The horned ‘fish’ signs undoubtedly represent Innana the goddess of love. Throughout Sumerian history, as a ruler of the Erech city-state, she was primarily responsible for sexual love and procreation as the life-giving goddess of love, ensuring the prosperity of the land and its people. Among these decrees were those referring to lordship, wisdom, understanding, victory, judgment, and decisions. She also had a sister, Ereskigal, who was queen of the underworld. Ereshkigal, goddess of death and gloom, inhabited this nether world and was the older sister and bitter enemy of Inanna, the goddess of love and war. Ninlil: Goddess of the air. Major Sumerian Gods and Goddesses Adad – Adad had a twofold aspect, being both the giver and the destroyer of life. Heaven and earth was very confusing until I discovered something. Utu was the Sumerian sun god. A list of deities from Sumerian mythology. The Sumerian Goddesses are usually depicted in human form, each representing different forces of nature. During the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE, Sumerian deities became more anthrocentric and were "...nature gods transformed into city gods." His storms and hurricanes, evidences of his anger against his foes, brought darkness, want, and death. Ancient civilizations gave equal opportunity to deities of either gender, but with the passage of time, the Sumerian Gods took a greater role and the goddesses receded in the background. I have been reading about the Sumerian Gods for quite some time. Queen of the mountains an aspect of the Earth Goddess Ki. Nanshe: Associated with fishing, justice, prophecy and fertility. In this article, you will encounter members of the Annunaki, which were ancient Sumerian gods and goddesses considered as coming from the "royal bloodlines" of the deities. Heaven is the Indus empire, earth represents Sumer and its various kingdoms, and the underworld represents the region south of Mesopotamia that include the islands in the Persian Gulf. The Sumerian King List records all the rulers of Earth back over 400,000 years. The main center of his cult was the temple of E-kur, or the Mountain House, at Nippur, and Enlil was often called “the great mountain” and “king of the foreign lands.”. Ninlil followed her mother’s instructions and as a consequence was impregnated by “the water” of Enlil and conceived the moon god Nanna. An is the Sumerian word for heaven, and he represents the father of all the gods. Between heaven and earth came the air, whose main characteristic was expansion. Many Mesopotamian Gods have Sumerian … The city of Babylon was built to honor the great god Marduk. Finally, man was created by the joint efforts of Nammu, the primeval sea, Ninurta mother-earth, and Enki, the water-god.". The gods were known by different names depending on whether the scribes wrote Sumerian or Akkadian. In the Early Dynastic god lists, such as Fara SF 1, the moon god appears immediately after the four leading gods An, Enlil, Inana and Enki (Klein 2001: 290, and this important, albeit slightly junior position, is confirme… The Sumerians believed that first there was the primeval sea that gave rise to a united heaven and earth. The union of An and Ki produced Enlil (the air god), who went on to separate the heaven father An from the earth mother Ki. Apart from An, Enlil, Enki and Inanna, there were three other deities that make up the seven most important gods and goddesses of the Sumerian pantheon. In art, Enki was represented as a seated god with a long beard surrounded by channels of water. In Sumerian myth, An and Ki produced a variety of plants on the earth. The Sumerian expression for “universe” is an-ki, literally “heaven-earth.” The sky gods lived in heaven, while the earth, consisting of the surface of the earth and the space below which was called the “great below” was where the underworld or chthonic deities lived. Nanna and his wife Ningal were the parents of Utu, the sun god, who was said to “rise in the mountains of the east and set in the mountains of the west.”. This is also why these Goddesses are often referred to as Mesopotamian Goddesses as it is often difficult to attribute a Goddess to a particular group of people as her attributes and names often evolved over time. You will therefore notice many similarities in their characteristics and themes. In Sumerian tradition, he was represented with a saw knife and fiery rays. Once heaven and earth had been separated, plants, animals, and human life became possible. Sumerian Pantheon. Later they were separated by their son Enlil and moved away from each other. See more ideas about Ishtar, Sumerian, Gods and goddesses. Sumerian Gods and Goddesses By Lindsey Crowell Sumerian People Sumerians believed in many Gods and Goddesses. The cult of Utu can be traced back to very early times. Sumerian Gods and Goddesses Sumerian Gods Is Anu holding the symbolic Holy Grail of a Bloodline he created? Enlil - The god of air, wind, and storms, Enlil held the Tablets of Destiny. Then to see better, Enlil begot the moon-god Nanna, who in turn begot the sun-god Utu, presumably to make the light brighter. His wife is the earth goddess Ki. The underworld was the maritime region, whose strength was overseas trade and wealth. Although one of the most important deities, An was ill-defined and he is represented in art with obscure iconography and attributes. His wife was the air goddess Ninlil, and among the children of Enlil are the goddess Inanna and the gods Nanna, Ninurta, Utu, and many more. Inanna might have been popular, but she was a ways down the totem-pole. The legend is that Enlil found himself living in utter darkness in the sky. Utu’s main function was to supervise the moral order, since justice, truth, and righteousness were important to the Sumerians. In Sumerian tradition, he was represented with a saw knife and fiery rays. The Sumerians lived in southern Babylonia from 4000 to 3000 BC and had strong spiritual beliefs. Associated with the moon, Sin was represented as the bull, with the symbol alluding to the resemblance of the waxing moon to the horns of the animal. When air moved above earth (or when Enlil united with his mother Ki) and received the aid of water (Enki), plants and animals came into being. Their gods An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu, and Inanna were the seven gods who “decreed the fates,” together with around 3,000 more. The gods, goddesses and demons, the motifs, symbols and religious beliefs of the several thousand years of One of them is Utu , … She was a patron of Uruk, where her principal shrine E-ana, or House of Heaven, was located. Many Babylonian Gods and Goddesses originate from the Sumerian beliefs. Unique to Sumerian religion is the fact that there is an absolute inferiority of men to gods. It talked about a lot of things from high magick to vampirism and even a great war. The 7 Lesser Gods and Goddesses Ancient Sumerian Anunnaki. Sarpanit: A mother goddess and the consort of the chief god, Marduk. There is also reason to believe that Enlil took the place of An as the leader of the pantheon according to sources from around 2500 BC. Ereshkigal: Originally a sky Goddess kidnapped and taken to the underworld where she became Queen. His rains caused the land to bear grain and other food for his friends; hence his title Lord of Abundance. He was generally regarded as the offspring of Uras, or alternately of Ansar and Kisar. Enki, the god of wisdom, organized the earth according to the decisions of Enlil, who made the general plans. An became the ruler of heaven and Ki became the ruler of earth. These are the Goddesses of creation and destruction. She was also famous for taking one hundred divine decrees governing all cultural and political achievements which made up the Sumerian civilization in Enki. An and Ki produced within or between them Enlil, air, and as the air began to stir in the darkness within the mountain, it separated sky and earth. Inanna was the daughter of Enlil and twin sister of the sun god Utu. Utu was the Sumerian sun god. Though Inanna was brought to life, she had to produce a substitute to take her place in the nether world. His reach and importance, however, was far greater than just a city god, the moon god is clearly one of the most important deities in the wider pantheon of Mesopotamia. Their history is shrouded in mystery. Nidaba: Goddess of learning writing and astrology. This cosmological shift may have been caused by the gr… Various Sumerian poems are about Inanna and her love for Dumuzi and how she was ultimately responsible for his death. Together with An, there was Nanna, the moon god; Enlil, the air god; and his wife Ninlil, the air goddess. This course includes the most important and highly worshiped deities from as long ago as 5000 BC. Enki was always seen as favoring mankind. The major deities in the Sumerian pantheon included An, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the god of wind and storm, Enki, the god of water and human culture, Ninhursag, the goddess of fertility and the earth, Utu, the god of the sun and justice, and his father Nanna, the god of the moon. In other religions, the faithful are afforded the comfort of life after death. In Sumerian religion, the most powerful and important deities in the pantheon were the … Anunnaki has been considered to be the descendants of An and his spouse, the earth goddess Ki. The Babylonians, Assyrians, and Akkadians that lived for about thousands of years prior to the common era are all covered in the Sumerian civilization. An - A sky god, the cuneiform symbol for this god, "Dingir," was the same as that for heaven and for divinity in general, reflecting his prominence in the Sumerian pantheon. The Greeks later referred to this area as Mesopotamia which means the land between the rivers ( the Tigris and Euphrates). The goddess Gula (whose name means “great”) was a healing goddess who understood disease and became the patroness of doctors. Also known as Nillina. The word Sumerian was not coined by the people themselves but by the Akkadians who took over the region and created the Babylonian civilisation. Ninhursag: Great Mother Goddess. This huge stretch of time coupled with reigns into the thousands of years has caused most historians to reject its accuracy. He has been described as a supreme lord, father, creator, and a “raging storm.” Enlil had the important task of allocating land and kingship to the kings and was a most beneficent god, responsible for planning and creating most of the features in the cosmos. I deciphered the ‘fish’ sign and found that it represents woman. Sky God who ruled heaven, ruled the great ranges of the snow clad Hindukush, the Karakoram and the Himalayas. As a protector of good and destroyer of evil, he also had a warrior aspect to his personality. There was an unbroken rule that no one who entered the underworld could return without producing a substitute. The Tablet of Destinies was one of the objects which gave Enlil the power to determine the destinies of the world. Inanna, twin of Utu/Shamash, children of Nannar/Sin, first born on Earth of Enlil. It is important to cover Sumerian Goddesses as their stories come from what is believed to be one of the earliest civilizations on earth. The legendary city of Aratta was in the Indus Valley. (Foothills are hills that are near Adad to Utu There were hundreds of gods who were responsible for every thing in the world, from rivers and mountains to making bread or pottery. He was describe… Mesopotamian gods and goddesses are known from the literature of the Sumerian people, the oldest written language on our planet.Those stories were written down by city administrators whose jobs involved the upkeep of the religion, along with the upkeep of commerce and trade. Seven goddesses stood by to assist Nammu during the birth of mankind. Damkina: An Earth mother Goddess also known as Damgalnuna. The execution of these plans was left to Enki who was wise, skillful, handy, and resourceful. Sin (or Nanna in Sumerian, not to be confused with the Norse deity) was the tutelary god of Ur, one of the major ancient Mesopotamian urban centers that originally occupied a coastal position near the mouth of river Euphrates (in what is now southern Iraq). Lord of the abzuThe god Ea (whose Sumerian equivalent was Enki) is one of the three most powerful gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon, along with Anu and Enlil. Sumerians are an early civilization to have Gods of Wealth. She protected the needy, providing food and shelter during hard times. His symbol is a horned cap. She helped breathe life into mankind after the Great Flood. The Sumerian Goddesses and Gods were the foundation upon which their society was based. The “little ones” (the stars), were scattered around like grain while the “big ones” (the planets), walked around the moon. We know that they were pantheistic and their gods were the personification of the elements and natural forces. A God of wealth called Bogu and a Babylonian god of fortune related to the God Marduk named Ziku are the two Sumerian Gods of Wealth. She was created by Ninhursag to heal Enki's ailing mouth, after he had eaten her grandchildren in the "Sumerian Paradise myth.". After Enlil and Nanna both refused to help, Ninshubur went to Enki, the god of wisdom, who came to Inanna’s rescue. Nanna was one the patron deities of Ur. Sumerians believed that four main gods created and ruled Sumer. Nanna, the moon god, was the major astral deity of the Sumerians, born of Enlil, the air god, and his wife Ninlil, the air goddess. In some myths, Enki was said to be the son of the sky-god An, and in others the son of the primordial cosmic ocean Namma. In Sumerian Mythology the Anunnaki were a pantheon of good and evil gods and goddesses (duality) who came to Earth to create the human race. They have human personality traits and frailties and live together in family groups. She passed seven gates into the nether world, and her jewels were removed piece by piece as she walked until she was brought naked and on her knees before Ereshkigal who turned her into a corpse. In Sumerian poetry, Damu is sometimes described as the daughter of Ninisina. Sumerian and Hindu Gods and Goddesses In the world of Sumeria, Gods and Goddesses existed participating in the affairs of the Heavens, Earth, and the Netherworld. Earth was Sumer, it was created by the migrants from the Indus Valley. He was called Anu by the Akkadians, rulers of Mesopotamia after the conquest of Sumer in 2334 BCE by King Sargon of Akkad. She was either the wife of Ninurta, the god of war, or Abu, the god of plants. The Sumerians originally practiced a polytheistic religion, with anthropomorphic deities representing cosmic and terrestrial forces in their world. Was built to honor the great Flood Goddesses as their stories come what... And light, was the leader of the two rivers an urban one old. 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