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Passing on to the lists and the legal documents of the second period, we may note that the gods in whose name the oath is taken are chiefly Marduk, Shamash, Â, Ramman, and Sin. Generally two or three are mentioned, and often the name of the reigning king is added to lend further solemnity to the oath.
The time when the catastrophe is to take place is vaguely indicated. When Shamash will bring on the time, then the lord of the whirlstorm Will cause destruction to rain upon you in the evening. The 'lord of the whirlstorm' is Ramman, and the reference to this deity specifies the manner in which the catastrophe will be brought about.
This double nature of Ramman as a solar deity representing some particular phase of the sun that escapes us and as a storm-god still peers through the inscription above noted from the Cassite period where Ramman is called 'the lord of justice, an attribute peculiar to the sun-god; but in Assyria his rôle as the thunder-and storm-god overshadows any other attributes that he may have had.
What his motive was in thus combining Anu with Ramman it is difficult to say, but in his account of the restoration of the sanctuary, he so consistently mentions Anu and Ramman together, designating them unitedly as 'the great gods my lords, that one gains the impression that the two were inseparable in his mind, Ramman being perhaps regarded simply as a manifestation of Anu.
Upon the first appearance of dawn, There arose from the horizon dark clouds, Within which Ramman caused his thunder to resound. Nabu and Sharru marched at the front, The destroyers passed across mountains and land, Dibbarra lets loose the.... Ninib advances in furious hostility.
From the same list we learn that there was a temple to Marduk in Ashur in which the cult of the Shamash, Sarpanitum, Ramman, Ninib, Anunit was also carried on; similarly, in the temples of Ashur, of Gula, and of Ninib, other gods were worshipped.
The only temple in his honor is the one which he shares with Ramman, and which, as noted, appears to have been originally devoted to the service of the latter. One other factor that must be taken into account to explain the disappearance of Anu is the gradual enforcement of Ashur's claim to the absolute headship of the Assyrian pantheon.
Still, it is rather curious that he does not appear even in the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings by himself, but in association with another god. This dedication of a temple to two deities is unusual. Ramman is the god of thunder and storms, whose seat of course is in the heavens. He stands close, therefore, to Anu, the supreme god of heaven.
A goddess of this name reading of the first sign doubtful is mentioned by Ur-Bau, who builds a temple to her in Girsu. If Amiaud is correct in his reading of the first sign, the goddess was identified at one time by the Babylonians with the consort of Ramman the storm-god. This would accord with the description that Ur-Bau gives of the goddess.
The name of one of these is altogether lost; the second is called Bar, and is designated as an offspring of Ishtar. Both these deities decline, answering Anu in precisely the same manner as Ramman. What finally happens we are left to conjecture. Harper supposes that Shamash is finally called upon by Anu and accepts the challenge.
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