Nanna

Nannar Sin

God of The Moon and Wisdom

Nanna

Source: https://www.worldhistory.org/Nanna/

Nanna (also known as Nannar, Nanna-Suen, Sin, Asimbabbar, Namrasit, Inbu) is the Mesopotamian god of the moon and wisdom. He is one of the oldest gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon and is first mentioned at the very dawn of writing in Sumer c. 3500 BCE. His worship continued until the 3rd century CE.

Nanna was his Sumerian name while he was known as Sin, Nanna-Sin, Nanna-Suen and other names by the Akkadians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and others. His cult center was the great temple and ziggurat at the Sumerian city of Ur, and he is frequently mentioned in hymns and inscriptions from the Ur III Period (2047-1750 BCE) as the chief god of the pantheon with the epithet Enzu, lord of wisdom.

His importance is evident in the number of inscriptions which refer to or praise him and the stories in which he features. He was the son of Enlil and Ninlil and is their first-born after Enlil seduces Ninlil by the riverbank in the myth Enlil and Ninlil.

Read More Marduk

Bertman comments on how "during the new moon when Nanna/Sin's light was not visible, the god was said to be in the netherworld, where he judged the dead" (123). At one point or another throughout Mesopotamia's long history, Nanna was king of the gods, lord of wisdom, keeper of time, guardian of the future (diviner), holder of secrets, but is always seen as the devoted son of Enlil and a protector and guardian of humanity.

Nanna in Literature

Nanna/Sin is referred to at a number of points throughout The Epic of Gilgamesh where he is mentioned as the father of Shamash and Ishtar. Gilgamesh, at one point, even composes a song for Nanna, praising him for changes in life which inspire one to do great deeds. Nanna is similarly praised in other works and, in all, is closely associated with fertility and life.

His role as a keeper of time (guardian of the future) is especially interesting as he understands the past as the future. In looking at the past, Nanna was able to clearly see human destiny, collectively and individually, and those who came to him for divination could alter their future for the better by accepting his counsel. In addition to his wisdom and foresight, the god also offered many other gifts to humanity.

In the poem The Journey of Nanna to Nippur, the god is seen loading his boat at Ur with all good things to present to his father Enlil at the city of Nippur. Nanna fills his ship with trees, plants, and animals, and then makes his way upriver, stopping at five cities along the way where he is greeted and honors each one's god. Arriving at Nippur, he is greeted by Enlil's gatekeeper with joy and brought into his father's presence.

Nanna and Enlil feast together, and then Nanna makes a series of requests. He asks for the river to swell with sweet water, for the fields to yield abundant harvest, for success in cultivating honey and making wine, and for a long life to enjoy these gifts. Enlil grants his requests, and Nanna returns happily to Ur.

The poem is thought to represent the moon's association with fertility. Enlil was the King of the Gods, keeper of the Tablets of Destiny which foretold the fates of gods and mortals, and his decisions were final. His act of generosity in giving these gifts to Nanna meant that, through Nanna, they would be passed on to humanity and could not be revoked.

Nanna is depicted in a similar light in the poem The Herds of Nanna, in which he is praised as the "god of living creatures, leader of the land" and the great father of humanity. Although Enki was the creator god of the Sumerians, Nanna seems to have sometimes taken on this role as his worship spread across Mesopotamia. In the poem, he is again seen as the god who gives great gifts to humanity in abundance.

The god also appears in The Descent of Inanna, where he is listed as one of the deities Ninshubbur is to appeal to if Inanna does not return from the underworld, and in The Curse of Agade, the famous work of the Mesopotamian Naru Literature genre concerning Naram-Sin.

In The Curse of Agade, after Naram-Sin has enraged Enlil through his ingratitude, Nanna is among the gods who try to act as mediators to spare humanity (and Naram-Sin specifically) from Enlil's wrath. His role as a protector and defender of humanity did not end with one's death, however, but continued on in the afterlife.

Nanna & Ningal

The Queen of the Dead in Mesopotamian mythology was Ereshkigal, older sister of Inanna, who ruled the underworld but, generally, passed no judgment on the dead. The dead, however great or modest their lives, all went to the same dark, dreary realm under the earth when their life was finished, and there they all shared the same fate as they ate dust and drank from puddles.

This had been the standard belief among the people of Mesopotamia for millennia, but during the Ur III Period, Nanna was elevated to the role of judge of the dead. Scholar Samuel Noah Kramer writes:

The moon god Nanna decreed the fate of the dead. In the nether world...were to be found "bread-eating heroes" and "[beer] drinkers" who satisfy the thirst of the dead with fresh water. We learn, too, that the gods of the nether world can be called upon to utter prayers for the dead, that the personal god of the deceased and his city's god were invoked in his behalf, and that the welfare of the family of the deceased was by no means overlooked in the funerary prayers. (132)

This is quite a departure from the traditional view of the afterlife as "the land of no return" in which the dead were all made equal and lost their interest in the world of their former lives. Nanna became the bridge between the living and the dead through his judgment of their lives and intervention on the part of their families.

Even so, as Kramer notes elsewhere, the Sumerians, for the most part, held to the belief that all were equal in the dreary world of the afterlife which was only a poor reflection of mortal existence.

Nanna's wife Ningal may also have had a part in the judgment of the dead, or at least as a prompt to good behavior, as a number of artifacts have been found which are known as "eyes of Ningal." These are crafted eye models usually cut from precious or semi-precious stone but also formed from clay.

Sometimes these are only eyes and sometimes a figure in which the eyes are enlarged and accentuated with what appears a lemniscate, symbol for infinity (a sideways figure 8). It is unclear what the significance of these eyes was for the ancient Mesopotamians, but it is possible they reminded an owner that the eyes of the gods were on them.

Melechesh - Ladders To Sumeria

Lyrics

As the prime echelon of cenobites - they unite

Construct the Ziggurats - for the divine

The secret sky ports

The Towers of fire

Under wormholes

Vessels of Enki soar

The Ladders to Sumeria

On the grand white temple of Uruk

Lie the zenith mark... Ascension

To leave these terrestial plains

The seven titans, they commune

Kochab of the Annunaki, it awaits

12th entity of our solar dominion

The Ladders to Sumeria

Primordial splendid beings dowsing for mines of gold

They carry torches to illuminate this earth

Smoldering citadels mark the pantheon's land

Arrive; The arcane spiritual machines arrive

Dilmun - most sanctified abode

Pleiads - foundation for the Seven Sages

To the sect of the White Shadows

Chariots once created for this misconstrued realm

(They come)

Lamashtu, Asagu

Creators of Naram-Sin

Idipu, Shidana, Emhisu

Creators of Naram-Sin

Mu Balaq Ushumgal Kalamma Badimma

Nanna Nannar Sin God of The Moon and Wisdom

Sin/Nanna (Mesopotamian Mythology) Supreme God of the Moon, Moonlight, Lunar Phases and the Night Skies, Riches, Astronomy, Knowledge, Wisdom and Prophecy, and a Lord of the Heavens and the Underworld.

Source: https://powerlisting.fandom.com/wiki/Archetype:Ruler_of_Heaven

Nile - Wrought

Lyrics

Nanna Father of the Zonei

Eldest of the Wanderers

A Shadow out of Time

The Moon is calling Me

The Breath of the Old Ones

Whispers in my Ear

With inhuman Impatience

They Beckon to Me

I call to the Moon and Sin

I now possess the secrets of the Tides of Blood

I have traveled on the Spheres

And the spheres do not protect Me

I have Walked in the Pit

And the Pit does not protect Me

The Lords of the Wind rush about Me

The Lords of the Earth crawl about my Feet

And are Angered

A Wind has Risen The Dark Waters Stir

The lines of my life have been Obliterated

By my wanderings in the Waste

My fate is no longer Writ in the Stars

For I have broken the Covenant

Have the Gods forsaken Me

I cannot read the Omens

What sacrifice have I failed to Make

I call to the Gods

Do not cast thy servant Down

Wrought What have I Done.

Pictures Videos Music and Additional Reading

Symbols representing Sin (center), Ishtar (left) and Shamash (right), as depicted on the upper half of a kudurru of Meli-Shipak II.

This meditation is designed to honor the ancient Sumerian Gods & Goddesses .

The backing sound is 40hz also.

Sin

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin_(mythology)

Sin (/ˈsiːn/) or Suen (Akkadian: 𒀭𒂗𒍪, dEN.ZU[1]) also known as Nanna (Sumerian: 𒀭𒋀𒆠 DŠEŠ.KI, DNANNA[2]) was the Mesopotamian god representing the moon. While these two names originate in two different languages, respectively Akkadian and Sumerian, they were already used interchangeably to refer to one deity in the Early Dynastic period. They were sometimes combined into the double name Nanna-Suen. A third well attested name is Dilimbabbar (𒀭𒀸𒁽𒌓).

Additionally, the moon god could be represented by logograms reflecting his lunar character, such as d30 (𒀭𒌍), referring to days in the lunar month or dU4.SAKAR (𒀭𒌓𒊬), derived from a term referring to the crescent. In addition to his astral role, Sin was also closely associated with cattle herding. Furthermore, there is some evidence that he could serve as a judge of the dead in the underworld.

Nanna

The precise etymology of the name Nanna is unknown, though it is agreed that it is not a genitive construction. It is first attested in the Uruk period. In earliest cuneiform texts from Uruk and Ur it was written as (d)LAK-32.NA, with NA possibly serving as a phonetic complement. The name of the city of Ur (Urim) was accordingly written as LAK-32.UNUGki (𒋀𒀕𒆠), "residence of Nanna", per analogy with toponyms such as Zabalam, INANNA.UNUGki. In later periods LAK-32 coalesced with ŠEŠ (the ideogram for "brother").

Sin

In Akkadian the moon god was called Sin (Sîn) or Suen (Su’en). The former is the standard reading of the name from the Old Babylonian period onward, while the latter was presumably the older uncontracted pronunciation. The etymology of this name remains uncertain. One of the inscriptions of Gudea from the third millennium BCE refers to Sin as a god "whose name nobody can explain", which might be an indication that his name was already unclear and a subject of scribal speculation during his reign.

Dilimbabbar

Next to Sin and Nanna, the best attested name of the moon god is dAŠ-im-babbar (𒀭𒀸𒁽𒌓). It was originally assumed that it should be read as Ašimbabbar, though it was subsequently proved that this depended on an erroneous collation, and by 2016 the consensus view that Dilimbabbar is the correct reading emerged. It was established based on the discovery of multiple passages providing phonetic syllabic spellings.

The name can be translated as "the shining one who walks alone". This meaning was originally established based on the now abandoned reading of the name, but it is still considered a valid translation. An alternate proposal relying on homophony of the element dilim and the logogram dilim2 (LIŠ) is to explain Dilimbabbar as "the shining bowl".

The term dilim2 was a loan from Akkadian tilimtu, "bowl". Piotr Steinkeller notes that it is not impossible both proposals regarding the meaning of Dilimbabbar are correct, and that the scribes might have intentionally created puns depending on the well attested tradition of referring to the moon as a unique or solitary celestial body.

Character

Sin was understood both as an anthropomorphic deity representing the moon, and as the astral body itself. He was responsible for providing light during the night. His luminous character could be highlighted with epithets such as "the luminary of the heavens and earth" (nannār šamê u erṣeti) or "the luminary of all creation" (nannār kullati binīti).

The growth of the moon over the course of the month was reflected in comparing Sin to the growth of fruit (Akkadian inbu, Sumerian gurun) as attested in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian sources, especially hemerologies. However, it was not applied consistently as a designation for a specific phase of the moon. Lunar eclipses were believed to be the result of Sin being surrounded by seven evil utukku sent by Anu.

Next to his astral aspect, Sin's other main role has been described as that of a pastoral deity. He was associated with cattle and with dairy products. This link is reflected in his secondary names Abkar, "shining cow", and Ablulu, "the one who makes the cows abundant". He could be addressed as a herdsman in astral context, with stars being poetically described as his herd. In addition to cows, he could also be associated with sheep and with wild animals inhabiting steppes, especially ibexes and gazelles.

Sin could also function as a divine judge in the underworld, as attested for example in the so-called First Elegy of the Pushkin Museum, in which a man named Ludingira hopes that he will proclaim a good verdict for his deceased father. This role might have originally developed as a way to explain why the moon is not visible for a part of each month.

The composition in mention states that his judgment took place on the day of the disappearance of the moon (Sumerian u4-ná, Akkadian ūm bubbuli). However, Dina Katz argues that in contrast with the frequent assignment of a similar role to Shamash, Sin was usually not associated with judgment of either the living or the dead. References to both of them acting as judges are nonetheless known from Old Babylonian inscriptions.

Cult and Worship

Sin was recognized as a major deity all across ancient Mesopotamia. His status was already high in the earliest periods to which the history of the Mesopotamian pantheon can be traced. It is presumed that Sin was actively worshiped in most of the major cities of the region, with remains of multiple temples dedicated to him identified during excavations both in Babylonia and in Assyria.

Ur was already well established as the cult center of the moon god, initially under his Sumerian name Nanna, in Early Dynastic times, as attested in the zami hymns from Abu Salabikh. His primary temple this city was Ekišnugal "house of the great light". Sanctuaries bearing this name also existed in other cities, which is presumed to reflect Ur's central importance in the sphere of religion

His cult flourished during their reigns, as evidenced both by structures uncensored during excavations and by the numerous dedicatory inscriptions. An inscription from this period refers to him as one of the major members of the pantheon, next to Enlil, Ninlil, Inanna, Enki, Nergal, Ninurta, Nuska, Ninshubur and the deified hero Gilgamesh.

The en priestesses

An important aspect of the lunar cult in Ur was the institution of the en priestess. In Akkadian its holders were referred to as entum. Their residence was known as Gipar, and while initially separate in the Old Babylonian period it was combined into a single complex with the temple of the moon god's wife, Ningal.

Not much is known about the duties of the en in the sphere of cult, though they apparently played a role in building and renovation activities. They are chiefly documented in sources from between the Sargonic and early Old Babylonian periods. They were typically daughters of kings.

Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon of Akkad, was a particularly famous en priestess. She is also the earliest attested holder of this office, with available evidence including the so-called "disc of Enheduanna", seals of her servants, and literary compositions copied in later periods traditionally attributed to her.

It is it not certain if the office of en was only established at this point in time as an innovation, or if it developed from an earlier Early Dynastic title tied to the cult of the moon god.

While Ur is not directly referenced in any of the texts agreed to come from the archives of the First Sealand dynasty, it is nonetheless possible that both the city and Sin had a particular importance to rulers belonging to it. He is one of the best attested deities in the Sealand text corpus next to Nanshe, Ishtar, Ninurta and Shamash.

He is the single most common deity in theophoric names from it, which reflects his popularity in the onomasticon attested from Old Babylonian to Middle Babylonian period. At the same time, other evidence points to his cult only having a modest scope, which might indicate its center was a temple only loosely tied to the royal administration.

Three texts indicate he could receive offerings in the beginning of a lunar month and during the new moon.[188] He is also invoked alongside Enlil, Ea and the respective spouses of all three of these gods (Ningal, Ninlil and Damkina) in a seal inscription of Akurduana. In addition to the worship of Sin himself, offerings to a distinct manifestation of Inanna known under the epithet "daughter of Sin".

Nanna/ Sin, Moon God of Mesopotamian Mythology

Source: https://zuuhahnu.tumblr.com/post/180208163284/nannasin-moon-god-of-mesopotamian-mythology

Crescent Shield - Rise Of The Red Crescent Moon

Lyrics

A swollen tired sun will soon die

The stars will form above and below me

My moon it closely follows it's light

A razor thin reflection will humor

And crack the

Smile of the red crescent moon

Solace on the crimson horizon

Pride of the red crescent moon

Rule within the sky of forever

The city and high clouds remain blind

My eyes can be the only witness

Glisten to the atmospheres curse

And follow the fate of the light who creates you

Time of the red crescent moon

The night governor has fallen

Night of the red crescent moon

Slips into the sea of the fallen

[Solo]

Smile to me

Sing to me

And fill my soul with the beauty's end of day

You fade away

To reveal your name

And when you rise again,

You'll feel my faithful presence standing there

I will be there

For your moonlit night

You'll see me standing there

Under your borrowed light

Eyes so clear

Understand mysteries you bring forth on to me

Light on to night

Ever wonder you give to the life that you live

All dressed in the sun's delight

Of the tide you control is the rhythm we know

When the night is cast away

To the beauty's end of day...

Septicflesh - Crescent Moon

Lyrics

The sand beneath your feet

a yellow carpetin

the palace of wilderness

Only king and servant is you

searching for the pyramid

that guards the emerald board

It was a crescent moon

when you have been initiated

in the science of the black earth,

And the optimism of youth

pushed you in quests

into the paper worlds

of the libraries of Cairo

Crescent Moon

Two sides of the same coin

The poor in mind are satisfied

with what they see.

Crescent Moon

And they bear the sign of imperfection

because they miss the other side

the invisible.

Crescent Moon

Few words carved with diamond

could draw the curtains

that cover the glassy cage of senses

The warm touch of the starlight

(magnes) will be the proof

and the philosopher's stone your trophy

Grab the golden rope and climb

the imaginary walls of your thoughts

you may fall but at least you'll have tried.

Nanna - God of the Moon. He provides his followers with endless wisdom and is generally known as the softie of the godly family.

Source: https://esemtu.tumblr.com/post/183524419192/meet-the-gods-nanna-god-of-the-moon-he