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Šerua

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Šerua
Major cult centerAssur
Genealogy
Parents
Spousepossibly Ashur

Šerua (in late sources Serua[1]) was a Mesopotamian goddess closely associated with the Assyrian head god Ashur. It is uncertain in which way they were related to each other.

Character

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Šerua is best attested in association with Ashur.[2] She was the only deity regarded as a member of his family who was innately associated with him.[3] While references to Zababa and Ninurta as his sons are known, they were a result of partial identification with Enlil. Mullissu (Ninlil) came to be viewed as his wife in the same process.[3] However, it is unclear how the relation between Šerua and Ashur was initially described. Whether she was originally his wife or daughter was already a subject of scholarly inquiry in the neo-Assyrian period.[3] In modern scholarship, it is sometimes assumed that she was originally his wife, but was later demoted to the position of his daughter or sister when Mullissu became a part of the Assyrian state pantheon as Ashur's wife.[4] A theory based on Aramaic inscriptions from the Parthian period instead makes her initial position that of a daughter of Ashur, who later came to be viewed as his second wife.[4] Meinhold points out that Šerua was suggested to be the daughter of Ashur in Tukulti-Ninurta's prayer to the god Ashur,[5] but later during the Neo-Assyrian period Šerua was stated to be the wife of Ashur, and a Neo-Assyrian text emphasized that Šerua was to be called the wife of Ashur instead of the daughter of Ashur.[6] Thus, Meinhold suggests that Šerua was originally seen as the daughter of Ashur during the Middle-Assyrian period, and then in the Neo-Assyrian period she became the second wife of Ashur while Mullissu remained the primary wife. However, the older tradition of Šerua being the daughter of Ashur continued to exist unofficially.[7]

A number of ancient sources connect Šerua's name with the Akkadian word šērtum, "morning."[2] For example, the text KAR 128 refers to her as ilat šērēti, "goddess of the morning hours."[2] However, Manfred Krebernik [de] points out this might only be a folk etymology.[2]

According to Wilfred G. Lambert, Šerua should not be confused with Erua, a title of Marduk's wife Zarpanit,[3] though other researchers do accept the possibility that writings of her name such as dEDIN-u-a or dEDIN, read as dE4-ru6, might be evidence of conflation of these two names based on their similar pronunciation.[2]

Worship

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Oldest attestations of Šerua come from the late Sargonic period.[2] She continued to be worshiped in Assur even after the fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, as late as in the Parthian period.[1] A temple of Ashur and Šerua, the E-metebalāšegiagallana (Sumerian: "house, worthy of office, provided with a bride") is known from a Babylonian text.[8] Additionally, a possible sanctuary dedicated to her, perhaps located in a temple of Ashur, is attested in an inscription of Shalmaneser I.[9] One of the city gates of Assur was named after her.[10] A text called the Divine Directory of Assur in modern scholarship gives its full name as "Šerua Brings Favour on her Land."[10] However, it does not appear in enumerations of the city's gates in other sources, such as inscriptions of Erishum I and Shalmaneser III.[11]

An Assyrian royal ritual taking place in the month Šabaṭu involved Šerua, as well as Kippat-māti and Tašmetu.[12] It is possible their role was to mediate on behalf of the reigning kings with his deceased ancestors and with the highest gods of the pantheon, such as Anu.[12] She is also mentioned in the Coronation Hymn of Ashurbanipal.[13] In a Tākultu ritual text from the reign of this king she appears after various manifestations of Ashur, Enlil, Anu, Ea, Sin, Adad and Ishtar, but before Ninurta.[14] In a similar text from the reign of Sennacherib she precedes Mullissu.[15]

Šerua is attested in theophoric names.[16] For example, the daughter of Ashur-uballit I bore the name Muballiṭat-Šerua.[17]

Possible Babylonian attestations

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It has also been suggested that Šerūa was introduced to Uruk during a period of Neo-Assyrian control as a reference to tenant farmers working in a field belonging to this deity is known from the Eanna archive.[18] The name was written as dEDIN in this case.[19] It is also possible that the epithet Aššurītu, "the Assyrian," referred to her in documents from this city.[20] In other contexts, it referred to Mullissu.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b Marcato 2018, p. 167.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Krebernik 2011, p. 399.
  3. ^ a b c d Lambert 1983, p. 82.
  4. ^ a b Krebernik 2011, p. 400.
  5. ^ Meinhold 2014, p. 145.
  6. ^ Meinhold 2014, p. 145-146.
  7. ^ Meinhold 2014, p. 146.
  8. ^ George 1993, p. 124.
  9. ^ George 1993, p. 170.
  10. ^ a b George 1992, p. 177.
  11. ^ George 1992, pp. 455–456.
  12. ^ a b Pongratz-Leisten 2015, p. 413.
  13. ^ Pongratz-Leisten 2015, p. 214.
  14. ^ Pongratz-Leisten 2015, p. 397.
  15. ^ Pongratz-Leisten 2015, p. 399.
  16. ^ Cousin & Watai 2016, p. 18.
  17. ^ Llop-Raduà 2015, p. 245.
  18. ^ Beaulieu 2003, pp. 323–324.
  19. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 323.
  20. ^ Beaulieu 2003, pp. 311–312.
  21. ^ Beaulieu 2003, p. 311.

Bibliography

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  • 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.
  • Cousin, Laura; Watai, Yoko (2016). "Onomastics of Women in Babylonia in the First Millennium BC". Orient. 51. Tokyo: The Society for Near Eastern Studies in Japan (NIPPON ORIENTO GAKKAI): 3–27. doi:10.5356/orient.51.3. ISSN 0473-3851. S2CID 166601142.
  • George, Andrew R. (1992). Babylonian Topographical Texts. Leuven: Departement Oriëntalistiek. ISBN 90-6831-410-6. OCLC 27918563.
  • George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-80-3. OCLC 27813103.
  • Krebernik, Manfred (2011), "Šerū'a", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-22
  • Lambert, Wilfred G. (1983). "The God Aššur". Iraq. 45 (1). British Institute for the Study of Iraq: 82–86. doi:10.2307/4200181. ISSN 0021-0889. JSTOR 4200181. S2CID 163337976. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  • Llop-Raduà, Jaume (2015). "Foreign Kings in the Middle Assyrian Archival Documentation". In Düring, Bleda S. (ed.). Understanding hegemonic practices of the early Assyrian Empire: essays dedicated to Frans Wiggermann. Leiden. ISBN 978-90-6258-336-2. OCLC 904541682.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Marcato, Enrico (2018). "Religious Significance of Hatran Theophoric Names" (PDF). Personal names in the Aramaic inscriptions of Hatra. Antichistica. Vol. 17. doi:10.30687/978-88-6969-231-4/005. ISBN 978-88-6969-233-8. ISSN 2610-8828.
  • Meinhold, Wiebke (1 January 2014). "Die Familie des Gottes Aššur". L. Marti (ed.), La famille dans le Proche-Orient ancien: réalités, symbolismes, et images: 141–149.
  • Pongratz-Leisten, Beate (2015). Religion and Ideology in Assyria. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Records (SANER). De Gruyter. ISBN 978-1-61451-426-8. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
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