Research source

The name 'Babylon' carries with it the sound of a deep, mysterious spell, such a conjuration as might be…

Date of account: Ancient traditions presented in a work published 1916
Source: Myths & Legends of Babylonia & Assyria
Reference: Myths & Legends of Babylonia & Assyria · selected passage 1
Rights: public_domain
Language: English synthesis of Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian material
Translation: Lewis Spence, with cited translations and retellings
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

The name 'Babylon' carries with it the sound of a deep, mysterious spell, such a conjuration as might be uttered in the recesses of secret temples

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

The name 'Babylon' carries with it the sound of a deep, mysterious spell, such a conjuration as might be uttered in the recesses of secret temples. It awakens a thousand echoes in the imagination. It holds a music richer than that of Egypt. Babylon, Babylon--the sonorous charm of the word is as a line from some great epic. It falls on the ear of the historian like distant thunder. Behind the grandeur of Rome and the beauty of Greece it looms as a great and thick darkness over which flash at intervals streams of uncertain light as half-forgotten kings and priests, conquerors and tyrants, demi-gods and mighty builders pass through the gloom from obscurity to obscurity--sometimes in the full glare of historical recognition, but more often in the half-light and partially relieved dusk of uncertainty.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a passage from a historical religious or interpretive text. Its genre, manuscript history, translation and place within its own tradition are part of the evidence and must remain visible.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice can compare the passage's descriptive features with later reports, but resemblance does not turn a vision, angel, mythic creature or sacred narrative into a modern incident report.

Investigate related details with Anomaly Graph’s account-based search, or read how matching and provenance work.