rciful one," but most merciful was he in that
he spared the lives of the gods who, having sided with Taiwath, were
his enemies, as is related in the tablet of the fifty-one names. In
connection with the fight he bore also the names, "annihilator of the
enemy," "rooter out of all evil," "troubler of the evil ones," "life
of the whole of the gods." From these names it is clear that Merodach,
in defeating Tiawath, annihilated, at the same time, the spirit of
evil, Satan, the accuser, of which she was, probably, the Babylonian
type. But unlike the Saviour in the Christian creed, he saved not only
man, at that time uncreated, but the gods of heaven also. As "king of
the heavens," he was identified with the largest of the planets,
Jupiter, as well as with other heavenly bodies. Traversing the sky in
great zigzags, Jupiter seemed to the Babylonians to superintend the
stars, and this was regarded as emblematic of Merodach shepherding
them--"pasturing the gods like sheep," as the tablet has it.

A long list of gods gives as it were the court of Merodach, held in
what was apparently a heavenly /E-sagila/, and among the spiritual
beings mentioned are /Mina-ikul-beli/ and /Mina-isti-beli/, "what my
lord has eaten," and "what has my lord drunk," /Nadin-me-gati/, "he
who gives water for the hands," also the two door-keepers, and the
four dogs of Merodach, wherein people are inclined to see the four
satellites of Jupiter, which, it is thought, were probably visible to
certain of the more sharp-sighted stargazers of ancient Babylonia.
These dogs were called /Ukkumu/, /Akkulu/, /Ikssuda/, and /Iltebu/,
"Seizer," "Eater," "Grasper," and "Holder." Images of these beings
were probably kept in the temple of E-sagila at Babylon.

Zer-panitum.

This was the name of the consort of Merodach, and is generally read
Sarp(b)anitum--a transcription which is against the native orthography
and etymology, namely, "seed-creatress" (Zer-banitum). The meaning
attributed to this word is partly confirmed by another name which
Lehmann has pointed out that she possessed, namely, /Erua/ or /Aru'a/,
who, in an inscription of Antiochus Soter (280-260 B.C.) is called
"the queen who produces birth," but more especially by the
circumstance, that she must be identical with Aruru, who created the
seed of mankind along with Merodach. Why she was called "the lady of
the abyss," and elsewhere "the voice of the abyss" (/Me-abzu/) is not