Anunnaki
The Anunnaki (Sumerian: 𒀭𒀀𒉣𒈾, also transcribed as Anunaki, Annunaki, Anunna, Ananaki and other variations) are a group of deities of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians and Babylonians. In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, which come from the Post-Akkadian period, the Anunnaki are deities in the pantheon, descendants of An and Ki, the god of the heavens and the goddess of earth, and their primary function was to decree the fates of humanity. They should not be confused with the Apkallu.
Etymology
The name Anunnaki is derived from An,[1] the Sumerian god of the sky.[1] The name is variously written "da-nuna", "da-nuna-ke4-ne", or "da-nun-na", meaning "princely offspring" or "offspring of An".[2]
The Anunnaki were believed to be the offspring of An and his consort, the earth goddess Ki.[2] Samuel Noah Kramer identifies Ki with the Sumerian mother goddess Ninhursag, stating that they were originally the same figure.[3][4] The oldest of the Anunnaki was Enlil, the god of air[5] and chief god of the Sumerian pantheon.[6] The Sumerians believed that, until Enlil was born, heaven and earth were inseparable.[7] Then, Enlil split heaven and earth in two[7] and carried away the earth[8] while his father An carried away the sky.[8]
Worship and iconography
The Anunnaki are chiefly mentioned in literary texts[9] and very little evidence to support the existence of any cult of them has yet been unearthed.[9][10] This is likely because each member of the Anunnaki had his or her own individual cult, separate from the others.[11] Similarly, no representations of the Anunnaki as a complete group have yet been discovered,[11] although a few depictions of two or three individual members together have been identified.[11] Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic.[12] They were thought to possess extraordinary powers[12] and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size.[12] The deities typically wore melam, an ambiguous substance which "covered them in terrifying splendor".[13] Melam could also be worn by heroes, kings, giants, and even demons.[14] The effect that seeing a deity's melam has on a human is described as ni, a word for the physical tingling of the flesh.[15] Deities were almost always depicted wearing horned caps,[16][17] consisting of up to seven superimposed pairs of ox-horns.[18] They were also sometimes depicted wearing clothes with elaborate decorative gold and silver ornaments sewn into them.[17]
The ancient Mesopotamians believed that their deities lived in Heaven,[19] after an earlier history of visiting earth in the mythological texts, and that a god's statue was a physical embodiment of the god himself.[19][20] As such, cult statues were given constant care and attention[19][21] and a set of priests was assigned to tend to them.[22] These priests would clothe the statues[20] and place feasts before them so they could "eat".[19][21] A deity's temple was believed to be that deity's literal place of residence.[23] The gods had boats, full-sized barges which were normally stored inside their temples[24] and were used to transport their cult statues along waterways during various religious festivals.[24] The gods also had chariots, which were used for transporting their cult statues by land.[25] Sometimes a deity's cult statue would be transported to the location of a battle so that the deity could watch the battle unfold.[25] The major deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon, which included the Anunnaki, were believed to participate in the "assembly of the gods",[16] through which the gods made all of their decisions.[16] This assembly was seen as a divine counterpart to the semi-democratic legislative system that existed during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112 BC – c. 2004 BC).[16]
Mythology
Sumerian
The earliest known usages of the term Anunnaki come from inscriptions written during the reign of
Although certain deities are described as members of the Anunnaki, no complete list of the names of all the Anunnaki has survived[11] and they are usually only referred to as a cohesive group in literary texts.[9][11] Furthermore, Sumerian texts describe the Anunnaki inconsistently[11] and do not agree on how many Anunnaki there were, or what their divine function was.[9][11] Originally, the Anunnaki appear to have been heavenly deities with immense powers.[11] In the poem Enki and the World Order, the Anunnaki "do homage" to Enki, sing hymns of praise in his honor, and "take up their dwellings" among the people of Sumer.[9][29] The same composition twice states that the Anunnaki "decree the fates of mankind".[9]
Virtually every major deity in the Sumerian pantheon was regarded as the patron of a specific city
Major deities in Sumerian mythology were associated with specific celestial bodies.
Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian
Reverence begets favour, sacrifice prolongs life, and prayer atones for guilt. He who fears the gods is not slighted by [...] He who fears the Anunnaki extends [his days].
— Babylonian hymn[42]
Akkadian texts of the second millennium BC follow similar portrayals of the Anunnaki from Inanna's Descent into the Netherworld, depicting them as chthonic Underworld deities. In an abbreviated Akkadian version of Inanna's Descent written in the early second millennium, Ereshkigal, the queen of the Underworld, comments that she "drink[s] water with the Anunnaki".[43] Later in the same poem, Ereshkigal orders her servant Namtar to fetch the Anunnaki from Egalgina,[44] to "decorate the threshold steps with coral",[44] and to "seat them on golden thrones".[44]
During the
From the
In the standard Akkadian
In the Babylonian
A badly damaged text from the Neo-Assyrian Period (911 – 612 BC) describes Marduk leading his army of Anunnaki into the sacred city of Nippur and causing a disturbance.[52] The disturbance causes a flood,[52] which forces the resident gods of Nippur to take shelter in the Eshumesha temple to Ninurta.[52] Enlil is enraged at Marduk's transgression and orders the gods of Eshumesha to take Marduk and the other Anunnaki as prisoners.[52] The Anunnaki are captured,[52] but Marduk appoints his front-runner Mushteshirhablim to lead a revolt against the gods of Eshumesha[53] and sends his messenger Neretagmil to alert Nabu, the god of literacy.[53] When the Eshumesha gods hear Nabu speak, they come out of their temple to search for him.[54] Marduk defeats the Eshumesha gods and takes 360 of them as prisoners of war, including Enlil himself.[54] Enlil protests that the Eshumesha gods are innocent,[54] so Marduk puts them on trial before the Anunnaki.[54] The text ends with a warning from Damkianna (another name for Ninhursag) to the gods and to humanity, pleading them not to repeat the war between the Anunnaki and the gods of Eshumesha.[54]
Hurrian and Hittite
In the mythologies of the
Although the names of the Anunnaki in Hurrian and Hittite texts frequently vary,[57] they are always eight in number.[57] In one Hittite ritual, the names of the old gods are listed as: "Aduntarri the diviner, Zulki the dream interpretess, Irpitia Lord of the Earth, Narā, Namšarā, Minki, Amunki, and Āpi."[57] The old gods had no identifiable cult in the Hurrio-Hittite religion;[57] instead, the Hurrians and Hittites sought to communicate with the old gods through the ritual sacrifice of a piglet in a pit dug in the ground.[62] The old gods were often invoked to perform ritual purifications.[63]
The Hittite account of the old gods' banishment to the Underworld is closely related with the Greek poet
Pseudoarchaeology and conspiracy theories
Over a series of published books (starting with Chariots of the Gods? in 1968), pseudoarcheologist Erich von Däniken claimed that extraterrestrial "ancient astronauts" had visited a prehistoric Earth. Däniken explains the origins of religions as reactions to contact with an alien race, and offers interpretations of Sumerian texts and the Old Testament as evidence.[69][70][71]
In his 1976 book The Twelfth Planet, author
See also
- Ancient Mesopotamian religion
- Æsir
- Deva (Hinduism)
- Dingir
- Elohim
- Hutena
- Sumerian creation myth
- Tuatha Dé Danann
- Twelve Olympians
References
Citations
- ^ a b Leemings 2009, p. 21.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Black & Green 1992, p. 34.
- ^ Kramer 1961, p. 41.
- ^ Kramer 1963, p. 122.
- ^ Coleman & Davidson 2015, p. 108.
- ^ Kramer 1983, pp. 115–121.
- ^ a b Kramer 1961, pp. 72–73.
- ^ a b Kramer 1961, pp. 72–75.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Leick 1998, p. 8.
- ^ Falkenstein 1965, pp. 127–140.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Brisch 2016.
- ^ a b c Black & Green 1992, p. 93.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, pp. 93–94.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, pp. 130–131.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, p. 130.
- ^ a b c d Black & Green 1992, p. 98.
- ^ a b Nemet-Nejat 1998, p. 185.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, p. 102.
- ^ a b c d Black & Green 1992, p. 94.
- ^ a b Nemet-Nejat 1998, p. 186.
- ^ a b Nemet-Nejat 1998, pp. 186–187.
- ^ Nemet-Nejat 1998, pp. 186–188.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, p. 174.
- ^ a b Black & Green 1992, pp. 44–45.
- ^ a b Black & Green 1992, p. 52.
- ^ Katz 2003, p. 403.
- ^ Kramer 1963, p. 123.
- ^ Kramer 1963, pp. 122–123.
- ^ Kramer 1963, p. 180.
- ^ a b Nemet-Nejat 1998, p. 179.
- ^ Nemet-Nejat 1998, pp. 187–189.
- ^ Edzard 1965, pp. 17–140.
- ^ a b c Wolkstein & Kramer 1983, p. 60.
- ^ Nemet-Nejat 1998, pp. 201–203.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, pp. 108–109.
- ^ a b c Nemet-Nejat 1998, p. 203.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, pp. 182–184.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, p. 135.
- ^ Rogers 1998, p. 13.
- ^ Levenda 2008, p. 29.
- ^ Levenda 2008, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Leick 2003, p. 100.
- ^ Dalley 1989, p. 156.
- ^ a b c Dalley 1989, p. 159.
- ^ Black & Green 1992, p. 106.
- ^ a b Leick 1998, p. 85.
- ^ a b Leick 2003, p. 96.
- ^ Dalley 1989, pp. 112.
- ^ Dalley 1989, p. 113.
- ^ Pritchard 2010, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Pritchard 2010, pp. 34–35.
- ^ a b c d e Oshima 2010, p. 145.
- ^ a b Oshima 2010, pp. 145–146.
- ^ a b c d e Oshima 2010, p. 146.
- ^ Collins 2002, p. 228.
- ^ a b c d e Leick 1998, p. 141.
- ^ a b c d e f Collins 2002, p. 225.
- ^ a b Van Scott 1998, p. 187.
- ^ a b c Archi 1990, p. 114.
- ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 25–26.
- ^ a b Puhvel 1987, p. 26.
- ^ Collins 2002, pp. 225–226.
- ^ Collins 2002, pp. 226–227.
- ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 26–27.
- ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 27–29.
- ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 27–30.
- ^ Puhvel 1987, pp. 25–26, 29–30.
- ^ a b c d Fritze 2016, p. 292.
- ^ a b c d Robertson 2016.
- ^ Story 1976, pp. 3–8
- ^ a b Fritze 2009, p. 212.
- ^ a b c Fritze 2009, pp. 212–213.
- ^ a b Fritze 2009, p. 213.
- ^ Fritze 2009, pp. 213–214.
- ^ Fritze 2009, p. 214.
- ^ Lewis & Kahn 2005, p. 51.
- ^ Lewis & Kahn 2005, pp. 51–52.
- ^ Lewis & Kahn 2005, p. 69, footnote 6.
- ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 27 March 2021.
General and cited references
- Amin, Osama Shukir Muhammed (31 March 2014), "Copper alloy foundation figurines with pegs representing Gods", World History Encyclopedia
- Archi, Alfonso (1990), "The Names of the Primeval Gods", Orientalia, NOVA, 59 (2), Rome: Gregorian Biblical Press: 114–129, JSTOR 43075881
- Black, Jeremy; Green, Anthony (1992), Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary, London: The British Museum Press, ISBN 0-7141-1705-6
- Brisch, Nicole (2016), "Anunna (Anunnaku, Anunnaki) (a group of gods)", Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses, University of Pennsylvania Museum, archived from the original on 3 September 2019, retrieved 19 June 2013
- Coleman, J. A.; Davidson, George (2015), The Dictionary of Mythology: An A-Z of Themes, Legends, and Heroes, London: Arcturus Publishing Limited, p. 108, ISBN 978-1-78404-478-7
- Collins, Billie Jean (2002), "Necromancy, Fertility and the Dark Earth: The Use of Ritual Pits in Hittite Cult", in Mirecki, Paul; Meyer, Marvin (eds.), Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, pp. 224–233, ISBN 90-04-10406-2
- ISBN 0-19-283589-0
- Edzard, D. O. (1965), "Mesopotamien. Die Mythologie der Sumerer und Akkader", Wörterbuch der Mythologie, erste Abteilung, I (Götter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient): 17–140
- Falkenstein, A. (1965), "Die Anunna in der sumerischen Überlieferung", Assyriological Studies (16): 127–140
- ISBN 978-1-86189-430-4
- Fritze, Ronald H. (2016), Egyptomania: A History of Fascination, Obsession and Fantasy, London: Reaktion Books, ISBN 978-1-78023-639-1
- Katz, D. (2003), The Image of the Underworld in Sumerian Sources, Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, p. 403
- ISBN 0-8122-1047-6
- Kramer, Samuel Noah (1963), The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-45238-7
- Kramer, Samuel Noah (1983), "The Sumerian Deluge Myth: Reviewed and Revised", Anatolian Studies, 33, British Institute at Ankara: 115–121, S2CID 163489322
- Leemings, David (2009), The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, Oxford University Press, p. 21, ISBN 978-0-19-538708-7
- Leick, Gwendolyn (1998) [1991], A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology, New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-19811-9
- Leick, Gwendolyn (2003), The Babylonians: An Introduction, New York and London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-25315-2
- Levenda, Peter (2008), Stairway to Heaven: Chinese Alchemists, Jewish Kabbalists, and the Art of Spiritual Transformation, New York and London: Continuum International Publishing Group, Inc., ISBN 978-0-8264-2850-9
- Lewis, Tyson; Kahn, Richard (2005), "The Reptoid Hypothesis: Utopian and Dystopian Representational Motifs in David Icke's Alien Conspiracy Theory", Utopian Studies, 16 (1), Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press: 45–74, S2CID 143047194
- Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea (1998), Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia, Daily Life, Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, ISBN 978-0-313-29497-6
- Oshima, Takayoshi (2010), ""Damkianna Shall Not Bring Back Her Burden in the Future": A new Mythological Text of Marduk, Enlil and Damkianna", in Horowitz, Wayne; Gabbay, Uri; Vukosavokić, Filip (eds.), A Woman of Valor: Jerusalem Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Joan Goodnick Westenholz, vol. 8, Madrid: Biblioteca del Próximo Oriente Antiguo, ISBN 978-84-00-09133-0
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- Robertson, David G. (2016), Cox, James; Sutcliffe, Steven; Sweetman, William (eds.), UFOs, Conspiracy Theories and the New Age: Millennial Conspiracism, Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4742-5320-8
- Rogers, John H. (1998), "Origins of the Ancient Astronomical Constellations: I: The Mesopotamian Traditions", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 108 (1), London: The British Astronomical Association: 9–28, Bibcode:1998JBAA..108....9R
- Story, Ronald (1976). The Space-gods revealed. A close look at the theories of Erich von Däniken. Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-014141-7.
- Van Scott, Miriam (1998), The Encyclopedia of Hell: A Comprehensive Survey of the Underworld, New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Griffin, ISBN 0-312-18574-X
- Willis, Roy (2012), World Mythology, New York: Metro Books, p. 62, ISBN 978-1-4351-4173-5
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