A tablet from the library gives us a list of these different sanctuaries, where the gifts of the faithful multiplied and accumulated until the time when war came to disperse them.
Cosmogony occupies a large place on the tablets of Asshurbanapal’s library. Amongst all these tablets, those which relate to the creation of the world, particularly to the history of the flood, have acquired notoriety. These ancient traditions form a whole which claims the closest attention. Whatever the philological explanations one may accept, there is one dominating matter which gives an incontestable importance to these remains, and this is their relation to the Mosaic statements. It is certain that the fall of Nineveh antedated the Babylonian captivity, and that the Bible in its present form postdates the return from captivity. It is not without interest, therefore, to compare the biblical accounts with a text, which could not have been altered from the day it was buried under the ruins of an Assyrian palace. This is not all; these ancient Assyrian legends are really the translation of a Sumerian text, which Asshurbanapal had copied and translated from the libraries of lower Chaldea, and we know positively that these texts antedate the reign of the ancient Sargon, and are therefore earlier by several centuries than the time when Abraham must have left Chaldea.
It is doubtless not the place here to give way to a discussion on pure philology; we will simply say this: when we make a mistake in translating a hymn addressed to the god Sin, and apply it to quite another divinity of the Assyrian pantheon, it is a deplorable mistake; but such an error, were it the most gross, would have no influence on our present prejudices. It is otherwise if we refer to a text which can influence our intimate beliefs, be it to fortify them, combat them, or explain their origin. In England and other protestant countries the discoveries of George Smith acquired a tremendous notoriety, and his translations are accepted with an eagerness and confidence which a severe criticism has not justified. In France these discoveries aroused less curiosity from the first, and Assyriologists who study legendary texts have done so with a dispassionateness which is all the more conducive to scientific and correct historic results.
Nevertheless, from these sources and authorities, translations have passed into elementary books, where it has been sought to use them in the support of preconceived ideas, often by altering their true meaning. We cannot set ourselves too strongly against such proceedings. It is surely not a new principle, that disinterested science must with perfect impartiality scrutinise all books, legends, and documents which claim the attention of the human mind.
The history of the creation comprises a collection of several tablets, of which the text was published in 1875, in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology. This text includes six fragments forming part of a series of tablets designated in Assyria under the title of “Enuva” (i.e., Formerly).b
THE ASSYRIAN STORY OF THE CREATION
Since George Smith first published the tablets various other fragments have been discovered, the most important new discovery, perhaps, being made by Mr. L. W. Kingj of a tablet containing a reference to the creation of man. He found that the tablets belonging to the series are seven in number, and has published all the hitherto known material in his Seven Tablets of Creation. The following extracts are taken from his translation:
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, Tiamat, the mother of them both,—
Their waters were mingled together,
And no field was found, 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]
Lakhmu and Lakhamu were called into being [............]
Ages increased [........]
Then Anshar and Kishar were created, and over them [.......]
Long were the days, then there came forth [........]
Anu, their son,
Anshar and Anu [.........]
And the god Anu [.........]
Here follow three tablets telling of the revolt of Tiamat and her defeat, which will be spoken of later on.
The fifth tablet begins:
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.
........
The Moon-god he caused to shine forth, the night he intrusted to him.
He appointed him, a being of the night, to determine the days.
The rest of the tablet is rather badly mutilated. The sixth begins:
When Marduk heard the words 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 rest of the tablet is too fragmentary for translation. The seventh contains the fifty titles of Marduk.
Besides these seven tablets there are some which contain other accounts of the creation. One of these refers to the creation of cattle and the beasts of the field.a
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 [......]
And [had fashioned] the cattle of the field, and the beasts of the field, and the creatures [of
the city],—
After [they had........] unto the living creatures [.......]c
The rest is too mutilated for comprehension of anything besides single words.
THE BABYLONIAN RELIGION
The fact that these tablets as well as so many others of Babylonian origin were found in an Assyrian library, shows that the Assyrians took their religion like the rest of their culture from the Babylonians. Indeed the Assyrian myths, religious doctrines, and observances are so similar to those of the mother-country that in speaking of Babylonian religion the Assyrian is usually to be understood as well. The Babylonian religion in turn was largely influenced by the Summerian which was an astral religion. The names of the gods are found written with the same ideograms although they were doubtless pronounced differently. Many of the texts are found written in Summerian with interlinear Assyrian translations.
Babylonian religion as we first see it is in the form of local cults. Each city with its surrounding district had its own god, whose authority was supreme. Thus Anu was worshipped in Erech, Bel in Nippur, Ea in Eridu, Sin in Uru, Shamash in Larsa and Sippar. When these cities began to be welded together into political systems, the gods also were put together into an organised pantheon in which political situations influenced the relations the gods were made to bear to each other. Thus when Babylon became the capital of the empire its special god, Marduk, became leader among the gods.