Gibil

Gibil (), also known under the Akkadian name Girra, was a Mesopotamian god associated with fire, both in its positive and negative aspects. He also played a role in ritual purification. Textual sources indicate his symbol was a torch, though no representations of him have been identified in Mesopotamian art. Multiple genealogies could be assigned to him. The god list An = Anum indicates his spouse was Ninirigal. He was also frequently associated with deities such as Shamash, Nuska and Kusu. He is first attested in Early Dynastic texts from Shuruppak, such as offering lists. He was also a member of the pantheon of Eridu. In the Kassite period he was worshiped in Nippur. Later attestations are available from Assyria and from Uruk. He also appears in a number of literary texts.

==Names== Gibil (dgibil6) is considered the conventional reading of a theonym written in cuneiform as dNE.GI (variant: dGI.NE), though Jeremiah Peterson notes that it has yet to be fully verified by primary sources. Ryan D. Winters also stresses lack of direct evidence for the reading Gibil, despite its conventional status in Assyriological literature. and Jan Lisman similarly conclude that despite being commonly used in scholarship, the reading Gibil, in contrast with Girra, is not securely supported by primary sources. Peterson suggests that it is not impossible that dNE.GI was instead read as dgiraxgi, which would presumably reflect derivation from the Akkadian word girru, "fire". The Akkadian form Girra was derived directly from the term girru. These terms are ultimately derived from the root *ḥrr, "to burn" or "to scorch", similarly as another theonym, Erra. Jeremy Black and Anthony Green treat names Gibil and Girra as referring to the same deity. Johanna Tudeau argues that they were initially separate, but came to be fully merged with each other either in the Old Babylonian period or shortly after it, with later sources such as Assyrian copies of the Weidner god list indicating they were used interchangeably to refer to one figure. describes Gibil and Girra as already analogous to each other in the context of the text corpus from Lagash from the Early Dynastic period. Instances of dGIBIL6 being used as a logogram meant to be read as Girra are known from astronomical texts. A further attested writing of the theonym Gibil is dGIŠ.BAR. Selz argues that originally it referred to a distinct god, Gišbar or Gišbarra, attested in theophoric names such as Ur-Gišbar-izipae from the Ur III period and later conflated with Gibil.