Ishara

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Ishara
Tutelary deity of Ebla, goddess of love, oaths and divination
Ishtar

Ishara (Išḫara) was a goddess originally worshipped in

Dagan due to both of them being imported to Ur from the west. She was also linked to Ninkarrak
. In Hurrian tradition she developed an association with Allani.

The worship of Ishara is well documented in Eblaite texts. Next to

Hittite Empire
from the sixteenth century BCE onward from Syria and Kizzuwatna.

Both Mesopotamian and Hurrian myths involving Ishara are known. As a goddess of marriage, she is referenced in the

Song of Kumarbi
, she is among the deities the narrator invokes to listen to the tale.

Name

Multiple writings of Ishara's name are attested in

Egyptian goddesses in other sources.[20]

The

Hurrian pantheon whose names were derived from a linguistic substrate is also supported by Piotr Taracha [de].[29] Archi identifies the area Ishara was first worshiped in as located east of the city of Ebla itself, but still within its sphere of influence.[30] This proposal is also supported by Irene Sibbing-Plantholt.[31]

Character

The oldest attestations of Ishara from Ebla, such as these in documents from the reign of Irkab-Damu, indicate she was a tutelary goddess of the royal house.[32] Her role differed from that of Kura and Barama, who were also connected to the royal family, but seemingly functioned as a divine reflection of the reigning monarch and his spouse, rather than as dynastic tutelary deities.[4] According to Joan Goodnick Westenholz, after being transmitted eastwards to Mesopotamia in the third millennium BCE, Ishara lost this aspect of her character.[33] However, various later sources still recognize her as the tutelary goddess of this city.[34] A Hurrian text discovered in Emar refers to her as eb-la-be, "of Ebla".[35] It is also possible that the goddess Iblaītu known from the Tākultu rituals was analogous to her, though she has been alternatively interpreted as an epithet of Ishtar.[34] Alfonso Archi proposes that she originated as a hypostasis of Ishara associated with Ebla who reached Assyria in the Middle Assyrian period through Hurrian intermediaries.[36]

Ishara was associated with love in the texts from Ebla,[37] and Piotr Taracha [de] speculates this was the oldest aspect of her character.[14] She was represented in this role in Mesopotamia as well,[38] in part possibly due to her association with Ishtar,[39] though Frans Wiggermann regards the two of them as independent from each as goddesses of love.[40] She could be referred to as the "lady of love",[40] bēlet râme.[41] She was specifically connected to the institution of marriage,[30] as documented in a number of Akkadian šuillakku prayers, which were typically focused on requests of an individual person.[42] However, as noted by Gioele Zisa incantations associate her with erotic love as well.[43]

As evidenced by the epithet bēlet bīrim, "lady of divination", which is known from Syrian sources and the god list An = Anum, and references to "Ishara of the prophetesses" in texts from Emar, Ishara was strongly associated with divination and prophecy.[44] It is presumed that this role first developed in Babylonia in the first half of the second millennium BCE.[35] According to an Old Babylonian divination compendium, the omen corresponding jointly to her and Ḫišamītum was a red spot below the right armpit.[45]

Ishara was also invoked as a guardian of oaths.[46] In this context, she could be referred to as šarrat māmīti, "queen of the oath(s)".[31] Alfonso Archi has suggested that the sparsely attested theonym Memešarti known from Hurro-Hittite sources was a derivative of this title, with the order of the two components reversed.[47] However, Gernot Wilhelm [de] instead assumes that Memešarti might have been a group of deities, with the name being a collective noun with the Hurrian element -arde.[48] In Hurrian context, as a deity of oaths Ishara was referred to as elmiweni or elamiweni.[49] Hurro-Hittite sources indicate she was believed to punish oath-breakers, usually by inflicting them with a disease.[50] The Hittite verb išḫarišḫ- referred to being inflicted by an "Ishara illness".[51] It is not known what disease was referred to with this term.[52] It is also uncertain if the term "hand of Ishara" known from compendiums of omens from Mesopotamia and Emar referred to the same phenomenon.[53] However, it was also believed that if placated with offerings, Ishara could serve as a healing goddess.[54]

In Hurrian context, Ishara developed an association with the underworld.[55] However, according to Wilfred G. Lambert it is also documented for her in Mesopotamia.[56]

Alfonso Archi notes that in Ebla Ishara sometimes received weapons as offering, much like Hadad, Resheph and Hadabal,[57] which according to him might indicate she had a warlike aspect as well, which he considers comparable to a similar characteristic of Ishtar.[58] He proposes that as a warrior goddess she was possibly associated with axes.[59]

A further epithet applied to Ishara in Mesopotamia, bēlet dadmē, "lady of the dwellings",

Dagan (the last attested in Emar), similarly designating them as the deities linked to the "inhabited regions" and civic life.[61]

Dennis Pardee states that in Ugaritic context in addition to fulfilling her primary roles as a goddess of oaths and divination, Ishara was also linked to justice.[12]

Ishara could also be associated with cannabis.[40] This plant, known in Akkadian as qunnubu, is explained as the "herb of Ishara" in a Neo-Assyrian text, BM 103295.[62] However, said passage finds no parallel elsewhere.[63]

Iconography

A scorpion, the symbolic representation of Ishara, on a kudurru.

Ishara was portrayed as a youthful goddess.[64] She could be referred to with the Hurrian epithet šiduri, "young woman".[65]

In Mesopotamia Ishara's symbol was initially the

Leviticus 11:30, and Syriac ḥulmōtō, "chameleon".[70] While it has been translated simply as "snake" or "lizard", Aisha Rahmouni proposes that it designates a mythical creature analogous to bašmu, rather than a real animal.[71] She relies on descriptions of the appearance of the Akkadian ḫulmiṭṭu in lexical texts, which clarify that the term designates a mythical snake with legs.[72] Dennis Pardee assumes this epithet designated a "reptilian form" of Ishara.[12]

The seal of the Assyrian queen Hamâ with a scorpion symbol possibly representing Ishara.

In later periods in

Mesopotamian astronomy, Ishara was associated with mulgir-tab (literally "scorpion star").[56] A description of this constellation, which corresponds to Scorpius, is preserved in the compendium MUL.APIN
:

The Scorpion, Išḫara, goddess of all inhabited regions. The breast of Scorpius:

Associations with other deities

Family and court

No texts focused on establishing Ishara's genealogy have been identified, and the only reference to other deities being regarded as her parents occurs in a single source from

Song of Going Forth, as "Enlil and Apantu", though in a later Enlil occurs with Ninlil instead.[80] Alfonso Archi in his translation of the same passage chooses to leave the names blank.[81]

According to

Dumuzi and Nanaya and an unnamed lover.[85] A single Mesopotamian text commenting on magical formulas meant to protect a house from supernatural invaders refers to the Sebitti as her sons, but Frans Wiggermann in his study of this group of gods assumes that this should be considered a result of confusion between Ishara and similarly named underworld god Enmesharra, whose children the Sebitti were frequently identified as.[86]

In the Mesopotamian

Mesopotamian deity associated with her was Ningirima, a goddess associated with incantations, who shared her connection with snakes and with the "scorpion star".[93]

In Kizzuwatna, Ḫalma and Tuḫḫitra belonged to the entourage of Ishara.[94] Another deity associated with her in the same sources was Saggar, assumed to be analogous to the Eblaite Sanugaru, who was worshiped with her in Mane in the third millennium BCE already.[35] He was likely a moon god.[35] The compilers of An = Anum labeled him as the spouse of Ishara.[35] According to Volkert Haas, a connection between them is also attested in sources from Emar and the Khabur area.[95] Doris Prechel instead states that while both Saggar and Ḫalma are attested in texts from Emar, neither of them shows an apparent connection to Ishara in this context.[94] Other moon gods were associated with Ishara in Hurro-Hittite oath formulas.[96] In this context she was frequently linked with the Hurrian moon god, Kušuḫ (Umbu) and his spouse Nikkal due to their shared role as protectors of oaths.[97]

In Emar, Ishara could also be paired with the city god designated by the sumerogram dNIN.URTA, possibly to be identified with Il Imari, "the god of Emar", attested in sources from the same site.[14] Prechel additionally notes that in Babylon her temple was located close to that dedicated to Ninurta.[98]

Ishara and Ishtar

Ashtart is well attested in god lists from Ugarit.[103] Alfonso Archi proposes that the perception of Ishtar and Ishara as similar figures might have originally developed due to the former being superimposed over the latter's original position in Ebla.[104]

In Mesopotamia Ishara and Ishtar were associated with each other as goddesses of love, as already attested in

Old Babylonian period.[109] To differentiate it from the name Ishtar, it was consistently written without the divine determinative.[110]

Ishara and Dagan

Oldest evidence for a connection between Ishara and

Ur III period, specifically from the reign of Shu-Sin, and they continued to appear together in texts from the reigns of his successors Amar-Sin and Ibbi-Sin as well.[111] However, the connection between them was limited to Mesopotamian sources, with no attestations from other areas, and was most likely rooted only in their shared western origin and the resulting foreign status they shared in the eyes of Mesopotamian theologians.[112] A secondary factor might have been a shared connection to divination.[44] Western sources from modern Syria do not link them with each other.[112] In the god list An = Anum both Ishara and Dagan are placed in the section dedicated to Enlil, but no relation between them is indicated.[83]

While

Ishtar-like characteristics.[115]

Ishara and Ninkarrak

A number of sources attest the existence of a connection between Ishara and the medicine goddess

Old Assyrian treaty, a curse formula from Emar, and a god list from Mari.[116] Additionally both appear, though not next to each other, in Naram-Sin's treaty with Elam.[116] In An = Anum, the name Meme is applied both to Ishara and to Ninkarrak.[117]

Joan Goodnick Westenholz assumed that the association between Ishara and Ninkarrak might have developed due to shared origin in Syria.[116] Irene Sibbing-Plantholt more broadly connects it with both of them being worshiped on the peripheries of Mesopotamia, both in the west and in the east.[31] She also notes that since Ninkarrak was typically associated with dogs, and Ishara with snakes and scorpions, their functions might have been viewed as complementary.[8]

Ishara and Allani

In Hurrian context, as an underworld deity, Ishara was closely associated with Allani, the queen of the dead.[13] The connection between them is already present in documents from the Ur III period.[118] It might have been in part influenced by an association between Ishara and the Hurrian primeval deities,[49] which in turn developed due to her own underworld aspect.[119] Veneration of Ishara and Allani as a pair was an example of a broader phenomenon frequently attested in Hurrian sources, the worship of pairs of deities with similar spheres of influence as dyads, as also attested in the cases of Šauška's attendants Ninatta and Kulitta, the fate goddesses Hutena and Hutellura, Ḫepat and her son Šarruma,[120] or the astral deities Pinikir and DINGIR.GE6, so-called Goddess of the Night.[121]

Volkert Haas suggested that the placement of Ishara after Arsay in an Ugaritic offering list was a reflection of her association with Allani, as these two goddesses were seemingly regarded as analogous.[122]

Worship

Ebla

The worship of Ishara is well attested in sources from various sites from ancient

Jebel Ansariyah in the west to Emar and the Euphrates in the east.[124] Numerous settlements where Ishara was worshiped are mentioned in the Eblaite text corpus.[125] She is one of the two deities with the largest number of local hypostases, the other being Resheph, with ten attested for each of them in texts known as of 2020.[124] These included Isharas of Aḫadamu, Arugadu, Banaium, Guwalu, Mane, Uguaš, wa-NE-duki, Zidara, Zitilu and Zuramu.[126] However, only Mane was a city considered significant from the administrative point of view, as it functioned as Ebla's harbor on the Euphrates.[124] While most of these settlements were not a destination of royal pilgrimages,[125] some of them were visited by queens.[127] Such evidence exists for Zuramu, Uguaš and Mane.[128] A journey to these sanctuaries of Ishara was undertaken by the queen mother Dusigu at one point.[125] All three were under the control of Ebla at the time.[128] Offerings to Ishara of Zidara made by the queen and various princesses are also attested, though they took place in Ebla itself.[125] A number of references to Ishara being worshiped in the three cult centers of Hadabal, Arugadu, Hamadu and Luban, have been identified as well.[129] According to Alfonso Archi, in the first of these cities she was venerated in association with Eblaite rulers, as it served as their secondary residence.[4]

"Ishara of the king", a hypostasis meant to serve as a protector of the reigning Eblaite monarch, was worshiped in the temple of the city god Kura.[130] A statue of the royal hypostasis of Ishara was placed inside, and she could receive offerings in this building.[129] However, a separate temple dedicated to her existed in Ebla too.[4] Administrative texts indicate that multiple members of the Eblaite royal family and court were devotees of Ishara.[131] Personal devotion to the royal aspect of Ishara is best documented among women belonging to the royal house, such as Dusigu, the wife of Irkab-Damu and Kešdutu, a princess who was eventually sent to marry the king of Kish.[30] As an extension of her role in the royal cult, Ishara was worshiped during rituals connected to weddings of kings.[57] During preparations for it, the future Eblaite queen was expected to make offerings to Ishara and Kura.[132] The king instead made offerings to her after the return from the ceremony, which took place outside the city.[133] In Darib near Ebla, possibly to be identified with modern Atarib, Ishara was invoked in connection with the funerary cult of deceased Eblaite kings, alongside a god associated with this locality whose name is not preserved and the divine pairs of Hadabal and his nameless spouse, Resheph and Adamma and Agu and Guladu.[134] A form of Ishara linked to king Kun-damu was worshiped by his successors.[57] She is still attested as late as thirty years after his death.[4] In addition to such hypostases linked to the royal family, specifically to individual kings and queens mothers, one linked to the vizier Arrukum is also attested.[57] Further hypostases, a pair consisting of "major" (MAḪ) and "minor" (TUR) Isharas, are attested in an inventory of weapons.[30]

Both male and female servants (pa4-šeš) of Ishara are attested in the Eblaite texts.[131]

A single Eblaite document attests that Ishara was asked to purify the royal garden, though this location was more commonly associated with the local form of the god

Ea,[135] Ḥayya.[136] Sheis also attested in an Eblaite incantation (ARET V 16), which is dedicated to the Balikh River, here treated as a deity and addressed in the plural, the earth (ki), and other local deities, namely Hadda, Ammarik, Adarwan and Kamiš.[4]

With a single exception, Iti-Išḫara (I-ti-dŠARA8), the name of a messenger (U5) from Irpeš, a city located near the border with the kingdom of Emar, no

substrate are largely absent from the onomasticon, which might indicate that the name giving patterns in Ebla reflected not the popular religion in the documented period, but rather a more archaic tradition.[137]

Ebla was completely destroyed in the second half of the twenty fourth century BCE,[138] which resulted in the dissolution of the original form of the Eblaite pantheon.[114] However, in contrast with other Eblaite deities Ishara continued to be worshiped due to being incorporated into various other pantheons across Syria, Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia.[139] The association between her and Eblaite kingship persisted at least until the seventeenth century BCE.[9] A later king of Ebla, Indilimma, referred to himself as a servant of Ishara on his personal seal.[59]

Other early Syrian sites

Ishara is attested in sources from Nabada, a settlement in the Khabur Triangle which in the period documented in the Eblaite archive was under the control of Nagar.[99] While a month in the local calendar was named after Ishara, other major deities from the pantheon of Ebla like Kura or Hadabal are entirely absent.[140]

Ishara was also worshiped in

Dagan and dNIN.URTA she was one of the principal deities of this city.[104] This position has been described as typical for her in the tradition of northern Syria.[141] She was one of the five deities celebrated during the kissu festivals described in texts from Emar, which might have taken place in Šatappi, a settlement located further south.[142] The nature of these celebrations remain uncertain.[143] The kissu was not a part of the religious calendar of the city, and presumably only happened rarely.[144] She was celebrated in it alongside the city god dNIN.URTA.[145] She is also present in descriptions of the analogous festival dedicated to Dagan, alongside deities such as Shuwala and Ugur.[146] For unknown reasons, Ishara's status in the local pantheon is seemingly not acknowledged in the instructions for another local festival, zukru, where three of her hypostases - "mistress of the city" (GAŠAN URU.KI), "of the king" (ša LUGAL) and "of the prophetesses" (ša f.mešmux-nab-bi-ti) - occur separately from other major deities of the city, among these considered to be of secondary importance.[147] It is known that a shrine dedicated to the first of these forms existed.[144] Ishara also appears in curses in administrative texts meant to prevent breaking oaths.[148] Curse formulas pair her with deities such as the city god, the weather god, Dagan or Ninkarrak.[102] A text listing various objects tied to the worship of Ishara and regarded as her property is also known.[149] Multiple theophoric names invoking her have been identified in texts from Emar as well.[35]

Ishara is one of the deities invoked in a curse formula in an Old Babylonian inscription found in the citadel of Aleppo alongside Dagan, Sin, Nergal and Shamash, but the section focused on her is not preserved.[150]

Numerous theophoric names invoking Ishara are mentioned in the Mari text corpus,[151] with a total of 34 identified as of 2020.[102] Many of them belonged to women.[152] Overall in feminine names she is the third most frequently occurring goddess.[153] However, in cases where the place of origin of their bearers is specified, usually they are not from the city itself.[154] Examples include Iddin-Išḫara from Barḫān near Saggāratum,[155] Ḫabdu-Išḫara from Dēr (modern Abu Kamal),[156] Tupki-Išḫara from Emar,[157] Išḫara-asīya from Ḫišamta (a city near Terqa),[158] Zū-Išḫara (or possibly Warad-Išḫara) from Tuttul,[159] Išḫara-zamrati from Ya'il, a village located on the border between the districts of Terqa and Saggāratum whose inhabitants are well represented in the textual record,[160] and Išḫara-pilaḫ from Zurubbān, located on the bank of the Euphrates near Terqa and later Dura Europos.[161] Additionally, seven names of deportees from the Upper Khabur area between Sinjar Mountains and Mount Abdulaziz invoke Ishara, including those of three men, Ḫabdu-Išḫara, Išḫara-malakī and Pandi-Išḫara, and four women, Išḫara-damqa, Išḫara-naḫmī, Išḫara-nērī and Išḫara-ummī.[162] A text from the Asqudum archive from Mari mentions the offering of an ewe to Ishara.[163]

A selection of similar theophoric names as these known from Mari have been identified in texts from Terqa, Tuttul and Ekalte, though they were less frequent in these cases.[102] Examples from Tuttul include Abdu-Ishara ("servant of Ishara"),[164] La-Ishara ("one belonging to Ishara")[165] and Zu-Ishara ("the one of Ishara").[166]

Mesopotamian reception

Early attestations

In the third millennium BCE Ishara reached Mesopotamia, most likely with Mari serving as the intermediary.[167] She is already mentioned in sources from the Old Akkadian period, though these early attestations are not numerous.[168] She is one of the five Mesopotamian deities mentioned in a treaty between Naram-Sin of Akkad and an Elamite monarch, the other four being Ilaba, Manzat, Ninkarrak and Ninurta.[6] A further early attestation is a love incantation from Tell Ingharra, an archeological site located near Kish.[169]

It is also known that Ishara was worshiped in the

Adad.[170] She was also worshiped in Eshnunna itself and in Tell Ishchali.[31] Old Babylonian texts from the latter site mention a settlement named Dūr-Išḫara, whose location is presently unknown.[154] Ishara was also likely venerated in Tell Agrab.[5] She is additionally attested in personal names from the Chogha Gavaneh site in western Iran, which in the early second millennium BCE was a predominantly Akkadian settlement possibly connected to the kingdom of Eshnunna.[171]

Ur III period

Further south in

Dagan (and his spouse Shalash) with the middle Euphrates, and Belet Nagar, the goddess of Nagar (Tell Brak), with Khabur.[176] A temple dedicated jointly to Dagan and Ishara is documented in texts from this period, and while they do not specify its location, other evidence, such as theophoric names of associated officials, indicate it might have been located in Nippur.[177] Another house of worship, which Ishara shared with Belet Nagar, existed in Ur.[178]

For uncertain reasons, the veneration of Ishara by the royal family of the Ur III state is particularly well attested.

Allatum, Annunitum, Ulmašītum and the pair Belet-Šuḫnir and Belet-Terraban by Shulgi-simti, a wife of Shulgi.[173] She is well documented in the personal archive of this queen.[179] Offerings made to her on behalf of Abī-simtī [de] alongside these aimed at Dagan, Ḫabūrītum or Inanna are also attested.[180] During the reign of Shu-Sin, she received offerings at the royal court in Ur.[181] In the same period, she was worshiped during the erabbatum ceremony, possibly representation occasions when a deity was believed to enter the corresponding temple after a period spent outside it, for example during rituals held in the king's palace.[177] She also seemingly received offerings in Nippur, though the text documenting them is considered atypical due to lack of parallels to the list of deities mentioned in it.[182] All of these documents come from Puzrish-Dagan, which at the time served as a center of distribution of sacrificial animals.[183]

There is no evidence that the worship of Ishara was widespread in Mesopotamia in the Ur III period.[184] Theophoric names invoking her are uncommon in relevant sources, with the attested examples including NÌ-Išḫara (reading of the first sign is uncertain) identified in a text from Puzrish-Dagan from the reign of Shulgi and a number of separate individuals named Šū-Išḫara, "he of Ishara".[185] One of them was a representative of Mari who visited the royal court in Ur alongside Ili-Dagan of Ebla during the sixth year of Amar-Sin's reign.[167] Another Šū-Išḫara hailed from Babaz, an otherwise unknown location.[186]

Old Assyrian period

Transmission of the cult of Ishara to the north is also attested.

Ishtar.[15] However, references to her are not common in the texts from the karum.[190] It has been noted that no evidence had been found for her functioning as the family deity of any of its inhabitants.[191] Some of the texts from Kanesh mention a priestess bearing the theophoric name Ummī-Išhara, who was a daughter of one of the traders, though she resided in Assur rather than in the karum.[192]

In a treaty between Assyria and a king of Apum, Till-abnu (reigned in the middle of the eighteenth century BCE) from Tell Leilan (Shubat-Enlil), Ishara appears as one of the divine witnesses.[193] It is not certain with which of these two states she is linked in this context.[194] She was also worshiped in Chagar Bazar (Ašnakkum) while this site was under Assyrian control, as attested in texts from the reign of Shamshi-Adad I.[195] Three names invoking her have been identified in sources from this site: Ḫazip-Išḫara, Ibbi-Išḫara and Išḫara-šemēt.[196] According to Volkert Haas Tell al-Rimah was seemingly the northeastern limit of the extent of her cult in Mesopotamia, as evidenced by sources from this site which mention "Ishara of Artanya".[11] This hypostasis is attested in a text describing offerings made to her, Ishtar of Ninêt and Ishtar of Qattara by a certain Iltani.[197] Neither this hypostasis of Ishara not the associated settlement are known from any other sources.[193]

Old Babylonian period

Ishara also continued to be worshiped in Babylonia after the fall of the Ur III state, through the Old Babylonian period.[198] One of the earliest pieces of evidence is an offering list from Nippur from the reign of Warad-Sin of Larsa.[199] A temple of Ishara is mentioned in a text from Larsa dated to the reign of Hammurabi, but its location is unspecified.[200] She was also worshiped in Kish and near it, possibly in Ilip or Harbidum, as attested by references to a temple and a number of theophoric names.[201] Another temple dedicated to her existed in Sippar.[202] Offering lists from this city mention her too.[203] A legal text refers to an oath sworn by the snake (ba-aš-mu-um) of Ishara.[8] The formula "servant of Ishara" occurs in an inscription on a seal of a certain Illuratum.[204] Multiple theophoric names invoking her have been identified in texts from Sippar, for example Abdu-Išḫara ("servant of Ishara"), Malik-Išḫara ("Ishara is an advisor") or Nūr-Išḫara ("light of Ishara").[205] Theophoric names invoking her are also attested in Old Babylonian texts from Dilbat, but they are uncommon in this corpus.[198] Evidence from Ur is similarly limited to theophoric names.[206] At some point, possibly also in the Old Babylonian period, Ishara was also presumably worshiped in Kisurra, as an incantation known from a Neo-Assyrian copy refers to her as the queen of this city (šar-rat ki-sur-ri-eki).[207]

Late attestations

The number of theophoric names invoking Ishara declined after the Old Babylonian period.

Kassite period.[209] Two of them, Rabâ-(epšētu-)ša-Išḫara, "great are (the deeds) of Ishara" and Išḫara-šarrat, "Ishara is queen", occur in texts dated to the reign of Nazi-Maruttash.[208] She is also referenced in a number of inscriptions on kudurru, inscribed boundary stones, as first attested during the reign of Meli-Shipak.[210] One such object from the reign of Nazi-Maruttash mentions her in an explanation of symbols used to decorate the stones.[211] Another kudurru inscription invoking her has been dated to the reign of Marduk-nādin-aḫḫē, but its provenance is unknown.[212] An inscription of Adad-nirari I mentions the rebuilding of a chapel of Ishara inside E-me-Inanna, "house of the me of Inanna", the temple of Ishtar-Aššuritu in Assur.[213] Its own ceremonial name is unknown.[214]

In the first millennium BCE, Mesopotamia was the only area where Ishara continued to be worshiped, with attestations available from both Assyria and Babylonia.

Ea.[216] The sources pertaining to the tākultu ritual place her among the deities associated with the temple of Adad and Anu in Assur.[217] A šuillakku prayer to Ishara belonged to a series dedicated to "great of sublime goddesses" (ištarāte rabâte u ṣīrāte), a part of which has been discovered in the temple of Nabu in Nimrud, though a reference to her only occurs in a catchline in the end of the recovered tablet briefly describing the contents of the presently lost next part.[218] She was also worshiped in the city of Babylon,[219] though this constituted a late development.[220] She nonetheless had her own temple there.[219] It bore the ceremonial name Ešasurra, "house of the womb", and according to Andrew R. George can be identified with the building designated as "temple Z" during excavations.[221] It is only known from topographical texts and a single administrative tablet.[222] A street named after Ishara might have existed in the same city.[223] A cultic calendar indicates that she continued to be worshiped in Babylon in the Hellenistic period.[224]

Ishara is also attested in Seleucid sources from Uruk, though she is absent from earlier Neo-Babylonian texts from the same location.[225] It has been pointed out that she is mentioned in a description of the customs of Uruk in the Old Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but her role in the contemporary religious life of the city is uncertain.[226] In the Seleucid period she was seemingly worshiped in the temple of Bēlet-īli.[227] According to Julia Krul she was presumably introduced to the local pantheon in the late first millennium BCE due to her well attested connection with Ishtar documented in god lists, similarly to Ninsianna.[228]

Hurrian reception

Statue of king Idrimi of Alalakh, whose inscriptions designate Ishara as the "lady" of his city.[14]

Due to being worshiped in many locations in Syria in the third and second millennia BCE, Ishara was also incorporated into the

Damkina.[230] She was also venerated in Mardaman, east of the Tigris.[231] A further location where she is attested in Hurrian context is Alalakh, a Hurrianized city in western Syria.[15] She was called the "Lady of Alalakh", as indicated by an inscription of king Idrimi.[14] According to Piotr Taracha [de], she was the third most important deity in the pantheon of that city, after the storm god (Teshub) and the sun god (Šimige).[232] However, the oldest evidence for the veneration of Ishara in this city, dated from the Old Babylonian period, is limited to theophoric names.[206] Most of them are Hurrian, for example Eḫli-Išḫara ("Išḫara saves"), Ewri-Išḫara ("Išḫara is king"), Taki-Išḫara ("Išḫara is beautiful") and Wanti-Išḫara (meaning unknown), though Ummī-Išḫara ("my mother is Išḫara") is an exception.[15] A reference to a SANGA priest in her service, a certain Tulpiya, is also known.[233]

Kizzuwatna

The Hurrian traditions pertaining to the worship of Ishara were part of the religion of the kingdom of

Buildings referred to as ḫamri were associated with Ishara, and she could accordingly be described as ḫamrawann(i)-, "inhabitant of ḫamri".

linguistic substrate at some point spoken in Upper Mesopotamia.[238] Buildings designated by this term are mentioned in Anatolian texts written in Hurrian, Luwian and Hittite, but their earliest attestations go back to Upper Mesopotamia and northern Babylonia in the early second millennium BCE.[239] They functioned as an institution connected to swearing oaths, rather than as temples of specific deities.[240] Different deities were linked to them in different areas, with various weather gods, Ashur and possibly Shamash attested in addition to Ishara.[238]

The worship of Ishara in Kizzuwatna involved priestesses designated by the akkadogram ĒNTU.[241] It was read in this context as katra or katri, and the women designated by it were otherwise only involved in the worship of the so-called "Goddess of the Night",[242] a Hurrian deity[243] whose name was always written logographically and as such remains uncertain.[244] Another class of clergy of Ishara were the išḫaralli priestesses, who were not associated with any other deities.[242] They were involved in funerary rituals.[245]

Ishara was also one of the three main goddesses venerated during the ḫišuwa [de] festival, the other two being Lelluri and Maliya.[246] During this celebration, which was meant to guarantee good fortune for the royal couple, she received offerings alongside "Teshub Manuzi," Lelluri, Allani, two hypostases of Nupatik (pibithi - "of Pibid(a)" and zalmathi - "of Zalman(a)/Zalmat") and Maliya.[247] Instructions for this celebration prescribe covering the statue of Ishara with a red draped garment, while that of Allani with an identical blue one.[248] Another Kizzuwatnean festival, dedicated specifically to Ishara, took place in autumn.[246]

Ugarit

Ishara was one of the Hurrian deities worshiped in Ugarit.[249] An incantation from this site written in Hurrian but using the local alphabetic script (RS 24.285 = KTU3 1.131) is focused on her and invokes her to

guard the land (as far as) poplar-filled Emar to Ṣiyurašše, Mudkin to Nirabe, Yabla to Alliše, Naštarbi to Šidurašše, Tunanab to Šaydar, (and) Ugarit to Zulude![250]

All of the toponyms listed appear to be pairs consisting of a city located on the

Ashtart and her Hurrian counterpart Šauška and combines Ugaritic and Hurrian elements.[254] It prescribes making an offering to Ishara between these meant for Hutellura and Allani.[253]

In addition to appearing in Hurrian sources from Ugarit, Ishara was also firmly integrated into the strictly local

pantheon.[255] In the standard Ugaritic list of deities, known from multiple copies both in the local script and in standard syllabic cuneiform, presumed to record the prescribed order of sacrifices,[256] she appears in the twenty fourth position, after Arsay and before Ashtart.[257] Another similar text places her before Gaṯaru and after a deity whose name is not preserved.[258] In RS 24.643, an account of rituals which seemingly took place in the two months following the winter solstice, [259] enumerates various deities who should receive a sacrificial ram each during them, among them Ishara.[260] RS 1.001, a ritual taking place over the course of a day and the following night which was the first text discovered during the excavations at the site of Ugarit (Ras Shamra),[261] prescribes the offering of a cow to her at night, after a similar sacrifice made to Ilu-Bêti,[262]the "god of the house", who also precedes her in the list RS 24.246,[263] the first fourteen lines of which appear to match the order of deities mentioned in RS 1.001.[264] Dennis Pardee argues that Ilu-Bêti was the tutelary deity of the royal palace and the royal family, and suggests identifying him with Hadad.[265]

Hittite reception

Ishara on the Yazılıkaya reliefs, depicted between Allani and Nabarbi.

Ishara was also incorporated into

Kanesh.[267]

As a guardian of oaths, Ishara appears in a standard enumeration of deities in Hittite treaties.[268] Military oaths were particularly closely associated with her.[46]

Ishara is likely among the deities depicted in the Yazılıkaya sanctuary, where she appears between Allani and Nabarbi in a procession of goddesses following Ḫepat whose order mirrors the Hurrian kaluti [de] of this goddess.[269]

Mythology

Mesopotamian myths

The

consummated, and should not be treated as a reference to a sacred marriage rite, especially since the role of Ishara in the pantheon of Uruk is uncertain.[226] In Atrahasis, she is invoked during preparations for a wedding.[223]

Hurrian myths

Ishara appears in a myth known from an original

etiological explanation of the historical destruction of Ebla.[273]

Ishara also appears in the proemium of the

Song of Kumarbi, part of a Hurrian cycle of myths about the eponymous god, as one of the deities invited to listen to narrator's tale.[80]

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Bibliography

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