Shullat (Šûllat) and Hanish (Ḫaniš) were a pair of

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

. They were usually treated as inseparable, and appear together in various works of literature. Their character was regarded as warlike and destructive, and they were associated with the weather.

Names

Multiple syllabic spellings of the name Shullat are attested in

cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...

texts, including ''^dśu-ul-la-at'', ''^dšu-il-la-at'', ''^dšu-ul-la-at'' and ''^dsu-ul-ut.'' The spelling of Hanish's name was consistently ''^dḫa-ni-iš''. Shullat's name was sometimes written logographically as ^dPA and Hanish's as ^dLUGAL.

Ignace Gelb Ignace Jay Gelb (October 14, 1907December 22, 1985) was a Polish-American Assyriologist who pioneered the scientific study of writing systems. Early life Born in Tarnów, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Poland), he earned his PhD from the Universi ...

proposed that their names were derived from the Akkadian words ''šullatum'', "despoilment," and ''ḫanīšum'', "submission," but

Dietz Otto Edzard Dietz Otto Edzard (28 August 1930 in Bremen – 2 June 2004 in Munich) was a German scholar of the Ancient Near East and grammarian of the Sumerian language. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1 ...

and Wilfred G. Lambert note that while it is certain that both were derived from a

Semitic language The Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, Modern South Arabian languages and numerous other ancient and modern languages. They are spoken by mo ...

, their precise meaning is unknown, and it cannot be ruled out that speculative etymologies were already present in ancient scholarship. Daniel Schwemer in a more recent study concludes that no fully plausible etymology has yet been proposed for either name.

Character

In most known sources, Shullat and Hanish appear as a pair. Douglas Frayne goes as far as proposing they should be understood as a single deity with a compound name, similar to

Ugarit Ugarit (; , ''ủgrt'' /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 19 ...

Kothar-wa-Khasis Kothar-wa-Khasis (), also known as Kothar or Hayyānu, was an Ugaritic god regarded as a divine artisan. He could variously play the roles of an architect, smith, musician or magician. Some scholars believe that this name represents two gods, ...

. However, while references to them in an inscription of

Shulgi Shulgi ( dšul-gi,(died c. 2046 BC) formerly read as Dungi) of Ur was the second king of the Third Dynasty of Ur. He reigned for 48 years, from (Middle Chronology). His accomplishments include the completion of construction of the Great ...

are grammatically singular, the view that they were a single deity, rather than a pair, is otherwise not accepted by researchers. The god list 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 ...

'' refers to them as ''šena-ilān(a)'', "two gods" or "

twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

gods."

Paul-Alain Beaulieu Paul-Alain Beaulieu is a Canadian Assyriologist, a Professor of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Beaulieu earned a master's degree from the Université de Montréal in 1980 under the supervision of Marcel Leibovi ...

considers them to be two of the deities who entered the Mesopotamian pantheon in the early period of interaction between speakers of Sumerian and Akkadian. He notes that unlike some of the other deities of the latter group, for example

Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...

, they were not identified with any Sumerian deities, but nonetheless entered the common pantheon as minor deities. Shullat and Hanish are assumed to be minor weather deities. Andrew R. George proposes identifying them as personifications of

gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .

. However, as noted by Daniel Schwemer, while it has been proposed in the past that Hanish was in origin an independent Ishkur-like weather deity, no known sources support this conclusion. Both of them were described as warlike and destructive. An omen text mentions the pair marching alongside troops on campaign. Andrew R. George describes them as "twin agents of destruction." It is possible that both of them were associated with Ishkur/Adad, but the extent of this connection is uncertain. In a ''

Šurpu The ancient Mesopotamian incantation series Šurpu begins ''enūma nēpešē ša šur-pu t'' 'eppušu'', “when you perform the rituals for (the series) ‘Burning,’” and was probably compiled in the middle Babylonian period, ca. 1350–105 ...

'' passage, they occur near Adad and alongside his children Misharu and Uṣur-amāssu. In astrological texts and in the god list ''An = Anum'', Shullat could be identified with

, and Hanish with Adad. However, elsewhere, for example in the ''

Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is an epic poetry, epic from ancient Mesopotamia. The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian language, Sumerian poems about Gilgamesh (formerly read as Sumerian "Bilgames"), king of Uruk, some of ...

'', they are treated as separate deities. "Twin stars" associated with Shullat and Hanish in various works of Mesopotamian astronomy might correspond to Mu Centauri and V Centauri.

Worship

The cult center of Shullat and Hanish is presently unknown. The oldest attestations of worship of this pair are

theophoric names A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that de ...

from the Sargonic period. For example, one name invoking Hanish is known from Adab. It has been proposed that they were worshiped in the role of personal or family gods. In the

Ur III period The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC (middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...

, king

of Ur built a temple of Shullat and Hanish, but neither its name nor location are presently known. Offerings to both of them are also attested in documents from

Umma Umma () in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been sugges ...

and

Puzrish-Dagan Puzrish-Dagan (modern Drehem) (Tall ad-Duraihim) is an important archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate (Iraq). It is best-known for the thousands of clay tablets that are known to have come from the site through looting during the ear ...

from the same period. An individual bearing the name Nūr-ilišu built a shrine ('' É'') dedicated to Shullat and Hanish in

Sippar Sippar (Sumerian language, Sumerian: , Zimbir) (also Sippir or Sippara) was an ancient Near Eastern Sumerian and later Babylonian city on the east bank of the Euphrates river. Its ''Tell (archaeology), tell'' is located at the site of modern Tell ...

. It is also known that they had a priest (''šangûm'') in that city in the

Old Babylonian period The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to , 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 dynasty of Babyloni ...

. An oath formula from Sippar, based in part of Sargonic forerunners, mentions Shullat and Hanish: "I swear by Umu (deified day), by Shamash, by Ishtar, by Ilaba and Annunitum, by the warriors Shullat and Hanish, this is not lies, it is true." They also often appear together in Old Babylonian

cylinder seal A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in width, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...

inscriptions. A

taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

of Shullat and Hanish is mentioned in an inscription of the

Kassite The Kassites () were a people of the ancient Near East. They controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire from until (short chronology). The Kassites gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon in 1531 B ...

ruler Agum Kakrime: "The one who knows shall show (only) the one who knows, the one who does not know shall not see. The taboo of Shullat and Hanish: Shamash and Adad, the lords of divination." Another taboo is recorded in an oracular text from the

Library of Ashurbanipal The Royal Library of Ashurbanipal, named after Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire, is a collection of more than 30,000 clay tablets and fragments containing texts of all kinds from the 7th century BCE, including texts in ...

: "The blind, the gap-toothed or the finger amputee shall not approach the place of divinatory decision - this is the taboo Šullat and Ḫaniš." A late

syncretic Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thus ...

hymn to

Ninurta Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord fBarley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord fGirsu"), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was f ...

, which describes his various body parts as analogous to other deities, his upper back is compared Hanish, characterized as a deity "who establishes plenty, who rains down abundance," and his chest to Shullat, whose description is not preserved.

Literature

Both Shullat and Hanish are mentioned in the ''

'' (tablet XI, line 99) during the description of the

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...

. It is possible that they can be identified with the throne bearers (''guzalû'') of Adad mentioned in the same passage, but Daniel Schwemer argues that due to lack of other evidence this is uncertain. Andrew R. George assumes that both passages refer to this pair and suggests that as Adad's vanguard they might be the personification of the gale. They are mentioned in ''

Atrahasis ''Atra-Hasis'' () is an 18th-century BC Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets and named for one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-Hasis ('exceedingly wise'). The narrative has four focal points: An organisation of allie ...

'' as well, where they similarly partake in destruction leading to the flood, alongside Errakal and Ninurta. An Old Babylonian copy of the myth of

Adapa Adapa was a Mesopotamian mythical figure who unknowingly refused the gift of immortality. The story, commonly known as "Adapa and the South Wind", is known from fragmentary tablets from Tell el-Amarna in Egypt (around 14th century BC) and from ...

from Tell Haddad mentions Shullat and Hanish. The passage is broken, but Sara J. Milstein notes that the tablet appears to contain an account of multiplication of mankind after a flood and presumably Adapa's introduction. In the so-called "

Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin The Cuthean Legend of Naram-Sin is one of the few literary works whose versions are attested in both Old Babylonian, Middle Babylonian and the Standard Babylonian of the late Neo-Babylonian period, a literary life of around 1,500 years. It seems to ...

," Shullat and Hanish are mentioned alongside

Ishtar Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...

Zababa Zababa (, ''dza-ba4-ba4'', ) was a Mesopotamian god. He was the tutelary deity of the city of Kish and was regarded as a god of war. He was initially seen as a son of Enlil, though in Assyria during the reign of Sennacherib, he started to be ...

, Ilaba,

Annunitum Annunitum (; also romanized as Anunītu) was a Mesopotamian goddess associated with warfare. She was initially an epithet of Ishtar of Akkad exemplifying her warlike aspect, but by the late third millennium BCE she came to function as a distinc ...

and

as the deities the eponymous king asks for advice by performing

extispicy In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy, the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry. Various ancient ...

. In another legend, it is stated that Sargon at one point swore an oath of brotherhood between himself and Kish by a similar group of deities. In the '' Epic of Erra'', an area of destroyed vegetation is compared to "woodland over which Hanish had passed."

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Mesopotamian gods Sky and weather gods Divine twins