Gods and Goddesses of
Sumeria
World Literature I
Presentation by:
Ralph Monday
Sumerian Myth
• The Sumerians developed one of
the earliest civilizations on earth
(3500-1750 B.C.E.)
• However, their lost civilization was
not rediscovered until the 19th
century.
• The world of the Babylonians was
well known.
• The ancient Egyptians, Hebrews,
and Greeks had all had contact and
written about this civilization.
• No one knew that the Sumerians
had come before the Babylonians,
• And had adapted and modified
their writing, religious, and
agricultural systems.
• British, German, and French
archeologists in the early 19th
century began to excavate the
• Earthen mounds that are the
remains of cities that existed
thousands of years ago in the
• Tigris and Euphrates river valleys.
The region was called Mesopotamia
(between the rivers).
The Gods
• There are several ways to examine
Sumerian mythology. The culture
was:
• Polytheistic
• Anthropomorphic
• Animist
Polytheism
• The belief in or worship of many gods,
or more than one god.
• It is the direct opposite of monotheism,
the major belief system of the
• Judeo-Christian tradition.
Greek Gods of Olympus
Anthropomorphic
• The attributing of
human shape or
characteristics to
gods, objects,
animals, etc.
Anthropomorphic cabinet-Salvador Dali
Animism
• 1. The belief that all life is
produced by a spiritual force
separate from matter.
• 2. The belief that natural
phenomena and objects such as
rocks, trees, rivers, oceans, the
wind, etc., are alive and have souls.
• Indeed, the
ancients
believed that
the earth itself
is alive.
• Ki in the
Sumerian. Gaia
(earth mother)
in the Greek.
Mother of all things
There is a
Modern day
Biological
Theory
(Gaia hypothesis)
That examines
This ancient idea
From a present
Day scientific
Perspective.
Gilgamesh: Major Gods and
Goddesses
• Adad
• Anunnaki
• Anu
• Aruru
• Ishtar/Inanna
• Ninurta
• Nisaba
•Antum
•Aya
•Ea/Enki
•Enlil
•Lugulbanda
•Ninsun
•Samuqan
•Shamash
• Like the Greek gods and many
other cultures, the Sumerian gods
• Comprise a pantheon, the gods
• Of a people taken collectively,
• Or a treatise on them.
ADAD
• In Sumerian mythology, Adad is a
storm god, son of Anu. He holds a
• Lightning bolt in his right hand and
an axe in his left.
• Partially responsible for the flood,
he relates to the Canaanite god
Hadad.
ADAD
Flood Tablet Gilgamesh Epic
ANNUNNAKI
• In Sumerian mythology the
Annunnaki are the underworld
gods.
• Gilgamesh cries out lament over
the death of Enkidu that these
beings have fastened onto Enkidu
• and seized him, taking him to the
land of death.
In the Sumerian cosmology Enkidu
was taken to Sheol, the underworld.
THE ANUNNAKI
ANTUM
• Babylonian consort of Anu, the god
of the sky.
• In Sumerian mythology she is a
colorless female being.
• Antum and Anu produced the
Anunnaki.
• She was replaced by Ishtar who is
sometimes her daughter.
ANU
• In Sumerian and Babylonian
mythology, Anu is the god of the
sky.
• He is also the creator god of the
Sumerian pantheon.
• He is the father of the gods.
• He is the first and most powerful
god.
ANU
ARURU
• Aruru is the creator goddess of
Sumerian mythology.
• She is the mother goddess of the
earth and birth.
• She is the one who first created
humanity from clay.
• She also created Enkidu.
ARURU
Aruru Creating Enkidu
AA/AYA
• In Babylonian mythology, Aa is the
Great-Mother. She is the Mother of
all things.
• She is the Goddess of dawn and
inspired the invention of letters.
• Consort of Shamash, the sun god.
Aya Goddess of the Dawn
EA/ENKI
• In Babylonian and Sumerian
mythology, Ea/Enki was the god of
wisdom, magic, and water.
• He supplies clear drinking water to
the town of Dilmun.
• Enki is the god of the watery
depths of the Abzu who betrayed
the pantheon by revealing to
• Utnapishtim that Enlil was about to
destroy humanity by a great flood.
• The Sumerians believed that the
oceans on the surface of the world
were paralled by hidden, cthonic
seas located in vast chambers deep
within the earth.
• Abzu is the primordial Lord of
these Inner Waters. His name is
the root behind the modern word
"abyss".
EA/ENKI God of Water and Magic
ENLIL
• In Sumerian mythology Enlil was
the first born son of Ki (earth) and
Anu (heaven). He is the god of the
sky.
• He separated the earth from the
heavens.
• He guards the tablets of destiny,
power that allows him to determine
the fate of all things animate or
inanimate.
ENLIL
ERESHKIGAL
• Ereshkigal is the Sumerian and
Babylonian Queen of the
Underworld.
• She is a death goddess and sister
of Ishtar. Together with her consort
Nergal she rules the underworld.
No one returns from her domain
This terra cotta figure, thousands of
years old, is interpreted to be either
Ishtar or Ereshkigal.
LUGULBANDA
• A hero of two Sumerian poems,
third on the post-diluvian King-List,
and ruler of Uruk for 1200 years.
• He is occasionally referred to by
Gilgamesh as his semi-divine
'father'.
• He is a demigod and the protector
of Gilgamesh.
ISHTAR/INANNA
• The Sumerian goddess of love and
sexuality who attempts to seduce
Gilgamesh.
• Knowing her history of sordid and
failed love affairs, Gilgamesh
refuses her advances causing much
strife for himself and the people of
Uruk.
Ishtar was personified as the legendary
queen Semiramis.
NINSUN
• The mother of Gilgamesh and
priestess of the temple of Uruk.
• She helps Gilgamesh interpret his
dream about a falling star, and
makes
• Utu/Shamash protect Gilgamesh on
his journey to the Cedar Mountains.
NINURTA
• Ninurta is chamberlain of the
Annunnaki.
• The child of Enlil and Mami, he is also
god of rain, fertility, war, thunderstorms,
wells, canals, floods, the plough and the
South Wind.
• His name means "lord of the earth" and
mankind owed to him the fertile fields
and the healthy live-stock.
Ninurta (890-884 B.C.E.)
SAMUQAN
• The Mesopotamian god of cattle.
• He is connected to the earth,
fertility, livestock.
SHAMASH
• The sun god, and since he could
see everything on earth, he also
represented the god of justice.
Worship of Shamash
SIN
• The Sumerian moon god.
• The Moon god had several different
names that referred to different
phases of the Moon. The name Sin
indicated the crescent Moon,
Nanna the full Moon, and
Asimbabbar the beginning of each
lunar cycle.
SIN