Erra

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Erra ( d ER 3 .RA, d Er-ra, d Er 3 er -ra, d Er 2 , also Era, d Era, d IGI.DU, qurādu, d GIR 3 .RA, formerly also called Ira, Irra, Lubara, Dibbarra, Gir (r) a, Ur (r) a read) is a Babylonian plague deity . Erra decides who the plague will take away and who will not.

origin

Arno Pöbel thought Erra was Sumerian. According to Dietz-Otto Edzard , however, it is an Akkadian deity, and Father Felix Gössler also considers Erra to be “non- Sumerian ”. According to JJM Roberts, a detailed discussion of the origin is missing, as is a detailed mythology. Roberts wants to derive the name from the Semitic root * ḥ-rr , "to roast, scorch".

Erra's position in the Pantheon

In the Babylonian pantheon, Anu is Erra's father, his wife is the underworld goddess Mamitu / Mami. Erra is often equated with Nergal , primarily because both were worshiped in Kutha . Era was referred to as the “bravest of the gods”, the heroic and the wild or raging era. Like Girra and Anu, he is one of the gods of the night who are in the sky when Šamaš and Sin have set. A triad of Ea , Šamaš and Marduk was invoked against the plague . In addition to Išum, his retinue includes the Šebetti .

swell

The worship of Erra is through personal names like Išbi-Erra (Iš-bi-er-r [a]), Ipqu-Erra and ancient Assyrian Era-dan (E-ra-da-an) as well as Šu-Era (Šu-Er- ra) occupied. Theophore names with the component Erra have been documented since Sargonid times. They remain very popular until the ancient Babylonian times. Era was invoked on amulets, some of which contain quotations from the Era epic.

The Erra Myth

Amulet with an excerpt from the Era epic as an amulet against the plague from Aššur , Neo-Assyrian

The Akkadian Erra poem or Erra-Išum epic ša gimir dadmē , king of all cities is the main source of the mythology of Erra. Copies of this myth were found in Niniveh , Aššur ( KAR 169), Sultantepe , Babylon and Ur. There are 35 known versions of this poem, more than the Gilgames epic.

The author was Kabti-ilāni-Marduk , who received the text as part of a vision. The poem was probably written in Babylonia in the 1st millennium BC. The poem was usually distributed on five boards. Its length is estimated at 642 lines, of which 532 are complete or can be reconstructed.

Wolfram von Soden wants the song with riots in Uruk between 765 and 763 BC. Connect WG Lambert and Jean Bottéro with the incursions of the Aramaeans and Suti around the turn of the millennium.

The song describes how Erra Marduk , the city god of Babylon, used a ruse to induce him to cede his power to him. Erra and his assistant Išum , the night watchman ( d EN.MI.DU.DU, bēlu mūttallik muši ) and messenger of the gods, the lord of the streets ( bēl sūqi ), convinced Marduk that his regal insignia was soiled and that the fire god Girra cleansed them must. Marduk lets Erra control Babylon and its people. Babylon is now plagued by war, desolation and disease. Išum finally brings Erra to reason and Erra decides to build the city more glamorous and magnificent than ever. In the last section, the author of the myth addresses the reader of the text directly and recommends that clay tablets of his text be kept in his house to protect against disease and devastation, as Erra will personally protect those who honor his myth.

literature

  • FNH al-Rawi, JA Black: The Second Tablet of "Išum and Erra". In: Iraq , Volume 51, 1989, pp. 111-122.
  • Nels M. Bailkey: A Babylonian Philosopher of History. In: Osiris , Volume 9, 1950, pp. 106-130.
  • Luigi Cagni: L'Epopea di Erra. In: Studi Semitici , Volume 34, 1969.
  • Luigi Cagni: The Poem of Erra (= Sources from the Ancient Near East. Volume 1/3). Undena Publications, Malibu 1977, ISBN 0-89003-003-0 .
  • Helmut Freydank among others: Lexicon Alter Orient. Egypt * India * China * Western Asia. VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997, ISBN 3-928127-40-3 .
  • Dietz-Otto Edzard : Mesopotamia. The mythology of the Sumerians and Akkadians. In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig (Hrsg.): Götter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient (= dictionary of mythology . Department 1: The ancient cultures. Volume 1). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1965, pp. 63-64.
  • P. Felix Gössmann: The Era Epic. Augustinus, Würzburg 1955.
  • Brigitte Groneberg : The gods of the Mesopotamia. Cults, myths, epics. Artemis & Winkler, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-7608-2306-8 .
  • Peter Machinist, JM Sasson: Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Volume 103/1, 1983, pp. 221-226.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Old Babylonian hymn to the gods of the night, AO 6769
  2. ↑ a b J. JM Roberts: Erra. Scorched Earth. In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies , Volume 24 / 1–2, 1971, p. 11.
  3. ↑ Arno Pöbel: The Sumerian personal names at the time of the Larsam dynasty and the first dynasty of Babylon. H. Fleischmann, Breslau 1910, p. 20 ( online ).
  4. ^ Dietz-Otto Edzard : Mesopotamia. The mythology of the Sumerians and Akkadians. In: Hans Wilhelm Haussig (Hrsg.): Götter und Mythen im Vorderen Orient (= dictionary of mythology. Department 1: The ancient cultures. Volume 1). Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1965, p. 63 f.
  5. ↑ P. Felix Gössler: The Era epic. Augustinus, Würzburg 1955, p. 68.
  6. ↑ a b J. JM Roberts: Erra. Scorched Earth. In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies , Volume 24 / 1–2, 1971, p. 13.
  7. ↑ Wayne Horowitz, Nathan Wasserman: Another Old Babylonian Prayer to the Gods of the Night. In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies , Volume 48, 1996, p. 58.
  8. ↑ a b Erica Reiner: Plague Amulets and House Blessings. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies , Volume 19/2, 1960, p. 151.
  9. ↑ Wayne Horowitz, Nathan Wasserman: Another Old Babylonian Prayer to the Gods of the Night. In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies , Volume 48, 1996, p. 58.
  10. ↑ CT 30, 10, K 3843, reverse 4
  11. ↑ EL I, 211: 9, 15
  12. ↑ EL II, 293: 20
  13. ↑ JJM Roberts: Erra. Scorched Earth. In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies , Volume 24 / 1–2, 1971, p. 12.
  14. ↑ Erica Reiner: Plague Amulets and House Blessings. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies , Volume 19/2, 1960, pp. 148-155.
  15. ↑ Peter Machinist, JM Sasson: Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Volume 103/1, 1983, pp. 225 f.
  16. ^ RA, Lemma Ira, 166
  17. ↑ Peter Machinist, JM Sasson: Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Volume 103/1, 1983, p. 221.
  18. ↑ Peter Machinist, JM Sasson: Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Volume 103/1, 1983, p. 221.
  19. ^ WG Lambert: Ancestors, Authors and Canonicity. In: Journal of Cuneiform Studies , Volume 11/1, 1957.
  20. ↑ Peter Machinist, JM Sasson: Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Volume 103/1, 1983, p. 221.
  21. ↑ Peter Machinist, JM Sasson: Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society , Volume 103/1, 1983, p. 222.
  22. ↑ Wolfram von Soden : Etemenanki before Asarhaddon after the story of the Tower of Babel and the Erra myth. In: Ugarit-Forschungen , Volume 3, 1971, pp. 253-263.
  23. ^ WG Lambert: Review of: F. Gössmann, Das Era-Epos, Würzburg 1956. In: Archive for Orient Research , Volume 18, 1957–1958, pp. 396–398.
  24. ^ Jean Bottéro : Antiquités assyro-babyloniennes. In: Annuaires de l'École pratique des hautes études, 4th section: Sciences historiques et philologiques. Volume 110, 1978, number 1, pp. 107-164, here pp. 140-147 ( online ).

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