THE SUN VS THE PHOENIX AND THE STORM BIRD ZU

THE AETOS DIOS was a giant, golden eagle which served as Zeus' personal messenger and animal companion. According to some, the eagle was once a mortal king ...
www.theoi.com/Ther/AetosDios.html

Ancient History question: Why does the eagle symbolize Zeus? because the eagle symbolized authority from the sky.
wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_does_the_eagle_symbolize_Zeus

Ancient History question: Why is the eagle a symbol of Zeus? Zeus is the father of gods/ goddesses and man kind and he rules the sky, weather, law, ...
wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_the_eagle_a_symbol_of_Zeus

Although Zeus was well known for his dalliances with various women (and thus infuriating his wife, the goddess Hera), Zeus didn't limit himself to young ...
atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/religion/blgrk_zeus11.htm

The eagle said to Zeus, 'Twice my eggs have been destroyed; this time, I am leaving them here under your protection.' When the beetle found out what the ...
www.mythfolklore.net/aesopica/oxford/153.htm

zeus helmet, war helmet, goddess of wisdom: Hello Dan, The statue you describe is Athena. Only two goddesses were portrayed in a sitting position.
en.allexperts.com/q/Mythology-658/Eagle-staff.htm

by D. J. Conway - 2005 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 253 pages
White Eagle of Zeus The Greek god Zeus had a special messenger he often used: a beautiful, gigantic white eagle whose feathers glowed. ...
books.google.com/books?isbn=1564148335...

Zeus' main attribute is the Thunderbolt, which he received from the Cyclopes. The Eagle is Zeus' bird. An Eagle was seen by Zeus as an omen for attacking ...
www.library.csi.cuny.edu/siias/greekgods.html

Jul 3, 2006 ... Zeus condemned Prometheus to having his liver eaten by a giant eagle for giving the Flames of Olympus to the mortals. ...

NOTE: RECENTLY I WROTE ABOUT BOTH THE SUN AND IT'S DANGERS AND APOLLO WHO IS VERY PROMINENT IN THE BIBLE ESPECIALLY IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION

4-22-09 - TOWARD THE END OF TIME
IT'S THE DANGER OF THE SUN

4-7-09 - THE RIGHT HAND OF APOLLO
The sign in the Heavens has appeared!
This is the one from Rev. 12

STORM BIRD ZU

In Sumero-Akkadian mythology, Zu is a divine storm-bird and the personification of the southern wind and the thunder clouds. This demon, half man and half bird, stole the "Tablets of Destiny" from Enlil and hid them on a mountaintop. Anu ordered the other gods to retrieve the tablets, even though they all feared the demon. According to one text, Marduk killed the bird, but in another text it died through the arrows of the god Ninurta. The bird is also referred to as Imdugud or Anzu.

http://echoes.devin.com/watchers/pazuzu.html

Stela 60 of the Mayans.depicts one of the Hero Twins standing over a fallen Bird Deity. The carvings and orientation of Group A indicate that this Bird Deity represents the Big Dipper to the north, rising and falling over Tacana volcano. In the Maya Creation Myth, the Big Dipper is Seven Macaw, the vain and false ruler of the previous World Age. The Hero Twins facilitated his downfall so that their father, One Hunahpu (a SOLAR lord), could be resurrected. Given the viewing orientation of the viewing seats and anyone standing in front of Stela 60, we are justified in suspecting that the solar rebirth will be found happening over the solstice horizon. And the December solstice itself is the rebirth of the sun in the annual cycle. But the Creation Myth, which is the subject of these carvings, is concerned with the shifting of World Ages, implying we must be sensitive to recognizing a much larger cycle of solar rebirth (a new “Sun” or “Age”). >> [End of excerpt] The "fallen Bird Deity" seemed coincidental. This seems to be the same as the Sumerian/Babylonian, "Storm Bird Zu," who had stolen the tablets with the fates of men. Marduke, who was given the title, "Lord," was the demiurge hero who chased down the Storm Bird Zu and retrieved the tablets.

In the earlier version, it was apparently Marduk's father, Ea/Enki, who defeated the Storm Bird Zu. This bird actually looks like a man with wings, i.e., the prototype for Satan.

See Pazuzu below

From: http://www.greatdreams.com/432.htm

Great Central Valley
September, 1993

After composing a hand-written essay about my experiences, and sending copies two weeks ago to John Crowe, of the COSMINAR organization in Essex, England, and two other people, I am now surprised to read that a crop formation appeared called the Bythorn Mandala.

I recognized it immediately as one of the symbols in Tantric Way: Art, Science, Ritual. It is on page 35, and called a "Shyama (Kali) Yantra." The crop formation is not exactly like the one in the book, but it is quite similar. The one in the book is similar to the Sri Yantra, except there is a five-pointed star inside instead of the complex pattern of overlapping triangles. The inner part is quite like the crop formation, except the crop formation had ten petals instead of eight, as in the book. The five-pointed star in the crop formation was inside a pentagon. This is very similar to the symbol of the third chakra, which is represented by a ten-petal lotus flower. This may be related to the ten horns of the beast in Revelation 17, as the harlot clearly has the same meaning as Kali.

Kali evokes the feeling of tamasisk, which means fury. The kings of the earth become drunk on the wine of the harlot, which causes fury. In dreams the fury is often symbolized by a storm. In the Babylonian myths, the demiurge hero, Marduke, chased down the Storm Bird, Zu, who had stolen the tablets with the fates of men, and retrieved the tablets. In other words, the anger causes one's fate to be controlled from elsewhere. Birds, according to Joseph Campbell, symbolize the descent of the Deity into the field of time. Nowadays, I think, such birds can be represented by airplanes.

My dreams indicate that the demiurge gods, such as Marduke, represent the consciousness gestalt of mankind, sometimes symbolized by the swastika. The myth of Marduke and the Storm Bird suggests that eventually the human race will overcome the problem of having their fates stolen via the storm of anger.

FROM: http://www.greatdreams.com/Events/9_11_01/Amertrag.htm

See also: KALI: http://www.greatdreams.com/kali.htm

and: http://www.greatdreams.com/sacred/age_kali.htm

and: http://www.greatdreams.com/anger.htm

PAZUZU - ZU - ANZU

Sumer/Babylon: Pazuzu

Not much is known about Pazuzu -- or Zu, as he is sometimes called. According to one web site, "This little-known demon from Babylonian myth was represented as a very thin, emaciated man with the feet and wings of an eagle, and the forepaws and head of a lion. He is nearly always shown with the right paw raised and the left held at his side.

"The demon first appeared in early Babylonian myth in the guise of the 'storm-bird' Zu, who stole the Tablets of Destiny from the dragoness Tiamat. In the later Babylonian civilization, he once again appeared, this time under the name of Pazuzu, and was said to be the child of the chief wind-demon, Hanpa. When Pazuzu is summoned by worshippers, he appears in a statuesque form, frozen into the position described above. However, he metamorphoses out of the statue form to his living form. In this form, he is fully capable of movement."

The Yezidi tribes of Kurdistan, who worship a Watcherlike god called Malek Taus, or the Peacock Angel, tell a very similar story to the one about Zu and Tiamat. In their mythology, a creature -- who is half-lion, half-eagle -- called Imdugud, or Anzu. "This monster was said to have stolen the Tablets of Destiny from the god Enlil (Ellil) in Akkadian which, in its possession, gave 'him power over the Universe as controller of the fates of all,' enough to endanger 'the stability of civilization,'" Andrew Collins writes in his book "From the Ashes of Angels."

According to wikipedia, "Although Pazuzu was a malevolent force, his image was used on amulets to ward off his enemy Lamashtu, a female demon that preyed on newborn babies and their mothers. The amulet was either placed on the mother or child or larger ones were placed above them on a wall."

In his essay, "The Demon of the South-West Wind," Stephen Sennitt writes, "In his erudite book, 'The Domain of Devils,' Eric Marple describes the wind demon as the most terrible of all demonic entities, having the power to spread loathsome diseases with his dry, fiery breath. The demo has 'for a head the almost fleshless skull of a dog,' representing death, disease, and as the fleshless death's-head of the desert scavenger, starvation. Significantly, william Woods states in his 'History of the Devil,' 'in Mesopotamia, the horned demon, Pazuzu, rode on the wind and carried malaria,' thus emphasizing the demon's destructive role as 'lord of fevers and plagues.'"

It is interesting to put Pazuzu alongside Watcher myths, and compare his protectiveness of women, as well as his ability to bring massive plagues, to the Watchers story in the Book of Enoch.

THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS AND ARTICLES ARE FROM EBAY.COM SALES PAGES.
THESE STATUE COPIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SALE THERE.

PAZUZU DEMON

Stone-cast statue, black hydrostone, 210 mm tall (8.25") 130 mm wingspanZ

Reproduction of the ancient Sumerian-Babylonian tomb guardian Pazuzu, elemental demon of wind and pestilence. As archetypal monster, it incorporates a composite of astrological characteristics and is portrayed with horns, serpentine face, the wings of an eagle, the legs and paws of a lion and scorpion tail.

The oldest of all demons, Pazuzu is first to appear in the Western tradition and responsible for a plethora of demons, devils and genies in the cultures which follow.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

As personification of the "evil wind that brings pestilence," Pazuzu is one of the famous Seven Sumerian Demons dispatched upon a hapless earth by the celestial dragononess Tiamat during her epic battle with the solar deity Marduk. In the form of the Demon Storm-Bird Zu, Pazuzu achieved heroic status for stealing the Tablets of Destiny from Tiamat. According to the Sumerian chronicles, the Seven Demons represent the elemental forces which assaulted the world during the terrible cataclysm attending the Great Flood.

Because tradition held that Pazuzu once opposed a powerful demonic goddess, icons of Pazuzu were used for warding off all evil forces. Until late Babylonian times, Pazuzu was worn as an amulet, set on household shelves and placed next to sleeping children to guard them from Lamashtu, a female demon who preyed upon babies and their mothers.

Statuettes like this were also left in tombs to protect the dead which, at the same time, conferred a relative immortality on the benevolent demon. Pazuzu’s protective presence on the eaves of ancient temples is still echoed today by the misshapen winged gargoyles clutching the roof-tops of Medieval churches and Gothic buildings.

TABLETS OF DESTINY

In Mesopotamian mythology, the Tablet of Destinies (not, as frequently misquoted in general works, the 'Tablets of Destinies') was envisaged as a clay tablet inscribed with cuneiform writing, also impressed with cylinder seals, which, as a permanent legal document, conferred upon the god Enlil his supreme authority as ruler of the universe.

In the Sumerian poem 'Ninurta and the Turtle' it is the god Enki, rather than Enlil, who holds the tablet. Both this poem and the Akkadian Anzû poem concern the theft of the tablet by the bird Imdugud (Sumerian) or Anzû (Akkadian). Supposedly, whoever possessed the tablet ruled the universe. In the Babylonian Enuma Elish, Tiamat bestows this tablet on Qingu (in some instances spelled "Kingu") and gives him command of her army. Marduk, the chosen champion of the gods, then fights and destroys Tiamat and her army. Marduk reclaims the Tablet of Destinies for himself, thereby legitimating his rule among the gods, but turns it over to Anu as a gift in Tablet V of the epic.

The tablet can be compared with the concept of the Me, divine decrees.

FROM LOSTHISTORY.COM IS THIS:

Zeus - [ENKI] Steals the Tablets of Destiny

It appears that Ensuhgirana wasn't as complacent as he let on because another tale, Lugal-Banda in the Mountain Cave, also called Lugal-Banda and Mount Hurrum, begins with Enmerkar preparing an expedition against Aratta, "the mountain of the holy divine powers", for rebelling against him. The troops wait for five days before they enter the mountains, on the sixth day they washed to purify themselves, and on the seventh day they entered the mountains. Half way there his eighth general, Lugal-Banda, got a sickness in the head that caused him to jerk around like a gazelle caught in a snare. He began to slow them down; they wanted to bring him back to Uruk, but didn't know how they could, so they found a mountain cave and made a camp for him. They left him an axe and a dagger, plenty of food and beer and suspended some incense and other healing resins around his head, but Lugal-Banda soon become unresponsive. His brothers counseled each other, saying that if he rises again like Utu the sun god, then the food would help him walk again and maybe enable him to journey back to Uruk, but if Utu called their brother to the holy "valued" place, then it would be up to them to carry his body on their journey back. Then the men left.

For two days he sat and perspired heavily, then he began to cry, telling Utu that there was no one there to feel sorry for him and asking that he not die lost in the mountains like a weakling. Utu accepted his tears and sent down some divine encouragement. Inanna appeared before Lugal-Banda and the general began to cry as if before is own father. Inanna accepted his tears and enveloped him like a woolen garment, then disappeared back to Uruk. The moon then came out an illuminated the cave and Lugal-Banda cried out to the moon god's sense of justice and hatred of evil. Suen (Nanna) accepted his tears as well and Lugal-Banda was able to walk. The next day he praised Utu and the moon god's wife Ningal before leaving the cave. Thanks to a god who took council with Enlil (probably Utu or Ningal) life saving plants began to grow and life saving water started to flow from the hills' rivers. Lugal-Banda then left the cave to hunt for food. While out he started a fire by striking two stones together. Then, without even knowing how to bake cakes with an oven, he baked some dough and garnished it with syrup from some roots he stripped. He then caught a wild brown bull and two goats either by trap or ambush. Then, with the help of some beer and white linen sheet, he went to sleep:

The king lay down not to sleep, he lay down to dream -- not turning back at the door of the dream, not turning back at the door-pivot. To the liar it talks in lies, to the truthful it speaks truth. It can make one man happy, it can make another man sing, but it is the closed tablet-basket of the gods. It is the beautiful bedchamber of Ninlil, it is the counselor of Inanna. The multiplier of mankind, the voice of one not alive -- Zangara, the god of dreams, himself like a bull, bellowed at Lugal-Banda.

Zangara told him in his dream to sacrifice the bull and goats and to pour out the blood so that the snakes could smell it, so when Lugal-Banda awoke he wrestled the bull to the ground and did just that. The best parts of the bull were burned so that An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursag could feast on them.

At this point the text becomes more and more fragmented. Following this there is a description of some demons:

They are gazelles of Suen running in flight, they are the fine smooth cloths of Ninlil, they are the helpers of Ishkur; they pile up flax, they pile up barley; they are wild animals on the rampage, they descend like a storm on a rebel land hated by Suen, indeed they descend like a storm.

It is also said that these helpers of Ishkur sing out in the dead of night, sneak into homes to nestle at peoples' bedsides, and tie door pivots together. The story then moves on to the elders of city, who seem to have been able to enter the presence of the Anunnaki to confirm the power of the foreign lands. Then there is mention of ¹⁴ torch-bearers standing in battle. They pursue like wildfire, flash together like lightning and roar loudly like a great flood rising up in the storm of battle. Seven of these men are favored by Inanna, who wears a crown under a clear sky, and they stand proudly in battle as the holy shining battle-mace of An reaches to the edge of heaven and earth. Utu, who is called "the just god who stands alongside men", then walks out from his chamber. There is then some dialogue regarding evil gods with evil hearts who are the interpreters of spoken evil and spy on the righteous gods. Here the text of the first segment ends and it is unknown if the second undecipherable segment of the tablet belongs to the same composition or not, but the story is continued in another text.

Lugal-Banda and the Anzu bird, alternatively known as Lugal-Banda and Enmerkar, opens with Lugal-Banda still lost deep within the Zabu mountains. He gets an idea to go and talk to the Anzu bird and to treat him and his wife respectfully. He figures that An will fetch Ninkasi, the beer goddess, who will help him get the Anzu bird drunk so that it can help him find his brothers, the troops of Uruk.

There are references to the Anzu bird in the other two stories of Enmerkar, but this is the first one that goes into detail about it. It is described as having sharks teeth and eagle's claws and is so huge it hunts bulls. Its cry is said to shake the mountains and most likely represents thunder. This is most likely the origin of the mythical roc of Persian and Arabian lore. In the Sumerian language, Anzu was spelled Imdugud; it was only later found that it's name was pronounced Anzu, or Zu. In Babylonia and Assyria they were believed to be wind demons called Pazuzu (one of which who made an silhouette appearance in The Exorcist).

While the Anzu bird is away hunting, Lugal-Banda sneaks into it's nest and carefully makes celestial cakes for it's chicks. He then paints their eyes and puts crowns on their heads. When the chicks' parents come home, they at first think that someone stole the chicks and cry out so loudly that the noise reaches up to the gods and below to the abzu. But when they see how the chicks have been exulted, he cries out:

"I am the prince who decides the destiny of rolling rivers. I keep on the straight and narrow path the righteous who follow Enlil's counsel. My father Enlil brought me here. He let me bar the entrance to the mountains as if with a great door. If I fix a fate, who shall alter it? If I but say the word, who shall change it? Whoever has done this to my nest, if you are a god, I will speak with you, indeed I will befriend you. If you are a man, I will fix your fate. I shall not let you have any opponents in the mountains. You shall be 'Hero-fortified-by-Anzu'."

Lugal-Banda makes his appearance and "partly from fright, partly from delight" begins flattering the giant bird. He starts telling them that they're eyes are sparkling and how their wingspan is like a bird net stretched across the sky. He says that yesterday he escaped safely because of the Anzu bird and so leaves his destiny in their hands, naming the Anzu bird father and the bird's wife mother. Anzu then tries to get out of the promise he gave and offers several bargains in exchange: a boatload of precious metals and food, the power to shoot arrows that never miss, the Lion of Battle helmet (which gave courage to it's wearer) and finally the Milk of Dumuzi. To each of these offers the author replies: "Lugal-Banda who loves the seed will not accept this." Apparently, being 'Hero-fortified-by-Anzu' is not a power to be trifled with because the Anzu bird is worried about living up to his word and giving it to Lugal-Banda, saying that an ass should be kept on the straight path.

Lugal-Banda the pure answers him: "Let the power of running be in my thighs, let me never grow tired! Let there be strength in my arms, let me stretch my arms wide, let my arms never become weak! Moving like the sunlight, like Inanna, like the seven storms, those of Ishkur, let me leap like a flame, blaze like lightning! Let me go wherever I look to, set foot wherever I cast my glance, reach wherever my heart desires and let me loosen my shoes in whatever place my heart has named to me! When Utu lets me reach Kulaba [Uruk] my city, let him who curses me have no joy thereof; let him who wishes to strive with me never say "Just let him come!" I shall have the woodcarvers fashion statues of you, and you will be breathtaking to look upon. Your name will be made famous thereby in Sumer and will redound to the credit of the temples of the great gods."

Anzu gives in and bestows his powers on Lugal-Banda, at least satisfied that Lugal-Banda will have wooden idols of him carved out for the Sumerians. The Anzu bird then helped Lugal-Banda find his troops but told him not to say anything about him or the fate he fixed on him. When Lugal-Banda gets back to his brothers, we learn that he was abandoned as killed in battle. They ask how he was able to survive and cross the rivers and Lugal-Banda just replies that he walked over them or drank them. His companions then embrace and kiss him and give him food and drink. The troops then moved on, following the river until they finally reached their target: Aratta.

The army put the city under siege for an entire year. Enmerkar, the leader of the troops is well worried about it and can't find anyone who wants to go back to Uruk because they're all afraid they'll get lost, but then Lugal-Banda volunteers. Enmerkar makes him swear by heaven and earth that he will go along and not drop any of their great emblems. Enmerkar then summons an assembly and begins to question himself and the goddess Inanna in front of them:

"My troops are bound to me as a cow is bound to its calf; but like a son who, hating his mother, leaves his city, my princely sister Inanna the pure has run away from me back to brick-built Kulaba [Uruk]. If she loves her city and hates me, why does she bind the city to me? If she hates the city and yet loves me, why does she bind me to the city? If the mistress removes herself from me to her holy chamber, and abandons me like an Anzu chick, then may she at least bring me home to brick-built Kulaba: on that day my spear shall be laid aside. On that day she may shatter my shield. Speak thus to my princely sister, Inanna the pure."

Lugal-Banda's brothers ask to join him on his journey but he refuses despite great insistence. Lugal-Banda crossed the seven mountains and at midnight entered the temple of Inanna and prostrated himself before her offering table. Inanna asked why he had come all alone form Aratta. Lugal-Banda recites Enmerkar's depressing soliloquy and Inanna tells him that if Enmerkar catches the tamarisk, a type of freshwater fish, and sacrifices it, the a-an-kara weapon, Inanna's battle-strength, will be given to his army and that will put an end to the subterranean waters that give strength to Aratta. Inanna finishes saying, "If he carries off from the city its worked metal and smiths, if he carries off its worked stones and its stonemasons, if he renews the city and settles it, all the moulds of Aratta will be his." With the solution found, the text ends with a praise for Lugal-Banda. The open-ended finish to the story seems to indicate that there is a third text that concludes the epic. It has been said that Lugal-Banda is supposed to kill the Anzu bird but this may be an assumption since Lugal-Banda's name is inherited by a god who also meets up with an Anzu.

An Anzu bird (?) picking fruit from the Tree of Life

The Anzu bird takes on a much more negative role in Akkadian Myth of Anzu. The text begins with praises for Ninurta, already revealing that he defeated Anzu and also saying that he defeated the bull-man inside the sea and raised a dais for the lesser Igiggi. Enlil and Enki watch the Anzu bird, whose wings bring the South Wind, and whose body was like 11 coats of mail. Enki concluded that it had been conceived from the holy abzu and born out of the broad earth and suggested that it serve Enlil. Enlil made the Anzu an extra fate and appointed him the guardian of his chambers. This included guarding over the Tablets of Destiny, which gave Enlil the power to decree fate. These tablets identify Enlil as the current head of the pantheon instead of the heaven god. The air god seems to have replaced An, or Anu (His Akkadian name), sometime around 2500 B.C. Although earlier stories tell of the Tablets of Destiny giving Anu-power, the tablets here are said to confer Enlil-power.

Every day the Tablets of Destiny tempted the storm bird, so one day while Enlil was bathing in the holy waters, Anzu stole the tablets and flew off. Enlil's chamber was stripped of it's radiance and silence reigned. Enlil summoned his son Adad, or Hadad, the Akkadian name for Ishkur. But the "controller of the canals" only told his father that the Anzu was now undefeatable and that the gods would have to tremble at his utterance from now on. The gods next proposed Gerra, god of fire and the son of Anu, and then Shara, the son of Ishtar (Inanna), but both of them repeated Adad's refusal. Enki suggested that they let him pick the Anzu's conqueror and the Igiggi kissed his feet for taking up the cause. He called Mami (Ninmah) and just like in the Akkadian Creation story asked that her name be changed to Mistress of all the Gods. Enki asked the birth goddess if she would allow her most beloved son, Ninurta, to do the task. She agreed and the gods rejoiced at her decision.

Ninurta attacks the Anzu bird

The second tablet opens with a long soliloquy about poisoning arrows and slitting the throat of Anzu. Ninurta marshaled the "Seven of Battle", which are said to be the seven evil winds. He and Anzu met on a mountainside and the storm bird bared it's teeth and insolently shouted, " I have taken away every single rite, and I am in charge of all the gods' orders! Who are you, to come to do battle against me? Give your reasons!" Ninurta replied that he was the avenger of Enlil, who established the temple of Duranki ("Bond of Heaven and Earth") in Nippur. The Anzu caused darkness to fall on the mountain and Ninurta began shooting arrows at him, but using the Tablets of Destiny, it caused the arrows to turn back into a reed, or the feathers back into birds, or the bowstring string back into a ram's gut. Using his magical mace Shurur, Ninurta contacts Enki, who relays a plan to him. Enki then promises that once he defeated the Anzu his worship would be established over the four quarters. When Ninurta hears this, he brought out the "Seven of Battle", the seven evil winds, and the gales went silent.

The first three lines of the third tablet are fragmentary but the story returns with both combatants bathed in the sweat of battle. The Anzu grew tired as Enki predicted and Ninurta follows his instructions precisely. When the Anzu's wings slump down in fatigue, Ninurta cuts them off. Just as the Anzu wishes for his wings to grow back, Ninurta lets loose an arrow at it's heart. The feathers on the arrow grow and pierce it's heart and lungs, killing it. Ninurta got back the Tablets of Destiny and the wind carried the great bird's feathers as a sign of good news. Ninurta returns the Tablets of Destiny and for slaying the mountain is given complete dominion and every single rite. Among the 15 titles that are bestowed upon him are: Duku ("Holy mound" in Sumerian), Hurabtil (an Elamite god), Shushinak (patron god of the Elamite city Susa), Zababa of Kish, the warrior Tishpak, and also Lugal-Banda. The text ends going through a long list of aliases Ninurta is known by throughout the lands.

This legend seems to be designed as a response to the belief that Enlil had been replaced as king of the gods. The account is paralleled in the creation story of the Greeks. Though there are something like six accounts of how the Greek gods were born, probably the most popular account is from Theogony, written by the Greek poet Hesiod, who lived sometime around the 600 or 700s B.C.:

In the beginning there was only Chaos, the oldest of the gods, a shapeless mass of darkness and meaninglessness, said to be formed out of mist. Out of the Chaos came Nyx (Night; a great black bird), Erebus (Primeval abyss) and Tartarus. Nyx and Erebus joined and Nyx laid an egg that hatched into Eros (Cupid; Love). From Eros came Light and Day. Once there was Light and Day, Mother Earth, or Gaea, appeared. The Greeks pronounced her name Ge; easily comparable to Ki, the Sumerian earth mother. The Romans called her Terra, from which we get the words terran and terrain.

Uranus, the god of heaven, was born of Gaea as she slept. He became her husband, and together they had many children. Their first-born children were hecatonchires, monsters with 50 heads and 100 hands, and the cyclopses, giants with one eye. The second born children were the titans. Uranus feared that his powerful sons might topple him from his position as Lord of the Universe so he cast the titans and hecatonchires into Tartarus, an underworld as far from Earth as Heaven was. Gaea was upset that Uranus had imprisoned them so she turned for help to her youngest, Chronos ("Chronology"), god of time and the upper sky. Chronos hated his father's evil deeds as much as his mother so he ambushed his father while he was making love to the earth, castrated him with a jagged sickle, and threw his genitalia into the sea. This mixed with the sea water to create Aphrodite (Inanna), who is attended by Eros and Desire as well as some other goddesses as she enters the assembly of the gods. In other myths Aphrodite was the mother of Eros. The blood from the wound created the Erinyes (Furies), Giants, and Melian nymphs. After this more violent separation of Heaven and Earth, Chronos takes his place as Lord of the Universe.

The era that Cronus ruled was called as the Golden Age, but that was not because the gods were peaceful and just. The Titans ("Strainers") were so named because Uranus believed that they wrongfully inflected terror and would one day pay for it. (Outside of Theogony, it has also been said that Ti-ta-an can be read "Those who live in Heaven" in Sumerian.) Nyx then gives birth to hateful Doom, black Fate, Death, and she bore Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And though she lay with no one, Nyx give birth to Blame, Woe, the Hesperide nymphs, the Destinies, and the three ruthless Fates: Clotho the Spinner, who spins the thread of man's life; Lachesis, Disposer of Lots, who assigns each man his destiny; and Atropos, who cuts the threads of life. The three Fates gave men at their birth both good and evil to choose from. Nyx also gave birth to Nemesis (Indignation), Deceit and Friendship, hateful Age, and hard-hearted Strife. Strife bore Toil, Forgetfulness, Famine, Sorrow, Fighting, Battles, Murders, Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness, Ruin and the worst of all Oath, who troubles those who swear falsely. Theogony then goes into a long list of gods, heroes, and monsters with paternities and short biographies.

Gaea was sorely disappointed to discover that Chronos had no intention of releasing his 100-handed brothers from their dark prison. Chronos married the titan Rhea and together they had Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Poseidon, and the pitiless Hades. Uranus and Gaea prophesied his own son would dethrone him so each time Rhea gave birth Chronos swallowed the newborn god. Determined to protect her sixth child from his father, Rhea gave birth in secret. She named the infant Zeus and sent him to the island of Crete, to be raised by nymphs. Then, pretending to obey her husband's command, Rhea wrapped a stone in a blanket and carried it to Chronos, who swallowed it without any notice. When Rhea thought Zeus was strong enough to challenge Chronos, she told him about his five brothers and sisters trapped inside his father's body and how he narrowly escaped the same fate. With the help of Gaea, Zeus forced his father to regurgitate his five brothers and sisters, as well as the stone (which was taken to Delphi). His children, who were led by their youngest brother, Zeus, waged war against him. However, Chronos was backed by most of his brothers and sisters, the titans. The war between the Olympians and the Titans was so terrible that it nearly destroyed the universe. When the titan Prometheus ("Forethought") could see that Zeus and his siblings were destined to win this war against Chronos, he abandoned his brothers and sisters and joined Zeus. He secretly advised the storm god to release Gaea's first-born children, the hecatonchires, informing him that they wielded thunder, lightning, and earthquakes as weapons. Once released, the monsters fought against Chronos and defeated the titans. Like Enlil, Chronos was then banished deep within the bowels of the earth. The other titans were imprisoned in the netherworld, called Tartarus, as well, although Chronos was able to take rule over the Elysian Fields, where the nicer parts of Tartarus was. Zeus, impressed by the effectiveness of the monsters' weapons, appropriated the thunder and lightning for his own use. The Olympians then chose the cloud-draped summit of Mt. Olympus to be their home.

But Mother Earth then gave Zeus another problem to contend with:

Now after Zeus had driven the Titans out of heaven, gigantic Gaea, in love with Tartarus, by means of golden Aphrodite, bore the youngest of her children, Typhoeus; the hands and arms of him are mighty, and have work in them, and the feet of the powerful god were tireless, and up from his shoulders there grew a hundred snake heads, those of a dreaded dragon, and the heads licked with dark tongues, and from the eyes on the inhuman heads fire glittered from under the eyelids: from all his heads fire flared from his eyes' glancing; and inside each one of these horrible heads there were voices that threw out every sort of horrible sound, for sometimes it was speech such as the gods could understand, but at other times, the sound of a bellowing bull, proud-eyed and furious beyond holding, or again like a lion shameless in cruelty, or again it was like the barking of dogs, a wonder to listen to, or again he would whistle so the tall mountains re-echoed to it.

This monster was so great that Olympus shook when he walked and even the imprisoned Titans were shaken up as the giant walked on top of the earth. But Zeus attacked the monster with his thunderbolts and set the dragon heads on fire.

According to the Greek poet Apollodorus, Zeus chased the monster with a sickle made of Adamant (Diamond). Typhoeus ran to Mount Casius (near Antioch in Syria), where Zeus fell on him, thinking he was badly wounded. Typhoeus then entwined the god with his serpent like tail, took the adamant scythe, and cut out the muscle tendons from Zeus' hands and feet. He then deposited the defeated god and his sinews in a cave and set the drakaina Delphyne (a girl who was half animal) as a guard. But the Greek gods Hermes and Aigipan stole the sinews back and replanted them in Zeus, who then got in his chariot and resumed the attack. Typhoeus continued to flee in other lands, while throwing mountains at Zeus. Zeus destroyed these with his thunderbolts and finally defeated the monster, by throwing Mount Aitna on top of him, which still erupted fire from the thunderbolts Zeus used.

Returning to Theogony, when Typhoeus fell, the earth groaned under the great impact. The flame ran out along the darkening and steep forests of the mountains as he was struck and a great part of the earth burned in the wind of his heat. Earth melted in the blazing fire and Zeus threw the great monster into Tartarus.

Zeus Battles with Typhoeus

From these comparisons it can be presumed that most of the important Greek gods originate from Sumerian, Akkadian and Elamite religion. From these ancient Sumerian texts, we can see Zeus's humble beginnings as an Anzu bird, or Zu bird, before Greek poets and philosophers fashioned him into the licentious storm god recognized today. The name of Zeus forms two important roots in the Greek language: Theo and Dio. Theo is not only the root of Theogony, but also the modern words theology and theory, while dio is the root behind deity and the names of other gods such as his son Dionysus.

Like Enlil, Chronos lost his kingship to an usurper. In the Sumerian myth, Enlil's storm-god son Ninurta kills the storm-bird and gets the Tablets of Destiny back, restoring kingship to his father, but in all subsequent myths, it's the storm god who defeats his father and becomes king of the gods. The Greeks and Romans portray Chronos as evil and scheming, and his loss of kingship is permanent. Zeus replaces his father just as Chronos did to his own father Uranus. The Romans gave Chronos the name Saturn, which also gives us the name Saturday, the same day as the Hebrew Sabbath. The ancient festival Saturnalia is also the origin of the Christmas holiday.

Pazuzu statuette, Assyria

The Anzu bird is described as being part lion and part eagle, which is believed to symbolize the mastery of heaven and earth. These bird-lion features may have been lost to the later concept of Zeus but they became associated with the Biblical cherubim ("Near ones" i.e. bodyguards), the Egyptian sphinx, the Babylonian and Assyrian lamassu, and the Greek griffons, which incidentally are called the "The Hounds of Zeus". All are considered to be the guardians and a symbol of rulership. In the Middle Ages, the griffon came to be a symbol of Christ's resurrection.

Hesiod's descending sovereignty outline is based on a Hurrian text, or a derivative of it, which begins with a king prior to Anu. The Hurrians were a people of North Syria who rivaled the Hittites and were subsequently conquered by them. The Hittites, who lived south of the Black Sea in Turkey, absorbed as many legends as they could, including the Hurrians', calling themselves the 'country of a thousand gods'. The text Kingship in Heaven was discovered in the Hittite capital of Hattussas and was dated the 13th century BC, shortly before the capital was destroyed by the Philistines.

The Hittite Empire

The text begins saying that in the olden days Alulu was king in heaven for nine years and then his cup bearer Anu vanquished him and Alulu escaped into the dark earth. But it was only another nine years until Anu's own cup bearer betrayed him. Kumarbi is said to have rushed him and bit off his "knees". Kumarbi swallowed Anu's manhood and laughed, but then Anu gave him a dire premonition:

"Rejoice not over thine inside! In thine inside I have planted a heavy burden. Firstly I have impregnated thee with the noble Storm-god. Secondly I have impregnated thee with the river Tigris, not to be endured. Thirdly I have impregnated thee with the noble Tasmisus [The Storm-god's servant]. Three dreadful gods have I planted in thy belly as seed. Thou shalt go and end by striking the rocks of thine own mountain with thy head!"

Anu then went and hid himself in heaven. The text is fragmented here but it seems that Kumarbi tries to spit it back out and some of the semen hits Mt. Kanzuras and creates a god inside the mountain. Then filled with fury, Kumarbi goes back to his city Nippur and starts counting the months of his pregnancy. Anu somehow advises the storm god where to exit Kumarbi's body and Teshub (the Storm-god) responds that the earth will give him strength, the sky would give valor, Anu would give him manliness and Kumarbi would give him wisdom. He is warned once again what will happen if he comes out of Kumarbi's "tarnassas". As Kumarbi is walking he falls down, and like Chronos tells his wife Ayas that he wants to devour his son. Ayas probably gives him a rock in this version too since whatever he ate hurts his mouth and he begins to moan. People were brought in to work magic on him and to keep bringing sacrificed meals to him. It is said that Teshub is born out of the "good place" and when the birth is reported to Anu, he plots to use him to defeat Kumarbi. Teshub prepares for the battle although the outcome is not preserved.

The inheritance of godly powers is a common motif amongst tales of the gods. The fact that Teshub is born from both Anu and Kumarbi is probably to show that Teshub was born from the best qualities of both them. Kingship in Heaven is found along with the Song of Ullikummi, which acts as a sequel to Kingship but may have been written by a different author. One perplexity about this story is that one would assume up to this point that as king of the gods, Kumarbi could easily be identified with Enlil, especially since his chief city is Nippur. But in this legend Ellil (Enlil) makes his own appearance and seems to denounce Kumarbi. This may have been an attempt of another author to disassociate Enlil with the villianous role Kumarbi takes. On the other hand, his actions do seem to parallel Kumarbi's, so it may just be a misunderstanding. The text is in particularly poor condition, especially at the end.

The story begins with Kumarbi nursing an evil plot. He takes his staff and shoes and goes to his city of Urkis (Kish?) and sleeps with a great rock ten times. The mountain gives birth to Ullikummi, whose name may mean something like "Destroyer of Kummiya". The Good-women and Mother-goddesses bring the newborn to Kumarbi and place him on his knees. Kumarbi embraces his son and has him dance up and down on top of his lap and says to his soul:

"What name [shall I give] him? The child which the Good-women and the Mother-goddesses presented me, [for the reason that he] shot forth from her body as a shaft, let him go and [his] name be Ullikummi! Let him ascend to heaven for kingship! Let him vanquish Kummiya, the beautiful city! Let him attack Storm-god and tear [him] to pieces like a mortal! Let him tread him under foot like an ant! Let him crush Tasmisus like a reed in the brake! Let him shot down all the gods from the sky like birds and let him break them to pieces like empty pots!"

Kummiya is unidentified but believed to be between the Tigris and Lake Van. Kumarbi then gave the boy over to the Isirra deities (handmaidens of the Fate Goddess Isirra). The Isirra deities take Ullikummi away and nurse him similar to how Zeus was raised by the Nymphs. The Isirra then places the child on Ellil's knees and Ellil says:

"Who is that child whom the Good-women and the Mother-goddesses reared? No one among the great gods will see mightier battles. No one's vileness equals Kumarbi's. Just as Kumarbi raised Teshub, he has [now raised] this awesome diorite man as his rival."

With these words the handmaidens place the diorite man on top of the right shoulder of Ubelluris, an Atlas-like giant who is carrying the world on his shoulders. The strong waters makes the diorite man grow and in a month he is an acre in height. After 15 days he grows up out of the sea until the sea reaches his loincloth. Here, the text becomes so fragmented that it is hard to distinguish the order of events. It seems that the Sun-god sees the diorite man and informs Teshub. Teshub and his sister Ishtar (Inanna) climbs to the top of Mount Hazzi (Mount Cassius) to see it for themselves. Teshub weeps bitterly, asking who could ever defeat such a monster, but Ishtar is not convinced. Teshub orders his servant Tasmisu to fetch his bulls and thunderstorms and goes to do battle with the diorite man. The gods fight him but Ullikummi is impervious to their attacks and makes his way to Teshub's city of Kummiya, where the storm god is forced to admit defeat. Tasmisu informs Teshub's Queen Heba of the city's loss and that her husband must remain in a 'lowly place' for now and the queen almost faints off the roof but is caught by her attendants. Teshub descends to the 'city' Abzuwa (abzu) and tries to gain the help of Ea (Enki). Ea informs Ellil and then goes to talk to the Atlas-giant Upelluri. Upelluri tells Ea that he hadn't noticed when heaven and earth had been built on him, hadn't even noticed when heaven and earth were separated with the great saw, but now the diorite man was causing his shoulder to hurt. When Ea heard this he got an idea. He had the ancient storehouses opened and brought back the saw that had freed heaven and earth. With this he cut the diorite man's feet from under him and then urged the gods to renew the battle. The end of the story is lost but there's little doubt what happens next.

By comparing the Sumerian Texts to Kingship in Heaven and Theogony, we can see the evolution of the story as it goes from the Sumerians to the Hurrians to the Greeks. For instance, neither Sumerian, Akkadian nor Babylonian texts ever portray any antagonism or sense of replacement between An and Enlil, although Enlil-Kumarbi's role in the Hurrian/Hittite epic is that of a tyrant, which is then inherited by Greek version.

In both the Hurrian/Hittite and Greek legends, the fight takes place at Mt. Cassius (Hazzi), where the storm god loses his first battle with the monster. The Sumerian version also places the fight on a mountain. This verification of the battle site is probably a figurative representation of a historic battle. A passage in Milton's Paradise Lost reads: "A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog, betwixt Damiata and Mount Cassius old, where armies whole have sunk."

The story of Ninurta fighting the Anzu bird is a source of inspiration for the later creation story of the Babylonians, who have their own storm god Marduk fighting the multi-headed dragon Tiamat (Nammu) in order save the Anunnaki and man kind. Ninurta himself is considered a storm god because of his ability to control the winds. Many scholars believe the text is meant to explain the replacement of the totem animal deity- the bird representing the thick storm clouds- with a more modern anthropomorphic warrior storm god.⁶ The association Tiamat has with serpents is matched by the Greek Typhoeus, who has a snake's tail and dragon heads growing from his shoulders. The image of a god with dragon heads growing from the shoulders can also be found on Dumuzi's companion Ningishzida. Typhaeous himself is often represented as having a hundred dragon heads, as well as his children: the Hydra, the Chimera, and the hell-hound Cerberus. Dumuzi's ancestry to the Mother Dragon Nammu mentioned often in Sumerian texts. The slaying of the dragon may have represented the triumph of the warrior-like storm god over the fleeing shepherd/fisherman god as the dominant deity over the seasons. Although the storm god took many different personal names throughout different cultures, some of them reflecting different identities amongst the original Sumerian pantheon, the vast majority of Mesopotamia knew these rain-bringing cloud-riders as Ba'als.

	Sumerian	Babylonian	Canaanite	Hurrian	Greek
Freshwater	*abzu*	Apsu			*abussos*
Sky arch		Anshar		Alulu
Sky god	An	Anu		Anu	Uranus
Air god	Enlil	Ellil	El the Bull	Kumarbi	Kronos
Storm god	Ninurta	Marduk	Hadad	Teshub	Zeus
Nemesis	Anzu	Tiamat	Yahm	Ullikummi	Typhoeus

<<Chapter 5 Chapter 7>>

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Stone cast tablet, 85 x 50 mm (approx 3.5 x 2"), antique gold finish, with museum display stand & parchment description

Reproduction of a British Museum cylinder seal design, from the seal of Mushezib-Ninurta, viceroy of the ancient city of Shadikanni in eastern Syria, 883 BC, during which time the city was an Assyrian vassal.

The owner of this seal can be identified from the cuneiform inscription which translates:
'Seal of Mushezib-Ninurta, governor, son of Ninurta-eresh,
ditto, son of Samanuha-shar-ilani, ditto.'
Samanuha-shar-ilani was ruler of Shadikanni
(Arban in eastern Syria), in 883 BC, and an Assyrian vassal -
subject to the firm control of Assyria,
and enjoying the wealth and security that such political domination provided.

During this period, seal designs were often cut on hard stones using cutting-wheels and drills.
The image is similar to two wall reliefs from the throne room of King Ashurnasirpal II
(reigned 883-859 BC) at Nimrud. The king, shown in mirror image, is protected by
guardian genii sprinkling holy water from a bucket using what may be a fir cone or sponge.
A stylized tree stands in the centre, symbolizing nature and the land of Assyria.
Above is a god in the winged disc.

Found by H.C. Rawlinson and acquired by The British Museum around 1852

D. Collon, First impressions: cylinder seals in the Ancient Near East (London, The British Museum Press, 1987), pp. 76-7, fig. 341

A.H. Layard, Discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon (London, J. Murray, 1853), p. 603

TABLET
Horned Ishtar
2100 BC reproduction

Stone cast terracotta relief tablet, 70 x 45 mm (approx 2 x 2.5”), on 110 mm (4.25") black acrylic mount, with museum display stand & description

Reproduction of an archaic seal impression tablet from Tepe Yahya in Iran, dated to the 3rd Millennium BC … an area notable as the source of refined chlorite bowls for the Sumerian markets.

Following the fall of the Akkadian Empire, during the last Sumerian dynasty around the 21st century BC, a renaissance of Sumerian culture across Mesopotamia saw the reappearance of cylinder seals which harken back to Early Dynastic prototypes.

Designs of this type, depicting the goddess Ishtar with characteristic crescent horns and her ritual attendants, are attributed to the Gutian Invaders. The hand carved silhouette style appeared amongst traders after the destruction of the famous seal-making workshops of the Akkadian Empire.

MYTHIC DESCRIPTION

Flanked by two hand-maidens, the tablet depicts a stark silhouette of the celestial goddess Ishtar. Her wings indicate her heavenly origins. She is enthroned to symbolize her supremacy of the sky and surrounded by a medley of images, which include the ancient flood symbols of swimming fish. Like the Hathor Cow of Egypt, she is portrayed with the head of a bull, recalling the mythic tale when she dispatched the elemental forces of the “Bull of Heaven” upon a hapless earth.

The stricken and decapitated earth god Ea-Enki, grasps a branch, symbolic of the Tree of Life. A large star connected to his head shows his subjection to stellar influences. At his feet, twin serpents wrestle to form the double loop of the continuous cycles of nature. On the opposite side, a snake charmer summons the demon-elemental forces of the Genii which assaulted the world during the mythic War of the Gods.