“Complementing,” as Professor Jastrow says, “the cosmological associations that have been noted in connection with the zikkurat,” we find the inner room or sanctuary of the Babylonian and Assyrian temple named Papakhu, from the verb pakhu=to close. It was also known as the parakhu, from parâku=to shut off, to lock. “Gudea describes the papakhu as ‘the dark chamber.’ Professor Jastrow states that it was regarded as an imitation of a cosmical ‘sacred chamber,’ and from his book we learn that it was employed as an assembly room, or council chamber by the priesthood. It was indeed termed ‘the assembly room’ the ‘place of [pg 331] fates,’ ‘the court of the world,’ ‘the house of oracle,’ also as the ‘sacred room where the gods assembled in solemn council’ and ‘the chamber of fates’ where the chief god sits on New Year's day and decides the fate of mankind for the ensuing year” (Jastrow, op. cit. p. 423).
The Babylonian and Assyrian kings were the living representatives of the chief god and Professor Jastrow states that “it was into the papakhu that the priests retired when they desired to obtain an oracle direct from the god.... It is particularly interesting to collate the statements ‘that the New Year's day was the occasion of a symbolical marriage between a god and goddess,’ and that ‘the New Year's festival came to be the season most appropriate for approaching the oracular chamber.’ ” It thus appears that the papakhu was the sacred and secret chamber where the ancient kings and their councillors united to confer upon the government of the nation and decreed the irrevocable laws which decided the fate of individuals.
“The ‘decision of fates’ is, in Babylonian theology, one of the chief functions of the gods. It constitutes the mainspring of their power. To decide fates is to control the arrangement of the universe—to establish order.” The “tablets of fate” are repeatedly mentioned in the Assyrian epics where it is described how one god addressing another, “gives him the tablets of fate, hangs them on his breast and dismisses him,” with the words: “thy command be invincible, thy order authoritative” (Jastrow, pp. 420 and 424). It is evident that these words were supposed to convey the power to establish order and issue irrevocable laws.
The temple of Shamash (who, like Marduk, was evidently identical with Bel), situated in Babylon, was termed “the house of the universal judge,” and it is extremely interesting to find this “god”[95] represented on a stone tablet found at Sippar, as seated on a low throne in the sanctuary or papakkhu, of the temple El-bab-bara, while in front of him on an altar rests what Professor Jastrow describes as “a wheel with radiant spokes.”
A fine illustration of this tablet which bears an inscription by the [pg 332] king Nabupaliddin (879-855 B.C.) being published in Spamer's standard work already cited, I have been able to note the interesting fact that the “wheel with radiant spokes” exhibits four pointed rays, directed outwards and forming a cruciform figure, which, by the way, it is interesting to compare with the Mexican Calendar stone and its four rays. Each of the spaces between these pointed rays is filled by a group of wavy lines which appears to simulate some fluid flowing from the centre, which is formed by a series of concentric circles. The quadruplicate peculiar partition of the disk assumes special importance when it is realized that, in the niche above the head of Shamash, a miniature production of the disk recurs between the familiar conventional images of the moon and a disk containing eight rays or spokes. According to Dr. Felix von Luschan (Mitth. aus der vorderasiat. Abth. der Kgl. Museen, Heft xi, p. 24), the inscription opens with the invocation to “ilu Sin, ilu Shamash u ilu Ishtar,” a fact of double interest, because Ishtar is termed the “twin-sister of Shamash” in an Assyrian hymn, and because the inscription obviously identifies the moon as the symbol of Sin, the four-spoked wheel as that of Shamash and the eight-spoked wheel as that of Ishtar. As the king, in his inscriptions expressly states that he has restored on the tablet the image of Shamash according to an ancient model, for the guidance of future artists, it is evident that departures from the original cult of Shamash had taken place in his time and that he was making an attempt to reëstablish it. The extreme antiquity of the cult of Shamash may, indeed, be inferred from the fact that about B.C. 1850, the king, Shamsi-ramann, bore the god's name as a divine title. About B.C. 1350, moreover, a temple was built to Shamash in Ashur.
I shall treat, further on, of the evidences showing that the cult of Polaris gradually became a secret one known to the initiated only, while popular worship was directed to the sun, moon, and morning and evening stars, etc. Meanwhile the following passages from Professor Jastrow's hand-book will elucidate the Babylonian Assyrian cult of the Four Quarters.
“The zikkurat was quadrangular in shape. The orientation of the four corners towards the four cardinal points was approximate. Inasmuch as the rulers of Babylon from a very early period call themselves ‘king of the four regions,’ it has been supposed that [pg 333] the quadrangular shape was chosen designedly.”... “The title ‘king of the four regions’ was an old one that pertained to the kings of Agade.... The city of Arbela, at one time the seat of the cult of Ishtar, was named ‘the four-god city.’ ” This name is particularly interesting when it is remembered that the Babylonian and Assyrian word for god and mountain was identical and that this identity may account for the Chinese employment of the term “four mountains,” to express also the four provinces and their chiefs. Professor Jastrow informs us, in a note, that the name Arbela is, more precisely, Arba-ilu, signifying “city of the four-fold divinity” or “four-god” city and invites comparison to the Palestinian form Kiryath-arba, “four-city.” He suggests that this name may perhaps likewise signify a city of four gods, but adds that it has commonly been explained as meaning four roads or four quarters (op. cit. 203).
The ancient pagan authorities inform us that the ancient city of Babylon was laid out in the form of a perfect square, the sides of which were oriented to the cardinal points. A massive wall enclosed the entire city and the river Euphrates divided it into halves, united by a bridge, each half being again subdivided by the main street leading to the bridge. A series of streets ran parallel to the river through the city and were crossed at right angles by others, the result being that 625 blocks or squares of building were thus formed.
There is positive evidence that the capital city of Lagash or Shir-pur-la was divided into four sections, the separate names of which were Girsu, Uru-alaga, Ninâ and Gish-Galla or Erim, the reading of the latter name being doubtful. The circumstance that each of these quarters had its “divinity” and was ruled by its earthly representative, explains the term “four-god city” or “four city” found associated with other capitals of Babylonia.
The existence of a central ruler who exercised supreme authority over the four quarters of the capital, and by extension over the “four provinces” is amply proven by the title of the Babylonian kings, i. e., the “king of the four regions.” An interesting oracle, addressed to king Esar-Haddon is found to contain the statement that “Ashur has given him the four ends of the earth” (Jastrow, op. cit. 345).