Antu (goddess)

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For other uses, see Antu (disambiguation).
Antu
Sky goddess, feminine counterpart of Anu
Major cult centerUruk
TempleBīt Rēš
Personal information
SpouseAnu
ChildrenLamashtu

Antu (𒀭𒌈) or Antum

Ishtar
, but this tradition was not commonly adhered to.

Name and character

Antu's name is

androgynous being in Mesopotamian tradition.[2]

A small number of sources, including the god list

Kassite period, agreed to represent a compound of two theonyms, might also have been understood as "Anu-Antu".[8] Antu might have also played the role of earth in formulaic references to Anu, representing the sky, inseminating the ground with his rains.[9] Thorkild Jacobsen in the 1970s asserted that as an extension of this belief rain was believed to come out of Antu’s breasts, which according to his assumption were envisioned as clouds.[10] This conclusion is also supported by Karen Rhea Nemet-Nejat.[11]

In the

Epic of Erra).[9] Additionally, Lamashtu was explicitly identified as a daughter of both Antu and Anu.[19]

Antu's association with the

kalû clergy, but it remains unknown if this belief was shared by other social groups.[20] In a single case, "great Antu" is attested as a title of Ereshkigal in a funerary ritual prescribing the offering of beer and wine to her, Gilgamesh and a group of figures described as sailors, presumably the crew of a ferry carrying the dead.[21]

Sources from the Seleucid period indicate that in

Mesopotamian astronomy Antu and Anu were identified with a pair of circumpolar stars referred to as "Great Anu and Antu of Heaven".[20] However, attestations of the latter astral body are limited to texts from Uruk, and no sources from earlier periods or other cities ever linked any stars to Antu.[22] According to Erica Reiner, it can be assumed that the "Great Antu" was one of the stars of the constellation Ursa Major.[23]

Worship

The Anubanini rock relief. Inscription mentioning Antu is visible in the bottom right corner.

Antu is already attested in the third millennium BCE, with the oldest possible reference tentatively identified in an

Old Babylonian period, but they are not common.[27] She also appears alongside Anu in the Agum-Kakrime inscription.[28] In incantations, she is attested in formulas against illness and demons,[29] for example Lamashtu.[19] In Maqlû, she is invoked against witches alongside Anu and Belet-Seri.[30]

In later periods, Antu was worshiped in

Pisangunug in the case of the other settlement.[34]

A change in Antu's status in Uruk occurred over the course of the

Emesal prayers[43] and formerly associated with Ishtar, came to be linked to the cult of Anu and Antu instead in Seleucid times.[44] In some cases, the change makes it possible to date individual texts with no other direct indication of their age than their authors being a kalû in service of one of these deities.[45] It is not certain if Seleucid kings were involved in the worship of Antu and other deities of Uruk, though it has been argued that the attested building and renovation projects required royal support.[46]

In texts from Seleucid Uruk, Antu almost always appears alongside Anu.[47] As argued by Joan Goodnick Westenholz, the local theologians effectively treated the pair as "one single divine manifestation".[8] She argues that the process of their elevation can therefore be seen as part of a broader phenomenon focused on predominance of city gods (rather than city goddesses) in the late period of Mesopotamian antiquity, which was linked to henotheist tendencies.[48] However, according to Julia Krul speculative henotheist theology, while well attested, never enjoyed much popularity outside of small intellectual circles.[49] It is also known that Antu was celebrated with a procession during the new year festival, during which she was accompanied by a number of deities normally not associated with her and seemingly grouped only for the sake of newly established celebrations: Bēlet-ilī, Shala, Mārāt-Ani ("Daughters of Anu"), Aya, Gula, Ninešgal ("Mistress of the Ešgal temple", a manifestation of Ishtar), Amasagnudi, Sadarnunna, Ašratu and Šarrat-šamê ("Queen of the Heavens", possibly another manifestation of Ishtar).[50] The formula "may it be preserved by the command of Anu and Antu" is attested in scholarly compositions, as well as legal and administrative documents, especially marriage agreements.[51] In addition to direct references to Antu in ritual and economic texts, she is also attested in theophoric names.[52]

Hurrian reception

Antu was at some point incorporated into

cultural sphere.[54] In Hurrian context Antu formed a triad alongside Anu and Apantu.[55] The latter deity's name according to Alfonso Archi was formed in assonance with her own.[4]

In a

freshwater springs in the proximity of Ugarit.[59] Due to multiple entries considered to be either similar scholarly inventions or scribal word plays, the list is not considered to be an accurate source of information about either Hurrian or Ugaritic religion.[60]

Mythology

Antu is mentioned in the so-called "Standard Babylonian" edition of the

Nanna and Ningal was more widespread.[62] Walter Burkert has suggested that the passage might have influenced the reference to Aphrodite's mother Dione in the Iliad, with the name Dione being a calque of Antu, as it is a feminine form of Zeus.[63] However, as stressed by Andrew R. George in his discussion of the work of Burkert and other authors who assume Homer was directly influenced by the Epic of Gilgamesh, it cannot be established with certainty that any possible similarities arose from direct contact with the Mesopotamian composition.[64] He notes it might be more plausible to assume similar motifs reflect a shared tradition rather than necessarily direct derivation.[65]

According to incantations against Lamashtu, Antu and Anu cast this demon down from heaven[66] and denied her the right to have a sanctuary (parakku) on earth.[67]

While Antu is not attested in

Ea in this composition, according to Spencer L. Allen based on supplementary evidence from an esoteric Assyrian commentary it is nonetheless possible that she was implicitly understood as his mother and thus as the grandmother of Marduk in derived tradition.[68]

In a

astronomical text, Papsukkal is described as the vizier of both Anu and Antu.[69]

References

  1. ^ a b c Krul 2018, p. 60.
  2. ^ a b c d Krebernik 2014, p. 403.
  3. ^ Krul 2018, p. 10.
  4. ^ a b Archi 1990, p. 116.
  5. ^ Beaulieu 1995, p. 190.
  6. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 421.
  7. ^ Krebernik 2014, pp. 401–402.
  8. ^ a b Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 96.
  9. ^ a b Verderame 2013, p. 118.
  10. ^ Jacobsen 1976, p. 95.
  11. ^ Nemet-Nejat 1998, p. 182.
  12. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 98.
  13. ^ Beaulieu 1995, pp. 187–188.
  14. ^ Krul 2018, p. 80.
  15. ^ a b c Beaulieu 2003, p. 115.
  16. ^ Brisch 2012.
  17. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 245.
  18. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 246.
  19. ^ a b Farber 2014, p. 299.
  20. ^ a b Krul 2018, p. 61.
  21. ^ George 2003, p. 131.
  22. ^ Krul 2018, pp. 180–181.
  23. ^ Reiner 1995, p. 139.
  24. ^ a b Beaulieu 1995, p. 191.
  25. ^ Frayne 1990, pp. 703–704.
  26. ^ Frayne 1990, p. 702.
  27. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 251.
  28. ^ Bartelmus 2017, p. 252.
  29. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 241.
  30. ^ Krul 2018, p. 64.
  31. ^ a b Beaulieu 2003, p. 310.
  32. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 21.
  33. ^ Beaulieu 2003, pp. 310–311.
  34. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 334.
  35. ^ Krul 2018, p. 25.
  36. ^ a b George 1993, p. 137.
  37. ^ George 1993, p. 90.
  38. ^ George 1993, p. 134.
  39. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 216.
  40. ^ Krul 2018, p. 19.
  41. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 125.
  42. ^ Beaulieu 1995, pp. 201–204.
  43. ^ Krul 2018, p. 31.
  44. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 181.
  45. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 319.
  46. ^ Krul 2018, p. 40.
  47. ^ Krul 2018, p. 62.
  48. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 132.
  49. ^ Krul 2018, p. 82.
  50. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 126.
  51. ^ Beaulieu 1995, p. 196.
  52. ^ Krul 2018, p. 71.
  53. ^ Taracha 2009, p. 126.
  54. ^ Archi 1990, pp. 120–121.
  55. ^ Archi 1990, p. 120.
  56. ^ Tugendhaft 2016, p. 175.
  57. ^ Tugendhaft 2016, pp. 180–181.
  58. ^ Tugendhaft 2016, p. 177.
  59. ^ Tugendhaft 2016, p. 181.
  60. ^ Tugendhaft 2016, pp. 181–182.
  61. ^ George 2003, p. 623.
  62. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 111.
  63. ^ Burkert 2005, p. 300.
  64. ^ George 2003, pp. 55–57.
  65. ^ George 2003, p. 57.
  66. ^ Farber 2014, p. 7.
  67. ^ Farber 2014, p. 324.
  68. ^ Allen 2015, p. 158.
  69. ^ Krul 2018, p. 149.

Bibliography

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