The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria |
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The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria THEOPHILUS G. (THEOPHILUS GO. PINCHES No preview available - 2025 |
Common terms and phrases
Abyss Addu Agadé Amorites Amurrū Anšar apparently Apsū Aruru Aššur Baby Babylon Babylonians and Assyrians Bêl Bel-Merodach Bêltu Belus Berosus bilingual Borsippa called Chaldæan chief consort creation creation-story Damascius Damkina deity dialectic E-sagila earth edimmu Enki Enki-du Enu-rêštū Erech Ereš-ki-gal Eridu evil fate father Gilgameš given glorious goddess gods of heaven Hadad Hades head heavenly bodies Hebrew holy identified with Nirig incantation inscriptions Ištar Jastrow king labartu lady Lagaš Lahmu land legend list of gods lonian lord mankind meaning Merodach messenger monotheism moon mountain Mummu namtaru Nannar naturally Nebo Nergal Nerigal Niffer Nin-Girsu Nina non-Semitic Nudimmud Nusku older Bel origin pantheon period Persephone planets probably Rammānu referred regarded religion religious system Rimmon Šamaš seat seems Semitic Babylonian shrine Sippar spirit spouse star Sumerian Sumero-Akkadian sun-god tablet Tammuz temple temple-tower things thou Tiawath tion utukku whilst word worship Zēr-panîtum zikkurat
Popular passages
Page 41 - All this, he says, was an allegorical description of nature. For the whole universe consisting of moisture, and animals being continually generated therein; the deity (Belus), above-mentioned, cut off his own head; upon which the other gods mixed the blood, as it gushed out, with the earth ; and from thence men were formed. On this account it is that men are rational and partake of divine knowledge.
Page 113 - ... and it returned. I sent forth a swallow, and it left, The swallow went, it turned about, But there was no resting-place, and it returned. I sent forth a raven, and it left, The raven went, the rushing of the waters it saw, It ate, it waded, it croaked, it did not return. I sent forth (the animals) to the four winds, I poured out a libation, I made an offering on the peak of the mountain...
Page 92 - Serapis with a non-Egyptian halo, the dress and armour of a Roman soldier, etc. Anubis and Ophoi's, guarding a tomb near Alexandria, are represented in similar fashion; one of them, with the lower part of his body in the form of a serpent, may possibly be explained as a curious reminiscence of the serpent in the underworld (p. 105) ; it is again quite a new liberty. The strange degeneration of the sacred uraeus serpent on the same tomb is equally non-Egyptian. Still bolder innovations can be found...
Page 41 - ... are entirely wanting. Berosus' narrative fills the gap. It is noteworthy that this portion of the narrative has been preserved by Abydenus, George the Syncellus, and Eusebius, in their quotations from Berosus. According to this Chaldaean writer, there was a woman named Omoroca, or, in Chaldaean, Thalatth (apparently a mistake for Thauatth, ie Tiawath), whose name was equivalent to the Greek Thalassa, the sea. It was she who had in her charge all the strange creatures then existing. At this period,...
Page 51 - Berosus,1 who referred to the deity as " a creature endowed with reason, with a body like that of a fish, with feet below like those of a man, with a fish's tail".
Page 39 - ... with spear, bow and arrow, and filled his body with the darting flames of the lightning. He placed the Four Winds, so that the Demon should not escape, and in the end Tiamat was caught in the net of Merodach and slain. Her body — the great waste or chaos of waters — was divided, one part being made into a covering for the heavens — " the waters above the firmament " — the other remaining on earth — " the waters under the firmament.
Page 118 - Babylonians of old looked upon the host of gods whom they worshipped. What may be the date of this document is uncertain, but as the colophon seems to describe it as a copy of an older inscription, it may go back as far as 2000 years BC This is the period at which the name Yaum-ilu "Jah is God," is found, together with numerous references to ilu as the name for the one great god, and is also, roughly, the date of Abraham, who, it may be noted, was a Babylonian of Ur of the Chaldees.
Page 79 - Nerigal thereupon took her, kissed her, and wiped away her tears, saying, "Whatever thou hast asked me for months past now receives assent.
Page 120 - ... spirit cannot be stirred in all its depths, and fixed at all its heights, by the prospect of watching the mighty chaos of the Chinese mind, just in order to fathom its everlasting channels, and to discover its ground stream, that thus he may open a passage for future Missionaries, and pave the way for the moving of the Spirit of God upon the face of the dark waters, he is not the man for China. Yea, unless he can discern unspeakable glory in the foundation stone of the spiritual temple, which...