Obscure Mythology Chapter 9: Igigi, Mesopotamian Sky Gods

     Chapter 9 just might be my favorite so far! I don’t think today’s installment is obscure or as obscure as the others because the Mesopotamian mythology is pretty well known.  It is my second favorite ancient civilization to research, of course Egyptian is my first but Mesopotamia is a close second. The Igigi, our topic today play a pretty prominent role in Mesopotamian mythology yet scholars are not exactly sure who or what they were. The most famous Mesopotamian Gods are of course, the Anunnaki. I first began studying Ancient Mesopotamia, mostly the Sumerians (mainstream history’s pick for the “first” homo sapiens true civilization) because of the Anunnakis alleged connection to ancient aliens. Many fringe researchers, including myself believe the Anunnaki may have been beings from another planet. The main theory about the ancient aliens is that they came to Earth to mine gold and other valuable minerals needed for their planets atmosphere, to make the mining easier for them they used human’s as slave labor. They either created humans by splicing their DNA with that of one of our more ancient ancestors, Homo Erectus or possibly Neanderthals, or homo sapiens were already around and the Anunnaki gave them the intelligence we have today. Either way it is a pretty fascinating theory and one worth looking into. There are plenty of websites, documentaries, books and t.v. shows (most notably, The History Channel’s, Ancient Aliens) based on it or similar theories. It may sound crazy now but if you haven’t researched the Ancient Alien theory it is worth looking at but that is your prerogative, right now I just want to share with you what the Mythology Dictionary has to say about the ancient Mesopotamian Sky Gods, the Igigi. Here we go:

Igigi: the younger Sky Gods created by Marduk. Mesopotamia.

The heavenly spirits, appearing as stars above the horizon are, in some versions, confused with the Anunnaki which are those below the horizon. In some accounts, they are described as slave-gods who worked on earth. One of their main tasks was to keep open the channels of the rivers to allow the free flow of water. When they rebelled against Enlil’s rule, his wife killed their leader, We-e, and created a completely new race. (Dictionary of Mythology an A-Z of themes, legends and heroes, J.A. Coleman)

I have to admit, I had never heard or read of the Igigi in this manner but it makes perfect sense and it completely goes with the ancient aliens theory! It was because the Igigi rebelled and failed that the Anunnaki created humans to take their place. This time they created a more docile and less godlike species, one designed to be slaves. I am blown away by how this little blurb can connect so many dots to one of my favorite theories! I am going to do a lot more research on the Igigi and the Anunnaki in the future and will share what I have found. I did look a little bit more into the Igigi for this post and I found some more pretty amazing stuff like:

In the Atra-Hasis flood myth, the Igigi are the sixth generation of the gods who are forced to preform labor for the Anunnaki. After forty days, the Igigi rebel and the god Enki, creates humans to replace them. (from Wikipedia article: Anunnaki)

Now we have them connected to the flood myth as well. I thought it was interesting that they rebelled after forty days, the rain in the flood myth of the bible lasted forty days and the number forty is used in a lot of mtyhs and legends. The above myth taken from Wikipedia even mentions how humans were created to replace the Igigi. That made me start wondering if perhaps the Igigi were actually one of our ancient ancestors like the Denisovan or Neanderthal. That would explain why they died out and why we have some of their DNA in our own. Speaking of DNA, there is still much of our genetic make up that is undiscovered, for as much as we know about our DNA, RNA, mDNA, etc, there are still a vast amount of unknowns. It may well be some of the unknown structures in our DNA could be alien, maybe even Anunnaki, that is what makes researching the unknown and the mysterious so fascinating and exciting. I cannot believe what I just picked up in this little paragraph. Well I think I have written enough for today. I really hope you guys enjoyed this post and I hope you take a  closer look at the Anunnaki, the Igigi and the ancient alien theory. Until next time take care and as always, PEACE!!!!!!