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Gibil (), also known under the Akkadian name Girra, was a
Mesopotamian god Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', a ...
associated with fire, both in its positive and negative aspects. He also played a role in
ritual purification Ritual purification is a ritual prescribed by a religion through which a person is considered to be freed of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification ...
. Textual sources indicate his symbol was a torch, though no representations of him have been identified in
Mesopotamian art The art of Mesopotamia has survived in the record from early hunter-gatherer societies (8th millennium BC) on to the Bronze Age cultures of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian empires. These empires were later replaced in the Iron Ag ...
. Multiple genealogies could be assigned to him. The god list ''
An = Anum ''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...
'' indicates his spouse was Ninirigal. He was also frequently associated with deities such as
Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...
,
Nuska Nuska or Nusku, possibly also known as Našuḫ, was a Mesopotamian god best attested as the sukkal (divine vizier) of Enlil. He was also associated with fire and light, and could be invoked as a protective deity against various demons, such as ...
and Kusu. He is first attested in Early Dynastic texts from Shuruppak, such as offering lists. He was also a member of the pantheon of
Eridu Eridu (; Sumerian: eridugki; Akkadian: ''irîtu'') was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain (), also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in Lower Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, near the ...
. In the
Kassite period The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (Chronology of the ancient Near East#Variant Middle Bronze Age chronologies, short chronology). The Kassi ...
he was worshiped in
Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...
. Later attestations are available from
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
and from
Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
. He also appears in a number of literary texts.


Names

Gibil ('' dgibil6'') is considered the conventional reading of a
theonym A theonym (from Greek (), 'god', attached to (), ) is a proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics, the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. Theonymy helps develop an und ...
written in
cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...
as dNE.GI (variant: dGI.NE), though Jeremiah Peterson notes that it has yet to be fully verified by primary sources. Ryan D. Winters also stresses lack of direct evidence for the reading Gibil, despite its conventional status in Assyriological literature. and Jan Lisman similarly conclude that despite being commonly used in scholarship, the reading Gibil, in contrast with Girra, is not securely supported by primary sources. Peterson suggests that it is not impossible that dNE.GI was instead read as ''dgirax''gi, which would presumably reflect derivation from the Akkadian word ''girru'', "fire". The Akkadian form Girra was derived directly from the term ''girru''. These terms are ultimately derived from the
root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
''*ḥrr'', "to burn" or "to scorch", similarly as another theonym, Erra. Jeremy Black and Anthony Green treat names Gibil and Girra as referring to the same deity. Johanna Tudeau argues that they were initially separate, but came to be fully merged with each other either in the
Old Babylonian period The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to , and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty of Babyloni ...
or shortly after it, with later sources such as
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n copies of the
Weidner god list Weidner god list is the conventional name of one of the known ancient Mesopotamian lists of deities, originally compiled by ancient scribes in the late third millennium BCE, with the oldest known copy dated to the Ur III or the Isin-Larsa period. ...
indicating they were used interchangeably to refer to one figure. describes Gibil and Girra as already analogous to each other in the context of the text corpus from
Lagash Lagash (; cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Lagaš'') was an ancient city-state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Al-Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash ( ...
from the Early Dynastic period. Instances of dGIBIL6 being used as a logogram meant to be read as Girra are known from
astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...
texts. A further attested writing of the theonym Gibil is dGIŠ.BAR. Selz argues that originally it referred to a distinct god, Gišbar or Gišbarra, attested in
theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...
s such as Ur-Gišbar-izipae from the
Ur III period The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC (middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...
and later conflated with Gibil. In
Emesal Sumerian was the language of ancient Sumer. It is one of the oldest attested languages, dating back to at least 2900 BC. It is a local language isolate that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, in the area that is modern-day Iraq. Akkadian, a ...
texts, Gibil was referred to with the variant name Mubarra. Additional names or epithets attributed to him include Nunbaranna (or Nunbaruna; translation uncertain), known from the god list ''
An = Anum ''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...
'' (tablet II, line 337), its Old Babylonian forerunner and a number of incantations from the same period; Nunbarḫada ("prince with a burning white body"; ''An = Anum'', tablet II, line 339), and Nunbarḫuš ("prince with a glowing body", present both in the ''An = Anum'' forerunner and in ''An = Anum'', tablet II, line 340). Piotr Michalowski notes that the last of these names also appears as a synonym of the term ''ziqtu'', "torch", in
lexical lists The cuneiform lexical lists are a series of ancient Mesopotamian glossaries which preserve the semantics of Sumerograms, their phonetic value and their Akkadian or other language equivalents. They are the oldest literary texts from Mesopotamia ...
from the first millennium BCE. The name Gibil was also used as a designation for a star in the Old Babylonian period, though its identification remains uncertain and is complicated by late astronomical text treating it as synonymous with the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
.


Character

Gibil was the
god of fire This is a list of deities in fire worship. African mythology Bantu mythology * Nyambe, god of the sun, fire and change * Nzambia, NZambi, Zambia a Kikongo Mpungu, Nzambi Mpungu, 1st half or other side of God, considered the Chief Creation D ...
. He could represent this element in its positive aspect, for example in association with
furnaces Furnace may refer to: Appliances Buildings * Furnace (central heating): a furnace, or a heater or boiler, used to generate heat for buildings * Boiler, used to heat water; also called a furnace in American English when used for heating and hot wat ...
and
kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...
s, and in this context could be treated as a tutelary deity of metallurgists. However, he also represented fire as a cause of destruction. A ''
namburbi The NAM-BÚR-BI are Spell (paranormal), magical texts which take the form of incantations (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''namburbȗ''). They were named for a series of prophylactic Babylonian and Assyrian rituals to avert Wikt:inauspicious, inauspi ...
'', a type of ritual text focused on warding off the negative consequences of specific
omen An omen (also called ''portent'') is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient history, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages ...
s, documents that it was believed that situations in which houses were set on fire by a lightning strike were considered a display of Gibil's wrath. He could be also blamed for the burning of fields. As indicated by the incantation series ''
Maqlû The Maqlû, “burning,” series is an Akkadian incantation text which concerns the performance of a rather lengthy anti-witchcraft, or ''kišpū'', ritual. In its mature form, probably composed in the early first millennium BC, it comprises eigh ...
'' and ''
Šurpu The ancient Mesopotamian incantation series Šurpu begins ''enūma nēpešē ša šur-pu t'' 'eppušu'', “when you perform the rituals for (the series) ‘Burning,’” and was probably compiled in the middle Babylonian period, ca. 1350–105 ...
'', a further function of the fire god was warding off malevolent magic and unlucky events foretold by nightmares. He additionally played a role in
ritual purification Ritual purification is a ritual prescribed by a religion through which a person is considered to be freed of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification ...
. It has been argued that this was his main function in the sphere of
cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...
. While textual sources indicate that Gibil's symbol was a torch, no iconographic representations of him have been identified.


Associations with other deities


Family and court

Piotr Michalowski argues that the beliefs about the origin of Gibil reflected his proposed association with the city of
Eridu Eridu (; Sumerian: eridugki; Akkadian: ''irîtu'') was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain (), also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in Lower Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, near the ...
, as he could be considered "the son of the
Abzu Abzû or Apsû ( Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ), also called (Cuneiform:, ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: – recorded in Greek as ), is the name for fresh water from underground aquifers which was given a religious fertilising quality in ancie ...
". According to another tradition his father was
Enlil Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by t ...
, as documented in an
Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Enc ...
Akkadian source (tablet BM 29383) and possibly in a Sumerian literary text from the same period. ''
Maqlû The Maqlû, “burning,” series is an Akkadian incantation text which concerns the performance of a rather lengthy anti-witchcraft, or ''kišpū'', ritual. In its mature form, probably composed in the early first millennium BC, it comprises eigh ...
'' instead calls him a "scion" of Anu (tablet II, line 77). The same series of incantations also refers to him as offspring of
Shalash Shalash (Šalaš) was a Syrian goddess best known as the wife of Dagan, the head of the pantheon of the middle Euphrates area. She was already worshiped in Ebla and Tuttul in the third millennium BCE, and later her cult is attested in Mari as w ...
(tablet II, line 137), though a copy where
Shala Shala (Šala) was a Mesopotamian goddess of weather and grain and the wife of the weather god Adad. It is assumed that she originated in northern Mesopotamia and that her name might have Hurrian origin. She was worshiped especially in Karka ...
occurs instead in the same passage has been discovered too. References to
Nuska Nuska or Nusku, possibly also known as Našuḫ, was a Mesopotamian god best attested as the sukkal (divine vizier) of Enlil. He was also associated with fire and light, and could be invoked as a protective deity against various demons, such as ...
as his father are known as well. The god list ''
An = Anum ''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...
'' (tablet II, line 341) indicates that the goddess Ninirigal could be considered the spouse of Gibil. It is not certain if they were already regarded as a couple in earlier periods. The same text states that his divine attendant (''
sukkal Sukkal (conventionally translated from Sumerian as "vizier") 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 com ...
'') was Nablum (tablet II, line 342), "flame", who might have been linked to him due to being a divine representation of the effects of his activity, similarly to how the weather god Ishkur's ''sukkal'' was Nimgir, "lightning". Furthermore, it assigns him two counselors, the divine representations of a torch ('' dníg.na'') and a censer (''dgi.izi.lá'').


Other associations

As already attested in an
Ur III The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC (middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...
text from
Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...
, Gibil was connected with the sun god
Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...
(Utu), who according to Piotr Michalowski was the deity he was most commonly linked to in Mesopotamian tradition. Jeremiah Peterson proposes that the connection between the two was related to the belief documented in ''Maqlû'', according to which in some rituals, possibly these which took place during the month Abu, the fire god was believed to take the place of the sun god at night. He was commonly described as his "friend" or "companion" (Akkadian ''tappû''). Gibil was also closely associated with
Nuska Nuska or Nusku, possibly also known as Našuḫ, was a Mesopotamian god best attested as the sukkal (divine vizier) of Enlil. He was also associated with fire and light, and could be invoked as a protective deity against various demons, such as ...
. They are attested together in Old Babylonian seal inscriptions from
Sippar Sippar (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , Zimbir) (also Sippir or Sippara) was an ancient Near Eastern Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates river. Its ''Tell (archaeology), tell'' is located at the site of modern Tell ...
. He also appears after Nuska and his wife
Sadarnunna Sadarnunna was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Nuska. Very little is known about her individual character. She was worshiped in Nippur, and appears alongside other deities of this city in texts from the Ur III period already. In la ...
in the
Weidner god list Weidner god list is the conventional name of one of the known ancient Mesopotamian lists of deities, originally compiled by ancient scribes in the late third millennium BCE, with the oldest known copy dated to the Ur III or the Isin-Larsa period. ...
, and he is explicitly linked to the former of these two deities in a boundary stone inscription from the reign of
Nazi-Maruttash Nazi-Maruttaš, typically inscribed ''Na-zi-Ma-ru-ut-ta-aš'' or m''Na-zi-Múru-taš'', ''Maruttaš'' (a Kassite deities, Kassite god synonymous with Ninurta) ''protects him'', was a Kassites, Kassite king of Babylon c. 1307–1282 BC (short chron ...
.
Andrew R. George Andrew R. George (born 1955) is a British Assyriologist and academic best known for his edition and translation of the ''Epic of Gilgamesh''. Andrew George is Professor of Babylonian, Department of the Languages and Cultures of Near and Middle E ...
notes that he could effectively function as an "agent" of Nuska. However, the two could be identified with each other as well, which led to the development of a tradition in which Nuska, normally associated with Enlil, was instead portrayed as a son or attendant of Anu. In late commentaries on religious texts, Gibil was often paired with Kusu, a purification deity associated with
censer A censer, incense burner, perfume burner or pastille burner is a vessel made for burning incense or perfume in some solid form. They vary greatly in size, form, and material of construction, and have been in use since ancient times throughout t ...
s. Both of them could be grouped into a triad with
Ningirima Ningirima was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with incantations, attested already in the Early Dynastic period. She was also associated with snakes, fish and water. According to the god list ''An = Anum'' and other sources, she was regarded as ...
, a deity who also belonged to the sphere of
ritual purification Ritual purification is a ritual prescribed by a religion through which a person is considered to be freed of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification ...
.


Worship

Gibil is relatively sparsely attested in Mesopotamian texts, though he nonetheless is known from sources from various time periods and locations. Most of the evidence postdates the third millennium BCE. The oldest references to Gibil occur in texts from Early Dynastic
Shuruppak Shuruppak ( , SU.KUR.RUki, "the healing place"), modern Tell Fara, was an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 kilometres (35 mi) south of Nippur and 30 kilometers north of ancient Uruk on the banks of the Euphrates in Iraq's Al-Qādisiy ...
(Fara), where he might have been a relatively important deity, as in offering lists he occurs alongside the major members of the local pantheon. Additionally, the forty-third of the ''
Zame Hymns ''Zame Hymns'' or ''Zami Hymns'' are a sequence of 70 Sumerian language, Sumerian hymns from the Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia), Early Dynastic period discovered in Abu Salabikh. Their conventional title is modern, and reflects the recurring ...
'' is dedicated to him. This text has been discovered in
Abu Salabikh The archaeological site of Abu Salabikh (Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh), around northwest of the site of ancient Nippur and about 150 kilometers southeast of the modern city of Baghdad in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq marks the site of a small Sume ...
. Piotr Michalowski argues that his cult center in this composition is
Eridu Eridu (; Sumerian: eridugki; Akkadian: ''irîtu'') was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain (), also Abu Shahrein or Tell Abu Shahrayn, an archaeological site in Lower Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, near the ...
. An association between him and this city is also accepted by Julia Krul. However, Manfred Krebernik and Jan Lisman instead translate the line describing Gibil's cult center as "NE.GI, pure place of the prince" (NE.GI ''nun ki''). They consider it implausible that Eridu (NUNki) is meant instead. They point out that NE.GI is likely to be a logographic spelling of the name of an unknown city due to the widespread phenomenon of the same logograms designating both a deity and the corresponding cult center, attested as well for example for
Sud Sud or SUD may refer to: Places * Sud (Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg constituency), a constituency in Luxembourg * Sud (department), an administrative subdivision of Haiti * Sud Department (Ivory Coast), defunct administrative subdivision of ...
and Shuruppak or Enlil and
Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...
. Jeremiah Peterson additionally suggests that like his spouse Ninirigal, he might have been associated with Uruk and Kullaba. In sources from
Lagash Lagash (; cuneiform: LAGAŠKI; Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Lagaš'') was an ancient city-state located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk, about east of the modern town of Al-Shatrah, Iraq. Lagash ( ...
from the Early Dynastic period, Gibil is only attested in a single
theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...
, Ur-Gibil. In Adab, he occurs in a single Old Akkadian offering list and in a number of theophoric names, such as Geme-Gibil and Ur-Gibil. Only a single house of worship associated with Gibil is known. Under the name Girra, he was worshiped in the Emelamḫuš ("house of awesome radiance"), the
temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
of
Nuska Nuska or Nusku, possibly also known as Našuḫ, was a Mesopotamian god best attested as the sukkal (divine vizier) of Enlil. He was also associated with fire and light, and could be invoked as a protective deity against various demons, such as ...
in Nippur, as attested in the ''Canonical Temple List'', dated to the
Kassite period The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (Chronology of the ancient Near East#Variant Middle Bronze Age chronologies, short chronology). The Kassi ...
. Two theophoric names invoking him appear in texts from this city from the same period. He also appears in
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n ''
tākultu ''Tākultu'' was a type of religious ceremony in ancient Mesopotamia. It took the form of a ritual banquet during which a king offered drinks to deities. The oldest attestations have been identified in texts from Babylonia from the Old Babylonian ...
'' texts as a member of a group of deities associated with
Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...
. Late attestations of the fire god are known from
Seleucid The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great, a ...
texts from Uruk, though he was not yet worshiped there in the Neo-Babylonian period. Most likely similarly as in the case of Kusu and Kusibanda, his introduction to the local pantheon reflected his role in craftsmanship and his importance in the eyes of '' āšipu'' and '' kalû'' clergy. Despite being actively worshiped, he is absent from legal texts, and no theophoric names invoking him are attested.


Literature


The Gibil ''imgida''

An ''imgida'' text focused on Gibil has been identified by Jeremiah Peterson on a fragmentary tablet from
Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Enc ...
Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...
. Due to its state of preservation much about its plot remains uncertain, though based on the surviving sections it can be established that it described his birth in a place referred to as AB-''gal'', to be read as either ''iri12-gal'' or ''eš3-gal''. This location is also described as his dwelling in other sources. Peterson chooses to render it as Irigal in his translation. He argues that the
temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
of Gibil's spouse Ninirigal in
Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
is meant, rather than the
underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...
, as while the latter location could be referred to with the term ''irigal'', it was typically written as AB✕GAL(GAL), AB-''gunû''(GAL) or IRI-GAL, as opposed to AB-''gal'', in contrast with the theonym Ninirigal, consistently spelled '' d''''nin''-AB-''gal'' from the
Ur III period The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC (middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...
onward. As an alternative he proposes that the term ''ešgal'' might be used instead, as it could be a designation of many temples, for example
Ekur Ekur ( ), also known as Duranki, is a Sumerian term meaning "mountain house". It is the assembly of the gods in the Garden of the gods, parallel in Greek mythology to Mount Olympus and was the most revered and sacred building of ancient Sumer ...
. The view that the Irigal associated with Gibil is to be understood as the underworld has originally been formulated by Piotr Michalowski. Another passage of the ''imgida'' describes Gibil joining the moon god,
Nanna Nanna may refer to: *Grandmother Mythology * Sin (mythology), god of the moon in Sumerian mythology, also called Nanna * Nanna (Norse deity), goddess associated with the god Baldr in Norse mythology People * Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir (born ...
, in the sky in the evening. He is apparently responsible for providing light during the night alongside him. It is possible that the rest of the text originally described his visits to the cult centers of others gods, as a fragment mentions
Enlil Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by t ...
and his temple Ekur, where Gibil apparently had to purify an oven, while in another references to
Inanna Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...
and the city of Zabalam occur.


Girra and Elamatum

A fragment of a myth focused on Girra, provisionally referred to as ''The Myth of Girra and Elamatum'' in absence of any references to its original title, is preserved on an Old Babylonian tablet from either
Sippar Sippar (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , Zimbir) (also Sippir or Sippara) was an ancient Near Eastern Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates river. Its ''Tell (archaeology), tell'' is located at the site of modern Tell ...
or nearby Tell ed-Der (BM 78962), though based on the colophon the surviving fragments only represent the seventh part of a longer multi-tablet sequence, which might have originally consisted of a total of around three hundred and fifty lines. The initial lines are not possible to decipher, but the first passage describes Enlil proclaiming the destiny decreed for Girra after his defeat of Elamatum ("the Elamite woman"), possibly either a supernatural representation of
Elam Elam () was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of modern-day southern Iraq. The modern name ''Elam'' stems fr ...
as a geopolitical rival of Mesopotamian states or a personification of famine, illness or sorcery, with the last of these interpretations possibly supported by the fire god's common role as a deity countering it in incantations. Her remains are apparently turned into an object visible in the sky. The name appears as a designation of an unidentified group of stars in an Old Babylonian prayer among many better attested
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...
s, but it is absent from later compendiums of
Mesopotamian astronomy Babylonian astronomy was the study or recording of celestial objects during the early history of Mesopotamia. The numeral system used, sexagesimal, was based on 60, as opposed to ten in the modern decimal system. This system simplified the calcu ...
. It is to be distinguished from the "Star of Elam" (MUL.ELAM.MAki) identified with
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
. Christopher Walker notes that parallels can be drawn between the surviving section of this myth and the celebration of
Ninurta Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord fBarley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord fGirsu"), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was f ...
's victory in compositions such as ''
Lugal-e The ancient Mesopotamian myth beginning Lugal-e ud me-lám-bi nir-ğál, also known as ''Ninurta's Exploits'' is a great epic telling of the warrior-god and god of spring thundershowers and floods, his deeds, waging war against his mountain rival ...
'' or
Marduk Marduk (; cuneiform: Dingir, ᵈAMAR.UTU; Sumerian language, Sumerian: "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) is a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who eventually rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC. In B ...
's in ''
Enūma Eliš ' ( Akkadian Cuneiform: , also spelled "Enuma Elish"), meaning "When on High", is a Babylonian creation myth ( named after its opening words) from the late 2nd millennium BCE and the only complete surviving account of ancient near eastern cosmol ...
''.


Other literary texts

In the ''
Lament for Sumer and Ur The lament for Sumer and Urim or the lament for Sumer and Ur is a poem and one of five known Mesopotamian "city laments"—dirges for ruined cities in the voice of the city's tutelary goddess. The other city laments are: *The Lament for Ur ...
'', Gibil is mentioned among the causes of destruction described in this composition. He is apparently responsible for setting fire to reeds. As noted by Nili Samet, a direct parallel to the passage describing this is present in the myth ''
Inanna Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...
and Ebiḫ'', where the eponymous goddess threatens that she will tell Gibil to perform the same action. In the ''Epic of Anzû'', Girra is one of the three gods who refuse to fight the eponymous creature to recover the Tablets of Destiny, the other two being Shara and
Adad Hadad (), Haddad, Adad ( Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm- and rain-god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. From ...
. In the ''
Enūma Eliš ' ( Akkadian Cuneiform: , also spelled "Enuma Elish"), meaning "When on High", is a Babylonian creation myth ( named after its opening words) from the late 2nd millennium BCE and the only complete surviving account of ancient near eastern cosmol ...
'', Gibil is the forty sixth of the names bestowed upon
Marduk Marduk (; cuneiform: Dingir, ᵈAMAR.UTU; Sumerian language, Sumerian: "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) is a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of Babylon who eventually rose to prominence in the 1st millennium BC. In B ...
after the defeat of
Tiamat In Mesopotamian religion, Tiamat ( or , ) is the primordial sea, mating with Abzû (Apsu), the groundwater, to produce the gods in the Babylonian epic '' Enûma Elish'', which translates as "when on high". She is referred to as a woman, an ...
. The function attributed to Marduk under this name might be "who makes weapons hard", possibly a reference to the fire god's role in
metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...
, but the passage is unclear. A literary text dealing with
Shalmaneser III Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 859 BC to 824 BC. His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations o ...
's campaign in
Urartu Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom centered around the Armenian highlands between Lake Van, Lake Urmia, and Lake Sevan. The territory of the ancient kingdom of Urartu extended over the modern frontiers of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Armenia.Kleiss, Wo ...
mentions Girra in passing as one of the two gods who accompanied this king, the other being
Nergal Nergal ( Sumerian: d''KIŠ.UNU'' or ; ; Aramaic: ܢܸܪܓܲܠ; ) 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 surv ...
.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Mesopotamian gods Fire gods Smithing gods