ds took form when the
various deities began to be clearly distinguished from one another, and, by
a process of mental condensation, to acquire a certain amount of
consistence and solidity. The Chaldaean temples, unlike those of Egypt and
Greece, have succumbed to time, and the ancient texts in which they are
described are short and obscure. Their ruins are little more than shapeless
heaps of _debris_. In endeavouring to arrive at a clear understanding of
the Chaldaean notions as to the gods, we are unable to study, as we did
elsewhere, the forms of their religious edifices, with their plans,
dimensions, and the instructive variety of decorative symbols and figures
with which the sanctuary and its dependencies were overspread.

On the other hand a sufficient number of figures of the gods have come down
to us. They abound upon small objects, such as cylinders, engraved stones,
cones, scarabaei, the bezels of rings, terra-cotta tablets and statuettes.
They are also found, though less frequently, among the _debris_ of
monumental sculpture, in the bas-reliefs of the Ninevite palaces, and even
among certain figures in the round which have been recovered from the ruins
of these latter buildings. We can therefore easily find out the particular
attributes given by the artist as the interpreter of the national beliefs
to those gods whose visible bodies it was his office to create; we can see
what choice and combination of forms he thought best fitted to solve the
problem presented to him. But as yet we are not in a position to put a
name to each even of the figures that recur most frequently. In the case of
Egypt there is no such difficulty: when we encounter the image of one of
her gods upon the walls of a temple or in the cases of a museum, we can say
without hesitation, "This is Osiris or Ptah," as the case may be, "Amen or
Horus, Isis, Sekhet, or Hathor." It is not so with Chaldaea. Figures are
there often found uninscribed, and even when an inscription is present it
not seldom offers difficulties of interpretation which have not yet been
cleared up; for the divine names are usually ideograms. Only a few have
been identified beyond all doubt, those namely of which we have Hebrew or
Greek transcriptions, preserving for us the real Chaldaean original; Ilou,
Bel, Nisroch, Beltis, Istar, are examples of this. Hence it results that
Assyriologists often feel no little embarrassment when they are asked to
point out upon the monuments