Persian mythology. The historical
setting is the work of the Jewish compiler of the tale, that has of
course some historical basis. See now Toy, _Esther as a Babylonian
Goddess_ (_The New World_, vi. 130-145).

[1578] VR. 33, col. v. l. 40.

[1579] Winckler, _Die Keilschrifttexte Sargon's_, p. 172 and p. xxvi,
note.

[1580] _E.g._, Sargon's _Annals_, l. 179; Cylinder, l. 20, VR. 33, col.
v. l. 40 (_nigatu_).

[1581] Not necessarily 'music festival,' as Delitzsch proposes (_Assyr.
Handw._, p. 447a).

[1582] For examples, see the Assyrian contract tablets translated by
Peiser, _Keils Bibl._ iv. 98 and _passim._

[1583] See the passage Shalmanaser obelisk, ll. 174, 175, and Peiser's
comment, _Keils Bibl._ iv. 106, note.

[1584] Burton, _A Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina_, iii. chapter vii.

[1585] See above, p. 686.

[1586] Chapter xviii.

[1587] Rassam Cylinder, col. iv. ll. 86-89.

[1588] VR. 61, col. ii. ll. 22-27.

[1589] Ea and Marduk, it will be recalled, are the chief gods invoked in
magic rites involving purification. See pp. 275, 276.

[1590] See p. 646.

[1591] See numerous examples in Menant's _Collection de Clercq_ (Paris,
1888).

[1592] See above, p. 662.

[1593] Stade, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_, i. 458 seq.

CHAPTER XXVII.

CONCLUSION.

General Estimate and Influence.

In forming a general estimate of a religion, one's verdict will largely
depend upon the point of view from which the religion in question is
regarded. It is manifestly unjust and illogical to apply modern
standards to an ancient religion, not that such a religion would
necessarily suffer by the comparison involved, but because of the
totally different conditions under which religion developed in antiquity
from those prevailing in modern times. The close association, nay, the
inseparable bond, between religion and the state is only one of several
determining factors that might be adduced, while the small scope
permitted to individualism in matters of religious belief and practice
in a country like Babylonia or Assyria was fraught with such peculiar
results that all comparisons, even with other religions of antiquity,
could only obscure and not illumine our judgment.

There are manifestly three phases of the religion of Babylonia and
Assyria that need to be considered in reaching some general conclusions
as to the character and rank to be accorded to it,--the doctrines, the
rites, and the ethics. So far