Astrology was born here. Babylon's creation epic Enuma Elish begins with the fresh water Apsu and the salt water Tiamat; the lineage of Anu, Enlil and Enki gives the Moon (Nanna), the Sun (Utu), Venus (Inanna), Jupiter (Marduk), Mercury (Nabu), Mars (Nergal) and Saturn (Ninurta).
Tap a name: its parents, partners, children and the chain running back to the primordial waters open up. The roots of the constellations are here too: the Bull of Heaven, the scorpion-man and the bow-man Pabilsag.
102 figures7 planetary gods11 monsters of Tiamat13 lineages and groups
Key facts
In Enuma Elish the first beings are the fresh water Apsu and the salt water Tiamat; Lahmu, Anshar and Anu descend from them. In Sumer the primordial sea is Nammu.
Anu's sons are Enlil and Enki; from Enlil come Nanna (Moon) and Nergal (Mars), from Nanna Utu (Sun) and Inanna (Venus), from Enki Marduk (Jupiter), from Marduk Nabu (Mercury), from Enlil Ninurta (Saturn).
Inanna is the daughter of Nanna in Sumer and of Anu in Akkad.
Marduk defeats Tiamat and her eleven monsters and founds the world; mankind is made from Kingu's blood.
The planet Saturn is the star of Ninurta; Berossus, by contrast, equates Ea with Cronus. The chart covers 102 figures.
Main line: from the primordial waters to the planetary gods
Left to right: Apsu, Tiamat and Sumer's Nammu; the first generation (Lahmu, Anshar); Anu; the generation of Enlil and Enki; the generation of Nanna and Marduk; Utu, Inanna and Nabu. The Babylonian (Enuma Elish) and Sumerian accounts share one tree: Anu is the son of Anshar in Babylon, of Nammu in Sumer. Large clans appear as dashed group boxes; tap a box to open its list below. Drag to pan, Ctrl/⌘ + wheel or the buttons to zoom.
Inanna is the daughter of Nanna in Sumer and of Anu in Akkad; the same duality holds for Ereshkigal. Ninhursag is Enlil's sister, in some lists Ki herself. The planetary correspondences are given on the figure cards.
Lineage explorer: who is whose child?
Type a name or tap a box in the chart. The card shows the parent, partner and child links recorded on the tablets. "Not recorded" means no link is drawn for that figure in this chart, not that none exists in the sources.
Close kin: grandparents · parents and partners · figure and siblings · children
Lineages and groups
All 102 figures in the chart, by lineage and group. The chips above filter by type; tap a name and the explorer opens that figure.
According to Babylon's Enuma Elish, in the beginning there are the fresh water Apsu and the salt water Tiamat; when their waters mingle Lahmu and Lahamu are born, from them Anshar and Kishar, from them the sky god Anu. In the Sumerian account the primordial sea Nammu bears sky (An) and earth (Ki); Enlil is the son of this pair.
Which god is which planet?
Nanna/Sin the Moon, Utu/Shamash the Sun, Inanna/Ishtar Venus, Nabu Mercury, Nergal Mars, Marduk Jupiter, Ninurta Saturn. These seven are the source of the planetary week and of the planetary characters in classical astrology; the Greeks matched Ishtar with Aphrodite, Nergal with Ares, Marduk with Zeus, Nabu with Hermes, Ninurta with Cronus. There is also a link between Ea and Saturn, but at the level of the god-figure, not the planet: Berossus calls the god who warns of the flood Cronus, that is, he identifies Ea with Cronus; in Babylonian observation of the sky the name of Saturn is 'the star of Ninurta'.
Whose daughter is Inanna?
In the Sumerian texts the daughter of the Moon god Nanna and Ningal, twin of the Sun god Utu and sister of the underworld queen Ereshkigal. In the Akkadian tradition, as Ishtar, she is counted the daughter of Anu and Antu. The chart follows the Sumerian tie; the Akkadian account is noted on the card.
How does Marduk defeat Tiamat?
To avenge Apsu, Tiamat bears eleven monsters and makes Kingu their commander. The gods commission Enki's son Marduk in exchange for kingship; Marduk catches Tiamat in his net, inflates her with the storm and splits her in two with an arrow, builds sky and earth from her body, creates mankind from Kingu's blood and has Esagila built in Babylon.
What sources is this family tree based on?
Enuma Elish; the Sumerian myths (Enki and Ninhursag, Enlil and Ninlil, Inanna's Descent to the Underworld, Enki and the World Order); the Epic of Gilgamesh; the god list An = Anum; Jeremy Black and Anthony Green, Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. Kinships that changed from city to city over three thousand years are noted.
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Explore Further
Astrology began with the observation of these gods
The omen series Enuma Anu Enlil of the 2nd millennium BC tracked the Moon as Sin, Venus as Ishtar, Jupiter as Marduk; the zodiac, the planetary week and the horoscope were born in Babylon. The Planet Mythology pages follow these roots planet by planet.