rings sacrifices to Nergal, whom he
speaks of as 'the hero of the gods, the supreme raging sun.' A later
king, Sargon, also honors the god by giving a fortress in the distant
land of Nairi, to the northeast of Assyria, the name of Kar[282]-Nergal.
It would seem as though, through the influence of Sargon, a revival of
the Nergal cult took place. His successor, Sennacherib, erects a temple
in honor of the god at Tarbisu, a suburb to the north of Nineveh proper,
and Ashurbanabal, who dwells at Tarbisu for a while, is engaged in
adding to the beauty of the edifice,--an indication of the honor in
which the god continued to be held. Nergal's consort is Laz, but she is
not referred to by the Assyrian rulers.

Sin.

The old Babylonian moon-god plays a comparatively insignificant role in
Assyria. Ashurnasirbal speaks of a temple that he founded in
Calah--perhaps only a chapel--in honor of Sin. It could not have been of
much importance, for we learn nothing further about it. Sargon, too, who
manifests a great fondness for reviving ancient cults, erects
sanctuaries to Sin along with a quantity of other gods in his official
residence at Khorsabad and beyond the northeastern confines of Assyria
at Magganubba. But when invoked by the kings, Sin shows traces of the
influence which the conceptions current about Ashur exerted upon his
fellow deities. He takes on, as other of the gods, the attributes of the
war-god. Instead of being merely the lord of the crescent, as in
Babylonia, and one of the sources of wisdom because of the connection of
astrology with lunar observations, he is pictured as capable of
inspiring terror. At the same time he is also the lord of plenty, and in
his capacity as the wise god he is regarded as the lord of decisions.
But by the side of new epithets that are attached to him in the Assyrian
inscriptions, there is one which, just as in the case of Nin-ib,
connects the Assyrian Sin cult with the oldest phase of moon-worship in
the south. It is one of the last kings of Assyria, Ashurbanabal, who
calls Sin 'the firstborn son of Bel.' He appears in this relationship to
Bel in the religious texts of Babylonia. The Bel here meant can only be
the great god of Nippur, and the title 'son of Bel' accordingly shows
that the moon-worship of Assyria is ultimately derived from that which
had its seat in the south. Sin's secondary position is indicated by
making him a son of Bel. The rise of the science of astronomy in
con