When the Semitic Babylonians adopted the deities of their predecessors and teachers, Anu and his compeers lost much of their elemental nature, while the Sun-god Samas came to assume an important place. The religion of the Babylonian Semites, in fact, was essentially solar; the Sun-god was addressed as Bel or Baal, the supreme 'lord,' and adored under various forms. He appeared to them, moreover, under two aspects, sometimes as the kindly deity who gives life and light to all things, sometimes as the scorching sun of summer who demanded the sacrifice of the first-born to appease his wrath. Sometimes, again, he was worshipped as the young and beautiful Tammuz, slain by the boar's tusk of winter; whose death was lamented at the autumnal equinox, and who was invoked as _adoni_ (_Adonis_) or 'master.' Unlike the Accadians, who did not distinguish gender, the Semites divided all nouns into masculines and feminines. By the side of the god, consequently, stood the goddess. She was, however, but a pale reflection of her male consort, created, so to speak, by the necessities of grammar. She had no independent attributes of her own; Beltis, or Bilat, the wife of Bel, was nothing more than the feminine complement of the god. The Accadians had known of one great goddess, Istar, the evening star; but Istar was an independent deity, with attributes as strongly and individually marked as those of the gods. Among the Semites, Istar became Ashtoreth, with the feminine suffix _th_, and though in Babylonia the old legends and traditions prevented her from losing altogether her primitive character, she tended more and more to pass into the mere reflection of some male deity. Just as the gods could be collectively spoken of as Baalim or 'lords,' all being regarded as so many different forms of the Sun-god, the goddesses also were termed Ashtaroth or 'Ashtoreths.' We see, therefore, that in adopting the pantheon of Accad, the Semites made three important changes. The Sun-god was assigned a leading place in worship and belief; female deities were introduced, who were, however, mere reflections of the gods; while the inferior deities of the Accadians were classed among 'the 300 spirits of heaven' and 'the 600 spirits of earth,' only a few of the more prominent ones retaining their old position. These latter may be grouped as follows:— At the head of the divine hierarchy still stood the old triad of Anu, Mul-ge, and Ea. Mul-ge's name, however, was changed to Bel, but since Merodach was also known as Bel, he fell more and more into the background, especially after the rise of Babylon, of which city Merodach was the patron deity. At Nipur, now Niffer, alone, he continued to be worshipped down into late times. His consort was Bilat, or Beltis, 'the great lady,' who eventually came to be regarded as the wife of Merodach rather than of 'the other Bel.' Like Anu and Ea, Bel was the offspring of Sar and Kisar, the upper and lower firmaments.