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Like the latter he is the perfect king of battle, who marches before the monarch together with Ashur, and he is pictured as carrying the mighty weapons which Ashur has presented to the king. In an inscription of Shalmaneser II. there is an interesting reference to the city sacred to Nergal Cuthah.
Passing by such sanctuaries as E-shid-lam, sacred to Nergal at Cuthah, and coming to E-Sagila and E-Zida, the two great temples of Babylon and Borsippa, respectively, it is of course evident from the close connection between political development and religious supremacy, that Marduk's seat of worship occupies a unique position from the days of Hammurabi to the downfall of Babylonia.
Great warrior who is firm as the earth. Superior as heaven and earth art thou, What is there in the deep that thou dost not secure? What is there in the deep that thou dost not clutch? While references to the local character of the god as patron of Cuthah survive, the name Cuthah itself becomes synonymous with the nether world.
The king, who in the course of his campaign against Babylonia reaches Cuthah, brings sacrifices to Nergal, whom he speaks of as 'the hero of the gods, the supreme raging sun. A later king, Sargon, also honors the god by giving a fortress in the distant land of Nairi, to the northeast of Assyria, the name of Kar -Nergal.
The scene that follows embodies, again, views of the nether world as developed in the schools. Corresponding to the seven zones surrounding the earth, the nether world is pictured as enclosed by seven gates. Through these Ishtar must pass, before she is ushered into the presence of Allatu. The watchman went and opened his gate. Enter, O mistress, welcome in Cuthah.
At all events, we may conclude from the silence of the texts as to Nergal, that Cuthah played no conspicuous part in the empire formed of the Babylonian states, and that the cult of Nergal, apart from the association of the deity in religious texts with the lower world, did not during this entire period extend beyond local proportions.
But the association of ideas which thus led to assigning a god who was originally a solar deity, a place in the lower world bears the impress of the schools. The popular development of Nergal ceased, when he became the local god of Cuthah.
Certainly, when we find that in the days of Saul, the seers went about naked, there can no longer be any doubt that there was a time when the Hebrews, too, like the Arabs and Babylonians, entered the holy presence naked. The institution of daily sacrifices is vouched for in the case of the larger religious centers like Babylonia, Borsippa, Sippar, Cuthah, as well as Nineveh for the late periods.
The priests of Nippur, of Sippar, of Eridu, of Erech, Cuthah, Ur, and other places began long before the period of Hammurabi to compile, on the basis of past experience and as a guide for future needs, omen lists, incantation formulas, and sacrificial rituals.
The northern rulers were anxious at all times to reconcile the southern population to Assyrian control, and it was no doubt gratifying to the south to find Tiglathpileser II., upon entering the ancient centers like Sippar, Nippur, Babylon, Borsippa, Cuthah, Kish, Dilbat, and Erech, proceeding to the temples in those places in order to offer his sacrifices.
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