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The major deities in the Sumerian pantheon included An, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the god of wind and storm, AnKi Enki, the god of water and human culture, Ninhursag, the goddess of fertility and the earth, Utu, the god of the sun and justice, and his father Nanna, the god of the moon.
From Nammu and An to Nanna and Utu, the Sumerians, who lived in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around 4,000 to 2,000 BCE, had a rich pantheon of gods and goddesses that played important roles in their religious beliefs and daily life.
List of Mesopotamian deities. Akkadian cylinder seal dating to c. 2300 BC, depicting the deities Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud [1] Map showing the extent of Mesopotamia and its major cities relative to modern landmarks. Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. [2]
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most famous and important gods and goddesses in Sumerian mythology who shaped the world.
Mesopotamian religion, beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, and their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, who inhabited ancient Mesopotamia (now in Iraq) in the millennia before the Christian era. These religious beliefs and practices form a single stream of tradition.
Sumerian Pantheon is one of the earliest recorded pantheons, with gods like Anu, Enlil, and Inanna. Image: An ancient impression on a Sumerian cylinder seal depicts Dumuzid’s torment in the Underworld, where he is subjected to suffering by the fierce galla demons.
The gods of Mesopotamia are first evidenced during the Ubaid Period (c. 5000-4100 BCE) when temples were raised to them, but their worship developed during the Uruk Period (4100-2900 BCE) and their names appear in writing beginning in the Early Dynastic Period (2900-2334 BCE) in Sumer alongside the development of the ziggurat.