Mesopotamian gods, tablets and translations
A translated work is different from a translated object.
How to read this room.
A literary title may have published translations while a particular fragment remains unpublished, inaccessible or uncertain. A museum number and edition make that distinction testable. Ancient divine names also change with language and period. This room supports precise research without presenting modern speculation as what the tablets themselves establish.
Short definitions open a topic; the linked studies develop the passages and Babylon’s authored interpretation.
Anunnaki
A group of deities in Mesopotamian traditions; ancient references do not establish modern extraterrestrial claims.
Also found as: Anunaki · Annanaki
Anu
A Mesopotamian sky deity whose role differs across periods and texts.
Also found as: An
Enlil
A major Mesopotamian deity associated with authority and prominently linked with Nippur.
Enki
A Sumerian deity associated with wisdom and fresh water, known as Ea in Akkadian traditions.
Also found as: Ea
Inanna
A Sumerian goddess associated with love and warfare, related to Akkadian Ishtar in historical religious developments.
Also found as: Ishtar
Marduk
The deity prominent in Babylon’s civic religion and Enuma Elish; his literary roles belong to specific texts.
Nabu
A Mesopotamian deity associated with writing and learned arts.
Also found as: Nabû
Ninhursag
A Sumerian goddess associated with motherhood and creation in particular narratives.
Also found as: Ninḫursag
Nanna
The Sumerian moon deity, commonly related to the Akkadian Sin.
Also found as: Sin · Suen
Utu
The Sumerian sun deity, commonly related to Akkadian Shamash.
Also found as: Shamash
Gilgamesh
The hero of Sumerian and Akkadian literary traditions; surviving compositions and versions differ.
Utnapishtim
The flood survivor in the standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh; distinct from the biblical Noah.
Also found as: Uta-napishti
Atrahasis
A Mesopotamian literary work and its exceptionally wise human figure, including a flood narrative.
Also found as: Atra-hasis · Atraḫasīs
Ziusudra
The flood survivor in the Sumerian flood account; identify the manuscript and edition being discussed.
Enuma Elish
The Babylonian creation epic whose narrative gives Marduk a central role; not a modern scientific cosmology.
Also found as: Enūma Eliš
Eridu Genesis
A modern title for Sumerian material about early humanity, kingship and the flood; surviving text is incomplete.
Sumerian King List
A composition arranging kingship and reigns; its extraordinary literary reign lengths are not verified calendar chronology.
MUL.APIN
A Babylonian astronomical compendium known through cuneiform witnesses; it has published scholarly editions and translations.
Also found as: Mul Apin · mula lapin
Cuneiform
A script using wedge-shaped signs, employed for several languages; it is not itself a single language.
Sumerian
An ancient language written in cuneiform and preserved in varied administrative, literary and scholarly texts.
Akkadian
A Semitic language written in cuneiform, including Babylonian and Assyrian varieties.
Transliteration
Representing a text’s signs in another script; a transliteration is not automatically a translation into modern language.
Translation
Rendering meaning in another language; edition, translator and treatment of uncertain readings should remain visible.
Critical edition
An edition that evaluates textual witnesses and records editorial decisions; it is different from a simple reading copy.
Tablet catalogue number
An institution’s identifier for a physical tablet; essential when asking whether that particular object has been published or translated.
Choose MUL.APIN or a flood composition. Record the work title, witness, edition and what you still need to verify.
Continue with named sources.
These selected references orient this room. Consult the named work and edition for a close reading. Babylon’s symbolic connections remain its own teaching.
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