Mullissu is a goddess who is the consort of the

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 ...

n god Asshur. Mullissu may be identical with the

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 ...

ian goddess

Ninlil Ninlil ( DINGIR, DNIN (cuneiform), NIN.LÍL; meaning uncertain) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of Enlil. She shared many of his functions, especially the responsibility for declaring destinies, and like him was regarded as a senio ...

, wife of the god

Enlil Enlil, , "Lord f theWind" later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Ba ...

, which would parallel the fact that Asshur himself was modeled on Enlil. Mullissu's name was written .Karlheinz Kessler, “Mylissa, Mylitta,” in ''Brill’s New Pauly'', Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 27 January 2021 Mullissu is identified with

Ishtar Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, divine justice, and political power. She was originally worshiped in Su ...

of Nineveh in the

Neo-Assyrian Empire 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 ...

times. Also proposed to be Mullissu is a goddess whom

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria (Italy). He is known fo ...

called Mylitta and identified with

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

. The name ''Mylitta'' may derive from Mulliltu or Mullitta, the Babylonian variant of ''Mullissu'', where one cult was connected with the in

Nippur Nippur ( Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory': Vol. 1, Part 1. Accessed 15 Dec 2010. Akkadian: ''Nibbur'') was an ancient Sumerian city. It was ...

and the other with

Kish (Sumer) Kish ( Sumerian: Kiš; transliteration: Kiš ki; cuneiform: ; Akkadian: kiššatu, near modern Tell al-Uhaymir) is an important archaeological site in Babil Governorate (Iraq), located 80 kilometers south of Baghdad and 12 kilometers east of th ...

. ''Mulliltum'' was an epithet of Ninlil which appears as ''Mullissu'' 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 ...

as the wife of god Ashur. She is spelled mlš, here also as the consort of Asshur (''’šr''), in the

Sfire As-Safira ( ar, السَّفِيْرَة / ALA-LC: ''as-Safīrah''; Aleppo dialect: ''Sfīre'') is a Syrian city administratively belonging to the Aleppo Governorate. It is the administrative center for the as-Safira District. As Safīrah has an ...

inscription (A8) from Syria inscribed in

Old Aramaic Old Aramaic refers to the earliest stage of the Aramaic language, known from the Aramaic inscriptions discovered since the 19th century. Emerging as the language of the city-states of the Arameans in the Levant in the Early Iron Age, Old Aramaic ...

(eighth century BCE). Her Late Babylonian cult is reflected in the spelling mwlyt (''Mulit'') as transmitted in the Mandaic magical corpus of

late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English h ...

.Karlheinz Kessler and Christa Müller-Kessler, “Spätbabylonische Gottheiten in spätantiken mandäischen Texten,” ''Zeitschrift für Assyriologie'' 89, 1999, pp. 70–72.

References

External links

Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses: Ninlil (Mulliltu, Mullissu, Mylitta) (goddess)
Mesopotamian goddesses Mesopotamian mythology Inanna {{MEast-myth-stub