Mythology

rituals whose scene was the Nile. Nor must it be forgotten that all this Osiris-Nile mythology and ritual was inseparably connected with the functions of kingship in Egypt. Here our survey of Egyptian mythology must cease. What has been presented here is only a selection from the vast and intricate mass of Egyptian mythology. 1. Moret, A., The Nile and Egyptian Civilization, p. 26. 2. Erman (trans.), Pyramid Texts, pp. 575 ff. 3. Frankfort, H., Kingship and the Gods, frontispiece. 4. Ibid., pp. 102-3. 5. Pritchard, J. B., The Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, p. 5. 6. Pritchard, J. B., The Ancient Near East in Pictures relating to the Old Testament, p. 569. 7. Pritchard, J. B., The Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, p. 7. 8. Frankfort, H., op. cit., p. 24. 9. Pritchard, J. B., op. cit., p. 8. 10. Plutarch, De Iside, p. 59. ———————————– Ugaritic Mythology Chapter 3 From the mythologies of the two great civilizations of Babylon and Egypt, we turn now to the intermediate region of Canaan, inhabited entirely by Semitic-speaking peoples. Until the first quarter of the present century very little was known about the mythology of Canaan except fragments of tradition preserved in the writings of late Greek historiographers, such as Philo of Byblos. But the discovery of the now well-known Ras Shamra Tablets in 1928, on the site of the ancient north Syrian city of Ugarit, mentioned in Egyptian, Babylonian, and Hittite records, threw a flood of light on this hitherto unexplored territory. Among the large quantity of tablets discovered at Ras Shamra, or Ugarit, was a group written in a script which appeared to be cuneiform, but which was unfamiliar to the cuneiform experts. The small number of the signs employed suggested that the script might be alphabetic, and it was very soon found that this surmise was correct. The tablets in question proved to be written in an alphabet of twenty-eight letters, and in a language hitherto unknown. This language, now known as Ugaritic, has been shown to belong to the Semitic group, and is closely related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. References in the tablets made it possible to assign them to a date in the fourteenth century. B.C., but there is no doubt that the Canaanite myths and legends which they contain are much earlier in origin. Many of the tablets are broken, and the text is often uncertain, presents many obscurities, and needs to be used with caution. Nevertheless, the main outlines of the myths are sufficiently established for it to be possible to give a reliable account of them. The Canaanite myths and legends contained in these tablets fall into three groups. The largest group is concerned with the adventures and exploits of the god Baal and his relations with the other members of the Canaanite pantheon. It may be remarked that the names of many of these gods and goddesses are familiar to us from the Old Testament, and fragments of Ugaritic mythology have been traced in Hebrew poetry.

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The text in which this myth is preserved seems to have been used as a magical incantation to protect the body of a dead king. It may also have an aetiological element as an explanation of the origin of barley beer. The Slaying of Apophis Many magical texts contain references to the overthrow or slaying of the serpent Apophis, the enemy of Re. In one text Seth is the agent of the victory, much as Marduk is the agent of the gods in the conquest of the dragon Tiamat in the Akkadian myth. In another the gods to whom Re has given birth employ their magical powers to destroy Apophis. A passage from one of the magical papyri describes this activity of the gods, ‘When (these gods) rich in magic spoke, it was the (very) spirit (ka) of magic, for they were ordered to annihilate my enemies by the effective charms of their speech, and I sent out those who came into being from my body to overthrow that evil enemy (i.e., Apophis)’. [7] Then follows a detailed description of the completeness of the destruction. Another text containing a curse against the enemies of the Pharaoh says, ‘They [i.e., the king’s enemies] shall be like the snake Apophis on New Year’s morning.’ [8] Here the snake symbolizes the darkness which the sun defeats every morning as he begins his journey in his heavenly barque through the heavens, and especially on New Year’s morning. We have here an interesting parallel with the victory of Marduk over the dragon Tiamat at the Babylonian New Year Festival. The Secret Name of Re Another interesting solar myth concerns the, magical potency of the name of a god. According to this myth, Isis set her heart upon learning the secret name of Re in order that she might use it in her magic spells. To this end she created a snake and placed it in the path by which Re would come forth from his palace. When Re came out the snake bit him, and Re was seized by burning pains. He summoned the assembly of the gods who came in mourning, and among them was Isis with her magic skills. Re told them what had happened to him, and begged Isis to relieve him. Isis said that in order to make her spell efficacious she must know his name. Re told her that he was Khepri in the morning, Re at midday, and Atum in the evening, but Isis’ said that none of these was his secret name of power, and his pains remained unrelieved. Finally he revealed his secret name on condition that it was made known to no god but Horus. Then Isis, using Re’s name of power, uttered the spell which removed the effects of the snake’s poison. The text ends with directions for the use of the spell to cure snake-bite. The Egyptian myths connected with Re are too numerous to describe in full detail, but one more curious myth may be cited here. Thoth as the Deputy of Re According to this myth, Re orders Thoth to be summoned before him. When he appears Re tells him that he is to be Re’s deputy and give light in the underworld, while Re shines in his proper place in the heavens. Re says,

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‘Behold you, I am here in the sky in my proper place. Inasmuch as I shall act so that the light may shine in the Underworld and the Island of Baba, you shall be scribe there and keep in order those who are in them, those who may perform deeds of rebellion against me, the followers of this dissatisfied being [possibly a reference to Apophis]. You shall be in my place, a Place-taker. So you shall be called Thoth, the place-taker of Re: [9] This is an aetiological myth intended to explain why the moon gives light at night. The darkness is the abode of the enemies of Re and of the underworld demons. In the myth Thoth is constituted a moon god as the deputy of Re. In the pre-dynastic period Thoth was the god of the ibis nome, and the same myth goes on to explain, by the kind of pun to which the Egyptians were much addicted, how the ibis came to be the symbol of Thoth. Nilotic Myths The Nile naturally occupies a large place in the mythology of Egypt. We have already seen that the tendency of Egyptian thought was both conservative and comprehensive. The Egyptians never discarded anything, but blended earlier and rival systems into a synthesis, as we have seen taking place with the Osirian and Re mythology. Hence we find the myths which are connected with the Nile closely bound up with the mortuary rituals and myths of the Osiris cult, as well as with the cult of Re. The river was worshipped as a god under .the name of Hapi. There is a famous statue of the Nile-god in the Vatican Museum which represents the god reclining, holding ears of corn and a cornucopia, and surrounded by sixteen children, each a cubit high. This symbolizes the fact that if the Nile flood fell below sixteen cubits there would be famine. On a tomb at Abydos we have a representation of the two Niles bringing papyrus, lotus, and various kinds of food and drink. The myth of the two Niles is contained in Akh-en-Aton’s famous hymn to the Aton, or Sun-disc. In this it is proclaimed that Aton creates a Nile in the underworld and brings it forth to sustain the people of Egypt. He also creates a heavenly Nile to give water for the foreign peoples. But the most important and significant aspect of Nilotic mythology is that associated with the Osiris myth. In a hymn to Osiris Rameses IV says, ‘You are the Nile, gods and men live from your outflow.’ We have seen that one of the elements in the Osiris myth was the drowning of Osiris and his finding by Isis. Plutarch relates that in the month of Athyr the priests went down to the river by night and filled a golden vessel with sweet water. As they did so the attendant people cried, ‘Osiris is found.’ [10] Both the drowning and the finding of Osiris in the Nile play an important part in the seasonal rituals of Egypt. The turning points in the annual rising and falling of the Nile were mythologized as the drowning or death of Osiris, his finding by Isis, and his resurrection through the magical arts of Isis and Nephthys, and each detail of the myth was enacted in

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Another form of the myth arose from the desire of Memphis to vindicate its importance as the new capital of the first dynasties of Egypt. Ptah was the local god of Memphis, ‘, and the Memphite Theology, as the document which contains this form of the myth is usually called, transformed the Heliopolitan Ennead by giving the primacy in the activity of creation to Ptah. In that part of this remarkable text which concerns creation, Ptah is equated with Nun, the primeval ocean, and is presented as bringing Atum and all the gods of the Heliopolitan Ennead into existence by his divine word. What might be called the creed of the Memphite Theology is briefly summarized in the following passage of the text: Ptah who is upon the Great Throne, Ptah-Nun, the father who begot Atum; Ptah-Naunet, the mother who bore Atum; Ptah the Great, that is, the heart and tongue of the Ennead (Ptah) who gave birth to the gods [5] In the Egyptian concrete way of thinking, the heart and the tongue represent thought and speech, the attributes of the creator, and are deified as Horus and Thoth. By his thought and speech Ptah brings the gods into existence, brings order out of chaos; like Marduk he fixes the destinies, provides food for mankind, divides Egypt into provinces and cities, and assigns their places to the various local gods. This description of Ptah’s creative activities closes with the words, ‘And so Ptah rested (or, was satisfied), after he had made everything’, a phrase which cannot fail to suggest a comparison with the closing words of the Priestly account of creation in Genesis i. The identification of Ptah with Atum-Re constitutes the link between the Heliopolitan myth of Re as creator and the Memphite Theology which takes the myth as the basis for cosmological speculation of great subtlety. It is interesting to note that the creation of man occupies no special place in Egyptian mythology. We have representations of Khnum fashioning mankind on the potter’s wheel, [6] and there are various references in Egyptian texts to this special creative activity of the god Khnum, but the line between man and the gods is not so sharply drawn as it is in Semitic religion, hence the comparatively slight emphasis in Egyptian mythology on the creation of man. The Old Age of Re While the flooding of the Nile could at times be excessive, there was nothing in Egyptian experience which corresponded to the destructive floods of the Tigris and Euphrates. Hence there is no Egyptian myth of the destruction of mankind by a flood. But we have a myth of a destruction of mankind connected with Re. According to this myth Re grew old and felt that his authority over gods and men was failing. He summoned an assembly of the gods and told them that men were plotting against him. He asked the advice of Nun, the eldest of the gods, and Nun advised that the Eye of Re, in the form of the goddess Hathor, should be sent against mankind. Hathor began the slaughter, and waded in blood. But, apparently, Re did not desire the complete destruction of mankind; so he devised a plan for the making of seven thousand jars of barley beer, dyed with red ochre to resemble blood. This was poured out on the fields to a depth of nine inches. When the Goddess saw this flood shining in the dawn, reflecting her own face in its beauty, she was allured and drank and became drunk, and forgot her rage against mankind. So mankind was saved from complete destruction.

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Various passages in the Pyramid Texts describe the prolonged struggle between Horus and his followers and Seth and his followers. In the fight between Horus and Seth, Horus lost one of his eyes, an astral element in the myth, representing the period of the moon’s disappearance. The following passage describes the triumph of Horus over Seth: O Osiris, Horus is come, and embraces you. He caused Thoth to turn back from you those of the followers of Seth, and he brought them to thee in bonds. He made the heart of Seth to fail, for you are greater than he, you were born before him, your virtue surpasses his. Geb saw your merits and set you in your place. Horus caused the gods to join you, and to be brotherly with you. He caused the gods to avenge you. Then Geb set his sandal upon the head of your enemy, who retreats far from you. Your son Horus struck him, he saved his eye from his hand, and gave it to you; your soul is within, your power is within. Horus has caused you to grip your enemies, so that they cannot escape from you. Horus has gripped Seth, and placed him beneath you, that he may bear you and tremble under you. O Osiris, Horus has avenged you. [2] Other passages from the same source describe the vindication of Osiris before the tribunal of the gods, presided over by Geb, and the proclamation of the legitimacy of Horus, to whom the kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt is assigned by the decree of the gods. This is, in outline, the Osiris-Horus myth. It is nowhere brought together in a single literary form, like the Akkadian Creation Epic, but has to be pieced together from various sources. In addition to the astral element mentioned above, the myth reflects the prolonged struggle between Upper and Lower Egypt for predominance, ending in the unification of the two regions into one kingdom. The original duality was preserved in many ways in the constitution of Egypt, and was symbolized by the fact that the Pharaoh wore the united crowns, the white and the red, of Upper and Lower Egypt on ceremonial occasions. An aetiological element is to be noted in the explanation of the institution of the royal brother-sister marriage which remained customary in Egypt down to Ptolemaic times and the end of the monarchy. It must also be noted that many features of the myth were represented in ritual. The resurrection of Osiris was enacted in ritual by the ceremony of the raising of the djed-tree, representing the sycamore tree of the myth. Also, in the month Athyr, the women made clay images of Osiris and cast them into the Nile, representing the drowning of Osiris in the myth.

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The Myths Of Re, The Sun-God In Egypt the cult of the sun-god occupied a far more important place than it did in the ritual and mythology of Sumer and Akkad. Shamash was the guardian of justice, but he was never one of the great triad of gods, nor was he associated with myths of creation. But in Egypt Re, according to tradition, was the first king of Egypt, and as Atum he was the creator of the world. As its name indicates, the city of Heliopolis was the chief centre of the cult of Re, and it was probably there that the fusion of the cult of Osiris with that of the sun-god took place during the Old Kingdom period. From that point in the history of Egypt the cartouches, which were the traditional form in which the ceremonial titles of the Pharaohs were inscribed, contained a throne name indicating that the king was the son of Re. The Horus-falcon that is to be seen protecting the head of the Pharaoh Khafre on his statue, [3] shows the identification of Horus with Re, and the association of the kingship with Re. We also find that the Osiris- Horus mythology, fused with the cult of Re, determines the order of the accession and coronation of the Pharaoh. The death of Tuthmosis III and the accession of Amenhotep II are thus described: King Tuthmosis III went up to heaven, He was united with the sun disc; The body of the god joined him who had made him. When the next morning dawned The sun disc shone forth, The sky became bright, King Amenhotep II was installed on the throne of his father. [4] We have already seen that the dead king became Osiris, and the text just quoted shows that he also became united with Re. It is clear that the mythology of Re and of Osiris have become completely blended. There are, however, some elements of the solar mythology which remain distinct from the Osiris myth. Creation Myths Owing to that fluidity of Egyptian religion of which we have already spoken, the creation myth assumes many forms. Underneath them all lies the basic experience of the sun’s action upon the slime left by the receding waters of the Nile flood. While there is an Egyptian myth of the slaying of a dragon, to which we shall refer later, this is not connected with creation, as it is in the Akkadian Epic of Creation. The earliest form of the myth, modified later by the theologies of Heliopolis and Memphis, presents the sun-god, Atum-Re, seated upon the primeval hillock, and bringing into existence ‘the gods who are in his following’. But Atum himself is depicted as rising out of Nun, the primeval ocean. In the form of the myth which belonged to Hermopolis, in Middle Egypt, the emergence of Atum was due to the activity of the Ogdoad. These were conceived of as animal forms, four snakes and four frogs, representing primeval chaos. Their names were Nun and his consort Naunet, Kuk and Kauket, Huh and Hauhet, and, lastly, Amon and Amaunet. Atum, emerging from the waters, brings these elements of chaos into order, so that they appear in the texts as gods functioning in their proper places. An early form of the myth, according to the Pyramid Texts, represents Atum as fertilizing himself and producing Shu and Tefnut, air and moisture; from the union of this pair came Geb and Nut, the earth-god and the sky-goddess; here the Heliopolitan theology introduced the figures of the Osirian group, and made Geb and Nut give birth to Osiris and Isis, side by side with Seth and Nephthys, thus completing the Heliopolitan Ennead.

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———————————– Egyptian Mythology Chapter 2 While there are certain underlying resemblances between the mythology of Egypt and that of Sumer and Akkad, the differences are more striking and important. There is a superficial resemblance between the physical conditions under which the two civilizations developed their mythology. Both countries lay in river valleys, and the way of life of each was largely dominated by the character of its river. The proximity of extensive deserts has also left its stamp upon the mythology of both countries. But the configuration and the behaviour of the great river of Egypt are totally unlike those of the Tigris-Euphrates river system. The course of the Nile divides Egypt into two regions, the Valley and the Delta. From the first cataract down to Memphis, the present Cairo, the Nile runs for 500 miles between the steep walls of the great rift in the Libyan plateau, watering a narrow strip of alluvial soil, ranging from six to twelve miles in width. North of Memphis the scene changes abruptly. The cliffs diverge, and the Valley spreads like a great fan, sixty miles long with an arc of 400 miles in length, through which the Nile discharges itself into the Mediterranean by innumerable arms. The French scholar, Moret, has said, ‘So nature has created a Mediterranean Egypt and an African Egypt. The difference between these “Two Lands”, as the Egyptians called them, are great enough to make a marked impression on the mythological and human history of the country.’ [1] When we come to describe the mythology of Egypt we shall find how profoundly this division between Upper and Lower Egypt and the forces which brought about the union of the ‘Two Lands’ into one united monarchy have left their mark on almost every aspect of Egyptian belief and practice. The vital necessity of a central control over the distribution of the flood waters of the Nile brought a united kingdom into existence in Egypt long before the city states of Sumer and Akkad had been forced into some kind of unity under the first Amorite dynasty. Hence kingship assumed a very different form in Egypt from that which it acquired in the city states of Sumer and Akkad. The Sumerians believed that ‘kingship was sent down from heaven’, as we have seen in the myth of Etana. The Sumerian, and later the Babylonian and Assyrian, kings declared themselves to be chosen and appointed by the gods. They acted as representatives of the gods in the rituals, and in some cases were deified after death. But in Egypt the king did not represent the god, he was the god. While he lived he was Horus, and when dead he was Osiris, lord of the dead. Hence a great deal of Egyptian myth is concerned with kingship and the Osiris-Horus cycle. Closely connected with the Osiris cult and its mythology was the Egyptian preoccupation with death and the after-life leading to the unique development of mummification and its attendant myth and ritual. Side by side with the cult of Osiris, and possibly more ancient in origin, was the cult of Re the sun-god, round whom another cycle of myths collected. In the course of time, the two cults became closely interwoven, bringing about a fusion of the Osirian myths with those of the sun-god. The third central element in Egyptian religion was the Nile whose influence on every aspect of Egyptian life was all-pervading. The river of Egypt was worshipped as a god and had a place in Egyptian ritual and mythology to which the rivers of Sumer and Akkad can offer no

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parallel. The extreme fluidity of the Egyptian religion, and the confusing way in which the myths and attributes of the various gods merge into one another, make it hard to give a clear pattern of Egyptian mythology. Hence, in order that our account may present some kind of order we shall group the myths of Egypt under the three heads mentioned above, those connected with Osiris, with Re, and with the Nile. The Osirian Myths Three main themes underlie the complicated system of rituals and myths which have the figure of Osiris as their centre. First, there is a political element. The myth of the conflict between Osiris and his brother Seth reflects the course of the struggle which ultimately made Upper and Lower Egypt a united monarchy. Secondly, there is the agricultural element. Osiris is a vegetation god. Like Tammuz he is a dying and rising god who dies with the dying vegetation and returns to life with its rebirth. Thirdly, there is the eschatological element. Osiris is Khent-Amenti, Lord of the underworld. He presides over the tribunal which decides the fate of the departed souls, and in this aspect he is inseparably connected with the complicated ritual of mummification. The outline of the myth of Osiris is contained in Plutarch’s treatise De Iside, and it is generally agreed that Plutarch’s account is drawn from early Egyptian sources such as the Pyramid Texts. According to this account Osiris was a culture hero who taught the ancient Egyptians the arts of agriculture and metal-working. In the myth, Osiris was the son of Geb, the earth- god, and his sister and wife was the goddess Isis, who ruled over Egypt with him and assisted him in his beneficent activities. In the twenty-eighth year of his reign Osiris was slain by his brother Typhon, Plutarch’s name for the god Seth. At a feast Seth, with seventy-two fellow conspirators, induced Osiris, for a jest, to allow himself to be shut up in a chest which was then thrown into the Nile. The chest floated down the river through the Tanitic mouth into the Mediterranean, and was carried to Byblos. It is with reference to this element in the myth that Osiris is called ‘the drowned one’ in the Pyramid Texts. Isis, seeking her husband in grief, found the chest at Byblos, and brought back the body in a coffin to Buto. According to the myth as Plutarch relates it, when the chest containing the body of Osiris landed at Byblos, a sycamore tree grew up round the chest and enclosed it. The king of Byblos, admiring the size and beauty of the tree, ordered it to be cut down and made into a pillar for his palace. Isis found and recognized what the pillar contained, and begged it from the king of Byblos. The myth goes on to tell how Seth, hunting by moonlight, found the coffin containing the body of Osiris, and cut the corpse into pieces and scattered them throughout the land of Egypt. Once more Isis renewed her search and recovered all the scattered members of her husband, except the membrum virile which had been devoured by the oxyrhynchus fish. She put the limbs together, and, with the assistance of her sister, the goddess Nephthys, performed magic ceremonies over the body and restored it to life. The risen Osiris, however, did not remain on earth, but became the king of the ‘western region’, the place of the departed spirits. The next phase of the myth concerns the avenging of Osiris by his son Horus. According to the myth Isis conceived Horus of the dead Osiris by magical means. The young Horus; who is often represented in Egyptian art as a child seated on a lotus bud, devoted himself to the avenging of his father, and the vindication of his own legitimacy.

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sufferer after the prescribed treatment has been applied. The translation here given is Speiser’s in The Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p 100: After Anu had created heaven, Heaven had created the earth, The earth had created the rivers, The rivers had created the canals, The canals had created the marsh, And the marsh had created the worm, The worm went weeping before Shamash, His tears flowing before Ea: ‘What will you give me for my food? What wilt thou give me for my sucking?’ ‘I shall give you the ripe fig,’ And the apricot.’ ‘Of what use are they to me, the ripe fig And the apricot? Lift me up and among the teeth And the gums cause me to dwell! The blood of the tooth will I suck, And of the gum I will gnaw Its roots!’ Fix the pin and seize its foot.* ‘Because you have said this, O worm ! May Ea smite you with the might Of his hand!’ —- [*] This is the instruction given to the dentist. ——————— 1. Pritchard, J. B. (Ed.), The Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, pp. 52 ff. 2. Witzel, M., Tammuz Liturgien and Verwandtes. 3. Kramer, S. N., Sumerian Mythology, p. 61. 4. Pritchard, J. B., op. cit., p. 44. 5. Frankfort, H., The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man, p. 138. 6. Kramer, S. N., op. cit., pp. roe ff. 7. Smith, S., Early History of Assyria, p. 334. 8. Pritchard, J. B., op. cit., p. rob. 9. Ibid., p. 107 10. Ezek. 8:14. 11. Frankfort, H., op. cit., p. 171. 12. Pritchard, J. B., op. cit., p. 88. 13. Ibid., p. 94. 14. Ibid., p. 72. 15. Smith, S., op. cit., p. 35. 16. Pritchard, J. B., op. cit., p. 87. 17. Ibid., p. 90. 18. Franfort, H., Cylinder Seals, pp. 138-9 and Plate XXIVh. 19. Ibid., pp. 132ff’. and Plate XXIIIf.

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also suggests an underlying birth ritual, just as traces of funerary rituals appear in the Gilgamesh Epic. The Myth of Zu This is another of the few myths which have an identifiable pictorial representation on cylinder seals.” The myth also represents another aspect of the theme of life and death which we have already seen so frequently recurring in the Akkadian myths. Zu is shown on the seals as a bird-like figure. Frankfort calls him a bird-man, but he is rather to be regarded as one of the lesser deities, possibly an underworld god, who, like the monstrous offspring of Tiamat, is an enemy of the high gods. His name frequently occurs in ritual texts, and always as in conflict with the great gods. Another theme of this myth, also found in the myth of Etana, is the importance and sacral character of Akkadian kingship. The myth, in the mutilated form in which we have it, begins with the announcement that Zu has stolen the tablets of destiny which are the insignia of kinship. We have already seen in the Epic of Creation that Marduk wrested from Kingu the tablets of destiny and thereby established his supremacy among the gods. Zu is said to have stolen them from Enlil while he was washing, and to have flown away to his mountain. There is dismay in heaven, and the gods deliberate in council as to who shall be entrusted with the task of vanquishing Zu and recovering the tablets. The whole scene closely resembles the similar scene in the Epic of Creation. Various gods are invoked, but decline the task, and finally it appears that Lugalbanda, the father of Gilgamesh, undertook the mission and slew Zu and regained possession of the tablets. In a hymn of Ashurbanipal we find Marduk named as the god ‘who crushed the skull of Zu’. In one of the texts known as ritual commentaries, a footrace is mentioned as forming part of the ritual of the Babylonian New Year Festival, and the race is explained as signifying the conquest of Zu by Ninurta. In the ritual of making the sacred lilissu-drum, translated by Thureau-Dangin in his Rituels accadiens, the slaying of a black bull takes place, and before the bull is slain the priest utters a spell into each ear of the bull. In the incantation whispered into the right ear of the bull, the victim is addressed as: ‘Great Bull that treads the celestial herbage’, while in the other ear he is addressed as ‘Spawn of Zu’. Hence it is clear that this curious myth played an important part in the ritual traditions of Babylon. Before we leave the subject of the Akkadian myths one more short but interesting myth may be added. It may serve as an illustration of the way in which myth material might be taken up and used in apotropaic incantations and exorcisms. The Tammuz myth was widely used in this way, and in the example here given the myth of Creation is used. The Worm and the Toothache The Babylonians believed that the various diseases to which the inhabitants of the delta were subject were due to the attacks of evil spirits, or to the malice of wizards or witches. Hence while such remedies as were known were used in the treatment of bodily ailments, the treatment was always accompanied by the recitation of one or more incantations. The colophon at the end of this incantation says that it should be repeated three times over the

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