117 
(that is, of the weekly sabbath-rest) ; and so in broken tones it 
dies away. In sucli strains did the kings and priests of Ur 
adore tbe moon as it walked in brightness through the crystal- 
line spaces of a Babylonian sky. 
22. The walls, and at least three sacred buildings in Ur, were 
the work of Urukh, the great builder king. The polytheism 
of this early age is shown by his having built, besides these, 
a temple to Nana or Ishtar at Erech ; another to the sun-god 
Samas at Larsa ; another to Bel, and a separate one to “ Belat 
his Lady,” at Nipur ; another to “ Sar-ili his king,” at Zir- 
gulla. In truth polytheism was stamped on the earth in 
temples and towers, and the warlike or beneficent works of 
kings. Hea was the patron of the all-important irrigation ; 
Sin, or Ur, of brickmaking and building ; San, the sun-god 
(Samas), of martial activity ; Nergal of war, and the like. 
Polytheism glittered in scrolls of light in the constellations. 
It measured days and months, and years and cycles, apd by 
its auguries decided the least ways of house-life and the 
greatest collisions of nations. 
23. It has been observed that gods were identified with 
stars before the invention of writing in Babylonia, “ and that 
the most natural symbol of a deity was thought to be a star,” 
which is the “ determinative” of the names of gods in cunei- 
form inscriptions. “ It is plain,” writes Mr. Sayce, “ that 
the full development of astro-theology cannot have been much 
earlier than 2000 B.C.”* And Mr. George Smith gives the 
same date for the development of systematic mythology: “ 2000 
years before the Christian era it was already completed, and 
its deities definitely connected into a system, which remained 
with little change down to the close of the kingdom. ”*f* And 
M. Lenormant writes at length to the same effect. The whole 
system, then, had reached its full working order when Abram 
was born at Ur of the Chaldees, and the family of Terach had 
been drawn into the sti'eam ; for “ thus saith the Lord God 
of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood, 
even Terach the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, 
and they served other gods.” 
24. In the sun rising above the mountains of Elam the child 
would behold a god, defender of the men of Sippara and of 
Larsa. The morning, the midday, and the evening sun had 
different divine names, as in Egypt. The sun rose as Tamzi 
or Duzi (Thammuz), the sun of life, and set as Tutu, god of 
* T. S, B. A., iii. 
t Clialdcean Gen., 52, 
