Part IX

A totally different god is Adad, the storm-god, who is represented as brandishing the thunderbolt and hurling the lightning. Adad is a counterpart of Enlil, but, unlike the latter, who, as we have seen, takes on other traits, Adad or Ramman ("the thunderer"), as he was also called, retains his forbidding character of a god who when he manifests himself does so because his wrath has been aroused. Gods as well as men stand in terror of Adad as is well brought out in one of the hymns to him. ^[1]

"When the lord is enraged, the heavens tremble before him,
When Adad is enangered, the earth quakes before him,
Great mountains are cast down before him.
At his anger, at his wrath,
At his roar, at his thunder,
The gods of heaven retire into the heavens,
The gods of earth recede into the earth,
The sun passes into the foundation of heaven,
The moon disappears into the zenith of heaven."

He is the destroyer who sweeps across "the heavens, the land and the waters" as we read in another invocation to him. When the gods decide to bring on a deluge, it is Adad who is the chief executive of the divine decree.

But just because of his power and his violence, the attempt is made to gain his favor. When the storm ceases, the rainbow appears in the sky and the sun comes out from the clouds, it is a sign that Adad has been reconciled. Applying the association to human conditions, sickness, loss of life, destruction of crops, as a result of storms lead king and subjects to appeal to Adad's mercy, if happily they can arouse it. It is hoped that the god may feel flattered by being addressed as merciful and forgiving. So in a series of invocations to Adad we actually read: ^[2]

"Merciful one among the (great) gods,
I have directed my thoughts to thee, I implore thee humbly ( ?)
Be merciful, O lord, hear my prayer,
Destroy my enemies, drive away my opponents,
May the poison, poison, poison of the sorcerers not touch me,
Have mercy and proclaim grace for me."

While Adad is also brought into association with the Nippur pantheon and with that grouped around Marduk, he is to a larger extent than the other members of the pantheon an independent figure. This may be due to the fact that so far as our material enables us to judge, he is not brought into connection with any important political centre. In this respect he marks a decided exception. He impresses one as an intruder whose cult may have been brought to the Euphrates Valley from the north, for in Assyria we find one of the oldest temples dedicated to Anu and Adad — Anu as the old solar deity, afterwards replaced in Assyria by Ashur, ^[3] and Adad the storm-god.

There is still another phase of the cult of Adad to be briefly considered. He is a god of oracles and in this capacity is invariably associated with the sun-god, Shamash. In addition to divining the future through reading the signs in the heavens at night — in the moon, planets, stars, and constellations — the phenomena observed in the sun and those seen in storms, hurricanes, clouds, rain, thunder, lightning and earthquakes were gathered into an elaborate system, supplemental to astrology proper. ^[4]

The deities presiding over these phases of divination are naturally Shamash and Adad, who therefore become, as the "lords of divination", oracle gods, frequently designated as such in the inscriptions of Babylonian and Assyrian rulers.

It is as a further reflex of astrology and supplemental forms of divination that by the side of the combination of Shamash and Adad into a duality, we have a triad, Sin, Shamash and Adad, very frequently appearing in invocations attached to votive and historical inscriptions as well as in religious texts, by the side of the greater triad Anu, Enlil and Ea. ^[5]

As the latter symbolize the three chief divisions of the universe — heaven, earth and water — so the second triad sum up the chief manifestations of nature, the sun which conditions vegetation, the moon standing for the entire starry heaven, and the storm with all its accompanying phenomena, rain, floods, thunder, lightning, earthquakes and all other abnormal occurrences, more or less directly connected with the activity of the storm-god.

There are, however, two elements of nature not represented in this triad, the earth itself and fire. As to fire, this element appears to have been in part associated with the sun and with lightning, and in part to have been looked upon as an independent force. Both views come to the surface, but of the two the latter may be regarded as the more popular belief, while the derivation of fire from the sun and from lightning assumes a point of view of a more speculative character. Among all peoples of antiquity we find fire looked upon as a separate element, in the possession of the gods to be sure, but not identified with any particular one, not even with the sun-god.

The fire-god appears under various designations, Gibil — also written in the reversed form, Bil-ge — Girru, Gisbbar, Ishum and Nusku — the latter designation being the common one in Assyria. We do not find in connection with any of these names a special place selected as the centre of the cult, and this is quite what we should expect in the case of a god who does not represent a personification of a specific power of nature like the sun, moon, the water or the earth, for fire is to be found everywhere, on the earth and in the heaven and even within the bowels of the earth.

The fire-god is a free lance as it were who, however, performs service for both gods and mankind. He is appropriately termed therefore the "messenger of the gods". Of the actual cult of the fire-god we learn little. His chief function is in connection with incantation rites to drive off the evil demons. As a sacred element, the fire is regarded like water as a purifying element.

Hence by the side of a water ritual, associated as we have seen primarily with the god Ea, we have a fire ritual which consists of such ceremonies as burning images, made of various materials, of the sorcerer or sorceress by whose direct intervention some victim has been bewitched, or consigning to the fire such objects as onions, dates, palm blossoms, seeds or bits of wool to the accompaniment of magic formulas emphasizing the hope that as these materials are consumed, so the demons as the cause of the disease and suffering may be consumed or forced by the heat to abandon their victim. ^[6] All this falls within the category of sympathetic magic, involving a symbolical action to bring about the reality.

Thus we have two series of incantation rituals which, because of the prominence given to fire in the rites, are known as "Maklu" and "Shurpu" — both terms having the force of "burning" or consumption through fire. Hymns to Nusku, illustrating the current conceptions in regard to him, are interspersed in these rituals. One of these reads as follows: ^[7]

"Nusku, great god, prince of the great gods,
Guardian of the offerings of all Igigi,
Founder of cities, renewer of sanctuaries,
Resplendent deity, whose command is supreme,
Messenger of Anu, carrying out the decrees of Enlil,
Obedient to Enlil, prince, leader of the strong Igigi,
Mighty in battle, whose attack is powerful,
Nusku, consumer, conqueror of enemies,
Without thee no sacrificial meal is given in the temple,
Without thee the great gods do not inhale any sweet smelling offering,
Without thee Shamash, the judge, does not make a decision." ^[8]

But the fire is also the indispensable aid to man in his advance along the path of civilization. The bricks for the construction of houses, temples and walls are burnt in the fire, the metals are tempered through the sacred element, and so in almost all the operations of man the fire is his faithful ally. Nusku is therefore hailed as the founder of cities, through whom sanctuaries are built and renewed. The fire associated with Shamash becomes like the latter the judge to whom the appeal for a just decision is made. So in the formulae accompanying the symbolical burning of a bronze image of the sorcerer or sorceress, Nusku is apostrophized as ^[9]

"Mighty fire-god, awe-inspiring glow, ^[10]
Guiding gods and princes,
Judging the cruel one and the wicked woman, ^[11]
Step forward to my cause like Shamash, the warrior,
Judge my cause, proclaim my decision,
Burn the sorcerer and the sorceress,
Destroy my enemies, censure my opponents,
May thy raging glow come upon them!"

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Rawlinson IV 2 PI. 28, No. 2.

[2]:

King, fb., No. 21, lines 61-66.

[3]:

See below, p. 229.

[4]:

See, for details, Jastrow, Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, II, p. 577-612 and 705-748, and also below p. 262, seq.

[5]:

See above, p. 208.

[6]:

See specimens in Jastrow, Religion ifiibfyloniens und Assyriens, I, p. 305, seq., and 328, seq.

[7]:

Tallqvist, Die Assyrische Beschworungsserie Maqlu, II, 1-11.

[8]:

Referring to offerings in connection with securing an oracle from the sun-god.

[9]:

Maqlu II, 114-121.

[10]:

Literally "day".

[11]:

I.e., the sorcerer and sorceress.