se between conflicting schools
of thought. However this may be, the moment that the gods appear, a
conflict ensues between them and Apsu-Tiamat. This conflict represents
the evolution from chaos to order. But before taking up this phase of
the epic, a few words must be said as to the names of the gods
mentioned, and as to the order in which they occur.

There are three classes of deities enumerated. The first two classes
consist, each, of a pair of deities while the third is the well-known
triad of the old Babylonian theology. Between the creation of each class
a long period elapses--a circumstance that may be regarded as an
evidence of the originally independent character of each class. Now it
has recently been shown[698] that Lakhamu is the feminine of Lakhmu. The
first class of deities is, therefore, an illustration again of the
conventional male and female principles introduced into the current
theology. While there are references to Lakhmu and Lakhamu in the
religious texts,[699] particularly in incantations, these two deities
play no part whatsoever in the active pantheon, as revealed by the
historical texts. In popular tradition,[700] Lakhmu survived as a name
of a mythical monster.

Alexander Polyhistor[701] quotes Berosus as saying in his book on
Babylonia that the first result of the mixture of water and
chaos--_i.e._, of Apsu and Tiamat--was the production of monsters partly
human, partly bestial. The winged bulls and lions that guarded the
approaches to temples and palaces are illustrations of this old notion,
and it is to this class of mythical beings that Lakhmu belongs. The
schools of theology, seizing hold of this popular tradition, add again
to Lakhmu a female mate and convert the tradition into a symbol of the
first step in the evolution of order out of the original chaos. Lakhmu
and Lakhamu are made to stand for an entire class of beings that are the
offspring of Apsu and Tiamat. This class does not differ essentially
from Apsu and Tiamat, nor from the 'Leviathan,' the 'Dragon,' the winged
serpents, and the winged bulls that are all emanations of the same order
of ideas. Accordingly, we find Lakhmu and Lakhamu associated with Tiamat
when the conflict with the gods begins. They are products of chaos and
yet at the same time contemporary with chaos,--monsters not so fierce as
Tiamat, but withal monsters who had to be subdued before the planets and
the stars, vegetation and man could appear.

The intr