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Then follows the successive generation of two pairs of deities, Lakhmu and Lakhamu, and Anshar and Kishar, long ages separating the two generations from each other and from the birth of the great gods which subsequently takes place. Quaestiones de primis principiis, cap. 125; ed. Kopp, p. 384.
The priority, again, of Lakhmu and Lakhamu, as well as of Anshar and Kishar, is expressed by making them 'ancestors' of Anu, Bel and Ea.
Among these we find Anshar and Kishar, and by their side, such pairs as Anshar-gal, i.e., 'great totality of what is on high, and Kishar-gal, i.e., 'great totality of what is below, Enshar and Ninshar, i.e., 'lord' and 'mistress, respectively, of 'all there is, Du'ar and Da'ur, forms of a stem which may signify 'perpetuity, Alala, i.e., 'strength, and a consort Belili.
This is indicated by the occurrence of the triad Anu, Bel, and Ea as early as the days of Gudea, and it is this triad which in the creation epic follows upon the older series symbolized by Anshar and Kishar.
Lakhmu and Lakhamu represent the 'monster' world where creatures are produced in strange confusion, whereas Anshar and Kishar indicate a division of the universe into two distinct and sharply defined parts. The splitting of 'chaos' is the first step towards its final disappearance.
Before leaving the names, it may be added that, of the primaeval deities, Anshar and Kishar are obviously Sumerian in form. Damkina was the later wife of Ea or Enki; and Ninkharsagga is associated with Enki, as his consort, in another Sumerian myth. It may be noted that the character of Apsû and Tiamat in this portion of the poem is quite at variance with their later actions.
Tiâmat has transferred to Kingu and the eleven monsters all authority, and it is only after they are defeated that Tiâmat but Tiâmat alone enters the fray. The rage of Tiâmat is directed against Anshar, Kishar, and their offspring. Anu, Bel, and Ea, while standing at the head of the latter, are not the only gods introduced.
But while Anshar-Ashur under this view is a figure surviving from an ancient period, he is transformed by association with a complementary deity Kishar into a symbol, just as we have found to be the case with Lakhmu.
Their revolt at the ordered "way" of the gods was a necessary preliminary to the incorporation of the Dragon myths, in which Ea and Marduk are the heroes. Here they appear as entirely beneficent gods of the primaeval water, undisturbed by storms, in whose quiet depths the equally beneficent deities Lakhmu and Lakhamu, Anshar and Kishar, were generated.
The etymology of Anshar is as obscure as that of most of the ancient gods of Babylonia, as of Sin, Marduk, Ishtar, and many more. But before leaving the subject, it will be proper to call attention to the rôle that a god Anshar plays in the Babylonian-Assyrian cosmological system. Anshar and Kishar are the second pair of deities to be created, the first pair being Lakhmu and Lakhamu.
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