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SOPHIA OF WISDOM III - MARDUK
SOPHIA OF WISDOM III
THE SOPHIA OF ALL SOPHIA OF WISDOMS
AKA
CAROLINE E. KENNEDY____________________________________
APRIL 19, 2007
THE ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN CAPITAL CITY
Reflection and navel of the world (1)
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Professor Stefan Maul, University of Heidelberg
Text translated by Thomas Lampert, Ph.D., Berlin, Germany
Translators' note: There are a number of diacritical marks throughout the text (in the Sumerian and Akkadian words.) As the HTML format does not support these diacritical characters, they have been marked as follows:
1. '*' (an asterisk) after a consonant (a,e,i,u) means that there should be a straight line over that consonant
2. '_' (an underscore) following an 's' means the 's' should have a small "V" shape over it
3. '_' (an underscore) following an 'h' means that the 'h' should have a little crescent or "U" shape beneath it.
Diacritical marks appear in plain text and italics, with capital letters and small, and in the body of the text as well as in the footnotes.
If one compares Akkadian concepts designating "past" and "future" with their respective German or English counterparts, one immediately makes an astonishing discovery.2 The etymology of Akkadian concepts for "earlier" [pa*n, pa*na, pa *na *nu(m); pa*ni, pa*nu(m)] or for "earlier time," the "past" [pa *na *tu; pa*ni*tu(m), pa*nu*] indicates that these concepts are derived from the Akkadian pa*num or "front," in the plural pa *n u* or "face."3 The Sumerian corrolary to Akkadian concepts of the past (such as pa *na, pa *na *nu, pa *ni *tu etc. and marh_ru(m)) is formed through the word "i g i ," which means "eye" and also "face," and thus "front" in the figurative sense.4 The same is true of Akkadian concepts designating the "future": the words (w)arka, (w)arka*nu(m), (w)arki , meaning "later" or "afterwards," (w)arku(m), meaning "future," and (w)arki*tu(m), meaning "later," "later time," or the "future," are derived from (w)arkatu(m), meaning "back, behind." The corresponding Sumerian concepts (e g e r , m u r g u, b a r ) also mean "rear" and "backside." Without addressing in any more depth here a problem which is of great importance in understanding Mesopotamian culture -- its conceptual particularity -- it is clear that from the perspective of a Babylonian, the past lay before him or "faced him," while the future (warki*tum) was conceived as lying behind him. In our own modern conceptual world, the opposite seems to be self-evident: we look into the future, while the past lies behind us. Continuing with this line of thought, we might say that while we proceed along a temporal axis "headed towards the future," the Mesopotamians, although they also moved on a temporal axis in the direction of the future, did so with their gaze directed towards the past. The Mesopotamians proceeded, so to speak, "with their backs forward," that is, facing backwards into the future. Without wanting to overburden this image, one could say that the aftention of Mesopotamian culture was directed towards the past and thus ultimately towards the origins of all existence.
The interest of Mesopotamian culture in its own past was, in fact, omnipresent: Babylonian and Mesopotamian kings legitimated themselves not only through the fact that they came from ancient ruling families, but emphasized that they came "from the eternal seed,"5 from "the precious seed dating from the time before the flood,"6 from "families of primeval times."7 According to myths as well, the gods created "the king" directly following the creation of humans so that he could guide humans correctly.8 The duty of a king consisted of protecting the world as it has been ordered by the gods during creation and of restoring it to that condition. Thus in Mesopotamia, reforms were fundamentally understood as the re-establishment of an original order which had, in the course of time, become brittle or fragile. The ideal image of society and the state, the utopia of Mesopotamians, was always located in primeval history, rather than in the future.
Even the inscriptions of Babylonian and Assyrian kings in the last pre-Christian millennium were written in an artificial language, one which was itself based on the ancient Akkadian language of the beginning of the second millennium BC and which in the first millennium BC was understood as classical. The official inscriptions of the neo- Babylon ian kings of the 6th century BC were, in addition to this, often written in ancient cuneiform figures which had been used in everyday life more than 1500 years earlier.9 Scribes of the first millennium BC compiled -- like modern Assyriologists -- paleographic character-lists10, and completed facsimiles of clay tablets, which were so well done that occasionally modern Assyriologists have been fooled about the true age of these documents.11 Assurbanipal, the highly learned neo-Assyrian king, boasted that he was capable of deciphering inscriptions "from before the Flood."12 Sumerian, which is probably the oldest language of the Mesopotamian cultures and is not related to any known language, was viewed around the birth of Christ -- 2000 years after it had ceased to exist as a spoken language -- as a sacred language in which one spoke to the Gods.13 in the final pre-Christian centuries, Sumerian texts which had already been written in the 3rd Millennium BC were still essential elements of polytheistic cults.14
This interest in the past, however, manifested itself not only in the use of language and writing, but was evident in material culture as well. Astonishing for the modern reader are the not infrequent descriptions in neo-Babylonian royal inscriptions of extensive archeological excavations in ancient, often dilapidated temple districts, which were undertaken on behalf of the king in order to uncover the remains of the foundations of ancient, in part long forgotten cultic institutions.15 The goal of such excavations was to restore these temples to their original condition, without deviating "an eyelash"16 from the ancient, original plan.17
Our initial presumption regarding Akkadian temporal concepts -- that the attention of Mesopotamian culture was directed towards the past and thus ultimately towards the origins of existence -_ is confirmed in royal architectural inscriptions, which often emphasized the intention of recreating conditions from "the days of eternity."18 The concept frequently used here (ki-bi-s_e gi4 = ana as_ri*s_u turru), which dictionaries translate correctly, if somewhat imprecisely, as "to recreate" or "to restore" suggests this as well. Translated literally, the term means "to lead (something) back to its allotted place." Implicit in this is the Mesopotamian notion that all things in the cosmos -- and this was by no means limited to natural objects -- had a secure, inalterable place given to them by the gods during creation.
A glance at Mesopotamia's numerous myths -- many which have received little attention in evaluating the cultural self~understanding of Mesopotamia -- readily illustrates that in fact all cultural achievements, be they in architecture, writing, goldsmithing or carpentry, etc., were regarded as revelations from the God Ea, who was thought to have given them to humans at the beginning of time. Berossos, a Marduk- priest from the 3rd century BC who sought in his Babyloniaka19 (written in Greek) to bring the history and culture of ancient Babylon closer to the Hellenic world, also regarded this self-understanding as essential to Babylonian culture. According to Berossos, in the first year of the world -- that is, immediately after the creation of the heavens, the earth, and human beings -- a fish-shaped being named Oannes 20 stepped out of the Persian Gulf and "(taught) humans writing and the various other arts, the building of cities and the founding of temples... whatever was useful for domestic life in this world was passed on to humans by him (that is, the "animal" Oannes); and since that time, no other forms have been invented by anyone else."21 According to this idea, the founding of a Babylonian temple goes back to primeval divine inspiration.22 An only recently discovered myth from the early 2nd millennium BC indicates that Berossos had not misunderstood Babylonian culture, nor referred only to a perspective typical of later times. This myth23 describes the primeval history of Eanna, the highest temple in Uruk. Although it had been restored hundreds of times, this (really existing, visible) temple was, according to the text, regarded as originally not the work of humans, but rather of An, the God of the heavens, who was forced by his daughter Inanna-Is_tar to give up his heavenly palace and to settle on earth so that his temple there could serve as the Goddess' earthly residence.24
This primeval quality, however, was not only claimed for the social order, cultural achievements and temples, but also for entire cities. This is best illustrated by Babylon. Enu*ma elis_ 25, the so-called epic of world-creation, describes how Marduk, after defeating the elemental forces of chaos, creates the world. Marduk, who through his "skillfulness" 26 creates humans, is chosen by the gods to be their king, and they erect for him as a residence and a shrine Babylon, along with Esagil and all the other shrines, which themselves become part of the act of creation -- indeed, according to text, represent the completion of it. Esagil is, according to the Enu*ma elis_, not only Marduk's residence, but the home of all Gods, whom Marduk had promised to take care of.
According to the Enu*ma elis_, the location and form of Marduk's temple was not chosen arbitrarily. The gods built their king's residence at the place from which all life ultimately originated and upon which Marduk himself was born and humans were created. They erected the shrine itself on the apsu_, on which Ea -- already in the pre- world -- had built his residence27, on the location which Marduk came from and which, in the actual historical temple complex of Esagil, had been the residence of the Ea realiter. Esagil was regarded as the reflection of Ea's palace in the apsu_, as well as the reflection of An's heavenly palace, which was thought to be located over Esagil.28 Each of the three cosmic domains - the heavens, the surface of the earth and the earth itself - was, according to this idea, ruled by a palace of the gods. Together, all three palaces formed a vertical axis, at the center of which lay Babylon and the temple of Marduk. Esagil is explicitly characterized as the support and connection of the apsu_ -- the earthly horizon -- with the heavens. The shrine Esagil and the city Babylon are thus situated at the middle of the vertical cosmic axis, and connect the heavens to the earthly- contemporary world. They are (according to the Enu*ma elis_) the place where Marduk, in creating the world from the corpse of Tiamat, the dragon-shaped primeval mother, fastened her tail to the world-axis D u r - m a h , in order to wedge her lower abdomen onto the heavens and thereby lend eternal permanence to his work of creation.29 For the visitor of ancient Babylon, this axis mundi took visible form in the seven stepped temple tower bearing the name É - t e m e n - a n - k i , "House Foundations of Heaven and Earth".
The temple Esagil was regarded as the center of the world on the horizontal, earthly level as well. According to the Enu*ma elis_, all gods, wherever they were worshipped, regarded Esagil, the house of their savior and upon which they had sworn eternal loyalty, as their actual cultic location. And, in fact, all of these gods were worshipped in Esagil, although admittedly under the premise put by the poet of the Enu*ma elis_ into the mouths of the gods: "even if humans remain divided about (honoring) the different gods, for us only he (i.e. Marduk) is our god, regardless of what name we might call him."30
The Babylonian contemporary, however, regarded the grounds of the Marduk- temple not merely as the petrified image of the world-order created by the gods. In the temple itself, present time and mythical time mixed together. Here contemporaries could marvel at the trophies and relics of the primeval battle of the gods, which following Marduk's victory had led to the creation of the contemporary world.
Before his own shrine was erected, Marduk had placed "images" of Tiamat's 11 monsters, which he had overpowered in his victorious battle against her, at the "Gate of apsu_." These sculptures, which were made by Marduk himself before the creation of humans, were visible in the historical building of Esagil31 and were intended, according to the Enu*ma elis_, "as a sign that one never forgets,"32 which was supposed to recall the primeval battle of the gods. The weapons with which Marduk had defeated his opponents in this battle, the tablet of fate which he took from the defeated Kingu, as well as many other objects and locations which had played an important role in the transition to the contemporary world created by Marduk were all visible in historical Babylon. The is also true of the locations where the gods had met in order to send Marduk into battle against Tiamat, and where they had come together in order to name him king.
A pedestal lined with clay bricks in the vestibule and which the Babylonians called parak s_i*ma*ti, "socle of fate," was particularly sacred.33 Like most of the cultic arrangements in Mesopotamian temples, this "socle of fate" bore a Sumerian name, d u 6 - k ù . This meant literally "pure" or "sacred hill."34 The "sacred hill" is well-known to us from the oldest Mesopotamian mythical representations. In it, primeval representations of the genesis of the world come together. The "sacred hill," one believed, arose at the beginning of the world from pre-temporal primeval water, in which salt water and fresh water had not yet been separated, and from this hill the nucleus of all things arose. The idea of a primeval hill probably arose from fundamental experiences of Mesopotamian life. At the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where salt water and fresh water still mix today, the new, fertile land of the Mesopotamian alluvial plane arises. In the still unordered world, this primeval hill was though to be the origin of all ordered existence and thus the nucleus or the navel of the world. In the walled pedestal at the vestibule of the temple, understood as the mythical primeval hill, the pre-world -- the primeval beginning of all existence and all time -- pushed itself, so to speak, out into the present of the Babylonians.
In the rituals of the new-year's celebration -- the most significant public rituals in Babylon -- which took place at the beginning of Spring in Babylon, the parak s_i*ma*ti assumed particul
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