Note 869 — Chapter IX · UNLUCKY DAYS

According to A. Jeremias no evidence exists for the recognition of twelve intercalary days in the ancient Oriental world (Das Alter der babylonischen Astronomie, Leipzig, 1909, p. 42 n.¹). However, the Babylonian New Year’s festival of Zagmuk, which occupied the first eleven days of the spring month of Nisan, has been compared with the Twelve Days of Indo-European antiquity (H. Winckler, Altorientalische Forschungen, Leipzig, 1898, ii, i, 182). What relation, if any, the Babylonian Zagmuk bore to the Babylo-Persian Sacæa and the Hebrew Purim is still a subject of controversy. See the full presentation of the evidence in Sir J. G. Frazer, The Scapegoat, London, 1913, pp. 354-407. The Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, recorded on twelve cuneiform tablets, has been plausibly interpreted as a solar myth, recounting the sun’s annual course during the twelve months. Now, a relationship undoubtedly exists between at least three tablets of the poem and the corresponding months of the year, notably in the case of the eleventh tablet, in which the story of the Deluge is told, and the eleventh month, which by the Babylonians was termed the “month of rain” (M. Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, pp. 484, 510). It is curious, therefore, to find that in the Hebrew narrative of the Flood the waters cover the earth for the period of a year and eleven days, apparently, here, a lunar year of 354 days plus eleven days (Genesis, vii, 11, viii, 14).