ecliptic, was
the next step. The course of the moon and planets was determined with
reference to the sun's ecliptic, and gradually a zodiacal system was
evolved, the perfection of which is best exemplified by the fact that so
much of the astronomical language of the present time is the same as
that used by the ancient astronomers of the Euphrates Valley.

The sun and moon being regarded as deities, under the influence of
primitive animistic ideas,[816] the stars would also come to be looked
upon as divine. The ideograph designating a 'star' and which is prefixed
as a determinative to the names of stars, consists of the sign for god
repeated three times;[817] and in the case of those stars which are
identified with particular deities, the simple determinative for god is
employed. To regard the stars in general as gods is a consequence of
animistic notions; but the further steps in the process which led to
connecting the planets and certain other stars with particular deities
who originally had nothing to do with the stars, fall within the
province of scholastic theory.

As the jurisdiction of gods originally worshipped in a limited district
increased, a difficulty naturally arose among the more advanced minds as
to the exact place where the deity dwelt. This difficulty would be
accentuated in the case of a god like Marduk becoming the chief god of
the whole Babylonian Empire. His ardent worshippers would certainly not
content themselves with the notion that a single edifice, even though it
be his great temple at Babylon, could contain him. Again, the
development of a pantheon, systematized, and in which the various gods
worshipped in Babylonia came to occupy fixed relationships to one
another, would lead to the view of putting all the gods in one place.
The sun and moon being in the heavens, the most natural place to assign
to the gods as a dwelling-place was in the region where Shamash and Sin
(as every one could see for himself) had their seats. The doctrine thus
arose that the great gods dwell in the 'heaven of Anu.' A doctrine of
this kind would be intelligible to the general populace, but it is
doubtful whether a belief which involved the establishment of a direct
connection between the most prominent stars--the planets with the chief
gods--ever enjoyed popular favor in Babylonia. The association is marked
by an artificiality and a certain arbitrariness that stamps it not only
as the product of theological schools