_Hea_ or _Hoa,_ who
correspond closely to the classical Pluto, Jupiter, and Neptune. Each of
these is accompanied by a female principle or wife, _Ana_ by _Anat, Bil_
(or Bel) by _Mulita_ or _Beltis,_ and _Hea_ (or _Hoa_) by _Davkina_.
Then follows a further Triad, consisting of _Sin_ or _Hurki,_ the
Moon-god; _San_ or _Sansi,_ the Sun; and _Vul_ the god of the
atmosphere. The members of this Triad are again accompanied by female
powers or wives,--_Vul_ by a goddess called _Shala_ or _Tala, San_ (the
Sun) by _Gula_ or _Anunit,_ and _Hurki_ (the Moon) by a goddess whose
name is wholly uncertain, but whose common title is "the great lady."

Such are the gods at the head of the Pantheon. Next in order to them we
find a group of five minor deities, the representatives of the five
planets,--Nin or Ninip (Saturn), Merodach (Jupiter), Nergal (Mars),
Ishtar (Venus), and Nebo (Mercury). These together constitute what we
have called the _principal_ gods; after them are to be placed the
numerous divinities of the second and third order.

These principal gods do not appear to have been connected, like the
Egyptian and the classical divinities, into a single genealogical scheme:
yet still a certain amount of relationship was considered to exist among
them. Ana and Bel, for instance, were brothers, the sons of Il or Ra;
Vul was son of Ana; Hurki, the Moon-god, of Bel; Nebo and Merodach were
sons of Hea or Hoa. Many deities, however, are without parentage, as not
only Il or Ra, but Hea, San (the Sun), Ishtar, and Nergal. Sometimes the
relationship alleged is confused, and even contradictory, as in the case
of Nin or Ninip, who is at one time the son, at another the father of
Bel, and who is at once the son and the husband of Beltis. It is evident
that the genealogical aspect is not that upon which much stress is
intended to be laid, or which is looked upon as having much reality. The
great gods are viewed habitually rather as a hierarchy of coequal powers,
than as united by ties implying on the one hand pre-eminence and on the
other subordination.

We may now consider briefly the characters and attributes of the several
deities so far as they can be made out, either from the native records,
or from classical tradition. And, first, concerning the god who stands
in some sense at the head of the Chaldaean Pantheon.

IL, or RA.

The form Ra represents probably the native Chaldaean name of this deity,
while _Il_ is the Semi