Anu (c. 4000 - 500 BCE) King of the Gods is the oldest known god in mythology. An ancient creator deity, he descends from the embodiment of primordial Chaos. Anu rises to power during the Mesopotamian era as the Father of the Gods.
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He later sacrifices his manhood so Kumarbi, a male divinity of the Underworld, can give birth to Storm God Teshub through his split skull. Such is divine life in early Mesopotamia. Teshub becomes the enemy of Kumarbi. He eventually banishes the Old Gods to the Underworld.
In the beginning, Anu (Anum, An) is the divine embodiment of the Sky. He's King of the Gods and paternal ancestor of countless figures of ancient religion.
His daughter Ishtar (Inanna) goes on to become one of the longest-reigning deities in history. Ishtar also claims parentage by the Moon God and Goddess, which might explain why she's not banished to the underworld like other children of Anu and Ki.
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Anu is equated with Greek Uranus (Ouranos), consort of Gaia and Sky Father figure in ancient Greek myth. Uranus also is castrated by his son, the Titan Cronus, who goes on to become the first King.
Obscure or vague at times, the mythology surrounding Anu is complex. He's sometimes seen a figurehead or primal elemental. In Sumerian, his name, Anu, simply means 'sky'. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he appears briefly as Inanna gets the Bull of Heaven from him.
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Oldest god or not, Anu does have parents. They're not considered gods, rather primordial beings descended from Chaos.
His father Anshar is a sky entity whose name means 'the whole heaven' in Sumerian. Anshar also represents the evening star. His wife, Anshar's wife Kishar, corresponds to the morning star, both aspects of the planet Venus.
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Anshar and Kishar descend from the divine duo Lahmu and his sister Lahamu (silt). They in turn are born from the mingling of primordial sea goddess Tiamat, representing Chaos and the ocean, and the groundwater, Abzû.
Tiamat has manifestations of divine beauty as well as monstrous aspects. In early religious incantations she's called 'shining' or 'the glistening one'. In myths and stories she appears as a desirable woman, a sea monster, serpent or dragon. She's mother of all monsters and dragons.
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Anu holds the power to bestow the right to rule on mortals and Gods alike. He's strongly associated with the number 60.
Sexagesimal, also known as base 60, is a numeral system with sixty as its base. It originates with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BCE. In ancient Mesopotamia, a divine or sacred number is accorded the deities, especially those often mentioned, as a shortcut to writing out the name of the Goddess or God in cuneiform.
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From there it travels to Babylon. In modified form the sexagesimal system is still used for measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinates.
As the base 60 is the universal base for Mesopotamians, Creator God Anu would have used it to mathematically structure the world. 60 is five twelves, with 12 being another symbolic number in worldwide religions.
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The sexagesimal system survives as 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 360° in a circle.
By comparison, the Egyptians have a base 10 system of hieroglyphs for numerals. There are specific symbols for one unit, one ten, one hundred, one thousand, one ten thousand, one hundred thousand, and one million.
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Anu has three wives, or three aspects of the same wife. Each of her aspects includes that of an Earth Goddess. She's Antu, Ki and Urash. Ki is his main consort and mother of the storm God Enlil.
At one time the three feminine deities might have been a triple goddess or heavenly triad. While the early Sumerians and other Mesopotamians are fond of duos or pairs, three is a number of divinity appearing in religion and folklore throughout the world. Trinities can include specific deities or assume three aspects of one.
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In some tales the wife of Anu is Nammu, an ancient creator Goddess who usually doesn't have a spouse. She makes an exception for Anu, possibly a symbolic marriage to unite two territories or sets of beliefs in the mortal world.
Nammu gives birth to Enki (Ea), an elemental water entity, God of creation, intelligence, crafts, fertility, semen, magic and mischief. Enki's parentage is asserted to be Anu (as An) and Nammu. Equated with Greek Poseidon, he goes on to play an important role in Mesopotamian myth and culture.
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The Sumerian Enki is sometimes known as Ea in other principalities of worship, but they're the same God. Both Enki and Enlil are part of the ancient Sumerian pantheon. Known as the Old Gods or Anunnaki, they are among those banished to the Underworld by Teshub.
With sons Enlil and Enki, Anu forms a divine trinity. Enlil (Elil) represents wind, air, earth and storms. His worship extends through the Akkadian empire to Babylon and Mesopotamia, centered at Nippur. In some mythologies he and Anu are interchangeable. Enlil gains power as time goes on.
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In Mesopotamian astronomy, the sky has three zones. Stars closest to the pole belong to Enlil. Stars close to the equator are those of Enki. Anu rules the stars in between. Zones of the sky are called the "Ways" of the equivalent deities.
Anu starts to take a more passive approach when his son Enlil assumes the crown of King of the Gods. Anu gradually retires from the mortal world, spending more time in the divine domain of the esoteric, as the next generation of Mesopotamian gods wreaks havoc down below.
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Among mortals, the worship of Anu as a solitary deity dwindles and his importance to the pantheon is limited. Although mentioned first in the God lists, he's more a habit than an entity of divine power. Other gods take prominence.
Inanna (Ishtar) rises like her symbol the eight-point star to influence the lives of mortals for thousands of years. She outlasts entire civilizations. Meanwhile, the enmity between Kumarbi and Teshub is legendary.
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In some myths Anu is deposed from the throne of heaven when Kumarbi bites off his testicles and gives birth to Teshub. In others he continues to rule above, while Kumarbi rules the Underworld because he tried to usurp Anu. The offspring of Anu and Ki, the Anunnaki or Old Gods, are later confined to the Underworld by Teshub.
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