Tiamat

Tiamat is the name of a Mesopotamian goddess, the personification of the sea and associated with the chaos of primordial creation. She is the mother of the younger gods with Abzu, the god of fresh groundwater while she was associated with sea water. In later stories of the myth she is depicted as a female…

Abzu

Abzu is the name of an ancient Mesopotamian god of fresh water, especially underground water, and was the lover of Tiamat, who fathered the younger gods with her. Abzu was later murdered by the younger gods when he tried to kill them. Abzu is made of Sumerian ab 𒀊 “sea” and zu 𒍪 “deep, depths”….

Shala

Shala is the name of a Mesopotamian goddess of grain and compassion, associated with the weather and an ear of grain. She is also associated with the constellation Virgo. She was the consort of Hadad, a storm and rain god. The origin behind the goddess is unclear. It seems that she just appeared alongside Hadad…

Hadad

Hadad is the name of a storm and rain god in both the Canaanite and Mesopotamian religions, though he is known as Adad to the Akkadians and Babylonians, Iškur to the Sumerians, and was also known as Ba’al, a word meaning “lord” and which was also used for other gods in the pantheon. The name…

Ereshkigal

Ereshkigal is the name of the Sumerian goddess of death and the underworld, the queen of the underworld. She was the older sister of Inanna. One of the most well-known myths regarding Ereshkigal is Inanna’s descent into the underworld. She dresses in garments of great power in order to attend the funeral rites of Ereshkigal’s…

Nergal

Nergal is the name of a Near Eastern god worshipped throughout Mesopotamia, the god of death, war and pestilence, and the sun. He is the fourth husband of the goddess Ereshkigal, the goddess of the underworld. The gods are having a feast but since Ereshkigal could not leave the underworld, she sent her servant Namtar…

Ninlil

Ninlil is the name of a goddess in Mesopotamian mythology, the consort of Enlil. Like her husband, she presided over many of the functions he held over such as being responsible over the determination of destiny, the ruler of both earth and heaven, and associated with wind, storms, and hurricanes. Ninlil is made up of…

Enlil

Enlil is the name of a Mesopotamian god of storms, wind, the earth and heavens, the husband of Ninlil and the father of Nergal, Nanna, Ninurta, and others. He was worshipped by the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. The name is made up of Sumerian en 𒂗 (lord) and lil 𒆤 (wind) meaning “lord…

Gad

In the Old Testament Gad is the name of the first son of Jacob and Zilpah (his wife Leah’s handmaid) and his seventh son overall, and is the founder of one of the Israelite tribes named after him. The name comes from Hebrew gad (גָּד) meaning “luck” which seems to derive from an unknown origin. Gad could also be used as a nickname…

Esther

Esther is the name of the heroine in the Book of Esther in the Old Testament, the Jewish wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus. She helps save the Jewish people from being massacred by the king’s chief adviser Haman. Esther was born Hadassah but was given the name Esther to hide her Jewish identity. The…