Lelluri (also spelled Lilluri, Liluri) was a

Hurrian goddess The Hurrian pantheon consisted of gods of varied backgrounds, some of them natively Hurrian, while others adopted from other pantheons, for example Eblaite and Mesopotamian. Like the other inhabitants of the Ancient Near East, Hurrians regarded t ...

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 likely originated in the Nur Mountains, and her name ends with the Hurrian suffix -''luri'', known also from the theonyms

Upelluri Upelluri or Ubelluri was a primordial giant in Hurrian mythology. He is only known from the ''Song of Ullikummi'', which is one of the few Hurrian texts offering a view of this culture's cosmology. It was believed that Upelluri was already alive ...

(a primordial giant from the Kumarbi Cycle), and Impaluri ('' sukkal'' of the

sea god A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water. Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Anoth ...

), as well as a number of Hurrian mountain and stone names. Assyriologist Beate Pongratz-Leisten regards her as a deity "associated with Hurrian identity." Volkert Haas describes Lelluri as "lady of the mountains" ("die Herrin der Gebirge"). She was closely linked with Manuzi, a god associated with both the weather and mountains. She was likely his partner, and that they shared a temple in Kummani. A lexical text from Emar indicates that she was understood as analogous to the

Mesopotamian goddess Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substan ...

Ninmena.

Worship

According to Volkert Haas, Lelluri was worshiped chiefly in the proximity of Nur Mountains and Orontes River in the west and as far east as the middle of the Euphrates. In Kizzuwatna she was celebrated during the ''hišuwa'' festival, whose purpose was to guarantee the wellbeing of the king and his family. Among the other deities present in texts pertaining to it are "

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.& ...

Manuzi" (

weather god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...

of t. Manuzi) Ishara,

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 ...

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 ...

and two hyposthases of Nupatik. During the festival, the formula "Lelluri has achieved her heart's desire" had to be recited aloud after pouring an offering for her into a rhyton. A so-called ''ambašši'' offering to her consisted out of a lamb, a goose, a sheep and a loaf of bread. Like the so-called "Syrian substrate" deities ( Ishara,

Kubaba Kubaba (in the ''Weidner'' or ''Esagila Chronicle''), sux, , , is the only queen on the ''Sumerian King List'', which states she reigned for 100 years – roughly in the Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2500–2330 BC) of Sumerian history. A co ...

Aštabi Aštabi ( uga, 𐎀𐎌𐎚𐎁, ''aštb''), also known as Aštabil, was a god worshiped in the third millennium BCE in Ebla, later incorporated into Hurrian beliefs in locations such as Alalakh and Ugarit and as a result also into the religion o ...

, Adamma), Hebat and

Šarruma Šarruma or Sharruma was a Hurrian mountain god, who was also worshipped by the Hittites and Luwians. Name The original source and meaning of the name is unknown. In Hittite and Hurrian texts, his name was linked with the Akkadian ''šarri'' (" ...

Lelluri was also incorporated into Hittite religion. King

Ḫattušili I Hattusili I (''Ḫattušili'' I) was a king of the Hittite Old Kingdom. He reigned ca. 1650–1620 BCE as per middle chronology, the most accepted chronology nowadays, or alternatively ca. 1586–1556 BCE ( short chronology). Excavations in Zinci ...

mentions her (alongside Allatum, the

storm god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, and the mountain gods Adalur and Amaruk) among the deities whose statues he brought to Hatti as war booty. However, the exact location of the city of Haššuwa from which she was brought remains unknown.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{Hurrian mythology Mountain goddesses Hurrian deities Hittite deities