tic equivalent. _Il,_ of course, is but a variant
of _El,_ the root of the well-known Biblical _Elohim_ as well as of the
Arabic _Allah_. It is this name which Diodorus represents under the form
of Elms ('H??oc), 7 and Sanchoniathon, or rather Philo-Byblius, under
that of _Elus_ or _Ilus_. The meaning of the word is simply "God," or
perhaps "the god" emphatically. _Ra,_ the Cushite equivalent, must be
considered to have had the same force originally, though in Egypt it
received a special application to the sun, and became the proper name of
that particular deity. The word is lost in the modern Ethiopic. It
formed an element in the native name of Babylon, which was _Ka-ra,_ the
Cushite equivalent of the Semitic _Bab-il,_ an expression signifying "the
gate of God."

Ra is a god with few peculiar attributes. He is a sort of fount and
origin of deity, too remote from man to be much worshipped or to excite
any warm interest. There is no evidence of his having had any temple in
Chaldaea during the early times. A belief in his existence is implied
rather than expressed in inscriptions of the primitive kings, where the
Moon-god is said to be "brother's son of Ana, and eldest son of Bil, or
Belus." We gather from this that Bel and Ana were considered to have a
common father; and later documents sufficiently indicate that that common
father was Il or Ra. We must conclude from the name _Babil,_ that
Babylon was originally under his protection, though the god specially
worshipped in the great temple there seems to have been in early times
Bel, and in later times Merodach. The identification of the Chaldaean,
Il or Ra with Saturn, which Diodorus makes, and which may seem to derive
some confirmation from Philo-Byblius, is certainly incorrect, so far as
the planet Saturn, which Diodorus especially mentions, is concerned; but
it may be regarded as having a basis of truth, inasmuch as Saturn was in
one sense the chief of the gods, and was the father of Jupiter and Pluto,
as Ra was of Bil and Ana.

ANA.

_Ana,_ like Il and Ra, is thought to have been a word originally
signifying "God," in the highest sense. The root occurs probably in the
Annedotus and Oannes of Berosus, as well as in Philo-Byblius's Anobret.
In its origin it is probably Cushite: but it was adopted by the
Assyrians, who inflected the word which was indeclinable in the Chaldaean
tongue, making the nominative Anu, the genitive Ani, and the accusative
Ana.