great
mother-goddess, who symbolized fertility and vitality in general. There are
some reasons for believing that the oldest seat, and possibly the original
seat, of the Anu cult was in Erech, as it is there where the Ishtar cult
that subsequently spread throughout Babylonia and Assyria took its rise.
While Anu, with whom there was associated as a pale reflection a consort
Antum, assigned to him under the influence of the widely prevalent view
among the early Semites which conceived of gods always in pairs, remained
more or less of an abstraction during the various periods of the
Babylonian-Assyrian religion and taking little part in the active cult of
the temples, his unique position as the chief god of the highest heavens
was always recognized in the theological system developed by the priests,
which found an expression in making him the first figure of a triad,
consisting of Anu, Bel and Ea, among whom the priests divided the three
divisions of the universe, the heavens, the earth with the atmosphere above
it, and the watery expanse respectively.

Postponing the discussion of this triad, it is to be noted that the
systematization of the pantheon after the days of Khammurabi did not
seriously interfere with the independence of the goddess Ishtar. While
frequently associated with Marduk, and still more closely with the chief
god of Assyria, the god Assur (who occupies in the north the position
accorded to Marduk in the south), so much so as to be sometimes spoken of
as Assur's consort--the lady or Belit _par excellence_--the belief that as
the source of all life she stands apart never lost its hold upon the people
and found an expression also in the system devised by the priests. By the
side of the first triad, consisting of Anu, Bel and Ea--disconnected in
this form entirely from all local associations--we encounter a second triad
composed of Shamash, Sin and Ishtar. As the first triad symbolized the
three divisions of the universe--the heavens, earth and the watery
element--so the second represented the three great forces of nature--the
sun, the moon and the life-giving power. According as the one or the other
aspect of such a power is brought into the foreground, Ishtar becomes the
mother of mankind, the fertile earth, the goddess of sexual love, and the
creative force among animals, while at times she appears in hymns and myths
as the general personification of nature.

We thus find in the post-Khammurabic period