A History of Babylon, from the Foundation of the Monarchy to the Persian Conquest

by L. W. King

FIG. 72.

WINGED MONSTER ON ENAMELLED FRIEZE AT PERSEPOLIS.

(After Dieulafoy.)

The roots of the theory are placed in a purely imaginary age, where evidence for or against it is lacking. Thus the oldest monuments which have been recovered upon Babylonian sites are not considered relics of the early stages of Babylonian culture.[26] It is asserted that in the periods behind them there existed an elaborate and highly developed civilization, lying back in the darkness beyond the earliest extant records. In the total absence of material evidence, it is no difficult task to paint this age in colours which are shared by no other early or primitive race in the world's history. It is assumed that war and violence had no existence in Babylonia in this prehistoric time. Intellect dominated and controlled the passions of the primeval but highly gifted people, and in particular one form of intellectual conception based on a scientific knowledge of astronomy. It is postulated that a purely astronomical theory of the universe lay at the root of their civilization, and governed their whole thought and conduct. This was no teaching of a learned priesthood, but was a universally held belief which permeated every branch of the national and individual life. The theory in its perfect and uncorrupted state had perished with the other relics of its inventors. But it was inherited by the Semitic immigrants into Babylonia, and, though employed by them in an altered and corrupted form, has, it is said, left its traces in the later records. In this way the astral mythologist would explain the fragmentary character of his data, from which he claims to reconstruct the original beliefs in their entirety.

One such belief has been preserved by Seneca,[27] who, giving Berossus as his authority, refers to a Chaldean theory of a great year, a long cosmical period having, like the year, a summer and a winter. The summer is marked by a great conflagration produced by the conjunction of all the planets in Cancer, and the winter is characterized by a universal deluge caused by a similar conjunction of all the planets in Capricorn. The idea is evidently based on the conception that, as the succession of day and night corresponds to the changes of the seasons, so the year itself must correspond to greater cycles of time. Though Berossus is our earliest authority, the doctrine is regarded as a primitive Babylonian one. It is further argued that, even in the earliest period, the inhabitants of Babylonia conceived the history of the world to have been evolved in a series of successive ages, bearing the same relation to these aeons of the world-cycle as the year bore to them.

The theory of Ages of the World is familiar enough from the classical conception, first met with in Hesiod's "Works and Days,"[28] which profoundly influenced later Greek speculation. There is nothing particularly astral about Hesiod's conception of four ages, distinguished by the principal metals and showing progressive deterioration. But it is claimed that Hesiod's theory, and all parallel conceptions of World-Ages, are derived from a Babylonian prototype, Hesiod's Golden Age reflecting the general condition of prehistoric Babylonia. Assuming a close correspondence between the zodiac and the earth in early Babylonian thought, it is argued that the inhabitants of the country from the earliest periods divided the world's history into ages of about two thousand years each, according to the particular sign of the zodiac in which the sun stood each year at the vernal equinox, when the New Year's Festival was celebrated.[29] Although these ages are never named nor mentioned in the inscriptions, they are referred to by the astral mythologists as the Ages of the Twins, the Bull, and the Ram,[30] from the zodiacal constellations of Gemini, Taurus, and Aries.

This is a vital point of the theory and it postulates on the part of the early Babylonians a highly accurate knowledge of astronomy: it assumes a knowledge of the procession of the equinoxes, which could only be based on a very rigid system of astronomical observation and record.[31] But the ancient Babylonians are supposed to have been quite familiar with these facts, and to have traced a close connexion between them and the world's history. Certain myths are supposed to have characterized each of these world ages, not only affecting religious beliefs, but so obsessing Babylonian thought that they influenced historical writings. As the sun at the vernal equinox gradually progressed through the ecliptic constellations, so, according to the theory, the history of the world was believed to be evolved in harmony with its course, and the pre-ordained fate of the universe was slowly unrolled.

TWO VIEWS OF A CLAY MODEL OF A SHEEP'S LIVER, ANNOTATED FOR PURPOSES OF DIVINATION.
Brit. Mus., No. 90668.