The Seven Sages

[sdi]

We have dug up a whole mess of Mesopotamian texts describing ten legendary kings who lived before the great flood. You may have heard of a few of them: the first is Alulim, known to Judaism as Adam; the sixth is Dumizid the shepherd (consort of Inanna), known to the Greeks as Adonis (consort of Aphrodite); the seventh is Enmeduranki (in the Uruk List of Kings and Sages) or Euedoreschus (in Berossus), known to Judaism as Enoch and Islam as Idris; the tenth is Ziusudra or Utnapishtim, known to Judaism as Noah and to the Greeks as Deucalion.

A couple of these texts say the first seven of these kings were advised by seven sages, fish-men who came from the sea to teach the Mesopotamians all the arts of civilization. Alexander Polyhistor records that these sages would come and teach during the day, and then plunge back into the sea at night. These seven sages are named in several places, and the bit meseri (an Assyrian magic spell that is still extant) even tells us a little about them:

1. Uanna, who completes the plans of heaven and earth
2. Uannedugga, who is all-wise
3. Enmedugga, who is given good fortune
4. Enmegalamma, who is born in a house
5. Enmebulugga, who grew up on pasture land
6. Anenlilda, the wizard of Eridu
7. Utuabzu, who ascended to heaven

I had researched all this a year or two ago. I thought this was an interesting and bizarre little legend, but what's really odd is how widespread it is: we see traces of it preserved in many different places against all odds. But why? Back then, I assumed it all had something to do with Atlantis: maybe this is a folk recollection of a seafaring civilization who came and taught the Mesopotamians the arts of civilization before a flood swallowed them up or whatever.

I was thinking about it again today, since I just read Plato's Critias (where he talks about Atlantis) and Critias lists the "ten kings" of Atlantis. (And yes, the names very roughly match the ten kings given elsewhere, so maybe Plato's legend comes from Mesopotamia, rather than Egypt as he claims.) But it struck me that these seven sages, who confer all knowledge on mankind, are merely the planets.

Consider that the seven planets are "fish-men" of a sort, being stars swimming in a sea of stars but being special among them, just as intelligent fish would be among normal fish. Just like Alexander Polyhistor records of the Sages, the planets spend half their time above the horizon and the other half beneath it.

Consider also the order in which the sages are given, compared to the Chaldean order of the planets. Saturn is the lord of limits ("completes the plans of heaven and earth"); Jupiter is the lord of wisdom ("all-wise"); Mars is successful ("given good fortune"). "Born in a house" is odd, but perhaps the translation I have is garbled; but while "grew up on pasture land" is similarly a little weird, Venus is known to have fallen for a shepherd. Calling Mercury, the lord of erudition and magic, a "wizard" is sensible enough; and certainly, as someone who is so often beckoned upward by the lovely Moon, saying that She "ascends to heaven" is no great stretch.

Consider also that these sages are invoked in magical spells and rituals, even at a supposed remove of hundreds of thousands of years—an impressive longevity for any being below a divinity.

Consider also that the legendary kings of Mesopotamia—at a minimum Dumuzid, Utnapishtim, and the post-flood Gilgamesh—serve not as historical personages but rather vehicles for spiritual lessons and mysteries: the mysteries of Dumuzid (later known to the Greeks via Adonis) and the legends of Gilgamesh (later known to the Greeks via Heracles) were stories about the descent and re-ascent of souls, and the former of these explicitly calls out the seven spheres of the planets in the process.

No, I think these antediluvian kings are mythic because they aren't mean to be real, rather they are didactic; and the sages are therefore the Seven who show us the way home if only we ask Them to. If I'm correct, then the widespread echoes of it are no surprise: Babylon exported its mysteries to all and sundry, but as the mysteries died, so did the keys unlocking them.

Comments

[lp9]

Very interesting!

[boccaderlupo]

I like it!