A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology

241 Pages·1991·3.265 MB·English

by  Dr Gwendolyn Leick

A Dictionary of
ANCIENT
NEAR EASTERN
MYTHOLOGY

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A Dictionary of
ANCIENT
NEAR EASTERN
MYTHOLOGY

Gwendolyn Leick

London and New York
First published 1991
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

First published in paperback 1998

© Gwendolyn Leick 1991
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Leick, Gwendolyn, 1951–
A dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern mythology/
Gwendolyn Leick. p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Mythology, Oriental—Dictionaries. 2. Mythology,
Assyro—Babylonian—Dictionaries. I. Title.
BL1060.L44 1991
299´.2–dc20 90–39713

ISBN 0-203-02852-X Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-19960-X (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-00762-3 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-19811-9 (pbk)
CONTENTS

List of illustrations vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
Chronological chart xiii
A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology 1
Glossary 168
Bibliography 176
Index 189
Illustrations 200

v
ILLUSTRATIONS

1 Egyptian stela of the Syrian goddess Anat
2 Horse’s head-piece in ivory with a Syrian goddess, probably Astarte
3 Stela of Shamshi-Adad V
4 The Assyrian national god Aššur
5 Stone stela possibly of Syrian weather-god, Baal-Hadad
6 Terracotta of a seated goddess
7 Terracotta of an unidentified Babylonian god
8 The Babylonian god Marduk
9 Terracotta reliefs of Babylonian gods with a martial aspect
10 Boundary stone of Nebukadrezzar I
11 Babylonian terracotta mask of the demon Humbaba
12 Two lion-faced genies
13 Babylonian terracotta fragment of the demon Pazuzu
14 Orthostat relief of Hittite queen offering libations to Ištar
15 Ivory statuette of an unidentified female deity
16 Statuette of a Hittite god in bronze
17 Relief of a procession of Hittite warrior-gods
18 Orthostat relief of a royal couple conducting a ritual
19 Stone relief of the goddess Kubaba
20 Terracotta relief of a goddess in the traditional pose of intercession
and greeting
21 Terracotta figurine of a seated woman embracing a child
22 Terracotta statuette of a seated woman
23 Babylonian terracotta relief of a nude woman
24 Libation cup of steatite, dedicated to the god Ningišzida
25 Sumerian limestone plaque of a priest offering a libation to a seated
goddess, possibly Ninhursag
26 Tablet of king Nabû-Polassar of Babylon worshipping the Sun-god
Šamaš in his shrine at Sippar
27 Elamite stela from Susa of the Sun-god Nuhhunte and an Elamite
king
vi
ILLUSTRATIONS
28 Babylonian stela with similar iconography to 27
29 Terracotta relief of an unidentified Sumerian goddess
30 Terracotta relief of a divine couple embracing
31 Terracotta relief of a goddess, seated on a throne resembling the
facade of a temple
32 Terracotta relief of a ‘nude hero’ with a flowing vase
33 Bronze figurine of a seated goddess
34 The Anatolian storm-god astride his bull
35 Monumental stone relief of a Hittite warrior god
36 Drawing of seal-impression of Etana ascending to heaven on the
back of an eagle
37 Seal representing the slaying of the demon Humbaba
38 Seal representing the worship of Ištar
39 Seal depicting the water-god (Enki/Ea) with other gods
40 Seal depicting the Sun-god Samaš
41 Seal depicting a goddess presenting a worshipper to the deified king
Ur-nammu
42 Seal-impression of an assembly of several deities
43 Seal showing the Sun-god emerging from the kur
44 Seal depicting a combat scene

vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To each of the following for their courteous permission to reproduce
photographs, as indicated: the Trustees of the British Museum (2, 3, 6,
7, 9, 11–13, 19, 20, 23, 26, 29–32, 37–44); the Musée de Louvre (5,
24, 25, 27, 28, 33); and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara
(14–18, 21, 22, 35).
To Francis J.Kirk, for producing the drawings (1, 4, 8, 34, 36).

viii
INTRODUCTION

For almost two thousand years we have only been able to see the religion
of the ancient Orient as a dark shadow cast by the brightness of the
Hebrew God. While the Olympians and the heroes of Greece fuelled the
imagination of our culture, the gods of Canaan and Babylon remained
‘abominations’ and utterly alien. But for the last 150 years, following
the spectacular discovery of Nineveh, countless excavations have been
searching for the lost civilizations of the ancient Near East. The great
museums of Europe and America acquired their share of giant winged
bulls, stamped bricks, stone statues, millions of pottery sherds and
delicately carved cylinder seals. On shelves and drawers rest tens of
thousands of clay-tablets, each one carefully numbered. While
archaeologists assemble the tangible remains of villages and cities,
epigraphists decipher the messages sent to people dead for more than
3,000 years; they re-read the administrative minutiae of extinct
bureaucracies and reconstruct a lost literature. We now know the names
of thousands of gods and goddesses, the words of hymns and litanies,
the daily procedures of the Babylonian cult, as well as a growing number
of mythological tales. In spite of the progress in our understanding of
this ancient religion, we are only able to see part of the whole picture.
We shall never be sure of the rituals performed in the neolithic sanctuaries;
and the deities worshipped in the splendid cathedral-like temples of the
fourth millennium BC will remain a mystery. We know nothing about
the gods of the nomadic peoples at the periphery of the river valleys and
very little about the indigenous religions of all those other parts of the
ancient Near East that did not develop literacy.
The written testimony of the old literate civilizations is the main
source of our knowledge. Several ancient languages (Sumerian, Hurrian,
Hittite, Elamite and sundry Semitic dialects, including Babylonian) can
now be read; although only a small amount of the thousands of tablets
housed in the museum collections have been published and more are
unearthed by every season of excavation. Furthermore, the texts are by
no means evenly distributed in time and place. Literacy on any scale
ix