#15 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": HAINUWELE AND THE 'CREATIVE MURDER' (CERAM, NEW GUINEA)

The Marind-anim apply the term dema to the divine creators and primordial beings who existed in mythical times. The dema are described sometimes in human form, sometimes in the form of animals and plants. The central myth narrates the slaying of the dema-divinity by the dema-men of the primordial time. Especially famous is the myth of the girl Hainuwele, recorded by A.E Jensen in Ceram, one of the islands of the New Guinea Archipelago. In substance it runs:

In mythical Times, a man named Ameta, out hunting, came on a wild boar. Trying to escape, the boar was drowned in a lake. On its tusk Ameta found a coconut. That night he dreamed of the coconut and was commanded to plant it, which he did the next morning. In three days a coconut palm sprang up, and three days later it flowered. Ameta climbed it to cut some flowers and make a drink from them. But he cut his finger and the blood dropped on a flower. Nine days later he found a girl-child on the flower. Ameta took her and wrapped her in coconut fronds. In three days the child became a marriageable girl, and he named her Hainuwele ('coconut branch'). During the great Maro festival Hainuwele stood in the middle of the dancing place and for nine nights distributed gifts to the dancers. But on the ninth day the men dug a grave in the middle of the dancing place and threw Hainuwele into it during the dance. The grave was filled in and men danced on it.
The next morning, seeing that Hainuwele did not come home, Ameta divined that she had been murdered. He found the body, disinterred it, and cut it into pieces, which he buried in various places, except the arms. The buried pieces gave birth to plants previously unknown, especially to tubers, which since then are the chief food of human beings. Ameta took Hainuwele's arms to another dema-divinity, Satene. Satene drew a spiral with nine turns on a dancing ground and placed herself at the centre of it. From Hainuwele's arms she made a door, and summoned the dancers. 'Since you have killed,' she said, 'I will no longer live here. I shall leave this very day. Now you will have to come to me through this door.' Those who were able to pass through it remained human beings. The others were changed into animals (pigs, birds, fish) or spirits. Satene announced that after her going men would meet her only after their death, and she vanished from the surface of the Earth.

A.E. Jensen has shown the importance of this myth for the understanding of religion and world image of the paleocultivators. The murder of the dema divinity by the dema, the ancestors of present humanity, ends an epoch (which cannot be considered 'paradisal') and opens that in which we live today. The dema became men, that is, sexed and mortal beings. As for the murdered dema-divinity, she survives both in her 'creations' (food, plants, animals,etc.) And in the house of the dead into which she was changed, or in the 'mode of being death,' which she established by her own demise.

#32 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": TO PYTHIAN APOLLO

('The Homeric Hymns,' III, 179 ff )

0 Lord, Lycia is yours and lovely Maeonia and Miletus, charming city by the sea, but over Delos you greatly reign your own self.

Leto's all-glorious son goes to rocky Pytho, playing upon his hollow lyre, clad in divine, perfumed garments; and at the touch of the golden key his lyre sings sweet. Thence, swift as thought, he speeds from earth to Olympus, to the house of Zeus, to join the gathering of the other gods: then straightway the undying gods think only of the lyre and song, and all the Muses together, voice sweetly answering voice, hymn the unending gifts the gods enjoy and the sufferings of men, all that they endure at the hands of the deathless gods, and how they live witless and helpless and cannot find healing for death or defense against old age. Meanwhile the rich-tressed races and cheerful Seasons dance with Harmonia and Hebe and Aphrodite, daughter of Zeus, holding each other by the wrist. And among them sings one, not mean nor puny, but tall to look upon and enviable in mien, Artemis who delights in arrows, sister of Apollo. Among them Sport Ares and the keen-eyed Slayer of Argus, while Apollo plays his lyre stepping high and featly and a radiance shines around him, the gleaming of his feet and dose-woven vest. And they, even gold-tressed Leto, and wise Zeus, rejoice in their great hearts as they watch their dear son playing among the undying gods.

How then shall I sing of you-though in all ways you are a worthy theme for song? Shall I sing of you as wooer and in the fields of love, how you went wooing the daughter of Azan along with god-like Ischys the son of well-horsed Flatius, or with Phorbas sprung from Triops, or with Ereutheus, or with Leucippus and the wife of Leucippus . . . you on foot, he with his chariot, yet he fell not short of Triops. Or shall I sing how at the first you went about the earth seeking a place of oracle for men, 0 far-shooting Apollo? To Pieria first you went down from Olympus and passed by sandy Lectus and Enienae and through the land of the Perrhaebi. Soon you came to folcus and set foot on Cenaeum in Euboea, famed for ships: you stood in the Lelantine plain, but it pleased not your heart to make a temple there and wooded groves. . . .

And further still you went, 0 far-shooting Apollo, and came to Orchestus, Poseidon's bright grove: there the new-broken colt distressed with drawing the trim chariot gets spirit again, and the skilled driver springs from his car and goes on his way. . . .

Then you went towards Telphusa: and there the pleasant place seemed fit for making a temple and wooded grove. You came very near and spoke to her: 'Telphusa, here I am minded to make a glorious temple, and oracle for men, and hither they will always bring perfect hecatombs, both those, who live in rich Peloponnesus and those of Europe all the wave-washed isles, coming to seek oracles. And I will deliver to them all counsel that cannot fail, giving answer in my rich temple.,

So said Phoebus Apollo, and laid out all the foundations throughout, wide and very long. But when Telphusa saw this, she was angry in heart and spoke, saying: 'Lord Phoebus, worker from afar, I will speak a word of counsel to your heart, since you are minded to make here a glorious temple to be an oracle for men who will always bring hither perfect hecatombs for you; yet I will speak out, and do you lay up my words in your heart. The trampling of swift horses and the sound of mules watering at my sacred springs will always irk you, and men like better to gaze at the well-made chariots and stamping, swift-footed horses than at your great temple and the many treasures that are within. But if you will be moved by me-for you, lord, are stronger and mightier than 1, and your strength is very great-build at Crisa below the glades of Parnassus,: there no bright chariot will clash, and there will be no noise of swift-footed horses near your well-built altar. But so the glorious tribes of men will bring gifts to you as lepaeon ("Hail-Healer"), and you will receive with delight rich sacrifices from the people dwelling round about.' So said Telphusa, that she alone, and not the Far-Shooter, should have renown there; and she persuaded the Far-Shooter.

Further yet you went, far-shooting Apollo, until you came to the town of the presumptuous Phlegyae who dwell on this earth in a lovely glade near the Cephisian lake, caring not for Zeus. And thence you went . . . to Crisa beneath snowy Parnassus, a foothill turned towards the
west: a cliff hangs over it from above, and a hollow, rugged glade runs under. There the lord Phoebus Apollo resolved to make his lovely temple, and thus he said

'In this place I am minded to build a glorious temple to be an oracle for men, and here they will always bring perfect hecatombs, both they who dwell in rich Peloponnesus and the men of Europe and from all the wave-washed isles, coming to question me. And I will deliver to them all counsel that cannot fail, answering them in my rich temple.

When he had said this, Phoebus Apollo laid out all the foundations throughout, wide and very long; and upon these the sons of Erginus, Trophonius and Agamedes, dear to the deathless gods, laid a footing of stone. And the countless tribes of men built the whole temple of wrought stones, to be sung of for ever.

But near by was a sweet flowing spring, and there with his strong bow the lord, the son of Zeus, killed the bloated, great-she-dragon, a fierce monster wont to do great mischief to men upon earth, to men themselves and to their thin-shanked sheep; for she was a very bloody plague. She it was who once received from gold-throned Hera and brought up fell, cruel Typhaon to be a plague to men. Once on a time Hera bare him because she was angry with father Zeus, when the son of Cronos bare all-glorious Athena in his head. . . .

And this Typhaon used to work great mischief among the famous tribes of men. 'whosoever met the dragoness, the day of doom would sweep him away, until the lord Apollo, who deals death from afar, shot a strong arrow at her. Then she, rent with bitter pangs, lay drawing great gasps for breath and rolling about that place. An awful noise swelled up unspeakable as she writhed continually this way and that amid the wood: and so she left her life, breathing it forth in blood. Then Phoebus Apollo boasted over her:

'Now rot here upon the soil that feeds man I You at least shall live no more to be a fell bane to men who eat the fruit of the all nourishing earth, and who will bring hither perfect hecatombs. Against cruel death neither Typhoeus shall avail you nor ill-famed Chimera, but here shall the Earth and shining Hyperion make you rot.'

Thus said Phoebus, exulting over her: and darkness covered her eyes. And the holy strength of Helios made her rot away there: wherefore the place is now called Pytho, and men call the lord Apollo by -another name, Pythian; because on that spot the power of piercing Helios made the monster rot away.

Then Phoebus Apollo saw that the sweet flowing spring had beguiled him, and he started out in anger against Telphusa; and soon coming to her, he stood close by and spoke to her:
'Telphusa, you were not, after all, to keep to yourself this lovely place by deceiving my mind, and pour forth your clear flowing water: here my renown shall also be and not yours alone.'
Thus spoke the lord, far working Apollo, and pushed over upon her a crag, with a shower of
rocks, hiding her streams: and he made himself an alter in a wooded grove very near the clear-flowing stream. In that place all men pray to the great one by the name Telphusian, because he humbled the stream of holy Telphusa.

#33 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": THE EARTH, MOTHER OF ALL

('The Homeric Hymns,' xxx)

I will sing of well-founded Earth, mother of all, eldest of all beings. She feeds all creatures that are in the world, all that go upon the goodly land, and all that are in the paths of the seas, and all that fly: all these are fed of her store. Through you, 0 queen, men are blessed in their children and blessed in their harvests, and to you it belongs to give means of life to mortal men and to take it away. Happy is the man whom you delight to honour! He has all things abundantly: his fruitful land is laden with corn, his pastures are covered with cattle, and his house is filled with good things. Such men rule orderly in their cities of fair women: great riches and wealth follow them: their sons exult with everfresh delight, and their daughters with flower laden hands play and skip merrily over the soft flowers of the field. Thus it is with those whom you honour 0 holy goddess, bountiful spirit.
Hail, Mother of the gods, wife of starry Heaven; freely bestow upon me for this my song substance that cheers the heart! And now I will remember you and another song also.

#35 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": DEMETER AND THE FOUNDING OF THE ELEUSIAN MYSTERIES

('The Homeric Hymns': To Demeter,11, 185-299)
Hades has carried off Demeter's daughter, Kore. After vainly searching for her, Demeter comes to Eleusis, in disguise as an old woman, and there is received into the house of King Celeus.

Soon they came to the house of heaven-nurtured Celeus and went through the portico to where their queenly mother sat by a pillar of the close-fitted roof, holding her son, a tender scion, in her bosom. And the girls ran to her. But the goddess walked to the threshold: and her head reached the roof and she filled the doorway with a heavenly radiance. Then awe and reverence and pale fear took hold of Metaneira, and she rose up from her couch before Demeter, and bade her be seated. But Demeter, bringer of seasons and giver of perfect gifts, would not sit upon the bright couch, but stayed silent with lovely eyes cast down until careful Iambe placed a jointed seat for her and threw over it a silvery fleece. Then she sat down and held her veil in her hands before her face. A long time she sat upon the stool ¹ without speaking because of her sorrow, and greeted no one by word or by sign, but rested, never smiling, and tasting neither food nor drink, because she pined with longing for her deep-bosomed daughter, until careful lambe-who pleased her moods in aftertime also-moved the holy lady with many a quip and jest to smile and laugh and cheer her heart. Then Metaneira filled a cup with sweet wine and offered it to her; but she refused it, for she said it was not lawful for her to drink red wine, but bade them mix meal and water with soft mint and give her to drink. And Metaneira mixed the draught and gave it to the goddess as she bade. So the great queen Deo received it to observe the sacrament .²
And of them all, well-girded Metaneira first began to speak: 'Hail, lady! For I think you are not meanly but nobly born; truly dignity and grace are conspicuous upon your eyes as in the eyes of kings that deal justice. Yet we mortals bear perforce what the gods send us, though we be grieved; for a yoke is set upon our necks. But now, since you are come here, you shall have what I can bestow: and nurse me this child whom the gods gave me in my old age and beyond my hope, a son much prayed for. If you should bring him up until he reach the full measure of youth, any one of womankind that sees you will straightway envy you, so great reward would I give for his upbringing.'
Then rich-haired Demeter answered her: 'And to you, also, lady, all hail, and may the gods give you good! Gladly will I take the boy to my breast, as you bid me, and will nurse him. Never, I ween, through any heedlessness of his nurse shall witchcraft hurt him nor yet the Undercutter: for I know a charm far stronger than the Woodcutter, and I know an excellent safeguard against woeful witchcraft.' When she had so spoken, she took the child in her fragrant bosom with her divine hands: and his mother was glad in her heart. So the goddess nursed in the place Demophoon, wise Celeus' goodly son whom well-girded Metancira bare. And the child grew like some immortal being, not fed with food nor nourished at the breast: for by day rich-crowned Demeter would anoint him with ambrosia as if be were the offspring of a god and breathe sweetly upon him as she held him in her bosom. But at night she would hide him like a brand in the heart of the fire, unknown to his dear parents. And it wrought great wonder in these that he grew beyond his age; for he was like the gods face to face. And she would have made him deathless and unaging, had not well-girded Metaneira in her heedlessness kept watch by night from her sweet-smelling chamber and spied. But she wailed and smote her two hips, because she feared for her son and was greatly distraught in her heart, so she lamented and uttered winged words:
'Demophoon, my son, the strange woman buries you deep in fire and works grief and bitter sorrow for me.'
Thus she spoke, mourning. And the bright goddess, lovely-crowned Demeter, heard her, and was wroth with her. So with her divine hands she snatched from the fire the dear son whom Metaneira had borne unhoped-for in the palace, and cast him from her to the ground, for she was terribly angry in her heart. Forthwith she said to well-girded Metaneira:
'Witless are you mortals and dull to foresee your lot, whether of good or evil, that comes upon you. For now in your heedlessness you have wrought folly past healing; for-be witness the oath of the gods, the relentless water of Styx-I would have made your dear son deathless and unaging all his days and would have bestowed on him everlasting honour, but now he can in no way escape death and the fates. Yet shall unfailing honour always rest upon him, because he lay upon my knees and slept in my arms. But, as the years move round and when he is in his prime, the sons of the Eleusinians shall ever wage war and dread strife with one another continually. Lo! I am that Demeter who has share of honour and is the greatest help and cause of joy to the undying gods and mortal men. But now, let all the people build me a great temple and an altar below it and beneath the city and its sheer wall upon a rising hillock above Callichorus. And I myself will teach my rites, that hereafter you may reverently perform them and so win the favour of my heart.'
When she had so said, the goddess changed her stature and her looks, thrusting old age away from her: beauty spread round about her and a lovely fragrance was wafted from her sweet-smelling robes, and from the divine body of the goddess a light shone afar, while golden tresses spread down over her shoulders, so that the strong house was filled with brightness as with lightning. And so she went out from the palace.
And straightway Metaneira's knees were loosed and she remained speechless for a long while and did not remember to take up her late born son from the ground. But his sisters heard his pitiful wailing and sprang down from their well-spread beds; one of them took up the child in her arms and laid him in her bosom, while another revived the fire, and a third rushed with soft feet to bring their mother from her fragrant chamber. And they gathered about the struggling child and washed him, embracing him lovingly; but he was not comforted, because nurses and handmaids much less skillful were holding him now.
All night long they sought to appease the glorious goddess, quaking with fear. But, as dawn began to show, they told powerful Celeus all things without fail, as the lovely-crowned goddess Demeter charged them. So Celeus called the countless people. to an assembly and bade them make a goodly temple for rich-haired Demeter and an altar upon the rising hillock. And they obeyed him right speedily and harkened to his voice, doing as he commanded. As for the child, he grew like an immortal being.

#55 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": MESOPOTAMIAN COSMOGONY

The long Babylonian creation epic 'Enuma elish' ('When on High'), so called from the first two words of the poem, narrates a chain of events beginning with the very first separation of order out of chaos and culminating in the creation of the specific cosmos known to the ancient Babylonians. As the gods are born within the commingled waters of their primeval parents, Apsu and Tiamat, their restlessness disturbs Apsu. Over Tiamat's protests, he plans to kill them; but the clever Ea learns of his plan and kills Apsu instead. Now Tiamat is furious, she produces an army of monsters to avenge her husband and to wrest lordship from the younger generation. The terrified gods turn to Ea's son Marduk for help. Marduk agrees to face Tiamat, but demands supremacy over them as compensation. They promptly assemble, declare him king, and send him forth, armed with his winds and storms. The battle is short; the- winds inflate Tiamat's body like a balloon and Marduk sends an arrow through her gaping mouth into her heart. He then splits her body, forming heaven and earth with the two halves. After putting the heavens in order, he turns to Ea for help in creating, out of the blood of Tiamat's demon-commander Kingu, the black-haired men of Mesopotamia. The poem concludes as the gods build a temple for Marduk and gather in it to celebrate his mighty deeds. Enuma elish was probably composed in the early part of the second millennium B.C.

When on high the heaven had not been named,
Firm ground below had not been called by name,
Naught but primordial Apsu,¹ their begetter,
(And) Mummu² Tiamat, ³ she who bore them all,
Their waters ⁴ commingling as a single body;
No reed hut had been matted, no marsh land had appeared,
When no gods whatever had been brought into being,
Uncalled by name, their destinies undetermined-
Then it was that the gods were formed within them.⁵
Lahmu and Lahamu ⁶ were brought forth, by name they were called.
For aeons they grew in age and stature.
Anshar and Kishar ⁷ were formed, surpassing the others.
They prolonged the days, added on the years.
Anu ⁸ was their son, of his fathers the rival;
Yea, Anshar's first-born, Anu, was his equal.
Anu begot in his image Nudimmud. ⁹
This Nudimmud was of his fathers the master,
Of broad wisdom, understanding, mighty in strength,
Mightier by far than his grandfather, Anshar.
He had no rival among the gods, his brothers.
The divine brothers banded together,
They disturbed Tiamat as they surged back and forth,
Yea, they troubled the mood of Tiamat
By their hilarity in the Abode of Heaven.
Apsu could not lessen their clamour
And Tiamat was speechless at their ways.
Their doings were loathsome unto [ . . . ].
Unsavoury were their ways; they were overbearing.
Then Apsu, the begetter of the great gods,
Cried out, addressing Mummu, his vizier:
'O Mummu, my vizier, who rejoicest my spirit,
Come hither and let us go to Tiamat!'
They went and sat down before Tiamat,
Exchanging counsel about the gods, their first-born.
Apsu, opening his mouth,
Said unto resplendent Tiamat:
'Their ways are verity loathsome unto me.
By day I find no relief, nor repose by night.
I will destroy, I will wreck their ways,
That quiet may be restored. Let us have rest!'
As soon as Tiamat heard this,
She was wroth and called out to her husband.
She cried out aggrieved, as she raged all alone,
Injecting woe into her mood:
What? Should we destroy that which we have built?
Their ways are indeed troublesome, but let us attend kindly!'
Then answered Mummu, giving counsel to Apsu;
III-wishing and ungracious was Mummu's advice:
'Do destroy, my father, the mutinous ways.
Then shalt thou have relief by day and rest by night!'
When Apsu heard this, his face grew radiant
Because of the evil he planned against the gods, his sons.
As for Mummu, by the neck he embraced him
As (that one) sat down on his knees to kiss him.
(Now) whatever they had plotted between them
Was repeated unto the gods, their first born.
When the gods heard (this), they were astir,
(Then) lapsed into silence and remained speechless.
Surpassing in wisdom, accomplished, resourceful,
Ea, ¹⁰ the all-wise, saw through their ¹¹ scheme.
A master design against it he devised and set up,
Made artful his spell against it, surpassing and holy.
He recited it and made is subsist in the deep, ¹²
As he poured sleep upon him. Sound asleep he lay.
When Apsu he had made prone, drenched with sleep,
Mummu, the adviser, was impotent to move.
He loosened his band, tore off his tiara,
Removed his halo (and) put it on himself.
Having fettered Apsu, he slew him.
Mummu he bound and left behind lock.
Having thus upon Apsu established his dwelling,
He laid hold on Mummu, holding him by the nose-rope.
After he had vanquished and trodden down his foes,
Ea, his triumph over his enemies secured,
In his sacred chamber in profound peace he rested.
He named it 'Apsu' ¹³ for shrines he assigned (it).
In that same place his cult hut he founded.
Ea and Damkina, his wife, dwelled (there) in splendour.
In the chamber of fates, the abode of destinies,
A god was engendered, most potent and wisest of gods.
In the heart of Apsu ¹⁴ was Marduk created,
In the heart of holy Apsu was Marduk created.
He who begot him was Ea, his father,
She who conceived him was Damkina, his mother.
The breast of goddesses did she suck.
The nurse that nursed him filled him with awesomeness.
Alluring was his figure, sparkling the lift in his eyes.
Lordly was his gait, commanding from of old.
When Ea saw him, the father who begot him,
He exulted and glowed, his heart filled with gladness.
He rendered him perfect and endowed him with a double godhead.
Greatly exalted was he above them, exceeding throughout.
Perfect were his members beyond comprehension,
Unsuited for understanding, difficult to perceive.
Four were his eyes, four were his ears,¹⁵
When he moved his lips, fire blazed forth.
Large were all hearing organs,
And the eyes, in like number, scanned all things.
He was the loftiest of the gods, surpassing was his stature;
His members were enormous, he was exceeding tall.
,My little son, any little son!'
My son, the Sun of Sun of the heavens!'
Clothed with the halo of ten gods, he was strong to the utmost,
As their awesome flashes were heaped upon him.
...........................................
Disturbed was Tiamat, astir night and day.
The gods, in malice, contributed to the storm.
Their insides having plotted evil,
To Tiamat these brothers said:
'When they slew Apsu, thy consort,
Thou didst not aid him but remaindest still.
Although he fashioned the awesome Saw, ¹⁶
Thy insides are diluted and so we can have no rest.
Let Apsu, thy consort, be in thy mind
And Mummu, who has been vanquished! Thou art left alone
. ..........................................

(Several of the preceding lines are fragmentary. The gods incite Tiamat to avenge Apsu and Mummu. She is pleased and proposes to do battle against the offending gods. But first she bears a horrible brood of helpers-eleven monsters, 'Sharp of tooth, unsparing of fang. With venom for blood she has filled their bodies.')

From among the gods, ¹⁷ her first-born, who formed her Assembly,
She elevated Kingu, made him chief among them.
The leading of the ranks, command of the Assembly,
The raising weapons for the encounter, advancing to combat,
In battle the command-in-chief-
These to his hand she entrusted as she seated him in the Council:
'I have cast for thee the spell, exalting thee in the Assembly of the gods.
To counsel all the gods I have given thee full power.
Verily, thou art supreme, my only consort art thou!
Thy utterance shall prevail over all the Anunnaki! ¹⁸
She gave him the Tablets of Fate, fastened on his breast:
'As for thee, thy command shall be unchangeable, Thy word shall
endure!'
As soon as Kingu was elevated, possessed of the rank of Anu,
For the gods, her sons, they ¹⁹ decreed the fate:
'Your word shall make the fire subside,
Shall humble the 'Power-Weapon,' so potent in (its) sweep!'
[Ea again learns of the plot, but this time he has no ready response
for it. He goes to his grandfather Anshar and repeats the entire story of Tiamat's fury and her preparations for battle. Anshar is profoundly disturbed. Finally he dispatches Anu, saying, 'Go and stand thou up to Tiamat,/ that her mood be calmed, that her heart expand.' But when Anu sees the hosts of Tiamat, he loses his nerve and returns to Anshar.]

He came abjectly to his father, Anshar.
As though he were Tiamat thus he addressed him:
'My hand suffices not for me to subdue thee.'
Speechless was Anshar as he stared at the ground,
Frowning and shaking his head at Ea.
All the Anunnaki gathered at that place;
Their lips closed tight, they sat in silence.
'No god' (thought they) 'can go to battle and,
Facing Tiamat, escape with his life.'
Lord Anshar, father of the gods, rose up in grandeur,
And having pondered in his heart, he said to the Anunnaki:
'He whose strength is potent shall be our avenger,
He who is keen in battle, Marduk, the hero!'

[Ea warns Marduk of Anshar's plan and advises him to go before Anshar boldly. Marduk obeys and Anshar, seeing the hero, is instantly calmed.]

'Anshar, be not muted; open wide thy lips.
I will go and attain thy heart's desire. . . .
What male is it who has pressed his fight against thee?
It is but Tiamat, a woman, that opposes thee with weapons!
0 my father-creator, be glad and rejoice;
The neck of Tiamat thou shalt soon tread upon!
.........................................
My son, (thou) who knowest all wisdom,
Calm Tiamat with thy holy spell.
On the storm-chariot proceed with all speed.
From her presence they shall not drive (thee)! Turn them back!'
The lord rejoiced at the word of his father.
His heart exulting, he said to his father:
'Creator of the gods, destiny of the great gods, If I indeed, as your avenger,
Am to vanquish Tiamat and save your lives,
Set up the Assembly, proclaim supreme my destiny!
When jointly in Ubshukinna ²⁰ you have sat down rejoicing,
Let my word, instead of you, determine the fates.
Unalterable shall be what I may bring into being;
Neither recalled nor changed shall be the command of my lips.'

[Anshar is prepared to accept Marduk's terms. He sends his vizier Gaga to a still older generation of gods, Lahtnu and Lahamu. Gaga is instructed to repeat the entire story to them, and to invite the gods to assemble at a banquet for fixing Marduk's decrees.]

When Lahtnu and Lahainu heard this, they cried out aloud,
All the Igigi ²¹ wailed in distress:
'How strange that they should have made this decision!
We cannot fathom the doings of Tiamat!'
They made ready to leave on their journey,
All the great gods who decree the fates.
They entered before Anshar, filling Ubshuhinna.
They kissed one another in the Assembly.
They held converse as they sat down to the banquet.
They ate festive bread, partook of the wine,
They wetted their drinking tubes with sweet intoxicant.
As they drank the strong drink their bodies swelled.
They became very languid as their spirits rose.
For Marduk, their avenger, they fixed the decrees.
They erected for him a princely throne.
Facing his fathers, he sat down, presiding.
'Thou art the most honoured of the great gods,
Thy decree is unrivaled, thy command is Anu ²²
Thou, Marduk, art the most honoured of the great gods.
.........................................
We have granted thee Kingship over the universe entire.
When in the Assembly thou sittest, thy word shall be supreme.
Thy weapons shall not fail; they shall smash thy foesl
0 lord, spare the life of him who trusts thee,
But pour out the life of the god who seized evil.'
Having placed in their midst a piece of cloth,
They addressed themselves to Marduk, their first-born:
'Lord, truly thy decree is first among gods.
Say but to wreck or create; it shall be.
open thy mouth: the cloth will vanish!
Speak again, and the cloth shall be whole!'
At the word of his mouth the cloth vanished.
He spoke again, and the cloth was restored.
When the gods, his fathers, saw the fruit of his word,
Joyfully they did him homage: 'Marduk is king!'
They conferred on him sceptre, throne, and palu;
They gave him matchless weapons that ward off the foes:
Bel's ²³ destiny thus fixed, the gods, his fathers,
Caused him to go the way of success and attainment.
He constructed a bow, marked it as his weapon,
Attached thereto the arrow, fixed its bow-cord.
He raised the mace, made his right hand grasp it;
Bow and quiver he hung at his side.
In front of him he set the lightning,
With a blazing flame he filled his body.
He then made a net to enfold Tiamat therein.
The four winds he stationed that nothing of her might escape,
The South Wind, the North Wind, the East Wind, the West Wind.
Close to his side he held the net, the gift of his father, Anu.
He brought forth Imhullu, 'the Evil Wind,' the Whirlwind, the
Hurricane,
The Fourfold Wind, the Sevenfold Wind, the Cyclone, the Matchless
Wind;
Then he sent forth the winds he had brought forth, the seven of them.
To stir up the inside of Tiamat they rose up behind him.
Then the lord raised up the flood-storm, his mighty weapon.
He mounted the storm-chariot irresistible and terrifying.
He harnessed (and) yoked to it a team-of-four,
The Killer, the Relentless, the Trampler, the Swift.
Sharp were their teeth, bearing poison.

They were versed in ravage, in destruction skilled.
..........................................

With his fearsome halo his head was turbaned,
The lord went forth and followed his course,
Towards the raging Tiamat he set his face.
In his lips he held [a . . . ] of red paste; ²⁴
A plant to put out poison was grasped in his hand.
Then they milled about him, the gods milled about him.
The lord approached to scan the inside of Tiamat,
(And) of Kingu, her consort, the scheme to perceive.
As he looks on, his ²⁵ course becomes upset,
His will is distracted and his doings are confused.
And when the gods, his helpers, who marched at his side,
Saw the valiant hero, blurred became their vision.
Tiamat uttered a cry, without turning her neck,
Framing savage defiance in her lips:
'Too important art thou for the lord of the gods to rise up against thee!
Is it in their place that they have gathered, (or) in thy place?'
Thereupon the lord having raised the flood-storm, his mighty weapon,
To enraged Tiamat he sent word as follows:
'Mightily art thou risen, art haughtily exalted;
Thou hast charged thine own heart to stir up conflict,
So that sons reject their own fathers,
And thou who hast borne them, dost hate
Thou hast aggrandized Kingu to be (thy) consort;
A rule, -not rightfully his, thou hast substituted for the rule of Anu.
Against Anshar, king of the gods, thou seekest evil;
Against the gods, my fathers, thou hast confirmed thy wickedness.
Though drawn up be thy forces, girded on thy weapons,
Stand thou up, that I and thou meet in single combat!'
When Tiamat heard this,
She was like one possessed; she took leave of her senses.
In fury Tiamat cried out aloud.
To the roots her legs shook both together.
She recited a charm, keeps casting her spell,
While the gods of battle sharpen their weapons.
Then joined issue Tiamat and Marduk, wisest of gods,
They swayed in single combat, locked in battle.
The lord spread out his net to enfold her,
The Evil Wind, which followed behind, he let loose in her face.
When Tiamat opened her mouth to consume him,
He drove in the Evil Wind that she close not her lips.
As the fierce winds charged her belly,
Her body was distended and her mouth was wide open.
He released the arrow, it tore her belly,
It cut through her insides, splitting the heart.
Having thus subdued her, he extinguished her life.
He cast down her carcass to stand upon it.
After he had slain Tiamat, the leader,
Her band was shattered, her troupe broken up.

[Tiamat's helpers panic and run, but Marduk captures and fetters
all of them.]

And Kingu, who had been made chief among them,
He bound and accounted him to Uggae. ²⁶

He took from him the Tablets of Fate, not rightfully his,
Sealed (them) with a seal ²⁷ and fastened (them) on his breast.
When he had vanquished and subdued his adversaries,
..........................................
And turned back to Tiamat whom he had bound.
The lord trod on the legs of Tiamat
With his unsparing mace he crushed her skull.
When the arteries of her blood he had severed,
The North Wind bore (it) to places undisclosed.
On seeing this, his fathers were joyful and jubilant,
They brought gifts of homage, they to him.
Then the lord paused to view her dead body,
That he might divide the monster and do artful works.
He split her like a shellfish into two parts:
Half of her he set up and ceiled as sky,
Pulled down the bar and posted guards.
He bade them to allow not her waters to escape.
He crossed the heavens and surveyed (its) regions.
He squared Apsu's quarter, the abode of Nudimmud,
As the lord measured the dimensions of Apsu.
The Great Abode, its likeness, he fixed as Esharra,
The Great Abode, Esharra, which he made as the firmament.
Anu, Enlil, ²⁸ and Ea he made occupy their places.

[Much of Tablet V is broken. Marduk puts the heavens in order,
establishing the zodiac and telling the moon how to shine.]

When Marduk hears the words of the gods,
His heart prompts (him) to fashion artful works.
Opening his mouth, he addresses Ea
To impart the plan he addresses Ea
To impart the plan he had conceived in his heart:
'Blood I will mass and cause bones to be.
I will establish a savage, "man" shall be his name.
Verily, savage-man I will create.
He shall be charged with the service of the gods
That they might be at ease!
The ways of the gods I will artfully alter.
Though alike revered, into two (groups) they shall be divided.'
Ea answered him, speaking a word to him,
To relate to him a scheme for the relief of the gods:
'Let but one of their brothers be handed over,

He alone shall perish that mankind may be fashioned. ²⁹
Let the great gods be here in Assembly,
Let the guilty be handed over that they may endure.'
Marduk summoned the great gods to Assembly;
Presiding graciously, he issued instructions.
To his utterance the gods pay heed.
The king addresses a word to the Anunnaki:
'if your former statement was true,
Do (now) the truth on oath by me declare!
Who was it that contrived the uprising,
And made Tiamat rebel, and joined battle?
Let him be handed over who contrived the uprising.
His guilt I will make him bear that you may dwell in peace!'
The Igigi, the great gods, replied to him,
To Lugaidimmerankia, ³⁰ counselor of the gods, their lord:
'It was Kingu who contrived the uprising,
And made Tiamat rebel, and joined battle.'
They bound him, holding him before Ea.
They imposed on him his guilt and severed his blood (vessels).
Out of his blood they fashioned mankind.
He ³¹ imposed the service and let free the gods.

[After the creation of mankind, Marduk divides the Anunnaki and assigns them to their proper stations, three hundred in heaven, three hundred on the earth.]

After he had ordered all the instructions,
To the Anunnaki of heaven and earth had allotted their portions,
The Anunnaki opened their mouths
And said to Marduk, their lord:
'Now, 0 lord, thou who hast caused our deliverance,
What shall be our homage to thee?
Let us build a shrine to thee whose name shall be called
'Lo, a chamber for our nightly rest'; let us repose in it!
Let us build a shrine, a recess for his abode!
On the day that we arrive ³² we shall repose in it.'
When Marduk heard this,
Brightly glowed his features, like the day:
'Like that of lofty Babylon, whose building you have requested,
Let its brickwork be fashioned. You shall name it "The Sanctuary."'
The Anunnaki applied the implement;
For one whole year they moulded bricks.
When the second year arrived,
They raised high the head of Esagila ³³ equaling Apsu. ³⁴
Having built a stage-tower as high as Apsu,
They set up in it an abode for Marduk, Enlil, (and) Ea. In their presence he adorned (it) in grandeur.
To the base of Esharra its horns took down.
After they had achieved the building of Esagila, The Anunnaki themselves erected their shrines.
all of them gathered,
they had built as his dwelling.
The gods, his fathers, at his banquet he seated:
'This is Babylon, the place that is your home!
Make merry in its precincts, occupy its broad places.'
The great gods took their seats,
They set up festive drink, sat down to a banquet.
After they had made merry within it,
In Esagila, the splendid, had performed their rites,
The norms had been fixed (and) all their portents,
All the gods apportioned the stations of heaven and earth.
The fifty great gods took their seats.
The seven gods of destiny set up the three hundred in heaven.
Enlil raised the bow, his weapon, and laid (it) before them.
The gods, his fathers, saw the net he had made.
When they beheld the bow, how skillful its shape,
His fathers praised the work he had wrought.
Raising (it), Anu spoke up in the Assembly of the gods,
As he kissed the bow:

[The remainder of the epic is a long hymn of praise to Marduk It culminates in a recitation of his fifty names, attributes reflecting his power and mighty deeds.]

Notes 1 God of subterranean waters; the primeval sweet-water ocean.
2 An epithet of Tiamat; perhaps meaning 'mother.'
3 A water-deity; the primeval salt-water ocean.
4 i.e, the fresh waters of Apsu and the marine waters of Tiamat.
5 The waters of Apsu and Tiamat.
6 The first generation of gods.
7 Gods.
8 The sky-god.
9 One of the names of Ea, the earth and water-god.
10 Ea, the earth- and water-god.
11 That of Apsu and his vizier Mummu.
12 i.e., caused it to be in the waters of Apsu.
13 'The Deep.'
14 See note 13.
15 cf.. Ezekiel 1:6.
16 The weapon of the sun-god.
17 The gods who joined Tiamat in her war.
18 Here a collective name of the nether world gods.
19 Tiamat and Kingu.
20 The assembly hall of the gods.
21 A collective name of the heaven gods.
22 i.e., it has the authority of the sky-god Anu.
23 i.e., Marduk's destiny.
24 Red being the magic colour for warding off evil influence.
25 i.e., Kingu's course.
26 God of death.
27 By this action Marduk legalized his ownership of the Tablets of Fate.
28 The god of the wind, i.e., of the earth.
29 Out of his blood.
30 Meaning 'The king of the gods of heaven and earth.'
31 Ea.
32 For the New Year's Festival.
33 Name of the temple of Marduk in Babylon.
34 Meaning apparently that the height of Esagila corresponded to the depth
of Apsu's waters.

#59 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": HESIOD'S THEOGONY AND COSMOGONY

('Theogony,' 116-210) The main themes of Hesiod's 'Theogony' are (1) the coming into being of Chaos (the Void), Earth, Eros, Sky and the first generation of gods (lines 116-53); (2) the castration of Sky by his son Cronus, instigated by his mother Earth (lines 154-210); (3) Zeus' escape from being swallowed by his father Cronus (lines 453-500); (4) the victorious battle of Zeus and the Olympian gods against the Titans (lines 617-735). Only the first two episodes are printed below. It is impossible to determine Hesiod's date, but he is later than Homer, probably eighth century B.C. The similarities to and differences from the Ancient Near East cosmogonies are discussed by Norman 0. Brown in the introduction to his translation, 'Hesiod's Theogony,' PP. 36 ff.

'First of all, the Void (Chaos) came into being, next broad-bosomed Earth, the solid and eternal home of all, and Eros [Desire], the most beautiful of the immortal gods, who in every man and every god softens the sinews and overpowers the prudent purpose of the mind. Out of Void came Darkness and black Night, and out of Night came Light and Day, her children conceived after union in love with Darkness. Earth first produced starry Sky, equal in size with herself, to cover her on all sides. Next she produced the tall mountains, the pleasant haunts of the gods, and also gave birth to the barren waters, sea with its raging surges-all this without the passion of love. Thereafter she lay with Sky and gave birth to Ocean with its deep current. Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus; Thea and Rhea and Themia [Law] and Mnemosyne [Memory]; also golden-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After these came cunning Cronus, the youngest and boldest of her children; and he grew to hate the father who had begotten him.
Earth also gave birth to the violent Cyclopes-Thunderer, Lightner, and bold Flash-who made and gave to Zeus the thunder and the lightning bolt. They were like the gods in all respects except that a single eye stood in the middle of their foreheads, and their strength and power and skill were in their hands.
There were also born to Earth and Sky three more children, big, strong, and horrible, Cottus and Briareus and Gyes. This unruly brood had a hundred monstrous hands sprouting from their shoulders, and fifty heads on top of their shoulders growing from their sturdy bodies. They had monstrous strength to match their huge size.
Of all the children born of Earth and Sky these were the boldest, and their father hated them from the beginning. As each of them was about to be born, Sky would not let them reach the light of day; instead he hid them all away in the bowels of Mother Earth. Sky took pleasure in doing this evil thing. In spite of her enormous size, Earth felt the strain within her and groaned. Finally she thought of an evil and cunning stratagem. She instantly produced a new metal, grey steel, and made a huge sickle. Then she laid the matter before her children; the anguish in her heart made her speak boldly, 'My children, you have a savage father; if you will listen to me, we may be able to take vengeance for this evil outrage: he was the one who started using violence.'
This was what she said: but all the children were gripped by fear, and not one of them spoke a word. Then great Cronus, the cunning trickster, took courage and answered his good mother with these words: 'Mother, I am willing to undertake and carry through your plan. I have no respect for our infamous father, since he was the one who started using violence.'
This was what he said, and enormous Earth was very pleased. She hid him in ambush and put in his hands the sickle with jagged teeth, and ' instructed him fully in her plot. Huge Sky came drawing night behind him and desiring to make love; he lay on top of Earth stretched all over her. Then from his ambush his son reached out with his left hand and with his right took the huge sickle with its long jagged teeth and quickly sheared the organs from his own father and threw them away. The drops of blood that spurted from them were all taken in by Mother Earth, and in the course of the revolving years she gave birth to the powerful Erinyes [Spirits of Vengeance] and the huge Giants with shining armour and long spears. As for the organs themselves, for a long time they drifted round the sea just as they were when Cronus cut them off with the steel edge and threw them from the land into the waves of the ocean; then white foam issued from the divine flesh, and in the foam a girl began to grow. First she came near to holy Cythera, then reached Cyprus, the land surrounded by sea. There she stepped out, a goddess, tender and beautiful, and round her slender feet the green grass shot up. She is called Aphrodite by gods and men because she grew in the froth, and also Cytherea, because she came near to Cythera, and the Cyprian, because she was born in watery Cyprus. Eros [Desire] and beautiful Passion were her attendants both at her birth and at her first going to join the family of the gods. The rights and privileges assigned to her from the beginning and recognized by men and gods are these; to preside over the whispers and smiles and tricks which girls employ, and the sweet delight and tenderness of love.
Great Father Sky called his children the Titans, because of his feud with them: he said that they blindly had tightened the noose and had done a savage thing for which they would have to pay in time to come.

#95 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": A HOMERIC SACRIFICE FOR THE DEAD

(Homer, 'Odyssey,' XI, 18-50) Odysseus speaks:
'Thither we came and beached our ship, and took out the sheep, and ourselves went beside the stream of Oceanus until we came to the place of which Circe had told us.
'Here Perimedes and Eurylochus held the victims, while I drew my sharp sword from beside my thigh, and dug a pit of a cubit's length this way and that, and around it poured a libation to all the dead, first with milk and honey, thereafter with sweet wine, and in the third place with water, and I sprinkled thereon white barley meal. And I earnestly entreated the powerless heads of the dead, vowing that when I came to Ithaca I would sacrifice in my halls a barren heifer, the best I had, and pile the altar with goodly gifts, and to Teiresias alone would sacrifice separately a ram, wholly black, the goodliest of my flocks. But when with vows and prayers I had made supplication to the tribes of the dead, I took the sheep and cut their throats over the pit, and the dark blood ran forth. Then there gathered from out of Erebus the spirits of those that are dead, brides, and unwedded youths, and toil-worn old men, and tender maidens with hearts yet new to sorrow, and many, too, that had been wounded with bronze-tipped spears, men slain in fight, wearing their blood-stained armour. These came thronging in crowds about the pit from every side, with a wondrous cry, and pale fear seized me. Then I called to my comrades and bade them flay and burn the sheep that lay there slain with the pitiless bronze, and to make prayers to the gods, to mighty Hades and dread Persephone. And I myself drew my sharp sword from beside my thigh and sat there, and would not suffer the powerless heads of the dead to draw near to the blood until I had enquired of Teiresias.'

#147 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": DIONYSUS AND THE BACCHAE

(Euripides, 'The Bacchae,' 677-775) According to the ancient authorities, the cult of Dionysus came to Greece from Thrace or from Phrygia (the Phrygians were a Thracian tribe). The cult was of a frenetic and ecstatic character, as this passage from Euripides' Bacchae so strikingly illustrates. One of the herdsmen describes to Pentheus, the king of Thebes, an attack of the maenads (bacchae) upon the royal herd.

About that hour when the sun lets loose its light to warm the earth
our grazing herds of cows had just begun to climb
the path along the mountain ridge. Suddenly
I saw three companies of dancing women,
one led by Autonoe the second captained
by your mother Agave, while Ino led the third.
There they lay in the deep sleep of exhaustion,
some resting on boughs of fir, others sleeping
where they fell, here and there among the oak leaves
but all modestly and soberly, -not, as you think,
drunk with wine nor wandering, led astray
by the music of the flute, to hunt their Aphrodite
through the woods.

But your mother heard the lowing
of our horned herds, and springing to her feet,
gave a great cry to waken them from sleep.
And they too, rubbing the bloom of the sleep
from their eyes, rose up lightly and straight
a lovely sight to see: all as one,
the old women and the young and the unmarried girls.
First they let the hair fall loose, down over their shoulders,
and those whose straps had slipped
fastened their skins of fawn with writhing snakes
that licked their cheeks. Breasts swollen with milk,
new mothers who had left their babies behind at home
nestled gazelles and young wolves in their arms,
suckling them. Then they crowned their hair with leaves,
ivy and oak and flowering bryony. One woman
struck her thyrsus against a rock and a fountain
of cool water came bubbling up. Another drove
her fennel in the ground, and where it struck the earth,
at the touch of god, a spring of wine poured out.
Those who wanted milk scratched at the soil
with bare fingers and the white milk came welling up.
Pure honey spurted, streaming, from their wands.
If you had been there and seen these wonders for yourself,
you would have gone down on your knees and prayed
to the god you now deny.

We cowherds and shepherds
gathered in small groups, wondering and arguing
among ourselves at these fantastic things,
the awful miracles those women did.
But then a city fellow with the knack of words
rose to his feet and said: 'All you who live
upon the pastures of the mountain, what do you say?
Shall we earn a little favour with King Pentheus
by hunting his mother Agave out of the revels?'
Falling in with his suggestion, we withdrew
and set ourselves in ambush, hidden by the leaves
among the undergrowth. Then at a signal
all the Bacchae whirled their wands for the revels to begin.
With one voice they cried aloud:
'O lacchus! Son of Zeus!' 'O Bromius!'
they cried until the beasts and all the mountain seemed
wild with divinity. And when they ran,
everything ran with them.

It happened, however,
that Agave ran near the ambush where I lay concealed.
Leaping up, I tried to seize her,
but she gave a cry: 'Hounds who run with me,
men are hunting us down! Follow, follow me!
Use your hands for weapons.'

At this we fled
and barely missed being torn to pieces by the women.
Unarmed, they swooped down upon the herds of cattle
grazing there on the green of the meadow. And then
you could have seen a single woman with bare hands
tear a fat calf, still bellowing with fright, in two,
while others clawed the heifers to pieces.
There were ribs and cloven hooves scattered everywhere,
and scraps smeared with blood hung from the fig trees.
And bulls, their raging fury gathered in their horns,
lowered their heads to charge, then fell, stumbling
to the earth, pulled down by hordes of women
and stripped of flesh and skin more quickly, sire,
than you could blink royal eyes. Then,
carried up by their own speed, they flew like birds
across the spreading fields along Asopus' stream
where most of all the ground is good for harvesting.
Like invaders they swooped on Hysiae
and on Erythrae in the foothills of Cithaeron.
Everything in sight they pillaged and destroyed.
They snatched the children from their homes.
And when they piled their plunder on their backs,
it stayed in place, untied. Nothing, neither bronze nor iron,
fell to the dark earth. Flames flickered
in their curls and did not burn them. Then the villagers,
furious at what the women did, took to arms.
And there, sire, was something terrible to see.
For the men's spears were pointed and sharp,
and yet drew no blood, whereas the wands the women
threw inflicted wounds. And then the men ran,
routed by women! Some god, I say, was with them.
The Bacchae then returned where they had started,
by the springs the god had made, and washed their hands
while the snakes licked away the drops of blood
that dabbled their checks.

Whoever this god may be, sire,
welcome him to Thebes. For he is great
in many other ways as well. It was he,
or so they say, who gave to mortal men
the gift of lovely wine by which our suffering
is stopped. And if there is no god of wine,
there is no love, no Aphrodite either, nor other pleasure left to men.

#148 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES

Happy is he among men upon earth who has seen these mysteries; but he who is uninitiate and who has no part in them never has lot of like good things once he is dead, down in the darkness and gloom.

Hymn to Demeter, 480-2 (translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and Homerica, Loeb Classical Library [New York, 1920], P. 323)

Thrice happy are those of mortals, who having seen those rites depart for Hades; for to them alone is it granted to have true life there; to the rest all there is evil.

Sophocles, Frag. 719 (Dindorf) (translation by G. E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries [Prince ton: Princeton University Press, 1961], P. 284)

Happy is he who, having seen these rites, goes below the hollow earth; for he knows the end of life and he knows its god-sent beginning.

Pindar, Frag. 102 (Oxford) (translation by Mylonas, Op.cit., P. 285)

Beautiful indeed is the Mystery given us by the blessed gods: death is for mortals no longer an evil, but a blessing.

Inscription found at Eleusis (translation by S. Angus, The Mystery Religions and Christianity [London, 19251, P. 140)

It was the common belief in Athens that whoever had been taught the Mysteries would, when he died, be deemed worthy of divine glory. Hence all were eager for initiation.

Scholiast on Aristophanes (The Frogs, 158) (translation by S. Angus, op cit., p. 140)

Pausanias avoided explanations regarding the Mysteries and refrained
from describing the buildings to be seen in the sacred precincts of
Demeter both at Eleusis and Athens:

I purposed to pursue the subject, and describe all the objects that
admit of description in the sanctuary at Athens called the Eleusinion, but I was prevented from so doing by a vision in a dream. I will, therefore, turn to what may be lawfully told to everybody.

Pausanias, I, 14, 3 (translation by Frazer) My dream forbade me to describe what is within the wall of the sanctuary; and surely it is dear that the uninitiated may not lawfully hear of that from the sight of which they are debarred.

Pausanias, 1, 38, 7 (translation by Frazer)

And the synthema (pass-word) of the Eleusinian mysteries is as follows: 'I fasted; I drank the kykeon; I took out of the chest; having done my task, I put again into the basket, and from the basket again into the chest.'

Clement of Alexandria, Protreptikos, II, 21. [For the interpretations of this sacred formula, cf. George E. Mylonas, Eleusis and the Eleusinian Mysteries, pp. 294-305]

The Phrygians, the Naassene says, assert that God is a fresh ear of cutwheat, and following the Phrygians the Athenians, when they initiate in the Eleusinia exhibit in silence to the epoptai the mighty and marvellous and most complete epoptic mystery, an ear of cut-wheat.

Hippolytus, Philosophoumena, V, 8

[According to Walter Otto, 'there can be no doubt of the miraculous nature of the event. The ear of wheat growing and maturing with a supernatural suddenness is just as much a part of the mysteries of Demeter as the vine growing in a few hours is part of the revels of Dionysus.' W. Otto, 'Meaning of the Eleusinian Mysteries,' P. 25, in The Mysteries (New York, 1955), PP. 14-31; see also Mylonas, op. cit. PP- 305-10-]

Aristotle maintains that it is not necessary for the initiated to learn anything, but to receive impressions and to be put in a certain frame of mind by becoming worthy candidates.

Synesius, De Dione, 10. (cf. Jeanne Groissant, Aristotle et les Mysteres, Paris, 1932)

#149 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": DEATH AND INITIATION IN THE MYSTERIES

(Plutarch, 'On the Soul')
The soul [at the point of death] has the same experience are being initiated into great mysteries. . . . At first one wearily hurries to and fro, and journeys with suspicion dark as one uninitiated: then come all the terrors be initiation, shuddering, trembling, sweating, amazement: then one is struck with a marvellous light, one is received into pure regions and meadows, with voices and dances and the majesty of holy sounds and shapes: among these he who has fulfilled initiation wanders free, and released and bearing his crown joins in the divine communion, and consorts with pure and holy men, beholding those who live here uninitiated, an uncleansed horde, trodden under foot of him and huddled together in mud and fog, abiding in their miseries through fear of death and mistrust of the blessings there.

#150 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES OF CYBELE

THE TAUROBOLIUM

(Prudentius, 'Peristephanon,' X, 101 1-50)
The high priest who is to be consecrated is brought down under ground in a pit dug deep, marvellously adorned with a fillet, binding his festive temples with chaplets, his hair combed back under a golden crown, and wearing a silken toga caught up with Gabine girding.
Over this they make a wooden floor with wide spaces, woven of planks with an open mesh; they then divide or bore the area and repeatedly pierce the wood with a pointed tool that it may appear full of small holes.
Hither a huge bull, fierce and shaggy in appearance, is led, bound with flowery garlands about its flanks, and with its horns sheathed; Yea, the forehead of the victim sparkles with gold, and the flash of metal plates colours its hair.
Here, as is ordained, the beast is to be slain, and they pierce its breast with a sacred spear; the gaping wound emits a wave of hot blood, and the smoking river flows into the woven structure beneath it and surges wide.
Then by the many paths of the thousand openings in the lattice the falling shower rains down a foul dew, which the priest buried within catches, putting his shameful head under all the drops, defiled both in his clothing and in all his body.
Yea, he throws back his face, he puts his cheeks in the way of the blood, he puts under it his ears and lips, he interposes his nostrils, he washes his very eyes with the fluid, nor does he even spare his throat but moistens his tongue, until he actually drinks the dark gore.
Afterwards, the flamens draw the corpse, stiffening now that the blood has gone forth, off the lattice, and the pontiff, horrible in appearance, comes forth, and shows his wet head, his beard heavy with blood, his dripping fillets and sodden garments.
This man, defiled with such contagions and foul with the gore of the recent sacrifice, all hail and worship¹ at a distance, because profane blood ² and a dead ox have washed him while concealed in a filthy cave.

Notes
1 All hail and worship. The consecrated priest, emerging from the blood bath with the gift of divine life (drawn from the sacred bull) himself becomes divine and is therefore worshipped. Those who received the 'taurobolium could be described as 'born again for eternity' (renatus in aeternum, C.I.L., VI, 510; many other inscriptions refer to the taurobolium and prove the rite to have been in use early in the second century A.D).
2 Profane blood. It must be remembered that Prudentius was a Christian and that to him the blood was profane (vilis) and the whole rite not only repulsive but blasphemous.

#155 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": INITIATION IN THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS

(Apuleius, 'Metamorphoses,' XI, 1-26)
Apuleius of Madaura, in North Africa, lived in the second century A.D. He was a lawyer, a novelist, and an orator. His famous Metamorphoses, which used to be called The Golden Ass, is a thinly veiled apologetic and autobiographic work in eleven books, replete with charming tales (e.g., 'Cupid and Psyche' in IV, 28 MVI, 24). The hero, Lucius, being over-curious about magic, is accidentally turned into an ass. His restoration to human shape by the mercy of Isis and his initiation into her rites form the climax of the work and are regarded as being based on direct acquaintance with the Isis mysteries.

Introduction
[Book XI opens with an auspicious note of mystery. Lucius is spending the night asleep on the warm sand of the seashore.]
(1) About the first watch of the night, I awoke in sudden terror; the full moon had risen and was shining with unusual splendour as it emerged from the waves. All about me lay the mysterious silence of the night. I knew that this was the hour when the goddess [Isis] exercised her greatest power and governed all things by her providence -not only animals, wild and tame, but even inanimate things were renewed by her divine illumination and might; even the heavenly bodies, the whole earth, and the vast sea waxed or waned in accordance with her will.

The Epiphany of Isis
[Lucius decides to make his appeal to Isis for release from his asinine disguise, and the goddess responds. His prayer in 2 recounts her titles as Queen of Heaven, Ceres, Proserpina, celestial Venus.]
(3) So I poured out my prayers and supplications, adding to them much pitiful wailing, and once more fell sound asleep on the same bed of sand. Scarcely had I closed my eyes when lo! from the midst of the deep there arose that face divine to which even the gods must do reverence. Then a little at a time, slowly, her whole shining body emerged from the sea and came into full view. I would like to tell you all the wonder of this vision, if the poverty of human speech does not prevent, or if the divine power dwelling within that form supplies a rich enough store of eloquence.
First, the tresses of her hair were long and thick, and streamed down softly, flowing and curling about her divine neck. On her head she wore as a crown many garlands of flowers, and in the middle of her forehead shone white and glowing a round disc like a mirror, or rather like the moon; on its right and left it was bound about with the furrowed coils of rising vipers, and above it were stalks of grain. Her tunic was of many colours, woven of the finest linen, now gleaming with snowy whiteness, now yellow like the crocus, now rosy-red like a flame. But what dazzled my eyes more than anything else was her cloak, for it was a deep black, glistening with sable sheen; it was cast about her, passing under her right arm and brought together on her left shoulder. Part of it hung down like a shield and drooped in many a fold, the whole reaching to the lower edge of her garment with tasseled fringe.
(4) Here and there along its embroidered border, and also on its surface, were scattered sequins of sparkling stars, and in their midst the full moon of midmonth shone forth like a flame of fire. And all along the border of that gorgeous robe there was an unbroken garland of all kinds of flowers and fruits.
In her hands she held emblems of various kinds. In her right hand she carried a bronze rattle [the sistrum] made of a thin piece of metal curved like a belt, through which were passed a few small rods; this gave out a tinkling sound whenever she shook it three times with a quivering pulsation. In her left hand was a golden cup, from the top of whose slender handle rose an asp, towering with head erect and its throat distended on both sides. Her perfumed feet were shod with sandals woven of the palm of victory.
Such was the vision, and of such majesty. Then, breathing forth all the blessed fragrance of happy Arabia, she deigned to address me with voice divine;
(5), Behold, Lucius, I have come, moved by thy prayers ! I, nature's mother, mistress of all the elements, earliest offspring of the ages, mightiest of the divine powers, Queen of the dead, chief of them that dwell in the heavens, in whose features are combined those of all the gods and goddesses. By my nod I rule the shining heights of heaven, the wholesome winds of the sea, and the mournful silences of the underworld. The whole world honours my sole deity [numen unicum] under various forms, with varied rites, and by many names . . . and the Egyptians mighty in ancient lore, honouring me with my peculiar rites, call me by my true name, Isis the Queen.
'I have come in pity for thy woes. I have come, propitious and ready to aid. Cease from thy weeping and lamentation, and lay aside thy grief. For thee, by my providence, the day of salvation is dawning! Therefore turn thy afflicted spirit, and give heed to what I command. The day, even the very day that follows this night, is dedicated to me by an everlasting dedication, for on this day, after I have laid to rest the storms of winter and stilled the tempestuous waves of the sea, my priests shall dedicate to the deep, which is now navigable once more, a new boat, and offer it in my honour as the first fruits of the year's seafaring. Thou must await this festival with untroubled heart and with no profane thoughts.'
[The goddess tells Lucius that he must mingle with the crowd at the Ploiaphesia and edge his way up to the priest, who will be wearing a garland of roses. Having been forewarned by the goddess in a vision, the priest will be prepared for what is to happen, namely, that Lucius (still the ass) will seize the priest's garland and eat it, where upon he will be restored to human form. And so it takes place. Transformed once more into human shape, Lucius is exhorted by one of the priests, 'whose smiling face seemed more than mortal': ]
(15) 'O Lucius, after enduring so many labours and escaping so many tempests of Fortune, you have now at length reached the port and haven of rest and mercy ! Neither your noble lineage nor your high rank nor your great learning did anything for you; but because you turned to servile pleasures, by a little youthful folly you won the grim reward of your hapless curiosity. And yet while Fortune's blindness tormented you with various dangers, by her very malice she has brought you to this present state of religious blessedness. Let Fortune go elsewhere and rage with her wild fury, and find someone else to torment! For Fortune has no power over those who have devoted themselves to serve the majesty of our goddess. For all your afflictions -robbers, wild beasts, slavery, toilsome and futile journeys that ended where they began, and the daily fear of death-all these brought no advantage to wicked Fortune. Now you are safe, under the protection of that Fortune who is not blind but can see, who by her clear light enlightens the other gods. Therefore rejoice and put on a more cheerful countenance, appropriately matching your white robe, and follow with joyful steps the procession of this Saviour Goddess. Let all such as are not devout followers of the goddess see and acknowledge their error, [saying]; "See, here is Lucius, freed from his former miseries by the providence of the great goddess Isis, and rejoicing in triumph over his Fortune!" And in order that you may live even more safely and securely, hand in your name to this sacred militia [i.e., join the Isiac order]-for it is only a little while ago that you were asked to take the oath-and dedicate yourself to obey our religion and take upon yourself the voluntary yoke of ministry. For when you have begun to serve the goddess, then will you realize more fully the fruits of your liberty.'

The Initiation of Lucius
[And so the priest prophesied and made his appeal to Lucius, and Lucius consented and joined the procession, amid the jeers of the unbelievers. But his conversion, like that of many others, was a slow process, and only gradually did he come to identify himself with the Isiac priests; for, like many another, he believed the strict profession of religion was something too hard for him: 'The laws of chastity and abstinence are not easy to obey' (19) And yet he continued to frequent the services of worship
(21). and eventually came to desire earnestly to be admitted to the mysteries of Isis. This took place on 'the night that is sacred to the goddess.']
(22) The priest finished speaking, and I did not mar my obedience by any impatience, but with a quiet and gentle and edifying silence I rendered attentive service at the daily observance of the sacred rites. Nor did the saving grace of the mighty goddess in any way deceive me or torture me with long delays, but in the dark of night, by commands that were not in the least dark, she clearly signified to me that the day so long desired had come, in which she would grant the fulfillment of my most earnest prayers. She also stated what amount I must provide for the supplications, and she appointed Mithras himself, her high priest, to administer the rites to me; for his destiny, she said, was closely bound up with mine by the divine conjunction of the stars.
These and other gracious admonitions of the supreme goddess refreshed my spirit, so that even before it was clear day I shook off sleep and hastened at once to the priest's lodging. I met him just as he was coming out of his bedchamber, and saluted him. I had decided to request with even more insistence that I should be initiated, now that it was due me. But he at once, as soon as he saw me, anticipated me, saying, 'Lucius, you happy, you greatly blessed man, whom the August deity deigns to favour with such good will! But why,' he asked, 'do you stand here idle, yourself delaying? The day you have so long asked by your unwearied prayers has come, when by the divine commands of the goddess of many names you are to be admitted by my hands into the most holy secrets of the mysteries.' Then, taking my right hand in his, the gentle old man led me to the very doors of the huge temple; and after celebrating with sole ritual the opening of the gates and completing the morning sacrifice, he brought out from a hidden place in the temple certain books whose titles were written in undecipherable letters. Some of these [letters] were shaped like all kinds of animals and seemed to be brief ways of suggesting words; others bad their extremities knotted or curved like wheels, or intertwined like the tendrils of a vine, which was enough to safeguard them from the curiosity of profane readers. At the same time he told me about the various preparations it was necessary to make in view of my initiation.
(23) 1 lost no time, but promptly and with a liberality even beyond what was required I either bought these things myself or had my friends buy them for me. And now, the time drawing near and requiring it, as he said, the priest conducted me with an escort of the religiously-minded to the nearest baths; and when I entered the bath, where it is customary for the neophytes to bathe, he first prayed to the gods to be gracious to me and then sprinkled me with purest water and cleansed me. He then led me back to the temple, and since the day was now more than half over he placed me at the feet of the goddess herself; then, after confiding certain secret orders to me, those which were too holy to be spoken, he openly, before all who were present, bade me for ten successive days to abstain from all the pleasures of the table, to eat no meat and drink no wine. All these requirements I observed with scrupulous care. And at last came the day designated by the divine guarantee. The sun was sloping downward and bringing on the evening when lo! from everywhere came crowds of the initiates, flocking around me, and each of them, following the ancient rite, presented me with various gifts. Finally, all the uninitiated having withdrawn, they put on me a new linen robe, and the priest, seizing me by the hand, led me to the very inmost recesses of the holy place.......

. . . Hear then and believe, for what I tell you is true. I drew near to the confines of death, treading the very threshold of Proserpine. I was borne through all the elements and returned to earth again. At the dead of night, I saw the sun shining brightly. I approached the gods above and the gods below, and worshipped them face to face. See, I have told you things which, though you have heard them, you still must know nothing about. I will therefore relate only as much as may, without committing a sin, be imparted to the understanding of the uninitiate.
(24) As soon as it was morning and the solemn rites had been completed, I came forth clothed in the twelve gowns that are worn by the initiate, apparel that is really most holy, but about which no sacred ban forbids me to tell, since at that time there were many who saw me wearing it. For in the very midst of the holy shrine, before the image of the goddess, there was a wooden platform on which I was directed to stand, arrayed in a robe which, although it was only of linen, was so richly embroidered that I was a sight to behold. The precious cape hung from my shoulders down my back even to the ground, and it was adorned, wherever you looked, with the figures of animals in various colours. Here were Indian dragons, there griffins from the Hyperborean regions, winged like birds, but out of another world. This cape the initiates call the Olympian. In my right hand I carried a flaming torch, and my head was decorated with a crown made of white palm leaves, spread out to stand up like rays. After I bad been thus adorned like the sun and set up like an image of a god, the curtains were suddenly withdrawn, and the people crowded around to gaze at me. . . .

[There followed feast and parties, and on the third day a solemn fast-breaking ceremony. Unable at first to bear to leave the image of the goddess, finally Lucius addresses her one last time, sobbing :]

(25) 'O holy and eternal guardian of the human race, who dost always cherish mortals and bless them, thou carest for the woes of miserable men with a sweet mother's love. Neither day nor night, nor any moment of time, ever passes by without thy blessings, but always on land and sea thou watchest over men; thou drivest away from them the tempests of life and stretchest out over them thy saving right hand, wherewith thou dost unweave even the inextricable skein of the Fates; the tempests of Fortune thou dost assuage and restrainest the baleful motions of the stars. Thee the gods above adore, thee the gods below worship. It is thou that whirlest the sphere of heaven, that givest light to the sun, that governest the universe and trampled down Tartarus. To thee the stars respond, for thee the seasons return, in thee the gods rejoice, and the elements serve thee. At thy nod the winds blow, the clouds nourish [the earth], the seeds sprout, and the buds swell. Before thy majesty the birds tremble as they flit to and fro in the sky, and the beasts as they roam the mountains, the serpents hiding in the ground, and the monsters swimming in the deep. But my skill is too slight to tell thy praise, my wealth too slender to make thee due offerings of sacrifice. . . . Therefore the only thing one can do, if one is devout but otherwise a pauper, that I will strive to do. Thy face divine and thy most holy deity-these I will hide away deep within my heart; thine image I shall treasure forever!'

Having thus pleaded with the mighty deity, I embraced Mithras the priest, now my spiritual father, and hanging upon his neck with many a kiss I begged his forgiveness, since I could make no proper return for all the great benefits that he had conferred upon Me. (26) Then, after many words of thanks, long drawn out, I finally set out for home by the shortest route. . . . A few days later, led on by the mighty goddess, I reached Rome on the eve of the Ides of December.

#158 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR

TO THE NETHER WORLD

Ishtar, goddess of life and fertility, decides to visit her sister Ereshkigal, goddess of death and sterility. As Ishtar forces her way through the gates of the nether world, her robes and garments are stripped from her. Naked and helpless, she finally reaches Ereshkigal, who instantly has her put to death. Without Ishtar, there is no fertility on earth, and the gods soon realize their loss. Ea creates the beautiful eunuch Asushunamir, who tricks Ereshkigal into reviving Ishtar with the water of life and releasing her.- The ending of the myth is obscure; perhaps Ishtar's lover, Tammuz, was released along with her. Like the Gilgamesh Epic the myth of the descent of Ishtar to the nether world has its Sumerian counterpart (see S. N. Kramer, 'Inanna's Descent to the Nether World,' ANET, pp. 52-7)- Yet the Akkadian version differs substantially from its Sumerian prototype and is by no means a slavish translation of the former. The Sumerian version of the myth dates from the first half of the second millennium B.C.; the Semitic versions do not antedate the end of the second millennium B.C.

To the Land of no Return, the realm of Ereshkigal,
Ishtar, the daughter of Sin, set her mind.
Yea, the daughter of Sin set her mind
To the dark house, the abode of Irkalla,¹
To the house which -none leave who have entered it,
To the road from which there is no way back,
To the house wherein the dwellers arc bereft of light,
Where dust is their fare and clay their food,
(Where) they see no light, residing in darkness,
(Where) they are clothed like birds, with wings for garments,
(And where) over door and bolt is spread dust.
When Ishtar reached the gate of the Land of no Return,
She said (these) words to the gatekeeper.
'O gatekeeper, open thy gate,
Open thy gate that I may enter!
If thou openest not the gate so that I can-not enter,
I will smash the door, I will shatter the bolt,
I will smash the doorpost, I will move the doors,
I will raise up the dead, eating the living,
So that the dead will outnumber the living.'
The gatekeeper opened his mouth to speak,
Saying to exalted Ishtar.
'Stop, my lady, do not throw it ² down!
I will go to announce they name to Queen Ereshkigal.
' The gatekeeper entered, saying to Ereshkigal:
'Behold, thy sister Ishtar is waiting at the gate,
She who upholds the great festivals,
Who stirs up the deep before Ea, the king.'
When Ereshkigal heard this,
Her face turned pale like a cut-down tamarisk,
While her lips turned dark like a bruised kuninu-reed.
'What drove her heart to me? What impelled her spirit hither?
Lo, should I drink water with the Anunnaki?
Should I eat clay for bread, drink muddied water for beer?
Should I bemoan the men who left their wives behind?
Should I bemoan the maidens who were wrenched from the
laps of their lovers?
(Or) should I bemoan the tender little one who was sent off before his
time? ³
Go, gatekeeper, open the gate for her,
Treat her in accordance with the ancient rules.'
Forth went the gatekeeper (to) open the door for her.
'Enter, my lady, that Cutha ⁴ may rejoice over thee,
That the palace of the Land of no Return may be glad at thy presence.
' When the first door he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the great crown on her head.
'Why 0 gatekeeper, didst thou take the great crown on my head?'
'Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Nether World.'

[Ishtar passes through seven gates of the nether world. At each of them the gatekeeper removes an ornament. At the second gate, he takes the pendants on her ears; at the third, the chains round her neck, then he removes, respectively, the ornaments on her breast, the girdle of birthstones on her hips, the clasps round her hands and feet, and the breechcloth on her body. Each time, she asks the same question; each time she receives the same answer.]

As soon as Ishtar had descended to the Land of no Return,
Ereshkigal saw her and was enraged at her presence.
Ishtar, unreasoning, flew at her.
Ereshkigal opened her mouth to speak,
Saying (these) words to Namtar, her vizier:
'Go, Namtar, lock her up in my palace!
Release against her, against Ishtar, the sixty miseries:
Misery of the eyes against her eyes,
Misery of the sides against her sides,
Misery of the feet against her feet,
Misery of the head against her head-
Against every part of her, against her whole body!'
After Lady Ishtar had descended to the Land of no Return,
The bull springs not upon the cow, the ass impregnates not the jenny,
In the street the man impregnates not the maiden.
The man lay in his (own) chamber, the maiden lay on her side
. .........................................
The countenance of Papsukkal, the vizier of the great gods,
Was fallen, his face was clouded.
He was clad in mourning, long hair he wore.
Forth went Papsukkal before Sin his father, weeping.
His tears flowing before Ea, the king:
'Ishtar has gone down to the nether world, she has not come up.
Since Ishtar has gone down to the Land of no Return,
The bull springs not upon the cow, the ass impregnates -not the jenny,
In the street the man impregnates not the maiden.
The man lay down in his (own) chamber,
The maiden lay down on her side.'
Ea in his wise heart conceived an image,
And created Asushunamir, a eunuch:
'Up, Asushunamir, set thy face to the gate of the Land of no Return;
The seven gates of the Land of no Return shall be opened for thee.
Ereshkigal shall see thee and rejoice at thy presence.
When her heart is calmed, her mood is happy,
let her utter the oath of the great gods.
(Then) lift up thy head, paying mind to the life-water bag.-
'Pray, Lady, let them give me the life-water bag
That water therefrom I may drink.' ⁵
As soon as Ereshkigal heard this,
She smote her thigh, bit her finger.-
'Thou didst request of me a thing that should not be requested.
Come, Asushunamir, I will curse thee with a mighty curse!
The food of the city's plows ⁶ shall be thy food,
The sewers of the city shall be thy drink.
The shadow of the wall shall be thy station,
The threshold shall be thy habitation,
The besotted and the thirsty shall smite thy cheek!'
Ereshkigal opened her mouth to speak,
Saying (these) words to Namtar, her vizier.
'Ea, Namtar, knock at Egalgina, ⁷
Adorn the thresholds with coral-stone,
Bring forth the Annunaki and seat (them) on thrones of gold,
Sprinkle Ishtar with the water of life and take her from my presence!'
Forth went Namtar, knocked at Egalgina.
Adorned the thresholds with coral-stone,
Brought forth the Anunnaki, seated (them) on thrones of gold,
Sprinkled Ishtar with the water of life and took her from her presence.
When through the first gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the breechcloth for her body.

[As Ishtar passes through each of the seven gates, her ornaments are
returned to her one by one.]

'If she does not give thee her ransom price, bring her back.⁸
As for Tammuz, the lover of her youth,
Wash him with pure water, anoint him with sweet oil;
Clothe him with a red garment, let him play on a flute of lapis.
Let courtesans turn his mood.'
When Belili ⁹ had ... her jewelry,
And her lap was filled with 'eye-stones,¹⁰
On hearing the sound of her brother, Belili struck the jewelry on
So that the 'eye-stones' filled her chamber.
'My only brother, bring no harm to me!
On the day when Tammuz welcomes me,

When with him the lapis flute (and) the carnelian ring welcome Me,
When with him the wailing men and the wailing women welcome me-
May the dead rise and smell the incense.'

Notes 1 Another name of Ereshkigal, the queen of the nether world.
2 The door.
3 i.e. Ereshkigal would have cause for weeping if all these occupants of the nether world should be liberated by Ishtar.
4 A name of the nether world.
5 The scheme evidently succeeds, as Ereshkigal, distracted by the beauty of Asushunamir (meaning 'His Appearance is brilliant), does not recover until it is too late.
6 This probably means 'dirt.'
7 'Palace of Justice.'
8 The concluding part of the myth and its allusions, particularly to Tammuz are obscure.
9 Apparently referring to Ishtar.
10 'Bead'?

#159 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": GILGAMESH

IN SEARCH OF IMMORTALITY

Although originally written in Akkadian, the Gilgamesh Epic was translated into several Near Eastern languages and became the most famous literary creation of the ancient Babylonians. Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, is two-thirds god and one-third man, and 'like a wild ox.' As the story begins, the nobles of Uruk are complaining to the gods that the mighty Gilgamesh in his restlessness and arrogance is playing havoc with the city. His mother, the goddess Aruru, creates a companion for him-the wild man Enkidu, who runs with the animals on the steppe. Enkidu is first tamed and made human by a temple harlot. Then he is taken to Uruk, where he wrestles with Gilgamesh. The match is a draw and the two become inseparable companions.
One day, Gilgamesh, always looking for adventure, proposes that he and Enkidu travel to the distant cedar forest to kill Huwawa, its evil guardian. Enkidu protests that the journey is very dangerous and Huwawa very fierce, but Gilgamesh is determined and finally they set out. The undertaking is successful and the two are covered with glory.

But Enkidu has already had premonitions of disaster. On their return to Uruk, the goddess Ishtar sees the beauty of Gilgamesh and proposes to him. He rejects her, reminding her of the fates of her previous lovers. She is furious and has Anu send the sacred bull of heaven to attack him. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the bull, the gods become very angry-this is too presumptuous. As punishment, Enkidu must die.

Enkidu's death is the occasion for the section which we have included here, the climax and culmination of the Epic. For the first time Gilgamesh has had to face the fact of death, and it bewilders and terrifies him. Hoping to learn the secret of immortality, he makes a long and difficult journey in search of Utnapishtim, the one human being who has acquired it. Utnapishtim tells his story-the famous story of the flood. But Gilgamesh is, after all, human and very tired. He falls asleep. Utnapishtim is about to send him away when his wife intervenes in pity. Gilgamesh is told about a wonderful plant of immortality that grows at the bottom of the sea. He obtains it; but as he stops to cool himself in a quiet pool a snake carries off the plant. Gilgamesh, completely unsuccessful, returns to Uruk, and the text concludes as he proudly shows his city to his ferryman.

For Enkidu, his friend, Gilgamesh
Weeps bitterly, as he ranges over the steppe:
'When I die, shall I not be like Enkidu?
Woe has entered my belly.
Facing death, I roam over the steppe.
To Utnapishtim,¹ Ubar-Tutu's son,
I have taken the road to proceed in all haste.
When arriving by night at mountain passes,
I saw lions and grew afraid.
I lifted my head to Sin ² to pray.

[The remainder of the column is fragmentary or broken away. When Gilgamesh next appears, he has arrived before a mountain.]

The name of the mountain is Mashu.
When he arrived at the mountain range of Mashu,
Which daily keeps watch over sunrise and sunset-
Whose peaks reach to the vault of heaven
(And) whose breasts reach to the nether world below-
Scorpion-men guard its gate,
Whose terror is awesome and whose glance was death.
Their shimmering halo sweeps the mountains
That at sunrise and sunset keep watch over the sun.
When Gilgamesh beheld them, with fear
And terror was darkened his face.
He took hold of his senses and bowed before them.
A scorpion-man calls to his wife:
'He who has come to us-his body is the flesh of the gods!'
His wife answers the scorpion-man:
'Two-thirds of him is god, one-third of him is human.'
The scorpion-man calls to the fellow,
Addressing (these) words to the offspring of the gods:
'Why hast thou come on this far journey?
Why hast thou arrived before me,
Traversing seas whose crossings are difficult?
The purpose of thy coming I would learn.'

[The remainder of the column is broken away. In the next part that we have, Gilgamesh replies:]

'On account of Utnapishtim, my father, have I come,
Who joined the Assembly of the gods, in search of life.
About death and life I wish to ask him.'
The scorpion-man opened his mouth to speak,
Saying to Gilgamesh:
'Never was there, Gilgamesh, a mortal who could achieve that.
The mountain's trail no one has travelled.
For twelve leagues extends its inside.
Dense is the darkness and light there is none.

[The remainder is fragmentary or broken. Gilgamesh persists, and eventually the scorpion-man opens the mountain to him.]

When Gilgamesh heard this,
To the word of the scorpion-man he gave heed.
Along the road of the sun he went ³
When one league he had attained,
Dense is the darkness and light there is none;
He can see nothing ahead or behind.

[Gilgamesh travels for eight leagues in total blackness. Beginning the ninth league, he feels the north wind fanning his face. He gradually emerges from the cave.]

'When eleven leagues he had attained, the dawn breaks.
And when he had attained twelve leagues, it had grown bright.
On seeing the grove of stories, he heads for.....
The carnelian bears its fruit;
It is hung with vines good to look at.
The lapis bears foliage;
It, too, bears fruit lush to behold.

[The remainder of the tablet is mutilated or lost. There are two fairly complete versions of the episodes in the following tablet-the Old Babylonian and Assyrian recensions-as well as two, more fragmentary, versions. We shall begin with the Old Babylonian version. The top of the tablet is broken.]

Shamash was distraught, as he betook himself to him;
He says to Gilgamesh:
'Gilgamesh, whither rovest thou?
The life thou pursuest thou shalt not find.'
Gilgamesh says to him, to valiant Shamash:
'After marching (and) roving over the steppe,
Must I lay my head in the heart of the earth
That I may sleep through all the years?
Let mine eyes behold the sun
That I may have my fill of the light!
Darkness withdraws when there is enough light.
May he who has died a death behold the radiance of the sun!'

[Again there is a break in the text. Gilgamesh is addressing Siduri,⁴ the ale-wife, who, according to the Assyrian text, 'dwells by the deep sea.']

'He who with me underwent all hardships Enkidu, whom I loved dearly,
Who with me underwent all hardships has now gone to the fate of mankind!
Day and night I have wept over him.
I would not give him up for burial-
In case my friend should rise at my plaint
Seven days and seven nights,
Until a worm fell out of his nose.
Since his passing I have not found life,
I have roamed like a hunter in the midst of the steppe.
O ale-wife, now that I have seen thy face,
Let me not see the death which I ever dread.'
The ale-wife said to him, to Gilgamesh:
'Gilgamesh, whither rovest thou?
The life thou pursuest thou shalt not find.
When the gods created mankind,
Death for mankind they set aside,
Life in their own hands retaining.
Thou, Gilgamesh, let full be thy belly,
Make thou merry by day and by night.
Of each day make thou a feast of rejoicing,
Day and night dance thou and play!
Let thy garments be sparkling fresh,
Thy head be washed; bathe thou in water.
Pay heed to the little one that holds on to thy hand,
Let thy spouse delight in thy bosom!
For this is the task of mankind!'

[The remainder of the conversation is lost. The Assyrian text gives a different version of Sidura's response.]

Gilgamesh also says to her, to the ale-wife:
'Now ale-wife, which is the way to Utnapishtim?
What are its markers? Give me, 0 give me, its markers!
If it be possible, the sea I will cross,
If it not be possible, over the steppe I will range!'
The ale-wife said to him, to Gilgamesh:
'Never, 0 Gilgamesh, has there been a crossing,
And none who came since the beginning of days could cross the sea.
Only valiant Shamash crosses the sea;
Other than Shamash who can cross (it)?
Toilsome is the place of crossing
Very toilsome the way thereto,
And deep are the Waters of Death that bar its approaches!
Where then, 0 Gilgamesh, wouldst thou cross the sea?
On reaching the Waters of Death, what wouldst thou do?
Gilgamesh, there is Urshanabi, boatman to Utnapishtim.
With him are the Stone Things.⁵ In the woods he picks 'urnu'-snakes.⁶
Him let thy face behold.
If it be suitable, cross thou with him.
If it be not suitable, draw thou back.'
When Gilgamesh heard this,
He raised the axe in his hand,
Drew the dirk from his belt, slipped into (the forest),
And went down to them. ⁷
Like an arrow he descended among them.

[The text is too fragmentary for translation. When it resumes, Gilgamesh is responding to Urshanabi's questions. He again tells of Enkidu's death and his own search and asks how he can find Utnapishtim. Urshanabi warns him that, by breaking the 'Stone Things,' he has hindered his own crossing. But he agrees to guide Gilgamesh, and sends him off to cut poles. They set sail and soon come to the waters of death, where Urshanabi instructs Gilgamesh: 'Press on, Gilgamesh, take a pole, (But) let thy hand not touch the Waters of Death . . . !' Finally they reach Utnapishtim's island. Utnapishtim questions Gilgamesh, who repeats his long story again, concluding it as follows.]

Gilgamesh also said to him, to Utnapishtim:
'That -now I might come and behold Utnapishtim,
Whom they call the Faraway,
I ranged and wandered over all the lands,
I traversed difficult mountains,
I crossed all the seas!
My face was not sated with sweet sleep,
I fretted myself with wakefulness;
I filled my joints with aches.
I had not reached the ale-wife's house
When my clothing was used up.
I slew bear, hyena, lion, panther,
Tiger, stag, (and) ibex-
The wild beasts and the creeping things of the steppe.
[The remainder of the tablet is fragmentary and broken, except for the conclusion to Utnapishtim's response.]

'Do we build houses for ever?
Do we seal (contracts) for ever?
Do brothers divide shares for ever?
Does hatred persist for ever in the land?
Does the river for ever rise (and) bring on floods?
The dragon-fly leave (its) shell
That its face might (but) glance on the face of the sun?
Since the days of yore there has been no performance;
The resting and the dead, how alike they are!
Do they not compose a picture of death,
The commoner and the noble,
Once they are near to their fate?
The Anunnaki, the great gods, foregather,
Mammetum. maker of fate, with them the fate decrees,
Death and life they determine.
(But) of death its days are not revealed.'
Gilgamesh said to him, to Utnapishtim the Faraway:
'As I look upon thee, Utnapishtim,
Thy features are -not strange; even as I art thou.
My heart had regarded thee as resolved to do battle,
Yet thou liest indolent upon my back!
Tell me, how joinedst thou the Assembly of the gods.
In thy quest of life?'
Utnapishtim said to him, to Gilgamesh:
'I will reveal to thee, Gilgamesh, a hidden matter
And a secret of the gods will I tell thee: . . .'

[Utnapishtim's revelation is the flood narrative .He was made immortal, he says, through the intervention of the gods after he managed to survive the great flood which destroyed Shurippak.)

'But now, who will for thy sake call the gods to Assembly
That the life which thou seekest thou mayest find?
Up, lie down to sleep
For six days and seven nights.'
As he sits there on his haunches,
Sleep fans him like a mist.
Utnapishtim says to her, to his spouse:
'Behold this hero who seeks life!
Sleep fans him like a mist.'
His spouse says to him, to Utnapishtim the Faraway:
'Touch him that the man may awake,
That We may return safe on the way back whence he came,
That through the gate he left he may return to his land.'
Utnapishtim says to her, to his spouse:
'Since to deceive is human, he will seek to deceive thee.⁸
Up, bake for him wafers, put (them) at his head,
And mark on the walls the days he sleeps.'
She baked for him wafers, put (them) at his head,
And marked on the wall the days he slept.
His first wafer is dried out,
The second is leathery, the third is soggy;
The crust of the fourth has turned white;
The flfth has a mouldy cast,
The sixth (still) is fresh coloured;

And just as he touched the seventh, the man awoke.
Gilgamesh says to him, to Utnapishtim the Faraway:
'Scarcely had sleep surged Over me,
When straightway thou dost touch and rouse me'
Utnapishtim says to him, to Gilgamesh:
'Go, Gilgamesh, count thy wafers,
That the days thou hast slept may become known to thee:
Thy ftrst wafer is dried out
The second is leathery, the third is soggy;
The crust of the fourth has turned white; The ftfth has a mouldy cast,
The sixth (still) is fresh coloured.
As for the seventh, at this instant thou hast awakened.'
Gilgamesh says to him, to Utnapishtim the Faraway:
'What then 'shall I do, Utnapishtim,
Whither shall I go,
Now that the Bereaver has laid hold on my members?
In my bedchamber lurks death,
And wherever I set my foot, there is death!'
Utnapishtim says to him, to Urshanabi, the boatman:
'Urshanabi, may the landing-place not rejoice in thee.
May the place of the crossing despise thee!
To him who wanders on its shore, deny thou its shore!
The man thou hast led (hither), whose body is covered with grime,
The grace of whose members skins have distorted,
Take him, Urshanabi, and bring him to the washing-place.
Let him wash off his grime in water clean as snow,
Let him cast off his skins, let the sea carry (them) away,
That the fairness of his body may be seen.
Let him renew the band round his head,
Let him put on. a cloak to clothe his nakedness,
That he may arrive in his city,
That he may achieve his journey.
Let not (his) cloak have a mouldy cast,
Let it be wholly new.'
Urshanabi took him and brought him to the washing-place.
He washed off his grime in water clean as snow.
He cast off his skins, the sea carried (them) away,
That the fairness of his body might be seen.
He renewed the band round his head,
He put on a cloak to clothe his nakedness,
That he might arrive in his city,
That he might achieve his journey.
The cloak had not a mouldy cast, but was wholly new.
Gilgamesh and Urshanabi boarded the boat,
They launched the boat on the waves (and) they sailed away.
His spouse says to him, to Utnapishtim the Faraway:
'Gilgamesh has come hither, toiling and straining.
What wilt thou give him that he may return to his land?'
At that he, Gilgamesh, raised up (his) pole,
To bring the boat nigh to the shore.
Utnapishtim says to him, to Gilgatnesh: ,
Gilgatnesh, thou hast come hither, toiling and straining.
What shall I give thee that thou mayest return to thy land?
I will disclose, 0 Gilgainesh, a hidden thing,
And . . . about a plant I will tell thee:
This plant, like the buckthorn is its . . .
Its thorns will prick thy hands just as does the rose,
If thy hands obtain the plant, thou wilt attain life.'
No sooner had Gilgamesh heard this,
Than he opened the water-pipe,
He tied heavy stones to his feet.
They pulled him down into the deep and there he saw the plant.
He took the plant, though it pricked his hands.
He cut the heavy stones from his feet.
The sea cast him up upon its shore.
Gilgamesh says to. him, to Urshanabi, the boatman:
'Urshanabi, this plant is a plant apart,
Whereby a man may regain his life's breath.
I will take it to ramparted Uruk,
Will cause . . . to eat the plant !
Its name shall be "Man Becomes Young in Old Age."
I myself shall eat (it)
And thus return to the state of my youth.'
After twenty leagues they broke off a morsel,
After thirty (further) leagues they prepared for the night.
Gilgamesh saw a well whose water was cool.
He went down into it to bathe in the water.
A serpent snuffed the fragrance of the plant;
It came up from the water and carried off the plant.
Going back it shed its slough.
Thereupon Gilgamesh sits down and weeps,
His tears running down over his face.
He took the hand of Urshanabi, the boatman:
'For whom, Urshanabi, have my hands toiled?
For whom is being spent the blood of any heart?
I have not obtained a boon for myself.
For the earth-lion ⁹ have I effected a boon!
And now the tide will bear (it) twenty leagues away!
When I opened the water-pipe and spilled the gear,
I found that which had been placed as a sign for me:
I shall withdraw,
And leave the boat on the shore!'
After twenty leagues they broke off a morsel,
After thirty (further) leagues they prepared. for the night.
When they arrived in ramparted Uruk,
Gilgamesh says to him, to Urshanabi, the boatman:
'Go up, Urshanabi, walk on the ramparts of Uruk.
Inspect the base terrace, examine its brickwork,
If its brickwork is not of burnt brick,
And if the Seven Wise Ones laid not its foundation.
Onc "sar ¹⁰ is city, one sar orchards,
One sar margin land; (further) the precinct of the Temple of Ishtar.
Three sar and the precinct comprise Uruk.'

Notes
1 The Babylonian hero of the Flood, in Sumerian his name is Ziusudra.
2 The moon-god.
3 Apparently from east to west.
4 The divine barmaid.
5 Apparently stone figures of unusual properties.
6 Meaning not dear. Perhaps some magic symbols possessing properties on par with those of the Stone Things.
7 To the Stone Things.
8 By asserting that he had not slept at all.
9 An allusion to the serpent?
10 One sar is about 8,000 gallons.

#181 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": EMPEDOCLES

ON THE TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL

('Fragments' 115, 117, 118)

There is an oracle of Necessity, ancient decree of the gods, eternal and sealed with broad oaths: whenever one of those demi-gods, whose lot is long-lasting life, has sinfully defiled his dear limbs ' with bloodshed, or following strife has sworn a false oath, thrice ten thousand seasons does he wander far from the blessed, being born throughout that time in the forms of all manner of mortal things and changing one baleful path of life for another. The might of the air pursues him into the sea, the sea spews him forth on to the dry land, the earth casts him into the rays of the burning sun, and the sun into the eddies of air. one takes him from the other, but all alike abhor him. Of these I too am now one, a fugitive from the gods and a wanderer, who put my trust in raving strife. (Frag. II 5)
I wept and wailed when I saw the unfamiliar place. (Frag. 118)
For already have I once been a boy and a girl, a fish and a bird and a dumb sea fish. (Frag. 117)

#182 Mircea Eliade "From Primitives to Zen": PLATO ON TRANSMIGRATION

THE MYTH OF ER

('Republic,'X, 614 b)

It is not, let me tell you, said I, the tale to Alcinous told that I shall unfold, but the tale of a warrior bold, Er, the son of Armenius, by race a Pamphylian. He once upon a time was slain in battle, and when the corpses were taken up on the tenth day already decayed, was found intact, and having been brought home, at the moment of his funeral, on the twelfth day as he lay upon the pyre, revived, and after coming to life related what, he said, he had seen in the world beyond. He said that when his soul went forth from his body he journeyed with a great company and that they came to a mysterious region where there were two openings side by side in the earth, and above and over against them in the heaven two others, and that judges were sitting between these, and that after every judgement they bade the righteous journey to the right and upward through the heaven with tokens attached to them in front of the judgement passed upon them, and the unjust to take the road to the left and downward, they too wearing behind signs of all that had befallen them, and that when he himself drew near they told him that he must be the messenger to mankind to tell them of that other world, and they charged him to give ear and to observe everything in the place. And so he said that here he saw, by each opening of heaven and earth, the souls departing after judgement had been passed upon them, while, by the other pair of openings, there came up from the one in the earth souls full of squalor and dust, and from the second there came down from heaven a second procession of souls dean and pure, and that those which arrived from time to time appeared to have come as it were from a long journey and gladly departed to the meadow and encamped there as at a festival, and acquaintances greeted one another, and those which came from the earth questioned the others about conditions up yonder, and those from heaven asked how it fared with those others. And they told their stories to one another, the one lamenting and wailing as they recalled how many and how dreadful things they had suffered and seen in their journey beneath the earth-it lasted a thousand years-while those from heaven related their delights and visions of a beauty beyond words. To tell it all, Glaucon, would take all our time, but the sum, he said, was this. For all the wrongs they had ever done to anyone and all whom they had severally wronged they had paid the penalty in turn tenfold each, and the measure of this was by periods of a hundred years each, so that oil the assumption that this was the length of human life the punishment might be ten times the crime-as for example that if anyone had been the cause of many deaths or had betrayed cities and armies and reduced them to slavery, or had been participant in any other iniquity, they might receive in requital pains tenfold for each of these wrongs, and again if any had done deeds of kindness and had been just and holy men they might receive their due reward in the same measure. And other things not worthy of record he said of those who had just been born and lived but a short time, and he had still greater requitals to tell of piety and impiety towards the gods and parents and of self-slaughter.

Andrew O'Donnell's Mythology and Experience

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

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