Ashur

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.

Variant accounts

• Assyrian theology wrote Ashur as Anshar.By reading the national god's name as Anshar, the primordial 'entirety of heaven' of Enuma Elish, Assyrian scholars placed him at the head of the Babylonian genealogy and justified rewriting the epic with him in Marduk's role. The two are kept as separate records with the identification noted on both: it is a theological manoeuvre of a particular empire, not an original identity.Reference treatment of the Anshar-Ashur identification and the Assyrian recension of Enuma Elish. (secondary)

Domains

• sovereignty
• war

Relations

• consort of: NinlilGiven Ninlil as wife by Assyrian theology, which transferred Enlil's consort to the national god along with his position.Oracc AMGG on Ninlil, wife of Enlil and later of Aššur. (secondary)

Sources

• Ashur is the head of the Assyrian pantheon and the god of the city and land of the same name, given Ninlil as consort and substituted for Marduk in the Assyrian recension of Enuma Elish.: Oracc AMGG on Ninlil as wife of Enlil and later of Aššur. (secondary); Reference treatment of Ashur, his city and the Assyrian recension of Enuma Elish. (secondary)