The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria
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Theophilus G. Pinches >> The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria
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Sin or Nannara.
The cult of the moon-god was one of the most popular in Babylonia, the
chief seat of his worship being at Uru (now Muqayyar) the Biblical Ur
of the Chaldees. The origin of the name Sin is unknown, but it is
thought that it may be a corruption of Zu-ena, "knowledge-lord," as
the compound ideograph expressing his name may be read and translated.
Besides this compound ideograph, the name of the god Sin was also
expressed by the character for "30," provided with the prefix of
divinity, an ideograph which is due to the thirty days of the month,
and is thought to be of late date. With regard to Nannar, Jastrow
explains it as being for Narnar, and renders it "light-producer." In a
long hymn to this god he is described in many lines as "the lord,
prince of the gods, who in heaven alone is supreme," and as "father
Nannar." Among his other descriptive titles are "great Anu" (Sum. /ana
gale/, Semitic Bab. /Anu rabu/)--another instance of the
identification of two deities. He was also "lord of Ur," "lord of the
temple Gisnu-gala," "lord of the shining crown," etc. He is also said
to be "the mighty steer whose horns are strong, whose limbs are
perfect, who is bearded with a beard of lapis-stone,[*] who is filled
with beauty and fullness (of splendour)."
[*] Probably of the colour of lapis only, not made of the stone
itself.
Besides Babylonia and Assyria, he was also worshipped in other parts
of the Semitic east, especially at Harran, to which city Abraham
migrated, scholars say, in consequence of the patron-deity being the
same as at Ur of the Chaldees, where he had passed the earlier years
of his life. The Mountain of Sinai and the Desert of Sin, both bear
his name.
According to king Dungi (about 2700 B.C.), the spouse of Sin or
Nannara was Nin-Uruwa, "the lady of Ur." Sargon of Assyria (722-705
B.C.) calls her Nin-gala.
Addu or Rammanu.
The numerous names which Hadad bears in the inscriptions, both non-
Semitic and Semitic, testify to the popularity which this god enjoyed
at all times in Babylonia. Among his non-Semitic names may be
mentioned Mer, Mermer, Muru, all, it may be imagined, imitative. Addu
is explained as being his name in the Amorite language, and a variant
form, apparently, which has lost its first syllable, namely, Dadu,
also appears--the Assyrians seem always to have used the
terminationless form of Addu, namely, Adad. In all probability Addu,
Adad, and Dadu are derived from the West Semitic Hadad, but the other
name, Rammanu, is native Babylonian, and cognate with Rimmon, which is
thus shown by the Babylonian form to mean "the thunderer," or
something similar. He was the god of winds, storms, and rain, feared
on account of the former, and worshipped, and his favour sought, on
account of the last. In his name Birqu, he appears as the god of
lightning, and Jastrow is of opinion, that he is sometimes associated
on that account with Samas, both of them being (although in different
degrees) gods of light, and this is confirmed by the fact that, in
common with the sun-god, he was called "god of justice." In the
Assyrian inscriptions he appears as a god of war, and the kings
constantly compare the destruction which their armies had wrought with
that of "Adad the inundator." For them he was "the mighty one,
inundating the regions of the enemy, lands and houses," and was prayed
to strike the land of the person who showed hostility to the Assyrian
king, with evil-working lightning, to throw want, famine, drought, and
corpses therein, to order that he should not live one day longer, and
to destroy his name and his seed in the land.
The original seat of his worship was Muru in South Babylonia, to which
the patesi of Girsu in the time of Ibi-Sin sent grain as an offering.
Its site is unknown. Other places (or are they other names of the
same?) where he was worshipped were Ennigi and Kakru. The consort of
Addu was Sala, whose worship was likewise very popular, and to whom
there were temples, not only in Babylonia and Assyria, but also in
Elam, seemingly always in connection with Addu.
Assur.
In all the deities treated of above, we see the chief gods of the
Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon, which were worshipped by both
peoples extensively, none of them being specifically Assyrian, though
worshipped by the Assyrians. There was one deity, however, whose name
will not be found in the Babylonian lists of gods, namely, Assur, the
national god of Assyria, who was worshipped in the city of Assur, the
old capital of the country.
From this circumstance, it may be regarded as certain, that Assur was
the local god of the city whose name he bore, and that he attained to
the position of chief god of the Assyrian pantheon in the same way as
Merodach became king of the gods in Babylonia--namely, because Assur
was the capital of the country. His acceptance as chief divinity,
however, was much more general than that of Merodach, as temples to
him were to be found all over the Assyrian kingdom--a circumstance
which was probably due to Assyria being more closely united in itself
than Babylonia, causing his name to arouse patriotic feelings wherever
it might be referred to. This was probably partly due to the fact,
that the king in Assyria was more the representative of the god than
in Babylonia, and that the god followed him on warlike expeditions,
and when engaged in religious ceremonies--indeed, it is not by any
means improbable that he was thought to follow him wherever he went.
On the sculptures he is seen accompanying him in the form of a circle
provided with wings, in which is shown sometimes a full-length figure
of the god in human form, sometimes the upper part only, facing
towards and drawing his bow against the foe. In consequence of its
general appearance, the image of the god has been likened to the sun
in eclipse, the far-stretching wings being thought to resemble the
long streamers visible at the moment of totality, and it must be
admitted as probable that this may have given the idea of the symbol
shown on the sculptures. As a sun-god, and at the same time not the
god Samas, he resembled the Babylonian Merodach, and was possibly
identified with him, especially as, in at least one text, Beltu
(Beltis) is described as his consort, which would possibly identify
Assur's spouse with Zer-panitum. The original form of his name would
seem to have been Ausar, "water-field," probably from the tract where
the city of Assur was built. His identification with Merodach, if that
was ever accepted, may have been due to the likeness of the word to
Asari, one of that deity's names. The pronunciation Assur, however,
seems to have led to a comparison with the Ansar of the first tablet
of the Creation-story, though it may seem strange that the Assyrians
should have thought that their patron-god was a deity symbolising the
"host of heaven." Nevertheless, the Greek transcription of Ansar,
namely, /Assoros/, given by Damascius, certainly strengthens the
indications of the ideograph in this matter. Delitzsch regards the
word Assur, or Asur, as he reads it, as meaning "holy," and quotes a
list of the gods of the city of Nineveh, where the word Assur occurs
three times, suggesting the exclamation "holy, holy, holy," or "the
holy, holy, holy one." In all probability, however, the repetition of
the name three times simply means that there were three temples
dedicated to Assur in the cities in question.[*] Jastrow agrees with
Delitzsch in regarding Asur as another form of Asir (found in early
Cappadocian names), but he translates it rather as "overseer" or
"guardian" of the land and the people--the terminationless form of
/asiru/, which has this meaning, and is applied to Merodach.
[*] Or there may have been three shrines to Assur in each temple
referred to.
As the use of the characters /An-sar/ for the god Assur only appears
at a late date (Jastrow says the eighth century B.C.), this would seem
to have been the work of the scribes, who wished to read into the name
the earlier signification of Ansar, "the host of heaven," an
explanation fully in accord with Jastrow's reasonings with regard to
the nature of the deity. As he represented no personification or power
of nature, he says, but the general protecting spirit of the land, the
king, the army, and the people, the capital of the country could be
transferred from Assur to Calah, from there back to Assur, and finally
to Nineveh, without affecting the position of the protecting god of
the land in any way. He needed no temple--though such things were
erected to him--he had no need to fear that he should suffer in esteem
by the preference for some other god. As the embodiment of the spirit
of the Assyrian people the personal side of his being remained to a
certain extent in the background. If he was the "host of heaven," all
the deities might be regarded as having their being in him.
Such was the chief deity of the Assyrians--a national god, grafted on
to, but always distinct from, the rest of the pantheon, which, as has
been shown, was of Babylonian origin, and always maintained the
characteristics and stamp of its origin.
The spouse of Assur does not appear in the historical texts, and her
mention elsewhere under the title of Beltu, "the lady," does not allow
of any identification being made. In one inscription, however,
Assuritu is called the goddess, and Assur the god, of the star Sib-zi-
anna, identified by Jensen with Regulus, which was apparently the star
of Merodach in Babylonia. This, however, brings us no nearer, for
Assuritu would simply mean "the Assurite (goddess)."
The minor divinities.
Among the hundreds of names which the lists furnish, a few are worthy
of mention, either because of more than ordinary interest, or in
consequence of their furnishing the name of some deity, chief in its
locality, but identified elsewhere with one of the greater gods.
Aa.--This may be regarded either as the god Ea (though the name is
written differently), or as the sun-god assuming the name of his
consort; or (what is, perhaps, more probable) as a way of writing A'u
or Ya'u (the Hebrew Jah), without the ending of the nominative. This
last is also found under the form /Aa'u/, /ya'u/, /yau/, and /ya/.
Abil-addu.--This deity seems to have attained a certain popularity in
later times, especially among immigrants from the West. As "the son of
Hadad," he was the equivalent of the Syrian Ben-Hadad. A tablet in New
York shows that his name was weakened in form to /Ablada/.
Aku, the moon-god among the heavenly bodies. It is this name which is
regarded as occurring in the name of the Babylonian king Eri-Aku,
"servant of the moon-god," the biblical Arioch (Gen. xiv.).
Amma-an-ki, Ea or Aa as lord of heaven and earth.
Amna.--A name only found in a syllabary, and assigned to the sun-god,
from which it would seem that it is a form of the Egyptian Ammon.
Anunitum, the goddess of one of the two Sippars, called Sippar of
Anunitum, who was worshipped in the temple E-ulmas within the city of
Agade (Akkad). Sayce identifies, on this account, these two places as
being the same. In a list of stars, Anunitum is coupled with
Sinunutum, which are explained as (the stars of) the Tigris and
Euphrates. These were probably names of Venus as the morning and
evening (or evening and morning) star.
Apsu.--The deep dissociated from the evil connection with Tiawath, and
regarded as "the house of deep wisdom," i.e. the home of the god Ea or
Aa.
Aruru.--One of the deities of Sippar and Aruru (in the time of the
dynasty of Hammurabi called Ya'ruru), of which she was the chief
goddess. Aruru was one of the names of the "lady of the gods," and
aided Merodach to make the seed of mankind.
Bel.--As this name means "lord," it could be applied, like the
Phoenician Baal, to the chief god of any city, as Bel of Niffur, Bel of
Hursag-kalama, Bel of Aratta, Bel of Babylon, etc. This often
indicates also the star which represented the chief god of a place.
Beltu.--In the same way Beltu, meaning "lady," meant also the chief
goddess of any place, as "Aruru, lady of the gods of Sippar of Aruru,"
"Nin-mah, lady of the gods of E-mah," a celebrated temple within
Babylon, recently excavated by the Germans, "Nin-hur-saga, lady of the
gods of Kes," etc.
Bunene.--A god associated with Samas and Istar at Sippar and
elsewhere. He "gave" and "renewed" to his worshippers.
Dagan.--This deity, whose worship extends back to an exceedingly early
date, is generally identified with the Phoenician Dagon. Hammurabi
seems to speak of the Euphrates as being "the boundary of Dagan," whom
he calls his creator. In later inscriptions the form Daguna, which
approaches nearer to the West Semitic form, is found in a few personal
names. The Phoenician statues of this deity showed him with the lower
part of his body in the form of a fish (see 1 Sam. v. 4). Whether the
deities clothed in a fish's skin in the Nimroud gallery be Dagon or
not is uncertain--they may be intended for Ea or Aa, the Oannes of
Berosus, who was represented in this way. Probably the two deities
were regarded as identical.
Damu.--a goddess regarded as equivalent to Gula by the Babylonians and
Assyrians. She was goddess of healing, and made one's dreams happy.
Dumu-zi-abzu, "Tammuz of the Abyss."--This was one of the six sons of
Ea or Aa, according to the lists. His worship is exceedingly ancient,
and goes back to the time of E-anna-tum of Lagas (about 4000 B.C.).
What connection, if any, he may have with Tammuz, the spouse of Istar,
is unknown. Jastrow apparently regards him as a distinct deity, and
translates his name "the child of the life of the water-deep."
Elali.--A deity identified with the Hebrew Helal, the new moon. Only
found in names of the time of the Hammurabi dynasty, in one of which
he appears as "a creator."
En-nugi is described as "lord of streams and canals," and "lord of the
earth, lord of no-return." This last description, which gives the
meaning of his name, suggests that he was one of the gods of the realm
of Eres-ki-gal, though he may have borne that name simply as god of
streams, which always flow down, never the reverse.
Gibil.--One of the names of the god of fire, sometimes transcribed
Girru by Assyriologists, the meaning apparently being "the fire-
bearer" or "light-bearer." Girru is another name of this deity, and
translates an ideographic group, rendered by Delitzsch "great" or
"highest decider," suggesting the custom of trial by ordeal. He was
identified with Nirig, in Semitic Enu-restu.
Gusqi-banda or Kuski-banda, one of the names of Ea, probably as god of
gold-workers.
Isum, "the glorious sacrificer," seemingly a name of the fire-god as a
means whereby burnt offerings were made. Nur-Isum, "light of Isum," is
found as a man's name.
Kaawanu, the planet Saturn.
Lagamal.--A god identified with the Elamite Lagamar, whose name is
regarded as existing in Chedorlaomer (cf. Gen. xiv. 2). He was the
chief god of Mair, "the ship-city."
Lugal-Amarada or Lugal-Marad.--This name means "king of Marad," a city
as yet unidentified. The king of this place seems to have been
Nerigal, of whom, therefore, Lugal-Marad is another name.
Lugal-banda.--This name means "the powerful king," or something
similar, and the god bearing it is supposed to be the same as Nerigal.
His consort, however, was named Nin-sun (or Nin-gul).
Lugal-Du-azaga, "the king of the glorious seat."--The founder of
Eridu, "the good city within the Abyss," probably the paradise (or a
paradise) of the world to come. As it was the aim of every good
Babylonian to dwell hereafter with the god whom he had worshipped upon
earth, it may be conjectured that this was the paradise in the domain
of Ea or Aa.
Mama, Mami.--Names of "the lady of the gods," and creatress of the
seed of mankind, Aruru. Probably so called as the "mother" of all
things. Another name of this goddess is Ama, "mother."
Mammitum, Mamitum, goddess of fate.
Mur, one of the names of Addu or Rammanu (Hadad or Rimmon).
Nana or Nanaa was the consort of Nebo at Borsippa, but appears as a
form of Istar, worshipped, with Anu her father, at Erech.
Nin-aha-kuku, a name of Ea or Aa and of his daughter as deity of the
rivers, and therefore of gardens and plantations, which were watered
by means of the small canals leading therefrom. As daughter of Ea,
this deity was also "lady of the incantation."
Nin-azu, the consort of Eres-ki-gal, probably as "lord physician." He
is probably to be identified with Nerigal.
Nin-igi-nagar-si, a name somewhat more doubtful as to its reading than
the others, designates Ea or Aa as "the god of the carpenter." He
seems to have borne this as "the great constructor of heaven" or "of
Anu."
Nin-mah, chief goddess of the temple E-mah in Babylon. Probably to be
identified with Aruru, and therefore with Zer-panitum.
Nin-sah, a deity whose name is conjectured to mean "lord of the wild
boar." He seems to have been a god of war, and was identified with
Nirig or Enu-restu and Pap-sukal.
Nin-sirsir, Ea as the god of sailors.
Nin-sun, as pointed out by Jastrow, was probably the same as Istar or
Nana of Erech, where she had a shrine, with them, in E-anna, "the
house of Anu." He renders her name "the annihilating lady,"[*]
"appropriate for the consort of a sun-god," for such he regards Lugal-
banda her spouse. King Sin-gasid of Erech (about 3000 B.C.) refers to
her as his mother.
[*] This is due to the second element of the name having, with another
pronunciation, the meaning of "to destroy."
Nun-urra.--Ea, as the god of potters.
Pap-sukal.--A name of Nin-sah as the "divine messenger," who is also
described as god "of decisions." Nin-sah would seem to have been one
of the names of Pap-sukal rather than the reverse.
Qarradu, "strong," "mighty," "brave."--This word, which was formerly
translated "warrior," is applied to several deities, among them being
Bel, Nergal, Nirig (Enu-restu), and Samas, the sun-god.
Ragimu and Ramimu, names of Rimmon or Hadad as "the thunderer." The
second comes from the same root as Rammanu (Rimmon).
Suqamunu.--A deity regarded as "lord of watercourses," probably the
artificial channels dug for the irrigation of fields.
Ura-gala, a name of Nerigal.
Uras, a name of Nirig, under which he was worshipped at Dailem, near
Babylon.
Zagaga, dialectic Zamama.--This deity, who was a god of war, was
identified with Nirig. One of this titles was /bel parakki/, "lord of
the royal chamber," or "throne-room."
Zaraqu or Zariqu.--As the root of this name means "to sprinkle," he
was probably also a god of irrigation, and may have presided over
ceremonial purification. He is mentioned in names as the "giver of
seed" and "giver of a name" (i.e. offspring).
These are only a small proportion of the names found in the
inscriptions, but short as the list necessarily is, the nature, if not
the full composition, of the Babylonian pantheon will easily be
estimated therefrom.
It will be seen that besides the identifications of the deities of all
the local pantheons with each other, each divinity had almost as many
names as attributes and titles, hence their exceeding multiplicity. In
such an extensive pantheon, many of the gods composing it necessarily
overlap, and identification of each other, to which the faith, in its
primitive form, was a stranger, were inevitable. The tendency to
monotheism which this caused will be referred to later on.
The gods and the heavenly bodies.
It has already been pointed out that, from the evidence of the
Babylonian syllabary, the deities of the Babylonians were not astral
in their origin, the only gods certainly originating in heavenly
bodies being the sun and the moon. This leads to the supposition that
the Babylonians, bearing these two deities in mind, may have asked
themselves why, if these two were represented by heavenly bodies, the
others should not be so represented also. Be this as it may, the other
deities of the pantheon were so represented, and the full planetary
scheme, as given by a bilingual list in the British Museum, was as
follows:
Aku Sin the moon Sin
Bisebi Samas the sun Samas
Dapinu Umun-sig-ea Jupiter Merodach
Zib[*] Dele-bat Venus Istar
Lu-lim Lu-bat-sag-us Saturn Nirig (acc. to Jensen)
Bibbu Lubat-gud Mercury Nebo
Simutu Mustabarru Mars Nergal
mutanu
All the above names of planets have the prefix of divinity, but in
other inscriptions the determinative prefix is that for "star,"
/kakkabu/.
[*] This is apparently a Sumerian dialectic form, the original word
having seemingly been Zig.
Moon and Sun.
Unfortunately, all the above identifications of the planets with the
deities in the fourth column are not certain, namely, those
corresponding with Saturn, Mercury, and Mars. With regard to the
others, however, there is no doubt whatever. The reason why the moon
is placed before the sun is that the sun, as already explained, was
regarded as his son. It was noteworthy also that the moon was
accredited with two other offspring, namely, Masu and Mastu--son and
daughter respectively. As /masu/ means "twin," these names must
symbolise the two halves, or, as we say, "quarters" of the moon, who
were thus regarded, in Babylonian mythology, as his "twin children."
Jupiter and Saturn.
Concerning Jupiter, who is in the above called Dapinu (Semitic), and
Umun-sig-ea (Sumerian), it has already been noted that he was called
Nibiru--according to Jensen, Merodach as he who went about among the
stars "pasturing" them like sheep, as stated in the Babylonian story
of the Creation (or Bel and the Dragon). This is explained by him as
being due to the comparatively rapid and extensive path of Jupiter on
the ecliptic, and it would seem probable that the names of Saturn,
/Kaawanu/ and /Sag-us/ (the former, which is Semitic Babylonian,
meaning "steadfast," or something similar, and the latter, in
Sumerian, "head-firm" or "steadfast"--"phlegmatic"), to all appearance
indicate in like manner the deliberation of his movements compared
with those of the planet dedicated to the king of the gods.
Venus at sunrise and sunset.
A fragment of a tablet published in 1870 gives some interesting
particulars concerning the planet Venus, probably explaining some as
yet unknown mythological story concerning her. According to this, she
was a female at sunset, and a male at sunrise; Istar of Agade (Akad or
Akkad) at sunrise, and Istar of Erech at sunset: Istar of the stars at
sunrise, and the lady of the gods at sunset.
And in the various months.
Istar was identified with Nin-si-anna in the first month of the year
(Nisan = March-April), with the star of the bow in Ab (August-
September), etc. In Sebat (January-February) she was the star of the
water-channel, Iku, which was Merodach's star in Sivan (May-June), and
in Marcheswan her star was Rabbu, which also belonged to Merodach in
the same month. It will thus be seen, that Babylonian astronomy is far
from being as clear as would be desired, but doubtless many
difficulties will disappear when further inscriptions are available.
Stars identified with Merodach.
The same fragment gives the celestial names of Merodach for every
month of the year, from which it would appear, that the astrologers
called him Umun-sig-ea in Nisan (March-April), Dapinu in Tammuz (June-
July), Nibiru in Tisri (September-October), Sarru (the star Regulus),
in Tebet (December-January), etc. The first three are names by which
the planet Jupiter was known.
As for the planets and stars, so also for the constellations, which
are identified with many gods and divine beings, and probably contain
references, in their names and descriptions, to many legends. In the
sixth tablet of the Creation-series, it is related of Merodach that,
after creating the heavens and the stations for Anu, Bel, and Ae,
"He built firmly the stations of the great gods--
Stars their likeness--he set up the /Lumali/,
He designated the year, he outlined the (heavenly) forms.
He set for the twelve months three stars each,
From the day when the year begins, . . . for signs."
As pointed out by Mr. Robert Brown, jr., who has made a study of these
things, the "three stars" for each month occur on one of the remains
of planispheres in the British Museum, and are completed by a tablet
which gives them in list-form, in one case with explanations. Until
these are properly identified, however, it will be impossible to
estimate their real value. The signs of the Zodiac, which are given by
another tablet, are of greater interest, as they are the originals of
those which are in use at the present time:--
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