Akkadian gods

Akkadian/Babylonian/Assyrian pantheon (~2300 BC onward): the Semitic heir of the Sumerian pantheon with its own emphasis. Anu, Enlil, Ea, Sin, Shamash, Ishtar.

Shamash

Akkadian version of Utu. Sun god and god of justice. Patron of legal codes — the Code of Hammurabi shows the king receiving the laws from Shamash's hands. Cult centers in Sippar and Larsa.

Akkadian godsakkadianbabylonianShamash

Sin

Akkadian form of Nanna. Moon god, principle of cyclical time, ritual calendar. Father of Ishtar and Shamash. Cult center remains at Ur, with notable expansion to Harran. Nabonidus (last Babylonian king) promoted a monolatric cult of Sin.

Akkadian godsakkadianbabylonianSin

Ea

Akkadian form of Enki. God of fresh waters (Apsu), wisdom, magic, and craftsmanship. Father of Marduk in the Enuma Elish — filial transmission of the demiurgic project from Eridu to Babylon.

Akkadian godsakkadianbabylonianEa

Anu

Akkadian form of An. Sky-father of the Akkadian-Babylonian pantheon, a receded nominal sovereign. Continues the Sumerian role, progressively eclipsed by Marduk from the 2nd millennium BCE.

Akkadian godsakkadianbabylonianAnu

Tiamat

Chaotic primordial sea of the Enuma Elish, Apsu's counterpart. Defeated by Marduk, her split body becomes sky and earth. Direct cosmological parallel to Canaanite Yam — both prior hypostases of the Demiurge, defeated by subsequent imperial theology.

Akkadian godsakkadianbabylonianTiamat

Marduk

Tutelary god of Babylon. Son/heir of Ea (Enki) who ascends to the apex of the Babylonian pantheon by defeating Tiamat in the Enuma Elish. In the game, continuation of Enki's demiurgic architecture on an imperial scale.

Akkadian godsakkadianbabylonianMarduk

Ishtar

Akkadian/Babylonian/Assyrian version of Inanna. Maintains the love/war paradox with a strongly marked martial emphasis. Goddess of the State, royalty, and astronomical Venus.

Akkadian godsAkkadianBabylonianAssyrian