145 



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. t The god whose name is read Bammanu, 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 AMAK-UT or AMAR-UTU, "the 

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

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

 Zarpanituv. This is the nii^l HilDp of 2 Kings xvii. 30, 

 (LXX. (J(s)K^(JioB [isviO), and it is said there that the Baby- 

 lonian colonists who were brought from Samaria made them 

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



Succoth Benoth : H^nilS^ DJT n^i:i:!^n nim " the image 

 of a cock with its chickens." § Selden in his De Diis 8yris 

 makes it to be Venus. He shows there how 1 has the two 

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

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

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

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

 Akkadian name for the moon- god] >^>^ >^TT *"^TT is twice 



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



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



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



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

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

 Pesachim, Cambridfi;e, 1879. 



II Siccm est fanum in quod se matronas conferebant atque inde procedentes 

 ad questum, dotes corporis injuria contrahebant (p. 314). Ita Benoth ipsuni 

 etiam numen denotabat, et Succoth tabernacula sen pedes. . . . Ipsissiiuum 

 enim erat Babylonian Mylittce sive Veneris Urani;c templum, ubi puellic 

 coroUis revinct;^, et sedentes singuli in spatiis qufe funiculis erant 

 distincta, hospites opperiebantur qui rite implorata Venere Mylitta, 

 pccuniaque quantulacunque data (quix; Dea) sacra) cum eis a lano subductis 

 rem haberent. . . . Heic plane filiaruin sen niulierculnruni tabernacula, 

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

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

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

 simili afficeretur honore, nee funiculus ejus disrumperetur. — Dc Diis iiyris, 

 p. 309-313. 



