Nergal – The Burning

Nergal, Lord of Mass Destruction, produces and controls epidemics, disasters, and wars. A violent spirit who delights in carnage, Nergal is lord of the realm of death called Irkalla, the Land of No Return. He inherited this position via marriage to Ereshkigal, Goddess of Death, its original ruler. She may now co-rule with Nergal, or she may defer to him. How this shift in power occurred is subject to myth and debate:

• Ereshkigal may have fallen violently in love with Nergal, demanded his presence in her realm and offered him anything because of her love.

• Nergal may have decided that he was entitled to rule Irkalla because as a Demon of epidemics and disasters, he was already a major contributor to its population. He penetrated Ereshkigal’s realm, posted his own guards at the gates, dethroned and married her. He then spread the story that Ereshkigal had begged him to marry her and take over her realm.

• As society became increasingly conservative and patriarchal, many preferred a male king of death and hence favoured Nergal over Ereshkigal, regardless of the actual relationship or dynamic between the two spirits.

In addition to disease and war, Nergal’s weapons include famine, drought, heat, lightning, and fire. The hot, dry desert wind is his breath. (Illnesses were traditionally considered to ride in on those winds.) He is a spirit of the sun as a devastating force. Nergal may once have been a preeminent solar deity from an earlier pantheon, now dethroned and forced to find a new home and role for himself, hence his general destructive, angry, bad mood.

Nergal knows the cure to every illness he controls. He decides who dies or is injured in wars or epidemics but he decides who is spared, too.

Nergal was a major deity, not an obscure one. He was subject to state-sponsored rituals and offerings. His name lingers in cultural memory, still bearing an aura of dread:

• Based on medieval lore, Demonologists consider Nergal to be chief of Hell’s secret police and Beelzebub’s spy.

• Nergal appears in the fantasy series Conan the Barbarian.

• Nergal is the name of the primary villain in the video game Fire Emblem 7.

ALSO KNOWN AS:

Alad

ORIGIN:

Sumeria (Mesopotamia)

MANIFESTATION:

A man or lion

ATTRIBUTE:

Lion-headed staff

PLANET:

Sun

Time:

Noon

Creature:

Lion

DAY:

The summer solstice when the sun is at the height of its powers

Sacred site:

His primary sanctuary was at Kutha on the Euphrates River, but he had other temples and shrines, too.

SEE ALSO:

• Ereshkigal
• Inanna-Ishtar
• Sekhmet

Source:

Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses– Written by :Judika Illes Copyright © 2009 by Judika Illes.

NOTE:

Since the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians and others all shared essentially the same pantheon and belief systms, these articles are all combined under the Mesopotamian mythology / deities / legendary creatures category.