In a similar way, questions are asked with reference to the course of a campaign. Will the Assyrian king encounter the king of Ethiopia, and will the latter give battle? Will the king return alive from the campaign? is a question frequently asked. Even for their quasi-private affairs, the kings sought for an oracle. Before giving his daughter in marriage to a foreign potentate, Esarhaddon desires to know whether the one seeking this favor, Bartatua, the king of Ishkuza,[512]

Again, when the king is about to associate his son with himself in the government, he first inquires whether this is agreeable to the deity.[513] The king fears lest his son may cause trouble, may provoke dissensions. Past experience prompts him to be careful before following his inclination.

The reference to the writing of the name is interesting. It would appear that the question is actually written by the priest and placed before the deity. The Greeks similarly put their questions to the Delphian oracle in writing. May it be that among the Babylonians the answer of the god was at times also handed down on a tablet, as the Greek and Roman oracles were communicated in writing on the leaves of a tree?

If sickness entered the royal house, an oracle was likewise sought. The king is sick. Is it ordained that he will recover? We are told in one case that[514]

The occasions, it is evident, were exceedingly numerous when the Assyrian rulers appealed to the priests for oracles. Naturally, this appeal was not in all cases made with the elaborate formality illustrated by Esarhaddon's petitions to Shamash. At times the monarch, as the individual, would content himself with sending to the priest for an answer to a question, and the priest would reply in an equally simple and direct manner. Quite a number of such messages, sent by priests to their master, are included in the valuable publication of 'Assyrian Letters,' begun by Professor R. F. Harper.[515] The king's son wishes to set out on a journey. The father sends to the astrologers Balasi and Nabu-akheirba, and receives the reply:[516]

Similarly, the astrologers send reports regarding the appearance and position of the moon and the stars, and of various phenomena that had to be taken into account in moments where decisive action had to be taken.

Before leaving the subject, it may be of interest to point out that among the literary remains of the Assyrian period there are "blank formulas" for oracles, the names in each instance to be filled out by the officiating priest. Such formulas were prepared, no doubt, for cases of common occurrence. Thus Esarhaddon, before appointing a person to a responsible position, took the precaution of ascertaining from some deity whether the appointment was a wise one. The name of the individual being written down, the priest asks the deity in a general way:[517]

Esarhaddon may have had a special reason for using precautions against his officials, and even his sons. He came to the throne during a rebellion which involved the assassination of his father. Esarhaddon's own brothers were the murderers. We may well suppose that he trembled at every step he took, but his position is after all characteristic of the Assyrian rulers in general, many of whom came to the throne by violence and maintained themselves through force.

Other texts enable us to study the form of the oracles themselves. As yet, no oracle texts have been found belonging to the older Babylonian period, but we have again every reason to believe that what holds good for the days of Assyrian power applies to a much earlier period, though at the same time the greater frequency with which Assyrian rulers were wont to ply their gods with questions would increase the number of those whose special business it was to pronounce the oracles. The manifold duties of the priesthood would tend towards a differentiation of the priests into various classes. The priest, as exorciser, would become distinct from the priest as the inspector of omens; and the latter different again from the pronouncer of oracles. From the fact that Marduk was regarded as the special god of oracles by the Assyrians as well as the Babylonians,[518] we may conclude that this differentiation of the priestly classes took place already in the south, or at all events that oracle-giving as a distinct priestly function was recognized in Babylonia and carried over to the northern empire. If we may draw a general conclusion from the state of affairs in Esarhaddon's days, this function was largely in the hands of women. We know from other evidence that women were attached to the temple service from ancient times.[519] As sorceresses, too, they occupied a quasi-priestly position, since their help could be invoked in driving evil spirits into the person of one's enemy. The oracle-giver and the sorcerer or sorceress are correlated personages in religion. For various reasons—in part, perhaps, because of her physical differences from man—woman was invested with a certain mystery by ancient nations.[520] Hence the fact that among so many nations witchcraft is associated with woman, and similarly among many nations women perform the functions of the oracle. In a series of eight oracles addressed to Esarhaddon,[521] six are given forth by women. These oracles, it so happens, all issue from the goddess Ishtar of Arbela. The cult of this goddess at Arbela stood in high favor in the eighth century B.C. An influential body of priests congregated there, and the eight oracles in question appear to be a part of a more extensive collection made by the theologians of Arbela, of whose intellectual activity there are other traces. Arbela appears to have developed a special school of theology, marked by the attempt to accord a superior position to the great goddess Ishtar.

The one who pronounces the oracle speaks on behalf of Ishtar, and therefore employs the first person. The oracles all have reference to political events. They cannot, of course, be the answers to the questions asked in the prayers analyzed above, since these were addressed to the sun-god; but we may feel certain that the oracles of the Shamash priests or priestesses were much of the same order, varying only in minor particulars. The goddess invariably encourages the king. The priest, it would appear, hears the voice of the deity in the wind.

This oracle, we are told in the subscript, was pronounced by a certain Ishtar-la-tashiat, a son [i.e., a native] of Arbela. The dignity of the diction is very marked. The very frequent assurance 'fear not' and the solemn repetition of 'I am Ishtar' lend impressiveness to the message. The oracle, it will be seen, deals in general phrases. This indefiniteness characterizes most of them; and the more impressive the diction, the greater vagueness in the statements made. So an oracle, coming from Ishtar and Nabu and uttered by a woman Baya, a native of Arbela, announces:

A message of this kind could hardly have been satisfactory except as a general encouragement.

The popularity of the Nabu cult in Assyria, it will be recalled, is an offset against the supremacy of Marduk in the south. The Assyrian kings found it to their interest to incorporate as much of the Babylonian cult as was possible into their own religious ritual. To Shamash they assigned the rôle played by Marduk. There was no danger in paying homage to Nabu, the son of Marduk. Ishtar they regarded as their own goddess quite as much as Ashur. These four deities, therefore, Ishtar, Shamash, Nabu, and Ashur, are the special gods of oracles recognized by the Assyrian rulers. Marduk, who is the chief source of oracles in the south, is more rarely appealed to in the north, though of course recognized as powerful. He could not be expected to regard with favor an empire that so seriously threatened his supremacy in the pantheon.

The occasion when an oracle was announced was often one of great solemnity. Just as the prayers in which the questions of the kings were embodied were carefully written out, so that the priest in reciting them might not commit any mistakes, so the answer to the prayers were transmitted to the king in writing. Among the oracles of the days of Esarhaddon, there is one coming from Ashur in which the ceremonies accompanying the deliverance are instanced.[527] The oracle deals with the Gimirrites, the same people in regard to whom Esarhaddon so often consults the sun-god. It is marked by the more definite character of its announcements when compared with others. The text is in the form of a communication made to the king, and, like other official documents, it begins with a salutation. The gods give Esarhaddon greeting.[528]

The god Ashur himself now addresses the king:

This important and striking message, coming direct from Ashur we are told, is to be formally presented and read in the presence of the king. Instructions are added to the priests to pour out a libation of precious oil. Sacrifices of animals and waving of incense are to accompany the presentation.

The oracle, as the god's answer to the king's questions, thus gave rise to a ritual as elaborate as the rites connected with the preparations for the answer. The oracles were not always trustworthy, as we can well believe, and often they were not definite enough. If we may judge from an expression in one of the divine messages to Esarhaddon, the king appears to have entered a complaint against a former oracle, which was not to his liking. Ishtar accordingly sends the following message:[532]

Clearly, the Assyrian kings believed that the oracles existed to announce what they wanted to hear. They probably did not hesitate to follow their own judgment whenever they considered it superior to the advice given to them by the gods. There would, of course, be no difficulty in accounting for failures brought about through obedience to the oracles. The priests, hemmed in on every side by minute ceremonial observances, forfeited their power as mediators by the slightest failure in the observance of these rites. An error or a mishap would entail most serious consequences. A misleading oracle, therefore, and to a certain extent, unfavorable omens, would be the fault of the priests. The deity would send 'a lying message'[533] or bring about unfavorable omens as a sign of his or her displeasure. On the other hand, the priests in turn would not hesitate—speaking of course in the name of the gods—to accuse the kings of neglecting Ishtar or Nabu or Shamash, as the case may be. In an oracle addressed to Esarhaddon,[534] Ishtar of Arbela is represented as complaining that the king has done nothing for her, although she has done so much for him. Such a state of affairs cannot go on.

The king promptly responds by copious offerings, and the goddess appears to be pacified.

There is another feature connected with the oracles that must be touched upon before passing on. The oracles stand obviously in close relationship to the penitential psalms. It was, naturally, in times of political distress that the kings would be particularly zealous in maintaining themselves on good terms with the powerful gods. Without their aid success could not be expected to crown any efforts. Guiding their steps by frequent consultations of the priests, the appeals of the kings would increase in earnestness and fervor as the campaign progressed and assumed more serious aspects. When disaster stared them in the face, they would be forced to conclude that the gods were angered, and there was only one way left of averting the divine wrath—a free confession of sins, accompanied, of course, by offerings and magic rites. The Assyrian kings do not tell us in their annals of discomfitures that they encountered. The penitential psalms supply this omission. We have such a psalm written in the days of Ashurbanabal,[535] in which that proud monarch humbles himself before the great god Nabu, and has the satisfaction in return of receiving a reassuring oracle. He prays:

The god reassures the king:

The reference to the temple of Shamash at Sippar reveals the situation. Babylonia was the cause of much trouble to Ashurbanabal, owing chiefly to the intrigues of his treacherous brother Shamash-shumukin.[539] Ashurbanabal at one time was not merely in danger of losing control over the south, but of losing his life in the rebellion organized by his 'faithless brother.' A successful rebellion is a clear sign of a god's displeasure. Marduk, as we have seen, was not often appealed to by the Assyrian kings, but Nabu seemed always ready to help them. Hence the king confesses his sins and makes an appeal to the great Babylonian god and not to Ashur. He is encouraged by the promise that his life will be spared, and that his supremacy will be recognized in Babylonia. The great sanctuary of Sippar is here employed figuratively for the temples of Babylonia in general. To be glorified in that famous temple was equivalent to a recognition of royal authority.

That these oracles served a practical purpose is definitely proved by the manner in which they are introduced by the kings in their annals. Ashurbanabal tells us that in the course of one of his campaigns against Elam, he addressed a fervent prayer to Ishtar of Arbela, and in reply the message comes, as in the texts we have been considering, "Fear not"; and she adds, "Thy hands raised towards me, and thy eyes filled with tears, I look upon with favor."[540]

Dreams.

It is, of course, not necessary to assume that the oracles of the gods were always delivered in the same formal manner, accompanied by elaborate ceremonies. The gods at times reveal themselves in a more direct manner to their favorites. In visions of the night they appear to encourage the Assyrian army by an oracle. On one occasion, when the army of Ashurbanabal approached a rushing stream which they were afraid to cross, Ishtar makes her appearance at night, and declares, "I walk in front of Ashurbanabal, the king who is the creation of my hands."[541] The army, thus reassured, crosses the river in safety. On another occasion, Ashurbanabal, when threatened by the king of Elam, receives a message from Ishtar revealed to a seer in a dream at night. The seer—no doubt a priest—reports to the king:[542] 'Ishtar, dwelling in Arbela, came with quivers hung on her right and left side, with a bow in her hand, and girded (?) with a pointed, unsheathed sword. Before thee [i.e., the king] she stood, and like the mother that bore thee.[543] Ishtar, supreme among the gods, addressed thee, commanding: "Be encouraged[544] for the fray. Wherever thou art, I am."'

In connection with the importance that the Babylonians and Assyrians, in common with all ancient nations, attached to dreams, divine messages thus revealed had a special significance fully on a par with the oracles that were formally delivered with an accompaniment of elaborate rites. A god appearing to one in a dream was a manifestation, the force of which could not be disputed. It mattered little to whom the dream was sent. Ashur, on one occasion, chose to reveal himself to an enemy of Ashurbanabal with a message. He appears in a dream before Gyges, the king of Lydia, and tells him,[545] "Pay homage to Ashurbanabal, the king of Assyria, and by the power of his name conquer thine enemies." Gyges obeys and sends a messenger to the Assyrian monarch to inform him of the dream. Occasionally in this way a deity might appear to a king, but in general it was to the professional 'dreamer' rather than to the laity to whom oracles were thus sent. The message was not necessarily delivered in person by the deity. Sin, the moon-god, on one occasion writes his message on the moon's disc:

Every dream was of course sent by some god, but the dreams of others than those who acted as mediators between the gods and men were of a different character. They were omens. The gods would reveal themselves indirectly by means of pictures or symbols, and it would require the services of a priest again to interpret such symbols or omens. The gods were asked to send such dreams as might receive a favorable interpretation,[547] and when a dream came unsolicited, the gods were implored to convert the dream into a favorable omen.

In the case of dreams, it will be apparent, the dividing line between oracles proper and omens becomes exceedingly faint and it is very doubtful whether the Babylonians or Assyrians recognized any essential difference between the two. The suggestion has already been thrown out that there is a wider aspect to omens in the Babylonian religion than their employment in connection with sacrificial offerings. We have reached a point when it will be proper to take up this wider aspect.

FOOTNOTES:

CHAPTER XX.

There is a close connection between the various branches of the religious literature of Babylonia and Assyria that we have hitherto been considering. The magic incantations are, as we have seen, a form of prayer. On the other hand, prayers, whether hymns or confessions of sin with an appeal for relief from suffering or distress, or embodying the petition for a divine response to some question or questions, are never entirely dissociated from incantations, and are invariably based upon the same beliefs that give to the element of magic such a prominent place in the religion. The omens form part of this same order of beliefs. The connecting link between incantations and omens is the sense of mystery impressed upon man by two orders of phenomena—the phenomena of his own life and the phenomena of the things about him. In his own life, nothing was more mysterious to him than the power of speech. It is doubtful whether he recognized that the animals communicated with one another by means of the sounds that they emitted; but even if he did, the great gap separating such means of communication from the power residing in the combination of sounds, of which he could avail himself, must have been all the more impressive. In view of this, it is not difficult to understand that a magic force was attributed to words as such. Of course, a somewhat advanced degree of culture must have been reached before such a belief would be given a definite form of expression; but even in the simplest form of social organization the notion of authority necessarily exists, and authority is inseparable from words. The chief commands, and the conclusion is naturally drawn that the words he utters are imbued with the power to force obedience. These two factors—the mystery of speech and the practical demonstration of the power residing in words—are sufficient to account for the part played by incantations among all nations at a certain stage of their religious development; and once introduced, the conservatism attaching to religious rites would ensure their continuance even after the popular religious beliefs had passed far beyond the stage in question. The modifications introduced into the incantations would be nigh endless. There would develop a tendency to greater complications in the combination of words. At the same time their literary form would be improved. Prayers and hymns reflecting advanced religious sentiments would be produced, but the magic element connected with the words as such would not for that reason be lost sight of. The efficacy of such prayers would still depend upon their being uttered in the right manner and—what is equally to the point—by the right person. Corresponding to the chief in secular affairs—who alone can pronounce words that give evidence of their power by the results produced—is the priest in religious affairs to whom, as the mediator between the gods and men, the secret is entrusted of uttering the right words in the right way, so as to produce the desired results, to force, as it were, obedience from the gods, as a chief forces obedience from his subjects. In a more advanced stage of religious culture, the position of the priest is no less powerful and important. When incantations yield to prayers in the proper sense, or are combined with prayers, it is only the priests who can make the prayers effective by their interceding in some way with the gods, whether by adding their appeal to that of the supplicant, or by the performance of the rites accompanying prayer, or by their aid in leading the worshipper into the presence of the deity and standing with him before the throne of grace.

When man turns from a contemplation of self to the things around him, there is added to the sense of the mysterious which is aroused in him, the feeling of his own weakness which is borne in upon him with overpowering force. He cannot fail to realize how dependent he is upon the sun, the moon, the rain, and the storm. At every step he takes dangers beset his path. The animal world is at times hostile, at times friendly; but whether the one or the other, it is essential for him to carefully note all that is going on around him. Every happening or sight of an unusual character arouses now his sense of fear, and again his hope. He learns to attach special importance to deviations from the normal course of things. There must be a reason for the exception from the rule. It betokens something, and, concerned as man primarily is for his own welfare, he naturally comes to connect both the regular phenomena of nature as well as the deviations, the normal traits and habits of the animal world as well as peculiar features occasionally occurring, with his own fate. To forestall the future was his only safeguard against the dangers in store for him. It was of the utmost importance to him to know what was coming or, at all events, to be on the lookout for something, in order to be in a proper frame to receive either the benefits or to meet the difficulties of the situation.

His powers of observation—upon which man in a primitive state depended almost entirely for his sustenance—were thus further strengthened by the necessity of protecting himself, so far as possible, against the uncertainties of the future. Nothing would escape him. The movement of the stars and planets, their position at different seasons and periods, the appearance of the clouds, an eclipse, the conditions of the streams, an earthquake, the direction of the winds, storms, the flight of birds, the barking of dogs, the movements of snakes and serpents, peculiar marks on the bodies of children, of adults and animals, monstrosities among mankind or the brute creation, the meeting with certain persons or animals, the rustling of leaves, the change of seasons, the lustre of precious stones, all attracted man's attention. Whatever he saw might portend something to him, in fact did portend something; hence the one great aim and ideal of his life was to see everything. Seeing meant foreseeing, and the man who could see everything—the seer par excellence, who could also understand what he saw—held in his hands the key that would unlock the secrets of the future. He possessed the means of forecasting events.

Apart, then, from the interpretation of omens in connection with sacrifices and incantations, the individual had to be on the outlook at all times for signs and portents. To neglect them would entail serious consequences.

This wider aspect of omens accounts for the extensive omen literature that arose in Babylonia and Assyria. Fully one-fourth of the portion of Ashurbanabal's library that has been discovered consists of omens,[548] tablets of various size in which explanations are afforded of all physical peculiarities to be observed in animals and men, of natural phenomena, of the position and movements of the planets and stars, of the incidents and accidents of public and private life,—in short, of all possible occurrences and situations.

As yet but a small proportion of this literature has been published, and a thorough understanding of it is impossible until systematic publications shall have been issued. Meanwhile it is safe to assert that, as in the case of incantations and prayers, the omens were generally combined into series by the Babylonian and Assyrian scribes.

Omens From Planets and Stars.

Ihering observes[549] that the stars were observed by the Babylonians in the interest of navigation. While this is true, yet the chief motive in the development of astronomy in the Euphrates Valley was the belief that the movements of the heavenly bodies portended something that was important for man to know. That the stars served as guides to the mariner was only an additional reason for attaching great importance to the heavenly phenomena. Scientific observations were but means to an end; and the end was invariably the derivation of omens from the movements and position of the planets and stars. When, therefore, we find the astronomers sending reports to their royal masters apparently of a purely scientific character, we may be certain that although no omens are mentioned, both parties had omens in mind. The astronomical reports, of which quite a number have already been published,[550] may therefore be reckoned as part of the omen literature. The vernal equinox was a period of much significance. The astronomer royal accordingly reports:[551]