Namrasite

Namrasit ("He is radiant when he rises ") is the Sumerian name of the deity of the rising moon . In the eighth panel of the Gilgamesh epic , Namrasit was nicknamed “Counselor of the Gods”. A šu-ila text from the Aššurbanipal library calls it "incomparable power, with inexorable advice". Namrasit at times assumed the character of a god of the dead , as he sank below the horizon during the day. Namrasit thus had the power to enter the realm of the dead.

After Enkidu's death , Namrasit received a sacrificial gift from Gilgameš :

" ¹³⁹  On [...] from [...] [...]. ^{140 he}  submitted for Namrasit, the adviser of the gods, to the Šamaš : ¹⁴¹  May Namrasit, the adviser of the gods, receive this (gift). ^{142 In the}  face of my friend he was so full of joy ¹⁴³  that he was walking by his side. "

- Eighth panel, Epic of Gilgamesh

There is another Sumerian moon god named Nanna .

literature

• Stefan M. Maul: The Gilgamesh Epic . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-52870-8 , pp. 175 and 114-115.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ so he is referred to, among other things, in a text by Warad-Sin , the Elamite ruler of Larsa ; Ira M. Price, Light out of Ur - The Devotion of Elamite Kings to Sumerian Deities. Journal of the American Oriental Society 51/22, 1931, 165
2. ^ W. Mayer, Studies on the formal language of the Babylonian prayer invocations, 1975
3. ↑ James B. Pritchard , Ancient Near Eastern texts relating to the Old Testament. Princeton, Princeton University Press 1950, 386