NERGAL, an Assyrian deity, the god of war.  He was represented as a man having the legs of a cock, and holding a sword in his hand.  His titles were "The Great Hero," "King of Fight," "Master of Battles," "Champion of the Gods," and "God of the Chase." (An Archaic Dictionary, Cooper, 1876).

NERGAL.  Assyrian and Babylonian god mentioned prior to the days of Hammurabi.  He was the god of Cuthah, and his association with this city is referred to in the Old Testament (II Kings, xvii. 30).  Nergal was the god of war and pestilence, and of the former more particularly in its violent, destructive, aspect.  He was "king of the nether world."  Sometimes he is described as the "god of fire," a description which seems to connect him with the sun in its destructive, burning, character.  As ruler of the nether world, Nergal is chief of its monstrous, half-human demons.  In the Gilgamesh Epic (q.v.) it is he who opens the earth and brings up the spirit of Eabani.  With Nergal was identified another, originally distinct, god of plague and war Gir-ra.  The Gir-ra was at first read as Dibbarra (q.v.).  A legend has survived among the Amarna tablets which makes Nergal the hero of a battle rather similar to that between Marduk and Tiamat.  A goddess Allatu of the lower world enters into conflict with the gods on high.  Nergal is chosen to represent the gods.  He has fourteen companions of the nature of demons. He sends the plague-demon Namtar to announce his arrival to Allatu.  She is obliged to admit him.  He drags her from her throne with the idea of killing her, but when she bursts into tears and offers to become his wife and to place "the tablets of wisdom" in his hands, he spares her.  Nergal is sometimes associated with Ninib (q.v.) as a god of the chase.  His symbol was a lion.  Naturally he was identified with Mars. (An Encyclopedia of Religions, Canney, 1921)