Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

Project Gutenberg's Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A.
Mackenzie This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Myths of Babylonia and Assyria
Author: Donald A. Mackenzie
Release Date: September 5, 2005 [EBook #16653]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS OF
BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA ***

Produced by Sami Sieranoja, Tapio Riikonen and PG Distributed
Proofreaders

MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA
Donald A. Mackenzie

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface Introduction I. The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia
II. The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep III. Rival Pantheons
and Representative Deities IV. Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts V. Myths
of Tammuz and Ishtar VI. Wars of the City States of Sumer and Akkad
VII. Creation Legend: Merodach the Dragon Slayer VIII. Deified
Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh IX. Deluge Legend, the Island of the
Blessed, and Hades X. Buildings and Laws and Customs of Babylon XI.
The Golden Age of Babylonia XII. Rise of the Hittites, Mitannians,
Kassites, Hyksos, and Assyrians XIII. Astrology and Astronomy XIV.
Ashur the National God of Assyria XV. Conflicts for Trade and
Supremacy XVI. Race Movements that Shattered Empires XVII. The
Hebrews in Assyrian History XVIII. The Age of Semiramis XIX.
Assyria's Age of Splendour XX. The Last Days of Assyria and
Babylonia

PREFACE
This volume deals with the myths and legends of Babylonia and
Assyria, and as these reflect the civilization in which they developed, a
historical narrative has been provided, beginning with the early
Sumerian Age and concluding with the periods of the Persian and
Grecian Empires. Over thirty centuries of human progress are thus
passed under review.
During this vast interval of time the cultural influences emanating from
the Tigro-Euphrates valley reached far-distant shores along the
intersecting avenues of trade, and in consequence of the periodic and
widespread migrations of peoples who had acquired directly or
indirectly the leavening elements of Mesopotamian civilization. Even
at the present day traces survive in Europe of the early cultural impress
of the East; our "Signs of the Zodiac", for instance, as well as the
system of measuring time and space by using 60 as a basic numeral for
calculation, are inheritances from ancient Babylonia.

As in the Nile Valley, however, it is impossible to trace in
Mesopotamia the initiatory stages of prehistoric culture based on the
agricultural mode of life. What is generally called the "Dawn of
History" is really the beginning of a later age of progress; it is
necessary to account for the degree of civilization attained at the
earliest period of which we have knowledge by postulating a remoter
age of culture of much longer duration than that which separates the
"Dawn" from the age in which we now live. Although Sumerian (early
Babylonian) civilization presents distinctively local features which
justify the application of the term "indigenous" in the broad sense, it is
found, like that of Egypt, to be possessed of certain elements which
suggest exceedingly remote influences and connections at present
obscure. Of special interest in this regard is Professor Budge's mature
and well-deliberated conclusion that "both the Sumerians and early
Egyptians derived their primeval gods from some common but
exceedingly ancient source". The prehistoric burial customs of these
separate peoples are also remarkably similar and they resemble closely
in turn those of the Neolithic Europeans. The cumulative effect of such
evidence forces us to regard as not wholly satisfactory and conclusive
the hypothesis of cultural influence. A remote racial connection is
possible, and is certainly worthy of consideration when so high an
authority as Professor Frazer, author of The Golden Bough, is found
prepared to admit that the widespread "homogeneity of beliefs" may
have been due to "homogeneity of race". It is shown (Chapter 1) that
certain ethnologists have accumulated data which establish a racial
kinship between the Neolithic Europeans, the proto-Egyptians, the
Sumerians, the southern Persians, and the Aryo-Indians.
Throughout this volume comparative notes have been compiled in
dealing with Mesopotamian beliefs with purpose to assist the reader
towards the study of linking myths and legends. Interesting parallels
have been gleaned from various religious literatures in Europe, Egypt,
India, and elsewhere. It will be found that certain relics of Babylonian
intellectual life, which have a distinctive geographical significance,
were shared by peoples in other cultural areas where they were
similarly overlaid with local colour. Modes of thought were the
products of modes of life and were influenced in their development by

human experiences. The influence of environment on the growth of
culture has long been recognized,