Urkayītu

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Urkayītu
Goddess of Uruk
Member of the pentad of Uruk
Major cult centerUruk

Urkayītu,

Mesopotamian goddess who likely functioned as the divine representation of the city of Uruk. Her name was initially an epithet of Inanna, but later she came to be viewed as a separate goddess. She was closely associated with Uṣur-amāssu, and like her belonged to the pentad of main goddesses of Uruk in the Neo-Babylonian period. She also continued to be worshiped in this city under Achaemenid and Seleucid
rule.

Name

The

Mesopotamian goddesses which were etymologically adjectives derived from the names of corresponding cities are common, and the earliest examples are known from the third millennium BCE.[4] The earliest attested form of Urkayītu's name is Urkītum.[2] According to Manfred Krebernik, a late school text from Babylon still lists this version of the name as one of the two "Daughters of E-Ningublaga" alongside Mannu-šāninšu,[5] but according to Andrew R. George[6] and Joan Goodnick Westenholz the second theonym in this passage should be restored as Larsam-iti, dLarsam(UD.UNU.KI)-i-ti.[7]

The spelling of Urkayītu's name in cuneiform shows a degree of variety in known sources.[8] While in texts from the first millennium BCE the name of the city of Uruk is typically written with logograms (UNUGki, uruUNUGki, TIR.AN.NAki), and syllabic spellings are rare, the opposite is true for the theonym derived from it.[3] Examples of partially logographic spellings are nonetheless known, for example dUNUGki-i-tú or dUNUGki-a-ti.[8] In Neo-Assyrian sources, the attested syllabic spellings are dUr-kit and dUr-kit-tú.[9] Neo-Babylonian variants include, among others, dUš-ka-a-a-i-tu4 and dÁš-ka-a-a-i-tu4.[8] It has been proposed that an earlier logographic theonym, AN.dINANNA(-Unuki), was read as Urkītum in Akkadian,[10] though there is no agreement regarding this problem in scholarship and which deity or deities it refers to remains uncertain.[11]

Character

It has been proposed that Urkayītu can be understood as a theos eponymos of Uruk, a divine representation of the city.

Dumuzi from the same period nonetheless still treats this theonym as an epithet of Inanna.[9]

Worship

The oldest attestations of the theonym Urkayītu (Urkītum) come from the

Old Babylonian period,[2] though it is impossible to tell if it was already understood as the name of a distinct goddess at this time.[9] A text from Kish mentions a SANGA priest of Urkayītu whose presence in this city was most likely an effect of transfer of cults from Uruk to the north during the reign of Samsu-iluna.[10] Theophoric names such as Urkītum-ummī ("Urkayītu is my mother") or Ṣillī-Urkītum ("Urkayītu is my protection") are also known.[2]

References to Urkayītu occur in a number of Neo-Assyrian texts.[9] She is listed among deities Shamshi-Adad V took away from Der.[10] Ashurbanipal in one of his inscriptions states that he brought her back to Eanna in Uruk from Elam alongside Nanaya and Uṣur-amāssu.[14]

Urkayītu is well represented in texts from

watercourses invoking Urkayītu are attested in Neo-Babylonian texts from Uruk, Ḫarru-ša-Urkayītu and Nāru-ša-Urkayītu, though they might refer to the same topographic feature.[20] She is also attested in theophoric names from this city, such as Urkayītu-ṭābat ("Urkayītu is benevolent") and Ina-ṣilli-Urkayītu ("Under the protection of Urkayītu"), and from outside it, for example Urkayītu-ēreš.[8]

A document from the reign of Darius I indicates Urkayītu was still worshiped under Achaemenid rule.[8] Joan Goodnick Westenholz assumed that in the subsequent Seleucid period she and Uṣur-amāssu were replaced by Belet-Seri and Šarrāḫītu in the local pantheon of Uruk.[25] However, more recently Julia Krul pointed out she is still listed attested in Seleucid sources, and appears among the deities partaking in the Akitu festival of Ishtar in this period.[26] However, despite still being actively worshiped, she no longer appears in theophoric names in the late texts.[27]

References

  1. ^ a b c Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 104.
  2. ^ a b c d e Krebernik 2014, p. 418.
  3. ^ a b Beaulieu 2014, p. 452.
  4. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 133.
  5. ^ Krebernik 2016, p. 353.
  6. ^ George 2000, p. 295.
  7. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 113.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Beaulieu 2003, p. 256.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Beaulieu 2003, p. 255.
  10. ^ a b c d Krebernik 2014, p. 419.
  11. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 91.
  12. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 71.
  13. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 103.
  14. ^ Krul 2018, p. 98.
  15. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 179.
  16. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 103.
  17. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 261.
  18. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 229.
  19. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 120.
  20. ^ a b Beaulieu 2003, p. 230.
  21. ^ Krul 2018, p. 198.
  22. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 263.
  23. ^ Beaulieu 2003, pp. 259–261.
  24. ^ Beaulieu 2003, pp. 257–258.
  25. ^ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 132.
  26. ^ Krul 2018, pp. 68–69.
  27. ^ Krul 2018, p. 73.

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
    .
  • Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2003). The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period. Leiden Boston: Brill STYX.
    OCLC 51944564
    .
  • Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2014), "Uruk A. III. Philologisch. Im 1. Jahrtausend · Uruk A. III. Philological. In the 1st millennium B.C.", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-10-14
  • George, Andrew R. (2000). "Four Temple Rituals from Babylon". Wisdom, Gods and Literature: Studies in Assyriology in Honour of W. G. Lambert. Eisenbrauns.
    ISBN 978-1-57506-004-0
    . Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  • Krebernik, Manfred (2014), "Urkītum", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-10-14
  • Krebernik, Manfred (2016), "Zwillingsgottheiten", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-10-16
  • Krul, Julia (2018). The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk. Brill.
    ISBN 9789004364936
    .
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