Šumugan

Template:Short description Šumugan, Šamagan, Šumuqan or ŠakkanTemplate:Sfn (𒀭𒄊) was a god worshipped in Mesopotamia and ancient Syria. He was associated with animals.

Character

Šumugan was a shepherd god.Template:Sfn He was associated with various quadrupeds,Template:Sfn especially donkeysTemplate:Sfn or alternatively wild sheep.Template:Sfn In Ebla he was associated with mules.Template:Sfn In literary texts he was also tasked with caring for their habitat and plants growing there.Template:Sfn In some texts his epithet is "shepherd of everything."Template:Sfn Other known epithets include "god of wool," "god of herd animals," "god of grass-eating animals" and "god of watering places."Template:Sfn He was regarded as responsible for prosperity and agricultural fertility, often in connection with grain deities (such as Ezina) and beer deities (such as Ninkasi).Template:Sfn The name could also be metaphorically applied to a stallion of a herd.Template:Sfn

Due to the association between the steppe, where he was believed to dwell, and the netherworld, he sometimes appears in connection with the latter.Template:Sfn Texts attesting this connection include the poem Death of Gilgamesh and a number of incantations.Template:Sfn

His main attribute was a ram-headed crook.Template:Sfn Another of his attributes was likely a fleece.Template:Sfn The number 14 was regarded as connected to him, though it was also associated with Nergal.Template:Sfn

Worship

Šumugan's cult had a limited scope in Mesopotamia, one exception being Assur in the Iron Age.Template:Sfn He was worshiped there in the Urmashtur, "pen of lions and wild bests," alongside the god Urmah.Template:Sfn In earlier periods he is attested in documents from Kish, Ur, Lagash and Fara.Template:Sfn

Under the name Šamagan he was worshiped west of Mesopotamia, for example in Ebla.Template:Sfn A special type of sacrifice to him was carried out by the overseers of mules.Template:Sfn His western cult center in the Ebla period was seemingly the settlement ME.NE, which belonged to the kingdom of Nagar.Template:Sfn A king of Ibubu, a city east of Harran, bearing the theophoric name Ilam-Šamagan is also known from a document according to which he swore allegiance to Ebla in the temple of the city god Kura.Template:Sfn Other people bearing similar names known from Eblaite documents include Iku-Šamagan, a king of Mari; Irmi-Šamagan, son of a king of Irrite; and Puzur-Šamagan, possibly a chief of Ib'al.Template:Sfn Another western city where the cult of Šamagan flourished was Nabada.Template:Sfn

Based on the fact that the worship of Šamagan was widespread in Syrian polities such Nagar and Mari, Alfonso Archi proposes that he initially developed in the same area, possibly among speakers of "proto-Akkadian" language who introduced him to southern Mesopotamia.Template:Sfn According to the god list Anu ša amēli, Šamagan is equal to Sharshar, the god of the Sutean nomads.

Associations with other deities

Šumugan's wife was Ellamesi, regarded as the goddess of wool,Template:Sfn though Frans Wiggermann notes that unlike another agricultural god, Dumuzi, he was generally not portrayed in romantic context.Template:Sfn He was sometimes associated with Utu/Shamash, either as his son (for example in the god list An = Anum)Template:Sfn or as a courtier.Template:Sfn According to a seal inscription from Lagash, his sukkal (attendant deity) was Edinmugi (Sumerian: "he secured the plains").Template:Sfn

In the god list An=Anu ša amēli multiple gods are described as aspects of Šumugan, including Martu and Šaršar, described as "Šumugan of the Suteans."Template:Sfn

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the not yet civilized Enkidu is at one point described as "clothed (...) like Šakkan."Template:Sfn

In Hittite sources the logographic writing SUMUQAN (or GÌR) designates the deity Template:Ill.Template:Sfn