FRAGMENTS OF MISCELLANEOUS TEXTS.  
Atarpi.—Punishment of world.—Riddle of wise man.—Nature and universal presence of air.—Sinuri.—Divining by fracture of reed.—The foundling.—Tower of Babel.—Obscurity of legend.—Not noticed by Berosus.—Fragmentary tablet.—Destruction of Tower.—Dispersion.—Site of the Tower.—Meaning of Babel.—Chedor-laomer.—The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
 
 
 NUMBER of stories of a similar character to those of Genesis, though not directly connected with the latter, have been included in this chapter, together with two fragments which probably relate, the one to the Tower of Babel, the other to the destruction of the cities of the Plain. The first and principal text is the story of Atarpi, or Atarpi nisu, “Atarpi the man.” This story is on a tablet in six columns, and there is only one copy of it. It is terribly mutilated, very little being preserved except Column III., but there are numerous repetitions throughout the text. The inscription has originally been a long one, probably extending to about 400 lines of writing, and the text156 differs from the generality of these inscriptions, being very obscure and difficult. In consequence of this and other reasons, only an outline of most of the story is given here.
 
We are first told of a quarrel between a mother named Zibanit and her daughter, and that the mother shuts the door of the house, and turns her daughter adrift, the words of the original being “the mother to the daughter opens not her door.” The doings of a man named Zamu have some connection with the affair, his “descending into the street on getting” something being mentioned immediately before the expulsion of the daughter; and at the close we are told of Atarpi, sometimes called Atarpi-nisu, or Atarpi the “man” who had his couch beside the river of the north, and was pious to the gods, but took no notice of these things. When the story next opens, we find the god Bel calling together an assembly of the gods his sons, and relating to them that he is angry at the sin of the world, stating also that he will bring down upon it disease, tempest, distress, madness, burning and sickness. This is followed by the statement that these things came to pass, and Atarpi then invoked his god Hea to remove these evils. For a whole year, it would seem, he interceded for the people, and at last Hea answered, and announced his resolve to destroy the people. After this the story reads:
 
1. (Hea called) his assembly (by the river) of the north; he said to the gods his sons:
2. ...... I made them 157
3. .... shall not stretch until before he turns.
4. Their famine I observe,
5. their shame the woman takes not;
6. I will look to judge the people?
7. in their stomach let famine dwell,
8. above let Rimmon drink up his rain,
9. let him drink up below, let not the flood be carried in the canals,
10. let it remove from the field its inundations,
11. let the corn-god give over increase, let blackness overspread the corn,
12. let the plowed fields bring forth thorns,
13. let the growth of their fruit perish, let food not come forth from it, let bread not be produced,
14. let distress also be spread over the people,
15. may favour be shut up, and good not be given.
—–———–———–———–
16. He looked also to judge the people,
17. in their stomach dwelt famine,
18. above Rimmon drank up his rain,
19. he drank it up below, the flood was not carried in the canals,
20. it removed from the field its inundations,
21. the corn-god gave over increase, blackness spread over the corn,
22. the plowed fields brought forth thorns, the growth of their fruit perished,
23. food came not forth from it, bread was not produced,
24. distress was spread over the people,
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25. favour was shut up, good was not given.
—–———–———–———–
This will serve to show the style of the tablet. The instrument of punishment was apparently famine from want of rain.
 
Here the story is again lost, and where it recommences Hea is making a speech, directing another person to cut something into portions, and place seven on each side, and then to build brickwork round them. After this comes a single fragment, the connection of which with the former part is obscure.
 
1. Seated was the goddess ....
2. to her face also he gave ....
—–———–———–———–
3. Anu opened his mouth and speaks; he said to (Nusku);
4. Nusku open thy gate; thy weapons (take)
5. in the assembly of the great gods when ....
6. their speech? ....
7. Anu sent m ....
8. your king sent ....
At present no satisfactory story can be made out of the detached fragments of this tablet, but it evidently belongs to the mythical portion of Babylonian history, and it is impossible not to compare the unsuccessful intercession of the righteous man Atarpi with the pleadings of Abraham on behalf of the cities of the plain.
 
The next text is a single fragment, K 2407, be159longing to a curious story of a wise man who puts a riddle to the gods.
 
K 2407.
 
(Many lines lost.)
 
1. The clothing of the god ....
2. What in the house is (fixed) ....
3. What in the secret place is ....
4. what is in the foundation of the house ....
5. what on the floor of the house is fixed, what ...
6. what the lower part ....
7. what by the sides of the house goes down ....
8. what in the ditch of the house broad nigitstsi ....
9. what roars like a bull, what brays like an ass,
10. what flutters like a sail, what bleats like a sheep,
11. what barks like a dog,
12. what growls like a bear,
13. what into the fundament of a man enters, what into the fundament of a woman enters.
14. Then Lugal-girra (Nergal) heard the wise word the son of the people
15. asked, and all the gods he urged (to solve it):
16. Let your solution be produced, that I may bring back your answer.
After this there is a mutilated passage containing the names, titles, and actions of the gods who consider the riddle. It is evident that it is air or wind160 which the wise man means in his riddle, for this is everywhere, and in its sounds imitates the cries of animals.
 
Next we have another single fragment about a person named Sinuri, who uses a divining rod to ascertain the meaning of a dream.
 
1. Sinuri with the cut reed pondered ....
2. with his right hand he broke it, and Sinuri speaks and thus says:
3. Now the plant of Nusku, the shrub? of Samas art thou.
4. Judge, thou judgest (or divinest), divine concerning this dream,
5. which in the evening, at midnight, or in the morning,
6. has come, which thou knowest, but I do not know.
7. If it be good may its good not be lost to me,
8. if it be evil may its evil not happen to me.
There are some more obscure and broken lines, but no indication as to the story to which it belongs.
 
A specimen of early Babylonian folklore may fitly be added here. It is a bilingual fragment which treats of a foundling who was picked up in the streets and finally became a great scholar. Unfortunately both the beginning and the end of the story are wanting.
 
1. He who father and mother had not,
2. who his father (and) his mother knew not,
3. in the gutter (was) his going, in the street (his) entering.
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4. From the mouth of the dogs one took him,
5. from the mouth of the ravens one put him away.
6. In the presence of the soothsayer the .... of his mouth one took.
7. The sole of his feet with the seal the soothsayer has marked.
8. To a nurse he gave him.
9. To his nurse for three years, corn, a cradle (?)
10. (and) clothing he guaranteed.
11. Then and ever he hid from him how he was taken (from the streets).
12. His rearer he rooted out (?).
13. The ..... of the milk of mankind he gave him, and
14. as his own son he made him.
15. As his own son he inscribed him.
16. A knowledge of writing he made him possess.
17. For his education (he cared).
One of the most obscure incidents in the Book of Genesis is undoubtedly the building of the Tower of Babel. So far as we can judge from the fragments of his copyists, there was no reference to it in the work of Berosus, and early writers had to quote from writers of more than doubtful authority in order to confirm it.
 
 
Men engaged in Building Columns; from Babylonian Cylinder.
There is also no representation on any of the Babylonian gems which can with any certainty be described as belonging to this story. Mr. Smith, however, picked out three from a series of these carvings162 which he thought might be distorted representations of the event. In these and some others of the same character, figures have their hands on tall piles, as if erecting them; and there is a god always represented near in much the same attitude. There is no proper163 proportion between the supposed structure and the men, and no stress can consequently be laid on the representations. The Babylonian origin of the story is, however, self-evident. According to Genesis, mankind after the flood travelled from the east, that is from Kharsak-kurra, “the mountain of the East,” now Elwend, where the Accadians believed the ark to have rested, to the plain of Shinar or Sumir. Both Alexander Polyhistor and Abydenus state that the building of the Tower of Babel was known to Babylonian history, Babel, in fact, being the native form of the name which the Greeks changed into Babylon. The legend of Etana given in the last chapter seems to imply that the Tower was supposed to have been built under the superintendence of this mythical hero. However that may be, a fragment of the native story of its construction was discovered by Mr. Smith, and though shockingly mutilated, is sufficient to show what the Babylonians themselves believed on the matter.
 
It is evident from the wording of the fragment that it was preceded by at least one tablet, describing the sin of the people in building the tower. The fragment preserved belongs to a tablet containing from four to six columns of writing, of which portions of four remain. The principal part is the beginning of Column I.
 
Column I.
 
1. .... them the father ....
2. the thought of his heart was evil,
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3. .... he the father of all the gods had repudiated;
4. the thought of his heart was evil,
5. .... of Babylon he hastens to the submission (?),
6. [small] and great he confounded (on) the mound.
7. .... of Babylon he hastens to the submission,
8. [small] and great he confounded (on) the mound.
9. Their walls all the day he founded;
10. for their destruction (punishment) in the night
11. .... he did not leave a remainder.
12. In his anger also (his) secret counsel he pours out:
13. [to] confound (their) speeches he set his face.
14. He gave the command, he made strange their counsel
15. .... the going he inspected it.
16. .... he took (selected) a shrine.
There is a small fragment of Column II., but the connection with Column I. is not apparent.
 
Column II.
 
1. Sar-tuli-elli (the king of the illustrious mound, i.e. Anu) destroys (or punishes).
2. In f............