Sin (deity)

Nanna
God of the Moon
Impression of the cylinder seal of Ḫašḫamer, ensi (governor) of Iškun-Sin c. 2100 BC. The seated figure is probably king Ur-Nammu, bestowing the governorship on Ḫašḫamer, who is led before him by a lamma (protective goddess). Sin/Nanna himself is indicated in the form of a crescent.
Symbol	Bull, Crescent
Personal information
Consort	Ningal
Children	Shamash, Inanna
Parents	Enlil and Ninlil

Sin /ˈsiːn/ (Akkadian: ???????? Su'en, Sîn) or Nanna (Sumerian: ???????????? ^DŠEŠ.KI, ^DNANNA) was the god of the moon in the Mesopotamian mythology of Akkad, Assyria and Babylonia. Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, and became identified with Semitic Sin. The two chief seats of Nanna's/Sin's worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north. A moon god by the same name was also worshipped in pre-Islamic South Arabia.

He was also an ancient god protector of shepherds. During the period in which Ur exercised supremacy over the Euphrates valley (between 2600 and 2400 BC), Sin was considered the supreme god of the pantheon. It was then that he was designated as "father of the gods", "head of the gods" or "creator of all things".

He was also called "He whose heart can not be read" and was told that "he could see farther than all the gods". It is said that every new moon, the gods gather together from him to make predictions about the future.

The original meaning of the name Nanna is unknown. The earliest spelling found in Ur and Uruk is ^DLAK-32.NA (where NA is to be understood as a phonetic complement). The name of Ur, spelled (cuneiform: ????????????) LAK-32.UNUG^KI=URIM₂^KI, is itself derived from the theonym, and means "the abode (UNUG) of Nanna (LAK-32)". He was also the father of Ishkur.