List of Mesopotamian deities
Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore melam, an ambiguous substance which "covered them in terrifying splendor" and which could also be worn by heroes, kings, giants, and even demons. The effect that seeing a deity's melam has on a human is described as ni, a word for the "physical tingling of the flesh". Both the Sumerian and Akkadian languages contain many words to express the sensation of ni, including the word puluhtu, meaning "fear". Deities were almost always depicted wearing horned caps, consisting of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns. They were also sometimes depicted wearing clothes with elaborate decorative gold and silver ornaments sewn into them.
The ancient Mesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven, but that a god's statue was a physical embodiment of the god himself. As such, cult statues were given constant care and attention and a set of priests were assigned to tend to them. These priests would clothe the statues and place feasts before them so they could "eat". A deity's temple was believed to be that deity's literal place of residence. The gods had boats, full-sized barges which were normally stored inside their temples and were used to transport their cult statues along waterways during various religious festivals. The gods also had chariots, which were used for transporting their cult statues by land. Sometimes a deity's cult statue would be transported to the location of a battle so that the deity could watch the battle unfold. The major deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon were believed to participate in the "assembly of the gods", through which the gods made all of their decisions. This assembly was seen as a divine counterpart to the semi-democratic legislative system that existed during the Third Dynasty of Ur.
The Mesopotamian pantheon evolved greatly over the course of its history. In general, the history of Mesopotamian religion can be divided into four phases. During the first phase, starting in the fourth millennium BC, deities' domains mainly focused on basic needs for human survival. During the second phase, which occurred in the third millennium BC, the divine hierarchy became more structured and deified kings began to enter the pantheon. During the third phase, in the second millennium BC, the gods worshipped by an individual person and gods associated with the commoners became more prevalent. During the fourth and final phase, in the first millennium BC, the gods became closely associated with specific human empires and rulers. The names of over 3,000 Mesopotamian deities have been recovered from cuneiform texts. Many of these are from lengthy lists of deities compiled by ancient Mesopotamian scribes. The longest of these lists is a text entitled An = Antum, a Babylonian scholarly work listing the names of over 2,000 Sumerian deities with their Semitic equivalents.
The Anunnaki are a group of deities first attested during the reign of Gudea and the Third Dynasty of Ur. Originally, the Anunnaki appear to have been heavenly deities with immense powers, who were believed to "decree the fates of mankind". Later they became regarded as chthonic Underworld deities. They are chiefly mentioned in literary texts and very little evidence to support the existence of any cult of them has yet been unearthed. This is likely due to the fact that each member of the Anunnaki had his or her own individual cult, separate from the others. Similarly, no representations of the Anunnaki as a group have yet been discovered, although a few depictions of its individual members have been identified. Another group of deities are the Igigi, who are first attested from the Old Babylonian Period. The name Igigi seems to have originally been applied to the ten "great gods", but it later came to refer to all the gods of Heaven collectively. In some instances, the terms Anunnaki and Igigi are used synonymously.
Triad of Heaven
The three most important deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon during all periods were the gods An, Enlil, and Enki. An was identified with all the stars of the equatorial sky, Enlil with those of the northern sky, and Enki with those of the southern sky. The path of Enlil's celestial orbit was a continuous, symmetrical circle around the north celestial pole, but those of An and Enki were believed to intersect at various points.| Name | Image | Major cult centers | Celestial body | Details | Associated color |
| An Anu | Eanna temple in Uruk | Equatorial sky | An, later known as Anu or Ilu, is the supreme God and "prime mover in creation", embodied by the sky. He is the first and most distant ancestor, theologically conceived as the God of Heaven in its "transcendental obscurity". All the deities were believed to be the offspring of An and his consort Ki. While An was the utmost God, at least by the time of the earliest written records the cult was largely devoted to Enlil. | Luludanitu; ensemble of red, white and black | |
| Enlil Nunamnir, Ellil | Ekur temple in Nippur | Northern sky | Enlil, later known as Ellil, is the god of wind, air, earth, and storms and the chief of all the gods. He is theologically conceived as the "transcendent" facet of An. The Sumerians envisioned Enlil as a benevolent, fatherly deity, who watches over humanity and cares for their well-being. One Sumerian hymn describes Enlil as so glorious that even the other gods could not look upon him. His cult was closely tied to the holy city of Nippur and, after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC, his cult fell into decline. He was eventually paralleled in his role as chief deity by Marduk, the national god of the Babylonians. | Lapis lazuli-blue | |
| Enki Nudimmud, Ninshiku, Ea | E-Abzu temple in Eridu | Southern sky | Enki, later known as Ea, and also occasionally referred to as Nudimmud or Ninšiku, is the god of the subterranean freshwater ocean, who is also closely associated with wisdom, magic, incantations, arts, and crafts. He is either the son of An, or the goddess Nammu, and is the twin brother of Ishkur. He is theologically conceived as the "immanent" facet of An. His wife is the goddess Damgalnuna and his sons include the gods Marduk, Asarluhi, Enbilulu, the sage Adapa, and the goddess Nanshe. His sukkal, or minister, is the two-faced messenger god Isimud. Enki is the divine benefactor of humanity, who helped humans survive the Great Flood. In Enki and the World Order, he organizes "in detail every feature of the civilised world." In Inanna and Enki, he is the holder of the sacred mes, the tablets concerning all aspects of human life. | Jasper-green |
Seven planetary deities
The number seven was extremely important in ancient Mesopotamian cosmology. In Sumerian religion, the most powerful and important deities in the pantheon were the "seven gods who decree": An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag, Nanna, Utu, and Inanna. Many major deities in Sumerian mythology were associated with specific celestial bodies: Inanna was believed to be the planet Venus, Utu was believed to be the Sun, and Nanna was the Moon. Later Mesopotamian peoples adopted these associations and also assigned their own deities to the classical planets until all seven celestial bodies visible with the naked eye had become identified with major deities. The modern seven-day week originated with the ancient Babylonians, for whom each day was associated with one of the seven planetary deities.| Name | Image | Major cult centers | Celestial body | Details | Associated metal and color |
| Utu Shamash | E-Babbar temples at Sippar and Larsa | Sun | Utu, later known as Shamash, is the ancient Mesopotamian god of the Sun, who was also revered as the god of truth, justice, and morality. He was the son of Nanna and the twin brother of Inanna. Inanna also had a sister named Ereshkigal, also known as Irkalla and Allatu who is the Mesopotamian Queen of the Dead, ruler of the underworld. Her name translates as 'Queen of the Great Below' or 'Lady of the Great Place. The Sun-god was believed to see all things that happen during the day and to aid mortals in distress. Alongside his sister Inanna, Utu was the enforcer of divine justice. | Gold, yellow | |
| Nanna-Suen Nanna, Enzu, Zuen, Suen, Sin | E-kiš-nu-ğal temple in Ur and another temple in Harran | Moon | Nanna, Enzu or Zuen in Sumerian, later altered as Suen and Sin in Akkadian, is the ancient Mesopotamian god of the Moon. He was the son of Enlil and Ninlil and one of his most prominent myths was an account of how he was conceived and how he made his way from the Underworld to Nippur. The Moon-god has an important role among the major gods; in Assyrian esoteric literature, he is regarded as symbolizing the pleroma, i.e. the sum of all the gods' powers, and thus An itself. The crescent of the Moon-god was featured on the top of the cusps of Mesopotamian temples. | Silver, green | |
| Nergal | E-Meslam temple in Kutha and Mashkan-shapir | Mars | Nergal was associated with the Underworld and is usually the husband of Ereshkigal. He was also associated with forest fires, fevers, plagues, and war. In myths, he causes destruction and devastation. | Iron, red | |
| Nabu | Borsippa | Mercury | Nabu was the Mesopotamian god of scribes and writing. His wife was the goddess Tashmetu and he may have been associated with the planet Mercury. He later became associated with wisdom and agriculture. | Mercury, orange | |
| Marduk | Babylon | Jupiter | Marduk is the national god of the Babylonians. The expansion of his cult closely paralleled the historical rise of Babylon and, after assimilating various local deities, including a god named Asarluhi, he eventually came to parallel Enlil as the chief of the gods. His wife was the goddess Sarpānītu. | Tin, white | |
| Inanna Ishtar | Eanna temple in Uruk, though she also had temples in Nippur, Lagash, Shuruppak, Zabalam, and Ur | Venus | Inanna, later known as Ishtar, is "the most important female deity of ancient Mesopotamia at all periods." She was the Sumerian goddess of love, sexuality, prostitution, and war. She was the divine personification of the planet Venus, the morning and evening star. Accounts of her parentage vary; in most myths, she is usually presented as the daughter of Nanna and Ningal, but, in other stories, she is the daughter of Enki or An along with an unknown mother. The Sumerians had more myths about her than any other deity. Many of the myths involving her revolve around her attempts to usurp control of the other deities' domains. Her most famous myth is the story of her descent into the Underworld, in which she attempts to conquer the Underworld, the domain of her older sister Ereshkigal, but is instead struck dead by the seven judges of the Underworld. She is only revived due to Enki's intervention and her husband Dumuzid is forced to take her place in the Underworld. Alongside her twin brother Utu, Inanna was the enforcer of divine justice. | Copper, blue | |
| Ninurta Ninĝirsu | E-šu-me-ša temple in Nippur, Girsu, Lagash, and later Kalhu in Assyria | Saturn | Ninurta, also known as Ningirsu, was a Mesopotamian warrior deity who was worshipped in Sumer from the very earliest times. He was the champion of the gods against the Anzû bird after it stole the Tablet of Destinies from his father Enlil and, in a myth that is alluded to in many works but never fully preserved, he killed a group of warriors known as the "Slain Heroes". Ninurta was also an agricultural deity and the patron god of farmers. In the epic poem Lugal-e, he slays the demon Asag and uses stones to build the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to make them useful for irrigation. His major symbols were a perched bird and a plow. | Lead, black |
Primordial beings
Various civilizations over the course of Mesopotamian history had many different creation stories. The earliest accounts of creation are simple narratives written in Sumerian dating to the late third millennium BC. These are mostly preserved as brief prologues to longer mythographic compositions dealing with other subjects, such as Inanna and the Huluppu Tree, The Creation of the Pickax, and Enki and Ninmah. Later accounts are far more elaborate, adding multiple generations of gods and primordial beings. The longest and most famous of these accounts is the Babylonian Enûma Eliš, or Epic of Creation, which is divided into seven tablets. The surviving version of the Enûma Eliš could not have been written any earlier than the late second millennium BC, but it draws heavily on earlier materials, including various works written during the Akkadian, Old Babylonian, and Kassite periods in the early second millennium BC.| Name | Image | Details |
| Abzu | In the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš, Abzu is primordial undeterminacy, the consort of the goddess Tiamat who was killed by the god Ea. Abzu was the personification of the subterranean primeval waters. | |
| Anshar and Kishar | In some East Semitic myths, Anshar and Kishar are a primordial couple, who are male and female respectively. In the Babylonian Enûma Eliš, they are the second pair of offspring born from Abzu and Tiamat and the parents of the supreme An. | |
| Ki | Ki is the Sumerian goddess personifying the earth itself. In some Sumerian accounts, she is a primordial being who copulates with An to produce a variety of plants. Ki is the mother of Enlil and the Sumerians believed that the world began when Enlil separated her from An. She may be another name for Ninhursag, the earth goddess. | |
| Nammu | Nammu is the primordial goddess who, in some Sumerian traditions, was said to have given birth to both An and Ki. She eventually came to be regarded as the mother of Enki and was revered as an important mother goddess. Because the cuneiform sign used to write her name is the same as the sign for engur, a synonym for abzu, it is highly probable that she was originally conceived as the personification of the subterranean primeval waters. | |
| Tiamat | In the Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš, after the separation of heaven and earth, the goddess Tiamat and her consort Abzu are the only deities in existence. A male-female pair, they mate and Tiamat gives birth to the first generation of gods. Ea slays Abzu and Tiamat gives birth to eleven monsters to seek venegeance for her lover's death. Eventually, Marduk, the son of Enki and the national god of the Babylonians, slays Tiamat and uses her body to create the earth. In the Assyrian version of the story, it is Ashur who slays Tiamat instead. Tiamat was the personification of the primeval waters and it is hard to tell how the author of the Enûma Eliš imagined her appearance. |