nergal Summary and Overview

the great dog; that is, lion, one of the chief gods of the Assyrians and Babylonians (2 Kings 17:30), the god of war and hunting. He is connected with Cutha as its tutelary deity.

(hero), one of the chief Assyrian and Babylonian deities, seems to have corresponded closely to the classical Mars. #2Ki 17:30| It is conjectured that he may represent the deified Nimrod.

NER'GAL (great hero), a deity of the Assyrians, and corresponding to Mars. 2 Kgs 17:30. Monuments have been found with his name and titles. (See cut p. 612.)

A Hamite name ("great hero".) Some of the Assyrian kings pretended descent from him. In the monuments he is called "the great brother," "the storm ruler," "king of battle," "the strong begetter"; "god of the chase," which is his special attribute. Nimrod deified, "the mighty hunter before the Lord," from whom naturally the kings of Babylon and Nineveh would claim descent. Cutha or Tiggaba (Nimrod's city in Arab tradition) is in the inscriptions especially dedicated to him. In accurate conformity with this the men of Cutha (2 Kings 17:30) planted by the Assyrian king as colonists in Samaria "made Nergal their god." Nergal appears in the compound Nergal-sharezer (Jeremiah 39:3; Jeremiah 39:13). A human headed lion with eagles' wings was his symbol. His Semitic name Aria (which when transposed is Nir) means "lion"; Greek Ares; Mars is his planet. Nerig is still its Mendaean name, and the Mendaeans call the third day of the week from him. The lion as lord of the forest was a fit symbol of the god of the chase. Tiglath Pileser (1150 B.C.) attributes to his gift the arrows wherewith he slew wild beasts; so Assur-dani-pal or Sardanapalus. Pul sacrificed to Nergal in Cutha, and Sennacherib built a temple to him in Tarbisa near Nineveh.