Lelluri

Last updated
Lelluri
Mountain goddess
Major cult center Haššuwa
Personal information
Spouse Manuzi
Equivalents
Mesopotamian equivalent Ninmena

Lelluri (also spelled Lilluri, Liluri) was a Hurrian goddess worshiped in southeastern Anatolia and northern Syria. She was associated with mountains, and in known sources appears in connection with the god Manuzi.

Contents

Character

Lelluri most likely originated in the Nur Mountains, and her name ends with the Hurrian suffix -luri, known also from the theonyms Upelluri (a primordial giant from the Kumarbi Cycle), and Impaluri ( sukkal of the sea god), as well as a number of Hurrian mountain and stone names. [1] Assyriologist Beate Pongratz-Leisten regards her as a deity "associated with Hurrian identity." [2] Volkert Haas describes Lelluri as "lady of the mountains" ("die Herrin der Gebirge"). [3]

She was closely linked with Manuzi, a god associated with both the weather and mountains. [4] She was likely his partner, and that they shared a temple in Kummani. [5]

A lexical text from Emar indicates that she was understood as analogous to the Mesopotamian goddess Ninmena. [1]

Worship

According to Volkert Haas, Lelluri was worshiped chiefly in the proximity of Nur Mountains and Orontes River in the west and as far east as the middle of the Euphrates. [1] In Kizzuwatna she was celebrated during the hišuwa festival, whose purpose was to guarantee the wellbeing of the king and his family. Among the other deities present in texts pertaining to it are "Teshub Manuzi" (weather god of [Mt.] Manuzi) Ishara, Allani, Maliya and two hyposthases of Nupatik. [6] During the festival, the formula "Lelluri has achieved her heart's desire" had to be recited aloud after pouring an offering for her into a rhyton. [7] A so-called ambašši offering to her consisted out of a lamb, a goose, a sheep and a loaf of bread. [8]

Like the so-called "Syrian substrate" deities (Ishara, Kubaba, Aštabi, Adamma), Hebat and Šarruma Lelluri was also incorporated into Hittite religion. [9] King Ḫattušili I mentions her (alongside Allatum, the storm god of Aleppo, and the mountain gods Adalur and Amaruk) among the deities whose statues he brought to Hatti as war booty. [10] However, the exact location of the city of Haššuwa from which she was brought remains unknown. [11]

Related Research Articles

Kušuḫ Hurrian lunar god

Kušuḫ, also known under the name Umbu, was the Hurrian god of the moon. He is attested in cuneiform texts from many sites, from Hattusa in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alalakh, Mari and other locations in Syria, to Nuzi, located near modern Kirkuk in Iraq, but known sources do not indicate that he was associated with a single city. His name might be derived from the toponym Kuzina, possibly the Hurrian name of Harran, a city in Upper Mesopotamia, but both this etymology and identification of this sparsely attested place name remain uncertain. He was a popular, commonly worshiped god, and many theophoric names invoking him are known. In addition to serving as a divine representation of the moon, he was also associated with oaths, oracles and pregnancy. Some aspects of his character were likely influenced by his Mesopotamian counterpart Sin, while he in turn was an influence on the Ugaritic god Yarikh and Luwian Arma.

Kamrušepa was a Hittite and Luwian goddess of medicine and magic, analogous to Hattic and Palaic goddess Kataḫzipuri. She is best known as one of the deities involved in the Telepinu Myth, in which her actions were crucial to pacify the anger of the "missing" vegetation god.

Ishara Tutelary goddess of Ebla

Ishara (Išḫara) was the tutelary goddess of the ancient Syrian city of Ebla. The origin of her name is unknown. Both Hurrian and West Semitic etymologies have been proposed, but they found no broad support and today it is often assumed that her name belongs to an unknown linguistic substrate.

Manuzi was a mountain god worshiped in Kizzuwatna. He shared his name with the mountain he represented and with a village. He is best attested from sources pertaining to the hišuwa festival, which indicate he was the husband of the goddess Lelluri. He could be identified as a form of the Hurrian weather god Teshub as well, and as such was referred to as Teshub Manuzi.

Šauška Hurrian goddess of love and war

Šauška (Shaushka), also called Šauša or Šawuška, was the highest ranked goddess in the Hurrian pantheon, associated with love and war, as well as with incantations and by extension with healing. While she was usually referred to as a goddess and with feminine titles, such as allai, references to masculine Shaushka are also known. The Hurrians associated her with Nineveh, but she was also worshiped in many other centers associated with this culture, from Anatolian cities in Kizzuwatna, through Alalakh and Ugarit in Syria, to Nuzi and Ulamme in northeastern Mesopotamia. She was also worshiped in southern Mesopotamia, where she was introduced alongside a number of other foreign deities in the Ur III period. In this area, she came to be associated with Ishtar. At a later point in time, growing Hurrian influence on Hittite culture resulted in the adoption of Shaushka into the Hittite state pantheon.

Allani Hurrian goddess of the underworld

Allani, also known under the Akkadian name Allatu was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld, incorporated into Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons as well.

Hurrian religion Polytheistic religion in the Bronze Age Near East

The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic religion of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East who chiefly inhabited the north of the Fertile Crescent. While the oldest evidence goes back to the third millennium BCE, is best attested in cuneiform sources from the second millennium BCE written not only in the Hurrian language, but also Akkadian, Hittite and Ugaritic. It was shaped by the contacts between Hurrians and various cultures they coexisted with. As a result, the Hurrian pantheon included both natively Hurrian deities and those of foreign origin, adopted from Mesopotamian, Syrian, Anatolian and Elamite beliefs. The culture of the Hurrians were not entirely homogeneous, and different local religious traditions are documented in sources from Hurrian kingdoms such as Arrapha, Kizzuwatna and Mitanni, as well as from cities with sizeable Hurrian populations, such as Ugarit and Alalakh.

The Sun goddess of the Earth was the Hittite goddess of the underworld. Her Hurrian equivalent was Allani and her Sumerian/Akkadian equivalent was Ereshkigal, both of which had a marked influence on the Hittite goddess from an early date. In the Neo-Hittite period, the Hattian underworld god, Lelwani was also syncretised with her.

Sun god of Heaven

The Sun god of Heaven was a Hittite solar deity. He was the second-most worshipped solar deity of the Hittites, after the Sun goddess of Arinna. The Sun god of Heaven was identified with the Hurrian solar deity, Šimige.

Šimige Hurrian sun god

Šimige was the Hurrian sun god. Known sources do not associate him with any specific location, but he is attested in documents from various settlements inhabited by the Hurrians, from Kizzuwatnean cities in modern Turkey, through Ugarit, Alalakh and Mari in Syria, to Nuzi, in antiquity a part of the kingdom of Arrapha in northeastern Iraq. His character was to a large degree based on his Mesopotamian counterpart Shamash, though they were not identical. Šimige was in turn an influence on the Hittite Sun god of Heaven and Luwian Tiwaz.

Goddess of the Night (Sumerian: 𒀭𒈪, DINGIR.GE6) was a deity worshiped in the Hurrian kingdom of Kizzuwatna, and later also in Šamuḫa in the Hittite Empire. Only the logographic writing of her name is known, and multiple attempts at identifying her identity have been made. Most researchers assume that she was at least partially similar to goddesses such as Ishtar, Šauška and Ishara. She most likely represented the night sky, and was also associated with dreaming.

Belet Nagar Tutelary goddess of Nagar

Belet Nagar was the tutelary goddess of the ancient Syrian city Nagar. She was also worshiped by the Hurrians and in Mesopotamia. She was connected with kingship, but much about her role in the religions of ancient Near East remains uncertain.

Adamma was a goddess from the pantheon of Ebla, later incorporated into Hurrian religion.

Nupatik Hurro-Hittite god

Nupatik, also known as Lubadag, was a Hurrian god of uncertain character. He is attested in the earliest inscriptions from Urkesh, as well as in texts from many other Hurrian settlements, and possibly continued to be worshiped as late as in the neo-Assyrian period. However, his functions remain uncertain.

Shuwala (Šuwala) was a Hurrian goddess who was regarded as the tutelary deity of Mardaman, a Hurrian city in the north of modern Iraq. She was also worshiped in other Hurrian centers, such as Nuzi and Alalakh, as well as in Ur in Mesopotamia, Hattusa in the Hittite Empire and in the Syrian cities Emar and Ugarit.

Ugur or Uqur(dU.GUR) was a god worshiped in various parts of the Ancient Near East. He was connected with the Mesopotamian deity Nergal. Much like him, he was associated with war and death. He was also originally regarded as his sukkal.

Nabarbi Hurrian goddess

Nabarbi was a Hurrian goddess worshiped in the proximity of the river Khabur, especially in the city Taite. It has been proposed that she was associated with the Syrian goddess Belet Nagar.

Takitu, Takiti or Daqitu was a Hurrian goddess who served as the sukkal of Ḫepat. She appears alongside her mistress in a number of Hurrian myths, in which she is portrayed as her closest confidante. Her name is usually assumed to have its origin in a Semitic language, though a possible Hurrian etymology has also been proposed. She was worshiped in Hattusa, Lawazantiya and Ugarit.

Ḫešui, also known as Ḫišue, was a Hurrian war god. He was also incorporated into the Hittite pantheon. He is sparsely attested in known sources, and his origin and the meaning of his name remain unknown.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Haas 2015, p. 409.
  2. Pongratz-Leisten 2015, p. 71.
  3. Haas 1982, p. 102.
  4. Haas 2015, p. 410.
  5. Haas 2015, p. 849.
  6. Taracha 2009, p. 138.
  7. Collins 1995, p. 323.
  8. Haas 2015, p. 664.
  9. Taracha 2009, pp. 119–120.
  10. Sazonov 2019, p. 68.
  11. Wilhelm 1992, p. 28.

Bibliography