power of movement to man himself, and the
animals by whom he was surrounded."[5] Besides this belief in animism,
the Babylonian religion shows evidences of a belief in ghosts that were
related to the world of the dead. These ghosts were thought to
exercise an evil influence upon men and could be cast out only by the
use of incantations.

But, while these elements belonged to the early religion, Babylonian
religion as it actually meets us even in the earliest inscriptions has
reached a higher stage of development. There appear many local
deities; every center of human habitation had its special patron deity;
for example, Babylon was the city of Marduk; Nippur, of Enlil; Ur, of
Sin; Sippara, of Shamash; Cuthah, of Nergal; Asshur, of Ashur; etc.
These deities are usually associated with natural phenomena; foremost
among them stand the sun and the moon; but by the side of these many
other natural objects or forces were personified and deified.

It is probable that in the beginning, as the result of limited
observation and speculation, the number of gods in the Babylonian
pantheon was relatively small. However, in the course of time, {167}
they became greatly multiplied as the result of a wider observation of
the phenomena of nature, political changes, and theological
speculation. Over against this tendency to multiply deities there
shows itself, in the course of the centuries, a tendency to diminish
the number of gods, and in the end comparatively few remain, until in
the late Babylonian period the worship seems to have been confined
chiefly to Marduk, Nabu, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar. Some of the great
thinkers of Babylonia seem to have gone even so far as to consider the
various deities manifestation of the one god Marduk. There is in
existence a tablet of the Neo-Babylonian period which states that
Marduk is called Ninib as the possessor of power, Nergal as lord of
battle, Bel as possessor of dominion, Nabu as lord of business, Sin as
the illuminator of the night, Shamash as the lord of right, Addu as the
lord of rain, etc.[6] It is seen, then, that monotheistic tendencies
are not absent from the Babylonian religion. But they never go beyond
the realm of speculation. "The Babylonians, with all their wonderful
gifts, were never able to conceive of one god, of one god alone, of one
god whose very existence makes logically impossible the existence of
any other deity. Monotheism transcends the spiritual grasp of th