Part 24 (1/2)

Grant that the name[421] of the king whom thou lovest, Whose name thou hast mentioned,[422] may flourish as seems good to thee.

Guide him on the right path.

I am the ruler who obeys thee, the creation of thy hand.

It is thou who hast created me, And thou hast entrusted to me sovereignty over mankind.

According to thy mercy, O lord, which thou bestowest upon all, Cause me to love thy supreme rule.

Implant the fear of thy divinity in my heart, Grant to me whatsoever may seem good before thee, Since it is thou that dost control my life.

The curses also with which so many of the historical texts of Babylonia and a.s.syria close may be regarded as prayers. We are also justified in a.s.suming that the offering of sacrifices, which formed at all times an essential feature of the cult, both in Babylonia and a.s.syria, was always accompanied by some form of prayer addressed to some deity or to a group of deities. In view of all this, no sharp chronological line, any more than a logical one, can be drawn marking off the incantation formulas from the hymns and prayers pure and simple. The conceptions formed of the G.o.ds in the incantation texts are precisely those which we have found to be characteristic of them in the period when this phase of the religion reached its highest development. Ea is the protector of humanity, Shamash the lord of justice; and, if certain ideas that in the prayers are attached to the G.o.ds--as wisdom to Sin--are absent from the incantations, it may be regarded rather as an accident than as an indication of any difference of conception. The pantheon too, barring the omission of certain G.o.ds, is the same that we find it to be in the historical texts, and the order in which the G.o.ds are enumerated corresponds quite closely with the rank accorded to them in the inscriptions of the kings. What variations there are are not sufficiently p.r.o.nounced to warrant any conclusions. All this points, as has been emphasized several times, to the subsequent remodeling of the texts in question. It is true that we find more traces of earlier and purely mythological notions in the incantations than in the hymns and prayers, but such notions are by no means foreign to the latter. Even in those religious productions of Babylonia which represent the flower of religious thought, we meet with views that reflect a most primitive mode of thought. The proper view, therefore, to take of the prayers and hymns is to regard them as twin productions to the magical texts, due to the same conceptions of the power of the G.o.ds, an emanation of the same religious spirit, and produced at the same time that the incantation rituals enjoyed popular favor and esteem, and without in any way interfering with the practice of the rites that these rituals involved.

This position does not of course preclude that among the prayers and hymns that have been preserved there are some betraying a loftier spirit, a higher level of religious thought, and more p.r.o.nounced ethical tendencies than others. Indeed, the one important result of the dissociation of the address to the G.o.ds from the purely practical magic rites was to produce the conditions favorable to a development of higher religious thought. An offering of praise to the G.o.ds, whether it was for victory granted or for a favor shown, called forth the best and purest sentiments of which the individual was capable. Freed from all lower a.s.sociations, such an act proved an incentive to view the deity addressed from his most favorable side, to emphasize those phases which ill.u.s.trated his affection for his wors.h.i.+ppers, his concern for their needs, his discrimination, and not merely his power and strength. In short, the softer and the more humane aspects of the religion would thus be brought out. The individual would address his G.o.d in terms betraying his affection, and would couple with him attributes that would reflect the wors.h.i.+pper's rather than the G.o.d's view of the purpose and aim of existence. Whatever powers of idealization there lay in the wors.h.i.+pper's nature would be brought into the foreground by the intellectual effort involved in giving expression to his best thoughts, when aiming to come into close communion with a power upon which he felt himself dependent.

For an understanding, therefore, of the ethical tendencies of the Babylonian religion, an appreciation of the prayers and hymns is of prime importance; and we shall presently see that, as a matter of fact, the highest level of ethical and religious thought is reached in some of these hymns.

The prayers of Nebuchadnezzar represent, perhaps, the best that has been attained in this branch of religious literature. Returning, for a moment, to the dedication prayer to Marduk, addressed by the king on the occasion of his mounting the throne,[423] one cannot fail to be struck by the high sense of the importance of his station with which the king is inspired. Sovereignty is not a right that he can claim--it is a trust granted to him by Marduk. He holds his great office not for purposes of self-glorification, but for the benefit of his subjects. In profound humility he confesses that what he has he owes entirely to Marduk. He asks to be guided so that he may follow the path of righteousness.

Neither riches nor power const.i.tute his ambition, but to have the fear of his lord in his heart. Such a plane of thought is never reached in the incantation texts. For all that, the original dependence of the prayers and hymns upon incantation formulas, tinges even the best productions. Some of the finest hymns, in which elevated thoughts are elaborated with considerable skill, reveal their origin by having incantations attached to them. Again, others which are entirely independent productions are full of allusions to sickness, demons, and sorcerers, that show the outgrowth of the hymns from the incantations; and none are entirely free from traces of the conceptions that are characteristic of the incantation texts. The essential difference between these two cla.s.ses of closely related texts may be summed up in the proposition that the religious thought which produced them both is carried to a higher point of elaboration in the hymns. The prayers and hymns represent the attempt of the Babylonian mind to free itself from a superst.i.tious view of the relations.h.i.+p of man to the powers around him; an attempt, but--it must be added--an unsuccessful one.

It is rather unfortunate that many of the hymns found in the library of Ashurbanabal are in so fragmentary a condition. As a consequence we are frequently unable to determine more than their general contents. The colophons generally are missing,--at least in those hymns. .h.i.therto published,[424]--so that we are left in the dark as to the special occasion for which the hymn was composed. Without this knowledge it is quite impossible to a.s.sign to it any definite date except upon internal evidence. In the course of time, the hymnal literature of the great temples of Babylonia must have grown to large proportions, and, in collecting them, some system was certainly followed by the priests engaged in this work. There is evidence of a collection having been made at some time of hymns addressed to Shamash. Some of these were intended as a salute upon the sun's rising, others celebrated his setting. These hymns convey the impression of having been composed for the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.d in one of his great temples--perhaps in E-babbara, at Sippar. We have several hymns also addressed to Marduk, and one can well suppose that at the great temple E-sagila, in Babylon, a collection of Marduk hymns must have been prepared, and so for others of the great G.o.ds. But, again, many of the hymns convey the impression of being merely sporadic productions--composed for certain occasions, and without any reference to a possible position in a ritual.

Of the hymns so far published, those to Shamash are probably the finest.

The conception of the sun-G.o.d as the judge of mankind lent itself readily to an ethical elaboration. Accordingly, we find in these hymns justice and righteousness as the two prominent themes. A striking pa.s.sage in one of these hymns reads:[425]

The law of mankind dost thou direct, Eternally just in the heavens art thou, Of faithful judgment towards all the world art thou.

Thou knowest what is right, thou knowest what is wrong.

O Shamas.h.!.+ Righteousness has lifted up its neck(?); O Shamas.h.!.+ Wrong like a ---- has been cut(?); O Shamas.h.!.+ The support of Anu and Bel art thou; O Shamas.h.!.+ Supreme judge of heaven and earth art thou.

After a break in the tablet, the hymn continues:

O Shamas.h.!.+ Supreme judge, great lord of all the world art thou; Lord of creation, merciful one of the world art thou.

The following lines now reveal the purpose of the hymn. It is a prayer for the life of the king:

O Shamas.h.!.+ on this day purify and cleanse the king, the son of his G.o.d.

Whatever is evil within him, let it be taken out.

The next few lines are a distinct echo of the incantation formulas, and show how readily prayer pa.s.ses from a higher to a lower stage of thought:

Cleanse him like a vessel ----[426]

Illumine him like a vessel of ----[426]

Like the copper of a polished tablet,[427] let him be bright.

Release him from the ban.

The same incantation occurs at the close of another hymn to Shamash, addressed to the sun upon his rising.[428] The colophon furnishes the opening line of the next tablet, which also begins with an address to Shamash. We have here a clear indication of a kind of Shamash ritual extending, perhaps, over a number of tablets, and to which, in all probability, the hymn just quoted also belongs.

The opening lines of the second hymn read:

O Shamas.h.!.+ out of the horizon of heaven thou issuest forth, The bolt of the bright heavens thou openest, The door of heaven thou dost open.

O Shamas.h.!.+ over the world dost thou raise thy head.

O Shamas.h.!.+ with the glory of heaven thou coverest the world.

It would be difficult to believe, but for the express testimony furnished by the hymn itself, that a production giving evidence of such a lofty view of the sun-G.o.d should, after all, be no more than an incantation. The same is the case, however, with all the Shamash hymns so far published. They either expressly or by implication form part of an incantation ritual. Evidently, then, such addresses to Shamash are to be viewed in no other light than the exaltation of Nusku in the 'Maklu'

series,[429] and which we have found were in many cases elaborate, beautiful in diction, and elevated in thought. So--to give one more example--a hymn addressed to the sun-G.o.d at the setting, and which is especially interesting because of the metaphors chosen to describe the sun's course, is proved by the colophon to be again an incantation. It belongs to a series--perhaps, indeed, to the same as the specimens furnished:[430]

O sun-G.o.d in the midst[431] of heaven at thy setting, May the enclosure of the pure heaven greet thee,[432]

May the gate of heaven approach thee, May the directing G.o.d, the messenger who loves thee, direct thy way.

In E-babbara, the seat of thy sovereignty, thy supremacy rises like the dawn.

May a, the wife whom thou lovest, come before thee with joy; May thy heart be at rest,[433]

May the glory of thy divinity be established for thee.