A FEW SEMITIC MYTHS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2984, 24 May 1911, Page 90

A FEW SEMITIC MYTHS.

By Jessie Mackay.

VI.—FROM TEL AMARUA. The name of Sargon is familiar to Bible readers as that of an Assyrian warrior king who lived some seven centuries li.C. But there was another Sargon, whose name and deeds were covered by the desert sands for ages before his namesake lived arid reigned—a Sargon who cannot have lived much later than 40C0 n.c. This ancient conqueror, however, stands before us as an infinitely less shadowy person than our own Arthur of some 15 centuries back. It is a curious reflection that antiquarians are no' special product of modern development, fortunately for our knowledge of olden races. How many a student has blessed the name of NabuNahid (Nabonidus), the royal antiquary of Babylon, and who, contemporary with the middle kings of Israel and Judah, when the mighty power of the Land of the Two Rivers was on the wane, thought less of fortifying his kingdom than of transcribing on lasting tablets of clay the carefully-sought-out records of early Babylonian history. From these comparatively recent movements of Nabu-Nahid we gather The story of the first Sargon’s life and conquests with tolerable clearness, though it seems reasonable to believe that Sargon lived as long before Nabu-Nahid as Solomon before ourselves. From, these monuments scholars slate with certainty that Sargon I was a Semite who reigned over a Semitic city in old Akkad when the south of that land was still peopled with Turanians. While the tribe of Abraham was still, in all probability, fixed in the unknown cradle of the Semitic race, this Sargon or Shargani reigned as the mightiest conqueror of his time, the Charlemagne of Shinar, five and a-half thousand years'ago. And if any modern Thomas doubts whether there was a king of that name and time, let him repair to the British Museum and see there the hollow egg-shaped relic of pure-veined marble, stamped in most ancient but clear characters with his name and titles, and the inscription which tells that he had dedicated the precious object to the Sungod of Sippar. The Sun-god, be it noted, was ever the primitive deity of the purely Semitic races, the ancient preeminence of the Moon-god Sin being a mark of Turanian influence.

'Sargon I was King of Agade, a most ancient city, a little north of Babylon. In that early time, when the Semites were but feeling their way to ultimate supremacy north of the Persian Gulf, Sargon leaped; to fame as the conqueror of Babylonia, Syria, and "the four quarters of the world." At last be "crossed the sea" —no light adventure in 4000 8.C., and took the Isle of Cyprus, where he "set up images of himself" and carried away much treasure of the island. Here, in this bald record, there is history, one judges, but no myth. King Nabu-Nahid, however, has preserved not only the presumably historic record of his country's first empire-builder, but some of the legends which messed over his name, as they mossed over that of Charlemagne and Haroun Alraschid in other days. Among other tales "of Sargon I is his own supposed account of his birth. Like many other self-made men since, he takes pride, apparently, in being the son of nobody. True, "his mother was a princess of the land," but "his father he knew not." His infancy was threatened by foes in high places, and his mother made him a floating cradle closed with bitumen, and committed him to the River Tigris. In this he was borne to the care of his foster-father, Akki,' the watercarrier, or the "irrigator," as he is called in one translation. Reared by Akki to splendid manhood, he became a gardener. In this poem He is heard declaring piously and proudly, "And in my gardenership the Goddess Ishtar loved me." It is impossible to forget the close resemblance of this story to that of Romulus, and the leas close resemblance to these of Perseus, Paris, and other semi-divine or royal children of Aryan legend. Leaving 'the ancient King of Agade, we pass over many centuries to glance at a mass of writing, in one sense hardly literature, which gives us two glimpses of Semitic myths current 14 centuries B.C. One of the richest finds of modern Assynology was the discovery of the Tel Amarua letters in Egypt, these consist >of the official communications 0 f kings and governors of Egypt a.nd Assyria, at a time when the former had made herself paramount among the surrounding nations, notably in Canaan. These official documents throw a flood of light on the life of the t'line as well as the political situation in the days, perhaps, of the early Judges. Among this large collection of cunieform writings there are two brief tales or poems, which must needs rank as specimens of ancient Semitic literature. As usual, however, the Semitic individuality of them is largely discounted by the Shumero-Accadian (Turanian) character of Babylonia's borrowed religion. The first is a primitive tale of the wooing of a divine shrew, Eris-ki-gal the goddess of the Underworld. This terrifying persons is regarded by scholars as the prototpye of Persephone, though she little resembles in chai-acter the lovely s.pring maiden of the Greeks. Much more closely does she resemble the sombre Hela of the Norse mytbolgy, and also Hine Nui te Po, the Maori Queen of Night and Death'. The story begins with a feast of the gods, to which Eris-ki-gal cannot ascend, but at which she has a right to demand her share of honour and good things. For Eris-ki-gal, or Allatu (a name recalling the Meocan goddess Allat, and doubtless originally identical), is always accounted "a sister of the high gods," though removed from their night realms. Being asked to send a messenger to carry away her portion of the divine food, -she does so, and is mortified to hear that, while all the other gods stood ut; to receive her representative, one did

not rise. She demanded that the illmannered deity should be handed over to her for punishment, and this the gods granted. The recusant, however, was Nergal, the god of war, disease, and pestilence, and not a personage to be disciplined meekly. Ere the dark goddess could lift a hand against him, Nergal seized her by the hair, dragged her off her throne, and made as if to behead her. Eris-ki-gal knew she had met her master, and humbly entreated leave to speak for herself. '" Thou shalt be my husband, and I will be thy wife," she said. "I will place the tablet of wisdom in thine hand; thou shalt be lord, I will be lady." The placable gcd kissed her and wiped away her tears, saying that he would grant all she had asked of him. The two accordingly reigned over the dark world of the "dead. But the Babylonian myth is vastly inferior, one cannot help noting, to the beautiful Greek tale of Enna and its mystic daffodil which lured Persephone into the arms o-f Hades. The other tablet relates the experiences of Adapa, the favoured Son of Ea, who keeps his father's sanctuary in Eridu, the holy city. While fishing one day a fierce south wind whirls him into the water. By the power of Ea he "breaks the wings" of the storm-spirit, and for seven days the south wind is hushed. Ana, the god of the firmament, is offended, and summons Adapa to appear before the celestial council. Ea counsels his son thus:—"They will offer thee the bread of death : eat' it not. They will offer thee the water of death: drink it not. They will offer thee a robe : put it on. They will offer thee oil: anoint thyself." The young hero's appearance plainly mollifies the gods, who are willing to admit him to their immortal fellowship. All falls out as Ea had foretold; and Adapa faithfully carries out his father's commands, and refuses the heavenly banuet, far which cause Ann has no alternative but to send him back to earth. It is somewhat difficult to imagine the reason why Ea refused this immortality for his beloved son; but it is impossible not to note the strange idea which is almost world-spread-—that, a mortal who had entered the spirit-world could return if he did not eat the food of the dead. The tale of Persephone and the pomegranate seed shows how the Greeks shared this belief; and again Maori legend is here in agreement both with Semitic and Aryan myth. (To be continued.)