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He does not change with the seasons or the weather, nor is there any doubt as to his intentions and demands. Semitic religion, even at this stage, is a very real thing, and may easily, in favouring circumstances, become a force of overmastering energy. Hommel, Die Semitischen Völker und Sprachen. "Semites," by McCurdy, in Hastings' Bible Dictionary, vol. v.
Hommel, Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens, p. 19. Written ideographically, as the names of the zikkurats and of all sacred edifices invariably are. See above, p. 459. Inscription G, col. i. l. 14; D, col. ii. l. 11. IIR. 50; obverse 20. See p. 472. Kosmologie, pp. 171-174.
While no evidence has as yet been found to warrant us in carrying back the existence of the Minean empire in Southern Arabia beyond 1500 B.C., still since at this period, this empire appears in a high state of culture, with commercial intercourse established between it and Egypt, as well as Palestine, the conclusion drawn by Hommel that Babylonia was invaded about 2500 B.C. by an Arabic-speaking people is to be seriously considered.
Sayce expressed the opinion that they were Arabic, and Professor Hommel has recently reënforced the position of Sayce by showing the close resemblance existing between these names and those found on the monuments of Southern Arabia.
Professor Hommel goes so far as to declare that in the types found on statues and monuments of the oldest period of Babylonian history the monuments coming from the mound Telloh we have actual representations of these Sumerians, who are thus made out to be a smooth-faced race with rather prominent cheek-bones, round faces, and shaven heads.
Semitic, and possibly contracted, originals are still possible for unidentified mythical kings of Berossus; but such equations will inspire greater confidence, should we be able to establish Sumerian originals for the Semitic renderings, from new material already in hand or to be obtained in the future. Dr. Sev. Tabl. of Creat., Vol. I, p. 217, No. 32574, Rev., l. 2 f. Hommel, Proc. Soc. Bibl.
Hommel, indeed, is of opinion that she is the personified watery depth, the primitive chaos which has only the heavens above it; but in giving this explanation, he is influenced by the desire to connect the name of Bau with the famous term for chaos in Genesis, Tohu-wa-bohu. There is, however, no proof whatsoever that Bau and Bohu have anything to do with one another.
On the assumption that the union of the syllables A-nun-na-ki represents a compound ideograph, the middle syllable nun signifies 'strength, whereas the first is the ordinary ideograph for 'water. Hommel proposed to interpret the name therefore as 'gods of the watery habitation. The artificiality of this manner of writing points, as in several instances noted, to a mere 'play' upon the real name.
She appears in the inscription in question by the side of a goddess who following Hommel is none other than Bau. Dêr is called the city of the god Anu, and we can only suppose that it must at one time have risen to sufficient importance to harbor in its midst a number of deities.
Again, together with these supposed non-Semitic types, other figures have been found which, as Professor Hommel also admits, show the ordinary Semitic features.
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