say what gods are meant.[320] Perhaps that these are
the translations of names of the old deities of Magganubba. We have
at least one other example of a foreign deity introduced into the
Assyrian pantheon. At Dur-ilu, a town lying near the Elamitic
frontier, there flourished the cult of Ka-di,[321] evidently a god
imported into the Assyrian pantheon from Elam or some other eastern
district. Sargon's scribes are fond of translating foreign names and
words, and they may have done so in this case, and thus added two new
deities to the glorious pantheon protecting their royal chief. As for
Sha-nit(?)-ka,[322] were it not that she is called the mistress of
Nineveh, one would also put her down as a foreign goddess. In view of
this, however, it may be that Sha-nit(?)-ka is an ideographic
designation of Ishtar.

Before leaving the subject, a word needs to be said regarding the
relation between the active Assyrian pantheon and the long lists of
deities prepared by the schoolmen of Babylonia and Assyria. Reference
has already been made to these lists.[323] They vary in character. Some
of them furnish an index of the various names under which a god was
known,[324] or the titles assigned to him. These names and titles are
frequently indications that some great god has absorbed the attributes
of smaller ones, whose independence was in this way destroyed. Other
lists[325] are simple enumerations of local deities, and when to these
names some indications are added, as to the locality to which the gods
belong,[326] their importance is correspondingly increased. There can be
no doubt that most of these lists were prepared on the basis of the
occurrence of these gods in texts, and it seems most plausible to
conclude that the texts in question were of a religious character.
References to local cults are numerous in the incantations which form a
considerable proportion of the religious literature, while in hymns and
prayers, gods are often referred to by their titles instead of their
names. In some respects, however, these lists of gods are still obscure.
It is often difficult to determine whether we are dealing with gods or
spirits, and the origin and meaning of many of the names and epithets
assigned to gods are similarly involved in doubt. Use has been made of
these lists in determining the character of the gods included in this
survey of the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon, but it would be
manifestly precarious to make additions to t