Author: Matrifocus

Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Samhain 2007, Vol 7-1

Mask of goddess or, more likely, priestess. Carved from alabaster. Originally eyes and eyebrows inlaid. Hair perhaps covered with gold leaf. Found in Uruk, near the E-anna, the great temple of Inanna in the center of the city. Dated ca. 3300-3000 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2003: 25 and figure 11a; Seibert 1974: Plate 7)

Enheduanna (En-hedu-anna),[2] daughter of Sargon the Great, was princess, priestess of the moon god Nanna at Ur in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, earthly embodiment of his spouse Nin-gal[3], and the first poet whose name we know.

We know the names of many high priestesses (en-priestesses or entu), a number of whom probably also wrote hymns and other literature for the temple. We can also tentatively identify en-priestesses from the rolled cap which they often wore.[4] However, not until 400 years after Enheduanna can we identify another priestess as author of a particular piece of writing.

An offering scene to a bearded and horn-crowned god enthroned before his temple. One offering might be the musical instrument (a bull lyre?) between the god and the male worshipper. The priest holds a spouted libation vessel. Behind and larger to show her importance is an en-priestess wearing the distinctive roll-brim hat (Winter 1987). Greenish translucent stone cylinder seal. Dated around 2400 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Collon 1990: 45 #30

Nin-shata-pada, too, was the daughter of a ruler, Sin-kashid, who first governed Durum, then became king of Uruk in 1860 BCE. He married Shallurtum, a Babylonian princess, daughter of Sumu-la-El (1880-1845 BCE), thus cementing an alliance with that growing kingdom (Hallo 1991: 380).[5]

Like many other kings in Mesopotamia, Sin-karshid followed the then-accepted policy of appointing close relatives to high posts in dependent or conquered cities.[6]Kings regularly assigned provincial governorships to their sons and made their daughters high priestesses of cities whose tutelary or guardian deity was male. Thus a son could get experience in ruling a city state, and a daughter, as spouse of a god and so the embodiment of a goddess, wielded considerable religious power and extensive political influence (Hallo 1991: 378-379).

When a queen or princess was installed as a priestess, she usually took a religious name with religious meaning. Nin-shata-pada’s name means “Lady Chosen by [means of] the Heart [Omens].”[7] Particularly for the city of Ur, scholars know the official names of a large number of high priestesses and, often, how long they lived (Sollberger 1954-1956: 24-46). For instance, Queen Pu-abi of Ur, whose remains and grave goods were found in the great Royal Cemetery at Ur (2550-2400 BCE), was probably also a priestess.[8] Another royal woman who was both a princess and a priestess was Tuta-napshum. She was installed as en-priestess of the high god En-lil during the reign of Sargon’s grandson Naram-Sin (2260-2223 BCE) (Frayne 1993: 122-124, 175).

Banquet scenes on a cylinder seal found in the great royal Cemetery at Ur, near the body of Queen Pu-abi. The top register shows a woman with an elaborate hairdo seated on a throne-like chair and holding a cup. Female servants stand on either side of her. Opposite her is a bald male (a priest?) flanked by bald male servants, one of whom seems to be about to strike a hand bell. The scene below is an all-male one, featuring bald men who are probably priests. The inscription beside the upper register reads: Nin Pu-abi “Lady Pu-abi.” So the enthroned lady is likely to be Pu-abi, the second wife of King Meskalamdug. She seems to be dressed as a priestess and taking part in a ritual (Collon 1990: 19). Lapis lazuli. Dated 2550-2400 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2003: 109 figure 60a

The headdress and jewelry of Queen Pu-abi, made from gold leaf, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and carnelian from the Indus Valley. The circlet with spiral trim is draped with willow and beech leaves and topped with small, blue-and-white-filled, gold rosettes. The huge gold comb is surmounted by larger rosettes, also originally filled with blue and white paste. All the rosettes have eight-petals, usually a symbol of the goddess Inanna. Her enormous earrings are double crescents. Clearly the crown and its parts are symbolic, and some scholars suggest that they represent fertility (Pittman in Aruz 2003: 111). Dated 2550-2400 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2003:110 Plate 61a

Seal belonging to a female servant of the princess and priestess Tuta-napshum, who served as entu of the high god En-lil of Nippur. Her Semitic name probably means “She Has Found Life”
(Frayne 2007, personal communication) The priestess, wearing the flounced robe of deity, sits on a dais with a sacred tree behind her. She wears an odd, pointed crown. Standing before her, a servant, probably the seal owner, holds what looks like a musical instrument. The inscription reads: “Tuta-napshum, entu priestess of the god En-lil: Aman-Ashtan, the deaf woman, the prattler, (is) her female servant” (Frayne 1993: 175). As entu of En-lil, Tuta-napshum embodied his spouse Nin-gal “Great Lady.” Tuta-napshum was daughter of Naram-Sin, king of Sumer and Akkad (2260-2223 BCE) and great-granddaughter of Sargon the Great (Frayne 1993: 122-124)
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Frayne 1993: cover illustration

Priestly office was for life, and for most women it was an unusually long and interesting life.[9] When the priestess’s city was conquered, however, she could be ousted from her temple and even exiled.[10]

In Nin-shata-pada’s time, the southern cities of Isin and Larsa made numerous attempts to control Mesopotamia.

The large and flourishing kingdom of Larsa had three principal neighbors and rivals, Babylon, Isin, and Uruk. In 1804 BCE Rim-Sin, king of Larsa, captured Durum, the dependent city of Uruk where Nin-shata-pada lived, and in 1803 BCE he took Uruk, still ruled by Nin-shata-pada’s father’s dynasty. Uruk’s 60 years of independence were at an end. Rim-Sin would have the longest recorded rule (1822-1763 BCE) in Mesopotamia’s history (Leick 1999: 135).

According to Nin-shata-pada, Rim-Sin treated Uruk and its population with great clemency (Hallo 1991:387), and this fact likely persuaded her to plead her own cause to the conqueror, as well as that of her city Durum.

In a letter-prayer addressed not to a deity, as was more usual, but to a king, the writer describes herself:

This is what Nin-shata-pada the woman scribe,
Priestess of the divine Meslamtaea,
Daughter of Sin-kashid king of Uruk,
Your servant girl, says … (Hallo 1991: 387).

Nin-shata-pada’s letter-poem tells us that, at time of writing, she had been living away from Durum for over four years. Clearly, for her, as for Enheduanna centuries earlier, this situation was unbearable: “… they make me live like a slave. I have none who understand me.” She continues: “I am changed in my appearance (and) whole being; my body being dead, I walk about bowed down.”

When Rim-Sin took Durum, Nin-shata-pada was already an old woman: “Though vigorous, I am abandoned in old age like a day which has ended” (Hallo 1991: 388). Nin-shata-pada makes it clear that she was used to living a very comfortable life, in a pleasant house with slaves and servants to do her bidding. On the other hand, she had her own temple work to do: attending and conducting rituals, supervising and appearing at festivals. Most of all, she was the visible embodiment of the god’s wife, the goddess on earth.

Her spouse Meslamta-ea was a god of the Underworld and one of the Great or Divine Twins, his brother being Lugal-Erra. Meslamta-ea was tutelary or protector deity of Durum, and the city was the foremost cult center of the combined worship of the Twins (Hallo 1991:379). Representing the astral sign Gemini, they guarded entrances. Visually they were identical, each wearing a horned hat, bearing a mace, and brandishing an axe. Meslamta-ea’s spouse, the goddess whom Nin-shata-pada incorporated or embodied, was Mamitu(m), Mama, or Mami, a mother goddess and deity of childbirth.[11] Her foremost title was “Mistress of All the Gods” (Black and Green 2003: 123-124, 133, 136; Leick 1998: 114). Neither Meslamta-ea nor Mami was among the first rank of deities, but neither were they minor. Both were identified with major deities: Meslamta-ea with the great god of the Underworld Nergal; and Mami, with the great earth goddess Ninhursag (Nin-hursaga). So Nin-shata-pada, though bereft of her city and her temple, was still a significant high priestess.

Nin-shata-pada’s prayer-letter was preserved as part of the curriculum of scribal schools, and its “very language was that of the royal scribes…” (Hallo 1983: 17). This is not surprising, given that, in the letter, she identifies herself as a scribe. It is arguable that scribes were the most important persons in ancient Mesopotamia (Saggs 1965: 72). To be a cribe was to be the cream of the cream. Few men, and even fewer women, achieved that height. A person needed both the connections to get admitted to a scribal school and determination to survive long, hard, and expensive years of rigorous training. Despite her elite status, Nin-shata-pada still had to overcome the limitations imposed on her sex. So becoming a scribe was no mean achievement (Hallo 1983: 17). Then she became a high priestess, a position for which her training had fitted her. And then, from exile, she wrote her famous letter-prayer.

Whether Rim-Sin greeted Nin-shata-pada’s plea favorably we do not know. Certainly her scribal training was a great asset, in that she was able to employ the language normal in hymns and inscriptions to draw a very flattering picture of the conqueror. I like to think that Rim-Sin responded positively to her prayer by restoring her to her place in the temple at Durum and that she lived out the remainder of her life as Mami, the goddess of birth and motherhood.

Notes

Bibliography

Graphics Credits

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Beltane 2009 Vol 8-3

Goddess wearing an impressive mural crown and flanked by doves, probably Artargatis identified with Aphrodite/Venus. Relief from the temple of Adonis at Duro-Europos. Dated to around the 1st century BCE. (Bilde attributes it to Khirbet Et-Tannur.)
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Bilde 1990: 175, fig. 7.

In one hand she holds a scepter, in the other a spindle. On her head she bears rays and a tower and she wears a girdle…. On the surface of the statue is an overlay of gold and very costly gems, some of which are white, some the color of water, many have the hue of wine and many are fiery.
(Lucian, The Syrian Goddess. Attridge and Oden 1976: 43, 45)

Edessa, Palmyra, Hieropolis (modern Membij and Greek Bambyce), and .
Drawing © S. Beaulieu.

In his account of the Syrian cult center Hieropolis, Greek writer Lucian called its goddess “Hera.” However, he added that the natives gave her (and her consort) “another name” (Attridge and Oden 1976: 43). That was almost certainly a form of Atargatis, life-giving divinity associated with rivers and springs, motherly protector of humans and animals. Atargatis often served as tutelary or protector deity of urban centers — the providence or luck of the place (Semitic Gad, Greek Tyche, Latin Fortuna). Especially on coins, she often wore the “mural crown” with battlements (crenellations) as representation of the town she cared for (Bilde 1990: 159). For example, she was Gad or Tyche of both Edessa and Palmyra.

Mural-crowned and veiled goddess as Tyche framed in a zodiac with crescent and scepter (or torch?) and carried by a winged Victory. Probably Atargatis. Limestone relief from the Nabataean temple at Khirbet Et-Tannur in Transjordan. Original in two pieces. Dated to the end of the 1st century BCE / beginning of the 1st century CE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Godwin 1981: 113. See also Binst 2000: 180.

Her epithets included “Pure,” “Virgin,” “Savior,” and “Mother of the Gods” (Lightfoot 2003: 82: Bilde 1990: 162), and her iconography connected her particularly to Cybele, the Great Mother. Like her, Atargatis was often depicted riding or accompanied by a lion. Often she sat on a throne flanked by two sphinxes or two lions. Her headdress was usually topped by a crescent moon and draped with a veil. In her hands she carried various objects: a plate or cup, a scepter or staff, and ears of grain, but most often she held a spindle and a mirror. Sometimes doves or fish were near or actually on her. In some places Atargatis was associated with dolphins. At other places, the eight-pointed star emphasized her association with the planet Venus (Drijvers1980: 31).

Bust of a fishy, watery goddess sculpted in high relief on a white limestone block. Framed by a scallop design. Goddess has wavy, water-like hair, huge fish-like eyes, and a veil topped by two fish. From the Nabataean temple at Khirbet Et-Tannur, Transjordan, and dated to the end of the 1st century BCE / beginning of the 1st century CE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Binst 2000: 182. See also Bilde 1990: 169, fig. 3.

The earliest evidence of this goddess comes from the site of the ancient city Hieropolis — “Sacred City”  — which is the modern Membij and the Greek Bambyce (see map above). Her name and image appear on “a bewildering variety” of coins dating to the latter part of the 4th and the early part of the 3rd century BCE (Drijvers in Toorn, Becking, and Horst, 1999: 114). An Aramaic form of the name was ‘tr’th Ataratha, which the Greeks transformed into Atargatis and perhaps, in some places, shortened and altered to Derketo or Derceto (Lightfoot 2003: 37). Other spellings include Ataryatis, Attayathe, Ataryate, and Tar’atha. There is general scholarly consensus that the name derived from a combination of the names of the Canaanite goddesses Anat and Astarte (Drijvers in Toorn, Becking, and Horst 1999: 114), though some still think that the name also hides the third Canaanite goddess Asherah (Maier 1986: 67; Oden 1979: 58ff.). (See my articles on the Canaanite goddesses and goddess matters.)

A work about the goddess and her holy city, now bearing the Latin title De Dea Syria “About the Syrian Goddess,” dates to the 2nd century CE and is attributed to Lucian of Samosata (Attridge and Oden 1976; Meyer 1987: 130-141). Lucian wrote in Greek about, among other things, his visit to the great temple at Hieropolis, a walled sanctuary on a hill in the center of the city. As we saw, Lucian identified Atargatis with the Greek goddess Hera, but he also connected her to several other goddesses, for instance, Rhea (Cybele), Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite. In addition, he saw her as having aspects of Nemesis and the Fates. Lucian described in considerable detail the shining magnificence of the temple, its numerous cult objects and statues, the multitude of its priests, and the various rituals celebrated there. Twice a day there were sacrifices, the ones to Hadad-Zeus being performed in silence. Those to the goddess were accompanied by flute playing and rattle shaking. In one rite, young men castrated themselves to become cross-dressing priests at the temple (Attridge and Oden 1976: 23, 37, 39, 55). The obligatory lake or pond lay nearby, full of sacred fish which no one was allowed to eat; nor could anyone eat Atargatis’s sacred doves.

In the temple, the goddess was supported by lions, and she held a scepter and a spindle. She wore on her head “rays and a tower” (Attridge and Oden 1976: 43). She was accompanied by a god sitting on bulls. Lucian identified him as Zeus, but remarked that the locals called him by another name. Very likely he was the Canaanite storm god Baal-Haddu (Syrian Hadad), the consort of Atargatis in the area.

Badly damaged sculpture showing Atargatis and her bearded consort Hadad. One of Hadad’s bulls survives at his left side. He holds a staff in his right hand and something unidentifiable in his left. She sits enthroned between her signature lions, holds what might be a spindle in her right hand, and probably originally had a scepter or staff in her left. A veil floats down from her layered hat, which is topped with a crescent. Roman.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after a photograph, source unknown.

To the north and east of Hieropolis was Edessa (modern Urfa), which, according to Christian legend, was the first ever kingdom to become Christian. However, well into the 5th century CE the city had a temple to Atargatis (as Venus star). Over and over again, the Christian bishop of the period had to forbid self-castration in honor of the goddess (Drijvers 1980: 77). A pool with sacred fish still exists at Urfa, though the carp are now dedicated to Ibrahim. At Edessa Atargatis was guardian of the city and especially of the springs near the citadel and the nearby river (Drijvers 1980: ix, 8, 79, 121).

She also had temples at Duro-Europos on the Euphrates and Palmyra (Tadmor), an oasis in the Syrian desert.

Dura-Europos was famous for having one of the oldest synagogues, almost complete and decked with frescoes. The city was a military post on the upper Euphrates, on the border between the Roman Empire and the troublesome Parthians (Drijvers 1980: 3). Atargatis shared her temple there with her consort Hadad. She might also have had a connection with the Adonis temple (Drijvers 1980: 23, 108).

Limestone carving found in the courtyard of the temple of Atargatis at Duro-Europos, still showing traces of paint. Dated 50 – 250 CE. Now at Yale University. The deities are seated on platforms between columns. The god is somewhat smaller than the goddess, indicating a decline in his status with respect to her. He carries what are probably thunderbolts and perhaps held a staff. His hat is tall, and he has snaky symbol on his shirt (see below). A bull supports him on his right. The goddess is flanked by lions, holds up her right hand in the blessing gesture, and likely held a scepter or staff in her left. She wears a high hat on wavy hair. What appears to be another bull peers over her left shoulder. Between the deities is a standard or symbol with a snaky design, possibly the sacred object Lucian described as “Sign” (Attridge and Oden 1976: 45)
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Binst 2000: 126. See also Bilde 1990: 167, fig. 2.

Anthropomorphic stone found in the Temple of the Winged Lions at Petra. Yellow sandstone. The hole at the top in the leafy frieze above the eyebrows probably held a sign of Isis. The eye sockets were originally set with precious stones. The Nabataean inscription reads: “Goddess of Hayyan, son of Nibat,” indicating that Hayyan dedicated the small stele. The decoration of the stone points to Isis, but the form of the votive is purely Nabataean. Isis was equated with Al-‘Uzza, probably the major goddess of Petra, and so was Atargatis. A similar but less ornate carving with a nearby inscription “Atargatis of Manbij” was found in the Siyyag Gorge at Petra. It has been dated to the end of the 1st century BCE – beginning of the 1st century CE. It is interesting that the commissioner of the Atargatis carving chose to depict the “foreign” goddess in a typical Nabataean way, with no clues to her identity except the nearby inscription. One explanation is that he was a Nabataean trader heading out for Syria and trying to enlist the support of the major goddess of Syria for his endeavor.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Binst 2000: 164.

Palmyra was also famous but for another reason: Zenobia. A warrior queen, she ruled and expanded the Palmyrene Empire after her husband’s death in 267 CE. Atargatis was considered Palmyra’s Tyche and identified with Artemis (Glueck 1937:370). She is known from two bilingual inscriptions, and her temple was probably one of four official “tribal sanctuaries” (Kaizer 2002: 153ff.). In addition, there is some evidence that at Palmyra she was equated with the ancient Arabian goddess Allat, whose iconography was very like that of Atargatis (Kaizer 2002: 99ff. 148 note 30; Drijvers 1980: 100).

Votive stele now in the Vatican Museum. The goddess Atargatis, named “Dea Syria” in the inscription, sits enthroned between two lions. In the right hand she holds a spindle, universal Eastern Mediterranean symbol of woman, and in her left a mirror, usually an attribute of Aphrodite/Venus. Over wavy hair her low hat is topped by a crescent and draped with a veil. This is almost an archetypal representation of the goddess as she was perceived in the West.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Bilde 1990: 173, fig. 6.

Further, Atargatis was worshiped in what is now Israel at Ashkalon, originally a Canaanite city, then Philistine, then Phoenician. It was the site of Artagatis’s main temple in the southern Levant. According to the Apocrypha, she also had an “Atargateion” near Qarnaim (II Maccabees 12: 26). At Ashkalon, where she was called Derketo, she seems to have appeared as half fish, a mermaid goddess. In De Dea Syria, Lucian reported that he saw a statue of a Phoenician goddess who was a mermaid; he confirmed that she was called Derketo (Attridge and Oden 1976: 21).

Atargatis was also recognized by the Nabataeans, though she was never one of their pantheon (Healey 2001: 140-141). Evidence suggests that the Nabataeans were originally nomadic herders from Arabia who, in Greco-Roman times, controlled the main trade routes between Arabia and Syria and grew rich on frankincense and myrrh. Their kingdom flourished in the Hellenistic period (323-64 B.C.E.) and became part of the Roman Empire in 106 CE (Taylor 2002: 8). On a hilltop at Khirbet Et-Tannur, north of Petra in southern Transjordan, sits a small, ruined, but “extraordinary” Nabataean temple dating to the first part of the 1st century CE. Its excavator thought it was dedicated to Atargatis and her consort, but not everyone agrees (Healey 2001: 61). Certainly the sculpture and other decorations of the ruins suggest that the goddess worshiped there was very like Atargatis. The sculptured reliefs include the head of a goddess with two fish on her crown, winged Tyche figures, a lion, goddess heads with fruits and leaves, and reliefs of a Hadad-like god (Glueck 1937).

At the renowned Nabataean capital Petra, Atargatis’s cult was not very important, but there is some evidence of the goddess’s presence there (Taylor 2002: 132; Lindner and Zangenberg 1993). She might have been identified with the Arabian goddess Al-`Uzza, the Venus star, who was the tutelary deity of Petra. Like her, Atargatis had a close association with springs and water. At Petra is a sanctuary that archaeologists named the Temple of the Winged Lions (Healey 2001: 42-44). It may have been dedicated to an Atargatis-like goddess (Hammond 1990).

In the West she was usually called Dea Syria, the “Syrian Goddess.” Atargatis reached Rome during the first Punic War (264-241 BCE). By the time of the Roman novelist Apuleius, around 150-160 CE, the goddess’s begging eunuch priests had become notorious. In his story The Golden Ass, he described how a disreputable band of wandering followers of the goddess acquired Lucius in his donkey form and used him to carry the silk-bedecked image of their “foreign” goddess (195-199). The goddess he praised as “omnipotent and omniparent [all-generating]” (195), while he dismissed the priests as “lewd and very naughty fellows” (196). In the novel Lucius was restored to human form by the great goddess Isis (261-272).

The variations in the iconography of Atargatis resulted from her being identified with so many local goddesses, as well as great goddesses such as the Egyptian Isis. A splendid Egyptianized statue of her, complete with encircling snake, stood on the Janiculum in Rome in the 3rd century CE (Godwin 1981: 158 Plate 124). From Hieropolis in northern Syria, then, the cult of Atargatis disseminated all through Syria, northern Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean area, and the western part of the Greco-Roman world, even to Britain (Lightfoot 2003: 59).

Roman statue, likely of Artargatis, the “Syrian Goddess.” As is obvious, the figure is very Egyptianized showing that the commissioner/carver was heavily influenced by images of Isis. The snake probably came from images of the lion-headed god Aion of Mithraism (See Godwin 1981: 108, plate 72, and 109, plate 74.) Found on the Janiculum Hill of Rome. Dated to the 3rd century CE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Godwin 1981: 158, plate 124.

So that’s what happened to at least two of the Canaanite goddesses I wrote about in my first articles for MatriFocus almost six years ago (Anat, Astarte). They melded into Atargatis, a world-renowned deity. As to the third Canaanite goddess, we will find out more in the next issue of MatriFocus when I will be exploring the Carthaginian goddess Tanit and her background.

Bibliography

Graphics Credits

Contributors retain the copyright to their work; please do not take art or words without permission. Other graphics and reference materials are used and attributed as per the Fair Use Provision of The Copyright Act and individual terms of use.

Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Samhain 2008, Vol 8-1

Ishtar-of-the-Stars. Probably a cult statue being worshipped by a human priest or king. Her warrior aspect is indicated by her striding left leg protruding from an overskirt and revealing a warrior’s kilt. Impression of a Neo-Assyrian seal, dated 883-612 BCE.
Drawing © 2008 S. Beaulieu, after Black And Green 2003: 108.

Probably the ancient world’s most famous example of possession by spirits occurred almost daily over a period of about 2,000 years. At the great ancient Greek sanctuary of Delphi, the god Apollo gave oracles or predictions to those who consulted him, and he spoke through a priestess, the Pythia (Goodrich 1989: 194-254).[1] Scholars have argued interminably about how the Pythia[2] received the god’s message: by eating a psychedelic substance, breathing volcanic fumes from a cleft in the rock, and so on. However, to my mind it is much more likely that she was a medium who, through either talent or training, went into trance when the god possessed her.[3]

Spirit possession is a well-known phenomenon occurring cross-culturally in most areas of the world. It is very likely that most people have seen a possession “in their immediate community” or in their own experience, although to many of us in the West this seems “exotic or anachronistic” (Keller 2002: 3).[4] Those who regularly become possessed are termed mediums, and globally more of them are women than men (Paper 1997: 106). Possession has been defined as total, though temporary, domination of a human’s body and consciousness by a known or unknown alien being; after the event, the person possessed usually has no memory of what happened (After Ann Gold, quoted in Keller 2002: 3). Through availing itself of the person’s body, a spirit, ancestor, or deity can be present in and for the community (Paper 1997: 203).[5]

Given the worldwide incidence of mediums and spirit possession today, their existence in the ancient world should not be surprising. Another familiar example, this time from the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament), is the so-called “Witch of Endor,” the medium whom King Saul consulted to make contact with the dead prophet Samuel (I Samuel 28). Yet another instance is the ancient Greek Maenads, female devotees possessed by the god Dionysus (Kraemer 1989: 49).

Spirit possession seems also to have been part of the religious life of ancient Mesopotamia. For instance, it is likely, as I have suggested elsewhere, that during the “Sacred Marriage” ritual the Sumerian goddess Inanna possessed her high priestess and acted through the latter’s entranced body. In ancient Mesopotamia, attested examples of possession normally involved oracles or prophesies by religious functionaries — many of them women, many devotees of Inanna’s Semitic counterpart, Ishtar.

Ishtar, fully armed, stands on her sacred lion. An eight-pointed star, one of her symbols, adorns her elaborate crown. Her forward-striding leg reveals her warrior’s kilt. A worshipper stands before her. Behind her is a sacred date palm, with two rampant gazelles uncharacteristically posed opposite each other, giving a suggestion of fighting. Normally there would be one on each side of the tree trying to reach the fruit. Impression of a Neo-Assyrian seal dated ca. 750-650 BCE. British Museum.
Drawing © 2008 S. Beaulieu, after Leick 1998: Plate 38.

The Mesopotamian Semitic word for prophet, raggimu (masc.)/raggintu (fem.) meant “shouter,” and it is likely that this kind of oracle giver proclaimed the message in a temple. Another kind of prophet was called mahhû (masc.)/muhhutu(m) (fem.) meaning “ecstatic” and derived from mahu “to go into a frenzy” (Nissinen 2003: 6-7). Both kinds were normally attached to the temple of the deity for whom they spoke. When they spoke, they would very likely have been possessed by the temple’s god(dess).

Mesopotamian oracular reports have come down to us primarily in two groups, the Mari letters and the Nineveh collection, dated about 1,000 years apart. The Mari letters (2nd millennium BCE) were written to the king of Mari by members of his family and courtiers. Prominent among the senders of Mari letters containing accounts of prophecies were Shibtu, the queen of Zimri-Lim (c. 1775-1761), the king’s sister priestess Inib-shina, and other royal ladies such as Addu-duri (Nissinen 2003: 15, 28). The prophets themselves included slightly more women than men (Huffmon in Nissinen 2000: 51). They were connected to a number of deities, one of whom was Annunitu(m), a form of Ishtar.

The Nineveh collection, on which I will concentrate here, consists of reports preserved at Nineveh in the great library of the Assyrian king Assurbanipal and written down in the 7th century BCE (deJong Ellis 1989: 133, 141). The sex differential changes quite dramatically from the Mari letters to the Nineveh collection. In the latter, female prophets outnumbered males by two to one. Furthermore, the majority of the Assyrian prophets came from Arbela, a city in the northern part of Mesopotamia (Parpolo 1997: XLVIII). Not surprisingly, as we shall see, Arbela’s protector deity was the goddess Ishtar. The Assyrian king Esarhaddon (681-669 BCE) and his son Assurbanipal (668-627 BCE), both warrior kings (Pongratz-Leisten 2006: 26), had close relationships with Ishtar of Arbela as “Lady of Battle.” The prophecies in the Nineveh collection concerned these two kings.

Assyrian warrior goddess Ishtar of Arbela, identified from an inscription on the stone. Fully armed, she stands on her growling lion, which she controls with a rope. Her cylindrical horned crown is topped with a star-rosette. Stone stele from Tel-Barsip in north-east Syria. Dated to the eighth century BCE.
Drawing © 2008 S. Beaulieu, after Pritchard 1969: 177, plate 522.

Although the Assyrian oracles were certainly recorded by scribes and probably were to some extent fashioned by them to fit an accepted literary tradition, nonetheless they are still presented as the words of a deity. For instance, an oracle given by “the mouth of the woman Sinqisha-amur of Arbela” reads: “King of Assyria, have no fear!  I will deliver up the enemy of the king of Assyria for slaughter….” The possessor of the medium then identifies herself: “I am the Gr[eat Lady. I am Ishtar o]f Arbela …” (Parpola 1997: 4). In another prophecy spoken through Sinqisha-amur, the possessing deity assures the king: “I am your father and mother. I raised you between my wings” (Parpola 1997: 18).

Mothering and nursing language occurs several times in the Nineveh collection. An unknown prophet speaks as Ishtar of Arbela: “I am your great midwife; I am your excellent wet nurse” (Parpola 1997: 7). The following excerpt comes from a long prophecy made for the crown prince Assurbanipal through the “prophetess Mullissu-kabtat” (meaning “Mullissu is honored”): “You whose mother is Mulissu,[6] have no fear! You whose nurse is the Lady of Arbela, have no fear!” (Parpola 1997: 39).

An ewe suckling her lamb, while browsing on a bush. She is a goddess as the star above her tells us — it is the cuneiform sign for “deity.”  She represents Ishtar as nursing mother, as sometimes described in the Assyrian oracles. Impression of a cylinder seal from the Assyrian capital city Ashur. Dated to the middle Assyrian period (ca. 1500-1000 BCE).
Drawing © 2008 S. Beaulieu, after Parpola 1997: XXXVIII Fig. 17.

In some of the oracles the deity refers to the king as a calf. One oracle says that Ishtar of Arbela has gone into the steppe, but she has sent a message of “well-being to her calf” (Parpola 1997: 10). Another comforts the king: “[Have no fear], my calf” (Parpola 1997: 18). This motherly reference reminds us of wonderful ivory carvings of a cow suckling a calf, some of which were found at Nimrud in Mesopotamia (Mallowan 1978). This image was “a ubiquitous motif” of the period (Parpola 1997: XXXVIII). Further, it was closely “connected in the historical traditions with the goddess” (Keel and Uelinger1998: 215).

Cow bending over her suckling calf, a widespread motif in the ancient Near East. Parpola identifies the cow in this image as “Mullissu/I[sh]tar” (1997: XXXVIII, Fig. 16). Ivory panel found at Nimrud. Dated to the first part of the first millennium BCE (Neo-Assyrian period).
Drawing © 2008 S. Beaulieu, after Mallowan 1978: 56, fig. 65.

The 7th century Nineveh collection mentions thirteen Assyrian mediums, nine of them female. The remaining four were possibly male, but two of them seem to have been sexually ambivalent.[7] One of the latter’s oracles is identified as “the mouth of the woman Baya, son of Arbela” (Parpola 1997: 6 — my italics). Female mediums from Arbela included Ahat-abisha “Sister of her father,” Sinqisha-amur “I have seen her distress,” and Dunnasha-amur “I have seen her power” (Parpola 1997: IL, LII). It is not surprising that so many prophets were from Arbela (modern Erbil), for Ishtar was the protector deity of Arbela. They were almost certainly attached to her temple there, “House of the Lady of the Land” (Nissinen 2003: 100; Nissinen in Nissinen 2000: 95).

The goddess Ishtar appearing in a halo of light to a worshipping king or priest. She is in her warrior stance and holds a weapon. Her dais is a growling lion. Seal impression from the Achaemenid period (after 500 BCE).
Drawing © 2008 S. Beaulieu, after Parpola 1997: XXX. Fig. c.

Not only was Ishtar a warrior goddess, but she was the divine mediator between deities and between deities and humans (Nissinen in Nissinen 2000: 96). Thus, it was usually she who possessed the Assyrian mediums. So the “overwhelming majority” of the prophets are associated in some way with Ishtar’s cult. When on occasion another deity wanted to contact a king through an oracle, s/he “used the channel” of a medium of Ishtar (Toorn in Nissinen 2000: 78-79). Ishtar induced ecstasy in her devotees. “If ever there was a possession cult in Mesopotamia, it was connected with Ishtar” (Toorn in Nissinen 2000: 79).

Cross-dressing was part of her cult, and she had the ability to alter a person’s sex, so that a man became a woman and vice versa. In Mesopotamian treaties, the curse on treaty breakers often included lines like the following, from an Assyrian vassal treaty: “… may Ishtar, the goddess of men, the lady of women, take away their `bow,’ [potency?] cause their steri[lity]…” (Reiner in Pritchard 1969: 533). Like Inanna, Ishtar also confused the lines that separated the sexes, the generations, the classes, and the species, human and animal.

Ishtar was goddess of love and war, as well as of the Venus star. Later, as often in earlier periods, Ishtar’s warlike qualities were definitely emphasized by warrior conquerors like the Assyrians. For their kings, Ishtar was not only “Lady of Battle” but often a personal deity. She fought beside them in battle and led them to victory. Ishtar of Arbela was an especially warlike figure. Hence it is surprising to encounter in the oracles the goddess’s nurturing character. Blood-thirsty goddess she might be, but she shows concern for her “calf” in the most motherly of ways. This adds a further dimension to her complex character.

Procession of deities on their sacred animals, arranged between two likenesses of an Assyrian king (Sennacherib?). Scholars have identified them, from the left, as follows: 1. Ashur, the supreme god of Assyria; 2. Ninlil/Ishtar of Nineveh; 3. Enlil, supreme deity of Sumer, or possibly Sin, the moon god; 4. Sin, the moon god, or Nabu, the scribe god; 5. Shamash, the sun god; 6. Adad, the storm god; and 7. Ishtar of Arbela. One of four panels  carved in the rock face at Maltai or Maltaya, 70 km north of Mosul in northern Iraq. Possibly done on order of Assyrian king Sennacherib, 704-681 BCE. Length 6 m, height 1.85 m.
Drawing © 2008 S. Beaulieu, after Pritchard 1969: 181, # 537.

That Ishtar, gender-bending source of ecstasy that she was, should have been served by many female as well as some transvestite and eunuch mediums is not surprising either. We can only speculate on what great influence these predominantly female prophets must have had in their temple and on the warlike Assyrian kings, when their powerful goddess spoke through them.

Notes

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