The Voices of Istar Prophetesses and Fem

Rka Esztri and dm Vr
The Voices of Itar
Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Abstract: On the basis of cuneiform sources, we try to analyse the role of prophecy in general in the Mesopotamian tradition, and of prophetesses and female
ecstatics (ass. raggintu and mahhtu) in particular in the Neo-Assyrian royal
court (in the seventh century B.C.). The first part of this paper focuses on the
ideas and rules applied to and made them members of a religious community,
the institutional framework of the temple of Itar, in the second part we intend
to examine the political decision-making systems of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
and define the proper place of prophetesses and other diviners within this structure.
Keywords: Mesopotamian Prophecy; Neo-Assyrian Period; Prophetesses, Devotees of Itar; Liminality
Rka Esztri: Pzmny Pter Catholic University, Piliscsaba Budapest, Hungary

dm Vr: Etvs Lornd University, Budapest, Hungary
In the course of our study on Neo-Assyrian prophecy, we did not intend to concentrate on the most commonly asked questions concerning Ancient Near Eastern prophetic literature. Therefore we investigated the phenomenon of Mesopotamian prophetism outside the context of its various alleged or attested
parallels, its differences from or even connections with Biblical prophecy.
Rather, we attempted to investigate those aspects of Neo-Assyrian prophecy
which can be defined as essentially indigenous, Mesopotamian in nature.
By the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (912612 B.C.), the professional activity of prophetesses and female ecstatics looked back on a thousand years old
tradition in the ancient Near East. Reports about their prophecies could be detected as early as the beginning of the second millennium B.C., in letters found
in the city of Mari, on the banks of the Euphrates, today a main archeological
site in Syria (Tell Hariri), from the 18th century B.C. Most Mari-texts were recovered in the archives of the famous royal palace, and can be dated approximately
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to the final decade of the reign of Zimr-Lm, the last king of the independent
kingdom of Mari (c. 17771761 B.C.).1
In these texts the most common term for a (so to say) professional prophet
was pilum / piltum (fem.) which is derived from the verb aplu(m), which
means to answerso they were primarily designated as answerers. The
other common designations were muhhm and its feminine counterpart
muhhtum. These titles are derived from the verb mah(m), which literally
means to become crazy, to go into a frenzy, so they refer to someone who
reached an altered state of consciousness whereupon he or she received and
transmitted divine messagesin other words, the latters were the designations
of the ones we might call ecstatic prophets.2
The text corpus of Neo-Assyrian prophecies dates to the reigns of the kings
Esarhaddon (681669 B.C.) and his son and successor, Assurbanipal (668631
B.C.). In contrast to the already mentioned prophetic letters from OldBabylonian Mari, the majority of extant Neo-Assyrian prophecies have not been
preserved in an epistolary form, but rather in the form of oracle collections.
Although in these collections the names of the oracle-giver prophets or prophetesses and their city of provenance were also included, there are no explicit
references to the relevant historical circumstances. In this respect, they also
differ from the Mari-textswhich were relevant only in connection with single
historical events.3
The common word for prophet in Neo-Assyrian times was raggimu /
raggintu (fem.), which literally means shouter or proclaimer. Among the
1 In the past few decades the relevant documents from Mari attracted considerable scholarly
attention in the fields of Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical studies, which produced a vast
amount of literature on the subject. For a useful and comprehensive introduction to the phenomena of the Mari-prophecy in general see inter alia: MALAMAT, A Forerunner of Biblical
Prophecy; HUFFMON, A Company of Prophets, 4856; and NISSINEN, Prophets and Prophecy, 1317,
with earlier literature.
2 On the common, and also on the less frequently used prophetic titles in the Mari documents
see among others: MALAMAT, A Forerunner of Biblical Prophecy, 3842; HUFFMON, A Company
of Prophets, 49; NISSINEN, The Socioreligious Role, 9091; and NISSINEN, Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East, 67; and more recently DE VILLIERS, The Origin of Prophetism, 3.
3 See inter alia: TOORN, Mesopotamian Prophecy, 7374 and 77; NISSINEN, Prophets and Prophecy in the Ancient Near East, esp 8; PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, Cassandras Colleagues, 2526; also DE
VILLIERS, The Origin of Prophetism, 2. On the main differences between Old-Babylonian and
Neo-Assyrian prophecy in general see also: HUFFMON, A Company of Prophets, 58; and TOORN,
Mesopotamian Prophecy.

Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire 5
older terms, mahh /mahhtu (fem.) were still in use, although only in literary
texts, where they were used as synonyms for the former ones.4
The first part of this paper seeks to examine these professional prophets and
prophetesses primarily as members of Mesopotamian society, and the ideas and
rules that applied to them, in other words, tries to determine their proper place
and roles within the Mesopotamian social matrix.
In this respect the first and most important preliminary statement has to be
that prophets both in Old-Babylonian Mari and in Neo-Assyrian times were
cultic functionaries, permanent members of certain temple communities. They
were probably also housed within certain temples, temple complexes, which
were in most cases dedicated to the goddess Inana/Itar.5 The fact that they
were integrated to the official cult of this goddess and formed part of the peculiar religious community of her devotees is of prime importance relating both to
their social andalbeit it may sound surprisingtheir gender role.
The phenomenon which we may properly call the genuine Mesopotamian
tradition of prophetic activity is, as we will see, inseparable from its main
source, namely the essential nature and capabilities of the most famous Mesopotamian goddess, Inana/Itar.
In Old-Babylonian Mari the most important local source of the oracles was
the goddess Annuntum, a specific form of Itar,6 whose very name was earlier
merely an epithet of a female war goddess, Inana-Annuntum (Inana/Itar, the
skirmisher).7
4 On the Neo-Assyrian terms in general see among others: PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, 4547;
NISSINEN, The Socioreligious Role, 9091; and TEPPO, Women and their Agency, 84.
5 See also (inter alia) PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, esp. 47; TEPPO, Women and their Agency,
84; and NISSINEN, The Socioreligious Role, esp. 9598 on Neo-Assyrian prophets as permanent
members of the temple communities of Itar, and also DE VILLIERS, The Origin of Prophetism, 34,
with references to the similar situation reflected by the Mari documents (with further literature).
6 Other prominent oracle giver deities of the Mari-texts were Dagan, one of the main Syrian
gods, who usually revealed his messages in his temple in Terqa (moder Tell Ashara), the city of
origin of the family of king Zimr-Lm, and Adad, the Storm god of the Syrian city of Aleppo
(ancient Halab). On the less frequently attested oracles of other gods see HUFFMON, A Company
of Prophets, 49; NISSINEN, The Socioreligious Role, 100; NISSINEN, Prophets and Prophecy, 1415.
We have to stress that both prominent Syrian gods transmitted their oracles abroad, that is, in
their own cult centers. In the city of Mari itself, Inana/Itar-Annuntum, originally a NorthMesopotamian war goddess (see the following note), prevailed over the cultic domain of
prophecy.
7 Inana/Itar-Annuntum was the divine patron of the Dynasty of Sargon (c. 23342154 B.C.)
and originally also the patron goddess of their capital. At some point towards the end of the
period of the Akkadian Empire the kings of Akkad (Agade) gained control over Mari and main-


The situation is similar, but even more unequivocal in Assyria. Here the
prophets appeared as cultic devotees of Itar already in the Middle-Assyrian
period,8 and in Neo-Assyrian times most of them served in the temple of Itar in
Arbela (modern Erbil), which was the most important center of the Neo-Assyrian
prophecy.9 We can also safely assume that, at least in Neo-Assyrian times, in
those rare cases when gods other than Itar such as Marduk or Nab, so even
male deities addressed the king by means of prophecy, the transmitter of their
message was likewise a devotee of the goddess, a prophet linked with the temple and cult of Itar.10
tained their rule there through the installation of a military governor (akkanakkum), and
during the period of the Akkadian rule the cult of Inana/Itar-Annuntum was also imported to
Mari. For a more detailed description of the structure of the Akkadian Empire, and also of the
religious policies of the Akkadian kings, see WESTENHOLZ, The Old Akkadian Period, esp. 4950,
and on the spread of the cult of Inana/Itar-Annuntum during the Akkadian period see also
SALLABERGER, Der kultische Kalender, 198 with note 941. On the name and origin of the Warlike Itar, Inana/Itar-Annuntum see: SELZ, Five Divine Ladies, 3435, with note 83.
8 In a ration list which can be dated to the 13th century B.C. (MARV 2 I 37'-39'), professional
prophets and prophetesses (mahh and mahhtu) were grouped together with other cultic
functionaries (among others assinnu-s, see below) of the temple of Itar in the city of KrTukult-Ninurta in Assyria, see JAKOB, Mittelassyrische Verwaltung und Sozialstruktur, 517518.
The other prominent oracle-giver goddess in the Neo-Assyrian documents, Mulissu, the wife of
the state god Aur, was also equated with Inana/Itar.
9 See among others PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, 47; NISSINEN, The Socioreligious Role, 9598.
10 Itar was the par excellence mediator between deities and humans, accordingly, she transmitted the plans and decisions of the gods to the deified kings of the late 3rd early 2nd millennium B.C. in South-Babylonia, within the confines of the so called sacred marriage rite (which
basically can be regarded an elaborate cultural metaphor for the alliance and the establishment of social ties between the rulers and the divine world). On the latter interpretation of this
rite see: COOPER, Sacred Marriage and Popular Cult, esp. 91; PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, When the Gods
Are Speaking, 145147; and more recently PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, Sacred Marriages and the Transfer. Later, in the Old-Babylonian period, when the phenomenon of prophecy was first detected
in Mari and also in two other centers, Enunna in the Diyala Region and in the city of Uruk in
South-Babylonia, she still remained the voice of the gods, the one who revealed their secrets to the kings. On the exceptional Old-Babylonian prophecies given by Itar-Kittum to
king Ibalpiel II of Enunna (FLP 1674, from the city of Ishchali), and by Inana to Sn-kaid of
Uruk (W19990, I) see ELLIS, The Goddess Kititum Speaks (with the comments of PONGRATZLEISTEN, When the Gods Are Speaking, 157159 and PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, Sacred Marriages and
the Transfer); and PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, When the Gods Are Speaking, 155157, respectively. The
Mesopotamian evidence then clearly shows, thatas Beate Pongratz-Leisten already observed
(PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, Cassandra's Colleagues, 24)the prominent role of Inana/ Itar in Ancient
Near Eastern prophecy has to be considered a phenomenon of genuine Mesopotamian origin,
largely differing from the ancient Syrian tradition, in which the prophetic voice of Adad and
Dagan were the dominant ones. The role of Itar as divine mediatrix became traditional and

In short, to define the proper social role of the Mesopotamian prophets and
prophetesses, who were in most cases also cultic functionaries of the goddess
Itar, moreover, to understand their connection to other members of the temple
communities of this deity, and to her cult as a whole, and finally to shed light
on the peculiar features that enabled or qualified them for functioning as a
mouthpiece of the goddess, first it is reasonable to examine the proper character
of their divine mistress herself. Considering that in some respects her devotees
also impersonated her, we shall start by assessing the special qualities which,
according to Mesopotamian concepts, empowered Inana/Itar herself to be, as
was already said, the main source of the prophetic oracles of ancient Mesopotamia.
Mistress of HeavenMistress of Prophecy

As to her role in the Mesopotamian pantheon, it is well known that the deity
known as Inana in her Sumerian and Itar in her Akkadian name was the most
significant goddess of love, of war and also of the planet Venus. Her cult enjoyed great popularity over approximately three millennia. This goddess has
been the subject of a great deal of discussion and dispute since the earliest days
of assyriology. By all accounts, Inana/Itar embodied within herself polarities
and contraries, or, to quote Rivka Harris, she was a deity who incorporated
fundamental and irreducible paradoxes.11
Most prominently, her frequently pictured sexual allure was connected to a
certain propensity to violence: she could be described as the most beautiful
female creature, whether an alluring maiden or a temptress, while other texts
stress over and over again her thirst for blood and her love of battle and carnage. According to the latter peculiarities, she is often represented in the visual
arts as a female representative of a typically male role, as a fully armed warrior,
even more pronounced in first millennium Mesopotamia. On those cases, when another deity
spoke through a prophet or prophetess of Itar see in general (inter alia) NISSINEN, The
Socioreligious Role, 99101; and TOORN, Mesopotamian Prophecy, 7879. An illustrative example for the latter phenomenon is the case of Bay, a prophet/prophetess from Arbail (whose
gender role might be regarded uncertain, see below), who proclaimed the oracles of Bl
(Marduk), Itar of Arbail and also of Nab to king Esarhaddon in 681 B.C., see PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, 67 (SAA 9 1.4, and possibly also 2.2, on the latter see PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, 49 and 1415).
11 HARRIS, InannaIshtar as Paradox, 263.


the mistress of battle and warfare, whose play was the battle12as it can be
seen on the drawing in Fig. 1 below, based on a stone stele from the eighth century B.C., which depicts Itar of Arbela.
12 a mlula qablu BA 5 564:5., for a parallel see CAD M/2 1516 (sub. mlultu, usage b).

Formerly it was assumed that this specific contradiction was the result of the
fusion of the Akkadian Itar, protectress of war and battle with the Sumerian
Inana, the goddess of love and procreation.13 But such a fusion does not adequately explain Itars personality, since many of her contradictory characteristics seem to have belonged already to the Sumerian Inana, the Mistress of
Heaven.14
This heavenly Sumerian mistress was identified with the planet Venus. According to archaic texts from the city of Uruk, the foremost Sumerian cult center
of Inana, we can distinguish between two distinct epiphanies of the goddess,
namely Morning Inana (dI n a n a- h u d 2 ) and Evening Inana (dI n a n a - s i g).15
Thus she was seen and worshiped as the planet Venus shining in the morning
or in the evening sky respectively, and it is also clear from these archaic textual
references that two different cults existed alongside for the Morning and the
Evening Inana, that is, for the two distinct manifestations of the same deity. At
this point it is tempting to connect this peculiarity with the following statements
(although they stem from later texts from the first millennium) relating to her
astral manifestations in question, because they highly correspond to the dual
character of Inana/Itar mentioned above, that is, to her dual nature as goddess
of love and of war.
According to certain astrological omens and omen commentaries, when
the Venus rises in the East, she is female, (but) when she rises in the West, she
is male.16
So as Morning Star, Venus was female, but as Evening Star, she assumes a
male aspect,17 and this latter, male Itar is also described and often even repre-
13 See among others HEIMPEL, A Catalog of Near Eastern Venus Deities; and more recently
ABUSCH, Ishtar, esp. 2324 and 26.
14 *N i n - a n - a k , Lady of Heaven or Mistress of Heaven, see SELZ, Five Divine Ladies, 30
(contra GELB, The Name of the Goddess Innin, 72, and with further literature on the previous
explanations of this divine name), and also the evidence regarding the identification of the
goddess with the planet Venus as early as the Uruk IVIII period (c. 33002900 B.C.), which
are clearly relevant to this interpretation (see below).
15 SZARZYSKA, Offerings for the Goddess, esp. 810; SZARZYSKA, Cult of the Goddess, 6465;
and BEAULIEU, The Pantheon of Uruk, 104. In this regard the decoration of an Archaic period
cylinder seal is also worth mentioning, since it preserved among its elements the e z e n (which
means festival in Sumerian), the standard of Inana, star decorations and the signs that represent the sunrise and the sunset, see HOROWITZ, Sumerian Star-Names, 175 with note 48.
16 Inter alia: Ach. Supp. 2 51: 18, see also REINER/PINGREE, Babylonian Planetary Omens, 4647
(Text IV, 7a), with many parallel manuscripts quoted and also the references in CAD S 288 (sub.
sinnitu 1a).


sented as bearded. For example, a hymn of the goddess Nanaya, in which she
assumes the appearance of Itar, proclaims that in Babylon, I am bearded18
while the duplicate of the same text has the variant: In Babylon, I am a male.
We may also quote a later hymn of king Assurbanipal, in which Itar like the
god Aur has a beard.19 This is the exact same phenomenon which was depicted for example on the cylinder seal in Fig. 2 below, which can presumably be
dated again to the 3rd millennium. Here Inana/Itar seems to be depicted as a
female with male gender characteristics, and she appears fully armed again, but
this time wearing a beard.20
17 On the original, presumably male manifestation of the Semitic Itar (Atar) as Evening Star,
and also on the possible existence of a female from, the divine manifestation of the Morning
Star see SELZ, Five Divine Ladies, 32 with note 44 and further literature (and contra GRONEBERG,
Die sumerische-akkadische Inanna/Itar, 3031). This male Itar (written as dI n a n a - n i t a )
seemingly appears already in the pre-Sargonid texts from the city of Mari, see ibid. The concept
of the warrior, male-like aspect of the goddess as Morning Star is also evidently present in the
Old-Babylonian hymn of king Iddin-Dagan, which we will in turn analyze in detail (IddinDagan A, see below with note 31).
18 ziqna zaqnku in LKA 37:3, see REINER, A Sumero-Akkadian Hymn, 224, strophe I, line 4.
19 ak dAur ziqni zaqnat, ABRT 1 7:6 (=SAA 3 7, Assurbanipals Hymn to Itar of Nineveh),
which uses in turn a rather common expression and picture of the Venus-omens from the first
millennium, see the relevant examples in CAD Z 126 (sub. ziqnu, usage b).
20 BM 130694, c. 18501720 B.C., see the more detailed description in WESTENHOLZ, Inanna and
Ishtar, 337 (with Fig. 23.3). See also the largely similar scene on the cylinder seal (BM 113881)
discussed by Erica Reiner (REINER, Astral Magic, 56 with note 14 and 15 and Fig. 2).

So Inana/Itar could represent both sexes, in her own words: (Though) I am

a woman, I am a noble young man.21 She could also represent the typical traits
and behaviors traditionally attributed to both men and womenit goes without
saying that these are socially constructed gender rolesso she was able to embody both femaleness and maleness. For example, in the famous passage of the
Gilgamesh-Epic, she is the one whoin a rather assertive wayproposes marriage to the herothereby she, acting as a man, assumes a typically masculine
role.22
By shattering and confusing the boundaries that separated sexes and gender roles she clearly defines them, but also, to some extent, exceeds and, above
all, unites them, and thus sometimes she can be seen as a genderless person (or
more properly: god).
So Inana/Itar has to be considered and interpreted, most appropriately, as
the goddess of boundaries. She is the sole deity who was capable of transgressing a wide variety of social, moral, biological or even transcendental boundaries. For example, she was the only deity who was able to descend to and ascend from the Netherworld, the realm of the dead. Moreover, she was the only
god who could not only unite what was once separated, but, as an essentially
liminal figure, she was also the one most capable of connecting the two sides of
the boundaries. Thus she was able to mediate between different spheres of existence: the divine and human worlds.
The Physical Characteristic of Divinity was

Present (with)in their Bodies:
The Cultic Functionaries of the Goddess
The psychological androgyny of the goddess, which is very well attested in our
sources, together with her more rarely but still evidenced physiological androgyny, manifest themselves even more clearly in the doubtful sexual identity and
21 sinniku elu mutallum anku, SBH p. 106: 39; see CAD M/2 306 (sub. muttallu, lexical section).
22 Tablet VI of the Standard Babylonian Epic, lines 179, esp. lines 621, see the text edition in
GEORGE, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, 618619. For a brief summary of the passage see
GEORGE, The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic, 470474, and for a detailed analysis of the whole
scene (lines 179): ABUSCH, Ishtars Proposal. Regarding the masculine behavior of the goddess; compare HARRIS, InannaIshtar as Paradox, 272; and also the different interpretation of
BAHRANI, The Whore of Babylon, 100101.


the consequent ambiguous gender role of her devotees, who were men turned
into women. According to the famous passage of a Sumerian hymn attributed
to Enheduana, daughter of king Sargon of Akkad and high priestess (e n) of the
Moon god in the city of Ur:
To turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man are yours, Inana (In-nin-a3-gur4-ra
Hymn 120)23
This fact enabled her devotees to unite with the goddess on a level that no ordinary man could have achieved, and therefore they discarded their original (presumably) male identity. However, it is impossible to determine whether they
were eunuchs, or (at least in some cases) congenitally malformed individuals
with sexual defects, that is, for example, hermaphrodites or simply transvestites.24
The commonest titles worn by them were the following:25
Table 1: The commonest titles worn by the cultic functionaries of Inana/Itar
Translations (for both)
Akkadian
kurgarr
assinnu
man-woman
Sumerian equivalents
kur-ar-ra
Sa-ur-sa
transvestite
lu2
u r -SAL
male prostitute
ritual performer
23 ETCSL 4.07.3 (Inana C) 120, see also SJBERG, I n - n i n - - g u r 4 - r a , 190191. Similar

passages can be found in a Sumerian royal hymn of king Ime-Dagan of Isin (19531935 B.C.,
Ime-Dagan K), according to which the goddess has the ability to turn a man into a woman
and a woman into a man, to change one into the other, to make young women dress as men on
their right side, to make young men dress as women on their left side, to put spindles into the
hands of men , and to give weapons to the women (Ime-Dagan K, ETCSL 2.5.4.11, lines 2124,
on the ritual cross-dressing see below), and in the bilingual version of the lament known as
Uruamairabi as well (which can be dated to the 1st millennium B.C., but goes back to earlier,
Old-Babylonian forerunners, see VOLK, Die Bala-Komposition, 1620). In the latter text the
speaker is Itar herself: I change the right side to left, I turn the man into a woman, the woman into a man. Tablet XX, lines 6568 of the composite text, see VOLK, Die Bala-Komposition,
143144.
24 Compare HARRIS, InannaIshtar as Paradox, 276; LEICK, Sex and Eroticism, esp. 158 (on the
sexual status of the assinnu and kurgarr, see below); and more recently TEPPO, Sacred marriage, 7576, 7879 and on their physical sex: op. cit. 89.
25 On the titles, peculiarities and activities of the kurgarr and assinnu see the thorough study
of Stefan M. Maul (MAUL, Kurgarr und assinnu).

As it can be seen, besides the reasonable renderings of man-woman and

transvestite,26 both titles used to be referred to also as male prostitutes,27
although there is no serious evidence which could confirm this presumed function, and for the most part this supposition is based on alleged cross-cultural
parallelsfirst and foremost on the sexual and social roles of the famous Hijra
of contemporary India, ritual performers who are also neither male nor female.28 More cautious translations, as well as those provided by the main dictionary entries, designate them rather as ritual performers.29 They were also
the nearest colleagues of the prophets, as their titles regularly appeared together not only in ration lists, but also in the lexical tradition, indicating that in
certain respects they were considered to be similar.30 Furthermore, some
26 The last Sumerian expression lu2u r -SAL literally means feminine man, man-woman, and
in the lexical material assinnu is also referred to as sinninu, lit. woman-like, see MSL 12, p.
226, Hg. B IV line 133, compare CAD S 286, sub. sinninu. See also CAD A/2, 241242 (sub.
assinnu) for further lexical equations concerning the assinnu(m). On the other Sumerian term,
s a - u r - s a see among others: LEICK, Sex and Eroticism, 158 and 160 (with further references);
GRONEBERG, Lob der Itar, esp. 139140; and TEPPO, Sacred Marriage, 82 with note 36. In addition to the above mentioned Sumerian literary passages on the reversal of gender roles, see
also the famous passage of the Akkadian Epic of Erra with a concrete reference to the cultic
functionaries of the goddess: The kurgarr and assinnu whom Itar has changed from men
into women in order to teach religious fear to the people (lu2k u r- g a r - r a lu2isinn a ana
upluh ni Itar zikirssunu utru ana sinniti) Epic of Erra IV 55, see also CAGNI, The Poem of
Erra, 52.
27 E. g. AhW 75b: Bulhknabe (im Kult) for assinnu, and also REISMAN, Iddin-Dagans Sacred
Marriage Hymn, 198, who translates the Sumerian s a - u r - s a - e - n e as male prostitutes.
28 For comparison see inter alia: LEICK, Sex and Eroticism, 158161; ROSCOE, Priests of the
Goddess, esp. 197, 208209 (comparative tablets on the characteristics and activities of the
Hijra, the Mesopotamian cult personnel of Inana/Itar, and also of the galli of Cybele and Attis,
on the latter see below), 213 and 217221. On the contemporary Hijra of India in general see:
ROSCOE, Priests of the Goddess, 206213 with further literature, and especially on their engagement in (passive) homosexual prostitution: LEICK, Sex and Eroticism; 160 and ROSCOE,
Priests of the Goddess, 207 with note 49.
29 CAD A/II, 341 sub. assinnu and CAD K 557559, sub kurgarr and AhW 510a.
30 See e.g. MSL 17 p. 71, Erimhu III. Line 172: lu2AN.SAL = assinnu (in group with muhh, zabbu
(also as a kind of ecstatic) and kurgarr in lines 169172), and also MSL 12 p. 102103, lines
213217: lu2gub-ba = mahh (prophet, ecstatic) / lu2ni2-zu-ub = zabbu (frenzied one) / kurar-ra = kurgarr (man-women) / ur-SAL = assinnu (man-woman) / lu2i-bala-u-du7 = n
pilaqqi (carrier of spindle). See also the discussion of this passage in NISSINEN, The Socioreligious Role, 93 with note 22. They also appear together, as a group in an incantation-ritual of
Itar and Dumuzi from the first millennium, see FARBER, Beschwrungsrituale an Itar, 140. On
the role of the assinnu and kurgarr in specific first millennium healing rituals (based on their
general liminal nature and mediatory functions, on which in detail see below) see MAUL, Kurgarr und assinnu, 164166.


assinnu-s in the Mari-texts appear even as transmitters of the prophetic messages of the goddess Annuntum, while in the Neo-Assyrian prophetic record
the ambiguous gender identity of (professional) prophets is at times also distinctively marked, chiefly through the seemingly inconsistent usage of the gender-determinatives before their names. For more details on this, see below.
The most telling source regarding the characteristics and functions of these
peculiar cult personnel is the famous Inana-Dilibad (Venus) Hymn, also known
as Iddin-Dagan A and as the Sacred Marriage Hymn of Iddin-Dagan (an early
Old-Babylonian ruler from Isin, who reigned 19741954 B.C., as the third king of
the first dynasty of Isin).31 This literary composition, written in Sumerian, includes an exceptionally vivid and detailed description of the procession and
rituals preceding and following the proper rite of sacred marriage. The passage
quoted below begins with the description of the ceremonial march and symbolic
activities of the s a - u r - s a (the Akkadian assinnu-s) before the goddess,
which presumably took place in the evening before the culmination of the festival on New Years Day32that is, the consummation of the marriage of the
goddess with the king, appearing as her divine spouse, the god Dumuzi.
31 ETCSL 2.5.3.1, see also RMER, Sumerische Knigshymnen, 128208 (editio princeps) and
the re-edition of Daniel Reisman (REISMAN, Iddin-Dagans Sacred Marriage Hymn), with the
additional corrections and philological comments of Philip Jones (JONES, Embracing Inana).
The above translation follows the line numbering of the composite text edited in ETCSL. For a
brief summary of the events and the ritual process described in this composition, see COOPER,
Sacred Marriage and Popular Cult, 9294; GRONEBERG, Lob der Itar, 138145; and more recently JONES, Embracing Inana, 292296; and BCK, berlegungen zu einem Kultfest, 2729.
Although all the known manuscripts of the hymn (originating from the city of Nippur) date to
the eighteenth century B.C., we can safely assume that the original composition was written
during the reign of Iddin-Dagan, see REISMAN, Iddin-Dagans Sacred Marriage Hymn, 185 (with
the list of the manuscripts); JONES, Embracing Inana, 292 with note 10; and also BCK, berlegungen zu einem Kultfest, 26. For a general overview of the historical context of Iddin-Dagan
A see RMER, Hymnen und Klagelieder, 3537; and CHARPIN, Histoire Politique du ProcheOrient, 6064.
32 According to lines 175176 on the day after the above described ritual activities, which was
also the day of the disappearance of the moon, the bed of Inana was set up for the subsequent
ceremonies of the New Year's Day: (z a g - m u ): u d n u 2 - a m e u d u 7 - d u 7 - d e 3 / z a g m u u d a r z a - k a So that on the day of the disappearance of the moon the divine powers
can be perfected, / at the New Year, on the day of the rites (a bed was set up for Inana). Since
the edition of the classic study of Walther Sallaberger on the cultic calendar of the Ur III period
(SALLABERGER, Der kultische Kalender) it is now widely accepted, that the Sumerian term z a g m u (literally the side/boundary of the year) did not referred to an overall state ceremony
with a fixed date, but rather to the main feasts of the prominent city-gods, celebrated at different dates in different locations, that is, the marked beginning of the cultic year according to
each individual local calendar, see SALLABERGER, Der kultische Kalender, 142143 with note


45 Tightening their hairgrips for her, the s a - u r - s a (assinn)
walk before her, holy Inana.
Their locks of hair at the back are adorned for her with coloured ribbons;
they walk before her, holy Inana.
The physical charasteristics of divinity is present (with)in their body,
50 (as) they walk before her, the holy Inana.
60 Dressed with mans clothing on the right side,
I shall greet the great lady of heaven, Inana!
Adorned with womans clothing on the left side,
65 I shall greet the great lady of heaven, Inana!
Competing with skipping ropes of (?) coloured cords for her,
they parade before her, holy Inana.
I shall greet the eldest daughter of Suen, Inana!
669, 175, 310; and the brief summary of the evidence in SALLABERGER, Neujahr(sfest). However,
consideration of relatively certain facts might permit another interpretative approach, which is
also relevant to the precise dating of the ceremony in question. The facts relevant in this respect are the following: the ceremony explicitly took place before and during the first visibility
of the new moon, presumably after the spring equinox (on the appearance of the new moon,
Neulichttag in a cultic context see SALLABERGER, Der kultische Kalender, esp. 3839 and 54,
and on the later Babylonian tradition of the ideal beginning of the year at this very date, on
the first of Nisan see among others HOROWITZ, The 360- and 364-Day Year, 36; and PONGRATZLEISTEN, Neujahr(sfest), 294295), and additionally the hymn of king Iddin-Dagan, along with
other literary texts also related to the sacred marriage rite, contain numerous astral or astronomical references. As it has already been suggested by Daniel Foxvog (FOXWOG, Astral
Dumuzi), concerning the clear connection of the Astral Dumuzi with the new moon, such
rituals had close ties with certain astronomical phenomena. It seems quite probable, that they
were connected not only with the moon, but, at least in these ideal literary descriptions, also
with the rising, setting and periodic cycles of the sun and the Planet Venus, observable for the
naked eye. On the early Mesopotamian astronomical observations in the 3rd and early 2nd millennium in general (and further on the periodicity of Venus, see note above 15) see HOROWITZ,
Some Thoughts on Sumerian Star-Names, and esp. 174 with note 45 for an astronomical calculation regarding New Years Day, mentioned in the Cylinder B of Gudea (III: 58). In the case of
the hymn of Iddin-Dagan, the praising of Inana/Itar above all as the Evening and later as the
Morning Star also makes it reasonable to assume that the above described ritual cross dressing,
reappearing in a late Old-Babylonian hymn of Itar, but there in the case of young men and
women (Itar-Louvre = AO 6035, col. ii 120, see the text edition in GRONEBERG, Lob der Itar,
2627) symbolized basically the transformation/metamorphose of the planet Venus itself (for a
similar presupposition see GRONEBERG, Lob der Itar, esp. 152154, pointing out the shamanistic character of the cult of the goddess, which was in turn already suggested by Stefan Maul,
see MAUL, Kurgarr und assinnu, 163164), which took place after its conjunction with the Sun,
a period of invisibility generally lasts three days in inferior conjunctionthat is, a liminal
period, during of which Venus was neither Evening or Morning Star, neither male nor female.

76 With daggers in their hands, the ascending k u r - g a r - r a (kurgarr) priests...

walk before her, holy Inana.
Those who cover their swords with gore spatter blood
as they walk before her, holy Inana.
80 Blood is poured on the dais of the throne room,
as t i g i , e m and a l a drums are made to sound loudly.
(Iddin-Dagan A, ETCSL 2.5.3.1)
According to the beginning of this passage, the assinnu-s appear with their typical hair-style and colourful ribbons, while the following, well-known lines (60
63) describe their mentioned transvestism or cross-dressing, that is, on their
right side they dress with mans clothes, (and) their left side they cover with
womans clothes. Obviously, they emphasize their ambiguous gender by wearing male and female clothing and ribbons, while they perform (possibly) some
sort of dance. The climax of the show is the appearance of the kurgarr-s, who
seemingly lacerate themselves in an ecstatic frenzy, accompanied by drums.33
Grasping a sword, they cover it with blood, then they pour out the blood on
the dais of the throne room. This one is, again, a famous passage, and is often
mentioned as a reference to ritual self-mutilation or even self-castration34but,
as we see, this text in itself does not clearly support an interpretation of this
kind. Although this presupposition could base only on external evidence, namely on cross-cultural comparisons, it is not impossible that they indeed used
some sort of ascetic technique in order to reach an altered state of consciousness in which they could achieve union with the goddess.
In this latter respect the cross-dressing, together with one specific statement, seems to be more relevant. As line 49 of the hymn says, The physical
characteristic of divinity was present (with)in their bodies, in other words, they
were considered to be (one might say): holy (literally: endowed with the k u of
divinity).35 On this basis, it is even safer to assume that their transvestism, as it
33 Regarding the ascending kurgara (k u r - a r - r a e d 3 - d a ) in lines 7475 Willem H. Ph.

Rmer (RMER, Sumerische Hymnen II, 42) suggested, that ascending from below to above is
the literary expression of the goddess' ability to make people fall into trance. On descending
and ascending among the divine powers, that is, abilities or rituals of Inana/ Itar see note 45
below.
34 This interpretation is widely accepted, see for example HARRIS, InannaIshtar as Paradox,
276; COOPER, Sacred Marriage, 93; GRONEBERG, Lob der Itar, 143 with note 165; and more recently TEPPO, Sacred marriage, 79 and 83. See also BCK, berlegungen zu einem Kultfest, 27 and
33, who considers the lines in question an allusion to a ritual battle-game.
35 k u n a m - d i i r - r a s u - b i - a m u - u n - a l 2 . Compare the strictly literal translation of
ETCSL: Clothed (?) in the leather (?) of divinity (sic), which uses the most common traditional

was already observed by Rivka Harris, simulated the androgyny of Inana/Itar:

by emulating their goddess, who was both female and male, they shattered the
boundary between the sexes and genders.36 The prime function of ritual transvestism, as Mircea Eliade observed, was to restore the initial completeness, the
intact source of holiness and power.37 This kind of androgyny, whether conceived as a union of opposites, or as the transcendence of social differences,38
constituted a liminal state, a state of holiness.
meaning of the word k u , that is, leather (see ePSD sub. k u , and for the same translation
(in German) already: MAUL, Kurgarr und assinnu, 169, note 40), and also the interpretation of
Daniel Reisman (REISMAN, Iddin-Dagan's Sacred Marriage Hymn, 187): They place upon their
bodies the cloak of divinity, according to which the k u n a m - d i i r - r a might have been an
article of clothing. However, on the one hand, as the verb a l 2 refers neither to clothing nor
placing, but rather it simply means to be, those interpretations remain doubtful, as it was
already observed by Gwendolyn Leick (LEICK, Sex and Eroticism, 290, note 1). On the other
hand, regarding the rather enigmatic k u , first of all, it is important to note, that it was written
with the same cuneiform sign as the word s u in the same line (the sign SU), that is, it could be
seen merely as a variant reading of the latter. In other words, it is also possible to interpret it in
the same way, as body, physical appearance. To the latter interpretation compare the translation and comments of LEICK, Sex and Eroticism, 157158.
36 HARRIS, InannaIshtar as Paradox, 277.
37 ELIADE, The Two and the One, 113.
38 In connection with the procession of the hymn Iddin-Dagan A, Barbara Bck has recently
suggested that the main purpose of this ritual was the temporal abolishment of the accepted
social norms and roles, and their subsequent renewal, reestablishment, which reaffirmed the
appropriate social structure and order, see BCK, berlegungen zu einem Kultfest, esp. 33. On
the temporal disorder and the subsequent renewal of the normal conditions also manifesting themselves in the ritual inversions described by this hymn, see already HARRIS, Inanna
Ishtar as Paradox, 274 with note 70, who in turn cites the conclusion of the classic study of
Umberto Eco (ECO, The Frames of Comic Freedom, esp. 67) on carnivalesque behavior (which
is often paired with cross-dressing or symbolic cross-gendered activities, on the latter elements
see IVANOV, The Semiotic Theory of Carnival, 1316). All the mentioned works, regarding their
considerations about social structure and social disorder, are based upon the basic considerations of post-structural anthropology on which, in general, see the influential studies of Victor
Turner (e.g. TURNER, The Ritual Process, esp. the Chapter Liminality and Communitas). In the
case of the hymn Iddin-Dagan A, we might say that the social structure and norms are indeed
reestablished during the subsequent feast, which follows the sacred marriage of the king and
the goddess (on this function and meaning of feasts and feasting in general see DIETLER, Theorizing Feasts, 6572). However, regarding the essential goal of this ritual, namely, the direct
communication and union with the divine, it is the state of liminality, achieved by the reversal
of gender roles, and also manifesting itself in the person or body of the devotees, which is of
vital concern here. This is the exact state which allows the temporal slurring of the boundaries
between the human and the divine world, which, in turn, enables the king to get into direct
contact with the goddess, and moreover, this is the state in which (as a beautiful example of


Moreover, in many cultures, the person who achieved this state was also
thought to be able to communicate with the divine sphere, and often mediate
between the human and the divine worlds. To quote a quite suggestive example, Firmicus Maternus describing the impure and unchaste galli, priests of
Cybele and Attis in the mid-fourth century A.D., representing similar ecstatic
practice and gender transgression, wrote that:
They wear effeminately nursed hair and dress in soft clothes. They can barely hold their
heads up on their limp necks. Then, having made themselves alien to masculinity, swept
up by playing flutes, they call their Goddess to fill them with an unholy spirit so as to
seemingly predict the future to idle men (De errore profanarum religiorum 4.2).39
One might also recall the famous second-century novel of Apuleius, the Metamorphoses (also known as the The Golden Ass), which provides an even more
detailed description of the appearance of the galli, and of the ritual acts performed by them:
The following day they went out, wearing various colored undergarments with turbans
and saffron robes and linen garments thrown over them, and every one hideously made
up, their faces crazy with muddy paints and their eyes artfully lined. Some wore tunics,
fastened with belts, with purple stripes flowing in every direction like spears and yellow
shoes on their feet. They put the goddess, draped in a silk cloak, on my back to carry, and
with their arms bared to the shoulders, hoisting enormous swords and battle-axes, they
leapt about shouting [evantes], raving in a religious dance to the singing of pipes. After
wandering by not a few cottages, we arrived at some villas of landowners, and entering
communitas), at least for some brief moment, even the common people are able to be in touch
with the divine. According to lines 117119 (after the discussed ritual procession), at night,
during sleep, Those, who sleep on the roofs and those who sleep by the walls step up before
her [] and bring her their cases She makes her order known So Inana communicates with
and judges the people (who sleep on the roofs and who sleep by the walls, that is, regardless
their social standing) in their dreams, half-way between the terrestrial and the divine worlds.
Of course, this kind of communication has to be differentiated from the one achieved by the
king, who even exceeds the state of communitas and, according to the marriage metaphor, is
capable to unite with the goddess. This clear distinction is also apparent from the following
passage of the Sumerian epic known as Enmerkar and Enuhgirina (ETCSL 1.8.2.4), where the
Lord of Aratta, competing with Enmerkar, the ruler of Uruk for the favors of the goddess, referring to the means of contact with Inana, describes the same situation: He may meet with
Inana in his dreams at night, but I shall converse with Inana between her gleaming legs (lines
3132, see also VANSTIPHOUT, Epics of Sumerian Kings, 3132).
39 Translated by Clarence Forbes, (FORBES, Firmicus Maternus, 5051). For a more detailed
analysis of the quoted passage, and about the origin, history and peculiarities of the institution
of the galli, examined as a representative example of ritual gender transgression see ROSCOE,
Priests of the Goddess, esp. 195202.


the first one, they immediately flew around every which way, howling [ululatibus] cacophonously. For a long time they would hang their heads down on their necks and with
quick, twisting motions whirl their hanging hair around in circles and sometimes assail
their flesh with bites. At last, with a two-edged axe that they carried, everyone cut their
arms. Then, from among them, one of these pouring forth in raving pretended to be stricken with madness [vecordiam] and affected repeated gasps from the depth of his breast, as
if filled with the power of a divine spiritas if, in other words, the presence of a god were
not accustomed to make men better but weaker and ill! You could see, by the cutting of
the swords and the blows of the whips, the soil become wet with the filthy blood of the effeminates (8.2728).40
The further comparison of the latter texts with the above quoted passage of the
hymn of Iddin-Dagan lies beyond the scope and limits of this paper.41 As for
now, it would be enough to state, that assinu-s and kurgarr-s (who, actually,
well fit in the category of the tertium sexus, the third gender),42 as a result of
their special social and gender role (so that they were men clothed as both men
and women or, according to other sources, at times only as women, and acted
40 English translation of William Adlington (ADLINGTON, The Golden Ass, 391). On the description of Apuleius in a cross-cultural context see ROSCOE, Priests of the Goddess, 202; and for a
more detailed analysis see BENKO, The Virgin Goddess, 7278, with further literature.
41 The characteristics of the devotees of Inana/Itar that were described above are often compared with the seemingly similar peculiarities of the galli, see for instance COOPER, Sacred
Marriage and Popular Cult, 93; and GRONEBERG, Lob der Itar, 18, and sometimes also with
other cults known to had involved the cultic transvestism or cross-dressing of the participants
(for example the cult of the Hermaphrodite or Bearded Aphrodite (Venus Barbata) in ancient
Cyprus, see GRONEBERG, Die sumerische-akkadische Inanna/Itar, 28; and GRONEBERG, Lob der
Itar, 1516). Albeit many of these characteristics seems to be typical features of the ecstatic
cults in general, it was recently assumed by Mary M. Bachvarova in a comparative study on
Ancient Near Eastern and Greek lamentation (BACHVAROVA, Sumerian Gala Priests) that the
similarities of the cultic functionaries of Itar and the galli, the effeminate eunuch priests of
Anatolian origin are more than typological, and must be at least in part the result of direct
contact across the Mediterranean, see BACHVAROVA, Sumerian Gala Priests, esp. 1822 and 36
39. The later study concentrated primarily on role of the g a l a (Akkadian kal), the Mesopotamian lamentation priests with ambiguous gender identity who were also closely connected
with Inana/Itar, and traditionally used e m e - s a l , the so-called Sumerian womans language.
On the g a l a in general see among others COOPER, Genre, Gender, 4245; BACHVAROVA, Sumerian Gala Priests, 1922; and also TEPPO, Sacred marriage, 8384; and compare also RUBIO,
Inanna and Dumuzi, 270, with the discussion of the Sumerian cuneiform sign for g a l a , which
is a combination of the signs for penis and anus. It is also worth mentioning that a g a l a
appears in the Sumerian version of the myth of Inanas Descent, as one of the savers of the
goddesson the latter episode see note 44 and also BACHVAROVA, Sumerian Gala Priests, 3334.
42 For the general concept of a third gender, and its applicability in Ancient Near Eastern
context see MCCAFFREY, Gender Ambiguity in Mesopotamia, 385391. On the devotees of
Inana/Itar, as members of the third gender category, see: TEPPO, Sacred marriage, 8991.


both as men and women) were, just like their goddess, also capable to transgress the boundaries not only between sexes, but also between the transcendental spheres.43 So it is not a coincidence that in the Sumerian myth of Inanas
Descent to the Underworld, the k u r ar a (Akkadian kurgarr) and the g al atu r - r a (Akkadian kal) while in the Akkadian version of the same story the
assinnu44 are the ones who finally save the life of their goddess, because they
are the only ones among both gods and humans who are able to pass through
the gates of the Underworld (without even being noticed), and also, they are
able to come back from the Land of No Return.45 To quote the Sumerian version,
43 The idea according to which gender transgression enables a person to communicate not
only with the divine, but also with the dead, is again a widespread, one might say universal
one, which is widely attested in the traditional shamanistic cults around the world (see for
instance the impressive amount of material collected and discussed in BAUMANN, Das Doppelte
Geschlecht, 1539), and also tangible in Ancient Near Eastern ritual lamentation, see
BACHVAROVA, Sumerian Gala Priests. On the cross-dressing of the shamans, as a characteristic
that further enables them to mediate between the various (transcendental) spheres, see also
ELIADE, The Two and the One, esp. 377.
44 According to the version from Nineveh (CT 15, 46: Rv. 12). The Assur-manuscript of the same
text has kuluu instead of assinnu here (KAR 1 Rv. 6). Compare line 92 of the composite text in
LAPINKIVI, The Neo-Assyrian Myth, 19. The kuluu was also a member of the temple-personnel of
Itar, who performed various dances and music, and was in turn equated with the assinnu in
the lexical lists (lu2[u r -SAL] = kuluu, lu2u r -SAL = assinnu: Igituh short version, 265266, on the
Sumerian expression see note 26). Regarding his/her gender role, compare also the following
statement of a Middle-Babylonian letter (AfO 10 3: 21): He is a kuluu, not a (he-)man (kuluu
la zikaru ), see CAD K 529, sub. kuluu, also for further references.
45 The cultic functionaries appearing in this myth, as it was already stated, to some extent
embodied the characteristics and abilities of the goddess, in order to unite with her. She is in
turn, due to her essentially liminal nature, shattered the boundaries between the realms of the
living and the dead. This fact clearly manifests itself in the Sumerian and Akkadian myths of
her descent to the Underworld and her subsequent resurrection, stories which based again on
the observation of the periodical disappearance and transformation of the planet Venus, see
already HEIMPEL, A Catalog of Near Eastern Venus Deities, 9; more recently WESTENHOLZ,
Inanna and Ishtar, 335, and also note 32 of present article. The myth of Inana and Enki, which
contains the famous enumeration of the m e , the divine powers or, according to another interpretation, the roles and rituals performed by the worshipers of the goddess (on the latter possibility see GLASSNER, Inanna et les me, esp. 5657; and BARRETT, Was Dust Their Food, 22), also
mentions the descending to the Netherworld (k u r e d 3 - d e 3 ) and the ascending to the
Netherworld (k u r e d 3 - d a ) as activities belonging to the domain of Inana, and, as already
mentioned (see note 33), connected with the ritual performance of the k u r a r a (Inana and
Enki, ETCSL 1.3.1, Segment F 23 and Segment J 1920, see also FARBER-FLGGE, Der Mythos
Inanna und Enki, 2829 and 5455. On further explicit association of Inana/Itar with the
cult of the dead see BCK, berlegungen zu einem Kultfest, 30; BARRETT, Was Dust Their Food,
2324, 27 (textual evidence); and BARRETT, Was Dust Their Food, 2535 and 4251 (archaeologi-

they flit past the door like flies, (and) slipped through the door pivots like
phantoms.46
cal evidence). One might also recall the image of the famous Burney Relief (Fig. 3) which,
together with the similar depictions of a winged, taloned goddess, represents an underworldform of Inana/Itar, a liminal figure who, to quote Rivka Harris, also breaks down the boundary between the species (HARRIS, InannaIshtar as Paradox, 272). On the identification of the
goddess, and the assumed cultic use of this relief, see: JACOBSEN, Pictures and Pictorial Language; and recently BARRETT, Was Dust Their Food, 3542, with previous literature.
46 ETCSL 1.4.1, lines 229230; see also SLADEK, Inannas Descent, 131132 and 171; also
GRONEBERG, Die sumerische-akkadische Inanna/Itar, 3738; and MAUL, Kurgarr und assinnu,
160162 for a brief overview of the story in general. See also TEPPO, Sacred Marriage, 7778 also
for the clearly expressed liminal, mediatory role of the devotees in this myth.

Prophets or Prophetesses?
Such a person is obviously more suitable to fill the role of a prophet, and also,
while embodying the deity, to transmit her messages. Therefore it is not surprising that, among the Mesopotamian prophets known by name, we find assinnu-s
(in the prophetic records from Mari),47 and that in the Neo-Assyrian corpus we
can also determine a few with clearly indicated ambiguous gender role48
they are the ones in the following tablet who, for example, have male names,
but appear with female determinatives.
Table 2: Female prophets in the Neo-Assyrian oracle collections known by name, listed together with the two (marked) persons with uncertain gender
Prophetess
Title
Aht-aba
dumu-mi2
Issr-bl-da''ini
ltu a l u g a l
Urkittu-arrat
uru
Sinqa-mur
dumu-mi2
Bay
dumu
Ilssa-mur
uru
Rmt-Allati
Arba-l
uru
Kal-hi-tu2
Arba-il3
Date
SAA 9 1.8
680 B.C.
SAA 9 1.7
680 B.C.
SAA 9 2.4
680 B.C.
uru
SAA 9 1.2, SAA 9 2.5 681680 B.C.
Arba-il3
SAA 9 1.4, SAA 9 2.2 681680 B.C.
uru
a 3 - u r u -a-a
Dara-ahuya
uru
Text(s)
SAA 9 1.5
681 B.C.
SAA 9 1.3
681 B.C.
47 In ARM 26, 198, 212, 213 and possibly also in ARM 26, 197, on the latter see DURAND, Archives epistolaires de Mari (=ARM 26), 425. The assinnu-s were, according to the first three letters, directly
connected to the cult and temple of the goddess Annuntum. Moreover, an administrative texts
from Mari (M. 11299) lists the assinnum-s among the receivers of certain provisions from the
Annuntum-temple, see DURAND, Archives epistolaires de Mari (=ARM 26), 399. On the OldBabylonian assinnum as professional prophet, and therefore gender ambiguity as an integral
part of professional prophecy in Mari, see HUFFMON, The assinnum as Prophet. The only
counter-argument to this theory, namely that (according to a note of Jonathan Stkl, see STKL,
Female Prophets, 55 note 50) the cross-dressing behavior of the assinnu(m) does not attested
prior to the first millennium, is inaccurate, see the explicit references to this phenomenon in
the second millennium hymn of king Iddin-Dagan quoted earlier in the present study, or the
mentioning of the assinnu in the late Old-Babylonian hymn Itar-Louvre also in the context of a
transvestite ritual and of an ecstatic performance note 33 and also GRONEBERG, Lob der Itar,
1718 for the summary of the passage in question.
48 On the uncertain gender of some Assyrian prophets see already (inter alia) PARPOLA,
Assyrian Prophecies, 48; NISSINEN, The Socioreligious Role, 94; and also TEPPO, Women and
their Agency, 8485; and TEPPO, Sacred Marriage, 82.

Mulissu-kabtat
raggintu
Dunnaa-mur
dumu-mi2
mi2
gub-ba
Mulissu-abu-usr
raggintu
SAA 13 37
c. 670640 B.C.
Hammia
None
SAA 13 43
c. 670640 B.C.49
SAA 9 7
Arba- il3 SAA 9 9
SAA 9 10
uru
672 B.C.
650 B.C.
Of course, we are not inclined to presume that the genderless state described
above was an exclusive criteria in the case of the personage of the prophets (as
we will see, at times even ordinary people, non-professionals, were considered
to be able to transmit a divine message), but it had to be a state which made a
given person so to say more suitable to function like that, because, in light of
the former facts, such persons even more embodied the general concept of
liminality (which was attributed to the cultic functionaries of Itar as a whole).
So the common assumption that, in Neo-Assyrian times, the prophets of Itar
were, according to their names, predominantly women,50 should be treated
49 Based mainly on the data tabulated in TEPPO, Women and their Agency, 87. By contrast,
beyond those prophets, whose names have been included in the above tablet, there are four
male prophets, whose names have survived, so the majority of named prophets in the NeoAssyrian texts are female, see recently STKL, Female Prophecy, esp. 5556, with note 44 about
the named male prophets and for previous literature. See also NISSINEN, The Socioreligious
Role, 94; and TEPPO, Women and their Agency, 88 with note 93 on the rather problematic definition of the gender role of a certain prophet/prophetess named Issr-l-tayat (who appears
in SAA 9, Collection 1.1, line 2829 with masculine and divine determinatives written over the
originally written female determinative before his/her name, see PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, 5). Whether it is a simple correction, or should be understood as another allusion to the
gender-transgression of this person, it is difficult to ascertain, and in this respect, his/her
designation as d u m u Arbail, considering that the above mentioned Bay worn the same
title, cannot be helpful either. Because of these uncertainties, Issr-l-tayat is not included in
the above tablet.
50 For example PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, 48; NISSINEN, The Socireligious Role, 109; TEPPO,
Women and their Agency, 86; PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, Cassandra's Colleagues, esp. 24 and 27; DE
VILLIERS, The Origin of Prophetism, 3; and also a recent study by Jonathan Stkl for the proportional differences between men and women among Old-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian prophets
(STKL, Female Prophets on the Neo-Assyrian material see esp. 5456). Note also the remarkable case of a Neo-Assyrian administrative list of female palace personnel (SAA 7 24) in which 13
kurgarr appear with female determinative (obv. 24) and counted among the female musicians.
It is again difficult to answer, whether this might be seen as an exceptional attestation of female kurgarr-s (who are otherwise unknown), or they should be interpreted as trans-gendered
persons who were, at least in the administrative record, lacking further categories, considered
to be female and included in the homogenous group of the female singers.


more carefully, bearing in mind, that in a case like that a name is not necessarily conclusive evidence regarding the biological gender of a person as the following example from Mari clearly illustrates.
The famous early-dynastic votive statue of a cultic singer named Ur-Nane
from the city of Mari, from around 2400 B.C.,51 depicts a person who thus bears a
typical male name, while, according this image, where he is represented in a
male garment, but also with clear female characteristics, he has to be considered either a hermaphrodite, a cross-dressed female, or probably a male castrated before his puberty. In this case the name-giving was apparently based primarily not on his/her physical sex, but rather on the role he/she played in the
society, the way, in which he/she acted, and according to that Ur-Nane, who is
wearing a male garment, was considered as male.
There is one last important lesson derived from this image: the fact that UrNane had the opportunity to erect a votive statue in a temple, consequently,
even as a person with elusive gender, he was a respected member of the society,
who acquired both wealth and considerable social prestige.
Likewise the prophets of the goddess Inana/Itar, although liminal or marginal in nature, were in neither way marginalized, but rather they were integrated into the temple community and into society as a whole.52 Moreover, their
profession assured stable social standing and respect, so we can safely assume
that they were much more admired than feared.
Prophecy and Divination in the Neo-Assyrian

Royal Court
Since these prophets and their prophecies, referring to diverse state matters,
were essentially ideological and political tools in the hands of state authority,
they formed part of another special community: the inner circle of professional
diviners and scholars of the Neo-Assyrian royal court. According to the famous
Cuthean Legend of Narm-Sn,53 the diverse divinatory acts that anticipated sig
51 For a recent description and interpretation of this artifact see MCCAFFREY, Gender Ambiguity
in Mesopotamia, 380381, with former literature; and compare also ASHER-GREVE, The Essential
Body, 457 with note 37, who, in connection with the statue of Ur-Nane, already pointed out
the existence of multiple gender categories in ancient Mesopotamia.
52 On the institutionalization of marginal sexuality in Mesopotamian society and religion in
general see LEICK, Sex and Eroticism, 159, 168169; and TEPPO, Sacred marriage, esp. 87.
53 WESTENHOLZ, Legends of the Kings of Akkade, 263367.

nificant royal decisions were indispensable and integral parts of good government and, as it can be attested from the Old-Babylonian period onwards, played
indeed a traditional role in the decision-making procedures of royal courts.54
However, in contrast with former periods, the cuneiform sources from the NeoAssyrian capitals present increasing references to various divinatory methods:
interpretation of astral phenomena, extispicy, dream interpretation, and prophecy. These references stem, on the one hand, from the correspondence of the
Assyrian rulers with scholars of the royal court,55 and, on the other hand, from
technical texts such as the Queries to the Sun god ama.56 From the reign of
Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, the royal archives of Nineveh have yielded a
large number of letters written to the kings by various people, commonly defined as scholars, who were experts in the fields of Mesopotamian scholarship
(extispicy, astrology, exorcism and magic, medicine and lamentations) and
were attached to the court for royal service. In these letters, scholars informed
the king about the interpretation of the meaning of celestial phenomena and
other events, so they gave him advices on his decisions in the fields of politics,
religion, or military strategy.57
During his eighth campaign, Sargon II (721705 B.C.) recognized messages
of the gods:
At the exalted command of Nab and Marduk, who had moved on a path in a stellar station, (which meant) the advancement of my weapons; and further, as a favourable sign for
the obtaining of total power, the god Magur, lord of the tiara, made an eclipse that lasted
one watch, to announce the destruction of Gutium. Upon the precious approval of the
54 Cf. ELLIS, Observations on Mesopotamian Oracles, 144146; and LAUNDERVILLE, Piety and
Politics, 193239; with a focus on the Neo-Assyrian Empire see FALES/LANFRANCHI, The Impact
of Oracular Material.
55 The correspondence of the scholars of the Neo-Assyrian royal court with the kings and other
high officials of the empire are published by HUNGER, Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings
(= SAA 8) and PARPOLA, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars (= SAA 10), with additions in LUUKKO/VAN BUYLAERE, The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon (= SAA 16) and
REYNOLDS, The Babylonian Correspondence of Esarhaddon (= SAA 18). This topic has a huge
scholarly literature, but the basic monographic synthesis is still: PARPOLA, Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. Part II: Commentary and Appendices.
The most up to date studies in this field are: WIGGERMAN, A Babylonian Scholar in Assur;
RADNER, The Assyrian Kings and Their Scholars; ROBSON, Empirical Scholarship; RADNER, Royal
Decision-Making.
56 STARR, Queries to the Sungod (= SAA 4).
57 FALES/LANFRANCHI, The Impact of Oracular Material.


warrior ama, who wrote encouraging omens on the exta that he would walk at may side,
... I set out and took the road to Muair.58
As may be seen, we have here the record of two complete astrological observations. The first is relevant to the course of the planets Mercury and Jupiter, the
second concerns a lunar eclipse, with Magur standing as a synonym of the divine name of the Moon god Sn.59 Finally, we have the confirmation of these
astrological observations by means of an extispicy, from the Sun god.
It is still an open question whether or not the succession of Esarhaddon was
eventually legitimate, in the wake of the murder of his father, Sennacherib
(704681 B.C.) in a plot led by his half-brother, Arda-Mulissi.60 In any case, in
his royal inscription Esarhaddon describes the auspicious omens foretelling his
reignastral phenomena of Sn and ama (Moon and Sun), the Venus and the
Mars, prophecies, dreams and ominous utterances.
In [order] to give the land and the people verdicts of truth and justice, the gods [Sn and]
ama, the twin gods, took the road of truth and justice monthly. They made (their simultaneous) appearance regularly on days [first]61 and fourteen. Venus, the brightest
of the stars, was seen in the west, [in the Path] of the Ea-stars. Concerning the securing
of the land (and) the reconciliation of its gods, it (Venus) reached (its) hypsoma and then
disappeared. Mars, the giver of decisions on the land Amurru, shone brightly in the
Path of the Ea-stars (and) it revealed its sign concerning the strengthening of the ruler
and his land. Messages from ecstatics (mahh) were constantly available. Good signs
occurred for me concerning the securing of the foundation of the throne of my priestly office forever. Favorable omens concerning the securing of my throne (and) the prolongation of my reign came to me in dreams and through oracles. I saw those (signs), was encouraged, and my mood felt good. (LEICHTY, The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, no. 57,
i 3ii 26. Highlights by the present authors)
By the end of the Sargonid dynasty (7th century B.C.), all political decisions were
preceded by one or more divinatory procedures. During the reign of Esarhaddon
we could identify a royal will to collect all the scholars and diviners of the em
58 THUREAU-DANGIN, Une relation de la huitieme campagne de Sargon lines 317321. English
tranlation of FALES/LANFRANCHI, The Impact of Oracular Material, 106.
59 Boat or Big Boat of Heaven, cf. LAMBERT, Ma, 192.
60 For the reconstruction of the events around the murderer of Sennacherib see PARPOLA, The
Murderer of Sennacherib. For the exile of Esarhaddon just before his fathers death see LEICHTY,
Esarhaddons Exile. Walter Mayer analyzes the severe fights for the throne within the NeoAssyrian royal family: MAYER, Der Weg auf den Thron Assurs, 542548. The different traditions
of Sennacheribs death are collected by ZAWADZKI, Oriental and Greek Tradition.
61 For the reconstruction of the broken passage see FALES/LANFRANCHI, The Impact of Oracular
Material, 108.

pire in the Assyrian metropolises, or at least to exercise imperial control over

the work of these experts. Rich sources for this process are the letters of Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal with the scholars and diviners of the Assyrian royal
courtand with those officials who were assigned to control their work.62 For
the goodwill of the empire, diviners and direct mediums of the divine will
worked in parallel in Ninevehin a concentration never seen before.63
One of the most important questions concerns the prophets proper place
and status within this particular community. First and foremost, we have to
investigate what was the social rank of the prophets. Were they considered to be
lower than scholars or divinatory experts of the Neo-Assyrian royal court, or in
other words: were the Neo-Assyrian prophecies subordinated to the other, inductive means of divine communication?
As it is commonly assumed, although the prophetic oracles were taken seriously by the political authorities in the state of Old-Babylonian Mari, they were
not the first or preferred means of communication with the gods.64 Prophetic
messages were reported to the king in the form of letters, and in this official
communication they were, in contrast to other kinds of divinatory methods,
subject to review by technical divination (normally by extispicy). The Mari letters also report that, either voluntarily or as a requirement, the prophets submitted a bit of their hair and a trimming from their garment (sissiktum). This hair
and hem were surely used in technical divination, as a means of verifying the
authenticity of the prophetic word.65
So in some cases the writers of the Mari letters left it to the king whether he
intended to trust the prophecy or not, or they advised him not to proceed further
without extispicy.66
Was the status of the Assyrian prophets in the hierarchy of divinatory experts similar to their Mari colleagues?
62 A characteristic anonymous denunciation is a letter (SAA 16 65) in which the goldsmith of

the queen is accused of buying a Babylonian scholar to teach his son the interpretation of
astrological and medical texts. In a letter to his father, the Babylonian crown prince complains
about astrologers and other diviners who didnt report their observations to the royal court
(SAA 16 21). For the royal will to collect scholars from all over the world, see the report of
Marduk-apik-zri (SAA 10 160) and the study of RADNER, Royal Decision-making, 366368.
63 RADNER, Royal Decision-making, 368370. For the scholars of the royal court under Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal: PARPOLA, Letters from Assyrian Scholars to the Kings Esarhaddon
and Assurbanipal. Part II: Commentary and Appendice, 467471.
64 HUFFMON, A Company of Prophets, 4950.
65 HUFFMON, A Company of Prophets, 50.
66 As, for examlpe in ARM 26 204, ARM 26 217, ARM 26 239. For the summary of this letters,
and also of others with similar content see HUFFMON, A Company of Prophets, 51.


The suggestive allusions regarding this subordinate status can seem almost
obvious when one reads a text like the following Neo-Assyrian letter, in which a
certain Bl-uzib,67 a prominent astrologer of the king Esarhaddon, asks the
ruler why he had summoned prophets and prophetesses to assist in the understanding and dealing with troubles he had reported. He asks:
Why has the king not summoned me? (SAA 10 109.)
So he seems to be saying that he would have been more effective than the
prophets, even if they may have been present as a group.
This latter statement coincides with the above mentioned Old-Babylonian
sources from Mari. We would say, based on these texts, that in the intellectual
milieu of first millenium Assyria, prophetic oracles enjoyed a second rank position compared to the work of court scholars. In this respect, it would also seem
relevant that the divinatory method practiced by prophets is based purely on
verbalism, so in the absence of a written lore learned and used by them.68 In
addition, although it cannot be stated conclusively that prophets received no
training or education at all (probably at times they had to undergo some form of
preparationas we could hear about prophetic schools even in the Bible69), as
far as we can judge from our sources, the Assyrian prophets were mostly illit
67 Bl-uzib is the only non-Assyrian scholar belonging to the inner circle of scholars who
are engaged in a more or less regular correspondence with Esarhaddon. Judging from the vast
amount of astronomical phenomena and astrological omens dealt with in his letters, astronomy and astrology must have been his main fields of expertise. FABRITIUS, Bl-uzib, 338.
68 The five scholarly disciplines of Assyrian wisdom were the iptu (exorcistic lore), the
astu (medicine, therapy), the brtu (divination, extispicy), the kaltu (science of lamentation), and uparrtu (science of the scribes, astrology) (JEAN, Divination and Oracles, 267).
For the scholarly practice and written lore of the Mesopotamian experts of divination, see
VELDHUIS, The Theory and Knowledge, 8087.
69 In Ramah 1Samuel 19,1824: So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah,
and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth. And
it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah. And Saul sent messengers to
take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also
prophesied. And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also. Then went he
also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu: and he asked and said, Where are
Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah. And he went thither to
Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied,
until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before
Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say,
Is Saul also among the prophets?

erate. So their oracles had to be recorded (if not interpreted) by more learned
scribes. In contrast to the prophecies, the reliability of technical or inductive
divination (first and foremost astrology and extispicy) is based on a written,
technical lore, which gained recognition from a tradition written down and
handed over by scholars throughout centuries,70 and according to their scholarly tradition, it passed down from the very ancient times or had a divine origin.71
Bearing all these facts in mind, it would surely seem surprising, at least at
first glance, that no other Neo-Assyrian sources support the hypothesis formulated above. Although the previously outlined social status of professional
prophets and that of court scientists differed of course in many respectthe
latters, as members of the royal court, were literally closer to the king, and consequently they surely could exert greater influence on his decisionsapart from
the quoted lament of this certain Bl-uzib, there is not any indication in the
vast Neo-Assyrian text corpus, from which we could conclude or even suppose
that prophecy was seen as a subordinate type of oracle.
On the contrary, the picture that can be drawn from the literary and epistolary allusions, dated to the reigns of the two last major Assyrian monarchs
(Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal), tends to represent a radically different situation from the one observed in Mari. The prophecy and the technical divinatory
processes enjoyed equal importance in the eyes of the Neo-Assyrian rulers.
Moreover, there is no sign of competition between the experts of intuitive and
inductive divination: the scholars of the royal court and the prophets of the
temples were consideredso to sayas colloquial equals.
Investigating the key factor of the verification or checking of the results of a
certain divinatory act, it appears that in the case of Mesopotamian scientific
disciplines and scholars the checking of a given sign and its interpretations are
also frequent. Moreover, in his fear to be fooled, Esarhaddon had the very habit
to check and re-check the predictions and prescriptions (as in SAA 10 42).
To quote another telling source, the second oracle question from the edition
of Wilfred G. Lambert asks the gods ama and Adad to confirmby means of
extispicythe coming of an eclipse with ominous consequences.72
How could a prophecy be authorized, and do we know anything about false
propheciesthose did not passed through a sieve, and proved to be false? In
70 STARR, Queries to the Sungod, xvixxxviii. On the main differences between prophecy and
other forms of divination, considering especially the written lore of the latter see also NISSINEN,
The Socioreligious Role, 107111.
71 LAMBERT, Catalogue of Texts and Authors; and ROCHBERG, Continuity and Change, esp. 419
420.
72 LAMBERT, Babylonian Oracle Questions, 4251.


this respect, the great collections of prophetic oracles seem to be largely irrelevant, because these were specifically drawn up for archival storage and for reference purposesmoreover, three out of the four preserved collections were
compiled by the same scribe.73 It is also commonly stated that these collections
can rather be defined as literary compositions than as verbatim reports of the
spoken words of a prophet, although their typical formulas seemingly indicate
direct speech, as in, for example, the prophetic message of Itar of Arbela:
I am Itar of [Arbela].
Esarhaddon, king of A[ssyria]! In the
Inner City (Aur), Nineveh, Calah and Arbela I will
give long days and everlasting years to
Esarhaddon, my king.
I am your great midwife; I am your
excellent wet nurse. For long days
and everlasting years I have established
your throne under the great heavens.
I watch in a golden chamber in the midst
of the heavens; I let the lamp of amber shine
before Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, and I
watch him like the crown of my head.
Have no fear, my king!
SAA 9, Collection 1, no. 6. (K 4310 col. III, lines 7'-30'.)
In short, the extant Assyrian oracles of the collections are always scribal works,
literal imitations of a prophetic language, rather than actually proclaimed
prophecies, and are also in some extent the interpretations of a given prophecy
of a given scribe. Consequently, the collections contain prophecies which have
not only proven to be authentic, but also worth reckoning on archival tablets, as
well as written in an elaborate literary style.74
But the fact that prophetic messages were sometimes regarded suspicious,
and also proved to be false, is clear from sources like the famous succession
treaty of Esarhaddon, which states that:
any improper word heard from the mouth of prophets, ecstatics or of an inquirer of oracles
should not be concealed by the king (SAA 2 6 10, 116117).
A prophecy against the king could thus be interpreted as a plot by the subjects,
because, as we have already mentioned, these prophets were seldom uttering
73 PARPOLA, Assyrian Prophecies, lxiilxiv.

74 See recently TOORN, Mesopotamian Prophecy, 7375; and PONGRATZ-LEISTEN, Cassandras
Colleagues, 25.

alone, but preferably in public placesof course, mostly in templeswhere

people would hear their speech.75
Consequently, the rare allusions to the verification of prophetic utterances
are only preserved to us in the cases of the already mentioned cases of dangers
and unfavourable prophecies against the kingconfirming the opinion of Martii
Nissinen about the pecularities of Neo-Assyrian prophetic genre: true prophecy
cannot, in any instance, be directed against the king.76
A significant case occurred in the North Mesopotamian city of Harran. This
city was the most important center in the western provinces of the Empire, the
spindle side hinterland of Esarhaddon,77 and the prominent cult center of the
Moon god.78 This case is known to us from letters (SAA 16 5961), and has prime
importance regarding the question of the verification of an oracle which seemed
suspicious. In these letters a certain Nab-rhtu-uurwho is otherwise unknown to us79reports to Esarhaddon about a conspiracy against the king,
which was led by a certain Sas.80 This case is of vital concernment to us in another respect too, because at first glance it seemingly contradicts one of our
basic previous conclusions, namely, that virtually every prophecy stemmed
from the messages and nature of the goddess Itar, and that even in those cases,
where the divine speaker is another deity, the transmitter of his or her words
were exclusively and officially connected to the cult of the goddess of contradictions and boundaries.81
One letter (SAA 16 59)82 reports a divine word from the god Nusku, the son of
the Moon god83 through a slave girlwho is a lay prophet.84 This slave girl
75 See JEAN, Divination and Oracles, 270.

76 NISSINEN, Falsche Prophetie, 180.
77 LEICHTY, Esarhaddons Exile, 190191.
78 For the cult of the Moon god in Harran see: GREEN, The City of the Moon God; for the cult in
the Pre-Hellenistic times: 1943.
79 Maybe he was the same Nab-rhtu-uur, who wrote a copy of the tale of The Poor Man of
Nippur in an exercise tablet in the school of Nab-ah-iddina in Huzirina (today Sultantepe) in
701 B.C. For the colophon of tablet (STT 38) see HUNGER, Babylonische und assyrische
Kolophone, no. 354.
80 For this conspiracy and its results see RADNER, The Trials of Esarhaddon.
81 See note 10.
82 For a detailed analysis of the letters of Nab-rhtu-uur see: NISSINEN, References to Prophecy, 108127.
83 On the origin and the characteristics of this god see LEWY, The God Nusku.
84 For the phenomena of false prophecy see FREEDMAN/FREY, False Prophecy is True; for this
special case of false prophecy see NISSINEN, Falsche Prophetie, 182193.


aroused in the outskirts of Harran and delivered the oracle of Nusku, according
to which:
The kingship is for Sas! I (Nusku) will destroy the name and seed of Sennacherib (rev. 4'-5.')
The king is advised to summon the girl and to perform a ritualprobably an

extispicythat is, to check a given prediction by another means of divine communication, which was, as we have seen, a common method in the cases of
ambiguous results of all other kinds of divination, too.
Does it all mean that prophecy (at least in this particular case), due to its
very nature, was credited with lower accuracy than the court-related methods of
inductive or, in other words, technical divination? Definitely not. However, the
situation is even more complicated, and actually reveals another method, by
which the accuracy of a given prophecy could have been put to the test. We
have to quote the beginning of the letter. According to that:
Nikkal [has revealed] those who sinned against [your fathers] goodness, and your [fathers ] and your own treaty. Destroy their temple, name and seed from your palace! May
the accomplices of Sas [die quickly]! Obey the words of Nikkal! (SAA 16 59, obv. 47)
As we can see, although Nab-rhtu-uur did take the former oracle of Nusku
seriously (consequently, and also as it was obligatory, he reported it to the
king), he nonetheless seems to be unwilling to acknowledge the divine authority behind the words of the slave girl. He seems reluctant, first and foremost,
because those words opposed the king, secondly, because they were spoken by
a non-professional, and thirdly, because the oracle-giver god, who was the son
of the Moon god and his spouse, the goddess Nikkal, who is also mentioned
here, held a lower status in the divine hierarchy. However, the verification or
checking of Nuskus oracle, and the consequence, namely, that it proved to be
false, is based primarily not on the check-up by means of technical divination
(what might indicate the higher authority of the latter), but rather on another
prophetic oracle, and this one was certainly spoken by a professional, inside the
institutional framework. Accordingly, this second oracle overruled the alleged
words of the god Nusku.
Although in the Mesopotamian pantheon Ningal (the Assyrian Nikkal), the
consort of the Moon god, was the most clearly articulated female aspect of the
moon, as the divine manifestation of this heavenly body, she also partakes in its
bipolar nature. Presumably this was the essential fact which served as a theological basis of her equation with Itar, the goddess who, as we have seen, as
the equivalent of the planet Venus, also united the supposed male and female
aspects of this celestial body.

To sum up, even in this particular case the authentic prophecy stems from a
goddess, who unites gender and other socially constructed roles, whereby she
also possesses the quality to transgress the boundaries, and to act as mediator
between the divine and human worlds. A goddess, who was already equated
with Itar by the Assyrians themselves,85 and a goddess who, almost a thousand
years later, reappears in the account of a fourth-century historian, Aelius
Spartianus, still as a divinity of bipolar or, as it is commonly stated, bisexual
nature.86 When Spartianus (articulating, of course, his own ages criticism
towards the sharp cultural differences) comments on the cult of Harran, the still
prominent religious center of the Moon god, who was also endowed with oracular power, he states, that:
All the learned, but particularly the inhabitants of Carrhae (Harran) hold that those who
think that the deity ought to be called Luna, with the name and sex of a woman, are subject to women and always their slaves, but those who believe that the deity is male, never
suffer the ambushes of women. (Aelius Spartianus Caracalla vii, 3-4)
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Rka Esztri and dm Vr

The Voices of Itar

Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Rka Esztri: Pzmny Pter Catholic University, Piliscsaba Budapest, Hungary

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4 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

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Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire 5

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6 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

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Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire 7

Mistress of HeavenMistress of Prophecy

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8 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

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Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire 9

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10 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

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So Inana/Itar could represent both sexes, in her own words: (Though) I am

The Physical Characteristic of Divinity was

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12 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

23 ETCSL 4.07.3 (Inana C) 120, see also SJBERG, I n - n i n - - g u r 4 - r a , 190191. Similar

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As it can be seen, besides the reasonable renderings of man-woman and

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14 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

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76 With daggers in their hands, the ascending k u r - g a r - r a (kurgarr) priests...

33 Regarding the ascending kurgara (k u r - a r - r a e d 3 - d a ) in lines 7475 Willem H. Ph.

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Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire 17

was already observed by Rivka Harris, simulated the androgyny of Inana/Itar:

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18 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

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SAA 9 1.2, SAA 9 2.5 681680 B.C.

SAA 9 1.4, SAA 9 2.2 681680 B.C.

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Prophetesses and Female Ecstatics in the Neo-Assyrian Empire 23

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24 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

Prophecy and Divination in the Neo-Assyrian

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26 Rka Esztri and dm Vr

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pire in the Assyrian metropolises, or at least to exercise imperial control over