Important Ancient Mesopotamian Deities | Middle East And North Africa

SUMERIAN VERSUS SEMITIC GODS

Enlil and Ninlil

Two strongly contrasted streams of religious influence thus flowed from Nippur in the north of Babylonia and from Eridu in the south. The one brought with it a belief in the powers of darkness and evil, in sorcery and magic, and a religion of fear; the other spoke of light and culture, of gods who poured blessings upon men and healed the diseases that afflicted them. Asalluhi was addressed as “he who raises the dead to life,” and Ea was held to be the first legislator and creator of civilized society. How far the foreign influence which moulded the creed of Eridu was of Semitic origin it is impossible to say. Semitic influences, however, began to work upon Sumerian religion at a very early date. [Source: “Babylonians And Assyrians: Life And Customs”, Rev. A. H. Sayce, Professor of Assyriology at Oxford, 1900]

The Semite and the Sumerian intermingled with one another; at first the Semite received the elements of culture from his more civilized neighbor, but a time came when he began to give something in return. The result of this introduction of Semitic and Sumerian beliefs and ideas was the official religion of later Babylonia. The “spirits” who had ranked above the rest now became gods in the Semitic sense of the term.Mul-lil of Nippur became the Semitic Baal or Bel, the supreme lord of the world, who governs the world below as well as the world above. He it was who conferred empire over mankind upon his worshippers and whose ministers and angels were the spirits of popular belief.

Ea wanted but little to become a true god; his name remained unchanged and his dominion extended to all waters whatever, wherever they might be. His son Asalluhi passed into Marduk, the patron-deity of Babylon, who, when his city became the capital of Babylonia, took the place of Bel of Nippur as the supreme Bel. As in Greek mythology the younger Zeus dethroned his father, so in Babylonia the younger Bel of Babylonia dethroned the older Bel of Nippur. Similarly, Anu, the spirit of the sky, became the Semitic Sky-god Anu, whose temple stood at Erech.

Ur, on the western bank of the Euphrates, was dedicated to the Moon-god under the name of Sin, like Harran in Mesopotamia; Larsa was dedicated to the Sun-god. When Borsippa became a suburb of Babylon its presiding deity became at the same time the minister and interpreter of Marduk under the title of Nabium or Nebo “the prophet.” The Semitic god everywhere took the place of the Sumerian “spirit,” while those among the “spirits” themselves who had not undergone the transforming process merged in the three hundred spirits of heaven and the six hundred spirits of earth. They formed the “hosts of heaven,” of whom Bel was the lord.

But Semitic belief necessitated the existence of a goddess by the side of the god. It was, indeed, a grammatical necessity rather than a theological one; the noun in the Semitic languages has a feminine as well as a masculine gender, and the masculine Bilu or Bel, accordingly, implied a female Belit or Beltis. But the goddess was little more than a grammatical shadow of the god, and her position was still further weakened by the analogy of the human family where the wife was regarded as the lesser man, the slave and helpmeet of her husband. One goddess only escaped the general law which would have made her merely the pale reflection of the god. This was Ishtar.

ISHTAR

Inanna was the Sumerian goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, war, combat, justice, and political power. She was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians under the name Ishtar. Known as the "Queen of Heaven", she was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, which was her main cult center. She was associated with the planet Venus and her most prominent symbols included the lion and the eight-pointed star.Her husband was the god Dumuzid the Shepherd (later known as Tammuz) and her sukkal, or personal attendant, was the goddess Ninshubur (who later became the male deity Papsukkal). [Source: Wikipedia]

Ishtar was great mother-goddess, worshipped in a threefold capacity as the goddess of fertility and vegetation, as the goddess of war, and as the goddess of love. In many respects she is the most interesting figure in the BabyIonian-Assyrian pantheon.She was believed to have the power to provide her worshipers with children and lambs and is a good example of how Mesopotamia gods were also linked to and had similarities with Gods in other cultures. Ishtar evolved into Diana and Artemis in Asia Minor and Aphrodite in Greece. Her lover Tammuz was associated with crops. In the lean months of summer people fasted until Tammuz rose from dead and made the world green again. The myth is similar to the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone. In the Bible the prophet Ezekiel was disgusted by women in Jerusalem who were “weeping for Tammuz.”

Inana possessed the gifts of Me, the powers of music, wisdom and art. Enki was originally in charge of these gifts. The gifts were stored in his "worship center" at Eridu. Inanna complained that she, the female principle, did not receive enough power. She used the old wineskin trick and got Enki drunk and got him to give her the powers. She took them to her worship center at Erech. When Enki sobered up he tried to recover them but did not succeed.

MARDUK, THE MAIN BABYLONIAN GOD

Marduk from Elam

The main Babylonian god was Marduk while the main Assyrian god was Ashur. Ultimately simply called Bel, or Lord, Marduk was the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia. Originally he seems to have been a god of thunderstorms. A poem, known as Enuma elish, dating from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1124-03 B.C.), describes Marduk as being so powerfull and all-encompassing that he has 50 names, each one a deity or of a divine attribute. He became "lord of the gods of heaven and earth" after conquering the monster of primeval chaos, Tiamat. All nature, including man, was created by him. The destiny of kingdoms and individuals was in his hands. [Source: Kenneth Sublett, piney.com]

Morris Jastrow said: “Anu, Enlil, Ea, presiding over the universe, are supreme over all the lower gods and spirits combined as Annunaki and Igigi, but they entrust the practical direction of the universe to Marduk, the god of Babylon. He is the first-born of Ea, and to him as the worthiest and fittest for the task, Anu and Enlil voluntarily commit universal rule. This recognition of Marduk by the three deities, who represent the three divisions of the universe—heaven, earth, and all waters,—marks the profound religious change that was brought about through the advance of Marduk to a commanding position among the gods. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911]

“From being a personification of the sun with its cult localised in the city of Babylon, over whose destinies he presides, he comes to be recognised as leader and director of the great Triad. Corresponding, therefore, to the political predominance attained by the city of Babylon as the capital of the united empire, and as a direct consequence thereof, the patron of the political centre becomes the head of the pantheon to whom gods and mankind alike pay homage. The new order must not, however, be regarded as a break with the past, for Marduk is pictured as assuming the headship of the pantheon by the grace of the gods, as the legitimate heir of Anu, Enlil, and Ea.

ENLIL, STORM GOD AND MAIN GOD OF NIPPUR

Enlil (Bel, Baal) was a storm or wind god and the main god in Nippur. Some Christian writers have equated the Holy Spirit as a "person" to Enlil as the chief administrator of the other "gods." His chief, in turn, is Nusku and he is the leader of the Anunnaki (the triad of deities that also includes Anu and Ea).

Enlil was the main Sumerian deity and sometimes treated like supreme deity. Nippur, built on the Euphrates and at its height around 2500 B.C., was the home of important temple dedicated to Enlil and other temples, including one dedicated to Bau (Gula), the Mesopotamian goddess of healing. Nippur (pronounced nĭ poor’) was the main religious center of Sumer and remained an important religious center through the Babylonian and Assyrian eras. Nippur was seat of the cult of Enlil. It was never an important city-state and was ruled by other city-states.

Morris Jastrow said: “We have seen that the city of Nippur occupied a special place among the older centres of the Euphrates Valley, marked not by any special political predominance—though this may once have been the case—but by a striking religious significance. Corresponding to this position of the city, we find the chief deity of the place, even in the oldest period, occupying a commanding place in the pantheon and retaining a theoretical leadership even after Enlil was forced to yield his prerogatives to Marduk. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911]

“The name Enlil is composed of two Sumerian elements and signifies the “lord of the storm.” His character as a storm-god, thus revealed in his name, is further illustrated by traits ascribed to him. The storm constitutes his weapon. He is frequently described and addressed as the “Great Mountain.” His temple at Nippur is known as E-Kur, “Mountain House,” which term, because of the supreme importance of this Temple, became, as we have seen,the general name for a sanctuary. Since, moreover, his consort Ninlil is designated as Nin-Kharsag, “Lady of the Mountain,” there are substantial reasons for assuming that his original seat was on the top of some mountain, as is so generally the case with storm-deities like Jahweh, the god of the Hebrews, the Hittite god Teshup, Zeus, and others. There being no mountains in the Euphrates Valley, the further conclusion is warranted that Enlil was the god of a people whose home was in a mountainous region, and who brought their god with them when they came to the Euphrates Valley, just as the Hebrews carried the cult of Jahweh with them when they passed from Mt. Sinai into Palestine. Nippur is so essentially a Sumerian settlement that we must perforce associate the earliest cult of Enlil with the non-Semitic element in the population. Almost the only region from which the Sumerians could have come was the east or the north-east—the district which in a general way we may designate by the name Elam, though the Sumerians, like the Kassites in later days, might have originated in a region considerably to the north of Elam.”

EA (ENKI), GOD OF THE UNIVERSE OR UNDERWORLD

Enki

Ea or Enki or Ea was an amicable God of the Underworld. In Sumer he formed a triad with the gods Enlil and Anu. Later he formed a triad with Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of fertility and love, who was worshiped by both the Babylonians and Assyriansm and the main Babylonian god Marduk or the main Assyrian god Ashur. Ea was the "patron god of music" and much more. According to Biblical scholar George Barton Ea is the Babylonian version of Lamech. Lamech was the "father" of offspring associated with the use of weapons and musical instruments to collectivize people under a central "Tower of Babel" or tower of power political-religious institution.

Morris Jastrow said: “As in the case of Enlil, Ea’s strength rests in his word, but the word of Ea is of a character more spiritual than that of Enlil—not the roar of the ocean but the gentle flow of streams. He commands, and what he plans comes into existence. A wholly beneficent power, he blesses the fields and heals mankind. His most striking trait is his love of humanity; in conflicts between the gods and mankind, he is invariably on the side of the latter. When the gods at the instance of Enlil as the god of storms decide to bring on a deluge to sweep away mankind, it is Ea who reveals the secret to his favourite Utnapishtim, who saves himself, his family, and his belongings on a ship that he is instructed to build. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911]

“At Eridu it is Ea who is regarded as the creator of the universe, including mankind, but he is an artificer who produces by the cunning of his hand. The world is made by him as an architect builds a house. This character he retains throughout all periods. It is to him that the origin of the Arts is attributed: he is the patron of smiths and of all workers in metals. Down through the Greek period the tradition is preserved which makes him the teacher of mankind to whom all knowledge and science are due—the knowledge of effective incantations, the purification from disease, the art of writing, and the wisdom of the heavens. The waters thus personified by Ea present a striking contrast both to the angry billows of the turbulent and treacherous ocean, and to the waters that on the command of Enlil come from on high, causing the rivers to overstep their banks, bursting the dams and canals, flooding the fields, and working general havoc among the habitations of mankind.

“Of the numerous designations for Ea, a very common one was En-ki which describes him as “lord of the earth.” As a water deity it was natural that he should be associated with the earth, also the scene of his beneficent activity. Earth and water represent a close partnership, more particularly in a low country like the Euphrates Valley where one does not have to dig far before coming to the domain of Ea. Enlil thus controls the surface of the earth and the region of storms just above it, while to Ea belongs the control of the waters and the interior of the earth, fed by the streams over which he presides.”

SIN (NANNAR), THE MOON GOD

Nanna from Ur

Sin (Nannar, Nanna) was the Mesopotamian Moon God. He has strong associations with time, fertility, agriculture and kingship. Among the Sumerians as the firstborn of Enlil and Ninlil, Lord and Lady Air, Nanna was known as the Prince of the Gods, and was ranked second in deity hierarchy after Enlil, the chief god of Sumer. Nanna is the father of Utu/Shamash, the Sun God, and presides over night and day.

Morris Jastrow said: Sin “appears under various designations; prominent among them is that of En-Zu, “the lord of knowledge,” of which the name Sin may be a derivative. As the god of wisdom, he reminds us of Nebo, but his knowledge lies more particularly in reading the signs in the heavens. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911]

“It is in astrological lore and through the widespread influence of astrology in Babylonia and Assyria that Sin appears in the full exuberance of his powers. The moon as the great luminary of the night, with its constantly changing phases, forms, in fact, the basis of divination through the phenomena observed in the heavens. This form of divination, as we shall see in a subsequent lecture, is the direct outcome of speculation in the temple-schools—not an outgrowth of popular beliefs,—but such was the importance that astrology (which may be traced back to the days of Sargon) acquired in the course of time that in an enumeration of the gods, even in texts other than astrological compilations, Sin invariably takes precedence over Shamash.

“The Semitic form of his name is Nannar, which means “illumination” or “luminary,” and this appears to be a designation more particularly connected with the cult at Harran. It is by virtue of being the great luminary of the night also that he becomes the “father of the gods,” as he is frequently called in hymns. He is depicted on seal cylinders as an old man with a flowing beard, said in poetical compositions to be of a lapis-lazuli colour. His headgear consists of a cap on which the horns of the moon are generally indicated; and it is interesting to note, as pointing to the influence acquired by the moon-cult, that the horns became a general symbol of divinity which, e.g., Naram-Sin attaches to his head on the famous monument on which he depicts himself as a ruler with the attribute of divinity.

“The antiquity of the moon-cult is attested by very ancient Sumerian hymns that have come down to us, in which he is frequently described as sailing along the heavens in a ship. It is a reasonable supposition that the moon’s crescent suggested this picture of a sailing bark. The association between Sin and the city of Ur is particularly close, as is seen in the common designation of this centre as the “city of Nan-nar.” No doubt the political importance of the place had much to do with maintaining the high rank accorded to Sin in the systematised pantheon. And yet outside of his sphere in Babylonian-Assyrian astrology, the moon-cult, apart from special centres like Ur and Harr an, is not a prominent feature in the actual worship. The agricultural life is too closely dependent on the sun to permit of any large share being taken by the moon. He is not among the Powers whose presence is directly felt in communities whose chief occupation is the tilling of the soil; and, as has already been suggested, his position in astrological divination determines the relationship in which he stands to both gods and mankind.”

Nanna on the Stela of Nabonidus

Nanna’s role as the patron of time and connection with the coming and going of days, nights, and seasons is evident year in the following hymn:
"Nanna, great Lord, light shining in the clear skies,
Wearing on his head a prince´s headdress,
Right god bringing forth day and night,
Establishing the month, bringing the year to completion..."
(Jacobsen, 1973:122)
Another hymn goes:
"... When you have measured the days of a month,
When you have reached this day,
........................................
When you have made manifest to the people,
Your day of lying down of a completed month,
You gradually judge, o Lord, law cases in the underworld, make decisions superbly ..."
(Jacobsen, 1973)

Hymn to Nannar (Sin)

A Hymn to Nannar goes:
Father Nannar, lord, moon-god, prince of the gods,
Father Nannar, lord of Uru, prince of the gods.
Lord, thy deity fills the far-off heavens,
like the vast sea, with reverential fear! ...
Father, begetter of gods and men,
who establishest for them dwellings
and institutest for them that which is good. ...
Chief, mighty, whose heart is great,
god whom no one can name, ...
In heaven, who is supreme ?
[Source: :The Treasures of Darkness,” Jacobsen, p.7]

As for thee, it is thou alone who art supreme! ...
As for thee, thy decree is made known upon earth,
and the spirits of the abyss kiss the dust!
As for thee, thy decree blows above like the wind,
and stall and pasture become fertile!
As for thee, thy decree is accomplished upon earth below,
and the grass and green things grow! ...
As for thee, thy decree has called into being equity and justice,
and the peoples have promulgated thy law! ...
O Lord, mighty in heaven, sovereign upon earth,
among the gods thy brothers, thou hast no rival!
(Dawn Civ 654) Father Nanna, lord, conspicuously crowned, prince of the gods,
Father Nanna, grandly perfect in majesty, prince of the gods;
Father Nanna (measuredly) proceeding in noble raiment, prince of the gods;
fierce young bull, thick of horns, perfect of limbs, with lapis lazuli beard,full of beauty;
fruit, created of itself, grown to full size, good to look at, with whose beauty one is never sated;
womb, giving birth to all, who has settled down in a holy abode;
merciful forgiving father, who holds in his hand the life of all the land;
Lord! — (the compass of) your divine providence, (vast) as the far-off heavens, the wide sea, is awesome (to behold).

SHAMASH, THE SUN GOD

Shamash

The sun god Shamash crossed the heavens in a chariot as the Egyptian god Aren did in Mesopotamian and Egyptian times and the Greek god Apollo would later do. Shamash is particularly associated with the city-state of Sippar. During the night he traveled through the underworld and passed judgement on the dead.

Morris Jastrow said: “Whatever the reasons that led to this concentration of all the unfavourable phases of the sun-god on Nergal, the prominence that the cult of Babbar (or Shamash) at Sippar acquired was certainly one of the factors involved. This cult cannot be separated from that at Larsa. The designation of the god at both places is the same, and the name of the chief sanctuary of the sun-god at both Larsa and Sippar is E-Babbar (or E-Barra), “the shining house.” The cult of Babbar was transferred from the one place to the other, precisely as Marduk’s worship was carried from Eridu to Babylon. While Larsa appears to be the older of the two centres, Sippar, from the days of Sargon onward, begins to distance its rival, and, in the days of Hammurabi, it assumes the character of a second capital, ranking immediately after Babylon, and often in close association with that city. Even the cult of Marduk could not dim the lustre of Shamash at Sippar. During the closing days of the neo-Babylonian empire, the impression is imparted that there was, in fact, some rivalry between the priests of Sippar and those of Babylon. Nabonnedos, the last king of Babylonia, is described as having offended Marduk by casting his lot in with the adherents of Shamash, so that when Cyrus enters the city he is hailed as the saviour of Marduk’s prestige and received with open arms by the priests of Babylon. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

“The original solar character of Marduk, we have seen, was obscured by his assuming the attributes of other deities that were practically absorbed by him, but in the case of Shamash at Sippar no such transformation of his character took place. He remains throughout all periods the personification of the beneficent power residing in the sun. The only change to be noted as a consequence of the pre-eminence of the cult at Sippar is that the sun-god of this place, absorbing in a measure many of the minor localised sun-cults, becomes the paramount sun-god, taking the place occupied in the older Babylonian pantheon by Ninib of Nippur. The Semitic name of the god—Shamash— becomes the specific term for the sun, not only in Babylonia but throughout the domain of the Semites and of Semitic influence.

“A place had, however, to be found for sun-cults at centres so important that they could not be absorbed even by Shamash of Sippar. Nippur retained its religious prestige throughout all vicissitudes, and its solar patron was regarded in the theological system as typifying more particularly the sun of the springtime; while at Cuthah Nergal was pictured as the sun of midsummer with all the associations connected with that trying season. The differentiation had to a large extent a purely theoretical import. The practical cult was not affected by such speculations and no doubt, at Cuthah itself, Nergal was also worshipped as a beneficent power. On the other hand, Ninib, as a survival of the period when he was the “Shamash” of the entire Euphrates Valley, is also regarded, like Nergal, as a god of war and of destruction along with his beneficent manifestations. In ancient myths dealing with his exploits his common title is “warrior,” and the planet Saturn, with which he is identified in astrology, shares many of the traits of Mars-Nergal. Shamash of Sippar also illustrates these two phases. Like Ninib, he is a “warrior,” and often shows himself enraged against his subjects.

“The most; significant feature, however, of the sun-cult in Babylonia, which applies more particularly to Shamash of Sippar, is the association of justice and righteousness with the god. Shamash, as the judge of mankind, is he who brings hidden crimes to light, punishing the wrongdoers and righting those who have been unjustly condemned. It is he who pronounces the judgments in the courts of justice. The priests in their capacity of judges speak in his name. Laws are promulgated as the decrees of Shamash; it is significant that even so ardent a worshipper of Marduk as Hammurabi places the figure of Shamash at the head of the monument on which he inscribes the regulations of the famous code compiled by him, thereby designating Shamash as the source and inspiration of law and justice.

“The hymns to Shamash, almost without exception, voice this ascription. He is thus addressed:
“The progeny of those who deal unjustly will not prosper.
What their mouth utters in thy presence
Thou wilt destroy, what issues from their mouth thou wilt dissipate.
Thou knowest their transgressions, the plan of the wicked thou rejectest.
All, whoever they be, are in thy care;
Thou directest their suit, those imprisoned thou dost release;
Thou hearest, O Shamash, petition, prayer, and imploration.”
Another passage of the hymn declares that
“He who takes no bribe, who cares for the oppressed
Is favoured by Shamash,—his life shall be prolonged.

Prayer of Ashurbanipal to Shamash

Shamash

Prayer of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668–627 B.C.) to Shamash (A prayer for the well-being of Ashurbanipal):
O light of the great gods, light of the earth, illuminator of the world-regions,
... exalted judge, the honored one of the upper and lower regions,
... Thou dost look into all the lands with thy light.
As one who does not cease from revelation, daily thou dost determine the decisions of heaven and earth.
Thy [rising] is a flaming fire; all the stars in heaven are covered over.
Thou art uniquely brilliant; no one among the gods is equal with thee.
With Sin, thy father, thou dost hold court; thou dost deliver ordinances.
Anu and Enlil without thy consent establish no decision. [Source: piney.com]

Ea, (patron god of music) the determiner of judgment in the midst of the Deep,
depends upon thee. [literally "looks upon thy face"]
The attention of all the gods is turned to thy bright rising.
They inhale incense; they receive pure bread-offerings.
The incantation priests [bow down] under thee in order to cause signs of evil to pass away.
The oracel priests [stand before] thee in order to make the hands worthy to bring oracles.
[Source: I am] thy [servant], Ashurbanipal, the exercising of whose kingship thou didst command in a vision,
[The worshiper of] thy bright divinity, who makes glorious the appurtenances of thy divinity,
[The proclaimer of] thy greatness, who glorifies thy praise to widespread peoples.
Judge his case; turn his fate to prosperity.
[Keep] him in splendor; daily let him walk safely.
[Forever] may he rule over thy people whom thou hast given him in righteousness.
[In the house] which he made, and within which he caused thee to dwell in joy,

May he rejoice in his heart, in his disposition may he be happy, may he be satisified in living.
Whoever shall sing this psalm, (and) name the name of Ashurbanipal,
In abundance and righteousness may he rule over the people of Enlil.
Whoever shal l learn this text (and) glorify the judge of the gods,
May Shamash enrich his ...; may he make pleasing his command over the people.
Whoever shall cause this song to cease,
(and) shall not glorify Shamash (Sun God), the light of the great gods,
Or shall change the name of Ashurbanipal,
the exercise of whose kingship Shamash in a vision commanded,
and then shall name another royal name,
May his playing on the harp be displeasing to the people;
may his song of rejoicing be a thorn and a thistle.

Hymn to Shamash: The Justice of the God

The Great Hymn to Shamash is among the longest and most beautiful of the hymns that have come down to us in cuneiform and is regarded as one of the best products of Mesopotamian religious writing.

You climb to the mountains surveying the earth,
22. You suspend from the heavens the circle of the lands.
23. You care for all the peoples of the lands,
24. And everything that Ea, king of the counsellors, had created is
entrusted to you.
25. Whatever has breath you shepherd without exception,
26. You are their keeper in upper and lower regions.
27. Regularly and without cease you traverse the heavens,
28. Every day you pass over the broad earth. . . .
33. Shepherd of that beneath, keeper of that above,
34. You, Shamash, direct, you are the light of everything.
35. You never fail to cross the wide expanse of sea,
36. The depth of which the Igigi know not.
37. Shamash, your glare reaches down to the abyss
38. So that monsters of the deep behold your light. . . .
45. Among all the Igigi there is none who toils but you,
46. None who is supreme like you in the whole pantheon of gods.
47. At your rising the gods of the land assemble,
48. Your fierce glare covers the land.
49. Of all the lands of varied speech,
50.. You know their plans, you scan their way.
[Source: translation by W. G. Lambert, in his “Babylonian Wisdom Literature” (Oxford, 1960,)I, 127 ff, Enteract.com]

51.. The whole of mankind bows to you,
52. Shamash, the universe longs for your light. . . .
88. A man who covets his neighbour's wife
89. Will [ . . .] before his appointed day.
90.. A -nasty snare is prepared for him. [ . . .]
91. Your weapon will strike at him, and there will be none to save
him.
92. [His] father will not stand for his defense,
93. And at the judge's command his brothers will not plead.
94. He will be caught in a copper trap that he did not foresee.
95. You destroy the horns of a scheming villain,
96. A zealous [. . .] his foundations are undermined.
97. You give the unscrupulous judge experience of fetters,
98. Him who accepts a present and yet lets justice miscarry you make
bear his punishment.
99. As for him who declines a present but nevertheless takes the part
of the weak,

100.. It is pleasing to Shamash, and he will prolong his life. . . .
124. The progeny of evil-doers will [fail.]
125. Those whose mouth says 'No'-their case is before you.
126. In a moment you discern what they say;
127. You hear and examine them; you determine the lawsuit of the
wronged.
128. Every single person is entrusted to your hands;
129. You manage their omens; that which is perplexing you make plain.
130. You observe, Shamash, prayer, supplication, and benediction,
131. Obeisance, kneeling, ritual murmurs, and prostration.
132. The feeble man calls you from the hollow of his mouth,
133. The humble, the weak, the afflicted, the poor,
134. She whose son is captive constantly and unceasingly confronts
you.
135. He whose family is remote, whose city is distant,
136. The shepherd [amid) the terror of the steppe confronts you,
137. The herdsman in warfare, the keeper of sheep among enemies.
138. Shamash, there confronts you the caravan, those journeying in
fear,

The travelling merchant, the agent who is carrying capital.
140. Shamash, there confronts you the fisherman with his net,
141. The hunter, the bowman who drives the game,
142. With his bird net the fowler confronts You.
143. The prowling thief, the enemy of Shamash,
144. The marauder along the tracks of the steppe confronts you.
145. The roving dead, the vagrant soul,
146. They confront you, Shamash, and you hear all.
147. You do not obstruct those that confront you. . . .
148. For my sake, Shamash, do not curse them!
149. You grant revelations, Shamash, to the families of men,
150. Your harsh face and fierce light you give to them. . . .
154. The heavens are not enough as the vessel into which you gaze,
155. The sum of the lands is inadequate as a seer's bowl.......
159. You deliver people surrounded by mighty waves,
160. In return you receive their pure, clear libations. . . .
165. They in their reverence laud the mention of you,
166. And worship your majesty for ever. . . .
174. Which are the mountains not clothed with your beams?
175. Which are the regions not warmed by the brightness of your light?
176. Brightener of gloom, illuminator of darkness,
177. Dispeller of darkness, illuminator of the broad earth.

ANU, RULER OF THE SKY AND THE PRINCIPAL GOD IN URUK

Anu (An) was the ruler of the sky and the principal god in Uruk. He was the son of the first pair of gods, Anshar and Kishar. His consort was Antu (Anatum) later replaced by Ishtar. Anu was member of the triad of deities completed by Enlil (Bel) and Ea (Enki). Morris Jastrow said: “Back of Enlil and Ninib, however, there lies still another deity who in an ancient inscription is called the “beloved father” of Enlil. This deity is Anu, whose cult was specially associated with the city of Uruk. While in the active cults of Babylonia and Assyria Anu is comparatively inconspicuous, the position assigned to him in the systematised pantheon is most significant. As early as the days of Lugal-zaggisi we find the endeavour made to group the great gods recognised in connection with the important political centres into a kind of theological system— an endeavour that reveals the intellectual activity of the priests at this early period. In this grouping Anu is given the first place, and Enlil the second. Anu and Enlil, together with Ea, form a triad summarising, as we shall presently see, the three divisions of the universe—the heavens, the earth (together with the region immediately above it), and the waters flowing around and under the earth. But a god of the heavens is an abstraction, and it is difficult to suppose that this should have been the original view taken of Anu. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

“Popular fancy deals with realities and with personified powers whose workings are seen and felt. It would hardly, therefore, have evolved the view that there was a power to be identified with the heavens as a whole, of which the azure sky is a symbol, as little as it would personify the earth as a whole or the bodies of waters as a whole. It is only necessary to state the implications involved to recognise that the conception of a triad of gods corresponding to three theoretical divisions of the universe is a bit of learned speculation. It smacks of the school. The conception of a god of heaven fits in, moreover, with the comparatively advanced period when the seats of the gods were placed in the skies, and the gods identified with the stars.

“Such an astral theology, however, is not a part of the earlier religious beliefs of the Babylonians; it reflects the later conditions produced under the influence of the religious system devised in the temple schools of one or another centre. The deities popularly recognised, particularly in the earlier period, are personifications, each of some definite power, of the sun, of the moon, of the water, of the storms, or of the fields, as the case may be. Analogy, therefore, taken in connection with the great antiquity of Uruk, the seat of Anu worship, justifies the assumption that Anu was originally the personification of some definite power of nature; and everything points to this power having been the sun in the heavens. Starting from this point of view, we can understand how the great luminary of heaven should have been identified with the heavens in an artificially devised theological system, just as Enlil became in this system the designation of the earth and of the region above the earth viewed as a whole.

Anu, Enlil and Ninib

Morris Jastrow said: “Anu and Enlil—sun-god and storm-god—would thus represent the same combination as was in later times represented by Shamash and Adad—likewise sun-god and storm-god respectively,—who are so constantly associated together.The two would stand again for the two great forces of nature which control the well-being of the Euphrates Valley. In this respect they present a parallel to the pair, Ninib and Enlil, with this difference, however, that whereas in the latter combination Ninib, the sun-god, is the son, and Enlil, the storm-god, is the father, in the case of Anu and Enlil the relationship is reversed, Anu being the father and Enlil the son. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

“When, therefore, Hammurabi calls himself “the proclaimer of Anu and Enlil,” and derives his royal authority from these two, he is using a form of invocation that is co-extensive with the powers practically controlling the universe as it presented itself to the inhabitants of the Euphrates Valley. That Anu should become the father of Enlil accords also with the physical conditions, for to an agricultural people, as has been pointed out, the sun would naturally be the supreme Power; and we have seen that the pre-eminence accorded in the practical cult to Enlil of Nippur was due to the special circumstances attendant upon the introduction of the worship of the Sumerian storm-god in Nippur. Enlil replaces Ninib at Nippur, whereas the absence of any rivalry between the Anu centre and the Enlil centre led to a more natural combination in which the old sun-god retained his place at the head of the systematised pantheon.

“The beginning of an ancient myth in which .Ninib is again the chief character, illustrates the relation in which these three figures—Anu, Enlil, and Ninib—were pictured as standing to one another. Ninib is addressed: “Like Anu thou art formed, / Like Enlil thou art formed! The evident purpose of this apostrophe is to show that Ninib has been given the qualities of both Anu and Enlil. As a sun-god, Ninib could be addressed as Anu, while, as we have seen, he derives his qualities as a storm-god direct from Enlil.

“The material at our disposal does not permit us as yet to penetrate to the earliest history of such ancient centres as Nippur and Uruk, but the indications in myths and hymns point unmistakably to the currency of stories, attributing to both Anu and Enlil the creation of the universe. It was natural that each centre should claim the privilege for its patron deity; and we shall see that other centres did the same. In the national epic of the Babylonians, recounting the adventures of Gilgamesh, and which is a composite production, dating from various periods, the first scene is laid in Uruk, and the goddess Aruru is portrayed as forming man in the image of Anu. This clearly points to Anu as the source of all being. In an ancient version of a creation myth, which however is modified in the process of adaptation to later conditions, the first two cities to be founded are Nippur and Uruk, while the third city is Eridu, the seat of the Ea cult. The myth, therefore, reflects the constitution of the triad, Anu, Enlil, and Ea. In another form of the myth to which attention was above directed, Ninib appears as the hero; but even in this version, which became the favourite one, the story retained traces of the assignment of the part of conqueror of primaeval chaos to Anu. The same story was evidently told of different solar gods in the various centres. In Uruk the conqueror was the sun-god Anu, in Nippur the sun-god Ninib; but with the definite establishment of Enlil as the head of the pantheon, Ninib becomes merely the agent acting at the command of Enlil, and invested with some of Enlil’s attributes in return for the extension of the sphere of Enlil to include the qualities of his son Ninib.

“It was inevitable that with several distinctive factors contributing to the culture and religion of Babylonia and Assyria, the endeavour should be made to adapt the conceptions of the gods and their relationships to one another, and to modify the ancient folk-tales and the cult to meet changed conditions. The evolution of a religion that at each stage reflects a different combination of the political and social kaleidoscope is necessarily complicated.

Adad and Anu

Morris Jastrow said: “To this triad, a fourth figure is frequently added— the god Adad, who is also known as Ramman, and who in several respects occupies a peculiar position in the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon. He is essentially a god of storms and rains, as Enlil originally was. His symbol is the thunderbolt or the forked lightning which he holds in his hand. Though often referred to in myths of a high antiquity, and not infrequently mentioned in votive inscriptions of the earlier rulers of Babylonia, he does not appear to have had any special centre of worship in Babylonia proper. There is no city specifically associated with the Adad cult. This fact, together with the circumstance that a common designation of the god describes him as a deity of the west or Amurru, points to his being an importation into the Euphrates Valley, brought there by an Amoritish wave of migration, and, though assimilated by the Babylonian pantheon, he retains traces of his foreign origin. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

“Moreover, at the time that Adad, or Ramman, was carried into the Euphrates Valley, the chief political and religious centres must have been already definitely constituted, so that Adad appears in the character of an interloper. He bears this character also in Assyria for, although the oldest temple in Assyria is dedicated to him, it is in association with Anu. The double temple of this pair of gods at Ashur has been recently thoroughly excavated, and can now be traced back to the very beginnings of Assyrian history—to about 2400 B.C. The temple is always spoken of as that of Anu and Adad; and this unusual combination of two gods, associated in the name of the temple, suggests that the one or the other represents an afterthought. Since the name of Anu always appears first, there can be no doubt that he is the original deity in whose honour the sanctuary at Ashur was erected.

“Anu, as we have seen, was a solar deity and his association with Adad is, accordingly, of the same nature as the partnership of Anu and Enlil, of Ninib and Enlil, and of Shamash and Adad, the sun-god and the storm-god in all these cases forming a duality which symbolises and sums up the two chief Powers of nature determining the welfare of the country. The addition of Adad to Anu thus reveals the introduction of the worship of the former in the old capital of Assyria, and the importance of the western influence represented by Adad may be gauged by the position accorded him at the side of Anu. Since Prof. Clay has made it probable that traces of this influence are to be seen in some of the conceptions connected with the other chief deities of Babylonia—Ninib, Shamash, Marduk, and even Ea—we may assume this influence to have first manifested itself in Assyria, and then to have spread to the south. We should thus have a counter-current to that northern extension of the Euphratean culture that would account for the presence of the Anu cult in the old city of Ashur. That Anu, and not Ninib or Shamash should have been the solar deity to be thus carried to the north is an indication of the great antiquity of the settlement of Ashur, since the transfer must have taken place at a time when Uruk—the seat of the Anu cult in the south—was one of the chief centres of sun-worship, just as the influence of Uruk is to be seen again in the choice of Anu as the first member of the triad. We thus have indicated the probable order in the predominance of the centres of sun-worship, Anu, Ninib, Shamash, and Marduk, corresponding to the centres, Uruk, Nippur, Sippar, and Babylon.

“Adad is also designated as the “great mountain,” precisely as is Enlil, and, indeed, he is so completely a counterpart of Enlil that this was perhaps a reason why Adad was never assigned to any special cult centre. It is significant, however, that in the collection of astrological omens it is Adad and not Enlil who appears as the representative of atmospheric disturbances such as thunder, lightning, tempests, tornadoes, inundations, and hail-storms—an indication, therefore, that the astrological system was not yet worked out at a time when Enlil held supreme sway. Correspondingly, in the “liver” omens—the other great division of Babylonian-Assyrian divination—the deities invoked are Shamash and Adad. The home of the Amorites being in the mountainous regions of northern Palestine and Syria, their chief deity would naturally be a mountain god, associated with storms and thunder and lightning. Like Enlil and Jahweh, however, Adad at least in his old home, Syria, under the form of Hadad takes on the traits also of a solar deity. There are some indications that in Babylonia and Assyria this transformation, through a partial assimilation of Adad with Enlil, likewise took place, though never to the extent of obscuring the original character of the god as the one presiding over the violent phenomena of nature.

“In Assyria Anu is replaced by a god, bearing the same name as the ancient capital, Ashur. The Assyrian theologians themselves explained Ashur as a contraction of An-shar, which would convey the idea of “Anu of the universe.” An older form of Ashur appears to be Ashir, which may have the general sense of “leader.” Linguistically, the change of Ashir to Ashur can be accounted for, but not the transformation of An-shar to Ashur or Ashir; so that we must assume the “etymology” of Ashur, proposed by some learned scribe, to be in the nature of a play upon the name. The correct instinct underlying this play is, however, the reminiscence that the chief god of Ashur was originally Anu, whose cult was transferred from Uruk, or some other seat in the south, following in the wake of the northward extension of the culture, just as the cult of Marduk moved from Eridu to Babylon. This presiding deity of Ashur was so generally termed the god of Ashur that in time both god and place became identical. This identification may have been assisted by the addition of the title skar to Anu, conveying the idea of large sway, and added, perhaps, in order to distinguish this later Anu from his southern prototype. Be this as it may, the solar character of Ashur is beyond doubt. He is the counterpart of Anu, as well as of Ninib and Shamash. His symbol is the sun-disc with wavy rays extending to the circumference of the disc; and though this impressive symbol was materialised, so to speak, by the addition of a warrior with an arrow within the disc, as an expression of the warlike attributes associated by the Assyrians with their patron deity, still the influence of the symbol was not lost, in lending to the conception of the deity a more spiritual character than is possible when gods are portrayed in human or in animal shape; and, as has been pointed out, it was the Assyrians who thus made a contribution, of no small import, to the stock of religious ideas which they owed to the Babylonians.

Anu, Enlil, Shamash, Ea and The Creation of Man

In the "The 'Eridu Genesis " — the Anunnki (Anu, Enlil, Shamash, Ea) and The Creation of Man — the four great gods — Anu, god of the sky and source of rain and most powerful of the gods; Enlil, Lord of the Wind and god of storsm, Shamash, the sun god; and Ea, guardian of the universe — - from their lofty sanctuaries inhabited as creators, sacrifice Langa to create mankind to work for the gods. Thorkild Jacobsen wrote in “The Treasures of Darkness”"The 'Eridu Genesis ...described the creation of man by the four great gods [the Anunnaki]: Anu, Enlil, Shamash and Ea had decided to turn man from his primitive nomadic camping grounds toward city life the period began when animals flourished on earth and kingship came down from heaven. The earliest cities were built, were named, had the measuring cups, emblems of a redistributional economic system, allotted to them, and were divided between the gods. Irrigation agriculture was developed and man thrived and multiplied. However, the noise made by man (Genun a composite of Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain, Naamah) in his teeming settlements began to vex Enlil sorely, and, driven beyond endurance, he persuaded the other gods to wipe out man in an great flood. Enki, thinking quickly, found a way to warn his favorite, one Ziusudra. He told him to build a boat in which to survive the flood with his family and representatives of the animals."

When both heaven and earth had been completely established; When the mother of the godesses had been born;
when the earth had been brought forth, the land created,
When the domes of heaven and earth had been established,
Straight canals had been constructed;
The Tigris and Euphrates — their banks had been established;
Anu, Enlil, shamash, Ea,
The great gods,
The Anunnaki, the great gods,
Lofty sanctuaries inhabited as creators.
In anxiety they asked:
"Since the domes of heaven and earth have been established,
Straight canals have been constructed,
The Tigris and Euphrates —
Their banks have been established,
What shall we change?
What shall we create?
O Annunnaki, ye great gods,
What shall we change?
What shall we create?"
[Source: George A. Barton, “Archaeology and the Bible”,” 7th Edition revised, (Philadelphia: American Sunday School, 1937), pg. 307-308, piney.com]

The great gods, standing aloft,
The Anunnaki, who determine fate.
The two of them made answer to Enlil;
"In the land where flesh grows, the bond of heaven and earth,
Lamga, Lamga, we will overthrow;
From his blood mankind we will make,
Let the bonds of the gods be bound upon them;
For future days the limit
Be established;
The yoke and lifting cord on their hands
Be placed,
The temple of the great gods
Unto a lofty sanctuary to bring,
The meadows to mark out,
Forever their limits
To establish,
The straight canal
As a boundary to establish,
The earth to water, the plants
To raise,
The rain of heaven, the rain of heaven....
The ravine of the land as a boundary to set,
The storehouse of the district to measure it,
To make the field of the Anunnaki produce,
To increase the abundance of the land,
To keep the feast of the gods,
Cool water to pour out

In the dwellings of the gods which have been made lofty.
Ullugarra and Nigarra
Shall they be called,
Ox, sheep, cattle, fish, and bird,
The abundance of the land to increase,
The lord of gladness and the lady of gladness
With their holy mouth to supplicate.
O Aruru, who hast been raised up for ladyship,
Great structures thou thyself shalt enclose,
Wise men for the people, heroes for the weak,
Like grain springing of itself from the earth, shall be made —
A destiny unchangeable as a star forever.
By day and night
The feasts of the gods,
Their great appointed festivals of themselves
They shall celebrate."
Anu, Enlil,
Ea, Ninmakhu
The great gods,
The place of mankind created.
The goddess Nishaba (grain goddess) in mankind's place was established.
Mighty and secret things
As a scribe I teach. The translator George A. Barton wrote: "The text of this poem is accompanied by a set of notations which are believed to be musical notes. The text was doubtless recited at the festival service of the gods; to recount the great deeds of the gods by the recitation or chanting of such texts was in ancient heathen worship a way of doing them honor. It is interesting that the tablet which records this text contains also directions for chanting it." In this account, instead of being from the blood of Kingu, one of the rebellious gods, husband of the arch-rebel Tiamat, he is made from the blood of Lamga, the craftsman, the god of carpenters.

ASHUR, THE MAIN ASSYRIAN GOD

The main Assyrian god was Ashur and the main Babylonian god was Marduk. Morris Jastrow said: “There is only one rival to Marduk in the later periods, and he is Ashur, who, from being the patron deity of the ancient capital of the Assyrian empire, rises to the rank of the chief deity of the warlike Assyrians. It is just about the time of Hammurabi that Assyria begins to loom into prominence. It was at first merely an extension of Babylonia towards the north with a strong admixture of Hittite and also Amoritish elements, and then a more or less dependent province; later its patesis exchanged the more modest title, with its religious implication, for sharru, “king,” and acquired a practically independent position at the beginning of the second millennium before this era. Within a few centuries, the Assyrians became formidable rivals to their southern cousins. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

Morris Jastrow said: “The cult of Ashur was essentially a worship devoid of images. This did not, however, prevent the god from absorbing the traits of other gods to whom he stood in no direct relationship. To the Assyrians Ashur, naturally, assumed the same rank as Enlil acquired in the older Babylonian pantheon, and as in later periods Marduk assumed. He becomes in fact the Marduk of the north, and like Marduk is regarded as the great bel —the lord paramount. Other members of the pantheon affect his colour,—little Ashurs by the side of the great one. [Source: Morris Jastrow, Lectures more than ten years after publishing his book “Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylonia and Assyria” 1911 ]

“In a manner, therefore, somewhat different from the case of Marduk, he becomes the dominating figure that over-shadows all others. He is the Great God, the God of Gods beside whom all others pale into insignificance. He is the embodiment of the genius of Assyria and, with the definite establishment of Assyria as a great war power whose watchword is conquest and the aim of whose rulers is universal sway, Ashur becomes first and foremost a war-lord, the protector of Assyrian armies, and whose symbol is carried into camp and battle as an assurance of the direct presence of their god in the midst of the fray. The victories of the Assyrian armies were triumphs for Ashur, and the booty of war was his property. The standing phrase in the annals of the Assyrian kings is that “by the help of Ashur” the enemy was overthrown.

“But while the kings of Assyria never fail to give to Ashur the homage due him, and invariably begin the enumeration of the pantheon with his name, the gods of Babylonia by the force of tradition retain their influence also in the north. The greatest among these kings, Tiglathpileser I., Shalmaneser III., Sargon, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanapal, manifest the greatest anxiety to associate with Ashur all the great gods of the pantheon,—Marduk, Nebo, Ea, Sin, Shamash, Adad, Ninib, Nergal, and Nusku. They apparently take every opportunity of enumerating the long list in order to emphasise their attachment to these associates of their patron deity and, by implication, the devotion of all the great gods to the service of themselves as kings. To the title “King of Assyria,” they were on every occasion ambitious to add that of “King of Sumer and Akkad,” and “King of the Four Regions.” To these titles that had come down to them from hoary antiquity, they even added “lieutenant of Bel,” to indicate their control of the south, and “King of Universal Rule,” to symbolise the policy, consistently maintained, of their conquest of the world. To the array of gods, with Ashur at the head, whom they invoke as the protectors of their realm and allies of their ambitions, they never failed to add the powerful goddess Ishtar.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia sourcebooks.fordham.edu , National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, especially Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1991 and Marion Steinmann, Smithsonian, December 1988, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

Last updated June 2024