Amurru (god)
Amurru | |
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Divine representation of Urash | |
Consort |
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Amurru, also known under the
He is first attested in documents from the
Only a single myth about Amurru is known. It describes the circumstances of his marriage to Adgarkidu, the daughter of
Origin
Amurru was a divine representation of the Amorites, a group inhabiting certain areas west of Mesopotamia.[2] The names Amurru (Akkadian) or Martu (Sumerian) could refer both to the god and to the people.[2] The origin of both these words is unknown, and according to Paul-Alain Beaulieu neither of them has a plausible Sumerian, Akkadian or West Semitic etymology.[3] There is also no indication that either of them ever served as the endonym of the groups they described.[3]
In older literature, as late as in the 1980s, it was commonly assumed that Amurru was in origin an eponymous deity of the Amorites themselves.[4][3] However, the modern consensus is that he was instead a Mesopotamian god representing the westerners.[5][3] He has been characterized as an "ideological construct."[5]
Amurru is absent from
Other analogous deities are also attested: Kaššû and Kaššītu, a pair of deities, respectively male and female, represented the Kassites, Aḫlamayītu was "the Aramean goddess," while Sutītu - "the Sutean goddess."[9] However, these deities only emerged in the first millennium BCE, and are not attested earlier.[10]
Character
In texts from the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods, Amurru chiefly functioned as a divine
An association between Amurru and
Amurru's character has also been sometimes compared to that of a
Iconography
Amurru's main attribute was the gamlu, a type of
In art, Amurru could be accompanied by a horned animal interpreted as either a
Amurru is sometimes described and depicted as a sickle sword (gišzubi/gamlum).[25]
Worship
Earliest indisputable evidence of the worship of Amurru comes from the Ur III period.
Amurru came to be more commonly worshiped during the reign of the
As early as in the Old Assyrian period, Amurru was also worshiped in Assyria, as attested in oath formulas.[31] In Assur he was worshiped in the Enindabadua ("house where bread portions are baked"), which was likely a part of the temple complex of Gula.[32] It was rebuilt by Tiglath-Pileser I.[32] Additionally, Sennacherib installed new doors depicting Ashur accompanied by Amurru in the akitu temple of the former god.[31] Paul-Alain Beaulieu proposes that in this case Amurru was reinterpreted as a divine representation of Arameans, who rose to prominence in Assyrian society in the first millennium BCE.[33] He points out that in the same time period, the god started to appear in West Semitic, rather than Akkadian, theophoric names for the first time in history, which might indicate that the Arameans living in Assyria have chosen him as their tutelary deity.[34]
Amurru's newfound popularity among speakers of West Semitic languages is also attested in the late sources from Babylonia, where he is the fourth most common deity in their theophoric names after Bel (Marduk), Nabu and Nanaya.[34] Much of the evidence for this phenomenon comes from the Sealand, where he likely had a cult center of his own.[34] References to it are known from the Eanna archive from Uruk.[35] For example, one text mentions legal proceedings between two citizens of the Sealand province during which a priest and a scribe from the temple of Amurru acted as witnesses.[36]
Associations with other deities
Due to widespread recognition of Anu as Amurru's father, it is agreed that
A single hymn refers to Amurru as the "first born of the gods of Anshan."[46] This was most likely a reference to Amorite settlement in areas east of the Tigris, in the proximity of Elam, or possibly specifically to the background of king Kudur-Mabuk, known for his Amorite and Elamite connections.[46]
Multiple traditions regarding the identity of Amurru's wife are known.
No references to Amurru having any children are known.[45]
In a single inscription Amurru is paired with Ninegal/Belet Ekallim.[53] According to Wilfred G. Lambert, this pairing is unusual, as unless an otherwise not attested tradition conflated Amurru with her spouse, the farmer god Urash, the two deities have nothing in common.[54]
In laments, Amurru could be associated with
An etymological connection between Amurru and the
Mythology
The number of known literary texts about Amurru is small.[59][8] The only known composition focused on him identified as a myth is Marriage of Martu.[59]
In the beginning of this composition, Martu (Amurru), portrayed as a leader of a group of nomads, learns from his mother that his relatives receive bigger rations despite their lower rank because they have their own families.
It has been argued that Marriage of Martu was composed in the Ur III period, and reflected either a political event, perhaps the arrival of Amorites in the province governed by Puzur-Numushda during the reign of
Outside of this myth, Amurru and Numushda almost never appear together, the only exceptions being two laments.[55] One of these two texts also includes the only other known reference to Inab.[60]
References
- ^ Frankfort, H. (1939). Cylinder seals: a Documentary Essay on the Art and Religion of the Ancient Near East. MacMillan and Co., Pl. XXVIII e+i
- ^ a b c d Beaulieu 2005, p. 33.
- ^ a b c d e f Beaulieu 2005, p. 34.
- ^ Edzard 1987, p. 433.
- ^ a b c d e Sharlach 2002, p. 96.
- ^ a b Sharlach 2002, p. 98.
- ^ Sharlach 2002, p. 97.
- ^ a b c Beaulieu 2005, p. 35.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, p. 32.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 104.
- ^ a b c d e Beaulieu 2005, p. 41.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, p. 42.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, pp. 43–44.
- ^ a b c d Beaulieu 2005, p. 38.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, pp. 38–39.
- ^ a b Beaulieu 2005, p. 39.
- ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 327.
- ^ Klein 1997, p. 102.
- ^ a b c Schwemer 2008, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Schwemer 2008, pp. 30–31.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, pp. 35–36.
- ^ a b c d e Beaulieu 2005, p. 36.
- ^ Rahmouni 2008, pp. 103–104.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, p. 37.
- ^ Vidal, Jordi, "Prestige Weapons in an Amorite Context", Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 70, no. 2, pp. 247–52, 2011
- ^ Sharlach 2002, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, pp. 41–42.
- ^ a b George 1993, p. 130.
- ^ a b George 1993, p. 124.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, p. 43.
- ^ a b Beaulieu 2005, p. 44.
- ^ a b George 1993, p. 134.
- ^ Beaulieu 2005, p. 44-45.
- ^ a b c d Beaulieu 2005, p. 45.
- ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 328.
- ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 329.
- ^ a b c d Klein 1997, p. 103.
- ^ a b c Beaulieu 2005, p. 31.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 70.
- ^ Schwemer 2008, p. 29.
- ^ Wiggins 2007, p. 172.
- ^ a b c d e Schwemer 2008, p. 30.
- ^ Klein 1997, pp. 103–104.
- ^ a b c d Klein 1997, p. 104.
- ^ a b c d Edzard 1987, p. 435.
- ^ a b Beaulieu 2005, p. 40.
- ^ a b Klein 1997, pp. 107–108.
- ^ Wiggins 2007, p. 153.
- ^ George 1993, p. 37.
- ^ Wiggins 2007, p. 166.
- ^ Wiggins 2007, pp. 169–170.
- ^ George 1993, pp. 37–38.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 96.
- ^ Lambert 1970, p. 47.
- ^ a b Klein 1997, p. 105.
- ^ Wiggins 2007, pp. 48–49.
- ^ a b Wiggins 2007, p. 49.
- ^ Wiggins 2007, p. 50.
- ^ a b Klein 1997, p. 99.
- ^ a b Klein 1997, p. 106.
- ^ a b c d e Klein 1997, p. 107.
- ^ a b c Klein 1997, p. 108.
- ^ Klein 1997, pp. 108–109.
Bibliography
- Asher-Greve, Julia M.; Westenholz, Joan G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources (PDF). Academic Press Fribourg. ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0.
- Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2003). The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period. Leiden Boston: Brill STYX. OCLC 51944564.
- Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2005). "The God Amurru as Emblem of Ethnic and Cultural Identity". In Soldt, Wilfred H. van; Kalvelagen, R.; Katz, Dina (eds.). Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. OCLC 60116687.
- Edzard, Dietz-Otto (1987), "Martu A. Gott", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-07-08
- George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. OCLC 27813103.
- Klein, Jacob (1997). "The God Martu in Sumerian Literature". In Finkel, I. L.; Geller, M. J. (eds.). Sumerian Gods and their Representations. STYX Publications. ISBN 978-90-56-93005-9.
- Lambert, Wilfred G. (1970). "Objects Inscribed and Uninscribed". Archiv für Orientforschung. 23. Archiv für Orientforschung (AfO)/Institut für Orientalistik: 46–51. JSTOR 41637307. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
- Rahmouni, Aicha (2008). Divine epithets in the Ugaritic alphabetic texts. Leiden Boston: Brill. OCLC 304341764.
- Schwemer, Daniel (2008). "The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies: Part II". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions. 8 (1). Brill: 1–44. ISSN 1569-2116.
- Sharlach, Tonia (2002). "Foreign Influences on the Religion of the Ur III Court". General studies and excavations at Nuzi 10/3. Bethesda, Md: CDL Press. OCLC 48399212.
- Wiggins, Steve (2007). A reassessment of Asherah: with further considerations of the goddess. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. OCLC 171049273.