ria, the name of the god was transferred
to the entire northern district of Mesopotamia, which, as the country of
the god Ashur, was written with the determinative for country.[237] The
ideographs which the Assyrian scribes employed in writing the name of
the god reveal the meaning they attached to it. He is described
ideographically as the 'good god.' This interpretation accords admirably
with the general force of the verbal stem underlying the name. In both
Hebrew and Assyrian _a-sh-r_ signifies 'to be gracious, to grant
blessing, to cause to prosper.' Ashur, therefore, is the god that
blesses his subjects, and to the latter he would accordingly appear as
the 'good god' _par excellence_. If the tempting etymology of our own
word 'god,' which connects it with 'good,' be correct, 'god' would be
almost the perfect equivalent of Ashur. It is not necessary to conclude,
as Tiele does,[238] that Ashur, as the 'good one,' is an ethical
abstraction, but certainly a designation of a god as 'a good one' sounds
more like a descriptive epithet than like a name. The supposition that
Ashur was not, therefore, the original name of the god receives a
certain measure of force from this consideration. Moreover, there are
indications that there actually existed another form of his name,
namely, Anshar.[239] This form Anshar would, according to the phonetic
laws prevailing in Assyria, tend to become Ash-shar.[240] Ashur--the
'good one'--would thus turn out to be an epithet of the god, chosen as a
'play' suggested by Ash-shar, just as we found Gula called the lady of
_Ekalli_, and again _Kallat_ (bride).[241] The etymology of Anshar is as
obscure as that of most of the ancient gods of Babylonia,--as of Sin,
Marduk, Ishtar, and many more. But before leaving the subject, it will
be proper to call attention to the role that a god Anshar plays in the
Babylonian-Assyrian cosmological system. _Anshar_ and _Kishar_ are the
second pair of deities to be created, the first pair being _Lakhmu_ and
_Lakhamu_. In the great fight of the gods against the monster Tiamat, it
would appear that, according to one version at least, Anshar sends Anu,
Ea, and finally Bel-Marduk, in turn to destroy the monster. He appears,
therefore, to have exercised a kind of supremacy over the gods. Assuming
the correctness of the deductions, according to which Ashur is an
epithet arising by a play upon Ash-shar (from an original Anshar), it is
hardly open to doubt that this Ans