Yarikh
Yarikh | |
---|---|
Member of Gaṯarāma/ Gaṯarūma[1] | |
Other names | Arakh, Erakh |
Major cult center | Larugadu, Ugarit, Jericho, Beth Yerach |
Planet | Moon |
Personal information | |
Spouse | Nikkal (in Ugarit) |
Equivalents | |
Mesopotamian equivalent | Sin |
Hurrian equivalent | Kušuḫ |
Yarikh (
Ugarit ceased to exist during the
Name
The name Yarikh (Yariḫ; 𐎊𐎗𐎃 YRḪ
The name is grammatically masculine,[7] which is the norm for lunar deities across the Ancient Near East, in contrast with Greece, where the moon corresponded to a female deity, Selene.[8]
Cognates of Yarikh's name are present in many Semitic languages.[9] As a name for the celestial body and the ordinary word "month" they are attested in Hebrew: ירח YRḤ, Phoenician: 𐤉𐤓𐤇 YRḤ, Old Aramaic: 𐡉𐡓𐡇 YRḤ (however, the name of the Aramaic moon god, Śahr, is not a cognate[6]); Palmyrene Aramaic: 𐡩𐡴𐡧 YRḤ; and Nabataean Aramaic: 𐢌𐢛𐢊 YRḤ).[2] The Akkadian word warḫum, "month" or rarely "moon," is a cognate as well,[6] as are Old South Arabian wrḫ, "month," and the word warḫ, "moon" or "month," present in Ethiopian Semitic languages.[2]
In early Amorite tradition
It is presumed that the moon god was one of the major deities of the early Amorite pantheon.
Yarikh (Erakh) is well attested in Amorite
It is sometimes argued that in Mesopotamia Erakh/Yarikh and Sin might have been understood as, respectively, Amorite and Akkadian names of the same deity, rather than two separate moon gods.[10][12] However, Ichiro Nakata lists them separately from each other in his overview of deities attested in Mari, unlike the various variants of the names of the weather or solar gods.[19] The deity Sin-Amurrum, attested in the incantation series Maqlû (tablet VI, verse 4)[12] according to Karel van der Toorn might be the Mesopotamian name of the Amorite moon god.[12]
In Ugarit
Yarikh was regarded as one of the primary deities of the
In the standard Ugaritic deity lists, Yarikh follows the
Thirty individuals bearing
In addition to his presence in theophoric names, the Hurrian moon god Kušuḫ is also well attested in other documents from Ugarit.
Yarikh appears in a number of Ugaritic myths, but his role in them does not necessarily reflect his nature as a lunar deity.[52]
Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh
Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh (KTU 1.24) is the Ugaritic narrative composition which is focused on the moon god to the greatest degree.[53] It is agreed that it describes the circumstances which lead to the marriage of the eponymous deities, though its genre continues to be a topic of ongoing scholarly debate.[54] Steve A. Wiggins suggests that it is possible individual sections of the text do not necessarily belong to the same genre, making it possible to classify both as a myth and as a hymn.[54]
After a
It is sometimes assumed that in addition to the scenes described above, Yarikh also appears in the heavily damaged section of the myth occupying lines 5-15 of the tablet, which according to this theory describe a sexual encounter between him and Nikkal, but this is far from certain.[65] Steve A. Wiggins points out that even if it is accepted that sex is described, neither deity is mentioned by name, which makes it difficult to evaluate this proposal.[65]
The background of the entire myth is most likely
Other Ugaritic narrative texts
In addition to Marriage of Nikkal and Yarikh, the moon god also appears in the text KTU 1.114.
While Yarikh himself makes no appearance in KTU2 1.12, a minor goddess appearing in this text, Talish (tlš
The myth KTU 1.92 mentions Yarikh in passing as one of the gods who receive game from Ashtart after her return from a hunt.[85]
In Emar
In Emar, the name of the moon god was represented by the logogram d30.[86] It is not certain if he can be identified as Yarikh.[86] According to Brian B. Schmidt the moon god worshiped in Emar was Sin.[10] However, it is not impossible that more than one deity of such character was present in the local pantheon,[86] and Gary Beckman lists the West Semitic reading as one of the four possibilities, next to Mesopotamian, Hurrian and Anatolian (Arma).[87] It has also been proven that in at least some cases the logogram refers to Saggar, already worshiped in the proximity of Emar, in Ma-NEki, in the third millennium BCE.[46] Other writings of his name are also attested, including multiple syllabic and a second logographic one, dḪAR.[88] Priests of the deity designated by d30 are attested in documents from Emar, but there is no indication that one of the few temples identified during excavations belonged to him.[89]
In the first millennium BCE
While Ugarit ceased to exist during the Late Bronze Age collapse, possibly due to the activity of the Sea Peoples,[90] the worship of Yarikh continued elsewhere in the first millennium BCE.[10]
Phoenician and Punic sources
No explicit references to Yarikh occur in any
In known Punic sources, Yarikh is similarly absent from inscriptions, though he does appear in theophoric names.[96] One attested example is ‘bdyrḥ, "servant of Yarikh."[96] Similar evidence exists for another moon god, Saggar, who might have functioned as a personification of the new moon in Punic religion.[97] Lunar symbols are present on Punic stelae, though since the accompanying inscriptions usually only mention the heads of the pantheon, Baal Hammon and Tanit, it has been argued that they represent the former of these two deities, rather than Yarikh.[98] However, no textual sources support the theory that Baal Hammon was a lunar deity, and the fact that in Palmyra he was treated as entirely separate from the local lunar god Aglibol might be evidence on the contrary.[99] Additionally, it is possible that said symbols, as well as other similar astral ones, do not represent any specific god, but are meant to illustrate the celestial nature of the main deities.[100]
Ammonite and Moabite sources
As of 2000, only a single certain attestation of Yarkih from the kingdoms of the ancient
The evidence from the Moabite kingdom, which developed in parallel with the Ammon in the early first millennium BCE,[103] is limited to artistic depictions of the lunar crescent.[104] It has been argued that they might indicate the national god of the Moabites, Chemosh, at some point developed lunar characteristics.[101] Known textual sources from Moab mention neither Yarikh nor Sin.[104]
Israelite and Judahite sources
The worship of the moon was most likely practiced in the
It has been suggested that the numerous references to the moon being a celestial body subordinate to
Palmyrene sources
In sources from
See also
- Iah
- Sin (god)aka Nanna
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