Ilabrat

Multiple etymologies have been proposed for Ilabrat's name, including good of (the land/city) Iabrat" (suggested by Ignace Gelb) and "tutelary god of the simple people"(suggested by Thorkild Jacobsen), but none are universally accepted, and it is not certain that it came from a Semitic language as presumed in these two cases.[1] Some late lexical lists connect the element -labr with the Sumerian word labar, "servant",[2] treated as a synonym of sukkal in this context, which lead Frans Wiggermann to propose that Ilabrat's name was Sumerian in origin,[3] and that the hypothetical older form of the name might have been Nin-labrat.[4] In most cases due to Akkadian grammar it is possible to determine with certainty that Ilabrat was considered a male deity, but as argued by Grégoire Nicolet, the occasional alteration between the base form of the name and the variant Ialbra can be compared to the cases of Kubabat/Kubaba and Ḫebat/Ḫeba where the optional t was a feminine suffix, which according to him would indicate that this deity was perceived as female at least in the northwest of Mesopotamia in the Old Babylonian period.[5]

Ilabrat was sometimes regarded as the sukkal (divine attendant and messenger) of Anu.[11] In the myth of Adapa, he acts as the source of information about events taking place on earth for his master.[11] Similar to Ninshubur, he could also function as the sukkal of the divine assembly.[12] However, there is no indication that Ilabrat was regarded as the sukkal of any other deity in Old Assyrian documents, where he appears to function independently.[13]

In the role of a family god, Ilabrat could be asked to act as a divine arbiter in personal conflicts[14] or as a witness,[15] in at least one case alongside ghosts of ancestors.[16]

The constellation Orion, known in ancient Mesopotamia as Sipazianna,[17] "the true shepherd of heaven",[18] was regarded as the astral symbol of Ilabrat, as well as Ninshubur and Papsukkal.[17]

A bird possibly named after Ilabrat, illabara^mušen, which according to Mesopotamian texts lived in mountainous environments, was associated with Nergal.[1]

There is evidence both from Babylonia[19] and Assyria for the worship of Ilabrat as a family god in the private sphere.[20] For instance, a certain Ibbi-Ilabrat from Malgium called himself "servant of Ilabrat and Ušmu",[21] while on one Old Babylonian letter, Ilabrat is implored for help alongside Ninsianna.[19] Many attestations are also known from Old Assyrian sources.[22] A document from Kanesh, an Old Assyrian trading colony in Anatolia, mentions that a golden sun disc was supposed to be manufactured in this city and delivered to Assur as a votive offering for Ilabrat.[23]

Due to the possibility that Ninshubur's name was used as a logogram to represent Ilabrat's, in some cases it can be difficult to tell which of these two deities was meant, and as a result it is uncertain in which cities where a deity referred to as Ninshubur was worshiped in the Old Babylonian period were cult centers of Ilabrat.[17] Such locations include Larsa, Malgium, Mari, Nerebtum and, in later periods, Kish and Babylon as well.[17] Additionally a town named after Ilabrat existed in the proximity of Nuzi.[1]

There is some evidence that, even though Papsukkal became the dominant messenger deity in the first millennium BCE, Ilabrat was still worshiped in Assur, and in either Babylon or Borsippa.[1]

Multiple theophoric names invoking Ilabrat are known, for example Ibbi-Ilabrat,[20] Ilabrat-bani,[14] Ilabrat-dunni, Šu-Ilabrat and Šat-Ilabra (the spelling without a t is known from Mari).[13] In Sippar Ilabrat is well attested in personal names, but apparently had no formal cult in that city.[24]

Ilabrat appears as a servant of Anu in the myth of Adapa, where he explains to his master that the eponymous protagonist is a mortal man responsible for breaking a wing of the personified South Wind, who was unable to blow for seven days as a result.[28]