http://www.ancientworldcities.com/article-398

ASSYRIAN SACRED POETRY

By daniel on Mon 27th August 2007

Section: babylonia > Topic: Babylonian and Assyrian Literature

TRANSLATED BY H.F. TALBOT, F.R.S.

The following translations are some of those which I published in the "Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology" in order to show that the Assyrians had a firm belief in the immortality of the soul: a fact which was previously unknown.

I have added specimens of their penitential psalms, and some notices of their numerous superstitions, such as the exorcism of evil spirits, the use of magic knots and talismans, the belief in inherited or imputed sins, and in the great degree of holiness which they attributed to the number _Seven_. In some of these respects we may evidently see how great an influence was exercised on the mind and belief of the Jews by their long residence at Babylon.

ASSYRIAN SACRED POETRY

A PRAYER FOR THE KING

1   "Length of days
2   long lasting years
3   a strong sword
4   a long life
5   extended years of glory
6   pre-eminence among Kings
7   grant ye to the King my Lord,
8   who has given such gifts
9   to his gods!
10 The bounds vast and wide
11 of his Empire
12 and of his Rule,
13 may he enlarge and may he complete!
14 Holding over all Kings supremacy
15 and royalty and empire
16 may he attain to gray hairs
17 and old age!
18 And after the life of these days,
19 in the feasts of the silver mountain,[2] the heavenly Courts
20 the abodes of blessedness:
21 and in the Light
22 of the _Happy Fields,_
23 may he dwell a life
24 eternal, holy
25 in the presence
26 of the gods
27 who inhabit Assyria!"

[Footnote 1: From the "Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.," vol. i. p. 107. The original is in "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," vol. iii. pl. 66.]

[Footnote 2: The Assyrian Olympus. The epithet "silver" was doubtless suggested by some snowy inaccessible peak, the supposed dwelling-place of the gods.]