me time it is to be noted
that by the side of the Assyrian Ishtar, the Babylonian Ishtar,
especially the one associated with Erech (or Warka) is also worshipped
by the monarchs of the north. Esarhaddon devotes himself to the
improvement of the old temple at Erech, and Ashurbanabal prides himself
upon having rescued out of the hands of the Elamites a statue of Ishtar
or Nana of Erech that had been captured 1635 years previous.[253]

Anu.

Reference has already been made to the antiquity of the Anu cult in
Assyria, and that prior to the time that the city of Ashur assumes the
role of mistress of the northern district, Anu stood at the head of the
pantheon, just as theoretically he continued to occupy this place in the
pantheon of the south. What is especially important, he had a temple in
the very city of Ashur, whose patron god succeeded in usurping the place
of the old 'god of heaven.' The character of Anu in the north differs in
no way from the traits assigned to him in the south. He is the king of
the Igigi and Anunnaki, that is, of all the heavenly and earthly
spirits, and he is this by virtue of being the supreme god of heaven.
His cult, however, appears to have suffered through the overshadowing
supremacy of Ashur. Even in his old temple at Ashur, which
Tiglathpileser I. on the occasion of his rebuilding it, tells us was
founded 641 years before this restoration,[254] he is no longer accorded
sole homage. Ramman, the god of thunder and of storms, because
correlated to Anu, is placed by the side of the latter and permitted to
share the honors with Anu.[255] Anu survives in the Assyrian as in the
Babylonian pantheon by virtue of being a member of the theological
triad, composed as we have seen of Anu, Bel, and Ea. Tiglathpileser I.
still invokes Anu as a deity of practical importance. He associates him
with Ramman and Ishtar as the great gods of the city of Ashur or with
Ramman alone, but beyond an incidental mention by Ashurnasirbal, who in
a long list of gods at the beginning of his annals emphasizes the fact
of his being the favorite of Anu, he appears only in combination with
Bel and Ea. The same degree of reverence, however, was shown to the old
triad in Assyria as in Babylonia. The three gods are asked not to listen
to the prayers of the one who destroys the monuments set up by the
kings. Sargon tells us that it is Anu, Bel, and Ea who fix the names of
the months,[256] and this same king when he comes to ass