The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

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

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If I mount to heaven, thou art there,
If I make Sheol my couch, thou art there,[1306]

the departure from the old Hebrew and Babylonian views of the limitation
of divine power is clearly marked. The inconsistency between the view
held of Yahwe and the limitation of his power was not, however, always
recognized. Hence, even in late portions of the Old Testament, we find
views of the life after death that are closely allied to the popular
notions prevailing in the earlier productions. It is not, indeed, till
we reach a period bordering close on our era that the conflict between
the old and the new is brought to a decided issue in the disputes of the
sects that arose in Palestine.[1307] The doctrines of retribution and of
the resurrection of the dead are the inevitable consequences of the
later ethical faith and finally triumph; but the old views, which bring
the ancient Hebrews into such close connection with the Babylonians,
left their impress in the vagueness that for a long time characterized
these doctrines, even after their promulgation. The persistency of the
old beliefs is a proof of the strong hold that they acquired, as also of
the close bond uniting, at one time and for a long period, Hebrews and
Babylonians. What applies to the beliefs regarding the dead holds good
also for the rites. Many a modern Jewish custom[1308] still bears
witness to the original identity of the Hebrew and Babylonian methods of
disposing of and caring for the dead.

There is but one explanation for this close agreement,--the same
explanation that was given for the identity of traditions regarding the
creation of the world, and for the various other points of contact
between the two peoples that we have met with. When the Hebrew clans
left their homes in the Euphrates Valley, they carried with them the
traditions, beliefs, and customs that were current in that district, and
which they shared with the Babylonians. Under new surroundings, some new
features were added to the traditions and beliefs, but the additions did
not obscure the distinctive character impressed upon them by Babylonian
contact. We now know that relations with Babylonia were never entirely
broken off by the Hebrews. The old traditions survived all vicissitudes.
They were adapted to totally changed phases of belief, but the kernel
still remained Babylonian. Beliefs were modified, new doctrines arose;
but, with a happy inconsistency, the old was embodied in the new. Hence
it happens, that in order to understand the Hebrews, their religion,
their customs, and even their manner of thought, we must turn to
Babylonia.

Further discoveries beneath the mounds of Mesopotamia and further
researches in Babylonian literature will add more evidence to the
indebtedness of the Hebrews to Babylonia. It will be found that in the
sacrificial ordinances of the Pentateuch, in the legal regulations, in
methods of justice and punishment, Babylonian models were largely
followed, or, what is an equal testimony to Babylonian influence, an
opposition to Babylonian methods was dominant. It is not strange that
when by a curious fate, the Hebrews were once more carried back to the
'great river of Babylon,'[1309] the people felt so thoroughly at home
there. It was only the poets and some ardent patriots who hung their
harps on the willows and sighed for a return to Zion. The Jewish
population steadily increased in Babylonia, and soon also the
intellectual activity of Babylonian Jews outstripped that of
Palestine.[1310] The finishing touches to the structure of Judaism were
given in Babylonia--on the soil where the foundations were laid.

FOOTNOTES:

[1112] See above, p. 448.

[1113] See pp. 487, 489, 511, 512.

[1114] Or Arallu.

[1115] IIR. 61, 18. Jensen, _Kosmologie_, p. 220, takes this as the name
of a temple; but, since Aralu was pictured as a 'great house,' there is
no reason why the designation should not refer to the nether world.

[1116] See the admirable argument in Jensen, _Kosmologie_, pp. 185-195.

[1117] Or, more fully, Kharsag-gal-kurkura, 'great mountain of all
lands.'

[1118] See above, p. 458.

[1119] See the following chapter.

[1120] See the passages in Jeremias' _Die Babylonisch-Assyrischen
Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode_, p. 62.

[1121] Sargon Annals, I. 156. Jensen's interpretation of the passage
(_Kosmologie_, p. 231) is forced, as is also his explanation of IIR. 51,
11a, where a mountain Aralu is clearly designated.

[1122] _Kosmologie_, pp. 222-224.

[1123] Gunkel's _Schoepfung und Chaos_, p. 154, note 5.

[1124] In an article on 'Shualu' published in the _American Journal of
Semitic Languages_ (xiv.), I have set forth my reasons for accepting
this word as a Babylonian term for the nether world.

[1125] In the later portions of the Old Testament, the use of Sheol is
also avoided. See the passages in Schwally, _Das Leben nach dem Tode
nach den Vorstellungen des Alten Israels_, pp. 59, 60.

[1126] Not 'Ort der Entscheidung,' as Jeremias, _ib._ p. 109, proposes.

[1127] See above, p. 329.

[1128] I Sam. xxviii. 11.

[1129] See p. 511.

[1130] See Schwally, _ib._ pp. 59-63.

[1131] Isaiah, viii. 19.

[1132] One of the names for the priest in Babylonia is Sha'ilu, _i.e._,
'inquirer,' and the corresponding Hebrew word Sho'el is similarly used
in a few passages of the Old Testament; _e.g._, Deut. xviii. 11; Micah,
vii. 3. See an article by the writer on "The Stem Sha'al and the Name of
Samuel," in a forthcoming number of the _Journal of the Society of
Biblical Literature_.

[1133] See above, pp. 333 _seq._

[1134] See p. 167.

[1135] See above, p. 167, and Scheit, _Le Culte de Gudea_, etc.
(_Recueil des Travaux_, xviii. 64 _seq._)

[1136] Thureau-Dangin, _Le Culte des Rois dans la periode
Prebabylonienne_ (_Recueil des Travaux_, etc., xix. 486).

[1137] See above, p. 36. The text is published IIIR. pl. 4, no. 7.
Recently, Mr. Pinches has published a variant version of this story
(_Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._ xviii. 257, 258).

[1138] IVR. 34.

[1139] In view of recent discussions of the subject, it is important to
note that Tiele already fifteen years ago recognized that Sargon was a
historical personage. See his remarks, _Babyl. Assyr. Gesch._, p. 112.

[1140] Chapter ii.

[1141] See Winterbotham, "The Cult of Father Abraham," in the
_Expositor_, 1897, pp. 177-186.

[1142] See Jensen's _Kosmologie_, p. 215, and Meissner,
_Altbabylonisches Privatrecht_, p. 21. The word is used for the
foundation of a building, and is an indication, therefore, of the great
depth at which the nether world was placed.

[1143] See below, p. 567, and Jensen's _Kosmologie_, p. 259.

[1144] See pp. 65, 66.

[1145] _Kabru_ and _Gegunu_ ('dark place').

[1146] See also below, pp. 566, 567.

[1147] Published IV Rawlinson (2nd edition), pl. 31.

[1148] See p. 483.

[1149] The Old Testament recognizes only two seasons, summer and winter.
See, _e.g._, Gen. viii. 22.

[1150] See the discussion in Robertson Smith's _Religions of the
Semites_, pp. 391-394; and also Farnall, _The Cults of the Greek
States_, ii. 644-649.

[1151] See above, p. 484.

[1152] See above, p. 510.

[1153] _I.e._, according to one version (p. 511). Another version of
this part of the Gilgamesh epic, which, however, is influenced by the
tale of Ishtar's visit, is published in Haupt's _Nimrodepos_, pp. 16-19.
In this version Eabani gives Gilgamesh a description of Aralu, which
tallies with the one found in the Ishtar tale.

[1154] Text defective. Jeremias' suggestion, "the land that thou
knowest," misses the point. The person addressed does not know the land.
'Decay' is Schrader's conjecture (_Die Hoellenfahrt der Istar_, p. 24).
See Haupt's _Nimrodepos_, pp. 17, 40, and Delitzsch's _Assyr.
Woerterbuch_, p. 321, note.

[1155] Lit., 'the one who has entered it.'

[1156] _I.e._, of the inhabitants.

[1157] The inhabitants.

[1158] See p. 461.

[1159] See below, p. 591.

[1160] See pp. 502, 511.

[1161] Particularly by Herbert Spencer and his followers.

[1162] Isaiah, xiv 9-20, and Ezekiel, xxxii. 18-31. In Isaiah, the
Babylonian Aralu is specifically described, while Ezekiel writes under
the influence of Babylonian ideas.

[1163] Isaiah, viii. 19.

[1164] The Hebrew word for 'the dead,' _refaim_, conveys this idea.

[1165] See p. 512.

[1166] See Sara Y. Stevenson, "On Certain Symbols used in the Decoration
of Some Potsherds from Daphne and Naukratis" (Philadelphia, 1892), p. 8.

[1167] See above, p. 83.

[1168] 'Eating' appears to be a metaphor for destruction in general.

[1169] The portals (?).

[1170] Jensen, _Kosmologie_, pp. 173 _seq_.

[1171] Here used as an epithet of the nether world. See above, p. 563.

[1172] Or 'palace.' The lower world, it will be recalled, is pictured as
a house or a country. Here the two terms are combined. See Delitzsch,
_Assyr. Woerterbuch_, p. 341.

[1173] The phrases used are the ordinary terms of greeting. See, _e.g._,
VR. 65, 17b.

[1174] Gibil-Nusku may be meant. See the hymn, p. 278. Pap-sukal is a
title of Nabu (p. 130), but also of other gods.

[1175] Lit., 'liver.'

[1176] For the translation of these lines see Jensen, _Kosmologie_, p.
233.

[1177] See above, p. 441.

[1178] So Jeremias' _Vorstellungen_, etc.; see p. 39. _Zikutu_ from the
same stem means a 'drinking bowl.'

[1179] A biting of the lips is elsewhere introduced as a figure. See the
author's monograph, "A Fragment of the Babylonian Dibbarra Epic," p. 14.

[1180] See Delitzsch, _Assyr. Woerterbuch_, p. 341.

[1181] So far as the domestic animals are concerned, it is true that
they throw off their young in the spring. The reference to a similar
interruption in the case of mankind (see above, p. 571) may embody the
recollection of a period when a regular pairing season and breeding time
existed among mankind. See Westermarck, _The History of Human Marriage_,
pp. 27 _seq._

[1182] Allatu.

[1183] _I.e._, of the dead person.

[1184] Ishtar.

[1185] See p. 475.

[1186] _Vorstellungen_, pp. 6-8.

[1187] Some instrument is mentioned.

[1188] IVR. 30, no. 3, obverse 23-35.

[1189] The word is explained by a gloss, 'Shamash has made him great.'

[1190] _I.e._, the month in which one dies.

[1191] See p. 175.

[1192] See pp. 505, 506.

[1193] _Vorstellungen_, p. 81.

[1194] Psalms, vi. 6.

[1195] _L'Enfer Assyrien_ (_Revue Archaeologique_, 1879, pp. 337-349).
See also Perrot and Chiplez, _History of Art in Chaldaea and Assyria_,
I. 349 _seq._

[1196] Described by Schell in the _Recucil de Travaux_, etc., xx. nos. 1
and 2. Schell regards the Zurghul duplicate as older than the other.

[1197] Only four on the Zurghul duplicate.

[1198] For the interpretation of these symbols, see Luschan,
_Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli_, pp. 17-27, and Scheil's article. On the
Zurghul tablet there are eight symbols, while the other contains nine.

[1199] See pp. 263, 264. A text IVR. 5, col. i. compares each of the
seven spirits to some animal. On the duplicate six demons are placed in
the second division and the seventh in the third.

[1200] On the duplicate those two demons do not occur.

[1201] Schell thinks that the face is that of a dog.

[1202] On the Zurghul duplicate the horse is not pictured.

[1203] See p. 529.

[1204] This division is not marked in the duplicate from Zurghul.

[1205] Not occurring on the duplicate.

[1206] Scheil questions whether the divisions have this purpose. While
perhaps not much stress is laid by the artist upon this symbolism, its
existence can hardly be questioned. Note the five divisions of the
universe in Smith's _Miscellaneous Texts_, p. 16. The water certainly
represents the Apsu. Allatu rests upon the bark. We do not find among
the Babylonians (as Scheil supposes) the view that the dead are conveyed
across a sheet of water to the nether world. The dead are buried, and by
virtue of this fact enter Aralu, which is in the earth. Egyptian
influence is possible, but unlikely.

[1207] IVR. 26, no. 1.

[1208] _I.e._, the nether world.

[1209] IVR. 30, no. 1; obverse 5, 14.

[1210] See Jensen's valuable articles, "The Queen in the Babylonian
Hades and her Consort," in the _Sunday School Times_, March 13 and 20,
1897. The text is published, Winckler and Abel, _Der Thontafelfund von
El-Amarna,_ iii. 164, 165.

[1211] Written phonetically _e-ri-ish_. The word is entered as a synonym
of _sharratum_, 'queen,' VR. 28, no. 2; obverse 31. This phonetic
writing furnishes the reading for _Nin_ in Nin-Klgal.

[1212] See pp. 418, 419.

[1213] See p. 428.

[1214] See below, p. 588 _seq._

[1215] See below, p. 590.

[1216] See above, p. 79.

[1217] See pp. 448, 511.

[1218] See Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, ii. 627.

[1219] See the reference in note 3 to p. 519.

[1220] Wellhausen, _Reste Arabischen Heidenthums_, pp. 28, 29. That the
Syro-Arabian _Allat_ resembles Ishtar rather than Allatu, points again
to the original identity of the two goddesses.

[1221] See p. 546 _seq._

[1222] See below, p. 594, note 1, and Jensen's _Kosmologie_, pp. 145,
480, 483, 487.

[1223] _Sunday School Times_, 1897, p. 139.

[1224] See p. 574.

[1225] See Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, i. 240 _seq._ and 274, 275.

[1226] See p. 574.

[1227] See p. 417.

[1228] Cheyne (_Expository Times_, 1897, pp. 423, 424) ingeniously
regards _Belili_ as the source of the Hebrew word _Beliyaal_ or
_Belial_, which, by a species of popular etymology, is written by the
ancient Hebrew scholars as though compounded of two Hebrew words
signifying 'without return.' The popular etymology is valuable as
confirming the proposition to place Belili in the pantheon of the lower
world. From its original meaning, the word became a poetical term in
Hebrew for 'worthless,' 'useless,' and the like, _e.g._, in the
well-known phrase "Sons of Belial."

[1229] See p. 482.

[1230] See p. 537.

[1231] See above, p. 523.

[1232] IIR. 59; reverse 33-35.

[1233] See above, p. 175.

[1234] IIR. 57, 51a, a star, Nin-azu, is entered as one of the names of
the planet Ninib.

[1235] See above, p. 565. The name occurs also in Haupt's _Nimrodepos_,
pp. 19, 29.

[1236] _Vorstellungen_, p. 68.

[1237] The name of the goddess is written throughout the story
Nin-Kigal; _i.e._, 'queen of the nether world.' Nin-Eresh. See p. 584,
note 2.

[1238] Smith, _Miscellaneous Texts_, p. 16.

[1239] Jensen, _Kosmologie_, p. 259, note.

[1240] IVR. 1, col. i. 12; col iii. 8-10.

[1241] _Te'u_. See IVR. 22, 512, and Bartels, _Zeitschrift fuer
Assyriologie_, viii. 179-184.

[1242] See above, pp. 183, 560.

[1243] Obverse ll. 33, 37.

[1244] See above, p. 185.

[1245] See p. 186.

[1246] See p. 183.

[1247] See pp. 417, 598.

[1248] Jensen's _Kosmologie_, pp. 483, 484. In the new fragment of the
Deluge story discovered by Scheil (referred to above, p. 507, and now
published in the _Recueil de Travaux_, xix. no. 3) the word
_di-ib-ba-ra_ occurs, and the context shows that it means 'destruction.'
In view of this, the question is again opened as to the reading of the
name of the god of war and pestilence. The identification of this god
with Girra (pp. 528, 588) may belong to a late period.

[1249] See p. 529.

[1250] See pp. 111, 171, 190.

[1251] See chapter v.

[1252] So at Zurghul (or Zerghul) and el-Hibba. See Koldewey in
_Zeitschrift fuer Assyriologie_, ii. 403-430.

[1253] See the valuable chapter in Peters' work on _Nippur_, ii.
214-234.

[1254] _Proceedings of the American Oriental Society_, 1896, p. 166. The
dead are often conveyed hundreds of miles to be interred in Nejef and
Kerbela.

[1255] Peters' _Nippur_, ii. 325, 326.

[1256] See below, p. 597.

[1257] Koldewey, _Zeitschrift fuer Assyriologie_, ii. 406 _seq._

[1258] _Ib._

[1259] _Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana_, chapter xviii.

[1260] Peters' _Nippur_, ii. 234. Other mounds examined by Peters
between Warka and Nippur bear out the conclusion.

[1261] De Sarzec, _Decouvertes en Chaldee_, pl. 3.

[1262] On the stele of vultures, the dead are naked.

[1263] Book I, Sec. 195.

[1264] See p. 512.

[1265] Such sacrifices are pictured on the stele of vultures.

[1266] IIIR. 43, col. iv. l. 20; Belser, _Beitraege zur Assyriologie_,
ll. 175, 18; Pinches, _Babylonian Texts_, p. 18.

[1267] For this custom see Trumbull, _The Threshold Covenant_, p. 25;
Peters' _Nippur_, ii. 202, 203.

[1268] Recently, Scheil has discovered some private dwellings at
Abu-Habba, which will be described in his forthcoming volume on his
explorations at that place. See also Peters' _Nippur_, ii. 200, 201.

[1269] Peters' _Nippur_, ii. 220.

[1270] See p. 597. The date of the monument is prior to Sargon; _i.e._,
earlier than 3800 B.C.

[1271] VR. 61, col. vi. ll. 54, 55.

[1272] Rassam Cylinder, col. iii. l. 40.

[1273] Rassam Cylinder, col. iv. ll. 74-76.

[1274] _Ib._ col. vi. ll. 70-76.

[1275] Rassam Cylinder, col. iii. l. 64. The favorite mutilation was the
cutting off of the head. On one of the sculptured slabs from the palace
of Ashurbanabal, a pyramid of heads is portrayed. The cutting off of the
hands, the lips, the nose, and the male organ, as well as the flaying of
the skin, were also practised. (See Sennacherib's account IR. 42, col.
vi. ll. 1-6; Rassam Cylinder (Ashurbanabal), ii. 4 and iv. 136.)

[1276] Rassam Cylinder, col. vii. ll. 46-48.

[1277] _ekimmu_. See p. 580.

[1278] See p. 578.

[1279] Heuzey offers another explanation of the scene which is less
plausible. (See De Sarzec, _Decouvertes en Chaldee_, p. 98.)

[1280] Hebrew word _Sak_. The other rite of mourning among the Hebrews,
the putting of earth on the head (_e.g._, I Sam. iv. 12; II Sam. i. 2
and xv. 32; Neh. ix. 1), is a survival of the method of burial as
portrayed in the 'stele of vultures.' The earth was originally placed in
a basket on the head and used to cover the dead body.

[1281] The mourning garb mentioned in the Adapa legend (p. 546) is
probably a 'torn' garment.

[1282] Hagen, _Cyrus-Texte_ (_Beitraege zur Assyriologie_, ii. 219, 223).

[1283] Inscription B, col. v. ll. 3-5.

[1284] Lane, _Modern Egyptians_, ll. 286.

[1285] See p. 575.

[1286] _Ib._

[1287] See p. 487.

[1288] Hagen, _Cyrus-Texte_, _ib._ and p. 248.

[1289] "The Folk-Song of Israel," _The New World_, ii. 35; also his
article "Das Hebraeische Klagelied," _Zeitschrift fuer Alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft_, ii. 1-52.

[1290] In Egypt at present the tambourine is used to accompany the
dirges (Lane, _ib._ p. 278).

[1291] Peter's _Nippur_, ii. 173, and elsewhere.

[1292] _Zeitschrift fuer Assyriologie_, ii. 414.

[1293] See above, p. 575.

[1294] Job, x. 21, 22.

[1295] _I.e._, the darkness is so dense that no light can remove it.

[1296] See the references in Schwally, _Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den
Vorstellungen des Alten Israels_, pp. 59-68, and Jeremias'
_Vorstellungen_, pp. 106-116.

[1297] Job, vii. 10.

[1298] _Refa'im_.

[1299] Chapter ix. 5-10.

[1300] Gen. xlii. 38.

[1301] Incidentally, a proof that the dead were not buried naked.

[1302] _Das Leben nach dem Tode_, etc, p. 67.

[1303] I Sam. ii. Recognized by the critics as an insertion. See Budde,
_Die Buecher Richter und Samuel_, p. 197.

[1304] I Kings, xvii. 21, 22.

[1305] Chapter ii. 7.

[1306] Psalms, cxxxix. 8; a very late production.

[1307] Schuerer, _A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus
Christ_, vol. II. Division li. pp. 38, 39, 179-181.

[1308] _E.g._, the custom still in vogue among Orthodox Jews of placing
the body wrapped in a shroud upon a board, instead of in a coffin.

[1309] Professor Haupt has recently shown (in a paper read before the
American Oriental Society, April, 1897, and before the Eleventh
International Congress of Orientalists, September, 1897) that such is
the meaning of the phrase, Psalms, cxxxvii. 1, which is ordinarily
translated 'rivers of Babylon.'

[1310] The Talmud of Babylonia, and not the Talmud of Palestine, became
the authoritative work in the Jewish Church.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE TEMPLES AND THE CULT.

The religious architecture of Babylonia and Assyria is of interest
chiefly as an expression of the religious earnestness of rulers and
people, and only in a minor degree as a manifestation of artistic
instincts. The lack of a picturesque building material in the Euphrates
Valley was sufficient to check the development of such instincts.
Important as the adaptation of the clay soil of Babylonia for simple
construction was for the growth of Babylonian culture, the limitations
to the employment of bricks as a building material are no less
significant. Ihering has endeavored to show[1311] by an argument that is
certainly brilliant and almost convincing, that the settlement of
Semites in a district, the soil of which could be so readily used to
replace the primitive habitations of man by solid structures, made the
Semites the teachers of the Aryans in almost everything that pertains to
civilization. House-building produced the art of measuring, led to more
elaborate furnishings of the habitation, created various trades,
introduced social distinctions, necessitated divisions of time, and gave
the stimulus to commercial intercourse. But, on the other hand, the
artistic possibilities of brick structures were soon exhausted. The
house could be indefinitely extended in length and even height, but such
an extension only added to the monotonous effect. With clay as a
building material, so readily moulded into any desired shape, and that
could be baked, if need be, by the action of the sun without the use of
fire, it was almost as easy to build a large house as a small one. But
the addition of rooms and wings and stories which differentiated the
house from the palace and the palace from the temple, served to make
hugeness the index of grandeur. The best specimens of the religious
architecture of Babylonia and Assyria are characterized by such
hugeness. A proportionate increase of external beauty could only be
secured by a modification of architectural style; but the conservative
instincts of the people discouraged any deviation from the conventional
shapes of the temples, which appear indeed to have been firmly
established long before the days of Hammurabi. The influence of
conventionality finds a striking illustration in the manner in which the
temples of Assyria follow Babylonian models. Soft and hard stone
suitable for permanent structures was easily procured in the mountainous
district adjacent to Assyria. The Assyrians used this material for
statues, altars, and for the slabs with which they decorated the
exterior and interior walls of their great edifices. Had they also
employed it as a building material, we should have had the development
of new architectural styles; but the Assyrians, so dependent in
everything pertaining to culture upon the south, could not cut
themselves loose from ancient traditions, and continued to erect huge
piles of brick, as the homage most pleasing in the eyes of their gods.
The Book of Genesis characterized the central idea of the Babylonian and
Assyrian temples when it represented the people gathered in the valley
of Shinar--that is, Babylonia--as saying: 'Come, let us build a city and
a tower that shall reach up to heaven.'[1312] The Babylonian and
Assyrian kings pride themselves upon the height of their temples.
Employing, indeed, almost the very same phrase that we find in the Old
Testament, they boast of having made the tops of their sacred edifices
as high as 'heaven.'[1313] The temple was to be in the literal sense of
the word a 'high place.' But, apart from the factor of natural growth,
there was a special reason why the Babylonians aimed to make their
sacred edifices high. The oldest temple of Babylonia at the present time
known to us, the temple of Bel at Nippur, bears the characteristic name
of E-Kur, 'mountain house.' The name is more than a metaphor. The sacred
edifices of Babylonia were intended as a matter of fact to be imitations
of mountains. It is Jensen's merit to have suggested the explanation for
this rather surprising ideal of the Babylonian temple.[1314] According
to Babylonian notions, it will be recalled, the earth is pictured as a
huge mountain. Among other names, the earth is called E-Kur, 'mountain
house.' The popular and early theology conceived the gods as sprung from
the earth. They are born in Kharsag-kurkura,[1315] 'the mountain of all
lands,' which is again naught but a designation for the earth, though at
a later period some particular part of the earth, some mountain peak,
may have been pictured as the birthplace of the gods, much as among the
Indians, Persians, and Greeks we find a particular mountain singled out
as the one on which the gods dwell. The transfer of the gods or of some
of them to places in the heavens was, as we saw,[1316] a scholastic
theory, and not a popular belief. It was a natural association of ideas,
accordingly, that led the Babylonians to give to their temples the form
of the dwelling which they ascribed to their gods. The temple, in so far
as it was erected to serve as a habitation for the god and an homage to
him, was to be the reproduction of the cosmic E-Kur,--'a mountain house'
on a small scale, a miniature Kharsag-kurkura. In confirmation of this
view, it is sufficient to point out that E-Kur is not merely the name of
the temple to Bel at Nippur, but is frequently used as a designation for
temple in general; and, moreover, a plural is formed of the word which
is used for divinities.[1317] In Assyria we find one of the oldest
temples bearing the name E-kharsag-kurkura,[1318] that stamps the
edifice as the reproduction of the 'mountain of all lands'; and there
are other temples that likewise bear names[1319] in which the idea of a
mountain is introduced.