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The god Bel, in the pantheon of the Babylonians and Assyrians, is the God of gods, and Father of gods, who made the earth and heaven. His title expresses dominion. In succession to the gods of this first trio, Anu, Bel, and Hea, was another trio, named Siu, Shamas, and Vul, representing the moon, the sun, and the atmosphere.
Long ages had to elapse before the Trinity of the later theology Anu, Ea, and Bel were born of these, and all things made ready for the genesis of the present world. Merodach, the champion of the gods of light and law, had first to do battle with Tiamat, "the dragon" of "the deep," and her allies of darkness and disorder.
Perhaps the devotion of the Assyrians to Nin the tutelary god of their kings and of their capital who in so many respects resembled Hoa, caused the worship of Hoa to decline and that of Nin gradually to supersede it. MYLITTA, or BELTIS. Beltis, the "Great Mother," the feminine counterpart of Bel, ranked in Assyria next to the Triad consisting of Anu, Bel, and Hoa.
City sacred to Ea at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Lit., 'totality of lands. Cf. S. A. Smith, Miscellaneous, K. 2866, l. 8, "the great gods dwelling in the heaven of Anu." The reference, therefore, cannot be to "the gathering place of the gods," where the fates of mankind are decided. The original has ratum. Delitzsch, Assyr. Handwörterbuch, p. 663, compares Hebrew rahat, "trough."
Poebel, as we are probably justified in doing, that the title Nintu is employed here and elsewhere in the narrative merely as a synonym of Ninkharsagga. It appears to me far more probable that one of the two supreme gods, Anu or Enlil, is the speaker, and additional grounds will be cited later in support of this view.
The description continues: I have kept back the ferry, have shut off the wall, Have thus checked the enchantment from all quarters. Anu and Anatum have commissioned me. Whom shall I send to Belit of the field? Into the mouth of the sorcerer and sorceress cast the lock. Recite the incantation of the chief of gods, Marduk.
So far as Babylonia was concerned, there was still in the twelfth century B.C. a city 'Der' which is called the 'city of Anu. The city is probably of very ancient foundation, and its continued association with Anu forms an interesting survival of a local conception that appears to have been once current of the god.
But the four orders, with the Brahmanas at their head, then addressed the monarch thus, 'O king, how shall thou bestow thy kingdom on Puru, passing over thy eldest son Yadu born of Devayani, and, therefore, the grandson of the great Sukra? Indeed, Yadu is thy eldest son; after him hath been born Turvasu; and of Sarmishtha's sons, the first is Drahyu, then Anu and then Puru.
In after times, and in the latter days..., if the temple of the Great Gods, my lords Anu and Vul, and these shrines should become old and fall into decay, may the Prince who comes after me repair the ruins! May he raise altars and sacrifice victims before my tablets and cylinders, and may he set them up again in their places, and may he inscribe his name on them together with my name!
Marduk's ship was appropriately known as Ma-ku-a, 'the ship of the dwelling. Similarly, a ship of the god Sin was called 'ship of light, reminding one of the name of the great temple to the moon-god at Ur, 'the house of the great luminary. The ship of Nin-gal, the consort of Sin, was called 'the lesser light. Bau's ship was described by an epithet of the goddess as 'the ship of the brilliant offspring, the reference being to the descent of the goddess from father Anu.
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