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Anshar
Anshar, also spelled Anšar ( Sumerian: , Neo-Assyrian: , meaning "whole heaven"), was a primordial god in the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish. His consort is Kishar which means "Whole Earth". They were the children of Lahamu and Lahmu and the grandchildren of Tiamat and Apsû. They, in turn, are the parents of Anu , image=Detail, upper part, Kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125-1104 BCE. British Museum.jpg , caption=Symbols of various deities, including Anu (bottom right corner) on a kudurru of Ritti-Marduk, from Sippar, Iraq, 1125–1104 BCE , ..., the god of heaven, lord of constellations, king of gods, spirits and demons. During the Neo-Assyrian period, Anshar was often equated with Ashur, the patron deity and namesake of the Assyrian Empire. References External linksAncient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Anšar and Kišar (god and goddess) Mesopotamian gods Characters in the Enūma Eliš Sky and weather gods {{Semitic-lang-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesopotamian Gods
Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substance which "covered them in terrifying splendor" and which could also be worn by heroes, kings, giants, and even demons. The effect that seeing a deity's ''melam'' has on a human is described as ''ni'', a word for the " physical creeping of the flesh". Both the Sumerian and Akkadian languages contain many words to express the sensation of ''ni'', including the word ''puluhtu'', meaning "fear". Deities were almost always depicted wearing horned caps, consisting of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns. They were also sometimes depicted wearing clothes with elaborate decorative gold and silver ornaments sewn into them. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven, but that a god's statue was a physical embodime ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ashur (god)
Ashur, Ashshur, also spelled Ašur, Aššur ( Sumerian: AN.ŠAR₂, Assyrian cuneiform: , also phonetically ) is a god of the ancient Assyrians and Akkadians, and the head of the Assyrian pantheon in Mesopotamian religion, who was worshipped mainly in northern Mesopotamia, and parts of north-east Syria and south-east Asia Minor which constituted old Assyria. He may have had a solar iconography. Legend Aššur was a deified form of the city of Assur, which dates from the mid 3rd millennium BC and was the capital of the Old Assyrian kingdom. As such, Ashur did not originally have a family, but as the cult came under southern Mesopotamian influence, he later came to be regarded as the Assyrian equivalent of Enlil, the chief god of Nippur. Enlil was the most important god of the southern pantheon from the early 3rd millennium BC until Hammurabi founded an empire based in Babylon in the mid-18th century BC, after which Marduk replaced Enlil as the chief god in the south. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rassam Cylinder
The Rassam cylinder is a cuneiform cylinder, forming a prism with ten faces, written by Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in the 7th century BCE, in 643 BCE. The cylinder was discovered in the North Palace of Nineveh by Hormuzd Rassam in 1854, hence its name. It is located in the British Museum. Content The cylinder describes in detail nine military campaigns of Ashurpanipal. The content of the cylinder has been listed as follows: Extracts One of these is his Assyrian conquest of Egypt, victorious campaign in Egypt: :File:Assyrian siege of an Egyptian fort, probably a scene from the war in 667 BCE. Sculpted in 645 – 635 BCE under Ashurbanipal.jpg, Some reliefs from Nineveh are otherwise known that illustrate these campaigns. A full translation of the cylinder was made by Daniel David Luckenbill, Luckenbill in ''Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia''. A full transcription of the cuneiform is available on Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, CDLI. File:Rassam cylinder ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kishar
In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, Kishar ( akk, 𒆠𒊹, Kišar) is the daughter of Lahamu and Lahmu, the first children of Tiamat and Abzu. She is the female principle, sister and wife of Anshar, the male principle, and the mother of Anu. Kishar may represent the earth as a counterpart to Anshar, the sky,Black, Jeremy and Anthony Green, 1992. ''Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary.'' London: British Museum Press. p. 34. and can be seen as an earth mother goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes .... Her name also means "Whole Earth". Kishar appears only once in Enuma Elish, in the opening lines of the epic, and then disappears from the remainder of the story. She appears only occasionally in other first millennium BCE text ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lahmu
Laḫmu ( or , ) is a class of apotropaic creatures from Mesopotamian mythology. While the name has its origin in a Semitic language, Lahmu was present in Sumerian sources in pre- Sargonic times already. Iconography and character Laḫmu is depicted as a bearded man wearing a red garment (''tillû'') and usually with six curls on his head. Some texts mention a spade as the attribute of Lahmu. The artistic representations are sometimes called "naked hero" in literature. Lahmu were associated with water. They were generally believed to be servants of Enki/Ea (and later on of his son Marduk as well), and were described as the doorkeepers of his temple in Eridu and possibly as the "guardians of the sea" known from some versions of Atra-hasis. Some texts list as many as 50 Lahmu in such roles. It's possible they were originally river spirits believed to take care of animals, both domestic and wild. Apotropaic creatures such as Lahmu weren't regarded as demonic, and in fact ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lahamu
Lahamu () was a minor figure in some variants of Mesopotamian cosmology, the feminine counterpart of Lahmu. In some god lists she was one of the ancestors of Anu. In Enuma Elish she is the first-born daughter of Tiamat and Abzu. With her brother Lahmu she is the mother of Anshar and Kishar In the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, Kishar ( akk, 𒆠𒊹, Kišar) is the daughter of Lahamu and Lahmu, the first children of Tiamat and Abzu. She is the female principle, sister and wife of Anshar, the male principle, and the mother of Anu. Ki ..., who were in turn parents of the first gods. 19th and early 20th century researchers incorrectly viewed both Lahmu and Lahamu as the representations of the zodiac, parent-stars, or constellations. References Sources * Michael Jordan, ''Encyclopedia of Gods'', Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002 Mesopotamian goddesses Offspring of Tiamat Characters in the Enūma Eliš {{MEast-myth-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tiamat
In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( akk, or , grc, Θαλάττη, Thaláttē) is a primordial goddess of the sea, mating with Abzû, the god of the groundwater, to produce younger gods. She is the symbol of the chaos of primordial creation. She is referred to as a woman and described as "the glistening one". It is suggested that there are two parts to the Tiamat mythos. In the first, she is a creator goddess, through a sacred marriage between different waters, peacefully creating the cosmos through successive generations. In the second Chaoskampf Tiamat is considered the monstrous embodiment of primordial chaos. Some sources identify her with images of a sea serpent or dragon. In the '' Enûma Elish'', the Babylonian epic of creation, Tiamat bears the first generation of deities; her husband, Apsu, correctly assuming that they are planning to kill him and usurp his throne, later makes war upon them and is killed. Enraged, she also wars upon her husband's murderers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assur
Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Middle Assyrian Empire (1363–912 BC), and for a time, of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC). The remains of the city lie on the western bank of the Tigris River, north of the confluence with its tributary, the Little Zab, in what is now Iraq, more precisely in the al-Shirqat District of the Saladin Governorate. Occupation of the city itself continued for approximately 4,000 years, from the Early Dynastic Period to the mid-14th century AD, when the forces of Timur massacred its predominately Christian population. The site is a World Heritage Site, having been added to that organisation's list of sites in danger in 2003 following the conflict that er ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neo-Assyrian Empire
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East throughout much of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, becoming the largest empire in history up to that point. Because of its geopolitical dominance and ideology based in world domination, the Neo-Assyrian Empire is by many researchers regarded to have been the first world empire in history. At its height, the empire was the strongest military power in the world and ruled over all of Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt, as well as portions of Anatolia, Arabia and modern-day Iran and Armenia. The early Neo-Assyrian kings were chiefly concerned with restoring Assyrian control over much of northern Mesopotamia and Syria, since significant portions of the preceding Middle Assyrian Empire had been lost during a lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neo-Assyrian Period
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East throughout much of the 8th and 7th centuries BC, becoming the largest empire in history up to that point. Because of its geopolitical dominance and ideology based in world domination, the Neo-Assyrian Empire is by many researchers regarded to have been the first world empire in history. At its height, the empire was the strongest military power in the world and ruled over all of Mesopotamia, the Levant and Egypt, as well as portions of Anatolia, Arabia and modern-day Iran and Armenia. The early Neo-Assyrian kings were chiefly concerned with restoring Assyrian control over much of northern Mesopotamia and Syria, since significant portions of the preceding Middle Assyrian Empire had been lost during a long ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apsû
The Abzu or Apsu ( Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: — ='water' ='deep', recorded in Greek as ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Lakes, springs, rivers, wells, and other sources of fresh water were thought to draw their water from the abzu. In Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, it is referred to as the primeval sea below the void space of the underworld ( Kur) and the earth ( Ma) above. In Sumerian culture In the city of Eridu, Enki's temple was known as E2-abzu (house of the deep waters) and was located at the edge of a swamp, an abzu. Certain tanks of holy water in Babylonian and Assyrian temple courtyards were also called abzu (''apsû''). Typical in religious washing, these tanks were similar to Judaism's mikvot, the washing pools of Islamic mosques, or the baptismal font in Christian churches. In Sumerian cosmo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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