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Updated: May 19, 2025
The sun is a more definite and more practically important object than the expanse of the sky, and the Semitic sun-god, Shamash, plays a great rôle from the earliest to the latest times. Other nature deities that rose to eminence are the moon-god, Sin, and the storm-god, Ramman.
A comparison of the names furnished by the inscriptions from these three sections shows that the gods common to all are Marduk, Bel, Shamash, Ramman.
The natural desire for novelty together with other circumstances that escape us led one to choose Ramman, another Nin-ib, a third Shamash, and a fourth, as we shall see, Nabu. In doing so they were not conscious of any lack of respect towards Ashur, of whose good will they always felt certain.
The moon is not a 'sheep' belonging to the flock of Shamash. The importance of the moon in the regulation of the calendar saved her from this fate. The beginning of the calendrical system, indeed, may well have been of popular origin.
One might be led to regard it as strange that a god like Nin-ib, or Shamash, should claim so large a share of the attention of the Assyrian rulers, to the apparent neglect of Ashur, but it must be borne in mind that the position of Ashur was so assured as to be beyond the reach of rivalry.
The fate of the eagle is recounted in another tablet of the Etana series, which again furnishes an episode paralleled in the mythologies of other nations. The eagle has lost favor with Shamash. Enmity has arisen between the eagle and the serpent, and, curiously enough, the latter stands under the protection of the sun-god.
From the same list we learn that there was a temple to Marduk in Ashur in which the cult of the Shamash, Sarpanitum, Ramman, Ninib, Anunit was also carried on; similarly, in the temples of Ashur, of Gula, and of Ninib, other gods were worshipped.
Gilgamesh, aided by his patron Shamash, succeeds in gaining Eabani as a 'companion' in a contest that is to be waged against Khumbaba, who threatens Uruk.
It is quite possible that the line in question declares that Zu is in collusion with the eagle, against whom the serpent seeks the assistance of Shamash. See p. 417.
The day begins with the evening, and not with sunrise. The moon, as the chief of the starry firmament, and controlling the fate of mankind, was the main factor in giving to the orb of night, this peculiar prominence. The 'service, accordingly implied in the name of Shamash appears to have been such as was demanded by his subsidiary position to the moon-god.
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