The Chaldean account of Genesis

by George Smith

The planet Venus, as the evening star, was identified with Istar of Erech, while the morning star was Anunit, goddess of Agané.

Istar, however, was worshipped under a great variety of forms. Each city, each state, had its own special Istar and its own special worship of her. In the syncretic age of Babylonian theology, these various forms and modes of worship were amalgamated together, and epithets of the goddess which were originally peculiar to particular localities, were applied to the single goddess of the state religion. Thus, according to the legends of one part of Babylonia, Istar was the daughter of the Moon-god, according to those of another part of the country she was the daughter of Anu. Hence in the mythology of a later period she appears sometimes as the daughter of the one deity, sometimes as the daughter of the other.

A companion deity with Anu is Hea, who is god, of the sea and of Hades, in fact of all the lower regions. In some of his attributes he answers to the Kronos of the Greeks, in others to their Poseidon. Hea is called god of the lower region, he is lord of the sea or abyss; he is also lord of generation and of all human beings and bears the titles: lord of wisdom, of mines and treasures; of gifts, of music, of fishermen and sailors, and of Hades or hell. It has been supposed that the serpent was one of his emblems, and that he was the Oannes of Berosus; but these conjectures have not yet been proved. The wife of Hea was Davkina, the Davke of Damascius, who is the goddess of the lower regions, the consort of the deep; and their principal son was Maruduk or Merodach, the Bel of later times.

Merodach, god of Babylon, appears in all the earlier inscriptions as the agent of his father Hea; he goes about the world collecting information, and receives commissions from his father to set right all that appears wrong. He is called the redeemer of mankind, the restorer to life, and the raiser from the dead. He is an active agent in creation, but is always subordinate to his father Hea. In later times, after Babylon had been made the capital, Merodach, who was god of that city, was raised to the head of the Pantheon. Merodach afterwards came to be identified with the classical Jupiter, but the name Bel, “the lord,” was only given to him in times subsequent to the rise of Babylon, when the worship of the older Bel, the Accadian Elum, was falling into decay. The wife of Merodach was Zirat-panit, perhaps the Succoth Benoth of the Bible. Besides Merodach, Hea had a numerous progeny, his sons being principally river-gods.

Nebo, the god of knowledge and literature, who was worshipped at the neighbouring city of Borsippa, was a favourite deity in later times, as was also his consort Tasmit “the Hearer.” Nebo, whose name signifies “the prophet,” was called Timkhir in Accadian, and had his temple in the island of Dilvun, called “the island of the gods” by the Accadians, now Bahrein. Here he was worshipped under the name of Enzak.

A third great god was united with Anu and Hea, named Enu, Mul, and Elum in Accadian, and Bel in Semitic Babylonian; he was the original Bel of the Babylonian mythology, and was lord of the surface of the earth and the affairs of men. Elum was lord of the city of Nipur, and in the Semitic period had a consort named Belat or Beltis. He was held to be the most active of the gods in the general affairs of mankind, and was so generally worshipped in early times that he came to be regarded as the national divinity, and his temple at the city of Nipur was regarded as the type of all others. The extensive worship of Bel, and the high honour in which he was held, seem to point to a time when his city, Nipur, was the metropolis of the country.

Belat, or Beltis, the wife of Bel, is a famous deity celebrated in all ages, but as the title Belat only signified “lady,” or “goddess,” it was a common one for many goddesses, and the notices of Beltis probably refer to several different personages.

Bel had, like the other gods, a numerous family; his eldest son was the moon-god, called Agu or Acu in Accadian, in later times generally termed Sin. Sin was presiding deity of the city of Ur, and early assumed an important place in the mythology. The moon-god figures prominently in some early legends, and during the time when the city of Ur was capital of the country his worship became very widely-spread and popular throughout the country.

Ninip, god of hunting and war, was another celebrated son of Bel; he was worshipped with his father at Nipur. Ninip was also much worshipped in Assyria as well as Babylonia, his character as presiding genius of war and the chase making him a favourite deity with the warlike kings of Assyria. Originally he was a form of the sun-god.

Sin the moon-god had a son Samas, the sun-god. Samas is an active deity in some of the Izdubar legends and fables, but he is generally subordinate to Sin. In the Babylonian system the moon takes precedence of the sun, as befitted a nation of astronomers, and the Samas of Larsa was probably considered a different deity from Samas of Sippara.