Its ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
WITH
CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS BY THE AUTHOR,
AND NOTES BY THE EDITOR
BY FRANCOIS LENORMANT
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Book Details
Price
|
3.00 |
|---|---|
Pages
| 456 p |
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21,278 KB |
File Type
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ISBN
| - |
Copyright©
| 1877 |
THIS book came out in France three years ago.
Since that time science has been making
rapid strides, and in prosecuting my studies I have
found a confirmation of many of my opinions. I
could not therefore allow a translation of my studies
relating to “Chaldean Magic” to appear without
making a new edition of it, subject to various
corrections and additions. To this end I have
carefully revised all the translations of Cuneiform
texts contained in this volume, and in some cases
slight modifications have been necessary to bring
them into harmony with the latest discoveries. I
have added a translation of several interesting
fragments which were not comprised in the French
edition, and entirely rewritten some of the chapters.
The book which I now offer the English public may,
therefore, be regarded as an almost entirely new
work, which alone represents the present state of
my opinions and studies.
EDITOR’S PREFACE
LA MAGIE CHEZ LES CHALDEENS,”
of which this present volume is an enlarged
edition, was issued by M. Lenormant in the autumn
of 1874; it was preceded hy Les Premieres Civilisations^
and closely followed in 1875 by La Divination et la
Science des Presages; all these works possessing the
same characteristic feature : the exposition of Assyrian
thought, as evidenced by the language of the
Cuneiform inscriptions themselves, compared with
the traditions and usages of other ‘contemporary and
descended races, both Semitic and Turanian.
The interest excited in the philosophical world by
these treatises was still further increased, by the
publication in England, almost immediately afterwards,
of the late George Smith’s Chaldean Genesis^
in which for the first time since the era of Assurbanipal,
the myths of the ancient Accadians were
read in the light of day. By the additional texts
thus recovered for the use of students, the premises
of M. Lenormant were to a great extent confirmed;
and the interest of Biblical scholars in Assyrian
mythology showing every sign of increasing, it was
deemed advisable to present the general public with
an English edition of La Magie. This task was at
once undertaken by Messrs. Bagster and Sons, and
on the MSS. being sent to the author, he in the
most generous manner offered to recast the earlier
Chapters of the work, and to rewrite some of the
latter. While this was being done, the researches
of Prof. Sayce and other Assyriologists elucidated
new facts, and discovered fresh parallels between the
Accadian and Ugro-Finnic theologies. These discoveries
had all to be considered and incorporated
with the original text of M. Lenormant, and the
result was, in the end, an almost entire remodelling
of the French edition. To the editor was assigned,
with the consent of the author, the office of .adding
references from English authorities to the citations
already given from Continental writers, especially as
La Magie was, in its new form, designed for a larger
circulation than that of scholars alone. The various
texts issued in the Records of the Past, and the
Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archceology
, had to be cited wherever it was possible to do so ; and
further, such various readings noted as had been
adopted by English translators. These numerous
emendations, while they increased the value of the
>
work, delayed its progress through the press far
longer than was anticipated, and even now, at the
last moment, it has been judged expedient by
M. Lenormant to add an Appendix bearing upon
the ethnographical meaning of the term “Sumirian,”
in reply to a pamphlet by Dr. Oppert, which has
become the centre of a controversy, the waves of
which have begun to reach our shores.
These circumstances will account for one or two
apparent discrepancies in the present translation:
viz., the use of the syllable “ dug” for “ khi,” in the
ideograms composing the name of the god Marduk,
from p. 19 to p. 64, and its subsequent abandonment
by the author in favour of the older reading in
p. 108, et seq. The expansion of the note from
Berosus on p. 157, regarding the deity Oannes into
an Appendix to Chapter XIII. , at p. 201, is another
example of the progressive revision which this
translation has undergone.
These revisions and corrections, both of the
original work and the present translation, as passed
by M. Lenormant, are only such as from the nature
of the theme, and the advancing condition of
Assyrian philology might be expected. Of Assyriology
it may truly be written, “day unto day uttereth
knowledge.” There is probably no section of the
science of comparative mythology of which, till recently,
less has been known, or of which, at present,
more authentic materials remain, than the subject of
“ Chaldean Magic : its Origin and Development.”
W. R. C.
Ventnor,
November, 1877.
Table of Contents
Author’s Preface . .
'
. .
Editor’s Preface ......
Chap. I.—The Magic and Sorcery of the Chaldeans
Chap. II.—The Chaldean Demonology
Chap. III.—Chaldean Amulets and their Uses
Chap. IV.—Chaldean Sorcery and its Dual Nature .
Chap. V.—Comparison of the Egyptian with the Chaldean
Magic ......
Chap. VI.—Contrasts between Egyptian and Chaldean
Magical Systems .....
Chap. VII.—The Magic of the Ritual of the Dead
Chap. VIII.—Contrasts between Accadian and Egyptian
Magic ......
Chap. IX.—The Chaldaio- Babylonian religion and its
doctrines . . . . .
Chap. X.—Development of the Chaldean Mythology
Chap. XI.—The religious System of the Accadian Magic
Books ......
Chap. XII.—The Origin of the Myth of the Zi
Chap. XIII.—The Mythology of the Underworld .
Chap. XIV.—The Religions and the Magic of the Turanian
Nations ......
Chap. XV.—The Early Median Mythology compared with
that of the Chaldeans . . . .
Chap. XVI.—Finno-Tartarian Magical Mythology . . 241
Chap. XVII.—Further Analysis of Finnish Demonology . 253
Chap. XVIII.—The Accadian People and their Language 263
Chap. XIX.—The Accadian Language . . .268
Chap. XX.—Differentiation of the Accadian and its allied
Languages . . . . . .283
Chap. XXL—Altaic affinities of the Accadian Language . 292
Chap. XXII.—Accadian and Altaic affinities . . 299
Chap. XXIII.—Phonology of the Accadian Language . 309
Chap. XXIV.—The origin of the Kushito-Semitic religion . 318
Chap. XXV.—The two Ethnic elements in the Babylonian
nation . . . . • - 33 ^
Chap. XXVL—The Origin of the Chaldaio-Babylonian
Cosmogonies . . . . • 33^
Chap. XXVII.—The Priority of the Accadian Population
of Chaldea ..... 350
Chap. XXVIII.—The Sumirian Influence in Chaldean and
Babylonian Civilization . . . • 35 ^
Chap. XXIX.—The Influence of the Kushite Mythology in
Chaldean Faith . . . . . 367
Chap. XXX.—The Turanians in Chaldea and Ancient Asia 371
Chap. XXXI.—The Archaic Legislation of the Accadians . 378
Appendix.
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ERRATA
Page 83, line 2 of note. For Osiris Baris read Osiris Baris.
Page 103, line 14. For Schu read Shu.
Page 133, line 6. For Chaldaic Babylonian read Chaldaio-Babylonian.
Page 134, line 24.
Page 172, line 20. For Silik-mulu-dug read Silik-mulu-khi.
Page 244, line 2 of note. For Asyekoks read Angekoks.