Ilaba
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| Ilaba | |
|---|---|
Tutelary god of the kings of the Akkadian Empire | |
| Major cult center | Akkad |
| Weapon | mace |
| Equivalents | |
| Ugaritic | Ilib (disputed)[1] |
Ilaba was a Mesopotamian god. He is best attested as the tutelary deity of the kings of the Akkadian Empire, and functioned both as their personal god and as the city god of Akkad. Textual sources indicate he was a warlike deity, frequently described as armed with a mace. Whether he was understood as a fully independent deity or as a deified ancestor, as well as his proposed connection to the similarly named Ugaritic ancestral deity Ilib, remain a matter of dispute among researchers. He is not mentioned in any sources predating the reign of Sargon of Akkad. After the end of the Akkadian Empire, he continued to be worshiped in various cities in Mesopotamia, for example Mari, and in the Old Babylonian period he became the tutelary deity of the rulers of the Kingdom of Ḫana. He also continued to appear in literary texts describing the feats of Akkadian rulers and in god lists.
Ilaba's name was written in cuneiform as 𒀭𒀀𒂷 Ìl-a-ba4,[2] DINGIR.A.MAL.[1] It is understood as a combination of the elements il, the generic word "god" or a distinct theonym, and aba, "father," attested in Semitic languages, and can be translated as "Il is the father" or "Il, the father."[3] In the past Assyriologists were uncertain how to read it, and possibilities such as dA.MAL or dA.BA4 were proposed.[2] Attempts were also made to identify the god meant as Zababa or Marduk.[4] The correct reading has been first established in 1969 by Åke W. Sjöberg and found acceptance in Assyriology in subsequent decades.[2]
Ilaba was the city god of Akkad.[5] It is assumed that he functioned as a war deity.[6][7] A mace is often mentioned in association with him.[8] An inscription of Sargon known from an Old Babylonian copy states that Ilaba's weapon let him triumph over fifty other rulers.[9] Another relays that Ilaba received his mace from the head of the pantheon, Enlil.[10] In texts from the reign of Naram-Sin, he often appears alongside another warlike deity, Annunitum, who is designated as the one "leading the troops of the city of Ilaba" in one case.[7] It has been argued that they were regarded as spouses, but this remains uncertain.[11]
Manfred Krebernik notes that while it remains a matter of debate in scholarship if Ilaba was an individual deity or simply a generic term for a family god or a deified ancestor, the fact that his character is described consistently in known sources, his association with a specific city, and his presence in god lists seem to support the former view.[12] Jack M. Sasson states that the view that he represented a deified ancestor, similar to deities such as Itūr-Mēr or Yakrub-El, is common in scholarship, though he considers it implausible himself.[13] A connection between Ilaba and Ugaritic divine ancestral figure Ilib has been proposed by Wilfred G. Lambert.[14] However, Dennis Pardee argues the character of Ilib cannot be considered identical with Ilaba's,[1] and rules out the possibility that the former was derived from the latter.[15] Krebernik notes that accepting that Ilib was derived from Ilaba would require assuming that the name of this god was translated after he was introduced into the Ugaritic pantheon.[16]