THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE CREATION. 41 



— the name means " the king of the glorious abode " was one of 

 the names of the god Ae, Merodach's father, it is clear that he, 

 and the " glorious Abode " over which he ruled, were not created 

 by Merodach. But if this be the case, then Babylon, Merodach's 

 own city, is in the same doubtful position. As it is certain that 

 he was regarded as the founder of the city — there is no record 

 of its existence being due to his father Ae, and it was, moreover, 

 the beginning of Nimrod's {i.e., Merodach's) kingdom — it would 

 seem likely that the whole narrative is purposely invested with 

 doubt in order to lead the reader to suppose that even the 

 things about which no statement is made were the work of 

 Merodach, as Babylon and the other cities of Babylonia, in the 

 legends of the country, certainly were. 



The way in which Merodach made mankind is not described 

 — there is mention only of the simple fact, that Aruru, the 

 goddess of Sippar, made the seed of mankind with him. As the 

 reference to this goddess comes in rather suddenly here, it is 

 probable that the line was inserted simply because the 

 inscription was a copy made for the city of Sippar, and just as 

 Assur-bani-apli had his own name inscribed in at least one 

 bilingual inscription, and his scribes left out the references 

 to Isin and Larag or Larancha in " the Lament of the Daughter 

 of Bel," in like manner also this text may have been edited by 

 the scribe who wrote it out ; the name of Aruru, who, possibly 

 according to some legend of the city, had made the seed of 

 mankind at the creation, being inserted here to fill up what he 

 may have considered a regrettable omission. 



The incantation on the reverse, which calls down all kinds 

 of blessings on the city of Borsippa, and i]-zida, its celebrated 

 temple-tower, implies that this foundation also desired to be 

 admitted into the number of places regarded as holy, and on 

 the same footing as Babylon, Ur, Erech, and Eridu— in fact, 

 there is every probability that the prelixing of the story of the 

 Creation to it by way of introduction is due to this circumstance. 



There is probably but little doubt that the Semitic story of 

 the Creation is the older of the two. This is shown by the 

 fact that, though Merodach is the central figure in each, larger 

 space is devoted, in the Semitic version, to the divinities who 

 preceded him in the rule of the universe. Of course it is not 

 impossible that the actual composition of the legend was com- 

 paratively late ; but everything points to a period preceding that 

 when it assumed the form in which we now have it. In the 

 bilingual account, on the other hand, the wording throughout 



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