The most ancient and sacred of all the gods of ancient Chaldea, Ea, the god of the great waters, the local divinity of Eridu, was not to be ignored, and was thus placed in the trinity of great gods.
The triad thus formed represented the gods of the heavens, the lower world, and the great waters. Below this was another triad, consisting of Sin, the moon; Samas, the sun, and Vul, the atmosphere.
Then followed other gods, representing visible planets, and still below these a host of lesser nature divinities. The transformation of some of these gods under Semitic influences, and their gradual absorption of the attributes of the older deities is a curious study in Chaldean mythology.
It is of special interest as we find in these many familiar deities of Syria, Palestine, Egypt and other countries, who had their origin in ancient Chaldea.
A prominent instance of this is the rise of Bel-Merodach, the great Baal, from a lesser to one of the greater gods, and whose cult extended with the increase of Assyrian and Babylonian power. When Bel-Merodach comes first distinctly in view it is as a local god of Babylon. With the consolidation of all southern Mesopotamia into the Babylonian empire, and the establishment of Babylon as its capital, the local god of this city waxed great with the greatness and importance of his local abode. This occurred under Hammurabi, or Khammuragas, the founder of the city and the empire, about 2356 B. C.
The attributes of Bel-Merodach are various. He is the son of Ea, “The first born of the gods,” “The benefactor of mankind,” “The mediator between gods and men,” “The warrior god, who leads the forces of light.” Like Nin-Girsu, the god of Gudea, he is the “Lord of the pure flame, who conquers and puts to flight the spirits of darkness.” Finally assuming the attributes of Samas, the Sun God, he appears as the solar deity of Babylon.
Among the cuneiform documents in the British museum, there is a group of fragments known as the Assyrian Epic of Creation. Portions of these were first translated by the late George Smith, who directed attention to their peculiar significance. Other fragments have since been found and translated by Mr. Pinches, producing the epic nearly complete.
In its present form, the poem is probably of the later days of the Assyrian empire. It bears within it, however, the embodiment of ancient Babylonian legends of the origin of things, and is specially remarkable in certain similarities to the Hebraic account of creation. A very great and marked contrast between these two narratives is that in one case the story of creation is told by a polytheist, as the effort of many gods; in the other, by an uncompromising monotheist, who attributes the work to a decree of one Supreme God.
The Assyrian version of that portion of the Hebrew narrative: “And the Spirit of God moved upon the waters, and God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light,” in the Chaldean epic is the office of Bel-Merodach.
As he leads the forces of light against the powers of darkness he enters into mortal combat with the great dragon, Tiamat, the goddess of chaos and darkness. This contest all the great gods have refused to attempt. In the conflict which ensues Merodach is victorious, vanquishing and destroying the great dragon of chaos. Whereupon there was great rejoicing among the great gods. Then:—