the
solution of the problem involved in the amalgamation of Erua and
Sarpanitum.[126]

Nabu.

The god Nabu (or Nebo) enjoys a great popularity in the Babylonian cult,
but he owes his prestige to the accident that, as god of Borsippa, he
was associated with Marduk. Indeed, his case is a clear instance of the
manner in which Marduk overshadows all his fellows. Only as they are
brought into some manner of relationship with him do they secure a
position in the pantheon during this second period of Babylonian
history. Since Nabu's position in the pantheon, once established, incurs
but little change, it will be proper, in treating of him, to include the
testimony furnished by the historical records of the Assyrian kings. The
most prominent attribute of Nabu, at least in the later phases of the
Babylonian religion, is that of wisdom. He is the wise, the all-knowing.
He embodies in his person all the wisdom of the gods. To him the
Assyrian kings are particularly fond of ascribing, not merely the
understanding that they possess, but the thought of preserving the
wisdom of the past for future ages; and in doing this the Assyrians were
but guided by examples furnished by the south. Wisdom being associated,
in the minds of the Babylonians, with the watery deep, one is tempted to
seek an aqueous origin for Nabu. Such a supposition, although it cannot
be positively established, has much in its favor. It is not necessary,
in order to maintain this proposition, to remove Nabu from Borsippa. The
alluvial deposits made by the Euphrates yearly have already demonstrated
that Babylon lay much nearer at one time to the Persian Gulf than it
does at present. The original seat of Ea, whose worship continued
through all times to enjoy great popularity at Babylon, was at Eridu,
which, we know, once lay on the Persian Gulf, but does so no longer. The
similarity of the epithets bestowed in various texts upon Ea and Nabu
point most decidedly to a similar starting-point for both; and since in
a syllabary[127] we find the god actually identified with a deity of
Dilmun,--probably one of the islands near Bahrein,--there are grounds
for assuming that a tradition survived among the schoolmen, which
brought Nabu into some connection with the Persian Gulf. Sayce[128] has
already suggested that Borsippa may have originally stood on an inlet of
the Persian Gulf. Nabu is inferior to Ea, and were it not for the
priority of Marduk, he would have become in B