Pantheons
Important Terms
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Pantheon
Polytheism
Monotheism
Anthropomorphism
Theriomorphism
Pantheons of the World
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Greco-Roman
Mesopotamian (Akkadian/Sumerian/Bablyonian)
Egyptian
Norse (Icelandic/Scandinavian/Germanic)
Indian (Hindu)
North American
Israelite (Bible)
Sub-Saharan Africa (Mali, Uganda)
Others: Aztec, Mayan, Japanese, Chinese
Pantheons of Mythology
Map/Geography Quiz on Pantheons (Sept. 27th)
The Greek Pantheon
For information on the Greco-Roman deities, see
http://department.monm.edu/classics/Courses/CLAS230/MythDocuments/
Pantheon/Pantheon.htm
Mesopotamian Pantheon
(Akkadian / Sumerian / Babylonian)
Adad An (Anu) Apsu Dagon Ea Ereshkigal Humbaba Inanna Ishtar
Marduk Tiamat
For quick ID's see: http://fullmoon_deities.tripod.com/mesopotamian.html
Another good site:: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa102197.htm
Mesopotamian gods slay
a fiery seven-headed
dragon. The image is
from a cylinder seal
(cf. fig.16.Alexander
Heidel. The Babylonian
Genesis, The Story of
Creation. 1942, 1951.
University of Chicago
Press. Reprint 1993)
Inanna (Sumerian)
The Sumerian goddess of love, fertility, and war.
One of the most important goddesses of the
Sumerian pantheon.
= Ishtar (Babylonian)
Ishtar in the middle of Gods holding
the lionsceptre and a scimitar.
Huwawa [Humbaba]
Huwawa [Humbaba], the
Mesopotamian Forest God,
who originated in a time when there
were still forests to be protected.
He was later betrayed and slain by
his one-time friend Enkidu
and Enkidu's new ally, the warriorking Gilgamesh
(Terracotta relief, c. 2000 BCE)
[From Time/Life's series, MYTH AND
MANKIND:
Epics of Early Civilization: Middle
Eastern Myth, 1998:80]
Dagon/ Oannes
An ancient Mesopotamian vegetation god. Mesopotamian amphibious
being who taught mankind wisdom. Oannes, as described by the
Babylonian priest Berosus, had the form of a fish but with the head of a
man under his fish's head and under his fish's tail the feet of a man. In
the daytime he came up to the seashore of the Persian Gulf and
instructed mankind in writing, the arts, and the sciences. Oannes was
probably the emissary of Ea, god of the freshwater deep and of
wisdom.
Ea/Enki
Ea (Akkadian), Sumerian Enki, Mesopotamian god of water and a member
of the triad of deities completed by Anu (Sumerian An) and Bel (Enlil).
From a local deity worshiped in the city of Eridu, Ea the "patron god of
music" evolved into a major god, Lord of Apsu (also spelled Abzu), the
fresh waters beneath the earth (although Enki means literally "lord of
the earth"). In the Sumerian myth, "Enki and the World Order," Enki is said to
have fixed national boundaries and assigned gods their roles. According to
another Sumerian myth Enki is the creator, having devised men as slaves to
the gods. In his original form, as Enki, he was associated with semen and
amniotic fluid, and therefore with fertility. He was commonly represented as a
half-goat, half-fish creature, from which the modern astrological figure for
Capricorn is derived. He is also identified with Oannes. He sometimes the head
of a ram and the body of a fish.
The story of Inanna, like Ishtar the mother/bride of Tammuz worshiped by the
women in the Jerusalem temple, has her getting Ea drunk.
Ea/Enki
Clylinder seal impression showing the Mesopotamian "god of Wisdom," called
Ea (Aya, Ayya or Enki) with two streams of water pouring forth from his
shoulders. Ea warned the Mesopotamian Noah, Utnapishtim of Shuruppak of
the coming Flood advising him to build himself an ark for his family and
animals. On the 7th day of the Flood, the SEBITTU DAY, Ea rested with ALL the
other gods, the Flood having destroyed mankind who's noise and clamor had
earlier prevented the gods from resting by day or sleeping by night.
Marduk and Tiamat
The Babylonian diety Marduk eventually
supplants all the other gods.
In one myth he slays Tiamat,
the god of primeval chaos.
The Egyptian Pantheon
Anubis
Hathor
Re
Osiris
Isis
Horus
Atum
Amun
For more information, see http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/index.htm
The Norse Pantheon
(also Viking / Scandinavian / Germanic)
Balder (Balker)
Freya
Freyr
Frig
Loki
Njord
Odin (Woden)
Thor
Tyr
For quick ID's see:
http://fullmoon_deities.tripo
d.com/norse.html
1- Woden- Death, poetry, victory
2- Thor- Thunder and war
3- Tyr- War
4- Loki- Evil and fire
5- Balker- Light and beauty
6- Frey- Sun of fertility
7- Idum- Eternal youth
The Hindu Pantheon
Agni
Ganesh
Indra
Krishna
Brahma
Rama
Vishnu
Shiva
North America
• Raven (Pacific Northwest)
• Tawa(Hopi)
The Hopi Creation Myth
Israelite (Bible)
Yahweh
Elohim
Subsaharan Africa
• Mali
Amma (Dogon)
Pemba (Bambara)
• Uganda
Kintu
Mugulu /Mukulu
For more African deities, see:
http://fullmoon_deities.tri
pod.com/african.html