The Obituary
Anu, called An by the Sumerians, was the Mesopotamian sky god who sat at the summit of the divine hierarchy as the ultimate source of authority from which kingship descended. His chief seat of worship was Uruk. Yet for all his rank he was a remote figure, so distant that day-to-day rule over gods and men was delegated to Enlil and later Marduk. Honored across Mesopotamia for nearly three thousand years, his cult dwindled under the later empires and ended in the early centuries CE. The father of the sky faded out of all worship.
Worth remembering
- He dwelt in the highest heaven and was the ultimate source of authority, the god from whom kingship and the very right to rule descended.
- Though nominally supreme, he grew so remote that active rule was delegated to Enlil and later Marduk, while Anu receded into the distant sky.
Sources
- An (Akkadian Anu) was the Mesopotamian sky god, the supreme source of authority among gods and kings, with a major cult center at Uruk. Wikipedia
- Anu headed the divine hierarchy and granted kingship and authority, though in practice executive power often passed to Enlil and later Marduk. World History Encyclopedia
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.