Professional Documents
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Gods, Demons and Symbols
Gods, Demons and Symbols
Anthony Green
Dr Green has formerly held the positions of Fellow of the
British School of Archaeology in Iraq, J. Paul Getty
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the History of Art at the
University of Pennsylvania, G.A. Wainwright Research
Fellow in Near Eastern Archaeology at Oxford University,
and Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Free
University of Berlin. He is currently Shinji Shumeikai
Senior Academic Research Fellow in Near Eastern Art and
Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin. He has
conducted extensive archaeological fieldwork in Syria and
Iraq and writes on andent Mesopotamian art and
archaeology.
Tessa Rickards
Tessa Rickards is a freelance archaeological illustrator
specialising in ancient Mesopotamia. She has worked as an illus
trator on numerous international excavations in the Middle
East. She is an ALA graduate of the Institute of Archaeology,
University College London
5
Authors' note
6
Introduction
Ancient Mesopotamia was the home of some of the world’s earliest cities, and
the place where writing was invented. For these two major developments
alone - urban society and literate society - it might justly be tided die ‘cradle
of civilisation’, but in its literature, its religious philosophies and no less in
its artit can also be placed firmly as the direct ancestor of the Western world.
Our knowledge of the civilisation of ancient Mesopotamia is constandy
expanding. A hundred and fifty years after the first modern excavations,
archaeological work in the Near East continues unabated and new dis
coveries are constantly being made which add to, reshape and refine our
assessments of some of the most staggering human achievements of anti
quity. At the sites of ancient settlements and in the museums of Iraq and of
other countries one can contemplate and wonder at the monuments, arts,
handicrafts and utensils of daily life of the Mesopotamians. Thanks to the
Mesopotamians’ own greatest invention - writing - and modern decipher -
1 Worshippers stare
wide-eyed at the heavens.
I .imestone statues found with
numerous others buried in a
shrine of an Early Dynastic
temple at Esnunna (tnedern
Tell Asmar). The eyeballs are
of inlaid shell. Ht. of each
statue 0.34 m.
7
Introduction
meat of the languages in which they expressed themselves, we can read their
literature, reconstruct their history and learn something of their thoughts.
This is not to say that vast amounts of research do not still remain to be
done. If some areas of history can be reconstructed down to the smallest
detail, there are periods where enormous gaps in our knowledge remain. If
numerous copies survive of one poem, there are many others of which only
fragments have been recovered. If we can trace the use and meaning of some
religious motifs throughout thousands of years, there remain some whose
significance still eludes us completely. There is a constant need for skilled
archaeologists and scholarly researchers to sift through the great wealth of
evidence coming to light. But for the general reader, several reliable
accounts of Mesopotamian civilisation, together with the story of how it has
been revealed to us, are now available (see pages 191-2). There are lavishly
illustrated books showing the full range of ancient art, from temple architec
ture and palace reliefs to cylinder seals and filigree jewellery'. And gradually,
accurate and readable modern translations of the extensive Sumerian and
Babylonian literatures arc appearing, together with explanatory studies.
This hook does not attempt to emulate the breadth or detail of such works,
but rather to serve as an introductory guidebook for those who are tempted to
read for the first time about ancient Mesopotamia, and especially to those
8
Introduction
9
4 Sites of ancient Mesopotamia mentioned in the text.
Introduction
affluents and is more prone to flood than the Euphrates, which follows a more
circuitous course until it joins the Tigris in the very south of Iraq and they
flow together as the Shatt al-'Arab down to the Gulf (of which the shoreline
may have been slightly further north in ancient times). More generally, the
term Mesopotamia is used to cover the whole extent of the civilisation associ
ated with this region, so that the term effectively includes an area extending
outside the borders of modern Iraq into Syria, and parts of Turkey and Iran.
At its greatest extent, the influence of Mesopotamian civilisation could be felt
as far away as modem Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and the Gulf States, Turkey, Cyprus and Greece; there were also commer
cial connections with the Indus Valley (Pakistan). Mesopotamia proper can
be divided into two regions, corresponding to two once-great empires and,
later, to two provinces of the Persian Empire. The northern area is Assyria,
named after its original capital city Assur; the southern is Babylonia, named
after its principal city Babylon: the boundary between the two lay a little north
of modern Baghdad. Earlier Babylonia was made up of two regions: a
southern area called by modern archaeologists Sumer (anciently Sumerum)
and a northern half called .Akkad, and it is from these two areas that the
principal ancient languages ofMesopotamia take their names: Sumerian, an
agglutinative, ergative language of which no related language is preserved,
and Akkadian, a member of the Semitic family of languages (including also
Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Phoenician and Ugaritic).
The people who invented writing in Sumer in roughly 3400 BC almost
certainly spoke Sumerian. They had no traditions of having come to that
region from elsewhere and, although the archaeological evidence is not
absolutely conclusive, there seems no reason necessarily to assume that they
were not the descendants of the earlier, prehistoric peoples of Sumer.
Although in time Sumerian spread, as a written language, as far as western
Syria, and was widely used as a cultural language throughout Mesopotamian
history, its homeland was Sumer, where it was probably spoken as a vernacu
lar until about 2000 BC. None of the other languages related to Sumerian was
ever written down and so they remain unknown to us.
The Sumerians, then, were the originators of the early high civilisation of
southern Mesopotamia from shortly before 3000 BC. As their language died
out as an everyday idiom, they were probably absorbed into the other peoples
of the region, who spoke languages of the Semitic family. Scribes with
Semitic names are attested in northern Babylonia almost as early as the
earliest writing we can read, and they probably spoke Old Akkadian, the
earliest recorded form of a Semitic language. Akkadian is used as a general
term for this language, of which the later forms Assyrian and Babylonian are
also dialects. Other early Semitic languages are Amorite, which we know
only irom personal names (the Amorites were apparently a largely nomadic
11
Introduction
5 Assyrian scribes
recording the events of
the king’s campaign.
One writes with a stylus
in cuneiform .'Akkadian
on a clay tablet, the
other writes in alpha
betic Aramaic, or
perhaps makes sketches,
on parchment From a
monumental mural
painting in the main
reception room of the
palace at the provincial
capital of Kar-Suimanu-
asarid (Til Barsip) on
the Middle Euphrates,
reign of King Tiglath-
pileser in (744-727 bc)
or slightly later.
12
Introduction
other groups behind them. Such a people were the Gutians, whose entry on
the Mesopotamian scene coincided with, if it was not actually responsible
for, the decline and fall of the Akkadian kingdom. According to some
sources, a series of Gutian leaders ruled southern Mesopotamia until a
Sumerian dynasty was eventually able to reassert itself.
A similar story can be told about the Kassites, a people who are first
mentioned in Syria in the eighteenth century EC but who moved gradually
down into Babylonia and eventually controlled it. A dynasty of Kassite kings
ruled Babylonia for half a millennium thereafter. We know very little about
the origins of the Kassites, and only a few words of their unclassifiable
language and the names of some of their gods: despite their position of
political control, they appear to have contributed relatively little to the culture
of the lands they ruled.
It was inevitable that the stable, urban cultures of Babylonia and Assyria
should be infiltrated by nomadic elements who took advantage of the oppor
tunity to gain material benefit, whether peacefully or by raiding. 1'here is
good evidence that both tire earliest Assyrians (with their ‘kings who lived in
tents’) and the earliest Babylonians were of Amorite origin. During the
second millennium a further wave of Semitic nomads entered history, first as
troublesome raiders, then as mercenaries and gradually as settled elements
in the population. These were rhe Aramaeans, who may have developed
originally out of one particular Amorite tribal clan. By soon after 1000 BC it is
likely that their language, Aramaic, was widely used as an everyday vernacu
lar in both Assyria and Babylonia as well as over most of Syria and Palestine
(where Hebrew also was still spoken). The Neo-Babylonian Empire founded
in 626 EC may also have had its origins in an Aramaic-speaking tribal con
federation, the Chaldaeans. In this way, there was throughout Mesopotamian
history a constant interference with the settled, traditional civilisation of the
great ancient cities by a variety of groups moving into the area from the
mountain fastnesses to the east or the rolling plains to the north-west. These
new ethnic and cultural infusions were an important factor in reviving and
preserving the long-lived culture which they found in the river valleys.
A great power to the north-west of Mesopotamia was the kingdom of the
Hittites, with its capital at Hattusas in central Turkey. This people, who
spoke the earliest recorded Indo-European language, had become very
powerful at a time when Babylonia was weak, and a Hittite king was able to
attack Babylon itself during the seventeenth century BC, although their king
dom never made any serious headway with expansion into the Mesopotamian
area, and after 1200 EC was no longer a force to be reckoned with. Similarly
the kings of Elam, located in south-west Iran to the east of Babylonia, were
able at various times to make forays deep into Babylonian territory, on one
occasion carrying away the cult statue of the Babylonian national god.
T3
Introduction
Marduk. For short periods the Elamites (who spoke a language unrelated to
any other surviving language) were able to control parts of Babylonia, even to
rule it, and some cultural transfer seems to have taken place, certain aspects
of Babylonian magic and religion seem to derive from Elam.
6 The god Ninurta or Adad pursuing a leonine bird-monster, perhaps the Anzu or
Asakku. From a cylinder seal of the Neo-Assyrian Period. See ill. 117.
■4
Introduction
the Greek tragedians, and the same cautions apply. There is no homogen
eous system and it makes no sense to talk of the ‘character of Mesopotamian
myth’, except in the most general terms. The very distinction between myth,
legend and history is of course a largely modem one.
A particular problem which must also be mentioned is the evident disparity
between those literary versions of the myths which happen to survive and the
graphic versions of mythical themes used in various heraldic and iconic ways
in Mesopotamian fine art. This has been a source of great difficulty in the
interpretation ofancient works of art. It serves to emphasise the extraordinary
richness of the Mesopotamian heritage, since it seems to imply that many
mythical themes used in art refer to narratives of which no written version
has yet been recovered.
Most of the Akkadian works incorporating myths and legends which have
been studied and edited so far are now available in English translations, but
numbers of Sumerian compositions arc available only in foreign language
editions or in doctoral dissertations (which may not be readily available), or
have not yet been published. Apart from these, there are many that have not
yet even been read or studied in modem times.
Interest in the Bible has been an important stimulus to modern research in
and about the ancient Near East in general. The very' diverse collection of
prose and poetry, written down over a considerable period of time in Hebrew,
Aramaic and Greek, which makes up the Bible, is the product of a world both
alien to that of Mesopotamia and in which nonetheless many echoes of
Mesopotamian society, beliefs and history are to be found. This raises the
complex question of the existence of various oral traditions throughout the
whole Near East, influencing each other. The Mesopotamian evidence hap
pens to be attested in writing at much earlier dates, but this need not lead to
the conclusion that it was therefore the origin of all similar themes occurring
later on.
i5
Introduction
Marduk
7 Symbols carved on a r.isth-century bc Babylonian tohwmz-stone, inscribed with the
names of the deities represented Found at Susa, in south-western Iran, where it had
been taken in antiquity as a prize of war.
r6
Introduction
11 (aboce) Neo-Assyrian
plaque-figurines of the so-called
griffin-cemon, representing the Seven
Sages (apkallii) in the guise of birds.
Sun-dried clay. Three from a group
of seven figurines found together in a
brick box buried in the foundations of
royal palace of King Adad-nirari in
(reigned 810-783 bc) at Kalhu
(modern Nimrud). Hts. all laomm.
12 Neo-Assyrian figurines of
the so-called fish-garbed figures,
representing the Seven Sages
(apkallu) in die guise of fish.
Sun-dried clay, (left) One of a group
of seven figurines found together in a
brick box buried in the foundations of
die house of a priestly family at Assur,
probably daring to the reign of King
Sargon II (721-705 bc). (right) One
of a group of six (probably originally
seven) figurines found togedier at
Nineveh and possibly belonging to
the reign of King Sennacherib
(704-681 bc). Hts. 145,127mm.
18
Introduction
of the kudurru-stones refers in clear terms to some of the symbols of the gods
(though not the ones carved upon it):
... the seat and horned crown of Anu, king of heaven; the walking bird of Enlil, lord
of the lands; the ram’s head and goat-fish, the sanctuary of great Ea; ... the sickle,
water-trough (and) wide boat of Sin; the radiant disc of the great judge Samas; the
star-symbol ofEtar, the mistress of the lands; the fierce young bull of Adad, son of
Anu ...
and so on. On the other hand, written descriptions of works of art and
descriptions of supernatural beings in works of literature may be too excep
tional or too literary or imprecise to correlate with examples of art.
Glyptic art (for the ancient Near East the term refers to the craft of cutting
small seals) provides the most spectacular detail of the religious art of any
period, including the association of figures and motifs. On the seals were cut,
in miniature and in reverse (for sealing), friezes which involve gods, wor
shippers, symbols and oilier motifs, often arranged heraldically or in a form
which gives the appearance of a myihological scene. The seals are often
inscribed with writing (usually also in reverse) which may give the names of
particular deities (as part of a person’s name, as the name of the seal owner’s
personal god or within a prayer of incantation). Occasionally it is clear that
the deities so named correspond to those depicted. More usually, however, it
is not so. Some scholars have argued that while on an individual seal the
deity shown may not be the one mentioned, nevertheless in any given period
there will be a rough correlation on seals in general between die deities most
often depicted and those whose names are most frequently given. However,
13 Design of an Old Babylonian cylinder seal from Larsa. depicting the underworld
god Nergal, holding his distinctive scimitar and the double lion-headed standard The
inscription is a dedication to Nergal by AbisarC, perhaps the king of Larsa of that name.
r9
Introduction
14 Examples of.Mesopotamian glyptic art. (above) grey haematite cylinder seal (Ht.2imm) of the Old
Babylonian Period from Nerebtum (modern Ishchalii, with modern rolling; (middle) clay tablet of the
Old Babylonian Period from Sippar, with impressions from rhe rollings of a cylinder seal (of Ht.
(,24mm); (below) blue chalcedony conical stamp seal (Ht.eimm) of Neo Babylonian date, with modern
impressions (place of discovery unknown).
20
Introduction
Periods
The table on page 22 is intended to give some idea of the chronology of the
various political developments and ethnic movements. Writing was invented
towards the end of the Late Uruk Period, named after the important city of
Uruk in southern Sumer where so much of the monumental architecture of
that epoch was excavated. (Uruk is actually the later Akkadian name for
Sumerian Unug.) The subsequent series of independent and sometimes
warring city-states of Sumer is grouped together as the Early Dynastic
Period. This is the period of the earliest literary and religious texts that can
effectively be read (for instance the great lists of the names of more than 500
gods and goddesses from the Sumerian town of Suruppag), so that when the
name or cult of a deity is traced back to the Early Dynastic Period, that means
in practice to the beginning of written history. Exact dates for these early
periods are difficult to calculate, but the Early Dynastic Period (which is
sometimes divided into sub-periods for archaeological purposes) is regarded
as ending in about 2390 BC, when die first great kingdoms began. Four south
Mesopotamian kingdoms follow each other in succession, but the first of
these is of special note since, apart from the quite remarkable extent of its
rulers’ conquests, it was centred on a city of northern Babylonia v.'here a
21
15 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
Date Southern Mesopotamia Northern Mesopotamia World events
22
Introduction
16 A mural painting from an outer wall of die throne room of the royal palace of King
Zimn-Lim at Mari, beginning of the second millennium bc. The king is received by the
goddess Istar, while protective deities, animals and hybrids surround the scene.
Semitic language was spoken. The city of Agade, which has still not been
located, gave its name to the region of which it was capita) (Akkad), to its
language and to its kingdom. The period is sometimes known also as the
Sargonic period, after Sargon (a Biblical form of the name of the founder of
the kingdom, Sarrum-kln). It was the collapse of this kingdom that the
Gutians took advantage of, and a Gutian period of uncertain length marks
their control of at least parts of Sumer and Akkad at this date (although the
Sumerian city-state of Lagas seems to have remained independent). The
great Sumerian kingdoms of the 1'hird Dynasty' of Ur (a city' in southern
Sumer) and then of [sin and Larsa (partially contemporary with each other)
mark the apogee of Sumerian culture, even if the star of a fifth kingdom, that
centred on a still insignificant city of Akkad called Babylon, was rising. The
kings of this Old Babylonian Period (or First Dynasty of Babylon), in
cluding Hammurabi (reigned 1848-1806 BC according to the now preferred
chronology), sometimes made their official pronouncements bilingually in
Akkadian and Sumerian, but as a living language and culture Sumerian was
23
Introduction
24
17 At one time the Sumerians believed that, for the highly
privileged, the dismal conditions of life after death could be
alleviated by music. A dancing bear, accompanied by animal
musicians, is shown in a detail from the sound-box of a
bison-headed lyre buried in a tomb ofthe ‘Royal Cemetery’ at
Ur. Early Dynastic Period.
25
abzu (apsu) Enki was thought to have occupied the abzu
Although it can sometimes rain very hard in since before the creation of mankind. Accord
southern Mesopotamia, it was anciently ing to the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Apsu
believed that springs, wells, streams, rivers and was the name of a primal creature, the lover of
lakes drew their water from and were replen Tiamat, and when Ea killed Apsu, he set tip his
ished from a freshwater ocean which lay be home on the dead creature’s body, whose name
neath the earth in the abzu (apsu) orengur. (The was henceforth transferred to Ea’s residence.
salt sea, on the other hand, surrounded the Marduk, as Ea’s son, was called ‘firstborn son
earth.) The abzu was the particular realm and of the apsu'. Enki’s temple at Eridu was known
19 home of the wise god Enki (Ea), his wife as E-abzu, ‘Abzu temple’.
Daingalnuna (Dam kina) and his mother The underworld was located even further
Nammu, and was also inhabited by a number down, beneath the abzu. Since in some tra
of creatures subordinate to him (see Enki’s ditions it was necessary to cross a river (the
creatures). Hubur) to reach the underworld, the river may
sometimes have been identified with the abzu
(see river of the underworld).
The term abzu/apsu was also used to des- 114
ignate a tank for holy water in a temple
courtyard.
Adapa
According to Babylonian legend, Adapa was
the ancient ‘wise man’ or ‘sage’ (apkallu) of
lb An apsu tank from the extension built for the Eridu, the reputed earliest city of Sumer (see
Assyrian king Sennacherib (reigned 704—681
Seven Sages). His wisdom and position had
nc) to the temple of the god Assur in die city of
ASSur. Now in tire Vorderasiatisches Museum, been granted him by' the god Ea (Enki). Having
Berlin. Ht.i.i8m. 3.12m square. ‘broken the wings’ of the south wind, Adapa
was summoned for punishment by the supreme
god Anu (An). Ea had told Adapa that he
would be offered the bread and water of death.
Meanwhile, though, the two gatekeepers of
heaven, Dumuzi and Giszida (Ningiszida),
had interceded with Anu on Adapa’s behalf,
causing a change of heart. Anu instead offered
the sage the bread and water of eternal life.
Adapa refused, thus losing the chance of im
mortality. The story is often regarded as an
explanatory mylh of the mortality of man.
See food and drink of the gods.
afterlife
The ancient Mesopotamians appear generally
to have believed that after death most human
19 The god Ea in the watery apsu receives beings survived in the form of a spirit or ghost
another god, probably Samas. From a cylinder which lived in die underworld (see also
seal of the Akkadian Period found at Ur. gidim). One of the duties of the living was to
27
akitu ceremony
make funerary offerings (of food, drink and The notion of an underworld peopled by
oil) to their deceased relatives. A special case is terrifying demonic beings, which fore
provided by extensive records from Girsu from shadowed the medieval image of Hell , seems to
tire Early Dynastic Period of offerings made have been a theological invention of the first
before the prayer statues ofdeceased rulers and millennium BC. The dead Enkidu encounters
members of the ruling family: these statues such demons in the Epic of Giigames. The
were, it is assumed, originally dedicated by the clearest literary account of such an under
living to stand in temples and pray constantly world, however, is a text recounting the hellish
for them before the gods. After the death of vision of an Assyrian prince (thought by some
their donors the statues could not be moved to be the seventh-century bc crown prince,
and so came to be the recipients of offerings. later king, Assurbanipal) (see demons and
However, this does not imply ancestor worship. monsters).
If the living neglected to make kispii (funerary See Dagan, galla,
offerings), the spirit might wander abroad and
return to haunt the upper world. akitu ceremony: see New Year ceremonies.
The conditions of ‘life’ in the underworld
were thought, with few exceptions, to be dismal ulad, aladlammu: see bulls and lions with
in the extreme. The Sumerian dead fed on dust human head; lama.
and scraps and lived in darkness. This is amply
documented in the Sumerian poem ‘Giigames, alcohol
Enkidu and the Nether World’ (closely paral Alcoholic beverages probably resulted from an
leled by part of the twelfth tablet of the Stan accidental discovery during the early hunter
dard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gii gatherer stage of human prehistory. Textually
games), where Giigames asks the ghost (gidini) attested for Mesopotamia at a later date are
of Enkidu about the underworld. Only still beer and wine, probably including date wine.
born children and those who died ‘before their Thebanquets depicted especially on Sumerian
time’ are envisaged, doubtless as a consolation seals and sealings doubtless involved the con
to parents, as playing at a ‘gold and silver table’ sumption of intoxicating liquors. Medical texts
and feasting. Otherwise, those with most living frequently prescribe the use of beer and wine
children are best off, as having the best chance in rhe making of potions.
of receiving funerary offerings. The nature of That commercialised social drinking, not
these grave goods, as recovered from excava for religious or medicinal purposes, was
tions, suggests that the dead could perform at common by at least the early second millen
least some of the activities of this life in the nium Be is attested by the laws of Hammurabi 3
hereafter. Those who died and did not receive of Babylon regulating public houses.
proper burial were in a sorry state; worst of all No less than man, the gods were susceptible
was the man who died in a fire, who did not to drink (see food and drink of the gods;
even have a body to be buried. :His spirit is not lion; Ninmah; Utu). In the Epic of Giigames,
in the underworld. His smoke went up to the rhe hero Giigames, in search of immortality,
sky.’ Another Sumerian poem, ‘The Death of meets tire barmaid-goddess Siduri. She
Giigames’, suggests that it was expected, after encourages him to abandon his quest and to
death, that the deceased would present gifts to enjoy the gifts of life, presumably including
the denizens of the underworld. There is the pleasures of alcohol.
reference in a poem of the Third Dynasty of See frog; libation.
Ur, moreover, to different treatments being
accorded to individuals in the afterlife, de alim (Jmsarikku)-. see bison; bull-man.
pendent upon their condition of burial (see
death and funerary practices). Allatu: see Ereskigal.
2b
Ama-usumgal-ana
29
amulets
30
amulets
22 King Assurbanipal of
Assyria (reigned
668-0627BC) personally
dispatches a lion. Detail of
a carved stone monumental
wall relief from the king’s
royal palace at Nineveh.
32
animal skins
33
anointing
Tiglath-pileser III (reigned 744-527 BC) may (An) and earth (Ki). According to the Baby
possibly be dressed in imitation of the god La- lonian Epic of Creation they were the second
tarak, but it does not appear very likely, given pair (after Lahmu and Lahamu) of offspring
his appearance and context (in a line of human of Apsu (abzu) and Tiamat. (An alternative
figures, perhaps priests) dial this could be the interpretation of die passage makes them the
god himself. A pair of such figures, apparently children of Lahmu and Lahamu.) Ansar and
dresscd-up men, is earlier to be seen on a Kisar in turn bore Anu (An), the supreme god
24 relief of King Assurnasirpal II (reigned 883— of heaven.
849 BC). Similarly, while figures of the fish- See Assur.
65, 108, garbed figure may represent the Seven Sages,
151 certain contexts in which we see such figures, anthropomorphism: see gods and goddesses.
for example flanking the bed of a sick man, may
suggest that they could sometimes be human Antn: see An.
figures dressed as the ancient sages. In this
case, however, it seems unlikely that the ritual Anu: see An.
garb consisted of the full skin of an actual fish,
reaching from the man’s head down to his Anuna(Anunnakku)
waist, upper leg or even to the ground, and it The Anuna (Anunnakku), which possibly
104 has been suggested that cloth costumes were means ‘princely offspring’, is used in earlier,
created in precise imitation of a living fish. especially Sumerian, texts as a general word for
the gods, in particular the early- gods who were
bom first and were not differentiated with in
anointing
dividual names. They are put to work to help
The symbolic custom of anointing has its ori
build the temple at Girsu in a Sumerian hymn,
gin in the habit of rubbing the body with fine
and are linked with the benign lama-deities.
quality oil (usually sesame oil) for medical or
There are fifty Anuna of Eridu. The sky god
cosmetic purposes. Oil might also be sym
Anu (An) is described as king of the Anun
bolically poured over the head, e.g. of a bride,
nakku. In the Epic of Creation the multitude of
of persons involved in property transactions,
gods are called the 'Anunnakku of heaven and
or at the manumission of a slave. ‘Anointed’
earth’.
priests (pasisu) were one particular class of the
Possibly following the use from Middle
clergy.
Babylonian times of die name Igigu to refer
An extension of this custom, from the Old
especially to the gods of heaven, the term
Babylonian Period on, was the duty of
Anunnakku came to be used more for the
anointing the stone inscription or monument
gods of earth (Ki) and underworld. Marduk
of a past king if it were exposed during build
and Damkina (Damgalnuna), Nergal and
ing work, clearly a substitute for anointing the
Madanu- associated with the underworld - are
ruler himself.
said to be powerful amongthem. There are 600
In magic and sorcery and medicine (see
Anunnakku of the underworld, but only 300 of
diseases and medicine) ointments of all sorts
heaven, according to one text. This implies the
were frequently used, prepared both from sym
gradual development of a detailed imagery of
bolic (and to us revolting) ingredients and also
the underworld.
from genuinely curative herbs and simples.
Anunitu
Ansar and Kisar Anunltu (earlier Annunitum) was a Babylonian
In Mesopotamian myth, Ansar and Kisar were goddess especially associated with childbirth.
a pair of primordials, respectively male and Annunitum and Ulmasitum were two aspects of
female, and perhaps representing the heaven Inana worshipped at Agade. Annunitum was
34
Asag (Asakku)
also worshipped at Sippar. Later, as the name Samas (Utu). The remaining southern
of a constellation, Anunitu referred to tire Arabian gods known to us are numerous and
north-eastern part of Pisces. seem to have had more specific functions,
See zodiac. which sometimes gave them their names.
In the sixth and fifth centuries BC there was a
Anunnakku: see Anuna. cult centre of the moon god at Tayma in north
west Arabia. The Babylonian king Nabonidus
Anzu: see Imdugud. (reigned 556-539 BC), a devotee of Sin, spent
some twelve years of his reign there away from
ap'eallii-. see Adapa; Seven Sages. Baby'on (see Nanna-Suen).
In dre fifdr century bc, die Greek historian
apotropaic figures: see building rites and Herodotus mentions as the gods of the Arabs
deposits; demonsand monsters; magic and Orotalt and Alilat (‘The Goddess’). In the
sorcery. Islamic Qur’an, al-Lat together with al-'Uzza
and Manat are mentioned as daughters of
apsasu: see lama. Allah. They are also attested as divine names in
earlier north Arabian inscriptions.
apsu\ see abzu. There were also direct borrowings from
Mesopotamia and Syria. The pantheon at
.Arabian gods Palmyra included Nergal (assimilated to the
A number ofArab kingdoms are known to have Greek Herakles), Nabu or Nebo (assimilated
existed in the Arabian peninsula from at least to Apollo), the Syrian goddess Atargatis, and
the first millennium bc. The generic name possibly Astarte, that is Istar (Inana), and
'Arabs’ and a kingdom called ‘Aribi’ appear in Beltis (Belet-ili).
the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings.
I.ittie is known about the religion and pan arali: see underworld.
theon of die region before tire coming of Islam
in the seventh century ad. In northern Arabia arrow
the chief deity seems to have been known as El An upright arrow is depicted on
orllah, meaning‘God’. A number of astral and Kassite kudurrus as a symbol
local deities are also known. At the Arab city of of the star Sirius (known in
Palmyra, in the third century AD, a triad ofgods Sumerian and Akkadian as ‘The
is attested, headed by Bel (originally Bol, prob Arrow’).
ably equivalent to Baal ‘Lord’) or Belshamin
(‘Lord of rhe heavens’), together with a solar
deity Yarhibol or Malakbel and a lunar deity
Aglibol. 25 An arrow. Detail Irom the
In the southern Arabian kingdoms the cult carving on a Babylonian kudurru.
seems to have centred around a triad of astral
deities. The most important was the moon god, Aruru: see mother goddesses and birth god
who was usually also the local protector of each desses.
individual city, and was therefore referred to
under a variety of names, including that of the Asag (Asakku)
Babylonian god Sin (Nanna-Suen). Next was In the Sumerian poem Lugale, the Asag is a
the god 'Athtar, related to the Mesopotamian monstrous demon who is defeated by the god
goddess Istar (Inana), the planetVenus. Third Ninurta/Ningirsu (in another version by
in rank was the sun god, usually known as Adad (Iskur)). The Asag was hideously re
Shams, clearly related to the Babylonian name pulsive in appearance and his power caused
35
Asarluhi
fish to boil alive in the rivers. He was born from own affairs, or those of mankind, in an
the mating of An and Ki, and the Asag himself assembly (ukkin/puhrum) of which An/Anu is
mated with the kur (mountains) to produce the leader and which met at the ub-iu-ukkina in
offspring. He was accompanied by an army of the E-kur, Enlil’s temple at Nippur. In some
stone allies (the stones of the mountains). On narrative poems, men also debate questions of
one level the defeat of Ninurta in this myth of policy in an assembly of elders or adult men.
the Asag and the stones expresses the unease Probably these both reflect some social reality
felt by the inhabitants of the Mesopotamian at the rime when rhe poems were taking shape,
plain about the inhabitants of the Zagros whether al national or village level, but it seems
mountains. impossible to relate this securely to any theor
The defeat of Asag by Ninurta may be depic etical reconstruction of the political system of
ted in relief on the large slabs erected by the early Sumer.
117 ninth centuryBC AssyriankingAssurnasirpalll See dreams and visions.
on either side of the main entrance to the
temple of Ninurta at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). astrology and astronomy
Here a god carrying thunderbolts attacks a Strictly speaking, astrology refers to observa
lion-dragon. A related scene is found on Neo- tion of the movements of astral bodies with a
6 Assyrian seals. view to divination of the future thereby, as
In magical theory' the asag/asakku is a demon opposed to astronomy (disinterested scientific
who attacks and kills human beings, especially observation). From the movement and appear
by means of head fevers, and who is mentioned ance of the moon, stars and planets, the Baby
in poetical enumerations of diseases. lonians believed that it was possible to predict
In another tradition, the Seven (or Eight) future events in the world, especially in the
Asak'eu are a specific group of demons, the political and military spheres. ‘The signs in the
offspring of Anu (An), who are said to have sky, just as those on earth, give us signals’: the
been defeated by Ninurta, in a clear remin Babylonian view was that portents gave indi
iscence of the Sumerian poem. cations - clues - about the gods’ intentions. By
contrast, Hellenistic (and modern) astrology
Asarluhi views the planets themselves as exerting influ
Originally the god of Kuara, a village near ences over human destinies. It was only from
Eridu, Asarluhi came to be associated with the fifth century bc that Babylonian astrologers
Enki (the god of Eridu), and with magical began to cast horoscopes to foretell the fortunes
knowledge, the special presen e of Enki. Asar of ordinary individuals. However, although
luhi was regarded as the Sou of Enki and many ancient astronomical texts are expressed
Damgalnuna, and when Marduk was also in a form which allows for their astrological
accorded the title of son of Ea (the Akkadian application (for example, they include associ
name of Enki) it was natural for Asarluhi to be ations of deities with the constellations where
absorbed in the personality of.Marduk. A hymn appropriate), the basic facts and procedures are
of the Old Babylonian Period addresses Asar of astronomical or chronological interest, and
luhi as the river of ordeal (see river ordeal), there is some evidence that the main reason for
as the first-born son of Enki and as Marduk. the development of astronomy was the wish to
In rhe Standard Babylonian magical tradition he. able to control the calendar, rather than
Asarluhi is used as an alternative name fur to interpret celestial events astrologically. Al
Marduk in incantations and prayers. though some deities have connections with
stars or planets, many do not, and the idea that
assembly of the gods Mesopotamian religion was astral in origin is
In a number of Sumerian and Babylonian untenable.
myths the gods are depicted discussing their Babylonian observation of the night skies
36
Assur
can be documented from at least75OBC in daily stant’). Many of the names for the constella
records (only a small part of which survive), tions were the same as or similar to those trans
and by about 40c BC had reached a remark mitted to the modern world by the Greek
ably accurate level given die pre-Galilean astronomer Ptolemy (c. ad 150).
cosmology with which they worked. Lunar
eclipses could bc predicted with considerable Asimbabbar: see Nanna-Suen.
accuracy. Halley’s comet was observed and
recorded in 164 BC and again in 87 BC. The Asratu: see Martu.
157 ziggurats (temple towers) may have been used
in the later periods as suitable observation plat Assur
forms, although that was not their original Assur was the god of the Assyrian nation.
function. Babylon and Unik were important Originally he may have been the local deity of
centres of astronomy during the fourth to first the city ofthe same name, or rather - since it is 26
centuries BC. unusual in Mesopotamia for the god and city
In Babylonian astronomy the eastern hori to bear the same name (sec local gods) - a
zon was divided into three vertical bands, the personification of the city itself. (Oaths were
‘ways’ of Enlil, Anu (An) and Ea (Enki), sworn by the name oi the city as ifit were itselfa
which were used for locating the position of the god). As, therefore, the extent and power of
-7,159 eighteen zodiacal constellations recognised Assyria spread, Assur became the supreme god
from about 1000 bc. Later these eighteen con of the emergent state and empire. Details ofthe
stellations were assigned singly' or in pairs to origins and development of the god, however,
the twelve months, foreshadowing the later are lacking.
zodiac. Five planets were recognised: Mercury' Eventually, with the growth of Assyria and
(called ‘Jumping’), Venus, Mars, Jupiter the increase in cultural contacts with southern
(called ‘the Ferry’) and Saturn (called ‘Con Mesopotamia, there was a tendency to
26 A view of the Assyrian city of Assur, as it appears today. In die foreground is the partly restored
Temple of Istar; behind are the remains of one of the ziggurats or temple-towers.
37
Assur
assimilate Assur to certain of the major deities mythology ofthe Babylonia n na ti ona 1 god Mar
of the Sumerian and Babylonian pantheons. duk, as well as tire rituals of the New Year
From about 1300 BC we can trace some attempts ceremonies at Babylon itself. The underlying
to identify him with Sumerian Enlil. This reasons behind this action were clearly the
probably represents an effort to cast him as the current political and military struggle between
chief of gods. Ninlil was thus regarded as Assyria and Babylonia. This culminated in
Assur’s wife, though worshipped in Assyria Sennacherib’s nine-month siege, conquestand
under the name Mullissu. Then, under Sargon systematic sacking of Babylon in 691 bc, and his
II of Assyria (reigned 721-705 bc) Assur subsequent imposition of direct rule and per
tended to be identified with Ansar, the father sonal assumption of the Babylonian throne.
of Anu (An) in the Babylonian Epic of Even tire emblems of Assur were adopted
Creation. The process thus represented Assur from Babylonian gods. His animal, the snake
as a god of long-standing, present from the dragon (which even on Sennacherib’s rock re
creation of the universe. The particular liefs at Maltai is not exclusive to him) was taken 31
identification may have been suggested by over from Marduk. In collections of symbols
nothing more than the similarity of the names. of the gods, moreover, Assur seems to be rep
Under Sargon's successor Sennacherib resented by a homed cap, inherited from Anu 10
(reigned 704-681 bc), an attempt was made, at (An) and Enlil.
an official level, to reattribute to Assur the The modern attribution to Assur of the solar 140
disc is certainly incorrect. Some scholars,
however, believe that the winged disc, very
common in Assyrian art and often on .'Assyrian
sculptures with the image ofa god above it, and 155
placed over scenes of battle, ritual and the
chase, must represent Assur. The evidence,
however, points strongly to this emblem as a
symbol of the sun god SamaS (Utu). Again,
there may he some borrowing of an image
proper to another god.
In spite of (or possibly because of) the ten
dencies to transfer to him the attributes and
mythology of other gods, Assur remains an in
distinct deity with no clear character or tra
dition (or iconography) of his own. It was 27
said to be solely within his power to grant (or
to remove) kingship over Assyria, and the
Assyrian king was his chief priest and lieuten
ant on earth. It was particularly common for the
names of Assyrian kings to contain the god’s
name as an element (e.g. Assumasirpal, Assur-
banipal, Esarhaddon (ASsur-ahhe-iddina)).
The god supported and encouraged the armies
27 The god of Assyria. The god’s seals were used to
.Assur. From a
endorse documents of the utmost political im
glazed brick
panel found in a portance, such as King Esarhaddon's (reigned 132
private house in 680-669 BC) treaty providing for the succes
.Assur. 9th~7th sion (see seals of the gods). In these contexts,
centuries bc. however, Assur appears as a mere personifica-
38
beasts of the gods
tion of the country, people and power of istic Period, shown as an attribute held by this
Assyria as a political entity. goddess.
See letters to gods See zodiac.
28 The so-called
‘ball-staff’ with vessel
above. Detail from a
cylinder seal of the
Isin-Larsa Period.
29 (centre) A barlej' stalk or
ear of corn, symbol of the
goddess Sala. One of the
emblems carved on a
kudurru of the Kassite
Period.
30 (far right) A god
walking his human-headed
iion. Detail from a cylinder
seal of the Akkadian
Period.
39
beasts of the gods
31 The best preserved of four similar panels of the lion-dragon, also with lion’s forelegs,
rock reliefs at Maltai, carved on the cliff-face on bird’s hindlegs, tail and wings, perhaps origin
the southern side of the Dchok valley, by the read ally the beast ofthe god Iskur, later transferred
leading from Assyria to the Upper Zab valley. (as a second associated animal) to a number of
The Assyrian king, probably Sennacherib
(reigned 704-681BC), flanks a procession of Assyrian gods;
seven deities on their animals, probably (left to tire bull, usually the animal of a god whose
right) Assur on snake-dragon and lion-dragon, forked lightning (symbol) identifies him as a
his consort Mullissu enthroned on a lion, Enlil weather deity (see Iskur);
or Sin on lion-dragon, Nabu on a snake-dragon,
Samas on a horse, Adad on lion-dragons and the lion, associated at different times with a
bull, and Istar on a lion. number of different deities, including
Ningirsu and the goddesses Ninlil, Istar
(Inana) and Damkina (Damgalnuna);
45,79, sometimes natural animals but more usually the horse, at least by the seventh century bc the
87,105, elaborate hybrid combinations. Sometimes beast of the sun god Samas (Utu);
representations of such beasts in art served the
the dog, sacred animal of the goddess Gula;
function of symbolising the various gods, or
31,89, else individual deities are shown standing on the turtle and goat-fish of the water god
IIC, 132, their respective beasts; sometimes large-scale Enki/Ea;
151 statues ofthe creatures guarded the entrance to various types of natural and hybrid snakes and
their masters’ shrines, or served, in effect, as birds, associated with a variety of deities.
75 altars, with other symbols placed upon their See Asag; Imdugud; Lamastu.
backs. Among these beasts were:
the snake-dragon, with snake-like body, beer: see alcohol; libation.
horns, lion’s forelegs and bird’s hindlegs,
which was transferred from and to a number of Bel: see Marduk.
different high-ranking gods, including Mar
duk and Nabu in Babylonia and Assur in Bele.-ill: see mother goddesses and birth
Assyria; goddesses; Nergal; N'inhursaga.
4c
Bes
Belet-seri: see under Martu. Although also now lost, this served as a source
for the Jewish historian Joseph ben Matthias
bells (‘Josephus’, ad 37/38-4.100) and the church
It has been suggested that the ‘Strong copper', father Eusebius (died ad342). Berossos was
one of the trophies of the god Ninurta (see thus the ultimate source for authoritative
Slain Heroes), may be a personified danger or knowledge of Babylonia by the ancient Greeks.
bell. However, the earliest bells found in He is said to have emigrated in old age to the
Mesopotamia are Assyrian, dating to the first Aegean island of Cos, where he founded a
millennium bc. Magical texts refer to the school of astrology'. There is no absolute
ringing of a bell as a means of driving away evil certainty, however, that Berossos of Babylon
32 spirits. One example of an Assyrian bell has and Berossos of Cos were one and the same. It
protective supernatural figures (see demons is also possible that certain ideas attributed to
and monsters) depicted on it. Berossos in Classical sources w'ere later in ori
gin (so-called ‘Pseudo-Rerossos’), along with
certain other traditions concerning his life, in
cluding that he was the father of the Sibyl!
The first book of his work Babyloniaka
opened with an account of tie beginnings of
the world and the myth of Cannes and other
fish-monsters, who, emerging from the sea,
first brought the arts of civilisation to mankind
(see Seven Sages). It continued with the
Babylonian creation story and an account of
Babylonian astrology.
The second bock recounted the history of
Babylonia from the ‘ten kings before the
Flood’, through the story of the Flood itself
(see Ziusura), followed by the restored king
ship with its six dynasties down to the reign of
Nahonassar (Nabu-nasir, reigned 747-534 bc).
The third book dealt with the history of
Babylonia down to Berossos’ own time, in
cluding the reigns of Tiglath-pileser III,
Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar 11.
Akkadian mythological and historical texts
32 A Neo-Assyrian copper or bronze bell, cast found in modem excavations have largely con
with figures of magically protective demons. It firmed the authenticity of the tradition rep
was probably used in rituals of exorcism. resented by Berossos.
Ht.gymm.
Bes
Berossos Bes or Bisu was the Egyptian god of play and
Berossos (a Greek form of a Babylonian name, recreation, represented as a full-faced bow-
perhaps Bel-usur) was a priest of Bel (Marduk) legged dwarf, with oversized head, goggle
at Babylon in the late fourth to early third cen eyes, protruding tongue, bushy tail and usually
turies bc. He wrote a three-volume work in a large feathered crown as head-dress. He was
Greek, now lost, on the culture and history a magically protective deity who averted the
of Babylonia. An abridgement was made in power of evil, and was especially associated
the first century bc by Alexander Polyhistor. with the protection of children and of women
41
Bilulu
bird gods
Some fragmentary stelae of Gudea, ruler of
Lagas, show shaven-headed priests carrying
standards surmounted by the figure of a
bearded god ‘wearing’ the head and splayed
wings of a bird of prey as if they were an
76 elaborate head-dress. It has been suggested
that since Ningirsu was symbolised by the
lion-headed bird Imdugud, this deity associ
ated with a natural-headed eagle might rather
be identifiable as Ninurta. However, Ningirsu
seems to have been nothing more than the local
form (in the city-state of Lagas) of Ninurta at
this time. Perhaps the distinction is between
the god Ningirsu/Ninurta himself and his
familiar animal the Imdugud bird.
In some ninth-ccntury bc Assyrian repre
sentations of the god in the winged disc, a
bird-tail is shown beneath the disc as if it were
33 A Neo-Assyrian cast copper figurine of a
144 one with the body of the god above. According dwarfgod, of a type known in Egypt as Bes. It has
to one idea, this is a bird god who can, again, be a hollowed back and probably was originally
identified as Ninurta. The winged disc, how fitted to a timber pole or item of furniture. From a
ever, appears to be a symbol of the sun-god room in the residential area of the royal palace
Samas (Utu). arsenal at Kalhu (modern Nimrud), 8th 7th
centuries bc. Hi. 122 mm.
bird- men: see animal skins; griffin-demon;
Imdugud.
birds
76 A number of cifferent bircs occur in Meso
potamian art as deities’ symbols. One type, a
long-necked species, first occurs in the Uruk
Period, as a type of standard, with the bird
42
bird talons and wings
shown on top of a small rod mounted on the An Old Babylonian clay plaque shows a man
back of a snake-dragon. The bird recurs on a riding an ostrich. However, the ostrich appears
Neo-Sumerian seal, associated with a seated only rarely before the glyptic art of the Middle
goddess, and on Old Babylonian seals, after and Neo-Assyrian Periods. Often the bird is
which it disappears from art. Representations under attack from, or being throttled by, a pur- 14
of a goose-like bird perched on a tall pole, suing god. The mythological or religious basis
shown on Parthian stamp-seals, are probably of these scenes is unknown. The early exist
unrelated. ence of the ostrich in Mesopotamia is proved by
34 Depictions of a walking bird are naturally the presence in Sumerian graves of ostrich
common in all periods, but only on the Kassite eggs. The top of the egg was severed and to the
kudurrus and in Neo-Babylonian glyptic art open shell were attached a rim and base of pot
does the motif stand definitely as a religious tery decorated with inlays.
7,76 symbol. Kudurru captions characterise it as a A lion-headed bird depicted in works of art 86
symbol of the minister god Papsukkal from the Early Dynastic to the Neo-Sumerian
(Ninsubur). A bird with back-turned head is Periods appears to represent Imdugud/Anzu,
found frequently in Kassite-Period art as a associated with the god Ningirsu/Ninurta.
divine symbol and attribute. The accompany A common scene on cylinder seals of the 61
ing inscription on one kudurru is partially Akkadian Period shows a large bird carrying
broken but probably named the Kassite god the figure of a man, which has usually, and
90 Harbe. The symbol of a bird on a high perch, fairly plausibly, been interpreted as depicting
probably in fact representing a bird-standard, the flight episode in the myth of Etana.
is common on the Kassite kudurrus, and is See animal skins; Bau; Enmesarra; grif
identified from tine inscriptions on two of them fin; Ziusura. For the eagle-headed staff, see
as a symbol of the obscure dual gods Suqa- standards, staves and sceptres of the gods.
tnuna (and) Sumalia (see Kassite gods). For augury, see divination.
The motif of a bird on a low perch is found
as a divine symbol on the rock stelae of the bird talons and wings
Assyrian king Sennacherib at Judi Dagh, According to ons suggestion, the presence of fr., 6,
where the inscription characterises it as sym bird talons and wings as part of the combina- 45>89>
bolising the avian war god Ninurta. tion of various Mesopotamian demons and pg117'
monsters suggests an association with death
and the underworld. Some Babylonian poems
describe the dead as clothed with bird-like
plumage. The main literary basis fbr the idea,
however, is a poetic account of a dream of an
Assyrian prince, possibly the later King Assur-
banipal (reigned 668—r.627 BC). In the dream,
the prince descends to the underworld, which
is peopled by a horde of unpleasant demons,
described in graphic detail. In almost all cases
these hellish demons are said to have been
winged and to have had the talons of birds (or
the feet of Imdugud, which amounts to the
same thing).
The content of this poem, however, is
unique as the first known description of the
34 A walking bird. Detail from the carving on a ‘medieval’ image of a hell peopled by demonic
Babylonian kudunu. figures. While this may represent a new and
43
birth goddesses
powerful element in theological thinking, in natural figure of the bull-man, possibly also 40
descriptive terms it takes over elements already for the bull with human head. In Sumerian 42
familiar in Assyrian iconography. Even in the art, the bull-heads of the lyres from the Royal
Assyrian Period these iconographic elements Graves at Ur, for example, have beards (made of
were not confined to underworld denizens, lapis lazuli) that are reminiscent of the bison. 35
since lliey are shared by beneficent and magic Astronomically, the constellation gud-alim/
ally protective figures. Moreover, the sug eusarikkit corresponds to part of Centaurus.
gestion of an association of wings and talons See Slain Heroes.
with creatures of the underworld cannot be
applied to the art of earlier periods. bit akiii: see New’ Year ceremonies.
44
boundary stones
4-5
bucket and cone
bow-legged dwarf: see dwarf. either water or pollen (see stylised tree and its
‘rituals’). Written sources on the matter are
bucket and cone few, but it seems clear that the bucket and cone
In Neo-Assyrian art, objects resembling a pine were associated with purification, for they arc
18,37, cone and a bucket (or occasionally a bucket known respectively as banduddu (bucket) and,
49>&5' alone) arc held as attributes by a number of significantly, mullilu (purifier), and figurines 11
^8,82, different genies, often in association with the of genies holding these attributes were among
]55’ stylised tree; the ‘cone’ is held up in the right the types placed within buildings for protection
hand, the bucket held down in the left. Only- from malevolent demons and disease (see
very rarely are these objects held by figures building rites and deposits; magic and
which might be interpreted as entirely human; sorcery).
almost always they are held by genies or
human-animal hybrids (see demons and building rites and deposits
monsters). As well as in front of the stylised In ancient Mesopotamia, building activities
tree, the bucket and cone are seen held before seem generally to have been accompanied by
floral decorative elements, guardian super certain appropriate rites. During the construc
natural figures, the king or his attendants, or tion of new buildings, especially temples,
open doorways. The cone has been interpreted there were usually some religious ceremonies
as a fir cone (Pinus hrutid}, as the male flower of and magical practices associated with the con
the date palm or as a clay object in imitation of secration of the edifice, its purification, dedi
such. The bucket has been thought to have cation and protection from demonic forces.
been of metal or wicker, and to have contained The residents of private houses might employ
46
bull anti ‘wingedgate’
47
bull-man
beast with raised hands, offers a small bowl, or now lost to us. That the iconography is very
else holds the animat’s horns or the end of a rarely attested after that time may suggest that
halter fastened to a ring piercing its nostrils the myth was no longer current, which would
Alternatively, or in addition, the deity holds a render its chances of recovery extremely slim.
rope fastened to one side of the main construc
tion, while a second rope attached to the other bull-man
side is held by an attendant. Bulls and lions in quasi-human pose figure
Some modern commentators have regarded among the fabulous beasts of the so-called
the construction as a partly closed doorway, ‘proto-Elamite’ (early third millennium BC)
and have thought that the projections resemble glyptic art of south-western Iran. They have
wings, hence the term ‘winged gate’. These been interpreted as personifying the ele
projections have alternatively been regarded as mentary’ principles of world order.
rays of light, either of the morning sun (with The figure of the ‘bull-man’, with human 40
the ‘ropes’ regarded as streams of water), or of head and torso bat taurine horns, lower body
the moon, the ‘gate of night’, shutting in the and legs, first appears in the second phase of
moon god in his aspect as the ‘young bull of the Early Dynastic Period, when the creature is
heaven’. Since the bull was also an animal of to be seen very commonly on cylinder seals. He
the storm god, a possible interpretation of the is usually shown in profile, with a single visible
projections might be as flashes of lightning. A horn projecting forward, although we know
related theory sees in the subject a case of from those rarer occasions when either the
animal sacrifice to a conquering sky god. head only or the whole body above the waist
When the deity is a goddess, the scene lias also (but not below it) is shown in frontal view, that
been explained as a depiction of the myth of he was intended to be double-horned. He
Istar (Inana) and the Bull of Heaven. Prob appears singly, in pairs or even in triplicate, in
ably, however, the scene represents an episode contest scenes with rampant animals. Some
of some myth of the Akkadian Period which is times he is associated in his struggle with a
48
Bull of Heaver.
41 The heroes Giigames and Enkidu slay the Kusankku (Sumerian gud-alim), probably
Bull of Heaven sent by the goddess Istar. Blue the name for the extinct bison, became the term
chalcedony cylinder seal of the Neo-Assyrian
for the bull-man (and possibly also for the bull
Period, with modem impression. Ht. 28 mm.
with human head - see bulls and lions with
human head). There is no basis for the sug
human figure, from the later (Third) Early- gestion that the figure of the bull-man in art
Dynastic Period usually with another stock represents the legendary hero Enkidu.
figure, the ‘hero’ with curls (sec Lahmu). Sec Tiamat’s creatures; Slain Heroes;
Contest scenes involving this pair of figures ring-staff.
become the most common of all themes in the
glyptic art of the Akkadian Period. Bull of Heaven
In the art of the Old Babylonian and Kassite The Bull of Heaven was a mythical beast de- S3
73 Periods, the bull-man appears, as well as in manded by Etar (Inana) from her father Anu
contests, as an attendant of the sun god Samas (An) so as to destroy rhe city of Uruk when her
(Ulu). In the scene on a Neo-Babylonian amorous advances toward Giigames were re
foundation tablet, a pair of bull-men support pudiated by the hero. The bull caused wide
the throne of this god. spread destruction but was eventually killed by 41
From the Kassite Period, perhaps, the figure Giigames with the assistance of Enkidu. As a
becomes a magically protective demon, and by taunt, GilgameS dedicated the animal’s horns
Neo-Assyrian times it seems that his specific to his personal god Lugalbanda. The story is
association with Samas has been weakened; he told both in the Sumerian poem ‘GilgameS and
might still hold the god’s symbol, and is also the Bull of Heaven’ and in tablet VI of the
82 seen as a supporter ofSamas’s winged disc, hut Babylonian F.pic of Giigames.
die bull-man also appears as one ofa repertoire As a constellation, the Bull of Heaven is
of generally beneficent creatures, monumental Taurus (see zodiac), and it has been suggested
and small-scale images of whom were placed that the story of Enkidu throwing the thigh of
49 within buildings as a barrier to evil (see build the bull at Istar attempts to account for the
ing rites and deposits; demons and mon apparent lack of the bull’s hind quarters in the
sters). The bull-man is also found in the art of outline of the constellation.
the Achaemenid Period. See bull and ‘winged gate’.
49
bulls and lions with human head
42 A colossal stone gateway guardian in the form of a human-hcaded winged bull, one ofapair
that originally flanked one of the entrances to the royal palace of the Assyrian king Sargon it
(reigned 721-705BC) at Dur-Sarken (modern Khorsabad). The creature was designed to he
viewed from either the front or side, hence its five legs. Ht. 4.42 m.
50
chaplet
bulls and lions with human head burials: see death and funerary practices.
53 A human-headed winged or wingless bull is a
30,36 common motif in Mesopotamian art from the canal gods: see Enbilulu; Ennugi;
Early Dynastic Period through to Neo Enkimdu; Ningirsu.
Babylonian times, and was taken over also into
the art of the Achaemenid Empire. Monu Cedar Forest: see Gilgames; Huwawa.
mental sculptures of man-headed bulls and
lions carved in the round were particularly centaur
42 common in the Neo-Assyrian Period (and A figure human above thewaist with, below, the 53
similarly in Achaemenid times) as gateway body and all four legs of a horse, is known in
guardians. Such figures adorned the palaces of the Kassite and Middle Assyrian Periods on 43
the more important Assyrian kings from Assur- seals and sealings anc on kudurrus. It also
nasirpal II (reigned 883-85936) until Esar occurs on Babylonian stamp-seals of Hellen
haddon (reigned 680-669 ec); their absence istic date. Sometimes it has the tail of a scor
from the palace of King Assurbanipal (reigned pion. The human part is often shown armed
668-C.627RC) was perhaps due to the lack of with a bow or chib, hunting other animals. In
availability of large enough blocks of stone at die Hellenistic Period the creature represent
that time; some of Esarhaddon's bull-colossi the god Pabilsag.
were made fromseparate blocks fitted together. See bison; lion-centaur; merman and
Male and female human-headed lions (often mermaid.
16,53 referred to as ‘sphinxes’) occur.
It is possible, but not certain, that the bull chaplet
with human head was, like the bull-man, A so-called ‘chaplet’, or string of beads, is
known in Akkadian as kusarikku (see bison). carried as an attribute by a goddess who
The more usual identification with figures appears or, the palace sculpture of Ki ng Assur- 44
called by the Assyrians aladlammu (or lamassu nasirpal II of Assyria (reigned 883-859 bc). On
and sedti) is also possible (see lama). Neo-Assyrian seals, the goddess carrying the 87
chaplet is sometimes Istar (Inana). Sometimes
Bunene: see (Jtu. the ring of the ‘rod and ring’ attribute, often
43 (left) A centaur catching an antelope. Detail from a cylinder seal of the Middle Assyrian Period.
44 (right) A ‘chaplet’ of beads, held in the hand of a goddess. Detail of a carved stone monumental
relief from the royal palace of the Assyrian king Assurnasirpal (I (reigned 883-850BC).
chariots of the gods
45 A worshipper pours a libation over an altar before a god (probably Iskur) riding in his chariot, drawn
by a winged lion-dragon. A naked goddess stands on the back of the beast. From a cylinder seal of the
Akkadian Period.
52
creation
dition, there were three superimposed heavens, lonian to the Neo-Assyrian Period, and recurs
the lowest of which contained the stars, the even in the Parthian era. The motif often
middle being the home of the Igigu and the appears to be a divine symbol, and has been
topmost that of Anu (An). In a separate, interpreted as an emblem of Istar (Inana) or,
astronomical, tradition the eastern horizon was perhaps with mote probability, of Nin-
divided into three vertical bands (see hursaga. That the group was represented in
astrology and astronomy). apotropaic monumental sculpture, at least in
The Babylonian Epic of Creation adapts Urartu, is proved by the record of the pieces
this system, reflecting both the dipartite uni plundered by Sargon 11 of Assyria from the
verse of heaven and earth (when Tiamat is split temple of Haldi (see Urartian gods) at
in two), and a four-part universe of heaven, Musasir in 714 BC, which included ‘one bull;
lower heaven (home of Enlil), earth (home of one cow together with her calf'. The cow and
Marduk) and apsu. calf motif was depicted on the Assyrian palace
Reflecting the old Sumerian idea of the relief showing the sacking of the temple.
separation of heaven and earth, an important
cosmological image is that of the ‘mooring creation
rope’ or ‘mooring-pole’ of heaven and earth Mesopotamian accounts of the beginning of
(also called the ‘nose-rope’, as used for cattle, the world vary according to which cosmology'
or the ‘boundary post’). A temple thought to be is followed. Generally, however, it is assumed
a channel ofcommunication between earth and that the gods have existed for a very' long time,
heaven might be so described. but not forever, and that man is a later arrival
See creation. on the scene. Nammu was the mother who
gave birth to An (heaven), Ki (earth) and tire
cow and calf other 'great gods’. (See also Ansar and
With apparent antecedents in early historic and Kisar.)
Sumerian art, a group consisting of a cow and To express the idea of creation various im
her calf is a common motif from the Old Baby ages were used. First, the idea of sexual inter-
53
crescent
course between gods: the god Nanna was the crescent. On at least one Neo-Assyrian cylin
offspring of Enlil and Ninlil. Enki and Nin- der seal we find a winged crescent with cen
hursaga produced a series of eight deities. An trally paced god, who wears a crescent-headed
and Ki produced natural vegetation. Enlil and cap, and smaller inward-facing deities on the
Kur produced Summer and Winter, per ends of the wings, in apparent imitation of the
sonified in a Sumerian poem. common symbol of the gods on the winged
Second, the image of modelling by hand a disc.
figurine of clay was used, particularly for the See ‘omega’ symbol; star (symbol).
creation of mankind. Either a mother god
dess such as Nammu or Aruru, or else Enki, crook
moulds die creature (sometimes with another The crook-headed stick is an element mainly 76
goddess standing by as ‘midwife’). In the Epic occurring in Old Babylonian glyptic art. It
of Atra-hasTs, die clay is mixed with the blood occurs as an isolated motif, held by a god, or
of a slain god. In the Epic of Creation, man is set above a goat or sitting dog. It is often
apparently created solely from the blood of a placed close to the ‘figure with mace’, with
slair. god, Qingu. whom it may, therefore, have been associated.
Finally, the quickening power of the divine It is a symbol of the god Amurru (Martu). 106
utterance is seen as responsible for creation. On a Kassite seal the crook is held by the
Especially Enki is described as undertaking fish-garbed figure, who is associated with Ea
the organisation of the universe, and as accom (Enki). On Neo-Assyrian seals a god who
plishing this solely by the creative power of his stands upon a goat-fish, probably Ea, some
word. times carries the crook; here itmay serve simply
Personal gods are sometimes described as as a crude representation of the god’s staff with
being responsible for the creation of the in ram’s head (see standards, staves and seep- 76
dividual under their protection. tres of the gods).
See Berossos; Igigu; Sacred Marriage. The constellation called the Crook corre
sponds to Auriga (see zodiac).
crescent
7,10,The recumbent crescent moon occurs as a cross
14.21,
4Q motif in Mesopotamian art from *prehistoric Apart from the swastika, the only cruciform
87 88 t*mes down to the Nco-Babylonian Period, and motif attested as a distinct element in Meso
at least from the Old Babylonian Period is
’ 95 potamian art is the ‘cross formee’, a form
known from inscriptions to have been a symbol approximating to that today known as the Malt
of the moor, god Sin (Nanna-Suen). Its Ak ese cross. In prehistoric and early historic art, 48
kadian name was uskaru. In all periods a the form occurs only as part of geometric and
common variant placed the emblem on a post, floral designs, or in isolated contexts to which it
74 sometimes with elaborate trimmings, when it is difficult to attach with any certainty a reli
appears as an independent motif or is held by gious meaning. After the Early Dynastic
gods, goddesses, or animal or hybrid figures. Period the motif disappears from art until the
Probably it was then considered to have a mid-second millennium BC.
magically protective power. From the Old Appearing frequently on Kassite Period
Babylonian Period onwards, and especially cylinder seals (with a rarer variant on Middle 76
from Kassite times, Sin’s crescent was often Assyrian), the ‘Kassite’ cross, as it has been
47,73 depicted within a disc; sometimes this appears called, probably had an independent origin. It
to be a fusion of the crescent and solar disc, as may have been a symbol of the Kassite sun
if symbolic of ar. eclipse. In Neo-Assyrian and deity. It appears in contexts which strongly
111 Nco-Babylonian art, the upper body of a god, suggest that it is a sun symbol, substituting for
presumably Sin, may appear emerging from the the solar disc, or in positions later occupied by
54
cult statues
the winged disc. These include, most rather than the winged disc which is invariably 21
commonly, positioning between a god with to be seen. It is only rarely that the cross stands
raised hand and a worshipper (the latter some in place of the winged disc on Assyrian seals,
times, in fact, omitted), above scenes of hunt but here in some cases it is shown with four
ing, or in association with die stylised tree. undulating projections, probably solar rays,
The cross does not, however, appear on the emerging diagonally from its intersections.
kudurrus, where the solar disc represents the These arc strong indications for the cross as a
sun god. further symbol (together with the solar disc and
In Middle Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian art, winged disc) of the sun god Samas (Utu).
the cross was apparendy normally replaced by
the winged disc. Sculptures of Assyrian kings, cult statues
however, can show diem wearing divine sym The gods manifested themselves on earth 49
bols as earrings or as pendants strung upon a through the vehicle of their cult statues. With
necklace, and in these cases it is the cross out exactly being the god, the statue was
47 A crescent (here, as
often, enclosed within a
disc), symbol of the moon
god Sin (Nanna-Suen).
48 A Neo-Assyrian
version of a cross, probably
a symbol of the sun god
Samas.
49 (right) Scenes of
worship before the cult
statue of the goddess Istar
standing in her shrine.
From cylinder seals of the
Neo-Assyrian Period, of a
modelled style attributable
to the Sth-yth centuries bc.
55
Dagan
regarded as much more than his or her image, 2500 BC, at Ebla about 2300 bc and at Ugarit
since ir was imbued with (but did not in any way over a thousand years later. Sargon of Agade
restrict) the divine presence. The closest paral and his grandson Naram-Suen attributed
lei in modem religions, perhaps, is the role of many of their conquests to the power of Dagan.
the icon in Eastern Orthodoxy, while in the At some point Dagan became the principal god
secular field it may be as well to remember that of the Philistines.
the eye of a child will see life and personality in At Ugarit, on the Mediterranean coast,
a doll which, on another level, the mind recog Dagan was regarded as the father of the god
nises as an inanimate toy. Baal (Hadad) and second only in rank to the
Cult statues were made at least as early as the supreme god El. However, he is not an impor
Third Dynasty of Ur, usually carved in an tant figure in Ugaritic myths. His role as veget
expensive imported wood, overlaid with gold. ation god seems to have been largely usurped
In the Babylonian periods, at least, the newly by Baal by about 1500 bc.
dedicated image was imbued with the presence At an early date Dagan was assimilated into
of the deity by the performance of rituals, the Sumerian pantheon, but only as a minor
known as ‘Washing the mouth’ and ‘Opening deity, attendant upon Enlil. The goddess Sala
the mouth'. Since the deity needed to eat and became Iris spouse; in a different tradition,
drink (see food and drink of the gods), the Dagan's wife was IShara. It was said to be by
temple kitchens would prepare daily meals. the might of‘his creator’ Dagan that Hammu
Animals and plants were raised and grown in rabi of Babylon was able to conquer the city of
the temple’s fields or were contributed by local Mari, while the contemporary Assyrian king
fishermen and farmers. The sacrifices and SamsT-Adad I, ‘worshipper of Dagan’, built a
offerings of devotees supplemented the stocks temple to the god at Terqa, which he named
of food, which, in practice, were eaten by the E-kisiga, the ‘House of Funerary Offerings'. In
clergy and temple staff The cult statue was not an Assyrian poem, Dagan sits, along with Ner-
only fed, but also dressed in die finest gar gal and MTsaru (see good and evil), as judge
ments, constantly bathed, taken to bed in the of the dead when they reached the under
god’s richly adorned bedchamber, and treated world. In Babylonian belief Dagan kept with
to festivities and entertainments, such as him m the underworld, in everlasting bondage,
music. Diversions from the routine were pro the seven children of the god Enmesarra (see
vided by the great monthly festivals and other Seven (gods)).
special occasions, such as visits by land or river A tradition dating back at least to the fourth
to other cities (see boats of the gods; chariots century ad of Dagan as a fish deity is
of the gods; journeys and processions of erroneous.
the gods).
See nude woman; Sacred Marriage; Damgalnuna (Damkina)
temples and temple architecture Damgalnuna is the earlier Sumerian name of
the goddess Damkina. Fish offerings were
Dagan made to her in Lagas and Umma in early times,
Dagan (Hebrew Dagon) was a West Semitic but her principal cult centre was the city of
corn god who came to be worshipped exten Malgum. Perhaps originally one of a number
sively throughout the Near East, including of mother goddesses, she achieved an in
^Mesopotamia. The original meaning of the dependent personality as the wife of Enki. In
name is unknown, but dagan is a common word the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Ea (Enki)
in Hebrew and Ugaritic for ‘grain’, and and Damkina are the parents of the god Mar
according to one tradition the god Dagan was duk. Assurnasirpal II, king of Assyria (883
the inventor of the plough. 859 bc), built a temple to them at Kalhu
Dagan’s cult is known at Mari from about (modern Nimrud).
56
dead gods
The animal associated with Damkina was The idea that gods could bc killed as well as
97 the lion; astrologically she was associated with created is met with near the beginning of the
the constellation called the Wagon of Heaven Babylonian Epic of Creation, when Apsu (see
(Ursa Minor). abzu), having engendered a line of deities by
his union with Tiamat, almost immediately
Damkina: see Daingalnuna. decides to destroy tlieiu again because of die
nuisance they have caused him. In fact, the
Damu tables arc turned, and Apsu himself falls victim
A god of healing, who drives away demons and at the hands of Ea (Enki). The subsequent
‘binds the torn sinew’, Damu was honoured death of Tiamat is presented as playing a
especially at Isin, and also at Larsa, Ur and crucial part in the creation of the universe,
perhaps Girsu. He is usually regarded as a son since heaven and earth (Ki) are made from the
of the goddess Ninisina and as a son of, or else two separated halves of the monster's body
identical with, the god Ningiszida (although (see cosmology). Furthermore, humankind is
one Akkadian translation of a Sumerian poem created, in part, from the blood of Tiamat’s
erroneously describes him as a ‘daughter’ of consort, the god Qingu, who meets his death,
Ninisina). But these details vary, and some following Tiamat’s defeat, by a kind of judicial
times he seems to be more closely linked with execution. Apparently, the eleven monstrous
the circle of Nanse. It is unclear whether the creations of Tiamat who have fought at her side
Damu worshipped at Ebla and Emar in Syria (Tiamat’s creatures) are killed by Marduk in
was the same deity or a local hero. The official the great battle, but statues of them are placed
cult of Damu seems to have died out after the by Marduk in the apsu (abzu).
Old Babylonian Period. Nothing in detail is known of the myth or
Astrologically, Damu was associated with myths concerning the killing of the Slain
the constellation called the Pig (possibly Del Heroes, but it seems clear that they were gods
phinus). who were believed to be long dead, yet who
In some Sumerian poems, Dumuzi is
addressed as ‘my Damu’, but it is possible that a
different word, perhaps meaning ‘child’, is in
volved here.
dead gods
In Mesopotamia, although immortality was
reserved for the gods (see Siduri), not all gods
were immortal. A number of deities were
regarded as dead. Nor were ‘heroes’ exempt
from death. Only Ziusura/Ut-napisti was
granted eternal life, while others (including
the partly divine Gilgames) would perish.
Unlike mortal men, gods do not seem ever to
have died of diseases, nor generally of the
activities of demons (although Dumuzi was
seized by gallas). Dead gods were usually those
50 who had been slain. Seals of the Akkadian 50 One god cuts the tliroat of another. Bodi
Period show deities in battle, sometimes one figures wear the homed cap of divinity. From a
slaying another. cylinder seal of the Akkadian Period.
57
death and funerary practices
continued to receive offerings (see sacrifice followed a ‘second’ death in the underworld -
and offering) and worship jusl as living gods. whatever might be understood by that — is
135 Their slaying by Ningirsu or Ninurta is unknown. (Inana herself, on her visit to the
paralleled by Marduk’s defeat and killing of nether regions, is described in terms that sug- fwniu.
the creatures of Tiamat. Since in both cases gest her ‘death’).
images of these slain monsters were made Some baked clay figurines possibly of the
(statues of Tiamat’s creatures, at least, were in Isin-Larsa or Old Babylonian Period show a
the first millennium bc regarded as magically god who seems to be lying in a coffin. This has 112
protective demons), it seems that, in spite of been interpreted as Nergal, lord of the under
being dead, these gods were thought still to world, at rest.
possess some effective powers. Similarly lire
magical power and wisdom of ancient (and death and funerary practices
9, probably dead) gods such as Lahmu and even It was believed in ancient Mesopotamia that
>>,12 the Seven Sages could be harnessed by the immortality was reserved for gods; death was
modelling of a figurine in the image of the the inevitable lot of man (see Siduri). Nor was
creature and by the recital of incantations to the afterlife considered very palatable: in the
imbue the figure with the dead entity’s presence Sumerian underworld the dead consumed
(seemagicand sorcery). HuwawazHumbaba, dust, while the Assyro-Babylonian hell was
69 slain by Gilgames and Enkidu, is a further peopled by a plethora of intimidating demons
85 case in point: probably his image was believed and monsters. This is in marked contrast to
to be effective as a magical force against evil. Egyptian concepts of the glorious life to come,
For men, ‘death’ usually meant journeying which gave rise to the practice of embalming
to the underworld (see afterlife; death and and mummification. Mesopotamian pessimism
funerary practices), but for a god who was in this regard probably arose from the com
not dismembered (as Tiamat or Qingu were) paratively harsh conditions of almost every
the precise meaning of his or her ‘death’ is aspect of life, the alluvial plain of Sumer being
unclear. Huwawa seems simply to disappear well suited to agricultural production but lack
from the scene, as if into oblivion: we do not ing virtually all raw materials, except for
hear of his doings or sufferings after death. natur al clays.
Some ‘dead gods’, however, seem to have had It has been suggested that the practice of
underworld associations. burial in the prehistoric societies of Meso
The most famous ‘dead god’ of ancient potamia sought either to maintain close com
Mesopotamia is Dumuzi. Since he was a shep munication with the deceased, by means of a
herd god, the tradition of his death and rebirth cult of the dead, or, conversely, to restrain the
was possibly an aetiological myth related to the dead from haunting the living, as they would
passage of die seasons. The god’s ‘death’ seems do if left unburied and free to wander (see
to have involved his forced abduction to the gidim). The Sumerian rite of pouring liba
underworld. (See NingiSzida.) tions into the ground by means of a clay pipe,
Another god described as ‘dead’ is Gugal- probably intended to give the deceased a drink,
ana, the first spouse and consort of the under maybe evidence that the dead were believed to
world queen Ereskigal. In the Sumerian poem remain in their graves. In the time of the Third
‘Inana’s Descent to the Nether World’, in Dynasty of Ur, however, as illustrated by
order to gain admission to the underworld, a funerary poem, there was a belief in different
Inana says that she has come to attend the treatments of the dead on arrival in the under
‘funeral’ of Gugal-ana, her brother-in-law. world dependent upon the nature of their
Whether Gugal-ana’s ‘funeral’ merely com burials. The proper burial of the deceased was
memorated his removal to the infernal regions therefore of crucial importance to Iris or her
(in a certain sense, his ‘death’) or whether it future ‘life’.
58
death and funerary practices
The most usual practice throughout the Cave in the Zagros mountains. The nine
ancient Near East seems to have been inhum skeletons (seven adults and two infants) do not
ation (interment of the body in the earth or in all belong to a single period, but date from
a container), although the almost complete perhaps about 60,000 to 45,000 years ago.
absence of adult burials of the Uruk Period The majority- ofburials known from archae
may possibly suggest tire practice of exposing ological excavations have been found in
corpses at that time. Cremation (the burning of cemeteries. These involve the graves of male
the bodily remains) docs not seem to have been and female adults and children. Young
practised in any period: there is no evidence in children were sometimes buried in the same
excavated graves in Mesopotamia for the use of graves as (male or female) adults, and in
fire and a Sumerian text suggests that to be certain periods there is evidence for a blood
burned to death accidentally was regarded as a relationship in such cases. Babies, however,
sorry plight indeed (see afterlife). were normally notburied in the cemeteries but
The earliest known human remains in either under the floors of private houses, often
Mesopotamia have been excavated at Shanidar in cooking pots (sometimes with a hint of
51 A Sumerian burial of
the Early Dynastic
Period, excavated by
archaeologists at tire site
of Abu Salabikh (perhaps
ancient Ere§).
59
death and junerary practices
human sacrifice), or simply tossed onto sites, however, burials can have comparatively
rubbish dumps as if they were regarded as sub little in tire way of grave goods. By the first
human. Adults were also buried beneath the millennium BC, an exaggerated social differen
floors of houses, but only rarely on rubbish tiation is apparent within given cultures. Neo-
tips. Assyrian burials, for example, range from
The relative wealth and degree of elabora simple pit burials with few or no funerary
tion in toe construction of graves varies con goods, through wealthier interments often in
siderably according to time, place and, in some ‘bath-tub’ coffins of terracotta or copper/
periods, the social status of the individuals in bronze, to fantastically wealthy graves such as
volved. Sumerian burials can show a very high those of the Assyrian queens very recently dis
level of effort and expenditure, must notably covered at Kalliu (modem Nimrud).
.35,52, with the so-called ‘Royal Tombs’ at Ur, The construction of graves ranges from
83,84 |,ut a]so jn thc richly furnished graves in simple pits, through slightly more elaborate
cemeteries at some urban sites. At less wealthy burials with burial chambers bricked off from
52 An elaborate object
used for supportng some
grave furnishing. A he-goat
made of shell, lapis lazuli
and gold on a wooden core.
One of a pair found in one
of the fantastically rich
‘Royal Tombs’ at Ur. Early
Dynastic Period.
Ht.47omm.
6o
death and funerary practices
the access shaft and rock-cut or stone-capped found in graves, although it is difficult at times
tombs, to brick or stone mausolea invoking to distinguish between those vessels which
considerable cost and effort in constniction. were themselves funerary offerings and those
Often the burial chamber, even in the poorest winch served merely as carriers for food,
graves, seems to have been lined with reeds or drink, washing water or cosmetics. There is
palm leaves, loose or in the form ofwoven mats. only occasional, and equivocal, evidence for
The body was often covered in a similar vessels made purposefully for the grave. ‘Sets’
manner. of vessels of differing sizes, placed one inside
In Early Dynastic, contemporary northern another, and apparently to be used together, are
51 Mesopotamian (‘Ninevite 5’) and early Baby common, however, in Sumerian and Ninevite 5
lonian burials die body has usually been found burials. The position of die vessels within the
in the flexed or so-called ‘sleeping’ position graves may- almost accidentally - give us some
(with the legs together, bent and raised), indication of their intended purpose, for even
though not often in the crouched or so-called if no rules governed the positioning, it would
‘foetal’ posture (with legs tightly flexed and be natural to locate the more important and
close to the chin). Later the preferred position personal items close to the body', with other
seems to have been the ‘stretched’ posture (with objects piled into the remaining space. In Early
the body laid out full length, legs straight, and Dynastic and Ninevite 5 burials the deceased
lying on the side or back). often holds a small bowl in front of the face as
The orientation of burials was often by the if to eat; even when no vessel is present, the
points of the compass, and can sometimes be hands are normally held in this position and
shown to be related to other factors such as the perhaps originally held some food, long since
sex or age of the deceased. Preferred orienta perished. The bones of a small animal have in
tion, or avoidance of certain orientations, one case been retrieved from the bowl in this
varied according to period and location. position. The bones of larger animals and the
Except in the case of very wealthy in carbonised remains of cereals, probably the
dividuals, adorned with a mass of jewellery, remains of food or sacrif.cial offerings (see
evidence of the clothing worn by the deceased animal sacrifice), have sometimes been found
is slim, since in tire arid conditions of the in the graves. A large vessel often placed close
Mesopotamian plain textiles rarely survive. A to the head, regularly with a smaller pot sitting
few fragments have, however, been found. within its rim, was perhaps a provision of
Those from one Ninevite 5 Period burial have drinking water, complete with scoop. Another
been identified as silk (!) and linen. The fairly large vessel is sometimes found together with a
common occurrence of copper or bronze pins, large natural stone slab (the so-called
often found on the chest or at the shoulders, ‘gravestone’): these have been interpreted as a
does suggest that the body was usually dressed. container for washing water and an ablution
Beads have often been found in large numbers slab.
as necklaces (or more rarely strung around the Smaller stones and pebbles, sometimes of
waist) or in smaller numbers or individually at differing colours and carefully placed on the
the wrists (on occasion close to the ankles). body, have been interpreted as having a sym
Numbers of cylinder seals have also on rare bolic or magical function.
occasions been found strung around the wrist, Tools and weapons are not very common in
perhaps worn as beads; more usually a single Mesopotamian burials of any period.
seal was placed separately in the grave. The grave goods seem to have served a vari
Burials without grave goods were not un ety of purposes. Some objects were so personal
common, but even an impoverished burial to the deceased that their inclusion in the grave
would often contain a pot or two, even a broken was natural, since they would not be used
one. Pottery is the most common of objects by others. Except in the richest graves, this
61
dedication
category of goods probably comprised only There is not much evidence that objects were
items of clothing or children’s toys. A second dedicated in connection with vows or pledges
category of items was included for the use of (votive offerings), but small models of e g. beds
the dead person in or on their way to the after or genitalia, feet or other limbs were probably 124,129
life, or as gifts for the denizens of the under dedicated either as thank offerings by those
world (referred to in texts of the Early Dynastic who believed the solution of their sexual prob
Period and Third Dynasty- of Ur). Finally, lems or bodily illnesses to be due to a particular
goods eventually assigned to the grave could deity, or as promptings by those hopeful of
represent a public display of wealth by the de achieving cures.
ceased’s family and friends during the funeral Ancient Mesopotamian society always took
ceremonies. Probably in the case of high- slavery' for granted, and an extension of this
ranking or wealthy individuals an elaborate was the dedication of certain human beings as
ceremony accompanied the procession from ‘belonging’ to the gods. At different periods
the house to the site of burial, although for this took different forms, with varying social
Mesopotamia we have little in the way of evi effects. The dedication in the Old Babylonian
dence for the rites involved (in contrast to the Period of the daughters of wealthy families to a
depictions on Egyptian murals). god and their confinement within a ‘cloister’
It is this aspect, the apparent relationship did not stop these women engaging in com
between the wealth of an individual in death plicated financial transactions, but at least
and his or her wealth and/or status in life, ensured that their property reverted to their
which has stimulated a renewed interest by family on their death (since they were forbid
archaeologists in burial practices during the den to marry) and so prevented dissipation of
last quarter century. Once considered only a the inheritance. In later Babylonian times the
basis for (often imaginative) speculations on temple sirkutu (dedicated slaves) was an order
religious beliefs, burial data are today widely of male and female persons dedicated to Mar
studied as evidence of social stratification. duk, Nabu, Samas (Utu), Nergal or Istar
Specialists in the archaeology of ancient (Inana). Parents dedicated their children and
Mesopotamia have on the whole been slow' to freemen their slaves. They were branded with a
make use of mortuary evidence in this way, but star, spade or wedge.
a number of recent studies have laid the See priests and priestesses.
groundwork for what may be a fruitful area of
research in the near future. deification of kings
See Adapa; animal sacrifice; dead gods; The deification of kings during their own life
Dilmun; diseases and medicine; galla; Gil- time was confined to a limited period of Meso
games; human sacrifice. potamian history. The first king to become a
living god was Naram-Suen, king of Agade
dedication (reigned 2310-2.274 bc) and the practice con- 75
At every period it was considered proper for a tinned with die subsequent kings of Agade, of
victor in battle to dedicate some of his spoils to the Third Dynasty of Ur, and with those of the
his or his city’s special protective deity. Such dynasties of Isin, Larsa and Babylon down to
objects usually carry inscriptions to this effect Samsu-ditana (reigned 1681-1651 bc). Kings
and became par. of the temple’s treasure. Valu who were deified claimed to be sons or brothers
able ceremonial objects, often of precious of major gods (see Lugalbanda). A cult was
materials, might also be dedicated to a god in offered to deified kings in temples throughout
peace time for the ‘life’ of an individual, their kingdoms, and praise poetry was com
especially a ruler, by the individual himself or posed in their honour.
by one of his ‘servants’, possibly as a thanks Sec Sacred Marriage; temples and
giving following illness or some other crisis. temple architecture.
62
destiny and fate
deities: see gods and goddesses. sters in ancient Mesopotamian art has adopted
a division into five main phases, namely:
demons and monsters (r) a formative phase, in the late Ubaid and
53 In most religions there is a belief in various Uruk Periods, when the features of different
kinds of supernatural beings ranking between animals were first combined into unnatural
the level of gods and men. ‘Demon’, in its composite beings;
original Greek sense {daimon ‘supernatural
(2) an optimistic phase, in the Akkadian
being’, ‘spirit’) serves as an approximate trans
Period, when glyptic scenes show the capture
lation of Akkadian terms like rabisu (Sumerian
and punishment of nefarious demons;
maskitn), which can refer to, and be qualified
as, a good or bad ‘demon’. In spells of the N co- (3) a balanced phase, in the Old Babylonian
9 Assyrian Period, we read ‘Get out, evil rabisu'. Period, when cylinder seal designs often mix
Come in, good rabisuV images (gods, symbols and other motifs) of
In modem studies of ancient Mesopotamian good and bad associations with respect to
art and iconography, however, the term mankind;
‘demon’ has generally been applied to any up (4) a transformative phase, with Mitannian,
right human-bodied hybrid creature, while Kassite and Middle Assyrian art of the four
‘monster’ has been applied to an animal combi teenth to elcvendi centuries bc, when the
nation on all fours. human-centred imagery of the Old Babylonian
Demons only rarely figure in mythology. Period gave way to a preponderance of animal
The scores of demons whose names are known headed hybrids;
to us are mentioned mainly in magical incant (5) a demonic phase, represented by Neo-
ations. Generally, ‘evil’ demons seem to have Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian art, when in
been conceived as mere agents and executors of dividual evil demons were depicted in their
the will of gods; their role was to implement fall horror.
divinely ordained punishment for sin. Such
This last phase of development accords well
‘evil’ demons were often imagined as weather
with the new’ theology of a demonically
spirits, of the wind or storms. Their usual
populated underworld in the first millennium 65,78,
method of attacking humans was by inflicting
EC. The change happens, moreover, at the same 99,101.
diseases (but not all illness was thought to be time as the advent of the practice of erecting in ]^’"7
due to them); there is no evidence for a general
palaces and temples monumental statues and
belief in demonic possession. Evil gods and
reliefs of magically protective beings, and of
demons are only very rarely depicted in art,
burying small clay images of them in the 9,11,
perhaps because it was drought tliat tlieir
foundations. Diverse in cultural background 17-.40,
images might endanger people; in some cases
and original significance, the various gods, de- /0 k'6
descriptions of their appearances arc so vague
mons and monsters involved were brought to
and inconsistent as to suggest they were not
gether into a fairly restricted visual series at
well established. By the first millennium BC,
this time, and for the first time they came to be
however, Lamastu is commonly represented,
treated as a group in mythological narratives.
usually in connection with incantations against
See galla; good and evil: lama; ‘omega’
151 her, while Pazuzu is even turned to good
symbol; udug.
purpose, being shown forcing Lamastu hack
to the underworld. This change may be re
destiny and fate: see divination; divine inter
lated to a new’ concept in the first millennium
vention; diseases and medicine; me; Nam-
BC of an underworld populated by demonic
tar; tablet of destinies.
beings.
A greatly simplified but plausible chron
ology for the development of demons and mon
63
64
emons, monsters and minor protective deities.
snakes
bird-man scorpion-people griffin-demon fish-garbed merman Huwawa Bes
figure and mermaid (Humbaba)
65
Dilmun
66
diseases and medicine
68
divine ir.lervenlivn
56 An anatomically detailed
model in baked clay of a
sheep’s liver, probably of Old
Babylonian date It is covered
with writing giving the
prognostications derived
from signs observed ir. the
various parts of the organ,
and was probably used as an
aid in teaching divination.
145 x145 mm.
69
dogs
quests or thanks, and parents’ choices of names In the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian
for their children, testify to a wide belief in the Periods, the dog, sitting or standing, was also
power and willingness of the gods to alter the used as a magically protective figure, not
course of individual human destinies. Indeed attached specifically to any individual deity.
one can say that religious belief in ancient Groups of five clay figurines of dogs painted
Mesopotamia would have had no meaning different colours were prescribed as foundation
unless it was accompanied by at least the possi deposits for either side of a gateway. They were 57
bility of divine intervention in mortals’ affairs. inscribed with such gems as ‘Don’t stop to
See dreams and visions. think, bite!’ Bronze dog figurines are in the
same period usually found in groups of seven
dogs (see numbers). Whether they were magically
The sitting dog first occurs as a divine symbol protective or dedicatory’ or served some other
in the Old Babylonian Period and continues purpose is unclear.
through to the Neo-Babylonian. Inscriptions It has been suggested that the disease of
79,90 on kudurrus identify it as the symbol of rabies was present in Mesopotamia by the
Gula, goddess of healing. An Old Babylonian beginning of the second millennium BC and
dog figurine from Girsu (modern Tello) is more widespread during the first millennium
dedicated (see dedication) toNinisina (Gula) BC.
and many dog figurines were discovered in the The dog family to the Mesopotamians meant
temple of Gula at Isin, confirming that the not only wolves, hyenas, jackals and dogs, but
association dates hack to that time. That it con also lions.
tinued down to the Neo-Babylonian Period
is shown by another figurine from Sippar donkey: see Lamastu.
dedicated to Meme (another name for Gula),
while King Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 604- donkey ears
562 bc) records the placing of statuettes of Mesopotamian demons and monsters with
gold, silver and bronze dogs as deposits in the lion’s heads were very often depicted also with
gates of Gula’s temple at Babylon. A dog is long upright ears, probably those of a donkey. 6,117
commonly seen on seal designs of this period, The lion-dragon is shown with such ears 10C
sometimes sitting by an enthroned goddess, from the time of its invention in the Akkadian
presumably Gula, but also sometimes without Period. The lion-demon is depicted with 32,99.
the goddess, sitting and supporting the symbol leonine ears in the Akkadian Period, but there- 142
of the crook. after also acquires the upright ears. The evil
57 Five little clay models of dogs. They had been placed in a hollow at the base of a monumental stone
relief on one side of a doorway in the royal palace of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (reigned
668-C.627BC) at Nineveh. They are painted in different colours and inscribed in exact conformity to the
prescription of written rituals, which denote their purpose as one of protective magic. Hrs.45-s6mm.
70
dream and visions
151 goddess Lamastu also has such ears when she portents offuture events, and thus were studied
is represented in the first millennium bc. Her as a branch of divination.
special beast is the donkey. When such crea The importance attached to dreams can be
tures were copied in arts outside Mesopotamia seen, for example, in the number of dream
the ears were generally altered to those of a episodes related in the stories of Giigames,
lion, an interesting example of lack of‘under in both the Sumerian and Akkadian versions.
standing' of the Mesopotamian convention. Here they are used as a literary device to open a
However, in Greek art the griffin retained its window upon subsequent events and, by their
long ears, and these passed into the icono consequent effects upon the protagonists, as a
graphy of medieval and modern European catalyst for moving the story on. In the Stan
griffins and dragons. dard Babylonian version of the epic, GilgameS
The inclusion of an element of the swift has two dreams presaging, through symbolism,
footed wild ass along with aspects of the fierce the arrival of Enkidu (see Ninsun). He has a
lion in such demonic hybrids might have series ofthree dreams concerning the projected
seemed an appropriate combination of wild campaign against Humbaba (Huwawa). Then
animals. They frequently also have bird talons there is Enkidu’s ‘death-dream’ and a dream of
(see bird talons and wings). Ut-napisti (Ziusura). For Enkidu’s ‘death
See griffin; standards, staves and sceptres dream’, the Hittite version apparently sub
of the gods stituted a dream of his visiting the assembly of
the gods. The Anatolian version of the epic
dragons also recounts a dream of Giigames presaging
Dragon (Greek drakon, ‘serpent’) is the word his struggle with the Bull of Heaven.
usually used in English for a terrifying mythi As a means of glimpsing the future, rulers
cal monster with a scaly snake-like or lizard - took their dreams very seriously. Gudea, ruler
like body. Belief in such creatures arose in of Lagas, recounts a dream in which he was
antiquity without any knowledge of the mon instructed to rebuild the temple of Ningirsu.
strous reptiles and birds that had actually The Assyrian king Assurbanipal (reigned
existed in remote prehistory. Mesopotamian arr 668-C.627 bc), when apparently in a desperare
6,117, includes a number of such dragon-like crea- military position, tells of a dream in which the
135 tures, of malevolent and beneficent natures. goddess Istar (Inana) appeared to encourage
Most closely corresponding to the general him and to assure him that she w’ould defeat the
138 image is the so-called snake-dragon, but enemy on his behalf. The appearance of the
100 other hybrids such as the lion-dragon might goddess before the king was also seen in a
also be regarded as dragon-like images. dream of a priest of Istar’s temple. No dream
In Sumerian poetry, usumgal, a serpentine episodes are related in the Assyrian royal
monster, can be a metaphor for a god or king; it annals before Assurbanipal’s reign Yet is
is a term of praise and not necessarily evil or seems that their portents were earlier con
unpleasant. sidered significant, because at Imgur-Enlil
See demons and monsters. (modern Balawat) Assumasirpal II (reigned
883 859 bc) had built a temple to Mamu,
dreams and visions possibly identical with the god of dreams.
Since Freud and his successors in psycho Archaeological excavations have unearthed a
analysis, dreams have usually been regarded as set of doors of the temple, which were decor
the direct or more oblique references of the ated with bands of bronze depicting scenes
subconscious mind to events of tire immediate from the king’s campaigns. (Ollier similar sets
or more distant past. Throughout antiquity, of doors, of Assumasirpal and his son and suc
however, and indeed until the late nineteenth cessor Shalmaneser III, were found in the
century AD, dreams were normally regarded as neighbouring palaces.) Imgur-Enli. was close
7i
Du-ku
to the capital city Kalhu (modern Nimrud), and situated ‘on the mountain of heaven and earth'.
may have been the usual place of the first It is where the gods determined the destinies,
night’s rest at the start of a campaign. Here, we and has therefore been interpreted as a ‘world
guess, the king would hope for dreams porten mountain’ where the Anuna gods lived in pri
ding the outcome of the coming battles. From mordial times and where elements of human
another site (ancient Huzirina, in Turkey) we culture (agriculture, animal husbandry, weav
have a fragment of a poem, rather in the epic ing, etc.) first came into being. It is described as
style, which relates a dream of Shalmaneser III the home of sheep and grain, and is punningly
(reigned 858-824bc) about the course of one referred to as the ‘holy lap’ (du ku) of Enlil. An
of his campaigns. alternative interpretation sees it, more pros
If they were related in some way to the revel aically, as the footlulls of the Zagros moun
ation of future events, dreams could also be a tains, whose fertile climate may in a very real
means of seeing into otherworlds. Since death sense have contributed to the development of
is the future for all men, there were dreams of human civilisation. Most likely the phrase
the afterlife. Enkidu’s death-dream is an ‘mountain of heaven and earth’ is intended to
example. 1'here is also an account of a dream of imply the world at the time before heaven and
an Assyrian prince (thought by some to be earth were separated from each other (see
Assurbanipal at a time before he became king) cosmology).
in which he visits the underworld and con Du-ku was also the name of shrines at
templates the horrors of the demonic creatures Girsu, Nippur and Eridu, earthly counterparts
residing there. That Enkidu was able to have a of the cosmic Du-ku.
dream of the gods resolving his fate shows that
heaven as well as hell could be seen through Dumuzi
drcams. The god Dumuzi is a shepherd god. In a dis
A compilation of dream omens has survived. putation with Enkimdu, the god of irrigation
In it are collected a host of dream scenarios, and cultivation, Dumuzi represents the con
together with prognostications. The predic flicting interests of the pastoralist. When
tions seem to be based upon precedent. That Inana visits the underworld, and cannot
is 10 say that the recorded subjects of tire return without a substitute to take her place,
dreams represent actual dreams reported by demons come to fetch her beloved young hus
individuals, while the prognostications record band Dumuzi to replace her. In this way
the events that subsequently took place in the Dumuzi died and became a god of the under
lives of the respective dreamers. Occasionally world. In the Sacred Marriage, in which
alternative predictions are offered, presumably Sumerian kings were ritually married to Inana,
based upon the reports of similar dreams with the king was identified with Dumuzi. In
differing sequels. The array of dream subjects another tradition, Dumuzi and NingiSzida are
listed is itself of interest: they include episodes represented as th e gatekeepers ofthe Heaven of
of daily work, of journeys near and far, of Anu (An).
family matters and sexual acts, encounters with The early history of the various local cults of
other people, animals and deities. Dumuzi and related deities is complex and
There were specialised dream-interpreters bewildering. The Dumuzi worshipped at Bad-
(see priests and priestesses). tibira was later thought to have been an ante
See Gatumdug; Gestinana; Nanse; ‘plant diluvian king of the town (described as ‘a shep
of life’. herd’). The Dumuzi worshipped at Urukas the
husband of Inaaa was connected with nearby
Du-ku Kuara and was also, in one account, thought
In Sumerian mythology, the Du-ku (‘holy to have been an early king of Uruk. The
hill’ or ‘holy mound’) is a cosmic locality god Ama-usumgal-ana, later identified with
72
E-gal-mah
Dumuzi, was originally worshipped at a village seals of the nineteenth century BC a dwarfish
near Lagas and in one cult song is described as figure with bow legs is a common motif. He has 58
a warrior hero. In some Sumerian poetry, variously been interpreted as a dancer in rituals
Dumuzi is also referred to as 'my Damn’. or entertainments, or as a type of demon, per
Tammuz, mentioned in the Biblical book of haps a prankster or a protective spirit. The
Ezekiel (8:14), is a Hebrew form of the name. figure may be related to the grotesque Egyptian
Ritual lamentation for the death of Dumuzi dwarf god Bes, whose form was known in 33
seems to have been widespread. In Early Dyn Mesopotamia and other areas of the ancient
astic Lagas rhe sixth month of the year was Near East.
named after die festival of Dumuzi, and in a
later north Mesopotamian calendar one of the Ea: see Enki.
months is called Dumuzi. The fourth month of
the Standard Babylonian calendar was called E-abzu
Du 'uzu or Duzu, and Tammuz is still used in E abzu (‘Abzu House’) was the temple of Enki 97
Iraqi Arabic as the name for July. at Eridu. According to Sumerian tradition,
The god Dumuzi and the stories concerning Eridu was the first city and the E-abzu the old
him do not seem to be depicted in Meso est shrine. Excavations conducted at the site,
potamian art. Abu Shahrain in southern Iraq, have un
See dead gods, galla, Gestinana; stylised covered a long sequence of superimposed
tree and its ‘rituals’. temples beginning probably in the fifth millen
nium BC and demonstrating gradual elabora
Dumu-zi-abzu tion of temple construction.
A local goddess of the village Kinunir near See temples and temple architecture.
Lagas. Although her name (which possibly
means ‘good child ofthe abzu’) was sometimes E-ana
abbreviated to Dumu-zi, she has no obvious E-ana (‘House of Heaven’) is the name given to
connection with the god Dumuzi. the temple ar Urult dedicated to the goddess
Inana. The city had been built, according to
Duttur: see Gestinana. tradition, by the Seven Sages and Gilgames.
The temcnos or sacred enclosure of E-ana, as
dwarf known from excavations, was constructed over
Persons of arrested growth have in many soci a long period of time by a number of different
eties been the butt of humour, often employed rulers, including Ur-Nammu (reigned 2168-
as entertainers and fools. We know that dwarfs 2151 BC), first king of the Third Dynasty- of Ur.
were kept as curiosities in Egyptian house Subsequently, Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian and
holds. For Mesopotamia there is no evidence of Achaemenid Persian rulers (including Cyrus
such apractice, but on southern Mesopotamian and Darius) had building programmes in this
area.
Sec sacrifice and offering; temples and
temple architecture.
73
Egyptian gods and symbols
74
Enki
Ruhurater, Kilahsupir, Tirutir, local gods; names Nudimmud or Ninsiku or by the title
Napir (?), moon god; ‘Stag of the abzu’, i.e. the giant fallow deer
Dama dama mesopotamica. Enki/Ea was a son of
Siyasum, Narunte, Niarzina, goddesses and
An/Anu. or else of the goddess Nammu, and
sisters of Kiririsa, also called sisters of the
a twin brother of the god Iskur/Adad. His
Sebittu (the Seven (gods));
wife was Damgalnuna/Damkina, and their
Siinul, a herald god, and Iris wife Manzat (see offspring included the gods Marduk, Asar-
rainbow). luhi, Enbilulu, the sage Adapa and the god
Most of the Mesopotamian gods were also dess Nanse. His minister was the two-faced
honoured in Elam. god Isimud/Usmu. This Enki (whose name is
Enkig in full) is not the same as Enlil's ances
E-ntah: see Ninhursaga; Sara. tor Enki (‘Lord Earth’).
Enki’s most important cult centre was the
E-meslam: see Nergal. E-abzu (‘Abzu House’) at Eridu. As aprovider
of fresh water and a creator god (see creation)
E-mele-ursag; see Zababa. and determiner of destinies, Enki was always
seen as favourable to mankind. In the epics of
Enbilulu: see Enkimdu. Atra-hasts and Gilgames, especially, he takes
the part of man against the gods and helps
engur: see abzu; Enki’s creatures.
mankind to escape the Flood sent by the de
cision of the other gods. In the Sumerian poem
E-ninnu: see Ningirsu.
‘Inana and Enki’ he controls the me con
cerned with every aspect of human life, and in
Enki (Ea)
‘Enki and the World Order’ he has the role of
Enki (Akkadian Ea) was god of the subter
organising in detail every feature of the
ranean freshwater ocean (abzu), and was
civilised world.
especially associated with wisdom, magic and
In art Enki is represented as a seated god
incantations, and with the arts and crafts of
with long beard, wearing a cap with many
civilisation. He is sometimes called by the
horns and a long, pleated robe. Streams of 60
water flow from his arms to the ground, some
times with little fish swimming along the flow.
Often the god is shown receiving worshippers
or bearers of offerings, or else he receives the 115
bird-man, brought before him as a prisoner 88
under guard, or the lion-demon. These might
be introduced by other gods, most commonly
by Enki’s minister Isimud. Sometimes Enki is 19
shown seated within a structure, the abzu, or
else his E-abzu shrine, surrounded by chan
nels of water.
In the symbolism of the Kassite, Babylonian
and Assyrian Periods, Ea’s beast was the goat- 70
fish. The god’s other symbols were a curved
stick terminating in a ram’s head (see stan- 76
dards, staves and sceptres ofthe gods) and a
60 The water god Ea and his two-faced minister turtle. 150
god Usmu. Detail from the cylinder seal of a See Enki’s creatures; horned cap; Nin
scribe named Adda, Akkadian Period. hursaga; ring-post; river ordeal; wedge.
75
Enkidu
76
Esagil
Ennugi Eridu
Ennugi is the god who has special care over Eridu was a city on the south-western edge of 4
dikes and canals, and he is called the ‘canal Mesopotamia, sacred to the god Enki, and
inspector of the great gods’. He is regarded as believed by the Sumerians to be the first city
a son of Enlil, or else of Enmesarra; and his and to be at least 250,ooo years old! Excavations 3
wife is the goddess Nanibgal. He may be iden have revealed that the site (now called Abu
tical to Gugal-ana, first husband of Ereskigal. Shahrain) is very ancient indeed, but in his
He is also associated with the underworld. torical times Eridu consisted of little more than
See Enkimdu. the temple buildings and sacred precincts.
Originally the marshes came close to Eridu,
Enzag and fish offerings were regularly made to the
Enzag is one of the gods created by the union of god (see sacrifice and offering). The temple of
Enki and Ninhursaga. It the Sumerian poem Enki, known as the E-ahzu (‘Ahzu House’) or
‘Enki and Ninhursaga’, Enki has eaten eight E-engura (‘House of tlie enguE (another word
plants which grew from his semen spilt or. the for abzu)), was an extremely important shrine,
thighs of his daughter L’ttu, and has become ill which was ritually ‘visited’ (see journeys and
in various parts of his body. As a result of their processions of the gods) by other gods travel
union, Ninhursaga gives birth one after ling in their boats (see boats of the gods). Its
another to eight divinities. One of these is gates were guarded in Sumerian times by two
Enzag, ‘lord of Dilmun’. In a later text, Enzag great stone lions, one of which was excavated 97
is called the 'Nabu of Dilmun’. almost intact and now stands in the Iraq
See Dilmunite gods. iMuseum, Baghdad.
Sometimes in incantation rituals (see magic
Ereskigal and sorcery), the magician is told ‘Now you
Ereskigal, whose name can be translated cast the Spell of Eridu’, although we never
‘Queen of the Great Below’, is also known in learn what the Spell of Eridu was - possibly it
Akkadian as Allatu. She is the goddess who was a secret formula that was transmitted
rules the underworld, mother of the goddess orally. Enki, of course, was closely involved
Nungal and, by Enlil, ofthe god Namtar, who with magic.
serves as her messenger and minister. Eres- See Adapa; altars; Seven Sages; temples
kigal’s first husband was the god Gugal-ana, and temple architecture.
whose name probably originally meant ‘canal
inspector of An’ and who may therefore have Erra: see Nergal.
been identical with Ennugi. In the Sumeriar.
poem ‘Inana’s Descent to the Underworld’, Erua: see Sarpanitu.
Inana tries to gain entry to the underworld by
claiming that she has come to attend the funeral Esagil
rites of Gugal-ana, the ‘husband of my elder Esagil, the ‘Lofty House’, is the name of the
sister Ereskigal’. The son of Ereskigal and temple of Marduk at Babylon. It stood on the
Gugal-ana was the god Ninazu. In another Processional Way adjacent to a very large
tradition, Ereskigal married the god Nergal, enclosure incorporating the ziggurat E-
as related in the poem ‘Nergal and Ereskigal’. temen-an-ki (see Tower of Babel), ’with
77
E-su-me-sa
shrines dedicated to a number of gods. The lived peaceably together in a tree, until one day
principal shrines were those ofMarduk and his the eagle gobbled up the serpent’s young. The
wife Sarpanitu. The temple precinct measured serpent went crying to Samas (Utu) who sug
about 500 metres square. Esagil was already in gested a course of action. Concealed in the
existence in Old Babylonian times but was belly of a dead ox, the serpent lay in wait for the
considerably rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II eagle to come to eat from the carcass. He then
(reigned 604-562 bc). The incredible wealth wrought a terrible revenge, catching the bird,
of the temple was mentioned by the Greek his breaking his ‘heel’, plucking him and hurling
torian Herodotus, who described Babylon in him into a deep pit.
the fifth century bc. The ziggurat was in ruins Etana meanwhile had his own problems.
by the time of Alexander the Great, but he died Being childless, he was in search of ‘the plant
at Babylon before he could rebuild it. of giving birth’ (a fertility drug?) which grew
Sometimes in the cult ofMarduk, Esagil was only in the heavens (see ‘plant of life’). Samas
accorded cosmic significance as the ‘mooring counselled him to rescue and befriend the
post of heaven and earth’. It is represented in eagle and to make use of him in flight. Etana
this way in the Babylonian Epic of Creation, followed this advice and the eagle carried him
where the creation of Esagil itself is an impor on his back, soaring the skies. As the earth
tant stage in Marduk’s arrangement of the began to disappear from view', Etana lost lais
world. nerve. On this cliffhanger the extant text
See temples and temple architecture. becomes fragmentary. Wc may assume, per
haps, that Etana was rescued and probably that
E-su-me-sa: see Ninurta. he acquired the fertility plant. According to the
Sumerian King List, he lived a respectable
Etana t,j6o years and had a son and successor named
According to the Sumer ian King List, after die Balih.
Flood, hegemony over Sumer fell to the city of Cylinder seals especially of the Akkadian
Ki§ and the kings of its First Dynasty. One of Period commonly depict scenes of a man flying
these kings was named Etana, ‘a shepherd who on the back of an eagle, which may plausibly be 61
ascended to heaven’. interpreted as representations of a version of
What could so easily have been a tantalising Etana’s bird-borne journey.
hint at a story is fortunately filled out for us by See Gilgames.
Babylonian poems recording the legend. The
tale begins as a fable. The serpent and the eagle E-teir.en-an-ki: see Tower of Babel.
78
eyes and eye-idols
62 A selection of various ‘eye-idols’ from the early historic Eye Temple at Tell Brak.
Hts. r.6o-nomm.
79
'eyes-of-Ningal'
neck supporting a pair of wide eyes, infilled his father Marduk during the annual Baby
with black or green paint. Sone examples have lonian New Year ceremonies. Wnen Nabu
three eyes, or two pairs of eyes one above the was adopted as a popular god in Assyria also, a
other. It has been suggested that the temple was temple to him was built on the acropolis of the
dedicated to an eye god, whose image would Assyrian royal capital Kalhu (modem Nim
originally have stood upon the pedestal in rud). It is known that the Assyrian king Assur-
the shrine Occasionally these ido's are rep nasirpal II refounded this Ezida in 879 BC. An
resented as ‘embracing’ a child, so that an extensive library of cuneiform tablets was kept
alternative view would prefer to see them as in the Ezida at Kalhu, in a room across the
offerings to an all-sccing mother goddess. courtyard from the twin shrines of Nabu and
An emphasis on the eyes, however, seems to his wife Tasmetu.
have been a more general sign of extreme ‘holi See temples and temple architecture.
ness’, for statuettes deposited in the shrine of a
Sumerian temple at Esnunna (the so-called fan: see Ban
1 ‘Square Temple’), surely representing wor
shippers rather than gods, look with abnor fertility
mally large eyes and wide stares as if into some Although the all-embracing ‘fertility cult’
other world. aspects of Mesopotamian myth and religion
The eye is a recurrent motif in art from the have certainly been exaggerated as a result of
Early Dynastic to the Neo-Assyrian Period,
although it is not easy to decide when it had a
purely decorative and when a magical func
tion. In the case of eye-shaped amulets and
pendants, religious overtones are more cer
tainly apparent.
See rhomb
‘eyes-of-Ningal’
Models of eyes cut in semi-precious stones are
known from Sumerian down to Neo-Assyrian
times. These include a pair of eyes carved from
a lump of onyx and dedicated by an early king
of Babylon to the goddess Ningal (see dedi
cation). This item was later plundered by
the Assyrians and rededicated to the same
goddess, in Assyria, some ten centuries later.
Because other models of eyes were dedicated to
this deity, they are generally referred to by
archaeologists as ‘eyes-of-Ningal’, but such
models were also dedicated to oilier deities.
Ezida
Ezida (probably ‘Righteous House’) is the
name of temples of the god Nabu. Originally
6.3 A fertility god, from a monumental stone re
the name referred to the temple at Borsippa,
lief discovered next to a well within the temple of
just south of Babylon, where Nabu was wor the god A55ur in the city of Assur. Probably it
shipped from the Old Babylonian Period. It dates to the second half of the second millennium
was from this temple that Nabu came to ‘visit’ bc. Ht.i.gbm.
80
figurines
81
‘filling motifs’
82
Flood
Flood
Both great rivers of Mesopotamia, the Tigris 4
and the Euphrates, are prone to flood when
swollen by the spring rains and the snow-melt.
The Tigris especially can rise during the
period February to May and cause destructive
floods of immense proportions over a very' wide
area of the flat alluvial plain. These sudden,
violent floods were a frequent feature of life in
southern Mesopotamia until flood-control 66
engineering in tire 1950s. Archaeological ex
65 A human-looking figure dressed in the skin cavations have revealed evidence of several ex
of a fish and holding a bucket and (originally) a tensive floods at various sites and at different
cone. Drawn from a monumental stone relief, periods.
one of a pair flanking a doorway of the temple of So it was natural for floods to be a powerful
the god Ninurta at the Assyrian city of Kalhu literary image, and the destructive inundation
(modem Nimrud), where they had been erected was a favourite metaphor for the destructive
during the reign of King Assumasirpal n
(reigned 883-859 bc). Drawn by rhe power ofa deity. Nor is it surprising that Meso
archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard, who potamian mythology should include legends of
conducted excavations at the site in the mid-rgth one great Flood accompanied by torrential
century. rainstorms that was more extensive than any
83
flour
84
galla
the flood waters arc compared to flies. When Sec alcohol; animal sacrifice; Ninmah;
Ut-napisti (Ziusura), the survivor of the sacrifice and offering; Siduri.
Flood, makes the first sacrifice after the ark
comes to land, the gods sniff the savour and fork
buzz around like flies. To express her regret A rare symbol in Mesopotamian art is the tri
that the Flood was ever sent, the mother god dent or three-pronged fishing spear. It is rep- 76
dess Nintu (or Relet-ili in the. version of the resented on seals of Early Dynastic, Akkadian,
story in die Epic of Gilgames) (see mother Old Babylonian/Old Assyrian and Neo-
goddesses and birth goddesses) touches the Assyrian date. It may occur in a group with
necklace of fly-jewels that Anu (An) made her, other, more familiar, symbols of gods, or as an
swearing that she will never forget the terrible attribute held by a god or bull-man. On one
event. Lapis lazuli beads in the shape of flies seal from the time of the Old Assyrian trading
have been found in Mesopotamia, and other colony in Anatolia, a god on a bull holds the
fly-jewellery is known from temple inventories. triple fork of lightning while another god on a
In a Sumerian poem, a little fly helps Inana lion holds the trident. The two symbols should
when the galla demons are hunting down certainly, therefore, be distinguished. The tri
Dumuzi. dent has been explained as the Old Assyrian
The image of a fly on Old Babylonian seals mazlagum, ‘fork’. Which Mesopotamian deity
has been thought possibly to bc a symbol of the object symbolised, however, is unknown.
Nergal as god of disease and death.
fortune-telling: see divination.
food and drink of the gods
Unlike the Greek Olympians with their foundation deposits: see building rites and
ambrosia and nectar, the Mesopotamian gods deposits.
had no special foods which were the privilege
of divinity. However, in the story of the sage frog
Adapa, Anu (An) decides that Adapa shall be Ln the Sumerian poem ‘Inana and Enki’, when
offered the ‘bread of life’ and the ‘water of life' Enki awakes to find that in a drunken gambling
when he visits heaven, and it is clear from the game he has allowed inana to win from him all
context that to have consumed these would have the me, he attempts to recover them by sending
conferred (eternal) life. In fact, believing them various watery creatures chasing after Inana’s
to be the bread and water of death, he declines boat. The first is a little frog, whom he grasps
and loses his chance of immortality. ‘by its right hand’. Apparently the frog fails,
The gods lived on the sacrifice of sheep, fish, and other creatures are sent on the. same
cereals and oil which mankind was obliged to errand.
offer them regularly: the same foods as were A frog occurs as a symbol or ‘filling motif
consumed by man himself. They drank beer on cylinder seals of the Kassite Period.
and wine (probably date wine as well as grape Weights were sometimes made in the shape of
wine), and in a number of myths gods are de frogs.
picted as imbibing to excess. Inana has to feign
sexual innocence to ward off the drunken ad galla
vances of her brother Utu in one Sumerian The galla (Akkadian galla', is one of the numer
poem, and in ‘Inana and Enki’ she plies Enki ous types of underworld demons especially
with beet and sweet wine to tire point where he responsible for hauling unfortunate humans
agrees formally to bestow on her the me or offto the underworld. Often mentioned in in
divine powers of the universe, an action he cantations in enumerations of seven types of
bitterly regrets when he wakens from his evil demons (see magic and sorcery), the gallas
drunken stupor. in one magical text are said themselves to
85
Ganzir
number seven (see numbers). Inana is ac Gatumdug's temple was originally in the
companied by gallas on her return from the temple area at Laga§ but was subsequently
underworld, and they set off in a pack to fetch moved to Girsu.
tire hapless Dumuzi to the nether regions.
Several Sumerian poems describe the deserted generations of gods
sheepfold of Dumuzi after the gallas have taken Information about the generations of gods is
him away. contained in many myths and literary works
Like most demons or spirits, gallas could and also in ancient .Mesopotamian lists of
exist in a favourable form too. In Gudea’s gods, set out according to their ‘households’,
hymn the minor god lg-alima is described as with consort, offspring, other relatives,
‘die great galla of Girsu’ (see Ningirsu). minister, household staff and so on. ‘.Mar
sec Gestinana. riages’ and ‘parenthood’ among the gods arc
sometimes attributable to geographical close
Ganzir: see Ereskigal; gatekeepers; under ness of the cult centres where they were wor
world. shipped. However, the same god was some
times worshipped in different places, each with
gatekeepers its own traditions, and it was a persistent
152 The entrances to heaven, the underworld and feature of the history' of Mesopotamian re
the abzu were usually guarded by one or a pair ligion for local traditions to be gradually syn-
of lesser divinities. In the poem ‘The Descent cretised as, throughout the centuries, political
of Istar (Inana)’ and in Babylonian magical units grew larger and larger. So it is sometimes
incantations, a god called Ncti guards the gate impossible to present unified data since several
of the underworld (called Ganzir). In ‘Nergal discrepant traditions may bc recorded for the
and Ereskigal’, the gatekeeper of the under same period. The table on page 87 shows the 67
world is not named. In the myth of Adapa, tine family relationships of some of the principal
gods Dumuzi and Giszida (Ningiszida) arc gods according to the best-known traditions.
found guarding the gate io the heaven of Anu But it cannot bc regarded as exclusively correct
(An), but this was a role not usual for them. and is far from presenting a complete picture:
Particularly in Assyrian times, gateways the reader is advised to consult the entries on
were protected by a flanking pair of hybrid individual gods and goddesses. In some cases
animals or animal-men (see demons and the use of the terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ in
monsters), sometimes semi-divine (see lama). Mesopotamian texts may imply no more than
Sec Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea; Utu. that the deities concerned were of the same
‘generation’; similarly ‘father’ sometimes
Gatumdug means ‘ancestor’, and so forth.
Gatumdug was a goddess of the city-state of
Lagas and, like Bau, with whom she was later genies
equated, she was regarded as a daughter of An. A number of so-called ‘genies’ arc found in
She is sometimes called '.Mother of Lagas’ or Assyrian monumental and minor arts, often
‘Mother who founded Lagas’. Gudea, the engaged in royal rituals. Sometimes animal
prince of Lagas who rebuilt the temple of hybrids such as the griffin-demon appear to
Ningirsu, describes in his great hymn on that take part in rituals, but more often such parti
subject how he visited the temple of Gatumdug cipants are anthropomorphic. Some types are
on his way to the temple of Nanse to obtain an clearly minor deities, since they wear the
interpretation of a dream. He addresses homed cap as a mark of their divinity; others
Gatumdug as mother and father and asks for may be human. A male winged god, standing or
the protection of her favourable udug and kneeling, holds a bucket and cone and can bc 37
lama deities. involved in the scenes of‘ritual’ centred on the
86
67 Genealogical table of Mesopotamian gods and goddesses. Female deities are indicated in italics. Dotted lines indicate descent rather than parenthood,
fenerations ofgods
Gestinana
Gestinana
Gestinana is the goddess who was the faithful
sister of Dumuzi and, like him, a child of the
sheep goddess Duttur. Her cult was wide
spread over Sumer until the Old Babylonian
Period. She seems to have been thought of
sometimes as an ‘old woman, an interpreter of
dreams’, as ‘Mother GeStinana’. When Inana
determines that, in order to secure her own
release from imprisonment in die under
world, her husband Dumuzi shall take her
place, galla demons come to fetch the young
shepherd god from his sheepfold in the
country. Gestinana, his sister, who is also a
rural deity after whom fields were named
(hence too her equation with the later Ak
kadian goddess Belet-seri, 'Lady of the open
countryside’), helps her brother to hide from
the demons by sending him successively to four
different hiding places. In another version of
the story, she refuses to give him away even
when tortured. In the event a friend of Dumuzi
reveals his whereabouts to the demons. Ges
tinana sings a death lament for him. It was
believed that subsequently she and Dumuzi
alternated six-month periods in the under
world, where she sometimes functioned as
scribe to Ereskigal.
68 A winged genie with a sacrificial deer. From a
monumental stone relief in the throne-room of ghosts: see gidim.
the royal palace of the Assyrian king Assumasir-
pal n (reigned 883-859bc) at Kalhu (modern
Gibil (Girra)
Nimrud).
Gibil or Girra (Akkadian girru) is deified fire.
Viewed as a god, Girra was thought to be a son
49 stylised tree. A similar female figure holds a of Anu (An) and the goddess Sala. He rep
chaplet of beads. Such figures might be resented fire in ad its aspects: as a destructive
covered by the Akkadian term aladlammu, force and as the burning heat of the Meso
which seems also to have been applied to bulls potamian summer; and, as a creative force, the
and lions with human head (sec lama). A fire in the smith’s furnace and the fire in the
third figure carries a flowering branch, some- kiln where bricks are baked, and so as a ‘foun
68 times also a sacrificialf?) goat. Sometimes he der of cities’.
wears the horned cap, and even when he does See Nusku.
not he often has wings. Presumably, therefore,
such figures are also non-morlal; they may rep gidim
resent the Seven Sages in human guise. The gidim (Akkadian etemrnu) is, first of all, the
See fish-garbed figure. spirit of a dead person, living in the under
world, who must be propitiated and revered.
The condition of such spirits is not, in general,
88
Gilgames
happy, and regular funerary offerings of food ruler of the city of Ki§, or with the latter’s son
and drink must be made to them. If not fed, Agga.
they can become restless and liable to haunt the The five independent narrative poems in
living. The gidim is also, then, the ghost who Sumerian survive in manuscripts from the first
returns from the underworld to persecute the half of the second millennium BC and are
living. Especially those who had died violent usually called by die tides given to them by
deaths were likely to be unsettled in the under their modem editors. ‘Gilgames and Agga’ is
world and to return and ‘seize’ living persons. the story of the successful rebellion of Gil
1'hey might enter the body through the ear. games against his overlord and benefactor,
Magic could be employed against them. King Agga ofKis. ‘Gilgames and Huwawa’ (or
Necromancy, the deliberate raising of ‘Gilgames and the Cedar Forest’) relates how
ghosts, was known and practised in Babylonia. the hero and his serving man Enkidu defeat
Questions about the future could be put to a and kill the monster Huwawa, who had been
ghost raised in this way, although it was recog appointed by Enlil as guardian of the Cedar
nised dial this was a very dangerous activity, Forest. ‘Gilgames and die Bull of Heaven’ tells
since a ritual exists to counteract the ill effects how the heroic duo defeat and kill the Bull of
caused by practising necromancy (see magic Heaven, sent against Gilgames by the goddess
and sorcery). Inanaperhaps after he had rejected her sexual
Ghosts were also thought to be able to cause advances. ‘The Death of Gilgames’ is poorly
some diseases. Qat etemmi (literally ‘hand of preserved, but apparently referred to an impor
the ghost’) seems to have been a more or less tant state funeral and the arrival of the de
psychological illness. On the other hand, sibit ceased in the underworld. It may perhaps have
etemmi (‘seizure by the ghost’) appears to have been misinterpreted, as it could refer rather to
had definite physical symptoms. the death of Enkidu. In ‘Gilgair.es, Enkidu and
See afterlife. the Nether World’, Gilgames questions the
shade of Enkidu about conditions in the
Gilgames underworld.
Most scholars take the view that Gilgames By the Old Babylonian Period, stories about
probably was a historical king of the Sumerian GilgameS and his adventures had been elabor
city Unug (in Akkadian, Umk) some time dur ated into one or more poems in Akkadian.
ing the early part of the Early Dynastic Period. However, the most complete version, a grand
However, we can definitely say that during the epic which survives in twelve fragmentary-
later Early Dynastic Period a god G ilgames (or tablets, was compiled by one Sin-leqe-
Bilgames, to give the early Sumerian form of unninni, probably in Middle Babylonian
his name) was already being worshipped at a times, and first discovered in the excavation of
number of different places in Sumer. The first the library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal
certain connection of this god with Uruk was (reigned 668-11.627 bc) at his capital Nineveh.
when Utu-hegal, king of Uruk, adopted Gil Some of the gaps in the narrative can be filled
games as his patron deity- Under Utu-hegal’s by fragments found at other sites in Meso
immediate successors, die Third Dynasty of potamia, Anatolia and the Levant.
Ur, Gilgames was also worshipped at a small The epic opens with a prologue in praise of
town near Ur. This may bc why the kings of the Gilgames, builder and first king of Uruk, the
Third Dynasty were especially attached to Gil great warrior, one-third human, two-thirds
games, calling him their ‘divine brother’ and divine. There is allusion, however, to the
‘friend’. Probably from this period derive the king’s ‘oppression’ of the city, usually inter
various legends according to which Gilgames preted either as his tyrannical compulsion of
was a famous king of Uruk, contemporary- with the citizens to foiced labour or as his sexual
En-me-barage-si, a historically attested early oppression of the population. In order to curb
89
Giigames
90
gipar
9i
goat-fish
goat-fish
A creature with the head and forelegs of a goat
and body of a fish is represented from Neo
Sumerian through to Hellenistic times, and 71 Gods fight among themselves. Modern
even had a revival, as Capricornus, at the hands rolled impression of a lapis lazuli cylinder seal of
of the Romans (especially in Augustan art, the .Akkadian Period from KiS.
Capricorn being the emperor’s zodiac sign). Ht. 280 mm.
The identification of the Mesopotamian crea
ture with tire suhurmasu, ‘carp-goat’, is proved
90 by a kudurru caption and by the inscriptions
70 prescribed in Assyrian rituals for figurines of
the type, which appear on actual examples.
Association with the god Ea (Enki), suspected
from the frequent monographic juxtaposition
7 with the ram-headed staff (see standards,
staves andsceptres of the gods), is confirmed
by texts, but the figure could also be a generally
magically protective type, often paired with the
merman in pictorial representations.
93
gods and goddesses
94
gods, and goddesses
75 Two images of kingship, (left) Naram-Suen, tinguished by their not being named. De
god-king of Agade (2254-2218bc), wearing the mons, which can be both beneficent or evil, are
horned cap of divinity. From his stela com normally under the command of gods, and
memorating victon' over the Lullubu, found at usually operate very much in the world in
Susa in north-west Iran, where it had been taken
as booty in antiquity, (right} King Assumasirpal which mankind lives. Finally some human
11 of Assyria (reigned 883-859 bc) in ceremonial beings were deified: most of the Akkadian,
religious dress. Assyrian kings were not deified, Sumerian and Babylonian kings from Naram-
but were the chief priests of the god Assur. From Suen (reigned 2310-2274BC) to Samsu-ditana
an ivory casket (?) panel from Kalhii (modem (reigned 1681 1651BC) were deified in their
Nimrud). own lifetimes and received a cult in temples
throughout their kingdoms, but the practice
died out thereafter.
95
96
horse's head dog cow and calf turtle snakes scorpion mongoose fish
97
76 Symbols of the gods.
‘God with mace’
‘God with mace’; sec mace. graves: see death and funerary practices.
98
griffin
99
griffin-demon
78 A monumenial stone relief from the royal palace of the .Assyrian king .Assumasirpal n
(reigned 883-859 bc) at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). It depicts a so-called ‘griffin-demon’, thought
of at the time as an ancient sage in bird-guise. He carries a bucket and cone for purification. The
inscription across the middle of the relief records (in a way common to all the slabs from this
palace) the conquests of the king. Hr.2.32m.
too
Gula
legs and tail of a lion and the head and fore ‘Guardians of the gate’: see gatekeepers.
parts of a bird, usually an eagle. Probably ori
ginating in Syria in the second millennium BC, gud-alim: see bison; bull-man.
the griffin was known throughout the Near East,
77 including Mesopotamia, and in Greece by the Gugal-ana: see EreSkigal.
fourteenth century BC. It is often paired with
the sphinx (see bulls and lions with human Gula
head). In Assyrian art it is sometimes depicted The goddess Gula (whose name means ‘great’) 7,79
together with the griffin-demon. was a healing goddess, who ‘understands dis
Thebeastcan be shown recumbent orseated ease’, and a patroness of doctors. She. was also
on its haunches. The Near Eastern version has worshipped under the names Nintinuga, Nin-
a crested head, while the Greek is usually karrak and Meme, originally the names of
shown with a row of spiral curls forming a other goddesses; and as Ninisina, ‘Lady of
mane. Often, in both the Near East and Isin’. Her principal shrine was the E-gal-mah
Greece, the creature has large donkey ears, at Isin, but she also had temples at Nippur,
perhaps from some assimilation to the lion Borsippa and AiSur. She was regarded as
dragon The beak is often parted to show the the wife of Ninurta or Pabilsag, or else of
curling tongue. the minor vegetation god Abu. Gula was the
Apparently tire creature had some religious mother of the healing god Damu, and of the
significance, being shown in the Near East god Ninazu (also associated with healing).
among other beasts of the gods and in the Her sacred animal was the dog, and small
West in funerary art. It may have been magic model dogs were dedicated to her by worship
ally protective, but its precise associations and pers (see dedication).
functions are unknown. See diseases and medicine.
griffin-demon
With possible antecedents from the Old Baby
lonian Period, and with close analogues in
Mitannian art, the griffin-demon first appears
in his familiar form - a human-bodied figure
with bird’s head and wings - on Middle
Assyrian seals, and became a very popular
figure in Neo-Assyrian art, especially in the
ninth century bc. After the seventh century bc,
the figure is rare, but occurs on Seleucid
Period seals. The private quarters ofthe palace
78 of Assurnasirpal II (reigned 883-859BC) were
dominated by reliefs depicting this creature.
In the Neo-,Assyrian Period figures of this
type were explained as representations of the
Babylonian Seven Sages, and groups of seven
11 figurines of them were used as foundation
deposits to protect houses and palaces (see
building rites and deposits) - alongside very
different anthropomorphic figures and figu- 79 The goddess Gula and her dog. Detail from
12,65 tines of the fish-garbed figure (also supposed the carving on a kudurru of the reign of the Baby
to represent the Seven Sages). lonian king Nabu-mukin-apii (reigned 978-
See bucket and cone; Nisroch. 943 BC).
IOI
hand
102
horse
horse
81 Symbol of a horse’s head on an altar. Detail
The horse had been introduced into Meso
from the carving on a kudurru of the Babylonian
potamia by the first half of the second millen king Nebuchadnezzar I (reigned 1125-1104 bc).
nium bc. A winged horse or a centaur is to be
82 (below) Detail from a Neo-Assyrian cylinder
43 seen on some Middle Assyrian seals. The motif seal. The sun god Samas, within his winged disc
ofa horse’s head occurs as a divine symbol on a (supported by bull-men), stands on a horse, while
seal of the second millennium bc and on Nco- a fish-garbed figure and worshipper (represen
Assyrian seals, as well as on a kudurru of the ting the owner of the seal) flank the scene.
103
House God and House Goddess
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar I (reigned figurines of them were buried in the founda
81,90 1125-11048C), where it may represent a con tions to ward off demons. The form of these
stellation (see rainbow). In the Neo-Assyrian figures is at present unknown.
Period, the horse is the animal of the sun-god See building rites and deposits.
31 Samas (Utu), if we may trust this identification
of the deity on the basis of the associated Hubur; see river of the underworld; river
82 winged disc ordeal.
Assyrian business documents sometimes
specify as penalties for breach of contract, the human sacrifice
dedication of two or four white horses to the For Early Dynastic Sumer large scale sacri
god ASSur. These were probably live horses, fice, on the death of a lord or lady, of the reti
given to the temple or (as the chief priest of the nue of the household, human as well as animal
god) the king, rather than statues. (see animal sacrifice), is scarcely if at all hin
ted at in documentary sources. Nevertheless,
House God and House Goddess it is unequivocally attested by Sir Leonard
A pair called 'House God’ and 'House God Woolley’s excavations of the ‘Royal Tombs’ at
dess’ were magically protective deities in Neo Ur. The principal occupants of these tombs
Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian buildings. Clay were attended by numbers of victims, from six
83 The plans of two important Early Dynastic burials at Ur, as excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley.
(.'<?//) The so-called ‘King’s Grave’ and (right), lying above it, the grave of Queen Pu-abi.
104
Hurrian gods
105
Huwawa (Humbaba)
Huwawa (Humbaba) their feet while Enkidu cuts off his head with
Huwawa (Akkadian Humbaba) appears in the his sword.
Gilgames stories as Enlil’s guardian of the Babylonian models of the face of Humbaba
Cedar Forest. Described as a giant protected by (ranging in date from the Old Babylonian to
seven layers of terrifying radiance (see melam the K'eo-Babylonian Periods) were connected 8
and ni), he was killed by Gilgames and with divination: some are inscribed with
Enkidu. omens for ‘when the intestines are like Hum
85 In art, Humbaba is typically portrayed as a baba’, or ‘if a woman bore [a foetus] in the
human-bodied figure with lion’s claws for shape of Huwawa’ - the prognostication is
hands, a monstrous face, long hair and whisk always revolution in the state! It has been
ers. Clay plaques and seals of the second and thought that such models were used to instruct
first millennia bc depict his killing by Gil- in divination, but in the Old Babylonian
69 games and Enkidu: they pin him down with Period faces of Humbaba are frequently seen
on clay plaques and on seal designs, set high in
the background, as if they were hung on the
wall - perhaps as magical charms. The face of
Humbaba was carved in stone on one side of
the entrance to the Old Babylonian Period
temple at Tell al Rimah.
Huwawa/Humbaba is perhaps a form of the
Elamite god Humban. The name and role of
Humbaba survive in that of Korr.babos, a
guardian figure in a legend from Hellenistic
north Syria.
Igigu
Igigu or Igigi is a term introduced in the Old
Babylonian Period as a name for the (ten)
‘great gods’. While it sometimes kept that
sense in later periods, from Middle Babylon
ian times on it is generally used to refer to the
gods of heaven collectively, just as the term
Anunnakku (Anuna) was later used to refer to
the gods of the underworld. In the Epic of
Creation, it is said that there are 300 Igigu of
heaven.
Ilaba
85 A baked clay relief placue depicting Ilaba is now thought to be the correct reading of
Huwawa or Humbaba, Enlil’s guardian of the the name of a god whose worship was briefly
Cedar f orest. Probably Isin-Larsa or Old Baby but importantly prominent during the Ak
lonian Period. Ht. rogmm. kadian Period, as a warrior god and personal
ro6
Imdugud
deity of the kings oi that dynasty. His name is head. In Neo-Assyrian art, a monster com
sometimes found inscribed on the attractive bining bird and lion elements may be the
cylinder seals of the period. Anzu or the Asakku (Asag) (see lion- 6,117
After the Akkadian Period he appears to have dragon).
become almost completely obscure, and is The Imdugud or Anzu steals the tablet of
mentioned only occasionally, as for instance on destinies from Enki (Sumerian version) or
a kudurru of the eighth century BC. There was from Enlil (Akkadian version), and the bird is
a temple of Ilaba at Babylon. The constellation killed by Ninurta who eventually returns the
known to the Babylonians as the Harrow is de tablet to its rightful owner. This must be a very
scribed in an astronomical explanatory text as early myth (although not attested until the
the ‘weapon of Ilaba’. Old Babylonian Period) since the Imdugud is
The suggestion that the god is represented already depicted as a heraldic animal associ
103 by the so-called ‘Figure with mace’ is without ated with Ningirsu on the ‘Stela of the
foundation. Vultures’ (late Early Dynastic Period) and
referred to in connection with this god in a
Il-abrat; see Ninsubur (god). dream recounted by Gudca of Lagas. The
association is presumed to derive from
Imdugud (Anzu) Ningirsu/Ninurta’s defeat of the bird (see
Imdugud is probably the correct reading of the Slain Heroes). On seals of the Akkadian
86 Sumerian name of the monstrous bird who is Period, a bird-man is commonly shown being
called Anzu in Akkadian. Envisaged as bird brought before Ea (Enki) as a prisoner, and 88
like but having the head of a lion, and of some have thought to relate this to an early
gigantic size so that the flapping of its wings version of the ImdugudMnzu story.
could cause whirlwinds and sandstorms, the In the SumerianpoemofLugalbanda, when
Imdugud was probably originally a personifi he is wandering in the Zagros mountains, the
cation of an atmospheric force (its name is used hero comes upon the Imdugud fledgling in its
to write a word meaning ‘fog’ or ‘mist’). Other nest. The Imdugud and its wife soon return. In
descriptions of the Anzu indicate that it had a ‘GilgameS, Enkidu and the Nether World’,
beak ‘like a saw’, and so presumably a bird’s the Imdugud and its fledgling nest in a sacred
107
Iminbi (Sebittu)
Inana (Istar)
The goddess Inana or Istar was the most
important female deity ofancient Mesopotamia
at all periods. Her Sumerian name Inana is
probably derived from a presumed Nin-ana,
‘Lady of Heaven’; it also occurs as Innin. The
125 sign for Inana’s name (the ring-post) is found
in the earliest written texts. Istar (earlier Estar),
her Akkadian name, is related to that of the
South Arabian (male) deity ‘Athtar (see
Arabian gods) and to that of the Syrian god
dess Astarte (Biblical Ashtoreth), with whom
she was undoubtedly connected.
The principal tradition concerning Inana
made her the daughter of An, and closely con
nected with the Sumerian city of Uruk.
According to another tradition she was the
daughter of the moon god Nanna (Sin) and
sister of the sun god Utu (Samas). She was also
regarded as daughter of Enlil or even of Enki
in variant traditions. Inana’s sister was Eres
kigal, queen of the underworld. Her minister
was the goddess Ninsubur. Tire fact that in no
tradition does Inana have a permanent male
spouse is closely linked to her role as the god
dess of sexual love. Even Dumuzi, who is
often described as her ‘lover’, has a very am
biguous relationship with her and she is ulti
mately responsible for his death. Nor were any
children ascribed io her (with one possible
exception, Sara).
It seems likely that with the persona of the
classical goddess Inana/lstar a number of
originally independent, local goddesses were
148 syncretised (see local gods). The most impor
tant of these was certainly the Inana of Uruk,
108
incense
where her principal shrine E-ana (‘House of Other myths concerning Inana are ‘Inana
Heaven’) was located. But other local forms and Bilulu’ (in which Inana turns the old
of the goddess were recognised and received woman Bilulu into a waterskin, believing her
independent cults: Inana of Zabala (in north to be responsible for the death of Dumuzi);
ern Babylonia), Inana of Agade (especially ‘Inana and Su-kale-tuda’ (concerning the gar
honoured by the kings of the dynasty of dener Su-kale-tuda), and ‘Gilgames, Enkidu
Agade), Inana of Kis; and, in Assyria, Istar of and rhe Nether World’, in the first part of
Nineveh and Istar of Arba’il. which Inana transplants a sacred halub tree to
Inana was also intimately associated with the Uruk, from the wood of which her chair and
goddess Nanaya, with whom she was worship her bed arc later made.
ped at Uruk and Kis. In art, Inana is usually represented as a
87 The ‘personality’ of Inana/Istar can be warrior-goddess, often winged, armed to the 87
divided into three quite separate strains. One hilt, or else surrounded by a nimbus of stars. 16,41,
aspect is that of a goddess of love and sexual Even in this aspect she may betray - by her pos-
behaviour, but especially connected with extra ture and state of dress - her role as goddess of
marital sex and — in a way which has not ye.t sex and prostitutes. In Neo-Assyrian and Neo-
been fully researched, notwithstanding the re Babylonian art, a female, shown full frontal
marks of Herodotuson the subject-with pros- and nude or nude from the waist down, who
124 titution. Inana is not a goddess of marriage, has wings and wears the horned cap of
nor is she a mother goddess. The so-called divinity, probably depicts Istar more specifi
129 Sacred Marriage in which she participates cally in her sexual aspect.
carries no overtones of moral implication for Istar’s beast was a lion. Her usual symbol 16,31
human marriages. The sixth tablet of the Baby was the star or star disc. She may also have
lonian Epic of Gilgames, in which Gilgames been symbolised for a time by the rosette.
reproaches Istar for her treatment of a whole See Anunitu; bull and ‘winged gate’; Bull
series of lovers, and declines to become die of Heaven; cow and calf: E-ana; ‘hands-of-
latest in the list, is an important source for this Istar; Ishara; La-tarak and Lulal; nude
aspect of Istar, as are the various Sumerian woman; ‘omega’ symbol; sacrifice and
poems about Inana and her love for Dumuzi. offering; standards, staves and sceptres of
The second aspect of the goddess’s per the gods: temples and temple architecture;
sonality is that of a warlike goddess who is fond Zababa.
of battle, which is proverbially described as the
‘playground of Etar’. Violent and lusting after incantations: see demons and monsters;
power, she stands beside her favourite kings as magic and sorcery.
they fight. In a Sumerian poem, Inana cam
paigns against Mount Ebih. Her journey to incense
Eridu to obtain me and her descent to the Incense, scattered on lighted coals in a censer
fiontis. underworld are both described as intended to which was moved through the air to disperse a
extend her power. Especially, Istar of Arba’il fragrant smoke, was a regular element in Baby
was a war goddess for the Assyrians. lonian religious ceremonies. Incense ‘offer
The third aspect of Inana is as the planet ings’ were a normal part of sacrificial rituals,
Venus, the morning and evening star. ‘I am and lire use of incense was often called for in
Inana of the sunrise’, she declares in ‘Inara’s magical rituals also. In medical practice, in
Descent to the Underworld’. In this form she cense, cedar resin or shavings, and other
was sometimes known under the name Nin- fumigants (usually plants) or aromatics were
sianna. Her transformation to this aspect is used as a form of fumigation.
celebrated in a poem composed probably in the In Old Babylonian times, a form of divina
Kassite Period. tion was practised in which omens were
tog
Innin
observed in the shape of the smoke rising from a mother goddess. An explanation of a ritual
the incense. describes her as mother of the Sebittu or Seven
(gods). Earlier her associated animal was the
Innin: see Inana. basmu snake (see snakes), replaced from late 139
Kassite times by the scorpion. Astronomically 130
Isimud (Usmu) Ishara is the constellation Scorpius.
Isimud, or in Akkadian Usmu, is a minor god Ar. important goddess of the same name was
who functions as a minister to Enki/Ea. He worshipped in south-east Anatolia and north
acts as a messenger for the god in the Sumerian ern Syria, within the Hurrian pantheon. She
poems ‘Enki and Ninhursaga’ and ‘Inana and was associated with the underworld.
Enki’ (in which he tries to persuade Inana to
return the me to her father). His name seems to Iskur (Adad)
be identical with a word (occurring in both The god who embodied the power of storms
masculine and feminine forms) explained in a was known to the Sumerians as Iskur. The Ak
commentar}- as ‘with two faces', and so he can kadian equivalent of this deity was Adad (also
60.88 be idenrified with the two-faced deity associ called Addu or Adda). More at home in the
ated in Mesopotamian art with Enki. West Semitic area was a related deity called
Wer or Mer. Most ancient Near Eastern
[shara peoples worshipped a storm god, and Adad was
Ishara was a goddess who seems to have been sometimes equated with the Hurrian god
more closely connected with the Semitic tra Tesup or the Kassite god Burias (whose name
dition than the Sumerian. Her worship may may be distantly connected with the Greek god
have spread into southern Mesopotamia from of the north wind, Boreas' (see Kassite gods).
the Middle Euphrates region. She seems to Iskur/Adad was usually regarded as the son
have been associated with Dagan, possibly as of An. According to an older tradition, he was
his wife in one tradition. As a goddess of love, the son of Enlil. His wife was the goddess
she is equated with (star (Inana); in other Sala, possibly of Hurrian origin, also treated
guises she is associated with war and with as the wife of Dagan. His ministers were the
extispicy (see divination), or else appears to be pair of minor deities Sullat and Hanis.
88 The double-faced minister god Usmu ushers a bird-man into the presence of the water god Ea.
From a cylinder seal of the Akkadian Period.
no
Istaran
89 The weather
god standing on his
beast, (left) Iskur or
Adad on lion
dragon, from a
cylinder seal of the
Old Babylonian Period.
(right) Adad on his
bull, from a Neo-
Assyrian stela
found at Arslan
Tash.
in
isum
m
kudurrus
kudurrus
Kudurrus are large polished stones carrying in
scriptions concerning land grants, usually in
volving the crown, or land sales. They are often
of hard stone, including black basalt; there are
rare examples of rather smaller bur related
monuments of baked clay. Those kudurrus
known from excavations were found mostly
in temples, standing as records of the royal
grants, but it is supposed that these represent
replicas of such stones placed on the
boundaries of the land allotments themselves
(hence the term ‘boundary stone’ as a common
translation of kudurru). The stones have been
found only in the south of Mesopotamia. They
were perhaps introduced by the Kassites
and were used from that time down to the Neo-
Babylonian Period (seventh century BC).
Although the form was not adopted by the
Assyrians in tire north, after tire time of the fall
of Assyria no further kudurrus are known.
On the upper parts ofkudurrus or on one face
were symbols of deities which were apparently 90
supposed to solemnise the agreements. Dire
curses upon those who broke the agreements
were included in the text, made in the names of
other gods (never those whose symbols are de
picted).
On some of the stones the symbols are
90 A carved kudurru with symbols of different ‘labelled’ with the names of the deities they 7
gods, found at Sippar. The inscription on the represent, which is a valuable source for
other side of the stone records a grant of land identification of the meaning of such symbols
and privileges from die Babylonian king
(see Introduction). Kudurrus with such
Nebuchadnezzar I (reigned 1125-1104 Be).
The carved images were thought to invoke the labelling are among those looted from Baby
protection of the legal arrangements by the lonia tn antiquity by the Elamites and dis
deities symbolised. Ht. 0.56 mm. covered in excavations at the Elamite city of
!I3
kur
Susa: it has been suggested that the labels other-worldly locale in the same way as the
were added by the Elamites as a ‘key’ to the underworld (kur) in other myths is an other-
symbols of the Babylonian gods. Some of the world which deities try to visit or to obtain
symbols may represent constellations (see power over.
rainbow).
It has been thought by some that the positions Labbu: see Tispak.
of the symbols on the stones were related to the
relative ranking of the deities shown, and even lahama
if not a deliberate and conscious procedure, a Among the creatures associated with the
rough correlation is likely because the more Sumerian god Enki are the ‘fifty1 lahama of the
important deities would come to mind first, the engur’ (engur is a synonym of abzu). They are
less important being added lower down on the among the creatures sent to try to recover the
stone if space permitted. If true, the suggestion me from Inana in rhe myth ‘Inana and Enki’.
has implications for the detailed recon They were especially associated with the abzu
struction of Babylonian theological changes and with Eridu, but it is not known in what
and shifts of power of different interest groups form they were imagined.
attached to the various temples. A secondary use of the term lahama in
The term ‘ancient kudurrus' is used by Sumerian seems to refer to guardian figures
scholars to refer to land exchange transactions (statues) which stood in the gateways of great
of the Early Dynastic Period which bear no temples such as the E-kur in Nippur or the
relation to the later Babylonian kudumis E-ninnu at Girsu. These are also sometimes
proper. called ‘lahama of the Again it is not
known in what form they were represented.
kur The word lahama is borrowed from Old Ak
The word kur in Sumerian has two separate kadian lahmuni (probably meaning ‘hairy’’).
meanings. One of these is ‘mountain’ or, more See Lahmu.
generally, the ‘mountains’, especially the Za
gros Mountains to the east of Mesopotamia.
Because of this it can also refer to a 'foreign
land’ (other than Sumer) or in the plural to
‘foreign countries’, since the foreign countries
with which Sumerians had to do, whether in
war or in peaceful trade contacts, were above all
those in or beyond the Zagros Mountains.
The second meaning of kur (which may be in
origin a completely different word, a cognate of
Ki, ‘earth’) is ‘earth, ground’, and in particular
kur is one of the names for the world under the
ground we live on: the underworld or abode
of the dead.
Although there are no grounds for positing a
Sumerian belief that the underworld was
located in the mountains, it was probably 91 The god Lahmu (‘Hairy’) more than holds
believed that the entrance to the kur (under his own with a fierce lion. Modem impression
from rolling a cylinder seal of the Neo
world) was located in the mountains to rhe east
Babylonian Period. The inscription is a
152 of Mesopotamia where the sun could be seen dedication of the seal ‘for his life’ to the god
to emerge every morning. Certainly in some Nabu by one Nabu-sarhi-ilani, brewer for the
myths the mountains (kur) are treated as an temple of Marduk. I It. 44mm.
114
Lamastu
Lahmu
91 Lahmu (‘Hairy’) is the name of a protective
and beneficent deity, originally associated
153 with Enki/F.a, later associated with Marduk.
9 Figurines ofthe god, who was represeii led wi th
long hair and beard (often with four or six large
curls), were used in the Neo-Assyrian Period as
foundation deposits to ward off demons and
sickness. In art this figure (inappropriately
termed the ‘Nude Hero’) is often closely
associated with the kusarikku (see bull-man).
In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, Lahmu
and Lahamu are a male and female pair of pri
mordial deities (see Ansar and Kisar). Their
names are probably derived from the same root
(and do not mean ‘muddy’ as was formerly
believed).
See lahoma; lahamu under Tiamat’s crea
tures; vase with streams.
lama (lamassu)
The Sumerian term lama (Akkadian lamassu)
refers to a beneficent protective female deity,
imagined as human in form. Generally such
a deity was anonymous. (The corresponding
male deity was called alad, Akkadian sedu.)
16.73, In Neo-Sumerian, Old Babylonian, Kassite
92>95 and Neo-Babylonian art such goddesses arc
depicted in a quite consistent form, usually
introducing worshippers into the presence of
important deities, and wearing a long, often
flounced skirt, with one or both hands raised in
supplication to the major god.
Later, the related term aladlammu (if that
is the correct reading of die cuneiform) seems
to have been used to designate the winged
human-headed bull and lion colossi which
guarded the gateways of Assyrian palaces and
temples. The corresponding winged female
human-headed colossi were called apsastt. (See 92 A stone stela earned with the figure of a
lamassu, one of a pair that probably flanked the
bulls and lions with human head.)
entrance to a shrine. Kassite Period. Ht.o.Sqm.
Lamastu
Although she is usually described in modem
works as a ‘demoness’, the writing of the name
of Lamastu in cuneiform suggests that in
Babylonia and Assyria she was regarded as a
«5
lamp
ti6
libation
95 A worshipper,
ushered into the
presence of a seated
god, pours a libation
upon an altar before
him. From a cylinder
seal of the Akkadian
Period, found at
Nippur.
«7
lightning
act of hospitality is to offer cool water. How Isaiah 34:14). ‘She is not a wife, a mother; she
ever, the very ancient practice of pouring drink has not known happiness, has not undressed in
offerings onto the ground may be connected front of her husband, has no milk in her
with an idea of sacred wastefulness. breasts.’ She was believed to cause impotence
See animal sacrifice. in men and sterility in women.
A plaque thought possibly to depict her
lightning (symbol) shows a scorpion-tailed shc-wolf about to de
The representation of a single lightning flash vour a young girl.
(zigzag line), found very rarely in the art of the See nude woman.
Akkadian and Old Babylonian Periods, appar-
21,90, ently gave way in the latter period to the lion
96,151 double- or triple-lightning fork, which occurs The last lion in Mesopotamia was killed in the
thereafter until Neo-Babylonian times. It twentieth century ad, although the exact date is
should be distinguished from the fork or tri disputed. Until the end of the third millen
dent. As is known from inscriptional evidence, nium BC lions were common throughout the
it was at all times and in all regions a symbol of country. Thereafter they are not much men
10,89, the storm god. whether Adad (Iskur) in tioned in southern Mesopotamia, although on
Assyria or some localised deity. Sometimes it the Middle Euphrates and in Assyria they re
was held as an attribute by the god. On a mained such a nuisance that lion-hunting,
famous monumental relief made famous by the Assyrian kings (see 22
117 caning of the Neo-Assyrian animal sacrifice), was a genuine necessity. In
Period, the god Ninurta(?) the Babylonian Epic of Gilgames, the gods 91
holds triple-lightning symbols, discuss whether' a plague of lions would not
perhaps because he has have been a more appropriate chastisement of
taken over a mythical role once mankind than the Flood.
attributed to Adad (see .Asag). In literature, the lion is a favourite metaphor
See ring-staff. for warlike kings and fierce deities, especially
.Ninurta or Inana. A popular saying was: ‘He
who seizes the tail
96 Forked lightning, symbol of of a lion will
the weather god. drown in the river;
he who seizes the
Lil: see Sul-pa-e. tail of a fox will
be saved.’
lilitu
The male lilii and the two females lilitu and
ardat-lili are a sort of family group of demons.
They are not gods. The lilu haunts desert and
open country and is especially dangerous to
pregnant women and infants. The lilitu seems
to be a female equivalent, while the ardat-lili 97 This colossal
(whose name means ‘maiden lilii’) seems to stone lion
have the character of a frustrated bride, incap originally stood
able of normal sexual activity. As such, she in the temple cf
Enki at Eridu. It
compensates by aggressive behaviour especi
probably dates to
ally towards young men. The ardat-lili, who is the Neo-
often mentioned in magical texts, seems to have Sumerian Period.
some affinities with the Jewish Lilith (e.g. Ht.i.64111.
118
lion-demon
As far as the Sumerians were concerned, the On a ‘Cappadocian’ seal (that is, from the
lion was grouped together with dogs and Old Assyrian trading colony in Anatolia), the
wolves as a ‘canine’, rather than as a feline. lion is associated with a male deity who holds
Two gigantic stone lions guarded the en- the fork emblem.
97 trance to Enki’s temple E-abzu at Eridu: one In the Neo-Assyrian Period, the natural lion
of these is now in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, is also a generally magically protective type,
while only fragments of the other were recov known as urgulu. An evil demon who lay in 98
ered. In the poem ‘Inana and Enki’, Enki wait in washrooms was envisaged in the form of
entertains his daughter Inana to a beer a lion (see lion-centaur).
drinking party ‘in front of the lions’. In the The constellation called Lion corresponds 159
Neo-Assyrian Period rhyta with their bases to our constellation Leo (see zodiac).
shaped in the form of a lion’s (or a ram’s) head, See bulls and lions with human head.
were luxury drinking vessels.
A standing lion surmounting a standard is lion-centaur
depicted on Sumerian stelae and on seal im The so-called lion-centaur of Middle Assyr
pressions of the time of the Third Dynasty- of ian and Neo-Assyrian art is a hybrid creature
Ur. Since all the reletant material comes from with a lion’s lower body (including all four
the city of Girsu, the. lion-standard has been legs), and the head, upper body and arms and 98, 99
regarded as an emblem of die god Ningirsu. hands of a man. He often wears tlae horned
The lion is known in the Akkadian Period as cap of divinity. The creature's name was
87 the attribute of a goddess, usually a heavily urmahlullu, ‘lion-man’.
fnnils. armed deity, perhaps Istar (Inana) in her guise Representations of him were placed outside
16 as warrior goddess. Monumental stone lions ablutions rooms, where he fended olf the
of King Assurnasirpal II of Assyria (reigned attacks of the leonine demonMukil-res-lemutti,
883-859 BC) were dedicated to an aspect of ‘Evil attendant’.
Istar and placed at the gateway to her temple at See merman and mermaid.
Kalhu (modem Nimrud), and it is probably she
who is represented as standing on a lion on die lion-demon
31 seventh-century' BC Maltai rock panels. On the A human-bodied hybrid figure with the head
same reliefs Mullissu (Ninlil) is enthroned on of a lion, upright ears (see donkey ears) and
a lion. The lion also seems at least in the Neo- the feet ofa bird is present in Mesopotamian art
Assyrian Period to have been associated with from the Old Babylonian Period (and with
the goddess Damkina (Damgalnuna). more leonine features from the Akkadian it-
98 A ‘lion-centaur’
(umuMuUu) attacks
the demon Mukil-
res-lemutti, shown
in die form of a lion,
f rom a cylinder seal
of the Middle
Assyrian Period.
119
iion-danoii
99 ‘Lion-demons’ and a 'lion-centaur' threaten and bar the way to evil forces. A monumental stone
relief which stood in a niche in a room of the royal palace of the Assyrian king Assurbar.ipal (reigned
668-C627BC) at Nineveh. Ht.1.47111.
no
lion-headed bird
100 A so-called
‘lion-dragon’ or
‘lion-griffin’. Detail from
the carvingon a kudurru of
the late Kassite Period.
Period) until the Persian conquest, when it is represented from the Akkadian Period
passed into Achaemenid, and then Seleucid, down to the Neo-Babylonian, including on
art. The demon most often (and always in the an Assyrian wall-relief from the Temple of 6,117
first millennium BC) raises one hand with a Ninurta at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). As the
dagger and holds in the other, lowered, hand a creature is often clearly male, suggested iden-
mace. His torso is generally naked. Usually he tifications as Lamastu and Tiamat can be dis
wears a short kilt, but when he is fully naked he counted. It is possible that the monster is the
has a curly lion’s tail. Asakku (Asag) or the Anzu (Imdugud). A re
At least for the Neo-Assyrian and Neo cent suggestion makes the creature sometimes
Babylonian Periods, the type can be certainly the (umu) naira, ‘roaring (weather-beast)’, the
identified as the ugallu. ‘big weather-creature’, animal of the god Iskur; this would account 45,89,
a beneficent demon protective against evil de for the beast’s wide-open mouth. A slightly '32
mons and illnesses. He is depicted on Neo- variant horned lion-dragon with scorpion tail
99 Assyrian palace reliefs, and clay figurines of is found in Neo-Assyrian art. On the rock re
him were among those placed in houses or liefs, probably of Sennacherib, at Maltai, three 31
buried in the foundations in magically protec different gods stand upon such a beast, prob
tive rituals (see demons and monsters). He is ably Assur, Sin (Nanna-Suen) and Adad
4,32, often associated with, the figure of the Smiting (Iskur).
151 god. On Old Babylonian seals, however, he See griffin.
often hclds a man upside down by one leg, and
55 is associated with the ‘god with scimitar’, prob lion-fish
ably the underworld god Nergal. It has been A motif on Old Babylonian seals is a figure
suggested therefore dial al this early time he with the head of a lion and the body ofa fish. Its 53
represents an attendant of Nergal, and is a significance is unknown.
bringer of disease.
121
lion-headed staves
lion-humanoid
101 In Kassite, Neo-Assyrian and Seleucid art we
find, if rarely, a minor deity (in horned cap),
human above the waist but with two lion’s legs
and lion’s hind-quarters, including a curled-
over lion’s tail. Figurines of the type are some
times paired with those of a bull-man and
the creature may similarly be associated with
Samas (Utu). In any event he seems to be a
late invention based upon the bull-man and
the scorpion-man. He is a protective figure.
His Akkadian name seems to have been
uridimmu, which could be translated as ‘mad
lion’ (literally, ‘mad canine’).
Lisin
The goddess Lisin, together with her brother
Asgi, was worshipped in the Sumerian cities of
Adab and Kes. Her husband was Ninsikila, but
101 A leonine human figure as protective
later his name was misinterpreted as that of a demon. Drawing of a (now lost) monumental
goddess, and Lisin was accordingly treated as a stone relief found at Nineveh in the royal palace
god. In Sumerian times she was sometimes of Assurbanipal, king of Assyria (668 0.627BC).
called ‘Mother Lisin’ and, as a mother god Drawn by W. Boutcher, artist to the archae
dess, was either equated with Ninhursaga or ological excavations, in r.1854.
regarded as a daughter of Ninhursaga. As the
name of a star, Lisin is a Scorpionis.
122
Lugal-irra and Aieslamta-ea
123
Lulal
were thought to stand at the entrance to the the Roman toga-wearer). In this hand the
underworld ready to dismember the dead as figure often, but not always, carries a mace,
they entered: certainly they were considered to probably a mark of his authority. It has been
be efficacious in guarding doorways, and in thought that die figure represents a god (Ilaba,
Neo-Assyrian times small images of them were Ninsubur (god), Alarm or any local god), or,
buried at entrances, Lugal-irra on the left and since he often stands upon a podium, the cult
Meslamta-ea on the right, identical figures in statue of a god. More recently he has usually
102 homed caps each carrying an axe and a mace been designated as the ‘Figure (rather than
Astronomically, Lugal-irra and Meslamta- god) with mace’ and interpreted as a
ea were named the Great Twins (Gemini). generalised representation of the king or of a
(The name Lugal-irra was formerly read deified former king.
Lugalgirra.) See lion-demon: Lugal-irra and
Meslamta-ea.
Lulal: see La-tarak and Lulal.
magic and sorcery’
mace Magic was a normal aspect of life in ancient 104
103 A common representation on seals of the Old Mesopotamia, and did not belong to a disap
Babylonian and Kassite Periods is a male proved area. In a world in which one was inter
figure with prominent splayed beard, wearing minably threatened by supernatural demons
a rounded cap and short wrap-around robe and by human sorcerers, and hemmed about by
knotted on one hip. He strikes a distinctive taboos and oaths, and where past, present and
posture: head and lower body in profile, farther future were inextricably interrelated by the
leg forward, upper body twisted to a three- observation of (sometimes avertible) portents, it
quarter view, one arm held loose by the side, was normal to use white magical means, among
the other bent at the elbow with the hand held others, to bring comfort and, possibly, heal
majestically to the lower chest (in the style of ing. However, sorcery' (deliberately harmful
124
magic and sorcery
black magic) was regarded as evil because of its infringing taboos or committing ‘sinful’ acts,
social effects, but very probably its methods or disturbing the world order; that they can bc
were the same as those used in standard bewitched by other humans; and that when ill
magical practice. portents are divined, their ill effect can be dis
Magic was used to insure against, to drive sipated in advance by magic, that is, that the
away or to overcome demons; to undo the bad predetermined future can to some extent be
effects of certain ‘sinful’ actions (usually social redetermined.
misdemeanours); to counteract the potential Clearly the practice of magic is very close to
effects of certain portended events; to increase both medicine and divination, and sometimes
sexual potency (see prostitution and ritual difficult to separate from them (see diseases
sex); to secure the favours of a loved one; to and medicine). Medicine - ‘scientific’,
quieten squalling infants; and, among many surgical, herbal - certainly existed, but (since
other functions, to frustrate the activity of hos the cause of sickness was often thought to be
tile sorcerers. demons) magic was often used in addition to
These practices presuppose certain views of decoctions, poultices, ointments, enemas, etc
the world, namely that there is a host of demons They were carried out by the same person, the
who cause ills of all sorts, especially sickness; dsipu. Another specialist, the asu, was more
that human beings can bring ‘sin’ (Akkadian specifically a physician. Divination was carried
amu and other words, envisaged as a sort out by the diviner, but an dsipu was needed to
of illness) upon themselves by unwittingly avert the effects of ill portents. Asipii might be
104 A reconstruction, in a painting by H. M. Herget, of a ritual scene that might have taken place in
Assryia or Babylonia in about the 7th century bc. A priest attends a sick man, while fish-garbed figures
(real or imagined) protect and purify. A diviner consults a model of a sheep’s liver. See ill. 151.
magic and sorcery
attached to temples as part ot their clergy. (See ritual. These generally end ‘Be conjured by
priests and priestesses.) heaven! Be conjured by the underworld!’
The forms in which Babylonian magic Second, incantations designed to protect lay
survives to us are incantations or spells in persons from the attacks of demons: the de
Sumerian, Akkadian and sometimes other lan mons are first described, then banished. The
guages such as Elamite or Hurrian, sometimes third type of incantation also begins with a de
garbled but rarely complete mumbo jumbo; tailed description of the demons and what they
'rituals’, that is, systematic descriptions (ad have done. In a short narrative section, Marduk
dressed to the magician) of the actions to bc ‘notices’ and goes to his father Ea for advice.
followed, including a list of the incantations to Ea replies in a formulaic phrase, ‘My son, what
be used at certain points, said either by the is there that you don’t know? What can I add?
magician or by the ‘patient’: amulets, usually All that I know, you also know’, but goes on to
inscribed with excerpts from well-known in give appropriate ritual advice. The ritual pro
cantations and worn around the neck, or cedure is thus encapsulated in the text of the
occasionally hung on the wall of a house; and incantation itself. In medical incantations, the
apotropaic figurines. narrative section is regularly absent because
The very earliest incantations which survive the ritual procedure to be followed is abstrac
date from the Early Dynastic Period, about ted and recorded separately; but it was
2400 BC, but are very difficult to read unless a obviously a convenient way of preserving the
clearer duplicate text of later date gives assist correct ritual when the magical tradition was
ance. Some are intended to protect against transmitted entirely by memorisation. Finally,
snake-bite, against scorpions, to assist in there is a type of incantation addressed not to
childbirth or to consecrate objects used in demons or 10 gods of white magic but to the
magical rituals, and they are important mainly cultic obj ects that are to be used in the ritual By
as they presuppose the existence of such rituals being ‘enchanted’ the objects become more
already at this date. By the Old Babylonian effective in their magical function. These are
Period it is clear that the process had begun by generally a variety of perfectly ordinary
which individual incantations in Sumerian objects: the stove or brazier with the fire in,
were grouped together according to their onions, branches of dates, reed matting, a flock
function or the demons they were intended to of wool, goat’s hair, red-dyed wool, flour,
give protection against. The first Akkadian tamarisk branches, reeds, salt, cedar or juni
interlinear translations also date from this per, aromatic resins, incense, sea water and so
period. This is not to imply that magical prac on.
tices were already becoming matters merely of One of the best-preserved Babylonian
curiosity - far from it - but it does show that the magical collections is that called Surpu (‘burn
magical literature had by then entered the ing’), also one of the most interesting in con
stream of written tradition, as well as being tent. Surpu is performed when the magician’s
handed on by word of mouth. client does not know by what act or omission he
Broadly speaking, four types of incantation has offended the gods and disturbed the world
can be distinguished. First, those in which order. The client, or patient, has come to the
the magician, often addressing the demons magician 'in a critical stale, worried, sleepless,
directly, legitimates himself as the representa ill’, sometimes convulsing, foaming at the
tive of those gods especially associated with mouth, struck dumb, or suffering from head
white magic (Enki/Ea, his wife Danikina, and aches- symptoms some ofwhich we might refer
Asarluhi - a god of Kuara near Eridu, later to a psychiatrist. In the ritual all possible ‘sins’
considered as Enki’s son and hence identified are exhaustively enumerated, including the
with Marduk) in order to protect himself effects of the ‘oath’ - either a broken oath
against the demons during the course of die returning in the form of a curse, or an oath
126
magic and sorcery
sworn in good faith but arousing thereby ‘burning’), performed when the patient is con
magical powers which could be sources of evil. vinced he has been bewitched. The text is
The ‘burning’ is a part of the ritual in which always careful to specify- ‘sorcerer or sorceress’
the patient peels an onion into the fire, strips but the verb forms are usually feminine, sug
dates from a branch into the fire or unravels gesting that fear of witches was more prevalent
matting into the fire, all rhe while reciting in than fear of wizards. ‘She goes about in the
cantations in which the ‘undoing’ of his sins is street, enters houses ... stands in the street. By
compared to the activity he is performing. Fin her look she has taken the pleasure of a young
ally the magician extinguishes the fire, and the woman ... When the sorceress saw me, she
sins. Clearly, to the extent that the patient’s walked behind me; she crossed my path with
troubles are psychological in origin, the ritual her magic; she has taken away my (personal)
might have a calming effect on him. god and goddess’, and so on. Figurines of wax,
Quite different in nature are the incantation wood, dough, bitumen or clay are melted or
rituals called in Akkadian namburbU, which are burnt in the fire - representing, of course, the
intended to undo nr avert the effect of future sorcerer. The incantations are addressed to the
evil detected in advance by portents (see divi gods of die night, die fire god Gibil or other
nation). Typically a namburbu ritual involves a gods, or else to the sorcerers themselves.
sequence of five rites. First, enclosure rites arc The above arc merely examples from the
performed, designee to seoarate off the ritual copious magical literature. One question
site from the world outside, perhaps by per prompted by study of the literature is who
55 forming them inside a reed hut, or by de exactly used these rituals, who resorted to the
limiting the area with a magic circle. Then, services of the magician? Certainly there is no
in purification rites, the patient is washed, doubt ±at some of the very’ long and compli
bathed, shaved; tamarisk is used to asperge cated rituals were performed only for socially
and incense to fumigate; the area is swept very highly placed, perhaps wealthy, people.
clean, possibly a goat is sacrificed (see animal One cannot imagine that the magicians gave so
sacrifice): a copper bell is rung and a drum much of their time and skill free of charge.
beaten. Next, food and aromatics are offered to Certain of the rituals were specifically envis
the gods and to the deified River (because it aged for the king — for instance those designed
will carry’ away waste matter). The principal to ward off the evil portended by lunar eclipses
rites are apotropaic and might consist of the (see human sacrifice), since, celestial omens
destruction, for instance, of an ominous, mon typically concerned the king or the state
strous animal birth; the sealing up of a doorway directly. At the other end of rhe scale, we can
(with bat’s blood, crushed spider and fly, and probably say that all classes regarded the use of
scorpion); substitution or simulation, e.g. magic as more or less normal, and shared the
making an image where the object concerned is view of the world which made its practice pos
itself inaccessible, or touching parts of a build sible. But for most of these people we have no
ing as a symbolic destroying of the whole of an surviving evidence. We know nothing, either,
accursed house. The final rites involve further of the practices of sorcerers and how sorcery
purification, unravelling plants, or actions was carried out. It may have been very' similar to
restoring die patient to die outside world again die magic used to counteract it, or it may have
(he is told not to look round as he leaves, or is been less refined and more simple.
told to go and enter a tavern), and magical pre A development can be recognised in the his
scriptions to be followed for a particular period tory’ of Babylonian and Assyrian magical prac
(to avoid garlic, to wear a special necklace for tices. The gradual grouping of related incan
seven days). tations, already referred to, into collections
Some aspects of these rites recur in the long (so-called ‘series’) presupposes more than
nocturnal ritual known as Maqiu (also meaning mere editorial activity' on the part of magician
127
magic circle
128
Martu (Amurru)
of his supreme position, it is difficult to identify The worship of Marduk in its most extreme
specific traits in his character, but magic and form has been compared with monotheism,
wisdom (derived from his connection with but it never led to a denial of the existence of
Asarluhi), water and vegetation (connected other gods, or to the exclusion of female
with his father Ea) and judgement (suggesting deities.
a connection with the sun god Samas In the Epic of Erra (see Nergal), when the
(Utu)) can be adduced. In the reign of Sen god Erra wants to unseat Marduk so that
nacherib (704-681 bc), however, some aspects temporarily he, Erra, can rule the world. Mar
of Marduk’s cult, mythology and rituals were duk is presented, possibly with humorous ni
attributed to the Assyrian state god Assur. tent, in a very uncharacteristic form as a bumb
ling old incompetent whose insignia need
repairing and cleaning.
Marduk’s symbol of a triangular-headed 141
spade or hoe, the marru, may possibly reflect an
origin of the god as a local agricultural deity.
The snake-dragon (mushuisu) as animal of 158
Marduk and Nabu was taken over from Tis-
pak, local god of Esnunna, possibly soon after
the conquest of that city' by Hammurabi of
Babylon.
See New Year ceremonies; Sacred Mar
riage.
Martu (Amurru)
The god Martu (Akkadian Amurru) is a god
who destroys cities and rages over the land like
a storm. He was regarded as a son of An, and
was sometimes said to be a son of Ninhursaga
According to some traditions his wife was
Belet-seri (‘Lady of the Desert’) or else ASratu.
There seems little doubt that he represents a
personification of the nomadic peoples of die
desert who began to appear on the horizon of
settled Mesopotamia at least as early as the later
third millennium BC, originally from the west,
but gradually infiltrating the Mesopotamian
area so that they also occupied lands to the east
105 The god Marduk and his snake-dragon in the foothills of the Zagros. The first waves of
(mushussu). Detail from a large lapis lazuli cylin these people were called Martu in Sumerian,
der dedicated to Marduk by the Babylonian king and we tend to use rhe Biblical term ‘Amorites’.
Marduk-zaldr-sumi 1 (reigned C.854-819BC). The name of the god Martu, or Amurru, is
According to die accompanying inscription, the used in personal names from the end of the
cylinder was to be set in gold and hung around
third millennium BC.
the neck of the god, i.e. to be attached to the
cult statue in Esagil, Marduk’s temple in Baby In a Sumerian poem called ‘The Marriage of
lon. It was found at Babylon in the house of a Martu’, the daughter of the god Numusda,
bead-maker of the Parthian Penod. patron god of the city' Kazallu in southern
129
maskim
Babylonia, insists on marrying Martu even maskim-. see demons and monsters.
though he ‘digs up truffles in the foothills, eats
raw flesh, and has no permanent home’ - a par me
tially accurate description of a desert nomad The Sumerian term me (pronounced ‘may’;
even today. The poem clearly indicates an rendered by Akkadian parsu) is a plural, in
attempt to absorb this god of the nomads into animate noun, and expresses a very basic con
the general pantheon of Mesopotamia. The cept in Sumerian religion. The me are proper
metaphor of a storm was frequently employed ties or powers of the gods which enable a whole
to describe the incursions of these people who host of activities central to civilised human life,
'knew nothing of agriculture’. especially religion, to take place. A related
106 In Old Babylonian and early Kassite art, term, gis-hur (‘plan, design’), denotes how
Amurru is represented as a god in long these activities ought, ideally, to be: the me are
robes who carries a crook or a scimitar, and the powers which make possible the implemen
is sometimes associated with a gazelle. tation of the gis-hv.r and which ensure the con
Chronologically the occurrence of this figure tinuation of civilised life. They are ancient,
in art corresponds roughly with the flourishing enduring, holy, valuable. Mostly they are held
of the god’s cult in Babylonia, and the figure of by An or Enlil, hut they can be assigned or
a man with a crooked stick might bc thought given to other gods of, by implication, lesser
an appropriate form for a god of travelling rank. Some me are conceived in very' concrete
nomads. terms-the throne of kingship (symbolising the
In Akkadian amurru continued to be used as activity of kingship) or a temple drum (symbol
the normal word ising the performance of ritual music) - and
for ‘west’. It was consequently are sometimes said to be
also a name of ‘carried’, ‘worn’, ‘sat on’. In times of social
the star group upheaval the we may be ‘dispersed’, ‘forgotten’
Perseus. or ‘gathered together and stood in a corner’. In
Sec macc. the poem ‘Inana and Enki’, the two gods
gamble drunkenly over the me, anc Inana wins
them all from her father Enki.
melam and ni
Melam and ni are two Sumerian words which
are Otten linked. Strictly speaking ni seems to
denote the effect on human beings of the divine
power melam (Akkadian melammu). The
Babylonians used various words to capture the
idea of ni, including puluhtu, ‘fear’. The exact
connotation of melam is difficult to grasp. It is a
brilliant, visible glamour which is exuded by
gods, heroes, sometimes by kings, and also by
temples of great holiness and by gods’ symbols
106 The god
Amurru. Detail and emblems. While it is in some ways a
from a cylinder phenomenon of light, melam is at the same time
seal of the Old terrifying, awe-inspiring. Ni can be experi
Babylonian enced as a physical creeping of the flesh. Both
Period. Sumerian and Akkadian are rich in words to
130
merman and mermaid
describe this phenomenon and its effects. Gods but with the lower body and tail of a fish exists
arc sometimes said to ‘wear’ their meiam like a in most periods of Mesopotamian art from Old
garment or a crown, and like a garment or a Babylonian times onwards. In the Middle
crown, meiam can be ‘taken off’. It the god is Assyrian Period he may have been displaced
killed (see dead gods), his meiam disappears. by the analogously composed lion-centaur, 98
While it is always a mark of the supernatural, but if so he was revived as a popular figure in
meiam carries no connotation of moral value: Neo-Assyrian times. Continuing into the
demons and terrifying giants can ‘wear’ it too. Achaemenid and Seleucid Periods, the figure
is perhaps the prototype for the merman figure
Meme: see Gula. in Greek and medieval European art and
literary tradition. To the Assyrians, the crea
merman and mermaid ture was known simply as kulullu, 'fish-man’,
A figure with the head, arms and torso of a man and with the girlablullii (scorpion-man) and
urmahlullu (‘lion-mar.’, the lion-centaur) he morality': see divine intervention; good and
forms a group of analogous human-animal hy evil; sin.
brids. Together with other demons and mon
sters. representations of these figures were mother goddesses and birth goddesses
used in Neo-Assyrian art for the purpose of The term ‘mother goddess’ is widely used 109
107 protective magic, both as monumental palace in popular writing about polytheistic, pre
and temple sculpture and as small protective modern or so-called primitive religions, with
70 fig-urines. Although of a general protective great variety' of meaning, and considerable
nature, and not the symbol of a specific deity, overlap with other terms like ‘earth mother’,
the merman sometimes appears to have a ‘earth goddess’ or ‘fertility goddess’. It is
special and understandable relationship to the common to assume the existence ofsuch female
water-god Ea (Enki), and is known as one of deifies for prehistoric periods on archae
the creatures of the apsH (abzu). ological or artistic evidence alone, although it
108 In Old Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian and Neo is often impossible to distinguish what might
Babylonian art, a female version of the figure be representations of such a goddess from, for
(half fish and half woman) occasionally example, figurines of a pregnant woman made
appears, and may be the kuliltu, possibly in connection with magical attempts to secure
meaning ‘fish-woman’. conception or an easy delivery.
See goat-fish. For the historical periods of the ancient
Mesopotamian past we have fairly definite in
Meslamta-ea: see Lugal-irra and Meslamta- formation about mother goddesses and birth
ea; Nergal. goddesses. Since one image for the creation of
natural forces or gods was the sexual act per
formed between two deities, there is a sense in
minister deities: see gods and goddesses.
which any goddess could become a ‘mother
goddess’ - a goddess who is a mother - and
mongoose
The mongoose or palm-rat is often found in
southern Mesopotamia. Ningilin (Ninkilim) is
the name of a goddess (or possibly a god) who
was connected with the mongoose, the Ak
kadian word for which was later written with
the deity’s name. Ningilin may at an early date
have been confused with a god of magic called
Ningirima, who was invoked in spells to drive
away snakes. In a Babylonian popular saying, a
mouse who has fled from a mongoose into a
snake’s hole greets the snake with: ‘1 bring you
greetings from the snake-charmer!’ Since
snakes are the natural prey of mongooses it is
easy to see how the deity and the mongoose
came to be associated.
In Old Babylonian glyptic art, a creature
with something of the appearance of the mon
goose is a common motif, but is of unknown
significance. 109 A goddess with newly born babies, probably
Nintu as ‘lady of birth’. Baked clay relief plaque
probably of the Isin-Larsa or Old Babylonian
monsters: see demons and monsters. Period. Ht. 115 mm.
132
Nabu
many example? could be given. However, ‘shaping’ or ‘preparing’ of one of the clay fig
usually motherhood of most of the early gods urines during a period of ten (lunar) months.
was ascribed to one particular goddess who by Finally, to complete the clay figurine
the second millennium 3C appears under a imagery, we may note that in die Atra-hasls
variety of interchangeable names, some of story, Enki assists Mami as she mixes the clay
which are really titles, but who may in origin and blood - clay for moulding or potting must
have been several different deities. These are: be prepared by levigating beforehand - and,
Aruru; likewise, in the poem ‘Enki and Ninrr.ah’, the
creatures called sig-en-sig-du nip off the clay
Manti or Mama (clearly ‘mother’); into lumps for Nammu to mould after she has
Dingirmah (‘exalted deity’); first kneaded it, while Ninmah acts as midwife.
This fourth function is not necessarily per
Ninmah (‘exalted lady’);
formed by a female deity. In addition, in this
Nintu (‘lady of birth’); case, seven minor goddesses ‘stand by’ to assist
Ninmena ('lady of the crown’); Nammu, presumably as servants might bc in
attendance at a birth.
Belet-ilT (‘lady of the gods’ in Akkadian); See Anunitu; Ishara; Lisin; Ninlil; nude
Nammu. woman; ‘omega’ symbol. For the birth
goddess Ema, see Sarpanitu.
Damgalnuna seems earlier to be a mother
goddess but later to have a more specialised Mullissu: see Ninlil.
role as the wife of Enki (and hence mother of
Marduk). Ninmah’s name was changed by her mushussu: see snake-dragon.
son NJinurta to Ninhursaga (‘lady of the
mountains’) to commemorate his creation of Nabu
the mountains. Nammu is usually creatrix of Nabu (earlier Nabium; Biblical Nebo) is the
An and Ki, and of the early gods, including Mesopotamian scribe god, the divine scribe of
Enki, but she also creates mankind in one poerr. the destinies. As such he is also a scribes’ god
(see creation). and patron of writing, although no myths are
The making of a figurine of clay which is related about him. Because so much learning
then brought to life is another image for was transmitted in writing, he later joined Ea
creation. Usually it is a goddess (under one of (Enki) and Marduk as a god of wisdom, and
the above names) who pinches off and moulds in some traditions he absorbed attributes of
the clay, especially in connection with the Ninurta and was therefore associated with ir
creation of mankind (although occasionally rigation and agriculture. His spouse was the
Enki is responsible), and she becomes thereby goddess Tasmetu. He may liave been identified
a mother goddess in a second sense. An with the planet Mercury.
additional goddess sometimes acts as ‘midwife’ The worship of Nabu may have reached
in both these types of creation, and these divine Babylonia from Syria with the nomadic
midwives can conveniently be termed birth Amorites in the early second millennium BC.
goddesses. His cult centre came to be at Borsippa near
The term sassiiru, meaning in Akkadian Babylon, and he was absorbed into the circle of
literally “womb’, is sometimes used to refer to tie god Marduk, first as Marduk’s minister
the mother goddess herself. But in the complex and later (from the Kassite Period) as his son.
account of the creation of the first seven men Later Nisaba was regarded as his wife. Al the
and seven women in the Epic of Atra-hasls New Year ceremonies, Nabu was brought
(Ziusura), the mother goddess is assisted by from Borsippa to ‘visit’ his father Marduk
fourteen sassurdtu, each of whom oversees the at Babylon (see purification). In time Nabu
'33
Nammu
110 The scribal god Nabu holding his theon of gods including Nabu was being
wedge-shaped writing stylus and standing on his worshipped in central and northern Syria at
snake-dragon. (The god’s eye is obliterated on Palmyra and Dura Europos, and survived until
the original and is restored in this drawing.)
at least the second century ad. In post
Detail from a cast
copper or bronze Babylonian Mesopotamia, Nabu’s cult contin
amulctic plaque of MIIIMLI ued and he was identified by the Greeks with
the Neo-Assyrian Apollo.
Period. See Arabian gods; Dilmunite gods;
Enzag; Ezida, Sacred Marriage.
Nammu
Nammu was a goddess who was considered, in
some traditions, to have given birth to An
(heaven) and Ki (earth) and to many more of
the more ancient gods. Especially she was
regarded as the mother ofEnki. She came to be
thought of as one of the mother goddesses.
Her name is written with the same sign as
etigur, a synonym of abzu, and it is probable
that she was originally a personification of the
subterranean ocean.
Namtar
Namtar or Namtaru was a minor deity who
acted as minister of Ereskigal, queen of the
underworld. In one tradition he was the
offspring of Enlil and Ninlil. The same name
was also given to one of the demons of the
nether regions, a harbinger of death. Origin
ally Sumerian namtar meant ‘destiny’ or ‘fate’.
became supreme god of Babylonia alongside
Marduk. In Neo-Assyrian times his worship Nan aya
was accepted in Assyria too and he almost The goddess Nanaya, who seems to have
became an ‘Assyrian’ god in the reigns of shared some of the sexual aspects of Inana, was
Esarhadcon (680-669 BC) and Assurbanipal worshipped together with her daughter Kani-
(668-C.627BC). sura (Akkadian Usur-amassa) and Inana of
154 A symbol of Nabu is a single wedge, vertical Uruk in a son of trinity of goddesses at Uruk,
or horizontal, possibly a writing stylus, some and later at Kis, during the Old Babylonian
times resting on a clay tabiet. Occasionally this, Period. Later Nanaya’s name was used incultic
or the god himself, is shown riding on the back texts to denote little more than another aspect of
31,110 of a snake-dragon. Inana/Istar.
The worship of Nabu was long-lived and See Sacred Marriage.
spread outside Mesopotamia among expatriate
communities of Aramaic-speakers in Egypt Nanibgal: see Ennugi; Nisaba.
and Anatolia during the fourth century BC. By
the time of Augustus a Mesopotamian pan
134
Nergal (Erra)
Nergal (Erra)
The gods Nergal and Erra were originally
separate deities, but later became so closely
identified as to lose their independent charac
ters. Since Nergal was worshipped at the
temple called E-meslam (or ‘Meslam House’)
at Kutu in Babylonia, he was also sometimes
111 The moon god
known under the name Meslamta-ea, ‘he who
Sin. Detail from a
cylinder seal of the comes forth from the Meslam’; later he was
Neo-Babylonian also identified with Lugal-irra. Another cult
Period. centre was Maskan-sapir (Tell Abu Dhawari).
’35
New Year ceremonies
136
Nindara
centred on the cult of Marduk, but related ing he emerged from a corresponding gate at
ceremonies were performed at other cities for the eastern horizon. It is clear that his radiance 152
other deities, and had been performed for a was believed to diminish during the night-time
very long time. The akiti festival performed at hours, but it is not yet quite clear how this view
Ur under the Third Dynasty, for the god can be harmonised with another tradition that
Nanna, took its name from the Akkadian akitu, he illuminated the underworld during the
one of the New Year ceremonies. night.
The Babylonian ceremonies consisted of a Certain rituals had to be performed during
sequence of rites which were concerned (i) the night. These included extispicy rituals and,
with celebrating or marking the spring barley especially, magical rituals intended to destroy
harvest; (2) with a patronal festival of the city the power of sorcerers, and some namhurbu
god, Marduk, including his enthronement rituals (see magic and sorcery'). Because of
(known as ‘taking Bel by the hand’), incor this, such rituals often included special prayers
porating (3) symbolic representation of certain addressed to the (unnamed) gods of the night,
episodes in the Babylonian Epic of Creation or to the stars.
(see creation); (4) with marking the calen-
drical aspect of the New Year; (5) with the Nikkal: see Ningal.
affirmation of the king as bearer of the sacred
duties of kingship; and (6) with the reception Nimrod
and enthronement of the god Nabu. Avery late In Genesis 10, we read that Nimrod was ‘a
copy of a set of ritual instructions for the mighty hunter before the Lord’, and that ‘the
priests gives precise details of the ceremonies beginning of his kingdom was Babel [Babylon]
of the second to fifth days, but the sequence of and Erech [Uruk], and Accad and Calneh in
events on the other days is far less clear. It die land of Shinar. The context suggests that
certainly included a procession and journey Nimrod here stands for the Babylonian nation.
out to the bit akiti or akitu building, a ritual Nimrod survived as a figure in Islamic tra
humiliation of the king, and an ‘offering’ (most dition and is perpetuated in the modern names
probably a reading), on the fourth day, of the of the ruins of Kalhu (Nimrud) and Borsippa
Epic of Creation, in addition to a whole series (Birs Nimrud). However, no Mesopotamian
of magical and cultic rites of various signifi source for the legend can be identified.
cance.
The last known occasion when the akitu of Ninazu
Marduk was celebrated at Babylon was when The god Ninazu was regarded as a son of
Cambyses, king of Persia, ‘took Bel by the Ereskigal, queen of the underworld; he was
hand’ in 538 bc. However, akitu ceremonies also the father of Ningiszida. His connection
were still celebrated for the deities Anu (An) appears to be with the underworld. It seems
and Istar (Inana) at Uruk during the second that during the third millennium bc he was
century' bc. worshipped at the city of Esnunna, but that his
See Assur;purification; Sacred Marriage. cult was later replaced there by that of the god
Tispak (in origin die Hurrian siorm god
Nidaba: see Nisaba. Tesup). Ninazu’s divine beast seems to have
been the snake-dragon {tnuihussu), apparently 138
night taken over by Tispak and so later by Marduk.
The Babylonians appear to have believed that It is possible that the Ninazu who was wor
at dusk the sun god Samas (Utu) entered shipped at Enegi in southern Sumer, whose
through a gateway at the western horizon into father was Enlil, is in origin a different god.
the ‘interior of heaven’, where a chamber was
located where he spent the nigh'. In the morn Nindara: see local gods; Nanse.
137
Ningal
113 A diorite statue of the goddess Ningal of the astic Period until the Old Babylonian Period as
Isin-Larsa Period, found in die gipar at Ur, and a local form of the god Ninurta (see local
heavily restored. (When found the statue was gods). He was the most prominent of the local
headless and very
pantheon of the city-state of Lagas, within
broken.) The inscription
is a dedication of the whose borders the town of Girsu (modern
statue to Ningal by Tello) lay, where he was regarded as a son of
En-ana-tuma, daughter Enlil, the husband of Ran and brother of rhe
of King Ismc-Dagan of goddesses Nanse and Nisaba.
I sin. Ningirsu was the god for whom Gudea,
ruler of Lagas, rebuilt the great temple
E-ninnu, ‘House of the Fifty (me]’ (see num- 114
bers), celebrated in a lengthy Sumerian hymn.
In the hymn, Gudea dreams that Ningirsu
appears before him commanding the rebuild
ing: instead of appearing in human form, the
god appears as the lion-headed Imdugud
(Amu) bird (see dreams and visions). Since
in the older versions of the Akkadian ‘Anzu’
poem, it is Ningirsu who defeats the Anzu
when the bird has stolen from Enlil the tablet
of destinies (while the later versions have
Ninurta as the divine avenger), it is possible to
see how what must originally have been a vic
tim - a ‘trophy’ - of the god later became so
closely identified with him as to be able to stand
as a symbol for the divine presence.
Also alluded to in Gudea’s hymn is the myth
of the Slain Heroes, a group of bizarre minor
deities - some anthropomorphic, some mon- 135
Ningal strous and some inanimate - conquered by
The goddess Ningal was the wife of the god Ningirsu (or in other versions, Ninurta).
Nanna/Sin and the mother of the sun god In general Ningirsu was, on the one hand, a
Utu/Samas. She was worshipped with Sin at warrior god, as the above exploits suggest; on
Ur, and also at Sin’s sanctuary at Harran in the other hand, he was associated with the
northern Syria. Her cult developed indepen fruitfulness of cultivation and vegetation, with
dently in Syria as early as the second millen the regulation of canals essential for irrigation
nium DC, where her name was altered to Nik- and with fecundity. On kudurrus of the Kass
kal, a form which is also used in Babylonia ite Period, the plough is named as his symbol. 121
sometimes. The cult of Nikkal seems to have As Girsu became less important (being ab
lasted in Syria well into the first millennium sorbed into the empire of the Third Dynasty of
AD. Ur), less is heard of Ningirsu, and his myths
See ‘eyes-of-Ningal’. were attributed to Ninurta.
See lion; Zababa.
Ningilin: sec mongoose.
Ningiszida
Ningirsu The god Ningiszida was an underworld deity,
The god Ningirsu (whose name means ‘Lord son of the god Ninazu. His name may
of Girsu’) was important from the Early Dyn etymologically mean ‘Lord of the Good Tree’.
Ningiszida
In the Sumerian poem ‘The Death of Gil Ningiszida as a personal protective deity (sec
games’, Gilgames meets Ningiszida and personal gods), and recorded his appearance
Dumuzi together in the underworld. Babyl to him in a dream.
onian incantations name Ningiszida as a Unexpectedly, in the myth of Adapa, the
guardian over demons who live in the under- sage who travelled to heaven, we encounter
w'orld. The god’s name is also mentioned in Dumuzi and a god called Giszida, certainly an
laments over the death of Dumuzi. abbreviated form of Ningiszida, guarding the
Gudea, the Sumerian ruler of Lagas who gate to the Heaven of Anu (An), the highest
built the temple of Ningirsu, regarded heaven (see cosmology). Adapa is told that he
139
Ninhursaga
140
Ninsubur
31 Mullissu (an Assyrian dialectal form of Mul- and Ninsun were the parents of the hero
liltu, derived from a Sumerian dialectal form Giigames, and in the Babylonian Epic of Gii
of Ninlil). games, the wise Ninsun acts as an interpreter of
In Assyria, Mullissu’s animal was the lion. Gilgames’s ominous dreams.
See E-kur.
Ninsiku: see Enki.
Ninmah
The goddess Ninmah acted as midwife when Ninsubur (god)
Nammu created mankind, according to the A minor male deity who functioned as minister
Sumerian poem ‘Enki and Ninmah’ (see (see gods and goddesses) to An. An Akkadian
creation; mother goddesses and birth god form of his name was 11-abrat. He was also
desses). Later, when celebrating, Enid and assimilated to the god Papsukkal, who func
Ninmah drank too much beer and became tioned as minister to the gods in general. Pap
merry. Having played a subsidiary role in the sukkal was associated with the constellation
creation, Ninmah now challenged Enki to the known in modern terminology as Orion.
effect that, however favourable or unfavourable In Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian art,
mankind’s bodily form might be, she could Ninsubur/Papsukkal is depicted as an antliro- 116
make his destiny good or bad as she chose. pomorphic god, wearing a horned cap and a
Enki, accepting the challenge, claimed ‘If the long robe; he stands, as if to attention, and
fate you choose is bad, 1 will improve it’ A holds before him a long stall, reaching from
drunken game followed, in which Ninmah
became furious with Enki’s success. They
reversed roles, and Enki soon created a crea
ture so sick or weak in every part ofits body that
Ninmah could not improve it at all. The victory
was granted to Enki.
Ninmah was also the name ofa constellation.
See Ninhursaga.
above the level of his head to the ground. Often sa at Nippur. His wife was regarded as either
he stands upon a podium. Commonly in Gula or, because of his close association with
temples (of various deities) of this period, a the god Ningirsu, Bau. Indeed, the personal
figurine of sun-dried clay of the god in this ities of the two gods Ninurta and Ningirsu are
form would be buried in a brick box beneath closely intertwined and, although his origin
the dais of the cult statue. The Old Babylon- may have been independent, in historical times
103 ian ‘Figure with mace’ (see mace) has been Ningirsu was a local form of Ninurta.
regarded as an earlier iconogr aphy of the god, The most pronounced aspect of Ninurta’s
but it seems doubtful. personality was his warlike nature. Several
34 The animal symbol of Ninsubur/Papsukkal, myths relate his martial exploits, mainly
at least from the Kassite Period, was a walking directed against the enemies of Sumer and in
bird. particular against the so called ‘rebel lands’ or
'hostile lands’ (the regions in the mountains to
Ninsubur (goddess) the east of Mesopotamia). Ninurta (or
A minor female deity who functioned as Ningirsu) is the gods’ champion against the 6,117
minister (see gods and goddesses) to Inana. Anzu bird (Imdugud) when it steals the tablet
See Namtar. of destinies from Enlil, thereby endangering
the stability of civilisation. Ninurta (or
Nintinuga: see Gula. Ningirsu) kills the Slain Heroes in a myth 135
several times alluded to but nowhere preserved
Nintu: see mother goddesses and birth god in full.
desses. A contrasting aspect, also to be found with
Ningirsu, is Ninurta’s role as a farmer god. In
Nintui: see Ninhursaga. the so-called Sumerian ‘Georgica’, Ninurta
gives detailed advice on the cultivation of crops
Ninurta and preparation of the fields, in fact on the
There is no evidence fbr the meaning of the farmer’s activities throughout the year. The
name of the god Ninurta, whose worship was plough is captioned as a symbol of Ningirsu on 121
very ancient in Sumer. As a son of Enlil, his Kassite kudurrus, and so perhaps represented
principal cult centre was the temple E-su-me- Ninurta in Neo-Assyrian art. Another symbol
142
Nisroch
of Ninurta in the Neo Assyrian Period was a she was a member ofthe local pantheon of that
76 perched bird. area (see local gods), where she was regarded
The two aspects, warrior and farmer, are as a daughter of Enlil and hence a sister of
combined in the Sumeriar. poem Lugale, in Ningirsu. The god Haya was her husband, but
which Ninurta succeeds in defeating the later, probably because of her association with
terrible demon Asag and his army of stone the scribal art, Nabu (also a scribal deity) was
allies, and then proceeds to organise the world, said to be her spouse. She was also sometimes
using the stones to build the mountains in such identified with the goddess Nanibgal (see
a way that streamsand lakes flow into the Tigris Ennugi).
and Euphrates to make them useful for irrig In the Early Dynastic Period, Nisaba was
ation and to facilitate agriculture. a personal goddess of the rulers of the
The Assyrian kings were devoted to the cult Sumerian city of Umma. Later, however, dur
of Ninurta, as a warlike god who would help ing the Isin-Larsa Period, she was regarded as
them against their enemies. At his new capital patron goddess of rhe city of Eras. The goddess
Kalhu (modern Nimrud), Assurnasirpal II of nearby Suruppag, Sud (see Ninlil), was
(reigned 883-859 bc) built a temple to Ninurta regarded as her daughter. In the myth ‘Enlil
adjacent to the ziggurat (which may also have and Sud’, when Enlil, god of Nippur, wishes to
been dedicated to Ninurta). The scene carved marry Sud, he has to seek the approval of
on stone relief slabs at either side of the main Nisaba.
doorway of the temple may represent, uniquely
6 in Neo- Assyrian monumental art, a mythologi Nisroch
cal scene: Ninurta’s defeat of the Asakku The Assyrian king Sennacherib was murdered
117 (Asag) or else of the Anzu bird (Imdugud). in 681 EC, apparently by Arad-Mullissu and
155 According to one theory, the winged disc another of his sons (they had been passed
symbolised Ninurta in the official art of the over for succession in favour of Esarhaddon).
ninth century BC, before it was transferred According to the Biblical account (2 Kings: 19;
either to Assur or Samas (Utu). This idea, also 2 Chronicles: 32, Isaiah: 37 and Tobit: 1),
based upon representations of a god set above Sennacherib was killed while worshipping in
the disc who seems to have a bird’s tail, seen the temple of his god, ‘Nisroch’. It is not clear
below the disc, has found little support among to which Assyrian god this refers: it has been
scholars. suggested that it is a corruption of Ninurta,
See bird gods; lightning (symbol); Nin but this is unsubstantiated.
hursaga; Nisroch; rainbow; Slain Heroes; When in the nineteenth century AD Sir
liras (god); Uras (goddess); Zababa. Austen Henry Layard excavated the palace
of the Assyrian king Assurnasirpal II (ruled
Nirah: see snake gods. 883-859 BC) at the city’ of Kalhu (modern Nim
rud), he discovered large numbers of bas-
Nisaba reliefs which depicted images of a winged
As one of the group of signs used in writing her eagle-headed figure. Referring these to the 78
name (a pictograph of an ear of grain) shows, it Biblical story, Layard labelled the figures
is most likely that the goddess Nisaba was in ‘Nisroch’ (in view of Ninurta’s supposed
origin a grain goddess. The form of the name character as a bird god). As a monumental
Nisaba (or Nissaba) seems more correct than figure-type in the palaces the eagle-headed
Nidaba. man is now known not to be present as late as
The cult of this daughter of An and Uras is the reign of Sennacherib, the term ‘Nisroch’ is
attested from Early Dynastic times. Nisaba still occasionally found in modern art his
was, or became, a goddess of writing, torical literature for this figure, otherwise
accounting and scribal knowledge. At Lagas known as the griffin-demon.
143
'Nude Here'
‘Nude Hero:: see Lahmu. frontally standing naked female who docs wear 87
a horned cap and is often winged is un
nude woman doubtedly Istar as goddess of sex (although the
Hand-mace clay figurines of nude females more menacing renderings of the type have
appear in Mesopotamia in prehistoric times; been interpreted by some as representations of
64 they have applied and painted features. Figur the demoness Lilitu). I
ines of nude women impressed from a pottery
or stone mould first appear at the beginning of Nudimmud: see Enki.
the second millennium bc. Though the pos
tures vary slightly, the figurines arc in most numbers
respects similar and probably were mass-pro Some numbers acquire special religious or
duced. It is very unlikely that they represent a magical significance for essentially mathe
universal mother goddess, although they may matical reasons. Three, for instance, has
have been intended to promote fertility. Pos always been regarded as important because of
sibly tire same idea was responsible for a related its magical usefulness and its perfection: three
group of female figures breast-feeding infants. points can be arranged graphically such that
118 Early second-millennium BC seals and clay each point is equidistant from the Olliers.
figurines commonly depict a full-frontal nude Alternatively, if one point is taken as the centre,
female. Often she stands on a plinth as if rep the other two can bc placed equidistantly on
resenting a cult statue. The figure neverwears either side ofit. Thus the world was divided by
the horned cap of divinity , but she sometimes the Babylonians into three superimposed
appears to be the object ofworship. It has been regions, heaven, earth and underworld, with
suggested that she represents Istar (Inana) in rhe earth in the middle. The heaven was
her aspect as goddess of sexual love (see pros divided horizontally into three regions one
titution and ritual sex) or, according to above the other (see cosmology), or rhe eastern
another theory, the goddess Sala. horizon was divided vertically into three
In Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian art, a bands, the ways of Anu (An), Enlil and Ea
(Enki) (see astrology' and astronomy).
The earlier, Sumerian, cosmology of the
rectangular field-shaped earth with four
‘comers’ was probably the origin of the four
directions and four winds (usually enumerated
in the order south, north, east and west).
As for Neo-Assyrian foundation figurines,
two sets of five model dogs (two of each colour) 57
were deposited.
By far the most significant number for the
ancient Mesopotamians was seven. It is difficult
to see what the origin of this significance can
have been. The group of gods called the Seven
(gods) were equated with the Pleiades (con
ventionally seven in number). In magic, in
cantations must often be repeated seven times,
seven demons expelled, seven gods invoked,
118 A woman in the nude standing on a plinth, ritual actions are carried out seven (or seven
(left) a detail from a cylinder seal, and (right) in times seven) times, seven cylinder seals arc
relief on a baked clay plaque from Larsa. Old hung round the neck of a patient, and so on.
Babylonian Period. There are seven (or fourteen) gates to the
144
oaths and curses
145
offering
kings), also (or instead) by the king; in early offering: see boats of the gods; fish, sacrifice
Assyria also by the city (of Assur). In some legal and offering.
cases, especially concerning boundary disputes
or other matters which could not literally be oil: see anointing; divination; libation.
brought to court, it was common to bring to the
disputed site from the temple an emblem of the ‘omega’ symbol
god, such as the saw of Samas (Utu), and for A symbol approximating in form to an upright 90,119
the parties to swear on the spot in its presence. or inverted capital Greek letter omega, but with
Swearing by gods was also common in magical a number of minor variations, is first attested
conjurations, where long lists of gods were in on ar. impression from an Early Dynastic seal,
voked in the exorcism of demons (see magic and is represented commonly from the Old
and sorcery). Babylonian to the Neo-Babylonian Periods. It
Dire physical and psychological penalties has variously beer, interpreted by modem, com
were foretold for those who broke oaths. It was mentators as a representation of weighing
believed that the very swearing of an oath, and scales, the yoke of a chariot-pole, a comet, a
evenmore so the breaking of an oath, generated large-horned quadruped, a head-band, a wig,
supernatural powers which might turn against the bands used to swaddle a baby or as the
the swearer and from which he needed to be uterus. Supporters of the last two suggestions
protected by magic. For this reason the oath usually connect the symbol with the mother
(tndmiiu) is included in the list of potentially goddess Ninhursaga, or with Nintu (see
dangerous acts which a psychologically dis mother goddesses and birth goddesses).
turbed person might have inadvertently com- Some probably Isir.-Larsa or Old Babylonian
151 mitted, causing his disturbance. Plaques de Period plaques of clay with moulded relief
picting the goddess Lamastu refer in their show a goddess (probably Nintu) flanked by
inscriptions to the affliction of a demon cal'ed inverted ‘omega’ motifs beneath which sit 109
Mamitu, clearly a personification of the oath, human forms resembling newborn babies, as if
and suggest that the cause of sickness or de newly emerged from the womb. It has been
monic possession was thought to have been, in suggested that these rather emaciated human
this case, a broken oath; it has been suggested forms might represent Gi/w-derr.ons (deified
that the symbols of the gods shown in the stillborn foetuses); such demons are known to
uppermost register of such plaques are a visual have been a focus of religious feeling. Perhaps
metaphor for the original oath. (See demons the ‘omega’ symbol was sometimes associated
and monsters; diseases and medicine.) with Istar (Inana) as goddess of sex and
Equally dire and explicit curses were in prostitution, for on Neo-Assyrian seals it is 49
voked upon those who committed social shown within her shrine. On a cylinder seal of
crimes; in particular ample evidence survives Middle .Assyrian date from Samsat on the
of the curses invoked on those who damaged upper Euphrates (in present-day Turkey) a god
inscribed monuments erected by rulers, or receives worship while standing in his boat (see
Stone monuments recording grants of land boats of the gods). Since the deity holds in
90 tenure (kudurrus). The curses are written out
on the monuments flor any later reader to
peruse and to think twice about: ‘May the god
Assur overthrow his sovereignty', smash his 119 A divine emblem
weapons, defeat his army, diminish his in a form resembling an
omega. A common
borders, decree the end of his reign, darken his
depiction among the
days, vitiate his years, and destroy his name symbols carved on
and his seed from the land.’ Babylonian kudurru
See Salmu. stones and seals.
146
Pazuzu
one hand a crescent, he should be Sin least 3,000 years of history' are included, incor
(Nanna-Suen) or a local moon god. In the porating three main peoples (Sumerians,
other hand he holds the ‘omega’ symbol. Babylonians and Assyrians) but also various
other ethnic groups who either entered as con
onciromancy: see divination; drcams and querors (such as Kassitcs) or who lived peri
visions. pherally to the central area (such as Amorites,
Elamites, Hurrisns). Each of these groups had
Pabilsag their own gods. Inevitably during the enor
The worship of rhe god Pabilsag is attested mous time span, developments occurred,
from Early Dynastic limes onwards. He was especially through syncretism. Second, there
regarded as a son of Enlil, and was the spouse exists for Mesopotamia no statement, collec
of Ninisina, the patron goddess of Isin (see tively and authoritatively, of all myths or all
local gods). As such he had cult centres in both deities such as can be recognised from time to
Isin and Nippur. His personality is rather time for Classical Greek or Roman mythology
unclear, but from the Old Babylonian Period (e.g. Hesiod’s Theogony or Ovid’s Metamor
he was sometimes identified with Ninurta/ phoses). Although ‘the gods’ are often referred
Ningirsu. A Sumerian poem describes the to generally, this certainly meant different
journey of Pabilsag to Nippur (see journeys things at different times.
and processions of the gods). On the other hand, because of the high
Pabilsag was also associated with the city of degree of syncretism between the deities of
Larag, one of the cities where kingship flour different peoples, the pantheon can, in a sense,
ished in antediluvian times, according to be viewed, together with the cuneiform script
Sumerian tradition. and the (in some ways) very conservative relig
Astronomically Pabilsag was the constella ious art, as one of the few unifying elements of
tion we know as Sagittarius (see centaur; ‘Mesopotamian’ culture.
zodiac). Altogether the names of over 3,000 divinities
are preserved in the cuneiform records. The
Palm-tree King lar gest single presentation of these is the list of
The Palm-tree King is the name of one of gods called (from its first line) ‘An = Anum’, a
the monsters conquered by the warrior god Babylonian scholarly work intended to give
Ninurta/Ningirsu (see Slain Heroes). Very Akkadian equivalents for the Sumerian deities;
little is known about him. Probably the Palm- in its complete form it listed about 2,000 gods
tree King was the name ofa minor local deity of and goddesses, but the entire list has not yet
the Lagas region whose cult was superseded by been recovered.
that of Ningirsu (leading to the myth of his
conquest by Ningirsu). There is evidence that Papsukka?. see Ninsubur (god).
he was worshipped at Girsu in the Early Dyn
astic Period. Pazuzu
Evidence for tree cults in Mesopotamia is Pazuzu was an Assyrian and Babylonian de- 120
very limited. The common later motif of the monic god of the first millennium bc. He is
114 stylised tree is as yet unexplained. represented with a rather canine face with ab
normally bulging eyes, a scaly body, a snake
pantheon headed penis, the talons of a bird and usually
There is a sense in which it is impossible, in wings. He is often regarded as an evil under
connection with ancient Mesopotamia, to speak world demon, but he seems also to have
of a pantheon (‘the deities of a people collec played a beneficent role as a protector against
tively’). This is because under the (geographi pestilential winds (especially the west wind).
cally ill-determined) heading Mesopotamia at His close association with Lamastu led to his 151
147
personal gods
148
priests and priestesses
to Giigames the whereabouts of a plant which various gods and goddesses. According to
will rejuvenate him. To fetch it, Giigames ties Sumerian tradition, the plough was an inven
stones to his feet and enters the sea: the weights tion of the god Dagan.
help him to sink to the bottom, where he finds a
plant which is thorny like a rose. Giigames priests and priestesses
explains to the boatman Lrsanabi that by eating In almost the earliest written documents are
the plant one can bc rejuvenated: the plant is found lists of the titles of officials, including
called 'The Old Man Has Become A Young various classes of priest. Some of these are
Man’. While Giigames is bathing later, a snake administrative functionaries of the temple
smells the plant (which Giigames has left on bureaucracy and others are religious spec
the land), takes it and as a result is able to ialists dealing with particular areas of the
slough its skin. cult. Later records make it clear that a complex
A related theme is found in the poem of hierarchy of clergy was attached to temples,
Etana, the king who travelled to heaven on the ranging from ‘high priests’ or ‘high priest
back of an eagle. What motivated Etana to esses’ down to courtyard sweepers. It is not
begin with was the childlessness of his mar clear whether there were fixed distinctions
riage. In a dream, Etana's wife saw the sammu between sacerdotal clergy' and administrative
sa aiadi, ‘plant of giving birth’, and it was his clergy: one particular type of priests is called
prayer to Samas (Utu) for this plant which led ‘anointed’; others are ‘enterers of the temple’,
to his journey with the eagle. suggesting that certain areas of the shrines
Although the phrase ‘plant of life’ is not were restricted of access. Generally speaking
used in the Epic of Giigames itself, it was female clergy-were more common in the service
occasionally used to refer to a mythical rejuve of female deities, but a notable exception was
nating plant. It seems also to have been the the en (Akkadian entu), the chaste high priest
name of a specific medicinal plant. ess in the temples of some gods in the Sumerian
and Old Babylonian Periods, notably that of
plough the moon god Nanna-Suen at Ur - where the
The plough, which is known as a religious office was revived by Nabonidus in neo
symbol from the Early Dynastic Period down Babylonian times (see gipar) — and in temples
to Neo-Assyrian times, is used on the Kassite at Larsa, Isin, Sippar, Nippur and Kis. Some
kudurrus to represent the god Ningirsu (and times the office was held by a daughter of the
so is in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian art king. Other priestesses were:
121 probably an emblem of Ninurta), although in nadilu, ugbabtu. these lived secluded lives in a
earlier periods it is shown as the attribute of residence within the temple, although they
could own property and engage in business;
qadistu, kulmasitw. these, in contrast, may have
been involved in ritual prostitution.
Among the classes of priests were:
en (Akkadian end): a priest corresponding to 122
the entu, but serving in the cult of female de
ities such as Inana of Uruk;
marinas {dsipu or marinasrii): magicians special
121 A seed plough. Detail from a basalt ising in medical and magical rites to ensure
memorial stone of King Esarhaddon of Assyria protection from demons, disease and sorcery
and Babylonia (reigned 680-669bc), contain (see magic and sorcery);
ing an account of the restoration of the walls and
temples of the city of Babylon.
'49
processions of ihe gods
122 A female, perhaps the goddess Inana, stands ensi (female) (male sd'ilu, female sd'iltu):
in front of ring-post symbols and receives offer dream interpreters.
ings from a procession of naked men, thought to
be priests of her temple. Detail from a stone vase Priests and priestesses may have entered the
of the Late Uruk Period found at Uruk (modern clergy through dedication. They were prob
Warka). ably distinguished by their priestly dress,
especially by their hats or (in some cases) by
being shaven-headed, or by their nudity. The 22
titles and functions of the priests varied, of
mas-su-gid-gid {bam}-, diviners specialising in
extispicy (see divination); course, from time to time and place to place.
See animal skins; fish-garbed figure;
123 gala (kalii)', musicians specialising in perfor Sacred Marriage.
mance of baiag and other cult songs (probably
in choirs, accompanied by drums); processions of the gods: see journeys and
nar inani): musicians specialising in solo per processions of the gods.
forma nee ofpraise songs, accompanying them
selves on stringed instruments, in general, prostitution and ritual sex
singers; Herodotus, writing about Babylon in rhe fifth
muhaldim (nuhatimmi): temple cooks (there century BC, states that every woman once in her
were also slaughterers, brewers, etc.); life had to go to the temple of‘Aphrodite’, i.e.
Istar (Inana), and sit there waiting until a
isib (jsasisu and ramku): priests specialising in
stranger cast a coin inherlap as the price of her
purification rituals (see anointing);
favours. Then she was obliged to go with him
sanga (sangil): generally 'priests’, but also ad outside the temple and have intercourse, to
ministrators: render her duty to the goddess. The story is
satam (satammu): temple administrators; probably highly imaginative. However, the
prostitution and ritual sex
124 Some items of a sexual nature from the All these objects doubtless had some
Middle Assyrian temple of Istar at Assur. A lead amuletic property, and since sexual scenes in
figurine in the form of a scene of sexual inter volving only the copulating couple and no
course, apparently taking place on an altar.
otherpersons are very rare, it may be that most
Models of human sexual organs, with holes for
attachment and suspension: phalli of stone, and a of the representations are of some kind of cultic
pubic triangle and vulva of baked clay. rather than private sex. Babylonian incant
ations to help overcome sexual impotence pres
cribe, as part of the accompanying procedures:
woman always rests upon a high structure, ‘You make a figurine’, to be placed at the head
usually interpreted as an altar. These figurines of the bed during intercourse. Old Babylonian
may very likely represent ritual intercourse, Period clay plaques with scenes of a sexual
although definitely not the earlier Sacred Mar nature may have served such a function.
riage, which involved a bed and not an altar. See flour; priests and priestesses.
Instead they are probably in some way associ
ated with the cult of Istar (Inana) as goddess of purification
physical love and prostitution, and were, in In order to perform the service of the gods with
fact, found in her temple at Assur (see temples sacrifice and offering, to take part in religious
and temple architecture). From the same rituals or to carry out effectively rites involving
building come models of male and female magic (especially those directed against sor
human sexual organs: phalli of stone and clay, cery), it was necessary' for tire participants to be
realistically pierced longitudinally down the ‘pure’.
middle (and possibly worn on the person or by Mos: purification rites involve the perfor
wooden statues) and clay models of the female mance of actions which are metaphors.
pubes and vulva. Sweeping and water-sprinkling clear the
152
right and left
shrine and settle the dust, (metaphorically) After his victory, Marduk set about the task
purifying rhe locality. The burning of incense of reconstruction and reorganisation. With the
and other aromatics cleanses the air and (meta exception of Qingu he pardoned the captured
phorically) purifies the atmosphere. Bathing gods, pressing them into his team for the build
and hand-washing by the participants clean the ing of Babylon. Then, however, he conceived
body and (metaphorically) purify the person. the idea of further delegating the labours to a
On occasion animal sacrifices can have a new race: mankind. At the suggestion of his
purificatory effect, as in the New Year cere father Ea, in order to create mankind, he
monies: on the fifth day of the ceremonies, a charged Qingu with high treason and sen
magician entered and cleaned the vacant tenced him to death. After the execution, man
shrine of the god Nabu within the Esagil com kind was made from the god’s blood.
plex. (The cult statue of Nabu had not yet See creation; dead gods.
arrived from Borsippa, the neighbouring town
where Nabu normally resided.) The magician rabisu. sec demons and monsters.
summoned a slaughterer to decapitate a sheep,
with the corpse of which he would purify' the rainbow
shrine of Nabu. (The word used, literally‘wipe The crown of the god Ninurta was described
clean’, is often used in a transferred sense.) as a rainbow. Manzat, the Akkadian word for
In due course the corpse was thrown into the rainbow, was also the name of a goddess and of
river which passed by the temple; likewise the a star in the constellation Andromeda. The star
slaughterer disposed of the sheep’s head. The may be illustrated on a kudurru as a rainbow
details of this ritual are very similar to nam- arching over a horse’s head. (A star called the 81,90
burbu rituals, intended to avert the effect of Horse was located near the star Rainbow.)
future evils (see magic and sorcery). Clearly it ‘Rainbow’ was also a literary name of the city
concerns the shrine of Nabu, and not that of of Uruk.
Marduk, usually thought of as central to the
New Year ceremonies. ram-headed staff: see standards, staves and
See bucket and cone; sty lised tree and its sceptres of the gods.
‘rituals’; priests and priestesses.
rhomb
Qingu The ‘rhomb’ or ‘lozenge’ is a pointed oval 76
In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, after the within four enclosing perimeter lines. It is a
death of Apsu (see abzu) at the hands of Ea very common motif in Mesopotamian art from
(Enki), Tiamat created as her champion and early historic times until the Neo-Assyrian
chief of her military forces the god Qingu Period. Its significance is uncertain. The sym
(pronounced ‘Kingu’). Authority was con bol has been variously explained as a grain of
ferred upon him when Tiamat presented to corn, a date-stone, a symbol of earth, an eye,
him the tablet of destinies. He is described as or a woman’s vulva. That it is closely
Tiamat’s lover. When Qingu’s army was con associated in art with the goddess ilstar
fronted by Marduk, however, it soon lost heart (Inana) and is similar to the clay models of 124
and evaporated. Only Tiamat herself and her vulvae found in her temple at Assur supports
guard of monsters (Tiamat’s creatures) stood the last suggestion. The rhomb seems to have
their ground, but in the ensuing battle they too had a magically protective function.
were defeated and killed. Qingu and the gods
of his host were then taken prisoner, and right and left
paraded in Marduk’s triumphal procession. The ancient Mesopotamians invariably spoke
Marduk wrested the tablet of destinies from of ‘right and left’ in that order. The right hand
him and presented it to Anu (An). was the hand ofgreeting or benediction, and of
153
ring-post
ring-post
125 The ring-headed post, usually with streamers,
is common in early historic art, mainly from
122 Uruk, often depicted as a doorpost for a struc
ture built of reeds and probably made of a
bundle of reeds bound together, with the upper 125 (above) A baked-clay model
ends bent over to make a loop for the cross of a so called ring post, symbol
pole. As this shape is the earliest form of the of the goddess Inana, from Uruk
written sign for the name of the goddess Inana, (mocern Warka). Uruk Period.
it ought to be her symbol. After the Uruk
Period, the symbol is to be. found, though
rarely, until tire Early Dynastic Period, after
which it disappears from art. Its disappearance
may have been due to the obsolescence of
pictographic writing.
A rather different ring-headed post without
139 streamer is known as a symbol in Early Dyn
astic art. That it is often carried as a gatepost by
gods with curls (see Lahmu) suggests a poss
ible association with the goc Enki.
126 '.right) A ring-staff. Detail
from the carving on a stone bowl
of the Uruk Period from Uruk.
154
river ordeal
127 Cattle gather around a byre, distinguished one (according to which the underworld was
by its pedes with rings. From a cylinder seal of the located beneath the earth, beneath thcabzu: see
Late Uruk Period. cosmology). In the Neo-Assyrian poem ‘A
Vision of the Underworld’, the ferryman was
ring-staff
the demon Humut-tabal (whose name means
126 This symbol is common in early historic art
‘Hurry and Take Away’). With this may be
and, like the ring-post, was used as a sign
compared the ferryman Sursunabu or UrSan-
in pictographic script, but its meaning is
abi in the Epic of Gilgames, who ferries Gil
unknown. In the earliest representations it is
games across the waters of death. However,
often seen in an architectural context and in
Ursanabi is more properly the ferryman of Ut-
127 association with scenes of animal husbandry. It
napisti (Ziusura), and when he visited LJt-
was most popular as a symbol and attribute in
napisti Gilgames was not visiting the under
the Neo-Sumerian Period, and is last found in
world.
Old Babylonian art. When held as an object, in
Scenes in Neo-Babylonian art showing
these later representations, it is always held by a
Lamaistu being driven back to the underworld
god, never a goddess. Suggestions for the
typically depict her riding her donkey, set
identity of this god are Adad (Iskur) and the
within her boat which sails upon a river, pre- 151
sun god Samas (Utu). Advocates of the former
sumably that of the underworld.
sometimes regard the symbol as a stylisation of
The precise location of the river of the
the lightning (symbol), while supporters of
underworld is not clear. Sometimes it is called
the identification ofthe god as Samas have seen
by the name Hubur (Sumerian id lu rugu,
tlie ring-staff as a version of the rod and ring,
which may mean ‘The river which blocks a
thought by some to be a symbol of Samas.
man's way’).
Whatever may bc the merits of this last argu
ment, an identification of the god who holds
river ordeal
the ring-staff as Samas may be the more
It was standard practice in Mesopotamia from
plausible suggestion, for the symbol is also
the Old Babylonian Period on, when a legal
occasionally associated with the bull-man.
dispute was not soluble by rational means (as,
river god: see river ordeal. for example, because of conflicting sworn testi
mony by the parties involved), to refer the case
river of the underworld to the River god: in other words to decide by
According to some traditions about tlie under means of a rivet ordeal. The judgement would
world, it was reached, as in the later Greek then be declared in the name of Id (the ‘Divine
tradition, by crossing a river. However, this River’), or Sazi (son of the River god), or Ea
was an untypical view rather than the usual (Enki). The person subjected to the ordeal was
155
rod and ring
156
Sacred Marriage
star as her symbol. The evidence, however, is ceremony (called hasadu} in which their cult
unclear. Single rosettes are often seen as a statues were brought together. A ceremonial
decoration on wrist-straps worn by both human bed was required so that the statues could
and supernatural figures in Neo-Assyrian ‘marry'. Such symbolic ceremonies are known
monumental art. for Marduk and Sarpaniru (forming a part of
the New Year ceremonies); Nabu and
Sacred Marriage Tasmetu (or Nanaya), Samas (Utu) and Aya
129 Sacred Marriage is a term borrowed from the (Serida); and Anu (An) and Antu. These
history of Greek religion (hieros gamos} to de ‘marriages’ do net appear to have been directly
scribe at least two dilferent sorts of rituai in related to particular myths.
ancient Mesopotamia. The idea of marriage Quite different from this, and known from
between deities is used in a number of Meso much earlier periods, is a ritual love-making
potamian myths as one way of explaining apparently between a deified human king (see
creation. In a ritual of which records cate deification of kings) and the goddess Inana,
mostly from the Neo-Assyrian and Neo- seen as a symbolic counterpart to the mythical
Babylonian Periods or later, a marriage union of the god Dumuzi with Inana. The
between two deities was enacted in a symbolic exclusively literary evidence for this ‘marriage’
157
sacred tree
dates from the period of the Third Dynasty of human banquet. These sacrifices and offerings
Ur and the Isin Period, and it is still uncertain took two forms: the ‘regular’ offerings, offered
whether a real (temporary) ‘marriage’ between at meal times daily throughout the year (just as
the king and a human priestess representing daily services are performed in a Christian
Inana actually took place, or if the whole ritual church); and the special, occasional offerings
was purely symbolic. The beautiful songs and made at festivals which might be monthly or
poems in Sumerian belonging to the Inana- annual occurrences. Clothing was also offered.
Dumuzi cult suggest that the fertility of veg The actual comestibles and garments were
etation, animals and humans was believed in redistributed to the temple staff (according
some way to depend upon the union of Inana to strict hierarchical regulations, from high
and Ama-usuingal-ana (ar. aspect of Dumuzi); priests down to courtyard sweepers) after
but as no exact description of a ritual survives being presented to the gods. In addition to the
(in the way that details are preserved ofthe New organised offerings, individuals might make
Year ceremonies), it is difficult to know whe ther personal offerings as they chose.
some form of dramatic re-enactment took place Offerings made as presents fall into three
or not. A ‘marriage’ between an entu priestess categories. First, those which were ‘useful’ to
(see priests and priestesses) and a local the gods-beds, chairs, boats, cups and vessels,
storm god, probably Adad or Wer (see ISkur), weapons dedicated from war booty, and jewel
is known from the Syrian town of Emar in the lery-were all absorbed into the temple treasury
fourteenth century BC. Possibly here too a ruler as part of the ‘property’ of the god. Second,
impersonated the god. statues of the offerers might be placed before
It is not known what the immediate source of the god to represent them in constant prayer 1
information was for the story recounted by before the deity. These and other thank offer
Herodotus (who may have visited Babylon in ings often carry inscriptions stating that they
the fifth century bc) according to which a were offered ‘for die life of’ die offerer, or on
woman spent rhe night in a shrine on top of the behalf of some other person. Finally, offerings
ziggurat of Babylon, waiting to be visited by might bc made as a form of request. Models of
Bel (Marduk) himself, although it is clearly human limbs, of beds, of pregnant women and
reminiscent of what is known from earlier figurines of animals may have been of this
periods in Mesopotamia. type.
See prostitution and ritual sex. It was not only on altars and offering tables
within temples that animal sacrifice was
sacred tree: see stylised tree and its ‘rituals’ offered, for in -he earliest periods certain places
outside the temple proper were specifically de
sacrifice and offering marcated for this purpose. In one of the series
The widespread Mesopotamian idea of man of prehistoric (Ubaid Period) temples at Eridu
having been created to act as the servant of the and in a room close by the entrance of another,
gods meant that it was considered necessary archaeologists found heaps of ash containing
to feed and clothe the gods constantly and to great quantities of fish bones. They were
make them presents. Among these various sorts apparently not part of a store of food or left
of offering, the term sacrifice refers especially overs from the kitchens, but die remains of
to the killing of an animal. Exactly the same continual and repeated sacrifice. In a later
foods and drinks were offered to the gods as (Uruk Period) building an enclosure was filled
were consumed by humans, with perhaps more up with ash and fish bones. Unlike the earlier
emphasis on the luxury items: frequent fresh temple rooms, this enclosure was three-sided,
meat, fish, cream, honey, cakes and the best with an open front, and represented a delin
sorts ofbeer. Incense and aromatic woods were eated area away from the temple itself. Fish
burned before them, as they might be at a offerings of the prehistoric and early historic
158
Santana
periods are also known from Girsu (Tello) and more or less the same function They were
Uruk, where large quantities of fish bones, in sited either within enclosures or (apparently)
cluding complete skeletons and skins, were on open-air plots.
found crammed into enclosures. We known nothing about the background to
This type of large-scale fish offering is this method of sacrifice, only that they were
unknown from the Third Early Dynastic constantly repeated in the same places, often
Period and later. Instead, from these early his close by the temple, but never within the
toric periods, enclosed deposits are found sanctuaries themselves
which contained mixed offerings of various See afterlife; dedication; food and drink
animals, including fish, birds and other small of the gods; human sacrifice; libation.
animals, as well as goats and cattle. Some of
these deposits also contained grain and veg Salmu
etable matter. They are of two main kinds: a The Akkadian word salmu (Sumerian nu or
room containing shallow rectangular trenches, alam) is used to refer to any piece of rep
each with a slanting floor (confined to the Early resentative art - figurative or not. ‘Image’, ‘rep
Dynastic Period), and circular brick structures resentation’ or ‘representative’ (in the sense of
(found commonly up to and including the an object standing for a person or creature
period of die Third Dynasty of Ur, with a last without necessarily being a portrayal of them)
known occurrence in the Old Babylonian are all possible translations. The word is used
Period). to refer to statues, stelae and figurines. It can
In the first of these arrangements, the areas also mean ‘cor.steliation’.
of sacrifice were laid out almost identically to From at least tire Middle Assyrian Period,
the earlier fish offering places, with a narrow Salmu sometimes is used as the proper name of
trench (some four metres long by two-thirds of a deity, a sun god who can be identified with
a metre wide) dug at an angle into the floor of Sama§ and, in one Middle Babylonian text, is
an enclosure. The inside walls of the trench regarded as the father of the god Btinene (see
were plastered with clay, and replastered after Utu). In Neo-Assyrian sources, the name
each incineration. Occasionally the sides of the occasionally occurs in the plural, as if denoting
trench were lined with bricks. Reeds or reed a group of deities. The form Salmu-sarri
mats were laid on the floor. The trench was cut (‘Salmu of the king’) is probably a modified
straight at the entrance, but was rounded at the name of the same god(s) (singular or plural).
deeper end, where the fire was kindled. After It has been suggested that Salmu is a name for
everything was burnt, the trench was swept the winged disc.
clean and prepared for the next incineration. At
Uruk the entrance to rhe trench was always ori Sam an a
ented to the north-east. In some instances large Incantations from the Old Babylonian Period
pottery vessels were placed alongside the tren are intended to protect infants, young men and
ches; they also contained the bones of fish, women and prostitutes from attack by the
birds and other small animals. Sometimes the demon Samana. who is described as having a
enclosures became so congested with sacrificial lion’s mouth, dragon’s teeth, eagle’s claws and
debris that the surrounding walls had to be the tail of a scorpion. The name seems also to
increased in height. Some of the sacrificial be associated with a grain disease, possibly
trenches at Uruk (among the earliest) are spread by a noxious insect.
located in the precinct of F.-ana, the temple of It is not certain if this demon is originally the
Tirana. At a slightly later date they were filled in same as the minor deity whose worship is attes
with regularly laid brickwork and were no ted at Lagas and one or two other Sumerian
longer used. towns during the Early Dynastic Period. The
The rounded structures seem to have served writing of his name is irregular, but appears to
159
Sarpanitu
have been pronounced Saman. He was also scimitar: see Nergal; standards, staves and
(under die name Saman-ana) included among sceptres of the gods.
the Slain Heroes enumerated in the poem
Lugale. scorpion
Representations of scorpions are known from
Sarpanitu prehistoric times onwards, but not unequi
Sarpanitu was the name of the goddess who was vocally as a religious symbol until late in the
regarded as the wife of Marduk, and who was Kassite Period or. kudurrus. on which the 7,90,
consequently the principal goddess of the city creature is labelled as a symbol of the goddess 130
of Babylon. She was worshipped under the Ishara.
name Erua as a goddess of childbirth, from Although not fatal, die sling of the scorpion
Akkadian em, ‘to be pregnant’. Her narr.e found in Mesopotamia is sufficiently painful to
Sarpanitu probably means ‘she ofSarpan’ (the
name or an (as yet) unlocated town or village,
perhaps near to Babylon), not, as was formerly
thought, ‘she who shines like refined silver
(sarpu)’.
See Dilmunite gods; Sacred Marriage.
ibo
Sebittu
suggest the creature as a suitable image of and female’ scorpion-people, showing that the
power and pro-ection. Magical spells were used ‘scorpion-woman’ was a figure in art, although
to counteract the effect of the sting. On repre no representation of her has yet been
sentations of scorpions and scorpion-people, identified: pairs of scorpion-tailed figures
the tail is always emphasised, rising up threat are common but seem usually to represem
eningly along the back or over the head. two bearded males (compare merman and
The Scorpion was also the Babylonian name mermaid).
of the constellation Scorpius (see zodiac). In the Babylonian Epic of Creadon, the
scorpion-man is counted as one of Tiamat’s
scorpion-people creatures, while in the Epic of Crilgames, a
131 Girtablullii, ‘scorpion-man’, is the Akkadian terrifying scorpion-man and scorpion woman
term for a supernatural being with a homed guard ±e gate of Mount Masu, where the sun
cap of divinity, human head with beard, human rises.
body, the hindquarters and talons of a bird, a An iconographically rather different human
snake-headed penis, and a scorpion’s tail. He and scorpion combination with human head, 90,131
may or may not have wings. The creature is first the full body and legs of a bird, and a scor
seen in the art of the Third Dynasty of Ur and pion’s tail is seen in Kassite, Neo-Assyrian,
of the Akkadian Period, but was common only Neo-Babylonian and Seleucid Period art. It is
in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian times. unclear whether this is also a girtablullii.
The type survived in art until the Hellenistic
Period. As attendants of Samas (Utu) (in art seals of the gods
8’ often supporting the solar winged disc or with Like humans, the gods had their own seals for
their heads possibly shown above its wing marking their properly or for giving their
tips), the scorpion-men were also, by the Neo- agreement to legal documents. In practice they
Assyrian Period, powerful protectors against were used to signify the property or the agree
demons. Wooden figurines of them are ment of the administration. Among the most
prescribed, along with figurines of other famous are the cylinder seals of the god Assur 132
beneficent demons and monsters, in Neo- rolled on the tablets of the so-called ‘vassal
Assyrian instructions for rituals of protective treaties’ of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon
magic, and an actual example has been found (reigned 680-669 BC), which were intended to
in a storeroom at the seventh-century BC ensure the royal succession.
Urartian city of Teisebaini (modern Kamiir
Blur). These rituals mention figurines of‘male Sebittu: see Seven (demons); Seven (gods).
161
serpents
serpents: see dragons; snakes. identify the symbol as that of the Sebittu or
Seven (gods), with w'hom the Pleiades were 16
seven: see numbers. evidendy associated.
See zodiac.
Seven (demons)
The Akkadian word sebittu is a singular noun Seven (gods)
meaning a ‘group of seven’: Sumerian iminbi As well as for a group of demons (sec Seven
corresponds to it. ‘The Seven’ is a name given (demons)), Sebittu (Sumerian Iminbi), ‘the
to a group of demons, the offspring of An and Seven’, is a name given to a group ofbeneficent
Ki, who act as assistants to the god Nergal gods whose power can be harnessed against evil
(Erra). One collection of magical incantations demons by means of magical incantations.
seems to identify the Seven with seven named ‘The Seven’ operate together with their sister
evil udngs, sometimes also called ‘Seven and Narudu, probably in origin the Elamite god
seven’ or ‘Seven times seven’. dess Narunte (see Elamite gods), and so may
See Seven (gods). themselves be of Elamite origin. They should
bc distinguished from die Babylonian Seven
seven dots Sages (apkallu). They may be identical with the
With possible antecedents dating back to pre seven children of Ishara. They are sometimes
historic times, the symbol of the seven dots named (as ‘Seven and seven’) together with
(or globes) is first known in unequivocal form another group, who may be the seven sons of
in Mitannian glyptic art, and became common Enmesarra. There were temples to these
in rhe Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Seven at the Assyrian capital cities of Kalhu
Periods. On Mitannian seals the dots are (Nimrud), Dur-Sarken (Khorsabad) and
usually arranged as six dots around a central Nineveh. Astrologically they were identified
dot, forming a kind of rosette. Thereafter, with the star-group Pleiades.
however, the dots are normally shown simply in The standard iconography of the Seven in 134
133 two rows of three, with the seventh dot placed the Neo-Assyrian Period is known. They wear
49,55 between the rows at the far end. From early on tall cylindrical hats with feathered upper
(at least from Middle Assyrian times), the borders, and long open robes. Each carries an
seven dots appears as a symbol in close associ axe and a knife, as well as a bow and quiver.
ation with other clearly astral symbols such as These are the attributes prescribed for rhe
151 the solar disc and the crescent. In Assyrian, Seven in rituals concerning the placement of
Babylonian and later art, they were regarded as protective figurines at set locations about a
a representation of the Pleiades: a new, though house. In practice, when in forms other than
less popular, version of the symbol showed plastic art, this iconography could, it seems,
87,159 seven stars rather than dots. Inscriptions also pose problems, for on a stone relief slab from
the palace of Assurbanipal (reigned 668-C.627
bc) at Nineveh, the long bows have been carved
first then erased in favour of die axes and
knives.
At least in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-
Babylonian art, the Seven were symbolised by
the seven dots, sometimessubstituted by seven
stars (probably an allusion to the identification
with the Pleiades).
133 Seven dots, symbol of the Seven (gods), as See zodiac.
commonly depicted in Neo-Assyrian and
Neo-Babylonian art. seven-headed snake: see snakes.
162
Seven Sages
134 Three of the divine Seven, carrying axes Other antediluvian figures are also said to have
and knives, and with their original bows erased. been apkallu, notably' Adapa of Eridu.
Monumental stone relief from the royal palace of The Seven Sages should be distinguished
the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (reigned
from the Seven (gods) {Sebittu) because Neo-
668-C.627BC) at Nineveh. Ht.0.89m.
Assyrian instructions for rituals including
protective figurines prescribe sets of figures of
Seven Sages the Seven followed by those of the Seven
According to Babylonian tradition, seven ap- Sages. Figures of different forms of the Seven
kallii (‘wise men’ or ‘sages’) lived before the Sages are to be made, some apparently in
Flood. Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian human form, some wearing fishes’ skins (see
ritual texts give their names and the seven cities fish-garbed figure), and winged figures with
from which they were believed to have come, birds’ faces (see griffin-demon).
although there are variant traditions which The tradition of the Seven Sages seems to be
cannot be fully reconciled one with another. preserved in Berossos’ account of eight crea-
163
sex
rures who appeared from the sea in the ‘first treaty imposed upon them), but this is largely
days’, beginning with Cannes and ending with propaganda. Nonetheless, a distinction was
Odakon. In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgames, recognised between offences that had to be
the Seven Sages are credited with building the dealt with by the courts and ottences of a more
walls of Uruk. social nature. Such ‘sins’ might bc deliberate,
See dead gods. but one whole magical rite is devoted to re
lieving the patient of the numerous sins which
sex: see creation; Inana, prostitution and might be committed by negligence unwittingly.
ritual sex; Sacred Marriage. The patient might not even know which god or
goddess he or she had offended. Such sin could
Sibittu (Sebittu): see Seven (demons); Seven be ‘undone’, ‘expelled’ or ‘annulled’ by a god,
(gods). and it is stressed that ‘prayer can undo sin’.
The use of the word ‘patient’ in this context
Siduri emphasises the Babylonian view of sin as com
The goddess Siduri (Siduri in the Hurrian parable with disease. Sin could be transmitted
version) is the proprietress of the ale-house at by relatives or inherited from parents; it could
the world’s edge in the Epic of Gilgames. On be ‘caught' by, for example, sitting on the same
his journey to Ut-napi5ti (Ziusura), Gilgames chair as had been sat on by a tabooed person.
meets Siduri, who tries to persuade the hero to Like disease, it too could be cured by magic
abandon his quest for immortality and to enjoy rituals involving potions and herbal ointments
what fruits the present life has to offer: accompanied by incantations. In this we can
Gilgames, where are you going? recognise as ‘sin’ a conscious feeling of sin and
You will not find the life for which you are guilt, a conscience, which can be salved by
searching. magical practices or by prayer. Looking at it
When the gods created man, another way, we can say that manifestations of
They allotted death for mankind, psychological disturbance were interpreted as
Keeping life for themselves. evidence of‘sin’ and may well have been cured
Gilgames, let your belly bc full, by rituals in which the patient had faith. The
Make merry by day and by night. Babylonians did not have a doctrine of original
Make a feast of rejoicing every day. sin, but they believed that we are all veiy prone
By day and by night, dance and play. to sin.
Let your clothing be clean and fresh, See good and evil; magic and sorcery;
Your head be washed, your body bathed in taboos.
water.
Look to the child who clutches your hand, Sin: see Nanna-Suen.
Let your wife enjoy herself in your lap.
This is the fulfilment of man! Slain Heroes
The Slain Heroes were a bizarre group of dead 135
sin monsters considered to have been slain by the
The various words in Sumerian and Akkadian warrior god Ningirsu (or in another version by
which are translated as ‘sin’ (offences against Ninurta). These include the Six-headed Wild
moral or divine law) are equally used to refer to Ram, the Seven-headed Snake (see snakes),
‘crime’ (infringement of civil or criminal lav/) the Dragon, the Palm-tree King, the Gyp
or to social ills, such as the prevalence of crime sum, the Strong Copper, the Kuli-ana, the
in a country. Assyrian kings were fond of .41agi7/ra-boat, Lord Saman-ana, the Bison
talking about ‘punishing’ the ‘crimes’ of their bull and the Imdugud Bird. The myth con- 35,86
enemies (crimes which consisted in resisting ceming the ‘killing’ of these monsters - some
the Assyrian Empire or failing to adhere to a animaaan, some apparently inanimate — can be
164
smiting god
Smiting god
Since tire so-called ‘smiting’ posture is the in- 136
evitable position for wielding certain weapons,
‘smiting gods’ appear in the art of all periods.
The term is applied in particular, however, to a
figure in Neo-Assyrian and Neo Babylonian
art who wears the homed cap of divinity and
often a short kilt; he may be naked above the
waist He holds one fist in the air and the other
hand towards the ground. He is often paired
135 The god Ningirsu or Ninurta slays the
seven-headed snake monster musmahku. Detail
from an engraved shell inlay plaque of the Early
Dynastic Period.
165
snake-dragon
14,32, with the lion-demon. He has nor yet been cer- Assyrian king Sennacherib (reigned 704-681
151 tainly identified with any named god, although bc) brought the motif to Assyria, normally as
he may represent the god Lulal (see La-tarak the beast of the state god Assur. On Senna
and Lulal). cherib’s rock-reliefs at Maltai, however, the 31
creature accompanies three different gods,
snake-dragon Assur, Ellil (Enlil) and another god, most
The snake-dragon (with horns, snake’s body likely Nabu.
and neck, lion’s forelegs and bird’s hindlegs)
is represented from the Akkadian Period down snake gods
to the Hellenistic Period as a symbol of various The snake gods of ancient Mesopotamia,
gods or as a generally magically protective especially Nirah, seem to be the only fully
hybrid not associated specifically with any animalism non-anthropomorphic, deities
deity'. By comparing Ac figure depicted on the (although La-tarak may have had a leonine
137 gates and processional way at Babylon with the face and worn a lion’s skin). The snake god
description of the building operations given by Nirah was worshipped at the city of Der,
King Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 604-562 located on the northern borderbetween Meso
bc), it has been possible to identify with potamia and Elam, as the minister of Istaran,
certainty the creature’s Akkadian name as mus-
hussu, ‘furious snake’. The complex mytho
logies and divine associations surrounding the
creature have only recently been collected and
explained. The mushussu was originally an
attendant of Ninazu, the city god of Esnunna.
It was ‘inherited’ by the god Tispak when he
replaced Ninazu as city god in the Akkadian or
early Old Babylonian Period, and in Lagas
became associated with Ninazu’s son Ningis
zida. Possibly after Hammurabi’s conquest of
Esnunna, the creature was transferred to the
8,105 new Babylonian national god, Marduk, and
110 latertoNabu. The conquest of Babylon by the
166
snakes
the city god of Der (see local gods). His cult For the seven-headed snake, see snakes.
there is attested from the earliest times and was On the cylinder seal of Gudea, prince of
long-lived. He was also worshipped until Lagas, the ruler is introduced into the presence
Middle Babylonian times in the E-kur, the of a superior deity by a god from each of whose 115
temple of Ellil (Enlil) in Nippur, where he was shoulders a horned snake rises. This is
regarded as a protective deity of the temple and probably intended to represent Ningiszida,
a protective presence. The cult of Irhan, a deity regarded by Gudea as his persona', protective
of the city of Ur and probably in origin a god deity (see personal gods).
representing the river Euphrates, remained in
dependent until the period of the Third Dyn snakes
asty of Ur, but was later syncretised with the Representations of snakes are naturally fre
cult of Nirah. It is possible that the snake sym- quent in iconography from tire prehistoric
7,90 bol found on kudurrus represents the god periods onwards, but it is not always easy to
Nirah (see snakes). decide whether or not they carried any relig
An anthropomorphic god with the lower ious value. When depicted as attributes of
body of a snake, shown on cylinder seals of the deities they are seen associated with both gods
137 Old Akkadian Period, may also represent and goddesses. As an independent symbol the
Nirah. snake appears on kudurrus and is identified 7,90
167
solar disc
168
star (symbol)
standards, staves and sceptres of the gods Neo-Assyrian military standards are
76 A number of different standards, staves and occasionally shown in campaign scenes on
sceptres occur as divine symbols. A ram Assyrian sculptured reliefs, especially those of
headed staffis known from the Old Babylonian Assumasirpal II (reigned 883-859 BC). They
down to the Achaemenid Period, and is represent various deities and it has been sug
identified by inscriptional evidence from gested that the army was divided into units sup
7 Kassite and Assyrian sculpture as a symbol of ported by rhe different temples. The troops of
10 the god Ea (Enki). It usually rests upon a base, Istar (Inana) carried a banner showing the
but occasionally stands alone or upon the back goddess herself, armed and set within a nimbus
of a goat-fish. Sometimes, on Neo-Assyrian of stars. Another standard depicting a god
seals, Ea carries a crook, perhaps an abbre drawing a bow and standing between streams of
viated form of the ram-head staff. water and a pair of outward-facing bulls may
An eagle-headed (or griffin-headed) staff is have signified the legions of the temple of Adad
90 represented only on Kassite kudumis, to be (Iskur) - mountain streams were believed to be
7 identified from the inscription on one as a sym the responsibility of the storm god, probably
bol of the god Zababa. It was later adopted as because he was the god of the rains and
one of the Assyrian military standards. because the reverberant sound of the waters
74,142 A staff or scimitar with the head of a lion (or running over the rocks was reminiscent of
rather lion-demon, with donkey ears) is thunder. A military standard of the reign of
found as a motif from the Akkadian down to the Sargon II (reigned 721^705 BC) depicts an un
Neo-Babylonian Period. From the inscriptions usual god with the head of a falcon: his identity
7 on a kudurru and a Neo-Babylonian stela, it is is unknown.
shown to be a symbol of the underworld god See birds; bird-gods; Ninsubur (god);
Nergal. ring-post; ring-staff; solar disc.
The double lion-headed sceptre or mace is
a common attribute and symbol in Neo star (symbol)
Sumerian art. and is there associated with a The eight-pointed star is known from prehis- 82,143,
13,90 variety of deities, male and female. It was toric times through to the Neo-Babylonian ^8
apparently a symbol of a particular deity on
Kassite and Neo-Assyrian monuments. Exactly
which goc it there represents depends upon the
restoration of slight lacunae in the inscriptions
10 of two of the Bavian rock stelae of the Assyrian
king Sennacherib (reigned 704-681 bc): Ner
gal. Ninurta and Nusku have each been sug
gested. Nergal is the most likely on epigraphic
grounds. He has been discounted because his
symbol on kudurrus is well established as the
single lion-headed staff or scimitar, but per
haps the double lion-headed sceptre was
regarded merely as a variant of this (and the
lion-heads often have upright ears). In any
event, the other two gods also each have
another identified symbol on the kudurrus (the
perched bird of Ninurta and the lamp of 142 (above) A standard with the head of a lion
Nusku) anc Ea is known to have two separate demon (lion with upright ears), an emblem of the
symbols, the goat-fish with ram-head staff and underworld god Nergal. One of the symbols
the turtle. carved on a kudurru of the Kassite Period.
169
statues
144 The Assyrian king, shown twice, stands on statues; see cult statues.
either side of a stylised tree and image of the sun
god Samas in his winged disc. Winged protective storm gods and storm demons: sec Iskur; lion
griffin demons with purificatory' buckets and demon; Numusda; umu dabrutu.
cones flank Lie scene. From a cylinder seal ofthe
early Neo-Assyrian Period.
stylised tree and its ‘rituals’
The motif referred to by modern commentators
Period. In early representations it may have as the ‘stylised’ or sacred’ tree, or, more pre
had a general astral significance, but at least sumptuously, as the ‘tree of life’, has provoked
from the Old Babylonian Period (and in all more discussion and controversy than almost
probability from the Early Dynastic) it was any other element in Mesopotamian art. The
normally, though not always, a symbol of In- literature is almost as extensive as the repre
ana/Istar, gocdess of love and war, the planet sentations of the motif itself, and includes a
7,21 Venus. Most commonly from the Old Babylon- number of books devoted entirely to the sub
73,90, ian Period onwards, the star is enclosed within ject. As with the equally ubiquitous and often
143,151 a disc. On,Middle and Neo-Assyrian seals, the iconngraphically associated winged disc,
upper body of a gocdess, presumably Istar, is opinions vary greatly as to the meaning and
sometimes set above a crescent surrounded by significance of the symbol, and lack of explicit
stars, a variation on the more usual armed god textual reference to the tree or its function
dess within a nimbus of stars. allows speculation a free rein.
The motif of a six-pointed star occurs Stylised trees of one type or another are
throughout the same period, but is of unknown commonly portrayed in Mesopotamian art
significance. from prehistoric times through to the Neo-
In later Babylonian times some persons Babylonian Period. At one time the tree will be
dedicated as temple slaves were branded with very formalised, often elaborate, at another
the device of a star (see dedication). tending towards naturalism, but in either case
See seven dots; solar disc. it will usually be set upon an elevation of some
swastika
172
tablet of destinies
trusting tradition, as the wife of Dagan. In in Babylonian Period, and again during die Neo-
cantations to the fire god Girra (Gibil), for use Babylonian Period. Aya was worshipped to
in magical rituals intended to undo sorcery gether with Samas at Sippar and Larsa.
(see magic and sorcery), Girra is said to be the See Sacred Marriage.
son of Sala.
29 z\ symbol of Sala was a barley stalk, sug Sullat: see ISkur.
gesting that she was perhaps an agricultural
deity. One text links Sala and an ear of grain Sul-pa-e
147 with the constellation called the Furrow The cult of the Sumerian god Sul-pa-e (sul
(Virgo), whose brightest star, in modern pa-e, ‘brilliantyouth’) is attested from the Early
terminology, is Spica (Latin virgo, ‘maiden’; Dynastic Period on. Despite his name, he was
and spica, ‘ear of grain’). not a youthful god but was, according to one
See nude woman; zodiac. tradition, the husband of the ‘mother goddess’
Ninhursaga (see mother goddesses and
Samas: see Utu. birth goddesses), who bore him three
children (Asgi, Lisin and Lil). The tradition is
Sara at odds with the Sumerian myth in which it is
The god Sara was the local god of the Enki who is the consort of Ninhursaga. Sul-
Sumerian city of Umma, where he was wor pa-e remained a minor god, whose character is
shipped in the temple E-mah. A fragment of a not certain. In one Sumerian poem offerings
stone bowl dedicated to Sara was found in a are made to Sul-pa-e in the underworld, and
rubbish dump in die Early Dynastic temple in later tradition he was included among the
at the site in north-eastern Babylonia called demons. Astronomically, Sul-pa-e was one of
today Tell Agrab, and may indicate that this many names of the planet Jupiter.
city (whose ancient name is unknown) was
also a cult centre of Sara. tablet of destinies
The epithet ‘hero of An’ suggests that Sara The tablet of destinies, along with the me and
was a warrior god, as does the fact that in the his crown and throne, was one of the objects
Babylonian myth of Anzfr (Imdugud), Sara whose possession guaranteed Enlil his
is one of the gods asked to undertake the supreme position as ruler of the universe and
fight against Anzu (eventually taken on by controller of tire affairs of men and gods. It was
Ninurta). In the Sumerian poem of Inana’s envisaged as a tablet of cuneiform writing,
descent to the underworld, Sara is one of impressed also with cylinder seals, in oilier
three deities who come to pay homage to Inana words as an unalterable legal document or
after her return: this may be connected with a authorised treaty'. The god is described as
tradition preserved in the myth of Lugalbanda ‘holding it in his hand’ or ‘clutching it to his
and a building inscription of the Third Dyn breast’. The tablet invested its holder with the
asty of Ur that Sara was the son of Inana. power to determine the destinies of the world,
and not for nothing was it described as a cosmic
sedu: see lama. bond linking heaven and the underworld.
In the Sumerian poem ‘Ninurta and the
Serida (Aya) Turtle’, it is Enki who holds the tablet. Both
Serida (Akkadian Aya) is a goddess of light, this and the Akkadian Anzu poem concern the
regarded as the consort of Utu/Samas, the sun theft of the tablet by the bird Anzu (Imdugud).
god. She is associated with sexual love and In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, it is
fruitfulness. The name Aya is found in per Tiamat who gives the tablet to Qingu.
sonal names from die Third Dynasty of Ur.
She was particularly popular during the Old
173
taboos
174
temples
temporary temple at Tell Brak in northern (modern Khafajah), the other at al-‘Ubaid
Syria (see eye and eye-idols). In all other close to Ur. In both cases the platform is sur
respects the plan continues that of the prehis rounded by' an oval-shaped outer wall,
toric temples. However, some temples, such as enclosing a sacred area with certain smaller
the so-called White Temple at Uruk, con buildings. The temple platform at al-‘Ubaid
tinued to be built on raised ground. Although was faced with baked brick walls, approach to
again simply the ruins of earlier buildings, the the temple being by a projecting stone stairway.
platform was now faced with sloping brick In the angle between the two was found a cache
panels, similar to ziggurat construction. The of objects which provide unique information
walls of the temple itself were again heavily about the external decoration of an Early Dyn
buttressed, with evidence of original wooden astic temple. Early Dynastic temples of the
decoration within the alcoves. In such temples ‘low’ type arc perhaps best represented at sites
the long sanctuary and side-rooms remain, excavated in the Diyala River valley. They all
with entry for the worshippers through one of retain the same basic arrangements as the early
the side-rooms. At either end of the sanctuary, historic ‘low’ temples, and all, in fact, were
however, are also major doorways, so that the founded at that earlier time There are, how
shrine stands as a kind of portal. So that it does ever, some elaborations, creating a kind of
not intrude upon this thoroughfare, rhe altar is temple, complex. The temple, of Sin (Nanna-
displaced from its axial position. Suen) at Tutub acquired a forecourt with sur
Some archaeologists have postulated a rounding dependent buildings, while the
division of these temples by function. In temple at Tell Agrab became a complicated
ground-level or 'low' temples the deity nor unit comprising a number of sanctuaries in
mally resided and received worship, as rep addition to the principal shrine.
resented by a cult statue. In contrast, ‘high’ or Little is known of any type of architecture in
platform temples are thought to have been used the Akkadian Period, and the site of the capital
as a portal by a god on his visits to earth. city Agade is unknown. Il seems, however, dial
Representations of temples are shown on in this period the Sumerian temples continued
early historic seals before we ever have the de in use and were restored.
piction of any god. The temple is characterised Much of the religious architecture of the
by its rectangular shape. Its identity as a temple subsequent Third Dynasty' of Ur is little
is shown by the frequent association of pro understood. From the central precinct at Ur
cessions of men approaching the building have been recovered the ground-plans of two
carrying offerings of various kinds. Buildings large square buildings, each of which seems to
of this type may also be shown flanked by divine be a combined temple, and palace. From the.
125,126 emblems, usually the ring-post or ring-staff same period comes a great mausoleum of the
(although both of these can also be seen on Third Dynasty kings and associated mortuary
127 byres, presumably as divine protection for the chapels. At Esnunna (modern Tell Asmar), ex
animals). Similar rectangular buildings are cavations have unearthed an interesting build
shown on seal designs which associate them ing complex combining a temple of the deified
with groups of quadrupeds, usually goats. It Su-Suen, king of Ur, and the ruler’s residence
has been suggested that we have here rep (see deification of kings). The temple is con
resented a different kind of temple, a rural structed on a central axis, leading from a main
shrine constructed not of brick bur of timber gateway flanked by towers through a central
poles and reed matting. courtyard to the sanctuary itself, its niche
From the Early Dynastic Period we have the equipped with altar and cult statue. Since the
remains of two ‘high’ temples, or rather of the temple had been dedicated to a god-king of Ur,
temple platforms only, since in neither case has after the fall of Ur it was incorporated into the
the building itself survived. One is at Tutub palace.
175
temples
148 A reconstruction, based on tlie University of area and associated buildings. One of these
Chicago excavations, of the temple of the local temples, dedicated to Istar herself, was built at
goddess Istar-Kifitum at Nerebtum (modem a higher level, with a large treasury behind it.
Ishchali) in the city-state of Esnunna. The
Each of the gateways to the temple was guarded
building measured approximately too X 6om.
Isin-Larsa Period. by a pair of towers.
For the most part the religious architecture
of the Kassites seems to have followed the
148 From the beginning of the second millen existing Sumerian style. A high ziggurat with
nium BC, there is a large temple complex at the associated temples was built at the new capital
town of Nerebtum (modern Ishchali in the Dur-Kurigalzu (modern 'Aqar Quf near
Diyala region), associated with a local gocdess Baghdad). A temple at Uruk, however, intro
Istar-Kifitum (Istar (Inana) of Kiti, probably duces a new feature: relief figures modelled in
a local ’/illage). It was really three separate the brickwork of the facades. Probably the
temples, each with its own self-contained figures were magically protective.
176
Tiamat’s creatures
At official level, the Assyrians perhaps placed activities so disturbed Apsu that he planned to
a greater emphasis than hitherto upon secular exterminate them (despite Tiamat’s protests).
architecture - in particular the palaces of tlie When Ea slew Apsu, Tiamat determined to be
Assyrian kings. However, heavy programmes avenged and created eleven monsters (see
of state religious building also flourished. The Tiamat’s creatures) with, as her champion,
Middle Assyrian temple of Istar at Assur was the god Qingu, described as her ‘lover’. Even
built on the foundations of an earlier Sumerian tually, after a heroic contest, Marduk, cham
temple of Inana, originally a single shrine like pion of the younger gods (in the Assyrian ver
the temples of the south. By the thirteenth sion his name is substituted with that of
century bc, side chambers and a subsidiary AsSur), defeated rhe monsters and Qingu and
shrine at the corner had been added. A purely destroyed Tiama t by splitting her skull with his
Assyrian element was the separation of the mace, while standing on her ‘lower parts’. He
goddesses’ sanctuary from the area of worship, broke her in two ‘like a dried fish’, using one
with the altar placed in a niche at the top of a halfto roof the heavens and the other to surface
wide stairway. Representations on seals show the earth: her breasts formed mountains, Ti
that the corner and gateway towers of Middle gris and Euphrates flowed from her eyes, her
Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian temples were built spittle formed clouds. While in some respects
to a greater height than the rest of the building, Tiamat, like other deities, is described in
and were provided with windows. The facades anthropomorphic terms, it is difficult to form a
were decorated with series of often elaborately precise picture of how the author of the Epic
decorated columns, probably a development envisaged her. In other passages it seems to be
from the buttressed facades of Sumerian implied that the salt sea waters were inside her.
temples, and the tops of the walls and towers
had crenellated parapets. The remains of Tiamat’s creatures
vaulted roofs have been found in some temples. In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, in order to
The interiors of the temples were earlier dec avenge herself on the younger gods, Tiamat
orated with painted panels and glazed bricks, gives birth to eleven monsters, or groups of
later with monumental stone reliefs. monsters (bearing some resemblance to the
See boats; building rites and deposits; Slain Heroes defeated by Ningirsu or
gipar. Ninurta in a story of earlier origin). The 53
eleven are the musmahhu, usumgallu and basmu
Tesup: see Tispak. (three types of homed snake), the tnushussu (a
snake-dragon), the lahamu (possibly identical
three: see numbers. to Lahmu, the long-haired ‘hero’ figure), the
ugallu (‘great storm-beast1, the lion-demon),
Tiamat the uridimmu (‘raging lion’, the lion-
In the unique version of the creation of tlie huinaiioid), the girlablullu (‘scorpion-man’:
gods preserved in the Babylonian Epic of see scorpion-people), umu dabrutu (‘fierce
Creation, after the separation of heaven and storms’), kulullu (‘fish-man’: see merman and
earth the only entities in existence were Apsu mermaid), and kusarikku (a mythical beast
(see abzu) and Tiamat. Apsu personified the probably derived from the bison: see bull
fresh subterranean waters and Tiamat the salt man). All of these are defeated by Marduk (in
waters: the name is a form of the word tiamtum, the Assyrian edition, Assur) in a great battle.
‘sea’. Apsfl and Tiamat were envisaged as a Images of them were placed by Marduk in the
male-female pair, although it is said that ‘their apsu (abzu) as a monument to the victory.
waters mingled together’. They engendered a The creatures ofTiamat were sometimes in
line of gods including Anu (An), Anu’s son Ea voked in magical incantations (see magic and
(Enki) and (apparently) other deities, w'hosc sorcery), and figurines of some of them were
177
Tispak
149 ‘The Tower of Babel’ by Pieter Breughel the southernmost extent of the area inhabited
the Elder, painted in ad 1563. The biblical story by the Hurrian people.
of Babylon’s tower has provided a favourite Tispak was a warrior god, as implied by his
theme for artists from the Middle Ages to the epithet ‘Lord of Armies'. In a Babylonian myth,
present day.
Tispak is instructed by Sin (Nanna-Suen) to
kill the monster Labbu. An ancient description
of an artistic representation of the god has him
carrying bow, arrows and mace.
among those used in Neo-Assyrian protective The animal symbol of Tispak (see beasts of 138
magic, as a consequence of which their dis the gods) was probably the snake-dragon.
tinctive iconography can in most cases be
determined (see demons and monsters). Tower of Babel
According to the Book of Genesis (11:1-9), ^lc 145
Tispak Babylonians wanted to build a mighty city and
It seems very likely that the Mesopotamian a tower ‘with its top in the heavens’. The com
deity Tispak was in origin identical with the pletion of the project was frustrated by Yah
Hurrian storm god Tesup. At any rate he re weh, who scrambled the speech of the workers
placed Ninazu as local god of the city of Es- to the point where they could no longer under
nunna in the Akkadian Period or early in the stand one another. The people were then dis
Old Babylonian Period. The city of Esnunna persed throughout the world.
(modern Tell Asmar), situated to the north On one level the story seems to be a myth to
east of Babylonia near the Diyala River, lay at explain the presence of diverse human lan-
umu dabrutu
guages. In an earlier Sumerian poem, Enki them to their rightful owner. Enki accordingly
created all the languages from one original makes a clay turtle which he brings tn life The
tongue. The Biblical imagery, however, was turtle digs a hole in the ground and covers it
probably inspired by the ziggurat or temple over, and Ninurta falls into the hole. The turtle
tower at Babylon, in Hebrew Babel. The meta pays no attention to the hero shouting ‘Let me
phor of the tower for world language was sug get out!’, and Enki rounds on Ninurta: ‘What
gested by a pun on Hebrew bdlal (to confuse): success did your strength bring you? Where is
‘Therefore its name was called Babel, because your heroism now?’ Presumably the me, the
the Lord confused the language of all the plans and the tablet of destinies were returned
earth’. to Enki.
The ziggurat of Marduk at Babylon was Represented in art from prehistoric times
known as E-temen-an-ki (‘Foundation of onwards, the turtle apparently first became
heaven and earth’). It had a base too metres associated with the god Ea (Enki) in the art of
square, and reached 91 metres in height, in the Akkadian Period. On kudurrus it can 90,150
seven stages, the uppermostbeinga temple de stand as a symbol of Ea, as an alternative to the
scribed as built in blue-glazed brick. After the goat-fish with ram-headec staff (see stan
partial demolition of the ziggurat in the Hell dards, staves and sceptres of the gods).
enistic Period and its subsequent decay, for Sometimes the turtle itselfis placed on the back
many centuries visitors to Mesopotamia sought of a goat-fish instead of the staff. The device no
the location of the Tower of Babel at a variety doubt seemed appropriate for a god of the
of neighbouring sites. fresh-w'ater abzu, and already had a mytho
logical basis in the Sumerian Imdugud story.
‘tree of life’: see stylised tree and its ‘rituals’.
ub-su-ukkina: see assembly of the gods;
trident: see fork. E-kur.
umu dabrutu
Umu dabrutu, meaning in Babylonian ‘violent
150 A turtle as symbol of the water god Ea. One storms’, is the name of one, or of one of the
ofthe emblems carved on a kudurru ofthe Kassite species, of eleven monsters created by Tiamat
Period. in her conflict against the younger gods (see
179
underworld
Tiamat’s creatures). It is not known in what the west. Although the word kur referring to
physical form this particular species was the underworld means ‘earth’, there seems also
imagined. to have been some confusion with kur meaning
'mountain(s)’, and hence possibly another
underworld trace of this belief.
What happens to people when they die? What is The underworld is always described as in
the nature of death? These eternal questions complete darkness, dusty and unpleasant. All
troubled the Mesopotamians as they have, and the dead, without exception, wander there,
still do, all other peoples. Because ot disease thirsting for water and having only dust to eat.
and man’s lesser control over his environment Sometimes they are described as naked, or
in ancient times, the average lifespan may have clothed with feathered wings like birds. Apart
been no more than thirty years, and those who from these spirits of the dead (gidim), the
did live into o;d age acquired experience and underworld is also the home of the dead gods,
wisdom commanding great respect. Death is of some demons (who are described as the
final, and there is no return from it. The dead ‘offspring of arali’ and who issue from the
51 ‘bite the dust’ in a very real sense when their underworld to bring tribulation to mankind),
bodies are covered with earth. and of a number of deities, principally Eres
These observations found mythic expression kigal, queen of the underworld, and her hus
in tlie idea that there is another ‘world’, where band Nergal. In the Mesopotamian concep
all the dead are together, in the ground (beneath tion, unlike that of the Egyptians, there was no
the surface ofthe earth), where they continue to judgement or evaluation of the moral qualities
live some residual form of life altogether in of the dead. They stood before Ereskigal, who
ferior to life on this earth. The Sumerians had merely pronounced the sentence of death upon
quite a number of different names for this other them while their names were recorded on a
world: arali, irkalla, kukku, ekur, kigal,ganzir, all tablet by Gestinana, scribe of the underworld,
ofwhich were borrowed into Akkadian as well. as if they were labourers turning up for
Otherwise it was known simply as the ‘earth’ or work. The god Ningiszida functioned as
‘ground’ (Sumerian ki, kur, Akkadian ersetii), majordomo of Ereskigal’s household, Pabil-
the ‘land of no return’ or, occasionally, the sag was her administrator, Namtar her
‘desert’, or else the ‘lower world’. This last minister or messenger, and Ncti was the gate
name makes clear the location of this under- keeper. The god Enmesarra and other gods
world, and from various sources we learn that are at times associated with the underworld,
there was a stairway down to its gate (for which and in later Babylonian texts 600 Anunnakku
the nameganzirwas used); that itwas possible to (Anuna) gods are assigned to the- underworld.
open up a hole in (he ground which would give This reflects the development ofa more precise
access to the underworld; and that the under picture of the nether regions.
world was situated even lower than the abzu, A number of literary works from one and a
the fresh-water ocean beneath the earth. The half millennia reflect imaginatively the
last point is clearly an attempt to reconcile two changing conceptions of the underworld. The
conflicting cosmological ideas, and it is inter Sumerian poem ‘Gilgames, Enkidu and the
esting that there are traces of other beliefs about Nether World’ (a version of part of which was
the location of the 'underworld’. The name incorporated into the Babylonian Epic of Gil
‘desert’ sometimes used to refer to it, and the games) describes a conversation between Gil
151 designation of the river of tlie underworld by games and tlie ghost of his dead servant
the names of actual rivers distant from Sumer, Enkidu which makes it clear that while life in
perhaps suggest a rival belief that the world of the underworld is most unattractive, it can be
the dead was located in a remote and inaccess made slightly more tolerable if surviving rela
ible area of the earth’s surface, perhaps far in tives make regular offerings to the dead of food
180
v.ndemorld
and drink, so that it is desirable to leave as tional circumstances of gods who overcome the
many descendants as possible. Those who have laws of nature by making a visit to the under
no children have a hard time indeed after world from which they succeed in returning. In
death, while those who do not even receive both cases this is only achieved by the provision
proper burial are worst off; die person who died oi a substitute who lakes their place or is left
in a fire or whose body lies in the desert does behind in the underworld so that they may
not even have a gidim in the underworld. return.
frontis. The Sumerian poem 'The Descent of Inana The Babylonian Epic of Gilgames includes
to the Underworld’ (also preserved in an Ak an account of a dream dreamed by Enkidu
kadian version, ‘Istar’s Descent’) and the myth before his death (separate from his description
‘Enlil and Ninlil’ both deal with the exceo- of the underworld after his death), in which
151 A Neo-Babylonian
cast copper or bronze
plaque, apparently used as
a magical protection
against evil demons.
Originally it probably
hung in a wooden frame.
Looking over the top is the
god Pazuzu. The
uppermost register shows
emblems of the main
gods, thereby probably
invoking the protection of
the deities symbolised.
Next, a row of seven
animal-headed beings,
probably also magically
protective. The third
register shows a sick man
lying in bed and flanked
by fish-garbed figures
(perhaps priests),
accompanied by
supernatural protective
beings. Below, the evil
goddess Lamastu returns
along the river of the
underworld io her
infernal home, driven on
by Pazuzu and tempted by
various offerings. Ht. of
plaque 133 mm.
181
Urartian gods
those who were kings in life are reduced to the Siwini, a sun god (corresponding to Hurrian
same ghastly state as all the other dead. This Simigi):
emphasis on the levelling aspect of existence in Selardi, a moon god.
the underworld is not usual. The retelling of
this drcam has an appropriate dramatic effect
Uras (god)
on Giigames.
The god Uras was the local deity of the north
An unusual Neo-Assyrian poem describes a
ern Babylonian city of Dilbat. He is mentioned
vision of the underworld experienced by a
in connection with the city in the Prologue to
prince named Kummaya, in which theprince is
the Laws of Hammurabi of Babylon. In one
nearly prevented from returning to tire world of
tradition, he was regarded as an ancestor of
the living by Nergal, who berates him for
An. In later periods he was even identified with
having the temerity to enter his wife’s domains.
An, or with Ninurta. He was among the gods
The god Isum intercedes on his behalf and he
worshipped in the city of Assur. The Uras Gale
is allowed to return - in fact to wake up, since
at Babylon was named probably from the direc
the grim vision turns out to have been a dream.
tion of Dilbat, to the south of Babylon.
It is very detailed, but perhaps idiosyncratic.
The prince has been thought to be Assur-
banipal, later king of Assyria (ruled 668-J.627 Uras (goddess)
BC). Uras is the name of a goddess who in some
See afterlife; death and funerary prac traditions is the wife of An. In ancient com
tices; galla; kur; Lugal-irra and Meslamta- mentaries, the name Uras is explained as
ea; night; Ninazu; Nungal; river of the meaning ‘earth’, and according to other tra
underworld; Sakkan; Sul-pa-e. ditions the wife of An is Ki (‘earth' in
Sumerian). Uras was said to be the mother of
Urartian gods the goddesses Ninisina and Nisaba. It has
The state of Van, better known by the name been suggested that the element -urta in the
Urarpj applied to it by the Assyrians (and ap name of die god Ninurta (where Nin- means
pearing in the Bible in the form Ararat), lay in ‘lord’) is the same as the word uras, but this
the mountainous area around and to the south cannot bc definitely shown.
of Lake Van in what is now south-east Turkey
and the neighbouring areas of north-west Iran Usmu: see Isimud.
and Armenia. The oldest definite evidence for
the kingdom is from the third quarter of the Uttu
ninth century bc.. Urartu, which rose to become Uttu was the name of the Sumerian goddess
a powerful influence in the international associated with weaving. Since the same sign is
politics of its day and a thorn in the flesh of also used sometimes to write the word for
Assyrian kings, was finally overthrown by the ‘spider’, it is possible that she was envisaged in
Scythians and absorbed into the Median, then the form of a spider spinning a web.
into the Persian empire. The people of Urartu
spoke a late form of the Hurrian language and Utu (Samas)
preserved some aspects of Hurrian culture. Utu was the Sumerian sun god, whose Ak- 31,152
Among their deities were: kadian name was Samas. He represents the
Haldi, the national god of Urartu; brilliant light of the sun, which returns every
day to illuminate the life of mankind, as well as
Bagbarti, the wife of Haldi;
giving beneficial warmth, which causes
Teseba, a storm god (corresponding to plants to grow. In the Sumerian tradition, Utu
Hurrian Tcsup); was the son of Nanna, the moon god, and twin
brother of Inana. In Akkadian traditions he
182
Utu (Samas)
was sometimes made the son of Anu (An) or of cruelly tricked into a pit by the serpent, im
Enlil. His wife was Serida or (in Akkadian) plores the god’s help. Samas brings along
Aya. The two principal temples of Utu, both Etana, who has been praying to Samas for the
called E-babbar (‘White House’) were at ‘plant of giving birth’ (see ‘plant of life’), and
Sippar in Akkad, and Larsa in southern Etana and the eagle are able to assist each other:
Sumer. In the Assyrian Period, there was a subsequently Etana rides on the eagle’s back to
joint temple of Samas and Sin (Nanna-Suen) heaven.
at Assur. The principal minister of Utu, his A completely different role is assumed by
charioteer and, according to some traditions, Utu in a typically irreverent Sumerian poem
his son, was the minor deity Buncnc, worship when he tries to seduce his twin sister Inana by
ped from the Old Babylonian Period at Sippar getting her drunk. The goddess of love re
and Uruk, and later at Assur. sponds by pretending complete ignorance of
The cult of Utu is attested from the earliest sexual intercourse or even kissing.
8?. times. Described as bearded and ‘long-armed’, See Arabian gods;bull-man; cross; horse;
Utu emerged from the doors ofheaven at dawn lion-humanoid; night; ring-staff; rod and
and made a daily journey across the skies to ring; Sacred Marriage; solar disc; Salntu;
enter the ‘interior ofheaven’ once again at dusk scorpion-people; winged disc.
by the parallel set of doors on the western hori-
152 zon. Cylinder seals show two gods opening the utukku-. sec udug.
doors of heaven for Utu to come forth (see
gatekeepers): the god brandishes his emblem vase with streams
the pruning-saw. typical of such saws still used The device known as the ‘flowing vase’ or ‘fer
in the Near East, with an arc-shaped blade and tility' vase’ is a round-bodied, short-necked,
large, jagged teeth. In die Babylonian Epic of flared-rim jar with streams issuing from its
Giigames, the twin-peaked mountain Masu is mouth. Sometimes fish are shown swimming
located near the eastern doors of heaven. along the streams, or replacing the streams but
Presumably because the sun, in itspath across implying their presence. The vase can be held
the skies, sees everything, Utu/'§amas came to by figures of various kinds. It is a common ele- 16,63
be regarded as a god of truth, justice and right. ment in art from early historic to Achaemenid
Samas, together with Adad (see Iskur), is in times. The Akkadian name for the vessel was
voked during Babylonian extispicy rituals. As a apparently hegallu, ‘abundance’.
protector of right and destroyer of evil, he also In the Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian
had a warrior aspect to his personality. Periods, the vase is sometimes held by the water
A third aspect of Utu was his direct interest god Enki (F.a), but at this time, as in later 115
in the affairs of mankind. One of the early periods, it is most often held by figures of
legendary kings of Uruk is described as a ‘son Lahmu. Apparently the motif was associated 153
of Utu’ in the composition called the ‘Sumer with Ea and the creatures of the abzu, among
ian King List’, and Utu acted as a special pro whom Lahmu was sometimes to be counted.
tector of some of the later heroic kings of the The vase was not, however, a divine symbol in
city, for instance Giigames. In the Babylonian the sense that it represented a particular deity,
Epic of Giigames, Samas helps rhe hero but was a general attribute of certain divine and
against the monstrous guardian of the Cedar semi-divine figures, perhaps signifying fer
forest, Humbaba (Huwawa). In the Sumerian tility and abundance.
poem ‘Dumuzi’s Dream’, Utu helps Dumuzi
to escape from the galla-demons who have Venus: see Inana.
come to take him to the underworld. Babylon
ian Samas also acts as a just advisor in the visions: see dreams and visions.
legend of Etana, when the eagle, who has been
184
winged disc
153 Naked Lahmu gods hold vases with apparently different male deities, including the
flowing streams, to which the water-buffalo come water god Ea (Enki); a god who stands on a
to drink. From the cylinder seal of Ibni-sarrum, bull, so probably Adad (see Iskur); and a god
scribe to King §ar-kali-sarri of Agade. Akkadian
who stands on a snake-dragon, probably
Period.
Nabu. From Middle Babylonian and Middle
Assyrian times we find the wedge not only as an
attribute ofthe scribal god Nabu, but also as his 10
independent symbol. It may be shown vertical
wedge or horizontal, single or double, sometimes next 90
154 A wedge-shaped implement is depicted as a to (or replaced by) another piece of writing 20
151 divine symbol or attribute in art from the Old apparatus, which has been interpreted as a
Babylonian down to the Neo-Babylonian tablet or writing board. Sometimes, especially
Period. It probably represents not so much the on Neo-Babylonian seals, the symbol is shown
basic element of cuneiform writing as the on the back of Nabu’s snake-dragon, or the
2,5 actual stylus used to produce this script on god, holding his wedge, himself stands upon 110
leather-hard clay. In practice a reed was used, the dragon.
but gods’ styli might be of gold or silver. On Some temple slaves were branded with the
seals and sealings of the Old Babylonian symbol of a wedge (see dedication).
Period, this wedge is held by a number of
wine: see alcohol; food and drink of the
gods; libation.
winged disc
Both the origins and meaning of the winged
solar disc are matters of controversy. Probably
154 A wedge-shaped its ultimate origins were in Egypt, from where
stylus and tablet or it passed via the Syrians and the Hittites to
writing board, Mesopotamia. It first appears there in tlie glyp
symbolising the scribal
tic art of the Mitannian kingdom, and was then
god Nabu. A common
decree among the symbols transmitted to Assyrian and Babylonian art. 21,155
of the gods on Neo- Taken over by the Achaemenid Persians, it re
Babylonian monuments. mained an important emblem in Iran until
‘winged gate'
155 Assurnasirpal n, king of Assyria {883— proved of because of its harmful effects and was
859 bc), rides into battle, firing at the enemy. punishable under the law, although its tech
From the sky he receives more than symbolic niques were probably not very different from
support from a god flying in a winged disc. those of acceptable white magic. The practi
Monumental stone relief from the royal palace at
Kalhu (modern Nimrud). Ht. 0.93m. tioners of witchcraft seem to have been more
often female than male. According to the laws
of Hammurabi of Babylon (reigned 1848-1806 3
modern times. Often in Assyria, and normally BC), a person accused of witchcraft had to sub
in Achaemenid art, the figure of a god is shown mit to the river ordeal, and if proved guilty
131,144 above the central disc, in Assyria sometimes forfeited all property to the accuser. However,
with the heads of two facing figures, perhaps if they were proved innocent, the accuser was
82 scorpion-people, set at the ends of the wings. put to death.
The disc in Assyria was a symbol of Samas See: magic and sorcery.
(Utu), though it has been attributed by some
scholars to Assur or Ninurta. The disc is word
often supported by supernatural creatures, The idea of the power of a god’s word as an
82 such as a pair of bull-men, a pair of scorpion instrument of creation is less common in
men or a figure of Lahmu. Mesopotamia than, for instance, in the Hebrew
See Salmu; stylised tree and its ‘rituals’. 'iterature of the Bible. However, just as kings
command and things happen, so the Meso
‘winged gate’; see bull and ‘winged gate’. potamian gods had only to ut:er for actuality to
follow. The Sumerian balag poems (long reli
witchcraft gious lyric poems) abound in meditations on
Witchcraft, or sorcery, is the term usee for the the ‘Word’ of particular gods, dwelling as
less attractive aspects of magic, which played a much on the terrifying and potentially destruc
prominent part in everyday life in ancient tive aspects of this attribute as on its beneficial,
Mesopotamia. Witchcraft was officially disap creative side: the Word of An or Enlil can
1S6
ziggurats
156 A wrestling
bout depicted on a
limestone plaque of
the Early Dynastic
Period, from the
temple of the
goddess Nintu at
Tutub (modem
Khafajah).
W. 240 mm.
187
ziggurats
other cases, if there was access at all, it may great stairway on the northern side, dividing
have been from the roof-tops of neighbouring into three separate stairways, each of a hundred
buildings. Usually the structures were square steps, 1'rom the level of the lowest terrace to the
or rectangular, averaging about 40 X 50 metres ground. Two of these stairways lean against the
at base. No example is preserved to its full orig walls, while the third projects at right angles at
inal height. The largest surviving ziggurat is at the middle of the structure, focusing attention
Al-Untas-Napirisa (modern ChogaZanbil), in on the central axis, and so on the summit and
Elam, built in the thirteenth century BC. 100 shrine. The approach on all four sides was
metres square and preserved to 24 metres high through a broad courtyard with gateways
(which is estimated at slightly less than half its flanked by towers. The core of the ziggurat is
original height). Uniquely, access was via in sun-dried brick, faced with more than two
ternal stairways. metres of baked bricks set in bitumen.
157 The best-preserved example is that of the The ziggurat at Ur shares some features with
moon god Nanna at Ur. The lower part of the ziggurats in general, throughout the long his
structure, built by Ur-Nammu, founder of the tory of their construction. Horizontal layers of
Third Dynasty, is substantially intact, and reeds or reed matting were usually placed
enough of the. upper part survives for reliable at intervals between the courses of brick, and
reconstruction. The monument is 64 X 46 external weep-holes and internal vertical
metres at base and originally about 12 metres in shafts were intended to release moisture and
height with three storeys (increased to seven by rainwater.
Nabonidus in the sixth century bc). The The development of the ziggurat should
corners are oriented to the cardinal points of probably be seen as an extension of the prin
the compass. The walls, sheer on three sides ciples of ‘high’ temple construction (see
but relieved by shallow buttresses, curve temples and temple architecture). There is
slightly outwards from corner to corner and evidence for the existence of models of zig
slope steadily inwards towards the summit, gurats. On seals the association of ziggurats 158
where the shrine stood. This was reached by a with symbols of gods may suggest that such
157 The ziggurat tower at Ur, in present-day southern Iraq, partially reconstructed.
188
Ziusura (Ut-napisti)
189
zodiac
the story of Ziusura in the Mesopotamian tra (Aquarius), the Tail, the Swallow and Anunitu
dition. (these last three forming together Pisces). Later
See Dilmun. the constellation the Field (Pegasus) was
added.
By 600—500 bc these were systematised in
zodiac such away that they were distributed among the
Tire association of certain constellations with twelve months, singly or sometimes in pairs.
the months of the year was first made by the For instance, the second month of the Baby
Babylonians. By about iooobc they recog lonian year (corresponding to mid-April to
nised eighteen zodiacal constellations (con mid-May) had both Taurus and the Pleiades;
stellations through whose path the moon and the third month Gemini and Orion; and the
planets appeared to move): the Hired Man twelfth month Pisces and Pegasus. By about
(corresponding to our Aries), the Stars (the 400 bc the number of zodiacal constellations
Pleiades, see seven dots; Seven (gods)), the was reduced to the twelve that we are familiar
Bull of Heaven (Taurus), the True Shepherd with today, each covering 30° of the sky, and
of Anu (An) (Orion), the Old Man (Perseus), beginning with Aries for the first month (cor
the Crook (Auriga), the Great Twins (Gem responding to mid-March to mid-April).
ini, see Lugal-irra and Mcslamta-ca), the All these constellations are illustrated on
Crab (Cancer), the Lion (Leo), the Furrow astronomical tablets and on stamp-seals of the 147,159
(Virgo, see Sala), the Scales (Libra), the Scor Hellenistic Period. Some of them may also be
pion (Scorpius), Pabilsag (Sagittarius), the depicted on earlier kudurrus.
Goat-fish (Capricornus), the Great One See astrology and astronomy.
19c
Recommended further reading in English
Georges Roux, Ancient. Jraq, 3rd ed.. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1992
[Undoubtedly the best general introduction.]
.Nicholas Postgate, Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Damn ofHistory,
paperback ed., Routledge, London, 1994.
Susan Pollock, Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden that Never Was (Case Studies in Early
Societies series), Cambridge University Press, 1999
Julian Reade, Mesopotamia, revised cd., British Museum Press, London. 2000.
[Covers the period down to the early second millennium BC.]
Joan Oates. Babylon, revised cd., Thames and Hudson, London, 1986.
HAVE Saggs, Ike Greatness that mas Babylon, revised ed., Sidgwick and Jackson,
London, 1988.
H.W.F. Saggs, The Might that mas Assyria, Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1984.
Amelie Kuhrt, The Ancient Near East. c 3000-33C bc, 2 vols, Roudedge, London, 1995.
Marc Van De Mieroop, A History ofthe Ancient Near East c. 3000-323 bc, Blackwell,
Oxford, 2003. [These two works complement one another very satisfactorily: Kuhrt is
detailed, with many further references, while Van De Microop’s narrative is very
readable, with a strong forward thrust.]
P.R.S. Moorey, The Ancient Near East, Ashmolean Museum Publications, Oxford, 1987.
Michael Roaf, Cultural Atlas ofMesopotamia and the Ancient Near East, Facts on File,
New York and Oxford, 1990.
Piotr Bicnkowski and Alan Millard (eds), Dictionary ofthe Ancient Near East, British
Museum Press, London, 2000.
Eric M. Meyers (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia ofArchaeology in the Near East, 5 vols,
New York and Oxford, 1997. [Poorly edited but includes some excellent individual
articles.]
Jack M. Sasson (cd.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, 4 vols, Charles Scribner’s
Sons, New York, 1985. [Valuable collection of essays on various aspects of history and
society in the ancient Near East, including Egypt.]
Stephanie Dailey, Myths from Mesopotamia (The World’s Classics series), paperback ed.,
Oxford University Press, 1991. [Up-to-date translations of the myths in Akkadian.]
Erica Reiner, 'Your thwarts in pieces, your mooring rape cutPoetryfrom Babylonia and
Assyria, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 1985.
James B. Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed.
with Supplement, Princeton University Press, 1969.
James B. Pritchard (ed.), The Ancient Near East in Pictures relating to the Old Testament,
2nd ed. with Supplement, Princeton University Press, 1969.
E. Stronuncngcr, The Art ofAncient Mesopotamia, Thames and Hudson, London, 1964.
[Excellent photographs by M. Hirmer.]
J.E. Curtis and J.E. Reade (cds), Art and Empire: Treasures from Assyria in the British
Museum, British Museum Press, London, 1995. [Numerous full-colour photographic
illustrations.]
Julian Reade, Assyrian Sculpture, revised ed., British Museum Press, London, 1998.
Beatrice Teissier, Ancient Near Eastern Cylinder Seals from the Marcopoli Collection,
University of California Press, Berkeley, 1984. [Valuable especially for its outstanding
introduction on the history of cylinder seals.]
D. Collon, First Impressions: Cylinder Seals in the Ancient Near East, British Museum
Publications, London, 1987. [Extensively illustrated.]
C.B F. Walker, Cuneiform (Reading the Past scries), British Museum Publications,
London, 1987.
The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian
Literature (www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk).
'An extremely useful compendium in dictionary form
of the rich, varied and complex world of
ancient Mesopotamian mythology'
MINERVA
Ancient Mesopotamia was a rich, varied and highly complex culture, whose
achievements included the invention of writing and the development of
sophisticated urban societies. This book offers an introductory guide to the
beliefs and practices of the ancient Mesopotamians, as revealed in their art
and their writings between about 3000 bc and the advent of the Christian era.
short accounts to extended essays, '«lames are given in both their Sumerian
and Akkadian forms, and all entries are fully cross-referred. A useful intro
duction provides historical and geographical background and describes the
sources of our knowledge about religion, mythology and magic of the
'cradle of civilisation'.
The late Dr Jeremy Black was a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford and University
Lecturer in Akkadian. He was the author of several studies on Sumerian and Babylonian
literature, and headed the Electronic lext Corpus of Sumerian Literature project
(http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk).
Nea' Eastern Art and Archaeology at the Freie Universitat Berlin. He has excavated
extensively in Syria and Iraq and writes on ancient Mesopotamian art and archaeology.
Mesopotamia.
www.britishmuseum.co.uk
9 780714 117058
£12.99