gods of the First Empire may be taken us applying equally to those of
the Second; and the reader is requested to make this application in all
cases, except where some shade of difference, more or less strongly
marked, shall be pointed out. In the following pages, without repeating
what has been said in the first part of this volume, some account will
be given of the worship of the principal gods in Assyria and of the
chief temples dedicated to their service.

ANU.

The worship of Anu seems to have been introduced into Assyria from
Babylonia during the times of Chaldaean supremacy which preceded the
establishment of the independent Assyrian kingdom. Shamas-Vul, the son
of Ishii-Dagon, king of Chaldaea, built a temple to Anu and Vul at
Asshur, which was then the Assyrian capital, about B.C. 1820. An
inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I., states that this temple lasted for 621
years, when, having fallen into decay, it was taken down by Asshurdayan,
his own great-grandfather. Its site remained vacant for sixty years.
Then Tiglath-Pileser I., in the beginning of his reign, rebuilt the
temple more magnificently than before; and from that time it seems to
have remained among the principal shrines in Assyria. It was from a
tradition connected with this ancient temple of Shamas-Vul, that Asshur
in later times acquired the name of Telane, or "the Mound of Anu," which
it bears in Stephen.

Anu's place among the "Great Gods" of Assyria is not so well marked as
that of many other divinities. His name does not occur as an element in
the names of kings or of other important personages. He is omitted
altogether from many solemn invocations. It is doubtful whether he is
one of the gods whose emblems were worn by the king and inscribed upon
the rock-tablets. But, on the other hand, where he occurs in lists, he
is invariably placed directly after Asshur; and he is often coupled with
that deity in a way which is strongly indicative of his exalted
character. Tiglath-Pileser I., though omitting him from his opening
invocation, speaks of him in the latter part of his great Inscription,
as his lord and protector in the next place to Asshur. Asshur-izir-pal
uses expressions as if he were Anu's special votary, calling himself
"him who honors Anu," or "him who honors Anu and Dugan." His son, the
Black-Obelisk king, assigns him the second place in the invocation of
thirteen gods with which he begins his record. The kings of the Lower
Dynasty do n