uit, and Kerh and his consort Kerhet. "Man always
has fashioned", he says, "and probably always will fashion, his god or
gods in his own image, and he has always, having reached a certain
stage in development, given to his gods wives and offspring; but the
nature of the position taken by the wives of the gods depends upon the
nature of the position of women in the households of those who write
the legends and the traditions of the gods. The gods of the oldest
company in Egypt were, the writer believes, invented by people in
whose households women held a high position, and among whom they
possessed more power than is usually the case with Oriental
peoples."[48]

We cannot say definitely what these various deities represent. Nu was
the spirit of the primordial deep, and Nut of the waters above the
heavens, the mother of moon and sun and the stars. The others were
phases of light and darkness and the forces of nature in activity and
repose.

Nu is represented in Babylonian mythology by Apsu-Rishtu, and Nut by
Mummu-Tiamat or Tiawath; the next pair is Lachmu and Lachamu, and the
third, Anshar and Kishar. The fourth pair is missing, but the names of
Anu and Ea (as Nudimmud) are mentioned in the first tablet of the
Creation series, and the name of a third is lost. Professor Budge
thinks that the Assyrian editors substituted the ancient triad of Anu,
Ea, and Enlil for the pair which would correspond to those found in
Egypt. Originally the wives of Anu and Ea may have made up the group
of eight primitive deities.

There can be little doubt but that Ea, as he survives to us, is of
later characterization than the first pair of primitive deities who
symbolized the deep. The attributes of this beneficent god reflect the
progress, and the social and moral ideals of a people well advanced in
civilization. He rewarded mankind for the services they rendered to
him; he was their leader and instructor; he achieved for them the
victories over the destructive forces of nature. In brief, he was the
dragon slayer, a distinction, by the way, which was attached in later
times to his son Merodach, the Babylonian god, although Ea was still
credited with the victory over the dragon's husband.

When Ea was one of the pre-Babylonian group--the triad of Bel-Enlil,
Anu, and Ea--he resembled the Indian Vishnu, the Preserver, while
Bel-Enlil resembled Shiva, the Destroyer, and Anu, the father, supreme
Brahma, the Creator and Father of All, the dif