Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

354 NO ROD—CLOSE INTERCOURSE WITH EGYPTThe firstconcerns the goddess Ereshkigal, the other transmitsthe legend of Adapa.*From the Bekten stele we deduce a close intercourse betweenthe two countries about the XlXth Dynasty, for we read ofRameses II. ^ being in Mesopotamia " according to his wont,and receiving tributes and presents from theyear by year,"chiefs of the countries round about.The connection between Assyria (proper) and Egypt restson ample evidence. Fish, or " beasts of the sea," passed aspresents, perhaps as trade. On the Broken Column of Tiglath-Pileser I. (Cyhnder IV. 29-30) we read, " And a great beastof the River, a great beast of the Sea, the king of Musre "(probably Egypt) " sent (unto him)."The Select Papyri (pi. 75, i, 7) tell of certain fish beingbrought, perhaps as a staple of trade, from the Puharuta orEuphrates to Egypt, and (in pi. 96, i, 7) of another fish orfishy substance called Rura, being imported from the land ofthe great waters, Mesopotamia. ^^ The Babylonian legend of Adapa is thus known to have circulated inPalestine and Egypt before the Hebrew Exodus. The story of Adapa isthought by some to have influenced the Hebrew version of the story of Adamand Eve and the loss of Paradise. See the excellent discussion in T. Skinner,Genesis (in the International Critical Commentary (1912), p. 91 fi), andLangdon, The Sumerian Epic of Paradise (University of Pennsylvania,Publications of the Babylonia Section, 191 5), vol. X., pp. 38-49.2 Rameses II. was held in high esteem as a rain-maker — perhaps rain-god—as is evidenced by the sacrifices offered by the Hittites that their princessshould on her journey to Egypt to marry Rameses enjoy fair weather, despitethat it was the season of the winter storms. In consequence of this powerover the elements, the Hittite chiefs strongly advocated friendship withEgypt, as otherwise Rameses II. would probably stop rain and cause a faminein their country (Breasted, Aticievt Records, III. 423, 426).3 Layard, Nineveh (London, 1849), vol. II. p. 438.