374 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babyloniafound its last expression in the legend of the struggle between
Merodach and the forces of anarchy. At any rate it was here
that the spirits of evil were pictured as the seven evil demons in
whom the tempest was, as it were, incarnated—“Seven are they, seven are they,
in the hollow of the deep seven are they!
Gleams (?) of the sky are those seven.
In the hollow of the deep, in a palace, they grew up.
Male they are not, female they are not.
Destructive whirlwinds are they.
Wife they have not, child they beget not;
compassion and mercy they do not know.
Prayer and supplication hear they not.
Horses bred in the mountains are they.
Unto Ea are they hostile.
The throne-bearers of the gods are they.
To work mischief in the street they settle in the highway.
Evil are they, evil are they!
Seven are they, seven are they, seven twice again are they!”The seven evil spirits played an important part in the
demonology of ancient Eridu, and echoes of it survive in the later
literature. They were even transmuted into a god, and unified in
his person under the name of“the divine seven”;^317 while the last
month of the year, the stormy Adar, was dedicated to them. But
in earlier days it needed all the wisdom of Ea to counteract their
[409] wicked devices. The fire-god himself was sent to drive them
from their victims, and to disclose their nature and origin—
(^317) Perhaps, however, the“divine seven”was descended from the seven gods
who were sons of En-me-sarra, according toWAI.iv. 23, No. 1. En-me-sarra
means“the incantation-priest of the (heavenly) hosts”(ênu sa kissati), and his
“sons”therefore remind us of Job xxxviii. 7. It will not be forgotten that Philo
Byblius made“the seven sons of Sydyk, the Kabeiri, with their eighth brother
Asklêpios (Ashmûn),”the first writers of history (Euseb.Prœp. evang.i. 10).