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Mīšaru
Mīšaru (Misharu), possibly also known as Ili-mīšar, was a Mesopotamian god regarded as the personification of justice, sometimes portrayed as a divine judge. He was regarded as a son of the weather god Adad and his wife Shala. He was often associated with other similar deities, such as Išartu or Kittu. He is first attested in sources from the Ur III period. In the Old Babylonian period, he was regarded as the tutelary deity of Dūr-Rīmuš, a city in the kingdom of Eshnunna. He was also worshiped in other parts of Mesopotamia, for example in Mari, Assur, Babylon, Sippar and in the land of Suhum. In the Seleucid period he was introduced to the pantheon of Uruk. A deity with a cognate name, Mêšaru, also belonged to the Ugaritic pantheon. It is assumed that like his Mesopotamian counterpart, he was regarded as a divine judge. A further possibly analogous deity, Misor, is also attested in the writings of Philo of Byblos. Name and character Mīšaru's name means "justice," ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Išartu
Išartu was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the divine hypostasis of righteousness. She was closely associated with a deity of similar character, Mīšaru, and in the god list ''An = Anum'' they are described as a couple. Evidence of the worship of Išartu includes early Akkadian theophoric names, offering lists from Mari and late religious texts from Uruk. Character Išartu functioned as the divine hypostasis of righteousness. Julia Krul describes her as the feminine equivalent of Mīšaru. Volkert Haas assumed that in Mariote tradition they were regarded as twins. In the god list ''An = Anum'' (tablet III, line 247) she is described as his spouse. Manfred Krebernik argues that the pair represented the concept of law and order. Like Mīšaru, Išartu belonged to the circle of deities associated with Adad. Paul-Alain Beaulieu notes that both of them show affinity with another deity from this group, Uṣur-amāssu, and presumes the latter's own association with justice was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uṣur-amāssu
Uṣur-amāssu (also spelled Uṣur-awāssu or Uṣur-amāssa) was a Mesopotamian deity. While originally viewed as male, she later came to be regarded as a goddess. Regardless of gender, Uṣur-amāssu was considered as a child of Adad and Shala and like other members of their entourage was considered a deity of justice. The earliest attestations of veneration of Uṣur-amāssu are theophoric names from cities such as Kish, but the female version of this deity is best attested in sources from Uruk from the Neo-Babylonian period. She belonged to the pentad of goddesses who stood on top of the local pantheon, which also included Ishtar, Nanaya, Bēltu-ša-Rēš and Urkayītu. She is still attested in texts from the Seleucid period, and continued to be celebrated during an ''akitu'' festival. Name and gender Uṣur-amāssu's name was derived from an ordinary masculine given name known from Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian sources, Uṣur-awāssu, whose historically notable bearers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imzuanna
Imzuanna, also known as Ninzuanna, was a Mesopotamian goddess worshiped in Marad as the wife of the city's tutelary god, Lugal-Marada. She is attested in various god lists, in the literary composition ''Lament for Sumer and Ur'', and in at least one theophoric name. Known sources mentioning her come from between the Ur III and Neo-Babylonian periods. In a trilingual edition of the Weidner god list known from Ugarit, Imzuanna is treated as an equivalent of the Hurrian weather god Teshub and his Ugaritic counterpart Baal, but due to the dissimilarity between their roles in the respective pantheons this is assumed to be a result of ancient scribes misinterpreting the first sign of the common writing of her name as the logogram dIM, which could designate weather deities. Name The name of the goddess Imzuanna could be written as either '' d nin-zu-an-na'' or ''dim-zu-an-na''. The former is known for example from an Old Babylonian god list and from ''Lament for Sumer and Ur'', while th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kittu (goddess)
Kittum, also known as Niĝgina, was a Mesopotamian goddess who was regarded as the embodiment of truth. She belonged to the circle of the sun god Utu/Shamash and was associated with law and justice. Character Kittum's name means "truth" in Akkadian and she was regarded as a divine hypostasis of this concept. Kittum's Sumerian counterpart, Niĝgina, is not attested before the Old Babylonian period, and it is possible that the Akkadian name was older, which would make Niĝgina an artificial translation. A possible forerunner to the idea of a goddess embodying truth are proverbs or dialogues copied in scribal schools in which truth was personified. Names with the element ''niĝgina'' are already attested in sources from the Ur III period, one example being Niĝginaidug ("truth is good"), but there is no indication that they were necessarily theophoric, and the word is written without the ''dingir'' sign which preceded divine names. Kittum could alternatively be equated with anothe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akkadian Language
Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed. Roger D. Woodard (2004, Cambridge) Pages 218–280 was an East Semitic language that is attested in ancient Mesopotamia ( Akkad, Assyria, Isin, Larsa, Babylonia and perhaps Dilmun) from the mid- third millennium BC until its gradual replacement in common use by Old Aramaic among Assyrians and Babylonians from the 8th century BC. Akkadian, which is the earliest documented Semitic language, is named after the city of Akkad, a major centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire (–2154 BC). It was written using the cuneiform script, originally used for Sumerian, but also used to write multiple languages in the region including Eblaite, Hurrian, Elamite, Old Persian and Hittite. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian went beyond just the cuneiform script; owing to their close proximity, a lengthy span of con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edict
An edict is a decree or announcement of a law, often associated with monarchies, but it can be under any official authority. Synonyms include "dictum" and "pronouncement". ''Edict'' derives from the Latin edictum. Notable edicts * Telepinu Proclamation, by Telipinu, king of the Hittites. Written c. 1550 BC, it helped archeologists to construct a succession of Hittite Kings. It also recounts Mursili I's conquest of Babylon. * Edicts of Ashoka, by the Mauryan emperor, Ashoka, during his reign from 272 BC to 231 BC. * Reform of Roman Calendar, Julian Calendar, took effect on 1 January AUC 709 (45 BC). * Edictum perpetuum (129), an Imperial revision of the long-standing Praetor's Edict, a periodic document which first began under the late Roman Republic (c. 509–44 BC). * Edict on Maximum Prices (301), by Roman Emperor Diocletian. It attempted to reform the Roman system of taxation and to stabilize the coinage. * Edict of Toleration (311), by Galerius before hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Babylonian Period
The Old Babylonian Empire, or First Babylonian Empire, is dated to , and comes after the end of Sumerian power with the destruction of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and the subsequent Isin-Larsa period. The chronology of the first dynasty of Babylonia is debated; there is a Babylonian King List A and also a Babylonian King List B, with generally longer regnal lengths. In this chronology, the regnal years of List A are used due to their wide usage. Hardship of searching for origins of the First Dynasty The origins of the First Babylonian dynasty are hard to pinpoint because Babylon itself yields few archaeological materials intact due to a high water table. The evidence that survived throughout the years includes written records such as royal and votive inscriptions, literary texts, and lists of year-names. The minimal amount of evidence in economic and legal documents makes it difficult to illustrate the economic and social history of the First Babylonian Dynasty, but with historical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Early Dynastic period, ''An = Anum'' most likely was composed in the later Kassite period. While often mistakenly described as a list of Sumerian deities and their Akkadian equivalents, ''An = Anum'' is focused on presenting the familial relationships between deities, as well as their courts and spheres of influence. The first four tablets list the major gods and goddesses ( Anu, Enlil, Ninhursag, Enki, Sin, Shamash, Adad and Ishtar) and their courts, arranged according to theological principles, but tablets V and VI do not appear to follow a clear system, and tablet VII is a late appendix listing the names of Marduk and one of his courtiers. Many other works of ancient scholarship were influenced by ''An = Anum'', including a simil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sukkal
Sukkal (conventionally translated from Sumerian as "vizier") was a term which could denote both a type of official and a class of deities in ancient Mesopotamia. The historical sukkals were responsible for overseeing the execution of various commands of the kings and acted as diplomatic envoys and translators for foreign dignitaries. The deities referred to as sukkals fulfilled a similar role in mythology, acting as servants, advisors and envoys of the main gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon, such as Enlil or Inanna. The best known sukkal is the goddess Ninshubur. In art, they were depicted carrying staves, most likely understood as their attribute. They could function as intercessory deities, believed to mediate between worshipers and the major gods. The office sukkal is also known from various areas to the west and east of Mesopotamia, including the Hurrian kingdom Arrapha, Syrian Alalakh and Mari and Elam under the rule of the Sukkalmah Dynasty, while the concept of divin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Justice
In its broadest sense, justice is the idea that individuals should be treated fairly. According to the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', the most plausible candidate for a core definition comes from the ''Institutes (Justinian), Institutes'' of Justinian I, Justinian, a 6th-century codification of Roman law, where justice is defined as "the constant and perpetual will to render to each his due". A society where justice has been achieved would be one in which individuals receive what they "deserve". The interpretation of what "deserve" means draws on a variety of fields and philosophical branches including ethics, rationality, law, religion, and fairness. The state may pursue justice by operating courts and enforcing their rulings. History Early Western theories of justice were developed in part by Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato in his work ''Republic (Plato), The Republic'', and Aristotle, in his ''Nicomachean Ethics'' and ''Politics (Aristotle), Politics'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 conventionally transliterated as a superscript ⟨d⟩, e.g. The Sumerian cuneiform sign by itself was originally an ideogram for the Sumerian word ''an'' ('sky' or 'heaven');Hayes, 2000 its use was then extended to a logogram for the word ('god' or 'goddess')Edzard, 2003 and the supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon Anu, and a phonogram for the syllable . Akkadian cuneiform took over all these uses and added to them a logographic reading for the native '' ilum'' and from that a syllabic reading of . In Hittite orthography, the syllabic value of the sign was again only ''an''. The concept of divinity in Sumerian is closely associated with the heavens, as is evident from the fact that the cuneiform sign doubles as the ideogram f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theonym
A theonym (from Greek (), 'god', attached to (), ) is a proper name of a deity. Theonymy, the study of divine proper names, is a branch of onomastics, the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. Theonymy helps develop an understanding of the function and societal views of particular gods and may help understand the origins of a society's language. Analysis of theonyms has been useful in understanding the connections of Indo-European languages and possibly their religion. In all languages, the analysis of the possible etymological origin of a theonym can serve as basis for theories of its historical origin. Metaphysical and mystical meanings are also discerned in theonyms, as in Kabbalah. Theonyms can also appear as all or part of a name for a human, animal, plant, thing or place. See also * -onym * Theo * Theology * Thealogy, similar origin as above, but female instead * God (word) * Names of God * Nomenclature * Onomastics Onomastics (or onomatolog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
