CHAPTER VI.

The Deities as Nature-Powers.

Shamash the sun-god derives his personal character from the nature-phenomenon; but the Babylonian deities develop their personality independently of their nature-origin, which is often doubtful--Importance of Sin, the moon-god--Star-worship in Babylonian cult--No clear recognition of an earth-goddess--Tammuz a vegetation-power--Western Canaanites worship nature-deities in the second millennium, probably with moral attributes--The Hittites a thunder-god and corn-god--The Phrygians a mother-goddess of the earth and lower world--On the whole, pre-Homeric Hellas worships ethical personalities rather than nature-powers--Distinguished from Mesopotamia by comparative insignificance of solar, lunar, astral cults--Also by the great prominence of the earth-goddess and the association of certain eschatological ideas with her

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