after that, by a
multitudinous polytheism, which is chiefly of a local character. Each
country, so far as we can see, has nearly the same worship-temples,
altars, and ceremonies of the same type--the same religious emblems--the
same ideas. The only difference here is, that in Assyria ampler evidence
exists of what was material in the religious system, more abundant
representations of the objects and modes of worship; so that it will be
possible to give, by means of illustrations, a more graphic portraiture
of the externals of the religion of the Assyrians than the scantiness of
the remains permitted in the case of the primitive Chaldaeans.

At the head of the Assyrian Pantheon stood the "great god." Asshur. His
usual titles are "the great Lord," "the King of all the Gods," "he who
rules supreme over the Gods." Sometimes he is called "the Father of the
Gods," though that is a title which is more properly assigned to Belus.
His place is always first in invocations. He is regarded throughout all
the Assyrian inscriptions as the especial tutelary deity both of the
kings and of the country. He places the monarchs upon their

CHAPTER VIII.

RELIGION.

"The graven image, and the molten image."--NAHUM i. 14

The religion of the Assyrians so nearly resembled--at least in its
external aspect, in which alone we can contemplate it--the religion of
the primitive Chaldaeans, that it will be unnecessary, after the full
treatment which that subject received in an earlier portion of this
work, to do much more than notice in the present place certain
peculiarities by which it would appear that the cult of Assyria was
distinguished from that of the neighboring and closely connected
country. With the exception that the first god in the Babylonian
Pantheon was replaced by a distinct and thoroughly national deity in the
Pantheon of Assyria, and that certain deities whose position was
prominent in the one occupied a subordinate position in the other, the
two religious systems may be pronounced, not similar merely but
identical. Each of them, without any real monotheism, commences with the
same preeminence of a single deity, which is followed by the same
groupings of identically the same divinities; and after that, by a
multitudinous polytheism, which is chiefly of a local character. Each
country, so far as we can see, has nearly the same worship-temples,
altars, and ceremonies of the same type--the same religious emblems--the
s