Chapter 18

BRONZE DOOR-STEP FROM E-ZIDA, INSCRIBED WITH THE NAME AND TITLES OF NEBUCHADNEZAR ii.Brit. Mus., No. 90851.

BRONZE DOOR-STEP FROM E-ZIDA, INSCRIBED WITH THE NAME AND TITLES OF NEBUCHADNEZAR ii.

Brit. Mus., No. 90851.

With the passing of Assyrian power the political importance of Lydia had risen considerably, and under Sadyattes and Alyattes, the successors of Ardys upon the Lydian throne, the ravages of the Cimmerian invasion were repaired. These monarchs had conducted a long series of attacks upon the cities and states of Ionia, and, though they were in the main successful, they used up the resources of the nation without obtaining material advantages in return. Handicapped to this extent, Lydia entered upon a five years' struggle with the growing power of Cyaxares, who pushed back her eastern frontier. Matters came to a head in 585b.c., when the great battle was fought on the Halys between Cyaxares and Alyattes on May 28th. The battle is famous for the total eclipse of the sun, which took place on that day, and is said to have been foretold by the Greek astronomer Thales of Miletus.[11]By the subsequent treaty the Halys was fixed as the frontier between Lydia and the Median empire, and, according to Herodotus, it was arranged in part through the mediation of Nebuchadnezzar.[12]The intervention of Babylon must have been undertaken in the Median interest, and it is possible that Cyaxares could count on Nebuchadnezzar for more than benevolent neutrality in case of need.

Nebuchadnezzar appears in his inscriptions as a mighty builder, and we have already seen how he transformed the city of Babylon. He entirely rebuilt and enlarged his father's royal palace,[13]and in the course of his reconstructions raised its terraced platform to so great a height above the surrounding city and plain, that its Hanging Garden became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.[14]He rebuilt the great temples of E-zida at Borsippa and of E-sagila at Babylon, and the Sacred Procession-street within the city hesumptuously paved, spanning it between the temple of Ninmakh and his own palace with the famous Ishtar Gate, adorned with bulls and dragons in enamelled relief.[15]The fortifications of the city he also greatly strengthened by the extension of its double line of walls and the erection of new citadels.[16]During his long reign of forty-two years he devoted his energies and the new wealth of his kingdom to this work of rebuilding, both in the capital and in the other ancient religious centres of Babylonia.[17]The decoration of the façade of Nebuchadnezzar's own palace reflects the influence of the West upon Babylonian art; and we may picture her markets and quays as thronged with foreign caravans and merchandise. Evidence of her extended horizon at this period may also be traced in the interest which Nebuchadnezzar showed in the sea-traffic on the Persian Gulf, which doubtless led him to construct a harbour in the swamps, and to protect it against Arab raids by the erection of the town of Teredon to the west of the Euphrates, as an outpost on the desert frontier.[18]

Nebuchadnezzar's son, Amêl-Marduk, was an unworthy successor to his father. During his short reign he was restrained neither by law nor decency,[19]and it is not surprising that in less than three years the priestly party should have secured his assassination and have set Neriglissar, his brother-in-law, in his place, a man of far stronger character and a soldier.[20]The son of a private Babylonian, Bêl-shum-ishkun, Neriglissar had married a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar, and we may certainly identify him with Nergal-sharezer, the Rab-mag or Babylonian general who was present at the siege of Jerusalem.[21]A striking proof that Neriglissar enjoyedhigh military rank in Nebuchadnezzar's reign has recently been obtained in a letter from Erech, which was written by a captain in charge of a body of troops stationed in the neighbourhood of that city.[22]The date of the letter is certain, since the captain refers to soldiers on the roll of Nebuchadnezzar and Neriglissar; and incidentally it gives us a glimpse of the unsatisfactory condition of the Babylonian army during Nebuchadnezzar's closing years. The captain is anxious that the depleted state of his company, and the measures he contemplates in order to fill its ranks, should not be known to Gubaru, who exercised a high command in Nebuchadnezzar's army. It is possible that we may identify this general with the governor of Gutium, who played so prominent a part in the Persian conquest. Knowing, as he doubtless did, the unsatisfactory condition of his country's forces, he may perhaps have regarded the task of opposing the invaders as quite beyond their powers.[23]Neriglissar's death, less than four years after his accession, must certainly have been the death-blow to any hopes his generals may have entertained of placing the country's military organization and defence upon a sound footing. For his son was little more than a child, and after nine months' reign the priestly party at the capital succeeded in deposing him in favour of one of their own number, Nabonidus, a man of priestly descent[24]and thoroughly imbued with the traditions of the hierarchy. The new king carried on Nebuchadnezzar's tradition of temple-reconstruction with enthusiasm, but he had none of his great predecessor's military aptitude. To his own priestly detachment he added the unpractical character of the archæologist, loving to occupy himself in investigating the past history of the temples he rebuilt, in place of controlling his country's administration. The bent of his mind is well reflected in the account he has left us of the dedication of his daughter, Bêl-shalti-Nannar, as head of the college of votaries attached to the Moon-temple at Ur.[25]It is clear thatthis act and the accompanying ceremonial interested him far more than the education of his son; and any military aptitude Belshazzar may have developed was certainly not fostered by his father or his father's friends. It was only when the enemy was at the frontier that the king must have realized his own fatuity.

Thus with the accession of Nabonidus the close of Babylon's last period of greatness is in sight. But the empire did not crumble of its own accord, for in one of his foundation-records the king boasts that the whole of Mesopotamia and the West, as far as Gaza on the Egyptian border, continued to acknowledge his authority.[26]It required pressure from without to shatter the decaying empire, which from the first must have owed its success in no small measure to the friendly and protective attitude of Media. When that essential support was no longer forthcoming, it lay at the mercy of the new power before which Media herself had already gone down.

The Persian kingdom of Cyrus, rising on a new wave of the Indo-European migration, had had little difficulty in absorbing that of the Medes.[27]Five years after the accession of Nabonidus, Cyrus had deposed Astyages, and, uniting his own followers from the south of Iran with their Median kinsfolk, he proceeded to deal with Croesus of Lydia. Under her last king, the successor of Alyattes, the power of Lydia had risen to its greatest height, and the fame of Croesus' wealth had attracted many of the more cultured Greeks to his court at Sardis. But when Cyrus made himself master of the Median empire, Croesus began to fear his growing power. In 547b.c.he fought an indecisive battle withthe Persians at Pteria in Cappadocia, near the site of the old Hittite capital, and he then retreated on Sardis. Here he sent for assistance to Sparta, Egypt and Babylon. But Cyrus did not delay before renewing his attack, and he appeared unexpectedly before the capital. The Lydian army was now signally defeated; Sardis, in which Croesus had taken refuge, was captured after a siege, and the Lydian empire brought to an end. Cyrus was then free to turn his attention to Babylon.

I. BAKED CLAY FOUNDATION CYLINDER OF NABONIDUS, REFERRING TO THE DEFEAT OF ASTYAGES BY CYRUS (Brit. Mus., No. 91109.)II. BAKED CLAY FOUNDATION CYLINDER OF CYRUS RECORDING HIS ENTRY INTO BABYLON WITHOUT BATTLE AND WITHOUT FIGHTING.(Brit. Mus., No 90920.)

I. BAKED CLAY FOUNDATION CYLINDER OF NABONIDUS, REFERRING TO THE DEFEAT OF ASTYAGES BY CYRUS (Brit. Mus., No. 91109.)

II. BAKED CLAY FOUNDATION CYLINDER OF CYRUS RECORDING HIS ENTRY INTO BABYLON WITHOUT BATTLE AND WITHOUT FIGHTING.(Brit. Mus., No 90920.)

If we should be right in identifying Gobryas or Gubaru, the governor of Gutium, with the Babylonian general of that name, who had held high position under Nebuchadnezzar,[28]we may trace the speed and ease of the Persian conquest of Babylonia directly to his action in espousing the cause of the invader. Foreseeing that the only hope for his country lay in its speedy submission, he may have considered that he would be acting in its best interests if he did not oppose its incorporation within the Persian empire, but rendered the revolution so far as possible a peaceful one. That would explain the action of Cyrus in entrusting the invasion largely to his hands; and the subsequent revolt of Sippar is the more easily accounted for if a Babylonian general with Gubaru's reputation had appeared as the envoy of the Persian king. In any case we must assume that a large section of the Akkadian population was of that way of thinking, quite apart from the opposition to himself that Nabonidus had aroused in the priestly party of the capital.

The defence of the country was entrusted by Nabonidus to his son Belshazzar, who met the advancing Persians at Opis, where he was defeated; and, as often as he attempted to rally his forces, they were again dispersed.[29]Sippar then opened its gates without fighting, Nabonidus fled, and Gubaru advancing on the capital secured its peaceful surrender. The native chronicler of these events records that, during the early days of the Persian occupation of the city, the shields of Gutium surrounded the doors of E-sagila, so that no man's spear entered the sacred shrines and nomilitary standard was brought in.[30]The record gains fresh meaning if we may assume that the governor of Gutium was himself of native origin and a former general of the Babylonian army. On the third day of the following month Cyrus made his state entry into the capital, being received by all classes, and especially by the priesthood and the nobles, as a liberator. He appointed Gubaru his governor of Babylon, and the latter appears to have stamped out further resistance by pursuing Belshazzar and putting him to death.[31]Nabonidus had already been taken, when the capital surrendered.

It is perhaps remarkable that the native priesthood, from whose ranks Nabonidus himself had sprung, should have welcomed the Persian king as their country's deliverer, whose victory had been brought about by Marduk, the national god. But, after securing the secular control, Nabonidus had given free rein to his priestly ambition, and, as a consequence, had estranged his own party. His imagination may have been fired by some ill-advised scheme of centralizing worship; but, whatever his motive, the king had collected many of the cult-images throughout the country into the capital, little recking that he thereby tore the gods from their ancient habitations. By restoring the gods to their local shrines, Cyrus gained in popularity, and completely won over the priesthood, by far the most powerful political section of the community.[32]Thus it happened that Babylon made no further struggle to retain her freedom, and the whole of the territory she had enjoyed was incorporated without resistance in the Persian empire.

With the permanent loss of Babylon's independence, the period covered by this history draws to an end. The epoch forms a convenient stopping-place; but, unlike the fall of the Assyrian empire, her conquest made but little difference to the life and activities ofthe population as a whole. It may therefore be permissible to glance ahead a little, and note her subsequent fortunes as a subject province, under the foreign domination of the powers which succeeded one another in the rule of that region of Western Asia. The tranquillity of the country under Cyrus formed a striking contrast to the unrest and intrigue which characterized its attitude under Assyrian rule; and this was due to the fact that the policy he inaugurated in the provinces of his empire was a complete reversal of Assyrian methods. For the nationality of each conquered race was respected, and it was encouraged to retain its own religion and its laws and customs. Hence Babylon's commercial life and prosperity suffered no interruption in consequence of the change in her political status. Taxation was not materially increased, and little was altered beyond the name and title of the reigning king in the dates upon commercial and legal documents.[33]

This state of things would doubtless have continued, had not the authority of the Persian empire itself been rudely shaken during the reign of Cambyses, Cyrus' son and successor. The conquest of Egypt and its incorporation as an integral part of the Achæmenian empire, to which he directed his main energies, were achieved after the battle of Pelusium and the fall of Memphis. But when attempting to extend his sway over Nubia in the south, he received news of revolt in Persia. Before his departure for Egypt he had murdered his brother Bardiya, known to the Greeks as Smerdis. The murder had been kept a secret, and the revolt against the absent king was now headed by a Magian, named Gaumata, who gave himself out as the missing Smerdis and the true heir to the throne.[34]Cambyses made preparations to repress the revolt, but died on his return journey in Syria in 522. The death of the king gave a fresh impetus to the forces of rebellion, which now began to spread through the provinces of the Persian empire. ButGaumata, the Persian rebel, soon met his fate. For after Cambyses' death, the Persian army was led back by Darius, a prince of the same house as Cyrus and his son; Gaumata was surprised and murdered, and Darius firmly established on the throne. Darius continued to act with extraordinary energy, and in the course of a single year succeeded in quelling the rebellions in Babylon and in the various provinces.[35]On the rock-face of Behistun in Persia, on the road from Babylon to Ecbatana, he has left us sculptured portraits of himself and the rebel leaders he subdued. The latter include Nidintu-Bêl and Arakha, the two pretenders to the Babylonian throne.[36]

The sieges of Babylon by Darius mark the beginning of the city's decay. Her defences had not been seriously impaired by Cyrus, but they now suffered considerably. The city was again restless during Darius' closing years,[37]and further damage was done to it in the reign of Xerxes, when the Babylonians made their last bids for independence.[38]For Xerxes is said not only to have dismantled the walls, but to have plundered and destroyed the great temple of Marduk itself. Large areas in the city, which had been a wonder of the nations, now began to lie permanently in ruins. Babylon entered on a new phase in 331b.c., when the long struggle between Greece and Persia was ended by thedefeat of Darius III. at Gaugamela. For Susa and Babylon submitted to Alexander, who on proclaiming himself King of Asia, took Babylon as his capital. We may picture him gazing on the city's great buildings, many of which now lay ruined and deserted. Like Cyrus before him, he sacrificed to Babylon's gods; and he is said to have wished to restore E-sagila, Marduk's great temple, but to have given up the idea, as it would have taken ten thousand men more than two months to remove the rubbish from the ruins. But he seems to have made some attempt in that direction, since a tablet has been found, dated in his sixth year, which records a payment of ten manehs of silver for "clearing away the dust of E-sagila."[39]

IMPRESSIONS OF NEO-BABYLONIAN AND PERSIAN CYLINDER SEALS.Brit. Mus., Nos. 18249, 89146, 89352.

While the old buildings decayed, some new ones arose in their place, including a Greek theatre for the use of the large Greek colony.[40]Many of the Babylonians themselves adopted Greek names and fashions, but the more conservative elements, particularly among the priesthood, continued to retain their own separate life and customs. In the year 270b.c.we have a record that Antiochus Soter restored the temples of Nairn and Marduk at Babylon and Borsippa,[41]and the recent diggings at Erech have shown that the old temple in that city retained its ancient cult under a new name.[42]In the second century we know that, in a corner of the great temple at Babylon, Marduk and the God of Heaven were worshipped as a two-fold deity under the name of Anna-Bêl; and we hear of priests attached to oneof Babylon's old shrines as late as the year 29b.c.Services in honour of the later forms of the Babylonian gods were probably continued into the Christian era.

The life of the ancient city naturally flickered longest around the ruined temples and seats of worship. On the secular side, as a commercial centre, she was then but a ghost of her former self. Her real decay had set in when Seleucus, after securing the satrapy of Babylon on Alexander's death, had recognized the greater advantages offered by the Tigris for maritime communication. On the foundation of Seleucia, Babylon as a city began rapidly to decay. Deserted at first by the official classes, followed later by the merchants, she decreased in importance as her rival grew. Thus it was by a gradual and purely economic process, and through no sudden blow, that Babylon slowly bled to death.

[1]I., 102 f.

[2]According to Abydenus in Eusebius, "Chron., lib. I.," ed. Schoene, col. 37; the account is preserved in the Armenian version.

[3]This would seem to follow from Nabonidus' references to E-khulkhul, the temple of Sin in Harran, and its destruction by the Umman-manda after the fall of Nineveh (cf. Langdon, "Neubab. Königsinschriften," pp. 220 f., 272 ff.); see Hogarth, "The Ancient East," p. 123. The term Manda is loosely employed in the inscriptions.

[4]See below,pp. 278f.,282.

[5]After throwing off the Assyrian yoke Egypt, under the XXVIth Dynasty, entered on a last period of independence, and it was natural that she should dream once more of Asiatic empire.

[6]The Egyptian army at this time must have been a very mixed host, drawn in great part from the African provinces of Egypt, and its stiffening of Greek and Carian mercenaries was probably untrustworthy; cf. Maspero, "Histoire ancienne," III., p. 530 f., and Hall, "Ancient History of the Near East," p. 543 f.

[7]Zedekiah, the last of the kings of Judah, paid dearly for his rebellion. He was captured on his flight from Jerusalem, and carried to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar slew his sous before his eyes, blinded him, and then sent him in chains to Babylon (II. Kings, xxv., I ff.).

[8]From 585 to 573b.c.

[9]For the text of the tablet, see Strassmaier, "Nabuchodonosor," p. 194, No. 329, and for a full discussion of its contents, cf. Winckler, "Altorient. Forsch.," I., pp. 511 ff.; in Rev., 1. I, it mentions "[Am]ûsu, king of Egypt."

[10]Cf. Hogarth, "The Ancient East," p. 124 f.

[11]Herodotus (I., 74) relates that the Medes and Lydians, when they perceived the day suddenly changed into night, ceased fighting (evidently taking it as a portent from the gods) and were anxious for terms of pence.

[12]The Babylonian king must have been Nebuchadnezzar, though the name given by Herodotus as "Labynetus" is best explained as a corruption of Nabonidus (Nabû-na'id).

[13]See above,pp. 38ff.

[14]For a suggested identification of the Hanging Gardens with a building in the north-east corner of the palace on the Southern Citadel, see above,pp. 40ff.

[15]See above,pp. 51ff.

[16]See above,pp. 24ff., 58.

[17]For a discussion of the temples in Babylon, which Nebuchadnezzar in great part rebuilt, see above,pp. 61ff. His building activity in other cities is attested by his foundation-records; cf. Langdon, "Neubab. Königsinschriften," pp. 70 ff.

[18]Cf. Abydenus, in Eusebius, "Chron. lib. I.," ed. Schoene, Col. 39 f., or Müller, "Fragm. Hist. Graec.," IV., p. 284, which may perhaps reproduce a statement of Berossus; see Bevan, "House of Seleucus," I., p. 247.

[19]According to Berossus he reigned ἀνόμως καὶ ἀσελγῶς (cf. Josephus c. Apion. I., 20, in Müller,op. cit.,p. 507).

[20]Evidence that he owed his election to the priestly party may be seen in the approval accorded him by Nabonidus; cf. Nab. Stele, Col. IV., 11. 24 ff. (Langdon, "Neubab. Königsinschriften," p. 276 f.).

[21]7 Jer. xxxix., 3, 13.

[22]Cf. Scheil, "Rev. d'Assyr.," XI., No. iv. (1914), pp. 105 ff.

[23]See below,p. 283.

[24]Cf. Dhorme, "Revue Biblique," 1903, pp. 131 ff.

[25]Cf. Dhorme, "Rev. d'Assyr.," XI., No. iii. (1914), pp. 105 ff. A duplicate account of the dedication will appear in Prof. Clay's forthcoming "Miscellaneous Inscriptions in the Vale Babylonian Collection," No. 45.

[26]See his cylinder in the British Museum, 82-7-4, 1025 recording his restoration of the temples in Harran and Sippar, Col. I., 11. 38 ff.; cf. Langdon, "Neuhab. Königsinschriften," p. 220 f.

[27]Though Cyrus was at first merely king of Anshan in Elam, with Susa as his capital, he was undoubtedly of Aryan descent. The rise of the southern or Persian group of the Iranians coincided with the westward expansion of the Median empire, and the fusion of the two branches may well have been fostered by disaffection in the north, due to the favour shown by the Median kings to their Scythian subjects. This would in great measure account for the ease with which Cyrus possessed himself of the Median empire; cf. Hogarth, "The Ancient East," pp. 150 ff.

[28]See above,p. 281.

[29]See the "Nabonidus-Cyrus Chronicle," Rev., Col. 111., 11. 12 ff.; and cp. Hagen, "Beitr. zur Assyr.," II., p. 222 f.

[30]Cf. "Nab.-Cyr. Chron.," Col. III., 11. 16 ff.

[31]The passage in the Chronicle, which appears to record this act on Gubaru's part (Col. III., 1. 22 f.), is broken and its reading is not certain; but the fact that the next entry relates to a period of national mourning in Akkad is in favour of the interpretation suggested.

[32]Cf. "Nab.-Cyr. Chron.," Col. III., 1l. 18 ff.

[33]The enormous number of these that have been recovered attest the continued prosperity of the country.

[34]Cf. King and Thompson, "Sculptures and Inscription of Darius," pp. 6 ff.

[35]Cf. Weissbach, "Zeits. für Deutsch. Morgenland. Gesellschaft," Bd. LXII. (1908), pp. 631 ff. The majority of the national revolts were probably suppressed during the accession-year of Darius and the early part of his first year. The later revolts of Susiania and Scythia also gave little difficulty; Weissbach (ib.,p. 641) suggests a restoration of the Persian text of the Behistun Inscription which would place them in the fourth and fifth year of Darius' reign.

[36]See King and Thompson,op. cit.,Plates iii., xv. and xvi.

[37]It was only towards the end of Darius' reign, after the Egyptian revolt, that we have evidence pointing to a renewal of Babylonian unrest (see below, n. 4). The fear inspired by Darius on his accession was evidently felt throughout his Asiatic provinces, and it was the revolt of Egypt, not Asia, that checked his activities against the Greeks.

[38]For a list of documents dated in the brief reigns of Bel-simanni, Shamash-erba, and two other Babylonian usurpers of this period, see Weissbach,op. cit.,p. 044. The extraordinary variants in writing the Babylonian form of Xerxes' name show the difficulty the Babylonians had in pronouncing it; but Akshimakshu can hardly be regarded as such a variant, and may well be that of a rebel who secured a brief period of power (cf. also Boissier, "Orient. Lit.-Zeit.," 1013, p. 300). On the evidence of the proper names occurring in the contracts, he and the others are all to be placed in the reign of Xerxes or in the last years of Darius.

[39]Cf. Oppert, "Comptes rendus," 1898, pp. 414 ff.

[40]See above,p. 83, Fig. 31, «I. The theatre was built of mud-brick; for the pillars and their bases a sort of concrete was employed, made of burnt-brick rubble and gypsum mortar, washed over with white plaster.

[41]Cf. Rawlinson, "Cun. Inscr. West. Asia," V., pl. 66.

[42]In contract-tablets from the site, dating from the third and second centuriesb.c., the old temple E-anna is always referred to under the name Bît-rêsh, "Chief Temple," or "Chief Building" (cf. Clay, "Babylonian Records in the Library of J. Pierpont Morgan," Pt. II., 1913). Prof. Clay has recently sent me a transcript of a very interesting building-inscription from the same site, drawn up in the year 244b.c., which will appear as No. 52 in his forthcoming "Miscellaneous Inscriptions." It records the rebuilding of Bît-rêsh by a certain Anu-uballit, the second prefect (shanû) of Erech, who also bore the Greek name ΝίαρκοςNikiḳarḳusu, Nikarḳusu; it was clearly a privilege to bear a Greek name, as he tells us he was given his by "Antiochus, king of the lands." The text furnishes additional evidence of the survival of the literary language of Babylon for official records, and of the conservatism of the religious cult.

During the Persian and Hellenistic periods Babylon exerted an influence upon contemporary races of which we may trace some survivals in the civilization of the modern world. She was the mother of astronomy, and the twelve divisions on the dial of our clocks and watches were ultimately derived, through Greek channels, from her ancient system of time-division. It was under the Neo-Babylonian kings that the Hebrew race first came into close contact with her culture, and there can be no doubt that the Jews, in the time of their captivity, renewed their interest in her mythology when they found it presented some parallels to their own. But in the course of this history it has been shown that, during far earlier periods, the civilization of Babylon had penetrated throughout a great part of Western Asia. It is admitted that, as a result of her westward expansion at the time of the First Dynasty, her culture had spread during subsequent periods to the Mediterranean coast-lands, and had moulded to some extent the development of those peoples with whom it came in contact. And since the religious element dominated her own activities in a greater measure than was the case with most other races of antiquity, it has been urged that many features in Hebrew religion and in Greek mythology can only be rightly explained by Babylonian beliefs in which they had their origin. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine a theory of Babylon's external influence, which has been propagated by a school of writers and has determined the direction of much recent research.

It is scarcely necessary to insist on the manner in which material drawn from Babylonian and Assyrian sources has helped to elucidate points in the political and religious history of Israel. Scarcely less striking, though not so numerous, are the echoes from Babylonian legends which have long been recognized as existing in Greek mythology. The best known example of direct borrowing is undoubtedly the myth of Adonis and Aphrodite, the main features of which correspond closely to the Babylonian legend of Tammuz and Ishtar. In this case not only the myth, but the accompanying festival and rites were also borrowed, passing to Greece by way of Byblos on the Syrian coast and Paphos in Cyprus, both centres of Astarte worship.[1]Another Greek legend, obviously of Babylonian origin, is that of Actseon, who is clearly to be identified with the shepherd, loved by Ishtar and changed by her into a leopard, so that he was hunted and killed by his own hounds.[2]

Some parallels have also long been pointed out between the national heroes Heracles and Gilgamesh. It is true that most races of antiquity possess stories of national heroes of superhuman strength and power, but there are certain features in the traditions concerning Heracles which may have some ultimate connexion with the Gilgamesh cycle of legends.[3]Less convincing is the analogy which has been suggested between Icarus and Etana, the Babylonian hero or demi-god, who succeeded in flying to the highest heaven only to fallheadlong to the earth. For in Etana's case there is no question of human flight: he was carried to heaven by his friend the Eagle, to whose wings he clung while they mounted to heaven's gates. But the examples already referred to may suffice to illustrate the way in which it has long been agreed that Babylonian mythology may have left its impress on that of Greece.

But the views now held by a considerable body of scholars suggest a much broader extension of Babylonian influence than is implied by a series of isolated and fortuitous connexions; and, as the character of this influence isex hypothesiastronomical, any attempt to define its limits with precision is a matter of some difficulty. For it will be obvious that, if we may assume an astronomical basis or background to any two mythologies, we at once detect a great number of common features the existence of which we should not otherwise have suspected. And the reason is not far to seek; for the astronomical phenomena with which we go to work are necessarily restricted in number, and they have to do duty many times over as a background in each system.[4]In spite of this disadvantage, which is inherent in their theory, Winckler and his school have rendered good service in working out the general relationship which was believed by the Babylonians to exist between the heavenly bodies and the earth.[5]He has shown sound reasons for assuming that, according to the tenets of Babylonian astrology, events and institutions on earth were in a certain sense copies of heavenly prototypes.

It is well known that the Babylonians, like the Hebrews, conceived the universe as consisting of three parts: the heaven above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth. The Babylonians gradually elaborated this conception of the universe, and traced in the heavens a parallel to the threefold division of earth, separating the universe into a heavenly and an earthly world. The earthly universe consisted as beforeof three divisions, that is to say the heaven (limited to the air or atmosphere above the earth), the earth itself, and the waters beneath it. Those corresponded in the heavenly world to the Northern heaven, the Zodiac, and the Southern heaven or heavenly ocean. By the later Babylonian period the greater gods had long become identified with the planets, and the lesser gods with the fixed stars, each deity having his special house or star in heaven in addition to his temple on earth. This idea appears to have been carried still further by the later Greek astrologers, by whom lands and cities in addition to temples were thought to have their cosmic counterparts.[6]But even for the Babylonians the moving stars were not merely symbols serving as interpreters to men of the divine will; their movements were the actual cause of events on earth. To use an apposite simile of Winckler, heaven was believed to be related to earth much as a moving object seen in a mirror was related to its reflection.[7]

Back to Index Next