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TRIAD OF HEAVEN

TRIAD OF HEAVEN

The three most important deities in the Mesopotmian pantheon during all periods were the gods An, Enlil, and Enki. An was identified with those of the equatorial sky, Enlil with those of the northern sky, and Enki with those of the southern sky.

AN
The divine personification of the sky, supreme God, and ancestors of all the deities in ancient Mesopotamian religion. Believed to be the supreme source of all authority, for the other gods and for all mortal rulers, and he is described to be the one, "who contains the entire universe".

He is identied with the north ecliptic pole centered in the constellation Draco and, along with his sons Enlil and Enki, constitutes the highest divine triad personifying the three bands of constellations of the vault of the sky.

Though he himself was rarely worshiped, and veneration's was instead devoted to his son Enlil, throughout Mesopotamian history, the highest deity in the pantheon was always said to possess the anutu, meaning "an-power". Anu's primary role in myths is as the ancestor of the Annunnaki.

His primary cult center was the Eanna temple in the city of Uruk, but, by the Akkadian Period (2334-2154 BC), his authority in Uruk had largely been ceded to the goddess Inanna.

ENLIL
The ancient Mesopotamian god of wind, air, earth, and storms. Considered as one of the gods in the supreme triad, along with Anu and Enki. Portrayed at the 'Lord of Air' he is the patron deity of the city of Nippur, and to them he was much more than a master of a singular elemental force. In fact, in various Mesopotamian inscriptions and tablets, he had been described with different exalted epithets, including the 'King of all lands', the 'father of black-headed people' (referring to Sumerians) and even the 'Father of Gods'.

This caused Enlil to often be protected as one of the most powerful deities who maintained his rebellious and often whimsically wrathful nature. It was Enlil who brought upon the great flood against humanity after being perturbed by their higher rate of fertility and the general 'noise' they made, which disturbed his sleep.

It was the God Enki who intervened and warns a human sage named Atrahasis who built an ark to save the humans from Enlil's wrath.

According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur. But his cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC.

There is also the story of Enlil and Ninlil about the serial seduction of the goddess Ninlil in various guises, resulting in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and the Underworld deities Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu.

ENKI
The god of water, knowledge, mischief, crafts, and creation. He was later known as EA in Akkadian and Babylonian mythology. He was originally patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites and Hurrians. Associated with the southern band of constellations called stars of Ea, but also with the constellation AS-IKU, the field (square of Pegasus).

Around the second millennium BC, he was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for "40", occasionally referred to as his "sacred number". The planet Mercury is also associated with Enki during Sumerian times.

There are a large number of myths about Enki, collected from various sites, stretching from Southern Iraq to the Levatine coast. He is mentioned in the earliest extant cuneiform inscriptions throughout the region and was prominent from the third millennium down to Hellenistic times.

The common translation of his name is, "Lord of the Earth"