Asag

Asag is disease given a mountain to live on. Lugal-e makes him the offspring of An and Ki — the mother Ki has no record in this registry and is therefore stated rather than linked — and has him mate with the mountain to produce a host of stones that acknowledge him as king. He kills people with headaches and fevers, and the fish boil in the rivers where he is. Ninurta kills him with Sharur, the mace that talks, and the poem then spends its length on the aftermath: the stones are judged one by one, some cursed and some blessed into useful minerals, and the waters that Asag had disordered are sent back down the Tigris. It is a myth about sickness and irrigation told as a war story.

Parentage

• parent: Anu

Domains

• disease

Powers

• to make the fish boil alive in the water by his presence

Relations

• enemy: NinurtaKilled by Ninurta with the talking mace Sharur, after Ninurta takes counsel from his father Enlil.Lugal-e: the war between Ninurta and Asag and the demon's death. (primary)

Sources

• Asag, the Akkadian Asakku, is the mountain demon of Lugal-e, offspring of An and Ki, who begets an army of stones on the mountain and is killed by Ninurta with the mace Sharur.: Lugal-e (Ninurta's Exploits). (primary); Reference treatment of Asag as the offspring of An and Ki, his stone army, his sickness-dealing and his defeat by Ninurta. (secondary)