Entities

The core table — every entity in the database, spanning gods, angels, demons, aeons, prophets, saints, heroes, spirits, monsters, personified abstractions, cosmological realms, and ritual categories. Use category to filter by functional type (146 values: Underworld Deity, Hero, Adversarial Being, Revealer Figure, etc.). Use tradition to filter by tradition. The short_note column contains a scholarly description with source citations.

Data license: MIT · Data source: jebboone/deitydb

entity_id
{'description': 'Stable identifier (e.g. ENT_GRK_ZEUS, ENT_EGY_OSIRIS, ENT_ISL_MUSA)'}
canonical_name
{'description': 'Primary English name used in the database'}
greek_name
{'description': 'Greek-script name, where applicable'}
tradition
{'description': 'Religious or cultural tradition of origin'}
entity_class
{'description': 'Controlled top-level kind (19 values: deity, angel, demon, aeon, sefirah, spirit, monster, hero, ruler, prophet, sage, saint, scriptural-figure, abstraction, collective, realm, ritual, title, object) — recommended for filtering by kind'}
entity_type
{'description': 'Granular free-text type descriptor (894 distinct values; see entity_class for the controlled grouping)'}
category
{'description': 'Broader functional category (146 values — recommended for filtering)'}
primary_domains
{'description': 'Primary divine domains, comma-separated'}
evidence_confidence
{'description': 'Sourcing quality: A = direct primary-text attestation; B = strong secondary; C = inference; D = speculative'}
chthonic_flag
{'description': 'True if this entity has underworld or chthonic associations'}
serpent_flag
{'description': 'True if this entity has serpent or dragon associations'}
short_note
{'description': 'Scholarly description with source citations'}

5 rows where entity_class = "hero" and tradition = "Mesopotamian"

✎ View and edit SQL

This data as json, CSV (advanced)

Suggested facets: entity_type, category, evidence_confidence

tradition 1

  • Mesopotamian · 5 ✖

entity_class 1

  • hero · 5 ✖
entity_id ▼ canonical_name greek_name tradition entity_type category primary_domains tags cult_scope primary_period evidence_confidence review_status inclusion_basis earth_association_score chthonic_flag serpent_flag short_note entity_class
ENT_MES_ENKIDU Enkidu   Mesopotamian Wild man / Hero companion Hero wild man; friendship; nature; civilisation; Gilgamesh companion; death       A           Created from clay by the goddess Aruru at Anu's command to be the equal of Gilgamesh and check his oppressive rule; born wild among animals; civilized through a seven-day encounter with the temple priestess Shamhat; becomes Gilgamesh's closest companion and equal in battle; the two defeat Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven together; the gods decree his death as punishment for the latter; his deathbed lament and Gilgamesh's mourning are the emotional core of the Epic; the first great literary treatment of friendship and loss hero
ENT_MES_ETANA Etana   Mesopotamian Hero Deified king kingship; the flight to heaven on the eagle   Mesopotamian   B candidate_verified_name Deified hero-king 0 0 0 The early king of Kish who flew to heaven on an eagle seeking the plant of birth. hero
ENT_MES_GILGAMESH Gilgamesh   Mesopotamian Hero / Semi-divine king Hero heroic quest; death; immortality; friendship; flood; semi-divine kingship       A           King of Uruk (c. 2700 BCE per Sumerian king lists); "two-thirds divine, one-third mortal" (son of Ninsun and the lugal Lugalbanda); protagonist of the oldest surviving literary epic; his exploits include: building Uruk's walls, journeying to the Cedar Forest with Enkidu to defeat Humbaba, rejecting Ishtar's proposal, slaying the Bull of Heaven (with Enkidu), and after Enkidu's death, seeking immortality from Utnapishtim; his failure to retain the plant of immortality and Utanapishtim's counsel ("when the gods created humanity they allotted death to humanity, but life they retained in their own keeping") is the foundational literary statement on human mortality hero
ENT_MES_LUGALBANDA Lugalbanda   Mesopotamian Hero Deified king heroism; the city of Uruk; deified kingship   Mesopotamian   A candidate_verified_name Deified hero-king 0 0 0 The deified hero-king of Uruk, husband of Ninsun and father of Gilgamesh. hero
ENT_MES_UTNAPISHTIM Utnapishtim   Mesopotamian Flood survivor / Immortal mortal Hero flood survivor; immortality; secret of eternal life; Dilmun; Gilgamesh quest       A           The Mesopotamian flood hero; warned by Ea/Enki to build a boat and save his family and the seed of all living things before the gods sent the flood; after the flood, granted immortality by the gods and placed "at the mouth of the rivers" (a paradise at the edge of the world); Gilgamesh travels to him seeking the secret of immortality; he reveals the flood narrative (Tablet XI) and directs Gilgamesh to the plant of immortality (which Gilgamesh then loses); also called Ziusudra (Sumerian version of the flood story) and Atrahasis (from the Atrahasis Epic, c. 1700 BCE); the direct precursor to the biblical Noah hero

Advanced export

JSON shape: default, array, newline-delimited, object

CSV options: 

CREATE TABLE "entities" (
   [entity_id] TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
   [canonical_name] TEXT,
   [greek_name] TEXT,
   [tradition] TEXT,
   [entity_type] TEXT,
   [category] TEXT,
   [primary_domains] TEXT,
   [tags] TEXT,
   [cult_scope] TEXT,
   [primary_period] TEXT,
   [evidence_confidence] TEXT,
   [review_status] TEXT,
   [inclusion_basis] TEXT,
   [earth_association_score] INTEGER,
   [chthonic_flag] INTEGER,
   [serpent_flag] INTEGER,
   [short_note] TEXT,
   [entity_class] TEXT REFERENCES [entity_class]([class_id])
);
CREATE INDEX [idx_entities_entity_class]
    ON [entities] ([entity_class]);