Amir M. Dinkha

Introduction

No one can deny that the ancient people of Mesopotamia had an enormous cultural, social, legal, and religious impact on their neighbors. It therefore comes as no surprise that some of the Hebrew biblical books are indisputably influenced by Mesopotamian legacy (for example, the influence of the Creation Epic, Gilgamesh Epic, and Atrahasis Epic on Genesis 1-11, and the influence of the Babylonian poem “I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom” on Job). There is wide scholarly consensus that the Babylonian and the Hebrew biblical lament psalms have much in common, due to the fact that the latter drew largely from the former.[1] Therefore, the main aim of this paper is to present basically an example from Babylonian literature psalms, namely, “Prayer of Lamentation to Ishtar.”

 

Ishtar: A Compulsive Goddess

This prayer is addressed to the widely worshipped Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian goddess Ishtar (the counterpart to the Sumerian goddess Inanna). It is an established fact that Ishtar has some intriguing characteristics: she is widely acknowledged as the goddess of fertility, sexuality, love, battle, war, peace.[2] An echo of this conflicting personality is found in our selected prayer, where the supplicant addresses Ishtar as, “O star of lamentation, who causes peaceable brothers to fight, yet who constantly gives friendship” (vv. 9-10).

 

Ishtar is known as possessive and obsessive woman who always seeks men and yet her demanding love is destructive and unconstructive. For example, she attempts to seduce Gilgamesh, who refuses her invitation and reminds her of how badly she treated her previous lovers, including the famous one Tammuz (the women of Jerusalem mourn his disappearance in Ezek. 8.14). Ishtar becomes furious at Gilgamesh’s refusal, goes up to heaven to request from her father Anu to send the Bull of Heaven to kill him. But Gilgamesh and his intimate friend Enkidu slew the Bull of Heaven. As a punishment, Enkidu, not Gilgamesh, dies, according to the Gilgamesh Epic (Tablet VI-VII). Finally, Ishtar’s pre-eminence religious and social status is seen in the famous Ishtar Gate and its Processional Way which were built in 575 B.C.E. by the order of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 B.C.E.).[3]

Context and Structure

The present text of this prayer,[4] which consists of 105 verses, goes back to the Chaldean period (626-539 B.C.E) and seems to belong to the Babylonian temple complex of Esagila, which was built by the Anunnaki and dedicated to the supreme Babylonian god Marduk, according to the Creation Epic (Tablet VI).

 

The context of this prayer is actually straightforward: an anonymous supplicant addresses his prayer to the deity Ishtar, describing his dreadful situation and asking her for help, so that he and all who see him may praise and glorify her. Therefore, according to the classifications of the biblical form-critical method, this prayer is an individual lament psalm and its Sitz im Leben is liturgical.[5]

 

The literary analysis of the structure of this individual lament psalm can be identified as follows (the same is roughly applicable to the Hebrew psalms of individual lament):

 

1-     First Invocation of a Deity’s Name (vv.1-26)

The supplicant’s invocation of the deity’s name should be understood as an imperative call for help, “I pray to thee, O Lady of ladies, goddess of goddesses” (v. 1). Having invoked Ishtar, the supplicant’s words are now full of the epithets and deeds that describe Ishtar, such as, “O most might of princesses, exalted is thy name,” (v. 3) and, “Thou regardest the oppressed and mistreated; daily thou causest them to prosper” (v. 26). This last part, which is a literal exaggerating of Ishtar’s portrayal, is meant to capture her attention so that she would pay heed to his prayer.

 

2- Request for Mercy (vv. 27-30)

Given that each of the four verses begins with the phrase, “Thy mercy!” this part shows how emphatically the supplicant is now asking Ishtar to bestow on him her mercy, “Thy mercy! O Lady of heaven and earth, shepherdess of the weary people” (v. 27). As it will be shown from the context of this individual lament psalm, the word “mercy” has different connotations here: it means an act of showing and performing forgiveness, kindness, justice, and restoration.  

 

3- Second Invocation of a Deity’s Name (vv. 31-41)

This second invocation is shorter than the first one. However, the supplicant is employing the same style, that is, the use of the titles and works that portray Ishtar, like, “ O brilliant one, torch of heaven and earth, light of all peoples” (v. 35) and, “Where thou dost look, one who is dead lives; one who is sick rises up” (v. 40). Once more, the second invocation functions as the first one.

 

4- Description of the Troubles (vv. 42-78)

As Ishtar’s servant, the supplicant implores her to listen to his prayers, forgive him, and be appeased (vv. 42-45), though he explicitly admits that he has done nothing wrong (v. 67). Is he in denial (when people are faced with a fact that is agonizing to accept, they reject it and insist that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence. This is called a psychological defence mechanism)?

 

The most important feature in the individual lament psalms is the descriptive details of the supplicant’s distress and misfortune, which show the austerity of his situation. For instance, the supplicant is physically afflicted, “Pity! For my wretched body which is full of confusion and trouble” (v. 46), emotionally stressed out, “I mourn like a dove night and day” (v. 64), religiously rejected, “As for my god, his face is turned to the sanctuary of another” (v. 77), and relationally cut off, “My family is scattered” (v. 78).

 

5- Prayer for Help and Rescue (vv. 79-100)

Though it seems that the supplicant is entirely engulfed by feelings of despondency, the fact that he prays to Ishtar to help and rescue him is in itself a sign of trust and confidence in her, “(But) I have paid heed to thee, my Lady; my attention has been turned to thee” (v. 79). The supplicant once more asks Ishtar to forgive whatever he has done, “Forgive my sin, my iniquity, my shameful deeds, and my offence” (v. 81).

 

At this juncture, the following question seems to be important: does the supplicant believe that his suffering is a consequence of his sin? If the answer is negative, why then is he asking Ishtar for forgiveness of his sin? Conversely, if the answer is affirmative, then the next question would be: what was his sin? Unfortunately, the text does not give a hint. However, it seems right to say that the supplicant has come to a realization that his sin has rendered him miserable and vile. Therefore, the idea of connecting sin with suffering seems to be present in this Babylonian individual lament psalm, “In Babylonian psalms of lament the fact that a man has suffered misfortune is frequently taken to mean that he must have sinned.”[6] Therefore, it seems right to say that the nature of this Babylonian individual lament psalm is penitential.

 

In his impressive prayer, the supplicant is trying to motivate Ishtar to interfere, “Loosen my fetters; secure my deliverance” (v. 83). Apart from forgiveness, his prayer has other multi-dimensional petitions: reconciliation with his god and goddess, including Ishtar (vv. 85-86, 93-95), restoration of his family (v. 89), and deliverance from and victory over his enemies (v. 97-98).