Babylonian and Assyrian Religion

BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION. Baby lonia and Assyria are general geographical and racial terms which designate the eastern branch and habitat of the Semitic peoples, but their religion was essentially Sumerian, and consequently the religion of this earlier non-Semitic people, who founded the mighty civilization of ancient Mesopotamia, must be outlined first. The period of their entry into the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates is still beyond the scope of exact historical research, but great cities and cults were already in existence before 3 500 B.C., and there is quite clear evidence that they moved into the area from the eastern side of the Euphrates. Their legends re gard the lost city Der in Ashnunak 23 miles E.N.E. of Baghdad, modern Asmar, as the place from which the cult of Anu the heaven god, Innini the heaven goddess and her brother the dying god Tammuz, were transplanted to the great city Erech on the southern reach of the Euphrates. When we reach firm historical footing by means of inscriptions about 330o B.c., the Sumerian religion has already an elaborate pantheon and an intricate the ological system. The earlier stages of their religious evolution are obscure ; although a number of inscriptions from the picto graphic period exist, they mention no deities, and refer to no religious ideas. In this immense theological structure, which domi nated the religions of Western Asia until the last century B.c., and profoundly influenced both the Old and New Testament, no trace remains of an earlier stage of animism and magic ceremonies.

Sumerian Pantheon.

From the earliest period onward four principal deities were at the head of the Sumerian pantheon, Anu (Semiticized form of An), the heaven god, father of all the suc cessive series of deities, who is closely associated with the virgin heaven goddess Innini, the Semitic Ishtar, at Erech (see Arty). Enlil the earth god, and his consort Ninlil had their temple and cult at Nippur (see BEL). The water god (Ea, Enki) and his consort Damkina were worshipped at Eridu at the mouth of the Euphrates on the shore of the Persian gulf. Corresponding to this trinity, who divided the universe among themselves, is the unmar ried mother goddess Nintud, goddess of engendering, often called Makh, "the supreme goddess," and known to the Babylonians and Assyrians as the Belit ildni, "Queen of the gods." The the ological lists assign to her as many as 41 names, which describe various aspects of her divine activity. Of these the following should be specially noted : Ninkhursag, "queen of the mountain," by which the Sumerians meant "queen of the earth" ; in Babylo nian theology this means land of the departed; Aruru, goddess of childbirth; Mama, the goddess who created man from clay. There is a tendency to associate her with Enlil, the earth god, as her husband, but her virginal character is consistently maintained. The principal seat of her cult was Kesh, an unidentified city near Erech, and the famous northern capital Kish was also one of the principal centres of her worship. Special temples were erected to her in every important city, or at least a chapel was consecrated to her in the great temple of the local deity. Innini, the virgin heaven goddess, is only a specialized aspect of the earth mother, particularly as the sister of the dying god Tammuz (q.v.). To understand the deeper aspects of this religion a complete study of the character of the mother goddess under her various titles is necessary. She consistently represents divine mercy and com passion as opposed to the severe and wrathful characters of the male deities. When men sin the gods punish with terrible ven geance, but the mother goddess ever intercedes for them. The re ligious scenes on seals in all periods represent her standing in prayer beside humans, and interceding with a god on their behalf. To the very end of Babylonian religion, Nintud, Aruru, Innini, Ishtar may be correctly described as the mater dolorosa, the "Weeping Mother." Equally primitive, so far as the sources enable Sumerologists to trace the origins, are the two planetary deities Zu-en or Sin, the moon god, and Babbar or Utu, the sun god. Of these two the moon god, whose name means "lord of wisdom," was the more im portant, possibly through the fame and importance of the city of his principal cult, Ur on the lower Euphrates (see SIN) . Larsa, between Ur and Erech, was the centre of the older temple of the sun god, but an equally important centre in the north (Accad) was Sippar on the Euphrates. Larsa is the Ellasar of Genesis xiv. and both of these figure among the five or six antediluvian cities, with Eridu, Badtibirra (Pantibiblus), Larak and Shurup pak. (See SHAMASH.) It must be assumed, therefore, that both Larsa and Sippar are of Sumerian origin, but it is difficult to ac count for the existence of two principal centres for the worship of the sun god Babbar=Shamash (Accadian). There is a very definite geographical principle in the distribution of the principal Sumerian cults; each is confined to one great city, and the impor tant temple of that city was built to the deity of that place. In these great temples the chapel for the god's consort always joined the central chapel of the deity himself, and smaller temples for other deities often stood in various parts of the city. For example at Nippur there were temples for the mother goddess Ninkhursag, for Sin the moon god, Ninurta the war god, Enki the water god and many others, beside the spacious temple Ekur of Enlil the earth god and his consort Ninlil.

These six great deities form as it were the framework of the immense Sumerian pantheon of nearly 4,00o deities. But this scheme has another essential element, namely the sons of the earth god and the water god. The heaven god Anu appears to have been an abstract principle in their theology, and little attention was paid to his worship outside his city Erech, and even here his cult was less important than that of his daughter Innini-Ishtar. There were only two important schools of theological thought, those of Eridu and Nippur ; from Eridu and the water cult come most of the incantation rituals of the magicians, and this school taught the theory that man had been created by the water god, whereas the Nippurians tell how the mother goddess made him from clay.

Attached to the pantheon of the earth god Enlil are the two important deities Ninurta, the war god, formerly read Ninib, and Nusku the fire god; the two sons of the water god are best known under their later names, Marduk of Babylon and Nabu of Bar sippa, both of whom are originally connected with the water cult ; but for the later developments of their cults the articles under their names must be consulted. There was also a fire god, Gibil, attached to the Enki (water god) pantheon. Of special importance in the pantheon is the consort of the war-god, the goddess Bau, which is more especially her name as consort of Ninurta (under the title Zamama), war god of Western Kish, and Gula, one of the many forms of the great earth goddess Makh-Ninkhursag. (For her connection with the cult of the dying god see TAMMUZ.) All of these deities have many names describing the deification of certain aspects of nature under their control. Of special im portance and most primitive is the grain goddess Ashnan, also called Nidaba or Nisaba, worshipped as a type of the earth god dess and specially connected with the rituals of purification. There is a special goddess of wine, Ninkasi, and of the expiatory rituals, Ninkhabursildu. The place of the thunder and rain god in the old Sumerian pantheon is not clear. He was called Immer there, but is of little importance until the later Semitic period at Assur (see ADAD) .

The theologians divided the pantheon into two great groups, the Igigi or 600 gods of the upper world and sky, and the Anun naki or 30o gods of the lower world, or gods of the land of the dead. Nergal (q.v.) and Ereshkigal are the two supreme deities of the land of the dead, and most prominent of the Anunnaki group. The centre of the cult of the god Nergal was Cutha, the most northern of all the great city cult centres; but the cult of Ereshkigal does not appear to have been specially confined to any city. That is true of all the cults of the unmarried goddesses, for whose worship the provision was made everywhere, and every man had access to the divine protection of the great mother god dess.

Acceptance of the Sumerian Pantheon by the Semites.- The Semitic race entered into Mesopotamia at a period so remote that it is impossible either to fix definitely the stage of evolution which the Sumerian religion had reached at that time, or to say what deities the Semites brought with them. In any case the South Arabian Atlitar, god of the planet Venus, was identified with the Sumerian virgin goddess of Venus Ninsianna or Innini, and consequently became a female deity in Babylonia and Assyria, under the name Ishtar. It may be assumed that they also wor shipped the sun god Shamash, who was at once identified with the corresponding Sumerian sun-god, Utu or Babbar. Although about 2750 B.c., the Semites of northern Sumer finally became masters of Sumer and founded a great empire at Accad near Sippar, there is almost no trace of genuinely Semitic character in their religion. Only two of the important gods are ever desig nated by their Semitic names, Shamash and Nabu, god of wis dom, and they usually write these by their Sumerian ideographs. This is also true of the entire subsequent history of Semitic Baby lonia and only slightly less true of the later Assyria. The religion and the religious language, the temple liturgies, the theology, the official names of the various orders of the priesthood are Su merian, and the advent of the Semitic empire of Accad marks no change whatsoever in the history of their religion. The only seri ous disturbance in the theological structure of the pantheon was caused by the sudden rise to power of the Amoritic dynasty of Babylon under Sumu-abu, founder of the great line of kings which numbers among them the famous Hammurabi and Ammizaduga. But the Semitic language of Mesopotamia was always designated as Accadian, even the Assyrian scholars described their language as Accadian, and the designation of it as Babylonian or Assyrian is not exactly correct. From the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (2169-1870 B.c.) , a new element enters into the con ception of the pantheon. Henceforth the hitherto unimportant local god of Babylon, Marduk, son of Enki the water-god, as sumes a very predominant role in the theological works of that city; and since it became the capital of Sumer and Accad and remained so until the end of their civilization, the views of the great priesthood of Babylon naturally prevailed to more or less extent throughout the land, and especially in Assyria. To Mar duk they attributed many powers, originally attributed to older and more important Sumerian deities; Ninurta, the son of Enlil and original protagonist of the conflict between the gods of order and the dragons of chaos, suffered severe reduction of power in favour of Marduk, who became not only the champion of the gods and conqueror of the dragon Tiamat (see CREATION, EPIC or), but the creator of the universe as well. He becomes, henceforth, the principal deity of the rituals of expiation, acting as agent for his father Enki, and also in the late period he even assumed the sacred role of Tammuz the dying god, and became the subject of a myth and ritual of death and resurrection. There is a distinct tendency toward henotheism and even monotheism in regard to Marduk. But this elevation of the god of the capital was never recognized in the ancient Sumerian cities, such as Erech, Nippur, Larsa, Ur and Kish, which also continued to be great cities and theological centres as long as Babylon itself (see MARDUK).

The Temple Liturgies.

The principal feature of the temple services consisted in singing long liturgies, invariably in the Su merian language even throughout the entire Semitic period, al though they are latterly provided with interlinear translations in Accadian for the use of Babylonian and Assyrian laymen. In the early Sumerian period the temple song service consisted of single songs called ershemma, or song to the flute, or kisliub, song of prostration; but the schoolmen of classical times of the great Sumerian revival under the last dynasty of Ur and the kings of Larsa and Isin, finally evolved long and intricate liturgies for all the great deities, those to Enlil and the mother goddess prevailing in number. These consist of a large number of old ershemmas and kishubs, arranged so as to exhibit the theological ideas con cerning the deity and always of most penitential and mournful character. Each liturgy contains a hymn to the "Word of Wrath" of the god to whom the liturgy is sung, except in the case of liturgies to the mother goddess. There is also a long section called the Titular Litany, which mentions the Sumerian names of all the principal deities of the pantheon, each followed by a mourn ful refrain. The last section is a penitential psalm imploring the deity for mercy and peace. These long musical compositions were sung by the priesthood of psalmists, usually to the accompani ment of the instrument balag, probably a harp or lyre, although some render the word by tambour or drum.

The liturgical calendars for each great city prescribe the names of the liturgies to be sung on certain days of each of the twelve or thirteen months, as regular religious duties of the priesthood known as the gala, Accadian kale, priests or psalmists. Then liturgies concerned the universal sorrows of mankind and the dire vengeance of the gods with special reference to some calamity which befell the city in the past. Sometimes more than one full service is prescribed for certain days. The liturgies were also employed in services to avoid the consequences of evil omens ; in such ceremonies the rubrics indicate the places in the magic cere monies when the liturgies must be sung, and the same is true of ceremonies for the consecration of buildings and even for conse cration of sacred objects, such as the leather head of a drum. There is nothing apotropaic in the sense of magic in these musical services. They are arid hymns of praise to gods intermingled with pessimistic descriptions of human sufferings portraying the abject misery of life.

The Private Penitential Psalms.

The psalmists were also engaged in another activity of Sumero-Accadian religious life, which more directly affected the lives of individuals. A compara tively small group of liturgical Sumerian prayers has been pre served, which consists of psalms of private penance. They existed in the older Sumerian period, but only one of them has been found. Information concerning this aspect of the religion is obtainable from the literature of the Babylonian and Assyrian clay tablets, and here they are provided with an interlinear translation in Accadian. These are psalms of praise, confession and intercession, said in Sumerian by an official psalmist for a penitent, and they are' entirely free from magic ceremonies of any kind. Occasion ally these private penitential psalms consist in "part song" be tween priest and penitent, in which case it must be supposed that the layman belonged to the educated class and understood the liturgical non-Semitic language. The persistent use of Sumerian in all forms of strictly formal worship among the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Assyria is a remarkable precedent to the use of Latin in the Western Catholic Church.

The Rituals of Expiation.

The Sumerians and the Semites, who accepted so literally the religion of the older race, attributed most of their misfortunes to the malevolence of the demons. Demonology is a very important aspect of their religion, and although the tribe of devils is usually counted as seven, yet the texts name many more. The seven devils are portrayed as semi human monsters with animal heads (lion, panther, dog, sheep, ram, bird and serpent), and then there is the horrible winged monster of the devastating south-wind, and Lamashtu, the terrible female demoness who plagued women in childbirth. To them were at tributed the diseases, plagues and general afflictions of man. But they were the creations of the gods themselves. Lamashtu is described as the daughter of Anu, and the chief of devils utukku limnu is the offspring of Anu. Namtaru, the demon of fate, is the beloved son of Enlil. They are also said to have been created in hell, and cause desolation on high and misery on earth. "Bitter poison of the gods are they." They were in possession of the "curse," personified as Mamit, by which they obtained power over every man that sinned either by touching things tabu, by committing any ethical sin, or by any religious disobedience. The devils troubled sinners only, and if a man fell into the power of a demon, it proved clearly enough that he had sinned. His salvation depended upon the intervention of the powerful priesthood, known as the ashipu or magicians. Every man received at the age of puberty an official name, and by it was placed under the protection of a god, who was henceforth described as "the god of the man so and so." This protecting god dwelled in the man's body in some mysterious way, but any ceremonial or ethical sin caused the inner protecting spirit to leave the man, who at once became the prey of a devil. He was then said to be possessed by a devil, which usually manifested itself by some disease. Power over this demon had been given to the holy priests of the water cult of Eridu, who proceeded to curse the devil and enumerate a long list of demons and sins in hope of finding the "name" of the demon who had occupied the man's body and of the transgression which the man had committed. The incantations against the devils consist of endless descriptions of machinations of the demons, magic rituals and curses in the names of the gods. The rituals in which troubles are caused by ethical sins are particularly set forth in two great series called "Fire Rituals," the Shurpu series in nine tablets and the Magill series in eight tablets. They differ from the old Sumerian Utukku series, or incantations against the seven devils, in being almost exclusively Accadian, and referring principally to ethical and ceremonial sins or to sins committed by a man's father or one of his ancestors, while the devils are hardly mentioned. On the other hand the Utukku series do not examine into the causes of the trouble, but devote themselves to mythological matters, often containing hymns of great literary merit.

This priesthood of magicians obtained power over the demons by the curse in the name of the gods, also called Mamit, and by endless symbolic magic, such as tying coloured bands to the man's bed and breaking them in sign that the bonds of the devils were also broken. The most characteristic ceremony consisted in applying water, dough, herbs or salt to the body. By means of magic formulae the demon spirit was supposed to pass into these elements which were then wiped away. The Accadian verb em ployed for this act of covering and wiping away is kuppuru, the cognate of the Hebrew word for "atone," and thus constitutes a very vital element in the history of the Hebrew idea.

Closely allied to the purely magical rituals is the elaborate sys tem of medicine, always intimately connected with incantation. But the doctors asu are not consecrated priests, at least they were not of the same standing as the two great orders of psalmists and magicians and the prophets or diviners discussed below. There was, at any rate in the late period, a very serious attempt to study scientific methods in medicine, and it has been recently proved by extensive publication of Babylonian and Assyrian medical texts that they possessed a very profound knowledge of the medicinal values of herbal preparations and mineral products. Their text books on the antidotes for poisons, especially serpent and scor pion bites, are traceable to the twenty-first century, and those on the same subject in the eighth and succeeding centuries show no advance on the earlier texts. It is probable that the science was already considerably advanced among the Sumerians in the age of Dungi of Ur. There are textbooks for the treatment of the eyes, teeth, head, intestines, poisons, muscles and ulcers, but incanta tions are inserted to aid the treatment, and sometimes mythical hymns on the origins of the disease. Most famous is the legend of the worm which was supposed to be the cause of toothache. (See MEDICINE, PRIMITIVE.) Divination.—The third great order of priests are the barn or diviners, whose profession is said to have been founded by the antediluvian king Enmenduranna of Sippar. A legend states that all human knowledge had been written upon tablets before the Flood and buried at Sippar ; the prophets who could divine future events were par excellence the possessors of all wisdom and their secrets must not be read by the profane. There is little reference to direct oracles from the gods corresponding to the Delphic ora cles of Greece. A group of oracles of the late Assyrian period delivered to Asarhaddon, the king, by the Ishtar of Arbela by the mouths of prophets and prophetesses on political matters exists; but the historic method of obtaining knowledge of the will of the gods was by elaborate systems of divination, which are traceable to the early Sumerian period. The cuneiform tablets on these subjects are seemingly inexhaustible and form a great science in themselves.

Liver

Divination (Hepatoscopy) (q.v.).—Divination by means of the sheep's liver is the oldest known method of f ore casting events and is traceable to the age of Sargon of Accad, from whose reign a group of liver divinations has survived. The reason for assuming that the will and plans of the gods were revealed by various marks on the shriveling surface of a sheep's liver and by various physiological peculiarities of each liver, is not easy to define. Sumerian and Semite supposed that the function of the mind was performed by the liver, but there is no evident explana tion for the choice of a sheep. In case of the other leading method of divination, by astrology (q.v.), it is clear that the planets and constellations, having been identified with various deities, would reveal the will of the gods by their positions and astronomical phenomena. Planets were, however, often called "sheep which are far away," and there is clearly some cause to be sought here for the assumption that the divine mind was revealed in the livers of sheep consecrated to sacrifice, a theory which dominated the schools of diviners throughout all antiquity. Nothing of any im portance could be undertaken without obtaining the consent of the gods of divination, Shamash and Adad, by this means. The technical anatomical knowledge of the liver and abdominal organs was, therefore, accurate and detailed, as we know from several clay models of the liver designed for teaching hepatoscopy. The rules were derived in the simple and practical manner of keeping a record from generation to generation of events which actually occurred after certain signs were seen on the liver. Consequently a good many historical references occur in the textbooks on this subject of the utmost value for the historian.

Astrology

(q.v.).—Equally important and vast are the works of the bare priests on divination by the planets and constella tions and atmospheric conditions. This method of divination which is probably even more primitive than the rival system of hepatoscopy, is undoubtedly of Sumerian origin, and led to an astonishingly accurate knowledge of astronomy. Mars having been identified with the terrible god of the lower world, Nergal, was eminently a star of evil omen, but not always. The war god .Ninurta was identified with Saturn, Ishtar with Venus, Nabu with Mercury, Marduk with Jupiter ; and the entire firmanent of fixed stars was divided into a central band along the ecliptic assigned to Anu, and a parallel southern and northern band assigned to Enki and Enlil respectively. Each zodiacal constellation was identified with a deity, and all the other northern and southern constellations were carefully assigned to some god or goddess. Special attention was paid to the motions of the planets and their periods accurately fixed, and the tables for the phases and eclipses of the moon worked out with such care that eclipses could be prophesied. The standard work of the astrologers was known as the series, "When Anu, Enlil and Enki, the great gods, in their wisdom created the great decrees of heaven and earth," which numbers as many as 65 or more large tablets ; and there are sev eral series of purely astronomical works. The principles of fore casting are again derived from records of coincidences recorded from generation to generation and traceable to the remote age of Sargon of Accad.

Other Methods of Divination.

Oneiromancy or divination from dreams is well represented in the works of the barn priests, and there are several examples of necromancy. There are two famous examples of the latter ; the soul of Nebuchadnezzar ap peared to his second successor Nabunidus in a dream to inter pret a previous astrological observation ; and in the most impor tant work on Babylonian pessimism the ancient Sumerian ruler of Lagash appeared in a dream to Tabi-utul-Enlil the Righteous Sufferer to interpret two previous dreams. It was not uncommon for astrological omens to be seen in dreams, and one of great im portance to Nabunidus and his son Belshazzar was seen by a courtier. In dreams, great attention was paid to the direction of moving objects ; the right was always lucky and the left unlucky ; the principle of analogy is also widely employed to interpret the accidents of dreams. For example, if a man dreamed that he was discoursing with others and kept looking at the earth, it was in terpreted that men would speak lies about him. This is based upon the fact that mendacity is associated with lack of frank be haviour. Lecanomancy is represented by two large texts which gives omens from the behaviour of drops of oil in a basin of water.

Every trivial phenomenon of nature was seized upon as an indi cation of future events. The actions of dogs, horses, serpents, birds and fish, and above all the appearances of misbirths both human and animal, are studied with incredible detail. In the his tory of man, there is no such stupendous system of beliefs in man ifestation of the divine will in trivial accidents as in Sumer, Baby lonia and Assyria. There is an emphasis upon the animistic spirit in nature by which the barn priesthood completely dominated the actions of those peoples for 4,000 years, but it is in accord with their theory of knowledge and absolute abandonment to "Fate." The great series of tablets, numbering more than 106, concerning the ominous character of ordinary affairs of life, was known under the title, "If a city is set upon a hill they that dwell therein will not be happy." Sumero-Babylonian Philosophy.—The theories of knowl edge and the origin of the universe are not separable from religion, and it is not possible to speak of their metaphysics and ethics in the Greek sense. Water is the first principle of all things, and the gods themselves descended from the primeval water. Conse quently all their philosophic thought centres about the water god of Eridu and his sons Nabu and Marduk. The creative principle residing in water is called mamma, "word, creative form," and the deities of the water cult are identified with this creative word or logos. This idea of "creative form" is often described as "band," and the water deities are described as the "band of all things." The original meaning of mummu is undoubtedly "spoken word" of the water god, and the creation of all things depends upon the activity of this "word." The reality of anything is its "form," Sumerian khur, Accadian utsurtu, "design," and rests upon the idea that it is the divine concept of an object, which must be first conceived in the divine mind of the water god and then given tangible form by the creative mummu. The form of things is designated by the "name," as "basin, lion, tree, child," and nothing can be known except by revelation, the peculiar pre rogative of the barn priesthood. This doctrine of revelation and mystic monopoly of wisdom led straight to a priest-ridden ortho doxy. In practice a philosophy of this kind naturally led to a thorough fatalism, and the god of fate, Namtaru, is usually re garded as one of the seven devils. Occasionally the mother god dess Ishtar is designated by the Accadian word for fate, shimtu.

This theory of fatalism was not challenged by the philosophers, but a number of satires on the priesthood of divination prove that many did not believe in efficacy of omens, and it may be assumed that they also challenged the orthodox belief in the manifestation of divine plans by the most trivial accidents of nature. No important human plan could be executed until the diviners determined the will of god about it. But an important school of critics arose in Babylonia to deny this and claim the scope of man's will in the philosophical system. They did not go so far as to deny the theory of fatalism as a general principle. More serious, however, was their attack on the ethical side. The problem of suffering was investigated in several works, particularly in the so-called "Babylonian Job," and the "Dialogue of Pessi mism." They argued that if i.he gods control all things and are just, why should the righteous suffer? and a few thinkers carried their conclusions to absolute pessimism, denying that providence is just and that piety results in any rewards at all. The effect of this movement is seen in the rise of a belief in rewards after death and the invention of two legends which declared that man had been originally created sinless and given every opportunity to remain in a state of bliss. This he lost by his own ignorance or by the deception practised on him by a god, who wished to retain mankind in a servile state to serve the gods. It is clear from the religious texts of the very latest period, that the school of pessi mists never had much effect on the beliefs and religious rituals of the masses. But there is no record of persecutions for heterodoxy in Babylonia. The priesthood never retorted by violence, but only with apologetic works.

Participation of Laymen in the Religion.—The distinction between priest and layman is characteristic of this religion. The extremely few prayers of a strictly private nature are really'royal hymns of praise to the gods. This distinction is particularly noticeable in the conservation of Sumerian in all public temple worship. The layman participated principally in the expiatory rituals known as the "House of Washing," "House of Baptism," and especially the Enuru series, which consisted in ceremonies for expelling demons and averting evil omens by magic rituals of the ashipu priests, interspersed by prayers said by the layman in his own Accadian language. These are called "Prayers of the Lifting of the Hand," and contain the highest expression of re ligious fervour in the religion. No examples of this kind of litera ture have been found in Sumerian ; and it must be supposed that the prayers of these series which approximate most nearly to the Hebrew Psalms belong exclusively to the later (Semitic) evolution of the religion.

The Festivals.

The only important yearly festival in all periods was the New Year celebration, which occurred among the Sumerians apparently at the autumn equinox, and was so placed in the calendar (q.v.) by the Babylonians of the old southern city Erech to the very end of their history. It was known by the Sumerian word zag-muk "beginning of the year," and its occur rence at the autumn equinox is supposed to indicate an original system of beginning the new year at that time, although there is no sure indication of this in the oldest Sumerian records. From about 2400 onward the Sumerian month calendar clearly begins in Nisan shortly after the spring equinox, and this is the time fixed for the festival at Babylon, and in Assyria. The festival lasted eleven days, from the day of the first new moon after the spring equinox, and at Babylon consisted in a pantomime representing the creation of the world by Marduk and the episodes of the con flict between the gods and the dragons of Chaos. On this ritual the Epic of Creation (q.v.) was based. At this festival, whether as performed at Babylon, Erech or Assur, the old capital of As syria, an essential feature is a procession to a building outside the city, known as the "house of the akitu." The king must be present, at any rate, at the function in the capital, and being divested of all insignia of royal power by the high priest, he is momentarily reduced to the rank of a layman and openly humiliated. He then receives anew the royal authority at the hands of Marduk's priest. Thus the divine right to rule was yearly renewed; and so firmly fixed in the minds of the later dynasties of Assyria was this belief in Marduk as the source of all kingly power, that even the kings of that land, who then ruled all Western Asia, yearly renewed their royal warrant at the festival of Babylon. In the southern cities such as Ur and Erech, the Nisan festival was also in use, and consequently two new year festivals were held there. In these cities the ceremonies make no reference to Marduk and the local Babylonian Epic of Creation. There is evidence for this same kind of festival, characterized by a procession to the "house of the akitu" in honour of the local deity of every city, at other times of the year, and the old Sumerian calendar contains references to festivals of various deities in nearly every month. (For the two great religious epics of Babylonian Religion see GILGAMISH, EPIC OF, and CREATION, EPIC OF. Special details in ADAD, ANU, BEL,