PUSHING BACK HISTORY'S HORIZON 



201 



urbanipal. Several mythological poems, 

 besides fragments of others, were found, 

 of which the seven tablets of creation are 

 among the most important. Apsu and 

 Tiamat, who represent the primeval wa- 

 tery chaos, were the first creators. They 

 were followed by other generations of 

 gods, whom they sought to destroy. 



This resulted in the fight of Marduk 

 with the primeval goddess Tiamat. He 

 slays her and splits her in halves like a 

 fish, half of which he uses to make a 

 firmament to keep back the celestial 

 waters, and the other half the earth to 

 hold back the subterranean waters. 



Another very important poem is that 

 which recounts the deeds and adventures 

 of Gilgamesh, an early ruler of Erech, 

 about whose name these myths are asso- 

 ciated. It was written upon twelve large 

 tablets and found also in the library of 

 Ashurbanipal. This version was copied 

 from older originals, of which a large but 

 fragmentary tablet is preserved in the 

 Yale Babylonian Collection ; and there is 

 also a fragment in the Berlin Museum. 



A BABYLONIAN "PARADISE LOST" 



Other important mythological poems 

 are the flight of Etana on the back of an 

 eagle to heaven and his fall to the earth ; 

 the myth of Adapa, in which he failed to 

 obtain immortality by refusing to accept 

 food at the advice of the god Ea ; Ishtar's 

 descent into hades, etc. 



A large number of hymns and liturgies 

 have been found at various sites. At 

 Tello, a few belonging to the early Su- 

 merian period were discovered. At Nip- 

 pur, Sippar, Erech, and Larsa many were 

 found, chiefly belonging to the early pe- 

 riod, about 2000 B. C. ; at Erech and 

 Babylon also some of a later period. By 

 the help of these the history of Baby- 

 lonian worship will be written. 



At present the earliest known liturgies 

 are written in Sumerian, but after about 

 2000 B. C. it generally became the custom 

 of supplying the Sumerian texts with in- 

 terliner's versions in the Semitic vernacu- 

 lar. Whether the excavations at some of 

 the earlier Semitic centers in the north- 

 ern cities will yield earlier original Se- 

 mitic liturgies, and show that the Su- 



merians were indebted to these, remains 

 to be seen. 



Moreover, it is known that the psalm- 

 ists among the Semitic Babylonians used 

 the Sumerian liturgies in their service 

 and continued to use them until the clos- 

 ing days of Babylonian history. In other 

 words, Sumerian was the liturgical lan- 

 guage. 



A CONSCIOUSNESS OP SIN 



A consciousness of sin prevades the 

 liturgies of Babylonia. By the use of 

 them the sinner desired to pacify the 

 gods, who manifested their anger by 

 bringing woes upon mankind. Through 

 lamentations and sighings the penitent 

 sought relief. It must be conceded that 

 the Babylonian prayers were such that 

 must have stirred the soul to its depths. 

 The fundamental element of religions is 

 therefore inherent in these liturgies. 



It has been pointed out that the Baby- 

 lonian penitential psalms are similar in 

 form to the Biblical. The contents and 

 character, however, are quite distinct. 

 We have in the Babylonian crude poly- 

 theism and practices of a natural religion, 

 which, of course, is responsible for a dif- 

 ferent conception of the atonement 

 sought for. 



Another large body of temple rituals 

 was the incantations or magic rituals by 

 which the priests exorcised the evil 

 spirits. These rituals were quite exten- 

 sive in variety. There were, for example, 

 the "burning" series, in connection with 

 which, with charms, magical figures were 

 consumed by fire representing the fever, 

 the headache, the evil demon, the La- 

 bartu, or female demon. 



READING THp SIGNS OP THP TIMpS IN 

 STARS AND PIVpRS 



These texts seem to emanate from the 

 later periods, which would mean a degen- 

 eration of the higher forms of worship, 

 exactly the reverse of what is found 

 among other peoples. But whether other 

 libraries, when excavated, will show that 

 these crass religious expressions of man 

 are older than the religious literature of 

 a higher order remains to be seen. 



A large number of texts have been 

 found in the various libraries dealing" 



