Babylonians

BABYLONIANS. - Peoples who, from the dawn of history, inhabited the "land between the two rivers" (Mesopotamia), the Tigris and Euphrates, which stretches from present-day Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, called Babylonia (v.) after the city (Babel) that from 1830 B.C. was its capital.

In the 4th millennium B.C., we find Sumerians in the south and Akkadians in the north. The origin of the Sumerians, who were not Semites, is problematic. The Akkadians were Semites; they took their name from Akkad, capital of their first empire. These, strengthened by the continuous arrival of kindred tribes, gradually gained the upper hand, occupying the whole country. In ancient times the city almost bordering on the shore of the sea was Eridu, already close to the marshes of the sea. The upper Mesopotamian plain, with its abundant artificial canals, created by the wisdom of its rulers, was a rich and fertile land, a little Egypt.

I. HISTORY.

1. Sumerians-Akkadians

The history of the B., which extends down to the advent of Cyrus (538 B.C.), embraces two great periods: the Sumerian, from the beginnings to 1830, and the Akkadian or Babylonian.

In the first, the Sumerians, bearers of a high civilization, of a culture that influenced the ancient East for centuries, and of writing (the cuneiform script) that remained in use almost until our era, held supremacy. There were many small city-states, often at war with one another, among them: Ur (v.), birthplace of Abraham (Gen. 15:17); Lagash (Telloh); Kish (el-Ohejmir); Umma (Gōbah); Adab (Bismajjah); Isin; Mari; Uruk (Warka); the Erech of Gen. 10:10), Larsa (Senkereh), the Ellasar of Gen. 10:10). Only at intervals did one of them dominate the whole country; thus Lagash with the kings Entemena and Urukagina (beginning of the 3rd millennium); Umma, with Lugalzaggisi (second half of the 3rd millennium). Akkad, founded by Sargon (Šarru-kin) I, whose empire reached the Mediterranean, is the capital of the first Semitic empire: the Akkadian (2360-2180). The 3rd dynasty of Ur (2067-1960), after the occupation of the Gutians, was the last manifestation of Sumerian power.

2. The 1st Babylonian dynasty

The 2nd period begins with the advent (1830) of the 1st Babylonian dynasty (the Amorite), which takes its name from Babel, chosen as capital (1830-1531). The Akkadian Semites had prepared the ground for the advent of these rulers of Semitic race.

bel. Samsuditana (ca. 1582-50), the last king of this first Babylonian dynasty, saw his country laid waste by an invasion of Hittites coming from Cappadocia and Anatolia, who, however, did not remain long in the Mesopotamian region. Already under Hammurapi's immediate successor, Samsuluna, a new dynasty of the "Sea Land" (the southeastern part of Babylonia) arose. An insignificant dynasty that represents a rebellion of mixed elements, Sumerian and Akkadian, against the Semitic Babylonian victory.

3. Kassite Dynasty (ca. 1550-1150 B.C.) - The Hittite invasion, although short-lived, caused a serious weakening of Babylonia. It was moreover accompanied by several other migrations of peoples, among them that of the Kassites who, having established themselves in Babel as rulers, reigned there for over 4 centuries.

The Kassites, who are supposed to have been Aryans, related to the Mitanni and Hittites, inhabited, at the beginning of the 3rd millennium, the shores of the Caspian Sea (a name derived from Kassu, since p, in the Caucasian languages, is the plural ending). The Kassite era is poor in documents. The civilization of the invaders was inferior to that of the conquered inhabitants; it knew how to adapt itself to the culture and customs of the country.

From the religious point of view, the newcomers vied with the local element in honoring the divinity of the subject people. Under these Kassite kings, the kudurru (boundary stones) are especially interesting, on which a great many emblems of the divinity are found depicted (v. MAŞŞENHÂH).

Politically, the new dynasts, from Gandaš, the conqueror of Babel, down to Ellil-nâdin-ahhê (a Semitic name), the last ruler known to us, contented themselves with maintaining their independence within their small state. By defeating the king of the neighboring "Sea Land" near the Persian Gulf, they held under their dominion the entire Mesopotamian country as far as the Lower Zab.

4. The Assyrians-B. (between 1149 and 625 B.C.). - The policy of the two cities (Babylon and Assur) is so intertwined that it becomes necessary to recount their history simultaneously. In it, periods of mutual war alternate with periods of peace and friendly relations.

In 1149 a new dynasty seized power in Babylon and counted eleven kings over a span of 131 and a half years, from 1170 to 1039 B.C. The founder of the dynasty can, from a fragment of a kudurru in the Yale collection, be identified with Marduk-šâpik-zêri. The third king of this dynasty is Nebuchadnezzar (Nabû-kudur-uşur) I, who freed Babylonia from the ravages of the Elamite invasion. In a kudurru of this king, which is a charter of privileges for Ritti-Marduk (the chariot driver), mention is made of a campaign of this king in Elam "to avenge" Akkad, devastated by the previous Elamite incursions. The Babylonian troops gathered at Der, a country near the Elamite frontier, in summer and suffered from the heat; but Ritti-Marduk instilled courage into the troops, who reached the Eulaeus, where they defeated the confederate Elamite troops. It seems that the victor was clement toward the vanquished, since another kudurru informs us that some Elamites took refuge in Babylon, bringing with them the statue of their god Ria, under the protection of Nebuchadnezzar I, which they requested. This monarch is said to be the conqueror of the country of the Lulubi (south of Lake Van) and of Amurru.

At Assur (v.) the series of kings is complete, although the particulars available refer only to Aššur-riš-iši I (1130-1113), a contemporary of Nebuchadnezzar I. The latter is also called the conqueror of Ahlâmu, of Lulubu and of the Kuti. Perhaps he met the Babylonian army on the occasion of the conquest of the Lulubi, inflicting or suffering some affront from it. Indeed, Nebuchadnezzar I of Babylon reacted to the provocation offered him by the Assyrian king who had penetrated into Babylonian territory, pursued him and besieged him in the fortress of Zanku; but Aššur-riš-iši forced him to raise the siege. Nebuchadnezzar returned to the attack, and suffered a new defeat, losing the entrenched camp of Karastu and the commander-in-chief of the army, who was taken prisoner and led into Assyria.

The policy of conquest and war of King Aššur-riš-iši took on considerable proportions with his son and successor Tiglath-Pileser I (1112-1074 B.C.), who was the greatest conqueror of the ancient Assyrian empire. The inscription on a cylinder, which narrates his campaigns and his victories, comprises eight columns of over a hundred lines each. A ferocious and cruel victor, he traversed, sowing destruction and death, almost the entire country between the Tigris and Lake Urmia and Armenia, indicated under the name of Nairi, penetrating also toward the northwest as far as Subartu and Commagene and into the country of the Muski. In a subsequent campaign he ventured into the territory of the Hatti in Cappadocia on the border of the country of the Moschi. Melitene and the surrounding region had to submit to the Assyrian yoke; to the west, Carchemish and the Aramean tribes were devastated and subjugated. All these conquests took place in the first five years of his reign. His expeditions against the Arameans in northern Syria took place toward the last years of his reign, in which he also undertook an expedition against Elam, which he devastated.

The relations between Babylonia and Assur, which in the early years of Tiglath-Pileser's reign must have been peaceful and friendly, were subsequently disturbed. Perhaps a first animosity was caused by the king of Babylon when he removed from the city of Ekallâte, in Assyrian territory, the statues of the gods Adad and Šala. And perhaps to avenge this injury Tiglath-Pileser invaded Babylonia, succeeding in seizing the city of Babel itself, together with others, among them Dür-Kurigalzu, Sippar, Opis.

Aššur-bēl-kala, nephew and successor of Tiglath-Pileser, was bound in friendship with Marduk-šāpik-zēr-mati, king of Babylon: but when the latter was deposed by Adad-aplu-iddina, an Aramean, son of Itti-Marduk-balātu, he made an alliance with the usurper and married his daughter.

After the reign of Aššur-bēl-kala, the history of Assyria is almost unknown to us for a period of about 130 years; only from later inscriptions is it known that under the reign of Aššur-rābi II (1010-970) Assyria lost the Aramean provinces along the course of the Euphrates, already conquered by Tiglath-Pileser, and that a later king, Shalmaneser III (858-824), would have recovered them. Another king, Aššur-riš-iši II, placed his own statue in the mountains of northern Assyria, in the vicinity of Mount Amanus, which shows that he continued the Mediterranean expeditions of Tiglath-Pileser I.

Around 950 Tiglath-Pileser II is on the throne of Assyria; he was succeeded by Aššur-dān II his son and Adad-nirāri II his nephew. During this period Babylonia is in decline: the nomads of the desert, the Sutū, make incursions into the Babylonian cities, plunder them and devastate them. On the throne of Babylon ephemeral dynasties follow one another, until with the advent of the eighth dynasty (dynasty H), around 1000, a more stable government begins. Babylonia and Assyria are again in conflict. Adad-nirāri II inflicts a grave defeat on Šamaš-mudammiq, fourth and fifth king of the new dynasty, and wins a second victory over Nabū-šum-ukān I, the killer and successor of Šamaš-mudammiq, conquering several Babylonian cities. Then friendly relations were established between the two countries and each of the two kings married the other's daughter.

In the 9th century there is a rebirth of the Assyrian kingdom with the advent of Tukulti-ninurta II (888-884 B.C.). He conquers as far as Lake Urmia, while in the northwest he penetrates as far as Commagene. His son Ashurnasirpal III (885-860) completes these military successes, penetrating even deeper into the regions of Lakes Van and Urmia, defeating and momentarily subjugating the Kirhi, the Kirruri, the Nummi, who occupy the regions situated between the two lakes to the west and north. These regions, called the "Land of Nairi," mountainous, of difficult access, a safe refuge from the continuous waves of hordes tending to penetrate into the south, the new Assyrian empire never managed to subjugate completely.

Ashurnasirpal with his campaigns had to oppose the movements of marauders coming from the desert toward the south and the west of the Euphrates. The Bedouin Sutū, Aramean nomads, coming from the deserts of Arabia, were repelled and dispersed; several small cities situated along the tributary Chabur were forced to recognize the supremacy of Assur, whose armies reoccupied in the northwest the lands of the Hittites and the Moschi.

But Babylon endured this Assyrian expansion with ill will, especially because of the interruption of the trade routes along the Euphrates; its king Nabū-apal-iddin joined with the king of Suhi, a small state situated along the Euphrates at the mouth of the Chabur. But over the united forces Ashurnasirpal prevailed, who took prisoner the brother of the Babylonian king together with the commander of his army. After this battle friendly relations followed between the two countries, which continued until the reign of Shalmaneser III.

The enormous booty, the heavy tributes imposed on the conquered peoples, while ensuring the prosperity of the conquerors, diminished the power of resistance of the countries subject to Assyrian hegemony. The ferocious manner of waging war established by Ashurnasirpal was imitated by his successors; the conquered cities are plundered, destroyed and set on fire; the peoples who resist are put to the sword; on the walls of the conquered cities are displayed the severed heads or the skins of enemies flayed alive. But this cruelty and this oppressive Assyrian yoke succeed in nothing other than alienating the spirit of the populations momentarily enslaved, and favor rebellions that the Assyrian governors, placed by the king in the conquered regions, are incapable of controlling.

Shalmaneser III (858-824) personally directed his military campaigns for an uninterrupted period of 26 years; he pushed his conquests as far as the west of Lake Urmia and also conquered Parsua and Namri. In Armenia (Urartu), to the north of Lake Van, where a powerful kingdom had arisen, he warred against the kings Arimi and Sarduri I. In Cilicia he extended his campaigns as far as Tarsus and in the north as far as the land of Tabal and to Musri (west of Melitene), succeeding everywhere victorious. In Babylonia, where two brothers disputed the power, he, called to the aid of one of the two, defeated his opponent; but his son, Aššur-dān-apla, conspired against him. Šamši-adad V (823-810) managed to rid himself of his brother and secured the right to the throne. He spent the 12 years of his reign consolidating the conquests of his father. For this purpose he traversed almost the same countries. He also fought and defeated the king of Babylon Marduk-balātu-iqbi, who had gathered mercenary troops from Elam, from Urartu (Chaldea) and from other districts. The reign of Adad-nirāri III (809-782), son of Sammuramat (the Semiramis of Greek legend), was even more splendid. He subjugates a part of Babylonia, reconquers the land of Nairi: in Media he reaches as far as the "great sea of the rising of the sun" (the Caspian Sea): he traverses victorious the lands of Hatti, Amurru, Tyre, Sidon; he subjects to tribute the "land of Omri" (Palestine) as far as the "great sea of the setting of the sun" (the Mediterranean); Damascus is besieged and put to the sack; a considerable booty of gold, silver, copper, iron, fabrics, ivory objects, is transported to Assyria. However in the north and northwest several provinces are torn from him by a kingdom newly arisen there. Menuas, king of Urartu (Armenia), had taken from his southern neighbors the provinces of Melitene and the land of Dajaini.

Under the reign of the successors of Adad-nirāri the power of Urartu is consolidated at the expense of Assyria, since Argistis and Sarduris II (760-730) extend their dominion over the whole land of Nairi, north of the Tigris, from Lake Urmia as far as Melitene. For the treatment of the subsequent history of Assyria, v. THEGLATHPHALASAR III (745-727), SALMANASSAR V (726-722) son of Theglathphalasar III; SARGON (722-705), SENNACHERIB (704-681), ASSURBANIPAL (669-626).

5. Neo-Babylonian empire

Following the victories obtained, the Medes occupied Assyria, and Nabopolassar (625-605) was absolute master of Mesopotamia. Babylon, finally free from Assyrian oppression, rises again to new life and great splendor.

To oppose the advances of the Egyptian army, Nabopolassar sent an army under the command of his son Nebuchadnezzar. The decisive battle between Egypt and Babylon was fought at Carchemish (604) and marked the defeat of the pharaoh.

After the death of his father, Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561) ascended the throne of Babylon. One of his first expeditions was directed against Jerusalem, which he conquered and destroyed in 586. The population was deported to Babylon together with King Zedekiah, who was blinded. Jerusalem was destroyed and all the precious objects, including the sacred vessels of the temple, were carried off to Babylon as spoils of war. In 568 Nebuchadnezzar began another war against Egypt; but its outcome is not known. The long reign of this king is rightly famous also for the magnificent constructions that enriched Babylon with splendid walls, palaces, temples and gardens. Under him the canals diverting the Tigris were restored, to the point of joining this river with the Euphrates. His successors were rather weak kings; Amēl-Marduk (Evil-Merodach of 2 Kings 25:27 ff.; Jer. 52:31), Neriglissar (Nergal-šar-uṣur) and Labāši-Marduk reigned for a few years, from 561 to 556. In 555 B.C. the priestly party succeeded in placing on the throne Nabonidus, famous as a rebuilder of temples, but without military abilities.

Meanwhile the star of Cyrus (v.) was rising, king of the Persians, who, after defeating Astyages, son of Cyaxares, founding the great Medo-Persian empire (549), then Croesus king of Lydia (545), in 538 marched against Babylon.

The defense of the city and of the region was entrusted to Bēl-šar-ušur (the Balthassar of the Vulgate), son of Nabonidus. But the Babylonian troops were defeated in a battle near Opis, and shortly afterward Babylon also fell, into which Cyrus made his triumphal entry. Babylon with all its territory was united to the Persian empire, and Cyrus proclaimed himself king of Babylon. Thus all of anterior Asia was united under the scepter of a single monarch of Aryan origin, and with the appearance of the Achaemenid dynasty (v.) the history of the ancient Assyro-Babylonian peoples comes to an end.

II. BABYLONIAN-ASSYRIAN LITERATURE AND THE BIBLE

A vast recent literature maintains that the Bible, especially the Pentateuch, derives from Assyrian-Babylonian sources.

The earlier Babylonian sources from which the author of the Tōrāh would have drawn would be: 1) the Enūma elīš (v.), that is, the poem of creation (cf. H. Gressmann, A. O. Texte, II, pp. 108-38; 2) The account of the flood (v.), on which cf. A. Deimel in Orientalia, 20 [1926], pp. 69-79; 3) The Catalogues of the legendary Babylonian kings (cf. A. Deimel in Orientalia, 17 [1925], pp. 33-47); 4) The legislation of the Sumerian code and above all that of the code of Hammurapi (v.), which has many articles resembling those of the author of the Pentateuch (translated and published by P. Scheil, IV Délégation en Perse, Paris 1904).

Anyone who compares even superficially the first three Babylonian sources with the data of the Pentateuch observes some distant similarity of form, combined with a great diversity of substance.

Referring to Enūma elīš (v.) and to Gilgameš (v.), we limit ourselves to noting the legendary character of the ten primitive Babylonian kings, who, according to Berosus, reigned 430,000 years; according to two cuneiform documents found in this century (Wald-Blundell edit. by St. Langdon: Historical Inscriptions..., Oxford 1923) they reigned either 241,200 years (1st doc.) or 456,000 years (2nd doc.). Every comparison between these primitive Mesopotamian kings and the Patriarchs (v.) of Gen. 5 therefore lacks any basis.

In literature one cannot deny some similarity between the Babylonian and the biblical. And it is natural. The Assyrian-Babylonian and the Hebrew are both Semitic peoples. The prophet, even when inspired, if he wished to have more fame and more correspondence, he had to use the already known patterns. Therefore both in the hymns and in the lamentations one finds a composition with an almost identical pattern.

If the outward form of the composition can be considered very similar, the content is very different. First of all, in the Babylonian hymns and lamentations polytheism is evident, and that moral elevation which the Hebrew Psalter attains is lacking.

Assyro-Babylonian history offers some very interesting synchronisms for the history of the kings of Samaria and of Judea; by citing their names and fixing their dates, it comes to corroborate the biblical account (v. ASSIRI).

One could suppose that the two Semitic branches, Babylonian-Assyrian and Hebrew, which had a common mother tongue, also had, in remote times, a commonality of religious and moral ideas. The Hebrew branch, guided by Jahweh and by the Patriarchs, kept the primitive morality and religion pure from corruption.

The Babylonian-Assyrian branch, in contact with other polytheistic peoples and not sustained by the call of spiritual guides, and therefore having deviated in some point both religious and moral, nevertheless preserved, thanks to that common origin, a religious and moral idea not devoid of a certain nobility.

Babyloniens, Assyriens und Aegyptens, Stuttgart 1925; A. Deimel, Die bibl. Paradieserzählung und ihre babylon. Parallelen, in Orientalia, 19 (1925), pp. 90-100; id., Der bibl. Sintflutbericht und die Keilinschriften, ibid., 20 (1926), pp. 69-79; id., Enāma eliš und Hexaëmeron, Rome 1934; F. Hommel, Historia de antiguo Oriente (Spanish trans.), Barcelona 1927-28; E. Ebeling, Geschichte des alten Morgenlandes (Sammlung Gischen), Berlin 1929; G. Castellino, Le lamentazioni individuali e gli inni in Babilonia e in Israele, Turin 1940; A. Bea, Die Texte von Mari und das A. T., in Biblica, 21 (1940), pp. 188-90; A. Heidel, The Babylonian Genesis, the Story of the Creation, Chicago 1942; A. Vincent, L'aube de la civilisation: Les Sumériens, in La Revue, Paris 1948.

Giustino Boson

III. RELIGION

The principal gods of the Sumerians, who are found again in the Babylonian pantheon, are Anu, god of the sky, king of the gods; Enlil, patron of Nippur, god of the earth; Enki, patron of Eridu, god of the waters, called Ea by the Semites; Enzu, god of the moon, patron of Urim, later called Uru by the Babylonians; Udu or Babbar, god of the sun, patron of Larsa; Ninni, goddess of the planet Venus, identified by the Semites with Ishtar, lady of Uruk; Dumuzi-abzu "son of the apsū," that is, of the abyss, that is, of Enki. From Dumuzi the Babylonians made Tammuz.

1. The gods

According to the Babylonians and Assyrians, the dense hosts of divinities they worshipped formed a complex of various divine families, at the head of which stands a pair of husband and wife, who have at their service a great number of ministers. The gods are the personification in human form either of the various forces of nature, such as water, fire, or of cosmic beings, such as the sky, the moon, the stars, or of moral concepts, such as justice and law. Already in origin the divine figures of the Babylonians and Assyrians had in most cases an astral character, but with the passage of time they became ever more astralized, and in the Neo-Babylonian or Chaldean period astralization reached its culminating point. Then all the more prominent gods had either a heavenly body or a star or a constellation as their manifestation, and alongside the ancient planetary gods stellar divinities of the same character were also worshipped.

The Babylonians and Assyrians distinguished among their gods first of all certain triads, whose worship exercised a certain influence on religious ceremonies. The cosmic triad was composed of Anu, god of the sky, of Enlil, god of the earth, and of Ea, god of the water; it was therefore identical with that of the Sumerians. The astral triad consisted of Sin, the god of the moon, Shamash, the god of the sun, and Ishtar; the divinity of the planet Venus, the goddess of war, especially among the Assyrians, and of love and pleasures. In the ceremonies of the bāri, who was the diviner priest, another triad had a great part, that formed of Shamash, Adad, god of rain, lightning and storm, and Marduk. All three of these divinities, and especially the first two, made the future known to men through lightning and rains. The cultic or sacrificial triad comprised Ea, Shamash and Marduk.

The national god of Babylonia was Marduk (v.), whereas that of the Assyrians was Ashur (v.).

The god of rain, storm and lightning, Adad, was worshipped more in Assyria than in Babylonia, identified with Amurru, national god of the West. Of Adad it was said that he proclaimed his will in lightning and thunder. In the thunder was heard the bellowing of the god's bull. Adad brings the hurricane, the evil wind, the storm, the earthquake, the famine. But he is also the god of beneficent rain, he who makes the crops grow, causes the flood that brings silt to the plain.

Nabu, son of Marduk, was much venerated in Babylonia, but in the last centuries of Assyria he acquired great fame in this country as well. The name Nabu is of Semitic origin and means the announcer, the prophet. He had been the local god of the city of Borsippa to the south of the city of Babel. He was the god of the arts and crafts, of writing, of wisdom, the minister of the gods and their secretary, and he carried the tablets of the destiny of the gods.

The god of hell and death, of war and of plagues was Nergal, husband of Ereshkigal, lady of the underworld, an evil god, but at the same time he also had some traits of a good god. In him was seen a great warrior, a destroying god, who has in his following the innumerable host of foul and horrible demons, true executioners who punish sinful and rebellious men with diseases and other misfortunes and finally with death. It is Nergal who fills hell with the dead. In Babylonia he was worshipped especially in the city of Kutu. His star was the planet Mars.

The god of the sun was called by the Semitic name Shamash, which means precisely sun. His character did not differ at all from that of the corresponding, or rather identical, god Udu or Babbar of the Sumerians. He was regarded as the god of justice and of laws, and it is precisely from him therefore that the Babylonian king Hammurabi received the laws of the country. Together with Adad he was a mantic god.

Of greater importance than he was the god of the moon, Sin, identical with the Sumerian god Nanna. The name Sin was fashioned by the Semites of the Valley of the Two Rivers from two Sumerian words that have the meaning of lord of wisdom.

Tammuz was the ancient Sumerian agrarian god Dumuzi, worshipped as much by the Babylonians as by the Assyrians, akin to the Egyptian Osiris, to the Adonis of the Western Semites, to the Phrygian Attis and still to other similar divine figures. He was the god of cattle, of the births of animals, of vegetation, of shepherds. He was also a physician and a healer. Tammuz died every year, when at the beginning of winter the vegetation disappeared, and rose again in spring, with the rebirth of nature, brought back to earth from the arallā (v.) by the work of his mother or of his wife or of his sister.

An ancient chthonic god was Dagan, who was also a god of vegetation. The ancient Mesopotamians had certain divinities of fire and light, Nusku, Gibil, Ishum. The seven Pleiades were called simply the Seven.

The goddess par excellence of Babylonia and Assyria was Ishtar (v.). Ishtar was almost identical with the Sumerian goddess Ninni or Innini, goddess as much of war as of love. Her position among the goddesses was so preeminent in Assyria that her name came to mean goddess in general. The Mesopotamians had still a great number of other feminine divinities, almost all goddesses of procreation or of medicine, but their figures were almost all fused with that of Ishtar.

The number of divinities was truly overflowing, but the most worshipped were the great gods, the ilāni rabūti, identical, one may say, with the seven planetary gods: the Moon, the Sun, Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Saturn. A distinction was made between the gods of the sky, the Igigi, and those of the earth, the Anunnaki.

In the hierarchy of the beings of the universe, below the gods stand the demons, for the most part evil, enemies of men, executioners of the gods, whom these unleash when they wish to punish some sinner or rebel. The demons inflict on men pains and misfortunes of every kind, penetrate into their bodies, nest there and are therefore the cause of the many diseases that afflict them. Finally they kill mortals, if these do not succeed in some way in appeasing them or in distracting their attention from the man attacked. Men seek to defend themselves from demons also by means of amulets, which are incantations written on tablets. Babylonian and Assyrian demonology, for the most part of Sumerian origin, was extremely developed. Everywhere the Mesopotamians saw demons and evil spirits. Their life was therefore a continuous struggle against the attacks of demons. If religion was the service rendered to the gods, they employed much other time in defense against demons.

2. Mythology

Around their principal divinities the Mesopotamians had elaborated a rich mythology. The Babylonians had a myth of Marduk, largely drawn from earlier myths of the Sumerians, to which a poet gave the form of an epic. Since the Enūma eliš (v.) - this is the title given to it by the Babylonians, a title that means "When on high" - sets out to explain how Marduk became the national god of the country, this epic should be called by us that of the "Exaltation of Marduk."

Among the other myths, particular mention should be made of that of Ištar's descent into the underworld and of the one that speaks of Nērgal and Ereškigal to explain how the god of death became the king of the underworld. Other mythical poems describe the myth of Etana and the eagle, with the hero's flight to heaven and his fall, the creation of man by various deities, the adventures of Adapa (v.), son of Ea, and how he failed to obtain eternal life, as well as other episodes in the lives of various gods and goddesses of Mesopotamia. The vast majority of these myths go back to Sumerian originals, some of which have come down to us.

Besides the Enūma eliš, the ancient Mesopotamians had an epic whose central figure was a very ancient king of the city of Uruk, Gilgameš (v.), alongside whom stands out the equally heroic figure of his close friend Enkidu. This mythical epic is a reworking of the Sumerian epic of Gilgameš and Enkidu.

3. Magic

Babylonian and Assyrian religious life is characterized by the large part given to conjuring, magical and incantatory practices, to the mantic art, that is, to the prediction of the future from a very great number of circumstances and through the oracles of the gods, and to the rites and ceremonies in the grandiose and numerous temples of the cities, officiated by dense ranks of priests and attendants.

Conjurations and incantations had as their patron the god of water, because water was the incantatory and magical element par excellence. The conjuring priest āšīpu (v.) therefore had as his protector the god Ea, whose rites and ceremonies he performed using water (mū ellū), consecrated precisely by this god. The most elaborate conjurations consisted of a description of the demon or of the disease or of the spell by which the sick person, or the sick person, had been struck; in a declaration that Marduk sees the demon or the spell, but, not knowing what means to adopt to drive it out or dissolve it, asks his father Ea for counsel and help; in a dialogue between the two deities; in a charge on the part of Ea to employ the conjuring means indicated. A good part of the conjurations is devoted to the exorcism of the sick person, beset by demons, to drive out which some morsel of pork or lamb is thrown to them. The Babylonian and Assyrian texts containing the description of conjurations and incantations are very great in number and belong to all ages. Akin to the conjurations were the magical acts, by means of which one usually sought to cause some person to die. For this purpose, by way of example, figurines of clay or other material were made, which were then destroyed in order to bring about, through their destruction, the destruction or death of the person represented. Or a magical formula was recited while stripping some plant or breaking a stick, always for the purpose of bringing about the death of the person symbolically represented, on the basis of the notion that the symbol is in reality the object symbolized.

4. Cult

Religious life manifested itself notably in the numerous religious ceremonies, performed for the most part in the temples. The rituals, several of which go back, in the texts preserved, to the last period of Babylonia, describe in great detail all the religious acts of which they consist, the movements with the statues of the deities, the conjurations that interrupted them from time to time, the hymns with the accompaniment of the sacred instruments, first of all drums and timpani, the processions with the participation of all the gods of the city, and numerous other incidents of a very diverse character. Every important god had annually a great celebration that could last even two weeks: the most renowned was that of Marduk at Babel, which was held in the first fortnight of the first month of the year, and during which the gods, under the presidency of the national god, fixed the destinies for the year that was about to begin.

Sacrifice was offered to the gods daily, and more abundantly on feast days. It was usually offered in the cells of the temple and, when it was a matter of astral deities, on the terrace of the building. Quite marked was the alimentary character of the sacrifice offered to the gods.

The priestly class was numerous and included many grades and kinds of priests and of temple attendants. The diviner priest, bārū, had the task of foretelling the future by means of the mantic science. He practiced in the first place hepatoscopy, that is, the inspection of the liver, notably of lambs, in order to establish from its forms, colors, and peculiarities what would happen. The b. and the Assyrian, before undertaking anything, questioned the god by means of divinatory practices. These practices of ancient Mesopotamia spread through literary writings among all the other nations of the nearby ancient East and penetrated also into the West. The conjurer and exorcist bore the name of maṣmaṣ or āšipu.

Another kind of priests was that of the kalū, whose main task was to sing, with the accompaniment of the sacred instruments, the conjurations and hymns to the gods during the ceremonies. The šangā had administrative functions rather than truly religious ones and occupied the supreme place in the priesthood.

According to the feeling of the ancient Mesopotamians, man does not die entirely, but enters a particular state, in which he preserves the body and passes underground, into the arallā, where however he leads a very wretched and drab life. The B. and Assyrians buried the bodies of the dead. They placed next to the dead those instruments and those objects of which he had made use during his life, and brought food and drink to the tomb, so that he might not run the risk of suffering hunger and thirst there. Sad therefore was the condition of one who had no relatives ready to provide him with provisions for the afterlife.

Giuseppe Furlani

Exorcisms that interrupted them from time to time, hymns with the accompaniment of sacred instruments, first of all drums and timpani, processions with the participation of all the gods of the city, and numerous other incidents of a very different character. Every important god had annually a great celebration that could last even two weeks: the most renowned was that of Marduk at Babel, which was held in the first fortnight of the first month of the year, and during which the gods, under the presidency of the national god, fixed the destinies for the year that was about to begin.

Sacrifice was offered to the gods daily, and more abundantly on feast days. It was usually offered in the cells of the temple and, when it was a question of astral divinities, on the terrace of the building. Quite marked was the alimentary character of the sacrifice offered to the gods.

The priestly class was numerous and included many grades and kinds of priests and of temple attendants. The diviner priest, bārū, had the task of foretelling the future by means of the mantic science. He practiced in the first place hepatoscopy, that is the inspection of the liver, especially of lambs, in order vided during his life, and they brought food and drink to the tomb, so that he might not run the risk of suffering hunger and thirst there. Sad therefore was the condition of one who had no relatives ready to furnish him with provisions for the afterlife.

Giuseppe Furlani

to visit Marduk; and on 10 Nisan (March-April) at the passage of Marduk and of the other gods, coming forth from the grandiose temple Esagila, to which was annexed the famous tower Etemenanki, visible from a very great distance, for the solemn procession that closed the feast of the new year. This "holy gate," always closed and walled up, inspired Ex. 44:3. The name from the quarter was extended to the whole city.

Sargon I (ca. 2340 B.C.) presents himself as the founder of Babel; but this is much more ancient; Sargon did nothing but rescue from oblivion this Sumerian village or small town, placed in a privileged geographical situation, on the route between the Persian Gulf, Syria and the Mediterranean. B. was for the first time a capital under Sar-kali-šarri (dynasty of Akkad); the importance of this religious city grew little by little under the III dynasty of Ur (ca. 2067-1960).

After the first Akkadian empire, with Sargon, Babel returned to being a capital with the first Amorite dynasty (1830-1530 B.C.); the Assyrians (v.) subdued it, Sennacherib destroyed it (690 B.C.), his successors rebuilt it. It reached its greatest splendor under Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 B.C.), who made it the greatest and most famous capital of antiquity, so much so as to be elevated to a symbol of prosperity and pomp.

From 538 onward, the beginning of Persian domination, the decline foretold by the prophets begins (Is. 13 and 21; Jer. 50 and 51), which was completed by the Parthians in 126 B.C.

For the captivity of the Hebrews in Babylon v. ESILIO DI BABILONIA.

From 1899 onward systematic excavations were conducted by R. Koldewey near the present-day village of Hillah; the ruins of the great metropolis extend mainly on the left bank of the Euphrates, around the present-day el-Merkez; further north the village of Babil has preserved the ancient name. - See Pl. XXXIX.

20 (1936), p. 201; F. Wetzel and F. H. Weissbach, Das Hauptheiligtum des Marduk in Babylon, Esagila und Etemenanki, Leipzig 1938; M. Rutten, Babylone, Paris 1948; gives the picture of the city, of the quarters, of the public buildings, of the temples and of the excavations.

Francesco Spadafora