Utu / Shamash

Mesopotamian tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains: sun, justice
Symbols and attributes: Sun disk, saw
Parents (per the sources used): Nanna / Sin

A chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.

Key myth

Each day Utu crosses the sky, and sees all. He helps Gilgamesh in battle with Humbaba. In the Code of Hammurabi, Shamash is the god depicted giving the king the law.

Primary sources

Epic of Gilgamesh
Code of Hammurabi, stele relief

All sources for the Mesopotamian pantheon

Lineage in the sources used: Nanna / Sin, Enlil, An / Anu, Ninlil.

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Utu / Shamash: the sun and light, wisdom, writing and divination. This is overlap in one area only.

Norse