The Babylonian Legends of the Creation, Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge [best short books to read .TXT] 📗

“He fashioned man.

 

21. “The goddess Aruru with him created the seed of mankind.

 

22. “He created the beasts of the field and [all] the living things in

the field.

 

23. “He created the river Idiglat (Tigris) and the river Purattu

(Euphrates), and he set them in their places,

 

24. “He proclaimed their names rightly.

 

[Illustration: Terra-cotta figure of a god. From a foundation deposit

at Babylon. [No. 90,9961]]

 

25. “He created grass, the vegetation of the marsh, seed and shrub;

 

26. “He created the green plants of the plain,

27. “Lands, marshes, swamps,

28. “The wild cow and the calf she carried, the wild calf, the sheep

and the young she carried, the lamb of the fold,

29. “Plantations and shrub land,

30. “The he-goat and the mountain goat …

 

31. “The lord Marduk piled up a dam in the region of the sea (i.e., he

reclaimed land)

 

32. “He … a swamp, he founded a marsh.

 

33. “… he made to be

34. “Reeds he created, trees he created,

35. “… in place he created

36. “He laid bricks, he built a brick-work,

37. “He constructed houses, he formed cities.

 

38. “He constructed cities, creatures he set [therein].

 

39. “Nippur he made, E-Kur he built.

 

40. “[Erech he made, E-Anna] he built.

 

[The remainder of the text is fragmentary, and shows that the text

formed part of an incantation which was recited in the Temple of

E-Zida, possibly the great temple of Nabu at Borsippa.]

 

[Illustration: Bronze figure of a Babylonian god. [No. 91,147]]

 

THE LEGEND OF THE CREATION ACCORDING TO BEROSUS AND DAMASCIUS.

 

Versions in Greek of the Legends found by George Smith had long been

known to classical scholars, owing to the preservation of fragments of

them in the works of later Greek writers, e.g., Eusebius, Syncellus, and

others. The most important of these is derived from the History of

Babylonia, which was written in Greek by BEROSUS, a priest of

Bel-Marduk, i.e., the “Lord Marduk,” at Babylon, about 250 B.C. In this

work Berosus reproduced all the known historical facts and traditions

derived from native sources which were current in his day. It is

therefore not surprising to find that his account of the Babylonian

beliefs about the origin of things corresponds very closely with that

given in the cuneiform texts, and that it is of the greatest use in

explaining and partly in expanding these texts. His account of the

primeval abyss, out of which everything came, and of its

inhabitants reads:—

 

[Illustration: Babylonian Monster. [No. 108,979.]]

 

“There was a time in which there existed nothing but darkness and an

abyss of waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were

produced on a twofold 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

goats; some had horses’ feet; while others united the hind-quarters of

a horse with the body of a man, resembling in shape the hippo-centaurs.

Bulls likewise were bred there with the heads of men, and dogs with

four told 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. Of all which were preserved delineations in the temple of

Belus at Babylon.”

 

[Illustration: Babylonian Demon. [No. 93,089.]]

 

[THE SLAUGHTER OF THE QUEEN OF THE ABYSS.]

 

“The person, who presided over them, was a woman named OMUROCA; 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. All this (he says) was an

allegorical description of nature.”

 

[THE CREATION OF MAN.]

 

“For, the whole universe consisting of moisture, and animals being

generated therein, the deity above-mentioned[1] took off his own head:

upon which the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the

earth; and from whence were formed men. On this account it is that

they are rational and partake of divine knowledge.”

 

[Footnote 1: The god whose head was taken off was not Belus, as is

commonly thought, but the god who the cuneiform texts tell us was

called “Kingu.”]

 

[BELUS CREATES THE UNIVERSE.]

 

“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[1] 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.” (See Cory, Ancient Fragments, London, 1832,

pp. 24-26.)

 

[Footnote 1: The god whose head was taken off was not Belus, as is

commonly thought, but the god who the cuneiform texts tell us was

called “Kingu.”]

 

In the sixth century of our era DAMASCIUS the SYRIAN, the last of the

Neo-Platonic philosophers, wrote in Greek in a work on the Doubts and

Solutions of the first Principles, in which he says: “But the

Babylonians, like the rest of the Barbarians, pass over in silence the

One principle of the Universe, and they conceive Two, TAUTHE and

APASON; making APASON the husband of TAUTHE, and 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 these, 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 DAUCE is born a son called Belus, who, they say, is the

fabricator of the world, the Demiurgus.” (See Cory, _Ancient

Fragments_, London, 1832, p. 318.)

 

THE SEVEN TABLETS OF CREATION. DESCRIPTION OF THEIR CONTENTS.

 

In the beginning nothing whatever existed except APSÛ, which may be

described as a boundless, confused and disordered mass of watery matter;

how it came into being is unknown. Out of this mass there were evolved

two orders of beings, namely, demons and gods. The demons had hideous

forms, even as Berosus said, which were part animal, part bird, part

reptile and part human. The gods had wholly human forms, and they

represented the three layers of the comprehensible world, that is to

say, heaven or the sky, the atmosphere, and the underworld. The

atmosphere and the underworld together formed the earth as opposed to

the sky or heaven. The texts say that the first two gods to be created

were LAKHMU and LAKHAMU. Their attributes cannot at present be

described, but they seem to represent two forms of primitive matter.

They appear to have had no existence in popular religion, and it has

been thought that they may be described as theological conceptions

containing the notions of matter and some of its attributes.

 

[Illustration: Terra-cotta figure of a Babylonian Demon. [No. 22,458.]]

 

After countless aeons had passed the gods ANSHAR and KISHAR came into

being; the former represents the “hosts of heaven,” and the latter the

“hosts of earth.”

 

After another long and indefinite period the independent gods of the

Babylonian pantheon came into being, e.g., ANU, EA, who is here called

NUDIMMUD, and others.

 

[Illustration: Bronze figure of a Babylonian Demon. [No. 93,078.]]

 

As soon as the gods appeared in the universe “order” came into being.

When APSÛ, the personification of confusion and disorder of every kind,

saw this “order,” he took counsel with his female associate TIÂMAT with

the object of finding some means of destroying the “way” (_al-ka-at_) or

“order” of the gods. Fortunately the Babylonians and Assyrians have

supplied us with representations of Tiâmat, and these show us what form

ancient tradition assigned to her. She is depicted as a ferocious

monster with wings and scales and terrible claws, and her body is

sometimes that of a huge serpent, and sometimes that of an animal. In

the popular imagination she represented all that was physically

terrifying, and foul, and abominable; she was nevertheless the mother of

everything, [1] and was the possessor of the DUP SHIMATI or “TABLET OF

DESTINIES”. No description of this Tablet or its contents is available,

but from its name we may assume that it was a sort of Babylonian Book of

Fate.[2] Theologically, Tiâmat represented to the Babylonians the same

state in the development of the universe as did tôhû wâ-bhôhû (Genesis

i. 2), i.e., formlessness and voidness, of primeval matter, to the

Hebrews She is depicted both on bas-reliefs and on cylinder seals in a

form which associates her with LABARTU, [3] a female devil that prowled

about the desert at night suckling wild animals but killing men. And it

is tolerably certain that she was the type, and symbol, and head of the

whole community of fiends, demons and devils.

 

[Footnote 1: Muallidat gimrishun.]

 

[Footnote 2: It is probable that the idea of this Tablet is perpetuated

in the “Preserved Tablet” of the Kur’ân (Surah x, 62), on which the

destiny of every man was written at or before the creation of the world.

Nothing that is written (_maktûb_) there can be erased, or altered, or

fail to take effect.]

 

[Footnote 3: (_Cun. Texts_, Part XXIV, Plate 44, l. 142).]

 

[Illustration: Terra-cotta plaque with a Typhonic animal in

relief. [No. 103,381.]]

 

In the consultation which took place between APSÛ and TIÂMAT, their

messenger MU-UM-MU took part; of the history and attributes of this

last-named god nothing is known. The result of the consultation was that

a long struggle began between the demons and the gods, and it is clear

that the object of the powers of darkness was to destroy the light. The

whole story of this struggle is the subject of the Seven Tablets of

Creation. The gods are deifications of the sun, moon, planets and other

stars, and APSÛ, or CHAOS, and his companions the demons, are

personifications of darkness, night and evil. The story of the fight

between them is nothing more nor less than a picturesque allegory of

natural phenomena. Similar descriptions are found in the literatures of

other primitive nations, and the story of the great fight between

Her-ur, the great god of heaven, and Set, the great captain of the hosts

of darkness, may be quoted as an example. Set regarded the “order” which

Her-ur was bringing into the universe with the same dislike as that

with which APSÛ contemplated the beneficent work of Sin, the Moon-god,

Shamash, the Sun-god, and their brother gods. And the hostility of Set

and his allies to the gods, like that of Tiâmat and her allies, was

everlasting.

 

[Illustration: between Marduk (Bel) and the Dragon. Drawn from a

bas-relief from the Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal, King of Assyria,

885-860