Such an hypothesis may at first sight appear strange, but the view that Eridu was colonised from Cush has been supported by no less an authority than Lepsius.[157] The boundaries of Cush are not defined, but they may possibly include the Land of Pun-t, from which certainly part of the Egyptian culture was derived.
Among all early peoples the most important times of the year must necessarily have been those connected with seed-time and harvest in each locality. Now the spring equinox and summer solstice south of the equator are represented by the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice to the north of it. If the colonists who came to Eridu came from a region south of the equator, they would naturally have brought not only their southern stars, but their southern seasons with them; but their springtime was the northern autumn, their summer solstice the northern winter. This could have gone on for a time, and we see that their sun-god was the god of the winter solstice, Tammuz-Nergal.
But it could only have gone on for a time; the climatic facts were against such an unnatural system,[158] and the old condition could have been brought back by calling the new winter summer, or in other words making the winter-god into the summer sun-god—in short, changing Nergal into a midsummer sun-god. This it seems they did.[159]
But why the further change of Nergal to Marduk? Because the northern races were always tending southwards, being pushed from behind, while the supply of Eridu culture was not being replenished. The religion and astronomy of the north were continually being strengthened, and among this astronomy was the cult of the sun at the vernal equinox, the springtime of the northern hemisphere, sacred to Marduk. Nergal, therefore, makes another stage onward, and is changed into Marduk!
It is also interesting to find that in Ninib, another sun-god, we have almost the exact counterpart of the Egyptian Horus. He is the eastern morning sun, the son of Asari (? Osiris), and the god of agriculture.[160]
I append here the most recent translation of the hymn to the sun-god, referred to in the Introduction:—
"O Sun (god)! on the horizon of heaven thou dawnest,
The bolt of the pure heaven thou openest,
The door of heaven thou openest.
O Sun (god)! thou liftest up thy head to the world;