So, What is a god?

Although the idea that Mesopotamian DINGIRs and ilus were gods is by now deeply entrenched in Assyriological thinking, the Mesopotamian evidence, as I hope to demonstrate, suggests that the Mesopotamian and modern Western concepts of deity are only partially equivalent. It is already clear, for example, that our idea of gods as they occur in a Mesopotamian context must be flexible enough to accommodate a goddess like Ishtar, who is described not only as a living person but also as a planet (and labeled and referred to as a DINGIR or ilu in both contexts), and broad enough to encompass the concept of thrones and crowns (not persons at all) as appropriate recipients of divine offerings, as if they too were gods.

One of the dangers in using the word “god” for DINGIRs and ilus is that it leads us to expect of Mesopotamia’s “gods” a degree of uniformity in their form and nature that belies the ancient evidence.—Barbara N. Porter in What Is a God?, 158