The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Morris Jastrow

popularity of very old ones.

[133] Bel being Marduk, the title was equivalent to that of 'governor of Babylonia.'

[134] So, Tiele, Geschichte d. Religion i. Alterthum, i. 191.

[135] The Hebrew word for prophet, nabi, is of the same stem as the Assyrian Nabu, and the popular tradition is placing the last scene in the life of Moses on Mt. Nebo is apparently influenced by the fact that Moses was a nabi.

[136] See above, p. 123.

[137] So in the cylinder of Shamash-shum-ukin (Lehmann's publication, pls. viii. seq.).

[138] E.g., in the so-called Grotefend Cylinder, col. ii. 34.

[139] Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde d. Morgenlandes, iv. 301–307.

[140] We only know the name through Eusebius' extract from Alexander Polyhistor's digest of Berosus. The form, therefore, cannot be vouched for. The various modern attempts to explain the name have failed (see e.g., Lenormant's Magic und Wahrsagekunst der Chaldaer, 2d German edition, pp. 376–379). There may be some ultimate connection between Oannes and Jonah (see Trumbull in Journal of Bibl. Liter. xl. 58, note).

[141] For fuller proof, see the chapter on "The Cosmology of the Babylonians."

[142] This, it will be remembered (see above, p. 118), is one of the titles of Marduk in one of Hammurabi's inscriptions—an important point for the date of the episode in its present form.

[143] Literally, 'Ea shall be his name, his as mine.'

[144] According to Syncellus. In cuneiform texts the old Bel is at times invoked as the creator of mankind.

[145] Kosmologie, pp. 293, 294.

[146] Aos and Dauke.

[147] Rawlinson, iv. 25.

[148] See p. 79.

[149] See Jensen, Keils Bibl.. 3, 1, p. 108, note 5. Tiele, Gesch. p. 126, apparently identifies Innanna of Hallabi with Tashmit, but, so far as I can see, without sufficient reason.

[150] Here written En-lil, as the Bel of Nippur.

[151] Attached to the name here (Rawlinson, i. 4, no. xv-9), which is written ideographically En-Lil, is the designation da-gan-ni, which has occasioned considerable discussion. See Jensen, Kosmologie, pp. 449–456. It seems to me that the addition which emphasizes this identity of Bel with another god, Dagan, is to indicate that the Bel of the triad, and not Bel-Marduk, is here meant. Somewhat in the same way Tiglathpileser I. (Rawlinson, i. 14, vi. 87) distinguishes the older Bel by calling him 'Bel latura,' i.e., 'Bel the older.'

[152] 'Governor of Bel' for governor of Babylonia, and 'subjects of Bel' for subjects of Babylonia.

[153] See p. 89 and chapter vii.

[154] Occasionally a king (so e.g. Nabubaliddin, c. 883 B.C.) associates Anu with Ea, and omits Bel (Rawlinson, v. 60, ii. 21), as though with the intent of avoiding confusion.

[155] Rassam, Cylinder ix. 75.

[156] See chapter xii., "The Assyrian Pantheon," p. 208.

[157] Rassam, Cylinder viii. 98, 99. 'Belit of Babylonia, honored among the great gods.'

[158] Annals, iii. 135.

[159] The name of the temple. See IIR. 66, ll. 1 and 10. The title 'belit matâti,' 'lady of the lands' is evidently introduced in imitation of 'bel matâti,' 'lord of lands,' belonging to Bel and then to Marduk.

[160] Sayce's view (Hibbert Lectures, p. 186), according to which Anu was originally the local god of Erech, is erroneous.

[161] VR. pl. 33.

[162] Delitzsch, Die Kossaer, pp. 25, 27.

[163] The omission of Ramman here, though invoked at the close of the inscription, is noticeable. Ishtar takes the place that in the more developed system belongs to the god of storms, who with the moon-god and sun-god constitutes a second triad. See p. 163.

[164] Written with the sign An, and the feminine ending tum, but probably pronounced Anatum. The form Anat (without the ending) is used by many scholars, as Sarpanit and Tashmit are used instead of Sarpanitum and Tashmitum. I prefer the fuller forms of these names. Anum similarly is better than Anu, but the latter has become so common that it might as well be retained.

[165] VR. 33, vii. 34–44.

[166] IR. pl. 15, col. vii. 71-pl. 16, col. viii. 88.