Lecture VI. Cosmologies.
Man was made in the likeness of the gods, and, conversely, the
gods are in the likeness of man. This belief lies at the root of the
theology of Semitic Babylonia, and characterises its conception
of divinity. It follows from it that the world which we see has
come into existence like the successive generations of mankind
or the products of human art. It has either been begotten by the
creator, or it has been formed out of pre-existing materials. It
did not come into being of itself; it is no fortuitous concurrence
of atoms; no self-evolved product out of nothing, or the result
of continuous development and evolution. The doctrines of
spontaneous generation and of development are alike foreign to
Babylonian religious thought. That demanded a creator who was
human in his attributes and mode of work, who could even make
mistakes and experiments, and so call into existence imperfect or
monstrous forms which further experience was needed to rectify.
There was an earlier as well as a later creation, the unshapely
brood of chaos as well as the more perfect creations of the gods
of light.
As we have seen, the culture of primitive Babylonia radiated
from two main centres, the sanctuary of Nippur in the north, and
the seaport of Eridu in the south. The one was inland, the other
maritime; and what I may term the geographical setting of the
[374] two streams of culture varied accordingly. The great temple of
Nippur was known as Ê-kur,“the house of the mountain-land”;
it was a model of the earth, which those who built it believed to
be similarly shaped, and to have the form of a mountain whose
peak penetrated the clouds. Its supreme god was the lord of the
nether earth, his subjects were the demons of the underworld,
and the theology of his priests was associated with sorcery and
witchcraft, and with invocations to the spirits who ruled over the
world of the dead.