Altogether, we encounter about thirty distinct deities in the historical and votive inscriptions of the rulers before Hammurabi; but that this number is far from exhausting the minor deities worshipped by the side of those holding the front rank as the greater gods, is demonstrated by the circumstance that the names of more than fifty gods entering as elements into proper names occur in one of the oldest Babylonian inscriptions, that of Manish- tusu,§ whose date is certainly before 3000 B.c., and perhaps as early as 3500 B.C.|| Some of the gods thus utilized in the formation of proper names are of foreign origin—Elamitic and Kassitic; butabstract- ing these, we still obtain quite an addition to those directly invoked in the inscriptions of this period. The number is still further increased by a study of the proper names in legal and commercial docu- ments of the Hammurabi period, which furnishes
*7.e. Tammuz, according to the Hebrew form of the name of the month,
t Hilprecht, Old Babylonian Inscriptions, i. 2, No. 87, col. i. 1-85.
t Inscription B, col. viii. and ix. (de Sarzec, Découvertes en Chaldée, pls. 16-19).
§ Published by Scheil in Teates Elamites-Sémitiques, i. pp. 39,
I Scheil places this ruler at 4500 B.c., which is, however, too early a date. See above, p. 537>.
RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
more than seventy distinct deities ;* and, when we turn to incantation texts and add the gods who are there invoked, the total ranges considerably over one hundred.
But even in this way we cannot be certain of obtaining even an approximate estimate of the mninor deities worshipped in Babylonia and Assyria ; and in view of the fact that our material is still scanty compared with the enormous extent of the Babylonian literature, taken together with the cir-
cumstance that almost every new publication of
texts brings new gods to our notice, it is easier to err by too low than by too high an estimate.
More important, however, than the attempt to estimate the number of gods once worshipped in Babylonia, is the recognition of the distinction to be drawn in a study of the religion of Babylonia and Assyria between the popular phases of the religion as represented chiefly by the very numerous local cults, and the endeavours of the priests and theologians to systematize the current beliefs. The outcome of these endeavours was the distribution of the forces working in the Universe among a comparatively restricted number of deities, repre- senting on the one hand the gods and goddesses worshipped in the chief religious centres of the Euphrates Valley and of Assyria, and, on the other, symbolizing the chief phenomena and great powers of nature—the whole being arranged according to certain guiding principles.
(C) THE COMBINED INVOCATION OF DEITIES.— To see these principles at their best, we must turn to the combined invocation of deities to be found in the inscriptions of the period subsequent to the days of Hammurabi. 1. For Babylonia, our best sources are the so-called boundary stones, which guarantee certain rights to owners of lands. These inscriptions almost invariably conclude with invoking the curse of the gods of the pantheon upon any who attempt to set aside these rights or to deface or destroy the monumental records on which they are inscribed. A sufficient number of such boundary stones—from the 14th to the 8th cents. B.c.—have now been found to enable us to draw definite conclusions. The number of deities called upon varies from twelve to nineteen. The list usually begins with the triad Anu, Bel, and Ea, to which at times a female representative —Nin-makh or Nin-kharsag—is added; followed by the second group, consisting of Sin, Shamash, and Adad, or these three with Ishtar ; followed by Ninib and Gula,—the latter also under the form Nin-karrak,— who, as the gods presiding over boundaries and boundary rights, are never want- ing; but here the agreement among the monu- ments of this character ends. On many, but not on all, we find Marduk and Nebo. Marduk occupies the first place, which of right belongs to him, but, inasmuch as many of these documents date from the Kassite period, when, as will be remembered, the attempt was made to rein- state Bel of Nippur in the rank formerly occupied by him, Marduk is more frequently placed after the second group of deities. Nergal is generally in- cluded, and also a serpent-god, Sir, who, besides being named, is invariably depicted among the symbols of the gods, which, in most cases, are attached to the inscription.t Girru and Nusku appear only in one instance, while the two chief Kassite deities, Shukamuna and Shumalia, corre- sponding to the Babylonian Ninib and Ishtar, are
* See Ranke’s monograph, Die Personennamen in den Ur- kunden der Hammurabidynastie (Miinchen, 1902). _ ‘
+ See Peiser’s collection of them in Schrader’s Keilinschrift- liche Bibliothek, vol. iv. pp. 56-104; and Scheil, Yeates Elamites-Sémitiques, i. and ii.
{ On the meaning of these symbols, see Jastrow, Die Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, pp. 191, 192.
Occasionally:
RELIGION OF BABYLONIA = 549
added on several of the monuments dating from the Kassite period. Lastly, a series of local gods —Za-mal-mal, the chief god of Kish, and Dun-pa- uddu (both absorbed by Ninib), Pap-nigin-garra (merely again another form of Ninib) and_ his consort Belit-ekalli (‘lady of the palace,’ which is another designation of Gula), Shubu and Belit of Akkad (described along with Sin as the gods of a district, Bit-khabban), and, finally, the god- desses Nan4, Ishkhara, and Anunit (absorbed by the great Ishtar)—are in several instances intro- duced, as well as Sarpanit, the consort of Marduk, who in one instance, on an Assyrian boundary stone of Marduk-baliddin’s days (721-709 B.c.), appears as Erua.* In all, therefore, we have only about twenty-five distinct deities introduced on some twenty of these monuments, or, abstracting the two Kassite deities, we find the Babylonian pantheon restricted to about twenty-three.