![]() ![]() ![]() The city could not be great until it had found a great man. One of these monarchs, named Eannatum, has left a long inscription, boasting of the lands he had subjugated and the cities he had destroyed, naming among others Erech, Ur, Larsa, Gishku, Kish, and Elam.1 During all this period, when the city kingdoms in the south were rising and falling, there was in northern Babylonia one city of which little is heard-the city of Babylon. To this same period belong a line of rulers with Sumerian names, such as Lugal-shagEngur, Ur-Nina, Akurgal, who ruled at Shirpurla or Lagash, the ruins of which are covered by the modern mound of Telloh. This god has honors heaped upon him by the peoples of other places, and as Semitic civilization rose triumphant over Sumerian he was identified with the god Bel. The god whom he acknowledged was En-lil, to whom he dedicated a calcite stalagmite vase, which has come down to us broken into fragments indeed, but still able to witness to an ancient faith. The earliest king in Babylonia whose name 54 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA has come down to us was Enshagkushanna, the political center of whose kingdom was either Erech or Shirpurla, but the religious center was Nippur. We do not know so much as the name of any of its early kings, but the wide recognition in later times of its god would seem to warrant the inference that it had at one time exercised sway over a large part of Babylonia. In the southern part of this canal country, on the Persian Gulf, lay the city of Eridu, perhaps the oldest city known to us in the world. In these early days the name of Babylonia was Kengi-that is, "land of canals and reeds." Even then the waters were conveyed to the fields and cities in artificially constructed canals, while the most characteristic form of vegetable life was the reed, growing luxuriantly along the water courses. If the inhabitants of Erech could conquer the people of Larsa, was not this a proof that their's was the stronger god, and should not the conquered folk, or others who knew his prowess, also worship him? Herein we may discern the beginnings of small kingdoms, and the gradual founding of a pantheon. ![]() Impelled sometimes by ambition, often by hunger for bread, these petty kings conquered communities in their immediate neighborhood, and extended their sway. The god is so related to his worshipers that as they grew in wealth and power so did he. ❺» THE GODS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 53 In the earliest period known to us the central governing fact was a city, with a king and a local deity. ![]() g s u1 i V OA,* ö s hi û § 'S tfí B g A¿ y lté £ * z s o p j fc 1 û: o » z s -'S o 3 SX A^ AÍ THE RECOVERY OF A LOST RELIGION 29 after the first word divider, appear the two sets of signs exactly alike, thus: This is followed by the same word, but much increased in length, thus: ^ « i r x c m. Y s $ / £ h ir is £ aT ie ae H m V ^ AAa Y A as jM l ï £ ii ü. y Tï s/ £ ÀÀ u t J >£ n7 A>-' A>WÎ: V y tu * fc m H I A>~ A>- i, N/ AA / « AAA & « V s/ IS 5 S. T H E R E L I G I O N O F BABYLONIA A N D ASSYRIA, ESPECIALLY I N ITS R E L A T I O N S T O ISRAEL The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Especially in its Relations to Israel Five Lectures Delivered at Harvard University ROBERT WILLIAM ROGERS GORGIAS PRESS 2008 First Gorgias Press Edition, 2008 The special contents of this edition are copyright - A>- T. ![]()
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