MESKIAGGASHER
![](640px-Cylinder_seal_king_Louvre_AO6620.jpg)
Cylinder
seal depicting the king-priest and his acolyte feeding the sacred
herd.
Uruk period, c. 3200 BC
Reign : Uruk period (legendary)
Preceded by : First dynasty of Kish
Succeeded by : Enmerkar
Issue : Enmerkar
Father : Utu
Regnal
titles of Meshkiangasher : Ruler of Sumer and King of Uruk
Meshkiangasher
was a mythological king only mentioned in the Sumerian King List
as the priest of the Eanna temple in Uruk, whose journey led him
to the enter the sea and ascend the mountains.
Mythology
:
The King list mentions Meshkiangasher as a descendant of the sun
god Utu, who became the high priest of Inanna in the Eanna temple
reigning for 324 years, and conceived his son and successor to the
throne Enmerkar. His epithet concludes with his descent to the sea
and ascent to the mountains, a journey which has been compared to
the trajectory of the sun, believed by the Sumerians that made the
exact travel and suitable for the "son of the sun-god".
Historical
king :
Unlike his successors, Meshkiangasher is not found in any poem or
hymn besides the King list. His reign has long been suspected to
be a fabrication during the Ur III period due to the Sumerian-Akkadian
hybrid structure of his name, the element MES, which occurs in historical
royal names of Ur, and the tradition about his disappearance. The
fabrication of king Meshkiangasher could be an arrangement to separate
the god Utu from being the biological father of Enmerkar, as mentioned
in Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta, and giving him a royal descendant
instead.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Meshkiangasher