nd distant Saturn.

Nin's emblem in Assyria is the Man-bull, the impersonation of strength
and power. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 6.] He guards the palaces of the Assyrian
kings, who reckon him their tutelary god, and give his name to their
capital city. We may conjecture that in Babylonia his emblem was the
sacred fish, which is often seen under different forms upon the
cylinders. [PLATE XIX., Fig. 7.]

The monuments furnish no evidence of the early worship of Nin in
Chaldaea. We may perhaps gather the fact from Berosus' account of the
Fish-God as an early object of veneration in that region, as well as from
the Hamitic etymology of the name by which he was ordinarily known even
in Assyria. There he was always one of the most important deities. His
temple at Nineveh was very famous, and is noticed by Tacitus in his
"Annals;" and he had likewise two temples at Calah (Nimrud), both of them
buildings of some pretension.

It has been already mentioned that Nin was the son of Bel-Nimrod, and
that Beltis was both his wife and his mother. These relationships are
well established, since they are repeatedly asserted. One tablet,
however, inverts the genealogy, and makes Bel-Nimrod the son of Nin,
instead of his father. The contradiction perhaps springs from the double
character of this divinity, who, as Saturn, is the father, but, as
Hercules, the son of Jupiter.

BEL-MERODACH.

Bel-Merodach is, beyond all doubt, the planet Jupiter, which is still
called Bel by the Mendaeans. The name Merodach is of uncertain etymology
and meaning. It has been compared with the Persian _Mardak,_ the
diminutive of _mard,_ "a man," and with the Arabic _Mirrich,_ which is
the name of the planet Mars. But, as there is every reason to believe
that the term belongs to the Hamitic Babylonian, it is in vain to have
recourse to Arian or Semitic tongues for its derivation. Most likely the
word is a descriptive epithet, originally attached to the name Bel, in
the same way as _Nipru,_ but ultimately usurping its place and coming to
be regarded as the proper name of the deity. It is doubtful whether any
phonetic representative of Merodach has been found on the monuments; if
so, the pronunciation should, apparently, be _Amardak,_ whence we might
derive the Amordacia of Ptolemy.

The titles and attributes of Merodach are of more than usual vagueness.
In the most ancient monuments which mention him, he seems to be called
"the old man of the gods,"