Mastering Mardukite Mesopotamian Mythology
A Brief Anunnaki Directory (Quick-Study) – PART TWO
edited by Joshua Free for Liber-52

[See mardukite.com for PART ONE]

BAU [“To Accompany”] — A daughter of ANU, who is the official spouse (consort) to NINURTA in the pre-Babylonian (Sumerian) pantheon. Her names GULA (“Big One”) and BAU (the sound a dog makes) are, perhaps idioms about her size/appearance. She remains a goddess in the Babylonian pantheon of healing (as NINTI-NUGGA).

DUMUZI [“Son Who is Life”] — The youngest son of ENKI and DUTTUR (a concubine of ENKI) who is the betrothed spouse (consort) to INANNA (ISHTAR) after MARDUK declines the tradition of espousing INANNA. DAMUZI is a shepherd god (as opposed to a grain deity), known as TAMMUZ in the Semitic languages. In the Sumerian version of the descent-cycle, INANNA descends to the Underworld in hopes of being its queen. When captured, she becomes a prisoner of her sister ERESHKIGAL and leaves to find someone to take her place. Upon returning to ERECH, she finds that DUMUZI has been celebrating his ascent to her throne and is not mourning for her death. Enraged, she immediately hands him over to the ‘demons’ of the Underworld. Later versions of this cycle depict the god MARDUK as somehow responsible for the death of DUMUZI and INANNA (ISHTAR) descends to the Underworld to release him.

EL – A Semitic form of the Akkadian (Babylonian) ILU or ILI, meaning ‘Lofty Ones’, ‘High Ones’ or ‘Great Gods’; the plural form being ILANI (or ELANI in European Elvish-Faerie lore), with a Semitic plural equivalent “Elohim”, meaning literally ‘gods’ but often used to denote the ‘One God’ in the Judeo-Christian Old Testament (which is, itself, rooted strongly in Mesopotamian traditions). EL or BEL is also used to denote the ‘Lord of the Earth-Space’, or else ‘ENLIL-SHIP’, a position attributed not only to ENLIL (in the Enlilite Sumerian tradition) but also to NINURTA, MARDUK and even other patron deities by localized Middle Eastern cults. Later Semitic use of EL as a suffix (e.g., Michael, Gabriel, etc.) matches the prefix use of the ILU sign in cuneiform, meaning “Of God.” In cuneiform, the sign is a “cross” and in later religious scriptures and rites, the literary tradition remained to place a cross before a Divine or saint name.

ENKI {40} “Lord of the Earth” – also known as E.A. [“Whose Home is Water”], firstborn son of ANU (but not the official heir), half-brother to ENLIL (heir of ANU). Also called NUDIMMUD (or PTAH in Egypt) meaning: “The Fashioner” (or “Grand Designer”). ENKI is the Chief scientist of the Anunnaki, taking up residence in Eridu, near the Persian Gulf and also in Africa (particularly Egypt). ENKI is the father of MARDUK, begot with NINKI (DAMKINA) and is representative of the planet Neptune in the local Anunnaki ‘world order’. ENKI is given control of the ‘Waters of Life’ on Earth. He seeks to save his own (‘Mardukite‘) legacy during the deluge and then is responsible for programming the arts and sciences of civilization into humanity. In later Enlilite-derived Judeo-Christian interpretations, ENKI becomes demonized as ‘Satan’.

ENLIL {50} “Lord of Air-Space” — The official heir-son of ANU, ‘Lord of the Command’ on Earth, revered as the ‘God’ of Earth by Enlilite Sumerians and later derived Semitic (Hebrew) traditions. ENLIL begets his own heir, NINURTA, by his half-sister NINHURSAG, but espouses SUD, renamed NINLIL and begets NANNA. In the pre-Babylonian paradigm, ENLIL is the Jupiter position in the pantheon that is later usurped by MARDUK. Sumerian tradition observes ENLIL as the ‘Father’ to the Anunnaki pantheon, much in the same way that ENKI is revered by the Mardukites. Prominent descendents of ENLIL include: NANNA, SAMAS, INANNA and NERGAL in addition to NINURTA.

…to be continued.