Page 257 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Topography and archaeology, 1878-1879
583
202 TIIE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN.

earliest period of the world’s history may bo inferred from
tho fact that, whereas Babylonia was mainly instrumental in
imparting civilization to Western Asia, tho Babylonians
themselves admitted having received all their knowledge
from the mysterious islanders of the Persian Gulf. Tho
tradition'prpserved by Berosus, of Oannes, or “tho fish God,”
who came up from “ that part of tho Erythraean Sea which
borders on Babylonia,” to teach the inhabitants of the country
between the Tigris and Euphrates, “letters and sciences
and arts of every kind,” evidently points to this period of
primitive civilization.1 Oannes appears in tho inscriptions as
“tho creator of mankind”; “the God of knowledge”; the
lord of the primeval cities of Uriel, of Surippak, and of
Khalkha. lie is usually known by the namo of Jy
“ the God of tho house of water,” to which title I proposed
many years ago to give the phonetic valuo of Ilea, a pro­
visional reading, which has remained in uso ever since,
though it has really very little except convenience to recom­
mend it. The question then arises, who woro these primitive
“ fathers of knowledge,” who first civilized the settlers on
tho Tigris and Euphrates, and whose memory was perhaps
preserved in tho legend of the Garden of Eden and the tree
of knowledge? From many circumstances, which will be

1 The Into Gcorgo Smith, in tho third chapter of his “ Chaldnoan Account of
Genesis,n p. 37, has extracted from Cory’s fragments most of tho Greek notices
referring to tho early mythology and tho primitive settlement of Babylonia, and
has compared them in a somewhat perfunctory mauncr with tho traditions
preserved in tho Cuneiform Inscriptions. Ilia account of Jlea or Oannes is at any
rate far from satisfactory, and really adds very littlo to what I published on tho
subject twenty-two years ago in vol. i. of ltawlinson’s Herodotus, p. 599. I ho
great desideratum has been to find the Cuneiform original of the Greek •'flam?s,
but up to tho present timo tho search has boon unsuccessful. If Lcuormant s
conjecture had proved truo that >IY-YT had the power of khan, tho Accadian name
l I I I . vwwy >-v
for a fish boing khanna, then wo might havo compared ^ >i ill I
ns a titlo of Ilea with Oanuos; but all tho ovidonco goes to show that ►jT-jp
had tho phonetic valuo of nun, and nothing also. Tho origiunl namo of Ilea
scorns to havo been >->-Y YJ £^Y ►Y-YYY Adnnuna, which probably
meant “ the fish king.” (Sco B.M.I. vol. i!. p. 31, No. 2, which is an etymolo­
gical commentary on tho Accadian toxt ot an unrccovcrod portion of tho
"foil” Tablet, other portions of tho same commentary which refer to tho
published toxt of tho fall tablot, boing included in B.M.I. vol. y. now almost
ready for issuo.)