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MYTHOLOGY 117 bird are connected the well known legends of the phoenix. Herodotus says the Egyptians were the first who believed in the immortality of the soul. For the general character of their ritual, the "Book of the Dead," see EGYPT, LANGUAGE AND LITEHATUEE OF. The Acca- dians, who inhabited the lower regions of the Tigris and Euphrates before the time of Baby- lonia and Assyria, divided the universe into heaven, the earth and atmosphere, and the lower regions, ruled respectively by Anu, Ea, and Mulghe, probably corresponding to the sub- sequent first Chaldean triad of Anu, Nua, and Bel. Ea had a consort in Daokina. Mnghe and Ninghel seem to have been chthonian goddesses. The Accadian hell seems to have borne some resemblance to the Chaldean hell. As both demons and good spirits were to be found there, it is to be supposed that it was conceived of as a general tarrying place until the coming of the day when, as they believed, all the dead would assemble and live again. In regard to the subsequent Babylonian mythol- ogy, Diodorus says there were 12 gods of the heavens, each personified by one of the signs of the zodiac and worshipped in a certain month of the year. El or II was the highest of these gods, and Babel, meaning the gate of El, was named after him. It seems that all the gods were local, or that each city and its neighborhood was supposed to be under the special protection of a particular deity. The importance of the various gods hence depended on the political rank of their districts. The gods of the Babylonian pantheon were asso- ciated also with appropriate goddesses. It is difficult to distinguish the attributes of El from those of Bel, whose name, meaning lord, is equally applicable to all the gods. That Bel and El were distinct gods appears from in- scriptions which speak of them as being both lords of Sumir and Accad. Bel was the presi- ding god of Nipur, and retained his position . as the national god of the Chaldeans until the rise of Babylon. Anu, Bel, Hea, Sin, Shamas, Bin, and the planetary divinities Adar, Me- rodach, Nergal, Ishtar, and Nebo (the divinities of the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Mercury), were the principal of the nu- merous gods mentioned in the inscriptions. Anu, who often has the epithet of malik or king, appears to have been the Anu-malik or Anamelech of the Scriptures. Hea appears as the lord of the earth and king of the rivers; and Anu and Bel formed with him at an early period a sort of triad, presiding over the other gods. The mythological ideas attached to Sin, Shamas, and Bin are clearer. Sin, the moon god, came into importance when the seat of government was removed to Ur, his special seat. He had the symbol of the new moon, and was called the eldest son of Bel. Shamas, whose sign was the circle, came into prominence with the city of Lar- . sa. He was god of the sun and ruler of the day. Bin is spoken of as the god who thun- ders in the midst of the heavens, in whose hand there is a flaming sword, and who is the giver of abundance and wealth. The Himyarites of southern Arabia are said to have worshipped the sun, the moon, and minor demons. There are many indications that the Sabseans gave to the sun a prominent place in their worship. Himyaritic inscriptions mention the name of Almakah, a moon goddess, and of Athtar, the Babylonian Ishtar. The Nabatheans are said to have worshipped the sun, and also Dusares, a god of war. The Arab tribes commonly sym- bolized their deities by white and black stones. The highest god of the Midianites and Amalek- ites, who occupied the Sinaitic peninsula and the neighboring districts, was Baal, whom also the Moabites adored. Thus the religious con- ceptions of the Arabs did not vary greatly from those of Babylon and Nineveh. Still more marked are the similarities between the worship of the Phoenicians (and the Canaan- ites in general) and that of the Chaldeans and Assyrians. But the former is more lasciv- ious and cruel, and does not put the same emphasis on the worship of the stars. The Phoenicians ascribed the authorship of their sacred books, which were said to be of high antiquity, to Esmun, one of their gods, and a series of hierophants, including Thabion, Isiris, Sanchuniathon, and Mochus. Philo of Byblos is considered to have given a Greek translation of the books ascribed to Sanchuniathon in his history of the Phoenicians, and the extant frag- ments indicate that he looked upon many of the gods as deified rulers and heroes. Ampli- fying and correcting his account from other sources. Max Duncker concludes that El was the principal god of the Canaanites also, and that Saturn was his planet. Above him, how- ever, was Baal-Samin, the lord of the heavens, representing probably the beneficent effects of the sun. Springs and rivers also entered into the worship of the Phoenicians, and specially sacred was the Nahr Damur, north of Sidon, the Tamyras of the Greeks. The goddess Baaltis, mentioned by Greek authors as the Derceto of Ascalon and the Atargatis of Hierapolis, and compared by them to Aphrodite Urania, re- sembled the Bilit or Mylitta of the Babylonians, and the Ashera of the Hebrews. She was the goddess of birth and fertility, and symbolized the beneficent effects of moisture and water. Her worship was often held at the seashore and on the banks of rivers, and her images sometimes represent her with a body merging at the waist in that of a fish. Many Phoeni- cian colonies adored a Venus of the sea, and the goddess of Berytus was said to have come out of the sea. Dagon, the fish god of the Babylo- nians, was also regarded by the Phoenicians as a god of fertility, and connected with the water, though his province seems to have been the land ; he was the inventor of the plough and the giver of crops. Moloch symbolized the parching heat of the sun. He was the god of fire, purifying as well as devouring. He was