ort of the tale, for our
purposes its significance consists in the view unfolded of Shamash as
the one who wreaks vengeance on the evil-doer. Shamash appears in the
episode in the role of the just judge that characterizes him in the
hymns and incantations. Etana's reliance upon the eagle leads to
disgrace and defeat. In a representation of the hero's flight on a seal
cylinder,[1041] the disapproval of the act is indicated by the addition
of two dogs in a crouching position, their gaze directed towards the
bird. The dogs are a symbol of the solar-god Marduk.[1042]

The Legend of Dibbarra.

Of more direct religious import is a story recounted in a series
comprising five tablets of the deeds of the war and plague-god whose
name is provisionally read Dibbarra.[1043] He is a solar deity
identified in the theological system of the Babylonians with Nergal, but
originally distinct and in all probability one of the numerous local
solar deities of Babylonia like Nin-girsu and Nin-gishzida, Ishum and
others, whose roles are absorbed by one or the other of the four great
solar deities,--Shamash, Marduk, Ninib, and Nergal. Nergal representing
the sun of midday and of the summer solstice, which brings in its wake
destruction of various kinds, it was appropriate that a god who came to
be specifically viewed as the god who causes disease should be regarded
as an aspect of the terrible Nergal. In the legend that we are about to
consider, Dibbarra appears as the god of war. He is designated as the
'warrior.' The name of the god is written ideographically with a sign
that has the meaning of 'servant' and 'man.' To this sign the phonetic
complement _ra_ is added. In view of a passage in a lexicographical
tablet, according to which the name of the god is designated as the
equivalent of the god Gir-ra, Jensen concluded that the name was to be
read Gira, and Delitzsch[1044] is inclined to follow him. A difficulty,
however, arises through the circumstance that the element _Gir_ in the
name Gir-ra is itself an ideograph. In any case, the designation of the
god as a 'servant' shows that he is described here by an epithet,[1045]
and not by his real name, which is to be sought rather in the sense of
'strong,' that is one of the meanings of the ideograph _gir_. The
epithet 'servant' belongs to the period when the god took his place in
the theological system as one of the attendants of the great Nergal,
just as the plague-god is himself accompani