"The Phoenicians every year sacrificed their beloved and only begotten children to Kronos, or Saturn; and the Rhodesians often did the same." Sumerians said one year on planet Nibiru, a sar, was equivalent in time to 3600 earth years. The Balikh-Harran region is roughly a hundred miles west of Urkesh, where the god had been worshiped under the name Kumarbi for probably fifteen hundred years by the time of Abraham. It is interesting that Nannar the moon-god was a male, not a female goddess. Over the millennia, Sumerians branched off into Akkadians and later Babylonians, with the core mythology undergoing anywhere between minute and massive changes. Personal names including the stem l are found with similar patterns in both Amorite and Sabaic. An archaic phrase appears in Isaiah 14:13, kkkb 'l 'stars of God', referring to the circumpolar stars that never set, possibly especially to the seven stars of Ursa Major. An and Ki then proceeded to mate, and birthed Enlil. A trilingual god list from Ugarit, composed during the time of the judges, confirms that the Amorites, Hurrians, Akkadians, and Sumerians all worshiped the god with this handy linguistic equation: Enlil = Kumarbi = El. Ownership of Nippur was proof that Enlil wanted him to be king. Enlil and Kumarbi supplanted Anu, while El took the place of amm (Heaven). We can see immediately the moon-god Erah and El (God) are the two most popular (and only) theophoric elements in these early Amorite personal names. There are three different ways you can cite this article. And the deity the Hurrians and Amorites considered the father of their gods, Kumarbi/El, was at home in the mountains and connected to an underground abodethe Hurrianabiand the springs of the two deeps under or near Mount Hermon. To the people of the ancient world, Enlil, like El and Kumarbi, bridged the gap between time immemorial and the present day. A fuller account of the sacrifice appears later: It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. They also said Anunnaki lifespans were 120 sars which is 120 x 3600 or 432,000 years. Utu had one child a daughter named Mamu who was one of many goddesses who presided over the realm of dreams. l is called again and again Tru l ("Bull l" or "the bull god"). Uranus was not discovered until the 1800's, but the astronomers in that time period continued the tradition of naming planets after Roman gods. There was no place in Greek tradition for a Great Goddess equal to Kronos but the Mistress of Animals became Artemis (Diana in Roman tradition).] Its true that correlation does not imply causation, but the arrival in Sumer of that epithet at about the same time as groups of Semitic-speaking Akkadians and Amorites is strong circumstantial evidence. A bilingual inscription from Palmyra[52] dated to the 1st century equates l-Creator-of-the-Earth with the Greek god Poseidon. Like his son Utu, Nanna was determined to be a judge of good and bad due to his all-seeing position. The equivalent of A.D-li ra-b-umin Sumerian isdEn-ll()kur-gal(kur-gal= great mountain). [49][50] l is brother to the God Bethel, to Dagon and to an unknown god, equated with the Greek Atlas and to the goddesses Aphrodite/'Ashtart, Rhea (presumably Asherah), and Dione (equated with Ba'alat Gebal). Although the Amorites spoke a Semitic language, they were usually portrayed in Egyptian art with fair skin. For who in the skies compares to Yahweh, There were many notable differences between most modern religions and Sumerian religion apart from the aforementioned polytheism. Utus chief place of worship was at Sippar, with the temple being called the White House. ), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. Why these two? While most religions today are firmly rooted in the idea of a perennial god who transcends the very concept of time, the Sumerians believed that their primary gods came from the union between the goddess Nammu the Sumerian goddess of what was considered the primordial sea or salt water bodies and her partner Engur, who was not a deity but a personification of what was assumed to be an underground ocean of freshwater called the Abzu or Apsu. [38][39], In some places, especially in Psalm 29, Yahweh is clearly envisioned as a storm god,[40] something not true of l so far as we know[41] (although true of his son, Ba'al Haddad). El is depicted primarily as a warrior; in Ugaritic sources Baal has the warrior role and El is peaceful, and it may be that the Sanchuniathon depicts an earlier tradition that was more preserved in the southern regions of Canaan. El Elyon also corresponds to the Sumerian Anu, as well. Along with his grandfather Beelzebub, he controlled the airways for the Gods, wearing his symbol of . Also at Delos, that association of Tyrians, though mostly devoted to Heracles-Melqart, elected a member to bear a crown every year when sacrifices to Poseidon took place. Before the Great Flood, Saturn was regarded by all mankind as the supreme god and ruler of the kings. Marduk = Babylonian. In fact, legends spoke of how he had Nanna and Utu illuminate the sky after being unhappy about the darkness in his heavenly home. Nanna was also the father of fire god Nusku and one of Enlils trusted ministers. [18]) Yet another connection is seen with the Mandaean angel Ptahil, whose name combines both the terms Ptah and Il. 3 (July, 1968), p. 172. After the Doomsday cataclysm Minoan tradition gave way to Greek tradition. This image below is of a relief in the British Museum that shows the Sumerian God Ninurta. Her popularity saw a spike in the early days of Babylon, eventually going on to become the foremost of healing deities for the civilization. The highest echelon of gods in Sumerian religion were known as the Anunnaki. After being separated from An by the former, Ki stayed on Earth to rule over the domain. Azazel is also the God of divination and has been consulted by many soothsayers. Heliocentric Solar System: The Sumerians were well aware that our solar system was Heliocentric.Moreover they show 11 celestial bodies or planets.The above picture taken from a Sumerian cylinder seal cleary shows that they not only knew the number of bodies in the solar system, but the relative size as well. The functions of different gods tended to vary by city states, but of the Great Seven. An took control of heaven and separated the sky from the Earth when Enlil came between himself and Ki, allowing for the creation of the universe. One of the four gods to whom creation was attributed, Enki was primarily the god of fresh water, and was said to have filled the Tigris and Euphrates rivers with both water and marine life. Psalm 29, understood as an enthronement psalm, begins: A Psalm of David. 47, No. They developed a pretty rough reputation, especially the Tidanu tribe (about whom more later), that contributed to the collapse of the last Sumerian kingdom to rule Mesopotamia. Eusebius, through whom the Sanchuniathon is preserved, is not interested in setting the work forth completely or in order. It is believed that Nammu held greater importance in earlier times, but as there are no written records of those times, this is impossible to say with certainty. Shamash, as the solar deity, exercised the power of light over darkness and evil. The god of the southern deserts The first mention of the Israelite tribe itself is a victory stele erected around 1210 BCE by the pharaoh Mernetpah (sometimes called "the Israel stele"). In this capacity he became known as the god of justice and . ama (Sumerian Utu) is the god of the sun. The Moon, the Sun, and the planets were viewed as gods or manifestations of gods. However, Enlils days at the top of the virtual mountain were numbered when the Amorite dynasty of Hammurabi transformed Babylon from a third-rate village into a political force in the eighteenth century BC. [43] The slaying of the serpent in myth is a deed attributed to both Ba'al Hadad and 'Anat in the Ugaritic texts, but not to l.[44]. As recorded on the clay tablets of Ugarit, El is the husband of the goddess Asherah. Each of their major cities worshiped a different god as their chief local deity. The Sumerian civilization emerged upon the flood plain of the lower reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers about 4000 B.C. He is the first and most distant ancestor, theologically conceived as the God of Heaven in its "transcendental obscurity". l is the father of Persephone and of Athena (presumably the goddess 'Anat). Though Sanchuniathon distinguishes Poseidon from his Elus/Cronus, this might be a splitting off of a particular aspect of l in a euhemeristic account. ENBILULU - The Mesopotamian water god charged with the care of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Another version attributes the idea to Nammu herself. Although some other gods had a relatively higher share of support as far as surviving records testify, Enkis contribution to legends was perhaps just as significant, if not more. The goddess was also said to have crafted a set of legislations that shaped the code of law and etiquette in the area. [16], The Egyptian god Ptah is given the title gitti 'Lord of Gath' in a prism from Tel Lachish which has on its opposite face the name of Amenhotep II (c. 14351420 BCE). Eanna temple in Uruk: Equatorial sky: An (in Sumerian), later known as Anu (in Akkadian), was the supreme God and "prime mover in creation", embodied by the sky. To cite this article in an academic-style article or paper, use: James Hardy, "The 10 Most Important Sumerian Gods", History Cooperative, April 22, 2022, https://historycooperative.org/sumerian-gods/. There was no fair system of karmic give-and-take as there appeared in later religions the average Mesopotamian god could grant a difficult wish or take a life as they pleased, even if the person in question had been a devout worshiper and a good human being. They also required food, water, and shelter much like the people who worshiped them. ilnu. The Semitic root lh (Arabic ilh, Aramaic Alh, Elh, Hebrew elah) may be l with a parasitic h, and l may be an abbreviated form of lh. The clash in tone between his names is not an outlier. [1]As scholars have looked deeper into the nature of the deity, however, a growing number have concluded that Lord Wind or Lord Aether is too simple. [18], In any case, Enlils emergence as the kingmaker of Mesopotamia doesnt extend as far back in Sumerian history as was thought. Named after the Earth itself, Ki was a direct descendent of Nammu. It probably means he of Kumar, a site identified with the modern village of Kmr, about twenty-five miles northwest of Aleppo. . In D. N. Freedman (Ed. It seems that the Anunnaki are returning to ou. [6]In my view, this is Fallen Realm Fake News to diminish the true God of heaven (and earth, and all creation) by slandering the sky-god as remote, disinterested, and, in some accounts, literally neutered. Nammu Nammu was the one who gave birth to the first deities An (the god of heaven) and Ki (the earth goddess) and to many more of the ancient gods. There is even evidence of cults which considered Nanna to be the primary god. This myth nicely rounds up Inannas personality:lustful, violent, and vengeful. The title gitti is also found in Serbit text 353. They prayed to Anu (supreme god or sky god), Enki (god of water, knowledge, mischief, crafts, and creation), Enlil (Lord Wind), Inanna (Queen of Heaven), Utu (sun-god), and Sin (moon-god). But of this massive group, a few stand out in their significance to Sumerian religion and mythology. Worshipers of each city would go to the main temple to pay their respects to the main god. She later married her son Enlil, and the two proceeded to create all the plants and animals on the planet. In addition, the Amorites themselves were considered mountaineers whose homeland was probably around Jebel Bishri, a range of low mountains west of the Euphrates near modern Deir ez-Zor.[16]. The apparent plural form 'lm or 'lim "gods" occurs only four times in the Tanakh. Members of the Mesopotamian pantheon were immortal, and as long as they were above the Netherworld, had an aura about them called melammu, which was described as a glow which instantly distinguished them from mere mortals. It began as a collection of reed huts in a marsh alongside the Euphrates. and the majority of the group of all the holy ones, We should also remember that the Akkadians sealed a political alliance with the Hurrians around this time by marrying off the daughter of Narm-Sn to theendan(king) of Urkesh. Ninurta began his divine career as a god of irrigation and agriculture. 1. [10] Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirsa. [25], In a Hurrian hymn to l (published in Ugaritica V, text RS 24.278), he is called 'il brt and 'il dn, which Cross (p.39) takes as 'l of the covenant' and 'l the judge' respectively.[26]. 4. Ascribe to Yahweh, glory and strength. The bloodcurdling truth is that Judaism has always been a cult of Saturn from its beginning. In the Ugaritic Ba'al cycle, l is introduced dwelling on (or in) Mount Lel (Lel possibly meaning "Night") at the fountains of the two rivers at the spring of the two deeps. In astrology, Capricorn is considered an earth sign, negative sign, and one of the four cardinal signs. [7](Emphasis added). Later, perhaps referring to this same death of Sadidus we are told: But on the occurrence of a pestilence and mortality Cronus offers his only begotten son as a whole burnt-offering to his father Sky and circumcises himself, compelling his allies also to do the same. Inanna was regarded as the most important of all female deities of the Ancient Sumerian pantheon. She later became identified by the Akkadians and Assyrians as the goddess Ishtar, and further with the Hittite Sauska, the Phoenician Astarte and the Greek Aphrodite, among many others. Philo of Byblos (c. 64141 AD) was a Greek writer whose account Sanchuniathon survives in quotation by Eusebius and may contain the major surviving traces of Phoenician mythology. But others have argued that from patriarchal times, these different names were in fact generally understood to refer to the same single great god, l. The stories and descriptions of Enlil dont include any characteristics youd expect from a wind or storm-god. (See 2 Kings 23:15.)[47]. Another is that in much of the Hebrew Bible the name El is an alternative name for Yahweh, but in the Elohist and Priestly traditions it is considered an earlier name than Yahweh. It was about this time that Enlil appears to have been elevated from the status of patron god of Nippur, a city located near the Euphrates about one hundred miles southeast of modern Baghdad, to head of the Mesopotamian pantheon. Remember, the Amorites of that era worshiped only two gods, the god Ilu (El) and the moon-god called Bl ad (lord of the mountain). through the bond of heaven and earth for ever, [22]. This parallel pleads against the Amorites as newcomers, because such a phenomenon is typically the result of long-term contact and/or acculturation. The god of heaven or the sky, he was also the patron god of the city of Uruk. Here are some popular Sumerian symbols from that time period. With his life-giving energies, Utu also helped plants grow. And the symbol meant that Cronus could see when asleep, and sleep while waking: and similarly in the case of the wings, that he flew while at rest, and was at rest when flying. Some non-specialists have made videos on the . A patron deity of Ur, Nannas main temple was Ekishnugal, which was rebuilt or restored many times by different rulers. Gula was also known to be the goddess of dogs and other animals, and this is immortalized in depictions of her with a dog carved into a boundary stone dating from the period. Ascribe to Yahweh, sons of Gods (bn 'lm), If you are committed to the ancient . l (also 'Il, Ugaritic: lu; Phoenician: l;[6] Hebrew: l; Syriac: yl; Arabic: l or ilh; cognate to Akkadian: , romanized:ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god" or "deity", or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. The symbol that denotes her name is the same as the one used to designate Engur, her mate and the personification of the mythical underground freshwater ocean known as Abzu. Like other Mesopotamian gods, his cult changed over time. The Fallen Realm doesnt hesitate to steal that which belongs to their Creator. It was widely believed that a human kings right to rule derived from the favor of Enlil; in fact, kingship, the attribute of royalty that conveyed the divine authority of a king, was literally called enlilship.[19]But until about 2450 BC, Enlil did not bestow that power to kings across all of Sumer. The patron deity of the city of Nippur was given the names father, creator, lord, the great mountain, raging storm, and king of the foreign lands.. They had a strong tradition of astronomical observation. Their civilization existed between about 4,500 BCE and 1,900 BCE. While the Hurrians remained in the Outer Fertile Crescent, the Amorites moved south along the Euphrates and Tigris during the second half of the third millennium BC. She was older than her more lively sister Inanna, hated her passionately, and was a stone-cold queen who enforced the law that no one could leave the underworld without leaving a replacement behind. 27, No. In each case, the god had assumed kingship over the pantheon by replacing a primordial deity who represented the sky or heaven. This may explain the best-known epithet of Enlil, Great Mountain. The Akkadian term is A.D-li ra-b-um, literally, the great mountain of the gods.[13]This title is attested from the time of Sargon of Akkad, who reigned in the late twenty-fourth and early twenty-third centuries BC, about three or four hundred years before the time of Abraham. Mason-Dixon Line The following verses in which the god condemns those whom he says were previously named gods (Elohim) and sons of the Most High suggest the god here is in fact l judging the lesser gods. The only sons of l named individually in the Ugaritic texts are Yamm ("Sea"), Mot ("Death"), and Ashtar, who may be the chief and leader of most of the sons of l. He also had relationships with Damkina, and Ninsar and Ninkurra who were his daughters. Abstract. Ninurta, an obscure god inherited by the Babylonians, may have been identified with Saturn, the slowest moving visible planet, because . The Romans connected Wden to Mercury because they were both guides of souls after. Despite their varied appearance to the. But the form 'El also appears, mostly in poetic passages and in the patriarchal narratives attributed to the Priestly source of the documentary hypothesis. l is a generic word for god that could be used for any god, including Hadad, Moloch, or Yahweh. Daughter to Enlil and the twin sister of Utu, she had another sibling called Ereshkigal, who was the goddess in charge of the Netherworld. tures and ages have added to it. At an early period of Sumerian history, Utu was regarded to be the twin brother of Inanna. In many works of ancient art, one might find images of strange creatures carrying what appears to be a handbag. Despite Enlils symbol having been a horned crown, no horns can be seen in this instance although that is likely to be a result of thousands of years of damage. and all the divine beings As the sun fills the entire sky with light, ama oversaw everything that occurred during the . Here is a list of the 10 most important: Contents show 10. [42] It is Yahweh who is prophesied to one day battle Leviathan the serpent, and slay the dragon in the sea in Isaiah 27:1. The Sumerians built the gigantic ziggurat of Etemenanki to honor their supreme god, Marduk. Asherah has made (a pact) with us. In a later passage it is explained that l castrated Sky. Moreover, they were also meant to live leisurely lives and be treated as whimsical masters at best, ominously present just beyond sight and sound as temperamental overseers to humans. It wasnt just their powers that separated them from humans, though. While Nammu may have been considered to be higher up in earlier forms of the religion, Sumerian goddess Inanna was unquestionably the most important female deity in the history of ancient Mesopotamia , and one of the most revered goddesses from all ancient civilizations. Jesus is really the son of Ouranos, or the deity that is above and controls the dome. The chief god of Mesopotamia before the political rise of Babylon was the deity called the Great Mountain, Enlil. The most common Akkadian names of the five planets, iu (Mercury), Dilbat (Venus), albatnu (Mars), White Star (Jupiter), and Kayymnu (Saturn), are attested first in 1800-1000 bce. who can be likened to Yahweh among the sons of Gods (bn 'lm). [In Minoan mythology, Saturn was known as the Great Goddess and Rhea was known as the Mistress of Animals. Marduk, in Mesopotamian religion, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia; as such, he was eventually called simply Bel, or Lord. Unlike the modern idea of heaven, Sumerian heaven was essentially the sky, which was where some gods lived. d NIN.URTA / d MA Ninurta , Sumerian god, whose portfolio origi- nally included agriculture and fertility , later war and heroic deeds [10]Like the Amorites, the name Kumarbi may come from northern Syria. E.g. The fragmentary text R.S. The earliest writings of both are roughly contemporary, and occur interchangeably. An, the Sumerian deity who ruled heaven, was the most important god, and the most important deity, in the religion overall. Again l lay with his wives and the wives gave birth to "the gracious gods", "cleavers of the sea", "children of the sea".
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