Glossary

Aktepe Hill near Göreme in Cappadocia, central Anatolia in present-day Turkey, 31 July 2009. A landscape photograph, not a representation of one particular ancient kingdom or people

Site

Anatolia

Anatolia is the region occupying the Asian part of present-day Turkey

صيغ للاسم: Anatolia

Attic krater attributed to the Hirschfeld Workshop, ca. 750–735 BCE, with a funerary scene. Evidence of early Greek art, rather than a divine assembly. The Met, 14.130.14

Entity

Ancient Greek world

Greek-speaking communities and cities around the Aegean and beyond, extending across the borders of modern Greece.

صيغ للاسم: ancient Greek world، ancient Greece

Plate of the Merneptah inscription published by Petrie in 1897: a historical drawing in mirrored orientation. This witness contains the name Israel; the image depicts neither the community nor its beliefs

Entity

Ancient Israel

A name for an ancient population and later historical traditions, attested on the Merneptah Stele.

صيغ للاسم: Israel، ancient Israel

Lamassu: a human-headed winged bull from Nimrud, ca. 883–859 BCE; The Met, 32.143.1. An example of Assyrian art in the ancient Near East, not a representation of every regional culture or of El

Entity

Ancient Near East

A historical and geographical term covering Mesopotamia, the Levant and neighbouring ancient societies.

صيغ للاسم: Ancient Near East

Modern textual comparison, depicting neither El nor the Ancient of Days and proving no direct transmission route

Entity

Ancient of Days

Designation of the divine figure with white hair, throne and court in Daniel7.

صيغ للاسم: Ancient of Days، Ancient One

Modern diagram explaining malʾakh as a messenger defined by context: divine or human envoy. Genesis 32 uses Hebrew verse numbering. The word proves neither wings nor that every later angel was formerly a Canaanite god

Entity

Angel / Divine Messenger

Hebrew malʾakh means messenger, human or celestial according to context; the word alone proves neither wings nor origin from a particular Canaanite god.

صيغ للاسم: malʾakh، divine messenger

Modern analytical diagram separating structure, role and identity. Comparative questions, not an archaeological chain proving a god became an angel

Entity

Angelology

Study and organization of angels and heavenly beings: names, ranks and roles within particular traditions, without assuming one fixed system.

صيغ للاسم: angelology، study of angels

Modern terminology diagram, not divine portraits or genealogy. Distinguishes Gathic spirits from later Pahlavi opposition; early theology is debated. These names are not equated with Yahweh and Satan

Entity

Angra Mainyu / Ahriman

Hostile spirit; Ahriman is a Middle Persian name in later traditions with changing theological relations.

صيغ للاسم: Angra Mainyu، Aŋra Mainiiu، Ahriman

Modern diagram of different explanations for an unidentified image; not evidence that any one occurred at Ugarit

Entity

Aniconism

Avoidance of divine images in a particular practice or tradition; not inferred solely from an unidentified artifact.

صيغ للاسم: aniconism، aniconic practice

Hands, belt and dress on a pillar in Building D at Göbekli Tepe, photographed in 2019. These visible features underpin the anthropomorphic reading; they do not identify a name or gender

Entity

Anthropomorphism

Representing a thing or being with human features, such as arms, hands and dress. The term describes a form, without establishing an ordinary human or divine identity.

صيغ للاسم: anthropomorphism، anthropomorphic، humanlike form

Modern diagram of rank terms and Marduk’s elevation in Hammurabi’s prologue. Transfer of a title alone proves neither identical deities nor lost cults; not a chronological succession chart

Entity

Anu standing — anūtu

Akkadian term for supreme standing or power associated with Anu, attributable to another god.

صيغ للاسم: anūtu، anûtu، Anu-power

Two textual uses of Anuna: the land of Lagash in Gudea’s cylinder, and seven judges in Inanna’s Descent. Modern diagram, not divine images or a fixed membership count

Entity

Anunna / Anunnaki

Collective designation for gods in Mesopotamian texts, with variable scope and membership; earliest known attestations belong to the late third millennium BCE.

صيغ للاسم: Anunna، Anuna، Anunnaki، Anunnaku

Aphrodite with a Turtle, an incomplete restored statue from Dura-Europos, about the second–third centuries CE, Louvre AO 20126. Shonagon, 5 January 2024; an object later than Hesiod’s poem

Entity

Aphrodite

Greek goddess whose origin Hesiod relates to foam after the assault on Ouranos.

صيغ للاسم: Aphrodite

Modern comparison of Oannes, Enmeduranki, Watchers and Enoch in the cited passages; neither genealogy nor proof of borrowing

Entity

Apkallu

Akkadian word for sage; lists,images and roles require their own textual contexts.

صيغ للاسم: apkallu

Modern method diagram distinguishing specific resemblance from a direct source: priority and circulation alone identify no manuscript, intermediary or definite route

Entity

Apocalypse of Abraham

Work attributed to Abraham and preserved in Slavonic transmission; opens with idol criticism before heavenly revelation.

صيغ للاسم: Apocalypse of Abraham

Modern analytical tool. Resemblance alone does not prove Iranian borrowing: dating, contact, distinctive pattern, mechanism, alternatives and direction must be tested

Entity

Apocalyptic literature

Writing disclosing hidden heavenly and historical knowledge, not every catastrophe.

صيغ للاسم: apocalyptic literature، apocalypse، apocalyptic writing

Apollo and a Muse on an Attic white-ground cup; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 00.356. An ancient representation of the god, rather than a particular Iliadic assembly scene

Entity

Apollo

God of music and prophecy in Greek traditions, also participating in the Iliad’s events.

صيغ للاسم: Apollo

Attic red-figure vessel, 4th century BCE; depicts Heracles’s apotheosis, not Alcestis’s rescue. Metropolitan Museum, 52.11.18; public-domain photograph

Entity

Apotheosis: acquiring divine status

Transformation granting divine status; differs from returning to an earlier human life or raising the dead for judgment.

صيغ للاسم: apotheosis

Enuma Elish tablet K.3473, from Nineveh, Neo-Assyrian period; British Museum. A witness to the poem’s transmission, not its first composition

Entity

Apsû

Primordial waters and divine progenitor in Enuma Elish.

صيغ للاسم: Apsû، Apsu

A clay tablet from Nineveh preserving Sargon’s birth legend, in which Aqqi is the irrigator who adopts the child. A seventh-century BCE Assyrian copy, British Museum K.3401. Photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen, 2012; the narrative is later than the king’s lifetime

Person

Aqqi in Sargon’s birth story

Aqqi is the irrigator who finds the child in the river and adopts him in Sargon of Akkad’s birth story

صيغ للاسم: Aqqi، Akki

Modern method diagram: work origins, manuscript and edition dates differ; no proven transmission chain

Ancient text

Arabic Infancy Gospel

Collection about Jesus’ childhood overlapping other accounts without being the same work.

صيغ للاسم: Arabic Infancy Gospel

‘إله’ and ʾilāh in a modern typographic illustration of the Arabic word. An image of a word, not a representation of a divine figure or a witness from an ancient inscription

Entity

Arabic ilah

The Arabic common noun meaning “god” or “deity”, with the plural aliha.

صيغ للاسم: ilah، aliha

Palmyrene funerary relief with an Aramaic inscription, ca. 181 CE; The Met, 02.29.4. An example of a historical Aramaic variety, not a representation of Syriac or every stage of the language

Entity

Aramaic

A group of Northwest Semitic language varieties with a long history across the Near East.

صيغ للاسم: Aramaic

Modern diagram of Kumarbi’s pregnancy list, highlighting Aranzah as a river divine figure. Branches group names in the scene; not a river map or the order of every birth event

Entity

Aranzah

River as a divine figure, named among those Kumarbi carries in the Hittite song.

صيغ للاسم: Aranzah، Aranzakh

Roman statue of the “Borghese Ares” type, held by the Louvre, Ma 866. The type’s name and identification do not make it a contemporary image of Iliadic scenes

Entity

Ares

God of war in Greek traditions and a participating figure in the Iliad.

صيغ للاسم: Ares

Modern comparison of explanatory principles, not three names for the same god. Plato’s ordering does not establish creation from nothing; Aristotle’s mover is not automatically the biblical God. [6][7][13]

Person

Aristotle

Greek philosopher whose concepts of actuality, soul and motion were reinterpreted in later religious traditions.

صيغ للاسم: Aristotle، Aristotelēs

Modern diagram of Exodus 25:10–22, not an original artifact or cherub anatomy. No mentioned statue is a textual observation, not an excavated empty space

Entity

Ark of the Covenant

Portable sacred chest in Hebrew texts, keeping testimony and associated with presence; no verified original artifact in this study.

صيغ للاسم: Ark of the Covenant، Ark of the Testimony

Apollo and Artemis with a deer inside an Attic cup of about 470 BCE; Louvre Cp 1005 / G 151. Archaeological evidence for representations of the two deities

Entity

Artemis

Goddess of hunting in Greek traditions and Apollo’s sister, named among the divine company in the Iliad.

صيغ للاسم: Artemis

Modern comparison of Enoch 8/10, Jubilees 10 and 1QM 13. Not one figure’s transformation. Jubilees 10:11 uses Satan in Mastema’s context; local overlap is not denied

Entity

Asael / Azazel

Name forms in Enochic tradition associated with corrupting teaching and punishment; witness variation cautions against one fixed form and identity everywhere.

صيغ للاسم: Asael، Asahel، Azazel

Modern distinction between goddess, ritual term and inscription reading. No invented excavated wooden pole; symbol and goddess not always mutually exclusive

Entity

Asherah cult symbol

Asherah as a cult object or symbol, often wooden in biblical contexts; relation to the goddess and inscriptional ʾšrth remains debated.

صيغ للاسم: asherah cult symbol، asherah cult object، asherah pole

Entity

Ashmedai

The 'king of demons' in the Babylonian Talmud's Gittin 68 story about Solomon and the shamir.

صيغ للاسم: Ashmedai

Ashurbanipal stabs a lion in a relief from the North Palace at Nineveh, around 645–635 BCE, now in the British Museum. Attendants accompany the king in this royal hunting scene. Photograph taken on 9 March 2020

Person

Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal was an Assyrian king of the seventh century BCE, reigning about 668–631 BCE

صيغ للاسم: Ashurbanipal، Assurbanipal

Akhenaten offering a duck, limestone relief with paint, Dynasty 18, The Met 1985.328.2. Aten rays and hands survive; the complete disk is not preserved here. The museum gives a probable Amarna origin. Original preserved; display copy uncropped

Entity

Aten

Solar divine power central to Akhenaten’s program, depicted by disk and rays, with a history predating the king.

صيغ للاسم: Aten، Aton، solar disk

Athena’s birth from Zeus’s head on an Attic vessel, about 570–560 BCE, Louvre CA 616. Bibi Saint-Pol, 1 June 2007. An ancient artistic witness; the museum records restorations to the vessel

Entity

Athena

Greek goddess associated in Hesiod with Zeus, Metis and birth from the head.

صيغ للاسم: Athena

Modern divine-household diagram: El as father and king, Athirat as consort with the progenitress epithet, and divine-group designations. Baal is Dagan’s son and also addresses El as father. Not a definitive birth genealogy or identification of all Athirat’s sons as known biological sons of El

Entity

Athirat

A high-ranking goddess commonly understood as El’s consort in Ugaritic texts; associated with the progenitress epithet and the palace intercession.

صيغ للاسم: Athirat، Asherah

Modern diagram of KTU1.6I; Athtar is not presented as a fallen angel or denied all kingship beyond Saphon

Entity

Athtar

God who tries Baal’s throne on Saphon during his absence, then descends; it is not El’s throne.

صيغ للاسم: Athtar، ʿAthtar، Attar

Cuneiform fragment of the Atrahasis tradition, Mesopotamia, c. seventh–sixth centuries BCE; Met 86.11.378a. A later copy, not the Old Babylonian manuscript or Gilgamesh K.3375. Original preserved; resized without cropping

Entity

Atrahasis: Epic and Hero

Akkadian epic: humans created for divine labor, multiplication, noise and flood. Atrahasis, “exceedingly wise,” survives through Enki’s warning; human reproduction is regulated afterward.

صيغ للاسم: Atrahasis، Atra-hasis، Atrahasis epic

Atum as a human-headed cobra above an animal-mummy box. Made of cupreous metal, the object is dated by the Met to 664–30 BCE; inventory 04.2.519. It illustrates one of the god’s forms in later Egyptian periods

Entity

Atum

Atum is an Egyptian creator god associated with Heliopolis

صيغ للاسم: Atum

Positions in specific texts, not a consensus of early or later Christianity; no portraits depicted

Person

Augustine

Fourth- and fifth-century Christian author describing his changing grasp of nonspatial divine presence.

صيغ للاسم: Augustine، Augustine of Hippo

Artemis sanctuary remains at Aulis, Greece; George E. Koronaios, 2021. Evidence for a cult site, not for Iphigenia's episode

Site

Aulis

Ancient place on the Boeotian coast near the Euripus Strait in Greece; setting of Iphigenia's Greek story and site of a fifth-century BCE Artemis temple.

صيغ للاسم: Aulida