<P> Ancient Mesopotamian culture in Sumer (southern Iraq) had numerous' ' dingir' ' (deities, gods and goddesses). Both male and female deities were revered, with some anthropomorphic, some zoomorphic (such as a flying dragon, turtle, snake, goat), and some as natural objects (mountain, moon, sun, bright stars). </P> <P> The Sumerian deities had numerous functions, such as presiding over procreation, rains, irrigation, agriculture, destiny and justice . The gods were fed, clothed, entertained and worshipped to prevent natural catastrophes as well as to prevent social chaos such as pillaging, rape or atrocities of war . Many deities were patron guardians of city - states . Over their history, some Sumerian deities were absorbed into others . Usually the case was that a matriarchal guardian deity was absorbed into a patriarchal deity, as one city state conquered the other . </P> <P> The Sumerian mythology of the 1st millennium BCE treated Anšar (later Aššur) and Kišar as primordial deities . Another significant deity in Sumerian culture was Marduk . He rose from an obscure deity of the 3rd millennium BCE to being one of the most important and complex deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon of the 1st millennium BCE . Marduk was worshiped as creator of heaven, earth and humankind, and as the patron deity of the city of Babylon . Marduk's iconography is zoomorphic, and he is most often found in Middle Eastern archaeological remains depicted as a "snake - dragon" or a "human - animal hybrid". </P> <P> Buddhism does not believe in a creator deity . However, deities are an essential part of Buddhist cosmology, rebirth and Saṃsāra doctrines . The heavenly gods (devas, deities) are asserted to be a realm of existence in Buddhism, and typically subdivided into twenty six sub-realms . </P>

Every culture has a name for a deity