The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

M >> Morris Jastrow >> The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

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The nether world reaches down to the Apsu,--the 'deep' that flows
underneath the earth. This is indicated in the design by placing the
horse, on which the goddess rests, in a bark. The bark, again, is of
fantastic shape, the one end terminating in the head of a serpent, the
other in that of some other animal,--perhaps a bull. The bark reaches
into the fifth division,[1204] which is a picture of flowing water with
fish swimming from the left to the right, as an indication of the
direction in which the water flows. At the verge of the water stand two
trees.[1205] What these trees symbolize is not known, and there are
other details in the third and fourth sections that still escape us. For
our purposes, it is sufficient to note: (_a_) that the sections
represent in a general way the divisions of the universe, the heavens,
the atmosphere, the earth, the nether world, and the deep;[1206] (_b_)
that the nether world is in the interior of the earth, reaching down to
Apsu; and (_c_) that this interior is pictured as a place full of
horrors, and is presided over by gods and demons of great strength and
fierceness.

Such being the view of the nether world, it is natural that the living
should regard with dread, not only the place but also its inhabitants.
The gloom that surrounded the latter reacted on their disposition. In
general, the dead were not favorably disposed towards the living, and
they were inclined to use what power they had to work evil rather than
for good. In this respect they resembled the demons, and it is
noticeable that an important class of demons was known by the name
_ekimmu_, which is one of the common terms for the shades of the dead.
This fear of the dead, which is the natural corollary to the reverence
felt for them, enters as an important factor in the honors paid by the
living to the memory of the deceased. To provide the dead with food and
drink, to recall their virtues in dirges, to bring sacrifices in their
honor,--such rites were practised, as much from a desire to secure the
favor of the dead and to ward off their evil designs as from motives of
piety, which, of course, were not absent. The dead who was not properly
cared for by his surviving relatives would take his revenge upon the
living by plaguing them as only a demon could. The demons that infested
graveyards were in some way identified with the 'spirits,' or perhaps
messengers, of the dead, who, in their anger towards the living, lay in
wait for an attack upon those against whom they had a grudge.

The Pantheon of Aralu.

We have seen how the mystery coupled with death led to the view which
brought the dead into more direct relationship with the gods. Closely
allied with this view is the power ascribed to the dead to work evil or
good and, like the gods, to furnish oracles. This power once
acknowledged, it was but a short step to the deification of the dead,
or, rather, of such personalities who in life exercised authority, by
virtue of their position or innate qualities. On the other hand, the
gloominess of the nether world, the sad condition of its inhabitants,
the impossibility of an escape or a return to this world, necessarily
suggested to the Babylonians that the gods worshipped by the living had
no control over the fate of the dead. The gods, to be sure, were at
times wrathful, but, on the whole, they were well disposed towards
mankind. When angry, they could be pacified, and it was impossible to
believe that they should deliberately consign their creatures to such a
sad lot as awaited those who went down to Aralu. The gods who ruled the
dead must be different from those who directed the fate of the living. A
special pantheon for the nether world was thus developed. Such deities
as Marduk, Ea, Nabu, Shamash, or Ashur, who acted, each in his way, as
protectors of mankind, could find no place in this pantheon; but a god
like Nergal, who symbolized the midday sun, and the sun of the summer
solstice that brought misery and fever to the inhabitants of the
Euphrates Valley; Nergal, who became the god of violent destruction in
general, and, more particularly, the god of war, the god whose emblem
was the lion, who was cruel and of forbidding aspect,--such a god was
admirably adapted to rule those who could only look forward to a
miserable imprisonment in a region filled with horror. Nergal,
therefore, became the chief god of the pantheon of the lower world.

In the religious texts, the cruel aspects of this god are almost
exclusively emphasized. He is the one god towards whom no love is felt,
for he is a god without mercy. The fierce aspects of the solar Nergal
are accentuated in Nergal, the chief of the pantheon of Aralu. He
becomes even more ferocious than he already was, as a god of war. His
battle is with all mankind. He is greedy for victims to be forever
enclosed in his great and gloomy domain. Destruction is his one and
single object; nothing can withstand his attack. Armed with a sword, his
favorite time for stalking about is at night, when he strikes his
unerring blows. Horrible demons of pestilence and of all manner of
disease constitute his train, who are sent out by him on missions of
death. The favorite titles by which he is known appear in a hymn[1207]
addressed to him, as god of the lower world. He is invoked as the

Warrior, strong whirlwind, sweeping the hostile land,[1208]
Warrior, ruler of Aralu.

Another hymn[1209] describes him as a

Great warrior who is firm as the earth.
Superior as heaven and earth art thou,

...

What is there in the deep that thou dost not secure?
What is there in the deep that thou dost not clutch?

While references to the local character of the god as patron of Cuthah
survive, the name Cuthah itself becomes synonymous with the nether
world. The old solar deity is completely overshadowed by the terrible
ruler of the lower world. It is due to this that the real consort of the
local Nergal, the goddess Laz, is rarely mentioned in the religious
literature. The priests, when they spoke of Nergal, had in mind always
the companionship with Allatu. But the association of ideas which thus
led to assigning a god who was originally a solar deity, a place in the
lower world bears the impress of the schools. The popular development of
Nergal ceased, when he became the local god of Cuthah. It is only as an
outgrowth of the systematized pantheon that we can understand the
transformation involved in making of a local deity, the head of a
pantheon that is itself an outcome of the later phases assumed by the
religion.

The problem suggested by this transformation was recognized by the
theologians. A curious tale was found among the El-Amarna tablets which
endeavors to account for Nergal's presence in the world of the dead.
Unfortunately, the tablet on which the story is inscribed is so badly
mutilated that we can hardly gather more than the general
outlines.[1210] A conflict has arisen between the gods on high and a
goddess who has her seat in the lower world. This goddess is none other
than Allatu. She is described as Eresh-Kigal,[1211] _i.e._, queen of
Kigal or of the nether world. The scene reminds us of the contest
between the gods and Tiamat, as embodied in the creation epic. The gods
choose Nergal as their leader. Assisted by fourteen companions, whose
names--'fever,' 'fiery heart,' 'lightning sender'--remind us again of
the eleven monsters that constitute Tiamat's assistants,[1212] Nergal
proceeds to the lower world, and knocks at the gate for admission.
Namtar, the plague-demon, acts as the messenger. He announces the
arrival of Nergal to Allatu. The latter is obliged to admit Nergal, just
as in the story of Ishtar's descent, she is forced to receive Ishtar.
Fourteen gates of the lower world are mentioned. At each one, Nergal
stations one of his companions and passes on to the house of Allatu. He
seizes the goddess, drags her from her throne, and is about to kill her
when she appeals for mercy. She breaks out in tears, offers herself in
marriage if Nergal will spare her.

You shall be my husband and I will be your wife.
The tablets of wisdom I will lay in your hands.
You shall be master and I mistress.

Nergal accepts the condition, kisses Allatu, and wipes away her tears.

One cannot resist the conclusion that the tale is, as already suggested,
an imitation of the Marduk-Tiamat episode. Allatu is a female like
Tiamat. Nergal acts for the gods just as Marduk does. The attendants of
Nergal are suggested by the monsters accompanying Tiamat; the tables of
wisdom which Nergal receives, correspond to the tablets of fate which
Marduk snatches from Kingu.[1213] But while the conflict between Marduk
and Tiamat is an intelligible nature-myth, symbolizing the annual
rainstorms that sweep over Babylonia, there is no such interpretation
possible in the contest between Nergal and Allatu. The story is not even
a glorification of a local deity, for Nergal appears solely in the role
of a solar deity. The attendants given to him--heat, lightning, and
disease--are the popular traits in the story; but with the chief
characters in the old nature-myth changed,--Marduk or the original Bel
replaced by Nergal, and Tiamat by Allatu,--the story loses its popular
aspect, and becomes a medium for illustrating a doctrine of the schools.
If this view of the tale be correct, we would incidentally have a proof
(for which there is other evidence) that as early as the fifteenth
century, the Marduk-Tiamat story had already received a definite shape.
But the most valuable conclusion to be drawn from the Nergal-Allatu tale
is that, according to the popular conceptions, the real and older head
of the pantheon of the lower world was a goddess, and not a god.

Allatu takes precedence of Nergal. In the story of Ishtar's descent to
the lower world, a trace of the earlier view survives. Allatu is
introduced as the ruler of the lower world. Nergal plays no part. Viewed
in this light, the design of the tale we have just discussed becomes
still more evident. It was inconsistent with the prominence assigned to
male deities in the systematized pantheon, that the chief deity of the
lower world should be a female. Allatu could not be set aside, for the
belief in her power was too strongly imbedded in the popular mind; but a
male consort could be given her who might rule with her. Another factor
that may have entered into play in the adaptation of the Marduk-Tiamat
story to Nergal and Allatu, and that gave to the adaptation more
plausibility, was the disappearance of the summer sun after he had done
his work. Nergal did not exert his power during the whole year, and even
as the sun of midday, he was not in control all day. When he
disappeared, there was only one place to which he could go.

As of Tarmmuz and of other solar deities,[1214] it was probably related
of Nergal, also, that he was carried to the lower world. This popular
basis for the presence of Nergal in the lower world may have served as a
point of departure for the scholastic development of Nergal. However,
the tale of Nergal and Allatu goes far beyond the length of popular
belief in making Nergal conquer Allatu, and force himself, in a measure,
into her place. Before Nergal appears on the scene, a god, Ninazu, was
regarded as the consort of Allatu.[1215]

The conception which gives the Babylonian Hades a queen as ruler is of
popular origin, in contrast to the scholastic aspect of Nergal as the
later king of the lower region. Jensen is of the opinion that the
feminine gender of the word for earth in Babylonian superinduced the
belief that the ruler of the kingdom situated within the earth was a
woman. Allatu would, according to this view, be a personification of the
'earth.' But a factor that also enters into play is the notion of
productivity and fertility which gave rise to the conception of the
great mother-goddess, Ishtar.[1216] Allatu is correlated to Ishtar. From
the earth comes vegetation. The origin of mankind, too, is traced to the
earth, and to the earth mankind ultimately returns.[1217] Hence, the
receiver of life is a goddess equally with the giver of life, and
indeed, Ishtar and Allatu are but the two aspects of one and the same
phenomenon.[1218] Allatu signifies 'strength.' The name is related to
the Arabic _Allah_ and the Hebrew _Eloah_ and _Elohim_. The same
meaning--strength, power, rule--attaches to many of the names of the
gods of the Semites: Adon, Etana, Baal, El, and the like.[1219] It is
interesting to note that the chief goddess of Arabia is _Allat_[1220]--a
name identical with our Allatu.

The bronze relief above described furnished us with a picture of this
queen of the lower world. The gloom enveloping the region controls this
picture. Allatu is of as forbidding an aspect as Tiamat. She is warlike
and ferocious. When enraged, her anger knows no bounds. Her chief
attendants are the terrible Namtar and a scribe--also a female--known as
Belit-seri. Of these two personages, Namtar, the personification of
disease, is a popular conception, whereas the addition of a scribe
points again to the influence of the schools. Marduk, the chief god of
the living, has a scribe who writes down, at the god's dictation, the
fate decreed for individuals. Corresponding to this, the ruler of the
lower world has a scribe who writes down on the tablets of wisdom the
decrees of the goddess, and, at a later stage, the decrees of Nergal as
well. Belit-seri, whose name signifies 'mistress of the field,' was
originally a goddess of vegetation, some local deity who has been
reduced to the rank of an attendant upon a greater one; and it is
significant that almost all the members of the nether-world pantheon are
in some way connected with vegetation.

Tammuz, of whose position in this pantheon we have already had occasion
to speak, is the god of spring vegetation. Another solar deity,
Nin-gishzida,[1221] who is associated in the Adapa legend with Tammuz,
is the deity who presides over the growth of trees. En-meshara, who also
belongs to the court of Nergal and Allatu, appears to represent
vegetation in general. To these may be added Girra (or Gira), who
originally, as it would appear, a god of vegetation, is eventually
identified with Dibbarra,[1222] Gil, whom Jensen[1223] regards as 'the
god of foliage,' and Belili, the sister of Tammuz.[1224] Of this group
of deities, Tammuz and Nin-gishzida are the most important. In the Adapa
legend, it will be recalled, they are stationed as guardians in heaven.
As solar deities, they properly belong there. Like Nergal, they have
been transferred to the nether world; and in the case of all three, the
process that led to the change appears to have been the same. The trees
blossom, bear fruit, and then decay; the fields are clothed in glory,
and then shorn of their strength. The decay of vegetation was popularly
figured as due to the weakness[1225] of the god who produced the
fertility. Tammuz has been deceived by Ishtar; Nin-gishzida has been
carried off to the lower world. In the month of Tebet,--the tenth
month,--there was celebrated a festival of mourning for the lost
En-meshara. It is the time of the winter solstice. A similar fate must
have overtaken Belit-seri, Girra, and Gil. For a time, at least, they
are hidden in the realm of Allatu. Of all these deities, stories were no
doubt current that formed so many variations of one and the same theme,
symbolizing their disappearance and the hoped-for return, the same story
that we encounter in the myth of Venus and Adonis, in the myth of
Osiris, and, in some guise or other, among many other nations of the
ancient world. Of Girra, it may be well to remember that he is viewed
merely as a form of Nergal in the later texts. Belili, it will be
recalled, is associated with Tammuz in the story of Ishtar's
journey.[1226] She is not, however, the consort of the god, but his
sister. The antiquity of her cult follows from the occurrence of her
name in the list of gods antecedent to Anu,[1227] and where Alala is
entered as her consort. Whatever else the relationship of 'sister' to
Tammuz means, it certainly indicates that Belili belongs to the deities
of vegetation, and it may be that she will turn out to be identical with
Belit-seri, which is merely the designation of some goddess, and not a
real name.[1228] One is inclined also to suspect some, albeit remote,
connection between Alala, the consort of Belili, and the Alallu bird who
is spoken of in the Gilgamesh epic as having been deprived of her
pinions by Ishtar.[1229] In the tale, Tammuz, the Alallu bird, a lion,
and a horse are successively introduced as those once loved and then
deceived by Ishtar. The lion is, as has been several times indicated,
the symbol of Nergal; the horse appears in the Hades relief above
described as the animal upon which Allatu is seated, and it seems
legitimate, therefore, to seek for Alallu also in the nether world.
While it may be that a long process intervened, before such a species of
symbolization was brought about as the representation of an ancient
deity in the guise of a bird, still, if it will be recalled that Zu is a
deity, pictured as a bird,[1230] there is every reason to interpret the
bird Alallu merely as the symbol of some deity, just as the lion is
certainly such a symbol.

Jensen would add Etana to the list of gods of vegetation who form part
of Allatu's court. While the etymology he proposes for the name is not
acceptable, there is no doubt that to Etana, like Gilgamesh, the
character of a solar deity has been imparted. His presence in the nether
world is due to the story of his flight with the eagle and the
fall.[1231] If he falls from heaven, he naturally enters the realm of
Allatu, and it is possible that the story in its original form was
suggested by a myth illustrating the change of seasons. The question,
however, must for the present remain an open one.

A god associated with the nether world who again appears to be a solar
deity is Nin-azu. His name points to his being 'the god of healing.' A
text states[1232] that Allatu is his consort. Such a relationship to the
chief goddess of the nether world may be regarded as a survival of the
period when Nergal had not yet been assigned to this place. The
introduction of a distinctly beneficent god into the pantheon of the
lower world, and as second in rank, shows also that the gloomy
conception of the lower world was one that developed gradually. Tammuz,
Nin-gishzida, and the like are held enthralled by Allatu, and remain in
the nether world against their will; but if Allatu chooses as her
consort a 'god of healing,' she must have been viewed as a goddess who
could at times, at least, be actuated by kindly motives. The phase of
the sun symbolized by Nin-azu is, as in the case of Tammuz and others,
the sun of the springtime and of the morning. If it be recalled that
Gula, the great goddess of healing, is the consort of Ninib,[1233] it
will be clear that Nin-azu must be closely related to Ninib--and is,
indeed, identified with the latter.[1234] With Nergal in control,
Nin-azu had to yield his privilege to be the husband of Allatu. The
substitute of the fierce sun of the summer solstice for the sun of
spring is a most interesting symptom of the direction taken by the
Babylonian beliefs, regarding the fate of the dead. It may be that in
the earlier period, when more optimistic views of Aralu were current,
Gula, who is called the one 'who restores the dead to life,' may have
had a place in the pantheon of the lower world; not that the Babylonians
at any time believed in the return of the dead, but because the living
could be saved from the clutches of death. Ninib and Gula, as gods of
spring, furnished the spectacle of such a miracle in the return of
vegetation. In this sense, we have seen that Marduk, the god of spring,
was also addressed as 'the restorer to life.' But while the
revivification of nature controls the conception of gods of healing,
like Nin-azu, Ninib, and Gula, the extension of the idea would lead,
naturally, to the association of these gods with the ruler of the nether
world, at a time when it was still believed that this ruler could be
moved by appeals to loosen her hold upon those whom she was about to
drag to her kingdom. But it is important always to bear in mind that
beyond this apparent restoration of the dead to life, the Babylonians at
no time went.

In the Ishtar story[1235] a god Irkalla is introduced. Jeremias[1236]
takes this as one of the names of Allatu, but this is unlikely.[1237]
From other sources[1238] we know that Irkalla is one of the names of the
nether world. It is in some way connected with Urugal,[1239] _i.e._,
'great city,' which is also a common designation for the dwelling-place
of the dead. Hence, Irkalla is an epithet describing a deity as 'the god
of the great city.' The Babylonian scholars, who were fond of plays upon
words, brought the name Nergal, as though compounded of Ne-uru-gal
(_i.e._, 'ruler of the great city'), into connection with Uru-gal, and
thus identified Irkalla with Nergal. But, originally, some other god
must have been meant, since Allatu appears as the sole ruler of the
lower world in the Ishtar story, unless, indeed, we are to assume that
the name has been introduced at a late period as a concession to Nergal.
It is more plausible that a god like Nin-azu was understood under 'the
god of the great city.' Besides these gods, there is another series of
beings who belong to Allatu's court,--the demons who are directly
responsible for death in the world. Of this series, Namtar is the chief
and the representative. As the one who gathers in the living to the dark
abode, it is natural that he should be pictured as guardian at the gates
of the great palace of Allatu. But by the side of Namtar stand a large
number of demons, whose task is similar to that of their chief. A
text[1240] calls the entire group of demons,--the demon of wasting
disease, the demon of fever, the demon of erysipelas,[1241] and the
like,--'the offspring of Aralu,' 'the sons and messengers of Namtar, the
bearers of destruction for Allatu.' These demons are sent out from Aralu
to plague the living, but once they have brought their victims to Aralu,
their task is done. They do not trouble the dead. The latter stand, as
we have seen, under the direct control of the gods.[1242]

The story of Ishtar's descent to the lower world[1243] shows us that the
group of spirits known as the Anunnaki, also, belong to the court of
Nergal and Allatu. Ramman-nirari I. already designates the Anunnaki as
belonging to the earth,[1244] though it is an indication of the
vagueness of the notions connected with the group that in hymns, both
the Anunnaki and the Igigi are designated as offspring of Anu,--the god
of heaven.[1245] They are not exclusively at the service of Nergal and
Allatu. Bel, Ninib, Marduk, and Ishtar also send them out on missions.
Evidently, the fact that their chief function was to injure mankind
suggested the doctrine which gave them a place in the lower world with
the demons. The distinction between Anunnaki and the Igigi is not
sharply maintained in the religious literature. Though Ramman-nirari
places the Igigi in heaven, it is not impossible that a later view
transferred them, like the Anunnaki, to the lower world. There were, of
course, some misfortunes that were sent against mankind from on
high--Ramman was a god who required such messengers as the Igigi, and
besides the Igigi, there were other spirits sent out from above. But, as
in the course of time the general doctrine was developed which made the
gods, on the whole, favorably inclined towards man, while the evil was
ascribed to the demons[1246]--as occupying the lower rank of divine
beings--we note the tendency also to ascribe the ills that humanity is
heir to, to the forces that dwell under the earth,--to Nergal and Allatu
and to those who did their bidding. Probably, Lakhmu and Lakhamu were
also regarded, at least by the theologians, as part of Allatu's court,
just as Alala and Belili[1247] were so regarded.

The confusion resulting from the double position of Nergal in the
religious literature, as the deity of the summer solstice and as the
chief of the nether-world pantheon, raises a doubt whether some gods who
are closely associated with Nergal are to be placed on high with the
gods or have their seats below with Nergal. Among these, three require
mention here: Dibbarra, Gibil, and Ishum. Of these, the first two are
directly identified with Nergal in the systematized pantheon[1248],
while Ishum is closely associated with Nergal, or appears as the
attendant of Dibbarra[1249]. These gods, symbolizing violent destruction
through war and fire, are evidently related to the Nergal of the upper
world,--to Nergal, the solar deity; but in the later stages of the
religion, the Nergal of the lower world almost completely sets aside the
earlier conception. It is, therefore, likely that deities who stand so
close to the terrible god as those under consideration, were also
regarded as having a position near his throne in the lower world.