for their chief god. Everything that they possessed coming directly
from their god, how could this be better expressed than by making the
god the source of their being? The phrase, at all events, is interesting
as showing that the element of love was not absent in the emotions that
the thought of Ashur aroused in the breasts of his subjects. The kings
cannot find sufficient terms of glorification to bestow upon Ashur.
Tiglathpileser I. calls him 'the great lord ruling the assembly of
gods,' and in similar style, Ashurnasirbal invokes him as 'the great god
of all the gods.' For Ramman-nirari III., he is the king of the
Igigi--the heavenly host of spirits. Sargon lovingly addresses him as
the father of the gods. Sennacherib calls him the great mountain or
rock,--a phrase that recalls a Biblical metaphor applied to the
deity,--and Esarhaddon speaks of him as the 'king of gods.' Frequently
Ashur is invoked together with other gods. He is 'the guide of the
gods.' There is only one instance in which he does not occupy the first
place. Ramman-nirari I., to whom reference has above been made, gives
Anu the preference over Ashur in a list of gods,[244] to whom conjointly
he ascribes his victories. We have already had occasion (see pp.
153-155) to note the antiquity of Anu worship in Assyria, the foundation
of whose temple takes us beyond the period of Samsi-Ramman. Ashur's
importance begins only with the moment that the rulers of his city enter
upon their career of conquest. Before that, his power and fame were
limited to the city over which he presided. Those gods who in the south
occupied a superior rank were also acknowledged in the north. The
religion of the Assyrians does not acquire traits that distinguish it
from that of Babylonia till the rise of a distinct Assyrian empire.
Here, as in Babylonia, the religious conceptions, and in a measure the
art, are shaped by the course of political events. Anu, accordingly,
takes precedence to Ashur previous to the supremacy of the city of
Ashur. This superior rank belongs to him as the supreme god of heaven.
Ramman-nirari's reign marks a turning-point in the history of Assyria.
The enemies of Ashur, who had succeeded for a time in obscuring the
god's glory through the humiliation which his land endured, were driven
back, but neither the people nor the rulers had as yet become conscious
of the fact that it was solely to Ashur that the victory was due. Hence,
other gods are associated