File:Myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria (1916) (14782130605).jpg

Identifier: mythslegendsofba00spenuoft (find matches)
Title: Myths and legends of Babylonia & Assyria
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Spence, Lewis, 1874-1955
Subjects: Assyro-Babylonian religion Mythology, Assyro-Babylonian Legends Cults
Publisher: London : Harrap
Contributing Library: Kelly - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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resentations of her revealEgyptian, Cypriote, and Hittite influences, and thisgoes to show that in all probability the great mother-goddess of Babylon and Asia Minor was compoundedof various early types fused into one. To confineourselves to those deities who are more closelyconnected with the Babylonian religion, we findthe name of Ninib translated by the Canaanites asEn-Mashti, and it has been thought that Ninib wasa god of the West who had migrated to Babylonia.The name of Nebo, the Babylonian patron of Borsippa,who also acted as scribe to the gods, appears in thatof the town of Nebo in Moab in Judea, and thatCanaanites were conversant with the name of Ner-gal, the war-god, is proved by a sealed cylinder ofCanaanitish workmanship which bears the inscription, Atanaheli, son of Habsi servant of Nergal. Reshephalso appears to have been known to the Canaanites. The Gods of the Phoenicians The Phoenicians who were the lineal descendantsof the Canaanites adopted many of the deities of326
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Elijah prevailing over the Priests of BaalEvelyn Paul i THE GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS Babylonia. Like the early deities of that greatempire, the Phoenician gods were associated eitherwith the earth, the waters, or the air. Some ofthese in later times held sway over more than oneelement. Thus the god Melkarth of Tyre had botha celestial and a marine aspect, and Baal and Ashtartassumed celestial attributes in addition to theirearthly one. The Phoenicians described their godsin general as alonim, much as the Israelites in earlytimes must have described theirs, for we find in thefirst chapters of Genesis the word elohim employed.Both then went back to the singular form el, thecommon Semitic name for god, adding to it theSemitic plural ending im. The god of a localityor shrine was known as its * haal^ and, as in earlytimes, this did not apply to any particular deity.Although their gods all had names, yet still theywere merely the ha-alim of Tyre, the chief of whomwas Melkarth, whose name sig

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