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The attendants given to him heat, lightning, and disease are the popular traits in the story; but with the chief characters in the old nature-myth changed, Marduk or the original Bel replaced by Nergal, and Tiâmat by Allatu, the story loses its popular aspect, and becomes a medium for illustrating a doctrine of the schools.
Their power, however, is limited. They are subject to the orders of the gods whose dominion is the lower world, more particularly to Nergal and his consort Allatu. In the advanced eschatology of the Babylonians the demons play a minor part. It is with the gods that the dead man must make his peace.
The first element in his name signifies 'king, the second apparently 'strong, so that in this respect, too, the god comes close to Nergal, whose name likewise indicates 'great lord. The consort of Lugal-banda is Nin-gul. Her name signifies 'the destructive lady, an appropriate epithet for the consort of a solar deity.
Dibbarra, Nergal and his consort Laz, and Zamama are also included in the pantheon of Nebuchadnezzar. In regard to none of these deities do we find any conceptions different from those developed in the period of Hammurabi, any more than in the conceptions of those gods who occupy a more prominent place in the pantheon.
And even if he doesn't, we can pick up more information on him, when ships start coming in here, than we would batting around all over the Old Federation." Harkaman considered for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, if we could set up a base like Nergal or Xochitl," he agreed. "There'll be four or five ships, Space Vikings, traders, Gilgameshers and so on, on either of those planets all the time.
He went, and finding the gates of hell open, dragged the queen by her hair from the throne, and was about to decapitate her, but she mollified him by her prayers and saved her life by becoming his wife. The nature of Nergal fitted him well to play the part of a prince of the departed; for he was the destroying sun of summer, and the genius of pestilence and battle.
But the most valuable conclusion to be drawn from the Nergal-Allatu tale is that, according to the popular conceptions, the real and older head of the pantheon of the lower world was a goddess, and not a god. Allatu takes precedence of Nergal. In the story of Ishtar's descent to the lower world, a trace of the earlier view survives. Allatu is introduced as the ruler of the lower world.
When he disappeared, there was only one place to which he could go. As of Tarmmuz and of other solar deities, it was probably related of Nergal, also, that he was carried to the lower world. This popular basis for the presence of Nergal in the lower world may have served as a point of departure for the scholastic development of Nergal.
Nergal not only shares with Nin-ib, as already mentioned, the honor of being the god under whose auspices the royal chase is carried on, but he is also, like Nin-ib, invoked in that other sport of which the Assyrian rulers were so fond, war. He is scarcely differentiated from Nin-ib.
For purposes of comparison with the pantheon of Hammurabi, and of his immediate successors, I give the complete list and in the order mentioned by him in the only inscription that we have of this king. They are Ninib, Gula, Ramman, Shumalia, Nergal, Shir, Shubu, Sin, Belit of Akkad. Moreover, Anu is referred to as the especial god of Der, and a goddess Eria is worshipped in Elam.
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