nd while an athletic contest was in progress, he
killed his grandfather with a quoit. There is no evidence, however, to
show that the displacement of Enlil by Merodach had any legendary
sanction of like character. The god of Babylon absorbed all other
deities, apparently for political purposes, and in accordance with the
tendency of the thought of the times, when raised to supreme rank in
the national pantheon; and he was depicted fighting the winged dragon,
flapping his own storm wings, and carrying the thunder weapon
associated with Ramman.

Merodach's spouse Zer-panitu^m was significantly called "the lady of
the Abyss", a title which connects her with Damkina, the mother, and
Belit-sheri, the sister of Tammuz. Damkina was also a sky goddess like
Ishtar.

Zer-panitu^m was no pale reflection of her Celestial husband, but a
goddess of sharply defined character with independent powers.
Apparently she was identical with Aruru, creatrix of the seed of
mankind, who was associated with Merodach when the first man and the
first woman were brought into being. Originally she was one of the
mothers in the primitive spirit group, and so identical with Ishtar
and the other prominent goddesses.

As all goddesses became forms of Ishtar, so did all gods become forms
of Merodach. Sin was "Merodach as illuminator of night", Nergal was
"Merodach of war", Addu (Ramman) was "Merodach of rain", and so on. A
colophon which contains a text in which these identifications are
detailed, appears to be "a copy", says Professor Pinches, "of an old
inscription", which, he thinks, "may go back as far as 2000 B.C. This
is the period at which the name _Yau^m-ilu_, 'Jah is god', is found,
together with references to _ilu_ as the name for the one great god,
and is also, roughly, the date of Abraham, who, it may be noted, was a
Babylonian of Ur of the Chaldees."[189]

In one of the hymns Merodach is addressed as follows:--

Who shall escape from before thy power?
Thy will is an eternal mystery!
Thou makest it plain in heaven
And in the earth,
Command the sea
And the sea obeyeth thee.
Command the tempest
And the tempest becometh a calm.
Command the winding course
Of the Euphrates,
And the will of Merodach
Shall arrest the floods.
Lord, thou art holy!
Who is like unto thee?
Merodach thou art honoured
Among the gods that bear a name.

The monotheistic tendency, which was a marke