¹ Haller, A. and Andrae, W., Die Heiligtümer des Gottes Assur und der Sin-Šamaš-Temple in Assur (WVDOG 67; Berlin, 1955)Google Scholar.

² See fn. 7.

³ Principally, A. Haller in the original publication (see fn. 1) and later Galter, H., “Die Bautätigkeit Sanheribs am Aššurtempel”, Orientalia NS 53 (1984), pp. 433–41Google Scholar.

⁴ Galter, ibid., pp. 440–1. Arguments contra Galter and pro Andrae have recently been advanced by Pongratz-Leisten, B., Ina Šulmi Īrub (BaF 16; Mainz, 1994), pp. 60 ffGoogle Scholar.

⁵ van Driel, G., The Cult of Aššur (Assen, 1969), p. 24 Google Scholar.

⁶ The west was less auspicious because it was the direction of the netherworld. Nergal, according to a Sumerian temple hymn, was “master of the land of the setting sun”, and a text of the Ur III period refers to Ereshkigal as “mistress of the land of the setting sun”; see Lambert, W. G., “The theology of death”, in Alster, B.(ed.), Death in Mesopotam (CRRAI 26; Copenhagen, 1980), p. 62 Google Scholar. Ghost-expelling rituals also implied a westward direction for the netherworld, as figurines of ghosts ritually expelled from human habitations were buried in the late afternoon or at sundown, facing towards the west; see Scurlock, J. A., “K 164 (BA 2, p. 635): New light on the mourning rites for Dumuzi”, RA 86 (1992), p. 64 and notes 89–90Google Scholar.

⁷ Translation by George, A. R., Babylonian Topographical Texts (OLA 40; Leuven, 1992), pp. 182–3Google Scholar; the text is from GAB 191–6 (d: rev. 36–41) // BM 121206 viii 43–51. A translation of BM 121206 is also in van Driel, Cult of Aššur, p. 97; editions (without translations) of both texts are in Menzel, B., Assyrische Tempel 2 (Studia Pohl sm 10; Rome, 1981), pp. T 64, T 166 Google Scholar. The doors were also listed in KAH II 124, see Luckenbill, D., The Annals of Sennacherib (OIP 2; Chicago, 1924), pp. 144 ff.Google Scholar, and in KAV 74, edited by Schroeder, O., OLZ 23 (1920), col. 241–6Google Scholar.

⁸ For lists of the stars in each of the three “Paths”, see Hunger, H. and Pingree, D., MUL.APIN. An Astronomical Compendium in Cuneiform (AfO Beiheft 24; Horn, 1989 Google Scholar; henceforth mul-apin). Pingree has suggested that the Paths of Enlil, Anu and Ea were not bands across the sky, but were defined by arcs of the eastern horizon where the stars would be observed to rise; see Reiner, E. (in collaboration with Pingree, D.), Babylonian Planetary Omens 2. Enūma Anu Enlil Tablets 50–51 (Malibu, 1981 Google Scholar; henceforth EAE 50–1), p. 17. Lambert, W. G., in his review of the book in JAOS 107/1(1987), p. 95 Google Scholar, expressed some discomfort with this definition, and more recently Horowitz, W., Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography (Winona Lake, 1998), pp. 253–5Google Scholar has argued that it should be abandoned. It seems to me that confining the paths to the eastern horizon is a definition for astronomers rather than theologians, though the stars were important in both modes of thought and we should, perhaps, allow for more than one possible definition. Pingree himself noted (mul-apin, p. 137): “Since the Paths e of Enlil, Anu and Ea are defined by arcs on the eastern horizon over which the stars, sun, moon and planets rise, the circumpolar stars ought not to be counted among the stars of Enlil.” The mul-apin texts, however, do place all the listed stars in one or other of the three paths and include the circumpolar stars in the Path of the Enlil Stars, Theologically, that was appropriate, for Enlil's throne-dais was associated with the circumpolar constellation of the Wagon; the Plough, located in the same region, was also identified with him (see p. 119).

⁹ Livingstone, A., Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Babylonian and Assyrian Scholars (Oxford, 1986; henceforth MMEW), pp. 82–3Google Scholar; Horowitz, Cosmic Geography, Ch. 1; also translated in Lambert, W. G., “The cosmology of Sumer and Babylon”, in Blacker, C. and Loewe, M. (eds.), Ancient Cosmologies (London, 1975), p. 61 Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Two lines from KAR 307 are quoted below, on p. 122.

¹¹ For a collection of texts relating to the doors of heaven, see Heimpel, W., “The sun at night and the doors of heaven in Babylonian texts”, JCS 38/2 (1986), pp. 127–51Google Scholar.

¹² A list identifying stars and planets with their particular deities as given in the omen texts was compiled by Reiner, , EAE 50–1, pp. 10–16 Google Scholar.

¹³ Reiner, , EAE 50–1, pp. 17 and 42 Google Scholar, Text III, 24b; also Heimpel, W., “The Babylonian background of the term ‘Milky Way’”, in Behrens, H., Loding, D. and Roth, M. (eds.), DUMU-E₂-DUB-BA-A. Studies in Honor of Åke W. Sjöberg (Philadelphia, 1989), p. 250 Google Scholar. Reiner, , EAE 50–1, p. 43 Google Scholar also mentions an unpublished text, K 3254 +, that reverses the directions, placing the Path of the Stars of Enlil at the “foot” and the Path of the Stars of Ea at the “head” of the world, thus identifying the head of the world with the south. This may simply represent a copying error, for as the study progresses the reader will see that there is evidence linking “north” and “kingship”, thus implying that north was the “head” of the world in mainstream tradition.

¹⁴ Horowitz, W., “The Babylonian map of the world”, Iraq 50 (1988), pp. 147–65 and Pl. XCrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Cosmic Geography, pp. 32 f.; see also Lambert, in Blacker, and Loewe, , Ancient Cosmologies, p. 57, Pl. 15Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Horowitz, , Cosmic Geography, p. 302 Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Oppenheim, A. L., “Babylonian and Assyrian historical texts”, in Pritchard, J. B. (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (3rd edn, Princeton, 1969 Google Scholar; henceforth ANET), p. 267.

¹⁷ Below, pp. 118–19.

¹⁸ A translation of the Tetrabiblos by F. E. Robbins with parallel texts in Greek and English is found in the Loeb edition.

¹⁹ Rochberg-Halton, F., “Elements of the Babylonian contribution to Hellenistic astrology”, JAOS 108/1 (1988), pp. 53–7Google Scholar.

²⁰ Pingree (mul-apin, p. 146) noted that the mul-apin texts (II, i 64) identify Saturn with the constellation Libra: “Saturn, also called the Scales (or) Star of the Sun, becomes visible in the east.” He suggested that this may have been because Libra was Saturn's Secret Place, remarking that if so, this would be the earliest mention of them yet noticed. One also notes that in the same texts Jupiter, the only planet whose Secret Place lies in the Path of the Stars of Enlil, was listed separately from the other planets and appears as the last entry in the Path of the Enlil Stars, perhaps because his Secret Place was in that region.

²¹ Firmicus Maternus, Mathes. II, iii, 4–5; see Bram, Jean Rhys, Ancient Astrology, Theory and Practice. English Translation of Matheseos, Libri VIII, by Firmicus Maternus (New Jersey, 1975)Google Scholar.

²² To my knowledge there are no extant descriptions of the Exaltations in Graeco-Roman astrological treatises older than Ptolemy's. The long astrological poem by Manilius, dating to the reign of Tiberius (AD 14–37), does not mention them.

²³ Reiner, , EAE 50–1, p. 10 Google Scholar. Enlil, acknowledged as supreme during the Sumerian period, seems never to have been associated with a planet, and Jupiter at that time was identified with the god Shulpae; see Dalley, S., “Near Eastern deities of mining and smelting in the late Bronze and early Iron Ages”, Report of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus (1987), p. 62 Google Scholar.

²⁴ Reiner, E., “Inscription from a royal Elamite tomb”, AfO 24 (1973), pp. 97 ffGoogle Scholar.

²⁵ Mul-apin I, i 7; Astrolabe B, Bii 24–7; Reiner, EAE 50–1, Text III, 33a.

²⁶ See the opening passage of Atrahasis.

²⁷ The rate of movement is 0.014 degrees per year.

²⁸ Below, pp. 118–19.

²⁹ See George, A. R., BSOAS 52 (1989), pp. 19–20 Google Scholar.

³⁰ Babylon itself had an “Entrance of Kingship”, a title applied as an additional epithet to the Ishtar Gate, which penetrated the city's northern wall; see George, A. R., “Studies in cultic topography and ideology”, Bibliotheca Orientalis 53 (1996), col. 365Google Scholar. During the New Year festival the king (and the statue of Marduk) left and re-entered the city through this gate during the visit to the Akitu house, also placed to the north of the city. It was not by chance, I suggest, that the king's palace was likewise situated at the northern end of Babylon.

³¹ Enūma Eliš V 4 notes that Marduk set up three stars for each of the twelve months at the time of creation. Examples of stars or constellations associated with particular months are plentiful in mul-apin and EAE 50–1. See also Oppenheim, A. L., “A Babylonian diviner's manual”, JNES 33 (1974), pp. 197–220 Google Scholar.

³² The New Year ceremonies at the spring equinox are well known and corresponding rites occurred at the autumn equinox. The solstices were observed in Babylon by a procession of goddesses from Esagil to Ezida (midsummer) and from Ezida to Esagil (midwinter); see Cohen, M. E., The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East (Bethesda, Md, 1993) pp. 6 f.Google Scholar, 307, 319, 328–9. One also notes that many of the extant cuneiform horoscopes record the date of the solstice or equinox closest to the birth date of the child, though what use was made of this information is unknown; see Rochberg, F., Babylonian Horoscopes (TAPS 88/1; Philadelphia, 1998), p. 43 Google Scholar.

³³ A visual symbol that represented the summer solstice but also symbolized “kingship” is discussed on p. 126.

³⁴ Mul-apin I, iii 23 notes that as the constellation of the Scales rises, the Hired Man sets.

³⁵ The Chapel of the Divine Judges was built by Shalmaneser I; Grayson, A. K., Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (RIMA 1; Toronto, 1987), pp. 193–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁶ See fn. 6.

³⁷ For examples of lists that identify specific deities with their constellations, see mul-apin I; see also the catalogue of stars and their deities compiled by Reiner in EAE 50–1, pp. 10–16.

³⁸ Kramer, S. N., “The duties and powers of the gods: inscription on the statue of King Kurigalzu”, ANET, p. 59 Google Scholar. On the Igigi and Anunnaki see Kienast, B., “Igigū und Anunnakkū nach den akkadischen Quellen” in Güterbock, H. and Jacobsen, T. (eds.), Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger on his Seventy-Fifth Birthday, April 21, 1965 (AS 16; Chicago, 1965), pp. 141–55Google Scholar; also RLA V, pp. 40 ff.

³⁹ Foster, B., Before the Muses II (2nd edn, Bethesda, Md, 1996), p. 569 Google Scholar.

⁴⁰ Neugebauer, O., “The rising times in Babylonian astronomy”, JCS 7 (1953), pp. 100–2Google Scholar. The author notes two late texts that provide a formula for calculating the rising times and mentions that in Greek astronomy the rising times were used for determining the seasonal hours. Earlier Babylonian astronomy noted seasonal variations by giving the ratio of daylight to darkness and it was thought that seasonal hours were not used; then two Babylonian works dealing with seasonal hours were recognized, and a tentative date of 649 BC was suggested for one of them; see Pingree, D. and Reiner, E., “A Neo-Babylonian report on seasonal hours”, AfO 25 (1974–1977), pp. 50–5Google Scholar. Since then Rochberg has noticed that seasonal hours were used for casting horoscopes; see her discussions in Babylonian Horoscopes, pp. 6–7, 37–8; and in Centaurus 32 (1989), pp. 146–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴¹ Translation by G. P. Goold, Loeb edition.

⁴² Reiner, , EAE 50–1, p. 10 Google Scholar.

⁴³ Mul-apin I, ii 10.

⁴⁴ Sachs, A., “A late Babylonian star catalog”, JCS 6 (1952), pp. 146–50Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Chicago Assyrian Dictionary M/1, p. 283.

⁴⁶ For a more detailed discussion of the cosmic bonds see George, , Topographical Texts, pp. 244, 261 f.Google Scholar, 266–7.

⁴⁷ Ibid., p. 244 where Eridu, city of Enki, Lagash, city of Ningirsu, and Shuruppak, city of Sud (identified with Ninlil), were mentioned.

⁴⁸ Ibid., p. 261, where the author notes that Dur-anki is first attested as a title for Enlil's temple in Early Dynastic times.

⁴⁹ The turning motion of the Wagon Star was noted in a prayer to it, which states that it “turns from Babylon to Assur”; see Reiner, E., JAOS 105/4 (1985), p. 594 Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ An omen text from the EAE series notes that the Wagon Star remains in the night sky all year; Reiner, EAE 50–1, Text III, 28c.

⁵¹ In ANET, p. 574.

⁵² Jacobsen, T., The Treasures of Darkness (New Have and London, 1979), p. 100 Google Scholar.

⁵³ Kramer, S. N., “Cuneiform studies and the history of literature: the Sumerian sacred marriage texts”, PAPS 107 (1963), p. 496 Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Reiner, E., “Fortune telling in Mesopotamia”, JNES 19(1960), p. 27 Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ George, , Topographical Texts, pp. 286–91Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Idem, BSOAS 52 (1989), p. 119.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Translation by A. R. George, personal communication.

⁵⁹ For example, in the prophylactic texts; see Wiggermann, F. A. M., Mesopotamian Protective Spirits. The Ritual Texts (Groningen, 1992), passim Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ Concerning the winged disk as a symbol of Shamash, see Dalley, S., “The god Ṣalmu and the winged disk”, Iraq 48 (1986), p. 88 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Dalley notes that the winged disk was known as Ṣalmu, and according to the god-list AN = Anum this was a name for Shamash.

⁶¹ On Bison-Men see Ellis, M. de Jong, “An Old Babylonian kusarikku ”, Studies Sjöberg, pp. 121–35Google Scholar; Porada, E., “Standards and stools on sealings on Nuzi and other examples of Mitannian glyptic art”, CRRAI 20 (Leiden, 1972), pp. 164–72Google Scholar.

⁶² Matthews, D., Principles of Composition in Near Eastern Glyptic of the Late Second Millennium BC (Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, Series Archaeologica 8; Freiburg and Göttingen, 1990; henceforth PCNEG), No. 472Google Scholar.

⁶³ Jacobsen, T., The Harps that Once (London and New Haven, 1987), p. 421 Google Scholar; see also Cooper, J. S., The Return of Ninurta to Nippur, An-gim dim-ma (AnOr 52; Rome, 1978), pp. 144–5Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ From the gate of the Scorpion-Men at Tell Halaf the road passed through a gate building then ran northwards to a courtyard at the front of the Temple Palace, where the statues of the gods were placed. The analogy with the situation of the Scorpion-Men in the Gilgamesh epic is clear, as they, too, guarded an entrance to a road running northwards through a barrier, then to the region of the gods.

⁶⁵ As well as the example in Fig. 9, see Collon, D., First Impressions. Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East (London, 1987), p. 199 Google Scholar, Fig. 228. Pairs of Scorpion-Men of the type shown in Fig. 8, whose form did not include arms, were also portrayed with the sun disk, the figures grouped to face one another close under the wings. See Fig. 10, where although the figures, like the Scorpion-Man in Fig. 8, lack the arms to reach up and touch the emblem above, the close arrangement of the three pictorial elements indicates that together they form a single iconographic unit; and also Buchanan, Briggs, Catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1966)Google Scholar, Pl. 43, No. 668.

⁶⁶ Matthews, PCNEG, No. 468. A very early portrayal of a Scorpion-Man is on the sound box of a harp found in one of the royal tombs at Ur, but the image provides no clear evidence of whether the figure was then linked with the sun god; see the illustration in Frankfort, H., The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient (Harmondsworth, 1954), p. 75, Fig. 78Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ On the Scorpion-Man, see Green, A., “A note on the ‘Scorpion-Man’ and ‘Pazuzu’”, Iraq 47 (1985), pp. 75–82 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁶⁸ There is, however, one monument on which two kinds of Scorpion-Men were portrayed; see Fig. 13 and fn. 82.

⁶⁹ On the Fish-Man see Madhloom, T. A., The Chronology of Neo-Assyrian Art (London, 1970), pp. 99 f.Google Scholar; Green, A., “A note on the Assyrian ‘Goat-Fish’, ‘Fish-Man’ and ‘Fish-Woman’”, Iraq 48 (1986), pp. 75–82 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. CAD K, p. 527, mentions a text that describes the Push-Man: “from his head to his belt he is a human being, from the belt on he is a purādu-fish … he belongs to Ea.”

⁷⁰ Matthews, PCNEG, No. 452.

⁷¹ KAR 307, see fn. 9.

⁷² EAE 22, source E, 14′–20′: “When Anu, Enlil and Ea, the great gods, created heaven and earth and made manifest the celestial signs, they fixed the stations and established the positions of the gods of the night … they divided the courses of the stars and drew the constellations as their likenesses;” see Rochberg-Halton, F., Aspects of Babylonian Celestial Divination: The Lunar Eclipse Tablets of Enūma Anu Enlil (AfO Beiheft 22; Horn, 1988), pp. 270–1Google Scholar.

⁷³ Weidner, E., “Eine Beschriebung des Sternenhimmels aus Aššur”, AfO 4 (1927), pp. 73–85 Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Horowitz, , Cosmic Geography, p. 174 Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ Dalley, S., Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford, 1989), p. 96 Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Heimpel, , JCS 38/2 (1986), p. 131 Google Scholar; see also a hymn to Shamash, Foster, , Before the Muses II, p. 675 Google Scholar.

⁷⁷ The rising and setting of stars was noted in astronomical texts such as mul-apin and others.

⁷⁸ On the shape and motion of the sky, see Huxley, M., “The shape of the cosmos according to cuneiform sources”, JRAS Series 3, 7/2 (1997), pp. 189–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar. More recently (1998), Horowitz, , Cosmic Geography, p. 15 Google Scholar, has also expressed a view that “a tradition that the fixed stars were inscribed onto the surface of the heavens implies that this surface rotated every 24 hours, since inscribed stars cannot move independently.”

⁷⁹ Horowitz, , Cosmic Geography, p. 118 Google Scholar, referring to the “Bilingual Creation of the World by Marduk” (CT 13 36: 17–18)Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ This is evident from some of the exercises in the mathematical practice texts, where calculations of distances to or between stars were sometimes used as examples. See Rochberg-Halton, F., “Stellar distances in early Babylonian astronomy: A new perspective on the Hilprecht text (HS 229)”, JNES 42/3 (1983), pp. 209–17Google Scholar.

⁸¹ Parpola, S., “The murderer of Sennacherib"” in Alster, , Death in Mesopotamia, p. 177 and note 21cGoogle Scholar.

⁸² This monument is the only one known to portray different types of Scorpion-Men together. They are arranged in two registers, one above the other under the throne of Ninlil. Those with a man-like form occupy the upper register. The Scorpion-Man in the lower register has an aggressively lifted tail, indicating his function as a guardian, but lacks arms and is similar to the type of Scorpion-Men shown in Figs. 8 and 10. Because both types occur as entrance guardians, and both were shown with the winged disk, I suggest that the two types were simply variant iconographic traditions of the guardians of the Gate of Kingship.

⁸³ Capricorn, the Goat-Horned, was the name given to the constellation in the Graeco-Roman world.

⁸⁴ Wiggermann, , Mesopotamian Protective Spirits, p. 52 Google Scholar.

⁸⁵ George, A. R., “Sennacherib and the Tablet of Destinies”, Iraq 48 (1986), pp. 134, 136 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁶ George, A. R., “Babylonian texts from the folios of Sydney Smith. Part One”, RA 82 (1988), p. 151 Google Scholar. Enūma Eliš II 29 lists the Bison-Men among Tiamat's army, so perhaps they were thought to have been adopted sons of the sun god.

⁸⁷ Quoting from Cooper's translation, Return of Ninurta, p. 145.

⁸⁸ George, , Bibliotheca Orientalis 53 (1996), col. 374Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ Dalley, , Iraq 58 (1986), p. 101 Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ Heimpel, , JCS 38/2 (1986), p. 139 Google Scholar.

⁹¹ See fn. 7.

⁹² The additional figures were noted by George, , RA 82 (1988), p. 150 Google Scholar, notes to lines 38–42; see also fn. 7, above.

⁹³ Green, A., “The Lion Demon in the art of Mesopotamia and neighbouring regions”, Bagh. Mitt. 17 (1986), pp. 141–254 Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ Ibid. p. 150.

⁹⁵ Ibid., Pl. 2, Figs. 5–6.

⁹⁶ Ibid., p. 155.

⁹⁷ Ibid., p. 161.

⁹⁸ George, , Topographical Texts, p. 293 Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ The name was formerly read as “Nedu”; see Deller, K., NABU 1991/18Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁰ Livingstone, A., Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea (SAA III; Helsinki, 1989), p. 72 Google Scholar.

¹⁰¹ This bird is also referred as the Cinereous Vulture to distinguish it from the very different Black Vulture of the New World.

¹⁰² Wiggermann, F. A. M., “Mischwesen A”, RLA 8 (1993–1997), p. 225 Google Scholar.

¹⁰³ It is perhaps also worth noting that the vulture is a clean bird and likes to bathe frequently.

¹⁰⁴ Page 113, above.

¹⁰⁵ See fn. 6.

¹⁰⁶ Only the soul descended to the netherworld. The physical body was said “to turn (or return) to clay”; see Gilgamesh X, ii 13; XI, iii 26.

¹⁰⁷ Texts often refer to the Netherworld as the “Pure Place”.

¹⁰⁸ Modern discussions often refer to them as “demon” because of their composite bodies, but “beings” or “guardians” would perhaps be preferable.

¹⁰⁹ This name was formerly read as “Neti”; cf. fn. 99.

¹¹⁰ The prayer to the Wagon Star quoted above (p. 119) mentions the connection with death, and personal names stating that a god (usually Enlil, Marduk or Assur) had given a son, heir or brother indicate that the decrees of the gods were also concerned with birth.

¹¹¹ The palace was situated near the Ishtar Gate.

¹¹² Frankfort, , Art and Architecture, p. 144 Google Scholar.

¹¹³ Von Oppenheim, , Tell Halaf, pp. 78–9Google Scholar.

¹¹⁴ Gudea, Cylinder B, xvi 7–10.

¹¹⁵ Philostratus, , Life of Apollonius of Tyana, I, 25 Google Scholar.

¹¹⁶ Dalley, , Iraq 48, pp. 92–3Google Scholar.