, and conferred upon
man the sustaining 'food of life'.... The goddess of the dead commanded
her servant to 'sprinkle the Lady Ishtar with the water of life'" (_op.
cit._, p. 44).

In Chapter III. of Mr. Mackenzie's book, from which I have just quoted,
there is an interesting collection of quotations clearly showing that
the conception of the vitalizing properties of the body moisture of gods
is not restricted to Egypt, but is found also in Babylonia and India, in
Western Asia and Greece, and also in Western Europe.

It has been suggested that the name Ishtar has been derived from Semitic
roots implying "she who waters," "she who makes fruitful".[110]

Barton claims that: "The beginnings of Semitic religion as they were
conceived by the Semites themselves go back to sexual relations ... the
Semitic conception of deity ... embodies the truth--grossly indeed, but
nevertheless embodies it--that 'God is love'" (_op. cit._ p. 107). [This
statement, however, is very misleading--see Appendix C, p. 75.]

Throughout the countries where Semitic[111] influence spread the
primitive Mother-Goddesses or some of their specialized variants are
found. But in every case the goddess is associated with many distinctive
traits which reveal her identity with her homologues in Cyprus,
Babylonia, and Egypt.

Among the Sumerians "life comes on earth through the introduction of
water and irrigation".[112] "Man also results from a union between the
water-gods."

The Akkadians held views which were almost the direct antithesis of
these. To them "the watery deep is disorder, and the cosmos, the order
of the world, is due to the victory of a god of light and spring over
the monster of winter and water; man is directly made by the gods".[113]

"The Sumerian account of Beginnings centres around the production by the
gods of water, Enki and his consort Nin-ella (or Dangal), of a great
number of canals bringing rain to the desolate fields of a dry
continent. Life both of vegetables and animals follows the profusion of
the vivifying waters.... In the process of life's production besides
Enki, the personality of his consort is very conspicuous. She is called
_Nin-Ella_, 'the pure Lady,' _Damgal-Nunna_, the 'great Lady of the
Waters,' _Nin-Tu_, 'the Lady of Birth'" (p. 301). The child of Enki and
Nin-ella was the ancestor of mankind.[114]

"In later traditions, the personality of that Great Lady seems to have
been overshadowed by that of Ishtar, w