The Babylonian Legends of the Creation by Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge (read me a book TXT) 📖

[They said]:—“Of [our] son, the Hero, our Avenger,

 

142. “We will exalt the name by our speech.”

 

143. They sat down and in their assembly they proclaimed his rank.

 

144. Every one of them pronounced his name in the sanctuary.

 

SEVENTH TABLET.

 

1. O ASARI,—giver of plantations, appointer of sowing time,

 

2. Who dost make grain and fibrous plants, who makest garden herbs to

spring up.

 

3. O ASARU-ALIM—who art weighty in the council-chamber, who art

fertile in counsel,

 

4. To whom the gods pay worship (?) reverent …

 

5. O ASARU-ALIM-NUNA—the adored light of the Father who begat him,

 

6. Who makest straight the direction of Anu, Bel, [and Ea].[1]

 

[Footnote 1: This line seems to imply that Marduk was regarded as the

instructor of the “old” gods; the allusion is, probably, to the “ways”

of Anu, Bel and Ea, which are treated as technical terms in

astrology.]

 

7. He is their patron who fixed [their] …

 

8. Whose drink is abundance, who goeth forth …

9. O TUTU—creator of their new life,

10. Supplier of their wants, that they may be satisfied [or, glad],

 

11. Let but [Tutu] recite an incantation, the gods shall be at rest;

 

12. Let but [the gods] attack him (i.e., Tutu) in wrath, he

shall resist them successfully;

 

13. Let him be raised up on a high throne in the assembly

of the gods….

 

14. None among the gods is like unto him.

 

15. O god TUTU, who art the god ZI-UKKINA, life of the host of the

gods,

 

16. Who stablished the shining heavens for the gods,

 

17. He founded their paths, he fixed [their courses].

 

18. Never shall his deeds be forgotten among men.

 

19. O god TUTU, who art ZI-AZAG, was the third name they gave

him—holder (i.e., possessor) of holiness,

 

20. God of the favourable wind, lord of adoration and grace,

 

21. Creator of fulness and abundance, stablisher of plenty,

 

22. Who turneth that which is little into that which is much.

 

23. In sore straits we have felt his favouring breeze.

 

24. Let them (the gods) declare, let them magnify, let them sing his

praises.

 

25. O TUTU, who art the god AGA-AZAG in the fourth place—let men

exult.

 

26. Lord of the holy incantation, who maketh the dead to live,

 

27. He felt compassion for the gods who were in captivity.

 

28. He riveted on the gods his enemies the yoke which had been resting

on them.

29. In mercy towards them he created mankind,

30. The Merciful One in whose power it is to give life.

 

31. His words shall endure for ever, they shall never be forgotten,

 

32. In the mouth of the Black-headed[1] whom his hands have made.

 

[Footnote 1: Here the title “Black-headed” refers to all mankind, but

it is sometimes used by the scribes to distinguish the population of

the Euphrates Valley from foreign peoples of light complexions.]

 

33. O God TUTU, who art the god MU-AZAG in the fifth place—let their

mouth recite a holy incantation [to him],

 

34. Who by his own holy incantation hath destroyed all the evil ones.

 

[Illustration: Portion of a tablet inscribed in Assyrian with a text

of the Seventh Tablet of the Creation Series. [K. 8522.]]

 

35. O god SHAZU, the wise heart of the gods, who searchest the inward

parts of the belly,

 

36. Who dost not permit the worker of evil to go forth by his side,

 

37. Establisher of the company of the gods … their hearts.

 

38. Reducer of the disobedient …

 

[Lines 39-106 are wanting. The positions of the fragmentary lines

supplied by duplicate fragments are uncertain; in any case they give

no connected sense.]

 

107. Verily, he holdeth the beginning and the end of them,[1]

verily …

 

[Footnote 1: Compare the language of the Kur’ân (Surah II, v. 256),

“He (Allah) knoweth what is before them and what is behind them.”]

 

108. Saying, “He who entered into the middle of Tiâmat resteth not;

 

109. “His name shall be ‘Nibiru’ the seizer of the middle.

 

110. “He shall set the courses of the stars of the heavens,

 

111. “He shall herd together the whole company of the gods like sheep.

 

112. “He shall [ever] take Tiâmat captive, he shall slit up her

treasure (variant, life), he shall disembowel her.”[1]

 

[Footnote 1: These lines suggest that the fight between Marduk and

Tiâmat was recurrent; it is incorrect to translate the verbal forms as

preterites.]

 

113. Among the men who are to come after a lapse of time,

 

114. Let [these words] be heard without ceasing, may they reign to all

eternity,

 

115. Because he made the [heavenly] places and moulded the stable

[earth].

 

116. Father Bel proclaimed his name, “Lord of the Lands.”

 

117. All the Igigi repeated the title.

118. Ea heard and his liver rejoiced,

119. Saying, “He whose title hath rejoiced his fathers

 

120. “Shall be even as I am; his name shall be Ea.

 

121. “He shall dispose of all the magical benefits of my rites,

 

122. “He shall make to have effect my instructions.”

 

123. By the title of “Fifty times” the great gods

 

124. Proclaimed his names fifty times, they magnified his going.

 

EPILOGUE.

 

125. Let the first comer take them and repeat them;

 

126. Let the wise man and the learned man meditate upon all of them;

 

127. The father shall repeat them to his son that he may lay hold upon

them.

 

128. Let them (i.e., the names) open the ears of the shepherd and the

herdsman.[1]

 

[Footnote 1: “To open the ears”—to give understanding.]

 

129. Let [man] rejoice in Marduk, the Lord of the Gods,

 

130. That his land may be fertile and he himself abide in security.

 

131. His word is true, his command altereth not.

 

132. No god hath ever brought to the ground that which issueth from

his mouth.

 

133. They (i.e., the gods) treated him with contempt, he turned

not his back [in flight],

 

134. No god could resist his wrath at its height.

 

135. His heart is large, his bowels of mercy are great.

 

136. Of sin and wickedness before him …

 

137. The first comer utters his complaint of humiliation before him.

 

[Lines 138-142 are too fragmentary to translate.]

 

NOTES.

 

1. There are in the British Museum several fragments of Neo-Babylonian

copies of the Seven Tablets of Creation, the exact position of which is

at present uncertain. One of these (S. 2013) is of some importance

because it speaks of one object which was in the “upper Tiâmat”, and of

another which was in the “lower Tiâmat”. This shows that the Babylonians

thought that one half of the body of Tiâmat, which was split up by

Marduk, was made into the celestial ocean, and the other half into the

terrestrial ocean, in other words, into “the waters that were above” and

“the waters that were beneath” the firmament respectively.

 

2. When George Smith published his Chaldean Account of Genesis

in 1876, he was of opinion that the Creation Tablets in the British

Museum contained descriptions of the Temptation of Eve by the serpent

and of the building and overthrow of the Tower of Babel. The

description of Paradise in Genesis ii seems to show traces of

Babylonian influence, and the cylinder seal, Brit. Mus. No. 89,326,

was thought to be proof that a Babylonian legend of the Temptation

existed. In fact, George Smith printed a copy of the seal in his book

(p. 91). But it is now known that the tablet which was believed to

refer to man’s eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (K. 3, 473

+ 79-7-8, 296 + R. 615) describes the banquet of the gods to which

they invited Marduk. In like manner the text on K. 3657, which Smith

thought referred to the Tower of Babel, is now known to contain no

mention of a tower or building of any sort. It was also thought by him

that K. 3364 contained a set of instructions which God gave to Adam

and Eve after their creation, but it is now known and admitted by all

Assyriologists that the text on this tablet contains moral precepts

and has nothing to do with the Creation Series. Enquiries are from

time to time made at the Museum for tablets which deal with the

Temptation of Eve, and the destruction of the Tower of Babel, and the

Divine commands to Adam and Eve; it is perhaps not superfluous to say

that nothing of the kind exists.

 

LIST OF THE NAMES OF THE STARS OR SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC, WITH A LIST

SHOWING THE MONTH THAT WAS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH STAR IN THE PERSIAN

PERIOD.

 

BY SIDNEY SMITH, M.A., and C.J. GADD, M.A., Assistants in the Department.

 

No. 77,821 (85-4-30, 15).

 

Determinative Modern

Month. of Star. Name of the Sign of the Zodiac. Equivalent

 

[Cuneiform] Goat.

[Cuneiform] Bull.

 

[Cuneiform] Twins.

[Cuneiform] Crab.

[Cuneiform] Lion.

[Cuneiform] Virgin.

[Cuneiform] Scales.

[Cuneiform] Scorpion.

[Cuneiform] Bow.

[Cuneiform] Capricornus

[Cuneiform] Water-bearer

[Cuneiform] The Fishes.

 

Month.

|

| Determinative of Star.

| |

| | Name of the Sign on the Zodiac.

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | TRANSLITERATION.

| | TRANSLATION.

| |

1 Nisannu (kakkab) (amel) Agru….

The Labourer.

 

2 Airu ” Kakkab u (kakkab) Alap shame

The Star and the Bull of heaven.

 

3 Simanu ” Re’u kinu shame u (kakkab) tu’ame rabuti

The faithful shepherd of heaven and the Great Twins.

 

4 Duuzu ” AL.LUL. (shittu)[1]….

The Tortoise.

 

5 Abu ” Kalbu rabu….

Great Dog (Lion).

 

6 Ululu ” Shiru….

Virgin with ear of corn.

 

7 Tashritum ” Zibanitum….

….

 

8 Arah shamna ” Akrabu….

The Scorpion.

 

9 Kislimu ” PA.BIL.SAG….

Enurta (the god).

 

10 Tebetum ” SUHUR.MASH….

The Goat-fish.

 

11 Shabatu ” Gula….

The Great Star

 

12 Addaru ” DIL.GAN.u rikis nuni

The star … and the Band of Fishes.

 

[Footnote 1: The Egyptian Sheta]

 

I have been assisted in the preparation of this monograph by

Mr. Sidney Smith, M.A., Assistant in the Department.

 

E.A. WALLIS BUDGE.

 

DEPARTMENT OF EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM.

June 1, 1921.

 

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