History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 3 — 19 - Ch. 2: The Temples and the Gods of Chaldaea, pt. 6

Subordinate to these limitless and vague beings, the theologians placed their second triad, made up of gods of restricted power and invariable form.

They recognized in the unswerving regularity with which the moon waxed and waned, or with which the sun rose and set every day, a proof of their subjection to the control of a superior will, and they signalized this dependence by making them sons of one or other of the three great gods.

Sin was the offspring of Bel, Shamash of Sin, Kamman of Anu.

Sin was indebted for this primacy among the subordinate divinities to the preponderating influence which Uru exercised over Southern Chaldaea.

Mar, where Ramman was the chief deity, never emerged from its obscurity, and Larsam acquired supremacy only many centuries after its neighbour, and did not succeed in maintaining it for any length of time.

The god of the suzerain city necessarily took precedence of those of the vassal towns, and when once his superiority was admitted by the people, he was able to maintain his place in spite of all political revolutions.

Sin was called in Uru, “Uruki,” or “Nannar the glorious,” and his priests sometimes succeeded in identifying him with Anu.

“Lord, prince of the gods, who alone in heaven and earth is exalted,--father Nannar, lord of the hosts of heaven, prince of the gods,--father Nannar, lord, great Anu, prince of the gods,--father Nannar, lord, moon-god, prince of the gods,--father Nannar, lord of Uni, prince of the gods....

--Lord, thy deity fills the far-off heavens, like the vast sea, with reverential fear!

Master of the earth, thou who fixest there the boundaries [of the towns] and assignest to them their names,--father, begetter of gods and men, who establishest for them dwellings and institutest for them that which is good, who proclaimest royalty and bestowest the exalted sceptre on those whose destiny was determined from distant times,--chief, mighty, whose heart is great, god whom no one can name, whose limbs are steadfast, whose knees never bend, who preparest the paths of thy brothers the gods....

--In heaven, who is supreme?

As for thee, it is thou alone who art supreme!

As for thee, thy decree is made known in heaven, and the Igigi bow their faces!

--As for thee, thy decree is made known upon earth, and the spirits of the abyss kiss the dust!

--As for thee, thy decree blows above like the wind, and stall and pasture become fertile!

--As for thee, thy decree is accomplished upon earth below, and the grass and green things grow!

--As for thee, thy degree is seen in the cattle-folds and in the lairs of the wild beasts, and it multiplies living things!

--As for thee, thy decree has called into being equity and justice, and the peoples have promulgated thy law!

--As for thee, thy decree, neither in the far-off heaven, nor in the hidden depths of the earth, can any one recognize it!

--As for thee, thy decree, who can learn it, who can try conclusions with it?

--O Lord, mighty in heaven, sovereign upon earth, among the gods thy brothers, thou hast no rival.

” Outside Uru and Harran, Sin did not obtain this rank of creator and ruler of things; he was simply the moon-god, and was represented in human form, usually accompanied by a thin crescent, upon which he sometimes stands upright, sometimes appears with the bust only rising out of it, in royal costume and pose.

[Illustration: 169. jpg THE GOD SUN RECEIVES THE HOMAGE OF TWO WORSHIPPERS.

] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a heliogravure by Menant.

His mitre is so closely associated with him that it takes his place on the astrological tablets; the name he bears--“agu”--often indicates the moon regarded simply as a celestial body and without connotation of deity.

Babbar-Shamash, “the light of the gods, his fathers,” “the illustrious scion of Sin,” passed the night in the depths of the north, behind the polished metal walls which shut in the part of the firmament visible to human eyes.

[Illustration: 170. jpg SHAMASH SETS OUT, IN THE MORNING, FROM THE INTERIOR OF THE HEAVEN BY THE EASTERN GATE.

] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldaean intaglio of green jasper in the Louvre.

The original measures about 1 3/10 inch in height.

As soon as the dawn had opened the gates for him, he rose in the east all aflame, his club in his hand, and he set forth on his headlong course over the chain of mountains which surrounds the world;* six hours later he had attained the limit of his journey towards the south, he then continued his journey to the west, gradually lessening his heat, and at length re-entered his accustomed resting-place by the western gate, there to remain until the succeeding morning.

He accomplished his journey round the earth in a chariot conducted by two charioteers, and drawn by two vigorous onagers, “whose legs never grew weary;” the flaming disk which was seen from earth was one of the wheels of his chariot.

** * His course along the embankment which runs round the celestial vault was the origin of the title, _Line of Union between Heaven and Earth_; he moved, in fact, where the heavens and the earth come into contact, and appeared to weld them into one by the circle of fire which he described.

Another expression of this idea occurs in the preamble of Nergal and Ninib, who were called “the separators”; the course of the sun might, in fact, be regarded as separating, as well as uniting, the two parts of the universe.

** The disk has sometimes four, sometimes eight rays inscribed on it, indicating wheels with four or eight spokes respectively.

Rawlinson supposed “that these two figures indicate a distinction between the male and female power of the deity, the disk with four rays symbolizing Shamash, the orb with eight rays being the emblem of Ai, Gula, or Anunit.

” [Illustration: 171. jpg SHAMASH IN HIS SHRINE, HIS EMBLEM BEFORE HIM ON THE ALTAR.

] Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Rassam.

The busts of the two deities on the front of the roof of the shrine are the two charioteers of the sun; they uphold and guide the rayed disk upon the altar.

Cf.

in the Assyrian period the winged disk led with cords by two genii.

As soon as he appeared he was hailed with the chanting of hymns: “O Sun, thou appearest on the foundation of the heavens,--thou drawest back the bolts which bar the scintillating heavens, thou openest the gate of the heavens!

O Sun, thou raisest thy head above the earth,--Sun, thou extendest over the earth the brilliant vaults of the heavens.

” The powers of darkness fly at his approach or take refuge in their mysterious caverns, for “he destroys the wicked, he scatters them, the omens and gloomy portents, dreams, and wicked ghouls--he converts evil to good, and he drives to their destruction the countries and men--who devote themselves to black magic.

” In addition to natural light, he sheds upon the earth truth and justice abundantly; he is the “high judge” before whom everything makes obeisance, his laws never waver, his decrees are never set at naught.

“O Sun, when thou goest to rest in the middle of the heavens--may the bars of the bright heaven salute thee in peace, and may the gate of heaven bless thee!

--May Misharu, thy well-beloved servant, guide aright thy progress, so that on Rbarra, the seat of thy rule, thy greatness may rise, and that A, thy cherished spouse, may receive thee joyfully!

May thy glad heart find in her thy rest!

--May the food of thy divinity be brought to thee by her,--warrior, hero, sun, and may she increase thy vigour;--lord of Ebarra, when thou ap-proachest, mayest thou direct thy course aright!

---0 Sun, urge rightly thy way along the fixed road determined for thee,--O Sun, thou who art the judge of the land, and the arbiter of its laws!

”