Šassūrātu
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Šassūrātu were a group of
Mesopotamian goddesses Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', a ...
regarded as the assistants of Ninmah. Their name can be translated as "midwives" and they were considered to be tutelary goddesses of pregnant women. They appear in the myth ''Enki and Ninmah,'' where they receive individual names, as well as in a late version of ''
Atrahasis ''Atra-Hasis'' () is an 18th-century BC Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets and named for one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-Hasis ('exceedingly wise'). The narrative has four focal points: An organisation of allie ...
''.


Name and character

The name of the Šassūrātu is an Akkadian derivative of the Sumerian word ''šassūru'', which can be translated as "womb" or "
midwife A midwife (: midwives) is a health professional who cares for mothers and Infant, newborns around childbirth, a specialisation known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughou ...
." It is grammatically plural. As a
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 und ...
, it referred to a group of seven goddesses who functioned as the tutelary deities of pregnant women and birth. As such, they were regarded as helpers of the goddess Ninmah. Most likely they were believed to assist her during the birth of every human child. characterizes them as "
mother goddess A mother goddess is a major goddess characterized as a mother or progenitor, either as an embodiment of motherhood and fertility or fulfilling the cosmological role of a creator- and/or destroyer-figure, typically associated the Earth, sky, ...
es," a term commonly employed to refer to deities who took part in creation of mankind and of other gods. However, as noted by Julia M. Asher-Greve, the term "birth goddess" might be preferable in
Assyriology Assyriology (from Greek , ''Assyriā''; and , ''-logia''), also known as Cuneiform studies or Ancient Near East studies, is the archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic study of the cultures that used cuneiform writing. The fie ...
.
Joan Goodnick Westenholz Joan Goodnick Westenholz (1 July 1943 – February 2013) was an Assyriologist and the chief curator at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. She held positions related to academic research at the Oriental Institute (University of Chicago), Ha ...
also objected to the use of the phrase "mother goddess" in most cases, as deities subsumed under this term were typically not described as responsible for nurturing children. The term "birth goddess" is also favored by Alfonso Archi, who notes that the idea of a divine "Great Mother" which was originally formed by
Johann Jakob Bachofen Johann Jakob Bachofen (22 December 1815 – 25 November 1887) was a Swiss antiquarian, jurist, philologist, anthropologist, and professor of Roman law at the University of Basel from 1841 to 1844. Bachofen is most often connected with his th ...
"enjoyed great success but (...) finds no justification in the documentation." In texts from
Ugarit Ugarit (; , ''ủgrt'' /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient port city in northern Syria about 10 kilometers north of modern Latakia. At its height it ruled an area roughly equivalent to the modern Latakia Governorate. It was discovered by accident in 19 ...
, Šassūrātu correspond to local
Kotharat Kotharat (, ''kṯrt'') were a group of seven goddesses associated with conception, pregnancy, birth and marriage, worshiped chiefly in the northern part of modern Syria in the Bronze Age. They are attested in texts from Mari, Ugarit and Emar. Th ...
and
Hurrian The Hurrians (; ; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri) were a people who inhabited the Ancient Near East during the Bronze Age. They spoke the Hurro-Urartian language, Hurrian language, and lived throughout northern Syria (region) ...
Hutena and Hutellura Hutena and Hutellura (also spelled Hudena and Hudellura; ''ḫdn ḫdlr'' in alphabetic Ugaritic texts) were goddesses of fate and divine midwives in Hurrian mythology. Number An unresolved problem in scholarship is the number of goddesses r ...
, groups of goddesses of similar character. The equivalence between the first two groups is also known from texts from Mari, where they appear side by side in offering lists. It is possible that both Šassūrātu and Kotharat served as models for Hutena and Hutellura.


Šassūrātu as a single deity

The term Šassūrātu is in some cases used to refer to a single deity. It could be treated as an alternate name of Nintur, "mistress birth-hut," who was initially a fully distinct goddess, as attested in the Kesh temple hymn. However, Lluís Feliu notes the term is never directly equated with the name Ninmah, and therefore it cannot be assumed that the
logogram In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chine ...
dNIN.MAH was ever used interchangeably with the name Šassūrātu, for example in Ugarit, where both appear in syllabic versions of offering lists and most likely represent different
Ugaritic deities The Ugaritic pantheon included deities of local origin, many of whom are also known from Ebla#Religion, Eblaite sources from the third millennium BCE or Amorites, Amorite ones from the early second millennium BCE, as well as List of Hurrian deitie ...
. The goddess Šasurra (''dŠà-sur-ra''), whose name is etymologically related and who is treated alongside the Šassūrātu in reference works such as ''
Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie The ''Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie'' (RlA), formerly ''Reallexikon der Assyriologie'', is a multi-language (English, German, and French) encyclopedia on the Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was home to ...
'', was associated with the city of Urrak (''uruUr-rakki''). She is attested in a text known as the "Archive of Mystic Heptads," where she appears in an enumeration of birth goddesses from various cities, alongside Aruru, Nintur, Ninmah, Ninhursag, Ninmena and Erua (a manifestation of
Zarpanit Zarpanitu (also romanized as Ṣarpānītu) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the spouse of Marduk. Not much is known about her character, though late sources indicate that she was associated with pregnancy and that she could be assigned simi ...
). The purpose of this list was most like to claim the position of the other goddesses for Zarpanit, who is subsequently described as the "mistress" of the entire heptad.


Mythology

Šassūrātu appear as assistants of Ninmah in the myth ''
Enki Enki ( ) is the Sumerian god of water, knowledge ('' gestú''), crafts (''gašam''), and creation (''nudimmud''), and one of the Anunnaki. He was later known as Ea () or Ae p. 324, note 27. in Akkadian (Assyrian-Babylonian) religion, and ...
and Ninmah''. In this text, their names are given as
Ninimma Ninimma was a Mesopotamian goddess best known as a courtier of Enlil. She is well attested as a deity associated with scribal arts, and is variously described as a divine scholar, scribe or librarian by modern Assyriologists. She could also serv ...
, Šuzianna, Ninmada, Ninšar, Ninmug, Mumudu and Ninnigina. Wilfred G. Lambert established that these seven goddesses do not occur as a group anywhere else, and that at least six of them are attested in other sources. Ninimma was a goddess associated with writing, regarded as similar to Nisaba. Šuzianna was associated with midwifery also in other texts and she appears alongside Ninimma in other contexts. Ninmada, when treated as a goddess, was a divine
snake charmer Snake charming is the practice of appearing to hypnotize a snake (often a cobra) by playing and waving around an instrument called a pungi. A typical performance may also include handling the snakes or performing other seemingly dangerous ...
. Seemingly two deities, one male and one female, shared this name, though it is possible that they had similar origin or that they were at least partially conflated. Ninšar was a divine butcher and housekeeper. Ninmug was associated with artisanship, especially
metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...
; she was also invoked during the preparation for divine statues. Her role as a birth goddess was most likely directly linked to her other functions, as the same Sumerian terms were used to refer to the fashioning of statues and to the birth of children. Mumudu according to Lambert most likely should be considered a form of Mamu, the goddess of dreams who was a daughter of the sun god
Shamash Shamash (Akkadian language, Akkadian: ''šamaš''), also known as Utu (Sumerian language, Sumerian: dutu "Sun") was the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian Solar deity, sun god. He was believed to see everything that happened in t ...
. Ninnigina is otherwise unknown. A late,
Neo-Assyrian The Neo-Assyrian Empire was the fourth and penultimate stage of ancient Assyrian history. Beginning with the accession of Adad-nirari II in 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire grew to dominate the ancient Near East and parts of South Caucasus, Nort ...
version of ''
Atrahasis ''Atra-Hasis'' () is an 18th-century BC Akkadian epic, recorded in various versions on clay tablets and named for one of its protagonists, the priest Atra-Hasis ('exceedingly wise'). The narrative has four focal points: An organisation of allie ...
'' also mentions the Šassūrātu, though in this case two groups numbering seven unnamed goddesses each appear, one tasked with creating men and the other - women. Marten Stol presumes a connection existed between this group and the "fourteen (variant: sixteen) children of Dingirmah" known from god lists, though he notes there is no clear indication that all of them were goddesses.


References


Bibliography

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External links

*
Enki and Ninmah
' in the
Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (ETCSL) is an online digital library of texts and translations of Sumerian language, Sumerian literature that was created by a now-completed project based at the Oriental Institute, Oxford, Orient ...
Mesopotamian goddesses