Nergal: Difference between revisions

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* [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nergal/ Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Nergal (god)]
* [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg/listofdeities/nergal/ Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Nergal (god)]
* ETCSL "A hymn to Nergal" and "A ''tigi'' to Nergal": [http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.4.15*# Unicode] and [http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.4.15*&charenc=j# ASCII]
* ETCSL "A hymn to Nergal" and "A ''tigi'' to Nergal": [http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.4.15*# Unicode] and [http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=c.4.15*&charenc=j# ASCII]
* Ereskigal.net – "Ereshkigal and Nergal": [http://www.mindwidth.com/ereshkigal/index.php?ID=1009&cat=3 Assyrian version] and [http://www.mindwidth.com/ereshkigal/index.php?ID=1010&cat=3 Amarna version]
* Ereskigal.net – "Ereshkigal and Nergal": [https://web.archive.org/web/20050422212706/http://www.mindwidth.com/ereshkigal/index.php?ID=1009&cat=3 Assyrian version] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20050308042708/http://www.mindwidth.com/ereshkigal/index.php?ID=1010&cat=3 Amarna version]
* [http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/texts/classic/ereshner1.htm Gateway to Babylon: Nergal and Ereshkigal]
* [http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/myths/texts/classic/ereshner1.htm Gateway to Babylon: Nergal and Ereshkigal]


Revision as of 08:25, 6 December 2017

For other uses, see Nergal (disambiguation).
Nergal
God of
Irkalla
Personal information
ParentsEnlil and Ninlil
SiblingsNanna and Ninurta
ConsortEreshkigal (according to some myths)

Nergal, Nirgal, or Nirgali (

Tell-Ibrahim
.

Nergal is mentioned in the

cock[3] and Nergal means a "dunghill cock",[4] although standard iconography pictured Nergal as a lion. He is a son of Enlil and Ninlil, along with Nanna and Ninurta
.

Attributes

Fragments of a vessel dedicated to the temple of Nergal in Nineveh, showing Shalmaneser III kneeling before Nergal, currently held in the British Museum in London
Part of a series on
Ancient
Mesopotamian religion
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Tales
Terms

Nergal seems to be in part a solar deity, sometimes identified with Shamash, but only representative of a certain phase of the sun. Portrayed in hymns and myths as a god of war and pestilence, Nergal seems to represent the sun of noontime and of the summer solstice that brings destruction, high summer being the dead season in the Mesopotamian annual cycle. He has also been called "the king of sunset".[5] Over time Nergal developed from a war god to a god of the underworld.[6] In the mythology, this occurred when Enlil and Ninlil gave him the underworld.[5]

Nergal was also the deity who presides over the

Allatu or Ereshkigal, though at one time Allatu may have functioned as the sole mistress of Aralu, ruling in her own person. In some texts the god Ninazu
is the son of Nergal and Allatu/Ereshkigal.

Ordinarily Nergal pairs with his consort Laz. Standard iconography pictured Nergal as a lion, and boundary-stone monuments symbolise him with a mace surmounted by the head of a lion.

Nergal's fiery aspect appears in names or epithets such as Lugalgira,

cuneiform literature between Ninurta (slayer of Asag and wielder of Sharur, an enchanted mace) and Nergal. Nergal has epithets such as the "raging king," the "furious one," and the like. A play upon his name—separated into three elements as Ne-uru-gal (lord of the great dwelling)—expresses his position at the head of the nether-world pantheon [citation needed
].

In the late

Babylonian astral-theological system Nergal is related to the planet Mars. As a fiery god of destruction and war, Nergal doubtless seemed an appropriate choice for the red planet, and he was equated by the Greeks to the war-god Ares
(Latin Mars)—hence the current name of the planet. In Assyro-Babylonian ecclesiastical art the great lion-headed colossi serving as guardians to the temples and palaces seem to symbolise Nergal, just as the bull-headed colossi probably typify Ninurta.

Nergal's chief temple at Cuthah bore the name Meslam, from which the god receives the designation of Meslamtaeda or Meslamtaea, "the one that rises up from Meslam". The name Meslamtaeda/Meslamtaea indeed is found as early as the list of gods from Fara while the name Nergal only begins to appear in the

Aplu, a name derived from the Akkadian Apal Enlil, (Apal being the construct state of Aplu) meaning "the son of Enlil" [citation needed]. As god of the plague, he was invoked during the "plague years" during the reign of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma
, when this disease spread from Egypt.

The

Nebuchadnezzar II
(606–586 BC), the great temple-builder of the neo-Babylonian monarchy, alludes to his operations at Meslam in Cuthah, he makes no mention of a sanctuary to Nergal in Babylon. Local associations with his original seat—Kutha—and the conception formed of him as a god of the dead acted in making him feared rather than actively worshipped.

In demonology

Because he was a god of fire, the desert, and the

Collin de Plancy and Johann Weyer, Nergal was depicted as the chief of Hell's "secret police", and worked as "an honorary spy in the service of Beelzebub".[citation needed
]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 90-04-06050-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help
    )
  2. ^ Borger R. (2004), Mesopotamisches Zeichenlexikon, Münster, p.402
  3. ^ Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Kings 17:30
  4. ^ Dictionary of phrase and fable: giving the derivation, source, or origin of common phrases, allusions, and words that have a tale to tell - Ebenezer Cobham Brewer - 1900 - p268 [1]
  5. ^ a b Zolyomi, Gabor (2010). "Hymns to Ninisina and Nergal on the Tablets Ash 1911.235 and Ni 9672" in Your Praise Is Sweet: A Memorial Volume for Jeremy Black from Students, Colleagues, and Friends. London: British Institute for the Study of Iraq. pp. 413–428.
  6. ^ Munnich, Maciej M. (2013). The God Resheph in the Ancient Near East. Tubingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 62–63.
  7. ^ [2] Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Volume 6 – edited by James Hastings, John Alexander Selbie, Louis Herbert Gray – p.645
  8. ^ [3] David's Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King by Baruch Halpern – p.334 Reference 1

External links

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