Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 259 Julia M. Asher-Greve Joan Goodnick Westenholz Goddesses in Context On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources Academic Press Fribourg Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen Cover illustration Reconstructed drawing of the seal of Lugal-engardu, son of Enlil-amah. Original drawing by Richard L. Zettler (Review of Briggs Buchanan, Early Seals in the Yale Babyloniˇan Collection, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 46 (1987): 60, fig. 1). Modified by Kimberley Leaman, December, 2010. Publication subsidized by the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences Internet general catalogue: Academic Press Fribourg: www.paulusedition.ch Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen: www.v-r.de Camera-ready text prepared by Marcia Bodenmann, University of Zurich © 2013 by Academic Press Fribourg, Fribourg Switzerland Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen ISBN: 978-3-7278-1738-0 (Academic Press Fribourg) ISBN: 978-3-525-54382-5 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) ISSN: 1015-1850 (Orb. biblicus orient.) Table of Contents In Loving Memory ........................................................................................... IX Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... XI Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Julia M. Asher-Greve and Joan Goodnick Westenholz Map of Mesopotamia .................................................................................. 10 Chronological Table ................................................................................... 12 I. GENDER THEORY AND ISSUES ........................................................... 15 Julia M. Asher-Greve A. On Sexual Differences and Gender Categories ..................................... 15 B. Changing Gender, Function, Domain, Rank/Status of Deities .............. 17 C. The Discourse on the Marginalization of Goddesses ............................ 22 II. PLETHORA OF FEMALE DEITIES ........................................................ 29 Joan Goodnick Westenholz A. The Processes: Syncretism, Fusion, Fission, and Mutation ................. 29 B. The First Stage: Profusion .................................................................... 39 1. Goddesses and Their Cities in the Late Uruk Period (ca. 3300-2900) ................................................................................ 39 2. Praising the Goddesses in the Early Dynastic Period (ca. 2900-2350) ................................................................................ 44 3. The Melting Pot of Goddesses in the Old Akkadian Period (ca. 2350-2150) ................................................................................ 60 4. Retrospective Notions and New Trends: Goddesses in the Neo-Sumerian Period (ca. 2150-2000) ............................................. 64 C. The Second Stage: Recession ............................................................... 72 1. Goddesses in Transformation in the Old Babylonian Period (ca. 2000-1595) ..................................................................... 72 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS 2. Continuity and Change: Goddesses in the Middle Babylonian Period (ca. 1595-1000) ................................................. 94 D. The Third Stage: Homogeneity and Simplifi cation .............................. 104 1. Confl ation: Goddesses in the Neo-Babylonian Period (740-539) ......................................................................................... 104 2. Goddesses in Perpetuity in the Late Babylonian Period (539-141) ......................................................................................... 121 E. General Trends ...................................................................................... 132 III. FACETS OF CHANGE ............................................................................. 137 Julia M. Asher-Greve A. The Case of Ninḫursaĝa ....................................................................... 137 B. Mythological Messages ........................................................................ 141 1. Enki and Ninmaḫ or When a Goddess Fails as ‘Mother’ ................. 141 2. Two Tales of Becoming Enlil’s Spouse ............................................ 145 IV. IMAGES ..................................................................................................... 149 Julia M. Asher-Greve A. Image and Religion ............................................................................... 149 1. The Image Issue ............................................................................... 149 2. Images as Religious Medium ........................................................... 153 B. Visualizing Deities ................................................................................ 157 C. Survey Through Time, Space and Place ............................................... 163 1. Inventing Images of Goddesses in the Early Dynastic Period ............................................................................................... 163 2. Akkadian Innovative Images ............................................................ 171 3. Goddesses in the Majority: Neo-Sumerian Period ........................... 187 3.1. High-Ranked Goddesses on Public Monuments ...................... 189 3.2. Protective Goddesses ................................................................ 191 3.3. Principal Goddesses .................................................................. 199 3.3.1. Seal Images of Principal Goddess .................................. 199 3.3.2. Seal Images of Principal Goddess Associated with Birds ................................................................................ 209 3.4. Neo-Sumerian ‘Conservatism’ .................................................. 219 4. Statues .............................................................................................. 221 4.1. The Temple of Ningal at Ur and the Goddess on Anserini ....... 227 TABLE OF CONTENTS VII 4.2. Goddesses in Neighborhood Shrines at Ur ............................... 231 4.3. Goddesses in Palaces and Private Houses ................................. 235 5. Roles and Functions of Terracotta Images of Goddesses ................. 238 6. In the Minority: Goddesses on Old Babylonian Seals ..................... 249 6.1. Images of the Sippar Pantheon .................................................. 255 6.2. Goddess and King Embracing ................................................... 270 6.3. Affi nities to Goddesses .............................................................. 272 7. Power of Presence: Images of Goddesses after the “Dark Age” ....................................................................................... 275 V. EPILOGUE ................................................................................................ 287 Julia M. Asher-Greve and Joan Goodnick Westenholz Abbreviations ................................................................................................... 297 Bibliography .................................................................................................... 301 Indices .............................................................................................................. 357 Index of Subjects ........................................................................................ 357 Index of Divine Names .............................................................................. 370 Index of Temples, Sanctuaries, Shrines ...................................................... 373 Index of Topographical Names .................................................................. 374 Index of Royal and Personal Names .......................................................... 375 Index of Sumerian and Akkadian Words Discussed .................................. 378 Figures .............................................................................................................. 381 In loving memory ל״ז Joan Goodnick Westenholz died on 18 February 2013 shortly before this book went into print. During the preparation for publication Joan was diag- nosed with a terminal illness and spent the last months of her life working on corrections and indices. By the time her strength ebbed and she could no longer work, the only item to complete was a revision of the subject index. Joan often mentioned how much this work means to her and we put all our efforts into fi nishing it, hoping she could hold the printed book in her hands. When it became obvious that this would be unlikely, Christoph Uehlinger completed the cover design and sent it to her together with the fi nal PDF version. The subject index is based on the work Joan had already begun. We restructured and revised it as quickly and thoroughly as possible, trying as best as possible to maintain the entries she established. We are aware that this subject index does not achieve the meticulous standards Joan set for herself in all her work. Ann Kessler Guinan made invaluable contributions to the revision of the subject index and textual corrections. We are very grateful for help and infor- mation provided by Jerold S. Cooper, Gebhardt J. Selz, and Piotr Steinkeller and to Geerd Haayer for his general support and advice. We are indebted to Richard L. Zettler for his immediate permission to reproduce his drawing on the book cover. Two titles listed in the bibliography as “Westenholz forthcoming” demon- strate that Joan still pursued other projects beyond the present book. Both the lexical study on ‘man’ and her book on Nanaya will probably never appear in print, but we decided to leave these references as she had listed them. May they be considered as a reminder of her scholarship as much as an invitation to younger scholars to tackle those topics that Joan will no more comment upon. Joan’s death has been a devastating loss. She was as an outstanding, inspiring, innovative, and generously supportive colleague and she was our very dear friend. Julia M. Asher-Greve and Ann Kessler Guinan February 2013 Acknowledgements We would fi rst like to express our thanks to Susanne Bickel for inviting us to participate in the conference on “Goddesses – Göttinnen – Déesses” held under the auspices of the SGOA (Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Orien- talische Altertumswissenschaft) on March 8, 2008. The two lectures that we presented on that occasion served as the basis for this book. We are most grateful to Othmar Keel for his invitation to publish our lectures in the OBO series. Unknowingly, he provided us with the opportunity to realize an idea we have discussed for many years that we would like to write a book together. We would also like to acknowledge our indebtedness to Harvard University’s Women’s Studies in Religion Program that has shaped our thinking and ideas about gender in ancient Mesopotamia at a time when Assyriology barely began to recognize the importance of research on women and gender. Our different scholarly backgrounds and training proved to be complementary and widened our scopes as we discussed our individual ideas that sometimes led to revisions of interpretations. The chapters published here have profi ted from mutual readings and comments that began when we were working on the lectures. We hope that the readers may benefi t as much as we have by this cooperation. For bibliographic references, unpublished manuscripts, pdf copies or CDs of articles or books, as well as for other valuable information we want to express our gratitude to: Pascal Attinger, Kim Benzel (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), Manuel Ceccarelli, Mark E. Cohen, Mark J. Geller, Bri- gitte Groneberg, Ann K. Guinan, Henrietta Harisch (professor for Latin at Basel University), Hanna Jenni, Raphael A. Michel, Eleanor Robson, Mar- cos Such-Gutiérrez, Claudia E. Suter, Deborah Sweeney, Aage Westenholz, Frauke Weiershäuser, Ran Zadok, Ilona Zsolnay. A further debt of gratitude is owed to Nicholas Postgate who sent the PhD dissertation of his student Simon J. Sherwin. Very special thanks go to Ann K. Guinan for reading and commenting on an early version, to Julia Assante, Gebhard J. Selz and Piotr Steinkeller who sent not only published and unpublished articles but spent much time discussing ideas and issues and to Rosel Pientka-Hinz for lively discussions, XII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS offprints, and especially her original drawings of Sippar impressions and her kind permission to reproduce them here. For photographs and/or reproduction permissions we want to acknowl- edge the help and assistance of: Jonathan Taylor of The British Museum (London), Catherine Giraudon of the Musée du Louvre (Paris), Gil Stein and Thomas R. James of the Oriental Institute Museum of Chicago University, Maureen Goldsmith of the Penn Museum of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Joachim Marzahn and Olaf Teßmer of the Vorderasiatisches Museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York), the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, Manfred Krebernik of the Hilprecht Sammlung Vorderasiatischer Altertümer of the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Eric Gubel of the Royal Museum of Art and History (Brussels), Claudia E. Suter, and to Ulrike Zurkinden for her drawings of seal impressions. We would also like to express our deep appreciation to the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World of New York University for their fi nan- cial support and generosity that made possible Joan’s two trips to Basel to complete the work on this volume. Finally, our acknowledgements would not be complete without mention- ing the indispensable input of all those who worked with us to prepare this volume, especially Arthur Lawrence Asher as well as Christoph Uehlinger, co-editor of Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, and Marcia Bodenmann to whom we are most beholden. Julia M. Asher-Greve and Joan Goodnick Westenholz Basel and New York, Summer 2011