God Anu In Sumerian mythology, Anu (also An; from Sumerian 𒀭 An, "sky, heaven") was a sky-god, the god of heaven, lord of constellations, king of gods, spirits and demons, and dwelt in the highest heavenly regions. It was believed that he had the power to judge those who had committed crimes, and that he had created the stars as soldiers to destroy the wicked. His attribute was the royal tiara. His attendant and minister of state was the god Ilabrat.
He was one of the oldest gods in the Sumerian pantheon and part of a triad including Enlil (god of the air) and Enki (god of water). He was called Anu by the later Akkadians in Babylonian culture. By virtue of being the first figure in a triad consisting of Anu, Enlil, and Enki (also known as Ea), Anu came to be regarded as the father and at first, king of the gods. Anu is so prominently associated with the E-anna temple in the city of Uruk (biblical Erech) in southern Babylonia that there are good reasons for believing this place to be the original seat of the Anu cult. If this is correct, then the goddess Inanna (or Ishtar) of Uruk may at one time have been his consort
Sumerian religion
Ur III Sumerian cuneiform for An (and determinative sign for deities see: DINGIR) Anu had several consorts, the foremost being Ki (earth), Nammu, and Uras. By Ki he was the father of, among others, the Anunnaki gods. By Uras he was the father of Nin'insinna. According to legends, heaven and earth were once inseparable until An and Ki bore Enlil, god of the air, who cleaved heaven and earth in two. An and Ki were, in some texts, identified as brother and sister being the children of Anshar and Kishar. Ki later developed into the Akkadian goddess Antu (also known as "Keffen Anu", "Kef", and "Keffenk Anum").[citation needed]
Anu existed in Sumerian cosmogony as a dome that covered the flat earth; Outside of this dome was the primordial body of water known as Tiamat (not to be confused with the subterranean Abzu).[1]
In Sumerian, the designation "An" was used interchangeably with "the heavens" so that in some cases it is doubtful whether, under the term, the god An or the heavens is being denoted. The Akkadians inherited An as the god of heavens from the Sumerian as Anu-, and in Akkadian cuneiform, the DINGIR character may refer either to Anum or to the Akkadian word for god, ilu-, and consequently had two phonetic values an and il. Hittite cuneiform as adapted from the Old Assyrian kept the an value but abandoned il.
Assyro-Babylonian religion
The doctrine once established remained an inherent part of the Babylonian-Assyrian religion and led to the more or less complete disassociation of the three gods constituting the triad from their original local limitations. An intermediate step between Anu viewed as the local deity of Uruk, Enlil as the god of Nippur, and Ea as the god of Eridu is represented by the prominence which each one of the centres associated with the three deities in question must have acquired, and which led to each one absorbing the qualities of other gods so as to give them a controlling position in an organized pantheon. For Nippur we have the direct evidence that its chief deity, En-lil, was once regarded as the head of the Sumerian pantheon. The sanctity and, therefore, the importance of Eridu remained a fixed tradition in the minds of the people to the latest days, and analogy therefore justifies the conclusion that Anu was likewise worshipped in a centre which had acquired great prominence.
The summing-up of divine powers manifested in the universe in a threefold division represents an outcome of speculation in the schools attached to the temples of Babylonia, but the selection of Anu, Enlil (and later Marduk), and Ea for the three representatives of the three spheres recognized, is due to the importance which, for one reason or the other, the centres in which Anu, Enlil, and Ea were worshipped had acquired in the popular mind. Each of the three must have been regarded in his centre as the most important member in a larger or smaller group, so that their union in a triad marks also the combination of the three distinctive pantheons into a harmonious whole.
In the astral theology of Babylonia and Assyria, Anu, Enlil, and Ea became the three zones of the ecliptic, the northern, middle and southern zone respectively. The purely theoretical character of Anu is thus still further emphasized, and in the annals and votive inscriptions as well as in the incantations and hymns, he is rarely introduced as an active force to whom a personal appeal can be made. His name becomes little more than a synonym for the heavens in general and even his title as king or father of the gods has little of the personal element in it. A consort Antum (or as some scholars prefer to read, Anatum) is assigned to him, on the theory that every deity must have a female associate. But Anu spent so much time on the ground protecting the Sumerians he left her in Heaven and then met Innin, whom he renamed Innan, or, "Queen of Heaven". She was later known as Ishtar. Anu resided in her temple the most, and rarely went back up to Heaven. He is also included in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and is a major character in the clay tablets
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Inanna (/ɪˈnćnə/ or /ɪˈnɑːnə/; Cuneiform: 𒀭𒈹 (Old Babylonian) or DINGIRINANNA (Neo-Assyrian) DMUŠ3; Sumerian: Inanna; Akkadian: Ištar; Unicode: U+12239) was the Sumerian goddess of love, fertility, and warfare, and goddess of the E-Anna temple at the city of Uruk, her main centre
Origins
Inanna was the most prominent female deity in ancient Mesopotamia.[1] As early as the Uruk period (ca. 4000–3100 BC), Inanna was associated with the city of Uruk. The famous Uruk Vase (found in a deposit of cult objects of the Uruk III period) depicts a row of naked men carrying various objects, bowls, vessels, and baskets of farm produce, and bringing sheep and goats, to a female figure facing the ruler. This figure was ornately dressed for a divine marriage, and attended by a servant. The female figure holds the symbol of the two twisted reeds of the doorpost, signifying Inanna behind her, while the male figure holds a box and stack of bowls, the later cuneiform sign signifying En, or high priest of the temple. Especially in the Uruk period, the symbol of a ring-headed doorpost is associated with Inanna.[1]
Seal impressions from the Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3100–2900 BC) show a fixed sequence of city symbols including those of Ur, Larsa, Zabalam, Urum, Arina, and probably Kesh. It is likely that this list reflects the report of contributions to Inanna at Uruk from cities supporting her cult. A large number of similar sealings were found from the slightly later Early Dynastic I phase at Ur, in a slightly different order, combined with the rosette symbol of Inanna, that were definitely used for this purpose. They had been used to lock storerooms to preserve materials set aside for her cult.[2] Inanna's primary temple of worship was the Eanna, located in Uruk (c.f. Worship).
Etymology
Inanna's name derives from Lady of Heaven (Sumerian: nin-an-ak). The cuneiform sign of Inanna (𒈹); however, is not a ligature of the signs lady (Sumerian: nin; Cuneiform: 𒊩𒌆 SAL.TUG2) and sky (Sumerian: an; Cuneiform: 𒀭 AN).[3] These difficulties have led some early Assyriologists to suggest that originally Inanna may have been a Proto-Euphratean goddess, possibly related to the Hurrian mother goddess Hannahannah, accepted only latterly into the Sumerian pantheon, an idea supported by her youthfulness, and that, unlike the other Sumerian divinities, at first she had no sphere of responsibilities.[4] The view that there was a Proto-Euphratean substrate language in Southern Iraq before Sumerian is not widely accepted by modern Assyriologists.[5]
Worship
Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna. The House of Heaven (Sumerian: e2-anna; Cuneiform: 𒂍𒀭 E2.AN) temple[6] in Uruk[7] was the greatest of these, where sacred prostitution was a common practice.[8] In addition, according to Leick 1994 persons of asexual or hermaphroditic bodies and feminine men were particularly involved in the worship and ritual practices of Inanna's temples (see gala). The deity of this fourth-millennium city was probably originally An. After its dedication to Inanna the temple seems to have housed priestesses of the goddess. The high priestess would choose for her bed a young man who represented the shepherd Dumuzid, consort of Inanna, in a hieros gamos or sacred marriage, celebrated during the annual Akitu (New Year) ceremony, at the spring Equinox. According to Samuel Noah Kramer in The Sacred Marriage Rite, in late Sumerian history (end of the third millennium) kings established their legitimacy by taking the place of Dumuzi in the temple for one night on the tenth day of the New Year festival.[9] A Sacred Marriage to Inanna may have conferred legitimacy on a number of rulers of Uruk. Gilgamesh is reputed to have refused marriage to Inanna, on the grounds of her misalliance with such kings as Lugalbanda and Damuzi.
One version of the star symbol of Inanna/Ishtar Iconography
Inanna's symbol is an eight-pointed star or a rosette.[10] She was associated with lions – even then a symbol of power – and was frequently depicted standing on the backs of two lionesses. Her cuneiform ideogram was a hook-shaped twisted knot of reeds, representing the doorpost of the storehouse (and thus fertility and plenty).[11]
Inanna as the planet Venus
Inanna was associated with the planet Venus, which at that time was regarded as two stars, the "morning star" and the "evening star." There are hymns to Inanna as her astral manifestation. It also is believed that in many myths about Inanna, including Inanna's Descent to the Underworld and Inanna and Shukaletuda, her movements correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky. Also, because of its positioning so close to Earth, Venus is not visible across the dome of the sky as most celestial bodies are; because its proximity to the sun renders it invisible during the day. Instead, Venus is visible only when it rises in the East before sunrise, or when it sets in the West after sunset.[12]
Because the movements of Venus appear to be discontinuous (it disappears due to its proximity to the sun, for many days at a time, and then reappears on the other horizon), some cultures did not recognize Venus as single entity, but rather regarded the planet as two separate stars on each horizon as the morning and evening star. The Mesopotamians, however, most likely understood that the planet was one entity. A cylinder seal from the Jemdet Nasr period expresses the knowledge that both morning and evening stars were the same celestial entity.[13] The discontinuous movements of Venus relate to both mythology as well as Inanna's dual nature.[13] Inanna is related like Venus to the principle of connectedness, but this has a dual nature and could seem unpredictable. Yet as both the goddess of love and war, with both masculine and feminine qualities, Inanna is poised to respond, and occasionally to respond with outbursts of temper. Mesopotamian literature takes this one step further, explaining Inanna's physical movements in mythology as corresponding to the astronomical movements of Venus in the sky.
Inanna's Descent to the Underworld explains how Inanna is able to, unlike any other deity, descend into the netherworld and return to the heavens. The planet Venus appears to make a similar descent, setting in the West and then rising again in the East.
In Inanna and Shukaletuda, in search of her attacker, Inanna makes several movements throughout the myth that correspond with the movements of Venus in the sky. An introductory hymn explains Inanna leaving the heavens and heading for Kur, what could be presumed to be, the mountains, replicating the rising and setting of Inanna to the West. Shukaletuda also is described as scanning the heavens in search of Inanna, possibly to the eastern and western horizons.[13]
Inanna was associated with the eastern fish of the last of the zodiacal constellations, Pisces. Her consort Dumuzi was associated with the contiguous first constellation, Aries.[14]
Character
Inanna is the goddess of love. In the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh points out Inanna's infamous ill-treatment of her lovers. Inanna also has a very complicated relationship with her lover, Dumuzi, in "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld".[15]
She also is one of the Sumerian war deities: "She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed in terrifying radiance. It is her game to speed conflict and battle, untiring, strapping on her sandals."[16] Battle itself is sometimes referred to as "the dance of Inanna."
Consider her description in one hymn: "When the servants let the flocks loose, and when cattle and sheep are returned to cow-pen and sheepfold, then, my lady, like the nameless poor, you wear only a single garment. The pearls of a prostitute are placed around your neck, and you are likely to snatch a man from the tavern."[citation needed][17] Inanna also was associated with rain and storms and with the planet Venus, the morning and evening star.[11] as was the Greco-Roman goddess Aphrodite or Venus
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Also known as “Queen of Heaven and Earth,” Inanna was a unifying force of opposites. She was a goddess of love and war, sexuality and sacredness, earth and sky, hill and valley, light and dark, life and death. She was seen as both woman/priestess/queen as well as divine goddess. The poems and hymns that were written about her, some of the very first written documents existent, inscribed on clay tablets in cuneiform, dating from 2500 BC, tell of a great love story between her and the shepherd, Dumuzi, who became king. We will explore this story and how they came together as lovers, performed the heiros gamos, or sacred marriage, which wedded man and goddess (or the human and divine) and assured fertility across the land for both people and the vegetation that sustained them
Goddess Inana
Inanna personified the heirodule or holy servant, sometimes known as the sacred prostitute. This is a term that seems like an oxymoron to us now, but in ancient goddess-loving times the sacred and the sexual were not separate, they were one–whole and holy. As part of this upcoming e-course on Inanna, we will be exploring our own sacred sexuality and what it means to let go and love–ourselves or another
When Inanna heeded the call to go down to the Underworld to meet her sister, Erishkigal, the Dark Goddess, she did so against everyone’s advice. After all, no one had ever returned from the Underworld. But Inanna was determined, and so she went down, dressed in full queenly regalia and let go of each precious item as she descended the 7 levels until she stood naked before her sister, her own dark mirror
Her journey is one of letting go, of releasing the things that define us in the outer world, but which have little to do with who we are on an inner level — as spiritual beings on a human journey. And when she rises from the Underworld, Inanna, transformed, reclaims her power in a new way
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Enki (/ˈɛŋki/; Sumerian: dEN.KI(G)𒂗𒆠) is a god in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology. He was originally patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites and Hurrians. He was the deity of crafts (gašam); mischief; water, seawater, lakewater (a, aba, ab), intelligence (gestú, literally "ear") and creation (Nudimmud: nu, likeness, dim mud, make beer). He was associated with the southern band of constellations called stars of Ea, but also with the constellation AŠ-IKU, the Field (Square of Pegasus).[1] Beginning around the second millennium BCE, he was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for "40," occasionally referred to as his "sacred number."[2][3][4] The planet Mercury, associated with Babylonian Nabu (the son of Marduk) was in Sumerian times, identified with Enki.
A large number of myths about Enki have been collected from many sites, stretching from Southern Iraq to the Levantine coast. He figures in the earliest extant cuneiform inscriptions throughout the region and was prominent from the third millennium down to Hellenistic times.
The exact meaning of his name is uncertain: the common translation is "Lord of the Earth": the Sumerian en is translated as a title equivalent to "lord"; it was originally a title given to the High Priest; ki means "earth"; but there are theories that ki in this name has another origin, possibly kig of unknown meaning, or kur meaning "mound". The name Ea is allegedly Hurrian in origin while others [5][6] claim that his name 'Ea' is possibly of Semitic origin and may be a derivation from the West-Semitic root *hyy meaning "life" in this case used for "spring", "running water." In Sumerian E-A means "the house of water", and it has been suggested that this was originally the name for the shrine to the god at Eridu
Attributes
The main temple to Enki is called E-abzu, meaning "abzu temple" (also E-en-gur-a, meaning "house of the subterranean waters"), a ziggurat temple surrounded by Euphratean marshlands near the ancient Persian Gulf coastline at Eridu. He was the keeper of the divine powers called Me, the gifts of civilization. His image is a double-helix snake, or the Caduceus, sometimes confused with the Rod of Asclepius used to symbolize medicine. He is often shown with the horned crown of divinity dressed in the skin of a carp.
Considered the master shaper of the world, god of wisdom and of all magic, Enki was characterized as the lord of the Abzu (Apsu in Akkadian), the freshwater sea or groundwater located within the earth. In the later Babylonian epic Enűma Eliš, Abzu, the "begetter of the gods", is inert and sleepy but finds his peace disturbed by the younger gods, so sets out to destroy them. His grandson Enki, chosen to represent the younger gods, puts a spell on Abzu "casting him into a deep sleep", thereby confining him deep underground. Enki subsequently sets up his home "in the depths of the Abzu." Enki thus takes on all of the functions of the Abzu, including his fertilising powers as lord of the waters and lord of semen.[7]
Early royal inscriptions from the third millennium BCE mention "the reeds of Enki". Reeds were an important local building material, used for baskets and containers, and collected outside the city walls, where the dead or sick were often carried. This links Enki to the Kur or underworld of Sumerian mythology. In another even older tradition, Nammu, the goddess of the primeval creative matter and the mother-goddess portrayed as having "given birth to the great gods," was the mother of Enki, and as the watery creative force, was said to preexist Ea-Enki.[8] Benito states "With Enki it is an interesting change of gender symbolism, the fertilising agent is also water, Sumerian "a" or "Ab" which also means "semen". In one evocative passage in a Sumerian hymn, Enki stands at the empty riverbeds and fills them with his 'water'".[9] This may be a reference to Enki's hieros gamos or sacred marriage with Ki/Ninhursag (the Earth) (see below).
His symbols included a goat and a fish, which later combined into a single beast, the goat Capricorn, recognised as the Zodiacal constellation Capricornus.[citation needed] He was accompanied by an attendant Isimud. He was also associated with the planet Mercury in the Sumerian astrological system
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Marduk (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian: AMAR.UTU 𒀫𒌓 "solar calf"; perhaps from MERI.DUG; Biblical Hebrew מְרֹדַךְ Merodach; Greek Μαρδοχαῖος,[1] Mardochaios) was the Babylonian name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi (18th century BC), started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BC. In the city of Babylon, he resided in the temple Esagila.[2]
According to The Encyclopedia of Religion, the name Marduk was probably pronounced Marutuk. The etymology of the name Marduk is conjectured as derived from amar-Utu ("bull calf of the sun god Utu").[2] The origin of Marduk's name may reflect an earlier genealogy, or have had cultural ties to the ancient city of Sippar (whose god was Utu, the sun god), dating back to the third millennium BCB.[3]
In the perfected system of astrology, the planet Jupiter was associated with Marduk by the Hammurabi period
Mythology
Marduk and his dragon Mušḫuššu, from a Babylonian cylinder seal Babylonian
Marduk's original character is obscure but he was later associated with water, vegetation, judgment, and magic.[5] His consort was the goddess Sarpanit.[6] He was also regarded as the son of Ea[7] (Sumerian Enki) and Damkina[8] and the heir of Anu, but whatever special traits Marduk may have had were overshadowed by the political development through which the Euphrates valley passed and which led to people of the time imbuing him with traits belonging to gods who in an earlier period were recognized as the heads of the pantheon.[9] There are particularly two gods—Ea and Enlil—whose powers and attributes pass over to Marduk.
In the case of Ea, the transfer proceeded pacifically and without effacing the older god. Marduk took over the identity of Asarluhi, the son of Ea and god of magic, so that Marduk was integrated in the pantheon of Eridu where both Ea and Asarluhi originally came from. Father Ea voluntarily recognized the superiority of the son and hands over to him the control of humanity. This association of Marduk and Ea, while indicating primarily the passing of the supremacy once enjoyed by Eridu to Babylon as a religious and political centre, may also reflect an early dependence of Babylon upon Eridu, not necessarily of a political character but, in view of the spread of culture in the Euphrates valley from the south to the north, the recognition of Eridu as the older centre on the part of the younger one.
Late Bronze Age
While the relationship between Ea and Marduk is marked by harmony and an amicable abdication on the part of the father in favour of his son, Marduk's absorption of the power and prerogatives of Enlil of Nippur was at the expense of the latter's prestige. Babylon became independent in the early 19th century BC, and was initially a small city state, overshadowed by older and more powerful Mesopotamian states such as Isin, Larsa and Assyria. However, after Hammurabi forged an empire in the 18th century BC, turning Babylon into the dominant state in the south, the cult of Marduk eclipsed that of Enlil; although Nippur and the cult of Enlil enjoyed a period of renaissance during the over four centuries of Kassite control in Babylonia (c. 1595 BC–1157 BC), the definite and permanent triumph of Marduk over Enlil became felt within Babylonia.
The only serious rival to Marduk after ca. 1750 BC was the god Aššur (Ashur) (who had been the supreme deity in the northern Mesopotamian state of Assyria since the 25th century BC) which was the dominant power in the region between the 14th to the late 7th century BC. In the south, Marduk reigned supreme. He is normally referred to as Bel "Lord", also bel rabim "great lord", bęl bęlim "lord of lords", ab-kal ilâni bęl teręti "leader of the gods", aklu bęl terieti "the wise, lord of oracles", muballit mîte "reviver of the dead", etc.
When Babylon became the principal city of southern Mesopotamia during the reign of Hammurabi in the 18th century BC, the patron deity of Babylon was elevated to the level of supreme god. In order to explain how Marduk seized power, Enűma Elish was written, which tells the story of Marduk's birth, heroic deeds and becoming the ruler of the gods. This can be viewed as a form of Mesopotamian apologetics. Also included in this document are the fifty names of Marduk.
In Enűma Elish, a civil war between the gods was growing to a climactic battle. The Anunnaki gods gathered together to find one god who could defeat the gods rising against them. Marduk, a very young god, answered the call and was promised the position of head god.
To prepare for battle, he makes a bow, fletches arrows, grabs a mace, throws lightning before him, fills his body with flame, makes a net to encircle Tiamat within it, gathers the four winds so that no part of her could escape, creates seven nasty new winds such as the whirlwind and tornado, and raises up his mightiest weapon, the rain-flood. Then he sets out for battle, mounting his storm-chariot drawn by four horses with poison in their mouths. In his lips he holds a spell and in one hand he grasps a herb to counter poison.
First, he challenges the leader of the Anunnaki gods, the dragon of the primordial sea Tiamat, to single combat and defeats her by trapping her with his net, blowing her up with his winds, and piercing her belly with an arrow.
Then, he proceeds to defeat Kingu, who Tiamat put in charge of the army and wore the Tablets of Destiny on his breast, and "wrested from him the Tablets of Destiny, wrongfully his" and assumed his new position. Under his reign humans were created to bear the burdens of life so the gods could be at leisure.
Marduk was depicted as a human, often with his symbol the snake-dragon which he had taken over from the god Tishpak. Another symbol that stood for Marduk was the spade.
Babylonian texts talk of the creation of Eridu by the god Marduk as the first city, "the holy city, the dwelling of their [the other gods] delight".
Nabu, god of wisdom, is a son of Marduk.
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Nabu (in Biblical Hebrew Nebo נבו) is the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing, worshipped by Babylonians as the son of Marduk and his consort, Sarpanitum, and as the grandson of Ea. Nabu's consort was Tashmetum.
Originally, Nabu was a West Semitic deity introduced by the Amorites into Mesopotamia, probably at the same time as Marduk shortly after 2000 BCE.[6] While Marduk became Babylon's main deity, Nabu resided in nearby Borsippa in his temple E-zida. He was first called the "scribe and minister of Marduk", later assimilated as Marduk's beloved son from Sarpanitum. During the Babylonian New Year Festival, the cult statue of Nabu was transported from Borsippa to Babylon in order to commune with his father Marduk.
Nabu later became one of the principal gods in Assyria, and Assyrians addressed many prayers and inscriptions to Nabu and named children after him. Nabu was the god of writing and scribes and was the keeper of the Tablets of Destiny, in which the fate of humankind was recorded. He was also sometimes worshiped as a fertility god and as a god of water.[6]
Nabu is accorded the office of patron of the scribes, taking over from the Sumerian goddess Nisaba. His symbols are the clay writing tablet with the writing stylus. He wears a horned cap, and stands with hands clasped, in the ancient gesture of priesthood. He rides on a winged dragon (mušhuššu, also known as Sirrush), initially Marduk's.
The etymology of his name is disputed. It could be derived from the root nb´ for "to call or announce", meaning something like "He who has called".[7]
His power over human existence is immense because Nabu engraves the destiny of each person, as the gods have decided, on the tablets of sacred record. Thus, He has the power to increase or diminish, at will, the length of human life.[8][9]
Nabu is mentioned in the Nevi'im of the Tanakh as Nebo in Isaiah 46:1.
A statue of Nabu from Calah, erected during the reign of the Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser III is on display in the British Museum.
In late Babylonian astrology, Nabu was connected with the planet Mercury. As the god of wisdom and writing, he was equated by the Greeks to either Apollo or Hermes, the latter identified by the Romans with their own god Mercury
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In Sumerian mythology, Nanshe was the daughter of Enki (god of wisdom, magic and fresh water) and Ninhursag (earth and mother goddess). Her functions as a goddess were varied. She was a goddess of social justice, prophecy, fertility and fishing. Like her father, she was heavily associated with water. She held dominion over the Persian Gulf and all the animals within. Her seat of power was the Sirara temple, located in the city of Nina
Birth of Nanshe[edit]
Nanshe's birth is described in the Sumerian myth 'Enki and Ninhursag.' In the tale, Enki consumes several forbidden plants under the protection of his wife. In retaliation, Ninhursag places a curse on him. Enki soon becomes crippled with ailments, and the gods are left helpless. Enlil, the powerful sky god, manages to ease Ninhursag's anger after sending a fox, a sacred animal of Ninhursag, to speak with her. She then returns to Enki's side and lifts the curse. To heal Enki, Ninhursag gives birth to several healing gods. Nanshe (referred to as Nazi in the original myth[citation needed]) was meant to heal her father's neck. At the conclusion of the myth, she is betrothed to the god Nindara.
The World Order[edit]
Nanshe's father, Enki, was later tasked with organizing the world and assigning every god a function. Nanshe was assigned dominion over the Persian Gulf, on which floated her father's awe inspiring sea shrine. As a secondary function, she was to ensure than shipments of fish reached the mainland. When heading onto the mainland, she sailed by barge from the Gulf. She had a strong connection with wildlife, especially birds and bats. In one hymn, she converses with ravens and pelicans, among other species.
The Goddess of Social Justice[edit]
During the time of Gudea (2144 - 2124 BC), many hymns to Nanshe appeared showing her in an elevated position in the pantheon. She was the widely worshiped goddess of social justice. She nurtured orphans, provided for widows, gave advice to those in debt, and took in refugees from war torn areas.[1] Several other gods appeared to be under the command of Nanshe. Hendursag and Haia were her assistants. Nisaba, sometimes portrayed as Nanshe's sister, was her chief scribe.
On the first day of the new year, a festival was held at her temple. People came from all over the land to seek her wisdom and aid. Visitors were cleansed in the river of ordeals and then, if worthy, given an audience with the goddess. Nanshe settled disputes and handled court cases amongst mortals.
Holding a higher ranking in the pantheon during this era, Nanshe sometimes shared the same tasks as Utu, the traditional god of justice. She sat on the holy thrones with the other prominent gods, and was seen as a goddess of protection. At one point, Ninurta, the mighty god of war, turns to her for guidance.
The Goddess of Prophecy[edit]
Nanshe had the ability to give oracular messages and determine the future through dream interpretation (Oneiromancy). Her priests were also granted these abilities after conducting a ritual that represented death and resurrection. Despite the ritual, Nanshe is not depicted as life-death-rebirth deity in any known hymns or myths.
The Guarantor of Boundaries - The Lady of the Storerooms[edit]
In the Nanše Hymn she is described as having a role seeing that weights and measures are correct.[2]
223-231The guarantor of boundaries, the expert in (?) righteous words, lady, wise woman who founded Lagac ... with Jatumdug. ... righteous words for (?) Nance. The exalted lady whose commands are ... the lady who like Enlil determines fates, who is seated on the throne of Sirara -- she, the pure one, looks at her powers.
232-240 At the house which has been granted powers from the abzu, in Sirara, the gods of Lagac gather around her. To weigh silver with standard weights, to standardise the size of reed baskets, they establish an agreed ban measure throughout the countries. The shepherd, the expert of the Land, the wise one (?) of the countries, Ictaran, who decides lawsuits justly, who lives in the Land ... Ninjiczida ... 2 lines unclear
241-250To weigh silver with standard weights, to standardise the size of reed baskets, they establish an agreed ban measure throughout the countries. ... of (?) all the great rites. 1 line unclear After ... in (?) the established storerooms, the lady of the storerooms ... her lofty ... with (?) vessels with ever-flowing water and with (?) ... of (?) reed containers which never become empty, she ordered her herald, lord Hendursaja to make them profitable (?).
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co-n-stella-tion co-map-astero: star chart co-map-pastor/pasture co-mpass-ion No-mad: chief who selects and allocates pastures for the clan members, based on legends/history of the past
maps were drawn on paper bark or skins or in dirt, not on stone (too heavy to carry)
Note: The !KungSan of Kalahari make ostrich egg shell beads, strung into necklaces and exchanged as gifts with neighboring clans as a sort of gift insurance in case of local famines. At Twilight cave in the African Rift valley are drilled eggshells [probably made by females while males knapped stone stools/weapons from obsidian/flint] 40,000 years old. Later people at other areas also made these eg. Mumba cave.
Remarkably the word for this is hxaro which is etymologically linked to: Astart/Ishtar/ostrich/easter/etchskill/eggshell/necklace/naked/edge/insura(nce)/jambo(Afr. greet/meet/mate)/(porcupine) quill (bead)/tsuringa(Australian aborigine boundaryline board)/exchange/gift/share/cosher(Gaelic)/kosher(Hebrew)/qashrut(Hebrew:diet)/taberu(Japanese:eat)/Cairo(Egypt)/harga(Malay:cost)/eggcrack/fragment/pelage/peel/mbolo(Afr:peel/pare ~ wombelly/oval)/fractio(n)/etx.practice/parchment/plaque/cement/charade-gesture-guess/Xyaruatl=Xyambuatl etc. Very deep roots of human language, though later than dome huts.
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Gilgamesh Kills The Bull of Heaven This is a Neo-Sumerian terracotta votive relief (c. 2250-1900 BC) showing Gilgamesh, the legendary King of the city of Uruk (map) fighting against Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven.
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Demon Kidudu ASSUR BRONZE 10TH-6TH BCE The demon-god Pazuzu, an Akkadian-Sumerian evil spirit.An inscription says: "I am Pazuzu, king of evil spirits and of the winds which come raging down from the mountains..." This figurine, hung around the neck of a sick person, was supposed to drive sickness aw
God Hadad and Goddess Ishtar God Hadad and Goddess Ishtar, double statue, from the Aramean king Kapara's palace. Mesopotamian civilisation, 9th century BC. Aleppo, Archaeological Museum Adad (Akkadian) or Iškur (Sumerian) was the storm god in ancient Mesopotamian religion. These two names are usually written with the logogram dIM. The Akkadian Adad was the god Hadad originating in early ancient Semitic religion of the Amorites (Sumerian mar.tu).[1][2][3][4]
In Akkadian, Adad is also known as Ramman ("Thunderer") cognate with Aramaic Rimmon, which was a byname of Hadad. Ramman was formerly incorrectly taken by many scholars to be an independent Assyrian-Babylonian god later identified with the Hadad.
In Mesopotamian Religion (Sumerian, Assyrian, Akkadian and Babylonian), Tiamat is a primordial goddess of the ocean, mating with Abzű (the god of fresh water) to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial creation, depicted as a woman,[1] she represents the beauty of the feminine, depicted as the glistening one.[2] It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos, the first in which Tiamat is a creator goddess, through a "Sacred marriage" between salt and fresh water, peacefully creating the cosmos through successive generations. In the second "Chaoskampf" Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos.[3] Some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon
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Sacred Assyrian Tree flanked by two images of a Neo-Assyrian king. Above the tree is the god Assur assimilated to the sun disk with wings and tail feathers.
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Detailed cast bronze, hammered over with silver sheets on the body, electrum on the face. Strongly resembles the Canaanite Baal, The Hittites of Anatolia,
NABATEAN BRONZE ENTHRONED BEARDED GOD Possibly a Neo-Punic representation of Baal. Made from two sections of hammered sheet, he is wrapped in a himation and holds a brick-like object in his left hand and a chalice in his right. Yemen, 1st Millennium BC
Canaanite God Hazor in form of cross 13 cent BC peg-shaped figurine of a god Hazor Late Canaanite period, 15th-13th century BCE Bronze W: 5, H: 10 cm Israel Antiquities Authority Accession number: IAA 1997-3433
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Humbaba(Semitic) comes from Huwawa(Sumerian) per linguists. Not a god, but a forest guardian of monstrous powers. There was also a Turkish story of a similar name of a tavernkeeper-goddess that appears linked to the Epic of Gilgamesh (where Utnapishtim meets a tavernkeeper).
My guess is that humbaba is linked to (Bantu) Topan (Forest canopy-open sky god), which is linked to (English) top/upon/pan.
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Head of Humbaba. Early 2nd Millenium B.C. Old Babylonian Period. Location: Iraq Museum, Baghdad, Iraq.
The famous monster Humbaba from the Epic of Gilgamesh. He was the demon who guarded the Cedar Forest (modern-day Lebanon) on behalf of the Sumerian storm god, Enlil. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.
ld Babylonian Tan Terracotta Head of Humbaba Mesopotamia,1800-1600 BC
Neo-Assyrian Humbaba Amulet, 8th-7th Century BCThis carnelian head is carved with the grimacing and grotesque face of the Sumerian demon Humbaba. Heads like these were used as amulets since they were believed to ward off evil. In the Gilgamesh myth,...
Humbaba deamon
Plaque with face of the demon Humbaba, Old Babylonian, ca. 2000-1600 B.C., Mesopotamia
Humbaba mask Louvre museum
Humbaba In Ancient Mesopotamian religion, Humbaba (𒄷𒌝𒁀𒁀 Assyrian spelling), also spelled Huwawa (𒄷𒉿𒉿 Sumerian spelling) and surnamed the Terrible, was a monstrous giant of immemorial age raised by Utu, the Sun.[1] Humbaba was the guardian of the Cedar Forest, where the gods lived, by the will of the god Enlil, who "assigned [Humbaba] as a terror to human beings. Gilgamesh defeated this great enemy."
Description His face is that of a lion, "he looks at someone, it is the look of death."[2] "Humbaba's roar is a flood, his mouth is death and his breath is fire! He can hear a hundred leagues away any [rustling?] in his forest! Who would go down into his forest!"[3] In various examples, his face is scribed in a single coiling line like that of the coiled entrails of men and beasts, from which omens might be read.[4] ċċċ Another description from Georg Burckhardt translation of Gilgamesh says, "he had the paws of a lion and a body covered in thorny scales; his feet had the claws of a vulture, and on his head were the horns of a wild bull; his tail and phallus each ended in a snake's head."
Yet another description in a newly discovered tablet in Sulaymaniyah is somewhat positive about Humbaba:
"Where Humbaba came and went there was a track, the paths were in good order and the way was well trodden ... Through all the forest a bird began to sing: A wood pigeon was moaning, a turtle dove calling in answer. Monkey mothers sing aloud, a youngster monkey shrieks: like a band of musicians and drummers daily they bash out a rhythm in the presence of Humbaba."
In this version of the story, Humbaba is beloved of the gods and a kind of king in the palace of the forest. Monkeys are his heralds, birds his courtiers, and his entire throne room breathes with the heady aroma of cedar resin.[5]
The tablet goes on to portray Gilgamesh as an aggressor who destroys a forest unnecessarily, and his dead is lamented by Enkidu.
Demise Humbaba is first mentioned in Tablet II of the Epic of Gilgamesh: after Gilgamesh and Enkidu become friends following their initial fight, they set out on an adventure to the Cedar Forest beyond the seventh mountain range, to slay Humbaba (Huwawa): "Enkidu," Gilgamesh vows, "since a man cannot pass beyond the final end of life, I want to set off into the mountains, to establish my renown there."[2] Gilgamesh tricks the monster into giving away his seven "radiances" by offering his sisters as wife and concubine. When Humbaba's guard is down, Gilgamesh punches him and captures the monster. Defeated, Humbaba appeals to a receptive Gilgamesh for mercy, but Enkidu convinces Gilgamesh to slay Humbaba. In a last effort, Humbaba tries to escape but is decapitated by Enkidu, or in some versions by both heroes together; his head is put in a leather sack, which is brought to Enlil, the god who set Humbaba as the forest's guardian. Enlil becomes enraged upon learning this and redistributes Humbaba's seven splendors (or in some tablets "auras"). "He gave Humbaba's first aura to the fields. He gave his second aura to the rivers. He gave his third aura to the reed-beds. He gave his fourth aura to the lions. He gave his fifth aura to the palace (one text has debt slaves). He gave his sixth aura to the forests (one text has the hills). He gave his seventh aura to Nungal."[6] No vengeance was laid upon the heroes, though Enlil says, "He should have eaten the bread that you eat, and should have drunk the water that you drink! He should have been honored."
As each gift was given by Gilgamesh, he received a "terror" (= "radiance") in exchange, from Humbaba. The seven gifts successively given by Gilgamesh were:[7]
his sister, Ma-tur, (a gap in the text), eca-flour, big shoes, tiny shoes, semi-precious stones, and a bundle of tree-branches. While Gilgamesh thus distracts and tricks this spirit of the cedar forest, the fifty unmarried young men he has brought on the adventure are felling cedar timber, stripping it of its branches and laying it "in many piles on the hillside," ready to be taken away. Thus the adventure reveals itself in the context of a timber raid, bringing cedar wood to timberless Mesopotamia.
As his death approaches, and Gilgamesh is oppressed with his own mortality, the gods remind him of his great feats: "…having fetched cedar, the unique tree, from its mountains, having killed Humbaba in the forest…"[8]
The iconography of the apotropaic severed head of Humbaba, with staring eyes, flowing beard and wild hair, is well documented from the First Babylonian Dynasty, continuing into Neo-Assyrian art and dying away during the Achaemenid rule. The severed head of the monstrous Humbaba found a Greek parallel in the myth of Perseus[9] and the similarly employed head of Medusa, which Perseus placed in his leather sack.[10] Archaic Greek depictions of the gorgoneion render it bearded, an anomaly in the female Gorgon. Judith McKenzie detected Humbaba heads in a Nabatean tomb frieze at Petra.
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According to a Pastor from the Democratic Republic of Congo the Lunda and the Kuba people of Central Africa were one of the many ethnic group that used to live in Ancient Mesopotamia. The Iraqi city of Bakuba was name after the Kuba people.
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TERRACOTTA FIGURINE OF ISHTAR-ASTARTÉ | 1900 BC - 1600 BC
Gorgeous full lines - Sumerian Statue (Goddess Inanna). Innana is the Sumerian goddess of sexual love, fertility
Lilith - Ancient Sumerian Image also considered to be an image of Inanna Goddess of Mysteries
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Goddess Ishtar (Astarte) terracotta figurine - circa 1.800-1.600 BC, from Mesopotamia Culture
This Late Cypro-Archaic (late seventh century BCE) terra-cotta figure of a woman wearing a long garment, "turban," and three necklaces is from the sanctuary at Arsos. Identified as priestesses, such figures have also been found at sanctuaries in the eastern Aegean, of Hera on Samos and of Athena on Rhodes, linking Cyprus with that region.
7th C. BCE Cast Clay Plaque may reflect popular religion. Conventionally described as a figurine of a goddess, perhaps even the Sumerian Inanna, patron-deity of fertility, or her Akkadian counterpart Ishtar, whose name is preserved in the Biblical Esther, although lacking the iconographic attributes of divinity: the horned crown and the flounced garment. In fact, the figure is totally unclothed, except for her necklace. Babylonian Coll. Sterling Memorial Library. Yale U.
Syrian-style nude female Period: Late Bronze Age Date: ca. 15th century B.C. Geography: Upper Egypt Medium: Boxwood +252 boards
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Clay tablet 2000 BC - British Museum: Humbaba was an Assyrian mountain Giant who lived in and guarded the cedar forest. He was very large, with fires kindling in his cave-like mouth and trees growing on his back. Humbaba could cause earthquakes just by breathing heavily. It was said that Humbaba's voice sounded like the roar of a cracking iceburg. He was killed by the hero Gilgamesh.
The worship of Cybele was originally centered in Phrygia (central Turkey), where she was known Kubaba or Kybele. The Romans formally adopted her worship in 204 BCE, when they brought a statue representing her from her main shrine in the Phrygian city of Pergamum back to Rome. This statue, from a site in Anatolia dating to the eighth or early seventh century BCE, depicts the Phrygian goddess with two youthful attendents playing a flute and harp.
Estatuilla de Ishtar - Alabastro, oro y rubíes - Necrópolis de Hillah, Babilonia - Siglos II aC-II bC.
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PAZUZU / ZOZO! In Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, Pazuzu is often depicted as a combination of diverse animal and human parts. He has the body of a man, the head of a lion or dog, eagle-like taloned feet, two pairs of wings, a scorpion's tail, and a serpentine penis. He is often depicted with his right hand pointing upward and left hand pointing down.
Mena: The Babylonian God Pazuzu other name is Zozo. Pazuzu has a big serpentine penis. In Haitian creole zozo mean penis and coco mean vagina
Pazuzu
Pazuzu relicario
Persian bronze figure of Kusarikku (the Bull-man), Iran, Late 2nd Millennium BC
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