CHAPTER I.
HISTORIC OUTLINE.

ORIGIN OF PERSIAN LITERATURE—ACCAD AND SUMER—LITERATURE OF NINEVEH—BABYLON—IRAN OR PERSIA—PHYSICAL FEATURES—PERSIAN ART—MANUSCRIPTS—EARLY LITERATURE—THE ARABIAN CONQUEST—LITERATURE OF MODERN PERSIA—PERSIAN ROMANCE.

Every nation has a literature peculiarly her own, even though it may find its sources in foreign fields. As Persia was founded upon the ruins of more ancient monarchies, as she gathered into the halls of her kings the spoils of conquered nations, so also her literature was enriched by the philosophy and science, the poetry and mythology of her predecessors. The resistless horde, which poured down from the mountains and swept all of Western Asia into its current, formed the kindred tribes into a single monarchy, and this monarchy gathered unto herself, not only the wealth and military glory, but also the culture and learning of the nations she had conquered. The whole civilized world was taxed to maintain the splendors of her court; the imperial purple was found in the city of Tyre, and her fleets also came from Phoenicia, for the experience of this maritime people was indispensable to their Persian masters. Indian groves furnished the costly woods of aloe and of sandal that burned upon her altars, while Syria and the islands of the sea filled her flagons with wine.

The richest fruits were brought from the sunny shores of Malay, and even the desert sent tributes of incense and gold. Herds of camels came from Yemen, and horses of the finest Arabian blood were found in the royal stables. What wonder, then, that the nation which rifled continents to supply her magnificence should appropriate also the wealth of the world of letters that came under her sway? In the background of Persian power there lies an historic past which is replete with the literary treasures of the Orient.

ACCAD AND SUMER.

There is the far away land of ancient Babylonia, with her territory divided into Accad^[1] and Sumer or Shinar. These were the northern and southern divisions of the country.

According to Prof. Sayce, “the whole of Babylonia was originally inhabited by a non-Semitic race, but the Semites established their power in Accad, or North Babylonia, at an earlier date than they did in Sumer in the south; the non-Semitic dynasties and culture lingered longer therefore in Sumer.”^[2]

Their land was the home of the palm tree, and from the highlands, where their rivers found their source, down to the shores of the Persian Gulf, it presented a wealth of foliage and blossoms. Fields that were covered with ripening grain awaited the sickle of the reaper, while the fruit trees bent beneath their burdens, and the vines gleamed in the sunlight with clusters of gold and purple.

Although we know little of this primitive people, a few of their imperishable records have come down to us, and light is thus thrown upon the literary culture which prevailed from the Euphrates to the Nile long before the Exodus. We have the inscriptions^[3] of Dungi, the king of “Ur of the Chaldees,” and also “king of Sumer and Accad.” We have, too, a portion of the clay tablets recounting the glory of Sargon I, who carried his conquests into the land of the Elamites, and even subdued the Hittites in northern Syria. The independent states of Babylonia also were brought under his sway, and he claimed to be “the sovereign of the four regions of the world,” while his Accadian subjects gave him the name of “the king of justice and the deviser of prosperity.” He was the patron of letters, and in the library^[4] of this old Semitic king, in the city of Accad, there was written on pages of clay a work on astronomy and astrology in seventy-two books.

Long before the poets of India, of Greece or of Persia began to weave their gorgeous web of mythology, the seers of Accad and of Shinar watched beside the great loom of Nature, as she wove out the curtains of the morning and the crimson draperies of the setting sun. They listened to the battle of the elements around their mountain peaks, and dreamt of the storm-king; they heard the musical murmurs of the wind, as it whispered to the closing flowers; they felt the benediction of the night, with its voices of peace, and the divine poem of earth’s beauty found an echo in their hearts.

The bloom of Accadian poetry may be placed about four thousand years before our own times, when the primeval teachings of Nature had become the theme of the poet, and been voiced in the measures of song.

But the scientific impulse of ancient Accad remained an impulse only, the methods of science were undiscovered, and the student was led astray by his own fancies and misconceptions; still amidst all the false science of a primitive Chaldea there were germs of truth, which have been developed even in our own times. The classic writers said truly that Babylonia was the birthplace of astronomy. It was also the birthplace of mathematics; and although their figures were simple, the Chaldeans attained quite a proficiency in their calculations. The library at Larsa or Senkereh was famous for its mathematical works, and it formed a nucleus for students from various portions the country.

LITERATURE OF NINEVEH.

On the banks of the Tigris, a great city lifted her battlements and arches towards the skies, and became the home of Assyrian Kings. According to Diodorus^[5] her walls were an hundred feet high, and so broad that four chariots could be driven abreast upon them, while fifteen hundred towers, apparently impregnable, arose from their massive foundations. Nineveh was the home of imperial splendor, and twenty-two kings were taxed to supply the materials for her costly palaces where the finest sculptures of the East were found. Assyrian art covered her angles with graceful curves, and built her temples with their gilded domes, while the interior walls were adorned with sculptured slabs of white alabaster. The germs of Greek art, as well as Greek mythology, were found in the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates, for here were Doric and Ionic columns; here were Corinthian capitals, with architrave, frieze and cornice, and yet the latest of these must have been carved before the earliest date which has been assigned to any work of Grecian art. Though her culture was confined to certain classes, and the great mass of her population could not discern between their right hands and their left, still, for centuries Nineveh^[6] was the mistress of the East, even Babylon being subject to her power.

She reached the zenith of her glory under the rule of Assur-bani-pal (the Sardanapalus of the Greeks). He was the grand monarch of Assyria, and under his reign the treasures of the world flowed to this common centre, while the name of Nineveh was feared from the frontiers of India to the shores of the Ægean sea. Ambitious in his schemes of conquest, and luxurious in the splendors of his court, he nevertheless confided his military movements largely to the hands of his ablest generals, and devoted much attention to the accumulation of his strange library at the capital city. Here he gathered the literary treasures of the Orient, and scribes were kept busy copying and translating early works, or writing original books, either in the Assyrian or the Accadian tongue. The decaying literature of Babylonia was forwarded to Nineveh, where it was copied and edited by the Assyrians. A new text was the most valuable present that any city could send to this literary king, and it was received with the enthusiasm exhibited by a modern scholar on the reception of a rare manuscript. It is to the library of Assur-bani-pal, that we are indebted for much of our knowledge of Babylonian literature—stored away in those curious vaults, were thousands of books written upon pages of clay. There were historical and mythological works, legal records, geographical and astronomical documents, as well as poetical productions. There were lists of stones and trees, of birds and beasts, besides the official copies of treaties, petitions to the king, and the royal proclamations. Strangers came from the court of Egypt, from Lydia, and from Cyprus to this ancient seat of learning. But while the king was absorbed in his favorite pursuits, the spirit of revolution was abroad in the land,—Elam, Babylonia, Arabia, Palestine, Egypt and Lydia made a common cause against the reigning monarch, the insurrection being led by the king’s own brother, the viceroy of Babylon. This great revolt shook the very foundations of the Assyrian monarchy, and ushered in the decline of an empire which extended from the borders of India to the Nubian mountains, and from the sands of Arabia to the snowy peaks of the Caucasus.

In a few years even Nineveh was captured and utterly destroyed, while her empire was shared between Media and Babylon.

BABYLON.

This was “the golden city” that gathered unto herself the wealth of conquered kingdoms and the dominion of many tribes. The multitude of gods in her pantheon represented the ideals of the various races of men who laid their offerings at her feet.

Babylon was the “hammer of the whole earth,” and she forced the tributes of the nations into her treasury, and their legions into her armies. She was “the glory of kingdoms,” and she gathered the culture of a thousand years into a great historic result that contained the arts and science, the literature, the wealth, and the commerce of half the world. The culmination of her power was in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who was the Augustus of the Babylonian age.

He reconstructed the fallen temples of her idols and carried the hideous images in triumphal processions to their palatial courts.

Gold, silver and precious stones made bright the altars and temples of Baal, of Merodach, of Nebo, of Molech, and of Ashtaroth.

The choicest cedars were brought from the mountains of Lebanon. “The cedar of the roofing of the walls of Nebo, with gold I overlaid.... Strong bulls of copper, and dreadful serpents standing upright on their thresholds I erected. The cell of the lord of the gods—Merodach, I made to glisten like suns the walls thereof, with large gold like rubble stone.... I had them made brilliant as the sun.” Nebuchadnezzar was the undisputed master of Western Asia, and the walls of his palace were hung with historic pictures of Chaldean thrones, and draped with the most gorgeous tapestries of the Eastern looms, while in his princely halls the cool air fell from glittering fountains, and the royal abode was filled with music, light, and costly perfume. He built the wondrous hanging gardens, where the almond trees waved their sprays of silvery blossoms, and the palms tossed their plumes in the sunlight,—there the pink fingers of the dawn opened the hearts of the roses, and white lilies nestled amid the green slopes and fragrant shades, while the breezes came up from the great river laden with the breath of lotus blossoms and the soft music of her waves. This haughty king was also the patron of letters, and his inscriptions throw a vivid light upon his pride of power, and magnificence—his constant devotion to his idols, and his never ceasing admiration of his capital city,—“this great Babylon which I have built.” His books were written largely upon stone, and stored away beyond the reach of conquering kings. The literary treasures, which may even yet lie buried beneath her soil, probably belong to the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar, and owe their existence to him. In his days, too, there flourished the family of Egebi, who were tradesmen. This Jewish family is mentioned as early as the reign of Esar-haddon, and for five successive generations they deposited their legal documents in earthen jars which served the purpose of safes. These thrifty capitalists continued in prosperity even to the end of the reign of Darius the Great, and although coined money was then unknown and the precious metals^[7] were reckoned by weight, they, like the Rothschilds of our own day, loaned money to the kings of their generation, and their well kept records are of great value as a chronological index of the times^[8] in which they were written. The literature of the Babylonians, like that of the Hindus, claims a fabulous antiquity. They enumerated ten kings who lived before the flood, whose reigns occupied four hundred and thirty-two thousand years, or more than forty-three centuries each, and during this immense cycle of time, there were strange creatures, half man and half fish, who ascended from the ocean and taught the tribes of Babylonia the rudiments of civilization. There were men with the bodies of birds and the tails of fishes, and men also with the beaks and faces of birds who in other respects wore the form of humanity.

But their literature was not all fable, though they really cared very little what the condition of their country had been before the deluge, for they were engaged in recounting the conquests of their own kings, and the power and splendor of their idols. Babylon, the Queen of the East, with her arts and sciences, with her painting and sculpture, was like other Asiatic cities, a hot-bed of moral corruption; even her religion was a craze of sorcery and enchantments—of witchcraft and horrible sensuality. Her high priests were astrologers and soothsayers, while her gods were the personification of evil. “Moloch demanded the best and dearest that the worshipper could grant him, and the parent was required to offer his eldest or only son as a sacrifice, while the victim’s cries were drowned by the noise of drums and flutes. When Agathokles defeated the Carthaginians, the noblest of the citizens offered in expiation three hundred of their children to Baal-Moloch.”Baal-Moloch.”^[9]

The worship of Ishtar^[10] demanded that every female devotee should begin her womanhood by public prostitution in the temple of the goddess, and young girls were often burned upon her altars, while young men were either burned or mutilated. Abominations even more revolting than these were practiced in connection with the worship of Bel, and the nations around her drank of her wine and were maddened with the frenzy of her corruption. What wonder, then, that even before the “Lady of Kingdoms” reached the zenith of her glory, the cry of the prophets had rung out in unmeasured denunciation of her crimes? “Therefore I will execute judgment upon the graven images of Babylon ... and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her ... the treacherous dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Media.... Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.”^[11]

Elam and Media combined their forces, and set their troops in battle array, while hundreds of banners waved in the sunlight. “Elam bare the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen,” and they marched to the “two leaved gates” of the city. Every sword in the ranks was true to the young commander, and his victory was easily won. Babylon was conquered, and the story of her decay was written upon her forehead. The seat of government was removed, the city was left in desolation, and her gates were smitten with destruction. Ruin fell upon her battlements, the owl and the bittern dwelt amidst her prostrate columns, while the wild beasts of the desert made their den in her fallen palaces.

IRAN OR PERSIA.

Persia is often called Iran, this being the name which the Persians themselves gave to their kingdom. Persepolis was for a long time the capital, but for almost twelve centuries after the fall of that beautiful city, the capital was located at Shiraz. The oldest certain use of the name Persia is found in the prophets,^[12] and the kingdom was formed by the combination of the Medians with the Persians. These hardy mountaineers were brave and merciless, their troops of horsemen, armed with lance and quiver, swept down from the highlands with irresistible force, and drew the wandering tribes of the East into one great army. Frugal in their mode of life, strong in nerve and sinew, and severe in military discipline, even their kings believed that nothing was so servile as luxury and nothing so royal as toil.

The hardy tribes of Iran which Cyrus led to victory were trained to manly exercise; they taught their children to endure hardship, to ride, to shoot and to tell the truth. They were strangers to dissipation, and so loyal to age that parricide was inconceivable to them. The royal edict was so inflexible that “the laws of the Medes and Persians” passed into a proverb. Their loyalty to their kings degenerated into servility, even legal injustice being considered a benefit to the victim, for which he should be duly grateful. No edict was too severe to be promptly obeyed, the very cruelty of their kings being considered a mark of greatness; they buried men alive in honor of the elements, they flayed their officials for bribery, while mutilation and stoning were legal punishments.

This hardy race of soldiers, that could rush into battle, almost without rations, was a terror to the pampered Lydian and the luxurious Babylonian, for the ideal life of the Persian was continual conquest, even his symbol of Ormazd being a winged warrior with bow and threatening hand. But when the contest was over, the conquerors irrigated the plains of Babylonia so faithfully that they were able to gather three harvests a year from the fertile soil. The roads of the kingdom were supplied with post-stations, and constantly traversed by government couriers, while a great commercial intercourse was carried even to the shores of Greece. It was not an enervated people that laid the wonderful masonry in the foundations of Persepolis, and reared the marble columns that still mock the changes of more than two thousand years. But luxury crept in with continued power, and after a time, it was said that the royal table was daily spread for fifteen thousand guests, even though the king dined alone. Their nobles were clothed in purple and decorated with jewels, while the person of the king was resplendent with diamonds and rubies. In the royal treasury pearls were piled up like the sands of the sea, and diamonds glittered amidst masses of amethyst and sapphire. The royal helmet and buckler flashed with the green light of emeralds and the crimson fire of the ruby.

But still they retained traces of the primitive simplicity which belonged to the early mountain tribes, and the constructive energy of their kings went on, building and planning, and forcing into their courts the splendors of rifled cities. Darius flung the floating bridge across the Bosphorus, that afterward furnished a highway for Alexander; their summer palaces rose upon the mountains of Media, while their winter homes, with marble pillars and graceful colonnades, were placed in sunny vales where fountains gleamed through the glossy leaves and the nightingale built her nest among thickets of roses. It is said of Artaxerxes that even while he wore upon his person jewels to the value of thousands of talents, he would still lead his army on foot through mountain passes, carrying his own quiver and shield, and forcing his way up the most rugged heights.

The Persians were quick to learn, and gladly appropriated to themselves the civilization of Nineveh and Babylon; but luxury and dissipation will unnerve the strongest empire, and after a time the designing beauties of the harem became the rulers of weak and wicked princes, and though Persian magnificence lasted from Darius to the last Persian king, their final failure was due to their own corruption as much as to the forces of Alexander the Great. The Iranian mind seemed to be the harbinger of progress, in the simplicity of its beginnings, in its striving for the noble, the manly, and the true, but the selfishness of the later Persian kings developed not only into luxury, but also into dissipation: reclining on couches with golden feet, drinking the wines^[13] of Helbon and Shiraz, they yielded to no rule except their own pleasure—there was no precept of morality that they could not violate at will, no law in their legal code that involved the recognition of the rights of other nations; and this intense self-worship prepared the way for the coming conqueror. The government of Persia became what the government of Turkey now is—a highly centralized bureaucracy, the members of which owed their offices to an irresponsible despot; the people of Persia therefore hailed Alexander as their deliverer from disintegration and decay.

“The Land of the Lion and the Sun,” presents the strongest physical contrasts; with the king of the forest and the king of day emblazoned upon her banners, she extended her dominion over rocky steppes and barren sands, as well as fertile fields and stately forests. Persia proper was a comparatively small province, but the tide of conquest gathered many nations beneath her banners, and the dominion of Cyrus extended from the Mediterranean to the Indus, and from the snowy peaks of the Caucasus, downward to the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea. The court of Darius was enriched by tributes from Egypt and Babylonia, from Assyria and India, from Media, Lydia, Phoenicia and many other lands.

Modern Persia occupies the larger portion of the great Iranian plateau, which rises to the height of from four to eight thousand feet, between the valleys of the Indus and the Tigris, and covers more than a million square miles. On the northwest the Persian Empire is united to the mountains of Asia Minor by the high lands of Armenia, while on the northeast the Paropansius and the Hindu Kush connect it with the Himalayas of ancient India. The eastern and western boundaries are traced with more or less uncertainty, amidst high ranges of mountains broken here and there by deserts and valleys. The fertile lowlands are found in the forest-clad regions south of the Caspian Sea, and down toward the shore of the Persian Gulf.

Although she has of late exercised but little influence in the world’s political councils, she retains a fair position among the Asiatics, and the fact that a portion of her territory is under Russian influence, while the rest is controlled to a greater or less extent by England, would indicate that in the near future her political position may become one of great importance. She still occupies a territory which is more than twice the area of France, and her climate varies according to the contrasting features of her formation, being rough and cold in the mountain ranges, and often severe on the great table-lands where the sandstorms rage across the desert, while other portions of the empire are luxuriant with tropical foliage.

Down by the shores of the gulf the rice fields lift their dainty plumes, farther away the acres of barley lie like golden billows in the sunlight, and the cots of the peasantry are nestled under groups of flowering trees. Beyond them rises the forest of almost primeval grandeur where the great trunks of the trees are clothed with velvet mosses and encircled with floral vines. Here the green shades of the wood are relieved by the vivid scarlet of the pomegranate blossoms, and streams that leap from snowy hills come dashing through the woodlands, laden with life and rippling with music. Far away in the distance, the barren table-lands arise, and beyond these the mountain ridges press upward, dim and silent against the fields of blue, and the white clouds drop their feathery snows upon peaks which are unsoiled by the foot of man.

PERSIAN ART.

The primitive cradle of art has been found on the banks of the Tigris, and in the valley of the Euphrates. It has been shown that Greece was largely indebted to the sculptured slabs and columns of Nineveh for her first models, and perhaps also to the pictured walls of Babylon for the inspiration that glowed upon her canvas. But Asiatic art, like Oriental literature, is tropical in its luxuriance and gorgeous in its decorationsdecorations. The classic taste of Greece subdued its more extravagant features, and presented the simplicity of chaste designs. The Persians, with their spirit of monopoly, appropriated the sculptured forms of fallen Nineveh, and absorbed also the love of painting, and the passion for gorgeous draperies, which were characteristic of Babylon.

But the Iranian race had not the patience of fine detail and elaboration which is found in the old Assyrian sculptures, the military dash of the early warring tribes showed itself even in their statuary. The partial stiffness of their outlines was, however, atoned for in the spirited poise of their figures. They presented but few pictures of domestic life, but there were hunting scenes and battle fields, terrific struggles of their heroes with wild animals, and the triumphant march of their conquerors—there were gorgeous processions bearing tributes to the king, and historic pictures of his victories. Darius the Great was often represented in simple dress, but always in the attitude of heroism or tragedy, sometimes grasping a monster by the horn, while he drives the dagger into its vitals, and again, with the symbol of Ormazd hovering in a winged circle above him, he conquers the king of the forest.

In his Behistun inscriptions he is represented as the “king of kings,” standing with his right foot on the prostrate form of a conquered foe, while nine captive kings stand before him, with their hands in bonds and their heads uncrowned. The wondrous architecture of Persepolis, though laid with massive masonry, was made rich and graceful as that of a Greek temple, for the lofty marble pillars, more than sixty feet in height, were finished with capitals of sculptured animals reposing upon beds of lotus blossoms.

Their helmets and breastplates were often inlaid with silver and enameled with gold, and as the troops marched to the field of battle, the sun flashed upon shields where pictures of Zal and Rustem were inlaid with burnished gold^[14] and the designs upon the royal armor were resplendent with rubies and diamonds.

Persian art has been essentially industrial, and it is claimed that what is known as Russia leather was first manufactured in Persia, while legend says, that the artisans achieved their success by carrying their work to the peak of Mount Elvend, where the lightnings imparted a peculiar value to the texture.

The arts of Nineveh, of Babylon, and of Egypt culminated in the ages past, but the rare porcelains, tiles, and mosaics—the vases and carved metals of Persia, are still the pride of Asia. Their carpets, tapestries and brocades are unrivaled in the markets of the world, while the richly embroidered shawls and portiÉres of Kerman still present their delicate combinations of palm leaves with the soft coloring of the floral borders.

One of the important features of art is exhibited in their beautiful manuscripts, where the finest calligraphy is often combined with floral designs upon a golden background. The letters of their language run easily and gracefully into each other, and the Egyptian reeds with which they write, are fashioned for the finest touches of the penman.

Calligraphy is called “a golden profession,” and a small but exquisite copy of the Koran has been valued at one hundred thousand dollars, while the artistic penman, who executed a copy of a popular poem, had his mouth stuffed with pearls, in addition to the promised reward.

Less fortunate, however, was Mir Amar, a celebrated calligraphist of the fifteenth century. Being summoned to court to prepare an elaborate copy of the Shah Namah, and his progress being too slow to satisfy the royal ambition, his beautiful manuscript was torn to pieces before his eyes, and Mir Amar was then hastened to the executioner. Yet such was the extreme beauty of his work, that after the lapse of three hundred years, short screeds from his pen are set in gold and sold at fabulous prices.

Although the printing press is invading the domain of the Persian scribe, the art of calligraphy is still cultivated, and artistic penmen are held in great repute.

EARLY LITERATURE.

It is evident that the early kings of Persia possessed royal libraries, containing historical records and official decrees, for in the book of Ezra^[15] it is said that “search was made in the house of rolls,” in Babylon, for the imperial decree of Cyrus concerning the rebuilding of the temple. It was afterwards found at Ecbatana “in the palace that is in the province of the Medes,” the decree having been made in the first year of King Cyrus. But aside from some of the inscriptions, the earliest literature we now have belonging to this people is the Zend-Avesta, our present version of which was possibly derived from texts which already existed in the time of the AchÆmenian kings. Although there are no facts to prove that the text of the Avesta as we now possess it was committed to writing previous to the Sassanian dynasty^[16] Prof. Darmesteter thinks it possible that “Herodotus may have heard the Magi sing, in the fifth century before Christ, the very same Gathas which are sung now a days by the Mobeds of Bombay.”^[17]

As some of these early texts must have existed before the fifth century B.C. we place them chronologically before the inscriptions of Darius the Great.^[18]

Historians claim that ancient Persian manuscripts were destroyed, when Alexander, in a condition of drunkenness, ordered the beautiful city of Persepolis to be set on fire, in order to please the courtesan Thais.

The modern worshippers of Alexander, however, have placed around his name all the possible glory of military achievement with a vast amount of rhetoric, concerning “the young hero” and “the thunder of his tread.” They claim, indeed, that he had very few faults, except cruelty, drunkenness, and some worse forms of dissipation. Their defense of this barbarous act is that “only the palace and its environs were burned” at this particular time, and that this was an act of requital for the pillage of Athens, and also to impress the Persians with a due sense of his own importance. Whatever may have been the motive, or physical condition, of the incendiary, it is highly probable that when the palace, and its environs were burned, the royal libraries went down in the flames, and certain it is, that from the time of the Macedonian conquest to the foundation of the Sassanian dynasty, the history of the Persian language and literature is almost a blank page. The legends of the Sassanian coins, the inscriptions of their emperors, and the translation of the Avesta, by Sassanian scholars, represent another phase of the language and literature of Iran.

The men who, at the rising of the new national dynasty, became the reformers, teachers, and prophets of Persia, formed their language and the whole train of their ideas upon a Semitic model. The grammar of the Sassanian dialect, however, was Persian, and “this was a period of religious and metaphysical delirium, when everything became everything, when Maya and Sophia, Mitra and Christ, Viraf and Isaiah, Belus and Kronos were mixed up in one jumbled system of inane speculation, from which at last the East was delivered by the doctrines of Mohammed, and the West by the pure Christianity of the Teutonic nations.”^[19]

It was five hundred years after Alexander before Persian literature and religion were revived, and the books of the Zend-Avesta collected, either from scattered manuscripts or from oral tradition. The first collection of traditions, which finally resulted in the Shah-Namah, was made also during the Sassanian dynasty. Firdusi tells us that there was a Pahlevan, of the family of the Dihkans,^[20] who loved to study the traditions of antiquity. He therefore summoned from the provinces, all the old men who could remember portions of the ancient legends, and questioned them concerning the stories of the country. The Dihkan then wrote down the traditions of the kings and the changes in the empire as they had been recited to him. But this work, which was commenced under Nushirvan and finished under Yezdejird, the last of the Sassanians, was destroyed by the command of Omar, the Arabian chieftain.

The scanty literature of the Sassanian age was somewhat augmented by a notable collection of Sansk?it fables which was brought to the court of the Persian king, Koshrou,^[21] and translated into the Persian, or Pahlavi tongue. This collection comprised the fables of the Pancatantra and the Hitopadesa, and from it the later European fables of La Fontaine probably originated.

THE MOHAMMEDAN CONQUEST.

The warring tribes of the desert massed themselves together under the banner of the crescent. They were animated by Mohammed’s doctrine of anarchy—the claim of a common right to their neighbors’ goods, and trained to dash into the very jaws of death by his promise of a sensual heaven to every man who fell upon the battle-field.

Therefore these fearless sons of the desert, stimulated by hunger and avarice, swept with irresistible force over the fair provinces around them. They raided the great cities of Central Asia, and gathered to themselves the treasures, which had been hoarded by the Aryan and the Turk. When in the seventh century they saw Persia weakened by internal dissensions and foreign wars, they gladly gathered under the standard of Omar to descend upon the wealth of her cities.

It was an old quarrel that they longed to settle with the Sassanian kings, reaching back through the history of their tribes to the time when they had raided northern Persia, and had been driven back by Ardeshir—they remembered, too, that Shapur had afterward ravaged Arabia to the very gates of Medina, and seized their territory down to the shores of Yemen, on the southern sea. All the force of traditional hatred and revenge was therefore added to their avarice, and lust for power, when these fearless warriors sprang to the saddle and rode to the conquest of Persia. Their terrible war-cry of Allah-il-Allah, rang through rifled cities, and seemed to rise from the very dust which was spurned from the feet of Arabian horses, until Persian nationality was crushed by the invaders. Her treasures of literature were again destroyed, so far as the conquerors could complete their work of devastation, and the altar fires of the Parsis were quenched in the long night of Mohammedan rule, while the Koran supplanted the Avesta even upon its native soil.

Modern Persian literature may be said to begin with the reconstruction of the National Epic.^[22] This work marks an important era, in even the language of Persia, for it seems to close the biography of that peculiar tongue. There has been but little, of either growth or decay, in its structure since that period, although it becomes more and more encumbered with foreign words.

The Persian Epic could be reconstructed only when the national feeling began to reassert itself, and it was at this period that the patriotism of the people began to recover from the benumbing pressure of Mohammedan rule, and especially in the eastern portions of the empire, a distinctively Persian spirit was revived. It is true that Mohammedanism had taken root even in the national party, but the Arabic tongue was no longer favored by the governors of the eastern provinces. Persian again became the court language of these dignitaries, the native poets were encouraged and began to collect once more the traditions of the empire.

It is claimed that Jacob, the son of Leis,^[23] the first prince of Persian blood, who declared himself independent of the Caliphs, procured fragments of the early National Epic, and had it rearranged and continued. Then followed the dynasty of the Samanians who claimed descent from the Sassanian kings, and they pursued the same popular policy. The later dynasty of the Gaznevides also encouraged the growth of the national spirit, and the great Persian Epic was written during the reign of Mahmud the Great, who was the second king of the Gaznevide dynasty. By his command, collections of old books were made all over the empire, and men who knew the ancient poems were summoned to his court. It was from these materials that Firdusi composed his Shah-Namah. “Traditions,” says the poet, “have been given me; nothing of what is worth knowing has been forgotten; all that I shall say others have said before me.”

Hence the heroes in the Shah-Namah exhibit many of the traits of the Vedic deities—traits which have lived through the Zoroastrian period, the AchÆmenian dynasty, the Macedonian rule, the Parthian wars, and even the Arabian conquest, to be reproduced in the poem of Firdusi.

The modern phase of their literature is emphatically an age of poetry; the Persians of these later centuries seem to have been born with a song on their lips, for their poets are numbered by thousands. Not only their books of polite literature, but their histories, ethics and science, nay, even their mathematics and grammar are written in rhyme. There are many volumes of these productions that cannot be dignified by the name of poetry, but their literature is tropical in its development and their annals bear the names of many illustrious poets. Firdusi, author of the great Epic, must always stand at the head of Persian poetry; but Sa’di with his Bustan and Gulistan, will ever be a favorite with his own people.

Nizami of the twelfth century has given us, perhaps, the best version of the beautiful Arabian tragedy of Lili and Majnun, and Hafiz says of the author:

The clear and harmonious style of Hafiz, who belonged to the fourteenth century, has a fascination of its own, and it is claimed that the prophet Khizer carried to the waiting lips of the poet the water from the fountain of life, and therefore his words are immortal among the sons of men.

Jami is entitled to a goodly rank in the world of poetry, even though his Yusuf and Zulaikha, which has also been versified by many other Persian poets, seems to have been written for the express purpose of showing how an unprincipled woman may pursue a good man for a series of years, marry him at last, almost against his will, and make him wish himself in heaven the next day. The Persians may well be called the Italians of Asia, for, although they are burdened with sentiment and a certain exuberance of style, which meets with little favor in our colder clime, we accord them our sympathy in the beauty of their dreams and the tenderness of their thought.

PERSIAN ROMANCE.

The Arabic and even the Turkish tongue has intruded upon the classic Persian of Firdusi, but as the English has borrowed from all nations, and yet retains its own individuality, so also the Persian tongue, while absorbing and adapting the wealth of others, still retains its personal character, modified only by the changes of time.

In borrowing from the language of her neighbors, Persia has not hesitated to adopt also portions of their literature. During the reign of the Moslem kings the choicest mental productions from India, and even from Greece, found the way to their courts. Alp Arslan, around whose throne stood twelve hundred princes, was a lover of letters, and from the banks of the Euphrates to the feet of the Himalayas a wealth of literature was called, to be wrought up by Persian scholars and poets under royal patronage. There was an active rivalry in literary culture, and much of the fire of Arabian poetry brightened the pages of Persian romance. There were the mystic lights and shadows of nomadic life, and desert voices mingled with the strains of native singers.

The terrible contrasts of life and death—the unyielding resentments and jealousies—passionate loves and hates, which are so distinctively Arabian, began to fill the pages of Iranian romance with tragedy.

Even the vivid description of the Moslems could scarcely add to the gorgeousness of Persian fancy, where Oriental lovers wandered in the greenest of valleys, while around them floated the soft perfume of the orange blossoms. It could not add to the fabulous wealth of their nobles, where camels were burdened with the choicest of gems, and vines of gold were laden with grapes of amethyst. But it did add the element of fierce revenge and the tragedy of violent death, represented by the pitiless simoon and the shifting sand column, the hopeless wastes, the bitter waters, and the dry bones of perished caravans. It added the life-springs of the oasis, as well as the rushing whirlwind; it added the palm tree of the desert, with her feet in the burning sand and her head in the morning light—a symbol of the watch-fires of faith above the desert places of life. The best literature of Persia in our own age is largely the reproduction in various forms of her standard poets; her romances, however, still rival the Arabian Nights in their startling combinations and bewildering descriptions. The imagination of her writers is not bound by the rules of our northern clime, and there is nothing too wild or improbable to find a place in Oriental story. There are rayless caverns of sorcery in a wilderness of mystery; there are mountains of emerald^[24] and hills of ruby^[25]; there are enchanted valleys, rich with fabulous treasure, and rivers gushing from fairy fountains. There is always the grand uprising of the king of day and the endless cycle of the stars—for this poetic people cannot forget the teaching of the Parsi and the Sabean. In the literature found on the banks of these southern seas there is also the restfulness of night, with its coolness and dews, to be followed by the glory of the morning and the fragrance from the hearts of the roses.

Persian literature rings with voices from ruined cities, and mingles the story of the past with the dreams of her future. Her treasures are drawn from the records of Chaldean kings; her historic pictures have caught the light of early crowns and repeated the story of their magnificence. Her annals are filled with the victories of her Cyrus, with the extended dominions of her great Darius, and the gorgeousness of her later sovereigns. Her poets have immortalized her myths as well as her heroes, and the Oriental world has contributed to the pages of her romance.

EARLY LITERATURE—HISTORIC TABLETS—THE INSCRIPTIONS OF NEBUCHADNEZZAR—THE FALL OF BABYLON—CYRUS, THE ACHÆMENIAN—BEHISTUN INSCRIPTIONS—DARIUS AT PERSEPOLIS—INSCRIPTIONS OF XERXES—ARTAXERXES—A LATER PERSIAN TABLET—RÉSUMÉ.

The early literature of Persia takes root in ancient soil, and the foundation of her world of letters must be sought for amidst the graven stones of forgotten tribes. The Persian heritage was not only the land of ancient Babylonia, but also the Chaldean and Semitic lore, which lay in the vaults of her kings, or lived upon the marble walls of her ruined palaces.

The story of a great civilization, and the poetry, as well as the prose of human history, were recorded upon the rocks or buried beneath the soil of Mesopotamia. It was even written in gold and alabaster, and placed in the corner-stones of temples that have lain beneath the tread of armies for three thousand years. When the stone is rolled away from the sepulchre of a buried literature, and the records of forgotten ages come with resurrection power into the living present, the heart of man must listen to the voice of these historic witnesses.

One of the greatest triumphs of modern science is the solution of the cuneiform inscriptions of antiquity. To the herculean labors of Grotofend, Bournouf, Lassen, Rawlinson, Layard, Oppert, Rassam, Sayce, Talbot, and others, the world owes a debt it can never pay. Their solution of these obscure alphabets, and the language, grammar and meaning of these old inscriptions rank with the grandest discoveries of modern science. They have not hesitated to devote their lives to the drudgery of cuneiform study, a score of years if necessary, being given to the solution of a single inscription. Without their long, unceasing labor many of the most valuable records of the past must have remained a sealed book. In vain would the spade of the explorer have exhumed the imperial libraries of Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar if no light could be thrown upon their strange inscriptions. In vain would the historic tablets of Karnak, or the cylinders of Babylon be brought before the bar of modern criticism, if no key could be found to their problems. It has been necessary to bring to this formidable task an understanding of the Chaldaic, and also of the old Accadian tongue. But even this did not suffice, and it would have been impossible to do more than to decipher a few proper names on the walls of Persian palaces without the aid of other ancient languages. As Lassen remarks: “It seems indeed providential that these inscriptions should be rescued from the dust of centuries at the very time when the discovery of Zend and Sansk?it had enabled Europeans to successfully grapple with their difficulties, for at any other period in the world’s history they could only have been a strange combination of wedges^[26] or arrow heads, even in the eyes of Oriental scholars.” It is difficult to appreciate the long and tedious processes by which these men were compelled to shape their own intellectual tools, and test their own laborious methods; but even to those who have not time to follow their intricate path of research, the result of their labors is indeed marvelous. The accuracy of their work has been sufficiently verified. At the suggestion of the Royal Asiatic Society, four translations of several hundred lines of the inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I. were made independently by Sir Henry Rawlinson, Mr. Fox Talbot, Dr. Hincks and Dr. Oppert, and submitted under seal to the secretary of that society. When opened and compared, it was found that they exhibited a remarkable resemblance to each other, even in the transliteration of proper names, and the rendering of individual passages. This triumphant result abundantly proved the fact that their method was a sound one, and that they were working on a solid basis.

Absolute certainty, of course, is unattainable at present, but the decipherment of these inscriptions has reached a degree of accuracy sufficient for all practical purposes. Scholars, perhaps, will always dispute about the exact meaning of certain words or phrases, as they do in reference to the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, but in either case it is seldom that any important point turns upon the particular shade of meaning. Still, it is evident that the Orientalists who have undertaken to restore the early chronology of Assyria and Babylonia have a difficult task in hand.

One of the points most surely settled by the deciphering of these inscriptions is, that so far as certain peoples are concerned the world of letters extends much farther back than has generally been supposed.

HISTORIC TABLETS.

There are philological tablets which are apparently designed, in some cases, to give the manner in which the names of Semitic kings were pronounced or written by their Accadian subjects.

An instance of this is found in the name of Sargon of Accad, the ancient hero of the Semitic population of Chaldea, who founded the first Semitic empire in the country and established a great library in his capital city, Accad, near Sippara. The seal of his librarian, which is of beautiful workmanship, is now in Paris, and has been published by M. de Clercq,^[27] while a copy of his annals, together with those of his son Naram-Sin, may be found in Western Asia Inscriptions.^[28]

Among these early records we also find tablets^[29] which have been exhumed, placed in the British Museum and translated, bearing the old Assyrian record of the flood, which is marvelously like the account found in Genesis, even to the “building of the ship,” which contained “the seed of all life,” and the raven and the dove which were sent forth from its windows after the waters began to recede. Another tablet^[30] describes the building of some great tower or “stronghold,” apparently by command of the king, but the gods are represented as being angry, for it is stated that “Babylon corruptly to sin went, and small and great mingled on the mound.... To their stronghold in the night he made an end. In anger also the secret counsel he poured out—to scatter (them abroad) his face he set. He gave a command to make strange their speech.... Violently they wept—very much they wept.”

There is a fragment of a tablet,^[31] on which was written an Accadian poem; on being translated it was found to contain a description of certain cities, of which the names were not given. It was recorded, however, that they were destroyed by a rain of fire, and the legend gives an account of a person who escaped the general destruction.

The inscriptions of ancient kings reveal to a certain extent the times and the facts connected with their reigns, but in discussing the tablets and monuments, the pillars and palace walls of these royal historians, it must be borne in mind that these heathen kings were far from infallible, and whatever resulted in their own aggrandizement was most eagerly recorded, while their military defeats and political humiliations were either passed over in silence or qualified to such an extent as to virtually lose their force. This is especially true of Sennacherib, who has the reputation among Assyriologists of being “the least trustworthy of the royal historians of Assyria.” Nevertheless, these records are of inestimable value as giving an account of their own wars and achievements by interested participants.

A hexagonal prism of clay, which was found at Nineveh and carried to the British Museum^[32] contains an account of the first eight years of the reign of Sennacherib and of his siege of Jerusalem under the reign of King Hezekiah, when, according to the tablets, the king of Jerusalem “had given command to strengthen the bulwarks of the great gate of the city,” when it was found to be so strong that the Assyrian king refrained from assaulting it.^[33]

The strange libraries of Assyria and Babylon abounded also in astronomical and astrological reports, the records of lawsuits, contract tablets and other inscriptions, also a number of official dispatches sent by the king of Jerusalem and other potentates to foreign courts.

There are also Assyrian deeds of real estate,^[34] bills of sale of Israelites for slaves, also a bill of sale of a woman to an Egyptian lady (Nitocris), who made the purchase in order to obtain a wife for her son, as well as the contract tablets of Belshazzar, and the “annals” of other kings.

Hundreds of these historic tablets have been brought to light, for the soil ruled over by Persian kings was indeed rich in this imperishable literature. Manuscripts may fade beneath the touch of time, or be burned by barbarian invaders, but these clay tablets have safely kept their records beneath the dust of centuries, and the germs of their thought lived, and were developed among other races, after they had lain for ages in the valley of the Euphrates.

These annals begin by declaring him to be “the King of Babylon, the exalted prince, the worshipper of the god Marduk, the prince supreme, the beloved of the god Nebo.” This mighty king was the patron of all forms of idolatry, and one of the principal objects of his reign appears to have been the restoration of the idol temples, and the reconstruction of their images. The first or “lofty-headed,” was the shrine of the god Bel. The celebrated golden image which Nebuchadnezzar set up represented this god.^[35] There is but little genuine history^[36] in his inscriptions, as he seemed to consider the account of the rebuilding of the city, and the restoration of the idol temples, of more importance than the record of his military triumphs. The work of rebuilding Babylon was surely a necessity, for the Babylonians having rebelled, Sennacherib had almost wholly destroyed it.^[37] The vengeance of the Assyrian king must have been terrible, for in the Bavian inscription, he declares that he swept the city from end to end—that he destroyed the houses, threw down the wall and fortifications, and the ruins were, by his order, thrown into the river. It is true that he and Assur-bani-pal reconstructed many buildings, but Babylon^[38] never regained her title of “the Glory of the East” until the time of Nebuchadnezzar, who was engaged throughout his long reign^[39] in rebuilding the temples and cities of his kingdom.

There are in the British Museum some thirty or forty inscriptions of this king, which record the structure of great buildings. There are also a few fragments pertaining to his historical career, but the account thus given is so incomplete, that while it agrees with the Biblical record of his campaigns, it is far less definite in detail. Nebuchadnezzar III, son of Nabupolasser, came to the throne in the latter part of the seventh century B. C, having taken command of the Babylonian army during the war between his father and Necho, the king of Egypt. He routed the Egyptian troops at Carchemish, “and took all that pertained to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates.”Euphrates.”^[40]

No royal penman ever took greater delight in recording his achievements than did Nebuchadnezzar in describing the glories of his capital city: “Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?”^[41] Upon the cylinders found at Senkereh in the ruins of the temple of the sun, upon tablets taken from the ruins of Birs Nimrud,^[42] which still rise one hundred and fifty-three feet above the level of the plain, and elsewhere, we find the boastful records of this haughty monarch, and in one instance a single inscription consists of six hundred and nineteen lines. Thus writes the great king:

“The fanes of Babylon I built, I adorned. Four thousand cubits complete, the walls of Babylon, whose banner is invincible, as a high fortress by the ford of the rising sun, I carried around Babylon its fosse which I dug. With cement and brick I reared up a tall tower at its side like a mountain. I built the great gates, whose walls I constructed with pine woods and covering of copper. I overlaid them to keep off enemies from the front of the wall of unconquered Babylon. Those large gates for the admiration of multitudes of men, with wreathed work I filled—the invincible castle of Babylon, which no king had previously effected, the city of Babylon I fitted to be a treasure city,”^[43] etc.

These few lines indicate the style and general character of the chronicles found upon many cylinders and slabs. During his reign Jerusalem was besieged, and captured^[44] after a siege of a year and a half. King Zedekiah fled by night “by the way of the gate between the two walls which is in the king’s garden,” but was overtaken in the plains of Jericho, and brought before the king of Babylon at Riblah, where his sons were slain before him and his eyes were destroyed. A few years later Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre, with doubtful success. He had left Gedaliah in charge of Judah, but the new ruler was slain by Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. Again the king of Babylon came to take vengeance, and carried the Jews away to Babylon. He afterward turned his attention to the capture of Egypt, whose king had incited Palestine to rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar defeated and deposed him, swept over Egypt and installed a king who was tributary to Babylon.^[45] After this he devoted himself to the rebuilding of his city, using thousands of captives as laborers and drawing upon all his provinces for his supplies.

All the writers of this period give their testimony to the glory of his city, his palaces, temples, hanging gardens, and the golden images of his gods. He builded the shrines of multitudes of gods at Babylon, and Jeremiah alludes to this fact when he says: “For it is a land of graven images, and they confide in their idols.”^[46] The prophets of Israel never stayed in their denunciation of this idolatrous king, even though they and their people were within the grasp of his mailed hand.

The land of Palestine has been called “the Piedmont of Western Asia;” being situated midway between the two great empires of Egypt and Assyria, it became the battle-field of the Orient, and it was here that the fiercest conflict was waged. But during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean supremacy in Asia remained unshaken, for the active policy of that iron-handed ruler, with his mighty army kept all Western Asia under his control.

THE FALL OF BABYLON.

There are several tablets pertaining to the fall of Babylon which throw additional light upon that event. It appears from these chronicles that Belshazzar reigned in connection with his father Nabonidus, Belshazzar being the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar on the maternal side. Under the date of the ninth year of Nabonidus,^[47] the record says: “Nabonidus, the king, was in the city of Teva, the son of the king (Belshazzar), the chieftains, and the soldiers were in the land of Accad (North Babylonia).... The king until the month Nisan (first month) to Babylon went not, Nebo to Babylon came not, Bel went not forth.... In the month Nisan, Cyrus, king of Persia, his army gathered, and below Arbela the river Tigris he crossed.” The chronicle is here mutilated, and it can be seen only that Cyrus, marching across the northern part of the Euphratean valley, levied tribute upon some distant king. This may have been one of the campaigns in the war against Croesus, king of Lydia, and the rising power of the now united Medes and Persians was anxiously watched by the rulers of Babylonia. Nabonidus appears from the record to have been a weak ruler, leaving the government and command of the army largely in the hands of his son. Says Boscawen, the eminent Assyriologist: “From the seventh year^[48] of his father’s reign until the fall of the empire, Belshazzar appears to have been the leading spirit and ruler of the kingdom, and this may account, in some measure, for his prominence in the book of Daniel.”^[49] In the cylinder inscription of Nabonidus, found in the temple of the Moon-god at Ur, the king thus prays for his son:

Another tablet, by a contemporary scribe, gives a brief account of the fall of Babylon, which throws a most important light upon this great event, enabling historians to fix the year, month and day of the capture of the city, and as proving its agreement with the statements of classical writers, and the author of the book of Daniel. The ancient writers all agree, that the fall of Babylon took place by a surprise, the attack being made on the night of a great festival. Herodotus thus describes it: “The outer part of the city had already been taken, while those in the centre, who, as the Babylonians say, knew nothing of the matter, owing to the extent of the city, were dancing and making merry, for it so happened that a festival was being celebrated.”

Xenophon claims that the attack was made “when Cyrus perceived that the Babylonians celebrated a festival at a fixed time, at which they feasted for the whole night.” The Hebrew prophets,^[51] also, were not unaware of this surprise upon the “Lady of Kingdoms,” and among the inscriptions taken from Babylon is a large tablet, containing, when complete, the calendar of the year, with notes appended to each day, specifying whether it was lucky or unlucky, whether it was a fast or a feast day. The calendar of the month Duza, or Tammuz, the month in which Babylon was taken, is fortunately complete, and contains a record of the festivals which were celebrated therein. The month opens with a festival of the Sun-god, or Tammuz, as the summer sun, restored in all his beauty (after his death in winter) to his bride, who is Ishtar, the moon. This festival is the same as that of Atys, the Phyrgian Adonis, which is celebrated at the same time. The festivals of Tammuz and Ishtar, his wife, extended over all the first half of the month, the second being the day of lamentation, and the sixth, the procession. On the fifteenth day of the month they celebrated the great marriage feast of Tammuz and his bride, and it consisted of wild orgies, such as can only be found in the lascivious East. It was this festival which Belshazzar was celebrating on the night in which Babylon was taken, and it was probably the only one in which not only the king, but also his “wives and concubines,” would be present. There may have been an air of desperation imparted to the conduct of Belshazzar by the knowledge that, by the flight of his father and defeat of his army, the kingdom was virtually lost, and that this was probably his last festival as a Babylonian ruler. The gold and silver vessels which were brought forth at this reckless feast had been captured at the sacking of the temple at Jerusalem, and stored in the temple of Bel Merodach, and were brought from there in obedience to the command of Belshazzar, who was the last of the line of Nimrod. It is evident from the tablets and other authorities that the army of Cyrus, commanded by Gobyras,^[52] entered the city “without fighting” on the night of the fifteenth of the month Tammuz, and the outposts were captured while the revelers were unconscious of the near approach of the foe. But within the walls and at the scene of festivity, surrounding the king, there was not only the tramp of armed men, but also the clash of swords and spears, a short but decisive combat, and Babylon, “the glory of kingdoms,” became the victor’s prize.^[53]

The walls of the Chaldean palace were rich with gorgeous draperies on that fatal night. The golden cups were filled with costly wines, and long festoons of flowers were hung from wall and ceiling; there were beautiful faces, and the flashing of jewels, with music and mirth in the royal hall, but that festal scene was the back-ground of the death of an empire. “Babylon the Great” had fallen in the midst of her splendor—had fallen with her temples and palaces, into the hand of the Persian king.

The numerous inscriptions of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, and the three Artaxerxes found at Persepolis, at Mount Elvend, at Susa, and Suez, are the most important of the historical inscriptions of Persian kings, except that at Behistun. The Persian texts have been repeatedly and carefully edited. Following the preparatory labors of Grotofend, Rask, Beer and Jacquet, the documents have been carefully examined and explained by MM. Burnouf, Lassen, Sir H. Rawlinson, Benfey, Spiegel and Dr. Oppert.

The Median versions appeared afterward, coming from the competent hands of MM. Westergaard, De Saulcy, Holtzmann, Norris and Mardtmann, while the Assyrian translations have been examined by scholars whose work is equally careful, therefore, no doubt can be entertained concerning its general accuracy.

The supposed tomb of Cyrus merely bears in three languages—Persian, Median and Assyrian—the simple statement that “I am Cyrus, the King, the AchÆmenian.” There is, however, an Assyrian inscription on a Babylonian brick which was brought over to England by Loftus and translated by Sir Henry Rawlinson, which declares that “Cyrus, King of Babylon, Priest of the Pyramid and of the Tower (was) son of Cambyses, the Mighty Prince.” This apparently simple legend is of great historical importance, as it proves that Herodotus^[54] was right in calling Cyrus’s father Cambyses, a name which was afterward borne also by the successor of Cyrus. The inscription also states, in harmony with Herodotus, that the former Cambyses was not a king, but merely a private individual.

BEHISTUN INSCRIPTIONS.

Not only is the soil of Persia rich in historic lore, but even the cliffs of her mountains were “graven with an iron pen” where her records were “laid in the rock forever.” At Behistun, far above the plain, is found an imperishable record of the reign of Darius Hystaspes.^[55]

Major Rawlinson at last succeeded in scaling the heights and making casts of the mystic characters to be taken away and translated. The great inscription is written in three languages, and extends to nearly a thousand lines of cuneiform writing. It is at least four hundred feet above the plain, and this intrepid soldier, during the space of several years, made the perilous ascent a multitude of times, always bringing away, at the peril of his life, some portion of this great historic record. After thirteen years of persistent effort he succeeded in copying the whole inscription, and placing it in such a form that other scholars could assist him in the translation of it. The casts of the ScythicScythic version were given into the care of Mr. E. Norris, the well-known Oriental scholar, who published from them an independent translation in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Persian text was translated by Major Rawlinson, and Dr. Julius Oppert states that he devoted twenty years of his own life to the Median version.

In the subject-matter of this long inscription, King Darius follows the custom of other potentates, and records only his triumphs, though he boastingly tells of the barbarities he practiced upon would-be usurpers. The record opens with a long line of genealogies, giving the names of the kings who reigned before him. “And Darius the king says, on that account we called ourselves AchÆmenian of race; from ancient times we have been mighty, from ancient times we have been kings.”^[56]

The royal historian then recites the countries over which he reigned, including Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, besides minor provinces, twenty-three in all, and he says, “These are the provinces that called themselves mine; they brought tribute to me, what was ordered by me unto them, in the night time as well as in the day time, that they executed.”^[57]

The history is then given of various pretenders who led revolts against him. The whole account of these rebellions occupies many lines of cuneiform writing, but victory was always gained by the crown, and the usurpers were put to death in the most barbarous manner. Their noses and ears and tongues were cut off, their eyes were put out, and in this pitiable condition they were chained to the palace where “all the people saw” them, and afterward they were carried away and placed upon crosses. The penalty inflicted upon each one is given in detail, but there is a great uniformity in the accounts, although the punishment was sometimes varied by hanging the leader of the revolt, together with his principal followers. Often a decree of extermination was issued against all the people engaged in the rebellion. The great inscription is finished with a pictorial representation of the nine kings which Darius took in battle, one of whom claimed to be Bardes, the son of Cyrus. Another claimed to be the king of Susiana;^[58] another led the revolt of the Babylonians; the fourth caused the rebellion of the Medians; the fifth, like the second, proclaimed himself the king of Susiana, while the sixth led the Sagartians in an attack upon their king. “The seventh was a Persian who lied and said, ’I am Smerdis, son of Cyrus, and he caused the revolt of Persia.’”^[59] The eighth proclaimed himself king of Babylon, and the ninth claimed to exercise kingly power over the Margians. The first of these is represented by a prostrate figure, upon which the victorious king is trampling, the others are standing in the position of captives, and are branded as imposters by the inscriptions beneath them. The king also recorded the names of the warriors who assisted him in his campaigns, and requested those who might succeed him upon the Persian throne, to “remember to show favor to the descendants of these men.”

DARIUS AT PERSEPOLIS.

Afar in the mountains of Persia stand the ruins of the capital city of her ancient kings. Porch and temple, hall and palace, lie together amidst the desolation wrought by the ages. The long stairway still leads to the great plateau, while the gray marble pillars stand like sentinels above the ruins at their feet, and the moonlight gleams upon sepulchres of Persian monarchs. But even here, on panel and column, we find symbols graven by a forgotten hand—the desert voice of the past, still boasting of the grandeur of her fallen kings.

An inscription on the door of a ruined palace, written in Persian, Median, and Assyrian, recounts the greatness of “Darius the great king,—the king of kings,—the king of the lands,—the son of Hystaspes, the AchÆmenian (who) has built the palace.” The “lands which are numerous” over which he holds sway are declared to be “Susiana, Media, Babylon, Arabia, Assyria, Egypt, Armenia, Cappadocia, Lycia, the Ionians, those of the continent and those of the sea, and the Eastern lands, Sagartia, Parthia, Sarangia, Aria, Bactria, Sogdiana, Chorasmia, Sattagydia, Arachotis, India, Gandaria, the Maxyans, Karka (Carthage), Sacians, and the Maka.”Maka.”^[60]

Darius the king says “If thou say it may be so I shall not fear the other Ahriman.^[61] Protect the Persian people. If the Persian people are protected by thee, Ormazd, the Good Principle, which has always destroyed the demon, will descend as ruler on this house. The great Ormazd, who is the greatest among all the gods, is he who created the heaven, and created the earth, who created the men and the Good Principle, and who made Darius king, and gave to Darius the king, the royalty over this wide earth, which contains many lands; Persia and Media, and other lands and other tongues, on the mountains, and in the plains, of this side of the sea, and on the side beyond the sea; of this side of the desert, and on the side beyond the desert.” The inscriptions of Darius at Mount Elvend, at Susa, and at Suez, are merely repetitions of the greatness of Darius and of Ormazd.

INSCRIPTIONS OF XERXES.

These are engraved upon the staircase and columns at Persepolis, and like the texts of Darius, they are employed chiefly to represent the greatness of the king, and the greatness of Ormazd. Says Dr. Oppert, “The texts of Xerxes are very uniform, and not very important. The real resulting fact is the name of the king, Khsayarsa, which proves to be identical with Ahasuerus”^[62] of the Book of Esther. There are also legends on vases which were found in Egypt, at Susa and Halicarnassus. The vase found at Halicarnassus is now in the gold room of the British Museum, bearing the inscription of “Xerxes the great king.”

ARTAXERXES.

The texts of this monarch, which are written in Persian, Median and Assyrian, are found on the bases of columns at Susa, and also at Persepolis, as well as upon vases. They comprise the records of three kings—Artaxerxes I, II and III.

We are indebted to the excavations of Loftus at Susa for the records of Artaxerxes II; these are far more important than the inscriptions of his predecessor, which merely illustrate the egotism of their author. The text which is borne upon these columns brings down to us a new historical statement, to the effect that the palace at Susa was burned under the reign of Artaxerxes I, and restored by his grandson. During this period the Persian monarchs resided principally at Babylon, and Darius II died there.

The great importance of these texts arises from the fact that they give the genealogy of the AchÆmenidÆ, and confirm the statements transmitted to us on this subject by the Greeks, which are in direct opposition to the traditions of the modern Persians. The text of Artaxerxes III contains the genealogy of that king upward to the names of Hystaspes and Arsames, who were the father and grandfather of Darius Hystaspes of the AchÆmenian line.

A LATER PERSIAN TABLET.

A much later tablet is merely a note of hand given by a Persian king (Pacorus II), with a promise to pay “in the month of Iyar (April) in the Temple of the sun in Babylon,” and it also bears the names of four witnesses. This little clay tablet was discovered by Dr. Oppert in the Museum of the Society of Antiquarians at Zurich, and has been carefully translated by him. It is interesting mostly from the fact of its comparatively modern origin, King Pacorus II having been contemporary with the Emperor Titus and Domitian. Some of the names mentioned upon it are Babylonish, and some of them Persian. All the witnesses, however, bear Persian names which may even be called modern. King Pacorus II commenced his reign A.D. 77, and hence this is the only tablet, so far as known, which belongs to the Christian era.

RÉSUMÉ.

These sculptured temples and graven stones have lain in the path of the ages with silent lips, but the questioning hand of the nineteenth century has broken the spell and wrested the story of the past even from the “heaps” of Nineveh and Babylon. From mountain cliff, from palace wall, from corner-stone and fallen pillar comes the same historic voice that speaks to us from the forgotten libraries of buried kings.

The literature of the tablets comes into our own age, leading a splendid retinue of historic figures—Sargon, the early king of Accad, with his imperishable library, with the monuments and tablets of Assyria, then Nineveh, “that great city,” with her temples and palaces, where the gilded tiles of many a a dome flashed back the glory of the setting sun—Babylon, “the joy of the whole earth,” and “the beauty of the Chaldee’s excellency,” who for centuries held her position as the queen of the world’s commerce, and through whose hands the wealth of the Euphrates flowed down to the Persian Gulf. Babylon, with her maze of life and color, with her silver vases and golden vessels, with her princely halls and gorgeous hangings, with the breath of the myrtle and the bay, borne upward from her terraced gardens and moonlight meads.

Then the scene changes, and the kingly Cyrus is riding at the head of his Medo-Persian cohorts, and the crown of the Orient is within his grasp. “Bel boweth down—Nebo stoopeth,” and the seat of government is removed, and “the daughter of the Chaldeans” sits in the dust beneath the foot of the invader.

Later still, Darius the Great is enthroned on Persian soil; haughtily he wears the imperial purple, and the crown of many kingdoms, while upon the face of Persia’s mountains, he writes himself “The king of kings.” But a reckless policy led the Persian host to a sure defeat upon the plains of Marathon, and prepared the way for the humiliation of Xerxes, and the later triumphs of Alexander. Then the sons of the desert poured like a mountain torrent over the plains of Iran, and the star and crescent flashed everywhere from banners on Persian soil, while to-day the Arab pitches his tent amidst the ruins of ancient cities, and only the spade of the explorer reveals their buried treasures.

PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY—ANU—SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS—ACCADIAN POEM—ASSUR—HEA—NIN-CI-GAL—SIN, THE MOON GOD—HEA-BANI—NERGAL—MERODACH—NEBO—NINIP—CHEMOSH—INCANTATIONS TO FIRE AND WATER—IM—BAAL—TAMMUZ-ISHTAR—ISHTAR OF ARBELA—ISHTAR OF ERECH—LEGEND OF ISHTAR AND IZDUBAR-ISHTAR, QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY—THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR.

The East was the home of poetry and the land of mythology before the hundred gates of Palmyra were swung upon their massive hinges, or the crown of her beautiful queen had been set with its moonlight pearls. A land which was rich with jewels and radiant with flowers, held in her background a mythology so primitive that it appears to have been the mother of them all. Tablet and palace walls have alike been questioned concerning these early myths, and behind the dust of the centuries, in the legends that lie beneath them, we find stories of gods like Indra, the storm-king of the Hindus, and Jove of Olympus—like Odin and Thor of the Northmen. Even the gigantic symbols that guarded the portals of ancient hall and palace are replete with wonder, for their strange wings have sheltered the very beginnings of mythology. Chaldea’s cosmogonies comprehend the ideas of the Greek and Norseman—nay, even the wildest dreams of Hindu and Persian are apparently drawn from this common source.^[63]

The intelligent study of Persian literature compels an examination of the early myths and legends where her poetry and romance found their sources—compels the study not only of the inscriptions of Persian kings, but of the tablets which have brought down to us the idols of a primitive people. Therefore, it is the province of this chapter to give a brief yet comprehensive outline of the principal deities and legends which seem to form the basis not only of Persian mythology, but of the luxuriant growth of myth and fable which has permeated India, Greece, and Rome, as well as Northern Europe.

A Chaldean legend of the creation is found upon a clay tablet which contains a description of the struggle between the evil powers of darkness and chaos, and the bright powers of light and order. This is doubtless the origin of the struggle between good and evil—the unceasing contest between Ormazd and Ahriman which forms the key-note of Persian thought so fully illustrated in the Avesta.

There are two contradictory tablets of the creation. The one coming from the library at Cutha and the other from the royal library at Nineveh. This latter consists of seven tablets, as the creation is described as consisting of seven successive acts. It presents a curious similarity to the account of the creation long before recorded in Genesis, the word Tiamat which is used to represent chaos seems to be the same as the biblical word tehom, the deep. A radical difference, however, is found in the fact that in the Assyrian story, Tiamat has become a mythological personage—the dragon mother of a chaotic brood. The legend in its present form is assigned by Prof. Sayce to about the time of Assur-bani-pal.^[64] The oldest tablets are those which are written in the primitive Accadian tongue, and many of these have been found in the library of Assur-bani-pal,^[65] having evidently been copied from the earlier text and supplied with interlinear translations in the Assyrian tongue.

The Assyrians counted no less than three hundred spirits of heaven and six hundred spirits of earth, all of which (as well as the rest of their mythology) appears to have been borrowed from the primitive population of that country. Indeed it would appear that ancient Babylonia was the birthplace of that common mythology^[66] which in various forms afterward became the heritage of so many nations.

Elaborate and costly temples were built for these deities of an idolatrous people, and when the image of a god was brought into his newly built temple there were festivals and processions, and wild rejoicing among the worshippers.

The principal gods mentioned in these early tablets may be briefly sketched as follows:

The sky god and ruler of the highest heaven, whose messengers are evil spirits. The Canaanite town of Beth-anath, mentioned in Joshua,^[67] was named for Anat, the wife of Anu.

SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS.

These messengers of Anu are elsewhere described as the seven storm-clouds, or the winds, and their leader seems to have been the dragon Tiamat^[68] (the deep), who was defeated by Bel-Merodach in the war of the gods. The tablets have preserved an Accadian poem on this subject, the author of which is represented as living in the Babylonian city of Eridu,^[69] where his horizon was bounded by the mountains of Susiani, and the battle of the elements raging around their summit suggested to his poet-mind the warring of evil spirits.

It was these seven storm-spirits who were represented as attacking the moon when it was eclipsed, a description of which is given in an Accadian poem^[70] translated by Prof. Talbot. Here they are regarded as the allies of the incubus, or nightmare, which is supposed to attack the moon.

ACCADIAN POEM ON THE SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS.

Here we have more than a suggestion of the origin of some of the early songs of the Vedas, for these seven storm-spirits are represented by the Maruts of the Hindus—“the shakers of the earth”—who dash through the heavens in chariots drawn by dappled deer. In this primitive mythology we find also

ASSUR.

The “god of judges” was the especial patron of Assyria, and afterward made to express the power of the later Assyrian empire by becoming “father of the gods” and the head of the pantheon.

The Assyrian kings claimed that their power was derived from this deity, and in one of the inscriptions it is said that

In the inscriptions of Shalmanesar II, all honor is also ascribed to this god; he is invoked as “Assur, the great lord, the king of all the great gods.”

On his return, the victorious king purified his weapons in the sea, and sacrificed victims to his gods. He erected a statue of himself, overlooking the sea, and inscribed it with the glory of Assur.

HEA.

Hea^[74] was the god of chaoschaos or the deep; he was “the king of the abyss who determines destinies.”

In later times he was also called “the god of the waters,” and from him some of the attributes of Neptune may have been derived. It was said that Chaos was his wife.

In later mythology Nin-ci-gal, instead of Chaos, was the wife of Hea—she was the “lady of the mighty country” and “queen of the dead.” This goddess may have been the prototype of Proserpine, who was carried away by Pluto in his golden chariot to be the “queen of hades.”

SIN.

This name signifies brightness, and the moon-god was the father of Ishtar. Nannaru, “the brilliant one,” was one of his titles.

A golden tablet^[75] found in the “timmin,” or cornerstone of a palace or temple at Khorsabed, contains an account of the splendid temples which King Sargon II built in a town near Nineveh (Dur Sarkin) and dedicated to Hea, Sin (the moon-god), Chemosh (the sun-god), and Ninip, the god of forces. The king’s inscription^[76] states that “I constructed palaces covered with skins, sandal wood, ebony, cedar, tamarisk, pine, cypress, and wood of pistachio tree.” Among the gods presented on the tablets we find also

HEA-BANI.

This god was the companion of Izdubar, and on account of the peculiar circumstances attending his death was shut out of heaven. He is represented as a satyr, with the legs, head, and tail of an ox. This figure occurs very frequently on the gems, and may always be recognized by these characteristics. He is doubtless the original of Mendes, the goat-formed god of Egypt, and also of Pan, the goat-footed god of the Arcadian herdsman with his pipe of seven reeds. Hea-bani is represented as dwelling in a remote place three days’ journey from Erech, and it was said that he lived in a cave and associated with the cattle and the creeping things of the field.

NERGAL,

the patron deity of Cutha, is identified with Nerra, the god of pestilence, and also with Ner, the mythical monarch of Babylonia, who it was claimed reigned before the flood. He was “the god of bows and arms.” The cuneiform inscriptions show that the Lion-god, under the name of Nergal^[77] was worshipped at Kuti or Cutha, where an elaborate temple was built in his honor, and an Assyrian copy of an old Babylonian text belonging to the library of Cutha, speaks of “the memorial stone which I wrote for thee, for the worship of Nergal which I left for thee.” According to Dr. Oppert, Nergal represented the planet Mars, hence the Grecian god of war, “raging round the field,” appears to have been merely a perpetuation of this early deity.

BEL MERODACH,

or Marduk, whose temple, according to the inscription, was built by Nebuchadnezzar, with its costly woods, “its silver and molten gold, and precious stones” and “sea-clay” (amber), “with its seats of splendid gold, with lapis-lazuli and alabaster blocks,” which are still found in the ruins of Babylon. And the king made the great festival Lilmuku, when the image of Merodach^[78] was brought into the temple.^[79] The inscription also speaks^[80] of the temple as receiving “within itself the abundant tribute of the kings of nations, and of all peoples.”^[81]

NEBO.

From this god the name of Nebuchadnezzar was derived, and he was the favorite deity of that king. He was the eldest son of Merodach, and was “the bestower of thrones in heaven and earth.” In a ten-column inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, which is engraved upon black basalt, and now forms part of the India House Collection, the king speaks of building a temple in Babylon “to Nebo of lofty intelligence, who hath bestowed on me the scepter of justice to preside over all peoples.” He says, “The pine portico of the shrine of Nebo, with gold I caused to cover,”^[82] etc. Nebo^[83] or Nabo and Merodach are both used as the component parts of the names of certain kings of Babylon.

“the son of the zenith,” and “the lord of strong actions,” finds an echo in Grecian mythology as Hercules, who received his sword from Mercury, his bow from Apollo, his golden breastplate from Vulcan, his horses from Neptune, and his robe from Minerva, the goddess of wisdom.

Hercules, who appears in Persian mythology as Mithras, the unconquered sun, is traced back to his Phoenician origin in the line of Baal. Therefore, the Persian Mithras represents Chemosh and Tammuz, both of whom are sun-gods as well as the “god of forces,” for the sun is the most powerful influence in the planetary world. The mysteries of Mithras were celebrated with much pomp and splendor on the revival of the Persian religion under the SassanidÆ. The word appears in many ancient Persian names.

DAGON.

The Assyrian Dagon was usually associated with Anu, the sky-god, and the worship of both was carried as far west as Canaan.^[84] He is spoken of in the tablets as “Dagon, the hero of the great gods, the beloved of thy heart, the prince, the favorite of Bel,” etc. The name is a word of Accadian origin, meaning “exalted.”

MOLECH.

Of Molech little is said in the tablets, except that “he took the children,”^[85] but a curious fragment of an old Accadian hymn indicates that the children of these highlanders were offered, as burnt offerings, in very early times; and hence, says Prof. Sayce, “the bloody sacrifices offered to Molech were no Semitic invention, but handed on to them, with so much else, by the Turanian population of Chaldea.”^[86] The Mosaic law was especially severe upon this “abomination” of human sacrifices, the death penalty being ordered for every such offence.^[87]

CHEMOSH.

This sun-god was worshipped as the Supreme, and in his honor, his early worshippers sang praises, offered sacrifices and performed incantations. The success of Mesha, king of Moab, in his revolt against the king of Israel, was commemorated by the erection of the celebrated Moabite stone^[88] whereon was recorded the inscription ascribing his victory to Chemosh, his favorite deity. The principal title of Chemosh^[89] was “Judge of heaven and earth,” but he afterward held a less important position in the Chaldaic-Babylonian pantheon, which was adopted by the Assyrians, and was considered inferior to Sin, the moon-god, who was sometimes said to be his father. There are several tablets bearing magical incantations and songs to the sun-god.

But the hideous idols that occupied the palatial temples of Chemosh at Larsam, in Southern Chaldea, and at Sippara, in the north of Babylonia, became more refined in the poetry of the Vedas, and he appeared in the mythology of the Hindus as Surya, the godthe god of day, who rode across the heavens in a car of flame drawn by milk-white horses.

INCANTATIONS TO FIRE AND WATER

There are also Assyrian incantations to fire and water, which represent the imagery of the primitive Babylonians, and these inscriptions also suggest a possible foundation for the hymns of the ?ig-veda. There is a great similarity of style between the literature of the tablets and the early hymns of the Hindus. The tablets speak of “An incantation to the waters pure, the waters of the Euphrates—the water in which the abyss firmly is established, the noble mouth of Hea shines upon them.

Waters they are shining (clear), waters they are bright. The god of the river puts him (the enchanter) to flight,” etc. In the incantation to fire, there are also many eloquent passages: “The Fire-god—the prince which is in the lofty country—the warrior, son of the abyss—the god of fire with thy holy fires—in the house of darkness, light thou art establishing.

Of Bronze and lead, the mixer of them thou (art). Of silver and gold, the blesser of them thou (art).”^[90] This Fire-god of the Accadians was represented by the Hindu Agni, from whose body issued seven streams of glory, and by Loki, whose burning breath is poured from the throbbing mountains of the Northmen.

IM.

In this pantheon of mythology, as defined by the tablets, Im was the god of the sky, sometimes called Rimmon, the god of lightning and storms, of rain and thunder. He is represented among the Hindus as Indra, who furiously drives his tawny steeds to the battle of the elements. With the Greek and Latins he was personated by Zeus and Jupiter, “the cloud-compelling Jove,” while among the Northmen he wears the form of Thor, whose frown is the gathering of the storm-clouds, and whose angry voice echoes in the thunder-bolt.

BAAL,

or Bel (plural Baalim), was also an important character, and indeed, according to Dr. Oppert, all of the Phoenician gods were included under the general name of Baal,^[91] and human sacrifices were often made upon their blood-stained altars. He had a magnificent temple in Tyre, which was founded by Hiram, where he had symbolic pillars, one of gold and one of smaragdus. An inscription^[92] on the sarcophagus of Esmunazar, king of the two Sidons, claims that he, too, built a temple to Ashtaroth, and “placed there the images of Ashtaroth,” and also “the temple of Baal-Sidon, and the temple of Astarte, who bears the name of this Baal;” that is, the temple of Baal and the temple of Astarte, or Ashtaroth, at Sidon.

The grossest sensuality characterized some forms of the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth. Indeed, it can only be compared to the unmentionable rites which two thousand years later pertained to the worship of K?ish?a and Siva.

In the inscription of Tiglath Pilesar I, Baal is called “the King of Constellations,” and the fact that he was thus worshipped is a peculiar explanation of the frequent condemnation in the book of Kings of the worship of “the host of Heaven,” which is repeatedly spoken of in connection with the altars of Baal.^[93]

TAMMUZ.

This is another form of the sun-god, who is represented as being slain by the boar’s tusk of winter. June is the month of Tammuz, and his festival began with the cutting of the sacred fir tree in which the god had hidden himself. A tablet in the British Museum states that the sacred dark fir tree which grew in the city of Eridu, was the couch of the mother goddess.^[94] The sacred tree having been cut and carried into the idol-temple, there came the search for Tammuz, when the devotees ran wildly about weeping and wailing for the lost one,^[95] and cutting themselves with knives. His wife, Ishtar, descended to the lower world to search for him, and the tablets furnish another poem which seems to celebrate a temple similar to that recorded by Maimonides, in which the Babylonian gods gathered around the image of the sun-god, to lament his death. The statue of Tammuz was placed on a bier and followed by bands of mourners, crying and singing a funeral dirge. He is also called Duzi, “the son.” Tammuz is the proper Syriac name for Adonis of the Greeks.

ISHTAR.

This goddess, who is sometimes called Astarte, was the most important female deity of this early pantheon. The Persian form of the word is Astara. In Phoenician it is Ashtaroth,^[96] and according to Dr. Oppert all the Phoenician goddesses were included under this general name. Another form of the name afterward appeared in Greek mythology as Asteria, and it was applied to the beautiful goddess who fled from the suit of Jove, and, flinging herself down from heaven into the sea, became the island afterward named Delos.

The farther back we go in the world’s history the nearer we approach to the original idea of monotheism, and originally there was only one goddess, Ishtar or Ashtaroth, personifying both love and war, but two such opposite characteristics could not long remain the leading attributes of the same deity, and hence after a time, there were mentioned three goddesses bearing the same name.

ISHTAR OF ARBELA

was the goddess of war, the “Lady of Battles.” She was the daughter of Anu, whose messengers were the seven evil spirits, and the favorite goddess of King Assur-bani-pal, who claims that he received his bow from her, though he declares in his inscriptions that he worshipped also Bel or Baal, and Nebo; he frequently implores the protection of Ishtar.

“Oh, thou, goddess of goddesses, terrible in battle, goddess in war, queen of the gods! Teuman, king of Elam, he gathered his army and prepared for war; he urges his fighting men to go to Assyria. Oh, thou, archer of the gods, like a weight, in the midst of the battle, throw him down and crush him.”^[97] Ishtar of Arbela afterward became the Bellona of the Latins, and the Enyo of the Greeks. Under the name of Anatis, or Anahid, she was worshipped in Armenia, and also in Cappadocia, where she had a splendid temple, served by a college of priests, and more than six thousand temple servants. Her image, according to Pliny,^[98] was of solid gold, and her high priest was second only to the king himself. Strabo calls this goddess Enyo, and Berosus considers that she is identical with Venus. The inscriptions of Artaxerxes, discovered at Susa, call her Anahid, which was the Persian name of the planet Venus. The characteristics of Venus, the queen of beauty, may seem somewhat at variance with Ishtar of Arbela, the goddess of war, but it will be remembered that the Greeks of Cythera, one of the Ionian islands, worshipped an armed Venus, and from this island she took the name of Cythera; the fable that she rose from the sea probably means that her worship was introduced into the island by a maritime people, doubtless the Phoenicians.

ISHTAR OF ERECH,

the daughter of Anu and Annatu, is another form of this popular goddess, and one of the Assyrian tablets refers to the dedication of horses at the temple of Bit-ili at Erech, where the king of Elam dedicated white horses with silver saddles to Ishtar, the tutelar divinity of Erech.

In the sixth tablet of the Izdubar series, we find an Ishtar whose characteristics are so different from either the goddess of love or the goddess of war, that we are constrained to believe that it must refer to Ishtar of Erech. She here appears as the queen of witchcraft, resembling the Hecate of the Greeks in her funereal abode. Indeed, Hecate was fabled to be the daughter of Asteria, which is merely the Greek form of the name Ishtar, and Pausanius^[99] mentions an Astrateia whose worship was brought to Greece from the East.

The student of comparative mythology will recognize in the above legend the original idea of much of the classic lore of Greece. Izdubar’s return, and the throwing off of his disguise, suggest the adventures of Ulysses as related by Homer, and his return to Ithaca as a beggar.

The character of Ishtar as presented in this tablet is apparently a prototype not only of Hecate, but also of Medea, whose chariot was drawn by winged serpents, and the cauldron or pot, which Ishtar filled with her magic herbs, suggests the statement of Ovid that Medea on one occasion spent no less than nine days and nights in collecting herbs for her cauldron.^[103] The character of Ishtar may also have suggested that of Circe, who

and she loved Ulysses as Ishtar loved Izdubar, even though she had transformed all of his companions into swine.

In column II of the tablet under consideration, we find the story of the king whom Ishtar changed into a leopard, “and his own dogs bit him to pieces.” No one can doubt that we see here the original of the Greek fable of ActÆon, the hero who offended the goddess Diana, when she revenged herself by changing him into a deer, and his dogs no longer knowing their master, fell upon him and tore him to pieces.^[104] The classic authors of Greece and Rome, however, attribute the fate of ActÆon to the vengeance of the strong and graceful Diana, whom he offended by allowing his eyes to rest upon her rich beauty, while the tablet ascribes the fate of the king to the wanton cruelty of Ishtar.

Diana is sometimes identified with Hecate, the daughter of Asteria or Ishtar, and she retains the characteristics of her mother by appearing as the goddess of the moon. Her temple at Ephesus, with its hundred and twenty-seven columns of Parian marble, was one of the “Seven Wonders of the World,” but the hideous idol within it was roughly carved of wood, not as a beautiful huntress, but as an Egyptian monster, whose deformity was hidden by a curtain.^[105]

The same Diana, however, in the hands of Grecian poets, becomes the strong and beautiful goddess of the chase, followed by her train of nymphs in pursuit of flying deer with golden horns.

Assyrian literature has evidently furnished the basis of several stories which are found in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, besides that of Pyramus and Thisbe, which, as he expressly states, is a tale of Babylon.

ISHTAR, THE QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY.

Ishtar of Nineveh, who is identified with Beltis, the wife of Baal, became the goddess of love, “the divine queen” or “divine lady” of Kidmuri, which was the name of her temple at Nineveh. She was the daughter of Sin, the moon-god; indeed, she is sometimes represented as the full moon, for which reason she is called the goddess Fifteen in Assyria, because the month consisting of thirty days, the moon was full on the fifteenth. She is the prototype of Freyja, the weeping goddess of love among the Northmen, and the Aphrodite of the Greeks—the beautiful nymph who sprang from the soft foam of the sea, and was received in a land of flowers, by the gold-filleted Seasons, who clothed her in garments immortal. Her chariot was drawn by milk-white swans, and her garlands were of rose and myrtle.

Ishtar of Nineveh appears as the imperious queen of love and beauty, and was undoubtedly the original of the Latin Venus. Indeed, Anthon says, “There is none of the Olympians of whom the foreign origin is so probable as this goddess, and she is generally regarded as being the same with the Astarte (Ashtaroth) of the Phoenicians.”^[106] We find upon the tablets a beautiful legend concerning her visit to Hades. She went in search of her husband Tammuz, as Orpheus was afterward represented as going to recover his wife, when the music from his golden shell stopped the wheel of Ixion, and made Tantalus forget his thirst. So also HermÖd, the son of Odin, in the mythology of the Northmen rode to Hel upon the fleet-footed Sleipnir in order to rescue his brother Balder.

It was doubtless through the Phoenicians that this legend reached the Greeks, and was there reproduced in a form almost identical with the fable of the tablets. Adonis, the sun-god, who was the hero, was killed by the tusk of a wild boar, even as Tammuz, the sun-god of Assyria, was slain by the boar’s tusk of winter. Venus, the queen of love and beauty, was inconsolable at his loss, and at last obtained from Proserpina, the queen of hades, permission for Adonis to spend every alternate six months with her upon the earth, while the rest of the time should be passed in hades. Thus also the Osiris of the Egyptians was supposed to be dead or absent forty days in each year, during which time the people lamented his loss, as the Syrians did that of Tammuz, as the Greeks did that of Adonis, and as also the Northmen mourned for Frey.

Ishtar is represented as going down to the regions of darkness wearing rings and jewels, with a diadem and girdle set with precious stones, and this fact would seem to indicate that the ancient city, which afterward came under the rule of Persian kings, was the home of the idea that whatever was buried with the dead would go with them to the other shore. Hence India, for ages, burned the favorite wives, with the dead bodies of her rajas, while other tribes placed living women in the graves of their chiefs, and our own Indians provide dogs and weapons for the use of their braves when they reach the “happy hunting grounds.” We give the following legend complete, as it is found upon the tablets:

THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR.

(Here follow a few lines which are unworthy of repetition, as they very coarsely describe the pitiable condition of the world when forsaken by the goddess of love.)

Surely here is poetry—the haughty queen of love and beauty imperiously demands an entrance into the land of shadows that she may recover her beloved. She threatens to break down the very gates of hades and raise the dead to devour the living if her wish is refused. She shrinks at no sacrifice which her love-lighted mission may cost. A great crown is taken from her head, but she stays not. Her jewels and precious stones—her girdle of priceless gems—is taken from her, and still she presses forward in quest of her love.

But when at last the seven gates of hades have closed upon her luxurious form, the world misses her joyous presence—the splendor is stolen from Beauty’s eyes—the crimson touch of life has faded from her lips—the doves and sun-birds no longer chant their love songs in the crowns of the palm trees, and the sorrowing night bird trills the plaintive tale to the closed and weeping roses. Nay, even the sky seems to forget to light up the couch of the dying sun with draperies of crimson and gold, and all the world is shrouded in darkness and cold despair. But Hea, in his ocean home, hears the wail of the gods who mourn the absence of Ishtar, and he comes to the rescue. The seven gates of hades swing again upon their hinges, and with crowns and jewels and girdle restored, the imperial goddess comes forth to resume her sway amid the flowers of a love-lighted earth.