Myths of Babylonia and Assyria — 18 - Chapter 14: Ashur the National God of Assyria (Part 2)

In Ezekiel's comparison of Assyria to a mighty tree, there is no doubt a mythological reference.

The Hebrew prophets invariably utilized for their poetic imagery the characteristic beliefs of the peoples to whom they made direct reference.

The "owls", "satyrs", and "dragons" of Babylon, mentioned by Isaiah, were taken from Babylonian mythology, as has been indicated.

When, therefore, Assyria is compared to a cedar, which is greater than fir or chestnut, and it is stated that there are nesting birds in the branches, and under them reproducing beasts of the field, and that the greatness of the tree is due to "the multitude of waters", the conclusion is suggested that Assyrian religion, which Ashur's symbols reflect, included the worship of trees, birds, beasts, and water.

The symbol of the Assyrian tree--probably the "world tree" of its religion--appears to be "the rod of mine anger ...

the staff in their hand"; that is, the battle standard which was a symbol of Ashur.

Tammuz and Osiris were tree gods as well as corn gods.

Now, as Ashur was evidently a complex deity, it is futile to attempt to read his symbols without giving consideration to the remnants of Assyrian mythology which are found in the ruins of the ancient cities.

These either reflect the attributes of Ashur, or constitute the material from which he evolved.

As Layard pointed out many years ago, the Assyrians had a sacred tree which became conventionalized.

It was "an elegant device, in which curved branches, springing from a kind of scroll work, terminated in flowers of graceful form.

As one of the figures last described[378] was turned, as if in act of adoration, towards this device, it was evidently a sacred emblem; and I recognized in it the holy tree, or tree of life, so universally adored at the remotest period in the East, and which was preserved in the religious systems of the Persians to the final overthrow of their Empire....

The flowers were formed by seven petals."

[379] This tree looks like a pillar, and is thrice crossed by conventionalized bull's horns tipped with ring symbols which may be stars, the highest pair of horns having a larger ring between them, but only partly shown as if it were a crescent.

The tree with its many "sevenfold" designs may have been a symbol of the "Sevenfold-one-are-ye" deity.

This is evidently the Assyrian tree which was called "the rod" or "staff".

What mythical animals did this tree shelter?

Layard found that "the four creatures continually introduced on the sculptured walls", were "a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle".

[380] In Sumeria the gods were given human form, but before this stage was reached the bull symbolized Nannar (Sin), the moon god, Ninip (Saturn, the old sun), and Enlil, while Nergal was a lion, as a tribal sun god.

The eagle is represented by the Zu bird, which symbolized the storm and a phase of the sun, and was also a deity of fertility.

On the silver vase of Lagash the lion and eagle were combined as the lion-headed eagle, a form of Nin-Girsu (Tammuz), and it was associated with wild goats, stags, lions, and bulls.

On a mace head dedicated to Nin-Girsu, a lion slays a bull as the Zu bird slays serpents in the folk tale, suggesting the wars of totemic deities, according to one "school", and the battle of the sun with the storm clouds according to another.

Whatever the explanation may be of one animal deity of fertility slaying another, it seems certain that the conflict was associated with the idea of sacrifice to procure the food supply.

In Assyria the various primitive gods were combined as a winged bull, a winged bull with human head (the king's), a winged lion with human head, a winged man, a deity with lion's head, human body, and eagle's legs with claws, and also as a deity with eagle's head and feather headdress, a human body, wings, and feather-fringed robe, carrying in one hand a metal basket on which two winged men adored the holy tree, and in the other a fir cone.

[381] Layard suggested that the latter deity, with eagle's head, was Nisroch, "the word Nisr signifying, in all Semitic languages, an eagle ".

[382] This deity is referred to in the Bible: "Sennacherib, king of Assyria, ...

was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god".

[383] Professor Pinches is certain that Nisroch is Ashur, but considers that the "ni" was attached to "Ashur" (Ashuraku or Ashurachu), as it was to "Marad" (Merodach) to give the reading Ni-Marad = Nimrod.

The names of heathen deities were thus made "unrecognizable, and in all probability ridiculous as well....

Pious and orthodox lips could pronounce them without fear of defilement."

[384] At the same time the "Nisr" theory is probable: it may represent another phase of this process.

The names of heathen gods were not all treated in like manner by the Hebrew teachers.

Abed-_nebo_, for instance, became Abed-_nego_, _Daniel_, i, 7, as Professor Pinches shows.

Seeing that the eagle received prominence in the mythologies of Sumeria and Assyria, as a deity of fertility with solar and atmospheric attributes, it is highly probable that the Ashur symbol, like the Egyptian Horus solar disk, is a winged symbol of life, fertility, and destruction.

The idea that it represents the sun in eclipse, with protruding rays, seems rather far-fetched, because eclipses were disasters and indications of divine wrath;[385] it certainly does not explain why the "rays" should only stretch out sideways, like wings, and downward like a tail, why the "rays" should be double, like the double wings of cherubs, bulls, &c, and divided into sections suggesting feathers, or why the disk is surmounted by conventionalized horns, tipped with star-like ring symbols, identical with those depicted in the holy tree.

What particular connection the five small rings within the disk were supposed to have with the eclipse of the sun is difficult to discover.

In one of the other symbols in which appears a feather-robed archer, it is significant to find that the arrow he is about to discharge has a head shaped like a trident; it is evidently a lightning symbol.

When Ezekiel prophesied to the Israelitish captives at Tel-abib, "by the river of Chebar" in Chaldea (Kheber, near Nippur), he appears to have utilized Assyrian symbolism.

Probably he came into contact in Babylonia with fugitive priests from Assyrian cities.

This great prophet makes interesting references to "four living creatures", with "four faces "--the face of a man, the face of a lion, the face of an ox, and the face of an eagle; "they had the hands of a man under their wings, ...

their wings were joined one to another; ...

their wings were stretched upward: two wings of every one were joined one to another....

Their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps....

The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning."

[386] Elsewhere, referring to the sisters, Aholah and Aholibah, who had been in Egypt and had adopted unmoral ways of life Ezekiel tells that when Aholibah "doted upon the Assyrians" she "saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins".

[387] Traces of the red colour on the walls of Assyrian temples and palaces have been observed by excavators.

The winged gods "like burning coals" were probably painted in vermilion.

Ezekiel makes reference to "ring" and "wheel" symbols.

In his vision he saw "one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.

The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of beryl; and they four had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel....

As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.

And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.

Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them; _for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels_....

[388] And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above....

And when they went I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host; when they stood they let down their wings...."

[389] Another description of the cherubs states: "Their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes (?

stars) round about, even the wheels that they four had.

As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, O wheel!"

--or, according to a marginal rendering, "they were called in my hearing, wheel, or Gilgal," i. e. move round....

"And the cherubims were lifted up."

[390] It would appear that the wheel (or hoop, a variant rendering) was a symbol of life, and that the Assyrian feather-robed figure which it enclosed was a god, not of war only, but also of fertility.

His trident-headed arrow resembles, as has been suggested, a lightning symbol.

Ezekiel's references are suggestive in this connection.

When the cherubs "ran and returned" they had "the appearance of a flash of lightning", and "the noise of their wings" resembled "the noise of great waters".

Their bodies were "like burning coals of fire".

Fertility gods were associated with fire, lightning, and water.

Agni of India, Sandan of Asia Minor, and Melkarth of Phoenicia were highly developed fire gods of fertility.

The fire cult was also represented in Sumeria (pp. 49-51).

In the Indian epic, the _Mahabharata_, the revolving ring or wheel protects the Soma[391] (ambrosia) of the gods, on which their existence depends.

The eagle giant Garuda sets forth to steal it.

The gods, fully armed, gather round to protect the life-giving drink.

Garuda approaches "darkening the worlds by the dust raised by the hurricane of his wings".

The celestials, "overwhelmed by that dust", swoon away.

Garuda afterwards assumes a fiery shape, then looks "like masses of black clouds", and in the end its body becomes golden and bright "as the rays of the sun".

The Soma is protected by fire, which the bird quenches after "drinking in many rivers" with the numerous mouths it has assumed.

Then Garuda finds that right above the Soma is "a wheel of steel, keen edged, and sharp as a razor, revolving incessantly.

That fierce instrument, of the lustre of the blazing sun and of terrible form, was devised by the gods for cutting to pieces all robbers of the Soma."

Garuda passes "through the spokes of the wheel", and has then to contend against "two great snakes of the lustre of blazing fire, of tongues bright as the lightning flash, of great energy, of mouth emitting fire, of blazing eyes".

He slays the snakes....

The gods afterwards recover the stolen Soma.

Garuda becomes the vehicle of the god Vishnu, who carries the discus, another fiery wheel which revolves and returns to the thrower like lightning.

"And he (Vishnu) made the bird sit on the flagstaff of his car, saying: 'Even thus thou shalt stay above me'."

[392] The Persian god Ahura Mazda hovers above the king in sculptured representations of that high dignitary, enclosed in a winged wheel, or disk, like Ashur, grasping a ring in one hand, the other being lifted up as if blessing those who adore him.

Shamash, the Babylonian sun god; Ishtar, the goddess of heaven; and other Babylonian deities carried rings as the Egyptian gods carried the ankh, the symbol of life.

Shamash was also depicted sitting on his throne in a pillar-supported pavilion, in front of which is a sun wheel.

The spokes of the wheel are formed by a star symbol and threefold rippling "water rays".

In Hittite inscriptions there are interesting winged emblems; "the central portion" of one "seems to be composed of two crescents underneath a disk (which is also divided like a crescent).

Above the emblem there appear the symbol of sanctity (the divided oval) and the hieroglyph which Professor Sayce interprets as the name of the god Sandes."

In another instance "the centre of the winged emblem may be seen to be a rosette, with a curious spreading object below.

Above, two dots follow the name of Sandes, and a human arm bent 'in adoration' is by the side...."

Professor Garstang is here dealing with sacred places "on rocky points or hilltops, bearing out the suggestion of the sculptures near Boghaz-Keui[393], in which there may be reasonably suspected the surviving traces of mountain cults, or cults of mountain deities, underlying the newer religious symbolism".

Who the deity is it is impossible to say, but "he was identified at some time or other with Sandes".

[394] It would appear, too, that the god may have been "called by a name which was that used also by the priest".

Perhaps the priest king was believed to be an incarnation of the deity.

Sandes or Sandan was identical with Sandon of Tarsus, "the prototype of Attis",[395] who links with the Babylonian Tammuz.

Sandon's animal symbol was the lion, and he carried the "double axe" symbol of the god of fertility and thunder.

As Professor Frazer has shown in _The Golden Bough_, he links with Hercules and Melkarth.

[396] All the younger gods, who displaced the elder gods as one year displaces another, were deities of fertility, battle, lightning, fire, and the sun; it is possible, therefore, that Ashur was like Merodach, son of Ea, god of the deep, a form of Tammuz in origin.

His spirit was in the solar wheel which revolved at times of seasonal change.

In Scotland it was believed that on the morning of May Day (Beltaine) the rising sun revolved three times.

The younger god was a spring sun god and fire god.

Great bonfires were lit to strengthen him, or as a ceremony of riddance; the old year was burned out.

Indeed the god himself might be burned (that is, the old god), so that he might renew his youth.

Melkarth was burned at Tyre.

Hercules burned himself on a mountain top, and his soul ascended to heaven as an eagle.

These fiery rites were evidently not unknown in Babylonia and Assyria.

When, according to Biblical narrative, Nebuchadnezzar "made an image of gold" which he set up "in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon", he commanded: "O people, nations, and languages...

at the time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick...

fall down and worship the golden image".

Certain Jews who had been "set over the affairs of the province of Babylonia", namely, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego", refused to adore the idol.

They were punished by being thrown into "a burning fiery furnace", which was heated "seven times more than it was wont to be heated".

They came forth uninjured.

[397] In the Koran it is related that Abraham destroyed the images of Chaldean gods; he "brake them all in pieces except the biggest of them; that they might lay the blame on that".

[398] According to the commentators the Chaldaeans were at the time "abroad in the fields, celebrating a great festival".

To punish the offender Nimrod had a great pyre erected at Cuthah.

"Then they bound Abraham, and putting him into an engine, shot him into the midst of the fire, from which he was preserved by the angel Gabriel, who was sent to his assistance."

Eastern Christians were wont to set apart in the Syrian calendar the 25th of January to commemorate Abraham's escape from Nimrod's pyre.

[399] It is evident that the Babylonian fire ceremony was observed in the spring season, and that human beings were sacrificed to the sun god.

A

mock king may have been burned to perpetuate the ancient sacrifice of real kings, who were incarnations of the god.

Isaiah makes reference to the sacrificial burning of kings in Assyria: "For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.

For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared: he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it."

[400] When Nineveh was about to fall, and with it the Assyrian Empire, the legendary king, Sardanapalus, who was reputed to have founded Tarsus, burned himself, with his wives, concubines, and eunuchs, on a pyre in his palace.

Zimri, who reigned over Israel for seven days, "burnt the king's house over him with fire"[401].

Saul, another fallen king, was burned after death, and his bones were buried "under the oak in Jabesh".

[402] In Europe the oak was associated with gods of fertility and lightning, including Jupiter and Thor.

The ceremony of burning Saul is of special interest.

Asa, the orthodox king of Judah, was, after death, "laid in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him" (_2 Chronicles_, xvi, 14).

Jehoram, the heretic king of Judah, who "walked in the way of the kings of Israel", died of "an incurable disease.

And his people made no burning for him like the burning of his fathers" (_2 Chronicles_, xxi, 18, 19).

The conclusion suggested by the comparative study of the beliefs of neighbouring peoples, and the evidence afforded by Assyrian sculptures, is that Ashur was a highly developed form of the god of fertility, who was sustained, or aided in his conflicts with demons, by the fires and sacrifices of his worshippers.

It is possible to read too much into his symbols.

These are not more complicated and vague than are the symbols on the standing stones of Scotland--the crescent with the "broken" arrow; the trident with the double rings, or wheels, connected by two crescents; the circle with the dot in its centre; the triangle with the dot; the large disk with two small rings on either side crossed by double straight lines; the so-called "mirror", and so on.

Highly developed symbolism may not indicate a process of spiritualization so much, perhaps, as the persistence of magical beliefs and practices.

There is really no direct evidence to support the theory that the Assyrian winged disk, or disk "with protruding rays", was of more spiritual character than the wheel which encloses the feather-robed archer with his trident-shaped arrow.

The various symbols may have represented phases of the god.

When the spring fires were lit, and the god "renewed his life like the eagle", his symbol was possibly the solar wheel or disk with eagle's wings, which became regarded as a symbol of life.

The god brought life and light to the world; he caused the crops to grow; he gave increase; he sustained his worshippers.

But he was also the god who slew the demons of darkness and storm.

The Hittite winged disk was Sandes or Sandon, the god of lightning, who stood on the back of a bull.

As the lightning god was a war god, it was in keeping with his character to find him represented in Assyria as "Ashur the archer" with the bow and lightning arrow.

On the disk of the Assyrian standard the lion and the bull appear with "the archer" as symbols of the war god Ashur, but they were also symbols of Ashur the god of fertility.

The life or spirit of the god was in the ring or wheel, as the life of the Egyptian and Indian gods, and of the giants of folk tales, was in "the egg".

The "dot within the circle", a widespread symbol, may have represented the seed within "the egg" of more than one mythology, or the thorn within the egg of more than one legendary story.

It may be that in Assyria, as in India, the crude beliefs and symbols of the masses were spiritualized by the speculative thinkers in the priesthood, but no literary evidence has survived to justify us in placing the Assyrian teachers on the same level as the Brahmans who composed the Upanishads.

Temples were erected to Ashur, but he might be worshipped anywhere, like the Queen of Heaven, who received offerings in the streets of Jerusalem, for "he needed no temple", as Professor Pinches says.

Whether this was because he was a highly developed deity or a product of folk religion it is difficult to decide.

One important fact is that the ruling king of Assyria was more closely connected with the worship of Ashur than the king of Babylonia was with the worship of Merodach.

This may be because the Assyrian king was regarded as an incarnation of his god, like the Egyptian Pharaoh.

Ashur accompanied the monarch on his campaigns: he was their conquering war god.

Where the king was, there was Ashur also.

No images were made of him, but his symbols were carried aloft, as were the symbols of Indian gods in the great war of the _Mahabharata_ epic.

It would appear that Ashur was sometimes worshipped in the temples of other gods.

In an interesting inscription he is associated with the moon god Nannar (Sin) of Haran.

Esarhaddon, the Assyrian king, is believed to have been crowned in that city.

"The writer", says Professor Pinches, "is apparently addressing Assur-bani-apli, 'the great and noble Asnapper': "When the father of my king my lord went to Egypt, he was crowned (?

) in the _ganni_ of Harran, the temple (lit.

'Bethel') of cedar.

The god Sin remained over the (sacred) standard, two crowns upon his head, (and) the god Nusku stood beside him.

The father of the king my lord entered, (and) he (the priest of Sin) placed (the crown?

) upon his head, (saying) thus: 'Thou shalt go and capture the lands in the midst'.

(He we)nt, he captured the land of Egypt.

The rest of the lands not submitting (?

) to Assur (Ashur) and Sin, the king, the lord of kings, shall capture (them)."

[403] Ashur and Sin are here linked as equals.

Associated with them is Nusku, the messenger of the gods, who was given prominence in Assyria.

The kings frequently invoked him.

As the son of Ea he acted as the messenger between Merodach and the god of the deep.

He was also a son of Bel Enlil, and like Anu was guardian or chief of the Igigi, the "host of heaven".

Professor Pinches suggests that he may have been either identical with the Sumerian fire god Gibil, or a brother of the fire god, and an impersonation of the light of fire and sun.

In Haran he accompanied the moon god, and may, therefore, have symbolized the light of the moon also.

Professor Pinches adds that in one inscription "he is identified with Nirig or En-reshtu" (Nin-Girsu = Tammuz).

[404] The Babylonians and Assyrians associated fire and light with moisture and fertility.

The astral phase of the character of Ashur is highly probable.

As has been indicated, the Greek rendering of Anshar as "Assoros", is suggestive in this connection.

Jastrow, however, points out that the use of the characters Anshar for Ashur did not obtain until the eighth century B. C.

"Linguistically", he says, "the change of Ashir to Ashur can be accounted for, but not the transformation of An-shar to Ashur or Ashir; so that we must assume the 'etymology' of Ashur, proposed by some learned scribe, to be the nature of a play upon the name."

[405] On the other hand, it is possible that what appears arbitrary to us may have been justified in ancient Assyria on perfectly reasonable, or at any rate traditional, grounds.

Professor Pinches points out that as a sun god, and "at the same time not Shamash", Ashur resembled Merodach.

"His identification with Merodach, if that was ever accepted, may have been due to the likeness of the word to Asari, one of the deities' names."

[406] As Asari, Merodach has been compared to the Egyptian Osiris, who, as the Nile god, was Asar-Hapi.

Osiris resembles Tammuz and was similarly a corn deity and a ruler of the living and the dead, associated with sun, moon, stars, water, and vegetation.

We may consistently connect Ashur with Aushar, "water field", Anshar, "god of the height", or "most high", and with the eponymous King Asshur who went out on the land of Nimrod and "builded Nineveh", if we regard him as of common origin with Tammuz, Osiris, and Attis--a developed and localized form of the ancient deity of fertility and corn.

Ashur had a spouse who is referred to as Ashuritu, or Beltu, "the lady".

Her name, however, is not given, but it is possible that she was identified with the Ishtar of Nineveh.

In the historical texts Ashur, as the royal god, stands alone.

Like the Hittite Great Father, he was perhaps regarded as the origin of life.

Indeed, it may have been due to the influence of the northern hillmen in the early Assyrian period, that Ashur was developed as a father god--a Baal.

When the Hittite inscriptions are read, more light may be thrown on the Ashur problem.

Another possible source of cultural influence is Persia.

The supreme god Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd) was, as has been indicated, represented, like Ashur, hovering over the king's head, enclosed in a winged disk or wheel, and the sacred tree figured in Persian mythology.

The early Assyrian kings had non-Semitic and non-Sumerian names.

It seems reasonable to assume that the religious culture of the ethnic elements they represented must have contributed to the development of the city god of Asshur.

CHAPTER XV. CONFLICTS FOR TRADE AND SUPREMACY

Modern Babylonia--History repeating itself--Babylonian Trade Route in Mesopotamia--Egyptian Supremacy in Syria--Mitanni and Babylonia--Bandits who plundered Caravans--Arabian Desert Trade Route opened--Assyrian and Elamite Struggles with Babylonia--Rapid Extension of Assyrian Empire--Hittites control Western Trade Routes--Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty Conquests--Campaigns of Rameses II--Egyptians and Hittites become Allies--Babylonian Fears of Assyria--Shalmaneser's Triumphs--Assyria Supreme in Mesopotamia--Conquest of Babylonia--Fall of a Great King--Civil War in Assyria--Its Empire goes to pieces--Babylonian Wars with Elam--Revival of Babylonian Power--Invasions of Assyrians and Elamites--End of the Kassite Dynasty--Babylonia contrasted with Assyria.