The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

370 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

Nippur.
In these older incantations the gods of the official cult are
absent, except where their names have been violently foisted
in at a later date, and their place is taken by the spirits or
ghosts of early Sumerian belief. TheZior“spirit of the sky,”
[404] “the spirit of the earth,” “the spirit of Ansar and Kisar,”such
are the superhuman powers that are invoked, and to whom the
worshipper turns in his extremity. Even when we come across a
name that is borne by one of the deities of the later Babylonian
religion, we find that it is the name not of a god, but of a denizen
of the ghost-world.“O spirit of Zikum, mother of Ea,”we read
in one place;“O spirit of Nina, daughter of Ea”;“O spirit, divine
lord of the mother-father of En-lil; O spirit, divine lady of the
mother-father of Nin-lil”;“O spirit of the moon, O spirit of the
sun, O spirit of the evening star!”There is as yet neither Bel
of Nippur, nor Sin and Samas and Istar; the sorcerer knows
only of the spirits that animate the universe, and bring good
and evil upon mankind. Nothing can be more striking than the
enumeration of the divine powers to whom the prayer is directed,
in an incantation of which I have given the translation in my
Hibbert Lectures (p. 450 sqq.)—

“Whether it be the spirit of the divine lord of the earths;

or the spirit of the divine lady of the earths;

or the spirit of the divine lord of the stars;

or the spirit of the divine lady of the stars;

or the spirit of the divine lord of progenies;

or the spirit of the divine lady of progenies;

or the spirit of the divine lord of ...;

or the spirit of the divine lady of ...;

or the spirit of the divine lord of the holy mound (Ea);

or the spirit of the divine lady of the holy mound (Damkina);

or the spirit of the divine lord of the dayspring of life;

or the spirit of the divine lady of the dayspring of life;