scientific formulae for skills such as glass-making, mathematics and astrology. To begin to study Babylonian literature was to enter a completely alien thought-world. ‘According to the Sumerians and Babylonians two classes of persons inhabited the universe: the human race and the gods. Pre-eminence belonged to the gods, though they were not all equal. At the lower end of the divine scale came a host of minor deities and demons, while a trinity of great gods, Anu, Enlil, and Ea, stood at their head.