The gods, who had begun by being the actual material of the element which was their attribute, became successively the spirit of it, then its ruler.* They continued at first to reside in it, but in the course of time they were separated from it, and each was allowed to enter the domain of another, dwell in it, and even command it, as they could have done in their own, till finally the greater number of them were identified with the firmament.
* Pk. Lbnoemant, La Magie chez les Chaldéens, p. 144, et
seq., where the author shows how Anu, after having at
first been the Heaven itself, the starry vault stretched
above the earth, became successively the Spirit of Heaven
(Zi-ana), and finally the supreme ruler of the world:
according to Lenormant, it was the Semites in particular who
transformed the primitive spirit into an actual god-king.
Bel, the lord of the earth, and Ea, the ruler of the waters, passed info the heavens, which did not belong to them, and took their places beside Ami: the pathways were pointed out which they had made for themselves across the celestial vault, in order to inspect their kingdoms from the exalted heights to which they had been raised; that of Bel was in the Tropic of Cancer, that of Ea in the Tropic of Capricorn. They gathered around them all the divinities who could easily be abstracted from the function or object to which they were united, and they thus constituted a kind of divine aristocracy, comprising all the most powerful beings who guided the fortunes of the world. The number of them was considerable, for they reckoned seven supreme and magnificent gods, fifty great gods of heaven and earth, three hundred celestial spirits, and six hundred terrestrial spirits. Each of them deputed representatives here below, who received the homage of mankind for him, and signified to them his will. The god revealed himself in dreams to his seers and imparted to them the course of coming events,* or, in some cases, inspired them suddenly and spoke by their mouth: their utterances, taken down and commented on by their assistants, were regarded as infallible oracles. But the number of mortal men possessing adequate powers, and gifted with sufficiently acute senses to bear without danger the near presence of a god, was necessarily limited; communications were, therefore, more often established by means of various objects, whose grosser substance lessened for human intelligence and flesh and blood the dangers of direct contact with an immortal. The statues hidden in the recesses of the temples or erected on the summits of the “ziggurats” became imbued, by virtue of their consecration, with the actual body of the god whom they represented, and whose name was written either on the base or garment of the statue.** The sovereign who dedicated them, summoned them to speak in the days to come, and from thenceforth they spoke: when they were interrogated according to the rite instituted specially for each one, that part of the celestial soul, which by means of the prayers had been attracted to and held captive by the statue, could not refuse to reply.** Were there for this purpose special images, as in Egypt, which were cleverly contrived so as to emit sounds by the pulling of a string by the hidden prophet? Voices resounded at night in the darkness of the sanctuaries, and particularly when a king came there to prostrate himself for the purpose of learning the future: his rank alone, which raised him halfway to heaven, prepared him to receive the word from on high by the mouth of the image.
* A prophetic dream is mentioned upon, one of the statues of
Telloh. In the records of Assurbanipal we find mention of
several “seers”—shabru—one of whom predicts the
general triumph of the king over his enemies, and of whom
another announces in the name of Ishtar the victory over the
Elamites and encourages the Assyrian army to cross a torrent
swollen by rains, while a third sees in a dream the defeat
and death of the King of Elam. These “seers” are mentioned in
the texts of Gudea with the prophetesses “who tell the
message” of the gods.
** In a formula drawn up against evil spirits, for the
purpose of making talismanic figures for the protection of
houses, it is said of Merodach that he “inhabits the image”
—ashibu salam—which has been made of him by the magician.
** This is what Gudea says, when, describing his own statue
which he had placed in the temple of Telloh, he adds that
“he gave the order to the statue: ‘To the statue of my king,
speak!’” The statue of the king, inspired by that of the
god, would thenceforth speak when interrogated according to
the formularies. Cf. what is said of the divine or royal
statues dedicated in the temples of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 169,
170. A number of oracles regularly obtained in the time of
Asarhaddon and Assurbanabal have been published by Knudtzon.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Chaldæan intaglio
reproduced in Heuzey-Sarzec, Découvertes en Chaldée, pl.
30bis, No. 13b.
More frequently a priest, accustomed from childhood to the office, possessed the privilege of asking the desired questions and of interpreting to the faithful the various signs by means of which the divine will was made known. The spirit of the god inspired, moreover, whatever seemed good to him, and frequently entered into objects where we should least have expected to find it. It animated stones, particularly such as fell from heaven; also trees, as, for example, the tree of Eridu which pronounced oracles; and, besides the battle-mace, with a granite head fixed on a wooden handle, the axe of Ramman, lances made on the model of Gilgames’ fairy javelin, which came and went at its master’s orders, without needing to be touched. Such objects, when it was once ascertained that they were imbued with the divine spirit, were placed upon the altar and worshipped with as much veneration as were the statues themselves.
