logy to ascribe to the gods which represented
the phases of the sun, Merodach, Ninib, and Nergal, three
stars befitting their importance, i.e. three planets.

There were two councils, one consisting of twelve members, the other
of ten; the former was composed of the most popular gods of Southern
Chaldaea, representing the essential elements of the world, while
the latter consisted of the great deities of Northern Chaldaea, whose
function it was to regulate or make known the destinies of men. The
authors of this system, who belonged to Southern Chaldaea, naturally
gave the position to their patron gods, and placed the twelve above
the ten. It is well known that Orientals display a great respect for
numbers, and attribute to them an almost irresistible power; we can
thus understand how it was that the Chaldaeans applied them to designate
their divine masters, and we may calculate from these numbers the
estimation in which each of these masters was held. The goddesses had
no value assigned to them in this celestial arithmetic, Ishtar excepted,
who was not a mere duplication, more or less ingenious, of a previously
existing deity, but possessed from the beginning an independent life,
and could thus claim to be called goddess in her own right. The members
of the two triads were arranged on a descending scale, Anu taking the
highest place: the scale was considered to consist of a soss of sixty
units in length, and each of the deities who followed Anu was placed ten
of these units below his predecessor, Bel at 50 units, Ea at 40, Sin at
30, Shamash at 20, Ramman at 10 or 6. The gods of the planets were not
arranged in a regular series like those of the triads, but the numbers
attached to them expressed their proportionate influence on terrestrial
affairs: to Ninib was assigned the same number as had been given to Bel,
50, to Merodach perhaps 25, to Ishtar 15, to Nergal 12, and to Nebo
10. The various spirits were also fractionally estimated, but this as a
class, and not as individuals: the priests would not have known how to
have solved the problem if they had been obliged to ascribe values
to the infinity of existences.* As the Heliopolitans were obliged to
eliminate from the Ennead many feudal divinities, so the Chaldaeans
had left out of account many of their sovereign deities, especially
goddesses, Bau of Uru, Nana of Uruk, and Allat; or if they did introduce
them into their calculations, it was by a subterfuge, b