Reading akkadian PRayeRs & Hymns An Introduction

An OB Ikribu-Like Prayer to Shamash and Adad
SHAMASH:
ADAD:
See page 197.
ALAN LENZI
Adad (also, Ḫaddu, Ḫadda, Addu, Adda) is the Semitic name of the ancient
Near Eastern storm god par excellence who was responsible for storms, thunder,
lightning, wind, and rain. Worship of this god extended across the entire ancient
Near East under various other names, such as Ishkur (Sum.), Teshub (Hurrian),
Baʿlu (Ugaritic), and Taru/Tarḫun(t) (Hattic/Hittite-Luwian). In Mesopotamian
traditions, he was the son of Anu or sometimes Enlil, his consort was Shala
(identified with Sum. Medimsha), and his ministers were Shullat and Ḫanish.
Iconographically, Adad was represented by a lion-dragon in third millennium
sources and a bull by OB times. In anthropomorphic depictions, he is frequently
found holding a weapon or a lightning bolt, as if ready to strike an opponent in
battle. Although his name is usually written with the logogram IŠKUR, a sign that
can be read as the Sumerian word im, “wind,” one also finds it written syllabically
in Akkadian and sometimes logographically as d 10.
Adad was syncretized to the Sumerian storm god Ishkur during the Sargonic
and Ur III periods (i.e., the late third millennium) and became a major power in
the Mesopotamian pantheon by OB times. His shrines and temples were quite
numerous throughout Mesopotamia, Syria (e.g., at Ebla, Mari, Emar, Ḫalab, and
Ugarit), and beyond, extending chronologically from Early Dynastic to Hellenistic
times. Prominent examples of sanctuaries include the double Anu-Adad temple
in Ashur, dating back to the reign of Shamshi-Adad I, and Adad’s most important
Babylonian shrine—according to first millennium sources—located at
Zabban (90km east of the Tigris and 175km southeast of Ashur).
Given Adad’s sphere of power, it can be no surprise that he was both productive
and destructive to humans, bringing abundance, on the one hand, via
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