Any texts mentioning the origin of God Aššur ?

[hukkana]

Due to the tradition of establishing genealogies for the Gods, I was wondering if there were any texts which made some claims as to the origin of the state god of Assyria, given especially their later dominance of the region.

[enkigal]

Oct 11, 2017 5:33:30 GMT -5 hukkana said:

I was wondering if there were any texts which made some claims as to the origin of the state god of Assyria

Very good question! I've made some research on the Intrnet but I found nothing... Apparently however Aššur was sometimes identified with Anšar, that is the son of Laḫmu and Laḫamu and father of Anu according to Enuma Eliš, maybe because of the similar-sounding name. I hope it was helpful  .

[sheshki]

Here is something from:
A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology
by Gwendolyn Leick,
originally posted here
Doesn´t say anything about the genealogy tho.


"Aššur
Assyrian god, the eponymous deity of the capital Aššur who became the
national god of Assyria.
The origin of the name is unknown. He seems to have been a local
mountain god of the Semitic population of northern Mesopotamia (bel
šaduabeh) and known as such from texts since the Ur III period. With the
rise of the political power of Assyria, Aššur was promoted to a supreme
rank among the gods, taking on the characteristics of several other
gods, such as Enlil, Anu and Šamaš. This process recalls the elevation of
Marduk in Babylon. An Assyrian version of the Enuma Eliš replaces
the name of Marduk by Aššur, who was at the same time equated with
Anšar. The worship of Aššur survived in northern Mesopotamia until
the third century AD.
The Assyrian monarch had a special relationship to this god whom he
served as the first priest of Aššur and who was directly responsible for the
exercise of kingship, in analogy to the role of Anu and Enlil in Babylon.
Aššur seems to have had no official consort before the reign of
Sennacherib (7th C BC), when Ninlil appears as his wife. On the other
hand, Ištar of Aššur or of Nineveh are also mentioned as wives of the
great Assyrian god.
His iconographical image, which appears on various Assyrian reliefs
and obelisks, shows a winged sun-disc containing a bearded deity holding
a bow.
Tallqvist 1932; Ebeling, RLA I 1932, 196–8; Dhorme 1969; Mayer 1997"

from the same book
"Ištar Aššuritum, wife of Aššur, the national god of Assyria."

"In Assyria, Ninlil became the wife of the national god Aššur."

I just checked the RlA1, but there is no information
apart from the fact the we know nothing about his parents.

[Salmu]

Excerpt from ‘Assur’ in Dictionary of Deities and Demons of the Bible pp 108-109.
By A. Livingstone

“II. Assur is the god of Assyria par excellence. His name is identical with that of the city of Assur, which with its temple, the bit Aššur, later EKUR, was the main centre of his cult…

…The coincidence of the name Assur as city and also as god appears from Old Assyrian documents from the trading colonies of Cappadocia to have been felt by ancient scribes: there is occasionally a lack of distinction between the two. Additionally the term ‘alum’, ‘the city’, is used in oaths along with the ruler in contexts where one would anticipate mention of the city god and the ruler. As noticed by Lambert (1983) the evidence shows that the god is the deified city. While parallels from the original heartland of Mesopotamian civilization are rare, the deification of geographical features is commonly attested in Northern Mesopotamia, especially with personal names. Analysis of the combined evidence led Lambert (1983) to the hypothesis that the site of the town Assur, which is an impressive natural hill, was a holy spot in prehistoric times. Having been settled as a place of strategic significance, its ‘holiness’ was exploited both practically—the growth of the town—and ideologically, leading to the dual character of city and god.

In the course of the history of Assyria, the god Assur, who was not originally a deus persona and thus did not originally have a family, was made to conform to the theology of southern Mesopotamia. Beginning in the second millennium Assur was given a theological personality by regarding him as an Assyrian Enlil, Enlil being the god of Nippur and one of the most important figures in the pantheon of Babylonia. This opened the way for the gradual adoption by Assur of everything originally pertaining to Enlil, from his wife Ninlil becoming the Assyrian –Mullisu, and later his sons Ninurta and Zababa, through various epithets down to items of furniture. This process of assimilation began in the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I (13th century BCE) and continued into the Sargonid period (8th to 7th centuries BCE). The only family member of Assur’s, not certainly of southern origin is Šeru’a, and her exact standing is ambiguous.

In the Sargonic period it became commonplace to write the name of the god Assur with the signs AN.ŠAR, originally used to denote a primeval deity in Babylonian theogonies. It seems that an ideological coup lies behind this innovation. In one Babylonian theogonic system, Anšar and Kišar—literally ‘whole heaven’ and ‘whole earth’—precede the senior Babylonian gods Enlil and Ninlil, separated from them by Enurulla and Ninurulla (‘lord’ and ‘lady’ of the ‘primeval city’). By this means the Assyrian Assur, who did not figure at all in the Babylonian pantheon, was made to appear at the head of it. This is explicitly stated in a learned Assyrian explanatory work: ‘It is said in the Enuma Eliš: when heaven and earth were not yet created, Assur (AN.ŠAR) came into being.”

There is also the paper by W.G. Lambert (1983) that is partially summarised above by Livingstone: ‘The God of Assur’ in IRAQ 45(1), it is available online.

[hukkana]

@ Salmu: Oh those rascally Assyrians

[us4-he2-gal2]

Yes, excellent answers here That's pretty much what I remember from discussions in class, what Salmu quoted.