Anu
| Religion in NetHack |
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In NetHack, Anu is the lawful god of the Caveman pantheon.
Origin
Anu, also known as An in Sumerian, is an ancient Mesopotamian deity that is the divine personification of the sky, and is the king and ancestor of the other gods. Regarded as a source of both divine and human kingship, Anu opens the enumerations of deities in many Mesopotamian texts. Anu's name comes from the Akkadian word for "sky" or "Heaven". Anu's most well-known appearance is in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is regarded as a foundational work in religion and the tradition of heroic sagas and a major influence for Homeric epics.
In the Epic proper, Anu is persuaded by his daughter Ishtar (Akkadian "Inanna") to give her the Bull of Heaven so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh and his companion Enkidu slay the Bull together, and Enkidu hurls the Bull's right thigh at Ishtar; the gods condemn Enkidu to death, which catalyzes Gilgamesh's fear for his own death and drives the remaining portion of the epic. Anu also appears in the tales of the hero Adapa, where he summons the mortal hero to take him to task after Adapa breaks the wing of the South Wind for interrupting his fishing. Anu orders for Adapa to be given the food and water of immortality, but Adapa refuses, having been warned beforehand by Enki that Anu will offer him the food and water of death.
Although Anu is a very important deity in the ancient Mesopotamian cosmology, his nature was often ambiguous and ill-defined, and he appears in very few myths, with his worship and active role in the folklore only being established in final centuries of ancient Mesopotamian history.
Variants
dNetHack
In dNetHack and notdNetHack, Anu is a lawful god of neutral holiness, and his minions consist of standard Archons.
Encyclopedia entry
Anu was the Babylonian god of the heavens, the monarch of the north star. He was the oldest of the Babylonian gods, the father of all gods, and the ruler of heaven and destiny. Anu features strongly in the _atiku_ festival in Babylon, Uruk and other cities.
