Anshar

Template:Short description Template:Contains special characters Template:Infobox deity

Anshar ( {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration, Template:Langx, Template:Lit) was a Mesopotamian god regarded as a primordial king of the gods. He was not actively worshiped. He was regarded as the father of Anu. In the first millennium BCE his name came to be used as a logographic representation of the head god in the Assyrian state pantheon, Ashur. He is attested in a number of god lists, such as An = Anum, and in literary compositions, including the Enūma Eliš.

Name and characterEdit

Anshar's name was written in cuneiform as AN.ŠÁR.Template:Sfn It can be translated from Sumerian as "the whole heaven".Template:Sfn Benjamin R. Foster suggests that together with Kishar he was understood as the personification of the circle of the horizon, which represented the totality of heaven and earth.Template:Sfn It was believed that he was involved in creation of the world and the other deities.Template:Sfn He was regarded as a primordial deity.Template:Sfn As such, he was an abstract figure who was not actively worshiped.Template:Sfn

The theonym Anshargal attested in god lists is presumed to be a variant of Anshar.Template:Sfn

Associations with other deitiesEdit

The goddess Kishar ("whole earth") was regarded as Anshar's spouse.Template:Sfn They appear together in the Enūma ElišTemplate:Sfn and in an exorcistic formula referred to as Gattung A (following a convention established by Erich Ebeling), which opens with an invocation of them both.Template:Sfn However, in a late astronomical commentary (tablet BM 68593) Kishar is instead the spouse of the star Gudanna (^mulgud-an-na), described as the "Enlil of Shuruppak".Template:Sfn

Anshar and AnuEdit

Anshar could be regarded as the father of Anu.Template:Sfn He is one of the deities belonging to the so-called "theogony of Anu", a conventional term used in Assyriology to refer to listings of the latter's ancestors.Template:Sfn They are typically less systematic than better known enumerations of the ancestors of Enlil,Template:Sfn and in many cases Alala and Belili are Anu's parents instead of Anshar and Kishar.Template:Sfn The oldest attestation of the tradition presenting Anshar as Anu s father is the Old Babylonian forerunner of the god list An = Anum, but no other references to it are known from this period.Template:Sfn

Anu and Anshar could alternatively be equated with each other.Template:Sfn A god list with the incipit Anšar = Anu was in circulation in the first millennium BCE.Template:Sfn In the bilingual poem Exaltation of Ishtar Anshar corresponds to Anu in the Akkadian version, with Kishar analogously representing Antu.Template:Sfn An = Anum (tablet I, line 8) equates Anshar with both Anu and Antu (^da-nu-um u ^da-n-tu).Template:Sfn Further examples are available from various scholarly texts from Uruk postdating the Neo-Babylonian period, in which ^dAN.ŠÁR(.GAL) is used as a logographic representation of Anu's name.Template:Sfn However, Julia Krul stresses that equations of deities with their fathers represent speculation mostly typical for god lists, and did not necessarily influence the sphere of cult.Template:Sfn

Anshar and AshurEdit

As attested for the first time in sources from the reign of Sargon II, with the only possible earlier forerunner being a bead inscription from the reign of either Tukulti-Ninurta I or Tukulti-Ninurta II, in Assyria the logogram AN.ŠÁR could be used to represent the name of the supreme deity of the state pantheon, Ashur.Template:Sfn Under Sennacherib it became the conventional writing of Ashur's name.Template:Sfn The goal of this equation was to establish the seniority of Ashur over Marduk, who in the light of the genealogy of deities presented in the Enūma Eliš was a descendant of Anshar.Template:Sfn

Paul-Alain Beaulieu suggests that the logogram AN.ŠÁR also designates Assur in texts from Neo-Babylonian Uruk.Template:Sfn He points out that they indicate AN.ŠÁR was actively worshiped, which would be unusual if the name referred to the primordial god.Template:Sfn A small shrine dedicated to AN.ŠÁR is attested in sources from the Neo-Babylonian and early Achaemenid periods, but it is uncertain when his cult was introduced to the city.Template:Sfn It might have originally been established either when the city was under the control of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, or later on by a group of Assyrian immigrants.Template:Sfn In the former case, the worship of Ashur in Uruk would most likely reflect a political alliance between local elites and the Assyrian state, as there is no evidence his cult was imposed in any Babylonian cities.Template:Sfn

Beaulieu argues that the identification between Anshar and Ashur was additionally meant to facilitate equating the latter with Anu.Template:Sfn He suggests this might have been the reason why Anu's prominence in the local pantheon of Uruk increased from the fifth century BCE onward.Template:Sfn Julia Krul disagrees with this proposal, and points out that while it is plausible that in Uruk the clergy might have accepted the equation between Anshar and Ashur, there is no evidence that the latter was viewed as related to Anu, or that theological ideas pertaining to him influenced Anu's cult.Template:Sfn

Piotr Steinkeller notes that the association between Anshar and Ashur might explain why Kakka, a deity chiefly worshiped in Upper Mesopotamia rather than in Babylonia, appears as a messenger of the former in the Enūma Eliš.Template:Sfn Template:Efn

MythologyEdit

Enūma ElišEdit

Anshar's role in the conventional genealogy of Anu resulted in his incorporation into the Enūma Eliš.Template:Sfn The text does not explicitly state whether he and Kishar are the children of Lahmu and Lahamu, or instead a second pair of Apsu's and Tiamat's children.Template:Sfn However, the former option is considered the correct interpretation.Template:Sfn Anshar serves for a time as the king of the gods.Template:Sfn His grandson Ea informs him about Tiamat plotting against the younger deities, which prompts Anshar to blame him and task him with finding a solution.Template:Sfn After he fails, Anshar sends Anu to attempt to solve the issue, but he is similarly unsuccessful.Template:Sfn Ea eventually convinces him that the only god who can defeat Tiamat is his own son, Marduk.Template:Sfn Anshar then summons his attendant Kakka to inform Lahmu and Lahamu about his decision to rely on Marduk.Template:Sfn After emerging victorious, Marduk replaces Anshar as the new king of the gods.Template:Sfn The latter is the first deity to provide him with new names.Template:Sfn He states that Marduk will be known as Asalluhi Template:Sfn and subsequently partakes in further name-giving alongside Lahmu and Lahamu.Template:Sfn

In an Assyrian recension of the Enūma Eliš, known only from a number of incomplete late copies from Assur and Nineveh tentatively dated to the reign from Sennacherib, the logogram AN.ŠÁR is used to refer to both Anshar himself and to Ashur, who replaces Marduk as the protagonist, but is also identified with the aforementioned primordial deity.Template:Sfn As noted by Wilfred G. Lambert, the change is "superficial" and "leaves the plot in chaos by attributing Marduk's part to his great-grandfather, without making any attempt to iron out the resulting confusion".Template:Sfn This rewrite might be referenced in a late Assyrian commentary on the Enūma Eliš, which states that Anshar came into being "when heaven and underworld had not been created" but "city and house were in existence", which reflects the role of Marduk (and thus Ashur) more accurately than that of Anshar himself.Template:Sfn

An esoteric commentary linking passages from the Enūma Eliš with various ritual observances from Babylon states that Anshar sending Anu to confront Tiamat corresponds to the celebrations during which Mandanu headed to Ḫursagkalamma (Kish).Template:Sfn

Other compositionsEdit

Anshar is referenced in passing in the myth Enlil and SudTemplate:Sfn and in a hymn to Haya from the reign of Rim-Sîn I.Template:Sfn

Anshar appears in multiple lists of defeated primordial figures alongside Asag, Enmesharra, Lugaldukuga, Qingu and others.Template:Sfn Such enumerations are embedded in a number of expository or ritual texts.Template:Sfn In one case, Anshar is equated in this context with the minor underworld god Alla.Template:Sfn

A royal hymn from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I focused on establishing a connection between him and Enmeduranki, a mythical king of Sippar,Template:Sfn mentions Anshar in passing and refers to Shuzianna as his sister.Template:Sfn

A myth only known from five fragments dated to either Seleucid or Parthian period, four of which come from the same copy, refers to Anshar as the father of Anu.Template:Sfn While restoration of the text remains uncertain, it is possible that it describes his death at the hands of Enki and Ninamakalla,Template:Efn which would indicate it preserves a succession narrative in which the actively worshiped members of the Mesopotamian pantheon depose a generation of primordial deities.Template:Sfn

A reference to Anshar has been identified in a quotation from Eudemus of Rhodes preserved by the Neo-Platonic philosopher Damascius, according to which in Babylonian cosmology figures named Assōros and Kissarē were the parents of Anos (Anu), Illinos (Enlil) and Aos (Ea).Template:Sfn It is presumed that Eudemus relied on a source related to the tradition represented by the Enūma Eliš, but not identical with it.Template:Sfn

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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BibliographyEdit

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External linksEdit

Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Anšar and Kišar (god and goddess)