Nabu- Mesopotamian GodDeity"Scribe of the Gods"

The Tablets of Destiny

When Marduk defeated Tiamat and seized the Tablets of Destiny from Kingu, he gained control of the cosmic decrees that governed gods and mortals. The Enuma Elish recounts how these tablets passed into Marduk's keeping. Nabu, his son, became their scribe. When the gods assembled to deliberate the fates, Nabu inscribed their decisions. Hymns celebrated this power: "Nabu, scribe of the universe, holder of the tablet of fates, who directs the writing on the heavenly tablets, whose stylus writes the destinies."

Prayers to Nabu asked him to "write long days" and "determine a good destiny" for the supplicant.

The Akitu Procession

Each spring at the Akitu festival, priests carried Nabu's statue from Borsippa to Babylon along the sacred processional way. Musicians and worshippers accompanied the procession. At Marduk's Esagila temple, Nabu took his place in the divine assembly where the fates for the coming year were determined. Marduk presided. Nabu inscribed. The Enuma Elish was recited in its entirety during the ceremonies. When the rites concluded, priests carried the statue back to Borsippa with the new year's decrees.

Ezida and Borsippa

Nabu's temple, the Ezida ("House of Truth"), stood at Borsippa, a city so close to Babylon it functioned almost as its twin. Nebuchadnezzar II, whose name honored Nabu (Nabu-kudurri-uṣur, "Nabu, protect my boundary stone"), rebuilt the Ezida as part of his building program. The associated ziggurat, E-ur-imin-an-ki ("House of the Seven Directions of Heaven and Earth"), rose in seven stages from the flat alluvial plain. Its ruins, the Birs Nimrud, still stand, their vitrified brickwork evidence of the heat that destroyed them.

Nabu's consort Tashmetu ("She Who Listens") shared the Ezida. A prayer to Tashmetu asks her to "whisper to Nabu" on the worshipper's behalf. Petitioners addressed the wife to reach the husband, and through the husband, his father Marduk.

The Scribal Schools

Mesopotamian scribal students began their years of training by learning to write Nabu's name. Professional scribes kept small shrines to him in their workshops. Dedicatory inscriptions on tablets honored him, and colophons at the end of literary texts included prayers for his blessing. From the first clumsy wedge-marks of a student to the final colophon of a master copyist, Nabu's name was there.

Ashurbanipal's Library

No Assyrian king honored Nabu more visibly than Ashurbanipal (r. 668–631 BCE). His inscriptions boast of his ability to read Sumerian and Akkadian and to interpret omens. At Nineveh, he gathered tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets from temples and scribal centers across Mesopotamia. The colophons of many tablets invoke Nabu's blessing, and Ashurbanipal described himself as the god's devoted servant.

Nabu's worship had spread into Assyria well before Ashurbanipal. Temples stood in Kalhu and Nineveh. At Kalhu, the Ezida of the North yielded cuneiform tablets and a statue of Nabu dedicated by the governor Bel-tarsi-ilumma.

A Name for Kings

By the Neo-Babylonian period, Nabu's name appeared in personal names at every level of society. Nebuchadnezzar and Nabopolassar (Nabu-apla-uṣur, "Nabu, protect the heir") both carried it. Such names appear in administrative records from the palace to the marketplace. Nabu's cult survived the fall of Babylon. Worship continued at Borsippa into the Seleucid era.