Enlil impregnated Ninlil by a canal in Nippur, and the gods banished him to the underworld. Ninlil followed, and along the way Enlil fathered three substitute deities — Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu — so that their firstborn Sin could ascend to heaven.
⚠ The Enlil and Ninlil text names Nergal among Enlil's underworld sons, while An = Anum lists him under Anu's lineage.
Nergal is counted among the sons of Anu in Babylonian god-lists, inheriting dominion over plague, war, and the scorching sun from the king of heaven.
⚠ An = Anum lists Nergal under Anu, while the Enlil and Ninlil composition names him as a son of Enlil and Ninlil conceived during their descent to the underworld.
Nergal descended to the underworld to face Ereshkigal's punishment for disrespecting her envoy Namtar. Rather than accept death, Ereshkigal offered herself as his wife, and they rule the land of no return together as king and queen.
Laṣ appears as Nergal's spouse in Old Babylonian god-lists, an earlier divine pairing that preceded the canonical tradition of Nergal's marriage to Ereshkigal.
Ishum, Nergal's loyal sukkal, marched beside his master through the devastation of Babylon, tempering the god's fury with reason until his calming words finally halted the rampage and restored peace.
The Sibitti, seven fearsome warrior gods, goaded Nergal into unleashing his destructive fury upon Babylon and marched at his side as the living weapons of his wrath.
In the Erra Epic, Nergal/Erra exploits Marduk's absence from Esagila to unleash destruction upon Babylon, devastating the city Marduk had ordered and protected.
Nergal stormed into Kur, the land of no return, overpowered Ereshkigal, and claimed co-sovereignty over the underworld through their marriage — ruling the dead alongside the queen who had reigned there alone.
The Anunnaki, the great gods of heaven and earth, assembled at Nippur to decree the fates of gods and mortals — their collective verdicts shaping the course of creation, sending floods to destroy mankind, and raising or casting down kings and deities alike.
Nergal and Resheph were equated in bilingual god-lists at Ugarit and Emar, where the Mesopotamian lord of plague and the Canaanite archer of pestilence were recognized as one and the same deity under different names.
Nergal, in his aspect as Erra, tricked Marduk into abandoning his throne in Babylon and then unleashed plague and slaughter upon the unprotected city, ravaging its people and desecrating its sanctuaries until his vizier Ishum finally persuaded him to relent.
In the myth of Nergal and Ereshkigal, Enki (Ea) advises Nergal and provides him with magical staffs and fourteen demon companions to protect him during his descent to the underworld.
When Ereshkigal sent her vizier Namtar to collect her share of a heavenly banquet, Nergal alone among the gods refused to rise in respect — an insult that forced him to descend to the underworld and face the queen's wrath.
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