es--not with the great masses. Eabani, who appears to Gilgamesh,
is a hero, and so is Samuel. As a matter of fact, we have so far only
found evidence that the ancient rulers whose memory lingered in the
minds of the people were regarded by later generations as gods. So the
names of Dungi and Gudea[1134] are written on tablets that belong to the
centuries immediately following their reign, with the determinative that
is placed before the names of gods. Festivals were celebrated in honor
of these kings, sacrifices were offered to them, and their images were
placed in temples.[1135] Again, Gimil-Sin (c. 2500 B.C.), of the second
dynasty of Ur, appears to have been deified during his lifetime, and
there was a temple in Lagash which was named after him.[1136] No doubt
other kings will be found who were similarly honored. We may expect to
come across a god Hammurabi some day. Gilgamesh is, as we have seen, a
historical personage whose career has been so thoroughly amalgamated
with nature-myths that he ends by becoming a solar deity who is invoked
in incantations.

The tendency to connect legendary and mythical incidents with ancient
rulers is part and parcel of this process of deification. Of an ancient
king, Sargon,[1137] a story was related how he was exposed in a boat,
and, 'knowing neither father nor mother,' was found by a ferryman. The
exploits of this king and of his successor, Naram-Sin, were incorporated
in an omen text[1138]--a circumstance that again illustrates how the
popular fancy connected the heroes of the past with its religious
interests. Still, there is no more reason to question the historical
reality of Sargon[1139] than to question the existence of Moses, because
a story of his early youth is narrated in Exodus[1140] which forms a
curious parallel to the Sargon legend, or to question the existence of a
personage by the name of Abraham, because an Abrahamitic cult arose that
continues to the present day.[1141]

This close association of the dead with the gods, upon which the
deification of the dead rests, may be regarded as a legacy of the
earliest period of the Babylonian religion, of the time when the
intercourse between the gods and the living was also direct. The belief
and rites connected with the dead constitute the most conservative
elements in the religion of a people. The organized cult affects the
living chiefly. So far as the latter are concerned, the rise of a
priesthood to whom the religious