United States or Sweden ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Lakhmu and Lakhamu represent the 'monster' world where creatures are produced in strange confusion, whereas Anshar and Kishar indicate a division of the universe into two distinct and sharply defined parts. The splitting of 'chaos' is the first step towards its final disappearance.
The creation of Anshar and Kishar marks indeed the beginning of a severe conquest which ends in the overthrow of Tiâmat, and while in the present form of the epic, the contest is not decided before Anu, Bel, and Ea and the chief deities of the historic pantheon are created, one can see traces of an earlier form of the tradition in which Anshar perhaps with some associates is the chief figure in the strife.
Among these we find Anshar and Kishar, and by their side, such pairs as Anshar-gal, i.e., 'great totality of what is on high, and Kishar-gal, i.e., 'great totality of what is below, Enshar and Ninshar, i.e., 'lord' and 'mistress, respectively, of 'all there is, Du'ar and Da'ur, forms of a stem which may signify 'perpetuity, Alala, i.e., 'strength, and a consort Belili.
They are anxious to conciliate Tiâmat and are not actuated by any motives of rivalry. Order is not aggressive. It is chaos which manifests opposition to 'order. In the second tablet of the series, Anshar sends his son Anu with a message to Tiâmat: Go and step before Tiâmat. May her liver be pacified, her heart softened. Anu obeys, but at the sight of Tiâmat's awful visage takes flight.
The later 'theology' found a solution of the problem by assuming four series of deities represented by Apsu and Tiâmat, by Lakhmu and Lakhamu, by Anshar and Kishar, and by the triad Anu, Bel, and Ea. In a vague way, as we have seen, Apsu and Tiâmat are the progenitors of Lakhmu and Lakhamu.
The later name Ashur, because of its ominous character, effectually effaced the earlier one in popular thought. The introduction of the older form Anshar, not merely in the first tablet of the creation series, but, as we shall presently see, elsewhere, confirms the view of a southern origin for Ashur, and also points to the great antiquity of the Anshar-Ashur cult.
For present purposes it is sufficient to have shown that the position of Anshar in the remodeled traditions is an argument in favor of regarding Anshar as the real name of the god who stands at the head of the Assyrian pantheon. In the oldest Assyrian inscription known to us, the god Ashur is mentioned.
Before leaving the names, it may be added that, of the primaeval deities, Anshar and Kishar are obviously Sumerian in form. Damkina was the later wife of Ea or Enki; and Ninkharsagga is associated with Enki, as his consort, in another Sumerian myth. It may be noted that the character of Apsû and Tiamat in this portion of the poem is quite at variance with their later actions.
The etymology of Anshar is as obscure as that of most of the ancient gods of Babylonia, as of Sin, Marduk, Ishtar, and many more. But before leaving the subject, it will be proper to call attention to the rôle that a god Anshar plays in the Babylonian-Assyrian cosmological system. Anshar and Kishar are the second pair of deities to be created, the first pair being Lakhmu and Lakhamu.
The priority, again, of Lakhmu and Lakhamu, as well as of Anshar and Kishar, is expressed by making them 'ancestors' of Anu, Bel and Ea.
Word Of The Day