Ebla Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...

Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Norther ...

West Semitic The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of ancient Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.substrate. Her cult had a wide reach across the

ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

. In addition to Ebla, she was also worshiped in cities such as Mari, Emar,

Alalakh Alalakh (''Tell Atchana''; Hittite: Alalaḫ) is an ancient archaeological site approximately northeast of Antakya (historic Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It flourished, as an urban settlement, in the Middle and Late Bronze Ag ...

and

Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = ...

. From these Syrian cities the worship of Ishara spread to

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...

. The

Hurrians The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern Me ...

also adopted her into their pantheon after arriving in Syria, from which she found her way to the Hittite pantheon. In various time periods and areas different functions were assigned to her. In Ebla she was the tutelary deity of the ruling family, but also a love goddess. In Mesopotamia the latter function lead to an association with

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...

, and later Nanaya, Kanisurra and Gazbaba as well. In

Hurrian religion The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic religion of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East who chiefly inhabited the north of the Fertile Crescent. While the oldest evidence goes back to the third millennium BCE, is best attested in ...

she acquired the role of a goddess associated with the underworld and disease, and in that capacity she was closely associated with

Allani Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu (or Allatum) was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld, incorporated into Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons as well. Name and epithets The name Allani is derived from a Hurrian word meaning ...

, the Hurrian queen of the dead. She was also regarded as a goddess of divination and a divine guardian of oaths.

Name and origin

Initially researches ascribed

Hurrian The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Norther ...

origin to Ishara, as well as a number of other

Ebla Ebla ( Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', ar, إبلا, modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was an important center t ...

ite deities ( Adamma, Ashtabi and Hebat), but further excavations in Ebla have shown that all of these deities are present in documents predating the Hurrian migrations to Syria. In the case of Ishara, the theory that she had pre-Hurrian origin has been present in scholarship since 1971. While

Wilfred G. Lambert Wilfred George Lambert FBA (26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011) was a historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology. Early life Lambert was born in Birmingham, and, having won a scholarship, he was edu ...

considered it possible that Ishara's name was connected to early Semitic root ''šhr'' (dawn), going as far as proposing this as explanation for her association with

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...

, Lluis Feliu in a more recent study notes that the proposed Semitic etymologies for the name of Ishara "do not fit (...) erprofile very well." Today it is assumed that she originated in a linguistic and religious substrate which was neither Semitic nor Hurrian, similar to a number of other Eblaite deities like Ashtabi,

Kura Rúben de Almeida Barbeiro (born August 21, 1987 in Leiria), better known as KURA, is a Portuguese electro house music DJ and producer. Kura has released tracks through labels such as Hardwell's Revealed Recordings, Flashover Recordings, M ...

, Adamma and NI-''da''-KUL (

Hadabal Hadabal (also spelled 'Adabal) was a god worshiped in Ebla and its surroundings in the third millennium BCE. He was one of the main gods of that area, and appears frequently in Eblaite documents. His character is not well understood, though it ha ...

). Alfonso Archi proposes that she was originally worshiped in the area east of the city of Ebla itself, but within its sphere of influence. A bilingual lexical texts from Ebla explains the writing of Ishara's name as ''šara₈(bara₁₀ = gá×sig₇)ra = Iš-ḫa-ra''. Another spelling attested there was ^dŠÁR-''iš''. Variants of the name include Ašḫara (in a treaty of Naram-Sin of Akkad with an

Elam Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...

ite king, possibly Hita of

Awan Awan may refer to: Places * Awan (ancient city), a city-state in Elam in the 3rd millennium BCE * Awan (region), a town in Guna district, Madhya Pradesh, India * Awan, Bhulath, a village in Kapurthala district, Punjab, India, Punjab, Pakistan ...

), Ušḫara (in Hittite), and Ušḥry (in Ugaritic). In

Alalakh Alalakh (''Tell Atchana''; Hittite: Alalaḫ) is an ancient archaeological site approximately northeast of Antakya (historic Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It flourished, as an urban settlement, in the Middle and Late Bronze Ag ...

, her name was written with the

Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to: * Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire * Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language * Akkadian literature, literature in this language * Akkadian cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic ...

logogram ^dIŠTAR. In some cases it is uncertain whether she, Ishtar or Shaushka (a Hurrian goddess whose name could also be written as ^dIŠTAR) was meant in personal names from that city containing the logogram. Name of a month and personal names from Ebla involving the sign

AMA Ama or AMA may refer to: Ama Languages * Ama language (New Guinea) * Ama language (Sudan) People * Ama (Ama Kōhei), former ring name for sumo wrestler Harumafuji Kōhei * Mary Ama, a New Zealand artist * Shola Ama, a British singer * Ām ...

were proposed to refer to Ishara in publications from the 1980s, but this possibility is not regarded as plausible anymore.

Functions

The oldest attestations of Ishara from Ebla, such as these in documents from the reign of Irkab-Damu, indicate she was a tutelary goddess of the ruling house. She is also already attested as a goddess of love in texts from Ebla, and Piotr Taracha goes as far as suggesting it was her oldest function. She was represented in this role in Mesopotamia as well, in part possibly due to association with Ishtar, though Frans Wiggermann regards the two of them as independent from each other in this role. As a love goddess, Ishara was specifically connected to the institution of

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

, though incantations associate her with erotic love as well. In Akkadian texts she could be referred to as the "lady of love," ''bēlet ru'āmi.' Alfonso Archi notes that in Ebla she sometimes received weapons as offering (much like

Hadad Hadad ( uga, ), Haddad, Adad (Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions. He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. ...

,

Resheph Resheph (also Reshef and many other variants, see below; phn, 𐤓‬𐤔‬𐤐‬, ''ršp''; Eblaite ''Rašap'', Egyptian ') was a deity associated with plague (or a personification of plague), either war or strong protection, and sometimes ...

and Hadabal), which might indicate she had an Ishtar-like warlike side too. He proposes that as a warrior goddess she was possibly associated with axes. She was also strongly associated with divination and prophecy, as evidenced by the epithet ''bēlet bīrim'' ("lady of divination") known from Syrian sources and the god list ''

An = Anum ''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...

'' and references to "Ishara of the prophetesses" in texts from Emar. A number of new functions were assigned to her in the Hurrian context, including an association with the underworld and gods dwelling in it. She was also invoked as a guardian of oaths. While she was generally not a healing goddess in her own right, she could serve as both a goddess of disease and of healing in Hurro- Hittite sources.

Symbols

Initially her symbol in Mesopotamia was the bashmu, otherwise mostly associated with underworld gods, such as Tishpak or

Ninazu Ninazu ( sux, ) was a Mesopotamian god of the underworld of Sumerian origin. He was also associated with snakes and vegetation, and with time acquired the character of a warrior god. He was frequently associated with Ereshkigal, either as a ...

. An association between Ishara and mythical reptiles is also known from Ugarit, where a single text refers to "Ushara-Hulmizzu." Hulmizzu is agreed to be a cognate of Akkadian ''hulmittu'', as well as a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

term referring to a type of reptile in Leviticus 11:30 and the Syriac word ''hulmoto'', "

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

." While it has been translated simply as "the snake" or "the lizard," Aisha Rahmouni proposes that it designates not a real animal, but a mythical creature analogous to bashmu. She relies on descriptions of the appearance of the Akkadian ''hulmittu'' in lexical texts, which clarify that the term designates a mythical snake with legs. In later periods, for example on boundary stones (''

kudurru A kudurru was a type of stone document used as a boundary stone and as a record of land grants to vassals by the Kassites and later dynasties in ancient Babylonia between the 16th and 7th centuries BC. The original kudurru would typically be stor ...

'') Ishara was instead symbolically represented by the

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always en ...

. Neither the reason behind attribution of either symbol to her nor why the change from bashmu to scorpion occurred are known. Like her, scorpions were associated with marriage in Mesopotamian culture. In Babylonian astronomy, she was associated with the "scorpion star" (^mul''gir-tab''). As a love goddess, Ishara could also be associated with

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

.

Worship

Alfonso Archi describes the worship of Ishara as deeply rooted in the traditions of the kingdom of Ebla from the third millennium BCE. "Ishara of the king," a hypostasis meant to serve as a protector of the reigning Eblaite monarch, was worshiped in the temple of the city god Kura. The association between Ishara and Eblaite kingship persisted at least until the seventeenth century BCE. Later sources, including a Hurrian myth and an oracle text from Emar, still recognize her as the goddess of Ebla. Administrative texts indicate that multiple members of the Eblaite royal family and court were devotees of Ishara. As an extension of this role, she was worshiped during rituals connected to the royal wedding. During preparations for it, the future Eblaite queen was expected to make offerings to Ishara and Kura. The king instead made offerings to her after the return from the ceremony, which took place outside the city. Another Eblaite document attests that Ishara was asked to purify the royal garden, though this location was more commonly associated with the god Ea. No theophoric names invoking Ishara are known from Ebla, which according to Alfonso Archi is not uncommon for the deities presumed to belong to the religious substrate present in the documents from the same city, with Kura being an exception. He proposes that this situation indicates name giving patterns in Ebla reflected not the popular religion in the documented period, but rather a more archaic tradition. In Darib near Ebla, possibly to be identified with modern

Atarib Atarib ( ar, أتارب, ʾAtārib), also known as Atharib or Athareb, is a town in western Aleppo countryside, Aleppo Governorate, Syria. Located west of the city of Aleppo and southeast of Reyhanlı in Turkish-administered Hatay Province, it i ...

, Ishara was invoked in connection with the funerary cult of deceased Eblaite kings, alongside a god associated with this locality whose name is not preserved and the divine pairs of Hadabal and his nameless spouse, Resheph and Adamma and Agu and Guladu. One Eblaite document mentions that two further locations where Ishara was worshiped were Zidara and Guwanu. Yet another settlement attested in the Ebla texts where Ishara was a major deity was Mane, located on the

Euphrates The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers'') ...

in the proximity of Emar. The city, and by extension a hypostasis of Ishara associated with it, were politically significant for the kings of Ebla, as it constituted their main harbor on the Euphrates. She was worshiped there alongside Šanugaru/Šanggar, a god who likely had lunar character, who was also associated with her in Emar and Ugarit in the late Bronze Age. Another city in Syria where Ishara was already worshiped in the Ebla period, around 2400 BCE, was Nabada (

Tell Beydar Tell Beydar is a village and ancient site in the modern Al-Hasakah Governorate, Syria. It was the Ancient Near Eastern city of Nabada. It is connected by road to Al-Darbasiyah on the Turkish border in the north. History Nabada was first settled d ...

), where a month in the local calendar was named after her. The major deities of Ebla like Kura or Hadabal are otherwise almost entirely absent from the pantheon of Nabada. In known texts from Mari Ishara is the third most frequent goddess when it comes to appearances in theophoric names of women. Alfonso Archi concludes that she must had been popular in the sphere of personal religion in the area under the influence of that city. Similar theophoric names are also known from

Terqa Terqa is the name of an ancient city discovered at the site of Tell Ashara on the banks of the middle Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, Syria, approximately from the modern border with Iraq and north of the ancient site of Mari, Syria. ...

,

Tuttul The Bronze Age town of Tuttul is identified with the archaeological site of Tell Bi'a in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria. Tell Bi'a is located near the modern city of Raqqa and the confluence of the rivers Balikh and Euphrates. History During ...

and Ekalte, though they were less frequent in these cities than in Mari. In the late Bronze Age in Emar Ishara was celebrated alongside the city god (^dNIN.URTA) during a so-called ''kissu'' festival. She is also present in descriptions of the analogous festival dedicated to Dagan, alongside deities such as Shuwala and Ugur. The nature of these celebrations remain uncertain. Curse formulas from Emar pair her with deities such as the city god, the storm god, Dagan or

Ninkarrak Ninkarrak ( akk, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒋼𒀀𒊏𒀝, '' dnin-kar-ra-ak'') was a goddess of medicine worshiped chiefly in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. It has been proposed that her name originates in either Akkadian or an unidentified substrate lang ...

.

Hurrian reception

Due to being worshiped in many locations in Syria in the third and second millennia BCE, Ishara was also incorporated into the Hurrian pantheon. Texts from Ugarit written in Hurrian enumerate the following centers of Ishara worship: "Mari, Tuttul with Emar-Sirašše, Mudkin-Nidabe, Yablā-Ališe, Naštarbenne-Šidurašše, Tunanah-Šaydar and Ugarit-Zulude." She was also worshiped in Alalakh, a Hurrianized city in western Syria. She was called the "Lady of Alalakh," as indicated by an inscription of king

Idrimi Idrimi was the king of Alalakh c. 1490–1465 BC, or around 1450 BC. He is known, mainly, from an inscription on his statue found at Alalakh by Leonard Woolley in 1939.Longman III, Tremper, (1991)Fictional Akkadian Autobiography: A Generic and Co ...

. According to Piotr Taracha, she was the third most important deity in the pantheon of that city, after the storm god (

Teshub Teshub (also written Teshup, Teššup, or Tešup; cuneiform ; hieroglyphic Luwian , read as ''Tarhunzas'';Annick Payne (2014), ''Hieroglyphic Luwian: An Introduction with Original Texts'', 3rd revised edition, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. ...

) and the sun god ( Shimige). Theophoric names with Ishara as an element attested in documents from Alalakh are mostly Hurrian. A temple of Ishara in the Hurrian kingdom of

Kizzuwatna Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in Ancient Egyptian ''Kode'' or ''Qode''), was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It ...

was located on a mountain bearing her name. During the ''hišuwa'' festival from that area, meant to guarantee good fortune for the royal couple, she received offerings alongside "Teshub

Manuzi Manuzi (also spelled Manuzzi) was a mountain god worshiped in Kizzuwatna. He shared his name with the mountain he represented and with a village. He is best attested from sources pertaining to the ''hišuwa'' festival, which indicate he was the hus ...

,"

Lelluri Lelluri (also spelled Lilluri, Liluri) was a Hurrian goddess worshiped in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria. She was associated with mountains, and in known sources appears in connection with the god Manuzi. Character Lelluri most lik ...

,

Allani Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu (or Allatum) was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld, incorporated into Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons as well. Name and epithets The name Allani is derived from a Hurrian word meaning ...

, two

Nupatik Nupatik, also known as Lubadag, was a Hurrian god of uncertain character. He is attested in the earliest inscriptions from Urkesh, as well as in texts from many other Hurrian settlements, and possibly continued to be worshiped as late as in the ...

gods (''pibithi'' - "of Pibid(a)" and ''zalmathi'' - "of Zalman(a)/Zalmat") and

Maliya Maliya was a goddess worshiped by Hittites in the Bronze Age. She was most likely a deified river in origin, but she was also associated with gardens and with artisanship, specifically with leatherworking and carpentry. The oldest attestations of ...

. Instructions for this celebration state the statue of Ishara is to be covered with a red draped garment, while that of Allani with an identical blue one. Another Kizzuwatnean festival, dedicated specifically to Ishara, took place in autumn. Hittite texts pertaining to Hurrian religion sometimes use the name "Hamri-Išhara" to refer to her, presumably due to her role as an oath goddess which developed in connection to ''hamri'' buildings in

Kizzuwatna Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in Ancient Egyptian ''Kode'' or ''Qode''), was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It ...

. Military oaths were particularly closely associated with her. In purification rituals and oaths she was commonly associated with the moon god (Hurrian Kušuḫ, Anatolian Arma). They were believed to punish oath-breakers, mostly by the means of various diseases. The Hittite verb ''išharišh-'' referred to being inflicted with such an "Ishara illness." However, Ishara could also be placated with offerings and serve as a healing goddess.

Mesopotamian reception

In the third millennium BCE Ishara reached Mesopotamia, most likely with Mari serving as the intermediary. The oldest evidence comes from the Akkadian period, during which Ishara appears in personal names and in a treaty with

Elam Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...

. Other Mesopotamian deities invoked in the latter document alongside Elamite ones include Manzat,

Ilaba Ilaba was a Mesopotamian god. He is best attested as the tutelary deity of the kings of the Akkadian Empire, and functioned both as their personal god and as the city god of Akkad. Textual sources indicate he was a warlike deity, frequently descr ...

,

Ninkarrak Ninkarrak ( akk, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒋼𒀀𒊏𒀝, '' dnin-kar-ra-ak'') was a goddess of medicine worshiped chiefly in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. It has been proposed that her name originates in either Akkadian or an unidentified substrate lang ...

and

Ninurta , image= Cropped Image of Carving Showing the Mesopotamian God Ninurta.png , caption= Assyrian stone relief from the temple of Ninurta at Kalhu, showing the god with his thunderbolts pursuing Anzû, who has stolen the Tablet of Destinies from ...

. She continued to be worshiped in the

Ur III period The Third Dynasty of Ur, also called the Neo-Sumerian Empire, refers to a 22nd to 21st century BC (middle chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians consider t ...

, and shared temples with

Belet Nagar Belet Nagar ("Lady of Nagar") was the tutelary goddess of the ancient Syrian city Nagar (Tell Brak). She was also worshiped by the Hurrians and in Mesopotamia. She was connected with kingship, but much about her role in the religions of the ancien ...

in Ur and with Dagan in

Nippur Nippur ( Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian: ''Nibbur'') was an ancient Sumerian city. It was ...

. During the reign of Shu-Sin, she received offerings at the royal court in Ur. In the same period, she was worshiped during the ''erabbatum'' ceremony, possibly representation occasions when a deity was believed to enter the corresponding temple after a period spent outside it, for example during rituals held in the king's palace. There is presently no evidence that the worship of Ishara was already widespread in Mesopotamia in this period, however. Other settlements from which the Mesopotamian cult of Ishara is attested include Sippar, Kish, Larsa, Urum, Tell al-Rimah and

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

. She is also attested in personal names from the Chogha Gavaneh site in western

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, which in the early second millennium BCE was a predominantly Akkadian settlement possibly connected to the kingdom of

Eshnunna Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in the ...

. One Babylonian divination manual explaining how to interpret the signs on the carcass of a bird sacrifice identified one possible location as the position of Ishara and Ḫišamītum. It also mentions other deities of western origin, such as Allatum (Allani). As early as in the Akkadian period Ishara, alongside

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...

, appears in love incantations. In later periods they were invoked in them alongside Nanaya, Kanisurra and Gazbaba as well. Some of these texts use formulas such as "at the command of Kanisurra and Ishara, patron goddess of love" or "at the command of Kanisurra and Ishara, patroness of sex." As noted by Gioele Zisa, Ishara's domain appears to be erotic love in this case. The ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and is regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with ...

'', as well as ''

Atrahasis ''Atra-Hasis'' ( akk, , Atra-ḫasīs) is an 18th-century BCE Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets, named for its protagonist, Atrahasis ('exceedingly wise'). The ''Atra-Hasis'' tablets include both a creation myth and ...

'', nonetheless attest that Ishara was also viewed as a goddess associated with marriage in Mesopotamia. In a number of known love incantations, Ishara is paired with ''almanu'', a common noun of uncertain meaning whose proposed translations include "widower," "man without family obligations," or perhaps simply "lover." In one case the term is written with a divine determinative, as if it were the proper name of a deity. Ishara and ''almanu'' occur in parallel with Ishtar and Dumuzi and Nanaya and an unnamed lover. Ishara continued to be worshiped in Babylon in the first millennium BCE. Her temple in that city was Eshasurra, "house of the womb," which according to

Andrew R. George Andrew R. George (born 1955) is a British Assyriologist and academic best known for his edition and translation of the '' Epic of Gilgamesh''. Andrew George is Professor of Babylonian, Department of the Languages and Cultures of Near and Middle ...

can be identified with the building designated as "temple Z" during excavations. A late hymn to Nanaya refers to Ishara as one of the goddesses worshiped in Kish. In

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

Ishara was worshiped in the temple of ''Ishtar Assuritum'' ("Assyrian Ishtar") in

Assur Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'a ...

in a chapel rebuilt by

Adad-Nirari I Adad-nārārī I, rendered in all but two inscriptions ideographically as md''adad-''ZAB+DAḪ, meaning “Adad (is) my helper,” (1305–1274 BC or 1295–1263 BC short chronology) was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. He is th ...

. It is also possible that the goddess Iblaitu mentioned in the ''takultu'' ritual was analogous to her.

Association with other deities

According to Alfonso Archi Ishara was one of the three commonly worshiped Hurrian goddesses regarded as unmarried, the other two being

Allani Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu (or Allatum) was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld, incorporated into Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons as well. Name and epithets The name Allani is derived from a Hurrian word meaning ...

and Shaushka. Lluis Felieu notes that while Ishara was associated with various male deities in different time periods and locations, most evidence does not indicate that she was believed to have a permanent spouse in other traditions either. In Hurrian tradition she was viewed as a daughter of

Enlil Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Ba ...

. Two deities are addressed as parents of Ishara in the proemium of the ''Song of

Kumarbi Kumarbi was an important god of the Hurrians, regarded as "the father of gods." He was also a member of the Hittite pantheon. According to Hurrian myths, he was a son of Alalu, and one of the parents of the storm-god Teshub, the other being Anu ...

''.

Gary Beckman Gary Michael Beckman (born 1948) is a noted Hittitologist and Professor of Hittite and Mesopotamian Studies from the University of Michigan. He has written several books on the Hittites: his publication ''Hittite Diplomatic Texts'' and ''Hittite ...

restores their names as "Enlil and Apantu," though in the same composition Enlil is paired with his wife Ninlil. Alfonso Archi in his translation of the same passage chooses to leave the names blank. A single Mesopotamian text commenting on magical formulas meant to protect a house from supernatural invaders refers to the

Sebitti The Sebitti or Sebittu are a group of seven minor war gods in Neo-Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and especially Assyrian tradition. They also appear in sources from Emar. Multiple different interpretations of the term occur in Mesopotamian liter ...

as sons of Ishara, but assyriologist Frans Wiggermann, who studied this group of gods extensively, assumes that this is only a result of confusion between her and similarly named underworld god

Enmesharra Enmesharra (Enmešarra, Sumerian: "Lord of all me's") was a Mesopotamian god associated with the underworld. He was regarded as a member of an inactive old generation of deities, and as such was commonly described as a ghost or resident of the ...

, whose children these seven deities were more frequently identified as. In Hurrian context, as an underworld deity, Ishara was closely associated with Allani and the so-called "former gods," an ancestral generation of deities residing in "Dark Earth," the Hurrian underworld. The association between Ishara and Allani is already present in documents from the Ur III period. Veneration of them as a pair was an example of a broader phenomenon frequently attested in Hurrian sources, the worship of pairs of deities with similar spheres of influence as dyads. Other examples include Shaushka's attendants Ninatta and Kulitta, the fate goddesses Hutena and Hutellura, Hebat and her son Sarruma, and the astral deities Pinikir and DINGIR.GE₆, so-called Goddess of the Night. A deity named Halma occurs in Ishara's entourage in Kizzuwatna. Halma is also attested in documents from Emar and possibly in the Persepolis Fortification Archive, though it is possible that the latter is an otherwise unattested Elamite deity with an accidentally similar name. Another god associated with Ishara in the same rituals was Saggar, assumed to be analogous to the Eblaite Sanugaru, who was worshiped with Ishara in Mane in the third millennium BCE already. Saggar was likely a moon god. Volkert Haas identifies him specifically as a divine representation of the lunar crescent. Other moon gods were associated with Ishara in Hurro-Hittite oath formulas. The god list ''An = Anum'' places Ishara in the circle of Enlil. It also states that she had a female attendant (^munus

SUKKAL Sukkal (conventionally translated from Sumerian as "vizier") was a term which could denote both a type of official and a class of deities in ancient Mesopotamia. The historical sukkals were responsible for overseeing the execution of various com ...

) named Tašme-zikru (Akkadian: "She answered my word" or "She answered the word"). This minor goddess is also attested in the

Isin Isin (, modern Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq. Excavations have shown that it was an important city-state in the past. History of archaeological research Ishan al-Bahriyat was visited ...

god list. The compilers of ''An = Anum'' additionally labeled Saggar as the spouse of Ishara. A further Mesopotamian deity associated with her was the incantation goddess

Ningirima Ningirima was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with incantations, attested already in the Early Dynastic period. She was also associated with snakes, fish and water. According to the god list ''An = Anum'' and other sources, she was regarded as ...

, who shared her connection with snakes and with the "scorpion star". A few sources attest an association between Ishara and the medicine goddess

Ninkarrak Ninkarrak ( akk, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒋼𒀀𒊏𒀝, '' dnin-kar-ra-ak'') was a goddess of medicine worshiped chiefly in northern Mesopotamia and Syria. It has been proposed that her name originates in either Akkadian or an unidentified substrate lang ...

, including an Old Assyrian treaty, a curse formula from Emar and a god list from Mari. Additionally both appear, though not next to each other, in Naram-Sin's treaty with

Elam Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...

. This connection most likely was rooted in their shared origin in Syria. In ''An = Anum'', the name

Meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

is applied both to Ishara and to Ninkarrak.

Ishara and Ishtar

Ishtar (written logographically as ^dINANNA or syllabically as ^d''Aš-dar'') already appears alongside Ishara in the Ebla texts. In a ritual performed by the royal couple involving statues of both of them she is referred to as Labutu, a name cognate with the Akkadian word ''lābatu'' ("lioness"), a common epithet of Ishtar. A theophoric name, Ishara-ki-Ishtar, "Ishara is like Ishtar," indicates they were also seen as similar in popular religion in the upper Euphrates area. The association between both of them and the western Ashtart is well attested in god lists from Ugarit. Ishtar and Ishara were also associated with each other in Mesopotamia as goddesses of love. However, as pointed out by Joan Goodnick Westenholz, a passage from ''

Atrahasis ''Atra-Hasis'' ( akk, , Atra-ḫasīs) is an 18th-century BCE Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets, named for its protagonist, Atrahasis ('exceedingly wise'). The ''Atra-Hasis'' tablets include both a creation myth and ...

'' commonly used in modern literature to argue the two goddesses were one and the same in Mesopotamian perception does not actually state that Ishtar was Ishara, as the noun ''ištar'' is not preceded by the dingir sign, so-called "divine determinative," in it, and as such should be translated as the generic term "goddess" rather than as the

theonym A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), " god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and ...

Ishtar. The use of ''ištar'' or ''ištarum'' or as a common noun which could refer to any goddess, a synonym of ''iltum'', the feminine form of ''ilu'' ("god"), goes back to the

Old Babylonian period The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to BC – BC, and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynast ...

. To differentiate it from the name Ishtar, it was consistently written without the divine determinative.

Ishara and Dagan

While

Wilfred G. Lambert Wilfred George Lambert FBA (26 February 1926 – 9 November 2011) was a historian and archaeologist, a specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology. Early life Lambert was born in Birmingham, and, having won a scholarship, he was edu ...

proposed in 1980 that Ishara was sometimes regarded as the wife of Dagan, and this theory is repeated as fact in older reference works such as Jeremy Black's and Anthony Green's ''Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia'', in a more recent study Lluís Feliu arrived to the opposite conclusions. The association between them was limited to sharing temples in southern Mesopotamia, and most likely was rooted only in their shared western origin and the resulting "foreign" status in the eyes of Mesopotamian theologians, as indicated by the fact it is not attested outside

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...

. Sources from ancient sites in modern Syria, where both deities were more commonly worshiped and held a higher position in the pantheon, do not indicate a strong connection between them. Feliu additionally points out that Lambert relying on this assumption also wrongly concluded Ishara was one and the same as Haburitum, a goddess who represented the river Khabur who is also attested in association with Dagan in Mesopotamia. He notes that Haburitum and Ishara at times appear in the same documents, and cannot be the same deity. This view is also supported by Alfonso Archi. He considers it more likely that Haburitum was analogous to

Belet Nagar Belet Nagar ("Lady of Nagar") was the tutelary goddess of the ancient Syrian city Nagar (Tell Brak). She was also worshiped by the Hurrians and in Mesopotamia. She was connected with kingship, but much about her role in the religions of the ancien ...

. Like Feliu, he assumes it is not plausible that Ishara was ever regarded as Dagan's wife, at least partially because of her Ishtar-like characteristics.

Myths

Ishara appears in a myth known from an original Hurrian version and a Hittite translation, known as the ''Epic of Freeing'' or ''Song of Release'', discovered in

Hattusa Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of ...

in 1983, with further fragments recovered in 1985. She is introduced alongside Allani, with both of them being referred to as "young woman" (Hurrian: ''šiduri''). Ishara is also addressed as "wordmaker, famous for her wisdom." Later, in a very fragmentary passage, she seemingly negotiates the fate of the city with an envoy of

Teshub Teshub (also written Teshup, Teššup, or Tešup; cuneiform ; hieroglyphic Luwian , read as ''Tarhunzas'';Annick Payne (2014), ''Hieroglyphic Luwian: An Introduction with Original Texts'', 3rd revised edition, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, p. ...

, who wishes to destroy it because the Eblaites refuse to free the inhabitants of the city Igingallish. The text is most likely an etiological explanation of the historical destruction of Ebla. Ishara also appears in the proemium of the ''Song of Kumarbi'', part of a Hurrian cycle of myths about the eponymous god, as one of the deities invited to listen to narrator's tale. ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and ''Atrahasis'' both mention Ishara in passing as a goddess of marriage.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Hurrian mythology Eblaite deities Hittite deities Hurrian deities Inanna Love and lust goddesses Mesopotamian goddesses Plague gods Ugaritic deities Underworld goddesses