In
addition to the examples of epical poems and hymns cited on pages 103-5 of this volume
note the long mythological hymn to Innini, No. 3
and the hymn to Enlil, No. 10 of this
part. An unpublished hymn to Enlil, Ni. 9862, ends a-a
dEn-lil zag-sal, “O praise father Enlil.”
For Ni. 13859, cited above p. 104, see Poebel, PBS. V No.
26.
So far as the term is properly applied. Being of didactic
import it was finally attached to grammatical texts in the phrase
dNidaba
zag-sal, “O praise Nidaba,” i. e., praise the patroness
of writing.
Poebel, PBS.
V No. 25; translated in the writer's
Le Poème Sumérien du Paradis, 220-257.
Note also a similar epical poem to Innini partial duplicate of
Poebel No. 25 in
Myhrman'sBabylonian Hymns and Prayers, No. 1.
Here also the principal actors are Enki, his messenger
Isimu, and “Holy Innini” as in the better preserved epic. Both are poems on the
exaltation of Innini.
Ni. 9205 published
by Barton,
Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions, No. 4. This text
is restored by a tablet of the late period
published by Pinches in JRAS. 1919.
Undoubtedly Ni. 11327, a mythological hymn to Enki in
four columns, belongs to this class.
It is published as No. 14 of this part. A similar zagsal to Enki
belongs to the Constantinople
collection, see p. 45 of my Historical and Religious Texts.
One of the most
remarkable tablets in the Museum is Ni. 14005, a didactic poem in 61 lines
on the period of pre-culture and institution of Paradise by the earth god and the water
god in Dilmun. Published by Barton,
Miscellaneous Babylonian Inscriptions, No. 8. The writer's
exegesis of this tablet will be found in Le Poème Sumérien du
Paradis, 135-146. It is not called a
zag-sal probably because the
writer considered the tablet too small to be dignified by that rubric.
Similar short mythological poems which really belong to the
zag-sal group are the following:
hymn to Shamash, Radau,
Miscel. No. 4; hymn to Ninurta as creator of canals,
Radau, BE.
29, No. 2, translated in BL., 7-11; hymn to Nidaba,
Radau, Miscel. No. 6.
For example, Myhrman, No. 3;
Radau, Miscel. No. 13; both canonical
prayer books of the weeping mother class. For a liturgy of the completed composite
type in the Tammuz cult, see Radau, BE. 30, Nos. 1, 5,
6, 8, 9.
Note that this breviary of
the cult of Libit-Ishtar terminates with two ancient songs, one
to Innini and one to Ninâ, both types of the mother goddess
who was always intimately connected
with the god-men as their divine mother.
The twelfth kišub of a liturgy to
Ishme-Dagan is published in Zimmern'sKultlieder, No. 200.
A somewhat similar song service of the cult of this king has been
published in the writer's Sumerian
Liturgical Texts, 178-187. A portion of a series to Dungi was published
by Radau in the Hilprecht
Anniversary Volume, No. 1. The liturgy to Libit-Ishtar in
Zimmern, K L. 199 I—Rev. I 7, is
composed of a series of sa-(bar)-gid-da.
a-gim = dimêtu,
ban, SBH. 59, 25. a-gim ģe-im-bal-e,
The ban may he elude, Ni. 11065 Rev. II 25. Unpublished. The line is not entirely clear;
cf. Brünnow, No. 3275.
ḪA is probably identical in
usage with PEŠ, and the idea common to both is “be many,
extensive, abundant.” Note Zimmern,
Kultlieder 19 Rev. has ḪA where SBP. 12,
2 has PEŠ.
šu-peš occurs in Gudea, Cyl. A 16, 23; 11, 9; 19, 9 and
CT. 15, 7, 27.
On
ugu-de = ḇalāku, na'butu, to run away, see
Delitzsch, Glossar p. 43. Also
ugu-bi-an-de-e,
V R. 25a 17; ù-gù-dé, RA. 10, 78, 14;
ú-gu ba-an-dé, if he run away, VS. 13, 72 9
and 84, 11,
with variant 73, 11 u-da-pa-ar = udtappar,
if he take himself away. ú-gu-ba-an-de-zu, when thou
fleest, BE. 31, 28, 23. ú-gu-ba-de,
Genouillac, Inventaire 944;
ClayMiscellen 28 V 71:
má ú-gu-ba-an-de, “If a boat float away,”ibid.IV 14. See also
Grant AJSL. 33, 200-2.
This compound verb
di-e-sud here for the first time. di-e
is probably connected with de
to flee. At the end AŠ is written for AN.
Read a-áš and construe šeš as a
plural?
gul
= kalû, restrain, is ordinarily construed with the infinitive
alone; še-du nu-uš-gul-e-en
= damāma ul ikalla, Lang. B.L. 80, 25; SBH. 133, 65; 66, 15,
etc.
For
suffixed ni, bi,
ba in interrogative sentences note also
a-na an-na-ab-duģ-ni, What can
I add to thee? Genouillac, Drehem, No.
1, 12, a-ba ku-ul-la-ba, Who shall restrain? Ni.
4610 Rev. 1.
Written Br. 3046,
but the usual form is the gunu, Br. 3009.
suģ-ám-bi = aḫulap-šu.
Poebel, PBS. V 152 IX 8: cf. also lines 9 and 10
ibid. In later texts suģ-a =
aḫulap, Haupt,
ASKT. 122, 12. Delitzsch, H. W. 44a.
aḫulap has the derived meaning of mercy, the answer
to the “How long” refrain as in this passage. See also SBP. 241 note 27 and
Schrank, LSS.
III 1, 53.
munga with
ra, to carry away property as booty, see SBH. No. 32 Rev. 21 and
BL. No. 51. The comparison with line 11 suggests, however, another interpretation,
immer-e be-in-ne-ra-ám,
“the storm-wind carried away.”
In lines 7 and 9 the verb
tur is employed in the sense of “to cause an event to enter,”
to bring about the entrance of a condition or state of affairs.
uš
has evidently some meaning similar to the one given in the translation but it has not yet
been found in this sense in any other passage. We have here the variant of
iš, eš = bakû with
vowel u. See Sum. Gr. 213 and
222.
Br. 5515. For this sign with value
maštaku, see Delitzsch, H. W.,
sub voce and BA., V
620, 20. The Sumerian value is ama, Chicago Syllabar, 241
in AJSL. 33, 182.
The
analysis of the text and the meaning are difficult. Perhaps a
should be taken with
the following sign a-ḪAR-ri, an unknown
ideogram. mur-ri is here taken for
rigmu.
me =
parṣu, refers primarily to the rubrics of the rituals,
the ritualistic directions, but here
the reference is clearly to the utensils employed in the rituals.
Probably a variant of dù-azag. As
the phrase is written dug-azag-ga might mean “holy
knees,”birku ellitu, but that is not probable. A parallel
passage occurs in the liturgy to Dungi,
BE. 31, 12, 8, where my interpretation is to be corrected.
For dù, dŭ, rendered into Semitic by
the loan-word dû, with the sense “high altar,
pedestal of a statue, altar or throne room” see
AJSL. 32, 107.
This phrase
should have a meaning similar to “speak words of peace,”“assure, comfort.”
The expression occurs also in Gudea, Cyl. A 7, 5, Ningirsu, son of Enlil
gú za-ra ma-ra-ģun-gà-e,
“will speak to thee words of peace.”
In view of the parallel
passages where kings are called the sag-uš of temples and
cities (i. e. the mukînu or mukîl rêš)
it seems necessary to render é-kur-ri as the object of
sag-uš. See SAK.
197 below c 5; BE. 29 No. 1 IV 6; PBS. V No. 73. A rendering, “She who raiseth
me up daily in Ekur” is possible.
Or read billudu.
This passage proves that garza and billudu
really do have a meaning, sanctuary, cult object or something synonymous. See
billudû in VAB. IV Index. The meaning,
sanctuary, has been suggested for the Semitic parṣu
and this must be taken into consideration.
Note the
overhanging vowel a denoting a dependent phrase without a
relative introductory
adverb, and see also Sum. Gr. page 163, examples
cited bé-in-da-ra-dú-a, etc.
The
plural of this verb has been indicated by doubling the root, a case of analogy, being
influenced by the similar plural formation of nouns. See Sum. Gr.
§ 124. An example of the
same kind is sag-nu-mu-un-da-ab-gà-gà =
ul ì-ir-ru-šu, “they approached it not,” K. 8531, 6 in
Hrozny, Ninrag, p. 8.
The Sumerian
arâ-bu (UD-DU-BU) is rendered into
Semitic by the loan-word arabû, called
iṣṣur mēḫu, bird of the storm, ZA. VI 244, 48. In CT. XII
7a 2 UD-DU (ara) =
namru, fierce,
raging, where the entry is followed by UD-DU
(ara) = ša UD-DU-bu
(ģu), hence in any case a
bird of prey. Were it not for the reference to this bird in the
omen text, Boissier, DA 67, 18,
one might conclude that the bird is mythical. For the
reading arabû, see also Reisner, SBH.
104, 35.
For this method of forming the
plural see Sumerian Grammar, § 124. For
uru-bar = kapru,
see Meissner, SAI. 543. Note also
umun urú-bar, SBH. 22, 57 = 19, 56 and K. 69 Obv. 20. title
of Nergal as lord of the city of the dead.
GA = našû, variant
of ga (ILA) = našû. The figure of lifting
the foot and raising the hand
(line 30) to Enlil refers to the attitude of adoration assumed by
the mother goddess as she stands
before one of the gods and intercedes for mankind. She is
frequently depicted on seals in this
attitude; see for example Ward,
Seal Cylinders of Western Asia,
303a, 304, 308, etc.
Dialectic for
du = da = ga
(by vowel harmony). Note the form ga-mu-ra-ab-šid with variant
da-mu-ra-ab-šid, Sumerian Liturgical
Texts, 155, 30 (variant unpublished). See also Sumerian
Grammar, § 50.
The sign for enzu certainly
has a phonetic value ending in d; note
Nikolski No. 262, where
the sign is followed by da and Zimmern,
Kultlieder, 123 III 9, where it is followed
by dé.
This refrain occurs also in
Sumerian Liturgical Texts, 121, 5; 122, 14, 17; 123, 21, 27, 34,
where it characterizes a lamentation for various cities of Sumer destroyed by an
invasion from Gutium. The translation given above is preferable
to the interpretation accepted in my previous
volume.
For
namga as an emphatic adverb, see Journal
of the Society of Oriental Research, I 20, Metropolitan
Syllabar, Obv. I 12-15. Variant nanga,
Sumerian Liturgical Texts, 188, 1, 4 and
5.
gar is employed
as a variant of kar, see Sum. Gr.
223. For gar in this sense, note
gar = šaḫātu,
nasāḫu in the syllabars. See also SBP. 198,
14 and note 15. The same sense of gar will be found
in Gudea, Cyl. A 6, 16; 7, 14; St. B 9, 16; Cyl. A 12, 25.
KA with
value du = alāku occurs
here for the first time. Variant has du (line 33). This
text supplies two more signs and makes possible a better translation.
igi-da
occurs also in the title of Sin, igi-da-gál,
Zimmern, KL., No. 1 Obv. I 3 and 6. The
most natural interpretation is to regard da as
a variant of du, hence “to go before.”
Written túg.
gu-šig is a kind of plant, on a tablet
of the Tello Collection in Constantinople,
MIO. 7086. For the meal of the gu-šig see
also CT. X 20, II 33 and Reisner,
Templeurkunden,
128 Col. III.
Semitic šattamma
a title employed in later times apparently in a secular sense. Originally
it has a sacred meaning and probably denoted a musical director who was also a priest. The
application of a priestly title to the king is in accord with his royal
prerogatives.
Phonetic variant of
gil-sa = sukuttu. The prefix
a is difficult and probably the noun augment,
see Sum. Gr. § 148. The vowel a
seems to possess another sense in SBP. 284, 1.
Variant of
á-taģ = rêṣu. The final
ka is for the emphatic ge in the
status obliquus (ga).
This emphatic particle is here attached to the object
which is not a construct formation, but the
choice of ka for ge
is probably influenced by the principle of employing the oblique case of the
construct when the noun in question is in the accusative; see
Sum. Gr. § 135. “Defender” refers
to Tammuz.
The same title in PBS.
V 2 Obv. II 23, dDumu-zi
šu-PEŠ. Poebel interpreted this as a
variant of šu-ģa = ba'iru, fisherman,
and his suggestion is probably correct. We have, however,
to consider the possibility of a confusion with kam =
ukkušu, the afflicted, SAI. 5082.
The rise
of the semi-vowel i between the vowels
a-a occurs under similar circumstances in
igi-ģe-ni-ib-ila-ia-dúg,
Radau, Miscellaneous Texts,
No. 4, 5. See also Sum. Gr. § 38, 2. The
form above arose from bar-ri-a-a-dúg. The
prefixed element dúg falls under § 153 of the Grammar.
bar = sapāḫu is a variant
par, to spread out, scatter.
šub, to let fall,
hence tabāku, to pour out. Heretofore this meaning
of šub was known only
from the forms al-šù-šù-be =
ittanatbak, SBH. No. 62, 15, and forms
cited by Meissner, SAI. 8345.
See also šu from šub, ibid.,
8334 and al-šù-šù-be, MVAG, 1913 pt. 2 p. 49, 16.
ul-ti = ḫubuṣu,
“the lusty man,”Poebel, PBS. V
136 V 13, with which compare n. pra.
Ḫubbuṣu, Ḫubbuṣtu, in
Holma, “Personal Names of the Form
fu ul,” p. 50. Note also ul-ti-a =
ḫābṣatum, PBS. V ibid.
l. 12. The hymn to Sin, SBP. 296, contains in line 14 the same
phrase.
Restored from line
10. The only previous occurrence of this name is in Smith'sMiscellaneous
Texts, 11, 1 which has RI not
MU. The end of the name is broken in BL. No, 27. Perhaps
Smith copied the sign wrongly.
The name
as transliterated means mudammiḳ musarrê, “Temple
of the benefactor of writing.”
In line 15 its holy reed is mentioned, a mythical stylus symbolic of the god of wisdom,
Enki, according to SAK. 6 h.
nar-balag =
tigû, a kind of flute. Here the word
indicates that in the musical accompaniment
this instrument was employed. It probably denotes a specific kind of melody. Three other
musical instruments have given their names to classes of melodies,
the eršemma, balag and
me-zí,
see SBP. page IX, and BL. page XXXVIII.
We meet here for the first
time with two avenging angels or genii who attend the Word in its
execution of the wrath of god. Ḳingaludda
is mentioned as one of four evil spirits ilu limmu in
CT. 25, 22, 44. He is mentioned with the Zû bird and the demon
šêdu as appearing in dream
omens, Boissier, DA. 207, 34. See
also Boissier, Choix, II
53, 4. On uddugub as a title of
kings see BE. 31, 22 n. 9.
The ud-gal
is regarded as plural = ûmu rabûti and identified
with the evil spirits of incantations,
CT. 16, 22, 266 and 276. In the Epic of Creation the
“great spirit of wrath” is one of the
demons attendant upon Tiamat.
Title of Tammuz as spirit of the waters, see
Tammuz and Ishtar, pp. 6 and 44. a-bal =
tābik mê, pourer of water, irrigator, is the original idea of this
ideogram. For the title galu-a-bal
in this sense, see CT. 13, 42, 7 ff. Ak-ki galu
abal, the gardener who cared for Sargon. See also
Thureau-Dangin, Lettres et Contrats,
No. 174, 6-8, galu a-bal, a kind of laborer. The later
usage of the word as libator of water for the souls of the dead, Semitic
näḳ mê is a strictly conventional
development, see Babyloniaca, VI 208.
Temple in Isin-Šuruppak.
Šuruppak must have been a quarter of the later and more
famous Isin. Note that this temple is assigned to
Šuruppak in Poebel, PBS. V 157, 7. The
liturgies, however, constantly place Niginmar at Isin.
For -na-ta?.
The suffixed conjugation is frequently employed in interrogations;
me-na gí-gí-mu, “When shall one restore it?,”
BE. 30, 12, 2. a-ba ku-ul-la-ba, “Who shall restrain?,”
Ni. 4610, r. 1. a-na an-na-ab-taģ-ni, “What
shall I add to thee?,”Genouillac,
Drehem, 1, 12.
Variant SBP. 114, 32 zag-na ab-zí-em-e.
Parallel passages do not mention the “queen
of the city” but only the ordinary mother who
rejects her children, SBH. 131, 58-61; BL. 74, 10.
The phrase refers obviously to the mother
goddess. “Her son” must be interpreted figuratively in the sense that the mother
goddess is the protector of all human creatures.
This
title gašan-sun or nin-sun, really
means beltu rimtu, “the wild-cow queen,” and characterizes
the ancient mother goddess as patroness of cattle. The title usually refers to the married
type Gula or Bau, as in SBP. 284, 19, and note that Ninsun, mother of Gilgamish, is
frequently called ri-mat, Poebel, OLZ,
1914, 4. The title also applies to the virgin type Innini in KL. 123
r. II 7.
mu-lu imme also BE. 30, 9 I 2 =
bêl ḳûli(?), “Man of wailing.” The late version replaces
this line by [te-e-ám] da-ga-a-ta dumu-ni, “How long shall
the wife of the strong man reject her son?”, SBP. 114, 37.
dagāta = dam-guṭu, SBH. 131, 60.
Probably a title of Ekur.
ešgalla title of the temple in Kullab, KL. 3 II 20. The late
version rejects this line since its local reference was not suited to general
use.
Here
this line begins an Enlil melody within the body of a series. Originally
a-gal-gal šel-su-su was a Nergal melody and a series based upon
it is catalogued in IV R. 53a 33 of which
K. 69 is the first tablet. See also Böllenrücher,
Nergal, No. 6.
The late
redaction of this melody revises this litany with the new liturgical movement
ursaggal—elimma placed before alternate lines. When
this scheme is employed all feminine
deities are omitted. See SBP. 114. Note 5 p. 115 ibid.
is to be suppressed.
Line 29 is false and to be corrected after the late text SBP.
p. 118, 35 f. which has two lines.
Read ki an dúr-ru-na-šú
dA-nun-na [gar-ma-an-zí-en], where Anu
sits let the Anunnaki hasten.
It is not certain
that this melody ended here. Possibly all the titles in lines 19-27 followed
here with the refrain am-ma-ab-túg-e. At
any rate the traces of a last line on SBH. 44 are those
of the last line of this melody. There is not space enough
on SBH. 44 after line 37 for more than
the lines 31-40 supplied above for we must make some allowance for the interlinear Semitic
translations in the break on SBH. 44.
Semitic
lu-uk-mi-is-su, glossed kamû.
kamû, “to bind,” is the natural rendering of
lal.
The Semitic should perhaps be neglected as faulty and the Sumerian rendered,
“Like a wild ox by the mighty one I am hobbled.”
Beginning of
a melody of a weeping mother series, BL. p. 94, 12. It is not certain that this
melody stood in the ancient text. See for the text 81-7-28, 203 (= 78239) in this
volume.
This title of Uraša remains
unexplained. In all other examples
dUraša ki-še-gu-nu-ra,
SBP. 150, 6; 90, 20; K. 3931 Rev. 29; KL. 17 Rev. II 6. Perhaps also Gudea, Cyl. B 19, 13
is to be restored ki-še-gu-[nu-ra].
Two other
readings of this title of Ninlil as mother goddess are
known; dŠe-en-tūr, SBP.
150 n. 5, l. 11 and
dŠe-en-tur,
King, Supplement
to Bezold'sCatalogue, p. 10, No. 51, 8
where she is identified with Nintud =
dbêlit.
A legendary
king who had received apotheosis, and was placed in the court of Enlil, CT.
24, 6, 20 = 8 Col. III 1. The variant SBP. 152, 15 inserts another deified king Ur-Sin.
See also Genouillac, Drehem, 5501 II
21; Babylonian Liturgies, 92 Rev. 10; CT. 24, 6, 21.
dLum-ma or Ḫumma, CT. 24, 6, 18
one of two utukku of Ekur. Duplicate 24, 22, 117.
Often in names of the early period, Scheil,
Textes Elamites-Semitiques, p. 4 and in name of ancient
patesi of Umma, Ur-lum-ma, see
Thureau-Dangin, SAK. 273. Scheil, I.
c. 4, says that Lum, Ḫum is an
Elamitic god. The title gašan-dig-ga indicates a female deity.
Note the variant gašan-sa-lum-ma, SBP. 158, 56. An underworld
deity.
For
en-me = bêl parṣi. Var.
umun me. Here certainly a male deity as
dNin-né =
Almu,
form of Nergal in V Raw. 21, 25. For Nin-né in the
early period see Allotte de la Fuÿe, DP.
128 II 3. But Nin-né = Nin-né-mal =
Alamu, form of Allat sister Ninlil, CT. 24, 10, 3, cf. V R.
21, 26.
Certainly these
two underworld deities are intended in this line. They occur together also
in CT. 25, 5, 60-64. See also 25, 8, 14 where read
Nin-né-da.
For this sign = REC. 46,
see now K.L., 25 III 15. The two signs balag and
dup are distinguished
clearly on this tablet; see Obv. 9 for dup.
On the distinction of two original signs in
Br. 7024, see Thureau-Dangin, ZA. 15,
167; Chicago Syllabary 208 f., and PBS. 12 No. 11 Obv.
Col. II 45 and 46 and page 13. Syl. B distinguishes the two signs.
This Semitic
rubric is unique in the published literature of Sumerian liturgies. It indicates
that the choristers should here complete the long titular litany by reciting the
titles of the deities named in the litany given in full on the Berlin tablet; see
the preceding edition of K. L. 11 Rev. IV 1 ff.
Here the god of Opis is given as Igidu, a
form of Nergal. In this late text Opis on the
Tigris at Seleucia is probably intended. The southern Keš and Opis were imitated in Akkad,
at any rate in later times, and Keš was apparently confused with Kiš which gave rise to
a second Kiš in Akkad. The ancient and historical Kiš at Oheimer on the canal
of the Euphrates should not be confused with Kiš corruption for the new Keš near
Seleucia.
The god Igi-du of
Keš is identified with Ninurta as were most of the male satellites of the
mother goddesses in various cities. CT. 25, 24 K. 8219, 17+K. 7620, 18,
dIgi-du =
dNin-urta.
According to CT. 25, 12, 17 it is one of the titles of Ninurta in Elam. But
in CT. 24, 36, 52 dIgi-du
is a form of Nergal, and in the omen text, Boissier, DA.
238, 10 he is explained as
d.Meslamtaèa, a form of
Nergal.
A temple é-an-za-kar
is assigned to Opis in Poebel, PBS. V 157, 8
and Zimmern, KL.
199 Rev. I 37 (here without é).
This temple can hardly be the one which forms the subject
of the liturgy on the Ashmolean Prism.
I. e. Nintud. For
ummu in the sense of “mother goddess” note CT. 16, 36, 1-9
where the various mothers of Eridu, Kullab, Keš, Lagash and Šuruppak are invoked. The
reference here is undoubtedly to Ninlil as the mother of Negun, SBP. 156, 39.
Same sign on Var. Cstple. But Ni. 8384 has a
sign apparently related to the difficult sign which I assimilated to
Br. 4930 in AJSL. 33, 48. The sign on Ni. 8384 recurs in
Zimmern, KL. 35 II 5.
Var. Ni. 8384 gal-e; Var.
Cstple. gal-la. According to CT. 24, 10, 8 the throne bearer of
Enlil, but in 24, 26, 124 a ligir-gal in the attendance of the
mother goddess.
Ni. 11876
omits e. This text proves that in
the ideogram Br. 1202 the gloss isimu belongs
properly to the first two signs only and that the
original reading was isimu-abkal. See especially
CT. 12, 16, 34 (i-si-mu) =
PAP-sîg = usmû.
In the later period abkal was apparently not pronounced
and the whole ideogram was rendered by isimu.
I edited this tablet in SBP.
120-123 where I erroneously assigned it to the Enlil series
ame baranara. The tablet has been
partially restored from Meek, No. 11. The first two melodies
of elume didara are used in the
Enlil liturgy elum gudsun near the end just before the titular
litany and have been re-edited above pp. 300-2 in the
edition of the elum gudsun series.
The first line, together with
its Semitic translation, is identical with the first line of the third
tablet of the series muten nu-nunuz-gim,
see SBP. 140. Otherwise the melodies differ.
si-mă,
literally karnānu, the horned, referring
to the new-moon. The variant SBP. 296, 1
has má-gúr, the crescent boat. Undoubtedly
má-gúr should be rendered by nannaru in this
passage.
Temple of
Ninurta in Nippur. A syllabary recently published by
Scheil (RA. 14, 174 I. 7)
explains the name by bit gi-mir
par-ṣi hammu, Temple which executes the totality of decrees.
Note, however, the epithet é i-dé-ila =
bit niš înê, House of the lifting of the eyes, SBP. 208,
11.
In any case an
epithet of the temple of Urta in Dilbat,
Ibe-iluAnum.
For this reading I-be
see vars. I-bi, Im-bi, BL. p. 134. The word
ibi is probably Sumerian for igi, and
shows that the phonetic rendering i-de is erroneous.
The dialectic pronunciation of igi was
ibe and despite the Semitic variant
imbi the name is apparently Sumerian
Ibe-Anu, Temple of the eye of Anu.
Here šu-gúd is an epithet for Anu, i. e. the lofty.
Probably variant of
é-dŭr = adurû, kapru, village, city,
Poebel, PBS. V 106 IV 30; see also
II Raw. 52, 61 f. Note the similar title of the city of
Bau uru-azag-ga in SAK. 274; BL. 147.
Here the title refers to Isin not Lagash.
Cf. CT. 12, 3a
29; ina šar-tu la uštešir-šu u ina me-riš-tum la i-kal-li,
“By fraud he has not translated it and with wilful readings has he not published
it.” For šutešuru, “to translate or
edit a tablet,” see Lehmann,
Shamash-shum-ukîn, Taf. XXXIV 17
akkadû ana šutešuri, “to
translate into Akkadian.” On this difficult passage concerning the education of
Ašurbanipal see Sumerian Grammar, p. 3 and corrections
by Ungnad in ZA. 31, 41. ikalli
probably for ukallim;
note the variant ušâbi = ušâpi.
Only in a loose sense. From
Tammuz to Kislev is the period of death, from Kislev to
Tammuz the period of revivification of nature. See on
the meaning of this passage Kugler,
Im Bannkreis Babels 62-5.
See
Tammuz and Ishtar, p. 151. Ašrat or the western Ashtoreth
usually had the title bêlit
ṣêri, “Lady of the plains” and was identified with
the Babylonian Geštinanna and Nidaba.
Hence [Bêlit-]ṣêri is
dupšarrat irṣitm, scribe of the lower world, K.B.
VI 190,47; cf. IV R. 27 B 29.
MAŠ. See
below Col. II 15, gypsum is Ninurta, the god of war, primarily a god of light.
Gypsum, Sum. im-bar, “radiant clay,” became
symbolic of Ninurta because of its light transparent
color.
Two inferior deities
related to Nergal, god of the lower world. Their images placed at the
enclosure of a house prevent the demons, Zimmern,
Rt. 168, 21 f. The image of Lugalgirra
designed on a wall prevents the devils,
ibid. 166,12. He binds the evil ones, IV R. 21* C III 26.
The two are placed at the right and left of
a door to forbid the devils to enter. Maklu VI 124.
So A. B. Cook,
Zeus, 632. I would, however, entertain doubts concerning this
explanation of silver as the emblem of the Asiatic Zeus and of Jupiter Dolichenus. The
identification of this metal with the sky god in Babylonia and Kommagene surely reposes
upon a more subtle idea.
[For the explanation of silver = Anu and gold = Enlil, see p. 342.]
The Sabeans,
a pagan Aramaic sect of Mesopotamia at Harran, are said to have assigned
a metal to each planet. Since a considerable part of their religion was derived from
Babylonia we may consider this direct evidence for the Babylonian origin of the entire
tradition. For an account of the metals assigned to the planets by the Babylonians,
Persians, Greeks and Sabeans, see Bousset in Archiv für
Religionswissenschaft 1901, article on “Die Himmelreise der Seele.”
The order of the planets, taken from the Byzantine list above, is based upon their
relative distances from the sun.
Conjectural restoration from ASKT.
96, 21. Zimmern, Rt. 27 I 3-4 has a longer description
of [Ninḫabursildu a-ḫa-lat [d
A-gub-ba bêlit] mê(?) ša nâri(?).
This deity appears in incantations as the
queen of the holy waters bêlit egubbê, IV R. 28*b 16;
Bab. III 28, Sm. 491, 3. Although placed in the
court of Enlil the earth god as sister of Enlil
by the theologians, CT. 24, 11, 40 = 24, 52, where
she is associated with a special deity of holy
water, dA-gub-ba,
yet by function and character she belongs to the water cult of Eridu. Her
symbol is the holy water jar (duk) agubba
and the deity dAgubba is
šu-luģ lăg-lăg-ga Erida-ge,
Purifying handwasher of Eridu, CT. 24, 11, 41 = 24, 53. The river goddess
dIă is also
bêlit
agubbê, CT. 16, 7, 255 where in l. 254 Ninḫabursildu
is aḫat dA-[gub-ba],
sister of Agubba, and the
river goddess is mother of Enki, or Ea, god of the sea,
CT. 24, 1, 25. The reading ḫabur for
A-ḪA is most probable, and the cognate or dialectic
form ḫubur is a name for the mysterious sea
that surrounds the world. See BL. 115 n. 2. The holy water over which
she presides is taken
from the apsu or nether sea, which
issues from springs, hence egubbû is spring water, CT. 17, 5
III 1. The name, then, really means “Queen of the lower
world river, she that walks (du) the
streets (sil).” The Semitic scribe
of CT. 25, 49, 6 renders the name in a loose way by bêlit têlilti
bêlit ālikat sulê [rapšāti], Queen of lustration, queen
that walks the [wide] streets (of the lower
world). For the title bêlit têliltī, see
CT. 26, 42 I 14. For a parallel to the description of her
walking the streets of inferno, cf.
d Kal-šág-ga sil-dagal-la
edin-na, Lady of purity who (walks) the
wide streets of the plain (of inferno), consort of Irragal,
god of the lower world, SBP. 158, 59. A
variant, KL. 16 III 8 has sil-gig-edin-na,
the dark street, etc.
In K. 165 Rev. 8 f. the tamarisk
and date palm are said to be created in heaven (giš an-na
ù-tŭ) and the same is said of them in Gudea, Cyl. B 4, 10,
giš-šinig giš-šeḳḳa (i. e. = šig =
gišimmaru) an ù-tud-da. This plant appears frequently
in magic rituals, IV R. 59b 4
iṣu bi-ni (Semitic), IV R.
16b 31, Shurpu IX 1-8, and also
in medical texts. bînu has been
identified with Syriac bînā,
tamarisk. If this identification be correct, a comparison with
the Hebrew legend of the manna
(bread of heaven in Psalms 105,40), said to have been
the exudation of the tamarisk, is possible.
In Shurpu VIII 70 mentioned with
šalālu. A magic ointment made of the
El and maštakal,
CT. 34, 9, 41. See also Ebeling, KTA. 90 rev. 17;
King, Magic 30, 25. Perhaps identical in
name with the stone arzallu, SAI. 8545. On a Dublin
tablet often giš EL. Cf. ú-šig-el-šar =
šûmu, onion.
Originally title of the great unmarried mother
goddess bêlit ilāni, but often a title of the
virgin types Innini and Ninâ, BL. 141; of Gula
ibid. Also somewhat frequently she is Damkina,
consort of Ea, IV R. 54b 47;
CT. 33, 3, 21 her star beside that of Ea. Here she is the mother
goddess and the same order, Heaven, Earth, Sea, Mother Goddess
in Shurpu IV 42, where
Nin-maģ has the Var. Nin-tud, Ebeling,
KTA. p. 121, 11. Symbols of these four deities on
boundary stones in same register, Hinke,
A New Boundary Stone, p. 28 second register, et passim.
Possibly the constellation
Ursa Major. Margidda, the Wagon is intended, identified with
Ninlil on a Berlin text, Weidner,
Handbuch 79, 10. See also Bezold
in Deimel, Pantheon
Babylonicum 215.
But Mars in Amos 5, 26. I
accept here the later identifications, Nergal-Mars, Ninurta-Saturn.
The identifications in the earlier period of Babylonian astronomy appear to have been
Ninurta-Mars and Nergal-Saturn.
Probably the astronomical form of Nusku as
god of the new moon, IV R. 23a 4. His character
as fire god is symbolized by the torch, ZA. VI 242, 24.
In II 10 supply Gibil after Zimmern
RT. 27, 5. As fire god he is messenger of Enlil.
Papsukal, messenger of Zamama, god of Kiš, a
form of Ninurta. He also like Nusku
derives his messenger character from his connection with
light, Papsukal ša še-ir-ti, Papsukal of
the morning light, CT. 24, 40, 53. Since Ninurta is identified with Alpha of Orion,
Pap-sukal is
identified with one of the stars in Orion, CT.
33, 2 II 2; mulsib-zi-an-na
dPap-sukal
[sukal dAnim
Ištar] restored from Virolleaud,
Supplement LXVII 10. Here he is messenger of heaven and of
Ishtar as Venus, queen of heaven, that is, he is a messenger of the powers of celestial
light. Nusku and Pap-sukal often occur together in magic texts,
Shurpu VIII 10.
Here probably
Sakkut as lord of light and justice, god of Isin, in his normal capacity.
See BL. 120 n. 6. His emblem is something made of date
palm, šág, gišimmar. This deity is
unknown in magic texts except in Zimmern, Rt. 70,
8.
Venus as morning star. The
Ishtar of Agade was the type of war goddess, see op. cit. p. 100;
hence Venus as morning star is sometimes called the Bow Star,
Kugler, Sternkunde II 198.
The seven gods
are the Pleiades, CT. 33, 2, 44. Since they are followed by Enmesharra
perhaps here to be identified with the seven sons
of Enmesharra (see BE. 31, 35). In ZA. VI 242,
20 gi-uru-gal-meš, “the great reed spears”
are symbols of the seven great gods, sons of Išhara.
But traces of the last sign are not those of MEŠ
here.
In astronomy a form of Nin-urta =
Saturn, but by character allied to Nergal a lower world
deity. See line 11 above. For E. as Saturn note V Raw.
46a 21, his star UDU-LIM and II R.
48, 52 the same star is
dUDU-BAD-sag-uš =
kaimânu, Saturn. See also BE. 31, 35 n. 4 line 12,
kaimānu title of Enmesharra.
šimeššalû
employed in medical texts, see SAI. 3574 and Jastrow,
Medical Text Rev. 5.
Here also without giš. Holma,
Beiträge zum assyrischen Lexicon, p. 85, identified it with Syr.
šamšārā, Persian and Arabic šimšar.
The name of
this deity is not legible in Zimmern's variant
and the first sign of the name
on the Nippur text is doubtful but apparently the šeššig
and gunu of Galu, that is REC. 100 later
RAB+GAN, (v. SAI. p. 155 note 1). After this sign
Zimmern and I have seen a sign
KU or ŠU.
Labartu is usually written
RAB+GAN-ME. Here we may have to do with some new ideogram
for this deity. She is the daughter of Anu,
Haupt, ASKT. 94, 59. A prayer to the daughter of
Anu is King, Magic No. 61, 5-21.
See
Muss-Arnolt, p. 940. Also note
niknakku ša ḳu-ta-ri, censer of incense, CT. 29, 50, 9;
ḳutari ša šipti, incense pertaining to the ritual of the
incantation, ibid. 20. ḳutari is a plural
form employed to denote several acts of fumigation.
Reading established by Rev. II
8. But see Meek, AJSL 31, 287,
li-si to ne-su(n) gloss on the
star Ne-sùn; son of Ninlil, hence a star in
Ninlil's constellation Ursa Major, Virolleaud,
Sin
XIII 22.
A pest demon son of Anu,
III R. 69, 70. On the other hand, ZA. VI 246, 22 the scapegoat
represents the patron of flocks Ninamašazag who supplies the goat. When sin is
transferred to the goat it falls under the protection of Kushu. See Rev. I 6.
Zû, the eagle, bird of the blazing
sun, Ninurta, Ningirsu, is the only emblematic animal that
figures as a deity. The myth of his conflict with the
serpent in the story of Etana dramatizes
the old legend of the conflict between sun and clouds.
He appears in magic here for the first time.
kīṣu, compensation for
kiṣṣu. See also Strassmaier,
Nabonidus 699, 24, ki-ṣu. Note that
the ḫulduppu (probably an image of a scapegoat) symbol
of Kuši is placed opposite the door in
Zim. Rt. p. 168, 29.
nīn-muš.
The sign ŠEŠ has the value muš.
Note SAI. 2629 the gloss ga-an-ŠEŠ and
variant Chicago Syllabar 212 ga-an-muš.
See also JRAS. 1905, 81-4-28 l. 14. For muš = banû
cf. SAI. 1916.
This is a
real library note and is clear evidence for assuming that the temple of Nippur
possessed a library, at least in the Cassite period. For similar library notes on
the tablets from Aššur, see RA. 13, 99. Note also the Smith Esagila tablet
published by Scheil, Memoires de
l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres XXXIX, Rev. 7,
mûdû mûdâ likallim la mûdâ ul
immar an pî duppi gabri Barsip-ki šaṭir-ma UB-ṬU ù ba-ri.
For an pi (KA), see RA. 13, 92.