In the religious sphere, the rise of Babylon to the position of capital led to a number of important changes, and to a revision of the Babylonian pantheon. Marduk, the god of Babylon, from being a comparatively obscure city-god, underwent a transformation in proportion to the increase in his city's importance. The achievements and attributes of Enlil, the chief Sumerian deity, were ascribed to him, and the old Sumerian sagas and legends, particularly those of the creation of the world, were rewritten in this new spirit by the Babylonian priesthood. The beginning of the process may be accurately dated to the year of Hammurabi's conquest of Rîm-Sin and his subsequent control of Nippur, the ancient centre of the old Sumerian faith. It does not appear that the earlier Semites, when they conquered that city, had ever attempted to modify the old traditions they found there, or to appropriate them for their local gods. But a new spirit was introduced with the triumph of the Western Semites. The Sumerians were then a dying race, and the gradual disappearance of their language as a living tongue was accompanied by a systematic translation, and a partial transformation, of their sacred literature. Enlil could not be entirely ousted from the position he had so long enjoyed, but Marduk became his greater son. The younger god is represented as winning his position by his own valour, in coming to the help of the older gods when their very existence was threatened by the dragons of chaos; and, having slain the monster of the deep, he is portrayed as creating the universe from her severed body.[46] The older legends, no doubt, continued to be treasured in the ancient cult-centres of the land, but the Babylonian versions, under royal sanction and encouragement, tended to gain wide recognition and popularity.