Part 3 (2/2)
Like the Indian Varuna, the sea G.o.d, 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....[44]
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 G.o.d in more than one pantheon, appears to have been closely a.s.sociated with Ea in the earliest Sumerian period. His name, signifying ”the high one”, is derived from ”ana”, ”heaven”; he was the city G.o.d of Erech (Uruk). It is possible that he was developed as an atmospheric G.o.d 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 G.o.d, Stalking at the right hand of the storm G.o.d.[45]
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 a.s.sociated with monsters and furies. ”Evil spirits”, according to a Babylonian chant, were ”the bitter venom of the G.o.ds”. 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 s.h.i.+fting boundary line between Sumer and Akkad, the chief G.o.d was Enlil, whose name is translated ”lord of mist”, ”lord of might”, and ”lord of demons” by various authorities. He was a storm G.o.d and a war G.o.d, 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 G.o.d, and Vayu, the wind G.o.d; he also resembles the Semitic Adad or Rimman, who links with the Hitt.i.te 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 G.o.d 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,[46] it is more probable that Enlil was exalted as a world G.o.d 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 the chief figure in a triad in which he figured as earth G.o.d, with Anu as G.o.d of the sky and Ea as G.o.d of the deep. This cla.s.sification 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.
a.s.sociated with Bel Enlil was Beltis, later known as ”Beltu--the lady”. She appears to be identical with the other great G.o.ddesses, Ishtar, Nana, Zerpanitu?, &c., a ”Great Mother”, or consort of an early G.o.d 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 G.o.d at the head of a group of eight elder deities. The sun G.o.d Ra was the chief figure of the earliest pantheon of this character at Heliopolis, while at Hermopolis the leader was the lunar G.o.d Thoth. Professor Budge is of opinion that ”both the Sumerians and the early Egyptians derived their primeval G.o.ds 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”.[47]
The Egyptian group comprises four pairs of vague G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses--Nu and his consort Nut, Hehu and his consort Hehut, Kekui and his consort Kekuit, and Kerh and his consort Kerhet. ”Man always has fas.h.i.+oned”, he says, ”and probably always will fas.h.i.+on, his G.o.d or G.o.ds in his own image, and he has always, having reached a certain stage in development, given to his G.o.ds wives and offspring; but the nature of the position taken by the wives of the G.o.ds depends upon the nature of the position of women in the households of those who write the legends and the traditions of the G.o.ds. The G.o.ds 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.”[48]
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 a.s.syrian editors subst.i.tuted 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 G.o.d 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 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 G.o.d, 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 s.h.i.+va, 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 G.o.ds. 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 seash.o.r.e”, was invested with great sanct.i.ty from the earliest times, and Ea, the ”great magician of the G.o.ds”, 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 wors.h.i.+ppers of Ea. At the sacred city the first man was created: there the souls of the dead pa.s.sed towards the great Deep. Its proximity to the sea--Ea was Nin-bubu, ”G.o.d 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 (Somaliland), 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.[49] It may be that Ea's sacred bush or tree is a survival of tree and water wors.h.i.+p.
If Eridu was not the ”cradle” of the Sumerian race, it was possibly the cradle of Sumerian civilization. Here, amidst the s.h.i.+fting 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, ”G.o.d of everything”.
CHAPTER III.
RIVAL PANTHEONS AND REPRESENTATIVE DEITIES
Why Different G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds of Ur and Harran--Moon G.o.ddess and Babylonian ”Jack and Jill”--Antiquity of Sun Wors.h.i.+p--Tammuz and Ishtar--Solar G.o.ds 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--G.o.ddesses 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 G.o.ds. 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 p.r.o.nouncedly Sumerian in character, the moon G.o.d Nannar remained supreme at Ur, while the sun G.o.d, whose Semitic name was Shamash, presided at Larsa and Sippar.
Other deities were similarly exalted in other states.
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