Of course it must be borne in mind again that in some cases the place where the monument is erected leads to the introduction of specifically local deities, who are designated as such; and, since it is a matter of chance which local deities are invoked in this way, we ought properly to remove these from the total. Similarly, a god like Sir is introduced by virtue of the character of the monuments in question. There remain the following thirteen, who may be regarded as con- stituting the official pantheon during the second period of Babylonian history: the triad Anu, Bel, and Ea; the group Sin, Shamash, Adad, and Ishtar; the pairs Ninib and Gula, and Marduk and Nebo respectively ; Nergal and Girru-Nusku. If we add to these the consorts. who play an active part in the religious life, Belit and Damkina, the consorts of Bel and Ea respectively ; Nin-gal, A, and Shala, the consorts of Sin, Shamash, and Adad respectively ; Sarpanit and Tashmit for Marduk and Nebo,—we have a total of twenty gods.
The general tendency to be observed in the in- vocation of deities on the boundary stones, as we pass from one century to another, is to reduce the number introduced ; and this tendency is in accord with the general course taken by the development of the theological system as devised by the priests. In the days of the Assyrian empire the tendency becomes even more marked. So Assurbanipal (B.C. 668-626), who is fond of calling upon all the great gods, never extends the list beyond eleven, as follows: Ashur, Sin, Shamash, Adad, Bel (by whom he means Marduk), Nebo, the two Ishtars (the Ishtar of Nineveh and the Ishtar of Arbela), Ninib, Nergal, and Nusku. To these the triad, although less prominently dwelt upon in Assyrian inscriptions, is to be added, which again gives us fourteen: in adding the consorts of Bel, Ka, Sin, Shamash, Adad, Marduk, Nebo, and Ninib, we have twenty-two deities, the addition of two to the Babylonian pantheon being formed by the second Ishtar and by Ashur. In the New Babylonian period, so far as the testimony of the inscriptions goes, the actual cult is confined chiefly to Mar- duk, Nebo, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar ; and though kings like Nebuchadrezzar pride themselves upon erecting chapels and sanctuaries to many other deities, including some whose cult they appear to have revived, still these five deities receive such a large share of attention as to make the others quite subsidiary during the Assyrian period like- wise, though in the earlier part of this period the cult of Anu is still prominent, and quite a number of other gods are occasionally introduced besides those that appear in Assurbanipal’s ordinary list.t
* Delitzsch in Beitrdge zur Assyriologie, ii, p. 265 (col. v. 1-42).
+ See, ¢.g., two inscriptions of Sennacherib (Meissner-Rost, Bauinschrifien Sanheribs, pp. 99-102), where we find lists of
550 RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
The actual cult, nevertheless, centres so largely
around Ashur, Ishtar, Sin, Shamash, Adad, and Nebo (to which number, perhaps, Marduk might be added), that these constitute for all practical purposes the active pantheon during the greater part of the existence of the Assyrian empire.
2. To what extent lotal cults continued to flourish during the second and third Babylonian periods, and in the Assyrian period, it is quite impossible to say. No doubt, the little sanctuaries scattered throughout the country retained some of their popularity, though even places removed from the great centres of religious life could hardly have escaped the influence of the system that was de- veloped, and that identified the various moon- deities as forms of one and the same god, and similarly distinguished only a limited number of distinct solar deities, so that many of the old local deities would represent in the later periods a survival largely in name. On the other, hand, the process of concentration did not extend further than above indicated. The active pantheon was limited to five or six deities ; and though occasion- ally Ashur is celebrated in terms which might lead one to suppose that he was recognized as the only god actually controlling the fate of mankind; and though there are indications in the religious literature and even texts * which point to Marduk’s having been represented as having the qualities of all the other great gods,—Ninib, Nergal, Bel, Sin, Shamash, and Adad,—we must not be misled by such phenomena into supposing that the conception which regarded the Universe as the emanation of a single Power or Spirit ever obtained a decided foothold in the Euphrates Valley. It may be that to a few choice minds this view presented itself, but there are no traces of it either in the historical inscriptions of any period or in the religious litera- ture, which are sufficiently definite to warrant us in assuming this to have been the case. At all events, the view never entered to any degree—even the slightest—into the religious life of the people or of the priests; and it is the religious fife as actually lived that forms the only safe criterion, when dealing with an ancient civilization, for de- termining the beliefs and doctrines that prevailed. The testimony of the entire Babylonian literature, as of the historical texts of Babylonia and Assyria, is unmistakable in this respect.
We may indeed distinguish, as we have endea- voured to do, several periods in the development of the religious doctrines. We observe clearly the tendency to concentrate the cult on a selection of the numerous deities once worshipped, and we can trace the leading principles which led to the belief in a triad standing above all the gods, and to a group of deities, varying from about thirty in the oldest period to some twenty at a later time, subsidiary to this triad; and we may furthermore note the tendency to reduce the active pantheon to a still smaller number of deities, who absorb the largest share of attention to such an extent as to obscure the others almost com- pletely: but here the process ends. Ashur in Assyria reminds one of the national Jahweh; and Marduk in Babylonia is given certain attributes which are associated by Hebrew writers with Jahweh at the time that the latter is on the verge