erever
it might be referred to. This was probably partly due to the fact,
that the king in Assyria was more the representative of the god than
in Babylonia, and that the god followed him on warlike expeditions,
and when engaged in religious ceremonies--indeed, it is not by any
means improbable that he was thought to follow him wherever he went.
On the sculptures he is seen accompanying him in the form of a circle
provided with wings, in which is shown sometimes a full-length figure
of the god in human form, sometimes the upper part only, facing
towards and drawing his bow against the foe. In consequence of its
general appearance, the image of the god has been likened to the sun
in eclipse, the far-stretching wings being thought to resemble the
long streamers visible at the moment of totality, and it must be
admitted as probable that this may have given the idea of the symbol
shown on the sculptures. As a sun-god, and at the same time not the
god Samas, he resembled the Babylonian Merodach, and was possibly
identified with him, especially as, in at least one text, Beltu
(Beltis) is described as his consort, which would possibly identify
Assur's spouse with Zer-panitum. The original form of his name would
seem to have been Ausar, "water-field," probably from the tract where
the city of Assur was built. His identification with Merodach, if that
was ever accepted, may have been due to the likeness of the word to
Asari, one of that deity's names. The pronunciation Assur, however,
seems to have led to a comparison with the Ansar of the first tablet
of the Creation-story, though it may seem strange that the Assyrians
should have thought that their patron-god was a deity symbolising the
"host of heaven." Nevertheless, the Greek transcription of Ansar,
namely, /Assoros/, given by Damascius, certainly strengthens the
indications of the ideograph in this matter. Delitzsch regards the
word Assur, or Asur, as he reads it, as meaning "holy," and quotes a
list of the gods of the city of Nineveh, where the word Assur occurs
three times, suggesting the exclamation "holy, holy, holy," or "the
holy, holy, holy one." In all probability, however, the repetition of
the name three times simply means that there were three temples
dedicated to Assur in the cities in question.[*] Jastrow agrees with
Delitzsch in regarding Asur as another form of Asir (found in early
Cappadocian names), but he translates it rather as "overseer" or
"guardian" of t