The question naturally arises: Who were these deities, “the host of heaven” and “the host of earth”? and this is a question to which we do not get a very complete answer from the inscriptions. According to the explanatory lists of gods (as distinct from the mythological texts proper) Kišar is explained as the “host of heaven and earth” and also as Anu and Antum, in other words, as the male and female personifications of the heavens. Strange to say, this is just the explanation given in the inscriptions of the names Laḫmu and Laḫamu, for though they are not “the host of heaven and earth,” they are the same, according to the lists of gods, as the deities Anu and his consort Antum. This probably arises from the worship of Anu, the god of the heavens, and his consort, at some period preceding that of the worship of Merodach, or even that of his father Aa or Ea, whose cult, as we have seen, was in early times abandoned for that of the patron god of the city of Babylon. Concerning this portion of the legend of the Creation, however, much more light is required. Besides the simple form Kišar, there occurs in the lists of gods also Kišaragala, which is likewise explained as a manifestation of Anu and Antum, and described moreover as “Anu, who is the host (_kiššat_) of heaven and earth.” In addition to Anšar and Kišar, the deities Enšara and Ninšara are mentioned. These names are apparently to be translated “lord of the host” and “lady of the host” respectively, and are doubtless both closely connected with, or the same as, the Anšar and Kišar of the Babylonian story of the Creation, in close connection with which they are, in fact, mentioned. En-kišara is given, in W.A.I., III., pl. 68, as one of the three _mu-gala_ (apparently “great names”) of Anu, the god of the heavens. Another Nin-šara (the second element written with a different character) is given as the equivalent of both Antum and Ištar, the latter being the well-known goddess of love and war, Venus. Tiamat.