302 THE VEX. AECHLEACON POTTER. M.A., ON THE INFLUENCE 



forgotten in the mouth of mankind whom his hands have 

 created/' 



Further in the sixth tablet, which was published, I think, for 

 the first time by Mr. King, the creation of man is narrated 

 (and it agrees largely with the long-known account given by 

 Berosus,* who says that Bel formed mankind from his own 

 blood mixed witli earth). The sixth tablet says, " when 

 Merodach heard the words of the gods, he spake unto Ea — my 

 blood will I take, and bone will I fashion. I will create man 

 to inhabit the earth, that the service of the gods may be 

 estabUshed, and their shrines built," reminding us of an old 

 Christian conception that man is the priest of nature, made for 

 the purpose of understanding God's works, and praising him 

 for them. 



In the mythological tablet, the third of the creation series, 

 occur the words, the great Gods entered ; in sin they join in 

 compact, the fruit they broke, they broke in two. Merodach, 

 their redeemer, he appointed their fate." This reminds us of 

 Adam and Eve tempted bv the serpent to eat the fruit in 

 Eden (J. . 



The story of Sargon's birth bears an interesting resemblance 

 to that of the birth of Moses (E.). Sargon was the first Semitic 

 king of Babylonia at a date which Xabonidus, a later learned 

 and accurate king of Babylon, places at a period wliich would 

 be about 3800 B.C. (King, I find in his Sumer and Accad, puts 

 this at nearly 1,000 years later, and others quote hoth dates 

 as possible.^ However, the latest date given is nearly 

 1,000 years before Moses.) A tablet preserved in the British 

 Museum gives the story thus, " My little mother in the city 

 of Atsu Pirani, on the banks of the Euphrates, brought me 

 forth in a secret place. She placed me in a basket of reeds, 

 and closed its mouth with bitumen. She gave me to the river, 

 which did not cover me over, but carried me to Akki the irri- 

 gator." By the latter he was brought up as a gardener ; the 

 goddess Istar prospered him, and he eventually became king of 

 the land. 



The great difference between the Babylonian story of creation 

 and that in Genesis is that the former was mainly polytheistic 

 and the latter monotheistic. 



* A Babylonian priest, 330-260 B.C. 



t Lehmann considers that a scribe employed to copy the original 

 statement of Xabonidus must have misread one stroke too many in the 

 numerals, and thus made an exce.ss of 1,0<X) years. Others believe that 

 Xabonidus had no means of judging the date of Sargon. 



