Beltis, the “Great Mother,” the feminine counterpart of Bel, ranked in Assyria next to the Triad consisting of Anu, Bel, and Hoa.  She is generally mentioned in close connection with Bel, her husband, in the Assyrian records.  She appears to have been regarded in Assyria as especially “the queen of fertility,” or “fecundity,” and so as “the queen of the lands,” thus resembling the Greek Demeter, who, like Beltis, was known as:  “the Great Mother.”  Sargon placed one of his gates under the protection of Beltis in conjunction with her husband, Bel:  and Asshur-bani-pal, his great-grandson, repaired and rededicated to her a temple at Nineveh, which stood on the great mound of Koyunjik.  She had another temple at Asshur, and probably a third at Calah.  She seems to have been really known as Beltis in Assyria, and as Mylitta (Mulita) in Babylonia, though we should naturally have gathered the reverse from the extant classical notices.

SIN, or THE MOON.

Sin, the Moon-god, ranked next to Beltis in Assyrian mythology, and his place is thus either fifth or sixth in the full lists, according as Beltis is, or is not, inserted.  His worship in the time of the early empire appears from the invocation of Tiglath-Pileser I., where he occurs in the third place, between Bel and Shamas. [PLATE CXLII., Fig. 2.] His emblem, the crescent, was worn by Asshur-izir-pal, and is found wherever divine symbols are inscribed over their effigies by the Assyrian kings.  There is no sign which is more frequent on the cylinder-seals, whether Babylonian or Assyrian, and it would thus seem that Sin was among the most popular of Assyria’s deities.  His name occurs sometimes, though not so frequently as some others, in the appellations of important personages, as e, g. in that of Sennacherib, which is explained to mean “Sin multiplies brethren.”  Sargon, who thus named one of his sons, appears to have been specially attached to the worship of Sin, to whom, in conjunction with Shamas, he built a temple at Khorsabad, and to whom he assigned the second place among the tutelary deities of his city.

The Assyrian monarchs appear to have had a curious belief in the special antiquity of the Moon-god.  When they wished to mark a very remote period, they used the expression “from the origin of the god Sin.”  This is perhaps a trace of the ancient connection of Assyria with Babylonia, where the earliest capital, Ur, was under the Moon-god’s protection, and the most primeval temple was dedicated to his honor.

Only two temples are known to have been erected to Sin in Assyria.  One is that already mentioned as dedicated by Sargon at Bit-Sargina (Khorsabad) to the Sun and Moon in conjunction.  The other was at Calah, and in that Sin had no associate.

SHAMAS.