Tiamat.
Tiamat is the common transcription of a name generally and more correctly read as Tiamtu. The meaning of this word is “the sea,” and its later and more decayed pronunciation is tâmtu or tâmdu, the feminine t having changed into d after the nasal m, a phenomenon that also meets us in other words having a nasal before the dental. As this word is the Tauthé of the Greek writer Damascius, it is clear that in his time the m was pronounced as w (this peculiarity is common to the Semitic Babylonian and Akkadian languages, and finds its converse illustration in the provincialism of mir for wir, “we,” in German), though the decayed word tâmtu evidently kept its labial unchanged, for it is difficult to imagine w changing t into d, unless it were pronounced in a way to which wee are not accustomed. We have here, then, an example of a differentiation by which one and the same word, by a change of pronunciation, forms two “vocables,” the one used as a proper noun and the other—a more decayed form—as a common one.
Tiamtu (from the above it may be supposed that the real pronunciation was as indicated by the Greek form, namely, Tiauthu), meaning originally “the sea,” [pg 068] became then the personification of the watery deep as the producer of teeming animal life such as we find in the waters everywhere. Dominating and covering at first the whole earth, it was she who was the first producer of living things, but when the land appeared, and creatures of higher organization and intelligence began, under the fostering care of the higher divinities, to make their appearance, she saw, so the Babylonians seem to have thought, that with the advent of man, whom the gods purposed forming, her power and importance would, in a short time, disappear, and rebellion on her part was the result. How, in the Babylonian legends, this conflict ended, the reader of the foregoing pages knows, and after her downfall and destruction or subjugation, she retained her productive power under the immediate control and direction of the gods under whose dominion she had fallen.
Tiamtu is represented in the Old Testament by tehôm, which occurs in Gen. i. 2, where both the Authorised and Revised Versions translate “the deep.” The Hebrew form of the word, however, is not quite the same, the Assyrian feminine ending being absent.
To all appearance the legend of Tiamtu was well known all over Western Asia. As Gunkel and Zimmern have shown, there is a reference thereto in Ps. lxxxix. 10, where Rahab, who was broken in pieces, is referred to, and under the same name she appears also in Isaiah li. 9, with the additional statement that she is the dragon who was pierced; likewise in Job xxvi. 12 and ix. 13, where her followers are said to be referred to; in Ps. lxxiv. 14 the dragon whose heads (a plural probably typifying the diverse forms under which Nature's creative power appears) are spoken of. Tiamtu, as Rahab and the dragon, therefore played a part in Hebrew legends of old as great, perhaps, as in the mythology of Babylonia, where she seems to have originated.
Chapter II. The History, As Given In The Bible, From The Creation To The Flood.
Eden—The so-called second story of the Creation and the bilingual Babylonian account—The four rivers—The tree of life—The Temptation—The Cherubim—Cain and Abel—The names of the Patriarchs from Enoch to Noah.
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.” There also He made every pleasant and good tree to grow, including the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A river came out of Eden to water the garden, and this river was afterwards divided into four smaller streams, the Pishon, flowing round “the Hawilah,” a land of gold (which was good) and bdellium and onyx stone; the Gihon, flowing round the whole land of Cush; the Hiddekel or Tigris, and the Euphrates.
It is to be noted that it was not the garden itself that was called Eden, but the district in which it lay. The river too seems to have risen in the same tract, and was divided at some indeterminate point, either in the land of Eden or on its borders.
The whereabouts of the Garden of Eden and its rivers has been so many times discussed, and so many diverse opinions prevail concerning them, that there is no need at present to add to these theories yet another, more or less probable. Indeed, in the present work, theories will be kept in the background [pg 070] as much as possible, and prominence given to such facts as recent discoveries have revealed to us.
It had long been known that one of the Akkadian names for “plain” was edina, and that that word had been borrowed by the Babylonians under the form of êdinnu, but it was Prof. Delitzsch, the well-known Assyriologist, who first pointed out to a disbelieving world that this must be the Eden of Genesis. The present writer thought this identification worthless until he had the privilege of examining the tablets acquired by Dr. Hayes Ward in Babylonia on the occasion of his conducting the Wolfe expedition. Among the fragments of tablets that he then brought back was a list of cities in the Akkadian language (the Semitic Babylonian column was unfortunately broken away) which gave the following—
| Transcription. | Translation. |
| Sipar, | D.S. Sippara. |
| Sipar Edina, | D.S. Sippara of Eden. |
| Sipar uldua, | D.S. Sippara the everlasting. |
| Sipar Šamaš, | D.S. Sippara of the Sun-god. |
Here at last was the word Eden used as a geographical name, showing that the explanation of Delitzsch was not only plausible, but also, in all probability, true in substance and in fact. Less satisfactory, however, were the learned Professor's identifications of the rivers of Eden, for he regards the Pishon and the Gihon as canals—the former being the Pallacopas (the Pallukatu of the Babylonian inscriptions), and the latter the Guḫandê (also called the Araḫtu, now identified with a large canal running through Babylon). He conjectured that it might be the waterway known as the Shatt en-Nîl. Whatever doubt, however, attaches to his identifications of the rivers, he seems certainly to be right with regard to the Biblical Eden, and this is a decided gain, for it locates the position of that district beyond a doubt.
To Prof. Sayce belongs the honour of identifying the Babylonian story of the nature and position of Paradise as they conceived it, and here we have another example of the important details that the incantation-tablets may contain concerning beliefs not otherwise preserved to us, for the text in question, like the bilingual story of the Creation, is simply an introduction to a text of that nature. This interesting record, to which I have been able to add a few additional words since Prof. Sayce first gave his translation of it to the world, is as follows—
“Incantation: ‘(In) Êridu a dark vine grew, it was made in a glorious place,
Its appearance (as) lapis-lazuli, planted beside the Abyss,
Which is Ae's path, filling Êridu with fertility.
Its seat is the (central) point of the earth,
Its dwelling is the couch of Nammu.
In the glorious house, which is like a forest, its shadow extends,
No man enters its midst.
In its interior is the Sun-god Tammuz.
Between the mouths of the rivers (which are) on both sides.’ ”
The lines which follow show how this plant, which was a miraculous remedy, was to be used in the cure of a sick man. It was to be placed upon his head, and beneficent spirits would then come and stay with him, whilst the evil ones would stand aside.
From the introductory lines above translated, we see that Êridu, “the good city,” which Sir Henry Rawlinson recognized many years ago as a type of paradise, was, to the Babylonians, as a garden of Eden, wherein grew a glorious tree, to all appearance a vine, for the adjective “dark” may very reasonably be regarded as referring to its fruit. Strange must [pg 072] have been its appearance, for it is described as resembling “white lapis-lazuli,” that is, the beautiful stone of that kind mottled blue and white. The probability that it was conceived by the Babylonians as a garden is strengthened by the fact that the god Aê, and his path, i.e. the rivers, filled the place with fertility, and it was, moreover, the abode of the river-god Nammu, whose streams, the Tigris and Euphrates, flowed on both sides. There, too, dwelt the Sun, making the garden fruitful with his ever-vivifying beams, whilst “the peerless mother of heaven,” as Tammuz seems to be called, added, by fructifying showers, to the fertility that the two great rivers brought down from the mountains from which they flowed. To complete still further the parallel with the Biblical Eden, it was represented as a place to which access was forbidden, for “no man entered its midst,” as in the case of the Garden of Eden after the fall.
Though one cannot be dogmatic in the presence of the imperfect records that we possess, it is worthy of note that Eden does not occur as the name of the earthly paradise in any of the texts referring to the Creation that have come down to us; and though it is to be found in the bilingual story of the Creation, it there occurs simply as the equivalent of the Semitic word ṣêrim in the phrase “he (Merodach) made the verdure of the plain.” That we shall ultimately find other instances of Eden as a geographical name, occurring by itself, and not in composition with another word (as in the expression Sipar Edina), and even a reference to gannat Edinni, “the Garden of Eden,” is to be expected.
Schrader[5] has pointed out that whilst in Eden the river bears no name, it is only after it has left the sacred region that it is divided, and then each separate branch received a name. So, also, in the Babylonian [pg 073] description of the Eridu, the rivers were unnamed, though one guesses that the Tigris and the Euphrates are meant. The expression, “the mouth of the rivers [that are on] both sides” (pî nârãti ... kilallan), recalls to the mind the fact, that it was to “a remote place at the mouth of the rivers” that the Babylonian Noah (Pir-napištim) was translated after the Flood, when the gods conferred upon him the gift of immortality. To all appearance, therefore, Gilgameš, the ancient Babylonian hero who visited the immortal sage, entered into the tract regarded by the Babylonians of old times as being set apart for the abode of the blessed after their journeyings on this world should cease.
The connection of the stream which was “the path of Ae” with Eridu, seems to have been very close, for in the bilingual story of the Creation the flowing of the stream is made to be the immediate precursor of the building of Êridu and Êsagila, “the lofty-headed temple” within it—
“When within the sea there was a stream,
In that day Êridu was made, Êsagila was built—
Êsagila which the god Lugal-du-azaga had founded within the Abyss.”
In this Babylonian Creation-story it is a question of a stream and two rivers. In Genesis it is a question of a river and four branches. The parallelism is sufficiently close to be noteworthy and to show, beyond a doubt, that the Babylonians had the same accounts of the Creation and descriptions of the circumstances concerning it, as the Hebrews, though told in a different way, and in a different connection.
Two trees are mentioned in the Biblical account of the Creation, “the tree of life” and “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” By the eating of the former, a man would live for ever, and the latter would confer upon him that knowledge which God [pg 074] alone was supposed to possess, namely, of good and evil, carrying with it, however, the disadvantage of the loss of that innocence which he formerly possessed. Like the Hebrews, the Babylonians and Assyrians also had their sacred trees, but whether they attached to them the same deep significance as the Hebrews did to theirs we do not know. Certain, however, it is, that they had beliefs concerning them that were analogous.
The most familiar form of the sacred tree is that employed by the Assyrians, to a certain extent as a decorative ornament, on the sculptured slabs that adorned the walls of the royal palaces. This was the curious conglomeration of knots and leaves which various figures—winged genii with horned hats emblematic of divinity, eagle-headed figures, etc.—worship, and to which they make offerings, and touch with a conical object resembling the fruit of the fir or pine. An ingenious suggestion has been made to the effect that the genius with the pine-cone is represented in the act of fructifying the tree with the pollen (in an idealized form) from the flowers of another tree, just as it is necessary to fructify the date-palm from the pollen of the flowers growing on the “male” tree. This, however, can hardly be the true explanation of the mystic act represented, as similar genii are shown on other slabs not only holding out the conical object as if to touch therewith the figure of the king, but also doing the same thing to the effigies of the great winged bulls. Of course, the fructification of the king would be not only a possible representation to carve in alabaster, but one that we might even expect to find among the royal sculptures. The fructification of a winged bull, however, is quite a different thing, and in the highest degree improbable, unless the divine bull were a kind of representation of the king, which, though possible, is at present unprovable.
This symbolic scene, therefore, remains still a [pg 075] mystery for scholars to explain when they obtain the material to do so. It seems to be a peculiarly Assyrian design, for the offering of a pine-cone or similarly-shaped object to the sacred tree has not yet been found in Babylonian art. The Babylonian sacred tree is, moreover, a much more natural-looking object than the curious combination of knots and honeysuckle-shaped flowers found in the sculptures of Assyria. As in the case of the tree shown in the picture of the Temptation, described below, the sacred tree of the Babylonians often takes the form of a palm-tree, or something very like one. (See pl. [III].)
As has been already remarked, the tree of Paradise of the Babylonians was, to all appearance, a vine, described as being in colour like blue and white mottled lapis-lazuli, and apparently bearing fruit (grapes) of a dark colour. That the Babylonian tree of life was a vine is supported by the fact that the ideograms composing the word for “wine” are geš-tin (for kaš-tin), “drink of life,” and “the vine,” giš geš-tin, “tree of the drink of life.” In the text describing the Babylonian Paradise and its divine tree, the name of the latter is given as kiškanû in Semitic, and giš-kin or giš-kan in Akkadian, a word mentioned in the bilingual lists among plants of the vine species. Whether the Hebrews regarded the tree of life as having been a vine or not, cannot at present be decided, but it is very probable that they had the same ideas as the Babylonians in the matter.
It is noteworthy, in this connection, that the Babylonians also believed that there still existed in the world a plant (they do not seem to have regarded it as a tree) which “would make an old man young again.” Judging from the statements concerning it, one would imagine that it was a kind of thorn-bush. As we shall see later, when treating of the story of the Flood, it was this plant which the Chaldean Noah gave the hero Gilgameš instructions how to find—for [pg 076] the desire to become young again had seized him—and he seems to have succeeded in possessing himself of it, only to lose it again almost immediately, for a lion, coming that way at a time when Gilgameš was otherwise occupied, carried it off—to his own benefit, as the hero remarks, for he naturally supposed that the lion who had seized the plant would have his life renewed, and prey all the longer upon the people.
The title of a lost legend, “When the kiškanû (? vine, see above) grew in the land” (referring, perhaps, to the tree of life which grew in Êridu), leads one to ask whether “The legend of Nisaba (the corn-deity) and the date-palm,” and “The legend of the luluppu-tree” may not also refer to sacred trees, bearing upon the question of the tree of knowledge referred to in Gen. ii. As, however, the titles (generally a portion of the first line only) are all that are at present preserved, there is nothing to be done but wait patiently until it pleases Providence to make them further known to us.
The kiškanû was of three kinds, white (piṣu), black (ṣalmi), as in the description of the tree of Paradise, and grey or blue (sâmi). In view of there being these three colours, it would seem that they refer rather to the fruit of the tree than to the tree itself. Now the only plant growing in the country and having these three colours of fruit, is the vine. Of course, this raises the question whether (1) the kiškanû is a synonym of gištin or karanu, or (2) the word gištin, which is generally rendered “vine,” is, in reality, correctly translated. Whatever be the true explanation, one thing is certain, namely, that in the description of Paradise, the word black or dark (ṣalmu), applied to the tree there mentioned, cannot refer to the tree itself, for that is described as being like “white lapis” (uknū êbbu), a beautiful stone mottled blue and white.
Babylonian Mythological Composition. Impression of a cylinder-seal showing a male figure on the right and a bull-man on the left, holding erect bulls by the horns and tails. In the centre is a form of the sacred tree on a hill. Date about 2500 b.c. British Museum.
Babylonian Mythological Composition. Impression of a cylinder-seal showing Istar, goddess of love and of war as archeress, standing on the back of a lion, which turns its head to caress her feet. Before her is a worshipper (priest) and two goats (reversed to form a symmetrical design), leaping. Behind her is a date-palm. Date about 650 b.c. British Museum.
Among other trees of a sacred nature is “the cedar [pg 077] beloved of the great gods,” mentioned in an inscription of a religious or ceremonial nature, though exactly in what connection the imperfectness of the document does not enable us to see. It would seem, however, that there were certain priests or seers to whom was confided the “tablet of the gods,” containing the secret of the heavens and earth (probably the “tablet of fate,” which Merodach took from the husband of Tiamat after his fight with her for the dominion of the universe). These persons, who seem to have been the descendants of En-we-dur-an-ki (the Euedoranchos of Berosus), king of Sippar, were those to whom was confided “the cedar beloved of the great gods”—perhaps a kind of sceptre. They had, however, not only to be of noble race, but also perfect physically and free from every defect and disease. Moreover, one who did not keep the command of Šamaš and Addu (Hadad) could not approach the place of Ae, Šamaš, Marduk, and Nin-edina, nor the number of the brothers who were to enter the seership; they were not to reveal to him the word of the oracle, and “the cedar beloved of the great gods” was not to be delivered into his hands.
There is hardly any doubt, then, that we have here the long-sought parallel to the Biblical “tree of knowledge,” for that, too, was in the domain of “the lord of knowledge,” the god Ae, and also in the land which might be described as that of “the lord of Eden,” the “hidden place of heaven and earth” for all the sons of Adam, who are no longer allowed to enter into that earthly Paradise wherein their first parents gained, at such a cost, the knowledge, imperfect as it must have been, and evidently undesirable, which they handed down to their successors.