* ,5o8.] FOR PLANET IN BABYLONIAN. 155 



crops out in the belief which makes the history of the world begin 

 with the reign of Saturn and end with that of Mercury.*'' The 

 prominence of Saturn in Babylonian-Assyrian astrological texts 

 is in accord with this association with Mercury as a second Lu-Bat 

 par excellence^'^^ 



In modern astrology Saturn continues to play a particularly con- 

 spicuous role*' — all of which points to its having been the first planet 

 to become, by the law of contrasts, associated with the original 

 "source" of divination among the planets — Mercury. 



Lastly, a word regarding the ideographic designations of these 

 two "^sheep " — Alercury and Saturn. Kugler,*^ following in part 

 Jensen,*" proposes to take the element Gu-Ud in Lu-Bat Gu-Ud 

 as karradn sa urri,^^ " warrior of the light," because shortly after 

 his appearance in the East day triumphs over night. The explana- 

 tion seems forced and it is hardly likely that a circumstance like this 

 should have suggested a name for a planet. In view of the fact 

 that Mercury and Saturn are the two planets more particularly des- 

 ignated as Lu-Bat, it is more reasonable to see in Lu-Bat Gu-Ud 

 and Lu-Bat Sag-Us descriptions of characteristic features. For 

 Sag-Us, fortunately, the equivalent, ka^a-ma-nn,^'^ has been defi- 

 nitely ascertained and the meaning " regular " is also beyond doubt. 

 The name was clearly given to the planet because of the slow and 

 regular motion which is its distinguishing feature. Mercury, on the 



*' Bouche-Leclercq, pp. 187, 498 f. 



*'* The statement of Diodorus (/. r.) that Saturn was regarded by the 

 Babylonians as the most important for purposes of divination may correctly 

 reflect a later stage when Saturn assumed the preeminent place once occupied 

 by Mercury. 



*' Bennet, /. c, p. 93. 



**Kugler, /. c, p. 10. On p. 218 he prefers the rendering " full of light" 

 (as Hommel, Aufsatze, p. 381, does) but the two ideas (" full " in the sense 

 of "strong" and "warrior") are correlated. 



*' " Kosmologie," p. 131. who takes Gud-Up as a single term = karradu 

 "warrior" (Br. 5742). It is always to be born in mind that we are to substi- 

 tute Mercury for Mars throughout Jensen's volume — now that it has been 

 definitely ascertained that Gud-Ud = Mercury and not Mars and Zal-BaT 

 (a-nu) = mustabarru mutanu = Mars not Mercury. 



~ GuD = karradu and Ud = urru (Br. 7798) — though umu = " day 

 would suggest itself as more probable. 



"See Jensen, /. c, p. 114. Cf. |V3 in Amos 5, 26. 



