The History of the Ancient Civilizations. Duncker Max

inscriptions of Babylonia, he ruled over the hosts of heaven and earth. His image on the cylinder of Urukh has been mentioned above (p. 259). Statues of Nebo with long beard and hair, and a robe from the breast downwards, have been found in the ruins of Nineveh. Assyrian inscriptions entitle him the "prince of the gods." His name means the "revealer," and what we learn from western writers about a special school of Chaldaic priests at Borsippa agrees very well with this. The lord of Mars, Nergal, was worshipped at the city of Kutha. The inscriptions name him the "king of the battle," the "ruler of the storm," or simply the "lion-god."[367] Hence the winged lions with a human head at the temples and palace gates of Susa and Nineveh (p. 253) were his images, and stood no doubt at Babylon and Kutha also, while the winged bulls must have been the images of Adar. In the narrative of the flood on Assyrian tablets, it is Adar who overthrows and Nergal who destroys (p. 243). After the restoration of the Babylonian kingdom, the kings are named after Nebo and Nergal. Yet the inscriptions of Nebuchadnezzar II. celebrate above all other deities the lord of Jupiter, Merodach, as Belrabu, i.e. the "great lord," the "highest god," the "lord of heaven and earth."[368]

To this circle of planet-gods belongs also the female deity, whom the Babylonians worshipped with much zeal—the goddess Bilit, i.e. "Lady," the Mylitta of Herodotus. Her star is Venus. The inscriptions name her "Queen of the Gods," "Mother of the Gods." As she is also called the "Lady of Offspring," it is clear that she was regarded by the Babylonians as the goddess of fertility and birth. They recognised the power of the goddess in the charm and beauty of vegetative nature. Within the wall of her temple at Babylon a grove afforded a cool shade, and a cistern reminded the worshippers of the mistress of the fertilizing water. The creatures sacred to her were fish, as the inhabitants of water, and remarkable for vigorous propagation, and the dove.[369] According to the account of Herodotus the maidens of Babylonia had to worship the goddess by the sacrifice of their virginity; once in her life each was expected to sell her body in honour of the goddess, and thus to redeem herself. Hence on the festivals of Mylitta the maidens of Babylon sat in long rows in the grove of the goddess, with chaplets of cord upon their heads. Even the daughters of the wealthy came in covered cars with a numerous body of attendants. Here they had to remain till one of the pilgrims, who came to worship the goddess, cast a piece of gold into their laps, with the words, "In the name of Mylitta." Then the maiden was compelled to follow him, and comply with his wishes. The money thus earned she gave to the temple-treasury, and was henceforth freed from her obligation to the goddess. "The good-looking and graceful maidens," adds Herodotus, "quickly found a pilgrim, but the ugly ones could not satisfy the law, and often remained in the temple three or four years."[370] The Hebrew scriptures confirm the statements of Herodotus. They tell us of the Babylonians, "that their women, with cords about them (they were bound to the goddess), sat by the wayside, and burnt bran for perfume, and she who was drawn away by the passer-by reproached her fellow that she had not been thought worthy of the honour, and that her cord was not broken."[371] The goddess Nana, whose image, as we have seen, was carried away at an ancient period from Erech to Susa, and to whom it is Nebuchadnezzar's boast that he built temples at Babylon and Borsippa,[372] was hardly distinguished from Bilit or Mylitta.

Opposed to the goddess of fertility, procreation, and birth, stood Istar, the goddess of war, of ruin, and destruction. She is often mentioned in inscriptions as "the Queen of Babylon;" according to Assyrian inscriptions she carries a bow, and western writers tell us of the worship of Artemis by the Babylonians. That this goddess united with Bilit, and sent alternately blessing and fruit, death and ruin, is placed beyond doubt, by the analogous worship of Baltis, Ashera, and Astarte by the Syrians, and more especially by the Phœnicians and Carthaginians. Moreover the planet Venus belonged to this goddess in both her forms. In the tablets of the flood, Istar boasts that men owed their existence to her (p. 243), and an Assyrian syllabarium tells us that "the star of Venus (Dilbat, the Delephat of the Greeks), at sunrise, is Istar among the gods; the same star at sunset is Bilit among the gods."[373] On Assyrian tablets is found a narrative of the journey of Istar to the under-world. She determines to go down to the house of the departed, to the abode of the god Irkalla, to the house which has no exit, to the road which leads not back, to the place where the entrance is without light, where dust is their nourishment and mould their food, where light is not seen, where they dwell in darkness, where the arches are filled with spirits like birds; over the gate and the panels dust is strewed. "Watchman of the waters," said Istar, "open thy gate, that I may enter. If thou openest not, I will break thy gate, and burst asunder the bars; I will shatter the threshold and destroy the doors." The watchman opened the gate, and as she passed through he took the great crown from her head; and when she passed through the second gate he took the rings from her ears; and when she passed through the third gate he took the necklace from her neck; and when she passed through the fourth gate he took the ornaments from her breast; and when she passed through the fifth gate he took the girdle of her robe; and when she passed through the sixth gate he took the rings from her arms and legs; and when she passed through the seventh gate he took the mantle from her neck and said, "Thus does Ninkigal to those who come to her." Arrived in the under-world, Istar was grievously afflicted in the eyes, on the hips, feet, heart, head, and whole body. But the world above could not bear the loss of Istar, "the bull sought not the cow, nor the male ass the female," and the god Hea sent a message to Ninkigal, the Lady of the under-world, to set her free. Ninkigal caused the water of life to pour out over Istar. Then the seven doors of the under-world were again opened for her, and before each she received back what had been taken from her at her entrance.[374]

In the fragments of Berosus the last of the fish-men is called Odakon (p. 239). Inscriptions of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar II. of Babylon mention a god Dakan, or Dagani; and we also meet the name of this god in the name of the king Ismidagon, whom we found it necessary to place before the year 2000 B.C. Assurbanipal of Assyria boasts of the favour of Anu and Dagon. These two gods appear in the same connection in other inscriptions. Sargon, king of Assyria, calls himself "the apple of the eye of Anu and Dagon."[375] Male figures, with a horned cap on the head, and ending in a fish, and priests with fishskins hung above them, are often found on the monuments of Nineveh. As the word Dag means "fish," we may with confidence find in the god Dakan the fish-god of the Babylonians; the god who out of moisture gives plenty, fertility, and increase. That the Canaanites also worshipped Dagon is proved by the names Beth-Dagon and Kaphar-Dagon, which occur near Joppa and Sichem. The Philistines also on the coast of the Mediterranean invoked the same god. His image in the temple at Ashdod had the face and hands of a man, the body of a fish, and the feet of a man (see below). The seven fish-men who rose out of the Persian Gulf were therefore seven manifestations, or revelations, of the gods Oan and Dagon, Anu and Dakan.

The chief seats of the religious worship of the Babylonians were Babylon itself, when it had become the metropolis of the land, Borsippa and Kutha. The kings of Assyria, who succeeded in entering Babylonia, or in subjugating it, remark more than once that they have sacrificed at Babylon, Borsippa, and Kutha, to Bel, Nebo, and Nergal, and Assurbanipal tells us that his rebellious brother, the viceroy of Babylon, had purchased the help of the Elamites with the treasures of the temple of Bel at Babylon, of Nebo at Borsippa, and Nergal at Kutha.[376] Hence these temples must have been the most considerable, and the treasures in them the largest. Beside