as their teacher and patron. From his
incomparable knowledge the scribes derived theirs, and physicians and
wizards invoked spirits in his name alone by the virtue of prayers which
he had condescended to teach them.

* The name of this god was read "Nisrok" by Oppert,
"Nouah" by Hincks and Lenormant. The true reading is Ia, Ea,
usually translated "house," "water-house"; this is a popular
interpretation which appears to have occurred to the
Chaldaeans from the values of the signs entering into the
name of the god. From the outset H. Rawlinson recognized in
Ea, which he read Hea, Hoa, the divinity presiding over the
abyss of waters; he compared him with the serpent of Holy
Scripture, in its relation to the Tree of Knowledge and the
Tree of Life, and deduced therefrom his character of lord of
wisdom. His position as lord of the primordial waters, from
which all things proceeded, clearly denned by Lenormant, is
now fully recognized. His name was transcribed Aos by
Damascius, a form which is not easily explained; the most
probable hypothesis is that of Hommel who considers Aos as a
shortened form of Iaos = Ia, Ea.

Subordinate to these limitless and vague beings, the theologians placed
their second triad, made up of gods of restricted power and invariable
form. They recognized in the unswerving regularity with which the moon
waxed and waned, or with which the sun rose and set every day, a
proof of their subjection to the control of a superior will, and they
signalized this dependence by making them sons of one or other of the
three great gods. Sin was the offspring of Bel, Shamash of Sin,
Kamman of Anu. Sin was indebted for this primacy among the subordinate
divinities to the preponderating influence which Uru exercised over
Southern Chaldaea. Mar, where Ramman was the chief deity, never emerged
from its obscurity, and Larsam acquired supremacy only many centuries
after its neighbour, and did not succeed in maintaining it for any
length of time. The god of the suzerain city necessarily took precedence
of those of the vassal towns, and when once his superiority was admitted
by the people, he was able to maintain his place in spite of all
political revolutions. Sin was called in Uru, "Uruki," or "Nannar the
glorious," and his priests sometimes succeeded in identifying him
with Anu. "Lord, prince of the gods, who alone in heaven and earth is
exa