Shuzianna (Šuzianna; 𒀭𒋗𒍣𒀭𒈾 ''^dŠu-zi-an-na'') was 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 ...

. She was chiefly worshiped in

Nippur Nippur (Sumerian language, Sumerian: ''Nibru'', often logogram, logographically recorded as , EN.LÍLKI, "Enlil City;"I. E. S. Edwards, C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond, ''The Cambridge Ancient History: Prolegomena & Prehistory'': Vol. 1, Part 1, Ca ...

, where she was regarded as a secondary spouse of

Enlil Enlil, later known as Elil and Ellil, is an List of Mesopotamian deities, 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 t ...

. She is also known from the enumerations of children of

Enmesharra Enmesharra ( , "Lord of all ''Me (mythology), me''s") was a List of Mesopotamian deities, Mesopotamian god associated with the Ancient Mesopotamian underworld, underworld. He was regarded as a member of an old generation of deities, and as such ...

, while 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'' she is one of the seven minor goddesses helping with the creation of mankind.

Name

Shuzianna's name has Sumerian origin and means "the just hand of heaven." A late text offers an esoteric bilingual explanation, "AN-''tum gāmilat'' (ŠU.GAR) ''napišti'' (ZI) ^d''A-nim''," "the goddess (alternatively: Antu) who saves the life of Anu." Another similar source explains it as "''^dBe-let Babili, e-ti-rat''," "Lady of

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

, the savior," based on the similarity to ''Šu-an-na^ki'', an uncommon alternate name of that city. A

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 ...

theological text explains that she was a name of Gula. However, she and Gula were worshiped as two separate goddesses in Nippur.

Position in the pantheon

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. ...

places her in the circle of

Ninurta Ninurta (: , possible meaning "Lord fBarley"), also known as Ninĝirsu (: , meaning "Lord fGirsu"), is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was f ...

, right behind Lugal-Marada (the city god of

Marad Marad (Sumerian: Marda, modern Tell Wannat es-Sadum or Tell as-Sadoum (also Wana-Sedoum), Iraq) was an ancient Near Eastern city. Marad was situated on the west bank of the then western branch of the Upper Euphrates River west of Nippur in moder ...

) and his wife Imzuanna. The trilingual Sumero-

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) ...

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 ...

edition 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 ...

equates her with the local goddess Dadmish. She is absent from the

Old Babylonian Old Babylonian may refer to: *the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC) *the historical stage of the Akkadian language Akkadian ( ; )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Cambridge Enc ...

Isin Isin (, modern Arabic language, Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq which was the location of the Ancient Near East city of Isin, occupied from the late 4th millennium Uruk period up until at ...

and Nippur god lists, though in a list from the same period regarded as a predecessor of the later ''

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 ...

'' she appears in the circle of Enlil, in the proximity of the deities

Ninkasi Ninkasi was the Mesopotamian goddess of beer and brewing. It is possible that in the first millennium BC she was known under the variant name Kurunnītu, derived from a term referring to a type of high quality beer. She was associated with both ...

, Sirash and Patindu, associated with ritual libations. ''An = Anum'' list itself identifies her as a "concubine" (''dam-ban-da'') of Enlil and nurse of

Sin In religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law or a law of the deities. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered ...

, though the same text also refers to

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 ...

as the latter. The term referring to her relation with Enlil has also been translated as "second wife" or "younger wife." In an incantation, she is called the concubine of Anu, rather than Enlil, which might be the result of confusion with Ninursala, who is called the ''dam-ban-da'' of Anu in the god list ''An = Anum''. In some ritual contexts she was associated with Ninimma. They also appear together in the myth ''

and Ninmah'' among the eponymous goddess' helpers aiding her in creation of mankind. The group consisted out of seven goddesses, the remaining five being Ninmada, Ninšar, Ninmug, Mumudu and Ninniginna. According to god lists, under their collective name

Šassūrātu Šassūrātu were a group of Mesopotamian goddesses 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,' ...

they were equated with groups of foreign goddesses of similar character,

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 ...

and

ic and Mariote Kotharāt. She also appears in various lists of the seven children of

. One text calls her the "daughter of Enmešarra, whom Enlil married."

Worship

Shuzianna was worshiped chiefly in Nippur, where she had a temple. In the

Ekur Ekur ( ), also known as Duranki, is a Sumerian term meaning "mountain house". It is the assembly of the gods in the Garden of the gods, parallel in Greek mythology to Mount Olympus and was the most revered and sacred building of ancient Sumer ...

complex she was worshiped in the E-gagimah (Sumerian: "house, exalted harem"). She was also one of the fourteen deities worshiped in Eurusaga, the temple of Gula, alongside the likes of Urmah, Ninimma, Belet-Seri, Sirash and Ningirzida. It is also possible that a joint temple dedicated to her and Enlil, E-kiaggashudu (Sumerian: "perfect beloved house") known from a theological text was located in Nippur. Additionally, while the E-kurigigal (Sumerian: "house, mountain endowed with sight") in Nippur was dedicated to Enlil and his primary wife

Ninlil Ninlil ( D 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 senior deity and head of th ...

, one text indicates that it was also where rites connected to the marriage between him and Shuzianna were celebrated. In addition to her main cult center, Shuzianna was also worshiped in

Umma Umma () in modern Dhi Qar Province in Iraq, was an ancient city in Sumer. There is some scholarly debate about the Sumerian and Akkadian names for this site. Traditionally, Umma was identified with Tell Jokha. More recently it has been sugges ...

(in the

Ur III period The Third Dynasty of Ur or Ur III was a Sumerian dynasty based in the city of Ur in the 22nd and 21st centuries BC (middle chronology). For a short period they were the preeminent power in Mesopotamia and their realm is sometimes referred to by ...

), as well as in

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

(where she appears in a late ritual from the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

in a context related to Enmesharra), Ur and possibly in a presently unknown location in

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 ...

. In Ur she was worshiped in E-eshbanda (Sumerian: "house, the little chamber") a sanctuary within the

Ningal Ningal ( Sumerian: "Great Queen"; Akkadian Nikkal) was a Mesopotamian goddess regarded as the wife of the moon god, Nanna/Sin. She was particularly closely associated with his main cult centers, Ur and Harran, but they were also worshiped toge ...

temple, built by Sin-balassu-iqbi. One of the ''

Temple Hymns 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 ...

'' is dedicated to Shuzianna.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{refend Mesopotamian goddesses