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ANU , a Babylonian deity, who, by virtue of being the first figure in a triad consisting of Anu, See also:Bel and See also:Ea, came to be regarded as the See also:father and See also:- KING
- KING (O. Eng. cyning, abbreviated into cyng, cing; cf. O. H. G. chun- kuning, chun- kunig, M.H.G. kiinic, kiinec, kiinc, Mod. Ger. Konig, O. Norse konungr, kongr, Swed. konung, kung)
- KING [OF OCKHAM], PETER KING, 1ST BARON (1669-1734)
- KING, CHARLES WILLIAM (1818-1888)
- KING, CLARENCE (1842–1901)
- KING, EDWARD (1612–1637)
- KING, EDWARD (1829–1910)
- KING, HENRY (1591-1669)
- KING, RUFUS (1755–1827)
- KING, THOMAS (1730–1805)
- KING, WILLIAM (1650-1729)
- KING, WILLIAM (1663–1712)
king of the gods. Anu is so prominently associated with the See also:city of See also:Erech in See also:southern Babylonia that there are See also:good reasons for believing this See also:place to have been the See also:original seat of the Anu cult. If this be correct, then the goddess Nana (or See also:Ishtar) of Erech was presumably regarded as his See also:consort. The name of the See also:god signifies the " high one " and he was probably a god of the atmospheric region above the earth—perhaps a See also:storm god like See also:Adad (q.v.), or like Yahweh among the See also:ancient See also:Hebrews. However this may be, already in the old-Babylonian See also:period, i.e. before Khammurabi, Anu was regarded as the god of the heavens and his name became in fact synonymous with the heavens, so that in some cases it is doubtful whether, under the See also:term, the god or the heavens is meant. It would seem from this that the grouping of the divine See also:powers recognized in the universe into a triad symbolizing the three divisions, heavens, See also:earth and the watery -deep, was a See also:process of thought which had taken place before the third See also:millennium. To Anu was assigned the See also:control of the heavens, to Bel the earth, and to Ea the See also:waters. The See also:doctrine once established remained an inherent See also:part of the Babylonian-See also:Assyrian See also:religion and led to the more or less See also:complete disassociation of the three gods constituting the triad, from their original See also:local limitations. An intermediate step between Anu viewed as the local deity of Erech (or some other centre), Bel as the god of See also:Nippur, and Ea as the god of See also:Eridu is represented by the prominence which each one of the centres associated with the three deities in question must have acquired, and which led to each one absorbing the qualities of other gods so as to give them a controlling position in an organized See also:pantheon. For Nippur we have the See also:direct See also:evidence that its See also:chief deity, En-lit or Bel, was once regarded as the See also:head of an extensive pantheon. The sanctity and, therefore, the importance of Eridu remained a fixed tradition in the minds of the See also:people to the latest days, and See also:analogy there-fore justifies the conclusion that Anu was likewise worshipped in a centre which had acquired See also:great prominence. The summing-up of divine powers manifested in the universe in a threefold See also:division represents an outcome of See also:speculation in the See also:schools attached to the temples of Babylonia, but the selection of Anu, Bel and Ea for the three representatives of the three See also:spheres recognized, is due to the importance which, for one See also:reason or the other, the centres in which Anu, Bel and Ea were worshipped had acquired in the popular mind. Each of the three must have been regarded in his centre as the most important member in a larger or smaller See also:group, so that their See also:union in a triad marks also the See also:combination of the three distinctive pantheons into a harmonious whole.
In the astral See also:theology of Babylonia and See also:Assyria, Anu, Bel and Ea became the three zones of the See also:ecliptic, the See also:northern, See also:middle and southern See also:zone respectively. The purely theoretical See also:character of Anu is thus still further emphasized, and in the See also:annals and votive See also:inscriptions as well as in the incantations and See also:hymns, he is rarely introduced as an active force to whom a See also:personal See also:appeal can be made. His name becomes little more than a synonym for the heavens in See also:general and even his See also:title as king
or father of the gods has little of the personal See also:element in it. A consort Antum (or as some scholars prefer to read, Anatum) is assigned to him, on the theory that every deity must have a See also:female See also:associate, but Antum is a purely artificial product—a lifeless See also:symbol playing even less of a part in what may be called
the active pantheon than Anil.
For See also:works of reference see BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION. (M.
End of Article: ANU
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