Gilgamesh (Sumerian: ????????, romanized: Gilgameš; originally Sumerian: ????, romanized: Bilgamesh) was a major hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology and the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The major deities in the Sumerian pantheon included An, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the god of wind and storm, Enki, the god of water and human culture, Ninhursag, the goddess of fertility and the earth, Utu, the god of the sun and justice, and his father Nanna, the god of the moon.

In the city of Babylon, Marduk was worshipped in the temple Esagila. Marduk is associated with the divine weapon Imhullu. His symbolic animal and servant, whom Marduk once vanquished, is the dragon Mušḫuššu. “Marduk” is the Babylonian form of his name.

Babylonian Gods

• Marduk – Marduk was the primary god of the Babylonians and had Babylon as his main city.
• Nergal – God of the underworld, Nergal was an evil god who brought war and famine on the people.
• Tiamat – Goddess of the sea, Tiamat is drawn as a huge dragon.
• Shamash – The Babylonian version of Utu.

Babylonian people were very influenced by the older Sumerian culture. Under the reign of Hammurabi’s dynasty (that is called the First Dynasty of Babylon), which lasted about 200 years, Babylonia entered into a period of extreme prosperity and relative peace.

Babylon the Great, commonly known as the Whore of Babylon, refers to both a symbolic female figure and place of evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible.

Zion, in the Old Testament, the easternmost of the two hills of ancient Jerusalem. It appears to be a pre-Israelite Canaanite name of the hill upon which Jerusalem was built; the name “mountain of Zion” is common. In biblical usage, however, “Mount Zion” often means the city rather than the hill itself.

Nebuchadnezzar II

British Museum. Nebuchadnezzar I or Nebuchadrezzar I (/ˌnɛbjʊkədˈnɛzər/), r. c. 1125–1104 BC, was the fourth king of the Second Dynasty of Isin and Fourth Dynasty of Babylon. He ruled for 22 years according to the Babylonian King List C, and was the most prominent monarch of this dynasty.

King Darius

Summary of the biblical narrative Daniel’s jealous rivals trick Darius into issuing a decree that for thirty days no prayers should be addressed to any god or man but Darius himself; anyone who disobeys this edict is to be thrown to the lions. Hoping for Daniel’s deliverance, he has him cast into the pit.

Darius

Cambyses I

Now these are the tribes of which they consist: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi. The six Median tribes resided in Media proper, the triangular area between Rhagae, Aspadana and Ecbatana.

Satraps (/ˈsætrəp/) were the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with considerable autonomy.