Lecture IV. The Sun-God And Istar. 309
his words might often have been those of a Jew; and even
at an earlier date the moon-god is called by his worshipper
“supreme”in earth and heaven, omnipotent and creator of all
things; while an old religious poem refers, in the abstract, to“the
god”who confers lordship on men. As was long ago pointed
out by Sir H. Rawlinson, Anu, whose written name became
synonymous with“god,”is identified with various cosmic deities,
both male and female, in a theological list;^262 and Dr. Pinches has
published a tablet in which the chief divinities of the Babylonian
pantheon are resolved into forms of Merodach.^263 En-lil becomes
“the Merodach of sovereignty,”Nebo“the Merodach of earthly
possessions,”Nergal“the Merodach of war.”This is but another
way of expressing that identification of the god of Babylon with [337]
the other deities of Babylonian belief which, as we have seen,
placed him at the head of the divine hierarchy, and, by depriving
them of their attributes and powers, tended to reduce them into
mere angel-ministers of a supreme god.
There was yet another cause which prevented the religion of
Babylonia from assuming a monotheistic form. As we have
seen, the majority of the Babylonian goddesses followed the
usual Semitic type, and were little else than reflections of the
male divinity. But there was one goddess who retained her
independence, and claimed equal rank with the gods. Against
her power and prerogatives the influence of Semitic theology
contended in vain. The Sumerian element continued to exist in
the mixed Babylonian nation, and, like the woman who held a
position in it which was denied her where the Semite was alone
dominant, the goddess Istar remained the equal of the gods.
Even her name never assumed the feminine termination which
(^262) WAI.ii. 54, No. 4; iii. 69, No. 1. In ii. 54, No. 3, the cosmic deities
are made“the mother(s) and father(s) of Anu”instead of being identified with
him. But the identification is doubtless really due to the fact thatanameant
“god”as well as“Anu.”
(^263) Journal of the Victoria Institute, xxviii. 8-10.