Ishum
Mesopotamian · deity · mythic · Recorded classification
Ishum is the fire that stays where it is put. He walks the streets at night as a watchman, and he is the herald and companion of Erra — plague and violence personified, carried in this registry on the Nergal record. The Epic of Erra is essentially a long argument between them: Erra wants slaughter, Ishum walks beside him through it, and it is Ishum's speech at the end that talks him down and gets the destruction stopped. A restraining god, which the Mesopotamian pantheon has few of.
Domains
- fire
- protection
Relations
- subordinate to: NergalHerald and companion of Erra, who is carried here on the Nergal record. In the epic he walks beside the god through the destruction and talks him into stopping.Reference treatment of the Epic of Erra; Erra is carried in this registry as an alias of Nergal. (secondary)
Sources
- Ishum is a Mesopotamian god of fire and a night-watchman and herald, companion of Erra in the Epic of Erra, whose counsel brings the god's destruction to an end.: Reference treatment of Ishum as god of fire and as Erra's companion. (secondary)