Home Site Menu Religion Menu Interesting Menu Humour Menu Guestbook Forum Email

The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria
By Morris Jastrow

CHAPTER XXII.

THE ZODIACAL SYSTEM OF THE BABYLONIANS.

Planets, Stars, and Calendar.

It will be appropriate at this point, to give a brief account of the astronomical system as developed by the Babylonian scholars. The system forms a part of the Babylonian cosmology. The 'creation' narratives we have been considering are based upon the system, and the omen literature is full of allusions to it. Moreover, the understanding of some of the purely religious doctrines of the Babylonians is dependent upon a proper conception of the curious astrological speculations which from Babylonia made their way to the Greeks, and have left their traces in the astronomy of the present time.

The stars were regarded by the Babylonians as pictorial designs on the heavens. A conception of this kind is the outcome of popular fancy, and has its parallel among other nations of antiquity. We pass beyond the popular stage, however, when we find the stars described as the 'writing of heaven.'[808] Such a term is the product of the schools, and finds a ready explanation if we remember that the cuneiform script, like other scripts, was in its first stages pictorial. The Babylonian scholars not only knew this, but so well did they know it that writing continued to be regarded by them as picture drawing. The characters used by them were 'likenesses'[809] long after they had passed beyond the stage when they bore any resemblance to the pictures they originally represented. The expression 'writing[Pg 455] of heaven' was, therefore, equivalent to 'picture of heaven.' The heavens themselves being regarded as a fixed vault, it followed that the movements observed there were caused by the stars changing their position; and the regular characters of these movements within certain periods led to speaking of the movements of the heavenly bodies as their 'courses.' It was furthermore apparent, even to a superficial observer, that some of the stars seemed fixed to their places, while others moved about. A distinction was thus drawn between wandering stars or planets and fixed stars. Groups of stars, the single members of which appeared in a constant relationship to one another, were distinguished partly by natural observation and partly as a convenient means of obtaining a general view of the starry canopy. It was such a group that more particularly justified the view which regarded the stars as pictorial designs. A line drawn so as to connect the stars of the group turned out to be a design of some sort. On omen tablets, geometrical figures are often found[810] and interpreted as omens, and it is plausible to suppose that the outlines presented by the stars of a group first suggested the idea of attaching significance to combinations of lines and curves. To connect these outlines with the pictures that formed the starting-point for the development of the script was again a perfectly natural procedure, although a scholastic one. The investigations of Delitzsch have shown that the more than four hundred cuneiform characters in use can be reduced to a comparatively small number of 'outlines' of pictures—to about forty-five. The subjects of these 'outlines' are all familiar ones,—sun, moon, stars, mountain, man, the parts of the human body, animals, plants, and utensils.[811] Association of ideas led to giving to the outlines presented by the groups of stars, a similar interpretation. The factor of imagination,[Pg 456] of course, entered into play, but it is also likely that the comparison of these heavenly figures with the pictures of the script was the controlling factor that led to identifying a certain group of stars with a bull, another with a scorpion, a third with a ram, a fourth with a fish, still another with a pig, and more the like. That animals were chosen was due to the influence of animistic theories, and the rather fantastic shape of the animals distinguished led to further speculations. So, eleven constellations, that is to say, the entire zodiac with the exception of the bull—the sign of Marduk—were identified with the eleven monsters forming the host of Tiâmat. The passage in the Marduk-Tiâmat myth[812] which speaks of the capture of these monsters through Marduk appears to have suggested this identification, which, fanciful though it is, has a scholastic rather than a popular aspect. Jensen (to whom, together with Epping and Strassmaier,[813] most of our knowledge of this subject is due) has shown[814] that of the twelve constellations in our modern zodiac, the greater number are identical with those distinguished by the Babylonians; and while it is probable that two or three of our constellations are of occidental origin, the zodiacal system as a whole is the product of the Babylonian schools of astronomy. From Babylonia the system made its way to the west and through western, more particularly through Greek, influence back again to India and the distant east. The number of constellations distinguished by the Babylonian astronomers has not yet been definitely ascertained. They certainly recognized more than twelve. Further investigations may show that they knew of most of the forty-eight constellations enumerated by Ptolemy.

The general regularity of the courses taken by the sun, moon, and planets made it a comparatively simple matter to map out[Pg 457] the limits within which these bodies moved. These limits impressed the Babylonians, as we have seen, with the thought of the eternal and unchangeable laws under which the planets stood. The laws regulating terrestrial phenomena, did not appear to be so rigid. There were symptoms of caprice, so that the order of the earth has the appearance of being an afterthought, suggested by the absolute order prevailing in the heavens. Comets, meteors, and eclipses alone seemed to interrupt this absolute order. As science advanced, it was found that even eclipses fell within the province of law. The course of astronomical science was thus clearly marked out—the determination of these laws.

The path taken by the sun served as a guide and as a means of comparison. Anu being both the chief god of heaven and the personification of heaven,[815] the sun's ecliptic became known as the 'way of Anu.' The division of this ecliptic into certain sections, determined by the constellations within the belt of the ecliptic, was the next step. The course of the moon and planets was determined with reference to the sun's ecliptic, and gradually a zodiacal system was evolved, the perfection of which is best exemplified by the fact that so much of the astronomical language of the present time is the same as that used by the ancient astronomers of the Euphrates Valley.

The sun and moon being regarded as deities, under the influence of primitive animistic ideas,[816] the stars would also come to be looked upon as divine. The ideograph designating a 'star' and which is prefixed as a determinative to the names of stars, consists of the sign for god repeated three times;[817] and in the case of those stars which are identified with particular deities, the simple determinative for god is employed. To regard the stars in general as gods is a consequence of animistic[Pg 458] notions; but the further steps in the process which led to connecting the planets and certain other stars with particular deities who originally had nothing to do with the stars, fall within the province of scholastic theory.

As the jurisdiction of gods originally worshipped in a limited district increased, a difficulty naturally arose among the more advanced minds as to the exact place where the deity dwelt. This difficulty would be accentuated in the case of a god like Marduk becoming the chief god of the whole Babylonian Empire. His ardent worshippers would certainly not content themselves with the notion that a single edifice, even though it be his great temple at Babylon, could contain him. Again, the development of a pantheon, systematized, and in which the various gods worshipped in Babylonia came to occupy fixed relationships to one another, would lead to the view of putting all the gods in one place. The sun and moon being in the heavens, the most natural place to assign to the gods as a dwelling-place was in the region where Shamash and Sin (as every one could see for himself) had their seats. The doctrine thus arose that the great gods dwell in the 'heaven of Anu.' A doctrine of this kind would be intelligible to the general populace, but it is doubtful whether a belief which involved the establishment of a direct connection between the most prominent stars—the planets with the chief gods—ever enjoyed popular favor in Babylonia. The association is marked by an artificiality and a certain arbitrariness that stamps it not only as the product of theological schools, but as a thought that would remain confined to a limited circle of the population. Jensen suggests[818] that the planets may at one time have been merely regarded as standing under the influence of the great gods, and that a planet from being regarded as the star controlled by Marduk, became identified with Marduk. It seems more plausible that the association should have been direct.[Pg 459] Even though the Babylonians may not have had any knowledge of the relative mass of the planets, in some way Jupiter must have appeared to them as the largest of the planets, and for this reason was identified with the head of the Babylonian pantheon, Marduk. In the creation epic, as we have seen, Jupiter-Marduk, under the name of Nibir, is represented as exercising a control over all the stars. Mythological associations appear to have played a part in identifying the planet Venus with the goddess Ishtar. A widely spread nature myth,[819] symbolizing the change of seasons, represents Ishtar, the personification of fertility, the great mother of all that manifests life, as proceeding to the region of darkness and remaining there for some time. The disappearance of the planet Venus at certain seasons, as morning star to reappear as evening star, suggested the identification of this planet with Ishtar. From these two examples we may conclude that the process which resulted in the identification of Saturn with Ninib, Mars with Nergal, Mercury with Nabu rested similarly on an association of ideas, derived from certain conceptions held of the gods involved. In regard to Ninib and Nergal it is of some importance to bear in mind that, like Marduk, they are at their origin solar deities, Ninib representing in the perfected theological system the morning sun, Marduk the sun of the early spring, and Nergal the mid-day sun and summer solstice.[820] The position of the planets Saturn and Mars, accordingly, with reference to the sun at certain periods of the year, may well have been a factor in the association of ideas involved.

The position of the sun, as the general overseer of the planets, led to the application of an interesting metaphor to express the relationship between the sun and the planets. Just as the human chiefs or kings were called 'shepherds,'—a[Pg 460] metaphor suggested, no doubt, by agricultural life,—so the planets were commonly known as 'sheep' or, as Jensen suggests,[821] 'wandering sheep,' and it is rather curious that Mars-Nergal should have been designated as the 'sheep'[822] par excellence. The 'service' in which the planets stood to the sun is exemplified by another term applied to them, which designates them as the mediators carrying out the orders of their superior.

Lastly, it may be noted that each planet receives a variety of names and epithets in the astronomical texts,—a circumstance that points to the composite character of the developed planetary system of the Babylonians. Some of these names are of so distinctive a character as to justify the conclusion that they arose in the different centers where astronomical schools existed.

The process involved in the development of the system is thus complicated by factors introducing views originally confined to certain districts, and it becomes doubtful whether we will ever be able to trace all the steps involved in the process.

Corresponding to the unique position occupied by the superior triad Anu, Bel, and Ea in the theological system, a special place was assigned to them in the astronomical system. Anu is the pole star of the ecliptic, Bel the pole star of the equator, while Ea in the southern heavens was identified, according to Jensen,[823] with a star in the constellation Argo. Anu, Bel, and Ea represented the three most prominent fixed stars, but by the side of these a large number of other stars were distinguished and many of them identified with some deity. For some of these stars the modern equivalents have been ascertained through recent researches;[824] others still remain to be determined.

The astronomical science of the Babylonians thus resolves itself into these natural divisions:[Pg 461]

The rivalry between the two great luminaries ends in a superior rank being accorded to the sun. Natural and indeed inevitable as this conclusion was, the scientific theory in the Euphrates Valley was presumably influenced to some extent by the circumstance that the head of the pantheon was a solar deity. We have seen that the tradition of this original character of Marduk survived in the popular mind.

Of the sun but little need be said here. As represented in the creation story, he was freer in his movements than any of the planets. He passed across the heavens daily as an overseer to see that everything was maintained in good order. As in Greek mythology, the sun was represented as riding in a chariot drawn by horses.[825] Scientific speculation advanced but little upon these popular fancies. The course that the sun took on the ecliptic was determined, and the ecliptic itself served as the guide for determining the position and movements of the stars. Under the growing influence of the Marduk cult and of such deities as Ninib, Nergal, and Nabu, associated with Marduk mythologically or politically, the old moon worship lost much of its prestige; but in astronomical science, the former independent rank of the moon is still in large measure preserved. In the enumeration of the planets the moon is mentioned first.[826] The moon is not a 'sheep' belonging to the flock of Shamash. The importance of the moon in the regulation of the calendar saved her from this fate. The beginning of the calendrical system, indeed, may[Pg 462] well have been of popular origin. Ihering[827] is of the opinion that agricultural occupations made the marking off of time a popular necessity, and this view is borne out by the early epithets of the months among the Babylonians,[828] which, as among the Hebrews, are connected with agriculture and the life of the agriculturist. The later names also bear traces of the same train of thoughts. Leaving aside details into which it is needless to enter here, the part of the calendar which touches upon the religion of the Babylonians is the sacred character given to the months by making each one devoted to some god or gods. In this association there may be observed the same curious mixture of several factors that controlled the identification of the planets with the gods. The theory underlying the pantheon and certain mythological conceptions are two of the factors that can be clearly seen at work. The triad Anu, Bel, and Ea are accorded the first rank.[829]

The first month, Nisan, is sacred to Anu and Bel.

The second, Iyar, is sacred to Ea as the "lord of humanity."

Then follows Sin to whom, as the first-born of Bel,[830] the third month, Siwan, is devoted.

The four succeeding months are parceled out among deities closely connected with one another,—Ninib, Nin-gishzida, Ishtar, and Shamash. Of these, Ninib and Nin-gishzida are solar deities. Ninib, as the morning sun, symbolizes the approach of the summer season, while Nin-gishzida, another solar deity,[831] represents an advance in this season. To them, therefore, the fourth and fifth months, Tammuz (or Du'zu) and Ab respectively, are sacred. Ishtar is the goddess of fertility, and the sixth month, which represents the culmination of the summer season, is accordingly devoted to her. As the last of the group comes[Pg 463] Shamash himself, to whom the seventh month, Tishri (or Tashritum), is sacred. Marduk and Nergal come next, the eighth month, Marcheshwan,[832] being sacred to the former, the ninth Kislev to the great warrior Nergal. The factors here involved are not clear, nor do we know why the tenth month is sacred to Papsukal—perhaps here used as an epithet of Nabu—to Anu, and to Ishtar. The eleventh month, the height of the rainy season and known as the "month of the course of rainstorms," is appropriately made sacred to Ramman, 'the god of storms.' The last month, Adar, falling within the rainy season is presided over by the seven evil spirits. Lastly, an interesting trace of Assyrian influence is to be seen in devoting to Ashur, "the father of the gods," the intercalated month, the second Adar. This introduction of Ashur points to the late addition of this intercalated month, and makes it probable also that the intercalation is the work of astronomers standing under Assyrian authority. A second intercalated month is Elul the second. This month is sacred to Anu and Bel, just like Nisan, the first month. The list, therefore, begins anew with the intercalated month. Such a procedure is natural, and one is inclined to conclude that the intercalated Elul is of Babylonian origin and older than the intercalated Adar.

It does not appear that the female consorts of the gods shared in the honors thus bestowed upon the male deities. Variations from the list as given also occur. So Ashurbanabal calls the seventh month, Elul, the month of 'the king of gods Ashur,'[833] while Sargon[834] assigns the fourth month to the 'servant of Gibil,' the fire-god, by which Nin-gishzida is meant, and the third month he calls the month of "the god of brick structures."[835]

In fact, the assigning of the months to the gods appears to partake more or less of an arbitrary character. Absolute uniformity probably did not prevail throughout Babylonia until a[Pg 464] comparatively late period. Nor does it appear that any popular significance was attached to the sacred character thus given to the months. It was the work of the schools, as are most of the features involved in the elaboration of the calendar.

In somewhat closer touch with popular notions and popular observances were the names of the months. Confining ourselves to the later names,—the forms in which they were transmitted during the period of the Babylonian exile to the Jews,[836]—we find that the first month which, as we shall see, was marked by sacred observances in the temples of Marduk and Nabu at Babylon and Borsippa was designated ideographically as 'the month of the sanctuary,' the third as the period of 'brick-making,' the fifth as the 'fiery' month, the sixth as the month of the 'mission of Ishtar'—a reference to the goddess' descent into the region of darkness. Designations like 'taking (i.e., scattering) seed' for the fourth month, 'copious fertility' for the ninth month, 'grain-cutting' period for the twelfth, and 'opening of dams'[837] for the eighth contain distinct references to agriculture. The name 'destructive rain' for the eleventh month is suggested by climatic conditions. Still obscure is the designation of the seventh month as the month of the 'resplendent mound,'[838] and so also is the designation of the second month.[839]

The calendar is thus shown to be the product of the same general order of religious ideas that we have detected in the zodiacal and planetary systems. Its growth must have been[Pg 465] gradual, for its composite character is one of its most striking features. The task was no easy one to bring the lunar year into proper conjunction with the solar year, and there are grounds for believing that prior to the division of the year into twelve parts, there was a year of ten months corresponding to a simpler, perhaps a decimal, system, which appears to have preceded the elaborate sexagesimal system.[840]

However this may be, the point of importance for our purposes is to detect the extension of religious ideas into the domain of science, and, on the other hand, to note the reaction of scientific theories on the development of religious thought. The cosmology of the Babylonians results from the continued play of these two factors. Hence the strange mixture of popular notions and fancies with comparatively advanced theological speculations and still more advanced scientific theories that is found in the cosmological system. Even mysticism is given a scientific aspect in Babylonia. The identification of the gods with the stars arises, as we have seen, from a scientific impulse, and it is a scientific spirit again that leads to the introduction of the gods into the mathematics of the day.[841] A number is assigned to each of the chief gods. And, though such a procedure has its natural outcome in Cabbalistic tendencies, we can still discern in the ideas that lead to this association of numbers with gods, influences at work that emanated from the astronomical schools. Thus the moon-god Sin is identified with the number thirty, suggested by the days of the ordinary month. Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, is number fifteen, the half of thirty. The unit in the sexagesimal—the number sixty—is assigned to Anu, the chief of the triad, while the other two members, Bel and Ea, follow as fifty and forty respectively. The dependence of this species of identification upon the calendrical[Pg 466] system is made manifest by the inferior rank given to the sun, which receives the number twenty, the decimal next to that assigned to Sin, while Ramman, the third member of the second triad,[842] is identified with ten.[843] Absolute consistency in this process is, of course, as little to be expected as in other semi-mystical aspects of the science of the Babylonians; nor is it necessary for our purposes to enter upon the further consequences resulting from this combination of gods with numbers. The association of ideas involved in the combination furnishes another and rather striking illustration of the close contact between science and religion in the remarkable culture of the Euphrates Valley.

There was no conflict between science and religion in ancient Babylonia. Each reacted on the other, but the two factors were at all times closely united in perfect harmony,—a harmony so perfect, indeed, as to be impressive despite its naïveté.[Pg 467]

FOOTNOTES:

Index | Next: XXIII. The Gilgamesh Epic