| Deities of the ancient Near East |
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| Religions of the ancient Near East |
Nahundi or Nahhundi (in Akkadian Nahhunte; Nahiti in the treaty of Naram-Sin; also written with the logogram dUtu) was the Elamite god of the sun. The etymology of his name isn't known, but it might be a cognate of a common Elamite word for "day", and is perhaps even homophonous with it. [1]
Shilhak-Inshushinak called him "lord who protects" in an inscription which mentions him after Inshushinak, Kiririsha, Humban and Nannara; he also called himself "servant of Nahhundi, beloved of Inshushinak." [2] However, few references to his temples are known, with the exception of one built as part of Untash-Napirisha's Chogha Zanbil project; he's not mentioned in known lists of disbursals to specific gods either. [3] Theophoric names invoking him are nonetheless common, and a prominent Elamite king, Shutruk-Nahhunte, was named after this god. The wife of Shilhak-Inshushinak was named Nahhunte-utu. [4]
It's possible that in some contexts Nahhundi was a god of legal matters like Shamash in Mesopotamia.He was however never equated with him in god lists; in An-Anum he instead appears as part of a group called "Divine seven of Elam." A single Mesopotamian text erroneously identified Nahhundi as a moon god and the equivalent of Nanna, and the goddess Narunde as a sun god. [5]
Elam was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of southern Iraq. The modern name Elam stems from the Sumerian transliteration elam(a), along with the later Akkadian elamtu, and the Elamite haltamti. Elamite states were among the leading political forces of the Ancient Near East. In classical literature, Elam was also known as Susiana, a name derived from its capital Susa.
In Mesopotamian mythology, Ereshkigal was the goddess of Kur, the land of the dead or underworld in Sumerian mythology. In later myths, she was said to rule Irkalla alongside her husband Nergal. Sometimes her name is given as Irkalla, similar to the way the name Hades was used in Greek mythology for both the underworld and its ruler, and sometimes it is given as Ninkigal, lit. "Lady of the Great Earth".
Zababa was the tutelary deity of the city of Kish in ancient Mesopotamia. He was a war god. While he was regarded as similar to Ninurta and Nergal, he was never fully conflated with them. His worship is attested from between the Early Dynastic to Achaemenid periods, with the Old Babylonian kings being particularly devoted to him. Starting with the Old Babylonian period, he was regarded as married to the goddess Bau.
Inshushinak was one of the major gods of the Elamites and the protector deity of Susa. He was called rišar napappair, "greatest of gods" in some inscriptions.
Ḫannaḫanna was a Hittite mother goddess.
Sarpanit was the consort of Marduk, the main god of Babylon, and a goddess of birth. She was already attested as the wife of Marduk before his ascension to the top of the Mesopotamian pantheon, appearing in inscriptions of the Babylonian kings Sumulael and Samsu-iluna. Some researchers regard her simply as one of the "prototypical divine wives."
Meli-Šipak II, or alternatively Melišiḫu in contemporary inscriptions, was the 33rd king of the Kassite or 3rd Dynasty of Babylon ca. 1186–1172 BC and he ruled for 15 years. His reign marks the critical synchronization point in the chronology of the Ancient Near East.
Kabta, inscribed dkab-ta, dka-ab-ta, dTA-gu-nû, or later dTAxMI, was a rather obscure Mesopotamian deity who appears in texts and seals of the second and first millennium BC. He is frequently paired with Ninsi’anna, the “Red Lady of the Heavens” or Venus star, who immediately follows him on the Weidner god-list.
Ishum or Išum was a minor god in Akkadian mythology, the son of Shamash and sukkal of Erra (Nergal).
The Sebitti or Sebittu are a group of seven minor war gods in Neo-Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and especially Assyrian tradition. They also appear in sources from Emar. Multiple different interpretations of the term occur in Mesopotamian literature.
Kiririsha was a major goddess worshiped in Elam.
Dilbat was an ancient Sumerian minor tell located southeast from Babylon on the eastern bank of the Western Euphrates in modern-day Al-Qādisiyyah, Iraq. The ziggurat E-ibe-Anu, dedicated to Urash, a minor local deity distinct from the earth goddess Urash, was located in the center of the city and was mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Marduk-kabit-aḫḫēšu, "Marduk is the most important among his brothers", c. 1153–1136 BC, was the founder of the 2nd Dynasty of Isin, which was to rule Babylon until around 1022 BC. He apparently acceded in the aftermath of the Elamite overthrow of the Kassite Dynasty. His name and length of reign are most clearly ascertained from the Babylonian King List C which gives 18 years for his rule.
Kaššu-nādin-aḫi or -aḫḫē, mBI(=kaš)-šú-u-MU-ŠEŠ, “(the) Kassite (god) gives (a) brother(s),” was the 3rd and final king of the 2nd Sealand Dynasty of Babylon, c. 1003–1001 BC. His brief three-year reign was marked by distressed times. There was a famine so severe that it caused the suspension of the regular food and drink offerings at the Ebabbar, or white house, temple of Šamaš in Sippar.
Itti-Marduk-balāṭu, inscribed mKI-dAMAR.UTU-DIN “with Marduk life,” c. 1135–1128 BC, was the 2nd king of the 2nd Dynasty of Isin that ruled over Babylon, and he was the son of its founder, Marduk-kabit-aḫḫēšu. He is thought to be the first of the dynasty actually to rule from the city of Babylon.
The Hurrian religion was the polytheistic religion of the Hurrians, a Bronze Age people of the Near East. These people settled over a wide area, so there were differences between them, especially between the eastern Hurrians around Nuzi and Arrapha and the western Hurrians in Syria and Anatolia. From the 14th century BC, the Hurrian religion had a powerful influence on the Hittite religion and the Hurrian pantheon is depicted in the 13th century rock reliefs at the important Hittite sanctuary at Yazılıkaya.
Narundi was a goddess of the city of Susa in Elam. A statue of her is located in the Louvre Museum, where she appears seated on a lion throne, holding a cup and the branch of a palm tree in her hand. She is quite similar to the Sumerian goddess Inanna, and the style of the sculpture itself is reminiscent of Mesopotamian art. According to assyriologist Frans Wiggermann, she was associated with the Sebitti in Mesopotamia, and was sometimes conflated with Ishtar or Nanaya in this context.
Simut or Šimut (Shimut) was an Elamite god. He was regarded as the herald of the gods, and was associated with the planet Mars. He was also worshiped in Mesopotamia, where he was compared with the war god Nergal.
Sukkal were beings in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. The term itself can be translated as "vizier," and referred to a class of servant deities who served the major gods as viziers, messengers, doorkeepers, and in other similar functions. It sometimes referred to human officials in addition to gods. It was also adopted into Hurrian beliefs.
Lagamal or Lagamar was a Mesopotamian deity associated chiefly with Dilbat. He was also worshiped in Susa in Elam and in Terqa, located in Syria on the Euphrates. In the last of these locations, Lagamal was regarded as a female deity, despite being male in most other sources.
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