Lecture IX. The Ritual Of The Temple. 425
or“pourers of libations,”and thepasisior“anointers with oil.”
There was even a special class of bakers who made the sacred
cakes that were used in the temple service, as well as“chanters”
and“wailers,” “carriers of the axe”and“of the spear.”Above all,
there were the prophets and augurs, the soothsayers (makhkhi)
and necromancers (musêli), and those who“inquired”of the dead
(saili).
Theasipior“prophets”constituted a class apart. In some
respects they resembled the prophets of Israel. It was “by
order of the college of prophets”that Assur-bani-pal purified
the shrines of Babylon after the capture of the city, and the
prophet accompanied even an army in the field. At times they
predicted the future; more often it was rather an announcement
of the will of Heaven which they delivered to mankind.^359 As
they prophesied they poured out libations; hence it is that the
purification of the shrines of the Babylonian temples was their
special care, and that an old ritual text commands the prophet
to pour out libations“for three days at dawn and night during
the middle watch.”^360 The word was borrowed by the writer
of the Book of Daniel (ii. 10) under the form ofashshâph,
which the Authorised Version renders“astrologers.”But the
A Hellenised form of the title, Bakêlos, is given by Hesychius, who renders
it by“the grandee”and“the gallos-priest”(see my note in theProc. SBA.
xxiii. p. 106).Abgalis stated to be the equivalent not only of the borrowed
Assyrianabkallu, but also ofbil terti,“master of the law”;khassuandimqu,
“the learned one”(like the Arabic'alim); andmar ummani,“the craftsman”or
“professional”(WAI.v. 13. 37-42). The relation ofkalûtogallu(Sumerian
kalandgalla),“a servant,”is not yet clear, though it must be remembered that
thegalloswas the“servant”of Kybelê. On the use ofkal,“servant”in the
Sumerian texts, see Reisner,Tempelurkunden aus Telloh, pp. 20, 21.
(^359) So in a text quoted in my Hibbert Lectures, p. 81,“like Bel on the mercy-seat
of the destinies the prophecy shall be uttered, this shall be said:‘Bel has come
forth, the king has looked after me.’ ”A special class of“prophets”bore the
name ofmasmas(whencemasmasuin Assyrian), which is translatedmullilu,
“the praiser”of the gods (Heb.hillêl).
(^360) See my Hibbert Lectures, p. 79.