Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

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263

'Tablet sculptured with a scene representing the worship of the Sun-god in the
Temple of Sippar, and inscribed with a record of the restoration of the temple
by Nabu-pal-idinna, king of Babylonia, about B.C. 870. In the upper part of
the tablet the Sun-god is seen seated within a shrine upon a throne, the sides
of which are sculptured with figures of mythical beings in relief; in his right
hand he holds a disk and bar, which may be symbolic of the sun's orbit, or
eternity. Above his head are the three symbols of the Moon and the Sun and
the planet Venus. The roof of the shrine is supported by a column in the form
of a palm-trunk. Before the shrine upon an altar or table stands the disk of
the sun, which is held in position by means of ropes tightly drawn in the hands
of two divine beings who form part of the celestial canopy. Approaching the
disk are three human figures ; the first of these is the high priest of the Sun-god,
who is leading by the hand the king to do worship to the symbol of the solar

Fig. 190.

deity, and the last figure is either an attendant priest or a royal minister. The
shrine of the god stands upon the Celestial Ocean, and the four small disks
upon which it rests seem to indicate the four cardinal points. The text describes
the restoration of the Temple of the Sun-god by two kings called Simmash-
Shikhn (about B.C. 1050) and E-ulbar-shakin-shum (about B.C. 1020). It then
goes on to say that Nabu-pal-idinna, king of Babylonia, found and restored the
ancient image of the Sun-god and the sculptures of the temple, which had been
overthrown by the enemies of the country....He also beautified the ancient
figure of the Sun-god with gold and lapis-lazuli....This tablet was made by
Nabu-pal-idinna in the ninth century before Christ, but he probably copied the
sculptured scene at the top from a relief of a very much older period1.'

1 E. A. Wallis Budge British Museum. A Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian
Antiquities London 1900 p. 128 f. pi. 22 no. 91,000.