a, was accustomed to go to receive him. According to the list
referred to above, Aa, with the name of Burida in Sumerian, was more
especially the consort of Sa-zu, "him who knows the heart," one of the
names of Merodach, who was probably the morning sun, and therefore the
exact counterpart of the sun at evening.

Besides Samas and Utu, the latter his ordinary Sumerian name, the
sun-god had several other non-Semitic names, including /Gisnu/,[*] "the
light," /Ma-banda-anna/, "the bark of heaven," /U-e/, "the rising
sun," /Mitra/, apparently the Persian Mithra; /Ume-simas/ and Nahunda,
Elamite names, and Sahi, the Kassite name of the sun. He also
sometimes bears the names of his attendants Kittu and Mesaru, "Truth"
and "Righteousness," who guided him upon his path as judge of the
earth.

[*] It is the group expressing this word which is used for Samas in
the name of Samas-sum-ukin (Saosduchinos), the brother of
Assur-bani-apli (Assurbanipal). The Greek equivalent implies the
pronunciation /Sawas/, as well as /Samas/.

Tammuz and Istar.

The date of the rise of the myth of Tammuz is uncertain, but as the
name of this god is found on tablets of the time of Lugal-anda and
Uru-ka-gina (about 3500 B.C.), it can hardly be of later date than
4000 B.C., and may be much earlier. As he is repeatedly called "the
shepherd," and had a domain where he pastured his flock, Professor
Sayce sees in Tammuz "Daonus or Daos, the shepherd of Pantibibla,"
who, according to Berosus, ruled in Babylonia for 10 /sari/, or 36,000
years, and was the sixth king of the mythical period. According to the
classic story, the mother of Tammuz had unnatural intercourse with her
own father, being urged thereto by Aphrodite whom she had offended,
and who had decided thus to avenge herself. Being pursued by her
father, who wished to kill her for this crime, she prayed to the gods,
and was turned into a tree, from whose trunk Adonis was afterwards
born. Aphrodite was so charmed with the infant that, placing him in a
chest, she gave him into the care of Persephone, who, however, when
she discovered what a treasure she had in her keeping, refused to part
with him again. Zeus was appealed to, and decided that for four months
in the year Adonis should be left to himself, four should be spent
with Aphrodite, and four with Persephone, and six with Aphrodite on
earth. He was afterwards slain, whilst hunting, by a wild boar.