THE ENUMA ELISH
Following are the main characters from The Enuma elish, an epic of the Babylonian peoples. (For the most part, the Babylonians adopted the earlier Sumerian gods, and distinctions between how both perceived the gods are noted in the chart.) One of the central figures of the legend is the goddess Tiamat, a dragonlike personification of the oceans, who headed the hordes of chaos and whose destruction was prerequisite to an orderly universe.
| Tiamat | Mother Goddess, wife of Apsu, mother of Anshar and Kishar. (Sumerian counterpart is Nintu.) |
| Apsu | Ruler of all the gods and husband and father as above. (Sumerian counterpart is Anu.) |
| Mummu | A son of Tiamat and Apsu. God of the mist. |
| Anshar | Brother and husband of Kishar. |
| Kishar | Sister and wife of Anshar. |
| Anu (An) | Son of Anshar and Kishar. God of the sky. (Sumerian husband of Nintu and father/ruler of all the gods.) |
| Nintu (Ki) | (Sumerian mother of all the gods. Created the first humans out of clay.) |
| Enlil | God of the air between earth and sky. (Sumerian son of Anu and Nintu who becomes ruler of the gods with Anu.) |
| Ishtar (Inanna) | (Sumerian first daughter of Anu (or Sin) and the goddess of love and war.) |
| Ea | Son of Anu, husband of Damkina, and father of Marduk. Ruler of all the gods after Apsu. (Sumerian son of Nintu and ruler of the earth.) |
| Damkina | Wife of Ea and mother of Marduk. |
| Marduk | Wisest and most accomplished god. He became ruler of all the gods. (Sumerian counterpart of Anu and Enlil.) |
| Kingu | Leads Tiamat's army against Marduk. |
| Sin | God of the moon and father of Shamash. |
| Shamash | God of the sun. |
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