the storm, was Ramman (Sumer. Marlii and Imir), who in course of time became a separate god, worshipped alongside of Bel. In primitive times the Moon-god (Sin) and Ea had likewise common titles (e.g. En-zu, 'Lord of wisdom,' Semitic Bel- nimeki), the Moon-god being hence called the first- born son of the god Bel.
Anum (shortened, Anu) was originally thought of as without a consort, for the goddess Anator Autu is (inly a later philosophical abstraction, and has nothing whatever to do with the West Semitic rjy. On the other hand, both the consort of Bel, Mn-lilla ('mistress of the air,' in Semitic abso- lutely Bellu 'mistress') or Ba'u, and the consort of Ea, Dam-gal-minna or Damkina, were female per.sonificatiims of the Ocean of Heaven. The four children of the Earth-god (who was represented as a Kam) and his consort Damkinn, the goddess of Heaven, were Mimdach (Aiuar-iiduk, Mar- vduk, and simply Mardiik, as he was specially called in Babylon), the god of the morning-and- springsun, his sister and consort IsCitr, his hostile brother Nergal, and the lalter's consort Ghanna (~y;) or Gula, whose name wa-s written with the same ideogram as the town of Nineveh (Nina). A very ancient designation of Merodach was Gur-alimma (same ideogram as 'domicile' and 'eye'). A god originally identified with Nergal (god of agriculture and of the kingdom of the dead), but afterwards differentiated from him, was Ninib (or Nindar) god of war. The god Dumu-zi or Tnmmuz, of whom the same myth is related as of the Egyptian Osiris, was only another mani- festation of Merodach. Finally, mention must be made of the son of Merodach, Xahu or .V!(.<t/t-!/, the messenger of ^he gods, the god of the art of writing, who also appears as the god of fire, and bears other titles besides (e.g. Niii-giah-zidda). His consort was Tashmetu (' hearing prayer ').
In very early times Merodach, Istar, Nergal, Nindar, and Xabu (Nebo) became Planet-gods, and, corresponding to their relative distance from the earth, the following was the primitive arrange- ment: Sin (Moon), Xahli or Dnn-pa-nddu (Mer- cury), Islar OT Dilhat (Venus), .S'dma.s- (Sun), Nin-ib or Kdieanu (Mars), Marduk or (iudhir (Jupiter), and .Veri/ni (Saturn). A fterwardsXin-ib and Nergal changed places, Kaivanu becoming Saturn. Siini- larly, the title Gud-bir was at a later period given to Nabii (Merodach's son), and the new name Mulu-habbar (written Te-u(l) assigneil to Jupiter. The conjunction of Sakkul (read ^^-°) and Kevan ' in Am 5-» may bo compared with the conjunction of the gods Tibal (Earth? ''PO), Sakktit (title of Nindar, originally Sn-kud, 'judge,' sc. of the dead in the under-world), and KaicSmi in a Semitic exorci.sm ( 11^1/ iv. o9, 8).
The oldest sanctuary of the gods, whose names and genealogical connexions have just been enumerated, and the special home of the gods in Babylonia, was the ancient town of Xiin-ki ('place of heaven') or Eridu ( Urn-Dugga, ' good town ' or ' town of the good god,' I.e. Ea). There too, 'at the mouth of the rivers,' stood the holy palm (GU-kin, Semitic Kiskanfi), the famous oracle-tree of Eridu, to which the ancient Babylonian ideas of Paradise ■attach themselves, since here is to be found 'the pure abode, which stretches out its shade like a grove, but within it no one treads ' (W'AI iv. 16, 5'2 ff. ). Besides this, the Babylonians h,ad also another conception of a land of the gods to the south of the mouth of the Euphrates, and of a river of death and an Island of the Blessed far out in the ocean. In the epic of Gisdubar, the hero, the biblical Nimrod, sets out from Erech by laud throuuh .Arabia, to seek for his gre.at-gr.ind father Sit-napisti (the biblical Noah), who ii.as been translated to Paradise. Between Aga and Salma,
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the mountains of the land of Mashu, dwell the mythical scorpion-raen, who guard the gold of Mount Arallu. • After a long journey 'through the land of darkness,' Gisdubar at last reaches the sea-coast and the palace of the virgin goddess Sabitu (i.e. the Sabiean), thence he travels to the ' waters of death,' and crossing over arrives at the residence of Sit-napisti. It looks as if the incense-island Sokolra, to the south of Arabia, had furnislied the material for this conception.
The conception of Hades or 'the land without return ' (Bab. tShelu, from shu'alu ' place of judg- ment,' al iisiti 'town of the under-world,' and other .similar names) is also found amongst the Babylonians, who place it in the farther south, where the waters of the ocean extend below the earth and connect themselves with the under part of the Ocean of Heaven. Here the different gods of the under-world, especially the night-and-winter sun (also called the South sun, Nin-ib, Nergal) but also the fire-demon Nebo-Nusku, and the Moon-god, acted as judges of the dead. All this clearly implies the notion of a retribution beyond the grave. Besides the Eden, which is conceived of as situated on the coast of the Persian Gulf (]-\y from Sumerian Edin, ' desert,' * ' low ground '), there is also a I'aradise above in Heaven with the names Ey-ars^aff-kur-kurra ('Mountain-house of the lands') E-linrsag-kalamma ('House of the Mt. of the World'), Ekur ('Mountain-house,' properly E-(iur 'House of the Ocean of Heaven'), E-sharra (' House of assembly,' T^ "'? Is 14i^f). Since the Babylonians thought of the north as above, and of the south as below, it is evident why this mountain of the gods is, in Is 14'^, placed to the north (its opposite is Sheol, 14'=), and we are not to think of any carthlij mountain, svicli as Ararat.