Editing Nergal (section)

==Names and epithets==
Nergal's name can be translated from Sumerian as "lord of the big city",{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=215}} a euphemistic way to refer to him as a ruler of the [[Ancient Mesopotamian underworld|underworld]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} The earliest attested spelling is <sup>[[dingir|d]]</sup>KIŠ.UNU, with its standard derivative <sup>d</sup>KIŠ.UNU.GAL first attested in the [[Akkadian Empire|Old Akkadian period]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=215}} Since in the [[Old Babylonian period]] the [[cuneiform]] signs KIŠ and GÌR coalesced, transliterations using the latter in place of the former can also be found in literature.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}} The variant <sup>d</sup>[[NIN (cuneiform)|NIN]].KIŠ.UNU, attested in an inscription of [[Naram-Sin of Akkad]],{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} resulted from the use of a derivative of Nergal's name, KIŠ.UNU, as an early logographic writing of the name of [[Kutha]], his cult center. {{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=215}}

Phonetic spellings of Nergal's name are attested in cuneiform (''<sup>d</sup>né-ri-ig-lá'' in [[Old Assyrian period|Old Assyrian]] [[Tell Leilan]], ''<sup>d</sup>né-ri-ig-la'' in [[Nuzi]]), as well as in [[Aramaic]] (''nrgl'', ''nyrgl'') and [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] (''nēr<sup>e</sup>gal'' in the [[Masoretic Text]]).{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}}

===Meslamtaea and related logograms===
{{main|Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea}}
Meslamtaea, "he who has come out of Meslam", was originally used as an alternative name of Nergal in the southern part of [[Lower Mesopotamia]] up to the [[Ur III period]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}}  It has been proposed that it was euphemistic and reflected the fact that Nergal initially could not be recognized as a ruler of the underworld in the south due to the existence of [[Ninazu]] (sometimes assumed to be the earliest Mesopotamian god of death{{sfn|Asher-Greve|Westenholz|2013|p=19}}) and [[Ereshkigal]], and perhaps only served as a war deity.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} Meslamtaea with time also came to be used as the name of a separate deity.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}} As attested for the first time in a hymn from the reign of [[Ibbi-Sin]], he formed a pair with Lugalirra.{{sfn|Lambert|1987a|p=144}} Due to the connection between Nergal and these two gods, who could be regarded as a pair of twins, his own name could be represented by the logogram <sup>d</sup>MAŠ.TAB.BA and its variant <sup>d</sup>MAŠ.MAŠ,{{sfn|Krebernik|2016|p=352}} both of them originally meaning "(divine) twins".{{sfn|Krebernik|2016|p=351}} <sup>d</sup>MAŠ.MAŠ is attested in [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Neo-Assyrian]] [[theophoric name]]s as a spelling of Nergal's name, though only uncommonly.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}} However, the god designated by this logogram in one of the [[Amarna letters]], written by the king of [[Alashiya]], is most likely [[Resheph]] instead.{{sfn|Münnich|2013|p=246}}

===Erra===
{{main|Erra (god)}}
From the [[Old Babylonian period]] onward the name [[Erra (god)|Erra]], derived from the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] [[Root (linguistics)|root]] {{smallcaps|ḥrr}}, and thus etymologically related to the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] verb ''erēru'', "to scorch", could be applied to Nergal, though it originally referred to a distinct god.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} The two of them started to be associated in the Old Babylonian period, were equated in the [[Weidner god list|Weidner]] and ''An = Anum'' god lists, and appear to be synonyms of each other in literary texts (including the ''[[Epic of Erra]]'' and ''Nergal and [[Ereshkigal]]''), where both names can occur side by side as designations of the same figure.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} However, while in other similar cases ([[Inanna]] and Ishtar, [[Enki]] and Ea) the Akkadian name eventually started to predominate over Sumerian, Erra was the less commonly used one, and there are also examples of late bilingual texts using Nergal's name in the Akkadian version and Erra's in the Sumerian translation, indicating it was viewed as antiquated and was not in common use.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} Theophoric names invoking Erra are only attested from Old Akkadian to Old Babylonian period, with most of the examples being Akkadian, though uncommonly Sumerian ones occur too.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}} Despite his origin, he is absent from the inscriptions of rulers of the [[Akkadian Empire]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=217}}

The similarity between the names of Erra and Lugal-irra is presumed to be accidental, and the element ''-irra'' in the latter is Sumerian and is conventionally translated as "mighty".{{sfn|Lambert|1987a|p=143}}

===U.GUR===
{{main|Ugur (god)}}
The logogram <sup>d</sup>U.GUR is the most commonly attested writing of Nergal's name from the [[Middle Babylonian period]] onward.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=215}} This name initially belonged to Nergal's attendant deity ([[sukkal]], and might be derived from the imperative form of Akkadian ''nāqaru'', "destroy!".{{sfn|Krebernik|2014|p=297}} It has been noted that Ugur was replaced in his role by [[Ishum]] contemporarily with the spread of the use of <sup>d</sup>U.GUR as a writing of Nergal's name.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}}

===IGI.DU===
<sup>d</sup>IGI.DU is attested as a logographic representation of Nergal's name in [[Neo-Babylonian Empire|Neo-Babylonian]] sources, with the reading confirmed by the alternation between it and <sup>d</sup>U.GUR in [[theophoric name]]s.{{sfn|Krebernik|2005|p=281}} However, in a number of Assyrian texts <sup>d</sup>U.GUR and <sup>d</sup>IGI.DU appear as designations of two different deities, with the former being Nergal and the latter remaining unidentified.{{sfn|Krebernik|2005|p=281}} Authors such as Frans Wiggermann and Julia Krul argue it had the Akkadian reading Pālil.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}}{{sfn|Krul|2018|p=67}} However, {{ill|Manfred Krebernik|de}} states this remains unconfirmed.{{sfn|Krebernik|2005|p=281}} A deity designated by the logogram <sup>d</sup>IGI.DU was also worshiped in Uruk, with the earliest references coming from the reign of Sennacherib and the most recent from the Seleucid period,{{sfn|Beaulieu|2003|p=282}} and according to Krul should be interpreted as "a form of Nergal".{{sfn|Krul|2018|p=67}} [[Paul-Alain Beaulieu]] instead argues that it is impossible to identify him as Nergal, as both of them appear alongside [[Ninurta]] as a trio of distinct deities in Neo-Babylonian sources.{{sfn|Beaulieu|2003|p=282}} According to the god list ''[[An = Anum]]'' <sup>d</sup>IGI.DU could also be used as a logographic writing of the names of Ninurta (tablet VI. line 192; however, a variant lists the sumerogram <sup>d</sup>GÉSTU instead of <sup>d</sup>IGI.DU) and the [[Elam]]ite deity Igišta (tablet VI, line 182; also attested in Elamite theophoric names).{{sfn|Krebernik|2005|p=281}} It could also be used to represent the names of [[Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=215}} Beaulieu points out that in the Neo-Babylonian period two different deities whose names were rendered as <sup>d</sup>IGI.DU were worshiped in Udannu, and proposed a relation with Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea.{{sfn|Beaulieu|2003|p=290}} The single attestation of <sup>d</sup>IGI.DU as a representation of the name of [[Alammuš]] is an astronomical text is presumed to be the result of confusion between him and [[Ningublaga]], the "Little Twins", with Lugal-Irra and Meslamtaea, the "Great Twins".{{sfn|Krebernik|2005|p=281}}

===Other names and epithets===
Nergal also had a large number of other names and epithets, according to Frans Wiggermann comparable only to a handful of other very popular deities (especially [[Epithets of Inanna|Inanna]]), with around 50 known from the Old Babylonian period, and about twice as many from the later god list ''An = Anum'', including many compounds with the word ''[[lugal]]'', "lord".{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=216}} For instance, he could be referred to as "Lugal-silimma", lord of peace.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=222}} A few of Nergal's titles point at occasional association with vegetation and agriculture, namely ''[[Lugal-asal]]'', "lord (of the) [[Populus|poplar]]"; ''Lugal-gišimmar'', "Lord (of the) [[date palm]]" (also a title of [[Ninurta]]); ''Lugal-šinig'', "Lord (of the) [[Tamarix|tamarisk]]"; ''Lugal-zulumma'', "Lord (of the) dates".{{sfn|Streck|2014|p=532}} However, Dina Katz stresses that these names were only applied to Nergal in late sources, and it cannot be assumed that this necessarily reflected an aspect of his character already extant earlier on.{{sfn|Katz|2003|p=421}} A frequently attested  earlier epithet is Guanungia, "bull whose great strength cannot be repulsed", already in use the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic period]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=218}} An alternate name of Nergal listed in the Babylonian recension of the god list ''Anšar = Anum'', ''<sup>d</sup>e-eb-ri'', reflects the [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]] word ''ewri'', "lord".{{sfn|Lambert|Winters|2023|p=320}}