ost appropriate personification of creative and life-giving central
power.(98)

It is as interesting to follow the complex train of thought which created
an Ishtar as it is to realize that curious fact that, contrary to views
held elsewhere, it was the male principle that was at one time most
distinctly associated with earth in Babylonia-Assyria, while femininity
was linked to the nocturnal heaven. It is probable that priesthood
encouraged the popular adoption of Bel, the masculine Polaris, as an
earth, sun and morning-star god, while his consort Belit became a heaven,
moon and evening-star goddess. Doubtlessly at an early period the cult of
Polaris and the registration of circumpolar rotation was guarded in
secrecy by the astronomer-priests. Tempting as it is to linger among the
gods and goddesses of the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon and to follow the
spread of their influence, I shall limit myself to pointing out the change
of government that accompanied the development and establishment of
various divergent cults.

Indications that, as in China at the present day, a combined heaven and
earth cult was practised in Babylonia-Assyria by male and female
representatives of heaven and earth, are furnished by various detached
pieces of information gleaned from Professor Jastrow's work. The
priest-king was the "child" of Bel, and his living representative. As such
he bore the divine titles of supreme lord, ruled the four regions of the
earth, and became the representative of earth. Pagan authorities state
that a virgin priestess officiated at times in the sanctuary of Bel and
that there were three classes of priestesses devoted to the cult of
Ishtar. They were called "the sacred ones" and carried out a mysterious
ritual which had, however, originated "from naive conceptions connected
with the worship of the goddess of fertility."

The use of sacred water and of fermented intoxicating wine entered into
the cult of the life-giving principle and Babylonia ultimately becomes
associated with "Mystery" and "the golden cup full of abominations"
(Revelations XVII). Large terra cotta vases or jars have been found at
Nippur and elsewhere, standing in front of the altar, and "the depth at
which they were found is an indication of the antiquity and stability of
the forms of worship in Babylonian temples. It may be proper to recall
that, in the Solomonic temple likewise, there were a series of jars that
stood near the great altar in the