A (Babylonia) Chaldean moon goddess. Her emblem is a disk with eight rays, a number associated with the goddess of light.

AB (h1) Hebrew awb; a prim. word; father in a lit. and immed., or fig. and remote application): - chief, (fore-) father ([-less]), * patrimony, principal. Comp. names in "Abi-"

ABGAL Seven Sumerian wise men, the attending deities of the god Enki. They emerged from the sweet-water Apsu and are portrayed as fish-men. In Akkadian myth they are called Apkallu see below.

ABRAHAM

ABSU (Apsu, Abzu, Apzu)

The "sweet water." The limitless space, out of which the first waters precipitated (Ency Myth). This was where Ab, the father of the waters and lord of wisdom lives. The husband of Tiamat, father of the first level gods who evolved. The fresh underground water was the home of Ea and of the Seven Sages. It is also the name of Ea's temple in Eridu.

ABYSS [from Greek a not + byssos, bythos deep, depth]

Bottomless, chaos, space, the watery place where cosmos or orderly, adorned world evolved. It gave birth to Ea, the All-wise, unknowable infinite deity. Chaldean cosmogony Tiamat, the female principle, is the personification of chaos (Heb. Tehowm). It was the place where all wisdom lived.. This is the void and emptiness expressed in the Biblical creation, the Flood, Crossing the Red Sea and in the "become emptiness" of the Hebrew people people when they rejected Yahweh (Jeremiah 4

ABZU abzu wr. ab-su, ab-zu

The abzu as Enki's shrine / temple in Eridu ; mythical place where the life influencing powers reside and where their results, as well as the means to influence their effects, originate; incomprehensible, unfathomable, secret; a place producing raw materials.

ADAD See Hadad

(Sumerian Ishkur, West Semitic Hadad, Adar, and Addu, also Rimmon, Ramman, "Earth-shaker"). Storm-god, canal-controller, son of Anu. God of lightning, rain, and fertility. In the Gilgamesh epic, the god of winds, thunder, and storms. Symbols: bull and forked lightning; worshipped in towns including Babylon and Ashur

Adad's father was the heaven god Anu, also called the son of Bel, Lord of All Lands and god of the atmosphere. His consort was Shalash, which may be a Hurrian name. The symbol of Adad was the cypress. In Babylonia, Assyria, and Aleppo in Syria, he was also the god of oracles and divination.

See: An Assyrian governor standing before the deities Adad (centre) and Ishtar (left), limestone relief from Babylon, 8th century BC; in the Museum of Oriental Antiquities, Istanbul

ADAPA (Uan, Oannes)

One of the sages and citizen of Eridu. Given super intelligence by Ea (Sumerian: Enki), god of wisdom, became the hero of the Sumerian version of the myth of the Fall of Man. In spite of his possession of all wisdom he was denied immortality. One day, while he was fishing, the south wind blew so violently that he was thrown into the sea. Lost his temper and broke the wings of the south wind, which then ceased to blow. Anu (Sumerian: An), the sky god, called him before his gates to be punished, but Ea warned him not to touch the bread and water that would be offered him. When Adapa came before Anu, the two heavenly doorkeepers Tammuz and Ningishzida interceded for him and explained to Anu that as Adapa had been endowed with all knowledge he needed only immortality to become a god. Anu, relented and offered Adapa the bread and water of eternal life, which he refused to take. Thus mankind became mortal

ADMINISTRATION

The civil-religious cult created the base upon which society rested. The chief was the city ruler, or, when the country was united, the king. The city ruler and the king were civil leaders but also charismatic figures who impregnated god-given magic into their rule. This created peace and fertility. In certain periods the king was deified; throughout the 3rd millennium, he became, in ritual action, the god Dumuzi in the rite of the sacred marriage and brought fertility for his land. Most of the rulers were treated incarnations of the dying god Damu and invoked in the ritual laments for him. As a vessel of sacred power the king was surrounded by strict ritual to protect that power, and he had to undergo elaborate rituals of purification if the power became threatened. As in Israel's kingdom period, worship was the purvue of the king and his officials and not the "congregation."

The individual temples were usually administered by officials called sangas ("bishops"), who headed staffs of accountants, overseers of agricultural and industrial works on the temple estate, and gudus (priests), who looked after the god as house servants.

Among the priestesses the highest-ranking was termed en (Akkadian entu). They were usually princesses of royal blood and were considered the human spouses of the gods they served, acting as brides in the rites of the ritual marriage. Other levels of priestesses were orders of nuns. The best-known are the servants of the sun god, who lived in a cloister (gagûm) in Sippar. There were also priestesses devoted to sacred prostitutes under the protection of the goddess Inanna (Ishtar).

ADONAI

The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, replaced the vowels of the name YHWH with the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai or Elohim. Thus, the artificial name Jehovah (YeHoWaH) came into being.

'Adonai (Hebrew) [from 'adon lord] My Lords; through usage, Lord, a plural of excellence. Originally a sort of appeal or prayer to the hierarchical spiritual powers of the earth planetary chain, and more particularly of the planetary spirit of the earth itself; later it became a mere substitute for the unutterable name of God, usually for Tetragrammaton (YHVH).

"As the inner nature of YHVH is hidden; therefore He (YHVH) is only named with the Name of the Shekhinah, Adonai, i.e., Lord; therefore the Rabbins say (of the name YHVH); Not as I am written (i.e., YHVH) am I read. In this world My Name is written YHVH and read Adonai, but in the world to come, the same will be read as it is written, so that Mercy (represented by YHVH) shall be from all sides" (Zohar iii 320a). Adonai is rendered Lord in the Bible, although it means "my Lords"; whereas 'elohim is translated God in the English Authorized Version.

AGADE See Akkad Below

AGRICULTURE

AHIKAR

Tale of Babylonian or Persian origin, about a wise and moral man who supposedly served as one of the chief counselors of Sennacherib, king of Assyria (704-681 BC). Like the biblical Job, Ahikar was a prototype of the just man whose righteousness was sorely tested and ultimately rewarded by God. Betrayed by his power-hungry adopted son, Ahikar was condemned to death, suffered severely, but was finally restored to his former position.

According to the book of Ahikar, the cupbearer of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, was Tobit's nephew; he is a secondary personage in the plot, and his own story is mentioned. Ahikar is the hero of a Near Eastern non-Jewish work, The Story of Ahikar. The book exists in medieval translations, the best of them in Syriac. The story was known in the Persian period in the Jewish military colony in Elephantine Island in Egypt, a fact demonstrated by the discovery of fragmentary Aramaic papyri of the work dating from 450-410 BCE. Thus, the author of the book of Tobit probably knew The Story of Ahikar, in which, as in the book of Tobit, the plot is a pretext for the introduction of speeches and wise sayings. Some of Tobit's sayings have close parallels in the words of the wise Ahikar.

AKITU

The Babylonian creation epic (Enuma elish) "When on High") states that at first there was only the male (Apsu) and female (Tiamat) gods of the deep. They created a family of gods who made so much noise that Apsu plotted to kill them. This upset Ea who easily destroyed Apsu. However, because of her superior magical incantatiosn, Tiamat was too frightening for Ea. Marduk agreed to destroy her if he was made supreme god. This automatically transferred the role of Creator to him. In the Assyrian version, Ashur is important. Tiamat, wanted to get even for Apsu's murder. However, Marduk won the battle cut her in two and used her carcass to create the universe. Out of half her body he fashioned the sky containing the heavenly bodies to mark the periods of time, the other half was made into the earth and mountains. In song and sermon Marduk was now praised. The Enuma elish was read on the Akitu, or New Year festival, at Babylon, to reestablish order, by performing sympathetic magic caused by reciting Marduk's creation. The function of the Akitu is thus to regenerate society for the next year. When Israel "worshipped like the nations" this festival was repeated in Jerusalem.

AKKAD The first Babylonian city.

Akkad was the northern (or northwestern) division of ancient Babylonia where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers come close. The first people were predominantly Semitic, and their language was Akkadian. To the south of Akkad was Sumer, the southern (or southeastern) part of ancient Babylonia. This was home of non-Semitic people known as Sumerians.

Akkad was taken from the city of Agade, founded by the Semitic Sargon about 2300 BC. Sargon united the city-states and ruled much of Mesopotamia. After the fall of Sargon's dynasty in about 2150 BC, the area was ruled by Sumerians and Akkadians. Under the kings of Akkad, their Semitic language, known as Akkadian, became a written language made with the cuneiform system of writing.

AKKADIANS

A non-Semitic race before the Semites in Babylonia. The name is from Agade, the capital of Sargon I. They may have been emigrants from India and were the Aryaneducators of later Babylonians. Peace and prosperity was interrupted by changes in the people who spread east, south and west

AN

(Sumerian) A sky god, the symbol, "Dingir," was the same as that for heaven and for divinity showing his high but not superior role. He was generally regarded as the child of Uras, or of Ansar and Kisar. In an "evolutionary" principle for the "gods," he was a product of the "embryo" heaven-earth before the world became visible.

His wife is Antum, or Ki. He is viewed as the 'father' of the all the gods. An exercised great authority. There is agreement with the Bible that the spoken command is 'the very foundation of heaven and earth.' In heaven, his authority allowed him to 'raise up' other gods to positions of greater power. Without losing authority he involved more active deities in support of his authority.

ANATH SEE ISHTAR

ANNEDOTI See Oannes

Even the name Annedoti is quite similar to the people of Enki - the Anunnaki, from whence it was probably derived. The Greek term may have originated with the Sumerians and was later carried over as a description of a race that was both retilian and loathsome.

ANSHAR and KISHAR

The male and female principles, the twin horizons of sky and earth. Their parents were either Apsu (the watery deep beneath the earth) and Tiamat (the personification of salt water) or Lahmu and Lahamu, the first set of twins born to Apsu and Tiamat. Anshar and Kishar, in turn, were the parents of Anu (An), the supreme heaven god. See Enuma Elish

ANTUM

In Akkadian myth Anu's consort was Antum (Antu), but she is often confused with Ishtar (Inanna), the goddess of love. She helped produce the Anunnaki or the seven evil underworld demons. She is replaced literally or figuratively by Inanna / Ishtar who is at times her daughter.

ANU Son of the first pair of gods, Anshar and Kishar. Consort was Antu (Anatum) later replaced by Ishtar He was the son of Anshar and Kishar.

(Akkadian), Sumerian An, Mesopotamian sky god and a member of the triad of deities completed by Bel (Sumerian: Enlil) and Ea (Enki). Like most sky gods, Anu, although theoretically the highest god, played only a small role in the mythology, hymns, and cults of Mesopotamia. He was the father of the gods Enlil and Enki and a daughter Ninkhursag. He was also the father of evil spirits and demons; Anu was also the god of kings and of the yearly calendar. He was typically depicted in a headdress with horns, a sign of strength. His city was Erech, (Later Uruk or Ur) king of angels and spirits, ruler of destiny

ANUNNA

Sumerian name for the sky and earth gods, the assembly of the high gods, and especially for the deities of a local pantheon. Before they destroyed the earth with a great flood, they warned Ziusudra, king of Shurappak, of the deluge. He built an ark in which the seeds of mortals were preserved during the seven days and seven nights the waters raged. The name means "those of princely seed". They are similar to the Akkadian Anunnaku.

ANUNNAKI (Anukki, Enunaki)

The Akkadian name for a group of gods of the underworld - chthonic and fertility. They are judges in the realm of the dead. Their counterparts are the Igigi or good gods (although in some texts the positions are reversed). The Anunnaku are the children of Anu and Ki and are like the Apkallu and they are paired with an igigi. Below the anunnaki were several classes of genii -- sadu, vadukku, ekimu, gallu -- some of which were represented as being good, some evil.

ANZU

The Babylonian version of the Sumero-Akkadian Anzu. Doorkeeper of Ellil, born in the mountain Hehe. One day, when Ellil was bathing, Anzu stole the Tablets of Destiny and fled to the desert. With these tablets you could rule the universe. Ea persuaded the mother-goddess Belet-Ili to give birth to a divine hero to defeat Anzu. Belet-Ili produced Ninurta and sent him into battle. After a huge battle, Ninurta pierced Anzu's lung with an arrow, and recaptured the tablets.

While normally evil, he is kindly in the Sumerian epic of Lugalbanda. These tablets were taken by Marduk from Kingu and gave all of the skills needed for sucular and religious rule. The epic ends with praises for the son of Ellil.

APKALLU

Akkadian mythology, the seven (or sometimes eight) sages serving the kings as ministers. Some were poets composing the epics of Erra and Gilgamesh, others were ministers to the god Ea. The arts or skills were the ME which existed before the flood. These included skills such as deviant sexual acts and instrumental music. These sages were:

1. Adapa (U-an, called Oannes),
2. U-an duga,
3. E-me-duga,
4. En-me-galama,
5. En-me-bulaga,
6. An-Enlida,
7. Utu-abzu.
   

Each is known by other names or epithets, and is paired with an antediluvian king, hence their collective names "counselors", "muntalku". They were credited with building walled cities. Responsible for technical skills, they were also known as craftsmen, "ummianu.". Some of them were traditionally poets composing the epics of Gilgamesh and Erra. They were banished back to the Absu forever after angering Ea. After the flood, certain great men of letters and exorcists were accorded sage-status, although only as mortals. Some Deities other than Ea - Ishtar, Nabu, and Marduk - also claimed to control the sages. Thesy are seen as fish-men or with bird attributes appropriate to underworld creatures.

APOPIS

also called Apep, Apepi, or Rerek, ancient Egyptian demon of chaos, who had the form of a serpent and, as the foe of the sun god, Re, represented all that was outside the ordered cosmos. Although many serpents symbolized divinity and royalty, Apopis threatened the underworld and symbolized evil. Each night Apopis encountered Re at a particular hour in the sun god's ritual journey through the underworld in his divine bark. Seth, who rode as guardian in the front of Re's bark, attacked him with a spear and slew him, but the next night Apopis, who could not be finally killed, was there again to attack Re. The Egyptians believed that they could help maintain the order of the world and assist Re by performing rituals against Apopis.

See Oannes for some links

APSU Akkadian god: the consort of Tiamat and the father of the gods Lahmu/ Lahamu and Anshar/Kishar.

(Babylonian) Abzu (Sumerian). A primeval Sumero-Akkadian god who personifies the primordial abyss of sweet waters underneath the earth. He is the consort ofTiamat, the primordial abyss of salt waters of Chaos.

In the Enuma Elish, the sweet water mingled with the bitter waters of the sea and with a third watery element, perhaps cloud or Mummu, the first gods were birthed. When the younger gods got too noisy, Apsu plotted with Mummu to have them killed. However, Ea got wind of it and the waters of Apsu were held immobile underground by a 'spell' death-like sleep, but it is also said that Ea had Apsu killed.

AQHAT or Aqahat See DANIEL

ARURU (Mammi) A Babylonian goddess of creation. She created Enkidu from clay in the image of Anu. The Great Mother goddess in Babylonian mythology. See Ki/Ninhursag. Ninhursag's other names include: Dingirmakh ("Exalted Deity"), Ninmakh ("Exalted Lady"), As "Dropper," the one who "loosens" the scion in birth), andNintur ("Lady Birth Giver"). Her husband is the god Shulpae, and among their children were the sons Mululil and Ashshirgi and the daughter Egime.

ASAG (KUR): Dragon of the Abyss or Abzu. Daemon of Disease. Asag was not separated like Tiamat. Instead, he lived within the Abyss "after" creation and held back the Primordial Waters from overflowing the Earth. He kidnapped Ereshkigal, and Enlil went to rescue her. What we know is that Enlil is the Lord of the Waters, and that he built his home on the Sea. On the other hand, Ereshkigal herself is still the Queen of the Underworld. Asag was not killed because another god decided to destroy him for some reason. This was Ninurta (possibly a model for Marduk). See Demons.

ASALLUHE Sumerian deity and city god of Ku'ar, near Eridu in the southeastern marshland region. Asalluhe was active with the god Enki (Akkadian: Ea) in rituals of lustration magic and was considered his son. He may have originally been a god of thundershowers, as his name, "Man-Drenching Asal," suggests; he may corresponded to the Sumerian gods Ishkur and Ninurta. In incantations Asalluhe was usually the god who first called Enki's attention to existing evils because he flew around as a thundercloud. He was later identified with Marduk of Babylon.

ASHERAH Ancient West Semitic goddess, consort of the supreme god. She was probably "She Who Walks in the Sea," but she was also called "Holiness," and, occasionally, Elath, "the Goddess." According to the texts from Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Syria), Asherah's consort was El, and by him she was the mother of 70 gods. As mother goddess she was widely worshiped throughout Syria and Palestine, although she was frequently paired with Baal, who often took the place of El in worship. As Baal's consort, Asherah was usually called Baalat.

Also a sacred wooden pole or image standing close to the massebah and altar in early Shemitic sanctuaries, part of the equipment of the temple of Jehovah in Jerusalem till the reformation of Josiah (2 Kings 23:6). The plural, 'asherim, denotes statues, images, columns, or pillars; translated in the Bible by "groves." Maachah, the grandmother of Asa, King of Jerusalem, is accused of having made for herself such an idol, which was a phallus. Called the Assyrian Tree of Life, "the original Asherah was a pillar with seven branches on each side surmounted by a globular flower with three projecting rays, and no phallic stone, as the Jews made of it, but a metaphysical symbol. 'Merciful One, who dead to life raises!' was the prayer uttered before the Asherah, on the banks of the Euphrates. See Ezekiel 31. Assyria is the "tallest tree in Eden."

ASHUR (Assur)

City god of Ashur and national god of Assyria. In the beginning he may be a local deity of the city of Ashur. From about 1800 BC onward identified with the SumerianEnlil (Akkadian: Bel), while under the Assyrian king Sargon II (reigned 721-705 BC), there is some identity of Ashur with Anshar, the father of An (Akkadian: Anu) in the Enuma Elish. Under Sargon's successor Sennacherib, deliberate and thorough attempts were made to transfer to Ashur the primeval achievements of Marduk, as well as the whole ritual of the New Year festival. Then, as now, the "gods" are made in the image of the dominant city or nation.

ASHURBANIPAL

ATRAHASIS

The Old Babylonian "Myth of Atrahasis" is a motif showing a relationship with the account of the creation of man to relieve the gods of toil in the "Enki and Ninmah" myth, and with a Sumerian account of the Flood in the "Eridu Genesis." The Atrahasis myth, however, treats these themes with noticeable originality and remarkable depth. It relates, first, how the gods originally had to toil for a living, how they rebelled and went on strike, how Enki suggested that one of their number--the god We

BABYLON (Babil)

"Gate(s) of God", capital of the Babylonians, on the river Euphrates. Its patron god was Marduk. Also known as Shuanna. It is said to have been founded by the Assyrian Ninus or his wife Semiramis. The Greek form of the Hebrew word bavel, which is closely allied and probably derived from the Akkadian babilu or "gate of God." The connection between Akkad, Calneh, Erech, and Babylon (Gen. 10:10) indicates a period at least as early as 3000 B.C. Babylon may have been founded originally by the Sumerians, and an early tablet recorded that Sargon of Akkad (c. 2400) destroyed Babylon.

BABEL Hebrew baÇbel (confusion) from balal (overthrow). The inner meaning of the Tower of Babel,as a device so that the "worshippers could move into the presence of the gods" It is a house of initiation, a gate, portal, opening, or entrance to the divine. The physical tower was both the building to house and protect the initiation chambers, along with the ceremonies that take place in them, and an architectural symbol to signify a raising up towards heaven. The tower may have either a divine or evil significance, either haughty pride and self-sufficiency or spiritual aspiration.

BAU

(Sumerian), also called NININSINA, Akkadian Gula, or Ninkarrak, in Mesopotamian religion, city goddess of Urukug in the Lagash region and, under the name Nininsina, the Queen of Isin, city goddess of Isin, south of Nippur. Bau seems originally to have been goddess of the dog; as Nininsina she was long represented with a dog's head, and the dog was her symbol. Perhaps because the licking of sores by dogs was believed to have healing value, she became a goddess of healing. She was a daughter of An, king of the gods, and the wife of Pabilsag, a rain god who was also called Ninurta, or Ningirsu.

BEER AND BARLEY

Barley is still the primary ingredient of beer. It along with rye supports ergot, a fungus. After eating flour milled from ergot-infected rye, humans and livestock may develop ergotism, a condition sometimes called St. Anthony's Fire. The symptoms may include convulsions, miscarriages in females, and dry gangrene and may result in death. Ergot is also the source of lysergic acid, from which the powerful hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is easily synthesized. Mild beer or wine naturally fermented was often "spiked" with contaminated beer. The "exercises," then and now, were considered proof of the indwelling "gods." The same effect can be procuded by revivalistic music causing "speaking in tongues."

BEL

(Akkadian), Sumerian Enlil, Mesopotamian god of the air and a member of the triad of gods completed by Anu (Sumerian: An) and Ea (Enki). Enlil meant Lord Wind: both the hurricane and the gentle winds of spring were thought of

as the breath issuing from his mouth,

and eventually as his word or command.

He was sometimes called Lord of the Air. The Hebrew ruwach as in "the spirit hovered over the face of the waters" is often personified as a third member of the god "family" and is assigned tasks quite similar to Bel or Enlil.

Baal (Chaldean) [from Semitic ba`al chief, lord] Lord, considered as the lord of the land, and his temple at Nippur was called E-kur (the mountain house), just as Ea's was the watery house.

In Exodus he was named Ba`al-Tsephon, the god of the crypt. He was likewise named Seth or Sheth, signifying a pillar (phallus); and it was owing to these associations that he was considered a hidden god. Among the Ammonites, a people of East Palestine, he was known as Moloch (the king); at Tyre he was called Melcarth. The worship of Ba`al was introduced into Israel under Ahab, his wife being a Phoenician princess.

"Typhon, called Set, who was a great god in Egypt during the early dynasties, is an aspect of Baal and Ammon as also of Siva, Jehovah and other gods. Baal is the all-devouring Sun, in one sense, the fiery Moloch" As to the leaping of the prophets of Ba`al, mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 18:26), Blavatsky writes: "It was simply a characteristic of the Sabean worship, for it denoted the motion of the planets round the sun. That the dance was a Bacchic frenzy is apparent. Sistra were used on the occasion"

BELILI

BELIT

(Akkadian), Sumerian Ninlil, Mesopotamian goddess, the consort of the god Bel (Sumerian: Enlil) and a deity of destiny. She was worshiped especially at Nippur andShuruppak and was the mother of the moon god, Sin (Sumerian: Nanna). In Assyrian documents Belit is sometimes identified with Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna) of Nineveh and sometimes made the wife of either Ashur, the national god of Assyria, or of Enlil (Bel), god of the atmosphere. The Sumerian Ninlil was a grain goddess, known as the Varicoloured Ear (of barley). She was the daughter of Haia, god of the stores, and Ninshebargunu (or Nidaba). The myth recounting the rape of Ninlil by her consort, the wind god Enlil, reflects the life cycle of the grain.

BRAZEN Serpent

When the Jews in the wilderness complained to Moses, "the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died" (Num 21:6); wherefore "Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent has bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (21:9).

As the Hebrew words for serpent and brass are the same when the Massoretic points are omitted (N H SH),has been used referring to the Evil One, called by the later Jews the Deprived (Nahash), but the fiery serpents "were the Seraphim, each one of which, as Isaiah shows (6:2), 'had six wingsf.'

Just as the serpent is connected with knowledge, wisdom, and magic, so likewise has copper or brass since immemorial time in all mystic schools been a metallic compound supposed to be under the particular governance of the planet Venus, which is the ruler or controller of the human higher manas -- manas being at once the savior as well as the tempter of mankind, for it is in the mind where temptation and sin or evildoing ultimately arise. See also SERPENT. Nahash and Lahash make a close connection between the tempter in the garden of Eden, the offspring of Lamech (reincarnated as Ea) and the musical enchanters of Mesopotamis.  Theosophy (scroll down to 'Brazen Serpent')

BULL OF HEAVEN

Anu created this monster to kill Gilgamesh at the request of Ishtar. It had the bad habit of throwing spit and "Bull excrement" in the battle with Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Showing no mercy, Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill it and offer it to the sun or Shamash.

BULL WORSHIP

The bull has been worshiped as a symbol of fertility. He may be white as seen in the Egyptian Apis, who in legend is Osiris "incarnate" This was the worship by the Israelites at Mount Sinai where the golden calf was worshipped with singing, dancing, instruments and sex. The sacred bulls did not necessarily represent male animals, but were mystically considered to be hermaphrodite or even sexless: thus the Egyptian bull, Apis, was a hermaphrodite to show his magical character. Gender confusion was always a primary ingredient to the priesthood which H. Bamford Parkes identifies as the world's oldest profession.

See the worship in Egypt

BYTHUS, Bythos

(Greek) The depth; chaos, the primeval deep, adopted by the Gnostics. For example, with Valentinus it was the cosmic source whence emanated two by two the series of aeons. Sometimes it was considered as one member of a primordial cosmic mystic square -- sige (silence), bythos (depth), nous (intellect), and aletheia (truth); sometimes bythos was paired by Gnostics with sige as composing a primordial cosmic binary. See also ABYSS. The worship of Jesus Christ was not to be in "place" or "time" but in spirit (much like nous) and in truth (aletheia). Paul insisted that women remain in silence for that short period for taking the Lord's Supper and prayer. This extended to mose men who were nost inspired, which menta most men.

CALAH

Ashurnasirpal's most impressive monument was his own palace in Kalakh, covering a space of 269,000 square feet (25,000 square metres). Hundreds of large limestone slabs were used in murals in the staterooms and living quarters. Most of the scenes were done in relief, but painted murals also have been found. Most of them depict mythological themes and symbolic fertility rites, with the king participating. Brutal war pictures were aimed to discourage enemies. The chief god of Kalakh was Ninurta, god of war and the hunt. The tower of the temple dedicated to Ninurta also served as an astronomical observatory. Kalakh soon became the cultural centre of the empire. Ashurnasirpal claimed to have entertained 69,574 guests at the opening ceremonies of his palace

CHALDEA (Chaldaea, Assy Kaldu, Bab Kasdu, Heb Kasddim)

Chaldea is first mentioned in the annals of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 884/883-859 BC), though earlier documents referred to the same area as the "Sealand." In 850 Shalmaneser III of Assyria raided Chaldea and reached the Persian Gulf, which he called the "Sea of Kaldu." On the accession of Sargon II to the Assyrian throne (721), the Chaldean Marduk-apla-iddina II (the biblical Merodach-baladan), ruler of Bit-Yakin (a district of Chaldea), seized the Babylonian throne and, despite Assyrian opposition, held it from 721 to 710. He finally fled, however, and Bit-Yakin was placed under Assyrian control.

CHALDEAN

Chaldees, inhabitants of Chaldea or lower Mesopotamia, where Ur (Genesis 11:28) was the ancient city of the Sumerians. They invented writing, astrology, and the magic arts in the fourth millennium BC. They were highly in demand until Roman times for their knowledge of divining, interpreting dreams and fortune-telling. They are implicated in 1 Corinthians 13 as Paul compared speaking in tongues to the pagan musical magic made possible by the clanging sounds of brass or bronze. As long as the Persian empire lasted there was always a distinction between the Persian magi, who were credited with profound and extraordinary religious knowledge, and the Babylonian magi, who were often considered to be outright imposters.

COSMOS

Man's view of the cosmos has influenced his understanding of what are called angels and demons. The cosmos may be viewed as monistic, as in Hinduism, in which the cosmos is regarded as wholly sacred or as participating in a single divine principle (Brahman, or Being itself). The cosmos may also be viewed as dualistic, as in Gnosticism (an esoteric religious dualistic belief system, often regarded as a Christian heretical movement, that flourished in the Greco-Roman world in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD), in which the world of matter was generally regarded as evil and the realm of the spirit as good. A third view of the cosmos, generally found in the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam, centred on a tripartite universe: celestial, terrestrial, and subterrestrial. This third view has influenced Western man's concepts of angels and demons as well as his scientific and metaphysical concepts.

DEMON OR Daemon

It seems that in addition to the public and official cult of the "twelve great gods" and their subordinate divinities, the Assyrians had a more sacred and secret religion, a religion of mystery and magic and sorcery. These "religious" texts, moreover, together with a mass of talismanic inscriptions on cylinders and amulets, prove the presence of an exceedingly rich demonology. Below the greater and lesser gods there was a vast host of spirits, some of them good and beneficent and some of them evil and hurtful. And these spirits were described and classified with an exactness which leads some to liken the arrangement to that of the choirs and orders of our own angelic hierarchy. The antiquity and importance of this secret religion, with its magic and incantations of the good spirits or evil demons, may be gathered from the fact that by order of King Assurbanipal his scribes made several copies of a great magical work according to a pattern which had been preserved from a remote antiquity in the priestly school of Erech in Chaldea. This work consisted of three books, the first of which is entirely consecrated to incantations (chanting a powerful song), conjurations (to summon a god), and imprecations (A curse) against the evil spirits. These cuneiform books, it must be remembered, are really written on clay tablets. And each of the tablets of these first books which has come down to us ends with the title, "Tablet No. - of the Evil Spirits". The ideogram which is here rendered as kullulu -- "accursed" or "evil" -- might also be read as limuttu -- "baneful". Besides being known by the generic name of udukku -- "spirit" -- a demon is called more distinctly ecimmu, or maskimmu. One special class of these spirits was the sedu, or divine bull, which is represented in the well-known figure of a man-headed bull so common on the Assyrian monuments. This name, it may be remarked, is probably the source of the Hebrew word for demon. The Assyrian sedu, it is true, was more commonly a beneficent or tutelary (guardian) spirit. But this is hardly an obstacle to the derivation, for the good spirits of one nation were often regarded as evil by men of rival races. ( Catholic Encyclopedia)

DAG, DAGAN, Dagon

(Hebrew, Phoenician) [from dag fish + on diminutive; or from dagan grain] Fish or a little fish; a Philistine god, at Ashod and Gaza, mentioned several places in the Bible (e.g. Judges 16). He was more than a local deity, however, as place-names called after him are widespread. Some scholars assert there was an ancient Canaanite deity of similar name, and also associate this Shemitic god with the Babylonian Dagan. It is commonly believed that Dagon was represented as half-man half-fish and identified with Oannes, though no such early representations bear his name. Some scholars cite Philo Byblius as making Dagon the discoverer of grain and the inventor of the plow, an earth god parallel with Bel.

DAMKINA (Chaldean, Babylonian)

Consort of Enki, ruler of absu of Eridu. Dannina "Stronghold", term for the underworld. Sometimes Davkina. Consort of Ea or Hea, god of the watery regions, partaking of Ea's characteristics, therefore called Damgal-nunna (great lady of the waters), likewise Nin-Ki (lady of that which is below, i.e., the watery deeps or underworld). Mother of Marduk (or Merodach or Bel).

DAMU

Sumerian deity, city god of Girsu on the Euphrates River near Ur in the southern orchards region. Damu, son of Enki, was a vegetation god, especially of the vernal flowing of the sap of trees and plants. His name means "the child," and his cult--apparently celebrated primarily by women--centred on the lamentation and search for Damu, who had lain under the bark of his nurse, the cedar tree, and had disappeared. The search finally ended when the god reappeared out of the river.

The cult of Damu influenced and later blended with the similar cult of Dumuzi the Shepherd, a Sumerian deity worshiped by the central grasslands people. A different deity called Damu was a goddess of healing and the daughter of Nininsina of Isin.

DANIEL or Danel

DAZIMUA: Married Ningishzid amother of the Eight children of Ki

DEEP

(See Abyss, Bythos) The Hebrew word is "tehom" which is different from the normal word for sea which is "yam". Genesis 1:2 also uses it: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters." The waters from the flood also came from the deep as stated in Genesis 7:11: "on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the window of the heavens were opened." Rain was often thought to be the water of the deep coming through the sky ceiling of the firmament. The word "tehom" is related to the Babylonian word TIAMAT.

DEMIGODS One of the orders of semi-divine instructors, spiritual beings in human form. Herodotus, among other Greek writers, speaks of humanity being ruled successively by gods, demigods, heroes, and men. We still get confused.

DEMONS GALAS

The demons of the underworld. In ancient Babylonia many demons were mentioned on the clay tablets, e.g. Alu, who crushed men by falling on top of them when they were asleep. The demoness Lamastu, pale-faced with donkey's ears, bare-breasted and with poisonous claws, killed babies at their mother's breast. Illnesses and misfortunes were personified as demons, both make and female, with Akkadian or Sumerian names. She is a model for Lilith.

Groups of demons are:

Asakku (Sumerian Asag), seven created by Anu and defeated by Ninurta, a victory also attributed to Nergal. Gallu, a term which originally referred to police officers (!) Sebitti, "The Seven".

Individuals with Akkadian names are: Bel Uri "Lord of the Roof" Bennu "Fits" Idiptu "Wind" Libu "Scab" Lamashtu, a female demon, a disease Mimma lemnu"Something  evil" Miqut "stroke" Muttabriqu "Flashes of lightning" Pasittu "She who erases" (an epithet of Lamashtu) Ugallu (Lion demon) Rabishu "The Croucher" Sarabda "Bailiff" Sidana "Staggers" Suruppu, a disease brought on by flood waters Tirid "Expulsion" Umma "Feverhot" Umu, a storm demon.

Individuals with Sumerian names are: Saghulhaza, "Upholder of evil" And the doorkeepers of the Underworld: Engidudu (also an epithet of Erra), Endushuba, Endukuga, Endashurimma, Ennugigi, Enuralla/Nerulla, Nerubanda.

DILMUN

Dilmun is the Sumerian name of an ancient independent kingdom that flourished c. 2000 BC, often identified with al-Bahrain

Because Dilmun has no fresh sparkling water ENKI orders UTU, the sun god, to fill it with fresh water brought up from the earth. Dilmun is thus turned into a divine garden. In this garden 8 plants are created and grown by NINHURSAG only to be eaten by ENKI. NINHURSAG becomes so angry that she places the curse of death on ENKI whose eight organs then begin to fail. NINHURSAG leaves Dilmun although the other gods eventually convince NINHURSAG to return to cure ENKI. She does so by creating eight healing gods including NINTI.

DIMME LAMASHTU

DINGIR

The chief deity of the Akkadians; one of the forms of the creative powers as recognized by the earlier Akkadians. Every one of these demiurgic powers is the chief or first in his or her own field of activity in the universe, so that in one mythology may be found several such chief or first divinities, each being the chief or hierarch in his or her own hierarchy, but all nevertheless subordinate to the karmic mandates of the inclusive, all-enclosing, cosmic primordial elements. These chief divinities are the cosmic elements originating in and from the primordial element, which because of the extreme reverence in which it was held by archaic thought is often not mentioned, it being part of the teaching of the sanctuary.

DRAGON

Monster usually viewed as a huge, bat-winged, fire-breathing, scaly lizard or snake with a barbed tail. These beasts are apt symbols of kings such as that of Tyre and Babylon who, when evil, are under the influence of Lucifer.

In the Middle East the snakes are large and deadly and therefore the serpent or dragon was symbolic of the principle of evil. The Egyptian god Apepi,was the serpent of the world of darkness. But the Greeks and Romans, though accepting the Middle Eastern idea of the serpent as an evil power, also thought the drakontes as beneficial--sharp-eyed dwellers in the inner parts of the Earth.

The Chaldean dragon Tiamat had four legs, a scaly body, and wings, whereas the biblical dragon of Revelation, "the old serpent," was many-headed like the Greek Hydra. Because they not only possessed both protective and terror-inspiring qualities but also had decorative effigies, dragons were early used as warlike emblems.

DUMUZI

"Son of the Abyss," the ever-dying, ever-reviving Sumerian prototype of the resurrected savior, was a harvest god of ancient Mesopotamia, Sumerian god of vegetation and the under-world. Also called "the shepherd" and "lord of the sheepfolds." Dumuzi known from his horned lunar crown, is the son-husband of the goddess Gula-Bau seen sitting in front of the serpent in a relief "Goddess of the Tree of Life" ca. 2500 B.C. Dumuzi's mother was Ningizzida, an ancestor of Gilgamesh, consort of Ianna (Ishtar). The Great Goddess (symbolized by Demeter) also correlates to Dionysus-Bacchus-Zagreus (or in the older, Sumero-Babylonian myths, Dumuzi-absu, Tammuz, the "child of the abyss," who was originally a tree god and son of Ningishzida, he died because of Ishtar's love. Tammuz also Thammuz is the tenth month of the year in the Jewish calendar [Hebrew Tammuz, from Babylonian Duíuzu, the name of a god]. In Egypt, Tammuz was a god of harvest (late summer month) of Mesopotamia, Akkad and Sumer.

Tammuz (Ezek. 8:14) is equivalent to Osiris (Hay-Tau) in Egypt and Adonis [Greek Adonis, from Phoenician adon, lord]. Osiris is Dionysus in the Greek tongue, and the Roman Bacchus. A cylinder seal from Erech, end of the fourth century B.C., depicts the god Tammuz (a fertility god widely worshipped in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine) feeding the cattle of the temple. Tammuz was killed by a wild boar while shepherding his flocks. His wife rescued him from the underworld. His death was taken to represent the onset of winter. The Adonis Cult (in Nega, Byblus -Syrian coast) parallels Dumuzi, Tammuz, and Attis.

DUMUZI-AMASHUMGALANA

Tammuz and Damu were joined to become a fertility god who probably represented the power in the sap to rise in trees and plants in spring. The relation of still other figures to Tammuz, such as Dumuzi-Abzu--a goddess who appears to have been the power in the waters underground (the Abzu) to bring new life to vegetation--is not entirely clear. see marriage to Ishtar from above link

Sumerian deity especially popular in the southern orchard regions and later in the central grassland area. He was the young bridegroom of the goddess Inanna(Akkadian: Ishtar), a fertility figure sometimes called the Lady of the Date Clusters. As such, he represented the power of growth and new life in the date palm. In Erech, the marriage of Inanna, in her role as goddess of the storehouse, to Dumuzi-Amaushumgalana was essentially a harvest festival, symbolizing the security the community felt after laying in provisions for the new year.

DUMUZI-ABZU

Sumerian deity, city goddess of Kinirsha near Lagash in the southeastern marshland region. She represented the power of fertility and new life in the marshes. Dumuzi-Abzu corresponded to the Sumerian god Dumuzi (see Tammuz) of the central herding area, and thus around Eridu she was viewed as male and as son of Enki (Akkadian: Ea, also called the Lord of Apsu).

EA (ENKI)

(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 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.

Ea governed the arts of sorcery and incantation. In some stories he was also the form-giving god, and thus the patron of craftsmen and artists (see KOSMOS below); he was known as the bearer of culture. In his role as adviser to the king, Ea was a wise god although not a forceful one. In Akkadian myth, as Ea's character evolves, he appears frequently as a clever mediator who could be devious and cunning. He is also significant in Akkadian mythology as the father of Marduk, the national god of Babylonia. Also known as Nudimmud, a name associated with function as a creator-god. Epithet: "Nussiku" translated here as far-sighted.

When the younger gods grew too noisy, Apsu and Mummu decided to murder them. Ea, who knows all, discovered the plot and attacked Apsu with a magical spell. Tiamat plotted revenge but again Ea found out but was too fearful. His father, Anshar urged him on but Ea decided to negotiate. However, when Tiamat refused, Ea's son, Marduk, decided to destroy her if he could become the most high God. He succeeded and of course all earlier gods were demoted so that he got all of the glory.

EA-EL

Ea or Hea (Akkadian, Chaldean) [from house + water] One of the three chief gods of the Chaldaeo- or Assyro-Babylonian celestial triad of Anu, Bel, and Ea. In the division of the universe into heaven, earth, and water, Ea is king of the watery deeps (Shar Apsi); also Lord of that which is below (En-Ki).

Ea is seen as a man with the body of a fish, and is probably Oannes and Dagon. Marduk are also aspects of this same deity. His consort is Damkina (lady of that which is below) or Damgal-nunna (great lady of the waters).

EANNA or E-Anna "House of the Sky, name of the temple of Anu and Ishtar in Uruk, also called "The Pure Treasury."

Anu descended to Earth only on special occasions, in time of crisis, or for ceremonial reasons. When on Earth he would stay in the temple of Anu and Ishtar, the E-ANNA or "House of An" or the "House of the Sky" or "the Pure Treasury" atop the ziggurat in Uruk, his sacred city. The word ziggurat comes from the Babylonian "zaquru" and means "to be high or raised up." It signifies the top of a mountain or a staged tower and such a tower provided an artificial mountain on the flat Mesopotamian plain.

EA-ENGURRA Temple of the god Ea in Eridu.

EIGHT CHILDREN OF KI

Abu, Nintul, Ninsutu, Ninkasi, Nazi, Dazimua, Ninti, Enshagag. The Goddess Uttu, in the paradise of Dilmun, made 8 plants sprout from her union with Enki. He then proceeded to eat them all. Ki cursed him for this and he became ill. He convinced her to remove her curse, and she created eight gods of healing, one for each pain Enki was having, to cure him. Each name of the gods is a pun for the body parts they healed.

EKUR "Mountain-house" The temple of the god Ellil in Nippur, where Ninurta was born.

ENHEDUANNA

ELLIL (Illil, Sumerian Enlil)

Sumerian god, leader of the younger generation of Sumerian and Akkadian gods. Cult center Nippur. Temple called Ekur. Spouse Mulittu; son  Ninurta. Old interpretation of his name as "Lord Wind/Air" uncertain. Epithet: "King of all populated lands." Symbol: A horned crown on a shrine. Son of the supreme god Anu, whom he succeeded. See also Anzu, Ninurta.

ENKI (EA)

Enki, son of An and Nammu, was the god of the underground freshwater ocean (the abzu", sometimes referred to as the apsu"). His name can be taken to mean "Lord Earth," but "ki" can also refer to 'the below' in the two-tiered cosmic structure, in opposition to "an": heaven. Enki is also a god of wisdom, a faculty which included practical skills (such as arts and crafts), intellectual faculties, the ability to "decree fates", and the command of magical powers. In the Atrahasis myth, for example, it was Enki's intercession which saved mankind from the flood and pestilence ordered by Enlil. He is sometimes referred to as Nudimmud or Ninsiku. His wife is Damgaknuna/Damkina. Among his children are Asarluhi, Enbilulu, Adapa, and Nanse. His symbols include the goatfish, the tortoise, a ram-headed staff, and a ship or similar vessel overflowing with water.

ENKIDU (Ea-bani): Hero and friend and fellow warrior with Gilgamesh. Earlier, he is a wild man who lives with wild animals. He was tamed by a harlot and taken to Uruk to oppose Gilgamesh. His name means "created by Ea"

ENLIL See Bel He is the wind or storm god and Christian writers are prone to equate the Holy Spirit as a "person" to Enlil as the chief administrator of the other "gods." His chief, in turn, is Nusku and he is the leader of the Anunnaki.

Enlil is one of the most important gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon. Sometimes he is said to be the offspring of An, and brother of the birth-goddess Aruru. He is also, however, sometimes described as the descendant of Enki and Ninki "Lord" and "Lady Earth," not to be confused with the deity Enki). Yet a third tradition attributes his birth to the primeval water-goddess Nammu. His wife is Ninlil ( Among his prominent offspring are Inanna, Adad, Nanna, Nergal, Ninurta, and Utu. The personality of Enlil is very complex. It is not certain what the Sumerian element "lil" originally stood for. It has had meanings as diverse as 'air,' and 'spirit.' He is the lord who 'determines the fates,' a function he shares with the god Enki. It was Enlil who was said to have separated the primordial heaven/earth, thus bringing forth the created universe. On a cosmic level, while Enki's realm was below (the abzu), and An ruled above (the heavens), Enlil's realm was the earth and the spheres of the winds and weather above it. Enlil was responsible for all aspects of life: fertility and prosperity, as well as famine and catastrophe. His great cult center was the temple E-kur at Nippur. He is sometimes also referred to as Nunamnir.

Enlil, who saw Ninlil bathing in a canal, raped and impregnated her. For his crime he was banished to the Underworld.

ENMERKER

A Sumerian hero and king of Erech, a city-state in southern Mesopotamia, who is thought to have lived at the end of the 4th or beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. Along with Lugalbanda and Gilgamesh, Enmerkar is one of the three most significant figures in the surviving Sumerian epics.

Although scholars once assumed that there was only one epic relating Enmerkar's subjugation of a rival city, Aratta, it is now believed that two separate epics tell this tale. One is called Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta. The longest Sumerian epic yet discovered, it is the source of important information about the history and culture of the Sumero-Iranian border area. According to this legend, Enmerkar, son of the sun god Utu, was envious of Aratta's wealth of metal and stones, which he needed in order to build various shrines, especially a temple for the god Enki in Eridu. Enmerkar therefore requested his sister, the goddess Inanna, to aid him in acquiring material and manpower from Aratta; she agreed and advised him to send a threatening message to the lord of Aratta. The lord of Aratta, however, demanded that Enmerkar first deliver large amounts of grain to him. Though Enmerkar complied, the lord of Aratta refused to complete his part of the agreement; threatening messages were again sent out by both men, each claiming the aid and sanction of the goddess Inanna. The text becomes fragmented at that point in the narrative, but in the end Enmerkar was apparently victorious.

The other epic relating the defeat of Aratta is known as Enmerkar and Ensuhkeshdanna. In this tale the ruler of Aratta, Ensuhkeshdanna (or Ensukushsiranna), demanded that Enmerkar become his vassal. Enmerkar refused and, declaring himself the favourite of the gods, commanded Ensuhkeshdanna to submit to him. Although the members of Ensuhkeshdanna's council advised him to comply with Enmerkar, he listened instead to a local priest, who promised to make Erech subject to Aratta. When the priest arrived in Erech, however, he was outwitted and killed by a wise old woman, Sagburru, and the two sons of the goddess Nidaba. After he learned the fate of his priest, Ensuhkeshdanna's will was broken and he yielded to Enmerkar's demands.

A third epic, Lugalbanda and Enmerkar, tells of the heroic journey to Aratta made by Lugalbanda in the service of Enmerkar. According to the epic, Erech was under attack by Semitic nomads. In order to save his domain, Enmerkar required the aid of Inanna, who was in Aratta. Enmerkar requested volunteers to go to Inanna, but only Lugalbanda would agree to undertake the dangerous mission. The epic concerns the events of Lugalbanda's journey and the message given him from Inanna for Enmerkar. Although obscure, Inanna's reply seems to indicate that Enmerkar was to make special water vessels and was also to catch strange fish from a certain river.

ENUMA ELISH

ENSUHKESHDANNA See Enmerker Above

ERECH

Sumerian Uruk, Greek ORCHOË, modern Tall Al-warka', ancient Mesopotamian city located northwest of Ur (Tall Al-Muqayyar) in southeastern Iraq. According to legend it were built by the Gilgamesh.

The principal Sumerian divinity worshiped in ancient Erech appear to have been Anu (An), a sky god, and the goddess Inanna ("Queen of the Sky"). One of the chief landmarks of the city is the Anu ziggurat crowned by the "White Temple."

ERESHKIGAL

Eriskegal, Ereshkigal (Allatu). Queen of the underworld (Kur), of death, and enemy of Inanna. All underwold deities are called Chthonic Deities. She is said to be the sister of Inanna, making her the daughter of Nanna. She is defineitly not one of the Seven Chthonic Anunnaki, yet she is still an Anunnaki. Most likely she is the Destructive Forces of Saturn as Inanna is Venus.

She was sister of Ishtar, spouse of Nergal, mother of Ninazu. The Babylonian Persephone, spouse of Nergal, the god of the dead in the Underworld. As Mesopotamian goddess of the nether world, queen of the lower regions, she is often praised in hymns. One day Nergal was sent to her from heaven with an offering of food. They fell in love with each other, and when he had to leave, she was in tears and threatened Anu, the supreme god, that she would revive all the dead, over which she ruled, and send them back to earth, "so that they will outnumber the living", unless Nergal was sent back to her, for ever, as a husband. Her minister Namtar had to go to heaven as her messenger, for Ereshkigal felt that she was already pregnant. At last Nergal came storming down the stairs, broke down the seven gates and burst into the goddess' palace straight into her passionate embrace, "to wash away her tears."

ERIDU

One of the oldest seats of religious culture in ancient Babylonia, located a few miles SSW of Ur in Chaldea, and mentioned in ancient records as the city of the deep. In it was a temple of Ea, god of the sea and of wisdom. Rediscovered in 1854, it is now about 120 miles from the Persian Gulf, though spoken of in old records as being on the shore; calculations based on the rate of alluvial deposition places its date in the seventh millennium BC. Sayce, by comparing the Akkadian calendar with the present position of the vernal equinox, gives a date going back to 4700 BC

THE ERIDU GENESIS

Sumerian epic primarily concerned with the creation of the world, the building of cities, and the flood. According to the epic, after the universe was created out of the primeval sea and the gods were given birth, the deities in turn fashioned man from clay to cultivate the ground, care for flocks, and perpetuate the worship of the gods.

Cities were soon built and kingship was instituted on Earth. For some reason, however, the gods determined to destroy mankind with a flood. Enki (Akkadian Ea), who did not agree with the decree, revealed it to Ziusudra (Utnapishtim), a man well known for his humility and obedience. Ziusudra did as Enki commanded him and built a huge boat, in which he successfully rode out the flood. Afterward, he prostrated himself before the gods An (Anu) and Enlil (Bel), and, as a reward for living a godly life, Ziusudra was given immortality.

ERRA  (U. Penn)

God of war, hunting, plagues. Etymology "Scorched earth" probably incorrect. Assimilated with Nergal and Gerra. Temple Emeslam in the city Kutha. Epithet Engidudu "Lord who prowls by night" (see demons). See Nergal. Babylonian god of war, death, and other disasters. His greatest ally was famine caused by drought. He may be identified with Nergal, the god of death. He expressed death himself symbolically by his continuous lethargy as he lay in a drunken stupor. War has always been the major cause of death throughout history. Erra was supplicated to ward off pestilence and other calamities. One of the earliest known epic poems to come to light, written on clay tablets, is the Epic of Erra. At the opening of the epic, Erra sits in his palace while his weapons, which are in reality minor gods called the Sibitti, complain about his inaction. Erra persuades the old king-god of Babylon to visit his old craftsmen in the land of Absu beneath the earth. Erra is just on the point of destroying Babylonia when old Ishum, minister of Marduk, warns him: "Those who make war are the ignorant/War kills the priests and the sinless..." Although he has already started devastating the country, Erra is pacified by the wise minister and calls off the hounds of war. Marduk returns to peace. See also Sibitti.

ESAGILA

Most important temple complex in ancient Babylon, dedicated to the god Marduk, the tutelary deity of that city. The temple area was located south of the huge zigguratcalled Etemenanki; it measured 660 feet (200 m) on its longest side, and its three vast courtyards were surrounded by intricate chambers. The whole complex reflects centuries of building and rebuilding by the Babylonian kings, especially Nebuchadrezzar II (reigned 604-562 BC). The tremendous wealth of Esagila was recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus.

ETANA

Son of Kish and twelfth king of Kish after the Flood, father of Balih. Thirteenth god-king of the Sumerian dynasty ruling the city of Kish. Though he was appointed by Anu and prayed daily to Shamash the sun-god, he had no son. Shamash directed him to an eagle who had been snared by a snake. Etana freed the eagle who, in gratitude, carried the king on his back to heaven. There, Etana, in front of the throne of Ishtar, begged for a son. She gave him the plant of birth, which he probably had to eat together with his wife. We know from history that Etana had a son named Balih. An incomplete epic about his exploits has been discovered.

ETANA MYTH

In the beginning, according to the epic, there was no king on the earth; the gods thus set out to find one and apparently chose Etana, who proved to be an able ruler until he discovered that his wife, though pregnant, was unable to give birth, and thus he had no heir to the throne. The one known remedy was the birth plant, which Etana was required to bring down personally from heaven. Etana, therefore, prayed to the god Shamash, who heard his request and directed him to a mountain where a maimed eagle, languishing in a pit (into which it had been thrown as punishment for breaking a sacred pact), would help him obtain the special plant. Etana rescued the eagle, and as a reward it carried him high up into the sky.

According to one fragment, Etana reached heaven and bell before the gods. There the text breaks off. According to another fragment, however, Etana either became dizzy or lost his nerve before reaching heaven and crashed to the ground. If, as many scholars believe, Etana was successful, the myth may have been used to support early dynastic claims.

ETEMENANKI

The Esagila was the seven-storied temple of Marduk which was the "House of the Platform of heaven and earth." This was the ancient and modern "Tower of Babel" where the slave-enriched population were convinced that they could musically ascend the steps and possibly come into the presence of a god. Then, as now, they believed that the temple at the top was the platform upon which the gods landed. From Esagila northward passed the paved Processional Way, its walls decorated with enamelled lions. Passing through the Ishtar Gate, adorned with enamelled bulls and dragons, it led to the Akitu House, a small temple outside the city, visited by Marduk at the New Year festival. West of the Ishtar Gate, one of eight fortified gates, were two palace complexes that covered about 40 acres with their fortifications.

FLOOD

Tablet XI of the epic of Gilgamesh describes the great flood epic, as George Smith and Friedrich Delitzsch discovered around the turn of the century, is about a thousand years older than the biblical tale of Noah in Genesis 6. The Babylonian epic introduces the immortal sage called Utanapishtim (in Sumerian called Ziusudra). The gods decided one day to drown all human beings because they were noisy. The god Ea however, secretly descended to his favorite - Uta-Napishtim - and told him to build a ship, giving him the exact measurements and other instructions: "Dismantle your house, build a boat, leave your possessions, look for your living ones to save them, out the seeds of all that lives in your boat!" - a remarkably practical piece of advice, such as one needs when disaster is immanent! Uta-Napishtim did as he was advised, adding gold and silver to his cargo. For six days and seven nights the storm blew. After that, the wind and sea became calm once more. The flood then receded. Silence reigned. All humanity had returned to clay. Uta-Napishtim the sent out a dove followed by a swallow and a raven. The first two returned but the raven did not. The flood had by then diminished and land become visible. In the Sumerian version all the windstorms (spirits), exceedingly powerful, attacked as one At the same time the floods swept over the cult-centers For seven days and nights the boat was tossed about... Ziusudra (Zisutra) who has built his boat with instructions from the god of wisdom, Enki, "Opens a window in his boat...[until] Utu the sun-god sends his rays of light into the boat." Ziusudra then worshipped Utu.

GALAS, THE: The demons of the underworld. Gallu In Chaldean theology, a class of spirits beneath the angels of earth

GESHTINANNA, GESTINNANA (Demi-god)

(Sumerian) Sister of Dumuzi, Divine poetress, singer, and interpreter of dreams. The dying Dumuzi, tortured by nightmares, brought the dreams to his sister for interpretation. Gestinanna realized her brother was under attack by demons. She tells him this and advises him to flee. Dumuzi flees, swearing Gestinanna to secrecy as to where he is going into hiding. The demons attacked Gestinanna to force her to reveal her brother's whereabouts, but she remained silent. The demons, however, soon found Dumuzi, hiding in the form of a gazelle in his sister's sheepfold. He was carried off to the underworld by them; Gestinanna then set out to rescue him. They were eventually reunited after many adventures. The goddess then persuaded the underworld divinities to grant Dumuzi half her own life; thus each was allowed to live on earth six months of each year. Her sister in the netherworld was Ereshkigal.

GILGAMESH

King of Uruk, son of Lugalbanda and Ninsun in the Epic. Name may mean "The old man is a young man" in Sumerian. Listed with gods in very early texts. Late epithet: "King of Earth"

GUDEA  (general background)

GUGALANA

The Bull of Heaven husband of Ereshkigal's

GULU

As Ninmah (See Ninkhursag) alias Nintu, Ki, Ninki, Ninmah, Ninlil, Innini, Bau, Gula, Ninkarrak, Gam-Tum-Dug, Belit-Illu, Belitis, was one of four main Sumerian gods (See Damkina). Damkina or Damgalnunna; alias Ninka, goddess wife of Ea -- Sumerian god of sweet waters. As Ninlil wife of Enlil; as Ninki wife of Enki (Ea).

HADAD

Also spelled HAD, HADDA, OR HADDU, the Old Testament Rimmon, West Semitic god of storms, thunder, and rain. His attributes were identical with those of Adad of the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was the chief baal ("lord") of the West Semites (including both sedentary and nomadic Aramaeans) in north Syria, along the Phoenician coast, and along the Euphrates River. As Baal-Hadad he was represented as a bearded deity, often holding a club and thunderbolt and wearing a horned headdress. The bull was the symbolic animal of Hadad, as of the Hittite deity Teshub, who was identical with him.

HAMMURABI King of Babylon 1848-1806 BC.

HESOID

Theogony: Deals with the origin of the gods and is the fullest record of the Greek myths which have parallels in Babylonia.

HULLUPU TREE

After the heavens had been separated from the earth and as Enki was attacked, a huluppu (tree) had been planted on the banks of the Euphrates. Then the South Wind plucked it up. Inanna roving around in fear found the tree and took it to Erech. As it grew, the snake set up a nest in the roots, the bird reared its young and Lilith built her house. Everyone laughed at Inanna's weeping. Later, Gilgamesh struck the serpent, the Anzu-Bird flew away and Lilith smashed her home and fled into the wild. From the trunk of the tree Gilgamesh carved a throne for his sister.

HUMBABA (Humwawa)

Guardian of the Pine forest, fire breathing servant of the god Wer, depicted with a face lined like coiled intestines, ancestor of the Greek Gorgon. His voice is the Abubu-weapon.

Gilgamesh, also of that dynasty, figures as the hero of a variety of short tales; some, such as "Gilgamesh and Huwawa" and

In tablet 3-5 Enkidu and a friend of Gilgamesh set out together against Huwawa or Humbaba, the guardian of a remote cedar forest. There is not record of the outcome. Clay mask of Humbaba, the guardian of the ceadar trees of the Gods; defeated by Gilgamesh

IGIGI (ee gee' gee)

Sumerian term for the great gods of the younger generation, sky-gods headed by Ellil, often paired with the Anunnaki.

Early deities who guide and control every aspect of nature. Either they were not given much promenance later, or they simply were never given much attention. Chances are that these are Angels were the gods are Archangels. Collective name for the great gods of heaven associated with blood, madness and revenge.

INANNA (Inannu)

Sumerian earth-goddess, sister of Ereshkigal. She loved Dumuzi. Babylonian mother-goddess, "mistress of heaven." See Ishtar (Babylonian) .

Nanna's daughter, and goddess of love and war. Inanna also visits Kur, which results in a myth similar to Greek seasonal story of Persephone. She sets out to witness the funeral rites of her sister-in-law Ereshkigal's husband Gugalana, the Bull of Heaven. She takes precaution before setting out, by telling her servant Ninshubur to seek assistance from Enlil, Nanna, or Enki at their shrines, should she not return. Inanna knocks on the outer gates of Kur and the gatekeeper, Neti, questions her. He consults with queen Ereshkigal and then allows Inanna to pass through the seven gates of the underworld. After each gate, she is required to remove adornments and articles of clothing, until after the seventh gate, she is naked. The Annuna pass judgment against her and Ereshkigal killed her and hung her on the wall.

The goddess Inanna was the most important female deity of ancient Mesopotamia. The etymology of her name is uncertain; but by the end of the third millennium B.C. it was taken to derive from nin.an.na : "Lady of Heaven." Also known as Innin, her epithets reflect her broad role in the pantheon: Ninmesarra - "Queen of all the Me," a title making her one of the most influential deities in the world of gods and men; Nu-ugiganna - "the Hierodule of Heaven," a projection of her erotic functions to the cosmic scale; and Usunzianna - "Exalted Cow of Heaven," she who provides life and sustenance to the land. In this aspect, it was Inanna who yearly reunited symbolically with her consort Dumuzi to restore life and fertility in the land.

This cycle, known as the Sacred Marriage, was a common theme in songs sung in her praise. Inanna represented the force of sexual reproduction and the power of the passions so incited. This passion finds its compliment in her martial character, 'the heroic champion, the destroyer of foreign lands, foremost in battle.' She was the daughter of the moon-god Nanna (though some traditions held her to be the daughter of An). Her sister was the netherworld goddess Ereskigal. Inanna's beast was the lion. Her usual symbol was the star or star disk (though it may also have been the rosette).

IMDUGUD See NINURTA

ISHKUR Married goddess Shala

Sumerian god of the rain and thunderstorms of spring. He was the city god of Bit Khakhuru. He is similar to Ninhar (Ningubla) and was imagined in the form of a great bull and the son of Nanna (Akkadian Sin), the moon god. When he is portrayed in human shape, he often holds his symbol, the lightning fork. Ishkur's wife was the goddess Shala. In his role as god of rain and thunder, Ishkur corresponded to the other Sumerian deities Asalluhe and Ninurta. He was identified by the Akkadians with their god of thunderstorms, Adad.

ISHTAR

(Akkadian), Sumerian Inanna, in Mesopotamian religion, goddess of war and sexual love. Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart of the West Semitic goddess Astarte.Inanna, an important goddess in the Sumerian pantheon, came to be identified with Ishtar, but it is uncertain whether Inanna is also of Semitic origin or whether, as is more likely, her similarity to Ishtar caused the two to be identified. In the figure of Inanna several traditions seem to have been combined: she is sometimes the daughter of the sky god An, sometimes his wife; in other myths she is the daughter of Nanna, god of the moon, or of the wind, Enlil. In her earliest manifestations she was associated with the storehouse and thus personified as the goddess of dates, wool, meat, and grain; the storehouse gates were her emblem. She was also the goddess of rain and thunderstorms--leading to her association with An, the sky god--and was often pictured with the lion, whose roar resembled thunder. The power attributed to her in war may have arisen from her connection with storms. Inanna was also a fertility figure, and, as goddess of the storehouse and the bride of the god Dumuzi-Amaushumgalana, who represented the growth and fecundity of the date palm, she was characterized as young, beautiful, and impulsive--never as helpmate or mother. She is sometimes referred to as the Lady of the Date Clusters.

Ishtar's primary legacy from the Sumerian tradition is the role of fertility figure; she evolved, however, into a more complex character, surrounded in myth by death and disaster, a goddess of contradictory connotations and forces: fire and fire-quenching, rejoicing and tears, fair play and enmity. The Akkadian Ishtar is also, to a greater extent, an astral deity, associated with the planet Venus: with Shamash, sun god, and Sin, moon god, she forms a secondary astral triad. In this manifestation her symbol is a star with 6, 8, or 16 rays within a circle.

As goddess of Venus, delighting in bodily love, Ishtar was the protectress of prostitutes and the patroness of the alehouse. Part of her cult worship probably included temple prostitution, and her cult centre, Erech, was a city filled with courtesans and harlots. Her popularity was universal in the ancient Middle East, and in many centres of worship she probably subsumed numerous local goddesses.

In later myth she was known as Queen of the Universe, taking on the powers of An, Enlil, and Enki.

She appears at times as Anu' second consort. Ishtar, with Shamash and Sin (the life-force, the sun, and the moon), formed an important triad of divinities. In astronomy Ishtar was a name of the planet Venus -- the double aspect of the goddess being made to correspond to the morning and evening star. (Lucifer)

(Chaldean) Ancient Babylonian deity, eldest of heaven and earth, daughter of Anu (the lord of the heavens) and Antum. She is the sister of Ereshkigal and has to face her in the underworld. This visit is conntected with Tammuz. Her worship was fervently pursued by the multitude both in Babylonia and Assyria, although she was known under various names in different localities -- Anunit, Nina, Nanna, Innanna, Atar -- even when represented as the consort of Marduk (Babylonia) and of Assur (Assyria). In popular conception, she was the bounteous nature goddess, queen of beauty and joyousness, equivalent to Aphrodite or Venus, however, rather than Ceres, although synthesizing certain attributes of both these goddesses. Her other aspect is as the grim, stern harvester, withdrawing the life-forces so that everything during this period shall have sleep and rest. This aspect was stressed by the warlike Assyrians, who represented her as armed with bow and arrows, and hence she becomes their chief goddess of battles; whereas the Babylonians stressed the mother and child idea. Her symbol was an eight-rayed star.

KI / Ninhursag

(Sumerian) (Aruru),  Mammi -Babylonian) goddess of earth. Ki is likely to be the original name of the earth goddess, whose name more often appears as Ninhursag(queen of the mountains), Ninmah (the exalted lady), or Nintu (the lady who gave birth). It seems likely that she and An were the progenitors of most of the gods. She is the mother goddess and assists in the creation of man.

There advised Enki as he shaped several forms of man from the heart of the clay over the Abzu. In Dilmun, she bore eight new trees from Enki. When he then ate her children, she cursed him with eight wounds. After being persuaded by Enlil to undo her curse, she bore Enki eight new children which undid the wounds of the first ones. Most often she is considered Enlil's sister, but in some traditions she is his spouse instead.

KINGS (Sumerian)

KINGU The dragon of chaos. See Below

KISH

First to establish the kingship after the flood according to the Sumerian king list. East of Babylon, connected to it by canal. Cult center of Ishtar (temple E-hursag-kalama) and Zababa (temple E-mete-ursag). A Babylonian city. See Etana.

KISHAR

"Whole earth" Sumerian god of old generation, paired with Anshar. She is the offspring of Tiamat and Apsu and the mother of Anu.

KOSMOS Pythagoreanism

Speculation on number and proportion led to an intuitive feeling of the harmonia ("fitting together") of the kosmos ("the beautiful order of things"); and the application of the tetraktys to the theory of music (see below Music) revealed a hidden order in the range of sound. Pythagoras may have referred, vaguely, to the "music of the heavens," which he alone seemed able to hear; and later Pythagoreans seem to have assumed that the distances of the heavenly bodies from the Earth somehow correspond to musical intervals--a theory that, under the influence of Platonic conceptions, resulted in the famous idea of the "harmony of the spheres." Though number to the early Pythagoreans was still a kind of cosmic matter, like the water or air proposed by the Ionians, their stress upon numerical proportions, harmony, and order comprised a decisive step toward a metaphysic in which form is the basic reality. See Apopis. Chaldean is a synonym in the Bible for soothsayers or enchanters who always used music to deceive people. Judas, for instance, carried the Glosokomon or the bag for carrying the mouthpieces of wind instruments. It is made up of "speaking in tongues" and "of the Kosmos."

KOTHAR

Also called KHASIS, OR KHAYIN, ancient West Semitic god of crafts, equivalent of the Greek god Hephaestus. Kothar was responsible for supplying the gods with weapons and for building and furnishing their palaces. During the earlier part of the 2nd millennium BC, Kothar's forge was believed to be on the biblical Caphtor(probably Crete), though later, during the period of Egyptian domination of Syria and Palestine, he was identified with the Egyptian god Ptah, patron of craftsmen, and his forge was thus located at Memphis in Egypt. According to Phoenician tradition, Kothar was also the patron of magic and inventor of magical incantations; in addition, he was believed to have been the first poet. SEE Aqhat Epic.

KUR The Underworld. (See Asag).

Kur is the name of the area which either was contained by or contained the Abzu. Enki also struggled with Kur as mentioned in the opening to "Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Underworld" and presumably was victorious and thereby able to claim the title "Lord of Kur" (the realm). Kramer suggests that Kur was a dragon-like creature, calling to mind Tiamat and Leviathan. The texts suggests that Enki's struggle may have been with instruments of the land of kur - its stones or its creatures hurling stones. (See also Apsu and Tiamat.)

LAGASH

The city was founded in the prehistoric Ubaid Period (c. 5200-c. 3500 BC) and was still occupied as late as the Parthian era (247 BC-ad 224). In the Early Dynastic Period the rulers of Lagash called themselves "king" (lugal), though the city itself never was included within the official Sumerian canon of kingship. Among the most famous Lagash monuments of that period is the Stele of the Vultures, erected to celebrate the victory of King Eannatum over the neighbouring state of Umma. Another is the engraved silver vase of King Entemena, a successor of Eannatum. Control of Lagash finally fell to Sargon of Akkad (reigned c. 2334-2279 BC), but about 150 years later Lagash enjoyed a revival.

It prospered most brilliantly under Gudea, who was probably a governor rather than an independent king and was nominally subject to the Guti, a warlike people who controlled much of Babylonia from about 2230 to about 2130.

Lagash was endowed with many temples, including the Eninnu, "House of the Fifty," a seat of the high god Enlil. Architecturally the most remarkable structure was a weir and regulator, once doubtless possessing sluice gates, which conserved the area's water supply in reservoirs.

LAHMU AND LAHAMU

in Mesopotamian mythology, twin deities, the first gods to be born from the chaos that was created by the merging of Apsu (the watery deep beneath the earth) and Tiamat (the personification of the salt waters); this is described in the Babylonian mythological text Enuma elish (c. 12th century BC). Mummu is the womb for this "evolution of the gods."

Usually, Lahmu and Lahamu represent silt, but in some texts they seem to take the form of serpents, and, because the wavy line of a gliding snake is similar to the ripple of water, some scholars believe that Lahmu and Lahamu may have been only synonyms of Tiamat. Lahmu and Lahamu were rather vague deities who do not seem to have played any significant part in subsequent myths, although they may have been the parents of Anshar and Kishar.

LAMU: He and his wife Lahamu are said to be the silt created by the junction of the primeval Waters, the rivers and sea. They are the Children of Apsu and Tiamat. (see Lahamu).

LAHAMU: Wife/sister of Lamu.

LAMASHTU

Demoness who steals babies from their mothers. A source for much of the Hebrew Lilith. (Akkadian), Sumerian Dimme, in Mesopotamian religion, the most terrible of all female demons, daughter of the sky god Anu (Sumerian: An). A wicked female who slew children, drank the blood of men, and ate their flesh, she had seven names and was often described in incantations as the "seven witches." Lamashtu accomplished a variety of evil deeds: she disturbed sleep and brought nightmares; she killed foliage and infested rivers and streams; she bound the muscles of men, caused pregnant women to miscarry, and brought disease and sickness. Lamashtu was often portrayed on amulets as a lion- or bird-headed female figure kneeling on an ass; she held a double-headed serpent in each hand and suckled a dog at her right breast and a pig or another dog at her left breast.

LARSA

One of the ancient capital cities of Babylonia, located about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of Uruk (Erech; Arabic Tall al-Warka'), in southern Iraq. Larsa was probably founded in prehistoric times, but the most prosperous period of the city coincided with an independent dynasty inaugurated by a king named Naplanum (c. 2025-c. 2005 BC).

LEVIATHAN liweyathan (Hebrew)

Hebrew LIVYATAN, in Jewish mythology, a primordial sea serpent. Its source is in prebiblical Mesopotamian myth, especially that of the sea monster in the Ugaritic myth of Baal (see Yamm). In the Old Testament, Leviathan appears in Psalms 74:14 as a multiheaded sea serpent that is killed by God and given as food to the Hebrews in the wilderness. In Isaiah 27:1, Leviathan is a serpent and a symbol of Israel's enemies, who will be slain by God. In Job 41, it is a sea monster and a symbol of God's power of creation.

Foldings, turnings, windings, hence whatever is infolded or wound. Mystically time as the great serpent of cyclic or circling time, likewise space and the various phenomena that happen in space such as the turnings and windings of forces as manifested by electricity in lightning or thunderbolt. Ancient Hebrew Biblical esotericism made of Leviathan a great sea monster, with particular reference to the waters of space. In its exalted sense it means the cycling and everlasting motion of divinity in duration and in abstract space; its concrete or lowest aspect signifies the apparently unregulated, winding, turbulent forces of the material worlds -- also inimical forces which seem antagonistic to the spiritual and intellectual balance of him who strives upwards. One significance was that of a great serpent or crocodile -- it is sometimes compared to the Hindu Makara; another is "Deity in its double manifestation of good and evil" (Theosophy)

LILITH (Hebrew)

Isaiah 34:16b

Female demon of Jewish folklore; her name and personality are derived from the class of Mesopotamian demons called lilû (feminine: lilitu, from layil night ). In rabbinic literature Lilith is variously depicted as the mother of Adam's demonic offspring following his separation from Eve or as his first wife, who left him because of their incompatibility. Three angels tried in vain to force her return; the evil she threatened, especially against children, was said to be counteracted by the wearing of an amulet bearing the names of the angels. A cult associated with Lilith survived among some Jews as late as the 7th century AD. ( In Isaiah 14:12 Heylel (h1966) hay-lale'; from 1984 (in the sense of brightness); the morning-star: - lucifer.) Represented by the king of Babylon and of Tyre called "the harp-playing" prostitute who used musical priestesses to seduce travelers out of their wealth.

Babylo-Assyrian Lilit or Lilu. In Rabbinical writings Lilith is the first consort or wife of the mindless Adam, and it was from the snares of Eve-Lilith that the second Eve, the woman, become his savior.

"The numberless traditions about Satyrs are no fables, but represent an extinct race of animal men. The animal 'Eves' were their foremothers, and the human 'Adams' their forefathers; hence the Kabalistic allegory of Lilith or Lilatu, Adam's first wife, whom the Talmud describes as a charming woman, with long wavy hair, i.e., -- a female hairy animal of a character now unknown, still a female animal, who in the Kabalistic and Talmudic allegories is called the female reflection of Samael, Samael-Lilith, or man-animal united, a being called Hayoh Bishah, the Beast or Evil Beast. (Zohar, ii, 255, 259). It is from this unnatural union that the present apes descended" (Theosophy view)

LUCIFER (Latin)

Light-bringer [Hebrew heylel, from halal) the planet Venus, the morning star. Lucifer is light bringer to earth, not only physically as the brightest of the planets, but in a mystical sense also. In mysticism he is the chief of those minor powers or logoi who are said to rebel against high heaven and to be cast down to the bottomless pit -- the so-called war in heaven and the fall of the angels.

LUGALBANDA (Mesop. hero)

Lugal-gabajal

Father of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, son of Emerkar, deified hero of several Sumerian stories. Consort of the goddess Ninsun, native of Kullab. Ancestor of Gilgamesh.

Dumuzi (not Dumuzi the shepherd) was a human offspring as The Wild Bull. His mother was Ninsum the "Lady Wild Cow." Her husband was Lugalbanda.

MARDUK

The son of Ea and Damkina and in Mesopotamian religion, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia; as such he was eventually called simply Bel, or Lord. Originally he seems to have been a god of thunderstorms. A poem, known as Enuma elish and dating from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar I (1124-03 BC), relates Marduk's rise to such preeminence that he was the god of 50 names, each one that of a deity or of a divine attribute. After conquering the monster of primeval chaos, Tiamat, he became "lord of the gods of heaven and earth." All nature, including man, owed its existence to him; the destiny of kingdoms and subjects was in his hands.

Marduk's chief temples at Babylon were the Esagila and the Etemenanki, a ziggurat with a shrine of Marduk on the top. In Esagila the poem Enuma elish was recited every year at the New Year festival. The goddess named most often as the consort of Marduk was Zarpanit, or Zarbanit (She of the City Zarpan). (See Akitu.)

MARTU

Of the kings after Shar-kali-sharri (c. 2217-c. 2193), only the names and a few brief inscriptions have survived. Quarrels arose over the succession, and the dynasty went under, although modern scholars know as little about the individual stages of this decline as about the rise of Akkad. Two factors contributed to its downfall: the invasion of the nomadic Amurrus (Amorites), called Martu by the Sumerians,

from the northwest, and the infiltration of the Gutians, who came, apparently, from the region between the Tigris and the Zagros Mountains to the east

MASHU, Mount

See First Adam and Eve for a description of the  Supernatural Mountain and  Second Adam and Eve

ME

Remember that when Jacob tricked Esau out of his father's blessing Esau had no tribal authority as first born. The recitation of the words by his father gave powerwhich we cannot  understand. In a similar way, in Sumer, the ME were words, incantantations or skills such as music or perverted sex required to pass on the "spirit of" arts and sciences to keep civilization going. All of these ME were collected in Ekur but then given to Enki to protect and hand out as "gifts of the spirit." Eridu, where he was worshipped, was to be the central sanctuary of these gifts. However, Inanna complained and got Enki drunk and gained 94 of the Me and removes them to her center at Erich. When Enki sobered up he tried to recover them.

MESLAMTAEA

One of the three underwold gods. These are not part of the Seven Dreaded Anunnaki, as they are children of Enlil and Ninlil. (See Ninazu). In Mesopotamian religion, city god of Cuthah in Akkad. His temple in Cuthah was called Emeslam, or Meslam ("Luxuriant Mesu Tree"). His name, which means "He Who Issues from Meslam," perhaps indicates that he was originally a tree god, which would agree with his general chthonian, or underworld, character. He was the son of Enlil (Akkadian: Bel), god of the atmosphere, and of Ninlil (Belit), goddess of grain, and he appears in hymns as a warrior similar to the war god Ninurta. Meslamtaea's weapons, however, sometimes seem to be turned against his own people and their herds, when he kills them in great plagues. He seems to have been closely related to or identical with the god Nergal, and, as such, he was ruler of the netherworld and the spouse of its queen, Ereshkigal; this position, however, may not have been original with the god. The Assyrians are treated as fir trees in the garden of Eden whose head reached into the sky.

MESOPOTAMIAN CULT

In the cultic practices, humans fulfilled their destiny: to take care of the gods' material needs. They therefore provided the gods with houses (the temples) that were richly supplied with lands, which people cultivated for them. In the temple the god was present in--but not bounded by--a statue made of precious wood overlaid with gold. For this statue the temple kitchen staff prepared daily meals from produce grown or raised on the temple's fields, in its orchards, in its sheepfolds, cattle pens, and game preserves, brought in by its fishermen, or delivered by farmers owing it as a temple tax. The statue was also clad in costly raiment, bathed, and escorted to bedin the bedchamber of the god, often on top of the temple tower, or ziggurat. To see to all of this the god had priests trained as cooks, bakers, waiters, and bathers, or as  encomiasts (singers of praise) and musicians to make the god's meals festive, or as elegists to soothe him in times of stress and grief. Diversions from the daily routine were the great monthly festivals and also a number of special occasions.

See the story of David and Saul

Such special occasions might be a sudden need to go through the elaborate ritual for purifying the king when he was threatened by the evils implied in an eclipse of the Moon, or in extreme cases there might be a call for the ritual installation of a substitute king to take upon himself the dangers threatening, and various other nonperiodic rituals. When Israel demanded to live like the nations David's counting of the warriors with the goal of enslaving them in a peace-time army, he had to perform similar rituals to purify the temple. When the temple became totally polluted with Assyrian idols and worship Hezekiah had to purify them with animal sacrifices and musical instruments. As usual, this was not a ritual for the common citizens.

Partly regular, partly impromptu, were the occasions for audiences with the god in which the king or other worshipers presented their petitions and prayers accompanied by appropriate offerings. These were mostly edibles, but not infrequently the costly containers in which they were presented, stone vases, golden boat-shaped vessels, etc., testified to the ardour of the givers. Appropriate gifts other than edibles were also acceptable--among them cylinder seals for the god's use, superhuman in size, and weapons for him, such as maceheads, also outsize.

MOABITE-STONE

King Omri of Israel (reigned c. 884-c. 872 BC), who is mentioned in 1 Kings 16:23-28, reconquered Moabite lands that had been lost since Solomon's death in 922 BC, when Israel split into two kingdoms. Omri's reconquest is known from the Moabite Stone, a stela that the Moabite king Mesha erected about 40 years later in the city of Dibon (modern Dhiban, Jordan).

MUMMU -Tiamat

The Sumerian goddess of the primeval ocean also called the deep and the consort of APSU. Mummu means "mold" or "womb."

APSU needs a vizier named MUMMU as an aid in carrying out his forming (creating) commands. Thus TIAMAT represents or is the personification of the deep without the molding life-giving abilities. MUMMU-TIAMAT seems to be the equivalent of the Canaanite ASHERAH.

MUSARUS See Oannes

MUSHUSSU (Offsite  Mushussu) The Snake Dragon

"Red/furious snake" A dragon or monster made of many animals. Symbol of Marduk. Previously read "sirrus." "Mushussu has been in the mountain for over two millennia, and perhaps longer. Why he came here is unknown. What is known is that he seeks to free someone from the 'heart' of the volcano. Mushussu has never shown the capacity for speaking Greek or any other language known to the characters, instead speaking an alien language quite outside the character's experience (ancient Babylonian)."

MUSIC

From Greek mousike (techne) the art of the Muses] The music of the Greeks did not signify merely the harmony of sounds, but actually imbodied the idea of inner harmony of the spirit, the becoming at one with the spirit of the Muses, so that the soul responded in harmonic rhythm to the beat of universal harmony. Music with the Greeks, therefore, included, besides vocal and instrumental music, choral dancing, rhythmic motions, and various modes of harmony expressed in action.

Music, in all its various branches is represented as having been taught to man by his divine and divine-human ancestors, such as Isis-Osiris, Thoth, Edris (in the Koran), etc. It is one of the elements of the power known as mantrikasakti. Music was represented as one of four divisions of mathematics, the others being arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry. The music of sound arouses in us a power which needs to be controlled, as it can carry us to heights from which we may fall. If regarded as a sensual indulgence, even though a refined one, its true import is not realized.

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

Plato declared that rhythmic and melodic complexities were to be avoided because they led to depression and disorder. Music echoes divine harmony; rhythm and melody imitate the movements of heavenly bodies, thus delineating the music of the spheres and reflecting the moral order of the universe. Earthly music, however, is suspect; Plato distrusted its emotional power

An extremely archaic teaching repeated by Pythagoras, who travelled in Babylonia, and therefore in the West commonly associated with his doctrine, for he taught that the world had been called forth out of Chaos by sound or harmony, and that the universe is constructed on harmonic proportions. He further taught that the planets were arranged in relation to each other and to the Sun in the progression of a musical scale

NABU

Hebrew NEBO, major god in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was patron of the art of writing and a god of vegetation. Nabu's symbols were the clay tablet and the stylus, the instruments held to be proper to him who inscribed the fates assigned to men by the gods. In the Old Testament, the worship of Nebo is denounced by Isaiah (46:1).

Samsuditana, the last king of the 1st dynasty of Babylon (reigned 1625-1595 BC), introduced a statue of Nabu into Esagila, the temple of Marduk, who was the city god of Babylon. Not until the 1st millennium BC, however, did the relationship between Marduk and Nabu and their relative positions in theology and popular devotion become clear. Marduk, the father of Nabu, took precedence over him, at least theoretically, in Babylonia. But in popular devotion it was Nabu, the son, who knows all and sees all, who was chief, especially during the centuries immediately preceding the fall of Babylon. He had a chapel named Ezida in his father's temple Esagila, where at the New Year feast he was installed alongside Marduk. In his own holy city, Borsippa, he was supreme.

Goddesses associated with Nabu were Nana, a Sumerian deity; the Assyrian Nissaba; and the Akkadian Tashmetum, queen of Borsippa, stepdaughter of Marduk, and, as her abstract Akkadian name indicates, Lady of Hearing and of Favour. She was rarely invoked apart from her husband, Nabu, whose name means "speaking." Thus, while Nabu speaks, Nana listens.

NAMMU

Water was so close that the early Babylonians believed that the earth floated on water. In a process of evolution, Nammu split the earth from the heavens. The sky was active and destructive and was called An, the sky god. All life evolves out of the earth and brings forth mountains or Ki. An and Ki in turn produced Enlil or atmosphere the noisy "child" in between. Enlil broke the sky and rain fell.

Nammu's sign was usually written with the sign "en-gur;" the same sign used to denote the abzu: the underground sweet waters which brought life to the land. It was from her ancient waters that Enlil was said, in some traditions, to have been brought forth. She was also said to be the mother of Enki (Ea) (as well as the mother of the 'Great Gods' in general).

NAM-SHUB

NAMTAR (Namtara)

When men grew two numerous and too noisy, at first Enlil had Namtar, the god of death, cause a plague to diminish mankind's numbers, but the wise Atrahasis, at the advice of Enki, had man concentrate all worship and offerings on Namtar. Namtar, embarrassed at hurting people who showed such love and affection for him, stayed his hand.

Namtar was the "decider of fate" vizier(CHIEF MINISTER) of Ereshkigal, demon god of the underworld. God of the plague and other disease and fear, in the land of the dead. She could set loose 60 diseases

NANNAR. The Sumerian moon-god of the city of Ur. Also called Sin (Babylonia) and the son of Ninlil. The moon travels through the sky in a boat.

NANNA-SIN Nanna-Suen

(Sumerian) The god of the moon, and the father of Utu and Inanna. Nanna: is another name for the moon god Sin, and was located at Ur.

He is the product of Enlil's rape of Ninlil. Nanna was the tutelary deity of Ur, appointed as king of that city by An and Enlil. He established Ur-Nammu as his mortal representative, establishing the third Ur dynasty. Nanna was married to Ningal and they produced Inanna and Utu. He rests in the Underworld every month, and there decrees the fate of the dead. He averts a flood of his city by visiting Enlil in Nippur on a boat loaded with gifts and pleading with him. He refuses to send aid to Inanna when she is trapped in the underworld.

A third myth built over the motif of journeying to the netherworld is the myth of "The Engendering of the Moongod and his Brothers," which tells how Enlil (Lord Wind), when still a youngster, came upon young Ninlil (goddess of grain) as she--eager to be with child and disobeying her mother--was bathing in a canal where he would see her. He lay with her in spite of her pretending to protest and thus engendered the moon god Suen. For this offense Enlil was banished from Nippur and took the road to the netherworld. Ninlil, carrying his child, followed him. On the way Enlil took the shape first of the Nippur gatekeeper, then of the man of the river of the netherworld, and lastly of the ferryman of the river of the netherworld. In each such disguise Enlil persuaded Ninlil to let him lie with her to engender a son who might take Suen's place in the netherworld and leave him free for the world above. Thus three further deities, all underworld figures, were engendered: Meslamtaea (He Who Comes Out of the Meslam Temple), Ninazu (Water Sprinkler [?]), and Ennugi (the God Who Returns Not). The myth ends with a paean to Enlil as a source of abundance and to his divine word, which always comes true.

Nanna-Suen's journey to Nibru

NANSHE

Also spelled NANSE, OR NAZI, in Mesopotamian religion, Sumerian city goddess of Nina (modern Surghul, Iraq) in the southeastern part of the Lagash region of Mesopotamia. According to tradition, Nanshe's father Enki (Akkadian: Ea) organized the universe and placed her in charge of fish and fishing. Nanshe was also described as a divine soothsayer and dream interpreter. Although at times overshadowed by her sister Inanna (Akkadian: Ishtar), Nanshe was, nevertheless, important in her own geographic area, and many rulers of Lagash record that they were chosen by her.

NERGAL

(arrow shooting god of II Kings 17:30), fire-god, identified with Mars or fire-star. a Babylonian god and king of the Underworld "Lord of the great dwelling." When ejected from heaven he invaded the underworld with fourteen demons. His wife was Ereshkigal (possibly Gulu). During the great flood he tore away the mast of the ship in which Utanapishtim (the Babylonian Noah) escaped and was saved along with his family and specimens of all manner of animals. Nergal is also the god of plague withNamtar (evil god, negative aspect of fate, disease bringer), his symbols are a sword and a lion's head. From the contract tablets found by Rassam at Tel-Ibrahim it appears that the ancient name of Cuthah was Gudua or Kuta. Itís ruins were 3,000 feet in circumference and 280 feet high. In it was a sanctuary dedicated to Ibrahim (Abraham). Both the city and its great temple, the later dedicated to Nergal, appear to date back to Sumerian times. Nergal (Heb. nereghal, a Babylonian deity of destruction and disaster, associated with the planet Mars (god of war and agriculture)

Also pronounced Erakal, "Lord of Erkalla (the great city)" Chief god of the Underworld, consort of Ereshkigal (and of Mammetum; see Ninhursag).

NIMROD

(Hebrew) The traditional founder of the kingdom of Babylon, known in Babylonia as Izdubar or Gilgamesh. According to the Bible, the son of Cush; in legend a mighty hunter (Genesis 10:9). The name Nimrod has not been found prior to the period of the Israelites (500 BC).

The only other references to Nimrod in the Old Testament are Mic. 5:6, where Assyria is called the land of Nimrod, and I Chron. 1:10. The beginning of his kingdom is said in Genesis to be Babel, Erech, and Akkad in the land of Shinar. Nimrod is said to have built Nineveh, Calah (modern Nimrud), Rehoboth-Ir, and Resen.

NIBRU

NINAZU

God of Eshnunna. Temple called E-sikil and E-kurmah. Son of Ereshkigal, father of Ningishzida. Replaced by Tishpak as patron of Eshnunna. Babylonian god of magic incantations.

Sumerian deity, the city god of Enegir, which was located on the Euphrates River between Larsa and Ur in the southern orchard region. Ninazu was also the city god ofEshnunna (modern Tall al-Asmar in eastern Iraq). Ninazu, whose name means "water knower," was primarily an underworld deity, although the exact nature of his character or functions is not clear. In Enegir he was considered the son of Ereshkigal, goddess of the netherworld; according to another tradition, however, he was the son of Enlil (Akkadian Bel) and Ninlil (Belit). His spouse was Ningirda, a daughter of Enki (Ea).

NINGAL

Consort of Nanna Sin. She was the mother of Shamash.

The third "song" relates that the goddess Ningal hears the pleas of the people of Ur, but she is not able to dissuade the gods Anu and Enlil from their decision to destroy the city, and the remaining "songs" relate the devastating results of Ur's defeat in battle. The last stanza ends with a plea to Nanna, the husband of Ningal, that the city may once more rise up and that the people of Ur may again present their offerings to him.

NINGIRSU

(Sumerian), also called NININSINA, Akkadian Gula, or Ninkarrak, in Mesopotamian religion, city goddess of Urukug in the Lagash region and, under the name Nininsina, the Queen of Isin, city goddess of Isin, south of Nippur. Bau seems originally to have been goddess of the dog; as Nininsina she was long represented with a dog's head, and the dog was her emblem. Perhaps because the licking of sores by dogs was supposed to have curative value, she became a goddess of healing. She was a daughter of An, king of the gods, and the wife of Pabilsag, a rain god who was also called Ninurta, or Ningirsu.

NINGISHZIDA )

Sumerian deity, city god of Gishbanda, near Ur in the southern orchard region. Although Ningishzida was a power of the netherworld, where he held the office of throne bearer, he seems to have originally been a tree god, for his name apparently means "Lord Productive Tree." In particular, he probably was god of the winding tree roots, since he originally was represented in serpent shape. When pictured in human form, two serpent heads grow from his shoulders in addition to the human head, and he rides on a dragon. He was a son of Ninazu and Ningirda and was the husband of Ninazimua ("Lady Flawlessly Grown Branch").Along with Tammuz, a guard of the gate to Heaven.

NINHAR

Also NINGUBLA, in Mesopotamian religion, Sumerian deity, city god of Kiabrig, near Ur in the southern herding region. Ninhar was god of the thunder and rainstorms that made the desert green with pasturage in the spring; as such he was  represented in the form of a roaring bull. He was the son of Nanna (Akkadian Sin) and Ningal and the husband of Ninigara ("Lady of Butter and Cream"), goddess of the dairy.

NINHURSAG See Ki.

Also spelled NINHURSAGA (Sumerian), Akkadian Belit-ili, in Mesopotamian religion, city goddess of Adab and of Kish in the northern herding regions; she was the goddess of the stony, rocky ground, the hursag. In particular, she had the power in the foothills and desert to produce wildlife. Especially prominent among her offspring were the onagers (wild asses) of the western desert. As the sorrowing mother animal she appears in a lament for her son, a young colt, but as goddess of birth she is not only the goddess of animal birth but the Mother of All Children, a mother-goddess figure. Her other names include: Dingirmakh ("Exalted Deity"), Ninmakh ("Exalted Lady"), Aruru ("Dropper," i.e., the one who "loosens" the scion in birth), and Nintur ("Lady Birth Giver"). Her husband is the god Shulpae, and among their children were the sons Mululil and Ashshirgi and the daughter Egime. Mululil seems to have been a dying god, like Dumuzi, whose death was lamented in yearly rites.

(Mammu, Aruru):"Mountain-lady" also known as Ninmah "supreme lady" Nintu "birth lady?" Mamma, Mammi, Mammitum "Mommy", Belet-Ili "mistress of the gods" Aruru (meaning unknown) Epithets: sassuru, "womb-goddess"; tabsut ili " midwife of the gods"; qurqurrat ili "smelter of the gods" "mother of the gods" and "mother of all children" Spouse of Shulpae and then of Nergal. Shrine at Kesh in central Mesopotamia, still not identified. A goddess in Sumerian and Mesopotamian mythology, the earth-mother. She was the wife of the water-god Enki.

Also known as Ninmah, she was given the title Ninhursag - "Lady of the Hursag (The stoney foothills)" by her son Ninurta in the myth Lugal-e. She was an ancient Sumerian form of the mother-goddess, known as 'mother of the gods,' and 'mother of all children.' It was

Ninhursag who was said to have been midwife to Nammu at the creation of man. She represents the innert procreative power of the mother which, though powerful, requires the union of the male force to be brought to its full potential. This was not to diminish her role, but simply a recognition that neither the female nor the male alone was a fully procreative force. Her major cult center was probably at Kish.

NINIB

(Babylonian) A Chaldean deity originally with solar attributes, especially prominent at Shirgulla, where he was closely associated with Bel and regarded as his son. In hymns he is described as a healing god who releases men from illness. But he was also classed as a god of war, and represented as armed for the chase. The aspect stressed was the sun at the morning and the springtime season, showering beneficence upon mankind. In theogony, Ninib was regent of the planet Saturn, and the animal symbol connected with him was the swine.

NINKASA Beer

NINLIL

(Akkadian Belit) Enlil's wife. This Goddess followed Enlil to the underworld after he had been banished there by the Anunnaki for raping her. At this point she was pregnant with Nanna (from the rape). In the underworld she gave birth to the Three Underworld Deities and gave birth to Nanna after she made it back out.

The Sumerian goddess of sailors. She was seduced by the sky-god Enlil, who was condemned by the gods for this sin to live in Hades. However, Ninlil loved him and insisted on following him to the underworld. The gods decided that she had to postpone her departure until she had given birth because her child must not be born under the earth, as it was to be Nanna the moon-god. When Nanna was born and rose into the sky, Ninlil descended to join her husband and had three more children by him. Ninlil is sometimes identified with the goddess Ishtar, (Babylonian Mullitu, Mylitta)

NINMAH SEE NINHURSAG

NINSUN

Sumerian city goddess of Kullab in the southern herding region. As Ninsun's name, "Lady Wild Cow," indicates, she was originally represented in cow form and was considered the divine power behind, as well as the embodiment of, all the qualities the herdsman wished for in his cows: she was the "flawless cow" and a "mother of good offspring that loves the offspring." She was, however, also represented in human form and could give birth to human offspring. She is also goddess of the city of Uruk, mother of Gilgamesh.

The Wild Bull Dumuzi (as distinct from Dumuzi the Shepherd) was traditionally her son, whom she lamented in the yearly ritual marking his death. In her role as a mother figure, her other Sumerian counterparts include Ninhursag (Akkadian: Belit-ili) and Ninlil (Belit). Ninsun's husband was the legendary hero Lugalbanda.

NINURTA

Ninurta was the son of Enlil (Akkadian: Bel) and Ninlil (Belit) and was married to Bau, in Nippur called Ninnibru, Queen of Nippur. A major festival of his, theGudsisu Festival, marked in Nippur the beginning of the plowing season.

Hero of the Gods. God of the Stormy South Winds. Possible pre-cursur to Marduk. This god owned a weapon that was alive. This weapon, Sharur, for some reason, convenced Nunurta to destroy Asag. This he did. However, once Asag was gone, the Waters rose up and engulfed the Earth. Nothing could grow. So, Nunurta built a stone wall over Asag's body that stopped and held back the Waters. Then he took the Waters that had already engulfed the land and dumped them into the Euphrates. This caused the overflow of the Euphrates, and the land became abundant

Also called Ningirsu, in Mesopotamian religion, city god of Girsu (Tal'ah, or Telloh) in the Lagash region. Ninurta was the farmer's version of the god of the thunder and rainstorms of the spring. He was also the power in the floods of spring and was god of the plow and of plowing. Ninurta's earliest name was Imdugud (now also read as Anzu), which means "rain cloud," and his earliest form was that of the thundercloud envisaged as an enormous black bird floating on outstretched wings roaring its thunder cry from a lion's head. With the growing tendency toward anthropomorphism, the old form and name were gradually disassociated from the god as merely his emblems; enmity toward the older inacceptable shape eventually made it evil, an ancient enemy of the god.

Ninurta (Nergal, Orion) in the Epic of Gilgamesh helps to flood the earth by throwing down the dykes and breaking dams. Here Gula helped breathe life into mankind. Ninurta and Gulu's wedding feast was celebrated on New Year's day. The goddess Gulu, (the earth-goddess, mother goddess; also Ninmah, goddess of the underworld) sits below ground with her dog, where the cosmic serpent begins to rise. She is the patroness of herbs, healing, life, as her flowered garment shows. Hands lifted in prayer, she sits with her dog, defender of homes, while before her a Scorpion Archer mounts guard at the uttermost bound of the earth (cosmic sea), to defend against demonic powers and protect the rising and setting sun.

NINUS

In Greek mythology, king of Assyria and the eponymous founder of the city of Nineveh, which itself is sometimes called Ninus. He was said to have been the son of Belos, or Bel, and to have conquered in 17 years all of western Asia with the help of Ariaeus, king of Arabia. During the siege of Bactra he met Semiramis, the wife of one of his officers, Onnes; he then took her from Onnes and married her. The fruit of the marriage was Ninyas--i.e., the Ninevite.

NIPPUR

In Sumerian mythology Nippur was the home of Enlil, the storm god and representation of force and the god who carried out the decrees of the assembly of gods that met at Nippur. Enlil, according to one account, created man at Nippur. Although a king's armies might subjugate the country, the transference to that king of Enlil's divine power to rule had to be sought and sanctioned. Ur-Nammu (reigned 2112-2095 Bc), first king of the 3rd dynasty of Ur, laid out Enlil's sanctuary, the Ekur, in its present form. A ziggurat and a temple were built in an open courtyard surrounded by walls.

NUSKU

A fire god invoked, with two others, against black magic. God of light Mesopotamian religion, Sumero-Akkadian god of light and fire. His father was Sin (Sumerian: Nanna), the moon god. He figures much in incantations and rituals as the fire. He is Ellil's servant.

OANNES

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 or Hea was the god of the sea and Wisdom, and the sea serpent was one of his emblems, his priests being 'serpents' or Initiates Oannes and the other Annedoti are grouped with the ancient 'adepts' or 'water dragons' -- Nagas.

The Indian "Naga" is similar to that of many ancient nations.  Click for some pictures and collected quotations. Serpent worship was and is popular among more primitive people.  Click for an index of articles and pictures.

Berossus describes Oannes as follows: "At Babylon there was (in these times) a great resort of people of various nations, who inhabited Chaldaea, and lived in a lawless manner like the beasts of the field. In the first year there appeared, from that part of the Erythraean sea which borders upon Babylonia, and animal destitute of reason [sic] by name Oannes. His voice was articulate.

Apollodorus referred to Oannes and the Annedoti as "Musarus." The word "musarus" means "an abomination" in Greek just as "annedoti" means "the repulsive ones." The founders were revered as "repulsive abominations."

PABILSAG

God of Larak, a city of importance before the flood. Bau seems originally to have been goddess of the dog; as Nininsina she was long represented with a dog's head, and the dog was her emblem. Perhaps because the licking of sores by dogs was supposed to have curative value, she became a goddess of healing. She was a daughter of An, king of the gods, and the wife of Pabilsag, a rain god who was also called Ninurta, or Ningirsu.

PAPSUKKEL

The chief minister of the Sumerian gods of heaven, especially of Ea, and messenger of the gods.

PHILO

PUKKU AND MIKKU

After Gilgamesh made a dangerous journey ( Tablets IX and X) in search of Utnapishtim, the survivor of the Babylonian flood, in order to learn from him how to escape death. He finally reached Utnapishtim, who told him the story of the flood and showed him where to find a plant that would renew youth ( Tablet XI). But after Gilgamesh obtained the plant, it was seized by a serpent, and Gilgamesh unhappily returned to Uruk. An appendage to the epic,  Tablet XII, related the loss of objects called pukku and mikku (perhaps "drum" and "drumstick") given to Gilgamesh by Ishtar. The epic ends with the return of the spirit of Enkidu, who promised to recover the objects and then gave a grim report on the underworld. .

QINGU or Kingu

A form of this motif is found in Enuma elish, in which Enki (Ea) alone fashioned man out of the blood of the slain rebel leader Kingu.

Qingu was Tiamat's chosen battle leader. Holder of the Tablet of Destinies. She gave him the Tablets of Destiny, and set him as the leader of the "demonic" army of ugly monsters she had created for the purpose of attacking Ea and the other younger gods to avenge the death of Apsu. After Marduk won the battle, he enslaved the rebel gods for a time, until he finally took pity on their cries of burden. The gods readily handed Kingu over to Marduk. Kingu was slain, and his blood was used by Enki (Ea) to make man as "a labor saving device."

RIMMON

"Earth-shaker," fierce, severe, name of Adad. See Hadad Above (Zechariah 12:11)

RESHEP

Syrian War-god, with the head of a gazelle. (from Hebrew reshef, "the burner," or "the ravager"), ancient West Semitic god of the plague and of the underworld, the companion of Anath, and the equivalent of the Babylonian god Nergal. He was also a war god and was thus represented as a bearded man, brandishing an ax, holding a shield, and wearing a tall, pointed headdress with a goat's or gazelle's head on his forehead. He was usually believed to be related to Mot or a form of the god Baal.

SABBATH

SAMMU-RAMAT

Greek SEMIRAMIS, Assyrian queen who became a legendary heroine.

Sammu-ramat was the mother of the Assyrian king Adad-nirari III (reigned 810-783 BC). Her stela (memorial stone shaft) has been found at Ashur, while an inscription at Calah (Nimrud) shows her to have been dominant there after the death of her husband, Shamshi-Adad V (823-811 BC). She captivated the king Ninus by her beauty and valour and became his wife.

SARPANITUM: Marduk's consort.

SARGON

23rd century BC byname SARGON OF AKKAD (Agade), ancient Mesopotamian ruler (reigned c. 2334-2279 BC), one of the earliest of the world's great empire builders.

SERPENT

The mythological predecessor of the Serpent is the Sumerian god Enki, "Lord Earth," the Babylonian Ea, the god who rules the Earth and with it the lives of all creatures. The ancient Semites associated the serpent with the Moon-god, perhaps for its power to rejuvenate itself.

Circular motion, compounding itself into spirals, helixes, and vortices, is the builder of worlds, bringing together the scattered elements of chaos; motion per se is essential cosmic intelligence. This circular motion, returning upon itself like a serpent swallowing its tail, represents the cycles of time. This conscious energy in spirals whirls through all the planes of cosmos as fohat and his innumerable sons -- the cosmic energies and forces, fundamentally intelligent, operating in every scale or grade of matter. The caduceus of Hermes, twin serpents wound about a staff, represents cosmically the mighty drama of evolution, in its twin aspects, the staff or tree standing for the structural aspect, the serpent for the fohatic forces that animate the structure. (vortex)

Hermes, Mercury, intelligence, may represent a sage or a thief; the serpentine wisdom. The perverse will of man may turn natural forces to evil purposes, and thus we speak of the good serpent and the bad, of Agathodaemon and Kakodaemon, of Ophis and Ophiomorphos. A serpent can be a sage or a sorcerer.

The dragon is the eternally vigilant one, guardian of the sacred treasures; but he is the ruthless destroyer of him who attempts to gain by force the riches to which he has not won a title. To gain knowledge, we must know how to tame the serpent which rules the nether worlds, as the Christ refuses to make obeisance to Satan.

See Oannes for some links

SHAMASH

(Akkadian), Sumerian (Utu) Hebrew Shemesh, in Mesopotamian religion, the god of the sun, who, with the moon god, Sin (Sumerian: Nanna), and Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna), the goddess of Venus, was part of an astral triad of divinities. Shamash was the son of Sin and Ningal.

The wandering planets of Enoch

SHULGI

Shulgi, the son of Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, is one of the more renowned kings of Sumer, whose reign endured for almost half a century. He was military commander, temple builder, patron of the arts and athlete

Shulgi, too, called himself king of the four quarters of the earth. Although he resided in Ur, another important centre was in Nippur, whence--according to the prevailing ideology-- Enlil, the chief god in the Sumerian state pantheon, had bestowed on Shulgi the royal dignity. Shulgi and his successors enjoyed divine honours, as Naram-Sin of Akkad had before them; by now, however, the process of deification had taken on clearer outlines in that sacrifices were offered and chapels built to the king and his throne, while the royal determinative turned up in personal names. Along with an Utu-hegal ("The Sun God Is Exuberance") there appears a Shulgi-hegal ("Shulgi Is Exuberance"),

SHULPAE

Major Sumerian god with demonic and many other powers. Consort of Ninhursag. Identified with planet Jupiter. Husband of Ninhursag, and among their children were the sons Mululil and Ashshirgi and the daughter Egime. Mululil seems to have been a dying god, like Dumuzi, whose death was lamented in yearly rites.

SHURUPPAK

In Sumerian legend as the place of the flood, which destroyed all humanity except one survivor, Ziusudra. He had been commanded by a protecting god to build an ark, in which he rode out the disaster, afterward re-creating man and living things upon the earth, and was himself endowed with eternal life. Ziusudra corresponds with Utnapishtim in the Gilgamesh epic and with the biblical Noah.

SIDURI

In the Gilgamesh epic, the aging folk hero, haunted by the prospect of his own death, sets off to visit Utnapishtim, who, with his wife alone became immortal. He meets Siduri, the wine maiden, who exhorts him to make the most of the present for "the life which thou seekest thou wilt not find." There was no judgment after death just appalling grimness, unrelieved by any hope of salvation through human effort or divine compassion. The dead were, in fact, among the most dreaded beings in early Mesopotamian demonology. In a myth called "The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld," the fertility goddess decides to visit kur-nu-gi-a ("the land of no return"), where the dead "live in darkness, eat clay, and are clothed like birds with wings."

SIN

Moon God. Born of Enlil and Ninlil. S=Nanna.

(Akkadian), Sumerian Nanna [worshipped at Ur], in Mesopotamian religion, the god of the moon. Sin was the father of the sun god, Shamash (Sumerian: Utu), and, in some myths, of Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna), goddess of Venus, and with them formed an astral triad of deities.

His consort, Ningal, was a reed goddess. Each spring, Nanna's worshipers reenacted his mythological visit to his father, Enlil, at  Nippur with a ritual journey, carrying with them the first dairy products of the year.

SINUHE

Middle Kingdom Egyptian official of the 12th dynasty (1938-1756 BC) who fled Egypt to settle in Syria. His biography yields information about political and social conditions of the time.

Sinuhe was an official of the harem maintained for Amenemhet I by his queen. While on an expedition to Libya he learned of the king's assassination (1908 BC) and fled, either from fright or because of his complicity. He intended to travel southward but was blown to the north while crossing the Nile, and he passed into Palestine. After much wandering in Palestine and Lebanon, he was invited to settle with a chieftain of southern Syria, who adopted him and married him to his eldest daughter. In that land Sinuhe raised a family and became a veritable patriarch.

The pharaoh Sesostris I invited Sinuhe to return to Egypt, and Sinuhe eagerly accepted. T

SIPPAR

TAMMUZ () get bible ezekiel 8:14

Akkadian Dumuzi, god of fertility embodying the powers for new life in nature in the spring. The name Tammuz seems to have been derived from the Akkadian form Tammuzi, based on early Sumerian Damuzid, The Flawless Young. The later standard Sumerian form, Dumu-zid, in turn became Dumuzi in Akkadian. The earliest known mention of Tammuz is in texts dating to the early part of the Early Dynastic III period (c. 2600-c. 2334 BC), but his cult probably was much older.

His father Enki is rarely mentioned, and his mother, the goddess Duttur, was a personification of the ewe.

The cult of Tammuz centred around two yearly festivals, one celebrating his marriage to the goddess Inanna, the other lamenting his death at the hands of demons from the netherworld. During the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-c. 2004 BC) in the city of Umma (modern Tell Jokha), the marriage of the god was dramatically celebrated in February-March, Umma's Month of the Festival of Tammuz. During the Isin-Larsa period (c. 2004-c. 1792 BC), the texts relate that in the marriage rite the king actuallytook on the identity of the god and thus, by consummating the marriage with a priestess incarnating the goddess, magically fertilized and fecundated all of nature for the year.

TAMMUZ Tamaz (Dumuzi) [tä´muz]

The Jews took over the name of the deity and in the Old Testament we find: "Behold there sat women weeping for Tammuz" (Ezek 8:14) -- in Hebrew tammuz. "The women of Israel held annual lamentations over Adonis (that beautiful youth being identical with Tammuz).

The feast held in his honour was solstitial, and began with the new moon, in the month of Tammuz (July), taking place chiefly at Byblos in Phoenicia; but it was also celebrated as late as the fourth century of our era at Bethlehem, . . . Indeed, in the Mysteries of Tammuz or Adonis a whole week was spent in lamentations and mourning. The funereal processions were succeeded by a fast, and later by rejoicings; for after the fast Adoni-Tammuz was regarded as raised from the dead, and wild orgies of joy, of eating and drinking, as now in Easter week, went on uninterruptedly for several days"

All the great ancient initiations comprised a purification or preparation (katharsis) (BM), a trance followed by a dying, and a later resurrection of the initiant or neophyte as a fully born initiate, adept, or new man.

THE CULT OF TAMMUZ

Centred around two yearly festivals, one celebrating his marriage to the goddess Inanna, the other lamenting his death at the hands of demons from the netherworld. During the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-c. 2004 BC) in the city of Umma (modern Tell Jokha), the marriage of the god was dramatically celebrated in February-March, Umma's Month of the Festival of Tammuz.

Modern, musical rituals to move the "worshippers into the presence of the gods" have their bitter roots in ancient pagan rituals. For instance, when the king was married he took on the identity of the god. When the marriage was consumated with a priestesses who was a goddess-incarnate, the entire kingdom was impregnated with fertility for the year.

This ritual was celebrated by the women in the Jerusalem while the males held their early sun-rise ceremonies bowing to the east. (Ezekiel 8)

TIAMAT

(also pronounced Tiwawat and Tamtu, probably pronounced Tethys in Ionian Greek; also known as Ayabba chiefly in West Semitic.): "Sea", salt water personified as a primeval goddess. Mother of the first generation of gods in the Enuma. Spouse of Absu. Epitomizes chaos. She is the mother of Lahmu, Lahamu, Anshar, and Kish.

This is the main goddess of the Primordial Waters, the origonal holder of the Tablets of Destiny, and she symbolised the Salt waters of the Persian Gulf. She was defeated by Marduk. Note: Tiamat, as a god-form, does still exist. She can be likened to the Abyss itself (like Asag of Summeria).

She is the universe's wish to return to Chaos Tismat (Chaldean) Chaldean serpent, slain by Bel, the chief deity. The tale is repeated in the later Babylonian account, with the exception that Marduk or Merodach (producer of the world) replaces Bel. The mythologic serpent, described as the imbodiment of evil both physical and moral, was enormous (300 miles long), it moved in undulations 6 miles in height. When Marduk finally slew Tiamat he split the monster into two halves, using one as a covering of the heavens, so that the upper waters would not come down. Tiamat is cognate with the Babylonian tiamtu, tamtu, "the ocean," rendered Thalatth by Berosus in his Chaldean cosmogony. There is here likewise the reference to the waters of wisdom, the divine wisdom and the lower wisdom of manifestation. Marduk then took Qingu, Tiamat's commander, spilled his blood and made mankind

TOBIT

TOWER OF BABEL (babel, gate of God),

In biblical literature, structure built in the land of Shinar (Babylonia) some time after the Deluge. The story of its construction, given in Genesis 11:1-9, appears to be an attempt to explain the existence of diverse human languages. According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and a tower "with its top in the heavens." God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another. The city was never completed, and the people were dispersed over the face of the earth. In Babylonianit was called Bab-ilu ("Gate of God"), Hebrew form Babel, or Bavel. The similarity in pronunciation of Babel and balal ("to confuse") led to the play on words in Genesis 11:9: "Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth."

UMMANU

The Seven Sages, who wrote the great epic poems such as those of Erra and Gilgamesh. "Ammenon, another of the forms into which Enmenluanna was corrupted, is in Akkadian ummanu, 'artificer,' 'artisan,' which, when translated into Hebrew, becomes Kenan and in an abbreviated form, Cain." (George Barton). In the Apocalyptic literature Jubal, Jabal, Tubal-Cain and Naamah are all summed up under the name Genun.

Pilikam, [Sumerian "with intelligence to build."] In Babylonian Semitic it would be literally Ina-uzni-eresu, or, ummanu, "artificer." The Hebrew translation of this is Kenan, which means "artificer." Melamkish gives us the Hebrew Lamech by the simple elision of the first and last consonants. Langdon makes the suggestion that Lamech is the Sumerian, LUMHA, an epithet of the Babylonian god Ea as the patron of music. (Barton, George, Archaeology and the Bible, p. 323)

No. 4 on the list, Ammenon is the Babylonian Ummanu, meaning "artificer," and is the equivalent of Kenan (Cainan) which means "smith."  Constance

[Genun is "Jubal" in the musical sense and Kenan in the "smith" sense]

UNDERWORLD

Known as "The Earth, Ersetum (Hebrew Erech) The Stronghold Daninna Arali Kutha (city where Nergal was patron god) Meslam (Nergal's temple in Kutha) The Lower Regions saplatu The Great Place kigallu, gingal The Land of No Return Kurnugi The Great City Erkalla Great gate called Ganzir, palace Egalgina. Ruled by Ereshkigal and by Nergal. recorder: Belet-Seri. Judges: The Anunnaki gods, and Gilgamesh.

Unug?

UR

City port on the Euphrates near the Arabian gulf. Patron god: Sin. Temple E-kishnugal, holy sea of the royal Entu-priestess. Ur 'ur (Chaldean?) Light, city of light; a town famous in ancient times as one of the chief seats of lunar worship in Babylonia, being an important center of the worship of the masculine god of the moon. Among the Chaldeans 'ur khasdim (Ur of the Chaldeans). See Lucifer

The meaning of city of light is not merely that it was a town which revered the light of the moon, but refers to ceremonials of occult instruction and initiation which evidently were conducted in this ancient place. Ur is supposed to be the capital of the Sumerian civilization, situated on the south bank of the Euphrates near the Persian Gulf. More than 5,000 years ago it had reached a highly advanced cultural and commercial prominence.

UTU-HEGAL, Utu-Hegal (Utu-khegal)

The 3rd dynasty of Ur: Utu-hegal of Uruk is given credit for having overthrown Gutian rule by vanquishing their king Tiriqan along with two generals. Utu-hegal calls himself lord of the four quarters of the earth in an inscription, but this title, adopted from Akkad, is more likely to signify political aspiration than actual rule. Utu-hegal was a brother of the Ur-Nammu who founded the 3rd dynasty of Ur ("3rd" because it is the third time that Ur is listed in the Sumerian king list). Under Ur-Nammu and his successors Shulgi, Amar-Su'ena, Shu-Sin, and Ibbi-Sin, this dynasty lasted for a century (c. 2112-c. 2004). Ur-Nammu was at first "governor" of the city of Ur under Utu-hegal.

UR-NAMMU [ur-näm´OO] From Infoplease

2060 B.C., king of the ancient city of Ur, sometimes called Zur-Nammu or Ur-Engur. He founded a new Sumerian dynasty, the third dynasty of Ur, that lasted a century. Ur-Nammu was the promulgator of the oldest code of law yet known, older by about three centuries than the code of Hammurabi. It consists of a prologue and seven laws; the prologue describes Ur-Nammu as a divinely appointed king who established justice throughout the land. This code is of great importance to the study of biblical law, which it predates by about five centuries. The two most famous monuments of Ur-Nammu's reign are the great ziggurat (temple) at Ur and his stele, of which fragments remain.

URUK

UTNAPISHTIM

The Babylonian Noah, the name means "he found life" i.e. became immortal. He is the hero of the great flood in the epic of Gilgamesh. He was the son of Ubaratutuof Shuruppak. He was warned by Ea to build a boat to escape the flood. He saved his wealth as well as his animals. Ea advised Enlil that he could control the population better with wild animals, famine and plages. As a result, Enlil makes Utnapishtim immortal.

In the ancient Middle Eastern worldview, gods could become mortal, and men could become gods. Utnapishtim, the hero of the Babylonian Flood story, was deified together with his wife by the fiat of the great god Enlil: "Hitherto Utnapishtim has been but human; henceforth Utnapishtim and his wife shall be like us gods" (Gilgamesh epic). In the Hebrew Bible, God so loved Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) that he carried them to heaven as immortals.

UTTU

Sumerian goddess of the earth and plants, daughter of Enki, and Ninkurra. Enki wanted to marry her, and Uttu demanded a present of cucumbers, apples and grapes. Enki created the desired fruits, then ate them, as he was a god of both creation and destruction.

UTU see ShamashThe Sumerian sun-god, created by Enlil and Ninlil.

Nergal was the underworld personification of the sun-god Utu, more specifically relating to the dark winter months when the sun was thought to have descended to the great below. As a result, Nergal represented the more negative aspects of the solar deity: pestilence, famine, disease. These traits gave rise to an outwardly marshal character: a warrior god whose wrath at time appears indiscriminate (see, for example "Erra and Ishum"). Born of Enlil and Ninlil, he was usually regarded as the husband of the underworld goddess Ereskigal Among his symbology is the scimitar, and the single or double-headed lion-sceptre. His main cult center was the temple

Utu was the Sumerian sun-god, who rose each morning from the 'interior of heaven,' and crossed the sky before finally reentering through the bolts in the west. He represents the brilliant light of the sun, which returns each day to illuminate the life of mankind, as well as giving beneficial warmth, allowing the growth of plant and animal life. He was regarded as a god of truth, justice, and right. Together with the storm-god Adad, he was often invoked in extispacy rituals. He was the son of Nanna, the moon-god, and twin brother of the goddess Inanna. His main cult center was at Larsa, in temple E-Babbar (White House). His symbol was the pruning-saw.

Remember that Inanna got Enki drunk and took the MES which included the secret uses of music. From her Utu got the secret and became the "the god of music and song" and the inventor of the flute and the lyre.

UTU-HEJAL

Utu-hegal of Uruk is given credit for having overthrown Gutian rule by vanquishing their king Tiriqan along with two generals. Utu-hegal calls himself lord of the four quarters of the earth in an inscription, but this title, adopted from Akkad, is more likely to signify political aspiration than actual rule. Utu-hegal was a brother of the Ur-Nammu

YAH

Yaho 'yahu, yeho (Hebrew) Yah is an abbreviation of Jehovah, but equally well Jehovah could be said to be merely an enlargement of the original form Yah. The Zohar says that the 'Elohim used this word to form the world.

"To screen the real mystery name of ain-soph -- the Boundless and Endless No-Thing -- the Kabalists have brought forward the compound attribute-appellation of one of the personal creative Elohim, whose name was Yah and Jah, the letters i or j or y being interchangeable, or Jah-Hovah, i.e., male and female; Jah-Eve an hermaphrodite, or the first form of humanity, the original Adam of Earth, not even Adam-Kadmon, whose 'mind-born son' is the earthly Jah-Hovah, mystically. And knowing this, the crafty Rabbin-Kabalist has made of it a name so secret, that he could not divulge it later on without exposing the whole scheme; and thus he was obliged to make it sacred" (Theosophy on the Ancient Near East)

ZARPANIT

Marduk's chief temples at Babylon were the Esagila and the Etemenanki, a ziggurat with a shrine of Marduk on the top. In Esagila the poem Enuma elish was recited every year at the New Year festival. The goddess named most often as the consort of Marduk was Zarpanit, or Zarbanit (She of the City Zarpan). (See Akitu.)

ZIGGURAT

pyramidal, stepped temple tower that is an architectural and religious structure characteristic of the major cities of Mesopotamia (now in Iraq) from about 2200 until 500 BC. The ziggurat was always built with a core of mud brick and an exterior covered with baked brick. The word ziggurat comes from the Babylonian "zaquru" and means "to be high or raised up.

ZISUTRA

Sumerian Priest-King of the great flood. See Atrahasis.

ZIUSUDRA (Sumerian)

Role in eridue Genesis Shuruppak was celebrated in Sumerian legend as the scene of the Deluge, which destroyed all humanity except one survivor, Ziusudra. He had been commanded by a protecting god to build an ark, in which he rode out the disaster, afterward re-creating man and living things upon the earth, and was himself endowed with eternal life. Ziusudra corresponds with Utnapishtim in the Gilgamesh epic and with the biblical Noah.

ZU (Imdugud)

This is probably the earliest dragon legend - from about 7000 years ago. In Babylonian mythology, a bird-god who was an enemy of the gods. One day Zu stole the tablets of destiny. The gods were dismayed because no one was prepared to recover these vital records of the future. Finally, King Lugalbanda, father of Gilgamesh, as able to retrieve the tablets after slaying Zu. In Assyrian myths it is Marduk who crushed Zu's skull. In another myth it seems that it was Ninurta who overcame Zu. Perhaps Zu was the ancestral bull.