Editing Nergal (section)

===Astral role===
Nergal was associated with [[Mars]].{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|p=222}} Like him, this planet was linked with disease (especially [[kidney disease]]) in Mesopotamian beliefs.{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998|pp=222–223}} However, Mars was also associated with other deities: [[Ninazu]] (under the name "the [[Elam]] star"),{{sfn|Wiggermann|1998b|p=335}} [[Nintinugga]],{{sfn|Peterson|2009a|pp=235–238}} and especially [[Simut (god)|Simut]], in origin an Elamite god.{{sfn|Henkelman|2011|p=511}} The name of the last of these figures in Mesopotamian sources could outright refer to the planet (''<sup>mul</sup>Si-mu-ut'', "the star Simut").{{sfn|Henkelman|2011|p=512}}

A number of scholars in the early 20th century, for example [[Emil Kraeling]], assumed that Nergal was in part a solar deity, and as such was sometimes identified with [[Shamash]].{{sfn|Kraeling|1925|p=175}} Kraeling argued that Nergal was representative of a certain phase of the sun, specifically the sun of noontime and of the summer solstice that brings destruction, high summer being the dead season in the Mesopotamian annual cycle.{{sfn|Kraeling|1925|p=175}} This view is no longer present in modern scholarship. While some authors, for example Nikita Artemov, refer to Nergal as a deity of "quasi-solar" character,  primary sources show a connection between him and sunset rather than noon.{{sfn|Artemov|2012|pp=22–23}}  For instance, an Old Babylonian ''adab'' song contains a description of Nergal serving as a judge at sunset,{{sfn|Peterson|2015|p=48}} while another composition calls him the "king of sunset".{{sfn|Zólyomi|2010|p=419}} This association is also present in rituals meant to compel [[Ghosts in Mesopotamian religions|ghosts]] to return to the underworld through the gates to sunset.{{sfn|Woods|2009|pp=187–188}}