The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

396 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

in epical and mythological genius, the mixed race of Babylonia

was in this respect the rival of the Greek. Like the story of

the Trojan War, the story of Gilgames attracted to it epical and

mythological elements from all sides, and became a veritable

treasure-house of Babylonian mythology.

Its author divided it into twelve books. Long ago it was

noticed that the arrangement has an astronomical basis, and that

the adventures of the hero described in some at least of the books

are made to correspond with the current names of the months

of the year. Thus the love and revenge of Istar are the subject

of the sixth book, answering to the name of the sixth month,

that of“the mission of Istar”; while the episode of the Deluge

is introduced into the eleventh book, where it fitly corresponds

with the eleventh month Adar,“the month of the curse of rain.”

It is true that the correspondence between the subject of the

book and the name of the month cannot be traced in all cases,

but it must be remembered that each month had many names,

especially in the age of Khammurabi, and that the poet would

have more especially in his mind the religious festivals which

distinguished the months of the year. As was pointed out by Sir

H. C. Rawlinson, he must have regarded Gilgames, if not as a

solar hero, at all events as a representative of the sun-god. Not

only is the Epic divided into twelve books, but in the seventh,

when the summer solstice is passed and the year begins to wane,

the hero is smitten with a sore disease. It is not until the twelfth

and last book is reached, that, after bathing in the waters of the

ocean which encircles the world, he is healed of his sickness, and

restored once more to health and strength.

[432] But the solar character of Gilgames did not originally belong to
him. His name, like those of most of the Babylonian heroes, had
come down from Sumerian times, when as yet the gods did not
exist, and the world of living things was divided between“spirits”