Who was Mithra? Zoroastrian god
Ardashir II becomes the Persian king, in the center, with Mithra and Ahura Mazda by his side (Taq-e Bostan, Iran, 300s AD) (They're trampling on the Roman Empire Julian.) Who [...]
Who is Ishtar? A Mesopotamian god
The Mesopotamian god Ishtar or Inanna Who was Ishtar? Ishtar (also called Inanna) was an important god of West Asia. Beginning at least by 3000 BC the Sumerians, the Akkadians, the [...]
West Asian religion – Enuma Elish to Islam
Sumerian clay worshippers from Tell Asmar Why did so many religions start in West Asia? West Asia has been the home of many of the world's most popular religions, and [...]
Holy men and holy women in ancient West Asia
Apollonius of Tyana (or some other holy man) Closer to the gods There is a long tradition in West Asia (and in India and China) that some men and women, and some [...]
What’s the Enuma Elish? West Asian religion
Clay tablets with cuneiform writing of the Enuma Elish Story of Creation By about the time of Hammurabi, about 1700 BC, people in the Babylonian Empire were beginning to write down this story about [...]
Who was Enlil? – Mesopotamia – West Asian gods
Who was Enlil? This is what one of the tablets that was found in the Assyrian king's library looks like. This one tells the story of the Flood. The Sumerian god [...]
Ba’al – the Levant – West Asian gods
Ba'al from Ugarit (Louvre Museum, Paris) He who shall not be named? All along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, in what's now Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, and down into [...]
Attis and Cybele – West Asian mythology
Cybele and Attis standing together, while two much smaller human worshippers pray to them. From the Hellenistic kingdoms, in what is now Turkey, in the 100s BC Who was Cybele? [...]
Who is Astarte? West Asian religion
The goddess Astarte in the Late Bronze Age The goddess Astarte As early as about 3000 BC, Astarte was a Semitic goddess of love and fertility. People worshipped her in Mesopotamia and in the [...]
Who is Ahura Mazda? Zoroastrianism and West Asian religion
A carving of the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda, from the Louvre museum in Paris Who is Ahura Mazda? About 1500 BC, people in India and Iran worshipped a sky god they called [...]
