(Akkadian for Enki) speaks to the “reed wal ” of Atrahasis’
dwelling may also be explained by the frequent Indian
references to the lake of “reeds” in which the golden seed
of Siva is dropped after being infused with his fiery form,
Agni.96 In a Sumerian magical text, Urn.49, the holy reed
is said to rise from the swamps of Engur (Abzu).97 The
“reed” thus is an analogue of the ship of Life itself, since
both contain the seeds of the incipient universe as well as
its light. Thus it is not surprising to find that the boat of
Ziusudra is also made of “reed”.
The fact that this ‘ship of life’ is the same as the one
through which the sun arises into our system is made quite
clear in the Egyptian Book of the Gates. The solar journey is undertaken in a barque which is called the “barque of
the Earth”,98 since Earth is the region from which the sun
is manifest. In both this book and in the Amduat, the solar journey through Earth is undertaken within the coils of
the World Encircler, the gigantic serpent representing
Time.99
In the Heliopolitan myth of the sun too, Seth, though
the murderer of Osiris, the divine Light, helps Horus the
Younger fight the serpent Apop on the barque of Re in
order to ensure Re’s emergence as the solar light.100 The
barque itself represents the material universe, which bears
the light of the universe, Re. Seth overcomes Apop using
96 See
RV X, 51-3; SB 6, 3.1.31; RV X, 32.6.
97 See H. Steible, Die altsumerischen Bau- und Weihinschriften, Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1982 ( FAOS 5) I:110.
98 See E.T. Hornung, Ancient Egyptian Books, p.60.
99 Ibid. In the Enigmatic Book of the Underworld, the ouroboros serpents represent the birth and end of time ( ibid., p.78). In the Nordic Eddas, the Midgard serpent is called the “encircler of Earth” (‘Voluspa’, 60).
100 See H. te Velde, Seth, God of Confusion, Ch.4.
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his characteristic rage (nšn),101 corresponding to the Indic
‘manyu’ and Iranian ‘mainyu’ which are associated with
Shiva/Indra ( RV X,83; AV IV,31,5).
In Mesopotamia, Ninurta, like Shiva’s son, Skanda,
represents the seed of Enlil.102 The reference to Enki’s
‘makurru’ boat in Lugal e (l.107), the sun-barque which
is featured prominently as Ninurta’s own, makes it clear
that Ninurta is a continuation of Enki, the Lord of the
Waters (Varuna/Osiris) . In fact, Enki is said to have
received the “lofty sun-disk” in Eridu (l.121) showing that
as ruler of the underworld he is identical to the “dead”
Osiris who is transformed into Horus the Younger. In the
poem ‘Enki and Inanna’, Enki is depicted embarking on a
“magur” boat, also called “the Ibex of the Abzu”, which is a
symbol of Enki’s shrine itself. It may also be the Sumerian
counterpart of the sun-barque in Egypt. Enki’s voyage, in
the myth, does not take him on a patently solar course
but moves from region to region in “Mesopotamia” and
the surrounding lands since Mesopotamia is considered a
microcosm of the universe.103
The mountain rising from the foothil s is the Mid-
region of the universe, and the seed of the “primordial
hil ”, Ninurta himself, will final y emerge atop it as the
sun of our system. Indeed, in the epic, Ninurta, having
accomplished his great deed, final y assumes his natural
role as the sun by boarding his barque:
101 See H. te Velde, op.cit., p.101.
102 So in the myth “Lugal-e” (see T. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976, p.131).
103 See S.N. Kramer and J. Maier, The Myths of Enki, the Crafty God, Oxford: OUP 1989, p.42ff. The fact that the name of Sumer is itself probably derived from that of the primordial mountain at the centre of Earth, Meru, makes it likely that these geographical regions reflect cosmological ones.
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indo-european mythology and religion
The Hero had crushed the Mountain; when he moved
in the steppes, he appeared
as the [S]un (?),
…
Ninurta went joyously towards the “magur”, his
beloved boat,
The Lord set his foot on the Makarnunta’e (boat).104
In the Babylonian epic,
Atrahasis, Enki particularly
advises Atrahasis to “roof [the ark] over like the Apsu/ So
that the sun shall not see inside it”, which indicates that
the vehicle which contains the seed of all animals is, like
the Abyss, completely dark.
The fact that the ship of life represents the entire
universe is suggested also by the similar detail in the
Ugaritic texts relating to Baal and the construction of his
“palace” by his craftsman Kothar-and-Hasis. There Baal
specifical y objects to the inclusion of any windows in
his “palace”, since Mot (who represents Mortality) would
enter through such an aperture. Unfortunately for Baal,
Kothar-and-Hasis disobeys him and thus allows Mot to
enter in, whereupon Baal is killed and thereby rendered
subject to his rule. It is only after Baal’s consort, Anath’s
destruction of Mot that Baal is resurrected (no doubt as
the sun), in a manner resembling Osiris’ resurrection as
Horus the Younger.
If we turn to the Iranian Vendidad, we find that Yima
the son of Vivanghvant (the sun)105 is warned by Ahura
104 J. Van Dijk, Lugal ud me-lam-bi Nir-gal, Leiden: E.J. Bril , 1983, p.137 (my translation of van Dijk’s French).
105 In Iranian mythology the twins Yama and Yima represent death 50
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Mazda of a “snow storm” which will turn into a flood on
melting.106 In the Avesta, as in the Purānas, Yima (Manu)
is mentioned in connection with the seventh incarnation
of Verethraghna (Vishnu). In order to escape the
cataclysm, Yima is asked to construct a “vara” [ark] which
will bear the best examples of men, animals, and plants,
and especial y the “cows” which are on the mountains as
well as in the valleys in “closed stal s”.107 Special reference
is made to the fact that the “window which lets in the
sunlight” be closed. That the Iranian version closely
follows the Babylonian in this detail (which is perhaps
found also in the original Sumerian though lost in its
present fragmentary state), while at the same time leaving
out the crucial reference to the Abyss, suggests that the
Āryan flood stories, as well as the Mesopotamian, are
based on an older proto-Dravidian/Hurrian original.
At the end of the Iranian Vendidad account of the
deluge, Ahura Mazda explains that “the lights which shone
in the vara” were “natural and human lights. All eternal
lights shine from above, all human lights shine below in
the inside (of the vara). Along with them, one sees the
stars, moon, and sun shining in space”. It is clear that the
“human lights” are souls and that the vara, or the Ship of
Life contains the light of the manifest universe,
including
the stars of the Mid-region.
and life. Yima is called the first king and the founder of civilisation and his fabulous dwelling is in Airyanem Vaego, corresponding
mythological y to the Indian Yamasadanam (in the lower Heavens) and etymological y to Āryāvarta, the name applied to the Indo-Gangetic Plain settled by the later Indo-Āryans.
106 The “snow storm” is a reference to the icy state of the incipient universe that prevents the manifestation of the solar energy.
107 See H. Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen, p.208ff.
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indo-european mythology and religion
The Seven Sages
In the Mahābhārata version of the Flood, Manu is said
to be accompanied in his boat by “seven sages”, and it is
worth studying their significance for an understanding of
the exalted spirituality of the first enlightened humanity.
Each of the Manu’s in a kalpa is accompanied by seven
sages ( GP I,87) and these sages appear in order to
consolidate the transition between cosmic ages with their
special knowledge and powers.
The seven sages that accompanied the first Manu
Svāyambhuva were called Marichi, Atri, Angira, Pulastya,
Pulaha, Kratu and Vasishta.108 In Brahmānda Purāna I
and Bhāgavata Purāna VI, these sages are considered to
be the “intellectual progeny” of Brahma who antedate
the Ādityas, the twelve suns of the manifest universe. In
the BrdP III,iv,2,29, the sages of the family of Angiras are said to be located in the Bhuvarloka, which is the Mid-region between Earth and Heaven. At BrdP III,iv,2,49ff.,
however, all the sages including Angiras are said to
original y reside in Janarloka, the fifth world, which holds
the seeds of mankind.
108 In
BrdP II,iii,1,7f. there are seven sages, whose names are given at II,iii,1,50 as Bhrgu, Angiras, Marīci, Atri, Pulastya, Pulaha, and Vasishta. In Manusmriti III,195ff. too there are seven, though Viraj takes the place of Pulaha. In BrdP II,iii,1,21, however, there are eight sages, Bhrgu, Angiras, Marīci, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Atri and Vasishta.
In the BrdP I,i,5,70 there are nine sages, Bhrgu, Angiras, Marīci, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Daksha, Atri, and Vasishta. In BrdP I,ii,32,96-7 Manu is included after Kratu to make a total of ten sages. However, given the relative frequency of seven as the number of the sages in the Purānas, the Mahābhārata, in Sumerian literature, as well as in Indian astronomy, we may assume that this was the original number, which was later amplified by the addition of such figures as Manu himself as a sage.
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The seven sages that accompany the Manu of the
present seventh manvantara, Manu Vaivasvata, are, in
BrdP I,ii,38,26-33, called Vishvāmitra [who was original y a Kshatriya and not a Brāhman], Jamadagni [who is a
descendant of Bhrgu], Bharadvāja [who is a descendant of
Angiras], Saradvan, Atri, Vasuman, and Vatsara.109
The seven sages are found also in the Sumerian
accounts of the flood. In the tablet W 20030,110 we find
that each of the antediluvian kings (or, rather, gods) is
accompanied by an extraordinary being called “apkal u”
and, since this tablet lists only seven such kings, there
are seven “apkal u” in al .111 The apkal u are the sages who
arise from the Abyss to reveal science, art, and civilisation
to mankind. The names of these apkal u are u-an, u-an-
du-ga, en-me-du-ga, en-me-galam-ma, en-me-bulug-
ga, an-en-lil-da and u-tu-abzu,112 and their respective
appearances are in the reigns of “a-a-lu”, “a-la-al-gar lugal”,
“am-me-gal-an-na lugal”, “e[n-m]e-usumgal-an-na lugal”,
“dumu-zi sipa lugal”, and “en-me-dur-an-ki lugal”.113 From
109 In the Baudhāyana Shrauta Sūtra, there are eight such sages, and they are Vishvāmitra, Jamadagni, Bharadvaja, Gautama, Atri, Vasishta, Kashyapa and Agastya. Agastya is obviously a later addition as the sage who transmitted Vedic learning to the “Tamils”, i.e. proto-Tamils/
Sumerians.
110 See J. van Dijk, “Die Inschriftenfunde: II. Die Tontafeln aus dem res-Heiligtum” in XVIII. vorläufiger Bericht über die von dem Deutschen Archaeologischen Institut und der Deutschen Orient-Gesel schaft aus Mitteln der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft unternommenen Ausgrabungen in Uruk-Warka (1959/1960), Berlin: Heinrich J. Lenzen, 1962, pp.44ff.
111 These apkal u are complemented in the postdiluvian section
of this list by the “ummannu”, or the scholars who aided the several postdiluvian kings in their respective reigns.
112 See J. van Dijk, op.cit., p.44.
113 Ibid. In WB 1923, 444, the names are “a-lu-lim” and “a-lal-gar”
reigning in Eridu, “en-me-en-lu-an-na”, “en-me-en-gal-an-na” and
“dumu-zi sipa” in Bad-tibira, “sipa-zi-an-na” in Larak, and “en-me-en-53
indo-european mythology and religion
WB 1923,444 and W 20030,7, it is apparent that these kings
ruled in Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, and Zimbir respectively,
which establishes that the “apkal u” appeared during the
development of the solar force in the underworld. The
first of these apkal u, U-An (identifiable with Adapa),114
is characterised in Berossus’ list by a piscine form which
may correspond to the Matsya incarnation of the supreme
Lord, though the piscine Matsya incarnation of the
supreme Lord in the Indian Purānas appears later, during
the flood, with the seventh Manu, of the Treta Yuga.
In Egypt too it is most probable that there was a
tradition of seven sages who preceded the establishment
of monarchy after the “deluge”. The Palermo Stone, for
instance, contains the names of nine kings of Lower Egypt,
while the Cairo fragment which may have formed part of
the former contains a list of “kings” who clearly precede
the kings of the Palermo dynastic list.115 Of these kings
seven bear the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.116
Since these “kings” precede Menes (who represents Manu
himself), we may reasonably conclude that these “kings”
are indeed the same as the seven sages who ruled heaven
and earth, which are represented in this list as Upper and
Lower Egypt.
dur-an-na” in Zimbir. In W 20030,7 the names are given as “a-a-lu”,
“a-la-al-gar”, “am-me-lu-an-na”, “am-me-gal-an-na”, “enme-usumgal-an-na”, “dumu-zi sipa” and “en-me-dur-an-ki” respectively ( ibid., p.46).
114 Ibid. , p.48.
115 Breasted thought that the Cairo fragments must also have original y contained a set of kings of Upper Egypt who followed those of Lower Egypt (see S. Mercer, Horus Royal God of Egypt, Grafton, MA: Society of Oriental Research, 1942).
116 See S. Mercer, op.cit, p.16. The set of seven “kings” of a united Upper and Lower Egypt is followed by the kings of Lower Egypt (in the Palermo Stone).
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In the Avesta, the Amesha Spentas, the “well-doing
ones”, correspond to the Seven Sages, though they are
deprived of their mythological form and considered as
abstract mental qualities. In the Bundahishn I,53, after the creation of the primal astral bodies, the Mazdean
creation is said to continue with the production of the
Ameshaspends, the “seven fundamental Beneficent
Immortals”:
of the material creations created in
the spirit the first
are six, He Himself as the seventh; for both spirit first
and then matter are of Ohrmazd. He created forth
Vohuman… then Ardwahisht, then Sahrewar, then
Spendarmad, then Hordad and Amurdad [the seventh
in the order of immortal beings is Ohrmazd himself].
These are derived directly from the Wind, the Lord of
Duration. We may remember the wind god Vāyu in
the Vedic literature who emerges from the nostrils of
the macroanthropos in the form of a boar. The Amesha
Spentas also correspond psychological y to the faculties
of the Ideal Man, Purusha, namely intelligence, intellect,
feeling, thinking, knowing and explication, along with the
soul, represented by Ahura Mazda himself ( Bundahishn,
XXVIII).
In the Hebrew Bible the ante-diluvian patriarchs before
Noah are the counterparts of the Seven Sages and the
Sumerian apkal u and Egyptian antediluvian kings.117 In
Genesis 5, there is a reference to the descendants of Adam,
starting with Seth, and continuing with Enos, Ca-i’nan,
Mahal’aleel, Jared, Enoch, Methu’selah, Lamech and Noah.
Since the brāhmans are, in the the Ethiopian version of
117 See H. Zimmern, “Biblische und babylonische Urgeschichte”, Der Alte Orient, II (1901), pp.26ff.
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indo-european mythology and religion
Pseudo-Callisthenes,118 said to be the sons of Adam’s son,
Seth,119 and Noah was considered a transmitter of the
wisdom of Seth,120 we may assume that the personages
from Enos to Lamech are the Hebrew counterparts of the
seven sages.
Since Adam is indeed the Cosmic Man and not a
human, we may assume that the brāhmans referred to
here are associated with the preservation of the Divine
Consciousness of Brahman which arises from the Cosmic
Egg and is later conveyed to humanity by the seventh
Manu/Noah. As for Seth, Josephus declares that Seth
strove after virtue and, being himself excellent, left
descendants who imitated the same virtues. All of
these, being virtuous, lived in happiness in the same
land without civil strife, with nothing unpleasant
coming upon them until after their death. And they
discovered the science with regard to the heavenly
bodies and their orderly arrangement.121
The brāhmans are also considered in the Indian tradition
Indo-European Mythology and Religion Page 6
