"Ana is the head of the first triad which follows immediately after the obscure god Ra." "Ana, like Il and Ra, is thought to have been a word originally signifying God in the highest sense." "He corresponds in many respects to the classical Hades, who, like him, heads[146] the triad to which he belongs." In so far he is undistinguishable from Il or Ra, and may only transmit the monotheistic tradition through a different channel. But Ana has human epithets applied to him very suggestive of hero-worship. "His epithets are chiefly such as mark priority and antiquity." "He is the Old Ana," "the original chief," "the father of the gods" [_inter alia_, of Bil Nipru, _i.e._ Nimrod]. He is also called--which imports another association of ideas--"the lord of spirits and demons," "the king of the lower world,"[147] "the lord of darkness or death," "the ruler of the far-off city." [146] "This is not a mere arbitrary supposition, for it is expressly said in Holy Writ, that the first man, ordained to be 'the father of the whole earth' (as he is then called), became, on his reconciliation with his Maker, the wisest of all men, and, according to tradition, the greatest of prophets, who in his far-reaching ken, _foresaw the destinies of all mankind_ in all successive ages down to the end of the world. All this must be taken in a strict historical sense, for the moral interpretation we abandon to others. The pre-eminence of the Sethites chosen by God, and entirely devoted to His service, must be received as an undoubted historical fact, to which we find many pointed allusions even in the traditions of the other Asiatic nations. Nay, the hostility between the Sethites and Cainites, and the mutual relations of these two races, form the chief clue to the history of the primitive world, and even of many particular nations of antiquity."--_Fred. Von Schlegel's "Philosophy of Hist.," Robertson's trans._, p. 152. [147] Compare these epithets, and what was said above, of resemblance "to classical Hades," with the following verses from the "Oracula Sybillina," lib. i. 80-- "Orcus eos cepit græco qui nomine dictus Est _Ades_, quod primus eo descenderit _Adam_, Expertus mortis legem," &c.