The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria

[1205] Not occurring on the duplicate.

[1206] Scheil questions whether the divisions have this purpose. While perhaps not much stress is laid by the artist upon this symbolism, its existence can hardly be questioned. Note the five divisions of the universe in Smith's Miscellaneous Texts, p. 16. The water certainly represents the Apsu. Allatu rests upon the bark. We do not find among the Babylonians (as Scheil supposes) the view that the dead are conveyed across a sheet of water to the nether world. The dead are buried, and by virtue of this fact enter Aralû, which is in the earth. Egyptian influence is possible, but unlikely.

[1207] IVR. 26, no. 1.

[1208]I.e., the nether world.

[1209] IVR. 30, no. 1; obverse 5, 14.

[1210] See Jensen's valuable articles, "The Queen in the Babylonian Hades and her Consort," in the Sunday School Times, March 13 and 20, 1897. The text is published, Winckler and Abel, Der Thontafelfund von El-Amarna, iii. 164, 165.

[1211] Written phonetically e-ri-ish. The word is entered as a synonym of sharratum, 'queen,' VR. 28, no. 2; obverse 31. This phonetic writing furnishes the reading for Nin in Nin-Klgal.

[1212] See pp. 418, 419.

[1213] See p. 428.

[1214] See below, p. 588 seq.

[1215] See below, p. 590.

[1216] See above, p. 79.

[1217] See pp. 448, 511.

[1218] See Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, ii. 627.

[1219] See the reference in note 3 to p. 519.

[1220] Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidenthums, pp. 28, 29. That the Syro-Arabian Allat resembles Ishtar rather than Allatu, points again to the original identity of the two goddesses.

[1221] See p. 546 seq.

[1222] See below, p. 594, note 1, and Jensen's Kosmologie, pp. 145, 480, 483, 487.

[1223]Sunday School Times, 1897, p. 139.

[1224] See p. 574.

[1225] See Frazer, The Golden Bough, i. 240 seq. and 274, 275.

[1226] See p. 574.

[1227] See p. 417.

[1228] Cheyne (Expository Times, 1897, pp. 423, 424) ingeniously regards Belili as the source of the Hebrew word Beliyaal or Belial, which, by a species of popular etymology, is written by the ancient Hebrew scholars as though compounded of two Hebrew words signifying 'without return.' The popular etymology is valuable as confirming the proposition to place Belili in the pantheon of the lower world. From its original meaning, the word became a poetical term in Hebrew for 'worthless,' 'useless,' and the like, e.g., in the well-known phrase "Sons of Belial."

[1229] See p. 482.

[1230] See p. 537.

[1231] See above, p. 523.

[1232] IIR. 59; reverse 33-35.

[1233] See above, p. 175.

[1234] IIR. 57, 51a, a star, Nin-azu, is entered as one of the names of the planet Ninib.

[1235] See above, p. 565. The name occurs also in Haupt's Nimrodepos, pp. 19, 29.

[1236]Vorstellungen, p. 68.

[1237] The name of the goddess is written throughout the story Nin-Kigal; i.e., 'queen of the nether world.' Nin-Eresh. See p. 584, note 2.

[1238] Smith, Miscellaneous Texts, p. 16.

[1239] Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 259, note.

[1240] IVR. 1, col. i. 12; col iii. 8-10.

[1241]Te'û. See IVR. 22, 512, and Bartels, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, viii. 179-184.

[1242] See above, pp. 183, 560.

[1243] Obverse ll. 33, 37.

[1244] See above, p. 185.