The Anuna — Sumerian Tribe of Gods

The Anuna are the oldest gods recorded by any of our species, the name recorded by the ancient Sumerians. The Anuna were the “great gods” of their people — a poetic epithet used frequently throughout Sumerian literature — responsible for determining destinies, organizing the world, and creating humanity.

The Anuna were born in a great story of creation to primordial parents, and themselves had power in the creation and ordering of the world. They are responsible for a number of the foundations of civilization, including the creation of humanity itself. And we see their story repeated again, and again, throughout the ancient world — Ancient Greeks gods, Egyptian gods.

Although the Sumerians did not begin to write extensively about their gods until almost a thousand years after the invention of writing, singular names of deities are among the first things recorded, and symbols (glyphs, or characters of the Sumerian script) that were created.

In this alone we can attest a long unrecorded history of the Anuna, perhaps with certainty back to 4000 BCE (only a few centuries before the names of their central gods were recorded, well, 8 centuries, give-or-take, which I consider to be reasonably cautious). However, given associated dates within the myths and legends of Sumerian Religion which we can date. They could be far, far older.

Contents

1. The Divine Anuna Tribe of Sumerian Religion
2. The Sumerian Gods
   • An
   • Enlil
   • Enki
   • Nanna
   • Shamash
3. The Sumerian Pantheon — The Seven Gods Who Decree
4. The Association of the Anuna With The Planets
5. The Impact of the Anuna

The Divine Anuna Tribe of Sumerian Religion

Anuna is the name for a celestial class of beings in the Sumerian language. The Anuna later became the (in)famous Anunnaki — the Semitic name for this divine tribe within Sumerian and Akkadian Religion. In turn, through the Akkadian lineage specifically, influence early Hebrew Religions as well.

All of the highest gods of Sumerian religion were the descendents of An (Akkadian: Anu). In the context of Sumerian Religion, we call An a sky god. Which, while accurate, is far too reductive to be of any value in helping us to grasp his (already august) nature.

the most venerable ancestor whom the celestial tribe was named after.

It is for this reason that the name for the gods, Anuna (which became Anunnaki in the Semitic language of the Akkadians) which were worshipped for thousands of years.

In this way the Anunnaki form a divine tribe: the celestial clan of Anuna “great gods”. In a sense, they were the gods (with the exception of primordial beings

The Sumerian Gods

An

An is the ancient patriarch of the gods, remembered as… All of the Anuna (Anunnaki) are of his “tribe of gods” described as the “offspring of An” — an ancient clan of celestial beings.

In Sumerian his name is written with the glyph for “sky” or “heaven”. In one text, he is described as “he who contains the entire universe”. Together with his two sons Enki and Enlil, he forms the ancient trinity that echoed throughout Western Eurasia.

In later centuries during the time of the Babylonians, An became known more commonly by his semitic Akkadian name, Anu.

[Full Article: Anu]

Enlil

[Full Article: Enlil]

Enki

Ninhursag

Inanna

Inanna is the Sumerian goddess of love and war. She is cunning, ambitious, and proud. But she can also be gentle, child-like, and naive.

In one myth her ambitiousness and lust for power are on clear display: “I want to surpass the other deities … the Anuna.” {Taken from the myth Inanna and Ebih]

Full Article — Inanna

The Sumerian Pantheon: The Seven Gods Who Decree

The further that we go back, what will become the Sumerian Pantheon becomes smaller and less defined. We literally find fewer references to gods.

Leaders of the Tribe of Gods

As can be seen, establishing a precise hierarchy is a challenge in and of itself. The Sumerians worshipped all of their gods and heroes with lavish praise, to varying degrees, that in many cases is very nearly the same.

This hierarchy is not in itself important, as a precise ranking system of ancient deities doesn’t have a great deal of value. Aside from historical accuracy and the comprehension of genuine historical truth, of course. It matters comparatively less whether An reigned supreme over Enlil, Enki, and Inanna as the leader of the gods — his sons and grandaughter respectively — when weighed against the task of understanding their unique personality, character, and role they played in the significant memories their stories are woven around.

With that being said, understanding the hierarchy is necessary in order to answer other important questions. One important question is the identity of the Sumerian deity that YHWY was originally a reference to. We know that… This is a theory that is very likely to be true since the Jews themselves are descendents of the Akkadians, who lived with apparent total cultural homogeneity with the Sumerians. The Sumerian myths are, for all intents and purposes, Akkadian too. They perpetuated the traditions during the Akkadian Empire, even while their language and social authority reigned supreme during this time, and was entrenched during the Babylonian period in the nobility of the land.

While there is a degree of uncertainty, the Sumerians were clear on the most important deities by the significance of the role they played in the mythos itself. The frequency with which they were referenced is also an indicator, and the degree of praise lavished upon their names and memories.

Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Inanna are chief deities of the Sumerians. They are the most spoken of, to whom are attributed the greatest deeds, and referred to with the greatest reverence. Although there are others, most importantly, the rest of the “Seven Who Decree” — the seven gods who determine the destinies. However, Ninurta (the son of Enlil, nephew of Enki, and cousin of Inanna, it seems) is also of significant importance within the structure of the gods. As is Ninhursaga, the consor of Enki, and Ninlil, the wife of Enlil.

Full Article — The Impenetrable Genaology of the Sumerian Gods

The Association of the Anuna and the Planets

The Anuna are intrinsically associated with the planets. For example, in what we know of the Sumerian Creation Story (from the Sumerians themselves, and what we can piece together from later traditions, such as those found in the Babylonian Enuma Elish) the gods were both original .

Like modern English speakers today — like the Greeks and Romans before us — we still retain associations between the planets and the old gods. There was Few are aware in this age are familiar with the rich stories surrounding the gods, not in this day and age. Not compared to the average Greek in ancient times. Yet many stories are not forgotten. It is likely that this was true for the Sumerians, and later Akkadians as well.

Today we still remember the planets by their Roman names (a testament to the impact that Roman Civilization had on the many peoples that emerged in Rome’s wake). Mercury (Hermes) is named for its proximity to the Sun, and how rapidly it travels around. Venus. Jupiter. Saturn. Moreover, we are also even more familiar with the stories of their namesake:

This practice was a Sumerian Practice. The Greek and Roman gods are heavily entwined with the Sumerian gods. It is not certain exactly how — or when, or if — this transmission occurred. Ancient Minoan glyphs from c.2000 read deus (“god” or “Zeus”), around the later days of when Sumerian language was still in use. Suggesting that the rich mythology of Zeus/Anu was already in place at this time.

For all we know, Sumerian Religion was already well-developed by 3200 BCE when we see the first instances of the names of the gods being written down. I do not think the religious mythos (entwined with science, history, and legend) of prehistoric Sumerians was more developed than around the time of the Akkadians, Babylonians, or the final dynasties of Sumer. They built empires and amassed libraries over centuries — and millennia. However, I would not discount it either. We don’t know how diverse it was.

The Impact of the Anuna

The true impact of the Anuna on history — on the religions of the world, at least — is not easy to fathom. They had an enormous impact. What had finally been recorded in Sumer, served as the foundation of a religious tradition that began thousands of years of accumulation with them.

If the Biblical patriarch named Abraham did live in Ur as the Bible tells us, perhaps around 2000 BCE, Abraham would have been an Akkadian man. He would have known the Anuna by name. In his language (which would have been the Semitic Akkadian language) he might very well have known the Anuna as the Anunnaki.

Above I stated that the Sumerian trinity of Anu, Enlil, and Enki echoed throughout the Near East. To my knowledge, the Sumerians never had a precisely defined trinity. Yet these gods were those most frequently referred to as a king (of a surprisingly numerous variety: king of heaven, king of earth, king of the anuna, leader of the anunnaki, king of all kings).

The gods of Greek Religion are clearly heavily influenced by Sumerian Religion (and greater Mesopotamian religion, and its various forms and lineages by the latter days of Classical Greece). Inanna of the Sumerian pantheon.

In addition, we see a connection between Suymerian…

• Chapter II — The Old Gods
• The Lost Story of Humanity