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Atrahasis
''Atra-Hasis'' () is an 18th-century BC Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets and named for one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-Hasis ('exceedingly wise'). The narrative has four focal points: An organisation of allied gods shaping Mesopotamia agriculturally; a political conflict between them, pacified by creating the first human couples; the mass reproduction of these humans; and a great deluge, as has been handed down many times in the different flood myths of mankind. Perhaps the relic of a natural catastrophe in Mesopotamia caused by rising sea level at the end of the last glacial period, the epic links this flood with the intention of the upper gods to eliminate their artificial creatures. The name "Atra-Hasis" also appears, as a king of Shuruppak on the Euphrates in the times before that flood, on one of the ''Sumerian King Lists''. The oldest known copy of the epic tradition concerning AtrahasisThe variant versions are not direct translations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enki
Enki ( ) is the Sumerian god of water, knowledge ('' gestú''), crafts (''gašam''), and creation (''nudimmud''), and one of the Anunnaki. He was later known as Ea () or Ae p. 324, note 27. in Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) religion, and is identified by some scholars with Ia in Canaanite religion. The name was rendered Aos within Greek sources (e.g. Damascius). He was originally the patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites and Hurrians. He was associated with the southern band of constellations called ''stars of Ea'', but also with the constellation AŠ-IKU, ''the Field'' ( Square of Pegasus). Beginning around the second millennium BCE, he was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for "40", occasionally referred to as his "sacred number". The planet Mercury, associated with Babylonian '' Nabu'' (the son of Marduk) was, in Sumerian times, identified with En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Igigi
Igigi are the mythological figures of heaven in the mythology of Mesopotamia. Though sometimes synonymous with the term "Anunnaki", in the Atrahasis myth the Igigi were the younger beings who were servants of the Annunaki, until they rebelled and were replaced by the creation of humans. Etymology The name has unknown origin. It was originally spelt i-gi4-gi4, but was later also written as í-gì-gì. This latter may have been a play on words, as in Sumerian, the combination can be interpreted as numerals adding to 7 (the number of Great Gods), or multiplying to 600 (which in some traditions was the total number of gods). ''Atrahasis'' Akkadian Paradise is described as a garden in the myth of ''Atrahasis'' where lower rank deities (the Igigi) are put to work digging a watercourse by the more senior deities (the Anunnaki). :When the gods, man-like, :Bore the labour, carried the load, :The gods' load was great, :The toil grievous, the trouble excessive. :The great Anunnaku, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Millard
Alan Ralph Millard (1 December 1937 – 6 June 2024) was a British orientalist who was Rankin Professor of Hebrew and Ancient Semitic languages, and Honorary Senior Fellow (Ancient Near East), at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology (SACE) in the University of Liverpool. Millard worked on excavations at Tell Nebi Mend (ancient Qadesh-on-the-Orontes) and Tell Rif'at (ancient Arpad) in Syria, at Petra in Jordan, and at the Assyrian capital Nimrud (ancient Kalḫu) in Iraq. While working at the British Museum 1961–1964, he rediscovered the Epic of Atrahasis, which had lain unrecognised in a drawer for some decades. From 1964 to 1970 he was Librarian at Tyndale House, Cambridge, and taught Akkadian for a year at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London. In 1970 he was appointed Rankin Lecturer in Hebrew and Ancient Semitic Languages at the University of Liverpool. He was a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shuruppak
Shuruppak ( , SU.KUR.RUki, "the healing place"), modern Tell Fara, was an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 kilometres (35 mi) south of Nippur and 30 kilometers north of ancient Uruk on the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq's Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate. Shuruppak was dedicated to Ninlil, also called Sud, the goddess of grain and the air. The Early Dynastic IIIa period is also sometimes called the Fara period. Not to be confused with the Levantine archaeological site Tell el-Far'ah (South). "Shuruppak" is sometimes also the name of a king of the city, legendary survivor of Flood story, the Flood, and supposed author of the Instructions of Shuruppak". History Jemdet Nasr period The earliest excavated levels at Shuruppak date to the Jemdet Nasr period about 3000 BC. Several objects made of arsenical copper were found in Shuruppak/Fara dating to the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 2900 BC). Similar objects were also found at Tepe Gawra (levels XII-VIII). Early Dynastic II The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akkadian Language
Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218–280 was an East Semitic language that is attested in ancient Mesopotamia ( Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa, Babylonia and perhaps Dilmun) from the mid- third millennium BC until its gradual replacement in common use by Old Aramaic among Assyrians and Babylonians from the 8th century BC. Akkadian, which is the earliest documented Semitic language, is named after the city of Akkad, a major centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire (–2154 BC). It was written using the cuneiform script, originally used for Sumerian, but also used to write multiple languages in the region including Eblaite, Hurrian, Elamite, Old Persian and Hittite. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian went beyond just the cuneiform script; owing to their close proximity, a lengthy span of con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akkadian Literature
Akkadian literature is the ancient literature written in the East Semitic languages, East Semitic Akkadian language (Assyrian people, Assyrian and Babylonian language, Babylonian dialects) in Mesopotamia (Akkadian Empire, Akkadian, Assyria and Babylonia) during the period spanning the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age (roughly the 25th to 4th centuries BC). Drawing on the traditions of Sumerian literature, the Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians compiled a substantial textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, letters and other literary forms. Conversely, Akkadian also influenced Sumerian literature. Literature in Akkadian society Most of what we have from the Assyrians and Babylonians was inscribed in cuneiform (script), cuneiform with a metal stylus on tablets of clay, called ''laterculae coctiles'' by Pliny the Elder; papyrus seems to have also been utilised, but not been preserved. There were libraries in most towns and temples in Sumer, Akk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Zimmern
:''To be distinguished from Heinrich Zimmer (1890–1943) German Indologist, and Heinrich Zimmer (Celticist) (1851–1910)'' Heinrich Zimmern (14 July 1862, in Graben – 17 February 1931, in Leipzig) was a German Assyriologist. He was the first professor of Assyriology at Leipzig University, and considered the founder of the discipline of the history of the ancient Near Eastern religions in Germany. Academic career From 1881 to 1885 he studied theology and Semitic languages at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin, receiving his habilitation for Semitic languages in 1889 at the University of Königsberg. In 1894 he became an associate professor of Assyriology to the faculty of philosophy at Leipzig, where from 1900 to 1929 he served as a full professor. Professorenkat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hades
Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea (mythology), Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be Cronus#Mythology, regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titan (mythology) , Titans, and claimed joint rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth (long the province of Gaia (mythology) , Gaia) available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his cap of invisibility , helm with Cerberus, the Polycephaly, three-headed dogs in religion#Religions, myths, legends, and cultures, guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side. Roman-era mythographers eventually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zeus
Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea (mythology), Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe (mythology), Hebe, and Hephaestus.Hard 2004p. 79 At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione (Titaness/Oceanid), Dione, by whom the ''Iliad'' states that he fathered Aphrodite. According to the ''Theogony'', Zeus's first wife was Metis (mythology), Metis, by whom he had Athena.Hesiod, ''Theogony'886900 Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many divine and heroic offspring, including Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Burkert
Walter Burkert (; 2 February 1931 – 11 March 2015) was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult. A professor of classics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he taught in the UK and the US. He has influenced generations of students of religion since the 1960s, combining in the modern way the findings of archaeology and epigraphy with the work of poets, historians, and philosophers. He was a member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He published books on the balance between lore and science among the followers of Pythagoras, and more extensively on ritual and archaic cult survival, on the ritual killing at the heart of religion, on mystery religions, and on the reception in the Hellenic world of Near Eastern and Persian culture, which sets Greek religion in its wider Aegean and Near Eastern context. Personal life Burkert was born in Neuendettelsau. He married Maria Bosch in 1957 and they had three childr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anunnaki
The Anunnaki (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , also transcribed as Anunaki, Annunaki, Anunna, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of deity, deities of the ancient Sumerian religion, Sumerians, Akkadian Empire, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonian religion, Babylonians. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are deities in the Pantheon (religion), pantheon, descendants of Anu, An (the god of the heavens) and Ki (goddess), Ki (the goddess of earth), and their primary function was to Time and fate deities, decree the fates of humanity. Etymology The name ''Anunnaki'' is derived from Anu, An, the Sumerian god of the sky. The name is variously written "''determinative, d''a-nuna", "''d''a-nuna-ke4-ne", or "''d''a-nun-na", meaning "princely offspring" or "offspring of An". The Anunnaki were believed to be the offspring of Anu, An and the earth goddess Ki (goddess), Ki. Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enlil
Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadian Empire, Akkadians, Babylonian Empire, Babylonians, Assyrian Empire, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil's primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur, which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and was regarded as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir. According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even the other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur. His Cult (religious practice), cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC and he was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Baby ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
