Išḫara (Semitic deity)

Išḫara was a goddess originally worshipped in Ebla and other nearby settlements in the north of modern Syria in the third millennium BCE. The origin of her name is disputed, and due to lack of evidence supporting Hurrian or Semitic etymologies it is sometimes assumed it might have originated in a linguistic substrate. In Ebla, she was considered the tutelary goddess of the royal family. An association between her and the city is preserved in a number of later sources from other sites as well. She was also associated with love, and in that role is attested further east in Mesopotamia as well. Multiple sources consider her the goddess of the institution of marriage, though she could be connected to erotic love as well, as evidenced by incantations. She was also linked to oaths and divination. She was associated with reptiles, especially mythical bašmu and ḫulmiẓẓu, and later on with scorpions as well, though it is not certain how this connection initially developed. In Mesopotamian art from the Kassite and Middle Babylonian periods she was only ever represented through her scorpion symbol rather than in anthropomorphic form. She was usually considered to be an unmarried and childless goddess, and she was associated with various deities in different time periods and locations. In Ebla, the middle Euphrates area and Mesopotamia she was closely connected with Ishtar due to their similar character, though they were not necessarily regarded as identical. In the Ur III period, Mesopotamians associated her with Dagan due to both of them being imported to Ur from the west. She was also linked to Ninkarrak. In Hurrian tradition she developed an association with Allani. The worship of Išḫara is well documented in Eblaite texts. Next to Resheph, she has the most attested hypostases of all Eblaite deities, and she was venerated in many settlements in the area controlled by it. Royal devotion to her is well documented. She could receive offerings in the temple of the city god Kura, though she had her own house of worship as well. She retained a connection to Eblaite kingship at least until the seventeenth century BCE, despite many other Eblaite deities ceasing to be worshiped after the initial destruction of the city in the twenty fourth century BCE. She was also worshiped in Nabada in the third millennium BCE already. In Emar she is well documented in texts from the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE, such as accounts of the kissu and zukru festivals, though it has been suggested she was already worshiped there earlier. She is also attested in theophoric names from Mari, Tuttul, Terqa and Ekalte. She was also transferred further east where she came to be incorporated into the Mesopotamian pantheon. She is already attested in Old Akkadian sources from Kish and the Diyala area. She was once again introduced from the west in the Ur III period, and was worshiped by members of the ruling house of the Ur state. Transfer to the north, to Assyria and its karum Kanesh, is also documented. She is also attested in many Babylonian cities in the Old Babylonian period, though in some cases only in theophoric names. She continued to be worshiped through the Kassite and Middle Babylonian periods, and through the first millennium BCE, with late evidence available from Babylon and Uruk. Due to her importance in Syria she was also incorporated into Hurrian religion, and in Hurrian context was worshiped in Alalakh and various cities in Kizzuwatna. She is also attested in Hurrian texts from Ugarit, though she was incorporated into the non-Hurrian pantheon of this city as well. She is also documented in Hittite sources, with individual traditions focused on her introduced to the Hittite Empire from the sixteenth century BCE onward from Syria and Kizzuwatna. Both Mesopotamian and Hurrian myths involving Išḫara are known. As a goddess of marriage, she is referenced in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Atrahasis. In the Hurrian Song of Release she is portrayed as the goddess of Ebla and attempts to save the city from destruction. In the Song of Kumarbi, she is among the deities the narrator invokes to listen to the tale.