RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Babylonia
next move would obviously be southward to Babylonia, but Nabonidus made no preparation for the crisis that was coming. When the war finally broke out, he collected the statues of the gods of Babylon, left the command of the army to Belshazzar, and when the latter was defeated fled into Babylon. Gobryas led the victorious army against the capital, where a sturdy and indeed successful defense might have been expected. The walls and gates which might have defied the best that Cyrus could do proved no protection, and though there is no proof that such is the fact, historical probability can offer no explanation of the speedy capture of the city other than that Nabonidus 's worst enemy was within, and that from within the gates swung open to admit the captor. Thus the rule of Asia passed from the Semites to the Aryans to hold until at the end of a millennium Arabia should once more discharge its hordes and in the Mohammedan conquest make a new era. See Cyrus the Great; Persia.
VII. The Religion. 1. Historical Development: The survey of the political geography and history of Babylonia shows it to have been as early as 4500 B.C. what it continued to be, a land of cities. History shows also that even at that early date there was a tendency toward what later became nationalization, in the effort of one or another city to control the whole land. These two features are reproduced in the religion. Each city had a deity who claimed the worship of the inhabitants; frequently there were two, generally in that case a god and a goddess, originally in all 1. Political probability not spouse and consort,
Factors, but independent. And in the pre-Sargonic period there are clear evidences that one of the gods of one of the cities had attained an eminence, not indeed of kingship over the gods, but of position among them. The general disposition of kings who took their titles from cities other than Nippur to devote their spoil to En-lil and to deposit it in his temple, suggests for him a general recognition not accorded to other deities, even to Ea of Eridu. While no specific claim of lordship over the gods was made for En-lil, not only was he practically the chief of the gods, but a theoretical headship is implied in the theological fiction by which later Marduk's definite claim to preeminence was supported, viz., that En-lil had transferred to the deity of Babylon the leadership among the gods because of the latter's victory over Tiamat, the demon of chaos, though, of course, the real reason of Marduk's supremacy was the hegemony of Babylon. The principle of centralization, of nationalization, was clearly at work in the sphere of religion as well as of politics. But this was limited by another principle, that preeminence among the gods did not involve supersession of other gods in their own seats of worship. En-lil was ever localized only in Nippur, Marduk had his seat only in Babylon, just as Asshur never set up his throne and temple in Babylon even during the Assyrian period. The political strife between Sumerian and Semite was also reflected in the religion. There can be no doubt of two facts: first, the Sumerians had a decided favoritism for female
deities; second, Semitic female deities were, with the single exception of Ishtar, but the pale reflection of the gods. While then in the earliest periods the goddesses were numerous and prominent, in later times they either faded out of existence, were made the consorts of the gods and so became eclipsed, or were identified with Ishtar.
In the development of the religion, besides the political principle, there became operative also a philosophical-priestly activity. Out of this grew the semidetachment of certain gods from extreme localization and connections were osophical-" ^ormeo^ for them having cosmic mean- Priestly *nS- Noticeable here is the forma- Factor. tion °f the two principal triads: Anu heaven-god, Bel or En-lil earth-god, Ea water-god, and Sin of the moon, Shamash of the sun, and Ramman (Adad) of the storm or cloud. While worship of these gods still centered at definite temples, in invocations they were addressed more generally. Their association with larger phenomena made them accessible to a larger clientele, just as Nebo's association with prophecy made him the object of a larger circle of worshipers than was rightly his in his position as god of Borsippa. And the philosophical principle worked also in the reduction of the number of the deities, particularly of the goddesses. The notion of identification was particularly insistent, so that many of the Sumerian goddesses were in time pronounced the same as Ishtar, and that deity made her way to her unique position as the one great goddess of Babylonia.
This reduction in number of deities is completely proved. In the period from c. 2250 b.c. on, besides the eight great gods already
3. Decrease nameci; 0Ijy Marduk, Ninib, Nergal, in the Nnm- an(j Nusk:U have any prominence.
Deities Tammuz might perhaps be added, but it is possible to maintain that in his worship Ishtar was the central figure. Yet in earlier times the number of the deities was very much greater. Manietusu, an early king of Kish, mentions about fifty deities. The incantation texts, coming from an earlier stratum of thought and practise, increase the number greatly, one series alone giving 150 god-names. There can be no doubt that the sun-gods of the various cities were originally separate, though the priestly philosophy regarded them as the same; this can be said also of the moon-deities, who became one in Sin.
Etymology enables the investigator to go still
farther back and posit for earliest Babylonia an
animistic worship when spirits were
4. The Ear- numerous, some of whom rose to high liest Religr- pOSition and became great gods.
lonAmmis- Thig ig demonstrable in the cases of En-lil (" Lord of Spirits "), Ea, and Damkina, the consort of Ea, and is practically certain in several other cases. Secondly, the entire system of magic and inca station is the surest proof that animism preceded polytheism in old Babylonia. To illustrate the belief in spirits, mention may be made of the Sumerian zi, " the living thing,^ having about the same connotation as " spirit " in animistic usage. The HI were ghosts, subter-
Babylonia