3000 B.C.) refers
to her as his mother.

[*] This is due to the second element of the name having, with another
pronunciation, the meaning of "to destroy."

Nun-urra.--Ea, as the god of potters.

Pap-sukal.--A name of Nin-sah as the "divine messenger," who is also
described as god "of decisions." Nin-sah would seem to have been one
of the names of Pap-sukal rather than the reverse.

Qarradu, "strong," "mighty," "brave."--This word, which was formerly
translated "warrior," is applied to several deities, among them being
Bel, Nergal, Nirig (Enu-restu), and Samas, the sun-god.

Ragimu and Ramimu, names of Rimmon or Hadad as "the thunderer." The
second comes from the same root as Rammanu (Rimmon).

Suqamunu.--A deity regarded as "lord of watercourses," probably the
artificial channels dug for the irrigation of fields.

Ura-gala, a name of Nerigal.

Uras, a name of Nirig, under which he was worshipped at Dailem, near
Babylon.

Zagaga, dialectic Zamama.--This deity, who was a god of war, was
identified with Nirig. One of this titles was /bel parakki/, "lord of
the royal chamber," or "throne-room."

Zaraqu or Zariqu.--As the root of this name means "to sprinkle," he
was probably also a god of irrigation, and may have presided over
ceremonial purification. He is mentioned in names as the "giver of
seed" and "giver of a name" (i.e. offspring).

These are only a small proportion of the names found in the
inscriptions, but short as the list necessarily is, the nature, if not
the full composition, of the Babylonian pantheon will easily be
estimated therefrom.

It will be seen that besides the identifications of the deities of all
the local pantheons with each other, each divinity had almost as many
names as attributes and titles, hence their exceeding multiplicity. In
such an extensive pantheon, many of the gods composing it necessarily
overlap, and identification of each other, to which the faith, in its
primitive form, was a stranger, were inevitable. The tendency to
monotheism which this caused will be referred to later on.

The gods and the heavenly bodies.

It has already been pointed out that, from the evidence of the
Babylonian syllabary, the deities of the Babylonians were not astral
in their origin, the only gods certainly originating in heavenly
bodies being the sun and the moon. This leads to the supposition that
the Babylonians, bearing these two deities in mind, may have asked