The name Nergal (or Nirgal, Nirgali) refers to a deity in Babylonia with the main seat of his cult at Cuthah represented by the mound of Tell-Ibrahim. Nergal is mentioned in the Hebrew bible as the deity of the city of Cuth (Cuthah): "And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal" (2 Kings, 17:30). He is the son of Enlil and Ninlil.
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Nergal actually seems to be in part a solar deity, sometimes identified with Shamash, but only a representative of a certain phase of the sun. Portrayed in hymns and myths as a god of war and pestilence, Nergal seems to represent the sun of noontime and of the summer solstice that brings destruction, high summer being the dead season in the Mesopotamian annual cycle. Nergal was also the deity who presides over the netherworld, and who stands at the head of the special pantheon assigned to the government of the dead (supposed to be gathered in a large subterranean cave known as Aralu or Irkalla). In this capacity he has associated with him a goddess Allatu or Ereshkigal, though at one time Allatu may have functioned as the sole mistress of Aralu, ruling in her own person. In some texts the god Ninazu is the son of Nergal by Allatu/Ereshkigal. Ordinarily Nergal pairs with his consort Laz. Standard iconography pictured Nergal as a lion, and boundary-stone monuments symbolise him with a mace surmounted by the head of a lion. Nergal's fiery aspect appears in names or epithets such as Lugalgira, Sharrapu ("the burner," perhaps a mere epithet), Erra, Gibil (though this name more properly belongs to Nusku), and Sibitti. A certain confusion exists in cuneiform literature between Ninurta and Nergal. Nergal has epithets such as the "raging king," the "furious one," and the like. A play upon his name -- separated into three elements as Ne-uru-gal (lord of the great dwelling) -- expresses his position at the head of the nether-world pantheon. In the late Babylonian astral-theological system Nergal is related to the planet Mars. As a fiery god of destruction and war, Nergal doubtless seemed an appropriate choice for the red planet, and he was equated by the Greeks either to the combative demigod Heracles (Latin Hercules) or to the war-god Ares (Latin Mars) -- hence the current name of the planet. In Babylonian ecclesiastical art the great lion-headed colossi serving as guardians to the temples and palaces seem to symbolise Nergal, just as the bull-headed colossi probably typify Ninurta. Nergal's chief temple at Cuthah bore the name Meslam, from which the god receives the designation of Meslamtaeda or Meslamtaea, "the one that rises up from Meslam". The name Meslamtaeda/Meslamtaea indeed is found as early as the list of gods from Fara while the name Nergal only begins to appear in the Akkadian period. Amongst the Hurrians and later Hittites her was known as Aplu, a name derived from the Akkadian Aplu Enlil, meaning "the son of Enlil". As God of the plague, he was invoked during the "plague years" during the reign of Suppiluliuma, when this disease spread from Egypt. The cult of Nergal does not appear to have spread as widely as that of Ninurta, but in the late Babylonian and early Persian period, syncretism seems to have fused the two divinities, which were invoked together as if they were identical. Hymns and votive and other inscriptions of Babylonian and Assyrian rulers frequently invoke him, but we do not learn of many temples to him outside of Cuthah. Sennacherib speaks of one at Tarbisu to the north of Nineveh, but significantly, although Nebuchadnezzar II (606 BCE - 586 BCE), the great temple-builder of the neo-Babylonian monarchy, alludes to his operations at Meslam in Cuthah, he makes no mention of a sanctuary to Nergal in Babylon. Local associations with his original seat -- Kutha -- and the conception formed of him as a god of the dead acted in making him feared rather than actively worshipped. Nergal was also called Ni-Marad in Akkadian. Like Lugal Marad in Sumerian, the name means "king of Marad," a city, whose name means "Rebellion" in Akkadian, as yet unidentified. The name Ni-Marad, in Akkadian means "Lord of Marad". The chief deity of this place, therefore, seems to have been Nergal, of whom, therefore, Lugal-Marad or Ni-Marad is another name.
Nergal in demonology
Being a deity of the desert, and a god of fire, the negative aspects of the sun, and the underworld, and also being a god of one of the religions who rivalled Christianity and Judaism, Nergal was sometimes called a demon and even being identified with Satan. According to Collin de Plancy and Johann Weyer, Nergal was said to be the chief of Hell's "secret police", and said to be "an honorary spy in the service of Belzebuth".
Nergal in fiction
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- In the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Nergal is the name of an outcast devil.
- In the Outlanders SF series by Mark Ellis, Nergal is one of the ruthless reincarnated Annunaki Overlords.
- In the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Nergal is a demon and recurring villain.
- In the movie Hellboy, the demon Sammael is called the Son of Nergal. In the comic version of same, one of the heads of the villain Ogdru Jahad is referred to as Nergal Jahad.
- In the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Collectible Card Game Nergal is the Prince of Hell.
- In Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series Nergal is a pure blood demon with two half-demon daughters.
- In the anime Martian Successor Nadesico Nergal is the company that sponsors the building of the ship Nadesico.
- In the DC Comics universe, the Nergal was originally a Golden Age villain of the lord of order, Dr. Fate. He was also shown as a primary antagonist to the Vertigo character, John Constantine.
- In the game Fire Emblem Nergal is the main villain. He uses a form of dark magic called Ereshkigal as well.
- The demonic god "Nurgle" is a "Chaos god" of pestilence and decay in the science-fiction/fantasy setting of Warhammer 40,000.
- In the RPG Video Game 'Sailor Moon - Another Story', Nergal is the name given to the Oppositio Senshi (a Villain) for Sailor Mars.
- In the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade, Nergal is a Baali Methuselah.
- In the CCG Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, Nergal is one of the most powerful vampires.
- In the Shaman King TCG, the character Duncan's spirit ally is called Nergal.
- Nergal is also the name of a battleship in David Weber's Mutineer's Moon books.
Nergal in music
- In 1988 Finnish gothic rock group Russian Love released their first album entitled Nergal. The album was re-released in 2007 by Finnish record company Plastic Passion and Italian record company Eibon Records.
- The singer of Polish Death Metal band Behemoth has adopted the alias Nergal (born Adam Michał Darski).
- Swedish Symphonic Metal band Therion wrote a song dedicated to Nergal titled The Siren of the Woods. The Lyrics of this song are unpublished except for those with a Therion Fanclub membership.
See also
References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
External links
- ETCSL "A hymn to Nergal" and "A tigi to Nergal": Unicode and ASCII
- Ereskigal.net – "Ereshkigal and Nergal": Assyrian version and Amarna version
- Gateway to Babylon: Nergal and Ereshkigal
