Šeri And Ḫurri
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Šeri and Ḫurri were a pair of
theriomorphic The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from and . In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It can also be defined as art that portrays one species of animal like another species of animal or art ...
Hurrian gods who almost always appear together in known sources. They were believed to pull the chariot of
Teššub Teshub was the Hurrian weather god, as well as the head of the Hurrian pantheon. The etymology of his name is uncertain, though it is agreed it can be classified as linguistically Hurrian. Both phonetic and logographic writings are attested. As a ...
, the Hurrian
weather god A weather god or goddess, also frequently known as a storm god or goddess, is a deity in mythology associated with weather phenomena such as thunder, snow, lightning, rain, wind, storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes. Should they only be in charge of ...
. Šeri additionally could function as a deity mediating between petitioners and his master, but no individual role was ever assigned to Ḫurri. In addition to appearing in Hurrian offering lists and
theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...
s, for example from
Nuzi Nuzi (Hurrian Nuzi/Nuzu; Akkadian Gasur) at modern Yorghan Tepe (also Yorgan Tepa and Jorgan Tepe), Iraq was an ancient Mesopotamian city 12 kilometers southwest of the city of Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) and 70 kilometers southwest of Sātu Qala, ...
, Šeri and Ḫurri are also attested in Hittite and
Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
n sources. While the Hittites incorporated them into their pantheon alongside Teššub and other deities from his circle, in Mesopotamia they instead came to be associated with
Adad Hadad (), 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. From ...
.


Names

Šeri and Ḫurri almost always occur as a pair in known texts. In oldest sources, the spellings of the names were Šēriš (or Šerriš) and Ḫurra, but later the forms Šeri (Šerri) and Ḫurri predominate. In
Emar Emar (, ), is an archaeological site at Tell Meskene in the Aleppo Governorate of northern Syria. It sits in the great bend of the mid-Euphrates, now on the shoreline of the man-made Lake Assad near the town of Maskanah. It has been the sourc ...
, the forms Hurraš and Šeliš are attested. A number of unique variants have also been identified in
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 ...
sources, for example Ermiš and Ḫurmiš. While accepted in early scholarship, the view that an
Ugaritic Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeology, archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycl ...
form of Šeri's name (written as ''ṯr'' in the local
alphabetic script An alphabet is a standard set of letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from another in a given ...
) is also attested is now agreed to be a mistake caused by incorrect reading of the word ''šarri''. In standard syllabic
cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...
both names could be written with one of two
determinative A determinative, also known as a taxogram or semagram, is an ideogram used to mark semantic categories of words in logographic scripts which helps to disambiguate interpretation. They have no direct counterpart in spoken language, though they ...
s, ''
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 ...
'' or ''gud''. It has been proposed that the names of Šeri and Ḫurri might be translated as, respectively, "morning"/"day" and "evening"/"night".
Volkert Haas Volkert Haas (1 November 1936 – 13 May 2019) was a German Assyrologist and Hittitologist. __NOTOC__ Life Volkert Haas studied Assyrology and Near Eastern archaeology at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Marburg from 1963 to ...
instead etymologized them as "guardian of the throne" (from
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) ...
''šerše'', "throne") and " irrigator" (through analogy with
Urartian Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (''Biaini'' or ''Biainili'' in Urartian), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and had its capital, Tushp ...
''ḫurrišḫe''). However, so far no proposal found universal acceptance.


Character and iconography

Šeri and Ḫurri were regarded as benevolent deities, and in a single text they are jointly referred to with the epithet ''šinurḫina'', "the two righteous ones". A lexical list from
Emar Emar (, ), is an archaeological site at Tell Meskene in the Aleppo Governorate of northern Syria. It sits in the great bend of the mid-Euphrates, now on the shoreline of the man-made Lake Assad near the town of Maskanah. It has been the sourc ...
equates this term with the Sumerian word ''maštabba'', "twins", which was used to designate pairs of
apotropaic Apotropaic magic (From ) or protective magic is a type of magic intended to turn away harm or evil influences, as in deflecting misfortune or averting the evil eye. Apotropaic observances may also be practiced out of superstition or out of tr ...
figures. Šeri is also at times attested on his own as a deity capable of mediating between petitioners and his master, but no known sources assign any individual characteristics to Ḫurri. In known texts Šeri and Ḫurri are consistently described as
theriomorphic The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from and . In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It can also be defined as art that portrays one species of animal like another species of animal or art ...
. They were regarded as the divine bulls of
Teššub Teshub was the Hurrian weather god, as well as the head of the Hurrian pantheon. The etymology of his name is uncertain, though it is agreed it can be classified as linguistically Hurrian. Both phonetic and logographic writings are attested. As a ...
, the Hurrian weather god. They were believed to pull his chariot. According to Alfonso Archi, the first references to two bulls drawing the chariot of a weather god come from texts from
Ebla Ebla (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''eb₂-la'', , modern: , Tell Mardikh) was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. Its remains constitute a Tell (archaeology), tell located about southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh. Ebla was ...
, and it is possible Šeri and Ḫurri were only the Hurrian names of preexisting figures from the circle of Hadda of
Halab Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
attested in this
text corpus In linguistics and natural language processing, a corpus (: corpora) or text corpus is a dataset, consisting of natively digital and older, digitalized, language resources, either annotated or unannotated. Annotated, they have been used in corp ...
. Depictions of a weather god in a chariot drawn by two bulls are well attested in art of both northern
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
and
Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...
. In
Yazılıkaya :'' Yazılıkaya, Eskişehir, also called Midas City, is a village with Phrygian ruins.'' Yazılıkaya () was a sanctuary of Hattusa, the capital city of the Hittite Empire, today in the Çorum Province, Turkey. Rock reliefs are a prominent aspec ...
, Šeri and Ḫurri might be depicted next to Teššub and his family (
Ḫepat Ḫepat (, ; also romanized as Ḫebat; Ugaritic 𐎃𐎁𐎚, ''ḫbt'') was a goddess associated with Aleppo, originally worshiped in the north of modern Syria in the third millennium BCE. Her name is often presumed to be either a feminine nis ...
,
Šarruma Šarruma, also romanized as Šarrumma or Sharruma, was a Hurrian god. He could be depicted in both anthropomorphic form, sometimes riding on the back of a leopard, and in the theriomorphic form as a bull. His character is not fully understood, t ...
,
Allanzu Allanzu, later known under the name Alasuwa, was a Hurrian goddess regarded as a daughter of Ḫepat. She was described as a youthful deity and in known texts often appears in association with her mother and siblings. She was also worshiped by Hi ...
and Kunzišalli), though this conclusion is not unicersally accepted. It is also sometimes argued that two bull-like figures from this site (reliefs 28 and 29) represent them, but due to their partially
anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...
appearance this is not regarded as a plausible interpretation. instead labels them as “bull-men standing on a symbol of the Earth and supporting a symbol of Heaven”. Frans Wiggermann interprets these figures as an adaptation of Mesopotamian
kusarikku Kusarikku ("Bull-Man") was an ancient Mesopotamian mythological demon shown in artistic representation from the earliest (late Uruk period) times with the arms, torso and head of a human and the ears, horns and hindquarters of a bull. He is portr ...
, and similarly concludes they are simply meant to support
earth and heaven ''Earth and Heaven'' is the debut album by the American band Repercussions (band), Repercussions, released in 1995. The album was recorded after the release of Groove Collective's debut album; the bands shared many members. The album was preceded ...
. Possible depictions of Šeri and Ḫurri have also been identified on an
orthostat This article describes several characteristic architectural elements typical of European megalithic (Stone Age) structures. Forecourt In archaeology, a forecourt is the name given to the area in front of certain types of chamber tomb. Forecourts ...
relief from
Malatya Malatya (; ; Syriac language, Syriac ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a human settlement for thousands of y ...
and on the
golden bowl of Hasanlu The Golden bowl of Hasanlu () is an ancient artefact, a cup or bowl in gold, decorated in relief, and now in the National Museum of Iran. It was discovered by Robert H. Dyson in 1958 while excavating the site of Teppeh Hasanlu, near the city of Na ...
.


Worship

Šeri and Ḫurri commonly appear in Hurrian religious texts, such as offering lists and oaths. In the former, they are typically followed by Ḫazzi and Namni, two mountain gods also counted among the members of Teššub's entourage. References to songs sung in their honor are also known. Oldest
theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or a god's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that d ...
s invoking Šeri are known from
Upper Mesopotamia Upper Mesopotamia constitutes the Upland and lowland, uplands and great outwash plain of northwestern Iraq, northeastern Syria and southeastern Turkey, in the northern Middle East. Since the early Muslim conquests of the mid-7th century, the regio ...
from the
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 Babyloni ...
. One example is Šeriš-adal ("Šeri is strong"). Ḫurri (spelled in this context as Ḫurra) appears as an element in theophoric names from
Nuzi Nuzi (Hurrian Nuzi/Nuzu; Akkadian Gasur) at modern Yorghan Tepe (also Yorgan Tepa and Jorgan Tepe), Iraq was an ancient Mesopotamian city 12 kilometers southwest of the city of Arrapha (modern Kirkuk) and 70 kilometers southwest of Sātu Qala, ...
, though only uncommonly, and Šeri occurs more frequently in this
text corpus In linguistics and natural language processing, a corpus (: corpora) or text corpus is a dataset, consisting of natively digital and older, digitalized, language resources, either annotated or unannotated. Annotated, they have been used in corp ...
.


Hittite reception

Šeri and Ḫurri were incorporated into the pantheon of the
Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
alongside Teššub and other members of his circle. They appear in Hurrian context in texts from
Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...
. In a prayer of
Muwatalli II Muwatalli II (also Muwatallis, or Muwatallish; meaning "mighty") was a king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite empire c. 1295–1282 ( middle chronology) and 1295–1272 BC in the short chronology. Biography He was the eldest son of Mursili II ...
(
CTH CTH or cth may refer to: Organizations, companies, and schools * CTH Public Company Limited, Thai cable and satellite TV company * Chalmers University of Technology, in Gothenburg, Sweden * Honduras Workers' Confederation - Confederación de Tr ...
381), Šeri acts as a mediator on behalf of the king in front of the divine assembly. In other texts both bulls accompany kings in battle, and they might have functioned as royal tutelary deities in Hittite culture. They also appear as a pair in ''kaluti'' (Hurrian offering lists) from
Šapinuwa Sapinuwa (sometimes Shapinuwa; Hittite: ''Šapinuwa'') was a Bronze Age Hittite city at the location of modern Ortaköy in the province Çorum in Turkey about 70 kilometers east of the Hittite capital of Hattusa. It was one of the major Hittite ...
. The text KUB 7.60 contains a curse formula in which a city of the enemy is turned into a pasture for Šeri and Ḫurri upon which they will eternally graze to prevent rebuilding. A ritual text from
Emar Emar (, ), is an archaeological site at Tell Meskene in the Aleppo Governorate of northern Syria. It sits in the great bend of the mid-Euphrates, now on the shoreline of the man-made Lake Assad near the town of Maskanah. It has been the sourc ...
which mentions Šeri and Ḫurri alongside deities such as
Allani Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu (or Allatum), was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld. She was also associated with the determination of fate. She was closely linked with Išḫara, and they could be invoked or receive offer ...
, Mušītu (deified night), Ḫazzi and Namni, while written in the local dialect of Akkadian, is presumed to be based on a Hurro-Hittite original.


Mesopotamian reception

In Both
Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...
and
Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
, Šeri and Ḫurri came to be incorporated into the
Mesopotamian pantheon 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 ...
. According to Daniel Schwemer, in the latter area this phenomenon can be considered a relic of a period of Hurrian (specifically
Mitanni Mitanni (–1260 BC), earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, ; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or in Ancient Egypt, Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian language, Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria (region), Syria an ...
) rule over Assyrian territory. Beate Pongratz-Leisten credits
Adad-nirari I Adad-nārārī I (1305–1274 BC or 1295–1263 BC short chronology) was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian Empire. He is the earliest Assyrian king whose annals survive in any detail, and achieved major military victories that further s ...
with their formal introduction to the state pantheon of the Assyrian state. They first appear in a coronation ritual 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 later among the deities worshiped in the
temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
of
Adad Hadad (), 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. From ...
in
Assur Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Midd ...
listed in the ''
Tākultu ''Tākultu'' was a type of religious ceremony in ancient Mesopotamia. It took the form of a ritual banquet during which a king offered drinks to deities. The oldest attestations have been identified in texts from Babylonia from the Old Babylonian ...
'' texts and other sources. According to Daisuke Shibata, Šeri might also be present in a copy 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 the Isin-Larsa period. ...
from
Tell Taban Tell Taban is an archaeological site in north-eastern Syria in the Al-Hasakah Governorate. It is the site of the ancient city of Ṭābetu. Archaeology The site was first excavated from 1997 until 1999 as a salvage operation in response to the ...
in which four entries are represented by the logogram dGU4, which according to his interpretation likely designates various bull gods. In Babylonia, Šeri appears in Akkadian theophoric names from the
Middle Babylonian period The Middle Babylonian period, also known as the Kassite period, in southern Mesopotamia is dated from and began after the Hittites sacked the city of Babylon. The Kassites, whose dynasty is synonymous with the period, eventually assumed political ...
, such as Bāna-ša-Šēriš. He is also mentioned alongside Māgiru ("obedient") as one of the two bulls of Adad in 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 III, lines 233–234), but according to Wilfred G. Lambert, the presence of the latter deity in place of Ḫurri is unusual, and elsewhere in the same list this deity instead occurs as the "herald" (''gu-za-lá'') of Akkil, the temple of
Ninshubur Ninshubur (,; Ninšubur, "Lady of Subartu" or "Lady of servants"), also spelled Ninšubura, was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the ''sukkal'' (divine attendant) of the goddess Inanna. While it is agreed that in this context Ninshubur was rega ...
(tablet I, line 255). Daniel Schwemer considers this entry to be a possible scribal mistake, and similarly notes Ḫurri in theory would be expected to appear after Šeri. Volkert Haas interpreted the deity Šerum as an Akkadianized form of Šeri, but according to Daniel Schwemer these two theonyms are not related to each other. Whether any connection existed between Šeri, Ḫurri or any other deities associated with Teššub (for example Tilla or
Šarruma Šarruma, also romanized as Šarrumma or Sharruma, was a Hurrian god. He could be depicted in both anthropomorphic form, sometimes riding on the back of a leopard, and in the theriomorphic form as a bull. His character is not fully understood, t ...
) and Būru, a divine bull calf attested as a subordinate of Adad in
Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
sources from the
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 ...
and Late Babylonian periods, remains unknown.


Mythology

In the ''
Kumarbi Kumarbi, also known as Kumurwe, Kumarwi and Kumarma, was a Hurrian god. He held a senior position in the Hurrian pantheon, and was described as the "father of gods". He was portrayed as an old, deposed king of the gods, though this most likely ...
Cycle'', a series of Hurrian myths known from Hittite translations, Šeri and Ḫurri appear as allies of Teššub. In the ''Song of Kumarbi'', Šeri tells Teššub that he should abstain from cursing certain deities, with Ea being singled out. Due to incomplete preservation is not known whether this is because Ea is at this point in the story a neutral party who should not be antagonized, or because the bull sees him as a particularly dangerous opponent. In the ''Song of
Ullikummi __NOTOC__ In Hurrian mythology, Ullikummi is a giant stone monster, son of Kumarbi and the sea god's daughter, Sertapsuruhi, or a female cliff. The language of the literary myth in its existing redaction is Hittite, in cuneiform texts recovered at ...
'', when Teššub decides to fight the eponymous stone giant, he orders his brother
Tašmišu Tašmišu (Tashmishu) was a Hurrian god. He was regarded as a brother of Teshub, and it is assumed he had a warlike character. Character Volkert Haas proposed that Tašmišu's name was derived from the Hurrian language, Hurrian word ''tašmi'', ...
to anoint the horns of Šeri after bringing the bull from his pasture. The second bull is referred to as Tilla in this myth. Piotr Taracha assumes that this deity was a counterpart of Ḫurri in a tradition originating in the eastern part of the area inhabited by the Hurrians. However, Tilla is best attested as an independent god in texts from Nuzi, and there is no other evidence in favor of interpreting him as a divine bull.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Hurrian mythology Hurrian deities Hittite deities Mesopotamian gods Mythological bovines Sacred bulls Mythological duos