some ruler desirous of
emphasizing his control over the town in question, end in being entirely
absorbed by some more powerful god, whose attributes were similar to
those of his minor companion. Especially would this be the case with
deities conceived as granting assistance in warfare. The glory of the
smaller warrior gods would fade through the success achieved by a
Nin-girsu. The names and epithets would be transferred to the more
powerful god, and, beyond an occasional mention, the weaker would
entirely pass out of consideration. Again, the worship of the moon or of
the sun, or of certain aspects of the sun,--the morning sun, the noonday
sun, and the like,--at localities of minor importance, would yield to
the growing popularity of similar worship in important centers. As a
consequence, names that formerly designated distinct deities or
different phases of one and the same deity, would, by being transferred
to a single one, come to be mere epithets of this one. The various names
would be used interchangeably, without much regard to their original
force.

All the essential elements of the Babylonian religion are already to be
found in the conditions prevailing during the period that we have been
considering. Some new deities are met with in the periods that followed,
but there is no reason to believe that any profound changes in the
manner of worship, or in the conceptions regarding the gods, were
introduced. The relations, however, which the gods bear to one another
are considerably modified, their attributes become more sharply defined,
the duties and privileges pertaining to each are regulated. Hand in hand
with this systematization, the organization of the cult becomes more
perfect, the ritual enters upon further phases of development,
speculations regarding the unknown have their outcome in the
establishment of dogmas. Finally the past, with its traditions and
legends, is viewed under the aspect of later religious thought. The
products of popular fancy are reshaped, given a literary turn that was
originally foreign to them, and so combined and imbued with a meaning as
to reflect the thoughts and aspirations of a comparatively advanced age.
What may be called the flowering of the theological epoch in the history
of the Babylonian religion, viewed as a unit, is so directly dependent
upon the political union of the Babylonian states, brought about by
Hammurabi (_c._ 2300 B.C.), that it may be said to date from this