ale, or both as a bisexual deity.

As the "bull of light" Jupiter had solar associations; he was also the
shepherd of the stars, a title shared by Tammuz as Orion; Nin-Girsu, a
developed form of Tammuz, was identified with both Orion and Jupiter.

Ishtar's identification with Venus is of special interest. When that
planet was at its brightest phase, its rays were referred to as "the
beard" of the goddess; she was the "bearded Aphrodite"--a bisexual
deity evidently. The astrologers regarded the bright Venus as lucky
and the rayless Venus as unlucky.

Saturn was Nirig, who is best known as Ninip, a deity who was
displaced by Enlil, the elder Bel, and afterwards regarded as his son.
His story has not been recovered, but from the references made to it
there is little doubt that it was a version of the widespread myth
about the elder deity who was slain by his son, as Saturn was by
Jupiter and Dyaus by Indra. It may have resembled the lost Egyptian
myth which explained the existence of the two Horuses--Horus the
elder, and Horus, the posthumous son of Osiris. At any rate, it is of
interest to find in this connection that in Egypt the planet Saturn
was Her-Ka, "Horus the Bull". Ninip was also identified with the bull.
Both deities were also connected with the spring sun, like Tammuz, and
were terrible slayers of their enemies. Ninip raged through Babylonia
like a storm flood, and Horus swept down the Nile, slaying the
followers of Set. As the divine sower of seed, Ninip may have
developed from Tammuz as Horus did from Osiris. Each were at once the
father and the son, different forms of the same deity at various
seasons of the year. The elder god was displaced by the son (spring),
and when the son grew old his son slew him in turn. As the planet
Saturn, Ninip was the ghost of the elder god, and as the son of Bel he
was the solar war god of spring, the great wild bull, the god of
fertility. He was also as Ber "lord of the wild boar", an animal
associated with Rimmon[316].

Nebo (Nabu), who was identified with Mercury, was a god of Borsippa.
He was a messenger and "announcer" of the gods, as the Egyptian Horus
in his connection with Jupiter was Her-ap-sheta, "Horus the opener of
that which is secret[317]". Nebo's original character is obscure. He
appears to have been a highly developed deity of a people well
advanced in civilization when he was exalted as the divine patron of
Borsippa. Although Hammurabi ignored him, he was