In Sumerian and Akkadian (Babylonian and Assyrian) mythology, Ereshkigal, wife of Nergal, was the goddess of Irkalla, the land of the dead. She managed the destiny of those who were beyond the grave, in the Underworld, where she was queen.
It was said that she had been stolen away by Kur and taken to the Underworld, where she was made queen unwillingly. She is actually the twin sister of Enki. Ereshkigal was the only one who could pass judgement and give laws in her kingdom, and her name means "Lady of the Great Place", "Lady of the Great Earth", or "Lady of the Great Below". Her main temples were at Kutha and Sippar.
Ereshkigal was also Inanna and Ishtar.
The goddess Inanna (Innin, or Innini) was the patron and special god/goddess of the ancient Sumerian city of Erech (Uruk), the City of Gilgamesh. As Queen of heaven, she was associated with the Evening Star (the planet Venus), and sometimes with the Moon. She may also have been associated the brightest stars in the heavens, as she is sometimes symbolized by an eight-pointed star, a seven-pointed star, or a four pointed star. In the earliest traditions, Inanna was the daughter of An, the Sky, Ki, the Earth (both of Uruk, (Warka)). In later Sumerian traditions, she is the daughter of Nanna (Narrar), the Moon God and Ningal, the Moon Goddess (both of Ur).
On either side of her cult statue shown above is the ring-post, also known as Inanna's knot. This was a sacred symbol of Inanna, associated exclusively with her. It represents a door-post made from a bundle of reeds, the upper ends, bent into a loop to hold a cross-pole. The ring-post is shown on many depictions of Inanna, including those of the famed Warka Vase.
Inanna was one of the most revered of goddesses among later Sumerian mythology.
She was said to descend from the ancient family of the creator goddess Nammu, who was her grandmother. Inanna held "full power of judgment and decision and the control of the law of heaven and earth." Her sacred planet was Venus, the evening star. She was often symbolized as a lioness in battle. Along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were many shrines and temples dedicated to Inanna.
The temple of E Anna, Inanna's House of Heaven, in Uruk, was the greatest of these. This temple was 5000 years old and had been built and rebuilt many times to hold a community of sacred women who cared for the temple lands. The high priestess of Inanna would choose for her bed one she would appoint as shepherd. He would represent Dumuzi, sacred son/lover of Inanna, if he could prove his worth.
In later times, Inanna's lost some of her attributes, which were then said then to have been given her by Enki, rather than by her grandmother Nammu and her mother Ningal.
The myth states that Inanna traveled to Eridu and was given the one hundred Mes, which were the gifts of culture such as truth and justice, as well as practical skills such as weaving and pottery-making. Though Enki regretted his drunken decision to release the Mes to her and sent mighty sea monsters to stop her boat as it sailed the Euphrates, she was able to defeat them and bring the knowledge back to Uruk.
Dumuzi in net skirt (symbolizes grids) feeding sheep.
Inanna's standards ("gateposts") that frame the image suggest
that the event is happening inside her temple grounds.
Mesopotamian cylinder seal. Marble. About 3200-3000 BCE.
T a m m u z o r T a m u z - S u m e r i a n D u m u z i - w a s t h e n a m e o f a B a b y l o n i a n d e i t y . In Babylonia, the month Tammuz was established in honor of the eponymous god Tammuz, who originated as a Sumerian shepherd-god, Dumuzid or Dumuzi, the consort of Inanna and in his Akkadian form the parallel of Ishtar's consort, the Syrian Adonis who was drawn into the Greek pantheon. The name "Tammuz" seems to have been derived from the Akkadian form Tammuzi, based on early Sumerian Damu-zid. The later standard Sumerian form, Dumu-zid, in turn became Dumuzi in Akkadian. Beginning with the summer solstice came a time of mourning in the Ancient Near East as in the Aegean: the Babylonians marked the decline in daylight hours and the onset of killing summer heat and drought with a six-day "funeral" for the god, which was observed even at the very door of the Temple in Jerusalem, to the horror of the reformer Ezekiel.
T h e M y t h
I n t h e S u m e r i a n K i n g L i s t D u m u z i d t h e F i s h e r m a n a p p e a r s a s " D u m u z i t h e F i s h e r m a n , w h o s e c i t y w a s K u a , r e i g n e d 1 0 0 y e a r s " t h e t h i r d k i n g o f t h e f i r s t d y n a s t y o f U r u k ( D u m u z i i s l i k e l y T a m m u z h o r T a m i z h i - a P a n d y a n k i n g o f a n c i e n t T a m i l N a d u i n S o u t h I n d i a , w i t h h i s c a p i t a l a t K u a d a m , h i s e m b l e m a s " f i s h " = " m i n " ) , r e i g n i n g b e t w e e n L u g a l b a n d a a n d G i l g a m e s h t h e s o n o f L u g a l b a n d a , a s i t u a t i o n n o t e x p l a i n e d i n e x t a n t t e x t s . N o r i s i t e x p l a i n e d w h y i n o t h e r t e x t s D u m u z i d i s a l w a y s a s h e p h e r d , n o t a f i s h e r m a n . T h e k i n g l i s t d o e s l i s t a D u m u z i d t h e s h e p h e r d t h e f i f t h o f t h e k i n g s w h o r e i g n e d i n E r i d u b e f o r e t h e f l o o d . B u t E r i d u , s u r r o u n d e d b y f r e s h w a t e r m a r s h e s , i s e x a c t l y w h e r e o n e w o u l d e x p e c t a f i s h e r m a n a n d n o t a s h e p h e r d .
I n a n y c a s e a n u m b e r o f p a s t o r a l p o e m s a n d s o n g s r e l a t e t h e l o v e a f f a i r o f I n a n a a n d D u m u z i d t h e s h e p h e r d . A t e x t r e c o v e r e d i n 1 9 6 3 r e c o u n t s " T h e C o u r t s h i p o f I n a n n a a n d D u m u z i " i n t e r m s t h a t a r e t e n d e r a n d f r a n k l y e r o t i c .
T h e n I n a n a ( I s h t a r i n t h e A k k a d i a n t e x t s ) s e t o f f f o r t h e n e t h e r w o r l d , f o r K u r , w h i c h w a s r u l e d b y h e r s i s t e r E r e s h k i g a l , p e r h a p s t o t a k e i t a s h e r o w n . I n a n a / I s h t a r p a s s e d t h r o u g h s e v e n g a t e s a n d a t e a c h o n e w a s r e q u i r e d t o l e a v e a g a r m e n t o r a n o r n a m e n t s o t h a t w h e n I n a n a / I s h t a r h a d p a s s e d t h r o u g h t h e s e v e n t h g a t e s h e w a s e n t i r e l y n a k e d . D e s p i t e w a r n i n g s a b o u t h e r p r e s u m p t i o n , I n a n a / I s h t a r d i d n o t t u r n b a c k b u t d a r e d t o s i t h e r s e l f d o w n o n E r e s h k i g a l ' s t h r o n e . I m m e d i a t e l y t h e A n u n n a k i o f t h e u n d e r w o r l d j u d g e d h e r , g a z e d a t h e r w i t h t h e e y e s o f d e a t h , a n d I n a n a / I s h t a r b e c a m e a c o r p s e , h u n g u p o n a h o o k .
I n a n a ' s f a i t h f u l s e r v a n t a t t e m p t e d t o g e t h e l p f r o m t h e o t h e r g o d s b u t o n l y w i s e E n k i / E a r e s p o n d e d . T h e d e t a i l s o f E n k i / E a ' s p l a n d i f f e r s l i g h t l y i n t h e t w o s u r v i v i n g a c c o u n t s b u t t h e e n d i s t h a t I n a n a / I s h t a r l i v e d a g a i n . B u t a " c o n s e r v a t i o n o f s o u l s " l a w r e q u i r e d h e r t o f i n d a r e p l a c e m e n t f o r h e r s e l f i n K u r . S h e w e n t f r o m o n e g o d t o a n o t h e r , b u t e a c h o n e p l e a d e d w i t h h e r a n d s h e h a d n o t t h e h e a r t t o g o t h r o u g h w i t h i t u n t i l s h e f o u n d D u m u z i d / T a m m u z o n h e r t h r o n e , a p p a r e n t l y q u i t e p l e a s e d t h a t s h e w a s g o n e . I n a n a / I s h t a r i m m e d i a t e l y s e t t h e d e m o n s o n D u m u z i d / T a m m u z . A t t h i s p o i n t t h e A k k a d i a n t e x t f a i l s a s T a m m u z ' s i s t e r B e l i l i , i n t r o d u c e d f o r t h e f i r s t t i m e , s t r i p s h e r s e l f o f h e r j e w e l r y i n m o u r n i n g b u t c l a i m s t h a t T a m m u z a n d t h e d e a d w i l l c o m e b a c k .
T h e r e i s s o m e c o n f u s i o n h e r e . T h e n a m e B e l i l i o c c u r s i n o n e o f t h e S u m e r i a n t e x t s a l s o , b u t i t i s n o t t h e n a m e o f D u m u z i d ' s s i s t e r w h o i s t h e r e n a m e d G e s h t i n a n a , b u t i s t h e n a m e o f a n o l d w o m a n w h o m a n o t h e r t e x t c a l l s B i l u l u . I n a n y c a s e , t h e S u m e r i a n t e x t s r e l a t e h o w D u m u z i d f l e d t o h i s s i s t e r G e s h t i n a n a w h o a t t e m p t e d t o h i d e h i m b u t w h o c o u l d n o t i n t h e e n d s t a n d u p t o t h e d e m o n s . D u m u z i d h a s o n e c l o s e c a l l a f t e r a n o t h e r u n t i l t h e d e m o n s f i n a l l y c a t c h u p w i t h h i m u n d e r t h e s u p p o s e d p r o t e c t i o n o f t h i s o l d w o m a n c a l l e d B i l u l u o r B e l i l i a n d t h e n t h e y t a k e h i m . H o w e v e r I n a n a r e p e n t s .
I n a n a s e e k s v e n g e a n c e o n B i l u l u , o n B i l u l u ' s m u r d e r o u s s o n G i r gi r e a n d o n G i r g i r e ' s c o n s o r t S h i r r u " o f t h e h a u n t e d d e s e r t , n o - o n e ' s c h i l d a n d n o - o n e ' s f r i e n d " . I n a n a c h a n g e s B i l u l u i n t o a w a t e r s k i n a n d G i r g i r e i n t o a p r o t e c t i v e g o d o f t h e d e s e r t w h i l e S h i r r u i s a s s i g n e d t o w a t c h a l w a y s t h a t t h e p r o p e r r i t e s a r e p e r f o r m e d f o r p r o t e c t i o n a g a i n s t t h e h a z a r d s o f t h e d e s e r t .
F i n a l l y , I n a n n a r e l e n t s a n d c h a n g e s h e r d e c r e e t h e r e b y r e s t o r i n g h e r h u s b a n d D u m u z i t o l i f e ; a n a r r a n g e m e n t i s m a d e b y w h i c h G e s h t i n a n a w i l l t a k e D u m u z i d ' s p l a c e i n K u r f o r 6 m o n t h s o f t h e y e a r .
D u m u z i d / T a m m u z b e i n g t h e g o d o f t h e v e g e t a t i o n c y c l e , t h i s c o r r e s p o n d s t o t h e c h a n g i n g o f t h e s e a s o n s a s t h e a b u n d a n c e o f t h e e a r t h d i m i n i s h e s i n h i s a b s e n c e . H e i s a l i f e - d e a t h - r e b i r t h d e i t y .
An older interpretation
Based on the texts first found, it was assumed that Ishtar/Inana's descent into Kur occurred after the death of Tammuz/Dumuzid rather than before and that her purpose was to rescue Tammuz/Dumuzid. This is the familiar form of the myth as it appeared in M. Jastrow's "Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World", 1915, widely available on the Internet.
Though new texts uncovered in 1963 filled in the story in quite another fashion, the old interpretation still lingers on. Aside from the extended epic "The Descent of Inanna," a previously unknown "Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi," was first translated into English and annotated by Sumerian scholar Noah Kramer and folklorist Diane Wolkstein working in tandem, and published in 1983 (Kramer and Wolkstein 1983). Inanna's lover, the shepherd-king Dumuzi, brought a wedding gift of milk in pails, yoked across his shoulders.
The myth of Inanna and Dumuzi formed the subject of a Lindisfarne Symposium, published as The Story of Inanna and Dumuzi: From Folk-Tale to Civilized Literature: A Lindisfarne Symposium, (William Irwin Thompson, 1995).
Probably the most important Sumerian contribution to civilization was the invention and creation of a standard writing and literature; the Sumerians also had libraries. Their literary works reveal religious beliefs, ethical ideas, and the spiritual aspirations of the Sumerians. Among these works are the hymns and stories of Inanna -- important here because they were recorded at a time when the patriarchy was beginning to take hold, and the position of the Goddess, although strong, was changing.
She presented the me by Enki. The me is the order out of chaos, the great attributes of civilization, the powers of the gods. The me were conferred by the gods on other gods or on the king-priests, who as the representatives of the gods on Earth, ensured the continuation of civilization.
The special powers, contained within the me allowed the holy plan or design (the gis-hur) to be implemented on Earth. The me were contained within special objects of great sacred value, such as the royal throne, the sacred bed, the temple drum, the scepter, the crown, and other special articles of clothing or jewelry to be worn, sat on, lied in, and so forth. These things were charmed like a talisman. Inanna got Enki drunk on beer and tricked him into giving her the me. They gave her many special gifts and powers. She became Goddess and Queen of Heaven and Earth, now able to descend into the Underworld and ascend once again.
Inanna could be wily and cunning. She was a powerful warrior, who drove a war chariot, drawn by lions. In the duality of our reality she is portrayed as gentle and loving, a source of beauty and grace, a source of inspiration. She endowed the people of Sumer with gifts that inspired and insured their growth as a people and a culture. She is also depicted as a passionate, sensuous lover in The Courtship of Inanna and Damuzi, which established the principle of Sacred Marriage. Indeed, one aspect of Inanna is as the Goddess of Love, and it is in this aspect that she embodies creativity, procreativity, passion, raw sexual energy and power.
During the time the Goddess Inanna ruled the people of Sumer, they and their communities prospered and thrived. The urban culture, though agriculturally dependent, centered upon the reverence of the Goddess - a cella, or shrine, in her honor was the centerpiece of the cities. Inanna was the queen of seven temples throughout Sumer.
Erech or Uruk, near modern Warka was Inanna's sacred city. It was one of the oldest cities of Sumer. The Bible said that King Nimrod founded it. Dumuzi, Inanna's consort was a shepherd king of Uruk, as was Gilgamesh and his father Lugalbanda. The Temple of Inanna was in Erech. Also known as the E-ana or House of Heaven, this was her most important temple. The shrine of the Goddess was built on an artificial mound some forty feet above the ground level and was reached by a staircase. A statue of the Goddess was housed within the shrine.
Queen Shub-Ad reigned from the First Dynasty of Ur. Her grave was excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley of the British Museum in 1929. She was buried with her King in a vast tomb complex about 2900 BCE, with the accompaniment of what Woolley called "human sacrifice on a lavish scale," for along with the King and Queen, numerous male and female attendants, soldiers, grooms, handmaidens, ladies in waiting, etc. were also buried; even a harpist and her golden harp, inlayed with lapis. Chariots, carts, and their animals were also buried with them. The Queen wore the beautiful headdress of spirals of gold, terminating in lapis-centered gold flowers (or stars). The Queen also wore large golden earrings of lunate shape that hung to her shoulders; lapis amulets of a bull and a calf, and strands of lapis, agate, carnelian and gold beads. The Queen's grave was much more elaborate than that of the King, perhaps indicating her equal or even greater importance.
Inanna was Ishtar.
Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. Anunit, Astarte and Atarsamain are alternative names for Ishtar. Inanna, twin of Utu/Shamash, children of Nannar/Sin, first born on Earth of Enlil. The first names given are Sumerian, the second names derive from the Akkadians, who are a Semitic people who immigrated into Sumeria. Adding an [sh] to a name is typical Akkadian, as Anu to Anush.
The goddess represents the planet Venus. (A continent on Venus is named Ishtar Terra by astronomers today.) The double aspect of the goddess may correspond to the difference between Venus as a morning star and as an evening star. In Sumerian the planet is called "MUL.DILI.PAT" meaning "unique star".
The name Inanna (sometimes spelled Inana) means "Great Lady of An", where An is the god of heaven. The meaning of Ishtar is not known, though it is possible that the underlying stem is the same as that of Assur, which would thus make her the "leading one" or "chief". In any event, it is now generally recognized that the name is Semitic in origin.
The Sumerian Inanna was first worshiped at Uruk (Erech in the Bible, Unug in Sumerian) in the earliest period of Mesopotamian history. In incantations, hymns, myths, epics, votive inscriptions, and historical annals, Inanna/Ishtar was celebrated and invoked as the force of life. But there were two aspects to this goddess of life. She was the goddess of fertility and sexuality, and could also destroy the fields and make the earth's creatures infertile. She was invoked as a goddess of war, battles, and the chase, particularly among the warlike Assyrians. Before the battle Ishtar would appear to the Assyrian army, clad in battle array and armed with bow and arrow. (compare Greek Athena.)
One of the most striking Sumerian myths describes Inanna passing through seven gates of hell into the underworld. At each gate some of her clothing and her ornaments are removed until at the last gate she is entirely naked. Ereshkigal, the queen of the underworld kills her and hangs her corpse on a hook on the wall. When Inanna returns from the underworld by intercession of the clever god, her uncle, Enki, according to the rules she must find someone to take her place. On her way home she encounters her friends prostrated with grief at her loss, but in Kulaba, her cult city, she finds her lover Dumuzi, a son of Enki, Tammuz seated in splendour on a throne, so she has him seized and dragged below. Later, missing him, she arranges for his sister to substitute for him during six months of the year.
In all the great centres Inanna and then Ishtar had her temples: E-anna, "house of An", in Uruk; E-makh, "great house", in Babylon; E-mash-mash, "house of offerings", in Nineveh. Inanna was the guardian of prostitutes, and probably had priestess-prostitutes to serve her. She was served by priests as well as by priestesses. The (later) votaries of Ishtar were virgins who, as long as they remained in her service, were not permitted to marry.
Inanna was also associated with beer, and was the patroness of tavern keepers, who were usually female in early Mesopotamia.
Ishtar is also an omnipresent figure in the epic of Gilgamesh. She appears also on the Uruk vase, one of the most famous ancient Mesopotamian artifacts. The relief on this vase seems to show Inanna conferring kingship on a supplicant. Various inscriptions and artifacts indicate that kingship was one of the gifts bestowed by Inanna on the ruler of Uruk.
On monuments and seal-cylinders Inanna/Ishtar appears frequently with bow and arrow, though also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head and an eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in large numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across her breast or holding a child.
Together with the moon god Nanna or Suen (Sin in Akkadian), and the sun god Utu (Shamash in Akkadian), Inanna/Ishtar is the third figure in a triad deifying and personalizing the moon, the sun, and the earth: Moon (wisdom), Sun (justice) and Earth (life force). This triad overlies another: An, heaven; Enlil, earth; and Enki (Ea in Akkadian), the watery deep.
Symbol: an eight or sixteen-pointed star Sacred number: 15 Astrological region: Dibalt(Venus) and the Bowstar (Sirius) Sacred animal: lion, (dragon)
Marduk [mär'dook] (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian AMAR.UTU "solar calf"; Biblical Merodach) was the name of a late generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently 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, position he fully acquired by the second half of the second millennium BCE.
Marduk's original character is obscure, but whatever special traits Marduk may have had were overshadowed by the reflex of the political development through which the Euphrates valley passed and which led to imbuing him with traits belonging to gods who at an earlier period were recognized as the heads of the pantheon.
There are more particularly two gods - Ea and Enlil - whose powers and attributes pass over to Marduk. In the case of Ea the transfer proceeds pacifically and without involving the effacement of the older god. Marduk is viewed as the son of Ea. The father voluntarily recognizes 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.
While the relationship between Ea and Marduk is thus 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. After the days of Hammurabi, the cult of Marduk eclipses that of Enlil, and although during the four centuries of Kassite control in Babylonia (c. 1570 BC1157 BC), Nippur and the cult of Enlil enjoyed a period of renaissance, when the reaction ensued it marked the definite and permanent triumph of Marduk over Enlil until the end of the Babylonian empire. The only serious rival to Marduk after ca. 1000 BC is Anshar in Assyria. In the south Marduk reigns supreme. He is normally referred to as Bel "Lord".
When Babylon became the capital of Mesopotamia, the patron deity of Babylon was elevated to the level of supreme god. In order to explain how Marduk seized power, Enûma 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.
In Enûma Elish, a civil war between the gods was growing to a climatic 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.When he killed his enemy he "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.
People were named after Marduk. For example, the Biblical personality Mordechai (Book of Esther) used this Gentile name in replacement of his Hebrew name Bilshan.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.
Etemenanki, "The temple of the creation of heaven and earth", was the name of a ziggurat to Marduk in the city of Babylon of the 6th century BC Chaldean (Neo-Babylonian) dynasty. Originally seven stories in height, little remains of it now save ruins. Etemenanki was later popularly identified with the Tower of Babel.
In Sumerian mythology, Nammu (more properly Namma) is the Sumerian creation goddess. If the Babylonian creation myth Enûma Elish is based on a Sumerian myth, which seems likely, Nammu/Namma is the Sumerian goddess of the primeval sea that gave birth to heaven and earth and the first gods. She was probably the first personification of the constellation which the Babylonians later called Tiamat and the Greeks called Cetus and represented the Apsu, the fresh water ocean which the Sumerians believed lay beneath the earth, the source of life-giving water and fertility in a country with almost no rainfall.
As Nammu/Namma is the goddess of the fertile waters, An is the god of the sky. Nammu/Namma and her son Enki created mankind as assistants for the gods. Enki is the god of human culture who also presides over the Absu.
The name Nergal (or Nirgal, Nirgali) refers to a deity in Babylonia with the main seat of his cult at Cuthah (or Kutha) represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim. Nergal is mentioned in the Hebrew bible as the deity of the city of Cuth (Cuthah): "And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal" (2 Kings, 17:30).
Nergal actually seems to be in part a solar deity, sometimes identified with Shamash, but a representative of a certain phase only of the sun. Portrayed in hymns and myths as a god of war and pestilence, Nergal seems to represent the sun of noontime and of the summer solstice which brings destruction to mankind, high summer being the dead season in the Mesopotamian annual cycle.
Nergal was also the deity who presides over the nether-world, and who stands at the head of the special pantheon assigned to the government of the dead (supposed to be gathered in a large subterranean cave known as Aralu or Irkalla). In this capacity he has associated with him a goddess Allatu or Ereshkigal, though at one time Allatu may have functioned as the sole mistress of Aralu, ruling in her own person. In some texts the god Ninazu is the son of Nergal by Allatu/Ereshkigal.
Ordinarily Nergal pairs with his consort Laz. Standard iconography pictured Nergal as a lion, and boundary-stone monuments symbolise him with a mace surmounted by the head of a lion.
Nergal's fiery aspect appears in names or epithets such as Lugalgira, Sharrapu ("the burner," perhaps a mere epithet), Erra, Gibil (though this name more properly belongs to Nusku), and Sibitti. A certain confusion exists in cuneiform literature between Ninurta and Nergal. Nergal has epithets such as the "raging king," the "furious one," and the like. A play upon his name separated into three elements as Ne-uru-gal (lord of the great dwelling) expresses his position at the head of the nether-world pantheon.
In the astral-theological system Nergal becomes the planet Mars, while in ecclesiastical art the great lion-headed colossi serving as guardians to the temples and palaces seem to symbolise Nergal, just as the bull-headed colossi probably typify Ninurta.
Nergal's chief temple at Cuthah bore the name Meslam, from which the god receives the designation of Meslamtaeda or Meslamtaea, "the one that rises up from Meslam". The name Meslamtaeda/Meslamtaea indeed is found as early as the list of gods from Fara while the name Nergal only begins to appear in the Akkadian period.
The cult of Nergal does not appear to have spread as widely as that of Ninurta. Hymns and votive and other inscriptions of Babylonian and Assyrian rulers frequently invoke him, but we do not learn of many temples to him outside of Cuthah. Sennacherib speaks of one at Tarbisu to the north of Nineveh, but significantly, although Nebuchadnezzar II (606 BC586 BC), the great temple-builder of the neo-Babylonian monarchy, alludes to his operations at Meslam in Cuthah, he makes no mention of a sanctuary to Nergal in Babylon. Local associations with his original seat Kutha and the conception formed of him as a god of the dead acted in making him feared rather than actively worshipped.
Text adapted from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
Shamash or Sama, was the common Akkadian name of the sun-god in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu.
The name signifies perhaps "servitor," and would thus point to a secondary position occupied at one time by this deity. Both in early and in late inscriptions Sha-mash is designated as the "offspring of Nannar," i.e. of the moon-god, and since, in an enumeration of the pantheon, Sin generally takes precedence of Shamash, it is in relationship, presumably, to the moon-god that the sun-god appears as the dependent power.
Such a supposition would accord with the prominence acquired by the moon in the calendar and in astrological calculations, as well as with the fact that the moon-cult belongs to the nomadic and therefore earlier, stage of civilization, whereas the sun-god rises to full importance only after the agricultural stage has been reached.
The two chief centres of sun-worship in Babylonia were Sippar, represented by the mounds at Abu Habba, and Larsa, represented by the modern Senkerah. At both places the chief sanctuary bore the name E-barra (or E-babbara) "the shining house" a direct allusion to the brilliancy of the sun-god. Of the two temples, that at Sippara was the more famous, but temples to Shamash were erected in all large centres such as Babylon, Ur, Mari, Nippur and Nineveh.
The attribute most commonly associated with Shamash is justice. Just as the sun disperses darkness, so Shamash brings wrong and injustice to light. Hammurabi attributes to Shamash the inspiration that led him to gather the existing laws and legal procedures into a code, and in the design accompanying the code the king represents himself in an attitude of adoration before Shamash as the embodiment of the idea of justice.
Several centuries before Hammurabi, Ur-Engur of the Ur dynasty (c. 2600 BC) declared that he rendered decisions "according to the just laws of Shamash."
It was a logical consequence of this conception of the sun-god that he was regarded also as the one who released the sufferer from the grasp of the demons. The sick man, therefore, appeals to Shamash as the god who can be depended upon to help those who are suffering unjustly. This aspect of the sun-god is vividly brought out in the hymns addressed to him, which are, therefore, among the finest productions in the entire realm of Babylonian literature.
It is evident from the material at our disposal that the Shamash cults at Sippar and Larsa so overshadowed local sun-deities elsewhere as to lead to an absorption of the minor deities by the predominating one. In the systematized pantheon these minor sun-gods become attendants that do his service. Such are Bunene, spoken of as his chariot driver, whose consort is Atgi-makh, Kettu ("justice") and Mesharu ("right"), who are introduced as servitors of Shamash.
Other sun-deities, as Ninurta and Nergal, the patron deities of important centres, retained their independent existence as certain phases of the sun, Ninib becoming the sun-god of the morning and of the spring time, and Nergal the sun-god of the noon and of the summer solstice, while Shamash was viewed as the sun-god in general.
Together with Sin and Ishtar, Shamash forms a second triad by the side of Anu, Enlil and Ea. The three powers, Sin, Shamash and Ishtar, symbolized the three great forces of nature, the sun, the moon and the life-giving force of the earth.
At times, instead of Ishtar, we find Adad, the storm-god, associated with Sin and Shamash, and it may be that these two sets of triads represent the doctrines of two different schools of theological thought in Babylonia which were subsequently harmonized by the recognition of a group consisting of all four deities.
The consort of Shamash was known as A. She, however, is rarely mentioned in the inscriptions except in combination with Shamash.
Nanna is a god in Sumerian mythology, god of the moon, son of Enlil and Ninlil. His sacred city was Ur. The name Nanna is Sumerian for "illuminater".
He was named Sin in Babylonia and Assyrian and was also worshipped by them in Harran. Sin had a beard made of lapis lazuli and he rode on a winged bull.
His wife was Ningal ('Great Lady') who bore him Utu 'Sun' and Inana and in some texts Ishkur.
His symbols are the crescent moon, the bull, and a tripod (which may be a lamp-stand).The two chief seats of Sin's worship were Ur in the south, and Harran to the north. The cult of Sin spread to other centres, at an early period, and temples to the moon-god are found in all the large cities of Babylonia and Assyria.
He is commonly designated as En-zu = "lord of wisdom". This attribute clings to him through all periods. During the period (c. 2600-2400 BC) that Ur exercised a large measure of supremacy over the Euphrates valley, Sin was naturally regarded as the head of the pantheon. It is to this period that we must trace such designations of Sin as "father of the gods", "chief of the gods", "creator of all things", and the like. We are justified in supposing that the cult of the moon-god was brought into Babylonia by Semitic nomads from Arabia.
The moon-god is par excellence the god of nomadic peoples. The moon being their guide and protector at night when, during a great part of the year, they undertake their wanderings. This is just as the sun-god is the chief god of an agricultural people. The cult once introduced would tend to persevere, and the development of astrological science culminating in a calendar and in a system of interpretation of the movements and occurrences in the starry heavens would be an important factor in maintaining the position of Sin in the pantheon.
Sin's chief sanctuary at Ur was named E-gish-shir-gal = "house of the great light". His sanctuary at Harran was named E-khul-khul = "house of joys". On seal-cylinders he is represented as an old man with flowing beard with the crescent as his symbol. In the astral-theological system he is represented by the number 30, and the planet Venus and his daughter by the number 15. This 30 probably refers to the average number of days (correctly around 29.53) in a lunar month as measured between successive new moons.
The "wisdom" personified by the moon-god is likewise an expression of the science of astrology in which the observation of the moon's phases is so important a factor. The tendency to centralize the powers of the universe leads to the establishment of the doctrine of a triad consisting of Sin, Shamash and Ishtar, personifying the moon and the sun and the earth as the life-force.
Tiamat is a primeval monster/goddess in Babylonian and Sumerian mythology, and a central figure in the Enûma Elish creation epic. John C. L. Gibson, in the Ugaritic glossary of Canaanite Myths and Legends, notes that "tehom" appears in the Ugaritic texts, c. 14001200 BCE, simply meaning the "sea". Such a depersonalized Tiamat (the -at ending makes her feminine) is "The Deep" (Hebrew tehom), present at the beginning of the book of Genesis.
Apsu (or Abzu) fathered upon Tiamat the Elder gods Lahmu and Lahamu, the grandparents of Anu and Ea. Lahmu and Lahamu, in turn, were the parents of the heavens (Anshar) and the earth (Kishar). Tiamat was the "shining" goddess of salt water who roared and smote in the chaos of original creation. She and Apsu filled the cosmic abyss with the primeval waters. She is "Ummu-Hubur who formed all things".
The god Enki (later Ea), believing correctly that Apsu was planning to murder the younger gods, slew him. This angered Tiamat, whereupon she fashioned monsters to battle the gods. These were her own offspring, sea-serpents of terrifying size, storms and fish-men and scorpion-men.
Tiamat had the Tablets of Destiny, and in the primordial battle she gave them to Kingu, the god she had chosen for her lover. But Anu (replaced by Marduk, the son of Ea, in the late version that has survived) overcame Kingu and then her, armed with the winds and a net and an invincible spear.
Enkidu appears in Sumerian mythology as a mythical wild-man raised by animals; his beast-like ways are finally tamed by a courtesan named Shamhat. Later he adventures with Gilgamesh until his death in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Older sources sometimes transliterate his name as Enkimdu, Eabani or Enkita.
Enkidu is the quintessential savage man in the beginning of the epic:
Enkidu roamed with the beasts of the wilderness. He protected the animals, destroying the hunters' traps, and lurked around the watering holes to protect the game. These actions were much to the chagrin of a local trapper. The trapper went to King Gilgamesh to ask for help. Gilgamesh offered the advice "Trapper, go back, take with you a harlot, a child of pleasure ... he will embrace her and the game of the wilderness will surely reject him." The trapper did what he was told, and hired the harlot Shamhat to corrupt the wild man. Enkidu was immediately taken with the harlot and bedded her. Over six days of lust, Enkidu is tainted by the harlot. The animals begin to avoid him, the bond he once shared with them having been broken. Now "he scattered the wolves, he chased away the lions" and the herders could lie down in peace, for Enkidu was now their watchman.
After the abandonment of his animal brethren, Enkidu is introduced to a pastoralist way of life. He works for the trapper and shepherds, hunting and killing the animals he once served. Soon he grows restless, looking for a greater challenge.
Shamhat tells of a great king in the city Uruk (Gilgamesh) and says, too, that he would be a worthy challenge for Enkidu. Gilgamesh is surprised by Enkidu. The two wrestle fiercely for sometime, until suddenly Gilgamesh gains the upper hand and throws Enkidu to the ground. Knowing his defeat, Enkidu praises Gilgamesh and both swear an oath of friendship. For the remainder of the epic they cohabit, as lovers according to some interpretations.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu killing Humbaba
Enkidu assists Gilgamesh in his fight against Humbaba, the guardian monster of the Cedar forest. Contrary to Enkidu's conscience, he cooperates in killing the defeated Humbaba. Afterwards, he again assists his companion Gilgamesh in slaying the Bull of Heaven, which the gods have sent as reprisal. The goddess Ishtar demands that the pair should pay for its destruction. Shamash argues to the other gods to spare both of them, but could only save Gilgamesh. The gods pass judgment that Enkidu had no justification for fighting the Bull of Heaven and was interfering with the will of the gods. Enkidu then is overcome by a severe illness. Near death, he has visions of a gloomy afterlife, and curses the trapper and the harlot for civilizing him, the act which lead him to this doom.
Gilgamesh mourns over the body of Enkidu for several desperate days. In a vivid line repeated in the epic, Gilgamesh only allows his friend to be buried after a maggot falls out of the corpse's nose. Gilgamesh's close observation of rigor mortis and the slow decomposition of Enkidu's body provides the hero with the impetus for his quest for eternal life, and his visit to Utnapishtim.
There is another non-canonical tablet in which Enkidu journeys into the underworld, but many scholars consider the tablet to be a sequel or add-on to the original epic.
Historical Analysis
In many ways, Enkidu's transformation may represent the seductive power of the Mesopotamian city-states. His origins upon the steppe and his life as a companion of the wild beast suggests the hunter-gatherers living on the fringes of the territory of southern Iraq's early farmers. His subsequent transformation and acceptance of life in Uruk becomes a mythologized account of their slow approach to and assimilation within the boundaries of horticultural civilization.
On a more personal level, the taming of Enkidu by the harlot could be symbolic of the influence of the ego and material desires on the individual, leading them away from a natural, and into an artificial existence.
According to the Sumerian king list, Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II, first dynasty of Uruk), the son of Lugalbanda. Legend has it that his mother was Ninsun, a goddess.According to another document, the so-called History of Tummal, Gilgamesh, and eventually his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, located in Tummal, a block of the Nippur city.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh it is often said that Gilgamesh ordered the creation of the legendary walls of Uruk. In historical age, Sargon of Akkad claimed to have destroyed these walls to prove his military force.
Fragments of an epic text found in Me-Turan (actual Tell Haddad) inform that Gilgamesh at the end of his life was buried under the waters of a river. The people of Uruk deviated the flow of the Euphrates, river crossing Uruk, with the purpose to bury the corpse of the dead king in the bed of the river.
Despite the lack of direct evidence, most scholars do not object to consideration of Gilgamesh as a historical figure, particularly after inscriptions were found confirming the historical existence of other figures associated with him: kings Enmebaragesi and Aga of Kish. If Gilgamesh was a historical king, he probably reigned in about the 26th century BC. Some of the earliest Sumerian texts spell his name as Bilgamesh.
In most texts, Gilgamesh is written with the determinative for divine beings (DINGIR), but there is no evidence for a contemporary cult, and the Sumerian Gilgamesh myths suggest the deification was a later development (unlike the case of the Akkadian god-kings). Historical or not, Gilgamesh became a legendary protagonist in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In sumerian mythology she is the daughter of Enki and Ninhursag. When her brother Dumuzi died, Geshtinanna lamentated days and nights. After his death, she visited him in the underworld with Inanna, and was allowed to take his place there for six months out of the year. Her time in the underworld and her periodic emergence from it are linked with her new divine authority over the autumn vines and wine.
The Bull of Heaven, according to Kramer he is Ereshkigal's husband. After Gilgamesh spurned Inanna, she sends the Bull of Heaven to terrorize Erech.
Guardian of the cedar of the heart in the the "Land of the living", Huwawa has dragon's teeth, a lion's face, a roar like rushing flood water, huge clawed feet and a thick mane. He lived there in a cedar house. He appears to have attacked Gilgamesh, Enkidu and company when they felled that cedar. They then come upon Huwawa and Gilgamesh distracts him with flatery, then puts a nose ring on him and binds his arms. Huwawa grovels to Gilgamesh and Enkidu and Gilgamesh almost releases him. Enkidu argues against it and when Huwawa protests, he decapitates Huwawa.
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