In
early times the nomads were broken up into small tribal units, like
Abraham and his followers, and depended for their food supply on the
prowess of the males. Their chief deity was the sky and mountain god,
who was the "World Father", the creator, and the wielder of the
thunder hammer, who waged war against the demons of storm or drought,
and ensured the food supply of his worshippers.

The fusion in Babylonia of the peoples of the god and goddess cults
was in progress before the dawn of history, as was the case in Egypt
and also in southern Europe. In consequence independent Pantheons came
into existence in the various city States in the Tigro-Euphrates
valley. These were mainly a reflection of city politics: the deities
of each influential section had to receive recognition. But among the
great masses of the people ancient customs associated with agriculture
continued in practice, and, as Babylonia depended for its prosperity
on its harvests, the force of public opinion tended, it would appear,
to perpetuate the religious beliefs of the earliest settlers, despite
the efforts made by conquerors to exalt the deities they introduced.

Babylonian religion was of twofold character. It embraced temple
worship and private worship. The religion of the temple was the
religion of the ruling class, and especially of the king, who was the
guardian of the people. Domestic religion was conducted in homes, in
reed huts, or in public places, and conserved the crudest
superstitions surviving from the earliest times. The great "burnings"
and the human sacrifices in Babylonia, referred to in the Bible, were,
no doubt, connected with agricultural religion of the private order,
as was also the ceremony of baking and offering cakes to the Queen of
Heaven, condemned by Jeremiah, which obtained in the streets of
Jerusalem and other cities. Domestic religion required no temples.
There were no temples in Crete: the world was the "house" of the
deity, who had seasonal haunts on hilltops, in groves, in caves, &c.
In Egypt Herodotus witnessed festivals and processions which are not
referred to in official inscriptions, although they were evidently
practised from the earliest times.

Agricultural religion in Egypt was concentrated in the cult of Osiris
and Isis, and influenced all local theologies. In Babylonia these
deities were represented by Tammuz and Ishtar. Ishtar, like Isis,
absorbed many other local goddesses.

According to the be