His name Sin is believed to be a corruption of “Zu-ena”, which signifies “knowledge lord".[66] Like the lunar Osiris of Egypt, he was apparently an instructor of mankind; the moon measured time and controlled the seasons; seeds were sown at a certain phase of the moon, and crops were ripened by the harvest moon.  The mountains of Sinai and the desert of Sin are called after this deity.

As Nannar, which Jastrow considers to be a variation of “Narnar”, the “light producer”, the moon god scattered darkness and reduced the terrors of night.  His spirit inhabited the lunar stone, so that moon and stone worship were closely associated; it also entered trees and crops, so that moon worship linked with earth worship, as both linked with water worship.

The consort of Nannar was Nin-Uruwa, “the lady of Ur”, who was also called Nin-gala.  She links with Ishtar as Nin, as Isis of Egypt linked with other mother deities.  The twin children of the moon were Mashu and Mashtu, a brother and sister, like the lunar girl and boy of Teutonic mythology immortalized in nursery rhymes as Jack and Jill.

Sun worship was of great antiquity in Babylonia, but appears to have been seasonal in its earliest phases.  No doubt the sky god Anu had his solar as well as his lunar attributes, which he shared with Ea.  The spring sun was personified as Tammuz, the youthful shepherd, who was loved by the earth goddess Ishtar and her rival Eresh-ki-gal, goddess of death, the Babylonian Persephone.  During the winter Tammuz dwelt in Hades, and at the beginning of spring Ishtar descended to search for him among the shades.[67] But the burning summer sun was symbolized as a destroyer, a slayer of men, and therefore a war god.  As Ninip or Nirig, the son of Enlil, who was made in the likeness of Anu, he waged war against the earth spirits, and was furiously hostile towards the deities of alien peoples, as befitted a god of battle.  Even his father feared him, and when he was advancing towards Nippur, sent out Nusku, messenger of the gods, to soothe the raging deity with soft words.  Ninip was symbolized as a wild bull, was connected with stone worship, like the Indian destroying god Shiva, and was similarly a deity of Fate.  He had much in common with Nin-Girsu, a god of Lagash, who was in turn regarded as a form of Tammuz.

Nergal, another solar deity, brought disease and pestilence, and, according to Jensen, all misfortunes due to excessive heat.  He was the king of death, husband of Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades.  As a war god he thirsted for human blood, and was depicted as a mighty lion.  He was the chief deity of the city of Cuthah, which, Jastrow suggests, was situated beside a burial place of great repute, like the Egyptian Abydos.