Page:The Babylonian conception of heaven and hell - Jeremias (1902).djvu/43

 The sufferer has already bestowed on his tormentor clothes and shoes and a girdle, as well as a water skin and food for his departing journey. Now let him go to the West, to the Underworld, and there may the god Nedu, the gate-keeper of Hades, retain him fast that he escape no more.



In the light of the foregoing statements it can hardly be doubted that the Babylonians believed in personal immortality. The body decays in the grave (shalamtu is the name given to the corpse, that is to say, "that which is done with"), but the soul lives in the gloom of Hades, and in that abode of horror leads an immaterial, shadow-like existence. Their thoughts, however, took a further flight and conceived of a brighter fate. Diogenes Laertius appears to have been correctly informed in ascribing to the Babylonian schools of philosophy (or rather schools of the priests) a belief not only in immortality, but also to a certain extent in a resurrection. We have