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Genealogies of the gods usually run in closed loops: a Greek god's parents are Greek, a Norse god's parents are Norse. Mesopotamia breaks the pattern, and it breaks it in a way that lines up with real history.

Sons of an Older Pantheon

Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, is recorded as the son of Enki, a god of the older Sumerian pantheon. Ninurta, another major Babylonian god, is recorded as the son of Enlil, also Sumerian. Both parentages cross from one pantheon into another, and both cross in the same direction, Babylonian gods descended from Sumerian ones. That is exactly right as history: Babylonian religion grew up absorbing an older Sumerian one, keeping its gods and making its own chief god their heir.

Four Steps Back to the Earth Itself

Family trees elsewhere in the atlas run deep in their own way. Niobe, a mortal queen punished for boasting about her children, is recorded as the daughter of Tantalus, son of Zeus, son of Cronus, son of Uranos and Gaia, the sky and the earth themselves. Four steps of parentage carry an ordinary human queen straight back to the origin of the world.

Where To Read More

• MardukBabylonian DeitiesBabylon's chief god, recorded as the son of Sumerian Enki
• EnkiSumerian DeitiesThe Sumerian god whose line Babylon's chief god inherited
• NiobeHeroinesA mortal queen, five generations of parentage from the earliest gods
• GaiaGreek DeitiesThe primordial earth, at the far end of that five-step chain