Warriors Legends Of Troy [PAL][ISO] PATCHED

This volume deals with the myths and legends of Babylonia andAssyria, and as these reflect the civilization in which theydeveloped, a historical narrative has been provided, beginningwith the early Sumerian Age and concluding with the periods ofthe Persian and Grecian Empires. Over thirty centuries of humanprogress are thus passed under review.

Warriors Legends of Troy [PAL][ISO]

Throughout this volume comparative notes have been compiled indealing with Mesopotamian beliefs with purpose to assist thereader towards the study of linking myths and legends.Interesting parallels have been gleaned from various religiousliteratures in Europe, Egypt, India, and elsewhere. It will befound that certain relics of Babylonian intellectual life, whichhave a distinctive geographical significance, were shared bypeoples in other cultural areas where they were similarlyoverlaid with local colour. Modes of thought were the products ofmodes of life and were influenced in their development by humanexperiences. The influence of environment on the growth ofculture has long been recognized, but consideration must also begiven to the choice of environment by peoples who had adopteddistinctive habits of life. Racial units migrated from culturalareas to districts suitable for colonization and carried withthem a heritage of immemorial beliefs and customs which wereregarded as being quite as indispensable for their welfare astheir implements and domesticated animals.

Throughout this volume special attention has been paid to thevarious peoples who were in immediate contact with, and wereinfluenced by, Mesopotamian civilization. The histories aretraced in outline of the Kingdoms of Elam, Urartu (AncientArmenia), Mitanni, and the Hittites, while the story of the riseand decline of the Hebrew civilization, as narrated in the Bibleand referred to in Mesopotamian inscriptions, is related from theearliest times until the captivity in the Neo-Babylonian periodand the restoration during the age of the Persian Empire. Thestruggles waged between the great Powers for the control of traderoutes, and the periodic migrations of pastoral warrior folks whodetermined the fate of empires, are also dealt with, so thatlight may be thrown on the various processes and influencesassociated with the developments of local religions andmythologies. Special chapters, with comparative notes, aredevoted to the Ishtar-Tammuz myths, the Semiramis legends, Ashurand his symbols, and the origin and growth of astrology andastronomy.

So for nearly two thousand years has the haunting memory ofthe once-powerful city pervaded Christian literature, while itsbroken walls and ruined temples and palaces lay buried deep indesert sand. The history of the ancient land of which it was thecapital survived in but meagre and fragmentary form, mingled withaccumulated myths and legends. A slim volume contained all thatcould be derived from references in the Old Testament and thecompilations of classical writers.

In this volume, which deals mainly with the intellectual lifeof the Mesopotamian peoples, a historical narrative has beenprovided as an appropriate setting for the myths and legends. Inthis connection the reader must be reminded that the chronologyof the early period is still uncertain. The approximatedates which are given, however, are those now generally adoptedby most European and American authorities. Early Babylonianhistory of the Sumerian period begins some time prior to 3000B.C; Sargon of Akkad flourished about 2650 B.C., and Hammurabinot long before or after 2000 B.C. The inflated system of datingwhich places Mena of Egypt as far back as 5500 B.C. and Sargon atabout 3800 B.C. has been abandoned by the majority of prominentarchaeologists, the exceptions including Professor FlindersPetrie. Recent discoveries appear to support the newchronological system. "There is a growing conviction", writes Mr.Hawes, "that Cretan evidence, especially in the eastern part ofthe island, favours the minimum (Berlin) system of Egyptianchronology, according to which the Sixth (Egyptian) Dynasty beganat c. 2540 B.C. and theTwelfth at c. 2000B.C.[8] Petrie dates the beginning of the TwelfthDynasty at c. 3400B.C.

To students of comparative folklore and mythology the mythsand legends of Babylonia present many features of engrossinginterest. They are of great antiquity, yet not a few seemcuriously familiar. We must not conclude, however, that because aEuropean legend may bear resemblances to one translated from acuneiform tablet it is necessarily of Babylonian origin. Certainbeliefs, and the myths which were based upon them, are older thaneven the civilization of the Tigro-Euphrates valley. They belong,it would appear, to a stock of common inheritance from anuncertain cultural centre of immense antiquity. The probleminvolved has been referred to by Professor Frazer in theGolden Bough. Commentingon the similarities presented by certain ancient festivals invarious countries, he suggests that they may be due to "a remarkablehomogeneity of civilization throughout Southern Europe andWestern Asia in prehistoric times. How far", he adds, "suchhomogeneity of civilization may be taken as evidence ofhomogeneity of race is a question for theethnologist."[9]

Comparative notes are provided in dealing with the customs,religious beliefs, and myths and legends of the Mesopotamianpeoples to assist the student towards the elucidation and partialrestoration of certain literary fragments from the cuneiformtablets. Of special interest in this connection are theresemblances between some of the Indian and Babylonian myths. Thewriter has drawn upon that "great storehouse" of ancient legends,the voluminous Indian epic, the Mahabharata, and it is shown thatthere are undoubted links between the Garuda eagle myths andthose of the Sumerian Zu bird and the Etana eagle, while similarstories remain attached to the memories of "Sargon of Akkad" andthe Indian hero Karna, and of Semiramis (who was QueenSammu-ramat of Assyria) and Shakuntala. The Indian god Varuna andthe Sumerian Ea are also found to have much in common, and itseems undoubted that the Manu fish and flood myth is a directBabylonian inheritance, like the Yuga (Ages of the Universe)doctrine and the system of calculation associated with it. It isof interest to note, too, that a portion of the Gilgamesh epicsurvives in the Ramayana story of the monkey godHanuman's search for the lost princess Sita; other relics ofsimilar character suggest that both the Gilgamesh and Hanumannarratives are derived in part from a very ancient myth.Gilgamesh also figures in Indian mythology as Yama, the firstman, who explored the way to the Paradise called "The Land ofAncestors", and over which he subsequently presided as a god.Other Babylonian myths link with those found in Egypt, Greece,Scandinavia, Iceland, and the British Isles and Ireland. TheSargon myth, for instance, resembles closely the myth of Scyld(Sceaf), the patriarch, in the Beowulf epic, and both appear to bevariations of the Tammuz-Adonis story. Tammuz also resembles inone of his phases the Celtic hero Diarmid, who was slain by the"green boar" of the Earth Mother, as was Adonis by the boar formof Ares, the Greek war god.

The earliest settlers in the Tigro-Euphrates valley wereagriculturists, like their congeners, the proto-Egyptians and the NeolithicEuropeans. Before they broke away from the parent stock in itsarea of characterization they had acquired the elements ofculture, and adopted habits of thought which were based on theagricultural mode of life. Like other agricultural communitiesthey were worshippers of the "World Mother", the Creatrix, whowas the giver of all good things, the "Preserver" and also the"Destroyer"--the goddess whose moods were reflected by naturalphenomena, and whose lovers were the spirits of the seasons.

If this Indian myth is of Babylonian origin, as appearsprobable, it may be that the spirit of the river Euphrates, "thesoul of the land", was identified with a migrating fish. Thegrowth of the fish suggests the growth of the river rising inflood. In Celtic folk tales high tides and valley floods areaccounted for by the presence of a "great beast" in sea, loch, orriver. In a class of legends, "specially connected with theworship of Atargatis", wrote Professor Robertson Smith, "thedivine life of the waters resides in the sacred fish that inhabitthem. Atargatis and her son, according to a legend common toHierapolis and Ascalon, plunged into the waters--in the firstcase the Euphrates, in the second the sacred pool at the templenear the town--and were changed into fishes". The idea is that"where a god dies, that is, ceases to exist in human form, hislife passes into the waters where he is buried; and this again ismerely a theory to bring the divine water or the divine fish intoharmony with anthropomorphic ideas. The same thing was sometimeseffected in another way by saying that the anthropomorphic deitywas born from the water, as Aphrodite sprang from sea foam, or asAtargatis, in another form of the Euphrates legend, ... was bornof an egg which the sacred fishes found in the Euphrates andpushed ashore."[33]

It is possible that the Philistine deity Dagon was a specialized form ofancient Ea, who was either imported from Babylonia or was a seagod of more than one branch of the Mediterranean race. Theauthorities are at variance regarding the form and attributes ofDagan. Our knowledge regarding him is derived mainly from theBible. He was a national rather than a city god. There arereferences to a Beth-dagon[40], "house or cityof Dagon"; he had also a temple at Gaza, and Samson destroyed itby pulling down the two middle pillars which were its mainsupport.[41] A third temple wassituated in Ashdod. When the captured ark of the Israelites wasplaced in it the image of Dagon "fell on his face", with theresult that "the head of Dagon and both the palms of his handswere cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon wasleft".[42] A further reference to "thethreshold of Dagon" suggests that the god had feet likeEa-Oannes. Those who hold that Dagon had a fish form derive hisname from the Semitic "dag = a fish", and suggest that after theidol fell only the fishy part (dāgo) was left. On the otherhand, it was argued that Dagon was a corn god, and that theresemblance between the words Dagan and Dagon are accidental.Professor Sayce makes reference in this connection to a crystalseal from Phoenicia in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, bearing aninscription which he reads as Baal-dagon. Near the name is an earof corn, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, agazelle, and several stars, but there is no fish. It may be, ofcourse, that Baal-dagon represents a fusion of deities. As wehave seen in the case of Ea-Oannes and the deities of Mendes, afish god may also be a corn god, a land animal god and a god ofocean and the sky. The offering of golden mice representing "yourmice that mar the land",[43] made by thePhilistines, suggests that Dagon was the fertilizing harvest god,among other things, whose usefulness had been impaired, as theybelieved, by the mistake committed of placing the ark of Israelin the temple at Ashdod. The Philistines came from Crete, and iftheir Dagon was imported from that island, he may have had someconnection with Poseidon, whose worship extended throughoutGreece. This god of the sea, who is somewhat like the RomanNeptune, carried a lightning trident and caused earthquakes. Hewas a brother of Zeus, the sky and atmosphere deity, and had bulland horse forms. As a horse he pursued Demeter, the earth andcorn goddess, and, like Ea, he instructed mankind, but especiallyin the art of training horses. In his train were the Tritons,half men, half fishes, and the water fairies, the Nereids. Bulls,boars, and rams were offered to this sea god of fertility.Amphitrite was his spouse. 041b061a72