The Assembly
The Pantheon
Sumerian religion was civic: each great god held a city and a portfolio, and the council met to ratify what the strongest among them had already decided.
An
Sky, kingship · Uruk
The remote father of the assembly. He grants authority and rarely acts; by the second millennium his decisions are largely delegated to Enlil.
Enki
Fresh water, craft, cunning · Eridu
Shaper of humans from clay and blood, keeper of the me — the ordinances of civilisation. He warns Atrahasis of the flood by speaking to a reed wall.
Enlil
Wind, storm, decree · Nippur
Holder of the Tablet of Destinies and the executive will of the council. He sends the flood when humankind grows too loud to let the gods sleep.
Ereshkigal
The underworld · Kur
Queen of the land of no return, where the dead eat dust. Even the Anunnaki who judge there sit at her pleasure.
Inanna
Love, war, the evening star · Uruk
The most restless of the Anunnaki. She takes the me from a drunken Enki and descends to the underworld, passing seven gates and surrendering something at each.
Nanna
The moon, calendars · Ur
Called Sin in Akkadian. His crescent measured the month; his great ziggurat at Ur still stands in outline on the plain.