Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2013 Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources Asher-Greve, Julia M ; Westenholz, Joan Goodnick Abstract: Goddesses in Context examines from different perspectives some of the most challenging themes in Mesopotamian religion such as gender switch of deities and changes of the status, roles and functions of goddesses. The authors incorporate recent scholarship from various disciplines into their analysis of textual and visual sources, representations in diverse media, theological strategies, typologies, and the place of image in religion and cult over a span of three millennia. Different types of syncretism (fusion, fission, mutation) resulted in transformation and homogenization of goddesses’ roles and functions. The processes of syncretism (a useful heuristic tool for studying the evolution of religions and the attendant political and social changes) and gender switch were facilitated by the fluidity of personality due to multiple or similar divine roles and functions. Few goddesses kept their identity throughout the millennia. Individuality is rare in the iconography of goddesses while visual emphasis is on repetition of generic divine figures (hieros typos) in order to retain recognizability of divinity, where femininity is of secondary significance. The book demonstrates that goddesses were never marginalized or extrinsic and thattheir continuous presence in texts, cult images, rituals, and worship throughout Mesopotamian history is testimony to their powerful numinous impact. This richly illustrated book is the first in-depth analysis of goddesses and the changes they underwent from the earliest visual and textual evidence around 3000 BCE to the end of ancient Mesopotamian civilization in the Seleucid period. Goddesses in Context is a compelling contribution to Mesopotamian religion and history as well as to history, art history, history of religion and gender studies. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-135436 Monograph Published Version Originally published at: Asher-Greve, Julia M; Westenholz, Joan Goodnick (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources. Fribourg / Göttingen: Academic Press / Vandenhoeck Ruprecht. Asher-Greve / Westenholz Goddesses in Context ORBIS BIBLICUS ET ORIENTALIS Founded by Othmar Keel Published on behalf of the BIBLE+ORIENT Foundation in cooperation with the Departement of Biblical Studies, University of Fribourg Switzerland, the Institute of Egyptology, University of Basel, the Institute of Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology section, University of Berne, the Institut romand des sciences bibliques, University of Lausanne, the Institute of Religious Studies, University of Zurich and the Swiss Society for Ancient Near Eastern Studies by Susanne Bickel, Thomas C. Römer, Daniel Schwemer and Christoph Uehlinger Authors Julia M. Asher-Greve received her doctorate in Near Eastern Archaeology, Assyriology, and Clas- sical Archaeology from the University of Basel (Switzerland). She co-directed an interdisciplinary research program funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and has lectured at several universities. She was a Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University Women’s Studies in Religion Program. The focus of her research is on gender analysis, interdisciplinary studies, historiography (Wissenschaftsgeschichte), and Bildwissenschaft. Her interest in women studies began with her dissertation on Sumerian women (published 1985) and she has pioneered the incorporation of gender theory into Ancient Near Eastern studies. She is co-founder and one of the editors of NIN – Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity. Her publications comprise studies on theory and application, women, gender roles and relations, goddesses, the body, Gertrude Bell, and Semiramis from antiquity to the twentieth century AD. The late Joan Goodnick Westenholz received her PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from the University of Chicago. She served for twenty years as Chief Curator at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem and was Senior Research Associate on the Assyrian Dictionary Project of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago (CAD). She was Research Fellow and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University Women’s Studies in Religion Program, Research Fellow at the In- ternationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung “Dynamiken der Religionsgeschichte zwischen Asien und Europa“ at Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, Member at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University, and at the time of her death National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research at Jerusalem. Her research and numerous publications comprise studies on various aspects of religion, society, lite- rature, lexicography and several ground-breaking articles on gender, goddesses, and women. She was a pioneer of gender analysis in Ancient Near Eastern studies and with a group of colleagues founded and edited the inter-disciplinary NIN – Journal of Gender Studies in Antiquity. 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 Babylonianˇ 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