Alfred Jeremias

“ After a long conversation discussing the inevitable and invincible mortal fate of man, Gilgamesh comes to his point and asks his ancestor how he had attained to his own happy lot. Then this favourite of the gods—no other than the Babylonian Noah—tells Gilgamesh, as he listens from his boat, the story of the Flood, which, as is well known, coincides in parts almost verbally with the biblical narrative of the Deluge, but concludes with the removal of the rescued couple to a distant land, at the mouth of the rivers, where they live as the gods. ”

“ Of Samas, the Sun god, it is said, "to make the dead live, to free the captive lies in thy hand." The god Nebo is praised as he "who lengthens the days of life and raises the dead." But above all it is Marduk, god of the Early Sun and of the Spring Sun who is spoken of as "the compassionate one, whose joy is in raising the dead," or simply—as on the last of the creation tablets—as "the raiser of the dead." ”

“ The body decays in the grave (shalamtu is the name given to the corpse, that is to say, "that which is done with") , but the soul lives in the gloom of Hades, and in that abode of horror leads an immaterial, shadow-like existence. ”

“ The skin-clad wanderer travels far through awful ravines, and after manifold dangers from which the moon-god protects him, at length he reaches Mount Mashu. The entrance to the mountain is guarded by scorpion men of giant stature, whose wild appearance inspires him with such fear and horror that he loses consciousness. ”

“ Since to the Babylonians death and sojourn in Hades loomed as a dark fate indeed, there must soon have arisen in the soul of the people the thought that there might be distinctions in the fate of the dead, and retribution in the next world. ”

“ Nabonidos, the last Chaldæan-Babylonian king, prays to the Moon-god: "Keep me from sin against thy great Godhead, and a life of far-off days grant unto me as a gift," while for Belsazar, his first born, he prays: "Cause the fear of thy sublime godhead to dwell in his heart that he consent not to sin; may he be satisfied with abundance of life!" The formal curses at the end of the royal inscriptions show, on the other hand, that destruction of posterity and sudden death were regarded as punishments for offences against gods and men. ”

“ Their deeds endure on earth who take the holy message of Ea for their guide; the great gods of heaven come to his side, in the great sanctuaries of heaven and earth they come to his side; those chambers are pure and shining; in Ea's clear and shining water bathe the Anunaki, the great gods themselves purify their faces in it. ”

“ In the midst of "the land without return" is a palace, whence the gods of Hades exercise their rule. According to the Babylonian Hades legends the real power centred in a goddess called Allatu (i.e., the "Mighty One") , or Erishkigal (i.e., the "Mistress of the Great Place") . She is represented in the Hades reliefs as a lion-headed monster (perhaps as being the wife of the lion-god Nergal) , kneeling on a horse in a boat, or— without boat—standing upon a horse, snakes in her hands and lions sucking at her breasts. ”

“ The fact that individual favourites of the gods were removed to a happy life on some Island of the Blessed or elsewhere in the vicinity of the gods is no proof of a belief in the separation of good and evil after death, but it does testify that the Babylonians in their meditations on death and the grave refused to give up all ήδυστέρας έλπίδας, "sweeter hopes," and that they attributed to their gods a power over the fate of man's soul extending beyond the tomb. ”

“ Where is the soul to be found? Simplicity sought it in the tomb; the shade of the dead man finds it hard to part from the body which gave him form and substance. Hence the corpse was embalmed, and food and drink were placed in the grave. ”

“ With the help of the Anunaki she jealously guards the spring (?) of life which is hidden in a certain sanctuary of the Underworld, the water of which can ravish the dead from her power, as was indeed one day about to happen. "Bending before her" stands a divine female scribe of the Underworld, of whose duties unfortunately we know nothing more definite. Among the servants of Erishkigal are prominent the often-named "watchman," or Chief Porter, and Namtar, the god of pestilence. Side by side with Erishkigal reigns, as king of Hades, Nergal, god of war and pestilence. ”

“ In one exorcism a sick man complains that the wizard and the witch have delivered him into the hands of a wandering ghost, and again the suffering of a man grievously ill is accounted for by the statement "the wicked ghost has come forth" (i.e., from the Underworld) . A collection of prayers of the time of Asurbanipal includes the prayer of a man possessed by a ghost. Complaint is made that the ghost will not loose his hold of the sick man day or night, so that his hair stands on end and his limbs are as if paralysed. ”

“ No consecutive account of the Babylonian religion can as yet be given, nor will it for many years come within the range of possibilities to achieve it. Abundant fragments of Babylonian religious and mythological literature have indeed been brought to light by the excavations of the last few years, and by dint of strenuous efforts a large proportion has been classified and deciphered. ”

“ Kings and great nobles were buried in temples and palaces, while the graves of the common people lay without the city. The ancient Babylonian king Gudea states incidentally that he has built the temple according to the Number Fifty, and erected within it a mausoleum of cedar wood. It would seem, therefore, that Babylonian temples like the Egyptian pyramids conceal beneath them royal tombs. Another majestic place of burial was the palace of Sargon I., a king famous in legend ”

“ No wonder many kings chose the sites of their tombs in the inaccessible swamps of the Euphrates, better to protect their sepulchres from profanation: so says Arrian, and his statement is supported by the inscriptions.
It cannot be averred absolutely that any of the graves hitherto discovered in Mesopotamia are of primitive origin. Certainly the cemeteries discovered at Nimrud, Kuyundshik, and Khorsabad, are not Assyrian; as for Babylonian cemeteries there is no fixing of their date. ”

“ Thou compassionate one among the gods, thou compassionate one, thou who lovest to raise the dead, Marduk, king of heaven and earth, king of Babylon, lord of Esagila, king of Ezida, lord of the mighty house of life, heaven and earth are thine, the space of heaven and earth is thine, exorcism of life is thine, the saliva of life is thine, the pure exorcism of the ocean is thine, black-haired mankind, living creatures, as many as dwell on the earth, all the quarters of heaven, all spirits in heaven and earth [turn?] ”

“ His temple in Kutha was regarded as the likeness of Hades, just as other temples were supposed to be in the likeness of the heavenly abodes of the gods worshipped in them. Among the clay tablets of Tell el Amarna is a Babylonian poem vividly describing the marriage of Erishkigal and Nergal. In some of its features the story recalls the Greek legend of Persephone: "Once when the gods were about to prepare a feast they sent a messenger to their sister Erishkigal to say to her, "We must certainly descend to thee; if thou wilt not ascend to us, send one to receive thy portion of the feast. ”

“ The Sun god is entreated to free him from this demon, whether it be the shade of one of the family or that of some murdered man that is oppressing his being. The sufferer has already bestowed on his tormentor clothes and shoes and a girdle, as well as a water skin and food for his departing journey. ”

“ Gifts gave I to the princes, to the Anunaki, and to the gods who inhabit the earth," i.e., the Underworld. Drinking vessels and dishes of food for the dead were not only laid with them in the tomb, but were also placed upon it. Special care was taken to supply the manes of the dead with water to drink, and to this end apparently cisterns were made in the cemeteries. "If the dead have none to care for him," concludes the Twelve Tablet epic, "then is he consumed by gnawing hunger, vainly he languishes for refreshment; what is cast out on the street that he eats." ”

“ It is, indeed, expressly stated that they lived "in the assembly of the gods." Thither fancy transferred other heroes of the people. Olympus was merged with Elysium by the Babylonians as later by the Greeks. Tiglath Pilesar expresses a hope that the great gods "have called the race of his priesthood to a dwelling-place on the mount of the gods for ever." According to the Gilgamesh epic he "who had fallen in battle with men" can claim a privileged lot after death. We are re- minded of Walhalla when, at the close of the same epic, we read of the fate of the fallen as
follows:
" ”

“ Seven walls, pierced by seven (or according to one legend fourteen) gates, surrounded the place of the dead, sometimes represented as open country, sometimes as a city, sometimes as a huge palace, but always described as full of countless terrors. ”

“ Thus then the ghosts of the dead were raised, but to rid oneself of ghosts that had been raised or that had escaped may well have appeared a more difficult matter. "I will raise the dead that they eat and live; more than the living shall the dead be," says Istar. ”

“ They smite the oxen, they smite the lambs; mighty spirits (?) , evil demons, hunters are they." "In the pastures they attack the folds, they bring sickness into the stalls of the horses, they fill the mouth of the asses with dust, they bring trouble into the stable of the she-asses." Almost every part of the body was threatened by its own special demon. ”

“ The fact also that a whole series of divinities are distinguished by the epithet "raiser of the dead," is connected with the same order of ideas. It is, indeed, the Sun and Spring gods especially that are said to love to wake the dead. ”

“ Some traces of a doctrine of retribution are, as a matter of fact, to be found in the Babylonian representations of Hades. What is the goddess scribe of the Underworld writing as she stands bending before the goddess of Hades (p. 23) ? ”

“ We have already seen that to the gods of heaven was attributed the power in certain cases to shatter the whole realm of the dead, and also that in isolated instances the spirit of a dead man might be brought forth. ”

“ The libations, regularly offered on the anniversary of death, formed the most important item in the worship of the dead, and the responsibility for offering them rested in the first place on the surviving son. ”

“ See also the articles "Creation," "Deluge" "Eschatology," "Nimrod," and "Paradise," in the "Encyclopedia Biblica," edited by the Rev. Dr. Cheyne and J. S. Black, and in Rev. Dr. J. Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible." ”