Ea and Damkina of Eridu, Nebo and Tashmit of Borsippa, Nergal
and Allatu of Kutha, Shamash and [=A] of Sippar, Sin and Ningal of Ur, as
well as pairs like Ramman (or Adad) and Shala whose central seat is unknown
to us. In this process of accommodating ancient prerogatives to new
conditions, it was inevitable that attributes belonging specifically to the
one or the other of these gods should have been transferred to Marduk, who
thus from being, originally, a solar deity becomes an eclectic power,
taking on the traits of Bel, Ea, Shamash, Nergal, Adad and even Sin (the
moon-god)--a kind of composite residuum of all the chief gods.

In the religious literature this process can be traced with perfect
definiteness. The older incantations, associated with Ea, were re-edited so
as to give to Marduk the supreme power over demons, witches and sorcerers:
the hymns and lamentations composed for the cult of Bel, Shamash and of
Adad were transformed into paeans and appeals to Marduk, while the ancient
myths arising in the various religious and political centres underwent a
similar process of adaptation to changed conditions, and as a consequence
their original meaning was obscured by the endeavour to assign all mighty
deeds and acts, originally symbolical of the change of seasons or of
occurrences in nature, to the patron deity of Babylon--the supreme head of
the entire Babylonian pantheon. Besides the chief deities and their
consorts, various minor ones, representing likewise patron gods of less
important localities and in most cases of a solar character were added at
one time or the other to the court of Marduk, though there is also to be
noted a tendency on the part of the chief solar deity, Shamash of Sippara,
and for the chief moon-god to absorb the solar and lunar deities of less
important sites, leading in the case of the solar gods to the
differentiation of the functions of Shamash during the various seasons of
the year and the various times of the day among these minor deities. In
this way Ninib, whose chief seat appears to have been at Shirgulla
(Lagash), became the sun-god of the springtime and of the morning, bringing
joy and new life to the earth, while Nergal of Kutha was regarded as the
sun of the summer solstice and of the noonday heat--the harbinger of
suffering and death.

There were, however, two deities who appear to have retained an independent
existence--Anu (_q.v._), the god of heaven, and Ishtar (_q.v._), the