Introduction to the Science of Religion

Author(s): Max Muller
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London

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LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION.
is said to be Thalatth 1 in Chaldean, and translated in Greek, Thalassa (or sea). When all these were thus together, Belus came and cut the woman in two: and one half of her he made the earth, and the other half the sky; and he destroyed all the creatures that were in her. But this account of nature is to be understood allegorically. For when all was still moist, and creatures were born in it, then the god (Belus) cut off his own head, and the gods mixed the blood that flowed from it with the earth, and formed man; wherefore men are rational, and participate in the divine intelligence.'
And Belus, whom they explain as Zeus (and the Armenians as Aramazd), cut the darkness in two, and separated earth and heaven from each other, and ordered the world. And animals which could not bear the power of the light, perished. And Belus, when he saw the desert and fertile land, commanded one of the gods to cut off his head, to mix the earth with the blood flowing from it, and to form men and beasts that could bear the air. And Belus established also the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets.
1 Mr. Sayce writes to me: 'Perhaps Lenormant is right in correcting Θαλάτθ (when compared with the Ταυθέ or Ταυθή of Damascius) into Oaváre, that is, the Assyrian Tihamtu or Tamtu, the sea, the Heb. DINA. In this case the correspondence of the Babylonian account with Genesis i. 2 will be even greater.' Bunsen explained Talâdeth from the Hebrew yalad, as meaning 'laying eggs.' Bunsen's 'Egypt,' vol. iv. p. 150. Dr. Haupt (Die Sumerische-akkadische Sprache,' p. 276) points out that m in Sumero-Accadian dwindled down to v, and that the same change may be observed in Assyrian also. Thus the Assyrian Tâmdu, sea (= tahmatu, or ti 'amdu, tiamtu, stat. constr. t' amat; cf. Hebrew tehom) is represented as Tavo é by Damascius,
Questiones de primis principiis,' ed. Kopp. p. 384), and Damkina, the wife of Êa, as Aaúkn.
me change may tahmatu, or time as Tavole