o identify himself with the god.
His son, Shalmaneser II., the Black-Obelisk king gives Hoa his proper
place in his opening invocation, mentioning him between Bel and Sin.
Sargon puts one of the gates of his new city under Hoa's care, joining
him with Bilat Ili--"the mistress of the gods"--who is, perhaps, the
Sun-goddess, Gula. Sennacherib, after a successful expedition across a
portion of the Persian Gulf, offers sacrifice to Hoa on the seashore,
presenting him with a golden boat, a golden fish, and a golden coffer.
But these are exceptional instances; and on the whole it is evident that
in Assyria Hoa was not a favorite god. The serpent, which is his emblem,
though found on the black stones recording benefactions, and frequent on
the Babylonian cylinder-seals, is not adopted by the Assyrian kings
among the divine symbols which they wear, or among those which they
inscribe above their effigies. The word Hoa does not enter as an element
into Assyrian names. The kings rarely invoke him. So far as we can tell,
he had but two temples in Assyria, one at Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat) and
the other at Calah (Nimrud). Perhaps the devotion of the Assyrians to
Nin--the tutelary god of their kings and of their capital--who in so
many respects resembled Hoa, caused the worship of Hoa to decline and
that of Nin gradually to supersede it.

MYLITTA, or BELTIS.

Beltis, the "Great Mother," the feminine counterpart of Bel, ranked in
Assyria next to the Triad consisting of Anu, Bel, and Hoa. She is
generally mentioned in close connection with Bel, her husband, in the
Assyrian records. She appears to have been regarded in Assyria as
especially "the queen of fertility," or "fecundity," and so as "the
queen of the lands," thus resembling the Greek Demeter, who, like
Beltis, was known as: "the Great Mother." Sargon placed one of his gates
under the protection of Beltis in conjunction with her husband, Bel: and
Asshur-bani-pal, his great-grandson, repaired and rededicated to her a
temple at Nineveh, which stood on the great mound of Koyunjik. She had
another temple at Asshur, and probably a third at Calah. She seems to
have been really known as Beltis in Assyria, and as Mylitta (Mulita) in
Babylonia, though we should naturally have gathered the reverse from the
extant classical notices.

SIN, or THE MOON.

Sin, the Moon-god, ranked next to Beltis in Assyrian mythology, and his
place is thus either fifth or sixth in the full lists, accordi