adily to an ethical elaboration. Accordingly, we find in these hymns
justice and righteousness as the two prominent themes. A striking
passage in one of these hymns reads:[425]

The law of mankind dost thou direct,
Eternally just in the heavens art thou,
Of faithful judgment towards all the world art thou.
Thou knowest what is right, thou knowest what is wrong.
O Shamash! Righteousness has lifted up its neck(?);
O Shamash! Wrong like a ---- has been cut(?);
O Shamash! The support of Anu and Bel art thou;
O Shamash! Supreme judge of heaven and earth art thou.

After a break in the tablet, the hymn continues:

O Shamash! Supreme judge, great lord of all the world art thou;
Lord of creation, merciful one of the world art thou.

The following lines now reveal the purpose of the hymn. It is a prayer
for the life of the king:

O Shamash! on this day purify and cleanse the king, the son of his
god.
Whatever is evil within him, let it be taken out.

The next few lines are a distinct echo of the incantation formulas, and
show how readily prayer passes from a higher to a lower stage of
thought:

Cleanse him like a vessel ----[426]
Illumine him like a vessel of ----[426]
Like the copper of a polished tablet,[427] let him be bright.
Release him from the ban.

The same incantation occurs at the close of another hymn to Shamash,
addressed to the sun upon his rising.[428] The colophon furnishes the
opening line of the next tablet, which also begins with an address to
Shamash. We have here a clear indication of a kind of Shamash ritual
extending, perhaps, over a number of tablets, and to which, in all
probability, the hymn just quoted also belongs.

The opening lines of the second hymn read:

O Shamash! out of the horizon of heaven thou issuest forth,
The bolt of the bright heavens thou openest,
The door of heaven thou dost open.
O Shamash! over the world dost thou raise thy head.
O Shamash! with the glory of heaven thou coverest the world.

It would be difficult to believe, but for the express testimony
furnished by the hymn itself, that a production giving evidence of such
a lofty view of the sun-god should, after all, be no more than an
incantation. The same is the case, however, with all the Shamash hymns
so far published. They either expressly or by implication form part of
an incantation ritual. Evidently, then, such addresses to Shamash are to
be viewed in no other