Utu (god)

Utu was the god of the sun and justice in Sumerian mythology .

Utu was the son of the moon god Nanna (or Nannar Sin) and the goddess Ningal , who also had a lunar aspect. His sister was Inanna , who is associated with the planet Venus . With the goddess Aja he fathered the sons Enmerkar , Gud and Meskiaggasa . In the Gilgamesh epic , the hero Gilgamesh Utu makes several offerings and asks him to support him on his journey to the "land of the living". Utu helps him by paralyzing seven evil demons ( ebettu ) who are responsible for bad weather.

Utu corresponds to the god Shamash in the Babylonian religion .

literature

• Helmut Freydank u. a .: Lexicon of the Old Orient. Egypt * India * China * Western Asia , VMA-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1997 ISBN 3-928127-40-3
• Brigitte Groneberg : The gods of the Mesopotamia. Cults, Myths, Epen , Artemis & Winkler, Stuttgart 2004 ISBN 3760823068