APPENDIX 37:
RESEARCH PAGE FROM WEB SOURCES
Started in 2002

When I did my research for this book, there was virtually nothing on this subject on the Internet. Recently, I decided to see what was out there in cyberspace which is believable. I was startled, and I decided to add this page of parallel research for the reader to browse. There is still much out there which is serious work. You must be careful of both Muslim disinformation and occult and Anglo pagan nonsense. Otherwise, the Internet is being used to store and share some very useful material and evidences on the origins of Islam and the name of Allah.

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The following was taken off the Web, but we found a way to rescue it.
http://web.archive.org/web/20000824154532/saturn.sron.nl/~jheise/akkadian/mesopotamia.html

There is much more on the above page as long as it is still there to browse. You will see in the following discussion that Sin is a moon god, which is an exception to the rule of the moon being female. Sin is the god of Sinai, and if Allah is lunar, there is a distinct link then between Sin and Allah, and I refuse to help finish that discussion. Dr. Robert Morey has started this, and if the Mullahs are clever, they can make Jehovah into a moon deity along with Allah if they do some research. Of course, Morey and Neilson's logic must be followed, and the Mullahs will be laughed out of every university History Department in every university on earth. The Mullahs just may be smart enough to not follow Morey's lead. Allah is based on the LIL and IL and Enlil heritage, as in Al-Ilah. Sin has NO heritage in the LIL genealogy of ancient godheads. That is the crux of the problem with the moon god being male.

When I started my research long ago, none of this sort of research material was on the Web. It is being put up here now, and the truth will come forth, and I shall be vindicated. Praise God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Comment above by author: Steve Van Nattan

In reading the following research, you may note some controversy between writers. This is not necessarily because they are fools or just pushing their presuppositions. It is usually because the people from these past millennia did not always agree, and the god and goddess notions were not precisely the same from one location to the next. This is why it is so important to gather vast amounts of bibliographical evidences so that the prevailing patterns can be discerned. I have tried to do this, and this is why I find the moon god notions about Allah so repulsive, for they are the result of grabbing a couple of alleged evidences and interpretations, and running to press prematurely. I hope you enjoy the following material as a small sample of what is out there. Millions of clay tablets remain in the basement of the British Museum and in many universities around the world which have yet to be read and interpreted. What we do have gives a very good picture of what these ancient peoples believed.

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4. The Divine World

The Mesopotamian view on the supernatural is an inextricable mixture of Sumerian and Akkadian origin, influenced by an unknown substrate population. Most Sumerian literature is written by Akkadian speakers when Sumerian was an extinct language. The religious ideas evolved in time and since most texts are dated in the 2nd and 1st millennium, it is not always clear how 2nd millennium views represent 3rd millennium opinions.

The universe basically is seen as a stratification of two or three layers. Usually it consists of 'heaven' (Sumerian an, Akkadian amû) and 'earth' (Sumerian ki, Akkadian erSetum) or in other traditions as a tri-partition, either:
'heaven', 'earth' and 'Netherworld' or
'heaven', 'sky/atmosphere' and 'earth'.
The symbol for 'heaven' AN has evolved from a pictographic representation of a star. Heaven is thus the upper level of the universe, all that is 'high' or 'elevated', and apparently associated with the celestial sphere.

Deities.

Antropomorphic gods. The supernatural universe is populated with divine beings: gods and demons. They are portrayed in an antropomorphic way as superior humans, imaging the ruling class of society. They are, however, more powerful, freed from human miseries and mishaps and they live endless lifes. The Sumerian word for 'god' is dingir, Akkadian ilu. The sign to represent this, is the same as AN 'heaven', and also used as a determinative (classifier) attached to the name of the deity to indicate his/her divine nature. In transcription the sign is represented with a d from dingir in superscript, like ^dEnlil. It is not pronounced. Deities live in a temple, Sum. É, Akkadian bïtum, which is also the word for 'house'. In the temple they are represented by a sculpture. Some deities have in addition a representation on the celestial sphere by a constellation or a star. Gods have human appearance, they have a body, they need food, want to be washed and dressed, want to travel, carry weapons etc. Each god has a well defined character, representing the scala of human characters. They may be ill-tempered, aggressive, cheerful, clever, just, ambitious, skillful, merciful and graceful, etc. Some are better disposed to mankind than others.

Male and female gods. A god is either male or female. The Sumerian language does not have gender as noun class, so sometimes the gender is unknown of some older deities, or may change according to tradition. Gods can have all kinds of attitudes associated with gender. Their behaviour reflects the patriarchal society. They have spouses (Akkadian aatum, 'wife') and created offspring which in one tradition may be different from another, depending on which epic one reads. Often the family relationship are purposely altered to reflect a change in status of the god. A goddess may be a sister of a god in one tradition and be his spouse in another (later) tradition, it doesn't necessarily means that the god married his sister. Gods can have concubines, they can rape (even the supreme god Enlil raped the goddess who eventually became his wife Ninlil), they may seduce and sometimes dispose of their lovers in the most awful ways.

Epithets (< Gr. epithetos 'supplemented'). In the texts divine names (and royal names) are often accompanied by an expression giving a quality, attribute or a significant appelation, called epithet. Compare e.g. from other era 'Charles, the Bald', 'Louis, the Sun King', 'Achilles, the swift-footed', 'Jezus Christ' (< Gr. christos 'anointed'). A person may be referred to, using his epithet: 'Sun King' in stead of Louis XVI or 'Christ' in stead of Jezus. An epithet may thus become indistinguishable from an actual or original name. Names of many deities are used as epithet to other deities, thus adding the quality of the first to the latter. In the course of time they merge into one personality. It is often unknown whether a name used in an epithet originally referred to a separate deity.
Another, kind of inverse process, in which a quality becomes personalized as a deity, is called hypothasis (< Gr. hupostasis, hupo 'under'; litt.: 'what stands under'). This is in religious studies the term used for personalization (substantization). Qualities, properties and concepts are personalized, represented as persons who speak and take actions. Some deities are seen as the hypothasis of one of the qualities of another god. Some personalizations are ad hoc, not generally accepted and only seen in a particular epic for a particular purpose.

Epithets form a fixed connection with the personal name. When the god Enlil is mentioned for the first time in a text, one writes e.g. 'Enlil, Lord of heaven and earth' as his standard epithet, identifying him as the chief god. Deities have many epithets. The choice in a particular texts refers to the quality of the deity in relation to the subject of the text. E.g. ama is the Sun god, but in most texts his dominant quality is
ama bël dïnim 'lord of justice' (construct state of bëlum 'lord'; genitive of dïnum 'verdict', 'judgment').
He is also (together with Adad) god of the divination (as Sun god he is all-seeing, and also sees the future). In that quality he has the epithet
ama bël bïrim 'Lord of divination' (construct state of bëlum 'lord'; genitive of bïrum 'divination').

Syncretism in general is the synthesis of cultural elements. In the religious sphere it results in the equation, identification or unification of deities in the different cultures. This happens in all cultures with polytheism. One is with respect to religion very tolerant and recognize one's own deitie in the pantheon of other nations. To mention a simple example: Jupiter (Lat. Iuppiter), the Roman supreme god (probably himself taken from the Etruskians) is by syncretism identified with the Greek supreme god Zeus (in fact, the Romans took almost the entire Greek pantheon and mythology, but used Roman names). The Greeks themselves interpreted whenever possible an Eastern deity with an existing Greek deity. This particular form of syncretism is called with a Latin term interpretatio graeca. E.g. the Greeks identified the Akkadian supreme god Anu with the Greek supreme god Zeus. In a similar way there is an interpretatio hurritica of the Hittite pantheon etc.

In the Sumero-Semitic syncretism of the third millennium the process of identification (unification) of deities had already taken place before the majority of records were written. Numerous God Lists exist of the type an = Anum. So we are not well informed about the exact difference between these deities. The largest number of gods, however, have Sumerian names. Often syncretism is the result of political changes. Originally each city has its own pantheon but when dominated by another city analogous gods unify into one. The strongest personality absorbs the weaker ones, at most keeping their names and epithets (see e.g. the goddess Inanna/Ishtar). In this way the number of gods decreased considerably in the course of time.

Pantheon of Sumer and Shinar

Number of deities.

Organization; the chief deities Anum and Enlil. The organization of the divine world parallels the political organization of the society. There is a hierarchy, on top of which are Anum, god of Heaven (Sumerian an) and Enlil (Lord Atmosphere, god of the Sky). Anum and Enlil are both supreme gods, king of heaven and earth. In the divine world Kingship is shared, as appears both in pictures (on kudurru's, boundary stones mid 2nd millennium) and in the texts. In tables of deities Anum and Enlil are listed first in hierarchy, followed by Enki (Akkadian Ea), some name of the mother goddess and three astral gods Sîn (Moon), Shamash (Sun) and the goddess Ishtar (Venus).
In pictures Anum and Enlil carry 10 pair of horns, the same emblem for both of them, showing their equal (high) rank. In some texts (like in the prologue of the Codex Hammurabi) there appears a division of tasks, where Anum is 'King of the gods' and Enlil is 'Lord of heaven and earth'.

Assembly of the gods. The gods take their decisions in an assembly (TBW)

Igigi and Anunnaki

^d Anunnaki is a collective name for the gods of heaven and earth, and in other contexts only for the gods of the Netherworld, the empire of the death (in particular beginning in the second half of the second millennium). It is a loan word (plural only) from Sumerian a.nun.(n)a(k) 'semen/descendants of the (-ak) monarch (nun) and refers to the offspring of the King of Heaven An/Anum. The gods together are called Anunnaki and in the text one might specifically add
^d Anunnaki a amê u erSetim, 'the Anunnaki of heaven and earth'.

Sometimes a differentiation is made in the indication of the totality of the gods, the ^d Igigi and the ^d Anunnaki. The Igigi in that case are the gods of heaven, while the Anunnaki refer to the gods of the Netherword, the empire of the death.

^d Igigi is a term with unknown origin and meaning. It ended up by indicating in some instances the entirety of the gods, and sometimes more commonly those that occupied heaven. The use of the word may be interchanged with 'Anunnaki' with literary freedom. In the Creation Epic (Ee IV-20) Marduk has a question to the Anunnaki, while the Igigi answer him (Ee IV-27:)
ïpulüuma ^d Igigi ilü rabûtu
'the Igigi, the great gods, answered him'
[first word is the verb in preterite 3rd person plural of the G-stem infinitive apälu 'to answer' + suffix u 'him' + enclitic particle -ma]

Igigi is usually spelled as
, i-gi₄-gi₄
but in late orthography one also finds in a playful way
í-gì-gì
in which í = ia (the word for five in Sumerian) also stands for '5' and twice gì = dish stand for either '2' or '2x60', so as a number it could mean either 5+1+1=7 (number of Great Gods) or 5x2x60 = 600 ("total number of gods" in some traditions).

Number of Igigi and Anunnaki. In the later tradition of the Babylonian Epic of Creation the supreme god at that time, Marduk, divided all deities into Anunnaki and Igigi, but the words for Anunnaki and Igigi are used almost interchangeably elsewhere in the text. 'Marduk, King of the gods, divided....
^d Anunnaki gimratsunu eli u apli
'the Anunnaki, their totality, (over the regions) above and below'

Their total number is 600 (300 Anunnaki and 300 Igigi):
ina amê u erSetim 600 (gi-u) utêib
litt.: '(and so) he [Marduk] caused 600 (deities) to sit in heaven and earth'
or: '(and so) he [Marduk] gave 600 (deities) residence in heaven and earth'
[the verb is the so called -perfect stem (causative ) of the infinitive in the G-stem waäbum 'to sit']

Igigi and Anunnaki in the Atrahasîs-epic. The epic of Atrahasîs (Poem of the Supersage) is a long epic, probably composed around 1700 BCE, which deserves more attention than given here. In this epic heavenly society is divided into two classes. The labour on the fields was carried out by gods of second rank, the Igigi, on behalf of the more important gods, the leaders, called the Anunnaki. The story starts with a revolt by the Igigi. They bang the door and went on strike, protesting before their chief employer Enlil. No work on the fields eventually means famine, so the gods panic and convene a general assembly, this time presided by the chief Anu himself. The solution proposed by the intelligent Ea is to create mankind who would have as prime duty to work on the fields, to fulfill the role of servants towards the gods. Men feed, cloth and shelter the gods and thus replace the labour done previously by the Igigi, and this is why men has to work so hard...... Their sole purpose is to be devoted to the gods.
It is possible that the Igigi represent the younger gods of the Akkadians and the Anunnaki the older Sumerian gods. Between the lines of the Epic one could read a struggle for equal rights, possibly reflecting such a struggle between the Sumerians and the Akkadians. Other theories (e.g. due to von Soden) deny the resulting settlement and agreement between the gods. It is said that in fact the Igigi seized power over the Anunnaki. They, the Igigi, gods of the heaven, become at the top and are the consulting gods in the assembly, eventually dominated by four or seven 'Great Gods'. In this theory the Igigi dislodge the Anunnaki to the Netherworld.

Temples.
Temple Lists. There are several ancient Temple Lists. They group temple names according to different ordering principles (geographical, deities etc.). One of them apparently list the temples in hierarchical order, according to importance (fame, cosmological importance or supposed antiquity). An important List is nowadays called the Canonical Temple List. It lists Babylonian temple names and is dated in the 12th century BCE. Temple Lists contain two or three columns, e.g. with respectively temple name (like é.babbar.ra 'the White House', 'Shining House), in the second column a description (like bït ^d ama 'house/temple of Shamash' (the sun god) and in the third column a geographical indication (like á Sippar^ki 'that of (the city) Sippar' (ki is determinative for 'city').
Literature:
A.R. George, 'House Most High, The temples of Ancient Mesopotamia', 1993, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake, Indiana, ISBN 0-931464-80-3, volume 5 in the series 'Mesopotamian Civilizations' (193p.), basically a gazetteer of the ceremonial names (alphabetically listed) of the temples of Sumer and Akkad, and of Babylonia and Assyria, with a short introduction.

The great gods

The term 'Great Gods' is often used in the texts. In a wide sense it refers to the consulting gods that constitute the assembly of gods. They are the deities with a certain importance, mostly the city gods (god and goddess as a married couple) of the major cities in Mesopotamia. Their number is often set to 50.
In a more narrow sense the 'Great Gods' are the seven Fates, the gods/goddesses of destiny, the top of an hierarchical list. These are the gods that determine the destinies of king, state, country, men and mankind. Anum, god of Heaven, and Enlil the Sky god, are listed first in hierarchy, followed by the water god Enki (Akkadian Ea), some name of the mother goddess and three astral gods Sîn (Moon), Shamash (Sun) and the goddess Ishtar (Venus).

^d Anum, the god of Heaven.
^d Anum is a supreme god of the Sumerian pantheon and shares the title 'king of heaven and earth' with Enlil. He is in mythology a somewhat dim personality. He doesn't figure very often in epics and even when he does, he has little specifics in his character, apart from possibly a 'fatherly attitude'. Anum is the head of the divine dynasty, but he leaves the exercise of sovereign authority to Enlil. Only in times of crisis (e.g. when the gods are on strike, see the Atrahasîs epic) it is Anum himself who presides the general assembly of the gods.
Anum is at home in Uruk, together with the (city) goddess Itar. In a late first millenium composition, called 'the exaltation of Itar, it is described how she obtaines the status of Antum, the spouse of Anum.
In prayers one may call Anum (in the vocative):

^d A-num AN-e ; ^d Anum amê
'O Anum of the heaven'
(Note the usage of the same sign , first as a determinative (classifier) to identify Anum as a deity and secondly as a logogram an for 'heaven', supplemented with -e as phonetic complement). In a third usage, the sign an stands for the logogram Anum, without the determinative for a deity. The above mentioned beginning of a prayer could have been written with only three signs an an-e).
In the epilogue of the Codex Hammurabi he is called
Anum rabû abu ilï 'The great Anum, father (ancestor) of the gods'
In the Creation Epic Enüma eli it is told how Anu transfers his power to Marduk (city god of Babylon), who gradually becomes the new supreme god in the blooming days of the city Babylon. In the Seleucid era (331 - 125 BCE) Anu is identified with the Greek supreme god Zeus.
(After the Old Babylonian period the final -m in case endings falls off. So Anum is spelled A-nu, Anu).

^d Enlil, the Sky god
(pronounced by assimilation as ^d Ellil at least in later times), 'Lord Atmosphere' is the city god of Nippur, the Sumerian sacred city and religious center. Although Anum and Enlil both are supreme gods and 'king of heaven and earth', it is Enlil who presides the assembly of the gods, carries out the decisions and in fact exercises sovereign authority. Enlil resides in the famous Ekur temple (Sumerian é.kur 'House Mountain') in Nippur. This temple ranks number one on hierarchical ordered (according to importance) Temple Lists.

An important task of Enlil is to decree the destinies (Sumerian nam.tar or shortly nam, Akkadian ïmtum) of mankind (kings, countries, ordinary people, etc.). The destinies have been determined in the assembly of the gods, presided by Enlil. They are divine decisions written on the tablet of destinies. The procedure again mimics the function of a king, who decreed his orders and wrote them on clay tablets.

In mythology Enlil has a definite character and is central in many epics. He is stern, strict, and behaves in a authoritarion way.

Enki/Ea the water god in the ABZU/Apsû-temple
The Sumerian god ^d ENKI, Akkadian ^d Ea is the third deity mentioned in god lists and as such depicted in illustrations. He is disposed to mankind and plays a central role in many epics, so his character and abilities are well known: he represents intelligence and technical capabilities. He is a master craftsman,
bël nëmeqi 'Lord of cunning/skill'
referring to the body of experience, knowledge, skills, and traditions which are the basis of a craft or occupation and form the basis of civilization as a whole.
The Sumerian name ENKI seen as "Lord Earth" (en 'lord', ki 'earth') is a case of (ancient) folk etymology, because the name is originally enki(g), with -g appearing in connections. The meaning of this name is uncertain, possibly 'Lord Kindness'.
Enki/Ea is the god of the sweet waters. His realm are the rivers, lakes and the subterranean waters, together called the ABZU (Akkadian Apsû, see next paragraph). These waters fertilize the land and Enki/Ea is also called
en.uru 'Lord Reed-sheaf'
One of the epithets of Enki/Ea is
bël nagbï 'Lord of the sources' (construct state of bëlum 'lord'; genitive of nagbum 'well', 'source')
and another epithet
ar apsî 'king of the Apsû' (construct state of arrum 'king')
On cylinder seals one sees Ea sitting on a thrown with water streams out of his shoulders.

Because of his connection with water, Enki/Ea is also the patron god of the (hand-)washing and purifying rituals and of white magic: he is the patron god of the exorcists.

Enki/Ea is the city god of Eridu, one of the most ancient Sumerian cities in the southern part of Mesopotamia. In ancient time Eridu is situated on a large lake or lagoon near the Persian gulf and surrounded by reed-lands and marshy areas, with swamps and half-floating islands, where almost literally the earth (fertile land) is created by the interplay between the sweet water (Apsû) and the salt water (the sea Tiämat) as stated in the first few lines of the Epic of Creation Enüma eli. In Eridu Ea resides in his temple É-abzu (Apsû House). This is a prestigious temple, ranking as number four in a hierarchical ordered (according to importance) Temple Lists.
He is worshiped in many other cities, such as Aur, Babylon, Borsippa, Laga, Larsa, Ki etc.

In mythology Enki/Ea is most of all the god of wisdom, of craftsmanship and arts. He is
^d Ea eru 'the wise Ea'
and the genius behind most technical concepts. Ea creates man (modeled in clay) in collaboration with the mother goddess Ninmah (which, in the later Epic of Creation, he does so conform the idea of Marduk).
Enki/Ea has the epithet Mummu meaning 'genius' e.g. in:
^d Ea Mummu bän(i) kalî 'Ea, the Mummu (genius, clever man) who created everything'
In the Creation Epic Enüma elish Mummu is the third primeval being, the vizier of Apsû and ad hoc personalized as if to show how Ea obtained his well known epithet Mummu.
The temple workshop/studio where the statue of the gods for the temples were made and restored, is called
bït Mummu 'workshop' ('the house of Mummu')
In practice this is done by craftsmen, in mythology by Enki/Ea and his mates, some of which are
^d Nin-zadim 'Lord Stonecutter'
^d Gukin-banda 'Lord Goldsmith' and
^d Nin-ildu 'Lord Cabinetmaker/Carpenter'
^d Nin-kur(ra) 'Lord Mountain'
(the mountains are the source of supply of precious stones used as decoration for statue of deities).

ABZU/Apsû

The Sumerian word ABZU is described in the The Sumerian Dictionary, see ' What ABZU Means'.
The subterranean waters are called ABZU, Akkadian Apsû, the domain of the water god Ea. His temple (residence of the god) is É-abzu. (Sumerian É 'house', 'temple'; temple names in Akkadian are always the Sumerian names) in the city Eridu. One conceives the subterranean waters as an enormous reservoir of water on which the ground floats. After all, if you dig a hole anywhere in the alluvial plains of Mesopotamia, you find water. Still nowadays in the marshlands of modern southern Iraq (where now the Marsh Arabs live/lived?) much of the fertile land is on islands actually floating on the water. The liquid underground of the surface of the Earth, the Below, is usually distinguished from and situated above the Netherworld, the empire of the death. Sometimes however, Apsû also includes the Netherworld.
The Apsû feeds the continuous water supply of the rivers, controlled by Ea. Rain itself and the seasonal change of the water level is controlled by the weather god Adad. Ea and Adad both are responsible for the fertility of the fields.

In the Babylonian Epic of Creation 'Enüma elish' Apsû is the second primeval being that existed before the creation of heaven and earth. He is the male personification of subterranean waters and represented as having enormous dimensions. The personification of Apsû (as somebody who acts and speaks) is unique in the Epic of Creation, probably induced by the more common personification of Tiämat, the first primeval being and female personification of the sea/salt water). In the epic he is called
Apsû zäri ilï rabiütim 'Apsû, the begetter of the great gods'
In other texts Apsû is used in the objective/impersonal sense as the 'underground water', representing the depot of precipitation and mineral water, something that can be reached by digging a hole.

Shamash, the Sun god, and the White House.
Sumerian ^d UTU, Akkadian ^d ama, is the Sun god. He is, together with the moon god Sîn, a popular deity throughout the Mesopotamian history. His name also refers to the sun as an object in the celestial sky, either written with or without the determinative for deity, also as amu. The worship of ^d ama should not be seen as worship of the sun. Gods in Mesopotamia were already detached from the phenomena of nature. He is foremost the 'judge of heaven and earth' and in this capacity concerned with the protection of the poor. So he is
ama bël dïnim 'Lord of justice' (construct state of bëlum 'lord'; genitive of dïnum 'verdict', 'judgment').
To this order he gives oracles intended to guide and protect mankind. Therefor he is also (together with Adad) god of the divination (as Sun god he is all-seeing, and also sees the future). In that quality he has the epithet
ama bël bïrim 'Lord of divination' (construct state of bëlum 'lord'; genitive of bïrum 'divination').

^d UTU/^d ama is the city god (patron deity) of the cities Larsa and Sippar (on the Euphrates, southeast of Babylon, the ruins are modern abu habba). He resides together with his spouse Aya in temples called (in both cities):
É.BABBAR 'White House', 'Shining House' (É 'house', 'temple')
The cuneiform sign stands for a variety of phonetic values and logograms, related to 'sun', 'day', 'white' like

babbar	peSû	'white', 'shining'
ud, u4	ümu	'day'
UTU	ama	the sun god

so the name of the É-babbar temple has on a graphical-etymological level the same name as the god whose residence it is. Sumerians/Akkadians liked such coincidences. The É-babbar in Sippar is an important temple, listed as number two on a hierarchical ordered Temple List. The White House in Larsa ranks number 7 in this list.

In mythology ^d UTU/^d ama also acts as judge and arbiter.

Sîn the moon god.
The Sumerian god ^d su.en (unknown etymology), later also called nanna(r), Akkadian Sîn, is the Moon god. His name also refers to the moon as an object in the celestial sky. The worship of Sîn should not be seen as worship of the moon. Gods in Mesopotamia were already detached from the phenomena of nature. Sîn is the city god of the city Ur, which had often a dominant position. Therefor Sîn is one of the more important general deities in Mesopotamia. Together with the sun god, he maintains his popularity throughout the Mesopotamian history. He resides in the temple Ékinugal (É 'House', ginu '(moon-)light', gal 'to be', 'to exist'; so 'House where the (moon-)light is'). It is an important temple, listed as number six on a hierarchical ordered Temple List.

Family relations. Sîn was the son of the chief god Enlil. His children are ama the sun god, the goddess Itar and the weather god Adad. His wife is Nin.gal 'the Great Lady'.

Moonlight is important in the night. Sîn has the epithet
Sîn nannäru üpu 'Sîn the brilliant/shining/splendid (moon-)light'
which is at the same time a play on words because of the analogy between Akkadian nannäru 'light' and his Sumerian name nanna(r).

Because the moon renews himself every month after New Moon and is waxing and waning, Sîn is also the god of fertility. Sîn has a regular appearance ('month') in the celestial sphere and is of extreme importance for the calender.

Inanna/Ishtar, goddess of Love and War.
The Sumerian goddess ^d Inanna (Sumerian (N)in.an.(n)a 'Lady of the Heaven' or 'Sister of an') has the Akkadian name Itar (with unknown meaning). She was originally the goddess of Love, the celestial Courtisan. She is sometimes also called the divine Prostitute although it is not very clear from the texts, what her relation to temple prostitution actually is. By the previously described process of 'syncretism' she was already early in history identified/unified with a divinity of the planet Venus (delebat spelled as dil.bat) and a god of quarrels and of war. She was an important goddess and she had quit a complicated character because of this syncretism. She is also goddess of fertility, but different from the Mother goddess, more emphasizing the erotic aspects. In pictures (iconography) she can either be completely dressed up or depicted naked.

Inanna/Itar is the city goddess of Uruk, together with the supreme god of heaven Anum. Her temple in Uruk is É-anna (é.an.na, with é 'house', 'temple', an either 'heaven' or the god an and -(n)a from the Sumerian genitive, so the temple name either means 'House of Heaven', or 'House of an'). There are at least five temples in other cities also called é-anna. She was also the patron deity and city goddess in a number of other cities further north in Mesopotamia, like Akkad, Ki, Girsu, Mari, Aur. In each city she manifests different qualities of here personality, which are locally worshiped

In mythology Inanna/Itar figures in many myths. She is an independent and whimsical woman, who attracts to men and disposes easily of them. Famous myths are
Inanna's descent to the Netherworld
Inanna and Enki
Inanna and Sukalletuda
Inanna and Bilulu
and she plays a role in e.g. the legend of Gilgamesh.

Beginning in the 2nd millennium she monopolized a number of female deities to such an extend that later the word itaru or itartu (with or without the determinative of deities) stands for a noun having the general meaning 'goddess', 'female deity', in particular as someone's personal patron deity, the goddess that mediates between an individual and the other gods. The wife of a god as personal god makes a sensible choice, because she is supposed to have a great influence. For the personal gods one may write the combination
ilï u itarï 'my [personal] god and goddess'
(following a consonant, -ï (long i) is the suffix for the possessive pronoun 1st person singular 'my')

Adad, the weather god.
Akkadian ^d Adad is the weather god, the god of rain and storms. His symbol is the thunderbolt, the flash of lightning. His voice is the thunder. As a noun his name also stands for 'rain', 'shower', 'downpour'. He is probably to be identified with the Sumerian deity Ikur. ^d Adad is mainly a deity of the northern part of Mesopotamia. He is not the city god of one of the cities in the plains of Mesopotamia. ^d Adad gives the fertilizing rains and as such is donor of abundance and prosperity. He is lock-keeper of heaven and earth and controls together with the water god Enki/Ea the sweet waters. ^d Adad is responsible for the wax of the river and its seasonable changes. For unknown reasons he shares, together with the sun god ama the responsibility as patron god of divination and has in later times the same epithet:
^d Adad bël bïrim 'Lord of divination' (construct state of bëlum 'lord'; genitive of bïrum 'divination').

Here is a table of links which lead to a Web Site which discusses the gods of Sumer.
This is not a Jehovah fearing source, but it follows the same line that all other historians
have found in the ancient evidences:

MORE FROM THE ABOVE SOURCE ON ANCIENT AKKADIA AND SUMER

SUMERIAN VOCABULARY LIST

WEB SITE ON SUMER WITH VIDEO CLIP OF PRESENT CITY

VIRTUAL GOLD MINE OF ANCIENT DATA

• Guides to Ancient Near East Studies on internet
  • The ABZU guide of internet resources.
    This reference contains everything relevant to the study of the Ancient Near East; with
    • What's New in ABZU
    • ABZU REGIONAL INDEX: MESOPOTAMIA
    • ABZU PROJECT INDEX
    • ORIENTAL INSTITUTE ARCHAEOLOGY
• Institutes
  • NINO The Netherlands Institute for the Near East
  • OI The Oriental Institute, Un. of Chicago
    • CAD The Chicago Assyrian Dictionary
    • The Oriental Institute of Philology
  • the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project with
    • 10 volumes on the State Archives of Assyria

http://www.geocities.com/queball23/AllahOrigin.html

This Web Page shows the clear historic origin of Allah's name in ancient Akkadia.
Also lears to read cuneiform:
http://saturn.sron.nl/~jheise/akkadian/
Alternate Site: http://web.archive.org/web/20011031031649/http://saturn.sron.nl/~jheise/akkadian

A god list associated with the Epic of Gilgamesh

Fascinating discussion showing how Sumerian paganism was preserved into Hungery--
For those who doubt the power of paganism to virtually move around the world from Babel to your front door.

DISCUSSION OF "LIL"

http://web.archive.org/web/20011120212809/http://www.lemurian-imports.com/lilitha/drkgodes.htm

     Before the sages of the first Diaspora of Hebrews into Babylon invented the idea of monotheism to accommodate the necessity of making their Yahweh portable, Judaism was a polytheistic religion, which borrowed much of its mythology from the surrounding cultures, including ancient Sumer and Greece. The pantheons of all of these ancient cultures, Sumer, Israel and Greece, included Goddesses in all of their cyclical aspects, birth, life and death. The cultures and religions of Sumer and ancient Greece are gone; however, Judaism and Christianity flourish as the cultural and religious underpinning of much of the western world. Its monotheistic metaphors have evolved in a way that exclude all but male deity as supreme, and where remnants of female deity are extant, they are diminished in importance (the Virgin Mary, in New Testament Christianity) and their dark aspects are demonized (Lilith, in Old Testament Judaism.)

     To survey all of the Goddess or even just the three aspects of a limited number of Goddesses in the ancient world would take volumes. An attempt to handle any more of the many dark Goddesses, for instance Kali of the Indian pantheon or any of the many dark Goddesses of the pre-Islamic world, China, Japan, Hawaii, or the pre-conquest Americas, would take us beyond the boundaries of a discussion of "Western Civilization from Ancient Sumer to the Renaissance;" therefore, I will limit my exploration to three of the many dark goddesses: Ereshkigal of ancient Sumer, Lilith of ancient Israel, and Hecate of ancient Greece.

     Who are these Goddesses, how are they alike and in what ways do they differ? In what ways do they reflect the cultural metaphors of their own time and how can these metaphors be appropriated toward the re-empowerment of women today?

     In the cosmology of ancient Sumer, the primeval sea (abzu) existed before anything else, and within that, the heaven (an) and the earth (ki) were formed. 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 (god of heaven) were the progenitors of most of the gods. Ninhursag, as the mother goddess, assisted in the creation of man by offering constructive criticism to the god as he shaped several versions from clay. Here we see the goddess as co-creator and counselor.

      Sumerian divine laws, the "me," were guarded by Enki (lord of the watery abyss.) Inanna (goddess of love and war) objected to being given too little power from Enki's decrees so she got him drunk and he granted her dominion over arts and crafts, as well, for a total of ninety four me. By the time Enki sobered up and tried to retrieve the me, Inanna had already safely delivered them to her cult center at Erech. Here we see the goddess able to negotiate on her own behalf and able to oversee divine law.

     The city leaders of ancient Sumer had a duty to please the town's patron deity, not only for the good will of that god or goddess, but also for the good will of the other deities in the council of gods. Many secular kings claimed divine right; Sargon of Argade, for example, claimed to have been chosen by Inanna. If goddesses could confer power on mortal kings, we can assume that they held great personal power separate from that of the gods. The temple was staffed by both priests and priestesses. While we do not know if the priestesses were dominant or even co-equal with the priests, we do know that they were present and had autonomous authority. During the annual New Year celebrations, the king, in a symbolic representation of the resurrected fertility god, Dumuzi, would be ritually married to Inanna's earthly representative. If the king's marriage to a goddess was necessary to assure fertility of the crops, we can presume that the importance of the female in Sumerian society was primal.

     Ereshkigal, variously considered Inanna's sister or sister-in-law, was supreme goddess of the underworld. When angered, Ereshkigal's face grew livid and her lips grew black. She did not know why Inanna would visit her, but she allowed her in, and then instructed Namtar, her messenger and vizier, the Fate-Cutter, the herald of death, to release his diseases upon Inanna. Ereshkigal had a palace in the underworld and was due a visit by those entering. When Inanna trespassed on her domain, Ereshkigal "...fastened on Inanna the eye of death. She spoke against her the word of wrath. She uttered against her the cry of guilt. She struck her. Inanna was turned into a corpse,...And was hung from a hook on the wall."

     When Nergal, the unsparing god of the underworld, arrived to give Ereshkigal a throne upon which to sit and give judgement, she offered him food, drink, a footbath, and enticed him with her body. Eventually he succumbed and they slept with each other for seven days. Enraged when he wished to leave her, she sent Namtar to heaven to request that the gods send Nergal to her to be punished as one of the few favors she had ever received. If they would not, she threatened to raise the dead who would then eat and outnumber the living. Nergal was brought back. In some versions of the myth, Nergal took control of Namtar's attendant demons, grabbed Ereshkigal from her throne by the hair, and threatened to decapitate her. In this position she proposed marriage to him. In both versions he accepted, they were married, and he became her consort.

     Belit-tseri, the female tablet-scribe, knelt before Ereshkigal and Sumuquan, the cattle god resided in her underworld court. Heroes and priests resided there, as well, and mighty kings served others food. So we can see that Ereshkigal had actual, not referred, power. She ruled death as an equal portion of the span from creation to destruction. She judged and commanded both men and women. She had sexual autonomy and authentic agency. She acknowledged and displayed her rage without apology. She had genuine bargaining power and was able to use it even under extreme duress.

     Traces of the Sumerian religion survive today and are reflected in writings of the Bible. As late as Ezekiel, there is mention of a Sumerian deity. In Ezekiel 8:14, the prophet sees women of Israel weeping for Tammuz (Damuzi) during a drought. The bulk of parallels, however, can be found much earlier in the book of Genesis. The second chapter of Genesis introduces the paradise, Eden, a place which is similar to the Sumerian Dilmun, described in The Myth of Enki and Ninhursag. Eden, "in the East" (Gen. 2:8) has a river which also "rises" or overflows, to form four rivers including the Tigris and Euphrates. It too is lush and has fruit bearing trees. (Gen. 2:9-14) The prologue of The Epic of Gilgamesh may contain the predecessor to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree not only contains a crafty serpent, but also Lilith, the legendary first wife of Adam. The huluppa tree is transplanted by Inanna from the banks of the Euphrates to her garden in Uruk, where she finds that "...a serpent who could not be charmed made its nest in the roots of the tree. The Anzu bird set his young in the branches of the tree, and the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk."

     In the introduction to his book, Lilith's Cave: Jewish Tales of the Supernatural, Howard Schwartz says that of all the myths with biblical origins and rabbinical popular embellishments, none has had more sway than that of Lilith. Schwartz contends that much of the demonic realm in Jewish folklore grew out of this multifaceted legend, which came into being as a commentary on one passage of the Bible, "Male and Female He created them." (Gen 1:27) This passage was interpreted by the rabbis to mean that the creation of man and woman was simultaneous, whereas the later accounts of the creations of Adam and Eve appeared to be sequential. Working on the assumption that every word in the Bible was literally true, say Schwartz, the rabbis interpreted this contradiction to mean that the first passage referred to the creation of Adam's first wife, whom they named Lilith, and the other referred to the creation of Eve. Lilith, whose name actually appears in the Bible only once, in the passage from Isaiah, "Yea, Lilith shall repose there," (Isa 34:14) refers, Schwartz feels, to a Babylonian night demon.

     Schwartz goes on to say that of the post-biblical texts, a few references to Lilith are found in the Talmud, where she is described as a demoness with long black hair, and a demoness with identical characteristics is found in the apocryphal text The Testament of Solomon, but the earliest version of the legend that portrays all of the essential aspects of Lilith is The Alphabet of Ben Sira, of Persian or Arabic origin, in the eleventh century.

     This legend tells how God created a companion for Adam and named her Lilith, but Lilith and Adam argued over everything, with Lilith refusing to let Adam dominate her in any way. Instead, she insisted that they were equal. Eventually Lilith pronounced the ineffable name of God and flew out of the Garden of Eden to the shore of the Red Sea, where she made her home in a cave. She took as lovers all the demons who lived there, giving birth to a great multitude, which explains the proliferation of demons in the world. In citations to other works, Schwartz goes on to relate the tale of Lilith being threatened by angels and her growth into a "negative female archetype who is assertive, seductive, and ultimately destructive."

     Many Feminist scholars, unhappy with this reduction of Lilith, have gone back over the texts and come to a new understanding. One such is Khephera in her article, "Lilith." In a discussion of the historical origins of Lilith, she points out that the biblical Lilith was not originally found in the pantheon of ancient Sumer, but her roots extend back that far. In the Sumerian lexicon, "Lil" means "Air, " and the oldest known term relating to Lilith is the Sumerian "Lili," (pl. Lilitu) which means "breath" or "spirit." Therefore, the Lilitu were either a specific type of demon or were simply spirits in general. Khephera goes on to point out that Lilith is thought to have been a Sumerian succubus, and there was such a creature in Sumer-Babylonia known as the "Ardat Lili." An Ardat (pl. Ardatu) was a young woman of marriage age; hence, the Ardat Lili was a young female spirit, a succubus, the demoness known as the "night hag," who was thought to cause erotic dreams and rob males of their semen and spiritual vitality.

     Khephera dismisses the two instances that are generally seen as proof of the biblical Lilith's existence in Sumer. One is the myth in which a female demon takes up residence within Inanna's sacred Tree of Life, thus stunting the tree's growth and reproduction; and the famous plaque depicting a woman with owl talons and wings standing on two lions and flanked by two owls. She credits the errors to mistranslations of the Sumerian language by Samuel Noah Kramer. She also discredits, as a Quabalistic mistranslation, the biblical reference in Isaiah which makes the name "Lilith" synonymous with "Screech Owl."

     In giving a post-biblical overview of the various myths of Lilith's defiance, Khephera concludes that In his attempt to mate with Lilith, Adam demanded that he be on top, however, Lilith refused, asserting their equality. Adam, feeling himself to be made in the image of God, and therefore superior to Lilith, who he felt was merely created by God as his helpmeet, would not allow it. Lilith went to God and seduced Him. God, because of his soft heart, was finally lulled into revealing his sacred name, whereupon Lilith pronounced the name and flew away from the garden and Adam forever. She took up residence in a cave on the shore of the Red Sea, where she remains until today. Within, she accepted the demons of the world, and their king, Asmodeus, as her lovers and spawned many thousands of demon children. This is how Lilith became known as the Wife of Asmodeus--Mother of Demons.

     Adam, meanwhile, missed Lilith and went to God, who agreed that his creatures should not so easily depart his realm. God dispatched three enforcer angels to retrieve her, but when they found her and demanded her return, she refused. They threatened to slay one hundred of her demon children each day until she obeyed, but she exclaimed that even that fate was better than returning to Eden and submission to Adam. As the enforcers carried out their threat, Lilith made a terrible proclamation: in return for the pain delivered upon her, she would slay the children of Adam, and even their mothers during labor. Additionally, she vowed to attack men in their sleep, steal their semen, and give birth to more demon children to replace the ones she would lose each day. In her anguish, she made one concession: whenever she saw displayed, the names of the three angels who opposed her, no one in that place would be in danger.

     Khephera, in giving the Qabalistic interpretation, notes that while these concepts developed well after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70AD, the Temple destruction and the carrying of its treasures and most of the Israelites into Babylonia played a pivotal role in the mythos. With this first Diaspora it was thought that the perfect union between the Lord (Adonai) and his Kingdom was in danger, so he withdrew from the world and refused to meet with his feminine side, the Shekhinah (Heb.: Presence) in an impure fashion. The Shekhinah, herself, was thought to have been taken into captivity and raped there continuously. Lilith symbolized the very people who held the Shekhinah captive; she was the harlot, the Whore of Babylon, but because it was thought that God could not be without a Goddess, he was forced to mate with Lilith in order to sustain balance in the world. Thus, Lilith made the transition from mere demoness to Dark Goddess, the Wife of God.

     The Qabalists felt it was their duty to reunite the Shekhinah with Adonai. It was felt that on the Sabbath, Lilith had no power because of the holiness of the day; on that day Lilith was forced to retreat into the desert where she screamed until sundown. Khephera notes that in the New Testament Book of Revelation this symbolism is remembered in the passages where the Whore of Babylon is supplanted in power by the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.

     It is clear to many Feminists that, In whichever way we choose to interpret the mytho-historic Lilith, there are certain of her characteristics which can not be overlooked and which are virtually never disputed. Lilith, like Ereshkigal, had actual, not referred, power. She ruled death as an equal portion of the lifespan from creation to destruction. She, like Ereshkigal, judged men and while she did not command them, she challenged their authority when they attempted to command her. She, like Ereshkigal, had sexual autonomy and authentic agency. She, like Ereshkigal, acknowledged and displayed her rage without apology. She, like Ereshkigal, had genuine bargaining power and was able to use it even under outrageous coercion. Additionally, she was compassionate to those women and children who acknowledged and honored her.

     With Greek thought, we see the worldview of life becoming cyclical, rather than linear. Hecate (Gr: Hekate), according to the Wisdom of the Earth: Encyclopedia of The Goddess, was the Death Goddess, Crone Mother, and known "Queen of Witches" in Christian myth and legend. She descended from the Egyptian Heqit, Heket, or Hekat: a wisewoman, priestess who held the sacred "Mother's Word of Power," the hakau, in trust. Like all other forms of the Triple Goddess, she was associated with the moon: she was associated with Selene (Moon;) Artemis (Huntress, Lady of Wild Beasts;) and Persephone (Queen of the Dead.) Among Greeks she was Queen of Ghosts and the Crossroads, where many midnight rituals took place. She was the destroyer; newborn children and animals were sacrificed to her.

     She was the giver of rain as well as harvest storms. Her major festival was celebrated on August 13th. But as Moon Goddess she is best known: the dark of the moon symbolizes divination, illumination, the powers of healing. Darkness is the time of tactility and of the voice, so this Dark Goddess presides over love-magic, metamorphosis, wonder-working, and medicinal healing. Often depicted as a Hag, the popular image of Hecate as an ugly old witch is false. In ancient societies she was considered a "Holy Woman," or "Wisewoman;" a female shaman of pre-Christian Europe, or tribal matriarch who knew the wise ways of nature, healing, divination, civilized arts, and the traditions of the Goddess.

     In his article "Hekate in Early Greek Religion," Robert Von Rudolph notes that the traditional view of Hecate in most popular and academic books is that She is benefactor of malevolent sorceresses and queen of restless ghosts and other nasty creatures of the night; in short, a Goddess of "Witches" in the pejorative sense. Recent books written by and for modern Pagans, on the other hand, tend to portray Her as a beneficent, grandmotherly Goddess of the Moon, magic, and Witches in the positive sense. Supporters of both of these viewpoints site seemingly contradictory evidence, an example of which is the difference between the writings of Hesiod of Archaic Greece, who honors Hekate for Her powers over Sky, Earth and Sea, but not the Underworld, with status second only to Zeus, and Horace of Imperial Rome who presents Her as the object of debased worship of grotesque, supernatural, fairytale women who work necromancy in graveyards.

     Von Rudolph feels that neither is true and that an underlying problem is that it is wrong to assume that there was a single manifestation of Hecate; that evidence shows a much greater diversity than historical researchers usually allow for. He points out that no Greek deity was conceived of in the same way by everyone at any single time or place in antiquity.

     In his study, Von Rudolph found that the limited record indicates that in early times Hekate was a secondary figure who could serve one or more specific functions, none of which were unique to Her. These can be categorized under the ancient titles Propylaia, literally "the one before the gate;" Propolos, "the attendant who leads;" Phosphoros, "the light bringer;" Kourotrophos, "child's nurse;" and Chthonia, which translates simply as "of the Earth," but implies Goddess of the Earth. According to Von Rudolph, there is no doubt that by 400BCE the image existed of female followers of Hekate working magic, alone at night in remote places. And, while they were intended as evil figures, there is also evidence throughout antiquity that shows public displays of devotion to Hekate, often for the common good of the community.

     Is Hecate, then, wisewoman or sorceress, shamanic diviner or Crone Mother, healer or necromancer, priestess or hag, holy woman or Queen of ghosts, illuminator or Goddess of Midnight, Moon Goddess or Death Goddess, Goddess of love or Goddess of storm, Goddess of metamorphosis or Goddess of the Crossroads, matriarchal tribal grandmother or Queen of Witches? Rather than haggle over the bones, as it were, many Feminists would simply say "yes, Hecate is all of these!" Hecate is a Destroyer Goddess and destruction is part of the cycle of life. But, how does She measure up to Ereshkigal and Lilith?

     Hecate, like her earlier counterparts in Israel and Sumer, had real, not referred, power. She ruled death as an equal portion of the lifecycle from creation through destruction through creation again. While we hear nothing of Her judging, commanding or challenging men, neither do we hear of any attempt by men to rule over Her. She, like Ereshkigal and Lilith, had sexual autonomy and authentic agency. She, like Ereshkigal and Lilith, acknowledged and displayed her fury without defense. She, like Ereshkigal and Lilith, had genuine power and was able to use it. And, like Ereshkigal and Lilith, Hecate was benevolent to those women who honored Her.

     Many Feminists today are returning to the ancient Pagan religion of the Great Goddess in all Her aspects: Maiden, Mother, Crone; life-giver, life-sustainer, life-destroyer. In Her Crone/ Destroyer manifestation she is a model for the re-empowerment of women who reclaim their right to command and to challenge authority, their prerogative to exercise agency in their own lives and to negotiate on their own behalf, their license to sexual autonomy, the accuracy of their judgement, the validity of their anguish, the authenticity of their rage, indeed, the majesty of their own power when looking on Her awe-full face. 

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Now, here is a space cadet who has taken the Enlil and Ninlil account, mixed it with the Epic of Gilgamesh, and come up with a full blown devotional for mystics with pagan leaning.
CHECK IT OUT Beware of taking this too seriously.

This author also discusses the Phoenician Letters and their content about Enlil. This at least proves the migration of the LIL pantheon from Sumer around on the western route, about 800 miles down the road to Mecca.

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