ome to the period after Hammurabi. The
identification of the two is already foreshadowed in an inscription of
another member of the same dynasty, Sin-gamil, who places the name of
Nergal exactly where his predecessor mentions Lugal-banda. The first
element in his name signifies 'king,' the second apparently 'strong,' so
that in this respect, too, the god comes close to Nergal, whose name
likewise indicates 'great lord.' The consort of Lugal-banda is

Nin-gul.

Her name signifies 'the destructive lady,'--an appropriate epithet for
the consort of a solar deity. It is Sin-gashid again who associates
Ningul with Lugal-banda, and emphasizes his affection for the goddess by
calling her his mother. In one inscription, moreover, Sin-gashid
addresses himself exclusively to the goddess, who had an equal share in
the temple at Uruk.

Dumuzi-zu-aba.

Among the deities appealed to by Ur-Bau appears one whose name is to be
interpreted as the 'unchangeable child of the watery deep.' The great
god of the deep we have seen is Ea. Dumuzi-zu-aba therefore belongs to
the water-deities, and one who, through his subordinate rank to Ea,
sinks to the level of a water-spirit. Ur-Bau declares himself to be the
darling of this deity, and in the town of Girsu he erects a temple to
him. Girsu, however, was not the patron city of the god, for Ur-Bau
gives Dumuzi-zu-aba, the appellation of 'the lord of Kinunira,'[85] a
place the actual situation of which is unknown. Dumuzi-zu-aba,
accordingly, is to be regarded as a local deity of a place which,
situated probably on an arm of the Euphrates, was the reason for the
watery attributes assigned to the god. The comparative insignificance of
the place is one of the factors that accounts for the minor importance
of the god, and the second factor is the popularity enjoyed by another
child of the great Ea, his child _par excellence_, Marduk, who is best
known as the patron god of the city of Babylon. By the side of Marduk,
the other children of Ea, the minor water-deities, disappear, so that to
a later generation Dumuzi-zu-aba appears merely as a form of Marduk.
With Dumuzi-zu-aba, we must be careful not to confuse

Dumu-zi,

who in the old Babylonian inscriptions is mentioned once by
Sin-iddina,[86] in connection with the sun-god. Dumu-zi, signifying
'child of life,' has a double aspect--an agricultural deity and at the
same time a god of the lower world. He plays an important part in the
eschat