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For the table of Bel cf. the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Apocrypha; for the deity consuming his offerings cf. viii. 41. 2 n. and Tylor, P. C. ii. 380 seq., who quotes parallels among modern savages. For divine amours cf. Josephus, Antiq. xviii. 3. 4 (of Anubis at Rome); and Strabo 816 (at Thebes). The carvings at Luxor and Deir el Bahari support the story (cf. ii. 143. 4 n.). It is possible, however, that H. may be misled by Egyptian titles; connected with the temple of Amon were his ‘singing women’, chief among whom was ‘the wife of the god’. These are to be distinguished from the ἱερόδουλοι, and were often women of good position, e.g. Psammetichus I made his daughter ‘wife of the god’; cf. Erman, Egypt, 295-6. If these are referred to, H. is wrong is saying (182. 2) they were unmarried. Frazer (Kingship, p. 170) considers H.'s evidence very important, as bearing on the supposed ‘divine’ origin of kings; he thinks the human bride was one of the ‘brides of Marduk’ referred to in the code of Hammurabi.

Χαλδαῖοι. The original home of this people was on the Persian Gulf (the ‘Chaldeans’ of Xen. Anab. v. 5. 17 are a different tribe near Armenia, though Rawlinson, ad loc., thinks them the same); thence they pushed north, amalgamating with the earlier inhabitants. Their prince, Merodach Baladan II, ascended the throne of Babylon in 721 B.C.; the rivalry between his house and race and the priests of the older races was one of the great causes of the weakness of Babylonia (cf. 185. 1 and App. II, § 5). By a curious change of meaning, the Greeks later called the wise priestly class ‘Chaldeans’, and so a tribal name became a caste name (cf. ‘Magi’ 101 n.). For this use, which is not native, cf. Daniel (pass.), Strabo 739, &c., and for Roman times Mayor, ad Juv. x. 94.

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