The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria,
Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 3 (of 12), by G. Maspero

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Title: History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 3 (of 12)

Author: G. Maspero

Editor: A.H. Sayce

Translator: M.L. McClure

Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17323]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF EGYPT, CHALDAEA ***

Produced by David Widger

HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO,
Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford;
Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of France.

Edited by A. H. SAYCE,
Professor of Assyriology, Oxford.

Translated by M. L. McCLURE,
Member of the Committee of the Egypt Exploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume III.

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

[Illustration: 001.jpg El Hammam (The Bath)]

[Illustration: 002.jpg THE BANKS OF THE EUPHRATES AT IIILLAH]

Drawn by Boudier, after J. Dieulafoy. The vignette, which is
by Faucher-Gudin, is reproduced from an intaglio in the
Cabinet des Medailles.

CHAPTER I--ANCIENT CHALDAEA

The Creation, the Deluge, the history of the gods--The country, its
cities its inhabitants, its early dynasties.

[Illustration: 002a.jpg]

"In the time when nothing which was called heaven existed above, and when
nothing below had as yet received the name of earth,* Apsu, the Ocean,
who first was their father, and Chaos-Tiamat, who gave birth to them
all, mingled their waters in one, reeds which were not united, rushes
which bore no fruit."** Life germinated slowly in this inert mass, in
which the elements of our world lay still in confusion: when at length
it did spring up, it was but feebly, and at rare intervals, through
the hatching of divine couples devoid of personality and almost without
form. "In the time when the gods were not created, not one as yet, when
they had neither been called by their names, nor had their destinies
been assigned to them by fate, gods manifested themselves. La