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Sutītu
Sutītu was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as a divine representation of the nomadic Suteans. She arose in the early first millennium BCE as one of the multiple deities meant to embody specific ethnolinguistic groups. She is best attested in texts from Borsippa, where she first appears in sources from the eighth century BCE, though a chapel dedicated to her apparently also existed in the Esagil temple complex in Babylon. Name and character Information about Sutītu's character and her position in the Mesopotamian pantheon is scarce. Her name can be translated as "the Sutean goddess". The term "Sutean" (''sutû'') was used in Babylonia to refer to nomadic speakers of West Semitic languages, and in some contexts functioned interchangeably with the label "Aramean" ('' aḫlamû''). Sutītu has therefore herself been described as an "Aramean goddess" by Rocío Da Riva and Gianluca Galetti. In the god list ''An = Anum'' (tablet IV, line 135) the term Sutītu appears as one of the e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epithets Of Inanna
Epithets of Inanna were titles and bynames used to refer to this Mesopotamian goddess and to her Akkadian counterpart Ishtar. In Mesopotamia, epithets were commonly used in place of the main name of the deity, and combinations of a name with an epithet similar to these common in ancient Greek religion are comparatively uncommon. Inanna had more titles than any other Mesopotamian deity. They pertained to her associations with specific cities or areas, such as Uruk, Zabalam, Akkad, Nineveh or the Sealand. Other instead highlighted her specific roles, for example these of an astral goddess personifying the planet Venus or of a war deity. In some cases, her individual epithets eventually developed into separate deities. Overview In ancient Mesopotamia, epithets could either be used alongside the primary name of a given deity, or instead of it. The latter practice was widespread in religious texts, while standard combinations of a name with an epithet, comparable to these widesprea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mār-bīti
Mār-bīti was a Mesopotamian god. While his character is overall poorly known, it is agreed that he was regarded as warlike. He could be associated with deities such as Nanaya, Nabu or various members of the local pantheons of Der and Borsippa. While he is already attested in an inscription from the Kassite period, most attestations of him come from the first millennium BCE. He was originally worshiped in Malgium and Der in eastern Mesopotamia, but he is also attested in Borsippa, Babylon and Kalhu. A number of temples dedicated to him are mentioned in known texts, but their ceremonial names in most cases remain unknown. Two kings of Babylonia bore theophoric names invoking him, Mār-bīti-apla-uṣur and Mār-bῑti-aḫḫē-idinna. Name and character The theonym Mār-bīti ( dDUMU- É, dA-É) can be literally translated as "son of the house", though the last sign in this context refers to a temple instead. Due to the fact that in known sources the name appears in association ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amurru (god)
Amurru, also known under the Sumerian name Martu, was a Mesopotamian god who served as the divine personification of the Amorites. In past scholarship it was often assumed that he originated as an Amorite deity, but today it is generally accepted that he developed as a divine stereotype of them in Mesopotamian religion. As such, he was associated with steppes and pastoralism, as evidenced by his epithets and iconography. While this was initially his only role, he gradually developed other functions, becoming known as a god of the mountains, a warlike weather deity and a divine exorcist. He is first attested in documents from the Ur III period, chiefly in Sumerian and Akkadian theophoric names. Later he also came to be worshiped in Babylon, Assur and other locations in Assyria and Babylonia. He had his own cult center somewhere in the area known as the Sealand in Mesopotamian texts. Only a single myth about Amurru is known. It describes the circumstances of his marriage to Adgar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suteans
The Suteans (Akkadian: ''Sutī’ū'', possibly from Amorite: ''Šetī’u'') were a Semitic people who lived throughout the Levant, Canaan and Mesopotamia during the Old Babylonian period. Unlike Amorites, they were not governed by a king. They were famous in Semitic epic poetry for being fierce nomadic warriors. History During the reign of Zimri-Lim (c. 1775–1761), they inhabited the vicinity of Terqa. They are mentioned in eight of the 382 Amarna letters. Like the Habiru, they traditionally worked as mercenaries, and were sometimes called Ahlamu. They are listed in documents from the Middle Assyrian Empire (1395-1075 BC) as being extant in the Amorite city of Emar, in what is now northeast Syria. Together with other Semitic peoples; the Chaldeans and Arameans, they overran swaths of Babylonia c. 1100 BC. They were eventually conquered by Assyria, along with the rest of Babylonia. Middle Bronze One of the earliest known references to Suteans comes from a report of a Sutean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kassites
The Kassites () were people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c. 1531 BC and until c. 1155 BC (short chronology). They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of Babylon in 1531 BC, and established a dynasty generally assumed to have been based first in that city, after a hiatus. Later rule shifted to the new city of Dur-Kurigalzu. By the time of Babylon's fall, the Kassites had already been part of the region for a century and a half, acting sometimes with the Babylon's interests and sometimes against. There are records of Kassite and Babylonian interactions, in the context of military employment, during the reigns of Babylonian kings Samsu-iluna (1686 to 1648 BC), Abī-ešuh, and Ammī-ditāna. The origin and classification of the Kassite language, like the Sumerian language and Hurrian language, is uncertain, and, also like the two latter languages, has generated a wide array of speculation over the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
É (temple)
É (Cuneiform: ) is the Sumerian word or symbol for house or temple. The Sumerian term É.GAL (𒂍𒃲,"palace", literally "big house") denoted a city's main building. É.LUGAL (𒂍𒈗,"king's house") was used synonymously. In the texts of Lagash, the É.GAL is the center of the ensi's administration of the city, and the site of the city archives. Sumerian É.GAL is the probable etymology of Semitic words for "palace, temple", such as Hebrew היכל ''heikhal'',''The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon'' by Francis Brown et al. (), p. 228 and Arabic هيكل ''haykal''. It has thus been speculated that the word É originated from something akin to *hai or *ˀai, especially since the cuneiform sign È is used for /a/ in Eblaite. The term TEMEN (𒋼) appearing frequently after É in names of ziggurats is translated as "foundation pegs", apparently the first step in the construction process of a house; compare, for example, verses 551–561 of the account ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zarpanit
Sarpanit (alternately Sarpanitu, Ṣarpanitu, Zarpanit, Zirpanet, Zerpanitum, Zerbanitu, or Zirbanit) was the consort of Marduk, the main god of Babylon, and a goddess of birth. She was already attested as the wife of Marduk before his ascension to the top of the Mesopotamian pantheon, appearing in inscriptions of the Babylonian kings Sumulael and Samsu-iluna. Some researchers regard her simply as one of the "prototypical divine wives." Name According to the ''Chicago Assyrian Dictionary'' from 1961, her name means '' oddessof Ṣarpān'', possibly a village outside of Babylon. However, this is only a modern theoretical explanation of the name. Its precise origin isn't known. A fragmentary text describes Sarpan as a town assigned to her by Enlil, here (but not anywhere else) identified as her father; W. G. Lambert considered it to be convincing evidence of her origin being tied to such a settlement. A folk etymology of her name explained it as "Zēr-bānītu," "creatress of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irḫan
Irḫan was a Mesopotamian god who personified the western branch of the Euphrates, which in the first millennium BCE became its main course. The name could also refer to the river itself. The woirship of Irḫan is sparsely attested, and many aspects of his character as a deity are uncertain. Two topics which continue to be a subject of debate among experts are his association or confusion with the snake god Nirah, and his proposed cosmogonic role. Name Irḫan was the Sumerian name of the western branch of the Euphrates. In Akkadian it was called Araḫtu. These names are cognates, and most likely both were derived from the Semitic root rḫ'', "to go on route." Araḫtu grew in importance in the first millennium BCE, because the eastern branch flowing through cities such as Kish and Nippur, which was formerly the main course, became difficult to navigate. As a result, the name Araḫtu started to be used interchangeably with Purattu. The name could be written both syll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Euphrates flows through Syria and Iraq to join the Tigris in the Shatt al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf. Etymology The Ancient Greek form ''Euphrátēs'' ( grc, Εὐφράτης, as if from Greek εὖ "good" and φράζω "I announce or declare") was adapted from Old Persian 𐎢𐎳𐎼𐎠𐎬𐎢 ''Ufrātu'', itself from Elamite language, Elamite 𒌑𒅁𒊏𒌅𒅖 ''ú-ip-ra-tu-iš''. The Elamite name is ultimately derived from a name spelt in cuneiform as 𒌓𒄒𒉣 , which read as Sumerian language, Sumerian is "Buranuna" and read as Akkadian language, Akkadian is "Purattu"; many cuneiform signs have a Sumerian pronunciation and an Akkadian pronunciation, taken from a Sumerian word a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weidner God List
Weidner god list is the conventional name of one of the known ancient Mesopotamian lists of deities, originally compiled by ancient scribes in the late third millennium BCE, with the oldest known copy dated to the Ur III or Isin-Larsa period. Further examples have been found in many excavated Mesopotamian cities, and come from between the Old Babylonian period and the fourth century BCE. It is agreed the text serverd as an exercise for novice scribes, but the principles guiding the arrangement of the listed deities remain unknown. In later periods, philological research lead to creation of extended versions providing explanations of the names of individual deities. In the second millennium BCE, the Weidner god list spread outside Mesopotamia, with copies known from Emar, Ugarit and Amarna. Hurrian and Ugaritic scribes compiled multilingual editions providing information about correspondences between Mesopotamian, Hurrian and Ugaritic deities, but due to a number of pecularities char ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nabu-shuma-ishkun
Nabû-šuma-iškun, inscribed md''Nabû-šuma-iškun''un,''Kinglist A'', BM 33332, iv 2. and meaning "Nabu has set a name", was king of Babylon, speculatively ca. 761 – 748 BC (see below for provenance), and ruled during a time of great civil unrest. He came from the Bīt-Dakkūri tribe,Cylinder of Nabû-šuma-imbi, BM 33428, i 17. a Chaldean group apparently unrelated to that of his immediate predecessor, Erība-Marduk. Biography His place in the sequence of Babylonian rulers is confirmed by an Assyrian ''Synchronistic Kinglist'' fragment.''Synchronistic Kinglist'' fragment, VAT 11345 (published as KAV 13), 5. A contemporary source for information concerning his reign is found in an inscription of the governor of Borsippa, Nabû-šuma-imbi, which highlights his weakness and the autonomy of his regional officials. This barrel cylinder records the struggle over the control of their fields in the face of the incursions of marauders from Babylon and Dilbat; also Chaldeans and Ara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epithet
An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It can also be a descriptive title: for example, Pallas Athena, Phoebus Apollo, Alfred the Great, Suleiman the Magnificent, and Władysław I the Elbow-high. Many English monarchs have traditional epithets: some of the best known are Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, Richard the Lionheart, Æthelred the Unready, John Lackland and Bloody Mary. The word ''epithet'' can also refer to an abusive, defamatory, or derogatory phrase. This use as a euphemism is criticized by Martin Manser and other proponents of linguistic prescription. H. W. Fowler complained that "epithet is suffering a vulgarization that is giving it an abusive imputation." Linguistics Epithets are sometimes at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
