Nuska

Nuska or Nusku, possibly also known as Našuḫ, was a Mesopotamian god best attested as the sukkal (divine vizier) of Enlil. He was also associated with fire and light, and could be invoked as a protective deity against various demons, such as Lamashtu or gallu. His symbols included a staff, a lamp and a rooster. Various traditions existed regarding his genealogy, with some of them restricted to texts from specific cities. His wife was the goddess Sadarnunna, whose character is poorly known. He could be associated with the fire god Gibil, as well as with various courtiers of Enlil, such as Shuzianna and Ninimma. The main cult center of Nuska was Nippur, where he is already attested in the Early Dynastic period. He was worshiped both in temples of his own and in the Ekur complex. He is attested in various documents from the Kassite period, including oath formulas and inscriptions, as well as in theophoric names. In later periods, he was introduced to the local pantheons of other cities, including Babylon, Ur and Uruk in the south and Assur and Harran in the north. The last of these cities might have served as his main cult center in the late first millennium BCE. Some attestations of the worship of Nuska are available from outside Mesopotamia, including inscriptions from Chogha Zanbil in Elam and Aramaic documents from Elephantine in Egypt. In known myths, Nuska is typically portrayed as a servant of Enlil. He appears in this role in two different narratives about his marriage, Enlil and Sud and Enlil and Ninlil, in Atrahasis, in the Anzû narrative, and in other compositions. Hymns dedicated to him are known as well. The etymology of Nuska's name is uncertain. Wilfred G. Lambert proposed that it was a shortened form of Sumerian en-usuk-ak, "lord of the scepter," though he noted the form usuk is speculative, and would require an interchange of a dental and sibilant in the uncommonly attested word udug, known from lexical lists. This proposal is implausible according to Jeremiah Peterson.