3. Sin.—Next to the triad and the great mother- goddess, the worship of the two great orbs of light ~_the moon and the sun—is a feature of the Baby- lonian religion that clings to it from the earliest period of which we have any record, down to the latest. It is impossible to say definitely that the cult of the one is older than the other, but the ereater prominence which, so far as the evidence goes, was enjoyed by the moon cult in the earliest forms of Semitic culture, justifies the preference given to it in the order of treatment. In a general way it may be said that the moon cult is coexistent with the nomadic grade of culture, while sun worship corresponds more to the frame of mind and to the conditions prevailing among a people that has reached the agricultural stage. This generalization, though open to the objections that attach to all generalizations, is nevertheless of value, provided it be not pushed to the extreme of denying the possibility of sun worship in the pre-agricultural period of the Semites. The move- ments of nomads in Arabia—the home par eacel- lence of the Semites—taking place for a great part of the year at night, the moon naturally served as an important euide. The more regular changes in the orb of night and the briefer period in which these regular changes run their course, constituted further features that helped to emphasize the im-
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542 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
perience of the moon as a medium for the calcu- ation of time. However this may be, two of the oldest religious centres in Babylonia were seats of moon worship—Ur and Harran (or Haran),—and the sanctuaries at both places retained their popu- larity until the days of the New Babylonian empire. Assyrian rulers vied with those in the south in paying homage to the god worshipped in these centres.
The common name given to the moon-god is Sin. The meaning and etymology of this name are not yet clear; but there were numerous epithets by which he was known. Among these is one Nannar, which, signifying ‘the one who gives light’ or ‘place of light,’* appears to have been used at one time as a genuine name and not merely as an epithet. Possibly Nannar is even an older name than Sin, which appears to have originated at Harran. Besides the two places named, there were, no doubt, other places in Baby- lonia where the moon cult flourished, and it was merely the religious prominence of Ur and Harran that lent to their association with the moon-god a special significance. The moon-god is ordi- narily designated ideographically En-zu, which describes him as the ‘lord of wisdom,’ and this attribute is perhaps the most important of the con- ceptions connected with him. This designation appears in one of the earliest inscriptions known to us. Lugalzaggisit enumerates En-zu among the gods serving as his protectors, and from the sequence it is evident that this ruler has in mind the moon-god of the city of Ur. The cultivation of the science of astronomy by the Babylonian priests served to emphasize the association of wisdom with the moon, as the overseer of the starry heavens; and, since the motive predomi- nating in the development of this science was the belief in the influence of the position and movements of the stars upon the fate of the indi- vidual, the wisdom of Sin was to a large extent coextensive with the giving of oracles and the interpretation of omens. Hence the prominence accorded to Sin in the omen literature. It is he who sends dreams. He is addressed as the lord of decisions, the god who gives counsel; and if in later times it is Shamash—the sun-god—rather than Sin who appears as the god of oracles, this is due to the greater prominence which Shamash acquired in the agricultural stage of culture, and which led to the relegating of Sin to a second- ary position. Sin’s traits as the illuminator like- wise continue to be dwelt upon both in historical texts and in the hymns composed in his honour; and, with the tendency to lay stress on the ethical ages of the natures of the gods, the light diffused by Sin becomes a symbol of his function in reveal- ing to men the snares that are laid for them in the dark. As a protection against the workings of the mischievous spirits who ply their trade generally at night, the appeal is frequently made in the incantations to the moon-god; but here, again, there are other tendencies at work in the Babylonian religion that prevent the fullest de- velopment of the traits of wisdom and of pro- tection ascribed to Sin. In the later periods the element of wisdom is so prominently associated with another god—EKa, who through various causes becomes the god of humanity par excellence—as to set the moon cult almost aside, while the greater attachment felt towards the sun by an agricultural population, added to the much more powerful character of the sun’s light, leads not only to Shamash becoming an oracle god in the place of Sin, but exalts the sun-god to the position of chief protector of mankind against injustice,
* So Lehmann, Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, xvi. p. 405.
t Hilprecht, Old Bab. Inscriptions, i. 2, No. 87, col. i. 21-22.