The Akitu festival was celebrated twice a year in ancient Mesopotamia, most notably at the beginning of the Babylonian calendar's first month, Nisannu (March-April), and again in the seventh month, Tashritu (September-October).
It was primarily associated with the Babylonian god Marduk and the renewal of kingship and the cosmos.
Origins: The Akitu Festival has its origins in the Sumerian civilization and was later adopted and elaborated by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
Date: The primary Akitu Festival was celebrated at the beginning of the Babylonian calendar's first month, Nisannu (March-April).
Enuma Elish Recitation: The Babylonian creation epic, "Enuma Elish," was recited, recounting Marduk's victory over Tiamat and the creation of the world.
Assyrian Adaptations: In Assyria, the Akitu Festival included elements specific to the Assyrian pantheon and political context, though many core elements remained similar to the Babylonian tradition.
Significance: In the Assyrian city of Assur, the temple of Ashur was central to their New Year celebrations, which included elements similar to the Babylonian Akitu Festival.
Beginning in the second millennium B.C., Babylonian theologians classified their major gods in a hierarchical numerical order.
"Apkallu" (also spelled "apkallū") and "Abgal" are terms from ancient Mesopotamian mythology, particularly within the context of Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian cultures.
Lilith is first mentioned in ancient Babylonian texts as a class of winged female demons that attack pregnant women and infants.
Lilith is first mentioned in ancient Babylonian texts as a class of winged female demons that attacks pregnant women and infants.
Source: Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 151b, Erubin 100b)
That page also carries the Isis Unveiled trail linking Atlantis submersion to Babylonian and Mosaic flood stories.
However, in Sumerian and Babylonian traditions, which often intertwine with Egyptian ones in the study of ancient Near Eastern history, the figure of Utnapishtim (also known as Ziusudra in Sumerian or Atrahasis in Akkadian) is the equivalent of Noah and is directly connected to the Great Flood myth.
They appear in Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian myths, and are often depicted as a pantheon of gods and goddesses.
Lilith is first mentioned in ancient Babylonian texts as a class of winged female demons that attack pregnant women and infants.
Sargon, the first great leader of the Akkadian dynasty, which succeeded the Sumerians, attributed his knowledge to the god Anu, while the Babylonian king Hammurabi was said to have gained power through Marduk, again a reference to the accounts of the Anunnaki.
The Babylonian trinity was composed of Hea, Anu, and Bel. Bel represented the sun, and was the favorite god.
(Accuracy assessment: Bel (Lord) often referred to Enlil or, in later Babylonian times, to Marduk as chief god.
The supreme triad in Babylonian/Sumerian religion was indeed Anu (sky/heaven god), Enlil (later called Bel or Belus, god of earth/storms/wind), and Ea (also Hea or Enki, god of fresh waters/wisdom/crafts/underworld).
The Anunnaki are a group of deities in ancient Mesopotamian cultures, particularly in Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, and Babylonian mythology.
Representing the Babylonian Empire in the dream interpreted by Daniel (Daniel 2:32-38).
Perhaps the most famous Amorite contribution to history is the founding of the first Babylonian Empire by Amorite dynasties.
In a passage unrelated to the curse on Canaan, the sixth-century Babylonian Talmud says that Ham and his descendants were cursed with black skin, which modern scholars have interpreted as an etiological myth for skin color.
The conflict came to an end by the submersion of the Atlantis; which finds its imitation in the stories of the Babylonian and Mosaic flood.
Cain, the giants, Noah, and the Babylonian flood are, in her reading, later allegories of that same catastrophe.
Sin — Mesopotamian (Sumerian/Akkadian/Babylonian) moon god, often shown with a crescent symbol; later associated with pagan worship in biblical/Christian contexts.
Utū/Shamash: Utū is the Sun god in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology, while Shamash is the corresponding deity in Babylonian and Assyrian mythology.
The Igigi are mentioned in several ancient Mesopotamian texts, including the Atrahasis Epic and the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish.
In one Egyptian myth, the bloody hue of the world is ascribed to the blood of Osiris, the mortally wounded planet god; in another myth, it is the blood of Seth or Apopi; in the Babylonian myth, the world was colored red by the blood of the slain Tiamat, the heavenly monster.
Babylonians, too, recorded dust and rain falling from the sky; instances of “bloody rain” have been recorded in diverse countries.
Written down in the mid-17th century BCE, the Atrahasis can be dated by the colophon to the reign of the Babylonian King Hammurabi‘s great-grandson, Ammi-Saduqa (1646-1626 BCE) though the tale itself is considered much older, passed down through oral transmission.
Lilith – who became something of a feminist symbol in the late twentieth century for her reputed declaration of sexual independence – is regarded by many as a Jewish figure, but, in fact, her origins can be traced back to Sumerian and Babylonian legend.
They are one flood-survivor map told under Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hebrew names, with a later Greek Babylonian form of Ziusudra surviving as Xisuthrus in Berossus.
In Greek Babylonian tradition his name returns as Xisuthros / Xisuthrus.
Utnapishtim (Ut-napishtim) is the Akkadian / Babylonian flood survivor in Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet XI.
Berossus preserves the Hellenistic Babylonian form of Ziusudra as Xisuthrus.
Berossus is the third-century BCE Babylonian priest who wrote a Babylonian History for a Greek audience.