Šeri and Ḫurri

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Šeri and Ḫurri
Pair of divine bulls
AffiliationCourt of
Šapinuwa. Assur

Šeri and Ḫurri were a pair of

Adad
.

Names

Šeri and Ḫurri almost always occur as a pair in known texts.[1] In oldest sources, the spellings of the names were Šēriš (or Šerriš) and Ḫurra, but later the forms Šeri (Šerri) and Ḫurri predominate.[2] In Emar, the forms Hurraš and Šeliš are attested.[3] A number of unique variants have also been identified in Neo-Assyrian sources, for example Ermiš and Ḫurmiš.[4] While accepted in early scholarship, the view that an Ugaritic form of Šeri's name (written as ṯr in the local alphabetic script) is also attested is now agreed to be a mistake caused by incorrect reading of the word šarri.[5] In standard syllabic cuneiform both names could be written with one of two determinatives, dingir or gud.[1]

It has been proposed that the names of Šeri and Ḫurri might be translated as, respectively, "morning"/"day" and "evening"/"night".

irrigator" (through analogy with Urartian ḫurrišḫe).[7] However, so far no proposal found universal acceptance.[8]

Character and iconography

Bull men from Yazılıkaya

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".[9] A lexical list from Emar equates this term with the Sumerian word maštabba, "twins", which was used to designate pairs of apotropaic figures.[10] 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.[11]

In known texts Šeri and Ḫurri are consistently described as

orthostat relief from Malatya and on the golden bowl of Hasanlu.[5]

Worship

Šeri and Ḫurri commonly appear in Hurrian religious texts, such as offering lists and oaths.

Old Babylonian period.[8] One example is Šeriš-adal ("Šeri is strong").[22] Ḫurri (spelled in this context as Ḫurra) appears as an element in theophoric names from Nuzi, though only uncommonly, and Šeri occurs more frequently in this text corpus.[5]

Hittite reception

Šeri and Ḫurri were incorporated into the pantheon of the

Šapinuwa.[27] 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.[28]

A ritual text from Emar which mentions Šeri and Ḫurri alongside deities such as Allani, Mušītu (deified night), Ḫazzi and Namni, while written in the local dialect of Akkadian, is presumed to be based on a Hurro-Hittite original.[3]

Mesopotamian reception

In Both

Adad in Assur listed in the Tākultu texts and other sources.[4] According to Daisuke Shibata, Šeri might also be present in a copy of the Weidner god list from Tell Taban in which four entries are represented by the logogram dGU4, which according to his interpretation likely designates various bull gods.[31]

In Babylonia, Šeri appears in Akkadian theophoric names from the Middle Babylonian period, such as Bāna-ša-Šēriš.[12] He is also mentioned alongside Māgiru ("obedient") as one of the two bulls of Adad in the god list An = Anum (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 (tablet I, line 255).[32] Daniel Schwemer considers this entry to be a possible scribal mistake, and similarly notes Ḫurri in theory would be expected to appear after Šeri.[33]

Volkert Haas interpreted the deity Šerum as an Akkadianized form of Šeri,[7] but according to Daniel Schwemer these two theonyms are not related to each other.[4]

Whether any connection existed between Šeri, Ḫurri or any other deities associated with Teššub (for example Tilla or Šarruma) and Būru, a divine bull calf attested as a subordinate of Adad in Aramaic sources from the Neo-Assyrian and Late Babylonian periods, remains unknown.[21]

Mythology

In the

Ea being singled out.[35] 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.[36]

In the Song of Ullikummi, when Teššub decides to fight the eponymous stone giant, he orders his brother Tašmišu to anoint the horns of Šeri after bringing the bull from his pasture.[37][38] The second bull is referred to as Tilla in this myth.[16] 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.[39] However, Tilla is best attested as an independent god in texts from Nuzi,[16] and there is no other evidence in favor of interpreting him as a divine bull.[40]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Haas 1972, p. 506.
  2. ^ Schwemer 2001, p. 479.
  3. ^ a b Archi 2014, p. 154.
  4. ^ a b c Schwemer 2001, p. 482.
  5. ^ a b c d Haas 1972, p. 507.
  6. ^ Krebernik 2016, p. 354.
  7. ^ a b Haas 2015, p. 319.
  8. ^ a b Schwemer 2001, p. 478.
  9. ^ Haas 2015, p. 471.
  10. ^ Haas 2015, pp. 471–472.
  11. ^ Schwemer 2008, pp. 6–7.
  12. ^ a b c d Schwemer 2001, p. 481.
  13. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 73.
  14. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 108.
  15. ^ Archi 2013, p. 12.
  16. ^ a b c Schwemer 2008, p. 6.
  17. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 94.
  18. ^ Wiggermann 1992, p. 178.
  19. ^ a b Wiggermann 1992, pp. 178–179.
  20. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 95.
  21. ^ a b Schwemer 2008, p. 7.
  22. ^ Wilhelm 1998, p. 124.
  23. ^ Schwemer 2008, p. 22.
  24. ^ Schwemer 2001, p. 480.
  25. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 143.
  26. ^ Schwemer 2001, pp. 480–481.
  27. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 97.
  28. ^ Haas 2015, p. 541.
  29. ^ Schwemer 2008, p. 4.
  30. ^ Pongratz-Leisten 2011, p. 115.
  31. ^ Shibata 2009, p. 38.
  32. ^ Lambert 1987, p. 255.
  33. ^ Schwemer 2001, p. 70.
  34. ^ Hoffner 1998, pp. 40–41.
  35. ^ Hoffner 1998, p. 45.
  36. ^ Hoffner 1998, p. 77.
  37. ^ Hoffner 1998, p. 61.
  38. ^ Haas 2015, p. 91.
  39. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 120.
  40. ^ Schwemer 2001, p. 483.

Bibliography

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