ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA

extraordinary events, as births of monsters or abnormal beings, were regarded as ominous, and an attempt was made to connect them with events in national or private history. These 'omen tablets' also deal with morals, attaching to human acts consequences evincing royal or Divine displeasure. Evil conduct was thus placed under a ban, and the punishment of it was assigned to the 'hand of God or the king.' It was a very high morality that was so inculcated: to say yea with the lips and nay in the heart, to use false weights, to betray a friend, to estrange relations, to slander or backbite, are all forbidden. The conduct of a good king, of a good man, of a faithful son of his god, are set out with great care, and culminate in the precept, ' To him that does thee wrong return a gracious courtesy.' Medicine was extensively written upon, and the number of cases prescribed for is very great. We are not able, as a rule, to recognize either the ailment or the prescription; but it seems that magical spells were often used to drive out the demon supposed to be the cause of the disease.

The Babylonians had some acquaintance with mathe-matics, so far as necessary for the calculation of areas, and they early drew up tables of squares and cubes, as well as of their measures of surface and capacity. To them we owe the division of time into hours, minutes, and seconds. Their measures still lack the funda-mental explanation which can be afforded only by finding some measured object with its Babylonian measure inscribed uponit, in a state allowing of accurate modern measures. See Weights and Measures.

3. Religion. — The religion of Babylonia was a syn-cretic result of the union of a number of city and local cults. Consequently Shamash the sun-god; Sin the moon-god; Ishtar, Venus; Marduk the god of Babylon, Nabfl of Borsippa, Bel of Nippur, Nergal the god of pestilence, Nusku the new-moon crescent, and a host of others, were worshipped with equal reverence by both kings and people. Most men, however, were specially devoted to one god, determined for them by hereditary cult, or possibly personal choice: a man was 'son of his god ' and the god was his ' father.' In the course of time almost every god absorbed much of the attributes of every other god, so that, with the exception of such epithets as were peculiarly appropriate to him, Shamash could be addressed or hymned in much the same words as Marduk or Sin. By some teachers all the gods were said to be Marduk in one or other manifestation of his Divine activity. The whole pantheon became organized and simplified by the identification of deities originally distinct, as a result of political unification or theological system. The ideal of Divinity was high and pure, often very poetic and beautiful, but the Babylonian was tolerant of other gods, and indisposed to deny the right of others to call a god by another name than that which best summed up for him his own conception.

Magic entered largely into the beliefs and practices of life, invading religion in spite of spiritual authority. The universe was peopled with spirits, good and bad, who had to be appeased or propitiated. Conjurations, magic spells, forecasts, omens were resorted to in order to bind or check the malign influences of demons. The augurs, con-jurers, magicians, soothsayers were a numerous class, and, though frowned upon by the priests and physicians, were usually called in whenever disease or fear suggested occult influence. The priest was devoted to the service of his god, and originally every head of a family was priest of the local god, the right to minister in the temple descend-ing in certain families to the latest times. The office was later much subdivided, and as the temple became an overwhelming factor in the city life, its officials and employees formed a large part of the population. A temple corresponded to a monastery in the Middle Ages, having lands, houses, tenants, and a host of dependants, as well as enormous wealth, which it employed on the whole in good deeds, and certainly threw its influence

ATAROTH

on the side of peace and security. Although distinct classes, the judges, scribes, physicians, and even skilled manufacturers were usually attached to the temple, and priests often exercised these functions. Originally the god, and soon his temple, were the visible embodiment of the city life. The king grew out of the high priest. He was the vicegerent of the god on earth, and retained his priestly power to the last, but he especially repre-sented its external aspect. He was ruler, leader of the army, chief judge, supreme builder of palaces and temples, guardian of right, defender of the weak and oppressed, accessible to the meanest subject. The expansion of city territory by force of arms, the growth of kingdoms and rise of empires, led to a military caste, rapacious lor foreign spoils, and domestic politics became a struggle for power between the war party of expansion and conquest and the party of peace and consolidation.

The Babylonian Literature was extensive, and much of it has striking similarities to portions of the Bible (see Creation, Deluqe, etc.). It also seems to have had in-fluence upon classical mythology.

N.B. — See Appendix note at end of volume.

C. H. W. Johns.

ASTAD, ASTATH.— 1322 or 3622 of Astad's descend-ants are mentioned as returning with Zerubbabel (1 Es 5'^). He is called Azgad in the can. books; and 1222 descendants are mentioned in the parallel list in Ezr 2", 2322 in Neh 7". He appears as Astath, 1 Es 8'8, when a second detachment of 111 return under Ezra ( = Ezr 8'^). Azgad appears among the leaders who sealed the covenant with Nehemiah (Neh 10").

ASTROLOGY, ASTRONOMY.— See Magic, etc.

ASTYAGES (Bel >) was the last king of Media. He was defeated and dethroned by Cyrus the Great in B.C. 550. J. F. MCCURDY.

ASUPPDH.— 1 Ch 26i«- " AV; RV correctly ' store-house.'

ASUR (AV Assur). 1 Es 5^'.— His sons returned among the Temple servants under Zerubbabel; called Haihur, Ezr 2SI, Neh 7".

ASYLUM. — See Altar, Kin [Next of]. Refuge [Cities of].

ASYNCRITUS (Ro 16").— A Christian greeted by St. Paul with four others 'and the brethren that are with them,' perhaps members of the same small com-munity. The name occurs in Rom. Ins. CIL vi. 12,565, of a freedman of Augustus.

ATAD (Gn 50>»-").— A threshing-floor on the road to Hebron. The site is unknown.

ATAR (AV Jatal). 1 Es 52s.— His sons were among the porters or door-keepers who returned with Zerub-babel; called Ater, Ezr 212, Neh 7«.

ATARAH. — Wife of Jerahmeel and mother of Onam (1 Ch 22«).

ATARGATIS (RV less correctly Atergatis).— In addi-tion to the sanctuary of this goddess ( = Gr. Derceto) at Camion (2 Mac 12"), other shrines were situated at Hierapolis and Ashkelon. Here sacred fish were kept, and at the latter place the goddess was represented as a mermaid, resembUng the supposed form of the Philistine Dagon (wh. see). Some expositors, because of the ancient name of Carnion, i.e. Ashteroth-karnaim, have identified the goddess with Astarte. The name, how-ever, a compound of 'Athar ( = PhcBn. 'Astart, Heb. 'Ashtoreth [wh. see]) and of 'Atti or 'Allah, which latter term appears as a god's name upon inscriptions, shows her to be Astarte who has assimilated the functions of ' Atti. This etymology, together with her mermaid- form and the fact that flsh were sacred to her, apparently makes her a personification of the fertilizing powers of water. N. Koenig.

ATAROTH.— 1. A town not far from Uibon (Nu 323. 88)_ probably the modern Khirbet 'AimrUs, to the

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