Adad

Adad

:"This article is about the Sumerian god Adad also known as Ishkur. For the electronic music guide go to Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music"

"Adad" in Akkadian and "Ishkur" in Sumerian are the names of the storm-god in the Babylonian-Assyrian pantheon, both usually written by the logogram dIM. The Akkadian god "Adad" is cognate in name and functions with northwest Semitic god "Hadad".

In Akkadian "Adad" is also known as "Ramman" ("Thunderer") cognate with Aramaic "Rimmon" which was a byname of the Aramaic "Hadad". ("Ramman" was formerly incorrectly taken by many scholars to be an independent Babylonian god later identified with the Amorite god "Hadad".)

The Sumerian "Ishkur" appears in the list of gods found at Fara but was of far less importance than the Akkadian "Adad" later became, probably partly because storms and rain are scarce in southern Babylonia and agriculture there depends on irrigation instead. Also, the gods Enlil and Ninurta also had storm god features which decreased "Ishkur's" distinctiveness. He sometimes appears as the assistant or companion of one or the other of the two.

When "Enki" distributed the destinies, he made "Ishkur" inspector of the cosmos. In one litany "Ishkur" is proclaimed again and again as "great radiant bull, your name is heaven" and also called son of "An", lord of "Karkara"; twin-brother of "Enki", lord of abundance, lord who rides the storm, lion of heaven.

In other texts "Adad/Ishkur" is sometimes son of the moon god "Nanna/Sin" by "Ningal" and brother of "Utu/Shamash" and "Inana/Ishtar". He is also occasionally son of "Enlil".

"Adad/Ishkur's" consort (both in early Sumerian and later Assyrian texts) was "Shala", a goddess of grain, who is also sometimes associated with the god "Dagan". She was also called "Gubarra" in the earliest texts. The fire god "Gibil" (named "Gerra" in Akkadian) is sometimes the son of "Ishkur" and "Shala".

"Adad/Ishkur's" special animal is the bull. He is naturally identified with the Anatolian storm-god "Teshub". Occasionally "Adad/Ishkur" is identified with the god "Amurru", the god of the Amorites.

The Babylonian center of "Adad/Ishkur's" cult was "Karkara" in the south, his chief temple being "E. Karkara" and "Shala" his spouse being worshipped in a temple named "E. Durku". But among the Assyrians his cult was especially developed along with his warrior aspect. From the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115–1077 BCE), "Adad" had a double sanctuary in Assur which he shared with "Anu". "Anu" is often associated with "Adad" in invocations. The name "Adad" and various alternate forms and bynames ("Dadu", "Bir", "Dadda") are often found in the names of the Assyrian kings.

"Adad/Ishkur" presents two aspects in the hymns, incantations, and votive inscriptions. On the one hand he is the god who, through bringing on the rain in due season, causes the land to become fertile, and, on the other hand, the storms that he sends out bring havoc and destruction. He is pictured on monuments and cylinder seals (sometimes with a horned helmet) with the lightning and the thunderbolt (sometimes in the form of a spear), and in the hymns the sombre aspects of the god on the whole predominate. His association with the sun-god, "Shamash", due to the natural combination of the two deities who alternate in the control of nature, leads to imbuing him with some of the traits belonging to a solar deity.

"Shamash" and "Adad" became in combination the gods of oracles and of divination in general. Whether the will of the gods is determined through the inspection of the liver of the sacrificial animal, through observing the action of oil bubbles in a basin of water or through the observation of the movements of the heavenly bodies, it is "Shamash" and "Adad" who, in the ritual connected with divination, are invariably invoked. Similarly in the annals and votive inscriptions of the kings, when oracles are referred to, "Shamash" and "Adad" are always named as the gods addressed, and their ordinary designation in such instances is "bele biri" 'lords of divination'.

See also

Hadad

"Portions of this article were adapted from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica."

External links

* [http://www.gatewaystobabylon.com/gods/lords/lordadad.html Gateways to Babylon: Adad/Rimon.] (More about "Hadad" than about "Adad".)
* [http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/gods/explore/adad.html Mesopotamia: Gods: "Adad"("Ishkur")] (Illustration).


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