143 



headed/' was the shrine of the god Bel. The celebrated 

 golden image which Nebuchadnezzar made was of this god.* 

 The second temple was dedicated to Ann. Now Bel was one 

 of the first great triad of gods^ which consisted of Anu, Ea, 

 and Bel, and all these were the children of Zigaru, " the sky.'' 

 Zigaru is the gloss given by W.A.I. , ii. 48, 26, and is the 



pronunciation of the ideograph y^iw, which is equated 



with the Assyrian ^ >4j^ ^YYY^, samii, Hebrew Q'^^tl?. 



The following are the names, ideographs, and glosses of the 

 names of the three great gods (W.A.I., ii. 48). 



X 



SUSRU 



T 



D.P. 



A 



-^ ^t]]] 



nil- um 



(5.yiif::^V5^III<^)g:|f} 



UBIGARGA. 



-^ -u -yyi 



D.P. En - til 



(j^TTI 5^1<y IT) 





TAL . TAL. 



->f ^m Vy -II 



>w- 



T- <m 



Anum is the Assyrian form of the Akkadian >->^ *^^ 

 AN-NA.f Ea was the " king of rivers and gardens/' and, 

 as we see from the above extract. Ml nemiki hil ha-si-si, 

 "lord of deep wisdom and knowledge." He was the 

 husband of Bahu or chaos (the "ins, of Gen. i. 2), and made 

 father of Bel-Merodach, the tutelary deity of Babylon. Sir 

 Henry Rawlinsou thinks the monotheistic Hebrews of Ur 

 belonged to the followers of Ea, he says : " He was the 

 'Creator of mankind/ 'the God of life and knowledge/ 'the 

 Lord of Thib (the blessed city) or Paradise,' and exhibits 

 many other traces of identity with the Elohim of the Jews. 

 There seems, indeed, to be an allusion to this deity being 



* Concerning the statue of Bel, see Daniel, chap, ill. ; Herodotus, bk. i. ; 

 Strabo, xvi. ; Pliny, vi. chap. xxvi. ; Q. Curtius, lib. v. ; Arrianus, lib. vii. ; 

 and Selden, De Diis Sijris, p. 193 et seq. 



t The following extract shows these gods had other names (S, 35) : — 



-HF- -EEll Vy 



->f -l; m 



