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Updated: May 20, 2025
The compound ideogram with which his name is written includes the same sign the stylus or sceptre that is used to designate Nabu, the second part of the ideogram adding the idea of 'force and strength. Whether this graphical assimilation is to be regarded as a factor in bringing about the identification of Nusku and Nabu, or is due to an original similarity in the traits of the two gods, it is difficult to say.
There is more ground for recognizing real departmental gods in Babylonia and Assyria, though even there the evidence is not quite satisfactory. The great gods, Ea, Bel, Sin, Shamash, Marduk, Ishtar, Ashur, preside over all human interests. Nabu stands for agriculture as well as for wisdom, and Ea for wisdom as well as for the great deep. Nergal is not the only god of war.
We have such a psalm written in the days of Ashurbanabal, in which that proud monarch humbles himself before the great god Nabu, and has the satisfaction in return of receiving a reassuring oracle. I will raise thy head, I will increase thy glory in the temple of E-babbara. The reference to the temple of Shamash at Sippar reveals the situation.
Under the growing influence of the Marduk cult and of such deities as Ninib, Nergal, and Nabu, associated with Marduk mythologically or politically, the old moon worship lost much of its prestige; but in astronomical science, the former independent rank of the moon is still in large measure preserved. In the enumeration of the planets the moon is mentioned first.
Our own names of the planets, as handed down to us through the Greeks and Romans, are but the classical equivalents of the Babylonian deities. Jupiter is Marduk, the head of the Babylonian pantheon. Venus is the Babylonian Ishtar. Mars is Nergal, the god of war and pestilence. Mercury is Nabu, the god of wisdom and the messenger of the gods, and Saturn is Ninib.
The intimate association of Nabu with Marduk in the city of Babylon leads as a natural consequence to a similar association in Assyria, when once the Marduk cult had for political reasons become established in the north. Just as we have certain kings devoted to Nin-ib and Shamash by the side of Ashur, so there are others whose special favorite is Nabu.
The vernal equinox was a period of much significance. The astronomer royal accordingly reports: On the sixth day of Nisan, Day and night were balanced. There were six double hours of day, Six double hours of night. May Nabu and Marduk Be gracious to the king, my lord. On another occasion the equinox took place on the 15th of Nisan, and accordingly this is reported.
We have records of observations carried on under Asshurbanapal, who sent astronomers to different parts to study celestial phenomena. Here is one: To the Director of Observations, My Lord, his humble servant Nabushum-iddin, Great Astronomer of Nineveh, writes thus: "May Nabu and Marduk be propitious to the Director of these Observations, my Lord.
That the Babylonian Nabu is meant, is clear from such designations as 'the offspring of E-sagila, the favorite of Bel, 'he who dwells at E-zida, which appear among the epithets bestowed upon the god; and the temple in Calah, which one of the last kings of Assyria, Ashuretililani, is engaged in improving, bears the same name E-zida, as Nabu's great temple at Borsippa.
It did not seem consistent with this devotion to Marduk that Hammurabi and his successors should also recognize Nabu. Policy dictated that Nabu should be ignored, that the attempt must be made to replace his worship, even in Borsippa, by that of Marduk. Viewed in this light, Hammurabi's establishment of the Marduk cult in Borsippa assumes a peculiar significance.
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