Tradition : Principally with Reference to Mythology and the

188 ' ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY.
G-od in the highest sense." " He corresponds in m
pects to the classical Hades, who, like him, heads2 th
triad to which he belongs." In so far he is undist
hable from II or Ea > and rnar onl transmit th
theistic tradition through a different channel. Bnt
Ana has human epithets applied to him very suggestive
f hero-worship. " His epithets are chiefly such as
mark priority and antiquity." "He is the Old Ana,
the original chief," "the father of the gods"
lia, of Bil Nipru, i.e. Nimrod], He is also called
which imports another association of ideas-"the lord
of spirits and demons," " the king of the lower world,"3
" the lord of darkness or death," "the ruler of the far-off
Setting aside such titles as belong exclusively to th
Deity, but assuming hero-worship-supposing man dei
fied-who more appropriately placed in these primitiv
times at the head of the list, than their original p
2 "This is not a mere arbitrary supposition, for it is expressly said in
Holy Writ, that the first man, ordained to be * the father of the whole
earth* (as he is then called), became, on his reconciliation with his Maker,
the wisest of all men, and, according to tradition, the greatest of prophets,
who in his far-reaching ken, foresaw the destinies of all mankind in all successive
ages down to the end of the world. All this must be taken in a
strict historical sense, for the moral interpretation we abandon to others..
The pre-eminence of the Sethites chosen by God, and entirely devoted to
His service, must be received as an undoubted historical fact, to which we
find many pointed allusions even in the traditions of the other Asiatic
nations. Nay, the hostility between the Sethites and Cainites, and the
mutual relations of these two races, form the chief clue to the history of
the primitive world, and even of many particular nations of antiquity."
Fred. Von SchlegeVs " Philosophy of Hist." Robertson's trans., p. 152.
3 Compare these epithets, and what was said above, of resemblance "to
classical Hades/' with the following verses from the " Oracula Sybillina,"
lib. i. 80
" Orcus eos cepit grseco qui nomine dictus
Est Ades, quod primus eo descenderit Adam,
Expertus mortis legem/' &c.