Mesopotamian mythology is the collective name given to Sumerian and Assyrian and Babylonian mythologies from the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern Iraq. Mesopotamia [mesuputāmÄ“u] (Greek: Μεσοποταμία, translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan the Land between the Rivers; Aramaic name being Beth-Nahrain House of Two Rivers) is a region of Southwest Asia. ... Length 2,800 km Elevation of the source 4,500 m Average discharge 818 m³/s Area watershed 765,831 km² Origin  Eastern Turkey Mouth  Shatt al Arab Basin countries Turkey Syria Iraq Boat on the Shatt-al-Arab The Euphrates (the traditional Greek name for the river, which is... Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq The Tigris (Old Persian: Tigr, Aramaic Assyrian: Deqlath, Arabic: دجلة, Dijla, Turkish: Dicle; biblical Hiddekel) is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. ... Assyriology is the historical and archaeological study of ancient Mesopotamia. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ... Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... Uruk (Sumerian Unug, Biblical Erech, Greek Orchoë and Arabic Warka), was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates, on the line of the ancient Nil canal, in a region of marshes, about 140 miles SSE from Baghdad. ... UR, Ur, or ur can refer to several things: The City of Ur Ur, the first known continent Royal Game of Ur Ur is the name of a minor Gnostic deity. ... Eridu (or Eridug) was an ancient city seven miles southwest of Ur. ... Kish [kish] (Tall al-Uhaymir) was an ancient city of Sumer, now in central Iraq. ... Lagash or Sirpurla was one of the oldest cities of Sumer and later Babylonia. ... The city of Nippur (Sumerian Nibru, Akkadian Nibbur) was one of the most ancient of all the Babylonian cities of which we have any knowledge, the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god, Enlil, ruler of the cosmos subject to An alone. ... The Akkadian Empire, founded in western Asia, was Semitic and is the earliest recorded empire in the world. ... Akkad (or Agade) was a city and its region of northern Mesopotamia, (located in present-day Iraq) between Assyria to the northwest and Sumer to the south. ... Babylon is the Greek variant of Akkadian Babilu, an ancient city in Mesopotamia (Location: 32°32′11″ N 44°25′15″ E, modern Al Hillah, Iraq). ... An International Securities Identifying Number (ISIN) uniquely identifies a fungible security, its structure is defined in ISO 6166. ... Winged sphinx from the palace of Darius the Great at Susa. ... Assyria in earliest historical times referred to a region on the Upper Tigris river, named for its original capital, the city of Ashur. ... The city of Asshur (or Assur or Ashur) on the Tigris was originally a colony of Babylonia, and later became the first capital city of Assyria, to which it gave its name. ... This article is about the ancient Middle Eastern city of Nineveh. ... Nuzi was an ancient city southwest of Kirkuk in modern Iraq, located near the Tigris river. ... Nimrud is a ancient Assyrian city located south of Nineveh on the river Tigris. ... Babylonia was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... Chaldea was a nation in the southern portion of Babylonia, Lower Mesopotamia, lying chiefly on the right bank of the Euphrates, but commonly used to refer to the whole of the Mesopotamian plain. ... An Elamite Man in Persepolis The ancient Elamite Empire (تمدن عیلام in Persian) lay to the east of Sumer and Akkad, in what is now southwestern Iran. ... Amorite (Hebrew ’emōrî, Egyptian Amar, Akkadian AmurrÅ« (corresponding to Sumerian MAR.TU or Martu) refers to a Semitic people who occupied the middle Euphrates area from the second half of the third millennium BC and also appear in the Tanakh. ... The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East, who lived in northern Mesopotamia and areas to the immediate east and west, beginning approximately 2500 BC. They probably originated in the Caucasus and entered from the north, but this is not certain. ... Mitanni or Mittani (in Assyrian sources Hanilgalbat, Khanigalbat) was a kingdom in northern Syria. ... The Kassites were a mountain tribe of obscure origins speaking an Indo-European language who conquered Mesopotamia, bringing the Old Babylonian era to an end and for the first time welding together the network of independent, feuding city-states into a territory that can be called Babylonia. ... The Chronology of the Ancient Orient deals with the notoriously difficult task of assigning years of the Common Era to various events, rulers and dynasties of the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. The chronology of this region is based on five sets of primary materials. ... The Sumerian king list is an ancient text in the Sumerian language listing kings of Sumer from Sumerian and foreign dynasties. ... This page lists the Kings of Assyria from earliest times. ... The following is a list of the Kings of Babylon, a major city of ancient Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq. ... Cuneiform script The Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. ... The Sumerian language of ancient Sumer was spoken in Southern Mesopotamia from at least the 4th millennium BC. Sumerian was replaced by Akkadian as a spoken language around 2000 BC, but continued to be used as a sacred, ceremonial and scientific language in Mesopotamia until about 1 AD. Then, it... Akkadian (lišānum akkadÄ«tum) was a Semitic language (part of the greater Afro-Asiatic language famaily) spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, particularly by the Assyrians and Babylonians. ... Elamite is an extinct language, which was spoken in the ancient Elamite Empire. ... Hurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians, a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian is an agglutinative language which belongs to neither the Semitic nor the Indo-European language families. ... Enûma Elish is the creation epic of Babylonian mythology. ... Gilgamesh and Enkidu, cylinder seal from Ur III According to the Sumerian king list, Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk (Early Dynastic II, first dynasty of Uruk), the son of Lugalbanda. ... Marduk and his dragon, from a Babylonian cylinder seal Marduk [märdook] (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... The Sumerian culture describes, according to some sources, a planet Nibiru (or Marduk) being the twelfth planet. ... Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... Assyria in earliest historical times referred to a region on the Upper Tigris river, named for its original capital, the city of Ashur. ... Babylonia was an ancient state in Mesopotamia (in modern Iraq), combining the territories of Sumer and Akkad. ... Tigris River in Mosul, Iraq The Tigris (Old Persian: Tigr, Aramaic Assyrian: Deqlath, Arabic: دجلة, Dijla, Turkish: Dicle; biblical Hiddekel) is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through Iraq. ... Length 2,800 km Elevation of the source 4,500 m Average discharge 818 m³/s Area watershed 765,831 km² Origin  Eastern Turkey Mouth  Shatt al Arab Basin countries Turkey Syria Iraq Boat on the Shatt-al-Arab The Euphrates (the traditional Greek name for the river, which is...

The Sumerians practised a polytheistic, henotheistic religion, with anthropomorphic gods or goddesses representing forces or presences in the world, much as in the later Greek mythology. The gods originally created humans as servants for themselves, but freed the humans when they became too much to handle. Sumer (or Shumer, Sumeria, Shinar, native ki-en-gir) formed the southern part of Mesopotamia from the time of settlement by the Sumerians until the time of Babylonia. ... Polytheism is belief in, or worship of, multiple gods or divinities. ... In religion and philosophy, henotheism is a term coined by Max Müller, meaning belief in, and possible worship of, multiple gods, one of which is supreme. ... Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification or prosopopeia, is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. ... A deity or a god, is a postulated preternatural being, usually, but not always, of significant power, worshipped, thought holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, or respected by human beings. ... A goddess is a female deity, in contrast with a male deity known as a god. A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases even hermaphroditic (or gender neutral) deities. ... Greek mythology comprises the collected narratives of Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. ...

Many stories in Sumerian religion appear homologous to stories in other middle-eastern religions. For example, the Biblical account of the creation of man as well as Noah's flood narrative resemble Sumerian tales very closely. Gods and goddesses from Sumer have distinctly similar representations in the religions of the Akkadians, Caananites, and others. A number of related stories and deities have Greek parallels as well; for example, Inanna's descent into the underworld strikingly recalls the story of Persephone A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... Noah or Nóach (Rest, Standard Hebrew נוֹחַ Nóaḥ, Tiberian Hebrew נֹחַ Nōªḥ; Arabic نوح Nūḥ), is a Biblical figure who according to Genesis built an ark to save his family and a selection of the worlds animals from the Deluge (an example of divine retribution). ... Akkad (or Agade) was a city and its region of northern Mesopotamia, (located in present-day Iraq) between Assyria to the northwest and Sumer to the south. ... This article is about the land called Canaan. ... Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. ... Bust of Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Classical Greek Persephónē, Modern Greek Persefóni) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter. ...

What Deities did they worship?

• A. The Four Primary Deities
• B. The Seven who decreed fate
• C. The Annuna and others
• D. The Demigods, mortal Heroes and Monsters

Deities

The Four Primary Deities

• An, The God of Heaven
• Ki, The Godess of the earth
• Enlil, The God of the air and storms
• Enki, The God of water

Look up AN on Wiktionary, the free dictionary AN may mean: NATO country code for Andorra IATA code for Ansett Australia (now defunct) a prefix in Army-Navy Equipment Code Designators the AAR reporting mark for Apalachicola Northern Railroad ISO country code for the Netherlands Antilles An may mean: an... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Enlil was the name of a chief deity in Babylonian religion, perhaps pronounced and sometimes rendered in translations as Ellil in later Akkadian. ... Enki was a deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology. ...

The Three Sky Deities

• Nanna, The God of the moon
• Shamash (aka Utu), The Sun God
• Ishtar (aka Inanna), The Queen of the Heavens and goddess of love and war

Nanna is a god in Sumerian mythology, god of the moon, son of Enlil and Ninlil. ... Shamash in his trone from the tablette of Sippar ca. ... Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. ...

Divine Relationships

The universe first appeared when Nammu, a presumably formless abyss, curled in upon herself, and in an act of self-procreation gave birth to An and Ki. In Sumerian mythology, Nammu is probably the first of the ancient deities of Sumer — at least in the process of creation, if not in actual chronology. ... An abyss (Greek: a-, privative, bussos, bottom) is a bottomless depth; hence any deep place. ... Look up AN on Wiktionary, the free dictionary AN may mean: NATO country code for Andorra IATA code for Ansett Australia (now defunct) a prefix in Army-Navy Equipment Code Designators the AAR reporting mark for Apalachicola Northern Railroad ISO country code for the Netherlands Antilles An may mean: an... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The union of An and Ki produced Enlil, who eventually became leader of the pantheon. After the banishment of Enlil from Dilmun (the home of the gods) for raping Ninlil, Ninlil had a child, Sin (god of the moon), also known as Nanna. Sin and Ningal gave birth to Inanna and to Shamash. During Enlil's banishment, he fathered three underworld deities with Ninlil, most notably Nergal. Enlil was the name of a chief deity in Babylonian religion, perhaps pronounced and sometimes rendered in translations as Ellil in later Akkadian. ... A Pantheon (Greek: παν, pan, all + θεόν, theon, of the gods), is a set of all the gods of a particular religion or mythology, such as the gods of Hinduism, Greek mythology, Norse mythology. ... Dilmun (sometimes transliterated Telmun) is associated with ancient sites on the islands of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. ... In sumerian mythology : First called Sud then Ninlil, she is the daughter of Nammu and An. ... Sin was the name of the lunar god in Babylonia and Assyria. ... Nanna is a god in Sumerian mythology, god of the moon, son of Enlil and Ninlil. ... Nanna is a god in Sumerian mythology, god of the moon, son of Enlil and Ninlil. ... Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte. ... Shamash in his trone from the tablette of Sippar ca. ... The name Nergal (or Nirgal or 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. ...

Nammu also gave birth to Enki. Enki also controlled the Me, holy decrees that governed such basic things as physics and complex things such as social order and law. Enki was a deity in Sumerian mythology, later known as Ea in Babylonian mythology. ... Me is a concept in the cosmology of Sumerian mythology which describes the discrete bestowal of each of the arts and sciences by the gods to humans. ...

This accounts for the origin of most of the world as we know it

Sources

The earliest known writings on the Sumerian cosmology stem from Enheduanna. Enheduanna (c. ...

See also

• Babylonian and Assyrian religion
• Wikipedia:Shortpages/Mythology/Chaldean for many fragmentary entries.

The development of the religion of Babylonia, so far as it can be traced with the material at hand, follows closely along the lines of the periods to be distinguished in the history of the Euphrates valley. ...

External links

• alt.mythology Sumerian Mythology FAQ