The Mesopotamian deities reflect the entire natural world of Mesopotamia as well as the elements of Mesopotamian society and culture (Sallaberger 2003–2005: 296–299; Krebernik 2012: 46–48; Sallaberger 2020: 405–407). Their names alone, however, usually do not reveal their manifold powers and qualities. Specific linguistic determinations, the epithets, are needed in order to convey the full range of the deities’ manifestations and aspects.
Linguistically, epithets are adjectives and nouns used in appositions to a name (Gondos 1994; for relative clause see below). However, since a divine epithet can also replace the deity’s name, and since both may have the same structure (e.g., noun + adjective), the question arises of how to distinguish divine names from epithets. For instance, the divine name Ninmah (nin mah = “exalted lady”), was originally an epithet of the mother goddess used in the Old Sumerian city of Lagas (ca. 2500–2300), where her name was Ninhursaĝa (Selz 1995: 256). In order to distinguish epithets from names, the scribes’ classification principle is often, but not alway helpful. When the semantic classifier for divine names occurs before an expression, this can be understood as the name of a god. The problem here is that a deity can be referred to by different names in the same text. This is due to cases of syncretism or the differentiation of former epithets which become independent divine names. Examples are the interchangeable use of the names of the mother goddess Ninmah, Ninhursaĝa, Aruru or the names of the warrior god Ninurta, Ningirsu and Utaulu in the Old Babylonian period.
Formally, Sumerian epithets can be described according to different structures: adjective; noun; participle; noun(genitive); noun/participle + adjective; noun + noun(genitive); noun1 (+ noun2 (+...)) + participle and many, many more...
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