eligious
practice was, as already intimated, the growth of an elaborate and
complicated method of divining the future by the observation of the
phenomena in the heavens. It is significant that in the royal collection of
cuneiform literature made by King Assur-bani-pal of Assyria (668-626 B.C.)
and deposited in his palace at Nineveh, the omen collections connected with
the astral theology of Babylonia and Assyria form the largest class. There
are also indications that the extensive texts dealing with divination
through the liver of sacrificial animals, which represents a more popular
origin than divination through the observations of the heavens, based as it
is on the primitive view which regarded the liver as the seat of life and
of the soul, were brought into connexion with astral divination. Less
influenced by the astral-theological system are the old incantation texts
which were gathered together into series. In these series we can trace the
attempt to gather the incantation formulae and prayers produced in
different centres, and to make them conform to the tendency to centralize
the cult in the worship of Marduk and his consort in the south, and of
Assur and Ishtar in the north. Incantations originally addressed to Ea of
Eridu, as the god of the watery element, and to Nusku, as the god of fire,
were transferred to Marduk. This was done by making Ea confer on Marduk as
his son the powers of the father, and by making Nusku a messenger between
Ea and Marduk. At the same time, since the invoking of the divine powers
was the essential element in the incantations, in order to make the magic
formulae as effective as possible, a large number of the old local deities
are introduced to add their power to the chief ones; and it is here that
the astral system comes into play through the introduction of names of
stars, as well as through assigning attributes to the gods which clearly
reflect the conception that they have their seats in the heavens. The
incantations pass over naturally into hymns and prayers. The connexion
between the two is illustrated by the application of the term _shiptu_,
"incantation," to the direct appeals to the gods, as well as by the
introduction, on the one hand, of genuine prayers into the incantations and
by the addition, on the other hand, of incantations to prayers and hymns,
pure and simple. In another division of the religious literature of
Babylonia which is largely represented in Assur-bani-pal's