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given "; CIS, iv. 140 gives an inscription of c. 24 B. c. which knows a deity Rmn who is "Lord of Alman"; CIS, ii. 73 gives a reading zdkrmn, "Ramman is just" or "Ramman justifies," cf. the Hebrew names Zedekiah and Jehozadak). Attempts to find this deity in the Avesta are as yet doubtful in their results. The Rama of Vendidad i. 1; Sirozah i. 7, 16, ii. 7, etc., can be better accounted for on Indo-Aryan grounds; moreover the extent of the indebtedness of Zoroastrianism to Babylonian religion has not been made out. Hence it can not be asserted categorically that this Rams is equivalent to the Ramman of Syria, Assyria, and Babylonia.

In Babylonia about Hammurabi's time Ramman was associated, in a hymn which may be earlier than Hammurabi, with Bel (not Marduk), Sin, Ninib,

Ishtar, and Shamash. In Babylonia.the 2. Ramman ideograph already referred to is gener-

in Baby- ally used; possibly the deity was lonia. known also as Immeru (cf. the name

Mer); but Ramman is well authenticated for Babylonia, especially in the region of Shirpurla (Telloh). Ramman seems to have come into prominence in the south in the time of the king named, and after that period increased in popularity (with some vicissitudes), especially under the Kasshites and later under Nebuchadrezzar I. An inscription from the Kasshite period calls him "lord of justice," and in this function he was associated with Shamash, with whom he was also consulted as an oracle god. He was a storm-deity, a syllabary designates him the god of thunder, and he carries the thunderbolt and ax (cf. with this the expression in no. 149 of the Amama Tablets, Winckler's numbering: "he who thunders in the heavens like Addu, so that the whole land trembles at his voice"); in the omen tablets he is called the withholder and the sender of rain. His connection with the rain is distinct from that with justice; he has a twofold aspect, he sends rain to fertilize the fields and produce crops in order to reward virtue, also to destroy crops and thus to punish the sin of the impious. In this latter relation he is brought into causative connection with the deluge, this being due to his anger. He is also described as making weeds to grow and so punishing the wicked. In the pictorial representations Ramman-Hadad is often accompanied by a bull, and he at times wears the horns of that animal. The eleventh month (January-February) was sacred to him. His consort was Shala ("woman," "wife"), whose part, however, is insignificant, like that of goddesses generally in the Semitic world.

That in Assyria this deity was early of importance is shown by the name of the king of c. 1825 B.c. which may be read either Shamshi-Ramman or Shamahi-Hadad (see AssymA, VI., 3, §1). For it is now known that in at least some cases the element

in Assyrian royal names which has 3. In Assyria been transcribed Ramman must be

richte of the Berlin Academy, 1899, p. 118). It is demonstrable that in Assyria Hadad and Ramman were current as names for this deity along with other designations as in Babylonia. He appears to have been more popular in Assyria than in the south. He shared with Anu in Asshur a

temple dedicated to him alone by Shamahi-Ramman, so that the connection with Anu seems later than the dedication, Anu being received as a sort of guest. The statues of Rsmmsn and Shah were carried away from Ekallate (a city-or temple?represented as in the south of Assyria) and restored by Sennacherib. Tiglath-Pileser I. calls this god Martu, and the connection with storms is still held, his weapons being lightning, hunger, and death. For Syria and Palestine the worship is indicated by the personal names (probably not by the names of places; see below, IL) compounded with Hadad. Biblical passages are: (1) I Kings xv. 18, 20; II Chron. xvi. 2, 4, Benhadad a king of Syria contemporary with Ass; (2) I Kings xx.; II Kings vi. 24, viii. 7, 9, another king of the same name contemporary with Ahab; (3) II Kings xiii. 3, 24, 25, a son of Hazael; probably Amos i. 4 and Jer. xlix. 27 use the name as a title of the Syrian kings. The name Adadi-rimani appears in an inscription of the seventh century in Haran. The forms Addu and the like occur frequently in the Amarna Tablets.

The origin of Ramman is still a matter of doubt. Incidental expressions in the cuneiform records, such as that which names him Martu, seem to indicate that the Assyrians assigned to him an Aramean origin. The resulting supposition