HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Dadmiš (, ''ddmš'') or Tadmiš (''dta-ad-mi-iš'') was a goddess worshipped in
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 ...
. She is attested in texts written both in Ugaritic and in
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) ...
. Her origin and functions remain unknown.


Identification

The earliest researchers did not yet recognize Dadmiš as a separate deity, and her name was considered to be an epithet of
Resheph Resheph (also Reshef and many other variants, see below; Eblaite , ''Rašap'', , ''ršp'', Egyptian ', , ''ršp'', ''Rešep̄'') was a god associated with war and plague, originally worshiped in Ebla in the third millennium BCE. He was one of ...
, ''ršp ddm''. Due to the trend in early scholarship to look for
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
explanations for terms present in
Ugaritic texts The Ugaritic texts are a corpus of ancient cuneiform texts discovered in 1928 in Ugarit (Ras Shamra) and Ras Ibn Hani in Syria, and written in Ugaritic language, Ugaritic, an otherwise unknown Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic langua ...
it was assumed that this alleged deity was analogous to
Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
Didymaeus, similar to how the name Niqmaddu (''nqmd'', "Hadad the avenger") was misinterpreted as Nikomedes and the place name Yman, referring to an area near the kingdom of Amurru known also from
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 ...
n and
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
sources, as
Ionia Ionia ( ) was an ancient region encompassing the central part of the western coast of Anatolia. It consisted of the northernmost territories of the Ionian League of Greek settlements. Never a unified state, it was named after the Ionians who ...
. The correct reading of the name, Dadmiš, was first proposed as early as 1932 by
Bedřich Hrozný Bedřich Hrozný (; 6 May 1879 – 12 December 1952), also known as , was a Czechs, Czech Oriental studies, orientalist and linguist. He contributed to the decipherment of the ancient Hittite language, identified it as an Indo-European language, ...
(who was also responsible for identifying the names of many
Hurrian deities The Hurrian pantheon consisted of gods of varied backgrounds, some of them natively Hurrian religion, Hurrian, while others adopted from other pantheons, for example Religion in Ebla, Eblaite and List of Mesopotamian deities, Mesopotamian. Like th ...
, for example
Nupatik Nupatik, in early sources known as Lubadag, was a Hurrian god of uncertain character. He is attested in the earliest inscriptions from Urkesh, as well as in texts from other Hurrian settlements and Ugarit. He was also incorporated into Hittite rel ...
and
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 ...
, in Ugaritic texts), and eventually became the consensus. The later discovery of a trilingual god list with Sumerian, Hurrian and Ugaritic columns made it possible to establish not only that Dadmiš was not an epithet, but a separate deity, but also that she was female, unlike Resheph. Sporadic references to Dadmiš as a male deity can nonetheless be found in later literature, for example
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 ...
referred to her as "der (...) Gott Dadmiš" in a brief description of the religion of Ugarit, while Aaron Tugendhaft labels her as "the Hurrian god Tatmiš." The spelling of her name differs slightly between the
alphabetic 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 ...
texts (''ddmš'') and the 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 ...
ones (''dta-ad-mi-iš''), and as a result two forms of the name are used in modern publications, Dadmiš and Tadmiš. Michael C. Astour argued that the syllabic spelling reflected Hurrian phonetics.


Origin

The origin of Dadmiš is uncertain. Emmanuel Laroche in an early study assumed that Dadmiš was a
Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...
goddess in origin. The derivation of her name from the Akkadian word ''dadmū'', "dwellings," has been tentatively proposed by Jean Nougayrol, and was subsequently accepted by Michael C. Astour, who suggested that she was originally the city goddess of Dadmuš, a settlement located in the " Transtigridian" area with an etymologically related name. However, Marco Bonechi points out that in Ugarit the
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
term ''dadmum'' most likely was used in the sense known from letters from Mari, where it appears to function as an Amorite name of the kingdom of
Aleppo 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 ...
. He points out that Ugaritic texts also contain the term ''ddm'', which might refer to inhabitants of the countryside surrounding ancient Aleppo ("Dadmians"), and to the "gods of ''da-ad-me-ma''," who have been tentatively linked with Dadmiš in past scholarship. Dennis Pardee accepts interpreting this term as "the gods of the land of Aleppo," but considers the origin of Dadmiš to be unknown. Manfred Krebernik proposes that a connection exists between the name of Dadmiš and that of Tadmuštum, a
Mesopotamian goddess 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 ...
associated with the
underworld The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underworld. ...
. The name of the latter might be derived from Akkadian ''dāmasu'' ("to humble") or ''dāmašu'' (related to the word "hidden"). A similarity between her name and
Geʽez Geez ( or ; , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today, Geez is used as the main liturgical langu ...
''damasu'' ("to abolish," "to destroy" or "to hide") has been noted as well. Wilfred G. E. Watson counts Dadmiš among goddesses worshiped in Ugarit who according to him had Hurrian or Anatolian origin. Gabriele Theuer also considers her to be a deity of Hurrian origin. However, Dennis Pardee considers this implausible on linguistic grounds.


Character

The character of Dadmiš is unknown. Dennis Pardee considers her to be a goddess of healing. His assumption relies on the equation between her and the Mesopotamian goddess Šuzianna, attested in the trilingual edition 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 Ugarit. Šuzianna was recognized as a healing goddess, and as such could be described as a Gula-like figure. It has also been pointed out that
Išḫara Išḫara was a goddess originally worshipped in Ebla and other nearby settlements in the north of modern Syria in the third millennium BCE. The origin of her name is disputed, and due to lack of evidence supporting Hurrian or Semitic etymolog ...
, who could be referred to with the epithet ''belet da-ad-me'', "lady of the dwellings," which might be etymologically related to the name of Dadmiš, could be regarded as a divine healer as well. Aaron Tugendhaft assumes that Dadmiš is additionally equated with
Zababa Zababa (, ''dza-ba4-ba4'', ) was a Mesopotamian god. He was the tutelary deity of the city of Kish and was regarded as a god of war. He was initially seen as a son of Enlil, though in Assyria during the reign of Sennacherib, he started to be ...
in another line of the same document. On the basis of her possible relation to Tadmuštum, Manfred Krebernik proposes that Dadmiš was an underworld deity. He also suggests she was associated with Resheph and might have been regarded as his wife in Ugaritic tradition. According to Nicolas Wyatt, both of them belonged to the group referred to as "the gods who help
Baal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The ...
" (Ugaritic: ''il t‘ḏr b‘l''). However, Dennis Pardee does not consider either of them to be closely associated with Baal.


Dadmiš in the Ugaritic texts

In four Ugaritic god lists, Dadmiš appears between Resheph and the assembly of the gods. In another similar document, she is present between two different deities whose names are not fully preserved. She also belonged to the Hurrian pantheon of the city. In a Hurrian ritual text, she follows
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 ...
,
Kušuḫ Kušuḫ, also known under the name Umbu, was the god of the moon in Hurrian pantheon. He is attested in cuneiform texts from many sites, from Hattusa in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alalakh, Mari and other locations in Syria, to Nuzi, loc ...
and Ea and precedes
Šauška Šauška (Shaushka), also called Šauša or Šawuška, was the highest ranked goddess in the Hurrian pantheon. She was associated with love and war, as well as with incantations and by extension with healing. While she was usually referred to as ...
. While best attested in the god lists, Dadmiš is also present in other types of religious texts. In one such document, an offering list, she occurs after
Yarikh Yarikh (Ugaritic: , , "moon"), or Yaraḫum, was a moon god worshiped in the Ancient Near East. He is best attested in sources from the Amorite city of Ugarit in the north of modern Syria, where he was one of the principal deities. His primary cul ...
,
Anat Anat (, ), Anatu, classically Anath (; ''ʿnt''; ''ʿĂnāṯ''; ; ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:ꜥntjt, ꜥntjt'') was a goddess associated with warfare and hunting, best known from the Ugaritic texts. Most researchers assume tha ...
of Saphon and
Pidray Pidray (, ''pdry'') was an Ugaritic goddess of uncertain character. She is first attested as an Amorite deity in a bilingual Mesopotamian lexical list, but she is otherwise almost exclusively from Ugaritic texts. While she is well attested in thi ...
, who all receive the same animal, a ram, as a sacrifice (Anat also receives a bull). In another, she follows Resheph, who receives a ram like her. While she was actively worshiped, she is absent from Ugaritic myths.


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{Hurrian mythology Hurrian deities Ugaritic deities Middle Eastern goddesses