“When a monster is associated with an anthropomorphic deity, it operates in the same field of action or part of nature as that of the deity. Whereas the deity functions in the entire domain of his or her rule, the monster’s activity is limited to only part of the god’s realm. Thus, a monster that is associated with a deity as its attribute creature represents part of the divine nature or a particular aspect of the divine function of the god. Wiggermann observes that after a developmental period, during which Mesopotamian gods and monsters evolved, they eventually settled into “complementary” opposition in which “the gods represent the lawfully ordered cosmos, monsters represent what threatens it, the unpredictable.”. This lion-headed eagle was called Anzu in Akkadian and Imdugud in Sumerian.
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It was symbolic of the god Ningursu. In the Myth of Anzu, the Anzu steals the me, the Tablet of Destinies, from the god Ea, when he disrobed to bathe. The Tablet of Destinies was a cuneiform tablet upon which the fates of all creatures were written, granting its holder supreme power. It was Ningursu who defeated the Anzu and recovered the me. Other versions of the myth claim that Anzu stole the me from Enlil, with Ninutra recovering it. Source: Stephanie Dalley, Myths From Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, Oxford University Press, 1991.
This panel was excavated from the ruins at the base of the Temple of Goddess Ninhursag at Tell-Al-Ubaid in Southern Mesopotamia (Iraq). Dated to the Early Dynastic Period, circa 2500 BCE, this artifact is currently held by The British Museum. Photo by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, this file is licensed under the Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.JPG%5B/caption%5D A number of works by Green are formative in the study of composite creatures. He has written numerous articles, among which the most significant are his 1984 article, “,” and his 1997 RlA article on “.” (Anthony Green, “,” Visible Religion 3 (1984): pp.
(Joan Goodnick Westenholz, Rubin Mass, 2007, p. 9.) The treatment of selected composite beings is detailed, but limited to the examples specific to the exhibit., edited by Billie Jean Collins (2002), focuses on animals found in Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and Syro-Palestine, with particular attention to the native fauna; animals in art, literature, and religion; and the cultural use of animals.
(Billie Jean Collins, ed., (Handbook of Oriental Studies 64; Leiden: Brill, 2002). Note: Chapter 5 by Margaret Cool Root, “,” is available for download from archive.org.) The volume is more a historical narrative of human relations with animals than a history of animals in the ancient world. As such, it provides insights into rationales behind selection of certain animals to represent particular characteristics of divine or sub-divine beings. Collins builds on the work of E. Douglas Van Buren, whose formative study, (1939), focuses on forty-eight animal species, but without discussing their significance.” (E. Douglas Van Buren, (AnOr 18; Rome: Institutum Biblicum, 1939).
Constance Ellen Gane, Doctoral Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley, 2012, pp. The gods build the first city Kish, but kingship is still in heaven.
A ruler is wanted (and found). Due to an illness, Etana’s wife is unable to conceive. The plant of birth is wanted. In the ensuing episode eagle and snake swore an oath of friendship.
Suddenly the eagle plans to eat up the snake’s children; a baby eagle, with the name of Atrahasīs opposes this plan, but eagle executes it. Now, the weeping snake seeks justice from the sun-god. With the god’s help the eagle is trapped in a burrow, and now the eagle turns to the sun-god for help.
He receives the answer that, because of the taboo-violation he cannot help, but will send someone else. BM 89767, Limestone cylinder seal illustrating the myth of Etana, shepherd and legendary king of Kish, who was translated to heaven by an eagle to obtain the plant of life. This seal portrays Etana’s ascent, witnessed by a shepherd, a dog, goats and sheep. Dated 2250 BCE, this seal was excavated by Hormuzd Rassam, and came from an old, previously unregistered collection acquired before 1884.
Dominique Collon, Catalogue of the Western Asiatic Seals in the British Museum: Cylinder Seals II: Akkadian, Post-Akkadian, Ur III Periods, II, London, British Museum Press, 1982. Boehner, Die Entwicklung der Glyptic wahrend der Akkad-Zeit, 4, Berlin, 1965. Alfred Jeremias, Das Alte Testament im Lichte des Alten Orients: Handbuch zur biblisch-orientalischen Altertumskunde, Leipzig, JC Hinrichs, 1906. Also AN128085001, 1983, 0101.299. This image is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Now the eagle, carrying Etana on his back, ascends to the heavens. On the uppermost level of the heavens Etana becomes afraid and the eagle takes him back to the earth.
The end of the story is missing, but that Etana finally got hold of the plant of birth is very likely, since other sources mention his son. To summarize: I have tried to show that some features of the Enoch tradition are a re-writing of very ancient concepts. I do not claim that they all can be explained assuming dependencies, as earlier scholarship has done. I do not intend to idolize “origins,” but what might eventually come out of such a research—if the topics mentioned here are thoroughly worked out and elaborated in detail—is, that our texts implicate many more meanings than tradition may have supposed. In my opinion there can be little doubt that the official transmission of texts in Mesopotamia was supplemented by a wealth of oral tradition.
Indeed, the situation may be comparable to the one attested in the (still) living oral tradition on Enoch in the Balkanian vernaculars.”. There was someone in my dream, enormous as the skies, enormous as the earth was he. That one was a god as regards his head, he was the Thunderbird as regards his wings, and a floodstorm as regards his lower body. There was a lion lying on both his left and right side. (but) I did not understand what (exactly) he intended. Daylight rose for me on the horizon. (4:23) (Then) there was a woman—whoever she might have been—she (the goddess Nissabak) held in her hand a stylus of shining metal, on her knees there was a tablet (with) stars of heaven, and she was consulting it.
(5:2) Furthermore, there was a warrior who bent (his) arm holding a lapis lazuli plate on which he was setting the ground-plan of a house. He set before me a brand-new basket, a brand-new brick-mould was adjusted and he let the auspicious brick be in the mould for me.” (The translation from Cylinder A follows D.O. Edzard, ed., (RIME 3:1, Toronto: University of Toronto Press,1997), pp. Emphases are mine, G.J.S.). Using much the same words the goddess explains the dream: “(5:12) My shepherd, I will interpret your dream for you from beginning to end: The person who you said was as enormous as the skies, enormous as the earth, who was a god as regards his head, who, as you said, was the Thunderbird as regards his wings, and who, as you said, was a floodstorm as regards his lower parts, at whose left and right a lion was lying—he was in fact my brother Ningirsu-k; he talked to you about the building of his shrine Eninnu.
The daylight that had risen for you on the horizon—that was your (personal) god Ningishzida-k: like daylight he will be able to rise for you from there. Couple embracing (hierogamus).
From Susa, 14th-12th BCE. Terracotta, 11,3 x 6 cm. SB 6609, Louvre. Selz, “,” in (ed.
Brisch; Oriental Institute Seminars 4; Chicago: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 2008), pp. Accordingly, the kings of the Ur III empire depict themselves in their hymns as divine scions, as sons of the mythical ruler Lugalbanda and the Goddess Ninsu(mu)na-k. In the present context it is not without interest that these kings were thus becoming “brothers of Gilgamesh,” profiting somehow from the hero’s legendary fame.
“(The god) Ningirsu-k implanted the semen for (the ruler) E’ana-tum in the womb. Rejoiced over E’anatum.
(The goddess) Inana-k accompanied him, named him “In the E’ana (temple) of Inana-k from (the sacred precinct) Ibgal I bring him (= E’ana-Inana-lbgal-akak-atum)” and set him on the legitimising knees of (the mother goddess) Ninchursag(a). Ninchursag(a) offered him her legitimising breast.” (Ean 1, 4:9-12 (H. Steible, ed., 2 vols.; Freiburger altorientalische Studien 5; Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1982, pp. 1:122) RIME 1.9.3.1, 4:9-12. Frayne, ed., (2700-2350 BCE) (RIME 1; Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), pp. The aforementioned size of 2.72 meters makes just a small giant. However, this size is an outward sign designating someone who transgresses human measurements and norms.
Accordingly it became possible to attribute to such an extraordinary ruler a sort of functional divinity, as can be corroborated by several additional arguments. We can therefore say that the ruler is perceived as an Avatar, a manifestation of the state god Ningirsu-k.” Gebhard J. Selz, “,” in Armin Lange, et al, The Dead Sea Scrolls in Context, v. 2, Brill, 2011, pp. Among all the extant exemplars of the Sumerian King List, the Weld-Blundell prism in the Ashmolean Museum cuneiform collection represents the most extensive version as well as the most complete copy of the King List. In this depiction, all four sides of the Sumerian King List prism are portrayed.
Grotanelli, “,” in Mythology and Mythologies: Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences: Proceedings of the Second Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Held in Paris, France, October 4-7, 1999 (ed. Whiting; Melammu Symposia 2: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2001), pp. 19-27.) The alleged Elamite origin of the monster’s name would nicely fit the observation that, from a Mesopotamian view, the localization of the cedar forest in historical times moved from the Eastern Zagros to the Western Lebanon. Proof, however, is lacking. The name of the Babylonian flood hero Utnapishtim / Ziusudra is, so far, not attested in the extant manuscripts from Qumran. The name does occur, however, in the form of At(a)nabīš ( ‘tnbyš) in fragments of the found at Turfan.” Gebhard J.
Selz, “,” in Armin Lange, et al, The Dead Sea Scrolls in Context, v. 2, Brill, 2011, pp. “After an increasing wealth of Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets was excavated and translated in the middle of the nineteenth century, critical evaluation of the biblical traditions gained great momentum. In 1872 delivered a to the in London, announcing the discovery of a Babylonian version of the biblical flood story, hereby renewing the interest in the extra-biblical traditions of Antiquity and eventually supporting the account of ’. A few years later, in 1876, Smith published his book, in which he included translations of excerpts from fragments of, a text which, together with the so-called “Creation Epic,” soon became a corner stone for all comparisons between the biblical and Mesopotamian accounts of the “history” of primeval times.
A fragment of The Eridu Genesis. The earliest recorded Sumerian creation myth is The Eridu Genesis, known from a cuneiform tablet excavated from Nippur, a fragment from Ur, and a bilingual fragment in Sumerian with Akkadian, from the Library of Ashurbanipal dated 600 BCE. The main fragment from Nippur (depicted above) is dated to 1600 BCE. It was Thorkild Jacobsen who named this fragment. As he says, “it deals with the creation of man, the institution of kingship, the founding of the first cities and the great flood. Thus it is a story of beginnings, a Genesis, and, as I will try to show in detail later, it prefigures so to speak, the biblical Genesis in its structure. The god Enki and his city Eridu figure importantly in the story, Enki as savior of mankind, Eridu as the first city.
Thus “The Eridu Genesis” seems appropriate.” In a footnote, Jacobsen observes, “The tablet was found at Nippur during the third season’s work of the Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania (1893-6) but was not immediately recognized for what it was. The box in which it was kept was labeled “incantation.” Thus it was not until 1912, when Arno Poebel went through the tablet collection, that its true nature was discovered.” He continues, “Poebel published it in hardcopy and furnished a transliteration, translation and penetrating analysis.
He convincingly dated the tablet (pp. 66-9) on epigraphical and other grounds to the latter half of the First Dynasty of Babylon.” “Little further work of consequence was done on the text for thirty-six years—a detailed bibliography may be found in Rykle Borger, Handbuch der Keilschriftliteratur I (Berlin: de Gruyter, p. 411 but in 1950 Samuel N. Kramer’s translation was published in ANET (pp.
43-4) and again, almost twenty years later, Miguel Civil restudied the text in his chapter on Atra-hasīs (pp. The interpretation here offered owes much to our predecessors, far more than would appear from our often very different understanding of the text.” Both and present early humanity as similar to animals in that they slept on straw beds in pens because they did not know how to build houses and also lived at the mercy of the rains because they did not know how to dig canals for irrigation. Batto concludes that Mesopotamian literature depicts the advancement of early humans as their evolution from a low, animal-like state to a higher, “civilized” state by means of gifts from the gods.
A further illustration of the role of the gods in the rise of civilization in Sumer is the myth ???????????????. In this text, Inanna steals the mes (in this case, corresponding to the arts of civilization) from Enki in Eridu and brings them to Uruk, thus transferring civilization to Uruk. The text mentions 94 individual elements of civilization, including.
“ the craft of the carpenter, the craft of the copper-smith, the art of the scribe, the craft of the smith, the craft of the leather-worker, the craft of the fuller, the craft of the builder, the craft of the mat-weaver, understanding, knowledge, purifying washing rites, the house of the shepherd,kindling of fire, extinguishing of fire.” Key in this myth is the fact that it is the divine mes, originally bestowed by Enki upon Eridu alone but subsequently transferred to Uruk by Inanna, which give rise to civilization. What is nearly universal in the Mesopotamian literature, as far as the available texts indicate, is that the source of human civilization is divine, with humans acting primarily as recipients of divine knowledge.
Because of its divine origin and the clear benefits which it provides for humans—at least for those favored humans on whom the gods bestow it—civilization is portrayed in an overwhelmingly positive manner in these texts.” David P. Melvin, “,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2010, pp. “Elements of civilization are also attributed to the semi-divine hero, Gilgamesh. The opening lines of the celebrate his great wisdom: “He who saw the Deep, the country’s foundation, who knew, was wise in all matters! Gilgamesh, who saw the Deep, the country’s foundation, who knew, was wise in all matters! He everywhere and learnt of everything the sum of wisdom.
He saw what was secret, discovered what was hidden, he brought back a tale of before the Deluge.” (, SBV I.1–8 (Andrew George, London: Penguin, 2000, p.1). The text goes on to describe Gilgamesh’s achievements in building the edifices of the city of Uruk, especially its wall. Here the text highlights the great wisdom required for such construction by ascribing the foundations of the city wall to the wisdom of the “Seven Sages” ( apkallus). Cuneiform tablet with the Atrahasis Epic. Babylonian, about 17th century BCE. From Sippar, southern Iraq.
A version of the Flood story. The story outlines the structure of the universe according to Babylonian beliefs. Heaven is ruled by the god Anu, the earth by Enlil and the subterranean sweet water by Enki. The text then explains how the minor gods work in the fields but then rebel. As a result, humans are made from clay, saliva and divine blood to act as servants of the gods. This does not prove a perfect solution, as the humans reproduce and their noise disturbs Enlil’s sleep. He decides to destroy them with plague, famine, drought and finally a flood.
However, each time Enki instructs one of the humans, Atrahasis, to survive the disasters. The god gives Atrahasis seven days warning of the flood, and he builds a boat, loads it with his possessions, animals and birds. He is subsequently saved while the rest of humankind is destroyed. However, the gods are unhappy as they no longer receive the offerings they used to.
There is a gap in the text at this point but it does end with Atrahasis making an offering and Enlil accepting the existence and usefulness of humans. Copies of this story have survived from the seventeenth to the seventh century BCE showing that it was copied and re-copied over the centuries. This is the most complete version. There are clear similarities between this Flood story and others known in Mesopotamian literature, for example, the Epic of Gilgamesh. Mitchell, The Bible in the British Museum (London, The British Museum Press, 1988) S. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford University Press, 1991) W.G.
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Lambert and A.R. Millard, Atra-hasis (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969) Moreover, within the epic, the greatest achievements of Gilgamesh are the building of the wall of Uruk and the wisdom he obtained and passed on to subsequent generations. Tigay, (Phildelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982), pp.142–49; 213.) The source of this wisdom is his encounter with the divinized Flood hero, as the Sumerian text The Death of Bilgames indicates. “you reached Ziusudra in his abode! The rites of Sumer, forgotten there since distant days of old, the rituals and customs—it was you brought them down to the land. The rites of hand-washing and mouth-washing you put in good order, after the Deluge it was you made known all the tasks of the land.” ( The Death of Bilgames, M 57–62 (George, pp.198– 99). Thus, Gilgamesh acts as a mediating figure between the divine source of the knowledge necessary for aspects of civilization and the people of Sumer.
The source of his divine knowledge is the divinized Flood hero, who had in turn received his knowledge from Enki / Ea, as well as perhaps his divine mother, Ninsun. In similar fashion, Enmerkar acts as a mediator of divine knowledge which benefits humanity by aiding in the rise of civilization. In the Sumerian myth, Enmerkar competes with the Lord of Aratta for supremacy in the region. They engage in a battle of wits in which the Lord of Aratta issues various seemingly impossible challenges for Enmerkar, and in each case, Enmerkar succeeds by receiving divine inspiration from a deity. Thus, for example, when the Lord of Aratta challenges Enmerkar to carry grain from Uruk to Aratta in a net, he receives the solution from the grain goddess, Nidaba, who “opens for him her ‘ Nidaba’s holy house of understanding.’” (, lines 324–26 (Thorkild Jacobsen, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987, p. By his reception of divine knowledge, Enmerkar is able not only to meet the Lord of Aratta’s challenges, he also invents several new technologies ( e.g., writing) along the way. Because of the crucial role divine counsel plays in Enmerkar’s cultural achievements, his accomplishments become, indirectly, the work of the gods in bringing about human civilization.” David P.
Melvin, “,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, 2010, pp. The Divine Source of Civilization in Mesopotamian Myths “The motif of the divine origin of civilization is common in the ancient Near East, especially in Mesopotamia, and it stands in stark contrast to the portrayal of the rise of civilization in.
(Although many of my observations with regard to the view of the rise of civilization presented in Mesopotamian mythology could also be made within the mythic traditions of other ancient cultures ( e.g., Egypt, Greece, Canaan), Bernard Batto notes, “for reasons not entirely clear to us the opening chapters of Genesis are typologically and content-wise more akin to the mythic traditions of Mesopotamia than of territorially closer Canaan—the reverse of the normal situation in the Hebrew Bible.” (Bernard Batto, “,” R. Clifford and J. Collins eds., CBQMS, 24; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1992, 16). For this reason, as well as the general consensus that the compilation of occurred in the exilic or early post-exilic period, in large measure as a polemic against the Babylonian cosmological worldview in which the Jewish community found itself immersed, I have limited my comparisons of the biblical material to a number of Mesopotamian myths.) In a number of mythological texts, civilization is portrayed as a gift bestowed upon humanity by the gods, and human advancement is generally a positive development.
Often the arts of civilization come to humanity through divine or semi-divine intermediaries, such as the apkallus or heroes who are either semi-divine ( e.g., Gilgamesh) or divinized humans ( e.g., Lugalbanda, Utnapishtim). This depiction of a fish-apkallū of the purādu-fish type guarded the entrance to the temple of Ninurta at Nimrud. A fish’s head can be seen on the Apkallu’s head, and its skin hangs down over the back of his body. It is important to recall that the so-called Seven Sages of Sumeria were apkallū of this type. Neo-Assyrian era, 865-860 BCE.
From the Temple of Ninurta, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu; Biblical Calah), northern Mesopotamia, Iraq. (The British Museum, London). Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP (Glasg). “A Sumerian version of Adapa from the Old Babylonian period has been discovered at Tell Haddad (ancient Meturan) and has been announced by (1993: 92-3).
The Sumerian version is reported to be similar to the Akkadian version. It includes “an incantation-like passage” at the end, as does the Akkadian version represented by Fragment D. Furthermore, the myth is the second part of a longer narrative, the first part of which describes the time just following the deluge and describes the feeding of the gods and the organization of mankind. The discovery of the myth of Adapa and the South Wind immediately attracted wide attention. Its ideology and its correspondence to the intellectual heritage of Western religions precipitated flourishing studies of this myth, both philological and substantive. These cuneiform originals are from Albert T. Clay, A Hebrew Deluge Story in Cuneiform.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922. This particular photograph states, “Early Atrahasis Cuneiform Original –Reverse Adapa Version – Obverse (Reverse is destroyed).” I cannot overemphasize the need for thorough philological and linguistic analysis before discussing meaning, even though some interpretations are merely the result of context-realizations. The analysis of poetic form that follows will then lead to analyzing the myth as a piece of literature and to uncovering its meaning—or rather, meanings. This study therefore marks another phase in the long, extensive, and never-ceasing research into this abysmal Mesopotamian myth.
Being just one of many human beings allured to and intrigued by this tale told in ancient times to a more understanding audience than ours, I wish to share with my own audience both my interpretation and my impression of this particular myth, as well as the methodology that I have adopted for my enquiry. Within these confines, I hope that this study will have something to offer to the more general study of the Mesopotamian, especially the Akkadian, mythological texts.” Schlomo Izre’el, Eisenbrauns, 2001, pp. A fish-apkallu drawn by A.H.
Layard from a stone relief, one of a pair flanking a doorway in the Temple of Ninurta at Kalhu. This example is identical to illustration 55 in Dalley’s article on the apkallu, which she cites for the dual daggers in his waistband. British Museum. Reproduced in Schlomo Izre’el, Adapa and the South Wind: Language Has the Power of Life and Death, Eisenbrauns, 2001. In another place in the same text, the last of seven sages is Utua-abba, mentioned as one who descended from heaven (Borger 1974: 193-4; see also 1994: 231 and p.
The name Uan is listed as the first apkallu, who served during the time of the king Ayyalu (van Dijk 1962: 44). It is he who is mentioned as the one who “completed the ordinance of heaven and earth.” The Greek variant of the name Uan, namely Oannes, is known from the account of Babylonian history by Berossus, where it is said that before civilization was introduced to the people of Mesopotamia, “there was a great crowd of men in Babylonia and they lived without laws as wild animals. In the first year ( i.e., of the reign of Alorus) a beast named Oannes appeared from the Erythrean Sea in a place adjacent to Babylonia. Its entire body was that of a fish, but a human head had grown beneath the head of the fish and human feet likewise had grown from the fish’s tail. It also had a human voice. A picture of it is still preserved today.” ( 1978: 13-4). The evidence in our possession thus seems to point to at least two different original traditions ( cf.
1986: 153) that have become a single unified tradition in the most prominent remaining texts ( cf. The remarks by 1992: 44-5). I believe that in the myth of Adapa and the South Wind, as it was interpreted in the traditions that have reached us, there is a strong case for such a unified tradition. Variation, it must be noted, is a part of the very nature of mythological traditions ( cf. 108-10 below).” Schlomo Izre’el, Eisenbrauns, 2001, pp.
“In and Berossos, where there are narratives connected to the names, it is clear that the apkallus were those who brought humankind the basic wisdom needed to establish civilization. This is written out in a full story in Berossos; the same is referred to in in the phrase “plans of heaven and earth.” In both places the first apkallu Uan/ Oannes is most prominent in this matter.
They both concur with the D fragment of the, where Adapa is given insight into the secrets of both heaven and earth, the whole of Anu’s domain. We observe in the lists, however, that there is not only a division between the first group of seven apkallus and the subsequent sages / scholars; there is also continuity.
This seems to be the whole idea of extending the list of seven with subsequent scholars. The subsequent scholars belong to a tradition going back to the antediluvian apkallus. There are variations in how this is expressed. The system is most clear in the Uruk tablet, which changes the designation from apkallu, mostly reserved for sages before the flood, to ummanu, the self-designation of the scholars preserving their wisdom after the flood. But there is a very interesting hint in Bīt Mēseri as well. Lu-Nanna, the last apkallu in the list after the flood, is two-thirds apkallu. Here there is clearly a second point of transition–we must presume this time from apkallus to scholars. A stone bust of the King Šulgi (2094 BCE – 2047 BCE), possibly recovered from the ruins of Tello, ancient Girsu.
Third dynasty of Ur 2120 BCE. Colecciones Burzaco © Jose Latova. This is confirmed in another short notice about Lu-Nanna in Bīt Mēseri: he lived during the time of Šulgi. Here, when the power of the apkallus fades, we are for the first and only time in Bīt Mēseri placed in real history.
Šulgi is attested as a historical king; he reigned during the third dynasty of Ur (2094-2047 BCE). Thus, at the brink between legendary time and historical time comes the transition from the mythical and legendary apkallus to the historical ummanus. This clear tendency in the lists is confirmed by several witnesses from Late Assyrian kings stretching down to the last Babylonian king Nabonidus. The witnesses both attest that there was a special quality connected to wisdom from before the flood, and that this was the wisdom brought to humankind through the apkallus.
The king needed access to this kind of “higher” wisdom, which included insight into the divine secrets, in order to reign. Those responsible for providing the king with this kind of wisdom were the ummanus attached to the royal court.
The wisdom one brought to humankind by the apkallus accordingly had a political dimension. The ummanus provided the king with the wisdom necessary to rule the empire.
The myth about the transmission of divine wisdom became part of an imperial ideology. “We find an indication that Uanadapa was regarded as a recipient of revelations, we find it in the, where the king compares himself with Adapa. He boasts of his “wisdom;” he has “seen what is hidden” and “secret things:” “He would stand in the assembly (and) exalt himself (as follows): “I am wise, I am learned, I have seen what is hidden. I do not understand the impressions made by a stylus, (but) I have seen secret things. Ilteri has shown me; he has made known to me everything.
As for (the series) Moon Crescent of Anu (and) Enlil, which Adapa has compiled, I surpass it in all wisdom.” ( v, 8′-13′). The text does not claim that Adapa has written; it states that Adapa had “compiled,” kasāru, the series. This is the same verb that is used about Kabti-ilāni-Marduk in the quotation from the above; he is kāsir kammīšu, “compiler of his tablets” (V, 42).
Enuma Anu Enlil is a series of about 70 tablets dealing with Babylonian astrology. These accounts were found in the early 19th century by excavation in Nineveh, near present day Bagdad. The bulk of the work is a substantial collection of omens, estimated to number between 6500 and 7000, which interpret a wide variety of celestial and atmospheric phenomena in terms relevant to the king and state. The tablets presumably date back to about 650 BC, but several of the omens may be as old as 1646 BC. Many reports are “astrometeorological” forecasts (Rasmussen 2010).
The reason for this is clear; he did not compose the content of the tablets himself; a god revealed the content to him. What he did was to repeat what was revealed and arrange it on tablets. The same must be meant with Adapa. He was not the original composer, but the transmitter of. The original composer of the series was, according to the, Ea himself ( cf. I, 1, Cf., Machinist and Tadmor, “Heavenly Wisdom,” p. 147.) This placement of Adapa in the role of transmitter of divine writings is also attested elsewhere in the (VI, 15-6).
The second time he is listed in connection with writings, they originate ša lām abūbu, “from before the flood.”. Bird Apkallū and Fish Apkallū, the so-called purādu-fish, side by side. Apkallū statuettes of this design were buried in appropriate places in the home of a Babylonian exorcist. They were believed to have prophylactic qualities, guarding the home from evil. The next passages describe apkallus with well-known features; seven figures with faces and wings of birds and seven figures cloaked in the skin of a fish. Green, “,” 87-96, 87-90.) In total the apkallus as groups of seven are described five times according to where they should be buried: at the head of the bed, in the foundation of the house, at the threshold to the chapel, in front of the door behind the chair and in the middle of the house in front of the chair (the chair may here be the throne of the palace).
A bas relief in the Louvre. In this case the bird-apkallū tends to a sacred tree. Considering the mullilu in his right hand and the banduddu in his left, (tree cone and water bucket), he is engaged in a water ritual intended to sanctify the sacred tree. This is a common motif in Sumerian and Neo-Assyrian idols.
This bas relief is in the Louvre. Primary publication Nimrud NW Palace I-24 = RIMA 2.0.101.023, ex. 189 (f) Collection Nimrud, Iraq (a); British Museum, London, UK (b); Louvre Museum, Paris, France (c); Nimrud, Iraq (d); Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, USA (e); British Museum, London, UK; Louvre Museum, Paris, France Museum no. Nimrud fragment no. 42 (a); BM 098061 (b); AO 22198 (c); Nimrud fragment no.
43 and 45 (d); DIA 47.181 (e) (photo: DIA); AO 19849 Accession no. 1903-10-10, 0002 (b) Provenience Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) Period Neo-Assyrian (ca. 911-612 BC) We know that experts in medicine and incantations against disease demons could either designate themselves as apkallu, or place themselves as a descendant of an apkallu, in this case used as honorary title for an expert of highest rank. Tuskimoto, “,” in Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East, K.
Watanabe, ed., Heidelberg, 1999, pp. Also Finkel, “ Adad-apla-iddina,” 144f.) In the commentary to diagnostic omens that explains the word pirig that occurs in the names of the postdiluvian apkallus meaning “light,” it is also stated that ka.pirig means āšipu.” Helge Kvanvig, Brill, 2011, pp. “In this chapter I shall be concerned with wise characters from myth and legend. I would not wish to pretend that the dividing line between myth, legend and history can be established with any certainty, and it may be that some of the characters who appear here have been unfairly removed from the historical record. On the other hand, some cases do appear to be clear cut. In the end, if some characters find themselves in the wrong places, no harm is done as everyone who needs to appear somewhere will appear somewhere. Where it is appropriate and available, I have used the distinction between antediluvian and postdiluvian to mark the boundary between legend and history.
Iconography of Deities and Demons (IDD). Apkallu (continued). Type 3 Bird-of-Prey-Headed Apkallu, Problematic Identifications.
“The three types are identified from ritual texts and labels on figurines, but because the evidence is uncommon and sometimes ambiguous there are uncertainties. Change over time may also account for some difficulties. Some overlap in the iconography with Tiamat’s composite monsters from the theme of the is possible, as mentioned above. Single objects such as bucket or sprig may be held by figures who do not share other characteristics with definite sages.
(1992: 75) identifies Apkallus in scenes in which figures resembling types 1 and 3 carry weapons and attack animals and monsters. Lahmu, “Hairy,” is a protective and beneficent deity, a first-born son of Apsu and Tiamat. He and his sister Laḫamu are the parents of Anshar and Kishar, the sky father and earth mother, who birthed the gods of the Mesopotamian Pantheon. Laḫmu is depicted as a bearded man with a red sash–usually with three strands–and four to six curls on his head. He is often associated with the Kusarikku or “Bull-Man.” In Sumerian times Laḫmu may have meant “the muddy one”.
Lahmu guarded the gates of the Abzu temple of Enki at Eridu. He and his sister Laḫamu are primordial deities in the Babylonian Epic of Creation-–Enuma Elis. Amulet with a figure of Lamashtu, Mesopotamia, around 800 BC. A demonic divinity who preys on mothers and children. This protective image of Lamashtu, a fearsome female divinity of the underworld, was intended to keep evil at bay. Although she is usually described in modern works as a demon, the writing of her name in cuneiform suggests that in Babylonia and Assyria she was regarded as a kind of goddess. Unlike the majority of demons, who acted only on the commands of the gods, Lamashtu practised evil apparently for its own sake and on her own initiative.
There is a cuneiform incantation on the reverse side of this amulet to frighten her away. Lamashtu’s principal victims were unborn and new-born babies. Slipping into the house of a pregnant woman, she tries to touch the woman’s stomach seven times to kill the unborn baby, or she kidnaps the child. Magical measures against Lamashtu included wearing a bronze head of Pazuzu. Some plaques show a bedridden man rather than a pregnant woman, so in some contexts Lamashtu is considered a bringer of disease. Lamashtu is described in texts as having the head of a lion, the teeth of a donkey, naked breasts, a hairy body, stained hands, long fingers, long finger nails, and the talons of a bird.
Plaques also show her suckling a piglet and a whelp while she holds snakes in her hands, as in this case. She stands on her sacred animal, the donkey, which is sometimes shown in a boat, riding through the underworld. Saggs, Babylonians (London, The British Museum Press, 1995) J. Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia (London, The British Museum Press, 1992) This wingless type is thought by WIGGERMANN (1992: 74f) to be sages before the flood, an identification based on a possible but unfounded connection with the Sumerian names of those early sages. Their human appearance might be more appropriate for mortal sages who lived after the flood, or they may not be sages at all. Several possible identifications on West Semitic seals cannot be regarded as certain; ORNAN 1993: 60, figs.
11-12 show a kneeling atlantid figure not generally considered to be an Apkallu, and figs. 15, 17, and 18 are dubious because the seal cutting is so skimpy.
The number of wings shown may sometimes be misleading; perspective or spacing may reduce them, and some scholars think a pair of wings shown in side profile represent four. When a single wing is shown (71., 76. ) a pair can be presumed. Apkallu type 3, illustration 76, Stephanie Dalley, IDD. Stephanie Dalley cites illustration 76 as an exemplar “with a long, high crest with two ringlets falling to the shoulder,” which it indeed does portray.
She also writes, “For jewelry the figure may wear a necklace with seven strands (76.), which may also only be single-stranded with pendants. With my apologies to the professor, I detect no necklace or pendants on this illustration. This illustration does depict a type 3 Nisroc apkallu in the apparent act of uttering a cry, with a visible tongue, though Professor Dalley does not cite it as an example of that. Finally, she asserts the “so-called “fish-tail fringe” dangling from the kilt (76.) is not a fish part, and so does not indicate that the type is a fish composite.” With this statement, I am in utter agreement. This particular illustration, its find site unknown to me, is atypical in other respects. The portrayal of the avian head is perhaps unique, and at variance with the typical versions from the palace walls of Ashurnasirpal II, for example. The lone curl at the top of the head is unique, I think, as are the curls which Professor Dalley identified above.
In no other example does a nisroc-bird apkallu stand in front of a sacred tree, occluding it from view. The armlet on this apkallu is unusual, as well, with a design that I have not seen elsewhere.
In all other respects, this depiction of a type 3 bird-headed apkallu is typical, with mullilu cone and banduddu bucket in their customary places. Similarly, the number of horns shown on crowns of divinity may have been reduced due to considerations of space; they do not appear to distinguish different ranks of sage. Color may have been used to differentiate between types and eliminate ambiguities, but is not preserved except as occasional traces of paint on foundation figurines. On Urartian bronzes and on other media, e.g., 1991: 144 and 309, a pair of winged, human-headed lions with cone and bucket on each side of a tree of life has a context and attributes identical to that of the Apkallus, but cannot be identified as such without textual support. Figure 2.2 (from Nakamura).
Apotropaic figures with associated features. Drawing after Richards in Black and Green (1992:65). The identification of the lahmu figure is controversial; it names both a cosmogonic deity and one of Tiamat’s creatures (Wiggermann 1992:155–156), and may also represent an apkallu sage (Ellis 1995:165; Russell 1991:184, fn. In register 2, ugallu, kusarikku and kulullu are portrayed. The scorpion-man ( Girtablullu), the Kusarikku-bison, and the Ugallu-demon, who all fight in the army of Tiamat in the Epic of Creation, were attributed to the category of Apkallu by ORNAN (1993: 56) on a misunderstanding of GREEN (1984: 83).
The confusion may have validity in some contexts, since sages are said to guard the Tablet of Destinies for Nabu, a modification of a theme from the Epic of Creation. Possible links are mentioned under individual phenotypes above. Apkallu type 2, illustration 34, Stephanie Dalley, IDD. As noted by Stephanie Dalley, the fish-cloak of the puradu-fish variant of the apkallu is worn over the naked figure or a full-length flounced robe. In this depiction the apkallu cloak, as Dalley describes it, ends just below the waist. Fishtails are apparent at the knees, and the banduddu bucket appears in its usual place, the left hand. He is always bearded and never has wings.
The fish-cloak is either worn over the naked body (33.–34., 42., 47–48), the typical garb of the Apkallus (40, 44.), or a full-length flounced robe (52., 55.). Apkallu type 2, illustration 42, Stephanie Dalley, IDD. In this depiction the type 2 apkallu is the puradu-fish variant, naked, with banduddu bucket in the left hand and an indistinct object in the right.
The apkallu’s horned headdress has three horns, and he appears beneath the eight-pointed star typically associated with Ištar. Portrayed in an obviously supporting role, the apkallu stands behind a deity standing upon a bull, facing another divinity, probably Ištar owing to her weaponry and stance atop what appears to be a winged lion. Atypically, the inverted crescent of the Moon god Sin appears above Ištar. Both deities hold rings in their hands and appear to hold leashes controlling their mounts. They face a central sacred tree, in a typical stylization, beneath a winged conveyance.
Apkallu type 2, illustration 52, Stephanie Dalley, IDD. The puradu-fish variant apkallu in this illustration wears a full-length fish cloak.
This apkallu appears to be beardless, despite Dalley’s assertion that type 2 apkallu are never portrayed without beards, and he raises his right hand in the classic gesture of exorcism, though no cone is apparent. The banduddu bucket is in his left hand. An indistinct but bearded figure faces the apkallu from the right, with an irregular depiction of the sacred tree in the center. While the water flowing down into jugs from the winged conveyance at the top is seen in other examples, the sacred tree in this illustration is perhaps unique in design, depicting leaves. It is possible that this plant is not a sacred tree at all. Or it could be a sacred tree, but portrayed differently. On some Late Bronze Age items the fish-cloak is full-length (52.) or ends just below the waist (34.
). The latter type is also attested on some 9th/8th cent. Depictions (48, 55.; but not 64), and reaches almost to the ground on representations of the 8th/7th cent. (35, 38, 45–46, 49–51, 53–54, 58–62.). Apkallu type 2, illustration 62, Stephanie Dalley, IDD.
Dalley notes the forked beard on this paradu-fish apkallu. In all other respects, this apkallu is representative of the clay figurines which were buried in foundation boxes for apotropaic purposes. Indeed, it has to be wondered whether Dalley is astray when she describes the fish details as a cloak.
Depictions like this one are clearly of a composite figure. The apkallu does not appear to be wearing a garment, as it is often portrayed elsewhere.
Finally, Dalley cites this illustration as an example which includes horns, or a horned headdress. I see no horns in this case. The beard is normally of the typical Assyrian shape, but is forked on 57 – 58, and 62.
The fish-cloak Apkallu rarely has two daggers tucked in at his waist (55. ). A fish-apkallu drawn by A.H. Layard from a stone relief, one of a pair flanking a doorway in the Temple of Ninurta at Kalhu. This example is identical to illustration 55 in Dalley’s article on the apkallu, which she cites for the dual daggers in his waistband. British Museum.
Reproduced in Schlomo Izre’el, Adapa and the South Wind: Language Has the Power of Life and Death, Eisenbrauns, 2001. Occasionally the fish-cloak Apkallu wears a horned crown with a single pair of horns, shown between his brow and the fish-head, indicating the status of a minor divinity (56, 59, 62.). Apkallu type 44.
Stephanie Dalley, IDD. A puradu-fish apkallu appears to the left of the sacred tree, with two fish-men, apparently a merman and a mermaid, on the right. Wiggermann identified these composite mermen and mermaids as kullulu from textual sources. The fish-cloak Apkallu is found with the goat-fish, symbol of Ea (47–48, 50.); appears together with deities (40, 42., 45–46, 48); next to a sacred tree (44. ), which is often surmounted by a winged disc (38, 42.–43, 49, 52.); with a winged disc alone supported by a kneeling figure (33.–34.); or with a priest (63 ). Apkallu type 2, illustration 41, Stephanie Dalley, IDD.
Stephanie Dalley observes that the apkallu in this illustration “may function as a filling motif in a scene with an offerings table and divine symbols.” Indeed the apkallu is not the focus of this illustration at all, which appears to portray a king (or a divinity?) receiving the blessings of a beardless priest with what appears to be a whisk in his raised left hand. The king, or divinity, wears a horned cap with three tusks at the apex. This illustration is significant for its repetitive eight-rayed stars, evocative of Ištar. The seven heavenly entities of Mesopotamian cosmogony are portrayed as small circles. The god in the winged conveyance is generally considered a reference to Aššur or Marduk, though he displays the sun disc of Shamash. The inverted crescent of the Moon god Sin, and the wedge mounted upon a stand, which I believe represents Nabu, complete the upper register.
On this wedge symbol, Wiggermann, The Mesopotamian Pandemonium, 2011, is mute. He may function as a filling motif (sic) in a scene with an offerings table and divine symbols (41.), and in a contest scene in which a hero dominates winged scorpion men, a composite being which fights in Tiamat’s army in the Epic of Creation (50.). Apkallu type 2, illustration 50, Stephanie Dalley, IDD. Another example of puradu-fish apkallu as a filling motif in Dalley’s reference to a “contest scene in which a hero dominates winged scorpion men,” composite beings which fought “in Tiamat’s army in the Epic of Creation.” Scorpion men are actually attested often in Mesopotamian art. Wiggermann and Green call this composite being “Scorpion-tailed bird-man.” He has a human upper torso, an avian body, and a scorpion tail. In this drawing from Dalley’s article on the Apkallu, puradu-fish apkallu can be seen beneath them.
Anthony Green, “Mischwesen. B,” Reallexikon der Assyriologie, 1994, pp. Three exceptional pieces are described here in more detail. The fish-cloak Apkallu is depicted on Lamashtu-amulets as a mirror-image pair standing at a sick man’s bed (35). This water basin carved from a solid block of basalt was found in Nineveh near the temple of Ishtar.
It is decorated with reliefs of apkallu – puradu-fish antediluvian sages. (Pergamon Museum, Berlin) This example possibly represents the sages as priests of Ea in Eridu in the Babylonian tradition. These contexts related to water are not found on Assyrian palace sculpture or ivory carving, and may belong to a Babylonian rather than an Assyrian tradition.
No Akkadian word for this type has been identified. In 1998: pls.
360- 361 it is misleadingly described as being the god Dagon.” Stephanie Dalley, “,” Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East ( IDD), Swiss National Science Foundation, University of Zurich, 2011 ( updated 2011 and updated 2007), p.