event.

FOOTNOTES:

[115] Quite recently there have been found at Telloh some thirty
thousand clay tablets, chiefly lists of sacrifices, temple inventories,
and legal documents. These tablets will probably furnish additional
names of deities, and perhaps throw further light on those known.
Further excavations at Nippur will likewise add to the material. But
after all, for our main purpose in this chapter, which is the
illustration of the chief traits of the Babylonian pantheon in early
days, these expected additions to the pantheon will not be of paramount
significance.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE PANTHEON IN THE DAYS OF HAMMURABI.

Marduk.

The immediate result of Hammurabi's master-stroke in bringing the
various states of the Euphrates Valley under a single control, was the
supremacy secured for his capital, of the city of Babylon over all other
Babylonian cities, and with this supremacy, the superior position
henceforth assumed by the patron deity of the capital, Marduk.[116] It
is needless for our purposes to enter upon the question as to the age of
the city of Babylon,[117] nor as to its political fortunes prior to the
rise of the dynasty of which Hammurabi was the sixth member. That its
beginnings were modest, and that its importance, if not its origin, was
of recent date in comparison with such places as Eridu, Nippur, Lagash,
Ur, and the like, is proved by the absence of the god Marduk in any of
the inscriptions that we have been considering up to this point. The
first mention of the god occurs in the inscriptions of Hammurabi, where
he appears distinctly as the god of the city of Babylon. No doubt the
immediate predecessors of Hammurabi regarded Marduk in the same light as
the great conqueror, so that we are justified in applying the data,
furnished by the inscriptions of Hammurabi to such of his predecessors,
of whom records are still lacking. It is to Marduk, that Hammurabi
ascribes his success. The king regards himself as the beloved of Marduk.
The god rejoices his heart and gives him power and plenty. Even when
paying his homage at the shrines of other deities, he does not forget to
couple the name of Marduk with that of the deity whose protection he
invokes. So at Sippar, sacred to Shamash, and where the king deposits a
cylinder recording the improvements that he instigated in the city, he
associates the sun-god with Marduk, whereas in contradistinction to the
rulers of the old Babylonian cities or