The Mesopotamian Pantheon

December 15, 2017 5:37 AM

Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses is an overview of the pantheon originating among the Sumerians which was then taken up by various later cultures, including Babylonians and Assyrians. The site has entries on the fifty most important deities, from the obscure (Papsukkal, Geshtinanna, Tashmetu) to the well-known (Tiamat, Enki, Ishtar). The site also includes a glossary and a timeline of Mesopotamian history.
posted by Kattullus (11 comments total)

The thing that I always find so mindboggling about Mesopotamian culture is how long it lasted, from 3500 BCE until about 300 BCE. And then it was no more, the myths and legends vanished, remaining only as faint echoes within the Hebrew Bible. But for three millenia this was the most widespread culture on the planet.
posted by Kattullus at 5:46 AM on December 15, 2017 [4 favorites]

Intriguing.. But I didn't see Gozer in there .. Or was Gozer Babylonian ? Where's Egon ?
posted by k5.user at 6:30 AM on December 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

My favorite Mesopotamian deity: Ninkasi, goddess of beer...
posted by jim in austin at 7:02 AM on December 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

These have been somebody's naming scheme for servers for many years where I work.
posted by lagomorphius at 8:04 AM on December 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

My favorite is the one of the oldest gods in the Sumerian pantheon, the goddess Inanna. Inanna is proto-Ishtar, proto-Aprodite/ Persephone/ Prometheus/ Nike. She is the goddess of prostitutes AND of civilization.

"She brings knowledge and culture to the city of Uruk after receiving the gifts from the god of wisdom, Enki, (who she seduces) while he is drunk."

"The people would celebrate the sacred marriage rites of Inanna and Dumuzi (Ishtar and Tammuz) as he returned from the underworld to mate again with her, thus bringing the land to life."

"She is often shown in the company of a lion, denoting courage, and sometimes even riding the lion as a sign of her supremacy over the 'king of beasts’. In her aspect as goddess of war, Inanna is depicted in the armor of a male, in battle dress (statues frequently show her armed with a quiver and bow) and so is also identified with the Greek goddess Athena Nike. "

"Inanna is always depicted as a young woman, never as mother or faithful wife, who is fully aware of her feminine power and confronts life boldly without fear of how she will be perceived by others, especially by men."

What a bad ass.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:01 AM on December 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

The thing that I always find so mindboggling about Mesopotamian culture is how long it lasted, from 3500 BCE until about 300 BCE. And then it was no more, the myths and legends vanished, remaining only as faint echoes within the Hebrew Bible. But for three millenia this was the most widespread culture on the planet.

I don't think it's fair to say it vanished, but it is cool how much shows up in Torah. They swiped some from the Babylonians (the creation myth in Genesis follows the same order as the Enuma Elish) who got it from the Akkadians (Sargon the Great was sent down the Euphrates in a basket of rushes, for example) who got it from the Sumerians (the flood myth is in Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim builds a boat, sends out birds afterwards, etc).
posted by leotrotsky at 9:04 AM on December 15, 2017 [5 favorites]

Even the whole one omnipresent, omnipotent God concept was swiped from the Assyrians and their god Ashur. Samaria was incorporated into the Assyrian Empire after King Hoshea tried to conspire with the Egyptians and wouldn't pay tribute (2 Kings 17:3).

"Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So[a] king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes."

Also, Ashur's iconography may look familiar, because VERY similar images are used for Ahura Mazda, the God of the Zoroastrians.

There's more than just echos of ancient Mesopotamia.

Zoroastrianism, btw is the religion of the Achaemenid Empire (the First Persian Empire). They were successors to the Assyrians (and a lot nicer, the Assyrians were real assholes). You've heard lots about the Achaemenids from the Greeks, they had rulers like Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes. They're the ones that lost to the Greeks at Marathon, beat them at Thermopylae, and then lost at Plataea. They went home, but then undermined the Greeks for decades by funding the city-states' wars against each other. They later lost their empire to a little known Macedonian named Alexander the Great.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:25 AM on December 15, 2017 [7 favorites]

if you're interested in this stuff, here's a great pop history book on the topic:
Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization
posted by leotrotsky at 9:32 AM on December 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

My favorite is the one of the oldest gods in the Sumerian pantheon, the goddess Inanna.

YES! I love her!

Also, awesome post, I needed this rabbit hole today.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 9:51 AM on December 15, 2017 [2 favorites]

I’ve always kind of liked that the Babylonian gods sen the flood because humans were too noisy and kept them from sleeping. I have often wished for that power, but it’s just as well that I don’t have it.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:16 PM on December 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

Ningishzida or GTF --

oh, nvm, there he is, I approve. I frequently use Ningishzida ("Lord of the True Tree") for a unique name for online games and things where I don't want to be Eyebrows2741332.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:07 PM on December 15, 2017 [1 favorite]