Legends Of Babylon And Egypt

L >> Leonard W. King >> Legends Of Babylon And Egypt


(1) Cf. _Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus._, Pt. XVIII, pl. 30,
l. 9 (a).

(2) The name in the Sumerian Version is read by Dr. Poebel
as Ziugiddu, but there is much in favour of Prof. Zimmern's
suggestion, based on the form Zisuda, that the third
syllable of the name should be read as _su_. On a fragment
of another Nippur text, No. 4611, Dr. Langdon reads the name
as _Zi-u-sud-du_ (cf. Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sec.,
Vol. X, No. 1, p. 90, pl. iv a); the presence of the
phonetic complement _du_ may be cited in favour of this
reading, but it does not appear to be supported by the
photographic reproductions of the name in the Sumerian
Deluge Version given by Dr. Poebel (_Hist. and Gramm.
Texts_, pl. lxxxviii f.). It may be added that, on either
alternative, the meaning of the name is the same.

(3) The meaning of the Sumerian element _u_ in the name,
rendered as _utu_ in the Semitic form, is rather obscure,
and Dr. Poebel left it unexplained. It is very probable, as
suggested by Dr. Langdon (cf. _Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch._,
XXXVI, 1914, p. 190), that we should connect it with the
Semitic _uddu_; in that case, in place of "breath", the
rending he suggests, I should be inclined to render it here
as "day", for _uddu_ as the meaning "dawn" and the sign UD
is employed both for _urru_, "day-light", and _umu_, "day".

It is an interesting fact that Ziusudu should be described simply as
"the king", without any indication of the city or area he ruled; and
in three of the five other passages in the text in which his name is
mentioned it is followed by the same title without qualification. In
most cases Berossus tells us the cities from which his Antediluvian
rulers came; and if the end of the line had been preserved it might have
been possible to determine definitely Ziusudu's city, and incidentally
the scene of the Deluge in the Sumerian Version, by the name of the
deity in whose service he acted as priest. We have already noted some
grounds for believing that his city may have been Shuruppak, as in the
Babylonian Version; and if that were so, the divine name reads as "the
God of Shurrupak" should probably be restored at the end of the line.(1)

(1) The remains that are preserved of the determinative,
which is not combined with the sign EN, proves that Enki's
name is not to be restored. Hence Ziusudu was not priest of
Enki, and his city was probably not Eridu, the seat of his
divine friend and counsellor, and the first of the
Antediluvian cities. Sufficient reason for Enki's
intervention on Ziusudu's behalf is furnished by the fact
that, as God of the Deep, he was concerned in the proposed
method of man's destruction. His rivalry of Enlil, the God
of the Earth, is implied in the Babylonian Version (cf.
Gilg. Epic. XI, ll. 39-42), and in the Sumerian Version this
would naturally extend to Anu, the God of Heaven.

The employment of the royal title by itself accords with the tradition
from Berossus that before the Deluge, as in later periods, the land was
governed by a succession of supreme rulers, and that the hero of the
Deluge was the last of them. In the Gilgamesh Epic, on the other
hand, Ut-napishtim is given no royal nor any other title. He is merely
referred to as a "man of Shuruppak, son of Ubar-Tutu", and he appears in
the guise of an ancient hero or patriarch not invested with royal
power. On this point Berossus evidently preserves the original Sumerian
traditions, while the Hebrew Versions resemble the Semitic-Babylonian
narrative. The Sumerian conception of a series of supreme Antediluvian
rulers is of course merely a reflection from the historical period,
when the hegemony in Babylonia was contested among the city-states. The
growth of the tradition may have been encouraged by the early use of
_lugal_, "king", which, though always a term of secular character, was
not very sharply distinguished from that of _patesi_ and other religious
titles, until, in accordance with political development, it was required
to connote a wider dominion. In Sumer, at the time of the composition
of our text, Ziusudu was still only one in a long line of Babylonian
rulers, mainly historical but gradually receding into the realms of
legend and myth. At the time of the later Semites there had been more
than one complete break in the tradition and the historical setting
of the old story had become dim. The fact that Hebrew tradition should
range itself in this matter with Babylon rather than with Sumer is
important as a clue in tracing the literary history of our texts.

The rest of the column may be taken as descriptive of Ziusudu's
activities. One line records his making of some very great object or
the erection of a huge building;(1) and since the following lines are
concerned solely with religious activities, the reference is possibly to
a temple or some other structure of a sacred character. Its foundation
may have been recorded as striking evidence of his devotion to his god;
or, since the verb in this sentence depends on the words "at that time"
in the preceding line, we may perhaps regard his action as directly
connected with the revelation to be made to him. His personal piety
is then described: daily he occupied himself in his god's service,
prostrating himself in humility and constant in his attendance at the
shrine. A dream (or possibly dreams), "such as had not been before",
appears to him and he seems to be further described as conjuring "by
the Name of Heaven and Earth"; but as the ends of all these lines are
broken, the exact connexion of the phrases is not quite certain.

(1) The element _gur-gur_, "very large" or "huge", which occurs in the
name of this great object or building, _an- sag-gur-gur_, is employed
later in the term for the "huge boat", _(gish)ma-gur-gur_, in which
Ziusudu rode out the storm. There was, of course, even at this early
period a natural tendency to picture on a superhuman scale the lives and
deeds of remote predecessors, a tendency which increased in later times
and led, as we shall see, to the elaboration of extravagant detail.

It is difficult not to associate the reference to a dream, or possibly
to dream-divination, with the warning in which Enki reveals the purpose
of the gods. For the later versions prepare us for a reference to
a dream. If we take the line as describing Ziusudu's practice of
dream-divination in general, "such as had not been before", he may have
been represented as the first diviner of dreams, as Enmeduranki was held
to be the first practitioner of divination in general. But it seems to
me more probable that the reference is to a particular dream, by means
of which he obtained knowledge of the gods' intentions. On the rendering
of this passage depends our interpretation of the whole of the Fourth
Column, where the point will be further discussed. Meanwhile it may be
noted that the conjuring "by the Name of Heaven and Earth", which we may
assume is ascribed to Ziusudu, gains in significance if we may regard
the setting of the myth as a magical incantation, an inference in
support of which we shall note further evidence. For we are furnished
at once with the grounds for its magical employment. If Ziusudu, through
conjuring by the Name of Heaven and earth, could profit by the warning
sent him and so escape the impending fate of mankind, the application of
such a myth to the special needs of a Sumerian in peril or distress will
be obvious. For should he, too, conjure by the Name of Heaven and Earth,
he might look for a similar deliverance; and his recital of the myth
itself would tend to clinch the magical effect of his own incantation.

The description of Ziusudu has also great interest in furnishing us with
a close parallel to the piety of Noah in the Hebrew Versions. For in the
Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus this feature of the story is completely
absent. We are there given no reason why Ut-napishtim was selected by
Ea, nor Xisuthros by Kronos. For all that those versions tell us, the
favour of each deity might have been conferred arbitrarily, and not in
recognition of, or in response to, any particular quality or action
on the part of its recipient. The Sumerian Version now restores the
original setting of the story and incidentally proves that, in this
particular, the Hebrew Versions have not embroidered a simpler narrative
for the purpose of edification, but have faithfully reproduced an
original strand of the tradition.




IV. THE DREAM-WARNING

The top of the Fourth Column of the text follows immediately on the
close of the Third Column, so that at this one point we have no great
gap between the columns. But unfortunately the ends of all the lines
in both columns are wanting, and the exact content of some phrases
preserved and their relation to each other are consequently doubtful.
This materially affects the interpretation of the passage as a whole,
but the main thread of the narrative may be readily followed. Ziusudu is
here warned that a flood is to be sent "to destroy the seed of mankind";
the doubt that exists concerns the manner in which the warning is
conveyed. In the first line of the column, after a reference to "the
gods", a building seems to be mentioned, and Ziusudu, standing beside
it, apparently hears a voice, which bids him take his stand beside
a wall and then conveys to him the warning of the coming flood. The
destruction of mankind had been decreed in "the assembly (of the gods)"
and would be carried out by the commands of Anu and Enlil. Before the
text breaks off we again have a reference to the "kingdom" and "its
rule", a further trace of the close association of the Deluge with the
dynastic succession in the early traditions of Sumer.

In the opening words of the warning to Ziusudu, with its prominent
repetition of the word "wall", we must evidently trace some connexion
with the puzzling words of Ea in the Gilgamesh Epic, when he begins his
warning to Ut-napishtim. The warnings, as given in the two versions, are
printed below in parallel columns for comparison.(1) The Gilgamesh Epic,
after relating how the great gods in Shuruppak had decided to send a
deluge, continues as follows in the right-hand column:

SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION

For (. . .) . . . the gods a Nin-igi-azag,(2) the god Ea,
. . . (. . .); sat with them,
Ziusudu standing at its side And he repeated their word to
heard (. . .): the house of reeds:
"At the wall on my left side take "Reed-hut, reed-hut! Wall,
thy stand and (. . .), wall!
At the wall I will speak a word O reed-hut, hear! O wall,
to thee (. . .). understand!
O my devout one . . . (. . .), Thou man of Shuruppak, son of
Ubar-Tutu,
By our hand(?) a flood(3) . . . Pull down thy house, build a
(. . .) will be (sent). ship,
To destroy the seed of mankind Leave thy possessions, take
(. . .) heed for thy life,
Is the decision, the word of the Abandon thy property, and save
assembly(4) (of the gods) thy life.
The commands of Anu (and) And bring living seed of every
En(lil . . .) kind into the ship.
Its kingdom, its rule (. . .) As for the ship, which thou
shalt build,
To his (. . .)" Of which the measurements
shall be carefully measured,
(. . .) Its breadth and length shall
correspond.
(. . .) In the deep shalt thou immerse
it."

(1) Col. IV, ll. 1 ff. are there compared with Gilg. Epic,
XI, ll. 19-31.

(2) Nin-igi-azag, "The Lord of Clear Vision", a title borne
by Enki, or Ea, as God of Wisdom.

(3) The Sumerian term _amaru_, here used for the flood and
rendered as "rain-storm" by Dr. Poebel, is explained in a
later syllabary as the equivalent of the Semitic-Babylonian
word _abubu_ (cf. Meissner, _S.A.I._, No. 8909), the term
employed for the flood both in the early Semitic version of
the Atrakhasis story dated in Ammizaduga's reign and in the
Gilgamesh Epic. The word _abubu_ is often conventionally
rendered "deluge", but should be more accurately translated
"flood". It is true that the tempests of the Sumerian
Version probably imply rain; and in the Gilgamesh Epic heavy
rain in the evening begins the flood and is followed at dawn
by a thunderstorm and hurricane. But in itself the term
_abubu_ implies flood, which could take place through a rise
of the rivers unaccompanied by heavy local rain. The annual
rainfall in Babylonia to-day is on an average only about 8
in., and there have been years in succession when the total
rainfall has not exceeded 4 in.; and yet the _abubu_ is not
a thing of the past.

(4) The word here rendered "assembly" is the Semitic loan-
word _buhrum_, in Babylonian _puhrum_, the term employed for
the "assembly" of the gods both in the Babylonian Creation
Series and in the Gilgamesh Epic. Its employment in the
Sumerian Version, in place of its Sumerian equivalent
_ukkin_, is an interesting example of Semitic influence. Its
occurrence does not necessarily imply the existence of a
recognized Semitic Version at the period our text was
inscribed. The substitution of _buhrum_ for _ukkin_ in the
text may well date from the period of Hammurabi, when we may
assume that the increased importance of the city-council was
reflected in the general adoption of the Semitic term (cf.
Poebel, _Hist. Texts_, p. 53).

In the Semitic Version Ut-napishtim, who tells the story in the first
person, then says that he "understood", and that, after assuring Ea
that he would carry out his commands, he asked how he was to explain his
action to "the city, the people, and the elders"; and the god told
him what to say. Then follows an account of the building of the ship,
introduced by the words "As soon as the dawn began to break". In
the Sumerian Version the close of the warning, in which the ship was
probably referred to, and the lines prescribing how Ziusudu carried out
the divine instructions are not preserved.

It will be seen that in the passage quoted from the Semitic Version
there is no direct mention of a dream; the god is represented at first
as addressing his words to a "house of reeds" and a "wall", and then as
speaking to Ut-napishtim himself. But in a later passage in the Epic,
when Ea seeks to excuse his action to Enlil, he says that the gods'
decision was revealed to Atrakhasis through a dream.(1) Dr. Poebel
rightly compares the direct warning of Ut-napishtim by Ea in the passage
quoted above with the equally direct warning Ziusudu receives in the
Sumerian Version. But he would have us divorce the direct warning from
the dream-warning, and he concludes that no less than three different
versions of the story have been worked together in the Gilgamesh Epic.
In the first, corresponding to that in our text, Ea communicates the
gods' decision directly to Ut-napishtim; in the second he sends a dream
from which Atrakhasis, "the Very Wise one", guesses the impending peril;
while in the third he relates the plan to a wall, taking care that
Ut-napishtim overhears him.(2) The version of Berossus, that Kronos
himself appears to Xisuthros in a dream and warns him, is rejected by
Dr. Poebel, who remarks that here the "original significance of the
dream has already been obliterated". Consequently there seems to him to
be "no logical connexion" between the dreams or dream mentioned at the
close of the Third Column and the communication of the plan of the gods
at the beginning of the Fourth Column of our text.(3)

(1) Cf. l. 195 f.; "I did not divulge the decision of the
great gods. I caused Atrakhasis to behold a dream and thus
he heard the decision of the gods."

(2) Cf. Poebel, _Hist. Texts_, p. 51 f. With the god's
apparent subterfuge in the third of these supposed versions
Sir James Frazer (_Ancient Stories of a Great Flood_, p. 15)
not inaptly compares the well-known story of King Midas's
servant, who, unable to keep the secret of the king's
deformity to himself, whispered it into a hole in the
ground, with the result that the reeds which grew up there
by their rustling in the wind proclaimed it to the world
(Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, xi, 174 ff.).

(3) Op. cit., p. 51; cf. also Jastrow, _Heb. and Bab.
Trad._, p. 346.

So far from Berossus having missed the original significance of the
narrative he relates, I think it can be shown that he reproduces
very accurately the sense of our Sumerian text; and that the apparent
discrepancies in the Semitic Version, and the puzzling references to
a wall in both it and the Sumerian Version, are capable of a simple
explanation. There appears to me no justification for splitting the
Semitic narrative into the several versions suggested, since the
assumption that the direct warning and the dream-warning must be
distinguished is really based on a misunderstanding of the character of
Sumerian dreams by which important decisions of the gods in council were
communicated to mankind. We fortunately possess an instructive Sumerian
parallel to our passage. In it the will of the gods is revealed in
a dream, which is not only described in full but is furnished with a
detailed interpretation; and as it seems to clear up our difficulties,
it may be well to summarize its main features.

The occasion of the dream in this case was not a coming deluge but a
great dearth of water in the rivers, in consequence of which the crops
had suffered and the country was threatened with famine. This occurred
in the reign of Gudea, patesi of Lagash, who lived some centuries before
our Sumerian document was inscribed. In his own inscription(1) he
tells us that he was at a loss to know by what means he might restore
prosperity to his country, when one night he had a dream; and it was
in consequence of the dream that he eventually erected one of the most
sumptuously appointed of Sumerian temples and thereby restored his land
to prosperity. Before recounting his dream he describes how the gods
themselves took counsel. On the day in which destinies were fixed
in heaven and earth, Enlil, the chief of the gods, and Ningirsu, the
city-god of Lagash, held converse; and Enlil, turning to Ningirsu,
described the sad condition of Southern Babylonia, and remarked that
"the decrees of the temple Eninnu should be made glorious in heaven and
upon earth", or, in other words, that Ningirsu's city-temple must be
rebuilt. Thereupon Ningirsu did not communicate his orders directly to
Gudea, but conveyed the will of the gods to him by means of a dream.

(1) See Thureau-Dangin, _Les inscriptions de Sumer et
d'Akkad_, Cyl. A, pp. 134 ff., Germ. ed., pp. 88 ff.; and
cf. King and Hall, _Eg. and West. Asia_, pp. 196 ff.

It will be noticed that we here have a very similar situation to that in
the Deluge story. A conference of the gods has been held; a decision
has been taken by the greatest god, Enlil; and, in consequence, another
deity is anxious to inform a Sumerian ruler of that decision. The only
difference is that here Enlil desires the communication to be made,
while in the Deluge story it is made without his knowledge, and
obviously against his wishes. So the fact that Ningirsu does not
communicate directly with the patesi, but conveys his message by means
of a dream, is particularly instructive. For here there can be no
question of any subterfuge in the method employed, since Enlil was a
consenting party.

The story goes on to relate that, while the patesi slept, a vision of
the night came to him, and he beheld a man whose stature was so great
that it equalled the heavens and the earth. By the diadem he wore upon
his head Gudea knew that the figure must be a god. Beside the god
was the divine eagle, the emblem of Lagash; his feet rested upon the
whirlwind, and a lion crouched upon his right hand and upon his left.
The figure spoke to the patesi, but he did not understand the meaning of
the words. Then it seemed to Gudea that the Sun rose from the earth; and
he beheld a woman holding in her hand a pure reed, and she carried also
a tablet on which was a star of the heavens, and she seemed to take
counsel with herself. While Gudea was gazing, he seemed to see a second
man, who was like a warrior; and he carried a slab of lapis lazuli, on
which he drew out the plan of a temple. Before the patesi himself it
seemed that a fair cushion was placed, and upon the cushion was set
a mould, and within the mould was a brick. And on the right hand the
patesi beheld an ass that lay upon the ground. Such was the dream of
Gudea, and he was troubled because he could not interpret it.(1)

(1) The resemblance its imagery bears to that of apocalyptic
visions of a later period is interesting, as evidence of the
latter's remote ancestry, and of the development in the use
of primitive material to suit a completely changed political
outlook. But those are points which do not concern our
problem.

To cut the long story short, Gudea decided to seek the help of Nina,
"the child of Eridu", who, as daughter of Enki, the God of Wisdom, could
divine all the mysteries of the gods. But first of all by sacrifices
and libations he secured the mediation of his own city-god and goddess,
Ningirsu and Gatumdug; and then, repairing to Nina's temple, he
recounted to her the details of his vision. When the patesi had
finished, the goddess addressed him and said she would explain to him
the meaning of his dream. Here, no doubt, we are to understand that
she spoke through the mouth of her chief priest. And this was the
interpretation of the dream. The man whose stature was so great, and
whose head was that of a god, was the god Ningirsu, and the words which
he uttered were an order to the patesi to rebuild the temple Eninnu. The
Sun which rose from the earth was the god Ningishzida, for like the
Sun he goes forth from the earth. The maiden who held the pure reed and
carried the tablet with the star was the goddess Nisaba; the star was
the pure star of the temple's construction, which she proclaimed. The
second man, who was like a warrior, was the god Nibub; and the plan of
the temple which he drew was the plan of Eninnu; and the ass that lay
upon the ground was the patesi himself.(1)

(1) The symbolism of the ass, as a beast of burden, was
applicable to the patesi in his task of carrying out the
building of the temple.

The essential feature of the vision is that the god himself appeared to
the sleeper and delivered his message in words. That is precisely the
manner in which Kronos warned Xisuthros of the coming Deluge in
the version of Berossus; while in the Gilgamesh Epic the apparent
contradiction between the direct warning and the dream-warning at once
disappears. It is true that Gudea states that he did not understand the
meaning of the god's message, and so required an interpretation; but
he was equally at a loss as to the identity of the god who gave it,
although Ningirsu was his own city-god and was accompanied by his own
familiar city-emblem. We may thus assume that the god's words, as words,
were equally intelligible to Gudea. But as they were uttered in a dream,
it was necessary that the patesi, in view of his country's peril, should
have divine assurance that they implied no other meaning. And in his
case such assurance was the more essential, in view of the symbolism
attaching to the other features of his vision. That this is sound
reasoning is proved by a second vision vouchsafed to Gudea by Ningirsu.
For the patesi, though he began to prepare for the building of the
temple, was not content even with Nina's assurance. He offered a prayer
to Ningirsu himself, saying that he wished to build the temple, but had
received no sign that this was the will of the god; and he prayed for a
sign. Then, as the patesi lay stretched upon the ground, the god again
appeared to him and gave him detailed instructions, adding that he would
grant the sign for which he asked. The sign was that he should feel his
side touched as by a flame,(1) and thereby he should know that he was
the man chosen by Ningirsu to carry out his commands. Here it is the
sign which confirms the apparent meaning of the god's words. And Gudea
was at last content and built the temple.(2)

(1) Cyl. A., col. xii, l. 10 f.; cf. Thureau-Dangin, op.
cit., p. 150 f., Germ. ed., p. 102 f. The word translated
"side" may also be rendered as "hand"; but "side" is the
more probable rendering of the two. The touching of Gudea's
side (or hand) presents an interesting resemblance to the
touching of Jacob's thigh by the divine wrestler at Peniel
in Gen. xxxii. 24 ff. (J or JE). Given a belief in the
constant presence of the unseen and its frequent
manifestation, such a story as that of Peniel might well
arise from an unexplained injury to the sciatic muscle,
while more than one ailment of the heart or liver might
perhaps suggest the touch of a beckoning god. There is of
course no connexion between the Sumerian and Hebrew stories
beyond their common background. It may be added that those
critics who would reverse the _roles_ of Jacob and the
wrestler miss the point of the Hebrew story.