BABYLONIAN MYTHOLOGY. 49: 
darkness, and over.which the goddess Homorca reigned in solitary grandeur. 
This chaos was supposed also to have been the abode of beasts and human 
beings of monstrous conformation. : 
After the lapse of some millions of years, Lelus or Baal, the father of all, 
determined upon creating the world, and divided Homorea into two parts, 
which became the heaven and the earth. But this separation of her body 
caused the monsters of her former realm to die. Belus resolved then to 
create a race out of his own blood, and ordering some of the other gods to 
cut off his head, mixed the blood of his body with some earth, and made 
out of it the sun, moon, and stars, besides the five planets, and out of the 
residue men and animals. But mankind were still but little removed in 
intellect and manners from the lower creation. Oamnes arose therefore out 
of the Red Sea, and came to Babylon in the shape of'a large fish, with feet 
like those of men, and brought them laws for their government, and 
instructed them in manners, civilization, religion, arts, sciences, and trades. 
Every evening he returned into the sea, and every morning he appeared 
again and continued his labors. 
Other sacred animals (Annedatz) followed his example in instructing 
mankind, the last of which was the one generally called Odacon. 
The twelve chief gods worshipped by the Babylonians, were said to have 
had their respective abodes in the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The best 
known to us were: Salambo, probably the goddess of the moon, during 
whose festival the slaves were waited upon by their masters; Zurrah, the 
god of war; and Derketo, who was considered to have been the mother of 
Semiramis. 
The worship of the Babylonians consisted in sacrifices and prayers offered 
up in temples, and in the celebration of festivals in honor of the gods. 
Pi. 11, fig. 1, represents two of the ancient Assyrians in the act of bringing 
their offerings to the altar in vessels suspended from long ribbons, probably 
priests. The two feet on the pedestal between them must have belonged 
to some idol-statue, the body of which was broken off. 
The main featnre in the system of idolatry of the ancient Syrdans was the 
worship of animals; fishes and doves in particular received divine honors. 
The origin of this species of worship among the Syrians is related in the 
following myth. Once an immense egg fell down from heaven, and was 
caught by the fishes of the Euphrates, which carried it to the shore, where the 
doves hatched it. After a time the egg opened and a goddess of great beauty 
came forth, who has ever since been worshipped under the name of the 
“ Syrian goddess” or Astarte, and sometimes also Derketo. The earliest repre- 
sentations make her appear as a woman, with fins and tail likeafish. After- 
wards she was shown with a head-dress in the shape of the head of an ox. 
But the latest statues of her are often found to represent her as a beautiful 
woman, with a mural crown upon her head, a spindle in her hand, and 
the magic belt around her waist. A few of these attributes we have 
copied in pl. 11, jigs. 3, a, 6, from representations found upon ancient 
medals. 
Another ancient Syrian idol is seen in fig. 2. It appears like a hale old 
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