Everything about Shamash totally explained
Shamash was the common
Akkadian name of the
sun-god and god of justice in
Babylonia and
Assyria, corresponding to
Sumerian Utu.
History and meaning
The name simply means "sun". Both in early and in late inscriptions Sha-mash is designated as the "offspring of
Nannar," for example of the moon-god, and since, in an enumeration of the pantheon,
Sin generally takes precedence of Shamash, it's 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
shamash 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
In Mishnaic Hebrew the verb-root for "to serve" is שמש, and the noun-form "servant" is pronounced
shamash. The
Hanukkah menorah has an extra light, called the
shamash, which is used to light the eight proper lights. The shamash is set off from the other lights, so as not to be mistaken for one of their number.
In Yiddish, a
shammesh or
shammess is an attendant, caretaker, custodian, or synagogue janitor. The slang term "shamus" for a private detective derives from this usage.
Further Information
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