Erragal

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Erragal
Storm god, apotropaic astral deity
Other namesErrakal
Major cult centerMe-Turan, Nippur
Personal information
SpouseNinšar

Erragal or Errakal was a

astronomical treatises such as MUL.APIN. References to worship of Erragal are uncommon, though he nonetheless appears in a variety of sources from the Isin-Larsa period to Neo-Babylonian times. He also appears in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in Atra-Hasis as a deity linked to the great flood
.

Name and character

Erragal's name is

loanwords in this language.[8] The form Erragal can be found for example in the Old Babylonian Weidner god list and in a god list from Susa, while Errakal occurs in later An = Anum (tablet VI, line 10)[4] as well as in Atra-Hasis and the Epic of Gilgamesh.[11]

It has been argued that Erragal was originally associated with

Enūma Anu Enlil focused on the weather can be translated as an omen pertaining to him, "Erragal will bring hard times to the land".[12] However, he is portrayed as a benevolent in most texts referencing him.[10] He functioned as an astral deity.[13] In the incantation series Ḫulbazizi ("Evil be gone!") he is invoked alongside the Pleiades, Sirius and Jupiter for apotropaic purposes.[14] He has also been described as a god linked to the underworld.[15]

Associations with other deities

In the god list An = Anum (tablet I, line 332) Erragal appears among the gods of Nippur as the husband of Ninšar, a goddess described as the butcher and cook of Ekur.[6] There is no indication that he was ever associated with the wife of Erra, Mami, insteas.[7] According to the astronomical compendium MUL.APIN, Erragal and Ninšar corresponded to two paired stars[16] located in the proximity of that associated with "Lamma, the messenger of Baba", a part of a constellation known as "She-Goat",[17] modern Lyra.[18] It is presumed that the "star of Erragal" corresponds to Zeta Lyrae.[19] Erragal and Ninšar were also collectively associated with nigkalagû, assumed to be either apotropaic bells[6] or a gong making a sound similar to thunder.[7] They also shared a connection to knives,[15] and in an explanation of a ritual they are collectively addressed as the "bearers of the bronze dagger".[6]

A bilingual edition of the Weidner god list from Emar might equate Erragal with Tarḫunna or Tarḫunt, respectively the Hittite and Luwian weather god, though the reasons behind this are uncertain.[20] It has been noted that the multilingual versions of this text are unlikely to be reliable sources of theological information.[21]

It has been suggested that the name of the Greek hero Heracles was derived from that of Erragal.[2] However, due to Walter Burkert's critical assessment of this proposal it is generally accepted that it rests on "uncommonly slippery grounds".[22]

Worship

References to Erragal in known sources are scarce.

Adad of Šuḫatum, an otherwise entirely unknown settlement.[24] In other contemporary texts his attestations are largely limited to entries in god lists.[23]

A Middle Assyrian text refers to Me-Turan (Sirara) as a cult center of Erragal, though his name might only be used as a stand-in for Nergal in this context, as the latter is well attested in association with this city.[6] The rebuilding of Erragal's temple located there is mentioned on a broken prism of Ninurta-tukulti-Ashur.[10]

A number of letters presumed to originate in

Belet-ekalli, Šarrāḫītu, Zababa and Lugal-Marada.[25] The Nippur Compendium, known from Neo-Babylonian copies,[26] states that in this city Erragal was worshiped in the "outer court in the scepter" and in the temple of Nergal.[27] An inscription of Nabonidus from the so-called Eigikalama Cylinder[28] describes Erragal as "the most powerful among the gods" and credits him as one of the deities who bestowed kingship upon him.[29]

Mythology

In both the Epic of Gilgamesh (tablet XI, line 102) and the Neo-Assyrian version of Atra-Hasis, Erragal is responsible for "ripping out the mooring-poles" before the flood.[4] Frans Wiggermann tentatively suggests that this might be a wordplay involving the name Errakal and the term tarkullu.[6] It can be literally translated as "mooring pole", but metaphorically it could refer to connections between various elements of the universe.[30] Erragal's role in Mesopotamian literature is limited to these texts, but it has been argued that a reference to these two passages can be found in the myth Erra and Ishum (tablet IV, lines 118–120), where the first of the eponymous gods describes the destruction he is capable of causing:

Let me rip out the mooring-pole so that the ship keeps drifting away,

Let me break the rudder so it cannot dock at the shore,

Let me tear out the mast, let me rip out its rigging[31]

According to a recent publication by Elyze Zomer a further possible reference to Erragal in a similar context also occurs in the text HS 1885+ from Nippur, a "royal epic" (Königsepos) describing the conflict between Gulkišar, the sixth king of the First Dynasty of Sealand, and Samsu-Ditana, with the former portrayed as the protagonist.[32]

References

  1. ^ a b Taylor 2017, p. 123.
  2. ^ a b Rutherford 2017, p. 89.
  3. ^ Wiggermann 1998, p. 217.
  4. ^ a b c Wisnom 2020, p. 210.
  5. ^ Smith 1994, p. 170.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Wiggermann 1998, p. 218.
  7. ^ a b c d Simons 2017, p. 89.
  8. ^ a b Taylor 2017, p. 126.
  9. ^ Wiggermann 1998, pp. 217–218.
  10. ^ a b c Taylor 2017, p. 125.
  11. ^ Taylor 2017, p. 127.
  12. ^ De Zorzi 2015, p. 254.
  13. ^ Krul 2018, p. 185.
  14. ^ Krul 2018, pp. 184–185.
  15. ^ a b Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 486.
  16. ^ Hunger & Pingree 1999, p. 60.
  17. ^ Watson & Horowitz 2011, pp. 187–188.
  18. ^ Hunger & Pingree 1999, p. 275.
  19. ^ Hunger & Pingree 1999, p. 272.
  20. ^ Simons 2017, p. 88.
  21. ^ Tugendhaft 2016, p. 177.
  22. ^ Lyons 1996, p. 90.
  23. ^ a b Taylor 2017, p. 124.
  24. ^ Schwemer 2001, p. 346.
  25. ^ Holloway 2002, p. 282.
  26. ^ George 1992, p. 145.
  27. ^ George 1992, p. 159.
  28. ^ Weiershäuser & Novotny 2020, pp. 106–107.
  29. ^ Weiershäuser & Novotny 2020, p. 108.
  30. ^ George 1992, p. 245.
  31. ^ Wisnom 2020, pp. 209–210.
  32. ^ Zomer 2021, p. 324.

Bibliography

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