Ebiḫ (Ebih) was a
Mesopotamian god
Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substan ...
presumed to represent the
Hamrin Mountains
The Hamrin Mountains ( ar, جبل حمرين, Jabāl Hamrīn, ku, چیای حەمرین, Çiyayê Hemrîn or Çiyayên Hemrîn) are a small mountain ridge in northeast Iraq. The westernmost ripple of the greater Zagros mountains, the Hamrin mounta ...
. It has been suggested that while such an approach was not the norm in Mesopotamian religion, no difference existed between the deity and the associated location in his case. It is possible that he was depicted either in a non-
antropomorphic or only partially antropomorphic form. He appears in
theophoric name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that deit ...
s from the
Diyala area,
Nuzi
Nuzi (or Nuzu; Akkadian Gasur; modern Yorghan Tepe, Iraq) was an ancient Mesopotamian city southwest of the city of Arrapha (modern Kirkuk), located near the Tigris river. The site consists of one medium-sized multiperiod tell and two small sing ...
and
Mari from between the
Early Dynastic and
Old Babylonian
Old Babylonian may refer to:
*the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC)
*the historical stage of the Akkadian language
Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Camb ...
periods, and in later
Middle Assyrian ones from
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...
. He was also actively venerated in
Assur
Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'a ...
in the
Neo-Assyrian period
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
, and appears in a number of royal ''
Tākultu'' rituals both as a mountain and as a personified deity.
The defeat of Ebiḫ at the hands of the goddess
Inanna
Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
is described in the myth ''Inanna and Ebiḫ''. Various interpretations of the narrative have been advanced, with individual authors seeing it as royal propaganda of the
Akkadian empire
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad (city), Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian language, Akkadian and ...
, as a critique of its conquests, or as a narrative focused on typical literary narrative lacking such political undertones. Possible references to Ebiḫ's defeat have been identified in other literary compositions, in god lists, and on
cylinder seal
A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...
s.
Name and character
![Hamrin Hills in Iraq](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Hamrin_Hills_in_Iraq.jpg)
The
theonym
A theonym (from Greek ''theos'' (Θεός), "god"'','' attached to ''onoma'' (ὄνομα), "name") is the proper name of a deity.
Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics (the study of the etymology, history, and u ...
Ebiḫ could be also spelled as Ebeḫ and Abiḫ. A further uncertain variant might be Abiḫe, an element attested in
Hurrian
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...
theophoric name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that deit ...
s. The
breve
A breve (, less often , neuter form of the Latin "short, brief") is the diacritic mark ˘, shaped like the bottom half of a circle. As used in Ancient Greek, it is also called , . It resembles the caron (the wedge or in Czech, in Slo ...
is sometimes omitted in transcription. A logographic writing is also attested,
dEN.TI. Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik suggest that it can be read phonetically as Enti. However, it is to be distinguished from one of the names of
Enki
, image = Enki(Ea).jpg
, caption = Detail of Enki from the Adda Seal, an ancient Akkadian cylinder seal dating to circa 2300 BC
, deity_of = God of creation, intelligence, crafts, water, seawater, lakewater, fertility, semen, magic, mischief
...
, also written as ''
dEn-ti'', presumably meant to mirror the goddess
Ninti
Ninti ( sux, 𒀭𒎏𒋾; "mistress of life") was a Mesopotamian goddess worshiped in Lagash. She was regarded as the mother of Ninkasi. She also appears in the myth ''Enki and Ninhursag'' as one of the deities meant to soothe the eponymous god's ...
. Ebiḫ's name could be preceded by the ''
dingir
''Dingir'' (, usually transliterated DIĜIR, ) is a Sumerian word for "god" or "goddess". Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and is con ...
'' sign, used to designate deities, or by the word ''
kur
The ancient Mesopotamian underworld, most often known in Sumerian as Kur, Irkalla, Kukku, Arali, or Kigal and in Akkadian as Erṣetu, although it had many names in both languages, was a dark, dreary cavern located deep below the ground, where ...
'', "mountain".
Wilfred G. Lambert has argued that unlike most other deities belonging to the
Mesopotamian pantheon
Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substa ...
, Ebiḫ cannot be distinguished from the topographical feature he was associated with. He is typically identified by
Assyriologists
Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia'') is the archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic study of Assyria and the rest of ancient Mesopotamia (a region that encompassed what is now modern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeas ...
with the
Hamrin Mountains
The Hamrin Mountains ( ar, جبل حمرين, Jabāl Hamrīn, ku, چیای حەمرین, Çiyayê Hemrîn or Çiyayên Hemrîn) are a small mountain ridge in northeast Iraq. The westernmost ripple of the greater Zagros mountains, the Hamrin mounta ...
, located in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
between
Diyala and
Lower Zab
The Little Zab or Lower Zab (, ''al-Zāb al-Asfal''; or '; , ''Zâb-e Kuchak''; , ''Zāba Taḥtāya'') is a river that originates in Iran and joins the Tigris just south of Al Zab in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. It is approximately long and dr ...
, in the proximity of the ancient city of
Assur
Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'a ...
. It has been noted that the worship of specific mountains as deities, while widespread for example among
Hurrians
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern Mes ...
and
Hittites
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
, was not common in Mesopotamian religion. The character of mountain gods could be contrasted with other members of the pantheon, and they could be described as rebellious, as attested for Ebiḫ, or in some cases as cannibalistic. Mountainous areas were associated with calamity and external enemies, regarded as
barbarian
A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...
s.
Anna Perdibon notes that in literary context, Ebiḫ is described as possessing human-like and natural features, and that both types of descriptions seemed to coexist. While known sources do not specify in which form he was worshiped, it has been suggested that he might have been represented as non-anthropomorphic. Another proposal is that mountain gods were depicted as anthropomorphic figures with scaled lower bodies, with an example found in Assur possibly specifically representing Ebiḫ, though the interpretation is not certain. Frans Wiggermann suggests that descriptions of figures of deities with scales (''quliptu'') reflect this iconographic type and designate a mountain-like appearance.
Attested epithets of Ebiḫ include ''šadû dannu'' ("strong mountain") and ''sikur māti'' ("bolt of the country").
Worship
In sources from between the
Early Dynastic and
Old Babylonian
Old Babylonian may refer to:
*the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC)
*the historical stage of the Akkadian language
Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Camb ...
periods, Ebiḫ is attested in
theophoric name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that deit ...
s, most of which are linguistically
Semitic and belonged to inhabitants of the
Diyala area and
Nuzi
Nuzi (or Nuzu; Akkadian Gasur; modern Yorghan Tepe, Iraq) was an ancient Mesopotamian city southwest of the city of Arrapha (modern Kirkuk), located near the Tigris river. The site consists of one medium-sized multiperiod tell and two small sing ...
. Examples include Ir’e-Abiḫ ("Ebiḫ shepherded"), Ur-Abiḫ ("hero of Ebiḫ"), Puzur-Ebiḫ ("under the protection of Ebiḫ") and
Abiḫ-il ("Ebiḫ is my god"; known from
Mari). Last known names invoking him come from the
Middle Assyrian period
The Middle Assyrian Empire was the third stage of Assyrian history, covering the history of Assyria from the accession of Ashur-uballit I 1363 BC and the rise of Assyria as a territorial kingdom to the death of Ashur-dan II in 912 BC. ...
, and include Ebiḫ-nāṣir and Ebiḫ-nīrāri, with the theonym written logographically as
dEN.TI in both cases. They can be translated as "Ebiḫ protects" and "Ebiḫ assists", respectively.
The worship of Ebiḫ is also attested in
Neo-Assyrian
The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history and the final and greatest phase of Assyria as an independent state. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew t ...
sources. They indicate that he received offerings in various shrines in
Assur
Aššur (; Sumerian: AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; syr, ܐܫܘܪ ''Āšūr''; Old Persian ''Aθur'', fa, آشور: ''Āšūr''; he, אַשּׁוּר, ', ar, اشور), also known as Ashur and Qal'a ...
. He appears in the ''
Tākultu'' ritual from the reign of
Sennacherib
Sennacherib (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: or , meaning " Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705BC to his own death in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynast ...
, where he is listed thrice, twice as a deity and once as a mountain. He is also invoked four times in an analogous text from the reign of
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal (Neo-Assyrian language, Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "Ashur (god), Ashur is the creator of the heir") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BCE to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king o ...
, and only once, as a mountain rather than a personified god, in the
Ashur-etil-ilani
Ashur-etil-ilani, also spelled Ashur-etel-ilani' and Ashuretillilani ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning " Ashur is the lord of the Tree"),' was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Ashurbanipal in 631 BC to his own d ...
version.
In southern Mesopotamia, Ebiḫ is attested as the very last entry in the
Nippur
Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian language, Akkadian: '' ...
god list, though his name is not present in all of the known copies. He is also mentioned in a number of copies of the
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. Furth ...
from the same period. A later Assyrian version with additional columns (tablet KAV 63) equates him with
Adad
Hadad ( uga, ), Haddad, Adad (Akkadian: 𒀭𒅎 '' DIM'', pronounced as ''Adād''), or Iškur ( Sumerian) was the storm and rain god in the Canaanite and ancient Mesopotamian religions.
He was attested in Ebla as "Hadda" in c. 2500 BCE. ...
.
''Inanna and Ebiḫ''
Ebiḫ appears in a myth referred to as ''Inanna and Ebiḫ'' in modern literature. It was originally transmitted under the title ''In-nin
9-me-ḫuš-a''. As many as eighty individual copies are presently known. It has been proposed that it belonged to the so-called "
Decad", a selection of texts which might have formed a section of the curriculum of
scribal schools. Its authorship is sometimes attributed to
Enheduanna
Enheduanna ( sux, , also transliterated as , , or variants) was the priestess of the moon god Nanna (Sīn) in the Sumerian city-state of Ur in the reign of her father, Sargon of Akkad. She was likely appointed by her father as the leader of th ...
.
The narrative describes Ebiḫ both as a personified deity and as a topographical feature.
Inanna
Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
, presented in her warlike aspects, wants to confront him because he failed to show respect to her, but the sky god
An tries to dissuade her, arguing that the mountain is both too formidable and too verdant to be opposed. The response angers her, and she leaves to fight before An finishes speaking. While the description of the battle includes phrases used to describe killing a person (Inanna grasps Ebiḫ's neck and stabs his heart with a dagger), it also contains references to natural features covering the mountain, such as forests, and his body is said to consist of rocks functioning as flesh. The text ends with a brief
doxology
A doxology (Ancient Greek: ''doxologia'', from , ''doxa'' 'glory' and -, -''logia'' 'saying') is a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives ...
, which praises Inanna for destroying Ebiḫ.
Interpretation
Due to Ebiḫ representing a real, rather than mythical, location, authors such as Claus Wilcke and Annette Zgoll assume that the myth might have had a political dimension, and that it either served as a work of royal
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
celebrating northern conquests of the
Akkadian Empire
The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad (city), Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian language, Akkadian and ...
, or criticized it, perhaps due to the military campaigns creating the need for conscription and resulting in heavy losses. This view has been rejected by Jerrold Cooper, who points out examples of works with a political message, such as ''Curse of Agade'' and ''
Lamentation over the Destruction of Sumer and Ur'', are known to researchers, and unlike ''Inanna and Ebiḫ'' typically mention specific rulers by name; at the same time, the characterization of Inanna is consistent with other works of Sumerian literature, which according to him makes it unnecessary to seek a specific political motivation in Inanna and Ebiḫ. Paul Delnero points out that An's critical response, used to support the view that the myth was a criticism of Akkadian campains, finds a close parallel in the composition ''
Gilgamesh
sux, , label=none
, image = Hero lion Dur-Sharrukin Louvre AO19862.jpg
, alt =
, caption = Possible representation of Gilgamesh as Master of Animals, grasping a lion in his left arm and snake in his right hand, in an Assyr ...
and the
Bull of Heaven
In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the Bull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the hero Gilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven has two different versions: one recorded in an earlier Sumerian poem and a later version in the standard A ...
'', and is therefore unlikely to have such a meaning. Interpretations of the composition treating it as a political allegory critical of the Akkadian Empire have also been negatively evaluated by Aage Westenholz. He argues that the myth reflects a positive perception of Inanna, and points out the existence of
cylinder seal
A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...
s depicting the goddess triumphing over a figure interpreted as a mountain god, which according to him might indicate the existence of a belief that as long as she kept the mountain deities at bay, Mesopotamia would remain prosperous.
Jeremy Black notes that ''Inanna and Ebiḫ'' is an example of a myth according to which "there is always the comfort that the gods of
Sumer
Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
will prevail and order will return" after periods of calamity.
Influence
Ebiḫ's defeat is directly mentioned in the hymn ''Inanna C''. According to Claus Wilcke, possible references to the battle, or at least to conflict between
Inanna and another mountain or mountains, can also be found in the composition ''Ninmesharra'' and in a hymn preserved on the tablets KAR 306 and KAR 331. Possible depictions of the battle have been identified on cylinder seals as well, though it is possible that they are not directly related, and battles between mountains and Inanna were a well established motif in Mesopotamian culture of the
Akkadian period.
Jeremiah Peterson considers it possible that Ebiḫ's placement in the
Nippur
Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian language, Akkadian: '' ...
god list, where he is the last of the deities mentioned, might have been influenced by the tradition about his defeat at the hands of Inanna. Antoine Cavigneaux and Manfred Krebernik have also suggested that one of Inanna's epithets,
Ninintina ("lady of warriorship"; derived from the word ''enti''), known from the god list ''
An = Anum
''An = Anum'', also known as the Great God List, is the longest preserved Mesopotamian god list, a type of lexical list cataloging the deities worshiped in the Ancient Near East, chiefly in modern Iraq. While god lists are already known from the ...
'' (tablet IV, line 23) and its Old Babylonian forerunner, might have been related to the Ebiḫ myth due to its similarity to a presumed variant name of the mountain god, Enti.
References
Bibliography
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{{refend
External links
*
Inanna and Ebiḫ' in the
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL) was a project that provides an online digital library of texts and translations of Sumerian literature.
This project's website contains "Sumerian text, English prose translation and bibl ...
A hymn to Inanna(''Inanna C'') in the ETCSL
Mesopotamian gods
Mountain gods
Inanna