NEBO or NABU ("the proclaimer"), the Accadian translation of various Sumerian ideograms for the god of wisdom and writing, the main seat of whose worship was at Borsippa—south-west of Babylon. It is due to the close association of Borsippa with Baby lon after the period when Babylon became the centre of the Baby lonian empire that the cult of Nebo retained a prominence only some degrees less than that of Marduk. The amicable relationship between the two was expressed by making Nebo the son of Mar duk. In this case the expression of the relationship in this form was intended to symbolize the superiority of Marduk, different, therefore, from the view involved in making Marduk the son of Ea (q.v.), which meant that the prerogatives of Ea were trans ferred to Marduk by the priests of Babylon.
Nebo was the "god of wisdom" to whom more particularly the introduction of writing was ascribed. He takes his place, there fore, by the side of Ea as a cultural deity. The wisdom associated with him had largely to do with the interpretation of the move ments in the heavens, and the priests of Nebo at an early age must have acquired widespread fame as astrologers. Assuming now, for which there is a reasonable amount of confirmatory evidence, that the priestly school of Nebo had acquired a commanding posi tion before Babylon rose to political importance we can under stand why the worshippers of Marduk persisted in paying homage to Nebo, and found a means of doing so without lowering the dignity and standing of their own god. If Assur-bani-pal, the king of Assyria (668-626 B.c.), in the subscripts to the copies of Baby lonian literary tablets invokes as he invariably does Nebo and his consort Tashmit as the gods of writing to whom all wisdom is traced, it is fair to assume that in so doing he was following ancient tradition and that the priests of Marduk likewise were dependent upon the school at Borsippa for their knowledge and wisdom.
The temple school at Borsippa continued to flourish until the end of the neo-Babylonian empire, and school texts of various contents, dated in the reigns of Artaxerxes, Cambyses and Darius, furnish the evidence that the school survived even the conquest of Babylonia by Cyrus. (538 B.c.). Originally this Sumerian deity
seems to have been connected with Dilmun and was often identi fied with the philosophic principle mummu; creative word, form. As such he is the son of the water God Enki (Ea), god of the first principle "water." As the god of writing, Nebo has charge of the tables of fate on which he inscribes the names of men and decides what their lot is to be. If in the systematized religious system, Marduk appears as the arbiter of human fates, the conclusion is warranted that Marduk is here imbued with the authority which originally was in the hands of his son. A reconciliation between the rival claims was effected by continuing Nebo in the role of scribe, but as writing at the dictation of the gods, thus recording what the divine assembly, gathered in the "chamber of fates" (known as ubshukinna) within the precincts of E-Saggila—Mar duk's temple at Babylon—under the presidency of Marduk, had decided.
Nebo also does homage to his father by paying him an annual visit during the New Year celebration, when the god was solemnly carried across to Babylon, and in return Marduk accompanied his son part way back to his shrine at Borsippa. Within E-Saggila, Nebo had a sanctuary known, as was his chief temple at Bor sippa, as E-Zida, "the legitimate (or 'firm') house." The kings, and more particularly those of the neo-Babylonian dynasty, devote themselves assiduously to the worship and embellishment of both E-Saggila and E-Zida. In their inscriptions Marduk and Nebo are invoked together and the names of the two temples con stantly placed side by side. The symbols of the two gods are similarly combined. On boundary stones and cylinders, when Marduk's symbol—the lance—is depicted, Nebo's symbol—the stylus—is generally found adjacent. In astronomy he was identi fied with the planet Mercury, and with the principal stay of Taurus, Aldebaran. In the official reports of astrologers and in official letters, Nebo is even mentioned before Marduk without fear of thereby offending the pride of the priests of Marduk.
His consort, known as Tashmit, plays no independent part, and is rarely invoked except in connection with Nebo.
See also BABYLON, BORSIPPA, BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN