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LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT

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Author Topic: LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT  (Read 3345 times)
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Stacey Janson
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« Reply #300 on: December 04, 2009, 01:23:29 pm »


    the god made an expanse on the face of the waters, and then poured
    out dust "on the expanse". But the Semitic version in l. 18 reads
    /itti ami/, "beside the /a./", not /ina ami/, "on the /a./"; and
    in any case there does not seem much significance in the act of
    pouring out specially created dust on or beside land already
    formed. The Sumerian word translated by /amu/ is written /gi-dir/,
    with the element /gi/, "reed", in l. 17, and though in the
    following line it is written under its variant form /a-dir/
    without /gi/, the equation /gi-a-dir/ = /amu/ is elsewhere
    attested (cf. Delitzsch, /Handwörterbuch/, p. 77). In favour of
    regarding /amu/ as some sort of reed, here used collectively, it
    may be pointed out that the Sumerian verb in l. 17 is /kešda/, "to
    bind", accurately rendered by /rakašu/ in the Semitic version.
    Assuming that l. 34 belongs to the same account, the creation of
    reeds in general beside trees, after dry land is formed, would not
    of course be at variance with the god's use of some sort of reed
    in his first act of creation. He creates the reed-bundles, as he
    creates the soil, both of which go to form the first dike; the
    reed-beds, like the other vegetation, spring up from the ground
    when it appears.

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« Reply #301 on: December 04, 2009, 01:23:50 pm »

[6] The Semitic version here reads "the lord Marduk"; the
    corresponding name in the Sumerian text is not preserved.

[7] The line is restored from l. 2 o the obverse of the text.

Here the Sumerian Creator is pictured as forming dry land from the
primaeval water in much the same way as the early cultivator in the
Euphrates Valley procured the rich fields for his crops. The existence
of the earth is here not really presupposed. All the world was sea
until the god created land out of the waters by the only practical
method that was possible in Mesopotamia.
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Stacey Janson
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« Reply #302 on: December 04, 2009, 01:24:01 pm »

In another Sumerian myth, which has been recovered on one of the early
tablets from Nippur, we have a rather different picture of beginnings.
For there, though water is the source of life, the existence of the
land is presupposed. But it is bare and desolate, as in the
Mesopotamian season of "low water". The underlying idea is suggestive
of a period when some progress in systematic irrigation had already
been made, and the filling of the dry canals and subsequent irrigation
of the parched ground by the rising flood of Enki was not dreaded but
eagerly desired. The myth is only one of several that have been
combined to form the introductory sections of an incantation; but in
all of them Enki, the god of the deep water, plays the leading part,
though associated with different consorts.[1] The incantation is
directed against various diseases, and the recitation of the closing
mythical section was evidently intended to enlist the aid of special
gods in combating them. The creation of these deities is recited under
set formulae in a sort of refrain, and the divine name assigned to
each bears a magical connexion with the sickness he or she is intended
to dispel.[2]
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« Reply #303 on: December 04, 2009, 01:24:12 pm »

[1] See Langdon, Univ. of Penns. Mus. Publ., Bab. Sect., Vol. X, No. 1
    (1915), pl. i f., pp. 69 ff.; /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI
    (1916), pp. 140 ff.; cf. Prince, /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol.
    XXXVI, pp. 90 ff.; Jastrow, /Journ. Amer. Or. Soc./, Vol. XXXVI,
    pp. 122 ff., and in particular his detailed study of the text in
    /Amer. Journ. Semit. Lang./, Vol. XXXIII, pp. 91 ff. Dr. Langdon's
    first description of the text, in /Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch./, Vol.
    XXXVI (1914), pp. 188 ff., was based on a comparatively small
    fragment only; and on his completion of the text from other
    fragments in Pennsylvania. Professor Sayce at once realized that
    the preliminary diagnosis of a Deluge myth could not be sustained
    (cf. /Expos. Times/, Nov., 1915, pp. 88 ff.). He, Professor
    Prince, and Professor Jastrow independently showed that the action
    of Enki in the myth in sending water on the land was not punitive
    but beneficent; and the preceding section, in which animals are
    described as not performing their usual activities, was shown
    independently by Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow to have
    reference, not to their different nature in an ideal existence in
    Paradise, but, on familiar lines, to their non-existence in a
    desolate land. It may be added that Professor Barton and Dr. Peters
    agree generally with Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow in
    their interpretation of the text, which excludes the suggested
    biblical parallels; and I understand from Dr. Langdon that he very
    rightly recognizes that the text is not a Deluge myth. It is a
    subject for congratulation that the discussion has materially
    increased our knowledge of this difficult composition.

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« Reply #304 on: December 04, 2009, 01:24:32 pm »

[2] Cf. Col. VI, ll. 24 ff.; thus /Ab/-u was created for the sickness
    of the cow (/ab/); Nin-/tul/ for that of the flock (u-/tul/); Nin-
    /ka/-u-tu and Nin-/ka/-si for that of the mouth (/ka/); Na-zi for
    that of the /na-zi/ (meaning uncertain); /Da zi/-ma for that of
    the /da-zi/ (meaning uncertain); Nin-/til/ for that of /til/
    (life); the name of the eighth and last deity is imperfectly
    preserved.

We have already noted examples of a similar use of myth in magic,
which was common to both Egypt and Babylonia; and to illustrate its
employment against disease, as in the Nippur document, it will suffice
to cite a well-known magical cure for the toothache which was adopted
in Babylon.[1] There toothache was believed to be caused by the
gnawing of a worm in the gum, and a myth was used in the incantation
to relieve it. The worm's origin is traced from Anu, the god of
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Stacey Janson
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« Reply #305 on: December 04, 2009, 01:29:35 pm »

heaven, through a descending scale of creation; Anu, the heavens, the
earth, rivers, canals and marshes are represented as each giving rise
to the next in order, until finally the marshes produce the worm. The
myth then relates how the worm, on being offered tempting food by Ea
in answer to her prayer, asked to be allowed to drink the blood of the
teeth, and the incantation closes by invoking the curse of Ea because
of the worm's misguided choice. It is clear that power over the worm
was obtained by a recital of her creation and of her subsequent
ingratitude, which led to her present occupation and the curse under
which she laboured. When the myth and invocation had been recited
three times over the proper mixture of beer, a plant, and oil, and the
mixture had been applied to the offending tooth, the worm would fall
under the spell of the curse and the patient would at once gain
relief. The example is instructive, as the connexion of ideas is quite
clear. In the Nippur document the recital of the creation of the eight
deities evidently ensured their presence, and a demonstration of the
mystic bond between their names and the corresponding diseases
rendered the working of their powers effective. Our knowledge of a
good many other myths is due solely to their magical employment.
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« Reply #306 on: December 04, 2009, 01:29:46 pm »

[1] See Thompson, /Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia/, Vol. II, pp.
    160 ff.; for a number of other examples, see Jastrow, /J.A.O.S./,
    Vol. XXXVI, p. 279, n. 7.

Perhaps the most interesting section of the new text is one in which
divine instructions are given in the use of plants, the fruit or roots
of which may be eaten. Here Usmû, a messenger from Enki, God of the
Deep, names eight such plants by Enki's orders, thereby determining
the character of each. As Professor Jastrow has pointed out, the
passage forcibly recalls the story from Berossus, concerning the
mythical creature Oannes, who came up from the Erythraean Sea, where
it borders upon Babylonia, to instruct mankind in all things,
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« Reply #307 on: December 04, 2009, 01:30:04 pm »

including "seeds and the gathering of fruits".[1] But the only part of
the text that concerns us here is the introductory section, where the
life-giving flood, by which the dry fields are irrigated, is pictured
as following the union of the water-deities, Enki and Ninella.[2]
Professor Jastrow is right in emphasizing the complete absence of any
conflict in this Sumerian myth of beginnings; but, as with the other
Sumerian Versions we have examined, it seems to me there is no need to
seek its origin elsewhere than in the Euphrates Valley.
http://sacred-texts.com/ane/beheb.htm
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