n, show the respect which
the upper class of citizens paid to this god. It may even be suspected
that when Nebuchadnezzar's Master of the Eunuchs had to give Babylonian
names to the young Jewish princes whom he was educating, he designed to
secure for one of them this powerful patron, and consequently called
him Abed-Nebo--the servant of Nebo--a name which the later Jews, either
disdaining or not understanding, have corrupted into the Abed-nogo of
the existing text.

Another god held in peculiar honor by the Babylonians was Nergal.
Worshipped at Cutha as the tutelary divinity of the town, he was also
held in repute by the people generally. No name is more common on the
cylinder seals. It is sometimes, though not often, an element in the
names of men, as in "Nergal-shar-ezer, the Eab-mag," and (if he be a
different person) in Neriglissar, the king.

Altogether, there was a strong local element in the religion of the
Babylonians. Bel and Merodach were in a peculiar way the gods of
Babylon, Nebo of Borsippa, Nergal of Cutha, the Moon of Ur or Hur,
Beltis of Niffer, Hea or Hoa of Hit, Ana of Erech, the Sun of Sippara.
Without being exclusively honored at a single site, the deities in
question held the foremost place each in his own town. There especially
was worship offered to them; there was the most magnificent of their
shrines. Out of his own city a god was not greatly respected, unless by
those who regarded him as their special personal protector.

The Babylonians worshipped their gods indirectly, through images.
Each shrine had at least one idol, which was held in the most pious
reverence, and was in the minds of the vulgar identified with the god.
It seems to have been believed by some that the actual idol ate and
drank the offerings. Others distinguished between the idol and the god,
regarding the latter as only occasionally visiting the shrine where he
was worshipped. Even these last, however, held gross anthropomorphic
views, since they considered the god to descend from heaven in order to
hold commerce with the chief priestess. Such notions were encouraged by
the priests, who furnished the inner shrine in the temple of Bel with a
magnificent couch and a golden table, and made the principal priestess
pass the night in the shrine on certain occasions.

The images of the gods were of various materials. Some were of wood,
others of stone, others again of metal; and these last were either
solid or plated. The metal