Religion.—The religion of the Assyrians, like that of most of the nations of antiquity, was a polytheism of considerable variety and extent. The Pantheon consisted of thirteen gods, of whom the chief divinity was the glorified father of the nation—Asshur. Some have supposed this deity to be identical with the Nisroch of Scripture, but this hypothesis is destroyed by the fact that Asshur had no temple at Nineveh in which Sennacherib could have been worshipping when he was slain by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer. The only temple raised to the honour of Asshur was that in the city to which he gave his name, and which is now called Kalah Sherghat. The symbol of this divinity may perhaps be recognized in the winged globe winch is seen in the sculptures hovering over the head of the Assyrian monarch, from which a figure with a horned helmet, the emblem of divinity, is represented as discharging his arrows at the foe. This symbol is called the Ferouher.
Next to Asshur is the triad answering to the classical Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, with whom is often associated a supreme female deity. The remaining individuals of the Pantheon were the sky, sun, moon, and planetary bodies.
Illustrations of Scripture. — Scattered up and down in Mr. Layard's two works are various illus trations of Scripture language and customs, of which these are some of the most striking :—In certain sculptures the king is represented as tread ing on his captives. Cf. Josh. x. 24; Ps. lx. 12, etc. etc.
In a bas-relief from Khorsabad, captives are led before the king by a rope fastened to rings passed through the lip and nose. This sculpture illus trates 2 Kings xix. 28, and Isa. xxxvit 29.
The wheel within a wheel, mentioned in connec tion with the emblematical figures in Ezek. i., may refer to the winged circle or wheel, representing, at Nimrdd, the supreme deity.
The woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope,' also, of Isa. v. 18, is supposed to refer to the idol worship of those who are represented on sculptures as thus moving their colossal images from the quarry to the temple or palace. The article in at this place, appears to give the noun this concrete sense : the iniquity,' i.e., the idol.
On sculptures at Koyunjik, there are supposed to be interesting allusions to the sufferings under gone by the Jewish exiles, to Halah, Habor, etc., v. Nineveh a-nd Babylon, p. 44o.
The ancient mode of keeping records in Assyria and Babylonia was on prepared bricks, tiles, or cylinders of clay, baked after the inscription was impressed. The characters appear to have been formed by an instrument, or may sometimes have been stamped. The Chaldman priests informed Callisthenes that they kept their astronomical ob servations on bricks baked in the furnace ; and we have the testimony of Epigenes to the same effect. Ezekiel, who prophesied near the river Chebar, in Assyria, was commanded to take a tile and por tray upon it the city of Jerusalem, iv. x.—Layard Ss.
The writer in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society above quoted, observes, that the words of Nahum ii. 8 : But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water,' in reality would seem to convey the primitive aspect of the site at a certain season of the year. As the broad and rapid currents of the Tigris and Zab flowed past it on the west, south, and south-east, and the Khosr rivulet on the north and north-west, these, at periods of inundation, would be sufficient to submerge the whole. [NINE vEH.] The accompanying table gives, at one view, the succession of Assyrian kings :— The writer is under very great obligations to the Paper On the Chronology and History of the great Assyrian Empire,' in Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. i. Cf. also Mr. Layard's Nineveh and its Re mains, Nineveh and Babylon; Sir H. Rawlinson's Papers in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Athemeum, and the Literary Gazette ; Dr. Hincks' Papers in Dublin University Magazine, and in Transactions of Royal Irish Academy ; Oppert's Rapport.; Vance Smith on Prophecies relating to Assyria; B. G. Niebuhr, Ueber alter Geschichte; and M. Niebuhr's Geschichte Assurs and Rebels. See also Sir IL Rawlinson on the religion of Baby lonians and Assyrians in vol. i. of Herodotus; Rich's Kura'istan; Colonel Chesney's Euphrates Expaition.—S. L.