The gods of Babylonia and Assyria, inheriting and reworking the older Sumerian pantheon under new names. They are known from cuneiform literature, among it the Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh, and from the astronomical tradition in which several of them were identified with the planets, an identification Greek astrology took over wholesale.
Facts
Attestation
Era of AttestationAttested in Akkadian-language sources from the later third millennium BCE. The theology of Marduk's supremacy is set out in Enuma Elish, most often dated to the late second millennium, and the latest cuneiform copies of Babylonian religious texts are of the first century CE. 3 Veneration TodayThe cult ended with the cuneiform culture that carried it; no continuous worship survives. 2 Overview
What Defines This GroupingThe gods of Babylonia and Assyria: largely the Sumerian pantheon inherited under Akkadian names and reordered around the elevation of Marduk as city-god of Babylon. The material is written in Akkadian on cuneiform tablets, and it is one of the fullest documented pantheons of the ancient world. 2 Learn More
The gods of Babylon
This group gathers the deities of Babylonian religion, the later Mesopotamian tradition that inherited and reworked the older Sumerian pantheon. Its theology is set out in myths such as the Enuma Elish, which narrates the rise of Marduk, the city-god of Babylon, to supremacy over the gods.
The browser will find Marduk and his son Nabu, the sky-god Anu, the storm-god Enlil, the wisdom-god Ea (Enki), the love-and-war goddess Ishtar (Inanna), and the sun-god Shamash, keeper of justice. Many are the same powers worshipped under Sumerian names elsewhere in the atlas; the entries note the correspondence.
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Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses
Nicole Brisch (ed.), Oracc / Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus, University of Pennsylvania, 2011IntroductionView the Source 3. Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others
Stephanie Dalley, Oxford University Press, 2000Introduction to Enuma ElishView the Source Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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