[7] He proposes that alongside Ninazu, Ningishzida, Ishtaran and Tishpak he can be considered one of the members of a category of deities he refers to as the "Transtigridian snake gods", who likely developed on the border between the cultural spheres of Mesopotamia and Elam.

[8] The most common spelling of Inshushinak's name in cuneiform was dIn-šu-ši-na-ak, though other phonetic syllabic variants such as dIn-su-uš-na-ak, In-sú-uš-nak, dIn-šu-uš-na-ak and Šu-ši-na-ak are also attested, in addition to logographic ones.

[13] An early Elamite source, the treaty with Naram-Sin of Akkad, states that "to the god Inshushinak a king is subject" (Inšušinak hurtur zukir), while in later times he was frequently invoked in royal theophoric names and epithets.

[21] Inshushinak was strongly associated with the acropolis (alumelu, a loanword from Akkadian ālu elû, "high city") of Susa, its most elevated section, and he could be accordingly referred to as its lord (temti alimelu).

[34] However, it has been pointed out that the Elamite word stem laha- can also be translated as "hidden" or "secret", and it is not certain that epithets including it necessarily designated a given deity as related to the underworld; even in Inshushinak’s case it might have been used to refer to his other qualities.

[4] Yasmina Wicks suggests that a fish-woman depicted on the aforementioned stele of Untash-Napirisha, who she compares to other similar hybrids attested in Elamite art, might have been an apotropaic being associated with him.

[41] The figures on the Middle Elamite reliefs from the walls of the temple of Inshushinak are presumed to depict intercessory minor goddesses (dLAMA) and bull-men (kusarikku).

[42] Lagamal and Ishmekarab, who both originated as Mesopotamian deities,[43][44][45] were regarded as Inshushinak's assistants, and like him played a role in the journey of the dead to the afterlife in Elamite religion.

[29] During the judgment of the dead, Lagamal most likely acted as the prosecutor and Ishmekarab as a defender, as suggested based on the respective meanings of their names, "who has no mercy" and “who hears the prayer”.

[50] It originally formed no earlier than in the first half of the nineteenth century BCE, with references only starting to appear commonly in texts from the Middle Elamite period.

[60] This identification is commonly cited in modern literature, though it ultimately remains uncertain, and it is not clear if the Elamite signatory, who is left nameless, hailed from Awan at all.

[61] While Inshushinak is only listed sixth among the gods invoked as its divine witnesses, after Pinikir, Humban, Amba, Zit and Nahhunte,[9] he appears multiple times through the document, with four certain references and further five tentatively restored ones.

[63] The last king of the Awan dynasty, Puzur-Inshushinak (reigned c. 2100 BCE), instated daily offerings to Inshushinak in Susa, which constitutes the oldest known reference to such a practice in sources from Elam.

[65] The inscription commemorating this event invokes Inshushinak alongside Shamash, Enlil, Enki, Ishtar, Sin, Ninhursag, Narunte and "the totality of the gods" in a curse formula.

[78] It has been suggested that this might have been true for the siyan husame in general, but while multiple deities for whom such structures are attested, including Inshushinak, Ishmekarab, Lagamal, Kiririsha and possibly Napirisha, were associated with the underworld, others, like Manzat, Simut and Suhsipa, lacked such a connection.

[82] However, Wouter Henkelman argues that sanctuaries of Inshushinak might have not been located only in the proximity of Susa, with siyan husame dedicated to him possibly serving as "markers of royal power" in other parts of Elam.

[88] Near the end of the Middle Elamite period, around 1125 BCE, a temple dedicated jointly to him, Napirisha, Kiririsha and Simut was built in Anshan by king Hutelutush-Inshushinak.

[44] In one of the oldest texts possible to date to this period, Shutruk-Nahhunte III [de] (716–699 BCE) states that he reinstalled three statues representing deceased kings in the kukkunum of Inshushinak.

[92] The same ruler also apparently relocated a kukunnum of Inshushinak from Susa to Karintaš, possibly to be identified with Kerend-e Gharb on the road from Baghdad and Kermanshah, to protect it.

[14] Heidemarie Koch argued that Inshushinak ceased to be worshiped after the emergence of the Achaemenid state,[95] but Wouter Henkelman points out in a more recent publication that while there is no source from Achaemenid Susa which would make it possible to evaluate whether he remained the main god of this city, based on parallels with the cults of Napirisha and Humban it is likely that he continued to be worshiped in the lowlands, and his cult might have enjoyed royal patronage.

[96] Atta-hamiti-Inšušinak II [de], the last attested Neo-Elamite ruler,[97][g] also invoked Inshushinak in an inscription meant to highlight his dedication to the god of Susa and to the city's population, though it has been noted he most likely reigned from elsewhere, possibly from a mountains part of modern Khuzestan.

[100] He appears in it as a member of a group of deities associated with the underworld and with snakes alongside Ereshkigal, Ninazu, Ningishzida, Tishpak, Ishtaran and their courtiers, such as Irnina or Nirah.

[4] Walther Hinz [de] instead argued that in Mesopotamia Inshushinak was equated with Adad, but there is no evidence in any primary sources that would support this view, and Mesopotamian god lists instead recognize three otherwise unknown deities as his Elamite counterparts, Kunzibami, Šihhaš and Šennukušu.

[45] Inshushinak is the only strictly Elamite deity mentioned in them, and it has been argued that their language, form and content reflect the well attested phenomenon of integration of scribes from Susa into the literary culture of Mesopotamia.

[114] Nathan Wasserman points out his presence in Akkadian literature from Susa can be compared to analogous cases of other locally popular gods, like Dagan or Itūr-Mēr in texts from Mari, Marduk in Babylon or Ashur in Assur.

[115] The Susa Funerary Texts are considered unique because they constitute the only known examples of Akkadian compositions dealing with the underworld to be found in a grave in situ.

[124] Wasserman notes it is possible the encounter with Inshushinak is described as taking place in a dream, which would offer a close parallel to a passage in the Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince involving the appearance of Ereshkigal in a similar context.

[131] However, it is not impossible that this semantic parallel is accidental, as words referring to hearing are not an uncommon component of theonyms, as evidenced for example by the goddess Tashmetum, unrelated to either of these figures.

[135] Tavernier himself admits that the fact Sraosha only became a popular figure in the Parthian period, roughly in the first century BCE, which might indicate a time gap too significant to permit presenting him as analogous to Ishmekarab.

[137] Wasserman evaluated his treatment of the Susa Funerary Texts as a whole critically, and argues that it detaches them from their historical context, with Zoroastrian sources separated from them by two millennia treated as closer to them than contemporary Akkadian literature.