THE PANTHEON
Until the necessary evidence comes to light it is scarcely possible to
do more than collect a few notes upon some of the gods and goddesses of
our period. The most important sources are from Babylonia, Assyria,
and Egypt; but some additional information can be gleaned from
Palestinian names, allowance being made for the fact that a personal
name compounded with that of a deity is not enough to prove that the
bearer was its worshipper.
+Asiatic Deities in Egypt+ date from before the age of the Hyksos
invasion, as can be gathered from the history of the mixed cult at
Serabit and from the introduction of Baalath of Byblos (p. 75).
Apophis, a Hyksos king, has left an altar dedicated to his 'father
Sutekh,' who had set all lands under his feet, and after the expulsion
of the Hyksos, this foreign deity, {84} Egyptianised as Set (or
Sutekh), became firmly established. Both SUTEKH and BAAL were regarded
as essentially gods of battle, and the latter often occurs in
descriptions of the prowess of the Pharaohs of the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Dynasties. Thus, the king is like Baal in the lands, mighty
in strength, far-reaching in courage, strong-horned; he is like Sutekh
great in might. He is the equal of Baal, 'his real son for ever,' and
he is as Baal in his hour (_i.e._ of manifestation). When he appears
upon the battlefield like Baal, his flame consumes the foe, and Amon-Re
announces to Ramses III., 'I overthrow for thee every land, when they
see thy majesty in strength, like my son, Baal in his wrath.' Baal is
in his limbs; his roaring is like Baal in heaven, and his enemies fall
down in fear of him like Baal. Baal was virtually identical with
Sutekh who is represented as a foreign god and is sometimes horned
(_e.g._ at Serabit). A curious scarab shows a winged Sutekh with
horned cap and long streamer standing upon a lion.
Another foreigner is RESHEPH, lord of heaven, lord of eternity, or
governor of the gods; he is the warrior, the god of fire and lightning
(subsequently identified with Apollo). Valiant Egyptian officers are
likened to him. He appears on {85} the Egyptian monuments with Semitic
profile, and conical hat (or otherwise a fillet) from which projects
the head of a gazelle; he holds a lance and shield in the left hand,
and in his right a club. According to a magical text his consort was
'_-t-m_, a deity who seems to be combined with Shamash in an old North
Palestinian place-name, and may recur in the familiar Obed (servant of)
-Edom. In Egypt Resheph also formed a triad with Min (the old
harvest-deity and god of reproduction) and the goddess KADESH ('holy').
The last, whose name suggests the sacred licentious rites of Asiatic
cults (p. 33 _sq._), is called lady of heaven, mistress of the gods,
the eye of Re, etc. She was assimilated to Hathor, and stands nude
upon a lion with lotus flowers in her right hand and a serpent in her
left; her head framed with heavy tresses of hair is sometimes
surmounted by the sun-disk between two horns. Among foreign
war-goddesses Egypt had ANATH, well known from Palestinian place-names.
Her priesthood at Thebes is mentioned under Thutmose III., and the
favourite daughter of Ramses II. was named 'daughter of Anath.' The
deity is represented sitting clothed upon a throne with lance and
shield in the right hand and battle-axe in the left; or holding instead
the papyrus sceptre and {86} the emblem of life she stands erect clad
in a panther-skin; her feathered crown sometimes has a pair of horns at
the base. She is called lady of heaven, or of the world, daughter of
the sun, mother, etc., and is often paired with Astarte.
ASTARTE found a place in several Egyptian temples. We also hear of her
prophets, and a fragmentary myth apparently describes how, as daughter
of Ptah, she entered the pantheon of Memphis. Here, as we learn from
another text, Egyptian and foreign deities met together, and among the
latter is a Baalath Saphun (B. of the North?), whose male counterpart
appears in Baal-Zephon near the Red Sea (Ex. xiv. 2) and the equivalent
Baal-Sapun, one of the gods of king Baal (see p. 72). The Egyptians
depict Astarte with the head of a lioness, driving her quadriga over
the foe; and as goddess of war she is 'mistress of horses and lady of
chariots.' But that both Anath and Astarte were also dissolute
goddesses is recognised in a text which ascribes their creation to Set.
The prevalence of the cult of the goddess of love and war in Palestine
is well known from the references in the Old Testament to Ashtoreth (an
intentional perversion to suggest _bōsheth_ 'shame'), from the
place-names, and from the plaques which {87} indicate numerous minor
local types (p. 29). In the Amarna tablets Astarte (or rather the
Babylonian Ishtar) coalesces with ASHIRTA who is sometimes written in
the plural (Ashrati). Like the place-names Anathoth (the Anaths) and
Ashtaroth (the Astartes), the different conceptions of the goddess in
all her local forms seem to be combined in one term. Ashirta appears
to have been essentially the goddess of the west. In a text of the
First Babylonian Dynasty she is paired with Ramman as 'bride of the
king of heaven, lady of exuberance (or vigour) and splendour'; later,
she is called the consort of the 'lord of the mountain,' an appellative
corresponding to the Baal of Lebanon. In old Arabia she was the wife
of the moon-god, and the masculine form Ashir, on cuneiform Cappadocian
tablets of our period, seems to be no other than the great god Ashur
himself. Her name cannot be severed from the _Ashērah_, but it is
not clear whether it was transferred to or derived from the object of
cult (see p. 26). The intricacy of the history of the divine-names
will be understood when the Assyrian equivalent of Beth (house of) -El
becomes the name of a deity, or when the plural of Ishtar is used of
goddesses in general, or when Resheph (above) in Hebrew denotes a
spark, {88} flame, or fire-bolt. But the career of the goddess of love
and war is even more complicated. The phonetic equivalent of Ishtar in
old Arabia was a god (so perhaps also in Moab, ninth century), and
Ishtar herself appears in Assyria with a beard and is likened to the
god Ashur, thus finding a later parallel in the bearded Aphrodite
(Astarte, Venus) of Cyprus.
The sex of the sun-deity SHAMASH is equally confusing, for, although he
was lord of heaven (p. 73), and kings of Egypt and the Hittites
identified themselves with him, the deity was female in old Arabia,
among earlier Hittite groups, and probably once, also, in Palestine and
Syria.[1] Place-names compounded with Shemesh attest the prevalence of
the deity, and around the district of Gezer lie Beth-Shemesh and the
stories of Samson (sun) wherein solar elements have been recognised.
Among pastoral and agricultural peoples, however, the moon is more
important. To the prominence of new-moon festivals and the probable
connection between the lunar body and the name Jericho we must add the
moon-god SIN, in Sinai and the desert of Sin {89} in the south of
Palestine, and in the north at Harran, where his worship survived to
the Christian era. At Hamath, in N. Syria, about 800 B.C., Shamash and
the moon-god find a place by the side of the supreme 'Baal of heaven.'
Later, at Nerab near Aleppo the moon-god is associated with his wife
_N-k-l_ (Nin-gal 'the great lady'), Shamash, and Nusku (fire-god,
messenger of Bel). Specific Assyrian influence might be expected at
this date, but the consort's name appears in an Egyptian magical text,
not later than the Twentieth Dynasty, as the wife of 'the high god'
(here, the Sun?).[2]
[1] H. Winckler, _Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft_
(Berlin, 1907), No. 35, p. 53; _id._, Amarna Tablets, No. 208, 1. 22
(Knudtzon, No. 323).
[2] A. H. Gardiner, _Zeit. f. Aeg. Spr._, xliii. p. 97.
Quite as prominent as the sun was the weather-god, god of storm,
lightning and thunder. Known as Teshub (p. 70), Hadad, Ramman (comp.
the Biblical Rimmon), Adad, Dad, Bir, etc., the form ADDU, which was
recognised as the god's 'Amorite' designation, is adopted here in
preference to the more familiar Aramæan HADAD. This is supported by
the spelling of the name of Rib-Addi, king of Byblos. The interchange
of Baal and Addu in certain names in the Amarna letters shows that Addu
could naturally be called Baal, and to the Egyptians he was apparently
_the_ Baal. The importance of {90} the weather-god in the religion of
agricultural and pastoral peoples may be illustrated from one of
Khammurabi's curses: 'May Adad, lord of abundance, regent of heaven and
earth, my helper, deprive him (_i.e._ the disobedient) of the rain from
heaven and the water-floods from the springs; may he bring his land to
destruction through want and hunger; may he break loose furiously over
his city and turn his land into the heap left by a storm.' The gifts
of Addu preserved men from dearth and starvation; a too plenteous
supply brought flood and ruin. Thus the god had a twofold aspect, and
his thunder in the heavens, his fiery darts, in fact the destructive
side of his character made him an appropriate war-god. This aspect of
the nature-deity was especially cultivated by warlike peoples.
Babylonian and Hittite sculptures depict the god brandishing a hammer
with his right hand, while the left holds up a triad of
lightning-flashes or thunder-bolts. On an inscription from North Syria
(eighth century) Hadad has horns, and with this agrees the association
of the bull with the god. Like all predominant gods he includes a
variety of attributes, and we may conjecture that the small heads of
bulls unearthed by the excavations are connected with his worship (p.
32). {91} The inscription in question (see also p. 57) places Hadad at
the head of a small pantheon with El, Resheph, R-k-b--el (steed,
chariot, or charioteer of El) and Shamash. In the Amarna letters one
writer calls the king of Egypt his Addu, and Abimelech of Tyre, who
likens him to both Shamash and Addu, addresses him as 'he who gives his
thunder in the heavens like Addu.'
Together with this combination it is to be noticed that while
Khammurabi 'the Sun of Babylonia' calls himself the mighty bull who
gores the enemy, old Egyptian scenes actually represent 'the strong
bull' breaking down fortresses with its horns or expelling the
inhabitants. The Pharaoh was symbolised by the bull, and even the
Egyptian sun-god is styled 'the bull of the gods.' The animal is
doubtless typical of generative force and of strength, while the union
of the attributes of Shamash and Addu are intelligible since to the sun
and weather man owed the necessaries of life. It is noteworthy that
the two deities are prominent in the Hittite treaty, where each is
called 'lord of heaven' (p. 73), and, as early as the nineteenth
century, the Assyrian compound-name Shamshi-Adad indicates that they
could be easily combined. The name is borne by two kings; one a
'priest-king' {92} of the god Ashur, the other a son of Ishme-Dagan
('D. hears').
Dagan (DAGON) has left his traces in place-names and in the ruler,
'Dagan is strong' (Amarna letters). The deity seems to have been of
Assyrian or Mesopotamian rather than of Babylonian origin. It is
possible that he was a corn-god. The Babylonian NEBO, the 'teacher,'
can only be recovered from place-names in Judah and Moab. NINIB
(native form is uncertain), both sun- and war-god, appears in the
Amarna letters in two place-names (one in the vicinity of Jerusalem),
and in the personal-name 'Servant of Ninib.' The swine was sacred to
Ninib, as also to Tammuz and the Phoenician Adonis; but neither of the
latter can be traced in our period.
SHALEM, in Jeru-salem (Uru-salim in the Amarna letters), has been
identified (on the analogy of Jeru-el) with a god who is known later in
Phoenicia, Assyria, and North Arabia, and who is perhaps combined with
Resheph on an Egyptian stele of our period. He was perhaps identified
with Ninib. The antiquity of GAD, the deity of fortune, can be assumed
from place-names. In a disguised form the goddess, 'Fortune' was the
guardian-deity of the cities in the Greek age, and allusion is made in
the Talmud to the couch {93} reserved for the 'luck of the house.' A
deified 'Righteousness' (_sedek_) has been inferred from a name in the
Amarna age; it would find a parallel in 'Right' and 'Integrity' the
sons of the Assyrian god Sham ash, and both 'Integrity' and
'Righteousness' find a place in the Phoenician cosmogony which, in
spite of its late dress, preserves many old features which recur in
Hebrew myths.
The Babylonian NERGAL, god of war, burning heat and pestilence, and
ruler of Hades, the deity with whom was identified Saturn (and also
Mars), should find a place in the pantheon. A seal from Taanach
describes its owner as 'servant of Nergal' (p. 110), and the king of
Cyprus reports to Egypt the desolation caused by the god's hand. Even
as late as the third century B.C. we hear of a Phoenician who was his
high-priest. As a solar fire-god he had in the west the name Sharrab
or Sharraph with which the familiar Seraph may be identified. The god
El of later Phoenician myth (the Greek Kronos; Saturn) was depicted
with six-wings like the Seraphim. He was the god to whom children were
sacrificed, whence the story that he had set the example by killing his
own. If infants had been slain to Sharrab in Palestine, this would be
in harmony with Nergal's character, and it may {94} be noticed that
Nusku, who is sometimes associated with Nergal, was symbolised by a
lamp (cp. above, p. 41). In the Old Testament the grim rites belong to
Molech (properly Melek), but there are independent reasons for the view
that the latter was the proper-name of the Phoenician El.[3] However
this may be, the name MELEK, although really an appellative ('king'),
passes over into a true proper-name; but it is not clear whether this
is the case in our period where we meet with the personal names
'servant of Melek' (or, the king), 'El is Melek,' etc.
[3] M.-J. Lagrange, _Études sur les Rel. Sémitiques_, p. 107 _sq._
It is uncertain whether there is external evidence for the name YAHWEH
(Jehovah), the national God of the Israelites. Unambiguous examples
outside Palestine appear in North Syria in the eighth century in the
form Yau (Yahu), which in one name interchanges with El. Cuneiform
evidence for the name in the First Babylonian Dynasty has been adduced,
and in the abbreviated Ya it possibly occurs in 'house of Ya,' a
Palestinian town taken by Thutmose III. Further, in Akhi-yami (or,
yawi), the author of a cuneiform tablet from Taanach, an identification
with Akhiyah (the Biblical Ahijah) is not improbable, although other
explanations are possible. While {95} other writers salute Ishtar (or
Astarte)-Washur, the governor of Taanach, with: May Addu, or may the
gods preserve thy life, Ahijah (?) invokes 'the lord of the gods.' In
the course of his letter he asks whether there is still lamentation for
the lost cities or have they been recovered, and continues: 'there is
over my head some one (who is) over the cities; see, now, whether he
will do good with thee; further, if he shows anger, they will be
confounded, and the victory will be mighty.' It is not clear whether
these words refer to the divine Pharaoh or to a deity, the supreme god
whom he invokes. If the latter view be correct, it is difficult to
decide whether the reference be to the Sun-god, patronised by the
ruling powers (whether Egyptian or Hittite), or the great Addu who
would be quite in keeping with the allusions to war and victory. Some,
however, would recognise a Providence, or, from their interpretation of
the writer's name, Yahweh himself. But a single tablet has little
evidential value and we can merely mention the possibilities.
The preceding paragraphs touch only the fringe of an important
subject--the Palestinian pantheon in and after the Amarna age.
Egyptian supremacy involved the recognition of Amon-Re, but it is
difficult to determine to what extent this deity {96} differed from the
Palestinian Shamash. Excavations illustrate the result of intercourse,
especially in the southern part of the land, but the numerous
characteristic scarabs, and the representations of Osiris, Isis, Ptah,
Sebek, Anubis, and the ever-popular Bes (with moulds), need have no
significance for the gods of Palestine. They may not always be
specifically Egyptian; Bes, for example, appears to be of non-Egyptian
ancestry. Further, a number of the names in the Amarna letters are
neither Egyptian nor Semitic, but of northern origin, and the name of
the king of Jerusalem, 'servant of Khiba,' introduces a goddess of the
earlier 'Hittite' peoples whose influence upon Palestine is to be
inferred upon other grounds.[4]
[4] H. Winckler (_Mittheil._, No. 35), p. 48.
In Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria numerous deities of varying rank were
venerated by the people. Bes, himself, in spite of his subordinate
position in the pantheon was a favourite among all Egyptians outside
the more elevated classes. The popular beings, like the popular
religious ideas, are not to be found in royal inscriptions or
temple-hymns. The state and the priesthood often refused to recognise
them, but they are to be found not rarely among the {97} personal names
of ordinary individuals. This probably holds true also of Palestine,
and consequently we must not suppose that the influence of foreigners
upon the _popular_ cults of the land is to be ignored or that the more
honourable names which we have been noticing were the sole claimants to
the worship of the peasantry.[5]
[5] Comp. M. Jastrow, _Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens_, i. p. 164
_sq._; H. P. Smith, 'Theophorous Proper Names in the Old Testament,' in
_O. T. and Semitic Studies in memory of William Rainey Harper_, i.
_pp._ 35-64 (Chicago, 1908).
{98}