The Babylonian Conception of Heaven and Hell Jeremias t

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The Ancient East

No. IV

THE BABYLONIAN CONCEPTIONOF HEAVEN AND HELL

BY

DR. ALFRED JEREMIAS


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The Ancietit EastUndo- this title is being issued a series of short, popular,

but thoroughly scientific studies, by the leading scholars ofGermany, setting forth the recent discoveries and investiga-tions in Babylonian, Assyrian and Egyptian History,Religion, and Archeology, especially as they bear upon thetraditional vieics of early Eastern History. The Germanoriginals have been appearing during the last eighteenmonths. The English translations made by Miss JaneHutchison have been submitted in each case to the Authors,and embody their latest views. Short, helpful bibliographiesare added. Each study consists of some 64 to SO pages,crown 8vo, and costs Is. sewed, or Is. 6d. cloth.

The following are issued:> THE REALMS OF THE EGYPTIAN DEAD. By Pro-

fessor Alfred WiiiUEMAw.THE TELL EL AMARNA PERIOD. I'.y Dr. C Niebuhr.THE BABYLONIAN AND THE HEBREW GENESIS.

By Professor H. Zimmekx.THE BABYLONIAN CONCEPTION OF HEAVENAND HELL. By Dr. Alfred Jeremias.THE POPULAR LITERATURE OF EGYPT. By

Professor Alfred Wiedemann. \^Inpreparation.


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THEBABYLONIAN CONCEPTIONOF HEAVEN AND HELL

BYALFRED JEREMIAS, Ph.D.PASTOR OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH

AUTHOR OF " BABYLONISCH-ASSYRISCHEN VORSTELLUNGENVOM LEBEN NACH DEM TODE,"

AND OF THE ARTICLES" IZDUBAR," "ISHTAR," ETC., IN ROSCHEr's " LEXICON "

TRANSLATED BY J. HUTCHISON

LONDON: DAVID NUTT57-59 LONG ACRE

1902


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CONTENTSPAGE

I. Introduction . . . . . . i

II. Death and Burial ..... 41. Man's Inevitable Fate ... 52. Mourning Customs . . . . li3. Funerary Rites . . . . . 124. Refusal of Funerary Rites ... 145. Places of Burial 16

III. The World of the Dead ... 181. Place of the Underworld ... 192. The River of Death . . . . 193. Representations of Hades ... 204. Deities of the Underworld ... 235. Demons of the Underworld . . 256. The Underworld and Vegetation . 27

IV. Necromancy 28V. Salvation from "The Land without

Return" 31


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viii CONTENTS

VII. Tun Paradise of the First of MankindIN Ekidu ......

PAGKV^I. Journey of Gilgamesh to "'thi-. Island

01 THE Blessed " . . . . 34

39\'III. Food and \Vati;k di Lifi: in the Baby-

lonian Paradise .... 42IX. Conclusion: Psychology or the Baby-

lonian Conceptions of Hades . 47


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THE BABYLONIANCONCEPTION OF HEAVENAND HELL

Introduction.No consecutive account of the Babylonian religioncan as yet be given, nor will it for many yearscome within the range of possibilities to achieveit. Abundant fragments of Babylonian religiousand mythological literature have indeed beenbrought to light by the excavations of the lastfew years, and by dint of strenuous efforts alarge proportion has been classified and deci-phered. But extending as they do over a periodof more than three thousand years it is in com-paratively few cases that these fragments can beset in chronological order. The preservation ofmost of the religious texts known to us is due tothecollecting zeal of the Assyrian king Asurbanipal(668-626 B.C.) at whose command copies of theliterary monuments of Babylonia were made onclay tablets by the royal scribes. MagnificentA


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2 INTRODUCTIONmaterial for tlie investigation of Babylonianthought will be available if, in a happy future,the interrupted excavations in the library ofNineveh should ever be completed, but as yetonly a small portion of the contents has beenrecovered and in a greatly damaged condition.Even then our knowledge of the Babylonianreligion would still be lacking in essential data,namely the traditionary lore of the temples : thisit is which would throw light on the histories ofthe different cults.

In the following pages we have attempted toset forth the Babylonian conceptions of a futurelife, but it must be borne in mind that fragmentarymaterial only is available for the purpose. Whenonce the temple of Nergal at Kutha shall havebeen excavated much more will certainly beknown regarding Babylonian eschatology than isthe case at present. Nevertheless it is preciselythis particular department of the religion thatlends itself most easily to any attempt atsystematic representation by us. The sacerdotalreligion of Babylonia took little heed of thenext world, presenting in this respect a markedcontrast to Egyptian thought. The gods ofBabylonian worship were, on the whole, gods ofpractical life, even Nergal of Kutha being in thefirst place a lord of the living. It was thus leftto the imagination of the people to brood over


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ISRAEL AND BABYLONIA 3thoughts of hfe after death, and apparently themythological fragments that have been preservedrestore these somewhat persistent popular con-ceptions in their main outlines.The reader will be struck by the surpiising

correspondence between the Babylonian ideasconcerning death and Hades and Jewish notionsof the same. The connection of Israel withBabylonia was indeed of the closest, and theTell el Amarna tablets have proved that Baby-lonian thought had spread over the land ofCanaan before it was conquered by the Hebrews.At the time these were written there stood inJerusalem a temple of the Babylonian Storm-god,Ninib. In more than one traditional version ofthe Hebrew stories of patriarchs Babylonia iscited as the original home of the people of theBible, and during both Monarchy and ExileBabylonian culture played among the Israelites apart similar to that played by French culture inGermany in the eighteenth century. It wouldseem as though the gloomy conception of life inthe underworld was the common heritage ofBabylonians and Israelites from primitive Semitictimes.*

* A detailed handling of the existing material with philo-logical treatment of the cuneiform documents may be foundin the author's " Babylonisch-Assyrischen Vorstellungen vomLeben nach dem Tode" (Hinrichs, Leipzig), of which a newand fully revised edition is in preparation.


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( 4 )

Death and Burial.To the Babylonian death was the " inevitable,"

"night-like" fate, which "in accordance withprimaeval law " brings to an end all human glory.All his prayers were for long life, old age, andterrestrial immortality in his posterity. " Makemy years to endure like the bricks of Ibarra,prolong them into eternity," prayed Nebu-chadnezzar. An ancient blessing ran :" Anu and Anatu in heaven bless him ;Bel and Beltis in Ekur grant unto him the lot of

(long) life ;Ea and Damkina in ocean give unto him life of

long years ! "It is told in the legendary story of one of the

heroes of ancient Babylonia how he found a plantthe eating of which restored the aged to youth."Dear life" might be lengthened out by conductwell-pleasing to the gods. Tiglath Pilcsar says ofhis grandfather : " The work of his hands and hissacrifices were well pleasing to the gods, and thushe attained unto extreme old age." Nabonidos, thelast Chaldaean-Babylonian king, prays to the Moon-god : "Keep me from sin against thy great Godhead,and a life of far-off days grant unto me as a gift,"while for Belsazar, his first born, he prays :" Cause the fear of thy sublime godhead to dwell inhis heart that he consent not to sin ; may he be


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MAN'S INEVITABLE FATE 5satisfied with abundance of life!" The formalcurses at the end of the royal inscriptions show,on the other hand, that destruction of posterityand sudden death were regarded as punishmentsfor offences against gods and men. He whoshould destroy the inscriptions of Tiglath Pilesaris threatened as follows : " May the god Rammancommand that he live not a day longer. Let hisname and seed be exterminated out of the land."" So long as heaven and earth endure be his seeddestroyed," runs another terrible curse: "hisname blotted out, his posterity overthrown, mayhis life end in hunger and misery, may his corpsebe cast out, no burial shall it receive."None, however, could ultimately escape thefate of death. Sudden and unexpected dawnsthe day "that sets not free." "Life is cut offlike a reed." " He who at evening is living, inthe morning he is dead." Many a man dies on aday that was not

" the day of hisfate." The lot,

the fate of man being determined by the gods inthe chamber of destiny, hence the day of deathwas known as the "day of fate"; of one whodied it was said "the day of his fate tore himaway," but of a suicide: "Terror overpoweredhim, and he went to death by his own will, notby that of the gods." No herb grown might bethe antidote of death ; no spell could avail againstit. " So long as we build houses," says the


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DEATH AND BURIALBabylonian Noah, "so long as we seal {i.e.,conclude treaties), so long as brothers quarrel, solong as there is hatred on earth, so long as riversswell ill flood, ... no image (for purposes ofexorcism ?) will be made of death.''

TiTe laments over the lot and doom of deathare often striking. In one of the religious textsfrom the librar}' of Asurbanipal we read of one" the joy of whose heart is the fear of the gods,"and to whom, nevertheless, *' the day is sighing,the night weeping, the month wailing, the yearlamentation : . . . Into dark bonds was I cast ; adagger pierced me; the wound was deep; , . .in the night it suffered me not to breathe freel}'for a moment ; my joints were torn and loosened;on my couch ... as a bull, as a sheep, was Iwet with my urine; ... no exorciser expelledmy sickness ; no priest put an end to my in-firmity ; no god helped ; none took my hand ; nogod had compassion on me ; no goddess came tomy side ; the grave was open ; . . . ere I wasyet dead was the funeral dirge due." . . . Thenat length redemption drew nigh. Another instanceruns as follows : " Death is the covering of mycouch ; already have I struck up the lament (lit.,tones of the flute)." It is in keeping with thecharacter of Babylonian mourning that at a certainepisode in the story of the Flood, Istar " shriekedlike a woman in travail, because the corpses of


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ISTAR'S JOURNEY IN HADES 7mankind filled the sea like fish spawn." "Thegods wept with her over the Anunaki, the godslay crouched (at the celestial lattice of Anu) ;they abode there weeping, their lips firmlyclosed."'Again and again the Babylonian legends give

poetic utterance to the thought that all splendourvanishes, all strength fails before the might oldeath. "The Journey of Istar in Hades" tellshow life died away on earth when the goddesssank into the Underworlds^ Even the deathgoddess mourns and "sinks down like a reedthat is cut through," and says :

"... instead of bread, earth will I eat, instead ofwine . . . will I drink,for the men will I weep, who leave their wives,for the women will I weep, who [turn] from the

loins of their husbands,for the little children will I weep, who before their

time [make an end ?]Go, watchman, open to her the gate.Seize her, according to the laws of old."For by these laws all adornment must be left

behind, and naked, must man pass into the worldof the dead.The first gate he let her pass ; he divested

her, taking the great crown from oftMier head."Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou the great

crown from off mv head ? "


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8 DEATH AND BURIAL"Enter, lad}-, for such is the decree of the

death goddess."Tlie second tj^ate he let her pass ; he divestedher, taking from her ears tlic jewels." Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou from myears the jewels ? "" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of thedeath goddess."The third gate he let her pass ; he divestedher, taking from off her neck the chain.

"Wherefore, O! warder, takest thou from offmy neck the chain ? "" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of thedeath goddess."The fourth gate he let her pass ; he divested her,taking away the ornaments from her bosom." Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou awayfrom m}'- bosom the ornaments ? "" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of thedeath goddess."The fifth gate he let her pass ; he divested her,

taking the jewelled girdle from her loins."Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou from my

loins the jewelled girdle ? "" Enter, lad}^, for such is the decree of thedeath goddess."The sixth gate he let her pass; he divested

her, taking the bangles from her wrists andankles.


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LAMENT OF GILGAMESH 9** Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou from my

wrists and ankles the bangles?"

" Enter, lady, for such is the decree of thedeath goddess."The seventh gate he let her pass ; he divestedher, taking from her body the garment." Wherefore, O ! warder, takest thou from mybody the garment ? "

"Enter, lady, for such is the decree of thedeath goddess."

When it is told further how she was smittenwith sickness in the eyes, sickness in the loins,sickness in the feet, sickness in the heart, sick-ness in the head, this is doubtless meant to indi-cate [that death is the destruction of all thesenses, and that all that is of the body must fallto corruption.A passage in the Gilgamesh epic, extremelyinteresting for the history of civilisation andusually* interpreted as a lament by Gilgameshover his friend Eabani, runs: "To a temple [nomore thou goest] in white garments [no morethou clothest thyself] . . . with perfumed fat ofbulls no more thou anointest thyself, so that mencrowd round thee for the fragrance ; the bowthou no longer settest on the ground (to draw it),

* In his recent translation, however, Jensen takes a differentview.


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lO DEATH AND BURIALthose who were wounded by the bow surroundthee ; the sceptre no more thou carriest in thineliand, the spirits of the dead ban(?) thee ; banglesno more thou puttest upon thine ankles, no (war-)cry raisest thou evermore on earth ; thy wifewhom thou lovedst thou kissest no more ; thywife whom thou hatedst thou smitest no more ;thy daughter whom thou lovedst thou kissestno more ; thy daughter whom thou hatedst thousmitest no more, the woe of the Underworld hathseized upon thee."L The misery of death was a special theme ofsong at the rites of mourning for the spring godTammuz (Adonis), who each year sank into theworld of the dead at the approach of winter.One lament for Tammuz recalls to mind thegardens and flower-pots used in the Phoenicianand Greek Adonis cult, the forced growth andrapid fading of the plants. It runs: "Thoushepherd and lord, spouse of Istar, king of theUnderworld, king of the dwelling-place of thewaters ; thou O shepherd art a seed corn thatdrank no water in the furrow, whose germ boreno fruit in the field, a young sapling that has notbeen planted by the water course, a sapling, whoseroot has been cut, a plant that drank no water inthe furrow." In another Tammuz dirge we read :** Thou treadest (?) the closed way, the pathwithout return ... he departed, descended to


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FUNERARY RITES iithe bosom of the Underworld . . . the Sun-godsent him down to the land of the dead, withlamentations was he filled on the day when hefell into great tribulation, in the montli that letnot his life come to completion, on the pathwhere all is at end for man (' that brings thechildren of men to rest,' adds the scribe), to thewailing of the deed, he, the hero, to the far offinvisible land."

Some little knowledge of Babylonian funeralcustoms can be gained from the scenes and in-scriptions. The corpse was preserved by meansof milk, honey, oil, and salt ; it was swathed inlinen, strewn with spices, and laid on a stonebier. In the so-called Hades reliefs the fore-arms of the corpse point upward. Wallers, bothmale and female, are in attendance at the funeral,lamenting and playing the flute ; the relativesare present in "rent garments" or in mourninggarb ; libations, incense, dirges, prayers, andperhaps animal sacrifices forming part of therites. On the reverse side of an unpublished frag-ment from the library of Asurbanipal, the obverseof which represents a royal burial, is the inscrip-tion : "The wives lamented, the friends replied,"pointing evidently to the use on such occasionsof antiphonal singing between men and women.The accompanying action and gestures were


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12 DEATH AND BURIALviolent as with all Orientals. The mourner wept,rent his garments, tore or shaved off his hair,cast himself down upon the ground (see Job i. 2o)scarred his face, beat his loins. In the annals ofSargon it is said of a mourning Babylonian :" He fell down upon the ground, rent his gar-ment, took the razor, broke forth into wailing."

Babylonians and Assyrians buried their dead ;with them as with the Hebrews the burning of thecorpse, except in case of necessity, was reckonedindignity and disgrace. The "vulture stela"found in the ruins of Ur of the Chaldees repre-sents in one of its reliefs the burial of those slainin battle. Kings and great nobles were buriedin temples and palaces, while the graves of thecommon people lay without the city. Theancient Babylonian kingGudea states incidentallythat he has built the temple according to tlieNumber Fifty, and erected within it a mausoleumof cedar wood. It would seem, therefore, thatBabylonian temples like the Egyptian pyramidsconceal beneath them royal tombs. Anothermajestic place of burial was the palace ofSargon I., a king famous in legend ; certain ofthe Kassite kings were buried

" in the palace ofSargon." In tlie annals of Asurbanipal mentionis made of cemeteries at Babylon, Sippar, andKutha, and Sanherib tells how a flood in the


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OFFERING TO THE DEAD 13little river Tebilti had so disturbed the royaltombs in the midst of Nineveh as to lay bare thesarcophagi. Great care was lavished on furnish-ing the graves of the rich and the great. TheAssyrian fragment mentioned above (page n)describes the funeral ceremonies at the death ofa king. " In royal oil I laid him, with meetsolemnity, the gate of his grave, of his place ofrest have I closed with strong copper and havemade fast his . . . Vessels of gold and silver, allthat pertains to the furnishing of the tomb, (also)the emblems of his authority which he loved haveI presented before the Sun god and laid them inhis grave with the father who begat me. Giftsgave I to the princes, to the Anunaki, and to thegods who inhabit the earth," i.e., the Underworld.Drinking vessels and dishes of food for the deadwere not only laid with them in the tomb, butwere also placed upon it. Special care was takento supply the manes of the dead with water todrink, and to this end apparently cisterns weremade in the cemeteries. " If the dead have noneto care for him," concludes the Twelve Tabletepic, "then is he consumed by gnawing hunger,vainly he languishes for refreshment ; what iscast out on the street that he eats." Thelibations, regularly offered on the anniversary ofdeath, formed the most important item in theworship of the dead, and the responsibility for


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14 DEATH AND BURIALoffering them rested in the first place on the sur-viving son. In a deed fixing a boundary anyman who should remove the boundary stone iscursed as follows : " May Ninib, lord of land-marks, rob him of his son, the Water-pourer."The commemoration day of the dead is called" the day of the feast of the dead," "day of dejec-tion," " day of lamentatation," " day of mourn-ing." The nak nie priests, or " water pourers,"performed the libation rites at the graves. ** Atthe mourning festival of libations to the manesof my royal ancestors," says Asurbanipal, ** I puton the garments of mourning and bestowed aboon on gods and men, on the dead and on theliving." To this is added a penitential prayerspoken by the king at the graves of his ancestors.In his annals, however, he tells us that to hisslain enemies he denied the Dirge of the Water-pourer. Bloody sacrifices of vengeance were alsomade at the tomb. The same king relates how heordered prisoners of war to be slaughtered nearto a colossal bull, on the scene of the murder ofhis grandfather Sanherib, as a solemn festival inhonour of the deceased monarch.To be deprived of the prescribed rites of burial

was regarded as a terrible thing. The curse onhim who should destroy the sacred inscriptionsof the Assyrian kings is : " In famine shall hislife end, his corpse shall be cast out and receive no


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REFUSAL OF FUNERARY RITES 15burial." Elsewhere we are told that burial riteswere refused to a rebel who had committedsuicide. When conquered foes were to be treatedwith special ignominy the tombs of theirancestors were destroyed tliat the repose of thedead within them might be disturbed, and theprophecy of Jeremiah (viii. i, cf. Baruch ii. 24)that the bones of the Jewish kings, priests,prophets, and citizens will be taken from theirgraves and scattered beneath the sun is in strictaccordance with the cruel war customs of Baby-lonians and Assyrians. Asurbanipal tells howafter the overthrow of Elam he destroyed thesanctuaries of the land, and then uncovered andravaged the mausoleums of the kings ; " theirbones I carried with me to Assyria, unrest laid Ion their shades, and cut them off from the funeraryrites of libation." King Sanherib was not satis-fied with carrying off by ship the property andsubjects of Merodachbaladan, he must needs alsobring out from their mausoleum the bones of thatunhappy king's predecessors. Again we are toldhow conquered kings, confined in the notoriousCage which stood to the east of Nineveh, werecompelled for the special delectation of thepopulace to break in pieces the bones of theirancestors. No wonder many kings chose thesites of their tombs in the inaccessible swamps ofthe Euphrates, better to protect their sepulchres


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1 6 DEATH AND BURIALfrom piofanation : so says Arrian, and his state-ment is supported by the inscriptions.

It cannot be averred absolutely that any ofthe graves hitherto discovered in Mesopotamiaare of primitive origin. Certainly the cemeteriesdiscovered at Nimrud, Kuyundshik, and Khors-abad, are not Assyrian ; as for Babyloniancemeteries there is no fixing of their date. Insome tombs, such for example as the sepulchralmound discovered by Taylor among the ruins ofUr, the seal cylinders found indicate highantiquity. The mounds, which mark the sites ofancient cemeteries, have been kept so dry b}'means of careful drainage through clay pipes thatthe vaulting of the tombs and the clay sarco-phagi are preserved in perfect condition. Thetombs of Ur are those for which there is mostreason to assume an Early Babylonian date.These are of two kinds : one type consists of anoval cover of clay, something like an inverteddish, about seven feet long, five feet high and twoand a half feet broad ; the other is a brick vault,seven feet long, five feet high, and three feetbroad. Among the skeletons traces have beenfound of linen swathings, and in the tombsvessels of clay and copper, some of them contain-ing the remains of date kernels. The massivecemented urns which were found containingremains of skeletons among the ruins of Warka


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CEMETERIES 17(Erekh) are undoubtedly of later date, perhapsbelonging even to the Parthian period.

In 1887 Robert Koldewey, now director of aGerman excavation in the ruins of Babylon,chanced, during a short expedition in Surghuland El-Hiba (seven hours south-east of Shatrain the triangle formed by the Euphrates, Tigrisand Shat-el-Hai), to discover two cemeteriescontaining dwellings for the dead, and massivetombs for the remains of bodies that had beenburned. Examination of the ashes showed thatthe jewels of the women, the weapons, tools andseals of the men, and the playthings of thechildren, had been burned along with their bodies.Traces of animal sacrifices and of incense wererecognised, as well as remains of vessels andfood for the dead ; there were also clay idols,human and animal. The many fountains dis-covered among the ruins of the cemetery testifyto the zeal with which the dead were supplied withwater for drinking. But these cinerary cemeteriesare not Ancient Babylonian, as Koldewey wouldhave us believe : the ancient Babylonians did notburn their dead.

Important conclusions as to Babylonian prac-tices and beliefs in relation to death may beexpected from the excavations at Niffer (Nippur).Observations made in the mounds of Niffer andAbu-Habba (Sippar) have shown that these

B


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i8 THE WORLD OF THl' DEADancient cities were divided into three sections :the temple quarter, the cit}' of tlic living and thecit}' of the dead.

The World of thk Dfad.The specific name for the world of the dead

was Aralu ; poetically it was known as Kurnugia,i.e., irsilum latarat, "land without return," "landof the dead," " the far-off land." The popularfancy conceived this place of the dead after thelikeness of the tomb. Names such as Kigal,"vast (underground) dwelling," Unugi, "darkdwelling," designate both tomb and Underworldalike. Thus the earliest answer to the question" Where dwell the souls of the dead ? " would be," underground," and this explains the hyperbolicstatements of the royal inscriptions that thefoundations of their buildings rested on thebosom of the Underworld. To this also may betraced the description of the scorpion sphinxes,of which it is said that their heads reached to thevault of heaven and their breasts to beneathAralu. Hence, also, in " Istar's Journey inHades " lament is made that " Istar has gone downinto the earth (Underworld) and has not re-turned." The entrance to this subterraneanland lay in the west. We shall refer later to anexorcism in which the ghost is expressly relegated


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PLACE OF THE UNDERWORLD 19to the west that the warder of the Underworldmay there retain him. Not only was the westthe region of sunset and therefore of darkness ;to the Babylonian it denoted the desert also, andfor him the desert, as the sea, was alike a placeof horror. The desert being, indeed, the battle-field and playground of demons, it is consistentwith this view that the goddess Belit-Seri,

"the

lady of the desert," is brought into connectionwith the Underworld. The expression " farplace," which occurs twice on one of the so-calledHades reliefs and is also used in exorcisms (** Letthe sickness of the head fly away like a bird tothe far place and the sick man be committed tothe gracious hands of his god "), may be under-stood as a euphemism for the desert in the westas well as for hell.The account of the journey of Gilgamesh to

the "Island of the Blessed" speaks of thethreatening "floods of death" in the south-east,in the Erythraean Sea. Again, in a formula forexorcism, the heart of the magician is to be over-come by "waters of death." These waters ofdeath must have some connection with the " riverof death " repeatedly mentioned in descriptions ofthe Underworld, and which is occasionally desig-nated by the name Khubur. When a priestlymagician says that he "has held back tiie boatand cut off the quay and thus prevented the


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20 THE WORLD OF THE DEADenchantment of the whole world," the allusion isundoubtedly to events in the land of ghosts. Thepassage recalls the threat of Istar to shatter theUnderworld and lead forth the dead into theworld above to flock with the living-. We arcalso reminded of the representation of the goddessof Hades on two of the I lades reliefs where themonster sails along the river of death kneeling ina boat. Considering the inconsistency of all suchpopular fancies it is hardly remarkable that,according to the Gilgamesh epic, the "waters ofdeath " are in the south-east, though generallythe entrance to the Underworld was supposed tolie in the west. Perhaps it was supposed thatthere were two approaches, one by land in thedesert, another by the waters of the river ofdeath.

Seven walls, pierced by seven (or according toone legend fourteen) gates, surrounded the placeof the dead, sometimes represented as opencountry, sometimes as a city, sometimes as ahuge palace, but always described as full ofcountless terrors. The opening part of the" Journey of Istar in Hades " is well known :" Of the land without return, the land [. . .],

thought Istar, daughter of the moon-god.The moon-god's daughter thought . . .of the house of darkness, the seat of Irkalla {i.e.,

Nergal),


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'THE HOUSE OF DUST" 21of the house, whence those who enter return not,of the path which leads forth, but not back again,of the house, wherein he who enters is deprivedof Hght,of the place where dust is their food, and clay

their nourishment,where light they see not, in darkness dwell they,where they are clad in garments of wings asbirds,dust lies thick on door and bolt."

Still worse were the prospects held out to anyspecially unwelcome visitants. The queen of theshades says to the messenger from the gods whohas forced his way into the Underworld: "Witha great curse I will curse thee; the food in thegutters of the city shall be thy meat, the water inthe sewers of the city shall be thy drink ; theshadows of the wall thy dwelling, a threshold ofstone thy seat; . . . shall break down thystrength." In another epic fragment this identicalcurse is directed against a captivating hieroduloswho by her cunning brought bane upon one ofthe heroes.The picture of the Underworld at the beginning

of " Istar's Journey in Hades" is found almostword for word in an epic narrative belonging tothe cycle of Gilgamesh legends ; here, however,the continuation is remarkable. " In the houseof dust, that I have trodden. . . . [there dwell]wearers of crowns who ruled the land from of


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22 THE WORLD OF" THE DEADold, there set forth ... of Anu and Ea roastedmeat, set baked meats [ ] with cold,with water from leather bottles ; in the house ofdust that I tread [dwell] ";///-priests and Lagaru-priests, there [dwell] exorcists and magicians,there [dwell] the anointed priests of the greatgods, there dwell [the heroes] Etana and Ner,there dwells Erishkigal, queen of the Underworld,[there dwells] Belit-Seri, the scribe (female) ofthe Underworld bends before her." Then followsthe account, unfortunately fragmentary, of whathappened when the goddess Erishkigal raisedher head and became aware of the intruder.The story certainly connects itself with theGilgamesh epic, on the last tablet of which theh:ro entreats the ghost of his friend as it rises:" Tell me, oh ! my friend, tell me, oh I my friend,what the Underworld is like ; tell me." Thespirit of his friend answers : " 1 cannot (?) tell itthee my friend, I cannot tell it thee ; if I shouldtell thee what it is like ... sit down and weep. . ." In the following lines, which alas ! arefragmentary, he after all seems disposed to givehis friend the information: "That wherein theheart (on earth) has rejoiced, that below is turnedto dust."

In the midst of " the land without return " is apalace, whence the gods of Hades exercise their1 ulc. A:cording to the Babylonian Hades legends


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DEITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD 23tlie real power centred in a goddess called Allatu(/>., the " Mighty One "), or Erishkigal {i.e., the"Mistress of the Great Place"). She is repre-sented in the Hades reliefs as a lion-headedmonster (perhaps as being the wife of the lion-god Nergal), kneeling on a horse in a boat, orwithout boatstanding upon a horse, snakes inher hands and lions sucking at her breasts. Theconcluding portion of theTwelve Tablet epic, abovereferred to, says of her: "She who is dark (?),she who is dark, mother of Ninazu ; she whois dark, whose gleaming shoulders (?) are hiddenby no garment, whose bosom like to a . . . not. . ." This sombre goddess watches over theprimaeval laws of the Underworld, receives fromthe mouth of the porter the names of fresharrivals, and upon those on whom her wrath fallspronounces the great curse. With the help ofthe Anunaki she jealously guards the spring (?)of life which is hidden in a certain sanctuary ofthe Underworld, the water of which can ravishthe dead from her power, as was indeed one dayabout to happen. " Bending before her" standsa divine female scribe of the Underworld, ofwhose duties unfortunately we know nothingmore definite. Among the servants of Erishkigalare prominent the often-named " watchman," orChief Porter, and Namtar, the god of pfstilence.Side by side with Erishkigal reigns, as king of


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24 THE WORLD OF THE DEADHades, Nergal, god of war and pestilence. He isknown as "lord of the tombs," "lord of the greatcity," " king of the river (of death) " ; and ancientBabylonian texts call him " lord of the greatland," "lord of the land without return." Tliespecial seat of his cult, the Babylonian cityKutha, became so closely identified with concep-tions of Hades that in poetry the Underworld isactually called " Kutha." His temple in Kuthawas regarded as the likeness of Hades, just asother temples were supposed to be in the likenessof the heavenly abodes of the gods worshipped inthem. Among the cla}^ tablets of Tell el Amarnais a Babylonian poem vividly describing themarriage of Erishkigal and Nergal. In some ofits features the story recalls the Greek legend ofPersephone : " Once when the gods were about toprepare a feast they sent a messenger to theirsister Erishkigal to say to her, ' We must certainlydescend to thee ; if thou wilt not ascend to us,send one to receive th}^ portion of the feast.Then Erishkigal sent Namtar, her servant."From further fragments of the story we learnthat Nergal himself set out for the Underworldwith twice seven assistants, bearing such namesas Lightning, Fever, Fervent Heat, &c. Theservants of Nergal were placed at the fourteengates of the Underworld, and imperiously heordered the watchman to adii)it them. Then in


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DEMONS OF THE UNDERWORLD 25conclusion we read, " Within the house he seizedErishkigal b}^ the hair, bent her down from thethrone to the ground in order to cut off herhead. ' Slay me not, my brother, I have some-what to say to thee.' Hearing this Nergal stayedhis hand. She wept and sobbed (?) 'Thou shaltbe my husband, I will be thy wife, I will givethee dominion in the vast Underworld ; I willgive into thine hands the tablet of wisdom, thoushalt be lord, I will be queen.' When Nergalheard this he seized her, kissed her, wiped awayher tears and said : * What thou ever askedst ofme long months ago until now. . . .' "

In the train of Nergal, who himself was dreadedas the the god of pestilence (in this characterknown as Urragal), appear all evil spirits anddemons. These demons were regarded as theoffspring of Hades and said to be born inthe west on the mountain of sunset, that is, theywere supposed to exercise their activities bynight. When the sun comes forth from themountains on the eastsays a poetical magicformulaand all the gods assemble in presenceof the Sun-god, then the rays of the sun driveaway the spectres. Elsewhere we are told thatthey exerted their evil powers from the desert ;the desert which, lay in the west of Babylonia,being supposed, as already noted, to be in closeconnection with the Underworld. "They shall


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26 THE WORLD OF THE DEADwithdraw afar, they shall retire from tlie city anddescend into the earth (the Underworld)," saysthe exorcist. These demons of Hades wereimagined as blood-devouring, blood-suckingmonsters, not sparing even the images of thegods. Like serpents they glided into houses." They take away the wife from her husband,tear the child from his father's bosom, drive themaster away from his household." "From landto land they go, driving the maidens from theirchambers, the son they lead away from the houseof his parents-in-law, they drive the child fromhis father's house, they snatch the doves fromthe dove-cot, the bird out of its nest, they drivethe swallows from their nests. They smite theoxen, they smite the lambs ; mighty spirits (?),evil demons, hunters -are they." " In the pasturesthey attack the folds, they bring sickness into thestalls of the horses, they fill the mouth of theasses with dust, they bring trouble into the stableof the she-asses." Almost every part of thebody was threatened by its own special demon.j-lshahktc brought fever to the brain, Namtarthreatened life with pestilence, Uliikkn attackedthe throat, Aln the chest, Ekiiiuiiu the loins,Rabiszu the skin. Labartu was the nightmare,Labaszu epileps}^, while Liln and Zz7/V, spiritsknown also to Jewish superstition, broughtinfirmities of the night. The words of Rev.


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GODS OF FERTILITY 27xviii. 2 are in exact accordance with fact asregards the Babylonian dread of spirits : " Babylonthe great is become a habitation of devils, and ahold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of everyunclean and hateful bird." Specially dreaded, aswe have seen, were the sepulchral Utukkii andEkimniu, the ghosts of the dead. "They pene-trate into the houses, seize upon man and casthim down in the night." There were manymeans of exorcism of which the most effectivewas to draw a picture of the demon and solemnlyburn it. Of death alone no image could be madefor this purpose. In a religious text occurs thepassage :

" High hold I the torch, put in the fire the imagesof Uttiikii, of Shedit, of Rabissu, of Ekiinmu,of LabartH, of Labasstt, of Ak/ikhazit,of Lilii^ of Lilitit, of the maidservant of Lilit,of every foe that seizes on mankind . . .your smoke rise up to heaven,may sparks conceal the sun,your spells be broken by the priest, the son of

the god Ea."For the student of comparative religion the

fact is specially noteworthy that among theBabylonians also the gods of the Underworldwere closely allied with those of fertility andagriculture. The growth and decay of vegetationwas brought into connection with the Underworld.


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2 8 NECROMANCYTliis is shown in the worship of Tanimuz and inthe invocations to the field-god Enmeshara. Oneof these invocations says: "Lord of the Under-world, sublime in Aralu (a name for Hades), lordof the place and of the land without return,niountainof the Anunaki, . . . great lord ; withoutNingirsu (god of agriculture) there is no successin field or watercourse and no germ is fertile ! "The giant Eabani also, who, in the Gilgameshepic, descends to the Underworld, is a god of thetilled fields (in this respect recalling Pan), and thehero Ner, who figures in one of the representa-tions of the Underworld among the dwellers inHades, is certainly identical with the field-godbearing the same name.

Necromancy.Among the magic arts of the Babylonian priests

necromancy undoubtedly held a prominent place.A series of mythological texts shows that scenessuch as that between Saul and the witch of Endorwere familiar to Babylonian fancy also. Amongthe lists of the various orders of priests we findthe offices of " Exorcist of the spirits of the dead,''the priest "who raises the spirit of the dead," andthe Sha'ilit, the "enquirer of the dead."The litcralurc so far known to us has noexample of the " enquiring of the dead." On the


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INVOCATION OF SPIRIT OF EABANI 29other hand, the ceremony for the raising of spiritsseems to be described in the concluding lines of" Istar's Journey in Hades," though the exactmeaning remains indeed somewhat doubtfuh Itis there stated in conclusion that at the feast ofTammuz the dead shall arise and breathe thefragrance of sacrifice. It may be concluded fromthis that the feast of Tammuz was celebrated bysolemn invocations of the dead.

At the close of the Gilgamesh epic there is aninstance of how such invocation was actuallypractised. On returning from his ancestor, Gil-gamesh with his companion held solemn lamenta-tion over his friend Eabani, who " verily hassunk down to the shades." " Every twenty milesthey intoned the dirge (?), every thirty miles theyheld a festival in honour of the dead." With hisdirge he went from one temple to another com-plaining that no evil malady had consumed hisfriend, that he had not fallen in the field of battleamong men, but that the world of the dead hadsnatched him away. At last he turned to the godof the Underworld himself, to the " hero andlord " Nergal. Ea said to him, ** ' Knock at thechamber of the tomb (?) [open the earth that thespirit of Eabani may come forth from the Under-vi^orld].' [When] the hero Nergal heard this heknocked at the chamber of the tomb (?), openedthe Underworld, and straightway let the spirit of


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30 NECROMANCYKabani so forth from out the cartli like a breathof wind." *Thus then the ghosts of the dead were raised,

but to rid oneself of ghosts that had been raisedor that had escaped may well have appeared amore difficult matter. " I will raise the deadthat they eat and live ; more than the living shallthe dead be," says Istar. To the Babyloniansthis was a terrible threat, for by them the shadesfrom the Underworld were regarded as among themost malignant of evil demons. In one exorcisma sick man complains that the wizard and tliewitch have delivered him into the hands of awandering ghost, and again the suffering of aman grievously ill is accounted for by the state-ment "the wicked ghost has come forth" (/>.,from the Underworld). A collection of prayersof the time of Asurbanipal includes the prayer ofa man possessed by a ghost. Complaint is madethat the ghost will not loose his hold of the sickman day or night, so that his hair stands on endand his limbs are as if paralysed. The Sun godis entreated to free him from this demon, whetherit be the shade of one of the family or that ofsome murdered man that is oppressing his being.

* This exorcism and indeed the whole Babylonian concep-tion of the Underworld recalls the eleventh book of the" Odyssey," where the spirits of the dead are called by nightto the Cimmerian shore, and wing their flight up to earth.


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BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY 31The sufferer has ah-eady bestowed on his tor-mentor clothes and shoes and a girdle, as well asa water skin and food for his departing journey.Now let him go to the West, to the Underworld,and there may the god Nedu, the gate-keeper ofHades, retain him fast that he escape no more.

Salvation from the "Land without Return."In the light of the foregoing statements it can

hardly be doubted that the Babylonians believedin personal immortality. The body decays in thegrave {shalamtu is the name given to the corpse,that is to say, " that which is done v^^ith "), butthe soul lives in the gloom of Hades, and in thatabode of horror leads an immaterial, shadow-likeexistence. Their thoughts, however, took afurther flight and conceived of a brighter fate.Diogenes Laertius appears to have been correctlyinformed in ascribing to the Babylonian schools ofphilosophy (or rather schools of the priests) abelief not only in immortality, but also to acertain extent in a resurrection.* We have

* The attention of the English reader is drawn to the fact,that according to Jensen's recent translation of the Gilgameshepic, the Babylonian priests distinctly taught

the doctrine ofa resurrection, giving instances of its occurrence in order tostrengthen the belief in a future life. Though the Englishedition of this pamphlet appears later than the German, itdoes not deal with Jensen's general conclusions.


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32 nil. LAND WirilOUJ' RETURN"already seen that to the gods of heaven wasattributed the power in certain cases to shattci-the whole realm of the dead, and also that inisolated instances the spirit of a dead man mightbe brought forth. The narrator of the "Journeyof Istar in Hades," indicates in the mystic con-chiding lines of the poem what his auditor mustdo " if deliverance is refused," and earlier in theepic we are told how the goddess Istar herself isset free after the porter has been forced to sprinkleher with the " water of life." In the "eternalpalace," however, the inmost sanctuary of theUnderworld, there is a spring (?) of the water oflife, guarded, apparently, by the Anunaki, alreadyknown to us as demons of the sepulchral world.Only indeed by violence and with the help of aspecial word of power of the god Ea can this waterbe reached. It was owing to the feast of Tammuz,who was condemned " to weep year after year,"and whose return from the Underworld was cele-brated annually, that the idea of deliverance fromHades had become one of the most widely diffusednotions in the popular mind. The fact also thata whole series of divinities are distinguished bythe epithet " raiser of the dead," is connected withthe same order of ideas. It is, indeed, the Sunand Spring gods especially that are said to loveto wake the dead. The statement was, there-fore, due in the first place to experience of the


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''THE RAISER OF THE DEAD" 33renewal of nature in spring, though sometimes itwas appHed in a manner that cannot be misunder-stood to the hope of mankind. Of Samas, theSun god, it is said, " to make the dead hve, tofree the captive Hes in thy hand." The god Nebois praised as he " who lengthens the days of lifeand raises the dead." But above all it is Marduk,god of the Early Sun and of the Spring Sun whois spoken of as " the compassionate one, whosejoy is in raising the dead," or simplyas on thelast of the creation tabletsas " the raiser of thedead." In a charm against demons and sicknesshe is hailed as follows : " Thou compassionateone among the gods, thou compassionate one,thou who lovest to raise the dead, Marduk, kingof heaven and earth, king of Babylon, lord ofEsagila, king of Ezida, lord of the mighty houseof life, heaven and earth are thine, the space 01heaven and earth is thine, exorcism of life isthine, the saliva of life is thine, the pure exorcismof the ocean is thine, blaclv-haired mankind, livingcreatures, as many as dwell on the earth, all thequarters of heaven, all spirits in heaven and earth[turn ?] their ears to thee ; thou art S/iedu, thouart Lamasu (the spirit of protection and blessing),thou makest alive, thou bringest to peace, thouart the compassionate one among the gods . . .to thee will I devote myself." Cyrus caused itto be said of himself, after he had taken Babylon,

c


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34 THE JOURNEY 01" GILGAMESHthe city of Marduk, that the inliabitants with oneaccord hailed him joyfully and greeted him withbeaming countenances as " the lord who in thestrength of him who calls the dead to life(/>., Marduk), had blessed them all with careand protection." The same power of " raisingthe dead" is attributed to Gula, the wife ofMarduk, who moreover is called " the lad}', raiserof the dead," and once mention is made of "" theship of the goddess Gula, the raiser of the dead."Curiously enough among the many theophoricproper names embodying divine epithets attri-buting life-giving power to a deity, there appearsthe name " Nergaluballith," i.e., Nergal (god ofHades) makes alive."

The Journey of Gilgamesh to the Island ofTHE Blessed.

The Twelve Tablet epic has also come downto us in fragments only. We know, however,that the hero of the story had, along with hisgigantic friend, incurred the wrath and vengeanceof the mighty goddess Istar. Eabani had diedan ignominious death and gone down to Hades.Gilgamesh was smitten by terrible sickness, butwas resolved not to die like his friend. Seizedby the fear of death he fell wailing to the ground,but suddenly he conceived the bold resolve to


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THE ENCHANTED GARDEN 35hasten with all speed to his great ancestor, whohad once dwelt in Suripak, but who had attained*' the longed-for life in the assembly of the gods."Of him will he seek healing, find out the secret ofimmortality and also prepare the way for thedeliverance of his friend Eabani. For thisancestor, as Gilgamesh tells us later, has thepower to interpret life and death. The skin-cladwanderer travels far through awful ravines, andafter manifold dangers from which the moon-godprotects him, at length he reaches Mount Mashu,The entrance to the mountain is guarded byscorpion men of giant stature, whose wild appear-ance inspires him with such fear and horror thathe loses consciousness. One of the monsters triesto dissuade him from the terrible journey, tellinghim that he must travel twelve miles throughimpenetrable darkness. At length, in responseto his importunity, he opens the mountain door,and, after four-and-twenty hours of wandering,Gilgamesh stepped out into an enchanted garden,in which especially one divine tree so delightedhim that he rushed up to it : " Precious stones itbears as fruitthe branches were hung with them,lapis lazuli it bears, fruits it bears, choice (?)to look upon." A divine mermaid, dwellingin a palace by the shore, put fresh difficultiesbefore him. With threats and entreaties hesought to move her to show him the way to his


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36 THE JOURNEY OF GILGAMESHprogenitor and to give him a boat in which tocross the water. The mermaid warned him thatnever had ferry been there and that the Sun godonly could cross the sea, for the waters of deathare as a bolt shot to, barring all entrance to theIsland of the Blessed. At length she betra3'^ed tohim where he might find the man who had ferriedhis ancestor across. Him Gilgamesh succeededin persuading to his will, and after a terriblejourney, minutely prepared for in advance, theyreached the Waters of Death, having covered adistance of forty-five days' travel in three days.After exhausting work at the oars had broughtthem across these waters also, they approachedthe shores of the Fields of the Blessed. Fromthe boat Gilgamesh complained to his ancestor ofhis woe, related his heroic adventures, bewailedthe death of his friend and told how he hadtoiled over lands and mountains and had traversedall the seas without being able to cheer hiscountenance by any happy sight. After a longconversation discussing the inevitable and invin-cible mortal fate of man, Gilgamesh comes to hispoint and asks his ancestor how he had attainedto his own happy lot. Then this favourite of thegodsno other than the Babylonian NoahtellsGilgamesh, as he listens from his boat, the storyof the Flood, which, as is well knowm,. coincidesin parts almost verbally with the biblical narrative


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THE MAGIC PLANT 37of the Deluge, but concludes with the removal ofthe rescued couple to a distant land, at the mouthof the rivers, where they live as the gods. Afterthis tale Sit-napishtim {i.e., "Germ of Life")promises Gilgamesh " the life that he strivesafter." He cast him into a sleep, with the helpof his wife prepared for him enchanted food andtreated him by seven magic processes. Then hecaused his ferryman to take him to the enchantedfountain, where his boils were washed pure assnow, the sea carried away his leprous skin, andhis whole body once more appeared sound andhealthy. Before he returned there was revealedto him yet another particular secret, namely, thata magic plant grew on the island, the twigs otwhich gave secret power to men : whoever ate otit regained the strength of his youth. Gilgameshgot possession of the magic plant and in his joynamed it shebii-issakhir-amclu, i.e., " even whenold a man becomes young again." Then Gilgameshwent back (by another route ?) accompanied bythe ferryman. Every twenty miles they chanteda dirge, every thirty miles they held a feast inhonour of the dead. Whilst Gilgamesh wasdrawing water (for purposes of libation ?) from aspring the magic plant slipped from his grasp anda serpent known as the " earth lion " seized itfrom him. In his terror at first he uttered acurse, then he sat down and wept, tears flowed


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38 THE TOURNEY OF GILOAMESHover his checks. He said to his companion:"To what end has my strength been renewed, towhat end does my soul rejoice in its restoration ?No benefit have I done to myself, to the earthlion is the benefit fallen." With dirges theywandered on till they came to the city of Erekh.

For the present cuneiform literature unfortu-nately tells us no more about this Island of theBlessed which so vividly calls to mind the Greekgarden of the gods, Elysium, that Paradise in thewestern ocean where rose the springs of nectarand ambrosia. Neither do we hear of any otherinhabitants of it, though it can hardly be supposedthat the couple rescued from the Flood and theirferryman dwelt there entirely alone. It is,indeed, expressly stated that they lived " in theassembly of the gods." Thither fancy transferredother heroes of tlie people. Olympus was mergedwith Elysium by the Babylonians as later by theGreeks. Tiglath Pilesar expresses a hope thatthe great gods " have called the race of his priest-hood to a dwelling-place on the mount of thegods for ever." According to the Gilgamesh epiche "who had fallen in battle with men" canclaim a privileged lot after death. We are re-minded of Walhalla when, at the close of thesame epic, we read of the fate of the fallen asfollows :


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THE PARADISE IN ERIDU 39" On a pillow reposethdrinking pure water,he who was slain in battle ;his father and his mother hold his head,and his wife [kneeleth] by his side (?)."

It is, perhaps, in a similar connection thatwe must interpret the close of a hymn, whichruns :" Glimmering water brought he in,"Ninzadim, the great jeweller of Anu,has to the care of his pure hands taken thee ;Ea hath taken thee hence to the place of cleansing,to the place of cleansing hath he taken theeto (?) milk and honey he took thee,water of exorcism placed he in thy mouth,thy mouth he openeth by means of exorcism :" Be clear as the heaven, be pure as the earth shine

like the innermost part of heaven "

The Paradise of the First Created ofMankind in Eridu.

"At the mouth of the rivers," i.e., where theTigris and the Euphrates once flowed separatelyinto the sea, Gilgamesh sought and found theentrance to the Island of the Blessed : " at themouth of the rivers " also, holy water was pro-cured for use in exorcism. Near this spot layEridu (the modern Abu-Shahrein, the Rata ofthe Ptolemies), the city of the cult of Ea, chief


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40 THE PARADTSK IN ERTDUmagician among the gods. The enchantment ofEridu plays a prominent part in the magicalliterature of the Babylonians. Now the mytho-logy of the Gilgamesh epic points in many waysto the neighbourhood of Eridu and the activityof Ea, who, however, had temples also in Erekhand Surippak the actual scenes of the epic. " Atthe mouth of the rivers

" must be sought likewisethe garden of the gods where grew the enchantedtree bearing precious stones as fruit, and near toit the palace of the sea maiden who guarded theferry over the Waters of Death. Close by dweltthe ferryman who took Gilgamesh across thewater, led him to the fountain of healing andhelped him to pluck the twigs from the tree oflife. The ferryman, moreover, is called Arad-Ea,i.e.,

" servant of Ea." It was Ea also who hadrescued the hero's ancestor and his wife from theFlood. He must also have taken some part inthe creation of the giant Eabani who had helpedGilgamesh in his exploits, for the name Eabanimeans " Ea creates." The miraculous healingto be found on the Island of the Blessed isanother reference to the magic of the priests ofEa in Eridu.These considerations have been advanced in

detail because it will be seen that Eridu itself (orrather its cosmic archetype, all the great citiesand temples of Bab3donia having corresponding


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CREATION OF ADAPA 41cosmic originals (see page 24)) is represented asa kind of Paradise. At the conclusion of a spellin which the god of fire calls to his help Ea, thewise son of Eridu, we read :" In Eridu grows a dusky palm in a pure place,

its growth is superb, like lapis lazuli, it overshadowsthe ocean ;

the sojourn of Ea is in Eridu^ overflowing withplenty,

his dwelling is the place of the Underworld,his dwelling is the couch of the goddess Ba-u ;within the splendid house, shady as the forest, none

may enter,"

An epical fragment lately discovered showsthis Sanctuary of Eridu to have been the sceneof the creation of Adapa by the god Ea. Theaccount of the very act of creation has unfortu-nately not been preserved, but from similardescriptions in other specimens of cuneiformliterature we are justified in assuming that Ea,the divine " potter," moulded his creature out ofclay. Our fragment tells us that the god grantedAdapa "divine authority, great discernment toorder the laws of the land " ; that he gave himwisdombut did not give him everlasting lifeand that he made him " the mighty one, the childof Eridu, to be the shepherd (?) of man." Furtherwe learn that he was entrusted with variouspriestly functions and that he acted as baker and


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42 FOOD AND WATER OF LIFEcup-bearer to the gods. With the baker of Eriduhe superintended the baking, daily he providedEridu with bread and water, with his own purehand he attended to the platters, no platter wasmade ready without him, daily he embarked onhis boat and went fishing for Eridu; when Eastretched himself on his couch Adapa departedfrom Eridu and sailed about all night catchingfish. From the fragments that relate the subse-quent fate of Adapa we learn that Anu had beenconsidering how the gift of eternal life could begiven to this being who is in one passage distinctlycalled " Germ of mankind." With this episodewe shall deal in the following section.

Food of Life and Water of Life in theBabylonian Paradise.

The epic fragments discovered at Tell el Amarnarelate how Adapa was summoned before the throneof Anu, god of heaven, to answer for a deed ofviolence committed against the bird Zu, i.e., theincarnation of the South wind. Ann's wrathbeing appeased he commanded a feast to be pre-pared for Adapa and festal raiment and oil foranointing to be given him. Garments and oil heaccepted, but meat and drink he refused, for Eahad warned him : " When thou comest into the


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BABYLONIAN NECTAR AND AMBROSIA 43presence of Anu food of death will be offered thee,eat not thereof ! Water of death will be offeredthee, drink not thereof! " But lo ! it was indeedfood of life and water of life ! Anu was filledwith amazement. He had purposed that the manto whom his creator had revealed the inmost thingsof heaven and earth {i.e., had bestowed on himthe highest wisdom) should receive also the giftof immortality. By his refusal Adapa had de-frauded himself of this gift. Therefore Anucommanded, " Take him and bring him back tohis earth."

In this narrative food of life and water of lifeare supposed to be in the palace of the god ofheaven. This also is a similar conception to thatof Olympus and the Elysian Fields, for amongthe Greeks the source of the Olympian nectar andambrosia was to be sought in the Paradise on theWestern Ocean. Food of life and water of lifewere found also in the Babylonian Paradise " atthe mouth of the rivers," in Eridu and on theIsland of the Blessed. We have already told howGilgamesh obtained healing by means of the waterof the fountain of life and of the magic food onthe Island of the Blessed, and how he found themagic plant of immortality. Obviously also, thedivine baker and cup-bearer has not, in the mindof the narrator, to do with common food anddrink, but with the Babylonian equivalents of


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44 FOOD AND WATER OF LIFEnectar and ambrosia. The plant of life also, isoccasionally mentioned elsewhere. " Delicate asthe plant of life may his royal shepherdhood be,"says the Assyrian king Rammanirari III., andAsarhaddon expresses the wish " that his royalrule may be favourable to the well-being of man-kind, as is the plant of life." Frequent mentionis made of the water of life, especially in the wor-ship of Ea and Marduk, and the story of Adapashows that this water was used for drinking andnot merely for sprinkling and lustration. In the" Journey of Istar through Hades " express men-tion is made of drinking the water of life at thedespatching of Uddushunamir, the messenger ofthe gods :" Papsukal, the servant of the great gods, bowed his

face before [Samas],in mourning garb clothed, with hair (?) dishevelled.Samas stepped before Sin, his father, wee[ping],before Ea the king his tears to pour forth :Istar has gone down into the Underworld and has

not returned thence."

After he has told how all generation on earthhas been suspended because of this journey inHades, it continues :' Then Ea in the wisdom of his heart created a male

being,created Uddushunamir, the servant of the gods ;


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THE SACRED RIVERS 45" Hail ! Uddushunamir, turn thy face to the gate ot

the land without return,the seven gates of the land without return, maythey open be'ore thee,

may Erishkigal see thee and welcome thee joyfully.When her heart shall be calmed and her spiritcheered,

then conjure her in the name of the great gods.Raise thou thy heads high, turn thy thoughts to theplace of the spring (?), (and say) :" Hail ! lady, may the spring (?) give me of its waters,thereof will I drink." ' "

Later, indeed, when the desire of the messengerhas perforce been granted, the goddess of Hadessays to her servant Namtar, " Sprinkle thegoddess Istar with the water of life and send heraway."

According to the exorcisms "holy water" wasto be found "at the mouth of the rivers," i.e., atthe entrance to the Island of the Blessed on theshores of which was also the fountain of healing.The Euphrates and Tigris themselves were con-sidered as sacred streams at the sources of which,as an historical inscription testifies, sacrifices wereoffered, and on the banks of which ceremonialablutions were performed. Ea and his son Mar-duk were the lords of the water of life. At Ea'scommand the Underworld was forced to revealits spring of the water of life, and elsewhere weread : " Go, my son Marduk, take the . . . one


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46 FOOD AND WATER OF LIFE. . fetch water from the mouth of the twostreams, into this water put thy pure spell, andconsecrate it with thy pure spell, sprinkle [withthe same water] man, the child of his god."Another passage runs : ** Pure water [. . .], waterof the Euphrates, that in the [. . .] place, waterthat is well hidden in the ocean, the pure mouthof Ea has purified it, the sons of the deep, theseven, they have made the water pure, clear andsparkling." According to a ritual text edited forthe Assyrian royal worship the priest, clad inlinen of Eridu, meets the king on the thresholdof the ** house of purification " and greets him inwords that recall the blessing of Aaron !" Ea make thee glad,Damkina, queen of the deep, illumine thee with her

countenance,Marduk, the mighty overseer of the Igigi (heavenly

spirits), exalt thy head."

Then the priest continued : " Their deedsendure on earth who take the holy message ofEa for their guide ; the great gods of heavencome to his side, in the great sanctuaries ofheaven and earth they come to his side ; thosechambers are pure and shining; in Ea's clear andshining water bathe the Anunaki, the great godsthemselves purify their faces in it." Side by sidewith Ea, his son Marduk has command of the


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CONCLUSION 47sacred water. In his temple was a holy fountainand frequent mention is made of Marduk's" vessel of purification/' and of the " vessel ofthe decree of fate." This water may well havebeen represented at the great festival of thedecree of fate, and it may be assumed that thevessel on wall sculptures and seal cylinderscarried by winged genii to the tree of life repre-sents the vessel of the water of life, and the fruitof the tree the corresponding food of life.

Conclusion.Psychology of the BabylonianConceptions of Hades.

The Babylonian belief in a future life restedevidently in the first place on the conception otthe soul as an individual entity, which forsakesthe body at death. The body was regarded asdone with (this belief is indicated, as we haveseen, by the very word for corpse, shalamtu, seepage 31), when with the last breath the soul hadforsaken it. The soul therefore is called napishtui.e., " breath," and it is said of a ghost whichhas been conjured up that he rises "like a breathof wind " out of the earth (page 30).Among many peoples the conceptions of the

world of the dead have been shaped according tothe wishes and hopes raised in the minds of men


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48 CONCLUSIONas they muse on their own death, and look for-ward to life in an imaginary world full of pleasuresdenied them by the wretchedness of their lifeon earth. But among the Babylonians, as alsoamong the Hebrews and the Greeks, representa-tions of Hades reflect the melancholy thoughtsroused in human souls by mourning for theirdead. The soul of the dead sinks into a joylessexistence, the misery of which has been fore-shadowed by the phenomena of mortal siclcriess.The loss of a corporeal manifestation has alreadydeprived it of all adornment and all exercise ofthe senses (page 9). Where is the soul t^. befound? Simplicity sought it in the t^mb ; theshade of the dead man finds it hard to part fromthe body which gave him form and substance.Hence the corpse was embalmed, and food anddrink were placed in the grave. But imaginationfollowed the fate of the soul beyond the tombinto a world of its own, the entrance to whichlay in the West, whither also the sun journeyedbefore sinking down into darkness, and whichwas depicted as a faded counterpart of the worldof men. That the more primitive conception ofthe dwelling of the soul in the grave still held itsground is to be explained by the demands ofancestor worship. In this cult the tombs werethe places of ofTering, and its influence wasstronger than any demands of logic.


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DOCTRINE OF RETRIBUTION 49Since to the Babylonians death and sojourn in

Hades loomed as a dark fate indeed, there mustsoon have arisen in the soul of the people thethought that there might be distinctions in thefate of the dead, and retribution in the next world.It must also have appeared impossible that theethical system of things taken for granted inBabylonian hymns and prayers should be entirelydone away with beyond the tomb. Some tracesof a doctrine of retribution are, as a matter of fact,to be found in the Babylonian representations ofHades. What is the goddess scribe of the Under-world writing as she stands bending before thegoddess of Hades (p. 23) ? What is the signifi-cance of the arrangements by which the strengthof an unwelcome intruder was to be broken(p. 21)? Why were the Anunaki set upon agolden throne when decision was to be made asto whether Istar should go free? Does it notseem as though they exercised judicial functionsafter the manner of the forty-two judges at theJudgment of Osiris ? In an exorcism on one ofthe Hades reliefs, mention is made of the " Judg-ment of the life of the great gods." The fact thatindividual favourites of the gods were removed toa happy life on some Island of the Blessed orelsewhere in the vicinity of the gods is no proofof a belief in the separation of good and evil afterdeath, but it does testify that the Babylonians inD


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so CONCLUSIONtheir meditations on death and tlie grave refusedto give up all -ijEvaTefnuj tXirlSac, " sweeter hopes,"and that they attributed to their gods a powerover the fate of man's soul extending beyond thetomb.


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IBIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX.

Alfred Jeremias, "Die Babylonisch-assyiischen Vorstel-lungen vom Leben nach dem Tode (mit Beriicksich-tigung der alttestamentlichen Parallelen)." Leipzig.J. C. Hinrichs (1887). 6s.

P. Jensen, " Kosmologie der Babylonier." Strassburg( 1 890). 40s.

Alfred Jeremias, article" Nergal " in Roscher's Lexiconder Mythologies \ol. iii. col. 250 et seq,

Bruno Meissner, " Babylonisch Leichenfeierlichkeiten( Wiener Zeitschr. f. d. Kunde des Mors^enlandesvol. xii. p. 59 et seq.

Scheil, " Relief reprdsentant une scene fundraire baby-Ionienne" {Keciieil de Travaux relatif a la PJiilologieet a PArcheologie egyptiennes et assyriennes, \o\. xx.p. 5.

Messerschmidt, " Ein vergessenes Hades-Relief" {Orient-alistische Lit. Zeituttg, 1901, p. 175).

F. Thureau-Dangin, " Inscription provenant d'un tombeaubabylonien " {Orie?ttalistische Lit. Zeitimg, 1901, p. 5).

Schwally, " Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den Vorstel-lungen des alten Israels." Giessen (1892). (A usefulsummary of purely Jewish ideas, but written withoutknowledge of, or reference to, the Babylonianevidence.) 5.?.


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