Gods’ Names of Ancient Times – Satisfactory but Actions Undesirable

Staff Writer

Table of Contents

This writing argues that these names of God-gods of ancient times were satisfactory while their actions could be construed as undesirable, hence the polytheistic nature of their religions.

The naming of the gods

Many ancient religions associated meanings with the names given to the gods; meanings that arguably were derived from their life situations. Gods’ names were contextualized from roles that were deemed beyond the natural activities of humans or what humans could not naturally control. Such feats were attributed to the supernatural. We see these definite names of gods in ancient Mesopotamia as classical examples.

One god could not have dealt with all the human problems or sorrows of their times. It is believed that the Semitic world shares many things in common. The Sumerians did not speak Semitic Languages notwithstanding their settlement in the southern part of the region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Their neighbours, the Akkadians moved to the north, and the Babylonians; and the Assyrians lived farther north of Tigris. These ancient peoples had similar religions and worshipped almost identical humanly invoked utilitarian gods and goddesses. Possibly, human life’s situations might be reasons for the acknowledgement of the existence of gods.

The idea of a God is a rationalisation of a supreme creator, over and above, and who is analogously referenced to by different names and attributes by different religions. It could be argued that all gods are ancillary deities operating in the shadows of the supreme God.

I was once asked by a 10-year-old boy about human and gods' primacy. Humans and the gods who first existed. It was a tough question to answer. Beliefs in nature, which includes plants, animals, landscapes, and other products of the earth are clear evidence that those existed before humans. Many sacred texts’ literalists and theists would acknowledge this fact and even the naturalists would agree with this. Creationism asserts that humans were created by God after other things were created. Humans were the last arrivals on the natural stage. If this is the case, can we rightly say that the gods existed on account of nature and were not caused by humans? If we accept such, then the gods’ names of ancient times were satisfactory, because they signify what they represented. They were fine, satisfactory, and powerful in their different capacities, and made themselves known to the people as opposed to the claims that their naming and name associations were as results of human sufferings or sorrows caused by the gods as punishments to humans.  

Gods' Names - Satisfactory or Undesirable?

Some will argue that these gods’ names of ancient times were undesirable and that they were a result of human sufferings which necessitated the need to appease them and solicit their help against natural disasters or misfortunes.

The Semitic peoples interpreted their beliefs in the gods from the roles they played, such as in creation, fertility, death, or the afterlife.

The names of the gods were embraced to compensate for the peoples’ wishes and yearnings. The names were adopted to propitiate the gods and were mythologized in war, famine, storms, or creation.

Below are references to some ancient mythological names of the gods; some revealing either the satisfactoriness of their names or the undesirability of their actions from their roles or titles.   

Adad  

Adad is considered the weather god of the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon. The Sumerian equivalent of Adad was Ishkur and the West Semitic was Hadad.

Adad had two separate roles to play: It can give life and take it. As lord of abundance, he caused the rain to fall and the land to bear fruit for his friends. However, when he was angry, he could send storms and hurricanes against his enemies.

Allah 

In Arabic, it is Allāh (“God”) and the one and only God in Islam. The name Allah is considered a contraction of the Arabic al-Ilāh, “the God.” Arguably, the word for god can be traced back to the Semitic writings designating words for god, such as il, el or Eloah. Allah is considered in Islam as having no associate and nothing can be associated with him.

Anat 

She was a northwest Semitic goddess who was also worshipped in ancient Egypt. The variance of her name includes: ‘nt in Ugarit and Anath in Greek. Notably, she was considered a goddess of war, love, and fertility, as well as a protector, agent of vengeance, and giver of life.

Anu 

He is viewed as a creator and sky god with supreme power. His name signified the “One on High”. Anu and his sons Enlil and Enki constitute a triune god, namely ‘Transcendental’ obscurity (Anu), ‘Transcendent’ (Enlil) and ‘Immanent’ (Enki).

The three gods correspond to the three divisions of the heavens: Anu (the ancient god of the heavens), Enlil (the god of the air and the forces of nature, and lord of the gods), and Enki (the beneficent god of earth and life, who lived in the depth of the waters).

Ashur 

Ashur (variously spelt as Ashshur, Assur) is identified as an East Semitic god and the chief god of the Assyrian pantheon. By representation, Ashur was identified as the winged sun and appeared often in Assyrian iconography. The Assyrian kings take their names to include that of Ashur and there were various designations depicting Ashur as an important deity to the Assyrians, such as “bêlu rabû "great lord", ab ilâni "father of gods", šadû rabû "great mountain", and il aššurî "god of Ashur."

Baal 

Baal (or Ba’al) was an ancient Canaanite god associated with fertility and produce. The byname ‘giver of life’ was attributed to him, and humans were dependent on his ability to provide them with food. Also, Baal was given the title ‘son of Dragon’ designating him as the controller of the grain. By way of appeasing him, he was called ‘Hadad’, the storm god who provided rain when invoked.    

Dagon 

The dragon was the chief deity of the Philistines. He was the god of fertility, vegetation, and military might. He was at the centre stage of the Philistine concepts of death and the afterlife.

Elohim 

Elohim means ‘supreme one’ or ‘mighty one’. In the Semitic world, it is understood as a Canaanite father of the gods, and creator god. The name in a biblical sense could not only be used to refer to the Supreme God, but it can also be used to refer to “human rulers, judges, and even angels.” The term Elohim can be written in shortened form as El and then followed by another word, such as in the names Elijah (‘El is Yahweh’, that is God is Yahweh) and Samuel (‘Heard by El’, that is heard by God).

Ishtar 

Ishtar is known variously as Ishtar among the Akkadians, then Inanna for the Sumerians. Its counterpart was the West Semitic goddess called Astarte. Ishtar is a goddess of war, light, life, and sexual love.

Marduk 

Marduk was the head of the Babylonian pantheon who was responsible for justice, healing, compassion, magic, and fairness. For both the Greeks and Romans, its equivalent was Zeus and Jupiter, respectively. He is often shown in human form wearing royal attires bearing a snake-dragon and a spade. Historically, Marduk’s origin has been linked to a local deity known as Asarluhi, which was a farmer's god symbolized by the spade, known as a marru. His name translates as 'bull-calf,' although he was known as Bel (Lord).

Shamash 

In Akkadian, it is Shamash while in Sumerian, it is Utu. Shamash is known as the god of the sun. Similarly, in “Mesopotamian religion, the god of the sun, with the moon god, Sin (Sumerian: Nanna), and Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna), the goddess of Venus, was part of an astral triad of divinities.” Shamash was the son of Sin.

He was identified as “the solar deity,” who had power over darkness and evil. This gave him the approval as the god of justice and equity and the power to judge both gods and humans. By day, he was a sun god and by night he became the judge of the underworld.

Yahweh (or YHWH) 

In Jewish tradition, “Yahweh” is the only and all-powerful God. This name Yahweh is too holy that the people dared not say it out loud. As time went on, the name began to see replacements with names, such as, “Adonai,” or “My Lord,” especially when speaking. Also, the name “Elohim,” which simply stands for “God” was used to replace the name, Yahweh. But the two names “Adonai” and “Elohim” were also used to refer to other things that are not God. Yahweh is exclusively a name reserved for God.

From the above, it can be argued that God-gods’ names of ancient times were copacetic, and their actions could be viewed as unsatisfactory by human judgements. But their actions are not human calls, but divinities.

There is no competition between natural and supernatural or between mortal and immortal. One is the worshipper and the other is the worshipped. Therefore, humans are at the receiving end of the gods. Except for Yahweh, who explicitly, according to biblical tradition claimed that his name is “I AM WHO I AM”, every other God-gods name of ancient times could be considered as originating from humans. But they were still gods, divinities.

Some of the gods played dual roles, such as giver of life and taker of life, sun god and judge of the underworld, goddess of war and life, sending favours to friends but punishment to enemies. Some cannot be associated with anything and some whose names cannot be said aloud. There is a sense of the sacred in the eyes and lives of the ancient peoples however, fear of the unknown, punishments, catastrophes, and death might be reasons for the names given to the gods. These fears were imagined as being exerted by the gods.    

Sources

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Adad in Encyclopædia Britannica, March 08, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Adad (accessed January 10, 2021)

Myths Encyclopaedia, Semitic Mythology. http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Sa-Sp/Semitic-Mythology.html (accessed 03 January 2021)

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. Semites, Semitic Religion. International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia. 1915. https://www.biblestudytools.com/encyclopedias/isbe/semites-semitic-religion.html (accessed 03 January 2021)

Joshua J. Mark, Anu in Ancient History Encyclopaedia, 20 January 2017. https://www.ancient.eu/Anu/ (accessed 10 January 2021).

J. Hill, Anat in Ancient Egypt Online, 2010. https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/anat/ (accessed 03 January 2021).

Ashur (god) in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashur_%28god%29 (accessed 10 January 2021).

The worship of Baal, in Bible History. https://www.bible-history.com/resource/ff_baal.htm (accessed 10 January 2021).

Dagon Chief god of the Philistines in Learn Religions, Judd H. Burton, January 30, 2020. https://www.learnreligions.com/dagon-chief-god-of-the-philistines-118505 (accessed 07 January 2021).

What Does Elohim Mean and Why Is This Name of God So Important? In Bible Study Tools, Mike Leake, 14 September 2019. https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/elohim-supreme-one-mighty-one.html (accessed January 8, 2021).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ishtar in Encyclopædia Britannica, August 28, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ishtar-Mesopotamian-goddess (accessed January 12, 2021)

Marduk, Definition in Ancient History Encyclopaedia, Joshua J. Mark, 09 December 2016. https://www.ancient.eu/Marduk/ (accessed 12 January 2021).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Shamash in Encyclopædia Britannica, March 04, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shamash (accessed January 12, 2021). 

Comments

The doubting writer said…
I think there can only really be one Creator. We can give Him different names, but his essence will not change.
As for the large number of gods mentioned in ancient texts, I believe that this is people's interpretation of some natural and human anomalies, their deification.
It is no secret that at all times there were people endowed with something special from birth. For example, an unprecedented power or ability to predict some natural disasters. There is a possibility that there were such people before, and because they were different from others, they were worshipped in life, deified after death, and passed on stories about them to the next generations. Usually, such legends become more colorful with each new generation.
Other ancient gods were the personification of human fears. I agree with you here. After all, it is much easier to survive your fear, making it something alive and understandable. And since all fear feeds on our ignorance, the rites of sacrifice have arisen.
In fact, this topic is very large and interesting. Thanks.
January 17, 2021 at 3:01 PM
iPostthisweek said…
Like you said Elena, the topic is large. You have given it a personal interpretive summary. Thanks for your read.
January 19, 2021 at 12:03 PM
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