A great temple was erected to Nebo at Kalkhi, and four statues of him
were placed within it, two of which are now in the British Museum. On
one of these was cut the inscription, from which we have quoted,
lauding the exalted and wise deity and invoking him to protect
Adad-nirari and the lady of the palace, Sammu-rammat, and closing with
the exhortation, "Whoso cometh in after time, let him trust in Nebo
and trust in no other god".
The priests of Ashur in the city of Asshur must have been as deeply
stirred by this religious revolt at Kalkhi as were the priests of Amon
when Akhenaton turned his back on Thebes and the national god to
worship Aton in his new capital at Tell-el-Amarna.
It would appear that this sudden stream of Babylonian culture had
begun to flow into Assyria as early as the reign of Shalmaneser III,
and it may be that it was on account of that monarch's pro-Babylonian
tendencies that his nobles and priests revolted against him.
Shalmaneser established at Kalkhi a royal library which was stocked
with the literature of the southern kingdom. During the reign of
Adad-nirari IV this collection was greatly increased, and subsequent
additions were made to it by his successors, and especially
Ashur-nirari IV, the last monarch of the Middle Empire. The
inscriptions of Shamshi-Adad, son of Shalmaneser III, have literary
qualities which distinguish them from those of his predecessors, and
may be accounted for by the influence exercised by Babylonian scholars
who migrated northward.
To the reign of Adad-nirari belongs also that important compilation
the "Synchronistic History of Assyria and Babylonia", which deals with
the relations of the two kingdoms and refers to contemporary events
and rulers.
The legends of Semiramis indicate that Sammu-rammat was associated
like Queen Tiy with the revival of mother worship. As we have said,
she went down to tradition as the daughter of the fish goddess,
Derceto. Pliny identified that deity with Atargatis of
Hierapolis.[466]
In Babylonia the fish goddess was Nina, a developed form of Damkina,
spouse of Ea of Eridu. In the inscription on the Nebo statue, that god
is referred to as the "son of Nudimmud" (Ea). Nina was the goddess who
gave her name to Nineveh, and it is possible that Nebo may have been
regarded as her son during the Semiramis period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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