Gods and Goddesses of Sumeria

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Gods and Goddesses of Sumeria

• World Literature I

Presentation by
Ralph Monday
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Sumerian Myth

• The Sumerians developed one of the earliest
  civilizations on earth (3500-1750 B.C.E.)
• However, their lost civilization was not
  rediscovered until the 19th century.

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• The world of the Babylonians was well known.
• The ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, and Greeks had
  all had contact and written about this
  civilization.
• No one knew that the Sumerians had come before
  the Babylonians,
• And had adapted and modified their writing,
  religious, and agricultural systems.

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• British, German, and French archeologists in the
  early 19th century began to excavate the
• Earthen mounds that are the remains of cities
  that existed thousands of years ago in the
• Tigris and Euphrates river valleys. The region
  was called Mesopotamia (between the rivers).

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The Gods

• There are several ways to examine Sumerian
  mythology. The culture was
• Polytheistic
• Anthropomorphic
• Animist

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Polytheism

• The belief in or worship of many gods, or more
  than one god.
• It is the direct opposite of monotheism, the
  major belief system of the
• Judeo-Christian tradition.

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Greek Gods of Olympus
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Anthropomorphic

• The attributing of human shape or characteristics
  to gods, objects, animals, etc.

Anthropomorphic cabinet-Salvador Dali
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Animism

• 1. The belief that all life is produced by a
  spiritual force separate from matter.
• 2. The belief that natural phenomena and objects
  such as rocks, trees, rivers, oceans, the wind,
  etc., are alive and have souls.

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• Indeed, the ancients believed that the earth
  itself is alive.
• Ki in the Sumerian. Gaia (earth mother) in the
  Greek.

Mother of all things
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There is a Modern day Biological Theory (Gaia
hypothesis) That examines This ancient idea From
a present Day scientific Perspective.
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Gilgamesh Major Gods and Goddesses

• Adad
• Anunnaki
• Anu
• Aruru
• Ishtar/Inanna
• Ninurta
• Nisaba

• Antum
• Aya
• Ea/Enki
• Enlil
• Lugulbanda
• Ninsun
• Samuqan
• Shamash

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• Like the Greek gods and many other cultures, the
  Sumerian gods
• Comprise a pantheon, the gods
• Of a people taken collectively,
• Or a treatise on them.

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ADAD

• In Sumerian mythology, Adad is a storm god, son
  of Anu. He holds a
• Lightning bolt in his right hand and an axe in
  his left.
• Partially responsible for the flood, he relates
  to the Canaanite god Hadad.

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ADAD
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Flood Tablet Gilgamesh Epic
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ANNUNNAKI

• In Sumerian mythology the Annunnaki are the
  underworld gods.
• Gilgamesh cries out lament over the death of
  Enkidu that these beings have fastened onto
  Enkidu
• and seized him, taking him to the land of death.

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In the Sumerian cosmology Enkidu was taken to
Sheol, the underworld.
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THE ANUNNAKI
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ANTUM

• Babylonian consort of Anu, the god of the sky.
• In Sumerian mythology she is a colorless female
  being.
• Antum and Anu produced the Anunnaki.
• She was replaced by Ishtar who is sometimes her
  daughter.

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ANU

• In Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, Anu is the
  god of the sky.
• He is also the creator god of the Sumerian
  pantheon.
• He is the father of the gods.
• He is the first and most powerful god.

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ANU
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ARURU

• Aruru is the creator goddess of Sumerian
  mythology.
• She is the mother goddess of the earth and birth.
• She is the one who first created humanity from
  clay.
• She also created Enkidu.

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ARURU
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Aruru Creating Enkidu
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AA/AYA

• In Babylonian mythology, Aa is the Great-Mother.
  She is the Mother of all things.
• She is the Goddess of dawn and inspired the
  invention of letters.
• Consort of Shamash, the sun god.

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Aya Goddess of the Dawn
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EA/ENKI

• In Babylonian and Sumerian mythology, Ea/Enki was
  the god of wisdom, magic, and water.
• He supplies clear drinking water to the town of
  Dilmun.

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• Enki is the god of the watery depths of the Abzu
  who betrayed the pantheon by revealing to
• Utnapishtim that Enlil was about to destroy
  humanity by a great flood.

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• The Sumerians believed that the oceans on the
  surface of the world were paralled by hidden,
  cthonic seas located in vast chambers deep within
  the earth.
• Abzu is the primordial Lord of these Inner
  Waters. His name is the root behind the modern
  word "abyss".

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EA/ENKI God of Water and Magic
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ENLIL

• In Sumerian mythology Enlil was the first born
  son of Ki (earth) and Anu (heaven). He is the god
  of the sky.
• He separated the earth from the heavens.
• He guards the tablets of destiny, power that
  allows him to determine the fate of all things
  animate or inanimate.

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ENLIL
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ERESHKIGAL

• Ereshkigal is the Sumerian and Babylonian Queen
  of the Underworld.
• She is a death goddess and sister of Ishtar.
  Together with her consort Nergal she rules the
  underworld.

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No one returns from her domain
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This terra cotta figure, thousands ofyears old,
is interpreted to be either Ishtar or Ereshkigal.
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LUGULBANDA

• A hero of two Sumerian poems, third on the
  post-diluvian King-List, and ruler of Uruk for
  1200 years.
• He is occasionally referred to by Gilgamesh as
  his semi-divine 'father'.
• He is a demigod and the protector of Gilgamesh.

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ISHTAR/INANNA

• The Sumerian goddess of love and sexuality who
  attempts to seduce Gilgamesh.
• Knowing her history of sordid and failed love
  affairs, Gilgamesh refuses her advances causing
  much strife for himself and the people of Uruk.

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Ishtar was personified as the legendaryqueen
Semiramis.
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NINSUN

• The mother of Gilgamesh and priestess of the
  temple of Uruk.
• She helps Gilgamesh interpret his dream about a
  falling star, and makes
• Utu/Shamash protect Gilgamesh on his journey to
  the Cedar Mountains.

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NINURTA

• Ninurta is chamberlain of the Annunnaki.
• The child of Enlil and Mami, he is also god of
  rain, fertility, war, thunderstorms, wells,
  canals, floods, the plough and the South Wind.
• His name means "lord of the earth" and mankind
  owed to him the fertile fields and the healthy
  live-stock.

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Ninurta (890-884 B.C.E.)
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SAMUQAN

• The Mesopotamian god of cattle.
• He is connected to the earth, fertility,
  livestock.

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SHAMASH

• The sun god, and since he could see everything on
  earth, he also represented the god of justice.

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Worship of Shamash
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SIN

• The Sumerian moon god.
• The Moon god had several different names that
  referred to different phases of the Moon. The
  name Sin indicated the crescent Moon, Nanna the
  full Moon, and Asimbabbar the beginning of each
  lunar cycle.

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SIN