Originalverffentlichung in: S. Ribichini - M. Rocchi - P. Xella (Hg.

), La questione delle influence vicino-orientali

sulla religione greca, Rom, 2001, S. 307-314

Myths about the Netherworld in the Ancient Near East

and their Counterparts in the Greek Religion

WOLFGANG ROLLIG
Altor ientalisches Seminar - Univer sitat Tubingen

T h e t r a n s m i t t a l a n d r e c a s t i n g o f o r i e n t a l m o t i f s i n t o t h e G r e e k l i t er ar y a n d p i c t or i a l
ar t s h a v e r e c e i v e d i n c r e a s e d a t t e n t i o n in r e c e n t d e c a d e s . T o a g r e a t e x t e n t t h i s i n t e r e s t h a s
ar isen f r o m i m p r o v e d r e c o n s t r u c t i o n o f the m y t h s , r eligious tales a n d r ituals o f the A n
cient N e a r East, be they f r o m S u m e r i a n , A k k a d i a n , Hittite or Ugaritic sources. During
the last 3 0 years a great deal o f a n c i e n t oriental m y t h o l o g i c a l material has been gleaned
f r o m c u n e i f o r m s o u r c e s e x c a v a t e d i n v a r i o u s p l a c e s in M e s o p o t a m i a , S y r i a a n d A n a t o l i a
a n d t o d a y i n m u s e u m s o r p r i v a t e c o l l e c t i o n s . A series o f p u b l i c a t i o n s w i t h u p d a t e d or
1
c o m p l e t e l y n e w t r a n s l a t i o n s o f texts c o n s e q u e n t l y h a v e a p p e a r e d in recent years and
t h e y greatly i l l u m i n a t e the religious t h i n k i n g o f the i n h a b i t a n t s o f these c o u n t r i e s from
rd
the 3 m i l l . B . C . u n t i l t h e v e r y e n d o f t h e i r c u l t u r e s . H i s t o r i a n s o f r e l i g i o n in t h e G r e e k
and Roman w o r l d a c c o r d i n g l y t o o k a l i v e l y i n t e r e s t in t h e n e w l y d i s c o v e r e d folk-tales
2
and myths a n d t h e c o m p a r i s o n o f t h e v a r i a n t t e x t s a n d m o t i f s a d v a n c e d t o a s p e c i a l re
search area w i t h i n G r e e k m y t h o l o g y . T h i s n e w a p p r o a c h t o research o n early G r e e k civi
l i z a t i o n has been m a d e p o s s i b l e b y a better u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f the e m e r g e n c e o f this cul
ture. I n s t e a d o f believing this c u l t u r e to be an i n d e p e n d e n t , original c r e a t i o n o f the in
h a b i t a n t s o f t h e G r e e k poleis, it is n o w a c c e p t e d t h a t f o r e i g n i n f l u e n c e s h a v e b e e n a c o n
s t i t u e n t p a r t o f G r e e k c i v i l i z a t i o n s i n c e M i n o a n a n d M y c e n a e a n t i m e !. A v e r y p r o m i n e n t
w i t n e s s o f t h i s w a t e r s h e d in t h e s t u d y o f e a r l y G r e e k p o e t r y a n d m y t h is " T h e E a s t F a c e
o f H e l i c o n " , the n e w l y p u b l i s h e d w o r k pf M . L . W e s t 4 .

1
T o m e n t i o n o n l y the m o s t m o d e r n : St. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia, Oxford 1989; J . Bottcro - S . N .
K r a m e r , Lorsque les dieux faisaient I'homme, Paris 1989; B. Foster, Before the Muses. An Anthology of Akkadian
Literature, 2 vols., Bethesda ( M d . ) 1993; O . Kaiser (ed.), T U A T Bd. 3: Mytben and Epen, Gutersloh 1993/97.
;
C f . W. Burkert, " O r i e n t a l a n d Greek M y t h o l o g y : T h e M e e t i n g of Parallels", in J . B r e m m e r (ed.), Interpreta
tions of Greek Mytho
l ogy, 1 9 8 7 , pp. 10-40; id., The Oriental izing Revo
l ution. Near Eastern Inf
l uence on Greek
Cu
l ture in the Earl y Archaic Age, C a m b r i d g e ( M a s s ) 1 9 9 2 ; in G e r m a n : Die oriental isierende Epoche in der
griechischen Re
l igion und Literatur, ( S H A W ) 1984/1, Heidelberg 1984; T. G a n t z , Earl y Greek Myth. A Guide to
Literary and Artistic Sources, B a l t i m o r e 1993; C . Penglase, Greek Myths and Mesopotamia, L o n d o n - N e w York
1994.
1
But I w o u l d not g o so far as J . J . A . van D i j k w h o recently declared: "F.s sei hier beilaufig e r w a h n t , dais ich
nicht einsehen k a n n , w a r u m W. Burkert fur die griechische M y t h o l o g i e eine E p o c h e der Entlehnung orientalischer
M y t h e n verlangt. Hier liegt vvohl ein klassisches Beispiel vor von V o l k e r k o n t a k t e n in vorhistorischer Zeit. V o n
einer reziproken Entlehnung k a n n nicht die R e d e s e i n " , in St. M a u l (ed.), Festschrift fur R. Borger zu seinem 65.
Gehurtstag (= C u n e i f o r m M o n o g r a p h s , 10), K o p e n h a g e n 1998, p. 1 1 note 13.
4
M . 1.. W e s t , The East Face of Hel icon. West Asiatic E
l ements in Greek Poetry and Myth, Oxford 1997.
 308 W. Rollig

Ancient oriental influence were not only transcribed. A parallel development also oc
curred in the graphic and plastic arts of early Greece; eastern motifs appear in early
Greek metal working and the proto-geometric brush work on ceramics, the ivory carvings
and the artworks of the gold- and silversmiths show the uninterrupted stream of pictorial
ideas from the east \ accompanied by indigenous experiments with them in the early cen
turies of the evolution of Greek civilization. I suppose that a part of the so-called "influ
ence" was indirect, i.e. the Greek poets took those imported pieces of jewelry, cylinder
seals, silver bowls etc. as a base for their own interpretations and narratives. I will return
to this later.
One of the elements of Greek art and literature which show striking similarities to an
cient Near Eastern traditions consists in their description of the Netherworld and their
ideas about the afterlife there. For this reason, and because recently an essay on this sub
ject has been published, I have chosen precisely this theme for my paper today.
One of the first things that strikes us about M esopotamian mythology is that there is
a surprisingly amount of texts treating themes of the Netherworld. A prominent place
holds "Inannas descent to the Netherworld", a Sumerian composition, which is a part of
the Inanna-Dumuzi cycle and survived in substantially changed and abbreviated form un
til Neo-Assyrian times, with different versions from Assur and Niniveh 6. The story de
scribes the unsuccessful attempt of Inanna/Istar to add the Netherworld to her zone of in
fluence, to become the queen of all the regions of the universe. On the way to the palace
of the goddess of the Netherworld Ereskigal - whose name means "mistress of the great
earth" - Istar has to cross seven gates and divest herself of all her divine symbols. After a
short struggel, provoked by Istar, the goddess of the Netherworld Ereskigal attacks Istar
with 60 diseases and kills her. Sexual desire consequently vanishes all over the world.
Only through a trick of the god Ea and the intervention of a male prostitute can Istar be
revived and allowed to leave the "Land without Return" on condition that she delivers a
substitute, in Sumerian mythology Dumuzi.
The second myth about the goddess of the Netherworld is "Nergal and Ereskigal",
which has no Sumerian version. It is only known from a Middle Babylonian tablet which
were found in Amarna in Egypt, clearly a school text, a Neo-Assyrian text from Huzirina
and a Late Babylonian text found in Uruk 7. The story centers on the desire of the god-

1
F o r s o m e but n o t all o f these influences see for e x a m p l e G . K o p c k e - I. T o k u m a r u (eds.), Greec e between
East and West: 10tb-8th Centuries BC, iM ainz 1 9 9 2 ; s o m e c o n t r i b u t i o n s also in: N . D i m o u d i s - A . K y r i a t s o u l i s
(eds.), Die Gesc hic bte der hellenisc hen Spra
c be und Sc hrift, Altenburg 1999; additionally H. M atthaus, The
Greek Symposium and tbe Near East. Chronology and Mec hanisms of Cultural Transfer, in R.F. D o c t e r - E . M .
M o o r m a n n (eds.). Proc eedings of the X V Internat. Congress of Classic al Ar
c haeology, Amsterdam, Inly 12-17,
1998, A m s t e r d a m 1 9 9 9 , p p . 2 5 6 - 2 6 0 .
" For the Sumerian version cf. W . R . Sladek, Inannas Des
c ent to the Netherworld, B a l t i m o r e , ( M d . ) 1974; the
A k k a d i a n texts are t o be f o u n d in R . Borger, Babylonisc b-assyrisc he c ke1,
Lesestii R o m e 1 9 7 9 , pp. 9 5 - 1 0 4 ; 143ff.;
cf. also E. Reiner, Your Thwarts in Piec es: Your Mooring Rope Cut, University o f M i c h i g a n 1985, pp. 2 9 - 4 9 .
M . H u t t e r , Altorientalisc he Vorstellungen von der Unterwelt. ( = O B O , 63), Freiburg-Gottingen 1985;
E. Reiner, op. eft. (note 6), pp. 5 0 - 6 0 .
 Myths about the Netherworld in the Ancient Near East and their Counterparts in the Greek Religion 309

dess to marry Nergal, who, after a first rendezvous with the goddess, escapes to the as
sembly of the gods in heaven. I n response to her threat to send the deceased to the earth
her wish is fulfilled by the gods and Nergal becomes the companion of Ereskigal as Lord
of the Netherworld.
A third myth, which is known from Neo-Assyrian times on only, is the so-called "Erra
epos" or "I sum and Erra" 8. It is not Ereskigal and her empire which form the center of
this narrative, but the fury of Erra, the god of pestilence, against the human beings who
disturb the gods with their noise. Erra, motivated by his vizier I sum, arranges that Mar-
duk, the king of the gods and Lord of Babylon, leaves his throne and visits the fire god
Girra for the procedure of cleaning his adornments. I n the meantime, Erra takes over the
world realm and changes all the rules. He destroys the human race, the world order, and
the basis of civilization, that is: Babylon, the center of the world. Finally, Erra can be
calmed by his vizier and Marduk resumes his reign, which guarantees the reinstailment of
order. This myth contains neither a description of the Netherworld nor a reflection on
the afterlife. What it does contain is a description of the fear of the Netherworld of one
of the gods when he is divested of his control over world order. The scope of this text is
probably not an explanation of the afterlife, but rather a warning to the audience to
leave the existing order unchanged and to be obedient and support the legal government.
A comparable aim may be discerned in a badly preserved text from Assur known as
"The underworld vision of an Assyrian prince" v. The classification of this unique text by
Alasdair Livingstone as "Court Poetry" and "Royal Propaganda" in his last edition of
the text is correct, because the vivid description of the Netherworld which the royal
prince saw in his dream, serves as a means of conveying the scope of the grace of which
the god Nergal is capable: "Do not forget or neglect me! Then I will not pass a verdict or
annihilation on you" - and the strength of the weapon which he wields: "Whoever of
you may have closed his ear to his speech, tasted the forbidden, trampled on the conse
crated - the luminous splendour of terrifying majesty will throw you down instantly, un
til you are but wind!" These short extracts show clearly that this is a kind of wisdom
text, an advice to a royal prince, and not a religious composition with mythical back
ground.
My final example is provided by the famous story which has been incorporated as
Tablet 12 into the Ninive-recension of the Gilgames epic '". I t is evident that this text was
not an original part of this epic but belonged to the Sumerian composition "Gilgamesh,
Enkidu and the Netherworld", of which it formed the second part For reasons unknown

L. C a g n i , L'Epopea di Erra (= Studi Semitici, 34), R o m a 1969; id., The Poem of Erra (= Sources f r o m the
A n c i e n t Near East, 1/3), M a l i b u 1977; cf. F . N . H . A l - R a w i - J . A . B l a c k : Iraq , 5 1 ( 1 9 8 9 ) , pp. 1 1 1 - 1 2 2 .
' W . v o n S o d e n , " D i e U n t e r w e l t s v i s i o n eines assyrischen K r o n p r i n z e n . N e b s t einigen B e o b a c h t u n g e n zur
Vorgeschichte des A h i q a r - R o m a n s " : Z A , 4 3 ( 1 9 3 6 ) , pp. 1-31; at least A . Livingstone, Court Poetry and Literary
Miscellanea (= S A A , 3), Helsinki 1989, N . 3 2 , pp. 6 8 - 7 6 .
111
Recently published is a n e w translation of the G i l g a m e s h - e p i c : A . G e o r g e , The Epic of Gilgamesh, London
1998.
" A . Shaffer, Sumerian Sources of Tablet XII of the Epic of Gilgames, P h D Dissertation, Univ. o f Pennsylvania
1 9 6 3 ; see n o w J . T o u m a y - A . Shaffer, L'Epopee de Gilgamesh, Paris 1 9 9 4 , pp. 2 7 0 - 2 7 4 .
 310 W. Rollig

t o u s it h a s b e e n t r a n s l a t e d i n t o A k k a d i a n a n d - a l s o in c o n t r a s t t o t h e a l r e a d y f i n i s h e d s t o
ry - p u t at the e n d o f the c o m p o s i t i o n . I t s h o u l d be stressed, h o w e v e r , that the o r i g i n a l
t a b l e t s o f t h i s t e x t a r e f e w , c o m e f r o m N i n i v e h o n l y a n d it is d u b i o u s t h a t t h e s t o r y w a s a n
i n t e g r a l p a r t o f t h e e p i c o u t s i d e t h e A s h u r b a n i p a l l i b r a r y . N e v e r t h e l e s s , it tells u s t h e j o u r
n e y o f E n k i d u i n t o t h e N e t h e r w o r l d , w h e r e h e is r e t a i n e d b u t b r o u g h t b a c k f o r a s h o r t d i a
l o g u e w i t h G i l g a m e s in a s p e c i a l c e r e m o n y . I w i l l c o m e b a c k t o t h i s t e x t s h o r t l y . F o r t h e
m o m e n t I w o u l d l i k e t o stress t h e f a c t a g a i n t h a t t h i s S u m e r i a n c o m p o s i t i o n is a l s o k n o w n
f r o m tablets o f the O l d - B a b y l o n i a n p e r i o d but that n o " s t r e a m of t r a d i t i o n " reaches the
N e o - A s s y r i a n p e r i o d . N e v e r t h e l e s s , s o m e k n o w l e d g e a b o u t this c o m p o s i t i o n m u s t h a v e sur
vived.
I f w e try t o s u m m a r i z e the i n f o r m a t i o n o n the N e t h e r w o r l d w h i c h comes f r o m the
l2
a f o r e m e n t i o n e d t e x t s w e get the f o l l o w i n g picture : T h i s region called ki " e a r t h " o r k u r
" ( f o r e i g n ) l a n d " i n S u m e r i a n , "erset Id tari" " T h e L a n d w i t h o u t R e t u r n " i n A k k a d i a n is
s i t u a t e d i n t h e d e p t h s o f t h e e a r t h , a n d is a n t i t h e t i c a l t o t h e h e a v e n but a ladder on
w h i c h messengers can g o u p a n d d o w n connects heaven a n d the N e t h e r w o r l d . Access t o
t h e N e t h e r w o r l d is t h r o u g h s e v e n g a t e s w i t h a g a t e - k e e p e r w h o t a k e s c a r e t h a t nobody
enters w i t h the signs o f his o r her e a r t h l y p o w e r . S o m e t i m e s , b u t n o t in the epics, a river
14
H u b u r is n a m e d w h i c h s u r r o u n d s t h e N e t h e r w o r l d a n d has to be crossed b y ship. E v e n
a f e r r y m a n is k n o w n f r o m t h e " V i s i o n o f a P r i n c e " ; h i s n a m e is H u m u t - t a b a l , - " H u r r y !
T a k e a w a y ! " . T h e N e t h e r w o r l d is a r e g i o n w i t h o u t s u n s h i n e o r o t h e r l i g h t . D e s p i t e t h i s ,
it is r u l e d l i k e a n o r m a l k i n g d o m b y t h e q u e e n E r e s k i g a l a n d h e r h u s b a n d N e r g a l , a s s i s t
e d b y h e r v i z i e r N a m t a r . I n t h e v i s i o n o f t h e A s s y r i a n p r i n c e it a l s o c o n t a i n s a c o n s i d e r
able n u m b e r of d e m o n i c m o n s t e r s . T h e i n h a b i t a n t s of the N e t h e r w o r l d , the " d e a t h s " , e x
ist t h e r e in a h a b i t o r f e a t h e r s , m u r m u r i n g l i k e d o v e s o r w a i l i n g , d r i n k i n g b r a c k i s h w a t e r
a n d eating d u s t a n d clay. T h e y are b o u n d t o the N e t h e r w o r l d w i t h o u t h o p e o f a return -
t h e i r o n l y h o p e is t h a t E r e s k i g a l w i l l b r e a k t h e i r s p e l l a n d s e n d t h e m i n t o t h e w o r l d of
t h e l i v i n g w h e r e t h e y c a n s p r e a d h o r r o r a n d fear. W i t h t h e a i d o f s p e c i a l m a g i c a l c e r e
m o n i e s they m a y occasionally be e v o k e d f r o m the N e t h e r w o r l d for necromancy.
N o w , after this very s h o r t i n t r o d u c t i o n to the ideas of the N e t h e r w o r l d in the A n c i e n t
N e a r E a s t d u r i n g t h e I s ' m i l l . B . C . , let u s t u r n t o e a r l y G r e e k s o u r c e s , e s p e c i a l l y t o t h e Ili
ad a n d t h e Odys s ee. H e r e , w i t h t h e e x c e p t i o n o f t h e f a m o u s Nekyia in t h e e l e v e n t h S o n g
o f t h e Odys s ee, n o p a s s a g e is d e v o t e d t o t h e N e t h e r w o r l d a l o n e . O n t h e o t h e r h a n d , w e
d o h e a r a b o u t H a d e s ' h o u s e , w h i c h is d e s c r i b e d a s eurypyles " w i d e - g a t e d " , a n d it is u n -

12
See M . H u t t e r (note 7); j . B o t t e r o , " L a m y t h o l o g i e de la M o r r en M e s o p o t a m i a a n c i e n n e " , in B. Alsrer (ed.).
Death in Mes opotamia, C o p e n h a g e n 1 9 8 0 , p p . 2 5 - 5 2 ; J . T r o p p e r , Nekromantie. Totenbefragung im Alten Orient
und im Alten Tes tament (= A O A T , 2 2 3 ) , N e u k i r c h e n - V l u y n 1989; B. G r o n e b e r g , " Z u den m e s o p o t a m i s c h e n U n -
t e r w e k s v o r s t e l l u n g e n . D a s Jenseits als Forrserzung des D i e s s e i t s " : A o F , 17 ( 1 9 9 0 ) , p p . 2 4 4 - 2 6 1 ; J . A . Scurlock,
" D e a t h and the Afterlife in A n c i e n t M e s o p o t a m i a ! ! T h o u g h t " , in J . M . Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient
Near Eas t, I I I , N e w Y o r k 1995, p p . 1 8 8 3 - 1 8 9 3 ; M . Baldacci, / / libra dei morti della antica Ugarit, Casale M u n -
ferrato 1998.
I !
C f . W . H o r o w i t z , Mes opotamian s
Co mic Geography, W i n o n a L a k e 1 9 9 8 , pp. 3 4 8 - 3 6 2 .
" See W. R o l l i g , Hubur, in R1A 4 , 1 9 7 2 / 5 , p. 4 7 8 f.; W. H o r o w i t z , be. at. (note 13) pp. 3 5 5 - 3 5 8 .
 Myths about t he Net herworld in t he Ancient Near East and t heir Count erpart s in t he Greek Religion 3 11

doubtedly clear that those who arrive there will not leave this house again (II. 23,75f .).
Wellknown is the river - named Acheron in Sappho, Alcaeus and Aeschylos - which has
to be crossed in order to reach the land of the dead. But Odysseus has to sail across
Oceanos to reach Hades. This change of place reminds us of the episode in the Gilgames
epic in which Utnapistim, the hero on his journey to the land of living, where he seeks
ref uge, has to cross the "Waters of Death". This poisoned sea could only be crossed by
using 120 punting poles '\ This is clearly a sign of the inaccessibility of this land - but
bear in mind that this is just Hades, and not yet the Netherworld itself . Like the Babylon
ian Netherworld, that of Greek tradition is the empire of a goddess, Persephone, and a
world of "misty and silent dark", where the dead whisper like birds. The similarities to
the Ancient O riental mythology are obvious.
A reference to the most impressive description of the afterlife in the Nekyia in the
eleventh Song of the Odyssee is fitting at this point. From the island of the enchantress
Circe O dysseus sails with the current and at sunset, i.e. in the west, the well-known
"land of the dead" in Egypt, he reaches the land of the Kimmerioi "' a people shrouded in
clouds and darkness, who never see the sun. This region not only brings to mind the
Netherworld in Mesopotamia but also the famous Babylonian map of the world on
which one of the regions beyond the Bitter River bears the caption "where the sun is not
seen" |7. O ne cannot be sure whether this is meant in a mythological or geographical
sense i.e. if actual knowledge of a northern and for a long time during the year dark and
cloudy land resulted in such a description. After arrival at the place which had been de
scribed by Circe, O dysseus performs a ritual: he digs a sacrificial pit with his sword and
sacrifices honey, wine and barley flour. The ritual is followed by a prayer and the slaugh
tering of sheep whose blood runs down into the pit. It has been shown by Gerd Steiner
that this ceremony has exact parallels in Hittite purification rituals of Hurrian origin, in
13,h Century B.C. texts which have been preserved in Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites ls.
A further striking parallel comes from the twelfth tablet of the Gilgames epic in which at
the command of the god Enki/Ea the hero "makes an opening in the Netherworld"
whence the ghost of his friend Enkidu is able to return. In the Nekyia the spirits of the
deceased come from the Erebos and assemble at the pit: "young married women, young
men, old men, who had endured much, tender girls with hearts young in grief..." After
drinking from the blood of the sacrifice, Teiresias from Thebes is able to speak mantical-
ly - this is in sharp contrast to the story of Gilgames and Enkidu, where the deceased
friend makes some explanations about the fate of the dead persons in the Netherworld
but does not have mantic attributes. Nor is the drinking of blood mentioned in the texts
from the Near East and this may have a specific Aegean background.

11
G i l g . Epic X 158ff.
"' For the p r o b l e m s connected with the C i m m e r i a n s see A . I. I v a n t c h i k , Les Cimmeriens au Proche-Orien
t
(= O B O , 127), F r e i b u r g - G o t t i n g e n 1993.
17
See at least W. H o r o w i t z , loc. cit . (note 13) p. 2 2 and c o m m e n t a r y p. 3 2 f.
" G . Steiner, " D i e U n t e r w e l t s b e s c h w o r u n g des O d y s s e u s im I.ichte hethitischer T e x t e " : UF, 3 ( 1 9 7 1 ) , pp. 2 6 5 -
312 W. R
o llig

I could go into details - and much of these details have been collected in the extensive
volume of M.L. West '". Instead of such an undertaking I w ould like to rise some com
mon methodological questions.
As a scholar who is first of all a philologist in the field of ancient oriental languages
but with a special interest in the production and tradition of works of literature I would
like to risk some critical methodological comments.
1. It is a widespread error to suppose that literary texts in the ancient Near East had a
broad distribution in a public which was able to read them. O n the contrary: By far the
greater part of cuneiform tablets which have been found are generally of economic or ju
ridical content, i.e. economic and legal contracts, debts, documents arranging marriage,
divorce, adoption, inheritance and so on. The same is true of the letters, which very sel
dom contain a reference to the personal belongings of the correspondents. "Literary"
texts, normally in a single copy, are only stored in some very special archives or libraries
and are as a rule attached to temples or palaces in the capital cities 2".
2. It can be shown that these texts were usually used either for religious ceremonies
e.g. conjurations, new year rituals etc., for scientific purposes such as the hemerologies,
the astronomical texts and the handbooks for hepatoscopy, or as basic material in
schools, teaching young scribes the cuneiform script and the Sumerian or Akkadian lan
guage. The unique exception is the library of king Ashurbanipal in the 7rh century B.C.,
who himself gave orders for the collection of all the literary texts in Babylonia, even from
temple-libraries with the goal of having a complete collection of the literary production
of his time 11.
3. Today scholars have the literary production in cuneiform of nearly 3 millennia at
their disposal, i.e. from the beginning of Sumerian writing until the compositions of the
Seleucid period. The situation of the scribes in Assyria and Babylonia was in many in
stances quite different. As a rule they both had at hand the traditional literature of two
or three generations which had been copied and recopied in the school. It should be
stressed however, that many literary compositions which we know today were not in
cluded into the stream of tradition, but excluded for reasons unknown to us. This is true
of almost all the great Sumerian compositions, the epics and myths, the lamentations and
dialogues, which were collected in a canonical version in O ld Babylonian times and in
one place, the temple library of Nippur. It is evident that these compositions were un
known in the second half of the second millennium and of course not a part of the tradi
tion during the first millennium. Such compositions cannot be considered in the context
of the transmittal of oriental motivs into the Greek world. If - as has been the case in a

" M . L . W e s t , The East Face (see note 4 ) , pp. 4 1 5 - 4 1 7 .

211
S o m e but by far n o t all p r o b l e m s o f the collection and tradition of c u n e i f o r m texts are discussed in K . R .
V e e n h o f (ed.), Cuneifo rm Archives and Libraries. Papers read at the 30' RAI, Leiden 1 9 8 6 .
" C f . S.J. L i e b e r m a n , " C a n o n i c a l a n d O f f i c i a l C u n e i f o r m T e x t s : T o w a r d s an U n d e r s t a n d i n g o f A s s u r b a n i p a i ' s
Personal T a b l e t C o l l e c t i o n " , in T. A b u s h - j . H u e h n e r g a r d - P. Steinkeller (eds.), Lingering o ver Wo rds. Studies in
Ho no r o f W.L. Mo ran, Atlanta 1990, pp. 305-336.
 Myths about the Netherworld in the Ancient Near East and their Counterparts in the Greek Religion 313

article by Gisela Strasburger just published in "Antike und Abendland" 22 - such narra
tives as "The Death of Urnammu", the sulgi hymns or the Sumerian myth of "Enlil and
Ninlil" are used as specific motifs, it should be borne in mind that the tradition of these
texts ended with the Old Babylonian period. There are no traces of an oral tradition of
such texts, and we have to conclude that not only the specific formulations but also the
entire content of these texts did not survive.
4. Nevertheless, M.L. West, who is aware of some of these problems, believes: "The
Gilgames epic and other Akkadian classics must have been available in many palace,
temple, and private libraries in Assyria and Babylonia, and there must have been scribes
capable of translating them into Aramaic, if there was any call for it 2!. Even if this may
be true of the Gilgames epic, which was widespread and handed down over centuries,
the "Akkadian classics" are a fiction which never existed. The supposed Aramaic "trans
lations" are a similar fiction. Within the whole corpus of Aramaic texts known today -
and this corpus is not small - not a single "literary" text of Akkadian origin is known to
us. Not even the "Proverbs of Ahiqar" 24 is a translation of an Akkadian text but an in
dependent composition with some allusions to perhaps orally delivered words of wis
dom. I t seems to me that much scribal experience with the new medium of alphabetic
writing would be necessary until the art of composing longer literary texts had been de
veloped as we can see in the enormous amount of compositions in later Syriac.
5. On the other hand, there are signs of a long oral tradition of stories about certain
persons - for example Sargon or Naram-Sin of Akkade 2> - and of mythological themes,
which only occasionally were written down. An example of this is the myth "I nanna's de
scent to the Netherworld" which I have already discussed. Despite the fact that this text
is also incompletely preserved i.e. was not fully composed, the preserved texts of the
Akkadian versions differ markedly both amongst themselves and also particularly from
the Sumerian version of the Old Babylonian period. I f scholars in the field of Greek and
Roman literature and religion are not always aware of these problems, then we have only
scholars of Ancient Oriental Studies to blame - that is, those who are unable to produce
an up-to-date history of literature for the Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite and Ugaritic tradi
tions. Still anybody who has ever worked in this field knows the number of problems
connected with such an undertaking.
6. A problem which should be mentioned before I finish, one which is not only impor
tant but also controversial lies in the discussion of oral traditions: Who could have been
responsible for the transmittal of myths and rituals from other countries and languages
to Greece? Walter Burkert has developed a picture of the "wandering craftsmen"

22
G i s . Strasburger, " D i e Fahrt des O d y s s e u s zu den T o t e n im Vergleich mit alteren J e n s e i t s f a h r t e n " : Antike
und Abendland, 4 4 ( 1 9 9 8 ) , p p . 1-29.
21
M . L . West, The East Face (note 4), p. 5 9 3 .
" A t least: J . M . Lindenberger, The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiq ar, Baltimore-London 1983; I . Kortsieper, Die
Geschichte und die Spriiche des weisen Achiq ar, in O . Kaiser (ed.), T U A T 3/2, 1 9 9 1 , p p . 3 2 0 - 3 4 7 .
2
' See recently J . G . W e s t e n h o l z , Legends of the Kings of Akkade, W i n o n a L a k e 1 9 9 7 , espec. p p . 3 3 - 1 6 9 .
 314 W. Rdllig

26
and named the baru, the "diviner", the Babylonian priest w h o is responsible for extispiey ,
sometimes translated "seer" as one of these craftsmen. From the evidence which is avail
able today, one can conclude that such "specialists" were called by local rulers for special
task s and did sometimes travel f r o m one place to the other. T h e reasonably frequent ex
amples we have for such hiring in the 13th century B . C . s h o w however, that it was the ex
ception and not the rule for the w o r k of these priests. For this reason I conclude that oc
casionally one or t w o of these barii m a y have reached the Greek w o r l d but as a rule they
had their place in a cultic center and c a n n o t have been generally responsible for the
transfer of ancient oriental religious ideas to the Greek w o r l d .
W i t h the c o m m e n t s I have made I d o not mean to question the idea or system of c o m
p a r i n g A n c i e n t O r i e n t a l a n d Greek religious ideas. Nevertheless, I d o wish to w a r n
against imprudent use of the available source-material.
W e should always bear in m i n d that myths, ritual and literary compositions have a
certain place in history. Naturally, this also applies to those of the ancient Near East. Be
cause o f this, they should n o t be used w i t h o u t careful consideration of the historical c o n
text of their creation and use, and particularly w i t h o u t consideration of their "Sitz im
L e b e n " in the Oriental W o r l d - be it in M e s o p o t a m i a , A n a t o l i a , Syria or Palestine. These
basic principles o f professional practice are alone sufficient to ensure sound and reliable
methods of c o m p a r i s o n for further research.

!
" Concerning the "seer" ef. W. Burkert, Die orientalisierende Epoche (s. note 2), pp. 43-54, but with respect
to their function in the communication between the king and the g ods see now B. Pong ratz-Leisten, Herrscbafts-
wissen in Mesopotamia! (= S A A , 10), Helsinki 1999, pp. 128-20 1.