It is of special interest to find that the stars were grouped by the Babylonians at the earliest period in companies of seven.  The importance of this magical number is emphasized by the group of seven demons which rose from the deep to rage over the land (p. 71).  Perhaps the sanctity of Seven was suggested by Orion, the Bears, and the Pleiad, one of which constellations may have been the “Sevenfold” deity addressed as “one”.  At any rate arbitrary groupings of other stars into companies of seven took place, for references are made to the seven Tikshi, the seven Lumashi, and the seven Mashi, which are older than the signs of the Zodiac; so far as can be ascertained these groups were selected from various constellations.  When the five planets were identified, they were associated with the sun and moon and connected with the chief gods of the Hammurabi pantheon.  A bilingual list in the British Museum arranges the sevenfold planetary group in the following order:—­

    The moon, Sin. 
    The sun, Shamash. 
    Jupiter, Merodach. 
    Venus, Ishtar. 
    Saturn, Ninip (Nirig). 
    Mercury, Nebo. 
    Mars, Nergal.

An ancient name of the moon was Aa, A, or Ai, which recalls the Egyptian Aah or Ah.  The Sumerian moon was Aku, “the measurer”, like Thoth of Egypt, who in his lunar character as a Fate measured out the lives of men, and was a god of architects, mathematicians, and scribes.  The moon was the parent of the sun or its spouse; and might be male, or female, or both as a bisexual deity.

As the “bull of light” Jupiter had solar associations; he was also the shepherd of the stars, a title shared by Tammuz as Orion; Nin-Girsu, a developed form of Tammuz, was identified with both Orion and Jupiter.

Ishtar’s identification with Venus is of special interest.  When that planet was at its brightest phase, its rays were referred to as “the beard” of the goddess; she was the “bearded Aphrodite”—­a bisexual deity evidently.  The astrologers regarded the bright Venus as lucky and the rayless Venus as unlucky.

Saturn was Nirig, who is best known as Ninip, a deity who was displaced by Enlil, the elder Bel, and afterwards regarded as his son.  His story has not been recovered, but from the references made to it there is little doubt that it was a version of the widespread myth about the elder deity who was slain by his son, as Saturn was by Jupiter and Dyaus by Indra.  It may have resembled the lost Egyptian myth which explained the existence of the two Horuses—­Horus the elder, and Horus, the posthumous son of Osiris.  At any rate, it is of interest to find in this connection that in Egypt the planet Saturn was Her-Ka, “Horus the Bull”.  Ninip was also identified with the bull.  Both deities were also connected with the spring sun, like Tammuz, and were terrible slayers of their enemies.  Ninip raged through Babylonia like a storm flood, and Horus swept down the Nile,