#utu-shamash

Nanna: Mesopotamian God of the Moon and Wisdom

Nanna, the Mesopotamian moon god, is frequently mentioned in hymns and inscriptions from the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE) as the chief god of the pantheon. He is the father of the sun (Utu-Shamash). It is thought this belief originated in the early days of a hunter-gatherer social structure, when the moon was more important to a community for traveling by night and telling the time of the month; the sun only became more important once the people settled down and began to practice agriculture.

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Mythe d'Etana

Le mythe d'Etana est l'histoire antédiluvienne du roi sumérien de Kish qui monte au ciel à l'aide d'un aigle pour demander aux dieux la Plante d'Enfantement afin d'avoir un fils. Etana est désigné comme le premier roi de Kish dans la liste des rois sumériens (composée vers 2100 av. J.-C.), qui affirme qu'il a régné au début du troisième millénaire avant notre ère. Selon la Liste Royale Sumérienne, Etana était connu comme "celui qui a stabilisé les terres" après que les dieux eurent créé l'ordre à partir du chaos et donné les concepts de royauté et de gouvernement à l'humanité. Etana était donc une figure bien connue et très respectée, et c'est précisément pour cette raison qu'il a été choisi comme personnage central. L'un des principaux messages du mythe est qu'il faut faire confiance aux dieux et Etana, un grand roi, aurait été choisi par l'auteur inconnu comme le meilleur exemple pour transmettre ce message.

Utu-Shamash: Sumerian God of the Sun and Justice

Utu-Shamash, the Mesopotamian sun god, was depicted as kind, caring, and helpful, but, as arbiter of divine justice, he could also be wrathful. As the personification of the sun, he was believed to be able to see anything and go anywhere, and so, in some references, he was a comforter of the souls of the dead in the underworld.

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Inanna: The Most Popular Goddess of Ancient Mesopotamia

Through the work of the Akkadian poet and high priestess Enheduanna (circa 2300 BCE), daughter of Sargon of Akkad (reign 2334-2279 BCE), Inanna rose in prominence from a local vegetative deity of the Sumerian people to the Queen of Heaven and the most popular goddess in all of Mesopotamia. Inanna is depicted as a brash, independent young woman; impulsive and yet calculating, kind and, at the same time, careless with others' feelings or property or even their lives.

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Nanshe: The Selfless Sumerian Goddess of Social Justice

Nanshe (also known as Nanse, Nazi) is the Sumerian goddess of social justice and divination, whose popularity eventually transcended her original boundaries of southern Mesopotamia toward all points throughout the region in the 3rd millennium BCE. She became one of the most popular deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon for her selfless devotion to the good of humanity. She watched over orphans and widows, oversaw fairness, fresh water, birds and fish, fertility, and favored prophets, giving them the ability to interpret dreams accurately. She was also known as the "Lady of the Storerooms" and, in this capacity, made sure that weights and measures were correct. It was originally in this role, connected to commerce, that her popularity grew.

She was the daughter of Enki, god of wisdom and fresh water, and Ninhursag, the mother goddess (though she is also referenced as the daughter of Enlil). In some myths, she is the sister of Nisaba, goddess of writing, and the hero-god Ninurta, and, in others, the sister of Inanna and Ereshkigal. Her consort was Haia, god of storerooms, and her vizier was Hendursag, who was in charge of judging people's deeds and transgressions. Her husband/consort was originally Nindara, Hendursag's older brother, the local god of Lagash, known as a great warrior and the "tax collector of the sea," though the meaning of the epithet is unclear. However, she is most commonly associated with Haia. Nanshe was especially concerned for refugees fleeing war-torn regions, and these found sanctuary at her Sirara Temple in the town of Nina, city of Lagash.

She is depicted on a cylinder seal as a woman dancing above water, flanked by two winged Anuna (gods of the earth) with the winged solar disc above her (the symbol of Utu-Shamash, god of justice). Enki gave her the responsibility for the waters of the Persian Gulf and all the creatures who dwelt therein, and she is frequently referenced in connection to water. She is also represented by the symbol of the fish and the pelican; the fish connects her with water but also symbolizes life, while the pelican, which, in legend, is said to sacrifice itself to feed its young, symbolizes her devotion to humanity.

In all the inscriptions and hymns that mention her, Nanshe is portrayed as kind, compassionate, welcoming, and wise. She is probably best known from the Gudea Cylinders, two terracotta cylinders of the text The Building of Ningirsu's Temple, dated to circa 2125 BCE, in which she interprets the dream of Gudea (circa 2144-2124 BCE), governor of Lagash, and encourages him to build a temple for his god.

Nanshe's Origin in Myth

In the myth Enki and Ninhursag, the two deities become lovers while staying in the land of Dilmun (a region of fertility and peace near the Persian Gulf). Ninhursag must return to her duties back home, and Enki, left alone, has an affair with their daughter, then her daughter, and then her daughter before he also must leave.

This youngest daughter, Uttu, complains of her ill treatment to Ninhursag, who advises her to wipe Enki's seed from her body and bury it in the ground. She does so, and beautiful plants spring from the earth. When Enki returns to Dilmun with his vizier Isimud, he sees the plants and wants to taste them, eventually eating them all. Ninhursag finds out and curses Enki with the eye of death and then deserts the realm of the gods for a far-off sanctuary.

Enki falls ill and is near death when Ninhursag returns. She draws him to her and asks where his pain is. Each time he answers, she draws the pain into her own body, transforms it into something good, and gives birth, one by one, to eight deities who will benefit humanity:

Abu – god of plants and growth

Nintulla – Lord of Magan, a region associated with copper and diorite

Ninsitu – goddess of healing, consort of Ninazu, the god of healing

Ninkasi – goddess of beer

Nanshe – goddess of social justice and divination

Azimua – goddess of healing and fertility, wife of Ningishida of the underworld

Ninti – goddess of the rib, she who gives life

Emshag – Lord of Dilmun and living things

Of these eight, Ninkasi and Nanshe would become the best known and most often venerated.

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Hammurabi: Conquerer, King, and Law-Giver

Hammurabi is best remembered today as a lawgiver whose code served as a standard for later laws but, in his time, he was known as the ruler who united Mesopotamia under a single governing body in the same way Sargon of Akkad (also known as Sargon the Great, reign 2334-2279 BCE) had done centuries before. Hammurabi linked himself with great imperialists like Sargon by proclaiming himself "the mighty king, king of Babylon, king of the Four Regions of the World, king of Sumer and Akkad, into whose power the god Bel has given over land and people, in whose hand he has placed the reins of government" and, just like Sargon (and others), claimed his legitimate rule was ordained by the will of the gods.

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Hymn to Nungal: A Praise Song for the Sumerian Goddess of Prisons

The Hymn to Nungal (circa 1894-1595 BCE) is a Sumerian poem praising Nungal, the goddess of prisons and rehabilitation (also associated with the underworld), as well as the prison house she presided over. Her name means "Great Princess," and she was also known as Manungal ("Mother Nungal"). The piece, also known as Nungal A, was included in the curriculum of the scribal schools and was frequently copied.

The work is dated to the Old Babylonian period (circa 1894-1595 BCE), owing to the number of copies found from that era, but may have been composed during the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE), possibly under Shulgi of Ur (reign 2094 to circa 2046 BCE) whose interest in widespread literacy resulted in the establishment of more scribal schools (known as edubba, "the house of tablets"), which encouraged a larger number of written works.

Nungal's name, however, also appears in the Early Dynastic period in Mesopotamia (circa 2900 to circa 2350/2334 BCE), and so the hymn, or some version of it, may have been composed during that time. The many cuneiform copies of the work were discovered in the ruins of the city of Nippur (and elsewhere in Iraq) in the mid-19th through the mid-20th centuries, and its popularity was established by the number of tablets found.

The work formed part of the Decad of the scribal schools – ten compositions an advanced student needed to master before graduation – but is also thought to have been read aloud or recited at events honoring Nungal, a common practice during festivals in ancient Mesopotamia.

Commentary & Summary

Nungal was the daughter of Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld, and so was associated with the afterlife but also, as daughter-in-law of the sky god Enlil (who maintained order), with justice. Her consort, Birtum, was an underworld god, also linked with justice, whose name translates as "shackle."

She is also referenced, symbolically, as a "daughter of An" (Anu), Enlil's father, also associated with justice/order. Laws such as the Code of Ur-Nammu and the Code of Hammurabi defined what constituted a crime and gave the corresponding punishment to be meted out by the authorities, but the gods were understood as the underlying power validating those laws. Scholar Stephen Bertman comments:

The key was an innate compliance to higher authority, a behavioral characteristic that permeated Mesopotamian culture. Society's prime personal virtue was humble and unquestioning obedience to the gods and their earthly surrogates. Within society, it was the state and its demands, rather than the individual and his rights, that were supreme.

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Several gods were associated with the concept of justice, most notably Utu-Shamash, but from the Early Dynastic period through the Old Babylonian period, and possibly later, the deity responsible for dealing with the accused after a crime was committed was Nungal, said to be able to separate the innocent from the guilty.

Imprisonment was only used as a temporary measure in Mesopotamian law – the accused would be confined in a guardhouse/prison until guilt or innocence was established at trial or through the ordeal – and punishment then took the form of a fine, some form of mutilation, slavery or forced labor for a term, or death.

The prison house described in the Hymn to Nungal – though thought to be modeled on actual Mesopotamian prisons – seems to exist in the underworld or a plane outside of the mortal realm in which Nungal punishes the wicked, rehabilitates the misguided, and rewards the innocent. The Hymn to Nungal describes the prison house in lines 1-61 as the "jail of the gods" and as "a city in ruins" where inmates wander, unable to recognize even close relatives as they "pass the days in weeping and lamentation." This section, spoken by an unidentified narrator, gives the prisoners' view of Nungal's "house," from which there is no escape.

In lines 62-116, Nungal speaks, describing her house as "built on compassion," which "gives birth to a just person but exterminates a false one," exemplifying her role as a goddess of justice who is as interested in rehabilitation as she is in punishment. The poem ends with lines 117-121 in praise of Nungal and the "awesome radiance" of her prison house in dealing justly with the accused.

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Mesopotamian Religion: Daily Life as a Form of Worship

Mesopotamian religion was central to the people's lives. Humans were created as co-laborers with their gods to hold off the forces of chaos and to keep the world running smoothly. As in ancient Egypt, the gods were honored daily for providing humanity with life and sustenance, and people were expected to give back through works that honored the gods.

It was understood that, in the beginning, the world was undifferentiated chaos and that order was established by the gods. The gods had separated the sky from the earth, the land from the water, saltwater from freshwater, plants from animals, and this order needed to be maintained. As the gods had many different responsibilities, humans were created to help them in the operation of the world. The meaning of life, therefore, was to live in accordance with this understanding, and so one's daily life would be a form of worship.

Every city had a temple complex clearly visible from afar for its ziggurat, the monumental architecture most closely associated with Mesopotamia, which was usually topped by a temple or shrine, elevating the officiant closer to the gods. The gods were understood as inhabiting their own realm but also living in the temple, in the statues created in their images in every city. This belief was already firmly in place by the time of the Uruk period (circa 4100-3100 BCE) and developed fully during the Early Dynastic period (circa 2900-2350/2334 BCE).

Although Mesopotamian religion changed in focus and the names of the deities over the centuries, the central understanding of the relation between humanity and the gods did not. As late as circa 650, the people of Mesopotamia still adhered to the belief that they were the gods' co-workers who assisted in the maintenance of order. This paradigm only changed after 651 with the invasion of the Muslim Arabs and the new monotheistic religious model of Islam.

Mesopotamian Creation Myth

According to the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish (meaning "When on High"), life began after an epic struggle between the elder gods and the younger. In the beginning, there was only water swirling in chaos and undifferentiated between fresh and bitter. These waters separated into two distinct principles: the male principle, Apsu, which was freshwater, and the female principle, Tiamat, saltwater. From the union of these two principles, all the other gods came into being.

These younger gods were so loud in their daily concourse with each other that they came to annoy the elders, especially Apsu, and, on the advice of his vizier, he decided to kill them. Tiamat, however, was shocked at Apsu's plot and warned one of her sons, Ea, the god of wisdom and intelligence. With the help of his brothers and sisters, Ea put Apsu to sleep and then killed him. Out of the corpse of Apsu, Ea created the earth and built his home; though, in later myths, "the Apsu" came to mean the watery home of the gods or the realm of the god Enki.

Tiamat, upset now over Apsu's death, raised the forces of chaos to destroy her children herself. Ea and his siblings fought against Tiamat and her allies, her champion, Quingu, the forces of chaos, and Tiamat's creatures, without success until, from among them, rose the great storm god Marduk. Marduk swore he would defeat Tiamat if the gods would proclaim him their king. This agreed to, he entered into battle with Tiamat, killed her, and from her body, he created the sky. He then continued on with the act of creation to make human beings from the remains of Quingu as helpmates to the gods.

According to scholar D. Brendan Nagle:

Despite the gods' apparent victory, there was no guarantee that the forces of chaos might not recover their strength and overturn the orderly creation of the gods. Gods and humans alike were involved in the perpetual struggle to restrain the powers of chaos, and they each had their own role to play in this dramatic battle. The responsibility of the dwellers of Mesopotamian cities was to provide the gods with everything they needed to run the world.

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