Enmesharra

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Enmesharra or Enmešarra ("Lord of all me's")[1] was a figure associated with the underworld[2] in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology.

References to Enmesharra are scarce in known literature, first occurring in Ur III offering lists.[1]

Family[]

Enmesharra was most frequently mentioned as father of Sebitti.[3] Sebitti are described as his sons in a very late (Seleucid or later) myth which describes a conflict between them and Enmesharra on one side, and Marduk and Nergal on the other. While the character of the Sebitti varies between texts, in this myth they are an antagonistic force, much like their father, who seemingly wanted to usurp Marduk's power.[4]

Some texts place Shuzianna, a goddess from the entourage of Enlil or Ninurta, among his children.[5][6]

A scribal tradition placed Enmesharra among ancestors of Enlil, alongside his wife Ninmesharra (a possible epithet of Inanna or Ninlil).[1] Much like Enlil and his wife Ninlil, all the ancestors were matching Nin-El pairs.[7] Some texts equate him with Lugaldukuga, regarded as the father or grandfather of Enlil; one equates both Enmesharra and Lugualdukuga with Alala (Alalu).[8]

Character[]

Enmesharra was a chthonic deity, and a prayer meant to be recited before the foundation of a temple calls him "lord of the netherworld."[9] One text indicates that he was believed to be a god of older generation who simply passed on his position to Enlil and Anu and himself went to the netherworld, though evidently versions where the passage of power involved a confrontation existed too.[10] The Sumerian text Enlil and Namzitara alludes to an otherwise unknown narrative which involved Enmesharra, the so-called "Enmesharra myth."[11] The god in mention, described as Enlil's older relative, apparently seized his position for himself temporarily.[12]

In one of his works Henry W. F. Saggs discussed the possibility that Enmesharra "had his origin in theological speculation rather than that he was an otiose deity of popular religion."[13] Another scholar, J.J.W. Lisman, agrees with this, theorizing that Enmesharra began as a minor local god in the area around Nippur and was 'created' by theologians in the Ur III period.[1]

Enmesharra is mentioned in the "utukku lemnutu" tablet series as a god responsible for the exorcism of demons.[1]

Cult[]

A late Babylonian cultic calendar mentions a festival involving the weeping of Gula for "captured" or slain Enmesharra in the ninth month.[14][15]

Another text mentions a "taboo of Enmesharra" but translators have conflicting theories about its precise nature; it seems plausible that the text describes a prohibition against disturbing the dead.[16]

A late second millennium "Prayer for Laying the Foundation of a Temple" is primarily dedicated to Enmesharra.[9]

Past theories[]

Early Assyriologists viewed Enmesharra as "Akkadian Pluto,"[17] which lead to the incorrect notion that he was one and the same as Nergal.[18]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e Lisman, J.J.W (2013). At the beginning... Cosmogony, theogony and anthropogeny in Sumerian texts of the third and second millennium BCE (PhD). Leiden University. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  2. ^ S. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others, 2000, p. 321
  3. ^ F. Wiggermann, Siebengötter A (Sebettu) [in:] Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie vol. 12, p. 459-466
  4. ^ W. G. Lambert, Babylonian Creation Myths, 2013, p. 281-298
  5. ^ M. Krebernik, Šuzi-ana [in:] Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie vol 13, 2011, p. 377-378
  6. ^ O. R. Gurney, Literary and Miscellaneous Texts in the Ashmolean Museum, 1989, p. 31-32
  7. ^ W. G. Lambert, Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology: Selected Essays, 2016, p. 114
  8. ^ W. G. Lambert, Mesopotamian Creation Myths, 2013, p. 302
  9. ^ a b B. R. Foster, Before the Muses. An Anthology of Akkadian Literature. Volume II: Mature, Late, 1996, p. 673
  10. ^ W. G. Lambert, Ancient Mesopotamian Religion and Mythology: Selected Essays, 2016, p. 132
  11. ^ Y. Cohen, ‘Enlil and Namzitarra': The Emar and Ugarit Manuscripts and A New Understanding of the ‘Vanity Theme' Speech, Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale 104, 2010, p. 88
  12. ^ Enlil and Nam-zid-tara, Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, lines 17-18: "When your uncle En-me-cara was a captive, after taking for himself the rank of Enlil, he said: "Now I shall know the fates, like a lord.""
  13. ^ H. W. F. Saggs, The Encounter with the Divine in Mesopotamia and Israel, 2016, p. 102
  14. ^ M. E. Cohen, The Cultic Calendars of the Ancient Near East, 1993, p. 366
  15. ^ Proust, Christine; Steele, John (2019). Scholars and Scholarship in Late Babylonian Uruk (Why the Sciences of the Ancient World Matter, v. 2). Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-04175-5.
  16. ^ W. W. Hallo, The World's Oldest Literature: Studies in Sumerian Belles-Lettres, 2010, p. 534
  17. ^ G. R. Levy, The Oriental Origin of Herakles, The Journal of Hellenic Studies vol. 54, 1934, p. 46
  18. ^ found for example in: G. C. Ring, Christ's Resurrection and the Dying and Rising Gods, The Catholic Biblical Quarterly vol. 6, no. 2, 1944, p. 220
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