War was an inescapable aspect of urban life from the time of the earliest Sumerian cities in the mid-fourth millennium bce. Inter-city warfare was gradually replaced by inter-state warfare as the great kingdoms of Agade, Urim, Isin, Larsa, and ultimately Babylon developed through the late third and early second millennia. Active and defensive campaigns against the often hostile peoples of the Iranian mountains to the east of the Mesopotamian plain also featured both in reality and in legend.
Despite the gradual growth of warfare using armies, the figure of the single champion who fights on behalf of the group that he protects persisted in the religious sphere. Savage warrior deities were consequently common among the pantheons of various cities. With the exception of the goddess Inana, all were male. In some cases their warrior aspect was only one characteristic of their cultic personalities. The god Nergal, sometimes under the title Meslamta-eda, ‘Warrior who comes forth from the Underworld’, was worshipped at temples called E-meSlam, considered to be entrances to the Underworld. Certainly in one aspect he was regarded as a deity of the Underworld (see The dedication of an axe to Nergal). But he was also associated with plagues and fevers and was described in rather gory terms as a gruesome warrior, who could nevertheless be engaged as an ally by rulers (see An adab to Nergal for Su-ilisu). In art he was often depicted holding a curved scimitar.
Numusda was a much less important deity, whose cult was mainly associated with the city of Kazallu in northern Babylonia. He was considered to be a son of the moon-god Nanna. His wife was the goddess Namrat (see A hymn to Numusda for Stn-iqisam).
By contrast, the god Ninurta was one of the most important gods in the Sumerian pantheon and continued to be very prominent in religious cults down to the first millennium bce, largely because he was claimed as a protector of the king and the institution of kingship. This became especially important in the later Assyrian empire and may have developed from one of Ninurta’s own titles, ‘the King’. Ninurta was also identified with Ningirsu, the principal deity of the city-state of Lagas (see The building of Ningirsu’s temple, Group A). First and foremost, Ninurta was a warrior, a son of Enlil and Ninlil, who fought at his father’s behest in defence of the great gods. His most important shrine was the E-SumeSa in Nibru. Often he fights against the ‘rebel lands’ to the east of Sumer and Akkad (see Ninurta’s return to Nibru). Ninurta has a characteristic armoury of weapons including several battle-maces with many spikes, and battle-nets, which are often enumerated in literary contexts: among his maces are the Sar-ur (‘Mows-down-a-myriad’) and the Sar-gaz (‘Crushes-a-myriad’). The god had defeated a range of fearsome monsters, who were regarded as his trophies: these included the Anzud bird (see Lugalbanda and the Anzud bird, Group A). Historically Ninurta is an ancestor of the Greek Herakles with his club.
In another aspect Ninurta was an agricultural deity who gave advice on the cultivation of crops and stimulated the fecundity of animals and the growth of crops (see A balbale to Ninurta). Both the warrior and agricultural aspects are seen in Ninurta’s exploits, where the warrior god proceeds to facilitate agriculture for humans by rebuilding the stone warriors he has defeated into a mountain range.
FURTHER READING
Annus, A., The God Ninurta in the Mythology and Royal Ideology of Ancient Mesopotamia (Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project: Helsinki, 2002).
Black, J. A., ‘Some Structural Features of Sumerian Narrative Poetry’, in M. E. Vogel-zang and H. L. J. Vanstiphout (eds.), Mesopotamian Epic Literature: Oral or Aural? (The Edwin Mellen Press: Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter, 1992, pp. 71-101) deals especially with Ninurta’s exploits.
Wiggermann, F. A. M., ‘Nergal’, Reallexikon der Assyriologie, 9 (2001), 215—26.
OTHER COMPOSITIONS FEATURING WARRIOR GODS INCLUDE
Group B A hymn to Inana Group C Enlil and Ninlil Group F Inana and Su-kale-tuda Group H A balbale to Ningiszida Group J The exaltation of Inana Inana and Ebih
World History
