Assyria, Its Princes, Priests and People Part 4

Education was widely spread in Babylonia; in spite of the c.u.mbrousness and intricacy of the system of writing, there were few, it would appear, who could not read and write, and hence, as was natural, all kinds of handwritings were prevalent, some good and some bad. Among these various cursive or running hands were some which were selected for public doc.u.ments; but as the hands varied, not only among individuals, but also from age to age, the official script never became fixed and permanent, but changed constantly, each change, however, bringing with it increased simplicity in the shapes of the characters, and a greater departure from the primitive hieroglyphic form. The earliest contemporaneous monuments with which we are at present acquainted, are those recently excavated by the French Consul M. de Sarzec at a place called Tel-Loh; on these we see the early pictures in the very act of pa.s.sing into cuneiform characters, the pictures being sometimes preserved and sometimes already lost. A comparison of the forms found at Tel-Loh with those usually employed in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, will show at a glance what profound modifications were undergone by the cuneiform syllabary in the course of its transmission from generation to generation.

In contrast to the Babylonians, the a.s.syrians were a nation of warriors and huntsmen, not of students, and with them, therefore, a knowledge of writing was confined to a particular cla.s.s, that of the scribes. At an early period, accordingly, in the history of the kingdom, a special form of script was adopted not only in official doc.u.ments, but in private doc.u.ments as well, and this script remained practically unchanged down to the fall of Nineveh. This form of script was one of the many simplified forms of handwriting that were used in Babylonia, and it was fortunately a very clear and well-defined one. Now and then, it is true, contact with Babylonia made an a.s.syrian king desirous of imitating the archaic writing of Babylonia, and inscriptions were consequently engraved in florid characters, abounding in a multiplicity of needless wedges, and reminding us of our modern black-letter. Such ornamental inscriptions are not numerous, and were carved only on stone. The clay literature was all written in the ordinary a.s.syrian characters, except when the scribe was unable to recognise a character in a Babylonian text he was copying, and so reproduced it exactly in his copy.

The clay tablets used by the a.s.syrians were an improvement on those of Babylonia. Instead of being merely dried in the sun, they were thoroughly baked in a kiln, holes being drilled through them here and there to allow the steam to escape. As a rule, therefore, the tablets of a.s.syria are smaller than those of Babylonia, since there was always a danger of a large tablet being broken in the fire. In consequence of the small size of the tablets, and the amount of text with which it was often necessary to cover them, the characters impressed upon them are frequently minute, so minute, indeed, as to suggest that they must have been written with the help of a magnifying gla.s.s. This supposition is confirmed by the existence of a magnifying lens of crystal discovered by Sir A. H. Layard on the site of the library of Nineveh, and now in the British Museum.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AN a.s.sYRIAN BOOK.

(_From the original in the British Museum._)]

A literary people like the Babylonians needed libraries, and libraries were accordingly established at a very early period in all the great cities of the country, and plentifully stocked with books in papyrus and clay. In imitation of these Babylonian libraries, libraries were also founded in a.s.syria by the a.s.syrian kings. There was a library at a.s.sur, and another at Calah which seems to have been as old as the city itself.

But the chief library of a.s.syria that, in fact, from which most of the a.s.syrian literature we possess has come, was the great library of Nineveh (Kouyunjik). This owed its magnitude and reputation to a.s.sur-bani-pal, who filled it with copies of the plundered books of Babylonia. A whole army of scribes was employed in it, busily engaged in writing and editing old texts. a.s.sur-bani-pal is never weary of telling us, in the colophon at the end of the last tablet of a series which made up a single work, that 'Nebo and Tasmit had given him broad ears and enlightened his eyes so as to see the engraved characters of the written tablets, whereof none of the kings that had gone before had seen this text, the wisdom of Nebo, all the literature of the library that exists,' so that he had 'written, engraved, and explained it on tablets, and placed it within his palace for the inspection of readers.'

A good deal of the literature was of a lexical and grammatical kind, and was intended to a.s.sist the Semitic student in interpreting the old Accadian texts. Lists of characters were drawn up with their p.r.o.nunciation in Accadian and the translation into a.s.syrian of the words represented by them. Since the Accadian p.r.o.nunciation of a character was frequently the phonetic value attached to it by the a.s.syrians, these syllabaries, as they have been termed-in consequence of the fact that the cuneiform characters denoted syllables and not letters-have been of the greatest possible a.s.sistance in the decipherment of the inscriptions. Besides the syllabaries, the Semitic scribes compiled tables of Accadian words and grammatical forms with their a.s.syro-Babylonian equivalents, as well as lists of the names of animals, birds, reptiles, fish, stones, vegetables, medicines, and the like in the two languages. There are even geographical and astronomical lists, besides long lists of a.s.syrian synonyms and the t.i.tles of military and civil officers.

Other tablets contain phrases and sentences extracted from some particular Accadian work and explained in a.s.syrian, while others again are exercises or reading-books intended for boys at school, who were learning the old dead language of Chaldea. In addition to these helps whole texts were provided with a.s.syrian translations, sometimes interlinear, sometimes placed in a parallel column on the right-hand side; so that it is not wonderful that the a.s.syrians now and then attempted to write in the extinct Accadian, just as we write nowadays in Latin, though in both cases, it must be confessed, not always with success.

Accadian, however, was not the only language besides his own that the Semitic Babylonian or a.s.syrian was required to know. Aramaic had become the common language of trade and diplomacy, so that not only was it a.s.sumed by the ministers of Hezekiah that an official like the Rab-shakeh or Vizier of Sennacherib could speak it as a matter of course (2 Kings xviii. 26), but even in trading doc.u.ments we find the Aramaic language and alphabet used side by side with the a.s.syrian cuneiform.

This common use of Aramaic explains how it was that the Jews after the Babylonish captivity gave up their own language in favour not of the a.s.syro-Babylonian, but of the Aramaic of Northern Syria and Arabia. An educated a.s.syrian was thus expected to be able to read and write a dead language, Accadian, and to read, write, and speak a foreign living language, Aramaic. In addition to these languages, moreover, he took an interest in others which were spoken by his neighbours around him. The Rab-shakeh of Sennacherib was able to speak Hebrew, and tablets have been discovered giving the a.s.syrian renderings of lists of words from the barbarous dialects of the Kossaeans in the mountains of Elam and of the Semitic nomads on the western side of the Euphrates.

All the branches of knowledge known at the time were treated of in a.s.syrian literature, though naturally history, legend, and poetry occupied a prominent place in it. But even such subjects as the despatches of generals in the field, or the copies of royal correspondence found a place in the public library. The chronology of a.s.syria, and therewith of the Old Testament also, has been restored by means of the lists of successive 'eponyms' or officers after whom the years were named, while a recent discovery has brought to light a table of Semitic Babylonian kings, arranged in dynasties, which traces them back to B.C. 2330.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Part of an a.s.syrian Cylinder containing Hezekiah's Name.

(_From the original in the British Museum._)]

The following is the transcription into the ordinary a.s.syrian Characters of the last thirteen lines of the photograph on page 104.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

By way of comparison, a specimen of Babylonian writing is also given here.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SPECIMEN OF BABYLONIAN WRITING FROM AN INSCRIPTION OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR.]

The following is the transliteration and translation of the transcription on page 105.

29. a-na D.P.[6] Kha-za-ki-ya-hu _to Hezekiah._

[6] D.P. stands for 'Determinative Prefix.' There are thirty determinatives in a.s.syrian.

The D.P. [Ill.u.s.tration: Symbol 1], the sign meaning 'heaven,' or anything in heaven, is put before the name of a G.o.d.

The D.P. [Ill.u.s.tration: Symbol 2], the sign meaning 'country,'

is put before the name of a country.

The D.P. [Ill.u.s.tration: Symbol 3], the sign meaning 'city,' is put before the name of a city, and so on.

30. D.P. Ya-hu-da-a id-di-nu-su nak-ris a-na zil-li e-sir-su _of the Jews they gave him as an enemy In a dungeon he shut him up._

31. ip-lukh lab-ba-su-un sarrani mat Mu-tsu-ri _Their heart feared. The kings of the country of Egypt,_

32. D.P. tsabi D.P. mitpani D.P. narkabate _the men of bows and chariots,_

D.P. sise sa sar D.P. Me-lukh-khi _the horses of the king of Melu??i_,

33. e-mu-?i la ni-bi ik-te-ru-nim-ma il-li-ku _a force without number they brought together and they marched to_

34. ri-tsu-us-su-un. i-na ta-mir-ti D.P. Al-ta-?u-u _their aid. In the sight of the city Altaku_

35. el-la-mu-u-a si-id-ru rit-ku-nu u-sa-a'-lu _before me the order of battle they had placed, they appealed to_

36. D.P. kakk-su-un i-na tukulti D.P. a.s.sur beli-ya it-ti-su-un _their weapons. By the support of a.s.sur my lord with them_

37. am-da-khi-its-ma as-ta-kan hapikta-su-un _I fought and I accomplished their overthrow;_

38. D.P. beli-narkabate u abli sarrani D.P. Mu-tsu-ra-a _the charioteers and the sons of the kings of the Egyptians_

39. a-di D.P. beli-narkabate sa sar D.P. Me-lukh-khi _together with the charioteers of the king of Melu??i_

bal-?u-su-un _alive_

40. i-na ?abal tam-kha-ri ik-su-da ?ata D.P. Al-ta-?u-u _in the midst of battle my two hands captured. The city Altaku_

41. D.P. Ta-am-na-a al-me aks-ud as-lu-la _and the city Tamna I besieged I captured I carried away

sal-la-sun _their spoil._

A flood of light has been poured on Chaldean astronomy and astrology, by the fragments of the original work called 'The Observations of Bel'

which was translated into Greek by the Babylonian priest Berossos. It consisted of seventy-two books, and was compiled for king Sargon of Accad, whose date is a.s.signed by Nabonidos to B.C. 3800. Another work on omens, in 137 books, had been compiled for the same king, and both remained to the last days of the a.s.syrian Empire the standard treatises on the subjects with which they dealt. To the same period we should probably refer a treatise on agriculture, extracts from which have been preserved in a reading-book in Accadian and a.s.syrian. Here the songs are quoted with which the Accadian ox-drivers beguiled their labours in the field: 'An heifer am I: to the cow thou art yoked: the plough's handle is strong: lift it up lift it up;' or again: 'The knees are marching, the feet are not resting; with no wealth of thy own grain thou begettest for me.' Some of the most curious specimens of this department of literature are the fables, riddles, and proverbs, which embody the homely wisdom of the unofficial cla.s.ses.

Here, for instance, is a riddle propounded to Nergal and the other G.o.ds by 'the wise man,' such as Orientals still delight in:

'What is (found) in the house; what is (concealed) in the secret place; what is (fixed) in the foundation of the house; what exists on the floor of the house; what is (perceived) in the lower part (of the house); what goes down by the sides of the house; what in the ditch of the house (makes) broad furrows; what roars like a bull; what brays like an a.s.s; what flutters like a sail; what bleats like a sheep; what barks like a dog; what growls like a bear; what enters into a man; what enters into a woman?' The answer is, of course, the air or wind.

Among the most treasured portions of the library of Nineveh was the poetical literature, comprising epics, hymns to the G.o.ds, psalms and songs. Fifteen of these songs, we are told, were arranged on the eastern and northern sides of the building, 'on the western side being nine songs to a.s.sur, Bel the voice of the firmament, the Southern Sun,' and another G.o.d. The mention of songs to a.s.sur shows that there were some which were of a.s.syrian origin. The epics, however, all came from Babylonia, and were partly translations from Accadian, partly independent compositions of Semitic Babylonian poets. The names of the reputed authors of many of them have come down to us. Thus the great epic of Gisdhubar was ascribed to Sin-liki-unnini; the legend of Etana to Nis-Sin; the fable of the fox to Ru-Merodach the son of Nitakh-Dununa.

The epic of Gisdhubar, as has already been stated, contained the account of the Deluge, introduced as an episode into the eleventh book. It consisted in all of twelve books, and was arranged upon an astronomical principle, the subject-matter of each of the books being made to correspond with one of the signs of Zodiac. Thus the fifth book records the death of a monstrous lion at the hands of Gisdhubar, answering to the Zodiacal Leo; in the sixth book the hero is vainly wooed by Istar, the Virgo of the Zodiacal signs; and just as Aquarius is in the eleventh Zodiacal sign, so the history of the Deluge is embodied in the eleventh book. There was a special reason, however, for this arrangement; Gisdhubar himself was a solar hero. He seems originally to have been the fire-stick of the primitive Accadians, and then the G.o.d or spirit of the fire it produced, eventually in the Semitic period pa.s.sing first into a form of the Sun-G.o.d, and then into a solar hero. His twelve labours or adventures answer to the twelve months of the year through which the sun moves, like the twelve labours of the Greek Herakles. The latter, indeed, were simply the twelve labours of Gisdhubar transported to the west. The Greeks received many myths and mythological conceptions from the Phnicians, along with their early culture, and these myths had themselves been brought by the Phnicians from their original home in Chaldea. It has long been recognised that Herakles was the borrowed Phnician Sun-G.o.d; we now know that his primitive prototype had been adopted by the Phnicians from the Accadians of Babylonia. It is not strange, therefore, that just as in the Greek myth of Aphrodite and Adonis we find the outlines of the old Chaldean story of Istar and Tammuz, so in the legends of Herakles we find an echo of the legends of Gisdhubar. The lion destroyed by Gisdhubar is the lion of Nemea; the winged bull made by Anu to avenge the slight offered to Istar is the winged bull of Krete; the tyrant Khumbaba, slain by Gisdhubar in 'the land of pine-trees, the seat of the G.o.ds, the sanctuary of the spirits'

is the tyrant Geryon; the gems borne by the trees of the forest beyond 'the gateway of the sun' are the apples of the Hesperides; and the deadly sickness of Gisdhubar himself is but the fever sent by the poisoned tunic of Nessos through the veins of the Greek hero. It is curious thus to trace to their first source the myths which have made so deep an impress on cla.s.sical art and literature. The indebtedness of European culture to the valley of the Euphrates is becoming more and more apparent every year.