The name of his consort, Damkina or Dawkina, probably means "the eternal spouse," and her other names, /Gašan-ki/ (Sumerian dialectic) and /Nin-ki/ (non-dialectic), "Lady of the earth," sufficiently indicates her province. She is often mentioned in the incantations with Êa.
The forsaking of the worship of Êa as chief god for that of Merodach seems to have caused considerable heartburning in Babylonia, if we may judge from the story of the Flood, for it was on account of his faithfulness that Utnipištim, the Babylonian Noah, attained to salvation from the Flood and immortality afterwards. All through this adventure it was the god Êa who favoured him, and afterwards gave him immortality like that of the gods. There is an interesting Sumerian text in which the ship of Êa seems to be described, the woods of which its various parts were formed being named, and in it, apparently, were Enki (Êa), Damgal-nunna (Damkina), his consort, Asari-lu-duga (Merodach), In-ab (or Ineš), the pilot of Êridu (Êa's city), and Nin-igi-nagar-sir, "the great architect of heaven":—
"May the ship before thee bring fertility,
May the ship after thee bring joy,
In thy heart may it make joy of heart . . . ."
Êa was the god of fertility, hence this ending to the poetical description of the ship of Êa.
Bel.
The deity who is mentioned next in order in the list given above is the "older Bel," so called to distinguish him from Bel-Merodach. His principal names were /Mullil/ (dialectic) or /En-lilla/[1] (standard speech), the /Illinos/ of Damascius. His name is generally translated "lord of mist," so-called as god of the underworld, his consort being /Gašan-lil/ or /Nan-lilla/, "the lady of the mist," in Semitic Babylonian /Bêltu/, "the Lady," par excellence. Bel, whose name means "the lord," was so called because he was regarded as chief of the gods. As there was considerable confusion in consequence of the title Bel having been given to Merodach, Tiglath-pileser I. (about 1200 B.C.) refers to him as the "older Bel" in describing the temple which he built for him at Aššur. Numerous names of men compounded with his occur until the latest times, implying that, though the favourite god was Merodach, the worship of Bel was not forgotten, even at Babylon—that he should have been adored at his own city, Niffur, and at Dur-Kuri-galzu, where Kuri-galzu I. built a temple for "Bel, the lord of the lands," was naturally to be expected. Being, like Êa, a god of the earth, he is regarded as having formed a trinity with Anu, the god of heaven, and Êa, the god of the deep, and prayer to these three was as good as invoking all the gods of the universe. Classification of the gods according to the domain of their power would naturally take place in a religious system in which they were all identified with each other, and this classification indicates, as Jastrow says, a deep knowledge of the powers of nature, and a more than average intelligence among the Babylonians—indeed, he holds it as a proof that, at the period of the older empire, there were schools and students who had devoted themselves to religious speculation upon this point. He also conjectures that the third commandment of the Law of Moses was directed against this doctrine held by the Babylonians.
[1] Ordinarily pronounced /Illila/, as certain glosses and Damascius's /Illinos/ (for /Illilos/) show.
Beltis.
This goddess was properly only the spouse of the older Bel, but as /Bêltu/, her Babylonian name, simply meant "lady" in general (just as /Bêl/ or /bêlu/ meant "lord"), it became a title which could be given to any goddess, and was in fact borne by Zer-panîtum, Ištar, Nanaa, and others. It was therefore often needful to add the name of the city over which the special /Bêltu/ presided, in order to make clear which of them was meant. Besides being the title of the spouse of the older Bel, having her earthly seat with him in Niffur and other less important shrines, the Assyrians sometimes name Bêltu the spouse of Aššur, their national god, suggesting an identification, in the minds of the priests, with that deity.
Ênu-rêštu or Nirig.[1]