6 



The first god in the list is the moon. He was always 

 considered prior to the Sun, and was called "the mighty 

 god." * The 29th day of Elul was called " the rest day of 

 the Moon, the day when the spirits of heaven and the spirits 

 of earth are invoked." Istar was goddess of the half month. 

 The number of tablets in the ancient astronomical library 

 relating to the moon must have been immense, when we 

 consider what a large number are remaining which deal wholly 

 with the moon and its appearances. The Sun was called the 

 "Lady, the mistress of the world." Its gender therefore 

 was feminine.f The god whose name is read rammanu, was 

 lord of the air, rain, clouds, and storm. Marduk was the son 

 of Ea and Dam-kina " the earth " male and female. His 

 Akkadian name was AMAR-UT or AMAR-UTU, "the 

 brilliance of the Sun." He bore different names in different 

 months.! The next name we meet is that of the god 

 Zarpanituv. This is the rf& JTGP of 2 Kings xvii. 30, 

 (LXX. (TUKxuO faviO], and it is said there that the Baby- 

 lonian colonists who were brought from Samaria made them 

 for their idols. Rashi on 2 Kings, xvii. 30, says concerning 



Succoth Benoth: rfrVHSN Dy nSlUnn mpl "the image 

 of a cock with its chickens." Selden in his De diis Syris 

 makes it to be Venus. He shows there how H has the two 

 sounds of b and v, and how t changes into s, so that Benoth 

 comes to Benos, and finally Benos to Venos, and says, " Binos 

 Graeca pronuntiatione est Venus nostra." || Passages con- 

 cerning the worship are quoted in the note below. The old 

 Akkadian name for the moon god >->^- >-|J ""^-fl is twice 



* W.A.I., iv. 33, 9. 



t In the Bible it is masc. (Ps. civ. 19) ; and fern. (Gen. xv. 17). 



I See W.A.I., iii. 53, 2 ; and Sayce, Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., iii. 166. 



For the history and derivation of the word 'n^lD, see Eev. W. 

 H. Lowe, M.A., Critical Notes, p. 5, in his Fragment of the Talmud Babli 

 Pesachim, Cambridge, 1879. 



|| Siccce est fanutu in quod se matrons conferebant atque inde procedeutes 

 ad questum, dotes corporis injuria contrahebant. P. 314. Ita Benoth ipsum 

 etiam nunieu denotabat, et Succoth tabernacula seu sedes. . . . Ipsissimum 

 enim erat Babylonise Mylittee sive Veneris Urania; templum, ubi puellse 

 corollis revinctii 1 , et sedentes singuli in spatiis quse luniculis erant 

 distincta, hospites opperiebantur qui rite implorata Venere Mylitta, 

 pecuniaque quantulacunque data (qua; Dese sacra) cum eis a fano subductis 

 rem haberent. . . . Heic plane filiarum seu imiliercularum taberuacula, 

 id est, Succoth Benoth. . . . Mulieres, ait, funiculis circumdata;, in viis 

 sedent, ut furfures adoleant. Et si qua earuin cum advena quovis, qui 

 vi earn sibi attraxerit, cubaret, proximam conviciabatur, quod nequaquam 

 simili afficeretur honore, nee funiculus ejus disrumperetur. De Diis tiyris, 

 p. 3d9-3l:3. 



