Tag: Goddess in the Spotlight

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

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
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.

Author: Johanna Stuckey, PhD
From the Archives of MatriFocus
A Cross-Quarterly Web Magazine for Goddess Women Near & Far
Samhain 2006, Vol 6-1

Ceremonial drinking scene on a seal found in the “Great Death Pit” in the Royal Cemetery at Ur. In the top register, left, a man and a woman use straws to drink a liquid, probably beer, from a large jar on a stand between them. On the same level, right, sits a figure, likely female, raising a cup before a standing figure, possibly a servant. In the lower register, a woman plays a bull-headed lyre, in front of which two dwarves dance. On the far right, three women clap while dancing(?). On the far left, two women, perhaps with musical instruments, stand in front of a man with a staff. Lapis lazuli. Dated ca. 2550-2400 B.C.E.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2002: 109 #60c.

It is you who pour the filtered beer out of the collector vat; it is like the onrush of the Tigris and the Euphrates. Ninkasi, it is you who pour out the filtered beer out of the collector vat; it is like the onrush of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
(Black, Cunningham, Robson, and Zólyomi 2004: 298)[1]

Unfortunately no identifiable depiction of Nin-kasi, the beer goddess, seems to have survived antiquity, but she must have been a very popular deity, if we judge from the many illustrations of beer drinkers that have come down to us from ancient Mesopotamia and from references to beer in its texts. Often it was the deities who indulged in drinking. In the poem “Inanna and En-ki,” En-ki, the great god of fresh subterranean waters and wisdom, got drunk when partying with Inanna and foolishly gave the goddess all the “cosmic offices” (Jacobsen 1976: 84). At the banquet in Babylon, a city that the deities had just created, the “beer jug” was put before them, and the festivities began (Heidel 1967: 49). In addition, not knowing how to drink beer indicated that a man was uncivilized: For example, in the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” the wild man En-kidu “did not know how to eat bread, / Nor had he ever learned to drink beer!” (Foster 2001: 14)

Not only was Nin-kasi herself the beer — “given birth by the flowing water…” (Black, Cunningham, Robson, and Zólyomi 2004: 297)— but she was the chief brewer of the gods. So it is not surprising to learn that, in early times in ancient Sumer (southern Mesopotamia), brewers were usually female. Women made beer at home for immediate consumption, since it did not keep. It is possible also that temple brewers were priestesses of Nin-kasi. Later, when beer production became an industry, men seem to have taken over the process, but women still made beer for home use (Homan 2004: 85). Perhaps because they brewed the beer, women were often tavern keepers. For instance, Siduri, a minor goddess whom Gilgamesh met at the end of the earth, was a divine tavern keeper (Foster 2001: 72-76).

Probably a mythic scene, since a number of deity symbols occur on the seal: the eight-pointed star indicates the goddess of the Venus star Inanna/Ishtar; the crescent moon the god Nanna-Sin; the sun disk on it the sun god Utu; and the fish probably the fresh-water god of wisdom En-ki. An enthroned figure, likely female, shares a jar of beer(?) with a male figure. Another figure seems to be holding a pouring jug to refill the jar. The scene could possibly be from the “Epic of Gilgamesh” when Gilgamesh met the tavern keeper Siduri at the end of the earth in a mountainous region, hence the mountain goat above the jar of beer. Siduri would then be the seated figure wearing the flounced gown drinking with Gilgamesh. The image is framed by coiled snakes. Hematite. Second millennium B.C.E.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Pritchard 1969b: 48 #158.

Beer goddess Nin-kasi was a venerable and long-lasting deity, for she appears in god lists and other texts from the Early Dynastic period (2900-2350 B.C.E.). She was “the personification of beer and presided over its manufacture” (Civil 2002a: 3). Her name possibly means “Lady Who Fills the Mouth (with Beer).” In a mythic poem, Nin-khursag declared that the beer goddess would be named “She who sates the desires” (Kramer in Pritchard 1969: 41). One tradition saw Nin-kasi as daughter of En-lil and the great birth goddess Nin-khursag. In another, her parents were the birth goddess Nin-ti and the great god En-ki. In either case the rank of her mother and father marked her as an important deity. In texts she usually appeared with her spouse (or brother) Siris or Sirash, a minor deity of alcoholic beverages. She had five (or nine) children.

One example of the many plaques found in Mesopotamia depicting a woman drinking beer (?) from a jar while having sexual intercourse. Clay plaque. Old Babylonian, around 1800 B.C.E.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Homan 2004: 93.

Well-known and worshipped by ordinary people, Nin-kasi was also venerated officially, not only at Nippur but also at the great city of Ur and other cities (George 1993: 24, 158 #1214, 168 #1391). Libations of beer, her sacred substance and herself, were poured out to the gods, and jars of beer were placed before their altars for them to drink. Beer was certainly used by prophets at the northern Mesopotamian city of Mari, now in Syria, to trigger states of ecstasy in which they would prophesy (Homan 2004: 84). Further, quite common clay plaques show a woman (goddess?) bending over to drink beer through a straw, while taking part in almost always rear-entry sexual intercourse.[2] The scene might have had a connection with the “Sacred Marriage” rite[3]. It is noteworthy that Inanna’s happiness is announced at the end of the second “Hymn to Ninkasi” (Civil 2002b: 4: “The [innards] of Inanna [are] happy again” (Civil 2002 b: 4).

Nin-kasi was chief brewer and possibly wine-maker[4] of the great god En-lil and thus of all the gods. It was Nin-kasi’s particular responsibility to provide alcoholic beverages, above all, beer, for the temples of the Mesopotamian sacred city Nippur. Many other temples maintained brewers to make the beer to be used in rituals (Homan 2004: 85). The “Hymn to Nin-kasi” is one of two extant “Sumerian drinking songs” dating from the eighteenth century B.C.E. (Civil 2002b (1991): 2). It is primarily concerned with the beer-making process. The second hymn extols the goddess for producing in drinkers “a blissful mood … with joy in the [innards] [and] happy liver”[5] (Civil 2002a: 3).

In the top register, a ceremonial drinking scene, probably mythical, given the deity symbols such as the fish, probably the god of fresh water and wisdom En-ki. To the right, two seated figures, perhaps a male and a female, drink by means of straws from a jug of beer (?) set on an ornate stand. Under the throne-like chair of the left-hand figure is an animal (a dog?). To the left, a man holds a cup and a fan. Behind him is a rearing goat-like animal and a lion’s head. On the broken lower register is a kneeling bovine. The plaque was discovered in the Inanna/Ishtar temple at Nippur, and perhaps refers to the “Sacred Marriage” ritual. Pink gypsum. Around 2900-2350 B.C.E.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Pritchard 1969b: 355 #846.

The Mesopotamians used Nin-kasi’s beer for religious rituals, as a base for medical potions, and as their normal beverage. Indeed, it was a staple of the diet for temple personnel and ordinary folk alike, a very nutritious food, being replete with proteins, vitamins, and carbohydrates. In addition, “because the alcohol killed many detrimental microorganisms, it was safer to drink than water” (Homan 2004: 84). Ancient Mesopotamians drank beer from large jars by means of long drinking straws that filtered out barley or emmer wheat husks and stalks, as well as insects. Most straws were probably made of reeds, so they have not survived the ages, though metal straws have occurred in archaeological digs, and so have bone and metal strainer tips that were attached to the end of straws (Homan 2004: 86). Travelers took supplies with them so that they could make beer when they stopped en route (Civil 2002a: 2). When they were drinking, Sumerian’s toasted each other with the expression Nin-kasira “To Nin-kasi.”

Banquet scene on a wall plaque. In the top register a woman (left) and a man (right) sit on stools opposite each other raising cups and holding what look like palm fronds in their other hand. The female drinker has her feet on a footstool, an indication that her rank is higher than the man’s. Although there is nothing to mark her divine, she might be a priestess or a queen. A woman holding a cup stands behind her. A small male figure in front of the woman carries on his head a reclining animal, perhaps a ritual vessel. A now-headless man in front of the seated male looks as if he has just passed a cup to the latter. In the second register people are carrying provisions, including a goat and a large pot, possibly containing beer. Musicians occupy the left side of the broken bottom register. Limestone. Around 2400-2350 B.C.E.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Aruz 2003: 73 #32.

A ritual drinking scene from the Inanna Temple at Nippur. In the top register, on the left, a seated female figure, possibly a high priestess, takes a cup from a bald man, probably a priest. Her other hand holds what resembles a palm frond. A female musician plays a bull-headed harp. On the left a bare-chested and bald priest (?) raises a cup to drink and also holds a frond in his other hand. A bald attendant, also nude to the waist and likely a priest, stand with his back to a beer (?) jar on a stand. In the middle register, on each side bearded males guide bulls, and an inscription fills the spaces. The bottom register is badly damaged, but might have shown another such ritual. Gypsum. Around 2400-2350 B.C.E.
Drawing © S. Beaulieu, after Pritchard 1969b: 356 #847.

Lately the ancient beer goddess has been experiencing a resurgence of worshipful, if commercial, interest. The first “Hymn to Ninkasi” outlines in some detail how the ancient Mesopotamians made their beer. Eventually someone had to try to make it. In 1989, the Anchor Brewing Company in California did just that and produced a limited edition of the beer from a recipe decoded from the Hymn. The brewers called it “Ninkasi Beer” (Katz and Fritz 1991).[6] In 2002, the British Campaign for Real Ale enlisted the help of Nin-kasi in its efforts to encourage women to drink “real cask ale” in British pubs (Protz 2002: 1). This year, when I was traveling in Lyon in the south of France, I noticed a sign off one of the main roads near the university announcing a bar called “Ninkasi.” According to its web site, the Ninkasi Bar regularly presents various cultural activities such as music and DVD evenings, as well as a series of (so far) six beer festivals. I wondered whether patrons of the Ninkasi Bar ever sang to the goddess a version of her ancient hymn:

May Ninkasi live together with you! Let her pour for you beer [and] wine, …
While I feel wonderful, I feel wonderful, Drinking beer, in a blissful mood …
(Civil 2002b: 3)

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.