The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

264 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

The overlaying of primitive Sumerian animism by Semitic
conceptions and beliefs naturally introduced new elements into
the views held about the imperishable part of man, and profoundly
modified the old theories regarding it. The Zi, as we have seen,
became synonymous with the vital principle; thelil, theutukku,
and theekimmuwere banished to the domain of the magician and
witch. The words survived, like“ghost”in English, but the ideas
connected with them insensibly changed. In place of En-lil,“the
lord of the ghost-world,”a new conception arose, that of Bilu
or Baal,“the lord”of mankind and the visible universe, whose
symbol was the flaming sun.^228 The ghosts had to make way for
living men, the underground world of darkness for the world of
light. En-lil became a Semitic Baal, and man himself became
“the son of his god.”^229
With the rise of Semitic influence came also the influence of
the culture that emanated from Eridu. The character of Ea of
Eridu lent itself more readily to Semitic conceptions than did the
character of En-lil. There was no need for violent change; the old
Sumerian god (or rather“spirit”) retained his name and therewith
[288] many of his ancient attributes. He remained the god of wisdom
and culture, the father of Aaari,“who does good to man.”
When Asari was identified with Merodach the sun-god
of Babylon, Semitic influence was already in the ascendant.
Merodach was already a Semitic Baal; the supremacy of his city
made him the supreme Baal of Babylonia. The older Baal of
Nippur was absorbed by the younger Baal of Babylon, and the
official cult almost ceased to remember what his attributes and
character had originally been. Even the reciter of the magical

(^228) Professor Hommel has shown that among the Arabian and Western Semites
(the Canaanites excepted) the original Baal was rather the moon-god than the
sun-god. The supremacy of the sun-god belongs to Semitic Babylonia (Aufsätze
und Abhandlungen, ii. pp. 149-165).
(^229) With this phrase, which is so frequent in the Babylonian texts, Hommel
compares names like Ben-Ammi,“the son of (the god) Ammi.”