EVIDENCES OF THE WIGKATION OV AGKAM. ] 1 o 



01' Likbagas, and completed by his son^ ^IfCnYY *~IT-*4 dun-gi, 

 was dedicated to the Moon-god, called " Sin, the Lord of the 

 gods of Heavens and Earth. '^ 



The Moon-god had three chief names in his inscriptions: — 

 1. '"^y r> ru ^ ^lijj the Akkadian rendering of which was Ur, 

 and which was equivalent to the Semitic Nannaru, '^ the 

 Illuminator/^ from Namaru (1?23), "^to be bright/^ "to 

 see.'' The epithet applied to the Sun and Moon in the in- 

 scription from Aboo Hubba, a translation of which is appended 

 to this paper, Merodach the great Lord, and Sin the Illu- 

 minators (Nannari) of Heaven and Earth, includes this 

 title. Another epithet was "^JryU ^ff y-^] en-zu-na, 

 "Lord of increase and decrease,^^ that is, "Lord of 

 waxing and waning;^' and the third title was that of >->-y ^^^, 

 Lord of (the) thirty, that is of the month. Another title of 

 the Moon-god, though less frequently used, was that of 



"^"^y 1} IsJ 01' "^"^y ]y ^^ ^]]]^} ^^11 01' -^t?'"'^ tliG meaning of 

 which is apparently the ffod of the circle or crown, from 

 aga and ega, "the crown. ^' 



The prominence given to the Moon over the Sun, as im- 

 plied in the words " (Hu) Samas u (Ilu) Istar zit-libbi-su 

 namra ana Sin abi bani su-nu Hkbu damikati.^' "May the 

 Sun-god and Istar, the bright offspring of his heart, to Sin 

 the father their Creator speak favourably," is a relic of the 

 old nomadic life, when the bright Moon-god furnished the 

 wanderers with light in the cool night, and was worshipped 

 by the pre-Islamic Arabs. 



The following extract from a cylinder found in the temple 

 of the Moon-god at Ur shows very clearly the high religious 

 ideas which were held of this god in that ancient city : — 



"Oh Sin, Lord of the Gods, King of the Gods of Heaven and Earth, 

 (and) God of the Gods who inhabit the heavens, the mighty ones, for this 

 temple with joy at thy entrance, may thy lips establish the blessings of Bit 

 h-agila, Bit Zida and Bit Giz-nngal, the temples of thy great divinity. Set 

 tlie fear of thy great divinity in the hearts of his people that they err not ; 

 for thy great divinity may their foundations remain firm like the 

 Heavens. As for me, Ivlabonidus, King of Babylon, preserve me from sinning 

 against thy great divinity, and grant me the gift of a life of long days ; and 

 plant in the heart of Bel-sarra-utzur (Belshazzar), the eldest son, the 

 offspring of my henrt, reverence for thy great divinity, and never may he 

 incline to sin. With fulness of life may he be satisfied." 



The hymn to the Moon-god published by M. Lenormant, 

 and also given by Mr. Tomkins in his paper on " The Life 

 and Times of Abram," formed, no doubt, part of the liturgy 

 of this temple, and the position which this god holds in the 



