utu/Šamaš (shamash)

7/27/2019 Utu/ama (Shamash)

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Utu/ama (god)Mesopotamian sun god, who was associated with life, justice, divination and the netherworld.

Functions

Cylinder seal TT of a scribe namedAdda, showing ama cuttingthrough mountains on the horizonso he can rise in the morning; ca.2300-2200 BCE (BM 89115). TheBritish Museum. View large imageon the British Museum's website.

Stone stele of Assyrian kingAshurnasirpal II from Nimrud(ancient Kalhu), northern Iraq,approx. 883-859 BC (BM 118805).This monument shows the kingworshipping the major gods insymbolic form, including ama,whose symbol is the winged disc. The British Museum. View large
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image on the British Museum'swebsite.

Limestone tablet depicting kingNabu-aplu-iddina being led into thepresence of ama, the sun god;860 BCE-850 BCE. ama sits inthe E-babbar shrine and holds the

rod and ring symbols of powerfulkingship (BM 91000). The BritishMuseum. View large image on theBritish Museum's website.

ama the all-seeingama (Sumerian Utu) is the god of the sun. He brings light and warmth to the land, allowingplants and crops to grow. At sunrise ama was known to emerge from his undergroundsleeping chamber and take a daily path across the skies [Image 1]. As the sun fills the entire skywith light, ama oversaw everything that occurred during the daytime. He thus became the godof truth, judgements and justice. ama also played a role in treaties, oaths and business

transactions, as he could see through deceit and duplicity. As a defender of justice, the sun godalso had a warrior aspect (Black and Green 1998: 183-4).

Let there be truth!ama also played an essential role in sacrificial divination (extispicy) rituals (Robson 2010b).Extispicy was an important branch of royal court scholarship in existence for over a millennium,whereby the king could receive answers from the gods to specific questions regarding matters ofstate. The king's diviners (br) asked the gods to write the answer in the liver of a sheep, whichwas then 'read' through examining the liver and counting up its ominous features. As god of truthand justice, ama was implored to help provide a correct answer. A late second-millenniumprayer to ama by a diviner asks him to guide the inquiry and to 'let there be truth' in their

interpretations of the omens. (Foster 2005: 756).

Assisting humanity and the underworldama also played a role in the affairs of humanity. Surviving second millennium texts indicatethat his assistance was sought against evil and curses. Literary texts describe his protection of
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the heroic kings of the city of Uruk. In the Epic of Gilgame he assists the hero Gilgame indefeating the monstrous Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest. ama was alsospecifically a protector of travellers and merchants (Foster 2005: 627, 630, 633).

ama played a similarly important role in the realm of the dead as he did in the living world. Thespirits of the dead were thought to enter the netherworld via a passage on the horizon in theextreme western part of the world. In some traditions, this passage was the same entrance thatled to ama's underground dwelling, and to which he returned at sunset each evening (Bottero

2002: 274). However, Tablet XI ofGilgame from Nineveh describes ama's road underneaththe earth as a separate path from that to the netherworld (Bottero 2002: 274-5).

Divine genealogy and syncretisms

In Sumerian tradition, Utu is the son of the moon god Nanna-Suen and the twin brother ofInana.Akkadian tradition sometimes made ama the son ofAnu orEnlil. The sun god's wife wasAya,goddess of the dawn (Black and Green 1998: 183-4).

ama had a minister named Bunene who drove his fiery chariot and was known as ama'sson in some traditions. Bunene was worshipped in his own right in Sippar and Uruk during the

Old Babylonian period (Black and Green 1998: 183-4).

Cult place(s)

ama's cult centres were the cities of Sippar and Larsa, which both had a temple to the sun godcalled E-babbar ('White House').

Time periods attested

ama is attested from the earliest periods right through the timespan of cuneiform culture. He

appears in a wide range of text genres including royal prayers and hymns, divination texts,treaties and documents recording business transactions. A more detailed overview will have toawait further studies.

The first literary text in the Akkadian language was a hymn to ama that was found among thetexts from Tell Abu Salabikh (ca. 2600 BCE). Although poorly understood, it seems to containnarrative passages as well as a hymnic introduction and end (Krebernik 1998: 320).

The second-millennium Sumerian Hymn to Utu (ETCSL 4.32.2) describes the sun god's shiningappearance and powers of judgment by saying that his 'radiance spreads out like a net over theworld'. A Sumerian literary letter-prayer from king Sn-iddinam of Larsa addresses Utu as the

patron deity of the city of Larsa and prays for redemption of the city and its king (ETCSL 3.2.05;Brisch 2007: 158-78). Another hymn to ama praises the sun god's all-seeing nature as'illuminator of all', which allows him to see the truth in trials and verdicts. First-millennium copiesof this hymn also survive, indicating that it was studied by successive generations of scholars(Foster 2005: 627-35). A second-millennium prayer to be recited at sunset gives a homelydescription of ama returning to his dwelling at the end of the day. Firstly, the sun god is salutedby his gatekeeper, who opens the door to his chambers, then he settles down to dinner cookedby his wifeAya (Foster 2005: 752-3).

ama was highly significant in the Neo-Assyrian royal court due to his associations withsacrificial divination TT . Approximately 350 surviving queries and reports (SAA 4) give details of

the questions posed to ama by the kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, which includeworries about rebellions, illnesses and the loyalty of subordinates (Starr 1990: xiv).

Royal hymns praise ama and also commemorate rebuilding of his temples by particular kings,including as Assyrian king Assurbanipal (668-631 BCE) and Babylonian king Nabopolassar
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(625-605 BCE) (Foster 2005: 827-8, 848).

Iconography

ama's symbol from the Akkadian period to the Neo-Babylonian period was the solar disc. Itusually took the form of a four-pointed star, with curved lines emerging between each point(Black and Green 1998: 168). On Neo-Assyrian stelae and kudurrus TT ama was representedby a winged solar disc [Image 2].

Depictions of ama himself survive on cylinder seals TT , where he is sometimes shown seatedand surrounded by worshippers, with his sunrays emanating from his shoulders (Black andGreen 1998: 183). The sun god is also portrayed on the famous stele TT of King Hammurabifrom 1760 BCE, which is inscribed with over 282 'laws' for the unified territories of Babylonia. Inthe image ama, as god of justice, presents Hammurabi with tools for ruling justly: he passesthe king a measuring rod and rope . Justice in early Mesopotamian was closely allied with theidea that fairness could be achieved through literacy, numeracy and accurate measurement. Themeasuring instruments are a symbol of powerful kingship, representing the abil ity to rule justlyand fairly (see Robson 2008: 115-24; 263-7). Very similar imagery of the sun god also appearson a first-millennium tablet commemorating the revival of the Ebabbar cult by king Nabu-apla-

iddina (887-855 BCE) (Woods 2004) [Image 3].

Name and Spellings

Utu's name is spelled dutu in Sumerian, and ama's name retains this logogram in Akkadian.The name ama is a variant form of the Akkadian word for sun, amu (compare Arabic ams,Hebrew eme).

First-millennium written forms include:20; d20; dUTU-KAM; dUTU-i; dUTU-u2; da2-ma;

da3-ma2;da2-ma; u-a2-na-ku.

Normalised forms include:ama, ami, amu
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utu/Šamaš (shamash)

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