In later periods, he was introduced to the local pantheons of other cities, including Babylon, Ur and Uruk in the south and Assur and Harran in the north.
Some attestations of the worship of Nuska are available from outside Mesopotamia, including inscriptions from Chogha Zanbil in Elam and Aramaic documents from Elephantine in Egypt.
[2] According to Michael P. Streck, the reading Nuska was older, though he asserts the form Nusku, written syllabically, appears already in Old Babylonian theophoric names, such as Ibi-Nusku and Idin-Nusku.
[11] In Aramaic, Nuska's name was spelled as nsk in texts from Babylonia and as nšk or nwšk in these originating elsewhere, in Assyria, Nerab and Elephantine.
[8] While the holders of the historical office of sukkalmaḫ were the overseers of the regular sukkals, there is no indication that their divine counterparts also functioned this way, and Enlil had no other servants designated with either term.
[12] Nuska fulfilled all the functions usually assigned to this type of deities, namely acting as a doorkeeper and advisor of his master, overseeing his court, and mediating between him and human supplicants.
"[15] While no text directly mentions Enlil bestowing a staff upon him, it is presumed that it was believed that like other analogous deities he received it from his superior.
[17] Extensive capabilities assigned to Nuska as a sukkal in texts dating to the Old Babylonian period or later most likely reflect the fact that he was a servant of a major deity, similar as Ninshubur, for whom an analogous phenomenon is attested.
"[15] A bundle of flames occurs as the symbol of Nuska on Old Babylonian cylinder seals, but from the Kassite period onward he was most commonly associated with lamps in art.
[15] A depiction of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I praying to a staff placed on a socle is assumed to be a symbolic representation of Nuska as well.
[24] In a single astronomical text from Seleucid Uruk, the constellation Orion is linked to Nuska, though it was more commonly associated with Papsukkal.
[29] Michael P. Streck instead argues that the new connection depended on the fact that Nuska and Sin were both believed to provide light during the night.
[34] As a servant of Enlil, Nuska could be associated with other members of his court, and in a number of texts he is grouped with Shuzianna, Ninimma, Ennugi, Kusu, Ninšar and Ninkasi.
[44] He was worshiped in Nippur since the Early Dynastic period[1] and in the third millennium BCE was already considered one of the main deities in the local pantheon, next to Enlil, Ninlil, Ninurta and Inanna.
"[47] A text from the Old Babylonian period states that in addition to Nuska himself, Enlil, Shuzianna and the pair Lugalirra and Meslamtaea were worshiped in an unspecified temple dedicated to him located in Nippur.
[48] Attested temple staff dedicated to him included six NIN.DINGIR priestesses, five pašišu priests, singers, doorkeepers and a snake charmer.
[57] Later, under the rule of the Seleucids, he was worshiped in the Bīt Rēš,[41] "head temple," a complex of sacral buildings established in this period which was dedicated to Anu and Antu.
[60] Nuska also was incorporated into the pantheons of other cities in the first millennium BCE, including Ur,[1] where he was venerated in the Egipar, the temple of Ningal, as attested in a brick inscription of Sin-balassu-iqbi.
"[61] He is also attested in texts from Babylon,[1] where he was worshiped in the Esagil complex, where his seat was the Eigrku, perhaps to be translated as "house of the pure oven," though the restoration of the second sign in the name is uncertain.
[64] Nuska is also mentioned in a hymn dedicated to wartime exploits of Tiglath-Pileser I, in which he is one of the gods who help the king vanquish his enemies during military campaigns.
[46] It is sometimes assumed that a deity still worshiped in Harran in the times of Jacob of Serugh (451-521 CE), Bar NMR’, was a remnant of the original cult of Nuska.
[23] A total of forty five bricks with various inscriptions commemorating this event in which the king asks Napirisha, Inshushinak and Nuska to accept this construction project as an offering have been found during excavations.
[70] Arameans worshiped Nuska in Nerab near Aleppo, which was a cult center of their moon god Šahr, and in Elephantine in Egypt.
[71] Enlil, in this composition portrayed as a bachelor, sends him to consult a marriage proposal with Nisaba, the mother of Sud,[72] a goddess who he earlier accidentally insulted,[73] either by mistake or in a failed attempt to flirt with her.
[74] Miguel Civil argued that due to apparent Mesopotamian perception of right hand as ritually pure and thus more suitable for various activities, such as prayer, eating and baking, this might indicate that Enlil viewed Sud as impure,[75] but Lambert disagrees with this interpretation, and suggests that the gift was simply meant to be kept hidden due to being an additional way to seal the negotiations.
[85] In Ninurta's Return to Nippur, Nuska appears briefly to greet and praise the eponymous god when he approaches Ekur after vanquishing various enemies.
[86] In the late version of the Anzû myth, Enlil tells Nuska to summon Birdu, who subsequently is sent to inquire Ninurta about his decision to keep the Tablets of Destiny.