Izdubar

“ Were the hero Izdubar a purely human person, it would be a matter of much wonder how the small nucleus of historical fact which the story of his adventures contains should have become entwined and overgrown with such a disproportionate quantity of the most extravagant fiction, oftentimes downright monstrous in its fancifulness. ”

“ He strangles a lion by pressing it with brawny arm against his side, as if it were no more than a cat. This figure is that of Izdubar, or Gisdubar, the great central character of Assyrian poetry and sculpture, the theme of minstrels, the typical hero of his land, the favored of the gods. What is called the Epic of Izdubar relates the exploits of this hero, who was born the son of a king in Ourouk of Chaldea. His father was dethroned by the Elamites, and Izdubar was driven into the wilderness and became a mighty hunter. ”

“ The fragments of the history of Izdubar, so far as I have at present examined them, remind me of the exploits and labors of Hercules, and, on the supposition that our present version of Berosus is correct as to dates, Izdubar may have been placed about 30,000 years before the Christian era. No document can belong to so remote an age. The legends of Izdubar and the account of the Flood must however belong to a very early period, for there are references to the story in the bilingual lists which were composed in Babylonia during the early Chaldean empires. ”

“ The second column shows Izdubar in some fabulous region, whither he has wandered in search of Hasisadra. Here he sees composite monsters with their feet resting in hell, and their heads reaching heaven. These beings are supposed to guide and direct the sun at its rising and setting. ”

“ Who is great among men? Izdubar is skilled among leaders; Izdubar is great among men."
78.—IZDUBAR AND ÊABÂNI (BABYLONIAN CYLINDER) . (Perrot and Chipiez.)
14. But the vengeance of the offended goddess was not to be so easily defeated. It now fell on the hero in a more direct and personal way. Ishtar's mother, the goddess Anatu, smote Êabâni with sudden death and Izdubar with a dire disease, a sort of leprosy, it would appear. ”

“ Was stormed by Nammurabi the great Sar,
Ninrad of Erech, our King Izdubar.
Khumbaba's ally was by him o'erthrown,
And thus appeared to take Khumbaba's throne.
And now within his palace came a sound
That roared through all the forest, shook the ground:
"Our foes! our foes! the gate! hear how it rings!"
And from his throne the giant furious springs:
"Ho! vassals! sound the trump! 'tis Izdubar,
To arms! our foes are on us from afar!" ”

“ The legends of Izdubar or Nimrod commence with a description of the evils brought upon Babylonia by foreign invasion, the conquest and sacking of the city of Erech being one of the incidents in the story. Izdubar, a famous hunter, who claimed descent from a long line of kings, reaching up to the time of the Flood, now comes forward; he has a dream, and after much trouble a hermit named Heabani is persuaded by Zaidu, a hunter, and two females, to come to Erech and interpret the dream of Izdubar. ”

“ Smith’s opinion that he was the hero of the Izdubar Epic was first founded on the discovery that the latter formed the centre of the national historical poetry, and was the hero of Babylonian legend—in fact, occupies much the same place as Nimrod in later Arab tradition.
Izdubar, moreover, agrees exactly in character with Nimrod; he was a hunter, according to the cuneiform legends, who contended with and destroyed the lion, tiger, leopard, and wild bull or buffalo, animals the most formidable in the chase in any country. ”

“ The fragments of the second and third tablets assume by their notices that Izdubar was already known as a mighty hunter, and it appears a little later that he claimed descent from the old Babylonian heroes, as he calls Xisuthrus, the Chaldean Noah, his “father.” ”

“ And Bel in his own might, him arms,
To Erech's sons and daughters save;
What other Sar hath glorious charms
Like his, who saved proud Elam's slave?
Chorus
No rival hath our mighty Sar,
Thy cymbals strike and raise the cry!
All hail! All hail! great Izdubar!
His deeds immortal glorify!
Our Izdubar our sons preserves
To all our fathers day and night,
And Erech's ruler well deserves
Our highest praise, whose matchless might
Delights the gods! All hail our Sar!
Whose firmness, wisdom need no praise!
Queen Daunat's son, our Izdubar,
His glory to the Sami [1] raise! ”

“ I may add that since the greater part of this edition has been in type, I have found myself able to explain the name of the hero which in default of the true transcription has been provisionally read Izdubar. The name is composed of three ideographs, the first of which is the determinative prefix of wood, while the two latter are rendered saptu saplitu, “the lower lip,” in Semitic Assyrian. Now M. Lenormant has shown that Izdubar was originally the Accadian Fire-god, and Mr. ”

“ I have recovered a single fragment, which I believe to belong to this tablet; it is K 3389, and it contains part of the third and fourth columns of writing. It appears from this that Izdubar was then at Erech, and he had a curious dream. He thought he saw the stars of heaven fall to the ground, and in their descent they struck upon his back. He then saw standing over him a terrible being, the aspect of his face was fierce, and he was armed with claws, like the claws of lions. The greater part of the description of the dream is lost; it probably occupied columns I. and II. of the second tablet. ”

“ Izdubar among the Trees of the Gods (?) From a Babylonian cylinder found in Cyprus by Gen. di Cesnola. 31. Emeralds it carried as its fruit, 32. the branch refuses not to support a canopy. 33. Crystals they carry as shoots (?) 34. fruit they carry, and to the sight it is glistening.
Some of the words in this fragment are obscure, but the general meaning is clear. In the next column the wanderings of Izdubar are continued, and he comes to a country near the sea. Fragments of several lines of this column are preserved, but too mutilated to translate with certainty. ”

“ The same is unfortunately the case with the fourth and fifth tablets, from which we can only gather that Izdubar and Êabâni, who have become inseparable, start on an expedition against the Elamite tyrant, Khumbaba, who holds his court in a gloomy forest of cedars and cypresses, enter his palace, fall upon him unawares and kill him, leaving his body to be torn and devoured by the birds of prey, after which exploit Izdubar, as his friend had predicted to him, is proclaimed king in Erech. The sixth tablet is far better preserved, and gives us one of the most interesting incidents almost complete. ”

“ To summon Accad's soldiers from the walls
To hear the war proclaimed against their foes,
And Accad's war-cry from them loud arose.
King Izdubar Heabani warmly prest
Within his arms upon his throbbing breast,
And said, "Let us to the war temple go,
That all the gods their favor may bestow."
The seer replied, "Tis well! then let us wend
Our way, and at the altar we will bend,—
To Ishtar's temple, where our goddess queen
Doth reign, seek her propitious favor, then
In Samas' holy temple pray for aid
To crush our foe;—with glory on each blade,
Our hands will carry victory in war." ”

“ Heabani took hold of the animal by its head and tail, while Izdubar slew it.
Ishtar on this cursed Izdubar, and descended to Hell or Hades to attempt once more to summon unearthly powers against Izdubar. She descends to the infernal regions, which are vividly described, and, passing through its seven gates, is ushered into the presence of the queen of the dead. The world of love goes wrong in the absence of Ishtar, and on the petition of the gods she is once more brought to the earth, ultimately Anatu, her mother, satisfying her vengeance by striking Izdubar with a loathsome disease. ”

“ The goddess Istar, daughter of Anu according to one myth, of Bel according to another, of Sin, the moon god, according to a third, who had loved the shepherd Tammuz, the Sun-god, fell in love with Izdubar. He refused her offers, and the goddess, angry at his answer, ascended to heaven and petitioned her father Anu to create a bull for her, to be an instrument of her vengeance. Anu complied, and created the bull, on which Izdubar and Hea-bani collected a band of warriors and went against it. ”

“ The great poem of Izdubar has but recently been known to European scholars, having been discovered in 1871 by the eminent Assyriologist, Mr. George Smith. It was probably written about 2000 B.C., though the extant edition, which came from the library of King Assurbanipal in the palace at Dur-Sargina, must bear the date of 600 B.C. The hero is supposed to be a solar personification, and the epic is interesting to modern writers not only on account of its description of the Deluge, but also for the pomp and dignity of its style, and for its noble delineation of heroic character. ”

“ In course of time Izdubar, the conqueror of kings and monsters, the ruler of peoples, fell into some illness and came to fear death, man's last great enemy. Now, the Babylonians believed in the existence of a patriarch named Sisit, the Xisuthrus of the Greeks, who was supposed to have been translated and to have attained to immortality without death. Izdubar, according to the notions of the time, resolved to seek Sisit, to ascertain how he became immortal, that he might attain to a similar honor. ”

“ Before proceeding to the consideration of these less satisfactory details, it is needful to remark that Hasisadra's adventure is a mere episode in a cycle of stories of which a personage, whose name is provisionally read "Izdubar," is the centre. The nature of Izdubar hovers vaguely between the heroic and the divine; sometimes he seems a mere man, sometimes approaches so closely to the divinities of fire and of the sun as to be hardly distinguishable from them. As I have already mentioned, the tablet which sets forth Hasisadra's perils is one of twelve ”

“ Thus Izdubar mourned for his friend, and went into the temple of Bel, and ceased not from lamenting and crying to the gods, till Êa mercifully inclined to his prayer and sent his son Meridug to bring Êabâni's spirit out of the dark world of shades into the land of the blessed, there to live forever among the heroes of old, reclining on luxurious couches and drinking the pure water of eternal springs. The poem ends with a vivid description of a warrior's funeral:
"I see him who has been slain in battle. ”

“ Amraphel, however, with a sudden, inexplicable qualm, refused the honor.
"Belit Istar," he began, after a prolonged silence which Istar had not thought of breaking, "for two years now, ever since the miracle of the incarnation, you have dwelt secluded in the Great City. Here all men have worshipped you in awe and in love. But now, from that city in which your first earth-life was lived, where, in the early dawn of Chaldean history, you and your bright Tammuz and the mighty Izdubar dwelt together, your people cry aloud to you again. ”

“ Somewhere here should be the story, now lost, of the starting of Izdubar on his expedition accompanied by his friend Heabani. The sequel shows they arrive at the palace or residence of Heabani, which is surrounded by a forest of pine and cedar, the whole being enclosed by some barrier or wall, with a gate for entrance. Heabani and Izdubar open this gate where the story reopens on the fifth column.
Column V.
01. the sharp weapon
02. to make men fear him . . . . ”

“ I have altered my translation of the passage in pp. 255, 256, which I now believe to relate that Izdubar at the direction of Urhamsi made a spear from one of the trees of the forest before going across the waters of death which separated the abode of Hasisadra from the world of mortals. ”

“ It is curious that, whenever Izdubar speaks to this being, the name Mua is used, while, whenever Izdubar is spoken to, the full name Mu-seri-ina-namari occurs. Where the story reopens Izdubar is informing Mua of his first connection with Hea-bani and his offers to him when he desired him to come to Erech.
271
Column III. (fragment) .
1. for my friend.... 2. free thee.... 3. weapon.... 4. bright star.... Column IV. (fragment) .
1. On a beautiful couch I will seat thee, 2. I will cause thee to sit on a comfortable seat on the left, 3. the kings of the earth shall kiss thy feet. 4. ”

“ Consequently there are no families nor any social or common life. The conscience protested against the injustice of confounding with the crowd those mortals who had distinguished themselves when alive by their exploits or virtues. Thus we find in a recently copied passage from the great epic of Izdubar, the Assyrian Hercules, that valiant soldiers—those no doubt who had fallen in the "Wars of Assur"—were rewarded for their prowess. ”

“ She gathered her handmaidens around her and they raised loud lamentations over the death of the divine bull. But Izdubar called together his people and bade them lift up the body and carry it to the altar of Shamash and lay it before the god. Then they washed their hands in the Euphrates and returned to the city, [Pg 310] where they made a feast of rejoicing and revelled deep into the night, while in the streets a proclamation to the people of Erech was called out, which began with the triumphant words:
"Who is skilled among leaders? ”

“ After this they left the ship; he built an altar and offered sacrifice, the odor of which was pleasant to the gods; and finally a promise is made that a deluge shall not again be sent, but that henceforth man when guilty shall be punished in other modes.
This concludes the narrative proper of the Deluge. The conclusion of the eleventh tablet informs us of the healing of Izdubar and of his return home. Of the twelfth tablet only a few fragments remain. ”