Shamash
In Mesopotamian religion Shamash was the common Akkadian name of the sun god and god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu.
Shamash was the son of the moon god Sin (known as Nanna in Sumerian), and thus the brother of the goddess Ishtar (Sumerian: Inanna), who represented the great "star" of Venus. In early inscriptions, Shamash’s consort was the goddess Aya, whose role was gradually merged with that of Ishtar. In later Babylonian astral mythology, Sin, Shamash, and Ishtar formed a major triad of divinities, which still today plays an important role in astrological systems, though under different names.
In addition to being the god of the sun, Shamash was also a god of justice. In some cases, he was seen as the governing the entire universe and was depicted, often with a sun-disk, as a king on his royal throne his staff and signet ring.
Shamash is depicted as overcoming darkness and death. Like the later Apollo, he made his daily journey through the heavens either on horseback, in a chariot, or on a boat. His main cult center in Sumer was the city of Larsa, and in Akkad his main temple was in Sippar.
History and meaning
The name simply means "sun." Both in early and in late inscriptions Sha-mash is designated as the "offspring of Nannar," i.e. of the moon-god, and since, in an enumeration of the pantheon, Sin generally takes precedence of Shamash, it is in relationship, presumably, to the moon-god that the sun-god appears as the dependent power. Such a supposition would accord with the prominence acquired by the moon in the calendar and in astrological calculations, as well as with the fact that the moon-cult belongs to the nomadic and therefore earlier stage of civilization, whereas the sun-god rises to full importance only after the agricultural stage has been reached. The two chief centres of sun-worship in Babylonia were Sippar, represented by the mounds at Abu Habba, and Larsa, represented by the modern Senkerah. At both places the chief sanctuary bore the name E-barra (or E-babbara) "the shining house" – a direct allusion to the brilliancy of the sun-god. Of the two temples, that at Sippara was the more famous, but temples to Shamash were erected in all large centres – such as Babylon, Ur, Mari, Nippur and Nineveh. Another reference to Shamash is the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to slay Humbaba, each morning they pray and make libation to shamash in the direction of the rising sun for safe travels.
The attribute most commonly associated with Shamash is justice. Just as the sun disperses darkness, so Shamash brings wrong and injustice to light. Hammurabi attributes to Shamash the inspiration that led him to gather the existing laws and legal procedures into a code, and in the design accompanying the code the king represents himself in an attitude of adoration before Shamash as the embodiment of the idea of justice. Several centuries before Hammurabi, Ur-Engur of the Ur dynasty (c. 2600 B.C.E.) declared that he rendered decisions "according to the just laws of Shamash."
It was a logical consequence of this conception of the sun-god that he was regarded also as the one who released the sufferer from the grasp of the demons. The sick man, therefore, appeals to Shamash as the god who can be depended upon to help those who are suffering unjustly. This aspect of the sun-god is vividly brought out in the hymns addressed to him, which are, therefore, among the finest productions in the entire realm of Babylonian literature. It is evident from the material at our disposal that the Shamash cults at Sippar and Larsa so overshadowed local sun-deities elsewhere as to lead to an absorption of the minor deities by the predominating one. In the systematized pantheon these minor sun-gods become attendants that do his service. Such are Bunene, spoken of as his chariot driver and whose consort is Atgi-makh, Kettu ("justice") and Mesharu ("right"), who were then introduced as attendants of Shamash. Other sun-deities such as Ninurta and Nergal, the patron deities of other important centers, retained their independent existences as certain phases of the sun, with Ninurta becoming the sun-god of the morning and spring time and Nergal the sun-god of the noon and the summer solstice. In the wake of such syncretism Shamash was usually viewed as the sun-god in general.
Together with Nannar-Sin and Ishtar, Shamash completes another triad by the side of Anu, Enlil and Ea. The three powers Sin, Shamash and Ishtar symbolized three great forces of nature: the sun, the moon, and the life-giving force of the earth. At times instead of Ishtar we find Adad, the storm-god, associated with Sin and Shamash, and it may be that these two sets of triads represent the doctrines of two different schools of theological thought in Babylonia which were subsequently harmonized by the recognition of a group consisting of all four deities.
The consort of Shamash was known as Aya. She is, however, rarely mentioned in the inscriptions except in combination with Shamash.
"Detail of the stela inscribed with Hammurabi’s code, showing the king before the god Shamash; …[Credits : Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.]Shamash, as the solar deity, exercised the power of light over darkness and evil. In this capacity he became known as the god of justice and equity and was the judge of both gods and men. (According to legend, the Babylonian king Hammurabi received his code of laws from Shamash.) At night, Shamash became judge of the underworld."
Shamash in Canaanite tradition
Shemesh (Hebrew: שמש), also Shapesh (Hebrew: שפש) or Shapshu, was the Canaanite goddess of the sun, daughter of El and Asherah.[1] She is known as "torch of the gods"[2] and is considered an important deity in Canaanite pantheon.[3][4] Shemesh's was said to be housed in Beit Shemesh, named after the deity. The Akkadian sun god, Shemesh, was the Mesopotamian male equivalent of the female Canaanite Shemesh.
In the Epic of Ba'al, Shemesh appears mainly as an observer and reactive, favourable to Ba'al.[5] She announces that El supports Yam.[6] After Baal is killed, she helps Anat bury and mourn him,[7] and then stops shining. Following El's dream about the resurrection of Ba'al,[8] El asks Anat to persuade Shemesh to shine again, which she agrees to, but declares that she will continue to search for him.[9] In the battle between Ba'al and Mot, she and threatens Mot that El will intervene in Ba'al's favour, a threat which ends the battle.[10]
In the Tanakh, worshiping Sehemsh is forbidden and is punishable by stoning. Worshiping Shemesh was said to include bowing to the east, in the direction of the sun, as well as rituals related to horses and chariots which were associated with her.[11] The combined worship of Shemesh and Ba'al was said to feature an altar with sun-like shapes.[12] The King Josiah was also said to have abolished sun worship (among others).[13]
Shamash in Judaism
In Mishnaic Hebrew the verb-root for "to serve" is שמש, and the noun-form "servant" is pronounced shamash. The Hanukkah menorah has an extra light, called the shamash, which is used to light the eight proper lights. The shamash is set off from the other lights, so as not to be mistaken for one of their number.
In Yiddish, a shammesh or shammess is an attendant, caretaker, custodian, or synagogue janitor. The slang term "shamus" for a private detective derives from this usage.[1]
The Hebrew words which express the concept of "servant" are entirely unrelated to the Akkadian theophoric name "Shamash" but are loanwords from the ancient Egyptian "sh-m-s" which originally meant "follower" in either a religious or a military sense.
This is the glyph used to represent the Egyptian word for follower - shemes (Gardiner Signlist code T18).
See also
- The Utukku
- Samson
- Bull man
Notes
- ↑ Macquarie Dictionary
External links
Credits
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