CHAPTER VI

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THE CHALDEANS.[2]

At that time the heaven above was unnamed, In the earth beneath a name was unrecorded; Chaos, too, was unopened around them. By name the mother Tihamtu, [the Deep] was the begetter of them all. Their waters in one place were not embosomed, and The fruitful herb was uncollected, the marsh-plant ungrown. At that time the gods [stars] were not made to go; none of them by name were recorded; order was not among them. Then were made the great gods; and these Lakhmu and Lakhamu caused to go; until they were grown they nurtured them. The gods Assur and Kissar were made by their hands, A length of days, a long time passed, and the gods Anu, Bel and Hea were created; the gods Assur and Kissar begat them. FROM THE CHALDEAN (CUNEIFORM) CREATION TABLETS.

In the Tigro-Euphrates Valley, or basin, as it is called, the commencement of the history of man is placed.

“And it came to pass that as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar: and they dwelt there.” Here was great Babel built, and here occurred the confusion of tongues, and from here the nations were scattered over all the world. After this scattering to east, west and south, there was left a large body of people of different nations, in Chaldea. The great monuments and inscriptions, which are the only remaining books of early history, tell us of two great nations called the Sumir and Accad. Of the descent of these peoples, it can be said with certainty only that there were Hamites among them. The Shemites are the founders of the Assyrian kingdom, the Hamites of the Babylonian. These and some other scattered tribes of other nations, were worshipers of the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon and stars. Hence came the extraordinary development of astronomy in these lands. Their strange and imperfect civilization had an immense influence over a great part of Asia, for over 1500 years.

[Illustration: STAR WORSHIPERS.]

The peoples of Chaldea did not at first intermingle with each other, but maintained a separate existence as tribes. Here was, however, the first organized government of the world. “Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the streets of the city, and Calah and Resen, between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.” Asshur was of the Semitic race, while Nimrod was a Cushite. These two people lived long together, and this explains how they came to have the same language and civilization in spite of their being of different origin. The four great cities mentioned above gave to their king, the title “king of the four regions.” The founding of this great empire occurred only a little later than the beginning of the great Egyptian kingdom. We know almost nothing of the history of the Chaldean kings who succeeded Nimrod, except that which a few traditions tell us.

THE GREAT CHALDEAN HISTORIAN.

Berosus was a Chaldean priest who lived in the days of Alexander the Great. He was a very learned man. He translated the history of Babylonia into the Greek language. His history commences with the creation and is carried down to his own time. He drew from the ancient records of Babylonia, from traditions of the people, and from inscriptions on the monuments. We have already referred to the traditions of the creation and deluge which he preserved. About 2400 B.C., according to Berosus, the Medes conquered Babylonia. Here for the first time we meet with the name of Zoroaster, the founder of Parseeism. The record of Berosus is very much valued because of the ground which it covers. It is wonderfully in agreement with the Bible record. At first his statements were questioned and disputed, but the researches of modern scholars in many respects confirmed their complete accuracy.

RUINED MONUMENTS.

The ruins of Chaldea have been as yet but imperfectly explored. The great buildings and monuments have been buried beneath the ground for hundreds of years, and the work of digging them out is a slow one. When we remember that these cities and their buildings were among the first ever erected, and that Nebuchadnezzar (or Nabukudur-ussur, as Berosus calls him,) and his successors only repaired and added to these, we can see the value of exhuming them. Stone is very rare in Chaldea, and could be brought only at great expense from a distance. Hence all the buildings of earlier ages were built of bricks. So we read of the Tower of Babel, that “they had bricks for stone.” On each one of these bricks was generally stamped the name of the king who erected the building. The greater part of the early Chaldean inscriptions are found on these bricks. Herodotus tells us that the Babylonians built with these sun-dried bricks, and with here and there a layer of reed-matting cemented with bitumen. The outsides of the buildings were covered with burnt or kiln-dried bricks to keep out the rain. More elaborate specimens of their pottery appear in articles for domestic uses, and especially in their coffins.

[Illustration: BABYLONISH COFFIN AND LID OF GREEN GLAZED POTTERY.]

The sacred buildings appear to have been often built in the form of a pyramid, with steps or stages, forming a series of terraces, each smaller than the one beneath it. This is the traditional style of buildings of the Tower of Babel. The same tendency to build high sacred buildings is seen in the pagodas of India, Burmah and China, in the Mohammedan towers, like the Koutub Minar, and the spires of Christian churches. The object at the first seems to have been the getting nearer to the heavenly bodies, the object of their worship. On the upper terrace, or platform, appears to have been built in most cases, a small chapel, or square room, richly ornamented, containing an image of the god of the temple.

Of ancient Babylonian sculptures but few are known to remain. Of these, one is a small bronze figure of a goddess named Keodormabug, and a broken statuette in alabaster of the god Nebo. But a number of small cylinders of stone that were used as seals, and which are covered with engravings or inscriptions, give us much information of early Chaldean history. The Chaldeans were far advanced in astronomy and in arithmetic, which is indispensable to a knowledge of astronomy.

A LIBRARY OF BRICK BOOKS.

The Chaldeans had eight sacred books, said to have been written by the god Oannes. No copies of these original books remain. But some of their sayings were copied into the books of later kings. All that remains of the books of ancient Chaldea is that which had been transported to Assyria, where it was found by Layard and later by Smith, in making their excavations at Nineveh. He found in the ruins of the palace built by King Asshurbanipal, in one of the halls, a library. “This curious library consists entirely of flat, square tablets of baked clay, having on each side a page of very small and closely written cuneiform cursive letters, impressed on the clay while it was still moist. Each tablet was numbered and formed a page of a book composed of a number of such tablets, probably piled one on another in the library.” The greater part of these tablets are now in England. This collection was intended for a public library as we see from the following translation of some of the tablets:

“Palace of Asshurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom the god Nebo and the goddess Tashmit (goddess of wisdom), have given ears to hear and eyes to see what is the foundation of government. They have revealed to the kings, my predecessors, this cuneiform writing, the manifestation of the god Nebo, the god of supreme intelligence. I have written it upon tablets, I have signed it, I have placed it in my palace for the instruction of my subjects.”

[Illustration: CUNEIFORM LETTERS.]

The cuneiform characters, as they are called, are made up of marks shaped like arrow-heads or wedges. There were enormous difficulties in the way of their interpretation. In Egypt the similar task of making known the meaning of the hieroglyphics was performed in great part by one man, Champollion, but in Assyria the work was done by many scholars. Now the famous library is nearly all translated, as are the inscriptions on the seals as well. Asshurbanipal lived about B.C. 650.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

The habits of life of any people both affect and are affected by their religious belief. In heathen lands, both of the present and the past, the daily home-life is interwoven with religious observances. The Assyrians have been called “the Romans of the East.” They were a fierce and warlike race. They were naturally a religious people, and the worship of the gods held a very prominent place at least in their public life. But, sad to say, their devotion to religion was associated with such a degrading worship of many false gods, that they were dragged down by it, instead of being exalted. They were very intelligent. They were mainly agriculturists, though the arts flourished. It seldom rained there except in winter, so they turned the waters of the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers into channels, and conveyed them through their fields.

[Illustration: ROBED STATUE.]

The priests and kings dressed in garments of woven stuffs dyed in brilliant colors, and beautifully embroidered with symbolical figures, animals, men, flowers and divine symbols. The costume of the Assyrians consisted of a robe open at the side, often with a border of fringe, and decorated with rich embroidery, hanging down to the feet, and confined in the middle by a broad girdle. It precisely resembled the djubeh of the Eastern people in the present day. The common people and soldiers used a shorter tunic, reaching only to the knees, so as to allow them to walk freely. The king, in his robes of ceremony, wore over all a sort of long mantle or chasuble, thrown obliquely over one shoulder and splendidly ornamented. This is also seen on the monuments on the figures of the gods. A high conical tiara surmounted his head, and in his hand he held a long sceptre or staff, nearly the height of a man. The insignia of his rank were the same as those of Asiatic monarchs in the present day, the parasol and large feathered fly-flaps carried behind him by slaves.

The Assyrians wore their hair long and curled at the end, the beard square and with rows of curls. They were fond of wearing great quantities of jewelry, large ear-rings, finger-rings and bracelets. Some of the soldiers wore a cuirass of small pieces of metal protecting the body, and allowing the tunic to appear beneath it. These were probably light infantry. Others wore long coats of mail reaching to the feet, with a conical helmet to which was attached a sort of veil of chain mail, falling down on the neck, and brought round to protect the chin, such as are now worn by the Circassians.

THE RELIGION OF ASSYRIA.

The religion of Assyria and Babylonia was, in its essential principles and in the general spirit of its conceptions, of the same character of the religion of Egypt, and in general as all pagan religions. When we penetrate beneath the surface which gross Polytheism has acquired from popular superstition, and revert to its original and higher conceptions, we shall find the whole based on the idea of the unity of the Deity, the last relic of the primitive revelation, disfigured indeed and all but lost in the monstrous ideas of Pantheism; confounding the creature with the Creator; and transforming the Deity into a god-world, whose manifestations are to be found in all the phenomena of nature. Beneath this supreme and sole God, this great All, in whom all things are lost and absorbed, are ranked in an order of emanation corresponding to their importance, a whole race of secondary deities who are emanations from His very substance, who are mere personifications of His attributes and manifestations. The differences between the various pagan religions is chiefly marked by the differences between these secondary divine beings.

Thus, as we have already seen, the imagination of the Egyptians had been especially struck by the various stages of the daily and yearly course of the sun. In this they saw the most imposing manifestations of the Deity, that which best revealed the laws of the government of the world. In this they sought their divine personification. The Chaldæo-Assyrians, especially devoted to astronomy, saw in the Astral, and especially in the planetary system, a manifestation of the divine being. They considered the stars as His true external manifestation, and in their religious system made them the visible evidence of the subordinate divine emanations from the substance of the infinite being, whom they identified with the world, his work.

THE SUPREME GOD, ILU.

The supreme god, the first and sole principle from whom all other deities were derived, was Ilu, whose name signifies God _par excellence_. Their idea of him was too comprehensive, too vast, to have any determined external form, or consequently to receive in general the adoration of the people; and from this point of view there is a certain analogy between Ilu and the Chronos of the Greeks, with whom he was compared by the latter. In Chaldæa it does not seem that any temple was ever specially dedicated to him; but at Nineveh and generally throughout Assyria, he seems to have received the peculiarly national name of Asshur (whence was derived the name of the country, _Mat Asshur_), and this itself seems related to the Arian name of the deity _Asura_. With this title he was great god of the land, the especial protector of the Assyrians, he who gave victory to their arms. The inscriptions designate him as “Master or Chief of the Gods.” He it is, perhaps, who is to be recognized in the figure occasionally found on the Assyrian monuments (but probably adopted in later times by the Persians to represent their Ormuzd), representing a human bust, wearing the royal tiara in the middle of a circle borne by two large eagle wings, and with an eagle’s tail.

THE ASSYRIAN TRIAD.

Below Ilu, the universal and mysterious source of all, was placed a triad, composed of his three first external and visible manifestations, and occupying the summit of the hierarchy of gods in popular worship. Anu, the Oannes of the Greek writers, was the lord of darkness; Bel, the demiurgus, the organizer of the world; Ao, called also Bin, that is, the divine “Son” _par excellence_, the divine light, the intelligence penetrating, directing and vivifying the universe. These three divine persons esteemed as equal in power and con-substantial, were not held as of the same degree of emanation, but were regarded as having, on the contrary, issued the one from the other--Ao from Oannes, and Bel from Ao. Oannes, the “Lord of the Lower World, the Lord of Darkness,” was represented on the monuments under the strange figure of a man with an eagle’s tail, and for his head-dress an enormous fish, whose open mouth rises over his head, while the body covers his shoulders. It is under this form that, Berosus tells us, according to Babylonian tradition, he floated on the surface of the waters of Chaos. Bel, the “Father of the Gods,” was usually represented under an entirely human form, attired as a king, wearing a tiara with bull’s horns, the symbol of power. But this god took many other secondary forms, the most important being Bel Dagon, a human bust springing from the body of a fish. We do not know exactly the typical figure of Ao or Bin, “the intelligent guide, the Lord of the visible world, the Lord of knowledge, of glory and light.” The serpent seems to have been his principal symbol; though some other sculptured figures seem to be intended to represent Bin.

[Illustration: STATUE OF OANNES, THE KING.]

A second triad is produced with personages no longer vague and indeterminate in character, like those of the first, but with a clearly-defined sidereal aspect, each representing a known celestial body, and especially those in which the Chaldæo-Assyrians saw the most striking external manifestations of the deity; these were Shamash, the sun; Sin, the moon god; and a new form of Ao or Bin, inferior to the first, and representing him as god of the atmosphere or firmament. Thus did they industriously multiply deities and representations of them.

THE GODS OF THE PLANETS.

Then come the gods of the five planets: Adar (Saturn), Merodach (Jupiter), Nergal (Mars), Ishtar (Venus), and Nebo (Mercury). The worship of Merodach, though not much cultivated at Nineveh, was of primary importance at Babylon, where he was regarded as one of the principal gods. He was a secondary form, another manifestation of Bel in an inferior rank in the hierarchy; he was called “the ancient one of the gods, the supreme judge, the master of the horoscope;” he was represented as a man, erect and walking, and with a naked sword in his hand. Adar, “the fire,” called also Samdan, “the powerful,” although his planet had been called Saturn by the Greeks, was apparently the Assyrian Hercules. His appellations are, “the terrible, the lord of warriors, the strong one, the destroyer of his enemies, he who reduces the disobedient, the exterminator of rebels,” and in other cases, “the Son of the Zodiac.” On some monuments he is represented in company with Merodach. In the same manner, he is represented in the magnificent colossal figures in the Museum of the Louvre, and of the British Museum, where he is seen as a god of terrible aspect, strangling in his arms a lion that appears quite small in comparison with him. With the surname of Malik (king), Adar Malik is mentioned in the Bible with “Oannes the king” (Anu Malik) (2 Kings, xvii., 31,) as the principal god of Sippara, where the inhabitants “burnt their children in the fire” in honor of these exalted ones. In general these planetary gods are only fire, secondary manifestations of the higher order. Such is the connection between Nebo and Ao. Nebo also is distinguished as the “supreme intelligence;” he is the god of prophetic inspiration and of eloquence, and also the special guardian of royal prerogative, the protector of kings and the prototype whom they reproduce on earth. Like Bel, he has on the monuments an entirely human form with the tiara, and the dress of a king; three pairs of horns, ranged one above the other, decorate his tiara, and four large wings are often attached to his shoulders; the sceptre also is one of his common attributes.

[Illustration: ADAR STRANGLING THE LION.]

THE GREAT GODDESS ISHTAR.

Ishtar reproduces among the planetary gods Anat and Bilit, the great goddess of nature, the mother of all the gods and of all beings; she is their active and martial form, for she is called “the Goddess of Battles, the Queen of Victories, she who leads armies to the fight and is the judge of warlike exploits;” but she has a double form uniting two characters, one fierce and sanguinary, the other voluptuous, for under the names of Zarpanit and Nana she presides over the reproduction of beings, and over sensual pleasures; she is in this last character always represented naked, always full face and with the two hands on the chest. Moreover two Ishtars were always distinguished, that of Arbela (called also Arbail), and that of Nineveh, who presided over the two fortnights of the month. The plural name of this double Ishtar, Ishtaroth, was the origin of the Phœnician Ashtaroth. Nergal, whose image is very uncommon, stands on the legs of a cock, and carries a sword in his hand. The application of the name of Mars to his star was quite natural, for his titles in the inscriptions are “the great hero, the king of fight, the master of battles, champion of the gods,” and also “god of the chase.”

THE GENII OF ASSYRIA.

Such were the great gods of Nineveh and Babylon. Below them popular superstition believed in an immense number of personifications of inferior order, of lesser gods, or rather _genii_, whom it would be waste of time to enumerate. We must, however, mention some personages who are found on the monuments occupying an important position in the Chaldæo-Assyrian pantheon, and who were evidently other forms of the gods already named, but whose position has not as yet been precisely determined. Such is Nisroch, called also Shalman, who “presides over the course of human destiny,” and who is also the protector of marriages; this is the god with an eagle’s head and large wings, whose image is so common on the sculptures of the Assyrian palaces. It was in the temple of this god at Nineveh, that Sennacherib was assassinated by his sons. Possibly we ought to consider this god as another form of Oannes.

[Illustration: ELEVATION OF PALACE OF SARGON AT KHORSABAD

AS RESTORED BY MR. FERGUSON.

Sargon’s greatest work as a builder consisted in building Dur-Sargina, which is now represented by the Mound of Khorsabad. It was a mile square, and on the north-west face stood the palace platform, in shape like a T. On the outer and northern portion of this platform he built his palace, the halls and chambers of which were paneled with slabs of alabaster, richly adorned with sculptures, and inscribed with the titles, exploits and annals of his reign.]

The great gods are often all invoked one after the other at the beginning of the solemn inscriptions of the kings of Assyria. Sargon has given the names of eight of them on the gates of the city he founded. “Shamash has conferred on me all I possess,” says he in an inscription. “Bin gave me good fortune; I have named the great eastern gates after Shamash and Bin. Bel Dagon laid the foundation of my city, Bilit Taauth grinds like paint the elements of the world; I have named the great southern grates after Bel Dagon and Bilit Taauth. Oannes prospers the work of my hand, Ishtar leads armies to battle; I have called the great western gates after Oannes and Ishtar. Nisroch Shalman presides over marriages, the mistress of the gods presides over births; I have dedicated the great northern gates to Nisroch and Bilit.” Inscriptions of such and like general purport were sculptured on the palace walls of many of the kings and also upon the bodies of the winged bulls.

[Illustration: THE GREAT HUMAN-HEADED EAGLE-WINGED ASSYRIAN BULL.]

WORSHIP OF THE GODS AT BABYLON.

The deity who was the principal object of worship at Babylon and at Borsippa was Bel Merodach, with his wife, Bilit or Myletta, the great nature-goddess, who assumed the-two opposite forms of Taauth and Zarpanit, the one austere, the other voluptuous, like the two forms of the Venus of classical mythology. Bilit had a magnificent temple in the centre of Babylon, where most infamous customs were practiced. At Ur, the god of the city, from the remote times of Ur-Hammu, was Sin, the moon-god; at Sippara and Larsam, Shamash, the sun; at Erech and Nipur, Bilit-Taauth, “Goddess of the Firmament.” The most shameful rites were connected with the worship of Nana or Zarpanit, at Cutha.

The materialistic and profoundly immoral worship at Babylon, naturally excited extreme horror in the worshipers of Jehovah, and provoked their vehement invectives against the idols of Chaldæa. We quote the eloquent words of Baruch, that portray so vividly an always materialistic, and often obscene worship that was, in fact, no more than a constant employment of popular superstition for the profit of the priests.

“Now ye shall see in Babylon gods of silver, and of gold, and of wood, borne upon shoulders, which cause the nations to fear.... And taking gold, as it were, for a virgin that loveth to go gay, they make crowns for the heads of their gods. Sometimes also the priests convey from their gods gold and silver, and bestow it upon themselves. Yea, they will give thereof to the common harlots, and deck them as men with garments, being gods of silver, and gods of gold and wood.... And he that cannot put to death one that offendeth him holdeth a sceptre (Nebo), as though he were a judge of the country. He (Bel Merodach) hath also in his right hand a dagger and an axe, but cannot deliver himself from war and thieves.... They light them candles, yea, more than for themselves, whereof they cannot see one. They are as one of the beams of the temple, yet they say their hearts are gnawed upon by things creeping out of the earth; and when they eat them and their clothes they feel it not.... As for the things that are sacrificed unto them, their priests sell and abuse; in like manner their wives lay up part thereof in salt; but unto the poor and impotent they give nothing of it. ... The priests also take off their garments and clothe their wives and children.... The women also with cords about them sitting in the way burn bran for perfume.”

The most remarkable building in Babylon was the temple of Bel. It was pyramidal in shape, having eight stages. The lowest stage was 200 yards square. On the summit a golden statue of Bel, 40 feet high, stood in a shrine. There were also two other golden statues and a golden table in this shrine. At the bottom of the pyramid-temple stood a chapel with a table and two images of gold within it. Two altars stood outside of this chapel. A similar temple was at Borsippa near Babylon. It had seven stages, each decorated in one of the seven primary colors. Like all Chaldean temples, and like the Great Pyramid of Egypt, the four corners of this exactly corresponded with the four cardinal points of the compass.

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