Thy hand is violent, thou queen of war Girded with battle and enrobed with fear... Thou sovran wielder of the wand of Doom, The heavens and earth are under thy control.
Adored art thou in every sacred place,
In temples, holy dwellings, and in shrines, Where is thy name not lauded? where thy will Unheeded, and thine images not made?
Where are thy temples not upreared? O, where
Art thou not mighty, peerless, and supreme?
Anu and Bel and Ea have thee raised
To rank supreme, in majesty and pow'r, They have established thee above the gods And all the host of heaven... O stately queen,
At thought of thee the world is filled with fear,
The gods in heaven quake, and on the earth All spirits pause, and all mankind bow down With reverence for thy name.... O Lady Judge,
15
Thy ways are just and holy; thou dost gaze On sinners with compassion, and each morn Leadest the wayward to the rightful path.
Now linger not, but come! O goddess fair, O shepherdess of all, thou drawest nigh
With feet unwearied... Thou dost break the bonds Of these thy handmaids... When thou stoopest o'er The dying with compassion, lo! they live;
And when the sick behold thee they are healed.
Hear me, thy servant! hearken to my pray'r, For I am full of sorrow and I sigh
In sore distress; weeping, on thee I wait. Be merciful, my lady, pity take
And answer, "'Tis enough and be appeased".
How long must my heart sorrow and make moan And restless be? How long must my dark home Be filled with mourning and my soul with grief ? O lioness of heaven, bring me peace
And rest and comfort. Hearken to my pray'r! Is anger pity? May thine eyes look down
With tenderness and blessings, and behold Thy servant. Oh! have mercy; hear my cry And unbewitch me from the evil spells, That I may see thy glory... Oh! how long Shall these my foes pursue me, working ill, And robbing me of joy?... Oh! how long Shall demons compass me about and cause Affliction without end?... I thee adore--
The gift of strength is thine and thou art strong-- The weakly are made strong, yet I am weak...
O hear me! I am glutted with my grief--
This flood of grief by evil winds distressed; My heart hath fled me like a bird on wings,
And like the dove I moan. Tears from mine eyes
Are falling as the rain from heaven falls, And I am destitute and full of woe.
*
What have I done that thou hast turned from me? Have I neglected homage to my god
And thee my goddess? O deliver me
And all my sins forgive, that I may share Thy love and be watched over in thy fold; And may thy fold be wide, thy pen secure.
*
How long wilt thou be angry? Hear my cry, And turn again to prosper all my ways--
O may thy wrath be crumbled and withdrawn As by a crumbling stream. Then smite my foes, And take away their power to work me ill,
That I may crush them. Hearken to my pray'r! And bless me so that all who me behold
16
May laud thee and may magnify thy name, While I exalt thy power over all--
Ishtar is highest! Ishtar is the queen!
Ishtar the peerless daughter of the moon!
[12] The Races of Europe, W.Z. Ripley, p. 203.
[13] The Ancient Egyptians, by Elliot Smith, p. 41 et seq.
[14] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 140.
[15] Crete the Forerunner of Greece, C. H. and H. B. Hawes, 1911, p. 23 et seq.
[16] The Races of Europe, W. Z. Ripley, p. 443 et seq. [17] The Ancient Egyptians, pp. 144-5.
[18] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 114.
[19] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 136.
[20] A History of Palestine, R.A.S. Macalister, pp. 8-16.
[21] The Mediterranean Race (1901 trans.), G. Sergi, p. 146 et seq. [22] The Ancient Egyptians, p. 130.
[23] A History of Civilization in Palestine, p. 20 et seq.
[24] Joshua, xi. 21. [25] Genesis, xxiii.
[26] Genesis, xvi. 8, 9.
[27] 1 Kings, xvi. 16.
Chapter II. The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep
Abstract
Fertility of Ancient Babylonia--Rivers, Canals, Seasons, and Climate--Early Trade and Foreign Influences--Local Religious Cults--Ea, God of the Deep, identical with Oannes of Berosus--Origin as a Sacred Fish--Compared with Brahma and Vishnu--Flood Legends in Babylonia and India--Fish Deities in Babylonia and Egypt--Fish God as a Corn God--The River as Creator--Ea an Artisan God, and links with Egypt and India--Ea as the Hebrew Jah--Ea and Varuna are Water and Sky Gods--The Babylonian Dagan and Dagon
of the Philistines--Deities of Water and Harvest in Phoenicia, Greece, Rome, Scotland, Scandinavia, Ireland, and Egypt--Ea's Spouse
Damkina--Demons of Ocean in Babylonia and India--Anu, God of the Sky--Enlil, Storm and War God of Nippur, like Adad, Odin,
&c.--Early Gods of Babylonia and Egypt of common origin--Ea's City as Cradle of Sumerian Civilization.
Ancient Babylonia was for over four thousand years the garden of Western Asia. In the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, when it had come under the sway of the younger civilization of Assyria on the north, it was "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vine-yards, a land of oil olive and of honey[28]". Herodotus found it still flourishing and extremely fertile. "This territory", he wrote, "is of all that we know the best by far for producing grain; it is so good that it returns as much as two hundredfold for the average, and, when it bears at its best, it produces three hundredfold. The blades of the wheat and barley there grow to be full four fingers broad; and from millet and sesame seed, how large a tree grows, I know myself, but shall not record, being well aware that even what has already been said relating to the crops produced has been enough to cause disbelief in those who have not visited Babylonia[29]."
To-day great tracts of undulating moorland, which aforetime yielded two and three crops a year, are in summer partly barren wastes and partly jungle and reedy swamp. Bedouins camp beside sandy heaps which were once populous and thriving cities, and here and there the shrunken remnants of a people once great and influential eke out precarious livings under the oppression of Turkish taxgatherers who are scarcely less considerate than the plundering nomads of the desert.
This historic country is bounded on the east by Persia and on the west by the Arabian desert. In shape somewhat resembling a fish, it lies between the two great rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, 100 miles wide at its broadest part, and narrowing to 35 miles towards the "tail" in the latitude of Baghdad; the "head" converges to a point above Basra, where the rivers meet and form the Shatt-el-Arab, which pours into the Persian Gulf after meeting the Karun and drawing away the main volume of that double-mouthed river. The distance from Baghdad to Basra is about 300 miles, and the area traversed by the Shatt-el-Arab is slowly extending at the rate of a mile every thirty years or so, as a result of the steady accumulation of silt and mud carried down by the Tigris and Euphrates. When Sumeria was beginning to flourish, these two rivers had separate outlets, and Eridu, the seat of the cult of the sea god Ea, which
now lies 125 miles inland, was a seaport at the head of the Persian Gulf. A day's journey separated the river mouths when Alexander the Great broke the power of the Persian Empire.
In the days of Babylonia's prosperity the Euphrates was hailed as "the soul of the land" and the Tigris as "the bestower of blessings". Skilful engineers had solved the problem of