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Page 8
The text of the Fifth Tablet, which would undoubtedly have supplied
details as to Marduk's arrangement and regulations for the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the Signs of the Zodiac in the heavens is wanting.
The prominence of the celestial bodies in the history of creation is not
to be wondered at, for the greater number of the religious beliefs of
the Babylonians are grouped round them. Moreover, the science of
astronomy had gone hand in hand with the superstition of astrology in
Mesopotamia from time immemorial; and at a very early period the oldest
gods of Babylonia were associated with the heavenly bodies. Thus the
Annunaki and the Igigi, who are bodies of deified spirits, were
identified with the stars of the northern and southern heaven,
respectively. And all the primitive goddesses coalesced and were grouped
to form the goddess Ishtar, who was identified with the Evening and
Morning Star, or Venus. The Babylonians believed that the will of the
gods was made known to men by the motions of the planets, and that
careful observation of them would enable the skilled seer to recognize
in the stars favourable and unfavourable portents. Such observations,
treated from a magical point of view, formed a huge mass of literature
which was being added to continually. From the nature of the case this
literature enshrined a very considerable number of facts of pure
astronomy, and as early as the period of the First Dynasty (about 2000
B.C.), the Babylonians were able to calculate astronomical events with
considerable accuracy, and to reconcile the solar and lunar years by the
use of epagomenal months. They had by that time formulated the existence
of the Zodiac, and fixed the "stations" of the moon, and the places of
the planets with it; and they had distinguished between the planets and
the fixed stars. In the Fifth Tablet of the Creation Series (l. 2) the
Signs of the Zodiac are called _Lumashi_ [1], but unfortunately no list
of their names is given in the context. Now these are supplied by the
little tablet (No. 77,821) of the Persian Period of which a reproduction
is here given. It has been referred to and discussed by various
scholars, and its importance is very great. The transcript of the text,
which is now published (see p. 68) for the first time, will be
acceptable to the students of the history of the Zodiac. Egyptian,
Greek, Syriac and Arabic astrological and astronomical texts all
associate with the Signs of the Zodiac twelve groups, each containing
three stars, which are commonly known as the "Thirty-six Dekans." [2]
The text of line 4 of the Fifth Tablet of the Creation Series proves
that the Babylonians were acquainted with these groups of stars, for we
read that Marduk "set up for the twelve months of the year three stars
apiece." In the List of Signs of the Zodiac here given, it will be seen
that each Sign is associated with a particular month.
[Footnote 1: This is the original of the Syriac word for the Signs of
the Zodiac _malw�sh�_ (plural of _malw�sh�_). The Syrians
added to it an _m_, thus giving it a participial form.]
[Footnote 2: [Greek: Dekanoi] also called [Greek: prosopa], [Greek:
horoskopoi], [Greek: philokes] and [Greek: episkopoi]. They were well
known to the Egyptians, who, as early as the fourteenth century B.C.,
possessed a full list of them. See Lepsius, _Chronologie_,
Berlin, 1848, and Brugsch, _Thesaurus (Astronomische und
Astrologische Inschriften)_, Leipzig, 1883.]
[Illustration: Tablet inscribed with a list of the Signs of the
Zodiac. [No. 77,821.]]
At a later period, say about 500 B.C., the Babylonians made some of
the gods regents of groups of stars, for Enlil ruled 33 stars, Anu 23
stars, and Ea 15 stars. They also possessed lists of the fixed stars,
and drew up tables of the times of their heliacal risings. Such lists
were probably based upon very ancient documents, and prove that the
astral element in Babylonian religion was very considerable.
The accompanying illustration, which is reproduced from the Boundary
Stone of Ritti-Marduk (Brit. Mus., No. 90,858), supplies much
information about the symbols of the gods, and of the Signs of the
Zodiac in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I, King of Babylon, about 1120
B.C.. Thus in Register 1, we have the Star of Ishtar, the crescent of
the Moon-god Sin, and the disk of Shamash the Sun-god. In Reg. 2 are
three stands (?) surmounted by tiaras, which represent the gods Anu,
Enlil (Bel) and Ea respectively. In Reg. 3 are three altars (?) or
shrines (?) with a monster in Nos. 1 and 2. Over the first is the
lance of Marduk, over the second the mason's square of Nab�, and over
the third is the symbol of the goddess Ninkharsag, the Creatress. In
Reg. 4 are a standard with an animal's head, a sign of Ea; a
two-headed snake = the Twins; an unknown symbol with a horse's head,
and a bird, representative of Shukamuna and Shumalia. In Reg. 5 are a
seated figure of the goddess Gula and the Scorpion-man; and in Reg. 6
are forked lightning, symbol of Adad, above a bull, the Tortoise,
symbol of Ea (?), the Scorpion of the goddess Ishkhara, and the Lamp
of Nusku, the Fire-god. Down the left-hand side is the serpent-god
representing the constellation of the Hydra.
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