Shamash

 

(shä'mäsh) , sun god of Semitic origin, worshiped in Babylonia and Assyria. He was one of the great deities of ancient Middle Eastern religions, god of law, order, and justice. The chief center of his cult was Sippar. In Sumerian civilization he was called Utu.

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4 primary: Anu Enlil Ki Enki	3 sky: Ishtar Sin Sama

Shamash was the common Akkadian name of the sun-god and god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. Shamash, also the hebrew word שמש word for sun, pronounced Shemesh and is part of the Jewish menorah, which contains a central stem called Shamash used to light the other candles in its candelabrum.

History and meaning

The name simply means "sun". Both in early and in late inscriptions Sha-mash is designated as the "offspring of Nannar," i.e. of the moon-god, and since, in an enumeration of the pantheon, Sin generally takes precedence of Shamash, it is in relationship, presumably, to the moon-god that the sun-god appears as the dependent power. Such a supposition would accord with the prominence acquired by the moon in the calendar and in astrological calculations, as well as with the fact that the moon-cult belongs to the nomadic and therefore earlier stage of civilization, whereas the sun-god rises to full importance only after the agricultural stage has been reached. The two chief centres of sun-worship in Babylonia were Sippar, represented by the mounds at Abu Habba, and Larsa, represented by the modern Senkerah. At both places the chief sanctuary bore the name E-barra (or E-babbara) "the shining house" – a direct allusion to the brilliancy of the sun-god. Of the two temples, that at Sippara was the more famous, but temples to Shamash were erected in all large centres – such as Babylon, Ur, Mari, Nippur and Nineveh. Another reference to Shamash is the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to slay Humbaba, each morning they pray and make libation to shammash in the direction of the rising sun for safe travels.

The attribute most commonly associated with Shamash is justice. Just as the sun disperses darkness, so Shamash brings wrong and injustice to light. Hammurabi attributes to Shamash the inspiration that led him to gather the existing laws and legal procedures into a code, and in the design accompanying the code the king represents himself in an attitude of adoration before Shamash as the embodiment of the idea of justice. Several centuries before Hammurabi, Ur-Engur of the Ur dynasty (c. 2600 BC) declared that he rendered decisions "according to the just laws of Shamash."

It was a logical consequence of this conception of the sun-god that he was regarded also as the one who released the sufferer from the grasp of the demons. The sick man, therefore, appeals to Shamash as the god who can be depended upon to help those who are suffering unjustly. This aspect of the sun-god is vividly brought out in the hymns addressed to him, which are, therefore, among the finest productions in the entire realm of Babylonian literature. It is evident from the material at our disposal that the Shamash cults at Sippar and Larsa so overshadowed local sun-deities elsewhere as to lead to an absorption of the minor deities by the predominating one. In the systematized pantheon these minor sun-gods become attendants that do his service. Such are Bunene, spoken of as his chariot driver, whose consort is Atgi-makh, Kettu ("justice") and Mesharu ("right"), who are introduced as servitors of Shamash. Other sun-deities, as Ninurta and Nergal, the patron deities of important centres, retained their independent existence as certain phases of the sun, Ninib becoming the sun-god of the morning and of the spring time, and Nergal the sun-god of the noon and of the summer solstice, while Shamash was viewed as the sun-god in general.

Together with Sin and Ishtar, Shamash forms a second triad by the side of Anu, Enlil and Ea. The three powers, Sin, Shamash and Ishtar, symbolized the three great forces of nature, the sun, the moon and the life-giving force of the earth. At times, instead of Ishtar, we find Adad, the storm-god, associated with Sin and Shamash, and it may be that these two sets of triads represent the doctrines of two different schools of theological thought in Babylonia which were subsequently harmonized by the recognition of a group consisting of all four deities.

The consort of Shamash was known as Aya. She, however, is rarely mentioned in the inscriptions except in combination with Shamash.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Shamash in Judaism

The hebrew word for sun is שמש, pronounced Shemesh. With alternative vowelization this can be pronounced Shamesh in the verb form for "to be used" or vowelled as Shamash. Shamash is the Hebrew word for an attendant, caretaker, custodian, or synagogue janitor. Although polytheism is clearly forbidden in Jewish tradition, some historians claim this central stem was named after the Babylonian Sun god, and that the combined seven branches or stems relate to the seven heavenly objects worshipped by several cultures in ancient Persia. It could be a later folk etymology to hide the connection to the Babylonians. One difficulty is that Akkadian (Assyrian/Babylonian) "sh" is actually borrowed as an "s" sound (samekh ס) in 1st millennium B.C. loanwords into Hebrew or Aramaic, so that the linguistic correspondences are wrong for Hebrew shamash to be a relic of the Babylonian exile.

The Jewish menorah contains a central stem called Shamash used to light the other candles in its candelabrum.

There are other possible references in Hebrew scripture to Shamash. Samson, whose English name is a translation of Hebrew Shimshon, can be translated of the sun. Samson's hair which was his source of strength, could be connected to the rays of the sun. However, sh-m-sh or sh-m-s is actually an old triconsonantal root for "sun" which is common to many Semitic languages (see Arabic Shams), so that there is no need to appeal to Akkadian influence to explain any apparent solar characteristics of Samson.

Another connection involves Balaam, described in the Torah as a prophet of El, usually translated as God, but equally able to mean a god. Though hired by an enemy king to curse the Israelites, despite being a prophet of El he eventually delivered blessings upon them. Balaam is later listed amongst those who were slaughtered because they had been involved in the worship of the Baal of Peor. An ancient Aramaic inscription, found at Deir Alla, refers to further prophecies of Balaam held in a book of Balaam, but in this inscription, Balaam is identified as a prophet of Shamash.

Shamash is also equated with Shamsiel, the 15th leader (called 'Samsapiel') out of 20 leaders that were in charge of 200 fallen angels known as Watchers or Grigori. Shamsiel also taught mankind the signs of the sun according to the Book of Enoch.

See also

• The Utukku
• Samson
• Bull man

External link

• Symbols.com description of Shamash symbol

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