Legends Of Babylon And Egypt

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"I will create man who shall inhabit (. . .),

That the service of the gods may be established and that
their shrines may be built."(1)

(1) See _The Seven Tablets of Creation_, Vol. I, pp. 86 ff.

We shall see later, from the remainder of Marduk's speech, that the
Semitic Version has been elaborated at this point in order to reconcile
it with other ingredients in its narrative, which were entirely absent
from the simpler Sumerian tradition. It will suffice here to note that,
in both, the reason given for man's existence is the same, namely, that
the gods themselves may have worshippers.(1) The conception is in full
agreement with early Sumerian thought, and reflects the theocratic
constitution of the earliest Sumerian communities. The idea was
naturally not repugnant to the Semites, and it need not surprise us to
find the very words of the principal Sumerian Creator put into the mouth
of Marduk, the city-god of Babylon.

(1) It may be added that this is also the reason given for
man's creation in the introduction to a text which
celebrates the founding or rebuilding of a temple.

The deity's speech perhaps comes to an end with the declaration of his
purpose in creating mankind or in sanctioning their survival of the
Deluge; and the following three lines appear to relate his establishment
of the divine laws in accordance with which his intention was carried
out. The passage includes a refrain, which is repeated in the Second
Column:

The sublime decrees he made perfect for it.

It may probably be assumed that the refrain is employed in relation to
the same deity in both passages. In the Second Column it precedes
the foundation of the Babylonian kingdom and the building of the
Antediluvian cities. In that passage there can be little doubt that the
subject of the verb is the chief Sumerian deity, and we are therefore
the more inclined to assign to him also the opening speech of the First
Column, rather than to regard it as spoken by the Sumerian goddess whose
share in the creation would justify her in claiming mankind as her
own. In the last four lines of the column we have a brief record of the
Creation itself. It was carried out by the three greatest gods of the
Sumerian pantheon, Anu, Enlil and Enki, with the help of the goddess
Ninkharsagga; the passage reads:

When Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninkharsagga
Created the blackheaded (i.e. mankind),
The _niggil(ma)_ of the earth they caused the earth to
produce(?),
The animals, the four-legged creatures of the field, they
artfully called into existence.

The interpretation of the third line is obscure, but there is no doubt
that it records the creation of something which is represented as having
taken place between the creation of mankind and that of animals. This
object, which is written as _nig-gil_ or _nig-gil-ma_, is referred to
again in the Sixth Column, where the Sumerian hero of the Deluge assigns
to it the honorific title, "Preserver of the Seed of Mankind". It must
therefore have played an important part in man's preservation from the
Flood; and the subsequent bestowal of the title may be paralleled in
the early Semitic Deluge fragment from Nippur, where the boat in which
Ut-napishtim escapes is assigned the very similar title "Preserver of
Life".(1) But _niggilma_ is not the word used in the Sumerian Version
of Ziusudu's boat, and I am inclined to suggest a meaning for it in
connexion with the magical element in the text, of the existence of
which there is other evidence. On that assumption, the prominence given
to its creation may be paralleled in the introduction to a later magical
text, which described, probably in connexion with an incantation,
the creation of two small creatures, one white and one black, by
Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", one of the titles borne by
Enki or Ea. The time of their creation is indicated as after that
of "cattle, beasts of the field and creatures of the city", and the
composition opens in a way which is very like the opening of the present
passage in our text.(2) In neither text is there any idea of giving
a complete account of the creation of the world, only so much of the
original myth being included in each case as suffices for the writer's
purpose. Here we may assume that the creation of mankind and of animals
is recorded because they were to be saved from the Flood, and that of
the _niggilma_ because of the part it played in ensuring their survival.

(1) See Hilprecht, _Babylonian Expedition_, Series D, Vol.
V, Fasc. 1, plate, Rev., l. 8; the photographic reproduction
clearly shows, as Dr. Poebel suggests (_Hist. Texts_, p. 61
n 3), that the line should read: _((isu)elippu) si-i lu
(isu)ma-gur-gur-ma sum-sa lu na-si-rat na-pis-tim_, "That
ship shall be a _magurgurru_ (giant boat), and its name
shall be 'Preserver of Life' (lit. 'She that preserves
life')."

(2) See _Seven Tablets of Creation_, Vol. I, pp. 122 ff. The
text opens with the words "When the gods in their assembly
had made (the world), and had created the heavens, and had
formed the earth, and had brought living creatures into
being . . .", the lines forming an introduction to the
special act of creation with which the composition was
concerned.

The discussion of the meaning of _niggilma_ may best be postponed till
the Sixth Column, where we find other references to the word. Meanwhile
it may be noted that in the present passage the creation of man precedes
that of animals, as it did in the earlier Hebrew Version of Creation,
and probably also in the Babylonian version, though not in the later
Hebrew Version. It may be added that in another Sumerian account of the
Creation(1) the same order, of man before animals, is followed.

(1) Cf. _Sev. Tabl._, Vol. I, p. 134 f.; but the text has
been subjected to editing, and some of its episodes are
obviously displaced.




II. THE ANTEDILUVIAN CITIES

As we saw was the case with the First Column of the text, the earliest
part preserved of the Second Column contains the close of a speech by a
deity, in which he proclaims an act he is about to perform. Here we may
assume with some confidence that the speaker is Anu or Enlil, preferably
the latter, since it would be natural to ascribe the political
constitution of Babylonia, the foundation of which is foreshadowed, to
the head of the Sumerian pantheon. It would appear that a beginning had
already been made in the establishment of "the kingdom", and, before
proceeding to his further work of founding the Antediluvian cities, he
follows the example of the speaker in the First Column of the text and
lays down the divine enactments by which his purpose was accomplished.
The same refrain is repeated:

The sub(lime decrees) he made perfect for it.

The text then relates the founding by the god of five cities, probably
"in clean places", that is to say on hallowed ground. He calls each by
its name and assigns it to its own divine patron or city-god:

(In clean place)s he founded (five) cit(ies).

And after he had called their names and they had been
allotted to divine rulers(?),--

The . . . of these cities, Eridu, he gave to the leader, Nu-
dimmud,

Secondly, to Nugira(?) he gave Bad-. . .,(1)

Thirdly, Larak he gave to Pabilkharsag,

Fourthly, Sippar he gave to the hero, the Sun-god,

Fifthly, Shuruppak he gave to "the God of Shuruppak",--

After he had called the names of these cities, and they had
been allotted to divine rulers(?),

(1) In Semitic-Babylonian the first component of this city-
name would read "Dur".

The completion of the sentence, in the last two lines of the column,
cannot be rendered with any certainty, but the passage appears to have
related the creation of small rivers and pools. It will be noted that
the lines which contain the names of the five cities and their patron
gods(1) form a long explanatory parenthesis, the preceding line being
repeated after their enumeration.

(1) The precise meaning of the sign-group here provisionally
rendered "divine ruler" is not yet ascertained.

As the first of the series of five cities of Eridu, the seat of Nudimmud
or Enki, who was the third of the creating deities, it has been urged
that the upper part of the Second Column must have included an account
of the founding of Erech, the city of Anu, and of Nippur, Enlil's
city.(1) But the numbered sequence of the cities would be difficult to
reconcile with the earlier creation of other cities in the text, and
the mention of Eridu as the first city to be created would be quite
in accord with its great age and peculiarly sacred character as a
cult-centre. Moreover the evidence of the Sumerian Dynastic List is
definitely against any claim of Erech to Antediluvian existence. For
when the hegemony passed from the first Post-diluvian "kingdom" to the
second, it went not to Erech but to the shrine Eanna, which gave its
name to the second "kingdom"; and the city itself was apparently not
founded before the reign of Enmerkar, the second occupant of the throne,
who is the first to be given the title "King of Erech". This conclusion
with regard to Erech incidentally disposes of the arguments for Nippur's
Antediluvian rank in primitive Sumerian tradition, which have been
founded on the order of the cities mentioned at the beginning of the
later Sumerian myth of Creation.(2) The evidence we thus obtain that the
early Sumerians themselves regarded Eridu as the first city in the world
to be created, increases the hope that future excavation at Abu Shahrain
may reveal Sumerian remains of periods which, from an archaeological
standpoint, must still be regarded as prehistoric.

(1) Cf. Poebel, op. cit., p. 41.

(2) The city of Nippur does not occur among the first four
"kingdoms" of the Sumerian Dynastic List; but we may
probably assume that it was the seat of at least one early
"kingdom", in consequence of which Enlil, its city-god,
attained his later pre-eminent rank in the Sumerian
pantheon.

It is noteworthy that no human rulers are mentioned in connexion with
Eridu and the other four Antediluvian cities; and Ziusudu, the hero
of the story, is apparently the only mortal whose name occurred in
our text. But its author's principal subject is the Deluge, and the
preceding history of the world is clearly not given in detail, but is
merely summarized. In view of the obviously abbreviated form of the
narrative, of which we have already noted striking evidence in its
account of the Creation, we may conclude that in the fuller form of
the tradition the cities were also assigned human rulers, each one
the representative of his city-god. These would correspond to the
Antediluvian dynasty of Berossus, the last member of which was
Xisuthros, the later counterpart of Ziusudu.

In support of the exclusion of Nippur and Erech from the myth, it will
be noted that the second city in the list is not Adab,(1) which was
probably the principal seat of the goddess Ninkharsagga, the fourth of
the creating deities. The names of both deity and city in that line
are strange to us. Larak, the third city in the series, is of greater
interest, for it is clearly Larankha, which according to Berossus
was the seat of the eighth and ninth of his Antediluvian kings. In
commercial documents of the Persian period, which have been found during
the excavations at Nippur, Larak is described as lying "on the bank of
the old Tigris", a phrase which must be taken as referring to the Shatt
el-Hai, in view of the situation of Lagash and other early cities
upon it or in its immediate neighbourhood. The site of the city should
perhaps be sought on the upper course of the stream, where it tends
to approach Nippur. It would thus have lain in the neighbourhood of
Bismaya, the site of Adab. Like Adab, Lagash, Shuruppak, and other early
Sumerian cities, it was probably destroyed and deserted at a very early
period, though it was reoccupied under its old name in Neo-Babylonian or
Persian times. Its early disappearance from Babylonian history perhaps
in part accounts for our own unfamiliarity with Pabilkharsag, its
city-god, unless we may regard the name as a variant from of Pabilsag;
but it is hardly likely that the two should be identified.

(1) The site of Adab, now marked by the mounds of Bismaya,
was partially excavated by an expedition sent out in 1903 by
the University of Chicago, and has provided valuable
material for the study of the earliest Sumerian period; see
_Reports of the Expedition of the Oriental Exploration Fund_
(Babylonian Section of the University of Chicago), and
Banks, _Bismya_ (1912). On grounds of antiquity alone we
might perhaps have expected its inclusion in the myth.

In Sibbar, the fourth of the Antediluvian cities in our series, we
again have a parallel to Berossus. It has long been recognized that
Pantibiblon, or Pantibiblia, from which the third, fourth, fifth, sixth,
and seventh of his Antediluvian kings all came, was the city of Sippar
in Northern Babylonia. For the seventh of these rulers, {Euedorakhos},
is clearly Enmeduranki, the mythical king of Sippar, who in Babylonian
tradition was regarded as the founder of divination. In a fragmentary
composition that has come down to us he is described, not only as king
of Sippar, but as "beloved of Anu, Enlil, and Enki", the three creating
gods of our text; and it is there recounted how the patron deities of
divination, Shamash and Adad, themselves taught him to practise their
art.(1) Moreover, Berossus directly implies the existence of Sippar
before the Deluge, for in the summary of his version that has been
preserved Xisuthros, under divine instruction, buries the sacred
writings concerning the origin of the world in "Sispara", the city
of the Sun-god, so that after the Deluge they might be dug up and
transmitted to mankind. Ebabbar, the great Sun-temple, was at Sippar,
and it is to the Sun-god that the city is naturally allotted in the new
Sumerian Version.

(1) Cf. Zimmern, _Beitraege zur Kenntniss der Bab. Relig._,
pp. 116 ff.

The last of the five Antediluvian cities in our list is Shuruppak, in
which dwelt Ut-napishtim, the hero of the Babylonian version of the
Deluge. Its site has been identified with the mounds of Fara, in the
neighbourhood of the Shatt el-Kar, the former bed of the Euphrates;
and the excavations that were conducted there in 1902 have been most
productive of remains dating from the prehistoric period of Sumerian
culture.(1) Since our text is concerned mainly with the Deluge, it
is natural to assume that the foundation of the city from which the
Deluge-hero came would be recorded last, in order to lead up to the
central episode of the text. The city of Ziusudu, the hero of the
Sumerian story, is unfortunately not given in the Third Column, but, in
view of Shuruppak's place in the list of Antediluvian cities, it is
not improbable that on this point the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions
agreed. In the Gilgamesh Epic Shuruppak is the only Antediluvian city
referred to, while in the Hebrew accounts no city at all is mentioned in
connexion with Noah. The city of Xisuthros, too, is not recorded, but as
his father came from Larankha or Larak, we may regard that city as his
in the Greek Version. Besides Larankha, the only Antediluvian cities
according to Berossus were Babylon and Sippar, and the influence of
Babylonian theology, of which we here have evidence, would be sufficient
to account for a disturbance of the original traditions. At the same
time it is not excluded that Larak was also the scene of the Deluge in
our text, though, as we have noted, the position of Shuruppak at the
close of the Sumerian list points to it as the more probable of the two.
It may be added that we cannot yet read the name of the deity to whom
Shuruppak was allotted, but as it is expressed by the city's name
preceded by the divine determinative, the rendering "the God of
Shuruppak" will meanwhile serve.

(1) See _Hist. of Sum. and Akk._, pp. 24 ff.

The creation of small rivers and pools, which seems to have followed
the foundation of the five sacred cities, is best explained on the
assumption that they were intended for the supply of water to the
cities and to the temples of their five patron gods. The creation of
the Euphrates and the Tigris, if recorded in our text at all, or in its
logical order, must have occurred in the upper portion of the column.
The fact that in the later Sumerian account their creation is related
between that of mankind and the building of Nippur and Erech cannot be
cited in support of this suggestion, in view of the absence of those
cities from our text and of the process of editing to which the later
version has been subjected, with a consequent disarrangement of its
episodes.




III. THE COUNCIL OF THE GODS, AND ZIUSUDU'S PIETY

From the lower part of the Third Column, where its text is first
preserved, it is clear that the gods had already decided to send a
Deluge, for the goddess Nintu or Ninkharsagga, here referred to also
as "the holy Innanna", wails aloud for the intended destruction of "her
people". That this decision has been decreed by the gods in council is
clear from a passage in the Fourth Column, where it is stated that the
sending of a flood to destroy mankind was "the word of the assembly (of
the gods)". The first lines preserved in the present column describe the
effect of the decision on the various gods concerned and their action at
the close of the council.

In the lines which described the Council of the Gods, broken references
to "the people" and "a flood" are preserved, after which the text
continues:

At that time Nintu (. . .) like a (. . .),
The holy Innanna lament(ed) on account of her people.
Enki in his own heart (held) counsel;
Anu, Enlil, Enki and Ninkharsagga (. . .).
The gods of heaven and earth in(voked) the name of Anu and Enlil.

It is unfortunate that the ends of all the lines in this column are
wanting, but enough remains to show a close correspondence of the first
two lines quoted with a passage in the Gilgamesh Epic where Ishtar is
described as lamenting the destruction of mankind.(1) This will be seen
more clearly by printing the two couplets in parallel columns:

SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION

At that time Nintu (. . .) Ishtar cried aloud like a woman
like a (. . .), in travail,
The holy Innanna lament(ed) Belit-ili lamented with a loud
on account of her people. voice.

(1) Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 117 f.

The expression Belit-ili, "the Lady of the Gods", is attested as a title
borne both by the Semitic goddess Ishtar and by the Sumerian goddess
Nintu or Ninkharsagga. In the passage in the Babylonian Version, "the
Lady of the Gods" has always been treated as a synonym of Ishtar, the
second half of the couplet being regarded as a restatement of the first,
according to a recognized law of Babylonian poetry. We may probably
assume that this interpretation is correct, and we may conclude by
analogy that "the holy Innanna" in the second half of the Sumerian
couplet is there merely employed as a synonym of Nintu.(1) When the
Sumerian myth was recast in accordance with Semitic ideas, the _role_ of
creatress of mankind, which had been played by the old Sumerian goddess
Ninkharsagga or Nintu, was naturally transferred to the Semitic Ishtar.
And as Innanna was one of Ishtar's designations, it was possible to make
the change by a simple transcription of the lines, the name Nintu being
replaced by the synonymous title Belit-ili, which was also shared by
Ishtar. Difficulties are at once introduced if we assume with Dr.
Poebel that in each version two separate goddesses are represented as
lamenting, Nintu or Belit-ili and Innanna or Ishtar. For Innanna as
a separate goddess had no share in the Sumerian Creation, and the
reference to "her people" is there only applicable to Nintu. Dr. Poebel
has to assume that the Sumerian names should be reversed in order to
restore them to their original order, which he suggests the Babylonian
Version has preserved. But no such textual emendation is necessary. In
the Semitic Version Ishtar definitely displaces Nintu as the mother of
men, as is proved by a later passage in her speech where she refers to
her own bearing of mankind.(2) The necessity for the substitution of her
name in the later version is thus obvious, and we have already noted how
simply this was effected.

(1) Cf. also Jastrow, _Hebr. and Bab. Trad._, p. 336.

(2) Gilg. Epic, XI, l. 123.

Another feature in which the two versions differ is that in the Sumerian
text the lamentation of the goddess precedes the sending of the Deluge,
while in the Gilgamesh Epic it is occasioned by the actual advent of the
storm. Since our text is not completely preserved, it is just possible
that the couplet was repeated at the end of the Fourth Column after
mankind's destruction had taken place. But a further apparent difference
has been noted. While in the Sumerian Version the goddess at once
deplores the divine decision, it is clear from Ishtar's words in the
Gilgamesh Epic that in the assembly of the gods she had at any rate
concurred in it.(1) On the other hand, in Belit-ili's later speech in
the Epic, after Ut-napishtim's sacrifice upon the mountain, she appears
to subscribe the decision to Enlil alone.(2) The passages in the
Gilgamesh Epic are not really contradictory, for they can be interpreted
as implying that, while Enlil forced his will upon the other gods
against Belit-ili's protest, the goddess at first reproached herself
with her concurrence, and later stigmatized Enlil as the real author of
the catastrophe. The Semitic narrative thus does not appear, as has been
suggested, to betray traces of two variant traditions which have been
skilfully combined, though it may perhaps exhibit an expansion of the
Sumerian story. On the other hand, most of the apparent discrepancies
between the Sumerian and Babylonian Versions disappear, on the
recognition that our text gives in many passages only an epitome of the
original Sumerian Version.

(1) Cf. l. 121 f., "Since I commanded evil in the assembly
of the gods, (and) commanded battle for the destruction of
my people".

(2) Cf. ll. 165 ff., "Ye gods that are here! So long as I
forget not the (jewels of) lapis lazuli upon my neck, I will
keep these days in my memory, never will I forget them! Let
the gods come to the offering, but let not Enlil come to the
offering, since he took not counsel but sent the deluge and
surrendered my people to destruction."

The lament of the goddess is followed by a brief account of the action
taken by the other chief figures in the drama. Enki holds counsel with
his own heart, evidently devising the project, which he afterwards
carried into effect, of preserving the seed of mankind from destruction.
Since the verb in the following line is wanting, we do not know what
action is there recorded of the four creating deities; but the fact that
the gods of heaven and earth invoked the name of Anu and Enlil suggests
that it was their will which had been forced upon the other gods. We
shall see that throughout the text Anu and Enlil are the ultimate rulers
of both gods and men.

The narrative then introduces the human hero of the Deluge story:

At that time Ziusudu, the king, . . . priest of the god (. . .),

Made a very great . . ., (. . .).

In humility he prostrates himself, in reverence (. . .),

Daily he stands in attendance (. . .).

A dream,(1) such as had not been before, comes forth(2) . . .
(. . .),

By the Name of Heaven and Earth he conjures (. . .).

(1) The word may also be rendered "dreams".

(2) For this rendering of the verb _e-de_, for which Dr.
Poebel does not hazard a translation, see Rawlinson,
_W.A.I._, IV, pl. 26, l. 24 f.(a), _nu-e-de_ = Sem. _la us-
su-u_ (Pres.); and cf. Bruennow, _Classified List_, p. 327.
An alternative rendering "is created" is also possible, and
would give equally good sense; cf. _nu-e-de_ = Sem. _la su-
pu-u_, _W.A.I._, IV, pl. 2, l. 5 (a), and Bruennow, op. cit.,
p. 328.

The name of the hero, Ziusudu, is the fuller Sumerian equivalent of
Ut-napishtim (or Uta-napishtim), the abbreviated Semitic form which we
find in the Gilgamesh Epic. For not only are the first two elements of
the Sumerian name identical with those of the Semitic Ut-napishtim,
but the names themselves are equated in a later Babylonian syllabary or
explanatory list of words.(1) We there find "Ut-napishte" given as the
equivalent of the Sumerian "Zisuda", evidently an abbreviated form of
the name Ziusudu;(2) and it is significant that the names occur in
the syllabary between those of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, evidently in
consequence of the association of the Deluge story by the Babylonians
with their national epic of Gilgamesh. The name Ziusudu may be rendered
"He who lengthened the day of life" or "He who made life long of
days",(3) which in the Semitic form is abbreviated by the omission of
the verb. The reference is probably to the immortality bestowed upon
Ziusudu at the close of the story, and not to the prolongation of
mankind's existence in which he was instrumental. It is scarcely
necessary to add that the name has no linguistic connexion with the
Hebrew name Noah, to which it also presents no parallel in meaning.