bitation," which
would be a parallel to that of his spouse Eres-ki-gal. He was the
ruler of Hades, and at the same time god of war and of disease and
pestilence. As warrior, he naturally fought on the side of those who
worshipped him, as in the phrase which describes him as "the warrior,
the fierce storm-flood overthrowing the land of the enemy." As pointed
out by Jastrow, he differs from Nirig, who was also a god of war, in
that he symbolises, as god of disease and death, the misery and
destruction which accompany the strife of nations. It is in
consequence of this side of his character that he appears also as god
of fire, the destroying element, and Jensen says that Nerigal was god
of the midday or of the summer sun, and therefore of all the
misfortunes caused by an excess of his heat.

The chief centre of his worship was Cuthah (/Kutu/, Sumerian /Gudua/)
near Babylon, now represented by the mounds of Tel Ibrahim. The
identity with the Greek Aries and the Roman Mars is proved by the fact
that his planet was /Mustabarru-mutanu/, "the death-spreader," which
is probably the name of Mars in Semitic Babylonian.

Amurru.

Although this is not by any means a frequent name among the deities
worshipped in Babylonia, it is worthy of notice on account of its
bearing upon the date of the compilation of the tablet which has been
taken as a basis of this list of gods. He was known as "Lord of the
mountains," and his worship became very popular during the period of
the dynasty to which Hammurabi belonged--say from 2200 to 1937 B.C.,
when Amurru was much combined with the names of men, and is found both
on tablets and cylinder-seals. The ideographic manner of writing it is
/Mar-tu/, a word that is used for /Amurru/, the land of the Amorites,
which stood for the West in general. Amorites had entered Babylonia in
considerable numbers during this period, so that there is but little
doubt that his popularity was largely due to their influence, and the
tablet containing these names was probably drawn up, or at least had
the Semitic equivalents added, towards the beginning of that period.

Sin or Nannara.

The cult of the moon-god was one of the most popular in Babylonia, the
chief seat of his worship being at Uru (now Muqayyar) the Biblical Ur
of the Chaldees. The origin of the name Sin is unknown, but it is
thought that it may be a corruption of Zu-ena, "knowledge-lord,"