|| See OC. D. Gray, Shamash Religious Texts (Chicago, 1901), pp. 17-19.
566 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
Thou hearest, O Shamash, petition, prayer, and appeal,
Humility, prostration, petitioning, and reverence.
With loud voice the unfortunate one cries to thee.
The weak, the exhausted, the oppressed, the lowly,
Mother, wife, maid, appeal to thee.
The one removed from his family, the one dwelling afar from his city.
The peasant when he gathers in his harvest appeals to thee.’
In this way the hymn proceeds to enumerate the various classes of society—the merchant, the hunter, the shepherd, the learned ; and the various conditions under which the appeal for help or re- cognition of assistance is addressed to the great sun-god.
6. Penitential Psalms.—There is only one other subdivision of the religious literature of Babylonia and Assyria in which a still higher ethical and spiritual level is reached, in a series of composi- tions, also known to us chiefly from the library of Assurbanipal, in which the central idea is the consciousness of guilt, and in which, in connexion with a confession of sins, the fervent appeal is made to some god or goddess, or to the gods in general, for forgiveness. ‘To these compositions, of which a considerable number have been pub- lished, and which appear to have been collected into a series, like the Incantation texts and the somewhat similar collection of the Prayers, the name ‘Penitential Psalms’* has been given by scholars because of the striking resemblance in the general tone, and to a certain extent even in phraseology, to certain of the Biblical Psalms in which confession of sins and shortcomings constitutes the keynote. In a general way, of course, these ‘Penitential Psalms’ belong to the division of ‘Hymns and Prayers’ + which so often touch upon the question of guilt and sin; and it is often difficult to determine whether a composi- tion, in which glorification of a deity’s power, the appeal to his or her assistance, and the conscious- ness of sin are about equally distributed, is to be placed in the special category of ‘ Penitential Psalms.’ Bearing in mind that sharp divisions do not exist here any more than between prayers and incantations, appeals or formulas, let us pass on to some specimens which will illustrate the general character of these compositions. The adaptation of these ‘ Psalms’ for the ritual is indicated by the alternating utterances of the penitent and the priest acting as mediator between the worshipper and his deity.
As an example of the penitent’s appeal—in this case to the goddess Ishtar—the following may serve :{—
‘T, thy servant, full of sighs, call upon thee. The fervent prayer of him who has sinned dost thou accept. If thou lookest upon a man, that man lives, O powerful mistress of all mankind, ene one to whom it is good to turn, who accepts sighs.’
The priest thereupon strengthens the appeal of the penitent—
‘Since his god and his goddess § are angry with him, he calls upon thee. (Turn thy face towards] him, take hold of his hand.’
* See Reisner, Sumerisch-Babylonische Hymmnen (Berlin, 1896), Introduction. In 1885 Zimmern published nine Penitential Psalms with full commentary, under the title Babylonische Busspsalmen. Further specimens are to be found in Craig, Assyrian and Babylonian Religious Ueats (Leipzig, 1895-1897), and a particularly fine one is given in King’s Seven Creation Tablets, vol. i. pp. 222-237, See also Zimmern, Keilinschriften und Bibel, pp. 35-38, for a German version,
+See the Introduction to King, Babylonian Magie and Sorcery, p. xv f.
t Rawlinson, iv. 2 29*, No. 5; Zimmern, Busspsalmen, No. 1.
§ The special protecting god and goddess of the individual are meant. See above, p. 554»,
The penitent —
‘ Besides thee, there is no guiding deity. Look in mercy on me, accept my supplication, Proclaim pacification, and let thy liver be appeased. How long, O my mistress, till thy countenance be turned towards me? Like doves I lament, I am satiated with sighs.’
The priest again appeals on behalf of the sinner—
‘With distress and pain, his spirit is full of sighs ; Tears he weeps, [he pours forth] laments.’
Perhaps the finest specimen of these Penitential Psalms is one that has quite recently been published by Mr. L. W. King, and is likewise addressed to Ishtar.* Consisting of 106 lines with eight addi- tional lines, containing ceremonial instructions, it is too long to quote in its entirety. It is pieced together, indeed, from three distinct hymns,} and the first two of these hymns may again be sub- divided into two sections, namely the invocation, with the epithets of the goddess, followed by the appeal for appeasement of the goddess’s anger. In the first hymn Ishtar is glorified under the names of Irnina t and of Gushea, representing goddesses, whose attributes and réle the ‘ great goddess’ has absorbed. It begins as follows :—
‘I pray to thee, lady of ladies, goddess of goddesses,
Ishtar, queen of all peoples, guide of mankind.
Irnini,t exalted art thou, lady of the Igigi ;
Mighty and sovereign art thou, supreme is thy name,
The light of heaven and earth, valiant daughter of Sin art thou ;
Bearer of weapons, arrayed for battle,
Controlling all laws, clothed with the crown of sovereignty.
O lady, exalted is thy rank, supreme over all the gods!
Thou causest lamentation, thou createst hostility among friendly brothers,