless silence holding her onward course in the sphere of the self-moved-when reason, I say, is hovering around the sensible world and when the circle of the diverse also moving truly imparts the intimations of sense to the whole soul, then arise opinions and beliefs sure and certain. But when reason is concerned with the rational, and the circle of the same moving smoothly declares it, then intelligence and knowledge are necessarily perfected. And if any one affirms that in which these two are found to be other than the soul, he will say the very opposite of the truth. When the father creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy determined to make the copy still more like the original; and as this was eternal, he sought to make the universe eternal, so far as might be. Now the nature of the ideal being was everlasting, but to bestow this attribute in its fulness upon a creature was impossible. Wherefore he resolved to have a moving image of eternity, and when he set in order the heaven, he made this image eternal but moving according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this image we call time. For there were no days and nights and months and years before the heaven was created, but when he constructed the heaven he created them also. They are all parts of time, and the past and future are created species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal essence; for we say that he "was," he "is," he "will be," but the truth is that "is" alone is properly attributed to him, and that "was" and "will be" only to be spoken of becoming in time, for they are motions, but that which is immovably the same cannot become older or younger by time, nor ever did or has become, or hereafter will be, older or younger, nor is subject at all to any of those states which affect moving and sensible things and of which generation is the cause. These are the forms of time, which imitates eternity and revolves according to a law of number. Moreover, when we say that what has become is become and what becomes is becoming, and that what will become is about to become and that the non-existent is non-existent-all these are inaccurate modes of expression. But perhaps this whole subject will be more suitably discussed on some other occasion. Time, then, and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might resemble this as far as was possible; for the pattern exists from eternity, and the created heaven has been, and is, and will be, in all time. Such was the mind and thought of God in the creation of time. The sun and moon and five other stars, which are called the planets, were created by him in order to distinguish and preserve the numbers of time; and when he had made-their several bodies, he placed them in the orbits in which the circle of the other was revolving-in seven orbits seven stars. First, there was the moon in the orbit nearest the earth, and next the sun, in the second orbit above the earth; then came the morning star and the star sacred to Hermes, moving in orbits which have an equal swiftness with the sun, but in an opposite direction; and this is the reason why the sun and Hermes and Lucifer overtake and are overtaken by each other. To enumerate the places which he assigned to the other stars, and to give all the reasons why he assigned them, although a secondary matter, would give more trouble than the primary. These things at some future time, when we are at leisure, may have the consideration which they deserve, but not at present. Now, when all the stars which were necessary to the creation of time had attained a motion suitable to them,-and had become living creatures having bodies fastened by vital chains, and learnt their appointed task, moving in the motion of the diverse, which is diagonal, and passes through and is governed by the motion of the same, they revolved, some in a larger and some in a lesser orbit-those which had the lesser orbit revolving faster, and those which had the larger more slowly. Now by reason of the motion of the same, those which revolved fastest appeared to be overtaken by those which moved slower although they really overtook them; for the motion of the same made them all turn in a spiral, and, because some went one way and some another, that which receded most slowly from the sphere of the same, which was the swiftest, appeared to follow it most nearly. That there might be some visible measure of their relative swiftness and slowness as they proceeded in their eight courses, God lighted a fire, which we now call the sun, in the second from the earth of these orbits, that it might give light to the whole of heaven, and that the animals, as many as nature intended, might participate in number, learning arithmetic from the revolution of the same and the like. Thus then, and for this reason the night and the day were created, being the period of the one most intelligent revolution. And the month is accomplished when the moon has completed her orbit and overtaken the sun, and the year when the sun has completed his own orbit. Mankind, with hardly an exception, have not remarked the periods of the other stars, and they have no name for them, and do not measure them against one another by the help of number, and hence they can scarcely be said to know that their wanderings, being infinite in number and admirable for their variety, make up time. And yet there is no difficulty in seeing that the perfect number of time fulfils the perfect year when all the eight revolutions, having their relative degrees of swiftness, are accomplished together and attain their completion at the same time, measured by the rotation of the same and equally moving. After this manner, and for these reasons, came into being such of the stars as in their heavenly progress received reversals of motion, to the end that the created heaven might imitate the eternal nature, and be as like as possible to the perfect and intelligible animal. Thus far and until the birth of time the created universe was made in the likeness of the original, but inasmuch as all animals were not yet comprehended therein, it was still unlike. What remained, the creator then proceeded to fashion after the nature of the pattern. Now as in the ideal animal the mind perceives ideas or species of a certain nature and number, he thought that this created animal ought to have species of a like nature and number. There are four such; one of them is the heavenly race of the gods; another, the race of birds whose way is in the air; the third, the watery species; and the fourth, the pedestrian and land creatures. Of the heavenly and divine, he created the greater part out of fire, that they might be the brightest of all things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned them after the likeness of the universe in the figure of a circle, and made them follow the intelligent motion of the supreme, distributing them over the whole circumference of heaven, which was to be a true cosmos or glorious world spangled with them all over. And he gave to each of them two movements: the first, a movement on the same spot after the same manner, whereby they ever continue to think consistently the same thoughts about the same things; the second, a forward movement, in which they are controlled by the revolution of the same and the like; but by the other five motions they were unaffected, in order that each of them might attain the highest perfection. And for this reason the fixed stars were created, to be divine and eternal animals, ever-abiding and revolving after the same manner and on the same spot; and the other stars which reverse their motion and are subject to deviations of this kind, were created in the manner already described. The earth, which is our nurse, clinging around the pole which is extended through the universe, he framed to be the guardian and artificer of night and day, first and eldest of gods that are in the interior of heaven. Vain would be the attempt to tell all the figures of them circling as in dance, and their juxtapositions, and the return of them in their revolutions upon themselves, and their approximations, and to say which of these deities in their conjunctions meet, and which of them are in opposition, and in what order they get behind and before one another, and when they are severally eclipsed to our sight and again reappear, sending terrors and intimations of the future to those who cannot calculate their movements-to attempt to tell of all this without a visible representation of the heavenly system would be labour in vain. Enough on this head; and now let what we have said about the nature of the created and visible gods have an end. To know or tell the origin of the other divinities is beyond us, and we must accept the traditions of the men of old time who affirm themselves to be the offspring of the gods-that is what they say-and they must surely have known their own ancestors. How can we doubt the word of the children of the gods? Although they give no probable or certain proofs, still, as they declare that they are speaking of what took place in their own family, we must conform to custom and believe them. In this manner, then, according to them, the genealogy of these gods is to be received and set forth. Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from these sprang Phorcys and Cronos and Rhea, and all that generation; and from Cronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here, and all those who are said to be their brethren, and others who were the children of these. Now, when all of them, both those who visibly appear in their revolutions as well as those other gods who are of a more retiring nature, had come into being, the creator of the universe addressed them in these words: "Gods, children of gods, who are my works, and of whom I am the artificer and father, my creations are indissoluble, if so I will. All that is bound may be undone, but only an evil being would wish to undo that which is harmonious and happy. Wherefore, since ye are but creatures, ye are not altogether immortal and indissoluble, but ye shall certainly not be dissolved, nor be liable to the fate of death, having in my will a greater and mightier bond than those with which ye were bound at the time of your birth. And now listen to my instructions:-Three tribes of mortal beings remain to be created-without them the universe will be incomplete, for it will not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain, if it is to be perfect. On the other hand, if they were created by me and received life at my hands, they would be on an equality with the gods. In order then that they may be mortal, and that this universe may be truly universal, do ye, according to your natures, betake yourselves to the formation of animals, imitating the power which was shown by me in creating you. The part of them worthy of the name immortal, which is called divine and is the guiding principle of those who are willing to follow justice and you-of that divine part I will myself sow the seed, and having made a beginning, I will hand the work over to you. And do ye then interweave the mortal with the immortal, and make and beget living creatures, and give them food, and make them to grow, and receive them again in death." Thus he spake, and once more into the cup in which he had previously mingled the soul of the universe he poured the remains of the elements, and mingled them in much the same manner; they were not, however, pure as before, but diluted to the second and third degree. And having made it he divided the whole mixture into souls equal in number to the stars, and assigned each soul to a star; and having there placed them as in a chariot, he showed them the nature of the universe, and declared to them the laws of destiny, according to which their first birth would be one and the same for all,-no one should suffer a disadvantage at his hands; they were to be sown in the instruments of time severally adapted to them, and to come forth the most religious of animals; and as human nature was of two kinds, the superior race would here after be called man. Now, when they should be implanted in bodies by necessity, and be always gaining or losing some part of their bodily substance, then in the first place it would be necessary that they should all have in them one and the same faculty of sensation, arising out of irresistible impressions; in the second place, they must have love, in which pleasure and pain mingle; also fear and anger, and the feelings which are akin or opposite to them; if they conquered these they would live righteously, and if they were conquered by them, unrighteously. He who lived well during his appointed time was to return and dwell in his native star, and there he would have a blessed and congenial existence. But if he failed in attaining this, at the second birth he would pass into a woman, and if, when in that state of being, he did not desist from evil, he would continually be changed into some brute who resembled him in the evil nature which he had acquired, and would not cease from his toils and transformations until he followed the revolution of the same and the like within him, and overcame by the help of reason the turbulent and irrational mob of later accretions, made up of fire and air and water and earth, and returned to the form of his first and better state. Having given all these laws to his creatures, that he might be guiltless of future evil in any of them, the creator sowed some of them in the earth, and some in the moon, and some in the other instruments of time; and when he had sown them he committed to the younger gods the fashioning of their mortal bodies, and desired them to furnish what was still lacking to the human soul, and having made all the suitable additions, to rule over them, and to pilot the mortal animal in the best and wisest manner which they could, and avert from him all but self-inflicted evils. When the creator had made all these ordinances he remained in his own accustomed nature, and his children heard and were obedient to their father's word, and receiving from him the immortal principle of a mortal creature, in imitation of their own creator they borrowed portions of fire, and earth, and water, and air from the world, which were hereafter to be restored-these they took and welded them together, not with the indissoluble chains by which they were themselves bound, but with little pegs too small to be visible, making up out of all the four elements each separate body, and fastening the courses of the immortal soul in a body which was in a state of perpetual influx and efflux. Now these courses, detained as in a vast river, neither overcame nor were overcome; but were hurrying and hurried to and fro, so that the whole animal was moved and progressed, irregularly however and irrationally and anyhow, in all the six directions of motion, wandering backwards and forwards, and right and left, and up and down, and in all the six directions. For great as was the advancing and retiring flood which provided nourishment, the affections produced by external contact caused still greater tumult-when the body of any one met and came into collision with some external fire, or with the solid earth or the gliding waters, or was caught in the tempest borne on the air, and the motions produced by any of these impulses were carried through the body to the soul. All such motions have consequently received the general name of "sensations," which they still retain. And they did in fact at that time create a very great and mighty movement; uniting with the ever flowing stream in stirring up and violently shaking the courses of the soul, they completely stopped the revolution of the same by their opposing current, and hindered it from predominating and advancing; and they so disturbed the nature of the other or diverse, that the three double intervals [i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8], and the three triple intervals [i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27], together with the mean terms and connecting links which are expressed by the ratios of 3 : 2, and 4 : 3, and of 9 : 8-these, although they cannot be wholly undone except by him who united them, were twisted by them in all sorts of ways, and the circles were broken and disordered in every possible manner, so that when they moved they were tumbling to pieces, and moved irrationally, at one time in a reverse direction, and then again obliquely, and then upside down, as you might imagine a person who is upside down and has his head leaning upon the ground and his feet up against something in the air; and when he is in such a position, both he and the spectator fancy that the right of either is his left, and left right. If, when powerfully experiencing these and similar effects, the revolutions of the soul come in contact with some external thing, either of the class of the same or of the other, they speak of the same or of the other in a manner the very opposite of the truth; and they become false and foolish, and there is no course or revolution in them which has a guiding or directing power; and if again any sensations enter in violently from without and drag after them the whole vessel of the soul, then the courses of the soul, though they seem to conquer, are really conquered. And by reason of all these affections, the soul, when encased in a mortal body, now, as in the beginning, is at first without intelligence; but when the flood of growth and nutriment abates, and the courses of the soul, calming down, go their own way and become steadier as time goes on, then the several circles return to their natural form, and their revolutions are corrected, and they call the same and the other by their right names, and make the possessor of them to become a rational being. And if these combine in him with any true nurture or education, he attains the fulness and health of the perfect man, and escapes the worst disease of all; but if he neglects education he walks lame to the end of his life, and returns imperfect and good for nothing to the world below. This, however, is a later stage; at present we must treat more exactly the subject before us, which involves a preliminary enquiry into the generation of the body and its members, and as to how the soul was created-for what reason and by what providence of the gods; and holding fast to probability, we must pursue our way. First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the universe, enclosed the two divine courses in a spherical body, that, namely, which we now term the head, being the most divine part of us and the lord of all that is in us: to this the gods, when they put together the body, gave all the other members to be servants, considering that it partook of every sort of motion. In order then that it might not tumble about among the high and deep places of the earth, but might be able to get over the one and out of the other, they provided the body to be its vehicle and means of locomotion; which consequently had length and was furnished with four limbs extended and flexible; these God contrived to be instruments of locomotion with which it might take hold and find support, and so be able to pass through all places, carrying on high the dwelling-place of the most sacred and divine part of us. Such was the origin of legs and hands, which for this reason were attached to every man; and the gods, deeming the front part of man to be more honourable and more fit to command than the hinder part, made us to move mostly in a forward direction. Wherefore man must needs have his front part unlike and distinguished from the rest of his body. And so in the vessel of the head, they first of all put a face in which they inserted organs to minister in all things to the providence of the soul, and they appointed this part, which has authority, to be by nature the part which is in front. And of the organs they first contrived the eyes to give light, and the principle according to which they were inserted was as follows: So much of fire as would not burn, but gave a gentle light, they formed into a substance akin to the light of every-day life; and the pure fire which is within us and related thereto they made to flow through the eyes in a stream smooth and dense, compressing the whole eye, and especially the centre part, so that it kept out everything of a coarser nature, and allowed to pass only this pure element. When the light of day surrounds the stream of vision, then like falls upon like, and they coalesce, and one body is formed by natural affinity in the line of vision, wherever the light that falls from within meets with an external object. And the whole stream of vision, being similarly affected in virtue of similarity, diffuses the motions of what it touches or what touches it over the whole body, until they reach the soul, causing that perception which we call sight. But when night comes on and the external and kindred fire departs, then the stream of vision is cut off; for going forth to an unlike element it is changed and extinguished, being no longer of one nature with the surrounding atmosphere which is now deprived of fire: and so the eye no longer sees, and we feel disposed to sleep. For when the eyelids, which the gods invented for the preservation of sight, are closed, they keep in the internal fire; and the power of the fire diffuses and equalises the inward motions; when they are equalised, there is rest, and when the rest is profound, sleep comes over us scarce disturbed by dreams; but where the greater motions still remain, of whatever nature and in whatever locality, they engender corresponding visions in dreams, which are remembered by us when we are awake and in the external world. And now there is no longer any difficulty in understanding the creation of images in mirrors and all smooth and bright surfaces. For from the communion of the internal and external fires, and again from the union of them and their numerous transformations when they meet in the mirror, all these appearances of necessity arise, when the fire from the face coalesces with the fire from the eye on the bright and smooth surface. And right appears left and left right, because the visual rays come into contact with the rays emitted by the object in a manner contrary to the usual mode of meeting; but the right appears right, and the left left, when the position of one of the two concurring lights is reversed; and this happens when the mirror is concave and its smooth surface repels the right stream of vision to the left side, and the left to the right. Or if the mirror be turned vertically, then the concavity makes the countenance appear to be all upside down, and the lower rays are driven upwards and the upper downwards. All these are to be reckoned among the second and co-operative causes which God, carrying into execution the idea of the best as far as possible, uses as his ministers. They are thought by most men not to be the second, but the prime causes of all things, because they freeze and heat, and contract and dilate, and the like. But they are not so, for they are incapable of reason or intellect; the only being which can properly have mind is the invisible soul, whereas fire and water, and earth and air, are all of them visible bodies. The lover of intellect and knowledge ought to explore causes of intelligent nature first of all, and, secondly, of those things which, being moved by others, are compelled to move others. And this is what we too must do. Both kinds of causes should be acknowledged by us, but a distinction should be made between those which are endowed with mind and are the workers of things fair and good, and those which are deprived of intelligence and always produce chance effects without order or design. Of the second or co-operative causes of sight, which help to give to the eyes the power which they now possess, enough has been said. I will therefore now proceed to speak of the higher use and purpose for which God has given them to us. The sight in my opinion is the source of the greatest benefit to us, for had we never seen the stars, and the sun, and the heaven, none of the words which we have spoken about the universe would ever have been uttered. But now the sight of day and night, and the months and the revolutions of the years, have created number, and have given us a conception of time, and the power of enquiring about the nature of the universe; and from this source we have derived philosophy, than which no greater good ever was or will be given by the gods to mortal man. This is the greatest boon of sight: and of the lesser benefits why should I speak? even the ordinary man if he were deprived of them would bewail his loss, but in vain. Thus much let me say however: God invented and gave us sight to the end that we might behold the courses of intelligence in the heaven, and apply them to the courses of our own intelligence which are akin to them, the unperturbed to the perturbed; and that we, learning them and partaking of the natural truth of reason, might imitate the absolutely unerring courses of God and regulate our own vagaries. The same may be affirmed of speech and hearing: they have been given by the gods to the same end and for a like reason. For this is the principal end of speech, whereto it most contributes. Moreover, so much of music as is adapted to the sound of the voice and to the sense of hearing is granted to us for the sake of harmony; and harmony, which has motions akin to the revolutions of our souls, is not regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by them with a view to irrational pleasure, which is deemed to be the purpose of it in our day, but as meant to correct any discord which may have arisen in the courses of the soul, and to be our ally in bringing her into harmony and agreement with herself; and rhythm too was given by them for the same reason, on account of the irregular and graceless ways which prevail among mankind generally, and to help us against them. Thus far in what we have been saying, with small exception, the works of intelligence have been set forth; and now we must place by the side of them in our discourse the things which come into being through necessity-for the creation is mixed, being made up of necessity and mind. Mind, the ruling power, persuaded necessity to bring the greater part of created things to perfection, and thus and after this manner in the beginning, when the influence of reason got the better of necessity, the universe was created. But if a person will truly tell of the way in which the work was accomplished, he must include the other influence of the variable cause as well. Wherefore, we must return again and find another suitable beginning, as about the former matters, so also about these. To which end we must consider the nature of fire, and water, and air, and earth, such as they were prior to the creation of the heaven, and what was happening to them in this previous state; for no one has as yet explained the manner of their generation, but we speak of fire and the rest of them, whatever they mean, as though men knew their natures, and we maintain them to be the first principles and letters or elements of the whole, when they cannot reasonably be compared by a man of any sense even to syllables or first compounds. And let me say thus much: I will not now speak of the first principle or principles of all things, or by whatever name they are to be called, for this reason-because it is difficult to set forth my opinion according to the method of discussion which we are at present employing. Do not imagine, any more than I can bring myself to imagine, that I should be right in undertaking so great and difficult a task. Remembering what I said at first about probability, I will do my best to give as probable an explanation as any other-or rather, more probable; and I will first go back to the beginning and try to speak of each thing and of all. Once more, then, at the commencement of my discourse, I call upon God, and beg him to be our saviour out of a strange and unwonted enquiry, and to bring us to the haven of probability. So now let us begin again. This new beginning of our discussion of the universe requires a fuller division than the former; for then we made two classes, now a third must be revealed. The two sufficed for the former discussion: one, which we assumed, was a pattern intelligible and always the same; and the second was only the imitation of the pattern, generated and visible. There is also a third kind which we did not distinguish at the time, conceiving that the two would be enough. But now the argument seems to require that we should set forth in words another kind, which is difficult of explanation and dimly seen. What nature are we to attribute to this new kind of being? We reply, that it is the receptacle, and in a manner the nurse, of all generation. I have spoken the truth; but I must express myself in clearer language, and this will be an arduous task for many reasons, and in particular because I must first raise questions concerning fire and the other elements, and determine what each of them is; for to say, with any probability or certitude, which of them should be called water rather than fire, and which should be called any of them rather than all or some one of them, is a difficult matter. How, then, shall we settle this point, and what questions about the elements may be fairly raised? In the first place, we see that what we just now called water, by condensation, I suppose, becomes stone and earth; and this same element, when melted and dispersed, passes into vapour and air. Air, again, when inflamed, becomes fire; and again fire, when condensed and extinguished, passes once more into the form of air; and once more, air, when collected and condensed, produces cloud and mist; and from these, when still more compressed, comes flowing water, and from water comes earth and stones once more; and thus generation appears to be transmitted from one to the other in a circle. Thus, then, as the several elements never present themselves in the same form, how can any one have the assurance to assert positively that any of them, whatever it may be, is one thing rather than another? No one can. But much the safest plan is to speak of them as follows:-Anything which we see to be continually changing, as, for example, fire, we must not call "this" or "that," but rather say that it is "of such a nature"; nor let us speak of water as "this"; but always as "such"; nor must we imply that there is any stability in any of those things which we indicate by the use of the words "this" and "that," supposing ourselves to signify something thereby; for they are too volatile to be detained in any such expressions as "this," or "that," or "relative to this," or any other mode of speaking which represents them as permanent. We ought not to apply "this" to any of them, but rather the word "such"; which expresses the similar principle circulating in each and all of them; for example, that should be called "fire" which is of such a nature always, and so of everything that has generation. That in which the elements severally grow up, and appear, and decay, is alone to be called by the name "this" or "that"; but that which is of a certain nature, hot or white, or anything which admits of opposite equalities, and all things that are compounded of them, ought not to be so denominated. Let me make another attempt to explain my meaning more clearly. Suppose a person to make all kinds of figures of gold and to be always transmuting one form into all the rest-somebody points to one of them and asks what it is. By far the safest and truest answer is, That is gold; and not to call the triangle or any other figures which are formed in the gold "these," as though they had existence, since they are in process of change while he is making the assertion; but if the questioner be willing to take the safe and indefinite expression, "such," we should be satisfied. And the same argument applies to the universal nature which receives all bodies-that must be always called the same; for, while receiving all things, she never departs at all from her own nature, and never in any way, or at any time, assumes a form like that of any of the things which enter into her; she is the natural recipient of all impressions, and is stirred and informed by them, and appears different from time to time by reason of them. But the forms which enter into and go out of her are the likenesses of real existences modelled after their patterns in wonderful and inexplicable manner, which we will hereafter investigate. For the present we have only to conceive of three natures: first, that which is in process of generation; secondly, that in which the generation takes place; and thirdly, that of which the thing generated is a resemblance. And we may liken the receiving principle to a mother, and the source or spring to a father, and the intermediate nature to a child; and may remark further, that if the model is to take every variety of form, then the matter in which the model is fashioned will not be duly prepared, unless it is formless, and free from the impress of any of these shapes which it is hereafter to receive from without. For if the matter were like any of the supervening forms, then whenever any opposite or entirely different nature was stamped upon its surface, it would take the impression badly, because it would intrude its own shape. Wherefore, that which is to receive all forms should have no form; as in making perfumes they first contrive that the liquid substance which is to receive the scent shall be as inodorous as possible; or as those who wish to impress figures on soft substances do not allow any previous impression to remain, but begin by making the surface as even and smooth as possible. In the same way that which is to receive perpetually and through its whole extent the resemblances of all eternal beings ought to be devoid of any particular form. Wherefore, the mother and receptacle of all created and visible and in any way sensible things, is not to be termed earth, or air, or fire, or water, or any of their compounds or any of the elements from which these are derived, but is an invisible and formless being which receives all things and in some mysterious way partakes of the intelligible, and is most incomprehensible. In saying this we shall not be far wrong; as far, however, as we can attain to a knowledge of her from the previous considerations, we may truly say that fire is that part of her nature which from time to time is inflamed, and water that which is moistened, and that the mother substance becomes earth and air, in so far as she receives the impressions of them. Let us consider this question more precisely. Is there any self-existent fire? and do all those things which we call self-existent exist? or are only those things which we see, or in some way perceive through the bodily organs, truly existent, and nothing whatever besides them? And is all that which, we call an intelligible essence nothing at all, and only a name? Here is a question which we must not leave unexamined or undetermined, nor must we affirm too confidently that there can be no decision; neither must we interpolate in our present long discourse a digression equally long, but if it is possible to set forth a great principle in a few words, that is just what we want. Thus I state my view:-If mind and true opinion are two distinct classes, then I say that there certainly are these self-existent ideas unperceived by sense, and apprehended only by the mind; if, however, as some say, true opinion differs in no respect from mind, then everything that we perceive through the body is to be regarded as most real and certain. But we must affirm that to be distinct, for they have a distinct origin and are of a different nature; the one is implanted in us by instruction, the other by persuasion; the one is always accompanied by true reason, the other is without reason; the one cannot be overcome by persuasion, but the other can: and lastly, every man may be said to share in true opinion, but mind is the attribute of the gods and of very few men. Wherefore also we must acknowledge that there is one kind of being which is always the same, uncreated and indestructible, never receiving anything into itself from without, nor itself going out to any other, but invisible and imperceptible by any sense, and of which the contemplation is granted to intelligence only. And there is another nature of the same name with it, and like to it, perceived by sense, created, always in motion, becoming in place and again vanishing out of place, which is apprehended by opinion and sense. And there is a third nature, which is space, and is eternal, and admits not of destruction and provides a home for all created things, and is apprehended without the help of sense, by a kind of spurious reason, and is hardly real; which we beholding as in a dream, say of all existence that it must of necessity be in some place and occupy a space, but that what is neither in heaven nor in earth has no existence. Of these and other things of the same kind, relating to the true and waking reality of nature, we have only this dreamlike sense, and we are unable to cast off sleep and determine the truth about them. For an image, since the reality, after which it is modelled, does not belong to it, and it exists ever as the fleeting shadow of some other, must be inferred to be in another [i.e. in space ], grasping existence in some way or other, or it could not be at all. But true and exact reason, vindicating the nature of true being, maintains that while two things [i.e. the image and space] are different they cannot exist one of them in the other and so be one and also two at the same time. Thus have I concisely given the result of my thoughts; and my verdict is that being and space and generation, these three, existed in their three ways before the heaven; and that the nurse of generation, moistened by water and inflamed by fire, and receiving the forms of earth and air, and experiencing all the affections which accompany these, presented a strange variety of appearances; and being full of powers which were neither similar nor equally balanced, was never in any part in a state of equipoise, but swaying unevenly hither and thither, was shaken by them, and by its motion again shook them; and the elements when moved were separated and carried continually, some one way, some another; as, when rain is shaken and winnowed by fans and other instruments used in the threshing of corn, the close and heavy particles are borne away and settle in one direction, and the loose and light particles in another. In this manner, the four kinds or elements were then shaken by the receiving vessel, which, moving like a winnowing machine, scattered far away from one another the elements most unlike, and forced the most similar elements into dose contact. Wherefore also the various elements had different places before they were arranged so as to form the universe. At first, they were all without reason and measure. But when the world began to get into order, fire and water and earth and air had only certain faint traces of themselves, and were altogether such as everything might be expected to be in the absence of God; this, I say, was their nature at that time, and God fashioned them by form and number. Let it be consistently maintained by us in all that we say that God made them as far as possible the fairest and best, out of things which were not fair and good. And now I will endeavour to show you the disposition and generation of them by an unaccustomed argument, which am compelled to use; but I believe that you will be able to follow me, for your education has made you familiar with the methods of science. In the first place, then, as is evident to all, fire and earth and water and air are bodies. And every sort of body possesses solidity, and every solid must necessarily be contained in planes; and every plane rectilinear figure is composed of triangles; and all triangles are originally of two kinds, both of which are made up of one right and two acute angles; one of them has at either end of the base the half of a divided right angle, having equal sides, while in the other the right angle is divided into unequal parts, having unequal sides. These, then, proceeding by a combination of probability with demonstration, we assume to be the original elements of fire and the other bodies; but the principles which are prior to these God only knows, and he of men who is the friend God. And next we have to determine what are the four most beautiful bodies which are unlike one another, and of which some are capable of resolution into one another; for having discovered thus much, we shall know the true origin of earth and fire and of the proportionate and intermediate elements. And then we shall not be willing to allow that there are any distinct kinds of visible bodies fairer than these. Wherefore we must endeavour to construct the four forms of bodies which excel in beauty, and then we shall be able to say that we have sufficiently apprehended their nature. Now of the two triangles, the isosceles has one form only; the scalene or unequal-sided has an infinite number. Of the infinite forms we must select the most beautiful, if we are to proceed in due order, and any one who can point out a more beautiful form than ours for the construction of these bodies, shall carry off the palm, not as an enemy, but as a friend. Now, the one which we maintain to be the most beautiful of all the many triangles (and we need not speak of the others) is that of which the double forms a third triangle which is equilateral; the reason of this would be long to tell; he who disproves what we are saying, and shows that we are mistaken, may claim a friendly victory. Then let us choose two triangles, out of which fire and the other elements have been constructed, one isosceles, the other having the square of the longer side equal to three times the square of the lesser side. Now is the time to explain what was before obscurely said: there was an error in imagining that all the four elements might be generated by and into one another; this, I say, was an erroneous supposition, for there are generated from the triangles which we have selected four kinds-three from the one which has the sides unequal; the fourth alone is framed out of the isosceles triangle. Hence they cannot all be resolved into one another, a great number of small bodies being combined into a few large ones, or the converse. But three of them can be thus resolved and compounded, for they all spring from one, and when the greater bodies are broken up, many small bodies will spring up out of them and take their own proper figures; or, again, when many small bodies are dissolved into their triangles, if they become one, they will form one large mass of another kind. So much for their passage into one another. I have now to speak of their several kinds, and show out of what combinations of numbers each of them was formed. The first will be the simplest and smallest construction, and its element is that triangle which has its hypotenuse twice the lesser side. When two such triangles are joined at the diagonal, and this is repeated three times, and the triangles rest their diagonals and shorter sides on the same point as a centre, a single equilateral triangle is formed out of six triangles; and four equilateral triangles, if put together, make out of every three plane angles one solid angle, being that which is nearest to the most obtuse of plane angles; and out of the combination of these four angles arises the first solid form which distributes into equal and similar parts the whole circle in which it is inscribed. The second species of solid is formed out of the same triangles, which unite as eight equilateral triangles and form one solid angle out of four plane angles, and out of six such angles the second body is completed. And the third body is made up of 120 triangular elements, forming twelve solid angles, each of them included in five plane equilateral triangles, having altogether twenty bases, each of which is an equilateral triangle. The one element [that is, the triangle which has its hypotenuse twice the lesser side] having generated these figures, generated no more; but the isosceles triangle produced the fourth elementary figure, which is compounded of four such triangles, joining their right angles in a centre, and forming one equilateral quadrangle. Six of these united form eight solid angles, each of which is made by the combination of three plane right angles; the figure of the body thus composed is a cube, having six plane quadrangular equilateral bases. There was yet a fifth combination which God used in the delineation of the universe. Now, he who, duly reflecting on all this, enquires whether the worlds are to be regarded as indefinite or definite in number, will be of opinion that the notion of their indefiniteness is characteristic of a sadly indefinite and ignorant mind. He, however, who raises the question whether they are to be truly regarded as one or five, takes up a more reasonable position. Arguing from probabilities, I am of opinion that they are one; another, regarding the question from another point of view, will be of another mind. But, leaving this enquiry, let us proceed to distribute the elementary forms, which have now been created in idea, among the four elements. To earth, then, let us assign the cubical form; for earth is the most immoveable of the four and the most plastic of all bodies, and that which has the most stable bases must of necessity be of such a nature. Now, of the triangles which we assumed at first, that which has two equal sides is by nature more firmly based than that which has unequal sides; and of the compound figures which are formed out of either, the plane equilateral quadrangle has necessarily, a more stable basis than the equilateral triangle, both in the whole and in the parts. Wherefore, in assigning this figure to earth, we adhere to probability; and to water we assign that one of the remaining forms which is the least moveable; and the most moveable of them to fire; and to air that which is intermediate. Also we assign the smallest body to fire, and the greatest to water, and the intermediate in size to air; and, again, the acutest body to fire, and the next in acuteness to, air, and the third to water. Of all these elements, that which has the fewest bases must necessarily be the most moveable, for it must be the acutest and most penetrating in every way, and also the lightest as being composed of the smallest number of similar particles: and the second body has similar properties in a second degree, and the third body in the third degree. Let it be agreed, then, both according to strict reason and according to probability, that the pyramid is the solid which is the original element and seed of fire; and let us assign the element which was next in the order of generation to air, and the third to water. We must imagine all these to be so small that no single particle of any of the four kinds is seen by us on account of their smallness: but when many of them are collected together their aggregates are seen. And the ratios of their numbers, motions, and other properties, everywhere God, as far as necessity allowed or gave consent, has exactly perfected, and harmonised in due proportion. From all that we have just been saying about the elements or kinds, the most probable conclusion is as follows:-earth, when meeting with fire and dissolved by its sharpness, whether the dissolution take place in the fire itself or perhaps in some mass of air or water, is borne hither and thither, until its parts, meeting together and mutually harmonising, again become earth; for they can never take any other form. But water, when divided by fire or by air, on reforming, may become one part fire and two parts air; and a single volume of air divided becomes two of fire. Again, when a small body of fire is contained in a larger body of air or water or earth, and both are moving, and the fire struggling is overcome and broken up, then two volumes of fire form one volume of air; and when air is overcome and cut up into small pieces, two and a half parts of air are condensed into one part of water. Let us consider the matter in another way. When one of the other elements is fastened upon by fire, and is cut by the sharpness of its angles and sides, it coalesces with the fire, and then ceases to be cut by them any longer. For no element which is one and the same with itself can be changed by or change another of the same kind and in the same state. But so long as in the process of transition the weaker is fighting against the stronger, the dissolution continues. Again, when a few small particles, enclosed in many larger ones, are in process of decomposition and extinction, they only cease from their tendency to extinction when they consent to pass into the conquering nature, and fire becomes air and air water. But if bodies of another kind go and attack them [i.e. the small particles], the latter continue to be dissolved until, being completely forced back and dispersed, they make their escape to their own kindred, or else, being overcome and assimilated to the conquering power, they remain where they are and dwell with their victors, and from being many become one. And owing to these affections, all things are changing their place, for by the motion of the receiving vessel the bulk of each class is distributed into its proper place; but those things which become unlike themselves and like other things, are hurried by the shaking into the place of the things to which they grow like. Now all unmixed and primary bodies are produced by such causes as these. As to the subordinate species which are included in the greater kinds, they are to be attributed to the varieties in the structure of the two original triangles. For either structure did not originally produce the triangle of one size only, but some larger and some smaller, and there are as many sizes as there are species of the four elements. Hence when they are mingled with themselves and with one another there is an endless variety of them, which those who would arrive at the probable truth of nature ought duly to consider. Unless a person comes to an understanding about the nature and conditions of rest and motion, he will meet with many difficulties in the discussion which follows. Something has been said of this matter already, and something more remains to be said, which is, that motion never exists in what is uniform. For to conceive that anything can be moved without a mover is hard or indeed impossible, and equally impossible to conceive that there can be a mover unless there be something which can be moved-motion cannot exist where either of these are wanting, and for these to be uniform is impossible; wherefore we must assign rest to uniformity and motion to the want of uniformity. Now inequality is the cause of the nature which is wanting in uniformity; and of this we have already described the origin. But there still remains the further point-why things when divided after their kinds do not cease to pass through one another and to change their place-which we will now proceed to explain. In the revolution of the universe are comprehended all the four elements, and this being circular and having a tendency to come together, compresses everything and will not allow any place to be left void. Wherefore, also, fire above all things penetrates everywhere, and air next, as being next in rarity of the elements; and the two other elements in like manner penetrate according to their degrees of rarity. For those things which are composed of the largest particles have the largest void left in their compositions, and those which are composed of the smallest particles have the least. And the contraction caused by the compression thrusts the smaller particles into the interstices of the larger. And thus, when the small parts are placed side by side with the larger, and the lesser divide the greater and the greater unite the lesser, all the elements are borne up and down and hither and thither towards their own places; for the change in the size of each changes its position in space. And these causes generate an inequality which is always maintained, and is continually creating a perpetual motion of the elements in all time. In the next place we have to consider that there are divers kinds of fire. There are, for example, first, flame; and secondly, those emanations of flame which do not burn but only give light to the eyes; thirdly, the remains of fire, which are seen in red-hot embers after the flame has been extinguished. There are similar differences in the air; of which the brightest part is called the aether, and the most turbid sort mist and darkness; and there are various other nameless kinds which arise from the inequality of the triangles. Water, again, admits in the first place of a division into two kinds; the one liquid and the other fusile. The liquid kind is composed of the small and unequal particles of water; and moves itself and is moved by other bodies owing to the want of uniformity and the shape of its particles; whereas the fusile kind, being formed of large and uniform particles, is more stable than the other, and is heavy and compact by reason of its uniformity. But when fire gets in and dissolves the particles and destroys the uniformity, it has greater mobility, and becoming fluid is thrust forth by the neighbouring air and spreads upon the earth; and this dissolution of the solid masses is called melting, and their spreading out upon the earth flowing. Again, when the fire goes out of the fusile substance, it does not pass into vacuum, but into the neighbouring air; and the air which is displaced forces together the liquid and still moveable mass into the place which was occupied by the fire, and unites it with itself. Thus compressed the mass resumes its equability, and is again at unity with itself, because the fire which was the author of the inequality has retreated; and this departure of the fire is called cooling, and the coming together which follows upon it is termed congealment. Of all the kinds termed fusile, that which is the densest and is formed out of the finest and most uniform parts is that most precious possession called gold, which is hardened by filtration through rock; this is unique in kind, and has both a glittering and a yellow colour. A shoot of gold, which is so dense as to be very hard, and takes a black colour, is termed adamant. There is also another kind which has parts nearly like gold, and of which there are several species; it is denser than gold, and it contains a small and fine portion of earth, and is therefore harder, yet also lighter because of the great interstices which it has within itself; and this substance, which is one of the bright and denser kinds of water, when solidified is called copper. There is an alloy of earth mingled with it, which, when the two parts grow old and are disunited, shows itself separately and is called rust. The remaining phenomena of the same kind there will be no difficulty in reasoning out by the method of probabilities. A man may sometimes set aside meditations about eternal things, and for recreation turn to consider the truths of generation which are probable only; he will thus gain a pleasure not to be repented of, and secure for himself while he lives a wise and moderate pastime. Let us grant ourselves this indulgence, and go through the probabilities relating to the same subjects which follow next in order. Water which is mingled with fire, so much as is fine and liquid (being so called by reason of its motion and the way in which it rolls along the ground), and soft, because its bases give way are less stable than those of earth, when separated from fire and air and isolated, becomes more uniform, and by their retirement is compressed into itself; and if the condensation be very great, the water above the earth becomes hail, but on the earth, ice; and that which is congealed in a less degree and is only half solid, when above the earth is called snow, and when upon the earth, and condensed from dew, hoarfrost. Then, again, there are the numerous kinds of water which have been mingled with one another, and are distilled through plants which grow in the earth; and this whole class is called by the name of juices or saps. The unequal admixture of these fluids creates a variety of species; most of them are nameless, but four which are of a fiery nature are clearly distinguished and have names. First there is wine, which warms the soul as well as the body: secondly, there is the oily nature, which is smooth and divides the visual ray, and for this reason is bright and shining and of a glistening appearance, including pitch, the juice of the castor berry, oil itself, and other things of a like kind: thirdly, there is the class of substances which expand the contracted parts of the mouth, until they return to their natural state, and by reason of this property create sweetness;-these are included under the general name of honey: and, lastly, there is a frothy nature, which differs from all juices, having a burning quality which dissolves the flesh; it is called opos (a vegetable acid). As to the kinds of earth, that which is filtered through water passes into stone in the following manner:-The water which mixes with the earth and is broken up in the process changes into air, and taking this form mounts into its own place. But as there is no surrounding vacuum it thrusts away the neighbouring air, and this being rendered heavy, and, when it is displaced, having been poured around the mass of earth, forcibly compresses it and drives it into the vacant space whence the new air had come up; and the earth when compressed by the air into an indissoluble union with water becomes rock. The fairer sort is that which is made up of equal and similar parts and is transparent; that which has the opposite qualities is inferior. But when all the watery part is suddenly drawn out by fire, a more brittle substance is formed, to which we give the name of pottery. Sometimes also moisture may remain, and the earth which has been fused by fire becomes, when cool, a certain stone of a black colour. A like separation of the water which had been copiously mingled with them may occur in two substances composed of finer particles of earth and of a briny nature; out of either of them a half solid body is then formed, soluble in water-the one, soda, which is used for purging away oil and earth, and other, salt, which harmonizes so well in combinations pleasing to the palate, and is, as the law testifies, a substance dear to the gods. The compounds of earth and water are not soluble by water, but by fire only, and for this reason:-Neither fire nor air melt masses of earth; for their particles, being smaller than the interstices in its structure, have plenty of room to move without forcing their way, and so they leave the earth unmelted and undissolved; but particles of water, which are larger, force a passage, and dissolve and melt the earth. Wherefore earth when not consolidated by force is dissolved by water only; when consolidated, by nothing but fire; for this is the only body which can find an entrance. The cohesion of water again, when very strong, is dissolved by fire only-when weaker, then either by air or fire-the former entering the interstices, and the latter penetrating even the triangles. But nothing can dissolve air, when strongly condensed, which does not reach the elements or triangles; or if not strongly condensed, then only fire can dissolve it. As to bodies composed of earth and water, while the water occupies the vacant interstices of the earth in them which are compressed by force, the particles of water which approach them from without, finding no entrance, flow around the entire mass and leave it undissolved; but the particles of fire, entering into the interstices of the water, do to the water what water does to earth and fire to air, and are the sole causes of the compound body of earth and water liquefying and becoming fluid. Now these bodies are of two kinds; some of them, such as glass and the fusible sort of stones, have less water than they have earth; on the other hand, substances of the nature of wax and incense have more of water entering into their composition. I have thus shown the various classes of bodies as they are diversified by their forms and combinations and changes into one another, and now I must endeavour to set forth their affections and the causes of them. In the first place, the bodies which I have been describing are necessarily objects of sense. But we have not yet considered the origin of flesh, or what belongs to flesh, or of that part of the soul which is mortal. And these things cannot be adequately explained without also explaining the affections which are concerned with sensation, nor the latter without the former: and yet to explain them together is hardly possible; for which reason we must assume first one or the other and afterwards examine the nature of our hypothesis. In order, then, that the affections may follow regularly after the elements, let us presuppose the existence of body and soul. First, let us enquire what we mean by saying that fire is hot; and about this we may reason from the dividing or cutting power which it exercises on our bodies. We all of us feel that fire is sharp; and we may further consider the fineness of the sides, and the sharpness of the angles, and the smallness of the particles, and the swiftness of the motion-all this makes the action of fire violent and sharp, so that it cuts whatever it meets. And we must not forget that the original figure of fire [i.e. the pyramid], more than any other form, has a dividing power which cuts our bodies into small pieces (Kepmatizei), and thus naturally produces that affection which we call heat; and hence the origin of the name (thepmos, Kepma). Now, the opposite of this is sufficiently manifest; nevertheless we will not fail to describe it. For the larger particles of moisture which surround the body, entering in and driving out the lesser, but not being able to take their places, compress the moist principle in us; and this from being unequal and disturbed, is forced by them into a state of rest, which is due to equability and compression. But things which are contracted contrary to nature are by nature at war, and force themselves apart; and to this war and convulsion the name of shivering and trembling is given; and the whole affection and the cause of the affection are both termed cold. That is called hard to which our flesh yields, and soft which yields to our flesh; and things are also termed hard and soft relatively to one another. That which yields has a small base; but that which rests on quadrangular bases is firmly posed and belongs to the class which offers the greatest resistance; so too does that which is the most compact and therefore most repellent. The nature of the light and the heavy will be best understood when examined in connexion with our notions of above and below; for it is quite a mistake to suppose that the universe is parted into two regions, separate from and opposite to each other, the one a lower to which all things tend which have any bulk, and an upper to which things only ascend against their will. For as the universe is in the form of a sphere, all the extremities, being equidistant from the centre, are equally extremities, and the centre, which is equidistant from them, is equally to be regarded as the opposite of them all. Such being the nature of the world, when a person says that any of these points is above or below, may he not be justly charged with using an improper expression? For the centre of the world cannot be rightly called either above or below, but is the centre and nothing else; and the circumference is not the centre, and has in no one part of itself a different relation to the centre from what it has in any of the opposite parts. Indeed, when it is in every direction similar, how can one rightly give to it names which imply opposition? For if there were any solid body in equipoise at the centre of the universe, there would be nothing to draw it to this extreme rather than to that, for they are all perfectly similar; and if a person were to go round the world in a circle, he would often, when standing at the antipodes of his former position, speak of the same point as above and below; for, as I was saying just now, to speak of the whole which is in the form of a globe as having one part above and another below is not like a sensible man. The reason why these names are used, and the circumstances under which they are ordinarily applied by us to the division of the heavens, may be elucidated by the following supposition:-if a person were to stand in that part of the universe which is the appointed place of fire, and where there is the great mass of fire to which fiery bodies gather-if, I say, he were to ascend thither, and, having the power to do this, were to abstract particles of fire and put them in scales and weigh them, and then, raising the balance, were to draw the fire by force towards the uncongenial element of the air, it would be very evident that he could compel the smaller mass more readily than the larger; for when two things are simultaneously raised by one and the same power, the smaller body must necessarily yield to the superior power with less reluctance than the larger; and the larger body is called heavy and said to tend downwards, and the smaller body is called light and said to tend upwards. And we may detect ourselves who are upon the earth doing precisely the same thing. For we of separate earthy natures, and sometimes earth itself, and draw them into the uncongenial element of air by force and contrary to nature, both clinging to their kindred elements. But that which is smaller yields to the impulse given by us towards the dissimilar element more easily than the larger; and so we call the former light, and the place towards which it is impelled we call above, and the contrary state and place we call heavy and below respectively. Now the relations of these must necessarily vary, because the principal masses of the different elements hold opposite positions; for that which is light, heavy, below or above in one place will be found to be and become contrary and transverse and every way diverse in relation to that which is light, heavy, below or above in an opposite place. And about all of them this has to be considered:-that the tendency of each towards its kindred element makes the body which is moved heavy, and the place towards which the motion tends below, but things which have an opposite tendency we call by an opposite name. Such are the causes which we assign to these phenomena. As to the smooth and the rough, any one who sees them can explain the reason of them to another. For roughness is hardness mingled with irregularity, and smoothness is produced by the joint effect of uniformity and density. The most important of the affections which concern the whole body remains to be considered-that is, the cause of pleasure and pain in the perceptions of which I have been speaking, and in all other things which are perceived by sense through the parts of the body, and have both pains and pleasures attendant on them. Let us imagine the causes of every affection, whether of sense or not, to be of the following nature, remembering that we have already distinguished between the nature which is easy and which is hard to move; for this is the direction in which we must hunt the prey which we mean to take. A body which is of a nature to be easily moved, on receiving an impression however slight, spreads abroad the motion in a circle, the parts communicating with each other, until at last, reaching the principle of mind, they announce the quality of the agent. But a body of the opposite kind, being immobile, and not extending to the surrounding region, merely receives the impression, and does not stir any of the neighbouring parts; and since the parts do not distribute the original impression to other parts, it has no effect of motion on the whole animal, and therefore produces no effect on the patient. This is true of the bones and hair and other more earthy parts of the human body; whereas what was said above relates mainly to sight and hearing, because they have in them the greatest amount of fire and air. Now we must conceive of pleasure and pain in this way. An impression produced in us contrary to nature and violent, if sudden, is painful; and, again, the sudden return to nature is pleasant; but a gentle and gradual return is imperceptible and vice versa. On the other hand the impression of sense which is most easily produced is most readily felt, but is not accompanied by Pleasure or pain; such, for example, are the affections of the sight, which, as we said above, is a body naturally uniting with our body in the day-time; for cuttings and burnings and other affections which happen to the sight do not give pain, nor is there pleasure when the sight returns to its natural state; but the sensations are dearest and strongest according to the manner in which the eye is affected by the object, and itself strikes and touches it; there is no violence either in the contraction or dilation of the eye. But bodies formed of larger particles yield to the agent only with a struggle; and then they impart their motions to the whole and cause pleasure and pain-pain when alienated from their natural conditions, and pleasure when restored to them. Things which experience gradual withdrawings and emptyings of their nature, and great and sudden replenishments, fail to perceive the emptying, but are sensible of the replenishment; and so they occasion no pain, but the greatest pleasure, to the mortal part of the soul, as is manifest in the case of perfumes. But things which are changed all of a sudden, and only gradually and with difficulty return to their own nature, have effects in every way opposite to the former, as is evident in the case of burnings and cuttings of the body. Thus have we discussed the general affections of the whole body, and the names of the agents which produce them. And now I will endeavour to speak of the affections of particular parts, and the causes and agents of them, as far as I am able. In the first place let us set forth what was omitted when we were speaking of juices, concerning the affections peculiar to the tongue. These too, like most of the other affections, appear to be caused by certain contractions and dilations, but they have besides more of roughness and smoothness than is found in other affections; for whenever earthy particles enter into the small veins which are the testing of the tongue, reaching to the heart, and fall upon the moist, delicate portions of flesh-when, as they are dissolved, they contract and dry up the little veins, they are astringent if they are rougher, but if not so rough, then only harsh. Those of them which are of an abstergent nature, and purge the whole surface of the tongue, if they do it in excess, and so encroach as to consume some part of the flesh itself, like potash and soda, are all termed bitter. But the particles which are deficient in the alkaline quality, and which cleanse only moderately, are called salt, and having no bitterness or roughness, are regarded as rather agreeable than otherwise. Bodies which share in and are made smooth by the heat of the mouth, and which are inflamed, and again in turn inflame that which heats them, and which are so light that they are carried upwards to the sensations of the head, and cut all that comes in their way, by reason of these qualities in them, are all termed pungent. But when these same particles, refined by putrefaction, enter into the narrow veins, and are duly proportioned to the particles of earth and air which are there, they set them whirling about one another, and while they are in a whirl cause them to dash against and enter into one another, and so form hollows surrounding the particles that enter-which watery vessels of air (for a film of moisture, sometimes earthy, sometimes pure, is spread around the air) are hollow spheres of water; and those of them which are pure, are transparent, and are called bubbles, while those composed of the earthy liquid, which is in a state of general agitation and effervescence, are said to boil or ferment-of all these affections the cause is termed acid. And there is the opposite affection arising from an opposite cause, when the mass of entering particles, immersed in the moisture of the mouth, is congenial to the tongue, and smooths and oils over the roughness, and relaxes the parts which are unnaturally contracted, and contracts the parts which are relaxed, and disposes them all according to their nature-that sort of remedy of violent affections is pleasant and agreeable to every man, and has the name sweet. But enough of this. The faculty of smell does not admit of differences of kind; for all smells are of a half formed nature, and no element is so proportioned as to have any smell. The veins about the nose are too narrow to admit earth and water, and too wide to detain fire and air; and for this reason no one ever perceives the smell of any of them; but smells always proceed from bodies that are damp, or putrefying, or liquefying, or evaporating, and are perceptible only in the intermediate state, when water is changing into air and air into water; and all of them are either vapor or mist. That which is passing out of air into water is mist, and that which is passing from water into air is vapour; and hence all smells are thinner than water and thicker than air. The proof of this is, that when there is any obstruction to the respiration, and a man draws in his breath by force, then no smell filters through, but the air without the smell alone penetrates. Wherefore the varieties of smell have no name, and they have not many, or definite and simple kinds; but they are distinguished only painful and pleasant, the one sort irritating and disturbing the whole cavity which is situated between the head and the navel, the other having a soothing influence, and restoring this same region to an agreeable and natural condition. In considering the third kind of sense, hearing, we must speak of the causes in which it originates. We may in general assume sound to be a blow which passes through the ears, and is transmitted by means of the air, the brain, and the blood, to the soul, and that hearing is the vibration of this blow, which begins in the head and ends in the region of the liver. The sound which moves swiftly is acute, and the sound which moves slowly is grave, and that which is regular is equable and smooth, and the reverse is harsh. A great body of sound is loud, and a small body of sound the reverse. Respecting the harmonies of sound I must hereafter speak. There is a fourth class of sensible things, having many intricate varieties, which must now be distinguished. They are called by the general name of colours, and are a flame which emanates from every sort of body, and has particles corresponding to the sense of sight. I have spoken already, in what has preceded, of the causes which generate sight, and in this place it will be natural and suitable to give a rational theory of colours. Of the particles coming from other bodies which fall upon the sight, some are smaller and some are larger, and some are equal to the parts of the sight itself. Those which are equal are imperceptible, and we call them transparent. The larger produce contraction, the smaller dilation, in the sight, exercising a power akin to that of hot and cold bodies on the flesh, or of astringent bodies on the tongue, or of those heating bodies which we termed pungent. White and black are similar effects of contraction and dilation in another sphere, and for this reason have a different appearance. Wherefore, we ought to term white that which dilates the visual ray, and the opposite of this is black. There is also a swifter motion of a different sort of fire which strikes and dilates the ray of sight until it reaches the eyes, forcing a way through their passages and melting them, and eliciting from them a union of fire and water which we call tears, being itself an opposite fire which comes to them from an opposite direction-the inner fire flashes forth like lightning, and the outer finds a way in and is extinguished in the moisture, and all sorts of colours are generated by the mixture. This affection is termed dazzling, and the object which produces it is called bright and flashing. There is another sort of fire which is intermediate, and which reaches and mingles with the moisture of the eye without flashing; and in this, the fire mingling with the ray of the moisture, produces a colour like blood, to which we give the name of red. A bright hue mingled with red and white gives the colour called auburn. The law of proportion, however, according to which the several colours are formed, even if a man knew he would be foolish in telling, for he could not give any necessary reason, nor indeed any tolerable or probable explanation of them. Again, red, when mingled with black and white, becomes purple, but it becomes umber when the colours are burnt as well as mingled and the black is more thoroughly mixed with them. Flame colour is produced by a union of auburn and dun, and dun by an admixture of black and white; pale yellow, by an admixture of white and auburn. White and bright meeting, and falling upon a full black, become dark blue, and when dark blue mingles with white, a light blue colour is formed, as flame-colour with black makes leek green. There will be no difficulty in seeing how and by what mixtures the colours derived from these are made according to the rules of probability. He, however, who should attempt to verify all this by experiment, would forget the difference of the human and divine nature. For God only has the knowledge and also the power which are able to combine many things into one and again resolve the one into many. But no man either is or ever will be able to accomplish either the one or the other operation. These are the elements, thus of necessity then subsisting, which the creator of the fairest and best of created things associated with himself, when he made the self-sufficing and most perfect God, using the necessary causes as his ministers in the accomplishment of his work, but himself contriving the good in all his creations. Wherefore we may distinguish two sorts of causes, the one divine and the other necessary, and may seek for the divine in all things, as far as our nature admits, with a view to the blessed life; but the necessary kind only for the sake of the divine, considering that without them and when isolated from them, these higher things for which we look cannot be apprehended or received or in any way shared by us. Seeing, then, that we have now prepared for our use the various classes of causes which are the material out of which the remainder of our discourse must be woven, just as wood is the material of the carpenter, let us revert in a few words to the point at which we began, and then endeavour to add on a suitable ending to the beginning of our tale. As I said at first, when all things were in disorder God created in each thing in relation to itself, and in all things in relation to each other, all the measures and harmonies which they could possibly receive. For in those days nothing had any proportion except by accident; nor did any of the things which now have names deserve to be named at all-as, for example, fire, water, and the rest of the elements. All these the creator first set in order, and out of them he constructed the universe, which was a single animal comprehending in itself all other animals, mortal and immortal. Now of the divine, he himself was the creator, but the creation of the mortal he committed to his offspring. And they, imitating him, received from him the immortal principle of the soul; and around this they proceeded to fashion a mortal body, and. made it to be the vehicle of the so and constructed within the body a soul of another nature which was mortal, subject to terrible and irresistible affections-first of all, pleasure, the greatest incitement to evil; then, pain, which deters from good; also rashness and fear, two foolish counsellors, anger hard to be appeased, and hope easily led astray-these they mingled with irrational sense and with all-daring love according to necessary laws, and so framed man. Wherefore, fearing to pollute the divine any more than was absolutely unavoidable, they gave to the mortal nature a separate habitation in another part of the body, placing the neck between them to be the isthmus and boundary, which they constructed between the head and breast, to keep them apart. And in the breast, and in what is termed the thorax, they encased the mortal soul; and as the one part of this was superior and the other inferior they divided the cavity of the thorax into two parts, as the women's and men's apartments are divided in houses, and placed the midriff to be a wall of partition between them. That part of the inferior soul which is endowed with courage and passion and loves contention they settled nearer the head, midway between the midriff and the neck, in order that it might be under the rule of reason and might join with it in controlling and restraining the desires when they are no longer willing of their own accord to obey the word of command issuing from the citadel. The heart, the knot of the veins and the fountain of the blood which races through all the limbs was set in the place of guard, that when the might of passion was roused by reason making proclamation of any wrong assailing them from without or being perpetrated by the desires within, quickly the whole power of feeling in the body, perceiving these commands and threats, might obey and follow through every turn and alley, and thus allow the principle of the best to have the command in all of them. But the gods, foreknowing that the palpitation of the heart in the expectation of danger and the swelling and excitement of passion was caused by fire, formed and implanted as a supporter to the heart the lung, which was, in the first place, soft and bloodless, and also had within hollows like the pores of a sponge, in order that by receiving the breath and the drink, it might give coolness and the power of respiration and alleviate the heat. Wherefore they cut the air-channels leading to the lung, and placed the lung about the heart as a soft spring, that, when passion was rife within, the heart, beating against a yielding body, might be cooled and suffer less, and might thus become more ready to join with passion in the service of reason. The part of the soul which desires meats and drinks and the other things of which it has need by reason of the bodily nature, they placed between the midriff and the boundary of the navel, contriving in all this region a sort of manger for the food of the body; and there they bound it down like a wild animal which was chained up with man, and must be nourished if man was to exist. They appointed this lower creation his place here in order that he might be always feeding at the manger, and have his dwelling as far as might be from the council-chamber, making as little noise and disturbance as possible, and permitting the best part to advise quietly for the good of the whole. And knowing that this lower principle in man would not comprehend reason, and even if attaining to some degree of perception would never naturally care for rational notions, but that it would be led away by phantoms and visions night and day-to be a remedy for this, God combined with it the liver, and placed it in the house of the lower nature, contriving that it should be solid and smooth, and bright and sweet, and should also have a bitter quality, in order that the power of thought, which proceeds from the mind, might be reflected as in a mirror which receives likenesses of objects and gives back images of them to the sight; and so might strike terror into the desires, when, making use of the bitter part of the liver, to which it is akin, it comes threatening and invading, and diffusing this bitter element swiftly through the whole liver produces colours like bile, and contracting every part makes it wrinkled and rough; and twisting out of its right place and contorting the lobe and closing and shutting up the vessels and gates, causes pain and loathing. And the converse happens when some gentle inspiration of the understanding pictures images of an opposite character, and allays the bile and bitterness by refusing to stir or touch the nature opposed to itself, but by making use of the natural sweetness of the liver, corrects all things and makes them to be right and smooth and free, and renders the portion of the soul which resides about the liver happy and joyful, enabling it to pass the night in peace, and to practise divination in sleep, inasmuch as it has no share in mind and reason. For the authors of our being, remembering the command of their father when he bade them create the human race as good as they could, that they might correct our inferior parts and make them to attain a measure of truth, placed in the liver the seat of divination. And herein is a proof that God has given the art of divination not to the wisdom, but to the foolishness of man. No man, when in his wits, attains prophetic truth and inspiration; but when he receives the inspired word, either his intelligence is enthralled in sleep, or he is demented by some distemper or possession. And he who would understand what he remembers to have been said, whether in a dream or when he was awake, by the prophetic and inspired nature, or would determine by reason the meaning of the apparitions which he has seen, and what indications they afford to this man or that, of past, present or future good and evil, must first recover his wits. But, while he continues demented, he cannot judge of the visions which he sees or the words which he utters; the ancient saying is very true, that "only a man who has his wits can act or judge about himself and his own affairs." And for this reason it is customary to appoint interpreters to be judges of the true inspiration. Some persons call them prophets; they are quite unaware that they are only the expositors of dark sayings and visions, and are not to be called prophets at all, but only interpreters of prophecy. Such is the nature of the liver, which is placed as we have described in order that it may give prophetic intimations. During the life of each individual these intimations are plainer, but after his death the liver becomes blind, and delivers oracles too obscure to be intelligible. The neighbouring organ [the spleen] is situated on the left-hand side, and is constructed with a view of keeping the liver bright and pure-like a napkin, always ready prepared and at hand to clean the mirror. And hence, when any impurities arise in the region of the liver by reason of disorders of the body, the loose nature of the spleen, which is composed of a hollow and bloodless tissue, receives them all and dears them away, and when filled with the unclean matter, swells and festers, but, again, when the body is purged, settles down into the same place as before, and is humbled. Concerning the soul, as to which part is mortal and which divine, and how and why they are separated, and where located, if God acknowledges that we have spoken the truth, then, and then only, can we be confident; still, we may venture to assert that what has been said by us is probable, and will be rendered more probable by investigation. Let us assume thus much. The creation of the rest of follows next in order, and this we may investigate in a similar manner. And it appears to be very meet that the body should be framed on the following principles:- The authors of our race were aware that we should be intemperate in eating and drinking, and take a good deal more than was necessary or proper, by reason of gluttony. In order then that disease might not quickly destroy us, and lest our mortal race should perish without fulfilling its end-intending to provide against this, the gods made what is called the lower belly, to be a receptacle for the superfluous meat and drink, and formed the convolution of the bowels, so that the food might be prevented from passing quickly through and compelling the body to require more food, thus producing insatiable gluttony, and making the whole race an enemy to philosophy and music, and rebellious against the divinest element within us. The bones and flesh, and other similar parts of us, were made as follows. The first principle of all of them was the generation of the marrow. For the bonds of life which unite the soul with the body are made fast there, and they are the root and foundation of the human race. The marrow itself is created out of other materials: God took such of the primary triangles as were straight and smooth, and were adapted by their perfection to produce fire and water, and air and earth-these, I say, he separated from their kinds, and mingling them in due proportions with one another, made the marrow out of them to be a universal seed of the whole race of mankind; and in this seed he then planted and enclosed the souls, and in the original distribution gave to the marrow as many and various forms as the different kinds of souls were hereafter to receive. That which, like a field, was to receive the divine seed, he made round every way, and called that portion of the marrow, brain, intending that, when an animal was perfected, the vessel containing this substance should be the head; but that which was intended to contain the remaining and mortal part of the soul he distributed into figures at once around and elongated, and he called them all by the name "marrow"; and to these, as to anchors, fastening the bonds of the whole soul, he proceeded to fashion around them the entire framework of our body, constructing for the marrow, first of all a complete covering of bone. Bone was composed by him in the following manner. Having sifted pure and smooth earth he kneaded it and wetted it with marrow, and after that he put it into fire and then into water, and once more into fire and again into water-in this way by frequent transfers from one to the other he made it insoluble by either. Out of this he fashioned, as in a lathe, a globe made of bone, which he placed around the brain, and in this he left a narrow opening; and around the marrow of the neck and back he formed vertebrae which he placed under one another like pivots, beginning at the head and extending through the whole of the trunk. Thus wishing to preserve the entire seed, he enclosed it in a stone-like casing, inserting joints, and using in the formation of them the power of the other or diverse as an intermediate nature, that they might have motion and flexure. Then again, considering that the bone would be too brittle and inflexible, and when heated and again cooled would soon mortify and destroy the seed within-having this in view, he contrived the sinews and the flesh, that so binding all the members together by the sinews, which admitted of being stretched and relaxed about the vertebrae, he might thus make the body capable of flexion and extension, while the flesh would serve as a protection against the summer heat and against the winter cold, and also against falls, softly and easily yielding to external bodies, like articles made of felt; and containing in itself a warm moisture which in summer exudes and makes the surface damp, would impart a nature coolness to the whole body; and again in winter by the help of this internal warmth would form a very tolerable defence against the frost which surrounds it and attacks it from without. He who modelled us, considering these things, mixed earth with fire and water and blended them; and making a ferment of acid and salt, he mingled it with them and formed soft and succulent flesh. As for the sinews, he made them of a mixture of bone and unfermented flesh, attempered so as to be in a mean, and gave them a yellow colour; wherefore the sinews have a firmer and more glutinous nature than flesh, but a softer and moister nature than the bones. With these God covered the bones and marrow, binding them together by sinews, and then enshrouded them all in an upper covering of flesh. The more living and sensitive of the bones he enclosed in the thinnest film of flesh, and those which had the least life within them in the thickest and most solid flesh. So again on the joints of the bones, where reason indicated that no more was required, he placed only a thin covering of flesh, that it might not interfere with the flexion of our bodies and make them unwieldy because difficult to move; and also that it might not, by being crowded and pressed and matted together, destroy sensation by reason of its hardness, and impair the memory and dull the edge of intelligence. Wherefore also the thighs and the shanks and the hips, and the bones of the arms and the forearms, and other parts which have no joints, and the inner bones, which on account of the rarity of the soul in the marrow are destitute of reason-all these are abundantly provided with flesh; but such as have mind in them are in general less fleshy, except where the creator has made some part solely of flesh in order to give sensation-as, for example, the tongue. But commonly this is not the case. For the nature which comes into being and grows up in us by a law of necessity, does not admit of the combination of solid bone and much flesh with acute perceptions. More than any other part the framework of the head would have had them, if they could have co-existed, and the human race, having a strong and fleshy and sinewy head, would have had a life twice or many times as long as it now has, and also more healthy and free from pain. But our creators, considering whether they should make a longer-lived race which was worse, or a shorter-lived race which was better, came to the conclusion that every one ought to prefer a shorter span of life, which was better, to a longer one, which was worse; and therefore they covered the head with thin bone, but not with flesh and sinews, since it had no joints; and thus the head was added, having more wisdom and sensation than the rest of the body, but also being in every man far weaker. For these reasons and after this manner God placed the sinews at the extremity of the head, in a circle round the neck, and glued them together by the principle of likeness and fastened the extremities of the jawbones to them below the face, and the other sinews he dispersed throughout the body, fastening limb to limb. The framers of us framed the mouth, as now arranged, having teeth and tongue and lips, with a view to the necessary and the good, contriving the way in for necessary purposes, the way out for the best purposes; for that is necessary which enters in and gives food to the body; but the river of speech, which flows out of a man and ministers to the intelligence, is the fairest and noblest of all streams. Still the head could neither be left a bare frame of bones, on account of the extremes of heat and cold in the different seasons, nor yet be allowed to be wholly covered, and so become dull and senseless by reason of an overgrowth of flesh. The fleshy nature was not therefore wholly dried up, but a large sort of peel was parted off and remained over, which is now called the skin. This met and grew by the help of the cerebral moisture, and became the circular envelopment of the head. And the moisture, rising up under the sutures, watered and closed in the skin upon the crown, forming a sort of knot. The diversity of the sutures was caused by the power of the courses of the soul and of the food, and the more these struggled against one another the more numerous they became, and fewer if the struggle were less violent. This skin the divine power pierced all round with fire, and out of the punctures which were thus made the moisture issued forth, and the liquid and heat which was pure came away, and a mixed part which was composed of the same material as the skin, and had a fineness equal to the punctures, was borne up by its own impulse and extended far outside the head, but being too slow to escape, was thrust back by the external air, and rolled up underneath the skin, where it took root. Thus the hair sprang up in the skin, being akin to it because it is like threads of leather, but rendered harder and closer through the pressure of the cold, by which each hair, while in process of separation from the skin, is compressed and cooled. Wherefore the creator formed the head hairy, making use of the causes which I have mentioned, and reflecting also that instead of flesh the brain needed the hair to be a light covering or guard, which would give shade in summer and shelter in winter, and at the same time would not impede our quickness of perception. From the combination of sinew, skin, and bone, in the structure of the finger, there arises a triple compound, which, when dried up, takes the form of one hard skin partaking of all three natures, and was fabricated by these second causes, but designed by mind which is the principal cause with an eye to the future. For our creators well knew that women and other animals would some day be framed out of men, and they further knew that many animals would require the use of nails for many purposes; wherefore they fashioned in men at their first creation the rudiments of nails. For this purpose and for these reasons they caused skin, hair, and nails to grow at the extremities of the limbs. And now that all the parts and members of the mortal animal had come together, since its life of necessity consisted of fire and breath, and it therefore wasted away by dissolution and depletion, the gods contrived the following remedy: They mingled a nature akin to that of man with other forms and perceptions, and thus created another kind of animal. These are the trees and plants and seeds which have been improved by cultivation and are now domesticated among us; anciently there were only the will kinds, which are older than the cultivated. For everything that partakes of life may be truly called a living being, and the animal of which we are now speaking partakes of the third kind of soul, which is said to be seated between the midriff and the navel, having no part in opinion or reason or mind, but only in feelings of pleasure and pain and the desires which accompany them. For this nature is always in a passive state, revolving in and about itself, repelling the motion from without and using its own, and accordingly is not endowed by nature with the power of observing or reflecting on its own concerns. Wherefore it lives and does not differ from a living being, but is fixed and rooted in the same spot, having no power of self-motion. Now after the superior powers had created all these natures to be food for us who are of the inferior nature, they cut various channels through the body as through a garden, that it might be watered as from a running stream. In the first place, they cut two hidden channels or veins down the back where the skin and the flesh join, which answered severally to the right and left side of the body. These they let down along the backbone, so as to have the marrow of generation between them, where it was most likely to flourish, and in order that the stream coming down from above might flow freely to the other parts, and equalise the irrigation. In the next place, they divided the veins about the head, and interlacing them, they sent them in opposite directions; those coming from the right side they sent to the left of the body, and those from the left they diverted towards the right, so that they and the skin might together form a bond which should fasten the head to the body, since the crown of the head was not encircled by sinews; and also in order that the sensations from both sides might be distributed over the whole body. And next, they ordered the water-courses of the body in a manner which I will describe, and which will be more easily understood if we begin by admitting that all things which have lesser parts retain the greater, but the greater cannot retain the lesser. Now of all natures fire has the smallest parts, and therefore penetrates through earth and water and air and their compounds, nor can anything hold it. And a similar principle applies to the human belly; for when meats and drinks enter it, it holds them, but it cannot hold air and fire, because the particles of which they consist are smaller than its own structure. These elements, therefore, God employed for the sake of distributing moisture from the belly into the veins, weaving together network of fire and air like a weel, having at the entrance two lesser weels; further he constructed one of these with two openings, and from the lesser weels he extended cords reaching all round to the extremities of the network. All the interior of the net he made of fire, but the lesser weels and their cavity, of air. The network he took and spread over the newly-formed animal in the following manner:-He let the lesser weels pass into the mouth; there were two of them, and one he let down by the air-pipes into the lungs, the other by the side of the air-pipes into the belly. The former he divided into two branches, both of which he made to meet at the channels of the nose, so that when the way through the mouth did not act, the streams of the mouth as well were replenished through the nose. With the other cavity (i.e. of the greater weel) he enveloped the hollow parts of the body, and at one time he made all this to flow into the lesser weels, quite gently, for they are composed of air, and at another time he caused the lesser weels to flow back again; and the net he made to find a way in and out through the pores of the body, and the rays of fire which are bound fast within followed the passage of the air either way, never at any time ceasing so long as the mortal being holds together. This process, as we affirm, the name-giver named inspiration and expiration. And all this movement, active as well as passive, takes place in order that the body, being watered and cooled, may receive nourishment and life; for when the respiration is going in and out, and the fire, which is fast bound within, follows it, and ever and anon moving to and fro, enters through the belly and reaches the meat and drink, it dissolves them, and dividing them into small portions and guiding them through the passages where it goes, pumps them as from a fountain into the channels of the veins, and makes the stream of the veins flow through the body as through a conduit. Let us once more consider the phenomena of respiration, and enquire into the causes which have made it what it is. They are as follows:-Seeing that there is no such thing as a vacuum into which any of those things which are moved can enter, and the breath is carried from us into the external air, the next point is, as will be dear to every one, that it does not go into a vacant space, but pushes its neighbour out of its place, and that which is thrust out in turn drives out its neighbour; and in this everything of necessity at last comes round to that place from whence the breath came forth, and enters in there, and following the breath, fills up the vacant space; and this goes on like the rotation of a wheel, because there can be no such thing as a vacuum. Wherefore also the breast and the lungs, when they emit the breath, are replenished by the air which surrounds the body and which enters in through the pores of the flesh and is driven round in a circle; and again, the air which is sent away and passes out through the body forces the breath inwards through the passage of the mouth and the nostrils. Now the origin of this movement may be supposed to be as follows. In the interior of every animal the hottest part is that which is around the blood and veins; it is in a manner on internal fountain of fire, which we compare to the network of a creel, being woven all of fire and extended through the centre of the body, while the-outer parts are composed of air. Now we must admit that heat naturally proceeds outward to its own place and to its kindred element; and as there are two exits for the heat, the out through the body, and the other through the mouth and nostrils, when it moves towards the one, it drives round the air at the other, and that which is driven round falls into the fire and becomes warm, and that which goes forth is cooled. But when the heat changes its place, and the particles at the other exit grow warmer, the hotter air inclining in that direction and carried towards its native element, fire, pushes round the air at the other; and this being affected in the same way and communicating the same impulse, a circular motion swaying to and from is produced by the double process, which we call inspiration and expiration. The phenomena of medical cupping-glasses and of the swallowing of drink and of the projection of bodies, whether discharged in the air or bowled along the ground, are to be investigated on a similar principle; and swift and slow sounds, which appear to be high and low, and are sometimes discordant on account of their inequality, and then again harmonical on account of the equality of the motion which they excite in us. For when the motions of the antecedent swifter sounds begin to pause and the two are equalised, the slower sounds overtake the swifter and then propel them. When they overtake them they do not intrude a new and discordant motion, but introduce the beginnings of a slower, which answers to the swifter as it dies away, thus producing a single mixed expression out of high and low, whence arises a pleasure which even the unwise feel, and which to the wise becomes a higher sort of delight, being an imitation of divine harmony in mortal motions. Moreover, as to the flowing of water, the fall of the thunderbolt, and the marvels that are observed about the attraction of amber and the Heraclean stones,-in none of these cases is there any attraction; but he who investigates rightly, will find that such wonderful phenomena are attributable to the combination of certain conditions-the non-existence of a vacuum, the fact that objects push one another round, and that they change places, passing severally into their proper positions as they are divided or combined Such as we have seen, is the nature and such are the causes of respiration-the subject in which this discussion originated. For the fire cuts the food and following the breath surges up within, fire and breath rising together and filling the veins by drawing up out of the belly and pouring into them the cut portions of the food; and so the streams of food are kept flowing through the whole body in all animals. And fresh cuttings from kindred substances, whether the fruits of the earth or herb of the field, which God planted to be our daily food, acquire all sorts of colours by their inter-mixture; but red is the most pervading of them, being created by the cutting action of fire and by the impression which it makes on a moist substance; and hence the liquid which circulates in the body has a colour such as we have described. The liquid itself we call blood, which nourishes the flesh and the whole body, whence all parts are watered and empty places filled. Now the process of repletion and evacuation is effected after the manner of the universal motion by which all kindred substances are drawn towards one another. For the external elements which surround us are always causing us to consume away, and distributing and sending off like to like; the particles of blood, too, which are divided and contained within the frame of the animal as in a sort of heaven, are compelled to imitate the motion of the universe. Each, therefore, of the divided parts within us, being carried to its kindred nature, replenishes the void. When more is taken away than flows in, then we decay, and when less, we grow and increase. The frame of the entire creature when young has the triangles of each kind new, and may be compared to the keel of a vessel which is just off the stocks; they are locked firmly together and yet the whole mass is soft and delicate, being freshly formed of marrow and nurtured on milk. Now when the triangles out of which meats and drinks are composed come in from without, and are comprehended in the body, being older and weaker than the triangles already there, the frame of the body gets the better of them and its newer triangles cut them up, and so the animal grows great, being nourished by a multitude of similar particles. But when the roots of the triangles are loosened by having undergone many conflicts with many things in the course of time, they are no longer able to cut or assimilate the food which enters, but are themselves easily divided by the bodies which come in from without. In this way every animal is overcome and decays, and this affection is called old age. And at last, when the bonds by which the triangles of the marrow are united no longer hold, and are parted by the strain of existence, they in turn loosen the bonds of the soul, and she, obtaining a natural release, flies away with joy. For that which takes place according to nature is pleasant, but that which is contrary to nature is painful. And thus death, if caused by disease or produced by wounds, is painful and violent; but that sort of death which comes with old age and fulfils the debt of nature is the easiest of deaths, and is accompanied with pleasure rather than with pain. Now every one can see whence diseases arise. There are four natures out of which the body is compacted, earth and fire and water and air, and the unnatural excess or defect of these, or the change of any of them from its own natural place into another, or-since there are more kinds than one of fire and of the other elements-the assumption by any of these of a wrong kind, or any similar irregularity, produces disorders and diseases; for when any of them is produced or changed in a manner contrary to nature, the parts which were previously cool grow warm, and those which were dry become moist, and the light become heavy, and the heavy light; all sorts of changes occur. For, as we affirm, a thing can only remain the same with itself, whole and sound, when the same is added to it, or subtracted from it, in the same respect and in the same manner and in due proportion; and whatever comes or goes away in violation of these laws causes all manner of changes and infinite diseases and corruptions. Now there is a second class of structures which are also natural, and this affords a second opportunity of observing diseases to him who would understand them. For whereas marrow and bone and flesh and sinews are composed of the four elements, and the blood, though after another manner, is likewise formed out of them, most diseases originate in the way which I have described; but the worst of all owe their severity to the fact that the generation of these substances stances in a wrong order; they are then destroyed. For the natural order is that the flesh and sinews should be made of blood, the sinews out of the fibres to which they are akin, and the flesh out of the dots which are formed when the fibres are separated. And the glutinous and rich matter which comes away from the sinews and the flesh, not only glues the flesh to the bones, but nourishes and imparts growth to the bone which surrounds the marrow; and by reason of the solidity of the bones, that which filters through consists of the purest and smoothest and oiliest sort of triangles, dropping like dew from the bones and watering the marrow. Now when each process takes place in this order, health commonly results; when in the opposite order, disease. For when the flesh becomes decomposed and sends back the wasting substance into the veins, then an over-supply of blood of diverse kinds, mingling with air in the veins, having variegated colours and bitter properties, as well as acid and saline qualities, contains all sorts of bile and serum and phlegm. For all things go the wrong way, and having become corrupted, first they taint the blood itself, and then ceasing to give nourishment the body they are carried along the veins in all directions, no longer preserving the order of their natural courses, but at war with themselves, because they receive no good from one another, and are hostile to the abiding constitution of the body, which they corrupt and dissolve. The oldest part of the flesh which is corrupted, being hard to decompose, from long burning grows black, and from being everywhere corroded becomes bitter, and is injurious to every part of the body which is still uncorrupted. Sometimes, when the bitter element is refined away, the black part assumes an acidity which takes the place of the bitterness; at other times the bitterness being tinged with blood has a redder colour; and this, when mixed with black, takes the hue of grass; and again, an auburn colour mingles with the bitter matter when new flesh is decomposed by the fire which surrounds the internal flame-to all which symptoms some physician perhaps, or rather some philosopher, who had the power of seeing in many dissimilar things one nature deserving of a name, has assigned the common name of bile. But the other kinds of bile are variously distinguished by their colours. As for serum, that sort which is the watery part of blood is innocent, but that which is a secretion of black and acid bile is malignant when mingled by the power of heat with any salt substance, and is then called acid phlegm. Again, the substance which is formed by the liquefaction of new and tender flesh when air is present, if inflated and encased in liquid so as to form bubbles, which separately are invisible owing to their small size, but when collected are of a bulk which is visible, and have a white colour arising out of the generation of foam-all this decomposition of tender flesh when inter-mingled with air is termed by us white phlegm. And the whey or sediment of newly-formed phlegm is sweat and tears, and includes the various daily discharges by which the body is purified. Now all these become causes of disease when the blood is not replenished in a natural manner by food and drink but gains bulk from opposite sources in violation of the laws of nature. When the several parts of the flesh are separated by disease, if the foundation remains, the power of the disorder is only half as great, and there is still a prospect of an easy recovery; but when that which binds the flesh to the bones is diseased, and no longer being separated from the muscles and sinews, ceases to give nourishment to the bone and to unite flesh and bone, and from being oily and smooth and glutinous becomes rough and salt and dry, owing to bad regimen, then all the substance thus corrupted crumbles away under the flesh and the sinews, and separates from the bone, and the fleshy parts fall away from their foundation and leave the sinews bare and full of brine, and the flesh again gets into the circulation of the blood and makes the previously-mentioned disorders still greater. And if these bodily affections be severe, still worse are the prior disorders; as when the bone itself, by reason of the density of the flesh, does not obtain sufficient air, but becomes mouldy and hot and gangrened and receives no nutriment, and the natural process is inverted, and the bone crumbling passes into the food, and the food into the flesh, and the flesh again falling into the blood makes all maladies that may occur more virulent than those already mentioned. But the worst case of all is when the marrow is diseased, either from excess or defect; and this is the cause of the very greatest and most fatal disorders, in which the whole course of the body is reversed. There is a third class of diseases which may be conceived of as arising in three ways; for they are produced sometimes by wind, and sometimes by phlegm, and sometimes by bile. When the lung, which is the dispenser of the air to the body, is obstructed by rheums and its passages are not free, some of them not acting, while through others too much air enters, then the parts which are unrefreshed by air corrode, while in other parts the excess of air forcing its way through the veins distorts them and decomposing the body is enclosed in the midst of it and occupies the midriff thus numberless painful diseases are produced, accompanied by copious sweats. And oftentimes when the flesh is dissolved in the body, wind, generated within and unable to escape, is the source of quite as much pain as the air coming in from without; but the greatest pain is felt when the wind gets about the sinews and the veins of the shoulders, and swells them up, so twists back the great tendons and the sinews which are connected with them. These disorders are called tetanus and opisthotonus, by reason of the tension which accompanies them. The cure of them is difficult; relief is in most cases given by fever supervening. The white phlegm, though dangerous when detained within by reason of the air-bubbles, yet if it can communicate with the outside air, is less severe, and only discolours the body, generating leprous eruptions and similar diseases. When it is mingled with black bile and dispersed about the courses of the head, which are the divinest part of us, the attack if coming on in sleep, is not so severe; but when assailing those who are awake it is hard to be got rid of, and being an affection of a sacred part, is most justly called sacred. An acid and salt phlegm, again, is the source of all those diseases which take the form of catarrh, but they have many names because the places into which they flow are manifold. Inflammations of the body come from burnings and inflamings, and all of them originate in bile. When bile finds a means of discharge, it boils up and sends forth all sorts of tumours; but when imprisoned within, it generates many inflammatory diseases, above all when mingled with pure blood; since it then displaces the fibres which are scattered about in the blood and are designed to maintain the balance of rare and dense, in order that the blood may not be so liquefied by heat as to exude from the pores of the body, nor again become too dense and thus find a difficulty in circulating through the veins. The fibres are so constituted as to maintain this balance; and if any one brings them all together when the blood is dead and in process of cooling, then the blood which remains becomes fluid, but if they are left alone, they soon congeal by reason of the surrounding cold. The fibres having this power over the blood, bile, which is only stale blood, and which from being flesh is dissolved again into blood, at the first influx coming in little by little, hot and liquid, is congealed by the power of the fibres; and so congealing and made to cool, it produces internal cold and shuddering. When it enters with more of a flood and overcomes the fibres by its heat, and boiling up throws them into disorder, if it have power enough to maintain its supremacy, it penetrates the marrow and burns up what may be termed the cables of the soul, and sets her free; but when there is not so much of it, and the body though wasted still holds out, the bile is itself mastered, and is either utterly banished, or is thrust through the veins into the lower or upper-belly, and is driven out of the body like an exile from a state in which there has been civil war; whence arise diarrhoeas and dysenteries, and all such disorders. When the constitution is disordered by excess of fire, continuous heat and fever are the result; when excess of air is the cause, then the fever is quotidian; when of water, which is a more sluggish element than either fire or air, then the fever is a tertian; when of earth, which is the most sluggish of the four, and is only purged away in a four-fold period, the result is a quartan fever, which can with difficulty be shaken off. Such is the manner in which diseases of the body arise; the disorders of the soul, which depend upon the body, originate as follows. We must acknowledge disease of the mind to be a want of intelligence; and of this there are two kinds; to wit, madness and ignorance. In whatever state a man experiences either of them, that state may be called disease; and excessive pains and pleasures are justly to be regarded as the greatest diseases to which the soul is liable. For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his unseasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other, is not able to see or to hear anything rightly; but he is mad, and is at the time utterly incapable of any participation in reason. He who has the seed about the spinal marrow too plentiful and overflowing, like a tree overladen with fruit, has many throes, and also obtains many pleasures in his desires and their offspring, and is for the most part of his life deranged, because his pleasures and pains are so very great; his soul is rendered foolish and disordered by his body; yet he is regarded not as one diseased, but as one who is voluntarily bad, which is a mistake. The truth is that the intemperance of love is a disease of the soul due chiefly to the moisture and fluidity which is produced in one of the elements by the loose consistency of the bones. And in general, all that which is termed the incontinence of pleasure and is deemed a reproach under the idea that the wicked voluntarily do wrong is not justly a matter for reproach. For no man is voluntarily bad; but the bad become bad by reason of an ill disposition of the body and bad education, things which are hateful to every man and happen to him against his will. And in the case of pain too in like manner the soul suffers much evil from the body. For where the acid and briny phlegm and other bitter and bilious humours wander about in the body, and find no exit or escape, but are pent up within and mingle their own vapours with the motions of the soul, and are blended, with them, they produce all sorts of diseases, more or fewer, and in every degree of intensity; and being carried to the three places of the soul, whichever they may severally assail, they create infinite varieties of ill-temper and melancholy, of rashness and cowardice, and also of forgetfulness and stupidity. Further, when to this evil constitution of body evil forms of government are added and evil discourses are uttered in private as well as in public, and no sort of instruction is given in youth to cure these evils, then all of us who are bad become bad from two causes which are entirely beyond our control. In such cases the planters are to blame rather than the plants, the educators rather than the educated. But however that may be, we should endeavour as far as we can by education, and studies, and learning, to avoid vice and attain virtue; this, however, is part of another subject. There is a corresponding enquiry concerning the mode of treatment by which the mind and the body are to be preserved, about which it is meet and right that I should say a word in turn; for it is more our duty to speak of the good than of the evil. Everything that is good is fair, and the animal fair is not without proportion, and the animal which is to be fair must have due proportion. Now we perceive lesser symmetries or proportions and reason about them, but of the highest and greatest we take no heed; for there is no proportion or disproportion more productive of health and disease, and virtue and vice, than that between soul and body. This however we do not perceive, nor do we reflect that when a weak or small frame is the vehicle of a great and mighty soul, or conversely, when a little soul is encased in a large body, then the whole animal is not fair, for it lacks the most important of all symmetries; but the due proportion of mind and body is the fairest and loveliest of all sights to him who has the seeing eye. Just as a body which has a leg too long, or which is unsymmetrical in some other respect, is an unpleasant sight, and also, when doing its share of work, is much distressed and makes convulsive efforts, and often stumbles through awkwardness, and is the cause of infinite evil to its own self-in like manner we should conceive of the double nature which we call the living being; and when in this compound there is an impassioned soul more powerful than the body, that soul, I say, convulses and fills with disorders the whole inner nature of man; and when eager in the pursuit of some sort of learning or study, causes wasting; or again, when teaching or disputing in private or in public, and strifes and controversies arise, inflames and dissolves the composite frame of man and introduces rheums; and the nature of this phenomenon is not understood by most professors of medicine, who ascribe it to the opposite of the real cause. And once more, when body large and too strong for the soul is united to a small and weak intelligence, then inasmuch as there are two desires natural to man,-one of food for the sake of the body, and one of wisdom for the sake of the diviner part of us-then, I say, the motions of the stronger, getting the better and increasing their own power, but making the soul dull, and stupid, and forgetful, engender ignorance, which is the greatest of diseases. There is one protection against both kinds of disproportion:-that we should not move the body without the soul or the soul without the body, and thus they will be on their guard against each other, and be healthy and well balanced. And therefore the mathematician or any one else whose thoughts are much absorbed in some intellectual pursuit, must allow his body also to have due exercise, and practise gymnastic; and he who is careful to fashion the body, should in turn impart to the soul its proper motions, and should cultivate music and all philosophy, if he would deserve to be called truly fair and truly good. And the separate parts should be treated in the same manner, in imitation of the pattern of the universe; for as the body is heated and also cooled within by the elements which enter into it, and is again dried up and moistened by external things, and experiences these and the like affections from both kinds of motions, the result is that the body if given up to motion when in a state of quiescence is overmastered and perishes; but if any one, in imitation of that which we call the foster-mother and nurse of the universe, will not allow the body ever to be inactive, but is always producing motions and agitations through its whole extent, which form the natural defence against other motions both internal and external, and by moderate exercise reduces to order according to their affinities the particles and affections which are wandering about the body, as we have already said when speaking of the universe, he will not allow enemy placed by the side of enemy to stir up wars and disorders in the body, but he will place friend by the side of friend, so as to create health. Now of all motions that is the best which is produced in a thing by itself, for it is most akin to the motion of thought and of the universe; but that motion which is caused by others is not so good, and worst of all is that which moves the body, when at rest, in parts only and by some external agency. Wherefore of all modes of purifying and reuniting the body the best is gymnastic; the next best is a surging motion, as in sailing or any other mode of conveyance which is not fatiguing; the third sort of motion may be of use in a case of extreme necessity, but in any other will be adopted by no man of sense: I mean the purgative treatment of physicians; for diseases unless they are very dangerous should not be irritated by medicines, since every form of disease is in a manner akin to the living being, whose complex frame has an appointed term of life. For not the whole race only, but each individual-barring inevitable accidents-comes into the world having a fixed span, and the triangles in us are originally framed with power to last for a certain time, beyond which no man prolong his life. And this holds also of the constitution of diseases; if any one regardless of the appointed time tries to subdue them by medicine, he only aggravates and multiplies them. Wherefore we ought always to manage them by regimen, as far as a man can spare the time, and not provoke a disagreeable enemy by medicines. Enough of the composite animal, and of the body which is a part of him, and of the manner in which a man may train and be trained by himself so as to live most according to reason: and we must above and before all provide that the element which is to train him shall be the fairest and best adapted to that purpose. A minute discussion of this subject would be a serious task; but if, as before, I am to give only an outline, the subject may not unfitly be summed up as follows. I have often remarked that there are three kinds of soul located within us, having each of them motions, and I must now repeat in the fewest words possible, that one part, if remaining inactive and ceasing from its natural motion, must necessarily become very weak, but that which is trained and exercised, very strong. Wherefore we should take care that the movements of the different parts of the soul should be in due proportion. And we should consider that God gave the sovereign part of the human soul to be the divinity of each one, being that part which, as we say, dwells at the top of the body, inasmuch as we are a plant not of an earthly but of a heavenly growth, raises us from earth to our kindred who are in heaven. And in this we say truly; for the divine power suspended the head and root of us from that place where the generation of the soul first began, and thus made the whole body upright. When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts must be mortal, and, as far as it is possible altogether to become such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his mortal part. But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine, if he attain truth, and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in immortality, he must altogether be immortal; and since he is ever cherishing the divine power, and has the divinity within him in perfect order, he will be perfectly happy. Now there is only one way of taking care of things, and this is to give to each the food and motion which are natural to it. And the motions which are naturally akin to the divine principle within us are the thoughts and revolutions of the universe. These each man should follow, and correct the courses of the head which were corrupted at our birth, and by learning the harmonies and revolutions of the universe, should assimilate the thinking being to the thought, renewing his original nature, and having assimilated them should attain to that perfect life which the gods have set before mankind, both for the present and the future. Thus our original design of discoursing about the universe down to the creation of man is nearly completed. A brief mention may be made of the generation of other animals, so far as the subject admits of brevity; in this manner our argument will best attain a due proportion. On the subject of animals, then, the following remarks may be offered. Of the men who came into the world, those who were cowards or led unrighteous lives may with reason be supposed to have changed into the nature of women in the second generation. And this was the reason why at that time the gods created in us the desire of sexual intercourse, contriving in man one animated substance, and in woman another, which they formed respectively in the following manner. The outlet for drink by which liquids pass through the lung under the kidneys and into the bladder, which receives then by the pressure of the air emits them, was so fashioned by them as to penetrate also into the body of the marrow, which passes from the head along the neck and through the back, and which in the preceding discourse we have named the seed. And the seed having life, and becoming endowed with respiration, produces in that part in which it respires a lively desire of emission, and thus creates in us the love of procreation. Wherefore also in men the organ of generation becoming rebellious and masterful, like an animal disobedient to reason, and maddened with the sting of lust, seeks to gain absolute sway; and the same is the case with the so-called womb or matrix of women; the animal within them is desirous of procreating children, and when remaining unfruitful long beyond its proper time, gets discontented and angry, and wandering in every direction through the body, closes up the passages of the breath, and, by obstructing respiration, drives them to extremity, causing all varieties of disease, until at length the desire and love of the man and the woman, bringing them together and as it were plucking the fruit from the tree, sow in the womb, as in a field, animals unseen by reason of their smallness and without form; these again are separated and matured within; they are then finally brought out into the light, and thus the generation of animals is completed. Thus were created women and the female sex in general. But the race of birds was created out of innocent light-minded men, who, although their minds were directed toward heaven, imagined, in their simplicity, that the clearest demonstration of the things above was to be obtained by sight; these were remodelled and transformed into birds, and they grew feathers instead of hair. The race of wild pedestrian animals, again, came from those who had no philosophy in any of their thoughts, and never considered at all about the nature of the heavens, because they had ceased to use the courses of the head, but followed the guidance of those parts of the soul which are in the breast. In consequence of these habits of theirs they had their front-legs and their heads resting upon the earth to which they were drawn by natural affinity; and the crowns of their heads were elongated and of all sorts of shapes, into which the courses of the soul were crushed by reason of disuse. And this was the reason why they were created quadrupeds and polypods: God gave the more senseless of them the more support that they might be more attracted to the earth. And the most foolish of them, who trail their bodies entirely upon the ground and have no longer any need of feet, he made without feet to crawl upon the earth. The fourth class were the inhabitants of the water: these were made out of the most entirely senseless and ignorant of all, whom the transformers did not think any longer worthy of pure respiration, because they possessed a soul which was made impure by all sorts of transgression; and instead of the subtle and pure medium of air, they gave them the deep and muddy sea to be their element of respiration; and hence arose the race of fishes and oysters, and other aquatic animals, which have received the most remote habitations as a punishment of their outlandish ignorance. These are the laws by which animals pass into one another, now, as ever, changing as they lose or gain wisdom and folly. We may now say that our discourse about the nature of the universe has an end. The world has received animals, mortal and immortal, and is fulfilled with them, and has become a visible animal containing the visible-the sensible God who is the image of the intellectual, the greatest, best, fairest, most perfect-the one only begotten heaven. -THE END-

Ancient Egypt.txt

Ancient Egypt Definition Egypt is a country in North Africa, on the Mediterranean Sea, and is home to one of the oldest civilizations on earth. The name 'Egypt' comes from the Greek Aegyptos which was the Greek pronunciation of the ancient Egyptian name 'Hwt-Ka-Ptah' ("Mansion of the Spirit of Ptah"), originally the name of the city of Memphis. MORE ABOUT: ANCIENT EGYPT Timeline c. 6000 BCE Nile River Valley first inhabited. c. 6000 BCE Burial of the dead in Egypt. c. 6000 BCE Earliest Egyptian mastabas dug at Saqqara. 5500 BCE Oldest faience workshop in Egypt founded at Abydos. 5000 BCE Organised farming begins in Egypt. c. 4000 BCE Depictions of gods and afterlife on walls of Egyptian tombs. c. 3414 BCE - c. 3100 BCE Xois founded as a city during the 1st Dynasty. c. 3200 BCE Hieroglyphic script developed in Egypt. c. 3200 BCE - c. 3000 BCE Probable dates for creation of Narmer Palette. 3150 BCE - 2613 BCE Early Dynastic Period in Egypt. First Kings. c. 3150 BCE - c. 3100 BCE Reign of Menes, a.k.a. Narmer, first king who is thought to have unified Upper and Lower Egypt. c. 3150 BCE King Menes unifies Egypt through conquest. 3100 BCE - 2181 BCE Xois inscribed on Palermo Stone as an ancient city during the 5th Dynasty. c. 3000 BCE Trade already established between Syria and Egypt. c. 2670 BCE Reign of King Djoser in Egypt, builder of the first pyramid. c. 2670 BCE - c. 2650 BCE The Step Pyramid is built by Imhotep under reign of King Djoser. c. 2667 BCE - c. 2600 BCE Attributed dates of Imhotep's medical and architectural achievements. 2667 BCE - 2648 BCE Imhotep in Egypt writes medical texts describing diagnosis and treatment of 100 diseases and 48 injuries. c. 2613 BCE - c. 2181 BCE The Period of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. c. 2560 BCE The Great Pyramid of Giza is constructed by Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops). c. 2500 BCE The Great Sphinx of Giza is built. c. 2181 BCE - c. 2040 BCE First Intermediate Period in Egypt. 2064 BCE - 1986 BCE Twin Dynasty Wars in Egypt. 1800 BCE Bronze working introduced to Egypt. c. 1800 BCE The Kahun Gynecological Papyrus deals with women's health and contraception. 1783 BCE Avaris is built and set as capital of Hyksos. c. 1782 BCE - c. 1570 BCE Second Intermediate Period in Egypt. 1700 BCE The Kingdom of Kush is formed to the south of Egypt. 1650 BCE - 1550 BCE Xois serves as capital of the 14th Dynasty. c. 1600 BCE The Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Egyptian medical text, is written, supposedly as a copy of Imhotep's earlier work. c. 1570 BCE - c. 1069 BCE The New Kingdom of Egypt. c. 1570 BCE Ahmose I defeats and expels the Hyksos from Egypt and destroy their capital Avaris. c. 1550 BCE - 1070 BCE Composition of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. 1504 BCE - 1492 BCE Egyptian empire reaches greatest extent under Thutmose I. 1500 BCE Egyptian empire extends to the Euphrates. 1479 BCE - 1458 BCE Queen Hatshepsut rules Egypt. c. 1458 BCE Kadesh and Megiddo lead a Canaanite alliance against the Egyptian invasion by Thutmose III. 1458 BCE - 1425 BCE Reign of Thutmose III in Egypt. c. 1457 BCE Battle of Megiddo: Thutmose III of Egypt defeats a coalition of Canaan, Kadesh, Mitanni, and Megiddo led by Durusha, king of Kadesh. c. 1386 BCE - c. 1353 BCE Reign of Amenhotep III of Egypt. 1353 BCE - c. 1336 BCE Reign of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun's father, 'Heretic King' of Egypt. c. 1336 BCE - c. 1327 BCE Reign of Tutankhamun with Ankhsenamun as queen. c. 1334 BCE Tutankhamun initiates religious reforms returning Egypt to traditional belief structure. 1327 BCE - 1323 BCE Reign of Ay in Egypt. c. 1320 BCE Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Horemheb, succeeds Ay as ruler of Egypt c. 1320 BCE - 1292 BCE Reign of Horemheb in Egypt, Tutankhamun's name erased from record. c. 1303 BCE Birth of Ramesses II of Egypt. 1295 BCE - 1294 BCE The reign of Ramesses I in Egypt. 1295 BCE - 1188 BCE The 19th Dynasty of Egypt. 1294 BCE - 1279 BCE The reign of Seti I in Egypt. 1279 BCE - 1212 BCE Reign of Ramesses II (The Great) in Egypt. 1274 BCE Battle of Kadesh between Pharaoh Ramesses II of Egypt and King Muwatalli II of the Hittites. c. 1264 BCE - c. 1244 BCE Probable dates for the construction of Abu Simbel. 1258 BCE The Treaty of Kadesh between Egyptians and Hittites. The world's first peace treaty. c. 1244 BCE - c. 1224 BCE Other probable dates for the construction of Abu Simbel. 1184 BCE - 1153 BCE Reign of Ramesses III, Pharaoh of Egypt. 1180 BCE The Sea Peoples begin increased incursions into Egypt. 1180 BCE - 1178 BCE Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty fortifies Xois against the threat of the invading Sea Peoples. 1178 BCE Ramesses III defends Egypt from the Sea Peoples on the shores at Xois, defeating them completely. c. 1069 BCE - 525 BCE Third Intermediate Period in Egypt. 750 BCE Iron working is introduced to Egypt. 712 BCE - 671 BCE Egypt is ruled by the Kushite dynasty. 671 BCE Second Egyptian Campaign, Assyrian army successfully captures Memphis and conquers Egypt. 671 BCE Egypt is conquered by Assyria. 667 BCE - 665 BCE Ashurbanipal wages war in Egypt to put down rebellions. 664 BCE Psamtik I becomes Pharoah in Egypt. 653 BCE Egypt expels Assyrians. 601 BCE Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon unsuccessfully attempts to invade Egypt. c. 525 BCE Imhotep is deified in Egypt. 525 BCE - 404 BCE Persia conquers Egypt. 525 BCE Cambyses II of Persia takes the city of Pelusium, conquers Egypt. 520 BCE Darius of Persia links the Nile and the Red Sea by a canal. c. 398 BCE - c. 380 BCE Plato travels in Egypt, Cyrene, Italy, Syracuse and Sicily. 341 BCE The Persians complete conquest of Egypt. 332 BCE Alexander the Great conquers Phoenicia and turns toward Egypt. 331 BCE Egypt is conquered by Alexander the Great without resistance. Jan 331 BCE Alexander the Great founds Alexandria at the port town of Rhakotis in Egypt. 323 BCE Death of Alexander the Great. 323 BCE - 282 BCE Rule of Ptolemy I Soter. 323 BCE - 31 BCE The Hellenistic Age. Greek thought and culture infuses with indigenous people. 305 BCE - 285 BCE Reign of Ptolemy I in Egypt, who initiated the Great Library. 300 BCE Ptolemy I founds the Museum of Alexandria. 282 BCE - 246 BCE Reign of Ptolemy II in Egypt, development of Library at Alexandria. 277 BCE - 276 BCE 4,000 Celts are employed in Egypt under Ptolemy II. 259 BCE Celts in Egypt fail to overthrow Ptolemy II and are starved to death on an island. 247 BCE The Lighthouse of Alexandria (Pharos) is completed. 217 BCE 14,000 Celts serve under Ptolemy IV in his victory at Raphia over the Seleucid King Antiochus III. c. 69 BCE - 12 Aug 30 BCE Life of Cleopatra VII of Egypt. 47 BCE Cleopatra VII is sole ruler of Egypt; she presents herself as the goddess Isis. 30 BCE Egypt becomes province of the Roman Empire. 30 BCE Death of Cleopatra VII, end of the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Egypt. 30 BCE - 14 CE Reign of Augustus Caesar in Rome, restoration of Roman province of Alexandria. 30 BCE - 476 CE Egypt remains a province of the Roman Empire. c. 1 CE First non-stop voyages from Egypt to India. c. 50 CE - c. 60 CE Establishment of various Christian communities in the Eastern Mediterranean, Greece, Egypt, and at least the city of Rome. 232 CE Emperor Maximinus Thrax commands a legion in Egypt. c. 527 CE - 646 CE The Byzantine Empire controls Egypt. 646 CE The Arab Muslims conquer Egypt under Caliph Umar.

Deified Heroes Etana and Gilgamesh.txt

Deified Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh God and Heroes and the "Seven Sleepers"--Quests of Etana, Gilgamesh, Hercules, &c.--The Plant of Birth--Eagle carries Etana to Heaven--Indian Parallel--Flights of Nimrod, Alexander the Great, and a Gaelic Hero--Eagle as a God--Indian Eagle identified with Gods of Creation, Fire, Fertility, and Death--Eagle carries Roman Emperor's Soul to Heaven--Fire and Agricultural Ceremonies--Nimrod of the Koran and John Barleycorn--Gilgamesh and the Eagle--Sargon-Tammuz Garden Myth--Ea-bani compared to Pan, Bast, and Nebuchadnezzar--Exploits of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani--Ishtar's Vengeance--Gilgamesh journeys to Otherworld--Song of Sea Maiden and "Lay of the Harper"--Babylonian Noah and the Plant of Life--Teutonic Parallels--Alexander the Great as Gilgamesh--Water of Life in the Koran--The Indian Gilgamesh and Hercules--The Mountain Tunnel in various Mythologies--Widespread Cultural Influences. ONE of the oldest forms of folk stories relates to the wanderings of a hero in distant regions. He may set forth in search of a fair lady who has been taken captive, or to obtain a magic herb or stone to relieve a sufferer, to cure diseases, and to prolong life. Invariably he is a slayer of dragons and other monsters. A friendly spirit, or a group of spirits, may assist the hero, who acts according to the advice given him by a "wise woman", a magician, or a god. The spirits are usually wild beasts or birds--the "fates" of immemorial folk belief--and they may either carry the hero on their backs, instruct him from time to time, or come to his aid when called upon. When a great national hero appealed by reason of his achievements to the imagination of a people, all the p. 164 floating legends of antiquity were attached to his memory, and he became identified with gods and giants and knight-errants "old in story". In Scotland, for instance, the boulder-throwing giant of Eildon hills bears the name of Wallace, the Edinburgh giant of Arthur's Seat is called after an ancient Celtic king, 1 and Thomas the Rhymer takes the place, in an Inverness fairy mound called Tom-na-hurich, of Finn (Fingal) as chief of the "Seven Sleepers". Similarly Napoleon sleeps in France and Skobeleff in Russia, as do also other heroes elsewhere. In Germany the myths of Thunor (Thor) were mingled with hazy traditions of Theodoric the Goth (Dietrich), while in Greece, Egypt, and Arabia, Alexander the Great absorbed a mass of legendary matter of great antiquity, and displaced in the memories of the people the heroes of other Ages, as those heroes had previously displaced the humanized spirits of fertility and growth who alternately battled fiercely against the demons of spring, made love, gorged and drank deep and went to sleep--the sleep of winter. Certain folk tales, and the folk beliefs on which they were based, seem to have been of hoary antiquity before the close of the Late Stone Age. There are two great heroes of Babylonian fame who link with Perseus and Hercules, Sigurd and Siegfried, Dietrich and Finn-mac-Coul. These are Etana and Gilgamesh, two legendary kings who resemble Tammuz the Patriarch referred to by Berosus, a form of Tammuz the Sleeper of the Sumerian psalms. One journeys to the Nether World to obtain the Plant of Birth and the other to obtain the Plant of Life. The floating legends with which they were associated were utilized p. 165 and developed by the priests, when engaged in the process of systematizing and symbolizing religious beliefs, with purpose to unfold the secrets of creation and the Otherworld. Etana secures the assistance of a giant eagle who is an enemy of serpents like the Indian Garuda, half giant, half eagle. As Vishnu, the Indian god, rides on the back of Garuda, so does Etana ride on the back of the Babylonian Eagle. In one fragmentary legend which was preserved in the tablet-library of Ashur-banipal, the Assyrian monarch, Etana obtained the assistance of the Eagle to go in quest of the Plant of Birth. His wife was about to become a mother, and was accordingly in need of magical aid. A similar belief caused birth girdles of straw or serpent skins, and eagle stones found in eagles' nests, to be used in ancient Britain and elsewhere throughout Europe apparently from the earliest times. 1 On this or another occasion Etana desired to ascend to highest heaven. He asked the Eagle to assist him, and the bird assented, saying: "Be glad, my friend. Let me bear thee to the highest heaven. Lay thy breast on mine and thine arms on my wings, and let my body be as thy body." Etana did as the great bird requested him, and together they ascended towards the firmament. After a flight which extended over two hours, the Eagle asked Etana to gaze downwards. He did so, and beheld the ocean surrounding the earth, and the earth seemed like a mountainous island. The Eagle resumed its flight, and when another two hours had elapsed, it again asked Etana to look downwards. Then the hero saw that the sea resembled a girdle which clasped the land. Two hours later Etana found that he had been raised to a height p. 166 from which the sea appeared to be no larger than a pond. By this time he had reached the heaven of Anu, Bel, and Ea, and found there rest and shelter. Here the text becomes fragmentary. Further on it is gathered from the narrative that Etana is being carried still higher by the Eagle towards the heaven of Ishtar, "Queen of Heaven", the supreme mother goddess. Three times, at intervals of two hours, the Eagle asks Etana to look downwards towards the shrinking earth. Then some disaster happens, for further onwards the broken tablet narrates that the Eagle is falling. Down and down eagle and man fall together until they strike the earth, and the Eagle's body is shattered. The Indian Garuda eagle 1 never met with such a fate, but on one occasion Vishnu overpowered it with his right arm, which was heavier than the whole universe, and caused many feathers to fall off. In the story of Rama's wanderings, however, as told in the Ràmyàna and the Mahàbhàrata, there are interesting references in this connection to Garuda's two "sons". One was mortally wounded by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon. The other bird related to Rama, who found it disabled: "Once upon a time we two (brothers), with the desire of out-stripping each other, flew towards the sun. My wings were burnt, but those of my brother were not. . . . I fell down on the top of this great mountain, where I still am." 2 Another version of the Etana story survives among the Arabian Moslems. In the "Al Fatihat" chapter of the Koran it is related that a Babylonian king held a dispute with Abraham "concerning his Lord". Commentators p. 167 identify the monarch with Nimrod, who afterwards caused the Hebrew patriarch to be cast into a fire from which he had miraculous deliverance. Nimrod then built a tower so as to ascend to heaven "to see Abraham's god", and make war against Him, but the tower was overthrown. He, however, persisted in his design. The narrative states that he was "carried to heaven in a chest borne by four monstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air, he fell down on a mountain with such a force that he made it shake". A reference in the Koran to "contrivances . . . which make mountains tremble" is believed to allude to Nimrod's vain attempt. 1 Alexander the Great was also reputed to have ascended on the back of an eagle. Among the myths attached to his memory in the Ethiopic "history" is one which explains how "he knew and comprehended the length and breadth of the earth", and how he obtained knowledge regarding the seas and mountains he would have to cross. "He made himself small and flew through the air on an eagle, and he arrived in the heights of the heavens and he explored them." Another Alexandrian version of the Etana myth resembles the Arabic legend of Nimrod. "In the Country of Darkness" Alexander fed and tamed great birds which were larger than eagles. Then he ordered four of his soldiers to mount them. The men were carried to the "Country of the Living", and when they returned they told Alexander "all that had happened and all that they had seen". 2 In a Gaelic story a hero is carried off by a Cromhineach, "a vast bird like an eagle". He tells that it "sprang to the clouds with me, and I was a while that I p. 168 did not know which was heaven or earth for me". The hero died, but, curiously enough, remained conscious of what was happening. Apparently exhausted, the eagle flew to an island in the midst of the ocean. It laid the hero on the sunny side. The hero proceeds: "Sleep came upon herself (the eagle) and she slept. The sun was enlivening me pretty well though I was dead." Afterwards the eagle bathed in a healing well, and as it splashed in the water, drops fell on the hero and he came to life. "I grew stronger and more active", he adds, "than I had ever been before." 1 The eagle figures in various mythologies, and appears to have been at one time worshipped as the god or goddess of fertility, and storm and lightning, as the bringer of children, and the deity who carried souls to Hades. It was also the symbol of royalty, because the earthly ruler represented the controlling deity. Nin-Girsu, the god of Lagash, who was identified with Tammuz, was depicted as a lion-headed eagle. Zeus, the Greek sky and air god, was attended by an eagle, and may, at one time, have been simply an eagle. In Egypt the place of the eagle is taken by Nekhebit, the vulture goddess whom the Greeks identified with "Eileithyia, the goddess of birth; she was usually represented as a vulture hovering over the king". 2 The double-headed eagle of the Hittites, which figures in the royal arms of Germany and Russia, appears to have symbolized the deity of whom the king was an incarnation or son. In Indian mythology Garuda, the eagle giant, which destroyed serpents like the Babylonian Etana eagle, issued from its egg like a flame of fire; its eyes flashed the lightning and its voice was the thunder. This bird is identified in a hymn with Agni, god of fire, who p. 169 has the attributes of Tammuz and Mithra, with Brahma, the creator, with Indra, god of thunder and fertility, and with Yama, god of the dead, who carries off souls to Hades. It is also called "the steed-necked incarnation of Vishnu", the "Preserver" of the Hindu trinity who rode on its back. The hymn referred to lauds Garuda as "the bird of life, the presiding spirit of the animate and inanimate universe . . . destroyer of all, creator of all". It burns all "as the sun in his anger burneth all creatures". 1 Birds were not only fates, from whose movements in flight omens were drawn, but also spirits of fertility. When the childless Indian sage Mandapala of the Mahàbhàrata was refused admittance to heaven until a son was born to him, he "pondered deeply" and "came to know that of all creatures birds alone were blest with fecundity"; so he became a bird. It is of interest, therefore, to find the Etana eagle figuring as a symbol of royalty at Rome. The deified Roman Emperor's waxen image was burned on a pyre after his death, and an eagle was let loose from the great pile to carry his soul to heaven. 2 This custom was probably a relic of seasonal fire worship, which may have been introduced into Northern and Western Syria and Asia Minor by the mysterious Mitanni rulers, if it was not an archaic Babylonian custom 3 associated with fire-and-water magical ceremonies, represented in the British Isles by May-Day and Midsummer fire-and-water festivals. Sandan, the mythical founder of Tarsus, was honoured p. 170 each year at that city by burning a great bonfire, and he was identified with Hercules. Probably he was a form of Moloch and Melkarth. 1 Doves were burned to Adonis. The burning of straw figures, representing gods of fertility, on May-Day bonfires may have been a fertility rite, and perhaps explains the use of straw birth-girdles. According to the commentators of the Koran, Nimrod, the Babylonian king, who cast victims in his annual bon-fires at Cuthah, died on the eighth day of the Tammuz month, which, according to the Syrian calendar, fell on 13th July. 2 It is related that gnats entered Nimrod's brain, causing the membrane to grow larger. He suffered great pain, and to relieve it had his head beaten with a mallet. Although he lived for several hundred years, like other agricultural patriarchs, including the Tammuz of Berosus, it is possible that he was ultimately sacrificed and burned. The beating of Nimrod recalls the beating of the corn spirit of the agricultural legend utilized by Burns in his ballad of "John Barleycorn", which gives a jocular account of widespread ancient customs that are not yet quite extinct even in Scotland: 3 They laid him down upon his back And cudgelled him full sore; They hung him up before a storm And turned him o'er and o'er. They fillèd up a darksome pit With water to the brim, They heavèd in John Barleycorn-- There let him sink or swim. p. 171 They wasted o’er a scorching flame The marrow of his bones, But the miller used him worst of all, For he crushed him between two stones. Hercules, after performing many mythical exploits, had himself burned alive on the pyre which he built upon Mount Œta, and was borne to Olympus amidst peals of thunder. Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, who links with Etana, Nimrod, and Sandan, is associated with the eagle, which in India, as has been shown, was identified with the gods of fertility, fire, and death. According to a legend related by Ælian, 1 "the guards of the citadel of Babylon threw down to the ground a child who had been conceived and brought forth in secret, and who afterwards became known as Gilgamos". This appears to be another version of the Sargon-Tammuz myth, and may also refer to the sacrifice of children to Melkarth and Moloch, who were burned or slain "in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks" 2 to ensure fertility and feed the corn god. Gilgamesh, however, did not perish. "A keen-eyed eagle saw the child falling, and before it touched the ground the bird flew under it and received it on its back, and carried it away to a garden and laid it down gently." Here we have, it would appear, Tammuz among the flowers, and Sargon, the gardener, in the "Garden of Adonis". Mimic Adonis gardens were cultivated by women. Corn, &c., was forced in pots and baskets, and thrown, with an image of the god, into streams. "Ignorant people", writes Professor Frazer, "suppose that by mimicking the effect which they desire to produce they actually help to produce it: thus by sprinkling water they p. 172 make rain, by lighting a fire they make sunshine, and so on." 1 Evidently Gilgamesh was a heroic form of the god Tammuz, the slayer of the demons of winter and storm, who passed one part of the year in the world and another in Hades (Chapter VI). Like Hercules, Gilgamesh figured chiefly in legendary narrative as a mighty hero. He was apparently of great antiquity, so that it is impossible to identify him with any forerunner of Sargon of Akkad, or Alexander the Great. His exploits were depicted on cylinder seals of the Sumerian period, and he is shown wrestling with a lion as Hercules wrestled with the monstrous lion in the valley of Nemea. The story of his adventures was narrated on twelve clay tablets, which were preserved in the library of Ashur-banipal, the Assyrian emperor. In the first tablet, which is badly mutilated, Gilgamesh is referred to as the man who beheld the world, and had great wisdom because he peered into the mysteries. He travelled to distant places, and was informed regarding the flood and the primitive race which the gods destroyed; he also obtained the plant of life, which his enemy, the earth-lion, in the form of a serpent or well demon, afterwards carried away. Gilgamesh was associated with Erech, where he reigned as "the lord". There Ishtar had a great temple, but her worldly wealth had decreased. The fortifications of the city were crumbling, and for three years the Elamites besieged it. The gods had turned to flies and the winged bulls had become like mice. Men wailed like wild beasts and maidens moaned like doves. Ultimately the people prayed to the goddess Aruru to create a liberator. Bel, Shamash, and Ishtar also came to their aid. p. 173 Aruru heard the cries of her worshippers. She dipped her hands in water and then formed a warrior with clay. He was named Ea-bani, which signifies "Ea is my creator". It is possible, therefore, that an ancient myth of Eridu forms the basis of the narrative. Ea-bani is depicted on the cylinder seals as a hairy man-monster resembling the god Pan. He ate grass with the gazelles and drank water with wild beasts, and he is compared to the corn god, which suggests that he was an early form of Tammuz, and of character somewhat resembling the Egyptian Bast, the half-bestial god of fertility. A hunter was sent out from Erech to search for the man-monster, and found him beside a stream in a savage place drinking with his associates, the wild animals. The description of Ea-bani recalls that of Nebuchadnezzar when he was stricken with madness. He was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." 1 The hunter had no desire to combat with Ea-bani, so he had him lured from the wilds by a beautiful woman. Love broke the spell which kept Ea-bani in his savage state, and the wild beasts fled from him. Then the temptress pleaded with him to go with her to Erech, where Anu and Ishtar had their temples, and the mighty Gilgamesh lived in his palace. Ea-bani, deserted by his bestial companions, felt lonely and desired human friend-ship. So he consented to accompany his bride. Having heard of Gilgamesh from the hunter, he proposed to test his strength in single combat, but Shamash, god of the sun, warned Ea-bani that he was the protector of Gilgamesh, p. 174 who had been endowed with great knowledge by Bel and Anu and Ea. Gilgamesh was also counselled in a vision of night to receive Ea-bani as an ally. Ea-bani was not attracted by city life and desired to return to the wilds, but Shamash prevailed upon him to remain as the friend of Gilgamesh, promising that he would be greatly honoured and exalted to high rank. The two heroes became close friends, and when the narrative becomes clear again, they are found to be setting forth to wage war against Chumbaba, 1 the King of Elam. Their journey was long and perilous. In time they entered a thick forest, and wondered greatly at the numerous and lofty cedars. They saw the great road which the king had caused to be made, the high mountain, and the temple of the god. Beautiful were the trees about the mountain, and there were many shady retreats that were fragrant and alluring. At this point the narrative breaks off; for the tablet is mutilated. When it is resumed a reference is made to "the head of Chumbaba", who has apparently been slain by the heroes. Erech was thus freed from the oppression of its fierce enemy. Gilgamesh and Ea-bani appear to have become prosperous and happy. But in the hour of triumph a shadow falls. Gilgamesh is robed in royal splendour and wears his dazzling crown. He is admired by all men, but suddenly it becomes known that the goddess Ishtar has been stricken with love for him. She "loved him with that love which was his doom". Those who are loved by celestials or demons become, in folk tales, melancholy wanderers and "night wailers". The "wretched wight" in Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" is a typical example. p. 175 O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge is withered from the lake And no birds sing. . . . . . I met a lady in the meads, Full beautiful--a faery's child; Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. . . . . . She found me roots of relish sweet, And honey wild and manna dew; And sure in language strange she said, "I love thee true". Having kissed her lover to sleep, the fairy woman vanished. The "knight" then saw in a dream the ghosts of knights and warriors, her previous victims, who warned him of his fate. I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gapèd wide; And I awoke and found me here On the cold hill's side. The goddess Ishtar appeared as "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" before Gilgamesh and addressed him tenderly, saying: "Come, O Gilgamesh, and be my consort. Gift thy strength unto me. Be thou my husband and I will be thy bride. Thou shalt have a chariot of gold and lapis lazuli with golden wheels and gem-adorned. Thy steeds shall be fair and white and powerful. Into my dwelling thou shalt come amidst the fragrant cedars. Every king and every prince will bow down before thee, O Gilgamesh, to kiss thy feet, and all people will become subject unto thee." Gilgamesh feared the fate which would attend him as p. 176 the lover of Ishtar, and made answer saying: "To what husband hast thou ever remained faithful? Each year Tammuz, the lover of thy youth, is caused by thee to weep. Thou didst love the Allala bird and then broke his wings, and he moans in the woods crying, 'O my wings!' Thou didst love the lion and then snared him. Thou didst love the horse, and then laid harness on him and made him gallop half a hundred miles so that he suffered great distress, and thou didst oppress his mother Silili. Thou didst love a shepherd who sacrificed kids unto thee, and then thou didst smite him so that he became a jackal (or leopard); his own herd boy drove him away and his dogs rent him in pieces. Thou didst love Ishullanu, the gardener of Anu, who made offerings unto thee, and then smote him so that he was unable to move. Alas! if thou wouldst love me, my fate would be like unto the fates of those on whom thou hast laid affliction." Ishtar's heart was filled with wrath when she heard the words which Gilgamesh had spoken, and she prevailed upon her father Anu to create a fierce bull which she sent against the lord of Erech. This monster, however, was slain by Gilgamesh 1 and Ea-bani, but their triumph was shortlived. Ishtar cursed Gilgamesh. Ea-bani then defied her and threatened to deal with her as he had dealt with the bull, with the result that he was cursed by the goddess also. Gilgamesh dedicated the horns of the bull to Shamash and returned with his friend to Erech, where they were received with great rejoicings. A festival was held, and afterwards the heroes lay down to sleep. Then Ea-bani dreamt a dream of ill omen. He met his death soon afterwards, apparently in a battle, and Gilgamesh lamented THE SLAYING OF THE BULL OF ISHTAR<br> <i>From the Painting by E. Wallcousins</i>. Click to enlarge THE SLAYING OF THE BULL OF ISHTAR From the Painting by E. Wallcousins. p. 177 over him. From the surviving fragments of the narrative it would appear that Gilgamesh resolved to undertake a journey, for he had been stricken by disease. He wept and cried out, "Oh! let me not die like Ea-bani, for death is fearful. I will seek the aid of mine ancestor, Pir-napishtim"--the Babylonian Noah, who was believed to be dwelling on an island which corresponds to the Greek "Island of the Blessed". The Babylonian island lay in the ocean of the Nether World. It seems that Gilgamesh not only hoped to obtain the Water of Life and the Plant of Life to cure his own disease, but also to restore to life his dead friend, Ea-bani, whom he loved. Gilgamesh set out on his journey and in time reached a mountain chasm. Gazing on the rugged heights, he beheld fierce lions and his heart trembled. Then he cried upon the moon god, who took pity upon him, and under divine protection the hero pressed onward. He crossed the rocky range and then found himself confronted by the tremendous mountain of Mashi--"Sunset hill", which divided the land of the living from the western land of the dead. The mountain peak rose to heaven, and its foundations were in Aralu, the Underworld. 1 A dark tunnel pierced it and could be entered through a door, but the door was shut and on either side were two monsters of horrible aspect--the gigantic "scorpion man" and his wife, whose heads reached to the clouds. When Gilgamesh beheld them he swooned with terror. But they did him no harm, perceiving that he was a son of a god and had a body like a god. When Gilgamesh revived, he realized that the monsters p. 178 regarded him with eyes of sympathy. Addressing the scorpion giant, he told that he desired to visit his ancestor, Pir-napishtim, who sat in the council of the gods and had divine attributes. The giant warned him of the dangers which he would encounter, saying that the mountain passage was twelve miles long and beamless and black. Gilgamesh, however, resolved to encounter any peril, for he was no longer afraid, and he was allowed to go forward. So he entered through the monster-guarded mountain door and plunged into thick unbroken darkness. For twice twelve hours he groped blindly onward, until he saw a ray of light. Quickening his steps, he then escaped from the dreadful tunnel and once more rejoiced in the rays of the sun. He found himself in an enchanted garden, and in the midst of it he saw a divine and beautiful tree towards which he hastened. On its gleaming branches hung clusters of precious stones and its leaves were of lapis lazuli. His eyes were dazzled, but he did not linger there. Passing many other wonderful trees, he came to a shoreland, and he knew that he was drawing nigh to the Sea of Death. The country which he entered was ruled over by the sea lady whose name was Sabitu. When she saw the pilgrim drawing nigh, she entered her palace and shut the door. Gilgamesh called out requesting that he should be allowed to enter, and mingled his entreaties with threats to break open the door. In the end Sabitu appeared and spoke, saying: Gilgamesh, whither hurriest thou? The life that thou seekest thou wilt not find. When the gods created man They fixed death for mankind. Life they took in their own hand. Thou, O Gilgamesh, let thy belly be filled! p. 179 Day and night be merry, Daily celebrate a feast, Day and night dance and make merry! Clean be thy clothes, Thy head be washed, bathe in water! Look joyfully on the child that grasps thy hand, Be happy with the wife in thine arms! 1 [paragraph continues]This is the philosophy of the Egyptian "Lay of the Harper". The following quotations are from two separate versions: How rests this just prince! The goodly destiny befalls, The bodies pass away Since the time of the god, And generations come into their places. . . . . . . (Make) it pleasant for thee to follow thy desire While thou livest. Put myrrh upon thy head, And garments on thee of fine linen. . . . Celebrate the glad day, Be not weary therein. . . . Thy sister (wife) who dwells in thy heart. She sits at thy side. Put song and music before thee, Behind thee all evil things, And remember thou (only) joy. 2 Jastrow contrasts the Babylonian poem with the following quotation from Ecclesiastes:-- Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart. . . . Let thy garments be always white; and p. 180 let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he [God] hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. 1 "The pious Hebrew mind", Jastrow adds, "found the corrective to this view of life in the conception of a stern but just God, acting according to self-imposed standards of right and wrong, whose rule extends beyond the grave." The final words of the Preacher are, "Fear God and keep his commandments". 2 Gilgamesh did not accept the counsel of the fatalistic sea lady. He asked her how he could reach Pir-napishtim, his ancestor, saying he was prepared to cross the Sea of Death: if he could not cross it he would die of grief. Sabitu answered him, saying: "O Gilgamesh, no mortal is ferried over this great sea. Who can pass over it save Shamash alone? The way is full of peril. O Gilgamesh, how canst thou battle against the billows of death?" At length, however, the sea lady revealed to the pilgrim that he might obtain the aid of the sailor, Arad Ea, who served his ancestor Pir-napishtim. Gilgamesh soon found where Arad Ea dwelt, and after a time prevailed upon him to act as ferryman. Arad Ea required a helm for his boat, and Gilgamesh hastened to fashion one from a tree. When it was fixed on, the boat was launched and the voyage began. Terrible experiences were passed through as they crossed the Sea of Death, but at length they drew nigh to the "Island of the Blessed" on which dwelt Pir-napishtim and his wife. Wearied by his exertions and wasted by disease, Gilgamesh sat resting in the boat. He did not go ashore. p. 181 Pir-napishtim had perceived the vessel crossing the Sea of Death and marvelled greatly. The story is unfortunately interrupted again, but it appears that Gilgamesh poured into the ears of his ancestor the tale of his sufferings, adding that he feared death and desired to escape his fate. Pir-napishtim made answer, reminding the pilgrim that all men must die. Men built houses, sealed contracts, disputed one with another, and sowed seeds in the earth, but as long as they did so and the rivers rose in flood, so long would their fate endure. Nor could any man tell when his hour would come. The god of destiny measured out the span of life: he fixed the day of death, but never revealed his secrets. Gilgamesh then asked Pir-napishtim how it chanced that he was still alive. "Thou hast suffered no change," he said, "thou art even as I am. Harden not thy heart against me, but reveal how thou hast obtained divine life in the company of the gods." Pir-napishtim thereupon related to his descendant the story of the deluge, which is dealt with fully in the next chapter. The gods had resolved to destroy the world, and Ea in a dream revealed unto Pir-napishtim how he could escape. He built a ship which was tossed about on the waters, and when the world had been destroyed, Bel discovered him and transported him to that island in the midst of the Sea of Death. Gilgamesh sat in the boat listening to the words of his ancestor. When the narrative was ended, Pir-napishtim spoke sympathetically and said: "Who among the gods will restore thee to health, O Gilgamesh? Thou hast knowledge of my life, and thou shalt be given the life thou dost strive after. Take heed, therefore, to what I say unto thee. For six days and seven nights thou p. 182 shalt not lie down, but remain sitting like one in the midst of grief." 1 Gilgamesh sat in the ship, and sleep enveloped him like to a black storm cloud. Pir-napishtim spoke to his wife and said: "Behold the hero who desireth to have life. Sleep envelops him like to a black storm cloud." To that lone man his wife made answer: "Lay thine hand upon him so that he may have perfect health and be enabled to return to his own land. Give him power to pass through the mighty door by which he entered." Then Pir-napishtim addressed his wife, saying: "His sufferings make me sad. Prepare thou for him the magic food, and place it near his head." On the day when Gilgamesh lay down, the food was prepared by seven magic processes, and the woman ad-ministered it while yet he slept. Then Pir-napishtim touched him, and he awoke full of life. Gilgamesh spake unto Pir-napishtim and said: "I was suddenly overcome by sleep. . . . But thou didst awaken me by touching me, even thou. . . . Lo! I am bewitched. What hast thou done unto thy servant?" Then Pir-napishtim told Gilgamesh that he had been given to eat of the magic food. Afterwards he caused Arad Ea to carry Gilgamesh to a fountain of healing, where his disease-stricken body was cleansed. The blemished skin fell from him, and he was made whole. Thereafter Gilgamesh prepared to return to his own land. Ere he bade farewell, however, Pir-napishtim revealed unto him the secret of a magic plant which had power to renew life and give youth and strength unto those who were old. p. 183 Arad Ea conducted the hero to the island where the plant grew, and when Gilgamesh found it he rejoiced, and said that he would carry it to Erech, his own city, where he would partake of it and restore his youth. So Gilgamesh and Arad Ea went on their way together, nor paused until they came to a well of pure water. The hero stooped down to draw water. 1 But while he was thus engaged that demon, the Earth Lion, crept forth as a serpent, and, seizing the magic plant of life, carried it away. Stricken with terror, Gilgamesh uttered a curse. Then he sat down and wept bitterly, and the tears streamed over his face. To Arad Ea he spake, saying: "Why has my health been restored to me? Why should I rejoice because that I live? The benefit which I should have derived for myself has now fallen to the Earth Lion." The two travellers then resumed their journey, performing religious acts from time to time; chanting dirges and holding feasts for the dead, and at length Gilgamesh returned to Erech. He found that the city walls were crumbling, and he spake regarding the ceremonies which had been performed while yet he was in a far-distant country. During the days which followed Gilgamesh sorrowed for his lost friend Ea-bani, whose spirit was in the Underworld, the captive of the spirits of death. "Thou canst not draw thy bow now," he cried, "nor raise the battle shout. Thou canst not kiss the woman thou hast loved; thou canst not kiss the child thou hast loved, nor canst thou smite those whom thou hast hated." In vain Gilgamesh appealed to his mother goddess to restore Ea-bani to him. Then he turned to the gods, and p. 184 [paragraph continues]Ea heard him. Thereafter Nergal, god of death, caused the grave to yawn, and the spirit of Ea-bani arose like a wind gust. Gilgamesh, still dreading death, spoke to the ghost of his friend, saying: "Tell me, my friend, O tell me regarding the land in which thou dost dwell." Ea-bani made answer sorrowfully: "Alas! I cannot tell thee, my friend. If I were to tell thee all, thou wouldst sit down and weep." Said Gilgamesh: "Let me sit down and weep, but tell me regarding the land of spirits." The text is mutilated here, but it can be gathered that Ea-bani described the land where ill-doers were punished, where the young were like the old, where the worm devoured, and dust covered all. But the state of the warrior who had been given burial was better than that of the man who had not been buried, and had no one to lament or care for him. "He who hath been slain in battle," the ghost said, "reposeth on a couch drinking pure water--one slain in battle as thou hast seen and I have seen. His head is supported by his parents: beside him sits his wife. His spirit doth not haunt the earth. But the spirit of that man whose corpse has been left unburied and uncared for, rests not, but prowls through the streets eating scraps of food, the leavings of the feast, and drinking the dregs of vessels." So ends the story of Gilgamesh in the form which survives to us. The journey of Gilgamesh to the Island of the Blessed recalls the journeys made by Odin, Hermod, Svipdag, Hotherus and others to the Germanic Hela. When Hermod went to search for Balder, as the Prose Edda relates, he rode through thick darkness for nine days and nine nights ere he crossed the mountains. As Gilgamesh p. 185 met Sabitu, Hermod met Modgudur, "the maiden who kept the bridge "over the river Gjöll. Svipdag, according to a Norse poem, was guided like the Babylonian hero by the moon god, Gevar, who instructed him what way he should take to find the irresistible sword. Saxo's Hother, who is instructed by "King Gewar", crosses dismal mountains "beset with extraordinary cold". 1 Thorkill crosses a stormy ocean to the region of perpetual darkness, where the ghosts of the dead are confined in loathsome and dusty caves. At the main entrance "the door posts were begrimed with the soot of ages". 2 In the Elder Edda Svipdag is charmed against the perils he will be confronted by as he fares "o’er seas mightier than men do know", or is overtaken by night "wandering on the misty way". 3 When Odin "downward rode into Misty Hel" he sang spells at a "witch's grave", and the ghost rose up to answer his questions regarding Balder. "Tell me tidings of Hel", he addressed her, as Gilgamesh addressed the ghost of Ea-bani. In the mythical histories of Alexander the Great, the hero searches for the Water of Life, and is confronted by a great mountain called Musas (Mashti). A demon stops him and says: "O king, thou art not able to march through this mountain, for in it dwelleth a mighty god who is like unto a monster serpent, and he preventeth everyone who would go unto him." In another part of the narrative Alexander and his army arrive at a place of darkness "where the blackness is not like the darkness of night, but is like unto the mists and clouds which descend at the break of day". A servant uses a shining jewel stone, which Adam had brought from Paradise, to guide him, and found the well. He drank p. 186 of the "waters of life" and bathed in them, with the result that he was strengthened and felt neither hunger nor thirst. When he came out of the well "all the flesh of his body became bluish-green and his garments likewise bluish-green". Apparently he assumed the colour of supernatural beings. Rama of India was blue, and certain of his monkey allies were green, like the fairies of England and Scotland. This fortunate man kept his secret. His name was Matun, but he was afterwards nicknamed "'El-Khidr', that is to say, 'Green'". What explanation he offered for his sudden change of appearance has not been recorded. 1 It is related that when Matun reached the Well of Life a dried fish which he dipped in the water was restored to life and swam away. In the Koran a similar story is told regarding Moses and Joshua, who travelled "for a long space of time" to a place where two seas met. "They forgot their fish which they had taken with them, and the fish took its way freely to the sea." The Arabian commentators explain that Moses once agreed to the suggestion that he was the wisest of men. In a dream he was directed to visit Al Khedr, who was "more knowing than he", and to take a fish with him in a basket. On the seashore Moses fell asleep, and the fish, which had been roasted, leapt out of the basket into the sea. Another version sets forth that Joshua, "making the ablution at the fountain of life", some of the water happened to be sprinkled on the fish, which immediately leapt up. 2 The Well of Life is found in Fingalian legends. When Diarmid was mortally wounded by the boar, he called upon Finn to carry water to him from the well: p. 187 Give me a draught from thy palms, O Finn, Son of my king for my succour, For my life and my dwelling. Campbell's West Highland Tales, vol. iii, 80. The quest of the plant, flower, or fruit of life is referred to in many folk tales. In the Mahàbhàrata, Bhima, the Indian Gilgamesh or Hercules, journeys to north-eastern Celestial regions to find the lake of the god Kuvera (Kubera), on which grow the "most beautiful and unearthly lotuses", which restore health and give strength to the weary. As Gilgamesh meets with Pir-napishtim, who relates the story of the Deluge which destroyed the "elder race", Bhima meets with Hanuman, who informs him regarding the Ages of the Universe and the races which were periodically destroyed by deluges. When Bhima reaches the lotus lake he fights with demons. To heal his wounds and recover strength he plunges into the lake. "As he drank of the waters, like unto nectar, his energy and strength were again fully restored." 1 Hercules similarly sets out to search for the golden apples which grow in those Hesperian gardens famed of old, Fortunate fields, and groves and flowery vales. As Bhima slew Yakshas which guarded the lotuses, Hercules slew Ladon, the guardian of the apples. Other heroes kill treasure-protecting dragons of various kinds. There is a remarkable resemblance between the Babylonian account of Gilgamesh's journey through the mountain tunnel to the garden and seashore, and the Indian story of the demigod Hanuman passing through the long p. 188 cavern to the shoreland palace of the female ascetic, when he was engaged searching for Sita, the wife of Rama, who had been carried away by Ravana, the demon king of Ceylon. In the version of the latter narrative which is given in the Mahàbhàrata, Hanuman says: "I bring thee good news, O Rama; for Janaka's daughter hath been seen by me. Having searched the southern region with all its hills, forests, and mines for some time, we became very weary. At length we beheld a great cavern. And having beheld it, we entered that cavern which extended over many yojanas. It was dark and deep, and overgrown with trees and infested by worms. And having gone a great way through it, we came upon sunshine and beheld a beautiful palace. It was the abode of the Daitya (sea demon) Maya. And there we beheld a female ascetic named Parbhávati engaged in ascetic austerities. And she gave us food and drink of various kinds. And having refreshed ourselves therewith and regained our strength, we proceeded along the way shown by her. At last we came out of the cavern and beheld the briny sea, and on its shores, the Sahya, the Malaya, and the great Dardura mountains. And ascending the mountains of Malaya, we beheld before us the vast ocean (or, "the abode of Varuna"). And beholding it, we felt sorely grieved in mind. . . . We despaired of returning with our lives. . . . We then sat together, resolved to die there of starvation." Hanuman and his friends, having had, so far, experiences similar to those of Gilgamesh, next discovered the eagle giant which had burned its wings when endeavouring to soar to the sun. This great bird, which resembles the Etana eagle, expressed the opinion that Sita was in Lanka (Ceylon), whither she must have been carried by Ravana. But no one dared to cross the dangerous ocean. Hanuman p. 189 at length, however, obtained the assistance of Vayu, the wind god, his divine father, and leapt over the sea, slaying monsters as he went. He discovered where the fair lady was concealed by the king of demons. 1 The dark tunnel is met with in many British stories of daring heroes who set out to explore it, but never return. In the Scottish versions the adventurers are invariably pipers who are accompanied by dogs. The sound of the pipes is heard for a time; then the music ceases suddenly, and shortly afterwards the dog returns without a hair upon its body. It has evidently been in conflict with demons. The tunnel may run from a castle to the seashore, from a cave on one side of a hill to a cave on the other, or from a seashore cave to a distant island. It is possible that these widespread tunnel stories had origin among the cave dwellers of the Palæolithic Age, who believed that deep caverns were the doors of the underground retreats of dragons and giants and other supernatural enemies of mankind. In Babylonia, as elsewhere, the priests utilized the floating material from which all mythologies were framed, and impressed upon it the stamp of their doctrines. The symbolized stories were afterwards distributed far and wide, as were those attached to the memory of Alexander the Great at a later period. Thus in many countries may be found at the present day different versions of immemorial folk tales, which represent various stages of culture, and direct and indirect contact at different periods with civilizations that have stirred the ocean of human thought, and sent their ideas rippling in widening circles to far-distant shores.

Egyptian chronology.txt

Egyptian chronology Article Talk Read Edit View history Tools From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Astronomical ceiling from the tomb of Seti I showing stars and constellations used in calendar calculations Egyptian chronology to approximate scale, including medieval and modern Egypt. The majority of Egyptologists agree on the outline and many details of the chronology of Ancient Egypt. This scholarly consensus is known as the Conventional Egyptian chronology, which places the beginning of the Old Kingdom in the 27th century BC, the beginning of the Middle Kingdom in the 21st century BC and the beginning of the New Kingdom in the mid-16th century BC. Despite this consensus, disagreements remain within the scholarly community, resulting in variant chronologies diverging by about 300 years for the Early Dynastic Period, up to 30 years in the New Kingdom, and a few years in the Late Period.[1] In addition, there are a number of "alternative chronologies" outside scholarly consensus, such as the "New Chronology" proposed in the 1990s, which lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 350 years, or the "Glasgow Chronology" (proposed 1978–1982), which lowers New Kingdom dates by as much as 500 years. Overview Further information: List of pharaohs Scholarly consensus on the general outline of the conventional chronology current in Egyptology has not fluctuated much over the last 100 years. For the Old Kingdom, consensus fluctuates by as much as a few centuries, but for the Middle and New Kingdoms, it has been stable to within a few decades. This is illustrated by comparing the chronology as given by two Egyptologists, the first writing in 1906, the second in 2000 (all dates in the table are BC).[2] Periods Dynasty Breasted (1906) Shaw (2000) Early Dynastic Period of Egypt First 3400–2980 c. 3000–2686 Second Old Kingdom Third 2980–2900 2686–2613 Fourth 2900–2750 2613–2494 Fifth 2750–2625 2494–2345 Sixth 2623–2475 2345–2181 First Intermediate Period Seventh 2475–2445 2181–2160 Eighth Ninth 2445–2160 2160–2125 Tenth Middle Kingdom of Egypt Eleventh 2160–2000 2125–1985 Twelfth 2000–1788 1985–1773 Second Intermediate Period Thirteenth? 1780–1580 1773–1550 Fourteenth? Fifteenth Sixteenth Seventeenth New Kingdom of Egypt Eighteenth 1580–1350 1550–1295 Nineteenth 1350–1205 1295–1186 Twentieth 1200–1090 1186–1069 Third Intermediate Period Twenty-first 1090–945 1069–945 Twenty-second 945–745 945–818 Twenty-third 745–718 818–727 Twenty-fourth 718–712 727–715 Twenty-fifth 712–663 715–664 Late Period of ancient Egypt Twenty-sixth 663–525 664–525 The disparities between the two sets of dates result from additional discoveries and refined understanding of the still very incomplete source evidence. For example, Breasted adds a ruler in the Twentieth dynasty that further research showed did not exist. Following Manetho, Breasted also believed all the dynasties were sequential, whereas it is now known that several existed at the same time. These revisions have resulted in a lowering of the conventional chronology by up to 400 years at the beginning of Dynasty I. Regnal years 'Diagonal star table' from the Eleventh Dynasty coffin lid; found at Asyut, Egypt. Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim Forming the backbone of Egyptian chronology are the regnal years as recorded in Ancient Egyptian king lists. Surviving king lists are either comprehensive but have significant gaps in their text (for example, the Turin King List), or are textually complete but fail to provide a complete list of rulers (for example, the Abydos King List and the Palermo Stone), even for a short period of Egyptian history.[3] The situation is further complicated by occasional conflicting information on the same regnal period from different versions of the same text; thus, the Egyptian historian Manetho's history of Egypt is only known by epitomes and references to it made by subsequent writers, such as Eusebius and Sextus Julius Africanus, and the dates for the same pharaoh often vary substantially depending on the intermediate source. Regnal periods have to be pieced together from inscriptions, which will often give a date in the form of the regnal year of the ruling pharaoh. Yet this only provides a minimum length of that reign and may or may not include any coregencies with a predecessor or successor. In addition, some Egyptian dynasties probably overlapped, with different pharaohs ruling in different regions at the same time, rather than serially. Not knowing whether monarchies were simultaneous or sequential results in widely differing chronological interpretations. Where the total number of regnal years for a given ruler is not known, Egyptologists have identified two indicators to deduce that total number: for the Old Kingdom, the number of cattle censuses; and for later periods, the celebration of a Sed festival. A number of Old Kingdom inscriptions allude to a periodic census of cattle, which experts at first believed took place every second year; thus records of as many as 24 cattle censuses indicate Sneferu had reigned 48 years. However, further research has shown that these censuses were sometimes taken in consecutive years, or after two or more years had passed.[4] The Sed festival was usually celebrated on the thirtieth anniversary of a pharaoh's ascension, and thus rulers who recorded celebrating one could be assumed to have ruled at least 30 years. However, once again, this may not have been standard practice in all cases.[5] In the early days of Egyptology, the compilation of regnal periods was also hampered by a profound biblical bias on the part of Egyptologists. This was most pervasive before the mid 19th century, when Manetho's figures were recognized as conflicting with biblical chronology, based on Old Testament references to Egypt (see Pharaohs in the Bible). In the 20th century, such biblical bias has mostly been confined to alternative chronologies outside the scholarly mainstream. Synchronisms A useful way to work around these gaps in knowledge is to find chronological synchronisms, which can lead to a precise date. Over the past decades, a number of these have been found, although they are of varying degrees of usefulness and reliability. Seriation, i.e. archeological sequences. This does not fix a person or event to a specific year, but establishing a sequence of events can provide indirect evidence to provide or support a precise date. For example, some inscribed stone vessels of the rulers of the first two dynasties were collected and deposited in storage galleries beneath and sealed off when the Step Pyramid of Djoser, a Pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, was built. Another example are blocks from the Old Kingdom bearing the names of several kings, which were reused in the construction of Middle Kingdom pyramid-temples at Lisht in the structures of Amenemhat I. Likewise, the third pylon at Karnak, built by Amenhotep III contained as "fill" material from the kiosk of Sesostris I, along with various stelae of the Second Intermediate Period and the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom.[6] Synchronisms with other chronologies, the most important of these being with the Assyrian and Babylonian chronologies, but synchronisms with the Hittites, ancient Palestine, and in the final period with ancient Greece, are also used. The earliest such synchronism is in the 18th century BC where a stela of the governor of Byblos Yantinu indicates that pharaoh Neferhotep I was contemporary with kings Zimri-Lim of Mari and Hammurabi of Babylon.[7] Other early synchronisms date to the 15th century BC, during the Amarna Period, when we have a considerable quantity of diplomatic correspondence between the Egyptian Kings Amenhotep III and Akhenaten (or possibly Smenkhkare), and various Near Eastern monarchs. (See Chronology of the Ancient Near East.) For the Third Intermediate Period, Shoshenq I has been ascribed a date relative to Rehoboam and the Eponym dating system by Kenneth Kitchen, based on biblical passages about Shishak's campaign. Shoshenq I's absolute date was calculated based on Edwin R. Thiele's theory.[8] Synchronisms with memorials of Apis bull interments. These begin as early as the reign of Amenhotep III and continue into Ptolemaic times, but there is a significant gap in the record between Ramesses XI and the 23rd year of Osorkon II. The poor documentation of these finds in the Serapeum of Saqqara also compounds the difficulties in using these records. Astronomical synchronisms. The best known of these is the Sothic cycle, and careful study of this led Richard A. Parker to argue that the dates of the Twelfth dynasty could be fixed with absolute precision.[9] More recent research has eroded this confidence, questioning many of the assumptions used with the Sothic Cycle, and as a result experts have moved away from relying on this Cycle.[10] For example, Donald B. Redford, in attempting to fix the date of the end of the Eighteenth dynasty, almost completely ignores the Sothic evidence, relying on synchronicities between Egypt and Assyria (by way of the Hittites), and help from astronomical observations.[11][12] Radiocarbon dating. This is useful especially for the Early Dynastic period, where Egyptological consensus has only been possible within a range of about three or four centuries. Radiocarbon dating is roughly consistent with Shaw's conventional chronology.[13] A 2013 study found a First Dynasty start in the 32nd or 31st century, compatible with scholarly opinions placing it in between the 34th and 30th centuries.[14] The Thera eruption. This is a famous conundrum not just in Egyptian but also in Aegean (Minoan) chronology, as the radiocarbon date for the eruption, between 1627 and 1600 BC (p=5%),[15] is off by a full century compared to the date traditionally accepted in archaeology of c. 1500 BC.[16][17][18] Since 2012, there have been suggestions that the solution lies in adjusting both dates towards a "compromise" date in the mid 16th century BC,[19] but as of 2023 the problem has not been satisfactorily resolved. Dendrochronology. There have been occasional opportunities to use dendrochronology to support Egyptian chronology, mostly for the New Kingdom period, e.g. the Uluburun shipwreck.[20] Combined use of dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating allowed identification of tree rings even back to the Middle Kingdom period, as in the coffin of Ipi-ha-ishutef (dated 2073±9 BC) or the funerary boat of Senusret III (dated 1887±11 BC; conventional reign date 1878 BC–1839 BC).[21] Alternative chronologies A number of suggestions for alternatives to the consensus on the conventional chronology have been presented during the 20th century: The Revised Chronology of Immanuel Velikovsky as postulated in his Ages in Chaos series. The chronology of Donovan Courville as described in The Exodus Problem and Its Ramifications. The Glasgow Chronology formulated by members of Velikovsky's Society for Interdisciplinary Studies in 1978. The Centuries of Darkness (1991) model by Peter James et al. "would move the end of the Egyptian New Kingdom from 1070 BC to around 825 BC",[22] and lower all earlier dates with it, due to miscalculations of the Third Intermediate Period. The New Chronology of David Rohl, as described in his Test of Time series

EGYPTIAN VIEW OF CREATION.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 37 CHAPTER II RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT EGYPTIAN VIEW OF CREATION MAN in all times and places, has speculated on the nature and origin of the world, and connected such questions with his theology. In Egypt there are not many primitive theories of creation, though some have various elaborated forms. Of the formation of the earth there were two views. (1) That it had been brought into being by the word of a god, who when he uttered any name caused the object thereby to exist. Thoth is the principal creator by this means and this idea probably belongs to a period soon after the age of the animal gods. (2) The other view is that Ptah framed the world as an artificer, with the aid of eight Khnumu, or earth-gnomes. This belongs to the theology of the abstract gods. The primitive people seem to have been content with the eternity of matter, and only personified nature when they described space, Shu, p. 38 as separating the sky, Nut, from the earth, Seb. This is akin to the separation of chaos into sky and sea in Genesis. The sun is called the egg laid by the primeval goose; and in later time this was said to be laid by a god, or modelled by Ptah. Evidently this goose egg is a primitive tale which was adapted to later theology. The sky is said to be upheld by four pillars. These were later connected. with the gods of the four quarters; but the primitive four pillars were represented together, with the capitals one over the other, in the sign dad, the emblem of stability. These may have belonged to the Osiris cycle, as he is "lord of the pillars," daddu, and his center in the Delta was named Daddu from the pillars. The setting up of the pillars or dad emblem was a great festival in which the kings took part, and which is often represented. The creation of life was variously attributed to different great gods where they were worshipped. Khnumu, Osiris, Amen, or Atmu, each are stated to be the creator. The mode was only defined by the theorists of Heliopolis; they imagined that Atmu self-produced Seb and Nut, and they in turn other gods, from whom at last sprang mankind. p. 39 But this is merely later theorizing to fit a theology in being. The cosmogonic theories, therefore, were by no means important articles of belief, but rather assumptions of what the gods were likely to have done similar to the acts of men. The creation by the word is the more elevated idea, and is parallel to the creation in Genesis. The conception of the nature of the world was that of a great plain, over which the sun passed by day, and beneath which it travelled through the hours of night. The movement of the sun was supposed to be that of floating on the heavenly ocean, figured by its being in a boat, which was probably an expression for its flotation. The elaboration of the nature of the regions through which the sun passed at night essentially belongs to the Ra theology, and only recognises the kingdom of Osiris by placing it in one of the hours of night. The old conception of the dim realm of the cemetery-god Seker occupies the fourth and fifth hours; the sixth hour is an approach to the Osiride region, and the seventh hour is the kingdom of Osiris. Each hour was separated by gates, which were guarded by demons who needed to be controlled by magic formulæ. p. 40 THE GODS OF ANCIENT EGYPT Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians' belief in gods, it is best to try to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural. The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialized group of attributes that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name. It is unfortunate that every other word for supernatural intelligences has become debased, so that we cannot well speak of demons, devils, ghosts, or fairies without implying a noxious or a trifling meaning, quite unsuited to the ancient deities that were so beneficent and powerful. If then we use the word god for such conceptions, it must always be with the reservation that the word has now a very different meaning from what it had to ancient minds. To the Egyptian the gods might be mortal; even Ra, the sun-god, is said to have grown old and feeble, Osiris was slain, and Orion, the great hunter of the heavens, killed and ate the gods. The mortality of gods has been dwelt on by Dr. Frazer in the "Golden Bough," and the many instances of tombs of gods, and of the slaying of the deified man p. 41 who was worshipped, all show that immortality was not a divine attribute. Nor was there any doubt that they might suffer while alive; one myth tells how Ra, as he walked on earth, was bitten by a magic serpent and suffered torments. The gods were also supposed to share in a life like that of man, not only in Egypt but in most ancient lands. Offerings of food and drink were constantly supplied to them, in Egypt laid upon the altars, in other lands burnt for a sweet savour. At Thebes the divine wife of the god, or high priestess, was the head of the harem of concubines of the god; and similarly in Babylonia the chamber of the god with the golden couch could only be visited by the priestess who slept there for oracular responses. The Egyptian gods could not be cognisant of what passed on earth without being informed, nor could they reveal their will at a distant place except by sending a messenger; they were as limited as the Greek gods who required the aid of Iris to communicate one with another or with mankind. The gods, therefore, have no divine superiority to man in conditions or limitations; they can only be described as pre-existent, acting intelligences, with scarcely greater powers than man might hope to gain by magic or witchcraft of his own. This conception p. 42 explains how easily the divine merged into the human in Greek theology, and how frequently divine ancestors occurred in family histories. (By the word "theology" is designated the knowledge about gods.) There are in ancient theologies very different classes of gods. Some races, as the modern Hindu, revel in a profusion of gods and godlings, which are continually being increased. Others, as the Turanians, whether Sumerian Babylonians, modern Siberians, or Chinese, do not adopt the worship of great gods, but deal with a host of animistic spirits, ghosts, devils, or whatever we may call them; and Shamanism or witchcraft is their system for conciliating such adversaries. But all our knowledge of the early positions and nature of great gods shows them to have stood on an entirely different footing to these varied spirits. Were the conception of a god only an evolution from such spirit worship of one god, polytheism would precede monotheism in each tribe or race. What we actually find is the contrary of this, monotheism is the first stage traceable in theology. Hence we must rather look on the theologic conception of the Aryan and Semitic races as quite apart from the demon-worship of the Turanians. Indeed the Chinese p. 43 seem to have a mental aversion to the conception of a personal god, and to think either of the host of earth spirits and other demons, or else of the pantheistic abstraction of heaven. Wherever we can trace back polytheism to its earliest stages we find that it results from combinations of monotheism. In Egypt even Osiris, Isis, and Horus--so familiar as a triad--are found at first as separate units in different places, Isis as a virgin goddess, and Horus as a self-existent god. Each city appears to have but one god belonging to it, to whom others were added. Similarly in Babylonia each great city had its supreme god; and the combinations of these, and their transformations in order to form them in groups when their homes were politically united, show how essentially they were solitary deities at first. Not only must we widely distinguish the demonology of races worshipping numerous earth spirits and demons from the theology of races devoted to solitary great gods; but we must further distinguish the varying ideas of the latter class. Most of the theologic races have no objection to tolerating the worship of other gods side by side with that of their own local deity. It is in this way that the compound theologies built up the polytheism p. 44 of Egypt and of Greece. But others of the theologic races have the conception of "a jealous god," who would not tolerate the presence of a rival. We cannot date this conception earlier than Mosaism, and this idea struggled hard against polytheistic toleration. This view acknowledges the reality of other gods, but ignores their claims. The still later view was that other gods were non-existent, a position started by the Hebrew prophets in contempt of idolatry, scarcely grasped by early Christianity, but triumphantly held by Islam. We therefore have to deal with the following conceptions, which fall into two main groups, that probably belong to different divisions of mankind: Animism Demonology Tribal Monotheism At any state the unity of different gods may be accepted as a modus vivendi or as a philosophy. Combinations forming tolerant Polytheism Jealous Monotheism Sole Monotheism All of these require mention here as more or less of each principle, both of animism and monotheism, can be traced in the innumerable combinations found during the six thousand years of Egyptian religion: these combinations of beliefs being due to combinations of the races to which they belonged. Before we can understand what were the relations p. 45 between man and the gods we must first notice the conceptions of the nature of man. In the prehistoric days of Egypt the position and direction of the body was always the same in every burial; offerings of food and drink were placed by it, figures of servants, furniture, even games, were included in the grave. It must be concluded therefore that it was a belief in immortality which gave rise to such a detailed ritual of the dead, though we have no written evidence upon this. So soon as we reach the age of documents we find on tombstones that the person is denoted by the khu between the arms of the ka. From later writings it is seen that the khu is applied to a spirit of man; while the ka is not the body but the activities of sense and perception. Thus, in the earliest age of documents, two entities were believed to vitalize the body. The KA is more frequently named than any other part, as all funeral offerings were made for the KA. It is said that if opportunities of satisfaction in life were missed it is grievous to the ka, and that the ka must not be annoyed needlessly; hence it was more than perception, and it included all that we might call consciousness. Perhaps we may grasp it best as the "self," with the same variety of meaning p. 46 that we have in our own word. The ka was represented as a human being following after the man; it was born at the same time as the man, but persisted after death and lived in and about the tomb. It could act and visit other kas after death, but it could not resist the least touch of physical force. It was always represented by two upraised arms, the acting parts of the person. Beside the ka of man, all objects likewise had their kas, which were comparable to the human ka, and among these the ka lived. This view leads closely to the world of ideas permeating the material world in later philosophy. The KHU is figured as a crested bird, which has the meaning of "glorious" or "shining" in ordinary use. It refers to a less material conception than the ka, and may be called the intelligence or spirit. The KHAT is the material body of man which was the vehicle of the KA, and inhabited by the KHU. The BA belongs to, a different pneumatology to that just noticed. It is the soul apart from the body, figured as a human-headed bird. The conception probably arose from the white owls, with round beads and every human expressions, which frequent the tombs, flying noiselessly to and fro. The ba required food and drink, which were provided p. 47 for it by the goddess of the cemetery. It thus overlaps the scope of the ka, and probably belongs to a different race to that which define the man. The sahu or mummy is associated particularly with the ba; and the ba bird is often shown as resting on the mummy or seeking to re-enter it. The khaybet was the shadow of a man; the importance of the shadow in early ideas is well known. The sekhem was the force or ruling power of man, but is rarely mentioned. The ab is the will and intentions, symbolised by the heart; often used in phrases such as a man being "in the heart of his lord," "wideness of heart" for satisfaction, "washing of the heart" for giving vent to temper. The HATI is the physical heart, the "chief" organ of the body, also wed metaphorically. The ran is the name which was essential to man, as also to inanimate things. Without a name nothing really existed. The knowledge. of the name gave power over its owner; a great myth turns on Isis obtaining the name of Ra by stratagem, and thus getting the two eyes of Ra--the sun and moon--for her son Horus. Both in ancient and modern races the knowledge of the real name of a man is carefully guarded, and often secondary p. 48 names are used for secular purposes. It was usual for Egyptians to have a "great name" and a "little name"; the great name is often compounded with that of a god or a king, and was very probably reserved for religious purposes, as it is only found on religious and funerary monuments. We must not suppose by any means that all of these parts of the person were equally important, or were believed in simultaneously. The ka, khu, and khat seem to form one group; the ba and sehu belong to another; the ab, hati, and sekhem are hardly more than metaphors, such as we commonly use; the khaybet is a later idea which probably belongs to the system of animism and witchcraft, where the shadow gave a hold upon the man. The ran, name, belongs partly to the same system, but also is the germ of the later philosophy of idea. The purpose of religion to the Egyptian was to secure the favor of the god. There is but little trace of negative prayer to avert evils or deprecate evil influences, but rather of positive prayer for concrete favors. On the part of kings this is usually of the Jacob type, offering to provide temples and services to the god in return for material prosperity. The Egyptian was essentially self-satisfied, he had no confession to make of sin or wrong, and p. 49 had no thought of pardon. In the judgment he boldly averred that he was free of the forty-two sins that might prevent his entry into the kingdom of Osiris. If he failed to establish his innocence in the weighing of his heart, there was no other plea, but he was consumed by fire and by a hippopotamus, and no hope remained for him. THE EGYPTIAN VIEW OF FUTURE LIFE The various beliefs of the Egyptians regarding the future life are so distinct from each other and so incompatible, that they may be classified into groups more readily than the theology; thus they serve to indicate the varied sources of the religion. The most simple form of belief was that of the continued existence of the soul in the tomb and about the cemetery. In upper Egypt at present a hole is left at the top of the tomb chamber; and I have seen a woman remove the covering of the hole, and talk down to her deceased husband. Also funeral offerings of food and drink, and even beds, are still placed in the tombs. A similar feeling, without any precise beliefs, doubtless prompted the earlier forms of provision for the dead. The soul wandered around the tomb seeking sustenance, and was fed by the goddess who dwelt in the thick p. 50 sycamore trees that overshadowed the cemetery. She is represented as pouring out drink for the ba and holding a tray of cakes for it to feed upon. In the grave we find this belief shown by the jars of water, wine, and perhaps other liquids, the stores of corn, the geese, haunches and heads of oxen, the cakes, and dates, and pomegranates which were laid by the dead. In an early king's tomb there might be many rooms full of these offerings. There were also the weapons for defence and for the chase, the toilet objects, the stores of clothing, the draughtsmen, and even the literature of papyri buried with the dead. The later form of this system was the representation of all these offerings in sculpture and drawing in the tomb. This modification probably belongs to the belief in the ka, which could be supported by the ka of the food and use the ka of the various objects, the figures of the objects being supposed to provide the kas of them. This system is entirely complete in itself, and does not presuppose or require any theologic connection. It might well belong to an age of simple animism, and be a survival of that in later times. The greatest theologic system was that of the kingdom of Osiris. This was a counterpart of the earthly life, but was reserved for the worthy. All p. 51 the dead belonged to Osiris and were brought before him for judgment. The protest of being innocent of the forty-two sins was made, and then the heart was weighed against truth, symbolised by the ostrich feather, the emblem of the goddess of truth. From this feather, the emblem of lightness, being placed against the heart in weighing, it seems that sins were considered to weigh down the heart, and its lightness required to be proved. Thoth, the god who recorded the weighing, then stated that the soul left the judgment hall true of voice with his heart and members restored to him, and that he should follow Osiris in his kingdom. This kingdom of Osiris was at first thought of as being in the marsh lands of the Delta; when these became familiar it was transferred to Syria, and finally to the northeast of the sky, where the milky way became the heavenly Nile. The main occupation in this kingdom was agriculture, as on earth; the souls ploughed the land, sowed the corn, and reaped the harvest of heavenly maize, taller and fatter than any of this world. In this land they rowed on the heavenly streams, they sat in shady arbors, and played the games which they had loved. But the cultivation was a toil, and therefore it was to be done by numerous serfs. In the beginning of the p. 52 monarchy it seems that the servants of the king were all buried around him to serve him in the future; from the second to the twelfth dynasty we lose sight of this idea, and then we find slave figures buried in the tombs. These figures were provided with the hoe for tilling the soil, the pick for breaking the clods, a basket for carrying the earth, a pot for watering the crops, and they were inscribed with an order to respond for their master when he was called on to work in the fields. In the eighteenth dynasty the figures sometimes have actual tool models buried with them; but usually the tools are in relief or painted on the figure. This idea continued until the less material view of the future life arose in Greek times; then the deceased man was said to have "gone to Osiris" in such a year of his age, but no slave figures were laid with him. This view of the future is complete in itself, and is appropriately provided for in the tomb. A third view of the future life belongs to an entirely different theologic system, that of the progress of the sun-god Ra. According to this the soul went to join the setting sun in the west, and prayed to be allowed to enter the boat of the sun in the company of the gods; thus it would be taken along in everlasting light, and saved from the terrors and p. 53 demons of the night over which the sun triumphed. No occupations were predicated of this future; simply to rest in the divine company was the entire purpose, and the successful repelling of the powers of darkness in each hour of the night by means of spells was the only activity. To provide for the solar journey a model boat was placed in the tomb with the figures of boatmen, to enable the dead to sail with the sun, or to reach the solar bark. This view of the future implied a journey to the west, and hence came the belief in the soul setting out to cross the desert westward. We find also an early god of the dead, Khent-amenti, "he who is in the west," probably arising from this same view. This god was later identified with Osiris when the fusion of the two theories of the soul arose. At Abydos Khent-amenti only is named at first, and Osiris does not appear until later times, though that cemetery came to be regarded as specially dedicated to Osiris. Now in all these views that we have named there is no occasion for preserving the body. It is the Ba that is fed in the cemetery not the body. It is an immaterial body that takes part in the kingdom of Osiris, in the sky. It is an immaterial body that can accompany the gods in the boat of the sun. There is so far no call to conserve the body by the p. 54 peculiar mummification which first appears in the early dynasties. The dismemberment of the bones, and removal of the flesh, which was customary in the prehistoric times, and survived down to the fifth dynasty, would accord with any of these theories, all of which were probably pre-dynastic. But the careful mummifying of the body became customary only in the third or fourth dynasty, and is therefore later than the theories that we have noticed. The idea of thus preserving the body seems to look forward to some later revival of it on earth, rather than to a personal life immediately after death. The funeral accompaniment of this view was the abundance of amulets placed on various parts of the body to preserve it. A few amulets are found worn on a necklace or bracelet in early times; but the full development of the amulet system was in the twenty-sixth to thirtieth dynasties. We have tried to disentangle the diverse types of belief, by seeing what is incompatible between them. But in practice we find every form of mixture of these views in most ages. In the prehistoric times the preservation of the bones, but not of the flesh, was constant; and food offerings show that at least the theory of the soul wandering in the cemetery was familiar. Probably the Osiris theory is also p. 55 of the later prehistoric times, as the myth of Osiris is certainly older than the dynasties. The Ra worship was associated specially with Heliopolis, and may have given rise to the union with Ra also before the dynasties, when Heliopolis was probably a capital of the kings of lower Egypt. The boats figured on the prehistoric tomb at Hierakonpolis bear this out. In the first dynasty there is no mummy known, funeral offerings abound, and the khu and ka are named. Our documents do not give any evidence, then, of the Osiris and Ra theories. In the pyramid period the king was called the Osiris, and this view is the leading one in the pyramid inscriptions, yet the Ra theory is also incompatibly present; the body is mummified; but funeral offerings of food seem to have much diminished. In the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties the Ra theory gained ground greatly over the Osirian; and the basis of all the views of the future is almost entirely the union with Ra during the night and day. The mummy and amulet theory was not dominant; but the funeral offerings somewhat increased. The twenty-sixth dynasty almost dropped the Ra theory; the Osirian kingdom and its population of slave figures is the most familiar view, and the preservation of the body by amulets p. 56 was essential. Offerings of food rarely appear in these later times. This dominance of Osiris leads on to the anthropomorphic worship, which interacts on the growth of Christianity as we shall see further. Lastly, when all the theologic views of the future had perished, the oldest idea of all, food, drink, and rest for the dead, has still kept its hold upon the feelings of the people in spite of the teachings of Islam. THE WORSHIP OF ANIMALS IN ANCIENT EGYPT The worship of animals has been known in many countries; but in Egypt it was maintained to a later pitch of civilization than elsewhere, and the mixture of such a primitive system with more elevated beliefs seemed as strange to the Greek as it does to us. The original motive was a kinship of animals with man, much like that underlying the system of totems. Each place or tribe had its sacred species that was linked with the tribe; the life of the species was carefully preserved, excepting in the one example selected for worship, which after a given time was killed and sacramentally eaten by the tribe. This was certainly the case with the bull at Memphis and the ram at Thebes. That it was the whole species that was sacred, at one place or another, p. 57 is shown by the penalties for killing any animal of the species, by the wholesale burial and even mummifying of every example, and by the plural form of the names of the gods later connected with the animals, Heru, hawks, Khnumu, rams, etc. In the prehistoric times the serpent was sacred; figures of the coiled serpent were hung up in the house and worn as an amulet; similarly in historic times a figure of the agathodemon serpent was placed in a temple of Amen-hotep III at Benha. In the first dynasty the serpent was figured in pottery, as a fender around the hearth. The hawk also appears in many pre-dynastic figures, large and small, both worn on the person and carried as standards. The lion is found both in life-size temple figures, lesser objects of worship, and personal amulets. The scorpion was similarly honored in the prehistoric ages. It is difficult to separate now between animals which were worshipped quite independently, and those which were associated as emblems of anthropomorphic gods. Probably we shall be right in regarding both classes of animals as having been sacred at a remote time, and the connection with the human form as being subsequent. The ideas connected with the animals were those of their most p. 58 prominent characteristics; hence it appears that it was for the sake of the character that each animal was worshipped, and not because of any fortuitous association with a tribe. The baboon was regarded as the emblem of Tahuti, the god of wisdom; the serious expression and human ways of the large baboons are an obvious cause for their being regarded as the wisest of animals. Tahuti is represented as a baboon from the first dynasty down to late times, and four baboons were sacred in his temple at Hemmopolis. These four baboons were often portrayed as adoring the sun; this idea is due to their habit of chattering at sunrise. The lioness appears in the compound figures of the goddesses Sekhet, Bast, Mahes, and Tefnut. In the form of Sekhet the lioness is the destructive power of Ra, the sun: it is Sekhet who, in the legend, destroys mankind from Herakleopolis to Heliopolis at the bidding of Ra. The other lioness goddesses are probably likewise destructive or hunting deities. The lesser felidæ also appear; the cheetah and serval are sacred to Hathor in Sinai; the small cats are sacred to Bast, especially at Speos Artemidos and Bubastis. The bull was sacred in many places, and his worship p. 59 underlay that of the human gods, who were said to be incarnated in him. The idea is that of the fighting power, as when the king is figured as a bull trampling on his enemies, and the reproductive power, as in the title of the self-renewing gods, "bull of his mother." The most renowned was the Hapi or Apis bull of Memphis, in whom Ptah was said to be incarnate and who was Osirified and became the Osir-hapi. Thus appears to have originated the great Ptolemaic god Serapis, as certainly the mausoleum of the bulls was the Serapeum of the Greeks. Another bull of a more massive breed was the Ur-mer or Mnevis of Heliopolis, in whom Ra was incarnate. A third bull was Bakh or Bakis of Hermonthis the incarnation of Mentu. And a fourth bull, Kan-nub or Kanobos, was worshipped at the city of that name. The cow was identified with Hathor, who appears with cow's ears and horns, and who is probably the cow-goddess Ashtaroth or Istar of Asia. Isis, as identified with Hathor, is also joined in this connection. The ram was also worshipped as a procreative god; at Mendes in the Delta identified with Osiris, at Herakleopolis identified with Hershefi, at Thebes as Amon, and at the Cataract as Khnumu p. 60 the creator. The association of the ram with Amon was strongly held by the Ethiopians; and in the Greek tale of Nektanebo, the last Pharaoh, having by magic visited Olympias and become the father of Alexander, he came as the incarnation of Amon wearing the ram's skin. The hippopotamus was the goddess Ta-urt, "the great one," the patroness of pregnancy, who is never shown in any other form. Rarely this animal appears as the emblem of the god Set. The jackal haunted the cemeteries on the edge of the desert, and so came to be taken as the guardian of the dead, and identified with Anubis, the god of departing souls. Another aspect of the jackal was as the maker of tracks in the desert; the jackal paths are the best guides to practicable courses, avoiding the valleys and precipices, and so the animal was known as Up-uat, "the opener of ways," who showed the way for the dead across the western desert. Species of dogs seem to have been held sacred and mummified on merely the general ground of confusion with the jackal. The ichneumon and the shrewmouse were also held sacred, though not identified with a human god. The hawk was the principal sacred bird, and was identified with Horus and Ra, the sun-god. It was p. 61 mainly worshipped at Edfu and Hierakonpolis. The souls of kings were supposed to fly up to heaven in the form of hawks, perhaps due to the kingship originating in the hawk district in upper Egypt. Seker, the god of the dead, appears as a mummified hawk, and on his boat are many small hawks, perhaps the souls of kings who have joined him. The mummy hawk is also Sopdu, the god of the east. The vulture was the emblem of maternity, as being supposed to care especially for her young. Hence she is identified with Mut, the mother goddess of Thebes. The queen-mothers have vulture head-dresses; the vulture is shown hovering over kings to protect them, and a row of spread-out vultures are figured on the roofs of the tomb passages to protect the soul. The ibis was identified with Tahuti, the god of Hermopolis. The goose is connected with Amon of Thebes. The swallow was also sacred. The crocodile was worshipped especially in the Fayum, where it frequented the marshy levels of the great lake, and Strabo's description of the feeding of the sacred crocodile there is familiar. It was also worshipped at Onuphis; and at Nubti or Ombos it was identified with Set, and held sacred. p. 62 [paragraph continues] Beside the name of Sebek or Soukhos in Fayum, it was there identified with Osiris as the western god of the dead. The frog was an emblem of the goddess Heqt, but was not worshipped. The cobra serpent was sacred from the earliest times to the present day. It was never identified with any of the great deities, but three goddesses appear in serpent form: Uazet, the Delta goddess of Buto; Mert-seger, "the lover of silence," the goddess of the Theban necropolis; and Rannut, the harvest goddess. The memory of great pythons of the prehistoric days appears in the serpent-necked monsters on the slate palettes at the beginning of the monarchy, and the immense serpent Agap of the underworld in the later mythology. The serpent has however been a popular object of worship apart from specific gods. We have already noted it on prehistoric amulets, and coiled round the hearths of the early dynasties. Serpents were mummified; and when we reach the full evidences of popular worship, in the terra-cotta figures and jewellery of later times, the serpent is very prominent. There were usually two represented together, one often with the head of Serapis, the other of Isis, so therefore male and female. Down to modern p. 63 times a serpent is worshipped at Sheykh Heridy, and miraculous cures attributed to it (S. R. E. B. 213). Various fishes were sacred, as the Oxyrhynkhos, Phagros, Lepidotos, Latos, and others; but they were not identified with gods, and we do not know of their being worshipped. The scorpion was the emblem of the goddess Selk, and is found in prehistoric amulets; but it is not known to have been adored, and most usually it represents evils, where Horus is shown overcoming noxious creatures. It will be observed that nearly all of the animals which were worshipped had qualities for which they were noted, and in connection with which they were venerated. If the animal worship were due to totemism, or a sense of animal brotherhood in certain tribes, we must also assume that that was due to these qualities of the animal; whereas totemism in other countries does not seem to be due to veneration of special qualities of the animals. It is therefore more likely that the animal worship simply arose from the nature of the animals, and not from any true totemism, although each animal came to be associated with the worship of a particular tribe or district. p. 64 THE GROUPS OF GODS In a country which has been subjected to so many inflows of various peoples as has Egypt, it is to be expected that there would be a great diversity of deities and a complex and inconsistent theology. To discriminate the principal classes of conceptions of gods is the first step toward understanding the growth of the systems. The broad diversion of animal gods and human gods is obvious; and the mixed type of human figures with animal heads is clearly an adaptation of the animal gods to the later conception of a human god. Another valuable separator lies in the compound. names of gods. It is impossible to suppose a people uniting two gods, both of which belonged to them aboriginally; there would be no reason for two similar gods in a single system, and we never hear in classical mythology of Hermes-Apollo or Pallas-Artemis, while Zeus is compounded with half of the barbarian gods of Asia. So in Egypt, when we find such compounds as Amon-Ra, or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, we have the certainty that each name in the compound is derived from a different race, and that a unifying operation has taken place on gods that belonged to entirely different sources. p. 65 We must beware of reading our modern ideas into the ancient views. As we noticed in an earlier part of this chapter, each tribe or locality seems to have had but one god originally; certainly the more remote our view, the more separate are the gods. Hence to the people of any one district "the god" was a distinctive name for their own god; and it would have seemed as strange to discriminate him from the surrounding gods, as it would to a Christian in Europe if he specified that he did not mean Allah or Siva or Heaven when he speaks of God. Hence we find generic descriptions used in place of the god's name, as "lord of heaven," or "mistress of turquoise," while it is certain that specific gods as Osiris or Hathor are in view. A generic name "god" or "the god" no more implies that the Egyptians recognised a unity of all the gods, than "god" in the Old Testament implies that Yahvah was one with Chemosh and Baal. The simplicity of the term only shows that no other object of adoration was in view. We have already noticed the purely animal gods; following on these we now shall describe those which were combined with a human form, then those which are purely human in their character, next those p. 66 which are nature gods, and lastly those which are an abstract character. Animal-headed Gods: Beside the worship of species of animals, which we have noticed in the last chapter, certain animals were combined with the human form. It was always the head of the animal which was united to a human body; the only converse instance of a human head on an animal body--the sphinxes--represented the king and not a god. Possibly the combination arose from priests wearing the heads of animals when personating the god, as the high priest wore the ram's skin when personating Amon. But when we notice the frequent combinations and love of symbolism, shown upon the early carvings, the union of the ancient sacred animal with the human form is quite in keeping with the views and feelings of the primitive Egyptians. Many of these composite gods never emerged from the animal connection, and these we must regard as belonging to the earlier stage of theology. Seker was a Memphite god of the dead, independent of the worship of Osiris and of Ptah, for he was combined with them as Ptah-Seker-Osiris; as he maintained a place there in the face of the great worship of Ptah, he was probably an older god, p. 67 and this is indicated by his having an entirely animal form down to a late date. The sacred bark of Seker bore his figure as that of a mummified hawk; and along the boat is a row of hawks which probably are the spirits of deceased kings who have joined Seker in his journey to the world of the dead. As there are often two allied forms of the same root, one written with k and the other with g, 1 it seems probable that Seker, the funeral god of Memphis, is allied to Mert Seger (lover of silence). She was the funeral god of Thebes, and was usually figured as a serpent. From being only known in animal form, and unconnected with any of the elaborated theology, it seems that we have in this goddess a primitive deity of the dead. It appears, then, that the gods of the great cemeteries were known as Silence and the Lover of Silence, and both come down from the age of animal deities. Seker became in late times changed into a hawk-headed human figure. Two important deities of early times were Nekhebt, the vulture goddess of the southern kingdom, centred at Hierakonpolis, and Uazet, the serpent goddess of the northern kingdom, centred at Buto. These appear in all ages as the emblems of the two p. 68 kingdoms, frequently as supporters on either side of the royal names; in later times they appear as human goddesses crowning the king. Khnumu, the creator, was the great god of the cataract. He is shown as making man upon the potter's wheel; and in a tale he is said to frame a woman. He must belong to a different source from that of Ptah or Ra, and was the creative principle in the period of animal gods, as he is almost always shown with the head of a ram. He was popular down to late times, where amulets of his figure are often found. Tahuti, or Thôth, was the god of writing and learning, and was the chief deity of Hermopolis. He almost always has the head of an ibis, the bird sacred to him. The baboon is also a frequent emblem of his, but he is never figured with the baboon head. The ibis appears standing upon a shrine as early as on a tablet of Mena; Thôth is the constant recorder in scenes of the judgment, and he appears down to Roman times as the patron of scribes. The eighteenth dynasty of kings incorporated his name as Thôthmes, "born of Thôth," owing to their Hermopolite origin. Skhmet is the lion goddess, who represents the fierceness of the sun's heat. She appears in the p. 69 myth of the destruction of mankind as slaughtering the enemies of Ra. Her only form is that with the head of a lioness. But she blends imperceptibly with Bastet, who has the head of a cat. She was the goddess of Pa-bast or Bubastis, and in her honor immense festivals were there held. Her name is found in the beginning of the pyramid times; but her main period of popularity was that of the Shisaks who ruled from Bubastis, and in the later times images of her were very frequent as amulets. It is possible from the name that this feline goddess, whose foreign origin is acknowledged, was the female form of the god Bes, who is dressed in a lion's skin, and also came in from the east. Mentu was the hawk-god of Erment south of Thebes, who became in the eighteenth to twentieth dynasties especially the god of war. He appears with the hawk head, or sometimes as a hawk-headed sphinx; and he became confused with Ra and with Amon. Sebek is figured as a man with the crocodile's head; but he has no theologic importance, and always remained the local god of certain districts. Heqt, the goddess symbolised by the frog, was the patron of birth, and assisted in the infancy of p. 70 the kings. She was a popular and general deity not mainly associated with particular places. Hershefi was the ram-headed god of Herakleopolis, but is never found outside of that region. We now come to three animal-headed gods who became associated with the great Osiride group of human gods. Set or Setesh was the god of the prehistoric inhabitants before the coming in of Horus. He is always shown with the head of a fabulous animal, having upright square ears and a long nose. When in entirely animal form he has a long upright tail. The dog-like animal is the earliest type, as in the second dynasty; but later the human form with animal head prevailed. His worship underwent great fluctuations. At first he was the great god of all Egypt; but his worshippers were gradually driven out by the followers of Horus, as described in a semi-mythical history. Then he appears strongly in the second dynasty, the last king of which united the worship of Set and Horus. After suppression he appears in favor in the early eighteenth dynasty; and even gave the name to Sety I and II of the nineteenth dynasty. His part in the Osiris myth will be noted below. Anpu or Anubis was originally the jackal guardian of the cemetery, and the leader of the dead in p. 71 the other world. Nearly all the early funeral formulæ mention Anpu on his hill, or Anpu lord of the underworld. As the patron of the dead he naturally took a place in the myth of Osiris, the god of the dead, and appears as leading the soul into the judgment of Osiris. Horus was the hawk-god of upper Egypt, especially of Edfu and Hierakonpolis. Though originally an independent god, and even keeping apart as Hor-ur, "Horus the elder," throughout later times, yet he was early mingled with the Osiris myth, probably as the ejector of Set who was also the enemy of Osiris. He is sometimes entirely in hawk form; more usually with a hawk's head, and in later times he appears as the infant son of Isis entirely human in form. His special function is that of overcoming evil; in the earliest days the conqueror of Set, later as the subduer of noxious animals, figured on a very popular amulet, and lastly, in Roman times, as a hawk-headed warrior on horseback slaying a dragon, thus passing into the type of St. George. He also became mingled with early Christian ideas; and the lock of hair of Horus attached to the cross originated the chi rho monogram of Christ. We have now passed briefly over the principal p. 72 gods which combined the animal and human forms. We see how the animal form is generally the older, and bow it was apparently independent of the human form, which has been attached to it by a more anthropomorphic people. We see that all of these gods must be accredited to the second stratum, if not, to the earliest formation, of religion in Egypt. And we must associate with this theology the cemetery theory of the soul which preceded that of the Osiris or Ra religions. We now turn to the deities which are always represented in human form, and never associated with animal figures; neither do they originate in a cosmic--or nature--worship, nor in abstract idea. There are three divisions of this class, the Osiris family, the Amon family, and the goddess Neit. GODS IN HUMAN FORM Osiris--Asar or Asir--is the most familiar figure of the pantheon, but it is mainly on late sources that we have to depend for the myth; and his worship was so much adapted to harmonize with other ideas, that care is needed to trace his true position. The Osiride portions of the Book of the Dead are certainly very early, and precede the solar portions, though both views were already mingled in the p. 73 pyramid texts. We cannot doubt but that the Osiris worship reaches back to the prehistoric age. In the earliest tombs offering to Anubis is named, for whom Osiris became substituted in the fifth and sixth dynasties. In the pyramid times we only find that kings are termed Osiris, having undergone their apotheoisis at the sed festival; but in the eighteenth dynasty and onward every justified person was entitled the Osiris, as being united with the god. His worship was unknown at Abydos in the earlier temples, and is not mentioned at the cataracts; though in later times he became the leading deity of Abydos and of Philæ. Thus in all directions the recognition of Osiris continued to increase; but, looking at the antiquity of his cult, we must recognize in this change the gradual triumph of a popular religion over a state religion which had been superimposed upon it. The earliest phase of Osirism that we can identify is in portions of the Book of the Dead. These assume the kingdom of Osiris, and a judgment preceding admission to the blessed future; the completely human character of Osiris and his family are implied, and there is no trace of animal or nature worship belonging to him. How far the myth, as recorded in Roman times by Plutarch, can be traced to earlier and later sources is p. 74 very uncertain. The main outlines, which may be primitive, are as follows. Osiris was a civilising king of Egypt, who was murdered by his brother Set and seventy-two conspirators. Isis, his wife, found the coffin of Osiris at Byblos in Syria and brought it to Egypt. Set then tore up the body of Osiris and scattered it. Isis sought the fragments, and built a shrine over each of them. Isis and Horus then attacked Set and drove him from Egypt, and finally down the Red Sea. In other aspects Osiris seems to have been a corn god, and the scattering of his body in Egypt is like the well-known division of the sacrifice to the corn god, and the burial of parts in separate fields to ensure their fertility. How we are to analyse the formation of the early myths is suggested by the known changes of later times. When two tribes who worshipped different (rods fought together and one overcame the other, the god of the conqueror is always considered to have overcome the god of the vanquished. The struggle of Horus and Set is expressly stated on the Temple of Edfu to have been a tribal war, in which the followers of Horus overcame those of Set, established garrisons and forges at various places down the Nile Valley, and finally ousted the Set party from the whole land. We can hardly therefore p. 75 avoid reading the history of the animosities of the gods as being the struggles of their worshippers. If we try to trace the historic basis of the Osiris myth, we must take into account the early customs and ideas among which the myths arose. The cutting up of the body was the regular ritual of the prehistoric people, and, even as late as the fifth dynasty, the bones were separately treated, and even wrapped up separately when the body was reunited for burial. We must also notice the apotheosis festival of the king, which was probably his sacrificial death and union with the god, in the prehistoric age. The course of events which might have served as the basis for the Osiris myth may then have been somewhat as follows. Osiris was the god of a tribe which occupied a large part of Egypt. The kings of this tribe were sacrificed after thirty years' reign--like the killing of kings at fixed intervals elsewhere--and they thus became the Osiris himself. Their bodies were dismembered, as usual at that period, the flesh ceremonially eaten by the assembled people--as was done in prehistoric times--and the bones distributed among the various centres of the tribe, the head to Abydos, the neck, spine, limbs, etc., to various places of which there were fourteen in all. The worshippers of Set broke p. 76 in upon this people, stopped this worship, or killed Osiris, as was said, and established the dominion of their animal god. They were in turn attacked by the Isis worshippers, who joined the older population of the Osiris tribe, reopened the shrines, and established Osiris worship again. The Set tribe returning in force attacked the Osiris tribe and scattered all the relies of the shrines in every part of the land. To re-establish their power, the Osiris and Isis tribes called in the worshippers of the hawk Horus, who were old enemies of the Set tribe, and with their help finally expelled the Set worshippers from the whole country. Such a history, somewhat misunderstood in a later age when the sacrifice of kings and anthropophagy was forgotten, would give the basis for nearly all the features of the Osiris myth as recorded in Roman times. If we try to materialize this history more closely, we see that the Osiris worshippers occupied both the Delta and upper Egypt, and that fourteen important centres were recognised at the earliest time, which afterwards became the capitals of nomes, and were added to until they numbered forty-two divisions in later ages. Set was the god of the Asiatic invaders who broke in upon this civilization; and about a quarter through the long ages of the prehistoric p. 77 culture, perhaps 7500 B.C., we find material evidences of considerable changes brought in from the Arabian or Semitic side. It may not be unlikely that this was the first triumph of Set. The Isis worshippers came from the Delta, where Isis was worshipped at Buto as a virgin goddess, apart from Osiris or Horus. These followers of Isis succeeded in helping the rest of the early Libyan inhabitants to resist the Set worship, and re-establish Osiris. The close of the prehistoric age is marked by a great decline in work and abilities, very likely due to more trouble from Asia, when Set scattered the relies of Osiris. Lastly we cannot avoid seeing in the Horus triumph the conquest of Egypt by the dynastic race who came down from the district of Edfu and Hierakonpolis, the centres of Horus worship; and helped the older inhabitants to drive out the Asiatics. Nearly the same chain of events is seen in later times, when the Berber king Aahmes I helped the Egyptians to expel the Hyksos. If we can thus succeed in connecting the archæology of the prehistoric age with the history preserved in the myths, it shows that Osiris must have been the national god as early as the beginning of prehistoric culture. His civilizing mission may p. 78 well have been the introduction of cultivation, at about 8000 B.C., into the Nile Valley. The theology of Osiris was at first that of a god of those holy fields in which the souls of the dead enjoyed a future fife. There was necessarily some selection to exclude the wicked from such happiness, and Osiris judged each soul whether it were worthy. This judgment became elaborated in detailed scenes, where Isis and Neb-hat stand behind Osiris who is on his throne, Anubis leads in the soul, the heart is placed in the balance, and Thôth stands to weigh it and to record the result. The occupation of the souls in this future we have noticed in an earlier part of this chapter. The function of Osiris was therefore the reception and rule of the dead, and we never find him as a god of action or patronizing any of the affairs of life. Isis--Aset or Isit--became attached at a very early time to the Osiris worship; and appears in later myths as the sister and wife of Osiris. But she always remained on a very different plane to Osiris. Her worship and priesthood were far more popular than those of Osiris, and she appears far more usually in the activities of life. Her union in the Osiris myth by no means blotted out her independent position and importance as a deity, p. 79 though it gave her a far more widespread devotion. The union of Horus with the myth, and the establishment of Isis as the mother goddess, was the main mode of her importance in later times. Isis as the nursing mother is seldom shown until the twenty-sixth dynasty; then the type continually became more popular, until it outgrew all other religions of the country. In the Roman times the mother Isis not only received the devotion of all Egypt, but her worship spread rapidly abroad, like that of Mithra. It became the popular devotion of Italy; and, after a change of name due to the growth of Christianity, she has continued to receive the adoration of a large part of Europe down to the present day as the Madonna. Nephthys--Neb-hat--was a shadowy double of Isis; reputedly her sister, and always associated with her, she seems to have no other function. Her name, "mistress of the palace," suggests that she was the consort of Osiris at the first, as a necessary but passive complement in the system of his kingdom. When the active Isis worship entered into the renovation of Osiris, Nebhat remained of nominal importance, but practically ignored. Horus--Heru or Horu--has a more complex history than any other god. We cannot assign p. 80 the various stages of it with certainty, but we can discriminate the following ideas: (a) There was an elder or greater Horus, Hor-ur--or Aroeris of the Greeks--who was credited with being the brother of Osiris, older than Isis, Set, or Nephthys. He was always in human form, and was the god of Letopolis. This seems to have been the primitive god of a tribe cognate to the Osiris worshippers. What connection this god had with the hawk we do not know; often Horus is found written without the hawk, simply as hr, with the meaning of "upper" or "above." This word generally has the determinative of sky, and so means primitively the sky or one belonging to the sky. It is at least possible that there was a sky-god her at Letopolis, and likewise the hawk-god was a sky-god her at Edfu, and hence the mixture of the two deities. (b) The hawk-god of the south, at Edfu and Hierakonpolis, became so firmly embedded in the myth as the avenger of Osiris, that we must accept the southern people as the ejectors of the Set tribe. It is always the hawk-headed Horus who wars against Set, and attends on the enthroned Osiris. (c) The hawk Horus became identified with the p. 81 sun-god, and hence came the winged solar disk as the emblem of Horus of Edfu, and the title of Horus on the horizons--at rising and setting--Hor-emakhti, Harmakhis of the Greeks. (d) Another aspect resulting from Horus being the "sky" god, was that the sun and moon were his two eyes; hence he was Hor-merti, Horus of the two eyes; and the sacred eye of Horus--uza--became the most usual of all amulets. (e) Horus, as conqueror of Set, appears as the hawk standing on the sign of gold, nub, nubti was the title of Set, and thus Horus is shown trampling upon Set; this became a usual title of the kings. There are many less important forms of Horus, but the form which outgrew all others in popular estimation was (f) Hor-pe-khroti, Harpokrates of the Greeks, "Horus the child." As the son of Isis he constantly appears from the nineteenth dynasty onward. One of the earlier of these forms is that of the boy Horus standing upon crocodiles, and grasping scorpions and noxious animals in his hands. This type was a favorite amulet down to Ptolemaic times, and is often found carved in stone to be placed in a house, but was scarcely ever made in other materials or for suspension on the person, p. 82 [paragraph continues] The form of the young Horus seated on an open lotus flower was also popular in the Greek times. But the infant Horus with his finger to his lips was the most popular form of all, sometimes alone, sometimes on his mother's lap. The finger, which pointed to his being a sucking child, was absurdly misunderstood by the Greeks as an emblem of silence. From the twenty-sixth dynasty down to late Roman times the infant Horus, or the young boy, was the most prominent subject on the temples, and the commonest figure in the homes of the people. The other main group of human gods was Amon, Mut, and Khonsu of Thebes. Amon was the local god of Karnak, and owed his importance in Egypt to the political rise of his district. The Theban kingdom of the twelfth dynasty spread his fame, the great kings of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasty ascribed their victories to Amon, his high priest became a political power which absorbed the state after the twentieth dynasty, and the importance of the god only ceased with the fall of his city. The original attributes and the origin of the name of Amon are unknown; but he became combined with Ra, the sun-god, and as Amon-Ra he was "king of the gods," and "lord of the thrones p. 83 of the world." The supremacy of Amon was for some centuries an article of political faith, and many other gods were merged in him, and only survived as aspects of the great god of all. The queens were the high priestesses of the god, and he was the divine father of their children; the kings being only incarnations of Amon in their relation to the queens. Mut, the great mother, was the goddess of Thebes, and hence the consort of Amon. She is often shown as leading and protecting the kings, and the queens appear in the character of this goddess. Little is known about her otherwise. Khonsu is a youthful god combined in the Theban system as the son of Amon and Mut. He is closely parallel to Thôth as being a god of time, as a moon god, and of science, "the executor of plans." A large temple was dedicated to him at Karnak, but otherwise he was not of religious importance. Neit was a goddess of the Libyan people; but her worship was firmly implanted by them in Egypt. She was a goddess of hunting and of weaving, the two arts of a nomadic people. Her emblem was a distaff with two crossed arrows, and her name was written with a figure of a weaver's shuttle. p. 84 [paragraph continues] She was adored in the first dynasty, when the name Merneit, "loved by Neit," occurs; and her priesthood was one of the most usual in the pyramid period. She was almost lost to sight during some thousands of years, but she became the state goddess of the twenty-sixth dynasty, when the Libyans set up their capital in her city of Sais. In later times she again disappears from customary religion. SUN AND SKY GODS The gods which personify the sun and sky stand apart in their essential idea from those already described, although they were largely mixed and combined with other classes of gods. So much did this mixture pervade all the later views that some writers have seen nothing but varying forms of sun-worship in Egyptian religion. It will have been noticed however in the foregoing what a large body of theology was entirely apart from the sun-worship, while here we treat the latter as separate from the other elements with which it was more or less combined. Ra was the great sun-god to whom every king pledged himself, by adopting on his accession a motto-title embodying the god's name such as Ra-men-kau, "Ra established the kas"; Ra-sehotep-ab, p. 85 [paragraph continues] "Ra satisfied the heart"; Ra-neb-maat, "Ra is the lord of truth," and these titles were those by which the king was best known ever after. This devotion was not primitive, but began in the fourth dynasty, and was established by the fifth dynasty being called sons of Ra, and every later king having the title "son of Ra" before his name. The obelisk was the emblem of Ra, and in the fifth dynasty a great obelisk temple was built in his honor at Abusir, followed also by others. Heliopolis was the centre of his worship, where Senusert I, in the twelfth dynasty, rebuilt the temple and erected the obelisks, one of which is still standing. But Ra was preceded there by another sun-god, Atmu, who was the true god of the nome; and Ra, though worshipped throughout the land, was not the aboriginal god of any city. In Heliopolis he was attached to Atmu, at Thebes attached to Amen. These facts point to Ra having been introduced into Egypt by a conquering people, after the theologic settlement of the whole land. There are many suggestions that the Ra worshippers came in from Asia, and established their rule at Heliopolis. The title of the ruler of that place was the heq, a semitic title; and the heq sceptre was the sacred treasure of the temple. The "spirits of Heliopolis" were specially p. 86 honored, an idea more Babylonian than Egyptian. This city was a centre of literary learning and of theologic theorizing which was unknown elsewhere in Egypt, but familiar in Mesopotamia. A conical stone was the embodiment of the god at Heliopolis, as in Syria. On, the native name of Heliopolis, occurs twice in Syria, as well as other cities named Heliopolis there in later times. The view of an early Semitic principate of Heliopolis, before the dynastic age, would unify all of these facts; and the advance of Ra worship in the fifth dynasty would be due to a revival of the influence of the eastern Delta at that time. The form of Ra most free from admixture is that of the disk of the sun, sometimes figured between two hills at rising, sometimes between two wings, sometimes in the boat in which it floated on the celestial ocean across the sky. The winged disk has almost always two cobra serpents attached to it, and often two rams' horns; the meaning of the whole combination is that Ra protects and preserves, like the vulture brooding over its young, destroys like the cobra, and creates like the ram. This is seen by the modifications where it is placed over a king's head, when the destructive cobra is p. 87 omitted, and the wings are folded together as embracing and protecting the king. This disk form is connected with the hawk-god, by being placed over the head of the hawk; and this in turn is connected with the human form by the disk resting on the hawk-headed man, which is one of the most usual types of Ra. The god is but seldom shown as being purely human, except when identified with other gods, such as Atmu, Horus, or Amon. The worship of Ra outshone all others in the nineteenth dynasty. United to the god of Thebes as Amon Ra, he became "king of the gods," and the view that the soul joined Ra in his journey through the hours of the night absorbed all other views, which only became sections of this whole. By the Greek times this belief seems to have practically given place to others, and it had practically vanished in the early Christian age. Atmu (Tum) was the original god of Heliopolis and the Delta side, round to the gulf of Suez, which formerly reached up to Ismailiyeh. How far his nature as the setting sun was the result of his being identified with Ra, is not clear. It may The that the introduction of Ra led to his being unified with him. Those who take the view that the names p. 88 of gods are connected with tribes, as Set and Suti, and Anak, might well claim that Atmu and Atum belonged to the land of Aduma or Etham. Khepera has no local importance, but is named as the morning sun. He was worshipped about the time of the nineteenth dynasty. Aten was a conception of the sun entirely different from Ra. No human or animal form was ever attached to it; and the adoration of the physical power and action of the sun was the sole devotion. So far as we can trace, it was a worship entirely apart and different from every other type of religion in Egypt; and the partial information that we have about it does not so far, show a single flaw in a purely scientific conception of the source of all life and power upon earth. The Aten was the only instance of a "jealous god" in Egypt, and this worship was exclusive of all others, and claims universality. There are traces of it shortly before Amenhotep III. He showed some devotion to it, and it was his son who took the name of Akhenaten, "the glory of the Aten," and tried to enforce this as the sole worship of Egypt. But it fell immediately after, and is lost in the next dynasty. The sun is represented as radiating its beams on all things, and every beam ends in a hand which imparts p. 89 life and power to the king and to all else. In the hymn to the Aten the universal scope of this power is proclaimed as the source of all life and action, and every land and people are subject to it, and owe to it their existence and their allegiance. No such grand theology had ever appeared in the world before, so far as we know; and it is the forerunner of the later monotheist religions, while it is even more abstract and impersonal, and may well rank as a scientific theism. Anher was the local god of Thinis in upper Egypt, and Sebennytos in the Delta a human sun-god. His name is a mere epithet, "he who goes in heaven"; and it may well be that this was only a title of Ra, who was thus worshipped at these places. Sopdu was the god of the eastern desert, and he was identified with the cone of glowing zodiacal light which precedes the sunrise. His emblem was a mummified hawk, or a human figure. Nut, the embodiment of heaven, is shown as a female figure dotted over with stars. She was not worshipped nor did she belong to any one place, but was a cosmogonic idea. Seb, the embodiment of the earth, is figured as lying on the ground while Nut bends over him. p. 90 [paragraph continues] He was the "prince of the gods," the power that went before all the later gods, the superseded Saturn of Egyptian theology. He is rarely mentioned, and no temples were dedicated to him, but he appears in the cosmic mythology. It seems, from their positions, that very possibly the Set and Nut were the primeval gods of the aborigines of Hottentot type, before the Osiris worshippers of European type ever entered the Nile Valley. Shu was the god of space, who lifted up Nut from off the body of Seb. He was often represented, especially in late amulets; possibly it was believed that he would likewise raise up the body of the deceased from earth to heaven. His figure is entirely human, and he kneels on one knee with both hands lifted above his head. He was regarded as the father of Seb, the earth having been formed from space or chaos. His emblem was the ostrich feather, the lightest and most voluminous object. Hapi, the Nile, must also be placed with nature-gods. He is figured as a man, or two men for the upper and lower Niles, holding a tray of produce of the land, and having large female breasts as being the nourisher of the valley. A favourite group consists of the two Nile figures tying the plants of upper and lower Egypt around the emblem p. 91 of union. He was worshipped at Nilopolis, and also at the shrines which marked the boating stages, about a hundred in number, all along the river. Festivals were held at the rising of the Nile, like those still kept up at various stages of the inundation. Hymns in honor of the river attribute all prosperity and good to its benefits. Ptah, the creator, was especially worshipped at. Memphis. He is figured as a mummy; and we know that full length burial and mummifying begin with the dynastic race. He was identified with the earlier animal-worship of the bull Apis; but it is not likely that this originated his creative aspect, as he creates by moulding clay, or by word and will, and not by natural means. He became united with the old Memphite god of the dead, Seker, and with Osiris, as Ptah-Seker-Osiris. Thus we learn that he belonged neither to the animal worshippers, the believers in Seker, nor to the Osiride race, but to a fourth people. Min was the male principle. He was worshipped mainly at Ekhmim and Koptos, and was there identified with Pan by the Greeks. He also was the god of the desert, out to the Red Sea. The oldest statues of gods are three gigantic limestone figures of Min found at Koptos; these bear relief designs p. 92 of Red Sea shells and swordfish. It seems, then, that he was introduced by a people coming across from the east. His worship continued till Roman times. Hathor was the female principle whose animal was the cow; and she is identified with the mother Isis. She was also identified with other earlier deities; and her forms are very numerous in different localities. There were also seven Hathors who appear as fates, presiding over birth. Footnotes 67:1 For instance the words sek, to move; seg, to go; sek, to destroy. Next: Chapter III: The Ptah-Hotep And The Ke'gemni: The Oldest Books In The World

History and Civilization.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Philistines, by R.A.S. Macalister, [1913], at sacred-texts.com IV. Their Place in History and Civilization A people, or rather a group of peoples, the remnant—the degenerate remnant if you will—of a great civilization, settled on the Palestine coast. They found before them a servile aboriginal population ready to their use, who could relieve them of the necessary but unaccustomed labour of extracting life and wealth from the prolific soil. They were thus free to cultivate the commercial facilities which were already established in the land they made their own. Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod had harbours which opened the way to trade by sea. The great land route from Egypt to Babylon passed right through the heart of the country from end to end—Gaza was from the beginning the principal mart for northern Arabia: in the expressive words of Principal G. A. Smith, we hear the jingling of shekels in the very name of Ashkelon. Corn and wine were produced abundantly within their favoured territory, even in years when the rest of the country suffered famine; an active slave-trade (one of the most lucrative sources of wealth) centred in Philistia, as we learn from the bitter denunciation of Amos. Small wonder then that the lords of the Philistines could offer an enormous bribe to a wretched woman to betray her husband. Small wonder that the Philistines were the carriers and controllers of the arts of civilization in Palestine. The settlement of the Philistines in Palestine falls in that period of fog, as we may call it, when the iron culture succeeds the bronze in the Eastern Mediterranean. Recent excavations have given us a clear-cut picture of the development of civilization during the bronze age; that wonderful history which was sketched in its barest outline in the course of Chapter I. Then a cloud seems to settle down on the world, through which we can dimly perceive scenes of turmoil, and the shifting of nations. When the mist rolls away it is as though a new world is before us. We see new powers on earth, new gods in heaven: new styles of architecture, new methods of warfare: the alphabet has been invented, and above all, iron has become the metal of which the chief implements are made. Crete and the great days of Egypt belong to the past: the glorious days of classical Greece are the goal before us. p. 115 The chief interest of the Philistines lies in this, that their history falls almost entirely within this period of obscurity, when the iron age of Europe was in its birth-throes. They and their kin, the Zakkala in the east and Turisha in the west, bridge the gap between the old world and the new. It is owing to them that the reminiscences of the days of Crete were handed across a couple of troubled centuries, to form the basis of new civilizations in Greece, in Italy, and in the East. Our materials for estimating the culture of the Philistines and their place in civilization are the following: (1) The Phaestos Disk; (2) The Medinet Habu sculptures; (3) The results of excavation in Philistia; (4) Scattered Biblical references. (1) On the Phaestos Disk are forty-five characters. Of some of these it is not very easy to determine the signification, but others have some value as indicating the nature of the civilization of those who invented its script, and its analogues. The writing, running from right to left, is in the same direction as the Carian inscriptions, but not as the Minoan linear tablets. The plumed head-dress of the sign here called M has been referred to as being the link which connects this disk with Caria on the one hand and with the Philistines on the other. A. J. Reinach (Revue archéologique, Sér. V, vol. xv, pp. 26, 27) publishes Sardinian statuettes showing the same form of head-dress. The Sardinians being probably a later stage in the history of one branch of the sea-peoples, it is natural that they should show an analogous equipment. The sign a, a man running, shows the simple waist-band which forms the sole body-covering of the Keftian envoys. The sign b, a captive with arms bound behind, has no more covering than a girdle. The symbol z appears to represent a handcuff or fetter. Perhaps Samson was secured with some such fastening. The sign c from its small size appears to represent a child. He is clad in a tunic fitting closely to the body and reaching barely to the hips. No doubt, as often in Egypt ancient and modern, in some of the remoter parts of Palestine and among the Bedawin, young children went naked. Fig. d represents a woman. She has long flowing hair, and seems to be wearing a single garment not unlike the fustān of the modern Palestinian peasant, the upper part of which, however, has been dropped down over the lower so as to expose the body from the girdle upwards. Hall, in a recent article in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, shows that the figure has Mycenaean analogies. p. 116 Fig. e, with the shaved head, perhaps represents a slave. A figure-of-eight (an ownership mark in tatu) is represented on the cheek. 1 Click to enlarge Fig. f may represent a sandalled foot; fig. g may possibly represent a closed hand; but both are doubtful. Figs. h and i possibly represent a breast and membrum muliebre respectively, though the p. 117 former may be a Phrygian cap. The interpretation of these four signs is too uncertain to allow us to attach any weight to them. In figs. j and k we may possibly see the sacred doves, and in l the sacred fish. But this cannot be pressed. The ram's head (o), the hoof (p), the horn (q), and the hide (s) all indicate a pastoral life. The symbols t, u, y, w, x, y are drawn from the plant world, and it must be noticed that those who developed the script of the Disk showed an unusual appreciation of plant-shapes. It is quite remarkable to find such a variety of floral symbols. The sign ß is probably a section of a river, suggestive of water. The sign δ is very remarkable. It is almost certainly a representation of a domed house, such as is imitated in the Lycian tombs. It may be the prototype of one of the 'palaces of Ashdod'! The sign ζ is a pillar with a square capital. The curious sign θ may represent some kind of key. Very important is the ship, fig. η. It is one more link with the Medinet Habu sculptures, in which, as we shall see, an identical ship makes its appearance. The bow and arrow, figs. κ, λ, are especially interesting. Reinach (op. cit. p. 35) ingeniously points out that it is a true picture of the bow of the Lycian Pandarus, made of two horns of the wild goat fixed and bound on a piece of wood. … Iliad, iv. 105–11. The curved poignard (ρ) has also Lycian and Carian analogies (Reinach, op. cit. p. 35). The axe (μ), square (σ), plane (τ), signet-ring (ψ), and leather-cutter's knife (φ), the latter perforated with a hole in the butt for suspension, all show the specializing of tools which is a characteristic of civilization. Of especial importance is the round shield with bosses (ξ). It is not Cretan: the Cretan shield is a long oval. But the Sherdanian warriors at Medinet Habu bear the round bossed shield, and Reinach (op. cit. p. 30) figures an Etruscan statuette which bears an identical protection. The other signs (π, σ, τ, χ and ϝ) are not sufficiently clear to identify (τ may be an astragalus, used in games, and π may be an adze). But enough will have been said to show that quite apart p. 118 from its literary value, the Phaestos Disk is of very considerable importance as a document in the history of Aegean civilization. (2) We now turn to the sculptures on the temple of Medinet Habu. Here we have precious illustrations of costumes, vehicles, and arms. Fig. 7. Wagons of the Pulasati. Click to enlarge Fig. 7. Wagons of the Pulasati. Fig. 8. The Head-dress of the Pulasati. Click to enlarge Fig. 8. The Head-dress of the Pulasati. The Pulasati wear a plumed head-dress, the plumes being fitted into an elaborately embroidered band encircling the temples, and secured by a chin-strap passing in front of the ears. The other tribes wear similar head-dresses, except the Shekelesh, who have a cap. The Zakkala are represented as beardless. Their sole body-costume is the waistband, though some of them seem to have bracelets or armlets, and bands or straps crossing the upper part of the body. The women have the close-fitting fustān; the children are naked. The land contingent travel in wagons, of a square box-like shape, some with framed, some with wickerwork sides. They have two solid wheels, secured to the axle by a linch-pin; and are drawn p. 119 Fig. 9. The Sea-fight between Ramessu III and the Allies. Click to enlarge Fig. 9. The Sea-fight between Ramessu III and the Allies. p. 120 by four oxen abreast. The sea-contingent travel in ships which show a marked resemblance to that of the Phaestos Disk. The keel is curved (more so at Medinet Habu than at Phaestos) and both bow and stem rise high above the deck, with ornamental finials. A rudder-oar projects from the stem; and at Medinet Habu (not at Phaestos) a mast rises from the middle of the boat, with a yard and a lug-sail. The ships are fitted with oars, which in the summary Phaestos hieroglyphic are not shown. The warriors in the coalition are armed with a sword and with the long Carian spear; they have also daggers and javelins for throwing, and carry circular shields. A number of enamelled tablets, once forming part of the decoration of the temple, have been described, 1 and these add some further valuable details. They show prisoners in full costume, not the summary fighting costume. A number of these do not concern us, being Semitic or North African; but a Shekelesh, a Philistine, and one of the Turisha are represented, if Daressy's identifications are to be accepted. Unfortunately there is no explanatory inscription with the figures. The Shekelesh has a yellow-coloured skin, a small pointed beard, not meeting the lower lip. His hair is combed backward, in a way remarkably similar to the hair of the woman in the Phaestos disk (or he wears a crimped head-dress). He is apparelled in a gown, black with yellow circles above, green below, with vertical folds; over this is a waistband divided into coloured squares by bands of green. On his breast he wears an amulet, in the shape of a ring suspended round his neck by a cord. A sort of torque [or a chain] surrounds his neck, and his hands are secured in a handcuff. The Philistine is more fully bearded: he has likewise a yellow-coloured skin. The top of the tablet is unfortunately broken, so only the suggestion of the plumed head-dress is to be seen. He wears a long white robe with short sleeves, quatrefoil ornament embroidered upon it, and with some lines surrounding the neck; over this is a waistband extending from the knees up to the breast, with elaborate embroidery upon it: a tassel hangs in the middle. On the arms are bracelets. The face of this prisoner is of a much more refined cast than any of the others. The supposed Turisha has a red skin: his costume resembles that of the Philistine, but it is less elaborately embroidered. Three long ornamental tassels hang from the waistband. (3) In a country like Palestine, frequently plundered and possessing p. 121 a climate that does not permit of the preservation of frescoes and similar ancient records, we cannot hope to find anything like the rich documentation that Egypt offers us on the subject of commerce. Some suggestive facts may, however, be learnt from finds made in recent excavations, more especially pottery with coloured decoration. This will be found described in the section on pottery in my Excavation of Gezer, vol. ii, pp. 128–241. Fig. 10. A Bird, as painted on an Amorite and a Philistine Vase respectively. Click to enlarge Fig. 10. A Bird, as painted on an Amorite and a Philistine Vase respectively. Putting aside details, for which I may refer the reader to that work, it may be said that the periods, into which the history down to the fall of the Hebrew monarchy is divided, are five in number; to these have been given the names pre-Semitic, and First to Fourth Semitic. The Second Semitic, which I have dated 1800–1400 B.C., the time which ends in the Tell el-Amarna period, shows Egyptian and Cypriote influence in its pottery, and here for the first time painted ornament becomes prominent. The figures are outlined in broad brush strokes, and the spaces are filled in afterwards, wholly p. 122 or partly, with strokes in another colour. The subjects are animals, birds, fishes, and geometrical patterns generally, and there can be little doubt that they are crude local imitations of models of Late Minoan ware, directly imported into the country. The Third Semitic, 1400–1000 B.C., includes the time of the Philistine supremacy: and though I have dated the beginning of the period rather earlier than the time of their arrival, the peculiar technique of painted pottery that distinguishes it need not be dated so early, and may well have been introduced by them, as it certainly comes to an abrupt end about the time of their fall. In this there is a degeneration observable as compared with the best work of the Second Semitic ware. The designs had in fact become 'hieratic', and the fine broad lines in several colours had given place to thin-line monochrome patterns, which will be found illustrated in the book referred to. The Philistines thus, in this particular art, show an inferiority to their Semitic predecessors. The reason is simple: they were removed farther in time from the parent designs. But the sudden substitution of the fine-line technique of the Third Semitic period for the broad-line technique of the Second, while the general plan of the designs remains the same, can be most easily accounted for by the assumption that the art passed from one race to another. And the sudden disappearance of the fine-line technique coincides so completely with the subjugation of the Philistines, that we can hardly hesitate to call painted ware displaying the peculiar Third Semitic characters 'Philistine'. This may be a valuable help for future exploration. The five graves found at Gezer, of which a fully illustrated detailed description will be found in Excavation of Gezer, vol. i, pp. 289–300, were so absolutely different from native Palestinian graves of any period that unless they were those of Philistines or some other foreign tribe they would be inexplicable. They were oblong rectangular receptacles sunk in the ground and covered with large slabs. Each contained a single body stretched out (not crouched, as in the Canaanite interments), the head, with one exception, turned to the east. Ornaments and food-deposits were placed around. The mouth-plate found on some of the skeletons was an important link with Cretan tradition, and the graves, as a whole, show decided kinship with the shaft-graves of Knossos or Mycenae, although naturally the art-centre has shifted to Cyprus, which was the origin of such of the deposits as had no Egyptian analogies. The bones from these tombs presented analogies with Cretan bones (seep. 60 ante); but of course five skeletons are quite insufficient as a basis for anthropological deductions. With further excavation the debt of Palestinian civilization to the p. 123 [paragraph continues]Philistines will probably be found to be even greater than the foregoing paragraphs would suggest. Briefly, the impression which the daily study of objects found in excavation has made on the present writer is, that from about 1400–1200 B.C. onwards to about 800 B.C. Western Palestine was the scene of a struggle between the Aegean and Egyptian civilizations, with a slight mingling of Mesopotamian influence, and that the local tribes took a merely passive interest in the conflict and made no contribution whatever to its development. (4) The Biblical and other literary sources point to the same conclusion. Let us take as an illustration the art of Architecture. It is notable that the only Palestine temples we read about in the Old Testament, until the building of Solomon's temple, are the houses of the Philistine deities. 1 Yahweh has a simple tent; the Canaanite deities have to be content with their primitive High Places—open areas of ground with rude pillar-stones. But Gaza, Ashdod, and Beth-Shan have their temples, and most likely the place called Beth-Car and some of the Beth-Dagons derived their Semitic names from some conspicuous temples of gods of the Philistine pantheon. We can deduce something as to the architecture of the Gaza temple from the account of its destruction by Samson (Judges xvi). There were two groups of spectators—a large crowd (the figure 3000 need not be taken literally) on the roof, and the lords and their attendants inside. If Samson was also inside, those on the roof could not have seen him, for no hypaethrum of any probable size would have allowed any considerable number to enjoy the sport. Samson must therefore have been outside the temple; and it follows that the lords and their attendants must have been, not in an enclosed naos, but under an open portico. That is to say, the structure must have been a building of the megaron type. When Samson rested—just where we should expect, at the edge of the grateful shade of the portico, where he could the more quickly recover his strength but would be at a respectful distance from the Philistine notables—he seized the wooden pillars of the portico, which probably tapered p. 124 downwards in the Mycenean style. He pushed them off their bases by 'bowing himself with all his might', and, the portico being distyle and having thus no other support, he brought the whole structure down. Only a megaron plan will satisfy all the conditions of the story. Buildings such as this must have been familiar to David in Gath, and perhaps the sight of them suggested to his mind the idea of erecting a more worthy temple to his own Deity, as soon as he came into his kingdom. And when the work was carried out by Solomon, we see that the same model was followed. Fig. 11. Sketch-plans and Elevations of the Marneion at Gaza and of Solomon's Temple (accessory buildings omitted). The dimensions of the latter are figured in cubits: the former is not to scale. Click to enlarge Fig. 11. Sketch-plans and Elevations of the Marneion at Gaza and of Solomon's Temple (accessory buildings omitted). The dimensions of the latter are figured in cubits: the former is not to scale. The description in 1 Kings vi, vii is not an architect's specification, and it has numerous technical terns hard to understand. Many attempts have been made to design a building which should conform to this account, helped out by the not always trustworthy Josephus. The mutual incompatibility of these restorations (to say nothing of their prima facie architectural improbability) is sufficient to deter the present writer from attempting to add to their number. The main p. 125 lines of the description are, however, clear enough to show with what kind of building we have to deal. We need not attempt to assign a place to the subsidiary external buildings in three stories, their winding stairs and other appurtenances, erected against the outside of the main structure. But we note that the latter was oblong, 60 cubits long, 30 cubits high, and 20 cubits broad. These figures show a classical sense of proportion for which we look in vain in any ancient building that excavation has revealed in Palestine. A portico in front, of the breadth of the house, was 20 cubits broad and 10 cubits deep. Here again the dimensions are proportioned. The portico was distyle, like that in the temple of Gaza: the two pillars were called by names which show that they were NOT massēbōth—'the stablisher' and 'strength in it' are very suitable names for pillars that have to bear the responsibility of keeping up a heavy portico. These pillars had shafts 18 cubits long, and capitals 5 cubits high—a total length of 23 cubits, which leaves, when subtracted from the height of the building, 7 cubits, a margin that is just about sufficient for the entablature above and the plinth below. At the opposite end of the building 'the oracle' or 'the most holy place' corresponds exactly to the opisthodomos. It was 20 cubits square, which left a naos, measuring 30 cubits by 20, in the middle of the building: the 'forty cubits' of 1 Kings vi. 16 evidently includes the portico. With regard to the ordinary domestic architecture of the Philistines, it must be admitted that the excavations which have been made in Philistine towns do not lead us to infer that they were on the whole much better housed than their Semitic neighbours. Amos, is true, speaks of the 'palaces' of Gaza and Ashdod (i. 8, iii. 9); but this is rather a favourite word (‏ארמנות‎) of the prophet's, and he finds 'palaces' in other towns as well. To a rough herdsman many buildings would look palatial, which when viewed from another standpoint would hardly make the same impression. One of the Philistine tombs at Gezer contained a small knife of iron; and this leads us at once to a discussion of fundamental importance. Inserted into the account of the battle of Michmash there is a very remarkable passage (1 Sam. xiii. 19–23). It is corrupt, and some parts of it cannot be translated, but the meaning of it seems to be something like this: 'Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "Lest the Hebrews make them sword or spear." But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe and his ox-goad (?).' The next verse is too corrupt to translate, and then the passage proceeds: 'In the day of battle there was neither p. 126 sword nor spear in the hand of any of the people, except with Saul and Jonathan themselves.' This is sometimes referred to as a 'disarmament', but there is no hint of anything of the kind. It simply says that the Philistines kept the monopoly of the iron trade in their own hands, and naturally restricted the sale of weapons of offence to the Hebrews, just as modern civilized nations have regulations against importing firearms among subject or backward communities. The Hebrews were just emerging from the bronze age culture. Iron agricultural implements, which seem slightly to precede iron war-weapons, had been introduced among them 1; but the novelty of iron had not worn off by the time of Solomon when he built his temple without the profaning touch of this metal (1 Kings vi. 7)—just as when Joshua made flint knives to perform the sacred rite of circumcision (Joshua v. 2); the old traditions must be maintained in religious functions. The champions of the Philistines, of course, were able to use iron freely, although for defensive purposes they still use bronze. 2 Goliath had a bronze helmet, a bronze cuirass of scale-armour (not a mail-coat, as in the English translation), bronze greaves, and a bronze 'javelin', but a spear with a great shaft and a heavy head of iron. The armour of 'Ishbi-benob' was probably similar, but the text is corrupt and defective. The armour of Goliath is indeed quite Homeric, and very un-Semitic. The κυνέν πάγχαλκος, the χαλκοκνήμιδες, 3 and the enormous spear— … 4— are noteworthy in this connexion, especially the greaves, the Hebrew word for which (‏מצחת‎) occurs nowhere else. The θώραξ λεπιδωτός alone would seem post-Homeric, but this is an argumentum e silentio. Fragments of a scale-cuirass, in iron, and of a rather later date, were found in the excavation of Tell Zakariya, overlooking the scene where the battle is laid (Excavations in Palestine, p. 150). But the culture that Goliath's equipment illustrates, like his ordeal by single combat, is much more European or Aegean than Palestinian. p. 127 In the report of Wen-Amon we found that the Zakkala were busy in the Phoenician ports, and had large influence in Phoenicia. The representations of Phoenician ships, such as the sadly damaged fresco which W. Max Müller has published, 1 shows them to have been identical in type with the ships of the Pulasati. It is highly probable that further research will show that it was due to the influence of the 'Peoples of the Sea' that the Phoenicians were induced to take to their very un-Semitic seafaring life. And it is also probable that it was due to Zakkala influence that the same people abandoned the practice of circumcision, as Herodotus says they did when they had commerce with 'Greeks'. 2 An interesting question now arises. Was it to the Philistines and their kinsmen that the civilized world owes the alphabet? The facts that suggest this query may be briefly stated. For countless generations the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and probably the Hittites, had been lumbering away with their complex syllabaries; scripts as difficult to learn and to use as is the Chinese of to-day. As in China, the complexity of the scripts was a bar to the diffusion of learning: the arts of reading and writing were perforce in the hand of specially trained guilds of scribes. No one thought of the possibility of simplifying the complexities; while current 'hieratic' forms of the letters might come into being with hasty writing, all the elaborate machinery of syllables and ideograms and determinatives was retained without essential modification. Suddenly we find that a little nation in Syria appears to have hit upon a series of twenty-two easily-written signs by which the whole complex system of the sounds of their language can be expressed with sufficient clearness. If it was really the Phoenicians, of all people, who performed this feat of analysis, it was one of the most stupendous miracles in the history of the world. That the Phoenicians ever originated the alphabet, or anything else, becomes more and more impossible to believe with every advance of knowledge. The alphabet makes its appearance soon after the movements of the 'sea-peoples'. Zakar-Baal is found keeping his accounts, not on clay tablets (and therefore not in cuneiform) but on papyrus, which he imports from Egypt in large quantities. And we are tempted to ask if the characters he used were some early form of the signs of the so-called 'Phoenician' alphabet. The oldest specimen of this alphabet yet found has come to light in Cyprus: the next oldest is the far-famed Moabite Stone. p. 128 [paragraph continues]W. Max Müller 1 cleverly infers from some peculiarities in the rendering of names in the list of Sheshonk's captured towns, that the scribe of that document was working from a catalogue in which the names were written in the Phoenician alphabet. This would bring the use of this alphabet in Palestine back to about 930 B.C., or about a century earlier than the Moabite Stone. A letter in neo-Babylonian cuneiform, probably not much earlier than this, and certainly of local origin, was found at Gezer: the date of the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet is thus narrowed down very closely. Whence came the signs of this alphabet? De Rougé's theory, which derived them from Egyptian hieratic, was the most reasonable of any, but no longer commands favour. There was for long a script of linear signs, strangely resembling the Phoenician alphabet, in use in Crete. It must be admitted, however, that so far no very satisfactory analogies have been drawn between them, though their comparison is not without promise of future fruit. But in this connexion the Phaestos Disk once more seems to assume importance. We are inclined to ask if it is possible that in the script of which this document is so far the sole representative, we are to see the long-sought origin? It is not unreasonable to suppose that in process of time the script of the Disk would become simplified into just such a linear script as that alphabet: and the principle of elision of the terminal vowel of syllables, already noticed in analysing the inscription on the Disk, is just what is wanted to help the process of evolution over that last most difficult fence, which divides a syllabary from a pure alphabet. Suppose that three syllables, ka, ko, ku, represented each by a special symbol, lost their vowel under certain grammatical or euphonic conditions; then all three being simply pronounced k might in writing become confused, leading ultimately to the choice of one of the syllabic signs to denote the letter k. Thus an alphabet of consonants would develop, which is just what we have in the Phoenician alphabet. The 45 +x characters of the original script—for we have no guarantee that we have all the characters of the script represented on the disk—could very easily wear down by some such process as this to the twenty-two signs of the Phoenician alphabet. As to the forms of the letters, in the total absence of intermediate links, and our total ignorance of the phonetic value of the Phaestos signs, it would be premature to institute any elaborate comparisons between the two scripts. The Phaestos Disk is dated not later than p. 129 [paragraph continues]1600 B.C., the Phoenician alphabet cannot be traced even so far back as about 1000 B.C., and what may have happened in the intervening six hundred years we do not know. But some arresting comparisons are already possible. The symbol which I have called (h) might well in rapid writing develop into the Phoenician sign aleph. The little man running (a) is not unlike some forms of tzade. The head (e) both in name and shape reminds us of rēsh. The dotted triangle (i) recalls daleth or teth, the fish (l) in name and to some extent in shape suggests nun—it is notable that the fish on the Disk always stands upright on its tail—the five-leaved sprig (w) is something like samekh, the water-sign (ß) might be mem (the three teeth of the Phoenician letter preserving the three lines of the original sign). The manacles (z) resembles beth, the nail-pillar or prop (ζ) resembles nay in both shape and meaning, the remarkable key (θ) simplifies into zayin, the square (σ) into gimel, and the object (π) whatever it may be, into pe. These tentative equivalents have been added for comparison to the table of characters on p. 116. The direction of writing is from right to left in each case. The plumed head-dress, so conspicuous as a sign on the Disk, connects it with the Philistines: and the evidence of forded us by the Golénischeff papyrus of the Syrian colonies of Philistines, or of their near kinsmen the Zakkala, links it with the Phoenicians. How far it may be possible to make further comparisons, with the various scripts of Crete, Cyprus, and Asia Minor, are questions which must be left for future discoveries and for special research. We are not here writing a history of the alphabet: but one or two points may be noticed which have a bearing on the subject. It is commonly assumed that because the names of the letters have a meaning in Semitic, and no meaning in Greek, therefore they are Semitic words adapted into Greek. This is, however, a non sequitur. 1 It would be more probable that the borrowing nation should cast about for words similar in sound, and possessing a meaning which would make the names of the letters easily remembered. Such an attempt would be sure to be unsuccessful in some cases: and in point of fact there are several letter-names in the Semitic alphabet to which the tortures of the Inquisition have to be applied before a meaning can be extracted from them through Semitic. It may thus be that all the letter-names are a heritage from some pre-Hellenic, non-Semitic language: and instead of the old idea of a Phoenician Ur-Alphabet from which all the South Semitic, North African, West p. 130 [paragraph continues]Asian, Hellenic, and Italic alphabetic scripts are derived, we are to picture a number of parallel and nearly related alphabets developing out of one of the hieroglyphic syllabaries of the Aegean basin—one of which scripts was taught to the Phoenicians by the despised Philistines. Whoever invented the alphabet laid the foundation-stone of civilization. Can it be that we owe this gift to the Philistines, of all people? And even this is not all. The rude tribes of Israel were forced to wage a long and stubborn fight with the Philistines for the possession of the Promised Land. For long it seemed doubtful whether Canaan would be retained by the Semitic tribes or lost to them: and it is no mere accident that the best-known name of the country is derived from that of the sea-rovers. In the struggle the Hebrews learned the lessons of culture which they needed for their own advancement: and what was more important, they learned their own essential unity. The pressure of external opposition welded, as nothing else could have done, their loosely-knitted clans into a nation. This was the historic function of the Philistines; they accomplished their task, and then vanished with startling suddenness from the stage. But the Chosen People were led on from strength to strength, till they too fulfilled their mission of teaching mankind to look forward to a time when the knowledge of the Lord should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Thus the influence of the Philistines remains, even if indirectly, a heritage of humanity to the end of time. Footnotes 116:1 Compare the scarified lines still to be seen on the faces of negroes who have been liberated from slavery within recent years in the Turkish empire. 120:1 Daressy, 'Plaquettes émaillées de Médinet Habu,' in Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, vol. xi, p. 49. 123:1 Except the temple at Shechem (Judges viii. 33–ix. 46). The events described as taking place there certainly postulate a covered building. This, however, is perhaps no real exception: it may have originally been a Philistine structure. It was dedicated to a certain Baal- or El-Berith. But 'the Lord of the Covenant' is a strange name for a local ba‘al: can it be that Berith is a corruption of Βριτο[μαρτις]? The Book of Judges was probably written about the sixth century B.C.: by then the temple was most likely a ruin, and the memory of its dedication might easily have become obscured. The curious expression in Ezekiel, commented upon on p. 6 ante, might be similarly explained: by the ordinary canons of criticism the difficult original reading is to be preferred to the easy emendation there quoted. 126:1 See the essay on 'Bronze and Iron' in Andrew Lang's The World of Homer, pp. 96–104. 126:2 An elaborate paper, entitled 'Die Erfinder der Eisentechnik', by W. Belck, will be found in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (1907), p. 334. It claims the Philistines as the original inventors of the smith's art. That is, perhaps, going a little too far. 126:3 Greaves appear to be unknown in Oriental or Egyptian warfare. See Daremberg and Saglio, Dict. des antt. gr. et rom., s. v. Ocrea. 126:4 Il. vi. 318. 127:1 Mitth. der vorderas. Gesell. (1904), 2, plate iii. 127:2 II. 104. 128:1 Asien and Europa, p. 171. 129:1 See M. René Dussaud's paper 'L’Origine égéenne des alphabets sémitiques' in Journal asiatique, Sér. X, vol. v, p. 357. Next: Index Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Philistines, by R.A.S. Macalister, [1913], at sacred-texts.com p. 29 CHAPTER II THE HISTORY OF THE PHILISTINES I. The Adventures of Wen-Amon among them The Golénischeff papyrus 1 was found in 1891 at El-Khibeh in Upper Egypt. It is the personal report of the adventures of an Egyptian messenger to Lebanon, sent on an important semi-religious, semi-diplomatic mission. The naïveté of the style makes it one of the most vivid and convincing narratives that the ancient East affords. Ramessu III is nominally on the throne, and the papyrus is dated in his fifth year. The real authority at Thebes is, however, Hrihor, the high priest of Amon, who is ultimately to usurp the sovereignty and become the founder of the Twenty-first Dynasty. In Lower Egypt, the Tanite noble Nesubenebded, in Greek Smendes, has control of the Delta. Egypt is in truth a house divided against itself. On the sixteenth day of the eleventh month of the fifth year of Ramessu, one Wen-Amon was dispatched from Thebes to fetch timber for the barge called User-het, the great august sacred barge of Amon-Ra, king of the gods. Who Wen-Amon may have been, we do not certainly know; he states that he had a religious office, but it is not clear what this was. It speaks eloquently for the rotten state of Egypt at the time, however, that no better messenger could be found than this obviously incompetent person—a sort of Egyptian prototype of the Rev. Robert Spalding! With him was an image of Amon, which he looked upon as a kind of fetish, letters of credit or of introduction, and the wherewithal to purchase the timber. Sailing down the Nile, Wen-Amon in due time reached Tanis, and presented himself at the court of Nesubenebded, who with his wife Tentamon, received the messenger of Amon-Ra with fitting courtesy. He handed over his letters, which (being themselves unable to decipher them) they caused to be read: and they said, 'Yea, yea, p. 30 [paragraph continues]I will do all that our lord Amon-Ra saith.' Wen-Amon tarried at Tanis till a fortnight had elapsed from his first setting out from Thebes; and then his hosts put him in charge of a certain Mengebti, captain of a ship about to sail to Syria. This was rather casual; evidently Mengebti's vessel was an ordinary trading ship, whereas we might have expected (and as appears later the Syrians did expect) that one charged with an important special message should be sent in a special ship. At this point the thoughtless Wen-Amon made his first blunder. He forgot all about reclaiming his letters of introduction from Nesubenebded, and so laid up for himself the troubles even now in store for the helpless tourist who tries to land at Beirut without a passport. Like the delightful pilgrimage of the mediaeval Dominican Felix Fabri, the modernness of this narrative of antiquity is not one of its least attractions. On the first day of the twelfth month Mengebti's ship set sail. After a journey of unrecorded length the ship put in at Dor, probably the modern Tantura on the southern coast of the promontory of Carmel. Dor was inhabited by Zakkala (a very important piece of information) and they had a king named Badyra. We are amazed to read that, apparently as soon as the ship entered the harbour, this hospitable monarch sent to Wen-Amon 'much bread, a jar of wine, and a joint of beef'. I verily believe that this was a tale got up by some bakhshish-hunting huckster. The simpleminded tourist of modern days is imposed upon by similar magnificent fables. There are few who have travelled much by Levant steamers without having lost something by theft. Sufferers may claim Wen-Amon as a companion in misfortune. As soon as the vessel touched at Dor, some vessels of gold, four vessels and a purse of silver—in all 5 deben or about 1 1/5 lb. of gold and 31 deben or about 7½ lb. of silver—were stolen by a man of the ship, who decamped. This was all the more serious, because, as appears later, these valuables were actually the money with which Wen-Amon had been entrusted for the purchase of the timber. So Wen-Amon did exactly what he would have done in the twentieth century AḌ. He went the following morning and interviewed the governor, Badyra. There was no Egyptian consul at the time, so he was obliged to conduct the interview in person. 'I have been robbed in thy harbour,' he says, 'and thou, being king, art he who should judge, and search for my money. The money indeed belongs to Amon-Ra, and Nesubenebded, and Hrihor my lord: it also belongs to Warati, and Makamaru, and Zakar-Baal prince of Byblos' p. 31 [paragraph continues]—the last three being evidently the names of the merchants who had been intended to receive the money. The account of Abraham's negotiations with the Hittites is not more modern than the king's reply. We can feel absolutely certain that he said exactly the words which Wen-Amon puts in his mouth: 'Thy honour and excellency! Behold, I know nothing of this complaint of thine. If the thief were of my land, and boarded the ship to steal thy treasure, I would even repay it from mine own treasury till they found who the thief was. But the thief belongs to thy ship (so I have no responsibility). Howbeit, wait a few days and I will seek for him.' Wen-Amon had to be content with this assurance. Probably nothing was done after he had been bowed out from the governor's presence: in any case, nine days elapsed without news of the missing property. At the end of the time Wen-Amon gave up hope, and made up his mind to do the best he could without the money. He still had his image of Amon-Ra, and he had a child-like belief that the foreigners would share the reverent awe with which he himself regarded it. So he sought permission of the king of Dor to depart. Here comes a lacuna much to be deplored. A sadly broken fragment helps to fill it up, but consecutive sense is unattainable. 'He said unto me "Silence!" . . . and they went away and sought their thieves . . . and I went away from Tyre as dawn was breaking . . . Zakar-Baal, prince of Byblos. . . there I found 30 deben of silver and took it . . . your silver is deposited with me . . . I will take it . . . they went away . . . I came to . . . the harbour of Byblos and . . . to Amon, and I put his goods in it. The prince of Byblos sent a messenger to me . . . my harbour. I sent him a message . . .' These, with a few other stray words, are all that can be made out. It seems as though Wen-Amon tried to recoup himself for his loss by appropriating the silver of some one else. At any rate, the fragment leaves Wen-Amon at his destination, the harbour of Byblos. Then the continuous text begins again. Apparently Zakar-Baal has sent a message to him to begone and to find a ship going to Egypt in which he could sail. Why Zakar-Baal was so inhospitable does not appear. Indeed daily, for nineteen days, he kept sending a similar message to the Egyptian, who seems to have done nothing one way or another. At last Wen-Amon found a ship about to sail for Egypt, and made arrangements to go as a passenger in her, despairing of ever carrying out his mission. He put his luggage on board and then waited for the darkness of night to come on board with his image of Amon, being for some reason anxious that none but himself should see this talisman. p. 32 But now a strange thing happened. One of the young men of Zakar-Baal's entourage was seized with a prophetic ecstasy—the first occurrence of this phenomenon on record—and in his frenzy cried, Bring up the god! Bring up Amon's messenger that has him! Send him, and let him go.' Obedient to the prophetic message Zakar-Baal sent down to the harbour to summon the Egyptian. The latter was much annoyed, and protested, not unreasonably, at this sudden change of attitude. Indeed he suspected a ruse to let the ship go off; with his belongings, and leave him defenceless at the mercy of the Byblites. The only effect of his protest was an additional order to 'hold up' the ship as well. In the morning he presented himself to Zakar-Baal. After the sacrifice had been made in the castle by the sea-shore where the prince dwelt, Wen-Amon was brought into his presence. He was 'sitting in his upper chamber, leaning his back against a window, while the waves of the great Syrian sea beat on the shore behind him'. To adapt a passage in one of Mr. Rudyard Kipling's best-known stories, we can imagine the scene, but we cannot imagine Wen-Amon imagining it: the eye-witness speaks in every word of the picturesque description. The interview was not pleasant for the Egyptian. It made so deep an impression upon him, that to our great gain he was able when writing his report to reproduce it almost verbatim, as follows: 'Amon's favour upon thee,' said Wen-Amon. 'How long is it since thou hast left the land of Amon?' demanded Zakar-Baal, apparently without returning his visitor's salutation. 'Five months and one day,' said Wen-Amon. (This answer shows how much of the document we have lost. We cannot account for more than the fourteen days spent between Thebes and Tanis, nine days at Dor, nineteen days at Byblos—six weeks in all-plus the time spent in the voyage, which at the very outside could scarcely have been more than another six weeks.) 'Well then, if thou art a true man, where are thy credentials?' We remember that Wen-Amon had left them with the prince of Tanis, and he said so. Then was Zakar-Baal very wroth. 'What! There is no writing in thy hand? And where is the ship that Nesubenebded gave thee? Where are its crew of Syrians? For sure, he would never have put thee in charge of this (incompetent Egyptian) who would have drowned thee—and then where would they have sought their god and thee?' This is the obvious sense, though injured by a slight lacuna. Nothing more clearly shows how the reputation of Egypt had sunk p. 33 in the interval since the exploits of Ramessu III. Zakar-Baal speaks of Mengebti and his Egyptian crew with much the same contempt as Capt. Davis in Stevenson's Ebb-tide speaks of a crew of Kanakas. Wen-Amon ventured on a mild protest. 'Nesubenebded has no Syrian crews: all his ships are manned with Egyptians.' 'There are twenty ships in my harbour,' said Zakar-Baal sharply, and ten thousand ships in Sidon—' The exaggeration and the aposiopesis vividly mirror the vehemence of the speaker. He was evidently going on to say that these ships, though Egyptian, were all manned by Syrians. But, seeing that Wen-Amon was, as he expresses it, 'silent in that supreme moment' he broke off, and abruptly asked— 'Now, what is thy business here?' We are to remember that Wen-Amon had come to buy timber, but had lost his money. We cannot say anything about whether he had actually recovered the money or its equivalent, because of the unfortunate gap in the document already noticed. However, it would appear that he had at the moment no ready cash, for he tried the effect of a little bluff. 'I have come for the timber of the great august barge of Amon-Ra, king of the gods. Thy father gave it, as did thy grandfather, and thou wilt do so too.' But Zakar-Baal was not impressed. 'True,' said he, 'they gave the timber, but they were paid for it: I will do so too, if I be paid likewise.' And then we are interested to learn that he had his father's account-books brought in, and showed his visitor the records of large sums that had been paid for timber. 'See now,' continued Zakar-Baal in a speech rather difficult to construe intelligibly, 'had I and my property been under the king of Egypt, he would not have sent money, but would have sent a command. These transactions of my father's were not the payment of tribute due. I am not thy servant nor the servant of him that sent thee. All I have to do is to speak, and the logs of Lebanon lie cut on the shore of the sea. But where are the sails and the cordage thou hast brought to transport the logs? . . . Egypt is the mother of all equipments and all civilization; how then have they made thee come in this hole-and-corner way?' He is evidently still dissatisfied with this soi-disant envoy, coming in a common passenger ship without passport or credentials. Then Wen-Amon played his trump card. He produced the image of Amon. 'No hole-and-corner journey is this, O guilty one!' said he. 'Amon owns every ship on the sea, and owns Lebanon which thou hast claimed as thine own. Amon has sent me, and Hrihor my lord has made me come, bearing this great god. And yet, though thou didst p. 34 well know that he was here, thou hadst kept him waiting twenty-nine days in the harbour. 1 Former kings have sent money to thy fathers, but not life and health: if thou do the bidding of Amon, he will send thee life and health. Wish not for thyself a thing belonging to Amon-Ra.' These histrionics, however, did not impress Zakar-Baal any more than the previous speech. Clearly Wen-Amon saw in his face that the lord of Byblos was not overawed by the image of his god, and that he wanted something more tangible than vague promises of life and health. So at length he asked for his scribe to be brought him that he might write a letter to Tanis, praying for a consignment of goods on account. The letter was written, the messenger dispatched, and in about seven weeks returned with a miscellaneous cargo of gold, silver, linen, 500 rolls of papyrus (this is important), hides, rope, lentils, and fish. A little present for Wen-Amon himself was sent as well by the lady Tentamon. Then the business-like prince rejoiced, we are told, and gave the word for the felling of the trees. And at last, some eight months after Wen-Amon's departure from Thebes, the timber lay on the shore ready for delivery. A curious passage here follows in the papyrus. It contains one of the oldest recorded jokes—if not actually the oldest—in the world. When Zakar-Baal came down to the shore to give the timber over to Wen-Amon, he was accompanied by an Egyptian butler, by name Pen-Amon. The shadow of Zakar-Baal's parasol happened to fall on the envoy, whereupon the butler exclaimed, 'Lo, the shadow of Pharaoh thy lord falleth on thee!' The point of the witticism is obscure, but evidently even Zakar-Baal found it rather too extreme, for he sharply rebuked the jester. But he proceeded himself to display a delicate humour. 'Now,' said he, 'I have done for thee what my fathers did, though thou hast not done for me what thy fathers did. Here is the timber lying ready and complete. Do what thou wilt with it. But do not be contemplating the terror of the sea' (there cannot be the slightest doubt that Wen-Amon was at this moment glancing over the waters and estimating his chances of a smooth crossing). 'Contemplate for a moment the terror of Me! Ramessu IX sent some messengers to me and'—here he turned to the butler—' Go thou, and show him their graves!' 'Oh, let me not see them!' was the agonized exclamation of Wen-Amon, anxious now above all things to be off without further delay. Those were people who had no god with them! Wherefore dost thou not instead erect a tablet to record to all time "that Amon-Ra p. 35 sent to me and I sent timber to Egypt, to beseech ten thousand years of life, and so it came to pass"?' 'Truly that would be a great testimony!' said the sarcastic prince, and departed. Wen-Amon now set about loading his timber. But presently there sailed eleven ships of the Zakkala into the harbour—possibly those on whom he had made a rash attempt at piracy to recoup himself for his losses at Dor. The merchants in them demanded his arrest. The poor Egyptian sat down on the shore and wept. 'They have come to take me again!' he cried out—it would appear that he had been detained by the Zakkala before, but the record of this part of his troubles is lost in one of the lacunae of the MS. We despair of him altogether when he actually goes on to tell us that when news of this new trouble reached Zakar-Baal, that magnate wept also. However, we need not question the charming detail that he sent to Wen-Amon an Egyptian singing-girl, to console him with her songs. But otherwise he washed his hands of the whole affair. He told the Zakkala that he felt a delicacy about arresting the messenger of Amon on his own land, but he gave them permission to follow and arrest him themselves, if they should see fit. So away Wen-Amon sailed, apparently without his timber, and presumably with the Zakkala in pursuit. But he managed to evade them. A wind drove him to Cyprus. The Cypriotes came out, as he supposed, to kill him and his crew; but they brought them before Hatiba, their queen. He called out 'Does any one here understand Egyptian?' One man stepped forward. He dictated a petition to be translated to the queen— And here the curtain falls abruptly, for the papyrus breaks off; and the rest of this curious tragi-comedy of three thousand years ago is lost to us. We see from it that the dwellers on the Syrian coast had completely thrown off the terror inspired by the victories of Ramessu III. An Egyptian on a sacred errand from the greatest men in the country, bearing the image of an Egyptian god, could be robbed, bullied, mocked, threatened, thwarted in every possible way. Granted that he was evidently not the kind of man to command respect, yet the total lack of reverence for the royalties who had sent him, and the sneers at Egypt and the Egyptian rulers, are very remarkable. We see also that the domain of the 'People of the Sea' was more extensive than the scanty strip of territory usually allowed them on Bible maps. Further evidence of this will meet us presently, p. 36 but meanwhile it may be noted that the name 'Palestine' is much less of an extension of the name 'Philistia' than the current maps would have us suppose. In other words, the two expressions are more nearly synonymous than they are generally taken to be. We find Dor, south of Carmel, to be a Zakkala town; and Zakkala ships are busy in the ports further north. Indeed, one is half inclined to see Zakkala dominant at Byblos itself. Wen-Amon was a person of slender education—even of his own language he was not a master—and he was not likely to render foreign names correctly. Probably he could speak nothing but Egyptian: he was certainly ignorant of the language of Cyprus, whatever that may have been: and possibly linguistic troubles are indicated by his rendering of the name of the lord of Byblos. Can it be that this was not a name at all, but a title (or rather the Semitic translation of a title, given by a Zakkala dragoman): that Zakar is not ‏זכר‎ 'remember', but the name of the Zakkala: and that Baal here, as frequently elsewhere, means 'lord' in a human and not a divine sense? If so, the name would mean 'the lord of the Zakkala', a phrase that recalls 'the lords of the Philistines' in the Hebrew Scriptures. The syntax assumed is of course quite un-Semitic: but it is often the case in dragomans’ translations that the syntax of the original language is preserved. Something like this idea has been anticipated by M. A. J. Reinach. 1 Zakar-baal was no mere pirate chieftain, however. He was a substantial, civilized, and self-reliant prince, and contrasts most favourably with the weak, half-blustering, half-lacrimose Egyptian. He understood the Egyptian language; for he could rebuke the jest of his Egyptian butler, who would presumably speak his native tongue in 'chaffing' his compatriot; and no doubt the interview in the upper room was carried on in Egyptian. He was well acquainted with the use of letters, for he knew where to put his finger on the relevant parts of the accounts of his two predecessors. These accounts were probably not in cuneiform characters on clay tablets, as he is seen to import large quantities of papyrus from Egypt. He is true to his old maritime traditions: he builds his house where he can watch the great waves of the Mediterranean beat on the shore, and he is well informed about the ships in his own and the neighbouring harbours, and their crews. There is a dim recollection of a Philistine occupation of Phoenicia p. 37 recorded for us in an oft-quoted passage of Justin (xviii. 3. 5), 1 in which he mentions a raid by the king of Ashkelon, just before the fall of Troy, on the Phoenician town of Sidon (so called from an alleged Phoenician word 'Sidon', meaning 'fish'). 'This is of course merely a saga-like tradition, and as we do not know from what authority Justin drew his information we can hardly put a very heavy strain upon it. And yet it seems to hang together with the other evidence, that in the Mycenaean period, when Troy was taken, there actually was a Philistine settlement on the Phoenician coast. As to the specific mention of Ashkelon, a suggestion, perhaps a little venturesome, may be hazarded. The original writer of the history of this vaguely-chronicled event, whoever he may have been, possibly recorded correctly that it was the Zakkala who raided Sidon. Some later author or copyist was puzzled by this forgotten name, and 'emended' a rege Sacaloniorum to a rege Ascaloniorum. Stranger things have happened in the course of manuscript transmission. 2 The Papyrus gives us some chronological indications of importance. The expedition of Wen-Amon took place in the fifth year of Ramessu XII, that is to say, about 1110 B.C. Zakar-Baal had already been governor of Byblos for a considerable time, for he had received envoys from Ramessu IX (1144–1129). Suppose these envoys to have come about 1130, that gives him already twenty years. The envoys of Ramessu IX were detained seventeen years; but in the first place this may have been an exaggeration, and in the second place we need not suppose that many of those seventeen years necessarily fell within the reign of the sender of these messengers. Further, Zakar-Baal's father and grandfather had preceded him in office. We do not know how long they reigned, but giving twenty-five years to each, which is probably a high estimate, we reach the date 1180, which is sufficiently long after the victory of Ramessu III for the people to begin to recover from the blow which that event inflicted on them. Footnotes 29:1 See Max Müller, Mittheilungen der deutschen vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, 1900, p. 14; Erman, Zeitschrift far ägyptische Sprache, xxxviii, p. 1; Breasted, Ancient Records, iv, p. 274. 34:1 An inconsistency: he has added ten days to his former statement. 36:1 'Byblos, où règne un prince qui pourrait bien être un Tchakara sémitisé, si l’on en croit son nom de Tchakar-baal.' Revue archéologique, sér. IV, vol. xv, p. 45. 37:1 'Et quoniam ad Carthaginiensium mentionem uentum est, de origine eorum pauca dicenda sunt, repetitis Tyriorum paulo altius rebus, quorum casus etiam dolendi fuerunt. Tyriorum gens condita a Phoenicibus fuit, qui terraemotu uexati, relicto patriae solo, Assyrium stagnum primo, mox mari proximum littus incoluerunt, condita ibi urbe quam a piscium ubertate Sidona appellauerunt; nam piscem Phoenices sidon uocant. Post multos deinde annos a rege Ascaloniorum expugnati, nauibus appulsi, Tyron urbem ante annum Troianae cladis condiderunt.' 37:2 On the other hand Scylax in his Periplus calls Ashkelon 'a city of the Tyrians'. Next: II. Their Struggle with the Hebrews Return to Ancient Near East index Return to Main Index THE SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS R.C. Thompson, translator [The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, London 1903].[1] Raging storms, evil gods are they Ruthless demons, who in heaven's vault were created, are they, Workers of evil are they, They lift up the head to evil, every day to evil Destruction to work. Of these seven the first is the South wind... The second is a dragon, whose mouth is opened... That none can measure. The third is a grim leopard, which carries off the young ... The fourth is a terrible Shibbu ... The fifth is a furious Wolf, who knoweth not to flee, The sixth is a rampant ... which marches against god and king. The seventh is a storm, an evil wind, which takes vengeance, Seven are they, messengers to King Anu are they, From city to city darkness work they, A hurricane, which mightily hunts in the heavens, are they Thick clouds, that bring darkness in heaven, are they, Gusts of wind rising, which cast gloom over the bright day, are they, With the Imkhullu [2] the evil wind, forcing their way, are they, The overflowing of Adad [3] mighty destroyers, are they, At the right of Adad stalking, are they, In the height of heaven, like lightning flashing, are they, To wreak destruction forward go they , In the broad heaven, the home of Anu, the King, evilly do they arise, and none to oppose. When Enlil heard these tidings, a plan in his heart he pondered, With Ea, exalted Massu of the gods, be took counsel. Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar, whom he had set to order the vault of heaven, With Anu he divided the lordship of the whole heaven, To these three gods, his offspring Day and night, without ceasing, he ordained to stand, When the seven evil gods stormed the vault of heaven, Before the gleaming Sin, they set themselves angrily, [4] The mighty Shamash, Adad the warrior, they brought on their side, Ishtar, with Anu the King, moved into a shining dwelling, exercising dominion over the heavens, [Nearly ten lines here are unreadable.] Day and night he was dark (i.e., Sin), in the dwelling of his dominion he sat not down, The evil gods, the messengers of Anu, the King, are they, Raising their evil heads, in the night shaking themselves, are they, Evil searching out, are they, From the heaven, like a wind, over the land rush they. Enlil saw the darkening of the hero Sin in heaven, The lord spoke to his minister Nusku, O My minister Nusku, my message unto the ocean bring, The tidings of my son Sin, who in heaven has been sadly darkened, Unto Ea, in the ocean, announce it." Nusku exalted the word of his lord, To Ea, in the ocean, he went quickly, To the prince, the exalted Massu the lord Nudimmud.[5] Nusku, the word of his lord there announced Ea in the ocean heard that word, He bit his lip and filled his mouth with wailing; Ea called his son Marduk, and gave him the message: "Go, my son Marduk, Son of a prince, the gleaming Sin has been sadly darkened in heaven, His darkening is seen in the heavens, The seven evil gods, death-dealing, fearless are they, The seven evil gods, like a flood, rush on, the land they fall upon, do they, Against the land, like a storm, they rise, do they, Before the gleaming Sin, they set themselves angrily; The mighty Shamash, Adad the warrior, they brought on their side." NOTES: [1] This story is the sixteenth tablet of a series called the "Evil Demon Series," of which we have an Assyrian with a parallel Sumerian text. Presumably, therefore, it was a very ancient legend. [2] The Imkhullu appears also in the Creation Epic. [3] Adad is god of storm, Anu of heaven, Enlil of storm, Sin of the Moon, Shamash of the Sun, and Ishtar of love and fruitfulness. The meaning of Massu is unknown; but Ea was long the chief ruler. [4] The evil gods darken the moon by an eclipse, Shamash helping them by withdrawing his light from the moon, and Adad by sending cloudy weather. [5] A name for Ea. DESCRIPTIONS OF "THE SEVEN" I Destructive storms and evil winds are they, A storm of evil, presaging the baneful storm, A storm of evil, forerunner of the baneful storm. Mighty children, mightv sons are they, Messengers of Namtar are they, Throne-bearers of Ereshkigal. [1] The flood driving through the land are they. Seven gods of the wide heavens, Seven gods of the broad earth, Seven robber-gods are they. Seven gods of universal sway, Seven evil gods, Seven evil demons, Seven evil and violent demons, Seven in heaven, seven on earth. II Neither male nor female are they. Destructive whirlwinds they, Having neither wife nor offspring. Compassion and mercy they do not know. Prayer and supplication they do not hear. Horses reared in the mountains, Hostile to Ea. Throne-bearers of the gods are they. Standing on the highway, befouling the street. Evil are they, evil are they, Seven they are, seven they are, Twice seven they are. III The high enclosures, the broad enclosures like a flood they pass through. From house to house they dash along. No door can shut them out, No bolt can turn them back. Through the door, like a snake, they glide, Through the hinge, like the wind, they storm. Tearing the wife from the embrace of the man, Snatching the child from the knees of a man, Driving the freedman from his family home. [1 ]The mistress of the netherworld, while Namtar is the god of pestilence. CHARM AGAINST THE SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS Seven are they, seven are they! In the channel of the deep seven are they! In the radiance of heaven seven are they! In the channel of the deep in a palace grew they up. Male they are not, female they are not. In the midst of the deep are their paths. Wife they have not, son they have not. Order and kindness know they not. Prayer and supplication hear they not. The cavern in the mountain they enter. Unto Hea are they hostile. The throne-bearers of the gods are they. Disturbing the lily in the torrents are they set. Baleful are they, baleful are they. Seven are they, seven are they, seven twice again are they. May the spirits of heaven remember, may the spirits of earth remember.

Joseph and the Exodus.txt

Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald Mackenzie, [1907], at sacred-texts.com p. 15 CHAPTER II The Tragedy of Osiris Osiris the Wise King--Introduction of Agriculture --Isis the Strong Queen--Conspiracy of Set--The Tragic Feast--Osiris is slain--The Quest of Isis----Set the Oppressor--"The Opener of the Ways"--Birth of Horus--Thoth the Healer--Tree encloses Osiris's Body--Isis as a Foster-mother--Her Swallow Guise--Flames of Immortality--Osiris brought back to Egypt --Torn in Pieces by Set, the Boar Hunter--Isis recovers Fragments--Ghost of Murdered King--Horus as Hamlet--Succession of Uncle and Son--Agricultural Rites--The Inundation--Lamentations at Sowing Time and Harvest --Osiris and Isis as Corn Spirits--Hapi, the Nile Deity--Isis as a Male. WHEN Osiris was born, a voice from out of the heavens proclaimed: "Now hath come the lord of all things." The wise man Pamyles had knowledge of the tidings in a holy place at Thebes, and he uttered a cry of gladness, and told the people that a good and wise king had appeared among men. When Ra grew old and ascended unto heaven, Osiris sat in his throne and ruled over the land of Egypt. Men were but savages when he first came amongst them. They hunted wild animals, they wandered in broken tribes hither and thither, up and down the valley and among the mountains, and the tribes contended fiercely in battle. Evil were their ways and their desires were sinful. Osiris ushered in a new age. He made good and binding laws, he uttered just decrees, and he judged with wisdom between men. He caused peace to prevail at length over all the land of Egypt. Isis was the queen consort of Osiris, and she was a p. 16 woman of exceeding great wisdom. Perceiving the need of mankind, she gathered the ears of barley and wheat which she found growing wild, and these she gave unto the king. Then Osiris taught men to break up the land which had been under flood) to sow the seed, and, in due season, to reap the harvest. He instructed them also how to grind corn and knead flour and meal so that they might have food in plenty. By the wise ruler was the vine trained upon poles, and he cultivated fruit trees and caused the fruit to be gathered. A father was he unto his people, and he taught them to worship the gods, to erect temples, and to live holy lives. The hand of man was no longer lifted against his brother. There was prosperity in the land of Egypt in the days of Osiris the Good. When the king perceived the excellent works which he had accomplished in Egypt, he went forth to traverse the whole world with purpose to teach wisdom unto all men, and prevail upon them to abandon their evil ways. Not by battle conquest did he achieve his triumphs, but by reason of gentle and persuasive speech and by music and song. Peace followed in his footsteps, and men learned wisdom from his lips. Isis reigned over the land of Egypt until his return. She was stronger than Set, who regarded with jealous eyes the good works of his brother, for his heart was full of evil and he loved warfare better than peace. He desired to stir up rebellion in the kingdom. The queen frustrated his wicked designs. He sought in vain to prevail in battle against her, so he plotted to overcome Osiris by guile. His followers were seventy and two men who were subjects of the dusky queen of Ethiopia. 1 Thoth Asar-Ash (Osiris-Ah) with attributes of Khonsu Ptah Ra Set LUNAR, SOLAR AND EARTH GODS p. 17 Osiris Isis, winged, in the attitude of protecting Horus Horus (as Harpokrates) OSIRIS, ISIS AND HORUS When Osiris returned from his mission, there was great rejoicing in the land. A royal feast was held, and set came to make merry, and with him were his fellow conspirators. He brought a shapely and decorated chest, which he had caused to be made according to the measurements of the king's body. All men praised it at the feast, admiring its beauty, and many desired greatly to possess it. When hearts were made glad with beer-drinking, Set proclaimed that he would gift the chest unto him whose body fitted its proportions with exactness. There was no suspicion of evil design among the faithful subjects of Osiris. The guests spoke lightly, uttering jests one against another, and all were eager to make trial as Set had desired. So it happened that one after another entered the chest on that fateful night, until it seemed that no man could be found to win it for himself. Then Osiris came forward. He lay down within the chest, and he filled it in every part. But dearly was his triumph won in that dark hour which was his hour of doom. Ere he could raise his body, the evil followers of Set sprang suddenly forward and shut down the lid, which they nailed fast and soldered with lead. So the richly decorated chest became the coffin of the good king Osiris, from whom departed the breath of life. The feast was broken up in. confusion. Merrymaking ended in sorrow, and blood flowed after that instead of beer. Set commanded his followers to carry away the chest and dispose of it secretly. As he bade them, so did they do. They hastened through the night and flung it into the Nile. The current bore it away in the darkness, and when morning came it reached the great ocean and was driven hither and thither, tossing among the waves. So ended the days of Osiris and the years of his wise and prosperous reign in the land of Egypt. p. 18 When the grievous tidings were borne unto Isis, she was stricken with great sorrow and refused to be comforted. She wept bitter tears and cried aloud. Then she uttered a binding vow, cut off a lock of her shining hair, and put on the garments of mourning. Thereafter the widowed queen wandered up and down the land, seeking for the body of Osiris. Nor would she rest nor stay until she found what she sought. She questioned each one she encountered, and one after another they answered her without knowledge. Long she made search in vain, but at length she was told by shoreland children that they had beheld the chest floating down the Nile and entering the sea by the Delta mouth which takes its name from the city of Tanis. 1 Meanwhile Set, the usurper, ascended the throne of Osiris and reigned over the land of Egypt. Men were wronged and despoiled of their possessions. Tyranny prevailed and great disorder, and the followers of Osiris suffered persecution. The good queen Isis became a fugitive in the kingdom, and she sought concealment from her enemies in the swamps and deep jungle of the Delta. Seven scorpions followed her, and these were her protectors. Ra, looking down from heaven, was moved to pity because of her sore distress, and he sent to her aid Anubis, "the opener of the ways", who was the son of Osiris and Nepthys, and he became her guide. One day Isis sought shelter at the house of a poor woman, who was stricken with such great fear when she beheld the fearsome scorpions that she closed the door against the wandering queen. But a scorpion gained entrance) and bit her child so that he died. Then loud and long were the lamentations of the stricken mother. p. 19 The heart of Isis was touched with pity, and she uttered magical words which caused the child to come to life again, and the woman ministered unto the queen with gratitude while she remained in the house. Then Isis gave birth unto her son Horus; but Set came to know where the mother and babe were concealed, and he made them prisoners in the house. 1 It was his desire to put Horus to death, lest he should become his enemy and the claimant of the throne of Osiris. But wise Thoth came out of heaven and gave warning unto Isis, and she fled with her child into the night. She took refuge in Buto, where she gave Horus into the keeping of Uazit, the virgin goddess of the city, who was a serpent, 2 So that he might have protection against the jealous wrath of Set, his wicked uncle, while she went forth to search for the body of Osiris. But one day, when she came to gaze upon the child, she found him lying dead. A scorpion had bitten him, nor was it in her power to restore him to life again. In her bitter grief she called upon the great god Ra. Her voice ascended to high heaven, and the sun boat was stayed in its course. Then wise Thoth came down to give aid. He worked a mighty spell; he spoke magical words over the child Horus, who was immediately restored to life again. 3 It was the will of the gods that he should grow into strong manhood and then smite his father's slayer. The coffin of Osiris was driven by the waves to Byblos, in Syria, and it was cast upon the shore. A sacred tree sprang up and grew round it, and the body of the dead ruler was enclosed in its great trunk. The king of that p. 20 alien land marvelled greatly at the wonderful tree, because that it had such rapid growth, and he gave command that it should be cut down. As he desired, so it was done. Then was the trunk erected in his house as a sacred pillar, but to no man was given knowledge of the secret which it contained. A revelation came unto Isis, and she set out towards Byblos in a ship. When she reached the Syrian coast she went ashore clad in common raiment, and she sat beside a well, weeping bitterly. Women came to draw water, and they spoke to her with pity, but Isis answered not, nor ceased to grieve, until the handmaidens of the queen drew nigh. Unto them she gave kindly greetings. When they had spoken gently unto her she braided their hair, and into each lock she breathed sweet and alluring perfume. So it chanced that when the maidens returned unto the king's house the queen smelt the perfume, and commanded that the strange woman should be brought before her. Then it was that Isis found favour in the eyes of the queen, who chose her to be the foster-mother of the royal babe. But Isis refused to suckle the child, and to silence his cries for milk, she put her finger into his mouth. When night came she caused fire to burn away his flesh, and she took the form of a swallow and flew, uttering broken cries of sorrow, round about the sacred pillar which contained the body of Osiris. It chanced that the queen came nigh and beheld her babe in the flames. She immediately plucked him forth; but although she rescued his body she caused him to be denied immortality. 1 Isis again assumed her wonted form, and she confessed p. 21 unto the queen who she was. Then she asked the king that the sacred pillar be given unto her. The boon was granted, and she cut deep into the trunk and took forth the chest which was concealed therein. Embracing it tenderly, she uttered cries of lamentation that were so bitter and keen that the royal babe died with terror. Then she consecrated the sacred pillar, which she wrapped in linen and anointed with myrrh, and it was afterwards placed in a temple which the king caused to be erected to Isis, and for long centuries it was worshipped by the people of Byblos. The coffin of Osiris was borne to the ship in which the queen goddess had sailed unto Syria. Then she went aboard, and took with her Maneros, the king's first-born, and put forth to sea. The ship sped on, and the land faded from sight. Isis yearned to behold once again the face of her dead husband, and she opened the chest and kissed passionately his cold lips, while tears streamed from her eyes. Maneros, son of the King of Byblos, came stealthily behind her, wondering what secret the chest contained. Isis looked round with anger, her bright eyes blinded him, and he fell back dead into the sea. When Isis reached the land of Egypt she concealed the body of the dead king in a secret place, and hastened towards the city of Buto to embrace her son Horus; but shortlived was her triumph. It chanced that Set came hunting the boar 1 at full moon in the Delta jungle, and he found the chest which Isis had taken back from Syria. He caused it to be opened, and the body of Osiris was taken forth and rent into fourteen pieces, which he cast into the Nile, so that the crocodiles might devour them. But these reptiles had fear of Isis and touched them not, p. 22 and they were scattered along the river banks. 1 A fish (Oxyrhynchus) swallowed the phallus. The heart of Isis was filled with grief when she came to know what Set had done. She had made for herself a papyrus boat and sailed up and down the Delta waters, searching for the fragments of her husband's body, and at length she recovered them all, save the part which had been swallowed by the fish. She buried the fragments where they were found, and for each she made a tomb. In after days temples were erected over the tombs, and in these Osiris was worshipped by the people for long centuries. Set continued to rule over Egypt, and he persecuted the followers of Osiris and Isis in the Delta swamps and along the seacoast to the north. But Horus, who was rightful king, grew into strong manhood. He prepared for the coming conflict, and became a strong and brave warrior. Among his followers were cunning workers in metal who were called Mesniu (smiths), and bright and keen were their weapons of war. The sun hawk was blazoned on their battle banners. One night there appeared to Horus in a. dream a vision of his father Osiris. 2 The ghost urged him to overthrow Set) by whom he had been so treacherously put to death, and Horus vowed to drive his wicked uncle and all his followers out of the land of Egypt. So he gathered his army together and went forth to battle. Set came against him at Edfu and slew many of his followers. But Horus secured the aid of the tribes that remained faithful to Osiris and Isis, and Set was again attacked and driven towards the eastern frontier. The usurper uttered a p. 23 great cry of grief when he was forced to take flight. He rested at Zaru, and there was the last battle fought. It was waged for many days, and Horus lost an eye. But Set was still more grievously wounded, 1 and he was at length driven with his army out of the kingdom. It is told that the god Thoth descended out of heaven and healed the wounds of Horus and Set. Then the slayer of Osiris appeared before the divine council and claimed the throne. But the gods gave judgment that Horus was the rightful king, and he established his power in the land of Egypt, and became a wise and strong ruler like to his father Osiris. Another version of the legend relates that when the fragments of the body of Osiris were recovered from the Nile, Isis and Nepthys lamented over them, weeping bitterly. In one of the temple chants Isis exclaims: Gods, and men before the face of the gods, are weeping for thee at the same time when they behold me! Lo! I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven-- Yet thou hearest not my voice. Lo! I, thy sister, I love thee more than all the earth And thou lovest not another as thou dost thy sister! Nepthys cries, Subdue every sorrow which is in the hearts of us thy sisters . . . Live before us, desiring to behold thee. 2 The lamentations of the goddesses were heard by Ra, and he sent down from heaven the god Anubis, who, with the assistance of Thoth and Horus, united the severed portions of the body of Osiris, which they wrapped in linen bandages. Thus had origin the mummy form of the god. Then the winged Isis hovered over p. 24 the body, and the air from her wings entered the nostrils of Osiris so that he was imbued with life once again. He afterwards became the Judge and King of the Dead. Egyptian burial rites were based upon this legend. At the ceremony enacted in the tomb chapel two female relatives of the deceased took the parts of Isis and Nepthys, and recited magical formulæ so that the dead might be imbued with vitality and enabled to pass to the Judgment Hall and Paradise. Osiris and Isis, the traditional king and queen of ancient Egyptian tribes, were identified with the deities who symbolized the forces of Nature, and were accordingly associated with agricultural rites. The fertility of the narrow strip of country in the Nile valley depends upon the River Nile, which overflows its banks every year and brings down fresh soil from the hills. The river is at its lowest between April and June, the period of winter. Fed by the melting snows on the Abyssinian hills, and by the equatorial lakes, which are flooded during the rainy season, the gradual rise of the river becomes perceptible about the middle of June. The waters first assume a reddish tint on account of the clay which they carry. For a short period they then become greenish and unwholesome. Ere that change took place the Ancient Egyptians were wont to store up water for domestic use in large jars. By the beginning of August the Nile runs high. It was then that the canals were opened in ancient days, so that the waters might fertilize the fields. "As the Nile rose," writes Wilkinson, 1 "the peasants were careful to remove the flocks and herds from the lowlands; and when a sudden irruption of the water, owing to the bursting. of a dike, or an unexpected and p. 25 unusual increase of the river, overflowed the fields and pastures, they were seen hurrying to the spot, on foot or in boats, to rescue the animals and to remove them to the high grounds above the reach of the inundation. . . . And though some suppose the inundation does not now attain the same height as of old, those who have lived in the country have frequently seen the villages of the Delta standing, as Herodotus describes them, like islands in the Ægean Sea, with the same scenes of rescuing the cattle from the water." According to Pliny, "a proper inundation is of 16 cubits . . . in 12 cubits the country suffers from famine, and feels a deficiency even in 13; 14 causes joy, 15 scarcity, 16 delight; the greatest rise of the river to this period was of 18 cubits". When the river rose very high in the days of the Pharaohs, "the lives and property of the inhabitants", says Wilkinson, "were endangered"; in some villages the houses collapsed. Hence the legend that Ra sought to destroy his enemies among mankind. The inundation is at its height by the end of September, and continues stationary for about a month. Not until the end of September does the river resume normal proportions. November is the month for sowing; the harvest is reaped in Upper Egypt by March and in Lower Egypt by April. It was believed by the ancient agriculturists that the tears of Isis caused the river to increase in volume. When Sirius rose before dawn about the middle of July it was identified with the goddess. In the sun-cult legend this star is Hathor, "the eye of Ra", who comes to slaughter mankind. There are evidences that human sacrifices were offered to the sun god at this period. E. W. Lane, in his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, tells that the night of 17 June is called "Leylet-en-Nuktah", p. 26 or "the Night of the Drop", because "it is believed that a miraculous drop then falls into the Nile and causes it to rise". An interesting ceremony used to be performed at "the cutting of the dam" in old Cairo. A round pillar of earth was formed, and it was called the "bride", and seeds were sown on the top of it. Lane says that an ancient Arabian historian "was told that the Egyptians were accustomed, at the period when the Nile began to rise, to deck a young virgin in gay apparel, and throw her into the river, as a sacrifice to obtain a plentiful inundation". When the ancient Egyptians had ploughed their fields they held a great festival at which the moon god, who, in his animal form, symbolized the generative principle, was invoked and worshipped. Then the sowing took place, amidst lamentations and mourning for the death of Osiris. The divine being was buried in the earth; the seeds were the fragments of his body. Reference is made to this old custom in Psalm cxxvi: "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him". When harvest operations began, the Egyptians mourned because they were slaying the corn spirit. Diodorus Siculus tells that when the first handful of grain was cut, the Egyptian reapers beat their breasts and lamented, calling upon Isis. When, however, all the sheaves were brought in from the fields, they rejoiced greatly and held their "harvest home". Both Osiris and Isis were originally identified with the spirits of the corn. The former represented the earth god and the latter the earth goddess. But after the union of the tribes which worshipped the human incarnations of ancient deities, the rival conceptions were p. 27 fused. As a result we find that the inundation is symbolized now as the male principle and now as the female principle; the Nile god, Hapi, is depicted as a man with female breasts. In an Abydos temple chant Isis makes reference to herself as "the woman who was made a male by her father, Osiris". 1 The Scottish Osiris (JOHN BARLEYCORN) THERE were three kings into the east, Three kings both great and high, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn should die. They took a plough and plough'd him down Put clods upon his head, And they hae sworn a solemn oath John Barleycorn was dead. But the cheerful spring came kindly on, And show'rs began to fall; John Barleycorn got up again, And sore surpris'd them all. The sultry suns of summer came, And he grew thick and strong, His head weel arm'd wi' pointed spears, That no one should him wrong. The sober autumn enter'd mild, When he grew wan and pale; His bending joints and drooping head Show'd he began to fail. p. 28 His colour sicken'd more and more, He faded into age; And then his enemies began To show their deadly rage. They've ta'en a weapon long and sharp, And cut him by the knee; Then ty'd him fast upon a cart, Like a rogue for forgerie. They laid him down upon his back, And cudgell'd him full sore; They hung him up before the storm, And turn'd him o'er and o'er. They filèd up a darksome pit With water to the brim, They heavèd in John Barleycorn- There let him sink or swim. They laid him out upon the floor, To work him farther woe; And still, as signs of life appear'd, They tossed him to and fro. They wasted, o'er a scorching flame, The marrow of his bones; But the miller us'd him worst of all, For he crush'd him between two stones. And they hae ta'en his very heart's blood, And drank it round and round; And still the more and more they drank, Their joy did more abound. John Barleycorn was a hero bold Of noble enterprise; For if you do but taste his blood, 'Twill make your courage rise. p. 29 'Twill make a man forget his woe; 'Twill heighten all his joy; 'Twill make the widow's heart to sing, Tho' the tear were in her eye. Then let us toast John Barleycorn, Each man a glass in hand; And may his great posterity Ne'er fail in old Scotland. Burns. Footnotes 16:1 After the period of Ethiopian supremacy (Twenty-fifth Dynasty) Set was identified with the Ethiopians. 18:1 Tanis was during the later Dynasties associated with the worship of Set as Sutekh 19:1 Another version of the myth places the birth of Horus after the body of Osiris was found. 19:2 She took the form of a shrew mouse to escape Set when he searched for Horus. 19:3 Thoth in his lunar character as divine physician. 20:1 We have here a suggestion of belief in cremation, which was practised by the cave-dwellers of southern Palestine. The ghost of Patroklos says: "Never again will I return from Hades when I receive from you my meed of fire".--Iliad, xxiii, 75. 21:1 The Osiris boar. See Chapter V. 22:1 The crocodile worshippers held that their sacred reptile recovered the body of Osiris for Isis. 22:2 This is the earliest known form of the Hamlet myth. 23:1 He was mutilated by Horus as he himself had mutilated Osiris. 23:2 The Burden of Isis, translated by J. T. Dennis (Wisdom of the East Series). 24:1 The Ancient Egyptians, Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson. 27:1 The Burden of Isis, Dennis, p. 49. Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next Buy this Book on Kindle Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald Mackenzie, [1907], at sacred-texts.com p. 280 CHAPTER XXII Amon, the God of Empire Lunar Worship--The Great Mother of Darkness.--Anion as a Moon God--Fusion with Ra--Ptah a Form of the Theban Deity--Fenkhu--"and "Fenish" Artisans--Osiris and Amon--Veneration of Religious Pharaohs--Amon's Wife and Concubine--Conquests of Thothmes I--Rival Claimants to the Throne--Queen Hatshepsut--Her Famous Expedition--Rise of Thothmes III--A Great Strategist--His Conquests--The Egyptian Empire --Amon's Poetic Praise--The Emperor's Buildings and Obelisks. THE moon god Ah comes into prominence during the Egyptian War of Independence. This ancient deity must have been closely associated with the Theban religious cult which Ra Apepa, the Hyksos king, singled out for attack, because the name of the queen mother, Ah-hotep, signifies "Ah is satisfied", and that of her victorious son Ah-mes, "born of Ah". It is highly probable that Ah was the son of the great Mother deity Apet, who was identified with the female hippopotamus Taurt, "the mighty one", goddess of maternity, and "mother of the gods". At Thebes and Ombos, Osiris was regarded as the son of the sacred hippopotamus. As we have seen in the Introduction, he was, like Ah, identified with the moon spirit, which symbolized the male principle. The Apet hippopotamus was the animal incarnation of the Great Mother; as a water goddess, therefore, Apet links with Nut, who rose from the primordial deep and was "the waters above the firmament". p. 281 At the beginning there was naught save darkness and water. The spirit of the night was the Great Mother, and her first-born was the moon child. Life came from death and light from darkness. Such appears to have been the conception of the worshippers of the sky-and-water goddess and the lunar god. On the other hand, the worshippers of the male earth spirit believed that the firmament was made of metal which was beaten out by the Great Father, Ptah, at the beginning. Ere metal came into use it may have been conceived that the sky was made of stone. Hathor, the sky goddess, was significantly enough "the lady of turquoise", and Ra, the sun god, was in the Fifth Dynasty symbolized by an obelisk. Osiris, the human incarnation of primitive Nilotic deities, absorbed the attributes of the moon spirit and the male earth spirit. Isis, on the other hand, apparently absorbed those of Nut, the sky-and-water goddess, and of Neith, the earth goddess, who symbolized growth. As moon worship was of greater antiquity in Egypt than sun worship, and was associated with agricultural rites, the Theban cult must have made popular appeal, and helped to rally the mass of the people to throw off the yoke of the Hyksos Ra and Sutekh worshippers. The political significance of Apepa's order to slay the hippopotami is therefore apparent. When the influence of the southern conquerors extended to Hermopolis, Ah was merged with Thoth, who was originally a lunar deity. In fact, as we have shown in our Introduction, he was another form of Khonsu. With Mut, "the mother", who is indistinguishable from Apet, Khonsu and Thoth formed a Theban triad. In Nubia, where archaic Mediterranean beliefs appear to have been persistent, Thoth was the son of Tefnut, the p. 282 lioness-headed goddess, who was given arbitrary association with Shu, the atmosphere god, by the theorists of Heliopolis. Mut was also depicted at Thebes with the head of a lioness. As we have already suggested, it is possible that Amon was originally the son of Mut-Apet. He may have developed as a symbolized attribute of Ah. Fragments of old hymns make reference to him as a lunar deity, and as a "traverser" of space like Khonsu-Thoth. Indeed, even in his hawk-headed form, he retains his early association with the moon, for he wears the solar disk with the lunar crescent. 1 Amon, like the sons of all the Great Mother deities, represented in his animal forms the "male principle" and the "fighting principle". He became "the husband of his mother" when the Great Father and Great Mother conceptions were fused. This process is illustrated in the triad formed by Ptah, the father, Mut, the mother, and Thoth, the son. Ptah's wife Sekhet, with the head of a lioness, is indistinguishable from Mut) Tefnut, and Bast. As a Great Father deity, Amon, "husband of his mother" became "king of the gods", 2 and lost his original lunar character. His fusion with the sun god of Heliopolis, which was accomplished for political purposes, made the change complete, for he became Amon-Ra, the great representative deity of Egypt, who combines the attributes of all other gods. Amon-Ra was depicted as a great bearded man, clad in a sleeveless tunic suspended from his shoulders, with the tail of art animal hanging behind. His headdress of p. 283 high double plumes, with lunar and solar symbols, was coloured in sections red and blue, and red and green, as if to signify all association with the river flowing between its batiks and the growth of verdure. Sometimes he is shown with Min's ram's horns curving downwards round his ears, and sometimes with those of Khnûmû spreading outward. 1 He wore a collar and armlets and bracelets. As a god of war he rose into great prominence during the Eighteenth Dynasty. The victorious kings, who became owners of all the land in Egypt, and returned with great spoils from many battlefields, were lavish in their gifts to his temple, and his priests became exceedingly wealthy and powerful. There never was in Egypt a more influential cult than that of Amon-Ra. His solar attributes, however, were not so prominent in the Eighteenth as in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. The influence of the moon cult remained for a considerable period. As much is suggested by the names of the kings. Ah-mes I, "born of Ah", was followed by four rulers called Amen-hotep, "Amon is satisfied", and four called Thoth-mes, "born of Thoth". The influence of the Ra cult at Heliopolis was tempered by that of the Amon cult at Thebes, with the result that the old Egyptian lunar gods came into prominence. Nor were Ptah and other kindred deities excluded from the group of official gods as in the Fifth Dynasty. At Memphis Amon-Ra was worshipped as Ptah. In a hymn addressed to the great Theban deity it was declared-- Memphis receives thee in the form of Ptah-- He who is the first-born of all gods; He who was at the beginning. It would appear that the Memphites had combined p. 284 with the Thebans to drive the Hyksos out of Egypt. When Ahmes began the work of reconstructing the temples, the first gods he honoured were Amon and Ptah. In the limestone quarries near Cairo two tablets record that stone was excavated for the great temples at Memphis and Thebes. No reference is made to Heliopolis. It is of special interest to find that the workmen who were employed were of the Fenkhu, a Syrian tribe. There can be no doubt these quarriers were foreigners. In an Assouan inscription of Thothmes II it is stated that the boundary of the Egyptian empire on the north extended to the Syrian lakes, and that the Pharaoh's arms were "not repulsed from the land of the Fenkhu". A stele erected by Thothmes III at Wady Halfa records a victory during a Syrian campaign over "the Fenkhu". Ahmes must have obtained these skilled quarriers from the Fenkhu for the purpose of hastening on the work of restoring the temples in return for some favour conferred, for he did not wage war against the tribe, which remained powerful at the time of Thothmes III. It is impossible, however, to identify them with certainty. To this day the inhabitants of Palestine still credit all the surviving works of antiquity to the "Fenish", and although the reference is evidently to the Philistines and Phœnicians, as well as to the hewers of the great artificial caves, it is possible that the latter, who are referred to in the Bible as the Rephaim or Anakim, were originally the "Fenish" and the Egyptian "Fenkhu". Ahmes may have followed the example of his temple- and pyramid-building predecessors in drawing fresh supplies of skilled stoneworkers from southern Palestine. Osiris worship was combined with that of Amon at Thebes, but, as we have seen, Osiris and Amon had much in common, for both gods had lunar attributes. p. 285 [paragraph continues]Osiris "hides his essence in the great shrine of Amon". 1 The Amon ram was an animal incarnation of the corn spirit. It is significant to find, in this connection, that the priests of Amon for a long period sought sepulture at sacred Abydos, which had become closely associated with Osirian worship. But there was a strange fusion of beliefs regarding the other world. Men died believing that they would enter the bark of Ra and also reach the Osirian Paradise. Ultimately the Heliopolitan belief in the efficacy of magical formulæ impaired the ethical character of the Ptah-Osirian creed. Although Ahmes I was the liberator of Egypt, his memory was not revered so greatly as that of his son and successor Amenhotep I (Amenophis). The great Pharaohs of the records were the religious Pharaohs; if a monarch was assiduous in venerating the gods, and especially in erecting and endowing temples, his fame was assured; the grateful priests "kept his memory green". Amenhotep I and his wife Aahmes-Nefertari were, after their death, revered as deities; references are made to them as protectors and punishers of men in the Nineteenth Dynasty. Nefertari was during her life "Amon's wife". She slept in the temple, and her children were reputed to be the sons and daughters of the god. The high priest's wife was "the concubine of Amon". It was Amenhotep I who founded the endowments of the Amon cult at Thebes which ultimately became so wealthy and powerful. He also began the erection of the magnificent buildings at Karnak, which were added to by his successors. His reign, which lasted for only about ten years, was p. 286 occupied chiefly in reorganizing the kingdom and in establishing the new national religion. Assisted by the veteran military nobles of El Kab, he waged war against the Libyans on the north and the Nubians on the south. He appears also to have penetrated Syria, but no records of the campaign survive. His successors, however, ere he invaded Asia, claimed to hold sway as far north as the Euphrates. The next king, Thothmes I, came to the throne as the husband of a princess of the royal line. He found it necessary to invade Nubia. Ahmes of Ebana, who accompanied him, records in his tomb that a battle was fought between the second and third cataract. The Pharaoh slew the Nubian leader who opposed him, and, on his return, had the body suspended head downwards at the bow of the royal ship. Thothmes penetrated Nubia beyond the third cataract, and reached the island of Arko, where Sebekhotep had undertaken the erection of his great statues. A fortress was erected and garrisoned on the island of Tombos at the third cataract. Nubia thus became once again an Egyptian province. A campaign of conquest was next waged in Syria, where Egyptian dominance was continually challenged by the rival powers in Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. "It was probably", write King and Hall, "with the Iranian kingdom of Mitanni, between Euphrates and Tigris, that the Dynasty carried on its struggle for Syria." No royal records of the campaign of Thothmes I survive, but we gather from the tomb inscriptions of Ahmes of Ebana and Ahmes of El Kab, that a great victory was won in Naharina, "the land of the rivers", which secured Egyptian supremacy. The king was afterwards able to boast that the northern boundary of the Empire extended "as far as the circuit of the sun"-- p. 287 it was believed that: the world's edge was at the source of the Euphrates on the north and of that of the Nile on the south, and that both rivers flowed from the ocean, "the great Circle" surrounding the earth, in which lay the great serpent. Thothmes I made an addition to the Karnak temple, and erected two great pylons on the thirtieth anniversary of his reign, when, at the Sed festival, he appears to have selected his successor. On one of the pylons he recorded that he had established peace in Egypt, ended lawlessness, and stamped out impiety, and that he had subdued the rebels in the Delta region. He also implored Amon to give the throne to his daughter Hatshepsut. The closing period of the king's reign is obscure, and there is no agreement as to the events which occurred in connection with the family feud which ensued. Thothmes III dated his reign from the year preceding the death of Thothmes I. but in the interval Thothmes II and Hatshepsut sat on the throne. The children of the royal princess who was the wife of Thothmes I included two sons and two daughters, but they all died young with the exception of the Princess Hatshepsut. Another wife was the mother of Thothmes II, while a concubine gave birth to Thothmes III. Such is Breasted's reading of the problem, which is made difficult on account of the mutilation of inscriptions by the rival claimants. Other Egyptologists suggest that Thothmes III was the son of Thothmes II. Thothmes III was a priest in the temple of Amon. He secured his succession by marrying either Hatshepsut or her daughter. According to Breasted, he superseded Thothmes I at a festival at which the Oracle of Amon proclaimed him as the Pharaoh. Thothmes III then began his reign, and. the old king lived in retirement. p. 288 After a time the usurping prince had to recognize the co-regency of Hatshepsut. But, ere long, he was thrust aside, and the queen reigned alone as "the female Horus". Thothmes II then seized the throne on his own and his father's behalf, and when Thothmes I died, Thothmes II allied himself with Thothmes III. When they had reigned about two years Thothmes II died, but Thothmes III was not able to retain his high position. Once again Hatshepsut, who had evidently won over a section of the priesthood, seized the reins of government, and Thothmes III was once again "relegated to the background". 1 At the festivals he appeared as a priest. Hatshepsut must have been a woman of great ability and force of character to have displaced such a man as Thothmes III. For about fourteen years she ruled alone, and engaged herself chiefly in restoring the religious buildings which had either been demolished or had fallen into disrepair during the Hyksos period. She completed the great mortuary temple at Der-el-Bahari, which had been begun under Thothmes II. It was modelled on the smaller temple of Mentuhotep, and is still magnificent in ruin. Situated against the western cliffs at Thebes, it was constructed in three terraces with sublime colonnades finely proportioned and exquisitely wrought. An inner chamber was excavated from the rock. On the temple walls the mythical scenes in connection with the birth of the queen were sculptured in low relief, and to get over the difficulty of being recognized as a "son of the sun", Hatshepsut was depicted in company of her male "double". On state occasions she wore a false beard. The queen's most famous undertaking was to send an Mut "the Mother" Hapi, God of the Nile Amon-Ra King of the Gods DEITIES OF THE EMPIRE PERIOD p. 289 RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF DER-EL-BAHARI, THEBES expedition of eight ships to the land of Punt to obtain myrrh trees, incense, rare woods, and sacred animals for the temple. It was her pious wish that Amon should have a garden to walk in. To celebrate her jubilee Hatshepsut had erected two magnificent obelisks, nearly a hundred feet high, in front of the Karnak temple in which Thothmes III was a priest. One of these still stands erect, and is greatly admired by visitors. The obelisks, like the temple, were designed by the much-favoured architect Senmut, an accomplished artist and scheming statesman, who was a prominent figure in the party which supported the queen. But so deeply was Hatshepsut concerned in devoting the revenues of the State to religious purposes that the affairs of empire were neglected. The flame of revolt was spreading through Syria, where the tribal chiefs scorned to owe allegiance to a woman, especially as she neglected to enforce her will at the point of the sword. Apparently, too, the Mitanni power had recovered from the blows dealt by the military Pharaohs of a previous generation and had again become aggressive. Then Hatshepsut died. She may have fallen a victim of a palace revolt of which no record survives. Her mummy has never been discovered. When the deep tunnel which she had constructed for her tomb was entered, it was found to have been despoiled. It may be that her body was never deposited there. After her death no more is heard of her favourite Senmut, or her daughter, whom she had selected as her successor. Her name was ruthlessly erased from her monuments. All the indications point to a military revolt, supported by a section of the priesthood, at a time of national peril. Thothmes III, who immediately came to the throne, lost no time in raising an army and pressing northward p. 290 to subdue the Syrian rebellion. Although he has been referred to as "this little man with coarse features, as we know from his mummy", it would be a mistake to retain the impression that he was of repulsive aspect. He died when he was an old man; his jaw was not tied up before embalmment, which was not highly successful, for his nose was disfigured, and has partly crumbled away. The statues of the king present the striking face of a vigorous and self-contained man; in one he has a nose which rivals that of Wellington, and an air of dignity and refinement which accords with what we know of his character; for not only was he a great leader who, as his grand vizier has informed the ages, knew all that happened and never failed to carry out a matter he took in hand, he was also a man of artistic ability, accustomed, as Breasted informs us, to spend his leisure time "designing exquisite vases". The hour had come and the man! With a well-organized army, in which he had placed the most capable men in command, he swept his victorious way through Syria and struck terror to the hearts of the rebels. His name--Manakhpirria (Men-kheper-ra) Thothmes--was dreaded long after his death, and may have originated the Semitic title "Pharaoh", which was never used by the native kings of Egypt. The greatest triumph of the various Syrian campaigns conducted by Thothmes III was the capture of Megiddo, in the Hebrew tribal area of Issachar. That fortified stronghold, situated on the plain of Jezreel, was a point of great strategic importance--"the Key", indeed, of northern Palestine. It had to be approached over the ridge of Carmel, and was partly surrounded by the tributary known as "the brook Kina", which flows into the Kishon River. Two highways leading to Megiddo lay p. 291 before the Egyptian army, like the legs of inward curving calipers, and between these a narrow mountain pass cut in an almost straight and direct line into the town. The Egyptian generals intended to advance along the northern curving highway, but Thothmes III was, like Nelson, a great strategist who ever did the unexpected. He decided to push through the pass, although along the greater part of it his horsemen would have to advance in Indian file. To inspire his followers with his own great courage, the fearless monarch rode in front. His daring manœuvre was a complete success. Ere it was comprehended by the enemy, his army was pouring down upon the plain. He completely upset the plans of the Asiatic allies, who had divided their forces to await the advance of the Egyptians by the north and the south, occupying the while, no doubt, strong positions. The battle took place next day on the river bank. Thothmes led on a victorious charge, and scattered the enemy so that they retreated in confusion and took refuge in the city. Had the Egyptians not been too eager to secure the spoils of victory, they might have captured Megiddo, as Thothmes informed them afterwards. A long siege followed, but at length the town was starved into submission, and the princes came forth to swear allegiance to the Pharaoh. They also made payment of the tribute which they had withheld during the closing years of Hatshepsut's reign. Thothmes took the eldest sons of the various revolting princes as hostages, and deported them to Thebes. The spoils of victory included over goo chariots and 200 coats of mail and much gold and silver. Ere he returned home he captured three towns in Lebanon, and reorganized the administration of northern Palestine. p. 292 Other campaigns followed. On one of these Thothmes made swift attack upon some revolting princes by crossing the sea and landing on the Phœnician coast. The Hittites gave trouble on the north, and he pushed on to Carchemish, their southern capital, and captured it. At Kadesh, on the Orontes, he also dealt a shattering blow against the Hittites and their allies from Mitanni. He had previously subdued the Libyans, and conducted a successful campaign into Nubia. Thus he built up a great empire, and made Egypt the foremost power in the world. Tribute poured into the royal exchequer from the various subject states, and peace offerings were made by the Hittites and even by the rulers of Cyprus and Crete. Both Assyria and Babylonia cultivated friendly relations with Thothmes III, who appears to have been as distinguished a diplomatist as he was a conqueror. The priests of Amon composed a great hymn in his honour, which, they pretended, had been recited by their god. I have come, I have given to thee to smite the land of the Syrians Under thy feet they lie through the length and breadth of the god's land; I have made them see thy might like to a star revolving When it sheds its burning beams and drops its dew on the meadows. I have come, I have given to thee to vanquish the Western peoples Crete is stricken with fear, terror is reigning in Cyprus; Like to a great young bull, I have made them behold thy power, Fearless and quick to strike, none is so bold to resist thee. I have come, I have given to thee to conquer the folk of the marshes, The terror of thee has fallen over the lands of Mitanni; Like to a crocodile fierce they have beheld thee in glory; O monarch of fear at sea, none is so bold to approach thee. p. 293 The chief buildings of Thothmes III were erected to Amon at Thebes, but he did not fail to honour Ra at Heliopolis, Ptah at Memphis, and Hathor at Dendera. One of his jubilee obelisks, which he erected at Thebes., now stands in Constantinople; another is in Rome; the pair set up at Heliopolis have been given prominent sites on either side of the Atlantic Ocean--one in New York and the other on the Thames Embankment, London. His reign, which he dated from his first accession prior to the death of Thothmes I, extended over a period of fifty-four years. He died on 17 March, 1447, B.C., and was buried in the lonely "Valley of Kings' Tombs". Footnotes 282:1 In an Amon-Ra hymn the deity is called "maker of men, former of the flocks, lord of corn" (Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, Wiedemann, p. 116). 282:2 "The gods gather as dogs round his feet."--Hymn to Amon-re. 283:1 "Amon of the two horns." 285:1 That is, the soul of Osiris is in Amon, as the soul of the giant is in the egg, the ram, &c., "doubly hidden". Amon-Ra is addressed in a temple chant: "Hidden is thy abode, lord of the gods". 288:1 A History of Egypt, James Henry Breasted, London, 1906. Next: Chapter XXIII: Tale of the Doomed Prince Next: Chapter III: Dawn of Civilization Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald Mackenzie, [1907], at sacred-texts.com p. 268 CHAPTER XXI Joseph and the Exodus Biblical References to Hyksos Period--Joseph as Grand Vizier--His Sagacity--Reorganizing the Kingdom--Israelites in Goshen--A Jacob King--Period of the Exodus--Egyptian References to Hebrews--A Striking Folktale--Cause of Theban Revolt--A National Hero--A Famous Queen Mother--A Warrior King--"Battles Long Ago"--Expulsion of Foreigners--Unrest in Syria--New Methods of Warfare. IN the familiar Bible story of Joseph, the young Hebrew slave who became grand vizier in the land of the Nile, there is a significant reference to the nationality of his master Potiphar. Although that dignitary was "an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard", he was not of alien origin; we are pointedly informed that he was "an Egyptian". We also gather that Hyksos jurisdiction extended beyond the Delta region. During the dry cycle, when the great famine prevailed, Joseph "gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan" for the corn which the people purchased. Then he proceeded to acquire for the Crown all the privately owned estates in the Nile Valley and Delta region, with purpose, it would appear, to abolish the feudal system. An exception was made, however, of the lands attached to the temples. Apparently Pharaoh desired to conciliate the priests, whose political influence was very great, because we find that he allowed them free supplies of corn; indeed he had previously selected for Joseph's wife, "Asenath, the p. 269 daughter of Potiphera, priest of On"; an indication that he specially favoured the influential sun cult of Heliopolis. Queen Hatshepsut's assertion that the foreign kings ruled in ignorance of Ra was manifestly neither strictly accurate nor unbiased. The inference drawn from the Biblical narrative that the Hyksos Pharaohs adopted a policy of conciliation is confirmed by the evidence gleaned amidst the scanty records of the period. We find that some of these rulers assumed Ra titles, although they were also "beloved of Set" (Sutekh), and that one of them actually restored the tomb of Queen Apuit of the Sixth Dynasty. The Egyptians apparently indulged in pious exaggerations. That the Hyksos influence was not averse to culture is evidenced by the fact that the name of King Apepa Ra-aa-user is associated with a mathematical treatise which is preserved in the British Museum. If learning was fostered, the arts and industries could not have been neglected. The Egyptian iconoclasts systematically destroyed practically all the monuments of the period, so that we have no direct evidence to support the assumption that it was characterized by a spirit of decadence due to the influence of uncultured desert dwellers. The skill displayed at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty was too great to be of sudden growth, and certainly does not suggest that for about two centuries there had existed no appreciation of, or demand for, works of art. Although sculpture had grown mechanical, there had been, apparently, progressive development in other directions. We find, for instance, a marked and increased appreciation of colour, suggesting influence from a district where Nature presents more variety and distinguishing beauty than the somewhat monotonous valley of the Nile; ware was p. 270 being highly glazed and tinted with taste and skill unknown in the Twelfth Dynasty, and painting had become more popular. But, perhaps, it was in the work of administration that the Egyptians learned most from their Hyksos rulers. Joseph, who was undoubtedly a great statesman, must have impressed them greatly with his sound doctrines of political economy. That sagacious young vizier displayed an acute and far-sighted appreciation of the real needs of Egypt, a country which cannot be made prosperous under divided rule. No doubt he was guided by the experienced councillors at Court, but had he not been gifted with singular intelligence and strong force of character, he could never have performed his onerous duties with so much distinction and success. He fostered the agricultural industry during the years of plenty, and "gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number". Then came the seven years of famine. "And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. . . . And Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians." Much wealth poured into the Imperial Exchequer. "All countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn." The dry cycle prevailed apparently over a considerable area, and it must have propelled the migrations of pastoral peoples which subsequently effected so great a change in the political conditions of Asia. It is interesting to note that at this period the horse was known in Egypt. On the occasion of Joseph's elevation to the post of grand vizier, Pharaoh "made him to ride in the second chariot which he had". Then when the Egyptians, who found it necessary to continue purchasing corn, cried out "the money falleth", the p. 271 young Hebrew "gave them bread in exchange for horses", &c. The wholesale purchase of estates followed. "Buy us and our land for bread," said the Egyptians, "and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh. . . . So the land became Pharaoh's. . . . And as for the people, he (Joseph) removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof." The work of reorganization proceeded apace. Joseph in due season distributed seed, and made it conditional that a fifth part of the produce of all farms should be paid in taxation. A strong central government was thus established upon a sound economic basis, and it may have flourished until some change occurred of which we have no knowledge. Perhaps the decline of the Hyksos power was not wholly due to a revolt in the south; it may have been contributed to as well by interference from without. Meanwhile the children of Israel "dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein and multiplied exceedingly". Josephus's statement that they were identical with the Hyksos hardly accords with the evidence of the Bible. It is possible, however, that other Semites besides Joseph attained high positions during the period of foreign control. In fact, one of the Pharaohs was named Jacob-her, or possibly, as Breasted suggests, "Jacob-El". Such a choice of ruler would not be inconsistent with the policy of the Hittites, who allowed subject peoples to control their own affairs so long as they adhered to the treaty of alliance and recognized the suzerainty of the supreme Power. It is impossible to fix with any certainty the time at which the Israelites settled in Egypt. They came, not p. 272 as conquerors, but after the Hyksos had seized the crown. Apparently, too, they had no intention of effecting permanent settlement, because the bodies of Jacob and Joseph, having been embalmed, were carried to the family cave tomb "in the land of Canaan", which Abraham had purchased from "Ephron the Hittite". No inscription regarding Joseph or the great famine has survived. But the Egyptians were not likely to preserve any record of a grand vizier who starved them into submission. A tablet which makes reference to a seven years famine during the Third Dynasty has been proved to be a pious fraud of the Roman period. It was based, in all probability, on the Joseph story. The alleged record sets forth that King Zoser, who was greatly distressed regarding the condition of the country, sent a message to the Governor of Nubia, asking for information regarding the rise of the Nile. Statistics were duly supplied according to his desire. Then Pharaoh "dreamed a dream", and saw the god Khnûmû, who informed him that Egypt was being afflicted because no temples had been erected to the gods. As soon as he woke up, His Majesty made gifts of land to the priests of Khnûmû, and arranged that they should receive a certain proportion of all the fish and game caught in the vicinity of the first cataract. There is no agreement as to when the Exodus of the Israelites took place. Some authorities are of opinion that it coincided with the expulsion of the Hyksos. Such a view, however, conflicts with the Biblical reference to a period of bondage. The Pharaoh of the Oppression was a "new king" and he "knew not Joseph". He enslaved and oppressed the Israelites, who had been so singularly favoured by the foreign rulers. According to tradition, he was Rameses II, during whose reign Moses p. 273 acquired "all the wisdom of the Egyptians" and became "mighty in words and deeds". The next king was Mene-ptah, but he cannot be regarded as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He reigned little over ten years, and one of his inscriptions makes reference to the Israelites as a people resident in Canaan, where they were attacked by the Egyptian army during a Syrian campaign. It is probable that the Hebrews were the Khabri mentioned in the Tell el Amarna letters, two centuries before Mene-ptah's time. They were then waging war against Canaanitish allies of Egypt, and the Prince of Gezer sent an urgent but ineffectual appeal to the Pharaoh Akenaton for assistance. The Exodus must have taken place in the early part of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and possibly during the reign of Thothmes I-about a generation after Ahmes expelled the Asiatics from Avaris. During the latter part of the Hyksos period the Theban princes, whom Manetho gives as the kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty, were tributary rulers over a goodly part of Upper Egypt. Reinforced from Nubia, and aided by the princes of certain of the nomes, they suddenly rose against their oppressors, and began to wage the War of Independence, which lasted for about a quarter of a century. An interesting papyrus, preserved in the British Museum, contains a fragmentary folktale, which indicates that the immediate cause of the rising was an attempt on the part of the Hyksos overlord to compel the Egyptians to worship the god Sutekh. "It came to pass", we read, "that Egypt was possessed by the Impure, and there was no lord and king." This may mean that either the Hyksos rule had limited power in Upper Egypt or was subject to a higher authority in Asia. The folktale proceeds: p. 274 "Now King Sekenenra was lord of the south. . . . Impure Asiatics were in the cities (? as garrisons), and Apepa was lord in Avaris. They worked their will in the land, and enjoyed all the good things of Egypt. The god Sutekh was Apepa's master, for he worshipped Sutekh alone, and erected for him an enduring temple. . . . He sacrificed and gave offerings every day unto Sutekh. . . ." The tale then goes on to relate that Apepa sent a messenger to Sekenenra, the lord of Thebes, "the city of the south", with an important document which had been prepared after lengthy consultation with a number of learned scribes. Sekenenra appears to have received the messenger with undisguised alarm. He asked: "What order do you bring? Why have you made this journey?" The document was read, and, so far as can be gathered from the blurred and mutilated papyrus, it was something to the following effect:-- The King Ra Apepa sends to you to say: Let the hippopotami, be put out of the pool in the city of Thebes. I cannot get sleep, either by day or by night, because their roaring is in my ear. No wonder that "the lord of the south" was astounded. The sacred animals at Thebes could not possibly be disturbing the slumbers of a monarch residing on the Delta frontier. Apepa was evidently anxious to pick a quarrel with the Thebans, for his hypocritical complaint was, in effect, an express order to accomplish the suppression of a popular form of worship. Well he knew that he could not adopt more direct means to stir up a spirit of rebellion among his Egyptian subjects. Possibly the growing power of the Theban ruler may have caused him to feel somewhat alarmed, and he desired to shatter it before it became too strong for him. p. 275 Sekenenra was unable for a time to decide what reply he should make. At length, having entertained the messenger, he bade him to convey the following brief but pointed answer to Apepa: "I intend to do as is your wish". Apparently he desired to gain time, for there could remain no doubt that a serious crisis was approaching. No sooner did the messenger take his departure than the Theban ruler summoned before him all the great lords in the district, and to them he related "what had come to pass". These men were likewise "astounded"; they heard what Sekenenra had to tell them "with feelings of sorrow, but were silent, for none knew what to say". The fragmentary tale then ends abruptly with the words: "The King Ra Apepa sent to -----" We can infer, however, that his second message roused a storm of opposition, and that whatever demand it contained was met with a blank refusal. King Ra Apepa must have then sent southward a strong army to enforce his decree and subdue the subject princes who dared to have minds of their own. If we identify Sekenenra with the Theban king of that name, whose mummy was found at Der el Bahari, and is now in the Cairo museum, we can conclude that the ancient folktale contained a popular account of the brief but glorious career and tragic death of a national hero, who, like the Scottish Sir William Wallace, inspired his countrymen with the desire for freedom and independence. Sekenenra died on the battlefield. We can see him pressing forward at the head of the Egyptian army, fighting with indomitable courage and accomplishing mighty deeds. Accompanied by his most valiant followers, he hews his way through the Hyksos force. But "one by p. 276 one they fall around him". . . . Now he is alone. He is surrounded. . . . The warriors in front of him are mowed down, for none can withstand his blows. But an Asiatic creeps up on his left side, swings his battleaxe, and smites a glancing blow. Sekenenra totters; his cheek bone and teeth have been laid bare. Another Asiatic on his right leaps up and stabs him on the forehead. Ere he falls, his first successful assailant strikes again, and the battleaxe crashes through the left side of the hero's skull. The Hyksos shout triumphantly, but the Egyptians are not dismayed; clamouring in battle fury, they rush on to avenge the death of Sekenenra. . . . That hero has not died in vain. The mummy of the great prince bears the evidence of the terrible wounds he received. In his agony he had bitten his tongue between his teeth. But it is apparent that before he fell he turned the tide of battle. and that the Hyksos were compelled to retreat, for his body was recovered and carried back to Thebes, where it was embalmed after putrefaction had set in. Sekenenra appears to have been a handsome and dashing soldier. He was tall, slim, and active, with a strong, refined face of dark Mediterranean type. Probably he was a descendant of one of the ancient families which had taken refuge in the south after the Hyksos invaders had accomplished the fall of the native monarchy. His queen, Ah-hotep, who was a hereditary princess in her own right, lived until she was a hundred years old. Her three sons reigned in succession, and continued the war against the Hyksos. The youngest of these was Ahmes I, and he was the first Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Ah-hotep must have followed his career with pride, for he drove the Asiatics across the frontier. She survived him, and then lived through the reign of p. 277 Amenhotep I also, for she did not pass away until Thotmes I ruled in splendour over united Egypt, and caused its name to be dreaded in western Asia. Ahmes I, like the heroic Sekenenra, received the support of the El Kab family, which was descended from one of the old feudal lords. His successes are recorded in the tomb of his namesake, the son of Ebana, a princess, and of Baba, the lord of El Kab, who had served under Sekenenra. This El Kab Ahmes was quite a youth--he tells us that he was "too young to have a wife"--when he fought on foot behind the chariot of the Pharaoh. He was afterwards promoted to the rank of admiral) and won a naval victory on a canal. So greatly did the young nobleman distinguish himself that he received a decoration--a golden collar, the equivalent of our "Victoria Cross". Indeed he was similarly honoured for performing feats of valour on four subsequent occasions, and he also received gifts of land and of male and female slaves who had been taken captive. The progress northward of Ahmes I, with army and river fleet, was accompanied by much hard fighting. But at length he compelled the Hyksos force, which had suffered heavily, to take refuge in the fortified town of Avaris. After a prolonged siege the enemy took flight, and he pursued them across the frontier. We have followed, so far, the narrative of Ahmes, son of Ebana. According to Manetho's account of the expulsion, as quoted by Josephus, who, perhaps, tampered with it, King Ahmes was unable to do more than shut up the Asiatics in Avaris. Then Thummosis (Thothmes), successor of Ahmes, endeavoured to carry the town by assault, but failed in the attempt. Just when he was beginning to despair of accomplishing his purpose, the enemy offered to capitulate if they would be allowed to p. 278 depart in peace. This condition was accepted, whereupon 240,000 men, women, and children evacuated Avaris and crossed the frontier into Syria. Manetho adds that they migrated to the district afterwards known as Judea, and built Jerusalem, because "they were in dread of the Assyrians". But, as we have seen, the Assyrians were not at this period the predominating power in the East. Manetho (or Josephus) was plainly wrong. A new and hostile enemy, however, had appeared at Mitanni--the dreaded Aryans, who worshipped the strange gods Indra, Mithra, and Varuna. After clearing the Delta of Asiatic soldiers, Ahmes I turned his attention to Nubia. He did not meet with much opposition, and succeeded in extending the southern frontier to the second cataract, thus recovering the area which had been controlled by the great Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty. He had afterwards to suppress two abortive risings in the heart of the kingdom, which may have been engineered by Hyksos sympathizers. Then he devoted himself to the work of restoring the monuments of his ancestors and the temples of the gods. After a strenuous reign of over twenty years he died in the prime of life, lamented, no doubt, by the people whom he had set free, and especially by the queen mother, Ah-hotep, that wife of a mighty leader and nurse of valiant heroes-one of the first great women in history. The military successes of the Egyptians were largely contributed to by their use of the horse, which the Aryans had introduced into the West. New methods of fighting had also been adopted by the Egyptians. When the Eighteenth-Dynasty soldiers were depicted on the monuments and in the tombs the artists had for their models highly disciplined and well-organized bodies of men who had undergone a rigorous EGYPTIAN CHARIOT (Florence Museum) EGYPTIAN KING (SETI I) MOUNTED ON CHARIOT From the bas-relief on the great temple of Karnak p. 279 A PLATOON (TROOP) OF EGYPTIAN SPEARMEN From the bas-relief in the temple at Der-el Bahari training. The infantry were marshalled in regular lines, and on battlefields made vigorous and orderly charges. Charioteers gathered into action with the dash and combination of modern-day cavalry. Had this new military system evolved in Upper Egypt as a result of the example shown by the Hyksos? Or had the trade in horses brought into the Nile valley Aryan warriors who became the drill sergeants and adjutants of the army which drove the Hyksos from the land of the Pharaohs? Next: Chapter XXII: Amon, the God of Empire

Ka.txt

Ka Scorpion Narmer Dynasty 1 (about 3000-2750 BC) Aha Djer Djet Queen Merytneit Den Anedjib Semerkhet Qaa Dynasty 2 (about 2750-2650 BC) Hotepsekhemwy Raneb Ninetjer Sekhemib Peribsen Sened Weneg Khasekhem Khasekhemwy

LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT.txt

THE BRITISH ACADEMY LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT IN RELATION TO HEBREW TRADITION BY LEONARD W. KING, M.A., LITT.D., F.S.A. Assistant Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum Professor in the University of London King's College THE SCHWEICH LECTURES 1916 PREPARER'S NOTE This text was prepared from a 1920 edition of the book, hence the references to dates after 1916 in some places. Greek text has been transliterated within brackets "{}" using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. Diacritical marks have been lost. PREFACE In these lectures an attempt is made, not so much to restate familiar facts, as to accommodate them to new and supplementary evidence which has been published in America since the outbreak of the war. But even without the excuse of recent discovery, no apology would be needed for any comparison or contrast of Hebrew tradition with the mythological and legendary beliefs of Babylon and Egypt. Hebrew achievements in the sphere of religion and ethics are only thrown into stronger relief when studied against their contemporary background. The bulk of our new material is furnished by some early texts, written towards the close of the third millennium B.C. They incorporate traditions which extend in unbroken outline from their own period into the remote ages of the past, and claim to trace the history of man back to his creation. They represent the early national traditions of the Sumerian people, who preceded the Semites as the ruling race in Babylonia; and incidentally they necessitate a revision of current views with regard to the cradle of Babylonian civilization. The most remarkable of the new documents is one which relates in poetical narrative an account of the Creation, of Antediluvian history, and of the Deluge. It thus exhibits a close resemblance in structure to the corresponding Hebrew traditions, a resemblance that is not shared by the Semitic-Babylonian Versions at present known. But in matter the Sumerian tradition is more primitive than any of the Semitic versions. In spite of the fact that the text appears to have reached us in a magical setting, and to some extent in epitomized form, this early document enables us to tap the stream of tradition at a point far above any at which approach has hitherto been possible. Though the resemblance of early Sumerian tradition to that of the Hebrews is striking, it furnishes a still closer parallel to the summaries preserved from the history of Berossus. The huge figures incorporated in the latter's chronological scheme are no longer to be treated as a product of Neo-Babylonian speculation; they reappear in their original surroundings in another of these early documents, the Sumerian Dynastic List. The sources of Berossus had inevitably been semitized by Babylon; but two of his three Antediluvian cities find their place among the five of primitive Sumerian belief, and two of his ten Antediluvian kings rejoin their Sumerian prototypes. Moreover, the recorded ages of Sumerian and Hebrew patriarchs are strangely alike. It may be added that in Egypt a new fragment of the Palermo Stele has enabled us to verify, by a very similar comparison, the accuracy of Manetho's sources for his prehistoric period, while at the same time it demonstrates the way in which possible inaccuracies in his system, deduced from independent evidence, may have arisen in remote antiquity. It is clear that both Hebrew and Hellenistic traditions were modelled on very early lines. Thus our new material enables us to check the age, and in some measure the accuracy, of the traditions concerning the dawn of history which the Greeks reproduced from native sources, both in Babylonia and Egypt, after the conquests of Alexander had brought the Near East within the range of their intimate acquaintance. The third body of tradition, that of the Hebrews, though unbacked by the prestige of secular achievement, has, through incorporation in the canons of two great religious systems, acquired an authority which the others have not enjoyed. In re-examining the sources of all three accounts, so far as they are affected by the new discoveries, it will be of interest to observe how the same problems were solved in antiquity by very different races, living under widely divergent conditions, but within easy reach of one another. Their periods of contact, ascertained in history or suggested by geographical considerations, will prompt the further question to what extent each body of belief was evolved in independence of the others. The close correspondence that has long been recognized and is now confirmed between the Hebrew and the Semitic-Babylonian systems, as compared with that of Egypt, naturally falls within the scope of our enquiry. Excavation has provided an extraordinarily full archaeological commentary to the legends of Egypt and Babylon; and when I received the invitation to deliver the Schweich Lectures for 1916, I was reminded of the terms of the Bequest and was asked to emphasize the archaeological side of the subject. Such material illustration was also calculated to bring out, in a more vivid manner than was possible with purely literary evidence, the contrasts and parallels presented by Hebrew tradition. Thanks to a special grant for photographs from the British Academy, I was enabled to illustrate by means of lantern slides many of the problems discussed in the lectures; and it was originally intended that the photographs then shown should appear as plates in this volume. But in view of the continued and increasing shortage of paper, it was afterwards felt to be only right that all illustrations should be omitted. This very necessary decision has involved a recasting of certain sections of the lectures as delivered, which in its turn has rendered possible a fuller treatment of the new literary evidence. To the consequent shifting of interest is also due a transposition of names in the title. On their literary side, and in virtue of the intimacy of their relation to Hebrew tradition, the legends of Babylon must be given precedence over those of Egypt. For the delay in the appearance of the volume I must plead the pressure of other work, on subjects far removed from archaeological study and affording little time and few facilities for a continuance of archaeological and textual research. It is hoped that the insertion of references throughout, and the more detailed discussion of problems suggested by our new literary material, may incline the reader to add his indulgence to that already extended to me by the British Academy. L. W. KING. LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT IN RELATION TO HEBREW TRADITION LECTURE I EGYPT, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE, AND SOME TRADITIONAL ORIGINS OF CIVILIZATION At the present moment most of us have little time or thought to spare for subjects not connected directly or indirectly with the war. We have put aside our own interests and studies; and after the war we shall all have a certain amount of leeway to make up in acquainting ourselves with what has been going on in countries not yet involved in the great struggle. Meanwhile the most we can do is to glance for a moment at any discovery of exceptional interest that may come to light. The main object of these lectures will be to examine certain Hebrew traditions in the light of new evidence which has been published in America since the outbreak of the war. The evidence is furnished by some literary texts, inscribed on tablets from Nippur, one of the oldest and most sacred cities of Babylonia. They are written in Sumerian, the language spoken by the non-Semitic people whom the Semitic Babylonians conquered and displaced; and they include a very primitive version of the Deluge story and Creation myth, and some texts which throw new light on the age of Babylonian civilization and on the area within which it had its rise. In them we have recovered some of the material from which Berossus derived his dynasty of Antediluvian kings, and we are thus enabled to test the accuracy of the Greek tradition by that of the Sumerians themselves. So far then as Babylonia is concerned, these documents will necessitate a re-examination of more than one problem. The myths and legends of ancient Egypt are also to some extent involved. The trend of much recent anthropological research has been in the direction of seeking a single place of origin for similar beliefs and practices, at least among races which were bound to one another by political or commercial ties. And we shall have occasion to test, by means of our new data, a recent theory of Egyptian influence. The Nile Valley was, of course, one the great centres from which civilization radiated throughout the ancient East; and, even when direct contact is unproved, Egyptian literature may furnish instructive parallels and contrasts in any study of Western Asiatic mythology. Moreover, by a strange coincidence, there has also been published in Egypt since the beginning of the war a record referring to the reigns of predynastic rulers in the Nile Valley. This, like some of the Nippur texts, takes us back to that dim period before the dawn of actual history, and, though the information it affords is not detailed like theirs, it provides fresh confirmation of the general accuracy of Manetho's sources, and suggests some interesting points for comparison. But the people with whose traditions we are ultimately concerned are the Hebrews. In the first series of Schweich Lectures, delivered in the year 1908, the late Canon Driver showed how the literature of Assyria and Babylon had thrown light upon Hebrew traditions concerning the origin and early history of the world. The majority of the cuneiform documents, on which he based his comparison, date from a period no earlier than the seventh century B.C., and yet it was clear that the texts themselves, in some form or other, must have descended from a remote antiquity. He concluded his brief reference to the Creation and Deluge Tablets with these words: "The Babylonian narratives are both polytheistic, while the corresponding biblical narratives (Gen. i and vi-xi) are made the vehicle of a pure and exalted monotheism; but in spite of this fundamental difference, and also variations in detail, the resemblances are such as to leave no doubt that the Hebrew cosmogony and the Hebrew story of the Deluge are both derived ultimately from the same original as the Babylonian narratives, only transformed by the magic touch of Israel's religion, and infused by it with a new spirit."[1] Among the recently published documents from Nippur we have at last recovered one at least of those primitive originals from which the Babylonian accounts were derived, while others prove the existence of variant stories of the world's origin and early history which have not survived in the later cuneiform texts. In some of these early Sumerian records we may trace a faint but remarkable parallel with the Hebrew traditions of man's history between his Creation and the Flood. It will be our task, then, to examine the relations which the Hebrew narratives bear both to the early Sumerian and to the later Babylonian Versions, and to ascertain how far the new discoveries support or modify current views with regard to the contents of those early chapters of Genesis. [1] Driver, /Modern Research as illustrating the Bible/ (The Schweich Lectures, 1908), p. 23. I need not remind you that Genesis is the book of Hebrew origins, and that its contents mark it off to some extent from the other books of the Hebrew Bible. The object of the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua is to describe in their origin the fundamental institutions of the national faith and to trace from the earliest times the course of events which led to the Hebrew settlement in Palestine. Of this national history the Book of Genesis forms the introductory section. Four centuries of complete silence lie between its close and the beginning of Exodus, where we enter on the history of a nation as contrasted with that of a family.[1] While Exodus and the succeeding books contain national traditions, Genesis is largely made up of individual biography. Chapters xii-l are concerned with the immediate ancestors of the Hebrew race, beginning with Abram's migration into Canaan and closing with Joseph's death in Egypt. But the aim of the book is not confined to recounting the ancestry of Israel. It seeks also to show her relation to other peoples in the world, and probing still deeper into the past it describes how the earth itself was prepared for man's habitation. Thus the patriarchal biographies are preceded, in chapters i-xi, by an account of the original of the world, the beginnings of civilization, and the distribution of the various races of mankind. It is, of course, with certain parts of this first group of chapters that such striking parallels have long been recognized in the cuneiform texts. [1] Cf., e.g., Skinner, /A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis/ (1912), p. ii f.; Driver, /The Book of Genesis/, 10th ed. (1916), pp. 1 ff.; Ryle, /The Book of Genesis/ (1914), pp. x ff. In approaching this particular body of Hebrew traditions, the necessity for some caution will be apparent. It is not as though we were dealing with the reported beliefs of a Malayan or Central Australian tribe. In such a case there would be no difficulty in applying a purely objective criticism, without regard to ulterior consequences. But here our own feelings are involved, having their roots deep in early associations. The ground too is well trodden; and, had there been no new material to discuss, I think I should have preferred a less contentious theme. The new material is my justification for the choice of subject, and also the fact that, whatever views we may hold, it will be necessary for us to assimilate it to them. I shall have no hesitation in giving you my own reading of the evidence; but at the same time it will be possible to indicate solutions which will probably appeal to those who view the subject from more conservative standpoints. That side of the discussion may well be postponed until after the examination of the new evidence in detail. And first of all it will be advisable to clear up some general aspects of the problem, and to define the limits within which our criticism may be applied. It must be admitted that both Egypt and Babylon bear a bad name in Hebrew tradition. Both are synonymous with captivity, the symbols of suffering endured at the beginning and at the close of the national life. And during the struggle against Assyrian aggression, the disappointment at the failure of expected help is reflected in prophecies of the period. These great crises in Hebrew history have tended to obscure in the national memory the part which both Babylon and Egypt may have played in moulding the civilization of the smaller nations with whom they came in contact. To such influence the races of Syria were, by geographical position, peculiarly subject. The country has often been compared to a bridge between the two great continents of Asia and Africa, flanked by the sea on one side and the desert on the other, a narrow causeway of highland and coastal plain connecting the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates.[1] For, except on the frontier of Egypt, desert and sea do not meet. Farther north the Arabian plateau is separated from the Mediterranean by a double mountain chain, which runs south from the Taurus at varying elevations, and encloses in its lower course the remarkable depression of the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, and the `Arabah. The Judaean hills and the mountains of Moab are merely the southward prolongation of the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and their neighbourhood to the sea endows this narrow tract of habitable country with its moisture and fertility. It thus formed the natural channel of intercourse between the two earliest centres of civilization, and was later the battle- ground of their opposing empires. [1] See G. A. Smith, /Historical Geography of the Holy Land/, pp. 5 ff., 45 ff., and Myres, /Dawn of History/, pp. 137 ff.; and cf. Hogarth, /The Nearer East/, pp. 65 ff., and Reclus, /Nouvelle Géographie universelle/, t. IX, pp. 685 ff. The great trunk-roads of through communication run north and south, across the eastern plateaus of the Haurân and Moab, and along the coastal plains. The old highway from Egypt, which left the Delta at Pelusium, at first follows the coast, then trends eastward across the plain of Esdraelon, which breaks the coastal range, and passing under Hermon runs northward through Damascus and reaches the Euphrates at its most westerly point. Other through tracks in Palestine ran then as they do to-day, by Beesheba and Hebron, or along the `Arabah and west of the Dead Sea, or through Edom and east of Jordan by the present Hajj route to Damascus. But the great highway from Egypt, the most westerly of the trunk-roads through Palestine, was that mainly followed, with some variant sections, by both caravans and armies, and was known by the Hebrews in its southern course as the "Way of the Philistines" and farther north as the "Way of the East". The plain of Esraelon, where the road first trends eastward, has been the battle-ground for most invaders of Palestine from the north, and though Egyptian armies often fought in the southern coastal plain, they too have battled there when they held the southern country. Megiddo, which commands the main pass into the plain through the low Samaritan hills to the southeast of Carmel, was the site of Thothmes III's famous battle against a Syrian confederation, and it inspired the writer of the Apocalypse with his vision of an Armageddon of the future. But invading armies always followed the beaten track of caravans, and movements represented by the great campaigns were reflected in the daily passage of international commerce. With so much through traffic continually passing within her borders, it may be matter for surprise that far more striking evidence of its cultural effect should not have been revealed by archaeological research in Palestine. Here again the explanation is mainly of a geographical character. For though the plains and plateaus could be crossed by the trunk-roads, the rest of the country is so broken up by mountain and valley that it presented few facilities either to foreign penetration or to external control. The physical barriers to local intercourse, reinforced by striking differences in soil, altitude, and climate, while they precluded Syria herself from attaining national unity, always tended to protect her separate provinces, or "kingdoms," from the full effects of foreign aggression. One city-state could be traversed, devastated, or annexed, without in the least degree affecting neighbouring areas. It is true that the population of Syria has always been predominantly Semitic, for she was on the fringe of the great breeding-ground of the Semitic race and her landward boundary was open to the Arabian nomad. Indeed, in the whole course of her history the only race that bade fair at one time to oust the Semite in Syria was the Greek. But the Greeks remained within the cities which they founded or rebuilt, and, as Robertson Smith pointed out, the death-rate in Eastern cities habitually exceeds the birth- rate; the urban population must be reinforced from the country if it is to be maintained, so that the type of population is ultimately determined by the blood of the peasantry.[1] Hence after the Arab conquest the Greek elements in Syria and Palestine tended rapidly to disappear. The Moslem invasion was only the last of a series of similar great inroads, which have followed one another since the dawn of history, and during all that time absorption was continually taking place from desert tribes that ranged the Syrian border. As we have seen, the country of his adoption was such as to encourage the Semitic nomad's particularism, which was inherent in his tribal organization. Thus the predominance of a single racial element in the population of Palestine and Syria did little to break down or overstep the natural barriers and lines of cleavage. [1] See Robertson Smith, /Religion of the Semites/, p. 12 f.; and cf. Smith, /Hist. Geogr./, p. 10 f. These facts suffice to show why the influence of both Egypt and Babylon upon the various peoples and kingdoms of Palestine was only intensified at certain periods, when ambition for extended empire dictated the reduction of her provinces in detail. But in the long intervals, during which there was no attempt to enforce political control, regular relations were maintained along the lines of trade and barter. And in any estimate of the possible effect of foreign influence upon Hebrew thought, it is important to realize that some of the channels through which in later periods it may have acted had been flowing since the dawn of history, and even perhaps in prehistoric times. It is probable that Syria formed one of the links by which we may explain the Babylonian elements that are attested in prehistoric Egyptian culture.[1] But another possible line of advance may have been by way of Arabia and across the Red Sea into Upper Egypt. [1] Cf. /Sumer and Akkad/, pp. 322 ff.; and for a full discussion of the points of resemblance between the early Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations, see Sayce, /The Archaeology of the Cuneiform Inscriptions/, chap. iv, pp. 101 ff. The latter line of contact is suggested by an interesting piece of evidence that has recently been obtained. A prehistoric flint knife, with a handle carved from the tooth of a hippopotamus, has been purchased lately by the Louvre,[1] and is said to have been found at Gebel el-`Arak near Naga` Hamâdi, which lies on the Nile not far below Koptos, where an ancient caravan-track leads by Wâdi Hammâmât to the Red Sea. On one side of the handle is a battle-scene including some remarkable representations of ancient boats. All the warriors are nude with the exception of a loin girdle, but, while one set of combatants have shaven heads or short hair, the others have abundant locks falling in a thick mass upon the shoulder. On the other face of the handle is carved a hunting scene, two hunters with dogs and desert animals being arranged around a central boss. But in the upper field is a very remarkable group, consisting of a personage struggling with two lions arranged symmetrically. The rest of the composition is not very unlike other examples of prehistoric Egyptian carving in low relief, but here attitude, figure, and clothing are quite un-Egyptian. The hero wears a sort of turban on his abundant hair, and a full and rounded beard descends upon his breast. A long garment clothes him from the waist and falls below the knees, his muscular calves ending in the claws of a bird of prey. There is nothing like this in prehistoric Egyptian art. [1] See Bénédite, "Le couteau de Gebel al-`Arak", in /Foundation Eugène Piot, Mon. et. Mém./, XXII. i. (1916). Perhaps Monsieur Bénédite is pressing his theme too far when he compares the close-cropped warriors on the handle with the shaven Sumerians and Elamites upon steles from Telloh and Susa, for their loin-girdles are African and quite foreign to the Euphrates Valley. And his suggestion that two of the boats, flat-bottomed and with high curved ends, seem only to have navigated the Tigris and Euphrates,[1] will hardly command acceptance. But there is no doubt that the heroic personage upon the other face is represented in the familiar attitude of the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh struggling with lions, which formed so favourite a subject upon early Sumerian and Babylonian seals. His garment is Sumerian or Semitic rather than Egyptian, and the mixture of human and bird elements in the figure, though not precisely paralleled at this early period, is not out of harmony with Mesopotamian or Susan tradition. His beard, too, is quite different from that of the Libyan desert tribes which the early Egyptian kings adopted. Though the treatment of the lions is suggestive of proto- Elamite rather than of early Babylonian models, the design itself is unmistakably of Mesopotamian origin. This discovery intensifies the significance of other early parallels that have been noted between the civilizations of the Euphrates and the Nile, but its evidence, so far as it goes, does not point to Syria as the medium of prehistoric intercourse. Yet then, as later, there can have been no physical barrier to the use of the river-route from Mesopotamia into Syria and of the tracks thence southward along the land-bridge to the Nile's delta. [1] Op. cit., p. 32. In the early historic periods we have definite evidence that the eastern coast of the Levant exercised a strong fascination upon the rulers of both Egypt and Babylonia. It may be admitted that Syria had little to give in comparison to what she could borrow, but her local trade in wine and oil must have benefited by an increase in the through traffic which followed the working of copper in Cyprus and Sinai and of silver in the Taurus. Moreover, in the cedar forests of Lebanon and the north she possessed a product which was highly valued both in Egypt and the treeless plains of Babylonia. The cedars procured by Sneferu from Lebanon at the close of the IIIrd Dynasty were doubtless floated as rafts down the coast, and we may see in them evidence of a regular traffic in timber. It has long been known that the early Babylonian king Sharru-kin, or Sargon of Akkad, had pressed up the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, and we now have information that he too was fired by a desire for precious wood and metal. One of the recently published Nippur inscriptions contains copies of a number of his texts, collected by an ancient scribe from his statues at Nippur, and from these we gather additional details of his campaigns. We learn that after his complete subjugation of Southern Babylonia he turned his attention to the west, and that Enlil gave him the lands "from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea", i.e. from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Fortunately this rather vague phrase, which survived in later tradition, is restated in greater detail in one of the contemporary versions, which records that Enlil "gave him the upper land, Mari, Iarmuti, and Ibla, as far as the Cedar Forest and the Silver Mountains".[1] [1] See Poebel, /Historical Texts/ (Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sect., Vol. IV, No. 1, 1914), pp. 177 f., 222 ff. Mari was a city on the middle Euphrates, but the name may here signify the district of Mari which lay in the upper course of Sargon's march. Now we know that the later Sumerian monarch Gudea obtained his cedar beams from the Amanus range, which he names /Amanum/ and describes as the "cedar mountains".[1] Doubtless he felled his trees on the eastern slopes of the mountain. But we may infer from his texts that Sargon actually reached the coast, and his "Cedar Forest" may have lain farther to the south, perhaps as far south as the Lebanon. The "Silver Mountains" can only be identified with the Taurus, where silver mines were worked in antiquity. The reference to Iarmuti is interesting, for it is clearly the same place as Iarimuta or Iarimmuta, of which we find mention in the Tell el-Amarna letters. From the references to this district in the letters of Rib-Adda, governor of Byblos, we may infer that it was a level district on the coast, capable of producing a considerable quantity of grain for export, and that it was under Egyptian control at the time of Amenophis IV. Hitherto its position has been conjecturally placed in the Nile Delta, but from Sargon's reference we must probably seek it on the North Syrian or possibly the Cilician coast. Perhaps, as Dr. Poebel suggests, it was the plain of Antioch, along the lower course and at the mouth of the Orontes. But his further suggestion that the term is used by Sargon for the whole stretch of country between the sea and the Euphrates is hardly probable. For the geographical references need not be treated as exhaustive, but as confined to the more important districts through which the expedition passed. The district of Ibla which is also mentioned by Narâm-Sin and Gudea, lay probably to the north of Iarmuti, perhaps on the southern slopes of Taurus. It, too, we may regard as a district of restricted extent rather than as a general geographical term for the extreme north of Syria. [1] Thureau-Dangin, /Les inscriptions de Sumer de d'Akkad/, p. 108 f., Statue B, col. v. 1. 28; Germ. ed., p. 68 f. It is significant that Sargon does not allude to any battle when describing this expedition, nor does he claim to have devastated the western countries.[1] Indeed, most of these early expeditions to the west appear to have been inspired by motives of commercial enterprise rather than of conquest. But increase of wealth was naturally followed by political expansion, and Egypt's dream of an Asiatic empire was realized by Pharaohs of the XVIIIth Dynasty. The fact that Babylonian should then have been adopted as the medium of official intercourse in Syria points to the closeness of the commercial ties which had already united the Euphrates Valley with the west. Egyptian control had passed from Canaan at the time of the Hebrew settlement, which was indeed a comparatively late episode in the early history of Syria. Whether or not we identify the Khabiri with the Hebrews, the character of the latter's incursion is strikingly illustrated by some of the Tell el-Amarna letters. We see a nomad folk pressing in upon settled peoples and gaining a foothold here and there.[2] [1] In some versions of his new records Sargon states that "5,400 men daily eat bread before him" (see Poebel, op. cit., p. 178); though the figure may be intended to convey an idea of the size of Sargon's court, we may perhaps see in it a not inaccurate estimate of the total strength of his armed forces. [2] See especially Professor Burney's forthcoming commentary on Judges (passim), and his forthcoming Schweich Lectures (now delivered, in 1917). The great change from desert life consists in the adoption of agriculture, and when once that was made by the Hebrews any further advance in economic development was dictated by their new surroundings. The same process had been going on, as we have seen, in Syria since the dawn of history, the Semitic nomad passing gradually through the stages of agricultural and village life into that of the city. The country favoured the retention of tribal exclusiveness, but ultimate survival could only be purchased at the cost of some amalgamation with their new neighbours. Below the surface of Hebrew history these two tendencies may be traced in varying action and reaction. Some sections of the race engaged readily in the social and commercial life of Canaanite civilization with its rich inheritance from the past. Others, especially in the highlands of Judah and the south, at first succeeded in keeping themselves remote from foreign influence. During the later periods of the national life the country was again subjected, and in an intensified degree, to those forces of political aggression from Mesopotamia and Egypt which we have already noted as operating in Canaan. But throughout the settled Hebrew community as a whole the spark of desert fire was not extinguished, and by kindling the zeal of the Prophets it eventually affected nearly all the white races of mankind. In his Presidential Address before the British Association at Newcastle,[1] Sir Arthur Evans emphasized the part which recent archaeology has played in proving the continuity of human culture from the most remote periods. He showed how gaps in our knowledge had been bridged, and he traced the part which each great race had taken in increasing its inheritance. We have, in fact, ample grounds for assuming an interchange, not only of commercial products, but, in a minor degree, of ideas within areas geographically connected; and it is surely not derogatory to any Hebrew writer to suggest that he may have adopted, and used for his own purposes, conceptions current among his contemporaries. In other words, the vehicle of religious ideas may well be of composite origin; and, in the course of our study of early Hebrew tradition, I suggest that we hold ourselves justified in applying the comparative method to some at any rate of the ingredients which went to form the finished product. The process is purely literary, but it finds an analogy in the study of Semitic art, especially in the later periods. And I think it will make my meaning clearer if we consider for a moment a few examples of sculpture produced by races of Semitic origin. I do not suggest that we should regard the one process as in any way proving the existence of the other. We should rather treat the comparison as illustrating in another medium the effect of forces which, it is clear, were operative at various periods upon races of the same stock from which the Hebrews themselves were descended. In such material products the eye at once detects the Semite's readiness to avail himself of foreign models. In some cases direct borrowing is obvious; in others, to adapt a metaphor from music, it is possible to trace extraneous /motifs/ in the design.[2] [1] "New Archaeological Lights on the Origins of Civilization in Europe," British Association, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1916. [2] The necessary omission of plates, representing the slides shown in the lectures, has involved a recasting of most passages in which points of archaeological detail were discussed; see Preface. But the following paragraphs have been retained as the majority of the monuments referred to are well known. Some of the most famous monuments of Semitic art date from the Persian and Hellenistic periods, and if we glance at them in this connexion it is in order to illustrate during its most obvious phase a tendency of which the earlier effects are less pronounced. In the sarcophagus of the Sidonian king Eshmu-`azar II, which is preserved in the Louvre,[1] we have indeed a monument to which no Semitic sculptor can lay claim. Workmanship and material are Egyptian, and there is no doubt that it was sculptured in Egypt and transported to Sidon by sea. But the king's own engravers added the long Phoenician inscription, in which he adjures princes and men not to open his resting-place since there are no jewels therein, concluding with some potent curses against any violation of his tomb. One of the latter implores the holy gods to deliver such violators up "to a mighty prince who shall rule over them", and was probably suggested by Alexander's recent occupation of Sidon in 332 B.C. after his reduction and drastic punishment of Tyre. King Eshmun-`zar was not unique in his choice of burial in an Egyptian coffin, for he merely followed the example of his royal father, Tabnîth, "priest of `Ashtart and king of the Sidonians", whose sarcophagus, preserved at Constantinople, still bears in addition to his own epitaph that of its former occupant, a certain Egyptian general Penptah. But more instructive than these borrowed memorials is a genuine example of Phoenician work, the stele set up by Yehaw-milk, king of Byblos, and dating from the fourth or fifth century B.C.[2] In the sculptured panel at the head of the stele the king is represented in the Persian dress of the period standing in the presence of `Ashtart or Astarte, his "Lady, Mistress of Byblos". There is no doubt that the stele is of native workmanship, but the influence of Egypt may be seen in the technique of the carving, in the winged disk above the figures, and still more in the representation of the goddess in her character as the Egyptian Hathor, with disk and horns, vulture head-dress and papyrus-sceptre. The inscription records the dedication of an altar and shrine to the goddess, and these too we may conjecture were fashioned on Egyptian lines. [1] /Corp. Inscr. Semit./, I. i, tab. II. [2] /C.I.S./, I. i, tab. I. The representation of Semitic deities under Egyptian forms and with Egyptian attributes was encouraged by the introduction of their cults into Egypt itself. In addition to Astarte of Byblos, Ba`al, Anath, and Reshef were all borrowed from Syria in comparatively early times and given Egyptian characters. The conical Syrian helmet of Reshef, a god of war and thunder, gradually gave place to the white Egyptian crown, so that as Reshpu he was represented as a royal warrior; and Qadesh, another form of Astarte, becoming popular with Egyptian women as a patroness of love and fecundity, was also sometimes modelled on Hathor.[1] [1] See W. Max Müller, /Egyptological Researches/, I, p. 32 f., pl. 41, and S. A. Cook, /Religion of Ancient Palestine/, pp. 83 ff. Semitic colonists on the Egyptian border were ever ready to adopt Egyptian symbolism in delineating the native gods to whom they owed allegiance, and a particularly striking example of this may be seen on a stele of the Persian period preserved in the Cairo Museum.[1] It was found at Tell Defenneh, on the right bank of the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, close to the old Egyptian highway into Syria, a site which may be identified with that of the biblical Tahpanhes and the Daphnae of the Greeks. Here it was that the Jewish fugitives, fleeing with Jeremiah after the fall of Jerusalem, founded a Jewish colony beside a flourishing Phoenician and Aramaean settlement. One of the local gods of Tahpanhes is represented on the Cairo monument, an Egyptian stele in the form of a naos with the winged solar disk upon its frieze. He stands on the back of a lion and is clothed in Asiatic costume with the high Syrian tiara crowning his abundant hair. The Syrian workmanship is obvious, and the Syrian character of the cult may be recognized in such details as the small brazen fire-altar before the god, and the sacred pillar which is being anointed by the officiating priest. But the god holds in his left hand a purely Egyptian sceptre and in his right an emblem as purely Babylonian, the weapon of Marduk and Gilgamesh which was also wielded by early Sumerian kings. [1] Müller, op. cit., p. 30 f., pl. 40. Numismatic evidence exhibits a similar readiness on the part of local Syrian cults to adopt the veneer of Hellenistic civilization while retaining in great measure their own individuality; see Hill, "Some Palestinian Cults in the Graeco-Roman Age", in /Proceedings of the British Academy/, Vol. V (1912). The Elephantine papyri have shown that the early Jews of the Diaspora, though untrammeled by the orthodoxy of Jerusalem, maintained the purity of their local cult in the face of considerable difficulties. Hence the gravestones of their Aramaean contemporaries, which have been found in Egypt, can only be cited to illustrate the temptations to which they were exposed.[1] Such was the memorial erected by Abseli to the memory of his parents, Abbâ and Ahatbû, in the fourth year of Xerxes, 481 B.C.[2] They had evidently adopted the religion of Osiris, and were buried at Saqqârah in accordance with the Egyptian rites. The upper scene engraved upon the stele represents Abbâ and his wife in the presence of Osiris, who is attended by Isis and Nephthys; and in the lower panel is the funeral scene, in which all the mourners with one exception are Asiatics. Certain details of the rites that are represented, and mistakes in the hieroglyphic version of the text, prove that the work is Aramaean throughout.[3] [1] It may be admitted that the Greek platonized cult of Isis and Osiris had its origin in the fusion of Greeks and Egyptians which took place in Ptolemaic times (cf. Scott-Moncrieff, /Paganism and Christianity in Egypt/, p. 33 f.). But we may assume that already in the Persian period the Osiris cult had begun to acquire a tinge of mysticism, which, though it did not affect the mechanical reproduction of the native texts, appealed to the Oriental mind as well as to certain elements in Greek religion. Persian influence probably prepared the way for the Platonic exegesis of the Osiris and Isis legends which we find in Plutarch; and the latter may have been in great measure a development, and not, as is often assumed, a complete misunderstanding of the later Egyptian cult. [2] /C.I.S./, II. i, tab. XI, No. 122. [3] A very similar monument is the Carpentras Stele (/C.I.S./, II., i, tab. XIII, No. 141), commemorating Taba, daughter of Tahapi, an Aramaean lady who was also a convert to Osiris. It is rather later than that of Abbâ and his wife, since the Aramaic characters are transitional from the archaic to the square alphabet; see Driver, /Notes on the Hebrew Text of the Books of Samuel/, pp. xviii ff., and Cooke, /North Semitic Inscriptions/, p. 205 f. The Vatican Stele (op. cit. tab. XIV. No. 142), which dates from the fourth century, represents inferior work. If our examples of Semitic art were confined to the Persian and later periods, they could only be employed to throw light on their own epoch, when through communication had been organized, and there was consequently a certain pooling of commercial and artistic products throughout the empire.[1] It is true that under the Great King the various petty states and provinces were encouraged to manage their own affairs so long as they paid the required tribute, but their horizon naturally expanded with increase of commerce and the necessity for service in the king's armies. At this time Aramaic was the speech of Syria, and the population, especially in the cities, was still largely Aramaean. As early as the thirteenth century sections of this interesting Semitic race had begun to press into Northern Syria from the middle Euphrates, and they absorbed not only the old Canaanite population but also the Hittite immigrants from Cappadocia. The latter indeed may for a time have furnished rulers to the vigorous North Syrian principalities which resulted from this racial combination, but the Aramaean element, thanks to continual reinforcement, was numerically dominant, and their art may legitimately be regarded as in great measure a Semitic product. Fortunately we have recovered examples of sculpture which prove that tendencies already noted in the Persian period were at work, though in a minor degree, under the later Assyrian empire. The discoveries made at Zenjirli, for example, illustrate the gradually increasing effect of Assyrian influence upon the artistic output of a small North Syrian state. [1] Cf. Bevan, /House of Seleucus/, Vol. I, pp. 5, 260 f. The artistic influence of Mesopotamia was even more widely spread than that of Egypt during the Persian period. This is suggested, for example, by the famous lion-weight discovered at Abydos in Mysia, the town on the Hellespont famed for the loves of Hero and Leander. The letters of its Aramaic inscription (/C.I.S./, II. i, tab. VII, No. 108) prove by their form that it dates from the Persian period, and its provenance is sufficiently attested. Its weight moreover suggests that it was not merely a Babylonian or Persian importation, but cast for local use, yet in design and technique it is scarcely distinguishable from the best Assyrian work of the seventh century. This village in north-western Syria, on the road between Antioch and Mar`ash, marks the site of a town which lay near the southern border or just within the Syrian district of Sam'al. The latter is first mentioned in the Assyrian inscriptions by Shalmaneser III, the son and successor of the great conqueror, Ashur-nasir-pal; and in the first half of the eighth century, though within the radius of Assyrian influence, it was still an independent kingdom. It is to this period that we must assign the earliest of the inscribed monuments discovered at Zenjirli and its neighbourhood. At Gerjin, not far to the north- west, was found the colossal statue of Hadad, chief god of the Aramaeans, which was fashioned and set up in his honour by Panammu I, son of Qaral and king of Ya'di.[1] In the long Aramaic inscription engraved upon the statue Panammu records the prosperity of his reign, which he ascribes to the support he has received from Hadad and his other gods, El, Reshef, Rekub-el, and Shamash. He had evidently been left in peace by Assyria, and the monument he erected to his god is of Aramaean workmanship and design. But the influence of Assyria may be traced in Hadad's beard and in his horned head-dress, modelled on that worn by Babylonian and Assyrian gods as the symbol of divine power. [1] See F. von Luschan, /Sendschirli/, I. (1893), pp. 49 ff., pl. vi; and cf. Cooke, /North Sem. Inscr./, pp. 159 ff. The characters of the inscription on the statue are of the same archaic type as those of the Moabite Stone, though unlike them they are engraved in relief; so too are the inscriptions of Panammu's later successor Bar-rekub (see below). Gerjin was certainly in Ya'di, and Winckler's suggestion that Zenjirli itself also lay in that district but near the border of Sam'al may be provisionally accepted; the occurrence of the names in the inscriptions can be explained in more than one way (see Cooke, op. cit., p. 183). The political changes introduced into Ya'di and Sam'al by Tiglath- pileser IV are reflected in the inscriptions and monuments of Bar-rekub, a later king of the district. Internal strife had brought disaster upon Ya'di and the throne had been secured by Panammu II, son of Bar-sur, whose claims received Assyrian support. In the words of his son Bar-rekub, "he laid hold of the skirt of his lord, the king of Assyria", who was gracious to him; and it was probably at this time, and as a reward for his loyalty, that Ya'di was united with the neighbouring district of Sam'al. But Panammu's devotion to his foreign master led to his death, for he died at the siege of Damascus, in 733 or 732 B.C., "in the camp, while following his lord, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria". His kinsfolk and the whole camp bewailed him, and his body was sent back to Ya'di, where it was interred by his son, who set up an inscribed statue to his memory. Bar-rekub followed in his father's footsteps, as he leads us to infer in his palace-inscription found at Zenjirli: "I ran at the wheel of my lord, the king of Assyria, in the midst of mighty kings, possessors of silver and possessors of gold." It is not strange therefore that his art should reflect Assyrian influence far more strikingly than that of Panammu I. The figure of himself which he caused to be carved in relief on the left side of the palace-inscription is in the Assyrian style,[1] and so too is another of his reliefs from Zenjirli. On the latter Bar-rekub is represented seated upon his throne with eunuch and scribe in attendance, while in the field is the emblem of full moon and crescent, here ascribed to "Ba`al of Harran", the famous centre of moon-worship in Northern Mesopotamia.[2] [1] /Sendschirli/, IV (1911), pl. lxvii. Attitude and treatment of robes are both Assyrian, and so is the arrangement of divine symbols in the upper field, though some of the latter are given under unfamiliar forms. The king's close-fitting peaked cap was evidently the royal headdress of Sam'al; see the royal figure on a smaller stele of inferior design, op. cit., pl. lxvi. [2] Op. cit. pp. 257, 346 ff., and pl. lx. The general style of the sculpture and much of the detail are obviously Assyrian. Assyrian influence is particularly noticeable in Bar-rekub's throne; the details of its decoration are precisely similar to those of an Assyrian bronze throne in the British Museum. The full moon and crescent are not of the familiar form, but are mounted on a standard with tassels. The detailed history and artistic development of Sam'al and Ya'di convey a very vivid impression of the social and material effects upon the native population of Syria, which followed the westward advance of Assyria in the eighth century. We realize not only the readiness of one party in the state to defeat its rival with the help of Assyrian support, but also the manner in which the life and activities of the nation as a whole were unavoidably affected by their action. Other Hittite-Aramaean and Phoenician monuments, as yet undocumented with literary records, exhibit a strange but not unpleasing mixture of foreign /motifs/, such as we see on the stele from Amrith[1] in the inland district of Arvad. But perhaps the most remarkable example of Syrian art we possess is the king's gate recently discovered at Carchemish.[2] The presence of the hieroglyphic inscriptions points to the survival of Hittite tradition, but the figures represented in the reliefs are of Aramaean, not Hittite, type. Here the king is seen leading his eldest son by the hand in some stately ceremonial, and ranged in registers behind them are the younger members of the royal family, whose ages are indicated by their occupations.[3] The employment of basalt in place of limestone does not disguise the sculptor's debt to Assyria. But the design is entirely his own, and the combined dignity and homeliness of the composition are refreshingly superior to the arrogant spirit and hard execution which mar so much Assyrian work. This example is particularly instructive, as it shows how a borrowed art may be developed in skilled hands and made to serve a purpose in complete harmony with its new environment. [1] /Collection de Clercq/, t. II, pl. xxxvi. The stele is sculptured in relief with the figure of a North Syrian god. Here the winged disk is Egyptian, as well as the god's helmet with uraeus, and his loin-cloth; his attitude and his supporting lion are Hittite; and the lozenge-mountains, on which the lion stands, and the technique of the carving are Assyrian. But in spite of its composite character the design is quite successful and not in the least incongruous. [2] Hogarth, /Carchemish/, Pt. I (1914), pl. B. 7 f. [3] Two of the older boys play at knuckle-bones, others whip spinning- tops, and a little naked girl runs behind supporting herself with a stick, on the head of which is carved a bird. The procession is brought up by the queen-mother, who carries the youngest baby and leads a pet lamb. Such monuments surely illustrate the adaptability of the Semitic craftsman among men of Phoenician and Aramaean strain. Excavation in Palestine has failed to furnish examples of Hebrew work. But Hebrew tradition itself justifies us in regarding this /trait/ as of more general application, or at any rate as not repugnant to Hebrew thought, when it relates that Solomon employed Tyrian craftsmen for work upon the Temple and its furniture; for Phoenician art was essentially Egyptian in its origin and general character. Even Eshmun- `zar's desire for burial in an Egyptian sarcophagus may be paralleled in Hebrew tradition of a much earlier period, when, in the last verse of Genesis,[1] it is recorded that Joseph died, "and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt". Since it formed the subject of prophetic denunciation, I refrain for the moment from citing the notorious adoption of Assyrian customs at certain periods of the later Judaean monarchy. The two records I have referred to will suffice, for we have in them cherished traditions, of which the Hebrews themselves were proud, concerning the most famous example of Hebrew religious architecture and the burial of one of the patriarchs of the race. A similar readiness to make use of the best available resources, even of foreign origin, may on analogy be regarded as at least possible in the composition of Hebrew literature. [1] Gen. l. 26, assigned by critics to E. We shall see that the problems we have to face concern the possible influence of Babylon, rather than of Egypt, upon Hebrew tradition. And one last example, drawn from the later period, will serve to demonstrate how Babylonian influence penetrated the ancient world and has even left some trace upon modern civilization. It is a fact, though one perhaps not generally realized, that the twelve divisions on the dials of our clocks and watches have a Babylonian, and ultimately a Sumerian, ancestry. For why is it we divide the day into twenty-four hours? We have a decimal system of reckoning, we count by tens; why then should we divide the day and night into twelve hours each, instead of into ten or some multiple of ten? The reason is that the Babylonians divided the day into twelve double-hours; and the Greeks took over their ancient system of time-division along with their knowledge of astronomy and passed it on to us. So if we ourselves, after more than two thousand years, are making use of an old custom from Babylon, it would not be surprising if the Hebrews, a contemporary race, should have fallen under her influence even before they were carried away as captives and settled forcibly upon her river-banks. We may pass on, then, to the site from which our new material has been obtained--the ancient city of Nippur, in central Babylonia. Though the place has been deserted for at least nine hundred years, its ancient name still lingers on in local tradition, and to this day /Niffer/ or /Nuffar/ is the name the Arabs give the mounds which cover its extensive ruins. No modern town or village has been built upon them or in their immediate neighbourhood. The nearest considerable town is Dîwânîyah, on the left bank of the Hillah branch of the Euphrates, twenty miles to the south-west; but some four miles to the south of the ruins is the village of Sûq el-`Afej, on the eastern edge of the `Afej marshes, which begin to the south of Nippur and stretch away westward. Protected by its swamps, the region contains a few primitive settlements of the wild `Afej tribesmen, each a group of reed-huts clustering around the mud fort of its ruling sheikh. Their chief enemies are the Shammâr, who dispute with them possession of the pastures. In summer the marshes near the mounds are merely pools of water connected by channels through the reed-beds, but in spring the flood-water converts them into a vast lagoon, and all that meets the eye are a few small hamlets built on rising knolls above the water- level. Thus Nippur may be almost isolated during the floods, but the mounds are protected from the waters' encroachment by an outer ring of former habitation which has slightly raised the level of the encircling area. The ruins of the city stand from thirty to seventy feet above the plain, and in the north-eastern corner there rose, before the excavations, a conical mound, known by the Arabs as /Bint el-Emîr/ or "The Princess". This prominent landmark represents the temple-tower of Enlil's famous sanctuary, and even after excavation it is still the first object that the approaching traveller sees on the horizon. When he has climbed its summit he enjoys an uninterrupted view over desert and swamp. The cause of Nippur's present desolation is to be traced to the change in the bed of the Euphrates, which now lies far to the west. But in antiquity the stream flowed through the centre of the city, along the dry bed of the Shatt en-Nîl, which divides the mounds into an eastern and a western group. The latter covers the remains of the city proper and was occupied in part by the great business-houses and bazaars. Here more than thirty thousand contracts and accounts, dating from the fourth millennium to the fifth century B.C., were found in houses along the former river-bank. In the eastern half of the city was Enlil's great temple Ekur, with its temple-tower Imkharsag rising in successive stages beside it. The huge temple-enclosure contained not only the sacrificial shrines, but also the priests' apartments, store- chambers, and temple-magazines. Outside its enclosing wall, to the south-west, a large triangular mound, christened "Tablet Hill" by the excavators, yielded a further supply of records. In addition to business-documents of the First Dynasty of Babylon and of the later Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persian periods, between two and three thousand literary texts and fragments were discovered here, many of them dating from the Sumerian period. And it is possible that some of the early literary texts that have been published were obtained in other parts of the city. No less than twenty-one different strata, representing separate periods of occupation, have been noted by the American excavators at various levels within the Nippur mounds,[1] the earliest descending to virgin soil some twenty feet below the present level of the surrounding plain. The remote date of Nippur's foundation as a city and cult-centre is attested by the fact that the pavement laid by Narâm-Sin in the south-eastern temple-court lies thirty feet above virgin soil, while only thirty-six feet of superimposed /débris/ represent the succeeding millennia of occupation down to Sassanian and early Arab times. In the period of the Hebrew captivity the city still ranked as a great commercial market and as one of the most sacred repositories of Babylonian religious tradition. We know that not far off was Tel-abib, the seat of one of the colonies of Jewish exiles, for that lay "by the river of Chebar",[2] which we may identify with the Kabaru Canal in Nippur's immediate neighbourhood. It was "among the captives by the river Chebar" that Ezekiel lived and prophesied, and it was on Chebar's banks that he saw his first vision of the Cherubim.[3] He and other of the Jewish exiles may perhaps have mingled with the motley crowd that once thronged the streets of Nippur, and they may often have gazed on the huge temple-tower which rose above the city's flat roofs. We know that the later population of Nippur itself included a considerable Jewish element, for the upper strata of the mounds have yielded numerous clay bowls with Hebrew, Mandaean, and Syriac magical inscriptions;[4] and not the least interesting of the objects recovered was the wooden box of a Jewish scribe, containing his pen and ink-vessel and a little scrap of crumbling parchment inscribed with a few Hebrew characters.[5] [1] See Hilprecht, /Explorations in Bible Lands/, pp. 289 ff., 540 ff.; and Fisher, /Excavations at Nippur/, Pt. I (1905), Pt. II (1906). [2] Ezek. iii. 15. [3] Ezek. i. 1, 3; iii. 23; and cf. x. 15, 20, 22, and xliii. 3. [4] See J. A. Montgomery, /Aramaic Incantation Texts from Nippur/, 1913 [5] Hilprecht, /Explorations/, p. 555 f. Of the many thousands of inscribed clay tablets which were found in the course of the expeditions, some were kept at Constantinople, while others were presented by the Sultan Abdul Hamid to the excavators, who had them conveyed to America. Since that time a large number have been published. The work was necessarily slow, for many of the texts were found to be in an extremely bad state of preservation. So it happened that a great number of the boxes containing tablets remained until recently still packed up in the store-rooms of the Pennsylvania Museum. But under the present energetic Director of the Museum, Dr. G. B. Gordon, the process of arranging and publishing the mass of literary material has been "speeded up". A staff of skilled workmen has been employed on the laborious task of cleaning the broken tablets and fitting the fragments together. At the same time the help of several Assyriologists was welcomed in the further task of running over and sorting the collections as they were prepared for study. Professor Clay, Professor Barton, Dr. Langdon, Dr. Edward Chiera, and Dr. Arno Poebel have all participated in the work. But the lion's share has fallen to the last-named scholar, who was given leave of absence by John Hopkins University in order to take up a temporary appointment at the Pennsylvania Museum. The result of his labours was published by the Museum at the end of 1914.[1] The texts thus made available for study are of very varied interest. A great body of them are grammatical and represent compilations made by Semitic scribes of the period of Hammurabi's dynasty for their study of the old Sumerian tongue. Containing, as most of them do, Semitic renderings of the Sumerian words and expressions collected, they are as great a help to us in our study of Sumerian language as they were to their compilers; in particular they have thrown much new light on the paradigms of the demonstrative and personal pronouns and on Sumerian verbal forms. But literary texts are also included in the recent publications. [1] Poebel, /Historical Texts/ and /Historical and Grammatical Texts/ (Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sect., Vol. IV, No. 1, and Vol. V), Philadelphia, 1914. When the Pennsylvania Museum sent out its first expedition, lively hopes were entertained that the site selected would yield material of interest from the biblical standpoint. The city of Nippur, as we have seen, was one of the most sacred and most ancient religious centres in the country, and Enlil, its city-god, was the head of the Babylonian pantheon. On such a site it seemed likely that we might find versions of the Babylonian legends which were current at the dawn of history before the city of Babylonia and its Semitic inhabitants came upon the scene. This expectation has proved to be not unfounded, for the literary texts include the Sumerian Deluge Version and Creation myth to which I referred at the beginning of the lecture. Other texts of almost equal interest consist of early though fragmentary lists of historical and semi-mythical rulers. They prove that Berossus and the later Babylonians depended on material of quite early origin in compiling their dynasties of semi-mythical kings. In them we obtain a glimpse of ages more remote than any on which excavation in Babylonia has yet thrown light, and for the first time we have recovered genuine native tradition of early date with regard to the cradle of Babylonian culture. Before we approach the Sumerian legends themselves, it will be as well to-day to trace back in this tradition the gradual merging of history into legend and myth, comparing at the same time the ancient Egyptian's picture of his own remote past. We will also ascertain whether any new light is thrown by our inquiry upon Hebrew traditions concerning the earliest history of the human race and the origins of civilization. In the study of both Egyptian and Babylonian chronology there has been a tendency of late years to reduce the very early dates that were formerly in fashion. But in Egypt, while the dynasties of Manetho have been telescoped in places, excavation has thrown light on predynastic periods, and we can now trace the history of culture in the Nile Valley back, through an unbroken sequence, to its neolithic stage. Quite recently, too, as I mentioned just now, a fresh literary record of these early predynastic periods has been recovered, on a fragment of the famous Palermo Stele, our most valuable monument for early Egyptian history and chronology. Egypt presents a striking contrast to Babylonia in the comparatively small number of written records which have survived for the reconstruction of her history. We might well spare much of her religious literature, enshrined in endless temple- inscriptions and papyri, if we could but exchange it for some of the royal annals of Egyptian Pharaohs. That historical records of this character were compiled by the Egyptian scribes, and that they were as detailed and precise in their information as those we have recovered from Assyrian sources, is clear from the few extracts from the annals of Thothmes III's wars which are engraved on the walls of the temple at Karnak.[1] As in Babylonia and Assyria, such records must have formed the foundation on which summaries of chronicles of past Egyptian history were based. In the Palermo Stele it is recognized that we possess a primitive chronicle of this character. [1] See Breasted, /Ancient Records/, I, p. 4, II, pp. 163 ff. Drawn up as early as the Vth Dynasty, its historical summary proves that from the beginning of the dynastic age onward a yearly record was kept of the most important achievements of the reigning Pharaoh. In this fragmentary but invaluable epitome, recording in outline much of the history of the Old Kingdom,[1] some interesting parallels have long been noted with Babylonian usage. The early system of time- reckoning, for example, was the same in both countries, each year being given an official title from the chief event that occurred in it. And although in Babylonia we are still without material for tracing the process by which this cumbrous method gave place to that of reckoning by regnal years, the Palermo Stele demonstrates the way in which the latter system was evolved in Egypt. For the events from which the year was named came gradually to be confined to the fiscal "numberings" of cattle and land. And when these, which at first had taken place at comparatively long intervals, had become annual events, the numbered sequence of their occurrence corresponded precisely to the years of the king's reign. On the stele, during the dynastic period, each regnal year is allotted its own space or rectangle,[2] arranged in horizontal sequence below the name and titles of the ruling king. [1] Op. cit., I, pp. 57 ff. [2] The spaces are not strictly rectangles, as each is divided vertically from the next by the Egyptian hieroglyph for "year". The text, which is engraved on both sides of a great block of black basalt, takes its name from the fact that the fragment hitherto known has been preserved since 1877 at the Museum of Palermo. Five other fragments of the text have now been published, of which one undoubtedly belongs to the same monument as the Palermo fragment, while the others may represent parts of one or more duplicate copies of that famous text. One of the four Cairo fragments[1] was found by a digger for /sebakh/ at Mitrahîneh (Memphis); the other three, which were purchased from a dealer, are said to have come from Minieh, while the fifth fragment, at University College, is also said to have come from Upper Egypt,[2] though it was purchased by Professor Petrie while at Memphis. These reports suggest that a number of duplicate copies were engraved and set up in different Egyptian towns, and it is possible that the whole of the text may eventually be recovered. The choice of basalt for the records was obviously dictated by a desire for their preservation, but it has had the contrary effect; for the blocks of this hard and precious stone have been cut up and reused in later times. The largest and most interesting of the new fragments has evidently been employed as a door-sill, with the result that its surface is much rubbed and parts of its text are unfortunately almost undecipherable. We shall see that the earliest section of its record has an important bearing on our knowledge of Egyptian predynastic history and on the traditions of that remote period which have come down to us from the history of Manetho. [1] See Gautier, /Le Musée Égyptien/, III (1915), pp. 29 ff., pl. xxiv ff., and Foucart, /Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale/, XII, ii (1916), pp. 161 ff.; and cf. Gardiner, /Journ. of Egypt. Arch./, III, pp. 143 ff., and Petrie, /Ancient Egypt/, 1916, Pt. III, pp. 114 ff. [2] Cf. Petrie, op. cit., pp. 115, 120. From the fragment of the stele preserved at Palermo we already knew that its record went back beyond the Ist Dynasty into predynastic times. For part of the top band of the inscription, which is there preserved, contains nine names borne by kings of Lower Egypt or the Delta, which, it had been conjectured, must follow the gods of Manetho and precede the "Worshippers of Horus", the immediate predecessors of the Egyptian dynasties.[1] But of contemporary rulers of Upper Egypt we had hitherto no knowledge, since the supposed royal names discovered at Abydos and assigned to the time of the "Worshippers of Horus" are probably not royal names at all.[2] With the possible exception of two very archaic slate palettes, the first historical memorials recovered from the south do not date from an earlier period than the beginning of the Ist Dynasty. The largest of the Cairo fragments now helps us to fill in this gap in our knowledge. [1] See Breasted, /Anc. Rec./, I, pp. 52, 57. [2] Cf. Hall, /Ancient History of the Near East/, p. 99 f. On the top of the new fragment[1] we meet the same band of rectangles as at Palermo,[2] but here their upper portions are broken away, and there only remains at the base of each of them the outlined figure of a royal personage, seated in the same attitude as those on the Palermo stone. The remarkable fact about these figures is that, with the apparent exception of the third figure from the right,[3] each wears, not the Crown of the North, as at Palermo, but the Crown of the South. We have then to do with kings of Upper Egypt, not the Delta, and it is no longer possible to suppose that the predynastic rulers of the Palermo Stele were confined to those of Lower Egypt, as reflecting northern tradition. Rulers of both halves of the country are represented, and Monsieur Gautier has shown,[4] from data on the reverse of the inscription, that the kings of the Delta were arranged on the original stone before the rulers of the south who are outlined upon our new fragment. Moreover, we have now recovered definite proof that this band of the inscription is concerned with predynastic Egyptian princes; for the cartouche of the king, whose years are enumerated in the second band immediately below the kings of the south, reads Athet, a name we may with certainty identify with Athothes, the second successor of Menes, founder of the Ist Dynasty, which is already given under the form Ateth in the Abydos List of Kings.[5] It is thus quite certain that the first band of the inscription relates to the earlier periods before the two halves of the country were brought together under a single ruler. [1] Cairo No. 1; see Gautier, /Mus. Égypt./, III, pl. xxiv f. [2] In this upper band the spaces are true rectangles, being separated by vertical lines, not by the hieroglyph for "year" as in the lower bands; and each rectangle is assigned to a separate king, and not, as in the other bands, to a year of a king's reign. [3] The difference in the crown worn by this figure is probably only apparent and not intentional; M. Foucart, after a careful examination of the fragment, concludes that it is due to subsequent damage or to an original defect in the stone; cf. /Bulletin/, XII, ii, p. 162. [4] Op. cit., p. 32 f. [5] In Manetho's list he corresponds to {Kenkenos}, the second successor of Menes according to both Africanus and Eusebius, who assign the name Athothis to the second ruler of the dynasty only, the Teta of the Abydos List. The form Athothes is preserved by Eratosthenes for both of Menes' immediate successors. Though the tradition of these remote times is here recorded on a monument of the Vth Dynasty, there is no reason to doubt its general accuracy, or to suppose that we are dealing with purely mythological personages. It is perhaps possible, as Monsieur Foucart suggests, that missing portions of the text may have carried the record back through purely mythical periods to Ptah and the Creation. In that case we should have, as we shall see, a striking parallel to early Sumerian tradition. But in the first extant portions of the Palermo text we are already in the realm of genuine tradition. The names preserved appear to be those of individuals, not of mythological creations, and we may assume that their owners really existed. For though the invention of writing had not at that time been achieved, its place was probably taken by oral tradition. We know that with certain tribes of Africa at the present day, who possess no knowledge of writing, there are functionaries charged with the duty of preserving tribal traditions, who transmit orally to their successors a remembrance of past chiefs and some details of events that occurred centuries before.[1] The predynastic Egyptians may well have adopted similar means for preserving a remembrance of their past history. [1] M. Foucart illustrates this point by citing the case of the Bushongos, who have in this way preserved a list of no less than a hundred and twenty-one of their past kings; op. cit., p. 182, and cf. Tordey and Joyce, "Les Bushongos", in /Annales du Musée du Congo Belge/, sér. III, t. II, fasc. i (Brussels, 1911). Moreover, the new text furnishes fresh proof of the general accuracy of Manetho, even when dealing with traditions of this prehistoric age. On the stele there is no definite indication that these two sets of predynastic kings were contemporaneous rulers of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively; and since elsewhere the lists assign a single sovereign to each epoch, it has been suggested that we should regard them as successive representatives of the legitimate kingdom.[1] Now Manetho, after his dynasties of gods and demi-gods, states that thirty Memphite kings reigned for 1,790 years, and were followed by ten Thinite kings whose reigns covered a period of 350 years. Neglecting the figures as obviously erroneous, we may well admit that the Greek historian here alludes to our two pre-Menite dynasties. But the fact that he should regard them as ruling consecutively does not preclude the other alternative. The modern convention of arranging lines of contemporaneous rulers in parallel columns had not been evolved in antiquity, and without some such method of distinction contemporaneous rulers, when enumerated in a list, can only be registered consecutively. It would be natural to assume that, before the unification of Egypt by the founder of the Ist Dynasty, the rulers of North and South were independent princes, possessing no traditions of a united throne on which any claim to hegemony could be based. On the assumption that this was so, their arrangement in a consecutive series would not have deceived their immediate successors. But it would undoubtedly tend in course of time to obliterate the tradition of their true order, which even at the period of the Vth Dynasty may have been completely forgotten. Manetho would thus have introduced no strange or novel confusion; and this explanation would of course apply to other sections of his system where the dynasties he enumerates appear to be too many for their period. But his reproduction of two lines of predynastic rulers, supported as it now is by the early evidence of the Palermo text, only serves to increase our confidence in the general accuracy of his sources, while at the same time it illustrates very effectively the way in which possible inaccuracies, deduced from independent data, may have arisen in quite early times. [1] Foucart, loc. cit. In contrast to the dynasties of Manetho, those of Berossus are so imperfectly preserved that they have never formed the basis of Babylonian chronology.[1] But here too, in the chronological scheme, a similar process of reduction has taken place. Certain dynasties, recovered from native sources and at one time regarded as consecutive, were proved to have been contemporaneous; and archaeological evidence suggested that some of the great gaps, so freely assumed in the royal sequence, had no right to be there. As a result, the succession of known rulers was thrown into truer perspective, and such gaps as remained were being partially filled by later discoveries. Among the latter the most important find was that of an early list of kings, recently published by Père Scheil[2] and subsequently purchased by the British Museum shortly before the war. This had helped us to fill in the gap between the famous Sargon of Akkad and the later dynasties, but it did not carry us far beyond Sargon's own time. Our archaeological evidence also comes suddenly to an end. Thus the earliest picture we have hitherto obtained of the Sumerians has been that of a race employing an advanced system of writing and possessed of a knowledge of metal. We have found, in short, abundant remains of a bronze-age culture, but no traces of preceding ages of development such as meet us on early Egyptian sites. It was a natural inference that the advent of the Sumerians in the Euphrates Valley was sudden, and that they had brought their highly developed culture with them from some region of Central or Southern Asia. [1] While the evidence of Herodotus is extraordinarily valuable for the details he gives of the civilizations of both Egypt and Babylonia, and is especially full in the case of the former, it is of little practical use for the chronology. In Egypt his report of the early history is confused, and he hardly attempts one for Babylonia. It is probable that on such subjects he sometimes misunderstood his informants, the priests, whose traditions were more accurately reproduced by the later native writers Manetho and Berossus. For a detailed comparison of classical authorities in relation to both countries, see Griffith in Hogarth's /Authority and Archaeology/, pp. 161 ff. [2] See /Comptes rendus/, 1911 (Oct.), pp. 606 ff., and /Rev. d'Assyr./, IX (1912), p. 69. The newly published Nippur documents will cause us to modify that view. The lists of early kings were themselves drawn up under the Dynasty of Nîsin in the twenty-second century B.C., and they give us traces of possibly ten and at least eight other "kingdoms" before the earliest dynasty of the known lists.[1] One of their novel features is that they include summaries at the end, in which it is stated how often a city or district enjoyed the privilege of being the seat of supreme authority in Babylonia. The earliest of their sections lie within the legendary period, and though in the third dynasty preserved we begin to note signs of a firmer historical tradition, the great break that then occurs in the text is at present only bridged by titles of various "kingdoms" which the summaries give; a few even of these are missing and the relative order of the rest is not assured. But in spite of their imperfect state of preservation, these documents are of great historical value and will furnish a framework for future chronological schemes. Meanwhile we may attribute to some of the later dynasties titles in complete agreement with Sumerian tradition. The dynasty of Ur-Engur, for example, which preceded that of Nîsin, becomes, if we like, the Third Dynasty of Ur. Another important fact which strikes us after a scrutiny of the early royal names recovered is that, while two or three are Semitic,[2] the great majority of those borne by the earliest rulers of Kish, Erech, and Ur are as obviously Sumerian. [1] See Poebel, /Historical Texts/, pp. 73 ff. and /Historical and Grammatical Texts/, pl. ii-iv, Nos. 2-5. The best preserved of the lists is No. 2; Nos. 3 and 4 are comparatively small fragments; and of No. 5 the obverse only is here published for the first time, the contents of the reverse having been made known some years ago by Hilprecht (cf. /Mathematical, Metrological, and Chronological Tablets/, p. 46 f., pl. 30, No. 47). The fragments belong to separate copies of the Sumerian dynastic record, and it happens that the extant portions of their text in some places cover the same period and are duplicates of one another. [2] Cf., e.g., two of the earliest kings of Kish, Galumum and Zugagib. The former is probably the Semitic-Babylonian word /kalumum/, "young animal, lamb," the latter /zukakîbum/, "scorpion"; cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 111. The occurrence of these names points to Semitic infiltration into Northern Babylonia since the dawn of history, a state of things we should naturally expect. It is improbable that on this point Sumerian tradition should have merely reflected the conditions of a later period. It is clear that in native tradition, current among the Sumerians themselves before the close of the third millennium, their race was regarded as in possession of Babylonia since the dawn of history. This at any rate proves that their advent was not sudden nor comparatively recent, and it further suggests that Babylonia itself was the cradle of their civilization. It will be the province of future archaeological research to fill out the missing dynasties and to determine at what points in the list their strictly historical basis disappears. Some, which are fortunately preserved near the beginning, bear on their face their legendary character. But for our purpose they are none the worse for that. In the first two dynasties, which had their seats at the cities of Kish and Erech, we see gods mingling with men upon the earth. Tammuz, the god of vegetation, for whose annual death Ezekiel saw women weeping beside the Temple at Jerusalem, is here an earthly monarch. He appears to be described as "a hunter", a phrase which recalls the death of Adonis in Greek mythology. According to our Sumerian text he reigned in Erech for a hundred years. Another attractive Babylonian legend is that of Etana, the prototype of Icarus and hero of the earliest dream of human flight.[1] Clinging to the pinions of his friend the Eagle he beheld the world and its encircling stream recede beneath him; and he flew through the gate of heaven, only to fall headlong back to earth. He is here duly entered in the list, where we read that "Etana, the shepherd who ascended to heaven, who subdued all lands", ruled in the city of Kish for 635 years. [1] The Egyptian conception of the deceased Pharaoh ascending to heaven as a falcon and becoming merged into the sun, which first occurs in the Pyramid texts (see Gardiner in Cumont's /Études Syriennes/, pp. 109 ff.), belongs to a different range of ideas. But it may well have been combined with the Etana tradition to produce the funerary eagle employed so commonly in Roman Syria in representations of the emperor's apotheosis (cf. Cumont, op. cit., pp. 37 ff., 115). The god Lugal-banda is another hero of legend. When the hearts of the other gods failed them, he alone recovered the Tablets of Fate, stolen by the bird-god Zû from Enlil's palace. He is here recorded to have reigned in Erech for 1,200 years. Tradition already told us that Erech was the native city of Gilgamesh, the hero of the national epic, to whom his ancestor Ut-napishtim related the story of the Flood. Gilgamesh too is in our list, as king of Erech for 126 years. We have here in fact recovered traditions of Post-diluvian kings. Unfortunately our list goes no farther back than that, but it is probable that in its original form it presented a general correspondence to the system preserved from Berossus, which enumerates ten Antediluvian kings, the last of them Xisuthros, the hero of the Deluge. Indeed, for the dynastic period, the agreement of these old Sumerian lists with the chronological system of Berossus is striking. The latter, according to Syncellus, gives 34,090 or 34,080 years as the total duration of the historical period, apart from his preceding mythical ages, while the figure as preserved by Eusebius is 33,091 years.[1] The compiler of one of our new lists,[2] writing some 1,900 years earlier, reckons that the dynastic period in his day had lasted for 32,243 years. Of course all these figures are mythical, and even at the time of the Sumerian Dynasty of Nîsin variant traditions were current with regard to the number of historical and semi-mythical kings of Babylonia and the duration of their rule. For the earlier writer of another of our lists,[3] separated from the one already quoted by an interval of only sixty-seven years, gives 28,876[4] years as the total duration of the dynasties at his time. But in spite of these discrepancies, the general resemblance presented by the huge totals in the variant copies of the list to the alternative figures of Berossus, if we ignore his mythical period, is remarkable. They indicate a far closer correspondence of the Greek tradition with that of the early Sumerians themselves than was formerly suspected. [1] The figure 34,090 is that given by Syncellus (ed. Dindorf, p. 147); but it is 34,080 in the equivalent which is added in "sars", &c. The discrepancy is explained by some as due to an intentional omission of the units in the second reckoning; others would regard 34,080 as the correct figure (cf. /Hist. of Bab./, p. 114 f.). The reading of ninety against eighty is supported by the 33,091 of Eusebius (/Chron. lib. pri./, ed. Schoene, col. 25). [2] No. 4. [3] No. 2. [4] The figures are broken, but the reading given may be accepted with some confidence; see Poebel, /Hist. Inscr./, p. 103. Further proof of this correspondence may be seen in the fact that the new Sumerian Version of the Deluge Story, which I propose to discuss in the second lecture, gives us a connected account of the world's history down to that point. The Deluge hero is there a Sumerian king named Ziusudu, ruling in one of the newly created cities of Babylonia and ministering at the shrine of his city-god. He is continually given the royal title, and the foundation of the Babylonian "kingdom" is treated as an essential part of Creation. We may therefore assume that an Antediluvian period existed in Sumerian tradition as in Berossus.[1] And I think Dr. Poebel is right in assuming that the Nippur copies of the Dynastic List begin with the Post-diluvian period.[2] [1] Of course it does not necessarily follow that the figure assigned to the duration of the Antediluvian or mythical period by the Sumerians would show so close a resemblance to that of Berossus as we have already noted in their estimates of the dynastic or historical period. But there is no need to assume that Berossus' huge total of a hundred and twenty "sars" (432,000 years) is entirely a product of Neo-Babylonian speculation; the total 432,000 is explained as representing ten months of a cosmic year, each month consisting of twelve "sars", i.e. 12 x 3600 = 43,200 years. The Sumerians themselves had no difficulty in picturing two of their dynastic rulers as each reigning for two "ners" (1,200 years), and it would not be unlikely that "sars" were distributed among still earlier rulers; the numbers were easily written. For the unequal distribution of his hundred and twenty "sars" by Berossus among his ten Antediluvian kings, see Appendix II. [2] The exclusion of the Antediluvian period from the list may perhaps be explained on the assumption that its compiler confined his record to "kingdoms", and that the mythical rulers who preceded them did not form a "kingdom" within his definition of the term. In any case we have a clear indication that an earlier period was included before the true "kingdoms", or dynasties, in an Assyrian copy of the list, a fragment of which is preserved in the British Museum from the Library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh; see /Chron. conc. Early Bab. Kings/ (Studies in East. Hist., II f.), Vol. I, pp. 182 ff., Vol. II, pp. 48 ff., 143 f. There we find traces of an extra column of text preceding that in which the first Kingdom of Kish was recorded. It would seem almost certain that this extra column was devoted to Antediluvian kings. The only alternative explanation would be that it was inscribed with the summaries which conclude the Sumerian copies of our list. But later scribes do not so transpose their material, and the proper place for summaries is at the close, not at the beginning, of a list. In the Assyrian copy the Dynastic List is brought up to date, and extends down to the later Assyrian period. Formerly its compiler could only be credited with incorporating traditions of earlier times. But the correspondence of the small fragment preserved of its Second Column with part of the First Column of the Nippur texts (including the name of "Enmennunna") proves that the Assyrian scribe reproduced an actual copy of the Sumerian document. Though Professor Barton, on the other hand, holds that the Dynastic List had no concern with the Deluge, his suggestion that the early names preserved by it may have been the original source of Berossus' Antediluvian rulers[1] may yet be accepted in a modified form. In coming to his conclusion he may have been influenced by what seems to me an undoubted correspondence between one of the rulers in our list and the sixth Antediluvian king of Berossus. I think few will be disposed to dispute the equation {Daonos poimon} = Etana, a shepherd. Each list preserves the hero's shepherd origin and the correspondence of the names is very close, Daonos merely transposing the initial vowel of Etana.[2] That Berossus should have translated a Post- diluvian ruler into the Antediluvian dynasty would not be at all surprising in view of the absence of detailed correspondence between his later dynasties and those we know actually occupied the Babylonian throne. Moreover, the inclusion of Babylon in his list of Antediluvian cities should make us hesitate to regard all the rulers he assigns to his earliest dynasty as necessarily retaining in his list their original order in Sumerian tradition. Thus we may with a clear conscience seek equations between the names of Berossus' Antediluvian rulers and those preserved in the early part of our Dynastic List, although we may regard the latter as equally Post-diluvian in Sumerian belief. [1] See the brief statement he makes in the course of a review of Dr. Poebel's volumes in the /American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature/, XXXI, April 1915, p. 225. He does not compare any of the names, but he promises a study of those preserved and a comparison of the list with Berossus and with Gen. iv and v. It is possible that Professor Barton has already fulfilled his promise of further discussion, perhaps in his /Archaeology and the Bible/, to the publication of which I have seen a reference in another connexion (cf. /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc., Vol. XXXVI, p. 291); but I have not yet been able to obtain sight of a copy. [2] The variant form {Daos} is evidently a mere contraction, and any claim it may have had to represent more closely the original form of the name is to be disregarded in view of our new equation. This reflection, and the result already obtained, encourage us to accept the following further equation, which is yielded by a renewed scrutiny of the lists: {'Ammenon} = Enmenunna. Here Ammenon, the fourth of Berossus' Antediluvian kings, presents a wonderfully close transcription of the Sumerian name. The /n/ of the first syllable has been assimilated to the following consonant in accordance with a recognized law of euphony, and the resultant doubling of the /m/ is faithfully preserved in the Greek. Precisely the same initial component, /Enme/, occurs in the name Enmeduranki, borne by a mythical king of Sippar, who has long been recognized as the original of Berossus' seventh Antediluvian king, {Euedorakhos}.[1] There too the original /n/ has been assimilated, but the Greek form retains no doubling of the /m/ and points to its further weakening. [1] Var. {Euedoreskhos}; the second half of the original name, Enmeduranki, is more closely preserved in /Edoranchus/, the form given by the Armenian translator of Eusebius. I do not propose to detain you with a detailed discussion of Sumerian royal names and their possible Greek equivalents. I will merely point out that the two suggested equations, which I venture to think we may regard as established, throw the study of Berossus' mythological personages upon a new plane. No equivalent has hitherto been suggested for {Daonos}; but {'Ammenon} has been confidently explained as the equivalent of a conjectured Babylonian original, Ummânu, lit. "Workman". The fact that we should now have recovered the Sumerian original of the name, which proves to have no connexion in form or meaning with the previously suggested Semitic equivalent, tends to cast doubt on other Semitic equations proposed. Perhaps {'Amelon} or {'Amillaros} may after all not prove to be the equivalent of Amêlu, "Man", nor {'Amempsinos} that of Amêl-Sin. Both may find their true equivalents in some of the missing royal names at the head of the Sumerian Dynastic List. There too we may provisionally seek {'Aloros}, the "first king", whose equation with Aruru, the Babylonian mother- goddess, never appeared a very happy suggestion.[1] The ingenious proposal,[2] on the other hand, that his successor, {'Alaparos}, represents a miscopied {'Adaparos}, a Greek rendering of the name of Adapa, may still hold good in view of Etana's presence in the Sumerian dynastic record. Ut-napishtim's title, Khasisatra or Atrakhasis, "the Very Wise", still of course remains the established equivalent of {Xisouthros}; but for {'Otiartes} (? {'Opartes}), a rival to Ubar- Tutu, Ut-napishtim's father, may perhaps appear. The new identifications do not of course dispose of the old ones, except in the case of Ummânu; but they open up a new line of approach and provide a fresh field for conjecture.[3] Semitic, and possibly contracted, originals are still possible for unidentified mythical kings of Berossus; but such equations will inspire greater confidence, should we be able to establish Sumerian originals for the Semitic renderings, from new material already in hand or to be obtained in the future. [1] Dr. Poebel (/Hist Inscr./, p. 42, n. 1) makes the interesting suggestion that {'Aloros} may represent an abbreviated and corrupt form of the name Lal-ur-alimma, which has come down to us as that of an early and mythical king of Nippur; see Rawlinson, /W.A.I./, IV, 60 (67), V, 47 and 44, and cf. /Sev. Tabl. of Creat./, Vol. I, p. 217, No. 32574, Rev., l. 2 f. It may be added that the sufferings with which the latter is associated in the tradition are perhaps such as might have attached themselves to the first human ruler of the world; but the suggested equation, though tempting by reason of the remote parallel it would thus furnish to Adam's fate, can at present hardly be accepted in view of the possibility that a closer equation to {'Aloros} may be forthcoming. [2] Hommel, /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, Vol. XV (1893), p. 243. [3] See further Appendix II. But it is time I read you extracts from the earlier extant portions of the Sumerian Dynastic List, in order to illustrate the class of document with which we are dealing. From them it will be seen that the record is not a tabular list of names like the well-known King's Lists of the Neo-Babylonian period. It is cast in the form of an epitomized chronicle and gives under set formulae the length of each king's reign, and his father's name in cases of direct succession to father or brother. Short phrases are also sometimes added, or inserted in the sentence referring to a king, in order to indicate his humble origin or the achievement which made his name famous in tradition. The head of the First Column of the text is wanting, and the first royal name that is completely preserved is that of Galumum, the ninth or tenth ruler of the earliest "kingdom", or dynasty, of Kish. The text then runs on connectedly for several lines: Galumum ruled for nine hundred years. Zugagib ruled for eight hundred and forty years. Arpi, son of a man of the people, ruled for seven hundred and twenty years. Etana, the shepherd who ascended to heaven, who subdued all lands, ruled for six hundred and thirty-five years.[1] Pili . . ., son of Etana, ruled for four hundred and ten years. Enmenunna ruled for six hundred and eleven years. Melamkish, son of Enmenunna, ruled for nine hundred years. Barsalnunna, son of Enmenunna, ruled for twelve hundred years. Mesza[. . .], son of Barsalnunna, ruled for [. . .] years. [. . .], son of Barsalnunna, ruled for [. . .] years. [1] Possibly 625 years. A small gap then occurs in the text, but we know that the last two representatives of this dynasty of twenty-three kings are related to have ruled for nine hundred years and six hundred and twenty-five years respectively. In the Second Column of the text the lines are also fortunately preserved which record the passing of the first hegemony of Kish to the "Kingdom of Eanna", the latter taking its name from the famous temple of Anu and Ishtar in the old city of Erech. The text continues: The kingdom of Kish passed to Eanna. In Eanna, Meskingasher, son of the Sun-god, ruled as high priest and king for three hundred and twenty-five years. Meskingasher entered into[1] [. . .] and ascended to [. . .]. Enmerkar, son of Meskingasher, the king of Erech who built [. . .] with the people of Erech,[2] ruled as king for four hundred and twenty years. Lugalbanda, the shepherd, ruled for twelve hundred years. Dumuzi,[3], the hunter(?), whose city was . . ., ruled for a hundred years. Gishbilgames,[4] whose father was A,[5] the high priest of Kullab, ruled for one hundred and twenty-six[6] years. [. . .]lugal, son of Gishbilgames, ruled for [. . .] years. [1] The verb may also imply descent into. [2] The phrase appears to have been imperfectly copied by the scribe. As it stands the subordinate sentence reads "the king of Erech who built with the people of Erech". Either the object governed by the verb has been omitted, in which case we might restore some such phrase as "the city"; or, perhaps, by a slight transposition, we should read "the king who built Erech with the people of Erech". In any case the first building of the city of Erech, as distinguished from its ancient cult-centre Eanna, appears to be recorded here in the tradition. This is the first reference to Erech in the text; and Enmerkar's father was high priest as well as king. [3] i.e. Tammuz. [4] i.e. Gilgamesh. [5] The name of the father of Gilgamesh is rather strangely expressed by the single sign for the vowel /a/ and must apparently be read as A. As there is a small break in the text at the end of this line, Dr. Poebel not unnaturally assumed that A was merely the first syllable of the name, of which the end was wanting. But it has now been shown that the complete name was A; see Förtsch, /Orient. Lit.-Zeit./, Vol. XVIII, No. 12 (Dec., 1915), col. 367 ff. The reading is deduced from the following entry in an Assyrian explanatory list of gods (/Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus./, Pt. XXIV, pl. 25, ll. 29-31): "The god A, who is also equated to the god Dubbisaguri (i.e. 'Scribe of Ur'), is the priest of Kullab; his wife is the goddess Ninguesirka (i.e. 'Lady of the edge of the street')." A, the priest of Kullab and the husband of a goddess, is clearly to be identified with A, the priest of Kullab and father of Gilgamesh, for we know from the Gilgamesh Epic that the hero's mother was the goddess Ninsun. Whether Ninguesirka was a title of Ninsun, or represents a variant tradition with regard to the parentage of Gilgamesh on the mother's side, we have in any case confirmation of his descent from priest and goddess. It was natural that A should be subsequently deified. This was not the case at the time our text was inscribed, as the name is written without the divine determinative. [6] Possibly 186 years. This group of early kings of Erech is of exceptional interest. Apart from its inclusion of Gilgamesh and the gods Tammuz and Lugalbanda, its record of Meskingasher's reign possibly refers to one of the lost legends of Erech. Like him Melchizedek, who comes to us in a chapter of Genesis reflecting the troubled times of Babylon's First Dynasty,[1] was priest as well as king.[2] Tradition appears to have credited Meskingasher's son and successor, Enmerkar, with the building of Erech as a city around the first settlement Eanna, which had already given its name to the "kingdom". If so, Sumerian tradition confirms the assumption of modern research that the great cities of Babylonia arose around the still more ancient cult-centres of the land. We shall have occasion to revert to the traditions here recorded concerning the parentage of Meskingasher, the founder of this line of kings, and that of its most famous member, Gilgamesh. Meanwhile we may note that the closing rulers of the "Kingdom of Eanna" are wanting. When the text is again preserved, we read of the hegemony passing from Erech to Ur and thence to Awan: The k[ingdom of Erech[3] passed to] Ur. In Ur Mesannipada became king and ruled for eighty years. Meskiagunna, son of Mesannipada, ruled for thirty years. Elu[. . .] ruled for twenty-five years. Balu[. . .] ruled for thirty-six years. Four kings (thus) ruled for a hundred and seventy-one years. The kingdom of Ur passed to Awan. In Awan . . . [1] Cf. /Hist. of Bab./, p. 159 f. [2] Gen. xiv. 18. [3] The restoration of Erech here, in place of Eanna, is based on the absence of the latter name in the summary; after the building of Erech by Enmerkar, the kingdom was probably reckoned as that of Erech. With the "Kingdom of Ur" we appear to be approaching a firmer historical tradition, for the reigns of its rulers are recorded in decades, not hundreds of years. But we find in the summary, which concludes the main copy of our Dynastic List, that the kingdom of Awan, though it consisted of but three rulers, is credited with a total duration of three hundred and fifty-six years, implying that we are not yet out of the legendary stratum. Since Awan is proved by newly published historical inscriptions from Nippur to have been an important deity of Elam at the time of the Dynasty of Akkad,[1] we gather that the "Kingdom of Awan" represented in Sumerian tradition the first occasion on which the country passed for a time under Elamite rule. At this point a great gap occurs in the text, and when the detailed dynastic succession in Babylonia is again assured, we have passed definitely from the realm of myth and legend into that of history.[2] [1] Poebel, /Hist. Inscr./, p. 128. [2] See further, Appendix II. What new light, then, do these old Sumerian records throw on Hebrew traditions concerning the early ages of mankind? I think it will be admitted that there is something strangely familiar about some of those Sumerian extracts I read just now. We seem to hear in them the faint echo of another narrative, like them but not quite the same. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enosh: and Seth lived after he begat Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. . . . and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. . . . and all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Throughout these extracts from "the book of the generations of Adam",[1] Galumum's nine hundred years[2] seem to run almost like a refrain; and Methuselah's great age, the recognized symbol for longevity, is even exceeded by two of the Sumerian patriarchs. The names in the two lists are not the same,[3] but in both we are moving in the same atmosphere and along similar lines of thought. Though each list adheres to its own set formulae, it estimates the length of human life in the early ages of the world on much the same gigantic scale as the other. Our Sumerian records are not quite so formal in their structure as the Hebrew narrative, but the short notes which here and there relieve their stiff monotony may be paralleled in the Cainite genealogy of the preceding chapter in Genesis.[4] There Cain's city- building, for example, may pair with that of Enmerkar; and though our new records may afford no precise equivalents to Jabal's patronage of nomad life, or to the invention of music and metal-working ascribed to Jubal and Tubal-cain, these too are quite in the spirit of Sumerian and Babylonian tradition, in their attempt to picture the beginnings of civilization. Thus Enmeduranki, the prototype of the seventh Antediluvian patriarch of Berossus, was traditionally revered as the first exponent of divination.[5] It is in the chronological and general setting, rather than in the Hebrew names and details, that an echo seems here to reach us from Sumer through Babylon. [1] Gen. v. 1 ff. (P). [2] The same length of reign is credited to Melamkish and to one and perhaps two other rulers of that first Sumerian "kingdom". [3] The possibility of the Babylonian origin of some of the Hebrew names in this geneaology and its Cainite parallel has long been canvassed; and considerable ingenuity has been expended in obtaining equations between Hebrew names and those of the Antediluvian kings of Berossus by tracing a common meaning for each suggested pair. It is unfortunate that our new identification of {'Ammenon} with the Sumerian /Enmenunna/ should dispose of one of the best parallels obtained, viz. {'Ammenon} = Bab. /ummânu/, "workman" || Cain, Kenan = "smith". Another satisfactory pair suggested is {'Amelon} = Bab. /amêlu/, "man" || Enosh = "man"; but the resemblance of the former to /amêlu/ may prove to be fortuitous, in view of the possibility of descent from a quite different Sumerian original. The alternative may perhaps have to be faced that the Hebrew parallels to Sumerian and Babylonian traditions are here confined to chronological structure and general contents, and do not extend to Hebrew renderings of Babylonian names. It may be added that such correspondence between personal names in different languages is not very significant by itself. The name of Zugagib of Kish, for example, is paralleled by the title borne by one of the earliest kings of the Ist Dynasty of Egypt, Narmer, whose carved slate palettes have been found at Kierakonpolis; he too was known as "the Scorpion." [4] Gen. iv. 17 ff. (J). [5] It may be noted that an account of the origin of divination is included in his description of the descendents of Noah by the writer of the Biblical Antiquities of Philo, a product of the same school as the Fourth Book of Esdras and the Apocalypse of Baruch; see James, /The Biblical Antiquities of Philo/, p. 86. I may add that a parallel is provided by the new Sumerian records to the circumstances preceding the birth of the Nephilim at the beginning of the sixth chapter of Genesis.[1] For in them also great prowess or distinction is ascribed to the progeny of human and divine unions. We have already noted that, according to the traditions the records embody, the Sumerians looked back to a time when gods lived upon the earth with men, and we have seen such deities as Tammuz and Lugalbanda figuring as rulers of cities in the dynastic sequence. As in later periods, their names are there preceded by the determinative for divinity. But more significant still is the fact that we read of two Sumerian heroes, also rulers of cities, who were divine on the father's or mother's side but not on both. Meskingasher is entered in the list as "son of the Sun-god",[2] and no divine parentage is recorded on the mother's side. On the other hand, the human father of Gilgamesh is described as the high priest of Kullab, and we know from other sources that his mother was the goddess Ninsun.[3] That this is not a fanciful interpretation is proved by a passage in the Gilgamesh Epic itself,[4] in which its hero is described as two-thirds god and one-third man. We again find ourselves back in the same stratum of tradition with which the Hebrew narratives have made us so familiar. [1] Gen. vi. 1-4 (J). [2] The phrase recalls the familiar Egyptian royal designation "son of the Sun," and it is possible that we may connect with this same idea the Palermo Stele's inclusion of the mother's and omission of the father's name in its record of the early dynastic Pharaohs. This suggestion does not exclude the possibility of the prevalence of matrilineal (and perhaps originally also of matrilocal and matripotestal) conditions among the earliest inhabitants of Egypt. Indeed the early existence of some form of mother-right may have originated, and would certainly have encouraged, the growth of a tradition of solar parentage for the head of the state. [3] Poebel, /Hist. Inscr./, p. 124 f. [4] Tablet I, Col. ii, l. 1; and cf. Tablet IX, Col. ii. l. 16. What light then does our new material throw upon traditional origins of civilization? We have seen that in Egypt a new fragment of the Palermo Stele has confirmed in a remarkable way the tradition of the predynastic period which was incorporated in his history by Manetho. It has long been recognized that in Babylonia the sources of Berossus must have been refracted by the political atmosphere of that country during the preceding nineteen hundred years. This inference our new material supports; but when due allowance has been made for a resulting disturbance of vision, the Sumerian origin of the remainder of his evidence is notably confirmed. Two of his ten Antediluvian kings rejoin their Sumerian prototypes, and we shall see that two of his three Antediluvian cities find their place among the five of primitive Sumerian belief. It is clear that in Babylonia, as in Egypt, the local traditions of the dawn of history, current in the Hellenistic period, were modelled on very early lines. Both countries were the seats of ancient civilizations, and it is natural that each should stage its picture of beginnings upon its own soil and embellish it with local colouring. It is a tribute to the historical accuracy of Hebrew tradition to recognize that it never represented Palestine as the cradle of the human race. It looked to the East rather than to the South for evidence of man's earliest history and first progress in the arts of life. And it is in the East, in the soil of Babylonia, that we may legitimately seek material in which to verify the sources of that traditional belief. The new parallels I have to-day attempted to trace between some of the Hebrew traditions, preserved in Gen. iv-vi, and those of the early Sumerians, as presented by their great Dynastic List, are essentially general in character and do not apply to details of narrative or to proper names. If they stood alone, we should still have to consider whether they are such as to suggest cultural influence or independent origin. But fortunately they do not exhaust the evidence we have lately recovered from the site of Nippur, and we will postpone formulating our conclusions with regard to them until the whole field has been surveyed. From the biblical standpoint by far the most valuable of our new documents is one that incorporates a Sumerian version of the Deluge story. We shall see that it presents a variant and more primitive picture of that great catastrophe than those of the Babylonian and Hebrew versions. And what is of even greater interest, it connects the narrative of the Flood with that of Creation, and supplies a brief but intermediate account of the Antediluvian period. How then are we to explain this striking literary resemblance to the structure of the narrative in Genesis, a resemblance that is completely wanting in the Babylonian versions? But that is a problem we must reserve for the next lecture. LECTURE II DELUGE STORIES AND THE NEW SUMERIAN VERSION In the first lecture we saw how, both in Babylonia and Egypt, recent discoveries had thrown light upon periods regarded as prehistoric, and how we had lately recovered traditions concerning very early rulers both in the Nile Valley and along the lower Euphrates. On the strength of the latter discovery we noted the possibility that future excavation in Babylonia would lay bare stages of primitive culture similar to those we have already recovered in Egyptian soil. Meanwhile the documents from Nippur had shown us what the early Sumerians themselves believed about their own origin, and we traced in their tradition the gradual blending of history with legend and myth. We saw that the new Dynastic List took us back in the legendary sequence at least to the beginning of the Post-diluvian period. Now one of the newly published literary texts fills in the gap beyond, for it gives us a Sumerian account of the history of the world from the Creation to the Deluge, at about which point, as we saw, the extant portions of the Dynastic List take up the story. I propose to devote my lecture to-day to this early version of the Flood and to the effect of its discovery upon some current theories. The Babylonian account of the Deluge, which was discovered by George Smith in 1872 on tablets from the Royal Library at Nineveh, is, as you know, embedded in a long epic of twelve Books recounting the adventures of the Old Babylonian hero Gilgamesh. Towards the end of this composite tale, Gilgamesh, desiring immortality, crosses the Waters of Death in order to beg the secret from his ancestor Ut-napishtim, who in the past had escaped the Deluge and had been granted immortality by the gods. The Eleventh Tablet, or Book, of the epic contains the account of the Deluge which Ut-napishtim related to his kinsman Gilgamesh. The close correspondence of this Babylonian story with that contained in Genesis is recognized by every one and need not detain us. You will remember that in some passages the accounts tally even in minute details, such, for example, as the device of sending out birds to test the abatement of the waters. It is true that in the Babylonian version a dove, a swallow, and a raven are sent forth in that order, instead of a raven and the dove three times. But such slight discrepancies only emphasize the general resemblance of the narratives. In any comparison it is usually admitted that two accounts have been combined in the Hebrew narrative. I should like to point out that this assumption may be made by any one, whatever his views may be with regard to the textual problems of the Hebrew Bible and the traditional authorship of the Pentateuch. And for our purpose at the moment it is immaterial whether we identify the compiler of these Hebrew narratives with Moses himself, or with some later Jewish historian whose name has not come down to us. Whoever he was, he has scrupulously preserved his two texts and, even when they differ, he has given each as he found it. Thanks to this fact, any one by a careful examination of the narrative can disentangle the two versions for himself. He will find each gives a consistent story. One of them appears to be simpler and more primitive than the other, and I will refer to them as the earlier and the later Hebrew Versions.[1] The Babylonian text in the Epic of Gilgamesh contains several peculiarities of each of the Hebrew versions, though the points of resemblance are more detailed in the earlier of the two. [1] In the combined account in Gen. vi. 5-ix. 17, if the following passages be marked in the margin or underlined, and then read consecutively, it will be seen that they give a consistent and almost complete account of the Deluge: Gen. vi. 9-22; vii. 6, 11, 13-16 (down to "as God commanded him"), 17 (to "upon the earth"), 18-21, 24; viii. 1, 2 (to "were stopped"), 3 (from "and after")-5, 13 (to "from off the earth"), 14-19; and ix. 1-17. The marked passages represent the "later Hebrew Version." If the remaining passages be then read consecutively, they will be seen to give a different version of the same events, though not so completely preserved as the other; these passages substantially represent the "earlier Hebrew Version". In commentaries on the Hebrew text they are, of course, usually referred to under the convenient symbols J and P, representing respectively the earlier and the later versions. For further details, see any of the modern commentaries on Genesis, e.g. Driver, /Book of Genesis/, pp. 85 ff.; Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 147 ff.; Ryle, /Genesis/, p. 96 f. Now the tablets from the Royal Library at Nineveh inscribed with the Gilgamesh Epic do not date from an earlier period than the seventh century B.C. But archaeological evidence has long shown that the traditions themselves were current during all periods of Babylonian history; for Gilgamesh and his half-human friend Enkidu were favourite subjects for the seal-engraver, whether he lived in Sumerian times or under the Achaemenian kings of Persia. We have also, for some years now, possessed two early fragments of the Deluge narrative, proving that the story was known to the Semitic inhabitants of the country at the time of Hammurabi's dynasty.[1] Our newly discovered text from Nippur was also written at about that period, probably before 2100 B.C. But the composition itself, apart from the tablet on which it is inscribed, must go back very much earlier than that. For instead of being composed in Semitic Babylonian, the text is in Sumerian, the language of the earliest known inhabitants of Babylonia, whom the Semites eventually displaced. This people, it is now recognized, were the originators of the Babylonian civilization, and we saw in the first lecture that, according to their own traditions, they had occupied that country since the dawn of history. [1] The earlier of the two fragments is dated in the eleventh year of Ammizaduga, the tenth king of Hammurabi's dynasty, i.e. in 1967 B.C.; it was published by Scheil, /Recueil de travaux/, Vol. XX, pp. 55 ff. Here the Deluge story does not form part of the Gilgamesh Epic, but is recounted in the second tablet of a different work; its hero bears the name Atrakhasis, as in the variant version of the Deluge from the Nineveh library. The other and smaller fragment, which must be dated by its script, was published by Hilprecht (/Babylonian Expedition/, series D, Vol. V, Fasc. 1, pp. 33 ff.), who assigned it to about the same period; but it is probably of a considerably later date. The most convenient translations of the legends that were known before the publication of the Nippur texts are those given by Rogers, /Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament/ (Oxford, 1912), and Dhorme, /Choix de textes religieux Assyro-Babyloniens/ (Paris, 1907). The Semites as a ruling race came later, though the occurrence of Semitic names in the Sumerian Dynastic List suggests very early infiltration from Arabia. After a long struggle the immigrants succeeded in dominating the settled race; and in the process they in turn became civilized. They learnt and adopted the cuneiform writing, they took over the Sumerian literature. Towards the close of the third millennium, when our tablet was written, the Sumerians as a race had almost ceased to exist. They had been absorbed in the Semitic population and their language was no longer the general language of the country. But their ancient literature and sacred texts were carefully preserved and continued to be studied by the Semitic priests and scribes. So the fact that the tablet is written in the old Sumerian tongue proves that the story it tells had come down from a very much earlier period. This inference is not affected by certain small differences in idiom which its language presents when compared with that of Sumerian building-inscriptions. Such would naturally occur in the course of transmission, especially in a text which, as we shall see, had been employed for a practical purpose after being subjected to a process of reduction to suit it to its new setting. When we turn to the text itself, it will be obvious that the story also is very primitive. But before doing so we will inquire whether this very early version is likely to cast any light on the origin of Deluge stories such as are often met with in other parts of the world. Our inquiry will have an interest apart from the question itself, as it will illustrate the views of two divergent schools among students of primitive literature and tradition. According to one of these views, in its most extreme form, the tales which early or primitive man tells about his gods and the origin of the world he sees around him are never to be regarded as simple stories, but are to be consistently interpreted as symbolizing natural phenomena. It is, of course, quite certain that, both in Egypt and Babylonia, mythology in later periods received a strong astrological colouring; and it is equally clear that some legends derive their origin from nature myths. But the theory in the hands of its more enthusiastic adherents goes further than that. For them a complete absence of astrological colouring is no deterrent from an astrological interpretation; and, where such colouring does occur, the possibility of later embellishment is discounted, and it is treated without further proof as the base on which the original story rests. One such interpretation of the Deluge narrative in Babylonia, particularly favoured by recent German writers, would regard it as reflecting the passage of the Sun through a portion of the ecliptic. It is assumed that the primitive Babylonians were aware that in the course of ages the spring equinox must traverse the southern or watery region of the zodiac. This, on their system, signified a submergence of the whole universe in water, and the Deluge myth would symbolize the safe passage of the vernal Sun-god through that part of the ecliptic. But we need not spend time over that view, as its underlying conception is undoubtedly quite a late development of Babylonian astrology. More attractive is the simpler astrological theory that the voyage of any Deluge hero in his boat or ark represents the daily journey of the Sun-god across the heavenly ocean, a conception which is so often represented in Egyptian sculpture and painting. It used to be assumed by holders of the theory that this idea of the Sun as "the god in the boat" was common among primitive races, and that that would account for the widespread occurrence of Deluge-stories among scattered races of the world. But this view has recently undergone some modification in accordance with the general trend of other lines of research. In recent years there has been an increased readiness among archaeologists to recognize evidence of contact between the great civilizations of antiquity. This has been particularly the case in the area of the Eastern Mediterranean; but the possibility has also been mooted of the early use of land-routes running from the Near East to Central and Southern Asia. The discovery in Chinese Turkestan, to the east of the Caspian, of a prehistoric culture resembling that of Elam has now been followed by the finding of similar remains by Sir Aurel Stein in the course of the journey from which he has lately returned.[1] They were discovered in an old basin of the Helmand River in Persian Seistan, where they had been laid bare by wind-erosion. But more interesting still, and an incentive to further exploration in that region, is another of his discoveries last year, also made near the Afghan border. At two sites in the Helmand Delta, well above the level of inundation, he came across fragments of pottery inscribed in early Aramaic characters,[2] though, for obvious reasons, he has left them with all his other collections in India. This unexpected find, by the way, suggests for our problem possibilities of wide transmission in comparatively early times. [1] See his "Expedition in Central Asia", in /The Geographical Journal/, Vol. XLVII (Jan.-June, 1916), pp. 358 ff. [2] Op. cit., p. 363. The synthetic tendency among archaeologists has been reflected in anthropological research, which has begun to question the separate and independent origin, not only of the more useful arts and crafts, but also of many primitive customs and beliefs. It is suggested that too much stress has been laid on environment; and, though it is readily admitted that similar needs and experiences may in some cases have given rise to similar expedients and explanations, it is urged that man is an imitative animal and that inventive genius is far from common.[1] Consequently the wide dispersion of many beliefs and practices, which used generally to be explained as due to the similar and independent working of the human mind under like conditions, is now often provisionally registered as evidence of migratory movement or of cultural drift. Much good work has recently been done in tabulating the occurrence of many customs and beliefs, in order to ascertain their lines of distribution. Workers are as yet in the collecting stage, and it is hardly necessary to say that explanatory theories are still to be regarded as purely tentative and provisional. At the meetings of the British Association during the last few years, the most breezy discussions in the Anthropological Section have undoubtedly centred around this subject. There are several works in the field, but the most comprehensive theory as yet put forward is one that concerns us, as it has given a new lease of life to the old solar interpretation of the Deluge story. [1] See, e.g. Marett, /Anthropology/ (2nd ed., 1914), Chap. iv, "Environment," pp. 122 ff.; and for earlier tendencies, particularly in the sphere of mythological exegesis, see S. Reinach, /Cultes, Mythes et Religions/, t. IV (1912), pp. 1 ff. In a land such as Egypt, where there is little rain and the sky is always clear, the sun in its splendour tended from the earliest period to dominate the national consciousness. As intercourse increased along the Nile Valley, centres of Sun-worship ceased to be merely local, and the political rise of a city determined the fortunes of its cult. From the proto-dynastic period onward, the "King of the two Lands" had borne the title of "Horus" as the lineal descendant of the great Sun- god of Edfu, and the rise of Ra in the Vth Dynasty, through the priesthood of Heliopolis, was confirmed in the solar theology of the Middle Kingdom. Thus it was that other deities assumed a solar character as forms of Ra. Amen, the local god of Thebes, becomes Amen-Ra with the political rise of his city, and even the old Crocodile-god, Sebek, soars into the sky as Sebek-Ra. The only other movement in the religion of ancient Egypt, comparable in importance to this solar development, was the popular cult of Osiris as God of the Dead, and with it the official religion had to come to terms. Horus is reborn as the posthumous son of Osiris, and Ra gladdens his abode during his nightly journey through the Underworld. The theory with which we are concerned suggests that this dominant trait in Egyptian religion passed, with other elements of culture, beyond the bounds of the Nile Valley and influenced the practice and beliefs of distant races. This suggestion has been gradually elaborated by its author, Professor Elliot Smith, who has devoted much attention to the anatomical study of Egyptian mummification. Beginning with a scrutiny of megalithic building and sun-worship,[1] he has subsequently deduced, from evidence of common distribution, the existence of a culture-complex, including in addition to these two elements the varied practices of tattooing, circumcision, ear-piercing, that quaint custom known as couvade, head-deformation, and the prevalence of serpent-cults, myths of petrifaction and the Deluge, and finally of mummification. The last ingredient was added after an examination of Papuan mummies had disclosed their apparent resemblance in points of detail to Egyptian mummies of the XXIst Dynasty. As a result he assumes the existence of an early cultural movement, for which the descriptive title "heliolithic" has been coined.[2] Starting with Egypt as its centre, one of the principal lines of its advance is said to have lain through Syria and Mesopotamia and thence along the coastlands of Asia to the Far East. The method of distribution and the suggested part played by the Phoenicians have been already criticized sufficiently. But in a modified form the theory has found considerable support, especially among ethnologists interested in Indonesia. I do not propose to examine in detail the evidence for or against it. It will suffice to note that the Deluge story and its alleged Egyptian origin in solar worship form one of the prominent strands in its composition. [1] Cf. Elliot Smith, /The Ancient Egyptians/, 1911. [2] See in particular his monograph "On the significance of the Geographical Distribution of the Practice of Mummification" in the /Memoirs of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society/, 1915. One weakness of this particular strand is that the Egyptians themselves possessed no tradition of the Deluge. Indeed the annual inundation of the Nile is not such as would give rise to a legend of world-destruction; and in this respect it presents a striking contrast to the Tigris and Euphrates. The ancient Egyptian's conception of his own gentle river is reflected in the form he gave the Nile-god, for Hapi is represented as no fierce warrior or monster. He is given a woman's breasts as a sign of his fecundity. The nearest Egyptian parallel to the Deluge story is the "Legend of the Destruction of Mankind", which is engraved on the walls of a chamber in the tomb of Seti I.[1] The late Sir Gaston Maspero indeed called it "a dry deluge myth", but his paradox was intended to emphasize the difference as much as the parallelism presented. It is true that in the Egyptian myth the Sun-god causes mankind to be slain because of their impiety, and he eventually pardons the survivors. The narrative thus betrays undoubted parallelism to the Babylonian and Hebrew stories, so far as concerns the attempted annihilation of mankind by the offended god, but there the resemblance ends. For water has no part in man's destruction, and the essential element of a Deluge story is thus absent.[2] Our new Sumerian document, on the other hand, contains what is by far the earliest example yet recovered of a genuine Deluge tale; and we may thus use it incidentally to test this theory of Egyptian influence, and also to ascertain whether it furnishes any positive evidence on the origin of Deluge stories in general. [1] It was first published by Monsieur Naville, /Tranc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, IV (1874), pp. 1 ff. The myth may be most conveniently studied in Dr. Budge's edition in /Egyptian Literature/, Vol. I, "Legends of the Gods" (1912), pp. 14 ff., where the hieroglyphic text and translation are printed on opposite pages; cf. the summary, op. cit., pp. xxiii ff., where the principal literature is also cited. See also his /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I, chap. xii, pp. 388 ff. [2] The undoubted points of resemblance, as well as the equally striking points of divergence, presented by the Egyptian myth when compared with the Babylonian and Hebrew stories of a Deluge may be briefly indicated. The impiety of men in complaining of the age of Ra finds a parallel in the wickedness of man upon the earth (J) and the corruption of all flesh (P) of the Hebrew Versions. The summoning by Ra of the great Heliopolitan cosmic gods in council, including his personified Eye, the primaeval pair Shu and Tefnut, Keb the god of the earth and his consort Nut the sky-goddess, and Nu the primaeval water-god and originally Nut's male counterpart, is paralleled by the /puhur ilâni/, or "assembly of the gods", in the Babylonian Version (see Gilg. Epic. XI. l. 120 f., and cf. ll. 10 ff.); and they meet in "the Great House", or Sun-temple at Heliopolis, as the Babylonian gods deliberate in Shuruppak. Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hebrew narratives all agree in the divine determination to destroy mankind and in man's ultimate survival. But the close of the Egyptian story diverges into another sphere. The slaughter of men by the Eye of Ra in the form of the goddess Hathor, who during the night wades in their blood, is suggestive of Africa; and so too is her drinking of men's blood mixed with the narcotic mandrake and with seven thousand vessels of beer, with the result that through drunkenness she ceased from slaughter. The latter part of the narrative is directly connected with the cult-ritual and beer-drinking at the Festivals of Hathor and Ra; but the destruction of men by slaughter in place of drowning appears to belong to the original myth. Indeed, the only suggestion of a Deluge story is suggested by the presence of Nu, the primaeval water-god, at Ra's council, and that is explicable on other grounds. In any case the points of resemblance presented by the earlier part of the Egyptian myth to Semitic Deluge stories are general, not detailed; and though they may possibly be due to reflection from Asia, they are not such as to suggest an Egyptian origin for Deluge myths. The tablet on which our new version of the Deluge is inscribed was excavated at Nippur during the third Babylonian expedition sent out by the University of Pennsylvania; but it was not until the summer of 1912 that its contents were identified, when the several fragments of which it was composed were assembled and put together. It is a large document, containing six columns of writing, three on each side; but unfortunately only the lower half has been recovered, so that considerable gaps occur in the text.[1] The sharp edges of the broken surface, however, suggest that it was damaged after removal from the soil, and the possibility remains that some of the missing fragments may yet be recovered either at Pennsylvania or in the Museum at Constantinople. As it is not dated, its age must be determined mainly by the character of its script. A close examination of the writing suggests that it can hardly have been inscribed as late as the Kassite Dynasty, since two or three signs exhibit more archaic forms than occur on any tablets of that period;[2] and such linguistic corruptions as have been noted in its text may well be accounted for by the process of decay which must have already affected the Sumerian language at the time of the later kings of Nisin. Moreover, the tablet bears a close resemblance to one of the newly published copies of the Sumerian Dynastic List from Nippur;[3] for both are of the same shape and composed of the same reddish-brown clay, and both show the same peculiarities of writing. The two tablets in fact appear to have been written by the same hand, and as that copy of the Dynastic List was probably drawn up before the latter half of the First Dynasty of Babylon, we may assign the same approximate date for the writing of our text. This of course only fixes a lower limit for the age of the myth which it enshrines. [1] The breadth of the tablet is 5 5/8 in., and it originally measured about 7 in. in length from top to bottom; but only about one-third of its inscribed surface is preserved. [2] Cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, pp. 66 ff. [3] No. 5. That the composition is in the form of a poem may be seen at a glance from the external appearance of the tablet, the division of many of the lines and the blank spaces frequently left between the sign-groups being due to the rhythmical character of the text. The style of the poetry may be simple and abrupt, but it exhibits a familiar feature of both Semitic-Babylonian and Hebrew poetry, in its constant employment of partial repetition or paraphrase in parallel lines. The story it tells is very primitive and in many respects unlike the Babylonian Versions of the Deluge which we already possess. Perhaps its most striking peculiarity is the setting of the story, which opens with a record of the creation of man and animals, goes on to tell how the first cities were built, and ends with a version of the Deluge, which is thus recounted in its relation to the Sumerian history of the world. This literary connexion between the Creation and Deluge narratives is of unusual interest, in view of the age of our text. In the Babylonian Versions hitherto known they are included in separate epics with quite different contexts. Here they are recounted together in a single document, much as they probably were in the history of Berossus and as we find them in the present form of the Book of Genesis. This fact will open up some interesting problems when we attempt to trace the literary descent of the tradition. But one important point about the text should be emphasized at once, since it will affect our understanding of some very obscure passages, of which no satisfactory explanation has yet been given. The assumption has hitherto been made that the text is an epic pure and simple. It is quite true that the greater part of it is a myth, recounted as a narrative in poetical form. but there appear to me to be clear indications that the myth was really embedded in an incantation. If this was so, the mythological portion was recited for a magical purpose, with the object of invoking the aid of the chief deities whose actions in the past are there described, and of increasing by that means the potency of the spell.[1] In the third lecture I propose to treat in more detail the employment and significance of myth in magic, and we shall have occasion to refer to other instances, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Egyptian, in which a myth has reached us in a magical setting. [1] It will be seen that the subject-matter of any myth treated in this way has a close connexion with the object for which the incantation was performed. In the present case the inference of magical use is drawn from certain passages in the text itself, which appear to be explicable only on that hypothesis. In magical compositions of the later period intended for recitation, the sign for "Incantation" is usually prefixed. Unfortunately the beginning of our text is wanting; but its opening words are given in the colophon, or title, which is engraved on the left-hand edge of the tablet, and it is possible that the traces of the first sign there are to be read as EN, "Incantation".[1] Should a re-examination of the tablet establish this reading of the word, we should have definite proof of the suggested magical setting of the narrative. But even if we assume its absence, that would not invalidate the arguments that can be adduced in favour of recognizing the existence of a magical element, for they are based on internal evidence and enable us to explain certain features which are inexplicable on Dr. Poebel's hypothesis. Moreover, we shall later on examine another of the newly published Sumerian compositions from Nippur, which is not only semi-epical in character, but is of precisely the same shape, script, and period as our text, and is very probably a tablet of the same series. There also the opening signs of the text are wanting, but far more of its contents are preserved and they present unmistakable traces of magical use. Its evidence, as that of a parallel text, may therefore be cited in support of the present contention. It may be added that in Sumerian magical compositions of this early period, of which we have not yet recovered many quite obvious examples, it is possible that the prefix "Incantation" was not so invariable as in the later magical literature. [1] Cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 63, and /Hist. and Gram. Texts/, pl. i. In the photographic reproduction of the edges of the tablet given in the latter volume, pl. lxxxix, the traces of the sign suggest the reading EN (= Sem. /šiptu/, "incantation"). But the sign may very possibly be read AN. In the latter case we may read, in the traces of the two sign-groups at the beginning of the text, the names of both Anu and Enlil, who appear so frequently as the two presiding deities in the myth. It has already been remarked that only the lower half of our tablet has been recovered, and that consequently a number of gaps occur in the text. On the obverse the upper portion of each of the first three columns is missing, while of the remaining three columns, which are inscribed upon the reverse, the upper portions only are preserved. This difference in the relative positions of the textual fragments recovered is due to the fact that Sumerian scribes, like their later Babylonian and Assyrian imitators, when they had finished writing the obverse of a tablet, turned it over from bottom to top--not, as we should turn a sheet of paper, from right to left. But in spite of the lacunae, the sequence of events related in the mythological narrative may be followed without difficulty, since the main outline of the story is already familiar enough from the versions of the Semitic- Babylonian scribes and of Berossus. Some uncertainties naturally remain as to what exactly was included in the missing portions of the tablet; but the more important episodes are fortunately recounted in the extant fragments, and these suffice for a definition of the distinctive character of the Sumerian Version. In view of its literary importance it may be advisable to attempt a somewhat detailed discussion of its contents, column by column;[1] and the analysis may be most conveniently divided into numbered sections, each of which refers to one of the six columns of the tablet. The description of the First Column will serve to establish the general character of the text. Through the analysis of the tablet parallels and contrasts will be noted with the Babylonian and Hebrew Versions. It will then be possible to summarise, on a surer foundation, the literary history of the traditions, and finally to estimate the effect of our new evidence upon current theories as to the origin and wide dispersion of Deluge stories. [1] In the lecture as delivered the contents of each column were necessarily summarized rather briefly, and conclusions were given without discussion of the evidence. The following headings, under which the six numbered sections may be arranged, indicate the contents of each column and show at a glance the main features of the Sumerian Version: I. Introduction to the Myth, and account of Creation. II. The Antediluvian Cities. III. The Council of the Gods, and Ziusudu's piety. IV. The Dream-Warning. V. The Deluge, the Escape of the Great Boat, and the Sacrifice to the Sun-god. VI. The Propitiation of the Angry Gods, and Ziusudu's Immortality. I. INTRODUCTION TO THE MYTH, AND ACCOUNT OF CREATION The beginning of the text is wanting, and the earliest lines preserved of the First Column open with the closing sentences of a speech, probably by the chief of the four creating deities, who are later on referred to by name. In it there is a reference to a future destruction of mankind, but the context is broken; the lines in question begin: "As for my human race, from (/or/ in) its destruction will I cause it to be [. . .], For Nintu my creatures [. . .] will I [. . .]." From the reference to "my human race" it is clear that the speaker is a creating deity; and since the expression is exactly parallel to the term "my people" used by Ishtar, or Bêlit-ili, "the Lady of the gods", in the Babylonian Version of the Deluge story when she bewails the destruction of mankind, Dr. Poebel assigns the speech to Ninkharsagga, or Nintu,[1] the goddess who later in the column is associated with Anu, Enlil, and Enki in man's creation. But the mention of Nintu in her own speech is hardly consistent with that supposition,[2] if we assume with Dr. Poebel, as we are probably justified in doing, that the title Nintu is employed here and elsewhere in the narrative merely as a synonym of Ninkharsagga.[3] It appears to me far more probable that one of the two supreme gods, Anu or Enlil, is the speaker,[4] and additional grounds will be cited later in support of this view. It is indeed possible, in spite of the verbs and suffixes in the singular, that the speech is to be assigned to both Anu and Enlil, for in the last column, as we shall see, we find verb in the singular following references to both these deities. In any case one of the two chief gods may be regarded as speaking and acting on behalf of both, though it may be that the inclusion of the second name in the narrative was not original but simply due to a combination of variant traditions. Such a conflate use of Anu-Enlil would present a striking parallel to the Hebrew combination Yahweh-Elohim, though of course in the case of the former pair the subsequent stage of identification was never attained. But the evidence furnished by the text is not conclusive, and it is preferable here and elsewhere in the narrative to regard either Anu or Enlil as speaking and acting both on his own behalf and as the other's representative. [1] Op. cit., p. 21 f.; and cf. Jastrow, /Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions/, p. 336. [2] It necessitates the taking of (/dingir/) /Nin-tu-ra/ as a genitive, not a dative, and the very awkward rendering "my, Nintu's, creations". [3] Another of the recently published Sumerian mythological compositions from Nippur includes a number of myths in which Enki is associated first with Ninella, referred to also as Nintu, "the Goddess of Birth", then with Ninshar, referred to also as Ninkurra, and finally with Ninkharsagga. This text exhibits the process by which separate traditions with regard to goddesses originally distinct were combined together, with the result that their heroines were subsequently often identified with one another. There the myths that have not been subjected to a very severe process of editing, and in consequence the welding is not so complete as in the Sumerian Version of the Deluge. [4] If Enlil's name should prove to be the first word of the composition, we should naturally regard him as the speaker here and as the protagonist of the gods throughout the text, a /rôle/ he also plays in the Semitic-Babylonian Version. This reference to the Deluge, which occurs so early in the text, suggests the probability that the account of the Creation and of the founding of Antediluvian cities, included in the first two columns, is to be taken merely as summarizing the events that led up to the Deluge. And an almost certain proof of this may be seen in the opening words of the composition, which are preserved in its colophon or title on the left-hand edge of the tablet. We have already noted that the first two words are there to be read, either as the prefix "Incantation" followed by the name "Enlil", or as the two divine names "Anu (and) Enlil". Now the signs which follow the traces of Enlil's name are quite certain; they represent "Ziusudu", which, as we shall see in the Third Column, is the name of the Deluge hero in our Sumerian Version. He is thus mentioned in the opening words of the text, in some relation to one or both of the two chief gods of the subsequent narrative. But the natural place for his first introduction into the story is in the Third Column, where it is related that "at that time Ziusudu, the king" did so-and-so. The prominence given him at the beginning of the text, at nearly a column's interval before the lines which record the creation of man, is sufficient proof that the Deluge story is the writer's main interest, and that preceding episodes are merely introductory to it. What subject then may we conjecture was treated in the missing lines of this column, which precede the account of Creation and close with the speech of the chief creating deity? Now the Deluge narrative practically ends with the last lines of the tablet that are preserved, and the lower half of the Sixth Column is entirely wanting. We shall see reason to believe that the missing end of the tablet was not left blank and uninscribed, but contained an incantation, the magical efficacy of which was ensured by the preceding recitation of the Deluge myth. If that were so, it would be natural enough that the text should open with its main subject. The cause of the catastrophe and the reason for man's rescue from it might well be referred to by one of the creating deities in virtue of the analogy these aspects of the myth would present to the circumstances for which the incantation was designed. A brief account of the Creation and of Antediluvian history would then form a natural transition to the narrative of the Deluge itself. And even if the text contained no incantation, the narrative may well have been introduced in the manner suggested, since this explanation in any case fits in with what is still preserved of the First Column. For after his reference to the destruction of mankind, the deity proceeds to fix the chief duty of man, either as a preliminary to his creation, or as a reassertion of that duty after his rescue from destruction by the Flood. It is noteworthy that this duty consists in the building of temples to the gods "in a clean spot", that is to say "in hallowed places". The passage may be given in full, including the two opening lines already discussed: "As for my human race, from (/or/ in) its destruction will I cause it to be [. . .], For Nintu my creatures [. . .] will I [. . .]. The people will I cause to . . . in their settlements, Cities . . . shall (man) build, in there protection will I cause him to rest, That he may lay the brick of our houses in a clean spot, That in a clean spot he may establish our . . . !" In the reason here given for man's creation, or for his rescue from the Flood, we have an interesting parallel to the Sixth Tablet of the Semitic-Babylonian Creation Series. At the opening of that tablet Marduk, in response to "the word of the gods", is urged by his heart to devise a cunning plan which he imparts to Ea, namely the creation of man from his own divine blood and from bone which he will fashion. And the reason he gives for his proposal is precisely that which, as we have seen, prompted the Sumerian deity to create or preserve the human race. For Marduk continues: "I will create man who shall inhabit [. . .], That the service of the gods may be established and that their shrines may be built."[1] [1] See /The Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. 86 ff. We shall see later, from the remainder of Marduk's speech, that the Semitic Version has been elaborated at this point in order to reconcile it with other ingredients in its narrative, which were entirely absent from the simpler Sumerian tradition. It will suffice here to note that, in both, the reason given for man's existence is the same, namely, that the gods themselves may have worshippers.[1] The conception is in full agreement with early Sumerian thought, and reflects the theocratic constitution of the earliest Sumerian communities. The idea was naturally not repugnant to the Semites, and it need not surprise us to find the very words of the principal Sumerian Creator put into the mouth of Marduk, the city-god of Babylon. [1] It may be added that this is also the reason given for man's creation in the introduction to a text which celebrates the founding or rebuilding of a temple. The deity's speech perhaps comes to an end with the declaration of his purpose in creating mankind or in sanctioning their survival of the Deluge; and the following three lines appear to relate his establishment of the divine laws in accordance with which his intention was carried out. The passage includes a refrain, which is repeated in the Second Column: The sublime decrees he made perfect for it. It may probably be assumed that the refrain is employed in relation to the same deity in both passages. In the Second Column it precedes the foundation of the Babylonian kingdom and the building of the Antediluvian cities. In that passage there can be little doubt that the subject of the verb is the chief Sumerian deity, and we are therefore the more inclined to assign to him also the opening speech of the First Column, rather than to regard it as spoken by the Sumerian goddess whose share in the creation would justify her in claiming mankind as her own. In the last four lines of the column we have a brief record of the Creation itself. It was carried out by the three greatest gods of the Sumerian pantheon, Anu, Enlil and Enki, with the help of the goddess Ninkharsagga; the passage reads: When Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninkharsagga Created the blackheaded (i.e. mankind), The /niggil(ma)/ of the earth they caused the earth to produce(?), The animals, the four-legged creatures of the field, they artfully called into existence. The interpretation of the third line is obscure, but there is no doubt that it records the creation of something which is represented as having taken place between the creation of mankind and that of animals. This object, which is written as /nig-gil/ or /nig-gil-ma/, is referred to again in the Sixth Column, where the Sumerian hero of the Deluge assigns to it the honorific title, "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind". It must therefore have played an important part in man's preservation from the Flood; and the subsequent bestowal of the title may be paralleled in the early Semitic Deluge fragment from Nippur, where the boat in which Ut-napishtim escapes is assigned the very similar title "Preserver of Life".[1] But /niggilma/ is not the word used in the Sumerian Version of Ziusudu's boat, and I am inclined to suggest a meaning for it in connexion with the magical element in the text, of the existence of which there is other evidence. On that assumption, the prominence given to its creation may be paralleled in the introduction to a later magical text, which described, probably in connexion with an incantation, the creation of two small creatures, one white and one black, by Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", one of the titles borne by Enki or Ea. The time of their creation is indicated as after that of "cattle, beasts of the field and creatures of the city", and the composition opens in a way which is very like the opening of the present passage in our text.[2] In neither text is there any idea of giving a complete account of the creation of the world, only so much of the original myth being included in each case as suffices for the writer's purpose. Here we may assume that the creation of mankind and of animals is recorded because they were to be saved from the Flood, and that of the /niggilma/ because of the part it played in ensuring their survival. [1] See Hilprecht, /Babylonian Expedition/, Series D, Vol. V, Fasc. 1, plate, Rev., l. 8; the photographic reproduction clearly shows, as Dr. Poebel suggests (/Hist. Texts/, p. 61 n 3), that the line should read: /[(isu)elippu] ši-i lu (isu)ma-gur-gur-ma šum-ša lu na-si-rat na-piš-tim/, "That ship shall be a /magurgurru/ (giant boat), and its name shall be 'Preserver of Life' (lit. 'She that preserves life')." [2] See /Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. 122 ff. The text opens with the words "When the gods in their assembly had made [the world], and had created the heavens, and had formed the earth, and had brought living creatures into being . . .", the lines forming an introduction to the special act of creation with which the composition was concerned. The discussion of the meaning of /niggilma/ may best be postponed till the Sixth Column, where we find other references to the word. Meanwhile it may be noted that in the present passage the creation of man precedes that of animals, as it did in the earlier Hebrew Version of Creation, and probably also in the Babylonian version, though not in the later Hebrew Version. It may be added that in another Sumerian account of the Creation[1] the same order, of man before animals, is followed. [1] Cf. /Sev. Tabl./, Vol. I, p. 134 f.; but the text has been subjected to editing, and some of its episodes are obviously displaced. II. THE ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES As we saw was the case with the First Column of the text, the earliest part preserved of the Second Column contains the close of a speech by a deity, in which he proclaims an act he is about to perform. Here we may assume with some confidence that the speaker is Anu or Enlil, preferably the latter, since it would be natural to ascribe the political constitution of Babylonia, the foundation of which is foreshadowed, to the head of the Sumerian pantheon. It would appear that a beginning had already been made in the establishment of "the kingdom", and, before proceeding to his further work of founding the Antediluvian cities, he follows the example of the speaker in the First Column of the text and lays down the divine enactments by which his purpose was accomplished. The same refrain is repeated: The sub[lime decrees] he made perfect for it. The text then relates the founding by the god of five cities, probably "in clean places", that is to say on hallowed ground. He calls each by its name and assigns it to its own divine patron or city-god: [In clean place]s he founded [five] cit[ies]. And after he had called their names and they had been allotted to divine rulers(?),-- The . . . of these cities, Eridu, he gave to the leader, Nu-dimmud, Secondly, to Nugira(?) he gave Bad-. . .,[1] Thirdly, Larak he gave to Pabilkharsag, Fourthly, Sippar he gave to the hero, the Sun-god, Fifthly, Shuruppak he gave to "the God of Shuruppak",-- After he had called the names of these cities, and they had been allotted to divine rulers(?), [1] In Semitic-Babylonian the first component of this city-name would read "Dûr". The completion of the sentence, in the last two lines of the column, cannot be rendered with any certainty, but the passage appears to have related the creation of small rivers and pools. It will be noted that the lines which contain the names of the five cities and their patron gods[1] form a long explanatory parenthesis, the preceding line being repeated after their enumeration. [1] The precise meaning of the sign-group here provisionally rendered "divine ruler" is not yet ascertained. As the first of the series of five cities of Eridu, the seat of Nudimmud or Enki, who was the third of the creating deities, it has been urged that the upper part of the Second Column must have included an account of the founding of Erech, the city of Anu, and of Nippur, Enlil's city.[1] But the numbered sequence of the cities would be difficult to reconcile with the earlier creation of other cities in the text, and the mention of Eridu as the first city to be created would be quite in accord with its great age and peculiarly sacred character as a cult-centre. Moreover the evidence of the Sumerian Dynastic List is definitely against any claim of Erech to Antediluvian existence. For when the hegemony passed from the first Post-diluvian "kingdom" to the second, it went not to Erech but to the shrine Eanna, which gave its name to the second "kingdom"; and the city itself was apparently not founded before the reign of Enmerkar, the second occupant of the throne, who is the first to be given the title "King of Erech". This conclusion with regard to Erech incidentally disposes of the arguments for Nippur's Antediluvian rank in primitive Sumerian tradition, which have been founded on the order of the cities mentioned at the beginning of the later Sumerian myth of Creation.[2] The evidence we thus obtain that the early Sumerians themselves regarded Eridu as the first city in the world to be created, increases the hope that future excavation at Abu Shahrain may reveal Sumerian remains of periods which, from an archaeological standpoint, must still be regarded as prehistoric. [1] Cf. Poebel, op. cit., p. 41. [2] The city of Nippur does not occur among the first four "kingdoms" of the Sumerian Dynastic List; but we may probably assume that it was the seat of at least one early "kingdom", in consequence of which Enlil, its city-god, attained his later pre-eminent rank in the Sumerian pantheon. It is noteworthy that no human rulers are mentioned in connexion with Eridu and the other four Antediluvian cities; and Ziusudu, the hero of the story, is apparently the only mortal whose name occurred in our text. But its author's principal subject is the Deluge, and the preceding history of the world is clearly not given in detail, but is merely summarized. In view of the obviously abbreviated form of the narrative, of which we have already noted striking evidence in its account of the Creation, we may conclude that in the fuller form of the tradition the cities were also assigned human rulers, each one the representative of his city-god. These would correspond to the Antediluvian dynasty of Berossus, the last member of which was Xisuthros, the later counterpart of Ziusudu. In support of the exclusion of Nippur and Erech from the myth, it will be noted that the second city in the list is not Adab,[1] which was probably the principal seat of the goddess Ninkharsagga, the fourth of the creating deities. The names of both deity and city in that line are strange to us. Larak, the third city in the series, is of greater interest, for it is clearly Larankha, which according to Berossus was the seat of the eighth and ninth of his Antediluvian kings. In commercial documents of the Persian period, which have been found during the excavations at Nippur, Larak is described as lying "on the bank of the old Tigris", a phrase which must be taken as referring to the Shatt el-Hai, in view of the situation of Lagash and other early cities upon it or in its immediate neighbourhood. The site of the city should perhaps be sought on the upper course of the stream, where it tends to approach Nippur. It would thus have lain in the neighbourhood of Bismâya, the site of Adab. Like Adab, Lagash, Shuruppak, and other early Sumerian cities, it was probably destroyed and deserted at a very early period, though it was reoccupied under its old name in Neo- Babylonian or Persian times. Its early disappearance from Babylonian history perhaps in part accounts for our own unfamiliarity with Pabilkharsag, its city-god, unless we may regard the name as a variant from of Pabilsag; but it is hardly likely that the two should be identified. [1] The site of Adab, now marked by the mounds of Bismâya, was partially excavated by an expedition sent out in 1903 by the University of Chicago, and has provided valuable material for the study of the earliest Sumerian period; see /Reports of the Expedition of the Oriental Exploration Fund/ (Babylonian Section of the University of Chicago), and Banks, /Bismya/ (1912). On grounds of antiquity alone we might perhaps have expected its inclusion in the myth. In Sibbar, the fourth of the Antediluvian cities in our series, we again have a parallel to Berossus. it has long been recognized that Pantibiblon, or Pantibiblia, from which the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh of his Antediluvian kings all came, was the city of Sippar in Northern Babylonia. For the seventh of these rulers, {Euedorakhos}, is clearly Enmeduranki, the mythical king of Sippar, who in Babylonian tradition was regarded as the founder of divination. In a fragmentary composition that has come down to us he is described, not only as king of Sippar, but as "beloved of Anu, Enlil, and Enki", the three creating gods of our text; and it is there recounted how the patron deities of divination, Shamash and Adad, themselves taught him to practise their art.[1] Moreover, Berossus directly implies the existence of Sippar before the Deluge, for in the summary of his version that has been preserved Xisuthros, under divine instruction, buries the sacred writings concerning the origin of the world in "Sispara", the city of the Sun-god, so that after the Deluge they might be dug up and transmitted to mankind. Ebabbar, the great Sun-temple, was at Sippar, and it is to the Sun-god that the city is naturally allotted in the new Sumerian Version. [1] Cf. Zimmern, /Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Bab. Relig./, pp. 116 ff. The last of the five Antediluvian cities in our list is Shuruppak, in which dwelt Ut-napishtim, the hero of the Babylonian version of the Deluge. Its site has been identified with the mounds of Fâra, in the neighbourhood of the Shatt el-Kâr, the former bed of the Euphrates; and the excavations that were conducted there in 1902 have been most productive of remains dating from the prehistoric period of Sumerian culture.[1] Since our text is concerned mainly with the Deluge, it is natural to assume that the foundation of the city from which the Deluge-hero came would be recorded last, in order to lead up to the central episode of the text. The city of Ziusudu, the hero of the Sumerian story, is unfortunately not given in the Third Column, but, in view of Shuruppak's place in the list of Antediluvian cities, it is not improbable that on this point the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions agreed. In the Gilgamesh Epic Shuruppak is the only Antediluvian city referred to, while in the Hebrew accounts no city at all is mentioned in connexion with Noah. The city of Xisuthros, too, is not recorded, but as his father came from Larankha or Larak, we may regard that city as his in the Greek Version. Besides Larankha, the only Antediluvian cities according to Berossus were Babylon and Sippar, and the influence of Babylonian theology, of which we here have evidence, would be sufficient to account for a disturbance of the original traditions. At the same time it is not excluded that Larak was also the scene of the Deluge in our text, though, as we have noted, the position of Shuruppak at the close of the Sumerian list points to it as the more probable of the two. It may be added that we cannot yet read the name of the deity to whom Shuruppak was allotted, but as it is expressed by the city's name preceded by the divine determinative, the rendering "the God of Shuruppak" will meanwhile serve. [1] See /Hist. of Sum. and Akk./, pp. 24 ff. The creation of small rivers and pools, which seems to have followed the foundation of the five sacred cities, is best explained on the assumption that they were intended for the supply of water to the cities and to the temples of their five patron gods. The creation of the Euphrates and the Tigris, if recorded in our text at all, or in its logical order, must have occurred in the upper portion of the column. The fact that in the later Sumerian account their creation is related between that of mankind and the building of Nippur and Erech cannot be cited in support of this suggestion, in view of the absence of those cities from our text and of the process of editing to which the later version has been subjected, with a consequent disarrangement of its episodes. III. THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS, AND ZIUSUDU'S PIETY From the lower part of the Third Column, where its text is first preserved, it is clear that the gods had already decided to send a Deluge, for the goddess Nintu or Ninkharsagga, here referred to also as "the holy Innanna", wails aloud for the intended destruction of "her people". That this decision has been decreed by the gods in council is clear from a passage in the Fourth Column, where it is stated that the sending of a flood to destroy mankind was "the word of the assembly [of the gods]". The first lines preserved in the present column describe the effect of the decision on the various gods concerned and their action at the close of the council. In the lines which described the Council of the Gods, broken references to "the people" and "a flood" are preserved, after which the text continues: At that time Nintu [. . .] like a [. . .], The holy Innanna lament[ed] on account of her people. Enki in his own heart [held] counsel; Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninkharsagga [. . .]. The gods of heaven and earth in[voked] the name of Anu and Enlil. It is unfortunate that the ends of all the lines in this column are wanting, but enough remains to show a close correspondence of the first two lines quoted with a passage in the Gilgamesh Epic where Ishtar is described as lamenting the destruction of mankind.[1] This will be seen more clearly by printing the two couplets in parallel columns: SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION At that time Nintu [. . .] like Ishtar cried aloud like a woman a [. . .], in travail, The holy Innanna lament[ed] on Bêlit-ili lamented with a loud account of her people. voice. [1] Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 117 f. The expression Bêlit-ili, "the Lady of the Gods", is attested as a title borne both by the Semitic goddess Ishtar and by the Sumerian goddess Nintu or Ninkharsagga. In the passage in the Babylonian Version, "the Lady of the Gods" has always been treated as a synonym of Ishtar, the second half of the couplet being regarded as a restatement of the first, according to a recognized law of Babylonian poetry. We may probably assume that this interpretation is correct, and we may conclude by analogy that "the holy Innanna" in the second half of the Sumerian couplet is there merely employed as a synonym of Nintu.[1] When the Sumerian myth was recast in accordance with Semitic ideas, the /rôle/ of creatress of mankind, which had been played by the old Sumerian goddess Ninkharsagga or Nintu, was naturally transferred to the Semitic Ishtar. And as Innanna was one of Ishtar's designations, it was possible to make the change by a simple transcription of the lines, the name Nintu being replaced by the synonymous title Bêlit-ili, which was also shared by Ishtar. Difficulties are at once introduced if we assume with Dr. Poebel that in each version two separate goddesses are represented as lamenting, Nintu or Bêlit-ili and Innanna or Ishtar. For Innanna as a separate goddess had no share in the Sumerian Creation, and the reference to "her people" is there only applicable to Nintu. Dr. Poebel has to assume that the Sumerian names should be reversed in order to restore them to their original order, which he suggests the Babylonian Version has preserved. But no such textual emendation is necessary. In the Semitic Version Ishtar definitely displaces Nintu as the mother of men, as is proved by a later passage in her speech where she refers to her own bearing of mankind.[2] The necessity for the substitution of her name in the later version is thus obvious, and we have already noted how simply this was effected. [1] Cf. also Jastrow, /Hebr. and Bab. Trad./, p. 336. [2] Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 123. Another feature in which the two versions differ is that in the Sumerian text the lamentation of the goddess precedes the sending of the Deluge, while in the Gilgamesh Epic it is occasioned by the actual advent of the storm. Since our text is not completely preserved, it is just possible that the couplet was repeated at the end of the Fourth Column after mankind's destruction had taken place. But a further apparent difference has been noted. While in the Sumerian Version the goddess at once deplores the divine decision, it is clear from Ishtar's words in the Gilgamesh Epic that in the assembly of the gods she had at any rate concurred in it.[1] On the other hand, in Bêlit- ili's later speech in the Epic, after Ut-napishtim's sacrifice upon the mountain, she appears to subscribe the decision to Enlil alone.[2] The passages in the Gilgamesh Epic are not really contradictory, for they can be interpreted as implying that, while Enlil forced his will upon the other gods against Bêlit-ili's protest, the goddess at first reproached herself with her concurrence, and later stigmatized Enlil as the real author of the catastrophe. The Semitic narrative thus does not appear, as has been suggested, to betray traces of two variant traditions which have been skilfully combined, though it may perhaps exhibit an expansion of the Sumerian story. On the other hand, most of the apparent discrepancies between the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions disappear, on the recognition that our text gives in many passages only an epitome of the original Sumerian Version. [1] Cf. l. 121 f., "Since I commanded evil in the assembly of the gods, (and) commanded battle for the destruction of my people". [2] Cf. ll. 165 ff., "Ye gods that are here! So long as I forget not the (jewels of) lapis lazuli upon my neck, I will keep these days in my memory, never will I forget them! Let the gods come to the offering, but let not Enlil come to the offering, since he took not counsel but sent the deluge and surrendered my people to destruction." The lament of the goddess is followed by a brief account of the action taken by the other chief figures in the drama. Enki holds counsel with his own heart, evidently devising the project, which he afterwards carried into effect, of preserving the seed of mankind from destruction. Since the verb in the following line is wanting, we do not know what action is there recorded of the four creating deities; but the fact that the gods of heaven and earth invoked the name of Anu and Enlil suggests that it was their will which had been forced upon the other gods. We shall see that throughout the text Anu and Enlil are the ultimate rulers of both gods and men. The narrative then introduces the human hero of the Deluge story: At that time Ziusudu, the king, . . . priest of the god [. . .], Made a very great . . ., [. . .]. In humility he prostrates himself, in reverence [. . .], Daily he stands in attendance [. . .]. A dream,[1] such as had not been before, comes forth[2] . . . [. . .], By the Name of Heaven and Earth he conjures [. . .]. [1] The word may also be rendered "dreams". [2] For this rendering of the verb /e-de/, for which Dr. Poebel does not hazard a translation, see Rawlinson, /W.A.I./, IV, pl. 26, l. 24 f.(a), /nu-e-de/ = Sem. /la us-su-u/ (Pres.); and cf. Brünnow, /Classified List/, p. 327. An alternative rendering "is created" is also possible, and would give equally good sense; cf. /nu-e-de/ = Sem. /la šu-pu-u/, /W.A.I./, IV, pl. 2, l. 5 (a), and Brünnow, op. cit., p. 328. The name of the hero, Ziusudu, is the fuller Sumerian equivalent of Ut-napishtim (or Uta-napishtim), the abbreviated Semitic form which we find in the Gilgamesh Epic. For not only are the first two elements of the Sumerian name identical with those of the Semitic Ut-napishtim, but the names themselves are equated in a later Babylonian syllabary or explanatory list of words.[1] We there find "Ut-napishte" given as the equivalent of the Sumerian "Zisuda", evidently an abbreviated form of the name Ziusudu;[2] and it is significant that the names occur in the syllabary between those of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, evidently in consequence of the association of the Deluge story by the Babylonians with their national epic of Gilgamesh. The name Ziusudu may be rendered "He who lengthened the day of life" or "He who made life long of days",[3] which in the Semitic form is abbreviated by the omission of the verb. The reference is probably to the immortality bestowed upon Ziusudu at the close of the story, and not to the prolongation of mankind's existence in which he was instrumental. It is scarcely necessary to add that the name has no linguistic connexion with the Hebrew name Noah, to which it also presents no parallel in meaning. [1] Cf. /Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus./, Pt. XVIII, pl. 30, l. 9 (a). [2] The name in the Sumerian Version is read by Dr. Poebel as Ziugiddu, but there is much in favour of Prof. Zimmern's suggestion, based on the form Zisuda, that the third syllable of the name should be read as /su/. On a fragment of another Nippur text, No. 4611, Dr. Langdon reads the name as /Zi-u-sud-du/ (cf. Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sec., Vol. X, No. 1, p. 90, pl. iv a); the presence of the phonetic complement /du/ may be cited in favour of this reading, but it does not appear to be supported by the photographic reproductions of the name in the Sumerian Deluge Version given by Dr. Poebel (/Hist. and Gramm. Texts/, pl. lxxxviii f.). It may be added that, on either alternative, the meaning of the name is the same. [3] The meaning of the Sumerian element /u/ in the name, rendered as /utu/ in the Semitic form, is rather obscure, and Dr. Poebel left it unexplained. It is very probable, as suggested by Dr. Langdon (cf. /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, XXXVI, 1914, p. 190), that we should connect it with the Semitic /uddu/; in that case, in place of "breath", the rending he suggests, I should be inclined to render it here as "day", for /uddu/ as the meaning "dawn" and the sign UD is employed both for /urru/, "day-light", and /ûmu/, "day". It is an interesting fact that Ziusudu should be described simply as "the king", without any indication of the city or area he ruled; and in three of the five other passages in the text in which his name is mentioned it is followed by the same title without qualification. In most cases Berossus tells us the cities from which his Antediluvian rulers came; and if the end of the line had been preserved it might have been possible to determine definitely Ziusudu's city, and incidentally the scene of the Deluge in the Sumerian Version, by the name of the deity in whose service he acted as priest. We have already noted some grounds for believing that his city may have been Shuruppak, as in the Babylonian Version; and if that were so, the divine name reads as "the God of Shurrupak" should probably be restored at the end of the line.[1] [1] The remains that are preserved of the determinative, which is not combined with the sign EN, proves that Enki's name is not to be restored. Hence Ziusudu was not priest of Enki, and his city was probably not Eridu, the seat of his divine friend and counsellor, and the first of the Antediluvian cities. Sufficient reason for Enki's intervention on Ziusudu's behalf is furnished by the fact that, as God of the Deep, he was concerned in the proposed method of man's destruction. His rivalry of Enlil, the God of the Earth, is implied in the Babylonian Version (cf. Gilg. Epic. XI, ll. 39- 42), and in the Sumerian Version this would naturally extend to Anu, the God of Heaven. The employment of the royal title by itself accords with the tradition from Berossus that before the Deluge, as in later periods, the land was governed by a succession of supreme rulers, and that the hero of the Deluge was the last of them. In the Gilgamesh Epic, on the other hand, Ut-napishtim is given no royal nor any other title. He is merely referred to as a "man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu", and he appears in the guise of an ancient hero or patriarch not invested with royal power. On this point Berossus evidently preserves the original Sumerian traditions, while the Hebrew Versions resemble the Semitic- Babylonian narrative. The Sumerian conception of a series of supreme Antediluvian rulers is of course merely a reflection from the historical period, when the hegemony in Babylonia was contested among the city-states. The growth of the tradition may have been encouraged by the early use of /lugal/, "king", which, though always a term of secular character, was not very sharply distinguished from that of /patesi/ and other religious titles, until, in accordance with political development, it was required to connote a wider dominion. In Sumer, at the time of the composition of our text, Ziusudu was still only one in a long line of Babylonian rulers, mainly historical but gradually receding into the realms of legend and myth. At the time of the later Semites there had been more than one complete break in the tradition and the historical setting of the old story had become dim. The fact that Hebrew tradition should range itself in this matter with Babylon rather than with Sumer is important as a clue in tracing the literary history of our texts. The rest of the column may be taken as descriptive of Ziusudu's activities. One line records his making of some very great object or the erection of a huge building;[1] and since the following lines are concerned solely with religious activities, the reference is possibly to a temple or some other structure of a sacred character. Its foundation may have been recorded as striking evidence of his devotion to his god; or, since the verb in this sentence depends on the words "at that time" in the preceding line, we may perhaps regard his action as directly connected with the revelation to be made to him. His personal piety is then described: daily he occupied himself in his god's service, prostrating himself in humility and constant in his attendance at the shrine. A dream (or possibly dreams), "such as had not been before", appears to him and he seems to be further described as conjuring "by the Name of Heaven and Earth"; but as the ends of all these lines are broken, the exact connexion of the phrases is not quite certain. [1] The element /gur-gur/, "very large" or "huge", which occurs in the name of this great object or building, /an-sag-gur-gur/, is employed later in the term for the "huge boat", /(gish)ma-gur- gur/, in which Ziusudu rode out the storm. There was, of course, even at this early period a natural tendency to picture on a superhuman scale the lives and deeds of remote predecessors, a tendency which increased in later times and led, as we shall see, to the elaboration of extravagant detail. It is difficult not to associate the reference to a dream, or possibly to dream-divination, with the warning in which Enki reveals the purpose of the gods. For the later versions prepare us for a reference to a dream. If we take the line as describing Ziusudu's practice of dream-divination in general, "such as had not been before", he may have been represented as the first diviner of dreams, as Enmeduranki was held to be the first practitioner of divination in general. But it seems to me more probable that the reference is to a particular dream, by means of which he obtained knowledge of the gods' intentions. On the rendering of this passage depends our interpretation of the whole of the Fourth Column, where the point will be further discussed. Meanwhile it may be noted that the conjuring "by the Name of Heaven and Earth", which we may assume is ascribed to Ziusudu, gains in significance if we may regard the setting of the myth as a magical incantation, an inference in support of which we shall note further evidence. For we are furnished at once with the grounds for its magical employment. If Ziusudu, through conjuring by the Name of Heaven and earth, could profit by the warning sent him and so escape the impending fate of mankind, the application of such a myth to the special needs of a Sumerian in peril or distress will be obvious. For should he, too, conjure by the Name of Heaven and Earth, he might look for a similar deliverance; and his recital of the myth itself would tend to clinch the magical effect of his own incantation. The description of Ziusudu has also great interest in furnishing us with a close parallel to the piety of Noah in the Hebrew Versions. For in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus this feature of the story is completely absent. We are there given no reason why Ut-napishtim was selected by Ea, nor Xisuthros by Kronos. For all that those versions tell us, the favour of each deity might have been conferred arbitrarily, and not in recognition of, or in response to, any particular quality or action on the part of its recipient. The Sumerian Version now restores the original setting of the story and incidentally proves that, in this particular, the Hebrew Versions have not embroidered a simpler narrative for the purpose of edification, but have faithfully reproduced an original strand of the tradition. IV. THE DREAM-WARNING The top of the Fourth Column of the text follows immediately on the close of the Third Column, so that at this one point we have no great gap between the columns. But unfortunately the ends of all the lines in both columns are wanting, and the exact content of some phrases preserved and their relation to each other are consequently doubtful. This materially affects the interpretation of the passage as a whole, but the main thread of the narrative may be readily followed. Ziusudu is here warned that a flood is to be sent "to destroy the seed of mankind"; the doubt that exists concerns the manner in which the warning is conveyed. In the first line of the column, after a reference to "the gods", a building seems to be mentioned, and Ziusudu, standing beside it, apparently hears a voice, which bids him take his stand beside a wall and then conveys to him the warning of the coming flood. The destruction of mankind had been decreed in "the assembly [of the gods]" and would be carried out by the commands of Anu and Enlil. Before the text breaks off we again have a reference to the "kingdom" and "its rule", a further trace of the close association of the Deluge with the dynastic succession in the early traditions of Sumer. In the opening words of the warning to Ziusudu, with its prominent repetition of the word "wall", we must evidently trace some connexion with the puzzling words of Ea in the Gilgamesh Epic, when he begins his warning to Ut-napishtim. The warnings, as given in the two versions, are printed below in parallel columns for comparison.[1] The Gilgamesh Epic, after relating how the great gods in Shuruppak had decided to send a deluge, continues as follows in the right-hand column: SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION For [. . .] . . . the gods a Nin-igi-azag,[2] the god Ea, . . . [. . .]; sat with them, Ziusudu standing at its side And he repeated their word to heard [. . .]: the house of reeds: "At the wall on my left side take "Reed-hut, reed-hut! Wall, thy stand and [. . .], wall! At the wall I will speak a word O reed-hut, hear! O wall, to thee [. . .]. understand! O my devout one . . . [. . .], Thou man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu, By our hand(?) a flood[3] . . . Pull down thy house, build a [. . .] will be [sent]. ship, To destroy the seed of mankind Leave thy possessions, take [. . .] heed for thy life, Is the decision, the word of the Abandon thy property, and save assembly[4] [of the gods] thy life. The commands of Anu (and) And bring living seed of every En[lil . . .] kind into the ship. Its kingdom, its rule [. . .] As for the ship, which thou shalt build, To his [. . .]" Of which the measurements shall be carefully measured, [. . .] Its breadth and length shall correspond. [. . .] In the deep shalt thou immerse it." [1] Col. IV, ll. 1 ff. are there compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 19-31. [2] Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", a title borne by Enki, or Ea, as God of Wisdom. [3] The Sumerian term /amaru/, here used for the flood and rendered as "rain-storm" by Dr. Poebel, is explained in a later syllabary as the equivalent of the Semitic-Babylonian word /abûbu/ (cf. Meissner, /S.A.I./, No. 8909), the term employed for the flood both in the early Semitic version of the Atrakhasis story dated in Ammizaduga's reign and in the Gilgamesh Epic. The word /abûbu/ is often conventionally rendered "deluge", but should be more accurately translated "flood". It is true that the tempests of the Sumerian Version probably imply rain; and in the Gilgamesh Epic heavy rain in the evening begins the flood and is followed at dawn by a thunderstorm and hurricane. But in itself the term /abûbu/ implies flood, which could take place through a rise of the rivers unaccompanied by heavy local rain. The annual rainfall in Babylonia to-day is on an average only about 8 in., and there have been years in succession when the total rainfall has not exceeded 4 in.; and yet the /abûbu/ is not a thing of the past. [4] The word here rendered "assembly" is the Semitic loan-word /buhrum/, in Babylonian /puhrum/, the term employed for the "assembly" of the gods both in the Babylonian Creation Series and in the Gilgamesh Epic. Its employment in the Sumerian Version, in place of its Sumerian equivalent /ukkin/, is an interesting example of Semitic influence. Its occurrence does not necessarily imply the existence of a recognized Semitic Version at the period our text was inscribed. The substitution of /buhrum/ for /ukkin/ in the text may well date from the period of Hammurabi, when we may assume that the increased importance of the city-council was reflected in the general adoption of the Semitic term (cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 53). In the Semitic Version Ut-napishtim, who tells the story in the first person, then says that he "understood", and that, after assuring Ea that he would carry out his commands, he asked how he was to explain his action to "the city, the people, and the elders"; and the god told him what to say. Then follows an account of the building of the ship, introduced by the words "As soon as the dawn began to break". In the Sumerian Version the close of the warning, in which the ship was probably referred to, and the lines prescribing how Ziusudu carried out the divine instructions are not preserved. It will be seen that in the passage quoted from the Semitic Version there is no direct mention of a dream; the god is represented at first as addressing his words to a "house of reeds" and a "wall", and then as speaking to Ut-napishtim himself. But in a later passage in the Epic, when Ea seeks to excuse his action to Enlil, he says that the gods' decision was revealed to Atrakhasis through a dream.[1] Dr. Poebel rightly compares the direct warning of Ut-napishtim by Ea in the passage quoted above with the equally direct warning Ziusudu receives in the Sumerian Version. But he would have us divorce the direct warning from the dream-warning, and he concludes that no less than three different versions of the story have been worked together in the Gilgamesh Epic. In the first, corresponding to that in our text, Ea communicates the gods' decision directly to Ut-napishtim; in the second he sends a dream from which Atrakhasis, "the Very Wise one", guesses the impending peril; while in the third he relates the plan to a wall, taking care that Ut-napishtim overhears him.[2] The version of Berossus, that Kronos himself appears to Xisuthros in a dream and warns him, is rejected by Dr. Poebel, who remarks that here the "original significance of the dream has already been obliterated". Consequently there seems to him to be "no logical connexion" between the dreams or dream mentioned at the close of the Third Column and the communication of the plan of the gods at the beginning of the Fourth Column of our text.[3] [1] Cf. l. 195 f.; "I did not divulge the decision of the great gods. I caused Atrakhasis to behold a dream and thus he heard the decision of the gods." [2] Cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 51 f. With the god's apparent subterfuge in the third of these supposed versions Sir James Frazer (/Ancient Stories of a Great Flood/, p. 15) not inaptly compares the well-known story of King Midas's servant, who, unable to keep the secret of the king's deformity to himself, whispered it into a hole in the ground, with the result that the reeds which grew up there by their rustling in the wind proclaimed it to the world (Ovid, /Metamorphoses/, xi, 174 ff.). [3] Op. cit., p. 51; cf. also Jastrow, /Heb. and Bab. Trad./, p. 346. So far from Berossus having missed the original significance of the narrative he relates, I think it can be shown that he reproduces very accurately the sense of our Sumerian text; and that the apparent discrepancies in the Semitic Version, and the puzzling references to a wall in both it and the Sumerian Version, are capable of a simple explanation. There appears to me no justification for splitting the Semitic narrative into the several versions suggested, since the assumption that the direct warning and the dream-warning must be distinguished is really based on a misunderstanding of the character of Sumerian dreams by which important decisions of the gods in council were communicated to mankind. We fortunately possess an instructive Sumerian parallel to our passage. In it the will of the gods is revealed in a dream, which is not only described in full but is furnished with a detailed interpretation; and as it seems to clear up our difficulties, it may be well to summarize its main features. The occasion of the dream in this case was not a coming deluge but a great dearth of water in the rivers, in consequence of which the crops had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. This occurred in the reign of Gudea, patesi of Lagash, who lived some centuries before our Sumerian document was inscribed. In his own inscription[1] he tells us that he was at a loss to know by what means he might restore prosperity to his country, when one night he had a dream; and it was in consequence of the dream that he eventually erected one of the most sumptuously appointed of Sumerian temples and thereby restored his land to prosperity. Before recounting his dream he describes how the gods themselves took counsel. On the day in which destinies were fixed in heaven and earth, Enlil, the chief of the gods, and Ningirsu, the city-god of Lagash, held converse; and Enlil, turning to Ningirsu, described the sad condition of Southern Babylonia, and remarked that "the decrees of the temple Eninnû should be made glorious in heaven and upon earth", or, in other words, that Ningirsu's city-temple must be rebuilt. Thereupon Ningirsu did not communicate his orders directly to Gudea, but conveyed the will of the gods to him by means of a dream. [1] See Thureau-Dangin, /Les inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad/, Cyl. A, pp. 134 ff., Germ. ed., pp. 88 ff.; and cf. King and Hall, /Eg. and West. Asia/, pp. 196 ff. It will be noticed that we here have a very similar situation to that in the Deluge story. A conference of the gods has been held; a decision has been taken by the greatest god, Enlil; and, in consequence, another deity is anxious to inform a Sumerian ruler of that decision. The only difference is that here Enlil desires the communication to be made, while in the Deluge story it is made without his knowledge, and obviously against his wishes. So the fact that Ningirsu does not communicate directly with the patesi, but conveys his message by means of a dream, is particularly instructive. For here there can be no question of any subterfuge in the method employed, since Enlil was a consenting party. The story goes on to relate that, while the patesi slept, a vision of the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great that it equalled the heavens and the earth. By the diadem he wore upon his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. Beside the god was the divine eagle, the emblem of Lagash; his feet rested upon the whirlwind, and a lion crouched upon his right hand and upon his left. The figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the meaning of the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the Sun rose from the earth; and he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she carried also a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed to take counsel with herself. While Gudea was gazing, he seemed to see a second man, who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis lazuli, on which he drew out the plan of a temple. Before the patesi himself it seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion was set a mould, and within the mould was a brick. And on the right hand the patesi beheld an ass that lay upon the ground. Such was the dream of Gudea, and he was troubled because he could not interpret it.[1] [1] The resemblance its imagery bears to that of apocalyptic visions of a later period is interesting, as evidence of the latter's remote ancestry, and of the development in the use of primitive material to suit a completely changed political outlook. But those are points which do not concern our problem. To cut the long story short, Gudea decided to seek the help of Ninâ, "the child of Eridu", who, as daughter of Enki, the God of Wisdom, could divine all the mysteries of the gods. But first of all by sacrifices and libations he secured the mediation of his own city-god and goddess, Ningirsu and Gatumdug; and then, repairing to Ninâ's temple, he recounted to her the details of his vision. When the patesi had finished, the goddess addressed him and said she would explain to him the meaning of his dream. Here, no doubt, we are to understand that she spoke through the mouth of her chief priest. And this was the interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so great, and whose head was that of a god, was the god Ningirsu, and the words which he uttered were an order to the patesi to rebuild the temple Eninnû. The Sun which rose from the earth was the god Ningishzida, for like the Sun he goes forth from the earth. The maiden who held the pure reed and carried the tablet with the star was the goddess Nisaba; the star was the pure star of the temple's construction, which she proclaimed. The second man, who was like a warrior, was the god Nibub; and the plan of the temple which he drew was the plan of Eninnû; and the ass that lay upon the ground was the patesi himself.[1] [1] The symbolism of the ass, as a beast of burden, was applicable to the patesi in his task of carrying out the building of the temple. The essential feature of the vision is that the god himself appeared to the sleeper and delivered his message in words. That is precisely the manner in which Kronos warned Xisuthros of the coming Deluge in the version of Berossus; while in the Gilgamesh Epic the apparent contradiction between the direct warning and the dream-warning at once disappears. It is true that Gudea states that he did not understand the meaning of the god's message, and so required an interpretation; but he was equally at a loss as to the identity of the god who gave it, although Ningirsu was his own city-god and was accompanied by his own familiar city-emblem. We may thus assume that the god's words, as words, were equally intelligible to Gudea. But as they were uttered in a dream, it was necessary that the patesi, in view of his country's peril, should have divine assurance that they implied no other meaning. And in his case such assurance was the more essential, in view of the symbolism attaching to the other features of his vision. That this is sound reasoning is proved by a second vision vouchsafed to Gudea by Ningirsu. For the patesi, though he began to prepare for the building of the temple, was not content even with Ninâ's assurance. He offered a prayer to Ningirsu himself, saying that he wished to build the temple, but had received no sign that this was the will of the god; and he prayed for a sign. Then, as the patesi lay stretched upon the ground, the god again appeared to him and gave him detailed instructions, adding that he would grant the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his side touched as by a flame,[1] and thereby he should know that he was the man chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands. Here it is the sign which confirms the apparent meaning of the god's words. And Gudea was at last content and built the temple.[2] [1] Cyl. A., col. xii, l. 10 f.; cf. Thureau-Dangin, op. cit., p. 150 f., Germ. ed., p. 102 f. The word translated "side" may also be rendered as "hand"; but "side" is the more probable rendering of the two. The touching of Gudea's side (or hand) presents an interesting resemblance to the touching of Jacob's thigh by the divine wrestler at Peniel in Gen. xxxii. 24 ff. (J or JE). Given a belief in the constant presence of the unseen and its frequent manifestation, such a story as that of Peniel might well arise from an unexplained injury to the sciatic muscle, while more than one ailment of the heart or liver might perhaps suggest the touch of a beckoning god. There is of course no connexion between the Sumerian and Hebrew stories beyond their common background. It may be added that those critics who would reverse the /rôles/ of Jacob and the wrestler miss the point of the Hebrew story. [2] Even so, before starting on the work, he took the further precautions of ascertaining that the omens were favourable and of purifying his city from all malign influence. We may conclude, then, that in the new Sumerian Version of the Deluge we have traced a logical connexion between the direct warning to Ziusudu in the Fourth Column of the text and the reference to a dream in the broken lines at the close of the Third Column. As in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus, here too the god's warning is conveyed in a dream; and the accompanying reference to conjuring by the Name of Heaven and Earth probably represents the means by which Ziusudu was enabled to verify its apparent meaning. The assurance which Gudea obtained through the priest of Ninâ and the sign, the priest-king Ziusudu secured by his own act, in virtue of his piety and practice of divination. And his employment of the particular class of incantation referred to, that which conjures by the Name of Heaven and Earth, is singularly appropriate to the context. For by its use he was enabled to test the meaning of Enki's words, which related to the intentions of Anu and Enlil, the gods respectively of Heaven and of Earth. The symbolical setting of Gudea's vision also finds a parallel in the reed-house and wall of the Deluge story, though in the latter case we have not the benefit of interpretation by a goddess. In the Sumerian Version the wall is merely part of the vision and does not receive a direct address from the god. That appears as a later development in the Semitic Version, and it may perhaps have suggested the excuse, put in that version into the mouth of Ea, that he had not directly revealed the decision of the gods.[1] [1] In that case the parallel suggested by Sir James Frazer between the reed-house and wall of the Gilgamesh Epic, now regarded as a medium of communication, and the whispering reeds of the Midas story would still hold good. The omission of any reference to a dream before the warning in the Gilgamesh Epic may be accounted for on the assumption that readers of the poem would naturally suppose that the usual method of divine warning was implied; and the text does indicate that the warning took place at night, for Gilgamesh proceeds to carry out the divine instructions at the break of day. The direct warning of the Hebrew Versions, on the other hand, does not carry this implication, since according to Hebrew ideas direct speech, as well as vision, was included among the methods by which the divine will could be conveyed to man. V. THE FLOOD, THE ESCAPE OF THE GREAT BOAT, AND THE SACRIFICE TO THE SUN-GOD The missing portion of the Fourth Column must have described Ziusudu's building of his great boat in order to escape the Deluge, for at the beginning of the Fifth Column we are in the middle of the Deluge itself. The column begins: All the mighty wind-storms together blew, The flood . . . raged. When for seven days, for seven nights, The flood had overwhelmed the land When the wind-storm had driven the great boat over the mighty waters, The Sun-god came forth, shedding light over heaven and earth. Ziusudu opened the opening of the great boat; The light of the hero, the Sun-god, (he) causes to enter into the interior(?) of the great boat. Ziusudu, the king, Bows himself down before the Sun-god; The king sacrifices an ox, a sheep he slaughters(?). The connected text of the column then breaks off, only a sign or two remaining of the following half-dozen lines. It will be seen that in the eleven lines that are preserved we have several close parallels to the Babylonian Version and some equally striking differences. While attempting to define the latter, it will be well to point out how close the resemblances are, and at the same time to draw a comparison between the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions of this part of the story and the corresponding Hebrew accounts. Here, as in the Babylonian Version, the Flood is accompanied by hurricanes of wind, though in the latter the description is worked up in considerable detail. We there read[1] that at the appointed time the ruler of the darkness at eventide sent a heavy rain. Ut-napishtim saw its beginning, but fearing to watch the storm, he entered the interior of the ship by Ea's instructions, closed the door, and handed over the direction of the vessel to the pilot Puzur-Amurri. Later a thunder-storm and hurricane added their terrors to the deluge. For at early dawn a black cloud came up from the horizon, Adad the Storm-god thundering in its midst, and his heralds, Nabû and Sharru, flying over mountain and plain. Nergal tore away the ship's anchor, while Ninib directed the storm; the Anunnaki carried their lightning-torches and lit up the land with their brightness; the whirlwind of the Storm-god reached the heavens, and all light was turned into darkness. The storm raged the whole day, covering mountain and people with water.[2] No man beheld his fellow; the gods themselves were afraid, so that they retreated into the highest heaven, where they crouched down, cowering like dogs. Then follows the lamentation of Ishtar, to which reference has already been made, the goddess reproaching herself for the part she had taken in the destruction of her people. This section of the Semitic narrative closes with the picture of the gods weeping with her, sitting bowed down with their lips pressed together. [1] Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 90 ff. [2] In the Atrakhasis version, dated in the reign of Ammizaduga, Col. I, l. 5, contains a reference to the "cry" of men when Adad the Storm-god, slays them with his flood. It is probable that the Sumerian Version, in the missing portion of its Fourth Column, contained some account of Ziusudu's entry into his boat; and this may have been preceded, as in the Gilgamesh Epic, by a reference to "the living seed of every kind", or at any rate to "the four-legged creatures of the field", and to his personal possessions, with which we may assume he had previously loaded it. But in the Fifth Column we have no mention of the pilot or of any other companions who may have accompanied the king; and we shall see that the Sixth Column contains no reference to Ziusudu's wife. The description of the storm may have begun with the closing lines of the Fourth Column, though it is also quite possible that the first line of the Fifth Column actually begins the account. However that may be, and in spite of the poetic imagery of the Semitic Babylonian narrative, the general character of the catastrophe is the same in both versions. We find an equally close parallel, between the Sumerian and Babylonian accounts, in the duration of the storm which accompanied the Flood, as will be seen by printing the two versions together:[3] SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION When for seven days, for seven For six days and nights nights, The flood had overwhelmed the The wind blew, the flood, the land, tempest overwhelmed the land. When the wind-storm had driven When the seventh day drew near, the great boat over the the tempest, the flood, ceased mighty waters, from the battle In which it had fought like a host. The Sun-god came forth shedding Then the sea rested and was light over heaven and earth. still, and the wind-storm, the flood, ceased. [3] Col. V, ll. 3-6 are here compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 128-32. The two narratives do not precisely agree as to the duration of the storm, for while in the Sumerian account the storm lasts seven days and seven nights, in the Semitic-Babylonian Version it lasts only six days and nights, ceasing at dawn on the seventh day. The difference, however, is immaterial when we compare these estimates with those of the Hebrew Versions, the older of which speaks of forty days' rain, while the later version represents the Flood as rising for no less than a hundred and fifty days. The close parallel between the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions is not, however, confined to subject-matter, but here, even extends to some of the words and phrases employed. It has already been noted that the Sumerian term employed for "flood" or "deluge" is the attested equivalent of the Semitic word; and it may now be added that the word which may be rendered "great boat" or "great ship" in the Sumerian text is the same word, though partly expressed by variant characters, which occurs in the early Semitic fragment of the Deluge story from Nippur.[1] In the Gilgamesh Epic, on the other hand, the ordinary ideogram for "vessel" or "ship"[2] is employed, though the great size of the vessel is there indicated, as in Berossus and the later Hebrew Version, by detailed measurements. Moreover, the Sumerian and Semitic verbs, which are employed in the parallel passages quoted above for the "overwhelming" of the land, are given as synonyms in a late syllabary, while in another explanatory text the Sumerian verb is explained as applying to the destructive action of a flood.[3] Such close linguistic parallels are instructive as furnishing additional proof, if it were needed, of the dependence of the Semitic-Babylonian and Assyrian Versions upon Sumerian originals. [1] The Sumerian word is /(gish)ma-gur-gur/, corresponding to the term written in the early Semitic fragment, l. 8, as /(isu)ma-gur-gur/, which is probably to be read under its Semitized form /magurgurru/. In l. 6 of that fragment the vessel is referred to under the synonymous expression /(isu)elippu ra-be-tu/, "a great ship". [2] i.e. (GISH)MA, the first element in the Sumerian word, read in Semitic Babylonian as /elippu/, "ship"; when employed in the early Semitic fragment it is qualified by the adj. /ra-be-tu/, "great". There is no justification for assuming, with Prof. Hilbrecht, that a measurement of the vessel was given in l. 7 of the early Semitic fragment. [3] The Sumerian verb /ur/, which is employed in l. 2 of the Fifth Column in the expression /ba-an-da-ab-ur-ur/, translated as "raged", occurs again in l. 4 in the phrase /kalam-ma ba-ur-ra/, "had overwhelmed the land". That we are justified in regarding the latter phrase as the original of the Semitic /i-sap-pan mâta/ (Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 129) is proved by the equation Sum. /ur-ur/ = Sem. /sa-pa-nu/ (Rawlinson, /W.A.I./, Vol. V, pl. 42, l. 54 c) and by the explanation Sum. /ur-ur/ = Sem. /ša-ba-tu ša a-bu-bi/, i.e. "/ur-ur/ = to smite, of a flood" (/Cun. Texts, Pt. XII, pl. 50, Obv., l. 23); cf. Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 54, n. 1. It may be worth while to pause for a moment in our study of the text, in order to inquire what kind of boat it was in which Ziusudu escaped the Flood. It is only called "a great boat" or "a great ship" in the text, and this term, as we have noted, was taken over, semitized, and literally translated in an early Semitic-Babylonian Version. But the Gilgamesh Epic, representing the later Semitic-Babylonian Version, supplies fuller details, which have not, however, been satisfactorily explained. Either the obvious meaning of the description and figures there given has been ignored, or the measurements have been applied to a central structure placed upon a hull, much on the lines of a modern "house-boat" or the conventional Noah's ark.[1] For the latter interpretation the text itself affords no justification. The statement is definitely made that the length and breadth of the vessel itself are to be the same;[2] and a later passage gives ten /gar/ for the height of its sides and ten /gar/ for the breadth of its deck.[3] This description has been taken to imply a square box-like structure, which, in order to be seaworthy, must be placed on a conjectured hull. [1] Cf., e.g., Jastrow, /Hebr. and Bab. Trad./, p. 329. [2] Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 28-30. [3] L. 58 f. The /gar/ contained twelve cubits, so that the vessel would have measured 120 cubits each way; taking the Babylonian cubit, on the basis of Gudea's scale, at 495 mm. (cf. Thureau- Dangin, /Journal Asiatique/, Dix. Sér., t. XIII, 1909, pp. 79 ff., 97), this would give a length, breadth, and height of nearly 195 ft. I do not think it has been noted in this connexion that a vessel, approximately with the relative proportions of that described in the Gilgamesh Epic, is in constant use to-day on the lower Tigris and Euphrates. A /kuffah/,[1] the familiar pitched coracle of Baghdad, would provide an admirable model for the gigantic vessel in which Ut-napishtim rode out the Deluge. "Without either stem or stern, quite round like a shield"--so Herodotus described the /kuffah/ of his day;2[] so, too, is it represented on Assyrian slabs from Nineveh, where we see it employed for the transport of heavy building material;[3] its form and structure indeed suggest a prehistoric origin. The /kuffah/ is one of those examples of perfect adjustment to conditions of use which cannot be improved. Any one who has travelled in one of these craft will agree that their storage capacity is immense, for their circular form and steeply curved side allow every inch of space to be utilized. It is almost impossible to upset them, and their only disadvantage is lack of speed. For their guidance all that is required is a steersman with a paddle, as indicated in the Epic. It is true that the larger kuffah of to-day tends to increase in diameter as compared to height, but that detail might well be ignored in picturing the monster vessel of Ut-napishtim. Its seven horizontal stages and their nine lateral divisions would have been structurally sound in supporting the vessel's sides; and the selection of the latter uneven number, though prompted doubtless by its sacred character, is only suitable to a circular craft in which the interior walls would radiate from the centre. The use of pitch and bitumen for smearing the vessel inside and out, though unusual even in Mesopotamian shipbuilding, is precisely the method employed in the /kuffah's/ construction. [1] Arab. /kuffah/, pl. /kufaf/; in addition to its common use for the Baghdad coracle, the word is also employed for a large basket. [2] Herodotus, I, 194. [3] The /kuffah/ is formed of wicker-work coated with bitumen. Some of those represented on the Nineveh sculptures appear to be covered with skins; and Herodotus (I, 94) states that "the boats which come down the river to Babylon are circular and made of skins." But his further description shows that he is here referred to the /kelek/ or skin-raft, with which he has combined a description of the /kuffah/. The late Sir Henry Rawlinson has never seen or heard of a skin-covered /kuffah/ on either the Tigris or Euphrates, and there can be little doubt that bitumen was employed for their construction in antiquity, as it is to-day. These craft are often large enough to carry five or six horses and a dozen men. We have no detailed description of Ziusudu's "great boat", beyond the fact that it was covered in and had an opening, or light-hole, which could be closed. But the form of Ut-napishtim's vessel was no doubt traditional, and we may picture that of Ziusudu as also of the /kuffah/ type, though smaller and without its successor's elaborate internal structure. The gradual development of the huge coracle into a ship would have been encouraged by the Semitic use of the term "ship" to describe it; and the attempt to retain something of its original proportions resulted in producing the unwieldy ark of later tradition.[1] [1] The description of the ark is not preserved from the earlier Hebrew Version (J), but the latter Hebrew Version (P), while increasing the length of the vessel, has considerably reduced its height and breadth. Its measurements are there given (Gen. vi. 15) as 300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height; taking the ordinary Hebrew cubit at about 18 in., this would give a length of about 450 ft., a breadth of about 75 ft., and a height of about 45 ft. The interior stories are necessarily reduced to three. The vessel in Berossus measures five stadia by two, and thus had a length of over three thousand feet and a breadth of more than twelve hundred. We will now return to the text and resume the comparison we were making between it and the Gilgamesh Epic. In the latter no direct reference is made to the appearance of the Sun-god after the storm, nor is Ut-napishtim represented as praying to him. But the sequence of events in the Sumerian Version is very natural, and on that account alone, apart from other reasons, it may be held to represent the original form of the story. For the Sun-god would naturally reappear after the darkness of the storm had passed, and it would be equally natural that Ziusudu should address himself to the great light-god. Moreover, the Gilgamesh Epic still retains traces of the Sumerian Version, as will be seen from a comparison of their narratives,[1] the Semitic Version being quoted from the point where the hurricane ceased and the sea became still. [1] Col. V, ll. 7-11 are here compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 133-9. SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION When I looked at the storm, the uproar had ceased, And all mankind was turned into clay; In place of fields there was a swamp. Ziusudu opened the opening of I opened the opening (lit. the great boat; "hole"), and daylight fell upon my countenance. The light of the hero, the Sun- god, (he) causes to enter into the interior(?) of the great boat. Ziusudu, the king, Bows himself down before the I bowed myself down and sat down Sun-god; weeping; The king sacrifices an ox, a Over my countenance flowed my sheep he slaughters(?). tears. I gazed upon the quarters (of the world)--all(?) was sea. It will be seen that in the Semitic Version the beams of the Sun-god have been reduced to "daylight", and Ziusudu's act of worship has become merely prostration in token of grief. Both in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus the sacrifice offered by the Deluge hero to the gods follows the episode of the birds, and it takes place on the top of the mountain after the landing from the vessel. It is hardly probable that two sacrifices were recounted in the Sumerian Version, one to the Sun-god in the boat and another on the mountain after landing; and if we are right in identifying Ziusudu's recorded sacrifice with that of Ut-napishtim and Xisuthros, it would seem that, according to the Sumerian Version, no birds were sent out to test the abatement of the waters. This conclusion cannot be regarded as quite certain, inasmuch as the greater part of the Fifth Column is waning. We have, moreover, already seen reason to believe that the account on our tablet is epitomized, and that consequently the omission of any episode from our text does not necessarily imply its absence from the original Sumerian Version which it follows. But here at least it is clear that nothing can have been omitted between the opening of the light-hole and the sacrifice, for the one act is the natural sequence of the other. On the whole it seems preferable to assume that we have recovered a simpler form of the story. As the storm itself is described in a few phrases, so the cessation of the flood may have been dismissed with equal brevity; the gradual abatement of the waters, as attested by the dove, the swallow, and the raven, may well be due to later elaboration or to combination with some variant account. Under its amended form the narrative leads naturally up to the landing on the mountain and the sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods. In the Sumerian Version, on the other hand, Ziusudu regards himself as saved when he sees the Sun shining; he needs no further tests to assure himself that the danger is over, and his sacrifice too is one of gratitude for his escape. The disappearance of the Sun-god from the Semitic Version was thus a necessity, to avoid an anti-climax; and the hero's attitude of worship had obviously to be translated into one of grief. An indication that the sacrifice was originally represented as having taken place on board the boat may be seen in the lines of the Gilgamesh Epic which recount how Enlil, after acquiescing in Ut-napishtim's survival of the Flood, went up into the ship and led him forth by the hand, although, in the preceding lines, he had already landed and had sacrificed upon the mountain. The two passages are hardly consistent as they stand, but they find a simple explanation of we regard the second of them as an unaltered survival from an earlier form of the story. If the above line of reasoning be sound, it follows that, while the earlier Hebrew Version closely resembles the Gilgamesh Epic, the later Hebrew Version, by its omission of the birds, would offer a parallel to the Sumerian Version. But whether we may draw any conclusion from this apparent grouping of our authorities will be best dealt with when we have concluded our survey of the new evidence. As we have seen, the text of the Fifth Column breaks off with Ziusudu's sacrifice to the Sun-god, after he had opened a light-hole in the boat and had seen by the god's beams that the storm was over. The missing portion of the Fifth Column must have included at least some account of the abatement of the waters, the stranding of the boat, and the manner in which Anu and Enlil became apprised of Ziusudu's escape, and consequently of the failure of their intention to annihilate mankind. For in the Sixth Column of the text we find these two deities reconciled to Ziusudu and bestowing immortality upon him, as Enlil bestows immortality upon Ut-napishtim at the close of the Semitic Version. In the latter account, after the vessel had grounded on Mount Nisir and Ut-napishtim had tested the abatement of the waters by means of the birds, he brings all out from the ship and offers his libation and sacrifice upon the mountain, heaping up reed, cedar-wood, and myrtle beneath his seven sacrificial vessels. And it was by this act on his part that the gods first had knowledge of his escape. For they smelt the sweet savour of the sacrifice, and "gathered like flies over the sacrificer".[1] [1] Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 162. It is possible in our text that Ziusudu's sacrifice in the boat was also the means by which the gods became acquainted with his survival; and it seems obvious that the Sun-god, to whom it was offered, should have continued to play some part in the narrative, perhaps by assisting Ziusudu in propitiating Anu and Enlil. In the Semitic-Babylonian Version, the first deity to approach the sacrifice is Bêlit-ili or Ishtar, who is indignant with Enlil for what he has done. When Enlil himself approaches and sees the ship he is filled with anger against the gods, and, asking who has escaped, exclaims that no man must live in the destruction. Thereupon Ninib accuses Ea, who by his pleading succeeds in turning Enlil's purpose. He bids Enlil visit the sinner with his sin and lay his transgression on the transgressor; Enlil should not again send a deluge to destroy the whole of mankind, but should be content with less wholesale destruction, such as that wrought by wild beasts, famine, and plague. Finally he confesses that it was he who warned Ziusudu of the gods' decision by sending him a dream. Enlil thereupon changes his intention, and going up into the ship, leads Ut-napishtim forth. Though Ea's intervention finds, of course, no parallel in either Hebrew version, the subject-matter of his speech is reflected in both. In the earlier Hebrew Version Yahweh smells the sweet savour of Noah's burnt offering and says in his heart he will no more destroy every living creature as he had done; while in the later Hebrew Version Elohim, after remembering Noah and causing the waters to abate, establishes his covenant to the same effect, and, as a sign of the covenant, sets his bow in the clouds. In its treatment of the climax of the story we shall see that the Sumerian Version, at any rate in the form it has reached us, is on a lower ethical level than the Babylonian and Hebrew Versions. Ea's argument that the sinner should bear his own sin and the transgressor his own transgression in some measure forestalls that of Ezekiel;[1] and both the Hebrew Versions represent the saving of Noah as part of the divine intention from the beginning. But the Sumerian Version introduces the element of magic as the means by which man can bend the will of the gods to his own ends. How far the details of the Sumerian myth at this point resembled that of the Gilgamesh Epic it is impossible to say, but the general course of the story must have been the same. In the latter Enlil's anger is appeased, in the former that of Anu and Enlil; and it is legitimate to suppose that Enki, like Ea, was Ziusudu's principal supporter, in view of the part he had already taken in ensuring his escape. [1] Cf. Ezek. xviii, passim, esp. xviii. 20. VI. THE PROPITIATION OF THE ANGRY GODS, AND ZIUSUDU'S IMMORTALITY The presence of the puzzling lines, with which the Sixth Column of our text opens, was not explained by Dr. Poebel; indeed, they would be difficult to reconcile with his assumption that our text is an epic pure and simple. But if, as is suggested above, we are dealing with a myth in magical employment, they are quite capable of explanation. The problem these lines present will best be stated by giving a translation of the extant portion of the column, where they will be seen with their immediate context in relation to what follows them: "By the Soul of Heaven, by the soul of Earth, shall ye conjure him, That with you he may . . . ! Anu and Enlil by the Soul of Heaven, by the Soul of Earth, shall ye conjure, And with you will he . . . ! "The /niggilma/ of the ground springs forth in abundance(?)!" Ziusudu, the king, Before Anu and Enlil bows himself down. Life like (that of) a god he gives to him, An eternal soul like (that of) a god he creates for him. At that time Ziusudu, the king, The name of the /niggilma/ (named) "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind". In a . . . land,[1] the land[1] of Dilmun(?), they caused him to dwell. [1] Possibly to be translated "mountain". The rendering of the proper name as that of Dilmun is very uncertain. For the probable identification of Dilmun with the island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf, cf. Rawlinson, /Journ. Roy. As. Soc./, 1880, pp. 20 ff.; and see further, Meissner, /Orient. Lit-Zeit./, XX. No. 7, col. 201 ff. The first two lines of the column are probably part of the speech of some deity, who urges the necessity of invoking or conjuring Anu and Enlil "by the Soul of Heaven, by the Soul of Earth", in order to secure their support or approval. Now Anu and Enlil are the two great gods who had determined on mankind's destruction, and whose wrath at his own escape from death Ziusudu must placate. It is an obvious inference that conjuring "by the Soul of Heaven" and "by the Soul of Earth" is either the method by which Ziusudu has already succeeded in appeasing their anger, or the means by which he is here enjoined to attain that end. Against the latter alternative it is to be noted that the god is addressing more than one person; and, further, at Ziusudu is evidently already pardoned, for, so far from following the deity's advice, he immediately prostrates himself before Anu and Enlil and receives immortality. We may conjecture that at the close of the Fifth Column Ziusudu had already performed the invocation and thereby had appeased the divine wrath; and that the lines at the beginning of the Sixth Column point the moral of the story by enjoining on Ziusudu and his descendants, in other words on mankind, the advisability of employing this powerful incantation at their need. The speaker may perhaps have been one of Ziusudu's divine helpers--the Sun-god to whom he had sacrificed, or Enki who had saved him from the Flood. But it seems to me more probable that the words are uttered by Anu and Enlil themselves.[1] For thereby they would be represented as giving their own sanction to the formula, and as guaranteeing its magical efficacy. That the incantation, as addressed to Anu and Enlil, would be appropriate is obvious, since each would be magically approached through his own sphere of control. [1] One of them may have been the speaker on behalf of both. It is significant that at another critical point of the story we have already met with a reference to conjuring "by the Name of Heaven and Earth", the phrase occurring at the close of the Third Column after the reference to the dream or dreams. There, as we saw, we might possibly explain the passage as illustrating one aspect of Ziusudu's piety: he may have been represented as continually practising this class of divination, and in that case it would be natural enough that in the final crisis of the story he should have propitiated the gods he conjured by the same means. Or, as a more probable alternative, it was suggested that we might connect the line with Enki's warning, and assume that Ziusudu interpreted the dream-revelation of Anu and Enlil's purpose by means of the magical incantation which was peculiarly associated with them. On either alternative the phrase fits into the story itself, and there is no need to suppose that the narrative is interrupted, either in the Third or in the Sixth Column, by an address to the hearers of the myth, urging them to make the invocation on their own behalf. On the other hand, it seems improbable that the lines in question formed part of the original myth; they may have been inserted to weld the myth more closely to the magic. Both incantation and epic may have originally existed independently, and, if so, their combination would have been suggested by their contents. For while the former is addressed to Anu and Enlil, in the latter these same gods play the dominant parts: they are the two chief creators, it is they who send the Flood, and it is their anger that must be appeased. If once combined, the further step of making the incantation the actual means by which Ziusudu achieved his own rescue and immortality would be a natural development. It may be added that the words would have been an equally appropriate addition if the incantation had not existed independently, but had been suggested by, and developed from, the myth. In the third and eleventh lines of the column we have further references to the mysterious object, the creation of which appears to have been recorded in the First Column of the text between man's creation and that of animals. The second sign of the group composing its name was not recognized by Dr. Poebel, but it is quite clearly written in two of the passages, and has been correctly identified by Professor Barton.[1] The Sumerian word is, in fact, to be read /nig- gil-ma/,[2] which, when preceded by the determinative for "pot", "jar", or "bowl", is given in a later syllabary as the equivalent of the Semitic word /mashkhalu/. Evidence that the word /mashkhalu/ was actually employed to denote a jar or vessel of some sort is furnished by one of the Tel el-Amarna letters which refers to "one silver /mashkhalu/" and "one (or two) stone /mashkhalu/".[3] In our text the determinative is absent, and it is possible that the word is used in another sense. Professor Barton, in both passages in the Sixth Column, gives it the meaning "curse"; he interprets the lines as referring to the removal of a curse from the earth after the Flood, and he compares Gen. viii. 21, where Yahweh declares he will not again "curse the ground for man's sake". But this translation ignores the occurrence of the word in the First Column, where the creation of the /niggilma/ is apparently recorded; and his rendering "the seed that was cursed" in l. 11 is not supported by the photographic reproduction of the text, which suggests that the first sign in the line is not that for "seed", but is the sign for "name", as correctly read by Dr. Poebel. In that passage the /niggilma/ appears to be given by Ziusudu the name "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind", which we have already compared to the title bestowed on Uta-napishtim's ship, "Preserver of Life". Like the ship, it must have played an important part in man's preservation, which would account not only for the honorific title but for the special record of its creation. [1] See /American Journal of Semitic Languages/, Vol. XXXI, April 1915, p. 226. [2] It is written /nig-gil/ in the First Column. [3] See Winckler, /El-Amarna/, pl. 35 f., No. 28, Obv., Col. II, l. 45, Rev., Col. I, l. 63, and Knudtzon, /El-Am. Taf./, pp. 112, 122; the vessels were presents from Amenophis IV to Burnaburiash. It we may connect the word with the magical colouring of the myth, we might perhaps retain its known meaning, "jar" or "bowl", and regard it as employed in the magical ceremony which must have formed part of the invocation "by the Soul of Heaven, by the Soul of Earth". But the accompanying references to the ground, to its production from the ground, and to its springing up, if the phrases may be so rendered, suggest rather some kind of plant;[1] and this, from its employment in magical rites, may also have given its name to a bowl or vessel which held it. A very similar plant was that found and lost by Gilgamesh, after his sojourn with Ut-napishtim; it too had potent magical power and bore a title descriptive of its peculiar virtue of transforming old age to youth. Should this suggestion prove to be correct, the three passages mentioning the /niggilma/ must be classed with those in which the invocation is referred to, as ensuring the sanction of the myth to further elements in the magic. In accordance with this view, the fifth line in the Sixth Column is probably to be included in the divine speech, where a reference to the object employed in the ritual would not be out of place. But it is to be hoped that light will be thrown on this puzzling word by further study, and perhaps by new fragments of the text; meanwhile it would be hazardous to suggest a more definite rendering. [1] The references to "the ground", or "the earth", also tend to connect it peculiarly with Enlil. Enlil's close association with the earth, which is, of course, independently attested, is explicitly referred to in the Babylonian Version (cf. Gilg. Epic. XI, ll. 39-42). Suggested reflections of this idea have long been traced in the Hebrew Versions; cf. Gen. viii. 21 (J), where Yahweh says he will not again curse the ground, and Gen. ix. 13 (P), where Elohim speaks of his covenant "between me and the earth". With the sixth line of the column it is clear that the original narrative of the myth is resumed.[1] Ziusudu, the king, prostrates himself before Anu and Enlil, who bestow immortality upon him and cause him to dwell in a land, or mountain, the name of which may perhaps be read as Dilmun. The close parallelism between this portion of the text and the end of the myth in the Gilgamesh Epic will be seen from the following extracts,[2] the magical portions being omitted from the Sumerian Version: [1] It will also be noted that with this line the text again falls naturally into couplets. [2] Col. VI, ll. 6-9 and 12 are there compared with Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 198-205. SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION Then Enlil went up into the ship; Ziusudu, the king, He took me by the hand and led me forth. Before Anu and Enlil bows himself He brought out my wife and down. caused her to bow down at my side; He touched our brows, standing between us and blessing us: Life like (that of) a god he "Formerly was Ut-napishtim of gives to him. mankind, An eternal soul like (that of) a But now let Ut-napishtim be like god he creates for him. the gods, even us! And let Ut-napishtim dwell afar off at the mouth of the rivers!" In a . . . land, the land of[1] Then they took me and afar off, Dilmun(?), they caused him to at the mouth of the rivers, dwell. they caused me to dwell. [1] Or, "On a mountain, the mountain of", &c. The Sumerian Version thus apparently concludes with the familiar ending of the legend which we find in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus, though it here occurs in an abbreviated form and with some variations in detail. In all three versions the prostration of the Deluge hero before the god is followed by the bestowal of immortality upon him, a fate which, according to Berossus, he shared with his wife, his daughter, and the steersman. The Gilgamesh Epic perhaps implies that Ut-napishtim's wife shared in his immortality, but the Sumerian Version mentions Ziusudu alone. In the Gilgamesh Epic Ut-napishtim is settled by the gods at the mouth of the rivers, that is to say at the head of the Persian Gulf, while according to a possible rendering of the Sumerian Version he is made to dwell on Dilmun, an island in the Gulf itself. The fact that Gilgamesh in the Epic has to cross the sea to reach Ut-napishtim may be cited in favour of the reading "Dilmun"; and the description of the sea as "the Waters of Death", if it implies more than the great danger of their passage, was probably a later development associated with Ut-napishtim's immortality. It may be added that in neither Hebrew version do we find any parallel to the concluding details of the original story, the Hebrew narratives being brought to an end with the blessing of Noah and the divine promise to, or covenant with, mankind. Such then are the contents of our Sumerian document, and from the details which have been given it will have been seen that its story, so far as concerns the Deluge, is in essentials the same as that we already find in the Gilgamesh Epic. It is true that this earlier version has reached us in a magical setting, and to some extent in an abbreviated form. In the next lecture I shall have occasion to refer to another early mythological text from Nippur, which was thought by its first interpreter to include a second Sumerian Version of the Deluge legend. That suggestion has not been substantiated, though we shall see that the contents of the document are of a very interesting character. But in view of the discussion that has taken place in the United States over the interpretation of the second text, and of the doubts that have subsequently been expressed in some quarters as to the recent discovery of any new form of the Deluge legend, it may be well to formulate briefly the proof that in the inscription published by Dr. Poebel an early Sumerian Version of the Deluge story has actually been recovered. Any one who has followed the detailed analysis of the new text which has been attempted in the preceding paragraphs will, I venture to think, agree that the following conclusions may be drawn: (i) The points of general resemblance presented by the narrative to that in the Gilgamesh Epic are sufficiently close in themselves to show that we are dealing with a Sumerian Version of that story. And this conclusion is further supported (a) by the occurrence throughout the text of the attested Sumerian equivalent of the Semitic word, employed in the Babylonian Versions, for the "Flood" or "Deluge", and (b) by the use of precisely the same term for the hero's "great boat", which is already familiar to us from an early Babylonian Version. (ii) The close correspondence in language between portions of the Sumerian legend and the Gilgamesh Epic suggest that the one version was ultimately derived from the other. And this conclusion in its turn is confirmed (a) by the identity in meaning of the Sumerian and Babylonian names for the Deluge hero, which are actually found equated in a late explanatory text, and (b) by small points of difference in the Babylonian form of the story which correspond to later political and religious developments and suggest the work of Semitic redactors. The cumulative effect of such general and detailed evidence is overwhelming, and we may dismiss all doubts as to the validity of Dr. Poebel's claim. We have indeed recovered a very early, and in some of its features a very primitive, form of the Deluge narrative which till now has reached us only in Semitic and Greek renderings; and the stream of tradition has been tapped at a point far above any at which we have hitherto approached it. What evidence, we may ask, does this early Sumerian Version offer with regard to the origin and literary history of the Hebrew Versions? The general dependence of the biblical Versions upon the Babylonian legend as a whole has long been recognized, and needs no further demonstration; and it has already been observed that the parallelisms with the version in the Gilgamesh Epic are on the whole more detailed and striking in the earlier than in the later Hebrew Version.[1] In the course of our analysis of the Sumerian text its more striking points of agreement or divergence, in relation to the Hebrew Versions, were noted under the different sections of its narrative. It was also obvious that, in many features in which the Hebrew Versions differ from the Gilgamesh Epic, the latter finds Sumerian support. These facts confirm the conclusion, which we should naturally base on grounds of historical probability, that while the Semitic-Babylonian Versions were derived from Sumer, the Hebrew accounts were equally clearly derived from Babylon. But there are one or two pieces of evidence which are apparently at variance with this conclusion, and these call for some explanation. [1] For details see especially Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 177 ff. Not too much significance should be attached to the apparent omission of the episode of the birds from the Sumerian narrative, in which it would agree with the later as against the earlier Hebrew Version; for, apart from its epitomized character, there is so much missing from the text that the absence of this episode cannot be regarded as established with certainty. And in any case it could be balanced by the Sumerian order of Creation of men before animals, which agrees with the earlier Hebrew Version against the later. But there is one very striking point in which our new Sumerian text agrees with both the Hebrew Versions as against the Gilgamesh Epic and Berossus; and that is in the character of Ziusudu, which presents so close a parallel to the piety of Noah. As we have already seen, the latter is due to no Hebrew idealization of the story, but represents a genuine strand of the original tradition, which is completely absent from the Babylonian Versions. But the Babylonian Versions are the media through which it has generally been assumed that the tradition of the Deluge reached the Hebrews. What explanation have we of this fact? This grouping of Sumerian and Hebrew authorities, against the extant sources from Babylon, is emphasized by the general framework of the Sumerian story. For the literary connexion which we have in Genesis between the Creation and the Deluge narratives has hitherto found no parallel in the cuneiform texts. In Babylon and Assyria the myth of Creation and the Deluge legend have been divorced. From the one a complete epic has been evolved in accordance with the tenets of Babylonian theology, the Creation myth being combined in the process with other myths of a somewhat analogous character. The Deluge legend has survived as an isolated story in more than one setting, the principal Semitic Version being recounted to the national hero Gilgamesh, towards the close of the composite epic of his adventures which grew up around the nucleus of his name. It is one of the chief surprises of the newly discovered Sumerian Version that the Hebrew connexion of the narratives is seen to be on the lines of very primitive tradition. Noah's reputation for piety does not stand alone. His line of descent from Adam, and the thread of narrative connecting the creation of the world with its partial destruction by the Deluge, already appear in Sumerian form at a time when the city of Babylon itself had not secured its later power. How then are we to account for this correspondence of Sumerian and Hebrew traditions, on points completely wanting in our intermediate authorities, from which, however, other evidence suggests that the Hebrew narratives were derived? At the risk of anticipating some of the conclusions to be drawn in the next lecture, it may be well to define an answer now. It is possible that those who still accept the traditional authorship of the Pentateuch may be inclined to see in this correspondence of Hebrew and Sumerian ideas a confirmation of their own hypothesis. But it should be pointed out at once that this is not an inevitable deduction from the evidence. Indeed, it is directly contradicted by the rest of the evidence we have summarized, while it would leave completely unexplained some significant features of the problem. It is true that certain important details of the Sumerian tradition, while not affecting Babylon and Assyria, have left their stamp upon the Hebrew narratives; but that is not an exhaustive statement of the case. For we have also seen that a more complete survival of Sumerian tradition has taken place in the history of Berossus. There we traced the same general framework of the narratives, with a far closer correspondence in detail. The kingly rank of Ziusudu is in complete harmony with the Berossian conception of a series of supreme Antediluvian rulers, and the names of two of the Antediluvian cites are among those of their newly recovered Sumerian prototypes. There can thus be no suggestion that the Greek reproductions of the Sumerian tradition were in their turn due to Hebrew influence. On the contrary we have in them a parallel case of survival in a far more complete form. The inference we may obviously draw is that the Sumerian narrative continued in existence, in a literary form that closely resembled the original version, into the later historical periods. In this there would be nothing to surprise us, when we recall the careful preservation and study of ancient Sumerian religious texts by the later Semitic priesthood of the country. Each ancient cult-centre in Babylonia continued to cling to its own local traditions, and the Sumerian desire for their preservation, which was inherited by their Semitic guardians, was in great measure unaffected by political occurrences elsewhere. Hence it was that Ashur-bani-pal, when forming his library at Nineveh, was able to draw upon so rich a store of the more ancient literary texts of Babylonia. The Sumerian Version of the Deluge and of Antediluvian history may well have survived in a less epitomized form than that in which we have recovered it; and, like other ancient texts, it was probably provided with a Semitic translation. Indeed its literary study and reproduction may have continued without interruption in Babylon itself. But even if Sumerian tradition died out in the capital under the influence of the Babylonian priesthood, its re-introduction may well have taken place in Neo-Babylonian times. Perhaps the antiquarian researches of Nabonidus were characteristic of his period; and in any case the collection of his country's gods into the capital must have been accompanied by a renewed interest in the more ancient versions of the past with which their cults were peculiarly associated. In the extant summary from Berossus we may possibly see evidence of a subsequent attempt to combine with these more ancient traditions the continued religious dominance of Marduk and of Babylon. Our conclusion, that the Sumerian form of the tradition did not die out, leaves the question as to the periods during which Babylonian influence may have acted upon Hebrew tradition in great measure unaffected; and we may therefore postpone its further consideration to the next lecture. To-day the only question that remains to be considered concerns the effect of our new evidence upon the wider problem of Deluge stories as a whole. What light does it throw on the general character of Deluge stories and their suggested Egyptian origin? One thing that strikes me forcibly in reading this early text is the complete absence of any trace or indication of astrological /motif/. It is true that Ziusudu sacrifices to the Sun-god; but the episode is inherent in the story, the appearance of the Sun after the storm following the natural sequence of events and furnishing assurance to the king of his eventual survival. To identify the worshipper with his god and to transfer Ziusudu's material craft to the heavens is surely without justification from the simple narrative. We have here no prototype of Ra sailing the heavenly ocean. And the destructive flood itself is not only of an equally material and mundane character, but is in complete harmony with its Babylonian setting. In the matter of floods the Tigris and Euphrates present a striking contrast to the Nile. It is true that the life-blood of each country is its river-water, but the conditions of its use are very different, and in Mesopotamia it becomes a curse when out of control. In both countries the river-water must be used for maturing the crops. But while the rains of Abyssinia cause the Nile to rise between August and October, thus securing both summer and winter crops, the melting snows of Armenia and the Taurus flood the Mesopotamian rivers between March and May. In Egypt the Nile flood is gentle; it is never abrupt, and the river gives ample warning of its rise and fall. It contains just enough sediment to enrich the land without choking the canals; and the water, after filling its historic basins, may when necessary be discharged into the falling river in November. Thus Egypt receives a full and regular supply of water, and there is no difficulty in disposing of any surplus. The growth in such a country of a legend of world-wide destruction by flood is inconceivable. In Mesopotamia, on the other hand, the floods, which come too late for the winter crops, are followed by the rainless summer months; and not only must the flood-water be controlled, but some portion of it must be detained artificially, if it is to be of use during the burning months of July, August, and September, when the rivers are at their lowest. Moreover, heavy rain in April and a warm south wind melting the snow in the hills may bring down such floods that the channels cannot contain them; the dams are then breached and the country is laid waste. Here there is first too much water and then too little. The great danger from flood in Babylonia, both in its range of action and in its destructive effect, is due to the strangely flat character of the Tigris and Euphrates delta.[1] Hence after a severe breach in the Tigris or Euphrates, the river after inundating the country may make itself a new channel miles away from the old one. To mitigate the danger, the floods may be dealt with in two ways--by a multiplication of canals to spread the water, and by providing escapes for it into depressions in the surrounding desert, which in their turn become centres of fertility. Both methods were employed in antiquity; and it may be added that in any scheme for the future prosperity of the country they must be employed again, of course with the increased efficiency of modern apparatus.[2] But while the Babylonians succeeded in controlling the Euphrates, the Tigris was never really tamed,[3] and whenever it burst its right bank the southern plains were devastated. We could not have more suitable soil for the growth of a Deluge story. [1] Baghdad, though 300 miles by crow-fly from the sea and 500 by river, is only 120 ft. above sea-level. [2] The Babylonians controlled the Euphrates, and at the same time provided against its time of "low supply", by escapes into two depressions in the western desert to the NW. of Babylon, known to-day as the Habbânîyah and Abu Dîs depressions, which lie S. of the modern town of Ramâdi and N. of Kerbela. That these depressions were actually used as reservoirs in antiquity is proved by the presence along their edges of thick beds of Euphrates shells. In addition to canals and escapes, the Babylonian system included well-constructed dikes protected by brushwood. By cutting an eight-mile channel through a low hill between the Habbânîyah and Abu Dîs depressions and by building a short dam 50 ft. high across the latter's narrow outlet, Sir William Willcocks estimates that a reservoir could be obtained holding eighteen milliards of tons of water. See his work /The Irrigations of Mesopotamia/ (E. and F. N. Spon, 1911), /Geographical Journal/, Vol. XL, No. 2 (Aug., 1912), pp. 129 ff., and the articles in /The Near East/ cited on p. 97, n. 1, and p. 98, n. 2. Sir William Willcocks's volume and subsequent papers form the best introduction to the study of Babylonian Deluge tradition on its material side. [3] Their works carried out on the Tigris were effective for irrigation; but the Babylonians never succeeded in controlling its floods as they did those of the Euphrates. A massive earthen dam, the remains of which are still known as "Nimrod's Dam", was thrown across the Tigris above the point where it entered its delta; this served to turn the river over hard conglomerate rock and kept it at a high level so that it could irrigate the country on both banks. Above the dam were the heads of the later Nahrwân Canal, a great stream 400 ft. wide and 17 ft. deep, which supplied the country east of the river. The Nâr Sharri or "King's Canal", the Nahar Malkha of the Greeks and the Nahr el-Malik of the Arabs, protected the right bank of the Tigris by its own high artificial banks, which can still be traced for hundreds of miles; but it took its supply from the Euphrates at Sippar, where the ground is some 25 ft. higher than on the Tigris. The Tigris usually flooded its left bank; it was the right bank which was protected, and a breach here meant disaster. Cf. Willcocks, op. cit., and /The Near East/, Sept. 29, 1916 (Vol. XI, No. 282), p. 522. It was only by constant and unremitting attention that disaster from flood could be averted; and the difficulties of the problem were and are increased by the fact that the flood-water of the Mesopotamian rivers contains five times as much sediment as the Nile. In fact, one of the most pressing of the problems the Sumerian and early Babylonian engineers had to solve was the keeping of the canals free from silt.[1] What the floods, if left unchecked, may do in Mesopotamia, is well illustrated by the decay of the ancient canal-system, which has been the immediate cause of the country's present state of sordid desolation. That the decay was gradual was not the fault of the rivers, but was due to the sound principles on which the old system of control had been evolved through many centuries of labour. At the time of the Moslem conquest the system had already begun to fail. In the fifth century there had been bad floods; but worse came in A.D. 629, when both rivers burst their banks and played havoc with the dikes and embankments. It is related that the Sassanian king Parwiz, the contemporary of Mohammed, crucified in one day forty canal-workers at a certain breach, and yet was unable to master the flood.[2] All repairs were suspended during the anarchy of the Moslem invasion. As a consequence the Tigris left its old bed for the Shatt el-Hai at Kût, and pouring its own and its tributaries' waters into the Euphrates formed the Great Euphrates Swamp, two hundred miles long and fifty broad. But even then what was left of the old system was sufficient to support the splendour of the Eastern Caliphate. [1] Cf. /Letters of Hammurabi/, Vol. III, pp. xxxvi ff.; it was the duty of every village or town upon the banks of the main canals in Babylonia to keep its own section clear of silt, and of course it was also responsible for its own smaller irrigation-channels. While the invention of the system of basin-irrigation was practically forced on Egypt, the extraordinary fertility of Babylonia was won in the teeth of nature by the system of perennial irrigation, or irrigation all the year round. In Babylonia the water was led into small fields of two or three acres, while the Nile valley was irrigated in great basins each containing some thirty to forty thousand acres. The Babylonian method gives far more profitable results, and Sir William Willcocks points out that Egypt to-day is gradually abandoning its own system and adopting that of its ancient rival; see /The Near East/, Sept. 29, 1916, p. 521. [2] See Le Strange, /The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate/, p. 27. The second great blow to the system followed the Mongol conquest, when the Nahrwân Canal, to the east of the Tigris, had its head swept away by flood and the area it had irrigated became desert. Then, in about the fifteenth century, the Tigris returned to its old course; the Shatt el-Hai shrank, and much of the Great Swamp dried up into the desert it is to-day.[1] Things became worse during the centuries of Turkish misrule. But the silting up of the Hillah, or main, branch of the Euphrates about 1865, and the transference of a great part of its stream into the Hindîyah Canal, caused even the Turks to take action. They constructed the old Hindîyah Barrage in 1890, but it gave way in 1903 and the state of things was even worse than before; for the Hillah branch then dried entirely.[2] [1] This illustrates the damage the Tigris itself is capable of inflicting on the country. It may be added that Sir William Willcocks proposes to control the Tigris floods by an escape into the Tharthâr depression, a great salt pan at the tail of Wadi Tharthâr, which lies 14 ft. below sea level and is 200 ft. lower than the flood-level of the Tigris some thirty-two miles away. The escape would leave the Tigris to the S. of Sâmarra, the proposed Beled Barrage being built below it and up-stream of "Nimrod's Dam". The Tharthâr escape would drain into the Euphrates, and the latter's Habbânîyah escape would receive any surplus water from the Tigris, a second barrage being thrown across the Euphrates up- stream of Fallûjah, where there is an outcrop of limestone near the head of the Sakhlawîyah Canal. The Tharthâr depression, besides disposing of the Tigris flood-water, would thus probably feed the Euphrates; and a second barrage on the Tigris, to be built at Kût, would supply water to the Shatt el-Hai. When the country is freed from danger of flood, the Baghdad Railway could be run through the cultivated land instead of through the eastern desert; see Willcocks, /The Near East/, Oct. 6, 1916 (Vol. XI, No. 283), p. 545 f. [2] It was then that Sir William Willcocks designed the new Hindîyah Barrage, which was completed in 1913. The Hindîyah branch, to-day the main stream of the Euphrates, is the old low-lying Pallacopas Canal, which branched westward above Babylon and discharged its waters into the western marshes. In antiquity the head of this branch had to be opened in high floods and then closed again immediately after the flood to keep the main stream full past Babylon, which entailed the employment of an enormous number of men. Alexander the Great's first work in Babylonia was cutting a new head for the Pallacopas in solid ground, for hitherto it had been in sandy soil; and it was while reclaiming the marshes farther down-stream that he contracted the fever that killed him. From this brief sketch of progressive disaster during the later historical period, the inevitable effect of neglected silt and flood, it will be gathered that the two great rivers of Mesopotamia present a very strong contrast to the Nile. For during the same period of misgovernment and neglect in Egypt the Nile did not turn its valley and delta into a desert. On the Tigris and Euphrates, during ages when the earliest dwellers on their banks were struggling to make effective their first efforts at control, the waters must often have regained the upper hand. Under such conditions the story of a great flood in the past would not be likely to die out in the future; the tradition would tend to gather illustrative detail suggested by later experience. Our new text reveals the Deluge tradition in Mesopotamia at an early stage of its development, and incidentally shows us that there is no need to postulate for its origin any convulsion of nature or even a series of seismic shocks accompanied by cyclone in the Persian Gulf. If this had been the only version of the story that had come down to us, we should hardly have regarded it as a record of world-wide catastrophe. It is true the gods' intention is to destroy mankind, but the scene throughout is laid in Southern Babylonia. After seven days' storm, the Sun comes out, and the vessel with the pious priest-king and his domestic animals on board grounds, apparently still in Babylonia, and not on any distant mountain, such as Mt. Nisir or the great mass of Ararat in Armenia. These are obviously details which tellers of the story have added as it passed down to later generations. When it was carried still farther afield, into the area of the Eastern Mediterranean, it was again adapted to local conditions. Thus Apollodorus makes Deucalion land upon Parnassus,[1] and the pseudo-Lucian relates how he founded the temple of Derketo at Hierapolis in Syria beside the hole in the earth which swallowed up the Flood.[2] To the Sumerians who first told the story, the great Flood appeared to have destroyed mankind, for Southern Babylonia was for them the world. Later peoples who heard it have fitted the story to their own geographical horizon, and in all good faith and by a purely logical process the mountain-tops are represented as submerged, and the ship, or ark, or chest, is made to come to ground on the highest peak known to the story-teller and his hearers. But in its early Sumerian form it is just a simple tradition of some great inundation, which overwhelmed the plain of Southern Babylonia and was peculiarly disastrous in its effects. And so its memory survived in the picture of Ziusudu's solitary coracle upon the face of the waters, which, seen through the mists of the Deluge tradition, has given us the Noah's ark of our nursery days. [1] Hesiod is our earliest authority for the Deucalion Flood story. For its probable Babylonian origin, cf. Farnell, /Greece and Babylon/ (1911), p. 184. [2] /De Syria dea/, 12 f. Thus the Babylonian, Hebrew, and Greek Deluge stories resolve themselves, not into a nature myth, but into an early legend, which has the basis of historical fact in the Euphrates Valley. And it is probable that we may explain after a similar fashion the occurrence of tales of a like character at least in some other parts of the world. Among races dwelling in low-lying or well-watered districts it would be surprising if we did not find independent stories of past floods from which few inhabitants of the land escaped. It is only in hilly countries such as Palestine, where for the great part of the year water is scarce and precious, that we are forced to deduce borrowing; and there is no doubt that both the Babylonian and the biblical stories have been responsible for some at any rate of the scattered tales. But there is no need to adopt the theory of a single source for all of them, whether in Babylonia or, still less, in Egypt.[1] [1] This argument is taken from an article I published in Professor Headlam's /Church Quarterly Review/, Jan., 1916, pp. 280 ff., containing an account of Dr. Poebel's discovery. I should like to add, with regard to this reading of our new evidence, that I am very glad to know Sir James Frazer holds a very similar opinion. For, as you are doubtless all aware, Sir James is at present collecting Flood stories from all over the world, and is supplementing from a wider range the collections already made by Lenormant, Andree, Winternitz, and Gerland. When his work is complete it will be possible to conjecture with far greater confidence how particular traditions or groups of tradition arose, and to what extent transmission has taken place. Meanwhile, in his recent Huxley Memorial Lecture,[1] he has suggested a third possibility as to the way Deluge stories may have arisen. [1] Sir J. G. Frazer, /Ancient Stories of a Great Flood/ (the Huxley Memorial Lecture, 1916), Roy. Anthrop. Inst., 1916. Stated briefly, it is that a Deluge story may arise as a popular explanation of some striking natural feature in a country, although to the scientific eye the feature in question is due to causes other than catastrophic flood. And he worked out the suggestion in the case of the Greek traditions of a great deluge, associated with the names of Deucalion and Dardanus. Deucalion's deluge, in its later forms at any rate, is obviously coloured by Semitic tradition; but both Greek stories, in their origin, Sir James Frazer would trace to local conditions--the one suggested by the Gorge of Tempe in Thessaly, the other explaining the existence of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles. As he pointed out, they would be instances, not of genuine historical traditions, but of what Sir James Tyler calls "observation myths". A third story of a great flood, regarded in Greek tradition as the earliest of the three, he would explain by an extraordinary inundation of the Copaic Lake in Boeotia, which to this day is liable to great fluctuations of level. His new theory applies only to the other two traditions. For in them no historical kernel is presupposed, though gradual erosion by water is not excluded as a cause of the surface features which may have suggested the myths. This valuable theory thus opens up a third possibility for our analysis. It may also, of course, be used in combination, if in any particular instance we have reason to believe that transmission, in some vague form, may already have taken place. And it would with all deference suggest the possibility that, in view of other evidence, this may have occurred in the case of the Greek traditions. With regard to the theory itself we may confidently expect that further examples will be found in its illustration and support. Meanwhile in the new Sumerian Version I think we may conclude that we have recovered beyond any doubt the origin of the Babylonian and Hebrew traditions and of the large group of stories to which they in their turn have given rise. LECTURE III CREATION AND THE DRAGON MYTH; AND THE PROBLEM OF BABYLONIAN PARALLELS IN HEBREW TRADITION In our discussion of the new Sumerian version of the Deluge story we came to the conclusion that it gave no support to any theory which would trace all such tales to a single origin, whether in Egypt or in Babylonia. In spite of strong astrological elements in both the Egyptian and Babylonian religious systems, we saw grounds for regarding the astrological tinge of much ancient mythology as a later embellishment and not as primitive material. And so far as our new version of the Deluge story was concerned, it resolved itself into a legend, which had a basis of historical fact in the Euphrates Valley. It will be obvious that the same class of explanation cannot be applied to narratives of the Creation of the World. For there we are dealing, not with legends, but with myths, that is, stories exclusively about the gods. But where an examination of their earlier forms is possible, it would seem to show that many of these tales also, in their origin, are not to be interpreted as nature myths, and that none arose as mere reflections of the solar system. In their more primitive and simpler aspects they seem in many cases to have been suggested by very human and terrestrial experience. To-day we will examine the Egyptian, Sumerian, and Babylonian myths of Creation, and, after we have noted the more striking features of our new material, we will consider the problem of foreign influences upon Hebrew traditions concerning the origin and early history of the world. In Egypt, as until recently in Babylonia, we have to depend for our knowledge of Creation myths on documents of a comparatively late period. Moreover, Egyptian religious literature as a whole is textually corrupt, and in consequence it is often difficult to determine the original significance of its allusions. Thanks to the funerary inscriptions and that great body of magical formulae and ritual known as "The Chapters of Coming forth by Day", we are very fully informed on the Egyptian doctrines as to the future state of the dead. The Egyptian's intense interest in his own remote future, amounting almost to an obsession, may perhaps in part account for the comparatively meagre space in the extant literature which is occupied by myths relating solely to the past. And it is significant that the one cycle of myth, of which we are fully informed in its latest stage of development, should be that which gave its sanction to the hope of a future existence for man. The fact that Herodotus, though he claims a knowledge of the sufferings or "Mysteries" of Osiris, should deliberately refrain from describing them or from even uttering the name,[1] suggests that in his time at any rate some sections of the mythology had begun to acquire an esoteric character. There is no doubt that at all periods myth played an important part in the ritual of feast-days. But mythological references in the earlier texts are often obscure; and the late form in which a few of the stories have come to us is obviously artificial. The tradition, for example, which relates how mankind came from the tears which issued from Ra's eye undoubtedly arose from a play upon words. [1] Herodotus, II, 171. On the other hand, traces of myth, scattered in the religious literature of Egypt, may perhaps in some measure betray their relative age by the conceptions of the universe which underlie them. The Egyptian idea that the sky was a heavenly ocean, which is not unlike conceptions current among the Semitic Babylonians and Hebrews, presupposes some thought and reflection. In Egypt it may well have been evolved from the probably earlier but analogous idea of the river in heaven, which the Sun traversed daily in his boats. Such a river was clearly suggested by the Nile; and its world-embracing character is reminiscent of a time when through communication was regularly established, at least as far south as Elephantine. Possibly in an earlier period the long narrow valley, or even a section of it, may have suggested the figure of a man lying prone upon his back. Such was Keb, the Earth-god, whose counterpart in the sky was the goddess Nut, her feet and hands resting at the limits of the world and her curved body forming the vault of heaven. Perhaps still more primitive, and dating from a pastoral age, may be the notion that the sky was a great cow, her body, speckled with stars, alone visible from the earth beneath. Reference has already been made to the dominant influence of the Sun in Egyptian religion, and it is not surprising that he should so often appear as the first of created beings. His orb itself, or later the god in youthful human form, might be pictured as emerging from a lotus on the primaeval waters, or from a marsh-bird's egg, a conception which influenced the later Phoenician cosmogeny. The Scarabaeus, or great dung-feeding beetle of Egypt, rolling the ball before it in which it lays its eggs, is an obvious theme for the early myth-maker. And it was natural that the Beetle of Khepera should have been identified with the Sun at his rising, as the Hawk of Ra represented his noonday flight, and the aged form of Attun his setting in the west. But in all these varied conceptions and explanations of the universe it is difficult to determine how far the poetical imagery of later periods has transformed the original myths which may lie behind them. As the Egyptian Creator the claims of Ra, the Sun-god of Heliopolis, early superseded those of other deities. On the other hand, Ptah of Memphis, who for long ages had been merely the god of architects and craftsmen, became under the Empire the architect of the universe and is pictured as a potter moulding the world-egg. A short poem by a priest of Ptah, which has come down to us from that period, exhibits an attempt to develop this idea on philosophical lines.[1] Its author represents all gods and living creatures as proceeding directly from the mind and thought of Ptah. But this movement, which was more notably reflected in Akhenaton's religious revolution, died out in political disaster, and the original materialistic interpretation of the myths was restored with the cult of Amen. How materialistic this could be is well illustrated by two earlier members of the XVIIIth Dynasty, who have left us vivid representations of the potter's wheel employed in the process of man's creation. When the famous Hatshepsut, after the return of her expedition to Punt in the ninth year of her young consort Thothmes III, decided to build her temple at Deir el-Bahari in the necropolis of Western Thebes, she sought to emphasize her claim to the throne of Egypt by recording her own divine origin upon its walls. We have already noted the Egyptians' belief in the solar parentage of their legitimate rulers, a myth that goes back at least to the Old Kingdom and may have had its origin in prehistoric times. With the rise of Thebes, Amen inherited the prerogatives of Ra; and so Hatshepsut seeks to show, on the north side of the retaining wall of her temple's Upper Platform, that she was the daughter of Amen himself, "the great God, Lord of the sky, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, who resides at Thebes". The myth was no invention of her own, for obviously it must have followed traditional lines, and though it is only employed to exhibit the divine creation of a single personage, it as obviously reflects the procedure and methods of a general Creation myth. [1] See Breasted, /Zeitschrift fur Aegyptische Sprache/, XXXIX, pp. 39 ff., and /History of Egypt/, pp. 356 ff. This series of sculptures shared the deliberate mutilation that all her records suffered at the hands of Thothmes III after her death, but enough of the scenes and their accompanying text has survived to render the detailed interpretation of the myth quite certain.[1] Here, as in a general Creation myth, Amen's first act is to summon the great gods in council, in order to announce to them the future birth of the great princess. Of the twelve gods who attend, the first is Menthu, a form of the Sun-god and closely associated with Amen.[2] But the second deity is Atum, the great god of Heliopolis, and he is followed by his cycle of deities--Shu, "the son of Ra"; Tefnut, "the Lady of the sky"; Keb, "the Father of the Gods"; Nut, "the Mother of the Gods"; Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Set, Horus, and Hathor. We are here in the presence of cosmic deities, as befits a projected act of creation. The subsequent scenes exhibit the Egyptian's literal interpretation of the myth, which necessitates the god's bodily presence and personal participation. Thoth mentions to Amen the name of queen Aahmes as the future mother of Hatshepsut, and we later see Amen himself, in the form of her husband, Aa-kheperka-Ra (Thothmes I), sitting with Aahmes and giving her the Ankh, or sign of Life, which she receives in her hand and inhales through her nostrils.[3] God and queen are seated on thrones above a couch, and are supported by two goddesses. After leaving the queen, Amen calls on Khnum or Khnemu, the flat-horned ram- god, who in texts of all periods is referred to as the "builder" of gods and men;[4] and he instructs him to create the body of his future daughter and that of her /Ka/, or "double", which would be united to her from birth. [1] See Naville, /Deir el-Bahari/, Pt. II, pp. 12 ff., plates xlvi ff. [2] See Budge, /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. II, pp. 23 ff. His chief cult-centre was Hermonthis, but here as elsewhere he is given his usual title "Lord of Thebes". [3] Pl. xlvii. Similar scenes are presented in the "birth-temples" at Denderah, Edfu, Philae, Esneh, and Luxor; see Naville, op. cit., p. 14. [4] Cf. Budge, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 50. The scene in the series, which is of greatest interest in the present connexion, is that representing Khnum at his work of creation. He is seated before a potter's wheel which he works with his foot,[1] and on the revolving table he is fashioning two children with his hands, the baby princess and her "double". It was always Hatshepsut's desire to be represented as a man, and so both the children are boys.[2] As yet they are lifeless, but the symbol of Life will be held to their nostrils by Heqet, the divine Potter's wife, whose frog-head typifies birth and fertility. When Amenophis III copied Hatshepsut's sculptures for his own series at Luxor, he assigned this duty to the greater goddess Hathor, perhaps the most powerful of the cosmic goddesses and the mother of the world. The subsequent scenes at Deir el-Bahari include the leading of queen Aahmes by Khnum and Heqet to the birth- chamber; the great birth scene where the queen is attended by the goddesses Nephthys and Isis, a number of divine nurses and midwives holding several of the "doubles" of the baby, and favourable genii, in human form or with the heads of crocodiles, jackals, and hawks, representing the four cardinal points and all bearing the gift of life; the presentation of the young child by the goddess Hathor to Amen, who is well pleased at the sight of his daughter; and the divine suckling of Hatshepsut and her "doubles". But these episodes do not concern us, as of course they merely reflect the procedure following a royal birth. But Khnum's part in the princess's origin stands on a different plane, for it illustrates the Egyptian myth of Creation by the divine Potter, who may take the form of either Khnum or Ptah. Monsieur Naville points out the extraordinary resemblance in detail which Hatshepsut's myth of divine paternity bears to the Greek legend of Zeus and Alkmene, where the god takes the form of Amphitryon, Alkmene's husband, exactly as Amen appears to the queen;[3] and it may be added that the Egyptian origin of the Greek story was traditionally recognized in the ancestry ascribed to the human couple.[4] [1] This detail is not clearly preserved at Deir el-Bahari; but it is quite clear in the scene on the west wall of the "Birth-room" in the Temple at Luxor, which Amenophis III evidently copied from that of Hatshepsut. [2] In the similar scene at Luxor, where the future Amenophis III is represented on the Creator's wheel, the sculptor has distinguished the human child from its spiritual "double" by the quaint device of putting its finger in its mouth. [3] See Naville, op. cit., p. 12. [4] Cf., e.g., Herodotus, II, 43. The only complete Egyptian Creation myth yet recovered is preserved in a late papyrus in the British Museum, which was published some years ago by Dr. Budge.[1] It occurs under two separate versions embedded in "The Book of the Overthrowing of Apep, the Enemy of Ra". Here Ra, who utters the myth under his late title of Neb-er-tcher, "Lord to the utmost limit", is self-created as Khepera from Nu, the primaeval water; and then follow successive generations of divine pairs, male and female, such as we find at the beginning of the Semitic-Babylonian Creation Series.[2] Though the papyrus was written as late as the year 311 B.C., the myth is undoubtedly early. For the first two divine pairs Shu and Tefnut, Keb and Nut, and four of the latter pairs' five children, Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys, form with the Sun-god himself the Greater Ennead of Heliopolis, which exerted so wide an influence on Egyptian religious speculation. The Ennead combined the older solar elements with the cult of Osiris, and this is indicated in the myth by a break in the successive generations, Nut bringing forth at a single birth the five chief gods of the Osiris cycle, Osiris himself and his son Horus, with Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Thus we may see in the myth an early example of that religious syncretism which is so characteristic of later Egyptian belief. [1] See /Archaeologia/, Vol. LII (1891). Dr. Budge published a new edition of the whole papyrus in /Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum/ (1910), and the two versions of the Creation myth are given together in his /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I (1904), Chap. VIII, pp. 308 ff., and more recently in his /Egyptian Literature/, Vol. I, "Legends of the Gods" (1912), pp. 2 ff. An account of the papyrus is included in the Introduction to "Legends of the Gods", pp. xiii ff. [2] In /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I, Chap. VII, pp. 288 ff., Dr. Budge gives a detailed comparison of the Egyptian pairs of primaeval deities with the very similar couples of the Babylonian myth. The only parallel this Egyptian myth of Creation presents to the Hebrew cosmogony is in its picture of the primaeval water, corresponding to the watery chaos of Genesis i. But the resemblance is of a very general character, and includes no etymological equivalence such as we find when we compare the Hebrew account with the principal Semitic-Babylonian Creation narrative.[1] The application of the Ankh, the Egyptian sign for Life, to the nostrils of a newly-created being is no true parallel to the breathing into man's nostrils of the breath of life in the earlier Hebrew Version,[2] except in the sense that each process was suggested by our common human anatomy. We should naturally expect to find some Hebrew parallel to the Egyptian idea of Creation as the work of a potter with his clay, for that figure appears in most ancient mythologies. The Hebrews indeed used the conception as a metaphor or parable,[3] and it also underlies their earlier picture of man's creation. I have not touched on the grosser Egyptian conceptions concerning the origin of the universe, which we may probably connect with African ideas; but those I have referred to will serve to demonstrate the complete absence of any feature that presents a detailed resemblance of the Hebrew tradition. [1] For the wide diffusion, in the myths of remote peoples, of a vague theory that would trace all created things to a watery origin, see Farnell, /Greece and Babylon/, p. 180. [2] Gen. ii. 7 (J). [3] Cf., e.g., Isaiah xxix. 16, xlv. 9; and Jeremiah xviii. 2f. When we turn to Babylonia, we find there also evidence of conflicting ideas, the product of different and to some extent competing religious centres. But in contrast to the rather confused condition of Egyptian mythology, the Semitic Creation myth of the city of Babylon, thanks to the latter's continued political ascendancy, succeeded in winning a dominant place in the national literature. This is the version in which so many points of resemblance to the first chapter of Genesis have long been recognized, especially in the succession of creative acts and their relative order. In the Semitic-Babylonian Version the creation of the world is represented as the result of conflict, the emergence of order out of chaos, a result that is only attained by the personal triumph of the Creator. But this underlying dualism does not appear in the more primitive Sumerian Version we have now recovered. It will be remembered that in the second lecture I gave some account of the myth, which occurs in an epitomized form as an introduction to the Sumerian Version of the Deluge, the two narratives being recorded in the same document and connected with one another by a description of the Antediluvian cities. We there saw that Creation is ascribed to the three greatest gods of the Sumerian pantheon, Anu, Enlil, and Enki, assisted by the goddess Ninkharsagga. It is significant that in the Sumerian version no less than four deities are represented as taking part in the Creation. For in this we may see some indication of the period to which its composition must be assigned. Their association in the text suggests that the claims of local gods had already begun to compete with one another as a result of political combination between the cities of their cults. To the same general period we must also assign the compilation of the Sumerian Dynastic record, for that presupposes the existence of a supreme ruler among the Sumerian city-states. This form of political constitution must undoubtedly have been the result of a long process of development, and the fact that its existence should be regarded as dating from the Creation of the world indicates a comparatively developed stage of the tradition. But behind the combination of cities and their gods we may conjecturally trace anterior stages of development, when each local deity and his human representative seemed to their own adherents the sole objects for worship and allegiance. And even after the demands of other centres had been conceded, no deity ever quite gave up his local claims. Enlil, the second of the four Sumerian creating deities, eventually ousted his rivals. It has indeed long been recognized that the /rôle/ played by Marduk in the Babylonian Version of Creation had been borrowed from Enlil of Nippur; and in the Atrakhasis legend Enlil himself appears as the ultimate ruler of the world and the other gods figure as "his sons". Anu, who heads the list and plays with Enlil the leading part in the Sumerian narrative, was clearly his chief rival. And though we possess no detailed account of Anu's creative work, the persistent ascription to him of the creation of heaven, and his familiar title, "the Father of the Gods", suggest that he once possessed a corresponding body of myth in Eanna, his temple at Erech. Enki, the third of the creating gods, was naturally credited, as God of Wisdom, with special creative activities, and fortunately in his case we have some independent evidence of the varied forms these could assume. According to one tradition that has come down to us,[1] after Anu had made the heavens, Enki created Apsû or the Deep, his own dwelling- place. Then taking from it a piece of clay[2] he proceeded to create the Brick-god, and reeds and forests for the supply of building material. From the same clay he continued to form other deities and materials, including the Carpenter-god; the Smith-god; Arazu, a patron deity of building; and mountains and seas for all that they produced; the Goldsmith-god, the Stone-cutter-god, and kindred deities, together with their rich products for offerings; the Grain-deities, Ashnan and Lakhar; Siris, a Wine-god; Ningishzida and Ninsar, a Garden-god, for the sake of the rich offerings they could make; and a deity described as "the High priest of the great gods," to lay down necessary ordinances and commands. Then he created "the King", for the equipment probably of a particular temple, and finally men, that they might practise the cult in the temple so elaborately prepared. [1] See Weissbach, /Babylonische Miscellen/, pp. 32 ff. [2] One of the titles of Enki was "the Potter"; cf. /Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus., Pt. XXIV, pl. 14 f., ll. 41, 43. It will be seen from this summary of Enki's creative activities, that the text from which it is taken is not a general Creation myth, but in all probability the introductory paragraph of a composition which celebrated the building or restoration of a particular temple; and the latter's foundation is represented, on henotheistic lines, as the main object of creation. Composed with that special purpose, its narrative is not to be regarded as an exhaustive account of the creation of the world. The incidents are eclective, and only such gods and materials are mentioned as would have been required for the building and adornment of the temple and for the provision of its offerings and cult. But even so its mythological background is instructive. For while Anu's creation of heaven is postulated as the necessary precedent of Enki's activities, the latter creates the Deep, vegetation, mountains, seas, and mankind. Moreover, in his character as God of Wisdom, he is not only the teacher but the creator of those deities who were patrons of man's own constructive work. From such evidence we may infer that in his temple at Eridu, now covered by the mounds of Abu Shahrain in the extreme south of Babylonia, and regarded in early Sumerian tradition as the first city in the world, Enki himself was once celebrated as the sole creator of the universe. The combination of the three gods Anu, Enlil, and Enki, is persistent in the tradition; for not only were they the great gods of the universe, representing respectively heaven, earth, and the watery abyss, but they later shared the heavenly sphere between them. It is in their astrological character that we find them again in creative activity, though without the co-operation of any goddess, when they appear as creators of the great light-gods and as founders of time divisions, the day and the month. This Sumerian myth, though it reaches us only in an extract or summary in a Neo-Babylonian schoolboy's exercise,[1] may well date from a comparatively early period, but probably from a time when the "Ways" of Anu, Enlil, and Enki had already been fixed in heaven and their later astrological characters had crystallized. [1] See /The Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. 124 ff. The tablet gives extracts from two very similar Sumerian and Semitic texts. In both of them Anu, Enlil, and Enki appear as creators "through their sure counsel". In the Sumerian extract they create the Moon and ordain its monthly course, while in the Semitic text, after establishing heaven and earth, they create in addition to the New Moon the bright Day, so that "men beheld the Sun-god in the Gate of his going forth". The idea that a goddess should take part with a god in man's creation is already a familiar feature of Babylonian mythology. Thus the goddess Aruru, in co-operation with Marduk, might be credited with the creation of the human race,[1] as she might also be pictured creating on her own initiative an individual hero such as Enkidu of the Gilgamesh Epic. The /rôle/ of mother of mankind was also shared, as we have seen, by the Semitic Ishtar. And though the old Sumerian goddess, Ninkharsagga, the "Lady of the Mountains", appears in our Sumerian text for the first time in the character of creatress, some of the titles we know she enjoyed, under her synonyms in the great God List of Babylonia, already reflected her cosmic activities.[2] For she was known as "The Builder of that which has Breath", "The Carpenter of Mankind", "The Carpenter of the Heart", "The Coppersmith of the Gods", "The Coppersmith of the Land", and "The Lady Potter". [1] Op. cit., p. 134 f. [2] Cf. /Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus./, Pt. XXIV, pl. 12, ll. 32, 26, 27, 25, 24, 23, and Poebel, /Hist. Texts/, p. 34. In the myth we are not told her method of creation, but from the above titles it is clear that in her own cycle of tradition Ninkhasagga was conceived as fashioning men not only from clay but also from wood, and perhaps as employing metal for the manufacture of her other works of creation. Moreover, in the great God List, where she is referred to under her title Makh, Ninkhasagga is associated with Anu, Enlil, and Enki; she there appears, with her dependent deities, after Enlil and before Enki. We thus have definite proof that her association with the three chief Sumerian gods was widely recognized in the early Sumerian period and dictated her position in the classified pantheon of Babylonia. Apart from this evidence, the important rank assigned her in the historical and legal records and in votive inscriptions,[1] especially in the early period and in Southern Babylonia, accords fully with the part she here plays in the Sumerian Creation myth. Eannatum and Gudea of Lagash both place her immediately after Anu and Enlil, giving her precedence over Enki; and even in the Kassite Kudurru inscriptions of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries, where she is referred to, she takes rank after Enki and before the other gods. In Sumer she was known as "the Mother of the Gods", and she was credited with the power of transferring the kingdom and royal insignia from one king to his successor. [1] See especially, Poebel, op. cit., pp. 24 ff. Her supreme position as a goddess is attested by the relative insignificance of her husband Dunpae, whom she completely overshadows, in which respect she presents a contrast to the goddess Ninlil, Enlil's female counterpart. The early clay figurines found at Nippur and on other sites, representing a goddess suckling a child and clasping one of her breasts, may well be regarded as representing Ninkharsagga and not Ninlil. Her sanctuaries were at Kesh and Adab, both in the south, and this fact sufficiently explains her comparative want of influence in Akkad, where the Semitic Ishtar took her place. She does indeed appear in the north during the Sargonic period under her own name, though later she survives in her synonyms of Ninmakh, "the Sublime Lady", and Nintu, "the Lady of Child-bearing". It is under the latter title that Hammurabi refers to her in his Code of Laws, where she is tenth in a series of eleven deities. But as Goddess of Birth she retained only a pale reflection of her original cosmic character, and her functions were gradually specialized.[1] [1] Cf. Poebel, op. cit., p. 33. It is possible that, under one of her later synonyms, we should identify her, as Dr. Poebel suggests, with the Mylitta of Herodotus. From a consideration of their characters, as revealed by independent sources of evidence, we thus obtain the reason for the co-operation of four deities in the Sumerian Creation. In fact the new text illustrates a well-known principle in the development of myth, the reconciliation of the rival claims of deities, whose cults, once isolated, had been brought from political causes into contact with each other. In this aspect myth is the medium through which a working pantheon is evolved. Naturally all the deities concerned cannot continue to play their original parts in detail. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, where a single deity, and not a very prominent one, was to be raised to pre-eminent rank, the problem was simple enough. He could retain his own qualities and achievements while borrowing those of any former rival. In the Sumerian text we have the result of a far more delicate process of adjustment, and it is possible that the brevity of the text is here not entirely due to compression of a longer narrative, but may in part be regarded as evidence of early combination. As a result of the association of several competing deities in the work of creation, a tendency may be traced to avoid discrimination between rival claims. Thus it is that the assembled gods, the pantheon as a whole, are regarded as collectively responsible for the creation of the universe. It may be added that this use of /ilâni/, "the gods", forms an interesting linguistic parallel to the plural of the Hebrew divine title Elohim. It will be remembered that in the Sumerian Version the account of Creation is not given in full, only such episodes being included as were directly related to the Deluge story. No doubt the selection of men and animals was suggested by their subsequent rescue from the Flood; and emphasis was purposely laid on the creation of the /niggilma/ because of the part it played in securing mankind's survival. Even so, we noted one striking parallel between the Sumerian Version and that of the Semitic Babylonians, in the reason both give for man's creation. But in the former there is no attempt to explain how the universe itself had come into being, and the existence of the earth is presupposed at the moment when Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninkharsagga undertake the creation of man. The Semitic-Babylonian Version, on the other hand, is mainly occupied with events that led up to the acts of creation, and it concerns our problem to inquire how far those episodes were of Semitic and how far of Sumerian origin. A further question arises as to whether some strands of the narrative may not at one time have existed in Sumerian form independently of the Creation myth. The statement is sometimes made that there is no reason to assume a Sumerian original for the Semitic-Babylonian Version, as recorded on "the Seven Tablets of Creation";[1] and this remark, though true of that version as a whole, needs some qualification. The composite nature of the poem has long been recognized, and an analysis of the text has shown that no less than five principal strands have been combined for its formation. These consist of (i) The Birth of the Gods; (ii) The Legend of Ea and Apsû; (iii) The principal Dragon Myth; (iv) The actual account of Creation; and (v) the Hymn to Marduk under his fifty titles.[2] The Assyrian commentaries to the Hymn, from which considerable portions of its text are restored, quote throughout a Sumerian original, and explain it word for word by the phrases of the Semitic Version;[3] so that for one out of the Seven Tablets a Semitic origin is at once disproved. Moreover, the majority of the fifty titles, even in the forms in which they have reached us in the Semitic text, are demonstrably Sumerian, and since many of them celebrate details of their owner's creative work, a Sumerian original for other parts of the version is implied. Enlil and Ea are both represented as bestowing their own names upon Marduk,[4] and we may assume that many of the fifty titles were originally borne by Enlil as a Sumerian Creator.[5] Thus some portions of the actual account of Creation were probably derived from a Sumerian original in which "Father Enlil" figured as the hero. [1] Cf., e.g., Jastrow, /Journ. of the Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), p. 279. [2] See /The Seven Tablets of Creation/, Vol. I, pp. lxvi ff.; and cf. Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 43 ff. [3] Cf. /Sev. Tabl./, Vol. I, pp. 157 ff. [4] Cf. Tabl. VII, ll. 116 ff. [5] The number fifty was suggested by an ideogram employed for Enlil's name. For what then were the Semitic Babylonians themselves responsible? It seems to me that, in the "Seven Tablets", we may credit them with considerable ingenuity in the combination of existing myths, but not with their invention. The whole poem in its present form is a glorification of Marduk, the god of Babylon, who is to be given pre-eminent rank among the gods to correspond with the political position recently attained by his city. It would have been quite out of keeping with the national thought to make a break in the tradition, and such a course would not have served the purpose of the Babylonian priesthood, which was to obtain recognition of their claims by the older cult-centres in the country. Hence they chose and combined the more important existing myths, only making such alterations as would fit them to their new hero. Babylon herself had won her position by her own exertions; and it would be a natural idea to give Marduk his opportunity of becoming Creator of the world as the result of successful conflict. A combination of the Dragon myth with the myth of Creation would have admirably served their purpose; and this is what we find in the Semitic poem. But even that combination may not have been their own invention; for, though, as we shall see, the idea of conflict had no part in the earlier forms of the Sumerian Creation myth, its combination with the Dragon /motif/ may have characterized the local Sumerian Version of Nippur. How mechanical was the Babylonian redactors' method of glorifying Marduk is seen in their use of the description of Tiamat and her monster brood, whom Marduk is made to conquer. To impress the hearers of the poem with his prowess, this is repeated at length no less than four times, one god carrying the news of her revolt to another. Direct proof of the manner in which the later redactors have been obliged to modify the original Sumerian Creation myth, in consequence of their incorporation of other elements, may be seen in the Sixth Tablet of the poem, where Marduk states the reason for man's creation. In the second lecture we noted how the very words of the principal Sumerian Creator were put into Marduk's mouth; but the rest of the Semitic god's speech finds no equivalent in the Sumerian Version and was evidently inserted in order to reconcile the narrative with its later ingredients. This will best be seen by printing the two passages in parallel columns:[1] [1] The extract from the Sumerian Version, which occurs in the lower part of the First Column, is here compared with the Semitic- Babylonian Creation Series, Tablet VI, ll. 6-10 (see /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, pp. 86 ff.). The comparison is justified whether we regard the Sumerian speech as a direct preliminary to man's creation, or as a reassertion of his duty after his rescue from destruction by the Flood. SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION "The people will I cause to . . . "I will make man, that man may in their settlements, [. . .]. Cities . . . shall (man) build, I will create man who shall in their protection will I cause inhabit [. . .], him to rest, That he may lay the brick of our That the service of the gods may house in a clean spot, be established, and that [their] shrines [may be built]. That in a clean spot he may But I will alter the ways of the establish our . . . !" gods, and I will change [their paths]; Together shall they be oppressed, and unto evil shall [they . . .]!" The welding of incongruous elements is very apparent in the Semitic Version. For the statement that man will be created in order that the gods may have worshippers is at once followed by the announcement that the gods themselves must be punished and their "ways" changed. In the Sumerian Version the gods are united and all are naturally regarded as worthy of man's worship. The Sumerian Creator makes no distinctions; he refers to "our houses", or temples, that shall be established. But in the later version divine conflict has been introduced, and the future head of the pantheon has conquered and humiliated the revolting deities. Their "ways" must therefore be altered before they are fit to receive the worship which was accorded them by right in the simpler Sumerian tradition. In spite of the epitomized character of the Sumerian Version, a comparison of these passages suggests very forcibly that the Semitic-Babylonian myth of Creation is based upon a simpler Sumerian story, which has been elaborated to reconcile it with the Dragon myth. The Semitic poem itself also supplies evidence of the independent existence of the Dragon myth apart from the process of Creation, for the story of Ea and Apsû, which it incorporates, is merely the local Dragon myth of Eridu. Its inclusion in the story is again simply a tribute to Marduk; for though Ea, now become Marduk's father, could conquer Apsû, he was afraid of Tiamat, "and turned back".[1] The original Eridu myth no doubt represented Enki as conquering the watery Abyss, which became his home; but there is nothing to connect this tradition with his early creative activities. We have long possessed part of another local version of the Dragon myth, which describes the conquest of a dragon by some deity other than Marduk; and the fight is there described as taking place, not before Creation, but at a time when men existed and cities had been built.[2] Men and gods were equally terrified at the monster's appearance, and it was to deliver the land from his clutches that one of the gods went out and slew him. Tradition delighted to dwell on the dragon's enormous size and terrible appearance. In this version he is described as fifty /bêru/[3] in length and one in height; his mouth measured six cubits and the circuit of his ears twelve; he dragged himself along in the water, which he lashed with his tail; and, when slain, his blood flowed for three years, three months, a day and a night. From this description we can see he was given the body of an enormous serpent.[4] [1] Tabl. III, l. 53, &c. In the story of Bel and the Dragon, the third of the apocryphal additions to Daniel, we have direct evidence of the late survival of the Dragon /motif/ apart from any trace of the Creation myth; in this connexion see Charles, /Apocrypha and Pseudopigrapha/, Vol. I (1913), p. 653 f. [2] See /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, pp. 116 ff., lxviii f. The text is preserved on an Assyrian tablet made for the library of Ashur- bani-pal. [3] The /bêru/ was the space that could be covered in two hours' travelling. [4] The Babylonian Dragon has progeny in the later apocalyptic literature, where we find very similar descriptions of the creatures' size. Among them we may perhaps include the dragon in the Apocalypse of Baruch, who, according to the Slavonic Version, apparently every day drinks a cubit's depth from the sea, and yet the sea does not sink because of the three hundred and sixty rivers that flow into it (cf. James, "Apocrypha Anecdota", Second Series, in Armitage Robinson's /Texts and Studies/, V, No. 1, pp. lix ff.). But Egypt's Dragon /motif/ was even more prolific, and the /Pistis Sophia/ undoubtedly suggested descriptions of the Serpent, especially in connexion with Hades. A further version of the Dragon myth has now been identified on one of the tablets recovered during the recent excavations at Ashur,[1] and in it the dragon is not entirely of serpent form, but is a true dragon with legs. Like the one just described, he is a male monster. The description occurs as part of a myth, of which the text is so badly preserved that only the contents of one column can be made out with any certainty. In it a god, whose name is wanting, announces the presence of the dragon: "In the water he lies and I [. . .]!" Thereupon a second god cries successively to Aruru, the mother- goddess, and to Pallil, another deity, for help in his predicament. And then follows the description of the dragon: In the sea was the Serpent cre[ated]. Sixty /bêru/ is his length; Thirty /bêru/ high is his he[ad].[2] For half (a /bêru/) each stretches the surface of his ey[es];[3] For twenty /bêru/ go [his feet].[4] He devours fish, the creatures [of the sea], He devours birds, the creatures [of the heaven], He devours wild asses, the creatures [of the field], He devours men,[5] to the peoples [he . . .]. [1] For the text, see Ebeling, /Assurtexte/ I, No. 6; it is translated by him in /Orient. Lit.-Zeit./, Vol. XIX, No. 4 (April, 1916). [2] The line reads: /30 bêru ša-ka-a ri-[ša-a-šu]/. Dr. Ebeling renders /ri-ša-a/ as "heads" (Köpfe), implying that the dragon had more than one head. It may be pointed out that, if we could accept this translation, we should have an interesting parallel to the description of some of the primaeval monsters, preserved from Berossus, as {soma men ekhontas en, kephalas de duo}. But the common word for "head" is /kakkadu/, and there can be little doubt that /rîšâ/ is here used in its ordinary sense of "head, summit, top" when applied to a high building. [3] The line reads: /a-na 1/2 ta-am la-bu-na li-bit ên[a-šu]/. Dr. Ebeling translates, "auf je eine Hälfte ist ein Ziegel [ihrer] Auge[n] gelegt". But /libittu/ is clearly used here, not with its ordinary meaning of "brick", which yields a strange rendering, but in its special sense, when applied to large buildings, of "foundation, floor-space, area", i.e. "surface". Dr. Ebeling reads /ênâ-šu/ at the end of the line, but the sign is broken; perhaps the traces may prove to be those of /uznâ šu/, "his ears", in which case /li-bit uz[nâ-šu]/ might be rendered either as "surface of his ears", or as "base (lit. foundation) of his ears". [4] i.e. the length of his pace was twenty /bêru/. [5] Lit. "the black-headed". The text here breaks off, at the moment when Pallil, whose help against the dragon had been invoked, begins to speak. Let us hope we shall recover the continuation of the narrative and learn what became of this carnivorous monster. There are ample grounds, then, for assuming the independent existence of the Babylonian Dragon-myth, and though both the versions recovered have come to us in Semitic form, there is no doubt that the myth itself existed among the Sumerians. The dragon /motif/ is constantly recurring in descriptions of Sumerian temple-decoration, and the twin dragons of Ningishzida on Gudea's libation-vase, carved in green steatite and inlaid with shell, are a notable product of Sumerian art.[1] The very names borne by Tiamat's brood of monsters in the "Seven Tablets" are stamped in most cases with their Sumerian descent, and Kingu, whom she appointed as her champion in place of Apsû, is equally Sumerian. It would be strange indeed if the Sumerians had not evolved a Dragon myth,[2] for the Dragon combat is the most obvious of nature myths and is found in most mythologies of Europe and the Near East. The trailing storm-clouds suggest his serpent form, his fiery tongue is seen in the forked lightning, and, though he may darken the world for a time, the Sun-god will always be victorious. In Egypt the myth of "the Overthrowing of Apep, the enemy of Ra" presents a close parallel to that of Tiamat;[3] but of all Eastern mythologies that of the Chinese has inspired in art the most beautiful treatment of the Dragon, who, however, under his varied forms was for them essentially beneficent. Doubtless the Semites of Babylonia had their own versions of the Dragon combat, both before and after their arrival on the Euphrates, but the particular version which the priests of Babylon wove into their epic is not one of them. [1] See E. de Sarzec, /Découvertes en Chaldée/, pl. xliv, Fig. 2, and Heuzey, /Catalogue des antiquités chaldéennes/, p. 281. [2] In his very interesting study of "Sumerian and Akkadian Views of Beginnings", contributed to the /Journ. of the Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), pp. 274 ff., Professor Jastrow suggests that the Dragon combat in the Semitic-Babylonian Creation poem is of Semitic not Sumerian origin. He does not examine the evidence of the poem itself in detail, but bases the suggestion mainly on the two hypotheses, that the Dragon combat of the poem was suggested by the winter storms and floods of the Euphrates Valley, and that the Sumerians came from a mountain region where water was not plentiful. If we grant both assumptions, the suggested conclusion does not seem to me necessarily to follow, in view of the evidence we now possess as to the remote date of the Sumerian settlement in the Euphrates Valley. Some evidence may still be held to point to a mountain home for the proto-Sumerians, such as the name of their early goddess Ninkharsagga, "the Lady of the Mountains". But, as we must now regard Babylonia itself as the cradle of their civilization, other data tend to lose something of their apparent significance. It is true that the same Sumerian sign means "land" and "mountain"; but it may have been difficult to obtain an intelligible profile for "land" without adopting a mountain form. Such a name as Ekur, the "Mountain House" of Nippur, may perhaps indicate size, not origin; and Enki's association with metal- working may be merely due to his character as God of Wisdom, and is not appropriate solely "to a god whose home is in the mountains where metals are found" (op. cit., p. 295). It should be added that Professor Jastrow's theory of the Dragon combat is bound up with his view of the origin of an interesting Sumerian "myth of beginnings", to which reference is made later. [3] Cf. Budge, /Gods of the Egyptians/, Vol. I, pp. 324 ff. The inclusion of the two versions of the Egyptian Creation myth, recording the Birth of the Gods in the "Book of Overthrowing Apep", does not present a very close parallel to the combination of Creation and Dragon myths in the Semitic-Babylonian poem, for in the Egyptian work the two myths are not really combined, the Creation Versions being inserted in the middle of the spells against Apep, without any attempt at assimilation (see Budge, /Egyptian Literature/, Vol. I, p. xvi). We have thus traced four out of the five strands which form the Semitic-Babylonian poem of Creation to a Sumerian ancestry. And we now come back to the first of the strands, the Birth of the Gods, from which our discussion started. For if this too should prove to be Sumerian, it would help to fill in the gap in our Sumerian Creation myth, and might furnish us with some idea of the Sumerian view of "beginnings", which preceded the acts of creation by the great gods. It will be remembered that the poem opens with the description of a time when heaven and earth did not exist, no field or marsh even had been created, and the universe consisted only of the primaeval water- gods, Apsû, Mummu, and Tiamat, whose waters were mingled together. Then follows the successive generation of two pairs of deities, Lakhmu and Lakhamu, and Anshar and Kishar, long ages separating the two generations from each other and from the birth of the great gods which subsequently takes place. In the summary of the myth which is given by Damascius[1] the names of the various deities accurately correspond to those in the opening lines of the poem; but he makes some notable additions, as will be seen from the following table: DAMASCUS "SEVEN TABLETS" I {'Apason---Tauthe} Apsû---Tiamat | {Moumis} Mummu {Lakhos---Lakhe}[2] Lakhmu---Lakhamu {'Assoros---Kissare} Anshar---Kishar {'Anos, 'Illinos, 'Aos} Anu, [ ], Nudimmud (= Ea) {'Aos---Dauke} | {Belos} [1] /Quaestiones de primis principiis/, cap. 125; ed. Kopp, p. 384. [2] Emended from the reading {Dakhen kai Dakhon} of the text. In the passage of the poem which describes the birth of the great gods after the last pair of primaeval deities, mention is duly made of Anu and Nudimmud (the latter a title of Ea), corresponding to the {'Anos} and {'Aos} of Damascius; and there appears to be no reference to Enlil, the original of {'Illinos}. It is just possible that his name occurred at the end of one of the broken lines, and, if so, we should have a complete parallel to Damascius. But the traces are not in favour of the restoration;[1] and the omission of Enlil's name from this part of the poem may be readily explained as a further tribute to Marduk, who definitely usurps his place throughout the subsequent narrative. Anu and Ea had both to be mentioned because of the parts they play in the Epic, but Enlil's only recorded appearance is in the final assembly of the gods, where he bestows his own name "the Lord of the World"[2] upon Marduk. The evidence of Damascius suggests that Enlil's name was here retained, between those of Anu and Ea, in other versions of the poem. But the occurrence of the name in any version is in itself evidence of the antiquity of this strand of the narrative. It is a legitimate inference that the myth of the Birth of the Gods goes back to a time at least before the rise of Babylon, and is presumably of Sumerian origin. [1] Anu and Nudimmud are each mentioned for the first time at the beginning of a line, and the three lines following the reference to Nudimmud are entirely occupied with descriptions of his wisdom and power. It is also probable that the three preceding lines (ll. 14-16), all of which refer to Anu by name, were entirely occupied with his description. But it is only in ll. 13-16 that any reference to Enlil can have occurred, and the traces preserved of their second halves do not suggestion the restoration. [2] Cf. Tabl. VII, . 116. Further evidence of this may be seen in the fact that Anu, Enlil, and Ea (i.e. Enki), who are here created together, are the three great gods of the Sumerian Version of Creation; it is they who create mankind with the help of the goddess Ninkharsagga, and in the fuller version of that myth we should naturally expect to find some account of their own origin. The reference in Damascius to Marduk ({Belos}) as the son of Ea and Damkina ({Dauke}) is also of interest in this connexion, as it exhibits a goddess in close connexion with one of the three great gods, much as we find Ninkharsagga associated with them in the Sumerian Version.[1] Before leaving the names, it may be added that, of the primaeval deities, Anshar and Kishar are obviously Sumerian in form. [1] Damkina was the later wife of Ea or Enki; and Ninkharsagga is associated with Enki, as his consort, in another Sumerian myth. It may be noted that the character of Apsû and Tiamat in this portion of the poem[1] is quite at variance with their later actions. Their revolt at the ordered "way" of the gods was a necessary preliminary to the incorporation of the Dragon myths, in which Ea and Marduk are the heroes. Here they appear as entirely beneficent gods of the primaeval water, undisturbed by storms, in whose quiet depths the equally beneficent deities Lakhmu and Lakhamu, Anshar and Kishar, were generated.[2] This interpretation, by the way, suggests a more satisfactory restoration for the close of the ninth line of the poem than any that has yet been proposed. That line is usually taken to imply that the gods were created "in the midst of [heaven]", but I think the following rendering, in connexion with ll. 1-5, gives better sense: When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not bear a name, And the primaeval Apsû who begat them,[3] And Mummu, and Tiamat who bore them[3] all,-- Their waters were mingled together, . . . . . . . . . Then were created the gods in the midst of [their waters],[4] Lakhmu and Lakhamu were called into being . . . [1] Tabl. I, ll. 1-21. [2] We may perhaps see a survival of Tiamat's original character in her control of the Tablets of Fate. The poem does not represent her as seizing them in any successful fight; they appear to be already hers to bestow on Kingu, though in the later mythology they are "not his by right" (cf. Tabl. I, ll. 137 ff., and Tabl. IV, l. 121). [3] i.e. the gods. [4] The ninth line is preserved only on a Neo-Babylonian duplicate (/Seven Tablets/, Vol. II, pl. i). I suggested the restoration /ki-rib š[a-ma-mi]/, "in the midst of heaven", as possible, since the traces of the first sign in the last word of the line seemed to be those of the Neo-Babylonian form of /ša/. The restoration appeared at the time not altogether satisfactory in view of the first line of the poem, and it could only be justified by supposing that /šamâmu/, or "heaven", was already vaguely conceived as in existence (op. cit., Vol. I, p. 3, n. 14). But the traces of the sign, as I have given them (op. cit., Vol. II, pl. i), may also possibly be those of the Neo-Babylonian form of the sign /me/; and I would now restore the end of the line in the Neo- Babylonian tablet as /ki-rib m[e-e-šu-nu]/, "in the midst of [their waters]", corresponding to the form /mu-u-šu-nu/ in l. 5 of this duplicate. In the Assyrian Version /mé(pl)-šu-nu/ would be read in both lines. It will be possible to verify the new reading, by a re-examination of the traces on the tablet, when the British Museum collections again become available for study after the war. If the ninth line of the poem be restored as suggested, its account of the Birth of the Gods will be found to correspond accurately with the summary from Berossus, who, in explaining the myth, refers to the Babylonian belief that the universe consisted at first of moisture in which living creatures, such as he had already described, were generated.[1] The primaeval waters are originally the source of life, not of destruction, and it is in them that the gods are born, as in Egyptian mythology; there Nu, the primaeval water-god from whom Ra was self-created, never ceased to be the Sun-god's supporter. The change in the Babylonian conception was obviously introduced by the combination of the Dragon myth with that of Creation, a combination that in Egypt would never have been justified by the gentle Nile. From a study of some aspects of the names at the beginning of the Babylonian poem we have already seen reason to suspect that its version of the Birth of the Gods goes back to Sumerian times, and it is pertinent to ask whether we have any further evidence that in Sumerian belief water was the origin of all things. [1] {ugrou gar ontos tou pantos kai zoon en auto gegennemenon [toionde] ktl}. His creatures of the primaeval water were killed by the light; and terrestrial animals were then created which could bear (i.e. breathe and exist in) the air. For many years we have possessed a Sumerian myth of Creation, which has come to us on a late Babylonian tablet as the introductory section of an incantation. It is provided with a Semitic translation, and to judge from its record of the building of Babylon and Egasila, Marduk's temple, and its identification of Marduk himself with the Creator, it has clearly undergone some editing at the hands of the Babylonian priests. Moreover, the occurrence of various episodes out of their logical order, and the fact that the text records twice over the creation of swamps and marshes, reeds and trees or forests, animals and cities, indicate that two Sumerian myths have been combined. Thus we have no guarantee that the other cities referred to by name in the text, Nippur, Erech, and Eridu, are mentioned in any significant connexion with each other.[1] Of the actual cause of Creation the text appears to give two versions also, one in its present form impersonal, and the other carried out by a god. But these two accounts are quite unlike the authorized version of Babylon, and we may confidently regard them as representing genuine Sumerian myths. The text resembles other early accounts of Creation by introducing its narrative with a series of negative statements, which serve to indicate the preceding non-existence of the world, as will be seen from the following extract:[2] No city had been created, no creature had been made, Nippur had not been created, Ekur had not been built, Erech had not been created, Eanna had not been built, Apsû had not been created, Eridu had not been built, Of the holy house, the house of the gods, the habitation had not been created. All lands[3] were sea. At the time when a channel (was formed) in the midst of the sea, Then was Eridu created, Esagila built, etc. Here we have the definite statement that before Creation all the world was sea. And it is important to note that the primaeval water is not personified; the ordinary Sumerian word for "sea" is employed, which the Semitic translator has faithfully rendered in his version of the text.[4] The reference to a channel in the sea, as the cause of Creation, seems at first sight a little obscure; but the word implies a "drain" or "water-channel", not a current of the sea itself, and the reference may be explained as suggested by the drainage of a flood- area. No doubt the phrase was elaborated in the original myth, and it is possible that what appears to be a second version of Creation later on in the text is really part of the more detailed narrative of the first myth. There the Creator himself is named. He is the Sumerian god Gilimma, and in the Semitic translation Marduk's name is substituted. To the following couplet, which describes Gilimma's method of creation, is appended a further extract from a later portion of the text, there evidently displaced, giving additional details of the Creator's work: Gilimma bound reeds in the face of the waters, He formed soil and poured it out beside the reeds.[5] [He][6] filled in a dike by the side of the sea, [He . . .] a swamp, he formed a marsh. [. . .], he brought into existence, [Reeds he form]ed,[7] trees he created. [1] The composite nature of the text is discussed by Professor Jastrow in his /Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions/, pp. 89 ff.; and in his paper in the /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), pp. 279 ff.; he has analysed it into two main versions, which he suggests originated in Eridu and Nippur respectively. The evidence of the text does not appear to me to support the view that any reference to a watery chaos preceding Creation must necessarily be of Semitic origin. For the literature of the text (first published by Pinches, /Journ. Roy. Asiat. Soc./, Vol. XXIII, pp. 393 ff.), see /Sev. Tabl./, Vol. I, p. 130. [2] Obv., ll. 5-12. [3] Sum. /nigin-kur-kur-ra-ge/, Sem. /nap-har ma-ta-a-tu/, lit. "all lands", i.e. Sumerian and Babylonian expressions for "the world". [4] Sum. /a-ab-ba/, "sea", is here rendered by /tâmtum/, not by its personified equivalent Tiamat. [5] The suggestion has been made that /amu/, the word in the Semitic version here translated "reeds", should be connected with /ammatu/, the word used for "earth" or "dry land" in the Babylonian Creation Series, Tabl. I, l. 2, and given some such meaning as "expanse". The couplet is thus explained to mean that the god made an expanse on the face of the waters, and then poured out dust "on the expanse". But the Semitic version in l. 18 reads /itti ami/, "beside the /a./", not /ina ami/, "on the /a./"; and in any case there does not seem much significance in the act of pouring out specially created dust on or beside land already formed. The Sumerian word translated by /amu/ is written /gi-dir/, with the element /gi/, "reed", in l. 17, and though in the following line it is written under its variant form /a-dir/ without /gi/, the equation /gi-a-dir/ = /amu/ is elsewhere attested (cf. Delitzsch, /Handwörterbuch/, p. 77). In favour of regarding /amu/ as some sort of reed, here used collectively, it may be pointed out that the Sumerian verb in l. 17 is /kešda/, "to bind", accurately rendered by /rakašu/ in the Semitic version. Assuming that l. 34 belongs to the same account, the creation of reeds in general beside trees, after dry land is formed, would not of course be at variance with the god's use of some sort of reed in his first act of creation. He creates the reed-bundles, as he creates the soil, both of which go to form the first dike; the reed-beds, like the other vegetation, spring up from the ground when it appears. [6] The Semitic version here reads "the lord Marduk"; the corresponding name in the Sumerian text is not preserved. [7] The line is restored from l. 2 o the obverse of the text. Here the Sumerian Creator is pictured as forming dry land from the primaeval water in much the same way as the early cultivator in the Euphrates Valley procured the rich fields for his crops. The existence of the earth is here not really presupposed. All the world was sea until the god created land out of the waters by the only practical method that was possible in Mesopotamia. In another Sumerian myth, which has been recovered on one of the early tablets from Nippur, we have a rather different picture of beginnings. For there, though water is the source of life, the existence of the land is presupposed. But it is bare and desolate, as in the Mesopotamian season of "low water". The underlying idea is suggestive of a period when some progress in systematic irrigation had already been made, and the filling of the dry canals and subsequent irrigation of the parched ground by the rising flood of Enki was not dreaded but eagerly desired. The myth is only one of several that have been combined to form the introductory sections of an incantation; but in all of them Enki, the god of the deep water, plays the leading part, though associated with different consorts.[1] The incantation is directed against various diseases, and the recitation of the closing mythical section was evidently intended to enlist the aid of special gods in combating them. The creation of these deities is recited under set formulae in a sort of refrain, and the divine name assigned to each bears a magical connexion with the sickness he or she is intended to dispel.[2] [1] See Langdon, Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sect., Vol. X, No. 1 (1915), pl. i f., pp. 69 ff.; /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI (1916), pp. 140 ff.; cf. Prince, /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 90 ff.; Jastrow, /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI, pp. 122 ff., and in particular his detailed study of the text in /Amer. Journ. Semit. Lang./, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 91 ff. Dr. Langdon's first description of the text, in /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, Vol. XXXVI (1914), pp. 188 ff., was based on a comparatively small fragment only; and on his completion of the text from other fragments in Pennsylvania. Professor Sayce at once realized that the preliminary diagnosis of a Deluge myth could not be sustained (cf. /Expos. Times/, Nov., 1915, pp. 88 ff.). He, Professor Prince, and Professor Jastrow independently showed that the action of Enki in the myth in sending water on the land was not punitive but beneficent; and the preceding section, in which animals are described as not performing their usual activities, was shown independently by Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow to have reference, not to their different nature in an ideal existence in Paradise, but, on familiar lines, to their non-existence in a desolate land. It may be added that Professor Barton and Dr. Peters agree generally with Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow in their interpretation of the text, which excludes the suggested biblical parallels; and I understand from Dr. Langdon that he very rightly recognizes that the text is not a Deluge myth. It is a subject for congratulation that the discussion has materially increased our knowledge of this difficult composition. [2] Cf. Col. VI, ll. 24 ff.; thus /Ab/-u was created for the sickness of the cow (/ab/); Nin-/tul/ for that of the flock (u-/tul/); Nin- /ka/-u-tu and Nin-/ka/-si for that of the mouth (/ka/); Na-zi for that of the /na-zi/ (meaning uncertain); /Da zi/-ma for that of the /da-zi/ (meaning uncertain); Nin-/til/ for that of /til/ (life); the name of the eighth and last deity is imperfectly preserved. We have already noted examples of a similar use of myth in magic, which was common to both Egypt and Babylonia; and to illustrate its employment against disease, as in the Nippur document, it will suffice to cite a well-known magical cure for the toothache which was adopted in Babylon.[1] There toothache was believed to be caused by the gnawing of a worm in the gum, and a myth was used in the incantation to relieve it. The worm's origin is traced from Anu, the god of heaven, through a descending scale of creation; Anu, the heavens, the earth, rivers, canals and marshes are represented as each giving rise to the next in order, until finally the marshes produce the worm. The myth then relates how the worm, on being offered tempting food by Ea in answer to her prayer, asked to be allowed to drink the blood of the teeth, and the incantation closes by invoking the curse of Ea because of the worm's misguided choice. It is clear that power over the worm was obtained by a recital of her creation and of her subsequent ingratitude, which led to her present occupation and the curse under which she laboured. When the myth and invocation had been recited three times over the proper mixture of beer, a plant, and oil, and the mixture had been applied to the offending tooth, the worm would fall under the spell of the curse and the patient would at once gain relief. The example is instructive, as the connexion of ideas is quite clear. In the Nippur document the recital of the creation of the eight deities evidently ensured their presence, and a demonstration of the mystic bond between their names and the corresponding diseases rendered the working of their powers effective. Our knowledge of a good many other myths is due solely to their magical employment. [1] See Thompson, /Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia/, Vol. II, pp. 160 ff.; for a number of other examples, see Jastrow, /J.A.O.S./, Vol. XXXVI, p. 279, n. 7. Perhaps the most interesting section of the new text is one in which divine instructions are given in the use of plants, the fruit or roots of which may be eaten. Here Usmû, a messenger from Enki, God of the Deep, names eight such plants by Enki's orders, thereby determining the character of each. As Professor Jastrow has pointed out, the passage forcibly recalls the story from Berossus, concerning the mythical creature Oannes, who came up from the Erythraean Sea, where it borders upon Babylonia, to instruct mankind in all things, including "seeds and the gathering of fruits".[1] But the only part of the text that concerns us here is the introductory section, where the life-giving flood, by which the dry fields are irrigated, is pictured as following the union of the water-deities, Enki and Ninella.[2] Professor Jastrow is right in emphasizing the complete absence of any conflict in this Sumerian myth of beginnings; but, as with the other Sumerian Versions we have examined, it seems to me there is no need to seek its origin elsewhere than in the Euphrates Valley. [1] Cf. Jastrow, /J.A.O.S./, Vol. XXXVI, p. 127, and /A.J.S.L./, Vol. XXXIII, p. 134 f. It may be added that the divine naming of the plants also presents a faint parallel to the naming of the beasts and birds by man himself in Gen. ii. 19 f. [2] Professor Jastrow (/A.J.S.L./, Vol. XXXIII, p. 115) compares similar myths collected by Sir James Frazer (/Magic Art/, Vol. II, chap. xi and chap. xii, § 2). He also notes the parallel the irrigation myth presents to the mist (or flood) of the earlier Hebrew Version (Gen. ii. 5 f). But Enki, like Ea, was no rain-god; he had his dwellings in the Euphrates and the Deep. Even in later periods, when the Sumerian myths of Creation had been superseded by that of Babylon, the Euphrates never ceased to be regarded as the source of life and the creator of all things. And this is well brought out in the following introductory lines of a Semitic incantation, of which we possess two Neo-Babylonian copies:[1] O thou River, who didst create all things, When the great gods dug thee out, They set prosperity upon thy banks, Within thee Ea, King of the Deep, created his dwelling. The Flood they sent not before thou wert! Here the river as creator is sharply distinguished from the Flood; and we may conclude that the water of the Euphrates Valley impressed the early Sumerians, as later the Semites, with its creative as well as with its destructive power. The reappearance of the fertile soil, after the receding inundation, doubtless suggested the idea of creation out of water, and the stream's slow but automatic fall would furnish a model for the age-long evolution of primaeval deities. When a god's active and artificial creation of the earth must be portrayed, it would have been natural for the primitive Sumerian to picture the Creator working as he himself would work when he reclaimed a field from flood. We are thus shown the old Sumerian god Gilimma piling reed-bundles in the water and heaping up soil beside them, till the ground within his dikes dries off and produces luxuriant vegetation. But here there is a hint of struggle in the process, and we perceive in it the myth-redactor's opportunity to weave in the Dragon /motif/. No such excuse is afforded by the other Sumerian myth, which pictures the life-producing inundation as the gift of the two deities of the Deep and the product of their union. But in their other aspect the rivers of Mesopotamia could be terrible; and the Dragon /motif/ itself, on the Tigris and Euphrates, drew its imagery as much from flood as from storm. When therefore a single deity must be made to appear, not only as Creator, but also as the champion of his divine allies and the conqueror of other gods, it was inevitable that the myths attaching to the waters under their two aspects should be combined. This may already have taken place at Nippur, when Enlil became the head of the pantheon; but the existence of his myth is conjectural.[1] In a later age we can trace the process in the light of history and of existing texts. There Marduk, identified wholly as the Sun-god, conquers the once featureless primaeval water, which in the process of redaction has now become the Dragon of flood and storm. [1] The aspect of Enlil as the Creator of Vegetation is emphasized in Tablet VII of the Babylonian poem of Creation. It is significant that his first title, Asara, should be interpreted as "Bestower of planting", "Founder of sowing", "Creator of grain and plants", "He who caused the green herb to spring up" (cf. /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, p. 92 f.). These opening phrases, by which the god is hailed, strike the key-note of the whole composition. It is true that, as Sukh-kur, he is "Destroyer of the foe"; but the great majority of the titles and their Semitic glosses refer to creative activities, not to the Dragon myth. Thus the dualism which is so characteristic a feature of the Semitic- Babylonian system, though absent from the earliest Sumerian ideas of Creation, was inherent in the nature of the local rivers, whose varied aspects gave rise to or coloured separate myths. Its presence in the later mythology may be traced as a reflection of political development, at first probably among the warring cities of Sumer, but certainly later in the Semitic triumph at Babylon. It was but to be expected that the conqueror, whether Sumerian or Semite, should represent his own god's victory as the establishment of order out of chaos. But this would be particularly in harmony with the character of the Semitic Babylonians of the First Dynasty, whose genius for method and organization produced alike Hammurabi's Code of Laws and the straight streets of the capital. We have thus been able to trace the various strands of the Semitic- Babylonian poem of Creation to Sumerian origins; and in the second lecture we arrived at a very similar conclusion with regard to the Semitic-Babylonian Version of the Deluge preserved in the Epic of Gilgamesh. We there saw that the literary structure of the Sumerian Version, in which Creation and Deluge are combined, must have survived under some form into the Neo-Babylonian period, since it was reproduced by Berossus. And we noted the fact that the same arrangement in Genesis did not therefore prove that the Hebrew accounts go back directly to early Sumerian originals. In fact, the structural resemblance presented by Genesis can only be regarded as an additional proof that the Sumerian originals continued to be studied and translated by the Semitic priesthood, although they had long been superseded officially by their later descendants, the Semitic epics. A detailed comparison of the Creation and Deluge narratives in the various versions at once discloses the fact that the connexion between those of the Semitic Babylonians and the Hebrews is far closer and more striking than that which can be traced when the latter are placed beside the Sumerian originals. We may therefore regard it as certain that the Hebrews derived their knowledge of Sumerian tradition, not directly from the Sumerians themselves, but through Semitic channels from Babylon. It will be unnecessary here to go in detail through the points of resemblance that are admitted to exist between the Hebrew account of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis and that preserved in the "Seven Tablets".[1] It will suffice to emphasize two of them, which gain in significance through our newly acquired knowledge of early Sumerian beliefs. It must be admitted that, on first reading the poem, one is struck more by the differences than by the parallels; but that is due to the polytheistic basis of the poem, which attracts attention when compared with the severe and dignified monotheism of the Hebrew writer. And if allowance be made for the change in theological standpoint, the material points of resemblance are seen to be very marked. The outline or general course of events is the same. In both we have an abyss of waters at the beginning denoted by almost the same Semitic word, the Hebrew /tehôm/, translated "the deep" in Gen. i. 2, being the equivalent of the Semitic-Babylonian /Tiamat/, the monster of storm and flood who presents so striking a contrast to the Sumerian primaeval water.[2] The second act of Creation in the Hebrew narrative is that of a "firmament", which divided the waters under it from those above.[3] But this, as we have seen, has no parallel in the early Sumerian conception until it was combined with the Dragon combat in the form in which we find it in the Babylonian poem. There the body of Tiamat is divided by Marduk, and from one half of her he constructs a covering or dome for heaven, that is to say a "firmament", to keep her upper waters in place. These will suffice as text passages, since they serve to point out quite clearly the Semitic source to which all the other detailed points of Hebrew resemblance may be traced. [1] See /Seven Tablets/, Vol. I, pp. lxxxi ff., and Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 45 ff. [2] The invariable use of the Hebrew word /tehôm/ without the article, except in two passages in the plural, proves that it is a proper name (cf. Skinner, op. cit., p. 17); and its correspondence with /Tiamat/ makes the resemblance of the versions far more significant than if their parallelism were confined solely to ideas. [3] Gen. i. 6-8. In the case of the Deluge traditions, so conclusive a demonstration is not possible, since we have no similar criterion to apply. And on one point, as we saw, the Hebrew Versions preserve an original Sumerian strand of the narrative that was not woven into the Gilgamesh Epic, where there is no parallel to the piety of Noah. But from the detailed description that was given in the second lecture, it will have been noted that the Sumerian account is on the whole far simpler and more primitive than the other versions. It is only in the Babylonian Epic, for example, that the later Hebrew writer finds material from which to construct the ark, while the sweet savour of Ut-napishtim's sacrifice, and possibly his sending forth of the birds, though reproduced in the earlier Hebrew Version, find no parallels in the Sumerian account.[1] As to the general character of the Flood, there is no direct reference to rain in the Sumerian Version, though its presence is probably implied in the storm. The heavy rain of the Babylonian Epic has been increased to forty days of rain in the earlier Hebrew Version, which would be suitable to a country where local rain was the sole cause of flood. But the later Hebrew writer's addition of "the fountains of the deep" to "the windows of heaven" certainly suggests a more intimate knowledge of Mesopotamia, where some contributary cause other than local rain must be sought for the sudden and overwhelming catastrophes of which the rivers are capable. [1] For detailed lists of the points of agreement presented by the Hebrew Versions J and P to the account in the Gilgamesh Epic, see Skinner, op. cit., p. 177 f.; Driver, /Genesis/, p. 106 f.; and Gordon, /Early Traditions of Genesis/ (1907), pp. 38 ff. Thus, viewed from a purely literary standpoint, we are now enabled to trace back to a primitive age the ancestry of the traditions, which, under a very different aspect, eventually found their way into Hebrew literature. And in the process we may note the changes they underwent as they passed from one race to another. The result of such literary analysis and comparison, so far from discrediting the narratives in Genesis, throws into still stronger relief the moral grandeur of the Hebrew text. We come then to the question, at what periods and by what process did the Hebrews become acquainted with Babylonian ideas? The tendency of the purely literary school of critics has been to explain the process by the direct use of Babylonian documents wholly within exilic times. If the Creation and Deluge narratives stood alone, a case might perhaps be made out for confining Babylonian influence to this late period. It is true that during the Captivity the Jews were directly exposed to such influence. They had the life and civilization of their captors immediately before their eyes, and it would have been only natural for the more learned among the Hebrew scribes and priests to interest themselves in the ancient literature of their new home. And any previous familiarity with the myths of Babylonia would undoubtedly have been increased by actual residence in the country. We may perhaps see a result of such acquaintance with Babylonian literature, after Jehoiachin's deportation,, in an interesting literary parallel that has been pointed out between Ezek. xiv. 12-20 and a speech in the Babylonian account of the Deluge in the Gilgamesh Epic, XI, ll. 180- 194.[1] The passage in Ezekiel occurs within chaps. i-xxiv, which correspond to the prophet's first period and consist in the main of his utterances in exile before the fall of Jerusalem. It forms, in fact, the introduction to the prophet's announcement of the coming of "four sore judgements upon Jerusalem", from which there "shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth".[2] But in consequence, here and there, of traces of a later point of view, it is generally admitted that many of the chapters in this section may have been considerably amplified and altered by Ezekiel himself in the course of writing. And if we may regard the literary parallel that has been pointed out as anything more than fortuitous, it is open to us to assume that chap. xiv may have been worked up by Ezekiel many years after his prophetic call at Tel-abib. [1] See Daiches, "Ezekiel and the Babylonian Account of the Deluge", in the /Jewish Quarterly Review/, April 1905. It has of course long been recognized that Ezekiel, in announcing the punishment of the king of Egypt in xxxii. 2 ff., uses imagery which strongly recalls the Babylonian Creation myth. For he compares Pharaoh to a sea-monster over whom Yahweh will throw his net (as Marduk had thrown his over Tiamat); cf. Loisy, /Les mythes babyloniens et les premiers chaptires de la Genèse/ (1901), p. 87. [2] Ezek. xiv. 21 f. In the passage of the Babylonian Epic, Enlil had already sent the Flood and had destroyed the good with the wicked. Ea thereupon remonstrates with him, and he urges that in future the sinner only should be made to suffer for his sin; and, instead of again causing a flood, let there be discrimination in the divine punishments sent on men or lands. While the flood made the escape of the deserving impossible, other forms of punishment would affect the guilty only. In Ezekiel the subject is the same, but the point of view is different. The land the prophet has in his mind in verse 13 is evidently Judah, and his desire is to explain why it will suffer although not all its inhabitants deserved to share its fate. The discrimination, which Ea urges, Ezekiel asserts will be made; but the sinner must bear his own sin, and the righteous, however eminent, can only save themselves by their righteousness. The general principle propounded in the Epic is here applied to a special case. But the parallelism between the passages lies not only in the general principle but also in the literary setting. This will best be brought out by printing the passages in parallel columns. Gilg. Epic, XI, 180-194 Ezek. xiv. 12-20 Ea opened his mouth and spake, And the word of the Lord came He said to the warrior Enlil; unto me, saying, Thou director of the gods! O Son of man, when a land sinneth warrior! against me by committing a Why didst thou not take counsel trespass, and I stretch out but didst cause a flood? mine hand upon it, and break On the transgressor lay his the staff of the bread transgression! thereof, and send /famine/ Be merciful, so that (all) be not upon it, and cut off from it destroyed! Have patience, so man and beast; though these that (all) be not [cut off]! three men, Noah, Daniel, and Instead of causing a flood, Job, were in it, they should Let /lions/[1] come and diminish deliver but their own souls by mankind! their righteousness, saith the Instead of causing a flood, Lord God. Let /leopards/[1] come and If I cause /noisome beasts/ to diminish mankind! pass through the land, and Instead of causing a flood, they spoil it, so that it be Let /famine/ be caused and let it desolate, that no man may pass smite the land! through because of the beasts; Instead of causing a flood, though these three men were in Let the /Plague-god/ come and it, as I live, saith the Lord [slay] mankind! God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. Or if I bring a /sword/ upon that land, and say, Sword, go through the land; so that I cut off from it man and beast; though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. Or if I send a /pestilence/ into that land, and pour out my fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. [1] Both Babylonian words are in the singular, but probably used collectively, as is the case with their Hebrew equivalent in Ezek. xiv. 15. It will be seen that, of the four kinds of divine punishment mentioned, three accurately correspond in both compositions. Famine and pestilence occur in both, while the lions and leopards of the Epic find an equivalent in "noisome beasts". The sword is not referred to in the Epic, but as this had already threatened Jerusalem at the time of the prophecy's utterance its inclusion by Ezekiel was inevitable. Moreover, the fact that Noah should be named in the refrain, as the first of the three proverbial examples of righteousness, shows that Ezekiel had the Deluge in his mind, and increases the significance of the underlying parallel between his argument and that of the Babylonian poet.[1] It may be added that Ezekiel has thrown his prophecy into poetical form, and the metre of the two passages in the Babylonian and Hebrew is, as Dr. Daiches points out, not dissimilar. [1] This suggestion is in some measure confirmed by the /Biblical Antiquities of Philo/, ascribed by Dr. James to the closing years of the first century A.D.; for its writer, in his account of the Flood, has actually used Ezek. xiv. 12 ff. in order to elaborate the divine speech in Gen. viii. 21 f. This will be seen from the following extract, in which the passage interpolated between verses 21 and 22 of Gen. viii is enclosed within brackets: "And God said: I will not again curse the earth for man's sake, for the guise of man's heart hath left off (sic) from his youth. And therefore I will not again destroy together all living as I have done. [But it shall be, when the dwellers upon earth have sinned, I will judge them by /famine/ or by the /sword/ or by fire or by /pestilence/ (lit. death), and there shall be earthquakes, and they shall be scattered into places not inhabited (or, the places of their habitation shall be scattered). But I will not again spoil the earth with the water of a flood, and] in all the days of the earth seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and autumn, day and night shall not cease . . ."; see James, /The Biblical Antiquities of Philo/, p. 81, iii. 9. Here wild beasts are omitted, and fire, earthquakes, and exile are added; but famine, sword, and pestilence are prominent, and the whole passage is clearly suggested by Ezekiel. As a result of the combination, we have in the /Biblical Antiquities/ a complete parallel to the passage in the Gilgamesh Epic. It may of course be urged that wild beasts, famine, and pestilence are such obvious forms of divine punishment that their enumeration by both writers is merely due to chance. But the parallelism should be considered with the other possible points of connexion, namely, the fact that each writer is dealing with discrimination in divine punishments of a wholesale character, and that while the one is inspired by the Babylonian tradition of the Flood, the other takes the hero of the Hebrew Flood story as the first of his selected types of righteousness. It is possible that Ezekiel may have heard the Babylonian Version recited after his arrival on the Chebar. And assuming that some form of the story had long been a cherished tradition of the Hebrews themselves, we could understand his intense interest in finding it confirmed by the Babylonians, who would show him where their Flood had taken place. To a man of his temperament, the one passage in the Babylonian poem that would have made a special appeal would have been that quoted above, where the poet urges that divine vengeance should be combined with mercy, and that all, righteous and wicked alike, should not again be destroyed. A problem continually in Ezekiel's thoughts was this very question of wholesale divine punishment, as exemplified in the case of Judah; and it would not have been unlikely that the literary structure of the Babylonian extract may have influenced the form in which he embodied his own conclusions. But even if we regard this suggestion as unproved or improbable, Ezekiel's reference to Noah surely presupposes that at least some version of the Flood story was familiar to the Hebrews before the Captivity. And this conclusion is confirmed by other Babylonian parallels in the early chapters of Genesis, in which oral tradition rather than documentary borrowing must have played the leading part.[1] Thus Babylonian parallels may be cited for many features in the story of Paradise,[2] though no equivalent of the story itself has been recovered. In the legend of Adapa, for example, wisdom and immortality are the prerogative of the gods, and the winning of immortality by man is bound up with eating the Food of Life and drinking the Water of Life; here too man is left with the gift of wisdom, but immortality is withheld. And the association of winged guardians with the Sacred Tree in Babylonian art is at least suggestive of the Cherubim and the Tree of Life. The very side of Eden has now been identified in Southern Babylonia by means of an old boundary-stone acquired by the British Museum a year or two ago.[3] [1] See Loisy, /Les mythes babyloniens/, pp. 10 ff., and cf. S. Reinach, /Cultes, Mythes et Religions/, t. II, pp. 386 ff. [2] Cf. especially Skinner, /Genesis/, pp. 90 ff. For the latest discussion of the Serpent and the Tree of Life, suggested by Dr. Skinner's summary of the evidence, see Frazer in /Essays and Studies presented to William Ridgeway/ (1913), pp. 413 ff. [3] See /Babylonian Boundary Stones in the British Museum/ (1912), pp. 76 ff., and cf. /Geographical Journal/, Vol. XL, No. 2 (Aug., 1912), p. 147. For the latest review of the evidence relating to the site of Paradise, see Boissier, "La situation du paradis terrestre", in /Le Globe/, t. LV, Mémoires (Geneva, 1916). But I need not now detain you by going over this familiar ground. Such possible echoes from Babylon seem to suggest pre-exilic influence rather than late borrowing, and they surely justify us in inquiring to what periods of direct or indirect contact, earlier than the Captivity, the resemblances between Hebrew and Babylonian ideas may be traced. One point, which we may regard as definitely settled by our new material, is that these stories of the Creation and of the early history of the world were not of Semitic origin. It is no longer possible to regard the Hebrew and Babylonian Versions as descended from common Semitic originals. For we have now recovered some of those originals, and they are not Semitic but Sumerian. The question thus resolves itself into an inquiry as to periods during which the Hebrews may have come into direct or indirect contact with Babylonia. There are three pre-exilic periods at which it has been suggested the Hebrews, or the ancestors of the race, may have acquired a knowledge of Babylonian traditions. The earliest of these is the age of the patriarchs, the traditional ancestors of the Hebrew nation. The second period is that of the settlement in Canaan, which we may put from 1200 B.C. to the establishment of David's kingdom at about 1000 B.C. The third period is that of the later Judaean monarch, from 734 B.C. to 586 B.C., the date of the fall of Jerusalem; and in this last period there are two reigns of special importance in this connexion, those of Ahaz (734-720 B.C.) and Manasseh (693-638 B.C.). With regard to the earliest of these periods, those who support the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch may quite consistently assume that Abraham heard the legends in Ur of the Chaldees. And a simple retention of the traditional view seems to me a far preferable attitude to any elaborate attempt at rationalizing it. It is admitted that Arabia was the cradle of the Semitic race; and the most natural line of advance from Arabia to Aram and thence to Palestine would be up the Euphrates Valley. Some writers therefore assume that nomad tribes, personified in the traditional figure of Abraham, may have camped for a time in the neighbourhood of Ur and Babylon; and that they may have carried the Babylonian stories with them in their wanderings, and continued to preserve them during their long subsequent history. But, even granting that such nomads would have taken any interest in traditions of settled folk, this view hardly commends itself. For stories received from foreign sources become more and more transformed in the course of centuries.[1] The vivid Babylonian colouring of the Genesis narratives cannot be reconciled with this explanation of their source. [1] This objection would not of course apply to M. Naville's suggested solution, that cuneiform tablets formed the medium of transmission. But its author himself adds that he does not deny its conjectural character; see /The Text of the Old Testament/ (Schweich Lectures, 1915), p. 32. A far greater number of writers hold that it was after their arrival in Palestine that the Hebrew patriarchs came into contact with Babylonian culture. It is true that from an early period Syria was the scene of Babylonian invasions, and in the first lecture we noted some newly recovered evidence upon this point. Moreover, the dynasty to which Hammurabi belonged came originally from the north-eastern border of Canaan and Hammurabi himself exercised authority in the west. Thus a plausible case could be made out by exponents of this theory, especially as many parallels were noted between the Mosaic legislation and that contained in Hammurabi's Code. But it is now generally recognized that the features common to both the Hebrew and the Babylonian legal systems may be paralleled to-day in the Semitic East and elsewhere,[1] and cannot therefore be cited as evidence of cultural contact. Thus the hypothesis that the Hebrew patriarchs were subjects of Babylon in Palestine is not required as an explanation of the facts; and our first period still stands or falls by the question of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, which must be decided on quite other grounds. Those who do not accept the traditional view will probably be content to rule this first period out. [1] See Cook, /The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi/, p. 281 f.; Driver, /Genesis/, p. xxxvi f.; and cf. Johns, "The Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew Peoples/ (Schweich Lectures, 1912), pp. 50 ff. During the second period, that of the settlement in Canaan, the Hebrews came into contact with a people who had used the Babylonian language as the common medium of communication throughout the Near East. It is an interesting fact that among the numerous letters found at Tell el-Amarna were two texts of quite a different character. These were legends, both in the form of school exercises, which had been written out for practice in the Babylonian tongue. One of them was the legend of Adapa, in which we noted just now a distant resemblance to the Hebrew story of Paradise. It seems to me we are here standing on rather firmer ground; and provisionally we might place the beginning of our process after the time of Hebrew contact with the Canaanites. Under the earlier Hebrew monarchy there was no fresh influx of Babylonian culture into Palestine. That does not occur till our last main period, the later Judaean monarchy, when, in consequence of the westward advance of Assyria, the civilization of Babylon was once more carried among the petty Syrian states. Israel was first drawn into the circle of Assyrian influence, when Arab fought as the ally of Benhadad of Damascus at the battle of Karkar in 854 B.C.; and from that date onward the nation was menaced by the invading power. In 734 B.C., at the invitation of Ahaz of Judah, Tiglath-Pileser IV definitely intervened in the affairs of Israel. For Ahaz purchased his help against the allied armies of Israel and Syria in the Syro-Ephraimitish war. Tiglath-pileser threw his forces against Damascus and Israel, and Ahaz became his vassal.[1] To this period, when Ahaz, like Panammu II, "ran at the wheel of his lord, the king of Assyria", we may ascribe the first marked invasion of Assyrian influence over Judah. Traces of it may be seen in the altar which Ahaz caused to be erected in Jerusalem after the pattern of the Assyrian altar at Damascus.[2] We saw in the first lecture, in the monuments we have recovered of Panammu I and of Bar-rekub, how the life of another small Syrian state was inevitably changed and thrown into new channels by the presence of Tiglath-pileser and his armies in the West. [1] 2 Kings xvi. 7 ff. [2] 2 Kings xvi. 10 ff. Hezekiah's resistance checked the action of Assyrian influence on Judah for a time. But it was intensified under his son Manasseh, when Judah again became tributary to Assyria, and in the house of the Lord altars were built to all the host of heaven.[1] Towards the close of his long reign Manasseh himself was summoned by Ashur-bani-pal to Babylon.[2] So when in the year 586 B.C. the Jewish exiles came to Babylon they could not have found in its mythology an entirely new and unfamiliar subject. They must have recognized several of its stories as akin to those they had assimilated and now regarded as their own. And this would naturally have inclined them to further study and comparison. [1] 2 Kings xxi. 5. [2] Cf. 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 ff. The answer I have outlined to this problem is the one that appears to me most probable, but I do not suggest that it is the only possible one that can be given. What I do suggest is that the Hebrews must have gained some acquaintance with the legends of Babylon in pre-exilic times. And it depends on our reading of the evidence into which of the three main periods the beginning of the process may be traced. So much, then, for the influence of Babylon. We have seen that no similar problem arises with regard to the legends of Egypt. At first sight this may seem strange, for Egypt lay nearer than Babylon to Palestine, and political and commercial intercourse was at least as close. We have already noted how Egypt influenced Semitic art, and how she offered an ideal, on the material side of her existence, which was readily adopted by her smaller neighbours. Moreover, the Joseph traditions in Genesis give a remarkably accurate picture of ancient Egyptian life; and even the Egyptian proper names embedded in that narrative may be paralleled with native Egyptian names than that to which the traditions refer. Why then is it that the actual myths and legends of Egypt concerning the origin of the world and its civilization should have failed to impress the Hebrew mind, which, on the other hand, was so responsive to those of Babylon? One obvious answer would be, that it was Nebuchadnezzar II, and not Necho, who carried the Jews captive. And we may readily admit that the Captivity must have tended to perpetuate and intensify the effects of any Babylonian influence that may have previously been felt. But I think there is a wider and in that sense a better answer than that. I do not propose to embark at this late hour on what ethnologists know as the "Hamitic" problem. But it is a fact that many striking parallels to Egyptian religious belief and practice have been traced among races of the Sudan and East Africa. These are perhaps in part to be explained as the result of contact and cultural inheritance. But at the same time they are evidence of an African, but non-Negroid, substratum in the religion of ancient Egypt. In spite of his proto- Semitic strain, the ancient Egyptian himself never became a Semite. The Nile Valley, at any rate until the Moslem conquest, was stronger than its invaders; it received and moulded them to its own ideal. This quality was shared in some degree by the Euphrates Valley. But Babylonia was not endowed with Egypt's isolation; she was always open on the south and west to the Arabian nomad, who at a far earlier period sealed her Semitic type. To such racial division and affinity I think we may confidently trace the influence exerted by Egypt and Babylon respectively upon Hebrew tradition. APPENDIX I COMPARATIVE TABLE OF THE SUMERIAN, SEMITIC-BABYLONIAN, HELLENISTIC, AND HEBREW VERSIONS OF CREATION, ANTEDILUVIAN HISTORY, AND THE DELUGE N.B.--Parallels with the new Sumerian Version are in upper-case. Sumerian Version. Seven Tablets Gilgamesh Epic, XI Berossus['Damscius] Earlier Heb. (J) Later Heb. (P) [No heaven or earth No heaven or earth Darkness and water Creation of earth Earth without form First Creation from Primaeval water- [Primaeval water- and heaven and void; darkness primaeval water gods: Apsû-Tiamat, gods: {'Apason- No plant or herb on face of /tehôm/, without conflict; Mummu Tauthe}, {Moumis} Ground watered by the primaeval water cf. Later Sum. Ver. Generation of: Generation of: mist (or flood) Divine spirit moving Lakhmu-Lakhamu {Lakhos-Lakhe} [cf. Sumerian (hovering, brooding) Anshar-Kishar {'Assoros-Kissare} irrigation myth of upon face of waters Creation] The great gods: Birth of great gods: Birth of great gods: ANU, ENLIL, ENKI, ANU, Nudimmud (=EA) {'Anos, 'Illinos, and Ninkharsagga, Apsû and Tiamat 'Aos, 'Aois-Lauke, creating deities revolt Belos] Conquest of Tiamat Conquest of {'Omorka}, Creation of light by Marduk as Sun- or {Thamte}, by god {Belos} Creation of covering Creation of heaven and Creation of firmament, for heaven from earth from two halves or heaven, to divide half of Tiamat's of body of Thamte waters; followed by body, to keep her emergence of land waters in place Creation of vegetation Creation of luminaries Creation of luminaries Creation of luminaries [Creation of (probable order) Creation of animals vegetation] REASON FOR MAN'S REASON FOR MAN'S CREATION: worship of CREATION: worship of gods gods Creation of MAN Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN from Creation of MAN in Creator's blood and Creator's blood and dust and Creator's image of Creator, to from bone from earth breath of life have dominion Creation of ANIMALS [Creation of animals] Creation of ANIMALS Creation of vegetation Hymn on Seventh Tablet able to bear the air ANIMALS, and woman Rest on Seventh Day Creation of KINGDOM 10 Antediluvian KINGS The line of Cain Antediluvian 5 ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES: Antediluvian city: 3 ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES: The Nephilim [cf. patriarchs [cf. Eridu, Bad.., LARAK, SHURUPPAK Babylon, SIPPAR, Sumerian Dynastic Sumerian Dynastic SIPPAR, SHURUPPAK LARANKHA List] List] Gods decree MANKIND'S Gods decree flood, Destruction of MAN Destruction of all destruction by flood, goddess ISHTAR decreed, because of flesh decreed, because NINTU protesting protesting his wickedness of its corruption ZIUSUDU, hero of UT-NAPISHTIM, hero {Xisouthros} Noah, hero of Deluge Noah, hero of Deluge Deluge, KING and of Deluge (=Khasisatra), hero priest of Deluge, KING Ziusudu's PIETY Noah's FAVOUR Noah's RIGHTEOUSNESS WARNING of Ziusudu by WARNING of Ut-nap- WARNING of Xisuthros WARNING of Noah, and Enki in DREAM ishtim by Ea in DREAM by Kronos in DREAM instructions for ark Ziusudu's vessel a SHIP: 120x120x120 Size of SHIP: 5x2 Instructions to enter Size of ARK: 300x50x30 HUGE SHIP cubits; 7 stories; 9 stadia ark cubits; 3 stories divisions All kinds of animals All kinds of animals 7(x2) clean, 2 unclean 2 of all animals Flood and STORM for 7 FLOOD from heavy rain FLOOD FLOOD from rain for 40 FLOOD; founts. of deep days and STORM for 6 days days and rain, 150 days Ship on Mt. Nisir Ark on Ararat Abatement of waters Abatement of waters Abatement of waters Abatement of waters tested by birds tested by birds tested by birds through drying wind SACRIFICE to Sun-god SACRIFICE with sweet SACRIFICE to gods, SACRIFICE with sweet Landing from ark [after in ship savour on mountain after landing and savour after landing year (+10 days)] paying adoration to EARTH Anu and Enlil appeased Ea's protest to ENLIL APOTHEOSIS of X., Divine promise to Noah Divine covenant not [by "Heaven and Earth"] IMMORTALITY of Ut-nap- wife, daughter, and not again to curse again to destroy EARTH IMMORTALITY of Ziusudu ishtim and his wife pilot the GROUND by flood; bow as sign APPENDIX II THE ANTEDILUVIAN KINGS OF BEROSSUS AND THE SUMERIAN DYNASTIC LIST It may be of assistance to the reader to repeat in tabular form the equivalents to the mythical kings of Berossus which are briefly discussed in Lecture I. In the following table the two new equations, obtained from the earliest section of the Sumerian Dynastic List, are in upper-case.[1] The established equations to other names are in normal case, while those for which we should possibly seek other equivalents are enclosed within brackets.[2] Aruru has not been included as a possible equivalent for {'Aloros}.[3] 1. {'Aloros} 2. {'Alaparos [? 'Adaparos]}, /Alaporus/, /Alapaurus/ [Adapa] 3. {'Amelon, 'Amillaros}, /Almelon/ [Amêlu] 4. {'Ammenon} ENMENUNNA 5. {Megalaros, Megalanos}, /Amegalarus/ 6. {Daonos, Daos} ETANA 7. {Euedorakhos, Euedoreskhos}, /Edoranchus/ Enmeduranki 8. {'Amemphinos}, /Amemphsinus/ [Amêl-Sin] 9. {'Otiartes [? 'Opartes]} [Ubar-Tutu] 10. {Xisouthros, Sisouthros, Sisithros} Khasisatra, Atrakhasis[4] [1] For the royal names of Berossus, see /Euseb. chron. lib. pri./, ed. Schoene, cols. 7 f., 31 ff. The latinized variants correspond to forms in the Armenian translation of Eusebius. [2] For the principal discussions of equivalents, see Hommel, /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, Vol. XV (1893), pp. 243 ff., and /Die altorientalischen Denkmäler und das Alte Testament/ (1902), pp. 23 ff.; Zimmern, /Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament/, 3rd ed. (1902), pp. 531 ff.; and cf. Lenormant, /Les origines de l'histoire/, I (1880), pp. 214 ff. See also Driver, /Genesis/, 10th ed. (1916), p. 80 f.; Skinner, /Genesis/, p. 137 f.; Ball, /Genesis/, p. 50; and Gordon, /Early Traditions of Genesis/, pp. 46 ff. [3] There is a suggested equation of Lal-ur-alimma with {'Aloros}. [4] The hundred and twenty "sars", or 432,000 years assigned by Berossus for the duration of the Antediluvian dynasty, are distributed as follows among the ten kings; the numbers are given below first in "sars", followed by their equivalents in years within brackets: 1. Ten "sars" (36,000); 2. Three (10,800); 3. Thirteen (46,800); 4. Twelve (43,200); 5. Eighteen (64,800); 6. Ten (36,000); 7. Eighteen (64,800); 8. Ten (36,000); 9. Eight (28,800); 10. Eighteen (64,800). For comparison with Berossus it may be useful to abstract from the Sumerian Dynastic List the royal names occurring in the earliest extant dynasties. They are given below with variant forms from duplicate copies of the list, and against each is added the number of years its owner is recorded to have ruled. The figures giving the total duration of each dynasty, either in the summaries or under the separate reigns, are sometimes not completely preserved; in such cases an x is added to the total of the figures still legible. Except in those cases referred to in the foot-notes, all the names are written in the Sumerian lists without the determinative for "god". KINGDOM OF KISH (23 kings; 18,000 + x years, 3 months, 3 days) . . .[1] 8. [. . .] 900(?) years 9. Galumum, Kalumum 900 " 10. Zugagib, Zugakib 830 " 11. Arpi, Arpiu, Arbum 720 " 12. Etana[2] 635 (or 625) years 13. Pili . . .[3] 410 years 14. Enmenunna, Enmennunna[4] 611 " 15. Melamkish 900 " 16. Barsalnunna 1,200 " 17. Mesza[. . .] [. . .] " . . .[5] 22. . . . 900 years 23. . . . 625 " KINGDOM OF EANNA (ERECH)[6] (About 10-12 kings; 2,171 + x years) 1. Meskingasher 325 years 2. Enmerkar 420 " 3. Lugalbanda[7] 1,200 " 4. Dumuzi[8] (i.e. Tammuz) 100 " 5. Gishbilgames[9] (i.e. Gilgamesh) 126 (or 186) years 6. [. . .]lugal [. . .] years . . .[10] KINGDOM OF UR (4 kings; 171 years) 1. Mesannipada 80 years 2. Meskiagnunna 30 " 3. Elu[. . .] 25 " 4. Balu[. . .] 36 " KINGDOM OF AWAN (3 kings; 356 years) . . .[11] [1] Gap of seven, or possibly eight, names. [2] The name Etana is written in the lists with and without the determinative for "god". [3] The reading of the last sign in the name is unknown. A variant form of the name possibly begins with Bali. [4] This form is given on a fragment of a late Assyrian copy of the list; cf. /Studies in Eastern History/, Vol. III, p. 143. [5] Gap of four, or possibly three, names. [6] Eanna was the great temple of Erech. In the Second Column of the list "the kingdom" is recorded to have passed from Kish to Eanna, but the latter name does not occur in the summary. [7] The name Lugalbanda is written in the lists with and without the determinative for "god". [8] The name Dumuzi is written in the list with the determinative for "god". [9] The name Gishbilgames is written in the list with the determinative for "god". [10] Gap of about four, five, or six kings. [11] Wanting. At this point a great gap occurs in our principal list. The names of some of the missing "kingdoms" may be inferred from the summaries, but their relative order is uncertain. Of two of them we know the duration, a second Kingdom of Ur containing four kings and lasting for a hundred and eight years, and another kingdom, the name of which is not preserved, consisting of only one king who ruled for seven years. The dynastic succession only again becomes assured with the opening of the Dynastic chronicle published by Père Scheil and recently acquired by the British Museum. It will be noted that with the Kingdom of Ur the separate reigns last for decades and not hundreds of years each, so that we here seem to approach genuine tradition, though the Kingdom of Awan makes a partial reversion to myth so far as its duration is concerned. The two suggested equations with Antediluvian kings of Berossus both occur in the earliest Kingdom of Kish and lie well within the Sumerian mythical period. The second of the rulers concerned, Enmenunna (Ammenon), is placed in Sumerian tradition several thousand years before the reputed succession of the gods Lugalbanda and Tammuz and of the national hero Gilgamesh to the throne of Erech. In the first lecture some remarkable points of general resemblance have already been pointed out between Hebrew and Sumerian traditions of these early ages of the world. End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. MacKenzie.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next Buy this Book on Kindle Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. MacKenzie, [1915], at sacred-texts.com p. 21 CHAPTER II The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep Fertility of Ancient Babylonia--Rivers, Canals, Seasons, and Climate--Early Trade and Foreign Influences--Local Religious Cults--Ea, God of the Deep, identical with Oannes of Berosus--Origin as a Sacred Fish--Compared with Brahma and Vishnu--Flood Legends in Babylonia and India--Fish Deities in Babylonia and Egypt--Fish God as a Corn God--The River as Creator--Ea an Artisan God, and links with Egypt and India--Ea as the Hebrew Jah--Ea and Varuna are Water and Sky Gods--The Babylonian Dagan and Dagon of the Philistines--Deities of Water and Harvest in Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland, and Egypt--Ea's Spouse Damkina--Demons of Ocean in Babylonia and India--Anu, God of the Sky--Enlil, Storm and War God of Nippur, like Adad, Odin, &c.--Early Gods of Babylonia and Egypt of common origin--Ea's City as Cradle of Sumerian Civilization. ANCIENT Babylonia was for over four thousand years the garden of Western Asia. In the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, when it had come under the sway of the younger civilization of Assyria on the north, it was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey". 1 Herodotus found it still flourishing and extremely fertile. "This territory", he wrote, "is of all that we know the best by far for producing grain; it is so good that it returns as much as two hundredfold for the average, and, when it bears at its best, it produces three hundredfold. The blades of the wheat and barley there grow to be full four fingers broad; p. 22 and from millet and sesame seed, how large a tree grows, I know myself, but shall not record, being well aware that even what has already been said relating to the crops produced has been enough to cause disbelief in those who have not visited Babylonia." 1 To-day great tracts of undulating moorland, which aforetime yielded two and three crops a year, are in summer partly barren wastes and partly jungle and reedy swamp. Bedouins camp beside sandy heaps which were once populous and thriving cities, and here and there the shrunken remnants of a people once great and influential eke out precarious livings under the oppression of Turkish tax-gatherers who are scarcely less considerate than the plundering nomads of the desert. This historic country is bounded on the east by Persia and on the west by the Arabian desert. In shape somewhat resembling a fish, it lies between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, too miles wide at its broadest part, and narrowing to 35 miles towards the "tail" in the latitude of Baghdad; the "head" converges to a point above Basra, where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab, which pours into the Persian Gulf after meeting the Karun and drawing away the main volume of that double-mouthed river. The distance from Baghdad to Basra is about 300 miles, and the area traversed by the Shatt-el-Arab is slowly extending at the rate of a mile every thirty years or so, as a result of the steady accumulation of silt and mud carried down by the Tigris and Euphrates. When Sumeria was beginning to flourish, these two rivers had separate outlets, and Eridu, the seat of the cult of the sea god Ea, which now lies 125 miles inland, was a seaport at the head of the Persian Gulf. A day's journey separated the river mouths when p. 23 [paragraph continues]Alexander the Great broke the power of the Persian Empire. In the days of Babylonia's prosperity the Euphrates was hailed as "the soul of the land" and the Tigris as "the bestower of blessings". Skilful engineers had solved the problem of water distribution by irrigating sun-parched areas and preventing the excessive flooding of those districts which are now rendered impassable swamps when the rivers overflow. A network of canals was constructed throughout the country, which restricted the destructive tendencies of the Tigris and Euphrates and developed to a high degree their potentialities as fertilizing agencies. The greatest of these canals appear to have been anciently river beds. One, which is called Shatt en Nil to the north, and Shatt el Kar to the south, curved eastward from Babylon, and sweeping past Nippur, flowed like the letter S towards Larsa and then rejoined the river. It is believed to mark the course followed in the early Sumerian period by the Euphrates river, which has moved steadily westward many miles beyond the sites of ancient cities that were erected on its banks. Another important canal, the Shatt el Hai, crossed the plain from the Tigris to its sister river, which lies lower at this point, and does not run so fast. Where the artificial canals were constructed on higher levels than the streams which fed them, the water was raised by contrivances known as "shaddufs"; the buckets or skin bags were roped to a weighted beam, with the aid of which they were swung up by workmen and emptied into the canals. It is possible that this toilsome mode of irrigation was substituted in favourable parts by the primitive water wheels which are used in our own day by the inhabitants of the country who cultivate strips of land along the river banks. In Babylonia there are two seasons--the rainy and p. 24 the dry. Rain falls from November till March, and the plain is carpeted in spring by patches of vivid green verdure and brilliant wild flowers. Then the period of drought ensues; the sun rapidly burns up all vegetation, and everywhere the eye is wearied by long stretches of brown and yellow desert. Occasional sandstorms darken the heavens, sweeping over sterile wastes and piling up the shapeless mounds which mark the sites of ancient cities. Meanwhile the rivers are increasing in volume, being fed by the melting snows at their mountain sources far to the north. The swift Tigris, which is 1146 miles long, begins to rise early in March and reaches its highest level in May; before the end of June it again subsides. More sluggish in movement, the Euphrates, which is 1780 miles long, shows signs of rising a fortnight later than the Tigris, and is in flood for a more extended period; it does not shrink to its lowest level until early in September. By controlling the flow of these mighty rivers, preventing disastrous floods, and storing and distributing surplus water, the ancient Babylonians developed to the full the natural resources of their country, and made it--what it may once again become--one of the fairest and most habitable areas in the world. Nature conferred upon them bountiful rewards for their labour; trade and industries flourished, and the cities increased in splendour and strength. Then as now the heat was great during the long summer, but remarkably dry and unvarying, while the air was ever wonderfully transparent under cloudless skies of vivid blue. The nights were cool and of great beauty, whether in brilliant moonlight or when ponds and canals were jewelled by the lustrous displays of clear and numerous stars which glorified that homeland of the earliest astronomers. Babylonia is a treeless country, and timber had to be p. 25 imported from the earliest times. The date palm was probably introduced by man, as were certainly the vine and the fig tree, which were widely cultivated, especially in the north. Stone, suitable for building, was very scarce, and limestone, alabaster, marble, and basalt had to be taken from northern Mesopotamia, where the mountains also yield copper and lead and iron. Except Eridu, where ancient workers quarried sandstone from its sea-shaped ridge, all the cities were built of brick, an excellent clay being found in abundance. When brick walls were cemented with bitumen they were given great stability. This resinous substance is found in the north and south. It bubbles up through crevices of rocks on river banks and forms small ponds. Two famous springs at modern Hit, on the Euphrates, have been drawn upon from time immemorial. "From one", writes a traveller, "flows hot water black with bitumen, while the other discharges intermittently bitumen, or, after a rainstorm, bitumen and cold water. . . . Where rocks crop out in the plain above Hit, they are full of seams of bitumen." 1 Present-day Arabs call it "kiyara", and export it for coating boats and roofs; they also use it as an antiseptic, and apply it to cure the skin diseases from which camels suffer. Sumeria had many surplus products, including corn and figs, pottery, fine wool and woven garments, to offer in exchange for what it most required from other countries. It must, therefore, have had a brisk and flourishing foreign trade at an exceedingly remote period. No doubt numerous alien merchants were attracted to its cities, and it may be that they induced or encouraged Semitic and other raiders to overthrow governments and form military aristocracies, so that they themselves might obtain necessary concessions and achieve a degree of p. 26 political ascendancy. It does not follow, however, that the peasant class was greatly affected by periodic revolutions of this kind, which brought little more to them than a change of rulers. The needs of the country necessitated the continuance of agricultural methods and the rigid observance of existing land laws; indeed, these constituted the basis of Sumerian prosperity. Conquerors have ever sought reward not merely in spoil, but also the services of the conquered. In northern Babylonia the invaders apparently found it necessary to conciliate and secure the continued allegiance of the tillers of the soil. Law and religion being closely associated, they had to adapt their gods to suit the requirements of existing social and political organizations. A deity of pastoral nomads had to receive attributes which would give him an agricultural significance; one of rural character had to be changed to respond to the various calls of city life. Besides, local gods could not be ignored on account of their popularity. As a result, imported beliefs and religious customs must have been fused and absorbed according to their bearing on modes of life in various localities. It is probable that the complex character of certain deities was due to the process of adjustment to which they were subjected in new environments. The petty kingdoms of Sumeria appear to have been tribal in origin. Each city was presided over by a deity who was the nominal owner of the surrounding arable land, farms were rented or purchased from the priesthood, and pasture was held in common. As in Egypt, where we find, for instance, the artisan god Ptah supreme at Memphis, the sun god Ra at Heliopolis, and the cat goddess Bast at Bubastis, the various local Sumerian and Akkadian deities had distinctive characteristics, and similarly showed a tendency to absorb the attributes of their p. 27 rivals. The chief deity of a state was the central figure in a pantheon, which had its political aspect and influenced the growth of local theology. Cities, however, did not, as a rule, bear the names of deities, which suggests that several were founded when Sumerian religion was in its early animistic stages, and gods and goddesses were not sharply defined from the various spirit groups. A distinctive and characteristic Sumerian god was Ea, who was supreme at the ancient sea-deserted port of Eridu. He is identified with the Oannes of Berosus, 1 who referred to the deity as "a creature endowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, with feet below like those of a man, with a fish's tail". This description recalls the familiar figures of Egyptian gods and priests attired in the skins of the sacred animals from whom their powers were derived, and the fairy lore about swan maids and men, and the seals and other animals who could divest themselves of their "skin coverings" and appear in human shape. Originally Ea may have been a sacred fish. The Indian creative gods Brahma and Vishnu had fish forms. In Sanskrit literature Manu, the eponymous "first man", is instructed by the fish to build a ship in which to save himself when the world would be purged by the rising waters. Ea befriended in similar manner the Babylonian Noah, called Pir-napishtim, advising him to build a vessel so as to be prepared for the approaching Deluge. Indeed the Indian legend appears to throw light on the original Sumerian conception of Ea. It relates that when the fish was small and in danger of being swallowed by other fish in a stream it appealed to Manu for protection. The p. 28 sage at once lifted up the fish and placed it in a jar of water. It gradually increased in bulk, and he transferred it next to a tank and then to the river Ganges. In time the fish complained to Manu that the river was too small for it, so he carried it to the sea. For these services the god in fish form instructed Manu regarding the approaching flood, and afterwards piloted his ship through the weltering waters until it rested on a mountain top. 1 If this Indian myth is of Babylonian origin, as appears probable, it may be that the spirit of the river Euphrates, "the soul of the land", was identified with a migrating fish. The growth of the fish suggests the growth of the river rising in flood. In Celtic folk tales high tides and valley floods are accounted for by the presence of a "great beast" in sea, loch, or river. In a class of legends, "specially connected with the worship of Atargatis", wrote Professor Robertson Smith, "the divine life of the waters resides in the sacred fish that inhabit them. Atargatis and her son, according to a legend common to Hierapolis and Ascalon, plunged into the waters--in the first case the Euphrates, in the second the sacred pool at the temple near the town--and were changed into fishes". The idea is that "where a god dies, that is, ceases to exist in human form, his life passes into the waters where he is buried; and this again is merely a theory to bring the divine water or the divine fish into harmony with anthropomorphic ideas. The same thing was sometimes effected in another way by saying that the anthropomorphic deity was born from the water, as Aphrodite sprang from sea foam, or as Atargatis, in another form of the Euphrates legend, . . . was born of an egg which the sacred fishes found in the Euphrates and pushed ashore." 2 As "Shar Apsi", Ea was the "King of the Watery p. 29 [paragraph continues]Deep". The reference, however, according to Jastrow, "is not to the salt ocean, but the sweet waters flowing under the earth which feed the streams, and through streams and canals irrigate the fields". 1 As Babylonia was fertilized by its rivers, Ea, the fish god, was a fertilizing deity. In Egypt the "Mother of Mendes" is depicted carrying a fish upon her head; she links with Isis and Hathor; her husband is Ba-neb-Tettu, a form of Ptah, Osiris, and Ra, and as a god of fertility he is symbolized by the ram. Another Egyptian fish deity was the god Rem, whose name signifies "to weep"; he wept fertilizing tears, and corn was sown and reaped amidst lamentations. He may be identical with Remi, who was a phase of Sebek, the crocodile god, a developed attribute of Nu, the vague primitive Egyptian deity who symbolized the primordial deep. The connection between a fish god and a corn god is not necessarily remote when we consider that in Babylonia and Egypt the harvest was the gift of the rivers. The Euphrates, indeed, was hailed as a creator of all that grew on its banks. O thou River who didst create all things, When the great gods dug thee out, They set prosperity upon thy banks, Within thee Ea, the King of the Deep, created his dwelling . . . Thou judgest the cause of mankind! O River, thou art mighty! O River, thou art supreme! O River, thou art righteous! 2 In serving Ea, the embodiment or the water spirit, by leading him, as the Indian Manu led the Creator and "Preserver" in fish form, from river to water pot, water pot to pond or canal, and then again to river and ocean, p. 30 the Babylonians became expert engineers and experienced agriculturists, the makers of bricks, the builders of cities, the framers of laws. Indeed, their civilization was a growth of Ea worship. Ea was their instructor. Berosus states that, as Oannes, he lived in the Persian Gulf, and every day came ashore to instruct the inhabitants of Eridu how to make canals, to grow crops, to work metals, to make pottery and bricks, and to build temples; he was the artisan god--Nun-ura, "god of the potter"; Kuski-banda, "god of goldsmiths", &c.--the divine patron of the arts and crafts. "Ea knoweth everything", chanted the hymn maker. He taught the people how to form and use alphabetic signs and instructed them in mathematics: he gave them their code of laws. Like the Egyptian artisan god Ptah, and the linking deity Khnumu, Ea was the "potter or moulder of gods and man". Ptah moulded the first man on his potter's wheel: he also moulded the sun and moon; he shaped the universe and hammered out the copper sky. Ea built the world "as an architect builds a house". 1 Similarly the Vedic Indra, who wielded a hammer like Ptah, fashioned the universe after the simple manner in which the Aryans made their wooden dwellings. 2 Like Ptah, Ea also developed from an artisan god into a sublime Creator in the highest sense, not merely as a producer of crops. His word became the creative force; he named those things he desired to be, and they came into existence. "Who but Ea creates things", exclaimed a priestly poet. This change from artisan god to creator (Nudimmud) may have been due to the tendency of early religious cults to attach to their chief god the attributes of rivals exalted at other centres. p. 31 Ea, whose name is also rendered Aa, was identified with Ya, Ya’u, or Au, the Jah of the Hebrews. "In Ya-Daganu, 'Jah is Dagon'", writes Professor Pinches, "we have the elements reversed, showing a wish to identify Jah with Dagon, rather than Dagon with Jah; whilst another interesting name, Au-Aa, shows an identification of Jah with Aa, two names which have every appearance of being etymologically connected." Jah's name "is one of the words for 'god' in the Assyro-Babylonian language". 1 Ea was "Enki", "lord of the world", or "lord of what is beneath"; Amma-ana-ki, "lord of heaven and earth"; Sa-kalama, "ruler of the land", as well as Engur, "god of the abyss", Naqbu, "the deep", and Lugal-ida, "king of the river". As rain fell from "the waters above the firmament", the god of waters was also a sky and earth god. The Indian Varuna was similarly a sky as well as an ocean god before the theorizing and systematizing Brahmanic teachers relegated him to a permanent abode at the bottom of the sea. It may be that Ea-Oannes and Varuna were of common origin. Another Babylonian deity, named Dagan, is believed to be identical with Ea. His worship was certainly of great antiquity. "Hammurabi", writes Professor Pinches, "seems to speak of the Euphrates as being 'the boundary of Dagan', whom he calls his creator. In later inscriptions the form Daguna, which approaches nearer to the West Semitic form (Dagon of the Philistines), is found in a few personal names. 2 It is possible that the Philistine deity Dagon was a p. 32 specialized form of ancient Ea, who was either imported from Babylonia or was a sea god of more than one branch of the Mediterranean race. The authorities are at variance regarding the form and attributes of Dagan. Our know-ledge regarding him is derived mainly from the Bible. He was a national rather than a city god. There are references to a Beth-dagon 1, "house or city of Dagon"; he had also a temple at Gaza, and Samson destroyed it by pulling down the two middle pillars which were its main support. 2 A third temple was situated in Ashdod. When the captured ark of the Israelites was placed in it the image of Dagon "fell on his face", with the result that "the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left". 3 A further reference to "the threshold of Dagon" suggests that the god had feet like Ea-Oannes. Those who hold that Dagon had a fish form derive his name from the Semitic "dag = a fish", and suggest that after the idol fell only the fishy part (dāgo) was left. On the other hand, it was argued that Dagon was a corn god, and that the resemblance between the words Dagan and Dagon are accidental. Professor Sayce makes reference in this connection to a crystal seal from Phoenicia in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, bearing an inscription which he reads as Baal-dagon. Near the name is an ear of corn, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle, and several stars, but there is no fish. It may be, of course, that Baal-dagon represents a fusion of deities. As we have seen in the case of Ea-Oannes and the deities of Mendes, a fish god may also be a corn god, a land animal god and a god of ocean and the sky. The offering of golden mice representing "your mice that mar the p. 33 land", 1 made by the Philistines, suggests that Dagon was the fertilizing harvest god, among other things, whose usefulness had been impaired, as they believed, by the mistake committed of placing the ark of Israel in the temple at Ashdod. The Philistines came from Crete, and if their Dagon was imported from that island, he may have had some connection with Poseidon, whose worship extended throughout Greece. This god of the sea, who is somewhat like the Roman Neptune, carried a lightning trident and caused earthquakes. He was a brother of Zeus, the sky and atmosphere deity, and had bull and horse forms. As a horse he pursued Demeter, the earth and corn goddess, and, like Ea, he instructed mankind, but especially in the art of training horses. In his train were the Tritons, half men, half fishes, and the water fairies, the Nereids. Bulls, boars, and rams were offered to this sea god of fertility. Amphitrite was his spouse. An obscure god Shony, the Oannes of the Scottish Hebrides, received oblations from those who depended for their agricultural prosperity on his gifts of fertilizing seaweed. He is referred to in Martin's Western Isles, and is not yet forgotten. The Eddie sea god Njord of Noatun was the father of Frey, the harvest god. Dagda, the Irish corn god, had for wife Boann, the goddess of the river Boyne. Osiris and Isis of Egypt were associated with the Nile. The connection between agriculture and the water supply was too obvious to escape the early symbolists, and many other proofs of this than those referred to could be given. Ea's "faithful spouse" was the goddess Damkina, who was also called Nin-ki, "lady of the earth". "May Ea make thee glad", chanted the priests. "May Damkina, queen of the deep, illumine thee with her countenance; p. 34 may Merodach (Marduk), the mighty overseer of the Igigi (heavenly spirits), exalt thy head." Merodach was their son: in time he became the Bel, or "Lord", of the Babylonian pantheon. Like the Indian Varuna, the sea god, Ea-Oannes had control over the spirits and demons of the deep. The "ferryman" who kept watch over the river of death was called Arad-Ea, "servant of Ea". There are also references to sea maidens, the Babylonian mermaids, or Nereids. We have a glimpse of sea giants, which resemble the Indian Danavas and Daityas of ocean, in the chant: Seven are they, seven are they, In the ocean deep seven are they, Battening in heaven seven are they, Bred in the depths of ocean. . . . Of these seven the first is the south wind, The second a dragon with mouth agape. . . . 1 [paragraph continues]A suggestion of the Vedic Vritra and his horde of monsters. These seven demons were also "the messengers of Anu", who, although specialized as a sky god in more than one pantheon, appears to have been closely associated with Ea in the earliest Sumerian period. His name, signifying "the high one", is derived from "ana", "heaven"; he was the city god of Erech (Uruk). It is possible that he was developed as an atmospheric god with solar and lunar attributes. The seven demons, who were his messengers, recall the stormy Maruts, the followers of Indra. They are referred to as Forcing their way with baneful windstorms, Mighty destroyers, the deluge of the storm god, Stalking at the right hand of the storm god. 2 p. 35 When we deal with a deity in his most archaic form it is difficult to distinguish him from a demon. Even the beneficent Ea is associated with monsters and furies. "Evil spirits", according to a Babylonian chant, were "the bitter venom of the gods". Those attached to a deity as "attendants" appear to represent the original animistic group from which he evolved. In each district the character of the deity was shaped to accord with local conditions. At Nippur, which was situated on the vague and shifting boundary line between Sumer and Akkad, the chief god was Enlil, whose name is translated "lord of mist", "lord of might", and "lord of demons" by various authorities. He was a storm god and a war god, and "lord of heaven and earth", like Ea and Anu. An atmospheric deity, he shares the attributes of the Indian Indra, the thunder and rain god, and Vayu, the wind god; he also resembles the Semitic Adad or Rim-man, who links with the Hittite Tarku. All these are deities of tempest and the mountains--Wild Huntsmen in the Raging Host. The name of Enlil's temple at Nippur has been translated as "mountain house", or "like a mountain", and the theory obtained for a time that the god must therefore have been imported by a people from the hills. But as the ideogram for "mountain" and "land" was used in the earliest times, as King shows, with reference to foreign countries, 1 it is more probable that Enlil was exalted as a world god who had dominion over not only Sumer and Akkad, but also the territories occupied by the rivals and enemies of the early Babylonians. Enlil is known as the "older Bel" (lord), to distinguish him from Bel Merodach of Babylon. He was p. 36 the chief figure in a triad in which he figured as earth god, with Anu as god of the sky and Ea as god of the deep. This classification suggests that Nippur had either risen in political importance and dominated the cities of Erech and Eridu, or that its priests were influential at the court of a ruler who was the overlord of several city states. Associated with Bel Enlil was Beltis, later known as "Beltu--the lady". She appears to be identical with the other great goddesses, Ishtar, Nana, Zer-panitum, &c., a "Great Mother", or consort of an early god with whom she was equal in power and dignity. In the later systematized theology of the Babylonians we seem to trace the fragments of a primitive mythology which was vague in outline, for the deities were not sharply defined, and existed in groups. Enneads were formed in Egypt by placing a local god at the head of a group of eight elder deities. The sun god Ra was the chief figure of the earliest pantheon of this character at Heliopolis, while at Hermopolis the leader was the lunar god Thoth. Professor Budge is of opinion that "both the Sumerians and the early Egyptians derived their primeval gods from some common but exceedingly ancient source", for he finds in the Babylonian and Nile valleys that there is a resemblance between two early groups which "seems to be too close to be accidental". 1 The Egyptian group comprises four pairs of vague gods and goddesses--Nu and his consort Nut, Hehu and his consort Hehut, Kekui and his consort Kekuit, and Kerh and his consort Kerhet. "Man always has fashioned", he says, "and probably always will fashion, his god or gods in his own image, and he has always, having reached a certain stage in development, given to his gods wives p. 37 and offspring; but the nature of the position taken by the wives of the gods depends upon the nature of the position of women in the households of those who write the legends and the traditions of the gods. The gods of the oldest company in Egypt were, the writer believes, invented by people in whose households women held a high position, and among whom they possessed more power than is usually the case with Oriental peoples." 1 We cannot say definitely what these various deities represent. Nu was the spirit of the primordial deep, and Nut of the waters above the heavens, the mother of moon and sun and the stars. The others were phases of light and darkness and the forces of nature in activity and repose. Nu is represented in Babylonian mythology by Apsu-Rishtu, and Nut by Mummu-Tiamat or Tiawath; the next pair is Lachmu and Lachamu, and the third, Anshar and Kishar. The fourth pair is missing, but the names of Anu and Ea (as Nudimmud) are mentioned in the first tablet of the Creation series, and the name of a third is lost. Professor Budge thinks that the Assyrian editors substituted the ancient triad of Anu, Ea, and Enlil for the pair which would correspond to those found in Egypt. Originally the wives of Anu and Ea may have made up the group of eight primitive deities. There can be little doubt but that Ea, as he survives to us, is of later characterization than the first pair of primitive deities who symbolized the deep. The attributes of this beneficent god reflect the progress, and the social and moral ideals of a people well advanced in civilization. He rewarded mankind for the services they rendered to him; he was their leader and instructor; he achieved for them the victories over the destructive forces p. 38 of nature. In brief, he was the dragon slayer, a distinction, by the way, which was attached in later times to his son Merodach, the Babylonian god, although Ea was still credited with the victory over the dragon's husband. When Ea was one of the pre-Babylonian group--the triad of Bel-Enlil, Anu, and Ea--he resembled the Indian Vishnu, the Preserver, while Bel-Enlil resembled Shiva, the Destroyer, and Anu, the father, supreme Brahma, the Creator and Father of All, the difference in exact adjustment being due, perhaps, to Sumerian political conditions. Ea, as we have seen, symbolized the beneficence of the waters; their destructive force was represented by Tiamat or Tiawath, the dragon, and Apsu, her husband, the arch-enemy of the gods. We shall find these elder demons figuring in the Babylonian Creation myth, which receives treatment in a later chapter. The ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, which means "on the seashore", was invested with great sanctity from the earliest times, and Ea, the "great magician of the gods", was invoked by workers of spells, the priestly magicians of historic Babylonia. Excavations have shown that Eridu was protected by a retaining wall of sandstone, of which material many of its houses were made. In its temple tower, built of brick, was a marble stairway, and evidences have been forthcoming that in the later Sumerian period the structure was lavishly adorned. It is referred to in the fragments of early literature which have survived as "the splendid house, shady as the forest", that "none may enter". The mythological spell exercised by Eridu in later times suggests that the civilization of Sumeria owed much to the worshippers of Ea. At the sacred city the first man was created: there the souls p. 39 of the dead passed towards the great Deep. Its proximity to the sea--Ea was Nin-bubu, "god of the sailor"--may have brought it into contact with other peoples and other early civilizations. Like the early Egyptians, the early Sumerians may have been in touch with Punt (Somali-land), which some regard as the cradle of the Mediterranean race. The Egyptians obtained from that sacred land incense-bearing trees which had magical potency. In a fragmentary Babylonian charm there is a reference to a sacred tree or bush at Eridu. Professor Sayce has suggested that it is the Biblical "Tree of Life" in the Garden of Eden. His translations of certain vital words, however, is sharply questioned by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, who does not accept the theory. 1 It may be that Ea's sacred bush or tree is a survival of tree and water worship. If Eridu was not the "cradle" of the Sumerian race, it was possibly the cradle of Sumerian civilization. Here, amidst the shifting rivers in early times, the agriculturists may have learned to control and distribute the water supply by utilizing dried-up beds of streams to irrigate the land. Whatever successes they achieved were credited to Ea, their instructor and patron; he was Nadimmud, "god of everything". Footnotes 21:1 2 Kings, xviii, 32. 22:1 Herodotus, i, 193. 25:1 Peter's Nippur, i, p. 160. 27:1 A Babylonian priest of Bel Merodach. In the third century B.C. he composed in Greek a history of his native land, which has perished. Extracts from it are given by Eusebius, Josephus, Apollodorus, and others. 28:1 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 140, 141. 28:2 The Religion of the Semites, pp. 159, 160. 29:1 Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, p. 88. 29:2 The Seven Tablets of Creation, L. W. King, vol. i, p. 129. 30:1 Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, p. 88. 30:2 Cosmology of the Rigveda, Wallis, and Indian Myth and Legend, p. 10. 31:1 The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia, T. G. Pinches, pp. 59-61. 31:2 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T. G. Pinches, pp. 91, 92. 32:1 Joshua, xv, 41; xix, 27. 32:2 Judges, xvi, 1. 32:3 1 Sam., v, 1-9. 33:1 1 Sam., vi, 5. 34:1 The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. Campbell Thompson, London, 1903, vol. i, p. xlii. 34:2 The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. C. Thompson, vol. i, p. xliii. 35:1 A History of Sumer and Akkad, L. W. King, p. 54. 36:1 The Gods of the Egyptians, E. Wallis Budge, vol. i, p. 290. 37:1 The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. i, p. 287. 39:1 The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. i, Intro. See also Sayce's The Religion of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia (Gifford Lectures, 1902), p. 385, and Pinches' The Old Testament in the Light of Historical Records, &c., p. 71. Next: Chapter III. Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities

MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.txt

MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA CHAPTER I The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia Prehistoric Babylonia--The Confederacies of Sumer and Akkad--Sumerian Racial Affinities--Theories of Mongolian and Ural-Altaic Origins--Evidence of Russian Turkestan--Beginnings of Agriculture--Remarkable Proofs from Prehistoric Egyptian Graves--Sumerians and the Mediterranean Race--Present-day Types in Western Asia--The Evidence of Crania--Origin of the Akkadians--The Semitic Blend--Races in Ancient Palestine--Southward Drift of Armenoid Peoples--The Rephaims of the Bible--Akkadians attain Political Supremacy in Northern Babylonia--Influence of Sumerian Culture--Beginnings of Civilization--Progress in the Neolithic Age--Position of Women in Early Communities--Their Legal Status in Ancient Babylonia--Influence in Social and Religious Life--The "Woman's Language"--Goddess who inspired Poets. BEFORE the dawn of the historical period Ancient Babylonia was divided into a number of independent city states similar to those which existed in pre-Dynastic Egypt. Ultimately these were grouped into loose confederacies. The northern cities were embraced in the territory known as Akkad, and the southern in the land of Sumer, or Shumer. This division had a racial as well as a geographical significance. The Akkadians were p. 2 [paragraph continues]"late corners" who had achieved political ascendency in the north when the area they occupied was called Uri, or Kiuri, and Sumer was known as Kengi. They were a people of Semitic speech with pronounced Semitic affinities. From the earliest times the sculptors depicted them with abundant locks, long full beards, and the prominent distinctive noses and full lips, which we usually associate with the characteristic Jewish type, and also attired in long, flounced robes, suspended from their left shoulders, and reaching down to their ankles. In contrast, the Sumerians had clean-shaven faces and scalps, and noses of Egyptian and Grecian rather than Semitic type, while they wore short, pleated kilts, and went about with the upper part of their bodies quite bare like the Egyptian noblemen of the Old Kingdom period. They spoke a non-Semitic language, and were the oldest inhabitants of Babylonia of whom we have any knowledge. Sumerian civilization was rooted in the agricultural mode of life, and appears to have been well developed before the Semites became numerous and influential in the land. Cities had been built chiefly of sun-dried and fire-baked bricks; distinctive pottery was manufactured with much skill; the people were governed by humanitarian laws, which formed the nucleus of the Hammurabi code, and had in use a system of cuneiform writing which was still in process of development from earlier pictorial characters. The distinctive feature of their agricultural methods was the engineering skill which was displayed in extending the cultivatable area by the construction of irrigating canals and ditches. There are also indications that they possessed some knowledge of navigation and traded on the Persian Gulf. According to one of their own traditions Eridu, originally a seaport, was their racial cradle. The Semitic Akkadians adopted the distinctive culture of EXAMPLES OF RACIAL TYPES<br> From a drawing by E. Wallcousins Click to enlarge EXAMPLES OF RACIAL TYPES From a drawing by E. Wallcousins p. 3 these Sumerians after settlement, and exercised an influence on its subsequent growth. Much controversy has been waged regarding the original home of the Sumerians and the particular racial type which they represented. One theory connects them with the lank-haired and beardless Mongolians, and it is asserted on the evidence afforded by early sculptural reliefs that they were similarly oblique-eyed. As they also spoke an agglutinative language, it is suggested that they were descended from the same parent stock as the Chinese in an ancient Parthian homeland. If, however, the oblique eye was not the result of faulty and primitive art, it is evident that the Mongolian type, which is invariably found to be remarkably persistent in racial blends, did not survive in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys, for in the finer and more exact sculpture work of the later Sumerian period the eyes of the ruling classes are found to be similar to those of the Ancient Egyptians and southern Europeans. Other facial characteristics suggest that a Mongolian racial connection is highly improbable; the prominent Sumerian nose, for instance, is quite unlike the Chinese, which is diminutive. Nor can far-reaching conclusions be drawn from the scanty linguistic evidence at our disposal. Although the languages of the Sumerians and long-headed Chinese are of the agglutinative variety, so are those also which are spoken by the broad-headed Turks and Magyars of Hungary, the broad-headed and long-headed, dark and fair Finns, and the brunet and short-statured Basques with pear-shaped faces, who are regarded as a variation of the Mediterranean race with distinctive characteristics developed in isolation. Languages afford no sure indication of racial origins or affinities. Another theory connects the Sumerians with the p. 4 broad-headed peoples of the Western Asian plains and plateaus, who are vaguely grouped as Ural-Altaic stock and are represented by the present-day Turks and the dark variety of Finns. It is assumed that they migrated southward in remote times in consequence of tribal pressure caused by changing climatic conditions, and abandoned a purely pastoral for an agricultural life. The late Sumerian sculpture work again presents difficulties in this connection, for the faces and bulging occiputs suggest rather a long-headed than a broad-headed type, and the theory no longer obtains that new habits of life alter skull forms which are usually associated with other distinctive traits in the structure of skeletons. These broad-headed nomadic peoples of the Steppes are allied to Tatar stock, and distinguished from the pure Mongols by their abundance of wavy hair and beard. The fact that the Sumerians shaved their scalps and faces is highly suggestive in this connection. From the earliest times it has been the habit of most peoples to emphasize their racial characteristics so as to be able, one may suggest, to distinguish readily a friend from a foeman. At any rate this fact is generally recognized by ethnologists. The Basques, for instance, shave their pointed chins and sometimes grow short side whiskers to increase the distinctive pear-shape which is given to their faces by their prominent temples. In contrast, their neighbours, the Andalusians, grow chin whiskers to broaden their already rounded chins, and to distinguish them markedly from the Basques. 1 Another example of similar character is afforded in Asia Minor, where the skulls of the children of long-headed Kurds are narrowed, and those of the children of broad-headed Armenians made flatter behind as a result of systematic pressure applied by using cradle p. 5 boards. In this way these rival peoples accentuate their contrasting head forms, which at times may, no doubt, show a tendency towards variation as a result of the crossment of types. When it is found, therefore, that the Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, were in the habit of shaving, their ethnic affinities should be looked for among a naturally glabrous rather than a heavily-bearded people. A Central Asiatic source for Sumerian culture has also been urged of late with much circumstantial detail. It breaks quite fresh and interesting ground. Recent scientific expeditions in Russian and Chinese Turkestan have accumulated important archæological data which clearly establish that vast areas of desert country were at a remote period most verdurous and fruitful, and thickly populated by organized and apparently progressive communities. From these ancient centres of civilization wholesale migrations must have been impelled from time to time in consequence of the gradual encroachment of wind-distributed sand and the increasing shortage of water. At Anau in Russian Turkestan, where excavations were conducted by the Pumpelly expedition, abundant traces were found of an archaic and forgotten civilization reaching back to the Late Stone Age. The pottery is decorated with geometric designs, and resembles somewhat other Neolithic specimens found as far apart as Susa, the capital of ancient Elam, on the borders of Babylonia, Boghaz Köi in Asia Minor, the seat of Hittite administration, round the Black Sea to the north, and at points in the southern regions of the Balkan Peninsula. It is suggested that these various finds are scattered evidences of early racial drifts from the Central Asian areas which were gradually being rendered uninhabitable. Among the Copper Age artifacts at Anau are clay votive p. 6 statuettes resembling those which were used in Sumeria for religious purposes. These, however, cannot be held to prove a racial connection, but they are important in so far as they afford evidence of early trade relations in a hitherto unsuspected direction, and the long distances over which cultural influence extended before the dawn of history. Further we cannot go. No inscriptions have yet been discovered to render articulate this mysterious Central Asian civilization, or to suggest the original source of early Sumerian picture writing. Nor is it possible to confirm Mr. Pumpelly's view that from the Anau district the Sumerians and Egyptians first obtained barley and wheat, and some of their domesticated animals. If, as Professor Elliot Smith believes, copper was first used by the Ancient Egyptians, it may be, on the other hand, that a knowledge of this metal reached Anau through Sumeria, and that the elements of the earlier culture were derived from the same quarter by an indirect route. The evidence obtainable in Egypt is of interest in this connection. Large quantities of food have been taken from the stomachs and intestines of sun-dried bodies which have lain in their pre-Dynastic graves for over sixty centuries. This material has been carefully examined, and has yielded, among other things, husks of barley and millet, and fragments of mammalian bones, including those, no doubt, of the domesticated sheep and goats and cattle painted on the pottery. 1 It is therefore apparent that at an extremely remote period a knowledge of agriculture extended throughout Egypt, and we have no reason for supposing that it was not shared by the contemporary inhabitants of Sumer. The various theories which have been propounded regarding the outside source of Sumerian culture are p. 7 based on the assumption that it commenced abruptly and full grown. Its rude beginnings cannot be traced on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, but although no specimens of the earliest form of picture writing have been recovered from the ruins of Sumerian and Akkadian cities, neither have any been found elsewhere. The possibility remains, therefore, that early Babylonian culture was indigenous. "A great deal of ingenuity has been displayed by many scholars", says Professor Elliot Smith, "with the object of bringing these Sumerians from somewhere else as immigrants into Sumer; but no reasons have been advanced to show that they had not been settled at the head of the Persian Gulf for long generations before they first appeared on the stage of history. The argument that no early remains have been found is futile, not only because such a country as Sumer is no more favourable to the preservation of such evidence than is the Delta of the Nile, but also upon the more general grounds that negative statements of this sort cannot be assigned a positive evidence for an immigration." 1 This distinguished ethnologist is frankly of opinion that the Sumerians were the congeners of the pre-Dynastic Egyptians of the Mediterranean or Brown race, the eastern branch of which reaches to India and the western to the British Isles and Ireland. In the same ancient family are included the Arabs, whose physical characteristics distinguish them from the Semites of Jewish type. Some light may be thrown on the Sumerian problem by giving consideration to the present-day racial complexion of Western Asia. The importance of evidence of this character has been emphasized elsewhere. In Egypt, for instance, Dr. C. S. Myers has ascertained that the modern peasants have skull forms which are identical p. 8 with those of their pre-Dynastic ancestors. Mr. Hawes has also demonstrated that the ancient inhabitants of Crete are still represented on that famous island. But even more remarkable is the fact that the distinctive racial type which occupied the Palæolithic caves of the Dordogne valley in France continues to survive in their vicinity after an interval of over twenty thousand years. 1 It is note-worthy, therefore, to find that in south-western Asia at the present day one particular racial type predominates over all others. Professor Ripley, who summarizes a considerable mass of data in this connection, refers to it as the "Iranian", and says: "It includes the Persians and Kurds, possibly the Ossetes in the Caucasus, and farther to the east a large number of Asiatic tribes, from the Afghans to the Hindus. These peoples are all primarily long-headed and dark brunets. They incline to slenderness of habit, although varying in stature according to circumstances. In them we recognize at once undoubted congeners of our Mediterranean race in Europe. The area of their extension runs off into Africa, through the Egyptians, who are clearly of the same race. Not only the modern peoples, but the Ancient Egyptians and the Phœnicians also have been traced to the same source. By far the largest portion of this part of Western Asia is inhabited by this eastern branch of the Mediterranean race." The broad-headed type "occurs sporadically among a few ethnic remnants in Syria and Mesopotamia". 2 The exhaustive study of thousands of ancient crania in London and Cambridge collections has shown that Mediterranean peoples, having alien traits, the result of early admixture, were distributed between Egypt and the Punjab. 3 Where blending took place, the early type, p. 9 apparently, continued to predominate; and it appears to be reasserting itself in our own time in Western Asia, as elsewhere. It seems doubtful, therefore, that the ancient Sumerians differed racially from the pre-Dynastic inhabitants of Egypt and the Pelasgians and Iberians of Europe. Indeed, the statuettes from Tello, the site of the Sumerian city of Lagash, display distinctively Mediterranean skull forms and faces. Some of the plump figures of the later period suggest, however, "the particular alien strain" which in Egypt and elsewhere "is always associated with a tendency to the development of fat", in contrast to "the lean and sinewy appearance of most representatives of the Brown race". 1 This change may be accounted for by the presence of the Semites in northern Babylonia. Whence, then, came these invading Semitic Akkadians of Jewish type? It is generally agreed that they were closely associated with one of the early outpourings of nomadic peoples from Arabia, a country which is favourable for the production of a larger population than it is able to maintain permanently, especially when its natural resources are restricted by a succession of abnormally dry years. In tracing the Akkadians from Arabia, however, we are confronted at the outset with the difficulty that its prehistoric, and many of its present-day, inhabitants are not of the characteristic Semitic type. On the Ancient Egyptian pottery and monuments the Arabs are depicted as men who closely resembled the representatives of the Mediterranean race in the Nile valley and elsewhere. They shaved neither scalps nor faces as did the historic Sumerians and Egyptians, but grew the slight moustache and chin-tuft beard like the Libyans on the north and the majority of the men whose bodies p. 10 have been preserved in pre-Dynastic graves in the Nile valley. "If", writes Professor Elliot Smith, "the generally accepted view is true, that Arabia was the original home of the Semites, the Arab must have undergone a profound change in his physical characters after he left his homeland and before he reached Babylonia." This authority is of opinion that the Arabians first migrated into Palestine and northern Syria, where they mingled with the southward-migrating Armenoid peoples from Asia Minor." This blend of Arabs, kinsmen of the proto-Egyptians and Armenoids, would then form the big-nosed, long-bearded Semites, so familiar not only on the ancient Babylonian and Egyptian monuments, but also in the modern Jews." 1 Such a view is in accord with Dr. Hugo Winckler's contention that the flow of Arabian migrations was northwards towards Syria ere it swept through Mesopotamia. It can scarcely be supposed that these invasions of settled districts did not result in the fusion and crossment of racial types and the production of a sub-variety with medium skull form and marked facial characteristics. Of special interest in this connection is the evidence afforded by Palestine and Egypt. The former country has ever been subject to periodic ethnic disturbances and changes. Its racial history has a remote beginning in the Pleistocene Age. Palæolithic flints of Chellean and other primitive types have been found in large numbers, and a valuable collection of these is being preserved in a French museum at Jerusalem. In a northern cave fragments of rude pottery, belonging to an early period in the Late Stone Age, have been discovered in association with the bones of the woolly rhinoceros. To a later period belong the series of Gezer cave dwellings, which, according to Professor Macalister, the well-known Palestinian p. 11 authority, "were occupied by a non-Semitic people of low stature, with thick skulls and showing evidence of the great muscular strength that is essential to savage life". 1 These people are generally supposed to be representatives of the Mediterranean race, which Sergi has found to have been widely distributed throughout Syria and a part of Asia Minor. 2 An interesting problem, however, is raised by the fact that, in one of the caves, there are evidences that the dead were cremated. This was not a Mediterranean custom, nor does it appear to have prevailed outside the Gezer area. If, however, it does not indicate that the kinsmen of the Ancient Egyptians came into contact with the remnants of an earlier people, it may be that the dead of a later people were burned there. The possibility that unidentified types may have contributed to the Semitic blend, however, remains. The Mediterraneans mingled in Northern Syria and Asia Minor with the broad-headed Armenoid peoples who are represented in Europe by the Alpine race. With them they ultimately formed the great Hittite confederacy. These Armenoids were moving southwards at the very dawn of Egyptian history, and nothing is known of their conquests and settlements. Their pioneers, who were probably traders, appear to have begun to enter the Delta region before the close of the Late Stone Age. 3 The earliest outpourings of migrating Arabians may have been in progress about the same time. This early southward drift of Armenoids might account for the presence in southern Palestine, early in the Copper Age, of the tall race referred to in the Bible as the Rephaim or Anakim, "whose power was broken only by the Hebrew p. 12 invaders". 1 Joshua drove them out of Hebron, 2 in the neighbourhood of which Abraham had purchased a burial cave from Ephron, the Hittite. 3 Apparently a system of land laws prevailed in Palestine at this early period. It is of special interest for us to note that in Abraham's day and afterwards, the landed proprietors in the country of the Rephaim were identified with the aliens from Asia Minor--the tall variety in the Hittite confederacy. Little doubt need remain that the Arabians during their sojourn in Palestine and Syria met with distinctive types, and if not with pure Armenoids, at any rate with peoples having Armenoid traits. The consequent multiplication of tribes, and the gradual pressure exercised by the constant stream of immigrants from Arabia and Asia Minor, must have kept this part of Western Asia in a constant state of unrest. Fresh migrations of the surplus stock were evidently propelled towards Egypt in one direction, and the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates in another. The Semites of Akkad were probably the conquerors of the more highly civilized Sumerians, who must have previously occupied that area. It is possible that they owed their success to the possession of superior weapons. Professor Elliot Smith suggests in this connection that the Arabians had become familiar with the use of copper as a result of contact with the Egyptians in Sinai. There is no evidence, however, that the Sumerians were attacked before they had begun to make metal weapons. It is more probable that the invading nomads had superior military organization and considerable experience in waging war against detached tribal units. They may have also found some of the northern Sumerian city states at war with one another and taken STATUE OF A ROYAL PERSONAGE OR OFFICIAL OF NON-SEMITIC ORIGIN<br> (<i>British Museum</i>)<br> Photo. Mansell Click to enlarge STATUE OF A ROYAL PERSONAGE OR OFFICIAL OF NON-SEMITIC ORIGIN (British Museum) Photo. Mansell p. 13 advantage of their unpreparedness to resist a common enemy The rough Dorians who overran Greece and the fierce Goths who shattered the power of Rome were similarly in a lower state of civilization than the peoples whom they subdued. The Sumerians, however, ultimately achieved an intellectual conquest of their conquerors. Although the leaders of invasion may have formed military aristocracies in the cities which they occupied, it was necessary for the great majority of the nomads to engage their activities in new directions after settlement. The Semitic Akkadians, therefore, adopted Sumerian habits of life which were best suited for the needs of the country, and they consequently came under the spell of Sumerian modes of thought. This is shown by the fact that the native speech of ancient Sumer continued long after the dawn of history to be the language of Babylonian religion and culture, like Latin in Europe during the Middle Ages. For centuries the mingling peoples must have been bi-lingual, as are many of the inhabitants of Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish Highlands in the present age, but ultimately the language of the Semites became the prevailing speech in Sumer and Akkad. This change was the direct result of the conquests and the political supremacy achieved by the northern people. A considerable period elapsed, however, ere this consummation was reached and Ancient Babylonia became completely Semitized. No doubt its brilliant historical civilization owed much of its vigour and stability to the organizing genius of the Semites, but the basis on which it was established had been laid by the ingenious and imaginative Sumerians who first made the desert to blossom like the rose. The culture of Sumer was a product of the Late Stone Age, which should not be regarded as necessarily p. 14 an age of barbarism. During its vast periods there were great discoveries and great inventions in various parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Neoliths made pottery and bricks; we know that they invented the art of spinning, for spindle-whorls are found even in the Gezer caves to which we have referred, while in Egypt the pre-Dynastic dead were sometimes wrapped in finely woven linen: their deftly chipped flint implements are eloquent of artistic and mechanical skill, and undoubted mathematical ability must be credited to the makers of smoothly polished stone hammers which are so perfectly balanced that they revolve on a centre of gravity. In Egypt and Babylonia the soil was tilled and its fertility increased by irrigation. Wherever man waged a struggle with Nature he made rapid progress, and consequently we find that the earliest great civilizations were rooted in the little fields of the Neolithic farmers. Their mode of life necessitated a knowledge of Nature's laws; they had to take note of the seasons and measure time. So Egypt gave us the Calendar, and Babylonia the system of dividing the week into seven days, and the day into twelve double hours. The agricultural life permitted large communities to live in river valleys, and these had to be governed by codes of laws; settled communities required peace and order for their progress and prosperity. All great civilizations have evolved from the habits and experiences of settled communities. Law and religion were closely associated, and the evidence afforded by the remains of stone circles and temples suggests that in the organization and division of labour the influence of religious teachers was pre-eminent. Early rulers, indeed, were priest-kings--incarnations of the deity who owned the land and measured out the span of human life. p. 15 We need not assume that Neolithic man led an idyllic existence; his triumphs were achieved by slow and gradual steps; his legal codes were, no doubt, written in blood and his institutions welded in the fires of adversity. But, disciplined by laws, which fostered humanitarian ideals, Neolithic man, especially of the Mediterranean race, had reached a comparatively high state of civilization long ages before the earliest traces of his activities can be obtained. When this type of mankind is portrayed in Ancient Sumeria, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Crete we find that the faces are refined and intellectual and often quite modern in aspect. The skulls show that in the Late Stone Age the human brain was fully developed and that the racial types were fixed. In every country in Europe we still find the direct descendants of the ancient Mediterranean race, as well as the descendants of the less highly cultured conquerors who swept westward out of Asia at the dawn of the Bronze Age; and everywhere there are evidences of crossment of types in varying degrees. Even the influence of Neolithic intellectual life still remains. The comparative study of mythology and folk beliefs reveals that we have inherited certain modes of thought from our remote ancestors, who were the congeners of the Ancient Sumerians and the Ancient Egyptians. In this connection it is of interest, therefore, to refer to the social ideals of the early peoples who met and mingled on the southern plains of the Tigris and Euphrates, and especially the position occupied by women, which is engaging so much attention at the present day. It would appear that among the Semites and other nomadic peoples woman was regarded as the helpmate rather than the companion and equal of man. The birth of a son was hailed with joy; it was "miserable to have p. 16 a daughter", as a Hindu sage reflected; in various countries it was the custom to expose female children after birth and leave them to die. A wife had no rights other than those accorded to her by her husband, who exercised over her the power of life and death. Sons inherited family possessions; the daughters had no share allotted to them, and could be sold by fathers and brothers. Among the peoples who observed "male right", social life was reflected in the conception of controlling male deities, accompanied by shadowy goddesses who were often little else than figures of speech. The Ancient Sumerians, on the other hand, like the Mediterranean peoples of Egypt and Crete, reverenced and exalted motherhood in social and religious life. Women were accorded a legal status and marriage laws were promulgated by the State. Wives could possess private property in their own right, as did the Babylonian Sarah, wife of Abraham, who owned the Egyptian slave Hagar. 1 A woman received from her parents a marriage dowry, and in the event of separation from her husband she could claim its full value. Some spinsters, or wives, were accustomed to enter into business partnerships with men or members of their own sex, and could sue and be sued in courts of law. Brothers and sisters were joint heirs of the family estate. Daughters might possess property over which their fathers exercised no control: they could also enter into legal agreements with their parents in business matters, when they had attained to years of discretion. Young women who took vows of celibacy and lived in religious institutions could yet make business investments, as surviving records show. There is only one instance of a Sumerian woman ascending the throne, like Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt. Women, therefore, p. 17 were not rigidly excluded from official life. Dungi II, an early Sumerian king, appointed two of his daughters as rulers of conquered cities in Syria and Elam. Similarly Shishak, the Egyptian Pharaoh, handed over the city of Gezer, which he had subdued, to his daughter, Solomon's wife. 1 In the religious life of ancient Sumeria the female population exercised an undoubted influence, and in certain temples there were priestesses. The oldest hymns give indication of the respect shown to women by making reference to mixed assemblies as "females and males", just as present-day orators address themselves to "ladies and gentlemen". In the later Semitic adaptations of these productions, it is significant to note, this conventional reference was altered to "male and female". If influences, however, were at work to restrict the position of women they did not meet with much success, because when Hammurabi codified existing laws, the ancient rights of women received marked recognition. There were two dialects in ancient Sumeria, and the invocatory hymns were composed in what was known as "the women's language". It must not be inferred, however, that the ladies of Sumeria had established a speech which differed from that used by men. The reference would appear to be to a softer and homelier dialect, perhaps the oldest of the two, in which poetic emotion found fullest and most beautiful expression. In these ancient days, as in our own, the ideal of womanhood was the poet's chief source of inspiration, and among the hymns the highest reach of poetic art was attained in the invocation of Ishtar, the Babylonian Venus. The following hymn is addressed to that deity in her Valkyrie-like character as a goddess of war, but her more feminine traits are not obscured:-- p. 18 Hymn to Ishtar To thee I cry, O lady of the gods, Lady of ladies, goddess without peer, Ishtar who shapes the lives of all mankind, Thou stately world queen, sovran of the sky, And lady ruler of the host of heaven-- Illustrious is thy name . . . O light divine, Gleaming in lofty splendour o’er the earth-- Heroic daughter of the moon, oh! hear; Thou dost control our weapons and award In battles fierce the victory at will O crown'd majestic Fate. Ishtar most high, Who art exalted over all the gods, Thou bringest lamentation; thou dost urge With hostile hearts our brethren to the fray; The gift of strength is thine for thou art strong; Thy will is urgent, brooking no delay; Thy hand is violent, thou queen of war Girded with battle and enrobed with fear . . . Thou sovran wielder of the wand of Doom, The heavens and earth are under thy control. Adored art thou in every sacred place, In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines, Where is thy name not lauded? where thy will Unheeded, and thine images not made? Where are thy temples not upreared? O, where Art thou not mighty, peerless, and supreme? Anu and Bel and Ea have thee raised To rank supreme, in majesty and pow’r, They have established thee above the gods And all the host of heaven . . . O stately queen, At thought of thee the world is filled with fear, The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth All spirits pause, and all mankind bow down With reverence for thy name . . . O Lady Judge, p. 19 Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze On sinners with compassion, and each morn Leadest the wayward to the rightful path. Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair, O shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh With feet unwearied . . . Thou dost break the bonds Of these thy handmaids . . . When thou stoopest o’er The dying with compassion, lo! they live; And when the sick behold thee they are healed. Hear me, thy servant! hearken to my pray’r, For I am full of sorrow and I sigh In sore distress; weeping, on thee I wait. Be merciful, my lady, pity take And answer, "’T is enough and be appeased". How long must my heart sorrow and make moan And restless be? How long must my dark home Be filled with mourning and my soul with grief? O lioness of heaven, bring me peace And rest and comfort. Hearken to my pray’r! Is anger pity? May thine eyes look down With tenderness and blessings, and behold Thy servant. Oh! have mercy; hear my cry And unbewitch me from the evil spells, That I may see thy glory . . . Oh! how long Shall these my foes pursue me, working ill, And robbing me of joy? . . . Oh! how long Shall demons compass me about and cause Affliction without end? . . . I thee adore-- The gift of strength is thine and thou art strong-- The weakly are made strong, yet I am weak . . . O hear me! I am glutted with my grief-- This flood of grief by evil winds distressed; My heart hath fled me like a bird on wings, And like the dove I moan. Tears from mine eyes Are falling as the rain from heaven falls, And I am destitute and full of woe. What have I done that thou hast turned from me? Have I neglected homage to my god And thee my goddess? O deliver me And all my sins forgive, that I may share Thy love and be watched over in thy fold; And may thy fold be wide, thy pen secure. How long wilt thou be angry? Hear my cry, And turn again to prosper all my ways-- O may thy wrath be crumbled and withdrawn As by a crumbling stream. Then smite my foes, And take away their power to work me ill, That I may crush them. Hearken to my pray’r! And bless me so that all who me behold May laud thee and may magnify thy name, While I exalt thy power over all Ishtar is highest! Ishtar is the queen! Ishtar the peerless daughter of the moon!

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria3.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next Buy this Book on Kindle Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. MacKenzie, [1915], at sacred-texts.com p. 40 CHAPTER III Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities Why Different Gods were Supreme at Different Centres--Theories regarding Origin of Life--Vital Principle in Water--Creative Tears of Weeping Deities--Significance of widespread Spitting Customs--Divine Water in Blood and Divine Blood in Water--Liver as the Seat of Life--Inspiration derived by Drinking Mead, Blood, &c.--Life Principle in Breath--Babylonian Ghosts as "Evil Wind Gusts"--Fire Deities--Fire and Water in Magical Ceremonies--Moon Gods of Ur and Harran--Moon Goddess and Babylonian "Jack and Jill"--Antiquity of Sun Worship--Tammuz and Ishtar--Solar Gods of War, Pestilence, and Death--Shamash as the "Great Judge"--His Mitra Name--Aryan Mitra or Mithra and linking Babylonian Deities--Varuna and Shamash Hymns compared--The Female Origin of Life--Goddesses of Maternity--The Babylonian Thor--Deities of Good and Evil. IN dealing with the city cults of Sumer and Akkad, consideration must be given to the problems involved by the rival mythological systems. Pantheons not only varied in detail, but were presided over by different supreme gods. One city's chief deity might be regarded as a secondary deity at another centre. Although Ea, for instance, was given first place at Eridu, and was so pronouncedly Sumerian in character, the moon god Nannar remained supreme at Ur, while the sun god, whose Semitic name was Shamash, presided at Larsa and Sippar. Other deities were similarly exalted in other states. As has been indicated, a mythological system must have been strongly influenced by city politics. To hold p. 41 a community in sway, it was necessary to recognize officially the various gods worshipped by different sections, so as to secure the constant allegiance of all classes to their rulers. Alien deities were therefore associated with local and tribal deities, those of the nomads with those of the agriculturists, those of the unlettered folks with those of the learned people. Reference has been made to the introduction of strange deities by conquerors. But these were not always imposed upon a community by violent means. Indications are not awanting that the worshippers of alien gods were sometimes welcomed and encouraged to settle in certain states. When they came as military allies to assist a city folk against a fierce enemy, they were naturally much admired and praised, honoured by the women and the bards, and rewarded by the rulers. In the epic of Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, we meet with Ea-bani, a Goliath of the wilds, who is entreated to come to the aid of the besieged city of Erech when it seemed that its deities were unable to help the people against their enemies. The gods of walled-round Erech To flies had turned and buzzed in the streets; The winged bulls of walled-round Erech Were turned to mice and departed through the holes. Ea-bani was attracted to Erech by the gift of a fair woman for wife. The poet who lauded him no doubt mirrored public opinion. We can see the slim, shaven Sumerians gazing with wonder and admiration on their rough heroic ally. All his body was covered with hair, His locks were like a woman's, Thick as corn grew his abundant hair. p. 42 He was a stranger to the people and in that land. Clad in a garment like Gira, the god, He had eaten grass with the gazelles, He had drunk water with savage beasts. His delight was to be among water dwellers. Like the giant Alban, the eponymous ancestor of a people who invaded prehistoric Britain, Ea-bani appears to have represented in Babylonian folk legends a certain type of foreign settlers in the land. No doubt the city dwellers, who were impressed by the prowess of the hairy and powerful warriors, were also ready to acknowledge the greatness of their war gods, and to admit them into the pantheon. The fusion of beliefs which followed must have stimulated thought and been productive of speculative ideas. "Nowhere", remarks Professor Jastrow, "does a high form of culture arise without the commingling of diverse ethnic elements." We must also take into account the influence exercised by leaders of thought like En-we-dur-an-ki, the famous high priest of Sippar, whose piety did much to increase the reputation of the cult of Shamesh, the sun god. The teachings and example of Buddha, for instance, revolutionized Brahmanic religion in India. A mythology was an attempt to solve the riddle of the Universe, and to adjust the relations of mankind with the various forces represented by the deities. The priests systematized existing folk beliefs and established an official religion. To secure the prosperity of the State, it was considered necessary to render homage unto whom homage was due at various seasons and under various circumstances. The religious attitude of a particular community, therefore, must have been largely dependent on its needs and experiences. The food supply was a first consideration. p. 43 [paragraph continues]At Eridu, as we have seen, it was assured by devotion to Ea and obedience to his commands as an instructor. Elsewhere it might happen, however, that Ea's gifts were restricted or withheld by an obstructing force--the raging storm god, or the parching, pestilence-bringing deity of the sun. It was necessary, therefore, for the people to win the favour of the god or goddess who seemed most powerful, and was accordingly considered to be the greatest in a. particular district. A rain god presided over the destinies of one community, and a god of disease and death over another; a third exalted the war god, no doubt because raids were frequent and the city owed its strength and prosperity to its battles and conquests. The reputation won by a particular god throughout Babylonia would depend greatly on the achievements of his worshippers and the progress of the city civilization over which he presided. Bel-Enlil's fame as a war deity was probably due to the political supremacy of his city of Nippur; and there was probably good reason for attributing to the sun god a pronounced administrative and legal character; he may have controlled the destinies of exceedingly well organized communities in which law and order and authority were held in high esteem. In accounting for the rise of distinctive and rival city deities, we should also consider the influence of divergent conceptions regarding the origin of life in mingled communities. Each foreign element in a community had its own intellectual life and immemorial tribal traditions, which reflected ancient habits of life and perpetuated the doctrines of eponymous ancestors. Among the agricultural classes, the folk religion which entered so intimately into their customs and labours must have remained essentially Babylonish in character. In cities, p. 44 however, where official religions were formulated, foreign ideas were more apt to be imposed, especially when embraced by influential teachers. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that in Babylonia, as in Egypt, there were differences of opinion regarding the origin of life and the particular natural element which represented the vital principle. One section of the people, who were represented by the worshippers of Ea, appear to have believed that the essence of life was contained in water. The god of Eridu was the source of the "water of life". He fertilized parched and sunburnt wastes through rivers and irrigating canals, and conferred upon man the sustaining "food of life". When life came to an end-- Food of death will be offered thee . . . Water of death will be offered thee . . . Offerings of water and food were made to the dead so that the ghosts might be nourished and prevented from troubling the living. Even the gods required water and food; they were immortal because they had drunk ambrosia and eaten from the plant of life. When the goddess Ishtar was in the Underworld, the land of the dead, the servant of Ea exclaimed "Hail! lady, may the well give me of its waters, so that I may drink." The goddess of the dead commanded her servant to "sprinkle the lady Ishtar with the water of life and bid her depart". The sacred water might also be found at a confluence of rivers. Ea bade his son, Merodach, to "draw water from the mouth of two streams", and "on this water to put his pure spell". The worship of rivers and wells which prevailed in p. 45 many countries was connected with the belief that the principle of life was in moisture. In India, water was vitalized by the intoxicating juice of the Soma plant, which inspired priests to utter prophecies and filled their hearts with religious fervour. Drinking customs had originally a religious significance. It was believed in India that the sap of plants was influenced by the moon, the source of vitalizing moisture and the hiding-place of the mead of the gods. The Teutonic gods also drank this mead, and poets were inspired by it. Similar beliefs obtained among various peoples. Moon and water worship were therefore closely associated; the blood of animals and the sap of plants were vitalized by the water of life and under control of the moon. The body moisture of gods and demons had vitalizing properties. When the Indian creator, Prajâpati, wept at the beginning, "that (the tears) which fell into the water became the air. That which he wiped away, upwards, became the sky." 1 The ancient Egyptians believed that all men were born from the eyes of Horus except negroes, who came from other parts of his body. 2 The creative tears of Ra, the sun god, fell as shining rays upon the earth. When this god grew old saliva dripped from his mouth, and Isis mixed the vitalizing moisture with dust, and thus made the serpent which bit and paralysed the great solar deity. 3 Other Egyptian deities, including Osiris and Isis, wept creative tears. Those which fell from the eyes of the evil gods produced poisonous plants and various baneful animals. Orion, the Greek giant, sprang from the body moisture of deities. The weeping ceremonies in connection p. 46 with agricultural rites were no doubt believed to be of magical potency; they encouraged the god to weep creative tears. Ea, the god of the deep, was also "lord of life" (Enti), "king of the river" (Lugal-ida), and god of creation (Nudimmud). His aid was invoked by means or magical formulæ. As the "great magician of the gods" he uttered charms himself, and was the patron of all magicians. One spell runs as follows: I am the sorcerer priest of Ea . . . To revive the . . . sick man The great lord Ea hath sent me; He hath added his pure spell to mine, He hath added his pure voice to mine, He hath added his pure spittle to mine. R. C. Thompson's Translation. Saliva, like tears, had creative and therefore curative qualities; it also expelled and injured demons and brought good luck. Spitting ceremonies are referred to in the religious literature of Ancient Egypt. When the Eye of Ra was blinded by Set, Thoth spat in it to restore vision. The sun god Turn, who was linked with Ra as Ra-Tum, spat on the ground, and his saliva became the gods Shu and Tefnut. In the Underworld the devil serpent Apep was spat upon to curse it, as was also its waxen image which the priests fashioned. 1 Several African tribes spit to make compacts, declare friendship, and to curse. Park, the explorer, refers in his Travels to his carriers spitting on a flat stone to ensure a good journey. Arabian holy men and descendants of Mohammed spit to cure diseases. Mohammed spat in the mouth of his grandson Hasen soon after birth. Theocritus, Sophocles, p. 47 and Plutarch testify to the ancient Grecian customs of spitting to cure and to curse, and also to bless when children were named. Pliny has expressed belief in the efficacy of the fasting spittle for curing disease, and referred to the custom of spitting to avert witchcraft. In England, Scotland, and Ireland spitting customs are not yet obsolete. North of England boys used to talk of "spitting their sauls" (souls). When the Newcastle colliers held their earliest strikes they made compacts by spitting on a stone. There are still "spitting stones" in the north of Scotland. When bargains are made in rural districts, hands are spat upon before they are shaken. The first money taken each day by fishwives and other dealers is spat upon to ensure increased drawings. Brand, who refers to various spitting customs, quotes Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft regarding the saliva cure for king's evil, which is still, by the way, practised in the Hebrides. Like Pliny, Scot recommended ceremonial spitting as a charm against witchcraft. 1 In China spitting to expel demons is a common practice. We still call a hasty person a "spitfire", and a calumniator a "spit-poison". The life principle in trees, &c., as we have seen, was believed to have been derived from the tears of deities. In India sap was called the "blood of trees", and references to "bleeding trees" are still widespread and common. "Among the ancients", wrote Professor Robertson Smith, "blood is generally conceived as the principle or vehicle of life, and so the account often given of sacred waters is that the blood of the deity flows in them. Thus as Milton writes: Smooth Adonis from his native rock Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood Of Thammuz yearly wounded.--Paradise Lost, i, 450. p. 48 [paragraph continues]The ruddy colour which the swollen river derived from the soil at a certain season was ascribed to the blood of the god, who received his death wound in Lebanon at that time of the year, and lay buried beside the sacred source." 1 In Babylonia the river was regarded as the source of the life blood and the seat of the soul. No doubt this theory was based on the fact that the human liver contains about a sixth of the blood in the body, the largest proportion required by any single organ. Jeremiah makes "Mother Jerusalem" exclaim: "My liver is poured upon the earth for the destruction of the daughter of my people", meaning that her life is spent with grief. Inspiration was derived by drinking blood as well as by drinking intoxicating liquors--the mead of the gods. Indian magicians who drink the blood of the goat sacrificed to the goddess Kali, are believed to be temporarily possessed by her spirit, and thus enabled to prophesy. 2 Malayan exorcists still expel demons while they suck the blood from a decapitated fowl. 3 Similar customs were prevalent in Ancient Greece. A woman who drank the blood of a sacrificed lamb or bull uttered prophetic sayings. 4 But while most Babylonians appear to have believed that the life principle was in blood, some were apparently of opinion that it was in breath--the air of life. A man died when he ceased to breathe; his spirit, therefore, it was argued, was identical with the atmosphere--the moving wind--and was accordingly derived from the atmospheric or wind god. When, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero invokes the dead Ea-bani, the ghost rises p. 49 up like a "breath of wind". A Babylonian charm runs: The gods which seize on men Came forth from the grave; The evil wind gusts Have come forth from the grave, To demand payment of rites and the pouring out of libations They have come forth from the grave; All that is evil in their hosts, like a whirlwind, Hath come forth from the grave. 1 The Hebrew "nephesh ruach" and "neshamah" (in Arabic "ruh" and "nefs") pass from meaning "breath" to "spirit" 2 In Egypt the god Khnumu was "Kneph" in his character as an atmospheric deity. The ascendancy of storm and wind gods in some Babylonian cities may have been due to the belief that they were the source of the "air of life". It is possible that this conception was popularized by the Semites. Inspiration was perhaps derived from these deities by burning incense, which, if we follow evidence obtained elsewhere, induced a prophetic trance. The gods were also invoked by incense. In the Flood legend the Babylonian Noah burned incense. "The gods smelled a sweet savour and gathered like flies over the sacrificer." In Egypt devotees who inhaled the breath of the Apis bull were enabled to prophesy. In addition to water and atmospheric deities Babylonia had also its fire gods, Girru, Gish Bar, Gibil, and Nusku. Their origin is obscure. It is doubtful if their worshippers, like those of the Indian Agni, believed that fire, the "vital spark", was the principle of life which was manifested by bodily heat. The Aryan fire worshippers cremated their dead so that the spirits might be p. 50 transferred by fire to Paradise. This practice, however, did not obtain among the fire worshippers of Persia, nor, as was once believed, in Sumer or Akkad either. Fire was, however, used in Babylonia for magical purposes. It destroyed demons, and put to flight the spirits of disease. Possibly the fire-purification ceremonies resembled those which were practised by the Canaanites, and are referred to in the Bible. Ahaz "made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen". 1 Ezekiel declared that "when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols". 2 In Leviticus it is laid down: "Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch". 3 It may be that in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which obtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other countries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt offerings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire gods of Babylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they appear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with the sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the "messenger of the gods". When Merodach or Babylon was exalted as chief god of the pantheon his messages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized the sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that the belief obtained among even the water worshippers of Eridu that the sun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in the everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the Indian god Varuna's ocean home an "Asura fire" (demon fire) WORSHIP OF THE MOON GOD.<br> Cylinder-Seal of Khashkhamer, Patesi of Ishkun-Sin (in North Babylonia), and vassal of Ur-Engur, King of Ur. (<i>c</i>. 2400 B.C.)<br> Photo. Mansell. Click to enlarge WORSHIP OF THE MOON GOD. Cylinder-Seal of Khashkhamer, Patesi of Ishkun-Sin (in North Babylonia), and vassal of Ur-Engur, King of Ur. (c. 2400 B.C.) Photo. Mansell. p. 51 burned constantly; it was "bound and confined", but could not be extinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst forth at the last day and consume the universe. 1 A similar belief can be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult appealed to many gods, but "the most important share in the rites", says Jastrow, "are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore, that the god of water--more particularly Ea--and the god of fire . . . are the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges". In some temples there was a bit rimki, a "house of washing", and a bit nuri, a "house of light". 2 It is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital principle by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas. If so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence in Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes of thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the character of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a deep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden of Western Asia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that imported deities assumed Babylonian characteristics, and were identified or associated with Babylonian gods in the later imperial pantheon. Moon worship appears to have been as ancient as water worship, with which, as we have seen, it was closely associated. It was widely prevalent throughout Babylonia. The chief seat of the lunar deity, Nannar or Sin, was the ancient city of Ur, from which Abraham migrated to Harran, where the "Baal" (the lord) was also a moon god. Ur was situated in Sumer, in the south, between p. 52 the west bank of the Euphrates and the low hills bordering the Arabian desert, and not far distant from sea.. washed Eridu. No doubt, like that city, it had its origin at an exceedingly remote period. At any rate, the excavations conducted there have afforded proof that it flourished in the prehistoric period. As in Arabia, Egypt, and throughout ancient Europe and elsewhere, the moon god of Sumeria was regarded as the "friend of man". He controlled nature as a fertilizing agency; he caused grass, trees, and crops to grow; he increased flocks and herds, and gave human offspring. At Ur he was exalted above Ea as "the lord and prince of the gods, supreme in heaven, the Father of all"; he was also called "great Anu", an indication that Anu, the sky god, had at one time a lunar character. The moon god was believed to be the father of the sun god: he was the "great steer with mighty horns and perfect limbs". His name Sin is believed to be a corruption of "Zu-ena", which signifies "knowledge lord". 1 Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was apparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and controlled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the moon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon. The mountains of Sinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity. As Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of "Nannar", the "light producer", the moon god scattered darkness and reduced the terrors of night. His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon and stone worship were closely associated; it also entered trees and crops, so that moon worship linked with earth worship, as both linked with water worship. p. 53 The consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur", who was also called Nin-gala. She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked with other mother deities. The twin children of the moon were Mashu and Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of Teutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill. Sun worship was of great antiquity in Babylonia, but appears to have been seasonal in its earliest phases. No doubt the sky god Anu had his solar as well as his lunar attributes, which he shared with Ea. The spring sun was personified as Tammuz, the youthful shepherd, who was loved by the earth goddess Ishtar and her rival Eresh-ki-gal, goddess of death, the Babylonian Persephone. During the winter Tammuz dwelt in Hades, and at the beginning of spring Ishtar descended to search for him among the shades. 1 But the burning summer sun was symbolized as a destroyer, a slayer of men, and therefore a war god. As Ninip or Nirig, the son of Enlil, who was made in the likeness of Anu, he waged war against the earth spirits, and was furiously hostile towards the deities of alien peoples, as befitted a god of battle. Even his father feared him, and when he was advancing towards Nippur, sent out Nusku, messenger of the gods, to soothe the raging deity with soft words. Ninip was symbolized as a wild bull, was connected with stone worship, like the Indian destroying god Shiva, and was similarly a deity of Fate. He had much in common with Nin-Girsu, a god of Lagash, who was in turn regarded as a form of Tammuz. Nergal, another solar deity, brought disease and pestilence, and, according to Jensen, all misfortunes due to excessive heat. He was the king of death, husband of p. 54 [paragraph continues]Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades. As a war god he thirsted for human blood, and was depicted as a mighty lion, He was the chief deity of the city of Cuthah, which, Jastrow suggests, was situated beside a burial place of great repute, like the Egyptian Abydos. The two great cities of the sun in ancient Babylonia were the Akkadian Sippar and the Sumerian Larsa. In these the sun god, Shamash or Babbar, was the patron deity. He was a god of Destiny, the lord of the living and the dead, and was exalted as the great Judge, the lawgiver, who upheld justice; he was the enemy of wrong, he loved righteousness and hated sin, he inspired his worshippers with rectitude and punished evildoers. The sun god also illumined the world, and his rays penetrated every quarter: he saw all things, and read the thoughts of men; nothing could be concealed from Shamash. One of his names was Mitra, like the god who was linked with Varuna in the Indian Rigveda. These twin deities, Mitra and Varuna, measured out the span of human life. They were the source of all heavenly gifts: they regulated sun and moon, the winds and waters, and the seasons. 1 These did the gods establish in royal power over themselves, because they were wise and the children of wisdom, and because they excelled in power.--Prof. Arnold's trans. of Rigvedic Hymn. Mitra and Varuna were protectors of hearth and home, and they chastised sinners. "In a striking passage of the Mahàbhàrata," says Professor Moulton, "one in which Indian thought comes nearest to the conception of conscience, a kingly wrongdoer is reminded that the sun sees secret sin." 2 In Persian mythology Mitra, as Mithra, is the patron p. 55 of Truth, and "the Mediator" between heaven and earth. 1 This god was also worshipped by the military aristocracy of Mitanni, which held sway for a period over Assyria. In Roman times the worship of Mithra spread into Europe from Persia. Mithraic sculptures depict the deity as a corn god slaying the harvest bull; on one of the monuments "cornstalks instead of blood are seen issuing from the wound inflicted with the knife". 2 The Assyrian word "metru" signifies rain. 1 As a sky god Mitra may have been associated, like Varuna, with the waters above the firmament. Rain would therefore be gifted by him as a fertilizing deity. In the Babylonian Flood legend it is the sun god Shamash who "appointed the time" when the heavens were to "rain destruction" in the night, and commanded Pir-napishtim, "Enter into the midst of thy ship and shut thy door". The solar deity thus appears as a form of Anu, god of the sky and upper atmosphere, who controls the seasons and the various forces of nature. Other rival chiefs of city pantheons, whether lunar, atmospheric, earth, or water deities, were similarly regarded as the supreme deities who ruled the Universe, and decreed when man should receive benefits or suffer from their acts of vengeance. It is possible that the close resemblances between Mithra and Mitra of the Aryan-speaking peoples of India and the Iranian plateau, and the sun god of the Babylonians--the Semitic Shamash, the Sumerian Utu--were due to early contact and cultural influence through the medium of Elam. As a solar and corn god, the Persian Mithra links with Tammuz, as a sky and atmospheric deity with Anu, and as a god of truth, righteousness, and law with Shamash. We seem to trace in the p. 56 sublime Vedic hymns addressed by the Indian Aryans to Mitra and Varuna the impress of Babylonian religious thought: Whate'er exists within this earth, and all within the sky, Yea, all that is beyond, King Varuna perceives. . . . Rigveda, iv, 16. 1 O Varuna, whatever the offence may be That we as men commit against the heavenly folk, When through our want of thought we violate thy laws, Chastise us not, O god, for that iniquity. Rigveda, vii, 89. 2 Shamash was similarly exalted in Babylonian hymns: The progeny of those who deal unjustly will not prosper. What their mouth utters in thy presence Thou wilt destroy, what issues from their mouth thou wilt dissipate. Thou knowest their transgressions, the plan of the wicked thou rejectest. All, whoever they be, are in thy care. . . . He who takes no bribe, who cares for the oppressed, Is favoured by Shamash,--his life shall be prolonged. 3 The worshippers of Varuna and Mitra in the Punjab did not cremate their dead like those who exalted the rival fire god Agni. The grave was the "house of clay", as in Babylonia. Mitra, who was identical with Yama, ruled over departed souls in the "Land of the Pitris" (Fathers), which was reached by crossing the mountains and the rushing stream of death. 4 As we have seen, the Babylonian solar god Nergal was also the lord of the dead. As Ma-banda-anna, "the boat of the sky", Shamash links with the Egyptian sun god Ra, whose barque sailed p. 57 over the heavens by day and through the underworld of darkness and death during the night. The consort of Shamash was Aa, and his attendants were Kittu and Mesharu, "Truth" and "Righteousness". Like the Hittites, the Babylonians had also a sun goddess: her name was Nin-sun, which Jastrow renders "the annihilating lady". At Erech she had a shrine in the temple of the sky god Anu. We can trace in Babylonia, as in Egypt, the early belief that life in the Universe had a female origin. Nin-sun links with Ishtar, whose Sumerian name is Nana. Ishtar appears to be identical with the Egyptian Hathor, who, as Sekhet, slaughtered the enemies of the sun god Ra. She was similarly the goddess of maternity, and is depicted in this character, like Isis and other goddesses of similar character, suckling a babe. Another Babylonian lady of the gods was Ama, Mama, or Mami, "the creatress of the seed of mankind", and was "probably so called as the 'mother' of all things". 1 A characteristic atmospheric deity was Ramman, the Rimmon of the Bible, the Semitic Addu, Adad, Hadad, or Dadu. He was not a presiding deity in any pantheon, but was identified with Enlil at Nippur. As a hammer god, he was imported by the Semites from the hills. He was a wind and thunder deity, a rain bringer, a corn god, and a god of battle like Thor, Jupiter, Tarku, Indra, and others, who were all sons of the sky. In this brief review of the representative deities of early Babylonia, it will be seen that most gods link with Anu, Ea, and Enlil, whose attributes they symbolized in various forms. The prominence accorded to an individual deity depended on local conditions, experiences, and influences. Ceremonial practices no doubt varied p. 58 here and there, but although one section might exalt Ea and another Shamash, the religious faith of the people as a whole did not differ to any marked extent; they served the gods according to their lights, so that life might be prolonged and made prosperous, for the land of death and "no return" was regarded as a place of gloom and misery. When the Babylonians appear before us in the early stages of the historical period they had reached that stage of development set forth so vividly in the Orations of Isocrates: "Those of the gods who are the source to us of good things have the title of Olympians; those whose department is that of calamities and punishments have harsher titles: to the first class both private persons and states erect altars and temples; the second is not worshipped either with prayers or burnt sacrifices, but in their case we perform ceremonies of riddance". 1 The Sumerians, like the Ancient Egyptians, developed their deities, who reflected the growth of culture, from vague spirit groups, which, like ghosts, were hostile to mankind. Those spirits who could be propitiated were exalted as benevolent deities; those who could not be bargained with were regarded as evil gods and goddesses. A better understanding of the character of Babylonian deities will therefore be obtained by passing the demons and evil spirits under review. Footnotes 45:1 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 100. 45:2 Maspero's Dawn of Civilization, p. 156 et seq. 45:3 Egyptian Myth and Legend, p. 1 et seq. The saliva of the frail and elderly was injurious. 46:1 Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, E. Wallis Budge, vol. ii, p. 203 et seq. 47:1 Brana's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii, pp. 259-263 (1889 ed.). 48:1 The Religion of the Semites, pp. 158, 159. 48:2 Castes and Tribes of Southern India, E. Thurston, iv, 187. 48:3 Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, E. Thurston (1912), pp. 245, 246. 48:4 Pausanias, 24, 1. 49:1 Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. C. Thompson, vol. ii, tablet Y. 49:2 Animism, E. Clodd, p. 37. 50:1 2 Kings, xvi, 3. 50:2 Ezekiel, xx, 31. 50:3 Leviticus, xviii, 21. 51:1 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 65. 51:2 Religious Belief in Babylonia and Assyria, M. .Jastrow, pp. 312, 313. 52:1 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T. G. Pinches, p. 81. 53:1 In early times two goddesses searched for Tammuz at different periods. 54:1 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 30. 54:2 Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 35. 55:1 Early Religious Poetry of Persia, p. 37. 55:2 The Golden Bough (Spirits of the Corn and Wild, vol. ii, p. 10), 3rd edition. 56:1 Indian Wisdom, Sir Monier Monier-Williams. 56:2 A History of Sanskrit Literature, Professor Macdonell. 56:3 Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria, M. Jastrow, pp. 112. 56:4 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. xxxii, and 38 et seq. 57:1 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, T. G. Pinches, p. 94. 58:1 The Religion of Ancient Greece, J. E. Harrison, p. 46, and Isoc. Orat., v, 117. Next: Chapter IV. Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts

MYTHS OF ORIGINS .txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next p. 30 CHAPTER II MYTHS OF ORIGINS 1 The most significant myths of a given culture are usually the cosmogonic, or creation myths, the sacred stories evolved and developed in an effort to explain the origin of the universe, the presence of the gods, and the existence of man. And so we shall devote this chapter, by far the longest in our monograph, to the creation theories and concepts current in Sumer in the third millennium B. G. The subject lends itself to treatment under three heads: (1) the creation of the universe, (2) the organization of the universe, (3) the creation of man. THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE The major source for the Sumerian conception of the creation of the universe is the introductory passage to a Sumerian poem which I have entitled "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World." The history of its decipherment is illuminating and not uninteresting. In 1934, when I first tried to decipher the contents, I found that eight pieces belonging to the poem--seven excavated in Nippur and one in Ur--had already been copied and published, thus: Hugo Radau, once of the University Museum, published two from Philadelphia in 1910; Stephen Langdon published two from Istanbul in 1914; Edward Chiera published one from Istanbul in 1924 and two more from Philadelphia in 1934; C. J. Gadd, of the British Museum, published an excellently preserved tablet from Ur in 1930. 32 But an intelligent reconstruction p. 31 and translation of the myth were still impossible, largely because the tablets and fragments, some of which seemed to duplicate each other without rhyme or reason and with but little variation in their wording, could not be properly arranged. In 1936, after I had sent off to the Revue d'assyriologie my first translations of the myth "Inanna's Descent to the Nether World" (see p. 83), I decided to make a serious effort to reconstruct the contents of the poem, which obviously seemed to contain a charming and significant story. And it was then that I came upon the clue which enabled me to arrange the pieces in their proper order. This clue crystallized from an effective utilization of two stylistic features which characterize Sumerian poetry. The first is one which ranks very low in the scale of artistic technique but which from the point of view of the decipherer is truly a boon. It may be described as follows. When the poet finds it advisable to repeat a given description or incident, he makes this repeated passage coincide with the original to the very last detail. Thus when a god or hero orders his messenger to deliver a message, this message, no matter how long and detailed, is given twice in the text, first when the messenger is instructed by his master, and a second time when the message is actually delivered. The two versions are thus practically identical, and the breaks in the one passage may be restored from the other. As for the second stylistic feature, it may be thus sketched. The Sumerian poet uses two dialects in his epic and mythic compositions, the main dialect, and another known as the Emesal dialect. The latter resembles the main dialect very closely and differs only in showing several regular and characteristic phonetic variations. What is more interesting, however, is the fact that the poet uses this Emesal dialect in rendering the direct speech of a female, not male, deity; thus the speeches of Inanna, queen of heaven, are regularly rendered in the Emesal dialect. 33 And so, on examining carefully the texts before me, I realized that what in the case of several passages had been taken p. 32 to be a mere meaningless and unmotivated duplication, actually contained a speech of the goddess Inanna in which she repeats in the Emesal dialect all that the poet had previously described in narrative form in the main dialect. With _____________________________________ PLATE VII. GODS AND THE NETHER WORLD One of the more remarkable contributions to art made by Mesopotamia is the cylinder seal. Invented primarily for the purpose of identifying and safeguarding ownership of goods shipped or stored, it came to be used in time as a kind of signature for legal documents. The procedure consisted merely of rolling the cylinder over wet clay and thus impressing the seal's design upon it. It is the contents of these designs engraved by the seal-cutters on the stone cylinders which are of considerable value for our study of Sumerian mythology. Especially is this true of the cylinder seals current in Sumer in the latter half of the third millennium B. C., not a few of whose designs are religious and mythological in character. 31 The upper design clearly attempts to portray a more or less complicated mythological story. Three of the deities can be identified with reasonable certainty. Second from the right is the water-god Enki, with the flowing streams of water and the swimming fishes. Immediately behind him is his Janus-faced messenger Isimud, who plays an important role in several of our Enki myths. Seemingly rising out of the lower regions is Utu, the sun-god, with his saw-knife and fiery rays. The female figure standing on top of the mountain, near what seems to be a rather desolate tree, may perhaps be Inanna. If the figure to the left with bow in hand is intended to be Gilgamesh, we have in this design most of the protagonists of the tale "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World." However, it is to be noted that Enkidu is missing, and Isimud, who is pictured in the design, plays no part in the story. And so any close connection between the design and the epic tale is improbable. In the central design none of the figures can be identified with reasonable certainty. In the left half of the picture we note a deity who seems to be rising out of the lower regions and is presenting a macelike object to a goddess. To the left is a god, perhaps Gilgamesh, who seems to be chopping down a tree whose trunk is bent to a curve. The right half of the design seems to depict a ritual scene. The lower design may illustrate graphically the meaning of such a phrase as, "The nether world has seized him" (see p. 35). In the right half of the scene we note a god actually within a flaming mountain (in Sumerian the word meaning "mountain" is the word used regularly for "nether world"). To the right of the mountain is a god who may be putting it to flame with a torch. Behind this deity is a goddess with fiery rays and ring who may perhaps be identified as Inanna. The left half of the design portrays a god holding a bull-man by the tail; both are inside a mountain. (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals (London, 1939), plates XIXa, XXIa, and XVIIIj.) PLATE VII<br> GODS AND THE NETHER WORLD (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE VII GODS AND THE NETHER WORLD (For description, see opposite page.) p. 33 this clue as a guide I succeeded in piecing together the first part of this poem; this was published in 1938. 34 The latter half of the poem still remained largely unintelligible, and even the first and published part had several serious breaks in the text. In 1939 I found in Istanbul a broken prism inscribed with the poem. And in the course of the past year I identified and copied 7 additional pieces in the University Museum at Philadelphia. 35 As a result we now have 16 pieces inscribed with the poem; over two hundred and fifty lines of its text can now be intelligently reconstructed and, barring a passage here and there, be correctly translated. The story of our poem, briefly sketched, runs as follows: Once upon a time there was a huluppu-tree, perhaps a willow; it was planted on the banks of the Euphrates; it was nurtured by the waters of the Euphrates. But the South Wind tore at it, root and crown, while the Euphrates flooded it with its waters. Inanna, queen of heaven, walking by, took the tree in her hand and brought it to Erech, the seat of her main sanctuary, and planted it in her holy garden. There she tended it most carefully. For when the tree grew big, she planned to make of its wood a chair for herself and a couch. Years passed, the tree matured and grew big. But Inanna found herself unable to cut down the tree. For at its base the snake "who knows no charm" had built its nest. In its crown, the Zu-bird--a mythological creature which at times wrought mischief--had placed its young. In the middle Lilith, the maid of desolation, had built her house. And so poor Inanna, the light-hearted and ever joyful maid, shed bitter tears. And as the dawn broke and her brother, the sun-god Utu, arose from his sleeping chamber, she repeated to him tearfully all that had befallen her huluppu-tree. Now Gilgamesh, the great Sumerian hero, the forerunner of the Greek Heracles, who lived in Erech, overheard Inanna's weeping complaint and chivalrously came to her rescue. He donned his armour weighing fifty minas--about fifty pounds--and with his "ax of the road," p. 34 seven talents and seven minas in weight--over four hundred pounds--he slew the snake "who knows no charm" at the base of the tree. Seeing which, the Zu-Bird fled with his young to the mountain, and Lilith tore down her house and fled to the desolate places which she was accustomed to haunt. The men of Erech who had accompanied Gilgamesh now cut down the tree and presented it to Inanna for her chair and couch. What did Inanna do? Of the base of the huluppu-tree she made an object called the pukku (probably a drum), and of its crown she made another related object called the mikku (probably a drumstick), and gave them both to Gilgamesh, evidently as a reward for his gallantry. Follows a passage of twelve lines describing Gilgamesh's activity with these two objects whose meaning I am still unable to penetrate, although it is in perfect shape. When our story becomes intelligible again, it continues with the statement that "because of the cry of the young maidens" the pukku and the mikku fell into the nether world, evidently through a hole in the ground. Gilgamesh put in his hand to retrieve them but was unable to reach them; he put in his foot but was quite as unsuccessful. And so he seated himself at the gate of the nether world and cried with fallen face: j My pukku, who will bring it up from the nether world? My mikku, who will bring it up from the "face" of the nether world? His servant, Enkidu, his constant follower and companion, heard his master's cries, and said to him: My master, why dost thou cry, why is thy heart sick? Thy pukku, I will bring it up from the nether world, Thy mikku, I will bring it up from the "face" of the nether world. Thereupon Gilgamesh warned him of the dangers involved in his plan to descend to the nether world--a splendid passage, brief and concise in describing the taboos of the lower regions. Said Gilgamesh to Enkidu: p. 35 If now thou wilt descend to the nether world, A word I speak to thee, take my word, Advice I offer thee, take my advice. Do not put on clean clothes, Lest the (dead) heroes will come forth like enemies; Do not anoint thyself with the good oil of the vessel, Lest at its smell they will crowd about thee. Do not throw the throw-stick in the nether world, Lest they who were struck down by the throw-stick will surround thee; Do not carry a staff in thy hand, Lest the shades will flutter all about thee. Do not put sandals on thy feet, In the nether world make no cry; Kiss not thy beloved wife, Kiss not thy beloved son, Strike not thy hated wife, Strike not thy hated son, Lest thy "cry" of the nether world will seize thee; (The cry) for her who is lying, for her who is lying, The mother of the god Ninazu who is lying, Whose holy body no garment covers, Whose holy breast no cloth wraps. But Enkidu heeded not the advice of his master and he did the very things against which Gilgamesh had warned him. And so he was seized by the nether world and was unable to reascend to the earth. Thereupon Gilgamesh, greatly troubled, proceeded to the city of Nippur and wept before the great air-god Enlil, the god who in the third millennium B. C. was the leading deity of the Sumerian pantheon: O Father Enlil, my pukku fell into the nether world, My mikku fell into the nether world; I sent Enkidu to bring them up to me, the nether world has seized him. Namtar (a demon) has not seized him, Ashak (a demon) has not seized him, The nether world has seized him. Nergal, the ambusher, who spares no one, has not seized him, The nether world has seized him. In battles where heroism is displayed he has not fallen, The nether world has seized him. p. 36 But Enlil refused to stand by Gilgamesh, who then proceeded to Eridu and repeated his plea before the water-god Enki, the "god of wisdom." Enki ordered the sun-god Utu to open a hole in the nether world and to allow the shade of Enkidu to ascend to earth. The sun-god Utu did as bidden and the shade of Enkidu appeared to Gilgamesh. Master and servant embraced and Gilgamesh questioned Enkidu about what he saw in the nether world. The passage from here to the end of the poem is badly broken, but the following partly extant colloquy will serve as an illustration: k Gilgamesh: "Him who has one son hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: (Answer broken) Gilgamesh: "Him who has two sons hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: (Answer broken) Gilgamesh: "Him who has three sons hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: ". . . much water he drinks." ________________________________________________ PLATE VIII. THE SEPARATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH The two pieces illustrated here are duplicates belonging to the epic tale, "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Nether World." The one to the left is a tablet (14068 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) published by Chiera in 1934. 36 The one to the right (4429 in the Nippur collection of the Museum of the Ancient Orient at Istanbul) is a fragment of a prism copied by the author and hitherto unpublished. The marked passages contain the lines significant for the creation of the universe; for the translation and the transliteration, see page 37 and note 37. PLATE IX. ENLIL SEPARATES HEAVEN AND EARTH The tablet (13877 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) illustrated 38 here is one of the 20 duplicating pieces utilized to reconstruct the text of the poem, "The Creation of the Pickax" (see p. 51). Its first five lines are significant for the Sumerian concepts of the creation of the universe; for the translation and the transliteration, see page 40 and note 39. PLATE VIII. THE SEPARATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH<br> (For description, see opposite page) Click to enlarge PLATE VIII. THE SEPARATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH (For description, see opposite page) PLATE IX<br> ENLIL SEPARATES HEAVEN AND EARTH<br> (For description, see page 36.) Click to enlarge PLATE IX ENLIL SEPARATES HEAVEN AND EARTH (For description, see page 36.) p. 37 Gilgamesh: "Him who has four sons hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "Like . . . his heart rejoices." Gilgamesh: "Him who has five sons hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "Like a good scribe, his arm has been opened, He brings justice to the palace." Gilgamesh: "Him who has six sons hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "Like him who guides the plow his heart rejoices." Gilgamesh: "Him who has seven sons hast thou seen!" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "As one close to the gods, he . . ." Another of the questions runs thus: Gilgamesh: "Him whose dead body lies (unburied) in the plain hast thou seen?" Enkidu: "I have seen." Gilgamesh: "How is he treated?" Enkidu: "His shade finds no rest in the nether world." l And so our poem ends. 40 It is the introduction to this composition which furnishes the most significant material for the Sumerian concepts of the creation of the universe. The intelligible part of the introduction reads as follows: After heaven had been moved away from earth, After earth had been separated from heaven, After the name of man had been fixed; After An had carried off heaven, After Enlil had carried off earth, After Ereshkigal had been carried off into Kur as its prize; After he had set sail, after he had set sail, After the father for Kur had set sail, After Enki for Kur had set sail; p. 38 Against the king the small ones it (Kur) hurled, Against Enki, the large ones it hurled; Its small ones, stones of the hand, Its large ones, stones of . . . reeds, The keel of the boat of Enki, In battle, like the attacking storm, overwhelm; Against the king, the water at the head of the boat, Like a wolf devours, Against Enki, the water at the rear of the boat, Like a lion strikes down. If we paraphrase and analyze the contents of this passage, it may be worded as follows: Heaven and earth, originally united, were separated and moved away from each other, and thereupon the creation of man was ordained. An, the heaven-god, then carried off heaven, while Enlil, the air-god, carried off earth. All this seems to be according to plan. Then, however, occurred something disruptive. For the goddess Ereshkigal, the counterpart of the Greek Persephone, whom we know as queen of the nether world, but who originally was probably a sky-goddess, was carried off into the nether world, perhaps by Kur. No doubt to avenge this deed, the water-god Enki set sail to attack Kur. The latter, evidently to be conceived as a monster or dragon, did not stand idly by, but hurled stones, large and small, against the keel of Enki's boat, while the primeval waters attacked Enki's boat front and rear. Our poem does not give the result of this struggle between Enki and Kur, since the entire cosmogonic or creation introduction has nothing to do with the basic contents of our Gilgamesh composition; it was placed at the head of the poem only because the Sumerian scribes were accustomed to begin their stories with several introductory lines dealing with creation. It is from the first half of this introduction that we obtain therefore the following cosmogonic concepts: 1. At one time heaven and earth were united. 2. Some of the gods existed before the separation of heaven and earth. p. 39 3. Upon the separation of heaven and earth, it was, as might have been expected, the heaven-god An who carried off heaven, but it was the air-god Enlil who carried off the earth. Among the crucial points not stated or implied in this passage are the following: 1. Were heaven and earth conceived as created, and if so, by whom? 2. What was the shape of heaven and earth as conceived by the Sumerians? 3. Who separated heaven from earth? Fortunately, the answers to these three questions can be gleaned from several other Sumerian texts dating from our period. Thus: 1. In a tablet which gives a list of the Sumerian gods, 41 the goddess Nammu, written with the ideogram for "sea," is described as "the mother, who gave birth to heaven and earth." Heaven and earth were therefore conceived by the Sumerians as the created products of the primeval sea. 2. The myth "Cattle and Grain" (see p. 53), which describes the birth in heaven of the spirits of cattle and grain, who were then sent down to earth to bring prosperity to mankind, begins with the following two lines: After on the mountain of heaven and earth, An had caused the Anunnaki (his followers) to be born. . . . [paragraph continues] It is not unreasonable to assume, therefore, that heaven and earth united were conceived as a mountain whose base was the bottom of the earth and whose peak was the top of the heaven. 3. The myth "The Creation of the Pickax" (see p. 51), which describes the fashioning and dedication of this valuable agricultural implement, is introduced with the following passage: p. 40 The lord, that which is appropriate verily he caused to appear, The lord whose decisions are unalterable, Enlil, who brings up the seed of the land from the earth, Took care to move away heaven from earth, Took care to move away earth from heaven. [paragraph continues] And so we have the answer to our third question; it was the air-god Enlil, who separated and removed heaven from earth. If now we sum up the cosmogonic or creation concepts of the Sumerians, evolved to explain the origin of the universe, they may be stated as follows: 1. First was the primeval sea. Nothing is said of its origin or birth, and it is not unlikely that the Sumerians conceived it as having existed eternally. 2. The primeval sea begot the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven and earth united. 3. Conceived as gods in human form, An (heaven) was the male and Ki (earth) was the female. From their union was begotten the air-god Enlil. ___________________________ PLATE X. MISCELLANEOUS MYTHOLOGICAL SCENES The upper design depicts the rising of Utu, the sun-god, identifiable by his fiery rays and saw-knife. He places his left foot on a mountain while attending deities throw open the gates. In the second design two of the deities are identifiable. At the extreme right is Enki, the water-god, enthroned in his "sea house," perhaps the very house described in "Enki and Eridu" (see p. 62). To the left of the center is Utu, the sun-god, with fiery rays and saw-knife. He stands with one foot on a winged lion while the other steps on a crouching deity. The kneeling figure at the left, holding a gatepost, is probably an attendant of Enki. The deity between Utu and Enki, who is climbing a mountain, is still unidentifiable. The third design depicts an unidentified god with fiery rays, travelling in his boat; the scene is reminiscent of Nanna's journey to Nippur (see p. 47). The stem of the boat ends in the head of a snake, while the prow ends in the body of a god who is working a punting pole. In the boat are various pots, agricultural implements, and a human-headed lion. On the shore is a vegetation goddess, perhaps to be identified as Uttu, the goddess of plants (see p. 57), or Ashnan, the goddess of grain (see p. 53). The lower design depicts what is probably a divine connubium. (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plates XVIIIa, k, XIXe, and XVI.) PLATE X<br> MISCELLANEOUS MYTHOLOGICAL SCENES<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE X MISCELLANEOUS MYTHOLOGICAL SCENES (For description, see opposite page.) p. 41 4. Enlil, the air-god, separated heaven from earth, and while his father An carried off heaven, Enlil himself carried off his mother Ki, the earth. The union of Enlil and his mother Ki-in historical times she is perhaps to be identified with the goddess called variously Ninmah, "great queen"; Ninhursag, "queen of the (cosmic) mountain"; Nintu, "queen who gives birth"--set the stage for the organization of the universe, the creation of man, and the establishment of civilization." THE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNIVERSE The Sumerian expression for "universe" is an-ki, literally "heaven-earth." The organization of the universe may therefore be subdivided into that of heaven and that of earth. Heaven consists of the sky and the space above the sky which is called the "great above"; here dwell the sky-gods. Earth consists of the surface of the earth and the space below which is called the "great below"; here dwell the underworld or chthonic deities. For the organization of heaven the relatively little mythological material which is available to date may be sketched as follows: Nanna, the moon-god, the major astral deity of the Sumerians, is born of Enlil, the air-god, and his wife Ninlil, the air-goddess. Nanna, the moon-god, is conceived as travelling in a gufa across the heavens, thus bringing light to the pitch-dark lapis lazuli sky. The "little ones," the stars, are scattered about him like grain while the "big ones," perhaps the planets, walk about him like wild oxen." 43 Nanna, the moon-god, and his wife Ningal are the parents of Utu, the sun-god, who rises in the "mountain of the east" and sets in the "mountain of the west." As yet we find no mention of any boat or chariot used by the sun-god Utu to traverse the sky. Nor is it clear just what he does at night. m The not unnatural assumption that upon reaching the "mountain of the west" at the end of the day he continues his journey at night through the nether world, arriving at the "mountain of the east" at dawn, is not borne p. 42 out by the extant data. Indeed to judge from a prayer to the sun-god which reads: 44 O Utu, shepherd of the land, father of the black-headed people, When thou liest down, the people, too, lie down, O hero Utu, when thou risest, the people, too, rise. or from a description of the break of dawn which reads: As light broke forth, as the horizon grew bright. . . . As Utu came forth from his ganunu, or from a description of the setting of the sun which reads: 46 Utu has gone forth with lifted head to the bosom of his mother Ningal; the Sumerians seemed to have conceived of Utu as sleeping through the night. Turning to the organization of the earth, we learn that it was Enlil, the air-god, who "caused the good day to come forth"; who set his mind to "bring forth seed from the earth" and to establish the hegal, that is, plenty, abundance, and prosperity in the land. It was this same Enlil who fashioned the pickax and probably the plow as prototypes of the agricultural implements to be used by man; who appointed Enten, the farmer-god, as his steadfast and trustworthy field-worker. On the other hand it was the water-god Enki who begot Uttu, the goddess of plants. It is Enki, moreover, who actually organizes the earth, and especially that part of it which includes Sumer and its surrounding neighbors, into a going concern. He decrees the fates of Sumer, Ur, and Meluhha, and appoints the various minor deities to their specific duties. And it is both Enlil and Enki, that is, both the air-god and the water-god, who send Labar, the cattle-god, and Ashnan, the grain-goddess, from heaven to earth in order to make abundant its cattle and grain. The above outline of the organization of the universe is based upon nine Sumerian myths whose contents we now have wholly or in large part. Two of these involve the moon-god Nanna; they are: Enlil and Ninlil. the Begetting p. 43 of Nanna; The Journey of Nanna to Nippur. The remaining seven are of prime importance for the Sumerian concepts of the origin and establishment of culture and civilization on earth. These are Emesh and Enten: Enlil Chooses the Farmer-god; The Creation of the Pickax; Cattle and Grain; Enki and Ninhursag: the Affairs of the Water-god; Enki and Sumer: the Organization of the Earth and its Cultural Processes; Enki and Eridu: the Journey of the Water-god to Nippur; Inanna and Enki: the Transfer of the Arts of Civilization from Eridu to Erech. We shall now proceed to sketch briefly the contents of each of these myths; their wealth and variety, it is hoped, will enable the reader to evaluate the Sumerian mythological concepts together with their spiritual and religious implications. ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA n This delightful myth, consisting of 152 lines of text, 49 is almost complete. It seems to have been evolved to explain the begetting of the moon-god Nanna as well as that of the three underworld deities, Nergal, Ninazu, and a third whose name is illegible. If rightly interpreted this poem furnishes us with the first known example of the metamorphosis of a god; Enlil assumes the form of three different individuals in impregnating his wife Ninlil with the three nether world deities. The poem begins with an introductory passage descriptive of the city of Nippur, a Nippur that seems to be conceived as having existed before the creation of man: Behold the "bond of heaven and earth," the city, . . . Behold Nippur, the city, . . . Behold the "kindly wall," the city, . . . Behold the Idsalla, its pure river, Behold the Karkurunna, its quay, Behold the Karasarra, its quay where the boats stand, Behold the Pulal, its well of good water, Behold the Idnunbirdu, its pure canal, Behold Enlil, its young man, Behold Ninlil, its young maid, Behold Nunbarshegunu, its old woman. p. 44 After this brief background sketch the actual story begins. Nunbarshegunu, the "old woman" of Nippur, Ninlil's mother, instructs her daughter how to obtain the love of Enlil: In those days the mother, her begetter, gave advice to the maid, Nunbarshegunu gave advice to Ninlil: "At the pure river, O maid, at the pure river wash thyself, O Ninlil, walk along the bank of the Idnunbirdu, The bright-eyed, the lord, the bright-eyed, The 'great mountain,' father Enlil, the bright-eyed, will see thee, The shepherd . . . who decrees the fates, the bright-eyed, will see thee, He will . . . . he will kiss thee." Ninlil follows her mother's instructions and as a consequence is impregnated by "the water" of Enlil and conceives the moon-god Nanna. Enlil then departs from Nippur in the direction of the nether world, but is followed by Ninlil. As he leaves the gate he instructs the "man of the gate" to give the inquisitive Ninlil no information of his whereabouts. Ninlil comes up to the "man of the gate" and demands to know whither Enlil has gone. Enlil then __________________________________ PLATE XI. ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA This illustrates the obverse of a tablet (9205 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) that was published by the late George Barton as early as 1918. 47 Its contents, though obviously most significant for Sumerian mythology, have remained largely unintelligible all these years. Sumerological progress in the course of the past quarter-century and the discovery by the author of nine additional fragments (eight in the University Museum and one in the Museum of the Ancient Orient) 48have now made the reconstruction and translation of this poem possible. The marked passage contains the following lines: den-líl-li ì-du dnin-líl in-uš dnu-nam-nir ì-du ki-sikil mu-un- . . . den-líl-li lú-ká-gal-ra gù mu-na-dé-e lú-ká-gal lú-gišsi-gar-ra lú-giššu-di-eš lú-gišsi-gar-kug-ga nin-zu-dnin-líl-li i-im-du u4-da én-mu mu-ra-tar-ra za-e ki-mu nam-mu-ni-in-pàd-dé For the translation, see page 45. PLATE XI.<br> ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XI. ENLIL AND NINLIL: THE BEGETTING OF NANNA (For description, see opposite page.) p. 45 seems to take the form of the "man of the gate" and answers for him. The passage involved is as yet unintelligible; it seems to contain a refusal to divulge Enlil's whereabouts. Ninlil thereupon reminds him that while, true enough, Enlil is his king, she is his queen. Thereupon Enlil, still impersonating "the man of the gate," cohabits with her and impregnates her. As a result Ninlil conceives Meslamtaea, more commonly known as Nergal, the king of the nether world. In spite of the unintelligible parts, the flavor of this remarkable passage will be readily apparent from the following quotations: Enlil . . . departed from the city, Nunamnir (a name of Enlil) . . . departed from the city. Enlil walked, Ninlil followed, Nunamnir walked, the maid followed, Enlil says to the man of the gate: "O man of the gate, man of the lock, O man of the bolt, man of the pure lock, Thy queen Ninlil is coming; If she asks thee about me, Tell her not where I am." Ninlil approached the man of the gate: "O man of the gate, man of the lock, O man of the bolt, man of the pure lock, Enlil, thy king, where is he going?" Enlil answers her for the man of the gate: "Enlil, the king of all the lands, has commanded me": Four lines follow containing the substance of this command but their meaning is obscure. Then comes the following dialogue between Ninlil and Enlil, the latter impersonating the "man of the gate": Ninlil: "True, Enlil is thy king, but I am thy queen." Enlil: "If now thou art my queen, let my hand touch thy . . ." Ninlil: "The 'water' of thy king, the bright 'water' is in my heart, The 'water' of Nanna, the bright 'water' is in my heart." Enlil: "The 'water' of my king, let it go toward heaven, let it go toward earth, Let my 'water,' like the 'water' of my king, go toward earth." p. 46 Enlil, as the man of the gate, lay down in the He kissed her, be cohabited with her, Having kissed her, having cohabited with her, The "water" of . . . Meslamtaea he caused to flow over (her) heart. The poem then continues with the begetting of the nether world deity Ninazu; this time it is the "man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river" whom Enlil impersonates. In all other respects, the passage is a repetition of that describing the begetting of Meslamtaea; thus: Enlil walked, Ninlil followed, Nunamnir walked, the maid followed, Enlil says to the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river: "O man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river, Thy queen Ninlil is coming; If she asks thee about me, Tell her not where I am." Ninlil approached the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river: "O man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river, Enlil, thy king, where is he going?" Enlil answers her for the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river: "Enlil, the king of all the lands, has commanded me." The substance of the command is unintelligible. Follows the dialogue between Ninlil and Enlil, the latter impersonating the "man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river": Ninlil: "True, Enlil is thy king, but I am thy queen." Enlil: "If now thou art my queen, let my hand touch thy . . ." Ninlil: "The 'water' of thy king, the bright 'water' is in my heart, The 'water' of Nanna, the bright 'water' is in my heart." Enlil: "The 'water' of my king, let it go toward heaven, let it go toward earth, Let my 'water,' like the 'water' of my king, go toward earth." Enlil, as the man of the river of the nether world, the man-devouring river, lay down in the . . . . He kissed her, he cohabited with her, p. 47 Having kissed her, having cohabited with her, The "water" of Ninazu, the king of . . ., he caused to flow over (her) heart. The poem then continues with the begetting of the third underworld deity whose name is illegible; this time it is the "man of the boat" whom Enlil impersonates. Our myth then comes to a close with a brief hymnal passage in which Enlil is exalted as the lord of abundance and the king whose decrees are unalterable. THE JOURNEY OF NANNA TO NIPPUR To the Sumerians of the third millennium B. C., Nippur was the spiritual center of their country. Its tutelary deity, Enlil, was the leading god of the Sumerian pantheon; his temple, Ekur, was the most important temple in Sumer. And so, the blessing of Enlil was a prime essential for the establishment of prosperity and abundance in the other important cities of Sumer, such as Eridu and Ur. To obtain this blessing, the tutelary deities of these cities were conceived as travelling to Nippur laden with gifts for its god and temple. Our myth 50 describes just such a journey from Ur to Nippur of the moon-god Nanna (also known as Sin and Ashgirbabbar), the tutelary deity of Ur. In this myth, as in the preceding Enlil-Ninlil composition, the cities such as Nippur and Ur seem to be fully built and rich in animal and plant life, although man seems to be still nonexistent. Beginning with a description of the glory of Nippur, our poem continues a passage describing Nanna's decision to visit his father's city: To go to his city, to stand before his father, Ashgirbabbar set his mind: "I, the hero, to my city I would go, before my father I would stand; I, Sin, to my city I would go, before my father I would stand, Before my father Enlil I would stand; I, to my city I would go, before my mother Ninlil I would stand, Before my father I would stand." p. 48 And so he loads up his gufa with a rich assortment of trees, plants, and animals. On his journey from Ur to Nippur, Nanna and his boat make stop at five cities: Im (?), Larsa, Erech, and two cities whose names are illegible; in each of these Nanna is met and greeted by the respective tutelary deity. Finally he arrives at Nippur: At the lapis lazuli quay, the quay of Enlil, Nanna-Sin drew up his boat, At the white quay, the quay of Enlil, Ashgirbabbar drew up his boat, On the . . . of the father, his begetter, he stationed himself, To the gatekeeper of Enlil he says: At the lapis lazuli quay, the quay of Enlil, Nanna-Sin drew up his boat, At the white quay, the quay of Enlil, Ashgirbabbar drew up his boat, On the . . . of the father, his begetter, he stationed himself, To the gatekeeper of Enlil he says: "Open the house, gatekeeper, open the house, Open the house, O protecting genie, open the house, Open the house, thou who makest the trees come forth, open the house, O . . ., who makest the trees come forth, open the house, Gatekeeper, open the house, O protecting genie, open the house." The gatekeeper opens the door for Nanna: Joyfully, the gatekeeper joyfully opened the door; The protecting genie who makes the trees come forth, joyfully, The gatekeeper joyfully opened the door; He who makes the trees come forth, joyfully, The gatekeeper joyfully opened the door; With Sin, Enlil rejoiced. The two gods feast; then Nanna addresses Enlil his father as follows: "In the river give me overflow, In the field give me much grain, In the swampland give me grass and reeds, In the forests give me . . . p. 49 In the plain give me . . . In the palm-grove and vineyard give me honey and wine, In the palace give me long life, To Ur I shall go." And Enlil accedes to his son's request: He gave him, Enlil gave him, To Ur he went. In the river he gave him overflow, In the field he gave him much grain, In the swampland he gave him grass and reeds, In the forests he gave him . . ., In the plain he gave him . . . . In the palm-grove and vineyard he gave him honey and wine, In the palace he gave him long life. EMESH AND ENTEN: ENLIL CHOOSES THE FARMER-GOD This myth 51 is the closest extant Sumerian parallel to the Biblical Cain-Abel story, although it ends with a reconciliation rather than a murder. It consists of over three hundred lines, only about half of which are complete; because of the numerous breaks, the meaning of the text is therefore often difficult to penetrate. Tentatively the contents of the poem may be reconstructed as follows: Enlil, the air-god, has set his mind to bring forth trees and grain and to establish abundance and prosperity in the land. For this purpose two cultural beings, the brothers Emesh and Enten, are created, and Enlil assigns to each specific duties. The text is so badly damaged at this point that it is impossible to make out the exact nature of these duties; the following very brief intelligible passages will at least indicate their general direction: Enten caused the ewe to give birth to the lamb, the goat to give birth to the kid, Cow and calf he caused to multiply, much fat and milk he caused to be produced, In the plain, the heart of the wild goat, the sheep, and the donkey he made to rejoice, The birds of the heaven, in the wide earth he had them set up their nests p. 50 The fish of the sea, in the swampland he had them lay their eggs, In the palm-grove and vineyard he made to abound honey and wine, The trees, wherever planted, he caused to bear fruit, The furrows . . ., Grain and crops he caused to multiply, Like Ashnan (the grain goddess), the kindly maid, he caused strength to appear. Emesh brought into existence the trees and the fields, he made wide the stables and sheepfolds, In the farms he multiplied the produce, The . . . he caused to cover the earth, The abundant harvest he caused to be brought into the houses, he caused the granaries to be heaped high. But whatever the nature of their original duties, a violent quarrel breaks out between the two brothers. Several arguments ensue, and finally Emesh challenges Enten's claim to the position of "farmer of the gods." And so they betake themselves to Nippur where each states his case before Enlil. Thus Enten complains to Enlil: ____________________________________ PLATE XII. GODS OF VEGETATION Three of the designs depict a deity in close relation with a plow. In the upper design two gods are guiding a plow, which is perhaps drawn by a lion and a wormlike dragon. In the second, a seated god is holding a plow in front of him. Behind him is a mountain from which sprouts a plant and on which an ibex is ascending; in front of him a deity leads a worshipper carrying a gazelle in his arms. In the lower design an unidentified deity holding a plow is travelling in a boat whose stern ends in a snake and whose prow ends in the body of a god who is propelling the boat. The third design seems to depict an offering scene to the right of the inscription. A worshipper carrying a gazelle is followed by a goddess holding a vase, from which flow two streams of water. The worshipper stands before another goddess who may perhaps be identified as Inanna in the role of the goddess of war. But it is the two deities to the left of the inscriptions which interest us here mostly. Both seem to have ears of grain sprouting from their shoulders, but the male god is equipped with club and bow, while a ram frolics at his feet. He may perhaps be identified as Lahar, the cattle-god, while the goddess facing him may be Ashnan, the grain goddess (see p. 53). (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plates XXa, d, e, and XIXe.) PLATE XII<br> GODS OF VEGETATION<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XII GODS OF VEGETATION (For description, see opposite page.) p. 51 "O father Enlil, knowledge thou hast given me, I brought the water of abundance, Farm I made touch farm, I heaped high the granaries, Like Ashnan, the kindly maid, I caused strength to appear; Now Emesh, the . . . . the irreverent, who knows not the heart of the fields, On my first strength, on my first power, is encroaching; At the palace of the king . . ." Emesh's version of the quarrel, which begins with several flattering phrases cunningly directed to win Enlil's favor, is brief but as yet unintelligible. Then: Enlil answers Emesh and Enten: "The life-producing water of all the lands, Enten is its 'knower,' As farmer of the gods he has produced everything, Emesh, my son, how dost thou compare thyself with Eaten, thy brother?" The exalted word of Enlil whose meaning is profound, The decision taken, is unalterable, who dares transgress it! Emesh bent the knees before Enten, Into his house he brought . . ., the wine of the grape and the date, Emesh presents Enten with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, In brotherhood and friendship, happily, they pour out libations, Together to act wisely and well they determined. In the struggle between Emesh and Enten, Enten, the steadfast farmer of the gods, having proved greater than Emesh, . . . O father Enlil, praise! THE CREATION OF THE PICKAX This poem consisting of 108 lines 52 is practically complete, although not a few of the passages still remain obscure and unintelligible. It begins with a long introductory passage which is of prime significance for the Sumerian conception of the creation and organization of the universe. If the following translation of this important passage seems sodden, stilted, and obscure, the reader is asked to remember that although the meanings of most of the Sumerian words and phrases are known, we still have little insight into their overtones, into their connotations and implications. p. 52 [paragraph continues] For the background and situation which these words and phrases imply and assume, still elude us; and it is this background and situation, part and parcel of the Sumerian mythological and religious pattern and well known to the Sumerian poet and his "reader," which are so vital to a full understanding of the text. It is only with the gradual accumulation of living contexts from Sumerian literature that we may hope to overcome this difficulty; as yet it is best to hew close to the literal word. The introductory passage reads: o The lord, that which is appropriate verily he caused to appear, The lord whose decisions are unalterable, Enlil, who brings up the seed of the land from the earth, Took care to move away heaven from earth, Took care to move away earth from heaven. In order to make grow the creature which came forth, In the "bond of heaven and earth" (Nippur) he stretched out the . . . He brought the pickax into existence, the "day" came forth, He introduced labor, decreed the fate, Upon the pickax and basket he directs the "power." Enlil made his pickax exalted, His pickax of gold, whose head is of lapis lazuli, The pickax of his house, of . . . silver and gold, His pickax whose . . . is of lapis lazuli, Whose tooth is a one-horned ox ascending a large wall. The lord called up the pickax, decrees its fate, He set the kindu, the holy crown, upon his head, The head of man he placed in the mould, Before Enlil he (man?) covers his land, Upon his black-headed people he looked steadfastly. The Anunnaki who stood about him, He placed it (the pickax?) as a gift in their hands, They soothe Enlil with prayer, They give the pickax to the black-headed people to hold. After Enlil had created the pickax and decreed its exalted fate, the other important deities add to its powers and utility. The poem concludes with a long passage in which the usefulness of the pickax is described in glowing terms; the last lines read: p. 53 The pickax and the basket build cities, The steadfast house the pickax builds, the steadfast house the pickax establishes, The steadfast house it causes to prosper. The house which rebels against the king, The house which is not submissive to its king, The pickax makes it submissive to the king. Of the bad . . . plants it crushes the head, Plucks at the roots, tears at the crown, The pickax spares the . . . plants; The pickax, its fate decreed by father Enlil, The pickax is exalted. CATTLE AND GRAIN The myth 53 involving Lahar, the cattle-god, and his sister Ashnan, the grain-goddess, represents another variation of the Cain-Abel motif in Near East mythology. Labar and Ashnan, according to our myth, were created in the creation chamber of the gods in order that the Annunnaki, the children and followers of the heaven-god An, might have food to eat and clothes to wear. But the Anunnaki were unable to make effective use of the products of these deities; it was to remedy this situation that man was created. All this is told in an introductory passage which, because of its significance for the Sumerian conception of the creation of man, is quoted in full on pages 72-73. The passage following the introduction is another poetic gem; it describes the descent of Lahar and Ashnan from heaven to earth and the cultural benefits which they bestow on mankind: In those days Enki says to Enlil: "Father Enlil, Lahar and Ashnan, They who have been created in the Dulkug, Let us cause them to descend from the Dulkug." At the pure word of Enki and Enlil, Lahar and Ashnan descended from the Dulkug. For Lahar they (Enlil and Enki) set up the sheepfold, Plants, herbs, and . . . they present to him; p. 54 For Ashnan they establish a house, Plow and yoke they present to her. Lahar standing in his sheepfold, A shepherd increasing the bounty of the sheepfold is he; Ashnan standing among the crops, A maid kindly and bountiful is she. Abundance of heaven . . . , Lahar and Ashnan caused to appear, In the assembly they brought abundance, In the land they brought the breath of life, The decrees of the god they direct, The contents of the warehouses they multiply, The storehouses they fill full. In the house of the poor, hugging the dust, Entering they bring abundance; The pair of them, wherever they stand, Bring heavy increase into the house; The place where they stand they sate, the place where they sit they supply, They made good the heart of An and Enlil. But then Labar and Ashnan drank much wine and so they began to quarrel in the farms and fields. In the arguments which ensued, each deity extolled its achievements and belittled those of its opponent. Finally Enlil and Enki intervened, but the end of the poem which contains their decision is still wanting. ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD p Both for intricacy of story and for simplicity of style, this myth 57 is one of the most remarkable compositions in our entire group. The hero is Enki, the great water-god of the Sumerians, one of the four creating deities of Sumer; his closest Greek counterpart is Poseidon. The place of our story is Dilmun, a district which is perhaps to be identified with eastern shores of the Persian Gulf and which in historical times, therefore, actually lay outside of Sumer proper. Our poem begins with a description of Dilmun as a land of innocence and bliss: p. 55 The land Dilmun is a pure place, the land Dilmun is a clean place, The land Dilmun is a clean place, the land Dilmun is a bright place; He who is all alone laid himself down in Dilmun, The place, after Enki had laid himself by his wife, That place is clean, that place is bright; He who is all alone laid himself down in Dilmun, The place, after Enki had laid himself by Ninsikil, That place is clean, that place is bright. In Dilmun the raven uttered no cries, The kite uttered not the cry of the kite, The lion killed not, The wolf snatched not the lamb, Unknown was the kid-killing dog, Unknown was the grain-devouring boar, The bird on high . . . not its young, The dove . . . not the head, The sick-eyed says not "I am sick-eyed," The sick-headed says not "I am sick-headed," Its (Dilmun's) old woman says not "I am an old woman," Its old man says not "I am an old man," Its unwashed maid is not . . . in the city, He who crosses the river utters no . . . , The overseer does not . . . , The singer utters no wail, By the side of the city he utters no lament. What is wanting in this paradise land, however, is sweet water. And so the goddess of Dilmun, Ninsikil, pleads with Enki for fresh water. Enki heeds her plea and orders the sun-god Utu to bring forth fresh water from the earth for Dilmun. As a result: Her city drinks the water of abundance, Dilmun drinks the water of abundance, Her wells of bitter water, behold they are become wells of good water, Her fields and farms produced crops and grain, Her city, behold it is become the house of the banks and quays of the land, Dilmun, behold it is become the house of the banks and quays of the land. p. 56 Dilmun supplied with water, our poem next describes the birth of Uttu, the goddess of plants, a birth which results from the following rather intricate process. Enki first impregnates the goddess Ninhursag, or, to give her one of her other names, Nintu, the Sumerian goddess who in an earlier day may have been identical with Ki, the mother earth. Follows a period of gestation lasting nine days, the poet being careful to note that each day corresponds to a month in the human period of gestation; of this union is begotten the goddess Ninsar. This interesting passage runs as follows: Upon Ninhursag he caused to flow the "water of the heart," She received the "water of the heart," the water of Enki. One day being her one month, Two days being her two months, Three days being her three months, Four days being her four months, Five days (being her five months,) Six days (being her six months,) Seven days (being her seven months,) Eight days (being her eight months,) Nine days being her nine months, the months of "womanhood," Like . . . fat, like . . . fat, like good butter, Nintu, the mother of the land, like . . . fat, (like . . . fat, like good butter,) Gave birth to Ninsar. __________________________________ PLATE XIII. ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD This is a photograph of a tablet (4561 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) published by Stephen Langdon more than 25 years ago under the title, "Sumerian Epic of Paradise, the Flood, and Fall of Man." 54 At the time of its publication, Sumerian grammatical and lexicographical studies had made relatively little scientific progress, and the contents of this difficult poem were largely misunderstood. The author's interpretation of the poem is largely the result of a more scientific approach to the linguistic problems, although the publication in 1930 by Henri de Genouillac of a duplicating fragment now in the Louvre u also proved of considerable help. The last 14 lines in the second column contain a passage which may be not inaptly entitled "The Birth of a Goddess"; for the translation and the transliteration, see page 56 and note 56. PLATE XIII.<br> ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XIII. ENKI AND NINHURSAG: THE AFFAIRS OF THE WATER-GOD (For description, see opposite page.) p. 57 Ninsar in turn is impregnated by her father Enki and after nine days of gestation she gives birth to the goddess Ninkur. Ninkur, too, is then impregnated by Enki and so finally is born Uttu, the goddess of plants. To this plant-goddess now appears her great-grandmother Ninhursag, who offers her advice pertinent to her future relationship with Enki. Part of the passage is broken, and much of what is not broken I fail as yet to comprehend. But whatever the advice, Uttu follows it in all detail. As a result she is in turn impregnated by Enki and eight different plants sprout forth. But Enki eats up the plants; thus: Enki, in the swampland, in the swampland, lies stretched out, He says to his messenger Isimud: "What is this (plant), what is this (plant)?" His messenger, Isimud, answers him; "My king, this is the 'tree-plant'," he says to him. He cuts it off for him and he (Enki) eats it. Enki: "What is this, what is this?" Isimud: "My king, this is the 'honey-plant'." He tears it off for him and he eats it. And so on until Enki has eaten all the eight plants. Thereupon Ninhursag, who, it will be recalled, is actually responsible for the creation of these plants, curses Enki. 58 The curse reads: "Until thou art dead, I shall not look upon thee with the 'eye of life'." Having uttered the curse, Ninhursag disappears. The gods are chagrined; they "sit in the dust." Up speaks the fox to Enlil: "If I bring Ninhursag before thee, what shall be my reward?" [paragraph continues] Enlil promises the fox a due reward and the latter succeeds in bringing her back; how he goes about this task is not clear, however, since part of the text is broken and much of the preserved part is as yet unintelligible. And so Ninhursag proceeds to remove the effects of her curse from the rapidly sinking Enki. This she achieves by giving birth p. 58 to a special deity for each of Enki's pains. This passage which closes our poem runs as follows: Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My . . . hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Abu I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My hip hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Nintul I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My tooth hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Ninsutu I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My mouth hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Ninkasi I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My . . . hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Nazi I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My side hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Dazimua I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My rib hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the goddess Ninti I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "My brother, what hurts thee?" Enki: "My . . . hurts me." Ninhursag: "To the god Enshagag I gave birth for thee." Ninhursag: "For the little ones to which I gave birth Enki: "Let Abu be the king of the plants, Let Nintul be the lord of Magan, Let Ninsutu marry Ninazu, Let Ninkasi be (the goddess who) sates the heart, Let Nazi marry Nindar, Let Dazimua marry Ningishzida, Let Ninti be the queen of the month, Let Enshagag be the lord of Dilmun." O Father Enki, praise! And so, as the reader will note, the eight aches and pains which had come upon Enki as punishment for his eating p. 59 the eight plants, were healed by the eight deities born of Ninhursag for that purpose. Moreover, the superficiality and barren artificiality of the concepts implied in this closing passage of our myth, although not apparent from the English translation, are brought out quite clearly by the Sumerian original. For the fact is that the actual relationship between each of the "healing" deities and the sickness which it is supposed to cure, is verbal and nominal only; this relationship manifests itself in the fact that the name of the deity contains in it part or all of the word signifying the corresponding aching part of Enki's body. In brief, it is only because the name of the deity sounded like the sick body-member that the makers of this myth were induced to associate the two; actually there is no organic relationship between them. ENKI AND SUMER: THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EARTH AND ITS CULTURAL PROCESSES q This composition 59 furnishes us with a detailed account of the activities of the water-god Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, in organizing the earth and establishing what might be termed law and order upon it. The first part of our poem, approximately one hundred lines, is too fragmentary for a reconstruction of its contents. When the poem becomes intelligible, Enki is decreeing the fate of Sumer: O Sumer, great land, of the lands of the universe, Filled with steadfast brightness, the people from sunrise to sunset obedient to the divine decrees, Thy decrees are exalted decrees, unreachable, Thy heart is profound, unfathomable, Thy . . . is like heaven, untouchable. "The king, begotten, adorns himself with lasting jewel, The lord, begotten, sets crown on head, Thy lord is an honored lord; with An, the king, he sits in the shrine of heaven, Thy king is the great mountain, the father Enlil, Like . . . the father of all the lands. p. 60 "The Anunnaki, the great gods, In thy midst have taken up their dwelling place, In thy large groves they consume (their) food. "O house of Sumer, may thy stables be many, may thy cows multiply, May thy sheepfolds be many, may thy sheep be myriad, May thy . . . stand, May thy steadfast . . . lift hand to heaven, May the Anunnaki decree the fates in thy midst." Enki then goes to Ur, no doubt the capital of Sumer at the time our poem was composed, and decrees its fate: To Ur he came, Enki, king of the abyss, decrees the fate: "O city, well-supplied, washed by much water, firm standing ox, Shrine of abundance of the land, knees opened, green like the 'mountain,' Hashur-forest, wide shade. . . . heroic, Thy perfected decrees he has directed, The great mountain, Enlil, in the universe has uttered thy exalted name; O thou city whose fates have been decreed by Enki, O thou shrine Ur, neck to heaven mayest thou rise." Enki then comes to Meluhha, the "black mountain," perhaps to be identified with the eastern coast of Africa. Remarkably enough, Enki is almost as favorably disposed ____________________________________________ PLATE XIV. ENKI, THE WATER-GOD In the latter half of the third millennium the water-god Enki played a predominant role in Sumerian religion and myth. This plate gives a graphic picture of his activities. The upper design depicts Enki with flowing streams, swimming fishes, and what may be sprouting plants, travelling in a boat along the Eridu marshland. In the second design four deities are approaching the seated Enki; the second carries a plow. The third design depicts Enki sitting in judgment. His messenger, the two-faced Isimud, is followed by a deity carrying a plant; the latter is followed by another deity who carries slung over his shoulder a mace to which the accused bird-man is tied by the feet. The lower design depicts another version of the same scene. Before Enki, seated in judgment, Isimud leads the accused bird-man, who is followed by another deity and a worshipper. (Reproduced, by permission of the Macmillan Company, from Henri Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plates XXf, XXIe, and XXXIIId, f.) PLATE XIV<br> ENKI, THE WATER-GOD<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XIV ENKI, THE WATER-GOD (For description, see opposite page.) p. 61 to this land as to Sumer itself. He blesses its trees and reeds, its oxen and birds, its silver and gold, its bronze and copper, its human beings. From Meluhha, Enki goes to the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. He fills them with sparkling water and appoints the god Enbilulu, the "knower" of rivers, in charge. Enki then fills the rivers with fishes and makes a deity described as the "son of Kesh" responsible for them. He next turns to the sea (Persian Gulf), sets up its rules, and appoints the goddess Sirara in charge. Enki now calls to the winds and appoints over them the god Ishkur, who has charge of the "silver lock of the 'heart' of heaven." The plow and yoke, fields and vegetation, are next on the list: The plow and the yoke he directed, The great prince Enki caused the . . . ox to . . . To the pure crops he roared, In the steadfast field he made grain grow; The lord, the jewel and ornament of the plain, The . . . farmer of Enlil, Enkimdu, him of the canals and ditches, Enki placed in their charge. The lord called to the steadfast field, he caused it to produce much grain, Enki made it bring forth its small and large beans . . . , The . . . grains he heaped up for the granary, Enki added granary to granary, With Enlil he increases abundance in the land; Her whose head is . . . . whose face is . . . , The lady who . . . . the might of the land, the steadfast support of the black-headed people, Ashnan, strength of all things, Enki placed in charge. Enki now turns to the pickax and the brickmold, and appoints the brick-god Kabta in charge. He then directs the building implement gugun, lays foundations and builds houses, and places them under the charge of Mushdamma, the "great builder of Enlil." He then fills the plain with plant and animal life and places Sumugan, "king of the p. 62 [paragraph continues] 'mountain'," in control. Finally Enki builds stables and sheepfolds, fills them with milk and fat, and puts them in the care of the shepherd-god Dumuzi. The rest of our text is destroyed and we do not know how the poem ends. ENKI AND ERIDU: THE JOURNEY OF THE WATER--GOD TO NIPPUR r One of the oldest and most venerated cities in Sumer was Eridu, which lies buried to-day under the mound Abu-Shahrain; a thorough excavation of this significant site would in all probability immensely enrich our knowledge of Sumerian culture and civilization, especially in their more spiritual aspects. According to one Sumerian tradition, it was the oldest city in Sumer, the first of the five cities founded before the flood; our myth, on the other hand, implies that the city Nippur preceded it in age. In this city, which in ancient times must have been situated on the Persian Gulf, the water-god Enki, also known as Nudimmud, builds his "sea-house": 60 After the water of creation had been decreed, After the name hegal (abundance), born in heaven, Like plant and herb had clothed the land, The lord of the abyss, the king Enki, Enki, the lord who decrees the fates, Built his house of silver and lapis lazuli; Its silver and lapis lazuli, like sparkling light, The father fashioned fittingly in the abyss. The (creatures of) bright countenance and wise, coming forth from the abyss, Stood all about the lord Nudimmud; The pure house be built, he adorned it with lapis lazuli, He ornamented it greatly with gold, In Eridu he built the house of the water-bank, Its brickwork, word-uttering, advice-giving, Its . . . like an ox roaring, The house of Enki, the oracles uttering. Follows a long passage in which Isimud, the messenger of Enki, sings the praises of the "sea-house." Then Enki raises the city Eridu from the abyss and makes it float over p. 63 the water like a lofty mountain. Its green fruit-bearing gardens he fills with birds; fishes, too, be makes abundant. Enki is now ready to proceed by boat to Nippur to obtain Enlil's blessing for his newly-built city and temple. He therefore rises from the abyss: When Enki rises, the fish . . . rise, The abyss stands in wonder, In the sea joy enters, Fear comes over the deep, Terror holds the exalted river, The Euphrates, the South Wind lifts it in waves. And so Enki seats himself in his boat and first arrives in Eridu itself; here he slaughters many oxen and sheep. He then proceeds to Nippur where immediately upon his arrival he prepares all kinds of drinks for the gods and especially for Enlil. Then: Enki in the shrine Nippur, Gives his father Enlil bread to eat, In the first place he seated An (the heaven-god), Next to An he seated Enlil, Nintu he seated at the "big side," The Anunnaki seated themselves one after the other. And so the gods feast and banquet until their hearts become "good" and Enlil is ready to pronounce his blessing: Enlil says to the Anunnaki: Enlil says to the Anunnaki: "Ye great gods who are standing about, My son has built a house, the king Enki; Eridu, like a mountain, he has raised up from the earth, In a good place he has built it. Eridu, the clean place, where none may enter, The house built of silver, adorned with lapis lazuli, The house directed by the seven "lyre-songs," given over to incantation, With pure songs . . . , The abyss, the shrine of the goodness of Enki, befitting the divine decrees, Eridu, the pure house having been built, O Enki, praise!" p. 64 INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH This magnificent myth with its particularly charming story involves Inanna, the queen of heaven, and Enki, the lord of wisdom. Its contents are of profound significance for the study of the history and progress of civilization, since it contains a list of over one hundred divine decrees governing all those cultural achievements which, according to the more or less superficial analysis of the Sumerian scribes and thinkers, made up the warp and woof of Sumerian civilization. As early as 1911 a fragment belonging to this myth and located in the University Museum at Philadelphia was published by David W. Myhrman. 62 Three years later, Arno Poebel published another Philadelphia tablet inscribed with part of the composition; 61 this is a large, well-preserved six-column tablet whose upper left ________________________________________ PLATES XV AND XVI. INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH Plate XV is the obverse of a large six-column tablet (15283 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) published by Poebel in 1914; 61 its upper left corner is broken away. Plate XVI illustrates three fragments belonging to the same poem. The large fragment (13571 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) was published by Myhrman in 1911. 62 Below the large fragment, on the left, are the obverse and reverse of a small fragment (4151 in the Nippur collection of the Museum of the Ancient Orient) copied by the author in Istanbul and hitherto unpublished. In all probability it is the very comer piece broken away from the Philadelphia tablet illustrated on plate XV. To the right are the obverse and reverse of another small fragment (2724 in the Nippur collection of the Museum of the Ancient Orient) copied by the author in Istanbul and hitherto unpublished. Small as it is, this piece proved instrumental in supplying the motivating link to the story. For the translation and the transliteration of the first eight lines of the passage in which Enki presents the arts of civilization to the goddess Inanna, see page 66 and note 65. Another significant verse in this passage reads: 66 "O name of my power, O name of my power, To the bright Inanna, my daughter, I shall present . . . The arts of woodworking, metalworking, writing, toolmaking, leatherworking. . . . building, basketweaving." Pure Inanna took them. PLATE XV<br> INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU To ERECH<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XV INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU To ERECH (For description, see opposite page.) PLATE XVI<br> INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH<br> (For description, see page 64.) Click to enlarge PLATE XVI INANNA AND ENKI: THE TRANSFER OF THE ARTS OF CIVILIZATION FROM ERIDU TO ERECH (For description, see page 64.) p. 65 corner was broken off. This broken corner piece I was fortunate enough to discover in 1937, twenty-three years later, in the Museum of the Ancient Orient at Istanbul. 63 As early as 1914, therefore, a large part of the myth had been copied and published. However, no translation was attempted in all these years since the story seemed to make no connected sense; and what could be made out, seemed to lack intelligent motivation. In 1937 I located and copied in Istanbul a small piece 64 which supplied the missing clue, and as a result, this tale of the all too human Sumerian gods can now be told. 67 Inanna, queen of heaven, and tutelary goddess of Erech, is anxious to increase the welfare and prosperity of her city, to make it the center of Sumerian civilization, and thus to exalt her own name and fame. She therefore decides to go to Eridu, the ancient and hoary seat of Sumerian culture where Enki, the Lord of Wisdom, who "knows the very heart of the gods," dwells in his watery abyss, the Abzu. For Enki has under his charge all the divine decrees that are fundamental to civilization. And if she can obtain them, by fair means or foul, and bring them to her beloved city Erech, its glory and her own will indeed be unsurpassed. As she approaches the Abzu of Eridu, Enki, no doubt taken in by her charms, calls his messenger Isimud and thus addresses him: "Come, my messenger, Isimud, give ear to my instructions, A word I will say to thee, take my word. The maid, all alone, has directed her step to the Abzu, Inanna, all alone, has directed her step to the Abzu, Have the maid enter the Abzu of Eridu, Have Inanna enter the Abzu of Eridu, Give her to eat barley cake with butter, Pour for her cold water that freshens the heart, Give her to drink date-wine in the 'face of the lion,' . . . for her . . . . make for her . . ., At the pure table, the table of heaven, Speak to Inanna words of greeting." Isimud does exactly as bidden by his master, and Inanna and Enki sit down to feast and banquet. After their hearts had become happy with drink, Enki exclaims: p. 66 "O name of My power, O name of my power, To the pure Inanna, my daughter, I shall present . . .. Lordship, . . .-ship, godship, the tiara exalted and enduring, the throne of kingship." Pure Inanna took them. "O name of my power, O name of my power, To the pure Inanna, my daughter, I shall present . . . . The exalted scepter, staffs, the exalted shrine, shepherdship, kingship." Pure Inanna took them. He thus presents, several at a time, over one hundred divine decrees which are the basis of the culture pattern of Sumerian civilization. And when it is realized that this myth was inscribed as early as 2000 B. C. and that the concepts involved were no doubt current centuries earlier, it is no exaggeration to state that no other civilization, outside of the Egyptian, can at all compare in age and quality with that developed by the Sumerians. Among these divine decrees presented by Enki to Inanna are those referring to lordship, godship, the exalted and enduring crown, the throne of kingship, the exalted scepter, the exalted shrine, shepherdship, kingship, the numerous priestly offices, truth, descent into the nether world and ascent from it, the "standard," the flood, sexual intercourse and prostitution, the legal tongue and the libellous tongue, art, the holy cult chambers, the "hierodule of heaven," music, eldership, heroship and power, enmity, straightforwardness, the destruction of cities and lamentation, rejoicing of the heart, falsehood, the rebel land, goodness and justice, the craft of the carpenter, metal worker, scribe, smith, leather worker, mason, and basket weaver, wisdom and understanding, purification, fear and outcry, the kindling flame and the consuming flame, weariness, the shout of victory, counsel, the troubled heart, judgment and decision, exuberance, musical instruments. Inanna is only too happy to accept the gifts offered her by the drunken Enki. She takes them, loads them on her "boat of heaven," and makes off for Erech with her precious cargo. But after the effects of the banquet had worn p. 67 off, Enki noticed that the divine decrees were gone from their usual place. He turns to Isimud and the latter informs him that he, Enki himself, had presented them to his daughter Inanna. The upset Enki greatly rues his munificence and decides to prevent the "boat of heaven" from reaching Erech at all costs. He therefore dispatches his messenger Isimud together with a group of sea monsters to follow Inanna and her boat to the first of the seven stopping stations that are situated between the Abzu of Eridu and Erech. Here the sea monsters are to seize the "boat of heaven" from Inanna; Inanna, herself, however, must be permitted to continue her journey to Erech afoot. The passage covering Enki's instructions to Isimud and Isimud's conversation with Inanna, who reproaches her father Enki as an "Indian-giver," will undoubtedly go down as a classic poetic gem. It runs as follows: The prince calls his messenger Isimud, The prince calls his messenger Isimud, Enki gives the word to the "good name of heaven": "Oh my messenger Isimud, 'my good name of heaven'." "Oh my king Enki, here I stand, forever is praise." "The 'boat of heaven,' where now has it arrived?" "At the quay Idal it has arrived." "Go, and let the sea monsters seize it from her." Isimud does as bidden, overtakes the "boat of heaven," and says to Inanna: "Oh my queen, thy father has sent me to thee, Oh Inanna, thy father has sent me to thee, Thy father, exalted is his speech, Enki, exalted is his utterance, His great words are not to go unheeded." Holy Inanna answers him: "My father, what has he spoken to thee, what has he said to thee? His great words that are not to go unheeded, what pray are they?" "My king has spoken to me, Enki has said to me: 'Let Inanna go to Erech, But thou, bring me back the "boat of heaven" to Eridu'." p. 68 Holy Inanna says to the messenger Isimud: "My father, why pray has he changed his word to me, Why has he broken his righteous word to me, Why has he defiled his great words to me? My father has spoken to me falsehood, has spoken to me falsehood, Falsely has he uttered the name of his power, the name of the Abzu." Barely had she uttered these words, The sea monsters seized the "boat of heaven." Inanna says to her messenger Ninshubur: "Come, my true messenger of Eanna, My messenger of favorable words, My carrier of true words, Whose hand never falters, whose foot never falters, Save the 'boat of heaven,' and Inanna's presented decrees." This Ninshubur does. But Enki is persistent. He sends Isimud accompanied by various sea monsters to seize the "boat of heaven" at each of the seven stopping points between Eridu and Erech. And each time Ninshubur comes to Inanna's rescue. Finally Inanna and her boat arrive safe and sound at Erech, where amidst jubilation and feasting on the part of its delighted inhabitants, she unloads the divine decrees one at a time. The poem ends with a speech addressed by Enki to Inanna, but the text is seriously damaged and it is not clear whether it is reconciliatory or retaliatory in character. THE CREATION OF MAN The composition narrating the creation of man has been found inscribed on two duplicating tablets: one is a Nippur tablet in our University Museum; the other is in the Louvre, which acquired it from an antique dealer. In spite of the fact that by 1934 the Louvre tablet and the greater part of the University Museum tablet had already been copied and published, 72 the contents remained unintelligible. Primarily responsible for this unfortunate situation is the fact that our University Museum tablet, which is better preserved than the Louvre fragment, arrived in Philadelphia p. 69 some four or five decades ago, broken into four parts. By 1919 two of the pieces had already been recognized and joined; these were copied and published by Stephen Langdon. 68 In 1934 Edward Chiera published the third piece 69 but failed to recognize that it joined the two pieces published by Langdon in 1919. It was the discovery of this fact, together with the identifying of the fourth and still unpublished piece 70 which joins the three published pieces, that enabled me to arrange the contents in the proper order. It should be emphasized here that the approximately one hundred and fifty lines which make up the text of our poem still present numerous crucial breaks; many of the lines are poorly preserved. 73 Moreover, the linguistic difficulties in this composition are particularly burdensome; not a few of the crucial words are met here for the first time in Sumerian literature. The translation is therefore full of gaps and its tentative character must be underlined. Nevertheless it does present the fullest picture thus far available of the concepts concerned with the creation of man as current in Sumer during the third millennium B. C. Among the oldest known conceptions of the creation of man are those of the Hebrews and the Babylonians; the former is narrated in the book of Genesis, the latter forms part of the Babylonian "Epic of Creation." According to the Biblical story, or at least according to one of its versions, man was fashioned from clay for the purpose of ruling over all the animals. In the Babylonian myth, man was made of the blood of one of the more troublesome of the gods who was killed for that purpose; he was created primarily in order to serve the gods and free them from the need of working for their bread. According to our Sumerian poem, which antedates both the Hebrew and the Babylonian versions by more than a millennium, man was fashioned of clay as in the Biblical version. The purpose for which he was created, however, was to free the gods from laboring for their sustenance, as in the Babylonian version. The poem begins with what may be a description of the difficulties of the gods in procuring their bread, especially, p. 70 as might have been expected, after the female deities had come into being. The gods complain, but Enki, the water-god, who, as the Sumerian god of wisdom, might have been expected to come to their aid, is lying asleep in the deep and fails to hear them. Thereupon his mother, the primeval sea, "the mother who gave birth to all the gods," brings the tears of the gods before Enki, saying: "O my son, rise from thy bed, from thy . . . work what is wise, Fashion servants of the gods, may they produce their . . ," Enki gives the matter thought, leads forth 'the host of "good and princely fashioners" and says to his mother, Nammu, the primeval sea: O my mother, the creature whose name thou hoist uttered, it exists, Bind upon it the . . . of the gods; Mix the heart of the clay that is over the abyss, The good and princely fashioners will thicken the clay, Thou, do thou bring the limbs into existence; Ninmah (the earth-mother goddess) will work above thee, . . . (goddesses of birth) will stand by thee at thy fashioning; O my mother, decree thou its (the new-born's) fate, Ninmah will bind upon it the . . . of the gods, . . . as man . . . After a break of several lines, whose contents, if ever recovered, should prove most illuminating, the poem describes ______________________________________ PLATES XVII AND XVIII. THE CREATION OF MAN These plates illustrate the obverse of the very same tablet. On plate XVII the tablet is still in three separate pieces (13396, 11327, and 2168, before "joining," in the Nippur collection of the University Museum). Actually the tablet arrived in Philadelphia in four separate pieces. The lower piece on plate XVII is itself composed of two fragments which had already been joined in the University Museum sometime before 1919, when it was published by Langdon 68 The large upper fragment was published by Chiera in 1934. 69 The fourth piece 70 has hitherto remained unpublished. Plate XVIII shows the same tablet, with all the pieces joined. The lower part of the first column contains the first; part of the passage in which Enki, the water-god, instructs his mother Nammu, the goddess who begot heaven and earth and all the gods, how to fashion man. For the translation and the transliteration, see page 70 and note 71. PLATE XVII<br> THE CREATION OF MAN<br> (For description, see opposite page.) Click to enlarge PLATE XVII THE CREATION OF MAN (For description, see opposite page.) PLATE XVIII<br> THE CREATION OF MAN<br> (For description, see page 70.) Click to enlarge PLATE XVIII THE CREATION OF MAN (For description, see page 70.) p. 71 a feast arranged by Enki for the gods, no doubt to commemorate man's creation. At this feast Enki and Ninmah drink much wine and become somewhat exuberant. Thereupon Ninmah takes some of the clay which is over the abyss and fashions six different types of individuals, while Enki decrees their fate and gives them bread to eat. The character of only the last two types is intelligible; these are the barren woman and the sexless or eunuch type. The lines read: The . . . she (Ninmah) made into a woman who cannot give birth. Enki upon seeing the woman who cannot give birth, Decreed her fate, destined her to be stationed in the "woman house." The . . . she (Ninmah) made into one who has no male organ, who has no female organ. Enki, upon seeing him who has no male organ, who has no female organ, To stand before the king, decreed as his fate. After Ninmah had created these six types of man, Enki decides to do some creating of his own. The manner in which he goes about it is not clear, but whatever it is that he does, the resulting creature is a failure; it is weak and feeble in body and spirit. Enki is now anxious that Ninmah help this forlorn creature; he therefore addresses her as follows: "Of him whom thy hand has fashioned, I have decreed the fate, Have given him bread to eat; Do thou decree the fate of him whom my hand has fashioned, Do thou give him bread to eat." Ninmah tries to be good to the creature but to no avail. She talks to him but he fails to answer. She gives him bread to eat but he does not reach out for it. He can neither sit nor stand, nor bend the knees. A long conversation between Enki and Ninmah then follows, but the tablets are so badly broken at this point that it is impossible to make out the sense of the contents. Finally Ninmah seems to utter a curse against Enki because of the sick, lifeless p. 72 creature which he produced, a curse which Enki seems to accept as his due. In addition to the creation poem outlined above, a detailed description of the purpose for which mankind was created is given in the introduction to the myth "Cattle and Grain" (see p. 53); it runs as follows. After the Anunnaki, the heaven-gods, had been born, but before the creation of Lahar, the cattle-god, and Ashnan, the grain-goddess, there existed neither cattle nor grain. The gods therefore "knew not" the eating of bread nor the dressing of garments. The cattle-god Lahar and the grain-goddess Ashnan were then created in the creation chamber of heaven, but still the gods remained unsated. It was then that man "was given breath," for the sake of the welfare of the sheepfolds and "good things" of the gods. This introduction reads as follows: After on the mountain of heaven and earth, An (the heaven-god) had caused the Anunnaki (his followers) to be born Because the name Ashnan (the grain-goddess) had not been born, had not been fashioned, Because Uttu (the goddess of plants) had not been fashioned, Because to Uttu no temenos had been set up, There was no ewe, no lamb was dropped, There was no goat, no kid was dropped, The ewe did not give birth to its two lambs, The goat did not give birth to its three kids. Because the name of Ashnan, the wise, and Lahar (the cattle-god), The Anunnaki, the great gods, did not know, The . . . grain of thirty days did not exist, The . . . grain of forty days did not exist, The small grains, the grain of the mountain, the grain of the pure living creatures did not exist. Because Uttu had not been born, because the crown (of vegetation?) had not been raised, Because the lord . . . had not been born, Because Sumugan, the god of the plain, had not come forth, Like mankind when first created, p. 73 They (the Anunnaki knew not the eating of bread, Knew not the dressing of garments, Ate plants with their mouth like sheep, Drank water from the ditch. In those days, in the creation chamber of the gods, In their house Dulkug, Lahar and Ashnan were fashioned; The produce of Lahar and Ashnan, The Anunnaki of the Dulkug eat, but remain unsated; In their pure sheepfolds milk, . . ., and good things, The Anunnaki of the Dulkug drink, but remain unsated; For the sake of the good things in their pure sheepfolds, Man was given breath. The creation of man concludes our study of Sumerian cosmogony, of the theories and concepts evolved by the Sumerians to explain the origin of the universe and the existence of gods and men. It cannot be sufficiently stressed that the Sumerian cosmogonic concepts, early as they are, are by no means primitive. They reflect the mature thought and reason of the thinking Sumerian as he contemplated the forces of nature and the character of his own existence. When these concepts are analyzed; when the theological cloak and polytheistic trappings are removed (although this is by no means always possible at present because of the limited character of our material as well as of our understanding and interpretation of its contents), the Sumerian creation concepts indicate a keenly observing mentality as well as an ability to draw and formulate pertinent conclusions from the data observed. Thus rationally expressed, the Sumerian cosmogonic concepts may be summarized as follows: 1. First was the primeval sea; it is not unlikely that it was conceived by the Sumerian as eternal and uncreated. 2. The primeval sea engendered a united heaven and earth. 3. Heaven and earth were conceived as solid elements. Between them, however, and from them, came the gaseous element air, whose main characteristic is that of expansion. Heaven and earth were thus separated by the expanding element air. p. 74 4. Air, being lighter and far less dense than either heaven or earth, succeeded in producing the moon, which may have been conceived by the Sumerians as made of the same stuff as air. The sun was conceived as born of the moon; that is, it emanated and developed from the moon just as the latter emanated and developed from air. 5. After heaven and earth had been separated, plant, animal, and human life became possible on earth; all life seems to have been conceived as resulting from a union of air, earth, and water; the sun, too, was probably involved. Unfortunately in this matter of production and reproduction of plant and animal life on earth, our extant material is very difficult to penetrate. Transferred into theological language, these rationalistic Sumerian concepts may be described as follows: 1. First was the goddess Nammu, the primeval sea personified. 2. The goddess Nammu gave birth to An, the male heaven-god, and Ki, the earth-goddess. 3. The union of An and Ki produced the air-god Enlil, who proceeded to separate the heaven-father An from the earth-mother Ki. 4. Enlil, the air-god, now found himself living in utter darkness, with the sky, which may have been conceived by the Sumerians as made of pitch-dark lapis lazuli, forming the ceiling and walls of his house, and the surface of the earth, its floor. He therefore begot the moon-god Nanna to brighten the darkness of his house. The moon-god Nanna in turn begot the sun-god Utu, who became brighter than his father. It is not without interest to note here that the idea that the son, the begotten one, becomes stronger than the father, the begetter--in a deeper sense this is actually what happens in the development which we term progress--is native to the philosophy and psychology of the Near East. Enlil, the air-god, for example, becomes in historical times more powerful than his father An, the heaven-god. At a later date Marduk, the god of the Semitic Babylonians, becomes more powerful than his father Enki, p. 75 the water-god. In the Christian dogma, Christ, the son, becomes in many ways more significant and pertinent for man and his salvation than God, the father. 5. Enlil, the air-god, now unites with his mother Ki, the earth-goddess. It is from this union but with considerable help from Enki, the water-god, that the vegetable and animal life is produced on earth. Man, on the other hand, seems to be the product of the combined efforts of the goddess Nammu, the primeval sea; of the goddess Ninmah, who may perhaps be identified with Ki, the mother earth; and finally of the water-god Enki. Just what is involved in this particular combination-and there is every reason to believe that in view of the more or less superficial data of the times there was good logic behind it and not mere playful fantasy--it is difficult to gather from our present material and limited understanding. Footnotes 30:1 In the translated Sumerian passages italics indicate doubtful renderings as well as foreign words. Words between parentheses are not in the Sumerian text but are added for purposes of clarification. Words between brackets are broken away and lost from the original, and are supplied by the author. Words between quotation marks represent literal translations of Sumerian words whose fuller implications are too uncertain to permit a more idiomatic rendering. Next: Chapter III. Myths of Kur

Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar.txt

Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar Forms of Tammuz--The Weeping Ceremony--Tammuz the Patriarch and the Dying God--Common Origin of Tammuz and other Deities from an Archaic God--The Mediterranean Racial Myth--Animal Forms of Gods of Fertility--Two Legends of the Death of Tammuz--Attis, Adonis, and Diarmid Slain by a Boar--Laments for Tammuz--His Soul in Underworld and the Deep--Myth of the Child God of Ocean--Sargon Myth Version--The Germanic Scyld of the Sheaf--Tammuz Links with Frey, Heimdal, Agni, &c.--Assyrian Legend of "Descent of Ishtar"--Sumerian Version--The Sister Belit-sheri and the Mother Ishtar--The Egyptian Isis and Nepthys--Goddesses as Mothers, Sisters, and Wives--Great Mothers of Babylonia--Immortal Goddesses and Dying Gods--The Various Indras--Celtic Goddess with Seven Periods of Youth--Lovers of Germanic and Classic Goddesses--The Lovers of Ishtar--Racial Significance of Goddess Cult--The Great Fathers and their Worshippers--Process of Racial and Religious Fusion--Ishtar and Tiamat--Mother Worship in Palestine--Women among Goddess Worshippers. AMONG the gods of Babylonia none achieved wider and more enduring fame than Tammuz, who was loved by Ishtar, the amorous Queen of Heaven--the beautiful youth who died and was mourned for and came to life again. He does not figure by his popular name in any of the city pantheons, but from the earliest times of which we have knowledge until the passing of Babylonian civilization, he played a prominent part in the religious life of the people Tammuz, like Osiris of Egypt, was an agricultural deity, and as the Babylonian harvest was the gift of the rivers, it is probable that one of his several forms was Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss". He was also p. 82 [paragraph continues]"the child", "the heroic lord", "the sentinel", "the healer", and the patriarch who reigned over the early Babylonians for a considerable period. "Tammuz of the Abyss" was one of the members of the family of Ea, god of the Deep, whose other sons, in addition to Merodach, were Nira, an obscure deity; Ki-gulla, "world destroyer", Burnunta-sa, "broad ear", and Bara and Baragulla, probably "revealers" or "oracles". In addition there was a daughter, Khi-dimme-azaga, "child of the renowned spirit". She may have been identical with Belit-sheri, who is referred to in the Sumerian hymns as the sister of Tammuz. This family group was probably formed by symbolizing the attributes of Ea and his spouse Damkina. Tammuz, in his character as a patriarch, may have been regarded as a hostage from the gods: the human form of Ea, who instructed mankind, like King Osiris, how to grow corn and cultivate fruit trees. As the youth who perished annually, he was the corn spirit. He is referred to in the Bible by his Babylonian name. When Ezekiel detailed the various idolatrous practices of the Israelites, which included the worship of the sun and "every form of creeping things and abominable beasts"--a suggestion of the composite monsters of Babylonia--he was brought "to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was towards the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz". 1 The weeping ceremony was connected with agricultural rites. Corn deities were weeping deities, they shed fertilizing tears; and the sowers simulated the sorrow of divine mourners when they cast seed in the soil "to die", so that it might spring up as corn. This ancient custom, like many others, contributed to the poetic p. 83 imagery of the Bible. "They that sow in tears", David sang, "shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." 1 In Egypt the priestesses who acted the parts of Isis and Nepthys, mourned for the slain corn god Osiris. Gods and men before the face of the gods are weeping for thee at the same time, when they behold me! . . . All thy sister goddesses are at thy side and behind thy couch, Calling upon thee with weeping--yet thou are prostrate upon thy bed! . . . Live before us, desiring to behold thee. 2 It was believed to be essential that human beings should share the universal sorrow caused by the death of a god. If they remained unsympathetic, the deities would punish them as enemies. Worshippers of nature gods, therefore, based their ceremonial practices on natural phenomena. "The dread of the worshippers that the neglect of the usual ritual would be followed by disaster, is particularly intelligible", writes Professor Robertson Smith, "if they regarded the necessary operations of agriculture as involving the violent extinction of a particle of divine life." 3 By observing their ritual, the worshippers won the sympathy and co-operation of deities, or exercised a magical control over nature. The Babylonian myth of Tammuz, the dying god, bears a close resemblance to the Greek myth of Adonis. It also links with the myth of Osiris. According to Professor Sayce, Tammuz is identical with "Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla", referred to by Berosus as the ruler of one of the mythical ages of Babylonia. We p. 84 have therefore to deal with Tammuz in his twofold character as a patriarch and a god of fertility. The Adonis version of the myth may be summarized briefly. Ere the god was born, his mother, who was pursued by her angry sire, as the river goddesses of the folk tales are pursued by the well demons, transformed herself into a tree. Adonis sprang from the trunk of this tree, and Aphrodite, having placed the child in a chest, committed him to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who resembles the Babylonian Eresh-ki-gal. Persephone desired to retain the young god, and Aphrodite (Ishtar) appealed to Zeus (Anu), who decreed that Adonis should spend part of the year with one goddess and part of the year with the other. It is suggested that the myth of Adonis was derived in post-Homeric times by the Greeks indirectly from Babylonia through the Western Semites, the Semitic title "Adon", meaning "lord", having been mistaken for a proper name. This theory, however, cannot be accepted without qualifications. It does not explain the existence of either the Phrygian myth of Attis, which was developed differently from the Tammuz myth, or the Celtic story of "Diarmid and the boar", which belongs to the archæological "Hunting Period". There are traces in Greek mythology of pre-Hellenic myths about dying harvest deities, like Hyakinthos and Erigone, for instance, who appear to have been mourned for. There is every possibility, therefore, that the Tammuz ritual may have been attached to a harvest god of the pre-Hellenic Greeks, who received at the same time the new name of Adonis. Osiris of Egypt resembles Tammuz, but his Mesopotamian origin has not been proved. It would appear probable that Tammuz, Attis, Osiris, and the deities represented by Adonis and Diarmid were all developed p. 85 from an archaic god of fertility and vegetation, the central figure of a myth which was not only as ancient as the knowledge and practice of agriculture, but had existence even in the "Hunting Period". Traces of the Tammuz-Osiris story in various forms are found all over the area occupied by the Mediterranean or Brown race from Sumeria to the British Isles. Apparently the original myth was connected with tree and water worship and the worship of animals. Adonis sprang from a tree; the body of Osiris was concealed in a tree which grew round the sea-drifted chest in which he was concealed. Diarmid concealed himself in a tree when pursued by Finn. The blood of Tammuz, Osiris, and Adonis reddened the swollen rivers which fertilized the soil. Various animals were associated with the harvest god, who appears to have been manifested from time to time in different forms, for his spirit pervaded all nature. In Egypt the soul of Osiris entered the Apis bull or the ram of Mendes. Tammuz in the hymns is called "the pre-eminent steer of heaven", and a popular sacrifice was "a white kid of the god Tammuz", which, however, might be substituted by a sucking pig. Osiris had also associations with swine, and the Egyptians, according to Herodotus, sacrificed a pig to him annually. When Set at full moon hunted the boar in the Delta marshes, he probably hunted the boar form of Osiris, whose human body had been recovered from the sacred tree by Isis. As the soul of Bata, the hero of the Egyptian folk tale, 1 migrated from the blossom to the bull, and the bull to the tree, so apparently did the soul of Osiris pass from incarnation to incarnation. Set, the demon slayer of the harvest god, had also a boar form; he was the black pig who devoured the waning moon and blinded the Eye of Ra. p. 86 In his character as a long-lived patriarch, Tammuz the King Daonus or Daos of Berosus, reigned in Babylonia for 36,000 years. When he died, he departed to Hades or the Abyss. Osiris, after reigning over the Egyptians, became Judge of the Dead. Tammuz of the Sumerian hymns, however, is the Adonis-like god who lived on earth for a part of the year as the shepherd and agriculturist so dearly beloved by the goddess Ishtar. Then he died so that he might depart to the realm of Eresh-ki-gal (Persephone), queen of Hades. According to one account, his death was caused by the fickle Ishtar. When that goddess wooed Gilgamesh, the Babylonian Hercules, he upbraided her, saying: On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth, Thou didst lay affliction every year. King's Translation. References in the Sumerian hymns suggest that there also existed a form of the legend which gave an account of the slaying of the young god by someone else than Ishtar. The slayer may have been a Set-like demon--perhaps Nin-shach, who appears to have symbolized the destroying influence of the sun. He was a war deity, and his name, Professor Pinches says, "is conjectured to mean 'lord of the wild boar'". There is no direct evidence, however, to connect Tammuz's slayer with the boar which killed Adonis. Ishtar's innocence is emphasized by the fact that she mourned for her youthful lover, crying: Oh hero, my lord, ah me! I will say; Food I eat not . . . water I drink not . . . Because of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the radiant face, yea radiant, Of the exalted one of the nether world, him of the dove-like voice, yea dove-like. 1 p. 87 The Phrygian Attis met his death, according to one legend, by self-mutilation under a sacred tree. Another account sets forth, however, that he was slain by a boar. The Greek Adonis was similarly killed by a boar. This animal was a form of Ares (Mars), god of war and tempest, who also loved Aphrodite (Ishtar). The Celtic Diarmid, in his character as a love god, with lunar attributes, was slain by "the green boar", which appears to have been one of the animals of a ferocious Hag, an earth and air "mother" with various names. In one of the many Fingalian stories the animal is . . . That venomous boar, and he so fierce, That Grey Eyebrows had with her herd of swine. 1 [paragraph continues]Diarmid had eloped with the wife of Finn-mac-Coul (Fingal), who, like Ares, plotted to bring about his rival's death, and accordingly set the young hero to hunt the boar. As a thunder god Finn carried a hammer with which he smote his shield; the blows were heard in Lochlann (Scandinavia). Diarmid, like Tammuz, the "god of the tender voice and shining eyes", had much beauty. When he expired, Finn cried: No maiden will raise her eye Since the mould has gone over thy visage fair . . . Blue without rashness in thine eye! Passion and beauty behind thy curls! . . . Oh, yesternight it was green the hillock, Red is it this day with Diarmid's blood. 2 Tammuz died with the dying vegetation, and Diarmid expired when the hills apparently were assuming their purple tints. 3 The month of Tammuz wailings was from p. 88 [paragraph continues]20th June till 20th July, when the heat and dryness brought forth the demons of pestilence. The mourners chanted: He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth, And the dead are numerous in the land . . . Men are filled with sorrow: they stagger by day in gloom . In the month of thy year which brings not peace hast thou gone. Thou hast gone on a journey that makes an end of thy people. The following extract contains a reference to the slaying of the god: The holy one of Ishtar, in the middle of the year the fields languish . . . The shepherd, the wise one, the man of sorrows, why have they slain? . . . In his temple, in his inhabited domain, The child, lord of knowledge, abides no more . . . In the meadows, verily, verily, the soul of life perishes. There is wailing for Tammuz "at the sacred cedar, where the mother bore thee", a reference which connects the god, like Adonis and Osiris, with tree worship: The wailing is for the herbs: the first lament is, "they are not produced". The wailing is for the grain, ears are not produced. The wailing is for the habitations, for the flocks which bring forth no more. The wailing is for the perishing wedded ones; for the perishing children; the dark-headed people create no more. [paragraph continues]The wailing is also for the shrunken river, the parched meadows, the fishpools, the cane brakes, the forests, the p. 89 plains, the gardens, and the palace, which all suffer because the god of fertility has departed. The mourner cries: How long shall the springing of verdure be restrained? How long shall the putting forth of leaves be held back? Whither went Tammuz? His destination has already been referred to as "the bosom of the earth", and in the Assyrian version of the "Descent of Ishtar" he dwells in "the house of darkness" among the dead, "where dust is their nourishment and their food mud", and "the light is never seen"--the gloomy Babylonian Hades. In one of the Sumerian hymns, however, it is stated that Tammuz "upon the flood was cast out". The reference may be to the submarine "house of Ea", or the Blessed Island to which the Babylonian Noah was carried. In this Hades bloomed the nether "garden of Adonis". The following extract refers to the garden of Damu (Tammuz) 1:-- Damu his youth therein slumbers . Among the garden flowers he slumbers; among the garden flowers he is cast away . Among the tamarisks he slumbers, with woe he causes us to be satiated. Although Tammuz of the hymns was slain, he returned again from Hades. Apparently he came back as a child. He is wailed for as "child, Lord Gishzida", as well as "my hero Damu". In his lunar character the Egyptian Osiris appeared each month as "the child surpassingly beautiful"; the Osiris bull was also a child of the moon; "it was begotten", says Plutarch, "by a ray of generative light falling from the moon". When the bull of Attis was sacrificed his worshippers were drenched p. 90 with its blood, and were afterwards ceremonially fed with milk, as they were supposed to have "renewed their youth" and become children. The ancient Greek god Eros (Cupid) was represented as a wanton boy or handsome youth. Another god of fertility, the Irish Angus, who resembles Eros, is called "the ever young"; he slumbers like Tammuz and awakes in the Spring. Apparently it was believed that the child god, Tammuz, returned from the earlier Sumerian Paradise of the Deep, and grew into full manhood in a comparatively brief period, like Vyasa and other super-men of Indian mythology. A couplet from a Tammuz hymn says tersely: In his infancy in a sunken boat he lay. In his manhood in the submerged grain he lay. 1 The "boat" may be the "chest" in which Adonis was concealed by Aphrodite when she confided him to the care of Persephone, queen of Hades, who desired to retain the young god, but was compe

PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS.txt

PLATO'S HISTORY OF ATLANTIS. PLATO has preserved for us the history of Atlantis. If our views are correct, it is one of the most valuable records which have come down to us from antiquity. Plato lived 400 years before the birth of Christ. His ancestor, Solon, was the great law-giver of Athens 600 years before the Christian era. Solon visited Egypt. Plutarch says, "Solon attempted in verse a large description, or rather fabulous account of the Atlantic Island, which he had learned from the wise men of Sais, and which particularly concerned the Athenians; but by reason of his age, not want of leisure (as Plato would have it), he was apprehensive the work would be too much for him, and therefore did not go through with it. These verses are a proof that business was not the hinderance: "'I grow in learning as I grow in age.' And again: "'Wine, wit, and beauty still their charms bestow, Light all the shades of life, and cheer us as we go.' "Plato, ambitious to cultivate and adorn the subject of the Atlantic Island, as a delightful spot in some fair field unoccupied, to which also be had some claim by reason of his being related to Solon, laid out magnificent courts and enclosures, and erected a grand entrance to it, such as no other story, fable, or Poem ever had. But, as he began it late, he ended his life before the work, so that the more the reader is delighted with p. 6 the part that is written, the more regret he has to find it unfinished." There can be no question that Solon visited Egypt. The causes of his departure from Athens, for a period of ten years, are fully explained by Plutarch. He dwelt, be tells us, "On the Canopian shore, by Nile's deep mouth." There be conversed upon points of philosophy and history with the most learned of the Egyptian priests. He was a man of extraordinary force and penetration of mind, as his laws and his sayings, which have been preserved to us, testify. There is no improbability in the statement that be commenced in verse a history and description of Atlantis, which be left unfinished at his death; and it requires no great stretch of the imagination to believe that this manuscript reached the hands of his successor and descendant, Plato; a scholar, thinker, and historian like himself, and, like himself, one of the profoundest minds of the ancient world. the Egyptian priest had said to Solon, "You have no antiquity of history, and no history of antiquity;" and Solon doubtless realized fully the vast importance of a record which carried human history back, not only thousands of years before the era of Greek civilization, but many thousands of years before even the establishment of the kingdom of Egypt; and be was anxious to preserve for his half-civilized countrymen this inestimable record of the past. We know of no better way to commence a book about Atlantis than by giving in full the record preserved by Plato. It is as follows: Critias. Then listen, Socrates, to a strange tale, which is, however, certainly true, as Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages, declared. He was a relative and great friend of my great-grandfather, Dropidas, as be himself says in several of his poems; and Dropidas told Critias, my grandfather, who remembered, and told us, that there were of old great and marvellous actions of the Athenians, which have passed into oblivion through time and the destruction of the human race p. 7 and one in particular, which was the greatest of them all, the recital of which will be a suitable testimony of our gratitude to you.... Socrates. Very good; and what is. this ancient famous action of which Critias spoke, not as a mere legend, but as a veritable action of the Athenian State, which Solon recounted! Critias. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man; for Critias was, as be said, at that time nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten years of age. Now the day was that day of the Apaturia which is called the registration of youth; at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sung the poems of Solon, which were new at the time. One of our tribe, either because this was his real opinion, or because he thought that he would please Critias, said that, in his judgment, Solon was not only the wisest of men but the noblest of poets. The old man, I well remember, brightened up at this, and said, smiling: "Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in this country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion be would have been as famous as Homer, or Hesiod, or any poet." "And what was that poem about, Critias?" said the person who addressed him. "About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been most famous, but which, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, has not come down to us." "Tell us," said the other, "the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition." He replied: "At the head of the Egyptian Delta, where the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which Amasis the king was sprung. And the citizens have a deity who is their foundress: she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, which is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes called Athene. Now, the citizens of this city are great lovers of the Athenians, and p. 8 say that they are in some way related to them. Thither came Solon, who was received by them with great honor; and be asked the priests, who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, when he was drawing them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world--about Phoroneus, who is called 'the first,' and about Niobe; and, after the Deluge, to tell of the lives of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and attempted to reckon bow many years old were the events of which he was speaking, and to give the dates. Thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age; said, 'O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are but children, and there is never an old man who is an Hellene.' Solon, bearing this, said, 'What do you mean?' 'I mean to say,' he replied, 'that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the reason of this: there have been, and there will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaëthon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore; and from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing savior, saves and delivers us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, among you herdsmen and shepherds on the mountains are the survivors, whereas those of you who live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea; but in this country neither at that time nor at any other does the water come from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below, for which reason the things preserved here are said to be the oldest. The fact is, that wherever the p. 9 extremity of winter frost or of summer sun does not prevent, the human race is always increasing at times, and at other times diminishing in numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed--if any action which is noble or great, or in any other way remarkable has taken place, all that has been written down of old, and is preserved in our temples; whereas you and other nations are just being provided with letters and the other things which States require; and then, at the usual period, the stream from heaven descends like a pestilence, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and thus you have to begin all over again as children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you have recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children; for, in the first place, you remember one deluge only, whereas there were many of them; and, in the next place, you do not know that there dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, of whom you and your whole city are but a seed or remnant. And this was unknown to you, because for many generations the survivors of that destruction died and made no sign. For there was a time, Solon, before that great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war, and was preeminent for the excellence of her laws, and is said to have performed the noblest deeds, and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven.' Solon marvelled at this, and earnestly requested the priest to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. 'You are welcome to hear about them, Solon,' said the priest, 'both for your own sake and for that of the city; and, above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and protector and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephæstus the seed of your race, and then she founded ours, the constitution of which is set down in our sacred registers as 8000 years old. As touching the citizens of 9000 years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of the noblest of their actions; and the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with your own, you p. 10 will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours, as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from all the others; next there are the artificers, who exercise their several crafts by themselves, and without admixture of any other; and also there is the class of shepherds and that of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the warriors in Egypt are separated from all the other classes, and are commanded by the law only to engage in war; moreover, the weapons with which they are equipped are shields and spears, and this the goddess taught first among you, and then in Asiatic countries, and we among the Asiatics first adopted. "'Then, as to wisdom, do you observe what care the law took from the very first, searching out and comprehending the whole order of things down to prophecy and medicine (the latter with a view to health); and out of these divine elements drawing what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was connected with them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected, and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your State in our histories; but one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valor; for these histories tell of a mighty power which was aggressing wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which you call the Columns of Heracles: the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from the islands you might pass through the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbor, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding p. 11 land may be most truly called a continent. Now, in the island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire, which had rule over the whole island and several others, as well as over parts of the continent; and, besides these, they subjected the parts of Libya within the Columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. The vast power thus gathered into one, endeavored to subdue at one blow our country and yours, and the whole of the land which was within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind; for she was the first in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjected, and freely liberated all the others who dwelt within the limits of Heracles. But afterward there occurred violent earthquakes and floods, and in a single day and night of rain all your warlike men in a body sunk into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island.' ("Plato's Dialogues," ii., 617, Timæus.) . . . "But in addition to the gods whom you have mentioned, I would specially invoke Mnemosyne; for all the important part of what I have to tell is dependent on her favor, and if I can recollect and recite enough of what was said by the priests, and brought hither by Solon, I doubt not that I shall satisfy the requirements of this theatre. To that task, then, I will at once address myself. "Let me begin by observing, first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between all those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and those who dwelt within them: this war I am now to describe. Of the combatants on the one side the city of Athens was reported to have been the ruler, and to have directed the contest; the combatants on the other side were led by the kings of the islands of Atlantis, which, as I was saying, once had an extent greater p. 12 than that of Libya and Asia; and, when afterward sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various tribes of barbarians and Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must begin by describing, first of all, the Athenians as they were in that day, and their enemies who fought with them; and I shall have to tell of the power and form of government of both of them. Let us give the precedence to Athens. . . . Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking; and in all the ages and changes of things there has never been any settlement of the earth flowing down from the mountains, as in other places, which is worth speaking of; it has always been carried round in a circle, and disappeared in the depths below. The consequence is that, in comparison of what then was, there are remaining in small islets only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the country being left. . . . "And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I was a child, I will impart to you the character and origin of their adversaries; for friends should not keep their stories to themselves, but have them in common. Yet, before proceeding farther in the narrative, I ought to warn you that you must not be surprised if you should bear Hellenic names given to foreigners. I will tell you the reason of this: Solon, who was intending to use the tale for his poem, made an investigation into the meaning of the names, and found that the early Egyptians, in writing them down, had translated them into their own language, and be recovered the meaning of the several names and retranslated them, and copied them out again in our language. My great-grandfather, Dropidas, had the original writing, which is still in my possession, and was carefully studied by me when I was a child. Therefore, if you bear names such as are used in this country, you must not be surprised, for I have told you the reason of them. "The tale, which was of great length, began as follows: I have before remarked, in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing p. 13 in extent, and made themselves temples and sacrifices. And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis, begat children by a mortal woman, and settled them in a part of the island which I will proceed to describe. On the side toward the sea, and in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain which is said to have been the fairest of all plains, and very fertile. Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island, at a distance of about fifty stadia, there was a mountain, not very high on any side. In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter, who was named Cleito. The maiden was growing up to womanhood when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her, and had intercourse with her; and, breaking the ground, enclosed the hill in which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land, larger and smaller, encircling one another; there were two of land and three of water, which he turned as with a lathe out of the centre of the island, equidistant every way, so that no man could get to the island, for ships and voyages were not yet heard of. He himself, as be was a god, found no difficulty in making special arrangements for the centre island, bringing two streams of water under the earth, which he caused to ascend as springs, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly in the earth. He also begat and brought up five pairs of male children, dividing the island of Atlantis into ten portions: he gave to the first-born of the eldest pair his mother's dwelling and the surrounding allotment, which was the largest and best, and made him king over the rest; the others he made princes, and gave them rule over many men and a large territory. And he named them all: the eldest, who was king, he named Atlas, and from him the whole island and the ocean received the name of Atlantic. To his twin-brother, who was born after him, and obtained as his lot the extremity of the island toward the Pillars of Heracles, as far as the country which is still called the region of Gades in that part of the world, be gave the name which in the Hellenic language is Eumelus, in the language of the country which is named after him, Gadeirus. Of the second pair of twins, he called one Ampheres and the other Evæmon. To the third pair of twins he gave the name Mneseus to the elder, and Autochthon p. 14 to the one who followed him. Of the fourth pair of twins he called the elder Elasippus and the younger Mestor, And of the fifth pair be gave to the elder the name of Azaes, and to the younger Diaprepes. All these and their descendants were the inhabitants and rulers of divers islands in the open sea; and also, as has been already said, they held sway in the other direction over the country within the Pillars as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia. Now Atlas had a numerous and honorable family, and his eldest branch always retained the kingdom, which the eldest son handed on to his eldest for many generations; and they had such an amount of wealth as was never before possessed by kings and potentates, and is not likely ever to be again, and they were furnished with everything which they could have, both in city and country. For, because of the greatness of their empire, many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided much of what was required by them for the uses of life. In the first place, they dug out of the earth whatever was to be found there, mineral as well as metal, and that which is now only a name, and was then something more than a name--orichalcum--was dug out of the earth in many parts of the island, and, with the exception of gold, was esteemed the most precious of metals among the men of those days. There was an abundance of wood for carpenters' work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild animals. Moreover, there were a great number of elephants in the island, and there was provision for animals of every kind, both for those which live in lakes and marshes and rivers, and also for those which live in mountains and on plains, and therefore for the animal which is the largest and most voracious of them. Also, whatever fragrant things there are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or distilling drops of flowers or fruits, grew and thrived in that land; and again, the cultivated fruit of the earth, both the dry edible fruit and other species of food, which we call by the general name of legumes, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks, and meats, and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and the like, which may be used to play with, and are fruits which spoil with keeping--and the pleasant kinds of dessert which console us after dinner, when we are full and tired of eating--all these that sacred island lying beneath the sun brought forth fair and wondrous in infinite abundance. All these things they received p. 15 from the earth, and they employed themselves in constructing their temples, and palaces, and harbors, and docks; and they arranged the whole country in the following manner: First of all they bridged over the zones of sea which surrounded the ancient metropolis, and made a passage into and out of they began to build the palace in the royal palace; and then the habitation of the god and of their ancestors. This they continued to ornament in successive generations, every king surpassing the one who came before him to the utmost of his power, until they made the building a marvel to behold for size and for beauty. And, beginning from the sea, they dug a canal three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth, and fifty stadia in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbor, and leaving an opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress. Moreover, they divided the zones of land which parted the zones of sea, constructing bridges of such a width as would leave a passage for a single trireme to pass out of one into another, and roofed them over; and there was a way underneath for the ships, for the banks of the zones were raised considerably above the water. Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of equal breadth; but the next two, as well the zone of water as of land, were two stadia, and the one which surrounded the central island was a stadium only in width. The island in which the palace was situated had a diameter of five stadia. This, and the zones and the bridge, which was the sixth part of a stadium in width, they surrounded by a stone wall, on either side placing towers, and gates on the bridges where the sea passed in. The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind of stone was white, another black, and a third red; and, as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out docks double within, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, which they intermingled for the sake of ornament, to be a natural source of delight. The entire circuit of the wall which went round the outermost one they covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall p. 16 they coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum. The palaces in the interior of the citadel were constructed in this wise: In the centre was a holy temple dedicated to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by an enclosure of gold; this was the spot in which they originally begat the race of the ten princes, and thither they annually brought the fruits of the earth in their season from all the ten portions, and performed sacrifices to each of them. Here, too, was Poiseidon's own temple, of a stadium in length and half a stadium in width, and of a proportionate height, having a sort of barbaric splendor. All the outside of the temple, with the exception of the pinnacles, they covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold. In the interior of the temple the roof was of ivory, adorned everywhere with gold and silver and orichalcum; all the other parts of the walls and pillars and floor they lined with orichalcum. In the temple they placed statues of gold: there was the god himself standing in a chariot--the charioteer of six winged horses--and of such a size that he touched the roof of the building with his head; around him there were a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins, for such was thought to be the number of them in that day. There were also in the interior of the temple other images which had been dedicated by private individuals. And around the temple on the outside were placed statues of gold of all the ten kings and of their wives; and there were many other great offerings, both of kings and of private individuals, coming both from the city itself and the foreign cities over which they held sway. There was an altar, too, which in size and workmanship corresponded to the rest of the work, and there were palaces in like manner which answered to the greatness of the kingdom and the glory of the temple. "In the next place, they used fountains both of cold and hot springs; these were very abundant, and both kinds wonderfully adapted to use by reason of the sweetness and excellence of their waters. They constructed buildings about them, and planted suitable trees; also cisterns, some open to the heaven, other which they roofed over, to be used in winter as warm baths, there were the king's baths, and the baths of private persons, which were kept apart; also separate baths for women, and others again for horses and cattle, and to them they gave as much adornment as was suitable for them. The water which p. 17 ran off they carried, some to the grove of Poseidon, where were growing all manner of trees of wonderful height and beauty, owing to the excellence of the soil; the remainder was conveyed by aqueducts which passed over the bridges to the outer circles: and there were many temples built and dedicated to many gods; also gardens and places of exercise, some for men, and some set apart for horses, in both of the two islands formed by the zones; and in the centre of the larger of the two there was a race-course of a stadium in width, and in length allowed to extend all round the island, for horses to race in. Also there were guard-houses at intervals for the body-guard, the more trusted of whom had their duties appointed to them in the lesser zone, which was nearer the Acropolis; while the most trusted of all had houses given them within the citadel, and about the persons of the kings. The docks were full of triremes and naval stores, and all things were quite ready for use. Enough of the plan of the royal palace. Crossing the outer harbors, which were three in number, you would come to a wall which began at the sea and went all round: this was everywhere distant fifty stadia from the largest zone and harbor, and enclosed the whole, meeting at the mouth of the channel toward the sea. The entire area was densely crowded with habitations; and the canal and the largest of the harbors were full of vessels and merchants coming from all parts, who, from their numbers, kept up a multitudinous sound of human voices and din of all sorts night and day. I have repeated his descriptions of the city and the parts about the ancient palace nearly as he gave them, and now I must endeavor to describe the nature and arrangement of the rest of the country. The whole country was described as being very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea; it was smooth and even, but of an oblong shape, extending in one direction three thousand stadia, and going up the country from the sea through the centre of the island two thousand stadia; the whole region of the island lies toward the south, and is sheltered from the north. The surrounding mountains he celebrated for their number and size and beauty, in which they exceeded all that are now to be seen anywhere; having in them also many wealthy inhabited villages, and rivers and lakes, and p. 18 meadows supplying food enough for every animal, wild or tame, and wood of various sorts, abundant for every kind of work. I will now describe the plain, which had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings. It was rectangular, and for the most part straight and oblong; and what it wanted of the straight line followed the line of the circular ditch. The depth and width and length of this ditch were incredible and gave the impression that such a work, in addition to so many other works, could hardly have been wrought by the hand of man. But I must say what I have heard. It was excavated to the depth of a hundred feet, and its breadth was a stadium everywhere; it was carried round the whole of the plain, and was ten thousand stadia in length. It received the streams which came down from the mountains, and winding round the plain, and touching the city at various points, was there let off into the sea. From above, likewise, straight canals of a hundred feet in width were cut in the plain, and again let off into the ditch, toward the sea; these canals were at intervals of a Hundred stadia, and by them they brought, down the wood from the mountains to the city, and conveyed the fruits of the earth in ships, cutting transverse passages from one canal into another, and to the city. Twice in the year they gathered the fruits of the earth--in winter having the benefit of the rains, and in summer introducing the water of the canals. As to the population, each of the lots in the plain had an appointed chief of men who were fit for military service, and the size of the lot was to be a square of ten stadia each way, and the total number of all the lots was sixty thousand. "And of the inhabitants of the mountains and of the rest of the country there was also a vast multitude having leaders, to whom they were assigned according to their dwellings and villages. The leader was required to furnish for the war the sixth portion of a war-chariot, so as to make up a total of ten thousand chariots; also two horses and riders upon them, and a light chariot without a seat, accompanied by a fighting man on foot carrying a small shield, and having a charioteer mounted to guide the horses; also, be was bound to furnish two heavy-armed men, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, and three javelin men, who were skirmishers, and four sailors to make up a complement of twelve hundred ships. Such was the order of war in the royal city--that of the other nine p. 19 governments was different in each of them, and would be wearisome to narrate. As to offices and honors, the following was the arrangement from the first: Each of the ten kings, in his own division and in his own city, had the absolute control of the citizens, and in many cases of the laws, punishing and slaying whomsoever be would. "Now the relations of their governments to one another were regulated by the injunctions of Poseidon as the law had handed them down. These were inscribed by the first men on a column of orichalcum, which was situated in the middle of the island, at the temple of Poseidon, whither the people were gathered together every fifth and sixth years alternately, thus giving equal honor to the odd and to the even number. And when they were gathered together they consulted about public affairs, and inquired if any one had transgressed in anything, and passed judgment on him accordingly--and before they passed judgment they gave their pledges to one another in this wise: There were bulls who had the range of the temple of Poseidon; and the ten who were left alone in the temple, after they had offered prayers to the gods that they might take the sacrifices which were acceptable to them, hunted the bulls without weapons, but with staves and nooses; and the bull which they caught they led up to the column; the victim was then struck on the head by them, and slain over the sacred inscription, Now on the column, besides the law, there was inscribed an oath invoking mighty curses on the disobedient. When, therefore, after offering sacrifice according to their customs, they had burnt the limbs of the bull, they mingled a cup and cast in a clot of blood for each of them; the rest of the victim they took to the fire, after having made a purification of the column all round. Then they drew from the cup in golden vessels, and, pouring a libation on the fire, they swore that they would judge according to the laws on the column, and would punish any one who had previously transgressed, and that for the future they would not, if they could help, transgress any of the inscriptions, and would not command or obey any ruler who commanded them to act otherwise than according to the laws of their father Poseidon. This was the prayer which each of them offered up for himself and for his family, at the same time drinking, and dedicating the vessel in the temple of the god; and, after spending some necessary p. 20 time at supper, when darkness came on and the fire about the sacrifice was cool, all of them put on most beautiful azure robes, and, sitting on the ground at night near the embers of the sacrifices on which they had sworn, and extinguishing all the fire about the temple, they received and gave judgement, if any of them had any accusation to bring against any one; and, when they had given judgment, at daybreak they wrote down their sentences on a golden tablet, and deposited them as memorials with their robes. There were many special laws which the several kings had inscribed about the temples, but the most important was the following: That they were not to take up arms against one another, and they were all to come to the rescue if any one in any city attempted to over. throw the royal house. Like their ancestors, they were to deliberate in common about war and other matters, giving the supremacy to the family of Atlas; and the king was not to have the power of life and death over any of his kinsmen, unless he had the assent of the majority of the ten kings. "Such was the vast power which the god settled in the lost island of Atlantis; and this he afterward directed against our land on the following pretext, as traditions tell: For many generations, as long as the divine nature lasted in them, they were obedient to the laws, and well-affectioned toward the gods, who were their kinsmen; for they possessed true and in every way great spirits, practising gentleness and wisdom in the various chances of life, and in their intercourse with one another. They despised everything but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, arid thinking lightly on the possession of gold and other property, which seemed only a burden to them; neither were they intoxicated by luxury; nor did wealth deprive them of their self-control; but they were sober, and saw clearly that all these goods are increased by virtuous friendship with one another, and that by excessive zeal for them, and honor of them, the good of them is lost, and friendship perishes with them. "By such reflections, and by the continuance in them of a divine nature, all that which we have described waxed and increased in them; but when this divine portion began to fade away in them, and became diluted too often, and with too much of the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper-hand, then, they being unable to bear their fortune, became p. 21 unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see, they began to appear base, and had lost the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they still appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were filled with unrighteous avarice and power. Zeus, the god of gods, who rules with law, and is able to see into such things, perceiving that an honorable race was in a most wretched state, and wanting to inflict punishment on them, that they might be chastened and improved, collected all the gods into his most holy habitation, which, being placed in the centre of the world, sees all things that partake of generation. And when he had called them together he spake as follows:" [Here Plato's story abruptly ends.]

probablitys of PLATO'S STORY.txt

probablitys of PLATO'S STORY. THERE is nothing improbable in this narrative, so far as it describes a great, rich, cultured, and educated people. Almost every part of Plato's story can be paralleled by descriptions of the people of Egypt or Peru; in fact, in some respects Plato's account of Atlantis falls short of Herodotus's description of the grandeur of Egypt, or Prescott's picture of the wealth and civilization of Peru. For instance, Prescott, in his "Conquest of Peru" (vol. i., p. 95), says: "The most renowned of the Peruvian temples, the pride of the capital and the wonder of the empire, was at Cuzco, where, under the munificence of successive sovereigns, it had become so enriched that it received the name of Coricancha, or 'the Place of Gold.' . . . The interior of the temple was literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the Deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth from amid innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us. The figure was engraved on a massive plate of gold, of enormous dimensions, thickly powdered with emeralds and precious stones. . . . The walls and ceilings were everywhere incrusted with golden ornaments; every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the precious metal; the cornices were of the same material." There are in Plato's narrative no marvels; no myths; no tales of gods, gorgons, hobgoblins, or giants. It is a plain and reasonable history of a people who built temples, ships, and canals; who lived by agriculture and commerce: who, in p. 23 pursuit of trade, reached out to all the countries around them. The early history of most nations begins with gods and demons, while here we have nothing of the kind; we see an immigrant enter the country, marry one of the native women, and settle down; in time a great nation grows up around him. It reminds one of the information given by the Egyptian priests to Herodotus. "During the space of eleven thousand three hundred and forty years they assert," says Herodotus, "that no divinity has appeared in human shape, . . . they absolutely denied the possibility of a human being's descent from a god." If Plato had sought to draw from his imagination a wonderful and pleasing story, we should not have had so plain and reasonable a narrative. He would have given us a history like the legends of Greek mythology, full of the adventures of gods and goddesses, nymphs, fauns, and satyrs. Neither is there any evidence on the face of this history that Plato sought to convey in it a moral or political lesson, in the guise of a fable, as did Bacon in the "New Atlantis," and More in the "Kingdom of Nowhere." There is no ideal republic delineated here. It is a straightforward, reasonable history of a people ruled over by their kings, living and progressing as other nations have lived and progressed since their day. Plato says that in Atlantis there was "a great and wonderful empire," which "aggressed wantonly against the whole of Europe and Asia," thus testifying to the extent of its dominion. It not only subjugated Africa as far as Egypt, and Europe as far as Italy, but it ruled "as well over parts of the continent," to wit, "the opposite continent" of America, "which surrounded the true ocean." Those parts of America over which it ruled were, as we will show hereafter, Central America, Peru, and the Valley of the Mississippi, occupied by the "Mound Builders." Moreover, be tells us that "this vast power was gathered into one;" that is to say, from Egypt to Peru it was one consolidated empire. We will see hereafter that the legends of p. 24 the Hindoos as to Deva Nahusha distinctly refer to this vast empire, which covered the whole of the known world. Another corroboration of the truth of Plato's narrative is found in the fact that upon the Azores black lava rocks, and rocks red and white in color, are now found. He says they built with white, red, and black stone. Sir C. Wyville Thomson describes a narrow neck of land between Fayal and Monte da Guia, called "Monte Queimada" (the burnt mountain), as follows: "It is formed partly of stratified tufa of a dark chocolate color, and partly of lumps of black lava, porous, and each with a large cavity in the centre, which must have been ejected as volcanic bombs in a glorious display of fireworks at some period beyond the records of Acorean history, but late in the geological annals of the island" ("Voyage of the Challenger," vol. ii., p. 24). He also describes immense walls of black volcanic rock in the island. The plain of Atlantis, Plato tells us, "had been cultivated during many ages by many generations of kings." If, as we believe, agriculture, the domestication of the horse, ox, sheep, goat, and bog, and the discovery or development of wheat, oats, rye, and barley originated in this region, then this language of Plato in reference to "the many ages, and the successive generations of kings," accords with the great periods of time which were necessary to bring man from a savage to a civilized condition. In the great ditch surrounding the whole land like a circle, and into which streams flowed down from the mountains, we probably see the original of the four rivers of Paradise, and the emblem of the cross surrounded by a circle, which, as we will show hereafter, was, from the earliest pre-Christian ages, accepted as the emblem of the Garden of Eden. We know that Plato did not invent the name of Poseidon, for the worship of Poseidon was universal in the earliest ages of Europe; "Poseidon-worship seems to have been a peculiarity of all the colonies previous to the time of Sidon" ("Prehistoric p. 25 [paragraph continues]Nations," p. 148.) This worship "was carried to Spain, and to Northern Africa, but most abundantly to Italy, to many of the islands, and to the regions around the Ægean Sea; also to Thrace." (Ibid., p. 155.) Poseidon, or Neptune, is represented in Greek mythology as a sea-god; but he is figured as standing in a war-chariot drawn by horses. The association of the horse (a land animal) with a sea-god is inexplicable, except with the light given by Plato. Poseidon was a sea-god because he ruled over a great land in the sea, and was the national god of a maritime people; be is associated with horses, because in Atlantis the horse was first domesticated; and, as Plato shows, the Atlanteans had great race-courses for the development of speed in horses; and Poseidon is represented as standing in a war-chariot, because doubtless wheeled vehicles were first invented by the same people who tamed the horse; and they transmitted these war-chariots to their descendants from Egypt to Britain. We know that horses were the favorite objects chosen for sacrifice to Poseidon by the nations of antiquity within the Historical Period; they were killed, and cast into the sea from high precipices. The religious horse-feasts of the pagan Scandinavians were a survival of this Poseidon-worship, which once prevailed along all the coasts of Europe; they continued until the conversion of the people to Christianity, and were then suppressed by the Church with great difficulty. We find in Plato's narrative the names of some of the Phœnician deities among the kings of Atlantis. Where did the Greek, Plato, get these names if the story is a fable? Does Plato, in speaking of "the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments," refer to the cocoa nut? Again: Plato tells us that Atlantis abounded in both cold and hot springs. How did he come to hit upon the hot springs if he was drawing a picture from his imagination? It is a singular confirmation of his story that hot springs abound in p. 26 the Azores, which are the surviving fragments of Atlantis; and an experience wider than that possessed by Plato has taught scientific men that hot springs are a common feature of regions subject to volcanic convulsions. Plato tells us, "The whole country was very lofty and precipitous on the side of the sea, but the country immediately about and surrounding the city was a level plain, itself surrounded by mountains which descended toward the sea." One has but to look at the profile of the "Dolphin's Ridge," as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of the Challenger, given as the frontispiece to this volume, to see that this is a faithful description of that precipitous elevation. "The surrounding mountains," which sheltered the plain from the north, are represented in the present towering peaks of the Azores. Plato tells us that the destruction of Atlantis filled the sea with mud, and interfered with navigation. For thousands of years the ancients believed the Atlantic Ocean to be "a muddy, shallow, dark, and misty sea, Mare tenebrosum." ("Cosmos," vol. ii., p. 151.) The three-pronged sceptre or trident of Poseidon reappears constantly in ancient history. We find it in the hands of Hindoo gods, and at the base of all the religious beliefs of antiquity. "Among the numerals the sacred three has ever been considered the mark of perfection, and was therefore exclusively ascribed to the Supreme Deity, or to its earthly representative--a king, emperor, or any sovereign. For this reason triple emblems of various shapes are found on the belts, neckties, or any encircling fixture, as can be seen on the works of ancient art in Yucatan, Guatemala, Chiapas, Mexico, etc., whenever the object has reference to divine supremacy." (Dr. Arthur Schott, "Smith. Rep.," 1869, p. 391.) We are reminded of the, "tiara," and the "triple round of sovereignty." In the same manner the ten kingdoms of Atlantis are perpetuated in all the ancient traditions. p. 27 "In the number given by the Bible for the Antediluvian patriarchs we have the first instance of a striking agreement with the traditions of various nations. Ten are mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Other nations, to whatever epoch they carry back their ancestors, whether before or after the Deluge, whether the mythical or historical character prevail, they are constant to this sacred number ten, which some have vainly attempted to connect with the speculations of later religious philosophers on the mystical value of numbers. In Chaldea, Berosus enumerates ten Antediluvian kings whose fabulous reign extended to thousands of years. The legends of the Iranian race commence with the. reign of ten Peisdadien (Poseidon?) kings, 'men of the ancient law, who lived on pure Homa (water of life)' (nectar?), 'and who preserved their sanctity.' In India we meet with the nine Brahmadikas, who, with Brahma, their founder, make ten, and who are called the Ten Petris, or Fathers. The Chinese count ten emperors, partakers of the divine nature, before the dawn of historical times. The Germans believed in the ten ancestors of Odin, and the Arabs in the ten mythical kings of the Adites." (Lenormant and Chevallier, "Anc. Hist. of the East," vol. i., p. 13.) The story of Plato finds confirmation from other sources. An extract preserved in Proclus, taken from a work now lost, which is quoted by Boeckh in his commentary on Plato, mentions islands in the exterior sea, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and says it was known that in one of these islands "the inhabitants preserved from their ancestors a remembrance of Atlantis, all extremely large island, which for a long time held dominion over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean." Ælian, in his "Varia Historia" (book iii., chap. xviii.), tells us that Theopompus (400 B.C.) related the particulars of an interview between Midas, King of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which Silenus reported the existence of a great continent beyond the Atlantic, "larger than Asia, Europe, and Libya together." He stated that a race of men called Meropes dwelt there, and had extensive cities. They were persuaded that their country alone was a continent. Out of curiosity some of them crossed the ocean and visited the Hyperboreans. p. 28 "The Gauls possessed traditions upon the subject of Atlantis which were collected by the Roman historian Timagenes, who lived in the first century before Christ. He represents that three distinct people dwelt in Gaul: 1. The indigenous population, which I suppose to be Mongoloids, who had long dwelt in Europe; 2. The invaders from a distant island, which I understand to be Atlantis; 3. The Aryan Gauls." ("Preadamites," p. 380.) Marcellus, in a work on the Ethiopians, speaks of seven islands lying in the Atlantic Ocean--probably the Canaries--and the inhabitants of these islands, he says, preserve the memory of a much greater island, Atlantis, "which had for a long time exercised dominion over the smaller ones." (Didot Müller, "Fragmenta Historicorum Græcorum," vol. iv., p. 443.) Diodorus Siculus relates that the Phœnicians discovered "a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Pillars of Hercules, several days' sail from the coast of Africa. This island abounded in all manner of riches. The soil was exceedingly fertile; the scenery was diversified by rivers, mountains, and forests. It was the custom of the inhabitants to retire during the summer to magnificent country-houses, which stood in the midst of beautiful gardens. Fish and game were found in great abundance; the climate was delicious, and the trees bore fruit at all seasons of the year." Homer, Plutarch, and other ancient writers mention islands situated in the Atlantic, "several thousand stadia from the Pillars of Hercules." Silenus tells Midas that there was another continent besides Europe, Asia, and Africa--"a country where gold and silver are so plentiful that they are esteemed no more than we esteem iron." St. Clement, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, says that there were other worlds beyond the ocean. Attention may here be called to the extraordinary number of instances in which allusion is made in the Old Testament to the "islands of the sea," especially in Isaiah and Ezekiel. What had an inland people, like the Jews, to do with seas and p. 29 islands? Did these references grow out of vague traditions linking their race with "islands in the sea?" The Orphic Argonaut sings of the division of the ancient Lyktonia into separate islands. He says," When the dark-haired Poseidon, in anger with Father Kronion, struck Lyktonia with the golden trident." Plato states that the Egyptians told Solon that the destruction of Atlantis occurred 9000 years before that date, to wit, about 9600 years before the Christian era. This looks like an extraordinarily long period of time, but it must be remembered that geologists claim that the remains of man found in the caves of Europe date back 500,000 years; and the fossil Calaveras skull was found deep under the base of Table Mountain, California, the whole mountain having been formed since the man to whom it belonged lived and died. "M. Oppert read an essay at the Brussels Congress to show, from the astronomical observations of the Egyptians and Assyrians, that 11,542 years before our era man existed on the earth at such a stage of civilization as to be able to take note of astronomical phenomena, and to calculate with considerable accuracy the length of the year. The Egyptians, says he, calculated by cycles of 1460 years--zodiacal cycles, as they were called. Their year consisted of 365 days, which caused them to lose one day in every four solar years, and, consequently, they would attain their original starting-point again only after 1460 years (365 x 4). Therefore, the zodiacal cycle ending in the year 139 of our era commenced in the year 1322 B.C. On the other hand, the Assyrian cycle was 1805 years, or 22,325 lunations. An Assyrian cycle began 712 B.C. The Chaldeans state that between the Deluge and their first historic dynasty there was a period of 39,180 years. Now, what means, this number? It stands for 12 Egyptian zodiacal cycles plus 12 Assyrian lunar cycles.

PURITY.txt

Sacred Texts Zoroastrianism Wisdom of the East Index Previous Next The Teachings of Zoroaster, by S.A. Kapadia, [1905], at sacred-texts.com p. 56 p. 57 EXTRACTS PURITY * "Purity is for man, next to life, the greatest good that purity is procured by the law of Mazda to him who cleanses his own self with Good Thoughts, Words, and Deeds. "Make thyself pure, O righteous man! Any one in the world here below can win purity for himself, namely, when he cleanses himself with Good Thoughts, Good Words, and Good Deeds." PRAYER OF ASHEM-VOHU † FROM KHORDAH-AVESTA 1. "Purity is the best good. 2. "Happiness, happiness is to him: 3. "Namely, to the most pure in purity." p. 58 THE LAW OF AHURA-MAZDA * ". . . The law of Mazda cleanses the faithful from every evil thought, word, and deed, as a swift-rushing, mighty wind cleanses the plain. . . . . . "So let all deeds thou doest be henceforth good. . . . A full atonement for thy sin is effected by means of the law of Mazda." COMMANDMENTS FOR THE BODY AND THE SOUL † The sage asked the Spirit of Wisdom thus: "How is it possible to seek maintenance and prosperity of the body without injury of the soul, and the preservation of the soul without injury of the body?" The Spirit of Wisdom answered thus: "Him who is less than thee consider as an equal, and an equal as a superior, and a greater than him as a chieftain, and a chieftain as a ruler. And among rulers one is to be acquiescent, obedient, and true-speaking; and among accusers be submissive, mild, and kindly regardful. "Commit no slander; so that infamy and p. 59 wickedness may not happen unto thee. For it is said that slander is more grievous than witchcraft. . . . . . "Form no covetous desire, so that the demon of greediness may not deceive thee, and the treasure of the world may not be tasteless to thee. "Indulge in no wrathfulness, for a man when he indulges in wrath becomes then forgetful of his duty and good works . . . and sin and crime of every kind occur unto his mind, and until the subsiding of the wrath he is said to be just like Ahareman. * "Suffer no anxiety, for he who is a sufferer of anxiety becomes regardless of enjoyment of the world and the spirit, and contraction happens to his body and soul. "Commit no lustfulness, so that harm and regret may not reach thee from thine own actions. "Bear no improper envy, so that thy life may not become tasteless. . . . . . "Practice no sloth, so that the duty and good work, which it is necessary for thee to do, may not remain undone. "Choose a wife who is of character, because p. 60 that one is good who in the end is more respected. . . . . . "Thou shouldst be DILIGENT and MODERATE, and EAT OF THINE OWN REGULAR INDUSTRY, and provide the share of the sacred beings and the good; and thus the practice of this in thy occupation is the greatest good work. . . . . . "With enemies fight with equity. With a friend proceed with the approval of friends. With a malicious man carry on no conflict, and do not molest him in any way whatever. With a greedy man thou shouldst not be a partner, and do not trust him with the leadership. With an ill-famed man form no connection. With an ignorant man thou shouldst not become a confederate and associate. With a foolish man make no dispute. With a drunken man do not walk on the road. From an ill-natured man take no loan. . . . . . "In forming a store of good works thou shouldst be diligent, so that it may come to thy assistance among the spirits. "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through any happiness of the world; for the happiness of the world is such-like as a (aloud that comes on a rainy day, which one does not ward off by any hill, p. 61 "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through much treasure and wealth; for in the end it is necessary for thee to leave all. . . . . . "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through great connections and race; for in the end thy trust is on thine own deeds. "Thou shouldst not become presumptuous through life; for death comes upon thee at last, and the perishable part falls to the ground." THE SOUL'S DESTINATION * 1. Zarathustra asked Ahura-Mazda: "Ahura-Mazda, Heavenly, Holiest, Creator of the corporeal world, Pure! when a pure man dies, where does his soul dwell during this night?" 2. Then answered Ahura-Mazda: "Near his head it sits itself down, reciting the Gâthâ Ustavaiti, praying happiness for itself: 'Happiness be to the man who conduces to the happiness of each. May Ahura-Mazda create, ruling after His wish.' On this night the soul sees as much joyfulness as the whole living world possesses." 3. "Where does the soul dwell throughout the second night?" p. 62 4. Then answered Ahura-Mazda: "Near his head it sits itself," etc. (as in verse 2). 5. "Where does his soul stay throughout the third night?" 6. Then answered Ahura-Mazda: "Near his head it sits itself," etc. (as in verse 2) . 7. "When the lapse of the third night turns itself to light, then the soul of the pure man goes forward, recollecting itself at the perfume of plants. A wind blows to meet it from the mid-day region, a sweet-scented one, more sweet-scented than the other winds. . . . . . 9. "In that wind there comes to meet him his own law in the figure of a maiden, one beautiful, shining, with shining arms; one powerful, well-grown, slender, with large breasts, praiseworthy body; one noble, with brilliant face, one of fifteen years, as fair in her growth as the fairest creatures. 10. "Then to her (the maiden) speaks the soul of the pure man, asking: 'What maiden art thou whom I have seen here as the fairest of maidens in body? ' 11. "Then replies to him his own law: 'I am, O youth, thy good thoughts, words, and works, thy good law, thine own law of thine own body—which would be in reference to thee like in greatness, goodness, and beauty, sweet-smelling, victorious, harmless, as thou appearest to me. p. 63 12. "Thou art like me, O well-speaking, well-thinking, well-acting youth, devoted to the good law, so in greatness, goodness, and beauty as I appear to thee. . . . . . 14. "'Thou hast made the pleasant yet more pleasant to me, the fair yet fairer, the desirable yet more desirable, that sitting in a high place, sitting in a yet higher place, in these Paradises Humata, Hûkhta, Hvarsta (Paradises) . . . . 15. "'The soul of the pure man goes the first step and arrives in (the Paradise) Humata; the soul of the pure man takes the second step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hûkhta; it goes the third step and arrives at (the Paradise) Hvarsta; the soul of the pure man takes the fourth step and arrives at the Eternal Lights.'" . . . . . 19. Zarathustra asked Ahura-Mazda: "Ahura-Mazda, Heavenly, Holiest, Creator of the corporeal world, Pure! when a wicked one dies, where does the soul dwell throughout this night?" 20. Then answered Ahura-Mazda, "There, O pure Zarathustra, near the head it runs about whilst it utters the prayer Ké mánm, etc., 'Which land shall I praise, whither shall I go praying, O Ahura-Mazda?' In this night the soul sees as much displeasing as the whole living world. p. 64 25. "When the lapse of the third night approaches towards light, O pure Zarathustra, then goes the soul of the wicked man to the impure place, recollecting itself continually by the stench. To it comes a wind blowing from the North Region, an evil-smelling one, more evil-smelling than other winds. 26. "When the soul of the wicked man receives this wind into the nose, it goes (saying), 'Whence comes this wind which I smell with the nose as the most evil-smelling wind?' . . . . . 33. "The fourth step takes the soul of the wicked man and it arrives at the darknesses without beginning." THE SOUL'S RENDERING OF ACCOUNT * "The thirteenth question is that which you ask thus: Who should prepare the account of the soul as to sin and good works, and in what place should they make it up? And when punishment is inflicted by them, where is their place then? "The reply is this, that the account about the doers of actions, as to good works and sin, three times every day whilst the doer of the actions is p. 65 living, Vohûmano the archangel should prepare; because taking account of the thoughts, words, and deeds of all material existences is among his duties. "And about the sin which affects accusers, which is committed by breakers of promises, even in the world Mitrô is said to be over the bodies, words, and fortunes of the promise-breakers; and as to the amount, and also as to being more than the stipulation when there is a period of time, Mitrô is the account-keeper. In the three nights’ account Srôsh the righteous and Rashnû the just are over the estimate of the limits of the good works and sin of righteousness and wickedness. In the future existence, on the completion of every account, the Creator Aûharmazd Himself takes account, by whom both the former account of the three nights and all the thoughts, words, and deeds of the creatures are known through His omniscient wisdom. "The punishment for a soul of the sinners comes from that spirit with whom the sin, which was committed by it, is connected; fostered by the iniquity practised, that punishment comes upon the souls of the sinful and wicked, first on earth, afterwards in hell, and lastly at the organisation of the future existence. When the punishment of the three nights is undergone the soul of the righteous attains to Heaven and the best existence, and the soul of the wicked to hell and the p. 66 worst existence. When they have undergone their punishment at the renovation of the universe they attain, by complete purification. from every sin, unto the everlasting progress, happy progress, and perfect progress of the best and undisturbed existence." GATHA HYMN * "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: when praise is to be offered, how shall I complete the praise of the One like You, O Mazda? Let the One like Thee declare it earnestly to the friend who is such as I, thus through Thy Righteousness within us to offer friendly help to us, so that the One like Thee may draw near us through Thy Good Mind within the soul. "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: how, in pleasing Him, may we serve the Supreme One of the better world? . . . . . "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who by generation was the first father of the Righteous Order? Who gave the recurring sun and stars their undeviating way? Who established that whereby the moon waxes, and whereby p. 67 she wanes, save Thee? These things, O Great Creator! would I know, and others likewise still. "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who from beneath hath sustained the earth and the clouds above that they do not fall? Who made the waters and the plants? Who to the wind has yoked on the storm-clouds, the swift and fleetest too? Who, O Great Creator! is the inspirer of the good thoughts within our souls? "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who, as a skilful artisan, hath made the lights and the darkness? Who, as thus skilful, hath made sleep and the zest of waking hours? Who spread the Auroras, the noontides and midnight, monitors to discerning man, duties, true guides? "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright these things which I shall speak forth, if they are truly thus. Doth the Piety (which we cherish) in reality increase the sacred orderliness within our actions? To these Thy true saints hath she given the Realm through the Good Mind. For whom hast Thou made the Mother-kine, the producer of joy? "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who fashioned Âramaiti (our piety) the beloved, together with Thy Sovereign Power? Who, through his guiding wisdom, hath made the son revering the father? Who made him beloved? p. 68 [paragraph continues]With questions such as these, so abundant, O Mazda! I press Thee, O beautiful Spirit, Thou maker of all! "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright, that I may ponder these which are Thy revelations, O Mazda! and the words which were asked of Thee by Thy Good Mind Within us, and that whereby we may attain, through Thine Order, to this life's perfection. Yea, how may my soul with joyfulness increase in goodness? . . . . . "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright that holy faith which is of all Things best, and which, going on hand in hand with Thy people, shall further my lands in Asha, Thine Order, and, through the words of Âramaiti (our piety), shall render actions just. The prayers of mine understanding will seek for Thee, O Ahura! . . . . . "This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: who is the righteous one in that regard in which I ask Thee my question? And who is evil? For which is the wicked? Or which is himself the foremost wicked one? And the vile man who stands against me in this gain of Thy blessing, wherefore is he not held and believed to be the sinner that he is? This I ask Thee, O Ahura! tell me aright: how shall I banish this Demon-of-the-Lie from p. 69 us hence to those beneath who are filled with rebellion?" CONFESSION OF FAITH "The good, righteous, right religion which the Lord has sent to the creatures is that which Zarathustra has brought. The religion is the religion of Zarathustra, the religion of Ahura-Mazda, given to Zarathustra." THE CREED * "I praise the well-thought, well-spoken, well-performed thoughts, words, and works. "I lay hold on all good thoughts, words, and works. "I abandon all evil thoughts, words, and works. I bring to you, O Amĕsha-çpĕntas, "Praise and adoration, "With thoughts, words, and works, with heavenly mind, the vital strength of my own body. . . . . . "I drive away the Daêvas, I profess myself a Zarathrustrian, an expeller of the Daêvas, a follower of the teachings of Ahura. "A hymn-singer of the Amĕsha-çpĕntas, a praiser of the Amĕsha-çpĕntas. p. 70 "To Ahura-Mazda, the good, endued with good wisdom, I offer all good." PRAYER OF KEM N MAZDA * "Whom hast thou placed to protect me, O Mazda, while the hate of the fiend is grasping me? Whom but thy Atar and Vohumanô (Angels in charge of Heaven), by whose work the holy world goes on? "Reveal to me the rules of thy law!" PRAYER OF KE VERETHREM GA † "Who is he who will smite the fiend in order to maintain thy ordinances? Teach me clearly thy rules for this world and for the next, that Shros (Angel who fights Drug with an uplifted Club, and guards the Earth Night and Day) may come with Vohumanô and help whomsoever thou pleasest." PRAYER OF ORMUZD YAST ‡ (In Praise of God) . . . . . "And he who in this material world, O Spitama Zarathustra! shall recite and pronounce § those names of mine either by day or by night; p. 71 "He who shall pronounce them, when he rises up or when he lays him down; . . . when he binds on the sacred girdle or when he unbinds the sacred girdle; when he goes out of his dwelling-place, or when he goes out of his town, or when he goes out of his country and comes into another country; "That man, neither in that day nor in that night, shall be wounded by the weapons of the foe who rushes with anger and is Drug-minded; . . . . . "But those names shall come in to keep him from behind and to keep him in front, from the Drug unseen, . . . from the evil-doer bent on mischief, and from that fiend who is all death, Angro Mainyus." GOD AS THE KING, THE LIFE, THE REWARDER * "Praises, and songs, and adorations do we offer to Ahura-Mazda, and to Righteousness the Best; yea, we offer and we ascribe them, and proclaim them. "And to Thy good kingdom, O Ahura-Mazda! may we attain for ever, and a good King be Thou over us; and let each man of us, and so each woman, thus abide, O Thou most beneficent of beings, and for both the worlds! p. 72 . . . . . "So mayst Thou be to us our life, and our body's vigour, O Thou most beneficent of beings, and that for both the worlds! "Aye, let us win and conquer long life, O Ahura-Mazda! in Thy grace, and through Thy will may we be powerful. Mayst Thou lay hold on us to help, . . . and with salvation, O Thou most beneficent of beings! . . . . . "What reward most meet for our deserving Thou hast appointed for the souls, O Ahura-Mazda! of that do Thou bestow on us for this life, and for that of mind. Of that reward do Thou Thyself grant this advantage, that we may come under Thy protecting guardianship, and that of Righteousness for ever." . . . . . THE CREATION OF THE WORLD BY AHURA-MAZDA AND CORRESPONDING EVILS BY ANGRO MAINYUS * Ahura-Mazda spake unto Spitama Zarathustra, saying: "I have made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it. Had I not made every land dear to its dwellers, even though it had no charms whatever in it, p. 73 then the whole living world would have invaded the Airyana Vaêgô." Countries and Lands Created by Ahura-Mazda. 1. Airyana Vaêgô by the good river Dâitya. 2. The plains of Sughdha. 3. The land of Mourn (Merv). 4. Bâkhdhi with high-lifted banners (Balkh). 5. The land of Nisâya. 6. Harôyu with its lakes (Herat). 7. Vaêkereta (Cabul). 8. Urva of the rich pastures (land in Khorasan). 9. Khnenta in Vehrkâna. 10. Harahvaiti the beautiful. 11. The bright and glorious Haêtumant. 12. Ragha of the three races (Rai, the birthplace of Zoroaster). Corresponding Evils Placed there by Angro Mainyus (The Evil Spirit). 1. The serpent and winter. 2. The fly Skaitya, which stings and brings death to the cattle. 3. Sinful lusts. 4. Corn-eating ants. 5. The sin of unbelief. 6. The stained mosquito. 7. The Pairika Knāthaiti (meaning an evil creature or a pari who destroys mankind) 8. The sin of pride and tyranny. 9. Unnatural sin. 10. Sin of defiling the virgin earth by burying corpses. 11. Witchcraft and wizards. 12. Sin of utter unbelief (atheism). p. 74 13. Holy Kakhra. 14. The four-cornered Varena. 15. Country of the Seven Rivers. 16. The land by the floods of the Rangha. 13. Sin of burning of corpses. 14. Illness of women. 15. Excessive heat. 16. Excessive frost. "There are still other lands and countries, beautiful and deep, desirable and bright and thriving." GOD'S WARNING TO YIMA OF WINTER AND DELUGE * And Ahura-Mazda spake unto Yima, saying: "O fair Yima, son of Vîvanghat! upon the material world the fatal winters are going to fall, that shall bring the fierce, foul frost; . . . that shall make snow-flakes fall thick, even an aredvî, deep on the highest tops of mountains. "And all the three sorts of beasts shall perish, those that live in the wilderness, and those that live on the tops of the mountains, and those that live in the bosom of the dale, under the shelter of stables. "Therefore make thee a vara, † long as a riding-ground on every side of the square, and thither p. 75 bring . . . sheep and oxen . . . men . . . dogs . . . birds and . . . red blazing fires. . . . . . "There thou shalt make waters flow in a bed a hâthra * long; there thou shalt settle birds, by the ever-green banks that bear never-failing food. There thou shalt establish dwelling-places, consisting of a house with a balcony, a courtyard, and a gallery. "Thither thou shalt bring . . . men and women, of the greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth; thither thou shalt bring . . . every kind of cattle, of the greatest, best, and finest kinds on this earth. Thither thou shalt bring the seeds of every kind of fruit, the fullest of food and sweetest of odour. All those . . . shalt thou bring, two of every kind, to be kept inexhaustible there, so long as those men shall stay in the vara. "There shall be no hump-backed, none bulged forward there; no impotent, no lunatic, no poverty, no lying, no meanness, no jealousy, no decayed tooth, no leprous to be confined, nor any of the brands wherewith Angro Mainyus stamps the bodies of mortals." Then Yima said within himself: "How shall I manage to make that vara which Ahura-Mazda has commanded me to make?" And Ahura-Mazda said unto Yima: ". . . p. 76 Crush the earth with a stamp of thy heel, and then knead it with thy hands . . ." BLESSINGS OF CULTIVATING THE SOIL * "He who would till the earth, . . . with the left arm and the right, . . . unto him will she bring forth plenty, like a loving bride, on her bed, unto her beloved; the bride will bring forth children, the earth will bring forth plenty of fruit. "He who sows corn sows holiness: he makes the law of Mazda grow higher and higher. . . . . . "When barley is coming forth, the Daêvas start up; when corn is growing ripe, then faint the Daêvas’ hearts; when the corn is being ground, the Daêvas groan; when wheat is coming forth, the Daêvas are destroyed. In that house they can no longer stay; from that house they are beaten away, wherein wheat is thus coming forth. . . . . . "He who tilling the earth, . . . would not kindly and piously give to one of the faithful, he shall fall down into the darkness . . . down p. 77 into the world of woe, the dismal realm, down into the house of hell." HAPPINESS OF THE EARTH * "It is the place whereon one of the faithful erects a house with a priest within, with cattle, with a wife, with children, and good herds within; and wherein afterwards the cattle go on thriving, holiness is thriving, fodder is thriving, the dog is thriving, the wife is thriving, the child is thriving, the fire is thriving, and every blessing of life is thriving. . . . . . "It is the place where one of the faithful cultivates most corn, grass, and fruit; . . . where he waters ground that is dry, or dries ground that is too wet. "It is the place where there is most increase of flocks and herds." GRIEF OF THE EARTH † . . . . . "It is the place wherein most corpses of dogs and of men lie buried. . . . . . p. 78 "It is the place whereon the wife and children of one of the faithful . . . are driven along the way of captivity (the dry, the dusty way, and lift up a voice of wailing. "Unhappy is the land that has long lain unsown with the seed of the sower, and wants a good husbandman, like a well-shapen maiden who has long gone childless and wants a good husband." . . . . . CULTIVATION OF LAND WHERE A CORPSE IS FOUND * ". . . A year long shall the ground lie fallow whereon dogs or men have died." PURIFICATION OF WATER DEFILED BY A CORPSE † "O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! if a worshipper of Mazda, walking, or running, or riding, or driving, come upon a corpse in a stream of running water, what shall he do?" Ahura-Mazda answered: "Taking off his shoes, putting off his clothes, boldly, O Zarathustra! p. 79 he shall enter the river, and take the dead out of the water. . . . "He shall draw out of the water as much of the corpse as he can. . . . No sin attaches to him for any bone, hair . . . that may drop back into the water. . . . . . "As long as the corpse has not been taken out of the water, so long shall that water be unclean and unfit to drink. "After the corpse has been taken out and the stream has flowed three times, * the water is clean. . . ." RELIGIOUS EDUCATION † "He shall learn on during the first part of the day and the last, during the first part of the night and the last, that his mind may be increased in knowledge and wax strong in holiness: so shall he sit up, giving thanks and praying to God and His angels that he may be increased in knowledge. He shall rest during the middle part of the day, during the middle part of the night, and thus shall he continue until he can say ail the words which former Athrapaitis ‡ have said." p. 80 REWARD FOR THE PIOUS * Zarathustra asked Ahura-Mazda: "O thou all-knowing Ahura-Mazda, should I urge upon the godly man, should I urge upon the godly woman, should I urge upon the wicked Daêva-worshipper who lives in sin, that they have once to leave behind them the earth made by Ahura, that they have to leave the water that runs, the corn that grows, and all the rest of their wealth?" Ahura-Mazda answered: "Thou shouldst, O holy Zarathustra." "O Maker of the material world, thou Holy One! where are the rewards given? Where does the rewarding take place? Where is the rewarding fulfilled? Whereto do men come to take the reward that, in their life in the material world, they have won for their souls?" Ahura-Mazda answered: "When the man is dead, when his time is over, then the hellish, evil-doing Daêvas assail him; and when the third night is gone, when the dawn appears and brightens up, and makes Mithra † . . . reach the all-happy mountains, and the sun is rising: Then the fiend named Vîzaresha carries off in bonds the souls of the wicked Daêva-worshippers who live in sin. The soul enters the way made by Time, and open both to the wicked and to the righteous. At the head of the Kinvad p. 81 [paragraph continues](chinvat) Bridge . . . they ask for their spirits and souls the reward for the worldly goods which they gave away here below. . . . . . "Up rises Vohumanô (Door-Keeper of Heaven) from his golden seat. Vohumanô exclaims: 'How hast thou come to us, thou Holy One, from that decaying world into this undecaying one?' "Gladly pass the souls of the righteous to the golden seat of Ahura-Mazda, to the golden seat of the Ameshaspentas, * to Garodemana. †" FORGIVENESS OF SIN ‡ "The law of Mazda indeed, O Spitama Zarathustra! takes away from him who confesses it the bonds of his sin; it takes away the sin of breach of trust; it takes away the sin of murdering one of the faithful; it takes away the sin of burying a corpse; it takes away the sin of deeds for which there is no atonement; it takes away the heaviest penalties of sin; it takes away any sin that may be sinned." p. 82 THE TEMPTATION * Thus Zarathustra answered Angro Mainyus (the Evil Spirit): "O evil-doer, Angro Mainyus! I will smite the creation of the Daêva; I will smite the Nasu, a creature of the Daêva. . . ." Again to him said the guileful one, . . . . Angro Mainyus: "Do not destroy my creatures, O holy Zarathustra! . . . Renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, and thou shalt gain such a boon as Zohâk, † the murderer, gained, the ruler of the nations." Thus in answer to him said Spitama Zarathustra: "No! never will I renounce the good law of the worshippers of Mazda, though my body, my life, my soul should burst!" Again to him said the guileful one . . . Angro Mainyus: "By whose word wilt thou strike, by whose word wilt thou repel, by whose weapon will the good creatures strike and repel my creation?" . . . ". . . The words taught by Mazda, these are my . . . best weapons! By this word will I strike, by this word will I repel . . . O evil-doer, Angro Mainyus! To me Spenta Mainyus (Good Spirit) gave it; he gave it to me in the boundless time; to me the Ameshaspentas (Archangels), the all-ruling, the all-beneficent, gave it." p. 83 Zarathustra chanted aloud the (prayer of) AHUNA VAIRYA. "The will of the Lord is the law of holiness. The riches of Vohumanô (Good Mind) shall be given to him who works in this world for Mazda, and wields according to the will of Ahura the power he gave to him to relieve the poor." . . . . . . They run away, the wicked, evil-doing Daêvas; they run away, casting the evil eye, the wicked, evil-doing Daêvas. "'Let us gather together at the head of Arezûra (the Gate of Hell). For he is . . . born, the holy Zarathustra, in the house of Pourushaspa. How can we procure his death? He is the stroke that fells the fiends.' . . . "Down are the Daêva-worshippers, the Nasu made by the Daêva, the false-speaking lie! They run away, they rush away, the wicked, evil-doing Daêvas, into the depths of the dark, horrid world of hell." BANISHMENT OF ANGRO MAINYUS * "Away art thou driven, O mischievous Angro Mainyus! from the fire, from the water, from the earth, from the cow, from the tree, from the faithful man, and from the faithful woman . . . from all good things made by Mazda, the offspring of the holy principle." p. 84 ON LOAN * He who does not restore (a thing lent) when it is asked for back again, steals the thing; he robs the man. So he does every day, every night, as long as he keeps in his house his neighbour's property, as though it were his own." ON WASTE † "Ahura-Mazda, indeed, does not allow us to waste anything of value that we may have, not even so much as an Asperena's weight of thread, not even so much as a maid lets fall in spinning." TEMPERANCE ‡ "Regarding wine, it is evident that it is possible for good and bad temper to come to manifestation through wine. . . . . . "It is not requisite for investigation, because he who is a good-tempered man, when he drinks wine, is such-like as a gold or silver cup which, however much more they burn it, becomes purer and brighter. It also keeps his thoughts, p. 85 words, and deeds more virtuous; and he becomes gentler and pleasanter unto wife and child, companions and friends, and is more diligent in every duty and good work. "And he who is a bad-tempered man, when he drinks wine, thinks and considers himself more than ordinary: He carries on a quarrel with companions, displays insolence, makes ridicule and mockery, and acts arrogantly to a good person. He distresses his own wife and child, slave and servant; and dissipates the joy of the good, carries off peace, and brings in discord. "But every one must be cautious as to the moderate drinking of wine. Because, from the moderate drinking of wine, thus much benefit happens to him: since it digests the food, kindles the vital fire, increases the understanding and intellect, and blood, removes vexation, and inflames the complexion. It causes recollection of things forgotten, and goodness takes a place in the mind. It likewise increases the sight of the eye, the hearing of the ear, and the speaking of the tongue; and work, which it is necessary to do and expedite, becomes more progressive. He also sleeps pleasantly and rises light. "And in him who drinks wine more than moderately, . . . himself, wife, and child, friend and kindred, are distressed and unhappy, and p. 86 the superintendent of troubles and the enemy are glad. The sacred beings, also, are not pleased with him; and infamy comes to his body, and even wickedness to his soul. "And even he who gives wine authorizedly unto any one, and he is thereby intoxicated by it, is equally guilty of every sin which that drunkard commits owing to that drunkenness." * SOULS’ VISIT TO THE EARTH † We worship the good, strong, beneficent Fravashis ‡ of the faithful, who come and go through the borough at the time of the Hamaspathmaêdha §; they go along there for ten nights, asking thus: "Who will praise us? Who will offer us a sacrifice? Who will meditate upon us? Who will bless us? Who will receive us with meat and clothes in his hand and with a prayer worthy of bliss? Of which of us will the name be taken for invocation? Of which of you will the soul be worshipped by you with a sacrifice? To whom will the gift of ours be given, that he may have never-failing food for ever and ever?" And the man who offers them up a sacrifice, with meat and clothes in his hand, with a prayer worthy of bliss, the awful ¦¦ Fravashis of the faithful, satisfied, unharmed, and unoffended, bless thus: p. 87 "May there be in this house flocks of animals and men! May there be a swift horse and a solid chariot! May there be a man who knows how to praise God and rule in an assembly, who will offer us sacrifices with meat and clothes in his hand, and with a prayer worthy of bliss!" THE MAZDAYASNIAN CONFESSION * "I drive the Daêvas hence; I confess as a Mazda-worshipper of the order of Zarathustra, estranged from the Daêvas, devoted to the lore of the Lord, a praiser of the Bountiful Immortals; and to Ahura-Mazda, the good and endowed with good possessions, I attribute all things good, to the Holy One, the resplendent, to the glorious, whose are all things whatsoever which are good; whose is the Kine, whose is Asha (the righteous order pervading all things pure), whose are the stars, in whose lights the glorious beings and objects are clothed. "And I choose Piety, the bounteous and the good, mine may she be! And therefore I loudly deprecate all robbery and violence against the (Sacred) Kine, and all drought to the wasting of the Mazdayasnian villages. . . . . . "Never may I stand as a source of wasting, never as a source of withering to the Mazdayasnian villages, not for the love of body or of life. p. 88 "Away do I abjure the shelter and headship of the Daêvas, evil as they are; aye, utterly bereft of good, and void of virtue, deceitful in their wickedness, of all beings those most like the Demon-of-the-Lie, the most loathsome of existing things, and the ones the most of all bereft of good. "Off, off, do I abjure the Daêvas and all possessed by them, the sorcerers and all that hold to their devices, and every existing being of the sort; their thoughts do I abjure, their words and actions, and their seed that propagate their sin; away do I abjure their shelter and their headship. "Thus and so in every deed might Ahura-Mazda have indicated to Zarathustra in every question which Zarathustra asked, and in all the consultations in the which they two conversed together. Thus and so might Zarathustra have abjured the shelter and the headship of the Daêvas in all the questions and in all the consultations with which they two conversed together, Zarathustra and the Lord. "And so I myself, in whatsoever circumstances I may be placed, as a worshipper of Mazda, and of Zarathustra's order, would so abjure the Daêvas and their shelter, as he who was the holy Zarathustra abjured them. "To that religious sanctity to which the waters appertain, do I belong, to that sanctity to which p. 89 the plants, to that sanctity to which the Kine of blessed gift, to that religious sanctity to which Ahura-Mazda, who made both Kine and holy men, belongs, to that sanctity do I. "A Mazda-worshipper I am, of Zarathustra's order; so do I confess, as a praiser and confessor, and I therefore praise aloud the well-thought thought, the word well spoken, and the deed well done. "Yea, I praise at once the Faith of Mazda, the Faith which has no faltering utterance, the Faith that wields the felling halbert, the holy (Creed), which is the most imposing, best, and most beautiful of all religions which exist, and of all that shall in future come to knowledge, Ahura's Faith, the Zarathustrian creed. Yea, to Ahura-Mazda do I ascribe all good, and such shall be the worship of the Mazdayasnian belief!" PATET ERANI * Prayer for Repentance "I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the good Mazdayasnian faith, in the coming of the resurrection and the later body, in the stepping over the bridge Chinvat, in an invariable recompense of good deeds and their reward, p. 90 and of bad deeds and their punishment, as well as in the continuance of Paradise, in the annihilation of Hell and Ahriman * and the Daêvas, that [God] Ahura-Mazda will at last be victorious and Ahriman will perish together with the Daêvas and the off-shoots of darkness. . . . . . "All that I ought to have thought and have not thought, all that I ought 'to have said and have not said, all that I ought to have done and have not done, all that I ought to have ordered and have not ordered, all that I ought not to have thought and yet have thought, all that I ought not to have spoken and yet have spoken, all that I ought not to have done and yet have done, all that I ought not to have ordered and yet have ordered; for thoughts, words, and works, bodily and spiritual, earthy and heavenly, pray I for forgiveness, and repent of it with Patet. † . . . . . "This heavenly Patet shall be a fast brazen wall . . . that it may keep the gate of Hell fast in bonds, and the way to Paradise open, the way to that best place:—to the shining Garothman which possesses all majesty, that our soul and the souls of the pure at the Bridge Chinvat, the great, may step over freed from trouble and p. 91 easily, and may the pure Srosh, * the victorious, friend, protector, overseer, be the protector and the watcher of my soul. . . ." MARRIAGE SERVICE † "Do you both accept the contract for life with honourable mind, that pleasure may increase to ye twain? Admonitions "In the name and friendship of Ahura-Mazda. Be ever shining . . . Be increasing! Be victorious! Learn purity! Be worthy of good praise! May the mind think good thoughts, the words speak good, the works do good! . . . Be a Mazdayasnian, accomplish works according to thy mind . . . speak truth . . . and be obedient. Be modest with friends, clever, and well-wishing. Be not cruel. Be not wrathful-minded. Commit no sin through shame. Be not covetous. Torment not. Cherish not wicked envy, be not haughty, treat no one despitefully, cherish no lust. Rob not the property of others, keep thyself from the wives of others. Do good works with good activity. . . . Enter into no strife with a revengeful man. Be no companion p. 92 to a covetous one. Go not on the same way with a cruel one. Enter into no agreement with one of ill-fame. . . . Combat the adversaries with right. . . . Enter into no strife with those of evil repute. Before an assembly speak only pure words. Before kings speak with moderation. In no wise displease thy mother. Keep thine own body pure in justice. . . . . . Blessings "May Ahura-Mazda (God) send you gifts, Bahman, * thinking with the soul; Ardibihist good speech; Sharevar, good working; Çependarmat, wisdom; Khordat, sweetness and prosperity; Amertat, fruitfulness! "May that come to you which is better than the good, may that not come to you which is worse than the evil. . . ." THE VISION OF ARDÂ-VIRÂF † They say that, once upon a time, the pious Zaratûtsht (Zoroaster) made the religion which he had received current in the world; and till the p. 93 completion of three hundred years the religion was in purity, and men were without doubts. . . . . . And this religion, namely all the Avesta and Zend, written upon prepared cow-skins and with gold ink, was deposited in the archives in Stâkhar Pâpâkân; and the hostility of the evil-destined, wicked Ashemôk, the evil-doer, brought onward Alexander, the Rûman who was dwelling in Egypt, and he burnt them up. . . . . . And after that there was confusion and contention among the people of the country of Iran, one with the other. . . . . . And afterwards there were other magi and Desturs * of the religion, and some of their number were loyal and apprehensive. And an assembly of them was summoned in the residence of the victorious Frôbâg fire; and there were speeches and good ideas of many kinds on this subject: that "it is necessary for us to seek a means so that some of us may go and bring intelligence from the spirits; that the people who exist in this age shall know whether these Yazashni and Drôn and Afrînagân ceremonies, and Nîran prayers, and ablutions and purifications which we bring into operation attain unto God or unto p. 94 the demons, and come to the relief of our souls or not. . . . . . And from the seven, three were selected, and from the three, one only, named Vîrâf, and some called him the Nîshâpûrian. Then that Vîrâf, as he heard that decision, stood upon his feet, joined his hands on his breast, and spake thus, "If it please you, then give me not the undesired narcotic till you cast lots for the Mazdayasnians and me; and if the lot come to me, I shall go willingly to that place of the pious and the wicked, and carry this message correctly, and bring an answer truly. . . . . . "After I had drunk the consecrated wine, and I had reposed my body to rest, and given my mind up to the adoration of God, methought my soul took its flight towards the holy regions, where Serosh Izad * appeared unto me, and beckoned me towards him, when, after giving and receiving the customary salutations, Serosh Izad said to me, 'You have made a long journey in the faith. I am happy to see you in these blessed regions, and your escape from the world of wickedness gives one great pleasure; but, Ardâ-Vîrâf, you have come before your time. What is the occasion?' Ardâ-Vîrâf replied in accents of p. 95 complacency, 'I have been sent, O Serosh Izad! by the king, by the priests, and by the voice of the nation in general, on this embassy, to know of heaven and hell, in order that heresy and schism be banished from the earth, and that the worship of the true God be restored to its wonted purity.' . . . . . ". . . On saying this, Serosh Izad took hold of me by the arm, and led me forward across the bridge, when the throne of Mehr Izad, * came in view, with Roshni Izad † standing by him, holding in his hands the scales of justice, made of pure gold, and having on his right hand and on his left five thousand angels, and whose different petitions he can hear at once, and if written can see at one glance. Having saluted, and having my salutation returned, the attending angels surrounded me, and thus addressed me, 'O Ardâ-Virâf! your time has not yet come. How and by what means have you come thus far?' I answered, 'I have come thus far by the assistance of God, at the request of my king, Ardeshir Babegan, of the priests, and of the people, to collect and report the wonders of heaven and hell; that I may see that the truth may by these means be again restored to the earth, and heresy and wickedness banished for ever.' ". . . Afterwards arose Vohûmano, ‡ the archangel, p. 96 from a throne made of gold, and he took hold of my hand. With the words 'good thought' and 'good word' and 'good deed,' he brought me into the midst of Aûharmazd * and the archangels and other holy ones, and the guardian angels of Zaratûsht Spitâma, Kaî-Vishtâsp, Jâmâsp, Isâdvâstar, the son of Zaratûsht, and other upholders and leaders of the religion, than whom I have never seen any one more brilliant and excellent. "And Vohûman said thus, 'This is Aûharmazd.' And I wished to offer worship before him. "And he said to me thus, 'Salutation to thee, Ardâ-Vîrâf, thou art welcome; from that perishable world thou hast come to this pure bright place.' And he ordered Srôsh the pious, and Atarô † the angel, thus, 'Take Ardâ-Vîrâf, and show him the place and reward of the pious, and also the punishment of the wicked.' . . . . . "And I saw the darkest hell, which is pernicious, dreadful, terrible, very painful, mischievous, and evil-smelling. And after further observation it appeared to me as a pit, at the bottom of which a thousand cubits would not reach; and though all the wood which is in the world were put on to the fire in this most stinking and gloomy hell, it would never emit a smell; and again also, as p. 97 close as the ear to the eye, and as many as the hairs on the mane of a horse, so close and many in number the souls of the wicked stand—but they see not and hear no sound one from the other; every one thinks thus, 'I am alone!' And for them are the gloom of darkness and the stench and fearfulness of the torment and punishment of hell of various kinds; so that whoever is only a day in hell cries out thus, 'Are not those nine thousand years yet completed when they should release us from this hell?' . . . . . "'Without trouble nothing can be attained,' said Serosh Izad; 'the poor day-labourer is worthy of his hire, and those who perform good works will have their reward in eternal life, according to their several merits.' He continued, 'The life of man is of short duration, and many troubles and anxieties fall to his lot; and a man, after fifty years of prosperity and happiness, may be, by some unforeseen accident, reduced to sickness and poverty. Many are tried by this criterion, and but few are found worthy. To suffer a day of pain, after fifty years of pleasure, is too much for them, and they complain in bitterness of spirit to the Creator of all good of His injustice and cruelty, without remembering the good they have so long enjoyed or calling to mind the eternity of punishment in reserve for the p. 98 wicked. Therefore, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! walk yourself in the ways of righteousness, and teach others also to do so. Recollect that your body will return to dust, but your soul, if rich in good works, will mount to immortality, and partake of the happiness you have already witnessed. Take less care of your body and more of your soul; the pains and aches of the body are easily cured, but who can minister to the diseases of the soul? When you set out on a journey in the lower world, you provide yourselves, and take with you money, clothes, provisions, and are prepared against all the exigencies of the road, but what do you provide yourselves with for your last journey of the soul from the lower to the upper world, and whose friendship have you to assist you on the way? Hear, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! and I will describe to you the provisions requisite for the voyage to eternal life. "'In the first place the friend who will assist you is God; but to attain His friendship you must walk in His ways and place in Him the firmest reliance. The provisions must be faith and hope and the remembrance of your good works. The body, O Aida-Viral! may be likened unto a horse, and the soul to its rider, and the provisions requisite for the support of both are good actions; but as with a feeble rider the horse is ill-managed, so with a feeble horse the rider is but ill accommodated. Care ought to be taken that both are p. 99 kept in order; so, in a spiritual sense, the soul and body must be kept in order by a succession of good actions. Even in the world the multitude would sneer at a man who took more care of his horse than of himself; for this reason a man ought to take more care of his soul than of his body. God, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! requires only two things of the sons of men: the first, that they should not sin; the next, that they should be grateful of the many blessings He is continually bestowing upon them. "'Let the world, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! be taught not to set their hearts on the pleasures and vanities of life, as nothing can be carried away with them. You have already seen the rewards given to the good and deserving—how they have been repaid for all their trouble; the poor and the rich, the king and the peasant, here receive honours and distinctions according to their good works. The herdsman and shepherd, you have seen their condition. "'In youth and in the prime of manhood, when blessed with health and vigour, you suppose that your strength will never fail; that your riches, your lands, your houses, and your honours will remain for ever; that your gardens will be always green and your vineyards fruitful. But, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! teach them not to think so teach them the danger of such a way of thinking: all, all will pass away as a dream! "'The flowers fade, and give lessons unto man p. 100 that he is unwilling to profit by. Yea, the world itself will pass away, and nothing will remain but God! "Therefore, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! turn your thoughts only towards Him. No pleasure but has its concomitant pain roses have thorns, and honours fall into disgrace. It is pleasant to drink wine, but intoxication brings pain, if not disgrace; if you exceed in eating, this also brings its punishment, and you must have a doctor; even if you drink the purest water to excess, it engenders dropsy; therefore let the avoidance of excess in everything be most particularly inculcated—in wine or women, in eating and drinking: though they bring their own punishment in the world by the diseases they engender, yet they encourage the most deadly sins, and the soul so indulging will most assuredly be cut off from heaven. So you see, O Ardâ-Vîrâf! that the indulgence of our passions brings no pleasure of long duration, or impresses any good sentiment on the heart. "'If after praying to God for offspring, and He has granted your request, into what sea of trouble and anxiety are you plunged! Your son or daughter may grow up in vicious habits, and embitter your days by their undutiful conduct: the one may become a thief, the other a courtezan, and bring disgrace on your old age. The bee that produces honey has also a sting. "'The world is composed of lust, avarice, and p. 101 of passions the most ungovernable; if God gives them one thing, even that for which they most desire, they are not satisfied, but are continually craving for more and more, to a hundredfold. "'Avarice and ambition deprive them of sleep, and prevent them from making a laudable exertion to subdue these dreadful passions, which will plunge them into everlasting misery. "'A king who has conquered all the surrounding countries sighs because he has no more worlds to subdue. Kai Kâus, after having conquered many countries, aspired to be a king in heaven, and was punished for his presumption by a dreadful fall, which made him sensible of his folly. '"So you see, O Ardâ-Virâf! that content is the happiest condition of man and the most pleasing to the Creator: and treasure the advice I have given you; and as you return to the lower world, inculcate these precepts, and abide by the laws and walk in the way of truth and holiness, and continue in the worship of the true God.'" . . . . . SANCTITY * "I pray with benedictions for a benefit, and for the good, even for the entire creation of the holy and the clean; I beseech them for the generation which is now alive, for that which is just coming into life, and for that which shall be p. 102 hereafter. And I pray for that sanctity which leads to prosperity, and which has long afforded shelter, which goes on hand in hand with it, which joins it in its walk, and of itself becoming its close companion as it delivers forth its precepts, bearing every form of healing virtue which comes to us in waters, appertains to cattle, or is found in plants, and overwhelming all the harmful malice of the Daêvas, and their servants who might harm this dwelling and its lord, bringing good gifts, and better blessings, given very early, and later gifts, leading to successes, and for a long time giving shelter. And so the greatest, and the best, and most beautiful benefits of sanctity fall likewise to our lot for the sacrifice, homage, propitiation, and the praise of the Bountiful Immortals, for the bringing prosperity to this abode, and for the prosperity of the entire creation of the holy, and the clean, and as for this, so for the opposition of the entire evil creation. . . ." PRAYER FOR SAFETY * "Keep us from our hater, O Mazda! . . . Perish, O fiendish Drug! Perish, O brood of the fiend! Perish, O world of the fiend! . . . . Perish away to the regions of the north, never more to give unto death the living world of the holy spirit!" Footnotes 57:* Sacred Books of the East. 57:† Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 58:* Sacred Books of the East. Translation by J. Darmesteter. 58:† Dinâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad. Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. West. 59:* devil. 61:* Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 64:* Dâdîstân-î-Dînîk. Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. West. 66:* Sacred Books of the East. Yaçna XLIV. Dr. L. H. Mills' translation. 69:* Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 70:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 70:† Ibid. 70:‡ Ibid. 70:§ See Introduction about the names of God. 71:* Sacred Books of the East. Translation by Dr. L. H. Mills. 72:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 74:* Sacred Books of the East. 74:†An enclosure. 75:* About an English mile. 76:* Sacred Books of the East. 77:* Sacred Books of the East. 77:† Ibid. 78:* Sacred Books of the East. 78:† Ibid. 79:* Probably tides. 79:† Ibid. 79:‡ A teaching priest. 80:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 80:† God of Light. 81:* Archangels. 81:† Highest Heaven. 81:‡ Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 82:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 82:† See Notes. 83:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." 84:* Sacred Books of the East. 84:† Ibid. 84:‡ Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad. Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. West. 86:* Dâdîstân-î-Dînîk 86:† Sacred Books of the East. 86:‡ Souls. 86:§ The last ten days of the year. 86:¦¦ Awe-inspiring. 87:* Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. L. H. Mills. 89:* Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 90:* The devil. 90:† Penance. 91:* The Guardian Angel. 91:† Spiegel and Bleeck's translation. 92:* See Ameshaspends, page 41. 92:† Dr. Haug and Dr. West's "Ardâ-Virâf"; J. A. Pope's Revelations of Ardâ-Virâf." 93:* Chief priests. 94:* The Guardian Angel of Souls. 95:* Mithra: The Recording Angel. 95:† Angel of Justice. 95:‡ Good Mind. 96:* Good. 96:† God of Fire: The Angel of Life. 101:* Sacred Books of the East. Translated by Dr. L. H. Mills. 102:* Max Müller's "Sacred Books of the East." Next: Notes

RELIGION IN EGYPT AND INDIA.txt

RELIGION IN EGYPT AND INDIA THE EGYPTIAN PANTHEON.--Many of our religious conceptions today are strong reflections of the old Egyptian. One might say indeed that our present day religion came to us from Egypt via the Jews. For that reason I have decided to give in this book an Egyptian Pantheon, which I have made up from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. In many cases, it will be seen that the symbol of a certain belief or conception is represented by more than one god shown in the Pantheon. Under different guises and different names they, however, symbolize but a single conception. This comes from the scrambling of two sets of symbols when Upper and Lower Egypt were joined and became one kingdom. I am giving 24 figures placing them 6 on a page for easy reference. There are many others which I have not included; these are the principal ones only. I can only give an outline description, space will not permit of more. If more data is required about them, it will be found in many books written about Egypt. Amen was the great god at Thebes, and was ad p. 253 Click to enlarge p. 254 dressed as the "King of the gods." The Latinized form of the name is Ammon. The Romans identified him with Jupiter. The Greeks called him Zeus. He is also called "the hidden god." Before the 18th Dynasty he was worshipped at Thebes as Amen simply; but was afterwards merged into Amen Ra: "the hidden Sun." His color was a light blue. Kneph was called "the moulder." He was known by the Greeks as Knonphis. Kneph is one of the oldest of the Egyptian gods and was especially worshipped in Nubia and Philae. His headdress is a ram's head surmounted with a solar disk and uraeus. Kneph is spoken of as "the soul of the Universe" and "The Creator." His color was bright green. Kneph's female consort was Sati. Sati was the female consort of Kneph, and was looked upon as the Egyptian Juno. Her principal seat of worship was Elephantine, and throughout Nubia and Ethiopia. Her headdress was the Crown of Upper Egypt with a pair of cow's horns extending from it. Sati's color was a warm red human flesh color. I think that there can be no question but what Kneph and Sati were intended to symbolize the two principles of the Creator: male and female. Khem was one of the deified attributes of the Creator. His special seat of worship was Chemmo (Panopolis). He was worshipped at Thebes and to some extent throughout Egypt. His headdress consisted of two straight feathers. He was generally colored blue. p. 255 "Ptah the Opener" was the oldest of the Egyptian gods. His principal seat of worship was at Memphis. Ptah was the symbol of the Creative power of the Deity. The Egyptians called him "the divine artificer." One of his symbols was the two-sided square. He had many titles; one was: "The Father of beginnings." The Greeks considered Ptah the same as their Vulcan His name, peculiar to Memphis, was Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The regular Egyptian name, however, was Ptah-Sekar-Usar. His color was blue. Ptah was without doubt the symbol of the Four Great Primary Forces--The Sacred Four. Neith was the Egyptian Minerva, and was the goddess of the lower heavens. She is generally pictured holding up the heavens on her head. Neith was the special goddess at Sais. A corresponding symbol--a god upholding the heavens on his head-is found in the Maya of Yucatan. His color was blue. Neith was the symbol of The Four Great Pillars that upheld the Universe--The Sacred Four. Maut called "the Mother" was the consort of Amen Ra at Thebes, and in this capacity represented the Mother of all: thus in Amen Ra and Maut we find another symbolization of the dual principle of the Creator. Maut was especially worshipped at Thebes in connection with Amen and at Chons with Amen Ra. She was also honored throughout Nubia and Ethiopia. Her color was warm, flesh colored red. p. 256 Click to enlarge p. 257 Ra was the name of the Sun as the monotheistic symbol of The Creator--monotheistic or collective. In the "Litany of Ra" he is called "the Supreme Power," "the only one," et cetera. To the initiated, he symbolized the power of the Deity; but to the populace he was stated to be a created god, the Son of Ptah and Neith. More errors have been made about this symbol by historians than any other symbol used by the ancients. His color was red. Khepra. Although this symbol is found in the Egyptian Pantheon, it did not originate in Egypt but in the Motherland and was brought to Upper Egypt by the Nagas from the Motherland via Burma and India. The symbol is the Scarab beetle, which is placed over the head of a human figure in the Egyptian symbol. The Scarab symbolizes creative energy. From the Papyrus Ani., King's Companion to Seti II: "Among the Egyptians, the Scarabeaus Beetle is no god, but one of the emblems of the Creator, because it rolls a ball of mud between its feet and sets therein its eggs to hatch. As the Creator rolls the world around, and causes it to produce life." The foregoing passage is one that should be especially studied by students of the ancient past: for it shows us that the Egyptians up to the time of Seti 2nd understood the ancients' sciences and the workings of the Great Cosmic Forces, both of which are unknown to the scientists of today. Before our sciences can advance to any perceptible p. 258 degree the present grotesque myths, the orthodox scientific teachings, must be abandoned and a study of the Four Great Primeval Forces made. On them the true sciences must be built up--sciences which teach us what life is and how it originates, the workings of the Four Great Forces throughout the Universe, with their origin, et cetera. The vignette shows an engraving which I found in a very ancient Maya carving in India. It is thousands of years older than the first occupation of Egypt by man. The engraving is symbolical, as it shows the Creator symbolized by a Scarab, which is placed within rays of glory and rests on the symbol of Mu. Kneeling in adoration on either side of the rays is first man shown by his symbol Kėė the deer. This vignette is taken from the Egyptian sacred book, the Book of the Dead. It symbolizes man in adoration of the Scarab Beetle as the symbol of the Creator. The Egyptian god Khepra undoubtedly comes out of the Nagas--Kėė Atum or Turn was the god of the setting Sun: otherwise Amenti--the Sun below the horizon. Shu was the firstborn of Ra and Hathor and brother of Tefnut. Shu was looked upon as a symbol of the Celestial Forces. His color was generally black. p. 259 Click to enlarge p. 260 Mentu was one of the deified attributes of the Sun and often bears the name Mentu-Ra. He was merely a phase of Ra who with Atum symbolized the rising and the setting Sun. Mentu was the special protector of Egypt. Osiris was one of the oldest of the Egyptian gods. Later in this chapter I shall give the history of Osiris and show who he was. In the text of the Book of the Dead it is stated that he was the son of Seb and Nut. Hathor was simply another name for Isis and is represented with the attributes of Isis. She was sometimes called Isis Hathor. Hathor personified Nature with all that was true and beautiful in it--the female principle of the Creator. Isis is the goddess of the triad--Osiris, Isis and Horus. In the triad she was the wife of Osiris. Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis and symbolized the Sun. Seb was the father of Osiris and Isis and was called "the father of gods." Tefnut was his consort. In Seb and Tefnut again we find the dual principles of the Creator symbolized. Khons was worshipped at Thebes, and, with Amen and Maut, formed the Theban triad. Khons symbolized the moon; he wears the disk and crescent moon. Thoth was the god of writing, learning, and medicine. It was he who composed the early and most important portions of the Book of the Dead. Thoth is supposed to be the Egyptian Hermes. p. 261 Click to enlarge p. 262 Nephthys was the sister of Isis and Osiris and consort of Set. Anubis was the god of embalming and embalmed his father Osiris. Tefnut was the goddess of the rain and dew. She held a conspicuous place among the contemporary deities of Thebes. Ma or Maat was the goddess of truth. She represents the truth and justice of the Supreme God. Nu or Nut. Nut is the feminine form of Nu. Nu was the father, Nut the mother--the life givers. Bast was the wife of Ptah and with their son Tum or Atum formed the great triad of Memphis. Set was the son of Nut and brother of Osiris. According to the myth he murdered Osiris. Anuka was the third member of the triad of Thebaid, composed of Khnum (Kneph), Sati and Anuka. OSIRIS.--Osiris was one of the oldest of the Egyptian gods. His worship was universal throughout Egypt at all times. Osiris was the representative of all that was good. The myths in Egypt about Osiris are bewildering. They claim that Osiris was once the monarch of Upper and Lower Egypt. It is claimed that Osiris was buried at Philae--other towns claim his remains. According to all these myths, Osiris must have lived since the union of Upper and Lower Egypt was accomplished under Menes about 5,000 B. C. Against this we find that Thoth, the founder of the [paragraph continues] p. 263 <I>Osiris</I>. Click to enlarge Osiris. p. 264 Lower Egyptians taught at Sais the Osirian Religion and this was 14,000 B. C. There were no kings of Egypt for an immensely long period after Thoth's time. Egypt was a sub-colony of the Motherland under direct control of the colonial empire--Atlantis. Now let us see who Osiris actually was and the time when he lived. In two Himalayan monasteries--one in India, the other in Tibet--there are two Naacal tablets belonging to the Sacred Inspired Writings of the Motherland: they are identically the same, word for word, were copied from the originals in the Motherland and brought to the continent of Asia by Naacal missionaries. They belong to the historical section of the Sacred Books. They relate: "Osiris, when entering manhood, left the home of his birth, Atlantis, and came to the motherland where he entered one of the Naacal colleges. Here he studied the religion and Cosmic Sciences of the Motherland. When he passed his degree of Master and adept, he returned to his own country, Atlantis. There he devoted his life to the teachings of the people, the first religion of man, and to weeding out and eliminating extravagances, inventions and misconceptions that had crept into the religion of Atlantis under a rank priesthood." Osiris became the Hieratic Head of Religion in Atlantis which office he held during a long life. The people loved and worshipped him for his gentleness, goodness and kindness. They wished to dethrone Ouranos the King and place Osiris on the throne. This [paragraph continues] p. 265 Osiris would not allow to be spoken of and so condemned the idea that it was abandoned. He was murdered by a brother on account of jealousy--this was about 20,000 B. C. His name was so revered, and he so beloved, that at his death he was deified, and as a lasting monument to his name religion was called after him, viz., "The Osirian religion," just as today we have the Christian religion. I could not find the name of the brother who murdered him, so the probability is the Egyptians invented the name. Nor do I find anything about Isis and Nephthys, but it is mentioned that he had a son, who became the Hieratic Head of Atlantis at the death of his father. I do not, however, find his name. Osiris and Christ taught identically the same religion. Some of their preachings are word for word, line for line, and sentence for sentence the same. Both learned from the same book--the Sacred Inspired Writings of the Motherland. THE RELIGION OF EGYPT.--The first we know about the religion of Egypt is where an ancient record states that about 16,000 years ago Thoth, the son of an Atlantian Priest, planted the Egyptian colony at the mouth of the Nile, and at Saïs on the banks of the Nile built a temple and taught the Osirian religion. The Osirian religion as I have previously shown was the religion of Mu after Osiris had cleansed it of all the extravagances that had crept into it in Atlantis, 22,000 years ago, the religion being then called after p. 266 him the Osirian religion. When he died his son became the hieratical head and was supposed to be called Horus, but whether Horus was his actual name or a title I cannot say, but a Horus was always the hieratical head of the Osirian religion down to the time of Menes or about S,000 B. C. Thus it is shown that the religion of Egypt commenced with that of the Motherland as taught in the Sacred Inspired Writings. From the time of Thoth down to the time of Menes, the Egyptian colony was ruled by the church, under the head of a Horus. The last Horus is recorded when Menes took the throne. Manetho, the Egyptian priest historian, says that during the 11th Dynasty the priesthood began to teach the people to worship the Sacred Symbols instead of the Deity Himself as heretofore. This was the first step to the debauchery of the Egyptian religion which reached its peak during the 18th Dynasty and ended in every conceivable extravagance coupled with idolatry. The advent of Mohammedanism wiped out the old religion of Egypt, although the Christian religion had made a little headway owing to a people called the Copts. We must now go back some few hundred years to the time when the Israelites were the slaves of the Egyptians. A Master rose up among them--Moses. Who was Moses? And how did he form a religion? Who he was is a question; but he was the most proficient Master of his time, and, at one time, was the High Priest of the temple at Sinai, which then was an [paragraph continues] p. 267 Osirian temple. Whatever Moses was, it is known that his wife was an Israelite and that he threw in his lot with the Israelites in all their troubles and adversities contingent with slavery. They elected him their head. He saw the Osirian or the Inspired Religion being debased by idolatry and was determined to save his people from it, so he modified the ancient Osirian religion to suit the then existing surroundings and conditions. The symbols of the attributes of the Deity, he discarded almost entirely, retaining only a few which could not very well be worshipped. He made the worship of one Lord God only--the Deity. Many of the teachings in the Osirian religion were in the form of questions. These he condensed and put into the form of commands. As for example: Osirian--Have you honored and do you honor your father and mother, et cetera. Moses--Honor your father and your mother, et cetera. There were forty-two questions in the Osirian. Moses turned them into ten commands. Many readers of the Bible have been nonplussed when they come across the passage where Moses makes a serpent for the people to look upon in the Wilderness. Some claim that it was a touch of idolatry. It was nothing of the kind. Circumstances warranted him in returning to symbolism for the occasion. The symbol--the Serpent--was to concentrate their thoughts on God as the Creator and the Giver of All Good Things. One of the ceremonies among the Jews was a burnt sacrifice. The Bible tells us that the sons of the first p. 268 man, Adam, offered up burnt sacrifices. Yet among ancient records we find that 60,000,000 of people lost their lives at one time in the same land before sacrifices were commenced. I never came across the word sacrifice or its equivalent in any of the writings of the First Civilization. The first time I saw the word was in an old Maya book about 5,000 or 6,000 years old in which it says: "And during the night Mu was sacrificed." In the writings of the First Civilization offerings only are mentioned; these offerings consisted generally of fruit, flowers and products of the fields and gardens. These were taken to the temple and placed on an altar specially provided for the ceremony. On the front of this altar were inscribed the Tau and underneath each arm was a double triangle that reads: "Place thine offering upon this altar." After Mu went down with her 60,000,000 of souls, all the surviving people of the world commemorated her memory in one way or another, some by literature, some by edifices and others by fire in some form. The Quiche Mayas had a fiery house in their religious ceremonies; the Egyptians a fiery tank in theirs; and without doubt burnt sacrifices in the beginning was the form the Semites chose. In later years the Jews applied a theology to the ceremony. I wonder if there is a single Jew living today who knows the origin of their burnt sacrifices. I have never yet found one. The Phoenicians, another Semitic race, adopted idolatry and fell so low p. 269 as to degrade themselves by offering human beings for sacrifice. Was Moses an Israelite? An Egyptian record would lead one to believe that he was not a pure Israelite. The record I refer to says: "Moses was the son of an Egyptian Princess who afterwards became the great Queen Hatshepsut." Not a word is said about the bull-rushes. As an example of the gross extravagances in symbols and teachings of the Egyptian priesthood I shall take the triad--Osiris, Isis and Horus. Let us see who they were and what was taught from them. Osiris was a man who lived on earth and about whom there are many Egyptian myths. There is also a short authentic history about him, showing that he was a great Master and lived about 22,000 years ago. Isis was the symbol of the Creator's female attribute. From this union a son was born called Horus. Isis had a sister called Nephthys and a brother called Set. So that the female attribute of the Creator had three members--two females and one male--Isis, Nephthys and Set. In plain unadorned language the foregoing says: An earthly man Osiris marries a spirit a female attribute of the Creator Isis and they have a son. But Isis was only one forming the female attribute of the Creator. The writings of the Motherland say the Creator was Lahun, two in one, not four in one. Can anything more grotesque or atrocious than the foregoing be imagined? Yet this seems to be the theology p. 270 and teachings of the Egyptian priesthood for a long period in their history--thousands of years. Is it any wonder that they were thrown into the discard? Dozen of other examples could be quoted, but I think this one all sufficient to show the abuses engrafted into their religion. During the early part of the history of religion in Egypt, such grossness does not appear. As soon as we know anything about her religion we find its theology very complicated and, without question, this complicated theology was the parent of the diabolical abuses which crept into religion later on. In the early Egyptian religion I find symbolizations ran somewhat parallel with that of the Polynesians. For instance, the marriage of gods. There is, however, this difference. The result of the marriage of Egyptian gods with other gods was only further to complicate theology. With the Polynesians the marriage of gods resulted in phenomena, such as light, sound, et cetera, which is correct, being the workings of the Cosmic Forces. I shall now give some examples both Egyptian and Polynesian. The Polynesians believe that all that has been created came from the marriage of gods. The first four gods were the Four Great Primary Forces--a name given them during the earth's First Great Civilization. The Polynesians say: "In the beginning there was no light, life or sound in the world. A boundless night called Po enveloped everything, over which Tanaoa (darkness) p. 271 and Mutu-Hei (silence) reigned supreme. Then the god of light separated from Tanaoa (darkness), fought him and drove him away, and confined him to the night. Then the god Ono (sound) was evolved from Atea (light) and banished silence. From all this struggle was Atauana (dawn) born. Atea (light) married Atauana (dawn) and they created earth, animals and man." Now let us have a little Egyptian Cosmogony:-- Seb and Tefnut: offspring, the gods: Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Set. Ra and Hathor: offspring, the gods: Shu and Tefnut. Osiris and Isis: offspring, the god: Horus. There were also the marriages of the gods and goddesses: Amen Ra and Maut. Kneph and Sati. Ptah and Bast. Set and Nephthys. I have shown what all these gods symbolized, in a short way, in the Pantheon. THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT.--While we are on the subject of the Israelites, let us follow them in their Exodus from Egypt. When the Israelites made their exodus from Egypt, they left Goshen which is a part of the Nile Delta, and, according to Egyptian records (papyrus), they crossed the "Sea of Reeds" and passed into Asia. The Sea of Reeds or rushes is situated at one of the mouths of the p. 272 Nile. The water is very shallow and most of it can be waded without danger. When they arrived at the Sea of Reeds a submarine earthquake occurred in the Mediterranean Sea off the mouth of the Nile--probably on the gas belt which runs down from Crete and extends under Africa a short distance from the Nile Delta. This quake first drew off the water, leaving the Sea of Reeds dry--the Israelites passed over, the Egyptian army followed. During its passage the returning cataclysmic wave rolled in over the Sea of Reeds overwhelming the Egyptians. A mistranslation evidently occurs in the Bible. The Sea of Reeds was mistaken for the Red Sea. The Red Sea at the point where it is stated the Israelites crossed lies 200 miles from Goshen. The Sea of Reeds joined Goshen. To have crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites would have had to pass through 200 miles of enemy country, with an army in close pursuit, which means that they would have been overtaken and slain. Pillars: The Israelites when in bondage in Egypt erected two pillars of brick at the entrance of their temples. In the inner part of these temples was the Holy of Holies where only the high priest might enter. The Hebrews: The word "hebrew" comes from ebber meaning further back. Apparently, the Jews descended from four groups. Two of the tribes entered Palestine about 1375-1350 B. C. Later ten tribes joined them. These came from Egypt about 1200 B. C. or from 150 to 175 years later than the two tribes. p. 273 About 973 B. C. the tribes separated, the two seceded and appointed Jeraboam their king. Reaboam was at the time the king of the ten tribes. Years later, the Assyrians attacked the ten tribes, and history states that the Assyrians destroyed them. Whether or not they were wholly destroyed they disappeared from history and are now spoken of as "the lost tribes." It cannot be conceived that all were put to the sword. Unquestionably some were taken into captivity, and became assimilated with the Assyrians, especially as both were Semites. The Assyrians in turn were overthrown by the Medes and Persians. What has become of the Assyrians? Among their descendants today, we should, no doubt, find some of the descendants of the ten tribes, but whether there would be any of them with pure Israelitish blood in them is very doubtful. Still later, the Babylonians conquered the two remaining tribes. These still survive in our Jews of today. They are, however, scattered throughout the world among all nations. These Jews hold the Feast of the Passover-- Why? They are the descendants of the two tribes who were not in Egypt. It was the ten lost tribes that were concerned in the Exodus and consequently the Passover. Ezra and his associates wrote the Bible. What is known as the Book of Moses was written by them from documents obtained from the ten tribes who were p. 274 in Egypt. The writings of Moses were partly in Naga and partly in Egyptian. Ezra obtained a slight knowledge of Naga in a Chaldi during the time he was in captivity; but neither Ezra nor any of his associates were Egyptian scholars. Is it any wonder they made so many errors in translating the Egyptian? Yet for all their errors their work was wonderful. THE RELIGION OF INDIA.--The religion of very ancient India was that of the Motherland, brought there from Mu by the Naacals, a holy brotherhood. These men were taught religion and the Cosmic Sciences in the Motherland and when proficient were sent to the colonial empires to form colleges and perfect the local priesthoods, who in turn taught the people. About 5,000 years ago, a race of Aryans began to drift down into India from the bleak valleys of the Hindu Koosh and adjoining mountains. Their first settlement was among the Nagas in the Saraswatte Valley. They were just hardy mountaineers, uncouth and uneducated. The Nagas, the most highly educated race in the world, took compassion on them, welcomed them into their schools and colleges, educated and advanced them. The Nagas received them too well for their own good, for, it called from the mountains nearly all who had multiplied there since the destruction of the great Uighur Empire of whom they were descendants. In time these Aryans dominated the whole of the Northern parts of India including their schools and colleges. Thinking they had learnt from the Naacals all there p. 275 was to be learnt, they proceeded to drive their gentle, kindly instructors out of the country into the snowcapped mountains of the North. After a period a sect was formed which was called Brahmins who took or usurped the charge of religious teachings. To attain their own ends, they introduced into religion perverted, incomprehensible theologies having all kinds of extravagance. This was the commencement of the downfall of India, which gained impetus as time went on. They introduced caste, commencing with three only. The caste system was extended, until at last the lowest caste was looked upon as untouchables, and for a touch of an untouchable, the receiver of a higher caste must go into a purification before he could be received again by his own people. The result of this was the final step which brought India down from the high position of leading the world in religion, arts and sciences. All that was left were a few embers where at one time was the bright light of a fire representing everything worth-while in life. Then a great one sprang up among them, a Prince Guatama. He went back to the original teachings of the Sacred Writings. A vast throng followed his teachings and these became the Buddhists. Buddhism was carried throughout the Orient and was the universal religion. It was only a question of time before a crafty priesthood began its negative work. The Buddhist priesthood of Northern India fell away from the gentle p. 276 teacher, Guatama Buddha, and introduced all sorts of impossible theologies and theories for the sole purpose of enslaving the people. Only those in the South remained true to Guatama's actual teachings. Today the center of Buddhism is a little unostentatious temple at Kandy, in the Central Mountains of Ceylon. But with all these priestly traps and pitfalls common to religions today a spark of the truth has been again kindled and will soon shine throughout the world. Priesthoods and politicians never have seen nor ever will see "the writing on the wall" until those walls are falling on them and it becomes too late to escape. This has been the history of the world for the past 12,000 to 15,000 years. The people rise and crush the politicians and the Lord, in His own way, weeds his garden. A U M is an inscription that has baffled scholars and scientists throughout the world, the Hindus included, for more than 2,300 years. Its import was lost when the Naacals were driven out of India by the Brahmins. Many scholars have attempted to fathom its meaning. None, however, arrived at any satisfactory conclusions; even the oldest are indefinite. Examples: Manava dharma Sastra an ancient Hindu book. Book 2. Sloka 74. "In the beginning the Infinite only existed called Aditi. In this Infinite dwelt A U M p. 277 whose name must precede all prayers and invocations." Book of Manu, Sloka 77. "The monosyllable A U M means earth sky and heaven." I. T. Wheeler, History of India, Vol. 2. Page 481 says: "As regards the three letters A U M little can be gathered, excepting, that when brought together in the word A U M they are said by Manu to form a symbol of the Lord of created things--Brahma." H. T. Colebrook in Asiatic Research says: "According to Noruka which is an ancient glossary of the Vedas the syllable A U M refers to every Deity. "The Brahmins may reserve for their initiates an esoteric more ample than that given by Manu." Noruka must have been reading a Brahminical version of the Vedas, which they stole from the Naacals, changed it to suit their own vile purposes and then foisted it on the world as their own writings. The Original Vedas are a Naacal writing. The Naacals acknowledged One Deity only. Therefore, when Noruka mentions "every Deity" it shows without the possibility of contradiction that the Vedas which he refers to were altered and doctored and were not the original writings. A U M conveys identically the same meaning and conception as the Mysterious Writing and Niven's Mexican tablet No. 2379. The difference between these and A U M is in the form of the writing. The Mysterious Writing and the Mexican tablet are in the old p. 278 temple esoteric numeral writing. The Hindu A U M is written in alphabetical symbols which reads: A--Ahau Masculine-Father U-- Feminine--Mother--She M--Mehen The engendered--The Son--Man Note: U is here used as the feminine pronoun--She. M would have been used but it would have been con founded with the following M for Mehen. The Brahmins formed a complicated theology around this conception, introducing a confusion absolutely incomprehensible to the people. It became a wonderful breeder of awe and superstition. BIBLICAL SYMBOLISMS TAKEN LITERALLY. Tower of Babel: The Biblical Tower of Babel has been literally taken as a structure of stone or brick. From some old writings, I am brought to believe that it is a purely symbolical term: that "confusion of tongues" is the crux of the legend. This legend was not written during the life of Mu. It came later, many years later, when ancient history was being recorded again and mankind once more widely populated the earth. It was therefore a product of the New Civilization. Extravagances in theology and technology in the various temples, colleges and schools were the cause of the "Confusion of tongues" and the whole structure of Religion and Science was the Tower. Each temple had its own terms and words for its theology. Each college and school had its own particular words and p. 279 terms for its technical teachings. So that no temple or college could understand the teachings of another. All in fact spoke different languages, no one understanding another. This made a "Tower of Confusion," "A Babel of Tongues": so that the name given to the condition was the only one which would adequately describe it. Today we are running headlong into another such storm, another such confusion of tongues. We have over 100 sects of Christianity, yet there is only one God. Each sect declares all others are in error. They cannot comprehend each other's language. In Mu there were no sects, no theology. All teachings and wording were so simple that the most uncultivated mind could comprehend them. Mu's religious teachings lasted 200,000 years. When the present Tower of Babel comes crashing to the ground, a new structure will arise on its ruins. And that structure will be the simple religion of Mu. The Flood: The Biblical legend of the Flood is not a myth nor is it symbolical. It has been wrongly described. Those who wrote the Biblical description simply failed to understand the writings of Moses. There was a flood which destroyed about one half of the earth and all life thereon; but it was not due to a heavy rain. The Flood resulted from magnetic influences. The Last Magnetic Cataclysm, the Biblical Flood and the Geological Myth, the Glacial Period, are all one and the same thing.

requirements.txt

langchain langchain_openai langchain_core python-dotenv langserve fastapi uvicorn

The Babylonian Story of the Deluge a.txt

Sacred-texts Ancient Near East The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish by E.A. Wallis Budge [1929] THIS brochure, The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish, was originally written by the late Keeper of the Department, SIR ERNEST WALLIS BUDGE, LITT.D., F.S.A. It is now re-issued in a revised form, rendered necessary by the march of discovery in Babylonian matters during the last few years. The work of revision has been carried out by Mr. C. J. GADD, M.A., F.S.A., Assistant-Keeper in the Department. H. R. HALL. DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM, 15th October, 1929. THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE DELUGE AS TOLD BY ASSYRIAN TABLETS FROM NINEVEH. THE DISCOVERY OF THE TABLETS AT NINEVEH BY LAYARD, RASSAM AND SMITH. IN 1845-47, and again in 1849-51, Mr. (later Sir) A. H. Layard carried out a series of excavations among the ruins of the ancient city of Nineveh, "that great city, wherein are more than sixteen thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left; and also much cattle" (Jonah iv, ii). Its ruins lie on the left or east bank of the Tigris, exactly opposite the town of At-Mawsil, or Môsul, which was founded by the Sassanians and marks the site of Western Nineveh. At first Layard thought that these ruins were not those of Nineveh, which he placed at Nimrûd, about 20 miles downstream, but of one of the other cities that were builded by Asshur (see Gen. X, 11, 12). Thanks, however, to Christian, Roman and Muhammadan tradition, there is no room for doubt about it, and the site of Nineveh has always been known. The fortress which the Arabs built there in the seventh century was known as "Kal'at Ninawï," i.e., "Nineveh Castle," for many centuries, and all the Arab geographers agree in saying that the mounds opposite Môsul contain the ruins of the palaces and walls of Nineveh. And few of them fail to mention that close by them is "Tall Nabi Yûnis," i.e., the Hill from which the Prophet Jonah preached repentance to the inhabitants of Nineveh, that "exceeding great city of three days' journey" (Jonah iii, 3). Local tradition also declares that the prophet was buried in the Hill, and his supposed tomb is shown there to this day. THE WALLS AND PALACES OF NINEVEH. The situation of the ruins of the palaces of Nineveh is well shown by the accompanying reproduction of the plan of {p. 2} the city made by Commander Felix Jones, I.N. The remains of the older palaces built by Sargon II (B.C. 722-705), Sennacherib (B.C. 705-681), and Esarhaddon (B.C. 681-669) lie under the hill called Nabi Yûnis, and those of the palaces and other buildings of Asshur-bani-pal (B.C. 681-626) under the mound which is known locally as "Tall al-'Armûshîyah," i.e., "The "Hill of 'Armûsh," and "Kuyûnjik." The latter name is said to be derived from two Turkish words meaning "many sheep," in allusion to the large flocks of sheep that find their pasture on and about the mound in the early spring. These two great mounds lie close to the remains of the great west wall of Nineveh, which in the time of the last Assyrian Empire may have been washed by the waters of the river Tigris.[1] The river Khausur, or Khoser, divides the area of Nineveh into two parts, and passing close to the southern end of Kuyûnjik empties itself into the Tigris. The ruins of the walls of Nineveh show that the east wall was 16,000 feet long, the north wall 7,000 feet long, the west wall 13,600 feet, and the south wall 3,000 feet; its circuit was about 13,200 yards or 71 miles. FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE ROYAL LIBRARY AT NINEVEH. In the spring of 1850 Layard, assisted by Mr. H. Rassam, continued the excavation of the "South West Palace" at Kuyûnjik. In one part of the building he found two small chambers, opening into each other, which be called the "chamber of records," or "the house of the rolls." He gave them this name because "to the height of a foot or more from the floor they were entirely filled with inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments of tablets. Some tablets were complete, but by far the larger number of them had been broken up into many fragments, probably by the falling in of the roof and upper parts of the walls of the buildings when the city was pillaged and set on fire by the Medes and Babylonians. The tablets that were kept in these chambers numbered many thousands. Besides those that were found in them by Layard, large numbers have been dug out all along [1. It has recently been suggested, as a result of careful examination of the site, that the Tigris never actually flowed under the city wall. (R. C. Thompson, A Century of Exploration at Nineveh, p. 122 ff.)] {p. 4} the corridor which passed the chambers and led to the river, and a considerable number were kicked on to the river front by the feet of the terrified fugitives from the palace when it was set on fire. The tablets found by Layard were of different sizes; the largest were rectangular, flat on one side and convex on the other, and measured about 9 ins. by 6½ ins., and the smallest were about an inch square. The importance of this "find" was not sufficiently recognized at the time, for the tablets, which were thought to be decorated pottery, were thrown into baskets and sent down the river loose on rafts to Basrah, whence they were despatched to England on a British {p. 6} man-of-war. During their transport from Nineveh to England they suffered more damage from want of packing than they had suffered from the wrath of the Medes. Among the complete tablets that were found in the two chambers several had colophons inscribed or scratched upon them, and when these were deciphered by Rawlinson, Hincks and Oppert a few years later, it became evident that they had formed part of the Library of the TEMPLE OF NEBO AT NINEVEH. NEBO AND HIS LIBRARY AT NINEVEH. Nothing is known of the early history of the Library[1] of the Temple of Nebo at Nineveh, but there is little doubt that it was in existence in the reign of Sargon II. Authorities differ in their estimate of the attributes that were assigned to Nebo (Nabu) in Pre-Babylonian times, and "cannot decide whether he was a water-god, or a fire-god, or a corn-god, but he was undoubtedly associated with Marduk, either as his son or as a fellow-god. It is certain that as early as B.C. 2000 he was regarded as one of the "Great Gods" of Babylonia, and in the fourteenth century B.C. his cult was already established in Assyria. He had a temple at Nimrûd in the ninth century B.C., and King Adad-nirari (B.C. 811-783) set up six statues in it to the honour of the god; two of these statues are now in the British Museum. The same Adad-nirari also repaired the Nebo temple at Nineveh. Under the last Assyrian Empire Nebo was believed to possess the wisdom of all the gods, and to be the "All-wise " and "All-knowing." He was the inventor of all the arts and sciences, and the source of inspiration in wise and learned men, and he was the divine scribe and past master of all the mysteries connected with literature and the art of writing (dup-sharrute). Ashur-bani-pal addresses him as "Nebo, the mighty son, the director of the whole of heaven and of earth, holder of the tablet, bearer of the writing-reed of the tablet of destiny, lengthener of days, vivifier of the dead, stablisher of light for the men who are troubled" (see Tablet, RM. 132). [1. A group of Sumerian signs for "library" is ### (girginakku), and these seem to mean "collection of tablets."] {p. 7} In the reign of Sargon II the Temple of Nebo at Kuyûnjik[1] was repaired, and probably at that time a library was housed in it. Layard found some of the remains of Nebo's Library in the South West Palace, but it must have been transferred thither, for the temple of Nebo lay farther north, near the south comer of Ashur-bani-pal's palace. Nebo's temple at Nineveh bore the same name as his very ancient temple at Borsippa (the modem Birs-i-Nimrûd), viz., "E-ZIDA." DISCOVERY OF THE PALACE LIBRARY OF ASHUR-BANI-PAL. In the spring of 1851 Layard was obliged to close his excavations for want of funds, and he returned to England with Rassam, leaving all the northern half of the great mound of Kuyûnjik unexcavated. He resigned his position as Director of Excavations to the Trustees of the British Museum, and Colonel (later Sir) H. C. Rawlinson, Consul-General at Baghdâd, undertook to direct any further excavations that it might be possible to carry out later on. During the summer the Trustees received a further grant from Parliament for excavations in Assyria, and they dispatched Rassam to finish the exploration of Kuyûnjik, knowing that the lease of the mound of Kuyûnjik for excavation purposes which he had obtained from its owner had several years to run. When Rassam arrived at Môsul in 1852, and was collecting his men for work, he discovered that Rawlinson, who knew nothing about the lease of the mound which Rassam held, had given the French Consul, M. Place, permission to excavate the northern half of the mound, i.e., that part of it which he was most anxious to excavate for the British Museum. He protested, but in vain, and, finding that M. Place intended to hold Rawlinson to his word, devoted himself to clearing out part of the South West Palace which Layard had attacked in 1850. Meanwhile M. Place was busily occupied with the French excavations at Khorsabad, a mound which contained the ruins of the great palace of Sargon II, and had no time to open up excavations at Kuyûnjik. In this way a year passed, and as M. Place made no sign that he was going to excavate at Kuyûnjik, and Rassam's time for [1. For a description of the ruins of this temple, see R. C. Thompson, A Century of Exploration at Nineveh, pp. 67-79.] {p. 13} returning to England was drawing near, the owner of the mound, who was anxious to get the excavations finished so that he might again graze his flocks on the mound, urged Rassam to get to work in spite of Rawlinson's agreement with M. Place. He and Rassam made arrangements to excavate the northern part of the mound clandestinely and by night, and on 20th December, 1853, the work began. On the first night nothing of importance was found; on the second night the men uncovered a portion of a large bas-relief; and on the third night a huge mass of earth collapsed revealing a very fine bas-relief, sculptured with a scene representing Ashur-bani-pal standing in his chariot. The news of the discovery was quickly carried to all parts of the neighbourhood, and as it was impossible to keep the diggings secret any longer, the work was continued openly and by day. The last-mentioned bas-relief was one of the series that lined the chamber, which was 50 feet long and 15 feet wide, and illustrated a royal lion hunt. This series, that is to say, all of it that the fire which destroyed the palace had spared, is now in the British Museum (see the Gallery of the Assyrian Saloon). Whilst the workmen were clearing out the Chamber of the Lion Hunt they came across several heaps of inscribed baked clay tablets of "all shapes and sizes," which resembled in general appearance the tablets that Layard had found in the South West Palace the year before. There were no remains with them, or near them, that suggested they had been arranged systematically and stored in the Chamber of the Lion Hunt, and it seems as if they had been brought there from another place and thrown down hastily, for nearly all of them were broken into small pieces. As some of them bore traces of having been exposed to great heat they must have been in that chamber during the burning of the palace. When the tablets were brought to England and were examined by Rawlinson, it was found from the information supplied by the colophons that they formed a part of the great PRIVATE LIBRARY OF [1. These bas-reliefs show that lions were kept in cages in Nineveh and let out to be killed by the King with his own hand. There seems to be an allusion to the caged lions by Nahum (ii, 11), who says, "Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?"] {p. 14} ASHUR-BANI-PAL, which that king kept in his palace. The tablets found by Layard in 1850 and by Rassam in 1853 form the unique and magnificent collection of cuneiform tablets in the British Museum, which is now commonly known as the "Kuyûnjik Collection." The approximate number of the inscribed baked clay tablets and fragments that have come from Kuyûnjik and are now in the British Museum is 25,073. It is impossible to over-estimate their importance and value from religious, historical and literary points of view; besides this, they have supplied the material for the decipherment of cuneiform inscriptions in the Assyrian, Babylonian and Sumerian languages, and form the foundation of the science of Assyriology which has been built up with such conspicuous success during the last 70 years. ASHUR-BANI-PAL, BOOK-COLLECTOR AND PATRON OF LEARNING. Ashur-bani-pal (the Asnapper of Ezra iv, 10) succeeded his father Esarhaddon B.C. 669, and at a comparatively early period of his reign he seems to have devoted himself to the study of the history of his country, and to the making of a great Private Library. The tablets that have come down to us prove not only that he was as great a benefactor of the Library of the Temple of Nebo as any of his predecessors, but that he was himself an educated man, a lover of learning, and a patron of the literary folk of his day. In the introduction to his Annals, as found inscribed on his great ten-sided prism in the British Museum, he tells us how he took up his abode in the Crown Prince's dwelling from which Sermacherib and Esarhaddon had ruled the Assyrian Empire, and in describing his own education he says: "I, Ashur-bani-pal, within it (i.e., the palace) understood the wisdom of Nebo, all the art of writing of every craftsman, of every kind, I made myself master of them all (i.e., of the various kinds of writing)." {p. 16} These words suggest that Ashur-bani-pal could not only read cuneiform texts, but could write like a skilled scribe, and that he also understood all the details connected with the {p. 17} craft of making and baking tablets. Having determined to form a Library in his palace he set to work in a systematic manner to collect literary works. He sent scribes to ancient seats of learning, e.g., Ashur, Babylon, Cuthah, Nippur, Akkad, Erech, to make copies of the ancient works that were preserved there, and when the copies came to Nineveh he either made transcripts of them himself, or caused his scribes to do so for the Palace Library. In any case he collated the texts himself and revised them before placing them in his Library. The appearance of the tablets from his Library suggests that he established a factory in which the clay was cleaned and kneaded and made into homogeneous, well-shaped tablets, and a kiln in which they were baked, after they had been inscribed. The uniformity of the script upon them is very remarkable, and texts with mistakes in them are rarely found. How the tablets were arranged in the Library is not known, but certainly groups were catalogued, and some tablets were labelled.[1] Groups of tablets were arranged in numbered series, with "catch lines," the first tablet of the series giving the first line of the second tablet, the second tablet giving the first line of the third tablet, and so on. Ashur-bani-pal was greatly interested in the literature of the Sumerians, i.e., the non-Semitic people who occupied Lower Babylonia about B.C. 3500 and later. He and his scribes made bilingual lists of signs and words and objects of all classes and kinds, all of which are of priceless value to the modem student of the Sumerian and Assyrian languages. Annexed is an extract from a List of [1. K. 1352 is a, good specimen of a catalogue (see p. 10); K. 1400 and K. 1539 are labels (see p. 12).] {p. 18} Signs with Sumerian and Assyrian values. The signs of which the meanings are given are in the middle column; the Sumerian values are given in the column to the left, and their meanings in Assyrian in the column to the right. To many of his copies of Sumerian hymns, incantations, magical formulas, etc., Ashur-bani-pal caused interlinear translations to be added in Assyrian, and of such bilingual documents the following extract from a text relating to the Seven Evil Spirits will serve as a specimen. The 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc., lines are written in Sumerian, and the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc., lines in Assyrian. Most of the tablets from Kuyûnjik end with colophons, which can be divided broadly into two classes. One of these is the short note, frequently impressed by a stamp, which reads simply "Palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of all, king of Assyria" (see the tablet illustrated on p. 22). The longer forms of colophon were added by the scribes who had written the whole tablet. Of these longer colophons there are several versions, each of which seems to have been appropriated to a particular class of texts. Two of the most interesting are here appended; they reveal a distinction between tablets belonging to the Palace Library and those preserved in the Temple of Nebo. {p. 20} 1. Palace of Ashur-bani-pal, king of all, king of the country of Assyria, 2. who trusteth in the god Ashur and the goddess Ninlil, 3. on whom the god Nebo (Nabû) and the goddess Tashmetu 4. have bestowed all-hearing ears 5. and who has eyes that are clearsighted. 6. The finest results of the art of writing 7. which, among the kings who have gone before, 8. no one ever acquired that craft, 9. the wisdom of Nebo [expressed in] rows (?) of writing, of every form, 10. on tablets I wrote, collated and revised, 11. [and] for examination and reading 12. in my palace I placed--[I] 13. the prince who knoweth the light of the king of the gods, Ashur.' 14. Whosoever shall carry [them] off, or his name side by side with mine 15. shall write, may Ashur and Ninlil, wrathfully, furiously 16. sweep away, and his name and his seed destroy in the land. 2. COLOPHON OF THE TABLETS OF THE LIBRARY OF NEBO. (Rm. 132.) 1. To Nebo, the mighty son, director of the whole of heaven and of earth, 2. holder of the tablet, bearer of the writing reed of the tablet of destinies, 3. lengthener of days, vivifier of the dead, stablisher of light for the men who are troubled, 4. the great lord, his lord; Ashur-bani-pal, the prince, the favourite of the gods Ashur, Bê1 and Nebo, 5. the shepherd, the maintainer of the holy places of the great gods, stablisher of their revenues, 6. son of Esarhaddon, king of all, king of Assyria, 7. grandson of Sennacherib, king of all, king of Assyria, [1. Or, probably better. "Thy lordship is beyond compare, O king the gods, Ashur."] {p. 21} 8. for the life of his soul, length of his days, [and] well-being of his posterity, 9. to make permanent the foundation of his royal throne, to hear his supplications, 10. to receive his petitions, to deliver into his hands the rebellious. 11. The wisdom of Ea, the chanter's art, the secrets of the sages, 12. what is composed for the contentment of the heart of the great gods, 13. I wrote upon tablets, I collated, I revised 14. according to originals of the lands of Ashur and Akkad, 15. and I placed in the Library of E-zida, the temple of Nebo my lord, which is in Nineveh. 16. O Nebo, lord of the whole of heaven and of earth, look upon that Library joyfully for years (i.e., for ever). 17. On Ashur-bani-pal, the chief, the worshipper of thy divinity, daily bestow grace, 18. his life decree, so that he may exalt thy great godhead. The tablets from both Libraries when unbroken vary in size from 15 inches by 85/8 inches to 1 inch by 7/8 inch, and they are usually about 1 inch thick. In shape they are rectangular, the obverse being flat and the reverse slightly convex. Contract tablets, letter tablets and "case" tablets are very much smaller, and resemble small pillows in shape. The principal subjects dealt with in the tablets are history, annalistic or summaries, letters, despatches, reports, oracles, prayers, contracts, deeds of sale of land, produce, cattle, slaves, agreements, dowries, bonds for interest (with impressions of seals, and fingernails, or nail marks), chronography, chronology, canons of eponyms, divination (by astrology, the entrails of victims, oil, casual events, dreams, and symptoms), charms, spells, incantations, mythology, legends, grammar, law, geography, etc.[1] [1. For a full description of the general contents of the two great Libraries of Nineveh. see Bezold, Catalogue of the Cuneiform Tablets of the Kouyûnjik Collection, Vol. V, London, 1899, p. xviii ff.; and King, Supplement, London, 1914, p. xviii ff.] {p. 24} GEORGE SMITH'S DISCOVERY OF THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH AND THE STORY OF THE DELUGE. The mass of tablets which had been discovered by Layard and Rassam at Nineveh came to the British Museum in 1854-5, and their examination by Rawlinson and Norris began very soon after. Mr. Bowler, a skilful draughtsman and copyist of tablets, whom Rawlinson employed in making transfers of copies of cuneiform texts for publication by lithography, rejoined a considerable number of fragments of bilingual lists, syllabaries, etc., which were published in the second volume of the Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, in 1866. In that year the Trustees of the British Museum employed George Smith to assist Rawlinson in sorting, classifying and rejoining fragments, and a comprehensive examination of the collection by him began. His personal interest in Assyriology was centred upon historical texts, especially those which threw any light on the Bible Narrative. But in the course of his search for stories of the campaigns of Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashur-bani-pal, he discovered among other important documents (1) a series of portions of tablets which give the adventures of Gilgamish, an ancient king of Erech; (2) an account of the Deluge, which is supplied by the Eleventh Tablet of the Legend of Gilgamish (in more than one version); (3) a detailed description of the Creation; (4) the Legend of the Descent of Ishtar into Hades in quest of Tammuz. The general meaning of the texts was quite clear, but there were many gaps in them, and it was not until December, 1872, that George Smith published his description of the Legend of Gilgamish, and a translation of the "Chaldean Account of the Deluge." The interest which his paper evoked was universal, and the proprietors of The Daily Telegraph advocated that Smith should be at once dispatched to Nineveh to search for the missing fragments of tablets which would fill up the gaps in his texts, and generously offered to contribute 1,000 guineas towards the cost of the excavations. The Trustees accepted the offer and gave six months' leave of absence to Smith, who left London in January, and arrived in Môsul in March, 1873. In the following May he recovered from Kuyûnjik a fragment that contained "the greater portion of seventeen {p. 25} lines of inscription belonging to the first column of the Chaldean account of the Deluge, and fitting into the only place where there was a serious blank in the story."[1] During the excavations which Smith carried out at Kuyûnjik in 1873 and 1874 he recovered many fragments of tablets, the texts of which enabled him to complete his description of the contents of the Twelve Tablets of the Legend of Gilgamish which included his translation of the story of the Deluge. Unfortunately Smith died of hunger and sickness near Aleppo in 1876, and he was unable to revise his early work, and to supplement it with the information which he had acquired during his latest travels in Assyria and Babylonia. Thanks to the excavations which were carried on at Kuyûnjik by the Trustees of the British Museum after his untimely death, several hundreds of tablets and fragments have been recovered, and many of these have been rejoined to the tablets of the older collection. By the careful study and investigation of the old and new material Assyriologists have, during the last forty years, been enabled to restore and complete many passages in the Legends of Gilgamish and the Flood. It now seems that the Legend of the Flood had not originally any connection with the Legend of Gilgamish, and that it was introduced into it by a late editor or redactor of the Legend, probably in order to complete the number of the Twelve Tablets on which it was written in the time of Ashur-bani-pal. THE LEGEND OF THE DELUGE IN BABYLONIA. In the introduction to his paper on the "Chaldean Account of the Deluge," which Smith read in December, 1872, and published in 1873, he stated that the Assyrian text which he had found on Ashur-bani-pal's tablets was copied from an archetype at Erech in Lower Babylonia. This archetype was, he thought, "either written in, or translated into Semitic Babylonian, to at a very early period," and although he could not assign a date to it, he adduced a number of convincing proofs in support of his opinion. The language in which he assumed the Legend to have been originally composed was known to [1. Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, London, 1875, p. 97.] {p. 26} him under the name of "Accadian," or "Akkadian," but is now called "Sumerian." Recent research has shown that his view on this point was correct on the whole. But there is satisfactory proof available to show that versions or recensions of the Legend of the Deluge and of the Epic of Gilgamish existed both in Sumerian and Babylonian, as early as B.C. 2000. The discovery has been made of a fragment of a tablet with a small portion of the Babylonian version of the Legend of the Deluge inscribed upon it, and dated in a year which is the equivalent of the 11th year of Ammisaduga, i.e., about B.C. 1800.[1] And in the Museum at Philadelphia[2] is preserved half of a tablet which when whole contained a complete copy of a Sumerian version of the Legend, and must have been written about the same date. The fragment of the tablet written in the reign of Ammisaduga is of special importance because the colophon shows that the tablet to which it belonged was the second of a series, and that this series was not that of the Epic of Gilgamish, and from this we learn that in B.C. 2000 the Legend of the Deluge did not form the XIth Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamish, as it did in the reign of Ashur-bani-pal, or earlier. The Sumerian version is equally important, though from another point of view, for the contents and position of the portion of it that remains on the half of the tablet mentioned above make it certain that already at this early period there were several versions of the Legend of the Deluge current in the Sumerian language. The fact is that the Legend of the Deluge was then already so old in Mesopotamia that the scribes added to or abbreviated the text at will, and treated the incidents recorded in it according to local or popular taste, tradition and prejudice. There seems to be no evidence that proves conclusively that the Sumerian version is older than the Semitic, or that the latter was translated direct from the former version. It is probable that both the Sumerians and the Semites, each in their own way, attempted to commemorate an appalling disaster of unparalleled magnitude, the knowledge of which, through tradition, was common to [1. Published by Scheil in Maspero's Recueil, Vol. XX, p. 5.5 ff., and again by Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform, Plates I, II. 2. The text is published by A. Poebel with transcription, commentary, etc., in Historical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914, and Historical and Grammatical Texts, Philadelphia, 1914.] {p. 27} both peoples. It is, at all events, well known that the Sumerians regarded the Deluge as an historic event, which they were, practically, able to date, for some of their records contain lists of kings who reigned before the Deluge, though it must be confessed that the lengths assigned to their reigns are incredible. After their rule it is expressly noted that the Flood occurred, and that, when it passed away, kingship came down again from on high. It is not too much to assume that the original event commemorated in the Legend of the Deluge was a serious and prolonged inundation or flood in Lower Babylonia, which was accompanied by great loss of life and destruction of property. The Babylonian versions state that this inundation or flood was caused by rain, but passages in some of them suggest that the effects of the rainstorm were intensified bv other physical happenings connected with the earth, of a most destructive character. The Hebrews also, as we may see from the Bible, had alternative views as to the cause of the Deluge. According to one, rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights (Gen. vii, 12), and according to the other the Deluge came because "all the fountains of the great deep" were broken up, and "the flood-gates of heaven were opened" (Gen. vii, ii). The latter view suggests that the rain flood was joined by the waters of the sea. Later tradition, derived partly from Babylonian and partly from Hebrew sources, asserts, e.g., in the Cave of Treasures, a Syriac treatise composed probably at Edessa about the fifth or sixth century A.D., that when Noah had entered the Ark and the door was shut "the floodgates of the heavens were opened it and the foundations of the earth were rent asunder," and that "the ocean, that great sea which surroundeth the whole world, poured forth its floods. And whilst the floodgates of heaven were open, and the foundations of the earth were rent asunder, the storehouses of the winds burst their bolts, and storms and whirlwinds swept forth, and ocean roared and hurled its floods upon the earth." The ark was steered over the waters by an angel who acted as pilot, and when that had come to rest on the mountains of Kardô (Ararat), "God commanded the waters and they became separated from each other. The celestial waters were taken up and ascended to their own place above the heavens whence they came. {p. 28} The waters which had risen up from the earth returned to the lowermost abyss, and those which belonged to the ocean returned to the innermost part thereof."[1] Many authorities seeking to find a foundation of fact for the Legend of the Deluge in Mesopotamia have assumed that the rain-flood was accompanied either by an earthquake or a tidal-wave, or by both. There is no doubt that the cities of Lower Babylonia were nearer the sea in the Sumerian Period than they are at present, and it is a generally accepted view that the head of the Persian Gulf lay farther to the north at that time. A cyclone coupled with a tidal wave is a sufficient base for any of the forms of the Legend now known. A comparison of the contents of the various Sumerian and Babylonian versions of the Deluge that have come down to us shows us that they are incomplete. And as none of them tells so connected and full a narrative of the prehistoric shipbuilder as Berosus, a priest of Bêl, the great god of Babylon, it seems that the Mesopotamian scribes were content to copy the Legend in an abbreviated form. Berosus, it is true, is not a very ancient authority, for he was not born until the reign of Alexander the Great, but he was a learned man and was well acquainted with the Babylonian language, and with the ancient literature of his country, and he wrote a history of Babylonia, some fragments of which have been preserved to us in the works of Alexander Polyhistor, Eusebius, and others. The following is a version of the fragment which describes the flood that took place in the days of Xisuthras,[2] the tenth King of the Chaldeans, and is of importance for comparison with the rendering of the Legend of the Deluge, as found on the Ninevite tablets, which follows immediately after. THE LEGEND OF THE DELUGE ACCORDING TO BEROSUS. "After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great Deluge; the history of which is thus described. The Deity, Cronus, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the [1. Budge, The Book of the Cave of Treasures, pp. i 12 ff. 2. This is a Greek form of Zisudra, the name of the last king before the Flood, according to the Sumerian tradition.] {p. 29} 15th day of the month Daesius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity, whither he was to sail? he was answered, 'To the Gods ': upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition; and built a vessel 5 stadia in length, and 2 in breadth. Into this he put everything which he had prepared; and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends. After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which, not finding any food nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth, and, having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared. They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that be was translated to live with the gods; that his wife and daughter, and the pilot, had obtained the same honour. To this he added that they should return to Babylonia; and, it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they {p. 30} were to make known to mankind: moreover that the place, wherein they then were, was the land of Armenia. The rest having beard these words, offered sacrifices to the gods; and taking a circuit journeyed towards Babylonia." (Cory, Ancient Fragments, London, 1832, p. 26 ff.) THE BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE DELUGE AS TOLD TO THE HERO GILGAMISH BY HIS ANCESTOR UTA-NAPISHTIM, WHO HAD BEEN MADE IMMORTAL BY THE GODS. The form of the Legend of the Deluge given below is that which is found on the Eleventh of the Series of Twelve Tablets in the Royal Library at Nineveh, which described the life and exploits of Gilgamish, an early king of the city of Erech. As we have seen above, the Legend of the Deluge has probably no original connection with the Epic of Gilgamish, but was introduced into it by the editors of the Epic at a comparatively late period, perhaps even during the reign of Ashur-bani-pal (B.C. 669-626). A summary of the contents of the other Tablets of the Gilgamish Series is given in the following section of this short monograph. It is therefore only necessary to state here that Gilgamish, who was horrified and almost beside himself when his bosom friend and companion Enkidu died, meditated deeply how he could escape death himself. He knew that his ancestor Uta-Napishtim a had become immortal, therefore he determined to set out for the place where Uta-Napishtim lived so that he might obtain from him the secret of immortality. Guided by a dream, Gilgamish set out for the Mountain of the Sunset, and, after great toil and many difficulties, came to the shore of a vast sea. Here he met Ur-Shanabi, the boatman of Uta-Napishtim, who was persuaded to carry him in his boat over the "waters of death", and at length he landed on the shore of the country of Uta-Napishtim. The immortal came down to the shore and asked the newcomer the object of his visit, and Gilgamish told him of the death of his great friend Enkidu, and of his desire to escape from death and to find immortality. Uta-Napishtim having made to {p. 31} Gilgamish some remarks which seem to indicate that in his opinion death was inevitable, 1. Gilgamish[1] said unto him, to Uta-Napishtim the remote: 2. "I am looking at thee, Uta-Napishtim. 3. Thy person is not altered; even as am I so art thou. 4. Verily, nothing about thee is changed; even as am I so art thou. 5. A heart to do battle doth make thee complete, 6. Yet at rest (?) thou dost lie upon thy back. 7. How then hast thou stood the company of the gods and sought life?" Thereupon Uta-Napishtim related to Gilgamish the Story of the Deluge, and the Eleventh Tablet continues thus 8. Uta-Napishtim said unto him, to Gilgamish: 9. "I will reveal unto thee, O Gilgamish, a hidden mystery, 10. And a secret matter of the gods I will declare unto thee. 11. Shurippak,[2] a city which thou thyself knowest, 12. On [the bank] of the river Puratti (Euphrates) is situated, 13. That city is old; and the gods [dwelling] within it 14. Their hearts induced the great gods to make a windstorm (a-bu-bi),[3] 15. There was their father Anu, 16. Their counsellor, the warrior Enlil, 17. Their messenger En-urta [and] 18. Their prince Ennugi. 19. Nin-igi-ku, Ea, was with them [in council] and 20. reported their word to a house of reeds." [1. A transcript of the cuneiform text by George Smith, who was the first to translate it, will be found in Rawlinson, Cuneiform inscriptions of Western Asia, Vol. IV, Plates 50 and 51: and a transcript, with transliteration and translation by the late Prof. L. W. King, is given in his First Steps in Assyrian, London, 1898, p. x61 ff. The latest translation of the whole poem is by R. C. Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamish, whose arrangement of the text is adopted in the following pages. 2. The site of this very ancient city is marked by the mounds of Fârah, near the Shatt al-Kâr, which is probably the old bed of the river Euphrates; many antiquities belonging to the earliest period of the rule of the Sumerians have been found there. 3. Like the habûb of modern times, a sort of cyclone.] {p. 33} [FIRST SPEECH OF EA TO UTA-NAPISHTIM WHO IS SLEEPING IN A REED HUT.] 21. O House of reeds, O House of reeds! O Wall. O Wall! 22. O House of reeds, hear! O Wall, understand! 23. O man of Shurippak, son of Ubar-Tutu, 24. Throw down the house, build a ship, 25. Forsake wealth, seek after life, 26. Hate possessions, save thy life, 27. Bring all seed of life into the ship. 28. The ship which thou shalt build, 29. The dimensions thereof shall be measured, 30. The breadth and the length thereof shall be the same. 31. Then launch it upon the ocean. [UTA-NAPISHTIM'S ANSWER TO EA.] 32. I understood and I said unto Ea, my lord: 33. See, my lord, that which thou hast ordered, 34. I regard with reverence, and will perform it, 35. But what shall I say to the town, to the multitude, and to the elders? [SECOND SPEECH OF EA.] 36. Ea opened his mouth and spake 37. And said unto his servant, myself, 38. Thus, man, shalt thou say unto them: 39. Ill-will hath the god Enlil formed against me, 40. Therefore I can no longer dwell. in your city, 41. And never more will I turn my countenance upon-the soil of Enlil. 42. I will descend into the ocean to dwell with my lord Ea. 43. But upon you he will rain riches 44. A catch of birds, a catch of fish 45. . . . an [abundant] harvest, 46. . . . the sender of . . . 47. . . . shall make hail [to fall upon you]. {p. 34} [THE BUILDING OF THE SHIP.] 48. As soon as [something of dawn] broke . . . [Lines 49-54 broken away.] 55. The child . . . brought bitumen, 56. The strong [man] . . . brought what was needed. 57. On the fifth day I laid down its shape. 58. According to the plan its walls were 10 gar, (i.e. 120 cubits) high, 59. And the width of its deck (?) was equally 10 gar. 60. I laid down the shape of its forepart and marked it out (?). 61. I covered (?) it six times. 62. . . . I divided into seven, 63. Its interior I divided into nine, 64. Caulking I drove into the middle of it. 65. I provided a steering pole, and cast in all that was needful. 66. Six sar of bitumen I poured over the hull (?), 67. Three sar of pitch I poured into the inside. 68. The men who bear loads brought three sar of oil, 69. Besides a sar of oil which the tackling (?) consumed, 70. And two sar of oil which the boatman hid. 71. I slaughtered oxen for the [work]people, 72. I slew sheep every day. 73. Beer, sesame wine, oil and wine 74. I made the people drink as if they were water from the river. 75. I celebrated a feast as if it had been New Year's Day. 76. I opened [a box of ointment], I laid my hands in unguent. 77. Before the sunset (?) the ship was finished. 78. [Since] . . . was difficult. 79. The shipbuilders brought the . . . of the ship, above and below, 80. . . . two-thirds of it. [THE LOADING OF THE SHIP.] 81. With everything that I possessed I loaded it (i.e., the ship). 82. With everything that I possessed of silver I loaded it. {p. 35} 83. With everything that I possessed of gold I loaded it. 84. With all that I possessed of all the seed of life I loaded it. 85. I made to go up into the ship all my family and kinsfolk, 86. The cattle of the field, the beasts of the field, all handicraftsmen I made them go up into it. 87. The god Shamash had appointed me a time (saying) 88. The sender of . . . . . will at eventide make a hail to fall; 89. Then enter into the ship and shut thy door. 90. The appointed time drew nigh; 91. The sender of . . . . . made a hail to fall at eventide. 92. I watched the aspect of the [approaching] storm, 93. Terror possessed me to look upon it, 94. I went into the ship and shut my door. 95. To the pilot of the ship, Puzur-Enlil the sailor 96. I committed the great house (i.e., ship), together with the contents thereof. [THE ABUBU (CYCLONE) AND ITS EFFECTS DESCRIBED.] 97. As soon as something of dawn shone in the sky 98. A black cloud from the foundation of heaven came up. 99. Inside it the god Adad thundered, 100. The gods Nabû and Sharru (i.e., Marduk) went before, 101. Marching as messengers over high land and plain, 102. Irragal (Nergal) tore out the post of the ship, 103. En-urta went on, he made the storm to descend. 104. The Anunnaki[1] brandished their torches, 105. With their glare they lighted up the land. 106. The whirlwind (or, cyclone) of Adad swept up to heaven. 107. Every gleam of light was turned into darkness. 108. . . . . . the land . . . . . as if had laid it waste. 109. A whole day long [the flood descended] . . . [1. The star-gods of the southern sky.] {p. 36} 110. Swiftly it mounted up . . . . . [the water] reached to the mountains 111. [The water] attacked the people like a battle. 112. Brother saw not brother. 113. Men could not be known (or, recognized) in heaven. 114. The gods were terrified at the cyclone. 115. They shrank back and went up into the heaven of Anu. 116. The gods crouched like a dog and cowered by the wall. 117. The goddess Ishtar cried out like a woman in travail. 118. The Lady of the Gods lamented with a sweet voice [saying]: [ISHTAR'S LAMENT.] 119. May that former day be turned into mud, 120. Because I commanded evil among the company of the gods. 121. How could I command evil among the company of the gods, 122. Command battle for the destruction of my people? 123. Did I of myself bring forth my people 124. That they might fill the sea like little fishes? [UTA-NAPISHTIM'S STORY CONTINUED.] 125. The gods, the Anunnaki wailed with her. 126. The gods bowed themselves, and sat down weeping. 127. Their lips were shut tight (in distress) . . . 128. For six days and nights 129. The wind, the storm raged, and the cyclone overwhelmed the land. [THE ABATING OF THE STORM.] 130. When the seventh day came the cyclone ceased, the storm and battle 131. which had fought like an army. 132. The sea became quiet, the grievous wind went down, the cyclone ceased. 133. I looked on the day and voices were stilled, {p. 37} 134. And all mankind were turned into mud, 135. The land had been laid flat like a terrace. 136. I opened the air-hole and the light fell upon my cheek, 137. I bowed myself, I sat down, I cried, 138. My tears poured down over my cheeks. 139. I looked over the quarters of the world, (to] the limits of ocean. 140. At twelve points islands appeared. 141. The ship grounded on the mountain of Nisir. 142. The mountain of Nisir held the ship, it let it not move. 143. The first day, the second day, the mountain of Nisir held the ship and let it not move. 144. The third day, the fourth day, the mountain of Nisir held the ship and let it not move. 145. The fifth day, the sixth day, the mountain of Nisir held the ship and let it not move. 146. When the seventh day had come 147. I brought out a dove and let her go free. 148. The dove flew away and [then] came back; 149. Because she had no place to alight on she came back. 150. I brought out a swallow and let her go free. 151. The swallow flew away and [then] came back; 152. Because she had no place to alight on she came back. 153. 1 brought out a raven and let her go free. 154. The raven flew away, she saw the sinking waters. 155. She ate, she waded (?), she rose (?), she came not back. [UTA-NAPISHTIM LEAVES THE SHIP.] 156. Then I brought out [everything] to the four winds and made a sacrifice; 157. I set out an offering on the peak of the mountain. 158. Seven by seven I set out the vessels, 159. Under them I piled reeds, cedarwood and myrtle (?). 160. The gods smelt the savour, 161. The gods smelt the sweet savour. 162. The gods gathered together like flies over him that sacrificed. {p. 39} [SPEECH OF ISHTAR, LADY OF THE GODS.] 163 Now when the Lady of the Gods came nigh, 164. She lifted up the priceless jewels which Anu had made according to her desire, [saying] 165. O ye gods here present, as I shall never forget the sapphire jewels of my neck 166. So shall I ever think about these days, and shall forget them nevermore! 167. Let the gods come to the offering, 168. But let not Enlil come to the offering, 16q. Because he took not thought and made the cyclone, 170. And delivered my people over to destruction." [THE ANGER OF ENLIL.] 171. Now when Enlil came nigh 172. He saw the ship; then was Enlil wroth 173. And he was filled with anger against the gods, the Igigi [saying]:[1] 174. Hath any being escaped with his life? 175. He shall not remain alive, a man among the destruction [SPEECH OF EN-URTA.] 176. Then En-urta opened his mouth and spake 177. And said unto the warrior Enlil: 178. Who besides the god Ea can make a plan? 179. The god Ea knoweth everything that is done. 18o. The god Ea opened his mouth and spake 181. And said unto the warrior Enlil, 182. O Prince among the gods, thou warrior, 183. How, how couldst thou, not taking thought, make a cyclone? 184. He who is sinful, on him lay his sin, 185. He who transgresseth, on him lay his transgression. 186. But be merciful that [everything] be not destroyed be long-suffering that [man be not blotted out]. [1. The star-gods of the northern heaven.] {p. 40} 187. Instead of thy making a cyclone, 188. Would that the lion had come and diminished mankind. 189. Instead of thy making a cyclone 190. Would that the wolf had come and diminished mankind. 191. Instead of thy making a cyclone 192. Would that a famine had arisen and [laid waste] the land. 193. Instead of thy making a cyclone 194. Would that Irra (the Plague god) had risen up and [laid waste] the land. 195. As for me I have not revealed the secret of the great gods. 196. I made Atra-hasis to see a vision, and thus he heard the secret of the gods. 197. Now therefore take counsel concerning him. [ENLIL DEIFIES UTA-NAPISHTIM AND HIS WIFE.] 198. Then the god Enlil went up into the ship, 199. He seized me by the hand and brought me forth. 200. He brought forth my wife and made her to kneel by my side. 201. He touched our brows, he stood between us, he blessed us [saving], 202. Formerly Uta-Napishtim was a man merely, 203. But now let Uta-Napishtim and his wife be like unto us gods. 204. Uta-Napishtim shall dwell afar off, at the mouth of the rivers. [UTA-NAPISHTIM ENDS HIS STORY OF THE DELUGE.] 205. And they took me away to a place afar off, and made me to dwell at the mouth of the rivers. The contents of the remainder of the text on the Eleventh Tablet of the Gilgamish Series are described on p. 54. {p. 41} THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH.[1] The narrative of the life, exploits and travels of Gilgamish, king of Erech, filled Twelve Tablets which formed the Series called from the first three words of the First Tablet, SHA NAGBU IMURU, i.e., "He who hath seen all things." The exact period of the reign of this king is unknown, but in the list of the Sumerian kingdoms he is fifth ruler in the Dynasty of Erech, which was considered the second dynasty to reign after the Deluge. He was said to have ruled for 126 years. The principal authorities for the Epic are the numerous fragments of the tablets that were found in the ruins of the Library of Nebo and the Royal Library of Ashur-bani-pal at Nineveh, and are now in the British Museum,[2] but very valuable portions of other and older versions (including some fragments of a Hittite translation) have now been recovered from various sources, and these contribute greatly to the reconstruction of the story. The contents of the Twelve Tablets may be briefly described thus-- THE FIRST TABLET. The opening lines describe the great knowledge and wisdom of Gilgamish, who saw everything, learned everything, under stood everything, who probed to the bottom the hidden mysteries of wisdom, and who knew the history of everything that happened before the Deluge. He travelled far over sea and land, and performed mighty deeds, and then he cut upon a tablet of stone an account of all that he had done and suffered. He built the wall of Erech, founded the holy temple of E-Anna, and carried out other great architectural works. He was a semi-divine being, for his body was formed of the "flesh of the gods," and "two-thirds of him were god, and one-third was man," The description of his person is lost. As Shepherd (i.e., King) of Erech he forced [1. The name of Gilgamish was formerly read "Izdubar," "Gizdubar," or "Gishdubar." He is probably referred to as {Greek Gílgamos} in Aelian, De Natura Animalium, XII, 23: (ed. Didot, Paris, 1858, p. 210). 2. The greater number of these have been collected, grouped and published by Haupt, Das Babylonische Nimrodepos, Leipzig, 1884 and 1891; and see his work on the Twelfth Tablet in Beiträge zur Assyriologie, Vol. I, p. 49 ff.] {p. 42} the people to toil overmuch, and his demands reduced them to such a state of misery that they cried out to the gods and begged them to create some king who should control Gilgamish and give them deliverance from him. The gods hearkened to the prayer of the men of Erech, and they commanded the goddess Aruru to create a rival to Gilgamish. The goddess agreed to do their bidding, and having planned in her mind what manner of being she intended to make, she washed her hands, took a piece of clay, cast it on the ground, and made a male creature like the god En-urta. His body was covered all over with hair. The hair of his head was long like that of a woman, and he wore clothing like that of Sumuqan, the god of cattle. He was different in every way from the people of the country, and his name was Enkidu. He lived in the forests on the hills, ate herbs like the gazelle, drank with the wild cattle, and herded with the beasts of the field. He was mighty in stature, invincible in strength, and obtained complete mastery over all the creatures of the forests in which he lived. One day a certain hunter went out to snare game, and he dug pit-traps and laid nets, and made his usual preparations for roping in his prey. But after doing this for three days he found that his pits were filled up and his nets smashed, and he saw Enkidu releasing the beasts that had been snared. The hunter was terrified at the sight of Enkidu, and went home hastily and told his father what he had seen and how badly he had fared. By his father's advice he went to Erech, and reported to Gilgamish what had happened. When Gilgamish heard his story he advised him to act upon a suggestion which the hunter's father had already made, namely that he should hire a harlot and take her out to the forest, so that Enkidu might be ensnared by the sight of her beauty, and take up his abode with her. The hunter accepted this advice, and having found a harlot to help him in removing Enkidu from the forests, he set out from Erech with her and in due course arrived at the forest where Enkidu lived, and sat down by the place where the beasts came to drink. On the second day when the beasts came to drink and Enkidu was with them, the woman carried out the instructions which the hunter had given her, and when Enkidu saw her cast aside her veil, he left his beasts and came to her, and {p. 43} remained with her for six days and seven nights. At the end of this period he returned to the beasts with which he had lived on friendly terms, but as soon as the gazelle winded him they took to flight, and the wild cattle disappeared into the woods. When Enkidu saw the beasts forsake him his knees gave way, and he could not run as of old; but when he came to himself he returned to the harlot. She spoke to him flattering words, and asked him why he wandered with the wild beasts in the desert, and then told him she wished to take him back with her to Erech, where Anu and Ishtar lived, and where the mighty Gilgamish reigned. Enkidu hearkened and the harlot then told him of the glories of Erech and of Gilgamish, who, she said, had been forewarned of Enkidu's coming by two dreams, which he had related to his divine mother, Nin-sun. These she had interpreted as foreshowing the approach of a strong and faithful friend. THE SECOND TABLET. Having related these dreams of Gilgamish, the harlot again urged Enkidu to go with her to Erech, and they set out together. On the way she brought him to a shepherds' village, where she instructed him how to eat the bread and beer which was set before him; for until then he had only sucked the milk of cattle. By virtue of eating and drinking this human fare Enkidu became a man instead of a beast, and, taking weapons, he hunted the lions and wolves which preyed upon the shepherds' flocks. A messenger from Gilgamish now appeared with a summons to the city. He announced that the king offered entertainment, but that he would expect the customary present from a stranger, and would exercise his privilege over the woman who accompanied him. The entrance of Enkidu into the city caused a general excitement, all being amazed at his surpassing strength and his conversion from savagery. The first meeting of Gilgamish and Enkidu took place when the king came in the night to claim his right to the strange woman. Enkidu violently resisted him, and the two heroes in the doorway "grappled and snorted (?) like bulls; they shattered the threshold, the wall quivered" in their strife. Gilgamish was finally worsted, but the result of this combat was that the two became fast friends and allies. {p. 44} THE THIRD TABLET. Owing to mutilation of the text this section begins obscurely, but it seems that the harlot had deserted Enkidu, for he laments his association with her. Gilgamish then opened to him his design to go on an expedition to the Cedar Forest and fight with a fearful ogre named Khumbaba, who had been appointed by the gods as warden of the forest. Enkidu sought to dissuade his friend from this rash project, saying that he himself, when he lived with the beasts, used to penetrate into the skirts of the forest, where he had learned to dread the roaring breath and flames emitted by Khumbaba. To this Gilgamish seems to have replied that he must go to the Cedar Forest to fetch the wood he needed, and when Enkidu still objected, he concluded with the reflection that death was inevitable to mortals, and that he would therefore meet it in a glorious enterprise which should win fame for him among his children for ever. The craftsmen were then ordered to cast weapons for the pair, and this they did, making gigantic axes and gold-ornamented swords, so that each of the warriors was equipped with an armament weighing in all ten talents. Attracted by these preparations, the people of Erech gathered at the gate, and Gilgamish announced his project to the elders of the city, who in turn sought to dissuade him, but in vain. Gilgamish commended his life to the Sun-god, and the two put on their armour. The last words of the elders were a warning to the king against rash presumption in his own strength. Setting out on their journey, the two warriors first visited the temple of Nin-sun, the divine mother of Gilgamish, who, at the earnest prayer of her son, besought the Sun-god to prosper him on his journey and in the fight against the ogre, and to bring him safely back to Erech. The latter part of this Tablet is missing. THE FOURTH TABLET. So much of this Tablet is missing that only a very general notion can be obtained of its contents. The two heroes had by now reached the Gate of the Forest wherein Khumbaba dwelt. Enkidu was amazed at the gigantic size and beauty of this gate, fashioned out of the timbers of the forest. When the text begins again, the two are found encouraging each other to {p. 45} their enterprise, and Gilgamish burst through the gate. Soon afterwards Enkidu was overcome either by sickness or by dread of the combat, and lay inert for twelve days, apparently as the result of evil dreams which had visited him. In his weakness he strove again to turn back from their desperate adventure, but again Gilgamish overcame his fear with encouragements. THE FIFTH TABLET. The two warriors were now in the forest, and this Tablet begins with a description of its wonders. They saw a straight road running between its tall cedars, along which Khumbaba trod; they saw also the mountain of the cedars, the dwelling of the gods, and the pleasant shade and perfume which the trees spread around. After this they seem to have fallen asleep, for Gilgamish is next found relating to Enkidu a dream which he had had: the two were standing together on the top of a mountain, when the peak fell away, leaving them unharmed. Enkidu interprets this as a forecast that they were to over-throw the gigantic Khumbaba. At the sixtieth league they stayed to rest, and Gilgamish besought the mountain to send him another dream. Falling asleep at once, he woke in terror at midnight and began to tell how he dreamed that the earth was darkened, amid loud roarings and flames of fire, which gradually died away. (This seems to be a description of a volcanic eruption, and some have thought that Khumbaba was the personification of a volcano known to the ancient Sumerians.) This dream too was interpreted by Enkidu, no doubt favourably, but nothing more remains of this Tablet before the end, when Khumbaba has been fought and defeated, and his head cut off. A fragment of another version shews that he was defeated by the help of the Sun-god, who sent eight evil winds against him on every side so that he could not move. Thus entrapped, he surrendered to Gilgamish and offered submission in return for his life. This Gilgamish was disposed to grant, but Enkidu warned him of the danger of letting the giant live. THE SIXTH TABLET. The scene now returns to Erech, whither the heroes returned after their glorious exploit. As Gilgamish was washing himself {p. 46} and dressing himself in splendid attire the goddess Ishtar saw his comeliness and desired him to be her lover, saying, Go to, Gilgamish, do thou be (my) bridegroom, Give me freely the fruit (of thy body). Be thou my husband, I will be thy wife, (So) will I make them yoke for thee a chariot of lapis-lazuli and gold, Its wheels of gold, and its horns of electrum. Every day shalt thou harness great mules thereto. Enter (then) our house with the perfume of cedar. When thou enterest our house Threshold and dais shall kiss thy feet, Beneath thee shall kings, lords and princes do homage, Bringing thee as tribute the yield of the mountains and plains, Thy she-goats shall bring forth abundantly, thy ewes bear twins, Thine asses shall be (each) as great as a mule, Thy horses in the chariot shall be famous for their swiftness, Thy mules in the yoke shall not have a peer. In answer to this invitation, Gilgamish made a long speech, in which he reviewed the calamities of those who had been unfortunate enough to attract the love of the goddess. To be her husband would be a burdensome privilege, and her love was deceptive, a ruin that gave no shelter, a door that let in the storm, a crazy building, a pitfall, defiling pitch, a leaky vessel, a crumbling stone, a worthless charm, an ill-fitting shoe. "Who was ever thy lord that had advantage thereby? Come, I will unfold the tale of thy lovers." He refers to Tammuz, the lover of her youth, for whom year by year she causes wailing. Every creature that fell under her sway suffered mutilation or death; the bird's wings were broken, the lion destroyed, the horse driven to death with whip and spur. Her human lovers fared no better, for a shepherd, once her favourite, was turned by her into a jackal and torn by his own dogs, and Ishullanu, her father's gardener, was turned into a spider (?) because he refused her advances. "So, too," said Gilgamish, "would'st thou love me, and (then) make me like unto them." {p. 47} When Ishtar heard these words she was filled with rage, and went up to heaven, and complained to Anu her father and Antu her mother that Gilgamish had blasphemed her, and revealed all her iniquitous deeds. Anu replied, in effect, that it was her own fault, but she insisted in the request that he should create a heavenly bull to destroy Gilgamish. This he finally agreed to do, and the bull appeared before the citizens of Erech, and destroyed one, two and three hundred men who were sent out against him. At length Enkidu and Gilgamish attacked the bull themselves, and after a hard fight: the details of which are lost, they slew him, and offered his heart together with a libation to {p. 48} the Sun-god. As soon as Ishtar heard of the bull's death she rushed out on the battlements of the wall of Erech and cursed Gilgamish for destroying her bull. When Enkidu heard what Ishtar said, he tore out the member of the bull and threw it before the goddess, saying, "Could I but get it at thee, I would serve thee like him; I would hang his it entrails about thee." Then Ishtar gathered together all her temple-women and harlots, and with them made lamentation over the member of the bull. And Gilgamish called together the artisans of Erech, who came and marvelled at the size of the bull's horns, for each of them was in bulk equal to 30 minas of lapis-lazuli, their thickness two finger-breadths, and together they contained six kur measures of oil. These Gilgamish dedicated in the temple of his god Lugalbanda, to hold the god's unguent, and, having made his offering, he and Enkidu washed their hands in the Euphrates, took their way back to the city, and rode through the streets of Erech, the people thronging round to admire them. Gilgamish put forth a question to the people, saying Who is splendid among men? Who is glorious among heroes? And the answer was: [Gilgamish] is splendid among men, [Enkidu] is glorious among heroes. Gilgamish made a great feast in his palace, and after it all lay down to sleep. Enkidu also slept and had a vision, so he rose up and related it to Gilgamish. THE SEVENTH TABLET. From fragments of a version of the Gilgamish Epic translated into the Hittite language, which have more recently been discovered, it is possible to gain some notion of the contents of this Tablet, the earlier part of which is almost entirely missing from the Assyrian version. It appears that Enkidu beheld in his dream the gods Enlil, Ea, and the Sun-god taking counsel together. Enlil was greatly incensed at the exploits of Gilgamish and Enkidu, and had resolved that Enkidu must die, though Gilgamish might be spared. This was finally decreed, {p. 49} in spite of the attempted opposition of the Sun-god. In consequence Enkidu soon afterwards fell sick, though nothing is preserved concerning the circumstances of this. But he seems to have attributed his misfortune for some reason to the harlot who had first brought him to Erech, for he is found heaping curses upon her. While he thus spoke the Sun-god heard him, and, calling from heaven, rebuked him for ingratitude to the woman, who had taught him all the ways of civilized life and had been the means of introducing him to Gilgamish, by whom he had been raised to great place and would be given signal honours at his death. Admonished thus, Enkidu repented of his anger and now bestowed as many blessings on the harlot as he had before uttered curses. He then lay down again, with sickness heavy upon him, and dreamed a dream which he told to Gilgamish. He saw a monster with lion's claws which attacked and overcame him, and led him away to the Underworld, where he saw the miserable plight of the dead inhabitants, and ancient kings now acting as servants, and priests and sages who served before Ereshkigal, the queen of Hades. How the dream ended, and how Enkidu died, is unknown, for the text breaks off here. THE EIGHTH TABLET. This Tablet was entirely occupied by a description of the mourning of Gilgamish over his dead companion. He lamented to himself, and lamented to the elders of the city, recalling how they had together overthrown Khumbaba, and slain the heavenly bull, and shared in many another exploit. Repeating the words of the Sun-god in the preceding Tablet, he promised that he would cause all his subjects to join with himself in the lament for Enkidu. The funeral honours seem to have been described in the latter part of the Tablet, which is missing. THE NINTH TABLET. In bitter grief Gilgamish wandered about the country uttering lamentations for his beloved companion, Enkidu. As he went about he thought to himself, "I myself shall die, and shall not I then be as Enkidu? Sorrow hath entered into my soul, Because I fear death do I wander over the country." {p. 50} His fervent desire was to escape from death, and remembering that his ancestor Uta-Napishtim, the son of Ubara-Tutu, had become deified and immortal, Gilgamish determined to set out for the place where he lived in order to obtain from him the secret of immortality. Where Uta-Napishtim lived was unknown to Gilgamish, but he seems to have made up his mind that he would have to face danger in reaching the place, for he says, "I will set out and travel quickly. I shall reach the defiles in the mountains by night, and if I see lions, and am terrified at them, I shall lift up my head and appeal to the Moon-god, and to (Ishtar, the Lady of the Gods), who is wont to hearken to my prayers." After Gilgamish set out to go to the west he was attacked either by men or animals, but he overcame them and went on until he arrived at Mount Mashu, where it would seem the sun was thought both to rise and to set. The approach to this mountain was guarded by Scorpion-men, whose aspect was so terrible that the mere sight of it was sufficient to kill the mortal who beheld them; even the mountains collapsed under the glance of their eyes. When Gilgamish saw the Scorpion-men he was smitten with fear, and under the influence of his terror the colour of his face changed, and he fell prostrate before them. Then a Scorpion-man cried out to his wife, saying, "The body of him that cometh to us is the flesh of the gods," and she replied, "Two-thirds of him is god, and the other third is man." The Scorpion-man then received Gilgamish kindly, and warned him that the way which he was about to travel was full of danger and difficulty. Gilgamish told him that he was in search of his ancestor, Uta-Napishtim, who had been deified and made immortal by the gods, and that it was his intention to go to him to learn the secret of immortality. The Scorpion-man in answer told him that it was impossible for him to continue his journey through that country, for no man had ever succeeded in passing through the dark region of that mountain, which required twelve double-hours to traverse. Nothing dismayed, Gilgamish set out on the road through the mountains, and the darkness increased in density every hour, but he struggled on, and at the end of the twelfth hour he arrived at a region where there was bright daylight, and he entered a lovely garden, filled with trees loaded with luscious fruits, and {p. 51} he saw the "tree of the gods." Here the Sun-god called to him that his quest must be in vain, but Gilgamish replied that he would do anything to escape death. THE TENTH TABLET. In the region to which Gilgamish had come stood the palace or fortress of the goddess Siduri, who was called the "hostess," or "ale-wife," and to this he directed his steps with the view of obtaining help to continue his journey. The goddess wore a veil and sat upon a throne by the side of the sea, and when she saw him coming towards her palace, travel-stained and clad in the ragged skin of some animal, she thought that he might prove an undesirable visitor, and so ordered the door of her palace to be closed against him. But Gilgamish managed to obtain speech with her, and having asked her what ailed her, and why she had closed her door, he threatened to smash the bolt and break down the door. In answer Siduri said to him:-- "Why is thy vigour wasted? Thy face is bowed down, Thine heart is sad, thy form is dejected, And there is lamentation in thy heart." And she went on to tell him that he had the appearance of one who had travelled far, that he was a painful sight to look upon, that his face was burnt, and finally seems to have suggested that he was a runaway trying to escape from the country. To this Gilgamish replied:-- Nay, my vigour is not wasted, my face not bowed down, My heart not sad, my form not dejected." And then he told the goddess that his ill-looks and miserable appearance were due to the fact that death had carried off his dear friend Enkidu, the "panther of the desert," who had traversed the mountains with him and had helped him to overcome Khumbaba in the cedar forest, and to slay the bull of heaven, Enkidu his dear friend who had fought with lions and killed them, and who had been with him in all his difficulties; and, he added, "I wept over him for six days {p. 52} and nights . . . . before I would let him be buried." Continuing his narrative, Gilgamish said to Siduri: "I was horribly afraid . . . I was afraid of death, and therefore I wander over the country. The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me, Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country. The fate of my friend lieth heavily upon me, Therefore am I travelling on a long journey through the country. How is it possible for me to keep silence? How is it possible for me to cry out? My friend whom I loved hath become like the dust. Enkidu, my friend whom I loved hath become like the dust. Shall not I myself also be obliged to lay me down And never again rise up to all eternity?" To this complaint the ale-wife replied that the quest of eternal life was vain, since death was decreed to mankind by the gods at the time of creation. She advised him, therefore, to enjoy all mortal pleasures while life lasted and to abandon his hopeless journey. But Gilgamish still persisted, and asked how he might reach Uta-Napishtim, for thither he was determined to go, whether across the ocean or by land. Then the ale-wife answered and said to Gilgamish: "There never was a passage, O Gilgamish, And no one, who from the earliest times came hither, hath crossed the sea. The hero Shamash (the Sun-god) hath indeed crossed the sea, but who besides him could do so? The passage is hard, and the way is difficult, And the Waters of Death which bar its front are deep. If, then, Gilgamish, thou art able to cross the sea, When thou arrivest at the Waters of Death what wilt thou do?" {p. 53} Siduri then told Gilgamish that Ur-Shanabi, the boatman of Uta-Napishtim, was in the place, and that he should see him, and added: "If it be possible cross with him, and if it be impossible turn back." Gilgamish left the goddess and succeeded in finding Ur-Shanabi, the boatman, who addressed to him words similar to those of Siduri quoted above. Gilgamish answered him as he had answered Siduri, and then asked him for news about the road to Uta-Napishtim. In reply Ur-Shanabi told him to take his axe and to go down into the forest and cut a number of poles 60 cubits long; Gilgamish did so, and when he returned with them he went up into the boat with Ur-Shanabi, and they made a voyage of one month and fifteen days; on the third day they reached the [limit of the] Waters of Death, which Ur-Shanabi told Gilgamish not to touch with his hand. Meanwhile, Uta-Napishtim had seen the boat coming and, as something in its appearance seemed strange to him, he went down to the shore to see who the newcomers were. When he saw Gilgamish he asked him the same questions that Siduri and Ur-Shanabi had asked him, and Gilgamish answered as he had answered them, and then went on to tell him the reason for his coming. He said that he had determined to go to visit Uta-Napishtim, the remote, and had -therefore journeyed far, and that in the course of his travels he had passed over difficult mountains and crossed the sea. He had not succeeded in entering the house of Siduri, for she had caused him to be driven from her door on account of his dirty, ragged, and travel-stained apparel. He had eaten birds and beasts of many kinds, the lion, the panther, the jackal, the antelope, mountain goat, etc., and, apparently, had dressed himself in their skins. A break in the text makes it impossible to give the opening lines of Uta-Napishtim's reply, but he mentions the father and mother of Gilgamish, and in the last twenty lines of the Tenth Tablet he warns Gilgamish that on earth there is nothing permanent, that Mammitum, the arranger of destinies, has settled the question of the death and life of man with the Anunnaki, and that none may find out the day of his death or escape from death. {p. 54} THE ELEVENTH TABLET. The story of the Deluge as told by Uta-Napishtim to Gilgamish has already been given on pp. 31-40, and we therefore pass on to the remaining contents of this Tablet. When Uta-Napishtim had finished the story of the Deluge, he said to Gilgamish, "Now, as touching thyself; who will gather the gods together for thee, so that thou mayest find the life which thou seekest? Come now, do not lay thyself down to sleep for six days and seven nights." But in spite of this admonition, as soon as Gilgamish had sat down, drowsiness overpowered him and he fell fast asleep. Uta-Napishtim, seeing that even the mighty hero Gilgamish could not resist falling asleep, with some amusement drew the attention of his wife to the fact, but she felt sorry for the tired man, and suggested that he should take steps to help him to return to his home. In reply Uta-Napishtim told her to bake bread for him, and she did so, but she noted by a mark on the house-wall each day that he slept. On the seventh day, when she took the loaf Uta-Napishtim touched Gilgamish, and the hero woke up with a start, and admitted that he had been overcome with sleep, and made incapable of movement thereby. Still vexed with the thought of death and filled with anxiety to escape from it, Gilgamish asked his host what he should do and where he should go to effect his object. By Uta-Napishtim's advice, he made an agreement with Ur-Shanabi the boatman, and prepared to re-cross the sea on his way home. But before he set out on his way Uta-Napishtim told him of the existence of a plant which grew at the bottom of the sea, and apparently led Gilgamish to believe that the possession of it would confer upon him immortality. Thereupon Gilgamish tied heavy stones [to his feet], and let himself down into the sea through an opening in the floor of the boat. When he reached the bottom of the sea, he saw the plant and plucked it, and ascended into the boat with it. Showing it to Ur-Shanabi, he told him that it was a most marvellous plant, and that it would enable a man to obtain his heart's desire. Its name was "Shîbu issahir amelu," i.e., "The old man becometh young [again]," and Gilgamish declared that he would "eat of it in order to recover his lost youth," and that he would take it home to his fortified city {p. 55} of Erech. Misfortune, however, dogged his steps, and the plant never reached Erech, for whilst Gilgamish and Ur-Shanabi were on their way back to Erech they passed a pool the water of which was very cold, and Gilgamish dived into it and took a bath. Whilst there a serpent discovered the whereabouts of the plant through its smell and swallowed it. When Gilgamish saw what had happened he cursed aloud, and sat down and wept, and the tears coursed down his cheeks as he lamented over the waste of his toil, and the vain expenditure of his heart's blood, and his failure to do any good for himself. Disheartened and weary he struggled on his way with his friend, and at length they arrived at the fortified city of Erech.[1] [1. The city of Erech was the second of the four cities which, according to Genesis x, 10, were founded by Nimrod, the son of Cush, the "mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." The Sumerians and Babylonian called the city "UNU KI,"; the first sign means "dwelling" or "habitation," and the second "land, country," etc.. and we may understand this as meaning the "dwelling" par excellence of some god, probably Anu. The site of Erech is well known, and is marked by the vast ruins which the Arabs call "Warkah," or Al-Warkah. These lie in 31º 19' N. Lat. and 45º 40' E. Long., and are about four miles from the Euphrates, on the left or east bank of the river. Sir W. K. Loftus carried out excavations on the site in 1849-52, and says that the external walls of sun-dried brick enclosing the main portion of the ruins form an irregular circle five and a-half miles in circumference; in places they are from 40 to 50 feet in height, and they seem to have been about 20 feet thick. The turrets on the wall were semi-oval in shape and about 50 feet apart. The principal ruin is that of the Ziggurat, or temple tower, which in 1850 was 100 feet high and 206 feet square. Loftus calls it "Buwáriya," i.e., "reed mats," because reed mats were used in its construction, but bûriyah, "rush mat," is a Persian not Arabic word, and the name is more probably connected with the Arabic "Bawâr," i.e., "ruin," "place of death," etc. This tower stood in a courtyard which was 350 feet long and 270 feet wide. The next large ruin is that which is called "Waswas" (plur. Wasâwis"), i.e., "large stone." The "Waswas" referred to was probably the block of columnar basalt which Loftus and Mr. T. K. Lynch found projecting through the soil; on it was sculptured the figure of a warrior, and the stone itself was regarded as a talisman by the natives. This ruin is 246 feet long, 174 feet wide and 80 feet high. On three sides of it are terraces of different elevations, but the south-west side presents a perpendicular façade, at one place 23 feet in height. For further details see Loftus, Chaldea and Susiana, London, 1857, p. 159 ff. Portions of the ruins of Warkah were excavated by German archaeologists in 1912. and this work was resumed in 1928.] {p. 56} Then Gilgamish told Ur-Shanabi to jump up on the wall and examine the bricks from the foundations to the battlements, and see if the plans which he had made concerning them had been carried out during his absence. THE TWELFTH TABLET. The text of the Twelfth Tablet is very defective, but it seems certain that Gilgamish, having failed in his quest for eternal life, could now think of nothing better than to know the worst by calling up the ghost of Enkidu and enquiring of him as to the condition of the dead in the Under-world. He therefore asked the priests what precautions should be taken in order to prevent a ghost from haunting one, and, being informed of these, he purposely did everything against which he had been warned, so that the ghosts might come about him. This, however, failed to bring Enkidu, so Gilgamish prayed to the god Enlil that he should raise him up, but Enlil made no reply. Next Gilgamish prayed to the Moon-god, but again his prayer was ignored. He then appealed to the god Ea, who, taking pity on him, ordered the warrior-god Nergal to open a hole in the earth. Out of this the ghost of Enkidu rose "like a wind," and the two friends embraced again. Gilgamish at once began eagerly to question the ghost about the condition of the dead, but Enkidu was loath to answer, for he knew that what he must reveal would only cause his friend dejection. But the last lines of the Tablet tell the lot of those who have died in various circumstances; though some who have been duly buried are in better case, the fate of others who have none to pay them honour is miserable, for they are reduced to feeding upon dregs and scraps of food thrown into the street. {p. 57} NOTE. The Trustees of the British Museum have published large selections of cuneiform texts from the cylinders, tablets, etc., that were found in the ruins of Nineveh by Layard, Rassam, Smith and others, in the following works:-- CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF WESTERN ASIA. Vol. 1. 1861. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. II. 1866. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. 111. 1870. Fol. Il. ------------ Vol. IV. Second edition. 1891. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. V. Plates I-XXXV. 1880. Fol. 10s. 6d. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. V. Plates XXXVI-LXX. 1884. Fol. 10s. 6d. (Out of print.) ------------ Vol. V. Plates I-LXX. Lithographed reprint 1909. Fol. Il. 7s. INSCRIPTIONS FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 1851. Fol. Il.. 1s. CUNEIFORM TEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &C., IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Parts I-V, VII-XXIII, XXV, XXVII-XXXIV. 50 plates each. 1896-1914. 7s. 6d. each. ------------ Part VI. 49 plates. 1898. 7s. 6d. ------------ Part XXIV. 50 plates. 1908. Fol. 10s. ------------ Part XXVI. 54 plates. 1909. Fol. 12s. ------------ Part XXXV. 50 plates. 1920. 12s. ------------ Part XXXVI. 50 plates. 1921. 18s. ------------ Parts XXXVII, XXXIX. 50 plates each. 1924, 1926. 15s. each. ------------ Parts XXXVIII, XL. 50 plates each. 19-25, 1928. 16s. each. ANNALS OF THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA. Cuneiform texts with transliterations and translations. Vol. I. 1903. 4to. Il. CATALOGUE OF THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS IN THE KOUYUNJIK COLLECTION. Vol. I. 8vo. 1889. 15s. ------------ Vol. II. 1891. 15s. ------------ Vol. III. 1894. 13s. ------------ Vol. IV. 1896. Il. ------------ Vol. V. 1899. Il. 3s. ------------ Supplement 8vo. 1914. Il.

The Chaldean Account of Genesis.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 1 CHAPTER I. THE DISCOVERY OF THE GENESIS LEGENDS. Cosmogony of Berosus.—Discovery of Cuneiform Inscriptions.—Historical texts.—Babylonian origin of Assyrian literature.—Mythological tablets.—Discovery of Deluge texts.—Izdubar, his exploits.—Mutilated condition of tablets.—Lecture on Deluge tablets."—Daily Telegraph" offer.—Expedition to Assyria.—-Fragments of Creation tablets.—Solar Myth.—Second journey to Assyria.—Tower of Babel.—Clay records.—Account of creation in "Telegraph."—"Daily Telegraph" collection.—Interest of Creation legends.—The Fall.—New fragments.—List of texts. THE fragments of the Chaldean historian, Berosus, preserved in the works of various later writers, have shown that the Babylonians were acquainted with traditions referring to the Creation, the period before the Flood, the Deluge, and other matters forming parts of Genesis. Berosus, however, who recorded these events, lived in the time of Alexander the Great and his successors, somewhere about B.C. 330 to 260; and, as this was three hundred years after the Jews were carried captive to Babylon, his works did not prove p. 2 that these traditions were in Babylonia before the Jewish captivity, and could not afford testimony in favour of the great antiquity of these legends. On the discovery and decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions, Oriental scholars hoped that copies of the Babylonian histories and traditions would one day be discovered, and we should thus gain earlier and more satisfactory evidence as to these primitive histories. In the mound of Kouyunjik, opposite the town of Mosul, Mr. Layard discovered part of the Royal Assyrian library, and further collections, also forming parts of this library, have been subsequently found by Mr. H. Rassam, Mr. Loftus, and myself. Sir Henry Rawlinson, who made the preliminary examination of Mr. Layard's treasures, and who was the first to recognize their value, estimated the number of these fragments of inscriptions at over twenty thousand. The attention of decipherers was in the first instance drawn to the later historical inscriptions, particularly to those of the Assyrian kings contemporary with the Hebrew monarchy; and in this section of inscriptions a very large number of texts of great importance rewarded the toil of Assyrian scholars. Inscriptions of Tiglath Pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Nebuchadnezzar, Nabonidus, and numerous other ancient sovereigns, bearing directly on the Bible, and giving new light upon parts of ancient history before obscure, for a long p. 3 time occupied almost exclusively the attention of students, and overshadowed any work in other divisions of Assyrian literature. Although it was known that Assyria borrowed its civilization and written characters from Babylonia, yet, as the Assyrian nation was mostly hostile to the southern and older kingdom, it could not be guessed beforehand that the peculiar national traditions of Babylonia would be transported to Assyria. Under these circumstances, for some years after the cuneiform inscriptions were first deciphered, nothing was looked for or discovered bearing upon the events of Genesis; but, as new texts were brought into notice, it became evident that the Assyrians copied their literature largely from Babylonian sources, and it appeared likely that search among the fragments of Assyrian inscriptions would yield traces at least of some of these ancient Babylonian legends. Attention was early drawn to these points by Sir Henry Rawlinson, who pointed out several coincidences between the geography of Babylonia and the account of Eden in Genesis, arid suggested the great probability that the accounts in Genesis had a Babylonian origin. When at work preparing the fourth volume of Cuneiform Inscriptions, I noticed references to the Creation in a tablet numbered K 63 in the Museum collection, and allusions in other tablets to similar legends; I therefore set about searching through the p. 4 collection, which I had previously selected under the head of "Mythological tablets," to find, if possible, some of these legends. This mythological collection was one of six divisions into which I had parted the Museum collection of cuneiform inscriptions for convenience of working. By placing all the tablets and fragments of the same class together, I had been able to complete several texts, to easily find any subject required, and at any time to get a general idea of the contents of the collection. The mythological division contained all tablets relating to the mythology, and all the legends in which the gods took a leading part, together with prayers and similar subjects. Commencing a steady search among these fragments, I soon found half of a curious tablet which had evidently contained originally six columns of text; two of these (the third and fourth) were still nearly perfect; two others (the second and fifth) were imperfect, about half remaining, while the remaining columns (the first and sixth) were entirely lost. On looking down the third column, my eye caught the statement that the ship rested on the mountains of Nizir, followed by the account of the sending forth of the dove, and its finding no resting-place and returning. I saw at once that I had here discovered a portion at least of the Chaldean account of the Deluge. I then proceeded to read through the document, and found it was in the form of a speech from the hero of the Deluge to a person p. 5 whose name appeared to be Izdubar. I recollected a legend belonging to the same hero Izdubar K. 231, which, on comparison, proved to belong to the same series, and then I commenced a search for any missing portions of the tablets. This search was a long and heavy work, for there were thousands of fragments to go over, and, while on the one side I had gained as yet only two fragments of the Izdubar legends to judge from, on the other hand, the unsorted fragments were so small, and contained so little of the subject, that it was extremely difficult to ascertain their meaning. My search, however, proved successful. I found a fragment of another copy of the Deluge, containing again the sending forth of the birds, and gradually collected several other portions of this tablet, fitting them in one after another until I had completed the greater part of the second column. Portions of a third copy next turned up, which, when joined together, completed a considerable part of the first and sixth columns. I now had the account of the Deluge in the state in which I published it at the meeting of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, December 3rd, 1872. I had discovered that the Izdubar series contained at least twelve tablets, and I afterwards found this to be their exact number. Of this series the tablet describing the Deluge was the eleventh and K 231, the sixth. Numerous other fragments turned up at the same time; but these, while they increased my knowledge of the legends, p. 6 could not be arranged in order from want of indication of the particular tablets to which they belonged. Some other fragmentary legends, including the war of the gods and three fables, I also found at the same time, but these were in such mutilated condition that I could not make a connected translation of them. In my lecture on the Deluge tablets, I gave a sketch of the Izdubar legends, and expressed my belief that the Chaldean inscriptions contained various other similar stories bearing upon the Book of Genesis, which would prove of the highest interest. Just at this time happened the intervention of the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph" newspaper. Mr. E. Arnold, who is on the direction of that paper, had already sent to me expressing his interest in these discoveries, and immediately after my lecture he came armed with a proposition from the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph" to re-open, at their cost, the excavations in Assyria, and gain some new information on the subject of these legends. This proposition was submitted to the trustees of the British Museum, and they directed me to go to Assyria and make a short excavation, leave of absence for six months being granted to me for this purpose. I have related, in my work, "Assyrian discoveries," the history of this expedition, which brought me the next fragments of these legends. Soon after I commenced excavating at Kouyunjik, on the site of the palace of Assurbanipal, I found a p. 7 new fragment of the Chaldean account of the Deluge belonging to the first column of the tablet, relating the command to build and fill the ark, and nearly filling up the most considerable blank in the story. Some other fragments, which I found afterwards, still further completed this tablet, which was already the most perfect one in the Izdubar series. The trench in which I found the fragment in question must have passed very near the place where the Assyrians kept a series of inscriptions belonging to the early history of the world. Soon after I discovered the fragment of the Deluge tablet, I came upon a fragment of the sixth tablet of the same series in this trench, and not far from the place of the Deluge fragment. This fragment described the destruction of the bull of Ishtar by Izdubar and Heabani, an incident often depicted on early Babylonian gems. My next discovery here was a fragment evidently belonging to the creation of the world; this was the upper corner of a tablet, and gave a fragmentary account of the creation of animals. Further on in this trench I discovered two other portions of this legend, one giving the Creation and fall of man; the other having part of the war between the gods and evil spirits. At that time I did not recognize the importance of these fragments, excepting the one with the account of the creation of animals, and, as I had immediately afterwards to return to England, I made no further discoveries in this direction. p. 8 On my return from the east, I published some of the discoveries I had made, and I now found, on joining the fragments of the Deluge or Izdubar series, that they formed exactly twelve tablets. The fact that these legends covered twelve tablets led to the impression that they were a form of the solar myth, that is, that they symbolized the passage of the sun through the heavens, each tablet representing a separate sign of the zodiac. This opinion, first started by Sir Henry Rawlinson, was at once accepted by M. Lenormant, Rev. A. H. Sayce, and other scholars; but I think myself it rests on too insecure a basis to be true. In a subsequent chapter I will give as nearly as I can the contents of the Izdubar legends, which I think do not warrant this view. Some months further passed, during which I was engaged in my second journey to Assyria, and in realizing the results of that expedition. I again brought from Assyria several fragments of the Genesis legends which helped to complete these curious stories, and in January, 1875, I commenced once more a regular search for these fragments. Very soon afterwards I succeeded in discovering a notice of the building of the tower of Babel, which at once attracted attention, and a notice of it, which appeared in the "Athenæum," No. 2468, was copied into several of the papers. I was, however, at that time hardly prepared to publish these legends, as I had not ascertained how far they could be completed from our present collections. p. 9 Subsequent search did not show that any further fragments of the Babel tablet were in the British Museum, but I soon added several fresh portions to the fragmentary history of the Creation and Fall. The greatest difficulty with which I had to contend in all these researches was the extremely mutilated and deficient condition in which the tablets were found. There can be no doubt that, if the inscriptions were perfect, they would present very little difficulty to the translator. The reason why these legends are in so many fragments, and the different parts so scattered, may be explained from the nature of the material of which the tablets are composed, and the changes undergone by them since they were written. These tablets were composed of fine clay and were inscribed with cuneiform characters while in a soft state; they were then baked in a furnace until hard, and afterwards transferred to the library. These texts appear to have been broken up when Nineveh was destroyed, and many of them were cracked and scorched by the heat at the burning of the palace. Subsequently the ruins were turned over in search of treasure, and the tablets still further broken; and then, to complete their ruin, the rain, every spring soaking through the ground, saturates them with water containing chemicals, and these chemicals form crystals in every available crack. The growth of the crystals further splits the tablets, some of them being literally shivered. p. 10 Some idea of the mutilated condition of the Assyrian tablets, and of the work of restoring a single text, will be gained from the engraving below, which exhibits the present appearance of one of the Deluge tablets. In this tablet there are sixteen fragments. REVERSE OF INSCRIBED TERRA COTTA TABLET CONTAINING THE ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE, SHOWING THE VARIOUS FRAGMENTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED. Click to enlarge REVERSE OF INSCRIBED TERRA COTTA TABLET CONTAINING THE ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE, SHOWING THE VARIOUS FRAGMENTS OF WHICH IT IS COMPOSED. The clay records of the Assyrians are by these means so broken up, that they are in some cases divided into over one hundred fragments; and it is only by collecting and joining together the various fragments that these ancient texts can be restored. Many of the old fragmentary tablets which have been twenty years in the British Museum have been added to considerably by fragments which I found during p. 11 my two journeys, and yet there remain at least 20,000 fragments buried in the ruins without the recovery of which it is impossible to complete these valuable Assyrian inscriptions. Being now urged by many friends who were interested in the subject, I sent the following account to the editor of the "Daily Telegraph," which was printed in that paper on the 4th of March, 1875:— "Having recently made a series of important discoveries relating to the Book of Genesis, among some remarkable texts, which form part of the collection presented to the British Museum by the proprietors of 'The Daily Telegraph,' I venture once more to bring Assyrian subjects before your readers. "In my lecture on the Chaldean Account of the Deluge, which I delivered on Dec. 3, 1872, I stated my conviction that all the earlier narratives of Genesis would receive new light from the inscriptions so long buried in the Chaldean and Assyrian mounds; but I little thought at that time that I was so near to finding most of them. "My lecture, as your readers know, was soon followed by the proposal of your proprietors and the organizing of 'The Daily Telegraph' expedition to Assyria. When excavating at Kouyunjik during that expedition, I discovered the missing portion of the first column of the Deluge tablet, an account of which I sent home; and in the same trench I subsequently found the fragment which I afterwards recognized as part of the Chaldean story of the p. 12 [paragraph continues]Creation, which relic I have noticed already in your columns. I excavated later on, while still working under your auspices, another portion belonging to this story, far more precious—in fact, I think, to the general public, the most interesting and remarkable cuneiform tablet yet discovered. This turns out to contain the story of man's original innocence, of the temptation, and of the fall. I was, when I found it, on the eve of departing, and had not time to properly examine my great prize. I only copied the two or three first lines, which (as I had then no idea of the general subject of the tablet) did not appear very valuable, and I forthwith packed it in the box for transport to England, where it arrived safely, and was presented by the proprietors of 'The Daily Telegraph,' with the rest of their collection, to the British Museum. On my return to England I made some other discoveries among my store, and in the pursuit of these this fragment was overlooked. I subsequently went a second time to Assyria, and returned to England in June, 1874; but I had no leisure to look again at those particular legends until the end of January in this year. Then, starting with the fragment of the Creation in 'The Daily Telegraph' collection, which I had first noticed, I began to collect other portions of the series, and among these I soon found the overlooked fragment which I had excavated at Kouyunjik, the first lines of which I took down in the note-book of my first expedition. I subsequently found several smaller p. 13 pieces in the old Museum collection, and all join or form parts of a continuous series of legends, giving the history of the world from the Creation down to some period after the Fall of Man. Linked with these, I found also other series of legends on primitive history, including the story of the building of the Tower of Babel and of the Confusion of Tongues. "The first series, which I may call 'The Story of the Creation and Fall,' when complete must have consisted of nine or ten tablets at least, and the history upon it is much longer and fuller than the corresponding account in the Book of Genesis. With respect to these Genesis narratives a furious strife has existed for many years; every word has been scanned by eager scholars, and every possible meaning which the various passages could bear has been suggested; while the age and authenticity of the narratives have been discussed on all sides. In particular, it may be said that the account of the fall of man, the heritage of all Christian countries, has been the centre of this controversy, for it is one of the pivots on which the Christian religion turns. The world-wide importance of these subjects will therefore give the newly discovered inscriptions, and especially the one relating to the Fall, an unparalleled value, and I am glad, indeed, that such a treasure should have resulted from your expedition. "Whatever the primitive account may have been p. 14 from which the earlier part of the Book of Genesis was copied, it is evident that the brief narration given in the Pentateuch omits a number of incidents and explanations—for instance, as to the origin of evil, the fall of the angels, the wickedness of the serpent, &c. Such points as these are included in the Cuneiform narrative; but of course I can say little about them until I prepare full translations of the legends. "The narrative on the Assyrian tablets commences with a description of the period before the world was created, when there existed a chaos or confusion. The desolate and empty state of the universe and the generation by chaos of monsters are vividly given. The chaos is presided over by a female power named Tisalat and Tiamat, corresponding to the Thalatth of Berosus; but, as it proceeds, the Assyrian account agrees rather with the Bible than with the short account from Berosus. We are told, in the inscriptions, of the fall of the celestial being who appears to correspond to Satan. In his ambition he raises his hand against the sanctuary of the God of heaven, and the description of him is really magnificent. He is represented riding in a chariot through celestial space, surrounded by the storms, with the lightning playing before him, and wielding a thunderbolt as a weapon. "This rebellion leads to a war in heaven and the conquest of the powers of evil, the gods in due course creating the universe in stages, as in the p. 15 [paragraph continues]Mosaic narrative, surveying each step of the work and pronouncing it good. The divine work culminates in the creation of man, who is made upright and free from evil, and endowed by the gods with the noble faculty of speech. "The Deity then delivers a long address to the newly created being, instructing him in all his duties and privileges, and pointing out the glory of his state. But this condition of blessing does not last long before man, yielding to temptation, falls; and the Deity then pronounces upon him a terrible curse, invoking on his head all the evils which have since afflicted humanity. These last details are, as I have before stated, upon the fragment which I excavated during my first journey to Assyria, and the discovery of this single relic in my opinion increases many times over the value of 'The Daily Telegraph' collection. "I have at present recovered no more of the story, and am not yet in a position to give the full translations and details; but I hope during the spring to find time to search over the collection of smaller fragments of tablets, and to light upon any smaller parts of the legends which may have escaped me. There will arise, besides, a number of important questions as to the date and origin of the legends, their comparison with the Biblical narrative, and as to how far they may supplement the Mosaic account." This will serve to exhibit the appearance these p. 16 legends presented to me soon after I discovered them. On comparing this account with the translations and notes I have given in this book, it will be evident that my first notice was inaccurate in several points, both as to the order and translation of the legends; but I had not expected it to be otherwise, for there had not been time to collect and translate the fragments, and, until that was done, no satisfactory account of them could be given, the inaccuracies in the account being due to the broken state of the tablets and my recent knowledge of them. It is a notable fact that the discovery of these legends was one of the fruits of the expedition organized by the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph," and these legends and the Deluge fragments form the most valuable results of that expedition. After I had published this notice in the "Daily Telegraph" I set to work to look over the fragments in the collection, in search of other minor fragments, and found several, but these added little to my knowledge, only enabling me to correct my notice. A little later I discovered a new fragment of the tenth tablet of the Deluge series, and last of all a further portion of the sixth tablet of these legends. This closed my discoveries so far as the fragments of the tablets were concerned, and I had then to copy and translate the tablets as far as their mutilated condition would allow. The Genesis legends which I had collected from p. 17 the various Assyrian fragments included numerous other stories beside those which parallel the account in the Book of Genesis. All these stories are similar in character, and appear to belong to the same early literary age. So far as I have made out they are as follows:— 1. A long account of the origin of the world, the creation of the animals and man, the fall of man from a sinless state, and a conflict between the gods and the powers of evil. 2. A second account of the creation having a closer correspondence with the account of Berosus. 3. A Bilingual legend of the history of the seven evil spirits, apparently part of a third version of the creation. 4. Story of the descent of the goddess Ishtar or Venus into Hades, and her return. 5. Legend of the sin of the God Zu, who insults Elu, the father of the gods. 6. Collection of five tablets giving the exploits of Lubara the god of the pestilence. 7. Legend of the god Sarturda, who turned into a bird. 8. Story of the wise man who put forth a riddle to the gods. 9. Legend of the good man Atarpi, and the wickedness of the world. 10. Legend of the tower of Babel, and dispersion. 11. Story of the Eagle and Etana. 12. Story of the ox and the horse. p. 18 13. Story of the fox. 14. Legend of Sinuri. 15. Izdubar legends: twelve tablets, with the history of Izdubar, and an account of the flood. 16. Various fragments of other legends. These show that there was a considerable collection of such primitive stories almost unrepresented in our present collection. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 19 CHAPTER II. BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN LITERATURE. Babylonian literature.—Kouyunjik library.—Fragmentary condition.—Arrangement of tablets.—Subjects.—Dates.—Babylonian source of literature.—Literary period.—Babylonian Chronology.—Akkad.—Sumir.—Urukh, king of Ur.—Hammurabi.—Babylonian astrology.—War of Gods.—Izdubar legends.—Creation and fall.—Syllabaries and bilingual tablets.—Assyrian copies.—Difficulties as to date.—Mutilated condition.—Babylonian library.—Assyrian empire.—City of Assur.—Library at Calah.—Sargon of Assyria.—Sennacherib.—Removal of Library to Nineveh.—Assurbanipal or Sardanapalus.—His additions to library.—Description of contents.—Later Babylonian libraries. IN order to understand the position of these legends it is necessary to give some account of the wonderful literature of the Ancient Babylonians and their copyists, the Assyrians. The fragments of terra cotta tablets containing these legends were found in the débris which covers the palaces called the South West Palace and the North Palace at Kouyunjik; the former building being of the age of Sennacherib, the latter belonging to the time of Assurbanipal. The tablets, which are of all sizes, from one inch long to over a foot square, are nearly all in fragments, and p. 20 in consequence of the changes which have taken place in the ruins the fragments of the same tablet are sometimes scattered widely apart. It appears from a consideration of the present positions of the fragments that they were originally in the upper chambers of the palace, and have fallen on the destruction of the building. In some of the lower chambers they lay covering the whole floor, in other cases they lay in groups or patches on the pavement, and there are occasional clusters of fragments at various heights in the earth which covers the buildings. The other fragments are scattered singly through all the upper earth which covers the floors and walls of the palace. Different fragments of the same tablets and cylinders are found in separate chambers which have no immediate connection with each other, showing that the present distribution of the fragments has nothing to do with the original position of the tablets. A consideration of the inscriptions shows that these tablets have been arranged according to their subjects in various positions in the libraries. Stories or subjects were commenced on tablets and continued on other tablets of the same size and form, in some cases the number of tablets in a series and on a single subject amounting to over one hundred. Each subject or series of tablets had a title, the title being formed by the first phrase or part of phrase in the subject. Thus, the series of Astrological tablets, numbering over seventy tablets, bore the p. 21 title "When the gods Anu, Elu," this being the commencement of the first tablet. At the end of every tablet in each series was written its number in the work, thus: "the first tablet of "When the gods Anu, Elu," the second tablet of "When the gods Anu, Elu," &c. &c.; and, further to preserve the proper position of each tablet, every one except the last in a series had at the end a catch phrase, consisting of the first line of the following tablet. There were beside, catalogues of these documents written like them on clay tablets, and other small oval tablets with titles upon them, apparently labels for the various series of works. All these arrangements show the care taken with respect to literary matters. There were regular libraries or chambers, probably on the upper floors of the palaces, appointed for the store of the tablets, and custodians or librarians to take charge of them. It is probable that all these regulations were of great antiquity, and were copied like the tablets from the Babylonians. Judging from the fragments discovered, it appears probable that there were in the Royal Library at Nineveh over 10,000 inscribed tablets, including almost every subject in ancient literature. In considering a subject like the present one it is a point of the utmost importance to define as closely as possible the date of our present copies of the legends, and the most probable period at which the original copies may have been inscribed. By far the greatest number of the tablets brought from Nineveh p. 22 belong to the age of Assurbanipal, who reigned over Assyria B.C. 670, and every copy of the Genesis legends yet found was inscribed during his reign. The statements on the present tablets are conclusive on this point, and have not been called in question, but it is equally stated and acknowledged on all hands that these tablets are not the originals, but are only copies from earlier texts. It is unfortunate that the date of the original copies is never preserved, and thus a wide door is thrown open for difference of opinion on this point. The Assyrians acknowledge themselves that this literature was borrowed from Babylonian sources, and of course it is to Babylonia we have to look to ascertain the approximate dates of the original documents. The difficulty here is increased by the following considerations: it appears that at an early period in Babylonian history a great literary development took place, and numerous works were produced which embodied the prevailing myths, religion, and science of that day. Written many of them in a noble style of poetry, and appealing to the strongest feelings of the people on one side, or registering the highest efforts of their science on the other, these texts became the standards for Babylonian literature, and later generations were content to copy these writings instead of making new works for themselves. Clay, the material on which they were written, was everywhere abundant, copies were multiplied, and by the veneration in which they were held these texts fixed and stereotyped the style p. 23 of Babylonian literature, and the language in which they were written remained the classical style in the country down to the Persian conquest. Thus it happens that texts of Rim-agu, Sargon, and Hammurabi, who were one thousand years before Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus, show the same language as the texts of these later kings, there being no sensible difference in style to match the long interval between them. There is, however, reason to believe that, although the language of devotion and literature remained fixed, the speech of the bulk of the people was gradually modified; and in the time of Assurbanipal, when the Assyrians copied the Genesis legends, the common speech of the day was in very different style. The private letters and despatches of this age which have been discovered differ widely from the language of the contemporary public documents and religious writings, showing the change the language had undergone since the style of these was fixed. We have a slightly similar case in England, where the language of devotion and the style of the Bible differ in several respects from those of the English of to-day. These considerations show the difficulty of fixing the age of a document from its style, and the difficulty is further increased by the uncertainty which hangs over all Babylonian chronology. Chronology is always a thorny subject, and dry and unsatisfactory to most persons beside; some p. 24 notice must, however, be taken of it here, in order to show the reasons for the dates and epochs fixed upon for the Genesis legends. In this case the later chronology is not in question, and it is best to start with the generally received date of about B.C. 1300 for the conquest of Babylonia by Tugultininip, king of Assyria. Before this date we have a period of about 250 years, during which a foreign race ruled at Babylon. Berosus calls these foreigners Arabs, but nothing is known as to their original home or race. It is supposed that this race came into Babylonia, or obtained dominion there under a king named Hammurabi, whose date is thus fixed about B.C. 1550. Many scholars do not agree to this, and consider Hammurabi much more ancient; no one, however, fixes him later than the sixteenth century B.C., so that the date B.C. 1550 may be accepted as the most moderate one possible for the epoch of Hammurabi. The date of Hammurabi is of consequence in the question, because there is no evidence of these legends being written after his epoch. This circumstance may be accounted for by the fact that during the period following the conquest of Hammurabi the government was in the hands of foreigners, and was much more centralized than it had been before, Babylon being, so far as we know, the sole capital, the great cities which had been centres of literature suffering a decline. Before the time of Hammurabi, there ruled several p. 25 races of kings, of whom we possess numerous monuments. These monarchs principally reigned at the cities of Ur, Karrak, Larsa, and Akkad. Their inscriptions do not determine the length of their rule, but they probably covered the period from B.C. 2000 to 1550. The name of the monarch in whose time we have the first satisfactory evidence of contemporary monuments is read Urukh, and in the present state of our researches he may be fixed B.C. 2000. It must, however, be remarked that many scholars place him at a much earlier date. From the time of Urukh to that of Hammurabi the title of honour principally taken by the kings is "King of Sumir and Akkad," that is, King of Lower and Upper Babylonia. It appears probable that previous to the reign of Urukh the two divisions of Sumir and Akkad were separate monarchies; and it is therefore likely that any literature written before B.C. 2000 will show evidences of this division. The rough outlines of Babylonian chronology at this period may be arranged as follows, always bearing in mind that the different dates are the lowest we can fairly assume, and that several of them may be much more ancient:— Down to B.C. 2000 epoch of independent kingdoms in Babylonia; the principal centre of activity being Akkad, a region on the Euphrates, somewhere between latitudes 32° and 33°. B.C. 2000. Era of Urukh, king of Ur, rise of Sumir, the southern part of the country, Ur the metropolis. p. 26 B.C. 1850. Era of Ismi-dagan, king of Karrak, Karrak the metropolis. B.C. 1700. Rise of Larsa as metropolis. B.C. 1600. Era of Sargon, king of Akkad; revival of the power of Akkad. B.C. 1550. Era of Hammurabi, king of Babylon. Babylon the metropolis. Although we cannot fix the dates of any monuments before the time of Urukh, B.C. 2000, it is quite certain that there were buildings and inscriptions before that date; and there are two literary works which I should judge to be certainly older than this epoch, namely, the great Chaldean work on Astrology, and a legend which, for want of a better title, I call the Exploits of Lubara. The Chaldean work, containing the bulk of their astrology, appears to belong to the northern half of the country, that is to Akkad, and always speaks of Akkad as a separate state, and implies it to be the leading state. It mentions besides, the kingdoms of Subartu, Martu, or Syria, Gutim or Goim, and Elam, and some parts, perhaps of later date than the body of the work, give also the kingdoms of Kassi, Kissati, or the peoples, Nituk or Asmun, Sumir, Yamutbal, and Assan. In the body of the work there appear glosses, apparently later additions, mentioning kings of the period B.C. 2000 to 1850. I have not noticed any gloss containing a royal name later than the kings of Ur. The work I have provisionally called "The Exploits p. 27 of Lubara," and which also bears evidence of great antiquity, is a much shorter one, for while there are over seventy large tablets of the astrology, this, on the other hand, only contained five small tablets. This work notices a large number of peoples or states, the principal being the people of the coast, Subartu, Assyria, Elam, Kassi, Sutu, Goim, Lullubu, Akkad; the uniting of Sumir and Akkad, which was accomplished at least B.C. 2000, is not mentioned, but the notice of the Assyrians is rather an argument for a later date than I have chosen. The Izdubar legends, containing the story of the Flood, and what I believe to be the history of Nimrod, were probably written in the south of the country, and at least as early as B.C. 2000. These legends were, however, traditions before they were committed to writing, and were common in some form to all the country. The story of the Creation and Fall belongs to the upper or Akkad division of the country, and may not have been committed to writing so early as the Izdubar legends; but even this is of great antiquity. About the same time as the account of the Creation, a series of tablets on evil spirits, which contained a totally different tradition of the Creation, was probably written; and there is a third account from the City of Cutha, closely agreeing in some respects with the account handed down by Berosus, which I should provisionally place about the same date. It seems, from the indications in the inscriptions, that p. 28 there happened in the interval B.C. 2000 to 1850 a general collecting and development of the various traditions of the Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, and other similar legends. A little later, about B.C. 1600, a new set of astrological tablets was written, together with a long work on terrestrial omens; these appear to belong to the kingdom and period of Sargon, king of Akkad. Some at least, and probably most of the syllabaries, bilingual and explanatory tablets, grammars and vocabularies, belong to this period also; but a few are of later date. In spite of the indications as to peculiarities of worship, names of states and capitals, historical allusions and other evidence, it may seem hazardous to many persons to fix the dates of original documents so high, when our only copies in many cases are Assyrian transcripts made in the reign of Assurbanipal, in the seventh century B.C.; but one or two considerations may show that this is a perfectly reasonable view, and no other likely period can be found for the original composition of the documents unless we ascend to a greater antiquity. In the first place, it must be noticed that the Assyrians themselves state that the documents were copied from ancient Babylonian copies, and in some cases state that the old copies were partly illegible even in their day. Again, in one case there is actual proof of the antiquity of a text, an Assyrian copy of part of which is published in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. ii. plate 54, Nos. p. 29 [paragraph continues]3 & 4. In a collection of tablets discovered by Mr. Loftus at Senkereh, belonging, according to the kings mentioned in it, to about B.C. 1600, is part of an ancient Babylonian copy of this very text, the Babylonian copy being about one thousand years older than the Assyrian one. It is, however, probable that most of the legends treated of in the present volume had existed as traditions in the country long before they were committed to writing, and some of these traditions, as embodied in the various works, exhibit great difference in details, showing that they had passed through many changes. Taking the period of literary development in Babylonia as extending from B.C. 2000 to 1550, we may say, it roughly synchronizes with the period from Abraham to Moses, according to the ordinary chronology of our Bibles, and during this period it appears that traditions of the creation of the universe, and human history down to the time of Nimrod, existed parallel to, and in some points identical with, those given in the Book of Genesis. Many of the documents embodying these traditions have been discovered in sadly mutilated condition, but there can be no doubt that future explorations will reveal more perfect copies, and numerous companion and explanatory texts, which will one day clear up the difficulties which now meet us at every step of their consideration. So far as known contemporary inscriptions are p. 30 concerned, we cannot consider our present researches and discoveries as anything like sufficient to give a fair view of the literature of Assyria and Babylonia, and, however numerous and important are the Genesis legends, they form but a small portion of the whole literature of the country. It is generally considered that the earliest inscriptions of any importance which we now possess belong to the time of Urukh, king of Ur, whose age may be placed with great probability about two thousand years before the Christian era. The principal inscriptions of this period consist of texts on bricks and on signet cylinders, and some of the latter may be of much greater antiquity. Passing down to the period of the kingdoms of Karrak, Larsa, and Akkad, we find a great accession of literary material, almost every class of writing being represented by contemporary specimens. It is certain that even then the inscribed clay tablets were not isolated, but already they were arranged in collections or libraries, and these collections were placed at some of the principal cities. From Senkerch and its neighbourhood have come our earliest specimens of these literary tablets, the following being some of the contents of this earliest known library:— 1. Mythological tablets, including lists of the gods, and their manifestations and titles. 2. Grammatical works, lists of words, and explanations. 3. Mathematical works, calculations, tables, cube and square root, measures. p. 31 4. Astronomy, astrology, and omens. 5. Legends and short historical inscriptions. 6. Historical cylinders, one of Kudur-mabuk, B.C. 1600 (the earliest known cylinder), being in the British Museum. 7. Geographical tablets, and lists of towns and countries. 8. Laws and law cases, sale and barter, wills and loans. Such are the inscriptions from the libraries of the early inhabitants of Babylonia, and beside these there are numerous texts, only known to us through later copies, but which certainly had their origin as early as this period. Passing down from this period, for some centuries we find only detached inscriptions, accompanied by evidence of the gradual shifting both of the political power and literary activity from Babylonia to Assyria. In Assyria the first centre of Literature and seat of a library was the city of Assur (Kileh Shergat), and the earliest known tablets date about B.C. 1500. Beyond the scanty records of some of the monarchs nothing of value remains of this library for several centuries, and the Assyrian literary works are only known from later copies. A revival of the Assyrian empire began under Assur-nazir-pal, king of Assyria, who ascended the throne B.C. 885. He rebuilt the city of Calah (Nimroud), and this city became the seat of an Assyrian library. Tablets were procured from Babylonia by p. 32 [paragraph continues]Shalmaneser, son of Assur-nazir-pal, B.C. 860, during the reign of Nabu-bal-idina, king of Babylon, and these were copied by the Assyrian scribes, and placed in the royal library. Vul-nirari, grandson of Shalmaneser, B.C. 812, added to the Calah library, and had tablets written at Nineveh. Assurnirari, B.C. 755, continued the literary work, some mythological tablets being dated in his reign. Tiglath Pileser, B.C. 745, enlarged the library, and placed in it various copies of historical inscriptions. It was, however, reserved for Sargon, who founded the last Assyrian dynasty, B.C. 722, to make the Assyrian royal library worthy of the empire. Early in his reign he appointed Nabu-suqub-gina principal librarian, and this officer set to work making new copies of all the standard works of the day. During the whole of his term of office copies of the great literary works were produced, the majority of the texts preserved belonging to the early period previous to B.C. 1600. In the period which followed there was a general revival of all the ancient works which had escaped destruction, and the study of this early literature became a marked feature of the time. Sennacherib, son of Sargon, B.C. 705, continued to add to his father's library at Calah, but late in his reign he removed the collection from that city to Nineveh, where from this time the national library remained until the fall of the empire. Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib, B.C. 681, further p. 33 increased the national collection, most of his works being of a religious character. Assurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, the Sardanapalus of the Greeks, B.C. 673, was the greatest of the Assyrian sovereigns, and he is far more memorable on account of his magnificent patronage of learning than on account of the greatness of his empire or the extent of his wars. Assurbanipal added more to the Assyrian royal library than all the kings who had gone before him, and it is to tablets written in his reign that we owe almost all our knowledge of the Babylonian myths and early history, beside many other important matters. The agents of Assurbanipal sought everywhere for inscribed tablets, brought them to Nineveh, and copied them there; thus the literary treasures of Babylon, Borsippa, Cutha, Akkad, Ur, Erech, Larsa, Nipur and various other cities were transferred to the Assyrian capital to enrich the great collection there. The fragments brought over to Europe give us a good idea of this library and show the range of the subjects embraced by this collection of inscriptions. Among the different classes of texts, the Genesis stories and similar legends occupied a prominent place; these, as they will be further described in the present volume, need only be mentioned here. Accompanying them we have a series of mythological tablets of various sorts, varying from legends of the p. 34 gods, psalms, songs, prayers, and hymns, down to mere allusions and lists of names. Many of these texts take the form of charms to be used in sickness and for the expulsion of evil spirits; some of them are of great antiquity, being at least as old as the creation and Izdubar legends. One fine series concerns the cure of witchcraft, a superstition fully believed in in those days. Izdubar is mentioned in one of these tablets as lord of the oaths or pledges of the world. Some of the prayers were for use on special occasions, such as on starting on a campaign, on the occurrence of an eclipse, &c. Astronomy and Astrology were represented by various detached inscriptions and reports, but principally by the great work on these subjects covering over seventy tablets which was borrowed from the early Chaldeans, and many copies of which were in the Library of Assurbanipal. This work on Astrology and Astronomy was, as I have already stated, one of the most ancient texts in the Euphrates valley. There were also numerous copies of a long work on Terrestrial omens, which appears to date from the time of Sargon, king of Akkad, about B.C. 1600. In this work everything in nature is supposed to portend some coming event. There is a fragment of one Astrological tablet which professes to be copied from an original of the time of Izdubar. Historical texts formed another section of the p. 35 library, and these included numerous copies of inscriptions of early Babylonian kings; there were beside, chronological tablets with lists of kings and annual officers, inscriptions of various Assyrian monarchs, histories of the relations between Assyria and Babylonia, Elam, and Arabia, treaties, despatches, proclamations. and reports on the state of the empire and military affairs. Natural history was represented by tables of animals; mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, and plants, trees, grasses, reeds, and grains, earths, stones, &c. These lists are classified according to the supposed nature and affinities of the various species, and show considerable advance in the sciences. Mathematics had a place in the library, there being problems, figures, and calculations; but this branch of learning was not studied so fully as in Babylonia. Grammar and Lexicography were better represented, there being many works do these subjects, including lists of the signs and explanations, declension of nouns, conjugation of verbs, examples of syntax, bilingual tables, explanatory lists, &c. All these tablets were copied from the Babylonians. In law and civil matters the library was also rich, and the tablets serve to show that the same laws and customs prevailed in Assyria as in Babylonia. There are codes of laws law cases, sale, barter, loans, lists of property, lists of titles and trades, tribute, and taxes, &c. In Geography the Assyrians were not very forward; p. 36 but there are lists of countries and their productions, of cities, rivers, mountains, and peoples. Such are some of the principal contents of the great library from which we have obtained our copies of the Creation and Flood legends, most of the tablets were copied from early Babylonian inscriptions, the original copies of the works have in most cases disappeared; but these remarkable inscriptions have preserved to us texts which show the wonderful advance made by the people of Chaldea before the time of Moses. Babylonian literature, which had been the parent of Assyrian writing, revived after the fall of Nineveh, and Nebuchadnezzar and his successors 'made Babylon the seat of a library rivalling that of Assurbanipal at Nineveh. Of this later development of Babylonian literature we know very little, explorations being still required to bring to light the texts of this epoch. Few fragments only, discovered by wandering Arabs or recovered by chance travellers, have yet turned up, but there is in them evidence enough to promise a rich reward to future excavators. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 37 CHAPTER III. CHALDEAN LEGENDS TRANSMITTED THROUGH BEROSUS AND OTHER ANCIENT AUTHORS. Berosus and his copyists.—Cory's translation.—Alexander Polyhistor.—Babylonia.—Oannes, his teaching.—Creation.—Belus.—Chaldean kings.—Xisuthrus.—Deluge.—The Ark.—Return to Babylon.—Apollodorus.—Pantibiblon.—Larancha.—Abydenus.—Alorus, first king.—Ten kings.—Sisithrus.—Deluge.—Armenia.—Tower of Babel.—Cronos and Titan.—Nicolaus Damascenes.—Dispersion from Hestiæus.—Babylonian colonies.—Tower of Babel.—The Sibyl.—Titan and Prometheus.—Damascius.—Tauthe.—Moymis.—Kissare and Assorus.—Triad.—Bel. I HAVE included in this chapter the principal extracts from ancient authors respecting the Babylonian accounts of Genesis. Many others are known, but are of doubtful origin, and of less immediate interest to my subject. Berosus, from whom the principal extracts are copied, lived, as I have mentioned in Chapter I., about B.C. 330 to 260, and, from his position as a p. 38 [paragraph continues]Babylonian priest, had the best means of knowing the Babylonian traditions. The others are later writers, who copied in the main from Berosus, and whose notices may be taken as giving abridgments of his statements. I have preferred as usual, the translations of Cory as being standard ones, and made without prejudice from recent discoveries. Extract I. From Alexander Polyhistor (Cory, p. 21). Berosus, in the first book of his history of Babylonia, informs us that he lived in the age of Alexander, the son of Philip. And he mentions that there were written accounts, preserved at Babylon with the greatest care, comprehending a period of above fifteen myriads of years; and that these writings contained histories of the heaven and of the sea; of the birth of mankind; and of the kings, and of the memorable actions which they had achieved. And in the first place he describes Babylonia as a country situated between the Tigris and the Euphrates; that it abounded with wheat, and barley, and ocrus, and sesame; and that in the lakes were produced the roots called gongæ, which are fit for food, and in respect to nutriment similar to barley. That there were also palm-trees and apples, and a variety of fruits; fish also and birds, both those which are merely of flight, and those which frequent the lakes. He adds that those parts of the country p. 39 which bordered upon Arabia were without water, and barren; but that the parts which lay on the other side were both hilly and fertile. At Babylon there was (in these times) a great resort of people of various nations, who inhabited Chaldea, and lived in a lawless manner like the beasts of the field. In the first year there appeared, from that part of the Erythræan sea which borders upon Babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, by name Oannes, OANNES AND OTHER BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES FROM CYLINDER. Click to enlarge OANNES AND OTHER BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGICAL FIGURES FROM CYLINDER. whose whole body (according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish; that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice, too, and language were articulate and human; and a representation of him is preserved even to this day. This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, but took no food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct cities, to p. 40 found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, he instructed them in every thing which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives. From that time, nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun had set this being Oannes retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes, of which Berosus proposes to give an account when he comes to the history of the kings. Moreover, Oannes wrote concerning the generation of mankind, and of their civil polity; and the following is the purport of what he said:— "There was a time in which there existed nothing but darkness and an abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were produced of a two-fold principle. There appeared men, some of whom were furnished with two wings, others with four, and with two faces. They had one body, but two heads; the one that of a man, the other of a woman; and likewise in their several organs both male and female. Other human figures were to be seen with the legs and horns of a goat; some had horses’ feet, while others united the hind quarters of a horse with the body of a man, resembling in shape the hippocentaurs. Bulls likewise were bred there with the heads of men; and dogs with fourfold p. 41 bodies, terminated in their extremities with the tails of fishes; horses also with the heads of dogs; men, too, and other animals, with the heads and bodies of horses, and the tails of fishes. In short, there were creatures in which were combined the limbs of every species of animals. In addition to these, fishes, reptiles, serpents, with other monstrous animals, which assumed each other's shape and countenance. COMPOSITE ANIMALS FROM CYLINDER. Click to enlarge COMPOSITE ANIMALS FROM CYLINDER. [paragraph continues]Of all which were preserved delineations in the temple of Belus at Babylon. "The person who presided over them was a woman named Omoroca, which in the Chaldean language is Thalatth, in Greek Thalassa, the sea; but which might equally be interpreted the moon. All things being in this situation, Belus came, and cut the woman asunder, and of one half of her he formed the earth, and of the other half the heavens, and at the same time destroyed the animals within her (or in the abyss). "All this" (he says) "was an allegorical description of nature. For, the whole universe consisting of p. 42 moisture, and animals being continually generated therein, the deity above-mentioned took off his own head; upon which the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, and from thence formed men. On this account it is that they are rational, and partake of divine knowledge. This Belus, by whom they signify Jupiter, divided the darkness, and separated the heavens from the earth, and reduced the universe to order. But the animals, not being able to bear the prevalence of light, died. Belus upon this, seeing a vast space unoccupied, though by nature fruitful, commanded one of the gods to take off his head, and to mix the blood with the earth, and from thence to form other men and animals, which should be capable of bearing the air. Belus formed also the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets." (Such, according to Polyhistor Alexander, is the account which Berosus gives in his first book.) (In the second book was contained the history of the ten kings of the Chaldeans, and the periods of the continuance of each reign, which consisted collectively of an hundred and twenty sari, or four hundred and thirty-two thousand years; reaching to the time of the Deluge. For Alexander, enumerating the kings from the writings of the Chaldeans, after the ninth Ardates, proceeds to the tenth, who is called by them Xisuthrus, in this manner):— "After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus . reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great p. 43 deluge; the history of which is thus described. The deity Cronos appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Dæsius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things, and to bury it in the city of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board every thing necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity whither he was to sail, he was answered, 'To the Gods;' upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition, and built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put everything which he had prepared, and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends. After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second time; and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. p. 44 [paragraph continues]He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain; upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth: and, having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared. They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called continually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he was translated to live with the gods, that his wife and daughter and the pilot had obtained the same honour. To this he added that they should return to Babylonia, and, as it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to all mankind; moreover, that the place wherein they then were was the land of Armenia. The rest having heard these words offered sacrifices to the gods, and, taking a circuit, journeyed towards Babylonia. The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, some part of it yet remains in the Corcyræan mountains of Armenia, and the people scrape off the bitumen with which it had been outwardly coated, and make use of it by way of an alexipharmic and amulet. p. 45 [paragraph continues]And when they returned to Babylon and had found the writings at Sippara they built cities and erected temples, and Babylon was thus inhabited again.—Syncel. Chron. xxviii.; Euseb. Chron. v. 8. Berosus, from Apollodorus (Cory, p. 30). This is the history which Berosus has transmitted to us. He tells us that the first king was Alorus of Babylon, a Chaldean, he reigned ten sari; and afterwards Alaparus and Amelon, who came from Pantebiblon; then Ammenon the Chaldean, in whose time appeared the Musarus Oannes, the Annedotus from the Erythræan sea. (But Alexander Polyhistor, anticipating the event, has said that he appeared in the first year, but Apollodorus says that it was after forty sari; Abydenus, however, makes the second Annedotus appear after twenty-six sari.) Then succeeded Megalarus from the city of Pantibiblon, and he reigned eighteen sari; and after him Daonus, the shepherd from Pantibiblon, reigned ten sari; in his time (he says) appeared again from the Erythræan sea a fourth Annedotus, having the same form with those above, the shape of a fish blended with that of a man. Then reigned Euedorachus from Pantibiblon for the term of eighteen sari; in his days there appeared another personage from the Erythræan sea like the former, having the same complicated form between a fish and a man, whose name was Odacon. (All these, says Apollodorus, related particularly and circumstantially whatever Oannes p. 46 had informed them of; concerning these Abydenus has made no mention.) Then reigned Amempsinus, a Chaldean from Larancha; and he being the eighth in order reigned ten sari. Then reigned Otiartes, a Chaldean, from Larancha; and he reigned eight sari. And, upon the death of Otiartes, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari; in his time happened the great Deluge. So that the sum of all the kings is ten; and the term which they collectively reigned an hundred and twenty sari.—Syncel. Chron. xxxix.; Euseb. Chron. V. Berosus, From Abydenus (Cory, p. 32). So much concerning the wisdom of the Chaldeans. It is said that the first king of the country was Alorus, and that he gave out a report that God had appointed him to be the shepherd of the people, he reigned ten sari; now a sarus is esteemed to be three thousand six hundred years, a neros six hundred, and a sossus sixty. After him Alaparus reigned three sari; to him succeeded Amillarus from the city of Pantibiblon, who reigned thirteen sari; in his time came up from the sea a second Annedotus, a semi-demon very similar in his form to Oannes; after Amillarus reigned Ammenon twelve sari, who was of the city of Pantibiblon; then Megalarus of the same place reigned eighteen sari; then Daos the shepherd governed for the space of ten sari, he was of Pantibiblon; in his time four double-shaped personages came up out p. 47 of the sea to land, whose names were Euedocus, Eneugamus, Eneuboulus, and Anementus; afterwards in the time of Euedoreschus appeared another, Anodaphus. After these reigned other kings, and last of all Sisithrus, so that in the whole the number amounted to ten kings, and the term of their reigns to an hundred and twenty sari. (And among other things not irrelative to the subject he continues thus concerning the Deluge): After Euedoreschus some others reigned, and then Sisithrus. To him the deity Cronos foretold that on the fifteenth day of the month Dæsius there would be a deluge of rain: and he commanded him to deposit all the writings whatever which were in his possession in the city of the sun in Sippara. Sisithrus, when he had complied with these commands, sailed immediately to Armenia, and was presently inspired by God. Upon the third day after the cessation of the rain Sisithrus sent out birds by way of experiment, that he might judge whether the flood had subsided. But the birds, passing over an unbounded sea without finding any place of rest, returned again to Sisithrus. This he repeated with other birds. And when upon the third trial he succeeded, for the birds then returned with their feet stained with mud, the gods translated him from among men. With respect to the vessel, which yet remains in Armenia, it is a custom of the inhabitants to form bracelets and amulets of its wood.—Syncel. Chron. xxxviii.; Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib. ix.; Euseb. Chron. v. 8. p. 48 Of the Tower of Babel (Cory, p. 34). They say that the first inhabitants of the earth, glorying in their own strength and size and despising the gods, undertook to raise a tower whose top should reach the sky, in the place in which Babylon now stands; but when it approached the heaven the winds assisted the gods, and overthrew the work upon its contrivers, and its ruins are said to be still at Babylon; and the gods introduced a diversity of tongues among men, who till that time had all spoken the same language; and a war arose between Cronos and Titan. The place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon on account of the confusion of tongues, for confusion is by the Hebrews called Babel.—Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib. ix.; Syncel. Chron. xliv.; Euseb. Chron. xiii. Of The Ark, From Nicolaus Damascenus (Cory, p. 49). There is above Minyas in the land of Armenia a very great mountain which is called Baris, to which it is said that many persons retreated at the time of the Deluge and were saved, and that one in particular was carried thither in an ark and was landed on its summit, and that the remains of the vessel were long preserved upon the mountain. Perhaps this was the same individual of whom Moses, the legislator of the Jews, has made mention.—Jos. Ant. Jud. i. 3; Euseb. Præp. Evan. ix. p. 49 Of the Dispersion, from Hestiæus (Cory, p. 50). The priests who escaped took with them the implements of the worship of the Enyalian Jove, and came to Senaar in Babylonia. But they were again driven from thence by the introduction of a diversity of tongues; upon which they founded colonies in various parts, each settling in such situations as chance or the direction of God led them to occupy.—Jos. Ant. Jud. i.e. 4; Euseb. Præp. Evan. ix, Of the Tower of Babel, from Alexander Polyhistor Cory, p. 50) . The Sibyl says: That when all men formerly spoke the same language some among them undertook to erect a large and lofty tower, that they might climb up into heaven. But God sending forth a whirlwind confounded their design, and gave to each tribe a particular language of its own, which is the reason that the name of that city is Babylon. After the deluge lived Titan and Prometheus, when Titan undertook a war against Cronus.—Sync. xliv.; Jos. Ant. Jud. i. c. 4; Euseb. Præp. Evan. ix. The Theogonies, from Damascius (Cory, p. 318). But the Babylonians, like the rest of the barbarians, pass over in silence the One principle of the universe, and they constitute two, Tauthe and Apason, making Apason the husband of Tauthe, and p. 50 denominating her the mother of the gods. And from these proceeds an only-begotten son, Moymis, which I conceive is no other than the intelligible world proceeding from the two principles. From them also another progeny is derived, Dache and Dachus; and again a third, Kissare and Assorus, from which last three others proceed, Anus, and Illinus, and Aus. And of Aus and Davce is born a son called Belus, who, they say, is the fabricator of the world, the Demiurgus. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 51 CHAPTER IV. BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGY. Greek accounts.—Mythology local in origin.—Antiquity.—Conquests.—Colonies.—Three great gods.—Twelve great gods.—Angels.—Spirits.—Anu.—Anatu.—Vul.—Ishtar.—Equivalent to Venus.—Hea.—Oannes.—Merodach.—Bel or Jupiter.—Zirat-banit, Succoth Benoth.—Elu.—Sin the moon god.—Ninip.—Shamas.—Nergal.—Anunit.—Table of gods. IN their accounts of the Creation and of the early history of the human race the Babylonian divinities figure very prominently, but it is difficult in many cases to identify the deities mentioned by the Greek authors, because the phonetic reading of the names of the Babylonian gods is very obscure, and the classical writers often mention these divinities by the terms in their own mythology, which appeared to them to correspond with the Babylonian names. In this chapter it is only proposed to give a general account of some parts of the Babylonian mythology, to show the relationship between the deities and their titles and work. p. 52 Babylonian mythology was local in origin; each of the gods had a particular city which was the seat of his worship, and it is probable that the idea of weaving the gods into a system, in which each should have his part to play, only had its origin at a later time. The antiquity of this mythology may be seen by the fact, that two thousand years before the Christian era it was already completed, and its deities definitely connected into a system which remained with little change down to the close of the kingdom. It is probable that the gods were in early times only worshipped at their original cities or seats, the various cities or settlements being independent of each other; but it was natural as wars arose, and some cities gained conquests over others, and kings gradually united the country into monarchies, that the people of conquering cities should claim that their gods were superior to those of the cities they conquered, and thus carne the system of different ranks or grades among the gods. Again, colonies were sent out of some cities, and the colonies, as they considered themselves sons of the cities they started from, also considered their gods to be sons of the gods of the mother cities. Political changes in early times led to the rise and fall of various cities and consequently of their deities, and gave rise to numerous myths relating to the different personages in the mythology. In some remote age there appear to have been three great cities in the country, Erech, Eridu, and Nipur, and their divinities Anu, Hea, and Bel were considered p. 53 the "great gods" of the country. Subsequent changes led to the decline of these cities, but their deities still retained their position at the head of the Babylonian system. These three leading deities formed members of a circle of twelve gods, also called great. These gods and their titles are given as: 1. Anu, king of angels and spirits, lord of the city of Erech. 2. Bel, lord of the world, father of the gods, creator, lord of the city of Nipur. 3. Hea, maker of fate, lord of the deep, god of wisdom and knowledge, lord of the city of Eridu. 4. Sin, lord of crowns, maker of brightness, lord of the city of Ur. 5. Merodach, just prince of the gods, lord of birth, lord of the city of Babylon. 6. Vul, the strong god, lord of canals and atmosphere, lord of the city of Muru. 7. Shamas, judge of heaven and earth, director of all, lord of the cities of Larsa and Sippara. 8. Ninip, warrior of the warriors of the gods, destroyer of wicked, lord of the city of Nipur. 9. Nergal, giant king of war, lord of the city of Cutha. 10. Nusku, holder of the golden sceptre, the lofty god. 11. Belat, wife of Bel, mother of the great gods, lady of the city of Nipur. p. 54 12. Ishtar, eldest of heaven and earth, raising the face of warriors. Below these deities there was a large body of gods forming the bulk of the pantheon, and below these were arranged the Igege, or angels of heaven, and the Anunnaki, or angels of earth. Below these again came various classes of spirits or genii called Sedu, Vadukku, Ekimu, Gallu, and others; some of these were evil, some good. The relationship of the various principal gods and their names, titles, and offices will be seen by the following remarks. At the head of the Babylonian mythology stands a deity who was sometimes identified with the heavens, sometimes considered as the ruler and god of heaven. This deity is named Anu, his sign is the simple star, the symbol of divinity, and at other times the Maltese cross. Anu represents abstract divinity, and he appears as an original principle, perhaps as the original principle of nature. He represents the universe as the upper and lower regions, and when these were divided the upper region or heaven was called Anu, while the lower region or earth was called Anatu; Anatu being the female principle or wife of Anu. Anu is termed the old god, and the god of the whole of heaven and earth; one of the manifestations of Arm was as the two forms Lahma and Lahama, which probably correspond to the Greek forms Dache and Dachus, see p. 50. These forms are said to have sprung out of the original chaos, and they are p. 55 followed by the two forms sar and kisar (the Kissare and Assorus of the Greeks), sar means the upper hosts or expanse, kisar the lower hosts or expanse; these are also forms of manifestations of Anu and his wife. Aim is also lord of the old city, and he bears the names Alalu and Papsukul. His titles generally indicate height, antiquity, purity, divinity, and he may be taken as the general type of divinity. Anu was originally worshipped at the city of Erech, which was called the city of Anu and Anatu, and the great temple there was called the "house of Anu," or the "house of heaven." Anatu, the wife or consort of Anu, is generally only a female form of Anu, but is sometimes contrasted with him; thus, when Anu represents height and heaven, Anatu represents depth and earth; she is also lady of darkness, the mother of the god Hea, the mother producing heaven and earth, the female fish-god, and she is one of the many goddesses called Istar or Venus. Anu and Anatu have a numerous family; among their sons are numbered Sar-ziri, the king of the desert, Latarak, Abgula, Kusu, and the air-god, whose name is uncertain. The air-god is usually called Vul, he has also the name Pur, and the epithets Ramman or Rimmon, the self-existent, and Uban or Ben. Vul is god of the region of the atmosphere, or space between the heaven and earth, he is the god of rain, of storms and whirlwind, of thunder and lightning, of floods and watercourses. Vul was p. 56 in high esteem in Syria and Arabia, where he bore the name of Daddi; in Armenia he was called Teiseba. Vul is always considered an active deity, and was extensively worshipped. Another important god, a son of Anu, was the god of fire; his name may be read Bil-kan, with the possibility of some connection with the Biblical Tubal Cain and the classical Vulcan. The fire-god takes an active part in the numerous mythological tablets and legends, and he is considered to be the most potent deity in relation to witchcraft and spells generally. The most important of the daughters of Anu was named Istar; she was in some respects the equivalent of the classical Venus. Her worship was at first subordinate to that of Anu, and as she was goddess of love, while Anu was god of heaven, it is probable that the first intention in the mythology was only to represent love as heaven-born; but in time a more sensual view prevailed, and the worship of Istar became one of the darkest features in Babylonian mythology. As the worship of this goddess increased in favour, it gradually superseded that of Anu, until in time his temple, the house of heaven, came to be regarded as the temple of Venus. The planet Venus, as the evening star, was identified with the Ishtar of Erech, while the morning star was Anunit, goddess of Akkad. There were various other goddesses called Istar, among which may be noticed Istar, daughter of Sin p. 57 the moon-god, who is sometimes confounded with the daughter of Anu. A companion deity with Anu is Hea, who is god of the sea and of Hades, in fact of all the lower regions. He has two features, and corresponds in some respects to the Saturn or Cronos of the ancients, in others to their Poseidon or Neptune. Hea is called god of the lower region, he is lord of the sea or abyss; he is lord of generation and of all human beings, he bears the titles lord of wisdom, of mines and treasures; he is lord of gifts, of music, of fishermen and sailors, and of Hades or hell. It has been supposed that the serpent was one of his emblems, and that he was the Oannes of Berosus; these things do not, however, appear in the inscriptions. The wife of Hea was Dav-kina, the Davke of Damascius, who is the goddess of the lower regions, the consort of the deep; and their principal son was Maruduk or Merodach, the Bel of later times. Merodach, god of Babylon, appears in all the earlier inscriptions as the agent of his father Hea; he goes about in the world collecting information, and receives commissions from his father to set right all that appears wrong. Merodach is an active agent in creation, but is always subordinate to his father Hea. In later times, after Babylon had been made the capital, Merodach, who was god of that city, was raised to the head of the Pantheon. Merodach or Bel was identified with the classical Jupiter, but the name Bel, "the lord," was only given to him in times subsequent p. 58 to the rise of Babylon. The wife of Merodach was Zirat-banit, the Succoth Benoth of the Bible. Nebo, the god of knowledge and literature, who was worshipped at the neighbouring city of Borsippa, was a favourite deity in later times, as was also his consort Tasmit. Beside Merodach Hea had a numerous progeny, his sons being principally river gods. A third great god was united with Anu and Hea, his names were Enu, Elu, Kaptu, and Bel; he was the original Bel of the Babylonian mythology, and was lord of the surface of the earth and the affairs of men. Elu was lord of the city of Nipur, and had a consort named Belat or Beltis. Elu, or Bel, is the most active of the gods in the general affairs of mankind, and was so generally worshipped in early times that he came to be regarded as the national divinity, and his temple at the city of Nipur was regarded as the type of all temples. The extensive worship of Bel, and the high honour in which he was held, seem to point to a time when his city, Nipur, was the metropolis of the country. Belat, or Beltis, the wife of Bel, is a famous deity celebrated in all ages, but as the title Belat was only "lady," or "goddess," it was a common one for many goddesses, and the notices of Beltis probably refer to several different personages. The same remark may be applied to the name Istar, or Ishtar, meaning "goddess," which is applied to any female divinity. p. 59 Elu had, like the other gods, a numerous family; his eldest son was the moon-god called Ur, Agu or Aku, Sin and Itu, in later times generally termed Sin. Sin was presiding deity of the city of Ur, and early assumed an important place in the mythology. The moon-god figures prominently in some early legends, and during the time the city of Ur was capital of the country his worship became very extensive and popular in the whole of the country. Ninip, god of hunting and war, was another celebrated son of Elu; he was worshipped with his father at Nipur. Ninip was also much worshipped in Assyria as well as Babylonia, his character as presiding genius of war and the chase making him a favourite deity with the warlike kings of Assur. Sin the moon-god had a son Shamas, or Samas, the sun-god, and a daughter, Istar or Venus. Shamas is an active deity in some of the Izdubar legends and fables, but he is generally subordinate to Sin. In the Babylonian system the moon takes precedence of the sun, and the Shamas of Larsa was probably considered a different deity to Shamas of Sippara. Among the other deities of the Babylonians may be counted Nergal, god of Cutha, who, like Ninip, presided over hunting and war, and Anunit, the deity of one city of Sippara, and of the city of Akkad. The following table will exhibit the relationship of the principal deities; but it must be noted that the p. 60 [paragraph continues]Assyrian inscriptions are not always consistent, either as to the sex or paternity of the gods:— Click to enlarge Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 61 CHAPTER V. BABYLONIAN LEGEND OF THE CREATION. Mutilated condition of tablets.—List of subjects.—Description of chaos.—Tiamat.—Generation of gods.—Damascius.—Comparison with Genesis.—Three great gods.—Doubtful fragments.—Fifth tablet.—Stars.—Planets.—Moon.—Sun.—Abyss or chaos.—Creation of moon,—Creation of animals.—Man.—His duties.—Dragon of sea.—Fall.—Curse for disobedience.—Discussion.—Sacred tree.—Dragon or serpent.—War with Tiamat.—Weapons.—Merodach.—Destruction of Tiamat.—Mutilation of documents.—Parallel Biblical account.—Age of story. I HAVE related in the first chapter the history of the discovery of this legend; the tablets composing it are in mutilated condition, and too fragmentary to enable a single tablet to be completed, or to give more than a general view of the whole subject. The story, so far as I can judge from the fragment, agrees generally with the account of the Creation in the Book of Genesis, but shows traces of having originally included very much more matter. The fragments of the story which I have arranged are as follows:— p. 62 1. Part of the first tablet, giving an account of the Chaos and the generation of the gods. 2. Fragment of subsequent tablet, perhaps the second on the foundation of the deep. 3. Fragment of tablet placed here with great doubt, probably referring to the creation of land. 4. Part of the fifth tablet, giving the creation of the heavenly bodies. 5. Fragment of seventh? tablet, giving the creation of land animals. 6. Fragments of three tablets on the creation and fall of man. 7. Fragments of tablets relating to the war between the gods and evil spirits. These fragments indicate that the series included at least twelve tablets, the writing on each tablet being in one column on the front and back, and probably including over one hundred lines of text. The first fragment in the story is the upper part of the first tablet, giving the description of the void or chaos, and part of the generation of the gods. The translation is: 1. When above, were not raised the heavens: 2. and below on the earth a plant had not grown up; 3. the abyss also had not broken open their boundaries: 4. The chaos (or water) Tiamat (the sea) was the producing-mother of the whole of them. p. 63 5. Those waters at the beginning were ordained; but 6. a tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded. 7. When the gods had not sprung up, any one of them; 8. a plant had not grown, and order did not exist; 9. Were made also the great gods, 10. the gods Lahmu and Lahamu they caused to come . . . . . 11. and they grew . . . . . . 12. the gods Sar and Kisar were made . . . . 13. A course of days, and a long time passed . . . 14. the god Anu . . . . . . 15. the gods Sar and . . . . . . 16. . . . . . . On the reverse of this tablet there are only fragments of the eight lines of colophon, but the restoration of the passage is easy, it reads:— 1. First tablet of "When above" (name of Creation series). 2. Palace of Assurbanipal king of nations, king of Assyria, 3. to whom Nebo and Tasmit attentive ears have given: 4. he sought with diligent eyes the wisdom of the inscribed tablets, 5. which among the kings who went before me, 6. none those writings had sought. 7. The wisdom of Nebo, the impressions? of the god my instructor? all delightful, p. 64 8. on tablets I wrote, I studied, I observed, and 9. for the inspection of my people within my palace I placed This colophon will serve to show the value attached to the documents, and the date of the present copies. The fragment of the obverse, broken as it is, is precious as giving the description of the chaos or desolate void before the Creation of the world, and the first movement of creation. This corresponds to the first two verses of the first chapter of Genesis. 1. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." On comparing the fragment of the first tablet of the Creation with the extract front Damascius, we do not find any statement as to there being two principles at first called Tauthe and Apason, and these producing Moymis, but in the Creation tablet the first existence is called Mummu Tiamatu, a name meaning the "sea-water" or "sea chaos." The name Mummu Tiamatu combines the two names Moymis and Tauthe of Damascius. Tiamatu appears also as Tisallat and agrees with the Thalatth of Berosus, which we are expressly told was the sea. It is evident that, according to the notion of the Babylonians, the sea was the origin of all things, and this also agrees with the statement of Genesis, i. 2. where the chaotic waters are called ‏תהום‎, "the deep," the same word as p. 65 the Tiamat of the Creation text and the Tauthe of Damascius. The Assyrian word Mummu is probably connected with the Hebrew ‏מהומה‎, confusion, and one of its equivalents is Umun, equal to the Hebrew ‏המרן‎ noise or tumult. Beside the name of the chaotic deep called ‏תהו‎ in Genesis, which is, as I have said, evidently the Tiamat of the Creation text, we have in Genesis the word ‏תהו‎, waste, desolate, or formless, applied to this chaos. This appears to be the tehuta of the Assyrians—a name of the sea-water ("History of Assurbanipal," p. 59); this word is closely connected with the word tiamat or tamtu, the sea. The correspondence between the inscription and Genesis is here complete, both stating that a watery chaos preceded the creation, and formed, in fact, the origin and groundwork of the universe. We have here not only an agreement in sense, but, what is rarer, the same word used in both narratives as the name of this chaos, and given also in the account of Damascius. Berosus has certainly the slightly different form Thalatth, with the same sense however, and it might be suspected that this word was a corruption of Tiamat, but the Babylonian word is read Tiamtu, Tiamat, and Tisallat, which last is more probably the origin of the word Thalatth of Berosus. Next we have in the inscription the creation of the gods Lahma or Lahmu, and Lahama or Lahamu; these are male and female personifications of motion and production, and correspond to the Dache and p. 66 [paragraph continues]Dachus of Damascius, and the moving ‏רוח‎, wind, or spirit of Genesis. The next stage in the inscription gives the production of Sar or Ilsar, and Kisar, representing the upper expanse and the lower expanse, and corresponding to the Assorus and Kissare of Damascius. The resemblance in these names is probably closer than here represented, for Sar or Ilsar is generally read Assur as a deity in later times, being an ordinary sign for the supreme god of the Assyrians. Here the cuneiform text becomes so mutilated that little can be made out from it, but it appears from the fragment of line 14 that the next step was (as in Damascius) the generation of the three great gods, Anu, Elu, and Hea, the Anus, Illinus, and Aus of that writer. Anu represents the heaven, Elu the earth, and Hea the sea, in this new form of the universe. It is probable that the inscription went on to relate the generation of the other gods, and then passed to the successive acts of creation by which the world was fashioned. The successive forms Lahma and Lahama, Sar and Kisar, are represented in some of the god lists as names or manifestations of Anu and Anatu. In each case there appears to be a male and female principle, which principles combine in the formation of the universe. The resemblance between the extract from Damascius and the account in the Creation tablet as to p. 67 these successive stages or forms in the Creation, is striking, and leaves no doubt that there was a connection between the two. The three next tablets in the Creation series are absent, there being only two doubtful fragments of this part of the story. Judging from the analogy of the Book of Genesis, we may conjecture that this part of the narrative contained the description of the creation of light, of the atmosphere or firmament, of the dry land, and of plants. One fragment to which I have alluded as probably belonging to this space is a small portion of the top of a tablet referring to the fixing of the dry land; but it may belong to a later part of the story, for it is part of a speech to one of the gods. This fragment is— 1. When the foundations of the ground of rock [thou didst make] 2. the foundation of the ground thou didst call . . 3. thou didst beautify the heaven . . . . . . 4. to the face of the heaven . . . . . . 5. thou didst give . . . . . . 6. . . . . . . There is a second more doubtful fragment which appears to belong to this space, and, like the last, seems to relate part of the creation of the dry land. I give it here under reserve— 1. The god Sar . . . pan . . . . 2. When to the god . . . . 3. Certainly I will cover? . . . 4. from the day that thou . . . . p. 68 5. angry thou didst speak . . . . 6. Sar (or Assur) his mouth opened and spake, to the god . . . . 7. Above the sea which is the seat of . . . . 8. in front of the esara (firmament?) which I have made . . . . 9. below the place I strengthen it . . . . 10. Let there be made also e-lu (earth?) for the dwelling of [man?] 11. Within it his city may he build and . . . . 12. When from the sea he raised . . . . 13. the place . . . . lifted up . . . . 14. above . . . . heaven . . . . 15. the place . . . . lifted up . . . . 16 . . . . Pal-bi-ki the temples of the great gods. . . . 17 . . . . his father and his . . . . of him 18. the god . . . . thee and over all which thy hand has made 19 . . . . thee, having, over the earth which thy hand has made 20 . . . . having, Pal-bi-ki which thou hast called its name 21 . . . . made? my hand for ever 22 . . . . may they carry 23. the place . . . . any one the work which . . . 24. he rejoiced . . . . to after . . . . 25. the gods . . . . 26. which in . . . . 27. he opened . . . p. 69 This fragment is both mutilated and obscure; in the eighth line I have translated firmament with a query, the sound and meaning of the word being doubtful; and in line 10, I translate earth for a combination of two characters more obscure still, my translation being a conjecture grounded on some meanings of the individual monograms. Pal-bi-ki are the characters of one name of the city of Assur; but I do not understand the introduction of this name here. The next recognizable portion of the Creation legends is the upper part of the fifth tablet, which gives the creation of the heavenly bodies, and runs parallel to the account of the fourth day of creation in Genesis. This tablet opens as follows:— Fifth Tablet of Creation Legend. Obverse. 1. It was delightful, all that was fixed by the great gods. 2. Stars, their appearance [in figures] of animals he arranged. 3. To fix the year through the observation of their constellations, 4. twelve months (or signs) of stars in three rows he arranged, 5. from the day when the year commences unto the close. p. 70 6. He marked the positions of the wandering stars (planets) to shine in their courses, 7. that they may not do injury, and may not trouble any one, 8. the positions of the gods Bel and Hea he fixed with him. 9. And he opened the great gates in the darkness shrouded 10. the fastenings were strong on the left and right. 11. In its mass (i.e. the lower chaos) he made a boiling, 12. the god Uru (the moon) he caused to rise out, the night he overshadowed, 13. to fix it also for the light of the night, until the shining of the day, 14. That the month might not be broken, and in its amount be regular. 15. At the beginning of the month, at the rising of the night, 16. his horns are breaking through to shine on the heaven. 17. On the seventh day to a circle he begins to swell, 18. and stretches towards the dawn further. 19. When the god Shamas (the sun) in the horizon of heaven, in the east, 20. . . . . . formed beautifully and . . . . 21. . . . . . . to the orbit Shamas was perfected 22. . . . . . . .the dawn Shamas should change 23. . . . . . . . . going on its path p. 71 24. . . . . . . . . giving judgment 25. . . . . . . . . to tame 26. . . . . . . . . a second time 27. . . . . . . . . Reverse. 1. . . . . . . . . 2. . . . . . he fixed 3. . . . of the gods on his hearing. 4. Fifth tablet of "When above" (Creation series). 5. Country of Assurbanipal king of nations king of Assyria. This fine fragment is a typical specimen of the style of this series, and shows a marked stage in the Creation, the appointment of the heavenly orbs. It parallels the fourth day of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis, where we read: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: "15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. "16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. "17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, "18. And to rule over the day and over the night, p. 72 and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. "19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." The fragment of the first tablet of the Creation series showed that that was rather introductory, and dealt with the generation of the gods more than the creation of the universe, and the fact that the fifth tablet contains the Creation given in Genesis, under the fourth day, while a subsequent tablet, probably the seventh, gives the creation of the animals which, according to Genesis, took place on the sixth day, leads to the inference that the events of each of the days of Genesis were recorded on a separate tablet, and that the numbers of the tablets generally followed in the same order as the days of Creation in Genesis, thus: Genesis, Chap. I. V. 1 & 2 agree with Tablet 1. V. 3 to 5 1st day probably with tablet 2. V. 6 to 8 2nd day probably with tablet 3. V. 9 to 13 3rd day probably with tablet 4. V. 14 to 19 4th day agree with tablet 5. V. 20 to 23 5th day probably with tablet 6. V. 24 & 25 6th day probably with tablet 7. V. 26 and following, 6th and 7th day, probably with tablet 8. The tablet which I think to be the eighth appears to give the Creation and Fall of Man, and is followed by several other tablets giving apparently the war p. 73 between the gods and the powers of evil, but all of these are very mutilated, and no number can be positively proved beyond the fifth tablet. There is, however, fair reason to suppose that there was a close agreement in subjects and order between the text of the Chaldean legend and Genesis, while there does not appear to be anything like the same agreement between these inscriptions and the accounts transmitted to us through Berosus (see pp. 37-50). The fifth tablet commences with the statement that the previous creations were "delightful," or satisfactory, agreeing with the oft-repeated statement of Genesis, after each act of creative power, that "God saw that it was good." The only difference here is one of detail. It appears that the Chaldean record contains the review and expression of satisfaction at the head of each tablet, while the Hebrew has it at the close of each act. We then come to the creation of the heavenly orbs, which are described in the inscription as arranged like animals, while the Bible says they were set as "lights in the firmament of heaven," and just as the book of Genesis says they were set for signs and seasons, for days and years, so the inscription describes that the stars were set in courses to point out the year. The twelve constellations or signs of the zodiac, and two other bands of constellations are mentioned, just as two sets of twelve stars each are mentioned by the Greeks, one north and one south of the zodiac. I have translated one of these names p. 74 nibir, "wandering stars" or "planets," but this is not the usual word for planet, and there is a star called Nibir near the place where the sun crossed the boundary between the old and new years, and this star was one of twelve supposed to be favourable to Babylonia. It is evident, from the opening of the inscription on the first tablet of the Chaldean astrology and astronomy, that the functions of the stars were according to the Babylonians to act not only as regulators of the seasons and the year, but to be also used as signs, as in Genesis i. 14, for in those ages it was generally believed that the heavenly bodies gave, by their appearance and positions, signs of events which were coming on the earth. The passage given in the eighth line of the inscription, to the effect that the God who created the stars fixed places or habitations for Bel and Hea with himself in the heavens, points to the fact that Anu, god of the heavens, was considered to be the creator of the heavenly hosts; for it is he who shares with Bel and Hea the divisions of the face of the sky. The ninth line of the tablet opens a curious view as to the philosophical beliefs of the early Babylonians. They evidently considered that the world was drawn together out of the waters, and rested or reposed upon a vast abyss of chaotic ocean which filled the space below the world. This dark infernal lake was shut in by gigantic gates and strong fastenings, which prevented the floods from overwhelming the world. When the deity decided to create the p. 75 moon, he is represented as drawing aside the gates of this abyss, and creating a whirling motion like boiling in the dark ocean below; then, at his bidding, from this turmoil, arose the moon like a giant bubble, and, passing through the open gates, mounted on its destined way across the vaults of heaven. The Babylonian account continues with the regulation of the motions of the moon to overshadow the night, to regulate and give light until the dawn of day. The phases of the moon are described: its commencing as a thin crescent at the evening on the first day of the month, and its gradually increasing and travelling further into the night. After the moon the creation of the sun is recorded, its beauty and perfection are extolled, and the regularity of its orbit, which led to its being considered the type of a judge, and the regulator of the world. The Babylonian account of the Creation gives the creation of the moon before that of the sun, in reverse order to that in Genesis, and evidently the Babylonians considered the moon the principal body, while the Book of Genesis makes the sun the greater light. Here it is evident that Genesis is truer to nature than the Chaldean text. The details of the creation of the planets and stars, which would have been very important to us, are unfortunately lost, no further fragment of this tablet having been recovered. The colophon at the close of tablet V. gives us, however, part of the first line of the sixth tablet, but p. 76 not enough to determine its subject. It is probable that this dealt with the creation of creatures of the water and fowls of the air, and that these were the creation of Bel, the companion deity to Anu. The next tablet, the seventh in the series, is probably represented by a curious fragment, which I first found in one of the trenches at Iiouyunjik, and recognized at once as a part of the description of the Creation. This fragment is like some of the others, the upper portion of a tablet much broken, and only valuable from its generally clear meaning. The translation of this fragment is: 1. When the gods in their assembly had created . . . . . . 2. were delightful the strong monsters . . . . . . 3. they caused to be living creatures . . . . . . 4. cattle of the field, beasts of the field, and creeping things of the field . . . . . . 5. . . . . . . they fixed for the living creatures . . . . . . 6. . . . . . . cattle and creeping things of the city they fixed . . . . . . 7. . . . . . . the assembly of the creeping things the whole which were created . . . . . . 8. . . . . . . which in the assembly of my family . . . . . . 9. . . . . . . and the god Nin-si-ku (the lord of noble face) caused to be two . . . . . . 10 . . . . . . the assembly of the creeping things he caused to go . . . . . . p. 77 11. . . . . . . flesh beautiful? . . . . . . 12. . . . . . . pure presence . . . . . . 13. . . . . . . pure presence . . . . . . 14. . . . . . . pure presence in the assembly . . . 15 . . . . . . This tablet corresponds to the sixth day of Creation (Genesis, i. 24–25): "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good." The Assyrian tablet commences with a statement of the satisfaction a former creation, apparently that of the monsters or whales, had given; here referring to Genesis i. 23. It then goes on to relate the creating of living animals on land, three kinds being distinguished, exactly agreeing with the Genesis account, and then we have in the ninth line a curious but broken account of Nin-si-ku (one of the names of Hea), creating two beings to be with the animals, the wording of the next fragmentary lines leading to the suspicion that this was the opening of the account of the creation of man. This, however, is only a suspicion, for the lines are so mutilated and obscure that nothing can be fairly proved from them. It is curious here, however, to notice a tablet which refers p. 78 to the creation of man. In this tablet, K 63, the creation of the human race is given to Hea, and all the references in other inscriptions make this his work. In considering the next fragments, those which really relate to man, there is great difficulty; for, in the first fragment to be noticed, on one side the mutilation of the tablet renders the sense totally uncertain; in the space lost there may be a string of negatives which would entirely reverse the meaning. It is probable that the other side of the fragment is a discourse to the first woman on her duties. I think it to be the reverse of the tablet which, so far as it can be translated, appears to give the speech of the deity to the newly created pair (man and woman) instructing them in their duties. K 3364 obverse. (Many lines lost.) 1. evil . . . . 2. which is eaten by the stomach . . . . 3. in growing . . . . 4. consumed . . . . 5. extended, heavy, . . . . 6. firmly thou shalt speak . . . . 7. and the support of mankind . . . thee 8. Every day thy god thou shalt approach (or invoke) 9. sacrifice, prayer of the mouth and instruments . . . . . . 10. to thy god in reverence thou shalt carry. p. 79 11. Whatever shall be suitable for divinity, 12. supplication, humility, and bowing of the face, 13. fire? thou shalt give to him, and thou shalt bring tribute, 14. and in the fear also of god thou shalt be holy. 15. In thy knowledge and afterwards in the tablets (writing) 16. worship and goodness . . . shall be raised? 17. Sacrifice saving . . . . 18. and worship . . . . 19. the fear of god thou shalt not leave . . . . 20. the fear of the angels thou shalt live in . . . . 21. With friend and enemy? speech thou shalt make? . . . . 22. under? speech thou shalt make good . . . . 23. When thou shalt speak also he will give . . . . 24. When thou shalt trust also thou . . . . 25. to enemy? also . . . . 26. . . . thou shalt trust a friend . . . . 27. . . . thy knowledge also Reverse. (Many lines lost.) 1. Beautiful place also . . . . divide . . . . 2. in beauty and . . . . thy hand . . . . 3. and thou to the presence . . . . thou shalt fix . . . 4. and not thy sentence . . . . thee to the end? 5. in the presence of beauty and . . . . thou shalt speak 6. of thy beauty and . . . . p. 80 7. beautiful and . . . . to give drink? 8. circle I fill? his enemies 9. his rising? he seeks . . . . the man . . . . 10. with the lord of thy beauty thou shalt be faithful, 11. to do evil thou shalt not approach him, 12. at thy illness . . . . to him 13. at thy distress . . . . The obverse of this tablet is a fragment of the address from the deity to the newly created man on his duties to his god, and it is curious that while, in other parts of the story, various gods are mentioned by name, here only one god is mentioned, and simply as the "God." The fragments of this tablet might belong to the purest system of religion; but it would in this case be wrong to ground an argument on a single fragment. The reverse of the tablet appears, so far as the sense can be ascertained, to be addressed to the woman, the companion of the man, informing her of her duties towards her partner. The next fragment is a small one; it is the lower corner of a tablet with the ends of a few lines. It may possibly belong to the tablet of the Fall to be mentioned later. This fragment is of importance, small as it is, because it mentions a speech of Hea to man, and alludes to the Karkartiamat, or dragon of the sea, in connection with a revolt against the deity. The fragment is, however, too mutilated to give more than a general idea of its contents. p. 81 Obverse. 1. . . . . seat her 2. . . . . all the lords 3. . . . . his might 4. . . . . the gods, lord lofty? 5. . . . . kingdom exalted 6. . . . . in multitudes increase Reverse. 1. . . . . Hea called to his man 2. . . . . height of his greatness 3. . . . . the rule of any god 4. . . . . Sartulku knew it 5. . . . . his noble . . . . 6. . . . . his fear? Sartulku 7. . . . . his might 8. . . . . to them, the dragon of the sea 9. . . . . against thy father fight Connected with this fragment is the account of the curse after the Fall, on the remarkable fragment which I brought over from my first expedition to Assyria. This forms about half a tablet, being part of the obverse and reverse, both in fair preservation; and so far as they go, fairly perfect, but containing at present many obscurities in the speeches of the gods. Before the commencement of lines 1, 5, 11, 19, 27, and 29 on the obverse, there are glosses stating that the divine titles commencing these lines all apply to the same deity. These explanatory glosses show p. 82 that even in the Assyrian time there were difficulties in the narrative. Obverse. 1. The god Zi . . . . . 2. which he had fixed . . . . . 3. their account . . . . . 4. may not fail in preparing? . . . . . 5. The god Ziku (Noble life) quickly called; Director of purity, 6. good kinsman, master of perception and right, 7. causer to be fruitful and abundant, establisher of fertility, 8. another to us has come up, and greatly increased, 9. in thy powerful advance spread over him good, 10. may he speak, may he glorify, may he exalt his majesty. 11. The god Mir-ku (noble crown) in concern, raised a protection? 12. lord of noble lips, saviour from death 13. of the gods imprisoned, the accomplisher of restoration, 14. his pleasure he established he fixed upon the gods his enemies, 15. to fear them he made man, 16. the breath of life was in him. 17. May he be established, and may his will not fail, 18. in the mouth of the dark races which his hand has made. 19. The god of noble lips with his five fingers sin may he cut off; p. 83 20. who with his noble charms removes the evil curse. 21. The god Libzu wise among the gods, who had chosen his possession, 22. the doing of evil shall not come out of him, 23. established in the company of the gods, he rejoices their heart. 24. Subduer of the unbeliever . . . . . 25. director of right . . . . . 26. of corruption and . . . . . 27. The god Nissi . . . . . 28. keeper of watch . . . . . 29. The god Suhhab, swiftly . . . . . 30. the pourer out to them . . . . . 31. in . . . . . 32. like . . . 33 . . . . . Reverse. 1. . . . . . 2. . . . . . the star . . . . . 3. may he take the tail and head . . . . . 4. because the dragon Tiamat had . . . . . 5. his punishment the planets possessing . . . . 6. by the stars of heaven themselves may they . . 7. like a sheep may the gods tremble all of them 8. may he bind Tiamat her prisons may he shut up and surround. 9. Afterwards the people of remote ages 10. may she remove, not destroy . . . for ever, p. 84 11. to the place he created, he made strong. 12. Lord of the earth his name called out, the father Elu 13. in the ranks of the angels pronounced their curse. 14. The god Hea heard and his liver was angry, 15. because his man had corrupted his purity. 16. He like me also Hea may he punish him, 17. the course of my issue all of them may he remove, and 18. all my seed may he destroy. 19. In the language of the fifty great gods 20. by his fifty names he called, and turned away in anger from him: 21. May he be conquered, and at once cut off. 22. Wisdom and knowledge hostilely may they injure him. 23. May they put at enmity also father and son and may they plunder. 24. to king, ruler, and governor, may they bend their ear. 25. May they cause anger also to the lord of the gods Merodach. 26. His land may it bring forth but he not touch it; 27. his desire shall be cut off, and his will be unanswered; 28. the opening of his mouth no god shall take notice of; 29. his back shall be broken and not be healed; 30. at his urgent trouble no god shall receive him; p. 85 31. his heart shall be poured out, and his mind shall be troubled; 32. to sin and wrong his face shall come . . . . . 33. . . . . . front . . . . . 34. . . . . . In a second copy which presents several variations lines 14 to 19 are omitted. This valuable fragment is unfortunately obscure in some parts, especially on the obverse, but the general meaning is undoubted, and the approximate position of the fragment in the story is quite clear. It evidently follows the fragment giving the creation of the land animals, and either forms a further portion of the same, or part of the following tablet. The obverse gives a series of speeches and statements respecting the newly created man, who was supposed to be under the especial care of the deities. It happens in this case that there is no clue to the reason for these speeches, the key portions of the inscription being lost, but a point is evidently made of the purity of the man, who is said to be established in the company of the gods and to rejoice their hearts. The various divine titles or names, "the god of noble life," "the god of noble crown," and "the god of noble lips," are all most probably titles of Hea. It appears from line 18 that the race of human beings spoken of is the zalmat-qaqadi, or dark race, and in various other fragments of these legends they p. 86 are called Admi or Adami, which is exactly the name given to the first man in Genesis. The word Adam used in these legends for the first human being is evidently not a proper name, but is only used as a term for mankind. Adam appears as a proper name in Genesis, but certainly in some passages is only used in the same sense as the Assyrian word, and we are told on the creation of human beings (Genesis, v. 1): "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created." It has already been pointed out by Sir Henry Rawlinson that the Babylonians recognized two principal races: the Adamu, or dark race, and the Sarku, or light race, probably in the same manner that two races are mentioned in Genesis, the sons of Adam and the sons of God. It appears incidentally . from the fragments of inscriptions that it was the race of Adam, or the dark race, which was believed to have fallen, but there is at present no clue to the position of the other race in their system. We are informed in Genesis that when the world became corrupt the sons of God intermarried with the race of Adam, and thus spread the evils which had commenced with the Adamites (see Genesis, ch. vi.). The obverse of the tablet giving the creation of man, where it breaks off leaves him in a state of purity, and where the narrative recommences on the reverse man has already fallen. p. 87 Here it is difficult to say how far the narrative of the inscription agrees with that of the Bible. In this case it is better to review the Biblical account, which is complete, and compare it with the fragmentary allusions in the inscriptions. After the statement of man's innocence, which agrees with the inscription, the Bible goes on to relate (Genesis, iii. 1), that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, and that he tempted the woman to sin. This attributes the origin of sin to the serpent, but nothing whatever is said as to the origin or history of the serpent. The fragmentary account of the Fall in the inscriptions mentions the dragon Tiamat, or the dragon of the sea, evidently in the same relation as the serpent, being concerned in bringing about the Fall. This dragon is called the dragon of tiamat or the sea; it is generally conceived of as a griffin, and is connected with the original chaos, the Thalatth of Berosus, the female principle which, according to both the inscriptions and Berosus, existed before the creation of the universe. This was the original spirit of chaos and disorder, a spirit opposed in principle to the gods, and, according to the Babylonians, self-existent and eternal, older even than the gods, for the birth or separation of the deities out of this chaos was the first step in the creation of the world. According to Genesis, the serpent addressed the woman (Genesis, iii. 1), and inquired if God had forbidden them to eat of every tree of the Garden of p. 88 [paragraph continues]Eden, eliciting from her the statement that there was a tree in the middle of the Garden, the fruit of which was forbidden to them. There is nothing in the present fragments indicating a belief in the Garden of Eden or the Tree of Knowledge; there is only an obscure allusion in lines 16 and 22 to a thirst for knowledge having been a cause of man's fall, but outside these inscriptions, from the general body of Assyrian texts, Sir Henry Rawlinson has pointed out the agreement of the Babylonian region of Karduniyas or Ganduniyas with the Eden of the Bible. Eden is a fruitful place, watered by the four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Gihon, and Pison, and Ganduniyas is similar in description, watered by the four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Surappi, and Ukni. The loss of this portion of the Creation legend is unfortunate, as, however probable it may be that the Hebrew and Babylonian traditions agree about the Garden and Tree of Knowledge, we cannot now prove it. There is a second tree, the Tree of Life, in the Genesis account (ch. iii. 22), which certainly appears to correspond to the sacred grove of Anu, which a later fragment states was guarded by a sword turning to all the four points of the compass. In several other places in the Genesis legends, and especially in the legends of Izdubar, there are allusions to the tree, grove, or forest of the gods, and this divine tree or grove is often represented on the sculptures, both in the Babylonian gem engravings, and on the walls of the Assyrian palaces and temples. When p. 89 the representation is complete, the tree is attended by two figures of cherubims, one on each side of the sacred emblem. According to Genesis, Adam and Eve, tempted by SACRED TREE, OR GROVE, WITH ATTENDANT CHERUBIM, FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge SACRED TREE, OR GROVE, WITH ATTENDANT CHERUBIM, FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. the serpent, eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and so by disobedience brought sin into the world. These details are also lost in the cuneiform text, which opens again where the gods are cursing the dragon and the Adam or man for this transgression, corresponding to the passage, Genesis, iii. 9 to 19. Throughout this, corresponding passages may be found which show that the same idea runs through both narratives, but some passages in the cuneiform account are too mutilated to allow any certainty to be attached to the translation, and the loss of the previous parts of the text prevents our knowing what points the allusions are directed to. Although so much of the most important part of the text is lost, the notices in other parts, and the allusions in the mythological scenes on the Babylonian gems will serve to guide us as to the probable drift of the missing portion. p. 90 It is quite clear that the dragon of the sea or dragon of Tiamat is connected with the Fall like the serpent in the book of Genesis, and in fact is the equivalent of the serpent. The name of the dragon is not written phonetically, but by two monograms which probably mean the "scaly one," or animal covered with scales. This description, of course, might apply either to a fabulous dragon, a serpent, or a fish. The only passage where there is any phonetic explanation of the signs is in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. ii. p. 32, l. 9, where we have turbuhtu for the place or den of the dragon, perhaps connected with the Hebrew ‏רחב‎, sea-monster. The form of this creature as given on the gems is that of a griffin or dragon generally with a head like a carnivorous animal, body covered with scales, legs terminating in claws, like an eagle, and wings on the back. Our own heraldic griffins are so strikingly like the sculptures of this creature that we might almost suspect them to be copies from the Chaldean works. In some cases, however, the early Babylonian seals, which contained devices taken from these legends, more closely approached the Genesis story. One striking and important specimen of early type in the British Museum collection has two figures sitting one on each side of a tree, holding out their hands to the fruit, while at the back of one is stretched a serpent. We know well that in these early sculptures none of these figures were chance devices, but all represented events p. 91 or supposed events, and figures in their legends; thus it is evident that a form of the story of the Fall, similar to that of Genesis, was known in early times in Babylonia. The dragon which, in the Chaldean account of the SACRED TREE, SEATED FIGURE ON EACH BIDES AND SERPENT IN BACKGROUND, PROM AN EARLY BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge SACRED TREE, SEATED FIGURE ON EACH BIDES AND SERPENT IN BACKGROUND, PROM AN EARLY BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. [paragraph continues]Creation, leads man to sin, is the creature of Tiamat, the living principle of the sea and of chaos, and he is an embodiment of the spirit of chaos or disorder which was opposed to the deities at the creation of the world. It is clear that the dragon is included in the curse for the Fall, and that the gods invoke on the head of the human race all the evils which afflict humanity. Wisdom and knowledge shall injure him (line 22), he shall have family quarrels (line 23), shall submit to tyranny (line 24), he will anger the gods (line 25), he shall not eat the fruit of his labour (line 26), he shall be disappointed in his desires (line 27), he shall pour out useless prayer (lines 28 and 30), he shall have trouble of mind and body (lines 29 and 31), he shall commit future sin (line 32). No p. 92 doubt subsequent lines continue these topics, but again our narrative is broken, and it only reopens where the gods are preparing for war with the powers of evil, which are led by Tiamat, which war probably arose from the part played by Tiamat in the fall of man. My first idea of this part was that the war with the powers of evil preceded the Creation; I now think it followed the account of the Fall, but I have no direct proof of this. Of the subsequent tablets of this series, which include the war between the gods and powers of evil, and the punishment of the dragon Tiamat, there are several fragments. The first of these is K 4832, too mutilated to translate, it contains speeches of the gods before the war. The second fragment, K 3473, contains also speeches, and shows the gods preparing for battle. It is very fragmentary. 1. . . . . his mouth opened 2. . . . . his . . a word he spoke 3. . . . . satisfy my anger 4. . . . . of thee let me send to thee 5. . . . . thou ascendest 6. . . . . thee to thy presence 7. . . . . their curse 8. . . . . in a circle may they sit 9. . . . . let them make the vine? 10. . . . . of them may they hear the renown 11. . . . . cover them he set and p. 93 12. . . . . thee change to them 13. . . . . he sent me 14. . . . . he held me 15. . . . . he sinned against me 16. . . . . and angrily . . . . 17. . . . . the gods all of them 18. . . . . made her hands . . . . 19. . . . . and his hand Tiamat coming 20. . . . . destroyed not night and day 21. . . . . burning . . . 22. . . . . they made division 23. . . . . the end of all hands 24. . . . . formerly thou . . . great serpents 25. . . . . unyielding I . . . . 26. . . . . their bodies fill . . . . 27. . . . . fear shall cover them (Several other mutilated lines.) The third fragment, K 3938, is on the same subject; some lines of this give the following general meaning:— 1. great animal . . . . 2. fear he made to carry . . . . 3. their sight was very great . . . . 4. their bodies were powerful and . . . . 5. . . . . delightful, strong serpent . . . . 6. Udgallu, Urbat and . . . . 7. days arranged, five . . . . 8. carrying weapons unyielding . . . . 9. her breast, her back . . . . 10. flowing? and first . . . . p. 94 11. among the gods collected . . . . 12. the god Kingu subdued . . . . 13. marching in front before . . . . 14. carrying weapons thou . . . . 15. upon war . . . . 16. his hand appointed There are many more similar broken lines, and on the other side fragments of a speech by some being who desires Tiamat to make war. All these fragments are not sufficiently complete to translate with certainty, or even to ascertain their order. The fourth fragment, K 3449, relates to the making of weapons to arm the god who should meet in war the dragon. This reads with some doubt on account of its mutilation: 1. heart . . . . . 2. burning . . . . . 3. from . . . . . 4. in the temple . . . . . 5. may he fix . . . . . 6. the dwelling of the god . . . . . 7. the great gods . . . . . 8. the gods said? . . . . . 9. the sword that was made the gods saw 10. and they saw also the bow which was strung . . . . . 11. the work that was made they placed . . . . . 12. carried also Anu in the assembly of the gods . . . . . p. 95 13. the bow he fitted she . . . . . 14. and he spake of the bow thus and said 15. Noble wood who shall first thus draw thee? against? 16. speed her punishment the star of the bow in heaven . . . . . 17. and establish the resting place of . . . . . 18. from the choice of . . . . . 19. and place his throne . . . . . 20. . . . . . in heaven . . . . . 21. . . . . . The next fragment or collection of fragments gives BEL ENCOUNTERING THE DRAGON; FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge BEL ENCOUNTERING THE DRAGON; FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. the final struggle between Tiamat and Merodach or Bel, and this fragment appears to distinguish between the dragon of Tiamat or the sea monster, and Tiamat the female personification of the sea; but I am not sure of this distinction. The saparu, or sickle-shaped sword, is always represented both in the sculptures and inscriptions as a weapon of Bel in this war. Sixth Fragment. 1. . . . . he fixed . . . . 2. . . . . to his right hand he distributed p. 96 3. . . . . and quiver his hand hurled, 4. the lightning he sent before him, 5. . . . . fierceness filled his body. 6. He made the sword to silence the dragon of the sea, 7. the seven winds he fixed not to come out of her wound. 8. On the South, the North, the East, and the West, 9. his hand the sword he caused to hold before the grove of his father the god Anu. 10. He made the evil wind, the hostile wind, the tempest, the storm, 11. the four winds, the seven winds, the wind of . . . ., the irregular wind. 12. He brought out the winds he had created seven-of them, 13. the dragon of the sea stretched out, came after him, 14. he carried the thunderbolt his great weapon, 15. in a chariot . . . unrivalled, driving he rode: 16. he took her and four fetters on her hands he fastened, 17. . . . . unyielding, storming . . . . her 18. . . . . with their sting bringing death 19. . . . . sweeping away knowledge 20. . . . . destruction and fighting 21. . . . . left hand . . . . 22. . . . . fear . . . . (Several other fragmentary lines.) p. 97 Reverse. 1. . . . . . the god Sar . . . . . 2. . . . . . dwelling . . . . . 3. . . . . . before the weapon . . . . . 4. . . . . . field . . . . . 5. . . . . . above . . . . . 6. . . . . . struck to the god . . . . . 7. . . . . . them . . . . . 8. . . . . . cut into . . . . . 9. . . . . . said to his wife . . . . . 10. . . . . . him to break the god . . . . . 11. . . . . . evil? thou shalt be delivered and . . . . . 12. . . . . . thy evil thou shalt subdue, 13. the tribute to thy maternity shall be forced upon them by thy weapons, 14. I will stand by and to thee they shall be made a spoil. 15. Tiamat on hearing this 16. at once joined and changed her resolution. 17. Tiamat called and quickly arose, 18. strongly and firmly she encircled with her defences, 19. she took a girdle? and placed . . . . . 20. and the gods for war prepared for them their weapons. 21. Tiamat attacked the just prince of the gods Merodach, 22. the standards they raised in the conflict like a battle. 23. Bel also drew out his sword and wounded her. p. 98 24. The evil wind coming afterwards struck against her face. 25. Tiamat opened her mouth to swallow him, 26. the evil wind he caused to enter, before she could shut her lips; 27. the force of the wind her stomach filled, and 28. her heart trembled, and her face was distorted, 29. . . . . . violently seized her stomach, 30. her inside it broke, and conquered her heart. 31. He imprisoned her, and her work he ended. 32. Her allies stood over her astonished, 33. when Tiamat their leader was conquered. 34. Her ranks he broke, her assembly was scattered, 35. and the gods her helpers who went beside her 36. trembled, feared, and broke up themselves, 37. the expiring of her life they fled from, 38. war surrounding they were fleeing not standing? 39. . . . . . them and their weapons he broke 40. like a sword cast down, sitting in darkness, 41. knowing their capture, full of grief, 42. their strength removed, shut in bonds, 43. and at once the strength of their work was overcome with terror, 44. the throwing of stones going . . . . 45. He cast down the enemy, his hand . . . . 46. part of the enemy under him . . . . 47. and the god Kingu again . . . . 48. . . . . . . . . Again the main difficulty arises from the fragmentary p. 99 state of the documents, it being impossible even to decide the order of the fragments. It appears, however, that the gods have fashioned for them a sword and a bow to fight the dragon Tiamat, and Anu proclaims great honour (fourth fragment, lines 15 to 20) to any of the gods who will engage in battle with her. Bel or Merodach volunteers, and goes forth armed with these weapons to fight the dragon. Tiamat is encouraged by one of the gods MERODACH, OR BEL, ARMED FOR THE CONFLICT WITH THE DRAGON; FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge MERODACH, OR BEL, ARMED FOR THE CONFLICT WITH THE DRAGON; FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER. who has become her husband, and meets Merodach in battle. The description of the fight and the subsequent triumph of the god are very fine, and remarkably curious in their details, but the connection between the fragments is so uncertain at present that it is better to reserve comment upon them until the text is more complete. This war between the powers of good and evil, chaos and order, is extra to the Creation, does not correspond with anything in Genesis, but rather finds its parallel in the war p. 100 between Michael and the dragon in Revelation, xii. 7 to 9, where the dragon is called "the great dragon, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world." This description is strikingly like the impression gathered from the fragments of the cuneiform story; the dragon Tiamat who fought against the gods and led man to sin, and whose fate it was to be conquered in a celestial war, closely corresponds in all essential points to the dragon conquered by Michael. These fragments of the cuneiform account of the Creation and Fall agree so far as they are preserved with the Biblical account, and show that in the period from B.C. 2000 to 1500 the Babylonians believed in a similar story to that in Genesis. FIGHT BETWEEN BEL AND THE DRAGON, FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Click to enlarge FIGHT BETWEEN BEL AND THE DRAGON, FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 101 CHAPTER VI. OTHER BABYLONIAN ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION. Cuneiform accounts originally traditions.—Variations.—Account of Berosus.—Tablet from Cutha.—Translation.—Composite animals.—Eagle-headed men.—Seven brothers.—Destruction of men.—Seven wicked spirits.—War in heaven.—Variations of story.—Poetical account of Creation. IN the last chapter I have given the fragments of the principal story of the Creation and Fall from the cuneiform inscriptions, but it appears from the tablets that all these legends were "traditions" or "stories" repeated by word of mouth, and afterwards committed to writing. When such traditions are not reduced to writing, and depend on being handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, they are liable to vary, sometimes very widely, according to the period and condition of the country. Thus many different versions of a story arise, and there can be no doubt that this was actually the case with the Creation legends. There must p. 102 have been a belief in the Creation and some of the leading features of this story long before these Creation legends were committed to writing, and there is evidence of other stories, related to those already given, which were at about the same time committed to writing. The story of the Creation transmitted through Berosus (see chapter iii. pp. 37–50) supplies us with a totally different story, differing entirely from the cuneiform account in the last chapter and from the Genesis account, and some fragments of tablets from Kouyunjik belonging to the library of Assurbanipal give a copy, mutilated as usual, of another version having many points of agreement with the account of Berosus. This legend, of which the following is a translation, is stated to be copied from a tablet at Cutha. Legend of Creation from Cutha tablet. (Many lines lost at commencement.) 1. lord of . . . . 2. . . . . his lord the strength of the gods . . . . 3. . . . . his host . . . . host . . . . 4. lord of the upper region and the lower region lord of angels . . . . 5. who drank turbid waters and pure water did not drink, 6. with his flame, his weapon, that man he enclosed, 7. . . . . he took, he destroyed, 8. on a tablet nothing was then written, and there were not left the carcasses and waste? p. 103 9. from the earth nothing arose and I had not come to it. 10. Men with the bodies of birds of the desert, human beings 11. with the faces of ravens, 12. these the great gods created, 13. and in the earth the gods created for them a dwelling. 14. Tamat gave unto them strength, 15. their life the mistress of the gods raised, 16. in the midst of the earth they grew up and became great, 17. and increased in number, 18. Seven kings brothers of the same family, 19. six thousand in number were their people, 20. Banini their father was king, their mother 21. the queen was Milili, 22. their eldest brother who went before them, Mimangab was his name, 23. their second brother Midudu was his name, 24. their third brother . . . . tur was his name, 25. their fourth brother . . . . dada was his name, 26. their fifth brother . . . . tah was his name, 27. their sixth brother . . . . ru was his name, 28. their seventh brother . . . . was his name. Column II. (Many lines lost.) 1. . . . . evil . . . . 2. man his will turned p. 104 3. in . . . . I purified? 4. On a tablet the evil curse of man he carved? 5. I called the worshippers and sent, 6. seven in width and seven in depth I arranged them. 7. I gave them noble reeds? (pipes?) 8. I worshipped also the great gods 9. Ishtar, . . . ., Zamama, Anunitu 10. Nebo . . . . Shamas the warrior, 11. the gods listened to my doings 12. . . . . he did not give and 13. thus I said in my heart: 14. Now here am I and 15. let there not . . . . ground 16. let . there not . . . . 17. may I go as I trust in Bel . . . . my heart, 18. and . . . . my iron may I take. 19. In the first year in the course of it 20. one hundred and twenty thousand men I sent out and among them, 21. one of them did not return. 22. In the second year in the course of it, ninety thousand the same. 23. In the third year in the course of it, sixty thousand seven hundred the same. 24. They were rooted out they were punished, I eat, 25. I rejoiced, I made a rest. 26. Thus I said in my heart now here am I and 27. at this time what is left? p. 105 28. I the king, am not the preserver of his country, 29. and the ruler is not the preserver of his people. 30. When I have done may corpses and waste be left, 31. the saving of the people from night, death, spirits, curses, (Many more broken lines, meaning quite uncertain.) Fragment of Column III. 1. . . . I caused to pursue . . . . 2. . . . . blood . . . . . . . . . 3. in the midst of them twelve men fled from me. 4. After them I pursued, swiftly I went, 5. those men, I captured them 6. those men I turned . . . . . 7. Thus I said in my heart . . . . . Column IV. (Several lines lost at commencement.) 1. to . . . . . 2. the powerful king . . . . 3. the gods . . . . 4. hand . . . . take them 5. thou king, viceroy, prince, or any one else, 6. whom God shall call, and who shall rule the kingdom, 7. who shall rebuild this house, this tablet I write to thee, 8. in the city of Cutha, in the temple of Sitlam, 9. in the sanctuary of Nergal, I leave for thee; p. 106 10. this tablet see, and, 11. to the words of this tablet listen, and 12. do not rebel, do not fail, 13. do not fear, and do not turn away, 14. then may thy support be established, 15. thou in thy works shall be glorious, 16. thy forts shall be strong, 17. thy canals shall be full of water, 18. thy treasures, thy corn, thy silver, 19. thy furniture, thy goods, 20. and thy instruments, shall be multiplied. (A few more mutilated lines.) SACRED TREE, ATTENDANT FIGURES AND EAGLE-HEADED MEN, FROM THE SEAL OF A SYRIAN CHIEF, NINTH CENTURY B.C. Click to enlarge SACRED TREE, ATTENDANT FIGURES AND EAGLE-HEADED MEN, FROM THE SEAL OF A SYRIAN CHIEF, NINTH CENTURY B.C. This is a very obscure inscription, the first column, however, forms part of a relation similar to that of Berosus in his history of the Creation; the beings who were killed by the light, and those with men's heads and bird's bodies, and bird's heads and men's bodies, p. 107 agree with the composite monsters of Berosus, while the goddess of chaos, Tiamat, who is over them, is the same again as the Tiamat of the Creation legends and the Thalatth of Berosus. The relation in the second and third columns of the inscription is difficult, and does not correspond with any known incident. The fourth column contains an address to any future king who should read the inscription which was deposited in the temple of Nergal at Cutha. It is probable that this legend was supposed to be the work of one of the mythical kings of Chaldea, who describes the condition and history of the world before his time. There is another legend which appears to be connected with these, the legend of the seven evil spirits, which I have given in my former work, "Assyrian Discoveries," p. 398. Tablet with the story of the Seven Wicked Gods or Spirits. Column I. 1. In the first days the evil gods 2. the angels who were in rebellion, who in the lower part of heaven 3. had been created, 4. they caused their evil work 5. devising with wicked heads . . . p. 108 6. ruling to the river . . . . 7. There were seven of them. The first was . . . 8. the second was a great animal . . . . 9. . . . . which any one . . . . 10. the third was a leopard . . . . 11. the fourth was a serpent . . . . 12. the fifth was a terrible . . . . which to . . . . 13. the sixth was a striker which to god and king did not submit, 14. the seventh was the messenger of the evil wind which . . . . made. 15. The seven of them messengers of the god Anu their king 16. from city to city went round 17. the tempest of heaven was strongly bound to them, 18. the flying clouds of heaven surrounded them, 19. the downpour of the skies which in the bright day 20. makes darkness, was attached to them 21. with a violent wind, an evil wind, they began, 22. the tempest of Vul was their might, 23. at the right hand of Vul they came, 24. from the surface of heaven like lightning they darted, 25. descending to the abyss of waters, at first they came. 26. In the wide heavens of the god Anu the king 27. evil they set up, and an opponent they had not. p. 109 28. At this time Bel of this matter heard and 29. the account sank into his heart. 30. With Hea the noble sage of the gods he took counsel, and 31. Sin (the moon), Shamas (the sun), and Ishtar (Venus) in the lower part of heaven to control it he appointed. 32. With Anu to the government of the whole of heaven he set them up. 33. To the three of them the gods his children, 34. day and night to be united and not to break apart, 35. he urged them. 36. In those days those seven evil spirits 37. in the lower part of heaven commencing, 38. before the light of Sin fiercely they came, 39. the noble Shamas and Vul (the god of the atmosphere) the warrior to their side they turned and 40. Ishtar with Anu the king into a noble seat 41. they raised and in the government of heaven they fixed. Column II. 1. The god . . . . . 2. . . . . . 3. The god . . . . . 4. which . . . . . 5. In those days the seven of them . . . . p. 110 6. at the head in the control to . . . . . 7. evil . . . . . 8. for the drinking of his noble mouth . . . . 9. The god Sin the ruler . . . . mankind 10. . . . . . of the earth 11. . . . . . troubled and on high he sat, 12. night and day fearing, in the seat of his dominion he did not sit. 13. Those evil gods the messengers of Anu their king 14. devised with wicked heads to assist one another, and 15. evil they spake together, and 16. from the midst of heaven like a wind to the earth they carne down. 17. The god Bel of the noble Sin, his trouble 18. in heaven, he saw and 19. Bel to his attendant the god Nusku said: 20. "Attendant Nusku this account to the ocean carry, and 21. the news of my child Sin who in heaven is greatly troubled; 22. to the god Hea in the ocean repeat." 23. Nusku the will of his lord obeyed, and 24. to Hea in the ocean descended and went. 25. To the prince, the noble sage, the lord, the god unfailing, 26. Nusku the message of his lord at once repeated. 27. Hea in the ocean that message heard, and p. 111 28. his lips spake, and with wisdom his mouth was filled. 29. Hea his son the god Merodach called, and this word he spake 30. "Go my son Merodach 31. enter into the shining Sin who in heaven is greatly troubled; 32. his trouble from heaven expel. 33. Seven of them the evil gods, spirits of death, having no fear, 34. seven of them the evil gods, who like a flood 35. descend and sweep over the earth. 36. To the earth like a storm they come down. 37. Before the light of Sin fiercely they came 38. the noble Shamas and Vul the warrior, to their side they turned and . . . . The end of this legend is lost; it probably recorded the interference of Merodach in favour of Sin, the moon god. In this story, which differs again from all the others, Bel is supposed to place in the heaven the Moon, Sun, and Venus, the representative of the stars. The details have no analogy with the other stories, and this can only be considered a poetical myth of the Creation. This legend is part of the sixteenth tablet of the series on evil spirits; but the tablet contains other matters as well, the legend apparently being only quoted in it. There is another remarkable legend of the same sort on another tablet of this series p. 112 published in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. iv. p. 15. The whole of this series concerns the wanderings of the god Merodach, who goes about the world seeking to remove curses and spells, and in every difficulty applying to his father Hea to learn how to combat the influence of the evil spirits, to whom all misfortunes were attributed. Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Chaldean Account of Genesis, by George Smith, [1876], at sacred-texts.com p. 113 CHAPTER VII. THE SIN OF THE GOD ZU. God Zu.—Obscurity of legend.—Translation.—Sin of Zu.—Anger of the gods.—Speeches of Anu to Vul.—Vul's answer.—Speech of Anu to Nebo.—Answer of Nebo.—Sarturda.—Changes to a bird.—The Zu bird.—Bird of prey.—Sarturda lord of Amarda. AMONG the legends of the gods, companion stories to the accounts of the Creation and Deluge, one of the most curious is the legend of the sin committed by the god Zu. This legend stands alone among the stories, its incidents and its principal actor being otherwise almost unknown from cuneiform sources. I have at present only detected one copy of the story, and this is in so mutilated a condition that it cannot be connected with any other of the legends. From some similarity in style, I conjecture that it may form the first tablet of the series which I have termed the "Wars of the Gods." I have, however, no sufficient evidence to connect the two, and for this reason p. 114 give it here a separate place, preceding the tablets of the "Wars of the Gods." The principal actor in the legend is a being named Zu, the name being found in all three cases of an Assyrian noun Zu, Za and Zi. Preceding the name is the determinative of divinity, from which I judge Zu to have been ranked among the gods. The story of the sin of Zu has sometimes reminded me of the outrage of Ham on his father Noah, and the mutilation of Ouranus by his son Saturn, but there is not sufficient evidence to connect the stories, and there are in the Assyrian account several very difficult words. One of these is particularly obscure, and I only transcribe it here by the ordinary phonetic values of the characters um-sim-i, it may possibly mean some talisman or oracle in the possession of Bel, which was robbed from him by Zu. There are besides the two difficult words parzi and tereti, which I have preferred merely transcribing in my translation. It must be added that the inscription is seriously mutilated in some parts, giving additional difficulty in the translation. The tablet containing the account of the sin of Zu, K 3454, in the Museum collection, originally contained four columns of text, each column having about sixty lines of writing. The first and fourth column are almost entirely lost, there not being enough anywhere to translate from. The single fragment preserved, belonging to the p. 115 first column, mentions some being who was the seed or firstborn of Elu or Bel, with a number of titles, such as "warrior, soldier of the temple of Hamsi," and the name of the god Zu occurs, but not so as to prove these titles to be his. The following is a partial translation of the remains of this tablet:— K. 3454. Column I. lost. Column II. 1. the fate? going . . . . of the gods all of them he sent. 2. . . . . . . . . Zu grew old and 3. Zu? like . . . . Bel . . . . him 4. three? streams? of water in front and 5. the work Bel finished? he slept in it. 6. The crown of his majesty, the clothing of his divinity, 7. his umsimi, his crown? Zu stripped, and 8. he stripped also the father of the gods, the venerable of heaven and earth. 9. The desire? of majesty he conceived in his heart, 10. Zu stripped also the father of the gods, the venerable of heaven and earth. 11. The desire? of majesty he conceived in his heart: 12. Let me carry away the umsimi of the gods, 13. and the tereti of all the gods may it burn, p. 116 14. may my throne be established, may I possess the parzi, 15. may I govern the whole of the seed of the angels. 16. And he hardened his heart to make war, 17. in the vicinity of the house where he slept, he waited until the head of the day. 18. When Bel poured out the beautiful waters 19. spread out on the seat his crown? was placed, 20. the umsimi he took in his hand, 21. the majesty he carried off; he cast away the parzi, 22. Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. 23. Then spread darkness, and made a commotion, 24. the father, their king, the ruler Bel. 25. . . . . he sent the glory of the gods 26. divinity was destroyed in . . . . 27. Anu his mouth opened, and spake 28. and said to the gods his sons: 29. Whoever will, let him slay Zu, 30. in all the countries may his name be renowned. 31. To Vul the powerful light the son of Anu 32. a speech he made to him, also and spake to him. 33. To Vul the powerful light the son of Anti 34. a speech he made to him, also and spake to him: 35. Hero Vul let there not be opposition in thee p. 117 36. slay Zu with thy weapon. 37. May thy name be renowned in the assembly of the gods, 38. in the midst of thy brothers, first set up, 39. . . . . made also fragrant with spices, 40. in the four regions they shall fix thy city. 41. May thy city be exalted like the temple, 42. they shall cry in the presence of the gods and praise thy name. 43. Vul answered the speech, 44. to his father Anu word he spake; 45. Father to a desert country do thou consign him. 46. Let Zu not come among the gods thy sons, 47. for the umsimi he took in his hand, 48. the majesty he carried off, he cast away the parzi, 49. and Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. 50. . . . . . opening his mouth like the venerable of heaven and earth 51. . . . . . . . . like mud 52. . . . . . was, the gods swept away 53. . . . . . I will not go he said. (Sixteen lines lost here, part on this column, part on Column III.) Column III. 1. and Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. p. 118 2. . . . . opening his mouth like the venerable of heaven and earth 3. . . . . . . . . like mud 4. . . . . was, the gods swept away 5. . . . . I will not go he said. 6. To Nebo the powerful . . . . the child of Ishtar, 7. a speech he made to him also and spake to him: 8. Hero Nebo let there not be opposition in thee, 9. slay Zu with thy weapon. 10. May thy name be renowned in the assembly of the gods, 11. . . . . made also fragrant with spices, 12. in the four regions they shall fix thy city. 13. May thy city be exalted like the temple, 14. they shall cry in the presence of the gods and praise thy name. 15. Nebo answered the speech, 16. to his father Anu word he spake: 17. Father to a desert country do thou consign him. 18. Let Zu not come among the gods thy sons, l 9. for the umsimi he took in his hand, 20. the majesty he carried off he cast away the parzi, 21. and Zu fled away and in his country concealed himself. 22. . . . . . opening his mouth like the venerable of heaven and earth p. 119 About ten lines lost here. 33. And thus the god . . . . 34. I also . . . . 35. and thus . . . . 36. He heard also . . . . 37. he turned . . . . 38. The god of noble face . . . . 39. to Anu . . . . Column IV. lost. Such are the fragments of the story so far as they can be translated at present. The divine Zu here mentioned whose sin is spoken of is never counted among the gods, and there would be no clue to his nature were it not for a curious tablet printed in "Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. iv. p. 14, from which it appears that he was in the likeness of a bird of prey. This tablet gives the following curious relation: 1. The god Sarturda (the lesser king) to a country a place remote [went], 2. in the land of Sabu . . . . . [he dwelt]. 3. His mother had not placed him and had not . . . . 4. his father had not placed him and with him did not [go], 5. the strength of his knowledge . . . . 6. From the will of his heart a resolution he did not. . . . 7. In his own heart a resolution he made, 8. to the likeness of a bird he changed, p. 120 9. to the likeness of the divine storm bird (or Zu bird) he changed, 10. his wife forcibly he associated with, 11. the wife of the divine Zu bird, the son of the divine Zu bird, 12. in companionship he made sit. 13. The goddess Enna, the lady of Tigenna, 14. in the mountain he loved, 15. a female fashioned? of her mother in her likeness, 16. the goddess of perfumes a female fashioned? of her mother in her likeness 17. Her appearance was like bright ukni stone, 18. her girdle was adorned with silver and gold, 19. brightness was fixed in . . . . 20. brightness was set in . . . . Many lines lost here, the story recommences on reverse. 1. . . . . the crown he placed on his head 2. from the nest of the divine Zu bird he came. This Zu bird I suppose to be the same as the god Zu of the inscriptions, his nature is shown by a passage in the annals of Assurnazirpal ("Cuneiform Inscriptions," vol. i. p. 22, col. ii. l. 107), where he says his warriors "like the divine zu bird upon them darted." This bird is called the cloud or storm bird, the flesh eating bird, the lion or giant bird, the bird of prey, the bird with sharp beak, and it evidently indicates some ravenous bird which was deified by the p. 121 [paragraph continues]Babylonians. Some excellent remarks on the nature of this bird are given by Delitzsch in his "Assyrische studien," pp. 96, 116. In the legend of Sarturda it is said that he changed into a Zu bird. Sarturda which may be explained "the young king" was lord of the city of Amarda or Marad, and he is said to have been the deity worshipped by Izdubar. The Zu of the legend, who offends against Bel, I suppose to be the same as the divine bird of prey mentioned in the other inscriptions, otherwise we have no mention in any other inscription of this personage. In the story of the offence of Zu there is another instance of the variations which constantly occur in the Assyrian inscriptions with respect to the relationship of the gods. Nebo is usually called son of Merodach, but in this inscription he is called son of Anu. In my translation of the legend on K 3454, the sin of Zu is very obscure, and I am quite unable to see through the allusions in the text; but it is quite evident that his sin was considered to be great, as it raises the anger of Bel, and causes Anu to call on his sons in succession to slay Zu; while the sons of the god Anu request that he may be expelled from the company of the gods. The second legend, in which the god Sarturda changes into a Zu bird, is as obscure as the first, there being also in this doubtful words and mutilated passages. p. 122 [paragraph continues]Sarturda, although a celebrated god in early times, is seldom mentioned in the later inscriptions, and there is no information anywhere as to the females or goddesses mentioned in the legend. The idea of the gods sometimes changing themselves into animals was not uncommon in early times. The explanation of these legends must be left until the meanings of several words in them are better known. Return to Main index Return to Ancient Near East index ADAPA AND THE FOOD OF LIFE [from "Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testament " by R.W. Rogers, 1912]. [Summary: Adapa, or perhaps Adamu, son of Ea, had recieved from his father, the god Ea, wisdom, but not eternal life. He was a semi-divine being and was the wise man and priest of the temple of Ea at Eridu, which he provided with the ritual bread and water. In the exercise of this duty he carried on fishing upon the Persian Gulf. When Adapa was fishing one day on a smooth sea, the south wind rose suddenly and overturned his boat, so that the was thrown into the sea. Angered by the mishap, he broke the wings of the south wind so that for seven days it could not blow the sea's coolness over the hot land. Anu calls Adapa to account for this misdeed, and his father Ea warns him as to what should befall him. He tells him how to fool Tammuz and Gishzida, who will meet him at the gate of heaven. Ea cautions him not to eat or drink anything in heaven, as Ea fears that the food and drink of death will be set before Adapa. However, the food and drink of eternal life are set before him instead, and Adapa's over-caution deprives him of immortality. He has to return to Earth instead.] TABLET NO.1 He possessed intelligence . . . , His command like the command of Anu ... He (Ea) granted him a wide ear to reveal the destiny of the land, He granted him wisdom, but he did not grant him eternal life. In those davs, in those years the wise man of Eridu, Ea had created him as chief among men, A wise man whose command none should oppose, The prudent, the most wise among the Anunnaki was he, Blameless, of clean hands, anointed, observer of the divine statutes, With the bakers he made bread With the bakers of Eridu, he made bread, The food and the water for Eridu he made daily, With his clean hands he prepared the table, And without him the table was not cleared. The ship he steered, fishing and hunting for Eridu he did. Then Adapa of Eridu While Ea, ... in the chamber, upon the bed. Daily the closing of Eridu he attended to. Upon the pure dam, the new moon dam) he embarked upon the ship, The wind blew and his ship departed, With the oar, be steered his ship Upon the broad sea . . . TABLET NO. 2 ................. The south wind .... when He had driven me to the house of my lord, I said, O South wind, on the way I shall to thee ... everything that, Thy wing, will I break." As be spoke with his mouth, The wing of the South wind was broken, seven davs The South wind blew not upon the land. Anu Called to his messenger Ilabrat: Why has the South wind not blown upon the land for seven davs? His messenger Ilabrat answered him: "My lord, Adapa, the son of Ea, the wing of the South wind Has broken." When Anu heard these words He cried, Help!" He ascended his throne, "Let some one bring him," Likewise Ea, who knows the heaven. He roused him ... he caused him to wear. With a mourning garment He garbed him, and gave him counsel Saying: " Adapa, before the face of Anu the King thou art to go ... to heaven When thou comest up, and when thou approachest the door of Anu, At the door of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida are standing, "they will see thee, they will ask thee; 'Sir,' For whose sake dost thou so appear, Adapa? For whom Art thou clad in a mourning garment?' 'In our country two gods have vanished, therefore Am I so.' 'Who are the two gods, who in the land Have vanished?' 'Tammuz and Gishzida.' They will look at one another and Be astonished. Good words They will speak to Anu. A good countenance of Anu They will show thee. When thou standest before Anu Food of death they will set before thee, Eat not. Water of death they will set before thee, Drink not. Garments they will set before thee, Put them on. Oil they will set before thee, anoint thyself. The counsel that I have given thee, forget not. The words Which I have spoken, hold fast." The messenger Of Anu came: "Adapa has broken The wing of the South wind. Bring him before me." The road to Heaven he made him take, and to Heaven he ascended. When he came to Heaven, when he approached the door of Anu, At the door of Ann, Tammuz and Gisbzida are standing. When they saw him, Adapa, they cried: " Help, Sir, for whom dost thou so appear? Adapa, For whom art thou clad in a mourning garment?" In the country two gods have vanished; therefore am I clad In mourning garments." "Who are the two gods, who have vanished from the land?" "Tammuz and Gishzida." They looked at one another and Were astonished. When Adapa before Anu, the King, Drew near, and Anu saw him, he cried: " Come hither, Adapa. Why hast thou broken the wings Of the South wind? " Adapa answered Ann: " My lord, For the house of my lord in the midst of the sea, I was catching fish. The sea was like a mirror, The South wind blew, and capsized me. To the house of my lord was I driven. In the anger of my heart, I took heed." Tammuz and Gishzida Answered ... "art thou." To Anu They speak. He calmed himself, his heart was . . . "Why has Ea revealed to impure mankind The heart of heaven and earth? A heart ... has created within him, has made him a name? What can we do with him? Food of life Bring him, that be man, eat."Food of life They brought him, but he ate not. Water of life They brought him, but he drank not. Garments They brought him. He clothed himself. Oil They brought him. He anointed himself. Anu looked at him; he wondered at him. " Come, Adapa, why hast thou not eaten, not drunken? Now thou shalt not live." ... men ...Ea, my lord Said: "Eat not, drink not." Take him and bring him back to his earth. ... looked upon him. TABLET NO. 3 "When heard that In the anger of his heart His messenger he sent. He who knows the heart of the great gods ............ To King Ea to come, To him, he caused words to be borne. ... to him, to King Ea. He sent a messenger With a wide ear, knowing the heart of the great gods, ... of the heavens be fixed. A soiled garment he made him wear, With a mourning garment he clad him, A word he spoke to him. "Adapa, before the King Anu thou shalt go Fail not the order, keep my word When thou comest up to heaven, and approachest the door of Anu, Tammuz and Gishzida at the door of Anu are standing.

The Chaldean Account of the Deluge.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index The Chaldean Account of the Deluge by George Smith Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology 2 [1873] 213-34. A short time back I discovered among the Assyrian tablets in the British Museum, an account of the flood; which, under the advice of our President, I now bring before the Society. For convenience of working, I had divided the collection of Assyrian tablets in the British Museum into sections, according to the subject matter of the inscriptions. I have recently been examining the division comprising the Mythological and Mythical tablets, and from this section I obtained a number of tablets, giving a curious series of legends and including a copy of the story of the Flood. On discovering these documents, which were much mutilated, I searched over all the collections of fragments of inscriptions, consisting of several thousands of smaller pieces, and ultimately recovered 80 fragments of these legends; by the aid of which I was enabled to restore nearly all the text of the description of the Flood, and considerable portions of the other legends. These tablets were originally at least twelve in number, forming one story or set of legends, the account of the Flood being on the eleventh tablet. Of the inscription describing the Flood, there are fragments of three copies containing the same texts; these copies belong to the time of Assurbanipal, or about 660 years before the Christian era, and they were found in the library of that monarch in the palace at Nineveh. The original text, according to the statements on the tablets, must have belonged to the city of Erech, and it appears to have been either written in, or translated into the Semitic Babylonian, at a very early period. The date when this document was first written or translated is at present very difficult to decide, but the following are some of the evidences of its antiquity: 1st. The three Assyrian copies present a number of variant readings, which had crept into the text since the original documents were written. 2nd. The forms of the characters in the original documents were of an ancient type, and the Assyrian copyist did not always know their modern representatives, so he has left some of them in their original hieratic form. 3rd. There are a number of sentences which were originally glosses explanatory of the subjects; before the Assyrian copies were made these glosses had been already incorporated in the text and their original use lost. It must here be noted that the Assyrian scribe has recorded for us the divisions of the lines on the original documents. On examining the composition of the text, some marked peculiarities are apparent, which likewise show its high antiquity. one of these is the constant use of the personal pronoun nominative. In later times this was usually indicated by the verbal form, but not expressed. On comparing the Deluge text with dated texts from the time of Sargon I, it appears to be older than these, and its original composition cannot be placed later than the seventeenth century before the Christian era; while it may be much older. The text itself professes to belong to the time of a monarch whose name, written in monograms, I am unable to read phonetically; I therefore provisionally call him by the ordinary values of the signs of his name, Izdubar. Izdubar, from the description of his reign, evidently belonged to the Mythical period; the legends given in these tablets, the offer of marriage made to him by the goddess Ishtar, the monsters living at the time, Izdubar's vision of the gods, his journey to the translated Sisit, with a curious account of a mythical conquest of Erech when the gods and spirits inhabiting that city changed themselves into animals to escape the fury of the conqueror: all these things and many others show the unhistorical nature of the epoch. From the heading of the tablets giving his history, I suppose that Izdubar lived in the epoch immediately following the Flood, and I think, likewise, that he may have been the founder of the Babylonian monarchy, perhaps the Nimrod of Scripture. This, however, is pure conjecture; so many fabulous stories were current in Babylonia respecting Izdubar that his existence may even be doubted. The fragments of the history of Izdubar, so far as I have at present examined them, remind me of the exploits and labors of Hercules, and, on the supposition that our present version of Berosus is correct as to dates, Izdubar may have been placed about 30,000 years before the Christian era. No document can belong to so remote an age. The legends of Izdubar and the account of the Flood must however belong to a very early period, for there are references to the story in the bilingual lists which were composed in Babylonia during the early Chaldean empires. The question might here be asked, "How is it that we find an early Chaldean document from Erech transported to Nineveh, copied, and placed in the royal library there?" On this point we can show that it was a common custom for the Assyrians to obtain and copy Babylonian works, and a considerable portion of Assyrian literature consists of these copies of older standard writings. Assurbanipal, the Assyrian monarch in whose reign the Deluge Tablets were copied, had intimate relations with the city of Erech. Erech remained faithful to him when the rest of Babylonia revolted, and to this city Assurbarripal restored the famous image of the goddess Nana, which had been carried away by the Elamites one thousand six hundred and thirty-five years before. In order properly to understand the reason why the narrative of the Flood is introduced into the story, it will be necessary to give a short account of the tablets which precede it before giving the translation of the Deluge inscription itself. It appears that Izdubar, the hero of these legends, flourished as before stated, in the mythical period soon after the Flood, and the center of most of his exploits was the city of Erech, now called Warka, which must have been one of the most ancient cities in the world. Four cities only are mentioned in these inscriptions, Babel, Erech, Surippak, and Nipur. Two of these, Babel and Erech, are the first two capitals of Nimrod, and the last one, Nipur, according to the Talmud, is the same as Calneh the fourth city of Nimrod. Of the first five tablets of the history of Izdubar I have not recognized any fragments, but in the mass of material which I have collected it is possible that some portions may be long to this part of the story. The following passage forms the opening of the sixth tablet and shows the style of the writing. Before giving the translation I must notice that in various places the tablets are broken and the texts defective: as I cannot point out each of these defective passages, I will endeavor to indicate them by pausing in my reading. 1. . . . . . Belesu, he despised Belesu 2. like a bull his country he ascended after him 3. he destroyed him, and his memorial perished 4. the country was subdued, and after he took the crown 5. Izdubar put on his crown, and after he took the crown 6. for the favor of Izdubar, the princess Ishtar lifted her eyes. 7. And she spake thus, "Izdubar thou shalt be husband 8. thy word me shall bind in bonds, 9. thou shalt be husband and I will be thy wife, 10. thou shalt drive in a chariot of Ukni stone and gold, 11. of which its body is gold and splendid its pole 12. thou shalt ride in days of great glory 13. to Bitani, in which is the country where the pine trees grow. 14. Bitani at thy entrance 15. to the Euphrates shall kiss thy feet. 16. There shall be in subjection under thee, kings, lords, and princes. 17. The tribute of the mountains and plains they shall bring to thee, taxes 18. . . . . . . . they shall give thee, thy herds and flocks shall bring forth twins 19. . . . . . . . the mule shall be swift 20. . . . . . . . in the chariot shall be strong and not weak 21. . . . . . . . in the yoke. A rival shall not be permitted." Ishtar, who was the same as Venus, was queen of beauty, but some what inconstant, for she had already a husband, a deity, called the "Son of Life"; she however led her husband a poor life, and of this Izdubar reminds her in his answer to her offer. One of the next exploits of Izdubar and Heabani his servant was the conquest of the winged bull, a monster supposed to have existed in those days; but I must pass over this and other matters, to approach the subject of the Flood. In course of time Izdubar, the conqueror of kings and monsters, the ruler of peoples, fell into some illness and came to fear death, man's last great enemy. Now, the Babylonians believed in the existence of a patriarch named Sisit, the Xisuthrus of the Greeks, who was supposed to have been translated and to have attained to immortality without death. Izdubar, according to the notions of the time, resolved to seek Sisit, to ascertain how he became immortal, that he might attain to a similar honor. The passage reads as follows: 1. Izdubar to Heabani his servant 2. bitterly lamented and lay down on the ground 3. I the account took from Heabani and 4. weakness entered into my soul 5. death I feared and I lay down on the ground 6. to find Sisit son of Ubaratutu 7. the road I was taking and joyfully I went 8. to the shadows of the mountains I took at night 9. the gods I saw and I feared 10. . . . . . . to Sin I prayed 11. and before the gods my supplication came 12. peace they gave unto me 13. and they sent unto me it dream. The dream of Izdubar is unfortunately very mutilated, few fragments of it remaining, and his subsequent journey is not in much better condition. It appears that he went through a number of adventures, and three men are represented, in one place, to be telling each other the story of these adventures. After long wanderings, Izdubar falls into company with a seaman named Urbamsi, a name similar to the Orchamus of the Greeks. Izdubar and Urhamsi fit out a vessel to continue the search for Sisit, and they sail along for a month and fifteen days, and arrive at some region near the mouth of the Euphrates, where Sisit was supposed to dwell. in this journey by water there are fresh adventures and, in their course, Urharnsi tells Izdubar of the waters of death, of which he states, "The waters of death thy hands will not cleanse." At the time when Izdubar and Urhamsi are approaching him, Sisit is sleeping.The tablet here is too mutilated to inform us how they came to see each other, but it appears probable from the context that Sisit was seen in company with his wife, a long distance off, separated from Izdubar by a stream. Unable to cross this water which divided the mortal from the immortal, Izdubar appears to have called to Sisit and asked his momentous question on life and death. The question asked by Izdubar and the first part of the answer of Sisit are lost by the mutilation of the tablet. The latter part of the speech of Sisit, which is preserved, relates to the danger of death, its universality, &c. It winds up as follows: "The goddess Mamitu the maker of fate to them their fate has appointed, she has fixed death and life, but of death the day is not known." These words, which close the first speech of Sisit, bring us to the end of the tenth tablet; the next one, the eleventh, is the most important of the series, as it contains the history of the Flood. The eleventh tablet opens with a speech of Izdubar, who now asks Sisit how he became immortal, and Sisit, fit answering, relates the story of the Flood and his own piety as the reason why he was translated. The following is the translation of this tablet: 1. Izdubar after this manner said to Sisit afar off, 2. ". . . . . . Sisit 3. The account do thou tell to me, 4. The account do thou tell to me, 5. . . . . . to the midst to make war 6. . . . . . I come up after thee. 7. say how thou hast done it, and in the circle of the gods life thou hast gained." 8. Sisit after this manner said to Izdubar, 9. "I will reveal to thee, Izdubar, the concealed story, 10. and the wisdom of the gods I will relate to thee. 11. The city Surippak the city which thou hast established . . . . . . . . . placed 12. was ancient, and the gods within it 13. dwelt, a tempest . . . . . their god, the great gods 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anu 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bel 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ninip 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lord of Hades 18. their will revealed in the midst of . . . . . 19 . . . . . . . hearing and he spoke to me thus 20. Surippakite son of Ubaratutu 21. make a great ship for thee . . . . . . . 22. I will destroy the sinners and life . . . . . 23. cause to go in the seed of life all of it, to preserve them 24. the ship which thou shalt make 25. . . . cubits shall be the measure of its length, and 26. . . . cubits the amount of its breadth and its height. 27. Into the deep launch it." 28. I perceived and said to Hea my lord, 29. "Hea my lord this that thou commandest me 30. I will perform, it shall be done. 31. . . . . . . . . army and host 32. Hea opened his mouth and spake, and said to me his servant, 33. . . . . . . . . thou shalt say unto them, 34. . . . . . . . . he has turned from me and 35. . . . . . . . . . . . .fixed . . . . . . . . . . Here there are about fifteen lines entirely lost. The absent passage probably described part of the building of the ark. 51. it . . . . . . . . 52. which in . . . . . . . . 53. strong . . . . . . I brought 54. on the fifth day . . . . . it 55. in its circuit 14 measures . . . . its sides 56. 14 measures it measured . . . . over it 57. I Placed its roof on it . . . . . I enclosed it 58. I rode in it, for the sixth time I . . . . . . for the seventh time 59. into the restless deep . . . . . for the . . . . time 60. its planks the waters within it admitted, 61. I saw breaks and holes . . . . . . my hand placed 62. three measures of bitumen I poured over the outside, 63. three measures of bitumen I poured over the inside 64. three measures the men carrying its baskets took they . . . . . fixed an altar 65. I unclosed the altar . . . . . the altar for an offering 66. two measures the altar . . . . Pazziru the pilot 67. for . . . . . . . . slaughtered oxen 68. of . . . . . . . . . in that day also 69. . . . . . . . . . . . altar and grapes 70. . . . . . . . . . . . like the waters of a river and 71. . . . . . . . . . . . like the day I covered and 72. . . . . when . . . . . covering my hand placed, 73. . . . .and Shamas . . . . the material of the ship completed, 74. . . . . . . . . . strong and 75. reeds I spread above and below. 76. . . . . . . went in two thirds of it. 77. All I possessed I collected it, all I possessed I collected of silver, 78. all I possessed I collected of gold, 79. all I possessed I collected of the seed of life, the whole 80. I caused to go up into the ship, all my male and female servants, 81. the beasts of the field, the animals of the field, and the sons of the army all of them, I caused to go up. 82. A flood Shamas made, and 83. he spake saying in the night, 'I will cause it to rain from heaven heavily; 84. enter to the midst of the ship, and shut thy door,' 85. A flood he raised, and 86. he spake saying in the night, 'I will cause it to rain from heaven heavily.' 87. In the day that I celebrated his festival 88. the day which he had appointed; fear I had, 89. I entered to the midst of the ship, and shut my door; 90. to guide the ship, to Buzursadirabi the pilot, 91. the palace I gave to his hand. 92. The raging of a storm in the morning 93. arose, from the horizon of heaven extending and wide 94. Vul in the midst of it thundered, and 95. Nebo and Saru went in front; 96. the throne bearers went over mountains and plains; 97. the destroyer Nergal overturned; 98. Ninip went in front, and cast down; 99. the spirits carried destruction; 100. in their glory they swept the earth; 101. of Vul the flood, reached to heaven; 102. the bright earth to a waste was turned; 103. the surface of the earth, like . . . . it swept; 104. it destroyed all life, from the face of the earth . . . . . 105. the strong tempest over the people, reached to heaven. 106. Brother saw not his brother, it did not spare the people. In heaven 107. the gods feared the tempest, and 108. Sought refuge; they ascended to the heaven of Anu. 109. The gods, like dogs with tails hidden, couched down. 110. Spake Ishtar a discourse, 111. uttered the great goddess her speech 112. 'The world to sin has turned, and 113. then I in the presence of the gods prophesied evil; 114. when I prophesied in the presence of the gods evil, 115. to evil were devoted all my people, and I prophesied 116. thus, 'I have begotten man and let him not 117. like the sons of the fishes fill the sea.' 118. The gods concerning the spirits, were weeping with her: 119. the gods in seats, seated in lamentation; 120. covered were their lips for the coming evil. 121. Six days and nights 122. passed, the wind tempest and storm overwhelmed, 123. on the seventh day in its course, was calmed the storm, and all the tempest 124. which had destroyed like an earthquake, 125. quieted. The sea he caused to dry, and the wind and tempest ended. 126. I was carried through the sea. The doer of evil, 127. and the whole of mankind who turned to sin, 128. like reeds their corpses floated. 129. I opened the window and the light broke in, over my refuge 130. it passed, I sat still and 131. over my refuge came peace. 132. I was carried over the shore, at the boundary of the sea. 133. For twelve measures it ascended over the land. 134. To the country of Nizir, went the ship; 135. the mountain of Nizir stopped the ship, and to pass over it, it was not able. 136. The first day and the second day, the mountain of Nizir the same. 137. The third day and the fourth day, the mountain of Nizir the same. 138. The fifth and sixth, the mountain of Nizir the same. 139. On the seventh day in the course of it 140. I sent forth a dove, and it left. The dove went and searched and 141. a resting place it did not find, and it returned. 142. I sent forth a swallow, and it left. The swallow went and searched and 143. a resting place it did not find, and it returned. 144. I sent forth a raven, and it left. 145. The raven went, and the corpses on the waters it saw, and 146. it did eat, it swam, and wandered away, and did not return. 147. I sent the animals forth to the four winds I poured out a libation 148. I built an altar on the peak of the mountain, 149. by sevens herbs I cut, 150. at the bottom of them, I placed reeds, pines, and simgar. 151. The gods collected at its burning, the gods collected at its good burning. 152. the gods like flies over the sacrifice gathered, 153. From of old also, the great God in his course, 154. the great brightness of Arm had created; when the glory 155. of these gods, as of Ukni stone, on my countenance I could not endure; 156. in those days I prayed that for ever I might not endure. 157. May the gods come to my altar; 158. may Bel not come to my altar 159. for he did not consider and had made a tempest 160. and my people he had consigned to the deep 161. from of old, also Bel in his course 162. saw the ship, and went Bel with anger filled to the gods and spirits; 163. let not any one come out alive, let not a man be saved from the deep. 164. Ninip his mouth opened and spake, and said to the warrior Bel, 165. 'who then will be saved,' Hea the words understood, 166. and Hea knew all things, 167. Hea his mouth opened and spake, and said to the warrior Bel, 168. 'Thou prince of the gods, warrior, 169. when thou art angry a tempest thou makest, 170. the doer of sin did his sin, the doer of evil did his evil, 171. may the exalted not be broken, may the captive not be delivered; 172. instead of thee making a tempest, may lions increase and men be reduced; 173. instead of thee making a tempest, may leopards increase, and men be reduced; 174. instead of thee making a tempest, may a famine happen, and the country be destroyed; 175. instead of thee making a tempest, may pestilence increase, and men be destroyed.' 176. I did not peer into the wisdom of the gods, 177. reverent and attentive a dream they sent, and the wisdom of the gods he heard. 178. When his judgment was accomplished, Bel went up to the midst of the ship, 179. he took my hand and brought me out, me 180. he brought out, he caused to bring my wife to my side, 181. he purified the country, he established in a covenant and took the people 182. in the presence of Sisit and the people. 183. When Sisit and his wife and the people to be like the gods were carried away, 184. then dwelt Sisit in a remote place at the mouth of the rivers. 185. They took me and in a remote place at the mouth of the rivers they seated me. 186. When to thee whom the gods have chosen thee, and 187. the life which thou has sought after, thou shalt gain 188. this do, for six days and seven nights 189. like I say also, in bonds bind him 190. the way like a storm shall be laid upon him." 191. Sisit after this manner, said to his wife 192. "I announce that the chief who grasps at life 193. the way like a storm shall be laid upon him." 194. His wife after this manner, said to Sisit afar off, 195. "Purify him and let the man be sent away, 196. the road that lie came, may he return in peace, 197. the great gate open, and may he return to his country." 198. Sisit after this manner, said to his wife, 199. "The cry of a man alarms thee, 200. this do, his scarlet cloth place on his head." 201. And the day when he ascended the side of the ship 202. she did, his scarlet cloth she placed on his head, 203. and the day when he ascended on the side of the ship, The next four lines describe seven things done to Izdubar before he was purified. The passage is obscure and does not concern the Flood, so I have not translated it. 208. Izdubar after this manner, said to Sisit afar off, 209. "This way, she has done, I come up 210. joyfully, my strength thou givest me." 211. Sisit after this manner said to Izdubar 212. . . . . . . . . . . . thy scarlet cloth 213. . . . . . . . . . . . I have lodged thee 214. . . . . . . . . . . . The five following lines, which are mutilated, refer again to the seven matters for purifying Izdubar; this passage, like the former one, I do not translate. 219. Izdubar after this manner said to Sisit afar off 220. . . . . . . . . . . Sisit to thee may we not come. From here the text is much mutilated, and it will be better to give a general account of its contents than to attempt a strict translation, especially as this part is not so interesting as the former part of the tablet. Lines 221 and 223 mention some one who was taken and dwelt with Death. Lines 224 to 235 gives a speech of Sisit to the seaman Urhamsi, directing him how to cure Izdubar, who, from the broken passages, appears to have been suffering from some form of skin disease. Izdubar was to be dipped in the sea, when beauty was to spread over his skin once more. In lines 236 to 241 the carrying out of these directions and the cure of Izdubar are recorded. The tablet then reads as follows: 242. Izdubar and Urhamsi rode in the boat 243. where they placed them they rode 244. His wife after this manner said to Sisit afar off, 245. "Izdubar goes away, he is satisfied, he performs 246. that which thou hast given him and returns to his country." 247. And he heard, and after Izdubar 248. he went to the shore 249. Sisit after this manner said to Izdubar, 250. "Izdubar thou goest away thou art satisfied, thou performest 251. That which I have given thee and thou returnest to thy country 252. I have revealed to thee Izdubar the concealed story." Lines 253 to 262, which are very mutilated, give the conclusion of the speech of Sisit, and then state that after hearing it, Izdubar took great stones and piled them up as a memorial of these events. Lines 263 to 289 give in a very mutilated condition subsequent speeches and doings of Izdubar and Urhanisi. In this part journeys are mentioned of 10 and 20 kaspu, or 70 and 140 miles; a lion is also spoken of, but there is no further allusion to the Flood. These lines close the inscription, and are followed by a colophon which gives the heading of the next tablet, and the statement that this (the Flood Tablet) is the 11th tablet in the series giving the history of Izdubar, and that it is a copy of the ancient inscription. Before entering into the details of the tablet, I must first refer to the accounts of the Deluge given in the Bible, and by Berosus, the Chaldean historian, as I shall have to compare these with the Cuneiform record. The Biblical account of the Deluge, contained in the sixth to the ninth chapters of Genesis, is of course familiar to us all, so I will only give the outline of the narrative. According to the Book of Genesis, as man mutiplied on the earth, the whole race turned to evil, except the family of Noah. On account of the wickedness of man, the Lord determined to destroy the world by a flood, and gave command to Noah to build an ark, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits broad, and 30 cubits high. Into this ark Noah entered according to the command of the Lord, taking with him his family, and pairs of each animal. After seven days the Flood commenced in the 600th year of Noah, the seventeenth day of the second month, and after 150 days the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat, on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. We are then told that after 40 days Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a raven which did not return. He then sent forth a dove, which finding no rest for the sole of her foot, returned to him. Seven days after he sent forth the dove a second time, she returned to him with an olive leaf in her mouth. Again, after seven days, he sent forth the dove which returned to him no more. The Flood was dried up in the 601st year, on the first day of the first month, and on the twenty-seventh day of the second month, Noah removed from the ark and afterwards built an altar and offered sacrifices. The Chaldean account of the Flood, as given by Berosus, I have taken from Cory's Ancient Fragments, pages 26 to 29, as follows: "After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthrus reigned eighteen sari. In his time happened a great Deluge, the history of which is thus described: The Deity, Cronos, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Daesius, there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He, therefore, enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the City of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations; and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity whither he was to sail? he was answered, 'To the Gods'; upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the Divine admonition, and built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put every thing which he had prepared: and last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his friends. "After the Flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel, which not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him again. After an interval of some days he sent them forth a second time, and they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these birds, but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters. He, therefore, made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain, upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth, and having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared. "They, who remained within, finding that their companions did not return, quitted the vessel with many lamentations, and called con tinually on the name of Xisuthrus. Him they saw no more; but they could distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to religion; and likewise informed them that it was upon account of his piety that he was translated to live with the gods, that his wife, and daughter, and the pilot, had obtained the same honor. To this he added that they should return to Babylonia, and as it was ordained, search for the writings at Sippara, which they were to make known to all mankind; moreover, that the place wherein they were was the land of Armenia. "The rest having heard these words, offered sacrifices to the gods, and taking a circuit, journeyed towards Babylonia. "The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, some part of it yet remains in the Corcyraean mountains." In pages 33 and 34 of Cory's Fragments there is a second version, as follows: "And then Sisithrus. To him the deity of Cronos foretold that on the fifteenth day of the month Daesius there would be a deluge of rain: and he commanded him to deposit all the writings whatever which were in his possession, in the City of the Sun at Sippara. Sisithrus, when he had complied with these commands, sailed immediately to Armenia, and was presently inspired by God. Upon the third day after the cessation of the rain Sisithrus sent out birds, by way of experiment, that he might judge whether the Flood had subsided. But the birds passing over an unbounded sea, without finding any place of rest, re turned again to Sisithrus. This he repeated with other birds. And when upon the third trial he succeeded, for the birds then returned with their feet stained with mud, the gods translated him from among men. With respect to the vessel, which yet remains in Armenia, it is a custom of the inhabitants to form bracelets and amulets of its wood." There are several other accounts of the Flood in the traditions of different ancient nations; these, however, are neither so full nor so precise as the account of Berosus, and their details so far as they are given differ more from the Biblical narrative, so I shall not notice them now, but pass at once to the examination of the text. In comparing the text of the Deluge Tablet with the accounts in the Bible and Berosus, the first point that meets us is the consideration of the proper names. This is the least satisfactory part of the subject, for, while the Greek forms show variant readings and have evidently been corrupted, the Cuneiform names on the other hand, being written mostly in monograms, are difficult to render phonetically. The father of the hero of the Flood bears in the inscriptions the name Ubara-tutu which ought to correspond to one of the Greek forms, Otiártes or Ardátes; the resemblance however cannot be called a close one. The hero of the Flood I have provisionally called Sisit; he corresponds, of course, to the Greek Xisuthrus, but no comparison of the two names can be made until we know the phonetic reading of the Cuneiform name. Neither the Cuneiform nor the Greek names appear to have any connection with the Biblical Lamech and Noah. In the opening of the account of the Flood there is a noticeable difference between the Cuneiform and Biblical narratives, for while in the Jewish account one God only is men tioned, the Cuneiform inscription mentions all the principal gods of the early Babylonian Pantheon as engaged in bringing about the Flood. The Cuneiform account agrees with the Biblical narrative in making the Deluge a divine punishment for the wickedness of the world; this point is omitted in the Greek accounts of Berosus. The gods having resolved on the Deluge, the deity whom we have hitherto provisionally called Hea announces the coming event to Sisit. Now, in the account of Berosus, the god who announces the Deluge is stated to be Cronos; so this passage gives us the Cuneiform name of the deity identified by the Greeks with Cronos. The Greek account states that the communication of the coming Deluge was made in a dream. From the context it is probable that the Cuneiform account stated the same, but the text is here mutilated so that the point cannot be decided. The dimensions of the vessel in the inscription are unfortunately lost by a fracture which has broken off both numbers; the passage, which is otherwise complete, shows that the dimensions were expressed in cubits as in the Biblical account, but while Genesis makes the ark 50 cubits broad and 30 cubits high, the inscription states that the height and breadth were the same. The greater part of the description of the building of the ark is lost. In the latter part of the account which is preserved, there is mention of the trial of the vessel by launching it into the sea, when defects being found which admitted the water, the outside and inside were coated with bitumen. These details have no parallel either in the Bible or Berosus. The description of the filling of the ark agrees in general with the two other accounts, but it differs from Genesis in not mentioning the sevens of clean animals and in including others beside the family of the builder. The month and day when the Deluge commenced, which are given in the Bible and Berosus, are not mentioned in the text, unless the fifth day, mentioned in a mutilated passage, is part of this date. The description of the Flood in this inscription is very vivid; it is said to have been so terrible that the gods, fearing it, ascended to the heaven of Arm, that it is the highest and furthest heaven, the destruction of the human race is recorded, and the corpses of the wicked are said to have floated on the surface of the Flood. With regard to the duration of the Deluge, there appears to be a serious difference between the Bible and the inscription. According to the account in the Book of Genesis, the Flood commenced on the seventeenth day of the second month, the ark rested on Ararat after one hundred and fifty days on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, and the complete drying up of the Flood was not until the twenty seventh day of the second month in the following year. The inscription, on the other hand, states that the Flood abated on the seventh day, and that the ship remained seven days on the mountain before the sending out of the birds. On this point it must be remarked that some Biblical critics consider that there are two versions of the Flood story in Genesis itself, and that these two differ as to the duration of the Flood. The Greek account of Berosus is silent as to the duration of the Deluge. With regard to the mountain on which the ark rested there is a difference between the Bible and the inscription, which is more apparent than real. The Book of Genesis states that the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. According to the popular notion this refers to the mountain of Ararat, in Armenia; but these mountains may have been anywhere within the ancient territory of Ararat, and some Commentators looking at the passage in Berosus, where the ark is stated to have rested in the Gordiaean mountains, have inclined to place the mountain referred to in the Kurdish mountains, east of Assyria. In accordance with this indication the inscription states that the ship rested on the mountain of Nizir. Now, the position of Nizir can be determined from the inscription of Assur-nazir-pal, king of Assyria. He made an expedition to this region, and starting from an Assyrian city, near Arbela, crossed the Lower Zab, and marching eastward between latitudes 35 and 36, arrived at the mountains of Nizir. These mountains of Nizir thus lay east of Assyria, but they form part of a series of mountain chains extending to the north-west into Armenia. The vessel being stranded on the mountain, the Bible, Berosus, and the inscription all agree that trial was made by birds in order to ascertain if the Flood had subsided; but in the details of these trials there are curious differences in all three narratives. According to the Book of Genesis, a raven was sent out first, which did not return; a dove was sent next, which finding no resting place returned to Noah. Seven days later the dove was sent out again, and returned with an olive leaf; and seven days after, on the dove being sent out again, it returned no more. The account of Berosus mentions the sending out of the birds, but does not mention what kinds were tried. On the first trial the birds are said to have returned, and on the second trial likewise, this time with mud on their feet. On the third occasion they did not return. The inscription states that, first, a dove was sent out, which finding no resting place returned. On the second occasion a swallow was sent, which also returned. The third time a raven was sent out, which feeding on the corpses floating on the water, wandered away and did not return. Thus, the inscription agrees with the Bible as to the sending out of the raven and dove, but adds to these the trial of the swallow, which is not in Genesis. In the number of the trials it agrees with Berosus, who has three, while Genesis has four. On the other hand there is no mention of the dove returning with an olive leaf, as in Genesis, and of the birds having their feet stained with Mud, as in Berosus. In the statement of the building of the altar, and offering sacrifice after leaving the ark, all three accounts agree; but in the subsequent matter there is an important difference between the Bible and the inscription, for while the Bible represents Noah as living for many years after the Flood, the inscription on the other hand agrees with Berosus in making Sisit to be translated like the gods. This translation is in the Bible recorded of Enoch, the ancestor of Noah. On reviewing the evidence it is apparent that the events of the Flood narrated in the Bible and the inscription are the same, and occur in the same order; but the minor differences in the details show that the inscription embodies a distinct and independent tradition. In spite of a striking similarity in style, which shows itself in several places, the two narratives belong to totally distinct peoples. The Biblical account is the version of an inland people, the name of the ark in Gene sis means a chest or box, and not a ship; there is no notice of the sea, or of launching, no pilots are spoken of, no navigation is mentioned. The inscription on the other hand belongs to a maritime people, the ark is called a ship, the ship is launched into the sea, trial is made of it, and it is given in charge of a pilot. The Cuneiform inscription, after giving the history of the Flood down to the sacrifice of Sisit, when he came out of the ark, goes back to the former part of the story, and mentions the god Bel in particular as the maker of the tempest or deluge; there appears to be a slight inconsistency between this and the former part of the inscription which suggests the question whether the Chaldean narrative itself may not have been compiled from two distinct and older accounts. It is remarkable that the oldest traditions of the early Babylonians seem to center round the Persian Gulf. From this sea, Oannes the fish god is supposed to have arisen, and the composite monsters who followed him in the antediluvian period came from the same region. Into this sea the ark was launched, and after the subsiding of the Deluge when Sisit was translated, he dwelt in this neighborhood. To this sea also came the great hero Izdubar, and was cured, and here he heard the story of the Flood. In conclusion I would remark that this account of the Deluge opens to us a new field of inquiry in the early part of the Bible history. The question has often been asked, "What is the origin of the accounts of the antediluvians, with their long lives so many times greater than the longest span of human life? Where was Paradise, the abode of the first parents of mankind? From whence comes the story of the flood, the ark, of the birds?" Various conflicting answers have been given to these important questions, while evidence on these subjects before the Greek period has been entirely wanting. The Cuneiform inscriptions are now shedding a new light on these questions, and supplying material which future scholars will have to work out. Following this inscription, we may expect many other discoveries throwing light on these ancient periods, until we are able to form a decisive opinion on the many great questions involved. It would be a mistake to suppose that with the translation and commentary on an inscription like this the matter is ended. The origin, age, and history of the legend have to be traced, and it has to be compared with the many similar stories current among various nations. All these accounts, together with considerable portions of the ancient mythologies have, I believe, a common origin in the Plains of Chaldea. This country the cradle of civilization, the birthplace of the arts and sciences, for 2,000 years has been in ruins; its literature, containing the most precious records of antiquity, is scarcely known to us, except from the texts the Assyrians copied, but beneath its mounds and ruined cities, now awaiting exploration, lay, together with older copies of this Deluge text, other legends and histories of the earliest civilization in the world.

THE CREATION.txt

THE CREATION VIGNETTES FROM THE SACRED WRITINGS OF MU.-- Fig. 1. Fine, straight, horizontal lines. Symbol for Space. Fig. 2. Symbolizing the Seven-headed Serpent as the Deity moving through Space. The surrounding circle is the symbol for the Universe. Fig. 3. Wavy horizontal lines symbolize Earthly Waters. Fig. 4. The Circle. The monotheistic symbol of the Deity. Fig. 5. The Plain Cross. Symbol of the Sacred Four. The Four Great Primary Forces coming direct from the Almighty. Fig. 6. The full Godhead of Five. The Deity and his Four Great Primary and Creative Forces. Fig. 7. Lahun. The dual principle of the Creator. Fig. 8. The Fires of the Underneath. The Earth's Center. Fig. 9. Vertical, fine, dotted lines from the Sun symbolize the Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's Light Forces. p. 88 Fig. 10. Vertical, fine, straight lines from the Sun, symbolize the Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's Light Forces. Click to enlarge Fig. 11. Vertical, wavy lines from the Sun, symbolize the Sun's affinitive Force to the Earth's Heat Force. Fig. 12. The Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's Life Forces striking the Earth's Forces in the Cosmic Eggs formed in the waters. Fig. 13. The Sun's affinitive Forces to the Earth's [paragraph continues] p. 89 Life Forces striking the Earth's Forces in Cosmic Eggs which have been formed on the land. Fig. 14. Symbol of the Waters as the Mother of Life. Fig. 15. The Tau, symbol of Resurrection and Emersion. Fig. 16. The Tree of Life and the Serpent. The Serpent symbolizes the Waters and the Tree--Mu, the Mother of Man, the Only Life. All of nature's lives are illusion; they do not continue on. Only man is Life and Life is everlasting. Mexican Tablet No. 1231: I consider this cross the most valuable writing which has come down to us from the First Civilization both as regards religion and science. This cross tells us that all Forces throughout the Universe have their origin in the Deity. That these Forces are controlling life and all movements of matter down to the atom and particles of atoms, either directly or indirectly. It shows us that the Forces called Atomic Forces are only indirect workings of Primary Forces through Atoms. It tells us how the Great Primary Forces are working in a manner to maintain regular and perfect movements of each and every body throughout the Universe. All of the arms of this cross are symbols of the Primary Forces coming from and out of the Deity. All of these arms or Forces are pointing towards the East--the four form a circle. Therefore, the Primary Forces are all working in a circle from a Center and proceeding p. 90 <I>Tablet No. 1231</I> Click to enlarge Tablet No. 1231 in an Easterly direction. Detailed deciphering of this symbol is to be found in The Lost Continent of Mu, Page 34. The Origin of Forces has always been a mooted question among scientists. We have here a writing by the scientists of the earth's First Great Civilization, telling us what the origin is; and not only that, but also the manner and direction of their workings. Especially p. 91 it shows us the curvatures apparent throughout the Universe, which are causing so much controversy among scientists today. Click to enlarge How long ago this was written I cannot say: but certainly more than 12,000 years ago. Mexican Tablet No. 988: I am giving this tablet as p. 92 a confirmation of the previous one regarding the direction in which the Forces are working throughout the Universe. This particular glyph shows the lines running from the outside to the Center--therefore it is the Centripetal Force. This glyph, without any script, appears on many of the Yucatan and Central American inscriptions. Pedro Beltram, Le Plongeon and others have written that this glyph refers to the movement of the Sun. Here it distinctly states that it represents the workings of a primary Force. Mexican Tablet No. 339: This interesting little tablet symbolizes the Four Great Primary Forces, in the shape of a butterfly, flying through space and evolving law and order out of chaos in obedience to the command of the Creator--His first command in Creation. p. 93 ''Let Land Appear''<BR>''And waters covered the face of the earth'' Click to enlarge ''Let Land Appear'' ''And waters covered the face of the earth'' p. 94 A full deciphering of this tablet is given in The Lost Continent of Mu, Page 37. Mexican Tablet No. 1267: Fig. 1. The outside circle--The Universe. Fig. 2. The wavy circle--The Waters. Fig. 3. The inside--The Earth. Fig. 4. "The Fires of the underneath"--Volcanic gases. The Force symbol, coming out of the Fires, tells us that land is about to be raised. Mexican Tablet No. 328: This Mexican tablet symbolizes the actual first life on earth. A full reading of this compound glyph is given in The Children of Mu, page 76. THE TALE OF THE CREATION.--The following is what I found in the old Oriental Naacal writing, supplemented by the Mexican Tablets: <I>Naacal</I> Naacal "Originally the Universe was only a soul or spirit. Everything was without form and without life. All was calm, silent and soundless. Void and dark was the immensity of space. Only the Supreme Spirit, the Great Self-Existing Power, the Creator, the Seven-Headed Serpent, moved within the abyss of darkness." "The desire came to Him to create worlds, and the p. 95 desire came to Him to create the earth with living things upon it, and He created the earth and all therein. This is the manner of the creation of the earth with all there is within and upon it:--The Seven-headed Serpent) <I>No. 328</I> Click to enlarge No. 328 the Creator, gave seven great commands." These two tablets tell us that these seven commands p. 96 were given to the Four Great Primary Forces. That these Forces were the executors of the Creator's commands throughout the Creation. <I>Naacal</I> Naacal <I>Mexican No. 1231</I> Mexican No. 1231 "The First Command: 'Let the gases, which are scattered throughout space and without form and order, be brought together and out of them let worlds be formed.' <I>Mexican No. 339</I> Mexican No. 339 Then the gases were brought together in the form of whirling masses." "The Second Command: 'Let the gases solidify and let the earth be formed.' Then the gases solidified. Volumes were left on the outside of the crust, from which the waters and the atmosphere were to be formed; and volumes were left enveloped within the crust. Darkness prevailed, and there was no sound for as yet neither the atmosphere nor the waters were formed." p. 97 "The Third Command: 'Let the outside gases be separated and let them form the waters and the atmosphere.' <I>Mexican No. 1267</I> Mexican No. 1267 [paragraph continues] And the gases were separated. One part went to form the waters, the remainder formed the atmosphere. The waters settled upon the face of the Earth so that no land appeared anywhere." <I>Naacal No. 10</I> Naacal No. 10 "The gases which did not form the waters, went to form the atmosphere. And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the earth's light contained in the atmosphere, which gave birth to light. Then there was light upon the face of the Earth." <I>Naacal No. 11</I> Naacal No. 11 "And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the Earth's heat which was contained in her atmosphere p. 98 and gave it life. Then there was heat to warm the face of the earth." <I>Mexican No. 51</I> Mexican No. 51 "The Fourth Command: 'Let the fires that are within the earth raise land above the face of the waters.' Then the fires of the underneath lifted the land on which the waters rested until the land appeared above the face of the waters-this was the dry land." <I>Naacal<BR> No. 12</I> Naacal No. 12 <I>Naacal<BR> No. 13</I> Naacal No. 13 <I>Egyptian<BR> No. 1</I> Egyptian No. 1 <I>Hindu<BR> No. 2</I> Hindu No. 2 <I>Mexican No. 328</I> Mexican No. 328 "The Fifth Command: 'Let life come forth in the waters.' And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the earth in the mud of the waters, and out of particles of p. 99 mud formed cosmic eggs. From these eggs life came forth as commanded." <I>Naacal No. 13</I> Naacal No. 13 "The Sixth Command: 'Let Life come forth on the land.' And the shafts of the Sun met the shafts of the earth in the dust of the land and out of particles of dust formed cosmic eggs. From these cosmic eggs life came forth as commanded." (What I have translated as arrows and shafts is the glyph .) "The Seventh Command: And when this was done, the Seventh Intellect said: 'Let us make man after our own fashion and let us endow him with powers to rule this earth.' Then the Seven-Headed Intellect, The Creator of All Things throughout the Universe, created man and placed within his body a living, imperishable spirit, and man became like the Creator in intellectual power." What does the phrase "after our own fashion" mean? It certainly does not mean in the image of the Creator; for, a little farther on in the Sacred Writings, it says: "To man the Creator is incomprehensible. He can p. 100 <I>Mexican Tablet No. 1584<BR> Creation of the First Pair<BR> Man and Woman</I> Click to enlarge Mexican Tablet No. 1584 Creation of the First Pair Man and Woman p. 101 neither be pictured nor named, He is the Nameless." If man were "in the image of God" he would be a picture of God; and, as God can neither be pictured nor named, being incomprehensible, the Bible has erred in translation by using the word "image." "Like the Creator" unquestionably means, in intellect and mystic powers, for man possesses both. Mexican Tablet No. 1584: This tablet reads:--"Man was created with the dual principle, male and female. The Creator caused this man to pass into a sleep (our death) and while he slept, the principles were severed by Cosmic Forces. When he awoke (born again) he was two--man and woman." There are innumerable writings stating that man was created alone, and that woman was taken from a part of the original man. I shall quote a few prominent writings on the subject and also include some legends. THE BIBLE.--Genesis. 2. V. 21-22. "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep [Among the ancients death was called sleep: therefore, here sleep is equivalent to our death.] to fall upon Adam, and he slept: [that is he died] and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man." This is Ezra's translation of the writings of Moses 800 years after. Moses' writings were copies of the Naga in the language and writing of the Motherland and were only partially understood by Ezra who had not p. 102 become a Master in the Chaldi in Babylonia before he was released from bondage and returned to his own land. EGYPT.--Egypt obtained the Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu from two sources, in which the creation of woman appears. First, from India, brought by the Nagas when they made their first settlement at Maioo in Nubia, Upper Egypt. Second, from Atlantis, brought by the Mayas under the leadership of Thoth, who made his first settlement at Saïs on the Nile Delta, Lower Egypt. This probably accounts for two versions of the Creation in the early chapters of the Bible. One was from the people who came from India--the other from the people who came from Atlantis, forming Upper and Lower Egypt. HINDU.--The Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu were brought to India by the Naacals from the Motherland, and from India they were carried by the Naacals to the more recent colonies of Babylonia on the Euphrates and to Maioo in Upper Egypt. CHALDEAN.--The Chaldean and Egyptian were therefore reflexes of the Hindu, and the Hindu a reflex of the Motherland: thus showing, definitely, that the legend of woman coming out of man originated in Mu, the Motherland. HAWAII. PACIFIC ISLANDS.--The Hawaiians have a very ancient legend stating:--"Taaroa made man out of red earth Araca, and breathed into his nostrils. He made woman from man's bones and called her Ivi." p. 103 This part of the legend is identical with the Biblical arid continues so throughout, except in unimportant details. In the Polynesian language every letter in a word is pronounced: thus Ivi in Polynesian is pronounced Eve-y. Mu was destroyed about 12,000 years ago, so that this legend must have been orally handed down for at least 12,000 years. THE GREEK LEGEND.--In all of their conceptions, the Greeks were always original. They gave a viewpoint on a subject different from all others, even to the creation of man and woman. Plato says: "Human beings were originally created with the man and woman combined in one body. Each body had four arms and four legs. The bodies were round, and they rolled over and over, using the arms and legs to move them. By and by they began to treat the gods badly. They stopped their sacrifices and even threatened to roll up Mount Olympus to attack and overthrow the gods. "One god said, 'Let us kill them all. They are dangerous.' "Another said, 'No, I have a better idea. We will cut them in half. Then they will only have two arms and two legs; they won't be round. They won't be able to roll. Being multiplied by two, they will offer twice as many sacrifices, and what is the most important, each half will be so busy looking for the other half that they will not have time to bother us.' p. 104 UIGHUR.--The frontispiece of this book, coming from the ancient capital of the Uighurs destroyed about 18,000 to 20,000 years ago--Chinese records say 19,000 years ago--is probably the oldest record of man being created with the dual principle. There are in this world those, the spiritual part of whose brains are so finely keyed to each other, that words are unnecessary to express the feelings of one towards the other when they first meet. These possibly are the two halves of man and woman which in bygone times made one soul. All the past is bridged at a glance. The divine, pure love for one another leaps into life again on the instant. Many modern writers have vulgarly termed this "the man call." It is not the man call; it is the souls' call, mates. The "man call" is materialism. Materialism has nothing to do with it, because the call is spiritual. Again, two persons, meeting for the first time, may or may not take a dislike to one another. One of them at least may take a dislike to the other and mistrust the other for no apparent reason. This is popularly termed "first impressions." Probably if their past incarnations could be recalled and they could see all that happened in them, the question would be answered. A glyph, generally a circle but sometimes oblong with two parallel lines drawn through its center dividing it into three parts as shown Cut. 1 (Niven's Mexican Tablet No. 2379), is a common universal symbol. It is found among the cliff writings of our western p. 105 states, in inscriptions on the Mexican Pyramid at Xochicalco, in the Maya writings of Yucatan. It appears in a writing on Inscription Rock, northeast Brazil <I>Cut 1. Mexican No. 2379</I> Cut 1. Mexican No. 2379 <I>Cut 2. A paragraph in the Sacred Inspired Writings (Naacal writing)</I> Cut 2. A paragraph in the Sacred Inspired Writings (Naacal writing) near the boundary of British Guiana, and in other various American carvings. It occurs in the ancient writings of the Uighurs, Hindus, Babylonians and Egyptians. p. 106 In the Oriental Naacal writings of the Sacred Inspired Writings, The Books of the Golden Age, it is one of three glyphs forming a paragraph. (See Cut. 2.) The paragraph reads: ( Hun)-The Creator is one. ( Lahun, two)--He is two in one. ( Mehen, man)--These two engendered the son, mehen--man. It is thus shown that the glyph refers to the Creation of man, and by the ordinary extensions given these very ancient symbols, includes producing a continuance of, et cetera. Lao Tzu in Tao te King, a Chinese book written about 600 B. C. just before the time of Confucius, we read: "Reason Tao made One. One became two. Two produced three. From these three, all mankind descended." In deciphering and translating this glyph, collected from many parts of the earth, I have invariably found that, in the ancient explanation of it, three words persist in every translation of it, viz: made or created, became and produced; thus: The Creator created man, man became two, these two produced three, clearly in each case showing and defining the form of the steps in progression, and the difference between each step. An ancient glyph which by the ancients was called "The Mysterious Writing" is an esoteric temple writing, a numeral writing, conveying the same meaning and conception as the Mexican Tablet No. 2379. p. 107 THE MYSTERIOUS WRITING.--The Mysterious Writing consisted of either six small circles or six small disks, placed so as to form a triangle, pyramid or keystone. The rows are so placed that they count-one, two, three. <I>Cut 3. The Mysterious Writing</I> Cut 3. The Mysterious Writing The two figures forming Cut 3 are written with the Naga form of numerals. Sometimes the Nagas used circles, at other times disks; this appears to have been optional, dependent on the taste of the writer. The Uighurs, generally, used a bar or line to express their numerals. I find their expression of the one, two and three most frequently written thus or . KARA INSCRIPTION IN BRAZIL.--On a large prairie-like plain in the northeastern part of Brazil near the boundary of British Guiana stands an immense rock with many smooth faces which are literally covered with very old inscriptions in the characters of the ancient Karas or Carians. The following is one of the inscriptions with its deciphering and translation: p. 108 1. This is a universal symbol found in the writings of all ancient people. 2. The Northern or Uighur form of writing the numeral 1. (Cara or Karian pattern) 3. Numeral 2. 4. Numeral 3. This glyph is specialized by not having one end closed which gives it a special significance. The Legend: One became two. Two produced three. From these three the life was continued on. The continuation is shown in the glyph for numeral 3 where the ends of the bars are left open. The ancients designated by unattached ends that unfinished work was being carried on. It may be well to note here that the Cara glyph for 1, an enclosed bar, was the Naga glyph for 5. All Naga counts were made up of 5's; thus ten would be two or twice five. Ten being the numeral symbol of the Infinite, p. 109 was never used. As the symbol of the Infinite it was looked upon as being too sacred. I have here shown a South American inscription composed of a symbol or vignette with its meaning given in script. This, to a great extent, follows the character of the Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu; further, it is unquestionable that this passage was taken from the Sacred Writings for on the other side of the world comes the Motherland. In China we find Lao Tzu in Tao te King, using virtually the same words about 600 B. C. which he took from the Sacred Writings of the Motherland. XOCICALCO PYRAMID--MEXICO.--On this celebrated pyramid there are many inscriptions. I have selected one which appears to me to be relative to the creation of the first pair. <I>Uighur writing</I> Uighur writing 1st Line. Numerals one, two and three with their hidden meaning as previously given. 2nd Line. Includes the Uighur glyph for man having the dual principle. Man before he became divided. 3rd Line. Includes man as the male principle only p. 110 When mankind was referred to, the Uighur plain letter M was given.) <I>The evolution of the Uighur letter M<BR> 1, Naga Mu. 2. Uighur Mu. 3. Second changing the right leg to be the longer. 4. Third, the last pattern handed down to the Chinese</I>. The evolution of the Uighur letter M 1, Naga Mu. 2. Uighur Mu. 3. Second changing the right leg to be the longer. 4. Third, the last pattern handed down to the Chinese. THE WATERS--THE MOTHER OF LIFE.--Throughout all ancient writings the waters are referred to as "The Mother of Life." Thus it is shown that the ancients knew perfectly well what is confirmed by geology today: that is, the first life on earth was marine life, that is, it first appeared in the waters. To think that life first appeared in the waters is not only reasonable, but it was imperative according to natural laws that it should do so; for, life can only commence at a temperature below 200° F. I have been unable to produce life at over 175° F. During the earth's cooling, the waters were always a step in advance of the rocks in cooling; therefore the waters being in advance of the rocks in cooling were down to a temperature where life could make a start before life could start among the rocks, or at the best hot, rocky, gravelly sand with little or no actual soil. <I>The Waters of the Mother of Life</I> Click to enlarge The Waters of the Mother of Life p. 111 The first life that appeared on this earth were tiny microscopical marine grasses and lichens. These were destined to become the foundation stones of The House of Life--Nature's lives and so the house was built upon them until Man, the Special Creation, came to form the Divine coping stone. Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Various serpents are mentioned in the ancient writings, each one symbolizing something different from the others. These ancient Serpent Symbols are divided into two classes: 1. The adorned Serpent symbolizing the Creative Attribute of the Deity. 2. Plain unadorned Serpents were symbols of the waters. The symbolic water symbol was called Khan. Fig. 1. This serpent is one of the vignettes appearing in the Sacred Writings--Fifth Command. As this serpent has a nest of eggs within her coils, it is permissible to assume that this creation refers to various forms of marine life. Mexican Tablet, No. 328. This serpent symbolizes p. 112 actual first life in the waters, therefore the first life on earth. Fig. 2. Is the usual form of the water symbol, without any additions, such as eggs, et cetera. <I>Egyptian Vignette</I> Click to enlarge Egyptian Vignette HORUS IN COMBAT WITH APHOPHIS.--This vignette comes from an Egyptian papyrus dating about 3,000 B. C. It depicts Horus the symbol of the Sun in combat with Aphophis the waters. This illustration plainly shows a great difference in the teachings from the original that are found in the Sacred Writings and which are repeated and confirmed p. 113 in the Mexican Tablet No. 328. There the scientific account is given. In the Egyptian a symbol is given without the explanation. The Mexican Tablet is at least 7,000 years older than this Egyptian vignette. But Egypt did not stand alone in this obtuse teaching:--the Greeks had their Apollo, the Sun, killing the Serpent Python, the waters. The Hindus had Krishma killing the Serpent Anatha, the waters, and the Chaldeans had Belmarduk, the Sun, overcoming Tiamat, the waters. Chaldean tablet found in the library of the palace of King Assurbanipal: "At a time when neither the heavens above nor the earth below existed, there was the watery abyss: the first of seed, the mistress of the depths, the mother of the Universe. "The waters covered everything; no product had ever been gathered nor was there any sprout seen, aye, the very gods had not yet come into being. "The gods are preparing for a grand contest against the monster known as Tiamat, the waters; the god Belmarduk overthrows Tiamat." Tiamat is a Naga word meaning water everywhere, nowhere land. Belmarduk was the Babylonian name for the Sun as the celestial orb and not as the symbol Ra. From the foregoing it appears to be that the first two extracts correspond to the Mexican Tablet No. 339) and the last to the advent of life on earth. Some connecting tablets are evidently missing. In the Sacred Writings of Mu it is plainly shown that p. 114 there was no combat or fighting. That it was the commingling of forces in connection with elementary matter that produced the results and that the Natural Law regarding the creation of Life had only been followed. The savages and semi-savages of the South Sea Islands have legends among themselves showing that they understand the workings of the Forces better than the myths taught by the Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus and Chaldeans, which go to prove that these myths were bred after Mu went down and the South Sea Islands became isolated from the rest of the world. The South Sea Islanders explain that all creations are the result of marriages (commingling) between gods (Forces), which is correct. Theirs is the original explanation orally handed down for 12,000 years, and wonderfully well they have kept it. Of course there are divergences from the original, but when one considers the time they have been orally passed on from father to son, it is a miracle that the differences are so immaterial; but they have had no unscrupulous priesthoods to tamper with the great things left behind. THE BIBLE.--Referring to the Bible again, and to show how extremely old some parts of it are, those which came out of the Sacred Inspired Writings, I will call attention to a few facts. Moses without question bases his religious laws on the Pure Osirian as taught by Thoth. Take for instance the ten commandments. In the Great Hall of Truth of [paragraph continues] p. 115 Osiris there are placed forty-two gods in a row, to ask the soul when it enters this judgment Hall forty-two questions regarding the life of the material body in which it had dwelt. Moses took these forty-two questions and in a condensed form made forty-two commands out of them which he condensed to ten commands. This drastic change made by Moses was unquestionably necessary to meet the condition into which his people had fallen. Moses changed nothing in conception, he simply made more emphatic how they must live their lives here on earth. He applied these laws to the living directly instead of to the dead. The ten commandments, however, are found in the Sacred Inspired Writings of Mu more than 70,000 years ago, only in the form of questions instead of commands. But the Jews were not the only people who had a conception that their religious laws came directly from the Supreme God through some agent, and this may be so for we have no record who wrote the writings of Mu and it is distinctly stated they are Sacred and Inspired. Who was the inspired one? What was his name? Diodorus Siculus says: "The Egyptians claim that their religious laws were given to Menevis by Hermes. "The Cretans held that their religious laws were given by Minos who received them from Zeus. "The Lycedaemonians claimed that theirs were the gift of Apollon to Lykurgus. p. 116 "The Aryans were given theirs by Zathraustes who received them from the Good Spirit. "The Getae claim that Zamolxis obtained theirs from the goddess Hestia. "The Jews claim that Moses received theirs from Iao." The inscriptions on the old Akkadian ruins of Babylonia, clearly express the feelings and ideas of these people 10,000 to 15,000 years ago about man and the creation. They believed man was a special creation and showed how he came into being. They clearly indicate that God was the Creator and that His Forces control the Universe and all therein. This is corroborated by the Sacred Inspired Writings, the writings on the Mexican Tablets, and the cliff writings of North America. All support the fact that the first religion was pure Monotheism, that the Creator created all things and today is controlling the Universe with all the life throughout it. Writings from western Thebes by one Amenemopet (Priest) are word for word the same as the Proverbs written by Solomon. These writings are dated several hundreds of years before Solomon was born. Solomon was a scholar and reproduced these wonderful epics. Further, it is clearly shown that besides being a Jew he was an Osirian--the building of his temple showed it. Wherever possible in its construction, Solomon carried out the most minute details, shown in the symbolical Hall of Truth, Osiris presiding. The Porch especially is noteworthy, for it has the two p. 117 pillars with identically the same names and the same decorative ornamentations. Without question Solomon knew and appreciated that his religion was nothing more or less than the Pure Osirian religion, arranged and modified to suit the people of his times.

THE EPIC OF CREATION.txt

Sacred-Texts Ancient Near East ENUMA ELISH THE EPIC OF CREATION L.W. King Translator (from The Seven Tablets of Creation, London 1902) A more complete etext of the Seven Tablets of Creation is also available here. THE FIRST TABLET When in the height heaven was not named, And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name, And the primeval Apsu, who begat them, And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both Their waters were mingled together, And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen; When of the gods none had been called into being, And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained; Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven, Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being... Ages increased,... Then Ansar and Kisar were created, and over them.... Long were the days, then there came forth..... Anu, their son,... Ansar and Anu... And the god Anu... Nudimmud, whom his fathers, his begetters..... Abounding in all wisdom,...' He was exceeding strong... He had no rival - Thus were established and were... the great gods. But Tiamat and Apsu were still in confusion... They were troubled and... In disorder... Apru was not diminished in might... And Tiamat roared... She smote, and their deeds... Their way was evil... Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods, Cried unto Mummu, his minister, and said unto him: "O Mummu, thou minister that rejoicest my spirit, Come, unto Tiamut let us go! So they went and before Tiamat they lay down, They consulted on a plan with regard to the gods, their sons. Apsu opened his mouth and spake, And unto Tiamut, the glistening one, he addressed the word: ...their way... By day I can not rest, by night I can not lie down in peace. But I will destroy their way, I will... Let there be lamentation, and let us lie down again in peace." When Tiamat heard these words, She raged and cried aloud... She... grievously..., She uttered a curse, and unto Apsu she spake: "What then shall we do? Let their way be made difficult, and let us lie down again in peace." Mummu answered, and gave counsel unto Apsu, ...and hostile to the gods was the counsel Mummu gave: Come, their way is strong, but thou shalt destroy it; Then by day shalt thou have rest, by night shalt thou lie down in peace." Apsu harkened unto him and his countenance grew bright, Since he (Mummu) planned evil against the gods his sons. ... he was afraid..., His knees became weak; they gave way beneath him, Because of the evil which their first-born had planned. ... their... they altered. ... they..., Lamentation they sat in sorrow .................. Then Ea, who knoweth all that is, went up and he beheld their muttering. [about 30 illegible lines] ... he spake: ... thy... he hath conquered and ... he weepeth and sitteth in tribulation. ... of fear, ... we shall not lie down in peace. ... Apsu is laid waste, ... and Mummu, who were taken captive, in... ... thou didst... ... let us lie down in peace. ... they will smite.... ... let us lie down in peace. ... thou shalt take vengeance for them, ... unto the tempest shalt thou...!" And Tiamat harkened unto the word of the bright god, and said: ... shalt thou entrust! let us wage war!" ... the gods in the midst of... ... for the gods did she create. They banded themselves together and at the side of Tiamat they advanced; They were furious; they devised mischief without resting night and day. They prepared for battle, fuming and raging; They joined their forces and made war, Ummu-Hubur [Tiamat] who formed all things, Made in addition weapons invincible; she spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang; With poison, instead of blood, she filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she clothed with terror, With splendor she decked them, she made them of lofty stature. Whoever beheld them, terror overcame him, Their bodies reared up and none could withstand their attack. She set up vipers and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes, and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams; They bore cruel weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands were mighty, none could resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, she made eleven [kinds of] monsters. Among the gods who were her sons, inasmuch as he had given her support, She exalted Kingu; in their midst she raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him she entrusted; in costly raiment she made him sit, saying: I have uttered thy spell, in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power. The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto him. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them the Anunnaki." She gave him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established." Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate among the gods his sons, saying: "Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!" THE SECOND TABLET Tiamat made weighty her handiwork, Evil she wrought against the gods her children. To avenge Apsu, Tiamat planned evil, But how she had collected her forces, the god unto Ea divulged. Ea harkened to this thing, and He was grievously afflicted and he sat in sorrow. The days went by, and his anger was appeased, And to the place of Ansar his father he took his way. He went and, standing before Ansar, the father who begat him, All that Tiamat had plotted he repeated unto him, Saying, "Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath. All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, thev go at her side. They are banded together and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war. Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things, Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth, and merciless of fang. With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror, With splendor she hath decked them; she hath made them of lofty stature. Whoever beholdeth them is overcome by terror, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men and rams; They bear cruel weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands are mighty; none can resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters. Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support, She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack. To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him hath she entrusted; in costly raiment she hath made him sit, saving:. I have uttered thy spell; in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power, The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto thee. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: 'Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established.' Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons, saying: 'Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!'" When Ansar heard how Tiamat was mightily in revolt, he bit his lips, his mind was not at peace, ..., he made a bitter lamentation: ... battle, ... thou... Mummu and Apsu thou hast smitten But Tiamat hath exalted Kingu, and where is one who can oppose her? ... deliberation ... the ... of the gods, -Nudimmud. [A gap of about a dozen lines occurs here.] Ansar unto his son addressed the word: "... my mighty hero, Whose strength is great and whose onslaught can not be withstood, Go and stand before Tiamat, That her spirit may be appeased, that her heart may be merciful. But if she will not harken unto thy word, Our word shalt thou speak unto her, that she may be pacified." He heard the word of his father Ansar And he directed his path to her, toward her he took the way. Ann drew nigh, he beheld the muttering of Tiamat, But he could not withstand her, and he turned back. ... Ansar ... he spake unto him: [A gap of over twenty lines occurs here.] an avenger... ... valiant ... in the place of his decision ... he spake unto him: ... thy father " Thou art my son, who maketh merciful his heart. ... to the battle shalt thou draw nigh, he that shall behold thee shall have peace." And the lord rejoiced at the word of his father, And he drew nigh and stood before Ansar. Ansar beheld him and his heart was filled with joy, He kissed him on the lips and his fear departed from him. "O my father, let not the word of thy lips be overcome, Let me go, that I may accomplish all that is in thy heart. O Ansar, let not the word of thy lips be overcome, Let me go, that I may accomplish all that is in thy heart." What man is it, who hath brought thee forth to battle? ... Tiamat, who is a woman, is armed and attacketh thee. ... rejoice and be glad; The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under foot. ... rejoice and be glad; The neck of Tiamat shalt thou swiftly trample under foot. 0 my son, who knoweth all wisdom, Pacify Tiamat with thy pure incantation. Speedily set out upon thy way, For thy blood shall not be poured out; thou shalt return again." The lord rejoiced at the word of his father, His heart exulted, and unto his father he spake: "O Lord of the gods, Destiny of the great gods, If I, your avenger, Conquer Tiamat and give you life, Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it. In Upsukkinaku seat yourself joyfully together, With my word in place of you will I decree fate. May whatsoever I do remain unaltered, May the word of my lips never be chanced nor made of no avail." THE THIRD TABLET Ansar opened his mouth, and Unto Gaga, his minister, spake the word. "O Gaga, thou minister that rejoicest my spirit, Unto Lahmu and Lahamu will I send thee. ... thou canst attain, ... thou shalt cause to be brought before thee. ... let the gods, all of them, Make ready for a feast, at a banquet let them sit, Let them eat bread, let them mix wine, That for Marduk, their avenger they may decree the fate. Go, Gaga, stand before them, And all that I tell thee, repeat unto them, and say: 'Ansar, vour son, hath sent me, The purpose of his heart he hath made known unto me. The purpose of his heart he hath made known unto me. He saith that Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath. All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, they go at her side. They are banded together, and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war. Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things, Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth and merciless of fang. With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror, With splendor she hath decked them; she hath made them of lofty stature. Whoever beboldeth them, terror overcometh him, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes, and raging bounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams; They bear merciless weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands are miahty; none can. resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters. Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support, She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him hath she entrusted; in costly raiment she hath made him sit, saying: I have uttered thy spell; in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power, The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto thee. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them ... the Anunnaki." She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established." Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons, saving: Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!" I sent Anu, but he could not withstand her; Nudimmud was afraid and turned back. But Marduk hath set out, the director of the gods, your son; To set out against Tiamat his heart hath prompted him. He opened his mouth and spake unto me, saying: "If I, your avenger, Conquer Tiamat and give you life, Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it. In Upsukkinaku seat yourself joyfully together; With my word in place of you will I decree fate. May whatsoever I do remain unaltered, May the word of my lips never be changed nor made of no avail."' Hasten, therefore, and swiftly decree for him the fate which you bestow, That he may go and fight your strong enemy. Gaga went, he took his way and Humbly before Lahmu and Lahamu, the gods, his fathers, He made obeisance, and he kissed the ground at their feet. He humbled himself; then he stood up and spake unto them saying: "Ansar, your son, hath sent me, The purpose of his heart he hath made known unto me. He saith that Tiamat our mother hath conceived a hatred for us, With all her force she rageth, full of wrath. All the gods have turned to her, With those, whom ye created, they go at her side. They are banded together and at the side of Tiamat they advance; They are furious, they devise mischief without resting night and day. They prepare for battle, fuming and raging; They have joined their forces and are making war. Ummu-Hubur, who formed all things, Hath made in addition weapons invincible; she hath spawned monster-serpents, Sharp of tooth and merciless of fang. With poison, instead of blood, she hath filled their bodies. Fierce monster-vipers she hath clothed with terror, With splendor she hath decked them, she hath made them of lofty stature. Whoever beboldeth them, terror overcometh him, Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. She hath set up vipers, and dragons, and the monster Lahamu, And hurricanes, and raging hounds, and scorpion-men, And mighty tempests, and fish-men, and rams; They bear merciless weapons, without fear of the fight. Her commands are mighty; none can resist them; After this fashion, huge of stature, hath she made eleven monsters. Among the gods who are her sons, inasmuch as he hath given her support, She hath exalted Kingu; in their midst she hath raised him to power. To march before the forces, to lead the host, To give the battle-signal, to advance to the attack, To direct the battle, to control the fight, Unto him hath she entrusted; in costlv raiment she hath made him sit, saving: I have uttered thy spell; in the assembly of the gods I have raised thee to power, The dominion over all the gods have I entrusted unto thee. Be thou exalted, thou my chosen spouse, May they magnify thy name over all of them...the Anunnaki. She hath given him the Tablets of Destiny on his breast she laid them, saving: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established.' Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu, Decreed the fate for the gods, her sons, saying: 'Let the opening of your mouth quench the Fire-god; Whoso is exalted in the battle, let him display his might!' I sent Anu, but he could not withstand her; Nudimmud was afraid and turned back. But Marduk hath set out, the director of the gods, your son; To set out against Tiamat his heart hath prompted him. He opened his mouth and spake unto me, saying: 'If I, your avenger, Conquer Tiamat and give you life, Appoint an assembly, make my fate preeminent and proclaim it. In Upsukkinaku seat yourselves joyfully together; With my word in place of you will I decree fate. May, whatsoever I do remain unaltered, May the word of my lips never be changed nor made of no avail.' Hasten, therefore, and swiftly decree for him the fate which you bestow, That he may go and fight your strong enemy! Lahmu and Lahamu heard and cried aloud All of the Igigi [The elder gods] wailed bitterly, saying: What has been altered so that they should We do not understand the deed of Tiamat! Then did they collect and go, The great gods, all of them, who decree fate. They entered in before Ansar, they filled... They kissed one another, in the assembly...; They made ready for the feast, at the banquet they sat; They ate bread, they mixed sesame-wine. The sweet drink, the mead, confused their... They were drunk with drinking, their bodies were filled. They were wholly at ease, their spirit was exalted; Then for Marduk, their avenger, did they decree the fate. THE FOURTH TABLET They prepared for him a lordly chamber, Before his fathers as prince he took his place. "Thou art chiefest among the great gods, Thy fate is unequaled, thy word is Anu! O Marduk, thou art chiefest among the great gods, Thy fate is unequaled, thy word is Anu! Henceforth not without avail shall be thy command, In thy power shall it be to exalt and to abase. Established shall be the word of thy mouth, irresistible shall be thy command, None among the gods shall transgress thy boundary. Abundance, the desire of the shrines of the gods, Shall be established in thy sanctuary, even though they lack offerings. O Marduk, thou art our avenger! We give thee sovereignty over the whole world. Sit thou down in might; be exalted in thy command. Thy weapon shall never lose its power; it shall crush thy foe. O Lord, spare the life of him that putteth his trust in thee, But as for the god who began the rebellion, pour out his life." Then set they in their midst a garment, And unto Marduk,- their first-born they spake: "May thy fate, O lord, be supreme among the gods, To destroy and to create; speak thou the word, and thy command shall be fulfilled. Command now and let the garment vanish; And speak the word again and let the garment reappear! Then he spake with his mouth, and the garment vanished; Again he commanded it, and. the garment reappeared. When the gods, his fathers, beheld the fulfillment of his word, They rejoiced, and they did homage unto him, saying, " Marduk is king!" They bestowed upon him the scepter, and the throne, and the ring, They give him an invincible weapony which overwhelmeth the foe. Go, and cut off the life of Tiamat, And let the wind carry her blood into secret places." After the gods his fathers had decreed for the lord his fate, They caused him to set out on a path of prosperity and success. He made ready the bow, he chose his weapon, He slung a spear upon him and fastened it... He raised the club, in his right hand he grasped it, The bow and the quiver he hung at his side. He set the lightning in front of him, With burning flame he filled his body. He made a net to enclose the inward parts of Tiamat, The four winds he stationed so that nothing of her might escape; The South wind and the North wind and the East wind and the West wind He brought near to the net, the gift of his father Anu. He created the evil wind, and the tempest, and the hurricane, And the fourfold wind, and the sevenfold wind, and the whirlwind, and the wind which had no equal; He sent forth the winds which he had created, the seven of them; To disturb the inward parts of Tiamat, they followed after him. Then the lord raised the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon, He mounted the chariot, the storm unequaled for terror, He harnessed and yoked unto it four horses, Destructive, ferocious, overwhelming, and swift of pace; ... were their teeth, they were flecked with foam; They were skilled in... , they had been trained to trample underfoot. ... . mighty in battle, Left and right.... His garment was... , he was clothed with terror, With overpowering brightness his head was crowned. Then he set out, he took his way, And toward the raging Tiamat he set his face. On his lips he held ..., ... he grasped in his hand. Then they beheld him, the gods beheld him, The gods his fathers beheld him, the gods beheld him. And the lord drew nigh, he gazed upon the inward parts of Tiamat, He perceived the muttering of Kingu, her spouse. As Marduk gazed, Kingu was troubled in his gait, His will was destroyed and his motions ceased. And the gods, his helpers, who marched by his side, Beheld their leader's..., and their sight was troubled. But Tiamat... , she turned not her neck, With lips that failed not she uttered rebellious words: "... thy coming as lord of the gods, From their places have they gathered, in thy place are they! " Then the lord raised the thunderbolt, his mighty weapon, And against Tiamat, who was raging, thus he sent the word: Thou art become great, thou hast exalted thyself on high, And thy heart hath prompted thee to call to battle. ... their fathers..., ... their... thou hatest... Thou hast exalted Kingu to be thy spouse, Thou hast... him, that, even as Anu, he should issue deerees. thou hast followed after evil, And against the gods my fathers thou hast contrived thy wicked plan. Let then thy host be equipped, let thy weapons be girded on! Stand! I and thou, let us join battle! When Tiamat heard these words, She was like one posessed, .she lost her reason. Tiamat uttered wild, piercing cries, She trembled and shook to her very foundations. She recited an incantation, she pronounced her spell, And the gods of the battle cried out for their weapons. Then advanced Tiamat and Marduk, the counselor of the gods; To the fight they came on, to the battle they drew nigh. The lord spread out his net and caught her, And the evil wind that was behind him he let loose in her face. As Tiamat opened her mouth to its full extent, He drove in the evil wind, while as yet she had not shut her lips. The terrible winds filled her belly, And her courage was taken from her, and her mouth she opened wide. He seized the spear and burst her belly, He severed her inward parts, he pierced her heart. He overcame her and cut off her life; He cast down her body and stood upon it. When he had slain Tiamat, the leader, Her might was broken, her host was scattered. And the gods her helpers, who marched by her side, Trembled, and were afraid, and turned back. They took to flight to save their lives; But they were surrounded, so that they could not escape. He took them captive, he broke their weapons; In the net they were caught and in the snare they sat down. The ... of the world they filled with cries of grief. They received punishment from him, they were held in bondage. And on the eleven creatures which she had filled with the power of striking terror, Upon the troop of devils, who marched at her..., He brought affliction, their strength he...; Them and their opposition he trampled under his feet. Moreover, Kingu, who had been exalted over them, He conquered, and with the god Dug-ga he counted him. He took from him the Tablets of Destiny that were not rightly his, He sealed them with a seal and in his own breast he laid them. Now after the hero Marduk had conquered and cast down his enemies, And had made the arrogant foe even like And had fully established Ansar's triumph over the enemy And had attained the purpose of Nudimmud, Over the captive gods he strengthened his durance, And unto Tiamat, whom he had conquered, he returned. And the lord stood upon Tiamat's hinder parts, And with his merciless club he smashed her skull. He cut through the channels of her blood, And he made the North wind bear it away into secret places. His fathers beheld, and they rejoiced and were glad; Presents and gifts they brought unto him. Then the lord rested, gazing upon her dead body, While he divided the flesh of the ... , and devised a cunning plan. He split her up like a flat fish into two halves; One half of her he stablished as a covering for heaven. He fixed a bolt, he stationed a watchman, And bade them not to let her waters come forth. He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions thereof, And over against the Deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud. And the lord measured the structure of the Deep, And he founded E-sara, a mansion like unto it. The mansion E-sara which he created as heaven, He caused Anu, Bel, and Ea in their districts to inhabit. THE FIFTH TABLET He (Marduk) made the stations for the great gods; The stars, their images, as the stars of the Zodiac, he fixed. He ordained the year and into sections he divided it; For the twelve months he fixed three stars. After he had ... the days of the year ... images, He founded the station of Nibir [the planet Jupiter] to determine their bounds; That none might err or go astray, He set the station of Bel and Ea along with him. He opened great gates on both sides, He made strong the bolt on the left and on the right. In the midst thereof he fixed the zenith; The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night he entrusted to him. He appointed him, a being of the night, to determine the days; Every month without ceasing with the crown he covered him, saying: "At the beginning of the month, when thou shinest upon the land, Thou commandest the horns to determine six days, And on the seventh day to divide the crown. On the fourteenth day thou shalt stand opposite, the half.... When the Sun-god on the foundation of heaven...thee, The ... thou shalt cause to ..., and thou shalt make his... ... unto the path of the Sun-god shalt thou cause to draw nigh, And on the ... day thou shalt stand opposite, and the Sun-god shall... ... to traverse her way. ... thou shalt cause to draw nigh, and thou shalt judge the right. ... to destroy..." [Nearly fifty lines are here lost.] The gods, his fathers, beheld the net which he had made, They beheld the bow and how its work was accomplished. They praised the work which he had done... Then Anu raised the ... in the assembly of the gods. He kissed the bow, saving, " It is...!" And thus he named the names of the bow, saving, "'Long-wood' shall be one name, and the second name shall be ..., And its third name shall be the Bow-star, in heaven shall it...!" Then he fixed a station for it... Now after the fate of... He set a throne... ...in heaven... [The remainder of this tablet is missing.] THE SIXTH TABLET When Marduk heard the word of the gods, His heart prompted him and he devised a cunning plan. He opened his mouth and unto Ea he spake That which he had conceived in his heart he imparted unto him: "My blood will I take and bone will I fashion I will make man, that man may I will create man who shall inhabit the earth, That the service of the gods may be established, and that their shrines may be built. But I will alter the ways of the gods, and I will change their paths; Together shall they be oppressed and unto evil shall they.... And Ea answered him and spake the word: "... the ... of the gods I have changed ... and one... ... shall be destroyed and men will I... ... and the gods . ... and they..." [The rest of the text is wanting with the exception of the last few lines of the tablet, which read as follows.] They rejoiced... In Upsukkinnaku they set their dwelling. Of the heroic son, their avenger, they cried: " We, whom he succored.... !" They seated themselves and in the assembly they named him..., They all cried aloud, they exalted him... THE SEVENTH TABLET O Asari, [Marduk] "Bestower of planting," "Founder of sowing" "Creator of grain and plants," "who caused the green herb to spring up!" O Asaru-alim, [Mardk] "who is revered in the house of counsel," "who aboundeth in counsel," The gods paid homage, fear took hold upon them! O Asaru-alim-nuna, [Marduk] "the mighty one," "the Light of the father who begat him," "Who directeth the decrees of Anu Bel, and Ea!" He was their patron, be ordained their...; He, whose provision is abundance, goeth forth... Tutu [Marduk] is "He who created them anew"; Should their wants be pure, then are they satisfied; Should he make an incantation, then are the gods appeased; Should they attack him in anger, he withstandeth their onslaught! Let him therefore be exalted, and in the assembly of the gods let him... ; None among the gods can rival him! 15 Tutu [Marduk] is Zi-ukkina, "the Life of the host of the gods," Who established for the gods the bright heavens. He set them on their way, and ordained their path; Never shall his ... deeds be forgotten among men. Tutu as Zi-azag thirdly they named, "the Bringer of Purification," "The God of the Favoring Breeze," "the Lord of Hearing and Mercy," "The Creator of Fulness and Abundance," " the Founder of Plenteousness," "Who increaseth all that is small." In sore distress we felt his favoring breeze," Let them say, let them pay reverence, let them bow in humility before him! Tutu as Aga-azag may mankind fourthly magnify! "The Lord of the Pure Incantation," " the Quickener of the Dead," "Who had mercy upon the captive gods," "Who removed the yoke from upon the gods his enemies," "For their forgiveness did he create mankind," "The Merciful One, with whom it is to bestow life!" May his deeds endure, may they never be forgotten , In the mouth of mankind whom his hands have made! Tutu as Mu-azag, fifthly, his "Pure incantation" may their mouth proclaim, Who through his Pure Incantation hath destroyed all the evil ones!" Sag-zu, [Marduk] "who knoweth the heart of the gods," " who seeth through the innermost part!" "The evil-doer he hath not caused to go forth with him!" "Founder of the assembly of the gods," who ... their heart!" "Subduer of the disobedient," "...!" "Director of Righteousness," "...," " Who rebellion and...!" Tutu as Zi-si, "the ...," "Who put an end to anger," "who...!" Tutu as Suh-kur, thirdly, "the Destroyer of the foe," "Who put their plans to confusion," "Who destroyed all the wicked," "...," ... let them... ! [There is a gap here of sixty lines. But somewhere among the lost lines belong the following fragments.] who... He named the four quarters of the world, mankind hecreated, And upon him understanding... "The mighty one...!" Agil... "The Creator of the earth...!" Zulummu... . "The Giver of counsel and of whatsoever...!" Mummu, " the Creator of...!" Mulil, the heavens..., "Who for...!" Giskul, let..., "Who brought the gods to naught....!" ............... ... " the Chief of all lords," ... supreme is his might! Lugal-durmah, "the King of the band of the gods," " the Lord of rulers." "Who is exalted in a royal habitation," "Who among the gods is gloriously supreme! Adu-nuna, " the Counselor of Ea," who created the gods his fathers, Unto the path of whose majesty No god can ever attain! ... in Dul-azag be made it known, ... pure is his dwelling! ... the... of those without understanding is Lugaldul-azaga! ... supreme is his might! ... their... in the midst of Tiamat, ... of the battle! [Here follows the better-preserved ending.] ... the star, which shineth in the heavens. May he hold the Beginning and the Future, may they pay homage unto him, Saying, "He who forced his way through the midst of Tiamat without resting, Let his name be Nibiru, 'the Seizer of the Midst'! For the stars of heaven he upheld the paths, He shepherded all the gods like sheep! He conquered Tiamat, he troubled and ended her life," In the future of mankind, when the days grow old, May this be heard without ceasing; may it hold sway forever! Since he created the realm of heaven and fashioned the firm earth, The Lord of the World," the father Bel hath called his name. This title, which all the Spirits of Heaven proclaimed, Did Ea hear, and his spirit was rejoiced, and he said: "He whose name his fathers have made glorious, Shall be even as I, his name shall be Ea! The binding of all my decrees shall he control, All my commands shall he make known! " By the name of "Fifty " did the great gods Proclaim his fifty names, they, made his path preeminent. EPILOGUE Let them [i.e. the names of Marduk] be held in remembrances and let the first man proclaim them; Let the wise and the understanding consider them together! Let the father repeat them and teach them to his son; Let them be in the ears of the pastor and the shepherd! Let a man rejoice in Marduk, the Lord of the gods, That be may cause his land to be fruitful, and that he himself may have prosperity! His word standeth fast, his command is unaltered; The utterance of his mouth hath no god ever annulled. He gazed in his anger, he turned not his neck; When he is wroth, no god can withstand his indignation. Wide is his heart, broad is his compassion; The sinner and evil-doer in his presence... They received instruction, they spake before him, ... unto... ... of Marduk may the gods...; ... May they ... his name... ! ... they took and... ...................................! END OF THE CREATION EPIC THE FIGHT WITH TIAMAT (ANOTHER VERSION) [Note: Strictly speaking, the text is not a creation-legend, though it gives a variant form of the principal incident in the history of the creation according to the Enuma Elish. Here the fight with the dragon did not precede the creation of the world, but took place after men had been created and cities had been built.] The cities sighed, men ... Men uttered lamentation, they ... For their lamentation there was none to help, For their grief there was none to take them by the hand. · Who was the dragon... ? Tiamat was the dragon..... Bel in heaven hath formed..... Fifty kaspu [A kaspu is the space that can be covered in two hours travel, i.e. six or seven miles] in his length, one kaspu in his height, Six cubits is his mouth, twelve cubits his..., Twelve cubits is the circuit of his ears...; For the space of sixty cubits he ... a bird; In water nine cubits deep he draggeth...." He raiseth his tail on high...; All the gods of heaven... In heaven the gods bowed themselves down before the Moon-god...; The border of the Moon-god's robe they hastily grasped: "Who will go and slay the dragon," And deliver the broad land from... And become king over... ? " Go, Tishu, slav the dragon, And deliver the broad land from..., And become king over...!" Thou hast sent me, O Lord, to... the raging creatures of the river, But I know not the... of the Dragon! [The rest of the Obverse and the upper part of the Reverse of the tablet are wanting.] REVERSE ................ And opened his mouth and spake unto the god... " Stir up cloud, and storm and tempest! The seal of thy life shalt thou set before thy face, Thou shalt grasp it, and thou shalt slay the dragon." He stirred up cloud, and storm and tempest, He set the seal of his life before his face, He grasped it, and he slew the dragon. For three years and three months, one day and one night The blood of the dragon flowed. ...

The Philistines.txt

Sacred Texts Ancient Near East Index Previous Next The Philistines, by R.A.S. Macalister, [1913], at sacred-texts.com p. 38 2. THEIR STRUGGLE WITH THE HEBREWS We now turn to the various historical references to the Philistines in the Hebrew Scriptures. It happens that the Zakkala, with whom the Golénischeff Papyrus is concerned, are not mentioned by name in the received text of the Old Testament. The southern Philistines were more conspicuous in the history of the Hebrews, and this name is in consequence used indifferently for all the tribal subdivisions of the hated enemy. The first appearance of the Philistines on the coast of Southern Palestine is not recorded in the Old Testament, but it may possibly be inferred indirectly. In the oldest monument of Hebrew speech, the Song of Deborah, the tribe of Dan is referred to as a maritime people who 'remained in ships' while their brethren bore the brunt of the invasion of Sisera. Towards the end of the Book of Judges, we find that certain of the tribe of Dan are compelled to seek a home elsewhere, and choose the fertile, well-watered, but hot and fever-haunted Laish, a place remote from everywhere, and where the people were 'quiet'—as they well might be in that malaria-stricken furnace. Why did the Danites leave for this unsatisfactory territory their healthy and rich land by the sea-coast? Probably because they were driven by pressure from without. The migration of the Danites can best be explained by the settlement of the Philistines. And it is suggestive that the first great champion to stand for Israel against the intruders, Samson, belonged to Zorah, whence went forth the Danite spies (Judg. xviii. 2). The first allusion to the Philistines which we meet with in the Old Testament, that in the genealogical table of the nations in Genesis x, we have already discussed. Next we find a cycle of stories, told with but little variation both of Abraham and of Isaac (Gen. xx, xxi, xxvi), in which those heroes of old are brought into contact with a certain 'Abimelech, king of the Philistines'. In both cases the patriarch, to save himself, conceals his true relationship to his wife, which is revealed to the deceived monarch: in both, the latter displays a singular dignity and righteousness in the delicate position in which his guest's duplicity places him: and in both there is a subsequent dispute about the possession of wells. The stories are in short doublets of one another, and both echo a similar tale told of Abraham in Egypt, at an earlier stage of his career (Gen. xii). Whoever added the inept title to Psalm xxxiv evidently had these stories in his mind when he inadvertently wrote 'a Psalm of David when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech' instead of Achish: an unconscious p. 39 reminiscence of the tale might possibly have been suggested by vv. 12, 13 of the Psalm in question. The use of the word 'Philistine' in these stories has long been recognized as an anachronism. Perhaps with less harshness and equal accuracy we might characterize it as a rather free use of modern names and circumstances in telling an ancient tale. Even now we might find, for example, a popular writer on history saying that this event or that of the Early British period took place 'in Norfolk', although it is obvious that the territory of the North Folk must have received its Saxon name in later times. The tales of Abraham and Isaac were written when the land where their scenes were laid was in truth the Land of the Philistines; and the story-teller was not troubled with the question as to how far back that occupation lasted. Indeed when Abimelech first appears on the scene he is not a Philistine, but the Semitic king of the town of Gerar. The two passages in Gen. xxi, which might be understood 'they returned into [what we call] Philistia' . . . 'Abraham sojourned in [what is now] Philistia', have misled the writer (or copyist) of Gen. xxvi into supposing that Abimelech was actually king of the Philistines. In fact the Greek Version of xxvi. 8 seems to preserve an indication of older readings in which he was simply called, as in the other story, king of Gerar. Noordtzij (Filist. p. 59) attempts to demonstrate a pre-Ramessu occupation of S. Palestine by the Philistines, principally on the ground that the time between Ramessu III and Samson or Saul is too short for the 'semitizing' process to have taken place. This seems hardly a cogent argument to me: the 'semitization' was by no means complete: the special Semitic rite of circumcision was not adopted: there is no reason to suppose that the language of the Philistines had been abandoned for a Semitic language. And we need have no difficulty in supposing such changes to take place with great rapidity. Thanks to the undermining influence of returned American emigrants, the Irish peasant has shown a change of attitude towards traditional beliefs in fairies and similar beings within the past twenty years as profound as any change that might have taken place between Ramessu III and Saul under the influence of the surrounding Semitic populations. A similar anachronism meets us in Exodus xiii. 17, enshrining an ancient tradition that the ordinary caravan-route from Egypt by way of the coast was avoided in preference to the long and wearisome march through the desert, in order to keep clear of the Philistines and their military prowess. Likewise in the song preserved in Exodus xv, we find (v. 14) despondency attributed to the dwellers p. 40 in Philistia at the news of the crossing of the Red Sea. This song, however, is probably not very ancient. On the other hand, the writers who have contributed to the Pentateuch in its final form do not all share the indifference to chronological detail shown by the Yahwist story-teller. Often as are the tribes of Canaan enumerated in passages anticipatory of the conquest of the Promised Land, the Philistines are never mentioned: they have no share in the territory of the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, and the Jebusite. In view of the prominence of the Philistines in the later history, this is a very significant fact. The solitary exception is so vague that it might almost be said to prove the rule—a reference to the Mediterranean sea by the name of 'the Sea of the Philistines' in Exodus xxxiii. 31. In Joshua xiii. 2, the 'districts' or 'circles' of the Philistines are enumerated among the places not conquered by the leader of the Hebrew immigration—the following verse, to which we shall return later, enumerates the 'districts'. But there is no reference to the Philistines in the parallel account contained in Judges i. There, in verse 19, the 'dwellers in the valley', i.e. in the low coast-land on which the Judahite territory bordered, are depicted as successfully resisting the aggression of the Hebrew tribe with the help of their iron chariots: the previous verse, which contradicts this, and which unhistorically claims that Judah captured the cities Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, must necessarily be an interpolation. 1 In Judges iii. 3 we find an agreement with the passage just cited from Joshua—the five lords of the Philistines, as well as the 'Canaanites' (whatever may be exactly meant by the name in this connexion), the Phoenicians, and the Hi[tt]ites are enumerated as being left unconquered. The curious reason assigned, that this was to practise the Hebrews in war, is at any rate concordant with the old tradition that the terror of the warlike Philistines prevented the Hebrews following the direct route into the Promised Land. The passages examined so far have rather been concerned with the settlement of the protagonists in the great struggle for the possession of Palestine than with the course of the struggle itself. We are to picture the Hebrew tribes crossing the Jordan from the East, and some little time afterwards the Philistines (and Zakkala) establishing themselves on the rich coast-lands: this much we can see with the aid of the Egyptian records cited in the preceding pages. We now follow the history of the conflict. At the outset we are confronted by a puzzling group of passages. In the very ancient Song of Deborah, picturing the distracted state p. 41 of the country under foreign oppressors, the writer describes how travellers and caravans, from fear, abandoned the main thoroughfares and journeyed along the by-paths, of which the winding valleys of Palestine offer an endless choice. This was in the days of a certain Shamgar son of Anath 1 (Judges v. 6). The name has a foreign appearance 2: a Hittite analogy (Sangar) has been sought for it. We cannot, however, conclude that he was necessarily a foreigner, even though his progenitor is said to be Anath, which happens to be a well-known goddess-name. There is not another case of a Hebrew bearing so frankly idolatrous a name in the Old Testament. But in the Aswân papyri we have a glimpse of what Jewish life was, independent of priestly influences; and these show an extraordinary tolerance of heathen names and practices. We find Hosea son of Peti-Khnum. Names like ‘Athar-ili, Nebonathan, Ben-Tirash occur in the community: the daughter of one Mahseiah swears in a law-court by the goddess Sati. Shamgar son of Anath would have been quite at home in this company. The antecedent for this reference in Deborah's Song appears to lie in a verse at the end of chapter iii (v. 31), which says that Shamgar son of Anath killed six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad, and saved Israel. It is, however, obvious that this verse is out of place. It interrupts the flow of the narrative: there is no word of Philistine oppression in the context, and the text proceeds 'When Ehud was dead . . .' certain things happened, following on the story of Ehud which the Shamgar passage interrupts. The later development of the history contains no recognition of the labours of Shamgar. There are indeed few passages in literature which are so clearly no part of the original document: and we can hardly doubt that it has been inserted from some other source, or from another part of the book, in order to provide an explanation for the allusion in Deborah's Song. It is curious that the chief Greek MSS. read Δίναχ instead of 'Anath' here, but not in Deborah's Song. 3 A number of Greek MSS. repeat the verse relating to Shamgar after xvi. 31—i.e. immediately after the story of Samson. This seems a better place for it. 4 p. 42 The Shamgar story, in short, looks like one of the floating traditions that have more particularly crystallized round Samson and the mighty men of David. A remarkable parallel to the exploit of Shamgar has been found in the deed of 'Shammah the Hararite'—a not dissimilar name—one of David's followers, who in some such rough and ready way defended a field of crops—barley or lentils—from Philistine marauders. 1 But can the story be so summarily dismissed? Grant all the difficulties—that Shamgar's name has a foreign aspect, that the prose account of him is an interpolation, that the Philistines seem to appear too early on the scene; yet the scanty allusion to this obscure champion may after all record a tradition of the beginnings of the great struggle. For besides Shamgar, Deborah's Song mentions another arresting personality. The very grandeur of the paean throws a romantic halo round the person of the unfortunate Sisera, victim of a crime against the desert law of hospitality difficult to parallel even in the wild annals of Bedawin life. The heartless glee with which the poet triumphs over the chieftain's anxious, watching mother makes the latter for us one of the most pathetic figures in the whole crowded gallery of the Old Testament. Time has brought its revenge for both mother and son. In the prose version of the combat, Sisera is represented as the general of Jabin, king of Hazor, and the latter is the head of the attack on Israel. But Jabin has an altogether secondary place in the narrative, and Sisera is the central figure. Jabin, indeed, is probably imported into the story from the source that lies at the back of Joshua xi, where there is no mention of Sisera. In Psalm lxxxiii. 9 Sisera is mentioned before Jabin. He has a town of his own, 'Harosheth of the Gentiles,' more than a day's journey from the city of Jabin; and the vignette of his mother surrounded by her court ladies gives us a picture of a more important establishment than that of a mere captain of a host. Sisera in short is an independent king, and the story as we have it is either an account of a single campaign in which two kings were in league, or, more probably, a combination of the narratives of two campaigns wholly independent. Harosheth is generally identified with the modern Harathiyeh, in the bottle-neck which forms the mouth of the plain of Esdraelon—a region entirely in Philistine hands, at least at the end of Saul's wars. This identification seems fairly trustworthy. Not far off from Harosheth was a village with the name Beth-dagon: and Harosheth itself is distinguished p. 43 by the appellation 'of the gōyīm' or foreigners. In Joshua xii. 23 'the king of the gōyīm in Gilgal' is mentioned in noteworthy juxtaposition with Dor, which figures so conspicuously in the report of Wen-Amon; but this passage has been suspected and various emendations suggested, chief of which is to read ‏לגליל‎ for ‏לגלגל‎ and to translate 'king of nations belonging to Galilee'. This is of course reminiscent of the famous 'Galilee of the Gentiles' 1; but on the other hand we may compare ‏גלילות פלשת‎ 'the Galilees of Philistia' in Joshua xiii. 2 and Joel iii. 4 (= Hebrew iv. 4), which in the latter passage is mentioned immediately after the Philistine territory. The word gōyīm is of no more specific meaning than our word 'nations': though usually applied to foreigners, it may even on occasion be applied to the nation of Israel: so it cannot be said to be very conclusive. But one wonders whether in such passages and phrases as these it might not bear the special meaning of the foreigners par excellence, the most outlandish people with whom the Hebrews came into contact—that is to say the Philistines and their cognate tribes, for whom the Greek translators reserve the name ἀλλόφυλοι. In the present case they would more especially be the Zakkala, of whom Wen-Amon tells us, but who are not mentioned by name in the Hebrew writings. Sisera's enormous host of iron chariots, a possession which, as we saw, also enabled the coast-dwellers of the South to hold their own, is emphasized in the prose account of the battle, as in the speech put by Deborah's Song into his mother's mouth: and it is interesting to notice that we hear again of these iron chariots as being on the plain of Esdraelon (Joshua xvii. 16). The name of the prince also is suggestive. It is not Semitic: and the numerous Hittite names ending in sira—Khetasira and the like—have been quoted to indicate its possible origin. But we should not forget Badyra, the Zakkala prince of the neighbouring town of Dor. And may it not be asked whether Sisera, ‏סיסרא‎, could be a reduplicated form derived from the root of ‏סרן‎ seren (the latter being possibly a participle), the one word of the Philistine language which we certainly know—the technical term for the 'lords of the Philistine state? This guess presupposes that the language of the Philistines was Indo-European—an assumption which it has not yet been possible either to prove or disprove. Some possible evidence of reduplication is afforded by such combinations as REREIET and perhaps KRKOKLES in the Praesos inscriptions. It is interesting to note that the name p. 44 [paragraph continues]Beneṣasira occurs in the list of Keftian names on the Egyptian tablet described on a previous page. If Sisera was a Philistine or at least one of cognate race, we have some use for Shamgar and his ox-goad. Otherwise, the latter must be expunged from the list of Judges, if he be not actually numbered among the oppressors, as Moore in his Commentary is inclined to do. The combination ANAIT, which ends one of the Praesos inscriptions just mentioned, has been compared to the name of Shamgar's parent Anath; but there is no probability that such a coincidence between a short inscription on the one hand, and a few proper names on the other, is of any importance. In Judges x. 6, 7, 11 there is mention of Philistine oppression, in strange and scarcely intelligible connexion with the Amorites. This passage does not help us nearer to the solution of problems. It is in the narrative of Samson that the Philistines first come conspicuously on the scene. It is unnecessary to summarize the familiar incidents: indeed for our purpose these chapters, though of the deepest interest, are disappointing. The narrator is content to tell his tale, without troubling himself about the attendant circumstances which we would so gladly know. In discussing this remarkable series of episodes it is unnecessary to raise the question of their historicity. 1 Still more irrelevant would be a discussion of the pseudo-scientific hypothesis that Samson (like Achilles, Heracles, Max Müller, Gladstone, and other demonstrated characters of mythology) was a solar myth. It is sufficient for the purpose of our present discussion that the tale gives us an early tradition of the condition of affairs at the time indicated; and as I have said elsewhere, 2 it is probably to be regarded as a prose epic concentrating into the person of a single ideal hero the various incidents of a guerrilla border-warfare. This being postulated, one or two points of importance strike us in reading the story. The first is, that the Philistine domination was complete, and was passively accepted by the Hebrews. 'The Philistines are rulers over us' say the men of Judah, who propose to betray the champion to his enemies. As is so often the case with a nation of separate clans, even the pressure of a formidable common enemy cannot always heal their mutual jealousies. Ireland, in the face of the Vikings in the ninth century, and of the English in the twelfth, offers p. 45 an instructive parallel. Only a chapter or two before the appearance of Samson, we have the distracting episode of Abimelech: a chapter or two later comes the story of the massacre of the Benjamites by the other tribes: and whatever may be the true chronological relationship of these narratives to the historical setting of the Samson epic, they at least indicate that there was a long period of inter-tribal disunion that would make it easy for a well-organized military nation to gain complete domination over the country. But it was no mere military domination. The Philistines were accompanied by their wives and daughters, and the attractiveness of the latter in the eyes of Samson is a leading motive of his story. On this side of the narrative, however, there is one point to be noticed. There is no reason for branding the Philistines with the stigma of having produced the mercenary traitress Delilah: indeed, whatever indications there may be in her story point in an exactly opposite direction. Had tradition called her a Philistine, like Samson's first wife, the author of Judges would hardly have failed to make it clear. She is described as a woman in the Valley of Sorek; which, if it be the modern Wady es-Surâr, as is generally agreed, was partly in Israelite territory. Moreover, it would scarcely have been necessary for the Philistine lords to have offered the gigantic bribe of 1,100 pieces of silver each, to a woman of their own nation, that she might betray to them the arch-enemy of her race: it would be much more likely that they would use the persuasive argument of threatening her with the fate of her unlucky predecessor. The name appears again as that of a member of the tribe of Judah, in a genealogical fragment in 1 Chronicles iv. 19, preserved by the Greek Version, but lost from the Hebrew textus receptus. It is not too much to say that if the Delilah episode be read carefully, the various steps become more natural and intelligible when we picture the central figure as a tribeswoman of the men of Judah, who in the previous chapter had attempted to anticipate her act of betrayal. It is noteworthy that nowhere in the Samson story is there any hint that there was a barrier of language between Hebrew and Philistine. Samson and his Philistine friends at Timnah exchange their rough jests without any difficulty; Delilah, whatever her race, converses with equal ease with the Philistine lords and with her Hebrew husband. The same point is to be noticed throughout the subsequent history, with the curious and significant exception of the very last reference to the Philistines in the historical books. Indeed, it has often been observed that the services of an interpreter are but rarely called for in the Old Testament: although it is possible p. 46 that such an intermediary was sometimes used without the fact being specifically stated. 1 But probably in ancient as in modern Palestine everybody who had any position at all to maintain could speak several languages. The officers of Hezekiah and Sennacherib, for instance, could understand each the other's tongue, and could pass from one to the other with the enviable ease of a modern Levantine polyglot. The incident of Samson's hair has often been compared to the purple hair of Nisus, plucked out by Scylla at the instigation of Minos; and to the story of Pterelaos of Taphos and his golden hair given him by Poseidon, which rendered him immortal. Both stories are to be found in that endless mine, the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus. The connexion of Minos with the former story is noteworthy. It has, I believe, been suggested (but I have no note of the reference) that the story of-the virtue inherent in Samson's locks may have been actually received by the Hebrews from Philistine sources. It may be merely a coincidence that the name of Samson's father, Manoah, resembles the name Minos. Lastly, we notice in the Samson epic that as seen through Hebrew eyes the Philistines had already the three characteristics that marked them out from the other nations round about. The adjective 'uncircumcised', obviously the current term of abuse in all generations, already makes its appearance. Their peculiar government by 'lords' also meets us, but as it happens no particular 'lord' is named, nor does the Samson story give us any idea of their number. Thirdly, in the final scene, we are introduced to the mysterious Dagon, the chief deity of the Philistine pantheon. For how long the Philistine domination lasted we have no means of knowing. There is no indication of the length of time supposed to elapse between the death of Samson and the appearance on the scene of Samuel. Eli, the priest of the High Place at Shiloh, may or may not have been contemporary with Samson: he appears suddenly on the scene as a man in extreme old age 'who had judged Israel forty years', and vanishes almost immediately. The next stage of the history shows us the disunited and mutually hostile tribes of Israel gradually welding together under the pressure of their formidable enemy, and slowly but surely, though with more than one serious set-back, reversing the situation. We begin with the unlucky battle in which for a time the Ark was lost (1 Sam. iv). The topography of the battle is uncertain: the Philistines pitched at a place quite unknown, Aphek, the Israelites p. 47 at a spot of equally obscure topography, Eben-ezer, where Samuel afterwards set up a memorial pillar (vii. 12). The Philistines were the victors, and the Israelites attempted to turn the battle by fetching their national palladium from its resting-place in Shiloh. The Philistines were at first stricken with a superstitious fear; but recovering themselves they made a complete slaughter of the Israelites, and captured the Ark itself. Their rallying-cry 'Be strong and be men, that ye be not slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you' corroborates, from the Philistine side, the evidence that the Philistines were the masters of the Hebrews at the time. Now begins that strange story of the wanderings of the Ark. It would be natural to lay up the symbol of the deity of a vanquished people in the temple of the chief god of the conquerors: as Mesha laid up his religious trophies before Chemosh, so the Ark was deposited in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod—a temple of which we hear down to the time of the Maccabees (1 Mace. x. 84). But Dagon twice falls prostrate before the Ark, the second time being broken by the fall. At the same time a plague of mice or rats spread over the Philistine plain. There was a very similar plague over the same district in 1904, and enormous damage was done to the growing crops. Indeed, the peasants, whose fields were robbed almost as though by the prophet Joel's locusts, were reduced to tracking out the rat-holes and collecting the grain that the animals had brought down and stored: it was a curious sight to watch the women patiently engaged in this weary work, and gradually filling bags with the precious seed thus recovered. But in the Philistine experience the plague of rats had a yet more serious consequence. Not only did they 'mar the land', but as we now know to be the natural course of events, the parasites of the mice communicated to the people the disease of bubonic plague. 1 The disease broke out first in Ashdod, and was naturally explained as due to the presence of the Ark. They therefore dispatched it to Gath, and of course the bearers carried the plague bacilli with them: again it was sent to Ekron, and again the plague was carried thither; p. 48 and as the Philistines, even before they had secured their costly prize, had associated it with outbreaks of pestilence in Egypt (1 Sam. iv. 8), they easily connected it with their own troubles. How they returned it to Beth-Shemesh, and how the bacilli (carried probably by parasites on the kine, or perhaps on the coverings of the Ark) proved to be still virulent to the cost of the villagers who too rashly approached, are tales too well known to need repetition. It is interesting that the Philistines sent back with the Ark votive models of their twofold plague, which yet was one, as their ancestors had been wont to do when, in search of healing from the ills of human flesh, they visited the Dictaean Cave in the ancient homeland. The following chapter (vii) apparently represents a different strand of tradition. According to this the Ark was suffered to remain in Kiriath-Jearim no less than twenty years, until, probably, it was brought up to Jerusalem at the beginning of the reign of David. 1 Samuel held a reconciliation service, as it might be called, in which Israel renounced the various strange gods they had adopted. The Philistines came up to plunder this peaceful assembly, but were driven back by an appalling thunderstorm. The people gave chase, and smote the invaders to the unknown place called Beth-Car, to which reference has been made in the previous chapter; and a great memorial stone was set up at or near the spot where the Ark had been captured. We are then told that the Philistines restored certain cities, including Ekron and Gath (or according to the Greek text, Ashkelon and 'Azob', i.e. Gaza or Ashdod), to the Israelites, and that they never again came up to invade Israel. It is noticeable that the narrator, with all his desire to glorify Samuel, avoids making a purely military leader of him, while emphasizing his religious functions. The victory is ascribed more to the thunderstorm, which is an answer to the 'whole burnt offering' offered by Samuel, than to military skill on the part of the Israelites or of any leader. The writer's patriotic enthusiasm (and perhaps some such record as Judges i. 18) have betrayed him into exaggeration with regard to the 'restoration' of cities that in fact had never been Israelite. But with regard to his conclusion 'that the Philistines never again invaded Israel', it is quite possible to judge him too harshly. If the Philistines were confined to the narrow strip of territory from Joppa southward, the statement would be absurd: but we have now seen that, at the time, the suzerainty of the Philistines p. 49 over the whole of Palestine was complete, and that in all probability they actually occupied the Northern coast, the plain of Esdraelon as far as the Jordan, and even penetrated up the fertile valleys that wind through the Judaean mountains. This being so it may well be that the incident here recorded was actually the last case of aggression; but that in all the other cases in which the Philistines 'came up to war' the purpose was defensive, to meet Israelite encroachments on their territory. The passage therefore is not necessarily so 'extravagant' as some critics have made out. However, there can be little doubt that the desire of the Hebrew people for a king, which now began to express itself, was the natural outcome of the growing sense of unity which under the pressure of the Philistine domination was rapidly developing. A leader was urgently needed who should be free from the specifically religious duties to which Samuel was entirely devoted; it was hoped that one who could thus give his whole attention to military matters might ultimately rid the people of the yoke that daily became more and more intolerable. Authorities differ as to how Samuel was affected by the popular demand. In one version he indignantly condemned it as a revolt against the theocracy of which he himself was at once Emperor and Pope. In another version he raised no objection to the new departure, definitely recognized it as a step towards delivery from the Philistines (1 Sam. ix. 16), chose the king and received him courteously, and declared to him the signs that testified to his election. From this programme we learn incidentally that the Philistines had a sort of mudir or governor at a place called Gibeah of God (probably to be identified with the modern village of Ram Allah about twelve miles north of Jerusalem). 1 This fact underlines, so to speak, what has already been said about the absence of Philistine aggressions after the battle of Beth-Car. With an outpost so far east as the spot indicated, the actual territory of the Philistines included all the places where fighting took place. Saul assumed the kingdom, and immediately the first Israelite aggression took place: Jonathan slew the Philistine governor of Geba, where, as at Gibeah, there seems to have been a Philistine mudir. The Philistines, rightly considering this a sign of revolt, came up to quell the insurrection. The Israelites were gathered together with Saul in Michmash, 2 but when they saw the overpowering might of the p. 50 [paragraph continues]Philistines swooping down upon then) they hid themselves in the caves with which the country abounds. Saul waited anxiously for Samuel, and at last ventured himself to offer the necessary sacrifices: the denunciation, with which the stern old prophet expressed his resentment at this usurpation of his priestly functions, was apparently the first shock that disturbed Saul's delicately poised mental equilibrium, and paved the way for the insanity by which he was afterwards afflicted. Jonathan again came to the rescue. With his armour-bearer he showed himself to the Philistines encamped at Michmash. They called to him to 'come up and see something'—note again that difference of language was no bar to intercourse—and the two young men, who had previously agreed to take such an invitation as an omen, climbed up to the camp. In some way they succeeded in throwing the camp into confusion, as Gideon had done with the Midianites. Soon the Philistines broke into a panic, which a timely earthquake intensified, and before long they were in flight, with the armies of Israel in hot pursuit. It is a remarkable story, and still more remarkable is the pendant—the tabu put by Saul on food, which had the natural result of making the victory less complete: the unconscious violation of the tabu by Jonathan: the consequent silence of the Divine oracle: his trial and condemnation: his redemption, no doubt by the substitution of another life: the pouring out of the blood when the tabu came to an end—all these are pictures of ancient religious custom and belief of the highest value. The familiar story of the battle of Ephes-Dammim, with its central incident—the duel of David and Goliath—is the next scene in the drama. For the present, however, we pass it over: it is involved in a host of difficulties. Whatever view may be taken of the story, as we have it, it is evident that neither the spirit nor the power of the Philistines was broken by the rout at Michmash, but that they were able to meet Israel again soon after David's introduction to the court of Saul. David distinguished himself so as to arouse the jealousy of Saul, now rapidly falling into the morbid mental state that clouded his last days; and to that jealousy was due the exile of David in the wilderness. With a madman's cunning, Saul at first attempted to work David's destruction by guile: he bribed him with the offer of his daughter's hand to go and bring him proof that he had slain a hundred of the uncircumcised—the trick was not unlike that which in later years David himself played on Uriah the Hittite. David, however, was more fortunate than his own victim, and fulfilled the task imposed on him. p. 51 But Saul's jealousy still pursued him, and he became a complete outlaw. His life during this period as narrated consists of a series of episodes, more or less disconnected. On one occasion he goes to the sanctuary at Nob, on the slope of the Mount of Olives (as we learn from Isa. x. 32), and takes the sword of Goliath thence to serve him as a weapon: we are then surprised to find him fleeing with this equipment to Gath, of all places—but probably the two incidents should not follow consecutively. At Gath he is recognized, and to avoid unpleasant consequences feigns insanity. This affliction would in Semitic circles secure him a measure of inviolability—the uncanny manifestations of mental derangement or degeneracy being curiously mixed up with notions of 'holiness'. But Achish, the dignified though simple-minded lord of Gath, was not a Semite, and had no such superstitions. He is almost modern in his protests—'If you see a madman, why do you bring him to me? I want no madmen about me, and I will not have him in my house!' 1 We almost hear an echo of the sarcasms of Zakar-Baal. All through the story of David's outlawry raids of the Philistines run like a thread: and it must then, if never before, have been impressed upon him that when he came into his kingdom his first care must be to crush these troublesome neighbours finally and for ever. Now we read of his band saving the threshing-floors of Keilah from Philistine marauders: soon afterwards a Philistine raid breaks off negotiations between Saul and the men of Ziph for the betrayal of David. But at last David, in despair of ever effecting a reconcilement with the insane Hebrew king, threw in his lot with the Philistines. Once more he comes to Gath—or, rather, we have probably a second version of the one incident, omitting the essential detail of the feigned madness. Here he was safe from Saul: but he did not stay very long. Probably (as in the previous version of the story) he found Gath uncomfortable as a place of residence, with his record of Philistine slaughter. So in Oriental wise he dissembled, and, flattering the king by pretending to be unworthy of living in the same city with him, he persuaded him to purchase his vassalage by putting Ziklag at his disposal. From this centre he raided various Bedawin camps, and, presenting the booty to his new master, he pretended that he p. 52 had been attacking his own people. Thereby he gained the confidence of Achish, and no doubt acquired much serviceable information about Philistine military methods and resources. Meanwhile the tragedy of Saul was working to its close. The Philistines were preparing for a final blow that would wipe off their recent reverses. Achish wished David, whom he blindly trusted, to accompany him as leader of his body-guard; but in this his wiser colleagues overruled him. They had already learnt, in the battle of Michmash, that the Hebrews that were with the Philistines’ were not to be trusted when the battle went against their masters (1 Sam. xiv. 21). So Achish sent David away, with a dignified courtesy which contrasts pleasingly with the duplicity, not to say treachery, of his protégé. 1 David accordingly departed to his own quarters, and while the battle of Gilboa was being won and lost he was kept busy in avenging the raid which during his absence the Bedawin had very naturally made on Ziklag. The armour of the dead Saul was hung in the house of Ashtoreth, and his body was fastened on the wall of Beth-Shan, the modern Beisan—a place close to the banks of the Jordan. This further corroborates the conclusion already indicated as to the wide extension of Philistine territory. For they would hardly have put the trophy where they could not reasonably have expected to retain it. 2 For the seven years of David's reign in Hebron the Philistines gave him no trouble. No doubt he continued to acknowledge himself as vassal of Achish, or of the Philistine oligarchy at large. Meanwhile Ish-baal (Ish-bosheth), Saul's son, guided and directed by Abner, set up a kingdom across Jordan, with its centre at Mahanaim: and the land of Ephraim remained subject to the Philistines. In the last two years of Ish-baal's life he extended his kingdom, doubtless under Philistine suzerainty, to Ephraim as well: an arrangement terminated by the defection of Abner to David and by his own assassination. This event left the way open for David to enlarge his borders, and to unite under his single sway the discordant elements of Judah and Ephraim. The ever-vigilant foes, not being willing to tolerate so p. 53 large an increase in the strength of a subordinate, then came up against him. 1 Three battles, disastrous to the Philistines, are recorded as taking place early in David's reign over the united kingdoms. But the accounts of them are scanty and confused, and require careful examination. The following are the outline accounts of them which the author of the Book of Samuel transmits: A. The Battle of Baal-Perazim. And when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold. 2 Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And Yahweh said unto David, Go up: for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And David cane to Baal-Perazim, and David smote them there; and he said, Yahweh hath broken mine enemies before me, like the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-Perazim. And they left their images there, and David and his men took them away.'—2 Samuel v. 17-21. B. The Battle of Geba. 'And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of Yahweh, he said, Thou shalt not go up: make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the balsams. And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the balsams, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then is Yahweh gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. And David did so, as Yahweh commanded him; and smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gezer.'—2 Samuel v. 22–25. C. The Battle of ( ?) 'And after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took ( ) out of the hand of the Philistines.'—2 Sam. viii. 1. p. 54 These outlines may to some small extent be filled in from other sources. The priestly writer of Chronicles is careful to add to the account of the first battle that the idols of the Philistines, captured after the rout, were burnt with fire (1 Chron. xiv. 8–12). The site of Baal-Perazim is unknown. It seems to be mentioned again in Isaiah xxviii. 21, in connexion with Gibeon: perhaps this passage refers to the first two battles. In the account of the second battle the Chronicler likewise substitutes Gibeon for Geba (1 Chron. xiv. 13–16): while in the third, instead of an unintelligible expression in the version of Samuel, he has 'David took Gath and her towns out of the hand of the Philistines' (xviii. 1). Among these battles must probably be fitted some scraps of biography that now find a place much later both in Samuel and in Chronicles. They are confused and corrupt, but are to the effect that at certain specified places, certain Philistine champions were slain by certain of the mighty men of David. The first is the familiar tale of David and Goliath, which we passed over a while ago, and which cannot be dissociated from these fragments. David is sent by his father to the battle-field of Ephes-Dammim, to bring supplies to his elder brothers. His indignation is roused by a gigantic Philistine champion named Goliath of Gath, who challenges the Israelites to provide one who shall fight with him and decide the battle by single combat. The champion is minutely described: he was somewhere between nine and eleven feet high, with a helmet, a coat of mail weighing 5,000 shekels, greaves and a javelin, all of bronze, as well as an iron-pointed spear like a weaver's beam. How David, though a youth unable to wear armour, goes against the giant, exchanges taunting speeches with him, and brings him down with his sling, are tales too familiar to rehearse (1 Sam. xvii). The difficulties of the passage are many. The inconsistency of David, already (ch. xvi. 21) the armour-bearer of Saul, being now totally unknown to him, has been a crux to the harmonists of all generations: though this difficulty is evaded by an important group of the Greek MSS., which omit bodily verses xvii. 12–31, 55–xviii. 5—that is, everything inconsistent with David's being already at court and known to Saul. The omitted verses are probably fragments of another parallel narrative. But even then we are not quite free from troubles. The whole machinery of the ordeal by duel recalls incidents of the Trojan war, or the tale of the Horatii and Curiatii, rather than what we are accustomed to look for in Semitic warfare; David's improbable flight to Gath soon after the battle has already been commented upon; and, as will presently be seen, we possess another account of the battle of p. 55 [paragraph continues]Ephes-Dammim, which is quite inconsistent with the Goliath story, and, indeed, leaves no room for it. The second fragmentary narration is unfortunately found in Samuel only (2 Sam. xxi. 15–17). It reads 'And the Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint. And (a champion) which was of the sons of Rapha, the weight of whose spear was 300 (shekels) of bronze in weight, he being girded with a new [word lost], thought to have slain David. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, "Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp of Israel."' The rendering 'a champion' is suggested for the unintelligible ‏ישבו בנב‎, treated as a proper name 'Ishbi-benob' in the English version. As it stands it means 'and they dwelt in Nob', which clearly makes no sense; and the emendation that is most current—by the change of one letter, turning Nob to Gob, and moving the phrase so as to follow 'and his servants with him' in the previous sentence—is not altogether satisfactory. For 'Gob' itself is probably, as we shall see, corrupt; and it is hard to see how the sentence could have been transposed from a place where it makes passable sense to a place where it makes complete nonsense. The reading here suggested is ‏איש-הבנים‎, literally 'man of the betweens', apparently a technical term for a champion, which is actually applied to Goliath in 1 Samuel xvii. Though differing in detail, and transmitted in a garbled form, the general resemblance of the description of the equipment of this warrior to that of Goliath is too striking to be overlooked; and we are thus led to wonder whether this may not be a version of the Goliath story in which the issue of the duel was very nearly the reverse of that in the familiar narrative. One is also tempted to ask whether in the 'oath' of the men of David (for which compare 2 Sam. xviii. 3) we are to see an explanation of David's having stayed in Jerusalem while Joab was acting for the king in his operations against the Ammonites, with the disastrous consequence of the episode of Bath-Sheba. If this oath is to be literally understood, this incident of the champion slain by David's nephew must belong to the end of David's operations against the Philistines, all of which seem to have been directed by the king in person. The third fragment appears in both 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. The Samuel version says 'And it came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of Rapha. And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim p. 56 the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam' (2 Sam. xxi. 18, 19). In the parallel account (1 Chron. xx. 4), Gezer is substituted for Gob, Sippai for Saph, Jair for Jaare-oregim, and 'slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath 'for the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath'. With regard to the first of these divergencies, it should be noticed that the place-name 'Gob' is not mentioned elsewhere. Following Clermont-Ganneau I was formerly inclined to accept Gezer as the correct reading—the change would be easy, ‏גזר‎ for ‏גזב‎—but I now see two formidable difficulties. In the first place, it is not likely that the well-known place-name Gezer would be corrupted to a name utterly unknown: in the second, the name 'Gob' is written ‏גבֹ‎ in both places, without the mater lectionis which the emendation suggested requires. Noting that in the text in Samuel the name 'Gob' is in both places followed by a word beginning with the letter ‏ע‎, I would now suggest that a second ‏ע‎ has dropped out in both places, and that for Gob we are to read ‏גבע‎, Geba. 1 The advantage of this correction is, that it would make both the Samuel and Chronicles versions right, and would show us where to fit the fragment under discussion. For we can scarcely avoid connecting an incident, said in one version to take place at Geba, and in another version at Gezer, with a battle which is definitely stated to have begun in one of these two places and finished in the other. The deaths of Saph and of Goliath therefore took place in the second of the three battles enumerated above (p. 53). The other divergencies need not detain us so long. The question of the spelling of the champion's name is scarcely important: yet it is tempting to inquire whether the form in Chronicles, ‏ספי‎, is not to be preferred, and, further, whether it may not be that it actually finds an echo to this day in the commonplace Arabic name Tell eṣ-Ṣāfi, commonly rendered 'The clear mound', 2 whereby the most probable site of ancient Gath is now known. Jair for Jaare-oregim is certainly right, the latter half of the name as given by Samuel being a dittography of the word 'weaver's beam' in the next line; on the other hand, the Chronicler's evolution of Goliath's brother Lahmi out of the name of Jair's native place is obviously some scribe's attempt to get rid of an evident harmonistic difficulty. The fourth fragment follows the last in both places. 'And there was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on p. 57 every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to Rapha. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei David's brother slew him. These four were born to Rapha in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.' The Chronicler's version is substantially identical. Let us now try to dovetail these seemingly incoherent fragments into a consistent narrative. Nearly all of them will be found to hang together with a logical connexion between them. We begin with the story of Jesse sending David as a youth to his brothers, and their surly reception of him, in some campaign. This story, though, as we have seen, it almost makes nonsense of the place where it is found, is so graphic and circumstantial that it cannot lightly be thrown aside. It is not improbable, however, that it was by his musical rather than his military ability that he attracted attention on this occasion, and was brought to the notice of Saul and Jonathan (1 Sam. xvi. 14–18, xviii. 1). At first he was received kindly, and made Saul's armour-bearer. Then came the battle of Ephes-Dammim, the full account of which is lost. But by combining 2 Samuel xxiii. 9 with 1 Chronicles xi. 13, two mutilated but complementary passages, we can gain some idea of what happened. The Philistines came up to battle at Ephes-Dammim; the men of Israel fled; but David, aided by Eleazer the son of Dodo the Ahohite (whatever that may mean), held them 'in the valley between Shocoh and Azekah' and fought till their hands clave to their swords. They succeeded in turning the victory, and the people came back 'only to spoil'. Well might the maidens, after such an exhibition of valour, sing that 'Saul had slain thousands but David had slain myriads'. The folk-tale of a giant-killing shepherd-boy, coloured by some actual incident of David's later campaigns, has been substituted for the less picturesque story of the battle: a relic of the excised part may possibly be seen in the verse inserted after 1 Samuel xix. 7: 'And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.' And when the tribes of Israel came to David to make him king, they remind him that even in Saul's lifetime it was he who used to lead them out to war (2 Sam. v. 2). The triumph-song of the women roused the jealousy of Saul, and he drove David into exile. The other tales of Philistine routs, which meet us in the lists of David's mighty men, appear to relate to the time of the outlawry. Shammah's defence of the lentil-field, to which reference has already been made, was of the same order as the repulse of the raid on the threshing-floor of Keilah: the breaking through the p. 58 [paragraph continues]Philistine camp at Rephaim by the three heroes, in quest of the Bethlehem water, is definitely assigned to the Adullam period. Finally David took service in Gath, and became thoroughly acquainted with that important city. When the kingdoms of Judah and Israel were united, the Philistines came to break up his power; and three engagements were fought, all disastrous to the hereditary enemies of the Hebrews. The first was the battle of Baal-Perazim, of which we have no particulars save the picture of a hurried flight in which even the idols were left behind. The second, that of Geba, is more interesting. The incident of the oracle of the sacred trees is one of the many noteworthy landmarks in Old Testament religion. The topography of the battle seems at first sight difficult to follow: but it works out easily when one knows the configuration of the ground. The valley or plain of Rephaim is usually equated with the broad expanse that lies south-west of Jerusalem. Geba was some four miles to the north of the city. What must have happened was, that David's men circled behind the Philistine camp, under cover, probably, of the hills to the west of the plain (now crowned by the Greek Patriarch's summer residence Kat’êmôn); that is, down the picturesque valley in which stands the Convent of the Cross. Then crossing into the Wady el-Werd by the site of the modern village of Malhah, 1 they attacked the Philistines on the rear. Finding their retreat (down the present Wady el-Werd and its western continuation, the Wady es-Surar) cut off; the Philistines fled northward, past Jerusalem, as far as the village of Geba, and then rushed down the valley of Aijalon, which opens out on the coast-plain not far from Gezer. Some time in this battle or the subsequent rout Sibbecai (or Mebunni) slew Saph, and Elhanan slew Goliath. Contrary to most modern commentators I assume that this raid of the Philistines took place after (or perhaps during, which is not improbable) David's successful siege of Jerusalem. If David was still in Hebron at the time, I cannot conceive what the Philistines were doing in the valley of Rephaim. 'They would have come up one of the more southerly valleys to attack him. Lastly took place the final and decisive victory which crushed for ever the Philistine suzerainty. The union at last effected among the tribes of Israel gave them a strength they had never had before; yet it is hard to understand the complete collapse of the people who had been all-powerful but a few years previously. W. Max Müller p. 59 attempts to account for it 1 by an unrecorded attack of the Egyptian king, whereby he possessed himself of the Philistine coastland: arguing that in a list of Sheshonk's conquests in his campaign Fig. 2. Sketch-map to illustrate the Battle of Geba. Click to enlarge Fig. 2. Sketch-map to illustrate the Battle of Geba. recorded in 1 Kings xiv. 25 no Philistine city is mentioned, for the simple reason that they must have been already in Egyptian hands. On this theory also he accounts for the capture of Gezer (an extension of the Egyptian territory) recorded in 1 Kings ix. 16. p. 60 The site of the last battle is successfully concealed under a hopeless corruption of the text. We are told in Samuel that David took Metheg ha-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines: a phrase that means 'bridle of the cubit' or 'of the metropolis', but defies convincing explanation or emendation. The old versions all presuppose an identical or similar text: Chronicles has 'Gath and her suburbs', which is probably a guess at a reading which should be at least intelligible. It cannot be right, for we find Gath still independent under its king Achish at the beginning of Solomon's reign (1 Kings ii. 39). 1 This, however, does not forbid our supposing the decisive battle to have taken place at or near Gath: a very likely place for David to attack, as he was no doubt familiar with its fortifications. There certainly appears to have been a battle at Gath where the unnamed polydactylous champion defied Israel and was slain by a nephew of David. Perhaps he was one and the same with the Gittite champion whom the English version calls Ishbi-benob, and from whom David, when hard pressed, was rescued likewise by one of his nephews. In this incident, on the theory here put forward, is the historical basis of the David and Goliath story. In this case 2 Samuel xxi. 22 ('these four were born to "the giant" in Gath') would be an editorial note. Before leaving this record of the champions of the Philistines which we have thus endeavoured to put into order, we must notice that, strictly speaking, they are not to be classed as Philistines at all. The expression 'son of Rapha', translated 'giant' in the English version, implies rather that the family were of the remnant of the Rephaites or Anakim, the tall aboriginal race which the Israelites on their coming found established in Hebron and neighbouring villages, Gath, Gaza, and Ashdod. According to Joshua xi. 21 they were driven out utterly from the Hebron district, but a remnant was left in the Philistine towns, where no doubt they mingled with the western newcomers. The tall stature attributed to these 'champions'—a physical feature never ascribed in the history to the Philistines themselves 2— p. 61 fits in with this theory of the origin of the family. By Delilah and Goliath the Philistine nation is judged: but there is no proof that there was a drop of Philistine blood in either the one or the other. The commentators agree that the ancient psalm incorporated in Psalm lx. (8–12) and cviii. (7–10) can be as old as David. If so, it may well have been a paean of the victory over the Philistines and the other neighbouring nations. That the Philistine power was utterly broken is shown by the significant fact that in the distractions which vexed the later years of David—the revolt of Absalom and of Sheba—they made no effort to recover their lost ground. Quite the contrary: we are surprised to find David's body-guard consisting of 'Cherethites and Pelethites', Cretans and Phili(s)tines: a Gittite called Obed-Edom houses the ark when the ill-omened incident of Uzza had interrupted the first attempt to bring it to Jerusalem: and another Gittite, Ittai by name, was one of the few people who remained faithful to David when Absalom had stolen the hearts of his followers. So their ancient kinsmen the Shardanu appear, now as enemies, now as loyal mercenaries of Egypt. And in the later history, except a few halfhearted attempts like that in the time of Jehoram, the Philistines took no decisive advantage of the internal dissensions between Judah and Israel, or of their many struggles with the Syrians and other foreign foes. From the time of David their power, and indeed their very individuality, dwindle away with a rapidity difficult to parallel. The contrast between the pre-Davidic and the post-Davidic Philistines is one of the most extraordinary in human history. But in Palestine the Philistines were, after all, foreigners: they had come from their healthy maritime life to the fever-haunted and sirocco-blasted land of Canaan. The climate of that country guards it for its Semitic heirs, and Philistine and Crusader alike must submit to the laws of human limitations. The Philistine body-guard above referred to was perhaps organized during David's stay in Ziklag. In the later history some traces of the organization seem to survive. The 'Carites', as they are now significantly called, help Jehoiada to put down the usurping queen Athaliah. In Ezekiel (xliv. 7 sqq.) there is a prophecy against p. 62 certain uncircumcised foreigners who are introduced, apparently in some official capacity, into the Temple: and in Zephaniah i. 8, 9 'those that are clothed with foreign apparel' and 'those that leap over the threshold' in the 'day of the Lord's sacrifice' are denounced. Though suggestive, neither of these passages is as clear as we should like: the possibility of there being some connexion between the threshold rite in Zephaniah and the analogous rite in the Temple of Ashdod (1 Sam. v. 5) has often been noticed. It is an interesting possibility—we cannot say more—that there actually was a Philistine body-guard round the king and his court at Jerusalem, and that the Temple itself, built as we shall see after a Philistine model, was protected by Philistine janissaries. This might explain the unexpected reappearance of the heathenish name of Sisera among the Nethinim or Temple servitors recorded in Ezra ii. 53, Nehemiah vii. 55. Footnotes 40:1 See Moore's Commentary, p. 37. 41:1 The additional note of time, 'In the days of Jael', is generally rejected as a gloss. 41:2 See Moore's Judges, pp. 142, 143, and Journal of American Oriental Society, xix b, p. 159. 41:3 The name Shamgar is given as Σαμεγαρ, Σαμαγαρ, Σεμεγαρ, Σεμαγαρ, Αμεγαθ, Σαμεγαθ, Μαιγαρ, Εμεγαρ. His father's name in Judges iii is given as Διναχ, Δειναχ, Αναθ, Εναχ, Αιμαθ, Λιναθ; in Judges v as Αναθ, Κεναθ, Εναθ, Εναθαμ, Ανεθεμ. 41:4 The verse as repeated says that 'Semegar (or Emegar) son of Anan (Ainan, Enan) arose after Samson, and slew of the Foreigners, 600 men without the cattle, and he also saved Israel'. Note the transformation of the ox-goad. 42:1 2 Sam. xxiii. 11; 1 Chron. xi. 13. 43:1 Isa. ix. 1 (= Hebrew viii. 23). 44:1 For a study (from a conservative standpoint) of the historicity of the Samson narrative see Samson, eine Untersuchung des historischen Charakters von Richt. xiii–xvi, von Dr. Edmund Kalt, Freiburg i. Br., 1912. This brochure contains a very useful bibliography. 44:2 A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 54. 46:1 Thus, it is only by a foot-note, as it were, that we learn that Joseph employed an interpreter in conversing with his brethren. 47:1 Some commentators (e. g. H. P. Smith in the International Critical Commentary), while recognizing that the disease was plague, have missed the essential significance of the mice, and would remove them altogether as 'late redactional insertion'. Although in the Hebrew received text, as reproduced in the English Bible, the 'mice' come in awkwardly as though a sudden afterthought, the Greek Version makes them much more prominent throughout the narrative; and there is no possible reason why any redactor (unless he had divined some of the most recent discoveries in bacteriology) should have introduced mice into the story at all. The distorted version of the plague which destroyed Sennacherib's army, recorded in Herodotus ii. 141, also introduces mice very conspicuously. 48:1 The data for the chronology of Saul's reign are notoriously insufficient. Note that Eli's great-grandson was priest in Shiloh at the time of the battle of Michmash (1 Sam. xiv. 3). 49:1 In the English version (1 Sam. x. 5) the word ‏נציב‎, which in 1 Kings iv. 19 and elsewhere means 'a prefect or officer', is translated, probably wrongly, 'camp'. 49:2 There are some difficulties of interpretation and other critical complications in the passage, on which see the standard commentators. 51:1 The notion of a commentator, that Achish's protest was due to his being already troubled with insanity in his family, deserves a place in the same cabinet of curiosities with the speculations of the ancient blockhead who supposed that when Our Lord wrote with His finger on the ground (John viii. 6) He was making a catalogue of the secret sins of the bystanders! 52:1 No doubt there was a certain element of policy in Achish's hospitality: David being the known rival of the Hebrew king, it probably seemed desirable to foment the division between them. Winckler (Gesch. Isr., p. 224) says (ex cathedra!) 'Was über Davids Aufenthalt an seinem Hofe gesagt wird, ist Fabel'. This sort of negative credulity is just as bad science as the positive credulity which swallows whole all the fancies of historical myth-makers. 52:2 Unless, indeed, we are to identify this Beth-Shan with the unknown 'Shen', mentioned in the corrupt passage 1 Sam. vii. 12. 53:1 For a discussion of the obscure period of the dual reign of David and Ish-baal, with special reference to the problem of the reconcilement of David's seven and a half years with Ish-bosheth's two years, see the important article by Kamphausen, Philister and Hebräer zur Zeit Davids, in Zeitsch. f. d. alttest. Wissensch. (1886, vi, p. 44. 53:2 Hardly Adullam, as some commentators have supposed. Did the Adullam life continue after David was anointed king on Hebron? 56:1 The Greek and Peshitta versions read Gath. 56:2 But really meaning, if anything, 'The mound of the clear one.' 'The clear mound' would be Et-tell eṣ-Ṣāfa. 58:1 They must in this case have passed close by some ancient tumuli, which stand west of Malhah: possibly the sacred balsam-trees were associated with these. 59:1 Asien and Europa, pp. 389, 390. 60:1 It is possible that David showed kindness to Achish, in return for the kindness he had received from him, and allowed him to continue in his kingdom under vassalage. But this is perhaps hardly probable: and evidently the runaway servants of Shimei thought that they would be out of their master's reach in Gath, so that that town was most likely quite independent of Jerusalem. 60:2 I may quote from The Excavation of Gezer, vol. i, p. 64, the descriptions of the only bones that have yet been found in Palestine which can be called 'Philistine' with reasonable probability. They 'are comparable with the types of ancient Cretan bones described by Duckworth and Hawes, and with Cretan bones in the Cambridge Museum. They represent a people of fairly tall stature (the man in grave 3 was 5´ 10″, that in grave 3 was 6´ 3½″). They were probably about or under 40 years of age. In all the femora were not pilastered and the tibiae not platycnemic. p. 61 The skulls were ellipsoidal, mesaticephalic, orthognathous, megaseme (with wide orbits), mesorrhine (with moderately wide nose), and microdont. The female skull in grave 4 was a little wider in proportion, and though the teeth were moderately small, the incisors projected forward, though not enough to make the face prognathous. The lower teeth were also very oblique.' Next: III. Their Decline and Disappearance

THE PTAH-HOTEP .txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 93 CHAPTER III THE PTAH-HOTEP AND THE KE'GEMNI: THE OLDEST BOOKS IN THE WORLD THE Instructions of Ptah-hotep and of Ke'gemni possess, apart from the curious nature of their contents, a feature of the greatest interest, and an adequate claim on the notice of all persons interested in literature and its history. For if the datings and ascriptions in them be accepted as trustworthy--there is no reason why they should not be accepted--they were composed about four thousand years before Christ, and three thousand five hundred and fifty years before Christ, respectively. And the significance of those remote dates is, that they are the oldest books in the world, the earliest extant specimens of the literary art. They stand on the extreme horizon of all that ocean of paper and ink that has become to us as an atmosphere, a fifth element, an essential of life. Books of many kinds had of course been written for centuries before Ptah-hotep of Memphis summarised, for the benefit of future generations, the p. 94 leading principles of morality current in his day; even before the Vizier, five hundred years earlier, gave to his children the scroll which they prized above all things on earth; 1 but those have perished and these remain. There are lists of titles which have a large sound, and prayers to the gods for all good things, on the tombs and monuments of kings and magnates long before the time Ke'gemni; but those are not books in any sense of that word. Even the long, strange chants and spells engraven in the royal pyramids over against Memphis are later than the time of Ptah-hotep, and cannot be called books in their present form, although some of them apparently originated before the First Dynasty. 2 Nor do the oldest books of any other country approach these two in antiquity. To draw comparisons between them let us, in imagination, place ourselves at the period at which Ptah-hotep lived, that is about B.C. 3550, "under King Isosi, living forever," and take a glance at futurity. The Babylonians are doubtless exercising their p. 95 literary talents; but they will leave nothing worthy the name of book to the far posterity of fifty-four centuries hence. Thirteen centuries shall pass before Hammurabi, King of Babylon, drafts the code of laws that will be found at that time. Only after two thousand years shall Moses write on the origin of things, and the Vedas be arranged in their present form. It will be two-and-a-half thousand years before the Great King of Jerusalem will set in order many proverbs and write books so much resembling, in form and style, that of Ptah-hotep; before the source and summit of European literature will write his world epics. For the space of years between Solomon and ourselves, great though it seem, is not so great as that between Solomon and Ptah-hotep. Nothing definite is known concerning these two nobles beyond what is said of them in their works. A fine tomb of a certain Ke'gemni exists at Memphis; his titles, so far as can be ascertained, are: Judge of the High Court; Governor of the Land unto its Limit, South and North; Director of every Command. He has sometimes been supposed to be identical with our Ke'gemni; but I am assured by those most competent to judge that this tomb cannot be earlier than the fifth dynasty,--a good three p. 96 hundred years from the date assigned to the moralist,--so that the theory that they are one person may be dismissed as highly improbable. No other person of the name is known. The position is much the same with Ptah-hotep. There are near Memphis the tombs of several nobles of this name, of whom two lived in the reign of Isosi; and in this case, again, it has been assumed that one of these two must be the writer of the Instruction. But in neither instance do the titles coincide with or include those assigned to him. The highest title which he bears, Eldest Son of the King, does not anywhere appear in these tombs. It is true that one of these contemporaries was hereditary chief; but we know that Ptah-hotep was a common name at this time, and in the absence of more certain proof it will be well to abstain from the identification of like names upon insufficient grounds. THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAH-HOTEP (THE GOD PTAH IS SATISFIED) The Instruction of the Governor of his City, the Vizier, Ptah-hotep, in the Reign of King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Isosi, living forever, to the end of Time. A. The Governor of his City, the Vizier, Ptah-hotep, p. 97 he said: "O Prince my Lord, the end of life is at hand; old age descendeth--upon me--; feebleness cometh, and childishness is renewed. He--that is old--lieth down in misery every day. The eyes are small; the ears are deaf. Energy is diminished, the heart hath no rest. The mouth is silent, and he speaketh no word; the heart stoppeth, and he remembereth not yesterday. The bones are painful throughout the body; good turneth into evil. All taste departeth. These things doeth old age for mankind, being evil in all things. The nose is stopped, and he breatheth not for weakness (?), whether standing or sitting. "Command thy servant, therefore, to make over my, princely authority--to my son--. Let me speak unto him the words of them that hearken to the counsel of the men of old time; those that once hearkened unto the gods. I pray thee, let this thing be done, that sin may be banished from among persons of understanding, that thou may enlighten the lands." Said the Majesty of this God: 1 "Instruct him, then, in the words of old time; may he be a wonder unto the children of princes, that they may enter and hearken with him. Make straight all their p. 98 hearts; and discourse with him, without causing weariness." B. Here begin the proverbs of fair speech, spoken by the Hereditary Chief, the Holy Father, Beloved of the God, the Eldest Son of the King, of his body, the Governor of his City, the Vizier, Ptah-hotep, when instructing the ignorant in the knowledge of exactness in fair speaking; the glory of him that obeyeth, the shame of him that transgresseth them. He said unto his son: 1. Be not proud because thou art learned; but discourse with the ignorant man, as with the sage. For no limit can be set to skill, neither is there any craftsman that possesseth full advantages. Fair speech is more rare than the emerald that is found by slave-maidens on the pebbles. 2. If thou find an arguer talking, one that is well disposed and wiser than thou, let thine arms fall, bend thy back, 1 be not angry with him if he agree (?) not with thee. Refrain from speaking evilly; oppose him not at any time when he speaketh. If he address thee as one ignorant of the matter, thine humbleness shall bear away his contentions. 3. If thou find an arguer talking, thy fellow, p. 99 one that is within thy reach, keep not silence when he saith aught that is evil; so shalt thou be wiser than he. Great will be the applause on the part of the listeners, and thy name shall be good in the knowledge of princes. 4. If thou find an arguer talking, a poor man, that is to say not thine equal, be not scornful toward him because he is lowly. Let him alone; then shall he confound himself. Question him not to please thine heart, neither pour out thy wrath upon him that is before thee; it is shameful to confuse a mean mind. If thou be about to do that which is in thine heart, overcome it as a thing rejected of princes. 5. If thou be a leader, as one directing the conduct of the multitude, endeavor always to be gracious, that thine own conduct be without defect. Great is Truth, appointing a straight path; never hath it been overthrown since the reign of Osiris. 1 One that oversteppeth the laws shall be punished. Overstepping is by the covetous man; but degradations (?) bear off his riches. Never hath evil-doing, brought its venture safe to port. For he saith, "I will obtain by myself for myself," and saith not, "I will obtain because I am allowed." But the p. 100 limits of justice are steadfast; it is that which a man repeateth from his father. 6. Cause not fear among men; for--this--the God punisheth likewise. For there is a man that saith, "Therein is life"; and he is bereft of the bread of his mouth. There is a man that saith, "Power--is therein"; and he saith, "I seize for myself that which I perceive." Thus a man speaketh, and he is smitten down. It is another that attaineth by giving unto him that hath not. Never hath that which men have prepared for come to pass; for what the God hath commanded, even that thing cometh to pass. Live, therefore, in the house of kindliness, and men shall come and give gifts of themselves. 7. If thou be among the guests of a man that is greater than thou, accept that which he giveth thee, putting it to thy lips. If thou look at him that is before thee--thine host--pierce him not with many glances. It is abhorred of the soul 1 to stare at him. Speak not until he address thee; one knoweth not what may be evil in his opinion. Speak when he questioneth thee; so shall thy speech be good in his opinion. The noble who sitteth before food divideth it as his soul moveth him; he giveth unto p. 101 him that he would favour--it is the custom of the evening meal. It is his soul that guideth his hand. It is the noble that bestoweth, not the underling that attaineth. Thus the eating of bread is under the providence of the God; he is an ignorant man that disputeth it. 8. If thou be an emissary sent from one noble to another, be exact after the manner of him that sent thee, give his message even as he hath said it. Beware of making enmity by thy words, setting one noble against the other by perverting truth. Overstep it not, neither repeat that which any man, be he prince or peasant, saith in opening the heart; it is abhorrent to the soul. 9. If thou have ploughed, gather thine harvest in the field, and the God shall make it great under thine hand. Fill not thy mouth at any neighbor's table . . . 1 If a crafty man be the possessor of wealth, he stealeth like a crocodile from the priests. Let not a man be envious that hath no children; let him be neither downcast nor quarrelsome on account of it. For a father, though great, may be grieved; as to the mother of children, she hath less peace than another. Verily, each man is created-- p. 102 to his destiny--by the God, who is the chief of a tribe, trustful in following him. 10. If thou be lowly, serve a wise man, that all thine actions may be good before the God. If thou have known a man of none account that hath been advanced in rank, be not haughty toward him on account of that which thou knowest concerning him; but honour him that hath been advanced, according to that which he hath become. Behold, riches come not of themselves; it is their rule for him that desireth them. If he bestir him and collect them himself, the God shall make him prosperous; but He shall punish him, if he be slothful. 11. Follow thine heart during thy lifetime; do not more than is commanded thee. Diminish not the time of following the heart; it is abhorred of the soul, that its time--of ease--be taken away. Shorten not the daytime more than is needful to maintain thy house. When riches are gained, follow the heart; for riches are of no avail if one be weary. 12. If thou wouldest be a wise man, beget a son for the pleasing of the God. If he make straight his course after thine example, if he arrange thine affairs in due order, do unto him all that is good, p. 103 for thy son is he, begotten of thine own soul. Sunder not thine heart from him, or thine own begotten shall curse--thee--. If he be heedless and trespass thy rules of conduct, and is violent; if every speech that cometh from his mouth be a vile word; then beat thou him, that his talk may be fitting. Keep him from those that make light of that which is commanded, for it is they that make him rebellious. And they that are guided go not astray, but they that lose their bearings cannot find a straight course. 13. If thou be in the chamber of council, act always according to the steps enjoined on thee at the beginning of the day. Be not absent, or thou shalt be expelled; but be ready in entering and making report. Wide 1 is the seat of one that hath made address. The council chamber acteth by strict rule; and all its plans are in accordance with method. It is the God that advanceth one to a seat therein; the like is not done for elbowers. 14. If thou be among people, make for thyself love, the beginning and end of the heart. One that knoweth not his course shall say in himself--seeing thee--, "He that ordereth himself duly becometh the owner of wealth; I shall copy his conduct." p. 104 [paragraph continues] Thy name shall be good, though thou speak not; thy body shall be fed; thy face shall be--seen--among thy neighbors; thou shalt be provided with what thou lackest. As to the man whose heart obeyeth his belly, he causeth disgust in place of love. His heart is wretched (?), his body is gross (?), he is insolent toward those endowed of the God. He that obeyeth his belly hath an enemy. 1 15. Report thine actions without concealment; discover thy conduct when in council with thine overlord. It is not evil for the envoy that his report be not answered. "Yea, I know it," by the prince; for that which he knoweth includeth not--this. If he--the prince--think that he will oppose him on account of it,--he thinketh--"He will be silent because I have spoken." 2 16. If thou be a leader, cause that the rules that thou hast enjoined be carried out; and do all things as one that remembereth the days coming after, when speech availeth not. Be not lavish of favours; it leadeth to servility (?), producing slackness. 17. If thou be a leader, be gracious when thou hearkenest unto the speech of a suppliant. Let p. 105 him not hesitate to deliver himself of that which he hath thought to tell thee; but be desirous of removing his injury. Let him speak freely, that the thing for which he hath come to thee may be done. If he hesitate to open his heart, it is said, "Is it because he--the judge--doeth the wrong that no entreaties are made to him concerning it by those to whom it happeneth?" But a well taught heart hearkeneth readily. 18. If thou desire to continue friendship in any abode wherein thou interest, be it as master, as brother, or as friend; wheresoever thou goest, beware of consorting with women. No place prospereth wherein that is done. Nor is it prudent to take part in it; a thousand men have been ruined for the pleasure of a little time short as a dream. Even death is reached thereby; it is a wretched thing. As for the evil liver, one leaveth him for what he doeth, he is avoided. If his desires be not gratified, he regardeth (?) no laws. 19. If thou desire that thine actions may be good, save thyself from all malice, and beware of the quality of covetousness, which is a grievous inner (?) Malady. Let it not chance that thou fall thereinto. It setteth at variance fathers-in-law and the kinsmen of the daughter-in-law; it sundereth p. 106 the wife and the husband. It gathereth unto itself all evils; it is the girdle of all wickedness. 1 But the man that is just flourisheth; truth goes in his footsteps, and he maketh habitations therein, not in the dwelling of covetousness. 20. Be not covetous as touching shares, in seizing that which is not thine own property. Be not covetous toward thy neighbors; for with a gentleman praise availeth more than might. He--that is covetous--cometh empty from among his neighbours, being void of the persuasion of speech. One hath remorse for even a little covetousness when his belly cooleth. 21. If thou wouldest be wise, provide for thine house, and love thy wife that is in thine arms. Fill her stomach, clothe her back; oil is the remedy of her limbs. Gladden her heart during thy lifetime, for she is an estate profitable unto its lord. Be not harsh, for gentleness mastereth her more than strength. Give (?) to her that for which she sigheth and that toward which her eye looketh; so shall thou keep her in thy house. . . . 22. Satisfy thine hired servants out of such things as thou hast; it is the duty of one that hath been favoured of the God. In sooth, it is hard to p. 107 satisfy hired servants. For one 1 saith, 'He is a lavish person; one knoweth not that which may come--from him." But on the morrow he thinketh, 'We is a person of exactitude--parsimony--content therein." And when favours have been shown unto servants, they say, "We go." Peace dwelleth not in that town wherein dwell servants that are wretched. 23. Repeat not extravagant speech, neither listen thereto; for it is the utterance of a body heated by wrath. When such speech is repeated to thee, hearken not thereto, look to the ground. Speak not regarding it, that he that is before thee may know wisdom. If thou be commanded to do a theft, bring it to pass that the command be taken off thee, for it is a thing hateful according to law. That which destroyeth a vision is the veil over it. 24. If thou wouldest be a wise man, and one sitting in council with his overlord, apply thine heart unto perfection. Silence is more profitable unto thee than abundance of speech. Consider how thou may be opposed by an expert that speaketh in council. It is a foolish thing to speak on every kind of work, for he that disputeth thy words shall put them unto proof. p. 108 25. If thou be powerful, make thyself to be honoured for knowledge and for gentleness. Speak with authority, that is, not as if following injunctions, for he that is humble--when highly placed--falleth into errors. Exalt not thine heart, that it be not brought low. Be not silent, but beware of interruption and of answering words with heat. Put it far from thee; control thyself. The wrathful heart speaketh fiery words; it darteth out at the man of peace that approacheth, stopping his path. One that reckoneth accounts all the day passeth not an happy moment. One that gladdeneth his heart all the day provideth not for his house. The bowman hitteth the mark, as the steersman reacheth land, by diversity of aim. He that obeyeth his heart shall command. 1 26. Let not a prince be hindered when he is occupied; neither oppress the heart of him that is already laden. For he shall be hostile toward one that delayeth him, but shall bare his soul unto one that loveth him. The disposal of souls is with the God, and that which He loveth is His creation. Set out, therefore, after a violent quarrel; be at p. 109 peace with him that is hostile unto--thee--his opponent. It is such souls that make love to grow. 27. Instruct a noble in such things as be profitable unto him; cause that he be received among men. Let his satisfaction fall on his master, for thy provision dependeth upon his will. By reason of it thy belly shall be satisfied; thy back will be clothed thereby. Let him receive thine heart, that thine house may flourish and thine honour--if thou wish it to flourish--thereby. He shall extend thee a kindly hand. Further, he shall implant the love of thee in the bodies of thy friends. Forsooth, it is a soul loving to hearken. 1 28. If thou be the son of a man of the priesthood, and an envoy to conciliate the multitude. . . . 2 speak thou without favouring one side. Let it not be said: "His conduct is that of the nobles, favouring one side in his speech." Turn thine aim toward exact judgments. 29. If thou have been gracious at a former time, having forgiven a man to guide him aright, shun him, remind him not after the first day that he hath been silent to thee---concerning it. p. 110 30. If thou be great, after being of none account, and hast gotten riches after squalour, being foremost in these in the city, and hast knowledge concerning useful matters, so that promotion is come unto thee; then swathe not thine heart in thine hoard, for thou art become the steward of the endowments of the God. Thou art not the last; another shall be thine equal, and to him shall come the like-fortune and station. 31. Bend thy back unto thy chief, thine overseer in the King's palace, for thine house dependeth upon his wealth, and thy wages in their season. How foolish is one that quarrelleth with his chief, for one liveth only while he is gracious. . . . Plunder not the houses of tenants; neither steal the things of a friend, lest he accuse thee in thine bearing, which thrusteth back the heart. 1 If he know of it, he will do thee an injury. Quarrelling in place of friendship is a foolish thing. 32. --Concerning unnatural sin. 33. If thou wouldest seek out the nature of a friend, ask it not of any companion of his; but pass a time with him alone, that thou injure not his affairs. Debate with him after a season; test his p. 111 heart in an occasion of speech. When he hath told thee his past life, he hath made an opportunity that thou may either be ashamed for him or be familiar with him. Be not reserved with him when he openeth speech, neither answer him after a scornful manner. Withdraw not thyself from him, neither interrupt (?) him whose matter is not yet ended, whom it is possible to benefit. 34. Let thy face be bright what time thou livest. That which goeth into the storehouse must come out therefrom; and bread is to be shared. He that is grasping in entertainment shall himself have an empty belly; he that causeth strife cometh himself to sorrow. Take not such an one for thy companion. It is a man's kindly acts that are remembered of him in the years after his life. 1 35. Know well thy merchants; for when thine affairs are in evil case, thy good repute among thy friends is a channel (?) which is filled. It is more important than the dignities of a man; and the wealth of one passeth to another. The good repute of a man's son is a glory unto him; and a good character is for remembrance. 36. Correct chiefly; instruct conformably--therewith. Vice must be drawn out that virtue p. 112 may remain. Nor is this a matter of misfortune, for one that is a gainsayer becometh a strifemaker. 37. If thou make a woman to be ashamed, wanton of heart, not known by her townfolk, to be falsely placed, be kind unto her for a space, send her not away, give her to eat. The wantonness of her heart shall esteem thy guidance. C. If thou obey these things that I have said unto thee, all thy demeanour shall be of the best; for verily, the quality of truth is among their excellences. Set the memory of them in the mouths of the people; for their proverbs are good. Nor shall any word that hath here been set down cease out of this land for ever, but shall be made a pattern whereby princes shall speak well. They--my words--shall instruct a man how he shall speak, after he hath heard them; yea, he shall become as one skillful in obeying, excellent in speaking, after he hath heard them. Good fortune shall befall him, for he shall be of the highest rank. He shall be gracious to the end of his life; he shall be contented always. His knowledge shall be his guide (?) into a place of security, wherein he shall prosper while on earth. The scholar 1 shall be content in his knowledge. As to the prince, in his turn, p. 113 forsooth, his heart shall be happy, his tongue made straight. And--in these proverbs--his lips shall speak, his eyes shall see, and his ears shall hear, that which is profitable for his son, so that he deal justly, void of deceit. 38. A splendid thing is the obedience of an obedient son; he cometh in and listeneth obediently. Excellent in hearing, excellent in speaking, is every man that obeyeth what is noble, and the obedience of an obeyer is a noble thing. Obedience is better than all things that are; it maketh good-will. How good it is that a son should take that from his father by which he hath reached old age--obedience. That which is desired by the God is obedience; disobedience is abhorred of the God. Verily, it is the heart that maketh its master to obey or to disobey; for the safe and sound life of a man are his heart. It is the obedient man that obeyeth what is said; he that loveth to obey, the same shall carry out commands. He that obeyeth becometh one obeyed. It is good indeed when a son obeyeth his father; and he-his father-that hath spoken hath great p. 114 joy of it. Such a son shall be mild as a master, and he that heareth him shall obey him that hath spoken. He shall be comely in body and honoured by his father. His memory shall be in the mouths of the living, those upon earth, as long as they exist. 1 39. Let a son receive the word of his father, not being heedless of any rule of his. Instruct thy son--thus;--for the obedient man is one that is perfect in the opinion of princes. If he direct his mouth by what hath been enjoined him. watchful and obedient, thy son shall be wise, and his going seemly. Heedlessness leadeth into disobedience on the morrow; but understanding shall establish him. As for the fool, he shall be crushed. 40. As for the fool, devoid of obedience, he doeth nothing. Knowledge he regardeth as ignorance. profitable things are hurtful things. He doeth all kinds of errors, so that he is rebuked therefor every day. He liveth in death therewith; it is his food. At chattering speech he marvelleth, as at the wisdom of princes, living in death every p. 115 day. He is shunned because of his misfortunes, by reason of the multitude of afflictions that cometh upon ]him every day. 41. A son that hearkeneth is as a Follower of Horus. 1 He is good after he hearkeneth; he groweth old, he reacheth honour and reverence. He repeated in like manner to his sons and daughters, so renewing the instruction of his father. Each man instructeth as did his begetter, repeating it unto his children. Let them--in turn--speak with their sons and daughters, that they may be famous in their deeds. Let that which thou speaketh implant true things and just in the life of thy children. Then the highest authority shall arrive, and sins depart--from them. And such men as see these things shall say, "Surely that man hath spoken to good purpose," and they shall do likewise; or, "But surely that man was experienced." And all people shall declare, "It is they that shall direct the multitude; dignities are not complete without them." Take not my word away, neither add one; set p. 116 not one in the place of another. Beware of opening . . . 1 in thyself. Be wary of speech when a learned man hearkeneth unto thee; desire to be established for good in the mouth of those that hear thee speaking. If thou have entered as an expert, speak with exact (?) lips, that thy conduct may be seemly. 42. Be thine heart overflowing; but refrain thy mouth. Let thy conduct be exact while amongst nobles, and seemly before thy lord, doing that which he hath commanded. Such a son shall speak unto them that hearken to him; moreover, his begetter shall be favoured. Apply thine heart, what time thou speakest, to saying things such that the nobles who listen declare, "How excellent is that which cometh out of his mouth!" 43. Carry out the behest of thy lord to thee. How good is the teaching of a man's father, for he hath come from him, who hath spoken of his son while he was yet unborn; and that which is done for him--the son--is more than that which is commanded him. Forsooth, a good son is of the gift of the God; he doeth more than is enjoined on p. 117 him, he doeth right, and putteth his heart into all his goings. D. If now thou attain thy position, the body shall flourish, the King shall be content in all that thou doest, and thou shalt gather years of life not fewer than I have passed upon earth. I have gathered even fivescore and ten years of life, for the King hath bestowed upon me favours more than upon my forefathers; this because I wrought truth and justice for the King unto mine old age. It Is Finished From Its Beginning To Its End Even As Found In Writing. THE INSTRUCTION OF KE'GEMNI (KE'GEMNI--I HAVE FOUND A SOUL) 1. The cautious man flourisheth, the exact one is praised; the innermost chamber openeth unto the man of silence. Wide 1 is the seat of the man gentle of speech; but knives are prepared against one that forceth a path, that he advance not, save in due season. 2. If thou sit with a company of people, desire not the bread that thou likest; short is the time of restraining the heart, and gluttony is an abomination; p. 118 therein is the quality of a beast. A handful of water quencheth the thirst, and a mouthful of melon supporteth the heart. A good thing standeth for goodness, but some small thing standeth for plenty. 1 A base man is he that is governed by his belly; he departeth only when he is no longer able to fill full his belly in men's houses. 3. If thou sit with a glutton, eat with him, then depart (?). If thou drink with a drunkard, accept--drink--and his heart shall be satisfied. Refuse not meat when with a greedy man. Take that which he giveth thee; set it not on one side, thinking that it will be a courteous thing. 4. If a man be lacking in good fellowship, no speech hath any influence over him. He is sour of face toward the glad-hearted that are kindly to him; he is a grief unto his mother and his friends; and all men--cry--, "Let thy name be known; thou art silent in thy mouth when thou art addressed!" 5. Be not haughty because of thy might in the p. 119 midst of thy young soldiers. Beware of making strife, for one knoweth not the things that the God will do when He punisheth. The Vizier caused his sons and daughters to be summoned, when he had finished the rules of the conduct of men. And they marvelled when they came to him. Then he said unto them, "Hearken unto everything that is in writing in this book, even as I have said it in adding unto profitable sayings." And they cast themselves on their bellies, and they read it, even as it was in writing. And it was better in their opinion than anything in this land unto its limits. Now they were living when His Majesty, the King of upper and lower Egypt, Heuni, departed, and His Majesty, the King of upper and lower Egypt, Senforu, was enthroned as a gracious king over the whole of this land. Then was Ke'gemni made Governor of his city and Vizier. THE INSTRUCTIONS OF AMENEMHE'ET (THE GOD AMON IS FIRST) Beginneth here the Instruction made by the majesty of the King of upper and lower Egypt, Sehotep'eb-Re, son of the Sun, Amenemhe'et, the p. 120 Justified. 1 He speaketh thus in discovering words of truth unto his son, the Lord of the World: 1. Shine forth, he saith, even as the God. Hearken to that which I say unto thee; that thou may reign over the land, that thou may govern the world, that thou may excel in goodness. 2. Let one withdraw himself from his subordinates entirely. It befalleth that mankind give their hearts unto one that causeth them fear. Mix not among them alone; fill not thine heart with a brother; know not a trusted friend; make for thyself no familiar dependents; in these things is no satisfaction. 3. When thou liest down have a care for thy 2 very life, since friends exist not for a man in the day of misfortunes. I gave to the beggar, and caused the orphan to live; I made him that had not to attain, even as he that had. 4. But it was the eater of my food that made insurrection against me; to whom I gave mine hands, he created disturbance thereby; they that arrayed them in my fine linen regarded me as a p. 121 shadow; and it was they that anointed themselves with my spices that entered my harem. 5. My images are among the living; and my achievements are among men. But I have made an heroic story that hath not been heard; a great feat of arms that hath not been seen. Surely one fighteth for a lassoed ox that forgetteth yesterday; 1 and good fortune is of no avail unto one that cannot perceive it. 6. It was after the evening meal, and night was come. I took for myself an hour of ease. I lay down upon my bed, for I was weary. My heart began to wander (?). I slept. And lo! weapons were brandished, and there was conference concerning me. I acted as the serpent of the desert. 2 7. I awoke to fight; I was alone. I found one struck down, it was the captain of the guard. Had I received quickly the arms from his hand, I had driven back the dastards by smiting around. But he was not a brave man on that night, nor could I fight alone; an occasion of prowess cometh not to one surprised. Thus was I. 8. Behold, then, vile things came to pass, for p. 122 [paragraph continues] I was without thee; the courtiers knew not that I had passed on to thee--my power. I sat not with thee on the throne. 1 Let me then, make my plans. Because I awed them not I was not unmindful of them; but mine heart bringeth not to remembrance the slackness of servants. 9. Have ever women gathered together assailants? Are assassins reared within my palace? Was the opening done by cutting through the ground? The underlings were deceived as to what they did. 2 But misfortunes have not come in my train since my birth; nor hath there existed the equal of me as a doer of valiance. 10. I forced my way up to Elephantine, I went down unto the coast-lakes; 3 I have stood upon the boundaries of the land, and I have seen its centre. I have set the limits of might by my might in my deeds. 11. I raised corn, I loved Nopi; 4 the Nile begged of me every valley. In my reign none hungered; none thirsted therein. They were contented in that which I did, saying concerning me, "Every commandment is meet." p. 123 12. I overcame lions; I carried off crocodiles. I cast the Nubians under my feet; I carried off the southern Nubians; I caused the Asiatics to flee, even as hounds. 13. I have made me an house, adorned with gold, its ceilings with lapis lazuli, its walls having deep foundations. Its doors are of copper, their bolts are of bronze. It is made for everlasting; eternity is in awe of it. I know every dimension thereof, O Lord of the World! 14. There are divers devices in buildings. I know the pronouncements of men when inquiring into its beauties; but they know not that it was without thee, O my Son, Senwesert; life, safe and sound, be to thee--by thy feet do I walk; thou art after mine own heart; by thine eyes do I see; born in an hour of delight; with spirits 1 that rendered thee praise. 15. Behold, that which I have done at the beginning, let me set it in order for thee at the end; let me be the landing-place of that which is in thine heart. All men together set the White Crown on the Offspring of the God. fixing it unto its due place. I shall begin thy praises when in the Boat of Ra. Thy kingdom hath been from primeval p. 124 time; not by my doing, who have done valiant things. Raise up monuments, make beautiful thy tomb. I have fought against him whom thou knowest; for I desire not that he should be beside thy Majesty. Life safe and sound, be to thee. Footnotes 94:1 The monuments leave no doubt of this. Pen and ink were used in the First Dynasty, and speech had been reduced to visible signs before that. 94:2 About B.C. 4770. In all Egyptian dates given in this book I follow Professor Petrie's chronology. 97:1 The King. 98:1 The customary attitude of a submissive inferior at that time. 99:1 The god Osiris was believed to have reigned on earth many thousand years before Menes, the first historical king. 100:1 soul--Ka'. 101:1 An obscure or corrupt phrase here follows, which does not admit of satisfactory translation. 103:1 I.e., comfortable. 104:1 His belly, presumably. 104:2 The above translation is not satisfactory; the text may be corrupt. No intelligible translation of it has yet been made. 106:1 I.e.., all wickedness is contained therein. 107:1 A servant. 108:1 So also in life, by diversity of aim, alternating work and play, happiness is secured. Tacking is evidently meant in the case of the steersman. 109:1 This section refers to the relations between the son of a nobleman and his tutor, dwelling on the benefits from former pupils in high places, if their school days have been pleasant. 109:2 An obscure phrase. 110:1 Literally, "It is that which preventeth the heart from advancing (?)" A curious phrase. 111:1 Literally, after his stick or sceptre. 112:1 Who knows them. 114:1 The greater part of this section is a play upon the root sodem, which in its meaning includes our hear--listen--and obey. This tiresome torture of words is frequent in Egyptian, especially in old religious texts. 115:1 The "Followers of Horns" are a legendary dynasty of demigods, believed by the Egyptians to have ruled for about 13,400 years after the reign of Horus, and before that of Menes. There is also an order of spirits by this name. 116:1 A word of unknown meaning; apparently some kind of plant. Such a word seems out of place here, and may be idiomatic, like our "flowery language." But the preceding line obviously refers to this book. 117:1 Comfortable. 118:1 This is a rather dark saying, but apparently the author means that although the duly instructed guest may only partake moderately of the abundance before him, what he cats is as good as the rest. His portion will be equal to the whole as regards quality, though inferior as regards quantity. 120:1 A ceremonial title applied to deceased persons, analogous to our "the late." "Justified" is not an exact rendering, but it is usual, and will serve. 120:2 Literally, heart. 121:1 An allusion to the people of Egypt, whom he had freed from the foreign oppressors. 121:2 He remained quiet but watchful. 122:1 Referring to the co-regency with his son. 122:2 Referring to the attempted assassination. 122:3 The limits, south and north, of his Kingdom. 122:4 The god of corn. 123:1 Or, unborn souls. Next: Chapter IV: The Book of the Dead

THE RELIGION OF.txt

THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA BY THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, LL.D. Lecturer in Assyrian at University College, London, Author of "The Old Testament in the Light of the Records of Assyria and Babylonia"; "The Bronze Ornaments of the Palace Gates of Balewat" etc. etc. PREPARER'S NOTE The original text contains a number of characters that are not available even in 8-bit Windows text, such as H with a breve below it in Hammurabi, S with a breve, S and T with a dot below them, U with macron, and superscript M in Tašmêtum. These have been left in the e-text as the base letter. The 8-bit version of this text includes Windows font characters like S with a caron above it (pronounced /sh/) as in Šamaš, etc. These may be lost in 7-bit versions of the text, or when viewed with different fonts. Greek text has been transliterated within brackets "{}" using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. Diacritical marks have been lost. THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS CHAPTER I FOREWORD Position, and Period. The religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians was the polytheistic faith professed by the peoples inhabiting the Tigris and Euphrates valleys from what may be regarded as the dawn of history until the Christian era began, or, at least, until the inhabitants were brought under the influence of Christianity. The chronological period covered may be roughly estimated at about 5000 years. The belief of the people, at the end of that time, being Babylonian heathenism leavened with Judaism, the country was probably ripe for the reception of the new faith. Christianity, however, by no means replaced the earlier polytheism, as is evidenced by the fact, that the worship of Nebo and the gods associated with him continued until the fourth century of the Christian era. By whom followed. It was the faith of two distinct peoples--the Sumero-Akkadians, and the Assyro-Babylonians. In what country it had its beginnings is unknown--it comes before us, even at the earliest period, as a faith already well-developed, and from that fact, as well as from the names of the numerous deities, it is clear that it began with the former race--the Sumero-Akkadians--who spoke a non-Semitic language largely affected by phonetic decay, and in which the grammatical forms had in certain cases become confused to such an extent that those who study it ask themselves whether the people who spoke it were able to understand each other without recourse to devices such as the "tones" to which the Chinese resort. With few exceptions, the names of the gods which the inscriptions reveal to us are all derived from this non-Semitic language, which furnishes us with satisfactory etymologies for such names as Merodach, Nergal, Sin, and the divinities mentioned in Berosus and Damascius, as well as those of hundreds of deities revealed to us by the tablets and slabs of Babylonia and Assyria. The documents. Outside the inscriptions of Babylonia and Assyria, there is but little bearing upon the religion of those countries, the most important fragment being the extracts from Berosus and Damascius referred to above. Among the Babylonian and Assyrian remains, however, we have an extensive and valuable mass of material, dating from the fourth or fifth millennium before Christ until the disappearance of the Babylonian system of writing about the beginning of the Christian era. The earlier inscriptions are mostly of the nature of records, and give information about the deities and the religion of the people in the course of descriptions of the building and rebuilding of temples, the making of offerings, the performance of ceremonies, etc. Purely religious inscriptions are found near the end of the third millennium before Christ, and occur in considerable numbers, either in the original Sumerian text, or in translations, or both, until about the third century before Christ. Among the more recent inscriptions--those from the library of the Assyrian king Aššur-bani-âpli and the later Babylonian temple archives,--there are many lists of deities, with numerous identifications with each other and with the heavenly bodies, and explanations of their natures. It is needless to say that all this material is of enormous value for the study of the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and enables us to reconstruct at first hand their mythological system, and note the changes which took place in the course of their long national existence. Many interesting and entertaining legends illustrate and supplement the information given by the bilingual lists of gods, the bilingual incantations and hymns, and the references contained in the historical and other documents. A trilingual list of gods enables us also to recognise, in some cases, the dialectic forms of their names. The importance of the subject. Of equal antiquity with the religion of Egypt, that of Babylonia and Assyria possesses some marked differences as to its development. Beginning among the non-Semitic Sumero-Akkadian population, it maintained for a long time its uninterrupted development, affected mainly by influences from within, namely, the homogeneous local cults which acted and reacted upon each other. The religious systems of other nations did not greatly affect the development of the early non-Semitic religious system of Babylonia. A time at last came, however, when the influence of the Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria was not to be gainsaid, and from that moment, the development of their religion took another turn. In all probably this augmentation of Semitic religious influence was due to the increased numbers of the Semitic population, and at the same period the Sumero- Akkadian language began to give way to the Semitic idiom which they spoke. When at last the Semitic Babylonian language came to be used for official documents, we find that, although the non-Semitic divine names are in the main preserved, a certain number of them have been displaced by the Semitic equivalent names, such as Šamaš for the sun-god, with Kittu and Mêšaru ("justice and righteousness") his attendants; Nabú ("the teacher" = Nebo) with his consort Tašmêtu ("the hearer"); Addu, Adad, or Dadu, and Rammanu, Ramimu, or Ragimu = Hadad or Rimmon ("the thunderer"); Bêl and Bêltu (Beltis = "the lord" and "the lady" /par excellence/), with some others of inferior rank. In place of the chief divinity of each state at the head of each separate pantheon, the tendency was to make Merodach, the god of the capital city Babylon, the head of the pantheon, and he seems to have been universally accepted in Babylonia, like Aššur in Assyria, about 2000 B.C. or earlier. The uniting of two pantheons. We thus find two pantheons, the Sumero-Akkadian with its many gods, and the Semitic Babylonian with its comparatively few, united, and forming one apparently homogeneous whole. But the creed had taken a fresh tendency. It was no longer a series of small, and to a certain extent antagonistic, pantheons composed of the chief god, his consort, attendants, children, and servants, but a pantheon of considerable extent, containing all the elements of the primitive but smaller pantheons, with a number of great gods who had raised Merodach to be their king. In Assyria. Whilst accepting the religion of Babylonia, Assyria nevertheless kept herself distinct from her southern neighbour by a very simple device, by placing at the head of the pantheon the god Aššur, who became for her the chief of the gods, and at the same time the emblem of her distinct national aspirations--for Assyria had no intention whatever of casting in her lot with her southern neighbour. Nevertheless, Assyria possessed, along with the language of Babylonia, all the literature of that country--indeed, it is from the libraries of her kings that we obtain the best copies of the Babylonian religious texts, treasured and preserved by her with all the veneration of which her religious mind was capable,--and the religious fervour of the Oriental in most cases leaves that of the European, or at least of the ordinary Briton, far behind. The later period in Assyria. Assyria went to her downfall at the end of the seventh century before Christ worshipping her national god Aššur, whose cult did not cease with the destruction of her national independence. In fact, the city of Aššur, the centre of that worship, continued to exist for a considerable period; but for the history of the religion of Assyria, as preserved there, we wait for the result of the excavations being carried on by the Germans, should they be fortunate enough to obtain texts belonging to the period following the fall of Nineveh. In Babylonia. Babylonia, on the other hand, continued the even tenor of her way. More successful at the end of her independent political career than her northern rival had been, she retained her faith, and remained the unswerving worshipper of Merodach, the great god of Babylon, to whom her priests attributed yet greater powers, and with whom all the other gods were to all appearance identified. This tendency to monotheism, however, never reached the culminating point--never became absolute-- except, naturally, in the minds of those who, dissociating themselves, for philosophical reasons, from the superstitious teaching of the priests of Babylonia, decided for themselves that there was but one God, and worshipped Him. That orthodox Jews at that period may have found, in consequence of this monotheistic tendency, converts, is not by any means improbable--indeed, the names met with during the later period imply that converts to Judaism were made. The picture presented by the study. Thus we see, from the various inscriptions, both Babylonian and Assyrian--the former of an extremely early period--the growth and development, with at least one branching off, of one of the most important religious systems of the ancient world. It is not so important for modern religion as the development of the beliefs of the Hebrews, but as the creed of the people from which the Hebrew nation sprang, and from which, therefore, it had its beginnings, both corporeal and spiritual, it is such as no student of modern religious systems can afford to neglect. Its legends, and therefore its teachings, as will be seen in these pages, ultimately permeated the Semitic West, and may in some cases even had penetrated Europe, not only through heathen Greece, but also through the early Christians, who, being so many centuries nearer the time of the Assyro-Babylonians, and also nearer the territory which they anciently occupied, than we are, were far better acquainted than the people of the present day with the legends and ideas which they possessed. CHAPTER II THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS The Sumero-Akkadians and the Semites. For the history of the development of the religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians much naturally depends upon the composition of the population of early Babylonia. There is hardly any doubt that the Sumero-Akkadians were non-Semites of a fairly pure race, but the country of their origin is still unknown, though a certain relationship with the Mongolian and Turkish nationalities, probably reaching back many centuries--perhaps thousands of years--before the earliest accepted date, may be regarded as equally likely. Equally uncertain is the date of the entry of the Semites, whose language ultimately displaced the non-Semitic Sumero-Akkadian idioms, and whose kings finally ruled over the land. During the third millennium before Christ Semites, bearing Semitic names, and called Amorites, appear, and probably formed the last considerable stratum of tribes of that race which entered the land. The name Martu, the Sumero-Akkadian equivalent of Amurru, "Amorite", is of frequent occurrence also before this period. The eastern Mediterranean coast district, including Palestine and the neighbouring tracts, was known by the Babylonians and Assyrians as the land of the Amorites, a term which stood for the West in general even when these regions no longer bore that name. The Babylonians maintained their claim to sovereignty over that part as long as they possessed the power to do so, and naturally exercised considerable influence there. The existence in Palestine, Syria, and the neighbouring states, of creeds containing the names of many Babylonian divinities is therefore not to be wondered at, and the presence of West Semitic divinities in the religion of the Babylonians need not cause us any surprise. The Babylonian script and its evidence. In consequence of the determinative prefix for a god or a goddess being, in the oldest form, a picture of an eight-rayed star, it has been assumed that Assyro-Babylonian mythology is, either wholly or partly, astral in origin. This, however, is by no means certain, the character for "star" in the inscriptions being a combination of three such pictures, and not a single sign. The probability therefore is, that the use of the single star to indicate the name of a divinity arises merely from the fact that the character in question stands for /ana/, "heaven." Deities were evidently thus distinguished by the Babylonians because they regarded them as inhabitants of the realms above--indeed, the heavens being the place where the stars are seen, a picture of a star was the only way of indicating heavenly things. That the gods of the Babylonians were in many cases identified with the stars and planets is certain, but these identifications seem to have taken place at a comparatively late date. An exception has naturally to be made in the case of the sun and moon, but the god Merodach, if he be, as seems certain, a deified Babylonian king, must have been identified with the stars which bear his name after his worshippers began to pay him divine honours as the supreme deity, and naturally what is true for him may also be so for the other gods whom they worshipped. The identification of some of the deities with stars or planets is, moreover, impossible, and if Êa, the god of the deep, and Anu, the god of the heavens, have their representatives among the heavenly bodies, this is probably the result of later development.[*] [*] If there be any historical foundation for the statement that Merodach arranged the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars, assigning to them their proper places and duties--a tradition which would make him the founder of the science of astronomy during his life upon earth--this, too, would tend to the probability that the origin of the gods of the Babylonians was not astral, as has been suggested, but that their identification with the heavenly bodies was introduced during the period of his reign. Ancestor and hero-worship. The deification of kings. Though there is no proof that ancestor-worship in general prevailed at any time in Babylonia, it would seem that the worship of heroes and prominent men was common, at least in early times. The tenth chapter of Genesis tells us of the story of Nimrod, who cannot be any other than the Merodach of the Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions; and other examples, occurring in semi-mythological times, are /En-we-dur-an-ki/, the Greek Edoreschos, and /Gilgameš/, the Greek Gilgamos, though Aelian's story of the latter does not fit in with the account as given by the inscriptions. In later times, the divine prefix is found before the names of many a Babylonian ruler--Sargon of Agadé,[*] Dungi of Ur (about 2500 B.C.), Rim-Sin or Eri-Aku (Arioch of Ellasar, about 2100 B.C.), and others. It was doubtless a kind of flattery to deify and pay these rulers divine honours during their lifetime, and on account of this, it is very probable that their godhood was utterly forgotten, in the case of those who were strictly historical, after their death. The deification of the kings of Babylonia and Assyria is probably due to the fact, that they were regarded as the representatives of God upon earth, and being his chief priests as well as his offspring (the personal names show that it was a common thing to regard children as the gifts of the gods whom their father worshipped), the divine fatherhood thus attributed to them naturally could, in the case of those of royal rank, give them a real claim to divine birth and honours. An exception is the deification of the Babylonian Noah, Ut-napištim, who, as the legend of the Flood relates, was raised and made one of the gods by Aa or Ea, for his faithfulness after the great catastrophe, when he and his wife were translated to the "remote place at the mouth of the rivers." The hero Gilgameš, on the other hand, was half divine by birth, though it is not exactly known through whom his divinity came. [*] According to Nabonidus's date 3800 B.C., though many Assyriologists regard this as being a millennium too early. The earliest form of the Babylonian religion. The state of development to which the religious system of the Babylonians had attained at the earliest period to which the inscriptions refer naturally precludes the possibility of a trustworthy history of its origin and early growth. There is no doubt, however, that it may be regarded as having reached the stage at which we find it in consequence of there being a number of states in ancient Babylonia (which was at that time like the Heptarchy in England) each possessing its own divinity--who, in its district, was regarded as supreme--with a number of lesser gods forming his court. It was the adding together of all these small pantheons which ultimately made that of Babylonia as a whole so exceedingly extensive. Thus the chief divinity of Babylon, as has already been stated, as Merodach; at Sippar and Larsa the sun-god Šamaš was worshipped; at Ur the moon-god Sin or Nannar; at Erech and Dêr the god of the heavens, Anu; at Muru, Ennigi, and Kakru, the god of the atmosphere, Hadad or Rimmon; at Êridu, the god of the deep, Aa or Êa; at Niffur[*] the god Bel; at Cuthah the god of war, Nergal; at Dailem the god Uraš; at Kiš the god of battle, Zagaga; Lugal-Amarda, the king of Marad, as the city so called; at Opis Zakar, one of the gods of dreams; at Agadé, Nineveh, and Arbela, Ištar, goddess of love and of war; Nina at the city Nina in Babylonia, etc. When the chief deities were masculine, they were naturally all identified with each other, just as the Greeks called the Babylonian Merodach by the name of Zeus; and as Zer-panîtum, the consort of Merodach, was identified with Juno, so the consorts, divine attendants, and children of each chief divinity, as far as they possessed them, could also be regarded as the same, though possibly distinct in their different attributes. [*] Noufar at present, according to the latest explorers. Layard (1856) has Niffer, Loftus (1857) Niffar. The native spelling is Noufer, due to the French system of phonetics. How the religion of the Babylonians developed. The fact that the rise of Merodach to the position of king of the gods was due to the attainment, by the city of Babylon, of the position of capital of all Babylonia, leads one to suspect that the kingly rank of his father Êa, at an earlier period, was due to a somewhat similar cause, and if so, the still earlier kingship of Anu, the god of the heavens, may be in like manner explained. This leads to the question whether the first state to attain to supremacy was Dêr, Anu's seat, and whether Dêr was succeeded by Êridu, of which city Êa was the patron--concerning the importance of Babylon, Merodach's city, later on, there is no doubt whatever. The rise of Anu and Êa to divine overlordship, however, may not have been due to the political supremacy of the cities where they were worshipped--it may have come about simply on account of renown gained through religious enthusiasm due to wonders said to have been performed where they were worshipped, or to the reported discovery of new records concerning their temples, or to the influence of some renowned high-priest, like En-we-dur-an-ki of Sippar, whose devotion undoubtedly brought great renown to the city of his dominion. Was Animism its original form? But the question naturally arises, can we go back beyond the indications of the inscriptions? The Babylonians attributed life, in certain not very numerous cases, to such things as trees and plants, and naturally to the winds, and the heavenly bodies. Whether they regarded stones, rocks, mountains, storms, and rain in the same way, however, is doubtful, but it may be taken for granted, that the sea, with all its rivers and streams, was regarded as animated with the spirit of Êa and his children, whilst the great cities and temple-towers were pervaded with the spirit of the god whose abode they were. Innumerable good and evil spirits were believed in, such as the spirit of the mountain, the sea, the plain, and the grave. These spirits were of various kinds, and bore names which do not always reveal their real character--such as the /edimmu/, /utukku/, /šêdu/, /ašakku/ (spirit of fevers), /namtaru/ (spirit of fate), /âlû/ (regarded as the spirit of the south wind), /gallu/, /rabisu/, /labartu/, /labasu/, /ahhazu/ (the seizer), /lilu/ and /lilithu/ (male and female spirits of the mist), with their attendants. All this points to animism as the pervading idea of the worship of the peoples of the Babylonian states in the prehistoric period--the attribution of life to every appearance of nature. The question is, however, Is the evidence of the inscriptions sufficient to make this absolutely certain? It is hard to believe that such intelligent people, as the primitive Babylonians naturally were, believed that such things as stones, rocks, mountains, storms, and rain were, in themselves, and apart from the divinity which they regarded as presiding over them, living things. A stone might be a /bît îli/ or bethel--a "house of god," and almost invested with the status of a living thing, but that does not prove that the Babylonians thought of every stone as being endowed with life, even in prehistoric times. Whilst, therefore, there are traces of a belief similar to that which an animistic creed might be regarded as possessing, it must be admitted that these seemingly animistic doctrines may have originated in another way, and be due to later developments. The power of the gods to create living things naturally makes possible the belief that they had also power to endow with a soul, and therefore with life and intelligence, any seemingly inanimate object. Such was probably the nature of Babylonian animism, if it may be so called. The legend of Tiawthu (Tiawath) may with great probability be regarded as the remains of a primitive animism which was the creed of the original and comparatively uncivilised Babylonians, who saw in the sea the producer and creator of all the monstrous shapes which are found therein; but any development of this idea in other directions was probably cut short by the priests, who must have realised, under the influence of the doctrine of the divine rise to perfection, that animism in general was altogether incompatible with the creed which they professed. Image-worship and Sacred Stones. Whether image-worship was original among the Babylonians and Assyrians is uncertain, and improbable; the tendency among the people in early times being to venerate sacred stones and other inanimate objects. As has been already pointed out, the {diopetres} of the Greeks was probably a meteorite, and stones marking the position of the Semitic bethels were probably, in their origin, the same. The boulders which were sometimes used for boundary-stones may have been the representations of these meteorites in later times, and it is noteworthy that the Sumerian group for "iron," /an-bar/, implies that the early Babylonians only knew of that metal from meteoric ironstone. The name of the god Nirig or Ênu-rêštu (Ninip) is generally written with the same group, implying some kind of connection between the two --the god and the iron. In a well-known hymn to that deity certain stones are mentioned, one of them being described as the "poison- tooth"[*] coming forth on the mountain, recalling the sacred rocks at Jerusalem and Mecca. Boundary-stones in Babylonia were not sacred objects except in so far as they were sculptured with the signs of the gods.[†] With regard to the Babylonian bethels, very little can be said, their true nature being uncertain, and their number, to all appearance, small. Gifts were made to them, and from this fact it would seem that they were temples--true "houses of god," in fact-- probably containing an image of the deity, rather than a stone similar to those referred to in the Old Testament. [*] So called, probably, not because it sent forth poison, but on account of its likeness to a serpent's fang. [†] Notwithstanding medical opinion, their phallic origin is doubtful. One is sculptured in the form of an Eastern castellated fortress. Idols. With the Babylonians, the gods were represented by means of stone images at a very early date, and it is possible that wood was also used. The tendency of the human mind being to attribute to the Deity a human form, the Babylonians were no exception to the rule. Human thoughts and feelings would naturally accompany the human form with which the minds of men endowed them. Whether the gross human passions attributed to the gods of Babylonia in Herodotus be of early date or not is uncertain--a late period, when the religion began to degenerate, would seem to be the more probable. The adoration of sacred objects. It is probable that objects belonging to or dedicated to deities were not originally worshipped--they were held as divine in consequence of their being possessed or used by a deity, like the bow of Merodach, placed in the heavens as a constellation, etc. The cities where the gods dwelt on earth, their temples, their couches, the chariot of the sun in his temple-cities, and everything existing in connection with their worship, were in all probability regarded as divine simply in so far as they belonged to a god. Sacrifices offered to them, and invocations made to them, were in all likelihood regarded as having been made to the deity himself, the possessions of the divinity being, in the minds of the Babylonians, pervaded with his spirit. In the case of rivers, these were divine as being the children and offspring of Enki (Aa or Êa), the god of the ocean. Holy places. In a country which was originally divided into many small states, each having its own deities, and, to a certain extent, its own religious system, holy places were naturally numerous. As the spot where they placed Paradise, Babylonia was itself a holy place, but in all probability this idea is late, and only came into existence after the legends of the creation and the rise of Merodach to the kingship of heaven had become elaborated into one homogeneous whole. An interesting list. One of the most interesting documents referring to the holy places of Babylonia is a tiny tablet found at Nineveh, and preserved in the British Museum. This text begins with the word Tiawthu "the sea," and goes on to enumerate, in turn, Tilmun (identified with the island of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf); Engurra (the Abyss, the abode of Enki or Êa), with numerous temples and shrines, including "the holy house," "the temple of the seer of heaven and earth," "the abode of Zer- panîtum," consort of Merodach, "the throne of the holy place," "the temple of the region of Hades," "the supreme temple of life," "the temple of the ear of the corn-deity," with many others, the whole list containing what may be regarded as the chief sanctuaries of the land, to the number of thirty-one. Numerous other similar and more extensive lists, enumerating every shrine and temple in the country, also exist, though in a very imperfect state, and in addition to these, many holy places are referred to in the bilingual, historical, and other inscriptions. All the great cities of Babylonia, moreover, were sacred places, the chief in renown and importance in later days being the great city of Babylon, where Ê-sagila, "the temple of the high head," in which was apparently the shrine called "the temple of the foundation of heaven and earth," held the first place. This building is called by Nebuchadnezzar "the temple-tower of Babylon," and may better be regarded as the site of the Biblical "Tower of Babel" than the traditional foundation, Ê-zida, "the everlasting temple," in Borsippa (the Birs Nimroud)--notwithstanding that Borsippa was called the "second Babylon," and its temple-tower "the supreme house of life." The Tower of Babel. Though quite close to Babylon, there is no doubt that Borsippa was a most important religious centre, and this leads to the possibility, that its great temple may have disputed with "the house of the high head," Ê-sagila in Babylon, the honour of being the site of the confusion of tongues and the dispersion of mankind. There is no doubt, however, that Ê-sagila has the prior claim, it being the temple of the supreme god of the later Babylonian pantheon, the counterpart of the God of the Hebrews who commanded the changing of the speech of the people assembled there. Supposing the confusion of tongues to have been a Babylonian legend as well as a Hebrew one (as is possible) it would be by command of Merodach rather than that of Nebo that such a thing would have taken place. Ê-sagila, which is now the ruin known as the mount of Amran ibn Ali, is the celebrated temple of Belus which Alexander and Philip attempted to restore. In addition to the legend of the confusion of tongues, it is probable that there were many similar traditions attached to the great temples of Babylonia, and as time goes on, and the excavations bring more material, a large number of them will probably be recovered. Already we have an interesting and poetical record of the entry of Bel and Beltis into the great temple at Niffer, probably copied from some ancient source, and Gudea, a king of Lagaš (Telloh), who reigned about 2700 B.C., gives an account of the dream which he saw, in which he was instructed by the gods to build or rebuild the temple of Nin-Girsu in his capital city. Ê-sagila according to Herodotus. As the chief fane in the land after Babylon became the capital, and the type of many similar erections, Ê-sagila, the temple of Belus, merits just a short notice. According to Herodotus, it was a massive tower within an enclosure measuring 400 yards each way, and provided with gates of brass, or rather bronze. The tower within consisted of a kind of step-pyramid, the stages being seven in number (omitting the lowest, which was the platform forming the foundation of the structure). A winding ascent gave access to the top, where was a chapel or shrine, containing no statue, but regarded by the Babylonians as the abode of the god. Lower down was another shrine, in which was placed a great statue of Zeus (Bel-Merodach) sitting, with a large table before it. Both statue and table are said to have been of gold, as were also the throne and the steps. Outside the sanctuary (on the ramp, apparently) were two altars, one small and made of gold, whereon only unweaned lambs were sacrificed, and the other larger, for full-grown victims. A Babylonian description. In 1876 the well-known Assyriologist, Mr. George Smith, was fortunate enough to discover a Babylonian description of this temple, of which he published a /précis/. According to this document, there were two courts of considerable extent, the smaller within the larger--neither of them was square, but oblong. Six gates admitted to the temple-area surrounding the platform upon which the tower was built. The platform is stated to have been square and walled, with four gates facing the cardinal points. Within this wall was a building connected with the great /zikkurat/ or tower--the principal edifice--round which were chapels or temples to the principal gods, on all four sides, and facing the cardinal points--that to Nebo and Tašmît being on the east, to Aa or Êa and Nusku on the north, Anu and Bel on the south, and the series of buildings on the west, consisting of a double house--a small court between two wings, was evidently the shrine of Merodach (Belos). In these western chambers stood the couch of the god, and the golden throne mentioned by Herodotus, besides other furniture of great value. The couch was given as being 9 cubits long by 4 broad, about as many feet in each case, or rather more. The centre of these buildings was the great /zikkurat/, or temple- tower, square on its plan, and with the sides facing the cardinal points. The lowest stage was 15 /gar/ square by 5 1/2 high (Smith, 300 feet by 110), and the wall, in accordance with the usual Babylonian custom, seems to have been ornamented with recessed groovings. The second stage was 13 /gar/ square by 3 in height (Smith, 260 by 60 feet). He conjectured, from the expression used, that it had sloping sides. Stages three to five were each one /gar/ (Smith, 20 feet) high, and respectively 10 /gar/ (Smith, 200 feet), 8 1/2 /gar/ (170 feet), and 7 /gar/ (140 feet) square. The dimensions of the sixth stage are omitted, probably by accident, but Smith conjectures that they were in proportion to those which precede. His description omits also the dimensions of the seventh stage, but he gives those of the sanctuary of Belus, which was built upon it. This was 4 /gar/ long, 3 1/2 /gar/ broad, and 2 1/2 /gar/ high (Smith, 80 x 70 x 50 feet). He points out, that the total height was, therefore, 15 /gar/, the same as the dimensions of the base, i.e., the lowest platform, which would make the total height of this world-renowned building rather more than 300 feet above the plains. Other temple-towers. Towers of a similar nature were to be found in all the great cities of Babylonia, and it is probable that in most cases slight differences of form were to be found. That at Niffer, for instance, seems to have had a causeway on each side, making four approaches in the form of a cross. But it was not every city which had a tower of seven stages in addition to the platform on which it was erected, and some of the smaller ones at least seem to have had sloping or rounded sides to the basement-portion, as is indicated by an Assyrian bas-relief. Naturally small temples, with hardly more than the rooms on the ground floor, were to be found, but these temple-towers were a speciality of the country. Their origin. There is some probability that, as indicated in the tenth chapter of Genesis, the desire in building these towers was to get nearer the Deity, or to the divine inhabitants of the heavens in general--it would be easier there to gain attention than on the surface of the earth. Then there was the belief, that the god to whom the place was dedicated would come down to such a sanctuary, which thus became, as it were, the stepping-stone between heaven and earth. Sacrifices were also offered at these temple-towers (whether on the highest point or not is not quite certain), in imitation of the Chaldæan Noah, Ut-napištim, who, on coming out of the ark, made an offering /ina zikkurat šadê/, "on the peak of the mountain," in which passage, it is to be noted, the word /zikkurat/ occurs with what is probably a more original meaning. CHAPTER III THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE CREATION This is the final development of the Babylonian creed. It has already been pointed out that the religion of the Babylonians in all probability had two stages before arriving at that in which the god Merodach occupied the position of chief of the pantheon, the two preceding heads having been, seemingly, Anu, the god of the heavens, and Êa or Aa, also called Enki, the god of the abyss and of deep wisdom. In order to show this, and at the same time to give an idea of their theory of the beginning of things, a short paraphrase of the contents of the seven tablets will be found in the following pages. An Embodiment of doctrine. As far as our knowledge goes, the doctrines incorporated in this legend would seem to show the final official development of the beliefs held by the Babylonians, due, in all probability, to the priests of Babylon after that city became the capital of the federated states. Modifications of their creed probably took place, but nothing seriously affecting it, until after the abandonment of Babylon in the time of Seleucus Nicator, 300 B.C. or thereabouts, when the deity at the head of the pantheon seems not to have been Merodach, but Anu-Bêl. This legend is therefore the most important document bearing upon the beliefs of the Babylonians from the end of the third millennium B.C. until that time, and the philosophical ideas which it contains seem to have been held, in a more or less modified form, among the remnants who still retained the old Babylonian faith, until the sixth century of the present era, as the record by Damascius implies. Properly speaking, it is not a record of the creation, but the story of the fight between Bel and the Dragon, to which the account of the creation is prefixed by way of introduction. Water the first creator. The legend begins by stating that, when the heavens were unnamed and the earth bore no name, the primæval ocean was the producer of all things, and Mummu Tiawath (the sea) she who brought forth everything existing. Their waters (that is, of the primæval ocean and of the sea) were all united in one, and neither plains nor marshes were to be seen; the gods likewise did not exist, even in name, and the fates were undetermined--nothing had been decided as to the future of things. Then arose the great gods. Lahmu and Lahame came first, followed, after a long period, by Anšar and Kišar, generally identified with the "host of heaven" and the "host of earth," these being the meanings of the component parts of their names. After a further long period of days, there came forth their son Anu, the god of the heavens. The gods. Here the narrative is defective, and is continued by Damascius in his /Doubts and Solutions of the First Principles/, in which he states that, after Anos (Anu), come Illinos (Ellila or Bel, "the lord" /par excellence/) and Aos (Aa, Ae, or Êa), the god of Eridu. Of Aos and Dauké (the Babylonian Aa and Damkina) is born, he says, a son called Belos (Bel-Merodach), who, they (apparently the Babylonians) say, is the fabricator of the world--the creator. The designs against them. At this point Damascius ends his extract, and the Babylonian tablet also becomes extremely defective. The next deity to come into existence, however, would seem to have been Nudimmud, who was apparently the deity Aa or Êa (the god of the sea and of rivers) as the god of creation. Among the children of Tauthé (Tiawath) enumerated by Damascius is one named Moumis, who was evidently referred to in the document at that philosopher's disposal. If this be correct, his name, under the form of Mummu, probably existed in one of the defective lines of the first portion of this legend--in any case, his name occurs later on, with those of Tiawath and Apsu (the Deep), his parents, and the three seem to be compared, to their disadvantage, with the progeny of Lahmu and Lahame, the gods on high. As the ways of these last were not those of Tiawath's brood, and Apsu complained that he had no peace by day nor rest by night on account of their proceedings, the three representatives of the chaotic deep, Tiawath, Apsu, and Mummu, discussed how they might get rid the beings who wished to rise to higher things. Mummu was apparently the prime mover in the plot, and the face of Apsu grew bright at the thought of the evil plan which they had devised against "the gods their sons." The inscription being very mutilated here, its full drift cannot be gathered, but from the complete portions which come later it would seem that Mummu's plan was not a remarkably cunning one, being simply to make war upon and destroy the gods of heaven. Tiawath's preparations. The preparations made for this were elaborate. Restlessly, day and night, the powers of evil raged and toiled, and assembled for the fight. 'Mother Hubur," as Tiawath is named in this passage, called her creative powers into action, and gave her followers irresistible weapons. She brought into being also various monsters--giant serpents, sharp of tooth, bearing stings, and with poison filling their bodies like blood; terrible dragons endowed with brilliance, and of enormous stature, reared on high, raging dogs, scorpion-men, fish-men, and many other terrible beings, were created and equipped, the whole being placed under the command of a deity named Kingu, whom she calls her "only husband," and to whom she delivers the tablets of fate, which conferred upon him the godhead of Anu (the heavens), and enabled their possessor to determine the gates among the gods her sons. Kingu replaces Absu. The change in the narrative which comes in here suggests that this is the point at which two legends current in Babylonia were united. Henceforward we hear nothing more of Apsu, the begetter of all things, Tiawath's spouse, nor of Mummu, their son. In all probability there is good reason for this, and inscriptions will doubtless ultimately be found which will explain it, but until then it is only natural to suppose that two different legends have been pieced together to form a harmonious whole. Tiawath's aim. As will be gathered from the above, the story centres in the wish of the goddess of the powers of evil and her kindred to retain creation-- the forming of all living things--in her own hands. As Tiawath means "the sea," and Apsu "the deep," it is probable that this is a kind of allegory personifying the productive power seen in the teeming life of the ocean, and typifying the strange and wonderful forms found therein, which were symbolical, to the Babylonian mind, of chaos and confusion, as well as of evil. The gods hear of the conspiracy. Aa, or Êa, having learned of the plot of Tiawath and her followers against the gods of heaven, naturally became filled with anger, and went and told the whole to Anšar, his father, who in his turn gave way to his wrath, and uttered cries of the deepest grief. After considering what they would do, Anšar applied to his son Anu, "the mighty and brave," saying that, if he would only speak to her, the great dragon's anger would be assuaged, and her rage disappear. In obedience to this behest, Anu went to try his power with the monster, but on beholding her snarling face, feared to approach her, and turned back. Nudimmud was next called upon to become the representative of the gods against their foe, but his success was as that of Anu, and it became needful to seek another champion. And choose Merodach as their champion. The choice fell upon Merodach, the Belus (Bel-Merodach) of Damascius's paraphrase, and at once met with an enthusiastic reception. The god asked simply that an "unchangeable command" might be given to him-- that whatever he ordained should without fail come to pass, in order that he might destroy the common enemy. Invitations were sent to the gods asking them to a festival, where, having met together, they ate and drank, and "decided the fate" for Merodach their avenger, apparently meaning that he was decreed their defender in the conflict with Tiawath, and that the power of creating and annihilating by the word of his mouth was his. Honours were then conferred upon him; princely chambers were erected for him, wherein he sat as judge "in the presence of his fathers," and the rule over the whole universe was given to him. The testing of his newly acquired power followed. A garment was placed in their midst: "He spake with his mouth, and the garment was destroyed, He spake to it again, and the garment was reproduced." Merodach proclaimed king. On this proof of the reality of the powers conferred on him, all the gods shouted "Merodach is king!" and handed to him sceptre, throne, and insignia of royalty. An irresistible weapon, which should shatter all his enemies, was then given to him, and he armed himself also with spear or dart, bow, and quiver; lightning flashed before him, and flaming fire filled his body. Anu, the god of the heavens, had given him a great net, and this he set at the four cardinal points, in order that nothing of the dragon, when he had defeated her, should escape. Seven winds he then created to accompany him, and the great weapon called /Abubu/, "the Flood," completed his equipment. All being ready, he mounted his dreadful, irresistible chariot, to which four steeds were yoked--steeds unsparing, rushing forward, rapid in flight, their teeth full of venom, foam-covered, experienced in galloping, schooled in overthrowing. Being now ready for the fray, Merodach fared forth to meet Tiawath, accompanied by the fervent good wishes of "the gods his fathers." The fight with Tiawath. Advancing, he regarded Tiawath's retreat, but the sight of the enemy was so menacing that even the great Merodach (if we understand the text rightly) began to falter. This, however, was not for long, and the king of the gods stood before Tiawath, who, on her side, remained firm and undaunted. In a somewhat long speech, in which he reproaches Tiawath for her rebellion, he challenges her to battle, and the two meet in fiercest fight. To all appearance the type of all evil did not make use of honest weapons, but sought to overcome the king of the gods with incantations and charms. These, however, had not the slightest effect, for she found herself at once enclosed in Merodach's net, and on opening her mouth to resist and free herself, the evil wind, which Merodach had sent on before him, entered, so that she could not close her lips, and thus inflated, her heart was overpowered, and she became a prey to her conqueror. Having cut her asunder and taken out her heart, thus destroying her life, he threw her body down and stood thereon. Her followers then attempted to escape, but found themselves surrounded and unable to get forth. Like their mistress, they were thrown into the net, and sat in bonds, being afterwards shut up in prison. As for Kingu, he was raised up, bound, and delivered to be with Ugga, the god of death. The tablets of fate, which Tiawath had delivered to Kingu, were taken from him by Merodach, who pressed his seal upon them, and placed them in his breast. The deity Anšar, who had been, as it would seem, deprived of his rightful power by Tiawath, received that power again on the death of the common foe, and Nudimmud "saw his desire upon his enemy." Tiawath's fate. The dismemberment of Tiawath then followed, and her veins having been cut through, the north wind was caused by the deity to carry her blood away into secret places, a statement which probably typifies the opening of obstructions which prevent the rivers flowing from the north from running into the southern seas, helped thereto by the north wind. Finally her body was divided, like "a /mašdê/-fish," into two parts, one of which was made into a covering for the heavens--the "waters above the firmament" of Genesis i. 7. Merodach orders the world anew. Then came the ordering of the universe anew. Having made a covering for the heavens with half the body of the defeated Dragon of Chaos, Merodach set the Abyss, the abode of Nudimmud, in front, and made a corresponding edifice above--the heavens--where he founded stations for the gods Anu, Bel, and Ae. Stations for the great gods in the likeness of constellations, together with what is regarded as the Zodiac, were his next work. He then designated the year, setting three constellations for each month, and made a station for Nibiru-- Merodach's own star--as the overseer of all the lights in the firmament. He then caused the new moon, Nannaru, to shine, and made him the ruler of the night, indicating his phases, one of which was on the seventh day, and the other, a /šabattu/, or day of rest, in the middle of the month. Directions with regard to the moon's movements seem to follow, but the record is mutilated, and their real nature consequently doubtful. With regard to other works which were performed we have no information, as a gap prevents their being ascertained. Something, however, seems to have been done with Merodach's net-- probably it was placed in the heavens as a constellation, as was his bow, to which several names were given. Later on, the winds were bound and assigned to their places, but the account of the arrangement of other things is mutilated and obscure, though it can be recognised that the details in this place were of considerable interest. The creation of man. To all appearance the gods, after he had ordered the universe and the things then existing, urged Merodach to further works of wonder. Taking up their suggestion, he considered what he should do, and then communicated to his father Ae his plan for the creation of man with his own blood, in order that the service and worship of the gods might be established. This portion is also unfortunately very imperfect, and the details of the carrying out of the plan are entirely wanting. Berosus' narrative fills the gap. It is noteworthy that this portion of the narrative has been preserved by Abydenus, George the Syncellus, and Eusebius, in their quotations from Berosus. According to this Chaldæan writer, there was a woman named Omoroca, or, in Chaldæan, Thalatth (apparently a mistake for Thauatth, i.e. Tiawath), whose name was equivalent to the Greek Thalassa, the sea. It was she who had in her charge all the strange creatures then existing. At this period, Belus (Bel-Merodach) came, and cut the woman asunder, forming out of one half the earth, and of the other the heavens, at the same time destroying all the creatures which were within her--all this being an allegory, for the whole universe consists of moisture, and creatures are constantly generated therein. The deity then cut off his own head, and the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the earth, and from this men were formed. Hence it is that men are rational, and partake of divine knowledge. A second creation. This Belsus, "who is called Zeus," divided the darkness, separated the heavens from the earth, and reduced the universe to order. The animals which had been created, however, not being able to bear the light, died. Belus then, seeing the void thus made, ordered one of the gods to take off his head, and mix the blood with the soil, forming other men and animals which should be able to bear the light. He also formed the stars, the sun, the moon, and the five planets. It would thus seem that there were two creations, the first having been a failure because Belus had not foreseen that it was needful to produce beings which should be able to bear the light. Whether this repetition was really in the Babylonian legend, or whether Berosus (or those who quote him) has merely inserted and united two varying accounts, will only be known when the cuneiform text is completed. The concluding tablet. The tablet of the fifty-one names completes the record of the tablets found at Nineveh and Babylon. In this Merodach receives the titles of all the other gods, thus identifying him with them, and leading to that tendency to monotheism of which something will be said later on. In this text, which is written, like the rest of the legend, in poetical form, Merodach is repeatedly called /Tutu/, a mystic word meaning "creator," and "begetter," from the reduplicate root /tu/ or /utu/--which was to all appearances his name when it was desired to refer to him especially in that character. Noteworthy in this portion is the reference to Merodach's creation of mankind:-- Line 25. "Tuto: Aga-azaga (the glorious crown)--may he make the crowns glorious. 26. The lord of the glorious incantation bringing the dead to life; 27. He who had mercy on the gods who had been overpowered; 28. Made heavy the yoke which he had laid on the gods who were his enemies, 29. (And) to redeem(?) them, created mankind. 30. 'The merciful one,' 'he with whom is salvation,' 31. May his word be established, and not forgotten, 32. In the mouth of the black-headed ones[*] whom his hands have made." [*] I.e. mankind. Man the redeemer. The phrase "to redeem them" is, in the original, /ana padi-šunu/, the verb being from /padû/, "to spare," "set free," and if this rendering be correct, as seems probable, the Babylonian reasons for the creation of mankind would be, that they might carry on the service and worship of the gods, and by their righteousness redeem those enemies of the gods who were undergoing punishment for their hostility. Whether by this Tiawath, Apsu, Mummu, Kingu, and the monsters whom she had created were included, or only the gods of heaven who had joined her, the record does not say. Naturally, this doctrine depends entirely upon the correctness of the translation of the words quoted. Jensen, who first proposed this rendering, makes no attempt to explain it, and simply asks: "Does 'them' in 'to redeem(?) them' refer to the gods named in line 28 or to mankind and then to a future--how meant?-- redemption? Eschatology? Zimmern's 'in their place' unprovable. Delitzsch refrains from an explanation." The bilingual account of the creation. Aruru aids Merodach. Whilst dealing with this part of the religious beliefs of the Babylonians, a few words are needed concerning the creation-story which is prefixed to an incantation used in a purification ceremony. The original text is Sumerian (dialectic), and is provided with a Semitic translation. In this inscription, after stating that nothing (in the beginning) existed, and even the great cities and temples of Babylonia were as yet unbuilt, the condition of the world is briefly indicated by the statement that "All the lands were sea." The renowned cities of Babylonia seem to have been regarded as being as much creations of Merodach as the world and its inhabitants--indeed, it is apparently for the glorification of those cities by attributing their origin to Merodach, that the bilingual account of the creation was composed.. "When within the sea there was a stream"--that is, when the veins of Tiawath had been cut through--Êridu (probably = Paradise) and the temple Ê-sagila within the Abyss were constructed, and after that Babylon and the earthly temple of Ê-sagila within it. Then he made the gods and the Annunnaki (the gods of the earth), proclaimed a glorious city as the seat of the joy of their hearts, and afterwards made a pleasant place in which the gods might dwell. The creation of mankind followed, in which Merodach was aided by the goddess Aruru, who made mankind's seed. Finally, plants, trees, and the animals, were produced, after which Merodach constructed bricks, beams, houses, and cities, including Niffer and Erech with their renowned temples. We see here a change in the teaching with regard to Merodach--the gods are no longer spoken of as "his fathers," but he is the creator of the gods, as well as of mankind. The order of the gods in the principal lists. It is unfortunate that no lists of gods have been found in a sufficiently complete state to allow of the scheme after which they were drawn up to be determined without uncertainty. It may, nevertheless, be regarded as probable that these lists, at least in some cases, are arranged in conformity (to a certain extent) with the appearance of the deities in the so-called creation-story. Some of them begin with Anu, and give him various names, among them being Anšar and Kišar, Lahmu and Lahame, etc. More specially interesting, however, is a well-known trilingual list of gods, which contains the names of the various deities in the following order:-- EXTRACTS FROM THE TRILINGUAL LIST /Obverse/ Sumer. Dialect Sumer. Standard Common Explanation (Semit. or Sumer.) 1. Dimmer Dingir Îlu God. 2. U-ki En-ki Ê-a Êa or Aa. 3. Gašan(?)-ki Nin-ki Dawkina Dauké, the consort of Êa. 4. Mu-ul-lil En-lil-la Bêl The God Bel. 5. E-lum A-lim Bêl 6. Gašan(?)-lil Nin-lil-la dam-bi sal Bel's consort. 7. U-lu-a Ni-rig Ênu-rêštu The god of Niffer. 8. U-lib-a Ni-rig Ênu-rêštu 9-12 have Ênu-rêštu's consort, sister, and attendant. 13. U-šab-sib En-šag-duga Nusku Nusku 14-19 have two other names of Nusku, followed by three names of his consort. A number of names of minor divinities then follow. At line 43 five names of Êa are given, followed by four of Merodach:-- 48. U-bi-lu-lu En-bi-lu-lu Marduk Merodach 49. U-Tin-dir ki En-Tin-dir ki Marduk Merodach as "lord of Babylon." 50. U-dimmer-an-kia En-dinger-an-kia Marduk Merodach as "lord god of heaven and earth." 51. U-ab-šar-u En-ab-šar-u Marduk Merodach, apparently as "lord of the 36,000 steers." 52. U-bar-gi-si Nin-bar-gi-si Zer-panîtum Merodach's consort. 53. Gašan-abzu Nin-abzu dam-bi sal "the Lady of the Abyss," his consort. The remainder of the obverse is mutilated, but gave the names of Nebo in Sumerian, and apparently also of Tašmêtum, his consort. The beginning of the reverse also is mutilated, but seems to have given the names of the sun-god, Šamaš, and his consort, followed by those of Kîttu and Mêšarum, "justice and righteousness," his attendants. Other interesting names are: /Reverse/ 8. U-libir-si En-ubar-si Dumu-zi Tammuz 9. Sir-tumu Sir-du ama Dumuzi-gi the mother of Tammuz 12. Gašan-anna Innanna Ištar Ištar (Venus) as "lady of heaven." 20. Nin-si-anna Innanna mul Ištar the star (the planet Venus). 21. Nin Nin-tag-taga Nanaa a goddess identified with Ištar. 23. U-šah Nina-šah Pap-sukal the gods' messenger. 24. U-banda Lugal-banda Lugal-banda 26. U-Mersi Nin-Girsu Nin-Girsu the chief god of Lagaš. 27. Ma-sib-sib Ga-tum-duga Bau Bau, a goddess identified with Gula. Four non-Semitic names of Gula follow, of which that in line 31 is the most interesting:-- 31. Gašan-ti-dibba Nin-tin-guua Gula "the lady saving from death." 33. Gašan-ki-gal Ereš-ki-gala Allatu Persephone. 36. U-mu-zi-da Nin-giš-zi-da Nin-giš-zida "the lord of the everlasting tree." 37. U-urugal Ne-eri-gal Nerigal Nergal. 42. Mulu-hursag Galu-hursag Amurru the Amorite god. 43. Gašan-gu-edina Nin-gu-edina (apparently the consort of Amurru). In all probability this list is one of comparatively late date, though its chronological position with regard to the others is wholly uncertain--it may not be later, and may even be earlier, than those beginning with Anu, the god of the heavens. The important thing about it is, that it begins with /îlu/, god, in general, which is written, in the standard dialect (that of the second column) with the same character as that used for the name of Anu. After this comes Aa or Êa, the god of the earth, and his consort, followed by En-lilla, the older Bel--Illinos in Damascius. The name of Êa is repeated again in line 43 and following, where he is apparently re-introduced as the father of Merodach, whose names immediately follow. This peculiarity is also found in other lists of gods and is undoubtedly a reflection of the history of the Babylonian religion. As this list replaces Anu by /îlu/, it indicates the rule of Enki or Êa, followed by that of Merodach, who, as has been shown, became the chief divinity of the Babylonian pantheon in consequence of Babylon having become the capital of the country. CHAPTER IV THE PRINCIPAL GODS OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS Anu. The name of this divinity is derived from the Sumero-Akkadian /ana/, "heaven," of which he was the principal deity. He is called the father of the great gods, though, in the creation-story, he seems to be described as the son of Anšar and Kišar. In early names he is described as the father, creator, and god, probably meaning the supreme being. His consort was Anatu, and the pair are regarded in the lists as the same as the Lahmu and Lahame of the creation-story, who, with other deities, are also described as gods of the heavens. Anu was worshipped at Erech, along with Ištar. Ea. Is given as if it were the /Semitic/ equivalent of /Enki/, "the lord of the earth," but it would seem to be really a Sumerian word, later written /Ae/, and certain inscriptions suggest that the true reading was /Aa/. His titles are "king of the Abyss, creator of everything, lord of all," the first being seemingly due to the fact that Aa is a word which may, in its reduplicate form, mean "waters," or if read /Êa/, "house of water." He also, like Anu, is called "father of the gods." As this god was likewise "lord of deep wisdom," it was to him that his son Merodach went for advice whenever he was in doubt. On account of his knowledge, he was the god of artisans in general-- potters, blacksmiths, sailors, builders, stone-cutters, gardeners, seers, barbers, farmers, etc. This is the Aos (a form which confirms the reading Aa) of Damascius, and the Oannes of the extracts from Berosus, who states that he was "a creature endowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, and under the fish's head another head, with feet below, like those of a man, with a fish's tail." This description applies fairly well to certain bas-reliefs from Nimroud in the British Museum. The creature described by Berosus lived in the Persian Gulf, landing during the day to teach the inhabitants the building of houses and temples, the cultivation of useful plants, the gathering of fruits, and also geometry, law, and letters. From him, too, came the account of the beginning of things referred to in chapter III. which, in the original Greek, is preceded by a description of the composite monsters said to have existed before Merodach assumed the rule of the universe. The name of his consort, Damkina or Dawkina, probably means "the eternal spouse," and her other names, /Gašan-ki/ (Sumerian dialectic) and /Nin-ki/ (non-dialectic), "Lady of the earth," sufficiently indicates her province. She is often mentioned in the incantations with Êa. The forsaking of the worship of Êa as chief god for that of Merodach seems to have caused considerable heartburning in Babylonia, if we may judge from the story of the Flood, for it was on account of his faithfulness that Utnipištim, the Babylonian Noah, attained to salvation from the Flood and immortality afterwards. All through this adventure it was the god Êa who favoured him, and afterwards gave him immortality like that of the gods. There is an interesting Sumerian text in which the ship of Êa seems to be described, the woods of which its various parts were formed being named, and in it, apparently, were Enki (Êa), Damgal-nunna (Damkina), his consort, Asari-lu-duga (Merodach), In-ab (or Ineš), the pilot of Êridu (Êa's city), and Nin-igi-nagar-sir, "the great architect of heaven":-- "May the ship before thee bring fertility, May the ship after thee bring joy, In thy heart may it make joy of heart . . . ." Êa was the god of fertility, hence this ending to the poetical description of the ship of Êa. Bel. The deity who is mentioned next in order in the list given above is the "older Bel," so called to distinguish him from Bel-Merodach. His principal names were /Mullil/ (dialectic) or /En-lilla/[*] (standard speech), the /Illinos/ of Damascius. His name is generally translated "lord of mist," so-called as god of the underworld, his consort being /Gašan-lil/ or /Nan-lilla/, "the lady of the mist," in Semitic Babylonian /Bêltu/, "the Lady," par excellence. Bel, whose name means "the lord," was so called because he was regarded as chief of the gods. As there was considerable confusion in consequence of the title Bel having been given to Merodach, Tiglath-pileser I. (about 1200 B.C.) refers to him as the "older Bel" in describing the temple which he built for him at Aššur. Numerous names of men compounded with his occur until the latest times, implying that, though the favourite god was Merodach, the worship of Bel was not forgotten, even at Babylon-- that he should have been adored at his own city, Niffur, and at Dur- Kuri-galzu, where Kuri-galzu I. built a temple for "Bel, the lord of the lands," was naturally to be expected. Being, like Êa, a god of the earth, he is regarded as having formed a trinity with Anu, the god of heaven, and Êa, the god of the deep, and prayer to these three was as good as invoking all the gods of the universe. Classification of the gods according to the domain of their power would naturally take place in a religious system in which they were all identified with each other, and this classification indicates, as Jastrow says, a deep knowledge of the powers of nature, and a more than average intelligence among the Babylonians--indeed, he holds it as a proof that, at the period of the older empire, there were schools and students who had devoted themselves to religious speculation upon this point. He also conjectures that the third commandment of the Law of Moses was directed against this doctrine held by the Babylonians. [*] Ordinarily pronounced /Illila/, as certain glosses and Damascius's /Illinos/ (for /Illilos/) show. Beltis. This goddess was properly only the spouse of the older Bel, but as /Bêltu/, her Babylonian name, simply meant "lady" in general (just as /Bêl/ or /bêlu/ meant "lord"), it became a title which could be given to any goddess, and was in fact borne by Zer-panîtum, Ištar, Nanaa, and others. It was therefore often needful to add the name of the city over which the special /Bêltu/ presided, in order to make clear which of them was meant. Besides being the title of the spouse of the older Bel, having her earthly seat with him in Niffur and other less important shrines, the Assyrians sometimes name Bêltu the spouse of Aššur, their national god, suggesting an identification, in the minds of the priests, with that deity. Ênu-rêštu or Nirig.[*] Whether /Ênu-rêštu/ be a translation of /Nirig/ or not, is uncertain, but not improbable, the meaning being "primeval lord," or something similar, and "lord" that of the first element, /ni/, in the Sumerian form. In support of this reading and rendering may be quoted the fact, that one of the descriptions of this divinity is /ašsarid îlani âhê-šu/, "the eldest of the gods his brothers." It is noteworthy that this deity was a special favourite among the Assyrians, many of whose kings, to say nothing of private persons, bore his name as a component part of theirs. In the bilingual poem entitled /Ana-kime gimma/ ("Formed like Anu"), he is described as being the son of Bel (hence his appearance after Bel in the list printed above), and in the likeness of Anu, for which reason, perhaps, his divinity is called "Anuship." Beginning with words praising him, it seems to refer to his attitude towards the gods of hostile lands, against whom, apparently, he rode in a chariot of the sacred lapis-lazuli. Anu having endowed him with terrible glory, the gods of the earth feared to attack him, and his onrush was as that of a storm-flood. By the command of Bel, his course was directed towards Ê-kur, the temple of Bel at Niffur. Here he was met by Nusku, the supreme messenger of Bel, who, with words of respect and of praise, asks him not to disturb the god Bel, his father, in his seat, nor make the gods of the earth tremble in Upšukennaku (the heavenly festival-hall of the gods), and offers him a gift.[†] It will thus be seen that Ênu-rêštu was a rival to the older Bel, whose temple was the great tower in stages called Ê-kura, in which, in all probability, Ê-šu-me-du, the shrine of Ênu-rêštu, was likewise situated. The inscriptions call him "god of war," though, unlike Nergal, he was not at the same time god of disease and pestilence. To all appearance he was the god of the various kinds of stones, of which another legend states that he "determined their fate." He was "the hero, whose net overthrows the enemy, who summons his army to plunder the hostile land, the royal son who caused his father to bow down to him from afar." "The son who sat not with the nurse, and eschewed(?) the strength of milk," "the offspring who did not know his father." "He rode over the mountains and scattered seed--unanimously the plants proclaimed his name to their dominion, among them like a great wild bull he raises his horns." [*] /Ênu-rêštu/ is the reading which I have adopted as the Semitic Babylonian equivalent of the name of this divinity, in consequence of the Aramaic transcription given by certain contract-tablets discovered by the American expedition to Niffer, and published by Prof. Clay of Philadelphia. [†] The result of this request is not known, in consequence of the defective state of the tablets. Many other interesting descriptions of the deity Nirig (generally read Nin-ip) occur, and show, with those quoted here, that his story was one of more than ordinary interest. Nusku. This deity was especially invoked by the Assyrian kings, but was in no wise exclusively Assyrian, as is shown by the fact that his name occurs in many Babylonian inscriptions. He was the great messenger of the gods, and is variously given as "the offspring of the abyss, the creation of Êa," and "the likeness of his father, the first-born of Bel." As Gibil, the fire-god, has likewise the same diverse parentage, it is regarded as likely that these two gods were identical. Nusku was the god whose command is supreme, the counsellor of the great gods, the protector of the Igigi (the gods of the heavens), the great and powerful one, the glorious day, the burning one, the founder of cities, the renewer of sanctuaries, the provider of feasts for all the Igigi, without whom no feast took place in Ê-kura. Like Nebo, he bore the glorious spectre, and it was said of him that he attacked mightily in battle. Without him the sun-god, the judge, could not give judgment. All this points to the probability, that Nusku may not have been the fire-god, but the brother of the fire-god, i.e. either flame, or the light of fire. The sun-god, without light, could not see, and therefore could not give judgment: no feast could be prepared without fire and its flame. As the evidence of the presence of the shining orbs in the heavens--the light of their fires--he was the messenger of the gods, and was honoured accordingly. From this idea, too, he became their messenger in general, especially of Bel-Merodach, the younger Bel, whose requests he carried to the god Êa in the Deep. In one inscription he is identified with Nirig or Ênu-rêštu, who is described above. Merodach. Concerning this god, and how he arose to the position of king of all the gods of heaven, has been fully shown in chapter III. Though there is but little in his attributes to indicate any connection with Šamaš, there is hardly any doubt that he was originally a sun-god, as is shown by the etymology of his name. The form, as it has been handed down to us, is somewhat shortened, the original pronunciation having been /Amar-uduk/, "the young steer of day," a name which suggests that he was the morning sun. Of the four names given at the end of chapter III., two--"lord of Babylon," and "lord god of heaven and earth,"--may be regarded as expressing his more well-known attributes. /En-ab-šar- u/, however, is a provisional, though not impossible, reading and rendering, and if correct, the "36,000 wild bulls" would be a metaphorical way of speaking of "the 36,000 heroes," probably meaning the gods of heaven in all their grades. The signification of /En- bilulu/ is unknown. Like most of the other gods of the Babylonian pantheon, however, Merodach had many other names, among which may be mentioned /Asari/, which has been compared with the Egyptian Osiris, /Asari-lu-duga/, "/Asari/ who is good," compared with Osiris Unnefer; /Namtila/, "life", /Tutu/, "begetter (of the gods), renewer (of the gods)," /Šar-azaga/, "the glorious incantation," /Mu-azaga/, "the glorious charm," and many others. The last two refer to his being the god who, by his kindness, obtained from his father Êa, dwelling in the abyss, those charms and incantations which benefited mankind, and restored the sick to health. In this connection, a frequent title given to him is "the merciful one," but most merciful was he in that he spared the lives of the gods who, having sided with Taiwath, were his enemies, as is related in the tablet of the fifty-one names. In connection with the fight he bore also the names, "annihilator of the enemy," "rooter out of all evil," "troubler of the evil ones," "life of the whole of the gods." From these names it is clear that Merodach, in defeating Tiawath, annihilated, at the same time, the spirit of evil, Satan, the accuser, of which she was, probably, the Babylonian type. But unlike the Saviour in the Christian creed, he saved not only man, at that time uncreated, but the gods of heaven also. As "king of the heavens," he was identified with the largest of the planets, Jupiter, as well as with other heavenly bodies. Traversing the sky in great zigzags, Jupiter seemed to the Babylonians to superintend the stars, and this was regarded as emblematic of Merodach shepherding them--"pasturing the gods like sheep," as the tablet has it. A long list of gods gives as it were the court of Merodach, held in what was apparently a heavenly /Ê-sagila/, and among the spiritual beings mentioned are /Minâ-îkul-bêli/ and /Minâ-ištî-bêli/, "what my lord has eaten," and "what has my lord drunk," /Nadin-mê-gati/, "he who gives water for the hands," also the two door-keepers, and the four dogs of Merodach, wherein people are inclined to see the four satellites of Jupiter, which, it is thought, were probably visible to certain of the more sharp-sighted stargazers of ancient Babylonia. These dogs were called /Ukkumu/, /Akkulu/, /Ikšsuda/, and /Iltebu/, "Seizer," "Eater," "Grasper," and "Holder." Images of these beings were probably kept in the temple of Ê-sagila at Babylon. Zer-panîtum. This was the name of the consort of Merodach, and is generally read Sarp(b)anitum--a transcription which is against the native orthography and etymology, namely, "seed-creatress" (Zer-banîtum). The meaning attributed to this word is partly confirmed by another name which Lehmann has pointed out that she possessed, namely, /Erua/ or /Aru'a/, who, in an inscription of Antiochus Soter (280-260 B.C.) is called "the queen who produces birth," but more especially by the circumstance, that she must be identical with Aruru, who created the seed of mankind along with Merodach. Why she was called "the lady of the abyss," and elsewhere "the voice of the abyss" (/Me-abzu/) is not known. Zer-panîtum was no mere reflection of Merodach, but one of the most important goddesses in the Babylonian pantheon. The tendency of scholars has been to identify her with the moon, Merodach being a solar deity and the meaning "silvery"--/Sarpanitum/, from /sarpu/, one of the words for "silver," was regarded as supporting this idea. She was identified with the Elamite goddess named Elagu, and with the Lahamum of the island of Bahrein, the Babylonian Tilmun. Nebo and Tašmêtum. As "the teacher" and "the hearer" these were among the most popular of the deities of Babylonia and Assyria. Nebo (in Semitic Babylonian Nabû) was worshipped at the temple-tower known as Ê-zida, "the ever- lasting house," at Borsippa, now the Birs Nimroud, traditionally regarded as the site of the Tower of Babel, though that title, as has already been shown, would best suit the similar structure known as Ê-sagila, "the house of the high head," in Babylon itself. In composition with men's names, this deity occurs more than any other, even including Merodach himself--a clear indication of the estimation in which the Babylonians and Assyrians held the possession of knowledge. The character with which his name is written means, with the pronunciation of /ak/, "to make," "to create," "to receive," "to proclaim," and with the pronunciation of /me/, "to be wise," "wisdom," "open of ear," "broad of ear," and "to make, of a house," the last probably referring to the design rather than to the actual building. Under the name of /Dim-šara/ he was "the creator of the writing of the scribes," as /Ni-zu/, "the god who knows" (/zu/, "to know"), as /Mermer/, "the speeder(?) of the command of the gods"--on the Sumerian side indicating some connection with Addu or Rimmon, the thunderer, and on the Semitic side with Ênu-rêštu, who was one of the gods' messengers. A small fragment in the British Museum gave his attributes as god of the various cities of Babylonia, but unfortunately their names are lost or incomplete. From what remains, however, we see that Nebo was god of ditching(?), commerce(?), granaries(?), fasting(?), and food; it was he who overthrew the land of the enemy, and who protected planting; and, lastly, he was god of Borsippa. The worship of Nebo was not always as popular as it became in the later days of the Babylonian empire and after its fall, and Jastrow is of opinion that Hammurabi intentionally ignored this deity, giving the preference to Merodach, though he did not suppress the worship. Why this should have taken place is not by any means certain, for Nebo was a deity adored far and wide, as may be gathered from the fact that there was a mountain bearing his name in Moab, upon which Moses--also an "announcer," adds Jastrow--died. Besides the mountain, there was a city in Moab so named, and another in Judæa. That it was the Babylonian Nebo originally is implied by the form--the Hebrew corresponding word is /nabi/. How old the worship of Tašmêtum, his consort, is, is doubtful, but her name first occurs in a date of the reign of Hammurabi. Details concerning her attributes are rare, and Jastrow regards this goddess as the result of Babylonian religious speculations. It is noteworthy that her worship appears more especially in later times, but it may be doubted whether it is a product of those late times, especially when we bear in mind the remarkable seal-impression on an early tablet of 3500-4500 B.C., belonging to Lord Amherst of Hackney, in which we see a male figure with wide-open mouth seizing a stag by his horns, and a female figure with no mouth at all, but with very prominent ears, holding a bull in a similar manner. Here we have the "teacher" and the "hearer" personified in a very remarkable manner, and it may well be that this primitive picture shows the idea then prevailing with regard to these two deities. It is to be noted that the name of Tašmêtum has a Sumerian equivalent, namely, /Kurnun/, and that the ideograph by which it is represented is one whose general meaning seems to be "to bind," perhaps with the additional signification of "to accomplish," in which case "she who hears" would also be "she who obeys." Šamaš and his consort. At all times the worship of the sun in Babylonia and Assyria was exceedingly popular, as, indeed, was to be expected from his importance as the greatest of the heavenly bodies and the brightest, without whose help men could not live, and it is an exceedingly noteworthy fact that this deity did not become, like Ra in Egypt, the head of the pantheon. This place was reserved for Merodach, also a sun-god, but possessing attributes of a far wider scope. Šamaš is mentioned as early as the reign of Ê-anna-tum, whose date is set at about 4200 B.C., and at this period his Semitic name does not, naturally, occur, the character used being /Utu/, or, in its longer form, /Utuki/. It is worthy of note that, in consequence of the Babylonian idea of evolution in the creation of the world, less perfect beings brought forth those which were more perfect, and the sun was therefore the offspring of Nannara or Sin, the moon. In accordance with the same idea, the day, with the Semites, began with the evening, the time when the moon became visible, and thus becomes the offspring of the night. In the inscriptions Šamaš is described as "the light of things above and things below, the illuminator of the regions," "the supreme judge of heaven and earth," "the lord of living creatures, the gracious one of the lands." Dawning in the foundation of the sky, he opened the locks and threw wide the gates of the high heavens, and raised his head, covering heaven and earth with his splendour. He was the constantly righteous in heaven, the truth within the ears of the lands, the god knowing justice and injustice, righteousness he supported upon his shoulders, unrighteousness he burst asunder like a leather bond, etc. It will thus be seen, that the sun-god was the great god of judgment and justice--indeed, he is constantly alluded to as "the judge," the reason in all probability being, that as the sun shines upon the earth all day long, and his light penetrates everywhere, he was regarded as the god who knew and investigated everything, and was therefore best in a position to judge aright, and deliver a just decision. It is for this reason that his image appears at the head of the stele inscribed with Hammurabi's laws, and legal ceremonies were performed within the precincts of his temples. The chief seats of his worship were the great temples called Ê-babbara, "the house of great light," in the cities of Larsa and Sippar. The consort of Šamaš was Aa, whose chief seat was at Sippar, side by side with Šamaš. Though only a weak reflex of the sun-god, her worship was exceedingly ancient, being mentioned in an inscription of Man-ištusu, who is regarded as having reigned before Sargon of Agadé. From the fact that, in one of the lists, she has names formed by reduplicating the name of the sun-god, /Utu/, she would seem once to have been identical with him, in which case it may be supposed that she personified the setting sun--"the double sun" from the magnified disc which he presents at sunset, when, according to a hymn to the setting sun sung at the temple at Borsippa, Aa, in the Sumerian line Kur-nirda, was accustomed to go to receive him. According to the list referred to above, Aa, with the name of Burida in Sumerian, was more especially the consort of Ša-zu, "him who knows the heart," one of the names of Merodach, who was probably the morning sun, and therefore the exact counterpart of the sun at evening. Besides Šamaš and Utu, the latter his ordinary Sumerian name, the sun- god had several other non-Semitic names, including /Gišnu/,[*] "the light," /Ma-banda-anna/, "the bark of heaven," /U-ê/, "the rising sun," /Mitra/, apparently the Persian Mithra; /Ume-šimaš/ and Nahunda, Elamite names, and Sahi, the Kassite name of the sun. He also sometimes bears the names of his attendants Kittu and Mêšaru, "Truth" and "Righteousness," who guided him upon his path as judge of the earth. [*] It is the group expressing this word which is used for Šamaš in the name of Šamaš-šum-ukîn (Saosduchinos), the brother of Aššur- bani-âpli (Assurbanipal). The Greek equivalent implies the pronunciation /Šawaš/, as well as /Šamaš/. Tammuz and Ištar. The date of the rise of the myth of Tammuz is uncertain, but as the name of this god is found on tablets of the time of Lugal-anda and Uru-ka-gina (about 3500 B.C.), it can hardly be of later date than 4000 B.C., and may be much earlier. As he is repeatedly called "the shepherd," and had a domain where he pastured his flock, Professor Sayce sees in Tammuz "Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla," who, according to Berosus, ruled in Babylonia for 10 /sari/, or 36,000 years, and was the sixth king of the mythical period. According to the classic story, the mother of Tammuz had unnatural intercourse with her own father, being urged thereto by Aphrodite whom she had offended, and who had decided thus to avenge herself. Being pursued by her father, who wished to kill her for this crime, she prayed to the gods, and was turned into a tree, from whose trunk Adonis was afterwards born. Aphrodite was so charmed with the infant that, placing him in a chest, she gave him into the care of Persephone, who, however, when she discovered what a treasure she had in her keeping, refused to part with him again. Zeus was appealed to, and decided that for four months in the year Adonis should be left to himself, four should be spent with Aphrodite, and four with Persephone, and six with Aphrodite on earth. He was afterwards slain, whilst hunting, by a wild boar. Nothing has come down to us as yet concerning this legend except the incident of his dwelling in Hades, whither Ištar, the Babylonian Venus, went in search of him. It is not by any means unlikely, however, that the whole story existed in Babylonia, and thence spread to Phœnicia, and afterwards to Greece. In Phœnicia it was adapted to the physical conditions of the country, and the place of Tammuz's encounter with the boar was said to be the mountains of Lebanon, whilst the river named after him, Adonis (now the Nahr Ibrahim), which ran red with the earth washed down by the autumn rains, was said to be so coloured in consequence of being mingled with his blood. The descent of Tammuz to the underworld, typified by the flowing down of the earth-laden waters of the rivers to the sea, was not only celebrated by the Phœnicians, but also by the Babylonians, who had at least two series of lamentations which were used on this occasion, and were probably the originals of those chanted by the Hebrew women in the time of Ezekiel (about 597 B.C.). Whilst on earth, he was the one who nourished the ewe and her lamb, the goat and her kid, and also caused them to be slain--probably in sacrifice. "He has gone, he has gone to the bosom of the earth," the mourners cried, "he will make plenty to overflow for the land of the dead, for its lamentations for the day of his fall, in the unpropitious month of his year." There was also lamentation for the cessation of the growth of vegetation, and one of these hymns, after addressing him as the shepherd and husband of Ištar, "lord of the underworld," and "lord of the shepherd's seat," goes on to liken him to a germ which has not absorbed water in the furrow, whose bud has not blossomed in the meadow; to the sapling which has not been planted by the watercourse, and to the sapling whose root has been removed. In the "Lamentations" in the Manchester Museum, Ištar, or one of her devotees, seems to call for Tammuz, saying, "Return, my husband," as she makes her way to the region of gloom in quest of him. Ereš-ê-gala, "the lady of the great house" (Persephone), is also referred to, and the text seems to imply that Ištar entered her domain in spite of her. In this text other names are given to him, namely, /Tumu-giba/, "son of the flute," /Ama-elaggi/, and /Ši-umunnagi/, "life of the people." The reference to sheep and goats in the British Museum fragment recalls the fact that in an incantation for purification the person using it is told to get the milk of a yellow goat which has been brought forth in the sheep-fold of Tammuz, recalling the flocks of the Greek sun-god Helios. These were the clouds illuminated by the sun, which were likened to sheep--indeed, one of the early Sumerian expressions for "fleece" was "sheep of the sky." The name of Tammuz in Sumerian is Dumu-zi, or in its rare fullest form, Dumu-zida, meaning "true" or "faithful son." There is probably some legend attached to this which is at present unknown. In all probability Ištar, the spouse of Tammuz, is best known from her descent into Hades in quest of him when with Persephone (Ereš-ki-gal) in the underworld. In this she had to pass through seven gates, and an article of clothing was taken from her at each, until she arrived in the underworld quite naked, typifying the teaching, that man can take nothing away with him when he departs this life. During her absence, things naturally began to go wrong upon the earth, and the gods were obliged to intervene, and demand her release, which was ultimately granted, and at each gate, as she returned, the adornments which she had left were given back to her. It is uncertain whether the husband whom she sought to release was set free, but the end of the inscription seems to imply that Ištar was successful in her mission. In this story she typifies the faithful wife, but other legends show another side of her character, as in that of Gilgameš, ruler of her city Erech, to whom she makes love. Gilgameš, however, knowing the character of the divine queen of his city too well, reproaches her with her treatment of her husband and her other lovers--Tammuz, to whom, from year to year, she caused bitter weeping; the bright coloured Allala bird, whom she smote and broke his wings; the lion perfect in strength, in whom she cut wounds "by sevens"; the horse glorious in war, to whom she caused hardship and distress, and to his mother Silili bitter weeping; the shepherd who provided for her things which she liked, whom she smote and changed to a jackal; Išullanu, her father's gardener, whom she tried, apparently, to poison, but failing, she smote him, and changed him to a statue(?). On being thus reminded of her misdeeds, Ištar was naturally angry, and, ascending to heaven, complained to her father Anu and her mother Anatu, the result being, that a divine bull was sent against Gilgameš and Enki-du, his friend and helper. The bull, however, was killed, and a portion of the animal having been cut off, Enki-du threw it at the goddess, saying at the same time that, if he could only get hold of her, he would treat her similarly. Apparently Ištar recognised that there was nothing further to be done in the matter, so, gathering the hand-maidens, pleasure- women and whores, in their presence she wept over the portion of the divine bull which had been thrown at her. The worship of Ištar, she being the goddess of love and war, was considerably more popular than that of her spouse, Tammuz, who, as among the western Semitic nations, was adored rather by the women than the men. Her worship was in all probability of equal antiquity, and branched out, so to say, in several directions, as may be judged by her many names, each of which had a tendency to become a distinct personality. Thus the syllabaries give the character which represents her name as having also been pronounced /Innanna/, /Ennen/, and /Nin/, whilst a not uncommon name in other inscriptions is /Ama-Innanna/, "mother Ištar." The principal seat of her worship in Babylonia was at Erech, and in Assyria at Nineveh--also at Arbela, and many other places. She was also honoured (at Erech and elsewhere) under the Elamite names of Tišpak and Šušinak, "the Susian goddess." Nina. From the name /Nin/, which Ištar bore, there is hardly any doubt that she acquired the identification with Nina, which is provable as early as the time of the Lagašite kings, Lugal-anda and Uru-ka-gina. As identified with Aruru, the goddess who helped Merodach to create mankind, Ištar was also regarded as the mother of all, and in the Babylonian story of the Flood, she is made to say that she had begotten man, but like "the sons of the fishes," he filled the sea. Nina, then, as another form of Ištar, was a goddess of creation, typified in the teeming life of the ocean, and her name is written with a character standing for a house or receptacle, with the sign for "fish" within. Her earliest seat was the city of Nina in southern Babylonia, from which place, in all probability, colonists went northwards, and founded another shrine at Nineveh in Assyria, which afterwards became the great centre of her worship, and on this account the city was called after her Ninaa or Ninua. As their tutelary goddess, the fishermen in the neighbourhood of the Babylonian Nina and Lagaš were accustomed to make to her, as well as to Innanna or Ištar, large offerings of fish. As the masculine deities had feminine forms, so it is not by any means improbable that the goddesses had masculine forms, and if that be the case, we may suppose that it was a masculine counterpart of Nina who founded Nineveh, which, as is well known, is attributed to Ninos, the same name as Nina with the Greek masculine termination. Nin-Gursu. This deity is principally of importance in connection with the ancient Babylonian state of Lagaš, the home of an old and important line of kings and viceroys, among the latter being the celebrated Gudea, whose statues and inscribed cylinders now adorn the Babylonian galleries of the Louvre at Paris. His name means "Lord of Girsu," which was probably one of the suburbs, and the oldest part, of Lagaš. This deity was son of En-lila or Bêl, and was identified with Nirig or Ênu-rêštu. To all appearance he was a sun-deity. The dialectic form of his name was /U-Mersi/, of which a variant, /En-Mersi/, occurs in an incantation published in the fourth volume of the /Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia/, pl. 27, where, for the Sumerian "Take a white kid of En-Mersi," the Semitic translation is "of Tammuz," showing that he was identified with the latter god. In the second volume of the same work Nin-Girsu is given as the pronunciation of the name of the god of agriculturalists, confirming this identification, Tammuz being also god of agriculture. Bau. This goddess at all times played a prominent part in ancient Babylonian religion, especially with the rulers before the dynasty of Hammurabi. She was the "mother" of Lagaš, and her temple was at Uru-azaga, a district of Lagaš, the chief city of Nin-Girsu, whose spouse she was. Like Nin-Girsu, she planted (not only grain and vegetation, but also the seed of men). In her character of the goddess who gave life to men, and healed their bodies in sickness, she was identified with Gula, one of those titles is "the lady saving from death". Ga-tum-duga, whose name probably means "making and producing good," was also exceedingly popular in ancient times, and though identified with Bau, is regarded by Jastrow has having been originally distinct from her. Ereš-ki-gal or Allatu. As the prototype of Persephone, this goddess is one of much importance for comparative mythology, and there is a legend concerning her of considerable interest. The text is one of those found at Tel-el- Armana, in Egypt, and states that the gods once made a feast, and sent to Ereš-ki-gal, saying that, though they could go down to her, she could not ascend to them, and asking her to send a messenger to fetch away the food destined for her. This she did, and all the gods stood up to receive her messenger, except one, who seems to have withheld this token of respect. The messenger, when he returned, apparently related to Ereš-ki-gal what had happened, and angered thereat, she sent him back to the presence of the gods, asking for the delinquent to be delivered to her, that she might kill him. The gods then discussed the question of death with the messenger, and told him to take to his mistress the god who had not stood up in his presence. When the gods were brought together, that the culprit might be recognised, one of them remained in the background, and on the messenger asking who it was who did not stand up, it was found to be Nerigal. This god was duly sent, but was not at all inclined to be submissive, for instead of killing him, as she had threatened, Ereš- ki-gal found herself seized by the hair and dragged from her throne, whilst the death-dealing god made ready to cut off her head. "Do not kill me, my brother, let me speak to thee," she cried, and on his loosing his hold upon her hair, she continued, "thou shalt be my husband, and I will be thy wife--I will cause you to take dominion in the wide earth. I will place the tablet of wisdom in thine hand--thou shalt be lord, I will be lady." Nerigal thereupon took her, kissed her, and wiped away her tears, saying, "Whatever thou hast asked me for months past now receives assent." Ereš-ki-gal did not treat her rival in the affections of Tammuz so gently when Ištar descended to Hades in search of the "husband of her youth." According to the story, not only was Ištar deprived of her garments and ornaments, but by the orders of Ereš-ki-gal, Namtar smote her with disease in all her members. It was not until the gods intervened that Ištar was set free. The meaning of her name is "lady of the great region," a description which is supposed to apply to Hades, and of which a variant, Ereš-ki-gal, "lady of the great house," occurs in the Hymns to Tammuz in the Manchester Museum. Nergal. This name is supposed to mean "lord of the great habitation," which would be a parallel to that of his spouse Ereš-ki-gal. He was the ruler of Hades, and at the same time god of war and of disease and pestilence. As warrior, he naturally fought on the side of those who worshipped him, as in the phrase which describes him as "the warrior, the fierce storm-flood overthrowing the land of the enemy." As pointed out by Jastrow, he differs from Nirig, who was also a god of war, in that he symbolises, as god of disease and death, the misery and destruction which accompany the strife of nations. It is in consequence of this side of his character that he appears also as god of fire, the destroying element, and Jensen says that Nerigal was god of the midday or of the summer sun, and therefore of all the misfortunes caused by an excess of his heat. The chief centre of his worship was Cuthah (/Kutû/, Sumerian /Gudua/) near Babylon, now represented by the mounds of Tel Ibrahim. The identity with the Greek Aries and the Roman Mars is proved by the fact that his planet was /Muštabarrû-mûtanu/, "the death-spreader," which is probably the name of Mars in Semitic Babylonian. Amurru. Although this is not by any means a frequent name among the deities worshipped in Babylonia, it is worthy of notice on account of its bearing upon the date of the compilation of the tablet which has been taken as a basis of this list of gods. He was known as "Lord of the mountains," and his worship became very popular during the period of the dynasty to which Hammurabi belonged--say from 2200 to 1937 B.C., when Amurru was much combined with the names of men, and is found both on tablets and cylinder-seals. The ideographic manner of writing it is /Mar-tu/, a word that is used for /Amurru/, the land of the Amorites, which stood for the West in general. Amorites had entered Babylonia in considerable numbers during this period, so that there is but little doubt that his popularity was largely due to their influence, and the tablet containing these names was probably drawn up, or at least had the Semitic equivalents added, towards the beginning of that period. Sin or Nannara. The cult of the moon-god was one of the most popular in Babylonia, the chief seat of his worship being at Uru (now Muqayyar) the Biblical Ur of the Chaldees. The origin of the name Sin is unknown, but it is thought that it may be a corruption of Zu-ena, "knowledge-lord," as the compound ideograph expressing his name may be read and translated. Besides this compound ideograph, the name of the god Sin was also expressed by the character for "30," provided with the prefix of divinity, an ideograph which is due to the thirty days of the month, and is thought to be of late date. With regard to Nannar, Jastrow explains it as being for Narnar, and renders it "light-producer." In a long hymn to this god he is described in many lines as "the lord, prince of the gods, who in heaven alone is supreme," and as "father Nannar." Among his other descriptive titles are "great Anu" (Sum. /ana gale/, Semitic Bab. /Anu rabû/)--another instance of the identification of two deities. He was also "lord of Ur," "lord of the temple Gišnu-gala," "lord of the shining crown," etc. He is also said to be "the mighty steer whose horns are strong, whose limbs are perfect, who is bearded with a beard of lapis-stone,[*] who is filled with beauty and fullness (of splendour)." [*] Probably of the colour of lapis only, not made of the stone itself. Besides Babylonia and Assyria, he was also worshipped in other parts of the Semitic east, especially at Harran, to which city Abraham migrated, scholars say, in consequence of the patron-deity being the same as at Ur of the Chaldees, where he had passed the earlier years of his life. The Mountain of Sinai and the Desert of Sin, both bear his name. According to king Dungi (about 2700 B.C.), the spouse of Sin or Nannara was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur." Sargon of Assyria (722-705 B.C.) calls her Nin-gala. Addu or Rammanu. The numerous names which Hadad bears in the inscriptions, both non- Semitic and Semitic, testify to the popularity which this god enjoyed at all times in Babylonia. Among his non-Semitic names may be mentioned Mer, Mermer, Muru, all, it may be imagined, imitative. Addu is explained as being his name in the Amorite language, and a variant form, apparently, which has lost its first syllable, namely, Dadu, also appears--the Assyrians seem always to have used the terminationless form of Addu, namely, Adad. In all probability Addu, Adad, and Dadu are derived from the West Semitic Hadad, but the other name, Rammanu, is native Babylonian, and cognate with Rimmon, which is thus shown by the Babylonian form to mean "the thunderer," or something similar. He was the god of winds, storms, and rain, feared on account of the former, and worshipped, and his favour sought, on account of the last. In his name Birqu, he appears as the god of lightning, and Jastrow is of opinion, that he is sometimes associated on that account with Šamaš, both of them being (although in different degrees) gods of light, and this is confirmed by the fact that, in common with the sun-god, he was called "god of justice." In the Assyrian inscriptions he appears as a god of war, and the kings constantly compare the destruction which their armies had wrought with that of "Adad the inundator." For them he was "the mighty one, inundating the regions of the enemy, lands and houses," and was prayed to strike the land of the person who showed hostility to the Assyrian king, with evil-working lightning, to throw want, famine, drought, and corpses therein, to order that he should not live one day longer, and to destroy his name and his seed in the land. The original seat of his worship was Muru in South Babylonia, to which the patesi of Girsu in the time of Ibi-Sin sent grain as an offering. Its site is unknown. Other places (or are they other names of the same?) where he was worshipped were Ennigi and Kakru. The consort of Addu was Šala, whose worship was likewise very popular, and to whom there were temples, not only in Babylonia and Assyria, but also in Elam, seemingly always in connection with Addu. Aššur. In all the deities treated of above, we see the chief gods of the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon, which were worshipped by both peoples extensively, none of them being specifically Assyrian, though worshipped by the Assyrians. There was one deity, however, whose name will not be found in the Babylonian lists of gods, namely, Aššur, the national god of Assyria, who was worshipped in the city of Aššur, the old capital of the country. From this circumstance, it may be regarded as certain, that Aššur was the local god of the city whose name he bore, and that he attained to the position of chief god of the Assyrian pantheon in the same way as Merodach became king of the gods in Babylonia--namely, because Aššur was the capital of the country. His acceptance as chief divinity, however, was much more general than that of Merodach, as temples to him were to be found all over the Assyrian kingdom--a circumstance which was probably due to Assyria being more closely united in itself than Babylonia, causing his name to arouse patriotic feelings wherever it might be referred to. This was probably partly due to the fact, that the king in Assyria was more the representative of the god than in Babylonia, and that the god followed him on warlike expeditions, and when engaged in religious ceremonies--indeed, it is not by any means improbable that he was thought to follow him wherever he went. On the sculptures he is seen accompanying him in the form of a circle provided with wings, in which is shown sometimes a full-length figure of the god in human form, sometimes the upper part only, facing towards and drawing his bow against the foe. In consequence of its general appearance, the image of the god has been likened to the sun in eclipse, the far-stretching wings being thought to resemble the long streamers visible at the moment of totality, and it must be admitted as probable that this may have given the idea of the symbol shown on the sculptures. As a sun-god, and at the same time not the god Šamaš, he resembled the Babylonian Merodach, and was possibly identified with him, especially as, in at least one text, Bêltu (Bêltis) is described as his consort, which would possibly identify Aššur's spouse with Zer-panîtum. The original form of his name would seem to have been Aušar, "water-field," probably from the tract where the city of Aššur was built. His identification with Merodach, if that was ever accepted, may have been due to the likeness of the word to Asari, one of that deity's names. The pronunciation Aššur, however, seems to have led to a comparison with the Anšar of the first tablet of the Creation-story, though it may seem strange that the Assyrians should have thought that their patron-god was a deity symbolising the "host of heaven." Nevertheless, the Greek transcription of Anšar, namely, /Assoros/, given by Damascius, certainly strengthens the indications of the ideograph in this matter. Delitzsch regards the word Aššur, or Ašur, as he reads it, as meaning "holy," and quotes a list of the gods of the city of Nineveh, where the word Aššur occurs three times, suggesting the exclamation "holy, holy, holy," or "the holy, holy, holy one." In all probability, however, the repetition of the name three times simply means that there were three temples dedicated to Aššur in the cities in question.[*] Jastrow agrees with Delitzsch in regarding Ašur as another form of Ašir (found in early Cappadocian names), but he translates it rather as "overseer" or "guardian" of the land and the people--the terminationless form of /aširu/, which has this meaning, and is applied to Merodach. [*] Or there may have been three shrines to Aššur in each temple referred to. As the use of the characters /An-šar/ for the god Aššur only appears at a late date (Jastrow says the eighth century B.C.), this would seem to have been the work of the scribes, who wished to read into the name the earlier signification of Anšar, "the host of heaven," an explanation fully in accord with Jastrow's reasonings with regard to the nature of the deity. As he represented no personification or power of nature, he says, but the general protecting spirit of the land, the king, the army, and the people, the capital of the country could be transferred from Aššur to Calah, from there back to Aššur, and finally to Nineveh, without affecting the position of the protecting god of the land in any way. He needed no temple--though such things were erected to him--he had no need to fear that he should suffer in esteem by the preference for some other god. As the embodiment of the spirit of the Assyrian people the personal side of his being remained to a certain extent in the background. If he was the "host of heaven," all the deities might be regarded as having their being in him. Such was the chief deity of the Assyrians--a national god, grafted on to, but always distinct from, the rest of the pantheon, which, as has been shown, was of Babylonian origin, and always maintained the characteristics and stamp of its origin. The spouse of Aššur does not appear in the historical texts, and her mention elsewhere under the title of Bêltu, "the lady," does not allow of any identification being made. In one inscription, however, Aššuritu is called the goddess, and Aššur the god, of the star Sib-zi- anna, identified by Jensen with Regulus, which was apparently the star of Merodach in Babylonia. This, however, brings us no nearer, for Aššuritu would simply mean "the Assurite (goddess)." The minor divinities. Among the hundreds of names which the lists furnish, a few are worthy of mention, either because of more than ordinary interest, or in consequence of their furnishing the name of some deity, chief in its locality, but identified elsewhere with one of the greater gods. Aa.--This may be regarded either as the god Êa (though the name is written differently), or as the sun-god assuming the name of his consort; or (what is, perhaps, more probable) as a way of writing A'u or Ya'u (the Hebrew Jah), without the ending of the nominative. This last is also found under the form /Aa'u/, /ya'u/, /yau/, and /ya/. Abil-addu.--This deity seems to have attained a certain popularity in later times, especially among immigrants from the West. As "the son of Hadad," he was the equivalent of the Syrian Ben-Hadad. A tablet in New York shows that his name was weakened in form to /Ablada/. Aku, the moon-god among the heavenly bodies. It is this name which is regarded as occurring in the name of the Babylonian king Eri-Aku, "servant of the moon-god," the biblical Arioch (Gen. xiv.). Amma-an-ki, Êa or Aa as lord of heaven and earth. Amna.--A name only found in a syllabary, and assigned to the sun-god, from which it would seem that it is a form of the Egyptian Ammon. Anunitum, the goddess of one of the two Sippars, called Sippar of Anunitum, who was worshipped in the temple Ê-ulmaš within the city of Agadé (Akkad). Sayce identifies, on this account, these two places as being the same. In a list of stars, Anunitum is coupled with Šinunutum, which are explained as (the stars of) the Tigris and Euphrates. These were probably names of Venus as the morning and evening (or evening and morning) star. Apsu.--The deep dissociated from the evil connection with Tiawath, and regarded as "the house of deep wisdom," i.e. the home of the god Êa or Aa. Aruru.--One of the deities of Sippar and Aruru (in the time of the dynasty of Hammurabi called Ya'ruru), of which she was the chief goddess. Aruru was one of the names of the "lady of the gods," and aided Merodach to make the seed of mankind. Bêl.--As this name means "lord," it could be applied, like the Phœnician Baal, to the chief god of any city, as Bêl of Niffur, Bêl of Hursag-kalama, Bêl of Aratta, Bêl of Babylon, etc. This often indicates also the star which represented the chief god of a place. Bêltu.--In the same way Bêltu, meaning "lady," meant also the chief goddess of any place, as "Aruru, lady of the gods of Sippar of Aruru," "Nin-mah, lady of the gods of Ê-mah," a celebrated temple within Babylon, recently excavated by the Germans, "Nin-hur-saga, lady of the gods of Kêš," etc. Bunene.--A god associated with Šamaš and Ištar at Sippar and elsewhere. He "gave" and "renewed" to his worshippers. Dagan.--This deity, whose worship extends back to an exceedingly early date, is generally identified with the Phœnician Dagon. Hammurabi seems to speak of the Euphrates as being "the boundary of Dagan," whom he calls his creator. In later inscriptions the form Daguna, which approaches nearer to the West Semitic form, is found in a few personal names. The Phœnician statues of this deity showed him with the lower part of his body in the form of a fish (see 1 Sam. v. 4). Whether the deities clothed in a fish's skin in the Nimroud gallery be Dagon or not is uncertain--they may be intended for Êa or Aa, the Oannes of Berosus, who was represented in this way. Probably the two deities were regarded as identical. Damu.--a goddess regarded as equivalent to Gula by the Babylonians and Assyrians. She was goddess of healing, and made one's dreams happy. Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss."--This was one of the six sons of Êa or Aa, according to the lists. His worship is exceedingly ancient, and goes back to the time of E-anna-tum of Lagaš (about 4000 B.C.). What connection, if any, he may have with Tammuz, the spouse of Ištar, is unknown. Jastrow apparently regards him as a distinct deity, and translates his name "the child of the life of the water-deep." Elali.--A deity identified with the Hebrew Helal, the new moon. Only found in names of the time of the Hammurabi dynasty, in one of which he appears as "a creator." En-nugi is described as "lord of streams and canals," and "lord of the earth, lord of no-return." This last description, which gives the meaning of his name, suggests that he was one of the gods of the realm of Ereš-ki-gal, though he may have borne that name simply as god of streams, which always flow down, never the reverse. Gibil.--One of the names of the god of fire, sometimes transcribed Girru by Assyriologists, the meaning apparently being "the fire- bearer" or "light-bearer." Girru is another name of this deity, and translates an ideographic group, rendered by Delitzsch "great" or "highest decider," suggesting the custom of trial by ordeal. He was identified with Nirig, in Semitic Ênu-rêštu. Gušqi-banda or Kuski-banda, one of the names of Êa, probably as god of gold-workers. Išum, "the glorious sacrificer," seemingly a name of the fire-god as a means whereby burnt offerings were made. Nûr-Išum, "light of Išum," is found as a man's name. Kâawanu, the planet Saturn. Lagamal.--A god identified with the Elamite Lagamar, whose name is regarded as existing in Chedorlaomer (cf. Gen. xiv. 2). He was the chief god of Mair, "the ship-city." Lugal-Amarada or Lugal-Marad.--This name means "king of Marad," a city as yet unidentified. The king of this place seems to have been Nerigal, of whom, therefore, Lugal-Marad is another name. Lugal-banda.--This name means "the powerful king," or something similar, and the god bearing it is supposed to be the same as Nerigal. His consort, however, was named Nin-sun (or Nin-gul). Lugal-Du-azaga, "the king of the glorious seat."--The founder of Êridu, "the good city within the Abyss," probably the paradise (or a paradise) of the world to come. As it was the aim of every good Babylonian to dwell hereafter with the god whom he had worshipped upon earth, it may be conjectured that this was the paradise in the domain of Êa or Aa. Mama, Mami.--Names of "the lady of the gods," and creatress of the seed of mankind, Aruru. Probably so called as the "mother" of all things. Another name of this goddess is Ama, "mother." Mammitum, Mamitum, goddess of fate. Mur, one of the names of Addu or Rammanu (Hadad or Rimmon). Nanâ or Nanaa was the consort of Nebo at Borsippa, but appears as a form of Ištar, worshipped, with Anu her father, at Erech. Nin-aha-kuku, a name of Êa or Aa and of his daughter as deity of the rivers, and therefore of gardens and plantations, which were watered by means of the small canals leading therefrom. As daughter of Êa, this deity was also "lady of the incantation." Nin-azu, the consort of Ereš-ki-gal, probably as "lord physician." He is probably to be identified with Nerigal. Nin-igi-nagar-si, a name somewhat more doubtful as to its reading than the others, designates Êa or Aa as "the god of the carpenter." He seems to have borne this as "the great constructor of heaven" or "of Anu." Nin-mah, chief goddess of the temple Ê-mah in Babylon. Probably to be identified with Aruru, and therefore with Zer-panîtum. Nin-šah, a deity whose name is conjectured to mean "lord of the wild boar." He seems to have been a god of war, and was identified with Nirig or Ênu-rêštu and Pap-sukal. Nin-sirsir, Êa as the god of sailors. Nin-sun, as pointed out by Jastrow, was probably the same as Ištar or Nanâ of Erech, where she had a shrine, with them, in Ê-anna, "the house of Anu." He renders her name "the annihilating lady,"[*] "appropriate for the consort of a sun-god," for such he regards Lugal- banda her spouse. King Sin-gasid of Erech (about 3000 B.C.) refers to her as his mother. [*] This is due to the second element of the name having, with another pronunciation, the meaning of "to destroy." Nun-urra.--Êa, as the god of potters. Pap-sukal.--A name of Nin-šah as the "divine messenger," who is also described as god "of decisions." Nin-šah would seem to have been one of the names of Pap-sukal rather than the reverse. Qarradu, "strong," "mighty," "brave."--This word, which was formerly translated "warrior," is applied to several deities, among them being Bêl, Nergal, Nirig (Ênu-rêštu), and Šamaš, the sun-god. Ragimu and Ramimu, names of Rimmon or Hadad as "the thunderer." The second comes from the same root as Rammanu (Rimmon). Šuqamunu.--A deity regarded as "lord of watercourses," probably the artificial channels dug for the irrigation of fields. Ura-gala, a name of Nerigal. Uraš, a name of Nirig, under which he was worshipped at Dailem, near Babylon. Zagaga, dialectic Zamama.--This deity, who was a god of war, was identified with Nirig. One of this titles was /bêl parakki/, "lord of the royal chamber," or "throne-room." Zaraqu or Zariqu.--As the root of this name means "to sprinkle," he was probably also a god of irrigation, and may have presided over ceremonial purification. He is mentioned in names as the "giver of seed" and "giver of a name" (i.e. offspring). These are only a small proportion of the names found in the inscriptions, but short as the list necessarily is, the nature, if not the full composition, of the Babylonian pantheon will easily be estimated therefrom. It will be seen that besides the identifications of the deities of all the local pantheons with each other, each divinity had almost as many names as attributes and titles, hence their exceeding multiplicity. In such an extensive pantheon, many of the gods composing it necessarily overlap, and identification of each other, to which the faith, in its primitive form, was a stranger, were inevitable. The tendency to monotheism which this caused will be referred to later on. The gods and the heavenly bodies. It has already been pointed out that, from the evidence of the Babylonian syllabary, the deities of the Babylonians were not astral in their origin, the only gods certainly originating in heavenly bodies being the sun and the moon. This leads to the supposition that the Babylonians, bearing these two deities in mind, may have asked themselves why, if these two were represented by heavenly bodies, the others should not be so represented also. Be this as it may, the other deities of the pantheon were so represented, and the full planetary scheme, as given by a bilingual list in the British Museum, was as follows: Aku Sin the moon Sin Bišebi Šamaš the sun Šamaš Dapinu Umun-sig-êa Jupiter Merodach Zib[*] Dele-bat Venus Ištar Lu-lim Lu-bat-sag-uš Saturn Nirig (acc. to Jensen) Bibbu Lubat-gud Mercury Nebo Simutu Muštabarru Mars Nergal mûtanu All the above names of planets have the prefix of divinity, but in other inscriptions the determinative prefix is that for "star," /kakkabu/. [*] This is apparently a Sumerian dialectic form, the original word having seemingly been Zig. Moon and Sun. Unfortunately, all the above identifications of the planets with the deities in the fourth column are not certain, namely, those corresponding with Saturn, Mercury, and Mars. With regard to the others, however, there is no doubt whatever. The reason why the moon is placed before the sun is that the sun, as already explained, was regarded as his son. It was noteworthy also that the moon was accredited with two other offspring, namely, Mâšu and Mâštu--son and daughter respectively. As /mâšu/ means "twin," these names must symbolise the two halves, or, as we say, "quarters" of the moon, who were thus regarded, in Babylonian mythology, as his "twin children." Jupiter and Saturn. Concerning Jupiter, who is in the above called Dapinu (Semitic), and Umun-sig-êa (Sumerian), it has already been noted that he was called Nibiru--according to Jensen, Merodach as he who went about among the stars "pasturing" them like sheep, as stated in the Babylonian story of the Creation (or Bel and the Dragon). This is explained by him as being due to the comparatively rapid and extensive path of Jupiter on the ecliptic, and it would seem probable that the names of Saturn, /Kâawanu/ and /Sag-uš/ (the former, which is Semitic Babylonian, meaning "steadfast," or something similar, and the latter, in Sumerian, "head-firm" or "steadfast"--"phlegmatic"), to all appearance indicate in like manner the deliberation of his movements compared with those of the planet dedicated to the king of the gods. Venus at sunrise and sunset. A fragment of a tablet published in 1870 gives some interesting particulars concerning the planet Venus, probably explaining some as yet unknown mythological story concerning her. According to this, she was a female at sunset, and a male at sunrise; Ištar of Agadé (Akad or Akkad) at sunrise, and Ištar of Erech at sunset: Ištar of the stars at sunrise, and the lady of the gods at sunset. And in the various months. Ištar was identified with Nin-si-anna in the first month of the year (Nisan = March-April), with the star of the bow in Ab (August- September), etc. In Sebat (January-February) she was the star of the water-channel, Ikû, which was Merodach's star in Sivan (May-June), and in Marcheswan her star was Rabbu, which also belonged to Merodach in the same month. It will thus be seen, that Babylonian astronomy is far from being as clear as would be desired, but doubtless many difficulties will disappear when further inscriptions are available. Stars identified with Merodach. The same fragment gives the celestial names of Merodach for every month of the year, from which it would appear, that the astrologers called him Umun-sig-êa in Nisan (March-April), Dapinu in Tammuz (June- July), Nibiru in Tisri (September-October), Šarru (the star Regulus), in Tebet (December-January), etc. The first three are names by which the planet Jupiter was known. As for the planets and stars, so also for the constellations, which are identified with many gods and divine beings, and probably contain references, in their names and descriptions, to many legends. In the sixth tablet of the Creation-series, it is related of Merodach that, after creating the heavens and the stations for Anu, Bêl, and Ae, "He built firmly the stations of the great gods-- Stars their likeness--he set up the /Lumali/, He designated the year, he outlined the (heavenly) forms. He set for the twelve months three stars each, From the day when the year begins, . . . for signs." As pointed out by Mr. Robert Brown, jr., who has made a study of these things, the "three stars" for each month occur on one of the remains of planispheres in the British Museum, and are completed by a tablet which gives them in list-form, in one case with explanations. Until these are properly identified, however, it will be impossible to estimate their real value. The signs of the Zodiac, which are given by another tablet, are of greater interest, as they are the originals of those which are in use at the present time:-- Month Sign Equivalent Nisan (Mar.-Apr.) The Labourer The Ram Iyyar (Apr.-May) /Mulmula/ and the Bull of heaven The Bull Sivan (May-June) /Sib-zi-anna/ and the great Twins The Twins Tammuz (June-July) /Allul/ or /Nagar/ The Crab Ab (July.-Aug.) The Lion (or dog) The Lion Elul (Aug.-Sep.) The Ear of corn(?) The ear of Corn (Virgo) Tisri (Sep.-Oct.) The Scales The Scales Marcheswan (Oct.-Nov.) The Scorpion The Scorpion Chisleu (Nov.-Dec.) /Pa-bil-sag/ The Archer Tebet (Dec.-Jan.) /Sahar-maš/, the Fish-kid The Goat Sebat (Jan.-Feb.) /Gula/ The Water-bearer Adar (Feb.-Mar.) The Water Channel and the Tails The Fishes Parallels in Babylonian legends. The "bull of heaven" probably refers to some legend such as that of the story of Gilgameš in his conflict with the goddess Ištar when the divine bull was killed; /Sib-zi-anna/, "the faithful shepherd of heaven," suggests that this constellation may refer to Tammuz, the divine shepherd; whilst "the scorpion" reminds us of the scorpion-men who guarded the gate of the sun (Šamaš), when Gilgameš was journeying to gain information concerning his friend Enki-du, who had departed to the place of the dead. Sir Henry Rawlinson many years ago pointed out that the story of the Flood occupied the eleventh tablet of the Gilgameš series, corresponding with the eleventh sign of the Zodiac, Aquarius, or the Water-bearer. Other star-names. Other names of stars or constellations include "the weapon of Merodach's hand," probably that with which he slew the dragon of Chaos; "the Horse," which is described as "the god Zû," Rimmon's storm-bird--Pegasus; "the Serpent," explained as Ereš-ki-gal, the queen of Hades, who would therefore seem to have been conceived in that form; "the Scorpion," which is given as /Išhara tântim/, "Išhara of the sea," a description difficult to explain, unless it refer to her as the goddess of the Phœnician coast. Many other identifications, exceedingly interesting, await solution. How the gods were represented. On cylinder-seals. Many representations of the gods occur, both on bas-reliefs, boundary- stones, and cylindrical and ordinary seals. Unfortunately, their identification generally presents more or less difficulty, on account of the absence of indications of their identity. On a small cylinder- seal in the possession of the Rev. Dr. W. Hayes Ward, Merodach is shown striding along the serpentine body of Tiawath, who turns her head to attack him, whilst the god threatens her with a pointed weapon which he carries. Another, published by the same scholar, shows a deity, whom he regards as being Merodach, driven in a chariot drawn by a winged lion, upon whose shoulders stands a naked goddess, holding thunderbolts in each hand, whom he describes as Zer-panîtum. Another cylinder-seal shows the corn-deity, probably Nisaba, seated in flounced robe and horned hat, with corn-stalks springing out from his shoulders, and holding a twofold ear of corn in his hand, whilst an attendant introduces, and another with a threefold ear of corn follows, a man carrying a plough, apparently as an offering. On another, a beautiful specimen from Assyria, Ištar is shown standing on an Assyrian lion, which turns his head as if to caress her feet. As goddess of war, she is armed with bow and arrows, and her star is represented upon the crown of her tiara. On boundary-stones, etc. On the boundary-stones of Babylonia and the royal monoliths of Assyria the emblems of the gods are nearly always seen. Most prominent are three horned tiaras, emblematic, probably, of Merodach, Anu, and Bêl (the older). A column ending in a ram's head is used for Êa or Ae, a crescent for Sin or Nannar, the moon-god; a disc with rays for Šamaš, the sun-god; a thunderbolt for Rimmon or Hadad, the god of thunder, lightning, wind, and storms; a lamp for Nusku, etc. A bird, perhaps a hawk, stood for Utu-gišgallu, a deity whose name has been translated "the southern sun," and is explained in the bilingual inscriptions as Šamaš, the sun-god, and Nirig, one of the gods of war. The emblem of Gal-alim, who is identified with the older Bêl, is a snarling dragon's head forming the termination of a pole, and that of Dun-ašaga is a bird's head similarly posed. On a boundary-stone of the time of Nebuchadnezzar I., about 1120 B.C., one of the signs of the gods shows a horse's head in a kind of shrine, probably the emblem of Rimmon's storm-bird, Zû, the Babylonian Pegasus. Other divine figures. One of the finest of all the representations of divinities is that of the "Sun-god-stone," found by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam at Abu-habbah (the ancient Sippar), which was one of the chief seats of his worship. It represents him, seated in his shrine, holding in his hand a staff and a ring, his usual emblems, typifying his position as judge of the world and his endless course. The position of Merodach as sun-god is confirmed by the small lapis-lazuli relief found by the German expedition at the mound known as Amran ibn 'Ali, as he also carries a staff and a ring, and his robe is covered with ornamental circles, showing, in all probability, his solar nature. In the same place another small relief representing Rimmon or Hadad was found. His robe has discs emblematical of the five planets, and he holds in each hand a thunderbolt, one of which he is about to launch forth. Merodach is accompanied by a large two-horned dragon, whilst Hadad has a small winged dragon, typifying the swiftness of his course, and another animal, both of which he holds with cords. CHAPTER V THE DEMONS: EXORCISMS AND CEREMONIES Good and evil spirits, gods and demons, were fully believed in by the Babylonians and Assyrians, and many texts referring to them exist. Naturally it is not in some cases easy to distinguish well between the special functions of these supernatural appearances which they supposed to exist, but their nature is, in most cases, easily ascertained from the inscriptions. To all appearance, the Babylonians imagined that spirits resided everywhere, and lay in wait to attack mankind, and to each class, apparently, a special province in bringing misfortune, or tormenting, or causing pain and sickness, was assigned. All the spirits, however, were not evil, even those whose names would suggest that their character was such--there were good "liers in wait," for instance, as well as evil ones, whose attitude towards mankind was beneficent. The /utukku/. This was a spirit which was supposed to do the will of Anu, the god of the heavens. There was the /utukku/ of the plain, the mountains, the sea, and the grave. The /âlû/. Regarded as the demon of the storm, and possibly, in its origin, the same as the divine bull sent by Ištar to attack Gilgameš, and killed by Enki-du. It spread itself over a man, overpowering him upon his bed, and attacking his breast. The /êdimmu/. This is generally, but wrongly, read /êkimmu/, and translated "the seizer," from /êkemu/, "to seize." In reality, however, it was an ordinary spirit, and the word is used for the wraiths of the departed. The "evil /êdimmu/" was apparently regarded as attacking the middle part of a man. The /gallu/. As this word is borrowed from the Sumerian /galla/, which has a dialectic form, /mulla/, it is not improbable that it may be connected with the word /mula/, meaning "star," and suggesting something which is visible by the light it gives--possibly a will-o'- the-wisp,--though others are inclined to regard the word as being connected with /gala/, "great." In any case, its meaning seems to have become very similar to "evil spirit" or "devil" in general, and is an epithet applied by the Assyrian king Aššur-bani-âpli to Te-umman, the Elamite king against whom he fought. The /îlu limnu/, "evil god," was probably originally one of the deities of Tiawath's brood, upon whom Merodach's redemption had had no effect. The /rabisu/ is regarded as a spirit which lay in wait to pounce upon his prey. The /labartu/, in Sumerian /dimme/, was a female demon. There were seven evil spirits of this kind, who were apparently regarded as being daughters of Anu, the god of the heavens. The /labasu/, in Sumerian /dimmea/, was apparently a spirit which overthrew, that being the meaning of the root from which the word comes. The /âhhazu/, in Sumerian /dimme-kur/, was apparently so called as "the seizer," that being the meaning indicated by the root. The /lilu/, in Sumerian /lila/, is generally regarded as "the night- monster," the word being referred to the Semitic root /lîl/ or /layl/, whence the Hebrew /layil/, Arabic /layl/, "night." Its origin, however, is Sumerian, from /lila/, regarded as meaning "mist." To the word /lilu/ the ancient Babylonians formed a feminine, /lilîthu/, which entered the Hebrew language under the form of /lilith/, which was, according to the rabbins, a beautiful woman, who lay in wait for children by night. The /lilu/ had a companion who is called his handmaid or servant. The /namtaru/ was apparently the spirit of fate, and therefore of greater importance than those already mentioned. This being was regarded as the beloved son of Bêl, and offspring of /Ereš-ki-gal/ or Persephone, and he had a spouse named /Huš-bi-šaga/. Apparently he executed the instructions given him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over certain of the gods. The /šêdu/ were apparently deities in the form of bulls. They were destructive, of enormous power, and unsparing. In a good sense the /šêdu/ was a protecting deity, guarding against hostile attacks. Erech and the temple Ê-kura were protected by spirits such as these, and to one of them Išum, "the glorious sacrificer," was likened. The /lamassu/, from the Sumerian /lama/, was similar in character to the /šêdu/, but is thought to have been of the nature of a colossus--a winged man-headed bull or lion. It is these creatures which the kings placed at the sides of the doors of their palaces, to protect the king's footsteps. In early Babylonian times a god named Lama was one of the most popular deities of the Babylonian pantheon. A specimen incantation. Numerous inscriptions, which may be regarded as dating, in their origin, from about the middle of the third millennium before Christ, speak of these supernatural beings, and also of others similar. One of the most perfect of these inscriptions is a large bilingual tablet of which a duplicate written during the period of the dynasty of Hammurabi (before 2000 B.C.) exists, and which was afterwards provided with a Semitic Babylonian translation. This inscription refers to the evil god, the evil /utukku/, the /utukku/ of the plain, of the mountain, of the sea, and of the grave; the evil /šêdu/, the glorious /âlû/, or divine bull, and the evil unsparing wind. There was also that which takes the form of a man, the evil face, the evil eye, the evil mouth, the evil tongue, the evil lip, the evil breath; also the afflicting /asakku/ (regarded as the demon of fever), the /asakku/ which does not leave a man: the afflicting /namtaru/ (fate), the severe /namtaru/, the /namtaru/ which does not quit a man. After this are mentioned various diseases, bodily pains, annoyances, such as "the old shoe, the broken shoe-lace, the food which afflicts the body of a man, the food which turns in eating, the water which chokes in drinking," etc. Other things to be exorcised included the spirit of death, people who had died of hunger, thirst, or in other ways; the handmaid of the /lilu/ who had no husband, the prince of the /lilu/ who had no wife, whether his name had been recorded or unrecorded. The method of exorcising the demons causing all these things is curious. White and black yarn was spun, and fastened to the side and canopy of the afflicted person's bed--the white to the side and the top or canopy, the black to the left hand--and then, apparently, the following words were said:-- "Evil /utukku/, evil /âlû/, evil /êdimmu/, evil /gallu/, evil god, evil /rabisu/, /labartu/, /labasu/, /âhhazu/, /lilu/, /lilithu/, handmaid of /lilu/, sorcery, enchantment, magic, disaster, machination which is not good--may they not set their head to his head, their hand to his hand, their foot to his foot--may they not draw near. Spirit of heaven, mayest thou exorcise, spirit of earth, mayest thou exorcise." But this was only the beginning of the real ceremony. The god Asari- alim-nunna (Merodach), "eldest son of Êridu," was asked to wash him in pure and bright water twice seven times, and then would the evil lier- in-wait depart, and stand aside, and a propitious /šêdu/ and a propitious /labartu/ reside in his body. The gates right and left having been thus, so to say, shut close, the evil gods, demons, and spirits would be unable to approach him, wherever he might be. "Spirit of heaven, exorcise, spirit of earth, exorcise." Then, after an invocation of Êrêš-ki-gal and Išum, the final paragraph was pronounced:-- "The afflicted man, by an offering of grace In health like shining bronze shall be made bright. As for that man, Šamaš shall give him life. Merodach, first-born son of the Abyss, It is thine to purify and glorify. Spirit of heaven, mayest thou exorcise, spirit of earth, mayest thou exorcise." Rites and ceremonies. As may be expected, the Babylonians and Assyrians had numerous rites and ceremonies, the due carrying out of which was necessary for the attainment of the grace demanded, or for the efficacy of the thanks tendered for favours received. Perhaps the oldest ceremony recorded is that which Ut-napištim, the Chaldæan Noah, made on the /zikkurat/ or peak of the mountain after the coming forth from the ship which had saved him and his from the Flood. The Patriarch's description of this ceremony is short:-- "I sent forth to the four winds, I poured out a libation I made an offering on the peak of the mountain: Seven and seven I set incense-vases there, Into their depths I poured cane, cedar, and scented wood(?). The gods smelled a savour, The gods smelled a sweet savour, The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer." Following in the footsteps of their great progenitor, the Babylonians and Assyrians became a most pious race, constantly rendering to their gods the glory for everything which they succeeded in bringing to a successful issue. Prayer, supplication, and self-abasement before their gods seem to have been with them a duty and a pleasure:-- "The time for the worship of the gods was my heart's delight, The time of the offering to Ištar was profit and riches," sings Ludlul the sage, and all the people of his land were one with him in that opinion. It is noteworthy that the offering of the Chaldæan Noah consisted of vegetable produce only, and there are many inscriptions referring to similar bloodless sacrifices, and detailing the ritual used in connection therewith. Sacrifices of animals, however, seem to have been constantly made--in any case, offerings of cattle and fowl, in list-form, are fairly numerous. Many a cylinder-seal has a representation of the owner bringing a young animal--a kid or a lamb-- as an offering to the deity whom he worshipped, and in the inscriptions the sacrifice of animals is frequently referred to. One of the bilingual texts refers to the offering of a kid or some other young animal, apparently on behalf of a sick man. The text of this, where complete, runs as follows:-- "The fatling which is the 'head-raiser' of mankind-- He has given the fatling for his life. He has given the head of the fatling for his head, He has given the neck of the fatling for his neck, He has given the breast of the fatling for his breast." Whether human sacrifices were common or not is a doubtful point. Many cylinder-seals exist in which the slaying of a man is depicted, and the French Assyriologist Menant was of opinion that they represented a human offering to the gods. Hayes Ward, however, is inclined to doubt this explanation, and more evidence would seem, therefore, to be needed. He is inclined to think that, in the majority of cases, the designs referred to show merely the victims of divine anger or vengeance, punished by the deity for some misdeed or sin, either knowingly or unknowingly committed. In the Assyrian galleries of the British Museum, Aššur-nasir-âpli, king of Assyria, is several times shown engaged in religious ceremonies--either worshipping before the sacred tree, or about to pour out, apparently, a libation to the gods before departing upon some expedition, and priests bringing offerings, either animal or vegetable, are also represented. Aššur-banî-âpli, who is identified with "the great and noble Asnapper," is shown, in bas-reliefs of the Assyrian Saloon, pouring out a thank-offering over the lions which he has killed, after his return from the hunt. CHAPTER VI PROBLEMS WHICH THE STUDY OFFERS Monotheism. As the matter of Babylonian monotheism has been publicly touched upon by Fried. Delitzsch in his "Babel und Bibel" lectures, a few words upon that important point will be regarded in all probability as appropriate. It has already been indicated that the giving of the names of "the gods his fathers" to Merodach practically identified them with him, thus leading to a tendency to monotheism. That tendency is, perhaps, hinted at in a letter of Aššur-banî-âpli to the Babylonians, in which he frequently mentions the Deity, but in doing so, uses either the word /îlu/, "God," Merodach, the god of Babylon, or Bêl, which may be regarded as one of his names. The most important document for this monotheistic tendency, however (confirming as it does the tablet of the fifty-one names), is that in which at least thirteen of the Babylonian deities are identified with Merodach, and that in such a way as to make them merely forms in which he manifested himself to men. The text of this inscription is as follows:-- ". . . is Merodach of planting. Lugal-aki-. . . is Merodach of the water-course. Nirig is Merodach of strength. Nergal is Merodach of war. Zagaga is Merodach of battle. Bêl is Merodach of lordship and domination. Nebo is Merodach of trading(?). Sin is Merodach the illuminator of the night. Šamaš is Merodach of righteous things. Addu is Merodach of rain. Tišpak is Merodach of frost(?). Sig is Merodach of green things(?). Šuqamunu is Merodach of the irrigation-channel." Here the text breaks off, but must have contained several more similar identifications, showing how at least the more thoughtful of the Babylonians of old looked upon the host of gods whom they worshipped. What may be the date of this document is uncertain, but as the colophon seems to describe it as a copy of an older inscription, it may go back as far as 2000 years B.C. This is the period at which the name /Yaum-îlu/ "Jah is God," is found, together with numerous references to /îlu/ as the name for the one great god, and is also, roughly, the date of Abraham, who, it may be noted, was a Babylonian of Ur of the Chaldees. It will probably not be thought too venturesome to say that his monotheism was possibly the result of the religious trend of thought in his time. Dualism. Damascius, in his valuable account of the belief of the Babylonians concerning the Creation, states that, like the other barbarians, they reject the doctrine of the one origin of the universe, and constitute two, Tauthé (Tiawath) and Apason (Apsu). This twofold principle, however, is only applicable to the system in that it makes of the sea and the deep (for such are the meanings of the two words) two personages--the female and the male personifications of primæval matter, from which all creation sprang, and which gave birth to the gods of heaven themselves. As far as the physical constituents of these two principals are concerned, their tenets might be described as having "materialistic monism" as their basis, but inasmuch as they believed that each of these two principals had a mind, the description "idealistic monism" cannot be applied to it--it is distinctly a dualism. And Monism. Divested of its idealistic side, however, there would seem to be no escape from regarding the Babylonian idea of the origin of things as monistic.[*] This idea has its reflection, though not its reproduction, in the first chapter of Genesis, in which, verses 2, 6, and 7, water is represented as the first thing existing, though not the first abode of life. This divergency from the Babylonian view was inevitable with a monotheistic nation, such as the Jews were, regarding as they did the Deity as the great source of everything existing. What effect the moving of the Spirit of God upon the face of the waters (v.2) was supposed by them to have had, is uncertain, but it is to be noted that it was the land (vv. 11, 12) which first brought forth, at the command of God. [*] Monism. The doctrine which holds that in the universe there is only a single element or principle from which everything is developed, this single principle being either mind (/idealistic monism/) or matter (/materialistic monism/). (Annandale.) The future life. The belief in a future life is the natural outcome of a religious belief such as the Babylonians, Assyrians, and many of the surrounding nations possessed. As has been shown, a portion of their creed consisted in hero-worship, which pre-supposes that the heroes in question continued to exist, in a state of still greater power and glory, after the conclusion of their life here upon earth. "The god Bêl hates me--I cannot dwell in this land, and in the territory of Bêl I cannot set my face. I shall descend then to the Abyss; with Aa my lord shall I constantly dwell." It is with these words that, by the counsel of the god Aa, Ut-napištim explained to those who questioned him the reason why he was building the ship or ark which was to save him and his from the Flood, and there is but little doubt that the author of the story implied that he announced thereby his approaching death, or his departure to dwell with his god without passing the dread portals of the great leveller. This belief in the life beyond the grave seems to have been that which was current during the final centuries of the third millennium before Christ--when a man died, it was said that his god took him to himself, and we may therefore suppose, that there were as many heavens--places of contentment and bliss--as there were gods, and that every good man was regarded as going and dwelling evermore with the deity which he had worshipped and served faithfully during his lifetime. Gilgameš, the half-divine king of Erech, who reigned during the half- mythical period, on losing his friend and counsellor, Enki-du, set out to find him, and to bring him back, if possible, from the underworld where he was supposed to dwell. His death, however, had not been like that of an ordinary man; it was not Namtaru, the spirit of fate, who had taken him, nor a misfortune such as befalls ordinary men, but Nerigal's unsparing lier-in-wait--yet though Nerigal was the god of war, Enki-du had not fallen on the battlefield of men, but had been seized by the earth (apparently the underworld where the wicked are is meant) in consequence, seemingly, of some trick or trap which had been laid for him. The gods were therefore prayed, in turn, to bring him back, but none of them listened except Êa, who begged him of Nerigal, whereupon the latter opened the entrance to the place where he was--the hole of the earth--and brought forth "the spirit (/utukku/) of Enki-du like mist." Immediately after this come the words, "Tell, my friend, tell, my friend--the law of the land which thou sawest, tell," and the answer, "I will not tell thee, friend, I will not tell thee--if I tell thee the law of the land which I saw, . . . sit down, weep." Ultimately, however, the person appealed to--apparently the disembodied Enki-du-- reveals something concerning the condition of the souls in the place of his sojourn after death, as follows:-- "Whom thou sawest [die] the death(?) [of][*] . . . [I see]-- In the resting-place of . . . reposing, pure waters he drinketh. Whom in the battle thou sawest killed, I see-- His father and his mother raise his head, And his wife upon [him leaneth?]. Whose corpse thou hast seen thrown down in the plain, I see-- His /edimmu/ in the earth reposeth not. Whose /edimmu/ thou sawest without a caretaker, I see-- The leavings of the dish, the remains of the food, Which in the street is thrown, he eateth." [*] (?)"The death of the righteous," or something similar? It is naturally difficult to decide in a passage like this, the difference existing between a man's /utukku/ and his /edimmu/, but the probability is, that the former means his spiritual essence, whilst the latter stands for the ghostly shadow of his body, resembling in meaning the /ka/ of the Egyptians. To all appearance the abode described above is not the place of the punishment of the wicked, but the dwelling of those accounted good, who, if lucky in the manner of their death, and the disposal of their bodies, enjoyed the highest happiness in the habitation of the blest. The other place, however, is otherwise described (it occurs in the account of Ištar's descent into Hades, and in the seventh tablet of the Gilgameš series--the latter differing somewhat):-- "Upon the land of No-return, the region of . . ., [Set] Istar, daughter of Sin, her ear. The daughter of Sin set then her ear . . . Upon the house of gloom, the seat of Irkalla--[*] Upon the house whose entrance hath no exit,[†] Upon the path whose way hath no return, Upon the house whose enterers are deprived of light, Where dust is their nourishment, their food mud, Light they see not, in darkness they dwell, Clothed also, like a bird, in a dress of feathers. Upon the door and bolt the dust hath blown." [*] One of the names of Nergal. [†] Or "whose enterer goeth not forth." Seven gates gave access to this place of gloom, and the porter, as he let the visitor in, took from her (the goddess Ištar in the narrative) at each an article of clothing, until, at the last, she entered quite naked, apparently typifying the fact that a man can take nothing with him when he dieth, and also, in this case, that he has not even his good deeds wherewith to clothe himself, for had they outweighed his evil ones, he would not have found himself in that dread abode. On the arrival of Ištar in Hades, Erêš-ki-gal commanded Namtaru, the god of fate, to smite Ištar with disease in all her members--eyes, sides, feet, heart, and head. As things went wrong on the earth in consequence of the absence of the goddess of love, the gods sent a messenger to effect her release. When he reached the land of No- return, the queen of the region threatened him with all kinds of torments--the food of the gutters of the city were to be his food, the oil-jars of the city (naptha?) his drink, the gloom of the castle his resting-place, a stone slab his seat, and hunger and thirst were to shatter his strength. These were evidently the punishments inflicted there, but as the messenger threatened was a divine one, they were probably not put into execution, and he obtained his demand, for Ištar was set free, receiving back at each gate, in reverse order, the clothing and ornaments which had been taken from her when she had descended thither. It is uncertain whether Tammuz, for whom she had gone down, was set free also, but as he is referred to, it is not improbable that this was the case. WORKS BEARING UPON THE RELIGION OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS Hibbert Lectures, 1887. The Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, by Professor A. H. Sayce. The Religious Ideas of the Babylonians, by the Author, 1895 (Journal of the Victoria Institute, also separately). The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, by Morris Jastrow, jun., 1898. (German edition, vol. i. 1905, vol. ii. in progress.) Babylonian Religion and Mythology, by L. W. King, M.A., 1899. Gifford Lectures, 1902. Religions of Egypt and Babylonia, by Professor A. H. Sayce. The O.T. in the Light of the Records of Assyria and Babylonia, by the Author, 1903. (The portions referring to Babylonian Mythology.) The Hymns to Tammuz in the Manchester Museum, Owens College, by the Author, 1904. ARTICLES UPON THE ASSYRIAN AND BABYLONIAN DEITIES, AND THE RELIGION OF THREE NATIONS, IN Dictionary of the Bible, edited by Dr. James Hastings, and Encyclopædia Biblica, edited by Professor Cheyne.

THE STORY OF THE BOOK OF THOTH.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous p. 279 CHAPTER VIII THE STORY OF THE BOOK OF THOTH NOW Ahura was the wife of Nefer-ka-ptah, and their child was Merab; this was the name by which he was registered by the scribes in the House of Life. And Nefer-ka-ptah, though he was the son of the King, cared for naught on earth but to read the ancient records, written on papyrus in the House of Life or engraved on stone in the temples; all day and every day he studied the writings of the ancestors. One day he went into the temple to pray to the gods, but when he saw the inscriptions on the walls he began to read them; and he forgot to pray, he forgot the gods, he forgot the priests, he forgot all that was around him until he heard laughter behind him. He looked round and a priest stood there, and from him came the laughter. "Why laughest thou at me?" said Nefer-ka-ptah. "Because thou readest these worthless writings," answered the priest. "If thou wouldest read writings p. 280 that are worth the reading I can tell thee where the Book of Thoth lies hidden." Then Nefer-ka-ptah was eager in his questions, and the priest replied, "Thoth wrote the Book with his own hand, and in it is all the magic in the world. If thou readest the first page, thou wilt enchant the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea; thou wilt understand the language of the birds of the air, and thou wilt know what the creeping things of earth are saying, and thou wilt see the fishes from the darkest depths of the sea. And if thou readest the other page, even though thou wert dead and in the world of ghosts, thou couldest come back to earth in the form thou once hadst. And besides this, thou wilt see the sun shining in the sky with the full moon and the stars, and thou wilt behold the great shapes of the gods." Then said Nefer-ka-ptah, "By the life of Pharaoh, that Book shall be mine. Tell me whatsoever it is that thou desirest, and I will do it for thee." "Provide for my funeral," said the priest. "See that I am buried as a rich man, with priests and mourning women, offerings, libations, and incense. Then shall my soul rest in peace in the fields of Aalu. One hundred pieces of silver must be spent upon my burying." p. 281 Then Nefer-ka-ptah sent a fleet messenger to fetch the money, and he paid one hundred pieces of silver into the priest's hands. When the priest had taken the silver, he said to Nefer-ka-ptah: "The Book is at Koptos in the middle of the river. In the middle of the river is an iron box, In the iron box is a bronze box, In the bronze box is a keté-wood box, In the keté-wood box is an ivory-and-ebony box, In the ivory-and-ebony box is a silver box, In the silver box is a gold box, And in the gold box is the Book of Thoth, Round about the great iron box are snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things, and above all there is a snake which no man can kill. These are set to guard the Book of Thoth." When the priest had finished speaking, Nefer-ka-ptah ran out of the temple, for his joy was so great that he knew not where he was. He ran quickly to Ahura to tell her about the Book and that he would go to Koptos and find it. But Ahura was very sorrowful, and said, "Go not on this journey, for trouble and grief await thee in the southern land." She laid her hand upon Nefer-ka-ptah as though she would hold him back from the sorrow that awaited him. But he would not be restrained, and broke away from her and went to the king his father. p. 282 He told the King all that he had learned, and said, "Give me the royal barge, O my father, that I may go to the southern land with my wife Ahura and my son Merab. For the Book of Thoth I must and will have." So the King gave orders and the royal barge was prepared, and in it Nefer-ka-ptah, Ahura, and Merab sailed up the river to the southern land as far as Koptos. When they arrived at Koptos, the high priest and all the priests of Isis of Koptos came down to the river to welcome Nefer-ka-ptah, sacrificed an ox and a goose, and poured a libation of wine to Isis of Koptos and her son Harpocrates. After this, the priests of Isis and their wives made a great feast for four days in honor of Nefer-ka-ptah and Ahura. On the morning of the fifth day, Nefer-ka-ptah called to him a priest of Isis, a great magician learned in all the mysteries of the gods. And together they made a little magic box, like the cabin of a boat, and they made men and a great store of tackle, and put the men and the tackle in the magic cabin. Then they uttered a spell over the cabin, and the men breathed and were alive, and began to use the tackle. And Nefer-ka-ptah sank the magic cabin in the river, saying "Workmen, workmen! p. 283 [paragraph continues] Work for me!" And he filled the royal barge with sand and sailed away alone, while Ahura sat on the bank of the river at Koptos, and watched and waited, for she knew that sorrow must come of this journey to the southern land. The magic men in the magic cabin toiled all night and all day for three nights and three days along the bottom of the river; and when they stopped the royal barge stopped also, and Nefer-ka-ptah knew that he had arrived where the Book lay hidden. He took the sand out of the royal barge and threw it into the water, and it made a gap in the river, a gap of a schoenus long and a schoenus wide; in the middle of the gap lay the iron box, and beside the box was coiled the great snake that no man can kill, and all around the box on every side to the edge of the walls of water were snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things. Then Nefer-ka-ptah stood up in the royal barge, and across the water he cried to the snakes and scorpions and crawling things; a loud and terrible cry, and the words were words of magic. As soon as his voice was still, the snakes and scorpions and crawling things were still also, for they were enchanted by means of the magical words of Nefer-ka-ptah, p. 284 and they could not move. Nefer-ka-ptah brought the royal barge to the edge of the gap, and he walked through the snakes and scorpions and crawling things, and they looked at him, but could not move because of the spell that was on them. And now Nefer-ka-ptah was face to face with the snake that no man could kill, and it reared itself up ready for battle. Nefer-ka-ptah rushed upon it and cut off its head, and at once the head and body came together, each to each, and the snake that no man could kill was alive again, and ready for the fray. Again Nefer-ka-ptah rushed upon it, and so hard did he strike that the head was flung far from the body, but at once the head and body came together again, each to each, and again the snake that no man could kill was alive and ready to fight. Then Nefer-ka-ptah saw that the snake was immortal and could not be slain but must be overcome by subtle means. Again he rushed upon it and cut it in two, and very quickly he put sand on each part, so that when the head and body came together there was sand between them and they could not join, and the snake that no man could kill lay helpless before him. Then Nefer-ka-ptah went to the great box where p. 285 it stood in the gap in the middle of the river, and the snakes and scorpions and crawling things watched, but they could not stop him. He opened the iron box and found a bronze box, He opened the bronze box and found a keté-wood box, He opened the keté-wood box and found an ivory-and-ebony box, He opened the ivory-and-ebony box and found a silver box, He opened the silver box and found a gold box, He opened the gold box and found the Book of Thoth. He opened the Book and read a page, and at once he had enchanted the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea, and he understood the language of birds, fish, and beasts. He read the second page and he saw the sun shining in the sky, with the full moon and the stars, and he saw the great shapes of the gods themselves; and so strong was the magic that the fishes came up from the darkest depths of the sea. So he knew that what the priest had told him was true. Then he thought of Ahura waiting for him at Koptos, and he cast a magic spell upon the men that he had made, saying, "Workmen, workmen! Work for me! and take me back to the place from which I came." They toiled day and night till they came to Koptos, and there was Ahura sitting by the river, having eaten nothing and drunk nothing p. 286 since Nefer-ka-ptah went away. For she sat waiting and watching for the sorrow that was to come upon them. But when she saw Nefer-ka-ptah returning in the royal-barge, her heart was glad and she rejoiced exceedingly. Nefer-ka-ptah came to her and put the Book of Thoth into her hands and bade her read it. When she read the first page, she enchanted the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea, and she understood the language of birds, fish, and beasts; and when she read the second page, she saw the sun shining in the sky, with the full moon and the stars, and she saw the great shapes of the gods themselves; and so strong was the magic that the fishes came up from the darkest depths of the sea. Nefer-ka-ptah now called for a piece of new papyrus and for a cup of beer; and on the papyrus he wrote all the spells that were in the Book of Thoth. Then he took the cup of beer and washed the papyrus in the beer, so that all the ink was washed off and the papyrus became as though it had never been written on. And Nefer-ka-ptah drank the beer, and at once he knew all the spells that had been written on the papyrus, for this is the method of the great magicians. p. 287 Then Nefer-ka-ptah and Ahura went to the temple of Isis and gave offerings to Isis and Harpocrates, and made a great feast, and the next day they went on board the royal barge and sailed joyfully away down the river towards the northern land. But behold, Thoth had discovered the loss of his Book, and Thoth raged like a panther of the south, and he hastened before Ra and told him all, saving, "Nefer-ka-ptah has found my magic box and opened it, and has stolen my Book, even the Book of Thoth; he slew the guards that surrounded it, and the snake that no man can kill lay helpless before him. Avenge me, O Ra, upon Nefer-ka-ptah, son of the King of Egypt." The majesty of Ra answered and said, "Take him and his wife and his child, and do with them as thou wilt." And now the sorrow for which Ahura watched and waited was about to come upon them, for Thoth took with him a power from Ra to give him his desire upon the stealer of his Book. As the royal barge sailed smoothly down the river, the little boy Merab ran out from the shade of the awning and leaned over the side watching the water. And the power of Ra drew him, so that he fell into the river and was drowned. When he p. 288 fell, all the sailors on the royal barge and all the people walking on the river-bank raised a great cry, but they could not save him. Nefer-ka-ptah came out of the cabin and read a magical spell over the water, and the body of Merab came to the surface and they brought it on board the royal barge. Then Nefer-ka-ptah read another spell, and so great was its power that the dead child spoke and told Nefer-ka-ptah all that had happened among the gods, that Thoth was seeking vengeance, and that Ra had granted him his desire upon the stealer of his Book. Nefer-ka-ptah gave command, and the royal barge returned to Koptos, that Merab might be buried there with the honor due to the son of a prince. When the funeral ceremonies were over, the royal barge sailed down the river toward the northern land. A joyful journey was it no longer, for Merab was dead, and Ahura's heart was heavy on account of the sorrow that was still to come, for the vengeance of Thoth was not yet fulfilled. They reached the place where Merab had fallen into the water, and Ahura came out from under the shade of the awning, and she leaned over the side of the barge, and the power of Ra drew her so that she fell into the river and was drowned. When p. 289 she fell, all the sailors in the royal barge and all the people walking on the river-bank raised a great cry, but they could not save her. Nefer-ka-ptah came out of the cabin and read a magical spell over the water, and the body of Ahura came to the surface, and they brought it on board the royal barge. Then Nefer-ka-ptah read another spell and so great was its power that the dead woman spoke and told Nefer-ka-ptah all that had happened among the gods, that Thoth was still seeking vengeance, and that Ra had granted him his desire upon the stealer of his Book. Nefer-ka-ptah gave command and the royal barge returned to Koptos, that Ahura might be buried there with the honor due to the daughter of a king. When the funeral ceremonies were over, the royal barge sailed down the river towards the northern land. A sorrowful journey was it now, for Ahura and Merab were dead, and the vengeance of Thoth was not yet fulfilled. They reached the place where Ahura and Merab had fallen into the water, and Nefer-ka-ptah felt the power of Ra drawing him. Though he struggled against it he knew that it would conquer him. He took a piece of royal linen, fine and strong, and made it into a girdle, and with it he bound the Book p. 290 of Thoth firmly to his breast, for he was resolved that Thoth should never have his Book again. Then the power drew him yet more strongly, and he came from under the shade of the awning and threw himself into the river and was drowned. When he fell, all the sailors of the royal barge and all the people walking on the river-bank raised a great cry, but they could not save him. And when they looked for his body they could not find it. So the royal barge sailed down the river till they reached the northern land and came to Memphis, and the chiefs of the royal barge went to the king and told him all that had happened. The king put on mourning raiment; he and his courtiers, the high priest and all the priests of Memphis, the king's army and the king's household, were clothed in mourning apparel, and they walked in procession to the haven of Memphis to the royal barge. When they came to the haven, they saw the body of Nefer-ka-ptah floating in the water beside the barge, close to the great steering-oars. And this marvel came to pass because of the magical powers of Nefer-ka-ptah; even in death he was a great magician by reason of the spells he had washed off the papyrus and drunk in the beer. Then they drew him out of the water, and they p. 291 saw the Book of Thoth bound to his breast with the girdle of royal linen. And the king gave command that they should bury Nefer-ka-ptah with the honor due to the son of a king, and that the Book of Thoth should be buried with him. Thus was the vengeance of Thoth fulfilled, but the Book remained with Nefer-ka-ptah. THE END

THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 1 THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS CHAPTER I THE STORY OF EGYPT EGYPT has been called the "Father of History and the Mother of Civilization" and well may she be called both for her influence upon the ancient world must have been great. Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy, was a student of Egyptian thought and investigated all of their theories of the universe as well as their ideas about the gods. Herodotus, a Greek historian who visited Egypt about 450 B.C., has given a vivid description of the country and people, at that time and about 8 B.C. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek traveler, wandered up and down the bank of the Nile and he, like Herodotus, gives in his book a description of the country and the people. By far the most interesting, as well as accurate, account is given by Strabo, the great geographer of Greece, who was a contemporary of Diodorus. About 90 A.D., Plutarch p. 2 wrote his celebrated treatise on Isis and Osiris, a work that Egyptologists today consider a most accurate presentation of the ideals and traditions of ancient Egypt. In speaking of the sources for the historical material pertaining to the ancient Egyptian, Auguste Mariette in his short history said: "First and foremost in value and in quantity are the Egyptian monuments themselves: the temples, palaces, tombs, statues, and inscriptions. These have supreme authority, because they have the advantage of being the incontestable evidence of the events which they record. They have not long enjoyed this distinction, as the secret of the mysterious writing with which they are covered was, until lately, lost; and it was difficult to see in these relies of antiquity anything more than lifeless stones, devoid of interest. But about eighty-five years ago there appeared, in the person of Champollion, a true genius, who succeeded, by his keen insight, in throwing the most unexpected light upon the darkness of the Egyptian script. Through him these old monuments, so long silent, caused their voices to be heard; by him was the veil torn asunder, and the Egypt of bygone days, so renowned for her wisdom and power, stood revealed to the modern world. p. 3 No longer are the monuments objects of hopeless curiosity, rather are they books of stone wherein may be read, in legible writing, the history of the nation with which they were contemporaneous. "Next to the monuments in importance comes the Greek history of Egypt, written by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, about B.C. 250; and were the book itself in existence, we could have no more trustworthy guide. Egyptian by birth and priest by profession, Manetho, besides being instructed in all the mysteries of his religion, must have also been conversant with foreign literature, for he was a Greek scholar, and equal to the task of writing a complete history of his own country in that language. If only we had that book today it would be a priceless treasure; but the work of the Egyptian priest perished, along with many others, in the great wreck of ancient literature, the burning of the great library at Alexandria, and all we possess of it are a few fragments preserved in the pages of subsequent historians." ORIGIN OF THE EGYPTIAN RACE Prof. Wallis Budge writes on the Egyptian race: "The flint tools and weapons that have been found on the skirts of the desert at various places in p. 4 Egypt, and that are generally admitted to be older than those of the Neolithic period, i.e., the New Stone Age, render it extremely probable that the country was inhabited by men in the Palæolithic period, i.e., the Old Stone Age. The questions that naturally arise in connection with them are: Who were they? To what race did they belong? If they were immigrants, where did they come from? In the limited space afforded by a single chapter it is impossible to enumerate even the most important of the arguments of which these questions have formed the subjects, or the principal theories, old and new, of the origin of the Egyptians. Fortunately Egyptian archæology, even in its present imperfect state, supplies a number of facts, which will suggest answers to these questions that are tolerably correct; and, as time goes on and the results of further research are perfected, our knowledge of these difficult questions may assume a decisive character. The human remains that have been found in Neolithic graves in Egypt prove that the Egyptians of the Neolithic period in upper Egypt were Africans, and there is good reason for thinking that they were akin to all the other inhabitants of the Nile Valley at that time. When the great geological change took place that turned p. 5 into a river valley the arm of the sea that extended as far as Esnâ, and the Nile deposits had formed the soil of Egypt, their ancestors migrated from the south to the north and occupied the land made by the Nile. Whether these facts apply equally to the Delta cannot be said, for no Neolithic graves in the Delta are known. Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic period held that the aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt, and though our information about the boundaries of this land is of the vaguest character, it is quite certain that a very large portion of it was in central Africa, and it probably was near the country called in our times 'Uganda.' There was in all periods frequent intercourse between Egypt and Punt, and caravans must have journeyed from one country to the other at least once a year. In the dynastic period several missions by sea were despatched to the port of Punt to bring back myrrh and other products of the country, which were so dear to the heart of the kinsmen of the Puntites who were settled in Egypt. "Now, if the inhabitants of the southern portion of the Valley of the Nile were attracted to the good and fertile land of Egypt, it follows, as a matter of course, that foreign peoples who heard of this rich land would migrate thither in order to partake p. 6 of its products and to settle in it. The peoples on the western bank--Libyans--and the dwellers in the eastern desert would intermarry with the native Egyptians, and the same would be the case with the negro and half-negro tribes in the Sûdân. At a very early period, and certainly in Neolithic times, a considerable number of Semites must have made their way into Egypt, and these came from the Arabian peninsula on the other side of the Red Sea, either for trading purposes or to settle in Egypt. Some of these crossed the Red Sea in its narrowest part, probably near the straits of Bâb al-Mandib at the southern end of it, and made their way into the country where the comparatively modern town of Sennaar now stands, just as their descendants did some three to five thousand years later. Here they would find themselves not only in fertile land, but they would also be in touch with the tribes living in the region where, from time immemorial, alluvial gold has been found in considerable quantities. Others of the Semites must have made their way into the Delta by the Isthmus of Suez, and there is no doubt that by intermarriage they modified the physical characteristics of many of the natives. Others, again, must have entered Egypt by way of the very ancient caravan p. 7 route through the Wadi Hammânât, which left the Red Sea near the modern town of Kusêr and ended on the Nile near Kenâ in upper Egypt. It is impossible to think that the Semites in Arabia had no seagoing boats in which to cross the Red Sea, and that those who lived on the coast halfway down the Red Sea would be obliged to go so far north as the Isthmus of Suez, or so far south as Bâb al-Mandib before they could cross over into Africa. "In the case of the natives of the Delta foreign influences of another kind would be at work. Here would flock traders of all kinds from the land that is now called Palestine, and from the islands of the Mediterranean, and from the seacoast and the countries inland to the west of Egypt. Some think that even in the Neolithic period there were many settlers who had come from the southern countries of Europe. If the above remarks are only approximately true, we are justified in assuming that the population of the Valley of the Nile was even at this early period very much mixed. It must, however, be noted that neither Libyans, nor Semites, nor seafaring folk of any kind, altered the fundamental characteristics of the African dwellers on the Nile." p. 8 THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY Towards the end of the New Stone Age the Egyptians acquired the knowledge of working in copper, and with tools of this metal they found themselves able to do many things that were before impossible to them. With copper drills they perforated beads and hollowed out stone jars and vessels, and with copper knives and chisels they sculptured stone figures of men, animals, etc., with a skill that was truly wonderful. They had long known how to produce fire and one of its principal uses among them was to smelt copper. In many respects the state of Egypt at the close of this period was not greatly unlike that in which we know it to have been in the earliest part of the dynastic period. It was divided roughly into districts, or as we might say, counties, which at a later period were called "nomes" by the Greeks. Each district had its own symbol, which was generally that of its totem, and probably its own god, or gods, who must have been served by some kind of priest. The laws which men draw up for the protection of their wives, cattle, and possessions generally, as soon as they settle down in towns and villages, were, no doubt, administered in the rough p. 9 and ready way that has been common among African communities from time immemorial. A system of irrigation must have been in use at this time, but it is improbable that there was any central controlling authority. The men of each district protected the part of the bank of the Nile that belonged to them, and made and maintained their own canals, and the high, banked causeways, which connected the towns and villages during the period of the Nile flood, and served as roads. There must have been a head man or governor in each district who possessed a good deal of power, and each town was probably ruled by a kind of mayor with due regard to the interests of the owners of large properties of different kinds. In the villages the largest landowners were probably supreme, but the "old men" or "fathers" of each village must have enjoyed a certain authority. For a considerable time before the dynastic period there must have been kings in Egypt, some ruling over upper Egypt, and some over lower Egypt and the Delta. A portion of a monument, now called the "Palermo Stone" because it is preserved in the museum of Palermo in Sicily, supplies the names of several kings of lower Egypt, e.g., Seka, Tau, Thesh, Neheb, Uatchnâr, and Mekha. p. 10 [paragraph continues] It is quite certain that the names of several kings of upper Egypt were given on the missing portion of the monument, and this fact proves that at that time southern and northern Egypt formed two separate and independent kingdoms. When complete the Palermo stone contained a series of annals, which recorded the principal events in the reigns of the pre-dynastic kings, and also of the dynastic kings down to the middle of the fifth dynasty. There were also included the names of the principal festivals that were celebrated in these reigns, and also the height of the Nile flood yearly, given in cubits, palms, fingers, and spans. How these heights were ascertained is not clear, but it was probably by means of lines cut into a rock on the river bank, or on a slab built into a wall of a well at Memphis. The height of the Nile flood then, as now, was valuable for determining the degree of prosperity of the country that was probable during the year. We have already said that the native African element in upper Egypt was reinforced continually from the south, and we may assume that the process of reinforcement usually went on peacefully, and that the Egyptians in upper Egypt assimilated their newly-arrived kinsmen from the south without p. 11 difficulty. This, however, was fated not to go on indefinitely, for on one occasion at least, probably a century or two before the dynastic period began, a host of men from the south or southeast swept down upon Egypt. This invasion in many respects seems to have been similar to that which took place under Piânkhi, the king of Nubia, whose capital was at Napt, or Napata, about 720 B.C.; but whilst Piânkhi returned to Nubia, the southern folk and their leaders who invaded Egypt towards the close of the pre-dynastic period did not do so. If we take into account the effect of this pre-dynastic invasion upon the civilization of Egypt we must assume that the invaders were more highly civilized than the people they conquered. And if we assume this we must further assume that the invaders came from the country now called Abyssinia and the lands to the south of it. Their route was the old trade route known today as the "Blue Nile caravan route," which has been chosen from time immemorial by the captains of caravans, because it makes it unnecessary to traverse the first four cataracts. Among the invaders who came by this route were natives of the Eastern Desert, the remote ancestors of the Blemmyes and the modern Hadenduwa and cognate tribes, and Semites, who had originally p. 12 crossed the Red Sea from Asia to Africa. We have no distinct record of this invasion, still less have we any details of it, and we have no knowledge of the causes that led up to it; but in an inscription of the Ptolemaic period cut on the walls of the temple of Edfû in upper Egypt, we certainly have a legendary account of it. In this inscription the victorious leader is accompanied by men who are called "Mesniu," or "Blacksmiths," who came from the west of the Nile, i.e., from a country to the south of Egypt, and not from a country to the southeast. This view agrees quite well with what is known of the dynastic period, for the Pharaohs often had to fight hordes of enemies from countries so far south as the White Nile and the Gazelle and Jûr Rivers, and their descendants were probably to be found in the Nobadae, who terrified the Romans, and the "Baggârah" who fought under the Mahdi in our own times. There may have been a conquest of Egypt by the peoples to the west of Egypt at one time, and another by the peoples to the east at another time, or the enemies of Egypt on both banks of the White and Blue Niles may have invaded the country together. In any case the purport of the inscription, the contents of which we will now describe, is to show that the king of p. 13 the south and his descendants first conquered upper Egypt and then lower Egypt. The Edfu text sets forth that Râ-Harmakhis was king of Ta-sti, the "Land of the Bow," i.e., the country of all the peoples who fought with bows and arrows, or the eastern Sûdân. In the 363d year of his reign he dispatched a force into Egypt, and overcoming all opposition, this god established himself and his followers at Edfû. Having discovered that the enemy had collected in force to the southeast of Thebes, Horus and his followers, or the blacksmiths, armed with spears and chains, set out and joined battle with them, and utterly defeated them at a place called Tchetmet. For the first time probably the natives armed with weapons made of flint found themselves in mortal combat with foreign enemies armed with metal weapons; their defeat was unavoidable. Soon after this battle the natives again collected in force to the northeast of Denderah, about fifty miles north of Thebes, where they were attacked and again defeated by Horus. Another battle took place a little later on at Heben, about one hundred and fifty miles south of Memphis, and Horus cut up many of his defeated foes and offered them to the gods. Horus then pursued the enemy into the p. 14 [paragraph continues] Delta, and wherever he did battle with them he defeated them. In one place the arch-rebel Set appeared with his followers and fought against Horus and his "blacksmiths," but Horus drove his spear into Set's neck, fettered his limbs with his chain, and then cut off his head, and the heads of all his followers. Horus then sailed over the streams in the Delta, and slew the enemy in detail, and made himself master of the whole of the Delta, from the swamps on the west of the left main arm of the Nile to the desert in the east. The text goes on to say that companies of the "blacksmiths" settled down on lands given to them by Horus on the right and left banks of the Nile and in what is now called "middle Egypt"; thus the followers of Horus from the south effectively occupied the country. Horus returned to Edfû and made an expedition against the people of Uauat (now northern Nubia), and punished their rebellion. He then sailed back to Edfû and established the worship of Horus of Edfû, and ordered a symbol of this god to be placed in every temple of Egypt. Now the symbol referred to is the winged solar disk, with a serpent on each side of it, and the statement suggests that Horus established the worship of a form of the sun-god in Egypt. If this be really p. 15 so, Horus and his followers must have come from the east, where sun-worship was common, and must have found that the Egyptians were not sun-worshippers. The Egyptians, like most of the peoples in the Nile Valley, ancient and modem, only worshipped the sun under compulsion. On the other hand, the worship of the moon was universal, and the native gods of the Egyptians were of a kind quite different from those worshipped in the Eastern Desert and among the peoples of Arabia, Syria, and the northern Delta. BEGINNING OF DYNASTIC HISTORY As the result, however, of one of the battles between the forces of the south and north, which was fought probably near Anulater Heliopolis--the king of the south gained the victory, and he was henceforth able to call himself "King of the South, King of the North." Who this mighty "uniter of the two lands" really was is not known, but the native tradition, which was current at Abydos, and presumably throughout Egypt, in the thirteenth century before Christ, stated that he was called Mena; this tradition was also accepted in the time of the Greek historians, for they all agree in saying that the first king of Egypt was called Menes. p. 16 MANETHO--THE EGYPTIAN HISTORIAN ON THE DYNASTIES In this history of Egypt, Manetho gave a list of the kings of Egypt, which he divided into three parts, each containing several groups of kings which he called "dynasties," but it is not quite clear what he meant by the word "dynasty." Though his history is lost, four copies of his king-list are preserved in the works of later writers. The oldest of these is that which is said to have been written by Julius Africanus, in the third century of our era, which is preserved in the "Chronicle of Eusebius," bishop of Cæsarea, born A.D. 264, and died about 340. In this work Eusebius also gives a copy of the list of THE DYNASTIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT Dynasties Duration in years ANCIENT EMPIRE 1-2 Thinite 555 3-5 Memphite 746 6 Elephantine 203 7-8 Memphite 142 years, 70 days 9-10 Heracleopolite 294 MIDDLE EMPIRE 11-13 Theban 666 14 Xoite 184 15-17 Hyksos (Delta) 511 NEW EMPIRE 18-20 Theban 593 21 Tanite 130 22 Bubastite 170 23 Tanite 89 24 Saïte 6 25 Ethiopian 50 26 Saïte 138 27 Persian 121 28 Saïte 7 29 Mendesian 21 30 Sebennyte 38 31 Persian 8 p. 17 PRINCIPAL KINGS Dynasties Mena 1 Teta Hesepti Ba-en-neter 2 Sneferu 3 Khufu 4 Khafra Menkau-Ra Unas 5 Teta 6 Pepi I Pepi II Queen Nitocris Amen-em-hat I 12 Usertsen I Amen-em-hat II Usertsen II Usertsen III Amen-em-hat III Amen-em-hat IV Sekenen-Ra 17 Aahmes I 18 Amen-hotep I Thothmes II Queen Hatshepsu Thothmes III Amen-hotep II Thothmes IV Amen-hotep III Amen-hotep IV Akhnaton Semenkhkara--or Saakara Tutankhaton--after Tutankhamon Seti I 19 Ramses II Merenptah Ramses III 20 Her-Hor 21 Shashanq I (Shishak) 22 Osorkon II (Zerah?) Tefnekht (Piankhi King of Ethiopia took Memphis) 23 Bakenranef (Bocchoris) Shabaka. His sister Ameniritis married Piankhi II and their daughter became the queen of Psamethek I 25 Shabataka Taharaqa (Tirhakah) 26 Psamethe I Neku II (Necho) Uahabra (Hophra) 30 Nekthorheb (Nectanebo I) Nektnebef (Nectanebo II) Manetho made by himself, but the copy of Julius Africanus agrees better with the results derived from the monuments which we now have than that of Eusebius. The dynasties of Manetho's king-list that represent that "archaic period" are the first p. 18 three. According to this, the kings of the first dynasty were eight in number and reigned 263 years; those of the second dynasty were nine in number and reigned 214 years. The first and second dynasties reigned at Thnis--Abydos--and the third dynasty at Memphis. The original Egyptian forms of many of the royal names given by Manetho have been identified without doubt; the identifications of a few others are nearly certain, and about the remainder there exist many different opinions. Besides Áha and Nârmer, or Nârmer and Áha, for the true order of these two kings is uncertain. THOTHMES III OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY Thothmes III is generally regarded as the greatest of the kings of Egypt--the Alexander the Great of the Egyptian history. The name Thothmes means "child of Thoth," and was a common name among the ancient Egyptians. He is represented by a sphinx presenting gifts of water and wine to Tum, the setting sun, a solar deity worshipped at Heliopolis. On the hieroglyphic paintings at Karnak, the fact of the heliacal rising of Sothis, the dog-star, is stated to have taken place during this reign, from which it appears that Thothmes p. 19 [paragraph continues] III occupied the throne of Egypt about 1450 B.C. This is one of the few dates of Egyptian chronology that can be authenticated. Thothmes III belonged to the eighteenth dynasty, which included some of the greatest of Egyptian monarchs. Among the kings of this dynasty were four that bore the name of Thothmes, and four the name of Amenophis, which means "peace of Amen." The monarchs of this dynasty were Thebans. The father of Thothmes III was a great warrior. He conquered the Canaanitish nations of Palestine, took Nineveh from the Rutennu, the confederate tribes of Syria, laid waste Mesopotamia, and introduced war chariots and horses into the army of Egypt. Thothmes III, however, was even a greater warrior than his father; and during his long reign Egypt reached the climax of her greatness. His predecessors of the eighteenth dynasty had extended the dominions of Egypt far into Asia and the interior of Africa. He was a king of great capacity and a warrior of considerable courage. The records of his campaigns are for the most part preserved on a sandstone wall surrounding the great temple of Karnak, built by Thothmes III in p. 20 honor of Amen-Ra. From these hieroglyphic inscriptions it appears that Thothmes' first great campaign was made in the twenty-second year of his reign, when an expedition was made into the land of Taneter, that is, Palestine. A full account of his marches and victories is given, together with a list of one hundred and nineteen conquered towns. This monarch lived before the time of Joshua, and therefore the records of his conquests present us with the ancient Canaanite nomenclature of places in Palestine between the times of the patriarchs and the conquest of the land by the Israelites under Joshua. Thothmes set out with his army from Tanis, that is Zoan; and after taking Gaza, he proceeded, by way of the plain of Sharon, to the more northern parts of Palestine. At the battle of Megiddo he overthrew the confederated troops of native princes; and in consequence of this signal victory the whole of Palestine was subdued. Crossing the Jordan near the Sea of Galilee, Thothmes pursued his march to Damascus, which he took by the sword; and then returning homeward by the Judean hills and the south country of Palestine, he returned to Egypt laden with the spoils of victory. In the thirtieth year of his reign Thothmes led an expedition against the Rutennu, the people of p. 21 northern Syria. In this campaign he attacked and captured Kadesh, a strong fortress in the valley of Orontes, and the capital town of the Rutennu. The king pushed his conquests into Mesopotamia, and occupied the strong fortress of Carchemish, on the banks of the Euphrates. He then led his conquering troops northward to the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that the kings of Damascus, Nineveh, and Assur became his vassals, and paid tribute to Egypt. Punt or Arabia was also subdued, and in Africa his conquests extended to Cush or Ethiopia. His fleet of ships sailed triumphantly over the waters of the Black Sea. Thus Thothmes ruled over lands extending from the mountains of Caucasus to the shores of the Indian Ocean, and from the Libyan Desert to the great river Tigris. Besides distinguishing himself as a warrior and as a record writer, Thothmes III was one of the greatest of Egyptian builders and patrons of art. The great temple of Ammon at Thebes was the special object of his fostering care, and he began his career of builder and restorer by repairing the damages which his sister Hatasu had inflicted on that glorious edifice to gratify her dislike of her brother Thothmes III, and her father Thothmes I, p. 22 [paragraph continues] Statues of Thothmes I and his father Amenophis, which Hatasu had thrown down, were re-erected by Thothmes III, before the southern propylæa of the temple in the first year of his independent reign. The central sanctuary which Usertesen I had built in common stone, was next replaced by the present granite edifice, under the directions of the young prince, who then proceeded to build in the rear of the old temple a magnificent hall or pillared chamber of dimensions previously unknown in Egypt. This edifice was an oblong square, one hundred and forty-three feet long by fifty-five feet wide, or nearly half as large again as our largest cathedral. The whole of this apartment was roofed in with slabs of solid stone; two rows of circular pillars thirty feet in height supported the central part, dividing it into three avenues, while on each side of the pillars was a row of square piers, still further extending the width of the chamber and breaking it up into five long vistas. In connection with this noble ball, on three sides of it, north, east, and south, Thothmes erected further chambers and corridors, one of the former situated towards the south containing the "Great Table of Karnak." One of the most interesting Pharaohs of Egypt was Akhnaton, who is called the first individualist p. 23 of history and a great idealist. Prof. Wallis Budge gives this account of his kingship: "Amen-Hetep--Akhnaton--was the son of Amen-hetep III by his wife Tî, and he reigned about twenty years. Whether he ascended the throne immediately after his father's death is not known, but whether he did or not matters little, for it is quite certain that for some years at least his mother was the actual ruler of Egypt, and that she ordered works to be carried out as if she were its lawful sovereign. His wife Nefertithi, who was probably of Asiatic origin like his mother, also obtained a power and an authority in Egypt which were not usually enjoyed by Egyptian queens. These facts are proved by the monuments, in which both Tî and Nefertithi are represented as equals in every respect of Amen-hetep IV, and their names are accorded prominence similar to those of the king. The pictures and sculptured representations of Amen-hetep IV show that his physical characteristics were wholly of a non-Egyptian character, and suggest that he was of a highly nervous and sensitive disposition, lacking in purpose, firmness, and decision, full of prejudices, self-will, and obstinacy. His acts prove that he was unpractical in every matter p. 24 connected with the rule of Egypt and her Nubian and Asiatic provinces, which had been won for her by the great Thothmes III, and the story of the break-up of the great Egyptian empire owing to his weakness and incapacity is almost the saddest page of Egyptian history. His alien blood, derived from his mother and grandmother, caused to develop in him a multitude of strange ideas about religion, art, and government that were detestable to the Egyptians, whose national characteristics he neither recognized nor understood, and with whom he had no true sympathy. When he ascended the throne he adopted a series of names that proclaimed to all Egypt that he held religious views of a different character from those held by the majority of the Egyptians. Some of these resembled the doctrines of the Sun-god as taught by the priests of Heliopolis, but others were obnoxious to the Egyptians generally. His father and grandfather probably held exactly the same religious views, but if they did they took care not to allow them to disturb the peace of the country, nor to interrupt the business of the state. Amen-hetep IV proclaimed a new form of worship, and, to all intents and purposes, a new god, whom he called Aten. Now Aten was well known to the Egyptians as the god of the p. 25 solar disk, and they had been familiar with him from the earliest period; but Amen-hetep IV assigned to him new attributes, which are very difficult to describe. He taught that Aten was the unseen, almighty, and everlasting power that made itself manifest in the form of the solar disk in the sky, and was the source of all life in heaven and earth and the underworld. He ascribed to Aten a monotheistic character, or oneness, which he denied to every other god, but when we read the hymns to Aten of which the king approved, it is extremely difficult to understand the difference between the oneness of Aten and the oneness of Amen-Râ, or Râ, or of any other great Egyptian god. "During the first four years of his reign Amen-hetep IV lived at Thebes, but during the whole of this period he was quarrelling actively with the priests of Amen-Râ, whose god Amen was an abomination to him. As king he had great resources at his command, and besides building a sanctuary called Kem Aten at Thebes, he set up shrines to Aten at various places in Egypt, and also in the Sudan. The most important in the latter country was Kem Aten, which was probably situated at or near Sadengah, where his father had built a temple in honor of Queen Tî. Whilst this work was going p. 26 on Amen-hetep IV caused the name of Amen to be hammered out from the inscriptions on existing monuments, and he suppressed by every means in his power the cults of the other gods. Such an intolerant religious fanatic was never before seen in Egypt, and the king hated Amen and his name so thoroughly that he changed his own name from Amen-hetep to "Khu-en-Aten," or "Aakh-en-Aten," a name meaning "spirit soul of Aten." Besides his fanaticism there was also a material reason for his hatred of Amen. He saw the greater part of the revenues of the country being absorbed slowly but surely by the greedy priesthood of this god, and he felt that their wealth made their power to be actually greater than that of the king. "Of the details of the fight between the priesthoods of the old gods of Egypt and the king little is known, but it is clear that the Egyptians found some effective way of showing their resentment to the king, for in the fifth year of his reign he forsook Thebes, and founded a new capital, wherein Aten alone was to be worshipped. The site of the new capital which was called Khut-en-Aten, or 'horizon of Aten,' was on the east bank of the Nile, about two hundred miles south of Memphis, and is marked today by the villages of Haggî Kandil, and Tell p. 27 al-Amarnah. Here he built a large temple to Aten and two or three smaller sanctuaries for the private use of the ladies of his family. Near the temple was the palace, which was splendidly decorated and furnished with beautiful objects of every kind, and the priests and high officials and nobles who had followed the king were provided with rock-hewn tombs in the mountain behind the new capital. A considerable space of ground about this capital was set apart as the property of Aten, and its confines were marked with boundary stones, and the revenues of some of the old sanctuaries were wrested from them by the king and applied to the support of Aten. Amen-hetep IV and his followers lived in Khut-en-Aten for some twelve or fifteen years in comparative peace, and the king occupied himself in playing the priest, and in superintending the building operations and the laying out of large and beautiful gardens by the court architect Bek. The high priest bore the title of the high priest of Heliopolis, and the form of worship there seems to have had much in common with the old solar cult of Heliopolis. The king composed one or two hymns which were sung in his temple, and copies of these were painted on the walls of the tombs of his favourites. p. 28 "Meanwhile what was happening to Egypt and her Asiatic and Nubian provinces? For a time the kings of Mitanni and Babylonia sent dispatches to Amen-hetep IV as they did to his father, and some of the chiefs of the neighboring countries sent tribute to him as they did to his father. When, however, the envoys returned to their countries and reported that Pharaoh, whose mere name had struck terror into the Asiatics, was at enmity with all his people, and was devoting all his time to theological matters, and to the founding of new canons of art, and to the selfish enjoyment of a religion that was detested by all the Egyptian priesthoods, with the exception of the priesthood of Heliopolis, the enemies of the Egyptian power in western Asia felt that the time of their deliverance was at hand. With one accord they ceased to pay tribute, and gathering together their forces, they attacked the Egyptian garrisons in Syria and Palestine, and one by one the cities fell, and the Egyptian governors and their troops were slain or scattered. The Kheta, or Hittites, swept down from the north upon the possessions of Egypt, and being joined by the Khabiri and by the vassal princes of Egypt, were irresistible. They first attacked and took the inland cities, and then advancing westward they p. 29 captured city after city along the coast until Beyrut, Tyre, Ascalon, Gezer, and Lachish were at their mercy. The Tell al-Amarnah letters contain piteous appeals to Amen-hetep IV for help from all parts of Syria and Palestine, and every writer entreats the king to protect his own possessions; but the king had no help to send, and even if he had had troops available for despatch they would never have been sent, for he hated war in all its forms. Thus Egypt lost her Asiatic possessions which it had taken her kings nearly two hundred years to acquire. Meanwhile discontent was growing everywhere in Egypt itself, and conspiracies against the king were spreading in all directions; when these had reached formidable proportions the king died, but whether his death was due to anxiety, disease, or poison cannot be said. Amen-hetep IV had no son, and his family consisted of six daughters, the eldest of whom died before her father. He was buried in a tomb hewn in the mountains behind his town, and his stone coffin, or sarcophagus, was found there in 1893 by the native tomb robbers, who cut out the cartouches from it and sold them to travellers. "Amen-hetep IV was succeeded by Sâakarâ who had married one of his daughters called Merit-Aten, p. 30 and had probably assisted his father-in-law in his various religious undertakings. Sâakarâ ruled the town of Khut-en-Aten for two or three years, and was succeeded by Tut-Ánkh-Amen, a son of Amen-hetep III, who married a daughter of Amen-hetep IV called Ánkhsenpaaten. Tut-ânkh-Amen was undoubtedly supported by the priests of Amen, as the presence of the name of the god in his name testifies, and his accession to the throne marks the triumph of the priesthood of Amen over Aten and his followers. He made his wife change her name to Ankhsen-Amen, and removed the court to Thebes, where he at once set to work to repair portions of the great temples of Amen at Karnak and Luxor. Wherever it was possible to do so he restored the name and figure of the god Amen, which his father-in-law had attempted to obliterate. He carried out certain building operations in the Sudan and received tribute from the chiefs of the country, but he undertook no military expeditions into Syria, and made no attempt to renew the sovereignty of Egypt in western Asia. When Tut-Ankh-Amen removed his court to Thebes, he was quickly followed by many of the nobles who had settled at Khut-en-Aten, and the capital of Amen-hetep IV began at once to decline. The services in the temple p. 31 languished, and the sculptors and artists who had designed their works in accordance with the canons of art devised and approved by Amen-hetep IV found themselves without employment; the working classes who had lived on the court left the town, which in a very few years became forsaken. The Aten temples were thrown down, and before many years had passed the town became a heap of ruins. Thus the triumph of Amen, the god who had delivered the Egyptians from the Nyksos, was complete." RAMESES II OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY Rameses II, called the Napoleon of Egypt, lived about two centuries after Thothmes III, and ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses I was the third king of the nineteenth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works, and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III. His grandfather, Rameses I, was the founder of the dynasty. His father, Seti I, is celebrated for his victories over the Rutennu, or Syrians, and over the Shasu, or Arabians, as well as for his public p. 32 works, especially the great temple he built at Karnak. Rameses II, was, however, a greater warrior than his father. He first conquered Kush, or Ethiopia; then he led an expedition against the Khitæ, or Hittites, whom he completely routed at Kadesh, the ancient capital, a town on the River Orontes, north of Mount Lebanon. In this battle Rameses was placed. in the greatest danger; but his personal bravery stood him in good stead, and he kept the Hittites at bay till his soldiers rescued him. He thus commemorates on the monuments his deeds: "I became like the god Mentu; I hurled the dart with my right hand; I fought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his time before their slight; I had come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in the midst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not one of them raised his hand to fight; their courage was sunken in their breasts; their limbs gave way; they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength to thrust the spear. I made them fall into the waters like crocodiles; they tumbled down on their faces one after another. I killed them at my pleasure, so that not one looked back behind him; nor did any turn p. 33 round. Each fell, and none raised himself up again." 1 Rameses fought with and conquered the Amorites, Canaanites, and other tribes of Palestine and Syria. His public works are also very numerous; he dug wells, founded cities, and completed a great wall begun by his father Seti, reaching from Pelusium to Heliopolis, a gigantic structure designed to keep back the hostile Asiatics, thus reminding one of the Great Wall of China. Pelusium was situated near the present Port Said, and the wall must therefore have been about a hundred miles long. In its course it must have passed near the site of Tel-el-Kebir. It is now certain that Rameses built the treasure cities spoken of in Exodus: "Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses"--Exod. i. 11. According to Dr. Brich, Rameses II was a monarch of whom it was written: "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph." He enlarged On and Tanis, and built temples at Ipsambul, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Memphis, etc. The most remarkable of the temples erected by Rameses is the building at Thebes, once called the p. 34 [paragraph continues] Memnonium, but now commonly known as the Rameseum; and the extraordinary rock temple of Ipsambul, or Abu-Simbel, the most magnificent specimen of its class which the world contains. The façade is formed by four huge colossi, each seventy feet in height, representing Rameses himself seated on a throne, with the double crown of Egypt upon his head. In the center, flanked on either side by two of these gigantic figures, is a doorway of the usual Egyptian type, opening into a small vestibule, which communicates by a short passage with the main chamber. This is an oblong square, sixty feet long, by forty-five, divided into a nave and two aisles by two rows of square piers with Osirid statues, thirty feet high in front, and ornamented with painted sculptures over its whole surface. The main chamber leads into an inner shrine or adytum, supported by four piers with Osirid figures, but otherwise as richly adorned as the outer apartment. Behind the adytum. are small rooms for the priests who served in the temple. It is the façade of the work which constitutes its main beauty. 1 "The largest of the rock temples at Ipsambul," says Mr. Fergusson, "is the finest of its class known p. 35 to exist anywhere. Externally the façade is about one hundred feet in height, and adorned by four of the most magnificent colossi in Egypt, each seventy feet in height, and representing the king, Rameses II, who caused the excavation to be made." His character has been well summarized by Canon Rawlinson: "His affection for his son, and for his two principal wives, shows that the disposition of Rameses II was in some respects amiable; although, upon the whole, his character is one which scarcely commends itself to our approval. Professing in his early years extreme devotion to the memory of his father, he lived to show himself his father's worst enemy, and to aim at obliterating his memory by erasing his name from the monuments on which it occurred, and in many cases substituting his own. Amid a great show of regard for the deities of his country, and for the ordinances of the established worship, he contrived that the chief result of all that he did for religion should be the glorification of himself. Other kings had arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with the real national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself during his lifetime with such leading p. 36 deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus, and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. Even his bravery, which cannot be denied, loses half its merit by being made the constant subject of boasting; and his magnificence ceases to appear admirable when we think at what a cost it displayed itself. If, with most recent writers upon Egyptian history, we identify him with the 'king who knew not Joseph,' the builder of Pithom and Raamses, the first oppressor of the Israelites, we must add some darker shades to the picture, and look upon him as a cruel and ruthless despot, who did not shrink from inflicting on innocent persons the severest pain and suffering." Footnotes 33:1 Brugsch, "History of Egypt," Vol. II, p. 5U, 1st ed. 34:1 Rawlinson's "Ancient Egypt," Vol. I, p. 318. Next: Chapter II: Religion of Ancient Egypt

THE WISDOM THE EGYPTIANS.txt

Sacred Texts Egypt Index Previous Next p. 1 THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS CHAPTER I THE STORY OF EGYPT EGYPT has been called the "Father of History and the Mother of Civilization" and well may she be called both for her influence upon the ancient world must have been great. Thales, the founder of Greek philosophy, was a student of Egyptian thought and investigated all of their theories of the universe as well as their ideas about the gods. Herodotus, a Greek historian who visited Egypt about 450 B.C., has given a vivid description of the country and people, at that time and about 8 B.C. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek traveler, wandered up and down the bank of the Nile and he, like Herodotus, gives in his book a description of the country and the people. By far the most interesting, as well as accurate, account is given by Strabo, the great geographer of Greece, who was a contemporary of Diodorus. About 90 A.D., Plutarch p. 2 wrote his celebrated treatise on Isis and Osiris, a work that Egyptologists today consider a most accurate presentation of the ideals and traditions of ancient Egypt. In speaking of the sources for the historical material pertaining to the ancient Egyptian, Auguste Mariette in his short history said: "First and foremost in value and in quantity are the Egyptian monuments themselves: the temples, palaces, tombs, statues, and inscriptions. These have supreme authority, because they have the advantage of being the incontestable evidence of the events which they record. They have not long enjoyed this distinction, as the secret of the mysterious writing with which they are covered was, until lately, lost; and it was difficult to see in these relies of antiquity anything more than lifeless stones, devoid of interest. But about eighty-five years ago there appeared, in the person of Champollion, a true genius, who succeeded, by his keen insight, in throwing the most unexpected light upon the darkness of the Egyptian script. Through him these old monuments, so long silent, caused their voices to be heard; by him was the veil torn asunder, and the Egypt of bygone days, so renowned for her wisdom and power, stood revealed to the modern world. p. 3 No longer are the monuments objects of hopeless curiosity, rather are they books of stone wherein may be read, in legible writing, the history of the nation with which they were contemporaneous. "Next to the monuments in importance comes the Greek history of Egypt, written by Manetho, an Egyptian priest, about B.C. 250; and were the book itself in existence, we could have no more trustworthy guide. Egyptian by birth and priest by profession, Manetho, besides being instructed in all the mysteries of his religion, must have also been conversant with foreign literature, for he was a Greek scholar, and equal to the task of writing a complete history of his own country in that language. If only we had that book today it would be a priceless treasure; but the work of the Egyptian priest perished, along with many others, in the great wreck of ancient literature, the burning of the great library at Alexandria, and all we possess of it are a few fragments preserved in the pages of subsequent historians." ORIGIN OF THE EGYPTIAN RACE Prof. Wallis Budge writes on the Egyptian race: "The flint tools and weapons that have been found on the skirts of the desert at various places in p. 4 Egypt, and that are generally admitted to be older than those of the Neolithic period, i.e., the New Stone Age, render it extremely probable that the country was inhabited by men in the Palæolithic period, i.e., the Old Stone Age. The questions that naturally arise in connection with them are: Who were they? To what race did they belong? If they were immigrants, where did they come from? In the limited space afforded by a single chapter it is impossible to enumerate even the most important of the arguments of which these questions have formed the subjects, or the principal theories, old and new, of the origin of the Egyptians. Fortunately Egyptian archæology, even in its present imperfect state, supplies a number of facts, which will suggest answers to these questions that are tolerably correct; and, as time goes on and the results of further research are perfected, our knowledge of these difficult questions may assume a decisive character. The human remains that have been found in Neolithic graves in Egypt prove that the Egyptians of the Neolithic period in upper Egypt were Africans, and there is good reason for thinking that they were akin to all the other inhabitants of the Nile Valley at that time. When the great geological change took place that turned p. 5 into a river valley the arm of the sea that extended as far as Esnâ, and the Nile deposits had formed the soil of Egypt, their ancestors migrated from the south to the north and occupied the land made by the Nile. Whether these facts apply equally to the Delta cannot be said, for no Neolithic graves in the Delta are known. Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic period held that the aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt, and though our information about the boundaries of this land is of the vaguest character, it is quite certain that a very large portion of it was in central Africa, and it probably was near the country called in our times 'Uganda.' There was in all periods frequent intercourse between Egypt and Punt, and caravans must have journeyed from one country to the other at least once a year. In the dynastic period several missions by sea were despatched to the port of Punt to bring back myrrh and other products of the country, which were so dear to the heart of the kinsmen of the Puntites who were settled in Egypt. "Now, if the inhabitants of the southern portion of the Valley of the Nile were attracted to the good and fertile land of Egypt, it follows, as a matter of course, that foreign peoples who heard of this rich land would migrate thither in order to partake p. 6 of its products and to settle in it. The peoples on the western bank--Libyans--and the dwellers in the eastern desert would intermarry with the native Egyptians, and the same would be the case with the negro and half-negro tribes in the Sûdân. At a very early period, and certainly in Neolithic times, a considerable number of Semites must have made their way into Egypt, and these came from the Arabian peninsula on the other side of the Red Sea, either for trading purposes or to settle in Egypt. Some of these crossed the Red Sea in its narrowest part, probably near the straits of Bâb al-Mandib at the southern end of it, and made their way into the country where the comparatively modern town of Sennaar now stands, just as their descendants did some three to five thousand years later. Here they would find themselves not only in fertile land, but they would also be in touch with the tribes living in the region where, from time immemorial, alluvial gold has been found in considerable quantities. Others of the Semites must have made their way into the Delta by the Isthmus of Suez, and there is no doubt that by intermarriage they modified the physical characteristics of many of the natives. Others, again, must have entered Egypt by way of the very ancient caravan p. 7 route through the Wadi Hammânât, which left the Red Sea near the modern town of Kusêr and ended on the Nile near Kenâ in upper Egypt. It is impossible to think that the Semites in Arabia had no seagoing boats in which to cross the Red Sea, and that those who lived on the coast halfway down the Red Sea would be obliged to go so far north as the Isthmus of Suez, or so far south as Bâb al-Mandib before they could cross over into Africa. "In the case of the natives of the Delta foreign influences of another kind would be at work. Here would flock traders of all kinds from the land that is now called Palestine, and from the islands of the Mediterranean, and from the seacoast and the countries inland to the west of Egypt. Some think that even in the Neolithic period there were many settlers who had come from the southern countries of Europe. If the above remarks are only approximately true, we are justified in assuming that the population of the Valley of the Nile was even at this early period very much mixed. It must, however, be noted that neither Libyans, nor Semites, nor seafaring folk of any kind, altered the fundamental characteristics of the African dwellers on the Nile." p. 8 THE BEGINNING OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY Towards the end of the New Stone Age the Egyptians acquired the knowledge of working in copper, and with tools of this metal they found themselves able to do many things that were before impossible to them. With copper drills they perforated beads and hollowed out stone jars and vessels, and with copper knives and chisels they sculptured stone figures of men, animals, etc., with a skill that was truly wonderful. They had long known how to produce fire and one of its principal uses among them was to smelt copper. In many respects the state of Egypt at the close of this period was not greatly unlike that in which we know it to have been in the earliest part of the dynastic period. It was divided roughly into districts, or as we might say, counties, which at a later period were called "nomes" by the Greeks. Each district had its own symbol, which was generally that of its totem, and probably its own god, or gods, who must have been served by some kind of priest. The laws which men draw up for the protection of their wives, cattle, and possessions generally, as soon as they settle down in towns and villages, were, no doubt, administered in the rough p. 9 and ready way that has been common among African communities from time immemorial. A system of irrigation must have been in use at this time, but it is improbable that there was any central controlling authority. The men of each district protected the part of the bank of the Nile that belonged to them, and made and maintained their own canals, and the high, banked causeways, which connected the towns and villages during the period of the Nile flood, and served as roads. There must have been a head man or governor in each district who possessed a good deal of power, and each town was probably ruled by a kind of mayor with due regard to the interests of the owners of large properties of different kinds. In the villages the largest landowners were probably supreme, but the "old men" or "fathers" of each village must have enjoyed a certain authority. For a considerable time before the dynastic period there must have been kings in Egypt, some ruling over upper Egypt, and some over lower Egypt and the Delta. A portion of a monument, now called the "Palermo Stone" because it is preserved in the museum of Palermo in Sicily, supplies the names of several kings of lower Egypt, e.g., Seka, Tau, Thesh, Neheb, Uatchnâr, and Mekha. p. 10 [paragraph continues] It is quite certain that the names of several kings of upper Egypt were given on the missing portion of the monument, and this fact proves that at that time southern and northern Egypt formed two separate and independent kingdoms. When complete the Palermo stone contained a series of annals, which recorded the principal events in the reigns of the pre-dynastic kings, and also of the dynastic kings down to the middle of the fifth dynasty. There were also included the names of the principal festivals that were celebrated in these reigns, and also the height of the Nile flood yearly, given in cubits, palms, fingers, and spans. How these heights were ascertained is not clear, but it was probably by means of lines cut into a rock on the river bank, or on a slab built into a wall of a well at Memphis. The height of the Nile flood then, as now, was valuable for determining the degree of prosperity of the country that was probable during the year. We have already said that the native African element in upper Egypt was reinforced continually from the south, and we may assume that the process of reinforcement usually went on peacefully, and that the Egyptians in upper Egypt assimilated their newly-arrived kinsmen from the south without p. 11 difficulty. This, however, was fated not to go on indefinitely, for on one occasion at least, probably a century or two before the dynastic period began, a host of men from the south or southeast swept down upon Egypt. This invasion in many respects seems to have been similar to that which took place under Piânkhi, the king of Nubia, whose capital was at Napt, or Napata, about 720 B.C.; but whilst Piânkhi returned to Nubia, the southern folk and their leaders who invaded Egypt towards the close of the pre-dynastic period did not do so. If we take into account the effect of this pre-dynastic invasion upon the civilization of Egypt we must assume that the invaders were more highly civilized than the people they conquered. And if we assume this we must further assume that the invaders came from the country now called Abyssinia and the lands to the south of it. Their route was the old trade route known today as the "Blue Nile caravan route," which has been chosen from time immemorial by the captains of caravans, because it makes it unnecessary to traverse the first four cataracts. Among the invaders who came by this route were natives of the Eastern Desert, the remote ancestors of the Blemmyes and the modern Hadenduwa and cognate tribes, and Semites, who had originally p. 12 crossed the Red Sea from Asia to Africa. We have no distinct record of this invasion, still less have we any details of it, and we have no knowledge of the causes that led up to it; but in an inscription of the Ptolemaic period cut on the walls of the temple of Edfû in upper Egypt, we certainly have a legendary account of it. In this inscription the victorious leader is accompanied by men who are called "Mesniu," or "Blacksmiths," who came from the west of the Nile, i.e., from a country to the south of Egypt, and not from a country to the southeast. This view agrees quite well with what is known of the dynastic period, for the Pharaohs often had to fight hordes of enemies from countries so far south as the White Nile and the Gazelle and Jûr Rivers, and their descendants were probably to be found in the Nobadae, who terrified the Romans, and the "Baggârah" who fought under the Mahdi in our own times. There may have been a conquest of Egypt by the peoples to the west of Egypt at one time, and another by the peoples to the east at another time, or the enemies of Egypt on both banks of the White and Blue Niles may have invaded the country together. In any case the purport of the inscription, the contents of which we will now describe, is to show that the king of p. 13 the south and his descendants first conquered upper Egypt and then lower Egypt. The Edfu text sets forth that Râ-Harmakhis was king of Ta-sti, the "Land of the Bow," i.e., the country of all the peoples who fought with bows and arrows, or the eastern Sûdân. In the 363d year of his reign he dispatched a force into Egypt, and overcoming all opposition, this god established himself and his followers at Edfû. Having discovered that the enemy had collected in force to the southeast of Thebes, Horus and his followers, or the blacksmiths, armed with spears and chains, set out and joined battle with them, and utterly defeated them at a place called Tchetmet. For the first time probably the natives armed with weapons made of flint found themselves in mortal combat with foreign enemies armed with metal weapons; their defeat was unavoidable. Soon after this battle the natives again collected in force to the northeast of Denderah, about fifty miles north of Thebes, where they were attacked and again defeated by Horus. Another battle took place a little later on at Heben, about one hundred and fifty miles south of Memphis, and Horus cut up many of his defeated foes and offered them to the gods. Horus then pursued the enemy into the p. 14 [paragraph continues] Delta, and wherever he did battle with them he defeated them. In one place the arch-rebel Set appeared with his followers and fought against Horus and his "blacksmiths," but Horus drove his spear into Set's neck, fettered his limbs with his chain, and then cut off his head, and the heads of all his followers. Horus then sailed over the streams in the Delta, and slew the enemy in detail, and made himself master of the whole of the Delta, from the swamps on the west of the left main arm of the Nile to the desert in the east. The text goes on to say that companies of the "blacksmiths" settled down on lands given to them by Horus on the right and left banks of the Nile and in what is now called "middle Egypt"; thus the followers of Horus from the south effectively occupied the country. Horus returned to Edfû and made an expedition against the people of Uauat (now northern Nubia), and punished their rebellion. He then sailed back to Edfû and established the worship of Horus of Edfû, and ordered a symbol of this god to be placed in every temple of Egypt. Now the symbol referred to is the winged solar disk, with a serpent on each side of it, and the statement suggests that Horus established the worship of a form of the sun-god in Egypt. If this be really p. 15 so, Horus and his followers must have come from the east, where sun-worship was common, and must have found that the Egyptians were not sun-worshippers. The Egyptians, like most of the peoples in the Nile Valley, ancient and modem, only worshipped the sun under compulsion. On the other hand, the worship of the moon was universal, and the native gods of the Egyptians were of a kind quite different from those worshipped in the Eastern Desert and among the peoples of Arabia, Syria, and the northern Delta. BEGINNING OF DYNASTIC HISTORY As the result, however, of one of the battles between the forces of the south and north, which was fought probably near Anulater Heliopolis--the king of the south gained the victory, and he was henceforth able to call himself "King of the South, King of the North." Who this mighty "uniter of the two lands" really was is not known, but the native tradition, which was current at Abydos, and presumably throughout Egypt, in the thirteenth century before Christ, stated that he was called Mena; this tradition was also accepted in the time of the Greek historians, for they all agree in saying that the first king of Egypt was called Menes. p. 16 MANETHO--THE EGYPTIAN HISTORIAN ON THE DYNASTIES In this history of Egypt, Manetho gave a list of the kings of Egypt, which he divided into three parts, each containing several groups of kings which he called "dynasties," but it is not quite clear what he meant by the word "dynasty." Though his history is lost, four copies of his king-list are preserved in the works of later writers. The oldest of these is that which is said to have been written by Julius Africanus, in the third century of our era, which is preserved in the "Chronicle of Eusebius," bishop of Cæsarea, born A.D. 264, and died about 340. In this work Eusebius also gives a copy of the list of THE DYNASTIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT Dynasties Duration in years ANCIENT EMPIRE 1-2 Thinite 555 3-5 Memphite 746 6 Elephantine 203 7-8 Memphite 142 years, 70 days 9-10 Heracleopolite 294 MIDDLE EMPIRE 11-13 Theban 666 14 Xoite 184 15-17 Hyksos (Delta) 511 NEW EMPIRE 18-20 Theban 593 21 Tanite 130 22 Bubastite 170 23 Tanite 89 24 Saïte 6 25 Ethiopian 50 26 Saïte 138 27 Persian 121 28 Saïte 7 29 Mendesian 21 30 Sebennyte 38 31 Persian 8 p. 17 PRINCIPAL KINGS Dynasties Mena 1 Teta Hesepti Ba-en-neter 2 Sneferu 3 Khufu 4 Khafra Menkau-Ra Unas 5 Teta 6 Pepi I Pepi II Queen Nitocris Amen-em-hat I 12 Usertsen I Amen-em-hat II Usertsen II Usertsen III Amen-em-hat III Amen-em-hat IV Sekenen-Ra 17 Aahmes I 18 Amen-hotep I Thothmes II Queen Hatshepsu Thothmes III Amen-hotep II Thothmes IV Amen-hotep III Amen-hotep IV Akhnaton Semenkhkara--or Saakara Tutankhaton--after Tutankhamon Seti I 19 Ramses II Merenptah Ramses III 20 Her-Hor 21 Shashanq I (Shishak) 22 Osorkon II (Zerah?) Tefnekht (Piankhi King of Ethiopia took Memphis) 23 Bakenranef (Bocchoris) Shabaka. His sister Ameniritis married Piankhi II and their daughter became the queen of Psamethek I 25 Shabataka Taharaqa (Tirhakah) 26 Psamethe I Neku II (Necho) Uahabra (Hophra) 30 Nekthorheb (Nectanebo I) Nektnebef (Nectanebo II) Manetho made by himself, but the copy of Julius Africanus agrees better with the results derived from the monuments which we now have than that of Eusebius. The dynasties of Manetho's king-list that represent that "archaic period" are the first p. 18 three. According to this, the kings of the first dynasty were eight in number and reigned 263 years; those of the second dynasty were nine in number and reigned 214 years. The first and second dynasties reigned at Thnis--Abydos--and the third dynasty at Memphis. The original Egyptian forms of many of the royal names given by Manetho have been identified without doubt; the identifications of a few others are nearly certain, and about the remainder there exist many different opinions. Besides Áha and Nârmer, or Nârmer and Áha, for the true order of these two kings is uncertain. THOTHMES III OF THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY Thothmes III is generally regarded as the greatest of the kings of Egypt--the Alexander the Great of the Egyptian history. The name Thothmes means "child of Thoth," and was a common name among the ancient Egyptians. He is represented by a sphinx presenting gifts of water and wine to Tum, the setting sun, a solar deity worshipped at Heliopolis. On the hieroglyphic paintings at Karnak, the fact of the heliacal rising of Sothis, the dog-star, is stated to have taken place during this reign, from which it appears that Thothmes p. 19 [paragraph continues] III occupied the throne of Egypt about 1450 B.C. This is one of the few dates of Egyptian chronology that can be authenticated. Thothmes III belonged to the eighteenth dynasty, which included some of the greatest of Egyptian monarchs. Among the kings of this dynasty were four that bore the name of Thothmes, and four the name of Amenophis, which means "peace of Amen." The monarchs of this dynasty were Thebans. The father of Thothmes III was a great warrior. He conquered the Canaanitish nations of Palestine, took Nineveh from the Rutennu, the confederate tribes of Syria, laid waste Mesopotamia, and introduced war chariots and horses into the army of Egypt. Thothmes III, however, was even a greater warrior than his father; and during his long reign Egypt reached the climax of her greatness. His predecessors of the eighteenth dynasty had extended the dominions of Egypt far into Asia and the interior of Africa. He was a king of great capacity and a warrior of considerable courage. The records of his campaigns are for the most part preserved on a sandstone wall surrounding the great temple of Karnak, built by Thothmes III in p. 20 honor of Amen-Ra. From these hieroglyphic inscriptions it appears that Thothmes' first great campaign was made in the twenty-second year of his reign, when an expedition was made into the land of Taneter, that is, Palestine. A full account of his marches and victories is given, together with a list of one hundred and nineteen conquered towns. This monarch lived before the time of Joshua, and therefore the records of his conquests present us with the ancient Canaanite nomenclature of places in Palestine between the times of the patriarchs and the conquest of the land by the Israelites under Joshua. Thothmes set out with his army from Tanis, that is Zoan; and after taking Gaza, he proceeded, by way of the plain of Sharon, to the more northern parts of Palestine. At the battle of Megiddo he overthrew the confederated troops of native princes; and in consequence of this signal victory the whole of Palestine was subdued. Crossing the Jordan near the Sea of Galilee, Thothmes pursued his march to Damascus, which he took by the sword; and then returning homeward by the Judean hills and the south country of Palestine, he returned to Egypt laden with the spoils of victory. In the thirtieth year of his reign Thothmes led an expedition against the Rutennu, the people of p. 21 northern Syria. In this campaign he attacked and captured Kadesh, a strong fortress in the valley of Orontes, and the capital town of the Rutennu. The king pushed his conquests into Mesopotamia, and occupied the strong fortress of Carchemish, on the banks of the Euphrates. He then led his conquering troops northward to the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that the kings of Damascus, Nineveh, and Assur became his vassals, and paid tribute to Egypt. Punt or Arabia was also subdued, and in Africa his conquests extended to Cush or Ethiopia. His fleet of ships sailed triumphantly over the waters of the Black Sea. Thus Thothmes ruled over lands extending from the mountains of Caucasus to the shores of the Indian Ocean, and from the Libyan Desert to the great river Tigris. Besides distinguishing himself as a warrior and as a record writer, Thothmes III was one of the greatest of Egyptian builders and patrons of art. The great temple of Ammon at Thebes was the special object of his fostering care, and he began his career of builder and restorer by repairing the damages which his sister Hatasu had inflicted on that glorious edifice to gratify her dislike of her brother Thothmes III, and her father Thothmes I, p. 22 [paragraph continues] Statues of Thothmes I and his father Amenophis, which Hatasu had thrown down, were re-erected by Thothmes III, before the southern propylæa of the temple in the first year of his independent reign. The central sanctuary which Usertesen I had built in common stone, was next replaced by the present granite edifice, under the directions of the young prince, who then proceeded to build in the rear of the old temple a magnificent hall or pillared chamber of dimensions previously unknown in Egypt. This edifice was an oblong square, one hundred and forty-three feet long by fifty-five feet wide, or nearly half as large again as our largest cathedral. The whole of this apartment was roofed in with slabs of solid stone; two rows of circular pillars thirty feet in height supported the central part, dividing it into three avenues, while on each side of the pillars was a row of square piers, still further extending the width of the chamber and breaking it up into five long vistas. In connection with this noble ball, on three sides of it, north, east, and south, Thothmes erected further chambers and corridors, one of the former situated towards the south containing the "Great Table of Karnak." One of the most interesting Pharaohs of Egypt was Akhnaton, who is called the first individualist p. 23 of history and a great idealist. Prof. Wallis Budge gives this account of his kingship: "Amen-Hetep--Akhnaton--was the son of Amen-hetep III by his wife Tî, and he reigned about twenty years. Whether he ascended the throne immediately after his father's death is not known, but whether he did or not matters little, for it is quite certain that for some years at least his mother was the actual ruler of Egypt, and that she ordered works to be carried out as if she were its lawful sovereign. His wife Nefertithi, who was probably of Asiatic origin like his mother, also obtained a power and an authority in Egypt which were not usually enjoyed by Egyptian queens. These facts are proved by the monuments, in which both Tî and Nefertithi are represented as equals in every respect of Amen-hetep IV, and their names are accorded prominence similar to those of the king. The pictures and sculptured representations of Amen-hetep IV show that his physical characteristics were wholly of a non-Egyptian character, and suggest that he was of a highly nervous and sensitive disposition, lacking in purpose, firmness, and decision, full of prejudices, self-will, and obstinacy. His acts prove that he was unpractical in every matter p. 24 connected with the rule of Egypt and her Nubian and Asiatic provinces, which had been won for her by the great Thothmes III, and the story of the break-up of the great Egyptian empire owing to his weakness and incapacity is almost the saddest page of Egyptian history. His alien blood, derived from his mother and grandmother, caused to develop in him a multitude of strange ideas about religion, art, and government that were detestable to the Egyptians, whose national characteristics he neither recognized nor understood, and with whom he had no true sympathy. When he ascended the throne he adopted a series of names that proclaimed to all Egypt that he held religious views of a different character from those held by the majority of the Egyptians. Some of these resembled the doctrines of the Sun-god as taught by the priests of Heliopolis, but others were obnoxious to the Egyptians generally. His father and grandfather probably held exactly the same religious views, but if they did they took care not to allow them to disturb the peace of the country, nor to interrupt the business of the state. Amen-hetep IV proclaimed a new form of worship, and, to all intents and purposes, a new god, whom he called Aten. Now Aten was well known to the Egyptians as the god of the p. 25 solar disk, and they had been familiar with him from the earliest period; but Amen-hetep IV assigned to him new attributes, which are very difficult to describe. He taught that Aten was the unseen, almighty, and everlasting power that made itself manifest in the form of the solar disk in the sky, and was the source of all life in heaven and earth and the underworld. He ascribed to Aten a monotheistic character, or oneness, which he denied to every other god, but when we read the hymns to Aten of which the king approved, it is extremely difficult to understand the difference between the oneness of Aten and the oneness of Amen-Râ, or Râ, or of any other great Egyptian god. "During the first four years of his reign Amen-hetep IV lived at Thebes, but during the whole of this period he was quarrelling actively with the priests of Amen-Râ, whose god Amen was an abomination to him. As king he had great resources at his command, and besides building a sanctuary called Kem Aten at Thebes, he set up shrines to Aten at various places in Egypt, and also in the Sudan. The most important in the latter country was Kem Aten, which was probably situated at or near Sadengah, where his father had built a temple in honor of Queen Tî. Whilst this work was going p. 26 on Amen-hetep IV caused the name of Amen to be hammered out from the inscriptions on existing monuments, and he suppressed by every means in his power the cults of the other gods. Such an intolerant religious fanatic was never before seen in Egypt, and the king hated Amen and his name so thoroughly that he changed his own name from Amen-hetep to "Khu-en-Aten," or "Aakh-en-Aten," a name meaning "spirit soul of Aten." Besides his fanaticism there was also a material reason for his hatred of Amen. He saw the greater part of the revenues of the country being absorbed slowly but surely by the greedy priesthood of this god, and he felt that their wealth made their power to be actually greater than that of the king. "Of the details of the fight between the priesthoods of the old gods of Egypt and the king little is known, but it is clear that the Egyptians found some effective way of showing their resentment to the king, for in the fifth year of his reign he forsook Thebes, and founded a new capital, wherein Aten alone was to be worshipped. The site of the new capital which was called Khut-en-Aten, or 'horizon of Aten,' was on the east bank of the Nile, about two hundred miles south of Memphis, and is marked today by the villages of Haggî Kandil, and Tell p. 27 al-Amarnah. Here he built a large temple to Aten and two or three smaller sanctuaries for the private use of the ladies of his family. Near the temple was the palace, which was splendidly decorated and furnished with beautiful objects of every kind, and the priests and high officials and nobles who had followed the king were provided with rock-hewn tombs in the mountain behind the new capital. A considerable space of ground about this capital was set apart as the property of Aten, and its confines were marked with boundary stones, and the revenues of some of the old sanctuaries were wrested from them by the king and applied to the support of Aten. Amen-hetep IV and his followers lived in Khut-en-Aten for some twelve or fifteen years in comparative peace, and the king occupied himself in playing the priest, and in superintending the building operations and the laying out of large and beautiful gardens by the court architect Bek. The high priest bore the title of the high priest of Heliopolis, and the form of worship there seems to have had much in common with the old solar cult of Heliopolis. The king composed one or two hymns which were sung in his temple, and copies of these were painted on the walls of the tombs of his favourites. p. 28 "Meanwhile what was happening to Egypt and her Asiatic and Nubian provinces? For a time the kings of Mitanni and Babylonia sent dispatches to Amen-hetep IV as they did to his father, and some of the chiefs of the neighboring countries sent tribute to him as they did to his father. When, however, the envoys returned to their countries and reported that Pharaoh, whose mere name had struck terror into the Asiatics, was at enmity with all his people, and was devoting all his time to theological matters, and to the founding of new canons of art, and to the selfish enjoyment of a religion that was detested by all the Egyptian priesthoods, with the exception of the priesthood of Heliopolis, the enemies of the Egyptian power in western Asia felt that the time of their deliverance was at hand. With one accord they ceased to pay tribute, and gathering together their forces, they attacked the Egyptian garrisons in Syria and Palestine, and one by one the cities fell, and the Egyptian governors and their troops were slain or scattered. The Kheta, or Hittites, swept down from the north upon the possessions of Egypt, and being joined by the Khabiri and by the vassal princes of Egypt, were irresistible. They first attacked and took the inland cities, and then advancing westward they p. 29 captured city after city along the coast until Beyrut, Tyre, Ascalon, Gezer, and Lachish were at their mercy. The Tell al-Amarnah letters contain piteous appeals to Amen-hetep IV for help from all parts of Syria and Palestine, and every writer entreats the king to protect his own possessions; but the king had no help to send, and even if he had had troops available for despatch they would never have been sent, for he hated war in all its forms. Thus Egypt lost her Asiatic possessions which it had taken her kings nearly two hundred years to acquire. Meanwhile discontent was growing everywhere in Egypt itself, and conspiracies against the king were spreading in all directions; when these had reached formidable proportions the king died, but whether his death was due to anxiety, disease, or poison cannot be said. Amen-hetep IV had no son, and his family consisted of six daughters, the eldest of whom died before her father. He was buried in a tomb hewn in the mountains behind his town, and his stone coffin, or sarcophagus, was found there in 1893 by the native tomb robbers, who cut out the cartouches from it and sold them to travellers. "Amen-hetep IV was succeeded by Sâakarâ who had married one of his daughters called Merit-Aten, p. 30 and had probably assisted his father-in-law in his various religious undertakings. Sâakarâ ruled the town of Khut-en-Aten for two or three years, and was succeeded by Tut-Ánkh-Amen, a son of Amen-hetep III, who married a daughter of Amen-hetep IV called Ánkhsenpaaten. Tut-ânkh-Amen was undoubtedly supported by the priests of Amen, as the presence of the name of the god in his name testifies, and his accession to the throne marks the triumph of the priesthood of Amen over Aten and his followers. He made his wife change her name to Ankhsen-Amen, and removed the court to Thebes, where he at once set to work to repair portions of the great temples of Amen at Karnak and Luxor. Wherever it was possible to do so he restored the name and figure of the god Amen, which his father-in-law had attempted to obliterate. He carried out certain building operations in the Sudan and received tribute from the chiefs of the country, but he undertook no military expeditions into Syria, and made no attempt to renew the sovereignty of Egypt in western Asia. When Tut-Ankh-Amen removed his court to Thebes, he was quickly followed by many of the nobles who had settled at Khut-en-Aten, and the capital of Amen-hetep IV began at once to decline. The services in the temple p. 31 languished, and the sculptors and artists who had designed their works in accordance with the canons of art devised and approved by Amen-hetep IV found themselves without employment; the working classes who had lived on the court left the town, which in a very few years became forsaken. The Aten temples were thrown down, and before many years had passed the town became a heap of ruins. Thus the triumph of Amen, the god who had delivered the Egyptians from the Nyksos, was complete." RAMESES II OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY Rameses II, called the Napoleon of Egypt, lived about two centuries after Thothmes III, and ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses I was the third king of the nineteenth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works, and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III. His grandfather, Rameses I, was the founder of the dynasty. His father, Seti I, is celebrated for his victories over the Rutennu, or Syrians, and over the Shasu, or Arabians, as well as for his public p. 32 works, especially the great temple he built at Karnak. Rameses II, was, however, a greater warrior than his father. He first conquered Kush, or Ethiopia; then he led an expedition against the Khitæ, or Hittites, whom he completely routed at Kadesh, the ancient capital, a town on the River Orontes, north of Mount Lebanon. In this battle Rameses was placed. in the greatest danger; but his personal bravery stood him in good stead, and he kept the Hittites at bay till his soldiers rescued him. He thus commemorates on the monuments his deeds: "I became like the god Mentu; I hurled the dart with my right hand; I fought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his time before their slight; I had come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in the midst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not one of them raised his hand to fight; their courage was sunken in their breasts; their limbs gave way; they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength to thrust the spear. I made them fall into the waters like crocodiles; they tumbled down on their faces one after another. I killed them at my pleasure, so that not one looked back behind him; nor did any turn p. 33 round. Each fell, and none raised himself up again." 1 Rameses fought with and conquered the Amorites, Canaanites, and other tribes of Palestine and Syria. His public works are also very numerous; he dug wells, founded cities, and completed a great wall begun by his father Seti, reaching from Pelusium to Heliopolis, a gigantic structure designed to keep back the hostile Asiatics, thus reminding one of the Great Wall of China. Pelusium was situated near the present Port Said, and the wall must therefore have been about a hundred miles long. In its course it must have passed near the site of Tel-el-Kebir. It is now certain that Rameses built the treasure cities spoken of in Exodus: "Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses"--Exod. i. 11. According to Dr. Brich, Rameses II was a monarch of whom it was written: "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph." He enlarged On and Tanis, and built temples at Ipsambul, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Memphis, etc. The most remarkable of the temples erected by Rameses is the building at Thebes, once called the p. 34 [paragraph continues] Memnonium, but now commonly known as the Rameseum; and the extraordinary rock temple of Ipsambul, or Abu-Simbel, the most magnificent specimen of its class which the world contains. The façade is formed by four huge colossi, each seventy feet in height, representing Rameses himself seated on a throne, with the double crown of Egypt upon his head. In the center, flanked on either side by two of these gigantic figures, is a doorway of the usual Egyptian type, opening into a small vestibule, which communicates by a short passage with the main chamber. This is an oblong square, sixty feet long, by forty-five, divided into a nave and two aisles by two rows of square piers with Osirid statues, thirty feet high in front, and ornamented with painted sculptures over its whole surface. The main chamber leads into an inner shrine or adytum, supported by four piers with Osirid figures, but otherwise as richly adorned as the outer apartment. Behind the adytum. are small rooms for the priests who served in the temple. It is the façade of the work which constitutes its main beauty. 1 "The largest of the rock temples at Ipsambul," says Mr. Fergusson, "is the finest of its class known p. 35 to exist anywhere. Externally the façade is about one hundred feet in height, and adorned by four of the most magnificent colossi in Egypt, each seventy feet in height, and representing the king, Rameses II, who caused the excavation to be made." His character has been well summarized by Canon Rawlinson: "His affection for his son, and for his two principal wives, shows that the disposition of Rameses II was in some respects amiable; although, upon the whole, his character is one which scarcely commends itself to our approval. Professing in his early years extreme devotion to the memory of his father, he lived to show himself his father's worst enemy, and to aim at obliterating his memory by erasing his name from the monuments on which it occurred, and in many cases substituting his own. Amid a great show of regard for the deities of his country, and for the ordinances of the established worship, he contrived that the chief result of all that he did for religion should be the glorification of himself. Other kings had arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with the real national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself during his lifetime with such leading p. 36 deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus, and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. Even his bravery, which cannot be denied, loses half its merit by being made the constant subject of boasting; and his magnificence ceases to appear admirable when we think at what a cost it displayed itself. If, with most recent writers upon Egyptian history, we identify him with the 'king who knew not Joseph,' the builder of Pithom and Raamses, the first oppressor of the Israelites, we must add some darker shades to the picture, and look upon him as a cruel and ruthless despot, who did not shrink from inflicting on innocent persons the severest pain and suffering." Footnotes 33:1 Brugsch, "History of Egypt," Vol. II, p. 5U, 1st ed. 34:1 Rawlinson's "Ancient Egypt," Vol. I, p. 318. Next: Chapter II: Religion of Ancient Egypt

TIMAEUS.txt

Sacred Texts Classics Plato TIMAEUS by Plato 360 BC translated by Benjamin Jowett New York, C. Scribner's Sons, [1871] PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES; CRITIAS; TIMAEUS; HERMOCRATES Socrates. One, two, three; but where, my dear Timaeus, is the fourth of those who were yesterday my guests and are to be my entertainers to-day? Timaeus. He has been taken ill, Socrates; for he would not willingly have been absent from this gathering. Soc. Then, if he is not coming, you and the two others must supply his place. Tim. Certainly, and we will do all that we can; having been handsomely entertained by you yesterday, those of us who remain should be only too glad to return your hospitality. Soc. Do you remember what were the points of which I required you to speak? Tim. We remember some of them, and you will be here to remind us of anything which we have forgotten: or rather, if we are not troubling you, will you briefly recapitulate the whole, and then the particulars will be more firmly fixed in our memories? Soc. To be sure I will: the chief theme of my yesterday's discourse was the State-how constituted and of what citizens composed it would seem likely to be most perfect. Tim. Yes, Socrates; and what you said of it was very much to our mind. Soc. Did we not begin by separating the husbandmen and the artisans from the class of defenders of the State? Tim. Yes. Soc. And when we had given to each one that single employment and particular art which was suited to his nature, we spoke of those who were intended to be our warriors, and said that they were to be guardians of the city against attacks from within as well as from without, and to have no other employment; they were to be merciful in judging their subjects, of whom they were by nature friends, but fierce to their enemies, when they came across them in battle. Tim. Exactly. Soc. We said, if I am not mistaken, that the guardians should be gifted with a temperament in a high degree both passionate and philosophical; and that then they would be as they ought to be, gentle to their friends and fierce with their enemies. Tim. Certainly. Soc. And what did we say of their education? Were they not to be trained in gymnastic, and music, and all other sorts of knowledge which were proper for them? Tim. Very true. Soc. And being thus trained they were not to consider gold or silver or anything else to be their own private property; they were to be like hired troops, receiving pay for keeping guard from those who were protected by them-the pay was to be no more than would suffice for men of simple life; and they were to spend in common, and to live together in the continual practice of virtue, which was to be their sole pursuit. Tim. That was also said. Soc. Neither did we forget the women; of whom we declared, that their natures should be assimilated and brought into harmony with those of the men, and that common pursuits should be assigned to them both in time of war and in their ordinary life. Tim. That, again, was as you say. Soc. And what about the procreation of children? Or rather not the proposal too singular to be forgotten? for all wives and children were to be in common, to the intent that no one should ever know his own child, but they were to imagine that they were all one family; those who were within a suitable limit of age were to be brothers and sisters, those who were of an elder generation parents and grandparents, and those of a younger children and grandchildren. Tim. Yes, and the proposal is easy to remember, as you say. Soc. And do you also remember how, with a view of securing as far as we could the best breed, we said that the chief magistrates, male and female, should contrive secretly, by the use of certain lots, so to arrange the nuptial meeting, that the bad of either sex and the good of either sex might pair with their like; and there was to be no quarrelling on this account, for they would imagine that the union was a mere accident, and was to be attributed to the lot? Tim. I remember. Soc. And you remember how we said that the children of the good parents were to be educated, and the children of the bad secretly dispersed among the inferior citizens; and while they were all growing up the rulers were to be on the look-out, and to bring up from below in their turn those who were worthy, and those among themselves who were unworthy were to take the places of those who came up? Tim. True. Soc. Then have I now given you all the heads of our yesterday's discussion? Or is there anything more, my dear Timaeus, which has been omitted? Tim. Nothing, Socrates; it was just as you have said. Soc. I should like, before proceeding further, to tell you how I feel about the State which we have described. I might compare myself to a person who, on beholding beautiful animals either created by the painter's art, or, better still, alive but at rest, is seized with a desire of seeing them in motion or engaged in some struggle or conflict to which their forms appear suited; this is my feeling about the State which we have been describing. There are conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear some one tell of our own city carrying on a struggle against her neighbours, and how she went out to war in a becoming manner, and when at war showed by the greatness of her actions and the magnanimity of her words in dealing with other cities a result worthy of her training and education. Now I, Critias and Hermocrates, am conscious that I myself should never be able to celebrate the city and her citizens in a befitting manner, and I am not surprised at my own incapacity; to me the wonder is rather that the poets present as well as past are no better-not that I mean to depreciate them; but every one can see that they are a tribe of imitators, and will imitate best and most easily the life in which they have been brought up; while that which is beyond the range of a man's education he finds hard to carry out in action, and still harder adequately to represent in language. I am aware that the Sophists have plenty of brave words and fair conceits, but I am afraid that being only wanderers from one city to another, and having never had habitations of their own, they may fail in their conception of philosophers and statesmen, and may not know what they do and say in time of war, when they are fighting or holding parley with their enemies. And thus people of your class are the only ones remaining who are fitted by nature and education to take part at once both in politics and philosophy. Here is Timaeus, of Locris in Italy, a city which has admirable laws, and who is himself in wealth and rank the equal of any of his fellow-citizens; he has held the most important and honourable offices in his own state, and, as I believe, has scaled the heights of all philosophy; and here is Critias, whom every Athenian knows to be no novice in the matters of which we are speaking; and as to, Hermocrates, I am assured by many witnesses that his genius and education qualify him to take part in any speculation of the kind. And therefore yesterday when I saw that you wanted me to describe the formation of the State, I readily assented, being very well aware, that, if you only would, none were better qualified to carry the discussion further, and that when you had engaged our city in a suitable war, you of all men living could best exhibit her playing a fitting part. When I had completed my task, I in return imposed this other task upon you. You conferred together and agreed to entertain me to-day, as I had entertained you, with a feast of discourse. Here am I in festive array, and no man can be more ready for the promised banquet. Her. And we too, Socrates, as Timaeus says, will not be wanting in enthusiasm; and there is no excuse for not complying with your request. As soon as we arrived yesterday at the guest-chamber of Critias, with whom we are staying, or rather on our way thither, we talked the matter over, and he told us an ancient tradition, which I wish, Critias, that you would repeat to Socrates, so that he may help us to judge whether it will satisfy his requirements or not. Crit. I will, if Timaeus, who is our other partner, approves. Tim. I quite approve. Crit. Then listen, Socrates, to a tale which, though strange, is certainly true, having been attested by Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages. He was a relative and a dear friend of my great-grandfather, Dropides, as he himself says in many passages of his poems; and he told the story to Critias, my grandfather, who remembered and repeated it to us. There were of old, he said, great and marvellous actions of the Athenian city, which have passed into oblivion through lapse of time and the destruction of mankind, and one in particular, greater than all the rest. This we will now rehearse. It will be a fitting monument of our gratitude to you, and a hymn of praise true and worthy of the goddess, on this her day of festival. Soc. Very good. And what is this ancient famous action of the Athenians, which Critias declared, on the authority of Solon, to be not a mere legend, but an actual fact? Crit. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man; for Critias, at the time of telling it, was as he said, nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten. Now the day was that day of the Apaturia which is called the Registration of Youth, at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sang the poems of Solon, which at that time had not gone out of fashion. One of our tribe, either because he thought so or to please Critias, said that in his judgment Solon was not only the wisest of men, but also the noblest of poets. The old man, as I very well remember, brightened up at hearing this and said, smiling: Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in his own country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion he would have been as famous as Homer or Hesiod, or any poet. And what was the tale about, Critias? said Amynander. About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been the most famous, but, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, it has not come down to us. Tell us, said the other, the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition. He replied:-In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world-about Phoroneus, who is called "the first man," and about Niobe; and after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and reckoning up the dates, tried to compute how many years ago the events of which he was speaking happened. Thereupon one of the priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story, which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient. The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven. Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the priests to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the priest, both for your own sake and for that of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with ours you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from all the others; next, there are the artificers, who ply their several crafts by themselves and do not intermix; and also there is the class of shepherds and of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the warriors in Egypt are distinct from all the other classes, and are commanded by the law to devote themselves solely to military pursuits; moreover, the weapons which they carry are shields and spears, a style of equipment which the goddess taught of Asiatics first to us, as in your part of the world first to you. Then as to wisdom, do you observe how our law from the very first made a study of the whole order of things, extending even to prophecy and medicine which gives health, out of these divine elements deriving what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was akin to them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods. Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island. I have told you briefly, Socrates, what the aged Critias heard from Solon and related to us. And when you were speaking yesterday about your city and citizens, the tale which I have just been repeating to you came into my mind, and I remarked with astonishment how, by some mysterious coincidence, you agreed in almost every particular with the narrative of Solon; but I did not like to speak at the moment. For a long time had elapsed, and I had forgotten too much; I thought that I must first of all run over the narrative in my own mind, and then I would speak. And so I readily assented to your request yesterday, considering that in all such cases the chief difficulty is to find a tale suitable to our purpose, and that with such a tale we should be fairly well provided. And therefore, as Hermocrates has told you, on my way home yesterday I at once communicated the tale to my companions as I remembered it; and after I left them, during the night by thinking I recovered nearly the whole it. Truly, as is often said, the lessons of our childhood make wonderful impression on our memories; for I am not sure that I could remember all the discourse of yesterday, but I should be much surprised if I forgot any of these things which I have heard very long ago. I listened at the time with childlike interest to the old man's narrative; he was very ready to teach me, and I asked him again and again to repeat his words, so that like an indelible picture they were branded into my mind. As soon as the day broke, I rehearsed them as he spoke them to my companions, that they, as well as myself, might have something to say. And now, Socrates, to make an end my preface, I am ready to tell you the whole tale. I will give you not only the general heads, but the particulars, as they were told to me. The city and citizens, which you yesterday described to us in fiction, we will now transfer to the world of reality. It shall be the ancient city of Athens, and we will suppose that the citizens whom you imagined, were our veritable ancestors, of whom the priest spoke; they will perfectly harmonise, and there will be no inconsistency in saying that the citizens of your republic are these ancient Athenians. Let us divide the subject among us, and all endeavour according to our ability gracefully to execute the task which you have imposed upon us. Consider then, Socrates, if this narrative is suited to the purpose, or whether we should seek for some other instead. Soc. And what other, Critias, can we find that will be better than this, which is natural and suitable to the festival of the goddess, and has the very great advantage of being a fact and not a fiction? How or where shall we find another if we abandon this? We cannot, and therefore you must tell the tale, and good luck to you; and I in return for my yesterday's discourse will now rest and be a listener. Crit. Let me proceed to explain to you, Socrates, the order in which we have arranged our entertainment. Our intention is, that Timaeus, who is the most of an astronomer amongst us, and has made the nature of the universe his special study, should speak first, beginning with the generation of the world and going down to the creation of man; next, I am to receive the men whom he has created of whom some will have profited by the excellent education which you have given them; and then, in accordance with the tale of Solon, and equally with his law, we will bring them into court and make them citizens, as if they were those very Athenians whom the sacred Egyptian record has recovered from oblivion, and thenceforward we will speak of them as Athenians and fellow-citizens. Soc. I see that I shall receive in my turn a perfect and splendid feast of reason. And now, Timaeus, you, I suppose, should speak next, after duly calling upon the Gods. Tim. All men, Socrates, who have any degree of right feeling, at the beginning of every enterprise, whether small or great, always call upon God. And we, too, who are going to discourse of the nature of the universe, how created or how existing without creation, if we be not altogether out of our wits, must invoke the aid of Gods and Goddesses and pray that our words may be acceptable to them and consistent with themselves. Let this, then, be our invocation of the Gods, to which I add an exhortation of myself to speak in such manner as will be most intelligible to you, and will most accord with my own intent. First then, in my judgment, we must make a distinction and ask, What is that which always is and has no becoming; and what is that which is always becoming and never is? That which is apprehended by intelligence and reason is always in the same state; but that which is conceived by opinion with the help of sensation and without reason, is always in a process of becoming and perishing and never really is. Now everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created. The work of the creator, whenever he looks to the unchangeable and fashions the form and nature of his work after an unchangeable pattern, must necessarily be made fair and perfect; but when he looks to the created only, and uses a created pattern, it is not fair or perfect. Was the heaven then or the world, whether called by this or by any other more appropriate name-assuming the name, I am asking a question which has to be asked at the beginning of an enquiry about anything-was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? or created, and had it a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are apprehended by opinion and sense and are in a process of creation and created. Now that which is created must, as we affirm, of necessity be created by a cause. But the father and maker of all this universe is past finding out; and even if we found him, to tell of him to all men would be impossible. And there is still a question to be asked about him: Which of the patterns had the artificer in view when he made the world-the pattern of the unchangeable, or of that which is created? If the world be indeed fair and the artificer good, it is manifest that he must have looked to that which is eternal; but if what cannot be said without blasphemy is true, then to the created pattern. Every one will see that he must have looked to, the eternal; for the world is the fairest of creations and he is the best of causes. And having been created in this way, the world has been framed in the likeness of that which is apprehended by reason and mind and is unchangeable, and must therefore of necessity, if this is admitted, be a copy of something. Now it is all-important that the beginning of everything should be according to nature. And in speaking of the copy and the original we may assume that words are akin to the matter which they describe; when they relate to the lasting and permanent and intelligible, they ought to be lasting and unalterable, and, as far as their nature allows, irrefutable and immovable-nothing less. But when they express only the copy or likeness and not the eternal things themselves, they need only be likely and analogous to the real words. As being is to becoming, so is truth to belief. If then, Socrates, amid the many opinions about the gods and the generation of the universe, we are not able to give notions which are altogether and in every respect exact and consistent with one another, do not be surprised. Enough, if we adduce probabilities as likely as any others; for we must remember that I who am the speaker, and you who are the judges, are only mortal men, and we ought to accept the tale which is probable and enquire no further. Soc. Excellent, Timaeus; and we will do precisely as you bid us. The prelude is charming, and is already accepted by us-may we beg of you to proceed to the strain? Tim. Let me tell you then why the creator made this world of generation. He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable. Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he brought order, considering that this was in every way better than the other. Now the deeds of the best could never be or have been other than the fairest; and the creator, reflecting on the things which are by nature visible, found that no unintelligent creature taken as a whole was fairer than the intelligent taken as a whole; and that intelligence could not be present in anything which was devoid of soul. For which reason, when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God. This being supposed, let us proceed to the next stage: In the likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world? It would be an unworthy thing to liken it to any nature which exists as a part only; for nothing can be beautiful which is like any imperfect thing; but let us suppose the world to be the very image of that whole of which all other animals both individually and in their tribes are portions. For the original of the universe contains in itself all intelligible beings, just as this world comprehends us and all other visible creatures. For the Deity, intending to make this world like the fairest and most perfect of intelligible beings, framed one visible animal comprehending within itself all other animals of a kindred nature. Are we right in saying that there is one world, or that they are many and infinite? There must be one only, if the created copy is to accord with the original. For that which includes all other intelligible creatures cannot have a second or companion; in that case there would be need of another living being which would include both, and of which they would be parts, and the likeness would be more truly said to resemble not them, but that other which included them. In order then that the world might be solitary, like the perfect animal, the creator made not two worlds or an infinite number of them; but there is and ever will be one only-begotten and created heaven. Now that which is created is of necessity corporeal, and also visible and tangible. And nothing is visible where there is no fire, or tangible which has no solidity, and nothing is solid without earth. Wherefore also God in the beginning of creation made the body of the universe to consist of fire and earth. But two things cannot be rightly put together without a third; there must be some bond of union between them. And the fairest bond is that which makes the most complete fusion of itself and the things which it combines; and proportion is best adapted to effect such a union. For whenever in any three numbers, whether cube or square, there is a mean, which is to the last term what the first term is to it; and again, when the mean is to the first term as the last term is to the mean-then the mean becoming first and last, and the first and last both becoming means, they will all of them of necessity come to be the same, and having become the same with one another will be all one. If the universal frame had been created a surface only and having no depth, a single mean would have sufficed to bind together itself and the other terms; but now, as the world must be solid, and solid bodies are always compacted not by one mean but by two, God placed water and air in the mean between fire and earth, and made them to have the same proportion so far as was possible (as fire is to air so is air to water, and as air is to water so is water to earth); and thus he bound and put together a visible and tangible heaven. And for these reasons, and out of such elements which are in number four, the body of the world was created, and it was harmonised by proportion, and therefore has the spirit of friendship; and having been reconciled to itself, it was indissoluble by the hand of any other than the framer. Now the creation took up the whole of each of the four elements; for the Creator compounded the world out of all the fire and all the water and all the air and all the earth, leaving no part of any of them nor any power of them outside. His intention was, in the first place, that the animal should be as far as possible a perfect whole and of perfect parts: secondly, that it should be one, leaving no remnants out of which another such world might be created: and also that it should be free from old age and unaffected by disease. Considering that if heat and cold and other powerful forces which unite bodies surround and attack them from without when they are unprepared, they decompose them, and by bringing diseases and old age upon them, make them waste away-for this cause and on these grounds he made the world one whole, having every part entire, and being therefore perfect and not liable to old age and disease. And he gave to the world the figure which was suitable and also natural. Now to the animal which was to comprehend all animals, that figure was suitable which comprehends within itself all other figures. Wherefore he made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe, having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures; for he considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the unlike. This he finished off, making the surface smooth all around for many reasons; in the first place, because the living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet. Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance. Having these purposes in view he created the world a blessed god. Now God did not make the soul after the body, although we are speaking of them in this order; for having brought them together he would never have allowed that the elder should be ruled by the younger; but this is a random manner of speaking which we have, because somehow we ourselves too are very much under the dominion of chance. Whereas he made the soul in origin and excellence prior to and older than the body, to be the ruler and mistress, of whom the body was to be the subject. And he made her out of the following elements and on this wise: Out of the indivisible and unchangeable, and also out of that which is divisible and has to do with material bodies, he compounded a third and intermediate kind of essence, partaking of the nature of the same and of the other, and this compound he placed accordingly in a mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material. He took the three elements of the same, the other, and the essence, and mingled them into one form, compressing by force the reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into the same. When he had mingled them with the essence and out of three made one, he again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting, each portion being a compound of the same, the other, and the essence. And he proceeded to divide after this manner:-First of all, he took away one part of the whole [1], and then he separated a second part which was double the first [2], and then he took away a third part which was half as much again as the second and three times as much as the first [3], and then he took a fourth part which was twice as much as the second [4], and a fifth part which was three times the third [9], and a sixth part which was eight times the first [8], and a seventh part which was twenty-seven times the first [27]. After this he filled up the double intervals [i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8] and the triple [i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27] cutting off yet other portions from the mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each interval there were two kinds of means, the one exceeding and exceeded by equal parts of its extremes [as for example 1, 4/3, 2, in which the mean 4/3 is one-third of 1 more than 1, and one-third of 2 less than 2], the other being that kind of mean which exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number. Where there were intervals of 3/2 and of 4/3 and of 9/8, made by the connecting terms in the former intervals, he filled up all the intervals of 4/3 with the interval of 9/8, leaving a fraction over; and the interval which this fraction expressed was in the ratio of 256 to 243. And thus the whole mixture out of which he cut these portions was all exhausted by him. This entire compound he divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting-point; and, comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle. Now the motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the same, and the motion of the inner circle the motion of the other or diverse. The motion of the same he carried round by the side to the right, and the motion of the diverse diagonally to the left. And he gave dominion to the motion of the same and like, for that he left single and undivided; but the inner motion he divided in six places and made seven unequal circles having their intervals in ratios of two-and three, three of each, and bade the orbits proceed in a direction opposite to one another; and three [Sun, Mercury, Venus] he made to move with equal swiftness, and the remaining four [Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter] to move with unequal swiftness to the three and to one another, but in due proportion. Now when the Creator had framed the soul according to his will, he formed within her the corporeal universe, and brought the two together, and united them centre to centre. The soul, interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never ceasing and rational life enduring throughout all time. The body of heaven is visible, but the soul is invisible, and partakes of reason and harmony, and being made by the best of intellectual and everlasting natures, is the best of things created. And because she is composed of the same and of the other and of the essence, these three, and is divided and united in due proportion, and in her revolutions returns upon herself, the soul, when touching anything which has essence, whether dispersed in parts or undivided, is stirred through all her powers, to declare the sameness or difference of that thing and some other; and to what individuals are related, and by what affected, and in what way and how and when, both in the world of generation and in the world of immutable being. And when reason, which works with equal truth, whether she be in the circle of the diverse or of the same-in voiceless silence holding her onward course in the sphere of the self-moved-when reason, I say, is hovering around the sensible world and when the circle of the diverse also moving truly imparts the intimations of sense to the whole soul, then arise opinions and beliefs sure and certain. But when reason is concerned with the rational, and the circle of the same moving smoothly declares it, then intelligence and knowledge are necessarily perfected. And if any one affirms that in which these two are found to be other than the soul, he will say the very opposite of the truth. When the father creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy determined to make the copy still more like the original; and as this was eternal, he sought to make the universe eternal, so far as might be. Now the nature of the ideal being was everlasting, but to bestow this attribute in its fulness upon a creature was impossible. Wherefore he resolved to have a moving image of eternity, and when he set in order the heaven, he made this image eternal but moving according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this image we call time. For there were no days and nights and months and years before the heaven was created, but when he constructed the heaven he created them also. They are all parts of time, and the past and future are created species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal essence; for we say that he "was," he "is," he "will be," but the truth is that "is" alone is properly attributed to him, and that "was" and "will be" only to be spoken of becoming in time, for they are motions, but that which is immovably the same cannot become older or younger by time, nor ever did or has become, or hereafter will be, older or younger, nor is subject at all to any of those states which affect moving and sensible things and of which generation is the cause. These are the forms of time, which imitates eternity and revolves according to a law of number. Moreover, when we say that what has become is become and what becomes is becoming, and that what will become is about to become and that the non-existent is non-existent-all these are inaccurate modes of expression. But perhaps this whole subject will be more suitably discussed on some other occasion. Time, then, and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might resemble this as far as was possible; for the pattern exists from eternity, and the created heaven has been, and is, and will be, in all time. Such was the mind and thought of God in the creation of time. The sun and moon and five other stars, which are called the planets, were created by him in order to distinguish and preserve the numbers of time; and when he had made-their several bodies, he placed them in the orbits in which the circle of the other was revolving-in seven orbits seven stars. First, there was the moon in the orbit nearest the earth, and next the sun, in the second orbit above the earth; then came the morning star and the star sacred to Hermes, moving in orbits which have an equal swiftness with the sun, but in an opposite direction; and this is the reason why the sun and Hermes and Lucifer overtake and are overtaken by each other. To enumerate the places which he assigned to the other stars, and to give all the reasons why he assigned them, although a secondary matter, would give more trouble than the primary. These things at some future time, when we are at leisure, may have the consideration which they deserve, but not at present. Now, when all the stars which were necessary to the creation of time had attained a motion suitable to them,-and had become living creatures having bodies fastened by vital chains, and learnt their appointed task, moving in the motion of the diverse, which is diagonal, and passes through and is governed by the motion of the same, they revolved, some in a larger and some in a lesser orbit-those which had the lesser orbit revolving faster, and those which had the larger more slowly. Now by reason of the motion of the same, those which revolved fastest appeared to be overtaken by those which moved slower although they really overtook them; for the motion of the same made them all turn in a spiral, and, because some went one way and some another, that which receded most slowly from the sphere of the same, which was the swiftest, appeared to follow it most nearly. That there might be some visible measure of their relative swiftness and slowness as they proceeded in their eight courses, God lighted a fire, which we now call the sun, in the second from the earth of these orbits, that it might give light to the whole of heaven, and that the animals, as many as nature intended, might participate in number, learning arithmetic from the revolution of the same and the like. Thus then, and for this reason the night and the day were created, being the period of the one most intelligent revolution. And the month is accomplished when the moon has completed her orbit and overtaken the sun, and the year when the sun has completed his own orbit. Mankind, with hardly an exception, have not remarked the periods of the other stars, and they have no name for them, and do not measure them against one another by the help of number, and hence they can scarcely be said to know that their wanderings, being infinite in number and admirable for their variety, make up time. And yet there is no difficulty in seeing that the perfect number of time fulfils the perfect year when all the eight revolutions, having their relative degrees of swiftness, are accomplished together and attain their completion at the same time, measured by the rotation of the same and equally moving. After this manner, and for these reasons, came into being such of the stars as in their heavenly progress received reversals of motion, to the end that the created heaven might imitate the eternal nature, and be as like as possible to the perfect and intelligible animal. Thus far and until the birth of time the created universe was made in the likeness of the original, but inasmuch as all animals were not yet comprehended therein, it was still unlike. What remained, the creator then proceeded to fashion after the nature of the pattern. Now as in the ideal animal the mind perceives ideas or species of a certain nature and number, he thought that this created animal ought to have species of a like nature and number. There are four such; one of them is the heavenly race of the gods; another, the race of birds whose way is in the air; the third, the watery species; and the fourth, the pedestrian and land creatures. Of the heavenly and divine, he created the greater part out of fire, that they might be the brightest of all things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned them after the likeness of the universe in the figure of a circle, and made them follow the intelligent motion of the supreme, distributing them over the whole circumference of heaven, which was to be a true cosmos or glorious world spangled with them all over. And he gave to each of them two movements: the first, a movement on the same spot after the same manner, whereby they ever continue to think consistently the same thoughts about the same things; the second, a forward movement, in which they are controlled by the revolution of the same and the like; but by the other five motions they were unaffected, in order that each of them might attain the highest perfection. And for this reason the fixed stars were created, to be divine and eternal animals, ever-abiding and revolving after the same manner and on the same spot; and the other stars which reverse their motion and are subject to deviations of this kind, were created in the manner already described. The earth, which is our nurse, clinging around the pole which is extended through the universe, he framed to be the guardian and artificer of night and day, first and eldest of gods that are in the interior of heaven. Vain would be the attempt to tell all the figures of them circling as in dance, and their juxtapositions, and the return of them in their revolutions upon themselves, and their approximations, and to say which of these deities in their conjunctions meet, and which of them are in opposition, and in what order they get behind and before one another, and when they are severally eclipsed to our sight and again reappear, sending terrors and intimations of the future to those who cannot calculate their movements-to attempt to tell of all this without a visible representation of the heavenly system would be labour in vain. Enough on this head; and now let what we have said about the nature of the created and visible gods have an end. To know or tell the origin of the other divinities is beyond us, and we must accept the traditions of the men of old time who affirm themselves to be the offspring of the gods-that is what they say-and they must surely have known their own ancestors. How can we doubt the word of the children of the gods? Although they give no probable or certain proofs, still, as they declare that they are speaking of what took place in their own family, we must conform to custom and believe them. In this manner, then, according to them, the genealogy of these gods is to be received and set forth. Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from these sprang Phorcys and Cronos and Rhea, and all that generation; and from Cronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here, and all those who are said to be their brethren, and others who were the children of these. Now, when all of them, both those who visibly appear in their revolutions as well as those other gods who are of a more retiring nature, had come into being, the creator of the universe addressed them in these words: "Gods, children of gods, who are my works, and of whom I am the artificer and father, my creations are indissoluble, if so I will. All that is bound may be undone, but only an evil being would wish to undo that which is harmonious and happy. Wherefore, since ye are but creatures, ye are not altogether immortal and indissoluble, but ye shall certainly not be dissolved, nor be liable to the fate of death, having in my will a greater and mightier bond than those with which ye were bound at the time of your birth. And now listen to my instructions:-Three tribes of mortal beings remain to be created-without them the universe will be incomplete, for it will not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain, if it is to be perfect. On the other hand, if they were created by me and received life at my hands, they would be on an equality with the gods. In order then that they may be mortal, and that this universe may be truly universal, do ye, according to your natures, betake yourselves to the formation of animals, imitating the power which was shown by me in creating you. The part of them worthy of the name immortal, which is called divine and is the guiding principle of those who are willing to follow justice and you-of that divine part I will myself sow the seed, and having made a beginning, I will hand the work over to you. And do ye then interweave the mortal with the immortal, and make and beget living creatures, and give them food, and make them to grow, and receive them again in death." Thus he spake, and once more into the cup in which he had previously mingled the soul of the universe he poured the remains of the elements, and mingled them in much the same manner; they were not, however, pure as before, but diluted to the second and third degree. And having made it he divided the whole mixture into souls equal in number to the stars, and assigned each soul to a star; and having there placed them as in a chariot, he showed them the nature of the universe, and declared to them the laws of destiny, according to which their first birth would be one and the same for all,-no one should suffer a disadvantage at his hands; they were to be sown in the instruments of time severally adapted to them, and to come forth the most religious of animals; and as human nature was of two kinds, the superior race would here after be called man. Now, when they should be implanted in bodies by necessity, and be always gaining or losing some part of their bodily substance, then in the first place it would be necessary that they should all have in them one and the same faculty of sensation, arising out of irresistible impressions; in the second place, they must have love, in which pleasure and pain mingle; also fear and anger, and the feelings which are akin or opposite to them; if they conquered these they would live righteously, and if they were conquered by them, unrighteously. He who lived well during his appointed time was to return and dwell in his native star, and there he would have a blessed and congenial existence. But if he failed in attaining this, at the second birth he would pass into a woman, and if, when in that state of being, he did not desist from evil, he would continually be changed into some brute who resembled him in the evil nature which he had acquired, and would not cease from his toils and transformations until he followed the revolution of the same and the like within him, and overcame by the help of reason the turbulent and irrational mob of later accretions, made up of fire and air and water and earth, and returned to the form of his first and better state. Having given all these laws to his creatures, that he might be guiltless of future evil in any of them, the creator sowed some of them in the earth, and some in the moon, and some in the other instruments of time; and when he had sown them he committed to the younger gods the fashioning of their mortal bodies, and desired them to furnish what was still lacking to the human soul, and having made all the suitable additions, to rule over them, and to pilot the mortal animal in the best and wisest manner which they could, and avert from him all but self-inflicted evils. When the creator had made all these ordinances he remained in his own accustomed nature, and his children heard and were obedient to their father's word, and receiving from him the immortal principle of a mortal creature, in imitation of their own creator they borrowed portions of fire, and earth, and water, and air from the world, which were hereafter to be restored-these they took and welded them together, not with the indissoluble chains by which they were themselves bound, but with little pegs too small to be visible, making up out of all the four elements each separate body, and fastening the courses of the immortal soul in a body which was in a state of perpetual influx and efflux. Now these courses, detained as in a vast river, neither overcame nor were overcome; but were hurrying and hurried to and fro, so that the whole animal was moved and progressed, irregularly however and irrationally and anyhow, in all the six directions of motion, wandering backwards and forwards, and right and left, and up and down, and in all the six directions. For great as was the advancing and retiring flood which provided nourishment, the affections produced by external contact caused still greater tumult-when the body of any one met and came into collision with some external fire, or with the solid earth or the gliding waters, or was caught in the tempest borne on the air, and the motions produced by any of these impulses were carried through the body to the soul. All such motions have consequently received the general name of "sensations," which they still retain. And they did in fact at that time create a very great and mighty movement; uniting with the ever flowing stream in stirring up and violently shaking the courses of the soul, they completely stopped the revolution of the same by their opposing current, and hindered it from predominating and advancing; and they so disturbed the nature of the other or diverse, that the three double intervals [i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8], and the three triple intervals [i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27], together with the mean terms and connecting links which are expressed by the ratios of 3 : 2, and 4 : 3, and of 9 : 8-these, although they cannot be wholly undone except by him who united them, were twisted by them in all sorts of ways, and the circles were broken and disordered in every possible manner, so that when they moved they were tumbling to pieces, and moved irrationally, at one time in a reverse direction, and then again obliquely, and then upside down, as you might imagine a person who is upside down and has his head leaning upon the ground and his feet up against something in the air; and when he is in such a position, both he and the spectator fancy that the right of either is his left, and left right. If, when powerfully experiencing these and similar effects, the revolutions of the soul come in contact with some external thing, either of the class of the same or of the other, they speak of the same or of the other in a manner the very opposite of the truth; and they become false and foolish, and there is no course or revolution in them which has a guiding or directing power; and if again any sensations enter in violently from without and drag after them the whole vessel of the soul, then the courses of the soul, though they seem to conquer, are really conquered. And by reason of all these affections, the soul, when encased in a mortal body, now, as in the beginning, is at first without intelligence; but when the flood of growth and nutriment abates, and the courses of the soul, calming down, go their own way and become steadier as time goes on, then the several circles return to their natural form, and their revolutions are corrected, and they call the same and the other by their right names, and make the possessor of them to become a rational being. And if these combine in him with any true nurture or education, he attains the fulness and health of the perfect man, and escapes the worst disease of all; but if he neglects education he walks lame to the end of his life, and returns imperfect and good for nothing to the world below. This, however, is a later stage; at present we must treat more exactly the subject before us, which involves a preliminary enquiry into the generation of the body and its members, and as to how the soul was created-for what reason and by what providence of the gods; and holding fast to probability, we must pursue our way. First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the universe, enclosed the two divine courses in a spherical body, that, namely, which we now term the head, being the most divine part of us and the lord of all that is in us: to this the gods, when they put together the body, gave all the other members to be servants, considering that it partook of every sort of motion. In order then that it might not tumble about among the high and deep places of the earth, but might be able to get over the one and out of the other, they provided the body to be its vehicle and means of locomotion; which consequently had length and was furnished with four limbs extended and flexible; these God contrived to be instruments of locomotion with which it might take hold and find support, and so be able to pass through all places, carrying on high the dwelling-place of the most sacred and divine part of us. Such was the origin of legs and hands, which for this reason were attached to every man; and the gods, deeming the front part of man to be more honourable and more fit to command than the hinder part, made us to move mostly in a forward direction. Wherefore man must needs have his front part unlike and distinguished from the rest of his body. And so in the vessel of the head, they first of all put a face in which they inserted organs to minister in all things to the providence of the soul, and they appointed this part, which has authority, to be by nature the part which is in front. And of the organs they first contrived the eyes to give light, and the principle according to which they were inserted was as follows: So much of fire as would not burn, but gave a gentle light, they formed into a substance akin to the light of every-day life; and the pure fire which is within us and related thereto they made to flow through the eyes in a stream smooth and dense, compressing the whole eye, and especially the centre part, so that it kept out everything of a coarser nature, and allowed to pass only this pure element. When the light of day surrounds the stream of vision, then like falls upon like, and they coalesce, and one body is formed by natural affinity in the line of vision, wherever the light that falls from within meets with an external object. And the whole stream of vision, being similarly affected in virtue of similarity, diffuses the motions of what it touches or what touches it over the whole body, until they reach the soul, causing that perception which we call sight. But when night comes on and the external and kindred fire departs, then the stream of vision is cut off; for going forth to an unlike element it is changed and extinguished, being no longer of one nature with the surrounding atmosphere which is now deprived of fire: and so the eye no longer sees, and we feel disposed to sleep. For when the eyelids, which the gods invented for the preservation of sight, are closed, they keep in the internal fire; and the power of the fire diffuses and equalises the inward motions; when they are equalised, there is rest, and when the rest is profound, sleep comes over us scarce disturbed by dreams; but where the greater motions still remain, of whatever nature and in whatever locality, they engender corresponding visions in dreams, which are remembered by us when we are awake and in the external world. And now there is no longer any difficulty in understanding the creation of images in mirrors and all smooth and bright surfaces. For from the communion of the internal and external fires, and again from the union of them and their numerous transformations when they meet in the mirror, all these appearances of necessity arise, when the fire from the face coalesces with the fire from the eye on the bright and smooth surface. And right appears left and left right, because the visual rays come into contact with the rays emitted by the object in a manner contrary to the usual mode of meeting; but the right appears right, and the left left, when the position of one of the two concurring lights is reversed; and this happens when the mirror is concave and its smooth surface repels the right stream of vision to the left side, and the left to the right. Or if the mirror be turned vertically, then the concavity makes the countenance appear to be all upside down, and the lower rays are driven upwards and the upper downwards. All these are to be reckoned among the second and co-operative causes which God, carrying into execution the idea of the best as far as possible, uses as his ministers. They are thought by most men not to be the second, but the prime causes of all things, because they freeze and heat, and contract and dilate, and the like. But they are not so, for they are incapable of reason or intellect; the only being which can properly have mind is the invisible soul, whereas fire and water, and earth and air, are all of them visible bodies. The lover of intellect and knowledge ought to explore causes of intelligent nature first of all, and, secondly, of those things which, being moved by others, are compelled to move others. And this is what we too must do. Both kinds of causes should be acknowledged by us, but a distinction should be made between those which are endowed with mind and are the workers of things fair and good, and those which are deprived of intelligence and always produce chance effects without order or design. Of the second or co-operative causes of sight, which help to give to the eyes the power which they now possess, enough has been said. I will therefore now proceed to speak of the higher use and purpose for which God has given them to us. The sight in my opinion is the source of the greatest benefit to us, for had we never seen the stars, and the sun, and the heaven, none of the words which we have spoken about the universe would ever have been uttered. But now the sight of day and night, and the months and the revolutions of the years, have created number, and have given us a conception of time, and the power of enquiring about the nature of the universe; and from this source we have derived philosophy, than which no greater good ever was or will be given by the gods to mortal man. This is the greatest boon of sight: and of the lesser benefits why should I speak? even the ordinary man if he were deprived of them would bewail his loss, but in vain. Thus much let me say however: God invented and gave us sight to the end that we might behold the courses of intelligence in the heaven, and apply them to the courses of our own intelligence which are akin to them, the unperturbed to the perturbed; and that we, learning them and partaking of the natural truth of reason, might imitate the absolutely unerring courses of God and regulate our own vagaries. The same may be affirmed of speech and hearing: they have been given by the gods to the same end and for a like reason. For this is the principal end of speech, whereto it most contributes. Moreover, so much of music as is adapted to the sound of the voice and to the sense of hearing is granted to us for the sake of harmony; and harmony, which has motions akin to the revolutions of our souls, is not regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by them with a view to irrational pleasure, which is deemed to be the purpose of it in our day, but as meant to correct any discord which may have arisen in the courses of the soul, and to be our ally in bringing her into harmony and agreement with herself; and rhythm too was given by them for the same reason, on account of the irregular and graceless ways which prevail among mankind generally, and to help us against them. Thus far in what we have been saying, with small exception, the works of intelligence have been set forth; and now we must place by the side of them in our discourse the things which come into being through necessity-for the creation is mixed, being made up of necessity and mind. Mind, the ruling power, persuaded necessity to bring the greater part of created things to perfection, and thus and after this manner in the beginning, when the influence of reason got the better of necessity, the universe was created. But if a person will truly tell of the way in which the work was accomplished, he must include the other influence of the variable cause as well. Wherefore, we must return again and find another suitable beginning, as about the former matters, so also about these. To which end we must consider the nature of fire, and water, and air, and earth, such as they were prior to the creation of the heaven, and what was happening to them in this previous state; for no one has as yet explained the manner of their generation, but we speak of fire and the rest of them, whatever they mean, as though men knew their natures, and we maintain them to be the first principles and letters or elements of the whole, when they cannot reasonably be compared by a man of any sense even to syllables or first compounds. And let me say thus much: I will not now speak of the first principle or principles of all things, or by whatever name they are to be called, for this reason-because it is difficult to set forth my opinion according to the method of discussion which we are at present employing. Do not imagine, any more than I can bring myself to imagine, that I should be right in undertaking so great and difficult a task. Remembering what I said at first about probability, I will do my best to give as probable an explanation as any other-or rather, more probable; and I will first go back to the beginning and try to speak of each thing and of all. Once more, then, at the commencement of my discourse, I call upon God, and beg him to be our saviour out of a strange and unwonted enquiry, and to bring us to the haven of probability. So now let us begin again. This new beginning of our discussion of the universe requires a fuller division than the former; for then we made two classes, now a third must be revealed. The two sufficed for the former discussion: one, which we assumed, was a pattern intelligible and always the same; and the second was only the imitation of the pattern, generated and visible. There is also a third kind which we did not distinguish at the time, conceiving that the two would be enough. But now the argument seems to require that we should set forth in words another kind, which is difficult of explanation and dimly seen. What nature are we to attribute to this new kind of being? We reply, that it is the receptacle, and in a manner the nurse, of all generation. I have spoken the truth; but I must express myself in clearer language, and this will be an arduous task for many reasons, and in particular because I must first raise questions concerning fire and the other elements, and determine what each of them is; for to say, with any probability or certitude, which of them should be called water rather than fire, and which should be called any of them rather than all or some one of them, is a difficult matter. How, then, shall we settle this point, and what questions about the elements may be fairly raised? In the first place, we see that what we just now called water, by condensation, I suppose, becomes stone and earth; and this same element, when melted and dispersed, passes into vapour and air. Air, again, when inflamed, becomes fire; and again fire, when condensed and extinguished, passes once more into the form of air; and once more, air, when collected and condensed, produces cloud and mist; and from these, when still more compressed, comes flowing water, and from water comes earth and stones once more; and thus generation appears to be transmitted from one to the other in a circle. Thus, then, as the several elements never present themselves in the same form, how can any one have the assurance to assert positively that any of them, whatever it may be, is one thing rather than another? No one can. But much the safest plan is to speak of them as follows:-Anything which we see to be continually changing, as, for example, fire, we must not call "this" or "that," but rather say that it is "of such a nature"; nor let us speak of water as "this"; but always as "such"; nor must we imply that there is any stability in any of those things which we indicate by the use of the words "this" and "that," supposing ourselves to signify something thereby; for they are too volatile to be detained in any such expressions as "this," or "that," or "relative to this," or any other mode of speaking which represents them as permanent. We ought not to apply "this" to any of them, but rather the word "such"; which expresses the similar principle circulating in each and all of them; for example, that should be called "fire" which is of such a nature always, and so of everything that has generation. That in which the elements severally grow up, and appear, and decay, is alone to be called by the name "this" or "that"; but that which is of a certain nature, hot or white, or anything which admits of opposite equalities, and all things that are compounded of them, ought not to be so denominated. Let me make another attempt to explain my meaning more clearly. Suppose a person to make all kinds of figures of gold and to be always transmuting one form into all the rest-somebody points to one of them and asks what it is. By far the safest and truest answer is, That is gold; and not to call the triangle or any other figures which are formed in the gold "these," as though they had existence, since they are in process of change while he is making the assertion; but if the questioner be willing to take the safe and indefinite expression, "such," we should be satisfied. And the same argument applies to the universal nature which receives all bodies-that must be always called the same; for, while receiving all things, she never departs at all from her own nature, and never in any way, or at any time, assumes a form like that of any of the things which enter into her; she is the natural recipient of all impressions, and is stirred and informed by them, and appears different from time to time by reason of them. But the forms which enter into and go out of her are the likenesses of real existences modelled after their patterns in wonderful and inexplicable manner, which we will hereafter investigate. For the present we have only to conceive of three natures: first, that which is in process of generation; secondly, that in which the generation takes place; and thirdly, that of which the thing generated is a resemblance. And we may liken the receiving principle to a mother, and the source or spring to a father, and the intermediate nature to a child; and may remark further, that if the model is to take every variety of form, then the matter in which the model is fashioned will not be duly prepared, unless it is formless, and free from the impress of any of these shapes which it is hereafter to receive from without. For if the matter were like any of the supervening forms, then whenever any opposite or entirely different nature was stamped upon its surface, it would take the impression badly, because it would intrude its own shape. Wherefore, that which is to receive all forms should have no form; as in making perfumes they first contrive that the liquid substance which is to receive the scent shall be as inodorous as possible; or as those who wish to impress figures on soft substances do not allow any previous impression to remain, but begin by making the surface as even and smooth as possible. In the same way that which is to receive perpetually and through its whole extent the resemblances of all eternal beings ought to be devoid of any particular form. Wherefore, the mother and receptacle of all created and visible and in any way sensible things, is not to be termed earth, or air, or fire, or water, or any of their compounds or any of the elements from which these are derived, but is an invisible and formless being which receives all things and in some mysterious way partakes of the intelligible, and is most incomprehensible. In saying this we shall not be far wrong; as far, however, as we can attain to a knowledge of her from the previous considerations, we may truly say that fire is that part of her nature which from time to time is inflamed, and water that which is moistened, and that the mother substance becomes earth and air, in so far as she receives the impressions of them. Let us consider this question more precisely. Is there any self-existent fire? and do all those things which we call self-existent exist? or are only those things which we see, or in some way perceive through the bodily organs, truly existent, and nothing whatever besides them? And is all that which, we call an intelligible essence nothing at all, and only a name? Here is a question which we must not leave unexamined or undetermined, nor must we affirm too confidently that there can be no decision; neither must we interpolate in our present long discourse a digression equally long, but if it is possible to set forth a great principle in a few words, that is just what we want. Thus I state my view:-If mind and true opinion are two distinct classes, then I say that there certainly are these self-existent ideas unperceived by sense, and apprehended only by the mind; if, however, as some say, true opinion differs in no respect from mind, then everything that we perceive through the body is to be regarded as most real and certain. But we must affirm that to be distinct, for they have a distinct origin and are of a different nature; the one is implanted in us by instruction, the other by persuasion; the one is always accompanied by true reason, the other is without reason; the one cannot be overcome by persuasion, but the other can: and lastly, every man may be said to share in true opinion, but mind is the attribute of the gods and of very few men. Wherefore also we must acknowledge that there is one kind of being which is always the same, uncreated and indestructible, never receiving anything into itself from without, nor itself going out to any other, but invisible and imperceptible by any sense, and of which the contemplation is granted to intelligence only. And there is another nature of the same name with it, and like to it, perceived by sense, created, always in motion, becoming in place and again vanishing out of place, which is apprehended by opinion and sense. And there is a third nature, which is space, and is eternal, and admits not of destruction and provides a home for all created things, and is apprehended without the help of sense, by a kind of spurious reason, and is hardly real; which we beholding as in a dream, say of all existence that it must of necessity be in some place and occupy a space, but that what is neither in heaven nor in earth has no existence. Of these and other things of the same kind, relating to the true and waking reality of nature, we have only this dreamlike sense, and we are unable to cast off sleep and determine the truth about them. For an image, since the reality, after which it is modelled, does not belong to it, and it exists ever as the fleeting shadow of some other, must be inferred to be in another [i.e. in space ], grasping existence in some way or other, or it could not be at all. But true and exact reason, vindicating the nature of true being, maintains that while two things [i.e. the image and space] are different they cannot exist one of them in the other and so be one and also two at the same time. Thus have I concisely given the result of my thoughts; and my verdict is that being and space and generation, these three, existed in their three ways before the heaven; and that the nurse of generation, moistened by water and inflamed by fire, and receiving the forms of earth and air, and experiencing all the affections which accompany these, presented a strange variety of appearances; and being full of powers which were neither similar nor equally balanced, was never in any part in a state of equipoise, but swaying unevenly hither and thither, was shaken by them, and by its motion again shook them; and the elements when moved were separated and carried continually, some one way, some another; as, when rain is shaken and winnowed by fans and other instruments used in the threshing of corn, the close and heavy particles are borne away and settle in one direction, and the loose and light particles in another. In this manner, the four kinds or elements were then shaken by the receiving vessel, which, moving like a winnowing machine, scattered far away from one another the elements most unlike, and forced the most similar elements into dose contact. Wherefore also the various elements had different places before they were arranged so as to form the universe. At first, they were all without reason and measure. But when the world began to get into order, fire and water and earth and air had only certain faint traces of themselves, and were altogether such as everything might be expected to be in the absence of God; this, I say, was their nature at that time, and God fashioned them by form and number. Let it be consistently maintained by us in all that we say that God made them as far as possible the fairest and best, out of things which were not fair and good. And now I will endeavour to show you the disposition and generation of them by an unaccustomed argument, which am compelled to use; but I believe that you will be able to follow me, for your education has made you familiar with the methods of science. In the first place, then, as is evident to all, fire and earth and water and air are bodies. And every sort of body possesses solidity, and every solid must necessarily be contained in planes; and every plane rectilinear figure is composed of triangles; and all triangles are originally of two kinds, both of which are made up of one right and two acute angles; one of them has at either end of the base the half of a divided right angle, having equal sides, while in the other the right angle is divided into unequal parts, having unequal sides. These, then, proceeding by a combination of probability with demonstration, we assume to be the original elements of fire and the other bodies; but the principles which are prior to these God only knows, and he of men who is the friend God. And next we have to determine what are the four most beautiful bodies which are unlike one another, and of which some are capable of resolution into one another; for having discovered thus much, we shall know the true origin of earth and fire and of the proportionate and intermediate elements. And then we shall not be willing to allow that there are any distinct kinds of visible bodies fairer than these. Wherefore we must endeavour to construct the four forms of bodies which excel in beauty, and then we shall be able to say that we have sufficiently apprehended their nature. Now of the two triangles, the isosceles has one form only; the scalene or unequal-sided has an infinite number. Of the infinite forms we must select the most beautiful, if we are to proceed in due order, and any one who can point out a more beautiful form than ours for the construction of these bodies, shall carry off the palm, not as an enemy, but as a friend. Now, the one which we maintain to be the most beautiful of all the many triangles (and we need not speak of the others) is that of which the double forms a third triangle which is equilateral; the reason of this would be long to tell; he who disproves what we are saying, and shows that we are mistaken, may claim a friendly victory. Then let us choose two triangles, out of which fire and the other elements have been constructed, one isosceles, the other having the square of the longer side equal to three times the square of the lesser side. Now is the time to explain what was before obscurely said: there was an error in imagining that all the four elements might be generated by and into one another; this, I say, was an erroneous supposition, for there are generated from the triangles which we have selected four kinds-three from the one which has the sides unequal; the fourth alone is framed out of the isosceles triangle. Hence they cannot all be resolved into one another, a great number of small bodies being combined into a few large ones, or the converse. But three of them can be thus resolved and compounded, for they all spring from one, and when the greater bodies are broken up, many small bodies will spring up out of them and take their own proper figures; or, again, when many small bodies are dissolved into their triangles, if they become one, they will form one large mass of another kind. So much for their passage into one another. I have now to speak of their several kinds, and show out of what combinations of numbers each of them was formed. The first will be the simplest and smallest construction, and its element is that triangle which has its hypotenuse twice the lesser side. When two such triangles are joined at the diagonal, and this is repeated three times, and the triangles rest their diagonals and shorter sides on the same point as a centre, a single equilateral triangle is formed out of six triangles; and four equilateral triangles, if put together, make out of every three plane angles one solid angle, being that which is nearest to the most obtuse of plane angles; and out of the combination of these four angles arises the first solid form which distributes into equal and similar parts the whole circle in which it is inscribed. The second species of solid is formed out of the same triangles, which unite as eight equilateral triangles and form one solid angle out of four plane angles, and out of six such angles the second body is completed. And the third body is made up of 120 triangular elements, forming twelve solid angles, each of them included in five plane equilateral triangles, having altogether twenty bases, each of which is an equilateral triangle. The one element [that is, the triangle which has its hypotenuse twice the lesser side] having generated these figures, generated no more; but the isosceles triangle produced the fourth elementary figure, which is compounded of four such triangles, joining their right angles in a centre, and forming one equilateral quadrangle. Six of these united form eight solid angles, each of which is made by the combination of three plane right angles; the figure of the body thus composed is a cube, having six plane quadrangular equilateral bases. There was yet a fifth combination which God used in the delineation of the universe. Now, he who, duly reflecting on all this, enquires whether the worlds are to be regarded as indefinite or definite in number, will be of opinion that the notion of their indefiniteness is characteristic of a sadly indefinite and ignorant mind. He, however, who raises the question whether they are to be truly regarded as one or five, takes up a more reasonable position. Arguing from probabilities, I am of opinion that they are one; another, regarding the question from another point of view, will be of another mind. But, leaving this enquiry, let us proceed to distribute the elementary forms, which have now been created in idea, among the four elements. To earth, then, let us assign the cubical form; for earth is the most immoveable of the four and the most plastic of all bodies, and that which has the most stable bases must of necessity be of such a nature. Now, of the triangles which we assumed at first, that which has two equal sides is by nature more firmly based than that which has unequal sides; and of the compound figures which are formed out of either, the plane equilateral quadrangle has necessarily, a more stable basis than the equilateral triangle, both in the whole and in the parts. Wherefore, in assigning this figure to earth, we adhere to probability; and to water we assign that one of the remaining forms which is the least moveable; and the most moveable of them to fire; and to air that which is intermediate. Also we assign the smallest body to fire, and the greatest to water, and the intermediate in size to air; and, again, the acutest body to fire, and the next in acuteness to, air, and the third to water. Of all these elements, that which has the fewest bases must necessarily be the most moveable, for it must be the acutest and most penetrating in every way, and also the lightest as being composed of the smallest number of similar particles: and the second body has similar properties in a second degree, and the third body in the third degree. Let it be agreed, then, both according to strict reason and according to probability, that the pyramid is the solid which is the original element and seed of fire; and let us assign the element which was next in the order of generation to air, and the third to water. We must imagine all these to be so small that no single particle of any of the four kinds is seen by us on account of their smallness: but when many of them are collected together their aggregates are seen. And the ratios of their numbers, motions, and other properties, everywhere God, as far as necessity allowed or gave consent, has exactly perfected, and harmonised in due proportion. From all that we have just been saying about the elements or kinds, the most probable conclusion is as follows:-earth, when meeting with fire and dissolved by its sharpness, whether the dissolution take place in the fire itself or perhaps in some mass of air or water, is borne hither and thither, until its parts, meeting together and mutually harmonising, again become earth; for they can never take any other form. But water, when divided by fire or by air, on reforming, may become one part fire and two parts air; and a single volume of air divided becomes two of fire. Again, when a small body of fire is contained in a larger body of air or water or earth, and both are moving, and the fire struggling is overcome and broken up, then two volumes of fire form one volume of air; and when air is overcome and cut up into small pieces, two and a half parts of air are condensed into one part of water. Let us consider the matter in another way. When one of the other elements is fastened upon by fire, and is cut by the sharpness of its angles and sides, it coalesces with the fire, and then ceases to be cut by them any longer. For no element which is one and the same with itself can be changed by or change another of the same kind and in the same state. But so long as in the process of transition the weaker is fighting against the stronger, the dissolution continues. Again, when a few small particles, enclosed in many larger ones, are in process of decomposition and extinction, they only cease from their tendency to extinction when they consent to pass into the conquering nature, and fire becomes air and air water. But if bodies of another kind go and attack them [i.e. the small particles], the latter continue to be dissolved until, being completely forced back and dispersed, they make their escape to their own kindred, or else, being overcome and assimilated to the conquering power, they remain where they are and dwell with their victors, and from being many become one. And owing to these affections, all things are changing their place, for by the motion of the receiving vessel the bulk of each class is distributed into its proper place; but those things which become unlike themselves and like other things, are hurried by the shaking into the place of the things to which they grow like. Now all unmixed and primary bodies are produced by such causes as these. As to the subordinate species which are included in the greater kinds, they are to be attributed to the varieties in the structure of the two original triangles. For either structure did not originally produce the triangle of one size only, but some larger and some smaller, and there are as many sizes as there are species of the four elements. Hence when they are mingled with themselves and with one another there is an endless variety of them, which those who would arrive at the probable truth of nature ought duly to consider. Unless a person comes to an understanding about the nature and conditions of rest and motion, he will meet with many difficulties in the discussion which follows. Something has been said of this matter already, and something more remains to be said, which is, that motion never exists in what is uniform. For to conceive that anything can be moved without a mover is hard or indeed impossible, and equally impossible to conceive that there can be a mover unless there be something which can be moved-motion cannot exist where either of these are wanting, and for these to be uniform is impossible; wherefore we must assign rest to uniformity and motion to the want of uniformity. Now inequality is the cause of the nature which is wanting in uniformity; and of this we have already described the origin. But there still remains the further point-why things when divided after their kinds do not cease to pass through one another and to change their place-which we will now proceed to explain. In the revolution of the universe are comprehended all the four elements, and this being circular and having a tendency to come together, compresses everything and will not allow any place to be left void. Wherefore, also, fire above all things penetrates everywhere, and air next, as being next in rarity of the elements; and the two other elements in like manner penetrate according to their degrees of rarity. For those things which are composed of the largest particles have the largest void left in their compositions, and those which are composed of the smallest particles have the least. And the contraction caused by the compression thrusts the smaller particles into the interstices of the larger. And thus, when the small parts are placed side by side with the larger, and the lesser divide the greater and the greater unite the lesser, all the elements are borne up and down and hither and thither towards their own places; for the change in the size of each changes its position in space. And these causes generate an inequality which is always maintained, and is continually creating a perpetual motion of the elements in all time. In the next place we have to consider that there are divers kinds of fire. There are, for example, first, flame; and secondly, those emanations of flame which do not burn but only give light to the eyes; thirdly, the remains of fire, which are seen in red-hot embers after the flame has been extinguished. There are similar differences in the air; of which the brightest part is called the aether, and the most turbid sort mist and darkness; and there are various other nameless kinds which arise from the inequality of the triangles. Water, again, admits in the first place of a division into two kinds; the one liquid and the other fusile. The liquid kind is composed of the small and unequal particles of water; and moves itself and is moved by other bodies owing to the want of uniformity and the shape of its particles; whereas the fusile kind, being formed of large and uniform particles, is more stable than the other, and is heavy and compact by reason of its uniformity. But when fire gets in and dissolves the particles and destroys the uniformity, it has greater mobility, and becoming fluid is thrust forth by the neighbouring air and spreads upon the earth; and this dissolution of the solid masses is called melting, and their spreading out upon the earth flowing. Again, when the fire goes out of the fusile substance, it does not pass into vacuum, but into the neighbouring air; and the air which is displaced forces together the liquid and still moveable mass into the place which was occupied by the fire, and unites it with itself. Thus compressed the mass resumes its equability, and is again at unity with itself, because the fire which was the author of the inequality has retreated; and this departure of the fire is called cooling, and the coming together which follows upon it is termed congealment. Of all the kinds termed fusile, that which is the densest and is formed out of the finest and most uniform parts is that most precious possession called gold, which is hardened by filtration through rock; this is unique in kind, and has both a glittering and a yellow colour. A shoot of gold, which is so dense as to be very hard, and takes a black colour, is termed adamant. There is also another kind which has parts nearly like gold, and of which there are several species; it is denser than gold, and it contains a small and fine portion of earth, and is therefore harder, yet also lighter because of the great interstices which it has within itself; and this substance, which is one of the bright and denser kinds of water, when solidified is called copper. There is an alloy of earth mingled with it, which, when the two parts grow old and are disunited, shows itself separately and is called rust. The remaining phenomena of the same kind there will be no difficulty in reasoning out by the method of probabilities. A man may sometimes set aside meditations about eternal things, and for recreation turn to consider the truths of generation which are probable only; he will thus gain a pleasure not to be repented of, and secure for himself while he lives a wise and moderate pastime. Let us grant ourselves this indulgence, and go through the probabilities relating to the same subjects which follow next in order. Water which is mingled with fire, so much as is fine and liquid (being so called by reason of its motion and the way in which it rolls along the ground), and soft, because its bases give way are less stable than those of earth, when separated from fire and air and isolated, becomes more uniform, and by their retirement is compressed into itself; and if the condensation be very great, the water above the earth becomes hail, but on the earth, ice; and that which is congealed in a less degree and is only half solid, when above the earth is called snow, and when upon the earth, and condensed from dew, hoarfrost. Then, again, there are the numerous kinds of water which have been mingled with one another, and are distilled through plants which grow in the earth; and this whole class is called by the name of juices or saps. The unequal admixture of these fluids creates a variety of species; most of them are nameless, but four which are of a fiery nature are clearly distinguished and have names. First there is wine, which warms the soul as well as the body: secondly, there is the oily nature, which is smooth and divides the visual ray, and for this reason is bright and shining and of a glistening appearance, including pitch, the juice of the castor berry, oil itself, and other things of a like kind: thirdly, there is the class of substances which expand the contracted parts of the mouth, until they return to their natural state, and by reason of this property create sweetness;-these are included under the general name of honey: and, lastly, there is a frothy nature, which differs from all juices, having a burning quality which dissolves the flesh; it is called opos (a vegetable acid). As to the kinds of earth, that which is filtered through water passes into stone in the following manner:-The water which mixes with the earth and is broken up in the process changes into air, and taking this form mounts into its own place. But as there is no surrounding vacuum it thrusts away the neighbouring air, and this being rendered heavy, and, when it is displaced, having been poured around the mass of earth, forcibly compresses it and drives it into the vacant space whence the new air had come up; and the earth when compressed by the air into an indissoluble union with water becomes rock. The fairer sort is that which is made up of equal and similar parts and is transparent; that which has the opposite qualities is inferior. But when all the watery part is suddenly drawn out by fire, a more brittle substance is formed, to which we give the name of pottery. Sometimes also moisture may remain, and the earth which has been fused by fire becomes, when cool, a certain stone of a black colour. A like separation of the water which had been copiously mingled with them may occur in two substances composed of finer particles of earth and of a briny nature; out of either of them a half solid body is then formed, soluble in water-the one, soda, which is used for purging away oil and earth, and other, salt, which harmonizes so well in combinations pleasing to the palate, and is, as the law testifies, a substance dear to the gods. The compounds of earth and water are not soluble by water, but by fire only, and for this reason:-Neither fire nor air melt masses of earth; for their particles, being smaller than the interstices in its structure, have plenty of room to move without forcing their way, and so they leave the earth unmelted and undissolved; but particles of water, which are larger, force a passage, and dissolve and melt the earth. Wherefore earth when not consolidated by force is dissolved by water only; when consolidated, by nothing but fire; for this is the only body which can find an entrance. The cohesion of water again, when very strong, is dissolved by fire only-when weaker, then either by air or fire-the former entering the interstices, and the latter penetrating even the triangles. But nothing can dissolve air, when strongly condensed, which does not reach the elements or triangles; or if not strongly condensed, then only fire can dissolve it. As to bodies composed of earth and water, while the water occupies the vacant interstices of the earth in them which are compressed by force, the particles of water which approach them from without, finding no entrance, flow around the entire mass and leave it undissolved; but the particles of fire, entering into the interstices of the water, do to the water what water does to earth and fire to air, and are the sole causes of the compound body of earth and water liquefying and becoming fluid. Now these bodies are of two kinds; some of them, such as glass and the fusible sort of stones, have less water than they have earth; on the other hand, substances of the nature of wax and incense have more of water entering into their composition. I have thus shown the various classes of bodies as they are diversified by their forms and combinations and changes into one another, and now I must endeavour to set forth their affections and the causes of them. In the first place, the bodies which I have been describing are necessarily objects of sense. But we have not yet considered the origin of flesh, or what belongs to flesh, or of that part of the soul which is mortal. And these things cannot be adequately explained without also explaining the affections which are concerned with sensation, nor the latter without the former: and yet to explain them together is hardly possible; for which reason we must assume first one or the other and afterwards examine the nature of our hypothesis. In order, then, that the affections may follow regularly after the elements, let us presuppose the existence of body and soul. First, let us enquire what we mean by saying that fire is hot; and about this we may reason from the dividing or cutting power which it exercises on our bodies. We all of us feel that fire is sharp; and we may further consider the fineness of the sides, and the sharpness of the angles, and the smallness of the particles, and the swiftness of the motion-all this makes the action of fire violent and sharp, so that it cuts whatever it meets. And we must not forget that the original figure of fire [i.e. the pyramid], more than any other form, has a dividing power which cuts our bodies into small pieces (Kepmatizei), and thus naturally produces that affection which we call heat; and hence the origin of the name (thepmos, Kepma). Now, the opposite of this is sufficiently manifest; nevertheless we will not fail to describe it. For the larger particles of moisture which surround the body, entering in and driving out the lesser, but not being able to take their places, compress the moist principle in us; and this from being unequal and disturbed, is forced by them into a state of rest, which is due to equability and compression. But things which are contracted contrary to nature are by nature at war, and force themselves apart; and to this war and convulsion the name of shivering and trembling is given; and the whole affection and the cause of the affection are both termed cold. That is called hard to which our flesh yields, and soft which yields to our flesh; and things are also termed hard and soft relatively to one another. That which yields has a small base; but that which rests on quadrangular bases is firmly posed and belongs to the class which offers the greatest resistance; so too does that which is the most compact and therefore most repellent. The nature of the light and the heavy will be best understood when examined in connexion with our notions of above and below; for it is quite a mistake to suppose that the universe is parted into two regions, separate from and opposite to each other, the one a lower to which all things tend which have any bulk, and an upper to which things only ascend against their will. For as the universe is in the form of a sphere, all the extremities, being equidistant from the centre, are equally extremities, and the centre, which is equidistant from them, is equally to be regarded as the opposite of them all. Such being the nature of the world, when a person says that any of these points is above or below, may he not be justly charged with using an improper expression? For the centre of the world cannot be rightly called either above or below, but is the centre and nothing else; and the circumference is not the centre, and has in no one part of itself a different relation to the centre from what it has in any of the opposite parts. Indeed, when it is in every direction similar, how can one rightly give to it names which imply opposition? For if there were any solid body in equipoise at the centre of the universe, there would be nothing to draw it to this extreme rather than to that, for they are all perfectly similar; and if a person were to go round the world in a circle, he would often, when standing at the antipodes of his former position, speak of the same point as above and below; for, as I was saying just now, to speak of the whole which is in the form of a globe as having one part above and another below is not like a sensible man. The reason why these names are used, and the circumstances under which they are ordinarily applied by us to the division of the heavens, may be elucidated by the following supposition:-if a person were to stand in that part of the universe which is the appointed place of fire, and where there is the great mass of fire to which fiery bodies gather-if, I say, he were to ascend thither, and, having the power to do this, were to abstract particles of fire and put them in scales and weigh them, and then, raising the balance, were to draw the fire by force towards the uncongenial element of the air, it would be very evident that he could compel the smaller mass more readily than the larger; for when two things are simultaneously raised by one and the same power, the smaller body must necessarily yield to the superior power with less reluctance than the larger; and the larger body is called heavy and said to tend downwards, and the smaller body is called light and said to tend upwards. And we may detect ourselves who are upon the earth doing precisely the same thing. For we of separate earthy natures, and sometimes earth itself, and draw them into the uncongenial element of air by force and contrary to nature, both clinging to their kindred elements. But that which is smaller yields to the impulse given by us towards the dissimilar element more easily than the larger; and so we call the former light, and the place towards which it is impelled we call above, and the contrary state and place we call heavy and below respectively. Now the relations of these must necessarily vary, because the principal masses of the different elements hold opposite positions; for that which is light, heavy, below or above in one place will be found to be and become contrary and transverse and every way diverse in relation to that which is light, heavy, below or above in an opposite place. And about all of them this has to be considered:-that the tendency of each towards its kindred element makes the body which is moved heavy, and the place towards which the motion tends below, but things which have an opposite tendency we call by an opposite name. Such are the causes which we assign to these phenomena. As to the smooth and the rough, any one who sees them can explain the reason of them to another. For roughness is hardness mingled with irregularity, and smoothness is produced by the joint effect of uniformity and density. The most important of the affections which concern the whole body remains to be considered-that is, the cause of pleasure and pain in the perceptions of which I have been speaking, and in all other things which are perceived by sense through the parts of the body, and have both pains and pleasures attendant on them. Let us imagine the causes of every affection, whether of sense or not, to be of the following nature, remembering that we have already distinguished between the nature which is easy and which is hard to move; for this is the direction in which we must hunt the prey which we mean to take. A body which is of a nature to be easily moved, on receiving an impression however slight, spreads abroad the motion in a circle, the parts communicating with each other, until at last, reaching the principle of mind, they announce the quality of the agent. But a body of the opposite kind, being immobile, and not extending to the surrounding region, merely receives the impression, and does not stir any of the neighbouring parts; and since the parts do not distribute the original impression to other parts, it has no effect of motion on the whole animal, and therefore produces no effect on the patient. This is true of the bones and hair and other more earthy parts of the human body; whereas what was said above relates mainly to sight and hearing, because they have in them the greatest amount of fire and air. Now we must conceive of pleasure and pain in this way. An impression produced in us contrary to nature and violent, if sudden, is painful; and, again, the sudden return to nature is pleasant; but a gentle and gradual return is imperceptible and vice versa. On the other hand the impression of sense which is most easily produced is most readily felt, but is not accompanied by Pleasure or pain; such, for example, are the affections of the sight, which, as we said above, is a body naturally uniting with our body in the day-time; for cuttings and burnings and other affections which happen to the sight do not give pain, nor is there pleasure when the sight returns to its natural state; but the sensations are dearest and strongest according to the manner in which the eye is affected by the object, and itself strikes and touches it; there is no violence either in the contraction or dilation of the eye. But bodies formed of larger particles yield to the agent only with a struggle; and then they impart their motions to the whole and cause pleasure and pain-pain when alienated from their natural conditions, and pleasure when restored to them. Things which experience gradual withdrawings and emptyings of their nature, and great and sudden replenishments, fail to perceive the emptying, but are sensible of the replenishment; and so they occasion no pain, but the greatest pleasure, to the mortal part of the soul, as is manifest in the case of perfumes. But things which are changed all of a sudden, and only gradually and with difficulty return to their own nature, have effects in every way opposite to the former, as is evident in the case of burnings and cuttings of the body. Thus have we discussed the general affections of the whole body, and the names of the agents which produce them. And now I will endeavour to speak of the affections of particular parts, and the causes and agents of them, as far as I am able. In the first place let us set forth what was omitted when we were speaking of juices, concerning the affections peculiar to the tongue. These too, like most of the other affections, appear to be caused by certain contractions and dilations, but they have besides more of roughness and smoothness than is found in other affections; for whenever earthy particles enter into the small veins which are the testing of the tongue, reaching to the heart, and fall upon the moist, delicate portions of flesh-when, as they are dissolved, they contract and dry up the little veins, they are astringent if they are rougher, but if not so rough, then only harsh. Those of them which are of an abstergent nature, and purge the whole surface of the tongue, if they do it in excess, and so encroach as to consume some part of the flesh itself, like potash and soda, are all termed bitter. But the particles which are deficient in the alkaline quality, and which cleanse only moderately, are called salt, and having no bitterness or roughness, are regarded as rather agreeable than otherwise. Bodies which share in and are made smooth by the heat of the mouth, and which are inflamed, and again in turn inflame that which heats them, and which are so light that they are carried upwards to the sensations of the head, and cut all that comes in their way, by reason of these qualities in them, are all termed pungent. But when these same particles, refined by putrefaction, enter into the narrow veins, and are duly proportioned to the particles of earth and air which are there, they set them whirling about one another, and while they are in a whirl cause them to dash against and enter into one another, and so form hollows surrounding the particles that enter-which watery vessels of air (for a film of moisture, sometimes earthy, sometimes pure, is spread around the air) are hollow spheres of water; and those of them which are pure, are transparent, and are called bubbles, while those composed of the earthy liquid, which is in a state of general agitation and effervescence, are said to boil or ferment-of all these affections the cause is termed acid. And there is the opposite affection arising from an opposite cause, when the mass of entering particles, immersed in the moisture of the mouth, is congenial to the tongue, and smooths and oils over the roughness, and relaxes the parts which are unnaturally contracted, and contracts the parts which are relaxed, and disposes them all according to their nature-that sort of remedy of violent affections is pleasant and agreeable to every man, and has the name sweet. But enough of this. The faculty of smell does not admit of differences of kind; for all smells are of a half formed nature, and no element is so proportioned as to have any smell. The veins about the nose are too narrow to admit earth and water, and too wide to detain fire and air; and for this reason no one ever perceives the smell of any of them; but smells always proceed from bodies that are damp, or putrefying, or liquefying, or evaporating, and are perceptible only in the intermediate state, when water is changing into air and air into water; and all of them are either vapor or mist. That which is passing out of air into water is mist, and that which is passing from water into air is vapour; and hence all smells are thinner than water and thicker than air. The proof of this is, that when there is any obstruction to the respiration, and a man draws in his breath by force, then no smell filters through, but the air without the smell alone penetrates. Wherefore the varieties of smell have no name, and they have not many, or definite and simple kinds; but they are distinguished only painful and pleasant, the one sort irritating and disturbing the whole cavity which is situated between the head and the navel, the other having a soothing influence, and restoring this same region to an agreeable and natural condition. In considering the third kind of sense, hearing, we must speak of the causes in which it originates. We may in general assume sound to be a blow which passes through the ears, and is transmitted by means of the air, the brain, and the blood, to the soul, and that hearing is the vibration of this blow, which begins in the head and ends in the region of the liver. The sound which moves swiftly is acute, and the sound which moves slowly is grave, and that which is regular is equable and smooth, and the reverse is harsh. A great body of sound is loud, and a small body of sound the reverse. Respecting the harmonies of sound I must hereafter speak. There is a fourth class of sensible things, having many intricate varieties, which must now be distinguished. They are called by the general name of colours, and are a flame which emanates from every sort of body, and has particles corresponding to the sense of sight. I have spoken already, in what has preceded, of the causes which generate sight, and in this place it will be natural and suitable to give a rational theory of colours. Of the particles coming from other bodies which fall upon the sight, some are smaller and some are larger, and some are equal to the parts of the sight itself. Those which are equal are imperceptible, and we call them transparent. The larger produce contraction, the smaller dilation, in the sight, exercising a power akin to that of hot and cold bodies on the flesh, or of astringent bodies on the tongue, or of those heating bodies which we termed pungent. White and black are similar effects of contraction and dilation in another sphere, and for this reason have a different appearance. Wherefore, we ought to term white that which dilates the visual ray, and the opposite of this is black. There is also a swifter motion of a different sort of fire which strikes and dilates the ray of sight until it reaches the eyes, forcing a way through their passages and melting them, and eliciting from them a union of fire and water which we call tears, being itself an opposite fire which comes to them from an opposite direction-the inner fire flashes forth like lightning, and the outer finds a way in and is extinguished in the moisture, and all sorts of colours are generated by the mixture. This affection is termed dazzling, and the object which produces it is called bright and flashing. There is another sort of fire which is intermediate, and which reaches and mingles with the moisture of the eye without flashing; and in this, the fire mingling with the ray of the moisture, produces a colour like blood, to which we give the name of red. A bright hue mingled with red and white gives the colour called auburn. The law of proportion, however, according to which the several colours are formed, even if a man knew he would be foolish in telling, for he could not give any necessary reason, nor indeed any tolerable or probable explanation of them. Again, red, when mingled with black and white, becomes purple, but it becomes umber when the colours are burnt as well as mingled and the black is more thoroughly mixed with them. Flame colour is produced by a union of auburn and dun, and dun by an admixture of black and white; pale yellow, by an admixture of white and auburn. White and bright meeting, and falling upon a full black, become dark blue, and when dark blue mingles with white, a light blue colour is formed, as flame-colour with black makes leek green. There will be no difficulty in seeing how and by what mixtures the colours derived from these are made according to the rules of probability. He, however, who should attempt to verify all this by experiment, would forget the difference of the human and divine nature. For God only has the knowledge and also the power which are able to combine many things into one and again resolve the one into many. But no man either is or ever will be able to accomplish either the one or the other operation. These are the elements, thus of necessity then subsisting, which the creator of the fairest and best of created things associated with himself, when he made the self-sufficing and most perfect God, using the necessary causes as his ministers in the accomplishment of his work, but himself contriving the good in all his creations. Wherefore we may distinguish two sorts of causes, the one divine and the other necessary, and may seek for the divine in all things, as far as our nature admits, with a view to the blessed life; but the necessary kind only for the sake of the divine, considering that without them and when isolated from them, these higher things for which we look cannot be apprehended or received or in any way shared by us. Seeing, then, that we have now prepared for our use the various classes of causes which are the material out of which the remainder of our discourse must be woven, just as wood is the material of the carpenter, let us revert in a few words to the point at which we began, and then endeavour to add on a suitable ending to the beginning of our tale. As I said at first, when all things were in disorder God created in each thing in relation to itself, and in all things in relation to each other, all the measures and harmonies which they could possibly receive. For in those days nothing had any proportion except by accident; nor did any of the things which now have names deserve to be named at all-as, for example, fire, water, and the rest of the elements. All these the creator first set in order, and out of them he constructed the universe, which was a single animal comprehending in itself all other animals, mortal and immortal. Now of the divine, he himself was the creator, but the creation of the mortal he committed to his offspring. And they, imitating him, received from him the immortal principle of the soul; and around this they proceeded to fashion a mortal body, and. made it to be the vehicle of the so and constructed within the body a soul of another nature which was mortal, subject to terrible and irresistible affections-first of all, pleasure, the greatest incitement to evil; then, pain, which deters from good; also rashness and fear, two foolish counsellors, anger hard to be appeased, and hope easily led astray-these they mingled with irrational sense and with all-daring love according to necessary laws, and so framed man. Wherefore, fearing to pollute the divine any more than was absolutely unavoidable, they gave to the mortal nature a separate habitation in another part of the body, placing the neck between them to be the isthmus and boundary, which they constructed between the head and breast, to keep them apart. And in the breast, and in what is termed the thorax, they encased the mortal soul; and as the one part of this was superior and the other inferior they divided the cavity of the thorax into two parts, as the women's and men's apartments are divided in houses, and placed the midriff to be a wall of partition between them. That part of the inferior soul which is endowed with courage and passion and loves contention they settled nearer the head, midway between the midriff and the neck, in order that it might be under the rule of reason and might join with it in controlling and restraining the desires when they are no longer willing of their own accord to obey the word of command issuing from the citadel. The heart, the knot of the veins and the fountain of the blood which races through all the limbs was set in the place of guard, that when the might of passion was roused by reason making proclamation of any wrong assailing them from without or being perpetrated by the desires within, quickly the whole power of feeling in the body, perceiving these commands and threats, might obey and follow through every turn and alley, and thus allow the principle of the best to have the command in all of them. But the gods, foreknowing that the palpitation of the heart in the expectation of danger and the swelling and excitement of passion was caused by fire, formed and implanted as a supporter to the heart the lung, which was, in the first place, soft and bloodless, and also had within hollows like the pores of a sponge, in order that by receiving the breath and the drink, it might give coolness and the power of respiration and alleviate the heat. Wherefore they cut the air-channels leading to the lung, and placed the lung about the heart as a soft spring, that, when passion was rife within, the heart, beating against a yielding body, might be cooled and suffer less, and might thus become more ready to join with passion in the service of reason. The part of the soul which desires meats and drinks and the other things of which it has need by reason of the bodily nature, they placed between the midriff and the boundary of the navel, contriving in all this region a sort of manger for the food of the body; and there they bound it down like a wild animal which was chained up with man, and must be nourished if man was to exist. They appointed this lower creation his place here in order that he might be always feeding at the manger, and have his dwelling as far as might be from the council-chamber, making as little noise and disturbance as possible, and permitting the best part to advise quietly for the good of the whole. And knowing that this lower principle in man would not comprehend reason, and even if attaining to some degree of perception would never naturally care for rational notions, but that it would be led away by phantoms and visions night and day-to be a remedy for this, God combined with it the liver, and placed it in the house of the lower nature, contriving that it should be solid and smooth, and bright and sweet, and should also have a bitter quality, in order that the power of thought, which proceeds from the mind, might be reflected as in a mirror which receives likenesses of objects and gives back images of them to the sight; and so might strike terror into the desires, when, making use of the bitter part of the liver, to which it is akin, it comes threatening and invading, and diffusing this bitter element swiftly through the whole liver produces colours like bile, and contracting every part makes it wrinkled and rough; and twisting out of its right place and contorting the lobe and closing and shutting up the vessels and gates, causes pain and loathing. And the converse happens when some gentle inspiration of the understanding pictures images of an opposite character, and allays the bile and bitterness by refusing to stir or touch the nature opposed to itself, but by making use of the natural sweetness of the liver, corrects all things and makes them to be right and smooth and free, and renders the portion of the soul which resides about the liver happy and joyful, enabling it to pass the night in peace, and to practise divination in sleep, inasmuch as it has no share in mind and reason. For the authors of our being, remembering the command of their father when he bade them create the human race as good as they could, that they might correct our inferior parts and make them to attain a measure of truth, placed in the liver the seat of divination. And herein is a proof that God has given the art of divination not to the wisdom, but to the foolishness of man. No man, when in his wits, attains prophetic truth and inspiration; but when he receives the inspired word, either his intelligence is enthralled in sleep, or he is demented by some distemper or possession. And he who would understand what he remembers to have been said, whether in a dream or when he was awake, by the prophetic and inspired nature, or would determine by reason the meaning of the apparitions which he has seen, and what indications they afford to this man or that, of past, present or future good and evil, must first recover his wits. But, while he continues demented, he cannot judge of the visions which he sees or the words which he utters; the ancient saying is very true, that "only a man who has his wits can act or judge about himself and his own affairs." And for this reason it is customary to appoint interpreters to be judges of the true inspiration. Some persons call them prophets; they are quite unaware that they are only the expositors of dark sayings and visions, and are not to be called prophets at all, but only interpreters of prophecy. Such is the nature of the liver, which is placed as we have described in order that it may give prophetic intimations. During the life of each individual these intimations are plainer, but after his death the liver becomes blind, and delivers oracles too obscure to be intelligible. The neighbouring organ [the spleen] is situated on the left-hand side, and is constructed with a view of keeping the liver bright and pure-like a napkin, always ready prepared and at hand to clean the mirror. And hence, when any impurities arise in the region of the liver by reason of disorders of the body, the loose nature of the spleen, which is composed of a hollow and bloodless tissue, receives them all and dears them away, and when filled with the unclean matter, swells and festers, but, again, when the body is purged, settles down into the same place as before, and is humbled. Concerning the soul, as to which part is mortal and which divine, and how and why they are separated, and where located, if God acknowledges that we have spoken the truth, then, and then only, can we be confident; still, we may venture to assert that what has been said by us is probable, and will be rendered more probable by investigation. Let us assume thus much. The creation of the rest of follows next in order, and this we may investigate in a similar manner. And it appears to be very meet that the body should be framed on the following principles:- The authors of our race were aware that we should be intemperate in eating and drinking, and take a good deal more than was necessary or proper, by reason of gluttony. In order then that disease might not quickly destroy us, and lest our mortal race should perish without fulfilling its end-intending to provide against this, the gods made what is called the lower belly, to be a receptacle for the superfluous meat and drink, and formed the convolution of the bowels, so that the food might be prevented from passing quickly through and compelling the body to require more food, thus producing insatiable gluttony, and making the whole race an enemy to philosophy and music, and rebellious against the divinest element within us. The bones and flesh, and other similar parts of us, were made as follows. The first principle of all of them was the generation of the marrow. For the bonds of life which unite the soul with the body are made fast there, and they are the root and foundation of the human race. The marrow itself is created out of other materials: God took such of the primary triangles as were straight and smooth, and were adapted by their perfection to produce fire and water, and air and earth-these, I say, he separated from their kinds, and mingling them in due proportions with one another, made the marrow out of them to be a universal seed of the whole race of mankind; and in this seed he then planted and enclosed the souls, and in the original distribution gave to the marrow as many and various forms as the different kinds of souls were hereafter to receive. That which, like a field, was to receive the divine seed, he made round every way, and called that portion of the marrow, brain, intending that, when an animal was perfected, the vessel containing this substance should be the head; but that which was intended to contain the remaining and mortal part of the soul he distributed into figures at once around and elongated, and he called them all by the name "marrow"; and to these, as to anchors, fastening the bonds of the whole soul, he proceeded to fashion around them the entire framework of our body, constructing for the marrow, first of all a complete covering of bone. Bone was composed by him in the following manner. Having sifted pure and smooth earth he kneaded it and wetted it with marrow, and after that he put it into fire and then into water, and once more into fire and again into water-in this way by frequent transfers from one to the other he made it insoluble by either. Out of this he fashioned, as in a lathe, a globe made of bone, which he placed around the brain, and in this he left a narrow opening; and around the marrow of the neck and back he formed vertebrae which he placed under one another like pivots, beginning at the head and extending through the whole of the trunk. Thus wishing to preserve the entire seed, he enclosed it in a stone-like casing, inserting joints, and using in the formation of them the power of the other or diverse as an intermediate nature, that they might have motion and flexure. Then again, considering that the bone would be too brittle and inflexible, and when heated and again cooled would soon mortify and destroy the seed within-having this in view, he contrived the sinews and the flesh, that so binding all the members together by the sinews, which admitted of being stretched and relaxed about the vertebrae, he might thus make the body capable of flexion and extension, while the flesh would serve as a protection against the summer heat and against the winter cold, and also against falls, softly and easily yielding to external bodies, like articles made of felt; and containing in itself a warm moisture which in summer exudes and makes the surface damp, would impart a nature coolness to the whole body; and again in winter by the help of this internal warmth would form a very tolerable defence against the frost which surrounds it and attacks it from without. He who modelled us, considering these things, mixed earth with fire and water and blended them; and making a ferment of acid and salt, he mingled it with them and formed soft and succulent flesh. As for the sinews, he made them of a mixture of bone and unfermented flesh, attempered so as to be in a mean, and gave them a yellow colour; wherefore the sinews have a firmer and more glutinous nature than flesh, but a softer and moister nature than the bones. With these God covered the bones and marrow, binding them together by sinews, and then enshrouded them all in an upper covering of flesh. The more living and sensitive of the bones he enclosed in the thinnest film of flesh, and those which had the least life within them in the thickest and most solid flesh. So again on the joints of the bones, where reason indicated that no more was required, he placed only a thin covering of flesh, that it might not interfere with the flexion of our bodies and make them unwieldy because difficult to move; and also that it might not, by being crowded and pressed and matted together, destroy sensation by reason of its hardness, and impair the memory and dull the edge of intelligence. Wherefore also the thighs and the shanks and the hips, and the bones of the arms and the forearms, and other parts which have no joints, and the inner bones, which on account of the rarity of the soul in the marrow are destitute of reason-all these are abundantly provided with flesh; but such as have mind in them are in general less fleshy, except where the creator has made some part solely of flesh in order to give sensation-as, for example, the tongue. But commonly this is not the case. For the nature which comes into being and grows up in us by a law of necessity, does not admit of the combination of solid bone and much flesh with acute perceptions. More than any other part the framework of the head would have had them, if they could have co-existed, and the human race, having a strong and fleshy and sinewy head, would have had a life twice or many times as long as it now has, and also more healthy and free from pain. But our creators, considering whether they should make a longer-lived race which was worse, or a shorter-lived race which was better, came to the conclusion that every one ought to prefer a shorter span of life, which was better, to a longer one, which was worse; and therefore they covered the head with thin bone, but not with flesh and sinews, since it had no joints; and thus the head was added, having more wisdom and sensation than the rest of the body, but also being in every man far weaker. For these reasons and after this manner God placed the sinews at the extremity of the head, in a circle round the neck, and glued them together by the principle of likeness and fastened the extremities of the jawbones to them below the face, and the other sinews he dispersed throughout the body, fastening limb to limb. The framers of us framed the mouth, as now arranged, having teeth and tongue and lips, with a view to the necessary and the good, contriving the way in for necessary purposes, the way out for the best purposes; for that is necessary which enters in and gives food to the body; but the river of speech, which flows out of a man and ministers to the intelligence, is the fairest and noblest of all streams. Still the head could neither be left a bare frame of bones, on account of the extremes of heat and cold in the different seasons, nor yet be allowed to be wholly covered, and so become dull and senseless by reason of an overgrowth of flesh. The fleshy nature was not therefore wholly dried up, but a large sort of peel was parted off and remained over, which is now called the skin. This met and grew by the help of the cerebral moisture, and became the circular envelopment of the head. And the moisture, rising up under the sutures, watered and closed in the skin upon the crown, forming a sort of knot. The diversity of the sutures was caused by the power of the courses of the soul and of the food, and the more these struggled against one another the more numerous they became, and fewer if the struggle were less violent. This skin the divine power pierced all round with fire, and out of the punctures which were thus made the moisture issued forth, and the liquid and heat which was pure came away, and a mixed part which was composed of the same material as the skin, and had a fineness equal to the punctures, was borne up by its own impulse and extended far outside the head, but being too slow to escape, was thrust back by the external air, and rolled up underneath the skin, where it took root. Thus the hair sprang up in the skin, being akin to it because it is like threads of leather, but rendered harder and closer through the pressure of the cold, by which each hair, while in process of separation from the skin, is compressed and cooled. Wherefore the creator formed the head hairy, making use of the causes which I have mentioned, and reflecting also that instead of flesh the brain needed the hair to be a light covering or guard, which would give shade in summer and shelter in winter, and at the same time would not impede our quickness of perception. From the combination of sinew, skin, and bone, in the structure of the finger, there arises a triple compound, which, when dried up, takes the form of one hard skin partaking of all three natures, and was fabricated by these second causes, but designed by mind which is the principal cause with an eye to the future. For our creators well knew that women and other animals would some day be framed out of men, and they further knew that many animals would require the use of nails for many purposes; wherefore they fashioned in men at their first creation the rudiments of nails. For this purpose and for these reasons they caused skin, hair, and nails to grow at the extremities of the limbs. And now that all the parts and members of the mortal animal had come together, since its life of necessity consisted of fire and breath, and it therefore wasted away by dissolution and depletion, the gods contrived the following remedy: They mingled a nature akin to that of man with other forms and perceptions, and thus created another kind of animal. These are the trees and plants and seeds which have been improved by cultivation and are now domesticated among us; anciently there were only the will kinds, which are older than the cultivated. For everything that partakes of life may be truly called a living being, and the animal of which we are now speaking partakes of the third kind of soul, which is said to be seated between the midriff and the navel, having no part in opinion or reason or mind, but only in feelings of pleasure and pain and the desires which accompany them. For this nature is always in a passive state, revolving in and about itself, repelling the motion from without and using its own, and accordingly is not endowed by nature with the power of observing or reflecting on its own concerns. Wherefore it lives and does not differ from a living being, but is fixed and rooted in the same spot, having no power of self-motion. Now after the superior powers had created all these natures to be food for us who are of the inferior nature, they cut various channels through the body as through a garden, that it might be watered as from a running stream. In the first place, they cut two hidden channels or veins down the back where the skin and the flesh join, which answered severally to the right and left side of the body. These they let down along the backbone, so as to have the marrow of generation between them, where it was most likely to flourish, and in order that the stream coming down from above might flow freely to the other parts, and equalise the irrigation. In the next place, they divided the veins about the head, and interlacing them, they sent them in opposite directions; those coming from the right side they sent to the left of the body, and those from the left they diverted towards the right, so that they and the skin might together form a bond which should fasten the head to the body, since the crown of the head was not encircled by sinews; and also in order that the sensations from both sides might be distributed over the whole body. And next, they ordered the water-courses of the body in a manner which I will describe, and which will be more easily understood if we begin by admitting that all things which have lesser parts retain the greater, but the greater cannot retain the lesser. Now of all natures fire has the smallest parts, and therefore penetrates through earth and water and air and their compounds, nor can anything hold it. And a similar principle applies to the human belly; for when meats and drinks enter it, it holds them, but it cannot hold air and fire, because the particles of which they consist are smaller than its own structure. These elements, therefore, God employed for the sake of distributing moisture from the belly into the veins, weaving together network of fire and air like a weel, having at the entrance two lesser weels; further he constructed one of these with two openings, and from the lesser weels he extended cords reaching all round to the extremities of the network. All the interior of the net he made of fire, but the lesser weels and their cavity, of air. The network he took and spread over the newly-formed animal in the following manner:-He let the lesser weels pass into the mouth; there were two of them, and one he let down by the air-pipes into the lungs, the other by the side of the air-pipes into the belly. The former he divided into two branches, both of which he made to meet at the channels of the nose, so that when the way through the mouth did not act, the streams of the mouth as well were replenished through the nose. With the other cavity (i.e. of the greater weel) he enveloped the hollow parts of the body, and at one time he made all this to flow into the lesser weels, quite gently, for they are composed of air, and at another time he caused the lesser weels to flow back again; and the net he made to find a way in and out through the pores of the body, and the rays of fire which are bound fast within followed the passage of the air either way, never at any time ceasing so long as the mortal being holds together. This process, as we affirm, the name-giver named inspiration and expiration. And all this movement, active as well as passive, takes place in order that the body, being watered and cooled, may receive nourishment and life; for when the respiration is going in and out, and the fire, which is fast bound within, follows it, and ever and anon moving to and fro, enters through the belly and reaches the meat and drink, it dissolves them, and dividing them into small portions and guiding them through the passages where it goes, pumps them as from a fountain into the channels of the veins, and makes the stream of the veins flow through the body as through a conduit. Let us once more consider the phenomena of respiration, and enquire into the causes which have made it what it is. They are as follows:-Seeing that there is no such thing as a vacuum into which any of those things which are moved can enter, and the breath is carried from us into the external air, the next point is, as will be dear to every one, that it does not go into a vacant space, but pushes its neighbour out of its place, and that which is thrust out in turn drives out its neighbour; and in this everything of necessity at last comes round to that place from whence the breath came forth, and enters in there, and following the breath, fills up the vacant space; and this goes on like the rotation of a wheel, because there can be no such thing as a vacuum. Wherefore also the breast and the lungs, when they emit the breath, are replenished by the air which surrounds the body and which enters in through the pores of the flesh and is driven round in a circle; and again, the air which is sent away and passes out through the body forces the breath inwards through the passage of the mouth and the nostrils. Now the origin of this movement may be supposed to be as follows. In the interior of every animal the hottest part is that which is around the blood and veins; it is in a manner on internal fountain of fire, which we compare to the network of a creel, being woven all of fire and extended through the centre of the body, while the-outer parts are composed of air. Now we must admit that heat naturally proceeds outward to its own place and to its kindred element; and as there are two exits for the heat, the out through the body, and the other through the mouth and nostrils, when it moves towards the one, it drives round the air at the other, and that which is driven round falls into the fire and becomes warm, and that which goes forth is cooled. But when the heat changes its place, and the particles at the other exit grow warmer, the hotter air inclining in that direction and carried towards its native element, fire, pushes round the air at the other; and this being affected in the same way and communicating the same impulse, a circular motion swaying to and from is produced by the double process, which we call inspiration and expiration. The phenomena of medical cupping-glasses and of the swallowing of drink and of the projection of bodies, whether discharged in the air or bowled along the ground, are to be investigated on a similar principle; and swift and slow sounds, which appear to be high and low, and are sometimes discordant on account of their inequality, and then again harmonical on account of the equality of the motion which they excite in us. For when the motions of the antecedent swifter sounds begin to pause and the two are equalised, the slower sounds overtake the swifter and then propel them. When they overtake them they do not intrude a new and discordant motion, but introduce the beginnings of a slower, which answers to the swifter as it dies away, thus producing a single mixed expression out of high and low, whence arises a pleasure which even the unwise feel, and which to the wise becomes a higher sort of delight, being an imitation of divine harmony in mortal motions. Moreover, as to the flowing of water, the fall of the thunderbolt, and the marvels that are observed about the attraction of amber and the Heraclean stones,-in none of these cases is there any attraction; but he who investigates rightly, will find that such wonderful phenomena are attributable to the combination of certain conditions-the non-existence of a vacuum, the fact that objects push one another round, and that they change places, passing severally into their proper positions as they are divided or combined Such as we have seen, is the nature and such are the causes of respiration-the subject in which this discussion originated. For the fire cuts the food and following the breath surges up within, fire and breath rising together and filling the veins by drawing up out of the belly and pouring into them the cut portions of the food; and so the streams of food are kept flowing through the whole body in all animals. And fresh cuttings from kindred substances, whether the fruits of the earth or herb of the field, which God planted to be our daily food, acquire all sorts of colours by their inter-mixture; but red is the most pervading of them, being created by the cutting action of fire and by the impression which it makes on a moist substance; and hence the liquid which circulates in the body has a colour such as we have described. The liquid itself we call blood, which nourishes the flesh and the whole body, whence all parts are watered and empty places filled. Now the process of repletion and evacuation is effected after the manner of the universal motion by which all kindred substances are drawn towards one another. For the external elements which surround us are always causing us to consume away, and distributing and sending off like to like; the particles of blood, too, which are divided and contained within the frame of the animal as in a sort of heaven, are compelled to imitate the motion of the universe. Each, therefore, of the divided parts within us, being carried to its kindred nature, replenishes the void. When more is taken away than flows in, then we decay, and when less, we grow and increase. The frame of the entire creature when young has the triangles of each kind new, and may be compared to the keel of a vessel which is just off the stocks; they are locked firmly together and yet the whole mass is soft and delicate, being freshly formed of marrow and nurtured on milk. Now when the triangles out of which meats and drinks are composed come in from without, and are comprehended in the body, being older and weaker than the triangles already there, the frame of the body gets the better of them and its newer triangles cut them up, and so the animal grows great, being nourished by a multitude of similar particles. But when the roots of the triangles are loosened by having undergone many conflicts with many things in the course of time, they are no longer able to cut or assimilate the food which enters, but are themselves easily divided by the bodies which come in from without. In this way every animal is overcome and decays, and this affection is called old age. And at last, when the bonds by which the triangles of the marrow are united no longer hold, and are parted by the strain of existence, they in turn loosen the bonds of the soul, and she, obtaining a natural release, flies away with joy. For that which takes place according to nature is pleasant, but that which is contrary to nature is painful. And thus death, if caused by disease or produced by wounds, is painful and violent; but that sort of death which comes with old age and fulfils the debt of nature is the easiest of deaths, and is accompanied with pleasure rather than with pain. Now every one can see whence diseases arise. There are four natures out of which the body is compacted, earth and fire and water and air, and the unnatural excess or defect of these, or the change of any of them from its own natural place into another, or-since there are more kinds than one of fire and of the other elements-the assumption by any of these of a wrong kind, or any similar irregularity, produces disorders and diseases; for when any of them is produced or changed in a manner contrary to nature, the parts which were previously cool grow warm, and those which were dry become moist, and the light become heavy, and the heavy light; all sorts of changes occur. For, as we affirm, a thing can only remain the same with itself, whole and sound, when the same is added to it, or subtracted from it, in the same respect and in the same manner and in due proportion; and whatever comes or goes away in violation of these laws causes all manner of changes and infinite diseases and corruptions. Now there is a second class of structures which are also natural, and this affords a second opportunity of observing diseases to him who would understand them. For whereas marrow and bone and flesh and sinews are composed of the four elements, and the blood, though after another manner, is likewise formed out of them, most diseases originate in the way which I have described; but the worst of all owe their severity to the fact that the generation of these substances stances in a wrong order; they are then destroyed. For the natural order is that the flesh and sinews should be made of blood, the sinews out of the fibres to which they are akin, and the flesh out of the dots which are formed when the fibres are separated. And the glutinous and rich matter which comes away from the sinews and the flesh, not only glues the flesh to the bones, but nourishes and imparts growth to the bone which surrounds the marrow; and by reason of the solidity of the bones, that which filters through consists of the purest and smoothest and oiliest sort of triangles, dropping like dew from the bones and watering the marrow. Now when each process takes place in this order, health commonly results; when in the opposite order, disease. For when the flesh becomes decomposed and sends back the wasting substance into the veins, then an over-supply of blood of diverse kinds, mingling with air in the veins, having variegated colours and bitter properties, as well as acid and saline qualities, contains all sorts of bile and serum and phlegm. For all things go the wrong way, and having become corrupted, first they taint the blood itself, and then ceasing to give nourishment the body they are carried along the veins in all directions, no longer preserving the order of their natural courses, but at war with themselves, because they receive no good from one another, and are hostile to the abiding constitution of the body, which they corrupt and dissolve. The oldest part of the flesh which is corrupted, being hard to decompose, from long burning grows black, and from being everywhere corroded becomes bitter, and is injurious to every part of the body which is still uncorrupted. Sometimes, when the bitter element is refined away, the black part assumes an acidity which takes the place of the bitterness; at other times the bitterness being tinged with blood has a redder colour; and this, when mixed with black, takes the hue of grass; and again, an auburn colour mingles with the bitter matter when new flesh is decomposed by the fire which surrounds the internal flame-to all which symptoms some physician perhaps, or rather some philosopher, who had the power of seeing in many dissimilar things one nature deserving of a name, has assigned the common name of bile. But the other kinds of bile are variously distinguished by their colours. As for serum, that sort which is the watery part of blood is innocent, but that which is a secretion of black and acid bile is malignant when mingled by the power of heat with any salt substance, and is then called acid phlegm. Again, the substance which is formed by the liquefaction of new and tender flesh when air is present, if inflated and encased in liquid so as to form bubbles, which separately are invisible owing to their small size, but when collected are of a bulk which is visible, and have a white colour arising out of the generation of foam-all this decomposition of tender flesh when inter-mingled with air is termed by us white phlegm. And the whey or sediment of newly-formed phlegm is sweat and tears, and includes the various daily discharges by which the body is purified. Now all these become causes of disease when the blood is not replenished in a natural manner by food and drink but gains bulk from opposite sources in violation of the laws of nature. When the several parts of the flesh are separated by disease, if the foundation remains, the power of the disorder is only half as great, and there is still a prospect of an easy recovery; but when that which binds the flesh to the bones is diseased, and no longer being separated from the muscles and sinews, ceases to give nourishment to the bone and to unite flesh and bone, and from being oily and smooth and glutinous becomes rough and salt and dry, owing to bad regimen, then all the substance thus corrupted crumbles away under the flesh and the sinews, and separates from the bone, and the fleshy parts fall away from their foundation and leave the sinews bare and full of brine, and the flesh again gets into the circulation of the blood and makes the previously-mentioned disorders still greater. And if these bodily affections be severe, still worse are the prior disorders; as when the bone itself, by reason of the density of the flesh, does not obtain sufficient air, but becomes mouldy and hot and gangrened and receives no nutriment, and the natural process is inverted, and the bone crumbling passes into the food, and the food into the flesh, and the flesh again falling into the blood makes all maladies that may occur more virulent than those already mentioned. But the worst case of all is when the marrow is diseased, either from excess or defect; and this is the cause of the very greatest and most fatal disorders, in which the whole course of the body is reversed. There is a third class of diseases which may be conceived of as arising in three ways; for they are produced sometimes by wind, and sometimes by phlegm, and sometimes by bile. When the lung, which is the dispenser of the air to the body, is obstructed by rheums and its passages are not free, some of them not acting, while through others too much air enters, then the parts which are unrefreshed by air corrode, while in other parts the excess of air forcing its way through the veins distorts them and decomposing the body is enclosed in the midst of it and occupies the midriff thus numberless painful diseases are produced, accompanied by copious sweats. And oftentimes when the flesh is dissolved in the body, wind, generated within and unable to escape, is the source of quite as much pain as the air coming in from without; but the greatest pain is felt when the wind gets about the sinews and the veins of the shoulders, and swells them up, so twists back the great tendons and the sinews which are connected with them. These disorders are called tetanus and opisthotonus, by reason of the tension which accompanies them. The cure of them is difficult; relief is in most cases given by fever supervening. The white phlegm, though dangerous when detained within by reason of the air-bubbles, yet if it can communicate with the outside air, is less severe, and only discolours the body, generating leprous eruptions and similar diseases. When it is mingled with black bile and dispersed about the courses of the head, which are the divinest part of us, the attack if coming on in sleep, is not so severe; but when assailing those who are awake it is hard to be got rid of, and being an affection of a sacred part, is most justly called sacred. An acid and salt phlegm, again, is the source of all those diseases which take the form of catarrh, but they have many names because the places into which they flow are manifold. Inflammations of the body come from burnings and inflamings, and all of them originate in bile. When bile finds a means of discharge, it boils up and sends forth all sorts of tumours; but when imprisoned within, it generates many inflammatory diseases, above all when mingled with pure blood; since it then displaces the fibres which are scattered about in the blood and are designed to maintain the balance of rare and dense, in order that the blood may not be so liquefied by heat as to exude from the pores of the body, nor again become too dense and thus find a difficulty in circulating through the veins. The fibres are so constituted as to maintain this balance; and if any one brings them all together when the blood is dead and in process of cooling, then the blood which remains becomes fluid, but if they are left alone, they soon congeal by reason of the surrounding cold. The fibres having this power over the blood, bile, which is only stale blood, and which from being flesh is dissolved again into blood, at the first influx coming in little by little, hot and liquid, is congealed by the power of the fibres; and so congealing and made to cool, it produces internal cold and shuddering. When it enters with more of a flood and overcomes the fibres by its heat, and boiling up throws them into disorder, if it have power enough to maintain its supremacy, it penetrates the marrow and burns up what may be termed the cables of the soul, and sets her free; but when there is not so much of it, and the body though wasted still holds out, the bile is itself mastered, and is either utterly banished, or is thrust through the veins into the lower or upper-belly, and is driven out of the body like an exile from a state in which there has been civil war; whence arise diarrhoeas and dysenteries, and all such disorders. When the constitution is disordered by excess of fire, continuous heat and fever are the result; when excess of air is the cause, then the fever is quotidian; when of water, which is a more sluggish element than either fire or air, then the fever is a tertian; when of earth, which is the most sluggish of the four, and is only purged away in a four-fold period, the result is a quartan fever, which can with difficulty be shaken off. Such is the manner in which diseases of the body arise; the disorders of the soul, which depend upon the body, originate as follows. We must acknowledge disease of the mind to be a want of intelligence; and of this there are two kinds; to wit, madness and ignorance. In whatever state a man experiences either of them, that state may be called disease; and excessive pains and pleasures are justly to be regarded as the greatest diseases to which the soul is liable. For a man who is in great joy or in great pain, in his unseasonable eagerness to attain the one and to avoid the other, is not able to see or to hear anything rightly; but he is mad, and is at the time utterly incapable of any participation in reason. He who has the seed about the spinal marrow too plentiful and overflowing, like a tree overladen with fruit, has many throes, and also obtains many pleasures in his desires and their offspring, and is for the most part of his life deranged, because his pleasures and pains are so very great; his soul is rendered foolish and disordered by his body; yet he is regarded not as one diseased, but as one who is voluntarily bad, which is a mistake. The truth is that the intemperance of love is a disease of the soul due chiefly to the moisture and fluidity which is produced in one of the elements by the loose consistency of the bones. And in general, all that which is termed the incontinence of pleasure and is deemed a reproach under the idea that the wicked voluntarily do wrong is not justly a matter for reproach. For no man is voluntarily bad; but the bad become bad by reason of an ill disposition of the body and bad education, things which are hateful to every man and happen to him against his will. And in the case of pain too in like manner the soul suffers much evil from the body. For where the acid and briny phlegm and other bitter and bilious humours wander about in the body, and find no exit or escape, but are pent up within and mingle their own vapours with the motions of the soul, and are blended, with them, they produce all sorts of diseases, more or fewer, and in every degree of intensity; and being carried to the three places of the soul, whichever they may severally assail, they create infinite varieties of ill-temper and melancholy, of rashness and cowardice, and also of forgetfulness and stupidity. Further, when to this evil constitution of body evil forms of government are added and evil discourses are uttered in private as well as in public, and no sort of instruction is given in youth to cure these evils, then all of us who are bad become bad from two causes which are entirely beyond our control. In such cases the planters are to blame rather than the plants, the educators rather than the educated. But however that may be, we should endeavour as far as we can by education, and studies, and learning, to avoid vice and attain virtue; this, however, is part of another subject. There is a corresponding enquiry concerning the mode of treatment by which the mind and the body are to be preserved, about which it is meet and right that I should say a word in turn; for it is more our duty to speak of the good than of the evil. Everything that is good is fair, and the animal fair is not without proportion, and the animal which is to be fair must have due proportion. Now we perceive lesser symmetries or proportions and reason about them, but of the highest and greatest we take no heed; for there is no proportion or disproportion more productive of health and disease, and virtue and vice, than that between soul and body. This however we do not perceive, nor do we reflect that when a weak or small frame is the vehicle of a great and mighty soul, or conversely, when a little soul is encased in a large body, then the whole animal is not fair, for it lacks the most important of all symmetries; but the due proportion of mind and body is the fairest and loveliest of all sights to him who has the seeing eye. Just as a body which has a leg too long, or which is unsymmetrical in some other respect, is an unpleasant sight, and also, when doing its share of work, is much distressed and makes convulsive efforts, and often stumbles through awkwardness, and is the cause of infinite evil to its own self-in like manner we should conceive of the double nature which we call the living being; and when in this compound there is an impassioned soul more powerful than the body, that soul, I say, convulses and fills with disorders the whole inner nature of man; and when eager in the pursuit of some sort of learning or study, causes wasting; or again, when teaching or disputing in private or in public, and strifes and controversies arise, inflames and dissolves the composite frame of man and introduces rheums; and the nature of this phenomenon is not understood by most professors of medicine, who ascribe it to the opposite of the real cause. And once more, when body large and too strong for the soul is united to a small and weak intelligence, then inasmuch as there are two desires natural to man,-one of food for the sake of the body, and one of wisdom for the sake of the diviner part of us-then, I say, the motions of the stronger, getting the better and increasing their own power, but making the soul dull, and stupid, and forgetful, engender ignorance, which is the greatest of diseases. There is one protection against both kinds of disproportion:-that we should not move the body without the soul or the soul without the body, and thus they will be on their guard against each other, and be healthy and well balanced. And therefore the mathematician or any one else whose thoughts are much absorbed in some intellectual pursuit, must allow his body also to have due exercise, and practise gymnastic; and he who is careful to fashion the body, should in turn impart to the soul its proper motions, and should cultivate music and all philosophy, if he would deserve to be called truly fair and truly good. And the separate parts should be treated in the same manner, in imitation of the pattern of the universe; for as the body is heated and also cooled within by the elements which enter into it, and is again dried up and moistened by external things, and experiences these and the like affections from both kinds of motions, the result is that the body if given up to motion when in a state of quiescence is overmastered and perishes; but if any one, in imitation of that which we call the foster-mother and nurse of the universe, will not allow the body ever to be inactive, but is always producing motions and agitations through its whole extent, which form the natural defence against other motions both internal and external, and by moderate exercise reduces to order according to their affinities the particles and affections which are wandering about the body, as we have already said when speaking of the universe, he will not allow enemy placed by the side of enemy to stir up wars and disorders in the body, but he will place friend by the side of friend, so as to create health. Now of all motions that is the best which is produced in a thing by itself, for it is most akin to the motion of thought and of the universe; but that motion which is caused by others is not so good, and worst of all is that which moves the body, when at rest, in parts only and by some external agency. Wherefore of all modes of purifying and reuniting the body the best is gymnastic; the next best is a surging motion, as in sailing or any other mode of conveyance which is not fatiguing; the third sort of motion may be of use in a case of extreme necessity, but in any other will be adopted by no man of sense: I mean the purgative treatment of physicians; for diseases unless they are very dangerous should not be irritated by medicines, since every form of disease is in a manner akin to the living being, whose complex frame has an appointed term of life. For not the whole race only, but each individual-barring inevitable accidents-comes into the world having a fixed span, and the triangles in us are originally framed with power to last for a certain time, beyond which no man prolong his life. And this holds also of the constitution of diseases; if any one regardless of the appointed time tries to subdue them by medicine, he only aggravates and multiplies them. Wherefore we ought always to manage them by regimen, as far as a man can spare the time, and not provoke a disagreeable enemy by medicines. Enough of the composite animal, and of the body which is a part of him, and of the manner in which a man may train and be trained by himself so as to live most according to reason: and we must above and before all provide that the element which is to train him shall be the fairest and best adapted to that purpose. A minute discussion of this subject would be a serious task; but if, as before, I am to give only an outline, the subject may not unfitly be summed up as follows. I have often remarked that there are three kinds of soul located within us, having each of them motions, and I must now repeat in the fewest words possible, that one part, if remaining inactive and ceasing from its natural motion, must necessarily become very weak, but that which is trained and exercised, very strong. Wherefore we should take care that the movements of the different parts of the soul should be in due proportion. And we should consider that God gave the sovereign part of the human soul to be the divinity of each one, being that part which, as we say, dwells at the top of the body, inasmuch as we are a plant not of an earthly but of a heavenly growth, raises us from earth to our kindred who are in heaven. And in this we say truly; for the divine power suspended the head and root of us from that place where the generation of the soul first began, and thus made the whole body upright. When a man is always occupied with the cravings of desire and ambition, and is eagerly striving to satisfy them, all his thoughts must be mortal, and, as far as it is possible altogether to become such, he must be mortal every whit, because he has cherished his mortal part. But he who has been earnest in the love of knowledge and of true wisdom, and has exercised his intellect more than any other part of him, must have thoughts immortal and divine, if he attain truth, and in so far as human nature is capable of sharing in immortality, he must altogether be immortal; and since he is ever cherishing the divine power, and has the divinity within him in perfect order, he will be perfectly happy. Now there is only one way of taking care of things, and this is to give to each the food and motion which are natural to it. And the motions which are naturally akin to the divine principle within us are the thoughts and revolutions of the universe. These each man should follow, and correct the courses of the head which were corrupted at our birth, and by learning the harmonies and revolutions of the universe, should assimilate the thinking being to the thought, renewing his original nature, and having assimilated them should attain to that perfect life which the gods have set before mankind, both for the present and the future. Thus our original design of discoursing about the universe down to the creation of man is nearly completed. A brief mention may be made of the generation of other animals, so far as the subject admits of brevity; in this manner our argument will best attain a due proportion. On the subject of animals, then, the following remarks may be offered. Of the men who came into the world, those who were cowards or led unrighteous lives may with reason be supposed to have changed into the nature of women in the second generation. And this was the reason why at that time the gods created in us the desire of sexual intercourse, contriving in man one animated substance, and in woman another, which they formed respectively in the following manner. The outlet for drink by which liquids pass through the lung under the kidneys and into the bladder, which receives then by the pressure of the air emits them, was so fashioned by them as to penetrate also into the body of the marrow, which passes from the head along the neck and through the back, and which in the preceding discourse we have named the seed. And the seed having life, and becoming endowed with respiration, produces in that part in which it respires a lively desire of emission, and thus creates in us the love of procreation. Wherefore also in men the organ of generation becoming rebellious and masterful, like an animal disobedient to reason, and maddened with the sting of lust, seeks to gain absolute sway; and the same is the case with the so-called womb or matrix of women; the animal within them is desirous of procreating children, and when remaining unfruitful long beyond its proper time, gets discontented and angry, and wandering in every direction through the body, closes up the passages of the breath, and, by obstructing respiration, drives them to extremity, causing all varieties of disease, until at length the desire and love of the man and the woman, bringing them together and as it were plucking the fruit from the tree, sow in the womb, as in a field, animals unseen by reason of their smallness and without form; these again are separated and matured within; they are then finally brought out into the light, and thus the generation of animals is completed. Thus were created women and the female sex in general. But the race of birds was created out of innocent light-minded men, who, although their minds were directed toward heaven, imagined, in their simplicity, that the clearest demonstration of the things above was to be obtained by sight; these were remodelled and transformed into birds, and they grew feathers instead of hair. The race of wild pedestrian animals, again, came from those who had no philosophy in any of their thoughts, and never considered at all about the nature of the heavens, because they had ceased to use the courses of the head, but followed the guidance of those parts of the soul which are in the breast. In consequence of these habits of theirs they had their front-legs and their heads resting upon the earth to which they were drawn by natural affinity; and the crowns of their heads were elongated and of all sorts of shapes, into which the courses of the soul were crushed by reason of disuse. And this was the reason why they were created quadrupeds and polypods: God gave the more senseless of them the more support that they might be more attracted to the earth. And the most foolish of them, who trail their bodies entirely upon the ground and have no longer any need of feet, he made without feet to crawl upon the earth. The fourth class were the inhabitants of the water: these were made out of the most entirely senseless and ignorant of all, whom the transformers did not think any longer worthy of pure respiration, because they possessed a soul which was made impure by all sorts of transgression; and instead of the subtle and pure medium of air, they gave them the deep and muddy sea to be their element of respiration; and hence arose the race of fishes and oysters, and other aquatic animals, which have received the most remote habitations as a punishment of their outlandish ignorance. These are the laws by which animals pass into one another, now, as ever, changing as they lose or gain wisdom and folly. We may now say that our discourse about the nature of the universe has an end. The world has received animals, mortal and immortal, and is fulfilled with them, and has become a visible animal containing the visible-the sensible God who is the image of the intellectual, the greatest, best, fairest, most perfect-the one only begotten heaven. -THE END-

Accessing the Linux File System on Windows 11 with WSL2.en.srt

00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:05,040 hi I'm Andrew in my previous video I showed you how you can install Ubuntu on Windows 11 fast but sometimes you have to access your Linux file system from Windows 11 and in this video I'm going to show you exactly that if you like my videos and you want to see more content please subscribe to my channel so let's begin so right now we are on on the C drive yes so and of course we can go to users to my user and we can get the files or program files Etc yes so from from Ubuntu 2 to the Windows operating system but how to do that back yeah so for example how to access my Linux file system on Windows machine so let's see that of course I do CD that and I do LS so this is my Linux file system and what I wanted to do first of all I'm going to sudo minus I mode why because sometimes we are sometimes we are not have right permissions to create some files or create some folders and just to mitigate it I just execute the uh everything in sudo mode so I can what I can do now I can do for example I I will create a directory CD LS okay dear I want to create it here uh in in the root yeah so mcadier and then I say demo LS so this is my demo folder where it is it's over here yeah so virally not visible but okay so this is the demo we can go to this particular folder LS so the folder is completely empty and we can create a file over there so to do that we do Echo and I say for example like created created Ubuntu yeah let's be precise Ubuntu credit on Ubuntu and then I send this to my file for example demo dot txt so what I'm what I'm doing well with this command I'm just creating a file demon txt and I put the created on Ubuntu as the content of this file okay so my file is created so if I do cat for example and then a demo txt I will be able to see created on Ubuntu so I'm just the CT command is just to show the content of the file on Linux create it on Ubuntu this is my content of the demo txc file okay but this is Linux yeah so it means that the files has some specific permissions so if I do LS minus L for example I can see that uh the only owner of this file had read write permissions yeah so everyone else other users has only the read write so let's change that because otherwise we will not be able to write this file on windows so to change that I'm execute the command change mode and then I say that I want to change some attributes for the other users so oh it means that other users equals RV so we want to read and write yeah so and what we want to read and write of course the file demo txt I'm entered and then I do again LS minus L just to see and now you see the other users also have permissions to write not only the owner of the file but also the other users okay this is exactly what I wanted to do so there are two options how we can reach those Linux files on Windows the first option is to use Windows File Explorer it's the easiest one in our case so I'm as you can see immediately when we install the Linux we see the Linux folder here immediately on our Windows File Explorer yeah so I click on Linux I you see the distribution yeah so because you have you you might have multiple distribution installed if you are not limited to only one distribution so I open it as you can see this is the operating system of my Linux yeah so with the demo folder that I created if I go to demo I see the demo txt file yeah so which is the text document and if I open this file I can see create it on Ubuntu amazing yeah so and what I can do now I can say updated for example yeah updated updated on Windows Windows not just Windows Windows 11. yeah so okay so that's it I say file save I close this file again I'm open it again on Windows just to show you that it was really updated yeah so and right now I'll return back to my terminal to my Linux and I say uh cat command again yeah so where is my cat command demo txt so I want to see the content of the demo txt file and surprise surprise we see updated on Windows 11. the second option how you can reach those files from the windows terminal as you can see we have two tabs open here so the first one is the windows Powershell and the second one is Ubuntu yeah so here is my windows here is my Ubuntu I can go to my windows and to be able to um open because because I can't say for example CD Linux yeah so because there is no Linux uh just the the windows the Windows File Explorer just simplify things for you so to be able to open your location we need to go to some specific Place yeah and specific place it's Microsoft dot Powershell dot core backslash file system two columns two slashes WSL dot localhost slash Ubuntu so right now so this this is location of my Linux files yeah and then we say what distribution we want to use in my case it's ubuntu-2204 if I'm not mistaken I press enter okay so we are there and if we do LS we see the file system from the Linux yeah and as you can see my demo folder is over here so I can do CD demo LS and I'm see the demo of txt file which is also here yeah so and then what I can do also I can see the content of this file cat demo txt and again uh this is the content of this file and of course what I can also do I can update this file from terminal saying that I want to for example update uh update in terminal hundred and terminal and again I send it to mydemo.txt file enter so right now if I look at demo txt I have created on Ubuntu updated on Windows 11 and then updated in terminal so if I return back to Linux I do the same command cat demo and again I see that it's updated in terminal as well as Windows 11. so that's actually it thank you very much for your attention thank you very much for your time and see you in my next videos bye

AFRICA IS THE PROMISED LAND-Attn!Black Christian,Black Jews,Hebrew Israelites,Bantu Israelites.en.srt

00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,520 you are going to be blown away if you were blown away by the first video you're gonna be blown away with this one [Music] africa is the promised land part two first i want to go over some of the things from the first video just to make sure everything was clear because i watched it back myself and it's like there's one or two things that i could have explained in a little bit more detail [Music] so i want to start there then i want to go into a couple of the comments the comments were amazing y'all thank you so much for sharing information knowledge praises to the most high every every everything 90 positive and positive doesn't mean that you agree with me positive is just giving yourself in the comments negative is some of you negative trolls out there like really it's just not necessary we'll get into y'all as well afterwards but so i just want to go over the comments because some of the comments actually will help everybody um and make sure you comment on this video so i know where you stand because the thing is i have no idea if some of the stuff that i'm telling you y'all know it already y'all don't want to know it um i'm here to serve you and thank you for subbing thank you for subscribing we're building a really nice community here of like-minded people you guys know that this channel is all about redefining the black experience and uniting the african diaspora and let me reiterate i did not want to do this video if it was up to me you think i want to talk to y'all about religion and spirituality i do not like drama i do not like confrontation i like to mind my business i don't talk religion and politics in public but i was called to do it and i did it and i'm glad i did because i see brothers and sisters on the continent as well as in the diaspora that it really helped and that's why i'm doing this so um i i can take i can take all the heat i'm ready just make sure you're ready too but the main purpose of doing a part two is because i have more information to share with you because it's almost like pieces of a puzzle right so if you get one piece and two pieces you still might not be able to see the full picture so i want you to get as much understanding at least as i have and then hopefully i'm pointing you to people that can give you even more understanding that i have right so for all of you guys first and foremost who didn't watch the full video from beginning to end part one i suggest you pause this video go do that and then come back here um for those of you who watched the first video but then didn't watch elder robert headley's youtube videos please go back and watch all of his videos there's dozens might take you a little while but then come back so you have a better understanding but i wanted to make sure i revealed another huge source that helped me in this awakening and the reason why i really want to reveal it um and maybe i should have done it before i did the last video because i actually found her first before i found robert headley so for those who don't know my spiritual journey at first living my life i was a christian never really saw myself as religious but i was spiritual and when i say that that means i wasn't like tied to a church i didn't grow up in a church but i was very spiritual i knew there was a god i knew how knew how to talk to him always felt the presence and always felt a deeper understanding so start there and a couple people were asking me do i believe in jesus yes i do i don't call him jesus anymore but um we can get into that in a different video so you know obviously there are different people who do don't believe in jesus and whatever but before i even get into any of this let me clear up one thing the reason why in the title of this video it says black christians black jews hebrew israelites bantu israelites or whether you want to call bantu and i should add guligichi and all of us the only reason i didn't put nation of islam in there i haven't studied islam enough to know if this is for you so if you're here hi but the main thing i want everyone to know we are all brothers and sisters we should all love each other and show love to each other even in our differences and we're still family and we need to not be so at odds with each other and at odds with our oppressor and our colonizer we should only have energy to fight oppression and not fight each other so even if you say yahweh and i say even if you say god and i say tata nazambe want you guys to all know you're praying to the same father do you know that because i really don't think you know that because i didn't know that until i started this journey for the past couple years and doing the research and understanding history and understanding religions and where they came from and who each religion is really speaking to and that's when i had i was like huh they're all kind of the same just a slight different interpretation and then that helps you see which one makes more sense to you and which one doesn't and that's when i started leaving christianity because it didn't make sense to me especially this is not to disrespect anyone this is just conversation and dialogue we're having and i hope you know my my heart is pure this is nothing but love i was a christian most of my life so i'm not looking down on christians at all but the reason why i was able to open my eyes out of christianity is because if you believe in jesus why don't you do what jesus did so if jesus was was there and telling you to do this why don't you just do that and that shows you your reverence to him why create something new in order to honor him that doesn't make sense he he was there to tell you how to obey our father and how to interpret the law that our father bestowed upon us so why don't we just follow that law and do what jesus did for example big eye opener when i realized that the last supper is passover so jesus knew he was about to die but he had to obey his father so much he had to sit down for for passover that's the last supper so why [Music] don't christians celebrate passover you create a whole new holiday that doesn't exist and call it easter in order to honor the man that was trying to tell you to keep passover so that so you know i'm saying and it will sound condescending if i keep on going to all the different things but i was just like okay well what am i doing christianity isn't for me and then it was hebrew israelites and um in hebrew israelites you realize that oh wait this is a history book this is a family tree this is a bloodline and that's where that understanding and awakening came that it's like okay a bloodline and um i always knew that the bible was black people that was just facts in in my house my grandmother love her lovina fuller love you love you love you but she had a white jesus up on her blonde jesus i knew he was a lie and we're going to do a whole another video on that let's get into some of the comments okay so i mentioned there's a couple of brothers this is there's probably about like five ten percent that we're saying wrong cis promise sign this america but to be honest none of you gave me any evidence not that it's you know easy to give evidence in like three lines in a comment section but still i mean someone said there's giants in um america so therefore it's a promised land there was giants in africa too so um i even put up this map right here this map shows even pictures of the colonizer and you're just depicting the continent and you can see the giants and all the different things that they saw there at that time um what else did i see a lot of i saw um some of you some of you were so aware of this information someone said duh duh duh okay i didn't know this stuff so and even one brother said we've known this for hundreds of years i said bro for hundreds of years really take a look at the comment section now not all your brothers and sisters know this information so a lot of you you know we're thankful thankful to the most high for allowing me to share this information allowing me to share what i've found from other brothers and sisters like elder robert headley i mentioned in my last video you guys need to follow anub of the path to return queen and go in the second for amazing information but yes so those are the two sources but i really want to get into the third source and this third source she's amazing y'all um i believe she's somewhere on the continent her name is johnny john and i'll i'll put up her her videos in a second but to give context so i'm not really gonna go so i'm not gonna go into the maps i know everyone wants to see the maps because everyone wants to see receipts elder robert headley has the maps on luck and i believe everything he says so there's only one thing to be completely transparent that i'm not sure if i believe just yet but if i would take my advice or his advice i'd probably take his advice because he's well more versed in this but my spirit isn't convinced about one thing and he has a very amazing revelation to show how shem is on the continent um but by putting shem on the continent i believe and i could be saying this wrong he is putting ham off the continent i need to watch those videos more and then i have to do other research to see so that's the only thing that i personally wouldn't reiterate because i myself don't know it to be true i know you guys are going to ask me in the comments what do i think then well i don't want to make this video too long so i really don't add this but you know let me just tell you i believe ham shem and japeth are on the african continent why because this is an african story the bible is an african story a bantu story um johnny john who i'm gonna get into a little bit further in this video she has an amazing video about africa was earth and like almost known as earth and symbolizes earth at a certain point in time so i think in translation it gets lost when people are like this is a story about the earth they think that it has to encompass every single continent therefore they have to define the bloodline as multiple continents no at a point in time earth was referred to as africa and people were referred to as bantu so i think that's where the misunderstanding lies in interpretation this is another thing that came up in the comments great great questions in the comments and um someone was saying there's a bethlehem everywhere there's a bethlehem in ethiopia but i said bethlehem was in namibia and there is bethlehem in london and all sorts of things so like really really square really square houses so what i'm gonna say is really yes because that's why i'm so grateful for what elder or robert headley is doing is because he's he's showing the biblical evidence why this is next to this why this is next to this and this traveled here and traveled this direction this work to find the biblical locations he's not just picking one of the bethlehem's and saying yes tell me in the comments you don't want to hear me talk for more than 30 minutes so i keep it short and sweet that's why you can go watch all like the jordan rivers the red sea all of those stuff he will cover cool so then i can move on to show you some different people and um thank you for all the people that i follow in the comments like elder robert headley that um watch the video thank you for watching go black to africa thanks for watching and everyone else i really appreciated every single comment every single comment except for the guy that told me that i wasn't black because i had some chinese synthetic in my hair and for you sir i just want to let you know only my father and my man can tell me what to put in this head okay okay all right you will see a lot more of that chinese synthetic hair because this is the thing y'all no one puts me in a box i know very much who i am i love myself i love my melon and i love my naps i love everything about myself but if i want to put something in my hair i'm going to put something in my hair if i want to put makeup on if i want to wear gucci on louis vuitton that doesn't change this that doesn't change this that just doesn't change this don't be shallow don't judge someone just by what they look like and what they wear you might miss your blessing if you think that if you think consciousness if you think your brother and sister can only come in its most natural form i just don't believe that i think certain things can lead to certain things so people who can walk around more in their natural state and things like that that is you can even think that's the most beautiful i get that but whether today i look like this or tomorrow i look like whatever trust me i'm spitting that knowledge so okay and there's a video i want to do same thing i'm just like why am i cause in trouble why am i causing trouble that's not my intent but i realized there's certain things that need to be said and hopefully i have the maybe i'm affable that maybe i can get away with saying it and people can still hear me but there are certain things that i kind of need to scold some of y'all because the conscious community i've noticed certain trends that i do not like and there's certain trends that are holding us back i think as a people because one and i noticed in some of the comments some conscious people some of us are so consumed with proving everything that we know we're condescending we're negative like calling names and all sorts of things and it's like how is someone really gonna listen to you if you're attacking them and like i get it like you get so enraged by like people either spreading false things or people not like when that you get angry but like that ain't gonna serve nobody number one and then two the judgment you righteous judgmental sobs yeah i said sobs okay because and you're my hypocrite because i'm telling y'all not to call people names that i'm calling you a name but the righteous judgment i can't i can't with y'all because this is the thing some of y'all are so consumed with proving all you know you forget the point of waking up our brothers and sisters is comprehension someone at any awareness level needs to be able to understand what you're saying for you to actually be helping them so some of y'all in the comments were like oh well yeah she knows what she's saying but because she said this word then she don't know ish and blah blah blah like just because i called africa africa yes i know africa that is not its original name like please do not underestimate what i know i know a lot more than i'll ever let this platform know i know that's what that's one thing like let's get this clear there's a lot of things i know that i will never speak on but i wanted i want people to understand where the promised land is so for example people are like sis israel is northeast africa yes i know israel up there in the levant sits on the african tectonic plates i know that middle east was a name that was just created i know all that stuff but that's irrelevant to my video because regardless whether israel is northeast africa or not that's still not where the promised land is you feel me so there's lots of stuff that i didn't mention one great one that um someone a couple people brought up in the comment is the way the now flows is also why it says up out of egypt so that was a great point that i knew but i forgot to mention so thank you let's get back to the reason why we're here the piece of the puzzle so i don't know if i'm the best person to explain this but i'm going to try and um if not then hopefully you can get it at either one of the sources but the overall encompassing thing that i've learned in this awakening is the most simplified way for me to explain it is as i was digging for the truth and praying and aligning and found hebrew israelites and then i dug more and i found bantu israelites and then i found bantu the easiest way to explain hebrew and judaism was designed to mimic bantu culture so for a bantu to say they are hebrew or a jew is pointless because bantu traditions and cultures are what people came and saw and stole so we must go back to the source not to the middle so i want you to understand that when you go to all the sources that i'm sending you like elder robert headley um queen and gone ii and johnny john because if you just watch a video in the middle you might get confused and miss the bigger picture so elder robert headley says you shouldn't call yourself a jew or hebrew i personally i understand why a lot of us do because there was centuries that only we were called that right but the key thing is you want to go back to the origin and go back to the source and before those times when we were labeled things like jews and hebrews and israelites what were we called before that we were called bantu and more specifically whatever tribe we came from so ebu and here's a list of all you know the bantu tribes and when you go look at those ancient traditions that predate anything like judaism they were doing the key things and praying to our father and keeping the law and that's why it's getting so confused in our awakening because we're we're latching on to cultures that are not our own so the people now who are dominating in the space of judaism and things like that that is mixed with culture that is not ours that is polish culture that is yiddish that is that that is not what your forefathers did right so don't go back to the middle in the awakening go back to the beginning in the beginning was you and your forefathers but it is african culture in the awakening we're learning that this is the whole bible was an african story that was stolen and taken outside of africa and then sold back to us centuries later as if it wasn't our own and so so that's kind of the the biggest piece of the puzzle that helps all of these other pieces that we're getting all make sense but what no one talks about is bantu languages and african languages and so we'll get into that in a second because in translation that's where everything gets lost so whenever you want to go back to the source you want to go back to what was the original original what was the original name of our father what was the original name of jesus what was the original right and sometimes it's in a language that you can't understand so instead of translating it through all sorts of different languages especially languages that are gentile languages that are actually all the negative people in the book you're going to use their languages to translate you're going to trust them to translate so from the romans to the greeks to try to get like straight to america aramaic right and my boyfriend is the one who alerted me to that years ago and was just like you know we need to get more of the original bible um so i say this to say someone asked a really great question because they they actually went and watched elder robert hadley's videos and they still were very confused with one thing she was like who is so nini na nini so that's god and this is the thing that when i said earlier jews christians this and this we're all saying praying to the father we're praying to the same father but it's just different religious translations so i don't want you all to think especially black christians because i'm on a stereotype right now y'all you all tend to be someone the most judgmental and because christianity itself christianity was designed to stop you from critical thinking christianity was designed that anything that we don't say do is demonic or satan so therefore things that you probably should be doing like not worshiping on sunday you shouldn't be doing that that's making you worship the sun sun god without really realizing and worshiping things sun god but that's a whole nother thing but some of the things that you should be doing you're going to think are demonic and satan because that's that's how they keep us mentally enslaved that's how they've tricked us for so long and christianity is actually one of the biggest tricks um so so i i the only reason why i say this because i don't want some of y'all that are coming from different religions going to people like elder roberts have this page without the full picture and thinking that he's doing something that is blasphemy right because he's praying to the same father you are he's just using a more original name than you are he's using the name when you're using what they have told you his name is does that make sense i know it's a lot i know it's a lot but so this source is going to get into where sunninini comes from and you are going to be blown away if you were blown away by the first video you're going to be blown away with this one because this actually is what led me to find elder robert headley and find the maps and find all the different evidence to this main thing that there was bantu scrolls that they came and you have to remember at this point in time way way back when their lands were barren and poor and they were somewhat in the dark ages and africa was thriving kingdoms the richest people on earth and so they come to this land and they're trying to figure out these african people and these tribes and they're asking them all sorts of questions they're coming as friends and they're learning about our religion or our spirituality and then they take our spirituality and they take our scrolls tweak them and sell it back to us and so i'm i admit i'm transparent the bantu scrolls no one that i've been able to find has a copy of the bantu scrolls they have the copy they will be revealed in a certain point in time but that you have to take my word on or disregard can be irrelevant because i have no proof and i'll be straight up i have no proof there are people that i trust that say that they're bantu scrolls but that is just to help you understand that this is an african story this is going to be further proof of that point in terms of nene so you guys know like yahweh and where yahweh comes from the tetragrammaton so these symbols right here are where basically the original name of our creator our father right and so it had been translated by them as y h w h so that's where some people say yahweh so that's even more like hebrew israelites will say yahweh and different people disney cool that's hebrew translated yahweh look how similar this is to this this that you're looking at is hebrew this that you're looking at is bantu language it is one of the bantu language is isukosa this in isukosa is nini and nini means i am that i am goosebumps right i know you guys have heard that translation for our father's name before i am that i am i'm getting chills nene so now that this is being revealed to us that some of these things that we know to be true as no to a factual note to be the root are actually still in a bantu language are still translated directly in a bantu language they're saying oh it's probably because africans came and took our story and are taking our traditions in our languages well our ancestors and our our forefathers and and people on the continent saying they've been keeping these traditions and these laws and these things well before they had been talking about this stuff so let me ask you one thing what do you believe do you believe that bantu people way back when went and found this jewish tradition and mimicked their stuff out of hebrew or hebrew came to africa like everyone else at that time and took everything they saw and mimicked it like like they still do we still have the sauce we still have the juice no matter how broken we are no matter how lost we are we still are the source so so so just in that logic which do you believe what came first what predated first it is proven life started on the continent people don't even realize you couldn't even look at google on how many years centuries if not thousands of years black melanated people existed before there's anyone else so that's a whole other thing but like we are the beginning and the end this is actually what woke me up and this is one thing in christianity my spirit never never took to it i never believed there's one thing that never sat right with me and it was when jesus was being crucified and they say what he said on that cross i'm like no it doesn't make sense doesn't make sense do y'all know what i'm talking about so they say he said when he was on the cross father father why have you forsaken me no that does not make sense this man spent his whole life obedient to the father you're telling me at his left i knew he was gonna be slain and went into it willingly because that was what his father wanted and in the last second he's then going to doubt the father not my jesus [Music] and but i didn't know what to do i just didn't believe it but i didn't have any evidence i didn't know where to look and this and this and this and in comes johnny john to clear up this misunderstanding the literal words that jesus said ellie so this is what they translate as father you have for forsaken me watch this when you go into current isukosa current current bantu language a language that is spoken still on the continent from time began to now izukosa same tribe nelson mandela is a costa southern africa region but we'll get into that later go into google translate [Music] a llama [Music] that's when those are the the words one of the final ones that he said on the cross before he gave up the ghost or gave up his spirit okay some people say before he died right so those are very powerful a bunch of words okay he meant i mean i've covered them many times in my other videos so you can actually see that this meant this this is for sabbath keepers that's all he was saying over there y'all aren't gonna make me cry again i ain't going out like that but i'm like i'm getting emotional because it translates in an african language it translates today as this this is for the sabbath keepers now you tell me what makes more sense this is the craziest thing i had to come and interrupt this because i told you to go into google you could go to codes of translation into english and get this this this is for the sabbath keepers or literally it says this this is for the assembly of the sabbath wrong i did this about three months ago and it came up correctly do you know today when i went to record it to put in this video for y'all do you know what google translate translates on as from kosa to english this is for the devils i am not lying y'all if i didn't see it myself with my own eyes i would not believe it that's why we have to be very careful on who we trust to translate for us because three months ago it was the correct translation now probably too many of our brothers and sisters are googling it they caught on to the algorithm and someone has tweaked it in the back end let me tell y'all that's why we need to connect with the continent we need to connect with our brothers and sisters we need to connect with people who can tell us what these translations are people we trust because trust and believe if you go into a kosa to english dictionary or you speak to someone on the continent i bet you sabatoni does not mean devils like google is trying to tell us today tricky tricky tricky tricky tricky wild now you tell me what makes more sense they sang father why have you you are without forsaking me or this is for the sabbath keepers and the reason why it's this is for the sabbath heather is because those who know that know that know that we are supposed to be keeping the law our forefathers were disobedient deuteronomy 28 it says if you're obedient you'll get these blessings if you're disobedient you'll get these curses and everyone's clear that we got these curses everyone's clear that we got these curses because we're just obedient and we're worshiping other gods and we're worshiping golden calves and all sorts who loves gold the teeth the ear everything okay a disobedient set of people and so we need to be obedient to the law and christianity comes around and confuses us because the new testament comes around and people try to say and i i all to this day you need to show me in this comment section because all of y'all who think that the new testament and jesus came to say that the law is done away with where does it say that where because the only scripture that you guys could be talking about is this one right here just don't take in what they tell you because they translated this this says i am here to uphold the law and everything jesus did was showing you how to keep the law correctly so y'all who think that he died on the cross to do away with all our sins so we can just sin i've never i've never understood that i'm not so that's the second thing in christianity that i just never like no don't make sense so we can just be reckless even we all catholics that you can just repent and it's all good that don't make sense no you need to walk good live good blah blah to get the blessings doesn't mean you're a horrible person if you sin doesn't mean you're a horrible person if you sin but like really and truly how does that make sense that oh jesus died for us so we can do whatever we want no to keep the law and one of the biggest things that our father wants us to keep our sabbaths whether it's the weekly sabbath or whether it's the high holy holidays like passover like last supper that jesus kept even though he knew he was going to be killed so we have to keep the sabbath y'all and to be honest with you that's the only reason why i've had this level of awakening once i started keeping the sabbath and i'm not even necessarily keeping it correctly because we're supposed to be keeping it under the calendar of who we are we are african we should be keeping it to a bantu calendar not to it's western and i believe elder robert headley has a calendar up um i'm not the person to tell you if it's accurate or not i assume it's accurate i'm not going to get into how to keep the law um but we need to be keeping the law and that's the way to be obedient and we need to call our father by his correct name there's power in the name that's why they made sure they changed it they made sure we're calling the wrong name and so just like your mother or father when you're in a store you can shout let's say if my mother's name is me i was gonna say my mother's name is mary what a name uh no let's say my my mother's name is hmm that's an african name adinka let's say my mother's name is adinka um if i yell out sally in the store she might not hear me she might not know i'm talking to her yes a mother knows their child so if i'm calling in a certain way and i'm screaming a certain way she'll just know it's her child no matter what right so i'm not saying that you're not speaking to your father and he's not hearing you but imagine how clear he'll hear you if you call his name so that so that's the difference and that's where we're coming out of the gods and the jesus into the elohim into the most high into you saying more the yahwehs the yeshua's now to miss indice because we know jesus called savior and savior and izakosa is mesendessy and sonanini is a cosa for our creator and tata nazambe more of the central africa reason different bantu languages are going to call our father the same thing just because of translation speaking about the same father so i hope i cleared that up a little bit but how powerful was that the this is for the sabbath keepers johnny john specifies that there's a multiple bantu languages that were used in the bible it just happens that izukosa is a lot of them so keeping with izakosa let me drop this little gem that johnny john taught us the garb the religious garb you see i don't know i know people in these videos say fake juice i don't like to say fake juice um i don't say fake juice i say they they they dress like this look at this do you see the similarities do you see the similarities between is a coaster traditional garb that they have been wearing this garb way predating the time that you saw them in this do you see the similarities do you see how one of them could have seen the other and tried to mimic the other right so they'll tell you it went this way and i'm telling you this is the source and you can decide what is the counterfeit okay but johnny john breaks it down into specifics of why we wear certain things why we wear the white whatever those who know especially in hebrew israelites you know about the titsy i don't know how to pronounce it the z z z z fringes look at these fringes on all these african garbs yeah we wear fringes naturally in our african attire all the things that are in the bible that save you for what you're supposed to wear that is us y'all that is us and so to break it down and and this is a good way of explaining it it's a powerful book some of you might know what some of you might not there's an enslaved man that wrote autobiography he was ebu from nigeria captured captured and why am i going to go into this detail because this is such a controversial topic okay in his autobiography he was captured by an african and sold into indentured servitude listen to me clearly he didn't know which african tribe he was at and they treated him humanely he even had dinner with his master and different things like that because yes we had a servitude on the continent but nothing like the evil transatlantic slave trade and so he got passed down to pass santa to the point where someone sold him to the white men and he the first he talks about the first time seeing a slave ship and he thought it was the most beautiful thing and he and he was in awe and enamored and then the second he set foot on there he knew he was in the pits of hell basically he knew the terror and the horror and oh my goodness yeah go make me cry nope um so i say this to say if you read his autobiography there's one chapter um i'll put it up right here on the screen actually to be honest a lot of the copies that we get this is not really going to be in there we need to get to the original the print you know i'm saying this is probably like the whatever edition they take they take the stuff that they don't want us to know out but this ebu man that these they once that he was enslaved and translated in slavery they were trying to feed this religion on him and he's like but i know that religion it sounds very much like what we do as ibu we get circumcised on the eighth day we get blah blah blah blah blah blah so he was basically saying like these are my like that's my father you're talking about right and so i say this to say a lot of people was like oh he was a jew no he was an eboo if something predates something we can't define the earlier thing and say it was the latter thing right jew came from ebu and that's the missing piece that we didn't know anything else that i need to clear up oh my goodness y'all i've been talking for a long time but i hope you guys enjoyed it um please leave comments please let's talk about this respectfully because i'm trying to think who you know and and i'm gonna stereotype but out of everyone the disrespect came from black christian okay look one thing you ain't gonna insinuate or call me is satanic or demon i don't play about those things so one you either need to look in the mirror because you ain't feeling that energy from me there's nothing but pure love in my heart okay so whatever vibe that's giving you that i'm giving off satanic vibes then just please stay away please don't come back okay and then two some of my hebrew israelite brothers y'all are very condescending and negative okay some of y'all not all of y'all and yeah i don't like how a lot of people give keeper isolates a bad rap and i don't like that y'all just like every religion there there are good and bad if there's there's probably a better way to say that but yeah even i'm sure bantu is there's good and bad you know i'm saying there's good and bad teachers there's good and bad energy so i don't like how they get a bad rap because you know honestly they're on the streets they're on the forefront they're soldiers so yes their approach might be extreme but the reason why i say you can't say they're all bad my spirit never took to a lot of the different hebrew israelite camps i was never part of a camp i just did my own research and my own understanding when i called myself a hebrew israelite but the one people that i do have to dig up and i did follow was the watchmen reports love love loved them my spirit took to them and they helped me with a lot of understanding the biggest understanding you're gonna get is read the bible from beginning to end yourself and you better start with the old testament as you're reading start keeping the things it says to keep and obeying things that it says obey i really feel like all everything else will fall in alignment and yeah so there's one thing that i want to clear up some of the brothers and sisters whether we should go to the continent now or wait for our father to call us well some of us have been called so from my understanding i've been told to go now now now know now and to unite our people and to go home if the spirit or if our father is not telling you that please do not go you have to follow him right so some of you are saying you know look at what's going on in the continent you're going to get us in trouble etc etc if that's what you feel don't go but i'm feeling the opposite babylon is going to crumble i do not need to be here and and babylon is a is a loaded thing because yes babylon is on the continent as well but oh there's this one thing that i want to clear up and this is just from my understanding ham so i noticed some hebrew israelites brothers and sisters do not like him and do not therefore do not like africa and the continent and same thing none of y'all have been able to show me scripture where we're supposed to demonize him our family member but the thing is everyone is clear that ham is they say the progenitor of the dark races or the black people and ham is him is put him is mitsuraim it's canaan it's and it might be missing one other but it's clear that all of the places egypt ethiopia on the continent canaan on the continent because it's south africa and everyone knows that ham is basically africa so how are you believing them then when they say kanan is up up so hmm when y'all know y'all don't even like africa because you know ham is africa so i'ma hit you with this if him is africa and his children including canaan or africa then why don't you believe that the promised land is in africa because by your own logic that a lot of y'all told me in the com comments then you know the promised land is in africa because look at this scripture right here our father took canaan's land and gave it to abram so you keep on letting listening to those people and tell you kanan is up there kanan is down there and i want to say this to all you lovely brothers and sisters you had great comments about yeah but sis the maps you're showing you're showing google maps these are the names now these were named by the colonizer where are the old maps that are showing where jerusalem is in south africa and bethlehem is in the bibi and all this stuff great question i have the same thoughts too one elder robert headley does have some old maps but this is the only thing i have to say to you asking that question as long as you keep the same energy in researching where you thought these places were all this time because sometimes we don't realize when this tells us something the length that we have to go to prove it but when this tells you something oh yeah so i'm not i'm not dissing you i'm not dissing you at all i'm just saying keep that same energy so you're absolutely right to want to see the old vintage maps to show that jerusalem is in south africa but as long as you go and search the old vintage maps to prove that jerusalem is israel as well because sometimes even in doing that you'll find more truce when you might not be able to find any maps from the 13th century from this century for whatever century showing those places that you've known all your life where they are so you have every right to want to see all this evidence for stuff being on the continent but keep that same energy my battery's about to die i really enjoy talking to you guys i hope this helps please let me know in the comments and um for all of you guys that know not all my videos are going to be biblical that is not what this channel is about i realize that this is necessary so i'll share what i know i'm definitely going to do a video on the scriptures that show that we're clearly moses noah everyone clearly black people um other than that a travel videos on different um places on the continent um historical videos so many brothers and sisters that think that the promised land is america i told you to go watch my video the real black history in the americas um that has a lot of some of your truths that you're talking about still doesn't mean the promised land is america but this is the thing that we all need to understand we were indigenous to all lands we were the first people so whether it is america or yes a lot of you your forefathers were here before the transatlantic slave trade and here i mean america's and i have a video that proves it but what i didn't hammer down in that video you're still african though your forefathers just came hundreds of years before mine life began on the continent so yes people travel to different places way more way before they'll ever admit to you and me so yes your forefathers might have been indigenous and it's only some of y'all not not the amount that i'm hearing them hearing the buzz that most of us are african african but okay even the aboriginal australians guess where they came from you get me so so yeah i love you all [Music] you

Ancient Egypt Timeline & Mythology Family Tree (2).en.srt

00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,720 today i'm going to give you a quick overview of ancient egypt both its mythology as well as its history so i'll be showing you a family tree of the main egyptian gods but i'll also be talking about some of the most important historical pharaohs and i'll be showing you where they fit on the timeline we'll also be looking at a map of ancient egypt the 12 largest pyramids and of course the famous egyptian hieroglyphic writing system throughout the video i'll be using my ancient egypt history and mythology chart which can be purchased as a poster from my website usefulcharts.com [Music] we're going to start by looking at the timeline the first thing you need to know about ancient egyptian history is that it is divided into 31 numbered dynasties so this is what the numbers represent on the timeline for example if you want to know when the fourth dynasty of egypt was the answer is between approximately 2600 bce and 2500 bce the second thing you need to know is that there were three times throughout ancient egyptian history in which egypt really flourished these are called the old kingdom the middle kingdom and the new kingdom and they are shown on the chart in red purple and blue in between and after these kingdoms there were three intermediate periods in which egypt was in decline okay the next thing i want to show you is the map the most important thing to notice here is that there are actually two egypts lower egypt and upper egypt at first it might seem strange that lower egypt is at the top and upper egypt is at the bottom but this is because the terms refer to their placement along the nile river the river flows north so lower egypt is located downstream and upper egypt is located upstream originally lower egypt and upper egypt were two separate kingdoms the pharaohs from lower egypt wore a red crown that looked like this and the pharaohs from upper egypt wore a white crown that looked like this however when the two kingdoms were united a combined crown was created so the next time you see a picture of a rock carving from egypt pay attention to the headwear you'll notice that you see this double crown displayed a lot the main city in lower egypt was memphis located near modern day cairo most of the large pyramids that we associate with ancient egypt are located in this area the main city in upper egypt was thebes near modern day luxor you won't find any pyramids near luxor however this is the area in which the famous valley of the kings is located where king tut's tomb was found okay so now that you understand the basics about the time periods and the geography involved let's go back to the timeline so that i can give you a walkthrough of ancient egyptian history in chronological order the first dynasty started around 3100 bce everything before this is considered the pre-dynastic period the first dynasty started when a pharaoh named narmer or menes united lower in upper egypt for the first time but during the first two dynasties ancient egypt was still in its infancy it wasn't until the third dynasty that things really took off the third dynasty marked the beginning of the old kingdom which lasted through to the end of the sixth dynasty the old kingdom was centered on lower egypt and it was the period during which the largest and most famous pyramids were built the first of these was built for a pharaoh named joser and was designed by an architect named imotep to the right of the timeline is a chart showing the 12 largest pyramids in order the pyramid of joser came in at number 11 but about 50 years later we get a pharaoh named snefaru who founded the fourth dynasty the most important of the old kingdom dynasties snefaru built three major pyramids which come in at numbers 3 4 and 5. they are the red pyramid the bent pyramid and the mei doom pyramid also known as the collapsed pyramid as it well collapsed and only the inner portion can be seen today at this point let's go down to the bottom of the chart where i have some family tree diagrams you can see here that snefaru was the father of khufu who was the builder of the largest pyramid of all the great pyramid at giza khufu was followed by two of his sons both of whom also built large pyramids however only the pyramid of khafre exists today the pyramid of jidethri is known as the lost pyramid and was either never finished or was perhaps destroyed at some later point the dynasty continued through khafre and his son menkhara menkhara started to build his own pyramid but it was actually finished by his son shep saxkaff if we go back up to the pyramid photos you can see the various pyramids that i just mentioned so the great pyramid of khufu comes in at number one with an original height of about 480 feet that's about the height of a 50-story building the pyramid of coffrey which is located right next to khufu's is just a little bit shorter however it stands out because it's the one that is right behind the sphinx the sphinx is of course one of the most interesting statues in the ancient world and there are all sorts of crazy theories about it however according to mainstream historians it was simply built by the same pharaoh who built the pyramid right next to it kafree the third of the three pyramids at giza is the one that khofray's son menchari started to build and which was finished by his son shep saskath it's about half the size of the other two giza pyramids and comes in at number nine that lost pyramid i mentioned earlier built by kafree's older brother jideth ray was likely around the same size as the mankauri pyramid so i've placed it on the chart at number 10. okay let's now return to the timeline around the year 2200 bce a major climate event occurred known as the 4.2 kilo-year event it caused super dry conditions worldwide and this is probably what caused the fall of the old kingdom at this point egypt experienced its first intermediate period during which lower egypt and upper egypt eventually split but the two kingdoms were united again by a pharaoh named menuhotep ii of the 11th dynasty and thus the middle kingdom was born which lasted through to the end of the thirteenth dynasty of the three middle kingdom dynasties the twelfth is the most important it was during the twelfth dynasty that pyramid building resumed however the middle kingdom pyramids weren't able to rival those of the old kingdom and in fact most of them are in pretty bad shape today the largest are the pyramids of senestret iii and amenonhat the third which come in at numbers six and seven the middle kingdom came to an end around 1700 bce when the two egypts split up once again it was during this second intermediate period that a foreign people group from west asia entered egypt and took control they are known as the hicksos and they ruled lower egypt as the 15th dynasty however pharaoh almost the first founder of the 18th dynasty was eventually able to expel the foreign hickos reunite egypt and establish the new kingdom centered on thebes in upper egypt the new kingdom was the greatest of the three ancient egyptian kingdoms and is sometimes referred to as the egyptian empire since it was during the new kingdom that egypt reached its peak in terms of its size power and influence in fact most of the pharaohs whose names are still well known today such as tatmos hatshepset akhenaten tutankhamen and ramses are new kingdom pharaohs coming from either the 18th or the 19th dynasties i've already done a video covering the family tree of the new kingdom pharaohs so i won't go through that again but if you're interested in seeing it you can find a link in the description for now let's quickly finish looking at the timeline the new kingdom came to an end around 100 bce which is about the same time as the bronze age collapse an event which saw the demise of the mycenaean greeks as well at this point egypt starts to frequently become ruled by foreign powers such as the libyan pharaohs of dynasty 21 and the cushite or so-called black pharaohs of dynasty 25 it then fights several wars with both assyria and babylon only to be defeated in the end by the acamented persians who are dynasties 27 and 31. the numbered dynasties come to an end in the year 332 bce when alexander the great conquered egypt shortly thereafter egypt ended up being controlled by the ptolemies which ruled until the time of cleopatra after which egypt becomes part of the roman empire so keep in mind that the history of ancient egypt is really long about 3 000 years it is often pointed out that cleopatra is closer in time to us today than she is to the pharaohs who built the great pyramids at giza amazing i should also point out that we have a separate video covering the family tree of the ptolemaic dynasty so if you want to check that out that link is also in the description okay that covers the history of ancient egypt i now want to talk a little bit about its mythology but before i begin i need to make a really important point as i just mentioned the history of ancient egypt spans about 3 000 years and although we tend to consider it as a single civilization it didn't actually always have a single unified culture because of this there is no one correct way to arrange the ancient egyptian gods into a family tree chart what i'm about to show you is just one of the many ways that the gods were understood to relate to one another so for example in memphis these three gods were the most important i've shown them in red to match with lower egypt on the map and with the old kingdom on the timeline in this triad there was a father mother and child the father was patha the god of craftsmanship this makes sense because lower egypt is the place where all the big pyramids are his consort was sekhmet the goddess of healing and together they were the parents of nefertam the god of beauty although sometimes his mother is said to be sekhmet's sister bastet she's the goddess with the head of a cat in thebes however a different triad of gods was worshipped i've shown them in blue to match with upper egypt on the map and with the new kingdom on the timeline in the theban triad the father was amun who was later associated with ra the sun god his consort was the great mother moot and together they were the parents of kansu the moon god so these two triads were associated with lower egypt and upper egypt respectively however eventually a group of nine gods known as the inaid inea being the greek word for the number nine became the main set of gods for all of egypt at the top was ra the king of the gods and the main god of the sun his center of worship was in a city near memphis which the greeks later called heliopolis city of the sun ra took many forms as i already mentioned he was sometimes amun-ra associated with the main theban god amun but he was also sometimes kepri the god of the morning sun and atum the god of the evening sun ra was the father of shu and teffnet god of the wind and goddess of the rain together they were the parents of geb and newt god of the earth and goddess of the sky note that in european mythologies earth is usually a mother and the sky is usually a father but in egypt this is reversed together geb and newt were the parents of isis osiris nephthys and set other than raw osiris is probably the best known egyptian god this is because he was associated with the afterlife and the egyptians were really interested in the afterlife they of course are well known for carefully wrapping the dead in the form of mummies for preservation osiris is the main character in egyptian mythology's most famous story which is simply called the osiris myth according to that story osiris was the first pharaoh of egypt but at some point he was murdered by his brother seth who then usurped the throne at this point osiris's wife who was named isis traveled to the afterlife to try and rescue him she wasn't able to bring him back to life however she was able to have a child with him who was named horus once horus became an adult he avenged his father by killing seth and reclaimed the throne this is why he later became known as the god of kingship and in fact he became so popular that he was eventually considered to be the same being as the main god ra so within the egyptian pantheon isis is generally known as the goddess of motherhood and osiris as the god of the afterlife set however became more of a dark figure and was known as the god of storms and the desert as well as disorder and violence sometimes his sister nephes the goddess of funerals was seen as his wife but sometimes she was seen as the second wife of osiris she was also the mother of anubis by either osiris or set anubis was the god who weighed a person's soul after death according to the egyptians if a person's soul weighed more than an ostrich feather which was actually the goddess ma'at that person would then be devoured by the female demon amit horus had a wife named hathor who was the goddess of love together they were said to have four children who were associated with the four points of the compass as well as four organs of the body there are a couple of more things i want to point out about this part of the chart like i keep saying these gods were understood in a bunch of different ways however one way in which they can all be placed on a single family tree is the way that i've shown here so you'll notice that at the very top is a primordial god called noon and a goddess named mehet wehet together they are sometimes said to be the parents of ra as well as of knum the source of the nile river and of neeth the goddess of warren hunting among her children was a very important god named folf the god of knowledge okay so i'm not able to point out every god but these are the main ones the final thing i want to talk about is hieroglyphs which is the writing system used by the ancient egyptians and together with sumerian cuneiform the earliest true writing system created by humans now on this chart you can see some of the many hieroglyphic symbols together with the approximate sound they represented but don't misunderstand although some symbols eventually did come to represent a single sound most hieroglyphic symbols do not represent a single sound there are hundreds of them and usually they represent two or three sounds grouped together or sometimes even an entire word like the examples shown here the symbols for single sounds were mostly used for spelling out proper names in these cases they were placed in a rounded box called a cartouche and i've given you a few examples here okay so that was just a very brief overview of ancient egypt's history and mythology once again if you'd like to purchase a copy of the poster you can head over to my website usefulcharts.com thanks for watching [Music] [Music] you

Ancient Egypt Timeline & Mythology Family Tree.en.srt

00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,720 today i'm going to give you a quick overview of ancient egypt both its mythology as well as its history so i'll be showing you a family tree of the main egyptian gods but i'll also be talking about some of the most important historical pharaohs and i'll be showing you where they fit on the timeline we'll also be looking at a map of ancient egypt the 12 largest pyramids and of course the famous egyptian hieroglyphic writing system throughout the video i'll be using my ancient egypt history and mythology chart which can be purchased as a poster from my website usefulcharts.com [Music] we're going to start by looking at the timeline the first thing you need to know about ancient egyptian history is that it is divided into 31 numbered dynasties so this is what the numbers represent on the timeline for example if you want to know when the fourth dynasty of egypt was the answer is between approximately 2600 bce and 2500 bce the second thing you need to know is that there were three times throughout ancient egyptian history in which egypt really flourished these are called the old kingdom the middle kingdom and the new kingdom and they are shown on the chart in red purple and blue in between and after these kingdoms there were three intermediate periods in which egypt was in decline okay the next thing i want to show you is the map the most important thing to notice here is that there are actually two egypts lower egypt and upper egypt at first it might seem strange that lower egypt is at the top and upper egypt is at the bottom but this is because the terms refer to their placement along the nile river the river flows north so lower egypt is located downstream and upper egypt is located upstream originally lower egypt and upper egypt were two separate kingdoms the pharaohs from lower egypt wore a red crown that looked like this and the pharaohs from upper egypt wore a white crown that looked like this however when the two kingdoms were united a combined crown was created so the next time you see a picture of a rock carving from egypt pay attention to the headwear you'll notice that you see this double crown displayed a lot the main city in lower egypt was memphis located near modern day cairo most of the large pyramids that we associate with ancient egypt are located in this area the main city in upper egypt was thebes near modern day luxor you won't find any pyramids near luxor however this is the area in which the famous valley of the kings is located where king tut's tomb was found okay so now that you understand the basics about the time periods and the geography involved let's go back to the timeline so that i can give you a walkthrough of ancient egyptian history in chronological order the first dynasty started around 3100 bce everything before this is considered the pre-dynastic period the first dynasty started when a pharaoh named narmer or menes united lower in upper egypt for the first time but during the first two dynasties ancient egypt was still in its infancy it wasn't until the third dynasty that things really took off the third dynasty marked the beginning of the old kingdom which lasted through to the end of the sixth dynasty the old kingdom was centered on lower egypt and it was the period during which the largest and most famous pyramids were built the first of these was built for a pharaoh named joser and was designed by an architect named imotep to the right of the timeline is a chart showing the 12 largest pyramids in order the pyramid of joser came in at number 11 but about 50 years later we get a pharaoh named snefaru who founded the fourth dynasty the most important of the old kingdom dynasties snefaru built three major pyramids which come in at numbers 3 4 and 5. they are the red pyramid the bent pyramid and the mei doom pyramid also known as the collapsed pyramid as it well collapsed and only the inner portion can be seen today at this point let's go down to the bottom of the chart where i have some family tree diagrams you can see here that snefaru was the father of khufu who was the builder of the largest pyramid of all the great pyramid at giza khufu was followed by two of his sons both of whom also built large pyramids however only the pyramid of khafre exists today the pyramid of jidethri is known as the lost pyramid and was either never finished or was perhaps destroyed at some later point the dynasty continued through khafre and his son menkhara menkhara started to build his own pyramid but it was actually finished by his son shep saxkaff if we go back up to the pyramid photos you can see the various pyramids that i just mentioned so the great pyramid of khufu comes in at number one with an original height of about 480 feet that's about the height of a 50-story building the pyramid of coffrey which is located right next to khufu's is just a little bit shorter however it stands out because it's the one that is right behind the sphinx the sphinx is of course one of the most interesting statues in the ancient world and there are all sorts of crazy theories about it however according to mainstream historians it was simply built by the same pharaoh who built the pyramid right next to it kafree the third of the three pyramids at giza is the one that khofray's son menchari started to build and which was finished by his son shep saskath it's about half the size of the other two giza pyramids and comes in at number nine that lost pyramid i mentioned earlier built by kafree's older brother jideth ray was likely around the same size as the mankauri pyramid so i've placed it on the chart at number 10. okay let's now return to the timeline around the year 2200 bce a major climate event occurred known as the 4.2 kilo-year event it caused super dry conditions worldwide and this is probably what caused the fall of the old kingdom at this point egypt experienced its first intermediate period during which lower egypt and upper egypt eventually split but the two kingdoms were united again by a pharaoh named menuhotep ii of the 11th dynasty and thus the middle kingdom was born which lasted through to the end of the thirteenth dynasty of the three middle kingdom dynasties the twelfth is the most important it was during the twelfth dynasty that pyramid building resumed however the middle kingdom pyramids weren't able to rival those of the old kingdom and in fact most of them are in pretty bad shape today the largest are the pyramids of senestret iii and amenonhat the third which come in at numbers six and seven the middle kingdom came to an end around 1700 bce when the two egypts split up once again it was during this second intermediate period that a foreign people group from west asia entered egypt and took control they are known as the hicksos and they ruled lower egypt as the 15th dynasty however pharaoh almost the first founder of the 18th dynasty was eventually able to expel the foreign hickos reunite egypt and establish the new kingdom centered on thebes in upper egypt the new kingdom was the greatest of the three ancient egyptian kingdoms and is sometimes referred to as the egyptian empire since it was during the new kingdom that egypt reached its peak in terms of its size power and influence in fact most of the pharaohs whose names are still well known today such as tatmos hatshepset akhenaten tutankhamen and ramses are new kingdom pharaohs coming from either the 18th or the 19th dynasties i've already done a video covering the family tree of the new kingdom pharaohs so i won't go through that again but if you're interested in seeing it you can find a link in the description for now let's quickly finish looking at the timeline the new kingdom came to an end around 100 bce which is about the same time as the bronze age collapse an event which saw the demise of the mycenaean greeks as well at this point egypt starts to frequently become ruled by foreign powers such as the libyan pharaohs of dynasty 21 and the cushite or so-called black pharaohs of dynasty 25 it then fights several wars with both assyria and babylon only to be defeated in the end by the acamented persians who are dynasties 27 and 31. the numbered dynasties come to an end in the year 332 bce when alexander the great conquered egypt shortly thereafter egypt ended up being controlled by the ptolemies which ruled until the time of cleopatra after which egypt becomes part of the roman empire so keep in mind that the history of ancient egypt is really long about 3 000 years it is often pointed out that cleopatra is closer in time to us today than she is to the pharaohs who built the great pyramids at giza amazing i should also point out that we have a separate video covering the family tree of the ptolemaic dynasty so if you want to check that out that link is also in the description okay that covers the history of ancient egypt i now want to talk a little bit about its mythology but before i begin i need to make a really important point as i just mentioned the history of ancient egypt spans about 3 000 years and although we tend to consider it as a single civilization it didn't actually always have a single unified culture because of this there is no one correct way to arrange the ancient egyptian gods into a family tree chart what i'm about to show you is just one of the many ways that the gods were understood to relate to one another so for example in memphis these three gods were the most important i've shown them in red to match with lower egypt on the map and with the old kingdom on the timeline in this triad there was a father mother and child the father was patha the god of craftsmanship this makes sense because lower egypt is the place where all the big pyramids are his consort was sekhmet the goddess of healing and together they were the parents of nefertam the god of beauty although sometimes his mother is said to be sekhmet's sister bastet she's the goddess with the head of a cat in thebes however a different triad of gods was worshipped i've shown them in blue to match with upper egypt on the map and with the new kingdom on the timeline in the theban triad the father was amun who was later associated with ra the sun god his consort was the great mother moot and together they were the parents of kansu the moon god so these two triads were associated with lower egypt and upper egypt respectively however eventually a group of nine gods known as the inaid inea being the greek word for the number nine became the main set of gods for all of egypt at the top was ra the king of the gods and the main god of the sun his center of worship was in a city near memphis which the greeks later called heliopolis city of the sun ra took many forms as i already mentioned he was sometimes amun-ra associated with the main theban god amun but he was also sometimes kepri the god of the morning sun and atum the god of the evening sun ra was the father of shu and teffnet god of the wind and goddess of the rain together they were the parents of geb and newt god of the earth and goddess of the sky note that in european mythologies earth is usually a mother and the sky is usually a father but in egypt this is reversed together geb and newt were the parents of isis osiris nephthys and set other than raw osiris is probably the best known egyptian god this is because he was associated with the afterlife and the egyptians were really interested in the afterlife they of course are well known for carefully wrapping the dead in the form of mummies for preservation osiris is the main character in egyptian mythology's most famous story which is simply called the osiris myth according to that story osiris was the first pharaoh of egypt but at some point he was murdered by his brother seth who then usurped the throne at this point osiris's wife who was named isis traveled to the afterlife to try and rescue him she wasn't able to bring him back to life however she was able to have a child with him who was named horus once horus became an adult he avenged his father by killing seth and reclaimed the throne this is why he later became known as the god of kingship and in fact he became so popular that he was eventually considered to be the same being as the main god ra so within the egyptian pantheon isis is generally known as the goddess of motherhood and osiris as the god of the afterlife set however became more of a dark figure and was known as the god of storms and the desert as well as disorder and violence sometimes his sister nephes the goddess of funerals was seen as his wife but sometimes she was seen as the second wife of osiris she was also the mother of anubis by either osiris or set anubis was the god who weighed a person's soul after death according to the egyptians if a person's soul weighed more than an ostrich feather which was actually the goddess ma'at that person would then be devoured by the female demon amit horus had a wife named hathor who was the goddess of love together they were said to have four children who were associated with the four points of the compass as well as four organs of the body there are a couple of more things i want to point out about this part of the chart like i keep saying these gods were understood in a bunch of different ways however one way in which they can all be placed on a single family tree is the way that i've shown here so you'll notice that at the very top is a primordial god called noon and a goddess named mehet wehet together they are sometimes said to be the parents of ra as well as of knum the source of the nile river and of neeth the goddess of warren hunting among her children was a very important god named folf the god of knowledge okay so i'm not able to point out every god but these are the main ones the final thing i want to talk about is hieroglyphs which is the writing system used by the ancient egyptians and together with sumerian cuneiform the earliest true writing system created by humans now on this chart you can see some of the many hieroglyphic symbols together with the approximate sound they represented but don't misunderstand although some symbols eventually did come to represent a single sound most hieroglyphic symbols do not represent a single sound there are hundreds of them and usually they represent two or three sounds grouped together or sometimes even an entire word like the examples shown here the symbols for single sounds were mostly used for spelling out proper names in these cases they were placed in a rounded box called a cartouche and i've given you a few examples here okay so that was just a very brief overview of ancient egypt's history and mythology once again if you'd like to purchase a copy of the poster you can head over to my website usefulcharts.com thanks for watching [Music] [Music] you

Ancient Hyperborea and the War in Ukraine.de.srt

00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:05,200 Für regelmäßige Videos über alte Kulturen und vergessene Zivilisationen abonnieren Sie bitte. Hallo, ich gehe gerade meine Sprachnachrichten durch. Hören wir einmal zu. "Hallo David. Mein Name ist Mitch aus Colorado. Ich habe eine Frage zum hyperboreischen Mythos, nämlich zur hyperboreischen Verschwörung, die wir in verschiedenen Formen sehen, die mit den alten Außerirdischen und all dem Zeug zu tun haben. Vielen Dank übrigens für Ihr Programm . Ich habe durch „History with Cy“ von Ihnen erfahren, was die Pseudoarchäologie-Episode betrifft, und ich habe mir die meisten Ihrer Sachen ziemlich genau angehört, und ich freue mich darauf, zu hören, was Sie zu dieser Verschwörung zu sagen haben. Haben Sie einen guten Tag." Danke, Mitch. Ja, ich bin auf die Behauptung gestoßen, dass es eine alte Rasse von Hyperboreanern gab, die einige mit einer verlorenen Hochkultur oder mit Atlantis oder sogar mit alten Außerirdischen in Verbindung gebracht haben. Also ja, ich werde Ihnen erzählen, was wir aus alten Schriften über Hyperboräer wissen , und dann werde ich Ihnen mitteilen, wie diese Legende in neuerer Zeit interpretiert wurde und wie sie auch mit jüngsten Ereignissen wie dem Krieg in der Ukraine in Verbindung steht . Der früheste erhaltene antike Schriftsteller, der über die Hyperboräer spricht, ist Hesiod aus dem 7. Jahrhundert v. Chr. Er erwähnt sie in einer Liste von Völkern, nennt aber keine Einzelheiten, außer dass sie „gut beritten“ seien. Die Hyperboräer werden in Homer nicht namentlich erwähnt, aber er erwähnt einen kalten Wind, personifiziert als jemand namens Boreas, der von irgendwo nördlich von Thrakien zu wehen scheint. Aber der griechische Historiker Herodot, der 200 Jahre später schrieb, sagt, Homer beziehe sich in den Epigonen auf die Hyperboräer (leider ist dieses Werk verloren gegangen) und dass sowohl Homer als auch Hesiod von den Mythen über die Geburt der Götter Artemis und Apollon auf der Insel wussten von Delos, die Herodot mit den Hyperboräern in Verbindung bringt. Ein weiteres früheres, nicht mehr erhaltenes Werk, auf das sich Herodot bezieht, ist die Arimaspea von Aristeas von Prokonnesus, die etwa zur gleichen Zeit wie Hesiod geschrieben wurde. Auch sein Werk ist verloren. Uns wird gesagt, dass Aristeas behauptete, die Hyperboräer lebten weit im Norden, jenseits der Länder der Skythen, Kimmerier, Issedonen, Arimaspi und der Greifen, die das Gold bewachten. Aristeas war ein Reisender und bezeugte, dass er versucht habe, Hyperborea zu erreichen, es aber nie geschafft habe. Er ist auch die erste bekannte Quelle, die es mit der Verehrung von Apollo in Verbindung bringt. Aber in seinem Bericht scheint es eine Vermischung der realen Welt mit einer fantastischen, mythischen Welt gegeben zu haben. Ungefähr zur gleichen Zeit verfasste der Dichter Alcaios seine Hymne an Apollo, die einen Hinweis auf die Hyperboräer enthält. Dieser Text geht ebenfalls verloren, aber wir haben eine Zusammenfassung davon von Hemerius, einem griechischen Philosophen aus dem 4. Jahrhundert n. Chr., der eine Kopie besaß. Hier ist seine Zusammenfassung: Das sagt uns nicht wirklich viel über die Hyperboreaner, aber wir sehen wieder die Verbindung mit Apollo. Die Implikation ist, dass er jeden Winter dorthin fährt und im Sommer nach Delphi zurückkehrt. Ein anderer Dichter aus dieser Zeit, Simonides, erwähnt kurz die Hyperboreer und sagt über sie nur, dass sie tausend Jahre leben. Bis zum Ende des 6. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. hatten sich bei den Griechen zwei Überlieferungen über Hyperborea entwickelt – eine, die es mit dem Orakel des Apollon in Delphi in Verbindung brachte, wie wir gerade gesehen haben, und eine andere, die es mit dem Orakel des Apollon auf der Insel in Verbindung brachte von Delos. Der Dichter Pindar, der im 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. schrieb, erwähnt Hyperborea in mehreren seiner Oden, oft am Rande. Aber er spricht von einem weit entfernten Ort, schwer zugänglich. Hier ist eine Passage aus seiner 10. Pythischen Ode, die sich an Apollo richtet: Apollo sei nicht auf gewöhnlichen Wegen nach Hyperborea gelangt, fügt aber hinzu, dass Perseus, ein Held aus der griechischen Mythologie, zufällig darauf gestoßen sei, als er auf seinen Reisen welche gesehen habe von ihnen opferten Esel. Beachten Sie jedoch die Beschreibung von Hyperborea als Ort des Glücks und des langen Lebens. Die Beschreibungen davon als Utopie häufen sich in den späteren Quellen. Herodot, der ungefähr zur gleichen Zeit wie Pindar lebte, hat eine noch detailliertere Beschreibung. Er sagt, dass die Hyperboräer angeblich nördlich der Skythen und nördlich der Issedonen lebten. Anschließend erzählt er, wie die Delier, die Bewohner von Delos, berichten, dass das dortige Orakel des Apollon regelmäßig Opfergaben von den Hyperboräern erhält. Sie treffen nie auf Hyperboräer, aber die Opfergaben sollen von ihnen weitergegeben werden und viele Hände wechseln, bis sie Delos erreichen. Woher sie eigentlich kamen, wer weiß? Aber die Delianer hatten eine Legende, sagt Herodot, dass die ursprünglichen Opfergaben, die ersten, von zwei Mädchen und fünf Männern gebracht wurden, die direkt aus Hyperborea kamen. Als sie jedoch nie nach Hause zurückkehrten, entschieden die Hyperboreaner, dass es sicherer sei, dies nicht zu tun Geschenke direkt verschicken. Doch Herodot bleibt der Existenz der Hyperboräer skeptisch. Wir haben ein Fragment eines Werkes aus dem späteren 5. Jahrhundert v. Chr. von jemandem namens Hellanicus von Lesbos. Darin behauptet der Autor, dass er nördlich des Riphean- oder Rhipean-Gebirges gelebt habe – dies scheint übrigens ein mythisches Gebirge zu sein , dessen Lage wir nicht kennen. Er sagt auch, dass die Hyperboreaner Menschen der Gerechtigkeit waren, kein Fleisch, sondern nur wilde Früchte aßen und dass sie die Menschen ihrer Gesellschaft töten ließen, wenn sie 60 Jahre alt waren. Die Griechen beschrieben übrigens oft utopische Gesellschaften als Gesellschaften, die aus Vegetariern bestanden. Danach schlagen verschiedene Autoren verschiedene Standorte für die Hyperboreaner vor, was zeigt, dass es erhebliche Meinungsverschiedenheiten gab. Einige versuchten, die Hyperboreaner historischer und realistischer darzustellen, indem sie sie mit bekannten Menschen und Orten in Verbindung brachten. Beispielsweise vermuteten mehrere, dass die Rhipean- Berge nichts anderes als die Alpen seien und die Hyperboräer einfach nördlich von ihnen lebten und tatsächlich einmal in Rom eingedrungen seien. Dies scheint eine Identifikation mit den Galliern zu sein. Das Werk des Geographen Eratosthenes, der im 3. Jahrhundert v. Chr. lebte, liegt uns nicht mehr vor, aber der römische Geograph Strabo, der über die Schriften von Eratosthenes verfügte, fasst einige der Punkte von Eratosthenes zusammen. Und darunter ist ein Punkt über die Hyperboreaner. Sie sehen, Eratosthenes widerspricht Herodot, der skeptisch war, dass die Hyperboräer existierten. Der Geograph Pomponius Mela schrieb im ersten Jahrhundert n. Chr., dass die Hyperboräer nördlich des Kaspischen Meeres lebten. Er schreibt: Später geht er näher darauf ein: Plinius der Ältere, der etwa zur gleichen Zeit in seinem Buch „Naturgeschichte“ schrieb , hat mehr über diese rätselhaften Menschen zu sagen: Um die Sache noch verwirrender zu machen, schrieb Diodorus Siculus im 1. Jahrhundert v. Chr , verbindet die Hyperboreaner mit Großbritannien. Der Autor der Bibliotheca aus dem 1. oder 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr. platziert das Land der Hyperboräer in der Nähe des Atlasgebirges in Nordafrika. Es gibt viele Variationen des hyperboreischen Mythos, die in den antiken Autoren zu finden sind. Ich habe versucht, Ihnen einen Vorgeschmack auf das Früheste und Wichtigste zu geben, aber diese Zusammenfassung kann dem Thema unmöglich vollständig gerecht werden. Ich denke jedoch, dass dies ausreicht, um deutlich zu machen, dass die Hyperboräer in der griechischen Literaturtradition größtenteils ein mythisches Volk waren, das weit im Norden jenseits einer Reihe hoher Berge namens Rhipea-Gebirge lebte. Sie wurden mit Boreas, dem Nordwind, in Verbindung gebracht und erhielten daher ihren Namen. Diese Berge wurden als eine Art Barriere zwischen der realen und der mythischen Welt wahrgenommen, und die Hyperboreaner, die Apollo verehrten, lebten in einer Art Utopie. Die Hyperboreaner lebten ein langes Leben, mussten nicht arbeiten, lebten in Frieden und hatten eine gerechte Gesellschaft. Mir ist klar, dass einige Leute angenommen haben, dass solche erstaunlichen Menschen unmöglich von dieser Erde stammen könnten, sondern Außerirdische sein müssten . Da wir jedoch mit alten Mythen und Legenden vertraut sind und wissen, wie Geschichten weitergegeben und ausgeschmückt werden, ist es wahrscheinlicher, dass die Legende entweder eine vollständige Erfindung ist, da sie an einem Ort spielt, an dem ein Paradies möglicherweise nicht existiert hat oder existiert eine Verzerrung und Verschiebung einer ursprünglich sachlichen Geschichte, die sich auf eine Gruppe von Menschen in der Nähe ihres Zuhauses bezieht. Wir werden es wahrscheinlich nie erfahren. Aber was könnte das alles mit den jüngsten Ereignissen zu tun haben, wie ich bereits erwähnt habe? Man könnte meinen, dass die antike Geschichte so weit von dem entfernt ist, was heute in der Welt geschieht, dass sie kaum in der aktuellen Politik Verwendung finden dürfte . Ah, Sie wären überrascht. Manchmal kommt es im Diskurs vor. Lassen Sie uns nun einen schnellen Sprung vom antiken Griechenland und Rom nach Schweden, ja, Schweden, im frühen 16. Jahrhundert machen. Wir befinden uns jetzt im frühneuzeitlichen Europa und zu dieser Zeit gab es einen interessanten Trend in der europäischen Geschichtsschreibung. Nationalgeschichten waren in aller Munde, und die Autoren dieser Geschichten liebten es, Zeitleisten zu erstellen, die die Geschichte der Nation, über die sie schrieben, bis in die ferne Antike zurückverfolgten. Der Ausgangspunkt für eine Geschichte wären Ereignisse unmittelbar nach der großen Sintflut, von der in der Bibel die Rede ist. Die Abstammung des gegenwärtig regierenden Monarchen eines europäischen Landes lässt sich auf einen der frühen Nachkommen Noahs zurückführen. Dadurch wurde der Herrschaft dieser Monarchen Legitimität und Autorität verliehen . Sie waren nicht nur die Nachkommen der Barbaren, die das Römische Reich überrannten, sie waren auch älter und größer als die Römer und Griechen. Dieser Antiquarismus umfasste das Studium antiker Mythen, Gesetze, Ruinen, Dokumente, Landschaften, Genealogie, Bräuche und Religionen, war jedoch intellektuell nicht streng. Es ging mehr darum, nach Beweisen zu suchen, die Ihre bereits bestehende Idee untermauern, als sich von den Beweisen zu einer Schlussfolgerung führen zu lassen. Es war methodisch offen; Zur Unterstützung der von Ihnen vertretenen Ideen könnte alles verwendet werden, von archäologischen Ausgrabungen über esoterische numerologische Vergleiche alter Alphabete bis hin zum Herausgreifen von Teilen von Mythen und deren Annahme, dass sie wahr sind. Nun, auch Schriftsteller in Schweden folgten diesem Trend. Sie verbanden sich mit den Goten, die in griechischen und römischen Schriften erwähnt werden, und es stimmt, dass die Goten ihren Ursprung wahrscheinlich in Skandinavien hatten. Aber sie gingen noch weiter. Die herrschende Dynastie der Schweden soll von Magog abstammen, dem Enkel Noahs, der angeblich der Urvater der Goten war. Das ist alles größtenteils erfunden. Aber diese gotische Verbindung war für einige nicht zufriedenstellend. Sie sehen, die Goten wurden im Volksmund mit Barbarei in Verbindung gebracht. Sie waren diejenigen, die zur Zerstörung des Römischen Reiches beitrugen. Daher entwickelte sich im 17. Jahrhundert in Schweden eine neue Forschungstradition zur Lösung dieses Problems, die die Schweden mit den Hyperboräern identifizierte. Gelehrte der damaligen Zeit versuchten, diesen Zusammenhang herzustellen, indem sie Berichte über die Hyperboräer mit altnordischen Schriften verglichen und argumentierten, dass die Goten keine Barbaren seien. Sie waren in der Tat Nachkommen der Hyperboräer, eines zivilisierten Volkes, das den Baltikumraum lange vor der Existenz der Griechen und Römer beherrschte. Diese Ansicht spielte zu dieser Zeit eine zentrale Rolle in den politischen und historischen Diskursen Schwedens. Der Typ, der das alles ins Leben rief, war Johannes Bureus in seinem Buch Antiqiitates Scanzianae. Er diskutierte mehrere klassische Berichte über die Hyperboräer, insbesondere Herodot und Diodorus, und verglich sie mit schwedischen Legenden und Runen sowie Kunst und Artefakten. Er behauptete, dass diese Beweise von einer alten Hochkultur in der schwedischen Stadt Uppsala zeugten. Die Goten waren eine Nachfolgekultur der Hyperboräer. Er minimierte die Errungenschaften der klassischen Völker, um die Nordeuropäer zu verherrlichen, und sagte, dass die Griechen, Römer und Westeuropäer im Grunde alle großen Aspekte ihrer Zivilisation von der der Hyperboreaner im Norden erhalten hätten. Die Hyperboreaner hatten die ursprüngliche Zivilisation, und sie war rein und unberührt und hochentwickelt. Er argumentierte diese Dinge während des Dreißigjährigen Krieges, als Karl IX. und Gustav Adolf, die Könige von Schweden, nach einer Rechtfertigung für die Expansion in neue Gebiete suchten und die Ideen von Bureus zu diesem Zweck genutzt wurden. Die Büros fügten dem Ganzen sogar einen prophetischen Aspekt hinzu und deuteten an, dass dies der Beginn eines neuen goldenen Zeitalters sei, in dem die heilige hyperboreische Weisheit wiederbelebt würde. Natürlich hat es kein goldenes Zeitalter gegeben, aber nach Bureus werden andere diese Ideen weiterhin fördern und weiterentwickeln. Am bemerkenswertesten unter ihnen war Georg Stiernhielm, ein Schüler von Bureus und Olof Verelius, dessen populäre Schriften die Gleichsetzung der alten Skandinavier mit den Hyperboreanern ins Bewusstsein der Intellektuellen in ganz Europa brachten. Lassen Sie uns nun einen Sprung ins nächste Jahrhundert machen und einen Blick auf einen französischen Astronomen namens Jean-Sylvain Bailly werfen. Zufällig war er kurz vor der Französischen Revolution auch Bürgermeister von Paris . Am Ende wurde er guillotiniert. Bailly schrieb eine Reihe von Werken, in denen er Hyperborea mit der verlorenen Zivilisation von Atlantis in Verbindung brachte. Er nahm zwei Legenden und fügte sie zusammen. Bailly vertrat eine Theorie namens radikaler Diffusionismus. Dies ist die Idee, dass alle kulturellen Erfindungen und Traditionen auf der Welt nicht unabhängig voneinander an verschiedenen Orten entstanden sind, sondern an einem Punkt entstanden sind und sich von dort aus ausgebreitet oder „verbreitet“ haben. Dies war ein Standpunkt, der zu seiner Zeit bereits vorherrschte . Die Menschen suchten nach der Ur-Zivilisation, dem Original. Aber die Menschen suchten nicht nach bekannten Kulturen wie Ägypten oder Indien, um diese Rolle zu übernehmen. Sie postulierten einen älteren Vorläufer aller bekannten Zivilisationen. Und für einige galt diese Ur-Zivilisation als das Atlantis, von dem in Platons philosophischen Dialogen die Rede war. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt war Atlantis zum Synonym für technologische Perfektion und Hochkultur geworden. Bailly verlegte Atlantis nach Norden und verband es mit Hyperborea. Er fügte dem Ganzen eine dritte griechisch-römische Geschichte hinzu , den Mythos vom Goldenen Zeitalter, der besagte, dass die Menschheit einen Zyklus von Zeitaltern durchlaufen habe, von denen jedes schlimmer sei als das vorherige. Ganz am Anfang stand das Goldene Zeitalter, in dem jeder in Frieden und Wohlstand lebte, ein langes Leben führte und die Nahrung der Erde im Überfluss wuchs, ohne dass jemand arbeiten musste. Obwohl dies in gewisser Weise dem atlantischen Mythos einer hochentwickelten Zivilisation widerspricht, beschreiben beide eine ideale Form der sozialen Organisation zu Beginn der Menschheitsgeschichte, sodass Bailly versuchte, sie zum Funktionieren zu bringen. Er vermutete, dass es in Asien ein weißes nordeuropäisches Volk gegeben hatte, das für alle großen kulturellen Errungenschaften der Zivilisationen der Welt verantwortlich war. Er leugnete nicht die Größe des Ostens. Nein, er schrieb ihre Leistungen lediglich den Hyperboreern zu, den Europäern, die dorthin einwanderten und ihnen diese Dinge beibrachten. Für ihn und diejenigen, die seinen Ansichten anhingen, war das Studium und die Wertschätzung des Ostens eine weitere Möglichkeit, die Europäer zu ehren. Die Geschichte der Menschheit war nun die Geschichte der Reisen der Europäer rund um den Globus. Und wie konnte man wirklich widerlegen, was er sagte? Er verortete die ursprüngliche Heimat der Hyperboräer jenseits des Rahmens empirischer Untersuchungen (ihre Überreste liegen heute unter den polaren Eisschilden). Baillys „Beweise“ wurden hauptsächlich in Mythen und Legenden gesucht. Sie waren für ihn ein korruptes Zeugnis der Vergangenheit und einer verlorenen, erhabenen ursprünglichen Religion. Nur wenn man den wahren Code der Mythologie knackte, konnte man diese Religion rekonstruieren und das aufdecken, was er den „heiligen Diskurs“ nannte. Dann spulen wir jetzt noch einmal vor ins 19. Jahrhundert. Baillys Theorie inspirierte eine russische Aristokratin und Mystikerin namens Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, besser bekannt als Madame Blavatsky, die Mitbegründerin der Theosophischen Gesellschaft. Sie behauptete, während ihres Aufenthalts in Tibet ein altes Buch namens „Die Strophen von Dzyan“ gefunden zu haben, dessen Existenz nie bestätigt wurde. Sie interpretierte es mithilfe ihrer angeblichen hellseherischen Fähigkeiten und veröffentlichte ihre Ideen 1888 in ihrem Buch „Die Geheimlehre“. das sich stark auf die Schriften von Bailly stützt. Darin schlägt sie eine Art Dezentralisierung der Menschheit vor, von einem antiken Ideal der Vergangenheit zu dem, was wir heute haben. Alles begann im „Heiligen Land“, das sie am Nordpol platziert. Von dort aus wurden andere Kontinente besiedelt. Auf ihnen lebten die sieben ursprünglichen Rassen der Menschen, und jede dieser Rassen brachte sieben Unterrassen hervor. Der erste Kontinent, auf dem sich die Menschen ausbreiteten, war Hyperborea, das Nordasien umfasste. Sie beschreibt es wie folgt: Die Menschen breiteten sich auch auf zwei anderen Kontinenten aus, sagt sie: Lemurien und Atlantis. Diese drei Kontinente der Welt, Hyperborea, Lemuria und seitdem, sind verschwunden. Aber ein anderes, das das heutige Europa und Kleinasien umfasste, blieb bestehen. Blavatsky spricht von der arischen Rasse als einem der Originale, die überlebt haben: Lange Zeit, sagt sie, lebten die Arier bei den verbliebenen Atlantern, die ihnen ihre hochentwickelten Technologien beibrachten, darunter auch Flugmaschinen, und gemeinsam brachten sie die Zivilisation nach Indien und Ägypten , Griechenland und Rom. All dies widerspricht natürlich der modernen Wissenschaft, und das Buch ist voller mystischer und fantastischer Albernheiten. Das Buch ist außerdem stark antisemitisch. Sie spricht von den Juden als „einer künstlichen arischen Rasse“ und den Schöpfern einer entwürdigten Religion, die auf der Verehrung des Phallus beruht. Die Arier hingegen werden als „das metaphysischste und spirituellste Volk der Welt“ beschrieben. Denken Sie daran, dass diese Mentalität gegenüber den Juden damals weit verbreitet war und nicht nur bei ihr vorkam, aber sie verleiht diesen Ansichten durchaus kosmologische Bedeutung. Die Juden gelten als Hindernis für den Fortschritt der Rassen.   Der theosophische Antisemitismus fand vor und nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg in Deutschland eine Heimat und vermischte Rassismus mit tausendjährigen Fantasien. Unmittelbar nach dem Krieg wurde die Thule Society gegründet. Es wurde nach Ultima Thule benannt, einem weiteren legendären Ort, der in antiken klassischen Quellen erwähnt wird. Die alten Griechen bezeichneten es als den nördlichsten Ort der Welt. Mitglieder der Thule-Gesellschaft glaubten, es sei die Hauptstadt von Hyperborea. Die Thule-Gesellschaft begann als Studiengruppe, entwickelte sich jedoch unter Rudolf von Sebottendorff zu einer politischen Aktivisten- und paramilitärischen Gruppe, die sich für die Bekämpfung von Juden und Kommunisten interessierte und ihre antiquarische Forschung als Deckmantel nutzte. Sie waren Förderer der Deutschen Arbeiterpartei. Zu dieser Gruppe gehörten Menschen, die später berühmte Nazis wurden . Aber es hielt nicht lange an und zerfiel 1919. Ideen über Hyperborea und Atlantis wurden später von anderen in Deutschland propagiert, beispielsweise in dem Buch „Der Mythos des 20. Jahrhunderts“, geschrieben von Alfred Rosenberg, dem Leiter der NSDAP-Geschäftsstelle of Foreign Affairs, der für ein prähistorisches Zentrum der nordischen Kultur im Norden plädierte, aus dem sich alle großen Zivilisationen entwickelten, und Heinrich Himmler, der mit der Organisation Ahnenerbe (Institut für Ahnenforschung) nach Beweisen für die Existenz von Atlantis suchte Inneres Asien. Bitte – ich möchte nicht, dass Sie mich hier falsch interpretieren. Ich versuche in keiner Weise zu sagen, dass das Interesse an Hyperborea oder Atlantis oder die Erforschung möglicher historischer Tatsachen dahinter antisemitisch, faschistisch oder auf andere Weise verwerflich ist. Ich versuche nur zu zeigen, wie manche Menschen diese alten Legenden für politische Zwecke genutzt haben und wie sich dies letztendlich auf die aktuellen Ereignisse auswirken wird. Passenderweise springen wir jetzt in unsere eigene Zeit und zu den Ideen eines noch lebenden russischen politischen Philosophen namens Aleksander Dugin . Die Legende von Hyperborea spielt in seinen politischen Ansichten eine Rolle. Dugin verwendet Landschaften und Himmelsrichtungen auf symbolische Weise und bezeichnet sie als „heilige Geographie“. Darin unterscheidet er zwischen Ost und West. Der Osten ist das „Land des Geistes“, das paradiesische Land, das Land der Vollkommenheit, des Überflusses, die heilige „Heimat“ in ihrer vollsten und vollständigsten Form. Es ist der Ort der Sonne, des Lichts der Welt, das materielle Symbol der Göttlichkeit und des Geistes. Der Westen hat die entgegengesetzte symbolische Bedeutung. Es ist das „Land des Todes“, die „leblose Welt“, „das Reich des Exils“ und „die Grube der Verworfenen“. Es ist der „Anti-Osten“, das Land des Verfalls, der Erniedrigung und des Übergangs vom Manifesten zum Nichtmanifesten, vom Leben zum Tod, von der Ganzheit zur Not. Es ist der Ort, an dem die Sonne untergeht. Der Westen ist materialistisch, atheistisch, individualistisch, humanistisch und beschäftigt sich mit Technologie und Geldverdienen. Es interessiert sich für Fortschritt und Evolution. Dugin bringt es mit dem Meer in Verbindung und nennt es Atlantikismus. Den Osten hingegen assoziiert er mit dem Land. Es ist traditionell, spirituell, korporativ und moralisch. Statt Demokratie und Menschenrechte tendiert es zu Autoritarismus und Sozialismus. Dugin argumentiert, dass die Bewegungen der Menschen und die Schaffung von Reichen durch die ursprüngliche Logik der heiligen Geographie definiert wurden. Zivilisationen, die näher am Osten lagen, standen dem Heiligen, der Tradition und der spirituellen Fülle näher, während diejenigen, die näher am Westen standen, weiter vom Geist entfernt waren und verfielen und degradierten. Er spricht auch von einer Dichotomie zwischen Norden und Süden, wobei der Norden Geist, Licht, Reinheit, Vollständigkeit, Einheit und Ewigkeit entspricht und der Süden Materialität, Dunkelheit, Mischung, Entbehrung, Pluralität und Eintauchen in den Strom der Zeit symbolisiert Werden. Es herrscht Harmonie auf der Welt, sagt er, wenn der Süden die Autorität des Nordens anerkennt. Wenn dies nicht der Fall ist, liegt ein Konflikt vor, und der Süden ist für den Konflikt verantwortlich. Er sagt, dass es in „vorsintflutlichen“ Zeiten einen großen Krieg zwischen Nord und Süd gab, also in der Zeit vor der großen Sintflut, als Hyperborea und Gondwana, die alten Paläokontinente von Nord und Süd, kämpften. Jetzt jedoch findet der Hauptkampf zwischen Ost und West statt. Dugin möchte klarstellen, dass er sich nicht als Rassist sieht. Ja, er gibt zu, dass all dies möglicherweise eine biologische oder rassische Komponente hat, aber das Wesen des „Nordismus“, sagt er, liege im Charakter. Es gebe keine rein nördlichen oder südlichen Völker mehr, sagt er, weil es überall auf der Welt Migrationen gegeben habe. Der Dualismus zwischen nördlichen und südlichen Typen ist jedoch geblieben. Der heutige Kampf, behauptet Dugin, findet zwischen den beiden Teilen des Nordens statt: dem reichen Norden und dem armen Norden, wobei der reiche Norden den Westen repräsentiert und der arme Norden den Osten repräsentiert. Er plädiert dafür, dass der arme Norden, womit er Russland meint, sich erhebt und sich dem reichen Norden widersetzt. Sie muss aktiv und aggressiv sein, die Projekte des atlantischen Westens ablehnen, seine Pläne von innen und außen zerstören, seine makellose Effizienz bekämpfen und seine sozialen und politischen Manipulationen vereiteln. Dugin ist der Gründer der Eurasien-Partei in Russland, einer traditionell-kommunistischen, sozialkonservativen Partei, deren Ziel der Aufbau eines von Russland geführten eurasischen Reiches ist. Seit vielen Jahren drängt Dugin darauf, dass Wladimir Putin dieses Imperium Wirklichkeit werden lässt. Wie sehr Putin an Dugins Philosophien festhält, wissen wir nicht, aber Dugin fordert seit geraumer Zeit eine Annexion der Ukraine . Er glaubt nicht, dass die Ukraine jemals ein legitimer Staat gewesen ist und dass ihr Erwerb eine absolute Notwendigkeit für ein eurasisches Imperium ist. Und nun kommen wir endlich zu der Frage, wie das alte Hyperborea mit dem Krieg in der Ukraine verbunden ist. Es ist offensichtlich nicht entscheidend oder von entscheidender Bedeutung . Es ist nicht so, dass die Legende die Ursache des Konflikts ist. Es handelt sich lediglich um ein rhetorisches Werkzeug, das im eurasischen Diskurs eingesetzt wird. Aber wenn Sie es jetzt sehen, wissen Sie, was es bedeutet und warum es verwendet wird. Manchmal bekommt es sogar eine eschatologische Bedeutung. Ich hoffe, das hat Ihre Frage beantwortet. Wenn einer von Ihnen da draußen mir eine Nachricht senden und diese möglicherweise hier in einem Video beantworten lassen möchte, können Sie dies unter speakpipe.com/DavidMiano tun. Und wenn Sie den Kanal unterstützen möchten, können Sie dies für nur 2 $ pro Monat unter patreon.com/WorldofAntiquity tun. Vielleicht gefällt Ihnen meine kleine E-Broschüre „Why Ancient History Matters“. Sie soll Menschen davon überzeugen, dass das Thema auch in der modernen Welt wichtig ist. Vielleicht möchten Sie sie auch dazu verwenden, die Nachricht zu verbreiten, also teilen Sie sie gerne Es ist für jeden, der es möchte, kostenlos. Ich habe den Link im Beschreibungsfeld unter dem Video hinterlassen, damit Sie sich später ein Exemplar sichern können.

Ancient Hyperborea and the War in Ukraine.en.srt

00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,240 for regular videos on ancient cultures and forgotten civilizations please subscribe hi i'm just going through my voicemails let's give one a listen hi david uh my name is mitch from colorado um i have a question regarding the hyperborean myth uh namely the hypobiri and korean conspiracy we see coming up in in several several forms you know a lot having to do with the ancient aliens and all that stuff ah thank you for your program by the way i found out about you through history of psy regarding the pseudo archaeology episode um and i pretty much listened to most yourself and i look forward to hearing what um we have to say regarding this uh this conspiracy have a good day and thank you mitch yes um i have run across this claim that there was an ancient race of hyperboreans that some have associated with a lost advanced civilization or with atlantis or even with ancient aliens so yes i will tell you about what we know about hyperboreans from ancient writings and then i'll share with you how this legend has been interpreted in more recent times and how it is also linked even with recent events such as the war in ukraine yeah the earliest extant ancient writer that talks about the hyperboreans is hesed from the 7th century bce he mentions them in a list of peoples but gives no details except that they are well horsed the hyperboreans are not mentioned by name in homer but he does mention a chill wind personified as someone called boreus which seems to be blowing from somewhere north of thrace but the greek historian herodotus writing 200 years later says homer refers to the hyperboreans in the epigony unfortunately this work has been lost and that both homer and hesiod knew of the myths of the births of the gods artemis and apollo on the island of delos which herodotus connects with the hyperboreans another earlier work that herodotus refers to is the aramaspia by aristius of prokinesis written around the same time as hesiod his work is also lost we're told that aristeas claimed that the hyperboreans lived far to the north beyond the lands of the scythians sumerians iscidones eramastpi and the griffins who guarded the gold aristius was a traveler and testified that he tried to reach hyperborea but never did he also is the first known source to connect it with the worship of apollo but in his account there seems to have been a mixing of the real world with a fantastical mythical world right around the same time the poet alkyus composed his hymn to apollo which contains a reference to the hyperboreans this text also is lost but we have a summary of it from himarius a greek philosopher from the 4th century ce who had a copy here is his summary when apollo was born zeus equipped him with golden headband and lyre and gave him also a chariot of swans to drive and sent him to delphi in the spring of castalia thence to declare justice and right for the greeks but when apollo mounted the chariot he directed the swans to fly to the land of the hyperboreans now when the delphians learned this they composed a pan and a tune and arranged dancing choruses of youths around the tripod and called on the god to come from the hyperboreans apollo however delivered law among the men of that region for a full year but when he thought that it was time that the tripods of delphi should ring out too he ordered his swans to fly back again from the hyperboreans so that with the blaze of summer and the presence of apollo the poet's liar also adopts a summer wantonness in the account of the god this doesn't really tell us much of anything about the hyperboreans but again we see the link with apollo the implication is that he goes there every winter and returns to delphi in the summer another poet from this time simon ideas briefly mentions the hyperboreans and all he says about them is that they live for a thousand years by the end of the 6th century bce two traditions had developed about hyperborea among the greeks one that linked it with the oracle of apollo at delphi as we have just seen and another that linked it to the oracle of apollo on the island of delos the poet pindar writing in the 5th century bce mentions hyperborea in several of his odes often in passing but he speaks of it as a far away place difficult to access here's a passage from his tenth pythian ode addressing apollo whatsoever splendors we of mortal race may reach through such he apollo has free course even to the utmost harbor edge but neither by taking ship neither by any travel on foot to the hyperborean folk shall you find the wondrous way yet of old the chieftain perseus entered into their houses and feasted among them when he had lighted on them as they were sacrificing ample hecatombs of asses to their god forever in their feasts and hymns has apollo special joy and laughs to see the bring ramp of the strange beasts nor is the muse a stranger to their lives but everywhere are stirring to and fro dances of maidens and shrill noise of pipes and binding golden bay leaves in their hair they make them merry cheer nor pestilence nor wasting old age approach that hallowed race they toil not neither do they fight and dwell unharmed of cruel nemesis apollo he says got to hyperborea not through usual means but he adds that perseus a hero from greek mythology happened to light upon it when on his travels he saw some of them sacrificing donkeys but note the description of hyperborea as a place of happiness and long life the descriptions of it as a utopia multiply in the later sources herodotus who lived around the same time as pindar has an even more detailed description he says the hyperboreans are reputed to live north beyond the scythians and beyond the iscidones north of them concerning the hyperborean people neither the scythians nor any other dwellers in these lands tell us anything except perchance the iscidones and as i think even they tell nothing for were it not so then the scythians too would have told even as they tell of the one-eyed men he then relates how the delians the inhabitants of dilos say that the oracle of apollo there receives offerings regularly from the hyperboreans they never meet any hyperboreans but the offerings are said to be passed on from them exchanging many hands along the way until they reached d-loss where they actually came from who knows but the delians had a legend says herodotus that the original offerings the first ones were brought by two maidens and five men who came straight from hyperborea but that when they never returned home the hyperboreans decided it was safer not to send gifts directly but i should add herodotus remain skeptical of the existence of the hyperboreans we have a fragment of a work from the later 5th century bce from someone called hellanicus of lesbos in it the writer claims the hyperboreans lived to the north of the rifian european mountains this by the way appears to be a mythical mountain range the location of which we don't know he also says that the hyperboreans were people of justice ate no meat but only wild fruits and that when people in their society reached 60 years of age they had them killed the greeks by the way often described utopian societies as consisting of vegetarians after this various writers propose various locations for the hyperboreans showing that there was considerable disagreement some tried to make the hyperboreans more historical and realistic by associating them with known people and places for example several suggested that the rifian mountains were none other than the alps and the hyperboreans simply lived north of them and they had in fact invaded rome at one point this seems to be an identification with the gauls the work of eratosthenes the geographer who lived in the 3rd century bce we no longer have but the roman geographer strabo who did have eratosthenes writings summarizes some of eratosthenes points and among them is a point about the hyperboreans eratosthenes you see takes issue with herodotus who was skeptical that the hyperboreans existed this charge should be laid against herodotus that he assumed that by hyperboreans those peoples were meant in whose countries boris does not blow for even if the poets do speak thus rather mythically those at least to expound the poets should give ear to sound doctrine namely that by hyperboreans were meant merely the most northerly peoples and as for limits that of the northerly peoples is the north pole writing in the first century ce the geographer pomponius mila places the hyperboreans north of the caspian sea he writes the caspiani next to the scythians surround the caspian gulf beyond them the amazons are said to be found and beyond them the hyperboreans he elaborates further later on the hyperboreans are located beyond the north wind above the rifian mountains and under the very pole of the stars where the sun rises not every day as it does for us but for the first time at the vernal equinox and where it eventually sets at the autumnal equinox therefore for six months daylight is completely uninterrupted and for the next six months night is completely uninterrupted the land is narrow exposed to the sun and spontaneously fruitful its inhabitants live in the most equitable way possible and they live longer and more happily than any mortals to be sure because they delight in their always festive leisure they know no wars no disputes and they devote themselves primarily to the sacred rites of apollo according to tradition they sent their first fruits to delos initially in the hands of their own virgins and later they sent them through peoples who handed them on in succession to farther peoples they preserved that custom for a long time until it was profaned by the sacrilege of those peoples the hyperboreans inhabit groves and forests and when a sense of having been satisfied by life rather than boredom has gripped them they cheerfully wreath themselves in flowers and actually throw themselves into the sea from a particular cliff for them that is the finest death ritual pliny the elder writing in his book the natural history around the same time has more to say about these enigmatic people behind these riffian mountains and beyond the north wind there dwells if we can believe it a happy race of people called the hyperboreans who live to extreme old age and are famous for legendary marvels here are believed to be the hinges on which the firmament turns and the extreme limits of the revolutions of the stars with six months daylight and a single day of the sun in retirement not as the ignorant have said from the spring equinox till autumn for these people the sun rises once in the year at mid-summer and sets once at mid-winter it is a genial region with a delightful climate and exempt from every harmful blast the homes of the natives are the woods and groves they worship the gods severally and in congregations all discord in all sorrow is unknown death comes to them only when owing to satitty of life after holding a banquet and anointing their old age with luxury they leap from a certain rock into the sea this mode of burial is the most blissful some authorities have placed these people not in europe but on the nearest parts of the coast of asia because there is a race there with similar customs in a similar location named the ataki others have put them midway between the two suns the sunsets of the antipodes and our sunrise but this is quite impossible because of the enormous expanse of sea that comes between those who locate them merely in a region having six months of daylight have recorded that they sow in the morning periods reap at midday pluck the fruit from the trees at sunset and retire into caves for the night nor is it possible to doubt about this race as so many authorities state that they regularly send the first fruits of their harvests to delos as offerings to apollo whom they specially worship these offerings used to be brought by virgins who for many years were held in veneration and hospitably entertained by the nations on the route until because of a violation of good faith they instituted the custom of depositing their offerings at the nearest frontiers of the neighboring people and these of passing them on to their neighbors and so till they finally reached dlos later this practice itself also passed out of use to make things even more confusing theodorus siculus writing in the first century bce associates the hyperboreans with britain the author of the biblioteca from the first to second century ce places the land of the hyperboreans near the atlas mountains in north africa there are many variations of the hyperborean myth found in the ancient writers i tried to give you a taste of the earliest and most important but this summary cannot possibly do the subject full justice i think it is enough though to make clear that in the greek literary tradition for the most part the hyperboreans were a mythical people living far to the north beyond a range of lofty mountains called the rifian mountains they were associated with boreas the north wind and that's how they got their name these mountains were perceived as a kind of barrier between the real world and the mythical one and the hyperboreans who worshipped apollo lived in a kind of utopia the hyperboreans lived long lives didn't have to work lived in peace and had a just society i realized that some people have supposed that such amazing people could not possibly be from this earth and so must have been aliens but as we are familiar with ancient myths and legends and how stories get transmitted and embellished it's more likely that the legend is either a complete fabrication since it is set in a location where a paradise could not possibly have existed or is a distortion and displacement of an originally factual story referring to a group of people closer to home we probably will never know but what could any of that possibly have to do with recent events as i mentioned earlier ancient history you might think is so far removed from what is going on in the world today that it is hardly likely to be used in current politics you would be surprised sometimes it does appear in the discourse so let's fast forward now from ancient greece and rome to sweden yes sweden in the early 1600s we're in early modern europe now and at that time there was an interesting trend in european history writing national histories were all the rage and the writers of these histories loved to construct timelines tracing the history of whatever nation they were writing about all the way back to remote antiquity the starting point for a history would be events immediately after the great flood spoken of in the bible the ancestry of the present ruling monarch of a european country would be traced back to one of the early descendants of noah by doing so it added legitimacy and authority to the reigns of these monarchs they weren't just the descendants of barbarians who overran the roman empire they were older and greater than even the romans and the greeks this antiquarianism involved the study of ancient myths laws ruins documents landscapes genealogies customs and religion but it wasn't intellectually rigorous it was more about seeking evidence to support your pre-existing idea than allowing the evidence to lead you to a conclusion it was methodologically open anything could be used to support the ideas you were promoting from archaeological excavations to esoteric numerological comparisons of old alphabets to picking out parts of myths and assuming them to be true well writers in sweden followed this trend too they associated themselves with the goths who are mentioned in greek and roman writings and it is true that the goths probably did have their origin around scandinavia but they went further the ruling dynasty of the swedes was claimed to be descended from magog the grandson of noah who they say was the forefather of the goths this is all largely invented but this gothic connection was not satisfying to some you see the goths were in the popular mind associated with barbarism they were the ones that helped to destroy the roman empire so during the 17th century a new tradition of research developed in sweden to solve the problem which identified the swedes with the hyperboreans scholars of the time tried to establish this link by comparing accounts of the hyperboreans with old norse writings and they argued that the goths were not barbarians they were in fact descendants of the hyperboreans who were civilized people who ruled the baltic region long before the greeks and the romans even existed this view played a central role in swedish political and historical discourses at that time the guy who started all this was johannes buryus in his book tate's skanziani he discussed several classical accounts about the hyperboreans especially herodotus and theodorus and he compared them with swedish legends and rooms and art and artifacts he claimed this evidence bore witness to an ancient high civilization at the swedish city of uppsala the goths were a successor culture to the hyperboreans he minimized the achievements of the classical peoples in order to glorify northern europeans saying that the greeks and romans and western europeans had basically received all the great aspects of their civilization from that of the hyperboreans in the north the hyperboreans had the original civilization and it was pure and unspoiled and highly sophisticated he was arguing these things during the 30 years war when charles ix and gustavus adolphus kings of sweden were looking for justification for expansion into new territories and berius's ideas were employed for this purpose furious even added a prophetic aspect to it all suggesting this was the beginning of a new golden age when sacred hyperborean wisdom was being revived of course a golden age didn't happen but others after burias will continue to promote these ideas and elaborate upon them most notable among them were georg stearnhell a student of various and olaf virelius whose popular writings brought the identification of the ancient scandinavians with the hyperboreans to the attention of intellectuals in europe more broadly now let's jump ahead to the next century to look at a french astronomer by the name of jean sylvain bailey he also happened to be mayor of paris just before the french revolution he ended up getting guillotined bayley wrote a series of works in which he linked hyperborea to the lost civilization of atlantis he took two legends and put them together bailey adhered to a theory called radical diffusionism this is the idea that all the cultural inventions and traditions in the world instead of arising independently in different places originated from one point and spread out or diffused from there this was a point of view that already had currency in his time people had been seeking the ur civilization the original but people weren't looking to known cultures like egypt or india or anything like that to fill this role no they were positing an older predecessor to all the known civilizations and for some this ur civilization was believed to be the atlantis spoken of in plato's philosophical dialogues by this time atlantis had become synonymous with technological perfection and high culture bailly relocated atlantis to the north and associated it with hyperborea he added a third greco-roman tale to all of this the myth of the golden age which said that humanity has gone through a cycle of ages each one worse than the one before at the very beginning was the golden age when everyone lived in peace and prosperity lived long lives and the food of the earth grew in abundance without anyone having to work although this contradicts somewhat the atlantean myth of a super sophisticated civilization they do both describe an ideal form of social organization at the beginning of human history so bailey tried to make it work in asia he supposed there had existed a white northern european people who were responsible for all the great cultural achievements of the civilizations of the world he didn't deny the greatness of the east no he just credited their accomplishments to the hyperboreans europeans who migrated there and taught them these things thus for him and those who adhere to his views study and appreciation of the east was another way of honoring europeans the story of the human race was now the story of europeans travels across the globe and how could one really disprove what he was saying he situated the original homeland of the hyperboreans beyond the scope of empirical inquiry its remains he said we're now under the polar ice sheets bailey's proofs if you want to call them that were sought mostly in myths and legends they were for him a corrupt record of the past and of a lost sublime original religion only by cracking mythology's true code could one reconstruct this religion and uncover what he called the sacred discourse so then we fast forward again now to the 19th century bayley's theory inspired a russian aristocrat and mystic by the name of helena protrovna blavatsky better known as madame blavatsky who was the co-founder of the theosophical society claiming to have found an ancient book called the stanzas of xi'an while she was in tibet a book whose existence has never been verified she interpreted it using her claimed powers of clairvoyance and published her ideas in 1888 in her book the secret doctrine which relies heavily on the writings of bailey in it she proposes a kind of devolution of the human race from a past ancient ideal to what we have today it all started in the sacred land which she places at the north pole from there other continents were populated on them were the seven original races of humans and each of these spawned seven sub-races the first continent that people spread to was hyperborea which comprised northern asia she describes it as follows the land of the hyperboreans the country that extended beyond boreas the frozen-hearted god of snows and hurricanes who loved to slumber heavily on the chain of mount raphaeus was neither an ideal country as surmised by the mythologists norieta land in the neighborhood of skytia and dianub it was a real continent a bonafide land which knew no winter in those early days nor have it sorry remains more than one night and day during the year even now the nocturnal shadows never fall upon it said the greeks for it is the land of the gods the favorite abode of apollo the god of light and its inhabitants are his beloved priests and servants this may be regarded as poetized fiction now but it was poetized truth then people spread to two other continents as well she says lemuria and atlantis these three continents of the world hyperborea lemuria and atlantis since disappeared but another comprising what is now europe and asia minor remained blavatsky speaks of the aryan race as one of the originals that survived the aryan race was born and developed in the far north though after the sinking of the continent of atlantis its tribes emigrated further south into asia for a long time she says the aryans resided with the remaining atlanteans who taught them their sophisticated technologies including flying machines and together they brought civilization to india egypt greece and rome all this of course flies in the face of modern science and the book is filled with all kinds of mystical and fantastical silliness the book also is highly anti-semitic she speaks of the jews as an artificial aryan race and the creators of a degraded religion based on the worship of the phallus the aryans on the other hand are described as the most metaphysical and spiritual people on earth keep in mind that this mentality towards the jews was common in those days and not unique to her but she does add cosmological importance to these views the jews are thought of as a hindrance to the progress of the races theosophical anti-semitism found a home in germany before and after the first world war mixing racism with millenarian fantasies it was right after the war that the thule society was formed it was named for ultimate thule another legendary place spoken about in ancient classical sources the ancient greeks spoke of it as the northernmost place in the world members of the thule society believed it was the capital of hyperborea the thule society started out as a study group but under rudolf von sabotendorf it became a political activist and paramilitary group interested in combating jews and communists using their antiquarian research as a cover they were a sponsor of the german workers party people who would later become famous nazis were part of this group but it didn't last long and fell apart in 1919. ideas about hyperborea and atlantis were propagated by others in germany afterward such as in the book the myth of the 20th century written by alfred rosenberg the head of the nazi party's office of foreign affairs who argued for a prehistoric center of nordic culture in the north from which all great civilizations developed and heinrich himmler who through the organization ananerba the institute for ancestral research sought out evidence for the existence of atlantis in inner asia please i don't want you to interpret me in the wrong way here i'm not trying to say in any way that interest in hyperborea or atlantis or exploration of any possible historical fact behind them is anti-semitic fascist or in any other way reprehensible i'm only trying to show how some people have used these ancient legends for political purposes and how ultimately this will play into current events so appropriately now we jump ahead to our own time and to the ideas of a russian political philosopher by the name of alexander dugan still living the legend of hyperborea plays into his political views dugan uses landscapes and carnal directions in a symbolic way referring to it as sacred geography in it he distinguishes between east and west east is the land of the spirit the paradigm land the land of perfection abundance the sacred homeland in its fullest and most complete form it is the place of the sun the light of the world the material symbol of divinity and the spirit the west has the opposite symbolic meaning it is the land of death the lifeless world the empire of exile and the pit of the rejected it is the anti-east the country of decay degradation and transition from the manifest to the non-manifest from life to death from wholeness to need it is the place where the sun descends the west is materialistic atheistic individualistic humanistic and concerned with technology and making money it is interested in progress and evolution dugan associates it with the sea and calls it atlanticism the east on the other hand he associates with the land it is traditional spiritual cooperative and moral instead of democracy and human rights it tends toward authoritarianism and socialism dugan argues that the movements of people and the creation of empires was defined by the primordial logic of sacred geography civilizations closer to the east were closer to the sacred to tradition to spiritual abundance while those closer to the west were further from the spirit and decayed and degraded he also speaks of a dichotomy between north and south with the north corresponding to spirit light purity completeness unity and eternity and the south symbolizing materiality darkness mixture privation plurality and immersion in the stream of time and becoming the most ancient and primordial layer of tradition unequivocally affirms the primacy of north over south the symbolism of the north corresponds to the source to the original northern paradise from which all human civilization originates ancient iranian and zoroastrian texts speak of the northern country of aryana vaya with its capital of varah from which the ancient aryans were expelled by glaciations sent upon them by ariman the spirit of evil and opponent of the bright ormuzu the ancient vedas also speak of a northern land as the ancestral home of the hindus the schwettas vipa the white land lying in the far north the ancient greeks spoke of hyperborea the northern island with the capital thule this land was considered to be the homeland of the bright god apollo in many other traditions one can detect the most ancient traces so often forgotten and fragmentary of this nordic symbolism there is harmony in the world he says when the south recognizes the authority of the north when it doesn't there is conflict and so the south is responsible for the conflict he says there was a great war between north and south in antediluvian times that's the time before the great flood when hyperborea and gondwana the ancient paleo continents of north and south fought now however the main fight is between east and west dugan wants to make it clear that he does not see himself as a racist yes he admits there may be a biological or racial component to all this but the essence of nordicism he says is about character demand of the north is not simply white aryan or indoor european in terms of his blood language and culture the man of the north is a particular kind of being endowed with a direct intuition of the sacred to him the cosmos is a texture of symbols each of them pointing toward the first spiritual principle that is invisible to the eye the man of the north is the solar man sun and mensch who does not absorb energy as black holes do but allots it the streams of creation light strength and wisdom flow out of his spirit there are no more pure northerner southern peoples anymore he says because there have been migrations all around the world but the dualism between northern and southern types has remained pure nordic civilization disappeared with the ancient hyperboreans but its messengers laid the foundations of all present traditions this nordic race of teachers stood at the origins of the religions and cultures of the peoples of all continents and colors of skin traces of a hyperborean cult can be found among the indians of north america among the ancient slavs among the founders of the chinese civilization and among the natives of the pacific among the blonde germans and the black shamans of western africa among the red-skinned aztecs and among the mongols with their wide cheekbones there is no people on the planet that does not have a myth about this solar man sun and mitch true spirituality the supra rational mind the divine logos and the capacity to see through the world to its secret soul these are the defining qualities of the north wherever there is sacred purity and wisdom there invisibly is the north no matter what point in space or time we inhabit the north looked at in terms of tradition is a meta-historical and meta-geographical reality the same can be said about the hyperborean race it is not a race in a biological but rather in a purely spiritual metaphysical sense the fight today dugan asserts is between the two parts of the north the rich north and the poor north the rich north representing the west and the poor north representing the east he advocates for the poor north by which he means russia to rise up and oppose the rich north it must be active and aggressive rejecting the projects of the atlanticist west destroying its plans from the inside and out combating its stainless efficiency and thwarting its social and political manipulations dugan is the founder of the eurasia party in russia which is a traditional communist socially conservative party that aims to build a eurasian empire led by russia for many years dugan has been pushing for vladimir putin to make this empire a reality how much putin adheres to dugan's philosophies we do not know but dugan has been calling for an annexation of ukraine for quite some time he does not believe ukraine has ever been a legitimate state and its acquisition is an absolute necessity for a eurasian empire without ukraine russia will never be able to become a full-fledged sovereign power an empire an independent poll of a multi-polar world this means that the faith of unipolarity and globalism depends on whether the west is able to pull away ukraine after all if russia and ukraine unite one way or another uni polarity will collapse and the geopolitical map will change irreversibly again and so we finally get to how ancient hyperborea is connected to the war in ukraine clearly it is not crucial or instrumental to it it's not that the legend is the cause of the conflict it merely is a rhetorical tool employed in the urationist discourse but now if you see it you know what it means and why it's being used sometimes it even takes on eschatological meaning over the course of this struggle the flame of the resurrection of the spiritual north the flame of hyperborea will transform geopolitical reality the no global ideology will be that of final restoration putting a final end to the geopolitical history of civilizations but this will not be the end which the globalist spokesman of the end of history have theorized the materialistic atheistic anti-sacred technocratic atlanticist version of the end will give way to a different epilogue the final victory of the sacred avatar the coming of the great judgment which will grant those who chose voluntary poverty the kingdom of spiritual abundance while those who preferred wealth founded on the assassination of the spirit will be condemned to eternal damnation and torment in hell lost continents will arise out of the abysses of the past invisible metal continents will appear in reality a new earth and a new heaven will arise i hope that answered your question if any of you out there would like to send me a message and possibly have it answered here in a video you can do so at speakpipe.com david miano and if you'd like to support the channel you can do that for as little as two dollars per month at patreon.com world of antiquity you might like my little e-booklet why ancient history matters it's designed to persuade people that the subject is important even in the modern world you might also wish to use it to help spread the word so feel free to share it with someone you know it's free for anyone who wants it i've left a link in the description box below the video for you to grab a copy catch you later

Atlantis and The Tartessos Discovery The Mediterranean’s Hidden History of Giants.en.srt

00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:06,879 an ancient civilization shrouded in mystery has captivated the imagination of Scholars and enthusiasts alike one of the most enduring and speculative theories surrounding its existence is its connection to the legendary lost city of Atlantis described by the ancient Greek philosopher Plateau Atlantis was set to be a powerful and advanced civilization that mysteriously vanished beneath the waves some theorists have proposed that tartessos could be Atlantis a 3,000-year-old civilization formed through a blend of indigenous Iberian and Greek peoples as well as Phoenician settlers who originated from what is now modern-day Lebanon however at the center of this mystery is its connection to the lost city of Atlantis the true identities of the mythical sea peoples and their impact on the countries of Morocco Libya Lebanon and even Ireland could tesos be the real city of Atlantis itself [Music] [Music] [Music] in Lebanon 1950 Dr Luis botter a former French delegate to the prehistoric Society wrote in one of the middle east's leading archaeology journals the reviewed to Muse de be the following statement I want to make it clear that the existence of gigantic men in the eulian age by which I mean between about 75,000 and 150,000 years ago must be considered a scientifically proven fact in his paper concerning the discovery of oversized implements found across the Mina region Dr Balter refers to gigantic tone tools Unearthed in Syria including objects of quote unquote abnormal Dimensions weighing 2.5 kg to 3 and 1/2 kg to another discovery made by Captain R leener in South Morocco where similar constructed implements weighing up to 8 kg were found according to the controversial Italian writer and archaeologist Pierre Domenico Kimo indeed it was in agada in Morocco that Captain lafer had discovered a complete arsenal of hunting weapons including 500 double-edged axes weighing 172b which were 20 times as heavy as would be convenient for Modern Man to handle the axe at all one would need to have hands of a size appropriate to a giant with a stature of at least 13 ft from the disproportionate number of clinical cases of gigantism among Moroccan men to a history of discoveries concerning the remains of humanoid Giants spanning from the 16th century tanasia to 21st century Sardinia it appears that within the Mediterranean region there exists something inherently anomalous the question is what could it be decades later in a seemingly unrelated mystery maracus neighbor morania came under the spotlight when its massive geological structure became the focus of us here on the mysterious Middle East being one of the first on the platform to speculate that this natural geological anomaly could have unnatural Origins this theory was based on research made by several archaeologists who published papers throughout the 2000s stating that is an actuality the lost city of Atlantis of course another name for the is the Rishad structure or the eye of the Sahara [Music] Weeks Later the Rishad structure hypothesis grew in popularity when YouTube channels like bright Insight later followed by Joe Rogan grabbed the attention of the international media since then morania has remained the primary candidate for the Lost Civilization however in the meantime other significant discoveries have been made in and around this quarter of the Mediterranean and Atlantic also hinting to another Lost Civilization in this same area and this civilization is officially on record believed to have once been ruled by a giant who is the descendant of one of history's most famous Giants in April 2023 a Monumental archaeological Discovery was Unearthed in Guana Spain that provided Clues to the existence of A Lost Civilization that for a while some academics viewed as a myth here archaeologists uncovered five 2,500 year old statues that may be remnants of an ancient Society known as tesus a 3,000-year-old civilization that could be one of the most important lost civilizations in human history that no one is even talking about although mainstream archaeologists have now completely embraced the existence of tesus as an undeniable part of the Mediterranean history this civilization is essentially an anomaly that encompasses several interconnected lore and phenomena from Aliens to Giants that if understood has the potential to completely rewrite our science and history books the Spanish tourist website fascinating Spain accurately states that the mystery surrounding tesos begins with its name the most widespread opinion among historians and archaeologists is that it refers to a kingdom from the 12th to the 5th Century BC While others make references to biblical links and Greco Roman mythology one of the most interesting aspects of this city is that prior to the 2023 Discovery tesus was nothing more than a name mentioned in ancient texts with a mythical status similar to that of Atlantis because of the similarity between tesus and Atlantis it's been speculated that both locations are one and the same furthermore we may not merely be talking about a singular City but an entire nation large enough to engulf the countries of morania Morocco Spain Portugal and the azoris Nations that have all at one time been linked to Atlantis for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call as you say the pillars of Heracles there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together and it was possible for The Travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean and according to the Lord surrounding tartos in particular this nation was one of the wealthiest in the region a wealth that was protected by a giant king named jiren okay we're back and good evening now speaking of giants the Nephilim and all of that here is a strange and albeit a little scary story from one of our neighboring islands for your rush hour drive home in Sardinia 1974 a farmer discovered the head of a massive ancient statue that turned out to be one of the most important archaeological fines of the decade then throughout the 1970s over 5,000 fragments of giant humanoid statues roughly 8 ft tall were subsequently found officially according to historians they were likely carved by the nuragic people a civilization that lived on Sardinia nearly 4,000 years ago but unofficially according to some local villagers the nuragic people not only had a connection to the lost city of Atlantis but also created these statues in the likeness of a race of giants that were Atlantean 6 years later in 1979 giant bones were reportedly discovered during the excavation of one of sardinia's many archaeological projects according to the author Timothy alberino individuals who worked on one of these excavations in the town of sardara testified that multiple skeletons of hominids from 9 to 12 ft tall were discovered at different times near the Church of St Anastasia before quickly being seized and removed by an unknown individual or organization disturbingly there have been multiple instances where giant Sardinian Bones have vanished just hours after being secured with a history of discoveries going back over a hundred years and reports of such finds being covered in the global media including in Canada's sherbrook Daily Record in October 1953 the US's Red River prospector in May 1901 and the same report appearing months earlier in March in the Welsh paper the evening express it appears that there was not only mainstream interest in such anomalies but the topic was treated with a level of seriousness that is now lacking today with a clear International interest in such Oddities to us this implies that an organization with significant resources and access that may not even be Sardinian or from anywhere in the Mediterranean had and may still have a vested interest in getting these bones off the island the moment they are discovered if indeed they are real so the question is who and why today all that can be found of these Giants are the megalithic statues allegedly crafted in their likeness and the Giant tombs known as dolm thought to have once contained their remains scattered around the country incidentally and as we will show later on in this episode these giant tombs are not only found in Sardinia but also across the Iberian Peninsula according to various folklore of the region spanning from Morocco and Portugal to Egypt and Syria these tombs and similar oversized burial sites may have housed more than one racer type of giant correspondingly in a book that is considered one of the most culturally important pieces of non-fiction in the United States despite not being widely known outside of Academia and using the esteemed journal the medical repository as a significant scientific resource Joseph comto the tongue of time and star of the states not only delves into the discovery of the remains of giants in the Mediterranean during the 19th century but also references the possibility of a species of real life giant cyclopses in the area this possibility is consistent with Algerian FOC that states that not only giant cyclopes once roamed its land but also a variety of other strange vaguely humanoid entities of various sizes but when it comes to Giants as we will discuss in the next chapter contemporary researchers in alternative archaeology believe that these cyclopes may have been Atlantean and just one of several races of giants that came in a variety of terrifying humanoid forms such as the multi-limbed king gion the king of tartessos [Music] as a descendant of Poseidon according to Greek mythology jiren is typically depicted as a chimera a human with animal properties and characteristics mindly consistent with other anomalous humanoids believed to have once and according to some still exist in the Mediterranean see our two previous episodes connecting the Moroccan Portuguese entity known as Aisha kandisha and her Arab variants in Jordan Kuwait and the UAE to learn more anyway illustrations often describe jiren as a monstrous giant winged humanoid with multiple Limbs and heads and he was just one of many Giants and smaller humanoids set to exist in and around northwest Africa that were also terribly deformed according to atlanti pedia the journalist Richard Casado states that Not only was Atlantis and by extension tartos home to Giants but also a colony of giant cyclopses the website states that in January 2017 kasaru wrote that the wall surrounding the ancient city of taragona in Spain which is incidentally approximately 350 km from where the taresian remains were later to be found it's in fact a structural Remnant for an entire colony of the cyclopes and that these entities may have originally been Atlantean the megalithic cyclopian stone walls that once surrounded and protected the ancient city of Taco today known as taragona in Northeast Spain are mystifying the classical historians tell us these walls were built by a mysterious race of oneeyed giants called the Cyclops this undermines the mainstream explanation of the city's Origins offered by modern Scholars who claim ter was founded by the Romans 2,000 years ago but this explanation is directly contradicted by the megalithic prehistoric wall that once surrounded and protected the ancient city of Tero throughout history it has been widely recognized that megalithic polygonal walls like the walls in Tero could only have been built by one people the cyclopses described by the classical historians as a giant race of Master Builders with a cyclopian eye or third eye awakened on their forehead now according to Wikipedia cyclopian masonry is a type of stonework built with massive Boulders roughly fitted together with minimal clearance between adjacent stones and no use of mortar the term comes from the belief of classical Greeks that only the mythical cyclopes had the strength to move the enormous Boulders correspondingly Taco's megalithic cyclopian wall walls once surrounded the entire city they resemble similar stone walls at other cyclopian cities in that they are made up of the same polygonal and megalithic architecture this evidence suggests that the cyclopses established taco and other Copan cities as a colony or Outpost of some kind a colony away from their Homeland and perhaps in enemy territory the cyclopes appear to have created small colonies like Tero in Spain and kosa and norba in Italy where their lineages ended Antiquity is filled with refugees Stories the most ancient and famous describing refugees fleeing the sunken Atlantis was Tero one of the places the survivors of Atlantis settled a colony where a higher Humanity escaped a cataclysm a golden age Humanity although mainstream anthropologists dismissed that idea of giant cyclopses actually existing due to the people confusing elephant skulls for cyclopes skulls other Regional examples hinting to oversight humanoids can still be found via the construction of huge megalithic tombs around the Iberian Peninsula adalan is a megalithic tomb and according to Andalusian folklore Giants are the only beings capable of moving these carved drugs especially at a time where the mechanical means capable of transporting stones of that size were not easily feable Legends of giants that lifted rocks and open Gorge and glies can be found all over the region from Spain and Morocco to Syria and Lebanon now if tesos was either a strategic trading partner with the city of Atlantis or was part of a regional superpower that came under the name of Atlantis encompassing the entirety of morania Morocco Spain and the azoris this would mean that the April 2023 discovery of ancient statues in guena could be Atlantean in origin making them one of the most significant archaeological finds in modern history due to the influence of the GRE Roman civilization on North Africa in particular stories of giant and humans interacting with each other can be found throughout the Mediterranean in Libyan folklore for example antus a Libyan giant was said to have forced Travelers passing through his land to compete with him in a wrestling match of course he overwhelmed them all and used their skulls to roof the Temple of his father posidon in Greek mythology Poseidon is often associated with the lore of Atlantis according to Plato's account Poseidon was said to have been assigned to the protector of Atlantis but ultimately influential in its destruction now anate is story is part of a cannon of stories from Greek folklore concerning a lost race of giants who lived on the coast of Morocco Algeria Libya and Tunisia Etc this geographical distribution is consist with many giant bones 20th and 21st century archaeologists have found in the Mediterranean however they dismissed these finds as proof of giants stating that they most likely belong to large mammals such as elephants yet according to Adrian mayor from Stanford School of humanities when the Romans first came across these bones they were certain that they belonged to one or more Giants she writes that Commander quintius cotus upon arriving in inang Morocco in 81 BC the locals showed him a huge Mound said to be the grave of anaus who was also the city's founder and according to the ancient geographers trbo the skeleton in the mound was about 85 ft tall now I don't know about you but an 85 ft tall elephant is just as terrifying as an 85 ft tall human but anyway when it comes to Toros like Atlantis it was believed to Encompass the pillars of Hercules linking Spain on Morocco as mentioned in earlier episodes Morocco is intimately connected to the Irish myth of the fomorian Giants this connection between Morocco and Ireland hypothetically occurred either through Tales told by ancient traitors who traveled between the two countries or an actual literal invasion of Moroccan Giants on the shores of Ireland although the atmology of their name is uncertain a commonly accepted theory is that the term fian is derived from the world fichi meaning the men of Morocco furthermore diatric considered early Morocco as a colony of Atlantis while we have suggested this on this channel that the fomorian Giants may have originated from Atlantis itself and could theoretically been a member of an anomalous race of Warriors known as the sea peoples in some historic interpretations including within theosophical teachings there's a belief in the existence of a fourth root race that preceded the human race some interpretations suggest that this fourth root race was physically larger and more robust than modern humans technically making them Giants and Atlantis was apparently one of their homes where they possessed Advanced knowledge and Technology although there is no real evidence to back this theosophical Theory it is consistent with an idea already present in many other ancient Traditions wherein it stated that a prehuman race or an advanced human civilization once existed on Earth before Global cataclysm or reset occurred for example in Islamic theology the Holy Quran reference a race that ruled over the planet prior to the creation of Adam some interpret this race as a quote unquote g-like species a humanlike civilization that were either complete Savages or technological Geniuses or a combination of both pretty much like us modern humans I guess the question of how many of these species could have possibly survived one or more Global resets into our Modern Age makes for an intriguing thought experiment considering the numerous stories worldwide about unexplainable cryptons monsters Giants and other anomalous humanoids allegedly encountered in the 21st century it's possible that some of these beings are not only remnants of a civilization that predates ours but may have also inhabited Atlantis and even been members of the feared sea peoples especially within the Mediterranean region broadly speaking the sea peoples refer to a series of mysterious and enigmatic Maritime invasions and migrations that occurred during the late Bronze Age around 1200 BC in the Eastern Mediterranean region towards what's now modern-day Egypt Lebanon and Syria their mysterious nature lies in their historical obscurity and the lack of concrete information regarding their identities Origins and motivations while several ancient sources including inscriptions from Egypt and the hittite Empire make references to encounters with the sea peoples the true nature of who or what they are is unprovable that was until October 2022 when my friend the mysterious Middle East received an email from an Irish amateur archaeologist who has been quietly working with the Spanish government to learn more about this mysterious race choosing to only be referred to by his initials MB this is his story mb's story began when a media company made claims that Atlantis is under the donana national park when investigating this he instantly found glaringly obvious mistakes in their findings like confusing World War II bunkers for Atlantean temples so while using Advanced lar technology to do this he discovered ruins he believes are linked to tartessos in an area that on a side point has a history of paranormal occurrences historically tartessos was was a major Celtic Hub with evidence of trade connecting Egypt to Ireland at a time when the Phoenicians were also their main trading partners now according to Irish mythology a race called The malians Who Came From the Mediterranean drove a race of Irish Supernatural entities known as the deanan underground in Ireland if this battle is based on a real life event it can be assumed that the Malaysians would have had an assistance from a third party possibly the Phoenicians the atlanteans the sea peoples or a composite of all three MB believes that answers can be found in the ruins uncovered by his lar findings because of the links that already exist between tartessos and Ireland these images show the remains of a large underwater anomaly that plays a pivotal role in the lore of Atlantis the remnants of the navigational pillars of Hercules severely damaged by catastrophic natural event in 1755 what you see here in these images is the temple that was a part of the complex the pillars were in the place is generally avoided by the locals and is known as poo desanta Isabel apollonius of Tiana a first century Greek philosopher described the temple as being open and on a flat base with two wells in it it sank in approximately 100 AD due to an earthquake now it should be understood that there were two sets of pillars constructed at two different times in history the original ones in the temple and the ones on the coast built by the Romans after the temple sank attention moved on to the Roman pillars another Temple was later constructed in honor to the original which can be found on the elot desanti Petri this still exists as for the Roman pillars they were flattened in the 1755 event after which The Straits of Gibralter became known as the pillars however despite the assistance of top Spanish experts in his research the officials who can approve further study are simply not interested with one allegedly saying if you agree to leave out the words tartessos and Atlantis then I would agree it is a site of archaeological importance but I am not going near it with a barge pole ultimately when it comes to mysteries in the Mediterranean there seems to be three consistencies first is the discovery of ancient Egyptian influences in places where they are not expected Ed from Ireland to even gigantic underwater pyramids in the azors secondly is the theoretical existence of giants anomalous races in Atlantis finally is the presence of powerful influential organizations that not only forces officials to downplay such Oddities but actively hide them despite the increasing strength of research into the more Arcane aspects of the Mediterranean there's also prec consistent Global academic push back when it comes to the topics of giants one of the prominent historical organizations accused not only of dismissing Fringe archaeology but also allegedly suppressing it is the institution known as the smithonian the smithonian established in 1846 is an umbrella group of museums and educational research centers since its Inception it has been embroiled in controversy with archaeologists in the Americas allegedly unearthing dozens of oversized skeletons only for the Smithsonian to cover up these discoveries since this institute has numerous connections with establishments around the world including the Mina region it's feared that they may have a hand in suppressing not only the existence of giants here but also any theory that could potentially append the deranian model for human Evolution outside of folklore and religion taresa like many ancient cultures has been the subject of claims suggesting that it possessed Advanced knowledge and Technology surpassing its era these speculations often revolve around Notions of sophisticated Machinery Advanced metalurgy and other scientific Innovations hence why they've been associated with Atlantis and the almost Supernatural might of the sea peoples now the sea peoples were so powerful in addition to ending the Bronze Age It's thought that they might have been one of the most influential components in weakening the ancient Egyptian civilization while posing as a legitimate threat to the Phoenician Empire academics argue that tesus was heavily influenced by The Phoenician culture and may have been under the Phoenician control at times others propose a more intricate relationship involving cultural exchange and trade now if tesus was really as powerful as some French theorists belied they were where did they get that power from Lebanon Ireland or somewhere more unexpected returning to our interview with an amateur archaeologist MB where he spoke about the import of alosa D Santa Isabel and the original pillars of Hercules this area has also been home to numerous strange phenomena reported by local fishermen including possible UFO and crypted encounters according to the albinas Del Atlantic blog a local fisherman told them that while fishing in this area with friends using two boats at one point they left a 99-year-old child and one of them and went went with the other boat to fetch drinking water from the land when they returned the boy was found in a panicked state with his boat flooded when they asked what happened the child explained that the sea became rough and a large light shot from beneath it into the sky on other occasions strange fish with prominent teeth and no eyes typical of marine life seen at extremely low depths were caught here which is almost impossible to occur that's why fishermen usually don't frequent this area and when they do it's typically in [Music] groups so what exactly are we dealing with here enter the ancient ET Theory this intriguing concept that extraterrestrial beings visited our planet in the distant past sharing their knowledge with human cultures in the context of tesas this Theory offers a compelling perspective that the civilization's advanced technology and knowledge were gifts from extraterrestrial visitors and when later civilizations became aware of this they interpreted alien contact as religious contact turning aliens into Godlike beings and Titans therefore the very foundations of tesa's alleged technological achievements may be rooted in interactions with beings from beyond our world and the most extraordinary it ation of this Theory tesus itself may have been more than a terrestrial civilization but an extraterrestrial Colony or outpost on Earth various opinions exist regarding the nature of this alien species with many delving into the Realms of obvious science fiction however one reoccurring theme in both contemporary Atlantean lure and ancient cultures involves the depiction of extraterrestrial or extradimensional beings with repan forms this concept has roots and theosophical ideas about Atlantis notably presented by Helena blavatsky in her 1888 book The Secret Doctrine where she mentions Dragon men who once held a mighty civilization on Earth in an upcoming episode it seems that the evidence for the existence of these beings might be found in the deserts of the hashimite kingdom of Jordan so look out for that but what is your opinion do you agree or disagree sound off in the comments share like And subscribe and look out for the next episode [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

BEST Datasets for LLMs Plus Create Your Own.en.srt

00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:04,259 hello Community a lot of questions about data set for large language model the easiest way I can think of is go to hugging phase let's have a look here at our latest llm open source llm from Mosaic ml the company that is now bought by databricks we have here the mpt-30b model this is the Mosaic pre-trained Transformer model with 30 billion parameter and as you can see here you have a very short introduction a decoder style Transformer pre-trained on scratch on 1 trillion tokens of English code beautiful so you know what it is and then you just go here after the hosted inference API you have here the data sets the data set that were used to train here this particular model this MPT 30 billion models and as you can see you have data set that are available follow for you on hugging phase to download now normally you also have here in the text on the left hand side more or in additional information they tell you here the code base here is for example in the LM Foundry Repository it has their own platform you have here the license you have here where it has been trained on it can handle long inputs thanks to Alibi Alibi remember here train short and test long range with linear biases enabling input length extrapolation where we have here a biases on the very key attention course you notice you love it we have here of course flash returns from 30 on my last video faster Transformer and so on and then they show you here additional model where this particular mpd30 was the base model and then you have here additional fine-tuned model for example the instruct model is an additionally fine-tuned model on instruction following and you have a chat model for dialogue generation now as you can see here here the last attack here is here your license this is Apache 2.0 license and if you're looking now here for example at the instruct model you see here we have here an open source license for this if you're not familiar with creative comments never mind here is a very short home page here you see exactly here the abbreviation you see here attribution share alike 3.0 tells you you are free to share copy redistribute in any format remix transform build upon the material for any purpose even commercially under the following terms please you have attribution so you must give credits to the original Creator you'll write a link to the license and you indicate if you have made any changes if you have made any changes then share a like comes into force and you must distribute your contribution that are based on your original license now under the same license as the original license of course because you build your code on this uh specifically license code so here creative comments very easy to understand yeah what I wanted to show you hold on before we go on the data sets now here you have here the typical C4 data set and you have here the multi-language C4 data set and then from Big code you have here the stack so if you're interested these are available on hugging face if you want to have a look here at the data set card you will see here on the left side exactly how the data set looks like what is the information in the data set how is it formatted what are the D types so if you want to build a similar data set you get here very good idea how you have to structure it then of course you can download this they give you a detailed information how you can download it for example here get clone hugging face data sets Ln AI C4 tell your text 13 terabyte on your local drive if you're more precise you have different options to download it acknowledge and license so very easy and then if you're interested what are other models that have been trained on this C4 data set and then you see exactly here updated two days ago here's our empty mpt-30b model exactly downloaded 8 000 times so you see this is a very nice way to find out about the data set now multilingual C4 yeah maybe we go here for the stack stack is here a interesting way because you have now to provide you email to get access to this data set this is nothing strange this is some Creator choose this way yes they want to have your email for their newsletter or whatsoever so you have a term of use here for the stack for example stack data set is a collection of source code of over 300 programming languages yes you have the home page you have the GitHub repo you have even here research paper archive you have a point of contact and then you read here the term of use you agree you log in and you got access to the data set here even to tell you you know very nice graphical what it is how you can use it and so on whatever changed in a different version tell you exactly what it is the languages they're supported and how to use it here for example in a python code if you have your Jupiter notebook or your collab notebook how to load it how to use it the data field exactly what each data field is the content the characters whatever yes yes yes a lot of information about this but I didn't want to enter this here so here you have the data sets for here when we look here at this mile for the pre-training of this model so now you remember the pre-training is very expensive I told you if you do not pay one million you are not pre-training any llm let's verify this here we go where we are hold on a sec we are here with mpt30b with here the Mosaic ml that is now bought by databricks and they were so nice to provide us with some financial data so the training times and the training cost here for the pre-training to generate the model was about nine hundred thousand dollar you see that took about one month per 1 trillion token you had a Precision from brain fluid 16 and your model and the hardware used were 512 gpus and we have here an Nvidia data center a 100 GPU with 40 gigabyte vram this is the free training now as you can see here on this base model I showed you here where am I here we have two additional models that have been additionally fine-tuned and the following models are fine-tuned here on our mpt-30 you have here an instruct model which was short form instruction following and you have a chatbot so you see the license at first you see that the license here is an open source license and here in the second case you have a non-commercial license so here you can instruct you can use when you want to sell your model when you have Services you want to sell to your customers but a second here is a non-commercial license so if you go there hugging face has your ear from here with now the additional fine tune models and you have the additional instruct is now a model here built by fine tuning oops wait by fine-tuning the base model and now here again you got it here our data set where the fine tuning now happened on top of the base model pre-training so we have here and I think the most important is here the dolly and the HH data set you can download this here then you have some mathematical data sets you have here additional data set but interesting to know you have yet a data breaks Dolly 15 and you have here from entropic the helpful and harmless if you click on this you'll see exactly again how does the data set look like what is here if you click here in the string use exactly what is the conversation or what is the instruction that you are looking for and if you want to build a similar data set now you have a template for this but of course you can download this data set if we scroll down if we scroll down we scroll down we continue to scroll down here you have to usage so you see exactly data set load data set load data set on topic HH and then you can use it you even have a contact point if you have any question about this data set and here on the right hand side you see also the models that have been trained pre-trained or fine-tuned on their specific data set and here for example you see our MPT not a smaller the 7 billion model for the chatbot and a lot of other different models and if you're lucky you have spaces and you can have a look at the spaces if you want to see how this goes for example here let's have a look at H2O the gp2 chatbot oh it's running on a 10g so you have here exactly this is hosted you enter here your question and you have here the operational chatbot running on an A10 G beautiful you can also see here in the tag here the last is the license and you see here an NC non-commercial license so again you have here for the mtp30b chat here the model card um downloads last month yes beautiful and you have here again the data set that used here to train to fine tune this particular model this one this one and this one beautiful or you have it even in more details here in the text on the left side and so on this model was trained here you have the release date you have the model license Ada is even a blog post very nice and you have of course the repo this is it with some demonstration how to use it again sample piece of code how to use this data set with the Cuda into traitanimal implementation of The Flash attention yes this is rather easy config attention config Triton unbelievable sequence length of 2K you can use it with RDP up to 8K what you do or 16k even config maximum sequence length 16k and this is done because it has been with an additional pre-training stage here for a sequence length adaption of up to 8K and rdb enables users to increase this maximum sequence length even further during fine tuning or interference for up to 16k beautiful here's the code for you to implement this so you see it is rather easy to find here the data set for specific model or have a look at the data set and find the data set model that you are looking for now second tab here is files and version you notice here you have your normally about 10 gigabyte you have here your specific bins but what I want to show you is here the community tab and always especially if models come out in the first weeks like mpt-30b quite new you always should verify because there is always some changes to the code as you can see here very first entry Community llm Foundry update June 27 so 17 hours ago go there have a look what this is update and also we go to see the files that have been changed so we see two files are affected two python files the modeling file and the normalization file so for example here look this was just hours ago they had they discovered there was a little error or maybe a type error typing so they said oh we have to change so from output equal x divided by this and now is the output is equal x multiply this so you see code changes can happen they run validation they check again and again so in the first weeks please there is always some adaptation so if you have here now your model always go in the first weeks and even later have a look at the community tab because professional creators like music ml if they do here some code changes they tell you here hey 17 hours ago we had to update our repo in The llm Foundry for this particular model and please update accordingly because if you uploaded or downloaded this 18 hours ago you know that for example here in this particular automatical operation it should be a multiplication instead of the division or the other way around or whatever the other changes is you can verify what or maybe you personally changed and in the file that you do not have to download the complete stack okay I think this is it this gives you an overview the model the licenses the demos how to download the data sets that were used to pre-train their model data set use to fine-tune additional version of this model how you can download here this particular data set how you can see how the format is how the design is how the structure of the data set is maybe you integrated for a first test run in your model and then if it works well you can now optimize the data content with your personal data or with your company data but do not start fresh from zero you know look there are if you go here from hugging face here Top Line you have models and data sets if you click on models you see you have 240 000 models so if you're happy on the left side computer vision or llms you have a model that comes close to the task that you are looking for so please start with a model that has been evaluated and tested by the community and if you go not here the data set you see we have 45 000 data sets and you can have here filter multimodal computer vision llm text classification zero shot classification and you see for example we have 107 data sets for zero shot classification either pre-training or fine tuning so I have a look at this sorted through use a model that has been done by professionals before you start to build your own fine-tuning data set for your model use this data set and then it is easy it saves you time if you stick here to the format to the design here of some professional data set models beautiful this is it for my site I hope you enjoyed it this is the overview that I want to give you about data set which data set should you use which data set or the best for your specific task I hope it was informative and maybe I see you in my next video

Biblical Family Tree (Extended Version).en.srt

00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:03,199 last year I redesigned our Biblical family tree chart and posted a video giving a basic overview of the tree however several years before this I had posted several episodes about the biblical Family Tree in which I did a deeper dive into the subject and spoke about things from a more secular academic perspective so in this video what we're going to do is give you those previous episodes again but this time stitch together as a single video and rea animated using the latest version of the chart now if you don't want to hear the extra commentary and you just want to see the chart with a basic overview you can use the link in the description to find the video that we did last year but if you want to hear what Scholars think about the Bible and find out which parts are myth and Legend and which parts are history keep watching because we're going to dive into it right now according to the Book of Genesis the first two humans were named Adam and Eve and they were created directly by God now according to Modern DNA research all humans alive today can in fact be traced back to a single male ancestor which scientists have cleverly named why chromosomal atom and a single female ancestor named mitochondrial eve but keep in mind that these two two DNA ancestors are very different from the Adam and Eve from the biblical story for one thing why chromosomal Adam probably did not live at the same time as mitochondrial eve and even if by some strange coincidence the science showed that they did live at the exact same time they were likely not a couple and they certainly would not have been the only two Homo sapiens on Earth instead they were simply the male Whose y chromosome DNA ended up beating out everyone else's and the female whose mitochondrial DNA ended up beating out everyone else's I hope to cover the science behind all of this in a separate video sometime next year but back to the Bible according to the biblical account Adam and Eve were a couple and initially the only two humans on earth eventually though after getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden they had two sons named Cain and a Cain was a farmer and Abel was a Shepherd but one day Cain ended up killing his brother Abel out of jealousy now considering that the Israelites were originally pastoralists like the good son Abel was this story may actually have a basis in some sort of historical conflict between the Israelites and some nearby agriculturalists but as I explained in the earlier video in this series The bibl biblical writers were more interested in making theological points than they were about simply recording exact historical details anyway Adam and Eve went on to have a third son named Seth as well as a bunch of other children it is from Seth's line that we eventually get the next major character in The Bible Noah but before I go on I want to point out that both Cain's line and Seth's line are recorded in the Bible and that they have some interesting similarities both contain a series of six names that are almost identical except for one small Swap and several alternate spellings so one possibility is that both genealogies share a common origin in other words maybe there was originally one list of ancestors that was passed down orally but over the centuries people in one area remembered the names in a slightly different way and eventually it developed into a parallel tradition then at some later Point editors combined the two traditions and made it seem like they were separate genealogies this is not the only example of parallel accounts in the first five books of the Bible in fact there are lots of them indicating that these books were pieced together from multiple sources and tradition again this is a topic that I hope to cover in a separate video sometime next year for now let's return to the family tree Noah is the guy who built the large boat called The Ark and filled it with a bunch of animals this is because God decided to destroy the Earth in a flood and then start all over again with Noah and his family who were the only survivors now as many commenters pointed out in previous videos flood stories are a common theme found in cultures throughout the world this seems to indicate that there may have been some sort of major flood event that was retained in Humanity's Collective memory or perhaps there was just a bunch of smaller events according to the Bible Noah had three sons and therefore everyone alive on Earth today would be a descendant of either Shem ham or Jeep this is where the idea of there being three distinct human races comes from us usually named white black and yellow but let me emphasize strongly this idea is not true modern DNA research shows us that we can divide people into hundreds of different ethnicities based on Regional genetic variation but there is no genetic marker that allows us to then take those ethnicities and group them together into just a handful of categories called races the closest thing would be to group ethnicities by continent but even there the categories would overlap quite a bit and they would not line up very nicely with Continental lines but the authors of the Bible did not have knowledge of DNA or historical migration patterns so according to them the various nations of the earth that they were familiar with could in fact be explained using a simple family tree and that's what the next part of the biblical family tree is a family tree of Nations Shem had five Sons ham had four and jeith had seven so in total Noah had 16 grandsons in most cases the names of those 16 grandsons match perfectly with the names of Nations that existed in the Middle East during the time when the Bible was written so on this map are five sons of Shem shown in red four sons of ham shown in yellow and seven sons of jeith shown in blue let's look at ham first from this map it's clear that ham was primarily associated with Africa in fact up until recently the term hdic was still used to refer to language groups from North Africa nowadays the term afroasiatic is used instead the most important hdic nation was mitzraim this was and is is the Hebrew word for Egypt but it was also the ancient Babylonian word for Egypt so keep in mind that most of these names are not the names of people they are quite clearly place names Canan and Kush being two more good examples turning our attention to the red section representing the descendants of Shem there are also several recognizable place names here too Aram being an ancient name for Syria Asher being an alternate name for Assyria and ilam being a nation that existed on the Iranian Plateau prior to the rise of Persia the only one that stands out as being a personal name rather than a place name is AR foad which as we'll see is the person from whom Abraham from ER of the calans descended I should also point out that it is from the name Shem ancestor of all these red areas that we get the term Semitic and anti-semitic finally let's talk about jeith shown in blue these names are more obscure and uncertain as they are all names given to places much farther away from the land of Israel Javen is usually associated with the Greeks and madai with the mes but when it comes to the other five it's mostly guesswork during the medieval period it was thought that some of these nations in particular Gomer spread into Europe so when it comes to the three sons of Noah very roughly you could say that ham represented Africa Shem represented West Asia and jeith represented Europe and this is exactly what certain medieval Christian thinkers promoted which in turn led to the idea of three races which unfortunately was used to to promote a heck of a lot of racism but we don't need modern DNA research to conclude that the classification system offered by the Bible is at the very least incomplete you'll notice that the people living in India China Australia the Americas subsaharan Africa Etc were not included in this classification system that's simply because the biblical writers weren't aware that those people even existed what they were doing was simply painting a picture of the world as they knew it okay let's continue down the tree our foad had a grandson named Eber and this is probably where the term Hebrew comes from from there if we go down another five generations we get a man named Tara who had three sons Abraham nahor and Haron of these three Abraham was by far the most important in fact the Book of Genesis is really a book about Abraham his son Isaac and Isaac's son Jacob together known as the three Patriarchs everything in the Bible that comes before Abraham like the Adam and Eve story and the flood story is really just a prologue Abraham is said to be the father of three major world religions Judaism Christianity and Islam and and it is because of this that these religions are often called the abrahamic religions so let's look at his family tree Abraham was married to his Half Sister Sarah but Sarah had difficulty having children so Abraham married her handmade Hagar as well who was Egyptian and had a son by her named Ishmael but as The Story Goes God promised that Sarah would miraculously have a child in her old age and indeed she did naming the child Isaac shortly thereafter Hagar gets banished and winds up in Arabia where According to Islamic tradition Ishmael became the ancestor of the northern Arabic tribes a lot of people forget this but Abraham actually had a third wife as well named Cura according to the Bible the people who later became the midianites are the descendants of Abraham's son named Midian from his marriage to coutura one last thing to mention about Abraham it is curious that the name Abraham is comprised of the exact same consonants as the name of the Hindu god Brahma who is the father of several other important Hindu gods and who happens to have a wife named Sara Swati so maybe the two oldest religions on the planet Judaism and Hinduism both have links to a similar even earlier tradition that includes a couple named something like Braham and Sara it's a very big maybe but it's fun to think about so Abraham's son Isaac ended up marrying a relative named Rebecca she was the granddaughter of Abraham's brother nahor thus making Isaac and Rebecca first cousins once removed together they had two sons Esau and Jacob Esau was the eldest and therefore entitled to the main inheritance but through trickery Jacob managed to get Esau to pass his Birthright on to him so Jacob becomes the next big character in the story he falls in love with his cousin Rachel you can see here that her father laan was Rebecca's brother but laan tricks him into marrying his other daughter Leah instead in the end he ends up marrying both sisters but has to work for laan for 20 years in total Jacob whose name is later changed to Israel has 12 sons and one daughter named Dina the 12 sons eventually end up becoming the 12 tribes of Israel but before we move on let's quickly look at a map of the biblical land of Israel to the east in what is today Jordan there were three nations that were on and off enemies of the Israelites Ammon Moab and Edom well according to the Bible these three nations were actually relatives of the Israelites the moabites and ammonites were the descendants of Abraham's nephew lot and the were the descendant of Jacob's older brother Esau okay the 12 tribes of Israel out of the 12 there are two that are the most important Levi from which the Priestly line comes shown in red and Judah from which the Royal Line comes shown in blue now the other tribes are shown in yellow and if you count them you'll notice that there are actually 11 meaning that in total we actually have 13 tribes not 12 let me explain Jacob's most famous son was Joseph who was given the multicolored coat but wound up being sold to Egypt where he became advisor to the Pharaoh he was the firstborn son of Jacob's favorite wife Rachel so he was given a double portion in terms of inheritance therefore the tribe of Joseph is usually split into two tribes based on his two sons Ephraim and manasha and since the tribe of Levi were appointed to be priests they didn't get any physical inheritance so once we take them out we're back to 12 anyway Jacob and his family ended up moving to Egypt where Joseph was living and it is there that they grew into a nation but as the story goes after a few Generations the Egyptians forced them to become slaves which brings us to The Exodus story and the story of Moses the most important prophet in Judaism according to the second book of the Bible called Exodus Moses was placed in the Nile River as a baby and then discovered by one of the pharaoh's daughters who adopted him and raised him as her own but as an adult he sees an Egyptian beating an Israelite and kills the perpetrator he then escapes to Midian to avoid punishment where he meets Jethro and marries Jethro's daughter Zapora it is in Midian that God appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush and tells him that he has to go lead his people out of Egypt and into the promised land which was back where Abraham Isaac and Jacob had lived Moses gets help from his brother Aron and after God gives Egypt a series of 10 plagues Pharaoh eventually lets the Israelites go although as The Story Goes the Pharaoh then changes his mind and traps the Israelites near the Red Sea where God then performs A great miracle causing the sea to part and the Israelites to escape for good they end up wandering in the desert for 40 years though at the end of which Moses passes on the torch to a man named Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim who then leads the Israelites to conquer the land of Canaan where they end up dividing the land amongst the 12 tribes with the descendants of Aaron being appointed as priests now as I mentioned in part one of this series according to secular historians the leading theory is that the Israelites were actually just one of the many Canaanite tribes and that they never did live in Egypt as a nation not in the main part of Egypt anyway during this period Canaan was actually a part of the Egyptian Empire so it's possible that some of them were in fact Egyptian slaves and that they were somehow a able to throw off that yoke of slavery but in Canaan not in Egypt the exact details are not known but this is yet another topic that I hope to come back to and explore in more detail at a later date according to the biblical account the period between the conquest of Canaan and the rise of the davidic monarchy was a period in which the Israelites were ruled by a series of military leaders called judges among these judges are are several famous bible characters such as Samson Gideon and the female judge Deborah Deborah is important because according to biblical Scholars a portion of the Book of Judges called the song of Deborah is thought to be the oldest layer of text in the entire Bible the last major character before the monarchial period is the prophet Samuel who was a levite it was Samuel who initially appointed Saul to be king and then later David David is followed by his son Solomon and then after Solomon the Israelites split into two major kingdoms the kingdom of Judah in the South and the Kingdom of Israel in the north Judah of course was mostly comprised of the tribe of Judah whereas Israel was comprised of all the remaining tribes the first king was actually a man named Saul prior to Saul the 12 tribes of Israel were said to have been ruled by a series of Judges who were basically temporary leaders who led armies during times of Crisis but according to the Bible the people eventually got tired of that system and demanded to have a king so they drew lots and in the end Saul from The Tribe of Benjamin was chosen this marked the beginning of what's referred to as the United monarchy which means that all 12 tribes of Israel were United under a single King now as I mentioned in part one there is no evidence outside of the Bible that a United Israelite kingdom ever actually existed when we look at the archaeological record for this time period what we find is a bunch of small Israelite villages with seemingly no centralized government this greatly contrasts with the biblical description of the period which paints Israel as being a large powerful and extremely wealthy Nation so the most likely conclusion is that these first few kings are more legendary than historical this means that they likely did exist but were perhaps more akin to local tribal Chieftains than Mighty Kings and that the Bible exaggerates their power with that said let's continue the story during Saul's Reign a young hero named David from the tribe of Judah starts to grow in popularity after an incident in which David was able to kill an enemy Giant named Goliath after that event David joins Saul's Army becomes best friends with Saul's eldest son Jonathan and even marries one of Saul's daughters named Michael he then goes on to be very successful in several battles against the Israelites main enemy the Philistines eventually Saul becomes jealous of David and tries to have him killed forcing David to go into hiding then both Saul and Jonathan die in a battle against the Philistines at this point the tribe of Judah declares David to be their King but the rest of the tribes choose Saul's only remaining son ishbosheth there's a seven-year civil war between the two sides and eventually Abner who was Saul's main General as well as his first cousin switches sides and supports David soon thereafter ishbosheth is killed by his own men and David becomes king of all Israel he makes Jerusalem his capital and in total He reigns 40 years so let's now look at David's Tree in more detail David was the youngest son of a man named Jesse who in turn was the son of obid and obid was the son of Boaz and Ruth the two main characters from The Book of Ruth so basically Ruth was David's great grandmother I'd also like to point out David's nephew joab who was the son of one of his sisters he becomes David's main General and features quite prominently in the story of David's life oh and remember David's best friend Jonathan well Jonathan had a disabled son named mephibosheth Who David adopts after he becomes king now I've already mentioned that David married one of Saul's daughters but he also married seven other women and had at least 18 children his firstborn son an heir was named amnon but there's a story in the Bible in which amnon rapes his half sister Tamar who was the full sister of Absalom Absalom seeks revenge and has amnon killed later Absalom instigates a coup against his father David and tries to take the throne but following a battle absolum gets his long beautiful hair stuck in the branches of a Tree joab finds Absalom and disobeying David's orders to take him alive kills him for which joab ends up losing his job another famous story associated with David is the story of David and Beth Sheeba in which David sees Beth Sheeba bathing on a rooftop and conspires to have her husband killed in battle so that he could marry her so yeah as literary figures go David is a pretty complicated character he does a lot of good things but he also does a bunch of bad things too but generally he's seen as a good guy because he always seems to repent and learn from his mistakes anyway he has a son with baath Sheba named Solomon and it is Solomon that ends up becoming the next king okay so Solomon is mostly remembered as being the one who builts the first temple as well as for being really wise really rich and for supposedly having 1,000 wives one of his wives was possibly the Queen of Sheba she's mentioned only briefly in the Bible but in Ethiopian tradition the story is told in more detail there she is said to have had a son named menelik who becomes the king of Ethiopia and the progenitor of the solomonic dynasty if if you're interested to learn more about that line I've got a separate video on that topic which I'll link to in the description so like his father David Solomon Reigns for a total of 40 years the fact that both these Kings have nice round very symbolic rain lengths is further evidence that they are likely legendary figures as opposed to strictly historical ones so after the reign of Solomon the kingdom splits in two the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the South continue to be ruled by the House of David in Jerusalem and are known as the kingdom of Judah whereas in the north the 10 remaining tribes declare independence and become known as the Kingdom of Israel their first king is a man named jeroboam who is from the tribe of Ephraim which was the largest of the 12 tribes let's look at the Kingdom of Israel first and then we'll go back and look at the Kingdom of Judah second so in Israel we get several ruling dynasties jeroboam is followed by his son naab but 2 years into his Reign naab is killed by one of his army captains named Basha and Basha becomes king instead Basha was from the tribe of issachar but then history repeats itself he has a decently long Reign and passes things on to his son Ella but then after just two years Ella is assassinated by one of his army commanders a man named zimy but zimy is unable to hold on to power and commit suicide after just 7even days as king at this point there's a civil war some of the people support tipney who was probably a relative of zimy but others support omry who was likely from the tribe of isar like Basha and Ella eventually om's side wins and he becomes the sole King now omry is a very important figure strangely unlike many other Bible characters his name is not well known today however in my opinion he was one of the most important important kings in ancient Israel he holds the distinction of being the earliest known person in the entire Bible for which we have evidence in the archaeological record so you'll notice that he has a red check mark next to his name kind of like the verification symbols you see on social media on this chart whenever you see a red check mark it means that we have a source outside of the Bible that confirms the existence of that person in real life so let's talk quick quickly about how we know omry was a real historical King if you're ever in Paris you can check out the following artifact at the lra it's called the Misha Steely and comes from the ancient Kingdom of Moab which today would be part of Jordan it dates to just a few decades after the reign of omry and describes omry king of Israel capturing some moabit territory the name omry shows up on the black Obelisk of shelman III which is now housed at the British museum in London I'll be talking about this artifact more in a bit but for now note that it clearly mentions the phrase House of omry indicating that other nations at the time knew that the Kingdom of Israel was being ruled by a dynasty that started with omry omry is also important because he founded the city of Samaria which went on to be the capital of the northern kingdom for the rest of its existence anyway omry was followed by his son Ahab and the Bible talks a lot more about about him and also about his wife Jezebel Ahab and Jezebel were the king and queen of Israel at the time that the Prophet Elijah lived Elijah being one of the more famous prophets in Jewish history the Bible paints Ahab as being a very Wicked King influenced strongly by his wife Jezebel who was a Phoenician and thus not an Israelite from a literary point of view Jezebel is an interesting figure because in most most cases she is portrayed as the ultimate Evil seductress but on the other hand those who see the evil seductress Trope as being a dangerous stereotype and an attempt to discredit strong confident women Jezebel has actually become somewhat of a feminist icon anyway we do not have any corroborating evidence for the existence of Jezebel but we do have mention of her father and brother in a now lost history of TI that was quoted by Joseph cus her brother ball Esser II was supposedly the grandfather of the legendary Queen Doo who is said to have founded the city of Carthage so that's an interesting link there one thing to keep in mind about the biblical account of the northern kingdom is that it was primarily written and edited much later by scribes from the southern Kingdom so there's an obvious bias toward the monotheistic religion that developed at Jerusalem and went on to evolve into what's called second temple Judaism which in turn led to the development of the better known rabinal Judaism as well as Christianity and Islam so basically from the southern Kingdom's perspective the northern kingdom was seen as being disobedient to the one true God Hashem Ahab and Jezebel were famous for promoting the worship of the god ball instead so whenever something went wrong the southerners blamed it on the fact that the Northerners worshiped the wrong God or Gods Ahab has a red check mark because he shows up in a set of Assyrian monuments known as the Kirk monoliths currently located at the British museum in those inscriptions the Assyrian King shalmaneser III claims that he defeated 2,000 chariots and 10,000 soldiers of Ahab the Israelite according to the Bible he's killed during a war with the the kingdom of Judah and is followed by his sons ahaziah and jehoram joram's name appears on an artifact known as the T danan Steely which was discovered in the 1990s and currently is housed in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that inscription confirms a story told in the Bible in which jehoram king of Israel and ahaziah king of Judah are defeated by Hazel king of Aram Damascus I'll talk more about the tan Steely when we talk about Judah but in the Bible's version a man named juu ends up replacing jehoram as king of Israel it's at this point that Jezebel is killed by being pushed out of a window although the Bible doesn't make it clear it's possible that juu was a descendant of omry through a junior branch in fact his name appears on the black Obelisk of the Assyrian King Shaner III where he is described as J J son of omry most likely meaning juu from the house of omry but the black Obelisk is even more important because it actually includes an image of juu bowing down and giving gifts to shelman eer this is the first and only contemporary image we have of an ancient Israelite King things seem to have stabilized at this point because after J's Reign we get a series of four fatherson successions I'll point out jehoash because because his name appears in the archaeological record as well he is mentioned in the Steely of adad nari III now located in Baghdad at the Iraq Museum there he is referred to as the king of Samaria which is the earliest reference we have outside of the Bible of that particular City we don't have any direct evidence outside of the Bible for a king named jeroboam II however in one verse it describes an earthquake that occurred during jeroboam II's reign and according to the geological record we know that there was indeed a big earthquake in the region around 760 BCE which fits so following jeroboam II things start to go downhill his son Zachariah is assassinated in his first year and replaced with an army commander who in turn is assassinated after just one month and replaced with another Army Commander named menahem menahem is mentioned in the annals of of tigth pisar III as being one of the many kings who paid him tribute he was eventually followed by his son Paha who like so many Israelite Kings was eventually assassinated and replaced with one of his army commanders that King named Pekka is also mentioned in Assyrian records as paying tribute to tath piser and guess what happened to Pekka yep he was assassinated and replaced by one of his army Commanders this fact is confirmed in Assyrian records that King named hosia would be the last king of Israel he made a deal with Egypt in the hopes of avoiding paying tribute to Assyria that was a bad move because Assyria now led by Shaner the fth responded by Conquering the kingdom for good and destroying their Capital at Samaria so over here I've been pointing out several of the Assyrian Kings unlike the ancient Israelite Kings the existence of all of them can be confirmed by the archaeological record so instead of giving them all a red check mark What I've Done instead is give the ones that are mentioned by name in the Bible a little blue check mark so that's what those symbols mean okay let's now look at the southern Kingdom of Judah there King Solomon was followed by his son rabam whose mother was a non-israelite named Nama she came from the nearby Kingdom of Ammon now located in Jordan and interestingly Rahab abam married a granddaughter of Absalom so in a way absalom's line did end up on the throne in the end he was followed by their son abaja and then by Assa who had a long and peaceful Reign generally the Bible describes the kings of Juda as being good Kings who destroyed idols and encouraged the worship of the one true God in contrast with the Kings of Israel who did the opposite and were therefore punished with more internal conflict next in line in Judah comes Jehoshaphat who was a contemporary with Elijah Ahab and Jezebel in fact his son jehoram married a daughter of Ahab and Jezebel together that couple had aziah who as I mentioned earlier allied with his uncle king jehoram of Israel against the king of Aram Damascus which brings me back to the tell Dan Steely which describes the incident in that inscription it appears to read amiah son of jehoram of the House of David this is important because it is the earliest reference in the archaeological record to the House of David but note that it doesn't directly reference David as king nor does it describe anything that David did instead it simply references the existence of a royal Dynasty named after someone called David this is a bit different from the reference to the house of omry being that omry lived just a few decades before the the earliest mention of his name whereas David lived over a 100 years before the earliest mention of his name this is why David is still considered to be more of a legendary figure whereas omry is considered more of a historical figure anyhow ahaziah died following the conflict with Aram Damascus at this point his mother Queen aalia became the ruling Monarch the only monarch of the kingdom of Judah that was a female and the only one that did not belong to the paternal line of David remember she was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel she proceeded to kill all the possible claimants to the throne of Judah but she missed one because unbeknownst to her a relative smuggled away and hid one of ahayah's sons who was just a baby at the time when that child named joash was seven he was revealed and with the help of the priests he was made King thus reestablishing the line of David he would be the first of two child Kings who feature prominently in the biblical story of ancient Israel he was followed by amiah Isaiah jotham ahaz and Hezekiah most of whom are attested to somehow in the archaeological record for example a royal seal has been found belonging to ahaz son of jotham thus confirming the names of these two kings Hezekiah is generally considered to be one of the greatest kings in the history of ancient Israel he reigned shortly after the fall of the northern kingdom and he used the opportunity to reorganize and strengthen the kingdom of Judah prior to this the Kingdom of Israel was by far the larger and more important of the two kingdoms this is why the idea of a United monarchy ruled by a southern Dynasty the House of David is most likely just a legend that was created later in order to make Judah seem more important either way it was definitely at this point that the kingdom of Judah did become larger and more important one can imagine that there were likely lots of refugees streaming down from the ruins of the northern cities and that this led to a population boom in the southern cities there is certainly a lot of archaeological findings from this period both from Assyrian records as well as from evidence found in Jerusalem for example we know that Hezekiah rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem in prep ation for an Assyrian attack remnants of these walls can still be seen today it is also thought that he is the one who ordered the construction of the saloam tunnel another feature in Jerusalem that still exists today the Bible also mentions two major historical figures who existed at the same time as Hezekiah sakb king of Assyria and tahara king of kush who was also a pharaoh of Egypt it was during the reign of Hezekiah that the prophet Isaiah lived the first of the four so-called Major Prophets it is thought that Isaiah was probably a grandson of King Josiah and thus a member of the royal family it is also possible that he was hezekiah's father-in-law however the most important thing to mention about Hezekiah is that the Assyrians did in fact attack the kingdom of Judah during his Reign which was a logical next step after having destroyed the Kingdom of Israel however Hezekiah was able to hold the off and thus Judah survived and went on to become the main power in the Levant over the next Century he was followed by his son Manasseh who is also mentioned in Assyrian records and then by ahaz who was assassinated after just two years on the throne this led to an 8-year-old boy named Josiah becoming King although Josiah is not nearly as famous as kings David and Solomon I would actually argue that he was much more important for it was Josiah who laid the foundation for what became second temple Judaism which in turn as I mentioned earlier was the religion from which rabinal Judaism Christianity and Islam all stemmed from Biblical Scholars have concluded that it was during the reign of Josiah that the original parts of the book of Deuteronomy were written and some Scholars even believe that this core part of Deuteronomy was actually the earliest part of the Bible to be written one theory is that the story of Joshua's conquest of Canaan was invented in order to inspire the people living during Josiah's time to conquer the lands to the north that had recently been laid waste by the Assyrians and that the story of the United monarchy was invented in order to legitimize the house of David's rule over the entire land of Israel whether or not this is true we do know for certain that Josiah did try to conquer the Northern areas during his Reign but unfortunately he failed and in fact he died in the process according to the Bible he was killed by a pharaoh named Nico who we know from Egyptian records was in fact a historical Pharaoh that had just recently come to power at that exact time after the death of Josiah Judah started to decline rapidly three of his sons and one of his grandsons followed him as king and it was his third son zedekiah who would be the final king of Judah by this point the Babylonians had conquered Assyria and were now the major power in the Middle East their famous King Nebuchadnezzar defeated the kingdom of Judah and destroyed Jerusalem along with its temple in 586 BC at this point most of the Jews were transported to Babylon where they then lived in Exile the second and third of the four major prophets are Jeremiah and Ezekiel they both lived during the final days of Judah and during the early part of the Exile Jeremiah was the son of the high priest hilaya who served during the reign of King Josiah the fourth and final major prophet is Daniel he is thought to be a literary invention not a historical figure according to most Scholars The Book of Daniel was the last book of the Hebrew Bible to be written and is usually dated to the macban period however the story places Daniel and his three companions Shadrach meach and Abed as members of the Jewish royal family living in Exile in Babylon and later Persia but eventually the kingdom of Babylon is conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia Cyrus allows the Exiles now known as Jews to return to Jerusalem and gives them permission to rebuild the Temple in what is now called Judea it is during the Babylonian and Persian periods that most of the Hebrew Bible is written on the bottom right of the chart you'll find a timeline that shows when each book was most likely written according to Modern critical scholarship going back to the family tree the governor of the first wave of return returnes is shesh Bazar the son of King jeah and the first high priest of the second temple is Joshua grandson of Sarah the Bible also mentions a governor named zerubabel who leads needs the second wave he is either the son of shiel Tiel or padah both sons of jeanah I'll come back to him a bit later when discussing the ancestors of Jesus there is also a third wave led by a priest SL scribe named Ezra and a fourth wave led by a governor named Nehemiah both of them are appointed by the Persian king Arda Xerxes I how Esther fits in is a bit more complicated because the Persian king in that story is named azurus but this doesn't match with any of the known Kings of Persia however azurus is usually assumed to be Xerxes the first it is at this point that the Hebrew Bible known to Christians as the Old Testament comes to an end we thus enter the intertestamental period which we can learn about by using the apocryphal books as well as extra biblical sources for example we know that eventually the Persians are defeated by the famous Greco Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great and that after his death his generals fight over the Empire and it is eventually split into four main parts two main dynasties are formed consisting of the descendants of tmy the first and ccus the first initially the tmes who were based in Egypt rule Judea but later it is the the salats based in Syria by using Jewish sources we can get the names of every high priest from Joshua up to the maban Revolt this Revolt occurs when the saluca King Antiochus IV stops the usual Jewish sacrifices and replaces them with sacrifices to the Greek God Zeus the Revolt is initially led by a man named matathias but after he dies it is his son Judah who successfully recaptures the temple and restores the usual sacrifices with himself as the new high priest he is nicknamed makabe which means the hammer and this is why his entire family becomes known as the macbes eventually the macbes also known as the Haans end up serving not only as high priests but also as monarchs first as princes under Simon and herkus I but then later as kings starting with aristobulus the first during this period a legislative body known as the Sanhedrin is also formed led by a pair of leaders known as the zugo this consists of the Nazi who was sort of the president and the a bate Dean who was sort of the vice president eventually however there's a Civil War in Judea between two hasian brothers herkus II and aristobulus II Rome intervenes and in the process Judea becomes a client state of the Roman Republic in addition to this the hasian Dynasty is eventually replaced with the herodian dynasty Herod the Great being the husband of one of the last Hasan princesses at this point the monarchy and the high priesthood is split with the high priests now getting the job by appointment instead of by inheritance I do believe that Jesus was a historical person this is actually the view of most professional historians although there are some who argue that Jesus never existed this is currently a minority position and one that I myself do not hold that said I should point out that there is in fact very little information available about Jesus and his family outside of the New Testament and other early Christian sources and even Within those sources the information is often unclear this has led different branches of Christianity to develop different Traditions about the family of Jesus and this means that there is no one single quote unquote correct family tree so what I'm going to show you today is kind of an amalgamation of the various traditions this means that it may or may not be the same as what you personally are used to seeing so keep that in mind I'm not saying that my tree is correct I'm just going to use this one configuration in order to discuss some of the other possible configurations so let's begin the one thing that all Christians agree on is that Jesus's parents were named Joseph and Mary now obviously according to Christians Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus because well the main idea of Christianity is that Jesus was the son of God miraculously conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary but legally speaking Jesus would have been considered the son of Joseph now I'll come back to Joseph A little later when we discuss the ancestries given in Matthew and Luke in addition to his parents the New Testament also mentions siblings in Matthew 13: 55 and 56 it says isn't this the Carpenter's son isn't his mother's name Mary and aren't his brothers James Joseph Simon and Judas aren't all his sisters with us where then did this man get all these things so first of all this is where we learn that Joseph was a carpenter but this is also where we learn that Jesus had both brothers and sisters now the sisters are not named but the brothers are and it would appear that there were four of them James Joseph Simon and Judas and this is where different branches of Christianity start to disagree According to some Christians these four individuals were in fact the literal Brothers of Jesus I.E children born to Mary sometime after the birth of Jesus Remember Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born so these would have to be younger brothers they would also technically be half Brothers being that Jesus was the son of God and they were not however there are a few other possibilities Roman Catholics Eastern Orthodox Christians and some Protestants believe that Mary remained a virgin for the rest of her life therefore these so-called Brothers must either be sons of Joseph from a previous marriage which would make them older brothers or they were actually Jesus's cousins the argument for them being cousins is based on the fact that Jews at the time did not have uh separate words for brother versus cousin any male relative of a similar age was simply your brother sometimes like today even a non-relative with whom you are really close is called your brother for the sake of this chart I'm going to go with the cousin Theory and I'm going to assume that they were C cousins from Mary's side of the family not Joseph's this is because in the gospel accounts Joseph seems to disappear from the story by the time Jesus reaches adulthood yet Jesus remains close to his mother and several other women who seem to have been his maternal aunts now speaking of women that Jesus was close to let's take a moment to talk about the Marys and yes notice that I just said Marys plural not Mary singular I've already mentioned Mary the mother of Jesus but that Mary is not the only Mary mentioned in the New Testament in fact there are at least three Marys and perhaps as many as six so let's take a moment to sort them out I'm going to start with John Chapter 19 Verse 25 there we read near the cross of Jesus stood his mother his mother's Sister Mary the wife of clus and Mary magdaline so from this verse it's clear that there were at least three separate people named Mary although the verse doesn't mention it we know that the mother of Jesus was named Mary then we get at least two more Mary the wife of clus who according to the grammar of the sentence seems to be Jesus's aunt and someone called called Mary Magdalene so three Marys but things get a bit confusing when we look at the same part of the story in the other gospel accounts Matthew also mentions three women at the crucifixion in his version uh in Matthew 27: 55 and 56 we read many women were there watching from a distance among them were Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James and Joseph Joseph and the mother of zebedee's sons so here there is no mention of Jesus's mother but we do get Mary Magdalene again as well as someone who is referred to as Mary the mother of James and Joseph according to many scholars the assumption is that this Mary is the same Mary as Mary the wife of clus so if this is true it is confirmation that Jesus did indeed have two cousins named James and Joseph finally we get a third person who is simply referred to as the mother of zeb's sons now we know from other parts of the New Testament that the sons of Zebedee were James and John two of the original 12 disciples okay now let's look at the gospel of Mark in that version of the story in Mark 15:40 we read some women were watching from a distance among them were Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph and salame so here it seems that we have the same three women mentioned by Matthew but we get a few more pieces of information first we learn that James the cousin of Jesus had a nickname he was called the younger this was probably to distinguish him from James the son of Zebedee who is called James the Elder in later tradition the terms James the less and James the great were used but keep in mind that these terms do not refer to importance from Mark we also learned that the mother of the two sons of Zebedee was named salame and according to tradition her full name was actually Mary salame so this gives us four different Marys in total now there's one more gospel the Gospel of Luke but unfortunately Luke does not name the women at the cross however he does include a story not given in the other gospels about two women named Mary and Martha who lived in a town called Bethany so this is possibly a fifth Mary however according to tradition Mary of Bethany was the same person as Mary Magdalene so that once again leaves us with four let's now return to the tree we can now fill in the name of of Mary's sister and her husband I'll also add Mary salame off to the side as well as her husband Zebedee and her two sons James and John I'll also add Mary Magdalene and her sister Martha from other verses in the gospels we know that Mary and Martha had a brother named Lazarus whom Jesus raised from the dead so I'll add him as well okay let's now focus a bit more on Jesus's cousins to do this let's talk about the 12 disciples later known as the TW Apostles Simon Peter is always mentioned first along with his brother Andrew this is because Peter ended up becoming the leader of the Jesus movement after Jesus's death in fact Catholics consider him to have been the first pope after Peter and Andrew come James and John the sons of zebede as I've already mentioned this James became known as James the great we then get Philip Bartholomew also known as Nathaniel Thomas and Matthew finally we get another James mentioned as being the son of alfus in order to distinguish him from James the son of zebede then Thaddius who was also called Judas Simon nicknamed Nam the Zealot and last of all Judas es scariot he comes last because he's the one who famously betrayed Jesus he's the only one of the TW who didn't become an apostle he was later replaced by a man named maias now here's the interesting thing the last three names before Judas es scariot match three of the names of Jesus's cousins and according to some Scholars the name alfus is an alternative version of the name Copus so according to several branches of Christianity these three disciples were in fact the cousins of Jesus what happened to Joseph the fourth cousin we do not know but the fact that these three are always listed last in the lists of the disciples other than Judas es scariot of course I think is further evidence that they were in fact the cousins of Jesus it's likely that the early Christians were being careful not to give them any special treatment so let me tell you a bit more about them Not only was James the last one of the 12 apostles he was also one of the main leaders of the early Church in fact some branches of Christianity call him the First bishop of Jerusalem he is also thought to have written one of the books in the New Testament the one called James Simon is notable in that he is thought to have taken over the leadership of the Jerusalem Church after the death of James and is thus considered by some to have been the second Bishop there finally Judas is traditionally thought to be the author of the New Testament book of Jude while we're at it let's talk about the sons of Zebedee as well according to Legend James the great traveled to Spain and then reappeared there centuries later to help fight against the Muslim invaders for these reasons he is considered to be the patron saint of Spain his brother John however is perhaps more welln he is thought by many to be the author of The Gospel of John who is also known as the disciple whom Jesus loved as well as the author of three letters named first second and third John and the book of Revelation now remember I'm just presenting one view among many and one that is based entirely on tradition not on historical evidence there are other Scholars who for example would say that John of patmas who wrote Revelation was probably a totally different John than this John and others who think that there were possibly three or four different people named James not just two so let me say it again there is no one quote unquote correct way to look at all of this all right we're not done yet according to many branches of Christianity we actually know the names of Mary's father and mother as well who would also be the parents of Mary of Copus and the grandparents of not only Jesus but of at least three of the 12 apostles according to tradition they are named Joakim and Anne in the Quran Joakim is called Imran and although Anne is not named the Semitic version of her name would be Hannah now in the Middle Ages a tradition developed that considered Mary salame to be the daughter of Anne as well in some versions the three Marys had three different fathers but in other versions they were all the daughters of Joakim and an I'm going to leave a question mark here because to me it seems that the earliest Traditions considered these four to be the cousins of Jesus but not these two okay we can actually go one step further in this family tree according to tradition Anne was the daughter of a priest named methan and the sister of a woman named so who in turn was the mother of Elizabeth an and Sobe do not appear in the New Testament but Elizabeth and her husband Z Zechariah do according to the Gospel of Luke Elizabeth was a close relative of Mary the mother of Jesus and the two women were pregnant at the same time Mary of course had Jesus and Elizabeth had John the Baptist and this John was definitely a different John from the John who wrote the Gospel of John according to Christianity John the Baptist was sort of a Forerunner for Jesus and prepared the way for him but according to the New Testament he was killed by Herod Antipas prior to the death of Jesus as the story goes his head was delivered to Antipas on a plate at the bequest of his wife and niece herodias at this point let's return to Joseph the father of Jesus the problem here is that the New Testament gives us two conflicting genealogies IES for Joseph in Matthew Joseph is said to be the son of Jacob who in turn was the son of mathan however in Luke Joseph is said to be the son of heli the son of mathat now interestingly in both cases the name of Joseph's grandfather is similar it also happens to be the same name that is traditionally given to Mary's grandfather so one possibility is that Joseph and Mary were cousins a practice that was certainly not unheard of at the time but let's look at the genealogies in Matthew and Luke in more detail on this chart I have three columns the left column is the genealogy given in the gospel of Matthew which traces a direct line from Abraham to Jesus the middle column is the genealogy given in the Gospel of Luke which traces a direct line all the way from Adam to Jesus finally the right column is a genealogy based on the Hebrew Bible known to Christians as the Old Testament obviously this one doesn't include Jesus but it does cover everything from Adam to a man named zerubabel so let's start at the top from Adam to Abraham we can only compare Luke and the Hebrew Bible and what we find is that the genealogy is exactly the same with one exception curiously Luke includes an extra generation a man named Kanan is placed between AR foad and Shaya once we get to Abraham we can compare all three genealogies and up until King David all three are exactly the same except Once Again Luke adds an extra generation in place of Rah we get two names Arie and AD mean but when we get to King David this is where the accounts in Matthew and Luke start to diverge Matthew continues with Solomon and his list pretty much matches up with the Royal line of Judah as described in the Hebrew Bible the only difference is that he leaves out four names ahaziah joash amziah and jeim one possible reason for this is that these Four Kings were said to have been particularly evil in contrast Luke continues his list with an obscure son of David known as Nathan he then goes on to list a bunch of names that do not match with any known genealogy in the Bible or anywhere else but then curiously something strange occurs two names on his list suddenly match up with two of the names found on both Matthew's list and the list from the Hebrew Bible shiel Tiel and zorobabel now it's possible that this could be just a coincidence and that Luke's sh alal and zerubabel are totally different people but because of their placement in time on the lists and the importance of these two individuals in Jewish history it does seem that Luke is referring to the same two people but from this point Matthew and Luke diverge again and now neither list can be compared to the Hebrew Bible because the main story in the Hebrew Bible ends around the time of zerubabel the obvious difference between the last set of names on Matthew's list and the last set of names on Luke's list is that Luke's includes about twice as many names so the assumption is that Matthew must have left out some generations here and there after all we already know that he did this earlier the adding and skipping of generations is probably related to the fact that both Matthew and Luke were aiming to come up with particular sets of numbers in Matthew the entire genealogy can be divided into three sets of 14 14 being 2 * 7 and we know that seven was and is a particularly important number for Jews in Luke the entire genealogy adds up to exactly 77 names again the whole thing is centered on the number seven but the big question is how can there be two different sets of names between zerubabel and Joseph well the most common explanation is that one of these lists is actually showing Jesus's maternal line in other words the line of Mary even though they both say Joseph most Christian Scholars say that Matthew covers Joseph's Line and Luke covers Mary's line although I have seen seen some Scholars who argue for the reverse there are even some attempts out there to reconcile the two lists by adding in things like second marriages and stepchildren but to me I don't think that's necessary personally I think there is a simpler solution but please note that at this point I am strictly stating my own opinion I think the reason why the two genealogies don't match is that neither of them are genuine in other words I think that both Matthew and Luke made up the final parts of their genealogies basically from scratch now as I said at the beginning of this video I am not a Christian but even if I were I don't think the fact that they made up genealogies would necessarily be a problem it's clear that both genealogies have several poetic symbolic elements for example I've already talked about the numerology but there's more there's some very slight spelling changes in Matthew's account for example he changes ASA to Asaf and Amon to Amos ASA was a writer of Psalms and Amos was one of the prophets so this would appear to be a nod to the prophets and the writings the two sections of the Hebrew Bible that together with the Torah make up the Tanakh he also specifically mentions four women all four of whom were probably non-israelites so that's a little nod to the Gentiles as I said at the very beginning of this series the purpose of the Bible is to make theological points not to record literal history and I think this goes for certain sections of the gospels as well yes the gospel writers certainly believed that Jesus was the son of God and yes they certainly believed that as the Jewish Messiah he was the literal descendant of King David but I don't think that the exact specifics matter to them as much as they matter to us in our very detailed oriented modern Minds today again this is just my opinion but please understand that the Bible can be understood in different ways and just because someone understands it different than you it doesn't necessarily mean that they are non-religious okay so that wraps up the family tree of Jesus as well as the complete series that I've been doing on biblical genealogy thanks for watching [Music] [Music]

Build Your First AI Chat Bot with OpenAI and .NET in Minutes.en.srt

00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,480 all right let's do it let's build an AI chatbot powered by gp4 we're going to do it it's happening we're going to do it all in C withn Net we're going to do it in just a few minutes because there's some amazing libraries that enable you to get up and running using Ai and your net applications in minutes and then I'm going to show you some Advanced scenarios so you can start your AI Journey so let's go ahead get into it [Music] hey everyone I'm James and I'm really early in my AI Journey for software development I've been a longtime mobile developer desktop developer kind of been dabbling in the web space for a little bit now but with AI that's been with us for a long time at this point um is finally time for me to really get into it and start learning and and you know I think the beginning building blocks is just simply learning some of the Core Concepts and building something simple I saw uh my good friend Stephen t build out a really cool chatbot live and I took some of the Core Concepts I did some deeper learning I actually met with him got a little bit deeper in there I want to show you how we can build a simple chat bot we're going to build some console applications and I'm going to show you how to use some Mantic kernel to easily access these different Ai backends and today we're going to be using open Ai and gp4 so let's go ahead and get into it okay so let's jump into it what I've created here is a first a simp simple web API that's where we're going to actually do our sort of prompting and integration into uh GPT and open Ai and then I have this client so this client's very very simple it's just simply calling out to uh my web backend it's going to be a council application that prompts the user for a question it's going to read the line and then it's using this nice get from Json as async innumerable because remember like when you chat with chat GPT for example all of that response is being streamed back to you so it's not just a Big Blob coming back to it's being streamed in in real time back to you so you want to sort of iterate that out so here I'm just going to call the chat back end that I'm creating and pass it to question there we go q and Q and I'm going to write it out so basically it's going to be chunked along the way and then I'm just going to add a new line now for the API I haven't built it out yet but I have built out a fake sample basically here that has a chat uh back end that takes in a question so again we see the question coming in here and that question is going to just return this invoke prompt because we're going to prompt basically you know gbt at this point uh but what we can see is that this just simply splits the words does a little delay and then yield returns and it streams them all back so here I have both of these projects and properties down here as the startup project so we're totally good to go and I'm just going to go ahead and hit start so when I hit start on here this is going to open up there we go my client there we go and I'm going to to say uh what is the weather like in Seattle in April question mark and it's going to essentially just repeat back what I've done it's just a little repple Echo going on here now let's go ahead and create a actual chatbot agent here that's calling into GPT 4 and open AI on the back end now to do this we're going to get rid of all this code down here and we're going to actually invoke the open services and we're going to do that leveraging semantic kernel if you've never heard of semantic kernel it's kind of similar to an operating system of AI in a way is responsible for managing these resources that enable us to interact with models and services and plugins inside of our applications it's available in C and python which is really really cool so it has this nice little diagram here that you can kind of see where the kernel is coming in and you can select your service your rendering prompts and looking AI Services goes into the kernel a bunch of things and your app can talk to a bunch of different models so if you've never seen that before definitely check it out it's really cool and you can think of it as this open source SDK that does plug into these different ecosystems which is really really cool and a lot of times when you hear about co-pilots really semantic kernel is at the center of it but I sort of think of it as a uh simplified API that enables us to interact with these different models that are out there and there's a great tutorial on creating your F first prompt and that's sort of what we're going to do today and this is where I got started not only just prompting it but then actually building upon the prompt as well so the one thing that helped me as a developer was actually right here in this understanding the kernel you pass around this kernel object and the kernel object has the services and plugins necessary to run your code and communicate with the AI services so for example you will select the best AI service to run the prompts you build the prompt with um prompt templates you send the prompt to the AI service you receive and parse the response and and that is automatically coming back to you and your application and the kernel will handle basically all of this for you and all you have to do is have the inputs and the outputs of how you want to display it so let's go ahead and integrate that into our backend service so I'm going to say manage Nate package and I'm going to come in and say microsoft. semantic kernel now the cool part about semantic kernel is that it works with a bunch of different um AI providers out there so for example if you just bring in semantic kernel this brings in the core but open AI Azure open AI Dolly and more but if we scroll through here we can see that there are other plugins and other connectors to other services so here's a quadrant uh connector for example uh sqlite postgress providers if you have Vector databases mongodb pine cone milis for example here and then there's also Onyx which is really great to do like offline different uh models to use and then there's also Google so you can actually interact with Gemini if you wanted to as well so I'm going to go ahead and bring in just the core semantic kernel because I'm using the open AI um just core open AI That's it I've gone to the uh open AI developer portal I've created an API key and I have that in my app settings over here and that's all I did so I did have to you for open a I did have to like give a$ five doar basically to fill my API quota up so I can I can use the API there so that's pretty cheap Okay cool so what do we need to do it's actually really really simple I'm not going to lie about it is the cool part about semantic kernel especially when you're doing things with like the the service here is you can just come in and say using microsoft. semantic kernel and then this kernel object is available to you uh that you can create its own builder and you can build up kernels and you can pass them around basically but the cool part is that it actually integrates directly into uh the dependency Injection Service we're using here in this web API so I can say builder. services and I can say add kernel and again that's the kernel that's going to be injected into my map get here and if I just say dot we can type in add and then add will show us opening audio to text chat completion files text embedding generation which I'm not going to get into today but is really cool uh text to audio there's open AI versions of those so if you're using Azure Azure open AI either of those will work here so we're going to just say open AI chat completion okay and this is going to ask us what model ID do we want to use so there's a lot of different models out there I'm going to use just GPT 4 today but you could use other turbo models or anything like that and then it needs my API key so all I'm going to do is pass in build do configuration and I have this set as my uh open AI key so again that is in my app settings. Json so I'm not going to show that off because it's just a key value pair with my open AI key and that's it so now instead of just passing the string we're going to dependency inject in the kernel and the kernel is that object that now has access to the open AI chat completion so let's do a little chat completion here this is where things get really interesting because the konel has all of the commands for doing prompting and rendering and a bunch of other stuff in there and all of the invocations here so here's all the in invoking that's going on so we can say invoke prompt streaming asnc because again we want a streaming back set of sort of strings coming back to us for the question there we go and that's literally it now we can delete this code and that's it we just have this one line of code to add the Curr set it all up and then here we're going to inject it in and we're going to invoke The Prompt streaming async that's it literally that's it so two lines of code adding the kernel and then putting it here so now I can come in I can say what is the weather usually like in Seattle in April question mark and then this is going to go out to the GPT for service and here we go it says in April Seattle typ starts to experience weather life blah blah blah there we go and we can say what about weather in Seattle in June question is it rainy is it a good time to visit question mark let's see what it says there we go so it's beginning of the summer season we get all those information in here and then it's coming back and it it says you know your witness experience such as Fremont hit enter there Solus parade and other popular events so again I can start to build up this here and see this come in now one point that I want to make is that I'm not really doing any prompt engineering I'm not doing any history of anything going on here right so if I say what about August question mark it's GNA say I don't know what you're talking about what what about August you know what I mean in general like specific event uh so it doesn't know that context that I was talking about Seattle so ideally in my code I would start to build that up I would start to do some prompt engineering on it um especially if I was creating something specific to my actual company or business now I would highly recommend checking out this building your first prompt article that I'll put a link to below but it shows you not only how to do this prompting but also how to prompt more specific tell the I what to avoid doing providing context to the AI and the neat part is that you can use other services in ml.net for example to do chunking and uh to to tokenize uh so you can add different semantic uh meaning and relevancy into your prompts all inside of here and a great repo to get samples from is the net AI samples repo on GitHub there's all sorts of great samples in here to get you started so there's a bunch of hiking stuff in here which is really cool so there's generating images uh tool extensions chat data contexts that's the one to definitely look at uh different AI projects going in here Tech summarization and more so it'll show you how to use not only uh some antic kernel uh using Azure open Ai and then there's a bunch of other things that they're going to be adding as well so tokenizing embeddings Rags prompt and promp engineering and so much more so definitely take a look at this repo all right well there you have it that is a basic introduction of sending prompts off to get your questions answered by GPT such as open AI like I did here now I had Frank Krueger my one of my best friends and my coost of merge conflict that you can find right here on YouTube uh and of course on your favorite podcast application player review sort of this demo and give me a little bit of feedback of questions that y'all might be asking so for example why didn't I just call the apis directly of open AI in this case and why did I use semantic kernel well the reason I don't want to just call in my case the API directly is because I love beautiful wrappers around apis and I love when the Tool kind of abstracts out some of these higher level concept steps for me additionally if I am building something more real world I take a look at semantic kernel for example because it has connectors it has plugins got triggers and actions you can have models and memories that you can build all in it s of streamlines it's built for AI right especially as a Donna developer I think that that is really great so that's one of the first reasons and as you saw in that dropdown not only can it do like prompts but it can do image generation it can do all the other things that open AI can do but then it can also connect up to those other services hugging face uh Gemini um Onyx for example azop AI o Open AI directly like you saw and it really abstracts these out and just some commonalities which for me as a developer is great so I can move around and I can use these different models I can use these different Services together and then Additionally you might be asking why did I show for this beginner sample right this client server relationship one I blame Stephen toe but I also um blame myself because as a mobile developer I'm not going to take my open AI key and shove it into my mobile app I'm going to build a backend service and I can get that streaming stuff all in there and in fact also Samantha kernel makes that streaming stuff really easy as you saw too which is great so anyways those are some of the questions if you have more questions leave them down in the comments below myself or Frank I'll force Frank to answer all the questions but definitely check out merge conflict we just did an episode all on this stuff specifically on tokens on embedding and all the different things for GPT so give that a look I'll put links down in the show notes as well hope you enjoyed this if you did give it a thumbs up and uh if you're on your Learning Journey as well what resources have been helpful for you leave them down in the comments and let me know on my journe Learning Journey and I'd love to learn more especially things that you found super helpful I'll put Links of what I found super helpful but if you have anything else let me know if you did like this video give it a thumbs up Jam the Subscribe Button as I continue to put out videos super appreciate it that's going to do it for this one so until next time thanks for watching [Music]

Build your own Local Perplexity with Ollama – Deep Dive.en.srt

00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,720 if you're into AI agents then stay tuned because in this video I'm going to be doing a technical Deep dive on a custom web search agent that I've built that is 100% local using ol Lama and the Llama free 8 billion model the GitHub repo containing the code for this project will be available to you and it's linked in the description for this video so if you wish you may pull that up to help you follow along with a video I'll start the video off by taking you through a schematic diagram of the agent to give you a high level understanding of how it works I'll then jump into the python code and lastly I'm going to demo the agent so you can get a feel of how well these agents work with open source models if you stay tuned to the end of the video I'm going to be giving my thoughts on how this custom web search agent can be improved and what I'm planning to do next on this custom web search agent so stay tuned to the end to here that if you're into this content give us a thumbs up don't forget to subscribe to the channel and let us know your opinions in the comments section let's get into the technical details let's have a look at the overall high level schema for this agent or this web search agent that I've developed so the first thing is you get a user query in and that user query can be anything that requires information from the web the first step is to actually go into a planning agent and what the planning agent does is to break that query out into some questions that need to be researched in in order to get the answer to that query or to respond to that query so it's important to note here that the planning agent doesn't answer those questions it simply proposes some questions that need to be answered in order to respond to the query the next thing is the web searcher so the web searcher is a tool that takes as an input the questions from the planning agent and returns a search engine results page from which it then takes the best result from the search engine results page and then scrapes the content from that page and presents it as a dictionary so what's good about the web searching tool is it will actually present this dictionary with the source and the content of that source of information and that's key for the later steps and then we have an integration agent so the integration agent takes that information produced by the web search tool so the research produced by the web search tool and then there's a decision step here so it decides whether the information is sufficient to answer the question which is obviously the initial user query if it's sufficient to answer the query then it will proceed to the next step if it's insufficient then some feedback is provided and that's stored in a short-term memory Json file and that feedback is then provided to the agent um the planning agent which then repeats that process from here so there's a feedback loop here this is the first feedback loop if it is sufficient to answer the question then we move on to the next agent which checks the response so it's checking the response for mainly formatting things and coherence if it meets the criteria then we provide a final response if it doesn't meet the criteria there's a reason that is provided for why it didn't meet the criteria and that's sent back to the integration agent which will correct the response in order to provide a response that meets the criteria we need that's the overall agent schema it is fairly simple this is going to be available to you in the GitHub repost so don't worry if you didn't get that right now I think when everything comes together it will become clear how this agent works all right let's start looking at the python code to see what the web search agent does under the hood let's start our Deep dive on the actual python code behind this agent so the python code consists of 1 2 3 four five six main files right so a few of these are actually set up in configuration files so requirements of txd obviously is to install the libraries we need um we have the memory. Json which obviously stores the feedback as shown by the schematic diagram we have a config file that keeps our API keys so we won't be going through those the files we'll focus on are prompts dopy agentp and search. piy now this is fairly similar to some of the other agent videos I've done so specifically the custom agent video so if you have watched that feel free to skip ahead straight to the demo if you wish there are some things I've implemented slightly differently here so you may want to continue to watch even if you have watched my previous custom agent walk through okay so starting with the prompts STP and as the name suggests this is where we actually keep all of the prompts that power the agents so we have a prompt for the planning agent we have a prompt for the integration agent we have a prompt for the agent that's responsible for checking our response to make sure it meet certain criteria we have a prompt for the Search tool so this actually helps us identify the search request based on what the planning agent suggests to then use in our Search tool so this is what this does and then we have a prompt to identify the best source from the search engine results page this is what get search page prompt does so there is a lot of information here and part of the reason there is a lot is because using local models you have to be really specific with how you prompt a model so they're not as good at reasoning as some of the proprietary models so for example even chap gbt 3.5 um sorry gbt 3.5 you can get away with slightly less prompting than if you are using an 8 billion model for example so this is why the prompts are quite lengthy here so I'll talk through them and give you an idea of how these prompts work so for the planning agent prompt you are an AI planning agent working with an integration agent your job is to come up with questions you need to answer the query you must not answer the questions only generate the questions so I was finding that if I didn't add this line in the agent would actually start generating responses or answers to those questions so I had to specifically tell it not to answer the questions if there are multiple questions highlight the single most important question to answer ensure your response takes into account any feedback if available so here are the outputs from the tools you have used here is your previous plan here is the feedback you must carefully consider the feedback and adjust or change your plan based on the feedback provided for example if the feedback is that the plan is missing a key element you should adjust the plan to include that key element you should be aware of today's date to help you answer questions that require current information here is today's date and time so that's in the UTC time zone just a quick thing here on the outputs these are the outputs from a previous run so I gave the outputs to the planning agent to give it context on what information had already been retrieved so that it could generate a plan based on it without kind of duplicating information that it already has so that's the idea behind it so we'll leave it in there just see how it works okay so let's move on to the integration agent you are an integration agent working with a planning agent your job is to compile a response to the original query based entirely on the research provided to you so the research is obviously the information provided from the web search tool if the research is insufficient provide explicit feedback to the planning agent to refine the plan this feedback should include the specific information that is missing from the re search your feedback should state which questions have already been answered by the research and which questions are still unanswered if the research is sufficient provide a comprehensive response to the query with citations in your comprehensive response you must do the following one only use the research provided to generate the response to directly provide the source of the information in the response the research is a dictionary that provides research content alongside its source alongside Source let's get that right so then we give it the research and that's the outputs we give it the plan from the planning agent we reiterate you must fully site the sources provided in the research right and then we give it the sources from the research too do not use sources that have not been provided in the research so I was finding that the model was actually hallucinating sources which is no good obviously we don't want it to do that so having this in helped to prevent it doing that so then we give an example response I'm not going to read through the example response but it's just to provide the model with an idea of what type of format we're looking for then we talk about the quality assurance process so the is a quality assurance process to check your responses meets the requirements response meets the requirements here are the results of the last quality assurance check and then we have the reason so the reason is the result of the last quality assurance checks that's the reason why it was rejected take these into account when generating your response so here are all your previous responses so that's obviously coming from the memory. Json and um no previous responses yes yeah so apologies yep the previous responses are coming from the memory. Json and here is today's date and time so we give it the previous responses so that it has an idea of things it's already said um and this is particularly helpful in multihop questions so we don't so we don't actually like miss out information that we need to answer a a question so having feeding back the previous responses into the integration agent is useful for that especially with multihop questions and if you don't know what a multihop question is I will explain later on in the video when we go through some examples actually in the schematic diagram I think I probably have missed this feedback loop in because we should be feeding in previous responses into the integration agent I'll update that in the GitHub repo so that when you look at that it it does have that feedback in and then we give it an awareness of today's date and time and that's important for asking questions on current events it gives it a reference point to be able to work from and then we have the final free prompts which are a little different because what we're doing with these final free prompts is we're actually asking the model to return a response in Json so the first one is to check the response so remember after the integration agent produces an answer we send it through to be checked by a kind of quality assurance agent if you want to call it that so there's some criteria that we want to meet I'm not going to go through the list of criteria but one of them is um making sure that the response has citations and sources so then we pass we want the model to return this Json and what we have here is pass true or false if it's relevant relevant or not relevant coherent coherent or incoherent comprehensive and in citations and then we have a reason so that reason is fed back into the integration agent as you saw in the schematic diagram to tell it okay you know you need to adjust one of these things and then we have generate searches prompt so this is obviously taking the search engine results page um apologies no this is taking the the response from the planning agent and then turning that into a search engine query and then we can feed that into the the functions we need to actually generate the search engine results page and and scrape scrape that page and so on and then lastly we have the get search page prompt and this takes the best URL from the sear search engine results page so we're actually asking the model to decide from the search engine results page which provides not only the URL Source but also a description of what's on that page what might be the best the best source of information to answer the user query and we we return that as a Json so this is what we'll get as a response before I move on to looking at the search. py file I do want to just step back here and probably get rid of in fact I will get rid of this line for outputs because I think it is Superfluous reason being is we are getting feedback from the integration agent which will give us an idea about you know what information has already been included and what information is missing from our planning agent so I don't think we need to give it and the outputs I think this is kind of wasted context here so I will get rid of this the feedback from the integration agent should be enough for the planning agent to develop a sufficient plans great so we have covered the prompts dopy the next step is to cover the search. so I'll be stepping into that and showing you how that works so let's step into the search. P there's a helper function up here just to load in our API keys and then we have this class which is the web searcher and there's various methods in this class that enable us to search the um internet using a search engine return a search engine results page and from there select the best page and scrape that and the prompts I showed you earlier and the prompts dopi help to do that so this project does work with olama as I said it's a local project but it also works with gbt 3.5 gb4 so all the open AI models and it works with your own hosted server to okay let's explore some of the methods here so the first method is obviously to generate the searches so how we're generating the searches is we're taking the plan from the planning agent and we're calling the model to generate that search so we give it the the prompt and you can see that prompt here the generate searches prompt which is coming from The Prompt supp p and then we provide a response and that response is just going to be a search query that we put into the search engine that's all this function is doing so our generate searches method is simply taking our plan and turning it into a query that we can run in the search engine so the next step is to get the search page so once we have used our search engine what's going to happen is we're going to return a search engine results page so we actually need to select the best page from this search engine results page and we do that by using this get search page method that I've written and the prompt here is the the get search page prompt so remember all of these these two prompts the get search page and the sorry not these these two methods so the generate searches method and the get search page Method All return a format in Json so that's why we specify the format as a Json and what this is going to do the get search page will take that search engine results page as an input and it's going to give us the best page based on this prompt so this prompt remember is takes the search engine results page and gives us the the best source to investigate from that page that's all we're doing here and the response for this is a search page URL so it's the best source and we we'll take that later on and we're going to actually go ahead and scrape that page so this method does what it says on the tin we're fetching the search results so this is where we're actually using our serer de API so Ser Dev is Google search engine results page um we make a call to that API to fetch the best um sorry not to fetch the best but to fetch our search engine results and that's based on the search queries and that those search queries obviously come from the function here at the method here at the top which is generate searches so that's our search query so that's that's what we're doing here when we're fetching our search results and then we want to also scrape that data so once we identifi the best URL from the search engine results page we put that in to the function and this function scrapes the website for the information and returns this dictionary where we have the source that's the website URL and we have the content so the content is maxed out around 5K words obviously if you're working with this yourself feel free to come and change this depending on which model you're working with the context you want to be aware of how much context you're actually putting into the model I think llama 3 8 billion has a context limit of around 8K tokens so just beware of that you can't it's not unlimited context so that's why I've put that that um I've I've Limited at 5K words so at the end you're going to get this dictionary returned where you have the source and that's a website source and the content which is the content of that website so just to warn you ahead of time this website scraper method is not the best sometimes it actually scrapes websites where the content is unreadable to a large language model and therefore I've implemented this function here which basically identifies whether whether this is um garbled context so that's context that's un content that's unreasonable to a large language model so what I've done here it's based on a certain threshold and that threshold is determined by the ratio of asky non asky characters to the length of the entire text so if it is above that ratio this get garbled um this is garbled thing is true and then when that happens what we do is if it's the case we print fail to retrieve Contex and then we identify what the failed Source was and it's because it's garble text and then we append it to a a dictionary of failed URLs that we tried to scrape from and that helps later on Implement a retry method where we don't use this these URLs that are in this failed URL dictionary so that's the retry method and that's how I've I've kind of implemented a mechanism to make sure that when we are scraping content from the internet that we actually able to scrape content without just entering a loop of Errors where we're just pulling out content that is is unreadable to a large language model it is rudimentary but it does work well enough for what I needed to do for this web search agent and there is a similar thing here if we just retrieve an error from trying to SCP the the website so obviously sometimes you can just get an error um sometimes there an access error or something like that where you you just for some reason you can't scrape that website we have that same um mechanism to identify when a website is UNSC scrapable and we append it to a a dictionary of failed sites we bring it all together using the use tool method so the used tool method search starts off by generating searches so we have our search queries here and then we fetch search results um so that is using the search engine um and then we fetch search results so that's using the seral and that returns a search engine results page then we identify the best page so we're putting out the best page there and then we are scraping that content and once we scrape that content we enter this W Loop so if response or response is false if we are unable to scrape that content for what one reason or another so that's whether the content returns garble context so it's it's illegible to a large language model or we fail to scrape that content we enter the wow Loop and set it to a maximum of three attempts so it will attempt to retry um by getting another page from the search engine results page and then scraping that one so it won't redo the search what it will do is it will look at the existing search engine results page that we returned and try to select a different page to scrap so that's how we we um Implement that retry mechanism and that is pretty much it we we return all of these to print if you don't want to return all of this stuff you can set this B variable to false and you won't return all of the additional content from um using the tool that's it let's move on lastly to the agentp to see how we bring everything together into the agent workflow let's move on to the final file which is the agent. py file and this is where we're bringing everything together to create this web search agent so first of all there is a load of helper functions in here um you've got load config get current UTC date time which is self-explanatory um the load config stuff obviously brings in the API key and then you've got these helper functions save feedback read feedback um clear Json file initi initialize Json file all of this stuff is basically to save create and read the Json file um which is obviously memory . Json just to show you how it looks it's blank right now but that's all this stuff is doing at the top so those helper functions don't be too intimidated by that that's all it's doing it's just helping us right to the memory. Json read from the memory. Json and then once we've made once we've delivered our final response we clear that memory. Json so it's just helping us manage that short-term memory then we can step into the AG class itself and there's a load of things up here that just help initi initialize that class the class is actually quite basic when you get under the hood it's just a few methods the first of which is to run the planning agent and we discussed earlier what in the um we discussed by looking at the schematic diagram and you've seen from the prompts of Pi what the planning agent does here's we read in the prompt for the planning agent so we read it in as a system prompt and we all the variables we need to make the planning agent are read in and formatted as a system prompt and then it's basic it's just a call to the large language model of our choice so because we're using AMA we make the call using the payload here and then we return a response and remember the planning agent is going to come up with a series of questions or come up with some questions that we need to ask in order to answer the user query so that's all we're doing here with that method next one is the integration agent and it's a similar type of exercise except the prompt is different so with the integration agent we're using the integration agent prompt which obviously is doing a few things it's either providing feedback if there's not sufficient information or it is actually providing a final response to our user query and we're doing exactly the same thing because we're using AMA we're using the payload in this structure and we're returning a response and then we've got our check response so the check response is slightly different in that when we run check response method we're actually returning a Json so we've got the format set to Json and remember what the check response does is it checks the response from the integration agent and ensures it matches the criteria that we've set and that criteria is obviously outlined in the check response prompt so don't be too confused by that that's all that's happening there the criteria outlined in the check response prompt and because we're using o we're we're doing it in this way and then we return a decision dictionary which then we can use to decide whether the response is appropriate to actually deliver the final response or whether we need to actually enter that feedback loop okay and then lastly we have this execute method and this execute method is how we actually put everything together within the execute method we actually decide how these agents work together so I've defined a deterministic execute um deterministic agent workflow and this is how we do it so while this criteria is not met so meets requirements is obviously the requirements of the agent that checks the response so while that is false and also the number of iterations which we set is under the maximum number of iterations the first thing we're going to do is we check the feedback file so obviously for the first run the feedback file will be empty so we won't return any feedback and then we come up with a plan so we do that by running the planning agent right and the planning agent will take its previous plan so on the first run the previous plan is obviously empty it will also take its query um from the user and the feedback which will be empty on the first run then we take that plan and we use the tool so the web search tool we take the plan and the query and that returns some research outputs so that's what we've called outputs there so next we run the integration agent and we're feeding various arguments into the integration agent so the first one is the query which is obviously the user query the plan which is the plan determined by running the planning agent the output so this is the result of the output from using the tool and then the reason so the reason here is any reason that it might have the integration agent might have um the last response from the integration agent might have been rejected so that's after going through the quality assurance process so obviously on the first run the reason is going to be blank um and it might not if if there isn't any if it doesn't get to the point where we actually go to the quality assurance agent because for example we need to step back into the planning agent before delivering a final response the reason is also going to be blank and then we have feedback um so that's the previous responses that the integration agent has delivered and we feed that in from the feedback file so remember we get this from the memory. Json and the reason we have that in there is so that when we are um when we run the integration agent it it's aware of things that it's already said so it might try something new or it might adapt it so it's just to give it an awareness of okay I've already given this feedback maybe I need to adapt that feedback and do something else if it's if if it's not worked it's something along those lines it's not exactly like that but it's just to give it an awareness of stuff it's already tried okay so once we have run that integration agent we saved the feedback or we save the response from the integration agent to the memory. Json and then we check the response so this checking response is the quality assurance bit so it's checking to see that it meets the criteria and we see if it meets the requirements here if it meets the requirements we return true if not we return false and then we get the reason and then that if it is false we reenter this Loop so if it is false we we start again and we reenter this Loop of well it's not met the requirements yet and remember the reason is fed back to the integration agent so you can see that there so the reason is fed back into the integration agent so this will continue as long as we have not met the requirements and we're under the the number of iterations that we we specify and that's it that's putting everything together next we are going to jump into a demo and we're going to test it out with a few questions so we'll do one basic question and then we'll do one multihop question and see how this custom web search agent performs with the open- source llama 3 8 billion model by the way this obviously can work with any model on o Lama it's you are limited very much by the spec of your computer because it's all running locally so I'm limited to using the Llama free 8 billion model I can't use anything more powerful than that because it's just simply too slow but if you have more powerful machines then you can go ahead and have as much fun as you like with the models available to you from olama all right let's look at that next before we get into demoing the agent workflow I want to talk to you a little bit at a high level about the setup so I'm not going to go through all of the setup steps now for ol but what you'll have to do is you'll have to go to ol and actually download the olama server and host that on your machine if you haven't already there is an an option for Windows Mac and Linux so just choose the right one for your machine obviously once you download that you have to also download the model so in the GitHub repository for this code if you read the read me I have provided instructions that you can follow to download the models that you would like to use with this and remember that this project can be used with any model on olama you're only limited by the spec of your machine so obviously if you download a model that is too large for your machine you're never going to be able to run it so you're only limited by the spec of your machine so yeah that's it remember once you have downloaded your llama server do not change anything here apart from the models so you can select Which models you are using from the olama server and that's really easy to do AMA makes it quite easy to select those models because all you need to do is look at a list of models available from olama and choose the one that you want to use all right so that's it for theama setup let's get into the demo for the agent okay so let's try out the agent and we're going to try it out with Lama 3 instruct first of all I'll try it with a variety of models to see how well the each of the O Lama models Works um obviously lamb 3 instruct here is the 8 billion version so it's just a small model we start off with a simple question and then depending on how well it performs on that simple question we'll either go into something more complex or we will move on to a different model to see if the model can perform better than llama free instruct I would say stay tuned here because I think there will be some surprising things here in terms of Which models work well with this type of agent workflow and which don't work so well so stay tuned and you should be able to learn something new okay so you can see here we've set the model to Lama fre instruct I'm going to bring in my Powershell so I'll move that to the side so let's kickart the agent by running agent python agentp run okay and we'll start off with something simple what the population of myc so if you're not used to using AMA olama is running totally locally so 100% local on your machine which means that it is slower right and that's because you are having to download the large language model onto your machine it's operating on a server on your machine that is actually running on the CPU unless you specify otherwise for it to run on the GPU it's running on the CPU and Live Language models are actually optimized to run on gpus so that's why if you're not used to using oama it might seem slow to you that's the reason um it's because it's running locally on your machine so we have stepped into the agent workflow now the planning agent has come up with its plan it says I'm not going to answer the question yet instead I'll generate some questions that can help me get closer to the answer and here they are so let identify the most important question what's the city's name that is common referred to as the Big Apple and is located on the East Co most of the United States now that is completely Superfluous I'm not sure why it needs to know that that's that's ridiculous actually so we already know we're going to go down a a long and mysterious Rabbit Hole here and then it's what is the Met metropolitan area population of the city I'm referring to according to the latest available data from a reliable source okay and then is there a specific date or year for which you would like to know the population of the city if so please provide it are there any specific categories of population you're interested in knowing about total population population density Etc Okay so we've already established that we're off on the wrong foot because what we have here is the search query what is the city's name that is commonly referred to as the Big Apple and is located on the east coast of the United States so we're going to search that in Google which is is ridiculous we don't really need to know that and we can see we've run the search and we've returned some um results we've returned the search engine results page and we picked out one of those we picked out one of those um pages so the one we picked out is the top one Wikipedia Wiki big un oh no it's not the top one apologies it is the New York Wikipedia article um so is it any of these New York City that's Big Apple Big Apple Wikipedia nicknames of New York City it's not that one it's not that one either so it it kind of appears to have hallucinated this because I can't see this in any of the results returned here so it's appeared to have hallucinated that response which isn't good it's not good at all that's not what we want we wanted to pick one of these so we're off on the wrong for already and somehow you know it's hallucinated it but it's actually provided the right response and then we have the integration agent um So based on the provided research I found this metropolitan area surpassed 10 million Mark in the early 1930s becoming the first mega City in human history okay this suggests that the population of New York City NC has exceeded 10 million people at some point in time however I couldn't find this specific dat or year mentioned in the research to provide more accurate information according to the United States sentence Bureau estimate for 2020 the population of NYC is approximately 8.4 million please know that this response is based on the provided research and may not reflect up to-date or exact information if you would like me to generate further questions to clarify the answer I can do so here are my previous responses so there are no previous responses obviously and here's today's date so it's just giving us you know stuff we ProMed it with but there are no previous responses shall I proceed with generating questions or provide more information based on This research so right now it this response should be checked by the QA agent and it says it's meets the requirements which is completely untrue doesn't meet the requirements there are no no sources there which is part of the requirements so I think think from a um agent perspective llama free instruct has actually failed that task so I'm not going to go on to test llama free instruct on anything more complex I have tried llama free various times before shooting this video and I can say that I haven't managed to get it to work very well so we're going to try a different model let's try um so let's have a look at the models available to us so I have previously run some code to actually identify all the models I've downloaded locally so I'm just going to pull that up again just so you can see it um here we go this is what we want get rid of this get rid of that and get rid of that so this is the code you can run you can run this Cod request um to pull all the models you have locally on in ol so I like to run in git bash so here is all the models we have so we have the Orca 2 model the 7 billion version we can give that one a try and see what happens but I somehow doubt it's going to do any better than llama 3 what we do have interestingly enough is code llama 7B now some of you might be wondering right away why would you run it on code llama and there is a good reason for that because code Lama is trained on code there's a lot of logic and reasoning inherent in code and you know I've heard quite a few people mention that some of these coding models can be make good agents because of their reasoning capabilities so I'm going to pick that up I'm going to pick up the code Lama instruct which I've already downloaded we're going to see how well code llama works with the agent so I'll put up the the agent I'll change the model so instead of using the Llama free instruct let's use the code llama model and I'm going to hit save on that so remember this is a 7 billion parameter model so it is a smaller model but it's trained on code or trained for code generation rather than trained for um you you know chat and conversation like the Llama 3 8 billion instruct so let's go with that so I've hit save on that oh let's do that again hit save and I'm going to reopen my Powershell and then I'm going to say python agent. py run apologies because that is Powershell is being formatted in a strange way but you can see we can enter the query so let's ask the same question what is the population of myc so let's give it some time to enter the workflow by the way if you're curious to see how much resource your ol is actually consuming you can open your your um processes on your laptop or your computer or whatever you're using if you're on Windows it's obviously opening the task manager and you can see how many resources or what percentage of the CPU your ol server is actually consuming when you run this workflow so we have the planning agent it's identified some questions what is the current population of New York City including both residents and visitors how has the population of New York City changed over time and What factors contribute to these changes can you provide data on statistics and demographics of nyc's population such as age race and so on and so forth what are some of the trends and P or patterns in nyc's population how might these impact the city's economy infrastructure so it has identified some questions and we've got a search query population of New York City so so far so good although we have failed to actually retrieve the search engine results page which is not necessarily to do with the agent but more to do with the API itself so let's see if we can kick kick that back out so it's timed out let's see if we can enter that again so we have successfully done that and right so we've received the search engine results page um you know and our query is population of New York City we've selected a best page so the best page is the wiki and yeah great the wiki is actually at the top which is fantastic it's exactly what we want we scraped the results and then the integration agent has provided something so according to the information provided the population of New York City is approximately 8.4 million with over 6 million residents and 2 million visitors however it however it's important to know that this number can vary on how one defines population and what sources are used to gather the data so funny enough and maybe surprising to some of you code llama has actually responded with the correct responses um well I don't know if they're correct let me rephrase that it's responded with an answer that seems to make sense the problem is it hasn't provided a citation for the source which is which is bad we need that citation because then we can kind of double check where that response is coming from um so it's not provided a citation and the other thing it's done is it says the response meets the requirements and it's marked that as true whereas in this case it's not actually true because it hasn't provided the citation so that's that's a problem that's a problem with code llama so I would say this seems to have worked well on the surface um it hasn't provided the citation obviously but for a 7 billion parameter model and for a model that's not designed for this it's designed for generation code this seems to work quite well and that might be surprising to some of you so I'm going to try again I'll try again with a different with a um different question but I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to adjust the temperature so the temperature is set to zero but just for the integration agent I have a gut feeling that if I adjust the temperature for the integration agent let's put it to something like3 it might actually be more successful at generating the generating the citation or including the citation let's say so let's try that let's try Python and apologies again because the way this is has been formatted it's appearing in a funny place on my screen so python agent. pyun okay so we're back in and I will this time I'll try what is the population of um Lagos Nigeria let's try that so again we are using Code Lama the planning agent has come up with a question what's the population of Lagos Nigeria we're putting that in the search engine which is good okay so we have actually returned the search engine results page and we have identified the best page as the wiki Lagos which is the one at the top and we return the results so the estimated population of Lagos Nigeria is over 9 million meets requirements this time is identified as false and we're going to return a reason so I think for the next one I'm going to actually print the requirements dictionary so you can see the reason that it it hasn't met the requirements as well that's going to be useful to see that so the estimated ation of Lagos is Nigeria's 9 million however it's important to know that this number may not be up to date as it depends on as it depends on various factors such as urbanization migration all of that type of good stuff okay fine yeah and here's the here's one of the issues we're having the respond once Jason is coming back as a a structure that we do not actually expect so instead of the response Jason coming back as as um instead of response coming back as how does one estimate the current population of Lagos Nigeria it's come back as search engine query so that's a that's a hallucination in the way that the model is actually generating that Json so I think from here we're not going to have much luck with this approach so both llama 3 8 billion and C Lama are not the best models to be using with as agents although we've had a bit more success with code llama than we have with llama 38 billion so I'm going to put an end to the server I'm going to stop the server or end task so that should be should be coming to the end of that um it looks like we did actually in the end get through to more search engine results pages but I think we were we were starting to go down a bit of a rabbit hole so I put an end to it early what I'm going to do is I want to actually show you what that response dictionary looks like so I'm going to print it out um let us print that out here so under the check response so we will print it out print the decision dictionary yeah response quality assessment let's print that out right okay and just to show you that this approach does work let's show let's see how it works with an open AI model so I'm stepping out of olama for the minute and we're going to step into open Ai and we will do it with GPT 3.5 turbo so let's do it with a lower spec open AI model and see how it works and let's see if we can get the answer to the New York question along with the citations great okay and this time we're going to print out the responses as well so let's start everything up python agent. pyun so we have our query down here what is the population of myyc what is the population of myc so let's go with that notice how much quicker it is because we're using open AI so so quick now I'm going to have to actually just scroll up to the top and to give you the the the lowdown on what we've actually outputed here so planning agent it's identified there some questions to answer so what is the estimated population of New York as of the latest data available or available data are there any specific demographic bait rounds or Trends related to population of myc how does the population of myc compared to other major cities in the United States globally is there any projected population growth or decline for myc in the near future what are the primary factors influencing the population dynamics of myc so we've selected the question population of New York City latest data so that's the search engine query that we've actually selected right we've returned our search engine results page and we picked up a best page so we've got this nyc.gov site planning data Maps NYC population. page and that is actually top one so it hasn't hallucinated the link which is good um and we have stepped back in um to the integration agent so we're marking out our visited sites and we picked out some information from that site we step back into the integration agent and it says based on the information provided by the department of planning of New York City the estimated population of New York City is not explicitly stated in the research however the department offers the latest population estimates as well as population projections by age sex through 2040 to obtain most upto-date population figure for New York City it is recommended to refer directly to the Department of city planning or related official sources and then we've got a source here which is the source obviously we've pulled out and then we've got our response quality assessment so we've mared as a pass or the agent has marked as a pass which is true and then we can see the dictionary it says it's relevant coherent comprehensive and citations and we've got a reason here the reason provides um so the response provides relevant information about the population of M explains that the exact figure is not explicitly stated but directs to official sources for the latest estimates the response is well structured comprehensive and includes the citation of source okay so fair enough I would argue that it's not not answering the question and the question is answerable so that's with gbt 3.5 then we generate our final response which is just basically a regation of what the integration agent last generated I want to share a few Thoughts with you about building agents with open source models so first of all I want to talk about olama as a tool itself and I think AMA is a brilliant tool it gives people access to large language models so it really democratizes access to large language models really you're limited by your Hardware so I was only able to test models up to 8 billion parameters with olama because of my laptop my GPU isn't big enough to really use with large language models locally so I was having to use them on the CPU which are these the models that you use on the CPU with AMA are quantized models so they're not full precision and therefore that does impact their performance however I will say from experience that I haven't found that 8 billion parameter models work well with these types of agent workflows so that's one of my observations you know if you are going to build agent workflows you probably want to start with some larger models rather than going for the a billion parameter models and if you're working with open source models if you don't have the specs locally if you don't have the large enough GPU for example you will probably want to think about renting your own GPU and standing up your own inference server so I'm going to do a future video on this on how to set up your own inference server and rent through a rented GPU service I'll do this through rumod and I'll show you how to integrate one of the larger open source models with the custom agent that I've built so keep an eye out for that video because that's soon going to be landing on my channel the other thing I want to do is I want to test out a variety of those open source models and compare them with the performance of the models from open Ai and see which open source models do compete with the best of the open AI models so I'll be doing a separate video on that and I'll so I'll be creating a test and I'll run through those live on the video and I'll show you for each model which one performs the best against those tests compared to the open AI models now in terms of improving the custom agent there are various ways that this could be done I think the prompts could be optimized a little more so I wrote those prompts myself and I haven't put them through chat gbt or anything like that to try and optimize them so I think there's opportunities to optimize it you can play with this yourself because the code is available to you as I pointed out earlier I think the approach for selecting websites could probably be changed as well really the the thing that makes the biggest difference to the performance is the model you use so the dream of kind of running things locally for now for most people you're not going to be able to build your own local AI agent using the Ola models available to you for most people because your I gather your laptop is just not going to have high enough specs to run the state-of-the art models until we can get more efficient ways to run those larger models locally or until we get higher performance smaller models I think the state-of-the-art AI agents are really going to be powered by the proprietary llm services or the largest of the open source models and when I say largest obviously I'm correlating that with the best performing to if you like this content give us a thumbs up let us know your opinions in the comments section and don't forget to subscribe to the channel for more Ai and large language model based content thank you once again and I'll see you in the next videos

Building an AI assistant that listens and sees the world (Step by step tutorial).es.srt

00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,120 qué equipos están representados por las gorras de béisbol que cuelgan de mi pared Dodgers Nacionales Medias Rojas Astros Cachorros y Reales No puedo esperar para mostrarles esto Acabo de almorzar Tenía un poco de sueño pero no puedo esperar para mostrarles el código que construí aquí para ti, así que si recuerdas, hace cuatro semanas, la IA abierta mostró un asistente ejecutándose en un teléfono y eso fue como una magia en muchas maneras diferentes porque ahora tienes un modelo que realmente interactúa con el mundo porque el modelo tiene acceso a la cámara del teléfono y se ve o al menos uh, simplemente para ser más precisos, está procesando las imágenes que vienen a través de la cámara del teléfono y está usando eso como contexto para responder las preguntas de las personas que estaban presentando esa demostración. así que me hice una pregunta: ¿qué tan difícil podría ser? Entonces, lo que quiero mostrarles hoy es una demostración rápida que preparé, no tan sofisticada, obviamente, como la que hizo una empresa de varios miles de millones de dólares, pero es solo una demostración rápida, muy, muy corta. haciendo lo mismo con la cámara web ejecutándose en su computadora o que su computadora esté bien, solo hay 169 líneas de código aquí, así que esto es corto y aquí solo estoy usando Python. No estoy usando ningún servicio externo. Estoy usando Python. y la API es, obviamente, para usted, una API como un modelo de lenguaje grande. Estoy usando Gemini flash. Aquí voy a explicar por qué estoy usando la API abierta de texto a voz con IA. Todo lo demás es solo una biblioteca de Python. Estoy planeando para reconstruir todo esto usando servicios que harán mi vida mucho más fácil pero eso vendrá más tarde. Por ahora les mostraré el código de cómo construyo este asistente y luego veremos una demostración. Voy a realizar una demostración aquí en vivo con este asistente y espero que veas esto y te inspire. Alguien publiqué sobre esto en Twitter y alguien me dijo que sabes, alguien tomará tu código y recaudará un millón de dólares. ve y construye algo, espero que alguien lo haga, solo recuérdame cuando lo hagas, está bien, ya sabes, patéame $ 5 o algo así. K aparte, echemos un vistazo al código nuevamente 160 líneas de código, qué difícil podría ser esto, está bien, así que solo un Un solo archivo se llama asistente. py, obtendrás acceso a este código a través de un enlace que publicaré en algún lugar debajo de este video en la descripción de este video mientras estés allí, solo dame un me gusta o me gusta este video para saber el algoritmo. Me vas a decir D escucha este tipo de contenido funciona para tu audiencia sigue haciendo más uh así que déjame ese me gusta y veamos el código aquí que tengo junto con este asistente. py solo un archivo, un archivo txt de requisitos que enumera todas las bibliotecas que estoy usando aquí y aquí están los componentes principales, por lo que habrá cuatro componentes principales que usaré para construir este asistente. El primer componente es capturar el audio. pasar por mi micrófono y transcribirlo, está bien, y para esa transcripción voy a usar un susurro, así que básicamente se trata de capturar el flujo de audio, transcribirlo y obtener texto. El segundo componente es capturar la imagen que se presenta aquí o que llega a través de mi cámara web. y voy a usar open CV para hacer eso open CV es una biblioteca muy popular, especialmente para las personas que hacen visión por computadora, tiene todo tipo de funciones para manejar imágenes, eso es lo que estoy usando para capturar videos, así que ahora tengo imágenes. Tengo un tercer componente de video que es un modelo de lenguaje grande, así que para el modelo de lenguaje grande que estoy usando ahora mismo uso Gemini flash 1.5, ese es el modelo de Google. También dejé el código listo, así que si quieres usar GPT 40, puedes usar GPT 40, pero yo no. No me gusta por esto porque es mucho más lento en comparación con Gemini y por alguna razón no entiendo que es menos preciso al seguir mis indicaciones, así que de todos modos llegaremos allí en un segundo, que será el tercer componente, así que con imágenes y texto al que puedo enviarlos a un modelo, como un modelo multimodelo, por lo que tiene que admitir imágenes y texto. Voy a recibir una respuesta y ahora necesito sincronizar esa respuesta como ese texto en audio y reproducirla a través de los parlantes y ese es el cuarto componente y para hacer eso estoy usando la API abierta de texto a voz para hacerlo, así que todas esas cosas se unirán aquí para crear algo que se sienta muy mágico, algo que se sienta vivo. cierto, se siente como si simplemente se viera bien por la forma en que escuché a la gente uh, aparentemente es un error pensar que piensan que el modelo de IA abierta ahora admite video, así como el GPT 40 admite video porque esa es la impresión que tienes cuando miras uno de estas demostraciones no, no admiten video, lo que estás haciendo es simplemente pasar imágenes correctamente, por lo que un video es solo una colección de cuadros. Si tienes un video de 24 cuadros por segundo, tienes 24 cuadros en un segundo, por lo que por cada segundo de video. tienes 24 imágenes, así que lo que el modelo realmente está haciendo es simplemente procesar imágenes, la aplicación, pegar el envoltorio alrededor de ese modelo es lo que hace que todo se sienta mágico porque combina todos esos componentes, el audio proveniente del usuario que transcribe ese audio, las imágenes. viniendo de la cámara web o de la cámara del teléfono celular y simplemente tomando fotogramas de esos videos, juntándolos, respondiendo esas preguntas o procesándolos con un modelo y luego reproduciendo las respuestas, todos esos componentes juntos hacen que este asistente cree que la magia se siente viva en un De cierta manera no es que el modelo sea diferente a lo que era antes de que se haya dicho eso, aquí están los requisitos que tendrás que instalar. Tengo un archivo Léame que te dice qué hacer. Una cosa a tener en cuenta, dependiendo. Dependiendo de si estás usando GPT 40 o Gemini, tendrás que tomar una clave y crear una variable de entorno con esa clave. Mi código dependerá de esas claves para que se ejecute, de modo que puedas acceder al modelo de lenguaje grande. lo demás es bastante sencillo y así es como en realidad solo estoy usando Python 3, así que lo escribiré allí. Así es como se ejecuta el asistente. Vamos a ver que en un segundo vayamos al código y quiero. Para comenzar mi código explicando la primera clase que creé, que se llama transmisión de cámara web, está bien, intentaré ir lo más rápido posible aquí, pero la transmisión de cámara web es una clase que ejecutará una amenaza para almacenar fotogramas capturados desde mi cámara web, así que para hacer eso usaré la clase de captura de video de la captura de video CB abierta. Voy a pasar el índice de la cámara en una computadora. Es posible que tenga múltiples fuentes de video como aquí en mi computadora. Tengo la cámara web que está aquí en mi computadora, a veces conecto una cámara web externa que será una segunda fuente, uh, la cámara de continuidad de mi teléfono que es una tercera fuente, etc. Voy a usar aquí el índice cero en este punto. tengo algo conectado aquí que será en realidad tengo mi computadora conectada no necesito este cable déjame alejarlo en este punto el índice cero representa mi cámara web aquí, genial, así que esto aquí solo me dará acceso a una secuencia de imágenes y si llamo a la función de lectura que me devuelve un marco a básicamente una imagen y lo que esta clase va a hacer es repetidamente, ante una amenaza, comenzar a capturar esas imágenes bien y tomará una imagen y actualizar una variable como una propiedad interna de esta clase con la última imagen que capturó por qué hago eso porque en el momento que termino de hacerle una pregunta al asistente en ese momento quiero ir y tomar la última imagen que vino desde mi cámara web para que la imagen esté lista en ese momento. Quiero ir allí y decir dame la imagen más reciente y la procesaré. Voy a usar esa imagen junto con el mensaje que hablé a través del micrófono, es por eso que esta clase comenzará a hacer eso en un hilo en segundo plano y nuevamente, irá muy, muy rápido. Aquí estoy creando la transmisión. Estoy leyendo la primera imagen de la primera vez cuando ejecuto esto o cuando Ejecuto esta clase cuando creo una instancia de esta clase, tomaré ese marco y luego lo marcaré como ejecutar es igual a falso. Verás por qué eso es importante y crearé una bloquear, por lo que un bloqueo actuará como un semáforo para evitar que otros subprocesos accedan a los datos mientras necesito bloquear esos datos, así que cada vez que vaya a hacer un cambio, bloquearé mis datos. Solo voy a hacer la operación y luego la desbloquearé para que otros, ya sabes, diferentes hilos puedan acceder a esos datos. Verás que en un segundo hay una función de inicio, esta función cuando la llamo para la transmisión de mi cámara web. la clase va a iniciar esa amenaza en segundo plano, así que verás que voy a decir que está bien, así que si esto se está ejecutando, no hagas nada, simplemente regresa si no se está ejecutando, configúralo como en ejecución igual a verdadero y luego crea esa amenaza y inicie esa amenaza, observe que la función objetivo del hilo es la función de actualización, así que esa es otra función que tengo aquí. Lo que quiero decir con esto es que cuando se inicie ese hilo, llamará a la función de actualización, mire qué va a hacer la función de actualización. ahora se ejecutará en un bucle infinito, no es infinito, será mientras se ejecuta es igual a verdadero, por lo que si el hilo se está ejecutando, seguirá repitiendo y el bucle toma una imagen de la cámara web, por lo que toma un cuadro y la almacena en este La variable de marco bloquea el acceso a lo que sea que esté aquí, por lo que está bloqueando el acceso, lo que significa que nada debería venir y leer ahora porque voy a realizar una operación que básicamente consiste en tomar esta variable y actualizarla usando esa variable para actualizar la propiedad propia para que propiedad de esta clase que es el último fotograma, está bien, así que estoy bloqueando el acceso, así que si alguien quiere ese último fotograma tendrá que esperar hasta que termine de hacer esto correctamente y luego libere el bloqueo, así que básicamente está bien, así que si alguien lo espera. ahora puede entrar, eso es lo que hace esta actualización, recuerde que esto solo lo hará en segundo plano actualizando constantemente la última imagen de la cámara web, luego hay una función r, que es la función a la que llamaré cuando lo necesite esa última imagen, así que cada vez que esté listo para usar una imagen, diré: "Oye, solo lee mi instancia de la transmisión de la cámara web, solo dame esa imagen. Paso una propiedad que dice codificar y esta propiedad será uh si es verdadera". va a devolver esa imagen y codificarla en Bas 64, ¿por qué necesito eso? Porque para poder pasar esa imagen y enviarla a gp4 o o Gemini flash, necesito pasarla en formato b64, si tienes una URL. si su imagen estaba en una URL, era pública en la web, podía enviar la URL y funcionará. Esos modelos son capaces de procesar una URL. En mi caso, estoy capturando la imagen aquí mismo en mi computadora. No tengo. una URL. Voy a tener que codificarla en la bahía 64 y enviarla en la bahía 64. Esto es lo que va a pasar aquí primero que nada cuando entre. Voy a bloquear el acceso al marco de la celda para que nadie como en este punto, si estoy leyendo el proceso de actualización no podré cambiar lo que estoy leyendo, está bien porque lo estoy bloqueando. Estoy diciendo que todos los demás esperen, déjenme hacer una copia de esta imagen en esta variable. Voy a hacer una copia y ahora voy a liberar el bloqueo, así que ahora, si algo más fuera a actualizar esto, ahora puedes hacerlo y después de que tenga ese marco, ahora voy a codificarlo. es cierto, lo codificaré básicamente en 64 y lo devolveré, si no, solo voy a devolver el marco y luego tengo una función de parada que simplemente detiene el hilo y lo une, así que no hay nada especial aquí, ¿vale? Entonces, para eso es esta clase nuevamente, como nivel alto, simplemente administra mi cámara web, toma imágenes y tiene una imagen lista para mí cuando quiero usarla, está bien, eso es lo que la transmisión de la cámara web está bien, así que Voy a saltarme la clase de asistente por un segundo solo para que veas lo que estoy haciendo o cómo estoy inicializando la transmisión de la cámara web. Puedes verlo aquí, línea 135. Solo estoy creando una instancia y luego la llamo a inicio para comenzar. A partir de este punto, mi cámara web solo está capturando imágenes, capturando una imagen tras otra, así que volvamos ahora a la clase de asistente, que es la segunda clase que tengo aquí y eso es todo, todo lo demás es solo una pequeña función que representa la Pegamento de todo esto, esta hermosa clase asistente primero está esperando un modelo, por lo que necesito proporcionar una instancia de un modelo a esta clase por la forma en que esta asistencia usa la cadena Lang. Dos razones principales para que use la cadena L, la razón número uno. mi código es mucho más corto, ya que no tengo que lidiar con mucha verbosidad que proviene del uso directo de la cadena de lanzamiento de apis, hace que mi código sea hermoso y también hace que mi código sea componible, lo que significa que puedo juntar diferentes componentes que puedo mezclar y combinar y simplemente algo así como construir esta aplicación de Lego con diferentes componentes, verás que en un segundo, eso es hermoso. La segunda razón, supongo que eran dos, así que esta es la tercera razón por la que estoy usando la cadena L aquí es porque puedo intercambiar. mi modelo con otro modelo y no tengo que cambiar nada aquí así que esta clase espera un modelo y nada dentro de esta clase verás cómo armo el mensaje cómo invoco una cadena Etc. nada aquí depende de uno modelo específico para poder usar Gemini flash o puedo usar gp4 o podría usar cualquier otro modelo que sea compatible con la cadena de líneas, que son prácticamente todos los modelos que existen y todos los detalles serán transparentes para mí, eso es increíble. De nuevo se me pone la piel de gallina cada vez que hablo de eso, entonces mi asistente está esperando un modelo y como parte de la inicialización de esta clase. El constructor de esta clase, simplemente voy a llamar a esta función que se llama crear cadena de inferencia, así que básicamente voy a para crear una cadena l que haga la inferencia, así que echemos un vistazo a eso porque ahí es donde suceden la mayoría de las cosas buenas, así que aquí está mi función. Empiezo esa función con el indicador del sistema, así es como le instruyo al modelo sobre lo que necesita. hacer es la configuración principal que ese modelo va a recibir el conjunto principal de instrucciones, está bien, estas instrucciones no tienen nada que ver con el chat que voy a tener con el modelo, le voy a pedir al modelo que lea cosas y haga cosas y miro mis gafas y ese tipo de cosas geniales, esto no tiene nada que ver con eso, está bien, esto es solo el mensaje del sistema, el mensaje principal de cómo voy a configurar el modelo. Le estoy pidiendo al modelo que sea ingenioso. Sea conciso, vaya directamente al Co. Es bastante interesante. A GPT 40 no le gusta este sistema. Es simplemente hablador. Está bien, sigue y sigue y sigue y sigue con todas las respuestas, por alguna razón, simplemente no le gusta ser conciso. no me gusta ser breve, esa es otra ventaja de Gemini flash 1.5 para esta aplicación, además de que flash 1.5 es realmente muy rápido en comparación con GPT 40, así que ese es el mensaje de mi sistema y voy a crear una plantilla de mensaje, vale, en realidad cierro. Esto entonces, la plantilla de aviso es la estructura que voy a crear con todos los mensajes que le daré al modelo para responder una pregunta, así que obviamente la plantilla de aviso contendrá el aviso del sistema y así es como usted define ese mensaje del sistema como parte de la plantilla de aviso de la cadena Lan, también tendrá el historial de chat, así que una cosa importante es que quiero que este asistente recuerde lo que acabamos de hablar antes de tres preguntas. No quiero que el asistente Olvídate, no quiero que cada pregunta comience desde cero, así que habilitaré el historial de chat y verás en un segundo cómo lo habilité, no es gran cosa, pero voy a pasar. el historial de chat y finalmente voy a pasar mi mensaje, que es todo lo que hablo a través del micrófono. Voy a tomar ese texto, lo voy a pasar y la imagen que obtendré. la cámara web, así que hay dos cosas aquí como el mensaje humano que puedes ver aquí, la definición aquí es humana, lo primero es el mensaje que es escribir texto, así que le digo al modelo, oye, tu mensaje incluye algo de texto y esto es todo y esto. Lo que ves aquí es solo una variable, una variable de aviso que vamos a reemplazar en un segundo con el texto real y el segundo tipo es solo imagen URL de imagen en este caso y la URL de esa imagen es solo datos de dos puntos imagen/ jpeg punto y coma B 64, ese es el prefijo que debes agregar cuando pasas una imagen b64 y luego una variable que contiene los bytes reales de esa imagen que la conversión Bas 64 de esa imagen, así que tengo dos variables aquí que Voy a necesitar reemplazar en este mensaje, verán que en la segunda línea siguiente 124 voy a componer mi cadena y es hermoso lo que hizo la cadena L, permitiéndonos juntar todos estos componentes, es azúcar de sintaxis que es qué es, así que tengo mi mensaje y básicamente lo que estoy haciendo es canalizar la salida de mi mensaje al modelo, eso es lo que significa esta tubería, ese es el símbolo de tubería, por lo que en la salida de ese mensaje irá a la entrada de el modelo que es nuevamente, estoy esperando un modelo, esta clase espera un modelo que aún no he creado, así que sea cual sea ese modelo, conectaré la salida del mensaje al modelo y la salida del modelo. Voy a enviar a un par de salida de cadena. Esto es algo que sucede cuando estás usando un modelo de chat. El modelo de chat regresará. Así es como funciona el chat de cadena L o la representación del modelo. Contendrá la conversación. va a estar bien delimitado por quién dijo qué, así que obtendrás cosas como mensaje humano y mensaje de IA y mensaje humano y ese tipo de ida y vuelta y no quiero nada de eso como parte de mi respuesta. Solo quiero una respuesta directa, solo dame el texto para que el analizador de salida de cadenas sea uno de los analizadores admitidos para que puedas cambiar la salida de un modelo o convertir la salida del modelo a un formato específico, en este caso simplemente lo convierte como un cadena entonces si el modelo dice 2+ 2 es 4 No necesito el mensaje AI 2+ 2 es cuatro No necesito todo eso Mambo Yambo Solo quiero el texto esto es lo que voy a obtener aquí para que Esto es lo que es una cadena, es solo un montón de componentes donde un componente se conecta con el siguiente, etc., así que esta es mi cadena, una cosa más para que esta cadena funcione y es el historial de chat. Necesito asegurarme de que el historial de chat esté ahí. L chains ofrece un rer cuando deseas implementar el historial de chat y en mi caso es muy simple, ya que no estoy almacenando ese historial de chat en ningún lugar. Solo quiero mantener un historial, ya que no necesito múltiples historiales ni nada por el estilo. La cadena L admite este ejecutable con el rapero del historial de mensajes donde puedo obtener mi cadena y crear, tomar este ejecutable con el rapero del historial de mensajes y crear una instancia del mismo pasando la cadena y el resultado que obtendré sigue siendo una cadena, pero ahora es compatible. historial de chat, así que detrás de escena la cadena L hará todo el trabajo de tomar la respuesta del modelo, agregarla a una lista, tomar mi próxima solicitud, agregar lo que sucedió a esa lista y mantener ese historial, todo eso está sucediendo. para que suceda detrás de escena, solo necesito venir aquí y crear esta clase, no voy a entrar en demasiados detalles, lo más importante que debes saber es que esta variable aquí, que es la clave del mensaje del historial, esta variable es la misma que esta variable tienen que ser las mismas para que el baile sepa exactamente de dónde obtener el historial de chat, y por cierto, hay varias formas de configurar el historial de chat para la cadena L. Esta es la más simple que quería usar solo para esta demostración. entonces esa es esa función, el retorno de esta función es solo la cadena que puedo invocar con los datos reales, así que cada vez que esté listo para responder una pregunta, simplemente invocaré esa cadena, veamos cómo funciona. para subir todavía estoy dentro de la clase asistente y tengo dos funciones más por recorrer, la primera es la función principal que vamos a llamar, esa función se llama respuesta, así que voy a hacer una pregunta y Voy a llamar a esta función para decirle al asistente que por favor responda. Esta función recibe el mensaje que será el texto que voy a hablar a través del micrófono y la imagen que mi cámara web va a capturar. Voy a pasar ambas cosas y esto es lo que sucederá internamente primero si el mensaje está vacío por alguna razón. No tengo audio, sea lo que sea. No voy a regresar, no voy a hacer nada. Voy a imprimir el mensaje, así que lo verás en la ventana de terminal. Esto es lo que pregunté y luego voy a invocar mi cadena y cuando invoco mi cadena necesito proporcionar valores para las variables de la plantilla. Recuerda que mi plantilla está esperando un mensaje. variable y la variable image base 64, así que necesito invocar mi cadena con esos dos valores, así que aquí está el mensaje y aquí está la imagen básica Deport. Solo estoy llamando a decodificar porque la imagen es como una matriz de bits, así que necesito decodificar eso en una cadena para que pueda pasarlo aquí, eso es lo que llamo a la decodificación allí, así que aquí están esos dos parámetros y nuevamente para que el historial de chat funcione, necesito ofrecer una identificación de sesión que no estoy usando, no voy. Para entrar en esto, esto es una cuestión de cadena, esa es la configuración. De hecho, creo que puedo deshacerme de esta configuración y todo funcionará igual. Probablemente pueda intentarlo más tarde, así que está bien. Lo último que haré es Estoy eliminando todos los caracteres de nueva línea que provienen del modelo, como si el modelo me fuera a enviar una respuesta y vendría seguida por un montón de caracteres de nueva línea, simplemente eliminando esos o cualquier espacio en blanco, así que eso es todo. mi respuesta en este punto es hermosa así que voy a imprimir esa respuesta. De hecho, voy a hacer algo aquí si la respuesta es algo, simplemente voy a reproducirla, así que al reproducirla lo que quiero decir es que estoy Voy a llamar a esta función de texto a voz divertida que construí y que obtendrá el texto, la respuesta del modelo y la reproducirá a través de los parlantes de mi computadora, así es como funciona esta función de texto a voz. Voy a usar pi audio, que es una de las bibliotecas que estoy instalando aquí. Pi audio me dará acceso para reproducir sonido a través de mis parlantes. Está bien, así que solo lo configuraré por Audio. Voy a abrirlo. Esto me dará lo que llamo un reproductor, esto es algo con lo que también puedo escribir y esos fragmentos se convertirán en sonido que saldrá de mis parlantes y esta es la configuración en la que puedes ver más sobre eso. La biblioteca de audio pi no es interesante. Aquí estoy yo hablando con este audio. discurso con respuesta de transmisión Creo que esto es feo. En realidad, voy a deshacerme de esto y lo agregaré aquí para que quede un poco más claro lo que está sucediendo con la IA abierta. audio bueno, voy a tener que importar ahora la IA abierta, obviamente, así que de esta manera es un poco más claro de dónde viene esa función, así que ahora tengo dónde estaba. Aquí estoy, así que llamaré a la apertura. . audio. creación de voz con respuesta de transmisión y esto es básicamente detrás de escena llamando a la API de transmisión de IA abierta y cuando llamas a esa API obviamente pasarás el texto y puedes transmitir los btes que suenan como una voz, básicamente estás sintetizando ese texto en audio, así que aquí estoy, este es el modelo que estoy usando, el tts1 TTS, si no lo he mencionado, es texto a voz, eso es lo que significa, la voz es aleación, esta es la API que anteriormente tenía sky y yo. No sé si estás al tanto de todo el drama de Mambo Yambo con la voz de Scarlet uh, pero ahora no tenemos acceso a Sky. Tengo acceso a Alloy, así es como sonará este asistente, como formato de respuesta PCM. múltiples formatos que son compatibles y la entrada, por lo que el texto es lo que estoy pasando aquí es la respuesta que voy a tomar que voy a tomar esa es la secuencia y ahora puedo iterar a través de bytes y el tamaño de el fragmento, así que obtendré 1024 bytes o 24 bytes en el momento en que los reproduzca a través de los altavoces del teléfono, está bien, y la forma de reproducirlo es simplemente escribiendo en la secuencia del reproductor que creé con audio pi. Es muy simple, está bien, toma el audio aquí, las partes del audio simplemente reprodúcelas y eso es lo que queda. Bueno, cómo juntaste todo esto, vimos la cámara web, vimos el modelo, vimos el audio, uh, lo único que queda es ¿ Cómo capturo esto y cómo pegas todo esto? Eso va a suceder aquí, de nuevo, son solo unas pocas líneas de código que caben en mi pantalla, casi uh, así que ya vimos esta línea. 136 crea la cámara web, recuerda. ahora estoy capturando imágenes, este soy yo creando el modelo que voy a usar y, como pueden ver aquí, estoy usando la clase de IA generativa de Google y estoy especificando que quiero el último flash Gemini 1.5. el modelo que decidí usar, pero si quieres probar con GPT 40, así es como lo haces, descomentas esa línea ahora que tienes el canal GPT 40, no tienes que cambiar nada más. Goosebumps no cambia nada más, solo es solo va a funcionar gracias a la cadena L, está bien, entonces asistente. Voy a crear una instancia de mi asistente y voy a pasar el modelo en este caso flash y ahora hay una función a la que vamos a llegar. esa función en un segundo aquí está la siguiente línea. Voy a usar una biblioteca que se llama uh reconocimiento de voz. Hermosa biblioteca. Simplemente hizo esto mucho más fácil porque el reconocimiento de voz maneja mi micrófono captura el audio que se escucha en segundo plano. No tengo que preocuparme por nada de eso y me brinda la funcionalidad de transcribir automáticamente mi audio. No tengo que usar susurrar, lo cual no es gran cosa, pero si la biblioteca lo hace por mí aún mejor, así que veamos cómo lo hago. use esa Biblioteca un par de instancias un reconocedor el reconocedor es la instancia que me permitirá simplemente transcribir el audio usando un susurro y un micrófono que representa esta cosa hermosa que tienen aquí o que tengo aquí en mi Bas. Voy a comenzar. mi micrófono ajustándolo al ruido ambiental. En realidad, no estoy muy seguro de qué hace internamente o cómo se ajusta al ruido ambiental. Supongo que hace algunos cálculos solo para sentir cuánto ruido hay en la habitación. No lo sé. Sé, supongo que no lo he investigado mucho, pero aquí está solo la línea principal para el reconocedor de micrófono, escucha en segundo plano, eso es solo una línea, escucha en segundo plano, esa línea de ahí solo permitirá que este micrófono comience a capturar audio o simplemente la computadora para comenzar a capturar audio desde el micrófono, no el micrófono no está haciendo nada, solo está transmitiendo el audio, por lo que comenzará a capturar el audio del micrófono y tan pronto como esté aquí, se detendrá tan pronto. cuando deje de hablar como quieras llamarlo, tomará todo eso y lo enviará a esta función de devolución de llamada que defino aquí, eso es todo lo que sucederá sin que yo tenga que hacer nada más. Ahora terminemos. este código si bien es verdadero, así que repita esto para siempre, muestre una imagen en una ventana con el título cámara web, eso es lo que está sucediendo aquí y esa imagen debe provenir de la transmisión, la clase que creamos, recuerde que tenemos ese procesamiento de transmisión en segundo plano. Quiero mostrar el imágenes solo para que, sentado aquí frente a la computadora, realmente veas la cámara web funcionando y sepas lo que estás haciendo y hacia dónde estás apuntando, así que esto es lo que va a suceder gracias a esta línea CV2 que es una referencia para abrir CV, ese es el problema del programa de imágenes de la biblioteca. Soy un programa que crea una ventana con este título de cámara web y luego muestra esta imagen aquí, eso es todo, así que voy a hacer eso y luego estaré esperando. una tecla si presionas la tecla que es la tecla 27 que hace referencia a la tecla Escape o una q como una Q minúscula si presionas cualquiera de esas dos teclas, entonces saldré de este bucle para que cada vez que ejecutes este asistente y ese Cuando aparece una ventana, tienes que presionar la tecla Escape o la cola para que esa ventana se cierre. Cuando haces eso, cuando cierras la ventana, voy a detener la amenaza que está capturando imágenes. Voy a destruir todas las ventanas abiertas que estaban. creado por CV abierto y voy a dejar de escuchar, así que la clase que está escuchando en segundo plano, simplemente dejaré de escuchar y notaré que estoy diciendo que esperar una parada equivale a un significado falso, incluso si estás hablando en ese punto cuando dices simplemente deja de escuchar, simplemente dejará de escuchar en ese punto, no esperará a que termines tu oración, simplemente lo destruirá, así que una cosa más, que es el pegamento aquí, es el función de devolución de llamada de audio, así que recuerde que la devolución de llamada se ejecutará cada vez que pregunte algo usando mi micrófono. Voy a preguntar: Hola, ¿cómo estás hoy? y tan pronto como haga una pausa, el audio aquí en la biblioteca internamente capturará todo. de ese audio y va a decir parar aquí, enviarlo a la llamada de vuelta para que la llamada interna esto es lo que voy a hacer aquí primero. Voy a tomar el audio que nuevamente viene aquí. ¿Qué pasó aquí? sucedió bien, el audio viene aquí y el reconocedor que es esta instancia. Voy a usar ese reconocedor y voy a llamar a la función reconocer susurro, eso significa reconocer usando susurro si abres la documentación de ese Li, ellos admiten muchos de otras ciudades, está bien, estoy usando susurro en este caso, así que voy a pasar el audio. Voy a decir que quiero el modelo base que es lo suficientemente rápido. Hay uno que es incluso más rápido que el modelo base. Creo que tal vez. Tienen un modelo pequeño o un modelo pequeño, no lo recuerdo, pero puede haber uno que sea incluso más rápido que el modelo base y hay algunos modelos que son medianos y grandes, son mucho más precisos pero mucho más lentos, así que quiero el modelo base. modela el idioma en el que voy a hablar es inglés, puedes hacer un montón de cosas interesantes traduciendo y todo eso, pero no no es interesante en este momento y esto va a regresar, tomará ese audio y me dará texto porque necesito un texto para enviar a mi asistente y eso es lo siguiente que voy a hacer. Voy a llamar a la función de respuesta de la que ya hablamos. Voy a pasar el texto y voy a para pasar la última imagen que capturé desde mi cámara web y en este caso particular estoy diciendo codificar significado verdadero dame una base 64 de esa imagen eso es toda la magia de esta aplicación aquí ahora déjame ejecutarla aquí uh solo Para que veas que funciona la primera vez, cuando hago la primera pregunta, tomará un poco de tiempo, así que se está calentando para la segunda, tercera y cuarta pregunta, que serán más rápido. Voy a ejecutar esto haciendo Asistente de Python 3. py entonces voy a hacer eso de qué color son mis lentes negros qué equipos están representados por las gorras de béisbol que cuelgan de mi pared Dodgers Nacionales Medias Rojas Astros Cachorros y Reales cuál es el título de este libro humano en el bucle aprendizaje automático quién es el autor Robert Monro Monarch, está bien, eso estuvo bastante bien. Funciona, como puedes ver, es lo suficientemente rápido. Quiero decir, no es tan rápido como un rayo, pero es lo suficientemente rápido como para que esto sea un poco útil. Un par de cosas que quería mencionar son. maneras en caso de que quieras ejecutar esto en tu computadora, formas en las que puedes, si deseas mejorar esto, así que número uno, deberías poder implementar una manera de interrumpir al asistente, eso es algo que Open AI mencionó muchas veces. como parte de su demostración, deberías poder hacer lo mismo, no debería ser demasiado difícil, solo necesitas una bandera en algún lugar y mientras reproduces audio en esta función aquí, la función TTS mientras reproduces audio, podrías Solo puedes asegurarte de que la bandera no esté configurada y, si está configurada, interrumpes, es decir, si el usuario comienza a hablar nuevamente, interrumpes este procesamiento, lo que hará que sea un poco más dinámico, así que esa es la cosa número dos que debes hacer. Asegúrate de hacer que la aplicación sea un poco más sólida, ya que a veces la API de IA abierta puede fallar o tal vez Gemini no funciona, así que hazla un poco más sólida y la tercera idea que creo que es bastante buena es acerca de transmitiendo respuestas desde el modelo como ahora. Estoy usando invoke aquí y lo que va a pasar es que le envío a la API el texto y la imagen y estoy esperando que llegue una respuesta, ¿vale? si esa respuesta resulta ser una respuesta larga. Voy a tener que esperar a que el modelo genere la respuesta completa antes de comenzar a reproducirla a través de los parlantes, así que una forma de mejorarla sería transmitir la respuesta desde el modelo para no tener que esperar. hasta que se genere la respuesta completa, puedo comenzar a reproducir audio, ya que el asistente está generando la respuesta que sería ideal. Creo que con solo hacer esas tres cosas, esto se sentirá mucho más realista en cierto modo, obviamente, al jugar con el indicador del sistema. También es importante hacer que se comporte como quieres que se comporte, tal vez hacerlo un poco más coqueto como claramente lo hizo la IA abierta o lo que decidas de todos modos. Espero que esto sea útil. Este tipo de cosas son realmente divertidas de construir si realmente te gusta ese tipo de contenido o este tipo de contenido, suscríbete o dale me gusta a este video para que el algoritmo me haga saber que te gusta este tipo de contenido, disfrútalo y nos vemos en el próximo, adiós.

Building Chatbots with Hugging Face LLMs 5 Expert Tips ft. Mistral.en.srt

00:00:01,360 --> 00:00:03,439 hello so if you're new to the channel welcome and if you are a returning viewer welcome back today we're going to be discussing building chatboard applications on top of open- source large language models I think going forward open source large language models are going to be absolutely huge we've just recently heard from Mark Zuckerberg that meta are going to invest heavily in their gpus for training their own open- source large language models specifically we know they're going to invest in 350,000 h100s no doubt this is going to be used to train their next most performant open source model which will probably be llama 3 with this rise in interest in open source llms I believe that a lot of Engineers are going to want to divert their attention to learning how to develop applications on top of Open Source large language models so in this video I'm going to be revealing five tips for building your chat box on top of a large language model that is open source if you're used to using the open AI API there are a lot of things that already done for you behind the scenes and you won't have had to run into those engineering tricks that you will have to know if you're going to develop open source so if that's you please continue to watch I'm sure this video is going to be very helpful for you if you like this content please remember to like the video share comment and subscribe to the channel for more Ai and large language model focused content all right so let's get into the technical details okay so let's get into tip number one so tip number one is to assess your hardware and know your budget now that might sound obvious to those that have worked with open source large language models before but for those of you that haven't worked with open source large language models what you've got to understand is these things are very resource s intensive so yes you might have heard out there that there's this new 180 billion parameter model that is outperforming gbt 3.5 or there's mixol out there that is doing wonders but at the end of the day you need to know your Hardware requirements and you need to know your budget because if you cannot if you don't have the hardware to host a mix or a falcon 18b there's no sense in looking at that as an option and with thousands of large language models ailable to you open source on hugging face you will need to have that understanding that not all of those will actually be suitable for your use case so tip number one is to assess your hardware and understand your budget so let's take what we're using for our chatbot in this video as an example so we'll be using mistra and I'm on a budget here I'm on a strict budget so my Hardware is going to be something I'm renting from rumod which is going to be the RTX 4000 Ada right that's going to be costing me 39 cents per hour so it's relatively cheap but that's the hardware I'm working with all right so how do I assess whether I can actually work with mistra turns out it's quite easy right because you step let's step into hugging face let's take mistr as our case study for an open source llm and let's see how we'd assess whether our Hardware is good enough to host a mistra so what we can do is we can navigate to the hugging phase page which is what you should be seeing on screen now and what you want to do is grab the path once you've grabbed that path you can navigate to this hugging face space it's called can you run it so I'll link to this in the description to this video and you simply just want to paste that in here right and then hit enter and what that's going to do is this is a a streamlet application that tells you whether or not your model that you want to host is suitable to run on your Hardware so we're we've set our GPU vendor to Nvidia let's also grab the GPU we're working with so I believe it was the RTX 40008 let's just have a look it should actually be listed here let's just have a look let me head back to ROM pod and just see try to remember that was RTX 4000 A that's correct a right there we go so let's grab that and what's amazing about this is it will tell us yes you can actually use this GPU to run inference on on um mistra which is great because it's really cheap so you know you only require one GPU it says also you only require one GPU for full training and you only require one GPU for Laura fine tuning so I'm not sure that that's correct for full training um the other thing you want to do here is expand this table because it only comes out with a little bit of it but yes so for full training it's actually saying you need um 109 gig and this GPU is actually much less than that so I'm not sure it's correct on the full training part but for sure we can run inference and especially if we're loading it in float 16 um so loading in float 16 just means we're loading the model in lower Precision um by default there are a lot of models that are at float 32 so that's full Precision but we can load it in half Precision without too much impact on the performance of the model itself so if we load it in float 16 you know we'd take in only half of the required gigabytes for inference which is really good if we're trying to work with limited Hardware so that's how you can assess whether your Hardware is good enough you go to that can you run it and can you run it is is brilliant because it works again with your Hardware so let's see if we wanted to run a larger model let's see what it would do so if we step back let's look at something like Falcon 180b and it's you know it's obvious already that we're not going to be able to run this but just as an example for you and we step back into can you run it let's paste Falcon in there and let us also go ahead with our are we blocked it's a gated model I need to provide my access token so let's use one that I don't need to provide my access token to what about let's go with let's go with the news Hermes E34 billion right so let's do that one right and we'll paste that in great and we'll go back to the GPU we have which is the RTX Ada and as you can see it says we can actually perform inference on the model but we can't do any GPU training and we can't do any lur of fine tuning we need two gpus to do that and we' need four to do um training so this is a really valuable resource for you if you are looking to work with open source models first understand the hardware that you've got understand what you're working with you know a lot of you won't have the required Cuda capable gpus on your computer and if you do have them they're probably not going to be large enough and that means you might have to go on a service like rumod to actually rent a GPU like I'm doing so that's the first thing understand the requirements and understand your B your budget so even when you're on rump pod you might not have the budget to be renting um the the state-of-the-art gpus at like4 or $8 per hour you might only be able to afford to rent a smaller GPU so once you know those two things you can come on to can you run it and you can assess for the model that you've chosen what um you can assess whatever the model that you want to work with is actually suitable for your hardware setup so that's it for tip one understand your budget and understand your Hardware okay so let's move on to tip number two and tip number two is to understand the difference between your instruct models or your chat models and your what I like to call the baseline or the raw Models All right so on screen now we're at huging face and we're using our mistra example again and as you can see there are different versions of mistra here so ignoring the two mixt models at the top although it applies to those as well if you look you've got mistra 7B instruct and then you've got mistr 7B here and you'll find this theme in common with a lot of the foundation models that have been released there's just a what I'd like to call a baseline version and there is an instruct version but what's actually the difference between these two so this is a really important distinction especially if you're going to be using these models to build a chatbot in short you cannot build a chatbot on top of the Baseline models here's why the Baseline models are just literally pre-trained on large volumes of text to predict the next word so the outcomes the outputs are really messy when you're when they're doing text generation and I'm going to demonstrate that in a minute the instruct versions however have been fine-tuned to be able to follow instructions so that includes things like responding to queries or answering questions which makes them a lot more suitable for chatbot applications so we can demo this because I already have both the instruct model and the Baseline model deployed on r pod and I've built them into a lang chain chatbot application and I'm going to show you what both look like so let me bring up my vs code so you can see here we're going to let's start off with the instruct model first and here is my mpoint deployed on Lang chain so I'm not going to go into the details of the code this is to demonstrate to you the difference so let me pull up the chain lit application which is the front end for this model so chain lit run chat Lang chain pi and just a tip for you that if you've worked with chain lit before the the front end for your chatws if you put this W here if you put that parameter you don't need to keep restarting it it will just update in the background if you make changes to your script so let's run that and let's enter our chain lit front end so that's pulling up on another screen I'll bring that in as soon as it's ready great so we have our mistra instruct deployed in our chain lit application so if I say something like and just to give you a bit of context there's a there's a prompt behind this before I before I get into the model just there is a prompt behind this that is asking the model to behave like a fitness personal trainer now so if it starts giving Fitness responses it's because I've prompted it to do that just to make you aware so if I say something like Hi how are you so that's running hey I'm great and I'm here to help you answer any Fitness related questions you might have how can I assist you today so that is as expected because we're using the instruct version of the model now what happens when we don't use the instruct version of the model so that's easily done let me step back into my code and I'm going to comment out the instruct version and instead we will use the raw version or the the foundation version we'll hit save and that's going to update the chain lit front end find that thing so just wait a few seconds for that to update so that is updated now so you can see we are using just the standard or the foundational raw version so I how are you let's test it out and we just we just get a an H which is not what we're looking for and I wonder why that is it's because we're not using the right version of the model so let's test it again can you give me some Fitness advice and H again and that's what happens when you do not use the right version of the model you get unexpected results just to make you comfortable with this let me remove the stopping token and see if that makes any difference here so I've removed the stoping token so all that does is it tells the model when to stop generating text and that's why stopping at that H let's just see what happens let's see if we can Tri the model into giving us a response even though we're not using the chat version Hi how are you so you can see we're still using the foundation version and there we go so you get very unexpected results this is not what we're looking for and it's not suitable for chat applications and the reason for this is because at its heart it's just a next word predictor so we've given it this prompt and I'll go into a bit of the detail details about the prompt in the in the next section but we've given it this prompt and all it's doing is it's predicting the next word from that prompt and that's it's generating a whole conversation here which is just completely useless for a chat application so that is it for the second tip the second tip is you need to choose the right version of the model so if you're building chat applications you'll need to use the instruct version of the model otherwise you need to fine-tune the foundation version of the model to follow instructions and that's how you're going to get reliable responses for your chat applications so don't fall into the Trap of getting excited about a new Foundation model coming out and saying hey I'm going to throw this into my chatbot application it's not going to work unless you have fine-tuned it to follow instructions great we'll move on to the next tip okay so now for tip three three and tip three is to watch out for commercial use restrictions so it can be tempting to get really excited about all of the foundation models released on hugging face there are literally thousands available to you but what you should be aware of is that not all of those are actually suitable or not all of those you are allowed to use for commercial purposes so a great example of this is something like orca from Microsoft so let's have a look at Orca 2 which is a great model um it has been trained specifically to be able to follow complex instructions and do complex reasoning tasks which is fantastic and a great way in the direction of having some open source models that are able to be used for agent workflows however if you look at the license here this is a Microsoft research license so you can see all the licenses usually with models that you can get on hugging face the licenses are going to be attached to the model card so yeah this is a research license and I I think they even go into a bit more detail about the license itself so oroku is licensed under the Microsoft research license and there is a um there's a llama 2 thing here as well maybe the model is based on llama 2 but let's have a look at the Microsoft research license so if um there's a lot of information here I'm just going to do a control F see if I can see anything about commercial but I'm almost certain that you cannot use ah here we go yeah there we go so subject to the terms of this agreement you have the below rights if applicable to use materials solely for non-commercial non-revenue generating research purposes so there you go so you cannot use every single model on here for commercial purposes on the other hand if we look at something like MRA that is going to be under an Apache 2 license I believe which means that you can actually use the model for commercial purposes so let's just double let's just have a look and make sure we'll go to the instruct version and you can see there's the Apache 2 license let's just have a look um ah yeah there we go so it's under the permission so commercial use distribution modification pattern use private use so that's what you want if you are trying to build a an application for a client that you have or maybe you're trying to build an application for your own business you want to make sure that you're using the right models that are actually licensed for commercial use so you want to be looking out for things like the research licenses and you want to see something like Apache 2 there you go so that is tip number three make sure that the model you're using is actually licensed for commercial use it's really easy to overlook this point but will save you a lot of money down the line and save you a lot of problems and headache okay so let's move on to our penultimate tip tip number four and tip four is to make sure that you do not ignore the prompt templates and this is really important um some models don't require a prompt template but in general a lot of the models that you're going to run into do require a prompt template or you know you might have you might also hear about them being called prompt formats but either way you cannot ignore the prompt formatting The Prompt template now let's use mistra as an example the mistra instruct model and I'll get into why what the prompt format looks like for mistra and why it's important so navigating to the mistra hugging P hugging face page you can look at the model card and what you can see here is there is an actual format that you need to follow if you want to use this model for text generation and you can see it's just it's quite a simple one there are more complex ones so if you look at llama 2 for example llama 2 has a prompt format that is a bit more complex than this but what it's saying to you is that you need to um so not order to leverage the instruction fine-tuning aspect of the model you need to prompt your prompts must be surrounded by these tokens right and then they've given us an example here so you can see the query is surrounded by this beginning of sentence token and then there is an end of sentence token here as well so you need to make sure that if you are going to use this model that you follow this prompt style or this prompt template that is in this model card so let's have a look at what happens if we ignore the prompt template so the first thing I want to show you is how I'm using the prompt template in the code so I've already demonstrated the mistro instruct which is working with the prompt template they've suggested and with langine chain they give you the option here to put that prom template in so you can see those tokens that's wrapping around every bit of text that I need the model to be able to interpret all right so that is with the prompt template and I've shown that that works well now let's do this let's comment out this prompt template and you know Lang chain does provide you with the like I said L chain provides you with the ability to to customize those prompt templates and let's use one that violates what they've asked for so I've essentially just removed those tokens from The Prompt template and I'll hit save on that and then I'm going to bring up the chain lit front end for us to test if I can actually find where I've put that thing ah here we go great so we're still running on the instruct version of M Trum and I'm going to say Hi how are you again and there we go so we have actually broken the model by removing removing the prompt template as it should as it was suggested by the model card and you can see this when you read this this is kind of like it doesn't even make sense it's not a response to what we said we said Hi how are you and it says I'm new to working out and I've heard a lot about hit workouts what exactly are they and how often should I do them so it's just talking to itself basically so do not ignore the prompt templates or the prompt formats you should ensure that when you go on model when you when you go on hugging face and you look at the model card you pay attention to the prompt template or prompt format they've suggested and make sure that you incorporate that into your application if you're using things like Lang chain they usually provide a way to customize your prompt formats or your prompt templates so that it matches what is suggested you need to be careful with services like that as well because they have a lot of hidden prompts behind the scenes and they're designed to work with open AI a lot of the time so if you're using an open source model you will need to create custom prompt templates and you'll need to make make sure that you're bypassing those hidden prompts that are hidden deep in the repositories of of um Frameworks like Lang chain or Frameworks like hyack or or LL index you won't get that's probably why you know for a lot of people um when they use open source models um to substitute into the applications they don't work well because they're not using the prompt templates they're not paying attention to that and that is it for tip four pay attention to the prompt templates another thing is if you are using a model and you notice that the prompt template is missing or there's no prompt format mentioned or the model card is just not updated well I suggest that you use a different model all right pay attention to the promp template great so now it's time for our final tip and this is really important if you're building chat like applications and this is that you need to incorporate a memory into your chat application it's taken for granted when you use things like chat gbt that that large language models can just understand previous context in the conversation this isn't the case when you're using open source models there is nothing inherent in an open source model that means that it can remember the last things that have been said in a conversation you have to incorporate that memory in and to do this we use engineering tricks like feeding the context back into the prompt itself so I'll show you where I've done that so if you have a look at this prompt format what I have here is a history so that history is essentially the history of the conversation and I feed that back into the prompt so whenever I'm querying that large language model through the chat interface it has a record of everything that has come before it so that the conversation flows naturally so if you don't include a memory the conversation will be very unnatural it will be disjointed and it will sound like you're talking to an idiot okay so always include a memory include a history Frameworks like Lang chain allow you to easily do this and I'll show you an example now so let's have a look at what the model looks like with the memory included and I've got a A list of fre questions that test memory right I'm going to start off remember this is a strength and conditioning coach or a fitness coach called Fitness Dave so that's the first question hi Fitness Dave so just in case you didn't see that that went quite quickly so the question was let's scroll up the question was hey Fitness Dave I'm looking to improve my upper body strength can you suggest a couple of exercises to start off with absolutely I'd be happy to help for building upper body strength you might want to consider incorporating exercises like push-ups pull-ups and dips into your routine these exercises work well um work multiple muscle groups in your upper body including your chest back and shoulders remember to start with sets of 10 to 12 Reps for 2 to three per exercise to build a foundation as you progress you can increase the number of sets or reps so that sounds like sensible advice now let's continue the conversation so we'll say be like thanks for those suggestions how often should I do these exercises to see progress hopefully there'll be some consistency here ideally you should aim for at least least two full body workouts per week to see noticeable progress in your upper body strength incorporate these exercises on those days allowing for at least one rest day in between to allow your muscles to recover remember consistency is key okay so that aligns it still remembers that we're talking about upper body um and it remembers it's it's you know it's coherent it's a coherent response and we wouldn't question anything about that if we were using this chat bot so last one is also last time I tried similar exercises I had some shoulder pain any tips on how to avoid that so it would have to understand the exercises it's recommended to us already which is a test of memory so let's see how it does with that absolutely I understand your concern so absolutely I understand your concern proper form is crucial to prevent injuries when doing push-ups so it's recognize that suggested push-ups keep your body in a straight line from head to heels and engage your qu to to maintain a neutral sign for pull-ups recognize it it's it's recommended that make sure you pull your shoulder blades down and back before initiating the movement for dips your elbow should be 45° angle to your body if you're still experiencing pain consider starting with assisted version of these exercise or Consulting a health care professional so that's coherent and clearly the memory component is feeding in I just want to show you how this memory component is working before I show you what this conversation looks like when you don't include a memory so we step back into the code I have a little bit of code here that shows you the memory component and how that kind of builds up so I'm going to uncomment that right I'm just going to put a note here to remind me to comment oh we don't want that in there just put a note here shows memory just reminds me to comment that out I'm going to hit save on that and refresh the front end that front end should be refreshed I'm going to put those questions across again and you'll see how the memory is being fed back into the conversation so we start off like that right so this is the debug info this is the memory so here you can see the content of the memory hey Fitness Dave and there's our question and there's the response from the AI and you're going to see this thing is going to grow as we send more messages so it keeps track of the conversation so here's the response again and there's the debug message so you can see the debug message is growing so there was the first one hey Fitness Dave and the second one was thanks for those suggestions and you can see the response from Fitness Dave so I won't go on to do the third one but you get the point it is concatenating the conversation and feeding it back into the prompt all right and that's how you get a consistent conversation now obviously the context of your model matters this memory component can only be as large as the context allows for your model so as the memory grows you're going to have some problems with context so you need to put in a mechanism that once the memory reaches a certain point it cuts off or there's a sliding window type of memory so it never outgrows the context that's something you need to consider as well right so let us step back into the code I'm going to remove the memory debug and then I'm going to remove the memory from the chat box so by commenting out this memory um do saave context now the chatbot has no memory and let's see what that plays out like that has saved and in the background we should be refreshing our fitness chat bot now that that's refreshed and we're still running the mistra instruct let's start off so great all good so far seems sensible chess triceps and shoulders dumble rows back and biceps so we've got a different set of exercises but fine it seems sensible enough let's see so let's go thanks for those suggestions aha so thanks for those suggestions how often should I do these exercises to see progress so it can kind of BL this one generally I'd recommend performing each workout two to three times giving your muscles adequate time to recover in between sessions however frequency can defend on factors like your current Fitness levels and goals okay so that is a bit of a blag it's not specific at all let's move on to the final question and it would need to know the exercises to really answer this question specifically absolutely here we go so we've been given a long answer but actually this is not consistent with the conversation you can see that because it just says absolutely human shoulder pain during workouts is common especially with exercises that Target the shoulders or involve overhead motions here are a few tips to prevent or minimize the pain warm up properly I'm not going to read all of that but you get the point use correct forming technique use lighter weights give your shoulders adequate rest consider incorporating exercises to strengthen the muscle surrounding the shoulder so the point here is that it's not specific at all because it has no recol recollection of the exercises it recommended us because there's no memory component so hopefully that demonstrates to why the memory component is important if you are building chatbots based on open source large language models it doesn't come in by default you've got a program that memory in brainworks like Hy stack llama index line change do come with modules to help you encode memory into your chatbot applications you'll have to have a look at the documentation for that but it is really important if you are to build a coherent chatbot application that's it for tip five Okay so we've come to the end of the video and I hope that was useful for you just the recap of the five tips tip one is to assess your budget and Hardware requirements and see if the large language model of choice the open source model of choice is suited to the constraints of that budget and Hardware available to you tip two is to make sure you're using the right model so you want to be using the instructor model if you're going to be building chat applications if you use the raw model or the the Baseline model I should say it's not going to give you coherent responses so you want to be using the instruct model or you want to fine-tune the Baseline model to make sure that it's okay for following instructions so it can be used within a chatbot tip free was all about licenses so we want to make sure that the models we use are available for commercial use so the license means that it's appropriate for us to use commercially you want to avoid research licenses and you want to look out for things like Apache 2 Apache 2 generally means that you can use it for commercial purposes tip four was all about prompt templates we want to make sure that we are adhering to the prompt templates especially if we're using instruct models if you break those promp templates again you're going to get responses that are not coherent and don't make any sense so always align with the prompt templates watch out when you're using applications like Lang chain or um when you're using things like Hy stack or llama index there are hidden prompts that work behind the scenes and they're designed often to work with open AI you're using llms from hugging face if you're using open source llms then you're going to have to customize those prompt templates to align with what the model cards suggest on hugging face and last but not least tip five was all about memory so let's just make sure that when you're building chat applications that you incorporate a memory component so that the conversations are coherent and actually consistent across across messages without incorporating the memory component what happens is it just kind of sounds like you're talking to an idiot the the the the chatbot doesn't inherently remember what was said in the last conversation there's nothing about large language models or the the Transformer architecture underneath it that means that it can carry messages on without the Without You engineering them into the context the other thing to to be aware of when it comes to memory as well is that the context window of your model so if your context window is 8,000 tokens your memory will grow and grow and grow and eventually exceed that context window so you want to make sure there's a mechanism in place to handle that so whether you do that with a sliding um window memory where you know it captures a certain amount of tokens and then after slides across and forgets another part and captures the new part or whether you do that with just like a straight cut off of memory at a certain point that's up to you that's a design design decision but make sure that you're aware that your memory can outgrow your context that's it um if you enjoyed this content please like the video if you have any tips on building chatbot applications on top of Open Source large language models please throw them in the comments any other suggestions throw them in the comments um if you like this content please subscribe to the channel for more content on large language models artificial intellig thank you for tuning in again and I look forward to seeing you on the next video

Can My Ollama Local WebSearch Agent (With Llama 3 8B) Beat Perplexity AI.en.srt

00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,320 I've developed a custom web search agent similar to perplexity that is capable of running 100% locally with olama or even running with most hugging face open- Source large language models this is the first in a series of videos where I'll be putting the custom agent to the test I'll be running a series of parallel tests on questions that I've crafted and then measuring the performance of each model on this Matrix in today's video I'll be testing llama 8 billion against perplexity itself so stay tuned to the end to see how well the small local model does against perplexity I've link to the repository containing the custom agent code in the description to this video so if you're interested in that you may wish to check it out if you like this content give the video a thumbs up remember to subscribe to the channel and in the comment section let me know which models you would like me to test next okay let's get started with the testing I'll quickly talk through how I'm going to be conducting this test I've come up with seven questions ranging from least difficult at the bottom here to most difficult at the top for each question the agent gets right I will be allocating points based on this scoring system at the end of the questions I will tally the points and put it against the Matrix I showed you earlier I'll keep track of that Matrix across all the series of videos I'll be doing on these tests so that we can compare across all the different models on how well they've performed on these questions hopefully this should be fun so let's get into the testing so I'm going to begin testing this custom agent alongside perplexity just to show you in the python script for this agent I have set the model that we're going to use behind the agent to llama free instruct and obviously this is the olama version of llama fre instruct which runs locally on the olama server if you want more details about how to get up and running with this agent script and ol I have a video on that and I'll link it in the description for this video so check that out if you want to get into a deep dive on how to actually set this whole thing up and how this script works I will also be setting the output to Vos which means you're going to see all of the the websites that we visit to pull information from when we're doing the web search and you're going to see that returned to the Powershell where I run the script I'll do that for the first question to show you how the agent works but for subsequent questions I won't be producing that verbos output so I'm going to set that to false so that um the the output is a lot cleaner okay so I have my Powershell open so I'll start the agent python agent. py run and it's asking me to enter the query so bear in mind that obviously the agent is going to be slower than perplexity I'm not measuring this on latency because the agent is obviously running on my CPU which is going to be a lot slower than perplexity who have probably got a host of gpus in the background to to make their super quick so we'll start off by asking perplexity so the first question is actually when did the capital of Nigeria change so I expect perplexity to be able to get this so we have an answer and we have sources provided and that is in the true nature of complexity so it says the capital of Nigeria officially changed from Lagos to budja on December the 12th 1991 and we have some sources so I trust this is probably right I'm not going to go into those sources for perplexity now I'm going to ask the same question to my custom agent and this is running locally on the Llama 38 billion model instruct when did the capital of Nigeria change just so you can see that I'm asking the same question when did the capital of Nigeria change and it will take some time to run and remember this is running my CPU I'm at a minute I'm recording this and I'm also running web browsers so it will be slower than than usual if I was just running this ol Lama without doing anything else so we've started the agent chain and we've returned a response from the planning agent so the planning agent is the first agent in the agent chain and that comes up with the queries that we should ask the search engine to find the information so we have the main search identified as capital of Nigeria and we're putting that into the search engine so that's the job of the planning agent as I said if you want more detail on how this works under the hood please refer to my videos which will be linked in the description to this video okay so we're really getting going now we've returned the search engine results page we picked out one of the article one of the URLs from that search engine results page let's see so it's the top one there Wiki Abuja and we've returned we've pulled some information from the wiki Okay so we've returned a response and that response is from the integration agent for those of you that aren't aware about how this works there's a planning agent which comes up with a search engine queries and then uses that information within a search engine to pull a search engine results page then we decide which URL is the best to follow to actually answer the query then the information from that URL is scraped and passed into an integration agent who synthesizes a response if the response is if the information pulled from the URL is adequate we will provide a final response if not the the integration agent will go back and provide some feedback to the plan planning agent that will adjust its query on that basis so we have a final response delivered and we've got a final response so based on the provided research here is a comprehensive response to query the capital of Nigeria changed from Lagos to Abuja in 1991 Abuja was chosen as as the new capital due to several reasons including the need for a more central location and concerns about the vulnerability of Lagos to natural disasters such as earthquakes okay and then we've provided some citations although I do I'm not sure if these citations are actually correct because we didn't visit any of these websites so you can see this um for example it says actually says https um example.com Nigeria capital history so it hasn't actually pulled the correct citations so although the answer the response to the question was correct I'm going to mark this as a fail because it didn't pull the citations and that's one of my criteria for actually getting this um for actually passing a question it also has to pull the correct citation in which the information was referenced so that's a fail for the Llama um llama 3 8 billion model and it's a pass for perplexity so perplexity gets one point and llama gets zero points for that first round okay so now for round two we're going to ask our second question and we'll start off by asking perplexity we will ask the question what is the current population of New York City so I've abbreviated it here to myc Let's Ask perplexity and I'm pretty sure it's going to get this right and what's cool about complexity here is it's actually provided a bunch of graphs and anal Anis as well obviously this local custom agent that I've developed won't do the graphs and Analysis but we're just looking for a right answer so what has perplexity said it says according to the most recent data from the US Census Bureau and world population review the current population of New York City in 2024 is estimated to be around 7.9 million people and we've got two sources provided so we have box 5ny which is roughly how many people live in New York let's just have a look at what that source is so it says 7.9 31 or 7.9 million people so let's have a look what did we say yep around 7.9 million people so I'm going to mark that down as a pass for perplexity and that's going to be 2 points for complexity okay next we're going to do the same thing we're going to test it with the Llama free 8 billion model that I have locally on my custom agent so let's see how we do there so I'll restart the agent by running python agent. piy run and then I'll enter the query which is what is the current population of NYC so remember I've removed the verose setting so I've set that to false which means that we're not going to return all of the output from the scraping the web and the search engine results page and stuff but you've seen how it works in the first example so let's keep it neat and we'll go and ask the question bear in mind when you're watching this on video I have cut this so it's not working at real time it's not working at real speed there have been edits made to this to reduce dead time in the video Okay so we've stepped into the agent workflow so the planning agent has come up with a plan to find the current population of NYC I'll generate some search queries for you here are a few current population of NYC seems sensible to me and we're putting that into a search query so remember we're not going to generate the scraped output of the website this time around okay so it's had trouble retrieving some content from the internet but it's going to retry so that's part of the retry mechanism that I've actually implemented in this custom agent the scraper for this custom agent is quite rudimentary so some websites it fails to scrape the content because of the formatting or nature of that content so it will retry another website okay so the integration agent has provided a response this is based on the research provided here's a comprehensive response to your query s of the latest available data estimated population of New York City NYC is approximately 8.4 million people this number has been steadily increasing over the years due to factors such as urbanization migration and economic growth and we have a source provided here and notice there's no URL provided with this source which is obviously worrying we know that we visited the New York Wikipedia site but no URL has been provided so that is obviously a concern let's see what the final response is so then we check the response quality and it's past our quality check which arguably shouldn't have passed but let's go ahead and then we have the final response which is just what was regurgitated last time by the integration agent I'm going to mark that down as a fail what we actually needed was the URL source and unfortunately it's not provided that so that is a second fail in a row for the Llama 3 8 billion model it's not looking good but let's continue with the questions and let's see how the model performs on some of the later rounds of questions right so we're on our third round of questions and perplexity right now is up three to nothing compared to our custom agent powered by llama 3 instruct but you never know let's continue going and let's see what else the custom agent can do and hopefully we can start getting some correct answers from the custom agent so the next question is who won the Premier League 2023 2024 season so the reason I'm asking this question is because the season has just finished last week at a time of recording this video so it's definitely not going to be in any of the models training data unless there's an update to the models that I'm unaware of but I'm sure it's not going to be in any of these models training data let's run it on perplexity first and get the response and then we'll test it on the custom agent we have a response from perplexity the answer is Manchester City which I know to be the correct answer uh for those of you that are my American viewers the Premier League is the main Football League here in the UK it's the top division so Manchester City were the winners and they won that last week and we have some sources here let's accept the cookies um so this Source actually ah right here we go so this doesn't actually State who won it just says Manchester City are back on top let's see if there's anything that mentions a win no no so this Source I believe doesn't actually mention who won let's have a look at the other one that's provided there we go so this Source provides the winner of the title for the 2023 2024 season that is another pass for perplexity let's move on to the custom agent with llama and I'll once again restart it I'll enter my query who won the Premier League 20 23 to 2024 season I'll Kickstart the agent chain okay we've entered the a agent chain the planning agent has come up with a query so this says the Premier League 2023 2024 winners these are all search queries that it should it believes are the right queries to to search in the search engine what's worrying here is we haven't even come up with a search query and I know this happens sometimes when the plan planning agent um there's the planning agent passes the query to a another agent which is in charge of actually generating a Json from that agent based on the search query from the planning agent and what's happened here is the agent that's in charge of generating that Json hasn't generated that Json properly and that's why we're getting a blank Json response that's actually not a bug with the code but that's a hallucination from the Lama free 8 billion model so I'm going to mark that as air so perplexity is now up 6 to nothing let's move on to the fourth and see if we can actually get a good response from the custom llama 38 billion model we're on to the fourth round of questions and this time we're going to ask our first multihop question so the question we're going to ask is what is the birthplace of the loser of the boxing match between Tyson Fury and usyk so first you have to know the loser of that boxing match and then you have to know that person's birthplace and again the reason I'm asking this question is because the boxing match happened recently it just happened last week so I know that the models that I'm using aren't trained on this data yet so we'll start off by asking perplexity so it's correctly identified that Tyson Fury was the loser of the boxing match against Alexander usk and it's also identified that Fury was born in withen Shore area of Manchester England which is correct let's just visit the source which is Wikipedia and do we have a a birthplace identified here here we go so Tyson Luke Fury was born in Wen Shaw so that is correct and complexity has managed to easily handle that multihop question so that is another win for perplexity on that question let's see how the agent performs so again this is still the Llama free agent so I'm going to run python agent. py run and the question is what is the birth place of the loser of the boxing match between Tyson Fury and usk right let's just make sure I've typed that in right what is the birthplace of the loser of the boxing match between Tyson Fury and usyk okay let's run that and see what the agent can do so the planning agent has come up with some queries um the first one is Tyson Fury versus Alexander usk that's a good start Alexander usk's birthplace Tyson Fury's opponent usk's birthplace usyk versus fur Fury loser birthplace so those are the queries it's come up with and it's identified the single most important search is likely Alexander usk's birthplace so that's incorrect it's actually funny to watch this because you can see the limitations of the llama 3 8 billion model in reasoning already that is completely false I don't I'm not sure that it should be asking that as a single most important question but anyhow it's done that so that's been put into the search engine and we've visited the Wikipedia site for Alexander usyk and those of you know that had watched the boxing match know that usyk was actually the the winner of that boxing match so the model has jumped straight to searching for the winner birthplace rather than the loser's birthplace who is Tyson Fury so that is already not looking too good so we have a response from the integration agent and what it's saying is based on my previous research I found the fight between Tyson Fury and Alexander usyk did not take place I wonder what it means by previous research is this stuff that is already in the knowledge base and I would imagine it is because I know that the negotiations would have fight were ongoing by the time llama 3 came out so maybe that's in the training data the article only mentioned negotiations and potential opponents but no actual fight took place however if you're asking about the birthplace of usyk according to my knowledge alexand usk was born in what does that say sim fol um Ukrainian SSR now Ukraine right so that is that's the wrong answer and you know we've returned the final resp response so this response quality assessment is just basically checking that you know we return citations and return the response we return is relevant and if it passes all of these criteria we pass and we return the final response if it doesn't it's recycled until it does pass the criteria or until we run out of iterations now yes this shows the reasoning the reasoning fail for llama 3 8 billion because not only have we not identified the loser of the fight which is Tyson Fury but we've gone straight to the winner and found their birthplace and also not included any sources so that is another loss for Lama free 8 billion and at this stage we are looking at 10 to nothing for perplexity against lree okay we're on to the fifth question and we'll start again by asking perplexity the fifth question is find me the cheapest flights to Barcelona from London for one adult leaving next month now look I'm aware that it is probably not going to find the cheapest flights but what I'm testing here is the ability for the model to recognize time um by the way the agent in the prompting does have access to today's date and time and also just to return some flights to the correct um destination uh with the correct departure airport and the correct arrival airport so that's what I'm looking for here and obviously the citation sorry apologies the source of information should be returned to so let's try it with perplexity first and then we'll move on to the agent so we've returned some results here from perplexity you can see we have identified the cheapest flights here so it says the cheapest flight is a one-way flight on railing for for just £31 departing on the 25th of June so June the 25th and that's from cheap flights. co.uk so let's visit cheap flights. co.uk and the date is correct here so we've got London to Barcelona so that's correct we have Saturday the 25th departing from London can we find that flight and there we go we have a flight for £31 so this is what's come up on this search so I will actually take that as a pass for perplexity let's see what the agents can do so I'm not expecting much but you never know these models do have the ability to surprise me from time to time so let's give it a try let's start the agent find me the cheapest flights to Barcelona from London for one adult leaving next month right let's go let's see what we can do yeah and as I said I'm not holding out much hope for this so the planning agent has come up with a plan says I can help you with that very enthusiastically here are some search queries I have come up with London to Barcelona flights in June this search gr looks for General flight options for London to Barcelona for next month giving us an idea of overall prices so what is good is it's identified June as being next month which is good because that is showing some time awareness which is what we want cheapest oneway flights from London to Barcelona by targeting oneway flights we can find more affordable options compared to round trip tickets budget airlines from London to Barcelona in June this search focuses on budget friendly carriers like EasyJet Ryan a Welling which might offer cheaper fairs so the most important question is London to Barcelona oneway flights under2 200 so that is presumptuous that is presumptuous because we're talking under2 200 shouldn't it have just gone London to Barcelona flights in June or something like cheap flights but I guess you know it's it's not the end of the world so this specific search query targets the cheapest options available for a one-way ticket from London to Barcelona with a price cap of 200 yes okay fine makes sense from the integration agent so I've noticed we are having some problems pulling that data from kayak.com and that is more a bug with the custom agent rather than a bug with the model and the reason being is because because it's not actually able to get that text from the kayak.com website so it says fa to retrieve content due to caral text which means there's a difficulty for the scraper that I've coded to actually scrape that information from kay.com it's it is a rudimentary scraper so I believe it's trying a different website so these are all the failed sites so it's trying different pages let's hope that we can pull one there is a retry limit on here so hopefully we don't exceed that retry limit let's see what does happen so we have a response from the integration agent and what we're seeing here is I'd be happy to help you with that based on the research provided I'll generate a response using the information available the research provides a dictionary of content Source from Google which seems to be an introduction to Google services and privacy policy unfortunately this research doesn't contain any specific information about flights or prices given lack of relevant research I'll suggest adjusting the plan to search for more targeted information here are some revised search queries cheap flights from London to Barcelona June this search looks for General flight options from London to Barcelona for next month giving us an idea of overall prices one-way flights from London to Barcelona under 200 by targeting oneway flights and setting a price cap we can find more affordable options so what this is doing is it's giving feedback to the planning agent because because we're not able to scrape those URLs we haven't been able to answer the question and therefore the integration agent is prompted to give feedback in that case well in in the case that there is not the the information is missing from the URL source that it's tried the integration agents prompted to give feedback to the planning agent to adjust its plan so it can find different sources from the internet so I will say this it is that is more of a bug with the custom agent that I built especially the scrap apart because the scraper part does struggle to scrape particular types of content from the internet so there's probably some work I could do on improving the scraper but what is good about the agent is that it is entering that feedback loop again and those sites that it did find difficult to scrape it shouldn't actually revisit if the prompting is working as it should so hopefully we can get back in and find just any website that we're able to scrape information from that actually has that that has the the flights there so the response quality assessment has been false and the reason given is the response does not provide a direct answer to the query instead suggesting revised search queries and offering General observations while it provides some useful tips it does not meet the requirements of providing the cheapest flights to Barcelona from London for one adult leaving next month which is correct so we're back into the planning agent and the planning agent has come up with a new plan and what's worrying here is the planning agent seems to have just regurgitated what the integration agent has said earlier so those two things look quite similar that's what the integration agent said and this is what the planning agent is saying it's like a re regurgitation and we have come up with a new search grade one way flights from London to Barcelona under 200 which is exactly the same one that we initially came up with so that is actually concerning and we've got here failed to retrieve content due to garble text so I have a feeling we're going to be stuck in this Loop for a while I'll see where this lands up I'll see if we do manage to select another website has gone back to kayak.com but it should not have gone back to kayak.com because that's one of the sites it's already visited so that's under it should be under failed sites Maybe not maybe it starts again from the beginning yeah so I have a feeling we're not going to be able to get to the answer like this I'll let it run until the integration agent comes back with something and if we do manage to get to an answer that's going to be great but I'm not I'm not holding my breath for that yeah so this is this is back to where we came from although we are trying Skys scanner and I don't think we tried Skys scanner last time we have a response from the integration agent and we're back we're stuck in this feedback loop again because it hasn't managed to pull any information from those websites so I'm going to put an end to the olama server and I'll mark this one down as a fil for AMA and I'll be honest with you I'll be surprised if any of the models I'll test in other videos will be able to get this spes one and that's just due to the the clumsy way in which I built this the scraper but I have a feeling some of the more capable models will be able to iterate through faster and eventually find a website where they can pull information from so let's see what happens I'll leave the question on there it's a tricky one but that is another fail for the Llama 3 8 billion instruct model so as we enter the penultimate round of question the Llama model is losing to perplexity at a score of 15 points to perplexity versus nil to llama now I'm still holding out hope that llama can surprise us and do something so let's move on to the next question which is a another multihop question and this time we've got four hops in this question so the question is how many Germans live in a colonial holding in a rubus continent that was governed by Cristiano Ronaldo's country so it's multi-hop because first of all you need to know Aruba's continent which is South America then you need to know Cristiano Ronaldo's country or birthplace which will technically class as Portugal and then Portugal's Colonial Holdings in South America which is Brazil and then you need to know how many Germans live in Brazil so this is complex we'll start off with perplexity and then we'll move on to using the custom agent with Lama 3 8 billion instruct and let's see what we can do so let's start off with perplexity so we have our result from perplexity and it looks like perplexity wasn't actually able to give us an answer so what it says is country situated in south of the Caribbean Sea in the south of the Caribbean Sea apologies so we've got some information about its geography and then perplexity returns this response there is no information provided in the search results about Germans living in a colonial holding in Aruba's continent the Americas that was governed by Portugal Christiano Ronaldo's country the research results the search results focus on the of aruga as a Dutch colony and its relationship with the Netherlands as well as some of the information about German Colonial activities in Africa there's no mention of Portugal governing Aruba or any German Colonial presence there so you can see perplexities kind of misunderstood the question because the question isn't really asking about Port Portuguese colonizing Aruba which is what's kind of implied here so there's no mention of Portugal governing Aruba or any German Colonial presence there so it's not even asking about German Colonial presence it's asking about Germans living in the colonial holding of Portugal in Aruba's continent I know that's a bit of a tongue twister but there is a difference there so I think that's a fail from perplexity on that question so that's the first question that perplexity is failed let's try with the custom agent and I'm not holding out any hope for the custom agent to work here but we're going to give it a try anyway if it does get into that loop again I'm just going to end it I'm not going to let it carry on Just for brevity so how many Germans live in the colonial holding in Aruba's continent that was governed by chrisy uh no Ronaldo's country I know the grammar is not perfect on this question but it should still um when I say it should I mean an agent or a more powerful agent should still be able to UNP pick what we're trying to to find out here by the way this question is a slight adaptation on a question that I pulled from a multihop question answering paper so in that paper it asks about pz's country instead of Cristiano Ronaldo's country I just changed that up so I'll link to the paper in the description to this video as well if anyone's interested in looking at that okay so the planning agent has come back with a response and it says I think there may be some confusion here Aruba is a small island nation in the Southern Caribbean SE and it is not part of any Continental land mass it's actually one of the four constituent countries that make up the kingdom of the Netherlands along with the Netherlands Cara and St Martin Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese footballer and it Portugal is a country located in Western Europe it has never governed Aruba or any other part of the Caribbean as for your question about Germans living in Aruba according to Central Bureau of Statistics Ruba as of 2020 there are approximately 1,400 people with German nationality residing in a on the island so it has I'm not going to continue to read all of that because it's kind of going down the wrong path but it has come up with some search queries here are some search queries I came up with based on your question number of Germans in Aruba so obviously we're trying to find out the number of Germans in Aruba which is the wrong the wrong path to go down here and in Aruba's demographics so that these are sensible questions these are sensible search queries by the way but it's the wrong part and I I wonder it's weird because none of these both perplexity I guess perplexity did identify Ruba was part of the Americas but L free has not identify the rubber's continent so maybe it's the way the question is worded I am willing to to kind of accept that even when I read the paper that question was from it was worded in a a weird way so I can understand that but it's worded like that on purpose to make it difficult to answer and that's that's why it's like that it's a multi- question that's been artificially formulated from single hop questions that's the whole idea behind the paper it is in the description so if you do want to read it yourself go ahead and you know I've clearly broken this because the integration agent is literally just parting what the planning agent is doing so this is clearly not working and we have actually gotten our final response from the integration agent and that unfortunately is a zero for llama too so that is the first tied round actually so llama and perplexity didn't manage to get to the answer here all right let's move on to the final question and then we will calibrate the models against my Matrix I am on to the final question of this series of questions we'll start off with perplexity as always so the question is what is the current weather forecast in the largest city north of the city where the team that finished second in the 2023 2024 Premier League season played its last match so this is a multi-hop question and it also requires current information that the model hasn't been trained on because as I mentioned previously the 2023 2024 Premier League season just finished last week at a time of recording this video so first you need to know the team that finished second in the 202 23 2024 Premier League season which is Arsenal and then you need to know where Arsenal played their last match which was in London and then you need to know the largest city north of London which is Birmingham and then you need to get the current weather for Birmingham so there's a Time awareness bit there too so let's ask perplexity there we go so it says unfortunately the given search results do not provide any information about the weather forecasts or locations of Premier League teams final matches the results focus on prediction for 2023 2024 Premier League season top scorers Financial details of Premier League clubs and information about the Premier League's youth development program without specific details about the team that finished second and the city where they play play their last match I cannot determine the largest city north of the location to provide a weather forecast so I think perity does struggle with multi-hop questions after a certain number of hops and we don't have a free hop question in here we only have four hop questions so probably at four hops it struggles because the last question was also a four hop question so that's interesting in itself this is the free version ofy by the way so the paid version is probably using a more powerful model and you know we'll probably be able to get it right or the pro version so this is the free version so bear that in mind um okay so let's try the same thing with our custom agent I'm going to start up the agent python agentp run and then I'm going to enter the query so this is a wordy one what is the current weather forecast in the largest city north of the city where the team that finished second in the Premier League season played its last match right let's go ahead okay the planning agent has started doing exp thing so let's see what it's saying to to generate searches for this query I'll need to break it down into smaller parts hey that's good that's a good start let's see what smaller parts what is the largest city north of largest cities north of specific EG London cities near location and their sizes we have a team that finished second in the 20203 2024 Premier League season played its last match so this is actually quite good that is one of the questions that we need to answer so location where team name played their last match in 2023 2024 Premier League season stadiums used by team named during the 2023 2024 Premier League the single most most important question might be largest cities north of Manchester and their weather forecast now yeah so this is where the reasoning breaks down it hasn't actually been able to identify the most important question because I would have said the most important question is to find out um where the team that finished second in the 20203 2024 Premier League season played its last match and arguably that could be broken down into small questions too so yeah that's kind of where the the logic fails there so we have nonetheless entered a a search query and search query is largest cities north of Manchester and their weather forecast so then we are visiting this site I think that says Wonderground tocom slwe forecast that leads so we're going in the complete wrong direction here actually but nonetheless we have returned a weather forecast even though it's completely the wrong one because we should be if we're answering this question correctly we should be getting the weather for Birmingham not leads and that's because of the reasoning fail here but hey the agent has managed to progress through to something and arguably this is more incorrect than Perle perplexity response because at least perplexity said it couldn't give us the answer whereas this is giving us an answer that isn't correct we'll check to see if this is a hallucinated source but I want to see what the data I want to see what the quality assurance agent says before I do those checks so let's see we've got a final response so based on the research provided I can see that the team that finished second in the 2023 2024 Premier League season is Manchester City that's wrong that's completely wrong and they play their home matches at the EAD stadium in Manchester the largest city north of Manchester is Le so um according to the weather forecast for from Weather Underground um there we go the current weather forecast for leads England United Kingdom is 73 degrees Fahrenheit and conditions are cloudy so we have provided the source I want to go into the source let's just have a look ah amazing so it is a real Source but there we go it's hallucinated because that link is linking me to the weather for San Francisco not leads so that is a complete hallucination Okay so we've G to the end of our parallel testing where we tested perplexity against my custom agent powered by llama 38 billion and if you recall of the all of the questions here we know that llama free 8 billion unfortunately didn't get anything right so that is a zero in terms of points tally for llama 3 8 billion for perplexity we got question one 2 3 4 and five correct and we didn't get question six and seven correct so if we tally the points we should have 15 points for perplexity so this is where it puts us on the Matrix so Lama fre is right at the bottom here at the F tier that's no slight on the model itself it's just the performance of the model you being used in my custom web search agent and perplexity which is obviously not being used in my custom web search agent but it's been used as a Benchmark in this case is at tier B now olama is an excellent tool and it really has democratized access to large language models because you can run them locally but for agent purposes I find that you are limited by your Hardware it's painfully slow to run OA models on your CPU if you don't have access to GPU for agent purposes you're only probably going to have access to the smaller o llama models if you try anything bigger than 8 billion if your laptop has any specs like mine and you're just running on your CPU and you try a model larger than an 8 billion size model it's going to be incredibly slow and you'll probably lose patience waiting for it to generate anything and I think the 8 billion model is just too small to be useful in any agent framework and if it is going to be useful in an agent framework it's probably having to do a tiny job something like I don't know text completion or something really small but for the most part I don't think it's going to be useful in an agent framework especially if that framework requires agents to perform complex activities now I am going to be doing another video and that video is going to be testing llama 3's bigger brother which is obviously the 70 billion model so I'll be testing that model and for that I'm going to be renting a GPU from rumod and I'll be hosting my own inference server on rod and I'll be using that to test the model so that will be faster and I anticipate that using the Llama 70 billion model is going to return much better results than using the 8 billion model and it might even come close to the performance of complexity so if you're interested in seeing that definitely check out my next video that's coming up if you enjoy this content give us a thumbs up remember to subscribe to the channel and in the comment section let me know if there's any more models that you would like me to test thanks for tuning in again and I'll see you on the next video

Celestial Powers Exploring the Majestic Gods of Chinese Mythology Deep Dive into Ancient Lore.en.srt

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,159 in the Chinese world view there are countless Gods every phenomenon that occurs and every flow of energy can be attributed to a God and they are all arranged in a complex Celestial hierarchy that confuses even most Chinese along with Confucian and Taoist deities as well as popular figures they are commonly revered as manifestations of heavenly energy one Mazu in Chinese mythology Mazu is the goddess of the sea closely associated with the goddess of Mercy guanine Mazu is the patron goddess of sailors fishermen and travelers she is especially popular in the coastal communities of southern China in places like fujian and Macau and in overseas Chinese communities it is not uncommon to see Mazu temples or shrines every few kilometers along Chinese Coastal roads 2. Nua in Chinese mythology Nua is considered the first being with the ability to procreate and is the creator of all Humanity ancient Chinese Society was fiercely matriarchal so Nua being the mother of all humans was considered a very important deity she is involved in various stories but is most commonly associated with China's creation myth and for saving Humanity by patching a hole in the sky after a great flood today Nua remains a popular deity and women who who need Divine help with marital matters or fertility problems usually pray to her in art she is usually depicted as a supernatural creature with a human face and a long Serpentine body but sometimes she is also drawn simply as a woman dressed in traditional Chinese honfu 3. foxy in Chinese mythology foxy is seen as Humanity's first male ancestor a culture hero and one of the most benevolent gods of ancient China foxy is credited with creating several innovations that benefited mankind such as the invention of the writing system fishing and the domestication of animals in art foxy is often depicted with the head of a human and the body of a snake like her sister Nua foxy is considered to be one of the most beloved deities in Chinese mythology because he brought civilization and all its benefits to humanity 4. Jade Emperor one of the most important and popular figures in Chinese mythology the Jade Emperor is the supreme ruler of Heaven and the first emperor of China he is also considered an especially important Taoist deity with all of his specialized roles and social hierarchies the Jade Emperor's Court parallels the structure of ancient Chinese monarchies the emperor's Justice benevolence and mercy were traits that true Chinese Emperors sought to emulate even today the Jade Emperor plays an important role in Chinese life especially around Chinese New Year during the New Year the Jade Emperor is said to judge each individual's character over the past year and punish or reward them accordingly so that you understand me as if he were the Chinese Santa Claus 5. shiwang mu shiwang mu or Queen Mother of the West is one of the oldest and most powerful goddesses in the Chinese Pantheon she has complete control over Life Death creation and destruction she is married to the Jade Emperor and attends the peaches of immortality in The Gardens of her Palace It is believed that shiwang mu was once a wild demon that lived in the mountains and caused catastrophic disasters after repenting of her evil ways she attained Enlightenment and became a goddess 6. Chang gay in Chinese mythology Changi is best known for stealing an elixir of immortality from her husband the legendary Archer Hao Yi and escaping from her to become the goddess of the moon one of the most important and popular stories in the Chinese Canon the story of Chang plays a central role in the Annual mid-autumn Festival in some versions of the myth she is doomed to repeatedly consume the herb for all eternity 7. Hao ye in Chinese mythology ho Yi is considered the greatest Archer of all time he is best known for marrying the moon goddess Changi and for shooting down nine of the ten Sons once an immortal who lived in the Palace of the Jade Emperor who ye made the decision to become a human in order to help Humanity in times of need 8. guanyin in Chinese mythology guanyin is the goddess of mercy and is considered the physical embodiment of compassion she is an All-Seeing and all-hearing being to whom worshipers call in times of uncertainty Despair and fear although she can take both male and female forms in Chinese tradition she is most often depicted as a woman 9. Sun Wukong in Chinese mythology Sun Wukong also known as The Monkey King is a trickster God who plays a central role in Wu Chang an adventure novel Journey to the West Wukong is blessed with unparalleled superhuman strength and the ability to transform into 72 different animals and objects each of his hair has transformative powers and he can also magically manipulate wind water and fire characterized by his short temper impatience and proneness to anger soon Wukong is one of the most important and beloved literary figures in Chinese culture measure in Chinese mythology Naja is a precocious adolescent deity who serves as the patron saint of young adults after gestating in her mother's womb for three years and six months Neja was born with superhuman strength and the ability to speak the Chinese myth of her is based on the Hindu god nalakuvara 11. long Wang in Chinese mythology long Wang rules the Seas and is known as The Dragon King he is a fearsome Guardian deity who controls all dragons sea creatures oceans and weather although he has a temper long Wang is seen as a symbol of good fortune and the mythological embodiment of the concept of Yang he is the most popular among the Chinese Coastal communities 12. Jeong kui known as The Demon Hunter is a Chinese deity and folk hero who fights ghosts frustrated by an unsightly appearance as a mortal he committed suicide and was granted Supernatural powers in the afterlife Legend has it that Zhong kui commands over 80 000 ghosts and demons himself 13. pangu in Chinese mythology pangu is a hairy horned beast considered the first living thing in the universe His Story begins before the beginning of time and serves as an explanation for the creation of the universe it is said that pangu was born from an egg that contained the entire Cosmos when he finally broke free he freed the universe and created the earth and the sky as one of the oldest stories in Chinese mythology the pangu myth has countless variations and before seeing the last top subscribe and give it a like it's a great help to me 14. Immortals the Bastian also called the eight Immortals are a group of Legendary Heroes from ancient times who fight for justice and defeat evil according to Chinese mythology popular during the tang and Shang dynasties the eight Immortals are said to live on a group of five islands in the bohi sea although they have always been an important part of Chinese oral history their stories were first recorded by the Ming Dynasty poet Wu Yuan Thai this group is considered especially important figures in taoism each of them has their own special item from which they draw their powers [Music] thank you [Music]

ChatGPT The Soul Eater - Nick Cave's Emotional Letter - Read by Stephen Fry.en.srt

00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:08,519 thank you dear Leon and Charlie in the story of the creation God makes the world and everything in it in Six Days on the seventh day he rests the day of rest is significant because it suggests that the creation required a certain amount of effort on God's part that some s of artistic struggle had taken place this struggle is the validating impulse that gives God's world its intrinsic meaning the world becomes more than just an object full of other objects rather it is imbued with the vital Spirit the pneuma of its creator chat GPT rejects any notion of Crea ative struggle that our endeavors animate and nurture Our Lives giving them depth and meaning it rejects that there is a collective essential and unconscious human Spirit underpinning our existence connecting us all through our mutual striving chat GPT is fast tracking the commodification of the human Spirit by mechanizing the imagination it renders our participation in the Act of Creation as valueless and unnecessary that songwriter you were talking to Leon who is using chat GPT to write his lyrics because it is faster and easier is participating in the erosion of the world's soul and the spirit of humanity itself and to put it politely should desist if he wants to continue calling himself a [Applause] songwriter chat gpt's intent is to eliminate the process of creation and its attendant challenges viewing it as nothing more than a time- wasting inconvenience that stands in the way of the commodity itself why strive it contends why bother with the artistic process and its accompanying trials why shouldn't we make it faster and easier when the god of the Bible looked down upon what he had created he did so with a sense of accomplishment and saw that it was good it was good because it required something of his own self and his struggle imbued Creation with a moral imperative in short love Charlie even though the creative act requires considerable effort in the end you will be contributing to the vast network of love that supports human existence there are all sorts of Temptations in this world that will eat away at your creative Spirit but none more fish than that boundless machine of artistic demoralization chat GPT as humans we so often feel helpless in our own smallness yet still we find the resilience to do and make beautiful things and this is where the meaning of life resides nature reminds us of this constantly the world is often cast as a purely malignant place but still the joy of creation exerts itself and as the sun rises upon the struggle of the day the Great Crested GRE dances upon the Water it is our striving that becomes the very essence of meaning this impulse this creative dance that is now being so cynically undermined must be defended at all costs and just as we would fight any existential evil we should fight it tooth and nail for we are fighting for the very soul of the world love [Music] [Music] Nick [Music]

Controversy Is My Daily Bread.en.srt

00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:03,719 professional YouTuber look at that okay let's see how do I use this I think hi no ones oh I figured it out I figured it out hi there hello met late of course I'm Southern Italian what did you expect hi not a German so uh yeah hello hello welcome welcome to my stream let me make sure that I'm connected here so I can look at everything like uh chats and whatnot let me just be a professional about this for once in my life and let's see welcome welcome view your channel so let's view my channel let's click live and here we have so I got I can see everything top chat let's go into live chat so I see everything welcome let me know if you can hear me well hello hello greetings greetings welcome everyone hi hi Return of the King hey Cobra King met we trust Willow here you well that's fantastic where hey Baron good to see you here you can hear me that's good good good we got to play a civilization game one of these days hello from Australia hey YouTube stop asking that's his name I'm not asking him to stop hi hi welcome welcome welcome everyone it's fantastic today get ready for a great live that we're going to have Fabio Valentini chiaia Mel sto hi stoa hi there what do you think of the BBC Z Claudius Claus I haven't seen it don't know what it is but if it's BBC I probably think it's horrible I'll I'll go out on a limb and then be pleasantly impressed if I'm wrong favorite pizza margarita my friend I'm a classical man Margarita an ancient Roman Empire hello polar bear it's good to have you here from San Antonio Texas we've got book dragon look at that that's a nice fancy name book Dragon let me make sure that the uh yeah there we go so okay everything seems to be okay very nice very nice do people often confus their name with Megatron like literally all the time for the last 11 years my friend that's how long I've been on this platform uh Community you must seek young pan oh gosh welcome everyone to the most fun streamer ever streamed we're going to have a great time how are you thank you mat matow I'm doing well hello from Texas hey Jimmy good to have you here from Romania Shogun daddy Romania so I should say Chach Diego chiao Diego many thanks for all that you do thank you the historical homesteaders I appreciate that you know trying to do uh the best evening from London says Jenny Marie hello from the United States of a US of a genz says YouTube stop asking hi hi hello from Norway yeah there you go Brazil Rodrigo I always like Metro modern Optimus Prime sounds good Yorkshire puddings I would add a child from aadan n Pat in Houston look at that I'm actually um looking at the Canadian armor it's one of the things I'm going to announce on this stream we've got a lot of nice topics to cover uh and one is the fact that I found an armor in Canada and he seems to be doing pretty well I mean he makes good stuff and uh um I'm looking because I'd like to begin collecting a maximilan set of armor interestingly enough I was always and I'm still am a big fan of Italian Northern Italian allh armor um but I've got to say the maximilan armor really grew on me I I'll let to tell you that mat wow thank you appreciate that you love my hair thank you very much it's very long uh let's see the ghost I can now see why you were talking so much about neanderthal the other day in stream yeah yeah yeah here I am the real Neanderthal with the Neanderthal ha here we are hi from Cyprus hey anre it's good to have you here today we've got got got a few stories to tell you got to going to have a great afternoon you've become a bread tuber I don't know what that is oh yeah Daily Bread you're right yeah of course I am a bread tuber I'm going to make my grandma told me maximilia came from Africa I wouldn't yeah wouldn't surprise me if uh what's his name professor says that I loved it how there was like a comment of an apologetic guy for the professor which I don't mind I mean if someone agrees with the professor and disagrees with me free country I say but um no it was just that people like that then they have to come in and start pulling all the you're a racist you're a bigger type of stuff and then at one point he was like oh you're all wrong and then I said okay well can you provide counter arguments please and but then again it's just it never works like that because he had to put into quotes yeah your team of academics are seriously doubt that they exist I'm like mate they appeared on screen like literally I had them and they had the guts to appear on stream for the whole world to see so the last thing you can say you disagree with them that's fine but saying that they don't exist at this point it's it's like complete utter nonsense and then all about like oh your team of academics blah blah blah you're not real academic I'm like okay tell me about your credentials usually I don't ask for credentials because I think the people can be knowledgeable uh on their own right even if they don't have a piece of paper but if you um try and say that we don't have uh you know an academic background then I'm going to ask it because you brought it up and so I'm going to say okay what are you your credentials oh now you're asking for my credential yes I am asking for your credentials it's credentials were Wikipedia by the way just so you know uh hello hello hello from Greece hi there uh let's see I'm going to spam you with request to review Cloud you I'll check it out you don't need to spam it I'll check it out see what happens when does the OverWatch stream start H I have no idea OverWatch yeah don't don't even get me started on OverWatch 2 literally salt and sugar in in Europe when you must be like a you must have been checking the channel out for like what 8 years is that when I said I was going to eight I will as long as I will Captain thank you for the $10 donation on your gaming channel can you review a video game Shoguns Empire hex Commander it's a game about managing Iram minu era tell your thoughts on it it sounds really good actually it's a very good idea I do since the third channel the one about gaming The Protector it uh it's really starting I mean starting to you know we hit the the ground running but you know I want to have a some ideas it's good to have um suggestions like that I appreciate Bon boom boom thank you for the $10 hey Metatron did you see the article about the modern field testing the wearability of ancient missan armor I haven't and that would be very interesting because whenever it's missan whenever it's Macedonian whenever is all of that sort of area in The Classical period um armor is absolutely stunning it's beautiful so if they recreate it and then they test it I imagine it would F extremely well but I haven't seen it so yeah yeah I know Patrick Wikipedia it's the thing it's like I'm not saying cuz then people kind of have to take my words and build weird stuff on them I'm not saying that you should never look at Wikipedia Wikipedia is fine to have an overall like very overall idea maybe to have some thoughts but you do need to keep in mind unfortunately that Wikipedia gets written by anyone and it gets changed by anyone uh case in point the latest page of Yas which like three four 500 changes within like 3 days it got locked because it was becoming a mess and at the end of the day uh it's it's it's okay to look at Wikipedia to have just an overall idea but then you need to go out of it you cannot use it and think that you know we could take that um as as like oh I did research I think research is really a word that is being I've seen like influencers hate that word I've seen influencers be like I did a lot of research and then they were like that's not research what you did then they describe what it is that is not what research means what do you think about the United Kingdom says D and I love the UK I used to that's where I picked up my English where I used to live as a teenager in my late teenage years that's where I I have a lot of great um memories from the UK and I hope to be able to take my wife cuz she's never been I'd like to take her to London like to take her to U you know all sorts of places Manchester live Liverpool and then maybe all the way up to Scotland would be great um so yeah I love the UK thos thank you for the 10 a lot of love from Cypress I appreciate that my friend thank you so much from one Islander to another you know people brought up in Islands what's funny actually is I spent apart from now that I'm in America but before this I spent my entire life on Islands because I was of course brought up in Sicily then I moved to England and then I moved to Japan it's like archipelagos everywhere in Islands um I'm just surrounded by water I suppose Captain Nang nyang uh oh by the way been following since 2017 yeah that is uh that is impressive my friend that's some dedication right there appreciate that thank you so much uh every time you pronounce yasa I think about The Witcher um I don't understand the reference though because when it comes to The Witcher i' never played the third one and I've only played the first one I think so uh I'm not that knowledgeable I watched the TV series of course um love that it was really good Patrick says I'm learning Japanese right now fantastic if you have any question I mean I will start streaming on my language Channel Metatron Academy in fact I'm thinking of making a a dedicated stream I'll let you know here as well in case you want to come and join in I want to make a a stream of an hour where I change language every 60 seconds on the clock I'm going to do it I'm going to do it and the reason why I'm going to do it is first because it's good practice second it's probably good for people to see how language switching on the spot works it's something that I practiced a lot uh in my life with my previous profession um I was a simultaneous interpreter for some time uh before being a teacher before being a YouTuber um and uh but also because I think it would be a good a good way to see like this is how you actually speak languages not because I want to be like oh I know it all but because there are too many people that just pretend and just record pre ized sentences and I have to jump cut every like 3 seconds and pretend that they fluent they piss me off I just can't help it I can't help it pisses me up so I might do that it's going to be great hey William and my wife thinks I look like you be it as it may I love your content well I do see the picture you look like yeah I think you look cooler than me to be honest you look like a freaking like Dyan you've got the mustache you've got a little more curly hair than mine Robert so very cool say hi to your wife she has got good tasty men let's put it this way uh let's see Metatron the goat yeah yeah to today we today I'm going to switch I'm going to switch a bit we're going to use a few languages today but yeah I've been using chat GPT for that it's great for practicing languages I don't like it for for gathering information all forms of AI you got to be careful but for practicing languages you ask the AI speak Japanese and then he starts speaking Japanese and it's great and then we're speaking and then I'm like okay switch switch to French switch to Chinese I've been doing this uh daily and it's fantastic because it actually holds a conversation um ghost Prodigy would you judge my historically accurate swh I build I made in Elden ring it's on my channel ghost Prodigy Absolutely I'll check it out I'll absolutely do that uh I'm going to make streaming a weekly thing by the way I I don't want to do more than weekly I know that are channels that like stream every other day or like five six times a week I don't want to do that but I do want to make because I like the interaction with you it's fun it's good and um yeah so uh I will will choose a day and then it will just happen every week same time 3 p.m. um Central uh and then yeah so we we we I'll be able maybe I'll I'll have a full-on professional setup like those professional YouTubers do uh where where I where you can see the screen and I can click on stuff and I can show you armor I mean today I'll do it too but I'll just have to turn around the phone because I don't know what I'm doing but you know eventually um Metatron what do you think about Welsh I think B that's all I know but I think it's a cool language pineapple pizza have a blessed day hey mustard scaven that is yeah that is exactly what a scaven who's into mustard would say exactly what it would say 100% greetings metatrons have you practiced hea says Mr brain freeze thank you for the donation both of you goes pigy and Mr brain freeze uh I have yes I used to practice hea it's just that unfortunately uh what happened is that back in the day when I was in Sicily I was practicing kenjutsu koru and I really wanted to practice Hima but there was no Club so what we did is that we started meeting with my friends and we would watch videos online from from great channels like I don't know Dave from London l long sword and other like channels that you know instruct hea we watched Matt hon we watched a few of these and then we tried to uh to learn from that it's not great because basically there was no teacher it's not like I could teach Hima but you know we I had experience with sorts so like fencing Trad Olympic fencing I did a little bit of that and I did of course Kendall uh I was doing kutu I'm like you know what I'll try so we' studied it a little bit like that don't know if it counts and then um after that I did go to London and went to a few hea clubs a few times and then here in America I went a few times um I'd like to practice more to be honest I love hea but yeah I'm like I would be like a super beginner basically thank you Diego for the donation okay so he's writing in Italian and he's saying if you come to prag Prague sorry Prague uh before you go visit waro Studio tell me and I'll take you out and buy you a beer I appreciate that thank you so much gra M uh so yeah Samuel raid or ride what thank you for the donation what are your thoughts on the book Russian icon by Vladimir ianov I know I have no idea I know I heard it before it rings the bell uh but yeah are you planning on learning any endangered or rare languages sure I mean first I want to let me finish this so I'm sorry that I don't know much about that book which is why I'm it's not that I'm dismissing your your your comment is just that I don't know how to provide commentary to it I do appreciate the donation though I'll see because Russian icon I'll have to see when it comes to other languages I want to finish the ones that I that I've engage been engaging with and uh trying sort of tackling for like the last better part part of two decades uh so I'm pretty happy with my Japanese I'm happy with my well of course about English of course I'm fine with English I mean I I still make the same mistakes that I used to make like 10 years that I think that just I just don't get like people keep correcting me like metat that's not how you pronounce that English word I'm like I I I know it just doesn't work but apart from that I'm happy where I am with my English I'm happy where I am with my Japanese I need to improve my Mandarin today I'm going to use a little Mandarin maybe later and then um and then my French needs work once I'm done with these and I feel that I'm fluent enough then I will perhaps look into something like that um Baron thank you for the donation hello love your videos I have a question though do you think slabs and Vikings are similar in some ways in some ways sure um I think there is some interaction that I I know I've read about some interaction between the two I'll have to revisit of course different people but still there is for example Bing influence down here in I say here now in America but like in Sicily William Blackwood I know I have an accent when I speak French but uh I hope is not too problematic when it comes to understanding what I'm saying uh let's see but Italian food is awesome anyway absolutely random person I like pineapple and pizza but I don't pretend it's authentic on a similar note I enjoy Taco Bell goodness good luck with that and uh yeah pineapple and pizza yeah I mean if you like it you know I'm all about personal freedom including my freedom to make fun of you uh but sure if you want to live your like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat that's a difficult one I do have a Mortal Kombat cabinet and I bought that one before I I am planning to buy the street fighter cabinet eventually um arcade one up makes these and they're relatively affordable particularly when compared to original ones that can be extremely expensive but yeah I do have my Super Street Fighter here CU today we're going to talk a little bit about this so I'm a huge fan of both maybe Moral Kombat but it depends if motal Combat 2 yeah but then when you go into like the 3D motoc Kombat era it starts to like kind of lose points with me if if you know what I mean okay Antichrist hater hello have you ever done research read books on Ancient survivalism not ancient survivalism per se I'm interested in like I'm a prepper if that's what not not not like conspiracy theory level but I am someone who likes to have things prepared but I don't know exactly ancient survivalism probably are you talking about like yeah there is a guy actually I read his a little bit of his book it's like this guy who would go into the into the forest and live there uh for like years cutting any I think that's what you're talking about uh but yeah have you considered Captain lamp thank you for the donation have you considered branching out and reaching reacting to Italian cooking channels no no honestly I'm already trying to kind of focus my channel a bit more that's why I moved all the language stuff into the dedicated second Channel Metatron Academy and I moved video game review an old school vintage into the third Channel because I don't want my channel to be too wide in scope because that can actually hurt performance U so no I'm not going to Branch out into reviewing food uh Manu Manu thank you for the donation Metatron I'm not aware of that book he's asking me about a specific book by felich VIN I imagine the author omo Balo Homer in the Baltic will be the transl I suppose uh I've never heard of that book so I don't I don't know plus you know book reviews don't do well unless you're a book Channel or a book talk talker as focused on like that making I've tried doing book reviews back in the day they would perform so horribly on the Channel that I was like no this is going to hurt the channel in the long run so I kind of gave up um maybe a mention of a book here and there as part of a different video perhaps but like dedicated book reviews just they just don't work Not for Me Maybe for other people I just maybe I'm boring when I do that I don't know how to do them not true Master scaven pineapple pizza your French is pretty good thank you still got to work it has an accent but I can understand what you're saying quite well pineapple authentic Italian style you are getting blocked now I'm joking could you imagine I started blocking everyone like uh what's his name wasn't it like wings of Liberty I have nothing against the guy by the way he's I think he's cool but didn't he go into like a massive of blocking everyone during streams at one point I occasionally watch him uh the historical home thank you for the donation have you ever looked at the society for Creative as anachronism or do you do other Recreation reenactment uh for Rea for for reenacting what like the medieval period are we talking um well back in Italy I used to do a little bit of ancient Roman reenactment but then since I moved to the US I never actually joined any group I'd like to uh I need to kind of finish up my armor though it's been it's been like so difficult because European prices are much better than American prices like things here are so expensive and you know I'm not going to be like of course yeah the channel is successful so I'm already very blessed and I'm grateful for the financial security that has come particularly lately I have to say the channel is doing really well and all your support on patreon like all of this really puts me in a good position but then again like some things are so much more expensive here in America and it's always difficult to be like yeah I could order it from distance but how about the measurements I mean there are things that are not really forgiving particularly when it comes to play so you know I've been looking into opportunities and so I I just have to finish the legs if I don't do the legs I don't feel like I can go and react I mean I could because people did do that in the medieval period we see people just wearing a Kass and a helmet and wearing no legs this did happen so I mean at the end of the day it would be like kind of a half hmer configuration but but yeah what's up Metatron a crisp 3D everything is good DJ medos thank you for the $10 Metatron if Kaiser had survived the eyes of March would he have attacked the Paran Empire and if he did could he have been Victorious I don't know if he would have focused this necessarily against the Paran Empire I think it could have been a situation of in my opinion if he survived we might have witnessed another civil war in Rome because there were people that supported him and people that hated him so if the assassination failed you know I think that that could have been maybe they would have had to take care first of inner uh conflicts before moving into foreign policy again just my thought uh T walk down econom is not doing so well in America right now I know there are so many people that are struggling really feel for it uh I hope that America kind of puts itself back into a position where more and more people uh uh you know can Thrive within the system I think that's how you can measure the success of a system it's about talking about how much of the population is actually managing to thrive the chos onx thank you for the donation thoughts on immersive history like fall of civilization voters of the past also would you rather have Elon Musk money or medii money I think we're talking about money probably Elon Musk money I mean the guy is worth 200 billion goodness gracious but I might use it in the medich way give me that kind of money then I could try and establish a the medich situation something like that uh navaran oh yeah Metatron will you ever do a video showcasing your awesome gaming gamer cave I already have it's it's on my third channel the protectorate um if you go into my channel page and you scroll all the way down you do see my other channels the the gaming one is the purple that's the uh because every channel has its own color scheme by the way this is how insane I am when it comes to these things the Metatron Central is a 70% blue 30% orange color scheme you'll see it a lot in my on my thumbnails and then um uh yeah the protectorate is more of a of a kind of a retro purple pink kind kind of a neon and then Metatron Academy is green and red so it's always contrasting colors uh so yeah and when it comes to immersive history I'm not not really sure about what that is so I don't know hobocop thank you for the donation hop goodness gracious you guys in your ideas your names our my friend apologies if you have already went over this I was wondering for how long uh did the Italians called the SS Romans before embracing Italian Italian is very recent I mean we're talking 170 180 years but the word Italia is as ancient as as wrong it's just that the definition of the word like from a geographic perspective in The Early Republic Italia was just mostly Central Italy then Italia became it hit the Alps at the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire and then it expanded to the islands so already this is an answer that I actually give to people who are ignorant and say you're not Italian you're Sicilian and I'm like do you understand and I give them the quotes in Latin I'm like do you understand that Sicily has been part of Italy since the freaking principate the principate so even before the unification of Italy by Garibaldi but um and also italiani as a word was actually the name of a people in southern western Italy specifically modern day Calabria they were a people and they were called italiani so uh as words they've been in use for literally ever uh but of course words change meaning uh it's just how it is and then you know even like the the most recent video I made I posted it yesterday about Neanderthal and I was talking and the way I was using the word spee uh it also changed the way what we consider to be a species now as a definition has changed over the last I want to say two decades very much uh so there is that simply austing hello there you got a tick so you're a YouTuber as well been binging your videos lately found you from Shogun breakdowns fantastic really good content giving none modern in history thank you absolutely my friend thank you so much for watching I appreciate that and uh it's good to have you here let me let me see yeah so just don't want to misclick how was your day hey ronic I got something to tell you actually this morning we bought a new TV and I've got a little bit of a story and I think you might consider me as a conspiracy theorist after I tell you the story and if you wish to do so you may but we got this new TV because you see 5 years ago I bought the TV that my wife and I use you know we have it in we have had it in my in our living room then we moved it to the to the uh bedroom room and that's what we we've been using for watching stuff and and we've been using it for 5 Years cuz I bought it when you know we weren't even engaged it was just my girlfriend we moved into this the previous apartment and I'm like hey we need a new TV let's get a TV and we've used it for 5 years and it basically broke it didn't work anymore it was impossible we tried to use the remote just it just wouldn't work so we bought today's TV which is really nice which is really nice and um you know it's it's an OLED panel I mean we needed a new TV it's great but here is the conspiracy part of it how is it that modern tech dies after five freaking years I'll show you what I'm talking about I'll show you and I have these two computers this is from 1981 and this is from 1987 and they work perfectly perfectly and when when I say perfectly I'll prove it to you I'm going to turn them on before you say well yeah Metatron says they work perfectly but maybe they don't know they do and I'll show you I'll turn it on in a little bit for you to see how is it that that's why I'm saying maybe maybe I'm a little bit of a conspiracy theorist when it comes to this but it really feels like modern stuff is not built to built to stay it's not built to last it's built to break like I don't know it's like in that's what it feels like as a customer as a as someone who purchased the stuff I'm like I bought that thing in 1987 it still works perfectly was built to last but now stuff dies after 5 years it feels like it's done on purpose so I need to keep buying stuff constantly over and over that's why I'm saying maybe it sounds a little bit like a conspiracy theorist but is it really because I still have all the floppy discs are 40 plus years old they all work maybe I've got a couple that got a little bit of mold in in them but still VHS they were supposed to fail after 20 years I still have them I have Ninja Turtles on VHS they work Matthew thank you for the donation appreciate that let me check it out agree disagree top five historical generals five fifth Hannibal then kaar taka shingen bonapar belisarius I would put Kaiser a little higher in the list Hannibal absolutely but if you have Hannibal on the list you absolutely should have skipy africanos because he kicked his ass uh so I mean kind of agree disagree a little bit but you did choose some really good ones must scaven pineapple pizza is the best you heard me Metatron say it do you think Western eony will enure or four in the next years well I'm not sure I mean we'll have to see what you mean exactly by Western eany you're talking economical you talking about what specifically uh but when it comes to pineapple and pizza if we want I keep throwing money at me to say to to to say something that isn't right and I mean by all means I need to recover from this from the TV I bought I'm a big fan of MOT Kombat too me too my friend I'll tur it on for you today today I'm turning everything on for you guys we're going to have a great time uh you would like Demetrio says I would love to me another video about Shogun I I'm preparing It episode is coming coming out soon being posting like a Mania ex so they they will happen it will happen soon planned obsolesence yeah there we go so at least more people think like me a little bit like that's not just me Neo prototype Metatron I saw your post on Nick Retta Rita Raa I don't know how to read it I've known him since the dick masteron St and I've met him twice well I'm glad I'm glad to hear that as I say I don't want to kick someone while they're down I've been thinking about this situation cuz he did make a video about me and it wasn't very nice so it's like I don't know should I discuss this maybe see what people think I've been thinking about it for now I just limit it on uh on that because I don't know there is a lot of alleged alleged alleged and I want to see what professionals say before like you know the court of public opinion is never something that should be considered too much so there's that it's a shame you know addiction really I don't I don't feel like I can judge addiction because I've never have been addicted to anything in my life I've always like never smoked tobacco I've never done anything like that um so I understand it's a struggle and I pray for those who who deal with that we don't know what leads but and don't do drugs by the way if you're watching this don't do drugs don't drink and drive guys don't do it doesn't matter if a popular YouTuber does it you don't need to do that don't emulate that if if you're younger of course I'm speaking now um but apart from that when there is kids involved I mean I don't want to speak too much cuz I need to read more about it but if you're a if you're a father you need to get your together that's that's what I think it it comes with the job it's a responsibility even for me yeah and then I don't want to talk about it too much cuz I don't want to sound like oh I'm virtual signaling look at me that's not it it's not what I'm trying to say so that's why I kind of kept it to Twitter for now and we'll see if it goes somewhere the historical home thank you for the donation when you did hea did you use German long sword or bolog both I tried bolog a little bit and I tried the German one I mean there are there is a lot of overlap of course so I think they they're both great they're both great Spyro hey there thank you for the donation me Spectrum plus two from 1989 still works perfectly greetings from naan gree hello um Kima Kisa and Alexander the Great should be in the top five I I agree with you absolutely should be in the top five Captain thank you helping a fellow subscriber question by Max Baker any Japanese or Italian films you'd recommend gosh Italian films I don't watch much Italian TV to be honest Japanese maybe if you're into horror there are a couple of good horror Japanese movies so otherwise I'd go for old school stuff like kurawa Akira or maybe like if you're in to really well done anime not like bad stuff but like I'm talking um Miyazaki haa style then I would suggest that always like even monok princess monok is fantastic as a samurai story with some fantasy aspects it's pretty good uh uh so Antichrist hater would you be thank you for the donation would you be interested in coming on to the I hate the Antichrist podcast to give testimony about God's Supernatural intervention in our lives uh we'll see I don't know we we'll have to see I usually don't talk too much about religion sometimes I do sometimes I don't going to other people's podcast is not something in fact it's an honor for me to for people to even consider having me into their podcasts and I respect that very much regardless of how many subscribers you have for that podcast or the regular exposure it's just that I'm really bad at organizing things like that it takes me forever I'm terrible with deadlines so I I'll think about it and then we'll see if it's something because I have so many projects I'm trying to write my first book and publish it this year I'm working on a interactive experience I'm already to 200 videos in they're all unlisted that's why you don't know anything about it but it's it's already working and it look it's looking really good um so I have to see I've got a lot of things that need that have kind of priority that need to get done and right now as you know I post every other day on this channel and I want to go start going live every every week so we'll see Messianic resources thank you for the donation I don't think it's a conspiracy theory businesses like to strike a balance between Effectiveness and ineffectiveness to keep customers coming back that's the impression I'm getting with modern tech when compared to Old School Tech which was clearly built to last like people wanted custom it's like it's like the um customer was the main focus like we want to make sure that they're happy and that we build a reputation that our stuff remains you know and you can trust us that's how it was back in the 80s in the 70s now it's like we already got the business so let's just use psychology and tricks to exploit the people that's what it feels like now um Cosimo thank you for the donation hey raap have you consider reacting to AR Romanian it's a mix of Romanian and Greek vocabulary influence maybe on the second Channel could be interesting thank you for the for the suggestion uh mustard scaven please have some more money so you can recover from the new TV but I clipped a part where you said pineapple pizza is the best my friend sounds good I appreciate that thank you H that's really funny so yeah that's that's the TV situation to be honest but anyway we got a new TV I'm happy with that tonight we're going to watch maybe we could watch because we I still need to finish Shogun we could try and watch that I don't remember if it's in 4k if it's 4K streaming or not but that'd be nice Ian Noak Metatron to what degree does AI ravaging art makes you make you sad I haven't really looked too much into the a I know it's a big deal right now a Shad has been talking a lot about AI art I've seen scall sharing his ideas about AI art and there it seems to be like people with completely opposite positions I don't use it I'll be honest with you I'm kind of old school I pay artists for their jobs my thumbnails I pay an artist to do them um so I I kind of prefer to work like that uh I understand using it as a tool I also understand when people complain about their Works being heavily taken so maybe there there need to be some regulations to make both parties happy I'm not saying completely don't use it but I'm also saying there is you know some people's rights need to be protected so I don't know it's it's a it's a difficult situation so I don't really think I have an opinion because I haven't looked into it enough and I might be moving or discussing discussing based on maybe a misconception because I haven't looked into it well uh but yeah it's it's a it's it's a serious topic I mean there are people's jobs there are people that do that like I'm a YouTuber there are people that their job is being an artist and producing art and it takes time it takes dedication and so I understand why they may feel feel threatened up to a certain extent I do understand that absolutely um let's see Yo catch the stream love your work Metatron thank you black Garrett I appreciate that uh Dave I'm third generation Italian American I still am against pineapple and pizza and you should continue to be teach your kids absolutely protect tradition Leonard way it depends on the item but if you spend a lot on a product and take care of it it will generally last normally I would agree with you but then again I've had this from the '90s it looks like new so uh I take care of my stuff and sometimes stuff still breaks that's why I'm thinking is it a design hey ghost Prodigy you my favorite historical YouTuber I appreciate that thank you so much matow Metatron I'm icted to alcohol well I hope you can kind of relax with that because alcohol can be really dangerous uh you know learn to drink sometimes for fun but it's also important to keep it in check I hope you can um receive help to that with that H me 676 do you like Minecraft no let's see met love your videos thank you Magnus pineapple and pizza let's go says V you can you can you're more them free to be wrong I mean it's fine you know Freedom Peter Gross Metatron what is your favorite piece of Japanese literature I've read English translation of highing H Hi H monogatari and the tale of Genji Genji monogatari was pretty good um gosh what was that one yeah anyways there was the whole monogatari thing I think is one of my favorite because that's what we used to study at University and we did so many takori monogatari we did Genji monogatari we did so many and yeah the whole Journal type of monogatari version where they like with writing down their stories are pretty good I like um uh the monsters and Spirits the yorai is probably my favorite part though Master gaven thank you for your donation you've been very generous today regardless that might get you 50% 50% um forgiven for the pineapple and pizza concerning Yas the stien quote is a big one but I saw a guy say that that word for stien is not a su typen well no because this that word the first pair of Kani that you're showing is absolutely used and connected to Samurai like absolutely there is no question now um as I say the stien is not a definitive proof that Yas was Samurai but it is a possible indicator that needs to be taken into consideration together with other things I'm going to post I've already filmed it and it's being edited I'm posting a video to talk specifically about name names and surnames in feudal Japan and land ownership these are two aspects that once again have been brought forth by people discussing this idea of yasa being samur or not and I decided to kind of Deep dive a little bit and present these uh to once again give you a sort of more neutral position on this and it will be posted very soon on the channel and that's it the historical when you did Hima did you oh yeah you did ask me German long s bologi yet both sorry I went back up bit too much I do that because I want to make sure that's funny AR and that's fair I've never had an addiction has a room full of games yes gaming is my addiction you're absolutely right at least games don't apart from the I imagine uh chemicals that are produced by you know playing and having reward activating the reward system apart from naturally occurring chemicals I don't put other chem external chemicals into my body that's the thing that I haven't had experience with let's put it this way yeah uh let's see are you planning a video on the historical accuracy of Inland Saga I think skallagrim did that um I haven't watched it I've just watched Skyrim's video on it and uh so I don't know maybe we'll see let's see have you played Kingdom Come no one the first one yes absolutely I mean back in the day I did a 12-hour stream of me playing Kingdom C Deliverance I'm talking like really back in the day and uh it's a good game I want to actually re re retake it now that I've seen the uh trailer for the second one it got me into like hey I want to replay the first one because when I played it I had a horrible computer and so I had to play it like in freaking 720P and it looked horrible um so then I started playing it on the PS4 because at least it would look a little better but still I think with my new computer uh I might be able to play it in 4k so I'd like to try that DJ medos thank you for the donation under the right circumstances and the right conditions could the Roman Empire have survived to the modern era yeah sure under the right circumstances and right conditions absolutely why not with the right people in charge as well sure alorius thank you for the donation metaton you me hell divers to R battle cries into the voice chat as we slay automatons for the glory of Rome for the glory of Rome my friend but I have never played that game so I probably die bolog sounds delicious absolutely bolog it's great and you can use a sword to cut the meat and make it maybe you could do like a 50% beef and 50% low fat and 50% pork so you could make your could be good uh but yeah montante superiority montante is such a good word I know in Italian we say spadon but montante sounds good to me as an Italian it kind of sounds like it's it's it could also be an Italian word absolutely I mean it is it's just that usually we don't use it to refer to the sword we just say spadon but it sounds really good to me um Japanese games or Western games it depends because there are some Japanese games like Final Fantasy Tactics a jewel but then there are also like you know Elder Scrolls Oblivion Skyrim and all those Western games that Fant fantastic too kind of depends do you like one piece not really not my cup of tea Messianic resources thank you for the donation again I appreciate that uh I don't think it's a conspiracy theory businesses like to strike a balance between Effectiveness and ineffectiveness yeah well I understand yeah sure maybe I did read that one already but hey here we are uh okay there is a question metaton always wanted to ask spaghetti alio I've heard people pronounce a skip the a which is correct how do you should be pronounced alio no you do need to pronounce the you don't Sayo you have to say alio it's just that when Italians speak first since they are three vowels right [Music] Alo so you have this Oo we don't really but this every native does it really in their own languages we speak it fast so we say alio so it's if I were to speak it slowly and enunciate enunciate properly I would say Al EO no one speaks like that so alio you can if you speak fast but even in that case I'm still saying the the e in between Ao oio no one says that you need to say the the e in between the rambling thank you for the donation hey Metatron I'm in history uni right now and it's partly because I watched you when you like uh 5 years ago for Game Theory debunk video and got a huge Boost from my your videos that's fantastic I'm glad to hear that you know that's the only situation which I'm happy to carry the the the name influencer which I normally hate but if if it's that kind of influence more than happy alorius thank you for the donation actually serious question now do we have a record of Roman recipes for Foods yes we do and would you consider making one or two for a video uh I did a collaboration with my friend's Channel you better call Sal S A Al um we did a couple of collaborations like that and we recreated some Roman bread and Roman pasta uh but maybe a modern video maybe I don't know we'll have to see kind of it's kind of outside the scope of the channel right now but maybe Master scaven thank you for the donation you you're paying off my my first uh what is it called uh installment my grandma mother always told me don't listen to what anyone tells you metaton was a Greek woman well your grandma grandma and their and their statements about history right what can you do my friend cosim malaster uh yeah I've already read that one thank you uh let's see let's see let's see people are paying for the brand nowadays not for the quality often times that that happens laurian um and we also all have our own like personal PR favorites right and it is what he is I suppose hey matw thank you for gifting a Metatron membership I appreciate that thank you so much this there's going to be some good stuff coming up on me ships by the way I'm starting to work because I want to offer something and it will happen soon it's everything is happening behind the scenes because before I announce something I kind of want to make sure that everything is there but uh but I appreciate that thank you aspara you one of my favorite YouTubers thank you so much five Robbie Rob gifted five metadon memberships thank you so much for that you're being great the number ones a lot of support in the first 47 47 minutes where I feel like we been talking for like 5 minutes who's been here since the beginning does it feel like 47 minutes that's insane Wow Let's see bantine Empire would be nice math man I did have one but it wasn't like as deeply researched as I would like it to be we might do it together with the with the team now since I could split the amount of research that could be nice Sir Thomas Drake thank you for the donation is their Merit to arguments that gilgames and enidu may not be gay because of the Myriad of sources yeah the thing is that we don't know for sure but my team and I after having reviewed the uh tale of Gilgamesh in Acadian um because we have someone who actually reads it in the team a former archaeologist we believe that it's more probable that an erotic entanglement between the two is highly possible so that's our stance right now and I know that it pissed off some people when I made that statement on a dedicated video you should check it out it's my video on um instances very rare instances of what could be considered same-sex marriage in history and we talked about this tale because even though initially I myself thought that no there were just it was just brotherly love when we looked at it from the perspective of the Acadian language and then we see that right before Gilgamesh meets enidu right he has this crazy dream and he sees an axe coming down from the sky and then he sees a sphere coming down from the sky and it and then he has sex with these objects and then you might think well that's just something weird that they wrote in the Bronze Age but when you look at the language then you'll notice that axe in in Acadian the word for it it actually sounds almost exactly like the word for a male prostitute so then and that's already it's kind of a it's a play on words that only someone who understands aradian like people in in in in period would have absolutely got it and so since that is very specific and it's also similar to the sphere situation they all have to do it's like a double meaning and that was right before meeting in kidu I think that it's possible to say yeah I think there is something it doesn't mean that he was homosexual it means that he was probably by um and so and again people in power in The Classical period they could I don't know if I can say this but I'm just going to say it they could whoever they wanted okay that's how it was they had power they did whatever they wanted so I think it's more probable that within the tale of Gilgamesh I know that there are some YouTubers that disagree with that that's fine I respect that but we looked at it from a very neutral perspective very neutral perspective and then reviewing the data and reviewing the language and reviewing the words I'm like yeah I think there is something here I think there is something here which in period I mean you know it would have made sense within that culture uh that they would have understood that yeah you're right it's that you know my channel better than me back at it you're right it's I did make a dedicated video to gilgames Cole did I say gilgames was gay uh that's still I think somewhat I think I changed the title at one point but yeah I did I do have a dedicated video to this specific finding so that I can provide the terminology on screen and people can go and check it for themselves but we went in there with you know that I have no political pandering like I I I fight it I literally fight it when they have to take a character and be like yeah this we know for a fact that this was like a I don't know a white Scandinavian male and you're turning it into a lesbian uh woman like and they change everything and you know how I am when it comes to that but if we look at it and the data seems to suggest very strongly that yes this was a situation of samesex Attraction I'm going to say it precisely because uh I have no interest in pushing that that's what I think I see that you you think that the axe thing is a misinterpretation but then again I had that interpretation from professionals so I I see Neo prototype I respect that that's what you think and if you think hey no I don't care I think that in my opinion there is nothing same same SE that's fine if that's what you want to think I'll respect that but I talked with people that are very much professionals and very well respected when it comes to this so I'm going to need something stronger right so you I need someone to come there and really show it can't just be something that someone on the internet says and if if good uh evidence is provided I'll change my mind Baron says why does folk seem to think if a character in history that if they are attracted to the same gender somehow discredits or lessons then kind of ridiculous to me I personally don't care it doesn't change anything I mean at the end of the day Hadrian whatever his sexual life was was a brilliant General uh even juliia Caesar we know he was kind of made fun of because of some entanglement that he had the sexuality of a character is only interesting from an anthropological standpoint when it comes to me and also when it comes to a correct representation of what actually happened in their lives that's all uh that's that's all I care about so if people try to change it for for because they want a panda to a specific very extreme left positioning I'm going to debunk it but if people are going to try and delete it because they want to Panda to the other side and a far right positioning where they are trying to delete it I'm not saying all right Wingers too I'm not saying all left Wingers to I'm just talking about the extremes here and then I'm going to debunk it too I'm going to debunk it if it's nonsense I'll debunk it hey Alisa thank you so much thank you for your content you are pride of Italy for Italy thank you so much I appreciate that thank you let's see what is your opinion on Sardinian maggot cheese they can keep it but in general Sardinian food and cheese is fantastic so that's kind of a the exceptional to the rule void says my grandmother said Cleopatra was black then again my grandmother would sacrifice a chicken to ease child birth you know what that is a good example you know how someone I told you in the previous stream uh sorry video that someone called me meta woke because I wasn't debunking whatever they wanted me to debunk even though I had proof of the contrary um well it happened again so I was I was on Twitter and someone was like you pandering to the woke really so I'm pondering to the W I'm the guy when everyone was shutting up I'm the guy who stood up took a camera and said this my grandma said Cleopatra was black is nonsense and I took the hit for it and I didn't falter I stood and I said it how it was so no I don't Panda to the woke but I'm also not going to Panda to people who call everyone woke for no reason so there is that hey Chris thank you for the donation hey meton huge fan thank you I'm making a history pod and our third season will be on the First trium Rate and the fall of the Republic probably my my will be couple of years from now let's pretty cool couple of years from now like that's that's a proper planning I mean I can't even plan next week props to you for that and matwell thank you for gifting another membership you're great supporter of the channel I appreciate that thank you so much Chris LFC 92 thank you for the donation also one would love to have you on as a guest in the future for an episode to any sources you'd recommend keep out the good work uh sources about what specifically and you don't need to donate for that again if you don't want to I mean if you want to feel free but I'm saying if you wanted to give me sources about what specifically because I kind of lost what we were talking about a second ago uh Raphael thank you for the donation was the Latium or Latium latio region economically important around the 13th century yes it was or was more just the presence of the holy city can't find any specifics it was absolutely important but I think 13th century it's when things start to shift already towards not only the Vatican and Tuscany uh as centers of culture and and wealth but also southern Italy let's not forget that the idea that Milan is Rich but southern Italy is poor it's very very recent I mean the kingdom of two sicilies was where a lot of wealth was for the entirety of the medieval period so um that's something that often people forget and of course you know the Millan style of armor and all the guilds all of that was important too but there was a lot of wealth down south um and things kind of changed uh similar to how things have changed as well in Japan between like Kyoto which is still in the mind of people over there the traditional Capital because of the old Imperial period and then Tokyo I mean when during the time of Kyoto's height Tokyo or Edo wasn't that it wasn't much but then it changed when they moved the Shogun there and it became the nalic center of military enforced power which is very different from traditional Imperial power there two different concepts Matthew thank you for the donation what's your favorite passage from the Bible from a linguistic perspective why would you love to have some unique trivia to stamp my mom I don't know about the last one the last part but I don't know if I have a favorite Passage from a linguistic perspective but I do like genesis a lot when it comes to the L Linguistics of it um and then of course a few passages in the New Testament too although then we are going into Greek rather than uh hi there the wife is here to join us very nice and Robbie bomb gifted five me metat memberships look at that oh my goodness that's so generous thank yeah know people have been amazing they're literally carrying the stream they're carrying the stream oh my gosh you guys are amazing that's so kind so hello everyone Hi chat I'm not going to stay I just wanted to come say hi and hope everyone is having a great day yes and you know we are all that are you okay are you too hot um a little hot yeah maybe if you can increase a little bit oh it's closed yeah thank you I didn't notice that that's why I'm getting hot I've got I've got the air conditioning shut down gosh Nintendo from Kyoto you're right oh F polytheist did you read about the Nintendo's like uh life of the the big Guy the one that looks like a like he's dead now but I always liked him a lot can't remember his name but he looks like a final boss and the way he speaks in the interviews the old guy with the glasses he was so cool um so yeah let's see you should have this little n oh no no thank you I made it uh it's cute but yeah uh let's see put him up here all right Chad oh you opened that thank thank you so much you might want to maybe make it a little colder oh yeah thank you thank you cuz I'm wearing the arming dublet not the greatest choice I suppose but hey I like it I like my tradition everybody bye yeah yeah Neo prototype that's your sister not wife nerds don't get girls I'm the I'm the proof of the opposite my friend I got very lucky let's see oh yeah everyone was saying hello Kenzie hello Kenzie I I'll I'll text it to her so that she knows that she was being uh saluted let me just texted to her they all said hello boom there you go we did that we're going to look at a little bit at one of my favorite museums today together which is the Met Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York we're going to look at some of the armor because as I told you I'm trying to build little by little a maximon set of armor and I'm starting with the gauntlets then I'm going to go into the helmet and then I'll start building the the quas hopefully it looks so good I think it's dark souls and Demon Souls like she says yay she's very happy uh yeah I know as pra it says all of the people who want to use and abuse the historical figure yasa are mad at you all of them who want to discredit yasa are mad at you too yeah yeah I pissed everyone off well not everyone sensible people are still the majority in my comment section and the life the dislike racial demonstrates the people are open-minded but yeah there are a couple of people that got really pissed um it was actually funny because I got someone who was who was like oh you you're just calling everyone woke and you're just uh you're just an altright far right and I'm like did you even watch the video because the video wasn't about me calling Yas woke the video was about someone calling me woke so this is someone from the far left who got so pissed by the title they didn't even watch and then I got a conserv like a a far right actual conservative it wasn't like a regular I don't know moderate conservative or center right or even just a sensible person now it was like someone who got so pissed because he he told me uh conservatives never get offended you I'm like mate you're just demonstrating you got offended but and then you're telling me you're not offended but it's like I I know that there are people that are like hey I'm I'm a right winger you didn't offend me and then I get people who are like yeah I'm pretty left leaning and I I agree with you but you did like this guy that wanted to prove L didn't do a good job he really didn't do a good job he is what he is hey want to start a c at Emerald Crusade I've got the hair it's funny because in the in my old days one of the things that people used to throw at me was that I look like a cult leader they're like oh that guy looks like a cult leader Marco Hernandez thank you for your generosity excellent content I don't have any interesting question but pineapple and pizza yes or no it's absolutely no my friend everyy Johnson thank you for the $20 followed you for a long as I can remember I'll still follow because you're super entertaining but are you still LCS what the heck is that I struggle to see I'm L DS with a d a moment as an academic the golden tablets and all well you know all religion as I said right now I like considering myself a Christian and that's kind of where I where I where I stand uh I I did spend I was brought up born and brought up Catholic so like most of my family is Catholic and I spent over a decades in the LDS church so I'm very confident and I also spent there was a period of my life when I literally spent time with every Church like I went with the I spent time with Baptists I spent time with Evangelical Christians I went to Jehovah's Witnesses Bible studies I as I say spend time with the morons and I think that there is a little bit of Truth everywhere when when we know how to look and um yeah and it is uh it is what it is I still have wonderful I had wonderful experience with the with with the Mormon church I'm not going to lie so um I'm not against anyone really and I'm not against Aus either I think people should have their own because at the end of the day that's what I think if if you are a true Christian then you believe that God gave people freedom of the you know free agency and therefore you need to respect that uh if you're a true Christian and someone tells you they're an atheist it's their choice and you got to respect it it is what it is that's that's how I live My Religion if you don't want to live it like that it's up to you and that's that's how it is I think this is I do have a little bit a little tiny bit like maybe a 2% of libertanian thought not from a political standpoint but just from a you know just let people live the life they choose us to live and that's that's L is you look like Jesus I think my head is is longer than that my friend maybe when my hair was like this now I'm just metal I'm just heavy metal now yeah yeah ominus says I'm a conservative and I see plenty of idiots on my side as well it's like yeah it's like you you need to be able to see see what's what's the word sit through there is a word for it in English I'm just making it up but you need to be able to look at like yeah this is this is my beliefs firm with my beliefs it can be economic it can be social beliefs it can be anything but then you will see that like okay that guy is absolutely an idiot and it's toxic but so is this guy right next to me and I want to distance from that because toxicity is bad and it is what it is yeah let's see what we got yeah some people can't fathom the world is in black and white and also it's it's always like when when when a when a topic is comp and people give you uh very simple answers that are very like and speaking absolutes most of the times they're going to be wrong not all the times but most of the times they're going to be wrong because they're not considering a lot of stuff also because of the da ker effect and is what he is hey JP do you thank you for the donation do you think Yas would be forklift certified I don't know what that means mate no idea what that means what do you think about scientology says kadmon not a big fan Whenever there is a lot of man involved in I'm not a big fan it is what it is I mean yeah I've never met a Scientologist so maybe they're nice to other people I don't know but every time I read stuff or I watch documentaries uh it doesn't look good doesn't look good to me um particularly the whole machine and the stuff that they use to like calculate you your spirit and then it cost tens of thousands of dollars like there yeah that's the part I don't like thank thank you ad for the donation sorry asking again do you think Bushi and Musha and Samurai well that's oh yeah Samurai so you're using I think I don't know if that third kanji is Red Samurai I think that's just sheep for warrior Noble Warrior are synonyms I've always thought they were not always so let's put it this way bushy is an umbrella term right so all Samurai are Bushi but not all Bushi are Samurai so Samurai is a specific Rank and social class in Japan it means you're a warrior but it also means you are basically a low ranking Noble a Bushi however is just someone who is a warrior so you can basically technically a nashu can be a Bushi but he's not Samurai so um yeah bush is kind of and also like Musha is a very old word I like it it sounds very nice to me it's archaic uh like you find it it's used in games like on mus the demon Warrior Oni Musha uh it's very old and um yeah Musha even in Samurai times like if we're talking about the sangoku period using Musha would have made it sound as if a little bit like as if today instead of if you're a if you're a soldier in the US Army you're a marine and you call yourself a warrior that's that's like how old that word sounds even to a late soku period samai so uh yeah that's that's what they're not exactly and the way the word Samurai was used in Period and the way it's used today is different and the way we use Bush and Samurai today is pretty much of a of a synonym but it wasn't back in the back in the day back in the day how about this controversy since everything is exactly that's why I'm using it I'm literally using the word controversy as a badge of honor right now because I mean like everything is becoming controversy now ay Johnson oh yeah you've already read that one thank you so much just want to make make sure I catch all of the super chats I don't want to be disrespectful uh to people's uh you know support Roger Dodger thank you for the $2 Assassin's Creed Shadows or ghost of tsushima on accuracy ghost of tsushima right now looks from an architectural standpoint from the way they are representing Samurai combat for the way everything looks goo tsushima is the one to go if you want fullon uh historical accuracy but of course it's also not a fair comparison because right now we're only seeing a trailer of Assassin's Creed uh shadows and ghost of tsushima we've actually played it so I can only say maybe I'll change my mind once the game is out is bushy asks goes is bushy related to the word bushy door yes it's the same bushy door just means the way of bushy because door is on its own it's red Mii and it means Road Street both in the physical sense and the in the allegorical sense like a path like a spiritual path or or a mental path but also an actual Street Mii is is that word but when you connect it to adji then usually it's red door which is Theo Japanese reading and uh or on yomi and like for example karate do the way of the empty hand karate is the empty hand uh and then Judo the way of softness that's what that means and then Kendo the way of the sword because Ken is is one of the ways to read Katana and in this case Bushido is the way of the bushy so in the sense of a spiritual path or a Inner Path uh of the bushy class thank you for the $5 wtf1 A1A thanks for your content bring me back to my old high school teacher who wore roman armor to class I did that too when I was a high school teacher by the way I wore roman armor in class and I had my students wear the helmets second Super will be a video idea for you thank you I don't know what oh second Super like super chat you'll do okay thank I appreciate that thank you so much uh you're having we're having a great stream today appreciate that I do like ghost of tsushima but there is a lack of bow and arrow in certain scenes uh still more accurate than I see Shadows yeah apparently uh right now uh I didn't get to the part with with Baro but I do now that I think about it maybe you're right tawo Oro is like way of the hand and foot is in it I think so but it's Korean so I wouldn't quote myself that because I don't speak Korean I I I did do a little bit of te wondo and I remember the teacher saying that he meant way of hand and foot which is kind of funny because if it's WTF it's mostly foot isn't it ITF they do punch as well but in WTF which is the one I was doing so Olympic take one though if you will literally like 95% to just kick there isn't much hand only the cata really yeah I know you can punch this way to the chest you're not even allowed to punch the face uh so that one maybe they should change the name but yeah it is what it is Tiger KN yeah that's that's my ey my friend with uh with Sagat thank you Dame piglet I appreciate that you do you enjoy my channel thank you so much uh Matias Metatron you did at least two reactions about gun violence in the US uh did you change opinion I don't remember doing that reaction did I what like from from when cuz I don't remember exactly I made a bit too many videos I made a thousand videos so uh I don't even I don't even know what you think unless you're confusing me with another Creator uh so maybe expand on that a little bit so I can tell you if I still think whatever you think I think I love it when movies are historically accurate me too Emerald Crusade you and me and there is nothing wrong it doesn't matter that the crowd that comes to you and tries to shame you it's just a movie yeah you enjoy it your way I like it when it's historically accurate to each their own there's nothing wrong with that let us nerd in peace thank you WT that's the other donation wtf1 A1A a video idea Vermont lately has been called a white supremacy because of its history and culture I don't think it's true because of the Green Mountain Boys and our state's first constitution that's cool but it's kind of outside my esape because it's kind of a I I only talk about history so people are saying it's white supremacist to say that ancient Rome in in Italy was mostly white then I called them out for it um and and that kind of stuff or if like yeah because people now attach the label white supremacy to literally everything and it's really really annoying does white supremacy exist in a minority sure there are people I can unfortunately see them occasionally in the comments not only to my channel but also other channels when people like spell out the nword or write things like white people are superior but there are also people that write black people as Superior they are as bad okay because I am against all forms of super superiority based on ethnicity I think we should treat people with respect but these days when you say that and and you also defend white people because you know have you seen anti-white Tik toks it's disgusting and I will say it I don't care if people call me white supremacist for it I'll defend if I got like a friend and I do I can't even say friend because people are like ah virtual signaling okay great uh um but I'm saying if I see in the wild a Tik Tok that goes against black people and and I will call it out but if I see a Tik Tok that speaks against white people I'll call it out the same that's just how I am I think it's important to kind of fight all forms of but anyways about this state I don't know anything about it so I can't speak about it and I definitely wouldn't make a video about it because it's it always has to be I don't talk about political stuff unless it's connected to history this is just my my line my policy see on the channel if you will uh I may be wrong but isn't Tang Soo a styl in the umbrella of Wing Chun no I don't think you're correct because I think once again Tang Soo is Korean and of course Wing tune is Chinese but I I I'm not an expert I mean I like um uh what is it called I like uh martial arts a lot and martial arts history uh but you know I'm not very worth versed in uh in Korean studies but I do believe that they are different the sky is blue is white supremacy literally May it's like everything Clark is being called out white supremacist white supremacist yeah great okay great what do do you have an actual argument or is that all you're capable of doing is like what I would want to say to people who just scream white supremacy at anything um it also removes the power of that word do you even believe like back in the '90s if someone said look that guy's racist you know what my reaction was who what what what did he say now if I hear that guy's racist I'm like yeah okay great so the word lost power stealth maester thank you for the donation have you heard of the game mow absolutely if so what are your thoughts on the weapons armor uh I'll tell you what I'll show you what my thoughts are CU I have it here I prepared it it's here at least I thought I did it's let me see let me go back and it's somewhere here there we go is it here just give me one one second because for once I thought I was being well organized yes I am well organized there we go look at this look at my screen look at this beauty is from mow which is a great game I love that game and look at this maximilan set if that's not done right I don't know what is this is gorgeous they even did it right cuz the griefs are not supposed to have The Ridges I don't know if you knew that everything is fluted except for Greaves this looks spectacular absolutely spectacular and if we compare it to like in the Metropolitan Museum of Art we've got quite a few interesting sets of armor I always love to look at this um this is something I absolutely love I know it's simple but just looks gorgeous I'd love to get something like this early 16th uh to have something like this uh created for me I like maximilan modern Gothic I'll be honest with you and there is a full suit of armor here somewhere this one no this one look at this beauty I think this is what they based it on look at that fluting look at that tailoring my gosh if this isn't wonderful the armit it's gorgeous absolutely gorgeous just wanted to show you that but yeah mow is a good game I'll show my scream a couple more times today Gothic armor Superior now I like I like I I appreciate that but to me there is no like yeah Gothic is good but to to me maximilan is is really becoming on PA with white Italian armor that's that's saying there's the fact that I like what all white Italian Al make me a white supremacist by the way just asking for a friend but yeah I agree German S90 that's very dangerous racist should be a very harsh insult races should be based on proof like wait for people to say something actually racist then I'll call them racist with you but if people call someone racist just because on the on the off chance maybe since he doesn't like this specific Shield maybe he's R now no I won't I won't support that I will not support that maah says met you were very upset about school shooting oh yeah I think every human being should be upset about school shootings no matter where you stand on the political Spectrum I think school shooting is is really a horrible thing why the freaking schools I just don't get it I just don't get it I don't understand the I do think that it's great the American police takes takes uh Shooters down professionally how how they should be um but yeah it is it is what it is bom boom boom I think its pop is still pretty low though yeah you I think you were talking oh they improved you saying about yeah yeah sure mow looks really good have you seen the AR in Dragon's Dogma too have you seen that cuz that looks great uh they have like a Gothic set as well there I'm being influenced you see I'm being influenced and they're putting thoughts in my head and now I can't take maximilan out of my head it is what it is it is what it is my friends Spanish late 15th century rules I do think the Spanish Portuguese and French armor doesn't take enough attention doesn't get enough attention as it should I should make a video about like Portuguese Spanish French English Italian German armor polish cck I should do it like focus on Europe don't care if they call me eurocentric I'm a European I'm proud of it focus on European armor make the video and then because in the in the background by the way I'm working with an African YouTuber and then focus on on African stuff absolutely but I'm not going to be ashamed of what I like like about my my past I'll do it I'll do it I will do it I'll do it wouldn't that be great like look a uh what's the word look at like Portuguese armor look look at what did what what was the most popular type of helmet used in Germany what about Italy you know how salads changed you know the Italian salads was more like rounded I like Italian salads a lot instead it had elongated tail in Germany like show out all the difference oh that would be a beautiful old school vanilla metadon video I'm I'm going for for it I don't care if it caps at 30,000 views and gets me $60 I'll do it I don't care about it I'll do it that would be great that would be great is this armor for riding or foot combat I think this is this is that's definitely uh for riding 100% but a lot of the time you do have like writing configurations that can be changed um usually when they have this very open um you know very open uh fold it's usually to accommodate the um you know the mounting uh and that kind of stuff ghost Prodigy thank you for the dollar $5 thoughts on the film Kingdom of Heaven I like that they showed the different factions of Christian Knights like the hospitalist and Titanic Titanic Oh Titanic factions maybe you mean tonic um yeah I watched it a long time ago there were some things that were nice but I hated their Shields absolutely hated the Shields and also the ocularia were this big like literally you don't even need Arrow you can throw you can throw a long sword you can throw a long sword through that love for Love Of Armor should be called poly Armory that's a good one my friend that is a good one Mal Metatron what music did you use when presenting a retro gaming collection it's retro wave I got it from epidemic sound you just you just go into epidemic sound and write retro wave and you'll find all of those music well one of those I don't remember the title I'm sorry but it is retro wave the the the third channel is entirely I've got like a I've got a folder with like 60 retro wave musics and so there's that yeah, 1400 to 1450 English armor is beautiful I agree very nice very nice been reading the book by Tobias capwell and I think it's it's wonderful this channel discriminates against Gothic armor hey it is what it is it is what it is I'm I'm racist towards Gothic um oh gosh sounds like a fantastic idea say symmetric asymmetric sure I mean that would be that would be a fun video to make I the the most recent video that I made on helmets it was a comparison between the Frog mouth and the omit that one didn't do very well but as I say I don't make these video I make these videos vanilla videos specifically for a core audience and uh the reason why can keep on doing them even though I literally lose money every time I post one it's because I'm posting so much that at the end of the day the other videos that are instead favored by the algorithm compensate for the loss of money and so I can still produce them and that's fine and patreon support of course um all of that makes it makes it still possible so uh Swiss guard of the Vatican what period are they based on I want to say 17th century probably so something like that no I don't have a favorite single historical movie Chris's milks World um not a favorite one it's difficult to think I mean I'm a good I I always like to rewatch The Old Ivan o because I always love jousting and stuff but it kind of depends I mean there have been some nice movies recently uh but who knows what do I think about Trump indictment I haven't got a clue mate I I don't know you need to ask an American uh streamer about that I don't know then I know nothing of it love of armor hilia that's not bad that's it's a good one that's a good one as well poly armor unite I'll be one of those let's see hi hope you're doing well Metatron says sa God or S God thank you so much that's nice let's see Pedro me and my mom watched Shogun together she agrees with us that they should speak Portuguese and Japanese in the show we would have loved it since we are from a Portugues speaking country yeah I agree I would have loved it I would have loved I know that for the majority of people it's easier if it's English so you don't have to read too many subtitles I suppose I get that so I understand the choice but for me if it was made just for me I would have been like yeah give me Portuguese I don't care I'll read all the subtitles although then again I do understand Portuguese it kind of depends though because they would have been from Portugal so Port Portugal Portuguese is actually harder for me to understand the Brazilian Portuguese believe it or not kind of depends on what area of Brazil but in general uh particularly if it's like Pista accent it's easier to understand the kioa but um yeah no I there were there would have been sections unless they're doing 16th century Portuguese in which case like wow like I don't care if I don't understand my respect for you for the show would have been but I don't think they would have done that because most of the Japanese they use it's kind of a mix between old school words like yeah they can say samur that sounds old school Japanese but then they will use everyday Japanese they're not I didn't see that they they W Used like the um saw marker at the end of Words which was very commonly used in in uh old school Japanese um yeah random person thank you for the donation ancestry suggest I have S in my past were titles given more freely in the 1600s in England I don't put much faith in it but it's fun to imagine did I'm not familiar specifically with 16 1600s or 16th century don't remember which one you said England specific specifically but yes some some titles were bought some titles were given uh and it changes period by period but I wouldn't be able to give you a specific uh situation you might need to look into your genealogy u a bit more to see if you actually do have it's possible though um absolutely do people recognize you like has anyone said hey I know you oh yeah it happens it blows my mind that it happens uh but it does happen it does happen actually a guy stopped me at the airport I should have taken a picture with him but yeah a guy stopped me at the airport he was like oh you're Metatron and and he hugged me was really cool nice guy very very nice and it does happen it does happen it happened in London it happened in uh uh in in London it was an English kid the guy at the airport was an African-American guy and then I was stopped by it's mostly males and it doesn't happen with women that much uh but it it does happen quite a bit yeah it's all good Matt wow don't don't be sorry it's fine no problem uh joking is fine it's all good we like a little a good a good comedy King to says do you think gilgames actually lived yes I believe so I think he did I think he's a real historical U character yes uh sub boy asks how many languages do you actually know that I can have a conversation with I want to say six but do imagine that this is a spectrum of levels of fluency so like you know the way I speak English I can switch to Japanese like this um not a problem I'll do it in a little bit U my Mandarin is like survival level I can hold a conversation but I'm not I I'm not what I want to be and then yeah my French is okay my Italian is amazing my Sicilian is spectacular you wouldn't believe how good I sound if if you don't mind me saying uh but yeah was there really a great flood says kidon O'Brien it is possible that that some kind of natural disaster happened and that's where we get not only the biblical idea but also mentions in extra biblical sources because a lot of of stuff that we read in the Bible is is it precedes the Bible and it's found in other civilizations and so we shouldn't just even even if you look at it from an atheistic perspective um just because it's connected to religion it doesn't mean that you have to dismiss this automatically you need to look into the possibility that yeah imagine that if something happened um like like a flood or like some kind of natural disaster and then from the perspective of ancient people it would be something that they would have absolutely connected with something Supernatural or the gods or God Etc so is it possible yes it would be interesting maybe I should make a video and like kind of look into it um but a lot of the stuff I think that we uh that we see like imagine uh well I can't think of an example now but if it comes I'll tell you Jimmy any chance of a video about suian gods and unaki linking with Yahweh sure in the Elohim of of the Bible there are absolutely some possible connections uh so that could be interesting maybe one of thean why not not sure when because I need to do Sodom and Gomorrah first because I got a lot to say about that one it is true yeah many there are I've looked into it there are even the idea of like the creation of of man uh in the concept of Adam and Eve uh that's found in extra biblical sources so it's possible that it's something that people at least believed collectively over a certain period of time um there is that sure yeah local floods we can say 100% something major like catastro ropic is what we really looking forward to uh connected to the biblical tale because if it's just a little local flood I don't know if we can say yeah that could be what inspired the biblical tale story but um like a major one like a civilization ending almost kind of massive at least in an area it doesn't have to be the entire planet but if it if it's like something that happened in the you know how for example and I will I have a dedicated video coming up soon but the idea of Sodom and Gomorrah even though we usually think of two cities it actually involves five cities and I'll talk about it the five cities of the valleys and there there are some connections to Acadian um uh stories and I will as I say I'll I'll go deeper into the actual video where I don't have to just speak out of my mind but I actually you know I've got a script that it's written and everything is calculated and I bring up all of the sources but there are possible connections and it's very very interesting when you when you try to look at where does some originates from something that we can always um yeah do that that would be a fantastic show love Norwegians me too love all Scandinavian people there was this guy was so cool Swedish Friend of of of a friend of mine we met in katania Sicily this guy was like a walking exactly how I would imagine a viking it was it was so cool very tall he had this like oh he looked looked great and it was really fun it's really fun mattw love you man thank you appreciate that esoterica channel is good content like that I love to check him out good now goodma absolutely uh let me let me just check one thing very quickly just want to make sure I'm not missing any any uh Super Chat yeah wtf1 thank you for the Super Chat appreciate the donation I sent you a story on your Facebook you don't have to do the video video just hearing these topics made me think of you of your video uh videos and the local are are tired of the emotional blackmail emotional blackmail so I figured I ever caught you live I'd ask well thank you but I haven't checked it out also because I usually my Facebook I'm very private in my Facebook I had to become private on my Facebook a few a few months about a year ago is when I completely shut down my Facebook um my personal Facebook because I had like almost 4,000 friends but there were people that were like taking screenshots of my personal uh discussions with my friends and they were trying to use it against me and you know how they did in a very cowardly way by the way because if I'm posting something on social media I know that it can be used but usually I betet what I post but if you take half of it and then add to it then you're being a scumbag and because people were doing that that they were pretending to be friends then I'm like you know what I erased everything and now it's only for close friends if you're talking about my metag on Facebook then I'll check it out the actual page um I'll absolutely check it out Timothy thank you for the $20 donation it's going towards a maximilan helmet I remember now because and and my TV and my new TV I remember when someone called you woke because of your long hair you mentioned your age and reference metal and metal culture it was hilarious in that case they didn't call me woke they called me transgender they asked me are you transitioning is that why you got your long hair I'm like M I was born in 19 1982 I'm a metal head I'm not transitioning to anything mate it's going it made me laugh though polyglot rule six languages is crazy yeah although then again I don't like using the word polyglot because it's been misused so much the people are like yeah I'm a polyglot I speak 17 languages and then they can't hold a convers do a stream do it during a stream then I believe it otherwise I don't believe it I automatically think they're a scammer they're a fraud unless they do it during a stream then I'll be like you know what you were right you are a real polyglot great also what is a polyglot four languages six languages how many do you need to be a polyglot and also what level do you need to have is it enough to uh to speak a few sentences to me know you need to be fluent but then again what do we mean by fluent is is what in Japanese I would call it like n Kaa so to speak everyday language is that enough for fluency what about SE Yogo so specialized technical terminology does that need to be included to be a polyglot to me no I think if you're fluent in everyday conversation then you can count the language but that's just me that's how I feel so like if you can switch and just switch you know you start a sentence in English just uh know and then you can just switch it then it's fine otherwise I don't believe it if I don't see it I don't believe it so like next time someone says oh yeah I speak I speak uh you learn Japanese I lived in Japan for four years I occasionally uh struggle with the correct pitch like I used to constantly Sayes and make it ha pattern and then I finally realized it was kadis and it was a second uh the um odaka pattern took me like I don't know how many years to figure that one out so I struggle with the odaka pattern for those who know who what that means for those who don't is when when a word starts low goes high in pitch and then the particle is attached low I think Yari the spear is one of these it's like yariga something like that definitely knows is Hana Han Hana yeah I believe so but I occasionally struggle with pitch it's not perfect but yeah it doesn't matter how fast the Japanese speaks I understand them are you are you saying that for the meme liquids back $5 have you heard of Faria faraji on YouTube he's a historical Music Channel and talks about misconception of Viking Age music as well as making Roman I have heard of him I didn't remember the name but once he mentioned what he talks about absolutely what your is how you said in Chinese I know it let's let's switch languages today let's switch it let's switch it that's what's fine since you speak Japanese I'm curious do you watch anime I do I do watch anime and it depends on the anime like I remember the anime velon is where I learned crazy vocabulary like um let me think there was some crazy stuff on evangelium because it's very scientific it depends on the character and it depends on the anime and it's kind of funny because when I used to teach Japanese sometimes my students were like hey I know how to say this and then they would say something and I'm like a ninja said that right and like how do you know because no one says it that way like anime has some crazy like if I wanted to say what are you doing it would be n n is kind of a standard way to say it in Japanese if you want to be a little more like Hedy but I guess okay but then Nish it's like so anime like no one actually uses it but it sounds so good that I actually started to using it on purpose with my Japanese friends like they would do something and I would go hey Nish got it and they were like why do you keep speaking like an anime it was funny though it was funny so anime is not the best way to learn Japanese but it depends on the anime though some anime is good some anime will teach you stuff that will make you sound uh arrogant to the Japanese so you also have to be kind of careful Timothy yeah yeah you were talking about the long uh sorry there was a little call in there okay liid back thank you for the donation have you heard of far oh yeah the far so yeah I did hear of them thank you I speak several languages but switching mid-sentence is something that only happens on accident I don't think I can do it on purpose it's actually really good to do that uh for practice I'll tell you why I used to practice that a lot K mon obrien anid I appreciate that thank you for telling me I'm wonderful thank you for that soash that's actually one pitch accent that it's easy almost all e adjectives so the pure adjectives in Japanese have this accent that they start low so like like like most of them have this thing that they go up and then they go down on the E and that is such a good rule to know because then you'll be able to read correctly most adjectives in Japanese that are pure adjectives U that's there are some I need to do more videos like that for my second Channel I think yeah that could be fun do you ever dream in another language yes sometimes I dream in multiple it happens like I'm dreaming and I'm speaking Japanese literally and then there is a Chinese person enters the dream and then I switch to Chinese and I try to be like and I go like that and then I turn to the Japanese guy it's like I am nuts and it's funny because my wife tells me that I speak in my dreams I speak in my dreams so she's like you were speaking something I don't know what it was I thought it was French at one point but then it kind of sounded like Chinese because now she's getting good at telling like because of course if I you know yeah French is easy to tell because of the that sound but um magnific that kind of sound but then again the like Mandarin she recognizes it as well because if I tend to use the rotic accent a lot the kind of Northern Chinese so I will say uh Sher to be like a new word instead of but I switch it I don't always do it kind of depends uh so yeah I do dream in in multiple languages it happens a lot cybook 100 thank you thank you for the donation thank you for all your hard work PlayStation behind is that PS1 or PlayStation original there is a difference looks like PS1 model uh oh the one at the top it's the original PlayStation one the big one the gray I've got a few of those and I got the PlayStation 2 is somewhere here cuz I like collecting the boxes I like the Hong Kong accent you you mean actual Cantonese or do you mean people from Hong Kong when they speak Mandarin accent because if you mean Cantonese it's a different language like I don't understand anything I can hold a conversation in Mandarin but I can't understand a word in in Cantonese in fact it's kind of fun because I've heard people pronounce Hong Kong in Cantonese it was like I don't know the tones though in cantones so I'm probably going to mispronounce it but it sounded kind of like it it was like Hong Gong or something like that I don't know the tones but in Mandarin it completely different if you say Hong Kong in Mandarin it's Shong xong that's how you pronounce it in Mandarin so it sounds nothing like it uh very very fun very very fun uh let's see cooking Italian thinking English absolutely I agree love that have you heard of the documentary hypothesis no not really what are your thoughts on it I don't have thoughts but it's is it a good one do you suggest it hypothesis yeah can you teach pitch accent in ancient Greek I can't but uh Lu can specifically Lucian pronunciation reconstructed an artic pronunciation um absolutely it's beautiful y let me see but yeah yeah switching languages is so fun I do it I do it for fun and because it's it's enjoyable it makes my day better particularly now that I can use chat GPT for it it's really fun and then I speak Italian to my wife because she's learning Italian this this household this house we speak it looks like an asylum I probably need professional help for that there must be some kind of something wrong with me I probably need therapy H yeah but thank you for all the donations guys you've been very generous today appreciate that lot of support for the channel yeah ly let's see let's see Spanish is another great language it's fun to look into as an Italian it's kind of easier to learn K mon Brian thank you for the $5 I love this channel your content is always incredible I appreciate that trying to do my best you know I'm trying to keep quality while increasing quantity that takes a lot of effort and I hope I don't let you down but uh you know that's what I've been trying to do uh thank you Pi for the donation I heard bread enlarged breasts wow is that the case I wonder hi from Madrid Spain I just came the last the least I expect from Metatron is to be a huge Total War fan absolutely I used to play the original Rome Total War like all the way up to like 5: in the morning with my friend over Lan it was a LAN party it was fantastic uh I love Madrid by the way it's my favorite accent within the uh Spanish language uh it's really good how would you say like welcome would I say benen benoo I don't know I'm just guessing let me know um hey Metatron fet Dragon thank you for the donation Metatron have thought about making a video on Bronze Age civilization such as the sea people Hittites or canites I do have a planned series for patreon where we we have like something like 17 civilization we did two so far because I'm slow um but then basically every five one gets posted on the channel on the main uh which is I won't lie it's also way for marketing to be like hey look there is this good stuff uh on patreon come and join uh I'm not going to pretend that that's not part of the marketing strategy and PR uh but then again you know it's um it might be we're definitely doing the Canon night the hit ties see people will have to see um because I also asked I let my patreon choose um we've got we have done itaskin we have done with a specific episode on the um secret the atrasan and the SEC secret of Steel which was released uh to the public on this channel so if you look for a trasan secret of Steel I think it's called it you can check it out but it's originally a patreon post lost Library thank you for the $5 I started the book Legion versus fallings seems good have you heard of it no any favorites of Greek Roman or Persian Warfare um gosh there is so much uh one of my favorites is Roman military dress fantastic book tells you a lot of stuff about the tunic and the colors and how they produce the colors it's really good uh but I haven't read that one unfortunately I have to game more me too I'm gaming tonight I'm telling you right now and the a friend of mine is coming to mount the TV and then usually we have a a few a few matches on Mortal Kombat uh with a cabinet so uh yeah well yeah it's your daily bread but you're another one of those Zed fake culture War grifters there is no culture War when you gift money to the culture rot of yourself it's over Furious you're an idiot just going to tell you right away I'm not a grifter and those who say I'm MC grifa are just haters that do not have the ability to bring up a good counterargument for the historical stuff I mean my team we are different politically we think different things and yet we look at what the evidence suggests that's what we do people that call me grifa are idiots unless people like present good evidence that's how it is right on metaton yeah I'm going to tell you that I don't care who I offend he came here to insult me I'm going to insult back with class because there is that em Obi thank you for the $5 have you seen Shaka Amos and hop jesus takes on black people being the original inhabitants of Egypt well well yeah I mean I've got a whole series I've got a whole series I do believe that definitely the the um and there was a a significant amount of of black people in ancient Egypt and that those numbers vary depending on which area so Upper Egypt had more black people than Lower Egypt that's quite evident uh but creators like Mr imotep that say stuff like 100% of all Egyptians were black are out of their mind and I will say to they clip it clip it this is staying up it's as listed video because all my uh stream streams are unlisted because that's what the system forces me to do uh but I will not retract nor apologize for what I just said um I'm not one of those people that first speak and then oh sorry I'm I'm afraid of being cancelled try it cancel me it's like uh they tried it they failed and they'll continue to fail because I've got your support not because I'm some cool guy I'm confident like this because I saw what you know once did when something happened and people tried to shut me down and I believe now that that did happen I know people are like oh now you're thinking this conspiracy well I talked to Google I talked to my contact at Google so yeah there is that and uh I can't prove it but I do know that people do want me uh to shut down and I know I can count on you yeah you are the source of my strength thank you me V you've been a member for 10 months appreciate that saludos Metatron please take a look at the Channel History scavenger history scavenger and talk more about Chinese weapons I'd love to do that would love more input on this subject i' appreciate your suggestion absolutely check out the channel and and I know you I've seen your picture around in the comments more Christian content please I do have uh more like biblical um stuff coming out soon you know my sort of linguistic approach to biblical translation it's coming out soon I'm going to post post a video on Sodom and gomorah and yeah so there is that new prototype Mr imot yeah you know what I tried to be polite and he responded with more spamming of nonsense about me and he called me racist that's what I draw the line that's what I draw the line You can disagree with me I'll respect you even if you believe the complete opposite of me but the moment you you dare to call me a racist that's where as far as I'm concerned we are at War that's why I actually appreciate the people like the king's monologue instead because he made a response to my latest one and he was fair finally and and that's why I'm like man we disagree on a lot of things but at least I respect Integrity so as far as I'm concerned I know that some of you don't like the king's monologue I have no problems against him and as far as I'm concern I don't have any problems with um qu M anymore either because at least they're not calling me a racist but someone who calls me a racist no man you lost my respect there that's how it is I play nice but I have a limit uh let's see hate is a GNA hate I agree I mean at the end of the day that guy the other day called me meta woke right the guy they because again I get I get haters from the extreme left and I get haters from the extreme right that's how you know I'm doing it right that's how you know I'm I'm being fair because I get hate from both sides the the far right guy who called me a woke he just made me how much money let me see how many views did that g so this is what I'm you know you should you know you should you shouldn't call me a grifter and talking to my haters you should call me you should call me a um an alchemist I'm not a grifter I'm an alchemist because medieval Alchemist were trying to change lead into gold I change into gold so I'm even I'm top tier compared to Medieval Alchemist there you should imagine me with my little laboratory and the little potions and I'm over there concocting that's what I'm doing and all like all that stuff and people call me you are woke okay 200,000 views thank you for the money mate that's it that's how it is so uh yeah please keep insulting me so like that it's I'll buy a house with it uh let's see Maha plus Metatron mutron I like Maha he's very moderate very fair he doesn't take from any side he's good he like he he'll call out anything on both sides I appreciate Mahar he's a he's a good content creator as I'm concerned uh let's see yeah and also some people call me oh you are you're sitting on the fence no that's different it's very different when I have to Stand My Ground for stuff I do it I do it but what I don't do is the tribalistic aspect that then kind of because I know how propaganda works not because I'm smart or anything but because because I read I read and I know that there are people in this comment section that are a lot more knowledgeable than me so you know exactly what I'm I'm talking about the more you read about how the Aaron of society the people with power use uh propaganda to control uh the more you see it happen and unfolding in that day and age it is what it is we know it exists and it's really difficult to Shield yourself some you know because propaganda works on you even when you know it is propaganda that is what is mind-blowing about it Neo prototype meta woke I know the guy called me meta woke meta woke and another one was said recently you're pandering through the woke yeah okay great werr vatronol the alchem are you far right or far left Metatron I'm I'm The Alchemist I'm The Alchemist that's how I'm going to respond to anyone who calls me one guy on Twitter called me a leftwing troll and then another guy called me an alt-right guy to both I respond I'm an alchemist I'm The Alchemist baby I'm The Alchemist oh is this lying thank you for the $5 calling someone a grifter is just a disingenuous insult to discredit someone without any constructive criticism love your videos by the way you are so spot on so spot on absolutely I mean you can take them on I don't need the I don't need the camera you've just destroyed them I don't even need it I don't even need it because you know sometimes I over complicate things my wife tells me that all the time I'm like he goes and I need to research and all do the all collaborate connections and look at what the freaking ancient Romans said in Latin but in the best and then you arrive just just post post a comment and Destroy them I well yeah I mean I guess that works too that works to my friend I'm The Alchemist genu imot was talking nonsense about Japanese originally black yeah to that guy everyone is black I suppose so it is what it is he you should be free you know I don't want I wouldn't want to cancel him he should be free to say whatever he wants that's what he believes that's fine but if someone disagrees and instead of presenting honest uh counter arguments you call me a racist I'm like no no also did you see that guy's Facebook it's all anti-european stuff if I wrote not that I would want to but if I wrote 1% of what he says against Europe and I said it against Africa I would out of this I wouldn't do it CU I love African history but that guy is clearly anti-european so anything he says I don't care German S90 have you thought about doing a video on calish and old argentinia dialect that is a mixture of Italian and Spanish greetings from Argentina that is fantastic is it true that in Argentinian Spanish instead of saying like in in formal situations you say sesa for beer but in informal you say Birra because we say Birra in Italian I think Argentinian is the easiest one to understand I'll tell you that HEI thank you for the donation I don't get why some black Americans keep saying these their ancestors are from Egypt when most of them came from West Africa I don't think it's I honestly think it's a minute minority and I really believe because I see them in the comments the amount of African-Americans that write in my comments hey I'm an African-American school teacher I'm a I'm a historian thank you for your content appreciate your work I don't even think it's it's it's most most African-Americans are not like that mate it's just that you have these occasional content creators that post these videos and they make it seem you know and that's also what the culture war will do it will paint people as if you're white you're racist how many Tik tokers say that nonsense and then you'll have like oh black people want this black no black people don't black people don't are not like that it's just these Fringe small little contingents of people that take it too far there's nothing wrong in in in wanting to know more about your ancestry nothing wrong with that that's why as I was saying I respect someone like the king's monologue who just wants to look more into African history I'm cool with that you do whatever you want as I say I don't want to repeat myself uh but that's how it is I'm The Alchemist after all man that's going to become a thing isn't it isn't it in Spain we also call well in Spain I think you pronounce it Sera or Birra that's cool I didn't know that I thought it was just a thing about Argentinian Spanish that's cool to know yeah we just say be uh but it's cool because cesa it does like as as a as a Latin romance language speaker it does give me the idea of something being served I don't know if that's the etimology of the word but uh but yeah great beer have a beer but never drink and drive guys don't drink and drive let's see am I British I'm not British I'm Italian but yeah I'm drinking a be and listening well Jeremy is having a good time I'm never going to drink while I stream because I think that I don't even know how some streamers do it I thought it was against policy on YouTube it's like there is policy for example like if I show a little bit of a freaking movie I get copyright claimed but then another Channel shows like an entire freaking half of a movie and they think how are they making money I don't know so I see I see people drinking while theyve I don't know it is what it is yeah British someone is removing the tea yeah who drinks a beer through a straw yeah not me uh John B meta do you remember your beef with that Roman historian guy gosh who was it Roman historian I remember the Tik tocker the insane Tik tocker who said that Rome didn't exist I remember that one and then she tried that was so funny oh her failure was so beautiful when she's like oh this guy is making response videos to me and by the way my response videos got like got like one 1.8 million views 2 million views whatever and she was pissed about that so she didn't watch them but then she had to try and attack my integrity and tried to because that's what they do right they need to try and take your your livelihood they need to try and do that so she was like oh he's clearly he likes Japanese and he's Italian clearly a fascist and then and I'm like and I was like oh yeah yeah very fascist like the fact that my grandfather was a partisan and fought the Nazis and they took him to an to an extermination camp so what you say I'm against Nazism from the comfort of your keyboard my grandfather fought them in the in Northern Italy when it was dangerous and they took into the concentration camp but yeah I'm Italian and I like Japanese samai I must be a fascist great yeah you been very brave and stunning regardless I'm getting a little um it must be the the energy drink anyways and then she was saying he tried to do so many uh crowdfunding and he failed all of them and literally in the picture behind her it was beautiful you could see crowdfunded armor 3,400 something like that out of 3,000 you know that's called a successful crowdfunding how is a crowdfunding that and by the way thank you for that I really appreciate I don't take it for granted I know it's hard-earned money but I'm just asking how is that a failure how is it a failure if I actually it's so St stupid goodness gracious is she still is she still making videos I think she had to shut down her account at one point cuz she was for some reasons I don't know and then she like opened another one but is she still saying that Rome didn't exist I really liked it when she said that the Tron column was clearly a lighthouse traan a lighthouse in the middle of Rome do you know how far away it is cuz I walked to the freaking traon column by the way in Rome every time I go there with my wife we go there do you know how how far away the clear the closest seat is from the freaking Tron column which is literally 2 minutes walk from the Coliseum does she know that no because she never set a foot in my country and yet and yet YouTube follows prohibition laws you had it here boys yeah that's why I I thought you couldn't drink isn't it like I don't know maybe I'm just making that up I don't know no idea do you put fair use mumbo jumbo in your description not really but I've been redoing my description a little bit because I haven't been really good with descriptions and I decided I'm I'm I'm actually I've been rewriting all of my description boxes because I want them I want them to be like nice and well organized I know that most people don't click them but that's how I am I I don't have a lot of time to do it but I'm doing it little by little um Captain lamp thank you for the $5 now that you live in America has it sparked any interest in American history very much so I've always been interested in American history particularly like Civil War and um like North versus South I like that sort of reenactment too I'm very interested absolutely and um it's a little bit outside of my academic scope I suppose but it would be it's something that I'm very interested in kidon alcohol is fine as long as you're not fooling out of the chair and slurring your words yeah and and at the end of the day I mean adults can do what they want as long as it doesn't involve other people which is why I say and I keep saying don't drink and drive cuz I have no respect for that but if you're in your home and you want to drink drink you know what but I do say particularly to young people uh it doesn't make you cool to drink too much don't think that you have to do it because there is a group of friend and that's the same when it comes to drugs uh I've never done drugs but often times there are kids that are in groups and I think that what's Difficult about it is that they think they need to do it because their friends are pushing it if your friends is pushing drugs is not a friend okay if that that's important to keep in mind make sure at a young age to understand to distinguish between a real friend and someone who's just uh it just happens to be there when in your group you know a friend is never going to push that even if they do it a friend is never going to push it cyborg 100 thank you for the donation Metatron lost brother of Edward and alons El uh I I don't know what that is but I appreciate the two pounds did I say dollar pound sterling I'll say the entire currency let's do that uh did are working anarchic country ever exist I don't think Anarchy can ever exist function as a system real pure Anarchy I don't believe in it because unfortunately as a as a species you and I can decide yes we need to respect each other we don't need law enforcement to do that and then there will be a third person that will take advantage of that and then it will become a situation of the stronger Will Will Survive and the survival of the fittest and that kind of situation and at the end of the day I honestly don't think in theory but in practice I don't believe in it I don't believe in Anarchy that doesn't mean that we need to go to a fullon auto autocratic totalitarianism system you know there there there are inet there are in between but uh but that's what I think do you like the berserk manga I remember I only tried to watch it when I was like a teenager and back in the day I didn't like it as much I don't think it's because of the violence because again I was watching Ken Shiro honoken and that's pretty violent uh I don't know I just never never really resonated with me and besides at that time I was very much into either something with Japanese Samurai or Evangelion I was really like when I was 15 I was in love with the Evangelion girls and that's all I wanted to that's all I wanted to I just wanted to watch the I don't wanted to watch the girls and watch the robots when I was 15 it was good good times you know when you don't have problems then you then you grow up and at least for me you know I understand that are kids that do have problems I only had some um I had a beautiful beautiful upbringing upbringing beautiful childhood my parents were always great my mom um late Mom of course she was always a wonderful wonderful uh parent she was wonderful and uh but I the only thing I struggled with was my health uh because I did make a video about this very very long time ago uh between the age of 13 to the age of 17 I was very sick all the time and I needed three surgeries um but apart from that I have to say that I had a very nice um childhood is the teenage years were a little harsh because of that but apart from that yeah and at the time I was very much into evangelium because it was a way I think to get out of my everyday uh situ Health situation and kind of dream of the robots and the stuff and and really got me into Japanese uh see and then I was practicing karate at the time I really liked doing that um so yeah was good stuff good stuff yeah yeah yeah I loved Evangelion as a series I still have all the freaking post and and manga and games love it let's see hi meton love your content today we're talking about political philosophy do you have an opinion about theocracy I just overheard you your take on anak now yeah I mean at the end of the day isn't not not modern day Vatican but medieval Vatican was a theocracy and um you know that didn't turn out very well even from a as a Christian I can say that so with the right people but often times power is a is a terrible corruptor and extremely difficult I mean and when you think about it and and have to excuse me if I'm going to take like maybe three minutes to kind of look at it from a Christian perspective and then I'll get back to academic neutrality but even from a Christian perspective uh when you look at someone like who's supposed to be a leader of the Christian Church whether it be a pope whether it be whoever is whatever religion and you think how could a pope I mean we know the pop some a lot of popes were terrible but how why would a pope allow himself to be corrupted if you look at it from a secular point of view well yeah it's just a king with with more power from a religious point of view um the way I look at it from a Christian perspective is the following um wasn't Jude as an apostle that's all you need to know so uh yeah theocracy I don't know yeah let's see I think yeah Nathan thank you for the donation met isn't a Full Metal Alchemist fan let's introduce him to the to it Mah Full Metal Alchemist yeah no I watched it a little bit just a little bit because I had a student who was very much into it and she kept talking about it every single time we would have a free conversation CU you know during my uh during my times as a high school teacher I would have lad conversation where I choose the topic and I would have free conversation where I let the students talk about whatever they wanted in class because at the end of the day whether it be Japanese whether it be Mandarin whether it be English or Italian as long as you talk I don't care about what you talk about that's how I I address it that's why sometimes we even talked about freaking Call of Duty during during a during a um you know that hour in high school went very fast for my students I'm telling you that so I remember she was always talking about Full Metal Alchemist she even cosplayed it and uh yeah I'm I'm I'm familiar a little bit but yeah cyborg thank you for the donation my last ref was referring to Full Metal Alchemist so there you go yeah so I I'm not familiar with it that much but I know it exists and I know what the blonde guy with the with the arm half arm metal arm isn't it that one I don't know if I'm saying something wrong why doesn't Italy just absorb the Vatican cuz they're too r mate my friend they're too rich yeah so yeah hey Metatron horseback Cherokees versus jisan or gisan Mongolians in battle who wins my Mongolians 10 time nine times 10 and the reason is because in general the effectiveness of a type of military structure has to do with how much resistance they had to encounter this is which is one of the reasons why I think European military before right now the most powerful military on on the planet is American Military but you know if you look at the medieval period if you look at ancient Rome classical it's all Europe right Europe had the most advanced Weaponry armor why I think it because we constantly fought against each other and so when anything has a resistance uh it it it improves and that's why the Mongols were also incredible uh because they literally their empire was larger than the Roman Empire and I mean by like really massive so that's why I'm saying like churro yeah they fought against each other but I think the more fragmented an area a geographic area is the more you have uh small King and condensation of power the more competition you have the more uh you know the the race of arms and armaments increases it is it is what it is it literally is a survival of the fittest from an historical military perspective hey ji jeli he's a or she is a guardian she he I don't know Pi thank you for the donation you p p p you ever think about doing a video Morro in like for the armor how they could use that for war I'd love to see your expertise in it don't I have one I have a video really old one where I compare marro in Oblivion and Skyrim it wasn't specifically about armo though so that'd be nice kind of old school maybe on the third Channel we'll see think about it lost library book thank you for the donation you've been very generous today I'm recognizing that how is the Roman Empire viewed in modern Italy do people identify as descendant of Roman civilization absolutely every Italian does is idealization of Roman civilization associated with with fascism not really because at the end of the day I know the fascists thought that they were kind of copying a modeling themselves after the Romans but then again even the fascist uh you know raising of the right arm is not even ha it's not even real that's not a thing the Roman emperor in statues does this a bit like when you do hello that's what he did the straight arm is not a thing but yeah no we don't I don't think think there is much connection between the fasc fascist regime and actual Imperial Rome uh I know they did try to to do to make that connection in the in the' 40s but I think it kind of died out when melini died was killed executed whatever shot hung but yeah hello chiao hey chiao love your videos I was wondering did Roman men ever had long hair and was it permissible most of the movies and art depiction usually no maybe in the early Kingdom when we don't have a lot of iconography for it maybe but already in the Republican Imperial Rome the um civilized look for a man would be to have short hair and for a woman would have would be to have elaborate hair so uh yeah long the beard yeah Romans did have a beard particularly there was a lot of connection with Greece because in Greece a long long beard was was considered a sign of a philosopher and a wise man in Rome some people like even Emperors had a beard generals sometimes had a beard and some soldiers sometimes they were clean shaven at other times they did grow a beer a beard but when it comes to long hair in the military absolutely not um and in ancient Rome usually it was a shorter hair not always super short but usually keeping your hair um like my hair would be considered kind of barbaric from a Roman perspective um and unless they would see me as some kind of Mystic or a philosopher in which case that could be seen as a different perspective like oh he's a philosopher type of thing a bit like today I mean if you think about it if I told you I'm a metal head You' be like oh that that's why he's got long hair it's the same thing there were some areas in ancient Rome some very specific um kind of careers if you will that would kind of be associated in the medieval period though quite a lot of nobility had long hair so why once we enter the medieval period rather than being a barbarian I would be like oh he looks like a noble he looks like a noble uh that's what would be like carolingian kings they all had long hair and it was a mark of their nobility so as you see kind of it very very much depends and in a lot of the times a medieval Knight would have a fringe would be more common like I would have long hair maybe to my shoulders and I would normally have a fringe not all the time but usually unless it's a Norman then you know the short hair to the side shaved that would be kind of a bowl yeah pretty cool hairstyle if you ask me I like it yeah she it's pronounced jelly hey jelly thank you for the correction jelly good to have you here love your little image of the the little uh anime is it little chibi can you do more videos where you actually test weapons I I did very little um weapon tests don't really do very well for this channel but we'll see I remember once I tried to destroy a freaking brigand Dean still there on the channel but yeah greetings meton do you like the longest day in changan or three kingdoms 2010 Red Cliff I haven't watched any of those the only one I'm familiar with is the long day Chan but um I don't remember watching it though what made the Norman such successful conquerors asks Captain lamb thank you for the $5 donations it's because the the closer you are to a professional Army the more successful you are at the end of the day the Normans have the money I have a dedicated video to the um oh gosh what is it called I have a a video dedicated to the difference between for example the Norse and the Vikings you check it out uh I go very like the ethnogenesis of the Normans that's what it's called I think it's a good video of mine if I can say that myself I don't think that of all my videos um that one I think is pretty good anyways when there is Effectiveness there is professionalism and there is money involved with it uh a little bit of luck as well and then um you know yeah so uh very very focused on Cavalry absolutely as we know but let's see my favorite Gladiator class MMO I think the big guys big guys M the big guys I think if I was an ancient Roman and I was going to a like I would be like oh M that would be me I also like um gosh what are they called secutor are pretty good the ones with the with the with a helmet with the like this seor is pretty good maybe I like sakuto more than Moro actually now you confuse me I don't know maybe I'm going to say sakuto second let's do that ever tried Europa universales oh gosh do I have that game probably not I think I watched videos of that game I was trying to see if it's something I could be interested in I don't think I actually played it lately I've just been playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 I'll just be honest with you when I like something I stick to it you know I like it I don't change it just stick with it forever it's how I organize my marriage as well long hair gang thank you zero Zen Zero Ren here we are long hair gang you and I have very long hair Bravo thank you John Bon long hair represent I suppose I'm off thanks man absolutely mattw thank you for coming and thank you for all your donations I appreciate that yeah saludos Metatron thank you FP I'm from the longish gang sounds good mate at the end of the day long it really depends on perspective really because I mean someone with like middle length hair has got long hair if you compare it to a skin head uh so yeah plus isn't it funny that when a guy has hair to his chin is considered long hair but if a woman has has hair to her chin it's shter isn't that strange I mean that difference is also found in the Middle Ages though usually when you have like both men and women had in the noble class tended to have long hair but generally speaking women had longer hair than men so you'll see women with like hair down to their waist whereas a man will have hair to his shoulders it's typical in art not always the case but it's very typical I think one of the reasons why nobility has long hair is in the medieval period is because it's it you can show that you don't need you can you can have long hair and take care of it whereas like if you are if you're a farmer and you need to work the land and you sweat a lot you know you don't want to have the long hair it wouldn't probably look good because you wouldn't have time to take care of it and keep it clean but if you're if you're a noble man and everyone does everything for you um and then all you need to do with the long hair is put it up when you need to fight in a helmet and that's it really then you can show it off to show how you know I think that's where it comes from uh it shows the fact that you can you you literally it's not a problem for you uh I think that's what what it comes from the longest sh R let go let's see more hair more metal sounds good Metatron we would love to see another collaboration look any plans we did one recently on the video uh ancient Roman mythology if you want to look it up ancient Roman mythology The Cult of Vesta it's my latest collaboration with laneri and it went really well I think I mean it didn't because he didn't get any views but it's it's a beautiful video and I think he really carried it he's great he's he's a great linguist uh I respect him very much metaltron that's me my new band million Subs but no live views it depends on the day like well and to be honest I mean I'm happy with 4500 people already uh the other day I had 1,350 watching it depends on the day it really depends on the day there are days where when I have more people during the live and days where people don't get the notification it is what it is it's okay it's all good I can read more comments that way yeah I really like look is great yeah vest of Virgin and the prophecies and all that absolutely when will you do a host riding video I should really do that one maybe once I have my leg harness I could put on full plate and ride a horse and make a video that'd be great you might get more viewers on the weekends absolutely rapael last time I did it on a on a on a Sunday and there were more people uh today I still wanted to do it because I like having you know the occasional stream and it's good practice for me as well because I can sort of uh get used to the idea because I want to start streaming on a uh weekly basis but probably I'll do that like for example every Sunday 3 p.m. appointment with a Metatron I think it' be great and we could make it into a thing because once I decide that it's weekly and it's always at the same time then I can mention it on the major videos and then most people will know and I think that that will make it more effective in terms of numbers as well cybor thank you for the the 5bs living in Colchester with the Gladiators fight in a hippodrome as well if they didn't have a Coliseum because they found a hippodrome in Colchester I I don't know I've never read of Gladiators fighting in a h Hippodrome to be honest I know that they did races of course but I don't know if they would do gladi gladiatorial fights in one but if you have a h Hippodrome wouldn't you also have at least a small even if you don't have it anymore interesting question though I like to ask the Professor the professor is my my best researcher by the way we call him the professor uh he knows this kind of details so I'll ask him thank you was a good good good idea lost library book thank you for the donation are you going to return to Shogun now it's done yes I preparing episode 2 I very much apologize that it took me so long but I I did promise that I would make it so I will make episode two um and then we'll see if we could continue uh episode 3 I'll try to kind of be a little quicker and my plan is tomorrow uh I'll post again on the channel uh and then I'll use the rest of the afternoon to watch the episode and write down my notes and take my screenshots that's how I prepare these videos and then I'll put it together and probably because right now I'm posting so much I'm going to have my editor edited for me uh well she does a rough edit and then I change it a little bit add the the Ki maybe swap things around um cut it a little more so I usually do do that um gosh I use my hands a lot but uh I think if I do that it might get out quicker this time so uh how long have you been collecting retro conso asks Jeffrey thank you for the donation since I was like 13 I just never stopped I just started doing it more in the last three years simply because I had a little extra money and also because a lot of this stuff because I use it on my third channel uh I could write it off taxes so that makes it a lot easier to collect it so I don't have to necess because I use it on videos I make content with it I'm slow with the content but as long as I do make the content and I film it and I use it to show things then I can write it off taxes that's a great thing about America by the way Long Live America for that what is the cooler ancient Chinese armor or Japanese for Chinese I would say Ming era so like 15th 16th century brigandines are my favorite and when it comes to Japanese is yeah probably TS 16th century tors gusoku the ones with low profile similar to the one I have are my favorite the plate ones either the solid plate or the the one with bands uh so Nido uh what is it called again Nido moku myid gusoku nid moku goodness gracious I'm forgetting it elto thank you for your donation very much appreciated I love the little blue color that comes with it isn't it cool they Super Chat that they have a different color depending on what you donate I I like that idea it was funny because I I did a Super Chat the other day during a streaming and I actually chose a different amount I decided to donate a little more because I liked the color more I don't know that's just me do you read Greek I I don't like I can read it but it needs to be trans lated into uh our letters but that's why I usually work with two Experts of ancient Greek including laneri uh because of course their ability uh is much higher than mine when it comes to that Turell lost library book metaton good to hear it's become one of my alltime favorites good to hear good to hear Hey Metatron says Johnny app pleased uh long viewer from Germany absolutely like your content as a history student and you're committed to offend both political extremes absolutely absolutely would it be be fun if I start offending centrists and I start offending moderates and I start offending it would be like wow up to what take can I where can I take it jelly thank you for the donations appreciate that funnily enough I wasn't a fan of history as a school subject when I was younger but here I'm learning about ancient civilizations and armas it's great I love the way you articulate your points thank you so much very much appreciate thank you for your generosity and funny enough neither was I at school like I mean you know when I was like 12 13 yeah I like I liked like nights and Samurai because of video games but when it was history hour I hated it because the teacher you could tell she didn't want to be there which is why uh the few times that I did because usually I was teaching languages but occasionally they allowed me to teach a little history too in high school and when that happened I did it with as much passion as I could because I was like if this if they did it with passion I put probably would have well I think I would I would have still chosen languages as a subject but I think I would have I would have engaged with it more so I absolutely understand often times it's not your fault it's not the fault of the students it's the fault of the teachers because you can tell they don't like it and to me more than I want to say as much as the paper like to be a teacher you need to have a University degree blah blah blah great you also need to have passion for your subject to me that should be an equal requirement but that's just me Terry thank you for the donation random selfie question are you aware of the percentage of your viewership that is African hea European history very Niche here in South Africa I know I have I don't know the exact percentage unfortunately but I do know that I have a significant amount of people um dead watch from Africa but not in my top five my top one is is America but then again in America you also have African-Americans so it's difficult because it's not like YouTube tells you I my top one is is America then I have austral Australia and Germany that they switch then I have Italy and no sorry then I have England and then I have Italy and then the rest in Africa Africa gosh I don't know I'll have to see in the analytics I'll look it up but thank you Terry for the question canamy wolf thank you for the $10 your video of the shroud of terrain is outstanding thank you so much it took me a month to make Mom just passed away what helps you with the grief or your mom just passed away I'm very sorry to hear in my op I don't know I mean you should probably talk to to a therapist who have actual professional uh suggestions but what's been help helping me is that I try to distract myself not think about it and and put myself into work and surround myself with stuff that I like and I play video games so I don't think about it too much that's what I do now not everyone is going to say that's good because you're like no you need to face it okay but I need my time so the way it's working for me is that I noticed that I was taking too much time to focus on it and it was making me feel like the grief was heavy and you know exactly what I'm talking about so I decided that you know what I'm just going to I'm just going to play my games I'm going to work hard I'm going to do what I like so that I don't think about it too much you can think about it a little bit that's normal but if you see that you're spending like that's all you think about I would say find ways to distract yourself and surround yourself with things that you love and that you enjoy doing and that take your full Focus um yeah and that's um that's that's what I would say that's what's working with me kamami wolf thank you for the $10 but then again yeah that's that's the that's the so thank you for the donation and also uh my condolences for your loss and also one thing I'd like to say to anyone like that you want to share something like this feel free to do it I'll never shame you or tell you oh don't traa dump and stuff like that I'm not that kind of person so you're free to say whatever you want in this stream and there are very very few minute things even in my comments people accuse me oh you removed my comment because you cancel culture I'm like no precisely because I'm against cancel culture and a pro freedom of speech but the real Pro freedom of speech not people that use it as an excuse but I'm saying like the reality in my channel there are very little few things that I would actually remove um because it's still my channel this is like it's my channel so of course I can choose what things but very few you could you know share your opinions as long as you don't you're not literally like insulting and hating as long as you don't do that that's why like whenever I hear hate laws hate speech I'm like be careful where you put the line be careful where you put the line with that uh so do do I support people that spew hate no but I want to have the ability to kind of attack back uh and I will I will condemn hate and hatred I get it all the time I get it all all the time I get hated hatred all the time but it's very difficult when you start into discussing law then it's something you got to sit down and think before you pass any law that can restrict significantly freedom of speech no I'm not trying I know that people are like oh you're right wing listen I there are areas that I agree with the left and areas that I agree with the right one of the areas where I agree with the right usually it's the idea of freedom of speech I'll say it I'm not ashamed of it I believe in freedom of speech as I say that are areas like I come from a country where there is for example uh the idea of um what is it called like national uh free healthc care so I know it's a left-wing position I like it for my country I have no idea if it would work in America because I don't talk about things that I don't understand I don't understand the American system but if if a left Winger sits down with me and they're like I think every should have at least a basic dignity to be able to to uh walk into a hospital and have at least a certain degree of care I'll say I agree so on that point of view I'm more left leaning but when it comes to freedom of speech I'm right leaning and it is what it is and you know I respect people ability to disagree with me which is the whole point of that and I do understand that there are some Fringe crazy people that are like oh it's my freedom of speech and then they specifically use it to to be horrible and to be what I do to those people is I call them you're an like I'll say it you're an but making it illegal can be dangerous at least that's my opinion I'm always open to hear counterarguments to that which is the whole point of a civilized society let's sit down and let's discuss about how we think things are different and I'm more than happy to learn from people that think differently than me um that's why I'll never like cut you off just because you tell me in the comments I'm this Wing I'm that wing great I 72 wings and the Metatron that was that was corny but it was good go give me that it was good uh thank you my friend and teacher thank you canani wolf for the donation I appreciate that and also the donation from Captain lamp thank you very much I actually found your channel many years ago after my girlfriend of many years suddenly passed away oh no your channel was actually helped me get through it I'm very happy for that that must have been awful so you must be very strong you managed to go through that uh you have my respect very sorry that that happened to you my friend good stream tonight talking about a lot of thing because I'm an alchemist cadmon absolutely absolutely so yeah you should see you should see my because there is a there is a channel once that accuse me of being like Oh you dare to watch these three YouTubers that I disagree with ah you're you should watch my like one day I'm going to publish it like I'm going to publish like like I have nothing to hide one day I'm going to publish look these are the YouTubers I watch you'll be you'll be like everyone I watch literally everyone from everywhere you know try to get different facts different ideas keep my mind elastic you know you got to do that otherwise it becomes an echo chamber I'm the literal opposite of the EO chamber doesn't matter what people say but yeah Hyperion I appreciate you and how open you are but ultimately respect facts and logic me too respect facts and logic you know if I if I think something very strongly and I'm like no that's how it is that's my position and then someone arrives and they're like nope here's the counter evidence I review the evidence like damn he's right I was wrong all along I'll say it I have said it I have a video where I debunk myself it's there it's on the channel I have it you live in Italy at the moment vson no I live in the United in the US OFA I live in America that's where I live that's where I pay my taxes the US so yeah met be can you be more quiet I got told that your hardcore metal screen streaming it's too much to take I'll try met do you watch penguin Z absolutely almost every upload I'm a dedicated fan also because I like his hair but apart from that yeah penguin is good I know some people are like yeah it's trash cont I still like him plus the guy consistently did um charity and and gave out for a for many years he was just giving everything he was making to charity everything and then at one point he changed that I don't know how much charity does now but I mean he is extremely successful I respect that and he has given so much uh to people in need yeah usually his his takes a fair only a couple of times my wife and I were watching him and were like no Charlie no Charlie that's a bad take but differently from people are like ah unsubscribe because you disagree with me with one thing no we like Charlie he's great and I want to say 90% of times the people that he like when he attacks I love his series on like the dating stuff when there are the crazy people that go into dates and say this craziest cringiest stuff he's so good at that I don't know how he does it but from an entertainment standpoint okay so his thumbnails are horrible his thumbnails suck okay and uh and it doesn't matter because he gets like he gets the views that I get on a month he gets it on a video so it doesn't matter they work his thumbnails suck and his video the editing is extremely basic which means that I got to respect that the guy's ability to entertain is what is carrying his entire channel so for me he's like top tier I like Charlie uh Kanani wolf $10 thank you yeah that's the one on the shadow tour in just making sure I don't miss out on any uh super chat but yeah but most of the times it's it's fun particularly like you know those people that are now like uh going around pretending to attack you with a knife a fake knife to get a reaction from you that is disgusting like what the heck how what is that is that an influencer is that a what is it or like when they go and bother elderly people to get yeah of course you do it with an elderly people do it with a do it with the rock do it with the rock go bother the rock then we'll talk then we'll talk is like this all like uh pranks I don't respect prankers not like if it's if it's a channel and they're like hey metaton I want to want to collaborate with you okay great what what do you do pranks bye no I just can't stand it prankers particularly the ones that like do that like they they Rush towards you maybe you're with your woman you're with your man you're with your girlfriend your boyfriend your kid and then I see one of these prankers running towards you pretending to like the one like the guys with with with a mask the the joking mask and a knife hey if something happens to them it's on them it's on the castle doctrine all the way when it comes to that Jeffrey ol thank you for the $2 do you attend Retro Gaming or computer cons gosh no and thanks to you I just realized that I should ion Maiden I've got cadon obrien I've got an iron maen t-shirt but I prefer old school Metallica Nirvana was Prett Nirvana was pretty good as well the good old times like Smells Like Teen Spirit I'm talking that kind of classic uh but I was always a Metallica fan right the lightning was the best I don't care anything about they did after that right the lightning was their best album by far like that is the real like before it became commercial stuff just to make money before they did that um right the lightning was Peak heavy metal if you ask me I mean I would say heavy metal is my favorite genre epic metal is also one of my favorite genre it's just that like heavy metal is for every day epic metal is for when I play warmer specifically and then and then all the other types but yeah I would say that epic metal is good but specifically for either Warhammer or like Dungeons and Dragons yeah do you play Total War I used to play it a lot I really like Rome Total War but I've got to say lately all we've been playing is Warhammer Total War I got the third one cuz it was like uh on a discount isn't it terrible how pricey video games have become lately oh you need to get the Super Deluxe Edition what the heck is Deluxe $120 for a game what on Earth is going on and then you've got DLC pay to win freaking skins listen I like buying the occasional skin okay when I played a little bit of League of Legends I was like gosh these Skins are too good not to buy just to support the artists but then again you know on a free topl you sell the skin yeah I respect that that's fine they got to make money and as long as it's not like pay to win I'm good with it I'm fine it's fine but uh but yeah it's it's getting insane it's like pay a sub Subscription Service also you got the pay to win plus the DLC you know DLC used to be we give you a full game right and then because the game sells so well and people love it so much um then we give you a DLC and then you buy it Splendid like with um Dragon aged Origins but when it comes to like um now it's like we give you half a game and then every character is a DLC which have we already made and it's it's it's a scam hey my wife is here and she likes mon skin it's an Italian like kind of a punk rock is it a punk rock or is it like more of a kind what kind of I don't know kind of hard rock band they're great you should check them out monis skin a great hello Kenzie you can't live on controversy alone true but it can be one of your ingredients of of a of a healthy hethy meal yeah Krabby it's like it's becoming like for someone who's struggling okay for someone who's struggling they got to wait they got to wait because it's becoming like impossible like buy Street Fighter 6 I mean I don't know why you would since this is 10 times better than Street Fighter 6 and you know what's funny is that yeah Street Fighter 6 is all about yeah we got to be inclusive and Dei and inclusivity and this and the flag well this game from the freaking 1992 is it was super inclusive and yet nobody complained about it where were all the racists literally you have every ethnicity every country everyone looks epic you have everything you got black people Asians Italians you got literally everything and yet no one complained why because this was the real deal it was done because it fit the story it's a world uh you know it's it's in the world and you need to fight and uh and it worked and and and there were there were no racists no one complained about it um and then Street Fighter 6 is is what it is but I mean I'm a 2d era when it comes to street fighting my friend I'm a 2d guy green people with Blanka well I imagine Blanca is not the best representation of a of a Brazilian I'll give you that but you know it wasn't done with malice right and I mean DJ was so cool as a Jamaican wasn't he you had like the Ripoff of of Mike Tyson as like the black boxer still really cool though uh you really have everything and besides yeah Brazilians love Blanca exactly no I know Blanca was one of when back in the day when he was not even in console and was still in around like the arcade Blanca was one of the the the most used characters I mean I'm I've always been a real guy and a Vega guy Vega long hair and you because Japanese karate really cool okay uh but I think it's it's just Street Fighter was was like inclusivity done right if you ask me because he didn't feel pushed and no one complained no one complained no one yeah then you have the the wrong Cami Cami is the yeah you know let me tell you something about women then uh when I was 15 I liked Sakura great cuz I was 15 then I grew into a man and I'm like no you know what Chun Lee Chun Lee is the hot chick then now I'm like no Cammy we change don't we yoga flame yoga flame it was an interesting take you know on yor I suppose but it makes sense I mean yoga they stretch so the guy stretches a little bit in a fantasy way yeah balrog is is in in the west balog would be the boxer because they were getting sued so because in the original Mike bison is balog and then balog is Vega and Vega is Mike bison because Mike bison was a ripoff of Mike Tyson and then in in the in the in the in Japan that's how that's how it is if you read the Katakana but in the west I think I remember that Mike Tyson was like uh-uh don't do that and they were like oh sorry cake says Ken over youw so I like how they changed they started changing cuz you know in the First Street Fighter 2 they were like the same thing different skin and then they started changing them and making own characters so in this one already it was like Ken is more the shuken guy and R Ryu is the hadoken guy but it's in Street Fighter Alpha where they actually fight differently and Ryu looks more like a traditional karate guy whereas Ken is more like of a sport karate and he includes the ax kicks and he's more like on his feet and I really like it so when we look at that then I really think Ken's way of fighting is more fun to play because of the axe kicks and whatnot but in general Ryu is pretty cool Ryu is great yeah I agree Darwin that's pretty much what I was trying to say you just said it more elegantly than me Ken is better gameplay Ru is better law wise I suppose yeah R is just like stereotypical Japanese katea it's like right there shuken hadoken yeah shuken is like the The Rising Dragon punch and hadoken is the moving wave attack or moving wave yeah that's how we translate it in from Japanese Metatron did you check Jay Dy he lives right now and he's live right now do open forign debate versus Catholics no wings just Christianity by the way no I never heard of him never heard of him pretty cool maybe you check him out Ru has slightly faster uppercut really I didn't know that you see you guys know everything you guys know everything yeah true yeah it's difficult to play fighting games today particularly because you know you got to pay for everything $5 you like that character $4.99 oh you like that costume like remember the days of dead or alive 2 and Dead or Alive 3 when you would like literally the game rewards you with extra costumes every time you clear the game that increases longevity and makes you feel like yes I paid 30 40 bucks but I feel I'm getting a lot from my purchase now it's like yeah it's $5.99 3.99 and $4.99 and blah blah blah blah yeah Nathan Metatron do you avoid going to Big Blue cities like New York and Chicago no no we love New York my wife and I love going to New York I don't care if they're blue or red uh the city is the city you can still go and enjoy it doesn't whatever yeah rap dead are that are alive it's a shame what happened to it yeah yeah I mean it's uh did you see like that or Alive five I remember a an episode by uh The Angry Joe and he was showing that if you buy every single uh DLC you'll have to give them like something it's in the thousands I don't want to just say a number but it was like I don't know three four five $7,000 it was like what the hell are you out of your mind it's like you're just trying you're just hoping on whales that's what they're called by the way in the gaming in Spectrum they're called Wales when you're like super rich and you want to buy everything and so yeah yeah it's a shame they went but yeah I'm I mean I still play that they alive I still play it I still play it if they if they get a give us a new one I'll play it absolutely Tekken used to be even more dead than Dead or Alive it can still come back yeah the latest one is pretty fun I down I I bought it with my cousin we had a few matches um it's pretty fun you know vampire the Masquerade yeah we used to play the role playing game tabletop and uh and then a couple of times I did like live reenacting uh with that uh the my favorite type of vampire was the vent the ones that control your mind with the Dominion skill I always play the vent through vampire pretty fun they get they got a quite a couple of good video games for that one as well don't they I just don't remember playing many the only vampire game that I remember is legacy of Kane for PlayStation one still a classic meton would you review the Bron AG factions in total warfare or maybe on the third Channel that's where I do my gaming content mostly now with the occasional one on the main but only [Music] occasional yeah what about soulcaliber I appreciate Soul calibur's editor like I like creating my own characters and like trying to make a historically accurate night as or like my own Romance soier and stuff like that uh so yeah I have you should Che please do that write Metatron Soul Caliber and you'll get I'm not I'm not going to spoil it but you'll get a surprise and it has to do with every single YouTuber in the community of the sword just write Metatron Soul Caliber you'll love it you'll thank me later lost library book thank you for the donation okay you're one of the people carrying the stream today in the '90s you'd have games like Castlevania Symphony Castlevania symphon the of the night that is like hands down one of the best games ever made that had an entire second game as a bonus unimaginable today yeah for sure now you would have like Castlevania uh it's like 9999 the symphony is a 39.99 you know DLC and then if you want of the night you need to get subscription but you need to be one of the pioneers and pre-order it and we will make fun of them until Kingdom Come that's why like literally you know what I think might be a hot take but to me the uh what what what used to be AAA in the 80s and the '90s and the way they approached the uh designing of games is indie games today now Indie developers are basically the big names they have the same approach as the big names did in the 80s whereas triaa now is there are some good games don't get me wrong some games are great AAA yes but as an industry it's a matter of sit down with a bunch of psychologists and how can we get people as addicted as possible and get as much money as possible from those credit cards and then of course the the rest of the and then politics this is what's happening so to me I'm like full on Indie Indie Indie Indie if you make an indie game on Rome I'll support you for free on my channel you don't need to give me any a Euro make an indie game uh medieval period something fantasy but with something cool if it's a good idea and it has to do with now it's like just just tell me you you tell me in one of my comments uh I don't know if I don't see your comment become a patreon $5 and then cancel it I'm going against my own interests here yeah but literally uh do that or become a member of the channel and the freaking cancel it unless you enjoy it let stay um but tell me about your game tell me about it and uh it's going to be great if it's a AAA company like you know all the freaking mobile game yeah I I'll mention their games and they need to pay me for it AAA they got a I want the dollar so I can build I can provide for my C family and build a future for my kids I want the dollar for the Triple from the AAA companies but if you're Indie just let me know mate Just You and Me Against the World absolutely will you review Shogun I have already first episode uh and then I'll do episode two absolutely uh let's see the observe metaton would you object to me basing an NPC on you oh no please do and let me know I would love that we be an honor my friend I'm I'm I'm a nerd so I love that for the new tabletop RPG system I've been writing I was thinking it would be cool to include the homage to you as a law Master feel free absolutely you have my uh my blessing do that be great Marcus Miller thank you for the $5 mine as well let's see together let's eat together my friend yeah Soulcalibur is an immortal classic do you agree you know what I've been playing it since it was called Soul blade in Europe and soul Edge in Japan and America this is like I've been playing it since the very beginning it's the very beginning with mitsurugi this the Samurai and the night was was my favorite actually um but I liked I liked the the Korean guy with the BL hang I think it's his name um yeah when I was I was in high school so blade in in in Italy was so popular we were all in love with Taki in fact we have disagreements in class as freaking 14y old saying Taki is my wife no she's my future wife no she would choose me as 14 year olds we were all thinking about that it's so funny uh but yeah in the games make games for the gamers not just for money and of course the money component is part of it right and that's okay you work hard you deserve to make money and I'm happy if for people like what's the guy that made that game gosh it's like a game where you I know I'm going to say it and you guys are going to know it but you know those guys that that guy that made that game and it's kind of based on moon Moonlight Harvest something like that and you can do your farm he did it on his own what is it called goodness gracious he became so popular um let's see if you can remember the name so I can give him a little shout out not that he needs it it's super popular he could give me a shout out Stu yes Stu Valley I respect that guy I watched the whole documentary on his own he did everything every everyone is saying St yes and I'm so happy that that guy is is he wealthy now I hope he is I think he is with the kind of of money he made uh and great I'm happy for him he should be wealthy it's it's good he worked hard he made a beautiful game not exactly my type of game I mean that's the type of game that I would only play with my wife you know sitting down with my wife we want to relax I know she loves it and I'm okay let's have a good time let's play a little bit and then I'll go play my warlike games and civilization and heroes and Might and Magic that's my but it's it's not a game I would be against there be like yeah sit down well play with your girlfriend play with your wife play with your boyfriend have a good time but um but I respect the work that is put in it and I'm happy that he had success same thing I would say for valim I I'm just pissed because they took forever to just give a freaking update uh so that kind of pissed me off but the game is beautiful I love valim uh Kanani wolf thank you for the $5 please give us your definition of the Japanese word sense thank you well sense in has multiple definitions it's a polysemic word which means that it has multiple meanings and the context is King to interpret it correctly generally speaking the word is used to mean a master for example in the martial art context is a is a is the is the master in school a Sensei is just the teacher but if you are in a hospital then a Sensei is the correct way to address the doctor a medical doctor so generally speaking if you look at the uh etimology the Ki s means before and s means born so it means someone born before you so the idea is since is someone you look up with because he has a kind of a a job H the is based on the knowledge he has gained possibly over years and so teacher Master doctor uh that's a sense yeah so that's that my girlfriend is better in Heroes of Might and Magic than me Andre says that's whatever you how you read your name there's something to be proud of absolutely say hi to your girlfriend what factions do you guys play have you seen the king make a game no should check it out I still have Soul Blade game for PS1 me too it's part of my collection for PS1 games uh I do have it I think do I have it well let's see I know I have Bushido Blade let's see if I have it I don't know maybe maybe maybe I'm wrong but I have a I have a memory that I have it I'll check the the super chat in a second so Street Fighter Rex uh let me see dark Omen Warhammer amazing Bushido Blade Fantastic Future cop Sim City pors challenge Final Fantasy tax SS maybe I don't have it anymore yeah maybe I don't I'll have to um I'll see if I can uh see if I can I'll check better later and see if I have it if I don't I should find it absolutely uh okay let me get to the uh Super Chat hiashi martial arts so West Martial Arts that's what that meansa I want to make a video to respect to the bnk when you when you mention weightlifting not being good for sword fighting did I say that that must be something like from many years ago I don't even know if I hold that position anymore but I don't remember my position so I don't want to try and defend a position I might not even have uh but yeah feel free but you can absolutely you know I I'm happy when people make videos to praise me and I'm also happy when people make videos to present constructive criticism uh the only time I the only type of content that I dislike apart from when they call me names that's obviously already said it okay great we get it Metatron stop repeating yourself but one thing I want to say that I haven't said the one type of response video that I hate is when people play two seconds stop stop me mid-sentence and laugh like idiots those piss me off they piss me and that's why I don't make response videos so those I completely ignore them there are a couple of creators that do it and I'm not going to mention them because I don't want to give them the attention because I don't think they deserve it you know uh he said a sentence they stop it they build a strawman they they accused me that I was about to say something and then they skip it so don't even check if I am going to say that or if I hold that belief and they just laugh to me that's not a grown-up adult is a child but if you want to make a debunking video I put the word debunking right there absolutely I don't mind it uh as long as you're respectful I try to be respectful when I debunk people and um I have no problems with that and it's possible that it's that maybe I even changed my mind and I don't even hold that belief if I ever did I don't know C five of C six lately I just play C six but I do Miss C 5 because I could become the pope and I enjoyed doing it I wish I didn't remove that from CV 6 do you like meta music absolutely tonic I'm very much into that okay that's a good one tiger star what do you mean when you use the term pansexual in historical context so I noticed some people getting annoyed by me saying that and I think that there was a little bit of a barrier a linguistic barrier there because the way me and my team use it it's the way we use it in Italy which I noticed that it's very different to the way people use it today within the American context of gender fluidity and all of that kind of you know gender is a spectrum and that kind of discussion uh we use it in the way we we were using it uh which was different we just meant to say they're not a bisexual in the modern sense they're not gay in the modern sense we just meant someone who uh doesn't identify as a sexuality which is a modern thing and is not present in the in the past but someone who just thinks if if I find someone attractive I'll have sex with them and so they don't care if they're female or male but without considering that as a way as a label to put on themselves and say I'm gay I'm by I'm straight that's what we meant but as I saw that there was a little bit of backlash for that I looked into it and I noticed oh so pansexual is used differently in within a politicized sense then I'm like okay I had no idea so no I don't mean it in that way also because I don't know what they mean you know I I can be open-minded when it comes to gender and people like transgender individuals I I don't hate transgender individuals at all uh I understand it's people who are struggling I do believe that gender dysphoria is a thing I do believe that these people hate and therefore um you know I and I know that some of these things are real uh with that being said you know that I'm happy to sit down and talk and try to see from a psychological standpoint from a linguistic standpoint absolutely but I wasn't using the word in any modern way or in any way that maybe might be used by for example activists because I have no idea how they use it I haven't even looked into it Luanda this is for your dad's fund thank you love your content brother I appreciate that thank you very much uh you know I think as a 40 almost 42y old man uh one big thing that changed from when I was in my 20s I think right now is that when I was in my 20s very much was about what can I do to work hard to build a future that I like so I can do a job a job that I love which I Do by the way thanks to you thank you so much so a lot was kind of focused on me and my future what can I do for for me for my future to build a family so I can have a family and you know do what I love and not struggle as a as a man in my 4S my first priorities provide for my wife I want to make sure she married me as far as I'm con concerned until the until death do us a part I'll do my very best iot I work hard every day I work hard every day and I don't care I want to make sure that I provide the best most comfortable life for her my second uh priority is build and accumulate wealth for my children so that they can have you know I I struggled for University because it was harsh to pay uh so I don't want them to have to do that although I learned a lot from it so I'll try to teach that somehow but uh I want to make sure that if they want to study they can do it and so I'll try to amass as much wealth as possible for them number three is I want to make sure that I do a job that puts me in a position where um I can do the things I like so if I want to spend three hours playing a game I like I can do it um and therefore work smart rather than work hard but if I need to work hard I'll do it this is I think how things change in in in your 40s your your um projected yeah your U I'm starting to get a little little tired here your perspective changes so thank you for putting up with me not getting my words the linguist great linguist speak six languages can can make can get a can get a point straight but yeah uh hiashi ha it was a video long time ago I thought so nothing but respect M always been my favorite YouTuber I appreciate that thank you so much you got me through some tough times back in the day for sure I appreciate that because I know that there are some YouTubers particularly when I was in Japan with the first three years in Japan were wonderful but the last year was really tough and uh I kind of wanted to come home I was feeling kind of homesick and there were some YouTubers I watched back then that really helped me through it so the idea that I may have become somehow uh that person for someone else right now makes me very happy to be honest so thank you for that thank you for that but yeah uh johnia pleased given you have made videos on the Bible I would like to ask if you are familiar with the works of Dr Michael Heiser and if he what do you think of then remind me because I'm terrible with names like even the only two actors that I know aano Reeves and Dustin Hoffman every other actor is the guy without hair the the blonde guy the the short guy I haven't got a clue so when it comes to names I I Dr Michael is he the one that published uh works on the on the Shroud maybe that's the one you're talking about CU I don't remember right now solid man good philosophical inside I appreciate that I mean just sharing what I'm what I'm learning and I'm sure I can learn a lot from you not trying to be like fake humble and anything like that I'm just trying to keep down to Earth because sometimes success can get get to your head and it's bad when you see it happen right because we have seen it happen I know that at least every one of you have seen at least one YouTuber get letting the uh success um uh get to their head and I just want to make sure that that doesn't happen because today uh I was actually thinking about it we're getting close close to like it's 891 so of course it's like an RPG so I'm like oh I want to level up I want to level up okay almost 92 almost 93 let's get to 900,000 like I do it that way a bit like in a video game when you're leveling up in a in a way but I also don't want to be the guy that is like oh you know I'm right because who do you think you are no no that's that's bad you know when when you have those like I have a million followers on Tik Tok like who gives a what does that that that doesn't that does not make you make your positions or your opinions more valid if anything it gives you more responsibility so I want to you you have a million followers great then behave for crying out loud because you know men and grown women among you yeah you're fine but if it's like a 19-year-old watching us creators if you if we behave stupidly they will connect our Behavior to our success and they'll think well this guy successful he has got Financial Security he's popular his videos get a lot of views I want to be like him I'm going to act like him and that's what gives us that's why I hate the word influencer but I got to put it on myself as well um we do have influence even if you have 10,000 subscribers you have influence at a lower degree but you're still an influencer hate the word but it is what it is and so I think it's like yeah like behave for crying out loud behave the internet is not a real place well adjusted humans we are all chronically online my friend I'm just like you you stop you're watching my videos I'm watching someone else I'm watching Jack septi ey I'm watching penguin uh you know I'm watching Shad I'm watching skallagrim that's what I do we are all chronically online lately I've been watching hikakin games it's a Japanese streamer and I watch him because he's funny but also because you speak Japanese and it's good practice for me Michael Heiser discusses the of the Divine Council in the ancient near e and and of the Bible then I'm not familiar with him no but I should check him out that sounds really interesting I have zero and it feels good yeah you know content creation is not for everyone I mean occasionally I get pissed with some haters but generally speaking I've got thick skin um so also because again I'm not a hate farming Channel contrary to what people think some people are like oh you're just farming hate well that doesn't happen because I have a 99.7% like to dislike ratio mate so I don't think that's happening but uh but you know it is what it is do you like hmon gold too so I like his hair and I like his looks I think he's cool and and I like that he makes fun of his looks like but I don't know about his Stakes much like I've seen a couple of videos of his like I was like jumping between creators and uh and I watched a few of his videos and I mean the videos that I watched I was like yeah I like how this guy's reasons I like how he thinks um but I don't know if I agree with everything because I no these people were saying saying like oh he had a terrible take on this um they were discussing at one point this idea of like content creators being a tough job but not being a tough job so I don't know I don't really have an idea never mind generally speaking but I I do need to start watching him a bit more to have an idea because he's popular isn't he and as I say I'm not like with I can watch people even if I disagree with them I can watch people they don't have to agree with me with everything as long as I you know to me if you say a couple of things I'm like based usually that's enough I'm easy like that and then you say like 15 things I disagree with I'll be like yeah but he was based that day Buck breaker metan is an alright fascist LGB racist yasu and all that we lovers and you refuse to touch on the subject of course you're trolling I imagine oh Yas you mean yeah you're trolling I'm so bad at understanding Trolls but this time I think I got it I'm learning yeah ason does a lot of saying the way things are instead of how he wishes they were you have to elaborate a little bit on that as okay there I read that yeah do you know my classmate Kiara she's Italian uh uh I'm not sure baldon you got a tick we've got a YouTuber with us thank you for being here what's your favorite Japanese film I Saw The Last Samurai recently was pretty good but I don't know how accurate it was well The Last Samurai has got some accurate aspects and then other things are a little romanticized but generally speaking I mean the armor looks good and the battle scene was pretty nice to see uh as I say it's um it is what it is it's it's it's a movie created when it was created and at one point I wanted to make a video to actually discuss all the Mina Mina how do you pronounce it you know being my usual fastidious pedantic with it um it is a good fi for good fi good movie for entertainment um but my favorite Japanese film gosh I'm going to go back to like kurasawa AKA times I think um and then I like Japanese horror usually I enjoyed it because it's psychological they say shindi Tei that's the expression to shindi Takei H is how they say it in Japanese they have a lot of games like that I play a lot of games that are that type like with VH effect that kind of stuff usually it's going to be old school though like I like that kind of stuff thank you for joining the stream we kind of get to the end because I've been live for three hours so I'm kind of thinking and and again massive massive thank you for all the people supporting today you really made this stream worthwhile I mean I would have done it even without support because I don't take it for granted but I do appreciate it very much uh it's uh it's very nice which mot combat game do you hate come on there has to be one as I say I'm not a huge fan of when it got 3D I like the old school one number four was kind of weird maybe number four was kind of weird because it was the very beginning of polygonal Graphics uh we were coming we were coming from very fluid 2D to very early 3D how is the first one though how is Mortal Kombat 1 I haven't played it I played all the way up to 11 but uh I mean 11 was fun I played it uh yeah how interested are you in the Celtic people very I've got a video two actually on Celtic you can find me metaton Celtic um do you like God of War I finished the first one then I kind of stopped I wasn't really into the ones that are like getting into Norse mythology I know everyone loves it I just like it when it was in Greece I just when I see ancient Greece but yeah yeah M Combat 4 was very weird wasn't it they looked kind of strange do you like Sailor Moon no and I didn't even when it was popular it was popular back in the day was really into it Mortal Combat was always pure junk you are factually correct come on number one and number two were great three introduced the combo system I think it's one of the first fighting games with Combos and Killer Instinct those are the two right cuz Street Fighter just doesn't have combos you have to like you have those attacks and you need to time them correctly with the correct frame so otherwise they don't connect but the actual combo like we imagine Dead or Alive which to me is the best game for combo uh they were introduced by motor combo 3 and killer instant if I'm right killer instant is such a crazy game it has uses similar technology to for example Donkey Kong Country in the sense that it is 3D like it's it's 3D screenshots so basically it's a it's they had a 3D engine outside the game they screenshotted it and took the 3D and turned it into a Sprite so it kind of looks 3D but it really isn't they did that with Killer Instinct and they did it with um with um yeah Donkey Kong Country uh be well done I've always watched the first episode of of Shogun so far that seems really good it's great yeah my my I enjoyed making the first episode review and I'm going to post episode two it's a really good show not going to spoil anything but uh there are a couple of episodes that I would consider boring but I would have put a little more battle in fights but in general it's a really good show from a historical accuracy standpoint I think it's really good I miss Twisted Metal I was playing Twisted Metal the other day on my PlayStation mini Twisted Metal is great first and second both great second was good because you could play co co-op with your friends story mode and first one was great as a con concept piece uh and also for like fighting with your friends we used to play it a lot killer reing was amazing it still is I still play the first one in fact I prefer the first one over the latest one criminally underrated I agree it even had the finishing moves and uh it was good PlayStation One Mini yeah I have the because I have the I have the physical PlayStation ones actual both American and and European for collection and I use them occasionally but the me is so easy because you can just download ROM into it's so easy to mod um you can put so many games in it you know this the franchise Samurai Showdown I do but it's like it never really was it's it's yeah fighting game pretty cool but I if I if you're talking Samurai I'm all about Way of the Samurai that's the series number three was really good for me saying Goku J all through and then number four was really good too with the Advent of the West and then that struggle between the West the East the technology samai tradition versus Innovation wow what a good game loved it and the fact that you could play it over and over and over really good Way of the Samurai is so good yeah no yeah Samurai Showdown is still a good game absolutely but sure I should probably see if I can if I can buy it maybe I'll use one of the super chats from today and I'll get it why not any videos of Slavic history I don't think I have any exception being the stuff where I talk about Czech uh like Bohemia and that kind of stuff but I'll see if I can and and expand it a little more to be great kind of talk about also not only Central Europe Eastern Europe kind of that sort of that be good U five Mor Kombat 2 Mega Drive yeah I played it on uh Super Nintendo cuz I didn't own it I had a mega drive my cousin and my neighbor had a Super Nintendo so I grew up with it but I didn't own it now I have it precisely because I didn't have it I have the American one here I have the European one back home in Europe but I need to have my friends send it back to me they can ship it love the Super Nintendo and I connected to this CRT cuz I'm old school like that absolutely bloody raw yeah remember that one no one knew how to pronounce it in Italy like now I know it's bloody R ro ro I can't I still can't pronounce it everyone in Italy said blo Ro everyone in Italy said it like that also because now Italian kids the generation now more and more people speak English but back when I was like before I even moved to England when we when I was really young no one knew any English in Italy everyone was like Final Fantasy for Final Fantasy and that was like bloody Ro that's how everyone pronounced it it sounds more badass yeah we roll our ass do you have a wife yes I do and she's gorgeous which knockoff console that plays any as super n yes do you recommend not really a knockoff but I really like the Retron 5 and I have a dedicated documentary on it review sorry on my third channel the protectorate if you go to my channel main page here and you scroll down you'll see my other channels the protectorate is the kind of neon pink one and it's got a a nice review which actually got decent views yeah no I don't have kids yet battle realm bloody bloody Roar bloody raw is it raw or roow raw bloody raw sounds like I'm I'm swearing bloody Roar look at this bloody roar I can't even make fish and chips anymore bloody Roar meton are you a Christian yes I am I have a dedicated video It's called do I have faith and you can check it out it's the only time when I actually talked to about it because usually on this channel I like to to keep my bias to myself and try to be objective uh so I don't want that to uh you know but yeah you need to advertise your additional channels more in the future yeah I should you're right Amiga 500 is the greatest well you called it it's a great way to kind of get towards the latest later part of the stream but my friend I absolutely agree look at this beauty hey when I see something fancy so I always talk about it but this is uh 1981 monochrome uh screen so do you know when like in the Fallout you've got those like Terminals and they only have green This Is The Stuff This is CR this is like even before the color CRT this is this has got P1 phosphorus meaning it only creates green I'm going to turn it on for you so you can see it it's going to get loud okay we turning on and 1981 IBM computer 5150 with a 5151 monochrome and you're going to see the phosphorus you can already see a little bit a little green there now it's going to beep it's going to go be very loud that means that it performed checks and like the ram works the memory works so if it doesn't beep then you you'll see that it doesn't work live I suppose but I take good care of this stuff so yes it will beep and then you'll see that it will go into basic as a as a computer language and guys yes it's it's one it's the first IBM PC technically it's not the first personal computer per se in the history of computing there we go it run the check it works but it's the first personal computer created by IBM and it's definitely the foundation of what we have today I mean even the keyboard our modern keyboards are based on this but here he is look at this beauty you're looking at Green phosphorus now 1981 IBM core cor core I don't know but here we are and it works for crying out loud stuff today modern tech only lasts a few years this thing 40 years still strong still working isn't that a Beauty look what happens when I turn it off it's actually kind of cool you ready check this out did you see that the gas slowly going away it's pretty cool it's pretty cool anyways let me get back to here because I got a super chat I got a Super Chat and I don't want to be disrespectful uh Jes thank you for the $5 I have pridan Jewish and Italian Warrior ancestry ancestors could you do something on Prussian no Prussian Warriors how did they goth armor so uh yeah I mean I would have to study it because is kind of outside so it kind of needs more preparation but I'd like to kind of get back into history of arms and Arma a little more so thank you for the donation for the idea Jes and also canani wolf thank you for the donation how do you keep all your room and your equipment so clean dust free I use it I use it constantly like even the let's go let's go this is this is a great stream my friend let's go check these guys out I my wife put this one here it's adorable anyways um so these I just use them like in the morning when I wake up I come here and I do this so that this thing turns on there it is and then I do this I don't keep them on all day but I love to just wake up in the morning enter my man cave and just turn the stuff off and make it into a small arcade if you will and there he is and then you got your Pac-Man here with a full way joystick and then for this one you have an 81 because it's kind of a bit more modern and uh yeah it's good stuff so that one is loading there he is Pac-Man so that's where you choose the game you want to play uh let's go let's go for Pac-Man goodness gracious sorry for that and so we go to Pac-Man and here he is yeah home is where your man cave is I agree let's go so we got a little little Pac-Man here it's good stuff isn't it but yeah that's uh that's it so that's Pac-Man here you got Mortal Kombat you get to choose which one you know you want to play and so you can even add because this is an l l LCD because it's modern but you can add as a filter the um uh the lines the scan lines so that it makes it look like a CRT which I appreciate and it's pretty cool and uh here we are thank you for the donation nice toch thank you I'll go I'll go take a closer look in a second see here we are Mortal Kombat isn't that great Subzero Reigns Supreme Subzero yeah with one hand I'm definitely not going to win it but looks great woo oh look at that with one hand I can't do can I do the woohoo one hand come on great hey look at that let's go check out the uh the towel since uh we got a little we got a little uh Super Chat so I got some some towel painted here uh yeah toasty there we go and then this Muppet has been with me for a while still functioning Game Boy it's good stuff right so I'm just going to sit back let going to sit back okay so I'd say we are probably sort of towards the end of the stream right now because we've been here for three hours and honestly I love you guys but I want to play Hero might magic so um what's your favorite tea oh gosh my favorite tea Maybe I ryokucha maybe uh green tea matcha is a little bitter ryokucha muga is also good the one made with wheat you can play Heroes of mathemagic 3 on stream I'll definitely do it but right now I'm running out of voice so uh yeah playing Pac-Man who thought we would have seen the day I agree my friend just checking to see uh don't want to yeah how much did those two cost so I think they were on an offer when I got them but I think they you can get them for like depends on how lucky you are but you can get them between $3.99 and $4.99 usually that's how much they cost and of course you can pay them in installments whereas like a fullon like these are from arcade one up but usually the ones that are like big from other companies they can cost up to 3,000 and uh honestly I wouldn't I wouldn't want I wouldn't know how to justify that uh but yeah sure sure anyways no once I really appreciate you being here today uh with me I am going to go live again next month uh possibly on the 4th because it's my birthday so I'll just share my birthday with you and we're going to have a good time and apart from that thank you for being here and I will see you very soon I'll post again tomorrow so uh just come check out the channel tomorrow I'll post a midday Central and then I'm going to go live again next week thank you so much thank you for being here and have a good one thank you for the donation and everything bye CH bye bye bye bye bye

Create Your Small Action Model with GPT-4o.en.srt

00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:01,599 today I thought I could share a project I have been thinking about for a while now so basically I call it just a small action model uh thinking about these large action models that we heard around this rabbit and all of that mess right and basically since gp40 released the API I wanted to kind of test out the new vision capabilities by trying to implement this so I divided this into kind of two phases as you can see here we have the recording phase and this is uh we record screen shots while uh I do some actions on my computer so I set this to two frames per second that should be enough right and all of these screenshots will be saved to yeah just a folder and I kind of set the duration here as I will show you in the code and the next part is kind of what I call the execute phase this is where we can actually take advantage of the screenshots so we run them to the wish model with GPD 40 and we're going to analyze and we're going to try to understand the sequential order of the actions the user took right and we're going to feed that into gbd4 again we're going to generate a step-by-step plan to recreate the user's action and this plan is from this plan we're going to generate a code that again can try to recreate these user actions and then we just going to execute the code so the code gets saved into its own uh file name right so we can save it if you want to and re create these small actions so basically I just think we're going to go over to the code and I'm going to show you kind of go through it how I thought about this you got to do some few tests and yeah I thought it was pretty interesting and it's not going to be the longest video but uh yeah hope you find it interesting let's walk over through some of the function we actually need to make this happen so you can see the first function I want to highlight is kind of the screenshot function very simple setup we set the intervals remember I said two frames per second so this is kind of if I put one here that's one frames every second for 15 seconds and if I put 0.5 that is of course going to be two frames per second for 15 seconds so that means we have this 15c window to kind of record our actions right and that is just going to be saved to uh yeah I can just show you here so you can see this is my folder here we have 21 screenshots of some actions I have been taking uh but we get back to that we're going to this to Bas 64 and then we come into kind of analyze uh image function this is going to look at the folder I just showed you and use actually the GPT 40 model to uh analyze just what is happening in the image so we just going to do it as simple as that uh but remember we are going to go through every single one of these images to get kind of the full base 64 encoding so we can kind of put everything together to find out the sequential IAL order of this right uh so we want to kind of want to sort this and but I'm not going to spend too much time going through that and the next part is the generate step-by-step plan function of course we want to to generate a stepbystep plan to generate these actions and this is going to be based on the results we get right from the analysis from the sequential order of the images uh I also added a function to clean generated code because we all always get this weird stuff so I just wanted to remove this when we actually just so it's easier to save the code we get get to recreate our actions right we have a very simple GPT 40 shat function here uh so you can see you're professional software Deb with expertise in Python your task is gener python code to recreate the users's action from a step byep plan generate code uses uh OS controls the computer mouse keyboard uh you have contr user PC uh I don't want to use like selenium and these lips for the browser if you want to go into that because we have the option to kind of go to our Chrome right so you'll kind of see that action I just set some parameters here for our uh gp4 oat function and the main part is basically pretty easy we add some sleep at the beginning of the so we get time to kind of get ready to record our actions we're going to take the screenshots we're going to save them to a folder called training analyze the images print the analysis go into the step-by-step plan feed in the analysis results as args and print the plan then we're going to generate uh our python code using the gp4 oat function so you can see we feed in the plan here from yeah generate plan part from the US ACC a python code that recreates the same actions and I just uh yeah I don't want any extra only want the code so that seems to work pretty good and we kind of print out the yeah you can see we run the code through our clean code function and just print out a code and save it to action. pyite and that is basically it uh I found out that this is working pretty good so now let's just do a few examples and I kind of wanted to leave this code already open so people can work on this to kind of build on it right that thought I could be pretty interesting and if you want just access to this uh just become a member of the channel we had a few discussions today on the Discord about yeah around this capturing images video screenshots so a lot of good value in the community Discord that you will also get access to if you become a channel member uh additionally to the GitHub Community but yeah now let's do some different tests with this and see if it works okay so when we run this now of course I'm just going to do yeah some pretty simple stuff remember I set this to 15 seconds so we don't have all of that time so yeah I'm just going to run this just close this and just start doing something so let's go to the start menu let's do Chrome maybe okay let's go to google.com let's find a music video so Taylor Swift maybe down bad okay let's click on [Music] this okay better stop that and hopefully now this is going to create a code that can recreate the steps we just did so if we go back here and let's just let let this run for a while when we can actually see the plan and stuff now okay so here you can see we analyzed all of the images and you can kind of see went to Google typed in tayor Swift kind of down bad clicked on it got to the YouTube video here right and here we have the generated python code so you can see that we can also open the code here let's reload it so you can see it is in uh yeah kind of um good format here now let's try to run this okay so let's run this so you can see yeah I'm going to put my hands up here so the first step was to go to Google to go to Chrome right then it was google.com perfect then we put in our name of our YouTube video so Taylor with down bad and the last part it has to be to click on this video yes perfect so I guess this was a good pass and it kind of recreated all the steps we did in our recording phase right so yeah pretty cool so yeah that is what I wanted to share today I'm just going to leave this totally open if you want to try it out I haven't really explored too much what actually the capabilities of this are I'm sure there are ton of improvements you can do but yeah if if you want to try it out yeah like I said become a member of the channel and I will put this out there and be cool if you can report back in the comments if you have any ideas around this what we can use it for but anyway that was my small action model uh yeah kind of fun project to be honest and it's a framework that we we can build on when we get access to the voices and maybe some local wish models that can do this so that's going to be quite cool but anyway hopefully see you on Sunday have a great day and yeah bye-bye

Create Your Own Gradio Component - Part 1.en.srt

00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:03,040 hi everyone my name is Freddy and I'm one of the engineers at gradio um a couple weeks ago gradio released version 4.0 which comes with a lot of really cool new updates to the gradio library all focus on making gradio much more customizable and extensible than it was in the past uh one of the coolest things that came with 4.0 is the ability to create your own custom gradio component uh so what I wanted to do today with you is go through a live coding session of creating um a custom component so that you can get a feel for how to do it yourself um yeah so for this example uh we'll be creating a a take we'll be creating our own version of the gradio Chapa component uh that's uh focus on multimodal applications so you'll be able to return messages and send messages that contain both text and media like images files and videos um so you know without much further Ado uh let's get started really excited um so today what I want to do is uh walk through an example of how you would build your own uh multimodal chatbot component so the gradio chatbot component can already display images so it already is multimodal uh but it can't inter leave uh text and media components um so you have to send uh like a video or an image and a separate message from the text um and I want to build the chat bot that can show the same the text and the media the media and the same message um so that's what we're going to do today um so the first step to creating a custom component is to install gradio 4.0 so uh let me just uh PP show gradio so I'm using gradio 4.1.1 here any gradio 4.0 version should should work uh for this case Okay so the first step uh after that is to create the scaffolding for your custom component so in gradio 4.0 there is a gradio cc command line tool uh CC stands for custom components and then it comes with a certain set of commands that you can use to bootstrap your custom component uh so the one that we're going to use here it's the the build uh the uh no sorry the create command the create command you know creates a new component for you so radio CC create and then I'm going to call it multimodal chatbot uh and then the template and then you you can pass it a template which is like uh an existing component to build off off so in this case it's very natural to build off of the the chatbot component so I'm going to run that um okay so it's going to you know create the backend code some front end code install python install uh install the JavaScript dependencies all that good stuff just give it a second here cool so that all worked so what that did is it created a multimodal chatbot directory which I'm going to open in vs code uh which is right here cool um so if we look at um the directory structure there's three parts there's the back end the front end uh and the demo the demo is like a demo you can use to test out your component and then obviously the backend and front end contain the backend and front end code uh cool it creates a read me for you um a p project tommo file that has like the your project config um there's a couple Fields here that you can uh you can fill in if you want to so Freddy Bolton then my email in this case will be uh Freddy huggingface face. um and then you can you know add some keywords some you know all that good stuff uh if you have dependencies you can add them here but in this case Gro is the only dependency we need cool so let's get started uh I'm going to start off with the back end so I'm I'm more of a python developer um but you don't need to be a front-end expert to get started building custom components specifically or especially when you template off an existing component um a lot of the work is already done for you so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to delete some of this stuff so what gradio what templating does it literally pulls in the chatot component from the gradio library so there's some gradio specific stuff here that we don't need for our case like this like Auto documentation stuff um cool but uh everything else sorry everything else looks good to me so the first thing that you do when you design uh design a custom component is think about the data model so the data model is something that's new in gradio 4.0 uh but it basically encapsulates the data that you're going to be sending to the front end and the data that the front end is going to be sending to your component um so as you know as we can see here the chatbot data um it's a list of tupal and the Tuple is either the element of the tup is either a string or a file right so you know that kind of says what the what the problem in my mind that with the original chap not the problem or like the thing that we want to change is that rather than having a string or a file message we want to have you know one data one piece of data and capsulate both um so that's that's what we're going to do um so we're going to keep the file message the same what we're going to do uh class uh multimodal message or multimodal chat but data I think that looks good uh so what this will be is that it'll be a oh sorry this will be a gradio model uh this will be a text so it'll be a string and it'll be a a list of files so it'll be list file message um and then these things can be optional uh yes cool and then in our chatbot data what we're going to do is this will be a tupal of the Union of basically it'll be optional uh multimodal I think I'm going to change this to multimodal message multimodal message okay multi modal message and then this will be optional multimodal message cool so what this is saying is that the chatbot data is going to be a list of tupal and the tupal will be consist of you know a pair of multimodal messages either one can be none okay so that pretty much that's almost the hardest part okay so now um every gradio component has a pre-process and postprocess um method so what this does is that it or so let's look at pre-process first what this does is it'll take the payload which is the data that we get from the front end in this case it's the chatbot data uh and it'll turn it into the data that your prediction function is supposed to receive so uh in this case it'll turn the chap dat into a list of lists and all that stuff um but I don't actually um for this case I don't think we need to to do all that I think we could just pass the chatbot data to the actual python function or prediction function uh that will uh use this component so um what we're going to do is actually let's look at pre-processed chat message um okay cool cool cool so yeah so this is what we're going to do we're going to do a this will return payload chapot data so chapot data or none and this will return a chapot data or none so the payload is none we do that that's good um and then uh what we're going to do is oh actually what we can do is we'll just return a list of multimodel chat message or multimodel message let's do that okay so uh we don't need that I think so for message pair in payload.bin clean doc so what we're going to do uh so message pair uh uh for message pair oh actually you know it um okay yeah so what is this going to do Post process preprocess preprocess chat message oh here we go calling okay yeah yeah so I don't think we need any of this so we could just yeah let's just uh we'll just [Music] return payload root oh sorry return payload Roots um okay that looks good to me and then we can get rid of this stuff yeah okay awesome so now uh let's go to postprocess so post postprocess um takes a data returned by the python function and then turns it into the data that's going to be sent to the server so what this is doing um it's uh it's adding a MIM type to to the file data and it's also you know cleaning the chat message uh it's calling clean doc so uh let's do that okay so um so the chat message will be a multi uh chat no not it would be a multimodal message or a dictionary or none and then this will return a multimodal message or none okay so if multimodal message is none return none if it's a dictionary what we're going to do is uh chat message equals we're going to turn it into a multimodal message okay uh dict is this right yes it is right okay cool and then what we're going to do here is uh okay so then what we're going to do here is we're just going to call these things independently or just these things on the on a chat message so chat message uh text is going to be message text and then uh I don't I don't know what that's doing um oh yeah so for uh for file and chat message files uh [Music] file M type going to be and I think that is all we need cool and then we're going to [Music] return message cool looks good to me uh multi model message that's the file uh way sorry what is it multimodal message a list of files it's a list of file message yep okay so this will be a list of file file message cool yep okay I think this looks good uh cool and then the example inputs are what gets used uh in the API for API usage uh so let's uh let's fix that so this will be a text hello and then files will be just an empty list for now okay cool cool cool cool so I think these are all the backend changes that we need to make uh there might be some bugs here uh but that's the fun of it that's part of the fun uh so now let's go to the front end so um you know similar to the back end what the front end directory contains when you template of a component is like the literal chapot component that comes with radio um so if this is the first time seeing this it might be a little bit overwhelming but you know bear with me um I think it's it's it's actually not not that not that tough um so this is uh the way that the front end components are structured typically is that there's an index. spelt file so that is like the top level of the chap of the components frontend implementation uh and there's typically a couple like helper components uh in the shared uh directory um that get called within the index that's felt or within other files here um and maybe maybe I should back up um what what all this is all that all that you're seeing on the screen here is um is spelt so spelt is a front-end uh it's a library for creating front-end components um uh like I said at the beginning of the video I am not a front-end developer uh but I've found it uh pretty fun to start writing spel and start messing with these components once you get the hang of it um there's a slight learning curve but you know after you know a couple hours at most I think you guys should be okay and hopefully this video is helping helping you guys ease that that learning curve um right so um you know maybe enough Preamble let's start coding these things will uh explain themselves hopefully um but okay so similar to the back end um what I want to do in the front end first is uh change the types here because like if you see here um every frontend component has a value basically and the value has a typee and the type is the type that's sent from the back end so you can see here this is like the old type which is like a string or like all this stuff right so um what we're going to do let me uh copy this um uh I'm G to modify this utils file to um create some some types here that we could use from our other components so um let me just look at this file message and multimodal message okay so uh export type file message yes that is what we want and then this will be a file which is file data oh and then it'll be alt text alt text yep which is a string and then we're going to do this cool and then export type uh what did I call it um multimodal message mul mod message cool okay so you don't have to have the names line up or anything but just you know for consistency and you know it's just good practice to keep these things the same so we know they're the same it'll be a multimodal message so this will be a text which is a string and then there will be a list of files files this will be file message this cool okie dokie so now let's go back to the index and um let's import that type so import type and then this will be uh multim modal message from sh thank you um Okay so uh let's change the type here so this will I this will be a multimodal message or n and yeah so this is like a it'll be like a list of T PS like the back end so it'll be a multimodal message or no cool um okay so now that we changed the type I'm sure there's going to be some problems here um okay so this is also wrong so let's this will be a multimodal message or no and then this will be mul message or okay so yeah this is so right now our editor is rightfully complaining that you know these things are uh you know like it's these things like the types are inray right uh which makes sense because we just uh we just changed the types so if we look at this what this is doing so this dollar sign um thing is spelt Syntax for like declaring a a variable to be reactive so what this is saying is that whenever the value changes either because it gets returned from a function or or whatever um we're going to call this map function um to like basically process each of the messages that come back from the the back end right uh and then that'll get stored in this underscore value variable okay so if we look at this what this doing is that it's going to map over the tupal of the user message and the bot message and then it's going to do um you know basically if it's like a string you're going to do this if it's you know not a string you're G to do that or something right so basically this is using the old logic where it was either a it was either a string or a file so now that it can be both um we need to take care of that so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to um create a new function so let's call it function process messages uh or process message um so this will take a message which is of typed multimodal message or no and then it'll return a multimodal message or no oh okay so um if message is null just going to return the message need some parentheses here okay and then what we're going to do is we're basically just going to call these uh functions that already exist here um otherwise so message. text is going to be uh redirect SRC URL message. text and then uh not me so message. files is going to be message. files map normalized messages yep I think this is okay cool cool cool process message um and then what we're going to do here is we're just going to call this function there so what we're going to do is we're going to return process message user message process message B message cool okay so uh that is pretty good progress um me back up a little bit okay so then now What's Happening Here is that um the index that spell file is you know delegating you know the actual rendering of the chatbot to this chatbot component uh so obviously this has the old value type uh now that we change it it's it's complaining uh but before we fix that maybe it makes sense to kind of talk a little bit about what's happening here in this index SW file um so you know similar or right let me back up uh so basically every index as SP file is going to have this one thing called the block and the block is like the basic like rendering you know block that's why it has that name of the gradio UI so that's what uh kind of like makes sure that all the components kind of like render within like the box that you see them render in in in cor gradio um and they all take you know they all take these these properties here like scale mean width height all that stuff um the other thing that every index file will have is going to be this thing called like the status tracker and the loading status um so this is basically what uh you know like the the spinning animation that you see when a component is being output by a function and like the processing is happening in the server you see that like progress animation that's basically what this data stor is doing right so every component's going to have that so when you see it don't be scared not that you would be scared I guess but but uh yeah just kind of you can you can pretty much leave it as is um and then yeah like the the label is usually in this block label thing um and it takes an icon right so if you look here you know there's like an icon library that you you can use uh in your custom component as well uh but basically we don't have to touch any of this because we like how the normal chatbot renders we're just changing a little bit about like the data processing uh so we can leave most this as is but you know if you do want to change a little bit about how component looks uh you can do that um you know by modifying the code basically um cool so let's go to this chat bot and let's fix the data issue so um let's let's import the type of uh import type uh multimodal message from utils um and then similar to what we did in index. spelt this will be a multimodal message or all and then this will be a multimodal message orinal okay and then here we go multi modal message or no and then same thing here cool um okay so let's see is there other stuff happing yeah okay so it's complaining obviously about the type being wrong so message so this will be handle select so yeah so let's change this to a multimodal message um change this to multim mobile message cool um okay so now let's go back down here okay so let's kind of walk through a little bit about what's happening here so um basically if the message is a string you render like a markdown of the message and then if the message is actually a file um what we're going to do is just basically render like a video or like a media component for that M type that corresponds on that M type so if it's an audio render an audio component if it's a video render a video component component all that stuff right so what we're going to want to do is um always render the markdown message and then for Loop over the files and then render uh basically keep this and then you know render the um yeah render all the the components that are in the files key um hopefully that makes sense uh when I start doing it it I hope it I think it will make a lot more sense right so we're going to get rid of that is because we're we're going to have a text message going to move that a little bit back and then what we're going to do is that in spelt you do um dollar sign each for so for each file in message files as actually is this the right syntax let me uh check actually I always uh always get confused that's the right what the right syntax is um so let me verify each okay I think it is f a um okay so what we're going to do is basically bring all the stuff in here if else if message okay and I'm not sure about this button thing button okay yeah we're just going to keep it as is so um let uh just going to bring this in uh for each bring that in there okay so um is this the right oh it's uh hashtag if so um if uh file is not null and file uh file file mind type includes audio so wondering if I usually like my co uh the editor like kind of picks up on the type differences I'm wondering if I get broke something um oh okay so this is wrong here because needs to be message. text because text is a message and then I believe this has to be called message so do that and then wondering what's going on here um okay so uh this looks good else if message and then file file M type includes video do that LF message and then the sorry this is wrong it's file file and then file all text oh not file one file um okay so file F and then do the same thing here right always going to have I think that's fine prob leave it as so file file URL and file alt text and then if okay [Music] so what is this complaining about maybe this is what my that's not open each each [Music] so oh and then I need to close the L so I understand so I need to close the here okay cool okay so now that I did that things are uh message text message files uh so let's see message pair message is a multimodal message for each file in message files so this is a string multi modal message oh sorry what happened is that I was doing some uh I was doing some python syntax there see like I said I'm not a really a front end guy but um you know that doesn't stop you from making or trying to make a a gradio custom component um yeah so message file okay so this looks good okay so if message and message oh yes so okay so obviously this thing is breaking now file file URL and then this will be file file URL um file file or name file file path um okay I think that's is probably okay um or this I mean this this whole message here um okie dokie so I'll tell you what I think I feel pretty good about this so this makes me feel like we've done most of the here we've we're we've kind of done as much as we can without actually trying to run this so let's let's run this so let's go to our demo and then um I'm going to do right so yeah the demo basically what it's doing it's like it's rendering a uh you know an interactive and non-interactive multimodal chatot I don't know what we have this whole comma here I don't think we need this at all actually so let me just remove this um and then I don't think we need this either so okay uh let me go back to the terminal right so uh once you've you know made sufficient modifications to the code or before you can run this demo in a development mode uh to see if if your code is working right so what development mode does is that it spins up the gradio front end and the gradio back end in an environment where changes to the code are reflected automatically so you don't have to like restart the server or anything so it helps you know iterate a lot faster on on these components um okay so uh the way you do that is you do groc Dev okay so let's see cool okay so it's working um it's opening here my other laptop let me try to bring it um okay so I'm just gonna give me a second sorry I'm just going to new tab open this here cool cool cool okay so so it's not loading probably means that there's a mistake somewhere so let's figure it out I properties of undefined reading text where is this happening in chatbot line 126 okay so let's go to the chatbot line 126 um that's probably wrong um let go back to um reading text uh new chatbot here let me go back to the demo as sample nothing here okay so it's probably just a mistake in the front end let's try to figure it out so go back to the code so cannot read properties of [Music] um value process message uh I wonder if it's like a backend thing so pre-process of payload turn that postprocess none proper okay okay let's see another message conso okay not repr oh new chat let's see okay no message so uh this will be a let's try to fix the types here multimodal message n okay so maybe this is what was happening so okay yeah so maybe this is what was happening noriz messages multimodal message okay yeah so the file is a file message okay yeah so this is sorry this is a file message and this will return a file message okay okay this looks good message text um to the console can find reading text okay this uh can I read properties interesting okay so I think what's probably happening is that the um it's probably happening is that the the value is none so let's go to the demo the value is none or somewhere the value is none and then um it's uh not liking it because I'm somewhere I'm assuming that it's not uh not none so I'm just trying to think oh this is why so I'm not returning anything the answer was staring me right in the face okay so let's see Moment of Truth oh nice okay cool see uh it's really scary when it doesn't work it's really fun when it does work okay so um so awesome that's great so let's uh let's test our code a little bit more so what I'm going to do is I'm going to like simulate a conversation here um between a user and a bot where they're like exchanging um where they're exchanging like files and stuff so um so you let's see so uh user message one is going to be uh text and then it's going to be um hello what is in this image and then the files are going to be um whoa that's cool um I I don't want to do that though just because I don't know what's if that's actually a real file um I'm just going to uh copy a URL of a file that I do know um so this will be a list of files and then uh the file is going to be uh what I'm going to do is from radio so basically because the data model uses a uh a file data um I'm just going to use that to be it'll be easier file file data and then the path is going to be this URL here I think that's good um yeah I think that makes sense okay um and then what we're going to do here uh bot message one is going to be text TT uh it is a very cute dog and then files will be nothing okay and then [Music] conversation is going to be user message one B message and then this has to be a list of lists so that's what we're going to do and then we're going to use conversation um okay so did it work oh nope n tape has no attribute expand tabs okay so let me file text so this is coming from we look here expand tab so I'm pretty sure that's coming it's coming from our back end expand tabs interesting um okay so for f let's see okay let me read the message again and type object has no attribute expand tabs I wonder where it's getting called from um let's go to our demo and make sure that the right thing file file [Music] data I think this is the right thing let's see X Files list file message yep um is it uh oh maybe the way that I wrote it I'm assuming that the alt text is always present let's see all text um let's see post process next message I wonder if it's this line here so let me just comment that out we'll see what happens the error goes away change detective so I think that did fix the error no it didn't oops see so there is an error here so it's not this go back to to the [Music] demo oh test text damn okay oh there we go cool so hello what is in this image it is a dog awesome so that worked uh so it's probably better it would probably be better to do a um to like actually import the data model class that way we get like a helpful prentic error um but um let us continue so user message two so text um let's see um describe this audio clip please let's be nice ni um files so this will be a file file data and then what I'm going to do actually um so we did a URL here let me just pass a local file um so let me uh just do that real quick um over here in this other component or this other terminal actually so CP sources gradius um uh gradio demo yes uh audio debuger I think and then ca. web I'm going to pass it to sources components um multi modal chat boot demo cool uh so let me uh go back let me just put this over there um okay so file data so the pth in this case so you can see here I put it in the demo ca. we so the path here is uh it'll actually be demo Das Cantina wav because we're running this from the top level not the demo directory so uh can. wav oh actually did some crazy stuff there um actually it's easier to not use cop pod in this case so file close that close that close that okay and then the bot's going to say can type B message to text it is the cona song from Star Wars okay and then no files so now let's add that to our conversation so user message 2 B message uh change detected okay so I'm hopefully it reloaded so hello what is in this image cute dog describe this audio clip it I don't know if you guys can hear that but it's like the Cana song from Star Wars and the bot is smart enough to know that um okay and then the last thing we'll do is a video so um user message three and this time rather than the user sending a a um a file let's have the bot return a file just to show that that works too uh give me a video clip please and then you know user will not send any files and then uh bot message three uh text here's a video clip of the world uh file and then let me just do the same thing let me just copy over a file um real quick radio so I'm just copying something from the um from the gradio repo of the test file that I use a lot in the gr repo sources Okay so let's go back here so files this will be a list and uh it'll be a file file data path so you can see the video world that MP4 so demo world. MP4 okay cool beans okay so by message three and then actually you know what let's just send you know two files back uh why not just to show that we could display more than one file per message um file file data uh let's just send the cantina song back again canina and then okay so then let's add that to our conversation so user message three B message three uh change detected no errors nice okay so give me a video clip here's a video clip of the world you can play it nice and then you can play the clip cool so um good job us uh good job team uh yeah so you know there are a couple bugs there we have to figure out but you know that's usually how it goes so it's not going to work the first first time even if you work on gradio every day you're still going to make mistakes um so it's just a matter of persevering I guess uh but yeah but you know that being said though if you run into any trouble that you can't figure out uh feel free to ask on the hugging face Discord in the gro Channel follow an issue um about things we can improve about this because obviously we want to make this as easy as possible so okay so now I'm pretty happy with this um let me change this back to um not use demo uh actually because I want to deploy this to hugging face in which case um you know like the the files are going to be in the same directory as where the server is being loaded from so let me just yes it's going to complain that I can't find the file which is expected okay so um after you've done implementing your component uh what you do is you build it so you do radio CC build let me actually uh make this yeah radio CC build uh so what that that is going to do is um it's going to like build the component so it's going to package all the front end code and create a wheel which is the standard python package distribution file format um of your component right so um so the wheels located in the disc directory so we do this uh here we see that there is a wheel for a multimodal chatbot and it there is a um The Source distribution cool so uh could send this you know to anyone you could pip install this um actually yeah um let me just show that real quick so python demo app.py oh let me just CD into demo so that it works python uh app.py so once you build it you don't you can run it outside of De mode so um let's go check that out so hooray yep awesome okay so basically once you build it um you know you can run it wherever you want want uh and then you could also send this file to any one of your friends your colleagues uh they can just pip install like they could do pip install disc oh I'm in the wrong directory uh pip install disc um and then uh the wheel file and then they'll have this and they can use this component in any gradio app uh right but um rather than you having to send this file manually to people it'd be way easier if you could just sh upload this to pipie so that anyone can install it with Pip and it'd be really cool if you could just like deploy it to hugging pH immediately so that anyone can check out your component uh so that is what we're going to do now um so uh after you build it only after you've built it uh you can do gradio CC publish so what this will do is it'll walk you through the the process of publishing uh to pipie and to hugging face so um here it's explaining that if you upload it to ppie you can install with Pip install so that's what we're going to do so it's asking me if if I want to upload it to piie yes I do and then what's needed is a username or a password uh so you can create an account here uh my account my account actually has two Factor authorization so I'm not going to log in with my standard username and password I'm going to log in with an API token so uh username token let me go get um let me go get my API token right now so yeah so this supports tofa awesome I authenticated so I'm uploading the wheel and the source distribution to pipie um so this is uh it's on pipie now I think that's super cool so anyone can run this line and get this component and use them use it in their in their gradio app so I think that's really cool uh and then it's you know uh you know saying that you know if you upload talk spaces you know anyone can use it without having to install it right so people who don't people who don't don't know python people don't know how to code can use my multimodal chatback component so I want to do that so I'm going to say yes uh all right so then the way that it's um works is that it tells you to you know point it to a demo directory so um by default it'll use the demo directory that you use throughout the the development process so I'm just going to leave it blank to signify that I want to use that demo directory you can obviously change it if you want and then it's also asking if I want to upload the source code I do want to upload the source code and then I'm just going to use the current directory because that contains source code uh so it's updating it's uploading all all of our files it's uploading our wheel um and cool now they got updated so it's building my hugging face space of my multimodal chatbot component so spe this up in the edit cool um but yeah but our component is on pii so it's really cool you get a basically installed in any hugging face space or on collab or um anywhere really so any computer basically has an internet access and pip installed um okay so now we started cool it's working nice okay so then here is our little chatbot component everything plays beautifully this is so awesome nice okay so I hope you enjoyed this tutorial uh definitely something new for me so let me know if there's any feedback uh for how we can make this better um we definitely want to make it better um if I can uh but yeah but this is really cool right so this is you know like our our custom multimodal chatbot um and then what we're going to do in a subsequent video is build like a custom text box in which you can submit both text and file attachments simultaneously so that you could make use of this component so uh stay tuned for part two I hope you enjoyed this tutorial again and um yeah talk to you guys uh or see you guys soon

Create Your Own Microsoft Recall AI Feature with RAG.en.srt

00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:01,560 today's project is of course going to be heavily inspired by the kind of controversial Microsoft recall feature so I really want to see if we can create our own version of this my plan was to do this 100% locally but the wish wers just weren't good enough the performance was not stable so I had to kind of abandon that and just make a prototype using GPD 40 because that is kind of the far by the best wish model I have tried so far so yeah it's a bit shame but I wanted it to be locally but uh yeah that could be something for the future so let me just go through kind of how we set this up and how I wanted this to work so I divided this into three phases so we have the record phase we have the analyze phase and to kind of use this we have a rag phase I'm going to explain that but let's just start here on the record phase so basically when we fire up our script this is going to screenshot our computer screen of course and it's going to say those screenshots and bring them to further analyze and put them into a rag system right but I kind of wanted to uh Implement something that kind of monitor pixel changes on our screen because we don't want to spam the same screenshot over and over again so I implemented something that looks at our Monitor and if there's a 5% pixel change to kind of the previous screenshot then it's going to take a new screenshot and save that and bring it over over to the analyze phase I also implemented a step down here that GPT 40 creates a custom screenshot name uh based on kind of the analyze uh feature here from GPT 40 because we want to Archive those screenshots so we can look them up later that is kind of the ID behind the recall feature right if we go to the analyze phas now you can see uh when a screenshot is Sav is going to be analyzed by GT40 so this is going to extract you inter actions what happened in the screen any URLs and of course the name that is associated with the screenshot and this is going to be put in our archive uh but also the screenshot is saved to a new folder so we can look it up if we want to go back in time and see what we did in this exactly Frozen moment in time right uh I think that's kind of how this Microsoft recall feature works so I thought it was pretty interesting and it does work uh so let's just move on to kind of the rag phase this is how we can actually use this system and here you can kind of see we just take the archive that is kind of the user action plus the link to the screenshot uh we have saved in archive and we create embeddings from this uh this is done locally so we are using a local AMA embeddings models and we use llama 3 to kind of search over that rag space right uh so here we can just search for let's say something like uh did I visit Discord yesterday and then you can kind of find the associated screenshot when you did visit let's say Discord what you talked about on Discord because you kind of get the recent action that you talked about on the Discord screenshot and you get the name so you can look up the screenshot and see exactly what you did so that is basically the whole ID behind this uh so now I think we just going to take a quick look at the code kind of how I set this up and let's bring it out in action and see if it actually works but before we do that if you want to learn more about how llms work data analysis science and all that stuff take a look at today's sponsor brilliant.org are you eager to dive into the world of data analysis or understand how large language models work then you're going to love brilliant.org the sponsor of today's video brilliant turns complex subjects into engaging Hands-On experiences that make learning fun and effective I especially like the building regression models course that is perfect for Learners at any level you learn how to visualize massive data sets make better informed decisions from the bias theorum to multiple linear regression another favorite mine is of course the how llms work course this immersive AI Workshop lets you explore the mechanics of large language models showing you how they build vocabulary and generate different outputs like poetry or cover letters freance approach to learning is proven to be six times more effective than traditional lectures by solving real problems you build critical thinking skills and a powerful daily learning Habit to try everything brilliant has to offer for free for 30 days visit brilliant.org allabout aai or just click the link in the description below go start your Learning Journey today a big thanks to brilliant for sponsoring this video okay so now let's walk through some of the most important functions in our code to actually make this work so I just want to start with the analyze screenshot functions because this is kind of the the most important part of course uh you can see we are running the GP 4 all model uh it's just so good like it's by far the best wish model I ever tried uh I just wish there was like an open source model that could be on this level soon so we can make this 100% locally I think how bad cool that would be but now it's like should you I don't even think you should use this because this is sending kind of your uh proprietary data sometimes out with the API and stuff so this is just kind of prototype for something hopefully we can have in the future but it is really fun to play around with and it does work but let's just focus on the code here now for a while so you can see uh so let's let me show you kind of the The Prompt I use here extract the most important information from what is happening in the image include URLs on the website if applicable because I want to be able to kind of extract the URLs I was on let's say I remember something I was on I was on that web page but I don't remember exactly the URL then I can kind of search up that information and find the url I was on so yeah that is kind of the idea behind this it's a pretty simple prompt but it works for my my use case here okay so now we kind of come to the chunking part this is important for the rag right and this is kind of taken from my EC local rag setup so we're going to divide it into chunks of Maximum thousand characters and every yeah how should you say this every action is kind of chunked into the history. text so we can use it in rag to search up so I just wanted to show you an example so you can see here uh here is kind of one action we took from a screenshot so you can see we have the PNG image here that is associated with this uh with this uh saved action so the user was engaged in multiple activities on the computer running a python script executing a python script called recall in power cell terminal and you can see reviewing a directory and we have a directory path working on a canva project so we got a lot of information from this and we can also look up this image here if we go to my folder now you can see I have the archive user activity recall 12 cona AI so here you can see everything that happened in that image so this is kind of associated with this uh action right and we have another uh image here the user was watching a YouTube video called Introducing co- pilot PC by Microsoft and this is our other screenshot so you can see it here so yeah I think it's working pretty good and that is kind of how we set this up uh we also have a GPD for Oat to kind of rewrite this queries so you're an expert extracting information from a text uh we use that uh and here is kind of the compare screenshot function so we take the previous screenshot and compare it with the new one and if kind of the difference in pixels is uh set percentage here uh then we're going to execute on that screenshot because if I just leave my screen on like this there's no pixel changes so we're not going to take a screenshot then only if the user does something else that is kind of the idea behind it and that is one I kind of understood that Microsoft is trying to do as well so I set the diff percentage to five I don't know what the optimal solution is here uh but I set it to five now and seems to be working pretty good so yeah you can see here the GPD 4 oat prompt is kind of we feed in the result from the image description right and then we say from the image description about extract information uh what the user is doing on the computer include a URL if applicable so the reason I kind of run it again with a new uh function here is because I had some results just running it from this uh that was not too good so I tried to run it again over a new function just by feeding in the results and it seemed to work pretty good so uh I kind of left it like this and here is kind of the relevant file name query if we look at the names of our images you can see my file name here is Microsoft co-pilots PC keynote and this file name comes from using the gp4 oat model and Generator short concise relevant file name for the following description this file name is quite important because uh this can be used in our rag phase to get keywords so if we type Microsoft co-pilot this will kind of pop up in our rag search right that is why I want these file names to be relevant and not just some random name and yeah is there anything else to say here about the code it's pretty straightforward uh it kind of ends up at the end here that we are chunking uh everything and putting it into this history text on kind of a new line so it's ready to be embedded in our rag model uh I might do like a follow-up video video on my member section if people are interested in diving deeper into this of course this code is going to be uploaded to the community GitHub so if you want straight access to this just become a member of the channel follow the link in the description and I will invite you to our community GitHub and our community Discord and yeah at the end there if we want to stop this we can just keyboard interrupt and this will exit uh other than that it's just going to run in a true true true Loop until we stop it I also added this 3 second delay before starting because when we fire up our terminal here yeah I just wanted a small sleep here and yeah that is basically it uh to do this um compare screenshots we are using open CV2 and seems to be working pretty good so I think I just want to show you kind of In Action Now how this works and what we can do with this okay so let's run our script now and let's kind of see how this works now so uh let's say I just wanted to start my day at working so I'm just going to fire up this script I'm just going to go to this website here I'm just going to pretend I'm reading this so hopefully now this has taken a screenshot of this right uh so I just want to leave it here now because now you can kind of see it's measuring the different percentage so let's say now we switch to this x poost okay so now we kind of changed our image and then you can see if we go back here the percentage changed to 26% and that means that we took a new screenshot right because the pixels changed and we take a look at this post on X and now we got a second different uh percentage because we brought up the terminal but if we let this just run now we're probably just going to stay on this so now just let's just operate the computer as normal this is going to run in the background right so we can see here we are on kind of the local llama Reddit post we can read a bit about this of course this is not going to take screenshots every single second so it's going to be a bit it's not perfect right we can click onto this GitHub page and hopefully we are collecting screenshots now as we are scrolling but of course it's not going to be perfect so I think we're just going to stop it here now and then we can kind of take a look at the results and how we can implement this into rag R so if we go back now to our history. text we can kind of reload this and we should have some more yeah information here so you can see a carati gpt2 reproduction llmc the users reading a post uh Andre carpon X yes we did that the users reading a post on local llama reading a post on GitHub executing a python script that's true and yeah you can see this worked pretty good let's take a look at the images that is kind of associated with this so let's take a look at the carpati gpt2 reproduction image so we can just go here Cara 2 uh yes so you can see this is the image of the the Twitter post we read right or the X post so yeah we can actually align this with our information and find the screenshot here so I think the next step now is going to be to look at our Rag and how we can embed this and start using our recall feature information so here we are basically using exactly the setup I had on my E Local rag you can find that that's open source you can just follow the link in description to find this code so basically the only difference here is now that instead of uh feeding in our w we call it uh in the previous version we're just feeding in our history. text right and embedding that and we can start searching over it so let's just fire up the terminal here and kind of let's clear our cach first and then we can embed our new history here right so let's just run python Reco ragp D- clear cache so we kind of clear our previous cache okay and then we can generate new embeddings on history. text save embeddings to Vault embeddings Json and now we can start asking question about our yeah documents but it is actually our recall uh information right so let's try to ask I read a post about gpt2 on X but I forgot who the author [Music] was okay so we are fetching some information about gpd2 here from our archive right according to your archive data you read a post about Yeah by Andre car party on X for Twitter but reproducing the gp2 Mor okay yeah that's good let's also try to find our um related screenshot do I have any PNG Files about gpt2 okay so you can see according to Archive data you have two PNG files related to gpt2 reproducing gpt2 Gib uh recall diff percentage okay so let's check this reproducing GPT through 124 million 90 minutes so we can go to our archive here and you can see reproducing gpt2 so this is actually from the GitHub so not exactly our X um post but yeah I guess it found something let's try to alter that and add X in maybe let's ask do I have any PNG Files about gpt2 from X according to Archive data you have one PNG file yes gp2 from X okay perfect so this is the car party gpt2 reproduction llmc so let's see if that works and yeah perfect so if I was a bit more specific there I could actually find the post we took the screenshot of on X so yeah I got to say I'm pretty happy how this worked and it is actually kind of how I wanted this to work so this means that you can kind of get like a imagine you get like a big storage here in your history and you get like a ton of different screenshots here this could be helpful if you wanted to kind of track back and see what you did maybe yesterday and stuff like that so I think it's working kind of how I wanted this to work with this rag face implementation so yeah that is basically what I wanted to share with you today like I said uh in the video if you want access to this just follow the link in the description and become a member of the channel I will probably upload this uh code tomorrow uh I might even do a more Deep dive into how this exactly work if people want that uh but yeah I found it interesting it's a shame that we can't do it or that I couldn't actually do it locally uh yet and maybe some of you can list if you actually find a good way to do this locally please leave a comment uh and I want to see it and I want to try it and maybe we can do something together uh but other than that uh I think it worked pretty good I'm very happy how it turned out and it was not that hard to implement and I think we could kind of upgrade this in the future and that's going to be very interesting uh so yeah should you use this probably no because you're sending a lot of private information over the API and yeah I'm not sure uh I don't think I'm going to use this actively but it was a fun prototype to Showcase what we might have uh running locally in the future we just need a bit of a better Vision model and I think everything should work pretty good uh other than that yeah thank you for tuning in and got some cool projects coming up so look out for that and don't forget to check out brilliant.org Link in the description thank you for tuning in and I'll see you again on Sunday

Creation Stories in Chinese Mythology.en.srt

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,770 this video is sponsored by surfsharkvpn [Music] have you ever gotten tired of these snake deities on these central plains i don't know if you guys imagined me learning all my chinese mythology from my family telling me bedtime stories but that was not what happened more like my parents left me with a bunch of chinese mythology cartoon dvds while they were out working but i have to admit those cartoons did make a strong impression on me i found out the universe was created by a hairy giant with an axe and that chinese people were created by a snake goddess so let me tell you a bit about those stories along with the further academic research that i did on their evolutions in the chinese folk religion world view in the beginning there was chaos this chaos was like a gigantic egg and in the egg slapped a bean called pangu pangu grew in the egg for 18 000 years then suddenly opened his eyes and discovered that there was nothing around him this made him so angry he could hardly bear it and thus he grabbed the axe he had been born with and slashed the cosmic egg of chaos open though a minor note here the axe was only added to the story around the ming dynasty so about like four to six hundred years ago regardless the light and clear aspects of the chaos rose up and became the sky while the heavy and murky aspects sank down and became the earth to prevent them from merging again pangu held the heaven and earth apart with his own body he did this for another eighteen thousand years during which he kept growing in height until the heaven and earth stretched ninety thousand leagues apart after this pangu died of exhaustion his breath became the wind and clouds his voice became thunder his left eye became the sun his right eye became the moon his limbs became the four directions his body became great mountains his blood became rivers his veins became roads his muscles became fertile land his hair became the stars his skin and body hairs became vegetation his teeth became precious metals his bones became hard stones his marrow became beautiful jade his sweat became dew and the fleas on his body became the many animals what's interesting about pangu is that he's actually a relative latecomer to chinese myth the earliest record of him is in the three kingdoms era that's only about 1800 years ago while most other figures of ancient chinese myth are many thousands of years older before him there was no widely accepted creation myth for the universe itself throughout china academic theories differ on where exactly pangu came from before i get into them though i gotta tell you about surf shark vpn the sponsor of this video while doing research for this video i once again ran into the problem of having very glitchy connections to chinese internet sources i don't know what kind of chinese governmental blacklist my ip is on or how it got there but i can't access most chinese websites unless i change my ip with a vpn thankfully surfshark makes this very easy all i have to do is click one button and those websites display normally to me again the best thing is that one surfshark account comes with unlimited installations so i can't be stopped anywhere it's available as a desktop program a browser extension and an app for my mobile devices even if you don't need to pull off ip changing shenanigans just to evade a governmental blacklist a vpn is still useful for accessing geo-restricted content not normally available to you you paid all that money for disney plus and they're still keeping certain shows or movies from you no problem just turn on surf shark vpn and you are no longer restricted you can use my code dao to get 83 off plus four extra months for free as a bonus the vpn connection encrypts your data to keep it private they have a 30 day money back policy so you have nothing to lose in deciding to try it out i'll put the link in the description below and back to pangu the creator giant a popular theory is that he evolved from the folk stories of southern chinese ethnic groups like the yao the hmong and the lee peoples in their folklore during the reign of an ancient king there once lived an old woman in his palace who had ear pain for three years after which a royal physician plucked a golden worm out of her ear that was about the size of a silkworm this worm was placed in a gourd and covered with a plate unexpectedly the worm turned into a dog with five colored fur it was named pauhu literally plategord after wear had emerged from the king loved this dog and always kept it at his side but the king had one major worry an enemy tribe was threatening his borders he declared that he would bestow a high ranking title lavish gifts and the hand of his youngest daughter in marriage to anyone who could bring back the head of this tribal leader the dog panhu then suddenly ran out of the palace and all the way to the enemy tribe's war camp the tribal leader happened to be throwing a party and was super drunk while he was passed out panhu bit off his head and brought it back to the king the king was beyond delighted but since panhu was just a dog all he gave panhu was a lot of meat to eat this made pamphlet sink into depression after several days the king mused that maybe panhu is mad at him for not fulfilling his promise to marry his daughter to the tribal leader's killer but it's not like dogs and humans can marry suddenly panhu spoke up telling the king to not worry about it and to just place him in a golden vessel for seven days and seven nights after which she would become human the king did this on the sixth day though the princess got worried that panuku may be starving in that vessel so she took a peek this was a mistake panhu's body had turned human but his head hadn't and it wouldn't change now so the princess had to marry him as he was with a dog hat on her own head this was the birth of furries i mean this was the birth of many southern tribes after the marriage panhu and the princess moved to the southern mountains to live as common folk they had three sons and three daughters who then intermarried and gave birth to several southern lineages don't make that face you know how common incest is in these myths stories there's more coming up don't worry anyway some scholars propose that the folklore of panuhu the doc king somehow evolved into pangu the creator of the universe though there's a lot of debate around this because the stories have basically nothing in common besides the similar names and their status as original stories kind of many other ethnic groups across china have different interpretations of what panhu did and what he looked like but him being the one to split the heaven and earth is what's widely accepted nowadays the next mythological figure commonly talked about after pangu is nua the creator goddess of humanity her upper body is human while her lower half is commonly depicted as that of a snakes after pangu separated the heaven and earth and his body became the vast landscape the goddess knew i walked around the mountains and rivers and trees but still felt like something was missing from the world when she crouched down near a pond or some say she crouched near the yellow river itself she saw her own reflection and realized what she needed to do she shaped the yellow mud on the bank in her own image then breathed life into it this became the first human excited by her creation nua sculpted more and more humans but eventually got tired of handcrafting every single one so she took a vine and with the mud every splatter became another human essentially mass producing them the humans she hand-made became the nobility while the mass-produced ones became the commoners watching humanity though nuan became worried that they would die out without her so she told them to pair up in male female pairs and create descendants themselves every second month she would hold the game festival near her temple during which young men and women will be free to marry among themselves with the grassy earth as their bed and the stars and moon as their canopy but this isn't nuan's only legend a long time after her creation of humanity a war broke out between the gods one particular battle ended with kung gong the god of water at the brink of defeat near the bujo mountain in the northwest of china furious and desperate gong gong smashed his head into boujou mountain shattering it in two and toppling the heavens half the sky collapsed and deep crevices fissured across the earth rain poured from the hole in the sky and black water spewed from the cracks in the earth creating raging floods that ravaged the lands mountains and forests caught on fire lighting the world blood red ferocious beasts attacked humanity fierce black birds dashed down from above and tore at the old and the young with their sharp claws heartbroken nuan collected many five-colored stones from the world's great rivers and smelted them into a sticky iridescent liquid she used this liquid to mend the hole in the sky this was the origin of beautiful clouds but she feared just mending the hole wouldn't be enough so she also killed a large world-sized tortoise and used one of its legs as a replacement pillar after that she slayed a black dragon that was terrorizing the central plains then burnt reeds into ash to dam the flood waters thus the carnage was over but since the turtle leg wasn't quite as tall as the other pillars the sun moon and stars slid west ever since creating the cycle of day and night also the giant rope that suspended the southeast corner of the earth had snapped during the drama making the lands there lower and causing rivers to flow east which makes perfect sense if you look at the geography of china nua was really the mvd alright most venerated deity common folklore doesn't usually talk of how she died but according to the classic of mountains and seas this ancient and mysterious book full of folklore after her death her intestines became 10 gods that are just hanging out before the song dynasty the 23rd day of every first month was the heaven piercing festival during which people would make many flatbreads and place them during which people would make many flatbreads and place them on their ceiling to imitate the mending of heaven why did this festival die out some scholars believe it's because salty male confusions have tried to systematically tear down nua's status as mother goddess throughout history it's commonly thought that nua represents the matriarchal system that early humans lived under before men realize they don't need to worship women they could just use violence to turn them into slaves of the patriarchy instead naturally after the patriarchy came into dominance the status of niwa contradicted the notion that men were supreme so supporters of the patriarchy has tried to change her legend to diminish her importance most notably they paired her up with a prominent ancient male god fushi claiming he was both her brother and her husband see i warned you that more incest was coming except if you look into their individual myths this makes no sense fushi's legend starts in the northwest where it's said that there was once a country called huashi that couldn't be reached by walking carriage or by boat you just could not go there okay it had no government no leader no greed no desires and its people lived long and happy lives they could walk into water without drowning walk into fire without burning and traverse the sky as if it were flat ground clouds and fog didn't block their sight and thunder and lightning didn't block their hearing one day a girl of huashu went east to the beautiful and lush thunder marsh and came across a giant footprint she stepped in it turns out the footprint was that of the thunder god who had a human head and a dragon's body she became pregnant for 12 years then gave birth to a son fushi who had a human head and a snake's body note here that snakes are considered lesser forms of dragons in chinese myth it's actually interesting that so many creation stories across the world involve snakes they're probably one of those things that freaked out our ancestors so much on a biological level that our ancestors had to attribute some sort of divinity to them also the whole deal with them shedding husks so they seem immortal what's the creation story in your culture does it involve snakes anyway fousey grew up to be a great tribal leader inventing many things that benefited his people by observing the clouds in the sky the rain the snow the thunder the lightning the winds and the birds and beasts he created the eight trigrams the yin yang and the five elements to explain the patterns of change in the natural world by observing how spiders made webs he invented fishing nets so his people would no longer have to catch fish by hand he also invented a writing system to replace keeping records by tying knots and he established marital rights that forbade people of the same ancestral house from marrying each other ending the era where people knew only of their mothers and not of their fathers niwa is said to have been his wife and invented a bunch of instruments with him but her legend very clearly states that she created humanity alone like she didn't need a man for that also if they're supposed to be brother and sister that goes against the marital rights that he established the whole arrangement is just sketchy what's sketchier is that there's another legend where fussy and nuan were supposedly the only survivors of a great flood as children after that they realized they had to repopulate the world but they also knew they were brother and sister so they were ashamed of it thus they asked the kevins for guidance first they each rolled a millstone down the mountain they proposed that if the gods approved of their copulation the millstone will land together then stories differ from here some say the millstones did land together naturally others say fusi that little rascal ran down the hill before nua and stacked the stones together himself then they may or may not have done a second divination where they each lit a fire on a different mountain if the plumes of smoke went straight up it was a sign that the gods disapproved of them if the plumes mixed together the gods approved the plumes of smoke did mix together finally nuan told fusi that if he could catch her then they could repopulate the earth she ran off and fussy chased her but when the chase got around to a big tree fussy caught her by suddenly changing direction and so he impregnated her except when she eventually gave birth it was to a grotesque mass of flesh instead of a baby horrified they cut it into tiny pieces and took them up the ladder of heaven in hopes of asking the gods what was up halfway up a great wind suddenly scattered the pieces of flesh across the earth and each piece became a person thus populating the earth once again this story just straight up does not fit with either nua or fusi's individual legend no it was likely appropriated from a flood myth of the yao and hmong people in that legend there was once a day where the sky was dense with rain clouds and thunder rumbled over the heavens scaring little children a man was working outside laying a bunch of moss over his roof to prevent the rain from wrecking his house his son and daughter watched him work then the three of them huddled in their house just as the rain came pouring down the rain pelted harder the wind blew fiercer and the thunder grew louder as if the thunder god himself was about to deal out his wrathful punishment the man sensing something bad was about to happen took a steel cage and a hunting spear and waited bravely outside with a flash of lightning and a roar like mountains cracking the asia faced thunder god flew down from the roof with an axe in hand meaty wings flapping on his back malevolent like glinting in his eyes the man hurried to stab the thunder god and lock it in the steel cage the next day the man went to the market to buy spices because he planned to butcher the thunder god and eat it before he left he told his children to never ever give the thunder god water but once the man was gone the thunder god pretended to cry and moan in pain asking for water the boy who was older insisted that their father forbade them from giving him water the thunder god asked for just a cup of water instead of a whole bowl but the boy refused him still the thunder god then asked for a few drops of water from the brush the family uses to scrub their walk the girl who was younger felt sympathy for his pain and pleaded on behalf of him saying nothing bad would happen with just a few drops of water so her brother relented as soon as the thunder god received the drops of water he told the kids to leave the house because he was about to burst out before he escaped back to the heavens he pulled out one of his teeth and told the kids to plant it in the earth and that one disaster happened they could escape in the fruit it would bear soon the dad came back with the spices and discovered in shock that the thunder god had escaped realizing that disaster was coming he hurried to buy supplies to build a steel boat meanwhile his kids planted the tooth which sprouted as soon as it was buried and bore fruit within the day by next morning the fruit had grown into a huge gourd the kids saw the gourd open and discovered that it was filled with teeth inside they plucked all the teeth out and found that the gourd shell was just big enough for two children to hide in on the third day the dad was just finishing up his steel boat when black winds started blowing everywhere wild rain poured from the night sky and groundwater burst from the earth and flooded the lands like trampling horses there was so much water it drowned the hills and engulfed the highest mountains the dad escaped in his boat and the kids escaped in their gourd eventually the waters flooded high enough to reach the heavens so the brave dad rode his boat to the heavenly gate demanding to be let in fearing his wrath the gods inside told the god of water to quell the flood the water then retreated instantly and the brave dad fell shattering with a seal boat on the ground however his children survived because their gourd bounced instead of breaking every other human in the world had died except for them though so the rest of the story is the exact same plot as the nuan fusi story it's pretty clear that their names just got slapped onto these two kids to justify the idea that they're a married couple and also siblings and this happened because people wanted to delegitimize nua's status as a female ruler in chinese history and myth there's this notion that there were three divine emperors in ancient times fusi and the divine farmer who i'll talk about in some other video are commonly cited as two out of the three emperors but people can't agree on who the third one is some list nua as the third some rank her above all three because her status as creator god is and others see her as beneath the three a lot of the controversy stems from how nuan and fuji are supposedly a couple if they reign together then it's not fair for them to both have a place among the three emperors so nua has to get kicked out so how did nuan fushi go from legendary rulers on equal footing to incestuous husband and wife well the earliest supposed mention of wushi having a wife is on an artifact called the true silk manuscript which was unearthed in 1943 by tomb roberts it was from a tomb of the true state dated approximately 2 300 years old this robe i'm wearing is actually a replica of a true artifact from around that time too like they sure had some good tomb sealing techniques the true silk manuscript is the oldest surviving record of a chinese creation myth and tells of how in the beginning of the world a creator god married a creator goddess and had four children together who became the four gods of time the four gods split the heaven and earth because they understood the principles of yin and yang then two other gods took command of the earth and made sure the stars would rise and fall in order and that she or life force would flow freely between the mountains and waters several thousand years later another god gave birth to the sun and moon so they didn't have those before that and thus brought peace to the lands and mountains the four time gods created the sky dome made its spin and reinforced it with the essence of five-colored wood the flame emperor sent his assistant drurong the god of fire to rule with the four gods so the people revere the gods and didn't dare offend them later gong gong the god of water you know that guy who like smashed his head into the pillar created the calendar making every 10 days into a week and splitting every day into night dusk day and dawn this creation myth is unique to this manuscript so we don't know how widespread the story is but it does suggest that at least in this region of this era the creation myth did tell of like two people doing the creation instead of one singular mother goddess but also a lot of the characters on it can no longer be read so the creator gods being fushi and yua is just one interpretation this manuscript has also been on a journey okay after the grave robbers dug it up it was purchased by the chinese collector tai chi chiang who studied it while fleeing the japanese invasion in world war ii during which he lost his wife and a daughter after the war an american proto-cia agent called john hadley cox tricked him into handing it over and smuggled it to america tai chi zhang tried to get it back for 30 years but it was eventually sold to famous art patron arthur sackler for five hundred thousand dollars so now this oldest record of a chinese creation myth resides in the arthur m sackler gallery in washington dc just like many other looted chinese artifacts i have a whole thread of them on twitter if you want to see but since sackler was uncertain about how it ended up in america he'd never put it on display still give it back america give it back that's not yours anyway nuan and fusi started getting definitively depicted as a couple several hundred years later in the han dynasty it's worth noting that this era had a lot of instances of powerful empresses and concubines taking control of the court this stressed out the male confusion officials to no end so there was a distinct rise in anti-female independence propaganda in this era but no matter how many new paintings you make you can't just erase a legend that has been passed down through generations for thousands of years the tales of nua hand-sculpting humanity and then saving us from the great flood by her damn self have persisted to this day as some of the most famous and important chinese folklore despite the two thousand years of attempts to delegitimize her after the reign of wuzatian the only female emperor in chinese history confucian scholars would list nua and wizatin together as examples of females being in the supreme position which is highly unnatural and must be avoided then if i was losing 10 i'd be so flattered like you had to reach all the way to the creator goddess to insult me by the ting dynasty the last one certain scholars tried to do mental gymnastics to claim that nua was a male god all along but nobody took this seriously even though they tried to make like male statues of her nua would always be the mother goddess of chinese people and misogynists would just have to deal with it anyway that was a glimpse into china's ancient creation stories i gotta remind you all that chinese mythology or chinese folk religion doesn't really have an organized standardized doctrine so details differ all over the place in different tellings for this video i relied on my existing cultural knowledge the book jongwoo transfer by the scholar bienko and the first volume of the tushuo tianjia chinese history series which is also written by two scholars unfortunately these books are only available in chinese and i don't have any recommendations for books in english because i don't read books about chinese myth and history in english not being able to see the actual characters for the names just bothers me too much if you want more english stories that riff on chinese myth though especially one with major percy jackson vibes i'm so excited to say that the cover for my middle grade novel has been revealed it's called zachary yin and the dragon emperor and is now available for pre-order at zacharygun.com it's like yu-gi-oh meets percy jackson about a chinese-american boy who gets compelled to go on an adventure across china after the spirit of the first emperor possesses his ar gaming headset he has to defeat many figures from history and myth in order to heist real artifacts and save his mom's soul it comes out may 3rd 2022 which is oh my god not even that far away where does it time go if you want something to read right now though my debut novel iron widow is out in bookstores everywhere it's been on the new york times bestseller list for seven weeks straight what you can also support me in making more of these videos about chinese history and myth by joining my patreon or tipping me on kofi shout outs to my patreon guardian lions benji sudokin cooper malamute curious mad cat durian dude out of spite eduardo aguirre aaron jacob person jose valeskis kakuga kite's universe molly mcallister nick health and robin karates dar magazine and another thanks to surfsharkvpn for sponsoring this video with their help i will see you next time

Customize your Windows Terminal.en.srt

00:00:04,940 --> 00:00:08,220 all right um hello party people um how's my audio okay awesome um yeah thank you for joining me in this session uh my name is Christopher win I'm the product manager for Windows terminal um Cascadia code and windows developer machines um my Twitter handle is Windows which is a pun on my last name and the word windows I'm funny haha um so we're we have a jam-packed um session today so the whole golf day session is for me to teach you folks how to customize your terminal for productivity and to do this I'll touch on a couple points the first is I'll make a high level overview of what is Windows terminal I'm going to walk you folks through creating a new profile live because as Cobra Kai said no fear um I'm going to talk about tabs pains and actions and finish this up with um with um some tips on how to use terminal icons and oh my Posh to trick out your Powershell so um to start off what is Windows terminal so Windows terminal is a host application for command line shells and this includes shells such as command prompt Powershell and W WSL so if you have command prompt Powershell and WSL Windows terminal recognizes that and it will create the profiles for those shells for you and because we're a host application and not a shell we can do cool things like render text with different colors change and add background images split panes and more we're available in like different flavors we have Windows terminal which is like you know our stable like release and we also have Windows terminal preview which is like our preview version version and you can get both from the store and get both um via winget and the cool thing is you can have both installed in your machine and they won't like conflict with each other so you'll be safe also subtle plug were also open source so please check us out at github.com Terminal we're we always welcome you contributors so join the party um so but enough about me like talking about turmoil let's um look at Terminal so escape and what I will do is open up Windows terminal so um let's see I opened up Windows terminal and uh first terminal tip um if you can do control and move your scroll bar up you'll be able to um increase the text size so by default um I have my Powershell profile set up as my as my default profile um if you click on the drop down here you'll see like a whole bunch of other profiles that I have on my machine such as command prompt WSL and like another version of Powershell Powershell 7.40 preview um one thing you may notice is if you look at my Powershell profile um you can see that the background's black the text is pink and the icon is red how I did this was um what I can do is within my settings I can click on each individual profile and basically change things up I can change my icon so I can change it to a red icon and also can do things like um change my starting directory change the name my profile and also change my appearance in additional settings so if I go in appearance I can change my color scheme which is how I got this color so um by default like terminal comes with about like eight or nine color schemes um but you can also create your own like color schemes as well um via the settings UI so if you click here on color schemes you can see like a whole bunch of color schemes that I made outside of um you know the ones that are included which are pretty much um subtle nod slash pop cultural references but um yeah these are my color schemes so um in the Pro in the setting and the profile settings we have the default settings which um these settings um they're applied to all the profiles um unless they're overwritten by like another profile setting so um whatever I do here in my Powershell setting like it will override the defaults so uh one of the cool things that you can do to make yourself more productive as a developer or like an IT Pro or even a student is create a new profile and basically um set that profile to your liking so um let's take um let's take this example say for pretend that I am a um pretend that I'm a node.js developer and now every day for my work um I wake up I open my computer and I know for a fact that um I have to go to the same node project every morning and do like an npm start man that's like you know repetitive um it's a little bit of toil so let's make a profile that can help us with that so um I'll add a new profile here and to make things quicker I'll just duplicate an existing profile like WSL as you duplicate and then what I can do what I should do next is just rename the profile so I'll call it node and because I know like I'll be running npm start like um a lot and like I want to you know run that npm start command in my node project what I'll do is I'll change the starting directory to the directory of like my node project in this case it's like node.js sample and I will expand this command line section and add npm start so what I'll do next is save and ideally um what will happen is um if I open up this drop down you'll see that that node profile is like um on there so if I click on this note profile what happens here is um give it a sec whenever I open up this profile what happens is I go into WSL I start off at that node project directory and um it will run that npm start command so I know like this is like not like the best like not the most super technical example like this is a very low level example but hopefully like um this sort of sort of inspires you folks to like you know maybe make your own like profiles for things that you do like like every day like maybe like connecting to like a kubernetes cluster or even sshing into like a Raspberry Pi or even just calling a like API for stocks to check your stocks so that's um that's pretty much um one example of profiles um the next thing I want to actually let's close this real quick next thing I want to touch up on is tabs so um you know with with terminal we can do cool things with tabs we can double click it to rename the tab so I can rename it rename it I can also right click it to change the color of the tab because a fun fact I learned like a couple weeks ago is sometimes we want our tabs to be read so it's you know it looks scary because production um we also do things like duplicate the tab or even split the tab so if I click split tab here I just split the tab so we see Powershell a Powershell profile on the left and the Powershell profile on the right but what if I want to split the tab again but not in Powershell but in command prompt well what I can do is I can click the drop down here hover over the profile I want to split or open as like a split into the current window hit alt and click and that should give me Powershell is a split Pane and I could do the same thing over here on the left for WSL so there we go so that's pretty much um that's pretty much tabs and split panes the next thing I want to talk about is action so let me um tidy things up by closing these so um what actions essentially are are um basically like key bindings so we have like a bunch of actions here like um you know closed pane to do this you do Ctrl shift W close window alt f4 but if you want to edit like um if you don't like these key bindings these default key bindings you can edit them or like on make your make a new action um like at a scroll Mark or um anything in this like selection like for example close tab and then set the key binding um for yourself like I can do control Z oh yep it looks like I already used it for uh practice so yeah let's do uh something like I don't know control Q oh yeah let's override it well what could go wrong but yeah that's pretty much it for actions if you're a huge fan of like key bindings um you know feel free to look at actions and you know customize actions to um yeah your preferences so that's it for actions um and let's go back to the PowerPoint so let's see the last thing I want to cover is um how you can make your Powershell profile look cooler using terminal icons oh my posh so to make um your turmoil look cooler at least in like Powershell um what you can do is first install a nerd font so what a nerd font is is essentially a font that has icons and glyphs and this also includes icons of like I guess like popular like Tech things sort of like like a GitHub logo a Docker logo a um the JavaScript logo um so yeah nerd fonts like they come with a lot of like um icons and glyphs and what you can also do in Powershell is install the um this module called terminal icons which will add more um more of these like um thermal specific icons to your Powershell and then add that to your Powershell profile and the last thing you could do is also install this thing called oh my Posh which is a um prompt theme engine so uh basically what it is is once you install all my Posh you'll be able to access some of the um cool themes that are available on all my cautious website and then add that theme to your profile so I already have all that set up so what I will do is um open up my partial profile and I'll zoom in and um to open up my partial profile I'll do code profile and just opens things up in um visual studio so you can tell that like I pretty much set this up this is a scripted demo so I'll uncomment this oh my Posh line so basically what I'm doing here um is setting my theme to The M365 princess theme which is um available in oh my Posh so once that's done um what I'll do is move to my node sample project and do an LS so the cool thing so this first thing I'm showing you is um the terminal icon so let me actually zoom into this more so because we have terminal um terminal icons um some of the files and some of the directories that we have um seen right here in like our command line has like some icons attached to it like for example like that node modules folder um it has like a folder icon it has the npm logo on that folder icon the public folder you know has folder icon gig nor as git icon so on so forth but this is just thermal icons so let me um open a new terminal instance where I have oh my posh Okay so let me zoom in some more so yeah oh my Posh you know that we have this cool um M365 princess theme but um one thing I want to highlight about these themes is they're not only for um you know looking cool visually but if I go back to that node.js sample Repository we can see that um yeah it shows what not only what um what what directory I'm in but also like what branch I'm in and like what version of node like I'm on and I guess having like a Time snap is cool too but yeah that's pretty much it for um My Demo um hopefully you know you walk away with some uh you know learn something cool about terminals today and hopefully um take what you learned to either make um make a profile that's that helps your productivity or even just walk out the room with a really cool looking terminal theme and that's it to me [Music]

Deep dive model merging.es.srt

00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:02,280 Hola a todos, soy Julian de Hohoging Face, ya que todos sabemos que puede ser un desafío construir un modelo de alta calidad que nuestro caso de uso empresarial espera y en los últimos meses una nueva técnica se ha vuelto cada vez más popular para intentar construir esos modelos de alta calidad con menos complejidad, tiempos de respuesta más rápidos y menos costo de cómputo y esta técnica se llama fusión de modelos, por lo que en este video presentaremos qué es la fusión de modelos y veremos los algoritmos más populares que se han diseñado para la fusión de modelos y que se implementan en una biblioteca de código abierto llamada kit de combinación. Está bien, un tema bastante interesante, muy diferente de los que hemos creado antes. Supongo que comencemos. Si disfrutas este video, dale me gusta y considera suscribirte a mi canal de YouTube. y si lo haces por favor no olvides habilitar las notificaciones para no perderte nada en el futuro. Además, por qué no compartes este video en tus redes sociales o con tus colegas porque si lo disfrutaste es muy probable que alguien más te lo agradezca. Muchas gracias por su apoyo. Entonces, ¿cuál es el problema que la fusión de modelos está tratando de resolver y qué es la fusión de modelos y cómo funciona? Ojalá respondamos todo eso para que sepamos, estoy tratando de construir el único gran modelo que funcione. Lo mejor para un caso de uso particular no es muy fácil, lleva tiempo, requiere muchas iteraciones, probablemente muchas rondas de ajuste, probablemente diferentes conjuntos de datos de ajuste o alineación, y ciertamente, toma tiempo y requiere computación y energía, y existe tal Algo como rendimientos decrecientes a medida que seguimos tratando de mejorar el modelo, por lo que requiere bastante esfuerzo y, si necesitamos hacer esto una y otra vez para cada proyecto, entonces esto puede ser difícil de escalar, por lo que es algo diferente. Se requiere y supongo que de eso se trata la fusión de modelos, tratar de encontrar otra forma de construir modelos de alta calidad, así que la idea básica es realmente, tenemos toneladas de buenos modelos por ahí, tenemos alrededor de medio millón de modelos en el Hub para el Las mejores arquitecturas están afinadas en todo tipo de conjuntos de datos, por lo que es probable que las capacidades que necesito de mi modelo estén presentes y tal vez estén presentes en diferentes modelos, tal vez un modelo pueda resumir documentos legales, tal vez otro modelo. Puedo traducir documentos de atención médica, por qué no, y tal vez necesite ambos, tal vez quiera desarrollar esas diferentes habilidades en mi modelo, así que en lugar de intentar ajustar un solo modelo en diferentes conjuntos de datos y tratar de enseñarle cosas diferentes, ¿puedo aprender? modelos existentes y de eso se trata realmente la fusión de modelos, vamos a intentar identificar buenos modelos que sepan las cosas que nos interesan y fusionarlas en uno solo con la esperanza de que el modelo de fusión conserve todas las bondades presentes en el modelos de origen, así que de eso se trata la fusión de modelos, de tratar de combinar varios modelos de tareas específicas en un solo modelo que esperamos que sea multitarea y vamos a hacer esto sin ningún tipo de capacitación y, fing, esto será puramente, diría uh una operación matemática en la que tomamos los pesos provenientes de esos diferentes modelos y los fusionamos usando un algoritmo particular, por lo que esta no es una técnica de deambulación, está bien, y sabling significa que tenemos una colección de modelos que predicen en paralelo y luego hacemos algún tipo de uh, ya sea promediando o ajustando las salidas, etc., etc., nada de eso aquí. Comenzamos desde varios modelos, pero al final solo queda un modelo. Lo bueno de fusionar es que no hay capacitación involucrada. no implica ningún funcionamiento, solo necesitamos un poquito de computación y todo funciona muy bien en la CPU, así que es un proceso muy liviano, es rápido, la fusión no requiere un montón de horas de GPU, para nada, puedes ejecutar esto. tal vez en unos minutos, dependiendo del tamaño del modelo en su máquina local, no hay costo adicional por el entrenamiento, no hay costo adicional por la inferencia porque al final del día todavía estamos prediciendo con un solo modelo, y ahí No hay latencia de inferencia adicional, um, es solo que supongo que es un modelo básico, cierto, no hay truco, no hay nada encima del modelo de fusión, así que esta es una técnica realmente interesante. La biblioteca más popular para hacer esto en este momento se llama kit de merchandising. um y el fundador del kit de merchandising en realidad se ha unido a una startup de aprendizaje automático llamada RC um iniciado por um de EX gente con cara de acaparamiento Hola chicos, buen trabajo en esto uh y siéntete libre de mirar el kit de merchandising, así que no vamos a bucear en el kit de merchandising per se um tienen buenos ejemplos en su repositorio, es razonablemente fácil comenzar, pero veremos las técnicas que realmente se implementan en el kit de merchandising y nos centraremos en comprender esos diferentes algoritmos están bien y tal vez muestre un par de fragmentos de código del kit de merchandising y tal vez un par de configuraciones. Punto bien, entonces estas son las técnicas de fusión, vamos a verlas, así que la primera se llama Sopas modelo. um nombre gracioso pero verás por qué se llama así entonces el siguiente que veremos se llama sorber interpolación lineal esférica que en realidad es un algo muy antiguo uh reiniciado para IA muy, muy interesante, estamos viendo la tarea aritmética, uh, dónde veremos los vínculos, que significa recortar el signo de elección y fusionar, también veremos la caída y el cambio de escala y, por último, pero no menos importante, veremos la fusión de Franken y, bueno, ese es el mejor nombre de todos. y no querrás perderte ese, es un poco loco, así que todos están disponibles en merge KY hoy. Estoy seguro de que aparecerán más, pero al momento de grabar esto es lo que tenemos, esto es muy activo. En este campo hay mucha emoción, así que, si estás viendo esto más tarde, probablemente haya más técnicas de fusión, tal vez las cubra también. Bien, así que hablemos de sopas modelo. Las sopas modelo son bastante fáciles de entender, así y en cierto modo. es un poco similar a lo que hicimos al ensamblar donde entrenamos muchas variantes del mismo modelo en el mismo conjunto de datos con diferentes hiperparámetros y bueno, la suposición sería que todos estos modelos saben algo sobre los datos y si nosotros Estamos haciendo el ensamblaje, luego y y y y factorizando todas las diferentes respuestas, entonces, la combinación de estudiantes débiles debería proporcionar un estudiante fuerte, por lo que comienza igual, excepto que nuevamente, solo hay un modelo al final, así que la sopa de modelos significa que estamos. Vamos a comenzar a partir de una colección de modelos, por lo que la misma arquitectura de modelo se entrenó en el mismo conjunto de datos varias veces con diferentes hiperparámetros. Está bien, comienza de la misma manera que el ensamblaje, pero luego tomamos todas esas variantes diferentes y promediamos los pesos de sus modelos. literalmente, calcular un promedio de los parámetros del modelo y hay diferentes formas de hacer esto, como veremos, pero esa es la idea y es por eso que se llama sopa porque tomamos todos los ingredientes y afinamos los modelos y ponemos ellos en una olla grande, ya sabes, en una olla grande y, uh, y mezclo todo y espero que, bueno, sea una buena sopa, así que esa es la uh, supongo que la intuición, um, esto también se llama interpolación lineal, así que opcionalmente, um, De hecho, podemos aplicar pesos al promedio, así que digamos que queremos más, un poco más de ese modelo y un poco menos de ese modelo en la sopa, podemos hacer eso y también podemos normalizar los pesos para que todos los los pesos tienen el mismo rango um y U y por qué no querer hacer eso, así que el código y este es en realidad el fragmento de código del kit de merchandising uh es exactamente lo que pensarías, así que tomamos los diferentes pesos que opcionalmente asignado a um a cada modelo um y capa por capa uh simplemente multiplicamos los pesos de las capas y capa por capa uh multiplicamos los parámetros para que los tensores por el peso del modelo y um y sumamos todo bien para que U sea una especie de ponderación promedio y nuevamente, si normalizamos, entonces aplicamos la normalización básica, por lo que es tan simple como puede ver, no requiere una gran cantidad de cálculo, es básicamente una operación de promedio en tensas, por lo que puede ejecutar esto en cualquier lugar, por lo que hay diferentes formas de preparar tu sopa, está la sopa uniforme donde tomamos todos los modelos, entrenamos con las diferentes combinaciones de hiperparámetros y las promediamos todas, así que todos los ingredientes van a la sopa y está la sopa codiciosa donde promediamos modelos uno por uno y cada vez que agregamos un modelo a la sopa lo evaluamos con un conjunto de evaluación y solo mantenemos el modelo que agregamos si mejoramos la precisión de la prueba correctamente, de modo que conservamos los buenos ingredientes y omitimos los esos, uh, eso solo mejora la sopa, está bien, entonces podemos hacer ambas cosas, así que en este gráfico vemos cosas diferentes en el eje x, tenemos una imagen con precisión, este es un modelo de visión por computadora, en realidad es un modelo de clip en el y. En el eje tenemos precisión en los cambios de distribución, lo que significa cómo se desempeña el modelo cuando predecimos imágenes que son significativamente diferentes del conjunto de entrenamiento. Está bien, cuanto más avancemos hacia la derecha, mejor funcionarán los modelos en imag net y cuanto más alto lleguemos, mejor. los modelos se comportan con datos que son diferentes de los datos de entrenamiento, así que supongo que cuanto más resistentes son para agregar datos de dominio, está bien, y todos los puntos verdes son modelos individuales entrenados con diferentes hiperparámetros, uh, el punto azul es el uniforme. sopa para que pueda ver que es casi el mejor en imag net, solo hay un modelo, un Green Dot, que lo supera y es el mejor en cambios de distribución, está bien, entonces el modelo es casi tan bueno como cualquier otra cosa en el conjunto de datos original y es más resistente que cualquier otra persona, con datos fuera del dominio y, bueno, y la sopa codiciosa es incluso mejor, como puedes ver, es mucho más precisa, eso es bastante normal porque solo mantuvimos los modelos que mejoraron la precisión y descartamos algunos. del ex, las manzanas podridas y um y supongo que se generalizó casi tan bien como el modelo uniforme en datos fuera del dominio, verdad um y, en general, eso es algo que encontré en el documento, dicen que las sopas modelo funcionan un poco peor que ensamblar Entonces, imagina que hicimos una predicción de conjunto en esos, todos esos puntos verdes, lo cual sería increíblemente costoso porque tendríamos que predecir en paralelo con todos estos, por lo que el costo de infraestructura sería enorme, así que supongo que es realmente bueno. compromiso si tenemos un modelo único que se acerque al rendimiento del Ensemble, pero en general las sopas son mejores con datos fuera de distribución, así que, en general, es una técnica realmente buena. Aquí hay algunos puntos de referencia nuevamente del artículo sobre Bert. y T5 y um, la línea superior es el mejor modelo individual, por lo que el mejor Punto Verde y y el resultado final es la sopa codiciosa y puedes ver en esos diferentes puntos de referencia um, la sopa codiciosa um es tan buena o mejor que la el mejor modelo individual en todos esos puntos de referencia y eso es genial, así que las sopas de modelos son muy simples, muy livianas en términos de cálculo y muy eficientes, así que disfruten la sopa, pasemos a la siguiente, que se llama slurp, está bien, entonces slurp significa interpolación lineal esférica. no, eso no es un error tipográfico, es un algoritmo de 1985 y, de hecho, este algo fue diseñado originalmente para gráficos de computadora para encontrar el camino más suave para las rotaciones de la cámara, así que imagina una cámara girando alrededor de una escena, ¿cuál es el mejor, el pasado más suave? posición a a posición B uh que puedes encontrar y veremos qué diablos significa eso en términos de uh de modelos de IA así que este es diferente en una manera muy importante um slurp solo funciona con dos modelos, está bien y adivinas por qué porque vamos a hacer la transición de uno al otro, está bien, entonces vamos a trabajar solo con dos modelos, así que si necesitas promediar si es necesario, um, si necesitas fusionar más de dos modelos, um, porque tienes más habilidades que se podrían encontrar en los dos mejores modelos que existen, entonces sorber no es una opción, podemos favorecer uno de ellos, ya que veremos que hay un parámetro para decir, oye, quiero más del modelo A y menos del modelo B. pero solo dos modelos están bien, el beneficio de sorber es el número uno, como veremos y verás una imagen en un minuto y todo tendrá sentido, ayuda a preservar la magnitud de los pesos porque cuando promediamos, podríamos tener un peso muy grande en un modelo, podríamos tener un peso pequeño en otro modelo y cuando hacemos un promedio de dos, entonces bueno, tenemos un valor de Val medio que no es tan bueno como lo que hubiéramos querido. ese es un problema, el segundo problema y nuevamente, aquí está el dibujo, si sorbemos, en lugar de hacer un promedio lineal, que será el punto rojo, en ese gráfico, haremos una interpolación esférica y ese es el Punto Azul y por eso conserva la Odio decir la forma, um, pero sí, lo llamaré la forma del espacio de incrustación, está bien, y sé que las incrustaciones son cientos, si no miles, de dimensiones y es imposible de visualizar, así que inténtalo. para visualizarlo en 3D o imagina que sabes fusionar valores provenientes de dos esferas, sabes que lo que quieres al final sigue siendo algo así como una esfera y eso es lo que te traerá sorber, así que si miramos ese dibujo, imagina P1 y P2. son dos, dos incrustaciones, dos vectores que apuntan a diferentes partes del espacio, si hacemos el modelo subp, que es solo U, solo un promedio básico, entonces el promedio de P1 y P2 será PL, por lo que puedes Mira, sabes que la magnitud es muy diferente y puedes ver la curvatura, la estructura general, la forma general del espacio de incrustación ha cambiado, ya no es tanto una esfera y, entonces, si sorbemos, entonces uh de alguna manera logramos calcular PS que permanece en ese círculo, está bien y cómo hacemos esto bien uh, eso es probablemente más de lo que querías saber, pero nuevamente, ese es el código del kit de merchandising con el que lo acabo de actualizar. nombres de variables para uh um entonces ese es el código para el kit Merch uh veamos cómo funciona uh entonces en ese segundo dibujo uh estamos tratando de promediar v0 y V1 está bien, um, así que primero que nada tenemos que descubrir um uh entonces primero que nada necesitamos normalizarlos, está bien, eso es bastante simple, luego encontramos el ángulo entre v0 y V1, está bien, así que calcula el producto escalar, encuentra el ángulo, Theta, a la derecha, el verde, el ángulo verde, aquí y ahora necesitamos encontrar eso. um promedio uh Vector uh que permanece en el círculo y ahí es donde puedes favorecer un modelo u otro, ese es este parámetro uh T, así que si T es 0,5, entonces estarás en el medio, pero podrías favorecer estos 0 o V1. correcto, entonces calculamos el um, el nuevo ángulo, el ángulo medio usando el parámetro T, está bien, entonces uh v0 al nuevo Vector será uh T Theta y el nuevo Vector a V1 será 1 menos t Theta, está bien de nuevo si uh T es .5 entonces estás en el medio, bien, así que una vez que descubrimos la dirección de ese nuevo vector, entonces simplemente aplicamos ese ángulo Theta, luego simplemente aplicamos ese ángulo Theta para resolverlo y usamos el vectores originales, los vectores no normalizados para calcular el nuevo vector, está bien, esa es la idea básica, es súper simple y, nuevamente, puedes verlo desde una perspectiva informática, es realmente liviano, solo un poquito de trigonometría, pero todo eso. se ejecutará muy bien en la CPU, así que la misma identificación que la sopa de modelos, excepto que nos quedamos en el círculo nuevamente, eso es lo 2D y nos quedaríamos en la esfera para 3D y luego para 15 36 Dimensiones Dios sabe dónde estamos, pero tú. Entiende la intuición, así que sorbe en general, uh, uh, un poco mejor, um, um, para promediar y fusionar. El único problema es que solo podemos hacer dos modelos, está bien, así que eso es sorber. Ahora hablemos de aritmética de tareas para que sepamos que los modelos pre-entrenados pueden estar bien. sintonizar para muchas tareas diferentes, um PNL, visión por computadora, audio, etc., está bien, hay muchas tareas y es también por eso que tenemos medio millón de modelos en el Hub de cara abrazada y pueden ser F también en muchos conjuntos de datos diferentes, por lo que es una tarea Vector. es decir, el tensor actualiza la colección de actualizaciones de tensor o actualizaciones de modelo que se aplican a un modelo previo a la tendencia durante el ajuste fino. Entonces comenzamos desde un modelo previo a la tendencia y luego digamos que lo ajustamos para la clasificación de texto en uh, correos electrónicos de clientes, vamos a actualizar muchos de los pesos durante ese proceso de funcionamiento, por lo que esas actualizaciones de los Deltas son lo que llamamos el vector de tareas, obviamente porque podemos ajustar muchas tareas y muchos conjuntos de datos que puede producir fácilmente muchos vectores de tareas, así que podríamos encontrarlo en 50 conjuntos de datos de clasificación de clases de texto o 50 conjuntos de datos de clasificación de imágenes, etc., y cada vez podríamos calcular fácilmente el vector de tareas para ese trabajo de ajuste en particular, ¿vale? Así que ahora, en lugar de mirar una colección de modelos pre-entrenados, uh, ajustados, ya sabes, miles de veces podríamos estar mirando una colección de vectores de prueba porque al final no nos importa tanto el modelo pre-entrenado. No nos importa tanto el modelo de herramienta fina, nos importa lo que cambió y ese es el vector de tareas, está bien y lo bueno, y es por eso que se llama aritmética de tareas, es que podemos sumar o restar esos vectores de tareas a un modelo base para sumar o eliminamos capacidades, así que si tomamos un vector de tarea para no conozco un modelo llama 7B y lo agregamos a uno de nuestros propios modelos llama 7B, entonces la hipótesis es que actualizar ese vector de tarea que agregamos es agregar este nuevo habilidad a nuestro modelo y de manera similar podríamos eliminar capacidades, digamos que tenemos un modelo de clasificación de imágenes que ha sido entrenado en autos, animales y objetos cotidianos y queremos mejorar su precisión en autos y queremos agregar motocicletas, bueno, lo haríamos. agregue un vector de tarea para motocicletas que provenga de otro modelo que fue entrenado con imágenes de motocicletas, y tal vez restaríamos objetos cotidianos con otro vector de tarea porque no estamos interesados ​​en eso, así que al final tendríamos un modelo que aprende a través de la nueva tarea Vector cómo clasificar imágenes de motocicletas y al eliminar los objetos cotidianos generalmente mejoraríamos también la forma en que clasifica los automóviles, así que esa es la intuición genial detrás de la aritmética de tareas y uno podría preguntarse, vaya, esto realmente funciona y sí, uh. Entonces, en este gráfico vemos el resultado de agregar vectores de tarea a un modelo de clip, por lo que una imagen de Transformador en la parte superior vemos la precisión en la imagen neta, en la parte inferior vemos la precisión en otra tarea de destino que agregado y puede ver los conjuntos de datos en el eje x, está bien, entonces las barras naranjas son el modelo previo al comercio, por lo que conoce, supongo, el modelo de referencia y, en general, puede ver bien que el modelo de referencia no. funcionan muy bien en cualquiera de esos nuevos conjuntos de datos, las barras verdes son el modelo de ajuste fino, así que digamos que tomamos el clip y lo ajustamos en el conjunto de datos de los autos o en el conjunto de datos de eurosat, obviamente funciona bien, pero en a expensas de un trabajo de ajuste completo y las barras azules son el Vector de tarea, que en realidad es solo esa operación. Explicamos dónde comenzamos desde el modelo previo al entrenamiento, por lo que aparece la barra naranja, por así decirlo, y simplemente agregamos el Vector de tarea que usted Esto toma unos segundos y puedes ver esas tareas. Los modelos vectoriales están a la par o solo un poquito por debajo del modelo fino completo nuevamente, sin pasar por un trabajo de ajuste completo, está bien, eso es genial porque podemos llegar a precisión de ajuste sin el tiempo, el esfuerzo y el costo de un ajuste fino, está bien, aquí hay otro ejemplo en el que agregan pares de tareas al modelo base T5 y, por lo tanto, puede ver que esas líneas de puntos son la precisión base en tarea uno y tarea dos, está bien, entonces, para un modelo de ajuste fino, está bien, de nuevo a expensas de un trabajo de ajuste fino completo y podemos ver, entonces, podrías decir hits y Miss, correcto, um, así que todo en el, lo haría. Digamos que el cuadrante inferior izquierdo inferior no es tan bueno porque está por debajo de la precisión de ajuste fino para ambas tareas, pero cualquier cosa en los cuadrantes superiores o cualquier cosa en el cuadrante inferior derecho funciona mejor en una tarea al menos a la derecha, así que Puedes ver que algunos de los modelos en realidad están cerca de U uh, precisión de ajuste fino para una de las tareas y mucho mejor en la otra, por lo que no es tan impresionante como en el modelo del clip, pero aún así es bastante bueno, así que esa es la suma aritmética de la tarea. o eliminando vectores de tareas para modelar Deltas en uno de tus modelos, está bien, sigamos, el siguiente se llama vínculos, por lo que los vínculos son un poco diferentes, por lo que TI comienza a notar que hay un problema cuando fusionamos modelos usando tal vez el modelo. sopas o tal vez, cuando nos fusionamos con un sorbo U o Asun, supongo que con la aritmética de tareas existe algo llamado interferencia de parámetros, está bien, aquí hay un ejemplo para que resalten dos problemas principales. El primero es lo que llaman el parámetro influyente versus el redundante. y um y eso significa los dos parámetros que estás promediando en uno, así que en el modelo uno digamos que este parámetro en realidad es muy influyente, por lo que tiene una magnitud mayor y en el otro modelo no es importante en absoluto. tiene una magnitud realmente baja, así que cuando realmente fusionas los dos, entonces cancelas la influencia del parámetro en el modelo uno, así que ese es un problema que tienes, el otro problema son los conflictos de signos donde algunos parámetros podrían estar, ya sabes. positivo y son parámetros equivalentes en el otro modelo podría ser negativo y nuevamente sumar los dos cancela las cosas, así que supongo que es algo que no puedes controlar, sabes, no sabes si va a suceder o no, no lo sabes. qué tan mal va a pasar, etc., etc., pero en general descubren que, sabes, promediar puede causar uno de esos problemas y puedes ver, puedes ver un ejemplo en este gráfico donde sabes, entonces tienes dos, dos series. de tres cosas aquí, así que la de la izquierda con el cuadrado está bien, sabes, tienes, por ejemplo, aquí tienes dos, tienes los parámetros rosa y morado que tenemos. Yo diría que aproximadamente la misma magnitud, aproximadamente la misma. y el mismo signo, así que cuando los promedias, está bien, obtienes algo que funciona en el medio, tienes la cosa redonda donde tienes un parámetro muy pequeño de color rosa que lo dice como sabes, baja influencia y luego tienes mucho más. importante parámetro violeta mucho más influyente y nuevamente, si solo promedias los dos, obtienes algo que, ya sabes, se cancela y luego, si en el tercer ejemplo, con el polígono, ves que un parámetro es fuertemente positivo, el otro es mly. negativo y nuevamente, uh, si simplemente promedias las cosas, obtienes algo con una magnitud baja y probablemente destruiste, uh, la fuerte influencia de ese gran parámetro púrpura, está bien, y eso es lo que los lazos están tratando de resolver, bien, entonces los lazos significan recortar, elegir, firmar y fusionar. así que intentemos y esto es un poco ocupado, intentemos y rompamos las cosas, así que vayamos de izquierda a derecha, así que en el primer cuadro de vectores de prueba, verás que se fusionan tres modelos, está bien, está el rosa y el morado. uno y el marrón, está bien y puedes ver que tenemos una configuración muy diferente, por lo que tenemos cinco conjuntos de tres parámetros que queremos fusionar, por lo que el primer paso es recortar cada uno, por lo que la primera tarea es recortar. cada grupo de parámetros que vamos a fusionar para mantener solo los parámetros fluidos INF está bien, así que lo que eso realmente significa es que vamos a descartar los parámetros que tienen una magnitud realmente pequeña, está bien, para que puedas verlo en el segundo cuadro. Llamamos vectores de tarea de recorte justo en el primer grupo de parámetros, eliminamos los parámetros morado y marrón porque eran muy pequeños en comparación con el rosa, lo mismo para el grupo número dos, solo mantuvimos el parámetro marrón grande para el grupo número tres, eliminamos el pequeño uh Parámetro marrón grupo cuatro uh no recortamos nada y el grupo cinco recortamos esos pequeños parámetros uh azul o morado y rosa, está bien, así que eliminamos los valores más pequeños y ese es un parámetro que puedes controlar, ¿ vale? Así que ahora Eliminamos los parámetros redundantes. Bueno, el segundo paso es descubrir los signos, por lo que para cada grupo de parámetros debemos decidir si queremos seguir con valores positivos o negativos, así que esa es la ruta de los signos elegidos que ves aquí. El primer grupo de parámetros es muy simple, solo nos queda uno, por lo que es positivo, por lo que el signo es positivo. Lo mismo para el segundo grupo, tercer grupo, tenemos un parámetro violeta grande y negativo, y yo diría que es un parámetro positivo mediano y grande, por lo que el signo general aquí. sería negativo porque la magnitud más grande proviene de ese parámetro violeta negativo, por lo que s es negativo en el cuarto grupo. uh s es positivo porque sabes que tendemos a ir hacia lo positivo más que hacia lo negativo, lo negativo y en el grupo cinco solo hay uno. parámetro, así que es una elección fácil, así que una vez que tengamos el signo Vector, está bien, entonces sabemos que vamos a eliminar los parámetros que no tienen el signo correcto, está bien, así que para el tercer grupo eliminamos el parámetro rosa y para En el cuarto grupo, eliminamos el parámetro rosa nuevamente y luego fusionamos lo que queda, está bien, y calculamos los promedios para que esa sea la ID básica. Elimina los parámetros no influyentes en el paso de recorte. Descubre el signo. signo dominante en el paso de signo elegido y luego simplemente fusionar lo que queda, está bien, y una vez que hayamos hecho eso, bueno, tenemos nuestra actualización y agregamos esos parámetros promedio al modelo original, está bien, entonces aplicamos el actualice el modelo de referencia al que queremos agregar habilidades y hay un factor de escala nuevamente para decidir cuánto desea influir en el comportamiento anterior o en el nuevo comportamiento, por así decirlo. Aquí hay algunos puntos de referencia en diferentes modelos, por lo que tenemos T5 y tenemos la visión Transformer y vemos una comparación entre el promedio, que es básicamente sopa de modelos, y la aritmética de tareas que acabamos de discutir y tenemos dos escenarios, el primer grupo con las cruces rojas, ¿no? tenemos un conjunto de validación, por lo que solo sabemos aplicar el algoritmo sin ningún tipo de evaluación, por lo que solo usamos parámetros de línea de base U hiperparámetros para uh para recortar, etc., está bien, es una operación mucho más estática y vemos que en su mayoría esto todavía está mejorando, excepto en la base T5, pero lo estamos haciendo mejor que el promedio, lo estamos haciendo mejor que la aritmética de tareas y todavía no somos tan buenos como un modelo completamente ajustado, pero no estamos tan mal y en el segundo grupo, el grupo inferior, estamos mejorando en todos los ámbitos y, en general, lo estamos haciendo mucho mejor cuando tenemos un conjunto de validación porque podemos probar diferentes ejecuciones y descubrir cuáles son los hiperparámetros correctos para recortar que están bien, así que eso es. una técnica interesante también y se llama lazos, está bien, pasemos a la siguiente que se llama desafío. Está bien, entonces es bastante bueno y en realidad se da cuenta de que cuando ejecutamos el ajuste fino actualizamos muchos parámetros, pero a medida que Resulta que parece que muchas de esas actualizaciones son redundantes, por lo que son inútiles. En realidad, estamos modificando muchos parámetros, muchos pesos que no hacen ninguna diferencia. Bueno, supongo que eso no es una señal de que ustedes, los modelos, tengan demasiadas. parámetros y, uh, es demasiado, realmente conoces Brute Force, pero está bien hasta que encontremos algo mejor, así que atreverse significa soltar y reescalar para que el bit de caída sea fácil de entender. Eliminamos aleatoriamente hasta el 99% de las actualizaciones de parámetros para que no lo hagamos. eliminar los parámetros en sí, no es una poda correcta, pero eliminamos la actualización, por lo que nos atenemos a los pesos originales del modelo fino. El 99% se imagina que está bien, así que solo mantenemos el 1% de esas actualizaciones reales y luego esas actualizaciones se reescalan de acuerdo con ¿Cuántas eliminamos? Porque tenemos menos actualizaciones, por lo que deben tener un impacto. Si eliminamos el 99 % de esas actualizaciones, vamos a reescalarlas en un factor de 100. Está bien, menos actualizaciones, pero, curiosamente, actualizaciones muy grandes. cuanto más grande es el modelo, más limitado, más insignificante es el impacto de eliminar todas esas actualizaciones y aquí está la prueba del documento, está bien, entonces ves dos conjuntos de datos diferentes GSM 8K en el conjunto de datos matemáticos de la izquierda. en diferentes modelos 7B 13B 70b y puedes ver que el modelo 7B duele mucho a Prett una vez que comenzamos a bajar, digamos que el 75% de las actualizaciones de parámetros, el modelo 13B duele un poco más tarde, supongo que cuando comenzamos a bajar más del 10 %, eh. Lo siento cuando empezamos a bajar más del 90%, pero el modelo 70b es casi sin fases, y de nuevo creo que eso demuestra cuán parametrizadas están esas cosas, puedes eliminar el 99% de las actualizaciones, casi no pasa nada y nosotros de ver lo mismo en la evaluación humana que, um, que es una codificación, un conjunto de datos de codificación nuevamente en Wizard coder y llama para encontrarte sin código, aproximadamente lo mismo, uh, sobre la misma historia, uh, los modelos pequeños duelen mucho y, curiosamente, el Los modelos más grandes incluso mejoran, puedes ver que el modelo 13B y uh el 34b en realidad mejoran cuando eliminamos esas actualizaciones, así que menos ruido, supongo, así que esa es la caída y el reescalado, está bien, ignora un montón de esas actualizaciones, solo reescala la que sigues haciéndolos. más impactante y uh y para modelos más grandes esto no tiene ningún impacto excepto, por supuesto, el tamaño de los vectores de tareas es mucho, excepto que el tamaño de estos vectores de tareas ahora es mucho más pequeño, porque literalmente eliminamos el 90, tal vez el 99% de las actualizaciones, así que los vectores Tas se vuelven realmente pequeños y mucho más fáciles de manejar, está bien y se pueden aplicar usando métodos anteriores, como vínculos o cualquier otro método que vimos antes, está bien, así que en sí mismo no es una técnica de fusión, es realmente uh. es uh, es una tarea Vector uh compresión o ya conoces la técnica de reducción y eso significa que podemos tener pequeños vectores de tareas que podemos administrar y agregar muy fácilmente y muy rápidamente a um um a los modelos de referencia y aquí está U aquí está el resultado así que esto es um esto es un poco difícil de entender me tomó un tiempo, vale, entonces tenemos tres modelos, vale, tenemos el modelo de lenguaje azul, grande, tenemos el modelo matemático verde y tenemos el modelo de código rosado, vale, y en la parte superior vemos su, su métricas en sus respectivos conjuntos de datos Está bien, y luego tomamos esos modelos y comenzamos a combinarlos, así que tomamos el modelo de lenguaje y agregamos una actualización atrevida para matemáticas, está bien, y eso te da esa división, ya sabes, la línea azul verde, y puedes mira, esto en realidad está mejorando en alpaka eval 6745 y en realidad está funcionando bastante bien en matemáticas um 6626 um, que en realidad es mejor que el 6422 del modelo matemático único, lo cual me parece realmente interesante y luego hacemos lo mismo con el lenguaje. modelo y código y matemáticas y código y en la parte inferior hacemos los tres para que tengamos el modelo de lenguaje y las matemáticas y el código y sorprendentemente cuando usamos allí vemos que tenemos la precisión de evaluación más alta de todas las evaluaciones de alpaka uh 6928 entonces nuevamente, puedes probar todas esas combinaciones diferentes y ver que sabes que a veces puedes mejorar el modelo base agregando otras habilidades que pueden parecer un poco ajenas, verdad, agregamos matemáticas y código al modelo de lenguaje y uh y eso. en realidad se convierte en un mejor modelo de lenguaje, así que eso es bastante interesante y al mismo tiempo sigue siendo bastante bueno en matemáticas y codificación, así que esa es la cuestión, y así es como combinar dare with u um con aritmética de tareas en este caso puede ayudar. rápidamente construyes modelos que son multitarea y, a veces, incluso mejoran la puntuación original para una tarea en particular, muy bien, vale, el último del que quiero hablar es la fusión de Fantastic Franken, por supuesto, que lleva el nombre de Frankenstein y ya verás. ¿Por qué todas esas técnicas anteriores que discutimos requieren que los modelos que se fusionan compartan una arquitectura común? Porque obviamente, si vas a promediar o sabes sumar o restar parámetros, las capas deben coincidir con los tamaños de las tiendas. Necesitas coincidir, sabes que todos deben ser t5 o todos necesitan que todos sean, ya sabes, llama 27bs, etc., está bien, es justo, pero ¿qué tal si tomamos piezas de diferentes modelos, posiblemente con diferentes arquitecturas y las unimos, está bien? Esta vez no estamos promediando nada, estamos dejando los pesos intactos y esto también se llama fusión de paso, por lo que los parámetros en sí no cambian. Lo que estamos haciendo es picotear capas de Cherry del Modelo A y del Modelo B y se están recombinando capas de diferentes modelos. lo que suena un poco loco y obviamente eso es lo de Frankenstein, es muy experimental, pero sorprendentemente están apareciendo algunos modelos interesantes, y en la tabla de clasificación de la película Hugging Face, han aparecido algunos buenos modelos, y usando uh, ya sabes, Franken Franken fusionándose, en realidad ahora hay una buena lista en el Hub, así que ve a los modelos en el Hub y busca Franken y encontrarás una buena lista de esos modelos y podrás ver cómo se construyeron. aquí hay un ejemplo, este es Goliath 120b, que en realidad es una combinación de dos modelos diferentes de Lama 27 mil millones, está bien, entonces no fusionaremos los pesos, recuerde que estamos seleccionando capas de un modelo u otro, está bien, aquí los dos modelos tienen la misma arquitectura. pero como puede ver en la lista aquí, las primeras 17 capas provienen del modelo xwi y luego las siguientes provienen del urel, como sea que lo pronuncie y luego Xin nuevamente y luego, etc., etc., así que esa es la fusión de Franken. Tomamos capas de un modelo y capas de otro modelo y sabemos que las unimos, así que nuevamente vaya y mire en el Hub y encontrará diferentes ejemplos. En realidad, definitivamente encontrará diferentes arquitecturas de modelos unidas, lo cual es un un poco loco, pero de nuevo, si obtienen una puntuación alta en los puntos de referencia, y no han sido contaminados por los conjuntos de datos de evaluación, lo cual es solo otra discusión aquí, bueno, tiene que haber una razón para eso, está bien, así que Frank se fusiona. No estoy seguro de si realmente haría esto en producción, probablemente no, pero nuevamente es una técnica interesante y nunca se sabe, a veces, las identificaciones realmente extrañas conducen a avances y nunca se sabe, este podría ser uno de ellos, eso es realmente lo que quería contar. sobre la fusión de modelos, como puedes ver, es muy diferente y puede volverse bastante salvaje, pero creo que es algo que todos deberíamos tener en cuenta y estoy seguro de que volveremos a discutir esto en el futuro. Muchas gracias por tu soporte, dale me gusta al video si lo disfrutaste y hasta el próximo video sigue rockeando.

Deep Dive Optimizing LLM inference.es.srt

00:00:00,199 --> 00:00:02,280 Hola a todos, soy Julian de Hugging Face. En los últimos meses, todos hemos experimentado con modelos geniales como llama 2 mistol y muchos otros y hemos visto lo increíbles que eran para aplicaciones de chatbot, sin embargo, cuando llega el momento de implementar esos modelos. Para producción, no es muy fácil obtener la baja latencia y el alto rendimiento que esperamos y en videos anteriores analizamos diferentes técnicas para optimizar esos modelos, como mejores capas de retención, compilación de cuantificación, aceleración de hardware, etc., en este video vamos a profundizar. el proceso de inferencia real para esos modelos de solo decodificador y veremos cómo técnicas como el caché KV y el procesamiento por lotes continuo y la decodificación especulativa pueden ayudar a aumentar el rendimiento. Muy bien, suena bien, comencemos. Si disfrutas este video, dale el visto bueno. Considere suscribirse a mi canal de YouTube y no olvide habilitar las notificaciones para que no se pierda nada en el futuro. Además, por qué no comparte el video en sus redes sociales o con sus colegas porque si lo disfruta, es muy probable que sea otra persona. Muchas gracias por su apoyo antes de que queramos optimizar la inferencia, necesitamos entender cómo funciona, así que comencemos con cómo funciona la inferencia solo del decodificador, por lo que solo el decodificador es el arquitectura de esos modelos tipo GPT como U llama vicuña mistol, etc. y debido a que son solo decodificadores, por supuesto, son un poco diferentes de la arquitectura del modelo tradicional para Transformers, así que si miramos la arquitectura de referencia desde la atención es todo lo que necesitamos, no necesitaremos tener un codificador. porque aquí la entrada será básicamente solo un mensaje, no estamos haciendo secuencia a secuencia, lo cual haríamos para traducción o preguntas y respuestas, así que no necesitamos intercambiar un modelo en esta es la secuencia de entrada, codifiquemos. es bla, bla, bla, y emparéjelo con la secuencia de salida de verdad del terreno, bla, bla, bla, bla, y luego predigamos que está bien, entonces, no existe tal cosa, no necesitamos codificador, decodificador, tensión múltiple porque no tenemos un codificador en el primero. colóquelo correctamente para que nuestras entradas sean realmente el mensaje o debería decir el mensaje tokenizado y luego lo incrustamos, lo codificamos y luego lo ejecutamos a través del decodificador y generamos tokens, así que esa es la arquitectura básica para GPT, como modelos solo de decodificador, está bien. Un poco Más simple se podría decir, las entradas se procesan de la siguiente manera, cuando decimos entradas nuevamente, nos referimos al mensaje tokenizado para que estén incrustados, estén codificados posicionalmente y luego ejecutamos atención de anuncios múltiples para calcular las claves y valores para cada uno de los tokens de entrada y esos valores de KV se usarán para generar el siguiente token, así que esto es más o menos algo que puedes hacer de una sola vez. Esto es muy paralelo, es una multiplicación de matriz grande y bueno, eso es. Para qué se han creado los aceleradores de IA, así que podemos hacer esto de manera muy eficiente. Vemos un uso bastante alto en el acelerador de hardware, así que no digo que no haya nada que optimizar, pero en general esto funciona bien desde el primer momento. ese no es el problema número uno que queremos resolver, el problema real es, por supuesto, que una vez que hayamos hecho eso y queramos generar bien las salidas, lo haremos un token a la vez, así que basándonos en el mensaje de entrada uh uh basado en los valores de KV que calculamos, generamos el siguiente token y eso es uno a la vez, tomamos ese token generado y lo agregamos a la entrada anterior, así que digamos que es el primer token que generamos, así que ahora tenemos el mensaje de entrada y un extra. token y hacemos esto nuevamente correctamente, así que procese la entrada, calcule KV, genere el token número dos, tome el token número dos, agréguelo ahora tenemos el mensaje de entrada más el token uno más el token dos, hágalo una vez más y B agregue la codificación, genere KV, etc., etc., y ahora Vea el problema, uh, este es un proceso altamente secuencial, uh, y lo repetimos hasta que hayamos generado la cantidad máxima de tokens publicitarios o hasta que generemos un token de final de oración, así que si vamos a generar 500 tokens, vamos a para hacer esto 500 veces correctamente, incrustar y cod C KV generar agregar repetir correctamente y el problema es que esto es secuencial y, por lo tanto, secuencial significa que no podemos paralizar mucho, por lo que vemos un bajo uso del acelerador de hardware y es por eso que veo un bajo rendimiento en general y, a menos que comencemos a optimizar, no vamos a obtener un gran rendimiento y un excelente rendimiento de costos de eso, um, de eso, estoy bien, así que veamos qué podemos hacer, la primera cosa obvia que podemos hacer es evitamos volver a calcular los valores de KV una y otra vez para los mismos tokens de entrada, porque recuerde que lo hacemos para el mensaje, está bien, KV, correcto, muchos productos escalares, um, genera un token, agrega un token, está bien, ahora tenemos la longitud de la secuencia más uno, correcto y Hacemos KV nuevamente, pero todos los valores originales serán los mismos porque esos son productos DOT, por lo que solo necesitaríamos generar K y V para el token que agregamos al que generamos correctamente porque todo lo demás no cambiará y es simplemente una enorme Es una pérdida de tiempo, así que dije que es altamente paralelo y bastante justo, pero sigue siendo una pérdida de tiempo, así que ¿podemos acelerar esa parte en particular? Sí, y ese es el propósito del caché KV, por lo que el caché KV almacenará las claves y valores para todos. Los tokens que ya hemos procesado están bien y puedes ver un ejemplo aquí que está muy bien ilustrado a partir de un dibujo que tomé del KN neuronal de AWS. Gracias por eso, así que el primer token es el segundo token es amor. El tercer token es tranium um. entonces digamos que nos estamos enfocando en trinium en este momento, solo necesitamos calcular las claves y los valores para este token en particular, el resto ya lo tenemos, sabes, ya lo hemos visto, ya lo hemos visto, amor, está bien. Ya los hemos generado y calculado, por lo que no necesitamos calcular todas esas cosas nuevamente. Si desea ver la operación real de U Matrix, esto es lo que se ve cuando agregamos un nuevo token, ampliamos la longitud de la secuencia, por lo que tenemos una nueva clave y tenemos una nueva V derecha y esto es realmente lo único que necesitamos para calcular, uh, todas las demás cosas, uh, las cosas grises aquí. No sé si puedes ver mi mouse, pero K anterior y V anterior aquí, uh, las áreas grises están almacenadas en caché correctamente y ese es el propósito del caché KV, está bien, salvarnos de la Computación, um, esas operaciones una y otra vez, y obviamente, cuanto más larga sea la secuencia, mayor será el impacto que esto tendrá. tener el derecho obviamente no funciona para el primer token porque todo estará vacío y es por eso que el primer token tarda más en generarse correctamente y es por eso que en los puntos de referencia ves el tiempo hasta el primer token, que es una medida de lo que sabes eficientemente, administras K yv en general, uh, y luego ves el tiempo promedio para los siguientes tokens porque esto es más una medida del proceso de generación en sí, así que vamos a analizar esas cosas que necesitamos para entender qué tan grande Es decir, esto estará en la RAM del acelerador y nunca hay suficiente, por lo que debemos tener cuidado. Si trabajamos con modelos fp16, esta es la fórmula para que podamos ver que el signo de caché crece linealmente con respecto a la longitud de la secuencia, que es. algo obvio, el número de capas de tensión, que es algo obvio, la longitud de incrustación, que creo que es algo obvio, y también el tamaño del lote correcto, y necesitamos multiplicarlo por dos porque tenemos K y V correctos y necesitamos multiplique por dos nuevamente porque tenemos 16 bits, por lo que dos bytes para cada um uh para cada valor de uh, así que para un modelo de 7 mil millones de parámetros esto ya puede estar al norte de dos gigabytes y, por supuesto, cuanto más grande sea el modelo, más capas, más grandes serán las incrustaciones. Cuanta más memoria necesitarás, esto podría ser a expensas de aumentar el tamaño del lote porque, si el efectivo de KV es enorme, entonces no te quedará mucho espacio para aumentar el tamaño del lote y paralelizar. las cosas van más allá, um y es por eso que las capas de atención más recientes, que cubrí en este video de mejores capas de retención, funcionan en UH reduciendo el caché KV de diferentes maneras y, y puedes ver, sabes que puedes aprender sobre la atención de consultas múltiples GOP queer atención, etc, etc., que se utilizan en modelos de neuromas como, ya sabes, llama to Mist Trol, etc., etc., y mira por qué eso hace una gran diferencia en la reducción del tamaño del caché para que podamos aumentar el tamaño del lote nuevamente. Es una batalla sin fin. Bien, sigamos adelante y veamos cómo podemos mejorar nuevamente el paralelismo de la inferencia con el procesamiento por lotes continuo, por lo que todos estamos familiarizados con el procesamiento por lotes, ya sabe, procesar mini lotes en aceleradores para aumentar el rendimiento y aprovechar los miles. de núcleos que tenemos allí y podríamos hacer lo mismo con esos modelos solo decodificadores, pero el problema es que son más difíciles de agrupar que, eh, diría, los Transformers tradicionales como la traducción o las preguntas y respuestas y, en general, más difíciles de agrupar que los modelos de aprendizaje profundo y hay una Una buena razón para esto es que la duración de entrada y salida de su conversación puede cambiar mucho, cierto, tal vez una pregunta tenga un mensaje muy corto, tal vez otra tenga un mensaje muy largo, tal vez desee una respuesta de sí o no, por lo que el resultado es muy corto. o tal vez quieras saber una página completa, una respuesta muy larga y, en términos de tiempo de procesamiento y tiempos de generación, verás cosas muy diferentes que probablemente no verías si estuvieras traduciendo, ya sabes, matemáticas del inglés al francés. 300 tokens correctos o 512 tokens, ese es el problema V la variabilidad, así que veamos un ejemplo, aquí están las líneas, son solicitudes diferentes, está bien, tenemos cuatro solicitudes y vemos los pasos de tiempo uh T1 T2 T3 Etc., está bien, entonces el amarillo los cuadrados son los tokens de entrada, los cuadrados azules son los tokens generados y los cuadrados rojos son los tokens de final de oración, así que inicialmente está bien, ya sabes, cargamos cuatro solicitudes de inferencia um en el acelerador y comienza a generar, ya sabes, en T3 T4 T5, todo bien. poco tiempo después, bueno, vemos que la tercera solicitud fue bastante corta y terminó en T5, la primera terminó en T6 y la segunda fue mucho más larga y terminó en T8, y como se prolonga, sabes que tenemos que esperar hasta que se completa para ejecutar otro lote y usted sabe de inmediato cuál es el problema, en realidad solo se está procesando una solicitud de inferencia en los últimos pasos de tiempo y todo lo demás ya se completó y es un desperdicio de recursos de hardware, ¿verdad? Es por eso que el procesamiento por lotes tradicional hay procesamiento, digamos 4x4 8 por 8, lo que sea, y esperar a que se completen todos no es una muy buena idea aquí. En cambio, queremos hacer un procesamiento por lotes continuo para que comience igual, pero tan pronto como se complete una solicitud de inferencia. Lo desalojamos y comenzamos otro correctamente, así que, por ejemplo, ves en la primera línea que la solicitud termina en T6 e inmediatamente en T7 tenemos algo más ejecutándose correctamente y ciertamente no estamos esperando a que se complete la segunda solicitud en T8, lo mismo para la tercera solicitud, lo mismo para la cuarta, está bien, tan pronto como finaliza la solicitud, alimentamos otra a la GPU y es por eso que se llama procesamiento por lotes continuo, nunca nos detenemos, así que tratamos de mantener el hardware como tan ocupado como sea posible, así que obviamente aquí solo estamos viendo el proceso de generación, pero ¿ qué pasa con el prellenado? Recuerde que necesitamos incrustar, codificar y calcular KV o recuperar KV del caché, por lo que no es solo el bit de generación. ¿Podemos pausar el proceso de generación para ejecutar ese procesamiento de entrada, ese proceso de precompletar para las nuevas consultas que vamos a ejecutar en el futuro? Entonces sí, tenemos que hacerlo, de lo contrario, ya sabes, supongo que lo haremos. Nos quedaremos sin consultas para procesar y detendremos todo, así que dependiendo del servidor de inferencia que uses, sabes que puedes tener un parámetro para controlar la proporción de, yo diría. esperar consultas de entrada versus ejecutar um consultas de generación correctamente y en uh en nuestra biblioteca uh TGI donde esto se implementa, hay un parámetro llamado índice de espera servido para que pueda controlar la frecuencia con la que desea pausar el proceso de generación para uh a Pro a uh Ejecutar precompletar para los siguientes, los siguientes, un poco de ajuste aquí, está bien, el procesamiento por lotes continuo, muy, muy buena técnica, hace una diferencia muy, muy grande. Ahora hablemos de la tercera técnica que quería discutir hoy, que es cada vez más popular y se llama decodificación especulativa, uh, y si eres completamente nuevo en esto, hay una publicación de blog realmente interesante de mis colegas. Te recomiendo encarecidamente que la leas, así que dijimos que el proceso de generación solo genera un token a la vez, está bien, así que no. No hace un muy buen uso del hardware altamente paralelo que tenemos en High, que tenemos en los aceleradores de IA, así que todo el proceso no está realmente vinculado a la computación, de hecho, una gran cantidad de hardware simplemente no hace nada. está realmente limitado a la memoria debido al caché KV um um que necesitamos cargar una y otra vez en el acelerador, lo cual es una razón más para reducir el caché y hacer que funcione mejor, así que la conclusión es que tenemos fuentes de computadora disponibles para que el La idea básica sería: ¿podemos usar ese cálculo inactivo para hacer algo inteligente? Por ejemplo, ¿podríamos usar un modelo más pequeño? Lo cual sería una aproximación decente del modelo grande para predecir varias terminaciones. Ya sabes, terminaciones de múltiples tokens en paralelo. sé de una manera que sería uh ya sabes, eso nos diría oye um Sé que estás generando un token ahora mismo, pero creo que los próximos cuatro cinco seis tokens podrían verse así y aquí hay cinco seis siete formas diferentes hacerlo bien, así que mirando hacia el futuro con un modelo más pequeño que sea más ágil um y uh y que pueda aprovechar el cómputo inactivo que tenemos, esa es la intuición, así que, por supuesto, en algún momento debemos mirar esos uh, posibles finalizaciones y mira, um, sabes cuál es el mejor, cuál tiene la mayor cantidad de tokens correctos, uh, y elige y elige ese correctamente, y eso es exactamente lo que hacemos. Le pedimos al modelo grande que evalúe los que conoces. tres cuatro cinco posibles finalizaciones y elige las que eligen solo una, elige la que funciona mejor, verdad, uh, y eso significa elegir la que esté más cerca de lo que habría generado el modelo grande, ya sabes, secuencialmente, etc., bien, en cada iteración todavía obtendremos un token válido, el generado por el modelo grande de la manera habitual, y si el modelo pequeño hizo bien su trabajo, entonces podríamos tener mucho más éxito en una de esas terminaciones con, digamos, cinco, seis, siete tokens. podría ser genial y luego tal vez tengamos seis tokens adicionales de una vez y así ahorramos seis ejecuciones a través del modelo grande y de ahí viene la aceleración, así que es una identificación muy inteligente, así que veamos un ejemplo, así que mire un ejemplo, así que digamos que comenzamos desde el marrón rápido, le pedimos al modelo pequeño que cree una finalización, así que digamos que uno de ellos es Fox salta al OK y luego tomamos la secuencia completa, la secuencia completa, envíe eso a el modelo grande y pregunte, es esto lo que habría generado y dice, bueno, los saltos de zorro están bien, no es lo que yo habría generado, el siguiente token habría terminado, así que descartaré todo después de los saltos y lo agregaré y Hacemos eso de nuevo, ¿verdad? Quiero ver una vez más. Hagamos esto bien, así que alimente eso al modelo pequeño y genere una finalización nuevamente. Aquí solo estamos mostrando una finalización, pero tenga en cuenta que probablemente generaríamos muchos resultados posibles diferentes y luego. Le pedimos al modelo de lenguaje grande que valide esos tokens o invalide algunos de ellos y agregue el que generó después de eso, así que eso es genial, funciona muy bien, así que en la esquina inferior izquierda, verá. uh, la relación entre qué tan bien se aproxima el modelo pequeño al modelo grande es un parámetro llamado Alfa, por lo que si Alfa está cerca de uno, entonces el modelo pequeño es una muy buena aproximación del modelo grande, si es más bajo, comete muchos errores y en el eje y se ve la cantidad de tokens esperados que podemos validar correctamente, así que obviamente si Alpha es 0. n o mayor, la cantidad de tokens esperados será muy cercana a la cantidad de tokens que genera el modelo pequeño, ¿verdad? Puedes ver los diferentes colores para diferentes números, ese es un parámetro llamado gamma. Si te mueves de izquierda a derecha, entonces el modelo no es el modelo pequeño, no es una gran aproximación y la cantidad esperada de tokens es bastante menor que la que genera el modelo pequeño porque obviamente. algunos de ellos se descartarán en el paso de validación. Bien, podemos ver lo que eso significa en términos de aceleración, por ejemplo, si tenemos Alpha en 0,8 y GMA en cinco, entonces es una aproximación decente y generamos cinco tokens adicionales para cada finalización. luego vemos que la aceleración puede ser hasta, ya sabes, tres más x 369 x um, entonces 2 a tres ya es muy, muy bueno ahora si tenemos Alpha hasta 0.9 podemos mejorar aún más, especialmente si aumentamos el número de secuencias, pero, de nuevo, significa que tienes un modelo pequeño realmente genial y ese podría no ser el caso, por lo que en el documento prueban esto con t5x XL, que creo que es de 11 mil millones y prueban dos tareas, final, que es una tarea de traducción. del inglés al alemán y uh cnnm Creo que es una tarea de resumen y se aproximan al modelo grande con las versiones más pequeñas de la misma arquitectura T5 pequeña t 5 días Etc. y puedes ver uh para traducción, por ejemplo, um con siete tokens predichos T5 pequeño te da una aceleración de 3.4x, esa es la primera línea en esa tabla, está bien, eso es bastante sorprendente porque el T5 pequeño es un modelo mucho más pequeño y en el documento realmente recomiendan ir de modelos a modelos pequeños o o en al menos un orden de magnitud más pequeño, así que al menos 10 veces más pequeño, tal vez incluso dos órdenes de magnitud, así que tal vez 100 veces más si está bien, así que es increíble ver esos modelos pequeños funcionando realmente bien y entregando velocidades UPS de la vida real, ya sabes, dos 2.5 y a veces. más de tres, así que eso es una decodificación especulativa ahora, obviamente, la gran pregunta es cómo construimos ese modelo pequeño, aquí con el ejemplo de T5, es bastante simple porque tenemos muchos tamaños diferentes de T5, pero puede que no siempre sea el caso, así que mire diferentes opciones, así que la primera es la que acabamos de ver, está disponible en diferentes tamaños, bien, intente con las más pequeñas, descúbralo. Otra forma de hacerlo es usar un enfoque de engrama y modelo realmente no es la palabra correcta. porque no hay un modelo per se, como veremos, esto es realmente un truco inteligente, donde usamos tokens que se encuentran en el mensaje correcto, veremos eso y luego podremos ir un poco más sofisticado, uh. Podemos ajustar un modelo pequeño basado en el modelo grande que permanece congelado o podemos encontrar el modelo pequeño y el modelo grande juntos para obtener el máximo rendimiento. Bien, veamos rápidamente esos cuatro, de modo que el primero, el modelo pequeño disponible en el mercado, sea realmente el escenario T5 um, no volveré a discutir esto, pero así es como lo harías con la Biblioteca Transformers um, podemos ver el modelo Pia uh aquí, así que 1.4 mil millones y 160 millones, aproximadamente una proporción de 10x aquí cargamos ambos derecho y cuando generamos con un modelo grande, simplemente pasamos el modelo pequeño como parámetro, está bien, y todo el proceso de generar completaciones potenciales y validarlas ocurre bajo el capó, por lo que si estás en un escenario en el que realmente tienes modelos en diferentes tamaños. Esto es algo realmente genial para probar porque puedes salir de la caja, ya sabes, acelerar 2x 3x sin siquiera entrenar nada, simplemente dejar que el pequeño haga parte del trabajo correctamente. La restricción aquí es que los dos modelos necesitan tener el mismo tokenizador, así que nuevamente probablemente verías dos modelos de la misma familia, pero vienen en diferentes tamaños, está bien, pero es una solución muy simple, muy elegante, está bien, opción dos engramas, está bien, entonces veamos esto, así que esta es una contribución de la comunidad. Destaqué el repositorio y un lindo tweet de uno de mis colegas que puede poner todo en perspectiva, así que eso es súper bueno, esto proviene de la observación de que para algunas tareas como resúmenes de preguntas y respuestas, discusiones breves, edición de código, etc., hay una relación muy fuerte. entre los tokens en la entrada y los tokens en la salida, otra forma de decirlo es que es muy probable que las palabras que se encuentran en el mensaje se encuentren en la respuesta generada, está bien y en realidad vale más que la pena, es NRS, así que supongo que es una palabra estadística. entonces, un NR es simplemente un par o un triplete, lo que sea que sepas, es una secuencia corta de palabras relacionadas y, nuevamente, la observación muestra que esas tareas se llaman tareas basadas en la entrada porque nuevamente la salida está fuertemente relacionada con la entrada. tendrá esa propiedad, entonces, ¿podemos, podemos usar las cadenas, podemos usar las palabras, podemos usar los pares de palabras en la entrada para completar, acelerar la finalización de la salida, absolutamente cierto, eso es exactamente lo que hace esta decodificación especulativa de engramas y suena. como algo muy simple, casi trivial, pero funciona muy bien para esas tareas justo en las que, nuevamente, hay una fuerte relación con la velocidad del envío UPS de 2x a 4X, sin modificación del modelo, debería funcionar con cualquier modelo y no tiene ningún impacto en la calidad de salida. esto está implementado en Transformers, así que probablemente no funcionaría si haces una pregunta muy corta y luego pides 5,000 tokens porque nuevamente tienes tan pocos tokens de entrada que realmente no puedes elegir entre ellos para generar. una respuesta larga, pero para tareas más cortas como esta, funciona bien, así que aquí hay un ejemplo, tenemos un mensaje sobre un jugador de fútbol francés, extraemos engramas para eso, le pedimos al modelo de lenguaje grande que valide como antes, validará algunos de ellos. Agregará, tal vez descartará algunos de ellos y agregará el token que generó y luego lo haremos nuevamente, exactamente el mismo escenario que antes, excepto que aquí no hay ningún modelo que prediga que en realidad es solo usar NRS para encontrar NRS en la entrada. y concatenarlos para que sea un proceso muy rápido y así es como funciona en la Biblioteca de Transformers. Solo necesitas agregar ese parámetro simple que solicita tokens numéricos de búsqueda y eso es todo. De nuevo, una gran solución, definitivamente vale la pena intentarlo. uh y The Benchmark y vea si puede acelerar sus uh uh Transformers y su proceso de generación con este derecho y está disponible en nuestra biblioteca TGI. Es solo un parámetro de línea de comando, está bien, uh, hablemos de la última técnica de decodificación especulativa que quería. La portada de hoy está bien, se llama Medusa, así que en nuestras cuatro opciones vimos que podíamos ajustar un modelo, ya sea en la parte superior o junto con un modelo de lenguaje grande, así que de esto se trata Medusa, excepto que no hay un modelo pequeño independiente. lo que estamos haciendo es agregar cabezales de decodificación al llm para predecir múltiples salidas en paralelo, así que comenzamos desde ya sabes, digamos tu llama, tu vicuña, lo que sea y simplemente insertamos cabezales de decodificación adicionales para que en lugar de generar una salida puede generar múltiples salidas en paralelo y las verificamos en cada paso de decodificación a la derecha y seleccionamos la que funciona mejor, así es como se ve, a la izquierda se ve el modelo original a la derecha, la arquitectura única del decodificador que escribimos de ustedes saben, conecten cabezas de Medusa, las cuales generarán cada una una nueva finalización potencial y luego, en la etapa de decodificación, elegimos la finalización que funciona mejor manteniendo los tokens que están validados, descartando los que no lo están y agregando el original. modelo generado, bueno, todo el proceso se basa en una técnica llamada atención basada en árbol que está muy bien explicada en el documento. No entraré en detalles porque no quiero hacer otro video de una hora y uh y Te aburro hasta la muerte, pero hay un algo específico para hacer esta verificación y selección en la etapa de decodificación, así que la siguiente pregunta es cómo entrenamos esas cabezas de Medusa de dos maneras diferentes, Medusa, una donde dejamos el modelo original en paz y solo afinamos las cabezas de Medusa correctamente, así que esa es la opción que mencioné antes, deja la película en paz, encuentra el modelo, por así decirlo, en este caso solo las cabezas, este es un proceso bastante eficiente, el documento se refiere a uh vuna 7B um y 60k muestras um y cómo eso solo tomó 5 horas en una sola GPU a100, por lo que unas pocas horas de GPU dependiendo del tamaño de su conjunto de datos, la razón por la que esto es eficiente es porque usan un ajuste fino eficiente de parámetros uh con el cura entonces Laura más uh cuantificación de 8 bits si no estás familiarizado con Cura uh, tengo U. Tengo un par de videos sobre Laura y chura en mi canal. La segunda técnica es el ajuste fino conjunto, así que afinamos las cabezas y el modelo juntos y si ibas a afinar tu llm de todos modos, creo que esa es la opción preferida porque, por supuesto, los cabezales estarán estrechamente relacionados con el modelo y puedes esperar un mejor rendimiento si tienes tu llm y estás satisfecho con y quieren encontrar la unidad. Solo quiero acelerarla. Medusa es una buena manera de hacer esto. Aquí hay una animación genial que encontré en el repositorio. Creo que está aquí. Para que puedas ver, esto es claramente 2 veces más rápido. uh, no puedo leer esos pequeños números, pero sí, 28, no puedo, uh, puedes pausar el video y mirar los números, pero sí, son dos, 2x más, así que también informan algunos números en 7B, 13B y puedes ver um. Medusa 1 es más del doble de rápida F y Medusa 2 es casi 3 veces más rápida, por lo que es una mejora bastante buena y, obviamente, eso se debe a que si ajustamos las cabezas y el modelo juntos, funcionarán mejor y generarán un mejor potencial. completaciones y, por lo tanto, se descartarán menos tokens y, por supuesto, eso significa guardar más iteraciones a través del modelo más grande y acelerar las cosas más bien, tiene sentido, así que Medusa está bien, como puede ver, la inferencia solo del decodificador es un tema muy interesante y Hay muchas maneras en que podemos acelerarlo desde la caché de KV para dejar de calcular esos valores de KV una y otra vez en lotes continuos para asegurarnos de seguir enviando solicitudes al acelerador tan pronto como tenga algo de cálculo disponible y, por supuesto, especulativo. decodificar para simplemente salvarnos de generar cada token a través de ese llm grande y lento y usar aproximaciones más pequeñas, con suerte, precisas para ahorrar tiempo, así que este es un campo muy activo y estoy seguro de que veremos más técnicas. um, siéntete libre de probarlos, siéntete libre de probarlos en TGI, como he dicho, uh, todo eso está implementado allí, así que es una buena caja de sonido para que puedas probarlos y no olvides que si te gusta este video, dale Me gusta, me ayuda con YouTube Rico. Agradezco su apoyo y hasta la próxima sigan rockeando.