Known both as An and Anu, he is one of the most ancient of the Mesopotamian gods, originally the supreme deity of the Babylonian pantheon. He appears in the Sumerian poem "Inanna and Ebih", where Inanna claims that "An has made me terrifying throughout Heaven", a suggestion that the gods were hierarchical, with Anu delegating "powers" to the lesser gods, rather than the more customary pantheon in which each god has his or her own intrinsic power, but gives precedence to the supreme deity. Kingship on Earth was also conferred by Anu.
Like Ouranos, his equivalent in Greek mythology, he was later supplanted, obliged either to share or surrender his dominance, with first Enlil and later Marduk becoming the head of the pantheon, in much the same way that Chronos and then Zeus did in the Greek, and YHVH among the Elohim. His status remained unchanged however, and other gods are described as receiving the "anûtu", which is the "Power of Anu", when they became exalted.
Important among the shrines and temples where Anu was worshipped was Uruk (Erech/Warak/Warka), which associates him with the early tales of the Beney Yisra-El.
Anu means "heaven" or "sky" in Sumerian.
In Eire, two major hills near Killarney are known as the "Paps of Anu", or sometimes the "Breasts of Danu", and the summits of both hills have prehistoric cairns, a pile of stones of the type that we find across the world in the "megalithic age".
Like Ouranos, his equivalent in Greek mythology, he was later supplanted, obliged either to share or surrender his dominance, with first Enlil and later Marduk becoming the head of the pantheon, in much the same way that Chronos and then Zeus did in the Greek, and YHVH among the Elohim. His status remained unchanged however, and other gods are described as receiving the "anûtu", which is the "Power of Anu", when they became exalted.
Important among the shrines and temples where Anu was worshipped was Uruk (Erech/Warak/Warka), which associates him with the early tales of the Beney Yisra-El.
Anu means "heaven" or "sky" in Sumerian.
 |
| The Paps of Anu |
In Eire, two major hills near Killarney are known as the "Paps of Anu", or sometimes the "Breasts of Danu", and the summits of both hills have prehistoric cairns, a pile of stones of the type that we find across the world in the "megalithic age".
Close by the hills lies an ancient circular stone enclosure called Cahercrovdarrig (Cathair Crobh Dearg) or "The City", whose form reflects the Gil-Gal of the Tanach. The two sites are linked, and the latter also contains a ruined megalithic tomb, an ogham stone (a baetyl in Yehudit, but one used as a stele: a single standing stone; whence the name, or possibly itself derived from the name Beth-El or Beit-El = "house of El"), an earthen mound, a holy well and a stone altar inscribed with a Gaelic cross, which is a four cornered mandala in the shape of a cross, the same shape as the letter Tav in early Yehudit, and which was branded on cattle to mark them for sacrifice - the original Mark of Cain which of course becomes the Cross in the later Jesus version of Kayin the Azaz-El.
The earliest settlers of Eire called themselves the Tuatha de Danann, and regarded themselves as the same Dana'ans (Δαναοὶ) whom Aeneas led, also known as Achaeans (Ἀχαιοί) and Argives (Ἀργεῖοι) in the Homeric account of the war with Troy. This explains why Danu is one of the names; that Eirish Anu (click here) should be the other can be traced back beyond Homer, to the similarities with the Greek described above, and also those described in my notes to Anat.
Is there a connection between "the paps of Anu" and El Shadai in one of its meanings, "the god of my breast"; i.e. might a better translation of El Shadai be "the paps of Elohim"?
For a much fuller account of the Dana'an links with the Tuatha de Danann, see The Leprechauns Of Palestine.
For a much fuller account of the god Anu himself, click here for my page on the Mesopotamian gods and goddesses.
For a much fuller account of the Dana'an links with the Tuatha de Danann, see The Leprechauns Of Palestine.
For a much fuller account of the god Anu himself, click here for my page on the Mesopotamian gods and goddesses.
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment