Anammelech (More Properly Anumelech; "Anu Is Melek" Or "Prince")

A god worshiped by the Sepharvites in Samaria under the Assyrian régime, along with the god Adrammelech (II Kings, xvii. 31). Anu was the chief of the old Babylonian trinity, Anu, Bel, and Ea; and if Sepharvaim (compare ib. 24) is Sippara in North Babylonia (not Sepharvaim in Syria, II Kings, xix. 13), as is very probable, there is no difficulty in supposing that Anu was there worshiped under this appellation. It is stated, however, in the text, that children were burned in sacrifice to Anammelech in Samaria; and this is perhaps inconsistent with the fact that there is no evidence that such offerings were ever made in Babylonia.

Bibliography:

  * Schröder, Phönizische Sprache, 1869, pp. 124-127;
  * De Vogué, Mélanges d'Archéologie Orientale, 1868;
  * George Smith, Assyrian Discoveries, London and New York, 1875, p. 399;
  * Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions and the O. T. i. 276;
  * Rawlinson, Herodotus, i. 611.



J. F. McC.