2000 B.C.), whose religious hegemony lasted throughout the
existence of the Babylonian state.

+759+. _Assyria._ The Assyrian pantheon is in general identical with
that of Babylon, but has certain features which are due to the peculiar
character of the Assyrian civilization. The god Ashur, originally the
local god of the city or district of Ashur, and then the chief god of
Assyria, was naturally a war-god--Assyria was essentially a military
nation, differing in this regard from Babylonia. He is, however, more
than a mere god of war--he has all high attributes, and came to
represent in Assyria that approach to monotheism which in Babylon was
embodied in the later cult of Marduk.

+760+. Babylonian and Assyrian _female deities_ are of two classes:
those who are merely consorts of the male deities, and those who
represent fertility. The first class we may pass over--the goddesses of
this class are vague in character and functions and play no important
part in the religious system; they appear to be artificial creations of
the systematizers. The deities of the second class, however, are
important. From a very early time the fertility of nature has been
referred appropriately to female Powers, and in the Semitic pantheon a
large number of such divinities occur. A deity of this sort naturally
becomes a mother-goddess, with all the attributes that pertain to this
character; in some cases a mother-goddess becomes supreme.

+761+. A very early female divinity is Bau, worshiped particularly at
the city Lagash and by King Gudea. Her function as patron of
productiveness is probably indicated in the spring festival held in her
honor on New Year's Day, in which she is worshiped as the giver of the
fruits of the earth. There are several local female deities that seem to
be substantially identical in character with Bau. Innanna (or Ninni) in
Uruk (Erech) was the mistress of the world and of war, and Nana is
hardly to be distinguished from her.[1306] In Agade Anunit has a similar
role; in Lagash Nina was the determiner of fate, and the mother of the
goddesses.

+762+. These names appear to be titles signifying 'mistress,' 'lady,'
and this is probably the meaning of the name of the great goddess who
finally ousted or absorbed her sisters, Ishtar.[1307] In the earliest
form in which Ishtar appears, in the old poetry, she is the deity of
fertility; when she goes down to the Underworld all productiveness of
plants and men ceases; and h