|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 5
[Illustration: Terra-cotta figure of a Babylonian Demon. [No. 22,458.]]
After countless aeons had passed the gods ANSHAR and KISHAR came into
being; the former represents the "hosts of heaven," and the latter the
"hosts of earth."
After another long and indefinite period the independent gods of the
Babylonian pantheon came into being, e.g., ANU, EA, who is here called
NUDIMMUD, and others.
[Illustration: Bronze figure of a Babylonian Demon. [No. 93,078.]]
As soon as the gods appeared in the universe "order" came into being.
When APS�, the personification of confusion and disorder of every kind,
saw this "order," he took counsel with his female associate TI�MAT with
the object of finding some means of destroying the "way" (_al-ka-at_) or
"order" of the gods. Fortunately the Babylonians and Assyrians have
supplied us with representations of Ti�mat, and these show us what form
ancient tradition assigned to her. She is depicted as a ferocious
monster with wings and scales and terrible claws, and her body is
sometimes that of a huge serpent, and sometimes that of an animal. In
the popular imagination she represented all that was physically
terrifying, and foul, and abominable; she was nevertheless the mother of
everything, [1] and was the possessor of the DUP SHIMATI or "TABLET OF
DESTINIES". No description of this Tablet or its contents is available,
but from its name we may assume that it was a sort of Babylonian Book of
Fate.[2] Theologically, Ti�mat represented to the Babylonians the same
state in the development of the universe as did _t�h� w�-bh�h�_ (Genesis
i. 2), i.e., formlessness and voidness, of primeval matter, to the
Hebrews She is depicted both on bas-reliefs and on cylinder seals in a
form which associates her with LABARTU, [3] a female devil that prowled
about the desert at night suckling wild animals but killing men. And it
is tolerably certain that she was the type, and symbol, and head of the
whole community of fiends, demons and devils.
[Footnote 1: _Muallidat gimrishun_.]
[Footnote 2: It is probable that the idea of this Tablet is perpetuated
in the "Preserved Tablet" of the Kur'�n (Surah x, 62), on which the
destiny of every man was written at or before the creation of the world.
Nothing that is written (_makt�b_) there can be erased, or altered, or
fail to take effect.]
[Footnote 3: (_Cun. Texts_, Part XXIV, Plate 44, l. 142).]
[Illustration: Terra-cotta plaque with a Typhonic animal in
relief. [No. 103,381.]]
In the consultation which took place between APS� and TI�MAT, their
messenger MU-UM-MU took part; of the history and attributes of this
last-named god nothing is known. The result of the consultation was that
a long struggle began between the demons and the gods, and it is clear
that the object of the powers of darkness was to destroy the light. The
whole story of this struggle is the subject of the Seven Tablets of
Creation. The gods are deifications of the sun, moon, planets and other
stars, and APS�, or CHAOS, and his companions the demons, are
personifications of darkness, night and evil. The story of the fight
between them is nothing more nor less than a picturesque allegory of
natural phenomena. Similar descriptions are found in the literatures of
other primitive nations, and the story of the great fight between
Her-ur, the great god of heaven, and Set, the great captain of the hosts
of darkness, may be quoted as an example. Set regarded the "order" which
Her-ur was bringing into the universe with the same dislike as that
with which APS� contemplated the beneficent work of Sin, the Moon-god,
Shamash, the Sun-god, and their brother gods. And the hostility of Set
and his allies to the gods, like that of Ti�mat and her allies, was
everlasting.
[Illustration: between Marduk (Bel) and the Dragon. Drawn from a
bas-relief from the Palace of Ashur-nasir-pal, King of Assyria,
885-860 B.C., at Nimr�d. [Nimr�d Gallery, Nos. 28 and 29.]]
At this point a new Text fills a break in the First Tablet, and
describes the fight which took place between Nudimmud or Ea, (the
representative of the established "order" which the rule of the gods had
introduced into the domain of Aps� and Ti�mat) and Aps� and his envoy
Mummu. Ea went forth to fight the powers of darkness and he conquered
Aps� and Mummu. The victory over Aps�, i.e., the confused and boundless
mass of primeval water, represents the setting of impassable boundaries
to the waters that are on and under the earth, i.e., the formation of
the Ocean. The exact details of the conquest cannot be given, but we
know that Ea was the possessor of the "pure (or white, or holy)
incantation" and that he overcame Aps� and his envoy by the utterance of
a powerful spell. In the Egyptian Legend of Ra and Aapep, the
monster is rendered spell-bound by the god Her-Tuati, who plays in it
exactly the same part as Ea in the Babylonian Legend.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|