THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

GLOSSARY OF NAMES

A SHORT description of the gods and of other persons and places mentioned in the Epic will be found in this 

Glossary. The gods were credited at different times with a variety of attributes and characteristics, sometimes 

contradictory; only such as are relevant to the material of the Gilgamesh Epic are given here. The small number of gods 

and other characters who play a more important part in the story are described in the introduction

reference to this description is given at the end of the Glossary note. Cross-references to other entries in the Glossary are 

indicated by means of italics. 

ADAD: Storm-, rain-, and weather-god. 

ANUNNAKI: Usually gods of the underworld, judges of the dead and offspring of Anu. 

ANSHAN: A district of Elam in south-west Persia; probably the source o£ supplies of wood for making bows. 

Gilgamesh has a 'bow of Anshan'. 

ANTUM: Wife of Anu. 

ANU: Sumerian An; father of gods, and god of the firmament, the 'great above'. In the Sumerian cosmogony there 

was, first of all, the primeval sea, from which was born the cosmic mountain consisting of heaven, 'An', and earth, 'Ki'; 

they were separated by Enlil, then An carried off the heavens, and Enlil the earth. Ann later retreated more and more into 

the background; he had an important temple in Uruk. 

APSU: The Abyss; the primeval waters under the earth; in the later mythology of the Enuma Elish, more 

particularly the sweet water which mingled with the bitter waters of the sea and with a third watery element, perhaps 

cloud, from which the first gods were engendered. The waters of Apsu were thought of as held immobile underground by 

the 'spell' of Ea in a death-like sleep. 

ARURU: A goddess of creation, she created Enkidu from clay in the image of Anu. 

AYA: The dawn, the bride of the Sun God Shamash. 

BELIT-SHERI: Scribe and recorder of the underworld gods: 

BULL of HEAVEN: A personification of drought created by Anu for Ishtar. 

DILMUN: The Sumerian paradise, perhaps the Persian Gulf; sometimes described as 'the place where the sun rises' 

and 'the Land of the Living'; the scene of a Sumerian creation myth and the place where the deified Sumerian hero of the 

flood, Ziusudra, was taken by the gods to live for ever. 

DUMUZI: The Sumerian form of Tammuz; a god of vegetation and fertility, and so of the underworld, also called 

'the Shepherd and 'lord of the sheepfolds'. As the companion of Ningizzida 'to all eternity' he stands at the gate of heaven.