the epic of gilgamesh- gods

Man-Scorpion

Guardian of the mountain into which the sun descends at nihtfall. Shown as a figure with the upper part of the body human and the lower part ending in a scorpion's tail

Anu

Sumerian An; father of gods, and god of the firmament, the 'great above'

Ea

Sumerian Enki; god of the sweet waters, also of wisdom , a patron of arts and one of the creators of mankind, the chief god of Eridu

Sin

Sumerian Nanna, the moon. The chief Sumerian astral deity, the father of Shamash, the sun, and Ishtar. parents were Enlil and Ninlil

Lugulbanda

protector of Gilgamesh; third king of the post-diluvian dynasty of Uruk, a god and shepherd, and hero of a cycle of Sumerian poems

Utnapishtim

in Sumerian poems he is a wise king and priest of Shurrupak; in Akkadian sources he is a wise citizen of Shurrupak. He is the son of Ubara-Tutu, and name means 'He Who Saw Life'. Protege of E, by whose help he survives the flood, with his family and with 'the seed of all living creatures'; afterwards he is taken by the gods to live forever at 'the mouth of the rivers'; lives in Dilmun where the sun rises

Humbaba

a guardian of the cedar forest who opposes Gilgamesh and is killed by him and Enkidu

Ubara-Tutu

a king of Shurrupak and father of Utnapishtim. the only kind of Kish named in the prediluvian King-List, apart from Utnapishtim

Bull of Heaven

a personification of drought created by Anu for Ishtar

Namtar

fate, destiny in its evil aspect; pictured as a demon of the underworld, also a messenger and chief minister of Ereshkigal; a bringer of disease and pestilence

Enlil

god of earth, wind, and the universal air, ultimately spirit; the executive of Anu, Patron of the city of nippur

Mashu

means "twins" in Akkadain. A mountain with twin peaks into which the sun descends at nightfall and from which it returns at dawn

Enkidu

moulded by Aruru, goddess of creation, out of clay in the image and 'of the essence of Anu', the sky god, and of Ninurta the war god. Companion of Gilgamesh, he is wild or natural man

Dilmun

the Sumerian paradise, perhaps the Persian gulf, sometimes described as 'the place where the sun rises' and 'the Land of the Living'

Urshanabi

the boatman of Utnapishtim who ferries daily across the waters of death which divide the garden of the sun from the paradise where Utnapishtim lives forever. By accepting Gilgamesh as a passenger he forfeits this right and accompanies Gilgamesh back to Uruk instead

Aya

the dawn, the bride of the Sun God Shamash

Siduri

the divine wine-maker and brewer; she lives on the shore of the sea in the garden of the sun. her name in Hurrian means "young woman" and may be a form of Ishtar

Ishtar

the goddess of love, fertility and war, called the queen of heaven. patroness of uruk

Ninsun

the mother of Gilgamesh, a minor goddess whose house was in Uruk; she was noted for wisdom, and wife of Lugulbanda

Ereshkigal

the queen of the underworld, a counterpart of persephone; probably once a sky-goddess. in the Sumerian cosmogony she was carried off to the underworld after the separation of heaven and earth

Shamash

the sun or the god; for the Sumerians he was principally the judge and law-giver with some fertility attributes. he was the husband and brother of Ishtar; represented with a saw with which he cuts decisions

Eanna

the temple precinct in Uruk sacred to Anu and Ishtar

Nergal

underworld god and is the subject of an Akkadian poem which describes his translation from heaven to the underworld; plague god

Anunnaki

usually gods of the underworld, judges of the dead and offspring of Anu

Ningal

wife of the Moon god and mother of the Sun