Especially would this be the case with deities conceived as granting assistance in warfare.

The glory of the smaller warrior gods would fade through the success achieved by a Nin-girsu.

The names and epithets would be transferred to the more powerful god, and, beyond an occasional mention, the weaker would entirely pass out of consideration.

Again, the worship of the moon or of the sun, or of certain aspects of the sun,--the morning sun, the noonday sun, and the like,--at localities of minor importance, would yield to the growing popularity of similar worship in important centers.

As a consequence, names that formerly designated distinct deities or different phases of one and the same deity, would, by being transferred to a single one, come to be mere epithets of this one.