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From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia Mesopotamian sky god, commonly joined in a trinity with Enlil, the god of storms, and Ea, the god of water.
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth Enlil ('windlord'), in Mesopotamian myth, was the son of An and brother of Ea. In some accounts he threw dice with his father and brother for kingdoms, and won the world of Earth; in others he prised his father (Sky) from his mother (Earth) after he was conceived, usurped his father's place and began gusting round Earth, fertilizing her with storms and rain.
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth Inanna ('sky-lady'), in Sumerian myth, was the daughter either of An the Sky or of his son the wind-god Enlil. She was the goddess of sex and fertility, overseeing the reproduction of all plants and animals on Earth.
From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia In Mesopotamian religion, the city god of Girsu. The son of Enlil and Ninlil, he was the god of thunder and of the spring rains and floods as well as the god of the plow.
From Who's Who in the Old Testament This is the Hebrew rendering of Ashirat, the leading goddess of the Phoenician Canaanites and consort of the head of their pantheon.
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia In Canaanite and Syrian mythology, a goddess of sexual passion (equivalent to the Babylonian and Assyrian goddess Ishtar). As goddess of maternity and fertility, she was associated with Tammuz or Adonis, who represented the passage of the seasons. She was also a warrior goddess.
From Who's Who in the Old Testament Dagon was a Philistine god. Temples were built to him at Gaza, Ashdod and Beth-shean, and his name was incorporated in the city of Beth-dagon, in the Judean foothills.
From The New Encyclopedia of Judaism Canaanite sanctuaries for cultic worship situated on hills or raised platforms (Deut. 12:2; I Kings 14:23); later adopted by the Israelites.
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia Legend of the origin of the world. All cultures have ancient stories of the creation of the Earth or its inhabitants.
From The Hutchsinson Unabridged Encyclopedia Religion of the Sumerian civilization. Sumerian society was ruled by gods - everything belonged to the gods and the kings were their representatives. Humanity's role was to serve the gods and to fulfil their will in their eternal struggles with each other.
From The Columbia Encycloepdia In Babylonian legend, king of Uruk. He is the hero of the Gilgamesh epic, a work of some 3,000 lines, written on 12 tablets c.2000 B.C. and discovered among the ruins at Nineveh.
Ancient city, capital of the Ugarit kingdom, W Syria, on the Mediterranean coast N of modern Latakia. Although the name of this city was known from Egyptian and Hittite sources, its location and history were a mystery until the accidental discovery (1928) of an ancient tomb at the small Arab village of Ras Shamra.
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth Ishtar (whose myriad other names included Ashtart, Ashtoreth, Astarte, Inanna and Isis) was worshipped all over the Mesopotamian region.
From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia In Assyrio-Babylonian mythology, the two-headed sun god, creator of Earth and humans, and their intermediary with his father Ea, god of water and wisdom.
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth Shamash ('Sun'), in Sumerian myth, was the son of the Moon-god Sin and brother of Ishtar, goddess of fertility and war.
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth Tiamat, in Mesopotamian myth, was salt water, one half of the chaos which existed before creation. The other half was Apsu, fresh water.
