Shamash

A saw marks Shamash as the god who cuts decisions. The Sumerians called him Utu, a name meaning ‘light’ or ‘day’. In Akkadian, he was Shamash, the sun god. He was the kindly and just judge to whom mortals appealed against injustice. He was also a law-giver, an all-seeing god, and, in Semitic tradition, a victorious warrior and god of wisdom. This tradition names him as the son of Sin and as Ishtar’s husband and brother. It also calls him greater than his father.

Shamash belongs to the myths of other gods and heroes rather than having a story centred on himself. In the tales of Gilgamesh, Utu protects the king. He sends seven local warriors to guide Gilgamesh towards the cedar mountains. Each day, he travels through a tunnel from west to east, passing through the underworld. He brings light to the dead and presides over legal cases there. During this journey, he brings the dead into the underworld and takes spirits back to the world. In Sumerian tradition, he also has some fertility attributes.