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Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

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About This Book

This work presents a compact survey of Babylonian and Assyrian civilization and mythology, tracing racial origins and early city-states and then detailing major deities, rival pantheons, demons, and popular cults such as Tammuz and Ishtar. It retells foundational narratives including creation as Merodach’s dragon-slaying, famed hero-quests of Etana and Gilgamesh, and the flood and underworld traditions, and examines material culture, laws, temple and urban life, astronomical lore, and imperial history from regional ascendancies to Assyrian splendour and decline, highlighting how myth, religion, and shifting peoples shaped political and social institutions.

V

Valentine, St., mating day of, 430.
Vărună, the Indian god, links with Ea-Oannes, 31, 34; sea fire of, 50, 51; Shamash the sun god and, 54; association of with rain, 55; Sumerian links with, 55, 56; worshippers of buried dead, 56; no human beings in Paradise of, 209; attire of deities in Paradise of, 212; the goat and, 333.
Vas´olt, Tyrolese storm demon, 74.
Vayu (vä´yu), Indian wind god, 35.
Vedas (vay´dăs), astronomy of the, 318.
Venus, the goddess, 17, 296; lovers of, 102.
Venus, the planet, Ishtar as, 296; female at sunset and male at sunrise, 299; in sun and moon group, 301; rays of as beard, 301; as the "Proclaimer", 314; connection of with moon, 314; in astrology, 318, 324.
Vestal virgins, 228, 229.
Vishnu (vish´noo), the Indian god, like Ea, 27; Ea like, 38; eagle giant as vehicle of, 75; Sri or Lakshmi wife of, 101; sleep of on world serpent, 150; eagle and, 169, 347.
"Vital spark", the, fire as, 49.
Voice, the pure, in Sumerian spell, 46.
Vulture, as deity of fertility, 429, 430; the Persian eagle legend and, 493; goddess of Egypt, 168; as protectors of Shakuntala, 423, 424.

W

Wales, pig as the devil in, 293.
Warad Sin, struggle of with Babylon, 217; the Biblical Arioch, 247, 248.
Warka. See Erech.
Water, control and distribution of in Babylonia, 23, 24; corn deities and, 33; essence of life in, 44, 45, 51.
Water gods and demons, 27 et seq.
Water of Life, Gilgamesh's quest of, 177 et seq.; in Alexander the Great myth, 186; in Koran legend, 186; in Gaelic legends, 186, 187; in Indian legends, 187, 210.
Waxen figures, in folk cures, 234.
Weapons in graves, 212.
Weaving, in Late Stone Age, 14.
Weeping ceremonies, the agricultural, 82 et seq.; the Egyptian god Rem, 29.
Wells, worship of, 44.
Westminster Abbey, Long Meg and, 156.
Wheel of Life, the, Ashur, 334 et seq.; Ezekiel's references to, 344 et seq.; in Babylonian, Indian, Persian, and Hittite mythologies, 346-348 ; in Indian mythology, 346, 347; the sun and the, 348; "dot within the circle" and egg thorn, 352; Ahura Mazda's, 355.
Wife of Merodach, 221; Amon's wife, 222.
Wild Huntsmen, the, Asiatic gods as, 35, 64.
"Will-o'-the-wisp", the Babylonian and European, 66, 67.
Winckler, Dr. Hugo, Semitic migrations, 10; on Mitannian origins, 268, 269; Boghaz-Köi tablets found by, 280, 367.
Wind, the south-west, demon of in Babylonia and Europe, 72, 73.
Wind gods, Vayu, Enlil, Rarnman, &c, as, 35.
Wind hags, Babylonia Shutu, Scottish Annie, English Annis, Irish Anu, 73; Icelandic Angerboda, 73; Tyrolese "wind brewers", 74; Artemis as one of the, 104.
Winds, the seven, as servants of Merodach, 145.
Wine seller who became queen, 114, 115; the female, 229.
Wolf, Nergal-Mars as the, 303.
Women, as rulers in Egypt and Babylonia, 16, 17; treatment of in early times, 15; Nomads oppressors of, 16; exalted by Mediterranean peoples, 16; Sumerian laws regarding, 16, 17; the Sumerian language of, 17; in goddess worship, 106-108 ; social status of, 108; position of in Hammurabi Code, 224 ei seq.; the marriage market, 224, 225; drink traffic monopolized by, 229.
World hill, in Babylonian, Indian, and Egyptian mythologies, 332.
World serpent, in Eur-Asian mythologies, 151.
World Soul, the Brahmanic, 304, 328, 329.
"World spike", star called, 332.
"World spine", the, 332; the "world tree" and, 334; Ashur standard as, 335.
World tree, symbol of "world spine", 334.
Worm, the, dragon as, 151; the legend of the, 234, 235.
Wryneck, goddess and the, 427 n.

X

Xerxes, Merodach's temple pillaged by, 497.

Y

Yä, the Hebrew, Ea as, 31.
Yama (yă´mă), Osiris and Gilgamesh and, xxxii; Mitra and, 56; eagle as, 169; Gilgamesh and, 200; the Paradise of, 209.
Yng´ve, the Germanic patriarch, 93.
Yügăs, the Indian doctrine of, Babylonian origin of, 310 et seq.

Z

Zabium (za´bi-um), king in Hammurabi Age, 242.
Zachariah, King of Israel, 449.
Zamama (zä-mä´mä), god of Kish, Tammuz traits of, 126; identified with Merodach, 241.
Zambia (zäm´bi-a), King of Isin, 133.
Zedekiah, King of Judah, conspiracy against Babylonia, 490; punishment of, 491; the captivity, 491.
Zerpanitum (zār-pä´nit-um), mother goddess, 100; as "Lady of the Abyss", 160; as Aruru, 160; Persian goddess and, 496.
Zeus (to rhyme with mouse), the god, as sea-god's brother, 33; in Adonis myth, 90; an imported god, 105; in father and son myth, 158; eagle of, 168; deities that link with, 261; the "Great Bear" myth and, 296.
Zi (zee´), the Sumerian manifestation of life, 291; "Sige the mother" as Ziku, 328 n.
Zimri, revolt of in Israel, 405.
Zodiac, Signs of the, 147, 301, 305; Babylonian origin of, 306; Hittites, Phoenicians, and Greeks and, 306; stars of as "Divinities of Council", 309; division of, 307; the fields of Ea, Anu, and Bel, 307; three stars for each month, 307-309 ; the lunar in various countries, 309; when signs of were fixed, 322.
Zü bird, Garuda eagle and, xxvi; myth of, 74.
Zuzu (zü´zü), King of Opis, captured by Eannatum of Lagash, 119.