Sin (mythology)

Nanna
God of the Moon
Impression of the cylinder seal of Ḫašḫamer, ensi (governor) of Iškun-Sin ca. 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
Consort	Ningal
Parents	Enlil and Ninlil
Children	Shamash, Inanna

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.

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 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.

The pre-classical sign LAK-32 later collapses with ŠEŠ (the ideogram for "brother"), and the classical Sumerian spelling is ^DŠEŠ.KI, with the phonetic reading na-an-na. The technical term for the crescent moon could also refer to the deity, ^DU₄.SAKAR. Later, the name is spelled logographically as ^DNANNA.