Ishmekarab
Ishmekarab (Išmekarab) or Ishnikarab (Išnikarab)
In Mesopotamia Ishmekarab was worshiped as a member of various groups of judge deities, including the "standing god of Ebabbar" and three similar groups attested from Assyria from between the period of Erishum I's reign and the era of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Many attestations are also known from Susa in Elam, where a number of deities of Mesopotamian origin were worshiped.
Character
Ishmekarab was a deity of justice, described as a divine judge and in some cases invoked in legal formulas.
In Susa, Ishmekarab was associated with
It is possible that a minor deity depicted alongside a god on a snake throne (Inshushinak or Napirisha) on Elamite cylinder seals can be identified as Ishmekarab.[9]
Gender
Milad Jahangirfar notes that the gender of Ishmekarab is uncertain, and there is no consensus among researchers regarding this topic.[10]
Wilfred G. Lambert describes the view that Ishmekarab was female as "common but unfounded."[2] He notes that while the verb forms used to describe the actions of Ishmekarab and Lagamal in the so-called "Susa funerary texts" do leave the possibility that they were not two gods but a god and a goddess, there is no clear evidence otherwise.[11] Manfred Krebernik also considers Ishmekarab to be a male deity, and translates the name accordingly with the masculine pronoun as "he heard the prayer" ("Er erhörte das Gebet").[12] Katrien De Graef refers to Ishmekarab as a male deity too.[13]
However, Florence Malbran-Labat considers Ishmekarab to be a goddess,[14] and possibly the spouse of Inshushinak.[10] This view is also supported by Daniel T. Potts, who refers to Ishmekarab as the "lady of the siyan kuk" ("sacred precinct") at Chogha Zanbil.[15]
Worship
Ishmekarab is attested for the first time as a member of an Assyrian group of judge deities mentioned on a tablet from
The god list An = Anum mentions a group of divine judges referred to as the "standing gods of Ebabbar," one of whom was Ishmekarab,[12] in this case spelled dIš-me-kár-ab.[2] Two temples bearing the name Ebabbar (Sumerian: "shining white house"[18]) existed, one in Sippar and another in Larsa, both dedicated to Shamash and his wife Aya.[19] The "standing gods" were associated with the latter location.[12]
In Elam
Ishmekarab was introduced to
Ishmekarab is attested in many Akkadian
One inscription from the temple of Ishmekarab from Susa is regarded as particularly historically noteworthy due to being the first attestation of the use of the Elamite term siyan to refer to a temple in that city.[24] In this text, written in Akkadian, king Tempti-Agun states that he built a temple dedicated to this deity for the sake of his family, including his deceased mother Welkisha.[25]
Untash-Napirisha built a temple of Ishmekarab in Susa.[15] Another was built as a part of the Chogha Zanbil complex, next to these belonging to Nabu and the pair Kiririsha and Napirisha.[26] Shutruk-Nahhunte also built some sort of structure dedicated to Ishmekarab as a "gift," but his inscription mentioning this contains no precise identification of its nature or location.[27] According to an inscription of king Hutelutush-Inshushinak from Susa, another temple of Ishmekarab, surrounded by a sacred grove, existed in Kipû, a city whose location is presently unknown.[28] This type of houses of worship is known as siyan husame.[29] While many of them were dedicated to deities connected to the afterlife, this association does not appear to be exclusive, as deities such as Manzat and Simut, who had no such connections, also were worshiped in own siyan husame.[29]
Shilhak-Inshushinak was most likely particularly devoted to Ishmekarab, referring to this deity as "my god" (Elamite: na-pír-ú-ri).[2] He also named one of his daughters Ishmekarab-huhun.[1]
Ishmekarab was still worshiped in Elam in the neo-Elamite period.[30]
Later relevance
A well established theory connects the Elamite group of Inshushinak, Lagamal and Ishme-karab with the later Zoroastrian belief that after death souls are judged by Mithra, Sraosha and Rashnu.[31] However, this view is not universally accepted, and it has been pointed out that while the names of both Sraosha and Ishmekarab are etymologically connected to hearing, the natures of Rashnu and Lagamal do not appear to be similar.[7] Nathan Wasserman additionally questions if these three gods can be strictly considered a triad in the same way as the Zoroastrian judges.[7]
References
- ^ a b Potts 2010, p. 502.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lambert 1980, p. 196.
- ^ Jahangirfar 2018, p. 115.
- ^ a b De Graef 2018, p. 129.
- ^ De Graef 2018, p. 127.
- ^ Jahangirfar 2018, p. 106.
- ^ a b c Wasserman 2019, p. 876.
- ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 61.
- ^ De Graef 2018, pp. 130–131.
- ^ a b Jahangirfar 2018, p. 109.
- ^ Lambert 1980, pp. 196–197.
- ^ a b c d e Krebernik 2008, p. 358.
- ^ a b De Graef 2018, p. 126.
- ^ Malbran-Labat 2018, p. 468.
- ^ a b Potts 2010, p. 491.
- ^ Krebernik 2008, pp. 358–359.
- ^ a b Pongratz-Leisten 2015, p. 115.
- ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 255.
- ^ George 1993, p. 70.
- ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 330.
- ^ De Graef 2018, p. 125.
- ^ De Graef 2018, p. 140.
- ^ De Graef 2018, p. 134.
- ^ Potts 2010, p. 52.
- ^ Potts 2010, p. 485.
- ^ Potts 2010, p. 61.
- ^ Potts 2010, p. 507.
- ^ Potts 2010, p. 58.
- ^ a b Henkelman 2008, p. 443.
- ^ Henkelman 2008, p. 303.
- ^ Wasserman 2019, pp. 875–876.
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). ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0.
- De Graef, Katrien (2018). "The Seal of an Official or an Official Seal? The Use of Court Seals in Old Babylonian Susa and Haft Tepe" (PDF). Journal of the American Oriental Society. 138 (1). American Oriental Society. ISSN 0003-0279.
- George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. OCLC 27813103.
- Henkelman, Wouter F. M. (2008). The other gods who are: studies in Elamite-Iranian acculturation based on the Persepolis fortification texts. Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. ISBN 978-90-6258-414-7.
- Jahangirfar, Milad (2018). "The Elamite Triads: Reflections on the Possible Continuities in Iranian Tradition". Iranica Antiqua. 53: 105–124. Retrieved 2022-04-02.
- Krebernik, Manfred (2008), "Richtergott(heiten)", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-04-02
- Lambert, Wilfred G. (1980), "Išme-karāb", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-04-02
- Malbran-Labat, Florence (2018). "Elamite Royal Inscriptions". The Elamite World. Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. OCLC 1022561448.
- Pongratz-Leisten, Beate (2015). Religion and Ideology in Assyria. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER). De Gruyter. ISBN 978-1-61451-426-8. Retrieved 2022-03-31.
- Potts, Daniel T. (2010). "Elamite Temple Building". From the foundations to the crenellations: essays on temple building in the Ancient Near East and Hebrew Bible. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag. OCLC 618338811.
- Wasserman, Nathan (2019). "The Susa Funerary Texts: A New Edition and Re-Evaluation and the Question of Psychostasia in Ancient Mesopotamia". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 139 (4). American Oriental Society. S2CID 212994715.