nature.

Considering the persistent and cumulative influence exercised by
agricultural religion it is not surprising to find, as has been
indicated, that most of the Babylonian gods had Tammuz traits, as most
of the Egyptian gods had Osirian traits. Although local or imported
deities were developed and conventionalized in rival Babylonian
cities, they still retained traces of primitive conceptions. They
existed in all their forms--as the younger god who displaced the elder
god and became the elder god, and as the elder god who conciliated the
younger god and made him his active agent; and as the god who was
identified at various seasons with different heavenly bodies and
natural phenomena. Merodach, the god of Babylon, who was exalted as
chief of the National pantheon in the Hammurabi Age, was, like Tammuz,
a son, and therefore a form of Ea, a demon slayer, a war god, a god of
fertility, a corn spirit, a Patriarch, and world ruler and guardian,
and, like Tammuz, he had solar, lunar, astral, and atmospheric
attributes. The complex characters of Merodach and Tammuz were not due
solely to the monotheistic tendency: the oldest deities were of
mystical character, they represented the "Self Power" of Naturalism as
well as the spirit groups of Animism.

The theorizing priests, who speculated regarding the mysteries of life
and death and the origin of all things, had to address the people
through the medium of popular beliefs. They utilized floating myths
for this purpose. As there were in early times various centres of
culture which had rival pantheons, the adapted myths varied greatly.
In the different forms in which they survive to us they reflect, not
only aspects of local beliefs, but also grades of culture at different
periods. We must not expect, however, to find that the latest form of
a myth was the highest and most profound. The history of Babylonian
religion is divided into periods of growth and periods of decadence.
The influence of domestic religion was invariably opposed to the new
and high doctrines which emanated from the priesthood, and in times of
political upheaval tended to submerge them in the debris of immemorial
beliefs and customs. The retrogressive tendencies of the masses were
invariably reinforced by the periodic invasions of aliens who had no
respect for official deities and temple creeds.

We must avoid insisting too strongly on the application of the
evolution theory to the religious phenomena