History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 6 (eBook)

CHAPTER II—THE RISE OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

PHOENICIA AND THE NORTHERN NATIONS AFTER THE DEATH OP RAMSES III.—THE FIRST ASSYRIAN EMPIRE: TIGLATH-PILESUR I.—THE ARAMÆANS AND THE KHÂTI.

The continuance of Egyptian influence over Syrian civilization after the death of Ramses III.—Egyptian myths in Phoenicia: Osiris and Isis at Byblos—Horus, Thot, and the origin of the Egyptian alphabet—The tombs at Arvad and the Kabr-Hiram; Egyptian designs in Phoenician glass and goldsmiths'work—Commerce with Egypt, the withdrawal of Phoenician colonies in the Ægean Sea and the Achæans in Cyprus; maritime expeditions in the Western Mediterranean.

Northern Syria: the decadence of the Hittites and the steady growth of the Aramæan tribes—The decline of the Babylonian empire under the Cossæan kings, and its relations with Egypt: Assuruballit, Bammdn-nirdri I. and the first Assyrian conquests—Assyria, its climate, provinces, and cities: the god Assur and his Ishtar—The wars against Chaldæa: Shalmaneser I., Tulculi-ninip I., and the taking of Babylon—Belchadrezzar and the last of the Cosssæans.

The dynasty of Pashê: Nebuchadrezzar I., his disputes with Elam, his defeat by Assurrîshishî—The legend of the first Assyrian empire, Ninos and Semiramis—The Assyrians and their political constitution: the limmu, the king and his divine character, his hunting and his wars—The Assyrian army: the infantry and chariotry, the crossing of rivers, mode of marching in the plains and in the mountain districts—Camps, battles, sieges; cruelty shown to the vanquished, the destruction of towns and the removal of the inhabitants, the ephemeral character of the Assyrian conquests.

Tiglath pileser I.: Ms campaign against the Mushhu, his conquest of Kurhhi and of the regions of the Zab—The petty Asiatic kingdoms and their civilization: art and writing in the old Hittite states—Tiglath-pileser I. in Nairi and in Syria: his triumphal stele at Sebbeneh-Su—His buildings, his hunts, his conquest of Babylon—Merodach-nadin-akhi and the close of the Pashê dynasty—Assur-belkala and Samsi-rammân III.: the decline of Assyria—Syria without a foreign rider: the incapacity of the Khdti to give unity to the country.

The cessation of Egyptian authority over countries in which it had so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression which it had made upon their constitution and customs. While the nobles and citizens of Thebes were adopting the imported worship of Baal and Astartê, and were introducing into the spoken and written language words borrowed from Semitic speech, the Syrians, on the other hand, were not unreceptive of the influence of their conquerors. They had applied themselves zealously to the study of Egyptian arts, industry and religion, and had borrowed from these as much, at least, as they had lent to the dwellers on the Nile. The ancient Babylonian foundation of their civilization was not, indeed, seriously modified, but it was covered over, so to speak, with an African veneer which varied in depth according to the locality.*

      * Most of the views put forth in this part of the chapter are based on posterior and not contemporary data. The most ancient monuments which give evidence of it show it in such a complete state that we may fairly ascribe it to some centuries earlier; that is, to the time when Egypt still ruled in Syria, the period of the XIXth and even the XVIIIth dynasty.
 

Phoenicia especially assumed and retained this foreign exterior. Its merchants, accustomed to establish themselves for lengthened periods in the principal trade-centres on the Nile, had become imbued therein with something of the religious ideas and customs of the land, and on returning to their own country had imported these with them and propagated them in their neighbourhood. They were not content with other household utensils, furniture, and jewellery than those to which they had been accustomed on the Nile, and even the Phonician gods seemed to be subject to this appropriating mania, for they came to be recognised in the indigenous deities of the Said and the Delta. There was, at the outset, no trait in the character of Baalat by which she could be assimilated to Isis or Hathor: she was fierce, warlike, and licentious, and wept for her lover, while the Egyptian goddesses were accustomed to shed tears for their husbands only. It was this element of a common grief, however, which served to associate the Phonician and Egyptian goddesses, and to produce at length a strange blending of their persons and the legends concerning them; the lady of Byblos ended in becoming an Isis or a Hathor,* and in playing the part assigned to the latter in the Osirian drama.

* The assimilation must have been ancient, since the Egyptians of the Theban dynasties already accepted Baalat as the Hathor of Byblos.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Prisse d'Avennes
 

This may have been occasioned by her city having maintained closer relationships than the southern towns with Bûto and Mendes, or by her priests having come to recognise a fundamental agreement between their theology and that of Egypt. In any case, it was at Byblos that the most marked and numerous, as well as the most ancient, examples of borrowing from the religions of the Nile were to be found. The theologians of Byblos imagined that the coffin of Osiris, after it had been thrown into the sea by Typhon, had been thrown up on the land somewhere near their city at the foot of a tamarisk, and that this tree, in its rapid growth, had gradually enfolded within its trunk the body and its case. King Malkander cut it down in order to use it as a support for the roof of his palace: a marvellous perfume rising from it filled the apartments, and it was not long before the prodigy was bruited abroad. Isis, who was travelling through the world in quest of her husband, heard of it, and at once realised its meaning: clad in rags and weeping, she sat down by the well whither the women of Byblos were accustomed to come every morning and evening to draw water, and, being interrogated by them, refused to reply; but when the maids of Queen Astartê* approached in their turn, they were received by the goddess in the most amiable manner—Isis deigning even to plait their hair, and to communicate to them the odour of myrrh with which she herself was impregnated.

      * Astartê is the name taken by the queen in the Phoenician version: the Egyptian counterpart of the same narrative substituted for it Nemanous or Saôsis; that is to say, the two principal forms of Hathor—the Hermopolitan Nahmâûît and the Heliopolitan lûsasît. It would appear from the presence of these names that there must have been in Egypt two versions at least of the Phoenician adventures of Isis—the one of Hermopolitan and the other of Heliopolitan origin.
 

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an intaglio engraved in Cesnola. The Phoenician figures of Horus and Thot which I have reproduced were pointed out to me by my friend Clermont-Ganneau.
 

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, after an intaglio engraved in M. de Vogué.
 

Their mistress came to see the stranger who had thus treated her servants, took her into her service, and confided to her the care of her lately born son. Isis became attached to the child, adopted it for her own, after the Egyptian manner, by inserting her finger in its mouth; and having passed it through the fire during the night in order to consume away slowly anything of a perishable nature in its body, metamorphosed herself into a swallow, and flew around the miraculous pillar uttering plaintive cries. Astartê came upon her once while she was bathing the child in the flame, and broke by her shrieks of fright the charm of immortality. Isis was only able to reassure her by revealing her name and the object of her presence there. She opened the mysterious tree-trunk, anointed it with essences, and wrapping it in precious cloths, transmitted it to the priests of Byblos, who deposited it respectfully in their temple: she put the coffin which it contained on board ship, and brought it, after many adventures, into Egypt. Another tradition asserts, however, that Osiris never found his way back to his country: he was buried at Byblos, this tradition maintained, and it was in his honour that the festivals attributed by the vulgar to the young Adonis were really celebrated. A marvellous fact seemed to support this view. Every year a head of papyrus, thrown into the sea at some unknown point of the Delta, was carried for six days along the Syrian coast, buffeted by wind and waves, and on the seventh was thrown up at Byblos, where the priests received it and exhibited it solemnly to the people.* The details of these different stories are not in every case very ancient, but the first fact in them carries us back to the time when Byblos had accepted the sovereignty of the Theban dynasties, and was maintaining daily commercial and political relations with the inhabitants of the Nile valley.**

      * In the later Roman period it was letters announcing the resurrection of Adonis-Osiris...