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Nergal was a Mesopotamian god worshiped through all periods of Mesopotamian history, from Early Dynastic to Neo-Babylonian times, with a few attestations indicating that his cult survived into the period of Achaemenid domination. He was primarily associated with war, death, and disease, and has been described as the "god of inflicted death". He reigned over Kur, the Mesopotamian underworld, depending on the myth either on behalf of his parents Enlil and Ninlil, or in later periods as a result of his marriage with the goddess Ereshkigal. Originally either Mammitum, a goddess possibly connected to frost, or Laṣ, sometimes assumed to be a minor medicine goddess, were regarded as his wife, though other traditions existed, too.
Shamash, also known as Utu was the ancient Mesopotamian sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in the world every day, and was therefore responsible for justice and protection of travelers. As a divine judge, he could be associated with the underworld. Additionally, he could serve as the god of divination, typically alongside the weather god Adad. While he was universally regarded as one of the primary gods, he was particularly venerated in Sippar and Larsa.The moon god Nanna (Sin) and his wife Ningal were regarded as his parents, while his twin sister was Inanna (Ishtar). Occasionally other goddesses, such as Manzat and Pinikir, could be regarded as his sisters too. The dawn goddess Aya (Sherida) was his wife, and multiple texts describe their daily reunions taking place on a mountain where the sun was believed to set. Among their children were Kittum, the personification of truth, dream deities such as Mamu, as well as the god Ishum. Utu's name could be used to write the names of many foreign solar deities logographically. The connection between him and the Hurrian solar god Shimige is particularly well attested, and the latter could be associated with Aya as well.
Zababa was the tutelary deity of the city of Kish in ancient Mesopotamia. He was a war god. While he was regarded as similar to Ninurta and Nergal, he was never fully conflated with them. His worship is attested from between the Early Dynastic to the Achaemenid periods, with the Old Babylonian kings being particularly devoted to him. Starting with the Old Babylonian period, he was regarded as married to the goddess Bau.
Išḫara was a goddess originally worshipped in Ebla and other nearby settlements in the north of modern Syria in the third millennium BCE. The origin of her name is disputed, and due to lack of evidence supporting Hurrian or Semitic etymologies it is sometimes assumed it might have originated in a linguistic substrate. In Ebla, she was considered the tutelary goddess of the royal family. An association between her and the city is preserved in a number of later sources from other sites as well. She was also associated with love, and in that role is attested further east in Mesopotamia as well. Multiple sources consider her the goddess of the institution of marriage, though she could be connected to erotic love as well, as evidenced by incantations. She was also linked to oaths and divination. She was associated with reptiles, especially mythical bašmu and ḫulmiẓẓu, and later on with scorpions as well, though it is not certain how this connection initially developed. In Mesopotamian art from the Kassite and Middle Babylonian periods she was only ever represented through her scorpion symbol rather than in anthropomorphic form. She was usually considered to be an unmarried and childless goddess, and she was associated with various deities in different time periods and locations. In Ebla, the middle Euphrates area and Mesopotamia she was closely connected with Ishtar due to their similar character, though they were not necessarily regarded as identical. In the Ur III period, Mesopotamians associated her with Dagan due to both of them being imported to Ur from the west. She was also linked to Ninkarrak. In Hurrian tradition she developed an association with Allani.
Ninshubur, also spelled Ninšubura, was a Mesopotamian goddess whose primary role was that of the sukkal of the goddess Inanna. While it is agreed that in this context Ninshubur was regarded as female, in other cases the deity was considered male, possibly due to syncretism with other divine messengers, such as Ilabrat. No certain information about her genealogy is present in any known sources, and she was typically regarded as unmarried. As a sukkal, she functioned both as a messenger deity and as an intercessor between other members of the pantheon and human petitioners.
Ninazu was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld of Sumerian origin. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated with Ereshkigal, either as a son, husband, or simply as a deity belonging to the same category of underworld gods.
Azimua, also known as Ninazimua, was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Ningishzida.
Enmesharra was a Mesopotamian god associated with the underworld. He was regarded as a member of an inactive old generation of deities, and as such was commonly described as a ghost or resident of the underworld. He is best known from various lists of primordial deities, such as the so-called "theogony of Enlil," which lists many generations of ancestral deities.
Ennugi (𒀭𒂗𒉡𒄄) was a Mesopotamian god associated with agriculture, especially irrigation, and with the underworld. According to an incantation he was also considered to be the creator of grubs. He was considered a member of the court of Enlil, and appears in god lists alongside its other members, such as Ninimma and Kusu. He was worshiped in Nippur, where his temple Erabriri was most likely located. He is also mentioned in a number of myths, including Atra-Hasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Birtum was a Mesopotamian god who was the husband of Nungal. He was regarded as a deity associated with the underworld.
Sukkal was a term which could denote both a type of official and a class of deities in ancient Mesopotamia. The historical sukkals were responsible for overseeing the execution of various commands of the kings and acted as diplomatic envoys and translators for foreign dignitaries. The deities referred to as sukkals fulfilled a similar role in mythology, acting as servants, advisors and envoys of the main gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon, such as Enlil or Inanna. The best known sukkal is the goddess Ninshubur. In art, they were depicted carrying staves, most likely understood as their attribute. They could function as intercessory deities, believed to mediate between worshipers and the major gods.
Ugur was a Mesopotamian god associated with war and death, originally regarded as an attendant deity (sukkal) of Nergal. After the Old Babylonian period he was replaced in this role by Ishum, and in the Middle Babylonian period his name started to function as a logogram representing Nergal. Temples dedicated to him existed in Isin and Girsu. He was also worshiped outside Mesopotamia by Hurrians and Hittites. He might also be attested in sources from Emar.
Dumuzi-abzu, sometimes spelled Dumuziabzu, was a Mesopotamian goddess worshiped in the state of Lagash. She was the tutelary deity of Kinunir.
Idlurugu or Id (dÍD) was a Mesopotamian god regarded as both a river deity and a divine judge. He was the personification of a type of trial by ordeal, which shared its name with him.
Bel-ṣarbi or Šar-ṣarbati was a Mesopotamian god associated with poplars. He was also known under the Sumerian name Lugal-asal. He frequently appears in enumerations of deities associated with the underworld who formed the entourage of Nergal, and in some cases could be equated with him. A possible feminine counterpart, NIN-ṣar-BE, is known from neo-Assyrian sources, and is sometimes identified with earlier Ištar-ṣarbatum from Ebla in modern scholarship.
Alla or Alla-gula was a Mesopotamian god associated with the underworld. He functioned as the sukkal of Ningishzida, and most likely was a dying god similar to Dumuzi and Damu, but his character is not well known otherwise. He had his own cult center, Esagi, but its location is presently unknown.
Epithets of Inanna were titles and bynames used to refer to this Mesopotamian goddess and to her Akkadian counterpart Ishtar. In Mesopotamia, epithets were commonly used in place of the main name of the deity, and combinations of a name with an epithet similar to these common in ancient Greek religion are comparatively uncommon. Inanna had more titles than any other Mesopotamian deity. They pertained to her associations with specific cities or areas, such as Uruk, Zabalam, Akkad, Nineveh, or the Sealand. Others instead highlighted her specific roles, for example, that of an astral goddess personifying the planet Venus—or that of a war deity. In some cases, her individual epithets eventually developed into separate deities.
Ancestors of Enlil or Enki-Ninki deities were a group of Mesopotamian deities. Individual lists do not agree on their number, though the enumerations always start with the pair Enki and Ninki and end with Enlil. In the earliest recorded lists, Enki and Ninki were the immediate parents of Enlil, but beginning in the Ur III period onwards, a growing number of 'ancestors' separated them. Enki and Ninki became primordial, ancestral beings who were no longer active and resided in the underworld. They could be invoked in exorcisms. They are attested in various texts, including god lists, incantations, prayers and myths.
References
- 1 2 3 Lambert 2013, p. 513.
- 1 2 Wiggermann 2010, p. 331.
- 1 2 Lambert 2013, p. 516.
- 1 2 3 Lambert 2013, p. 517.
- 1 2 3 4 Archi 2019, p. 39.
- ↑ Lambert 2013, p. 523.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Wiggermann 2013, p. 308.
- ↑ Wiggermann 2013, pp. 308–309.
- 1 2 3 Wiggermann 2013, p. 309.
- 1 2 Lambert 2013, p. 519.
- ↑ Wiggermann 1998, p. 222.
- ↑ George 1993, p. 156.
- 1 2 3 Archi 2019, p. 40.
- ↑ Archi 2019, p. 41.
- ↑ Wiggermann 2010, pp. 331–332.
- ↑ Klinger 2013, p. 309.
Bibliography
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- George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-80-3. OCLC 27813103.
- Klinger, Jörg (2013), "Sumuqan B. Bei den Hethitern", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-03-06
- Lambert, Wilfred G. (2013). Babylonian creation myths. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-861-9. OCLC 861537250.
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- Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (2013), "Sumuqan A. In Mesopotamien · Sumuqan A. In Mesopotamia", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-03-06