Shamash
The dawn goddess Aya (Sherida) was his wife, and multiple texts describe their daily reunions taking place on a mountain where the sun was believed to set.
[6] The linguistic connection between the name of the god and the corresponding celestial body has been compared to that between Adad (and Syrian Hadad) and the word addu, "storm.
[3] According to Manfred Krebernik, this most likely also resulted in his Akkadian counterpart being viewed as such, even though in the majority of Semitic languages both the word referring to the sun itself and names of solar deities are grammatically feminine.
[10] Christopher Woods argues that the only available evidence are early ambiguous theophoric names, which according to him do not necessarily point at the existence of female Shamash, and might omit prepositions necessary to identify the gender of the deity invoked in them.
[21] Their species is not entirely consistent, though in most cases the sun chariot is apparently associated with equids: "choice steeds" (niskum) in an inscription of Gudea, horses in various prayers and incantations, and mules in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
[67] Due to her identification with Ishtar (Inanna) the Hurrian and Elamite goddess Pinikir is referred to as a twin sister of Shamash and daughter of Sin (Nanna) and Ningal in a text written in Akkadian but found in a corpus of Hurro-Hittite rituals.
[69] The sun god's wife was invariably the goddess of dawn and light, usually known under the name Aya, though the forms Ninkar, Sudaĝ, Sherida and Sudgan are also well attested.
[42] Utu/Shamash and Aya are the single most common divine couple in cylinder seal inscriptions from Sippar, with only the number of dedications to Ishkur and Shala being comparably high.
[74] Buduhudug, a mythical mountain where the sun was believed to set, was regarded as "the entrance of Shamash to Aya" (nēreb dŠamaš
[85] However, no evidence exists that Marduk was ever viewed as a member of the family of any sun deity in Sippar, Larsa or any other location in Mesopotamia, which lead Wilfred G. Lambert to suggest this etymology is not plausible on theological grounds.
[90] Some researchers, including Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik, consider the reading of the second element of his name to be uncertain due to variable orthography, and transcribe it as Nin-PIRIG.
[97] Kusarikku (bull-men, or, as argued by Frans Wiggermann, bison-men[98]) were frequently associated with Utu, and especially through the second millennium BCE were commonly depicted as members of his court, for example as standard bearers.
[14] Alfonso Archi instead concludes that the deity was primarily female based on lexical evidence, but points out that the Eblaites were definitely aware of the male eastern sun god, and seemingly adopted him into their pantheon as a secondary hypostasis.
[113] Apparently to avoid the implications that Shapash had a wife, the scribes interpreted the name of Aya, present in the Sumerian original, as an unconventional writing of Ea.
[119] Eduardo Torrecilla notes in a more recent publication that the logogram commonly designates Shamash in the middle Euphrates area, and syllabic writings of his name are uncommon there, though he also states that Shimige cannot be ruled out as a possible reading in some cases.
[120] In texts from Susa, Haft Tepe and Malamir in Elam the name of the sun god was usually written logographically as dUTU and it is uncertain when it refers to the Mesopotamian deity, and when to local Nahhunte.
[122] While the god list An=Anum does mention Nahhunte, he is not explicitly labeled as a counterpart of Utu, and only appears as a member of a group called the "Divine Seven of Elam," associated with the goddess Narundi.
[123] A Mesopotamian commentary on a birth incantation erroneously identifies him as a moon god and Narundi as a sun deity, explaining their names as, respectively, Sin and Shamash.
[124] The oldest attested votive objects dedicated to Utu (or Shamash) are a mace head from Ur offered by a king named Anbu or Anunbu, and a statuette from Sippar from the reign of Ikun-Shamash of Mari.
[133] It has been suggested that the Ebabbar in Sippar served as a treasury housing particularly rare objects, as excavations of the Neo-Babylonian level of the structure revealed a number of vases from the Early Dynastic and Sargonic periods, some with signs of repair, as well as the votive statue of Ikun-Shamash, a fragment of a monolith of Manishtushu, a macehead of Shar-Kali-Sharri, a whetstone of Tukulti-Mer of Hana, and other objects from earlier periods of Mesopotamian history.
[137] Nadītu lived in a building referred to as gagûm, conventionally translated as "cloister,"[136] and Tonia Sharlach notes they can be compared to medieval Christian nuns.
[138] They are sometimes described as "priestesses" in modern literature, but while it is well attested that they were considered to be dedicated to a specific deity, there is little evidence for their involvement in religious activities other than personal prayer.
[155] In Babylon, Shamash was worshiped in the temple Edikukalamma ("house of the judge of the land"), first attested in the Old Babylonian period and still mentioned in inscriptions from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II.
[159] Additionally, Ehulhuldirdirra ("house of surpassing joys"), while primarily dedicated to Sin, was also associated with Shamash, as attested in building inscriptions of Ashur-nirari I, Tukulti-Ninurta I and Ashurnasirpal II.
[162] An inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II might indicate that the sun god's manifestation from Larsa was also worshiped in Ekarra ("house of the quay"), a temple located in Dilmun, on the Failaka Island, which was dedicated to the local deities Inzak and Meskilak.
[179] In the myth Enmesharra's Defeat, which is only known from a single poorly preserved copy from either the Seleucid or Parthian period,[180] Shamash's radiance was bestowed upon him by Marduk after the imprisonment of the eponymous being, who was its original owner.
[182] After learning that Gilgamesh wants to acquire fame because he knows he will not live forever, Utu grants him seven constellations (described as zoomorphic creatures[183]) meant to guide him to his destination safely.
[195] It is possible that in one of the variants of the Old Babylonian version, only known from Tell Harmal, Humbaba says that he was informed by Shamash in a dream that he will be vanquished, though the state of preservation of the tablet makes it impossible to determine this with certainty.
[29] She blames Shamash for Gilgamesh's desire to venture into distant lands, and asks his wife Aya to intercede on her son's behalf to guarantee his safety.
[207] After celebrations of their victory, Enkidu has a dream vision of an argument between gods during which Shamash protests Enlil's decision that one of the heroes has to die as punishment for the slaying of Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven.
