A great many of the tablets which have been excavated contain omens. Omens were drawn from dreams, from the conjunction of stars and planets, from earthquakes, eclipses, and in short from all natural phenomena. Connected with this was the magical literature, the hymns, and penitential psalms. If all a man’s precautions had been in vain and disease had come upon him, there were magical formulas which might rescue him from his misery, certain prayers or hymns he might recite. Every Babylonian had his own protecting god and goddess, to whose care he was perhaps committed at birth, but the intervention of a priest was necessary to appease the god. The following prayer, from a tablet used as prayer-book for the use of priest and penitent, is taken from King’sc Babylonian Religion and Mythology:
O my God, who art angry, accept my prayer, O my goddess, who art angry, receive my supplication. Receive my supplication and let thy spirit be at rest. O my goddess, look with pity on me and accept my supplication. Let my sins be forgiven, let my transgressions be blotted out. Let the ban be torn away, let the bonds be loosened. Let the seven winds carry away my sighs. I will send away my wickedness, let the bird bear it to the heavens. Let the fish carry off my misery, let the river sweep it away. Let the beast of the field take it from me. Let the flowing waters of the river wash me clean.
To ascertain why the evil had come upon the man, questions like the following were asked, some of which show an advanced moral code:
Has he estranged the father from his son or the son from his father? Has he estranged the mother from her daughter or the daughter from her mother? Has he estranged the brother from his brother or the friend from his friend? Has he refused to set a captive free? Has he shut out a prisoner from the light? has he committed a sin against a god or against a goddess? Has he done violence to one older than himself? Has he said yes for no or no for yes? Has he used false scales? Has he accepted a wrong account? Has he set up a false landmark? Has he broken into his neighbour’s house? Has he come near his neighbour’s wife? Has he shed his neighbour’s blood?
On one old tablet which has a Summerian interlinear translation the stricken man turns to Marduk as an intercessor:
An evil curse like a demon has come upon the man
Sorrow and trouble have fallen upon him
Evil sorrow has fallen upon him
An evil curse, a spell, a sickness,
The evil curse has slain that man like a lamb.
His god has departed from his body,
His guardian goddess has left his side,
He is covered by sorrow and trouble as with a garment, and he is overwhelmed.
Then Marduk saw him
He entered into the house of his father Ea and said to him:
“O my father, an evil curse like a demon has beset the man.”
Twice he spoke unto him and said
“I know not what that man has done nor whereby he may be cured.”
Ea made answer to his son Marduk:
“O my son, what thou dost not know, what can I tell thee?
O, Marduk, what thou dost not know, what can I tell thee?
What I know, thou knowest,
Go my son Marduk,
Take him to the house of purification
Take away the spell from him, remove the spell from him.”
A very pessimistic view of life is shown by the following complaint of a sick man quoted by Jeremias: “The day is sighing, the night a flood of tears; weeping is the month and misery the year.”
We have already seen specimens of Babylonian hymnology. The following hymn to Sin, as translated from Shrader’sm work on cuneiform inscriptions, shows real religious fervour:
Lord, ruler among the gods, who alone is great on heaven and earth,
Father Nannar, Lord, God Amar, ruler among the gods
........
Merciful, gracious father, in whose hand the life of the whole land is held.
O Lord, thy divinity is like the distant heaven, like the wide sea, full of majesty.
He who has created the land, founded the temple, called it by name
Father, generator of gods and men, who caused dwellings to be put up, established sacrifice
Who calls to dominions, gives the sceptre, decides fate for distant days,
Mighty leader, whose depths no god sees through
Valiant one, whose knees never grow tired, who opens the way for the gods, his brothers,
Who passes glorious from the depths of heaven to its heights,
Who opens the gate of heaven, makes light for all men.
Father, generator of all, who looks upon living beings … who thinks upon …
Lord, who utters judgment for heaven and earth, whose decree no one alters
Who holds fire and water, who directs living beings, What god is like to thee?
........
In heaven who is great? Thou alone art great.
On earth, who is great? Thou alone art great.
When thy word resounds in heaven, the Igigi throw themselves upon their faces;
When thy word resounds on earth the Anunnaki kiss the ground.
When thy word speeds above like the storm wind, it causes food and drink to flourish,
When thy word settles upon the east, the green arises,
Thy word makes stall and herd to be fat, expands living beings.
Thy word causes right and justice to arise, so that men speak justice.
Thy word is the distant heaven, the hidden under-world which no one sees through,
Thy word, who can understand it, who is equal to it?
O Lord, thou hast no rival in heaven in dominion nor on the earth in power, among the gods thy
brothers.
THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH
The close relation existing between mythology and religion hardly needs to be pointed out. The great epic of the Babylonians and Assyrians—that of Gilgamish—is of special interest to us since it contains the Babylonian story of the flood. The hero’s name was formerly read as Izdubar, as the following quotation from Jeremiasn in his Izdubar-Nimrod shows.a
The epic, which was preserved in the royal library of Nineveh in the seventh century as a precious national possession, gives us a glimpse into the Babylonian history of a remote past. The poem deals principally with “kings who ruled the land in by-gone times,” and with a city “which was old” at the time of the flood, and the epic itself reaches back into very ancient times. Its scene is laid among cities in the Euphrates district: Uruk (Erech), Nippur, the “city of ships,” Sherippak and Babylon. The geographical horizon extends beyond these cities to the mountain Nisir, east of the Tigris, and southwards, beyond the Mashu mountain land, clear into the Persian Gulf. The central point of interest is the city Uruk, called Uruk supuri, “the well guarded.” Among the aristocracy of this city Izdubar makes himself distinguished, being “perfect in power, like a mountain ox, excelling the heroes in might.” He overcomes the jealousy of his fellow citizens and establishes an indigenous kingdom, namely by conquering the tyrant Khumbaba, who is shown by his name to be of Elamite descent. The attempt has been made to identify this historical background with the national uprising of Babylonia, which, according to Berosus, brought about the downfall of an Elamite dynasty ruling 2450-2250 B.C. That the tradition really did reach back to this age is proved by Babylonian seal-cylinders of the oldest kings, which unquestionably reproduce scenes from the epic, perhaps also the connection of the epic with certain constellations of the zodiac.