sunset, but also immediately before daybreak, and so seems to summon the human race to renewed efforts and activity. Ishtar could not be an exception to the general principle and remain unmated. But her husband, DUMUZ (a name for the Sun), stands to her in an entirely subordinate position, and, indeed, would be but little known were it not for a beautiful story that was told of them in a very old poem, and which will find its place among many more in one of the next chapters. 12. It would be tedious and unnecessary to recite here more names of gods and goddesses, though there are quite a number, and more come to light all the time as new tablets are discovered and read. Most of them are in reality only different names for the same conceptions, and the Chaldeo-Babylonian pantheon--or assembly of divine persons--is very sufficiently represented by the so-called "twelve great gods," who were universally acknowledged to be at its head, and of whom we will here repeat the names: ANU, EA and BEL, SIN, SHAMASH and RAMAN, NIN-DAR, MARUDUK, NERGAL, NEBO, BELIT and ISHTAR. Each had numerous temples all over the country. But every great city had its favorite whose temple was the oldest, largest and most sumptuous, to whose worship it was especially devoted from immemorial times. Ea, the most beloved god of old Shumir, had his chief sanctuary, which he shared with his son Meridug, at ERIDHU (now Abu-Shahrein), the most southern and almost the most ancient city of Shumir, situated near the mouth of the Euphrates, since the Persian Gulf reached quite as far inland in the year 4000 B.C., and this was assuredly an appropriate station for the great "lord of the deep," the Fish-god Oannes, who emerged from the waters to instruct mankind. UR, as we have seen, was the time-honored seat of the Moon-god. At ERECH Anu and Anat or Nana--Heaven and Earth--were specially honored from the remotest antiquity, being jointly worshipped in the temple called "the House of Heaven." This may have been the reason of the particular sacredness attributed to the ground all around Erech, as witnessed by the exceeding persistency with which people strove for ages to bury their dead in it, as though under the immediate protection of the goddess of Earth[AT] (see Ch. III. of Introduction). Larsam paid especial homage to Shamash and was famous for its very ancient "House of the Sun." The Sun and Moon--Shamash and Anunit--had their rival sanctuaries at SIPPAR on the "Royal Canal," which ran nearly parallel to the Euphrates, and AGADE, the city of Sargon, situated just opposite on the other bank of the canal. The name of Agade was lost in the lapse of time, and both cities became one, the two portions being distinguished only by the addition "Sippar of the Sun" and "Sippar of Anunit." The Hebrews called the united city "The two Sippars"--SEPHARVAIM, the name we find in the Bible.