character is poorly understood, even though he belonged to a "very high level in the pantheon." It is known that he was primarily viewed as a divine judge. His just character was regarded as proverbial, and kings such as Gudea of Lagash and Shulgi of Ur compared themselves to him in inscriptions to present themselves as equally just. An Old Babylonian adab song makes a similar comparison with Nergal in place of a king. He was also viewed as one of the Dumuzi-like mourned dying gods, as attested in Sumerian litanies and in a late ritual from Assur, according to which his death took place in the summer. The latter text states that his corpse was beaten and the blood reached the underworld. In one text, he and Dumuzi are outright equated with each other. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, a well attested attribute of Ištaran was his beautiful face. For example, a lament refers to him as "bright-eyed." He was also associated with snakes. It is possible that depictions of these animals on kudurru (boundary stones) represented him as a judge deity resolving conflicts over land. Frans Wiggermann additionally assumes that a god depicted with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake, known from cylinder seals from the Sargonic period, might be Ištaran. Other researchers propose that this figure is Nirah. Wiggermann argues this is implausible, as Nirah was a servant deity, while the snake god is depicted as an "independent lord." He also notes a similar figure, though seated on a serpent throne rather than directly partially serpentine himself, is also present on seals from Susa, and might represent Inshushinak. He argues that both of these gods, as well as other deities, such as Ninazu, Ningishzida, Tishpak and the so-called boat god belonged to a group he refers to as "transtigridian snake gods." He assumes all of them developed on the boundary between Sumero-Akkadian and Elamite culture. In the god list An = Anum all of them appear in sequence, following Ereshkigal, which according to Wiggermann indicates that they were regarded as underworld deities. Based on Ištaran's alternate name, Anu Rabû, it has also been proposed that he was associated with the sky. In a temple hymn, he is referred to as lugal dubur anna, "lord of the base of heaven." Associations with other deities Ištaran could be viewed as a son