Chapter VIII
ASSYRIAN SELF-LAUDATIONS OF THE GODS
In addition to the hymnal introductions to prayers, and the antiphonal hymns, there was in Assyrian poesie a distinct and notable group of hymns in which the gods praise themselves. It is of course presupposed in the hymnal introductions that the gods desire and welcome the praise of men. The gods do praise one another. Enlil praised Ramman in the hymn to Ramman No. 2 which was discussed in the last chapter. Also Nusku praises Ninib in Ninib No. 4:
Nusku the lofty messenger of Bel in Ekur met him, Unto Lord Ninib greeting he spoke: Lord warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself, Ninib warlike art thou, perfect in understanding through thyself. Thy dazzling brilliancy covers Bel’s house as a garment. Thy wagon, because of its thundering noise, At its going shakes heaven and earth; At the raising of thy hand darkness stretches itself out. The Annunaki, the great gods are terrified.
Since the gods thus welcome the praise of gods and men, there is no reason why the Assyrian god should not appear to proclaim his greatness and to challenge the admiration of gods and men. In the hymn to Ishtar No. 6, which was studied in the preceding chapter, the goddess in response to the opening hymn of praise announced her appearance to give omens, and proclaimed in hymnal lines her own glory.
But there are other hymns sung by the gods in their own praise. Ninib No. 5 is a fragment of a hymn, fourteen lines in length, sung by Ninib in his own honor. Some of the lines are:
King who by day shines like Anu I am: He whom Anu in her sovereign power hath chosen I am. The warrior, who at the command of Ea into the terrible battle goes, I am. He whose sovereignty shines to the borders of heaven and earth I am; The mighty one among the gods, robed in brilliancy I am.
Similarly Ninib No. 6 is another hymnal fragment of fourteen lines in which the deity praises himself. Some of the lines exalting his prowess are:
Against my terrible brilliancy which like Anu is mighty who raises himself? Storm god with fifty mouths my divine weapons I carry; A warrior who destroys mountains, merciless storm I carry; A weapon like a corpse-eating dragon I carry; Mountain destroyer, the heavy weapon of Anu I carry.
More impressive is a hymn of some fifty lines, though the tablet is broken off, sung by Belit in her own honor. The theme of the hymn is the supremacy of Belit. Thus she announces herself:
Am I not the daughter of Bel? Am I not supreme? I am the warrior. Am I not the goddess? The warlike daughter of Bel I am. The high placed daughter of Bel I am.
Her power is irresistible:
The waters which I stir up do not become clear; The fire which I kindle does not go out; The house of heaven, the house of earth unto my hand he has entrusted; The city which I plunder is not restored; The utterance of my exalted command destroys the land of the foe.
Belit is supreme in heaven and in earth:
At the lifting of my hand the heavens stand still, and the lofty powers of heaven supplicate me. I am supreme, the hand of him who contends with me shall not stand against my hand. My mighty pace fills the earth I am supreme, the foot of him who contends with me shall not stand against my foot. Who is there before me? Who is there behind me? From the lifting up of mine eyes who can escape? From the rush of my onslaught who can flee?
Yet this warlike goddess is apparently not without some tenderness:
The exalted daughter of Bel I am, The noble heroine of my father Sin I am, I am supreme, the legitimate wife of Ea I am, Him who is bowed down I lift up, the aged one I lift up.
Similar in its theme is a hymn to Ishtar (No. 4), for it begins thus:
Who is equal to me me? Who is comparable to me me? Goddess I am I am mistress; Small and great I uproot, I lay low.
She is like Belit a goddess of war:
In the midst of the battle when I take my place, The heart of battle, the arm of valiant courage, the strength of heroism I am. Behind the battle when I approach, A conquering power which fiercely attacks I am.
She is the goddess of the evening star, and of the earth’s vegetation, the goddess of fertility:
In the heavens in the evening when I take my place, The lady who fills the firmament of heaven I am. Through my appearance fear is established in the heavens; Through my radiance the fishes are affrighted in the deep. In the heavens I take my place, and send rain; In the earth I take my place, and cause the vegetation to spring forth. Who is equal to me me? Who is equal to me me?
There are three strophes in praise of the name of the goddess, beginning with the announcement of the seven names of the deity, after this fashion:
My first name is I am Ishtar My second name is Lady of the lands My third name is The lofty one who causes the heavens to tremble, the earth to quake; My fourth name is Flaming fire.
The last and twenty-third strophe is almost identical with the first strophe, in obedience to the same instinct or artistic principle, which causes the Hebrew hymn of praise to return in its conclusion to the opening call to praise:
Who is equal to me me? Who is comparable to me me? I am Ishtar I Small and great I uproot, I lay low.
Rather effective is the single line in response to the hymn of the goddess:
Resplendent goddess, art thou not an overwhelming flood?
Is this line a pious gloss, the comment of a devout reader of the hymn, or is it an integral part of the hymnal composition? If the latter, then this hymn would belong in the same group with hymn to Ishtar No. 6, Ramman No. 2, and the litany to Asshur.
There is a second hymn to Ishtar (No. 5), of which the first lines are broken off, and which is followed by a priest’s short prayer, but which is spoken altogether by Ishtar in her own praise. At the beginning we have a strophe of nine lines, four couplets, and an additional line. The first half line of each couplet continues the same, “She who in the days of long ago,” and the first half line of the second line of each couplet remains just the name: “Ishtar.” The second half lines of each couplet are almost identical, and the second half of each couplet differs from the second half of the preceding couplet only by the changing of a single word. If the hymn were not in the first person, and thus put into the mouth of Ishtar herself, one would say that the first line of the couplet was recited by a priest, and that the second line was shouted by a choir in response:
She who in the days of long ago in the earth was magnified am I Ishtar who in the earth is magnified am I She who in the days of long ago in all lands was magnified am I Ishtar who in all lands is magnified am I She who in the days of long ago in the sanctuary was magnified am I Ishtar who in the sanctuary is magnified am I She who in the days of long ago in all sanctuaries was magnified am I Ishtar who in all sanctuaries is magnified am I She who in the days of long ago in the holy sanctuaries is magnified am I.
There follows a strophe of six lines, of which the first half lines give different titles of Ishtar, and the second half lines have the refrain, “in the temple of my riches am I.” Then after three broken lines this hymnal composition closes with a brief petition of four lines repeated by the priest in behalf of the temple.
The five hymns, just reviewed, are all in the nature of a self-introduction of the gods and goddesses as powerful, incomparable beings. This is what one would expect. There is among gods as among kings a great deal of rivalry about prestige. The God must sound abroad his own glory. Beyond that, however, is the fact that in every religion a god must be, to a large extent, an unknown deity. His self-manifestations can be only occasional, and never clearly apprehended by man, so that when the god appears, man must necessarily ask: “Who art thou?” and the deity must reply, as did Ninib and Belit and Ishtar: “I am ...” These self-introductions of deity inevitably recall to the mind of the Old Testament student Yahwe’s introduction of himself to Moses in Exodus 3:6; and again the self-introduction of Yahwe that precedes the promulgation of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2. Especially are they, however, suggestive of the repeated self-announcements of deity, that occur in almost every chapter of Isaiah 40-55. Here also we have again and again the rhetorical question, and the emphasis upon the power, the wisdom, the fame, and the incomparable status of Yahwe. Just a few of these hymnal lines are here quoted:
Who raised up from the East the man who is ever victorious? Who delivers to him the nations, and makes him rule over kings? Who hath indeed done this, He who calls the generations from the beginning; I Yahwe am the first, and I am the last, I am he. —Isaiah 41: 2, 4.
I am Yahwe, that is my name; I yield my glory to no one, nor my praise to idols. —Isaiah 42:8.
I, I am Yahwe besides me there is no saviour; I have foretold and I have saved; I and no foreign god among you, thereto are ye my witnesses. —Isaiah 43:11f.
I am Yahwe and there is none else, besides me there is no god. I form the light and create darkness I make peace and cause calamity I Yahwe do all things. —Isaiah 45:5, 7.
These and a great many similar lines have a good deal of the phraseology and the atmosphere of the Assyrian hymns of Belit and Ishtar, and in so far support the Babylonian origin of Isaiah 40-45, but there is in the Assyrian hymns no such clear relationship of the deity to history as is characteristic of the Hebrew hymns in Isaiah 40-45.
There remains of Assyrian hymns still to be recognized a small and distinct group in which deity is praised by man in the third person. One of these, Nergal No. 7, has been included among the Antiphonal hymns and already studied. That portion, which is in the third person is simply narrative, with many repetitions, telling of Nergal’s heroic attack upon the hostile land. It is mythological and epic material adapted to hymnal purposes. Similarly the hymn to Ramman No. 2 was included among the Antiphonal hymns, beginning as it does with fourteen lines spoken by man in praise of Ramman, and continuing with Enlil’s charge to Ramman in the next twelve lines. However, this hymn comes to its conclusion in the next four and last lines with the use of the third person, telling how Ramman obeyed the bidding of his father Enlil:
Ramman gave heed to the words which his father spoke to him; Father Ramman went out of the house, the storm of sonorous voice, Out of the house, out of the city he went up, the youthful lion, Out of the city he took his way, the storm of thunderous voice.
Beside this can be placed the fragment of eight lines, Ramman No. 1. Heaven and earth quake before Ramman’s anger. The gods flee to the heights and to the depths before the mighty god of the tempest. This hymn invites comparison with Psalm 29, the Hebrew hymn in praise of the “Voice of Yahwe”:
The lord in his fury, the heavens quake before him; Ramman in his fury, the earth trembles; The great mountains break to pieces before him. Before his anger, before his fury, Before his roaring, before his thunder; The gods of heaven to heaven ascend; The gods of earth to earth retire; To the heights of heaven they penetrate; Into the depths of the earth they enter.
In Marduk No. 4, following the hymnal invocation of six lines addressed in the second person to the deity, there is a section of fifteen lines making up the rest of the hymn, and extolling the greatness of Marduk, especially his might in war. When he attacks, the heavens above and the earth beneath are troubled; the gods flee; his weapons flash forth and destroy mountains. However the hymn is not a narrative of any event. Though the language is of a myth, yet the poem is not in its nature an epic. It is recited not to inspire interest, but to arouse enthusiasm for the deity. It is thus, along with Ramman No. 1, more hymnal in character than the narrative portions in Nergal No. 7 and Ramman No. 2:
The direction of conflict and battle is in the hands of Marduk, the leader of the gods; At whose wrath the heaven quakes; At whose wrath the deep is troubled; At the point of whose weapon the gods turn back; Whose furious attack no one ventures to oppose; The mighty lord, to whom there is no rival in the assembly of the gods. In the bright firmament of heaven, his course is powerful; In Ekur, the temple of holiness, exalted are his decrees. In the storm wind his weapons blaze forth; With his flame steep mountains are destroyed. He overwhelms the expanse of the billowy ocean. Son of Esara is his name, warrior of the gods his title. From the depths is he lord of the gods and men. Before his terrible bow the heavens tremble, Who the lofty house of death’s shadow overthrows and destroys.
In the chapter on Assyrian Hymnal Introductions, it was observed that in Sin No. 3 and Sin No. 5 there were hymnal lines in praise of the divine word, addressed directly to deity in the second person:
Thy word, when it sounds over the earth, vegetation springs up.
In Marduk No. 5 there are five hymnal lines in praise of the word of deity, in four of which the third person is used, although one would hesitate to say that the hymn ceases to be addressed to deity, or that the change of person is here particularly significant:
Thy word is a lofty net which over heaven and earth thou spreadest out. Unto the sea it turns, the sea it takes fright. Unto the marsh it turns, the marsh laments. To the flood of Euphrates it turns, The word of Marduk stirs up the bottom Lord, thou art lofty, who equals thee?
In the hymn to Nergal No. 7 there is a large hymnal passage in praise of the word of deity. It begins apparently with the last line on the obverse side of the tablet, in which the second person of the direct address to deity is used:
Thy word is a lofty net Which stretches out over heaven and earth.
Unfortunately the first lines on the reverse side of the tablet are lost, but the lines which remain are all in the third person, and unlike the preceding hymn deity is not being directly addressed. We have here then the hymnal form which is characteristic of the Hebrew hymn of praise. It is however somewhat difficult to account for this use of the third person. Possibly it is because the word when once spoken has its independent existence, and cannot be recalled, but goes forth to exert its harmful or helpful influence. Consequently in thinking of the effects to be accomplished by Nergal’s word one can completely forget Nergal, since the word has left the god behind and goes on its own way, whither soever it was directed. It is to be noted that the effects of the word mentioned in this hymn are all harmful. There is no record of any magical ceremony or magical use of the word following the hymn, although the language of the hymn would almost seem to be introductory to such a use of the mighty word of Nergal. Possibly then it can be conjectured that we have actually here a genuine hymn in praise of the aweful word of deity. The hymn as preserved is as follows:
Thy word is a lofty net which stretches out over heaven and earth . . . . . . . . . His word goes to the seer, the seer takes fright; His word goes to the enchanter, the enchanter takes fright. His word is announced to an afflicted man, that man laments; His word is announced to an afflicted woman, that woman laments. His word when it goes softly ruins the land; His word when it goes powerfully destroys the houses. His word is as a closed vessel its innermost thoughts who can learn? His word is as a covered net in which he snares. His word within is not understood, without it tramples down; His word without is not understood, within it tramples down; His word makes the people sick, the people it makes weak. His word when it goes on high the land makes sick; His word when it goes below destroys the land. Warrior Nergal, below he commands below he tramples underfoot His word when there are five in a house drives out five; Warrior Nergal when there are ten in a house drives out ten. The word of the lord when it hastens on high I am troubled; The word of the lord because of its destructiveness I sit and lament. At his word on high the heavens become dark, mighty is his word.
It has also been observed in the chapter on Hymnal Introductions, that in Nebo No. 1 there was a couplet, and in Ninib No. 1 there was a hymnal line, both in praise of the sanctuary, and both addressed in the second person to deity. Furthermore there is in the hymn to Marduk No. 4, reproduced above in this chapter a line in praise of the temple in Ekur:
In Ekur, the house of festivals, is thy name exalted.
Beyond this we have, however two hymnal fragments, which so far as they remain to us, are devoted to the praise of sanctuaries. The first of these is Marduk No. 7:
... day when he named Babylon faithfully by its name, The lord of the crown built at the door of the ocean the house which he loved. The land with exultation and joy he filled; Its head like the heavens he made high; A house at the door of the ocean endowed with grandeur and glory for the honor of his godhead is suitable. ... Nebo and Sarpanitum a glittering sanctuary inhabit; ... he caused to inhabit a dwelling of luxury. [Tablet breaks off.]
The second fragment, hymn to Bel, No. 1, consists only of five lines, which unfortunately are not altogether intelligible. Apparently the sanctuary of Enlil is compared first to a mountain, whose peak reaches to the heavens, and then to a majestic wild ox stretched out in the mountains, whose horns glitter in the rays of the sun. These hymnal fragments recall the Old Testament psalms in praise of Zion, and perhaps especially Psalm 48:2:
Beautiful for situation, the joy of all the earth Is Mount Zion, on the northern slope The city of the great King.
The above small group of hymns are the only hymns or hymnal passages in which the third person is exclusively used. As has been seen, the great majority of Assyrian hymns employ the second person and are really only hymnal introductions to prayers. A small but notable group is made up of the self-laudations of the gods. On the other hand the vast majority of Hebrew hymns speak of Yahwe in the third person in their praise of him, and their praise is disinterested; it is not introductory to a petition. It is likewise significant that where Yahwe speaks in hymnal praise of himself in Isaiah 40-45, it is to convince despairing, doubting Israel of his intention and power to save Israel, and to use Israel in the fulfillment of his eternal purpose. Here again one might say that while the Assyrian deities haughtily and arrogantly proclaim their own greatness, seeking thereby only their own glory, Yahwe’s praise of himself is almost altogether disinterested, since his concern is to achieve salvation of Israel and the world. In the Hebrew sense of the word then, the genuine hymn is only beginning to emerge in Assyrian poetry.
Division III A COMPARISON OF THE ASSYRIAN AND THE HEBREW HYMNS
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