The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

by Morris Jastrow

An eclipse happening on the 21st day, a deity strikes (?) the king, and fire consumes king and land.

From these specimens, the general principle of the section is apparent. Since eclipses portend public and political disasters of some kind, the compiler has carefully gathered oracles given on previous occasions to some ruler, or observations of the events that occurred at the time of the recorded eclipses. The apparently restricted application of the omens was no hindrance to their practical use. In the event of an astrologer being consulted with regard to the significance of an eclipse on a certain day, his list would furnish a safe basis for further prognostications, suitable to the political conditions that prevailed. But in order to meet all contingencies, other lists furnishing further omens for eclipses were added. The 22d tablet of the 'Illumination of Bel' series is followed by one[589] which, while dealing with the same subject, approaches it somewhat differently, and is based on a different principle. It begins again with the first month, and in twelve paragraphs takes up in succession the months of the year. Choosing for comparison the same three months, the third, fourth, and fifth, which we selected in the case of the 22d tablet, it will be seen that, while the references are again to public affairs, the prognostications are of a more general character and of wider applicability.

If in the 3d month an eclipse takes place on the 14th day, rains will descend and flood the canals. Storms will cause inundations. The soldiery of Babylonia will destroy the country. An eclipse on the 15th day indicates that king against king will send troops[590]. The king of legions dies. An eclipse on the 16th day signifies that the king will be slain, and that some one will seize the throne.[591] An eclipse on the 20th day means that the king will hand his throne to his son. An eclipse happening on the 21st day portends rain,[592] and an invasion of the enemy's land.

For the 4th month an eclipse on the 14th day portends that rains will descend and the canals will be flooded. Rains will cause inundations. There will be famine. A large country will be reduced to a small one. An eclipse on the 15th day portends that rains will descend, canals will be flooded, and there will be famine in the land. An eclipse on the 16th day portends famine for a year. An eclipse on the 20th day portends destruction of the king and his army. An eclipse happening on the 21st day indicates that there will be a strong wind that will destroy the riches of the sea.[593]

For the 5th month an eclipse on the 14th day portends rains and flooding of canals. The crops will be good and king will send peace to king.[594] An eclipse on the 15th day portends destructive war. The land will be filled with corpses. An eclipse on the 16th day indicates that pregnant women will be happily delivered of their offspring. An eclipse on the 20th day portends that lions will cause terror and that reptiles will appear; an eclipse on the 21st day that destruction (?) will overtake the riches of the sea.[593]

The vagueness of many of the prognostications is in all probabilities intentional, just as we found to be the case in most of the oracles announced to the kings. To predict rains during the rainy months was comparatively safe. The storms which visited Babylonia annually brought with them destruction of cattle. They conditioned the fertility of the country, but pestilence was often caused by the evaporation of the waters. Again, military expeditions were usually undertaken in the spring of the year before the great heat set in, and in a country like Assyria, it was safe to hazard a vague prediction that hostilities would ensue, and that some district would be diminished.

What may be called the 'eclectic' character of the omen series under consideration thus becomes apparent. The lists consisted, on the one hand, of omens obtained on certain occasions and with reference to some specific circumstance, such as a campaign against some country, and, on the other hand, of prognostications of a more general character, based on the general climatic conditions of the country, and referring to events of frequent occurrence. All that the scribes in preparing the series were concerned with, was to collect as many omens as they could, and to arrange them in some convenient order. Just as they prepared lists referring to military events, so they put together others in which some other theme was treated. The reports and omen tablets thus complement one another. The latter are based on the former, and the former were obtained by the interpretation of phenomena, furnished by the tablets and applied to the particular case submitted to the priests. We need not, of course, suppose that all prognostications found in the series, especially in those parts of it which are of a more general character, were based upon reports actually made, any more than that the official reports to the kings even in later days were always based upon a consultation of some series of tablets. Individual judgment, both in compiling a series and in interpreting phenomena, must at all times have played some part. The reports and the series also embody to some extent the results of experience not previously put to writing; but these considerations do not alter the general proposition set forth in this chapter as to the practical purpose served by the omen series as well as by the reports, and the pragmatic origin of both.

The importance of eclipses gave to omens connected with such events a special significance. Eclipses, however, were after all rare events, and while because of their rarity they always portended something of great moment, still the ordinary phenomena were the ones that had to be studied by the astrologers with great care in order to obtain a rational view of the relationship between the phenomena of nature and the fate of the individual or of the state. Again, eclipses, as a general thing, pointed to a public disaster of some kind, and this recognized belief lightened the task of the priest considerably in this instance. In the case of ordinary phenomena it was much more difficult to find the connection between cause and effect; and in the vast majority of instances when kings and individuals sought the temples for omens, the heavens must have presented a normal and not an abnormal appearance.

What answers were the priests to give to the questions put to them? Was it a favorable period for undertaking a military campaign? On what day should the king set out? Was the day fixed on by the council of war favorable for a battle? On what day should the foundation for the temple or palace be laid? Will the sick person recover? Should one set out on a proposed journey? Is the day fixed for a marriage auspicious?

Recognizing by experience that the same thing undertaken at different times turned out differently, in the one case being brought to a successful issue, in the other followed by misfortune, the conclusion was forced upon the popular mind (as already set forth above) that the day on which something was done or was to be done was of great moment.