EEMAEKS ON THE FOREGOING PAPER. 



" SOME ANNOTATIONS." By Prof. Dr. Fritz Hommel. 



IN my paper on tlie Babylon'an Creation Story (" Glossen und 

 Excurse" II and III, in the Neue Kirchl. Zeitschrift, 1890-1), 

 I proved that kirhisli in the expre.ssion Mrbish Tidmat is 

 only adverbial, in the sense of "in the midst;" therefore the 

 name Kirbish-Ti'amat (instead of Ti'Smat alone) must disappear 

 from our translations of the Babylonian Creation texts. 



The last 1 ablet of this text, of which Mr. Pinches gives a 

 translation, is a mere recapitulation of the different acts of crea- 

 tion ; before the poet speaks of the creation of mankind, he spoke 

 in unmistakable words of the creation of plants and animals ; the 

 line which Mr. Pinches translated : 

 " He who causeth glory and plenty to exist, establishing fertility," 



(in the original : musliahsM simri u A-ubutti, mukin khigalli,) 

 I think ought to be translated : 



"Creator of leaves" (comp. Heb. samme'ret) " and vegetables" 

 (lit., magnificence, viz., of plants ; German : Pflanzenpracht, comp. 

 keh6d,Ieii.,10. 18 ; 35,2; 60, 13),"establipher of fertility" (meaning 

 here the animal fertility, in opposition to the before-named vege- 

 table fecundity). 



Concerning the proper names compounded with the name of 

 Nebo, I found a similar proportion in favour of Sin for the time of 

 Khammu-rapaltu (Khammu-rabi), whereas names with Nebo are 

 almost wanting in this early period of Babylonian history. Comp. 

 my "Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens," p. 377. 



Concerning the tendency to monotheism in Babylonia, I 

 entirely agree with the interesting and learned deductions of my 

 esteemed iriend Mr. Pinches. As to the numerous names ending 

 in -iya, -i(a, which peem, at the first glance, to contain the pro- 

 nominal suffix of the first person, I wish to call your attention to 

 the remarkable variants in Strassmaier's "Nabonidus," 132,4: — 

 Kaltti-ilafn-MardtiTi ahil-shu sha Nalil-tahni-vsur. 

 comp. with 133, 4, Kabtiya alil-slm sha Talvhja. 

 We learn from such variants that all these names in -iya and 

 -v.a are mere hypocoristical abbreviations of fuller names (comp. 

 Peisee, "Aus dim Babyl. Eechtsleben," I (1890), p. 11). So are 



