nection with astrology, was, as already suggested, an important
factor in spreading and maintaining the Sin cult in the south, while the
lack of intellectual originality in Assyria would equally account for
the comparatively subordinate position occupied by Sin in the Assyrian
pantheon.

Nusku.

That Nusku is a Babylonian god, meriting a place in the pantheon of
Hammurabi, if not of the days prior to the union of the Babylonian
states, is shown by the fact (1) that he had a shrine in the great
temple of Marduk at Babylon, along with Nebo, Tashmiyum, and Ea;[283]
and (2) that he appears in the religious texts. In view of this it might
appear strange that we find no reference to the god in historical texts
till we reach the Assyrian period. The reason, or at least one reason,
is that Nusku is on the one hand amalgamated with Gibil, the fire-god,
and on the other identified with Nabu. The compound ideogram with which
his name is written includes the same sign--the stylus or sceptre--that
is used to designate Nabu, the second part of the ideogram adding the
idea of 'force and strength.' Whether this graphical assimilation is to
be regarded as a factor in bringing about the identification of Nusku
and Nabu, or is due to an original similarity in the traits of the two
gods, it is difficult to say. Hardly the latter, for Nusku is a solar
deity, whereas, as we have tried to show, Nabu is originally a
water-deity.[284] But however we may choose to account for it, the
prominence of Nusku is obscured by Nabu. As a solar deity, it is easy to
see how he should have been regarded as a phase of the fire-god, and if
the various other solar deities were not so regarded, it is because in
the course of their development they were clothed with other attributes
that, while obscuring their origin, saved them from the loss of their
identity. Apart from the formal lists of gods drawn up by Sargon and his
successors, Shalmaneser II. and Ashurbanabal are the only kings who make
special mention of Nusku. The former calls him the bearer of the
brilliant sceptre, just as Nabu is so called; and again, just as Nabu,
he is termed the wise god. The two phases of the ideogram used in his
name--the sceptre and the stylus--are thus united in the personage of
Nusku precisely as in Nabu. On the other hand, the manner in which
Ashurbanabal speaks of him reflects the mythological aspect of Nusku. In
the religious literature Nusku is the messenger of Bel-Ma