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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

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
Lammas 2008, Vol 7-4

O Nisaba, good woman, fair woman, woman born in the mountains! . . .
[M]ay you be a heaper up of grain among the grain piles and in the grain stores!
(Black, Cunningham, Robson, and Zólyomi 2004: 294)

A vegetation goddess, sitting on blades of growing grain, receives three minor male gods and offers them a stalk of grain. Other stalks emerge from her shoulders. According to Boehmer, several of the stalks end in ears of grain (1965: 96). Behind her grows another stalk. She wears the flounced robe of deity and a round beret-like hat and has only one set of horns marking her as a minor deity. Two of the gods have snakes in front of them. Cylinder seal. Akkadian, ca. 2350-2150 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Boehmer 1965: Plate XLVI, #536.

As the Harvest season approaches,[1] I have been thinking about the ancient goddesses who embodied the grain that maintained the agriculturally based civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Their Mesopotamian names resonate with the rustle of grain fields: Nunbarshegunu and Ninlil, Ezinu and Ashnan, Sud, Kusu, and Nissaba, and the parallels between them and Greek Demeter are fascinating. But what is the revered patron of scribes Nissaba doing among this group? Well, whatever else, she was always barely and it was the mainstay of the culture.

The Mesopotamian farming-based cities lay to the north and east and had as protector deities “grain goddesses like Ninlil, Ninbarshegunu, and [Nissaba]” (Jacobsen 1976: 25). Today, when we think of grain, we usually imagine a vast field of ripening wheat or a crusty loaf of wheat bread. The people of Mesopotamia, on the other hand, would almost certainly have thought first of barley. Wheat is not an easy crop to grow in irrigation-dependent lands, such as those of southern Mesopotamia, because salt has a tendency to build up in the soil. Barley, on the other hand, is much hardier and will grow in more soils. Ancient Mesopotamians used barley for making bread and, more importantly, beer.

Grain goddesses occur frequently on Mesopotamian seals, and respectful male vegetation deities often stand before their thrones. They usually sit on heaps of grain, or small granaries, or even on growing grain; they hold stalks of grain in their hands, while more sprout from their shoulders. It is impossible to be sure which grain goddess an image depicts, though only one set of horns in a crown indicates minor divinity. Thus the single-horned goddesses may have been Ezinu or Ashnan, while the double-horned ones may have been the more important deity Nissaba. It is likely, however, that most are barley goddesses. Furthermore, in the texts, grain goddesses were regularly identified with one another (Lambert in Finkel and Geller 1997: 6).

A double-horned grain goddess, seated on what might be a storage unit for seed, offers what look like a pot planted with blades of grain to an important multi-horned god, who holds out his hands to take it. The goddess wears the flounced robe of deity and has blades protruding from her shoulders. Behind the multi-horned god, a lesser god carries a plow, and behind him a double-horned vegetation god with blades growing from his body holds a sheaf of grain. The presence of the plow indicates that the multi-horned god is probably Ninurta, both warrior deity and patron of farming. The goddess might then be his mother Ninlil/Sud or his grandmother Nissaba. This seal suggests an interesting parallel with the story of the Greek goddess Demeter, who introduces the heroTriptolemus to farming and then sends him off to teach humans agriculture. Cylinder seal. Akkadian, ca. 2350-2150 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Boehmer 1965: Plate XLV, #533.

“Lady of Abundance” Ezina/Ashnan was a popular Sumerian grain goddess.[2] One text describes her as “the growing grain, the life of Sumer” (Black, Cunningham, Robson and Zólyomi 2004: 111). She was a daughter of a great god, and her sister Lakhar was a sheep goddess (Civil 1983: 45).[3] Ezinu/Ashnan may have started out as the deity of emmer wheat; perhaps she was increasingly celebrated as a grain goddess after Nissaba (more below) shifted her domain to writing and scribes.

Like most grain goddesses, Ezina/Ashnan was a very old deity; she appeared in the Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 B.C.E.) (Black, Cunningham, Robson and Zólyomi 2004: 293). Worshipped all over the land, she had a strong presence in ancient Mesopotamian writings. Interestingly, she was also relied on to support treaties and laws by withholding abundance from anyone breaking them (Kramer in Pritchard 1969: 161). One text salutes her as “the good bread of the whole world” (Black, Cunningham, Robson and Zólyomi 2004: 222).

On the Warka vase, found in Inanna’s sacred city Uruk in southern Mesopotamia, a procession of naked priests carry gifts of the land’s produce to Innana’s temple. Embodied in her high priestess, Inanna greets them at the shrine door, which is marked by Inanna’s signature gateposts. At the bottom of the vase, above the water that makes all possible, grow grain plants, probably barley and wheat. Above them walk what are likely sheep and goats. Alabaster. 3′ tall. Fourth millennium BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Gadon 1989: 137.

Several other Mesopotamian goddesses had connections to fertility and thus to grain, among them the great goddess Inanna/Ishtar. Her connection with the land’s abundance was fully depicted on the famous Uruk or Warka vase.[4] Along the bottom of the vase grow two kinds of grain looking very similar to the stalks that grain goddesses hold.[5] An amazing seal shows both Ishtar and a grain goddess. The two are part of, and frame, a mythic scene which includes a male warrior, possibly Gilgamesh.

This is an extremely interesting seal, and it probably represents a story involving the hero Gilgamesh that is now lost to us. Nonetheless, we can understand that at least part of it deals with grain and fertility. On the right of the composition stands a one-horned minor grain goddess, grain stalks protruding from her shoulders. She holds what look like two sticks in one hand, and with the other reaches out to a bearded, turbaned semi-human. He is wrapped in a lion skin (?) and holds a club in one hand. In the other he holds two objects. From his shoulders sprout vegetation. He might be the demi-god hero Gilgamesh. Between the grain goddess and the warrior, a goat-like creature prances. On the left side of the seal the goddess Ishtar in warrior stance faces a worshipper across an altar which bears a noosed rope or a necklace. The worshipper carries an ibex as sacrifice(?), and behind stands a minor goddess also worshipping, who holds a jar with two streams of water flowing from it (Tigris and Euphrates?). The inscription reads: “Eli-eshtar, scribe.” The name seems to mean “My Deity [is] Ishtar.” Serpentine. Akkadian, ca. 2350-2150 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Collon 1982: Plate XXXI, #213.

Probably originating as an epithet of Nissaba and Ezina/Ashnan meaning “Bright”[6] (Kramer 1981: 362), Kusu was regularly regarded as a deity in her own right and often evoked in magic and religious texts. Shala(sh) was another Sumerian goddess of grain. One tradition sees her as wife of the grain god Dagan, another of the storm god Ishkur/Adad. Her symbol was a stalk of grain/barley (Black and Green 2003: 39, 172-173). Yet another goddess connected with grain was the Babylonian goddess of love Ishkhara (Ishara), who was often identified with Ishtar. One tradition assigned her to the Semitic grain god Dagan as spouse. Her symbol was the scorpion (Black and Green 2003: 110).

A grain goddess with one set of horns and stalks growing out of her shoulders sits on a heap of grain. She holds grain stalks in both hands. She is receiving a multi-horned male deity who proffers a plow. He probably is, or represents, Ninurta, god of farming. Behind him two vegetation deities carry, on a horizontal bar, a box which is possibly a depiction of a unit of grain measure. Under the bar is a scorpion, symbol of Ishara, Babylonian goddess of love and a minor grain goddess. A human worshipper stands behind them. Cylinder seal. Dated ca. 2350-2150 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Boehmer 1965: Plate XLVI, #541.

Surprisingly, the great Sumerian goddess Nissaba, whose name was used in written material to denote “grain,” was the much-valued scribe of the gods.[7] She was the goddess of writing, accounting, and surveying and, more important, patron of scribes and scribal wisdom. Clearly, however, she began as a grain goddess and was remembered as such. Indeed, in written material, she was often identified with the other grain goddesses, especially Ezinu/Ashnan. The grain she embodied was likely barley, for one of her epithets Nunbarshegunu[8] seems to have meant “Lady (Whose) Body (Is) Dappled Barley.”[9] Nonetheless, “she became patroness of scribes some time soon after the invention of writing,” and her scribal aspects were dominant in the Sumerian schools (Michalowski in Reallexikon IX: 575). Nissaba carried a tablet made of lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, dark blue like the night sky. Acknowledging their patron, scribes often concluded literary pieces “Praise to Nissaba!” (Black, Cunningham, Robson and Zólyomi 2004: 280, 291, 307, 314, 338, 349).

A grain goddess, holding a stalk of grain, sits on what looks like a storage unit and receives two minor male deities, one vegetation/grain god, and a minor goddess holding a sheaf of grain. The seated goddess has three horns on her crown and so is likely to be Nissaba. Behind her is a object which might be a tree planted in a pot. Cylinder seal. Akkadian, ca. 2350-2150 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Boehmer 1965: Plate XLV, #532.

Following the grain-goddess pattern, Nissaba had a long history going back to the Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 B.C.E.), and her lineage too was extremely distinguished. She was the daughter of the sky god and an earth goddess, and her sister was Nin-Isina, a revered healing goddess. In another tradition Nissaba was eldest child of the Sumerian leader of the gods.[10] Her spouse Khaya (Haya), whose name probably means “Life,” was “the god of stores” and storehouses, probably because of his connection with grain goddesses: his spouse Nissaba and daughter Sud (Jacobsen 1976: 99).

Sud was renamed Ninlil when she married Enlil, the dominant deity of the pantheon (Civil 1983).[11] Nissaba also had a connection to the netherworld. In one Babylonian poem she was called “Mistress of the Underworld.” Her symbol was a sheaf or an ear of grain.[12]

A high-ranking grain goddess with triple-horned crown, probably Nissaba, sits on a store of seed and receives a single-horned minor god, who has grain sprouting from his body. His hands are in the position of prayer. She holds out to him a stalk of barley (?) and has similar stalks growing from her shoulders. Behind the minor grain god are two other minor gods, Both single horned with symbols on their hats. One holds out his hands to her in prayer, the other displays an object (a flail, musical instrument?). Between them is what seems to be a standard (?).  At the back a human worshiper touches her/his nose in reverence. Cylinder seal. Akkadian, ca. 2350-2150 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Boehmer 1965: Plate XLVI, #538.

Why Nissaba became patroness of writing has been subject of some scholarly dispute. Lambert suggested that Nissaba meant “Lady of Saba,” but there is no evidence that a city called Saba has ever existed (Michalowski in Reallexikon IX: 576). Jacobsen made a quite strong case that Nissaba became patron of writing because she was deity of all grasses, including reeds: “She is the reed when it is fashioned into a reed stylus” (1976: 10). Most convincing is Selz’s argument: he interprets the goddess’s name as “Lady of the Grain Rations (or Grain Distribution)” (1989: 491). Selz cites surviving lists giving monthly accounts of barley distribution to argue that grain, especially barley, functioned as money (1989: 491). Thus, the goddess being measured out as barley became an accountant, that is, a scribe, tracking the allotments. A Sumerian poem recounts how one of the great gods gave order to the world, assigning areas of control to lesser deities. After bestowing the arable land and grain on Ezina, he presented Nissaba with “the measuring reed” and the “measuring tape,” so that she could “demarcate boundaries.” He then proclaimed her “the scribe of the Land” (Black, Cunningham, Robson and Zólyomi 2004: 222, 224). Thus she took office as head measurer, steward of the chief god Enlil at Nippur, center of the grain trade (Selz 1989: 497).

The Greek grain goddess Demeter enthroned, with her daughter Persephone. Demeter wears a polos, a box-like hat often seen on goddesses, and her long rich hair flows over her shoulders like the grain it is said to resemble. In her left hand she wields her staff of majesty, and in her right she holds stalks of barley(?). Persephone carries two lit torches, indicative of her status as an Underworld goddess. Marble. Greece. Fifth century BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Gadon 1989: 162.

Perhaps the best-known of the grain goddesses is Demeter,[13] patron of the fertility not only of plants, but also of humans. Along with her daughter Kore/Persephone, she was the focus of the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret rituals that yearly drew prospective initiates from all over the Greco-Roman world. The focus of the rituals was likely the abduction of Demeter’s beloved daughter by the lord of the Underworld. The story is recounted in the seventh-century BCE Homeric “Hymn to Demeter” (Foley 1994).[14] The poem ends with the return of Persephone after her mother exercises her awesome power to withhold all fertility and almost destroys both gods and humans.

Like Mesopotamian grain goddesses, Demeter was a very ancient divinity with roots which might go back well into the second millennium BCE. Though her name does not appear in texts dating to that period, they do mention a “Grain Mistress” (Burkert 1985: 44). Like the early Nissaba, Demeter stands primarily for grain, especially barley, her yellow hair reflected in the golden ripeness of the fields. In images, she holds ripe grain in her hand and wears it as a crown. Her daughter has been understood as the early shoots of grain or, when in the Underworld, seed-grain buried in silos during the summer heat (Foley 1994: 34, 40; Burkert 1985: 160). Like Nissaba, Demeter had some Underworld connections; indeed, the dead were known as Demetreioi, “Belonging to Demeter.” Burkert states that “[no] Near Eastern parallels are found for the mother-daughter constellation” of Demeter and Kore (1985:161), whom the Greeks called “the Two Goddesses” because of their closeness as well as similarities (1985:159). Still, Nissaba also had a daughter who, like Persephone, married a great god and became a great queen. Like the Mesopotamian grain goddesses, Demeter had the power to withhold fertility not just from a breaker of a law or treaty, but from both humans and deities. Finally, Mesopotamian Nissaba was the divider or distributor of the grain rations and, from there, divine measurer and keeper of order. Demeter too was concerned with order and the upholding of custom. One of her epithets was Thesmosphoros, “Law-giver.”[15] However, while her beloved daughter was in the Underworld, Demeter not only refused to keep order, but actually caused its dissolution by withdrawing from the world, which then became sterile. As soon as she got her way and was convinced that she would get her daughter back, she made “the grain grow fertile for humankind”:

At once she sent forth fruit from the fertile fields
And the whole wide earth burgeoned with leaves
And flowers
(Foley 1994: 26)

Notes

Bibliography

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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
Imbolc 2008, Vol 7-2

Beautiful face typical of those at ‘Ain Dara: rounded nose, almond-shaped eyes, and slightly smiling lips. Perhaps a goddess or a priestess. Around her head she wears a circlet decorated with rosettes, in Mesopotamia a symbol of the goddess Inanna/Ishtar. Originally found in many pieces, restored. Basalt. 22″.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Monson 2000: 34.

What an unexpected delight! I have just discovered a really important ancient Near Eastern goddess I had never heard of before. At the urging of University of Toronto’s Prof. D. Frayne, I had begun doing research towards writing an article about a stunning temple at ‘Ain Dara, in northern Syria. Since, from its sculpture, its excavator thought it had been dedicated to the Babylonian war and love goddess Ishtar, I assumed that I would be dealing with her. However, only a little investigation suddenly presented me with the name of Shaushka, who turned out to be a widely disseminated deity often identified with Ishtar.[1]

Ishtar, the Babylonian equivalent of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, was one of the seven great deities of the Mesopotamian pantheon and “the most important female deity of ancient Mesopotamia at all periods” (Black and Green 2003 (1992): 108). Her particular animal was the lion, and she was associated with predatory and other birds. In Phoenician art, she was also connected to sphinxes (Assaf in Meyers 1997: I, 35). Inanna/Ishtar contributed much of her personality, characteristics, and areas of power to Canaanite, Phoenician, and Carthaginian Astarte, who was the Biblical Ashtoreth, and also to the Syrian goddess, Atargatis. All of the latter were worshiped well into Greco-Roman times. Inanna/Ishtar was also very much present in the northern deity Shaushka.

Shaushka, Shawushka, or Sausga was originally a goddess of the Hurrians, “an ethnic group” which made its presence felt in the Ancient Near East during the third to the first millennium BCE. For a time in the fifteenth century BCE, the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni was a force to be reckoned with throughout the region. Eventually the Hurrians were subdued by the Hittites[2] and the Assyrians (Bienkowski and Millard 2000: 150), but not before their religion had had an enormous influence in northern Syria and northern Mesopotamia. Indeed, texts regularly describe Shaushka as “of Nineveh,” and we know that she was worshiped at that important Mesopotamian city for around 1,500 years (Beckman 1988: 8). Her cult was also celebrated at northern sites such as Nuzi, Alalakh, and Ugarit. Her cult center was a place called Samukha, possibly in the northern Euphrates area. Her name, from a Hurrian root, probably started as a title, “The Great One” (Beckman 1998: 2, note 14).

The goddess achieved real prominence as patron of the Hittite king Hattushilis II (1420-1400 BCE) and, later, as personal protector of Hattushilis III (1275-1245 BCE). The latter’s wife Pudukhepa is credited with active involvement in both diplomatic and religious matters, in the course of which she promoted the adoption of Hurrian deities into the Hittite pantheon and, when possible, their identification with Hittite ones (Leick 1999: 132).

Mythically, Shaushka was the daughter of the sky god Anu or the moon god Sin. In a number of texts the storm god Teshub was her brother, in some her husband.[3] She was usually accompanied by two female attendants, the musicians Ninatta and Kulitta. The fact that Shaushka and Ishtar both were deities of war and love/sexuality brought them together. In imagery they strode forward, both fierce and determined warriors, and carried weapons of war.

Stela of the warrior goddess Ishtar standing on and controlling a lion. She bears weapons and wears a cylindrical crown topped with one of her symbols, a rosette. From Tel Barsib northeast of ‘Ain Dara. Dated to the eighth century BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Monson 2000: 28.

The goddess Shaushka on a stela from the storm-god temple at Aleppo, Syria. She wears a long skirt, a cylindrical crown, and a multi-stringed necklace. She carries an axe in her right hand and, in the left, an object which has variously been explained as a weapon, a mirror, or a spindle/distaff. On her shoulders are what might be quivers. Dated to early in the first millennium BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Gonnella, Khayyata, and Kohlmeyer 2005: 102.

Shaushka and her musician attendants Ninatta and Kulitta. From the famous open-air Hittite site of Yazilikaya. It is not clear whether the protrusions from her shoulders are quivers or possibly wings. Shaushka appears twice at the site, once in the procession of the goddesses (#56) and again in the procession of the gods (#38). Her ambiguous sex is the obvious explanation. The carvings have been dated to between about 1227 and 1209 BCE.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after illustration on http://www.uned.es.

Texts describe Shaushka as similar to Ishtar, as an ambiguous goddess who supervised married love and harmonious relationships but, unpredictably, could turn love into a dangerous endeavor. According to Hittite texts she was of ambiguous sex also and given to wearing the clothes of both sexes. In addition, she could alter a person’s sex. One ritual credited her with the ability to deprive men of “manliness and vitality,” to replace their bows and arrows with distaffs and spindles, and to dress them in women’s clothes. From women she could take away motherhood and love (Hutter in van der Toorn et al. 1999: 758-759). Nonetheless, one of her areas of competence was healing, especially in sexual matters. In magical incantations she was asked to remove curses and fight the plague (Beckman 1998: 6). Like most healing deities, she could both cure and cause disease or death.

This was the goddess who might have inhabited the beautiful but now ruined temple of ‘Ain Dara (see temple plan), which has been dated to the period about 1300 to 740 BCE.

Frieze of lions and sphinxes, two of which flank the entry way into the portico of ‘Ain Dara temple. The sphinx has the body of a bull, the chest feathers and wings of an eagle, and a human female head. The faces of the lions have been damaged.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Monson 2000: 25.

Rows of bird (eagle?) claws, the damaged remains of huge stelas that lined the back of the antechamber of the temple. Basalt.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Monson 2000: 32.

The head of a female sphinx wearing a Hathor-style coiffure. See my Matrifocus article for Lammas 2006 (Vol. 5-4). Her face is typical for the ‘Ain Dara temple and might represent its goddess. Basalt.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Monson 2000: 25.

Damaged stela of the goddess Shaushka/Ishtar. She takes to pose of a warrior deity and carries a staff or spear in her left hand and, possibly, an axe in her right. There seems to be a quiver on her shoulder. She wears a split or diaphanous robe, and her pubic triangle is very prominent. Her shoes, turned up at the toe, are typical of the mountain areas of Anatolia and north Syria. Basalt.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Monson 2000: 32.

Perched on top of a huge tell[4] in Syria, about 42 miles northwest of Aleppo (see map), the temple[5] looks out over the fertile valley of the Afrin river. Very close to the mound is the spring from which it takes its name. After excavating the temple from 1980 to 1985, Syrian archaeologist Ali Abou Assaf concluded, mainly from the decorative sculpture, that the temple had been dedicated to Ishtar, but it seems much more likely to me that the mistress of ‘Ain Dara was the Great One, Shaushka.

No wonder, though, that the excavator thought the temple to be Ishtar’s. Her sacred animal, the lion, abounds among the copious sculptures. Both Ishtar and Shaushka were “lion ladies.” Sphinxes, which in Phoenician times became closely connected to Ishtar and thus probably to Shaushka, are very much in evidence there. Another notable feature of the damaged sculpture is what looks like rows of bird claws. Traditionally birds accompany love and war goddesses — doves for love and predatory birds for war. Aside from the lions, sphinxes, and bird claws, there is stronger evidence that the temple deity was an Ishtar-type of goddess.[6] An almost complete stela, found in rubble near the entrance of the temple (Assaf 1993: 169), depicts a goddess who I think is Shaushka. Striding forward in what looks like a split skirt, she bears weapons in both hands and has what might be a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder. Her prominent vulvic triangle signals her other self of love and sexuality.[7]

Another personage depicted on the walls is a mountain god, who appears flanked by mythic animals. Certainly there were many mountain-range and peak deities in the surrounding mountainous area. Some scholars have speculated that the ‘Ain Dara mountain god was the spouse of the goddess. In support of this suggestion, in the temple of the storm god at Aleppo, not far from ‘Ain Dara, the stela of Shaushka stands next to that of a mountain god as if they were spouses (Gonnella, Khayyata, and Kohlmeyer 2005: 101-102). At ‘Ain Dara there are several images of this Atlas-like figure, a fact which indicates that he was probably revered at the temple, perhaps as the goddess’s spouse.

A mountain god in the high horned crown of deity and wearing shoes with turned-up toes. His scaled skirt indicates the mountain he inhabits. He stands between two bull-men. The relief is situated in or near the inner sanctum of the temple.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Monson 2000: 29.

Curiosity about a wonderful ancient temple[8] and its deity led me to discover a goddess entirely new to me: the “Queen of Nineveh” Shaushka. Such are the excitement and reward of goddess research!

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.