s of the Babylonian
religion. Brief statements of these minor gods will suffice to indicate
their general character. Of most of the gods in this list there is but
little we know as yet beyond the name. Some of them will occur again in
the Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian historical texts, others in the hymns
and incantations; some are only found in the period we are considering,
though with the material constantly increasing we must beware of drawing
any conclusions from the fact of a single mention. 'Zakar,' signifying,
probably, 'heroic,' appears to have been worshipped in Nippur, where a
wall known as the 'wall of Zakar' was built by Samsu-iluna. From the
fact that this wall was sacred to Nin-khar-sag or Belit, we may,
perhaps, be permitted to conclude that 'Zakar' stood in close
relationship to Bel and Belit of Nippur,--possibly a son,--or, at all
events, belonged to the inner circle of deities worshipped in the old
city sacred to the great Bel.

Another wall in Nippur was dedicated by this Samsu-iluna to a god whose
name is provisionally read by Winckler, Lugal-mit-tu.[196] Lugal,
signifying 'king,' is an element that enters as an ideograph in the
composition of the names of several deities. Thus we have Lugal-edinna,
'king of the field,' which is the equivalent of Nergal, and again for
the same god, the combination Lugal-gira, which is, as Jensen[197] has
shown, 'raging king,' and a title of Nergal in his character as the god
of pestilence and war. Nin-dim-su, Ba-kad, Pap-u, Belit-ekalli,
Shumalia, and Shukamuna occur at the close of the inscription of
Melishikhu, among the gods asked to curse the transgressors of the royal
decree.[198] That some of these are Cassite deities imported into
Babylonia, and whose position in the pantheon was therefore of a
temporary character, there seems little reason to question. Ba-kad may,
and Shumalia quite certainly does, belong to this class. As for
Shukamuna, the fact that Agumkakrimi, who places his title, 'king of
Cassite land,' before that of Akkad and Babylon, opens his inscription
with the declaration that he is the glorious offspring of Shukamuna,
fixes the character of this god beyond all doubt; and Delitzsch has
shown[199] that this god was regarded by the Babylonian schoolmen as the
equivalent of their own Nergal. Shukamuna, accordingly, was the Cassite
god of war, who, like Nergal, symbolized the mid-day sun,--that is, the
raging and destructive power. Shumalia is the con