The Babylonians, as we learn from Diodorus, worshipped twelve gods as lords of the sky. To each of these a sign in the zodiac and a month in the year were dedicated.[359] These statements are supported by the inscriptions. The supreme god of the Babylonians was El (Il), after whom they named their capital, Babel, "Gate of El." After El came the gods Anu, Bel (Bil), Hea, Sin, Samas, and Bin; and after these the gods of the planets; Adar, Merodach, Nergal, Istar, and Nebo. Of El we only know that he was the supreme god, who sat enthroned above the other gods. What peculiar importance and power is ascribed to him is the more difficult to ascertain, as the name of the third deity, Bel, simply means "lord," and by this title not only Bel himself, but El and other gods also are invoked. In his inscription, king Hammurabi says "that El and Bel have given over to his rule the inhabitants of Sumir and Accad." In the story of the flood, quoted above, El is called "the prince of the gods," "the warrior." In Assyrian inscriptions he is the "lamp of the gods," "the lord of the universe." The Greeks give us accounts of the great temple of Belus at Babylon, and represent the Babylonians as swearing "by the great Belus."[360] In the fragments of Berosus it was Belus who smote asunder the primæval darkness, and divided Omorka, and caused the creation of men and beasts; while according to the clay tablets of the flood, El was unwilling to save even Sisit. Of the god Hea we can at present ascertain no more from the inscriptions than that he is the "lord of the earth," "the king of rivers;" and that it is he who announced the coming flood to Sisit, and pointed out the means of safety. Anu, the god who follows next after El, was sovereign of the upper realms of the sky. In the narrative of the flood given on the clay tablets the gods fled horror-stricken before the storm into the heaven of Anu. In Assyrian inscriptions the god has frequently the epithet Malik (_i.e._ "king"). As the Hebrews inform us that the men of Sepharvaim worshipped Anammelech, it is obvious that Anumalik and Anammelech are one and the same deity. The creature, who brought the first revelations of language and writing, is called in Berosus Oan, by others, Yan.[361] As these revelations reached Sepharvaim, and the sacred books were preserved there (p. 245), we may venture to assume that the Oan of Berosus and the Anu of the inscriptions are the same god. The nature of the next deities, Sin, Samas, and Bin, is more intelligible. Sin is the god of the moon. On monuments the new moon is often found beside his bearded image. The inscriptions provide him with "white-beaming horns." The main seat of his worship is Ur (Mugheir), where, as we have seen, Urukh built him a temple, and Nabonetus, the last king of Babylon, prays this god "to plant in the heart of his first-born a reverence for his great divinity, that he might not yield to sin, or favour the unfaithful."[362] The sun-god Samas is