Babylonian and Assyrian Literature | Page 2

to
the pictures and carvings that describe the building of cities, the
marching to war, the battle, by sea and land, of great monarchs whose
horse and foot were as multitudinous as the locusts that in Eastern
literature are compared to them. Lovers of the Bible will find in the
Assyrian inscriptions many confirmations of Scripture history, as well
as many parallels to the account of the primitive world in Genesis, and
none can give even a cursory glance at these famous remains without
feeling his mental horizon widened. We are carried by this writing on
the walls of Assyrian towns far beyond the little world of the recent
centuries; we pass, as almost modern, the day when Julius Cæsar
struggled in the surf of Kent against the painted savages of Britain. Nay,
the birth of Romulus and Remus is a recent event in comparison with
records of incidents in Assyrian national life, which occurred not only

before Moses lay cradled on the waters of an Egyptian canal, but before
Egypt had a single temple or pyramid, three millenniums before the
very dawn of history in the valley of the Nile.
But the interest of Assyrian Literature is not confined to hymns, or
even to inscriptions. A nameless poet has left in the imperishable
tablets of a Babylonian library an epic poem of great power and beauty.
This is the Epic of Izdubar.
At Dur-Sargina, the city where stood the palace of Assyrian monarchs
three thousand years ago, were two gigantic human figures, standing
between the winged bulls, carved in high relief, at the entrance of the
royal residence. These human figures are exactly alike, and represent
the same personage--a Colossus with swelling thews, and dressed in a
robe of dignity. He strangles a lion by pressing it with brawny arm
against his side, as if it were no more than a cat. This figure is that of
Izdubar, or Gisdubar, the great central character of Assyrian poetry and
sculpture, the theme of minstrels, the typical hero of his land, the
favored of the gods. What is called the Epic of Izdubar relates the
exploits of this hero, who was born the son of a king in Ourouk of
Chaldea. His father was dethroned by the Elamites, and Izdubar was
driven into the wilderness and became a mighty hunter. In the
half-peopled earth, so lately created, wild beasts had multiplied and
threatened the extermination of mankind. The hunter found himself at
war with monsters more formidable than even the lion or the wild bull.
There were half-human scorpions, bulls with the head of man, fierce
satyrs and winged griffins. Deadly war did Izdubar wage with them, till
as his period of exile drew near to a close he said to his mother, "I have
dreamed a dream; the stars rained from heaven upon me; then a
creature, fierce-faced and taloned like a lion, rose up against me, and I
smote and slew him."
The dream was long in being fulfilled, but at last Izdubar was told of a
monstrous jinn, whose name was Heabani; his head was human but
horned; and he had the legs and tail of a bull, yet was he wisest of all
upon earth. Enticing him from his cave by sending two fair women to
the entrance, Izdubar took him captive and led him to Ourouk, where

the jinn married one of the women whose charms had allured him, and
became henceforth the well-loved servant of Izdubar. Then Izdubar
slew the Elamite who had dethroned his father, and put the royal
diadem on his own head. And behold the goddess Ishtar (Ashtaroth)
cast her eyes upon the hero and wished to be his wife, but he rejected
her with scorn, reminding her of the fate of Tammuz, and of Alala the
Eagle, and of the shepherd Taboulon--all her husbands, and all dead
before their time. Thus, as the wrath of Juno pursued Paris, so the
hatred of this slighted goddess attends Izdubar through many
adventures. The last plague that torments him is leprosy, of which he is
to be cured by Khasisadra, son of Oubaratonton, last of the ten
primeval kings of Chaldea. Khasisadra, while still living, had been
transported to Paradise, where he yet abides. Here he is found by
Izdubar, who listens to his account of the Deluge, and learns from him
the remedy for his disease. The afflicted hero is destined, after being
cured, to pass, without death, into the company of the gods, and there
to enjoy immortality. With this promise the work concludes.
The great poem of Izdubar has but recently been known to European
scholars, having been discovered in 1871 by the eminent Assyriologist,
Mr. George Smith. It was probably written about 2000 B.C., though the
extant edition, which came from the