Pantheons

Important Terms

• Pantheon

• Polytheism

• Monotheism

• Anthropomorphism

• Theriomorphism

Pantheons of the World

• Greco-Roman• Mesopotamian (Akkadian/Sumerian/Bablyonian)

• Egyptian• Norse (Icelandic/Scandinavian/Germanic)• Indian (Hindu)• North American• Israelite (Bible)• Sub-Saharan Africa (Mali, Uganda)• Others: Aztec, Mayan, Japanese, Chinese

Pantheons of MythologyMap/Geography Quiz on Pantheons (Sept. 27th)

The Greek Pantheon

For information on the Greco-Roman deities, see http://department.monm.edu/classics/Courses/CLAS230/MythDocuments/Pantheon/Pantheon.htm

Mesopotamian Pantheon(Akkadian / Sumerian / Babylonian)

Adad An (Anu)  Apsu Dagon Ea Ereshkigal Humbaba Inanna IshtarMarduk  Tiamat For quick ID's see: http://fullmoon_deities.tripod.com/mesopotamian.htmlAnother good site:: http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa102197.htm

Mesopotamian gods slay a fiery seven-headed dragon. The image is from a cylinder seal (cf.  fig.16.Alexander Heidel. The Babylonian Genesis, The Story of Creation. 1942, 1951. University of Chicago Press. Reprint 1993)

Inanna (Sumerian)

The Sumerian goddess of love, fertility, and war. One of the most important goddesses of the Sumerian pantheon.

= Ishtar (Babylonian)

Ishtar in the middle of Gods holding the lionsceptre and a scimitar.

Huwawa [Humbaba]

Huwawa [Humbaba], the Mesopotamian Forest God, who originated in a time when there were still forests to be protected. He was later betrayed and slain by his one-time friend Enkidu and Enkidu's new ally, the warrior-king Gilgamesh (Terracotta relief, c. 2000 BCE) [From Time/Life's series, MYTH AND MANKIND: Epics of Early Civilization: Middle Eastern Myth, 1998:80]

Dagon/ Oannes

An ancient Mesopotamian vegetation god. Mesopotamian amphibious being who taught mankind wisdom. Oannes, as described by the Babylonian priest Berosus, had the form of a fish but with the head of a man under his fish's head and under his fish's tail the feet of a man. In the daytime he came up to the seashore of the Persian Gulf and instructed mankind in writing, the arts, and the sciences. Oannes was probably the emissary of Ea, god of the freshwater deep and of wisdom.

Ea/Enki

Ea (Akkadian), Sumerian Enki, Mesopotamian god of water and a member of the triad of deities completed by Anu (Sumerian An) and Bel (Enlil). From a local deity worshiped in the city of Eridu, Ea the "patron god of music" evolved into a major god, Lord of Apsu (also spelled Abzu), the fresh waters beneath the earth (although Enki means literally "lord of the earth"). In the Sumerian myth, "Enki and the World Order," Enki is said to have fixed national boundaries and assigned gods their roles. According to another Sumerian myth Enki is the creator, having devised men as slaves to the gods. In his original form, as Enki, he was associated with semen and amniotic fluid, and therefore with fertility. He was commonly represented as a half-goat, half-fish creature, from which the modern astrological figure for Capricorn is derived. He is also identified with Oannes. He sometimes the head of a ram and the body of a fish.

The story of Inanna, like Ishtar the mother/bride of Tammuz worshiped by the women in the Jerusalem temple, has her getting Ea drunk.

Ea/Enki

Clylinder seal impression showing the Mesopotamian "god of Wisdom," called Ea (Aya, Ayya or Enki) with two streams of water pouring forth from his shoulders. Ea warned the Mesopotamian Noah, Utnapishtim of Shuruppak of the coming Flood advising him to build himself an ark for his family and animals. On the 7th day of the Flood, the SEBITTU DAY, Ea rested with ALL the other gods, the Flood having destroyed mankind who's noise and clamor had earlier prevented the gods from resting by day or sleeping by night.

Marduk and Tiamat

The Babylonian diety Marduk eventuallysupplants all the other gods. In one myth he slays Tiamat, the god of primeval chaos.

The Egyptian Pantheon

For more information, see http://www.touregypt.net/godsofegypt/index.htm

ReOsiris Isis

Horus

Anubis

Hathor

Amun

Atum

The Norse Pantheon(also Viking / Scandinavian / Germanic)

Balder (Balker) FreyaFreyrFrigLokiNjordOdin (Woden)ThorTyrFor quick ID's see: http://

fullmoon_deities.tripod.com/norse.html

1- Woden- Death, poetry, victory2- Thor- Thunder and war3- Tyr- War4- Loki- Evil and fire5- Balker- Light and beauty6- Frey- Sun of fertility7- Idum- Eternal youth

The Hindu Pantheon

Agni

BrahmaGanesh Indra Krishna

ShivaVishnuRama

North America

• Raven (Pacific Northwest)

• Tawa(Hopi)

The Hopi Creation Myth

Israelite (Bible)YahwehElohim

Subsaharan Africa

• MaliAmma (Dogon) Pemba (Bambara)

• UgandaKintuMugulu /Mukulu

For more African deities, see:

http://fullmoon_deities.tripod.com/african.html