Evidence that while the capital and entire state consisted of four quarters, the whole was also divided theoretically and practically [pg 334] into halves, is furnished by the significant fact that, from remote antiquity, the rulers of Babylonia also bore the title of “lord of Akkad and Sumer”=North and South, this term being, like that of “Four Regions,” a general designation for the whole of Babylonia and the first being obviously analogous to the Egyptian royal title: “King of upper and lower Egypt.”
I can but briefly indicate here some facts which prove that this ancient Babylonian centre of civilization underwent precisely the same evolution as that I have traced in America and India.
Assyriologists agree in stating that, at the beginning of Babylonian history, about 4,000 B.C., Akkad and Sumer, or North and South Babylonia, already existed and were inhabited by two distinct races of people: the non-Semitic Sumerians and the Semitic Akkadians or later Babylonians. In later times we find the region embraced by the Euphrates and Tigris inhabited by descendants of both races and forming the Babylonian empire in the south, the Assyrian empire to the northeast, while in the northwestern part of Mesopotamia, was the seat of various empires that were alternately the rivals and subjects of either Babylonia or Assyria (Jastrow, op. cit. 26).
Three distinct and rival cults are indeed found associated with these three centres of government, and when examined by the light of our knowledge of a parallel process of evolution elsewhere, their origin can be traced back to elementary pole-star heaven and earth worship, and what is termed the establishment of the districts of Anu, Bel and Ea. That at one period these separate cults peacefully existed alongside of each other is indicated by the joint worship of pairs and triads of divinities who were personifications of central powers, of the upper and of the lower regions. In order to demonstrate this statement I shall briefly cite some references to such divinities from Professor Jastrow's hand-book, taking them in the order in which they are enumerated in the famous Babylonian version of the creation of the world, contained in the fragment known as the “Creation epic” which begins thus:
“There was a time where Above, the heaven, was not named. Below, the earth, bore no name. Apsu was there from the first, the source of both (i. e., heaven and earth). And raging Tiamat, the mother of both (i. e., heaven and earth).” Apsu and Tiamat are synonymous and are personifications of the watery deep or abyss. “Apsu represents the male and Tiamat the female principle of the [pg 335] primæval universe ... the embrace of Apsu and Tiamat became a symbol of ‘sexual’ union.”
Tiamat was popularly pictured as a huge serpent-like monster, a fact of utmost interest when connected with the name Nakkash, i. e., crooked serpent, bestowed upon the constellation Draconis which contained the pole-star of 2170 B.C. Abstaining from comment I merely establish here the interesting point that in ancient Babylonia the serpent is found distinctly associated with Polaris as well as with the dual creative principle. The divine pairs Lakhmu and Lakhamu and Anshar and Kishar were then created. By an arbitrary division of his name into An and shar, the deity becomes the “one that embraces all that is above.” The element An is the same that we have in Anu and is the ideographic form for “high” and “heaven.” Ki is the ideographic form for earth and the natural consort to an all-embracing upper power is a power that “embraces all that is below.”
It is interesting thus to ascertain that on another tablet by the side of these personifications of heaven and earth are enumerated a series of names which certainly appear to be merely variations on the names or titles of the divine pairs. Lakhumu and Lakhamu occur on the list, and Anshar and Kishar recur as Anshar-gal, “great totality of what is on high,” and Kishar-gal, “great totality of what is below.” Then there are En-shar and Nin-shar, “lord and mistress” and a “Father-Mother of Anu,” titles which furnish an interesting comparison with the list printed on page 42 of this investigation.
Pagan authorities, cited by Professor Jastrow, relate that the first result of the union of Apsu and Tiamat was the production of “strange monsters, human beings with wings, beings with two heads, male and female, hybrid formations, half man, half animal, with horns of rams and horses' hoofs, bulls with human faces, dogs with four-fold bodies ending in fish tails.” Seen in the light of the present investigation these accounts and the sculptured images of such monstrosities, many of which have been preserved to the present day, may be accounted for in a very simple and natural manner. It is obvious that, once the Babylonian theologians had definitely adopted the theory and creed that the universe had been created by the union of the Above and Below, Male and Female principle, Heaven and Earth, or Upper and Lower Firmament, the production of allegorical images personifying or symbolizing this [pg 336] union would inevitably follow in course of time. The somewhat naïve but expressive combination of the form of a quadruped or serpent with that of a bird, and the adoption of winged bulls, lions and serpents, would have seemed a most appropriate rendering of the current idea of the dual, creative power, which might also be conveyed by two heads, or two horns. From Professor Jastrow's description of the case of a single monster, with four bodies and with attributes of the elements earth and water, we learn that not only the union of heaven and earth but also of earth and water was at times the task imposed upon the native artists by the fancy and imagination of minds dwelling upon the subject of the creative first cause. Postponing further discussion of the Babylonian and Assyrian symbolism of the Middle, Above and Below and Four Quarters or the “seven directions of Heaven and Earth,” I shall now direct attention to the most famous triad of Babylonian cosmology which figures at the end of the Creation epic. It consisted of Anu, Ea and Bel[96] and obviously personified the Above and Below and the link or central meeting place of these, the earth named Esharra, “the house of fertility” or E-kur “the mountain house.” We learn from Professor Jastrow's handbook that whereas Bel=the polar star (the secret god) and Nibir=the planet Jupiter (the later popular personification of Bel) were associated with the North, Ea was identified with the South (p. 435). Elsewhere we are told that Anu was identified with the North, Bel with the equator and Ea with the South (p. 460), a fact to which I shall again recur in treating of the territorial divisions of the state, which corresponded to the three divisions of the universe, the Above, Middle and Below.
The following detached statements concerning Babylonian divinities drawn from Professor Jastrow's handbook, show with what activity the fundamental set of ideas was developed by the native theologians and philosophers. Bel-arduk became the chief god of Babylon, the title “Belu-rabu” i. e., “great lord,” becoming identified with Marduk. As such he is termed “the king of heaven and earth” and the “lord of the four regions.” His dwelling was on the sacred “mountain-house,” the zikkurat, and is represented “with a crown with high horns, a symbol of dual rulership. [pg 337] As the supreme ruler, life and death are in his hands and he guides the decrees of the deities of the Above and Below.” “The first part of the name Marduk is also used to designate the ‘young bullock,’ and it is possible that the god was pictured in this way.” It should be remembered here, however, that on page 89 Professor Jastrow tells us how Nannar=the one who furnishes light=the moon, was invoked as “the powerful bull of Anu,” i. e., heaven. In this connection it is interesting to learn that in Canaan, Astarte, the goddess of night, was also worshipped under the form of a cow, and that in Phœnicia she was sometimes figured with horns, symbolizing the moon. In Assyria, four horns, denoting four-fold rulership, usually encircle the high conical cap of sovereignty, which also crowns the human heads of the winged bulls. It may be permissible to point out here what an appropriate and expressive embodiment of symbolism the winged bull appears to be; the form of the quadruped, combined with wings, clearly symbolizes a union of the Above and Below; the control over both being expressed by the human head which completes the allegorical figure. The high cap, with which the head was crowned, exhibits the form of a mound, and combined or partly encircled by two or sometimes four horns, obviously symbolizes dual or quadruple rulership. It thus appears evident that the winged bull of Assyria expressed, almost as clearly as the seven-staged towers of Babylon, the “seven directions of heaven and earth,” and was as appropriate an allegorical image of Assur the god, as of Assur the state, and of the royal power which conferred upon the supreme lords of Babylonia and Assyria the titles: “lord of the holy mound,” “lord of Akkad and Sumer,” and “lord of the four regions.”
The idea that some of the Assyrian kings actually embodied seven-fold power, or ruled the “seven divisions,” is further conveyed by curious groups of seven symbols, accompanied by the numeral seven, expressed by seven dots, which occur above their portraits on tablets which will be described further on. Whilst analyzing the royal titles and insignia represented on the stelæ of Assyrian kings, I shall likewise show how these complete the foregoing evidence and indicate that in Babylonia and Assyria, the seven-fold division was applied not only to the Cosmos, but to the territory of the State, to its social organization, to its calendar; and that the seven-storied zikkurat, the winged bulls, etc., and indeed, [pg 338] the seven-branched candlestick, were apparently designed as expressive of the general seven-fold scheme of organization.