ENDNOTES
Introduction
1. Roux, Ancient Iraq, 381.
2. Saggs, Greatness That Was Babylon, 489.
3. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, 2:xxi.
Chapter 1. The Amateur Archaeologists
1. Wallis-Budge, Rise and Progress of Assyriology, 34.
2. Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains, 2:340.
3. 2 Kings 18–19.
Chapter 2. The Scramble for Antiquities
1. Rawlinson, Memoir of Major-General Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 180.
Chapter 3. The Land of the Twin Rivers
1. Genesis 2:10–14.
2. Herodotus, Histories, 1:119.
3. See Bibby, Looking for Dilmun, 188–200.
4. Ibid., 66–68.
5. Heyerdahl, Tigris Expedition, 208ff.
6. Robinson, ed., “The Hypostasis of the Archons,” 89–90, in The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 154–55.
Chapter 4. The Royal Library of Nineveh
1. Waterman, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire, Supplementary Letters 6, 4:213.
2. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 34, 1:25. See also Oppenheim, “Divination and Celestial Observation in the Last Assyrian Empire,” 114–19.
3. Roux, Ancient Iraq, 325.
4. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 271.
5. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 43, 1:31.
6. Weidner, “Die astrologische Serie Enuma Anu Enlil,” 14:177.
7. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 216.
8. Parpola, “Assyrian Library Records,” 11.
9. Wiseman, “Assyrian Writing-Boards,” 7–8.
10. Parpola, “Assyrian Library Records,” 8.
11. Parpola, Letters from Assryrian Scholars, 2:xvi.
12. Ibid., 1:vii.
13. Ibid., 2:xii–xiv.
14. Ibid., 2:xiv.
15. Oppenheim, “A Babylonian Diviner’s Manual,” 203 (line 24). See also Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 8–9.
16. Lambert and Millard, Atra-Hasis, 59.
17. Ibid., 57.
18. Starr, Queries to the Sun God, xxxiv.
19. Daniel 1:7.
20. Ibid., 2:1–12.
21. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:xiv.
22. Ibid., xvii–xix.
23. Ibid., 120, 1:89; 121, 1:89–91. See also 2:103 and 2:105.
24. Ibid., 2:xvii.
25. Oppenheim, “The Position of the Intellectual in Mesopotamian Society,” 43.
26. Oppenheim, “Divination and Celestial Observation,” 114–19.
27. Pausanius, 1:xvi (1:81).
28. Neugebauer, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts, 1:115.
29. Ibid., 1:10, n. 44.
Chapter 5. Letters from Assyrian Scholars
1. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 15, 1:13. See also 2:22–23, for discussion.
2. Ibid., 277, 1:223.
3. Ibid., 13, 1:9–11.
4. One partial list is supplied in ibid., 332, 1:285.
5. Ibid., 65, 1:43. The date of March 26, 669 BCE, is given in ibid., 2:70.
6. Thompson, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon in the British Museum, 183, 2:lxiv–lxv. This is from tablet K-188; the writer’s correct name is in Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:501.
7. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 162:lxi.
8. Ibid., 17:xxxiv–xxxv.
9. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 51, 1:35.
10. Ibid., 41, 1:29.
11. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 154:lx.
12. Ibid., 73:xlvi.
13. Waterman, Royal Correspondence, 659, 1:457.
14. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 170:lxii.
15. Waterman, Royal Correspondence, 477, 1:337.
16. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 235:lxxv. This section is not translated in his work. See discussion in Oppenheim, “Divination and Celestial Observation,” 118, and Starr, Queries to the Sun God, xxxii.
17. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 12, 1:9.
18. Ibid., 65, 1:43.
19. Ibid., 66, 1:43.
20. Ibid., 2:15, discussing tablet published in Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 55:xliii (note that Thompson’s translation is faulty).
21. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 12, 1:9.
22. Ibid., 13, 1:11.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid., 110, 1:75.
25. Ibid., 2:50 (referring to ABL 1216).
26. Waterman, Royal Correspondence, 356, 1:247–49.
27. Ibid., 352, 1:245.
Chapter 6. The Great Omen Series
1. Reiner, The Venus Tablet of Ammisaduqa, 9, 21–23.
2. Ibid., 9, 21, 33.
3. Ibid., 29.
4. Weidner, “Historisches Material in der babylonischen Omina-Literatur, 231.
5. Ibid., 236.
6. Kramer, Sumerians, 147.
7. Ibid., 122.
8. Ibid., 138.
9. Weidner, “Die astrologische Serie,” 14:175, n. 21.
10. Scheil, “Notules,” 139ff.
11. Virolleaud, “The Syrian Town of Katna,” 312ff.
12. Weidner, “Die astrologische Serie,” 14:176.
13. Ibid., referring to Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 200:lxviii.
14. Weidner, “Die astrologische Serie,” 14:176.
15. For details, see Hunger and Pingree, MUL.APIN; Van der Waerden, “Babylonian Astronomy II,” 13–26; Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 70–86; Reiner, Enuma Anu Enlil, 6–9.
16. Reiner, Enuma Anu Enlil, 6.
17. Ibid., 181.
18. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 13, 1:11.
19. Weidner, “Die astrologische Serie,” 14:184ff.
20. Ibid., 189.
21. Sayce, “Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians,” 3:150.
22. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 10, n. 9; Reiner, Enuma Anu Enlil, 10, 14.
Chapter 7. The Numinous and the Mesopotamian Religion
1. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, 3.
2. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia, 183.
3. Apuleius, Golden Ass, 241.
4. Scott, Hermetica, 117 (Corpus Hermeticum, 1:7).
5. Heidel, Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels, X, i, 13–15 (p. 69).
6. Apuleius, Golden Ass, 241.
7. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, 3–4.
8. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia, 183.
9. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, 6.
10. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 237–39.
11. Kramer, Sumerians, 328.
12. Heidel, Gilgamesh Epic, IX, ii, 18 (p. 66).
13. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, 152–57.
14. Kramer, in Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near East, 2:139.
15. Ibid., 140–41.
16. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, 160–61.
17. Oppenheim, “Perspectives on Mesopotamian Divination,” 39.
18. Ibid., 164.
19. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, 150.
20. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 11.
21. Sachs, “Babylonian Horoscopes,” 54.
22. Caplice, Akkadian Namburbu Texts, 8.
23. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia, 202.
24. Rochberg-Halton, “Fate and Divination in Mesopotamia,” 363–64.
25. Ibid., 365.
26. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 15–16.
27. Caplice, Akkadian Namburbu Texts, 2.
Chapter 8. Sin
1. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 117, 1:83; 2:101.
2. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 124, 2:lvi–lvii.
3. Ibid., 119, 2:lvi.
4. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 38–39.
5. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 153.
6. Gadd, “The Harran Inscriptions of Nabonidus,” 47ff.
7. Ringgren, Religions of the Ancient Near East, 57, quoting Tallqvist, Babyloniska Hymner och Böner, 63.
8. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 94:lii.
9. Ibid., 106:liv.
10. Waterman, Royal Correspondence, 1214, 2:341.
11. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 30:xxxviii.
12. Ibid., 69:xlvi.
13. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 8.
14. Ibid.
15. Waterman, Royal Correspondence, 1006, 2:197–99.
16. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 19.
17. Ibid., 216.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 232.
20. Ibid., 176.
21. Ibid., 104.
22. Ibid., 108.
23. Ibid., 141.
24. Ibid., 170.
25. Ibid., 108.
26. Ibid., 141.
27. Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 2:9 (pp. 191–93).
28. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 57, quoting Neugebauer and Pingree, The Pancasiddhantika of Varahamihira, part 2, VI, 9–10.
29. Rochberg-Halton, Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination, 179 (14 Nisannu—month I). The same prediction is given on p. 180 (for 28/29 Kislimu—month IX) and on p. 182 (for 28 Nisannu—month I). A separate Venus omen is given on p. 205 (28 Arahsamna—month VIII).
30. Ibid., 205.
31. Ibid., 235 and n. 2 (EAE Tablet 21). See also p. 187 (EAE Tablet 20), where the prediction is lost, and p. 170 (EAE Tablet 19), where the same prediction is given.
32. Ibid., 189 and 191, both the same report.
33. Ibid., 214.
34. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 40, 1:29; 61, 1:39. The dating is given in ibid., 40, 2:49; 61, 2:66.
Chapter 9. Shamash
1. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 117, 1:83.
2. Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus of Sicily, 2:30.
3. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 326, 2:342–43.
4. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 178, 2:lxiii.
5. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:402–3.
6. Ibid., 104, 1:71; 2:89–91.
7. Saggs, Greatness That Was Babylon, 362.
8. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 280, 1:229; 2:270–72.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., 2:36.
11. Plutarch, Lives, II, “Alexander,” 527.
12. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:271.
13. Lambert, “Part of the Ritual,” 110–11.
14. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:428–29.
15. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 29:xxxviii.
Chapter 10. Ishtar
1. Heimpel, Catalogue of Near Eastern Venus Deities, 14–15.
2. Song of Songs 6:10.
3. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:182, n. 321.
4. Herodotus, Histories, 1:cxcix.
5. Tablet CT 4845, which was noted by M. Stol in a review published in Journal of Cuneiform Studies 25 (1973): 217.
6. Gallery, “Service Obligations of the Kezertu-Women,” 335, 338.
7. Saggs, Encounter with the Divine, 351.
8. Ibid., 465.
9. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:111.
10. Ibid., 40.
11. Ibid., 407.
12. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 206, 2:lxix.
13. Ibid., 243B:lxxvi.
Chapter 11. Ninurta
1. Ramesey, Astrology Restored, 50.
2. Hone, Modern Text-Book of Astrology, 165.
3. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 136–37.
4. Amos 5:26.
5. Diodorus Siculus, Diodorus of Sicily, 2:30.
6. Ibid.
7. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 319, quoting Thureau-Dangin, Rituels accadiens, 138.
8. Watters, Horary Astrology, 49.
9. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 100, 2:liii.
10. Ibid., 90, 2:li; 124, 2:lvi–lvii; 175, 2:lxiii.
11. Ibid., 177, 2:lxiii.
12. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:343.
13. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 176:lxiii. See the same letter in Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 326, 1:281.
14. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 107:liv.
15. Ibid., 103:liv.
16. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 119–24.
17. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 216:lxxi.
18. Watters, Horary Astrology, 48–49.
19. Green, Mundane or National Astrology, 48.
Chapter 12. Nergal
1. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 103, 2:liv.
2. Ibid., 98, 2:liii.
3. Ibid., 146, 2:lviii.
4. Ibid., 272, 2:lxxxviii.
5. Watters, Horary Astrology, 45.
6. Greene, Astrology of Fate, 39.
Chapter 13. Marduk
1. Saggs, Greatness That Was Babylon, 385.
2. Livingstone, Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars, 123, line 8.
3. Ibid., 125, line 1.
4. Ibid., 260.
5. See the two prayers to Marduk 55ff. in Lambert, “Three Literary Prayers of the Babylonians,” 47–66.
6. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 319.
7. Heidel, Babylonian Genesis, 36 (Enuma Elish, 4:13–14).
8. Saggs, Greatness That Was Babylon, 387.
9. Ramesey, Astrology Restored, 52.
10. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 268, 2:lxxxi. See also Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 40, 1:29, and 61, 1:39, for further examples.
11. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 298, 1:255.
12. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 185:lxv.
13. Ibid., 162:lxi.
14. Ibid., 186:lxvi.
15. Ibid. See also ibid., 187:lxvi.
16. Ibid., 145:lxvi.
17. Ibid., 91:li.
18. Ibid., 92:lii.
19. For example, ibid., 192:lxvii.
20. Ibid., 96:liii.
21. Ibid., 103:liv.
22. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 289, 1:243.
23. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 195:lxvii–lxviii.
24. Waterman, Royal Correspondence, 519, 1:363–65.
25. Ramesey, Astrology Restored, 52.
26. Ebertin, Combination of Stellar Influences, 54.
Chapter 14. Nabu
1. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 2:55, n. 94.
2. Langdon, Semitic Mythology, 159.
3. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 184, 2:lxv.
4. Rawlinson, “On the Birs Nimrud,” 17.
5. Ibid., 17–18.
6. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 319.
7. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 218, 2:lxxi. See also ibid., 216c, 2:lxxi; 217, 2:lxxi; 225, 2:lxxiii; 226, 2:lxxiii.
8. Ibid., 221, 2:lxxii. See also ibid., 200, 2:lxviii; 220, 2:lxxii; 222, 2:lxxii; 223, 2:lxxii.
9. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 70, 1:47. See also: 46, 1:31; 71, 1:47.
10. Ibid., 71, 1:47.
11. Watters, Horary Astrology, 44; Baigent, Campion, and Harvey, Mundane Astrology, 221.
12. Ibid.
13. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 224:lxxiii.
Chapter 15. Astronomy
1. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 100, 1:69.
2. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers. See, for example, 1, 2:xxxiii.
3. Pfeiffer, State Letters of Assyria, 317:214.
4. Parpola, Letters from Assyrian Scholars, 53, 1:35.
5. Thompson, Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, 82:xxxxvii.
6. Heidel, Babylonian Genesis, 44 (Enuma Elish, 5:3–4).
7. Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 64ff. See also Weidner, Handbuch der babylonischen Astronomie, for a circular Babylonian planisphere, K 8538, 107ff.
8. See above, chapter 6, pp. 74–75.
9. Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 69.
10. Reiner, Enuma Anu Enlil, 6.
11. For a brief but comprehensive survey of the contents, see Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 70–71.
12. Van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” 219.
13. Ptolemy, Almagest, 3:7; 4:8.
14. Ibid., 8:6.
15. Sachs and Hunger, Astronomical Diaries, 1:12.
16. Van der Waerden, “History of the Zodiac,” 96–97.
17. Sachs and Hunger, Astronomical Diaries, 1:43ff.
18. Sachs and Hunger, Astronomical Diaries, vols. 1 and 2. For the latest diary, see Sachs, “Babylonian Observational Astronomy,” 47.
Chapter 16. The Invasions
1. See Daniel 5:22, 7:1, 8:1.
2. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 312ff.
3. Ibid., 315.
4. Ibid.
5. Ezra 1:2–4; 2 Chronicles 36:23; Daniel 1:21, 6:29, 10:1.
6. Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 103–4.
7. Ibid., 107–8.
8. Ibid., 125.
9. Sachs and Hunger, Astronomical Diaries, 57, line 2.
10. Aaboe and Sachs, “Two Lunar Texts of the Achaemenid Period from Babylon,” 18.
11. Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 126.
12. Ibid., 127.
13. Ibid., 144.
14. Sachs, “Babylonian Horoscopes,” 54–57.
15. Ibid., 57.
16. Ibid., 60.
17. Van der Waerden, “Babylonian Astronomy II,” 7.
18. See Plato, Timaeus, 42 (pp. 91–93).
19. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 2:45 (1:175).
20. Mekler, ed., Academicorum Philosophorum Index Hercianensis, p. 13, col. 3, 36.
21. Cumont, Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans, 30.
22. Cicero, De Divinatione, 87, 2:xlii.
23. Neugebauer, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts, 22–23, 1:16.
24. Strabo, Geography, 6, 16:i (3:146).
25. Aaboe, “On Babylonian Planetary Theories,” 210.
26. Neugebauer, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts, 1:7–8.
27. Ibid., 1:115.
28. VAT 7851 in Weidner, Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln, Tafel 1.
29. VAT 7847 in ibid., Tafeln 9 and 10. All three of these illustrations are depicted in Van der Waerden, Science Awakening II, 81.
30. Weidner, Gestirn-Darstellungen auf babylonischen Tontafeln, 22–23.
31. Pliny, Natural History, 7:37 (2:12).
32. Sachs, “Babylonian Horoscopes,” 69.
33. Neugebauer and Van Hoesen, Greek Horoscopes, 76–78.
34. Proclus, Procli Diadochi in Platonis Timaeum commentaria, 24–29, 3:125.
35. Tardieu, “Sabiens Coraniques et ‘Sabiens’ de Harran,” 22–23; Green, City of the Moon God, 167–68.
Chapter 17. Harran
1. Green, City of the Moon God, 100 (quoting Ibn Shaddad).
2. Tardieu, “Sabiens Coraniques,” 13–18, 22–23.
3. Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, 2:382–98.
4. Ibid., 381–82.
5. Stapleton, Azo, and Husain, “Chemistry in Iraq,” and also Lloyd and Brice, “Harran,” 97.
6. See Rice, “Studies in Medieval Harran,” 44. See also Scott, Hermetica, 100, n. 1.
7. Rice, “Studies in Medieval Harran,” 43 (quoting Dimashqi).
8. Lloyd and Brice, “Harran,” 92, 94 (quoting Yaqut).
9. Ibid., 79, 102, and illustration on p. 103.
10. Ibid., 78.
11. For his report, see Rice, “Studies in Medieval Harran,” 48ff.
12. See “Harran,” Anatolian Studies 10 (1960): 8.
13. See Scott, Hermetica, 97–99, quoting an-Nadim, who is translated in Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, 2:14ff.
14. Scott, Hermetica, 101, n. 1.
15. Ibid., 92, quoting Porphyry’s “Letter to Anebo.”
16. Asclepius, in ibid., 289.
17. “Poimandres,” in ibid., 115–17.
18. Green, City of the Moon God, 162.
19. Garin, Astrology in the Renaissance, 48, 54.
20. Asclepius, in Scott, Hermetica, 359.
21. Ibid., 361.
22. Ibid., 25.
23. Klibansky, Continuity of the Platonic Tradition, 19.
24. Yates, Giordano Bruno, 13.
25. Garin, Astrology in the Renaissance, 64–65.
Chapter 18. From Babylon to Botticelli
1. Woodhouse, George Gemistos Plethon, 8.
2. Garin, Astrology in the Renaissance, 58.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Yates, Giordano Bruno, 41.
7. Ibid., 45.
8. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic: From Ficino to Campanella, 32–33. See also pp. 19 and 22–23.
9. Athanassakis, Orphic Hymns, no. 8, pp. 12–15.
10. Ficino, Book of Life, 90.
11. Ibid., 90–91 and 146–47.
12. Ibid., 131. See also Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic, 30–35.
13. Ibid., 110.
14. Ibid., 167.
15. Ibid., 181.
16. Scott, Hermetica, 361 (Asclepius, 3:38a). See also pp. 359, 339.
17. Yates, Giordano Bruno, 77.
18. Ibid., 77–78.