Ashur
Mesopotamian · deity · neo assyrian neo babylonian · deity
Ashur is the god of a city, and then of an empire that took the city's name with it. Assyrian kings campaigned at his command and wrote to him afterwards with the accounts. What makes him interesting theologically is how openly his rise was engineered: his scholars read his name as Anshar, the primordial heaven of Enuma Elish, which put him above Marduk in the genealogy, and then reissued the epic with him in Marduk's part. Ninlil was transferred to him as wife along with Enlil's position. The registry held the king Ashur-dan I and not the god; this fixes that.
Domains
- sovereignty
- war
Relations
- consort of: Ninlil
Sources
- Oracc AMGG on Ninlil as wife of Enlil and later of Aššur.
- Reference treatment of Ashur, his city and the Assyrian recension of Enuma Elish.