Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 20, 2025
The gods are all Semitic Hadad the Sun-god and Shahr the Moon-god, the Baal of Harran, and Rekeb-el, "the Chariot of God." Hittite inscriptions have been found at Hamath on the Orontes. But they must belong to a period earlier than that of David. The rulers of Hamath who made alliance with David bear Semitic names.
These principal gods do not appear to have been connected, like the Egyptian and the classical divinities, into a single genealogical scheme: yet still a certain amount of relationship was considered to exist among them. Ana and Bel, for instance, were brothers, the sons of Il or Ra; Vul was son of Ana; Hurki, the Moon-god, of Bel; Nebo and Merodach were sons of Hea or Hoa.
Preserved by three Brahmins, the inviolate deity, bearing the Yellow Diamond in its forehead, was removed by night, and was transported to the second of the sacred cities of India the city of Benares. Here, in a new shrine in a hall inlaid with precious stones, under a roof supported by pillars of gold the moon-god was set up and worshipped.
Nin or Ninip the Assyrian Hercules was universally regarded as their son; and he is frequently joined with Bel-Nimrod in the invocations. Another famous deity, the Moon-god, Sin or Hurki, is also declared to be Bel-Nimrod's son in some inscriptions. Indeed, as "the father of the gods," Bel-Nimrod might evidently claim an almost infinite paternity.
Sargon, who thus named one of his sons, appears to have been specially attached to the worship of Sin, to whom, in conjunction with Shamas, he built a temple at Khorsabad, and to whom he assigned the second place among the tutelary deities of his city. The Assyrian monarchs appear to have had a curious belief in the special antiquity of the Moon-god.
The sun is a more definite and more practically important object than the expanse of the sky, and the Semitic sun-god, Shamash, plays a great rôle from the earliest to the latest times. Other nature deities that rose to eminence are the moon-god, Sin, and the storm-god, Ramman.
Harran, the first stage on his journey, bore a Babylonian name, and its great temple of the Moon-god had been founded by Babylonian princes after the model of the temple of the Moon-god at Ur, the birthplace of the patriarch. Even in Canaan itself the deities of Babylonia were worshipped or identified with the native gods.
The secondary position occupied, e.g., by Sin when compared with a god whose domain is the entire 'lower regions, would be aptly expressed by calling the moon-god the eldest son of En-lil or Bel; and, similarly, a goddess like Bau would be called the daughter of Anu. It is a mistake, however, to interpret the use of 'daughter' and 'son' literally.
Lit., speak to thee of peace. I.e., may thy anger depart. 'The illuminator, one of the names of Sin. See above, p. 75. The name of Sin's temple at Ur. A metaphor descriptive of the moon, because of the resemblance of the crescent to a horn. The moon-god is pictured with a long beard on the seal cylinders. See p. 76. I.e., unlike other products, the moon's fullness is self-created.
Sin, the moon-god, on one occasion writes his message on the moon's disc: Against all who have evil designs And hostile sentiments towards Ashurbanabal, the king of Assyria, Will I send a miserable death. Every dream was of course sent by some god, but the dreams of others than those who acted as mediators between the gods and men were of a different character. They were omens.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking