Nanna (Sumerian deity)

Symbols: Crescent moon; bull

Country: Mesopotamia

Mother: Ninlil

Father: Enlil

Siblings: Nergal; Ninazu; Enbilulu; Numushda

Children: Inanna; Utu

The moon god Nanna was one of the most prominent gods in the Mesopotamian pantheon. He was the son of the powerful god Enlil, god of air and kingship, and his consort the beautiful goddess Ninlil. Nanna’s wife was Ningal, goddess of the reed marshes, with whom he had two children, Inanna, the goddess of love and warfare, and Utu, the sun god. Along with his children, Nanna was part of an important secondary triad of Mesopotamian deities.

Called the Diviner of Fates and Lord Wild Bull, Nanna sailed in the heavens on his crescent-shaped boat, watching and guarding the land. His vantage point in the heavens meant he saw all, and he issued laws and verdicts along with the sun god Utu. He was also the patron deity of the famous and prominent city-state of Ur.

Nanna’s main symbol was the crescent moon, which lead to his other symbol, the bull, as the waxing and waning of the moon looked like a bull’s horns. This led to Nanna being closely associated with cattle herders, and a strong cult of his was established in the marshy area around the lower Euphrates river where people depended on cattle herds for their livelihood (the city of Ur was in this region). They believed Nanna was indirectly responsible for the amount of milk and milk products manufactured as he controlled herd sizes, levels of water and the growth of reeds in the region.

The god was also associated with fertility, either because of his connection with bulls, a universal symbol of fertility and virility, or the link to women’s menstrual cycles, which roughly align with the moon’s lunar phases. Nanna also seems to have had both male and female aspects. As the crescent moon (bull’s horns) he was symbolic of male virility and sexual prowess, while the full moon represented the fecundity of a pregnant woman.

The name Nanna seems to denote the moon when it was fullest in appearance. While in its crescent shape it was called Suen, which was later contracted to Sin. So the moon god was called by either of these names in Akkadian myths. He was also called Dilimbabbar in some parts of Mesopotamia.

In Mythology

The story of Nanna’s birth was a very popular and important Sumerian myth. When his father Enlil was young, he was attracted to the beautiful Ninlil, the grain goddess and Lady of the Air, and attempted to seduce her. Ninlil initially resisted his advances, so Enlil chased her, forced himself on her and raped her. For his actions, Enlil was banished from the home of the gods to the underworld. Ninlil discovered she was pregnant with Nanna and followed Enlil to the underworld. Since the gods had decreed that no one could leave the underworld without leaving behind a substitute, Enlil fathered three underworld gods so that the three of them—Enlil, Ninlil and Nanna—would be allowed to return to his home in the heavens. And that was how the moon god left the underworld and ascended to heaven.

This myth echoes other popular fertility myths—a god or goddess’s descent into the underworld and subsequent release and rescue—and reinforces Nanna’s role as a fertility god.

Another Babylonian myth represented the moon’s continuous struggle against the forces of darkness as well gave an explanation for its lunar cycle. In the myth, seven demons attacked the house of the supreme god Anu and blocked the light of the moon. In the absence of Nanna’s light, the demons created havoc, spreading disease and ravaging the land. The god Marduk came to humanity’s rescue and Nanna’s light once again shone on the land.

A popular myth talked about Nanna’s journey to see his father Enlil in Nippur. Nanna sailed in his crescent boat laden with gifts to secure his father’s blessings for his city of Ur. When he arrived in Nippur, Nanna told the gatekeeper that he had come to feed the herds and increase their size. Enlil welcomed Nanna and in return gave him gifts of grain, reeds, plants, and fish to take back to Ur.

Origins & Cults

Nanna was the titular deity and divine king of Ur from the earliest periods. His temples were called Ekishnugal and he had prominent sanctuaries in Babylon, Nippur, Urum, and Harran. Though Ur was his main center of worship.

Each spring his worshippers reenacted Nanna’s visit to his father by traveling to Enlil’s sanctuary in Nippur and offering the god the first dairy products of the year.

Nanna played an important role in political divinations. Diviners called upon him to help them glean the truth as Nanna banished the darkness with his light. Mesopotamian astrologers and diviners also keenly observed the moon’s cycle and path to look for omens pertaining to the future. The crescent moon and its relationship with other astral bodies was considered especially significant for political omens. Eclipses were seen as bad omens, as they meant the moon god had been overcome by demons, and special prayers were said to give Nanna strength and to return to his radiant self. As a fertility god, Nanna was also evoked in incantations said during childbirth to ease birthing pains.

From the twenty-fourth century BCE till about the eighteenth century BCE the ruling king’s daughter was appointed Nanna’s high priestess, according the god a lot of political power. Royalty, including kings, frequently incorporated variations of his name in their titles across the centuries.

Ur became the capital of the empire during the twenty-second century BCE and Nanna took on even greater political significance. The king Ur-Nammu built a three-storied ziggurat (a large, stepped, pyramid-like temple tower) devoted to Nanna there. At the top was a shrine, which was considered Nanna’s bedchamber. In the sixth century BCE, king Nabonidus remodeled the ziggurat and increased its height to seven stories.

Bibliography

Green, Tamara. The City of the Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran. Leiden: Brill, 1992. Print.

Hooke, S. Middle Eastern Mythology. New York: Dover, 2004. Print.

Kathleen Kuiper, ed. Mesopotamia: The World’s Earliest Civilization. New York: Britannica Ed., 2011. Print.

Leick, Gwendolyn. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London: Routledge, 1991. Print.

The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Trans. Richard Aldington and Delano Ames. London: Hamlyn, 1959. Print.

"Ur." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2015. Web. 10 Jan. 2016.