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In Sumerian mythology, An was the supreme god, the source from which all authority, divine or earthly, was derived. He was the first god, and the other, more personal gods were his children, said to possess Anutu (lit. "An power"). His holiness was so overwhelming that only Enlil, king of the gods, could speak to him. His cuneiform sign meant An, heaven, sky, star, and god. It was used as an honorific in writing to indicate that the following signs referred to a divine being. As for An himself, he is only ever given two epithets: KUG AN, An the holy one; and AN LU-GAL, An the king.
Our earliest ancestors saw the heavens, and were so completely overwhelmed by things they could not explain that it was supposed to be the very source of divinity itself. Yet now we have decomposed it; we can determine the chemical composition, ascribe measurable distances, predict the motions thousands of years in advance. We have advanced so far as a species that this primal thing which was so far beyond us, which inspired such simple, profound awe is now nothing more than an incomplete catalog of physical, measurable objects.
