The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

420 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

where the sun rises from the deep,^352 and Asari accordingly was
entitled its“son.”When Asari became Merodach of Babylon,
the Holy Mound or Hill migrated with him, and the seat of
the oracular wisdom of Ea was transformed into the shrine
of Merodach, where he in his turn delivered his oracles on
the festival of the New Year.^353 Lehmann^354 has shown that
originally it represented the mercy-seat, the“golden throne”
of the description of Herodotos, above which the deity seated
himself when he descended to announce the future destinies of
man. It was only subsequently that it was extended to the“Holy
of Holies”in which the mercy-seat stood.
A golden altar seems to have been raised close to the mercy-
seat of the god. If Herodotos may be trusted, lambs only were
allowed to be sacrificed upon it. But there was another and larger
altar in the outer court. On this whole sheep were offered, as well
as frankincense.
The architectural arrangement of a Babylonian temple,
however, was not always the same. The orientation of the
[458] temple of Merodach, as we have seen, differed from that of the
majority of the Babylonian sanctuaries. The number of chapels
included within the sacred precincts varied greatly, and even the
position of the great tower was not uniform. But the general plan
was alike everywhere. There was first the great court, open to
the sky, and surrounded by cloisters and colonnades. Here were

(^352) WAI.v. 50. i. 5; 41. 1,Rev.18.
(^353) See above, p. 374, note 1.
(^354) Samassumukin, ii. pp. 47-51. Nebuchadrezzar calls the Du-azagga,“the
place of the oracles of the Ubsu-ginna, the mercy-seat of destinies, which on
the festival of the New Year (Zag-muku), on the eighth and eleventh days,”Bel
announces before the assembled gods. Jensen (Kosmologie der Babylonier,
pp. 239-242) first pointed out that the Ubsu-ginna was“the assembly-place”
of the gods, which was located in or upon Ê-kur,“the Mountain of the World”
(WAI.iv. 63. 17.). It thus corresponds with“the mount of the Assembly”of
Isa. xiv. 13, and illustrates the combination of the theology of Eridu with that
of Nippur.