Religion:Usuramassu
Usuramassu, also called Usurawassu and Usuramassa,[1] was a Mesopotamian deity. While initially regarded as male, she later started to be viewed as a goddess instead and was integrated into the pantheon of Uruk as one of the deities in the circle of the city goddess, Inanna/Ishtar. By extension she was also associated with goddesses such as Nanaya and Kanisurra.
Regardless of gender Usuramassu was regarded as a child of the weather deities Adad and Shala.
Name and gender
Usuramassu's name was in origin an ordinary masculine given name known from Old Babylonian and Old Assyrian sources.[1] It can be translated as "heed his word."[2] Historically notable individuals bearing it include a king of Eshnunna and an official from Mari.[1] However, it was also already understood as the name of a minor god in the so-called Genouillac god list, dated to the Old Babylonian period.[1] It can be assumed that Usuramassu was a member of a court of another deity at the time, but the god list An = Anum is presently the oldest source to explicitly identify him as a son and courtier of Adad.[1]
At an unknown point in time, Usuramassu started to be viewed as a goddess instead, which is attested for the first time in an inscription of a governor of the so-called Sealand, Kaššu-bēl-zēri, known only from a neo-Babylonian copy but originally written in the tenth or eleventh century BCE.[1]
On occasion, the form Usuramassa could be used to indicate that the deity is female, for example in neo-Assyrian inscriptions, but archives of the Eanna temple in Uruk consistently used the primary name, Usuramassu, to refer to the female deity, sometimes adding the feminine determinative INNIN to designate gender, resulting in the writing d.inninU-sur-a-mat-su.[3]
Associations with other deities
Regardless of gender, Usuramassu was regarded as a child of Adad, with female Usuramassu being explicitly called bu-uk-rat dIŠKUR, "daughter of Adad."[4] The other children of Adad and his wife Shala[5] and thus siblings of Usuramassu were the goddesses Shubanuna ("princely šuba stone"), Namashmash and Minunesi and the god Misharu ("justice").[2] In known documents, Usuramassu frequently occurs in the company of Adad, Shala and deities from their circle: Misharu, his spouse Ishartu, ("righteousness"[2]) as well as the gods Shullat and Hanish.[1] Due to her association with Misharu and Ishartu she was called "the august lady, who provides judgment for the land and renders decision for heaven and the netherworld."[1] It has been argued that she was a goddess of justice herself.[6]
In Uruk, Usuramassu belonged to the circle of Inanna.[1] Paul-Alain Beaulieu considers her one of the five major goddesses of that city in the neo-Babylonian period, the other four being Inanna/Ishtar, Nanaya, Bēltu-ša-Rēš (later replaced by Sharrahitu, a goddess identified with Ashratum, spouse of Amurru[7]) and Urkitum (also known as Urkayitu).[8] She was especially commonly paired with the last of these goddesses.[8] Urkitum was always paired with her in offering lists.[9] They also appear together in a prescription for the cleaning of a blanket (taḫapšu) which belonged to both of them.[10] A bīt ḫilṣi, "house of pressing" (assumed to be a pharmacy accompanied by a garden where the ingredients for various medicines were grown) located in the Eanna complex was described as their joint possession.[11] Urkitum was in origin an epithet of Ishtar meaning "the Urukean," but she eventually developed into a separate goddess.[12] An analogous process is attested for Annunitum, who was also initially an epithet of Ishtar,[13] but became a goddess distinct from her in Sippar.[14] It has been propossed that Urikitum can be understood as a theos eponymos, a divine representation of the city of Uruk.[15]
A text from the reign of Shamash-shum-ukin indicates that Usuramassu was depicted in a similar tiara as Nanaya and Ishtar.[16] It was most likely similar to that in which Nanaya is shown on the kudurru of Meli-Shipak.[17]
Andrew R. George notes that seemingly a close relationship also existed between Usuramassu and yet another deity from Uruk, Kanisurra, and relates it to both of these goddesses being associated with Nanaya and Ishtar.[18] They occur next to each other in a ritual describing the cultic journey of Nanaya to Kish.[18]
Worship
Usur-Amassu was seemingly worshiped within the complex of the Eanna temple in Uruk.[19] She could be called ašibāt Uruk, "denizen of Uruk."[1] The oldest reference to the cult of Usurmassu in Uruk other than the inscription of Kaššu-bēl-zēri is a building inscription from the reign of Nabonassar.[20]
She is attested in inscriptions of Esarhaddon, who referred to her as "provider of counsel" and "intercessor."[21]
Neo-Babylonian texts from Uruk mention a variety of cultic paraphernalia of Usuramassu, including a standard, a ceremonial wagon (attaru), an unidentified golden weapon (dēpu) and a blanket (taḫapšu; shared with another goddess, Urkitum).[10] There are also attestations of figures of scorpion men (girtablilu) belonging to her, which might have been apotropaic, though it is also possible that they were simply decorations sewn to her garments.[22]
Based on available documents, she was still worshiped in Uruk in the Hellenic period.[8]
The worship of Usuramassu is also attested from Kish, where the theophoric name Usur-Amassu-gamil appears in a document.[23]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Beaulieu 2014, p. 511.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Schwemer 2007, p. 146.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2014, pp. 511-512.
- ↑ Schwemer 2001, pp. 68-69.
- ↑ Schwemer 2008a, p. 567.
- ↑ Riva & Galetti 2018, p. 221.
- ↑ Krebernik 2011, pp. 71-72.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Beaulieu 2014, p. 512.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, p. 261.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Beaulieu 2003, p. 230.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 120.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, p. 255.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 71.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 133.
- ↑ Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 104.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, p. 232.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, p. 191.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 George 2000, p. 296.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, p. 252.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, pp. 226-227.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, p. 228.
- ↑ Beaulieu 2003, p. 243.
- ↑ George 2000, pp. 290-291.
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. ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0. https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/135436/1/Asher-Greve_Westenholz_2013_Goddesses_in_Context.pdf.
- Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2003). The pantheon of Uruk during the neo-Babylonian period. Leiden Boston: Brill STYX. ISBN 978-90-04-13024-1. OCLC 51944564.
- Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2014)
- 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. https://books.google.com/books?id=dRqbe67ChgAC. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
- Krebernik, Manfred (2011) (in de)
- Riva, Rocío Da; Galetti, Gianluca (2018). "Two Temple Rituals from Babylon". Journal of Cuneiform Studies (University of Chicago Press) 70 (1): 189–227. doi:10.5615/jcunestud.70.2018.0189. ISSN 0022-0256. https://www.academia.edu/44652717.
- Schwemer, Daniel (2001) (in de). Die Wettergottgestalten Mesopotamiens und Nordsyriens im Zeitalter der Keilschriftkulturen: Materialien und Studien nach den schriftlichen Quellen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-04456-1. OCLC 48145544. https://www.academia.edu/16999070.
- Schwemer, Daniel (2007). "The Storm-Gods of the Ancient Near East: Summary, Synthesis, Recent Studies Part I". Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions (Brill) 7 (2): 121–168. doi:10.1163/156921207783876404. ISSN 1569-2116. https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/7075/1/JANER7%3A2offprint.pdf.
- Schwemer, Daniel (2008a) (in de)
 |
