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Updated: June 5, 2025
Marduk's declaration is then repeated. Upon hearing the message Lakhmu and Lakhamu and "all the Igigi" are distressed, but are powerless to avert the coming disaster. The formal declaration of war having been sent, the followers of Anshar assemble at a meal which is realistically described: They ate bread, they drank wine. The sweet wine took away their senses.
Ramman-nirari I. already designates the Anunnaki as belonging to the earth, though it is an indication of the vagueness of the notions connected with the group that in hymns, both the Anunnaki and the Igigi are designated as offspring of Anu, the god of heaven. They are not exclusively at the service of Nergal and Allatu. Bel, Ninib, Marduk, and Ishtar also send them out on missions.
At times the Igigi alone are mentioned, but generally the Igigi and Anunnaki appear in combination. To the latest period of Babylonian history these two groups continue to receive official recognition. Nebuchadnezzar II. dedicates an altar, which he erects at the wall of the city of Babylon, to the Igigi and Anunnaki.
He is once more the great god, lord of gods, supreme king of the Igigi, the father of the Anunnaki all titles that the Assyrians were fond of heaping upon Ashur. One feels the anxiety of Nebopolassar to emphasize the new order of things by attributing once more to Marduk what was formerly claimed for Ashur.
Be it understood that this explanation is offered merely as a conjecture, which, however, finds support in the meaning attached to the term 'Igigi. This, as Halévy and Guyard have recognized, is a formation of a well-known stem occurring in Babylonian, as well as in other Semitic languages, that has the meaning 'strong. The ideographic form of writing the name likewise designates the spirits as 'the great chiefs. The 'Igigi, therefore, are 'the strong ones, and strength being the attribute most commonly assigned to the Semitic deities, there is a presumption, at least, in favor of interpreting Anunnak, or Anunnaki, in the same way.
There were, of course, some misfortunes that were sent against mankind from on high Ramman was a god who required such messengers as the Igigi, and besides the Igigi, there were other spirits sent out from above.
He looked at the father of the gods, the god of Dur-an-ki, Desire for rulership seizes hold of his heart. I will give all orders to all the Igigi. Zu proceeds to the dwelling-place of En-lil and waits for a favorable moment to make an attack. His heart was bent on the contest. With his gaze directed toward the entrance of the dwelling, he awaits for the beginning of day.
The force of na is not clear, unless it be a phonetic complement merely. Semitische Völker, p. 369. Very many of the names of the Semitic gods and heroes signify strong, e.g., El, Adon, Baal, Etana, Kemosh, etc. The final vowel i would, on the basis of the explanation offered, be paralleled by the i of Igigi an indication of the plural. See Delitzsch, Assyr. Gram. § 67, 1.
Evidently, the fact that their chief function was to injure mankind suggested the doctrine which gave them a place in the lower world with the demons. The distinction between Anunnaki and the Igigi is not sharply maintained in the religious literature. Though Ramman-nirari places the Igigi in heaven, it is not impossible that a later view transferred them, like the Anunnaki, to the lower world.
He is the king of the Igigi and Anunnaki, that is, of all the heavenly and earthly spirits, and he is this by virtue of being the supreme god of heaven. His cult, however, appears to have suffered through the overshadowing supremacy of Ashur.
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