o the introduction of the gods into
the mathematics of the day.[841] A number is assigned to each of the
chief gods. And, though such a procedure has its natural outcome in
Cabbalistic tendencies, we can still discern in the ideas that lead to
this association of numbers with gods, influences at work that emanated
from the astronomical schools. Thus the moon-god Sin is identified with
the number thirty, suggested by the days of the ordinary month. Ishtar,
the daughter of Sin, is number fifteen, the half of thirty. The unit in
the sexagesimal--the number sixty--is assigned to Anu, the chief of the
triad, while the other two members, Bel and Ea, follow as fifty and
forty respectively. The dependence of this species of identification
upon the calendrical system is made manifest by the inferior rank given
to the sun, which receives the number twenty, the decimal next to that
assigned to Sin, while Ramman, the third member of the second
triad,[842] is identified with ten.[843] Absolute consistency in this
process is, of course, as little to be expected as in other
semi-mystical aspects of the science of the Babylonians; nor is it
necessary for our purposes to enter upon the further consequences
resulting from this combination of gods with numbers. The association of
ideas involved in the combination furnishes another and rather striking
illustration of the close contact between science and religion in the
remarkable culture of the Euphrates Valley.

There was no conflict between science and religion in ancient Babylonia.
Each reacted on the other, but the two factors were at all times closely
united in perfect harmony,--a harmony so perfect, indeed, as to be
impressive despite its _naivete_.

FOOTNOTES:

[808] _E.g._, IR. 52, no. 3, col. ii. l. 2; IIR. 38, 27b.

[809] The Greek name for the letters of the alphabet--_symbolon_,
_i.e._, a "likeness"--illustrates the same view of the pictorial origin
of writing.

[810] For illustrations, see Lenomant, _Magie und Wahrsagekunst der
Chaldaer_, pp. 520-523.

[811] See the summary on pp. 198, 199, of Delitzsch, _Ursprung der
Keilschriftzeichen._

[812] See p. 436.

[813] Epping and Strassmaier, _Astronomisches aus Babylon_ (Freiburg,
1889).

[814] _Kosmologie_, pp. 57-95. See especially the summary, pp. 82-84.

[815] See p. 89.

[816] See p. 48.

[817] On this ideograph, see Jensen, _Kosmologie_ pp. 43, 44.

[818] _Kosmologie_, p. 134.

[819] See the following ch