ity, giving the
preference to Merodach, though he did not suppress the worship. Why
this should have taken place is not by any means certain, for Nebo was
a deity adored far and wide, as may be gathered from the fact that
there was a mountain bearing his name in Moab, upon which Moses--also
an "announcer," adds Jastrow--died. Besides the mountain, there was a
city in Moab so named, and another in Judaea. That it was the
Babylonian Nebo originally is implied by the form--the Hebrew
corresponding word is /nabi/.

How old the worship of Tasmetum, his consort, is, is doubtful, but her
name first occurs in a date of the reign of Hammurabi. Details
concerning her attributes are rare, and Jastrow regards this goddess
as the result of Babylonian religious speculations. It is noteworthy
that her worship appears more especially in later times, but it may be
doubted whether it is a product of those late times, especially when
we bear in mind the remarkable seal-impression on an early tablet of
3500-4500 B.C., belonging to Lord Amherst of Hackney, in which we see
a male figure with wide-open mouth seizing a stag by his horns, and a
female figure with no mouth at all, but with very prominent ears,
holding a bull in a similar manner. Here we have the "teacher" and the
"hearer" personified in a very remarkable manner, and it may well be
that this primitive picture shows the idea then prevailing with regard
to these two deities. It is to be noted that the name of Tasmetum has
a Sumerian equivalent, namely, /Kurnun/, and that the ideograph by
which it is represented is one whose general meaning seems to be "to
bind," perhaps with the additional signification of "to accomplish,"
in which case "she who hears" would also be "she who obeys."

Samas and his consort.

At all times the worship of the sun in Babylonia and Assyria was
exceedingly popular, as, indeed, was to be expected from his
importance as the greatest of the heavenly bodies and the brightest,
without whose help men could not live, and it is an exceedingly
noteworthy fact that this deity did not become, like Ra in Egypt, the
head of the pantheon. This place was reserved for Merodach, also a
sun-god, but possessing attributes of a far wider scope. Samas is
mentioned as early as the reign of E-anna-tum, whose date is set at
about 4200 B.C., and at this period his Semitic name does not,
naturally, occur, the character used being /Utu/, or, in its long