We find that Khammurabi was very devoted to Shamash, the early type
of sun-god. His improvements and restorations at Sippar and Larsa
were extensive. The later Babylonian monarchs followed his example,
and one of them, Mili-Shikhu (_c._ 1450 B.C.) even placed Shamash
before Merodach in the pantheon! The early connexion between Merodach
and Shamash had probably much to do with the great popularity of the
latter. That this was the case, so far at least as Khammurabi was
concerned, is obvious from certain of his inscriptions, in which he
alludes in the same sentence to Merodach and Shamash and to their close
relationship. Khammurabi appears also to have been greatly attached
to the cult of a goddess Innana or Ninni ('lady' or 'great lady'),
who was evidently the consort of some male deity. He improved her
temple at Hallabi and speaks of her as placing the reins of power in
his hands. There was another goddess of the same name at Lagash whom
Gudea worshipped as 'mistress of the world,' but she does not seem to
have been the same as the Innana of Hallabi, near Sippar, as she was
a goddess of fertility and generation, of the 'mother goddess' type,
and there do not appear to be any grounds for the assertion that the
goddess of Hallabi can be equated with her.
Hadad
Ramman or Rimmon, identified with Hadad or Adad, is a deity of later
type and introduction. Indeed Ramman may be merely a variant or
subsidiary name, meaning as it does 'the thunderer,' quite a common
title for several types of deities. The worship of Hadad was widespread
in Syria and Palestine, and he was a god of storms or rains, whose
symbol was the thunderbolt or the lightning which he holds in his
grasp like a fiery sword. But he bears solar emblems upon his apparel,
and seems to wear a solar crown. He does not, however, appear to have
had any centre of worship in Babylonia, and was probably a god of the
Amorites, and becoming popular with the Babylonians, was later admitted
into their pantheon. At Asshur in Assyria he was worshipped along with
Anu, with whom he had a temple in common. This building, which was
excavated in 1908, contains two shrines having but the one entrance,
and the date of its foundation is referred so far back as B.C. 2400.
There can be little doubt that the partnership of Hadad with Anu was a
late one. Perhaps it was on Assyrian and not Babylonian soil that Hadad
first entered from the alien world.
[Illustration in text: HADAD OR RIMMON from _Religious Belief and
Practices in Babylonia and Assyria_, by Prof. Jastrow. (G. P. Putnam's
Sons.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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