Nabu: Difference between revisions

Nabu was the patron god of scribes, literacy, and wisdom.<ref name="Bertman"/> He was also the inventor of writing, a [[oracle|divine scribe]], the patron god of the rational arts, and a god of vegetation.<ref name="Green"/>{{rp|33-34}}<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web |title=Nabu |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nabu |website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |access-date=August 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702144238/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nabu |archive-date=July 2, 2016 |language=en}}</ref> As the god of writing, Nabu inscribed the fates assigned to men and he was equated with the scribe god [[Ninurta]].<ref name="Britannica"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Leick |first1=Dr Gwendolyn |title=A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology |date=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781134641024 |page=124 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_pqEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |access-date=March 7, 2019 |language=en}}</ref> As an oracle he was associated with the Mesopotamian moon god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]].<ref name="Green"/>{{rp|33-34}} Originally the planet Mercury was connected with Ninurta (as well as [[Saturn]]); because in the [[MUL.APIN]] Ninurta is consistently identified with Mercury,{{sfn|Koch|1995|p=127}}{{sfn|HungerSteele|2018|p=127}}{{sfn|Horowitz|1998|p=172}} and it is read that: "Mercury whose name is Ninurta travels the (same) path the Moon travels." As Marduk took over the role of [[King of the gods]] from [[Enlil]] and inherited both his cultic roles and epithets as well as his position within the [[pantheon (religion)|pantheon]] – the role of the most important son of the father of the gods that had previously belonged to Ninurta as son of Enlil (now replaced by Marduk); was thus taken over by Nabu, and Nabu became associated with the planet Mercury as well as being given connections with the moon god Sin, because as addressed in the MUL.APIN – even when Mercury was considered the planet of Ninurta, it still retained some moon-like aspects since it traveled the same path of the moon.