| Bel-ṣarbi | |
|---|---|
God of
poplars,
underworld deity | |
 The Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica), a tree which ancient Mesopotamians associated with Bel-ṣarbi. | |
| Other names | Šar-ṣarbati. Lugal-asal |
| Major cult center | Baz, Ḫiritum, Iabušum |
Bel-ṣarbi or Šar-ṣarbati ( Akkadian: "lord of the poplar") [1] was a Mesopotamian god associated with poplars. He was also known under the Sumerian name Lugal-asal. He frequently appears in enumerations of deities associated with the underworld who formed the entourage of Nergal, and in some cases could be equated with him. A possible feminine counterpart, NIN-ṣar-BE, is known from neo-Assyrian sources, and is sometimes identified with earlier Ištar-ṣarbatum from Ebla in modern scholarship.
The name Bēl-ṣarbi means "lord of the poplar" (the tree meant is assumed to be Populus euphratica) in Akkadian. [2] In Sumerian it was rendered as Lugal-asal. [2] The names are used interchangeably in scholarship. [3] The second element can be interpreted as a nisba, since it can be written with the determinative of a place name (ṣar-biki). [1] Possibly a name of an area associated with the god, perhaps a grove, was derived from the trees. [4] It is assumed two separate places bearing the name Ṣarbat existed. [5] The southern Ṣarbat or Ṣarbatum was located near Babylon, Dilbat and Sippar, [5] while the northern Ṣarbat most likely in the proximity of the Sinjar Mountains (known as Saggar in antiquity). [6] Šar-ṣarbati could also be associated with the Euphrates, as attested in Šurpu. [4] Similarly, a lipšur litany describes him as a god who "travels on the Tigris and the Euphrates." [7]
Bēl-ṣarbi could also function as one of the gods connected with underworld. [2]
According to an esoteric text assigning various objects and substances to deities, Lugal-asal corresponded to a muššaru stone. [8] It is assumed that this term refers to a red agate. [9]
Bēl-ṣarbi was the city god of Baz (Baṣ). [10] In Neo-Assyrian sources it was called Šapazzu. [3] This settlement was located near Dilbat. [4] A temple dedicated to Šar-ṣarbati, E-durgina ( Sumerian: "house, established abode") existed in it. [3] Its name has also been rendered as E-tušgina. [11] It was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II. [3] An association between Baz and the Bazi dynasty of Babylon has been proposed, [4] but it has been argued that its name instead corresponds to a location near the juncture of the Diyala and Tigris rivers, associated with the Kassite clan Bīt-Bazi. [12] It is possible that both names are derived from the Akkadian word baṣṣu, " sandbank," and that originally multiple settlements bearing this name existed, even though only one is present in sources from the first millennium BCE. [11]
The gods of Baz were carried off to Assyria during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III. [11] A relief from Kalhu dated to this period shows Assyrian soldiers carrying away the figure of a god holding an unidentified object. [13] It has been suggested that it might be Bēl-ṣarbi, and that an eagle emblem present on the same relief also belonged to him. [13] A further Assyrian source mentioning Bēl-ṣarbi is a text from the reign of Ashurbanipal which mentions that "Lugal-asal of Šapazzu" was among the deities who accompanied him during his campaign against Elam, which most likely took place in the year 653 BCE. [14] The other gods mentioned are Ashur, Marduk, Nabu, Anu rabu ( Ištaran) and Shamash. [15]
In the Old Babylonian period Bēl-ṣarbi was associated with Ḫiritum and Iabušum. [6] An inscription of Samsu-iluna which mentions various forts he built for specific deities lists Iabušum in association with Bēl-ṣarbi. [16] The king describes him as a god "who magnifies my royal name." [17]
Multiple god lists mention Lugal-asal, including An = Anum and its forerunner, as well as the Nippur god list and the Weidner god list. [4]
On a kudurru (boundary stone) of Marduk-apla-iddina I (the " land grant to Munnabittu kudurru") Šar-ṣarbati appears as a member of a group of underworld deities: Nergal, his wife Laṣ, Šubula, the pair Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea and Mammitum. [18] In Šurpu he appears alongside Nergal, Ishum and Šubula. [19] Under the name Lugal-asal he could be outright identified with Nergal, similar to a number of other gods associated with trees: Lugal-gišimmar ("lord of the date palm"), Lugal-zulumma ("lord of the dates;" sometimes erroneously listed as a name of Dumuzi in secondary literature) and Lugal-šinig ("lord of the tamarisk;" he could also be identified with Ninurta). [20]
The name of the goddess NIN-ṣar-BE, "lady of the poplar," was the female counterpart of Bēl-ṣarbi. [20] It is possible her name should be read as Bēlet-ṣarbe or Bēlet-ṣarbat. [20] She was a part of the state pantheon of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and appears in the Tākultu text. [10] It has been proposed that she can be identified with the goddess INANNA-ṣarbat, [20] though this remains uncertain [10] and some researchers, for example Martin Stol, consider Assyrian NIN-ṣar-BE and the western goddess to be two separate deities. [6] The latter was worshiped in Ebla and in pre- Sargonic Mari already, and appears in later documents from Emar as well. [6] It has been suggested that her presence in Ebla was the result of political and commercial ties with Mari. [21] The name is interpreted as Ištar-ṣarbatum in translations of texts from Ebla, [22] while the spelling from Emar is Aštar-ṣarba. [6] She has been characterized as a goddess of the middle Euphrates area, but it is unclear if her cult center was the northern settlement Ṣarbat. [6]
- ^ a b Krebernik 1987, pp. 115–116.
- ^ a b c Krebernik 1987, p. 115.
- ^ a b c d George 1993, p. 80.
- ^ a b c d e Krebernik 1987, p. 116.
- ^ a b Stol 2011, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e f Stol 2011, p. 36.
- ^ Reiner 1956, p. 145.
- ^ Livingstone 1986, p. 177.
- ^ Schwemer, Hecker & Oelsner 2020, p. 27.
- ^ a b c Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 486.
- ^ a b c Beaulieu 2011, p. 27.
- ^ Frame 1995, p. 78.
- ^ a b Wiggermann 2018, p. 885.
- ^ Frahm 2009, pp. 57–58.
- ^ Frahm 2009, p. 58.
- ^ Frayne 1990, p. 381.
- ^ Frayne 1990, pp. 381–382.
- ^ Simons 2016, p. 9.
- ^ Edzard 1980, p. 213.
- ^ a b c d Streck 2014, p. 532.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 683.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 34.
- Archi, Alfonso (2015). Ebla and Its Archives. De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9781614517887. ISBN 978-1-61451-716-0.
- Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2011), "Šapaza", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-05-16
- Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998), "dNIN-ṣar-BE", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Edzard, Dietz-Otto (1980), "Išum", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Frahm, Eckhart (2009).
"Assurbanipal at Der". In Luukko, Mikko; Svärd, Saana; Mattila, Raija (eds.). Of god(s), trees, kings, and scholars: Neo-Assyrian and related studies in honour of Simo Parpola. Helsinki.
ISBN
978-951-9380-72-8.
OCLC
434869052.
{{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) - Frame, Grant (1995). Rulers of Babylonia from the Second Dynasty of Isin to the End of Assyrian Domination (1157-612 BC). University of Toronto Press. doi: 10.3138/9781442657052-009.
- Frayne, Douglas (1990). Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 BC). Early periods. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-5873-7. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
- George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-80-3. OCLC 27813103.
- Krebernik, Manfred (1987), "Lugal-asal", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Livingstone, Alasdair (1986). Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Reiner, Erica (1956). "Lipšur Litanies". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 15 (3). University of Chicago Press: 129–149. JSTOR 542306. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
- Schwemer, Daniel; Hecker, Karl; Oelsner, Joachim (2020). "Weltbild und Gottesvorstellungen". Texte zur Wissenskultur. Gütersloher Verlagshaus. doi: 10.14315/9783641219956-004. ISBN 9783641219956.
- Simons, Frank (2016). "The God Alammuš dLÀL /d.mùšLÀL". Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires (NABU) (1).
- Stol, Marten (2011), "Ṣarbat(um)", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Streck, Michael P. (2014), "Vegetation deities A. I. Philological. In Mesopotamia", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-05-16
- Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (2018). "BM 33055: A Late Babylonian Clay Tablet with Figures and Captions". Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic: Studies in Honor of Markham J. Geller. Ancient Magic and Divination. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-36808-8. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
| Bel-ṣarbi | |
|---|---|
God of
poplars,
underworld deity | |
|
The Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica), a tree which ancient Mesopotamians associated with Bel-ṣarbi. | |
| Other names | Šar-ṣarbati. Lugal-asal |
| Major cult center | Baz, Ḫiritum, Iabušum |
Bel-ṣarbi or Šar-ṣarbati ( Akkadian: "lord of the poplar") [1] was a Mesopotamian god associated with poplars. He was also known under the Sumerian name Lugal-asal. He frequently appears in enumerations of deities associated with the underworld who formed the entourage of Nergal, and in some cases could be equated with him. A possible feminine counterpart, NIN-ṣar-BE, is known from neo-Assyrian sources, and is sometimes identified with earlier Ištar-ṣarbatum from Ebla in modern scholarship.
The name Bēl-ṣarbi means "lord of the poplar" (the tree meant is assumed to be Populus euphratica) in Akkadian. [2] In Sumerian it was rendered as Lugal-asal. [2] The names are used interchangeably in scholarship. [3] The second element can be interpreted as a nisba, since it can be written with the determinative of a place name (ṣar-biki). [1] Possibly a name of an area associated with the god, perhaps a grove, was derived from the trees. [4] It is assumed two separate places bearing the name Ṣarbat existed. [5] The southern Ṣarbat or Ṣarbatum was located near Babylon, Dilbat and Sippar, [5] while the northern Ṣarbat most likely in the proximity of the Sinjar Mountains (known as Saggar in antiquity). [6] Šar-ṣarbati could also be associated with the Euphrates, as attested in Šurpu. [4] Similarly, a lipšur litany describes him as a god who "travels on the Tigris and the Euphrates." [7]
Bēl-ṣarbi could also function as one of the gods connected with underworld. [2]
According to an esoteric text assigning various objects and substances to deities, Lugal-asal corresponded to a muššaru stone. [8] It is assumed that this term refers to a red agate. [9]
Bēl-ṣarbi was the city god of Baz (Baṣ). [10] In Neo-Assyrian sources it was called Šapazzu. [3] This settlement was located near Dilbat. [4] A temple dedicated to Šar-ṣarbati, E-durgina ( Sumerian: "house, established abode") existed in it. [3] Its name has also been rendered as E-tušgina. [11] It was rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar II. [3] An association between Baz and the Bazi dynasty of Babylon has been proposed, [4] but it has been argued that its name instead corresponds to a location near the juncture of the Diyala and Tigris rivers, associated with the Kassite clan Bīt-Bazi. [12] It is possible that both names are derived from the Akkadian word baṣṣu, " sandbank," and that originally multiple settlements bearing this name existed, even though only one is present in sources from the first millennium BCE. [11]
The gods of Baz were carried off to Assyria during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III. [11] A relief from Kalhu dated to this period shows Assyrian soldiers carrying away the figure of a god holding an unidentified object. [13] It has been suggested that it might be Bēl-ṣarbi, and that an eagle emblem present on the same relief also belonged to him. [13] A further Assyrian source mentioning Bēl-ṣarbi is a text from the reign of Ashurbanipal which mentions that "Lugal-asal of Šapazzu" was among the deities who accompanied him during his campaign against Elam, which most likely took place in the year 653 BCE. [14] The other gods mentioned are Ashur, Marduk, Nabu, Anu rabu ( Ištaran) and Shamash. [15]
In the Old Babylonian period Bēl-ṣarbi was associated with Ḫiritum and Iabušum. [6] An inscription of Samsu-iluna which mentions various forts he built for specific deities lists Iabušum in association with Bēl-ṣarbi. [16] The king describes him as a god "who magnifies my royal name." [17]
Multiple god lists mention Lugal-asal, including An = Anum and its forerunner, as well as the Nippur god list and the Weidner god list. [4]
On a kudurru (boundary stone) of Marduk-apla-iddina I (the " land grant to Munnabittu kudurru") Šar-ṣarbati appears as a member of a group of underworld deities: Nergal, his wife Laṣ, Šubula, the pair Lugal-irra and Meslamta-ea and Mammitum. [18] In Šurpu he appears alongside Nergal, Ishum and Šubula. [19] Under the name Lugal-asal he could be outright identified with Nergal, similar to a number of other gods associated with trees: Lugal-gišimmar ("lord of the date palm"), Lugal-zulumma ("lord of the dates;" sometimes erroneously listed as a name of Dumuzi in secondary literature) and Lugal-šinig ("lord of the tamarisk;" he could also be identified with Ninurta). [20]
The name of the goddess NIN-ṣar-BE, "lady of the poplar," was the female counterpart of Bēl-ṣarbi. [20] It is possible her name should be read as Bēlet-ṣarbe or Bēlet-ṣarbat. [20] She was a part of the state pantheon of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and appears in the Tākultu text. [10] It has been proposed that she can be identified with the goddess INANNA-ṣarbat, [20] though this remains uncertain [10] and some researchers, for example Martin Stol, consider Assyrian NIN-ṣar-BE and the western goddess to be two separate deities. [6] The latter was worshiped in Ebla and in pre- Sargonic Mari already, and appears in later documents from Emar as well. [6] It has been suggested that her presence in Ebla was the result of political and commercial ties with Mari. [21] The name is interpreted as Ištar-ṣarbatum in translations of texts from Ebla, [22] while the spelling from Emar is Aštar-ṣarba. [6] She has been characterized as a goddess of the middle Euphrates area, but it is unclear if her cult center was the northern settlement Ṣarbat. [6]
- ^ a b Krebernik 1987, pp. 115–116.
- ^ a b c Krebernik 1987, p. 115.
- ^ a b c d George 1993, p. 80.
- ^ a b c d e Krebernik 1987, p. 116.
- ^ a b Stol 2011, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e f Stol 2011, p. 36.
- ^ Reiner 1956, p. 145.
- ^ Livingstone 1986, p. 177.
- ^ Schwemer, Hecker & Oelsner 2020, p. 27.
- ^ a b c Cavigneaux & Krebernik 1998, p. 486.
- ^ a b c Beaulieu 2011, p. 27.
- ^ Frame 1995, p. 78.
- ^ a b Wiggermann 2018, p. 885.
- ^ Frahm 2009, pp. 57–58.
- ^ Frahm 2009, p. 58.
- ^ Frayne 1990, p. 381.
- ^ Frayne 1990, pp. 381–382.
- ^ Simons 2016, p. 9.
- ^ Edzard 1980, p. 213.
- ^ a b c d Streck 2014, p. 532.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 683.
- ^ Archi 2015, p. 34.
- Archi, Alfonso (2015). Ebla and Its Archives. De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9781614517887. ISBN 978-1-61451-716-0.
- Beaulieu, Paul-Alain (2011), "Šapaza", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-05-16
- Cavigneaux, Antoine; Krebernik, Manfred (1998), "dNIN-ṣar-BE", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Edzard, Dietz-Otto (1980), "Išum", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Frahm, Eckhart (2009).
"Assurbanipal at Der". In Luukko, Mikko; Svärd, Saana; Mattila, Raija (eds.). Of god(s), trees, kings, and scholars: Neo-Assyrian and related studies in honour of Simo Parpola. Helsinki.
ISBN
978-951-9380-72-8.
OCLC
434869052.
{{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) - Frame, Grant (1995). Rulers of Babylonia from the Second Dynasty of Isin to the End of Assyrian Domination (1157-612 BC). University of Toronto Press. doi: 10.3138/9781442657052-009.
- Frayne, Douglas (1990). Old Babylonian Period (2003-1595 BC). Early periods. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-5873-7. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
- George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-80-3. OCLC 27813103.
- Krebernik, Manfred (1987), "Lugal-asal", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Livingstone, Alasdair (1986). Mystical and Mythological Explanatory Works of Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Reiner, Erica (1956). "Lipšur Litanies". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 15 (3). University of Chicago Press: 129–149. JSTOR 542306. Retrieved 2022-05-17.
- Schwemer, Daniel; Hecker, Karl; Oelsner, Joachim (2020). "Weltbild und Gottesvorstellungen". Texte zur Wissenskultur. Gütersloher Verlagshaus. doi: 10.14315/9783641219956-004. ISBN 9783641219956.
- Simons, Frank (2016). "The God Alammuš dLÀL /d.mùšLÀL". Nouvelles Assyriologiques Brèves et Utilitaires (NABU) (1).
- Stol, Marten (2011), "Ṣarbat(um)", Reallexikon der Assyriologie (in German), retrieved 2022-05-16
- Streck, Michael P. (2014), "Vegetation deities A. I. Philological. In Mesopotamia", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-05-16
- Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (2018). "BM 33055: A Late Babylonian Clay Tablet with Figures and Captions". Mesopotamian Medicine and Magic: Studies in Honor of Markham J. Geller. Ancient Magic and Divination. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-36808-8. Retrieved 2022-05-17.