Anu

Anu (also An; from Sumerian 𒀭 An, "sky, heaven") is the earliest attested Sky Father deity. In Sumerian religion, he was also "King of the Gods", "Lord of the Constellations, Spirits and Demons", and "Supreme Ruler of the Kingdom of Heaven", where Anu himself wandered the highest Heavenly Regions. He was believed to have the power to judge those who had committed crimes, and to have created the stars as soldiers to destroy the wicked. His attribute was the Royal Tiara. His attendant and Overseer was the God Ilabrat.

Sumerian religion

Anu existed in Sumerian cosmogony as a dome that covered the flat earth; Outside of this dome was the primordial body of water known as Nammu (not to be confused with the subterranean Abzu).

In Sumerian, the designation "An" was used interchangeably with "the heavens" so that in some cases it is doubtful whether, under the term, the god An or the heavens is being denoted. The Akkadians inherited An as the god of heavens from the Sumerian as Anu-, and in Akkadian cuneiform, the DINGIR character may refer either to Anum or to the Akkadian word for god, ilu-, and consequently had two phonetic values an and il. Hittite cuneiform as adapted from the Old Assyrian kept the an value but abandoned il.

Anu (tribe)

Anu, is a Vedic Sanskrit term for a major tribe in the Rigveda, RV 1.108.8, RV 8.10.5 (both times listed together with the Druhyu) and, later also in the Mahabharata. One of the Anu kings, King Anga, was a chakravartin (AB 8.22).

Ānava, the vrddhi derivation of Anu appears as the name of a ruler in the Rigvedic account of the Battle of the Ten Kings (7.18.13) and at 8.4.1 with the Turvaśa (tribe). The meaning ánu "living, human" (Naighantu) cannot be substantiated for the Rigveda and may have been derived from the tribal name,

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Anu (fly)

Anu is a genus of Hoverfly, from the family Syrphidae, in the order Diptera. It is only known from New Zealand.

Species

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