[4] He reigned over Kur, the Mesopotamian underworld, depending on the myth either on behalf of his parents Enlil and Ninlil, or in later periods as a result of his marriage with the goddess Ereshkigal.

Initially he was only worshiped in the north, with a notable exception being Girsu during the reign of Gudea of Lagash, but starting with the Ur III period he became a major deity in the south too.

[2] Phonetic spellings of Nergal's name are attested in cuneiform (dné-ri-ig-lá in Old Assyrian Tell Leilan, dné-ri-ig-la in Nuzi), as well as in Aramaic (nrgl, nyrgl) and Hebrew (nēregal in the Masoretic Text).

[3] It has been proposed that it was euphemistic and reflected the fact that Nergal initially could not be recognized as a ruler of the underworld in the south due to the existence of Ninazu (sometimes assumed to be the earliest Mesopotamian god of death[6]) and Ereshkigal, and perhaps only served as a war deity.

[10] From the Old Babylonian period onward the name Erra, derived from the Semitic root ḥrr, and thus etymologically related to the Akkadian verb erēru, "to scorch", could be applied to Nergal, though it originally referred to a distinct god.

[13] A deity designated by the logogram dIGI.DU was also worshiped in Uruk, with the earliest references coming from the reign of Sennacherib and the most recent from the Seleucid period,[15] and according to Krul should be interpreted as "a form of Nergal".

[13] Nergal also had a large number of other names and epithets, according to Frans Wiggermann comparable only to a handful of other very popular deities (especially Inanna), with around 50 known from the Old Babylonian period, and about twice as many from the later god list An = Anum, including many compounds with the word lugal, "lord".

[18] However, Dina Katz stresses that these names were only applied to Nergal in late sources, and it cannot be assumed that this necessarily reflected an aspect of his character already extant earlier on.

While some authors, for example Nikita Artemov, refer to Nergal as a deity of "quasi-solar" character, primary sources show a connection between him and sunset rather than noon.

[37] On the basis of this connection it has been proposed that minor deities with bull-like ears on Old Babylonian terracotta plaques and cylinder seals might have been depictions of unspecified members of Nergal's entourage.

[37] An entry in the explanatory god list An = Anu ša amēli seemingly associates Nergal with chameleons, as his title Bar-MUŠEN-na, explained as "Nergal of rage" (ša uzzi) is like a scribal mistake for bar-gun3-(gun3)-na ("the one with a colorful exterior"), presumed to be the Akkadian term for chameleon; Ryan D. Winters suggests that the animal's color changing might have been associated with mood swings or choleric temperament, and additionally that it was perceived as a "chthonic" being.

[20] He is directly identified as "Nergal of Sūḫi" in the god list Anšar = Anum, and might be either the same deity as the poorly attested Âmûm (a-mu, a-mu-um or a-mi-im) known from Mari, or alternatively a local derivative of the sea god Yam, possibly introduced to this area by people migrating from further west; Ryan D. Winters notes in the latter case the association would presumably reflect Nergal's epithet lugala'abba,[50] "king of the sea".

[62] In the Nippur god list Laṣ occurs separately from Nergal,[56] while Mammitum is present right behind him, which along with receiving offerings alongside him in Ekur in the same city in the Old Babylonian lead researches to conclude a spousal relation existed between them.

[64] The Middle Babylonian god list An = Anum mentions both Laṣ and Mamitum, equating them with each other, and additionally calls the goddess Admu ("earth") Nergal's wife.

[72] His other courtiers included umum, so-called "day demons", who possibly represented points in time regarded as inauspicious; various minor deities associated with diseases; the minor warrior gods known as Sebitti; and a number of figures at times associated with Ereshkigal and gods such as Ninazu and Ningishzida as well, for example Namtar's wife Hushbisha, their daughter Hedimmeku, and the deified heroes Gilgamesh and Etana (understood as judges of the dead in this context).

[77] According to Alfonso Archi, it is difficult to further speculate about the nature of Resheph and his relation to other deities in Eblaite religion due to lack of information about his individual characteristics.

[78] Documents from Emar on the Euphrates mention a god called "Nergal of the KI.LAM" (seemingly a term designating a market), commonly identified with Resheph by researchers.

[82] Gernot Wilhelm [de] concludes in a recent publication that the identification of Nergal in the early Urkesh inscriptions as Kumarbi is not implausible, but at the same remains impossible to conclusively prove.

[98] In the Old Babylonian period Nergal continued to be worshiped as a god of the dead, as indicated for example by an elegy in which he appears alongside Ningishzida, Etana and Bidu, the gatekeeper of the underworld.

[89] Based on a cylinder of Neriglissar providing for E-Meslam in Kutha was regarded as a royal duty, similar as in the case of Marduk's and Nabu's main temples (respectively E-Sagil in Babylon and E-Zida in Borsippa).

[123]Giorgio Buccellati in his translation quoted above renders the names of the other deities invoked as Shamash and Ishtar, but according to Alfonso Archi the logograms dUTU and dINANNA should be read as Shimige and Shaushka in this case.

[119] These include Arrapha, referred to as the "City of the Gods", which was located near modern Kirkuk, as well as Ḫilamani, Tilla[124] and Ulamme, where an entu priestess dedicated to him resided.

[28] His weapons (the Sebitti[55]) urge him to take action, while his sukkal Ishum, who according to Andrew R. George appears to play the role of Nergal's conscience in this myth,[138] attempts to stop him.

However, Marduk returns too soon for Nergal to successfully start his campaign, and as a result in a long speech he promises to give other gods a reason to remember him.

He does so by waging a war himself, targeting the inhabitants of Mount Sharshar, seemingly a site associated with the origin of the aforementioned period of chaos in the history of late second and early first millennium BCE Babylonia.

[145] A poorly preserved Middle Assyrian composition, regarded as similar to the Labbu myth, seemingly describes a battle between Nergal (possibly acting on behalf of his father Enlil or the sky god Anu) and a monstrous serpent born in the sea.

[146] The myth Enmesharra's Defeat, only known from a single, heavily damaged copy from the Seleucid or Parthian period, casts Nergal as the warden of the eponymous antagonist and his seven sons, the Sebitti,[147] presumably imprisoned in the underworld.

[147] In the aftermath of the ordeal, the universe is reorganized and Marduk shares lordship over it, which seemingly originally belonged to Anu in this composition, with Nergal and Nabu.

[154] Victorian lexicographer E. Cobham Brewer asserted that the name of Nergal, who he identified as "the most common idol of ancient Phoenicians, Indians and Persians", meant "dunghill cock".

[155] This translation is incorrect in the light of modern research, as Nergal's name most likely was understood as "Lord of the big city",[2] his emblematic animals were bulls and lions,[37] while chickens were unknown in Mesopotamia prior to the ninth century BCE based on archeological data, and left behind no trace in cuneiform sources.