ntrance to the royal palace as do
some of the Arab workmen who, in our own day, assist excavators to
rescue them from sandy mounds in which they have been hidden for long
centuries.

When an idol was carried away from a city by an invading army, it was
believed that the god himself had been taken prisoner, and was
therefore unable any longer to help his people.

In the early stages of Sumerian culture, the gods and goddesses who
formed groups were indistinguishable from demons. They were vaguely
defined, and had changing shapes. When attempts were made to depict
them they were represented in many varying forms. Some were winged
bulls or lions with human heads; others had even more remarkable
composite forms. The "dragon of Babylon", for instance, which was
portrayed on walls of temples, had a serpent's head, a body covered
with scales, the fore legs of a lion, hind legs of an eagle, and a
long wriggling serpentine tail. Ea had several monster forms. The
following description of one of these is repulsive enough:--

The head is the head of a serpent,
From his nostrils mucus trickles,
His mouth is beslavered with water;
The ears are like those of a basilisk,
His horns are twisted into three curls,
He wears a veil in his head band,
The body is a suh-fish full of stars,
The base of his feet are claws,
The sole of his foot has no heel,
His name is Sassu-wunnu,
A sea monster, a form of Ea.

_R.C. Thompson's Translation._[79]

Even after the gods were given beneficent attributes to reflect the
growth of culture, and were humanized, they still retained many of
their savage characteristics. Bel Enlil and his fierce son, Nergal,
were destroyers of mankind; the storm god desolated the land; the sky
god deluged it with rain; the sea raged furiously, ever hungering for
human victims; the burning sun struck down its victims; and the floods
played havoc with the dykes and houses of human beings. In Egypt the
sun god Ra was similarly a "producer of calamity", the composite
monster god Sokar was "the lord of fear".[80] Osiris in prehistoric
times had been "a dangerous god", and some of the Pharaohs sought
protection against him in the charms inscribed in their tombs.[81] The
Indian Shiva, "the Destroyer", in the old religious poems has also
primitive attributes of like character.

The Sumerian gods never lost their connection with the early spirit
groups. These continued