[215] See Perrot and Chiplez, History of Art in Chaldaea and Assyria, I. 351.
[216] The element ki is sometimes omitted. The force of na is not clear, unless it be a phonetic complement merely.
[217] Semitische Völker, p. 369.
[218] Very many of the names of the Semitic gods and heroes signify strong, e.g., El, Adon, Baal, Etana, Kemosh, etc.
[219] The final vowel i would, on the basis of the explanation offered, be paralleled by the i of Igigi—an indication of the plural. See Delitzsch, Assyr. Gram. § 67, 1.
[220] The Igigi are designated ideographically as v plus ii, and Hommel (Semitische Völker, p. 491) properly suggests that this peculiar writing points to an earlier use of five as constituting the group. Hommel, however, does not see that neither five nor seven are to be interpreted literally, but that both represent a large round number, and, therefore, also a holy one.
[221] IR. 55, col. iv. ll. 7-13.
CHAPTER XII.
THE ASSYRIAN PANTHEON.
We have now reached a point where it will be proper to set forth the phases that the Babylonian religion assumed during the days of Assyrian supremacy.