Erra (god)

Erra amulet
Erra amulet
	Amulet to ward off plague inscribed with a quotation from the Akkadian Erra Epic.
Material	Stone, copper
Size	L:1.81 in (4.6 cm); W:1.25 in (3.2 cm)
Created	800–612 BCE
Period/culture	Neo-Assyrian
Place	Ashur
Present location	Room 55, British Museum, London
Identification	118998

Erra (sometimes called Irra) is an Akkadian plague god known from an 'epos'^[1] of the eighth century BCE. Erra is the god of mayhem and pestilence who is responsible for periods of political confusion. He was assimilated to Nergal at some point.^[2]

^ Peter Machinist and Jack M. Sasson, "Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra" Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.1 (January 1983, pp. 221-226) p. 221, prefer to withhold the expectations raised by "'myth', or worse, 'epic'" and simply call it "poem".
^ Nergal and Ereshkigal: Re-enchanting the Mesopotamian Underworld, 2000, Gateways to Babylon

[1] Peter Machinist and Jack M. Sasson, "Rest and Violence in the Poem of Erra" Journal of the American Oriental Society 103.1 (January 1983, pp. 221-226) p. 221, prefer to withhold the expectations raised by "'myth', or worse, 'epic'" and simply call it "poem".

[2] Nergal and Ereshkigal: Re-enchanting the Mesopotamian Underworld, 2000, Gateways to Babylon

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