Unto Ea are they hostile.
The throne-bearers of the gods are they.
To work mischief in the street they settle in the highway.
Evil are they, evil are they!
Seven are they, seven are they, seven twice again are they!”
The seven evil spirits played an important part in the demonology of ancient Eridu, and echoes of it survive in the later literature. They were even transmuted into a god, and unified in his person under the name of “the divine seven”;[317] while the last month of the year, the stormy Adar, was dedicated to them. But in earlier days it needed all the wisdom of Ea to counteract their wicked devices. The fire-god himself was sent to drive [pg 409] them from their victims, and to disclose their nature and origin—
“In the mountain of the sunset, it is said, “those seven were born;”
in the mountain of the sunrise those seven grew up;
in the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling;
on the high-places of the earth their names are proclaimed.