Allani

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Allani
Hurrian goddess of the underworld
Yazilikaya49-51.jpg
Allani, Ishara and Nabarbi as depicted on the Yazilikaya procession relief
AbodeDark Earth (Hurrian underworld)
Equivalents
Mesopotamian equivalentEreshkigal
Hittite equivalentSun goddess of the Earth
Hattian equivalentLelwani
Ugaritic equivalentArsay
Deities of the ancient Near East
Ancient Egyptian
Arabian
Eblaite and Syrian
Elamite
Hurrian
Levantine (Canaanite and Ugaritic)
Mesopotamian
Religions of the ancient Near East
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Allani, known in Mesopotamian sources under the Akkadian name Allatu (Allatum)[1] was the Hurrian goddess of the underworld, incorporated into Hittite and Mesopotamian pantheons as well.

Name and epithets[]

Her name is a Hurrian word meaning "lady."[2][3]

She was sometimes called "the bolt of the earth."[4][5] Another common epithet was šiduri, "young woman."[6] The latter was also applied to Ishara.[7]

Worship[]

According to Gernot Wilhelm, Allani is known only from the western Hurrian sources.[8]

She was often invoked alongside Ishara (originally an Ishtar-like goddess from Ebla), who also had a connection to the underworld in Hurro-Hittite culture;[9][10] veneration of them as a pair was an example of a broader phenomenon in Hurrian religion - the worship of pairs of deities with similar purposes as de facto unity. Other examples include Shaushka's attendants Ninatta and Kulitta, the fate goddesses Hutena and Hutellura, Hebat and her son Sarruma,[11] and Pinikir and Goddess of the Night.[12]

During the hišuwa festival from Kizzuwatna, meant to guarantee good fortune for the royal couple, she was worshiped alongside "Teshub Manuzi," Lelluri, Ishara, two Nupatik gods (pibithi - "of Pibid(a)" and zalmathi - "of Zalman(a)/Zalmat") and Maliya.[13] Instructions for this celebration state the statue of Ishara is to be covered with a red draped garment, while that of Allani with blue.[14]

Allani was among the deities whose names were used in Hurrian theophoric names.[15]

She was also worshiped in Mesopotamia in the Ur III period. Records show that queen Shulgi-simti, one of the wives of Shulgi, made offerings to many foreign or minor deities, among them "Allatum" (Allani), Ishara, Belet Nagar, Nanaya, Belet-shuhnir and Belet-terraban.[16]

King Ḫattušili I mentions her (under the name Allatum) as one of the deities whose statues he brought to Hatti as war booty, alongside the storm god of Aleppo, Lelluri, and the mountain gods Adalur and Amaruk.[17]

In Emar, both the spellings Allani and Allatu were used.[18]

Myths[]

According to Hurro-Hittite texts, Allani resided in a palace at the gate of the "Dark Earth," the land of the dead.[19]

In one episode from a longer mythical composition titled Song of Release (KBo 32.13) the weather god Teshub descends to the underworld and partakes in a banquet held by Allani alongside his enemies, the "former gods" whose defeat is described in the cycle of Kumarbi. The rest of the narrative is missing and both its conclusion and purpose are uncertain.[20][21] Multiple explanations were proposed by experts: that Allani presided over reconciliation between Teshub and his enemies (Walter Burkert, Erich Neu); that it was an episode comparable to the Mesopotamian myth of Inanna's descent to the netherworld (Volkert Haas); that the narrative was meant to parallel rituals during which deceased ancestors welcomed a dead king in the underworld (Gernot Wilhelm); or that Teshub's descent was meant to ease his anger with the treatment of his human followers by the elders of Ebla (Gernot Wilhelm).[22] Mary R. Bachvarova assumes that the meeting with Allani is related to the fact that the humans Teshub is concerned with in other sections of the myth are meant to take for dead kings.[23]

A single Hittite text mentions a "daughter of Allatum."[24]

Syncretism[]

Hittites conflated Allani with their own underworld goddess, the Sun goddess of the Earth,[25] originally a chthonic aspect of the Hittite sun goddess. In Kizzuwatna, Allani was fully conflated with her, and as such presided over purification rites and was believed to keep evil and impurity sealed in her kingdom.[26]

Under her Mesopotamian name Allatu Allani was separately conflated with another Hittite death deity, Lelwani, originally a male god from the Hattian pantheon,[27] who started to be viewed as a goddess due to this equation.[28]

In Mesopotamia, where she was introduced in the late Sumerian (Ur III) period,[29] Allani was equated with Ereshkigal,[30] and eventually became little more than an epithet of her.[31]

A god list from Ugarit seemingly equates Allani (under the Akkadian name Allatum) with Arsay, one of the daughters of the Ugaritic weather god Baal; however, due to the scarcity of references to the latter the rationale behind it remains unclear and assigning a chthonic character to Arsay is purely speculative.[32]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ A. Archi, The Anatolian Fate-goddesses and their different traditions [in] E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, J. Klinger, G. G. W. Müller (eds.), Diversity and Standardization. Perspectives on ancient Near Eastern cultural history, 2013, p. 17
  2. ^ H. A. Hoffner, Hittite myths (2nd ed.), 1998, p. 67
  3. ^ A. Archi, The West Hurrian Pantheon and Its Background [in:] B. J. Collins, P. Michalowski, Beyond Hatti. A tribute to Gary Beckman, 2013, p. 6
  4. ^ A. Archi, The Anatolian Fate-goddesses and their different traditions [in] E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, J. Klinger, G. G. W. Müller (eds.), Diversity and Standardization. Perspectives on ancient Near Eastern cultural history, 2013, p. 16
  5. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 124
  6. ^ G. Wilhelm, Unterwelt, Unterweltsgottheiten. C. In Anatolien [in] Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie vol. 14, 2014, p. 346
  7. ^ M. R. Bacharova, Song of Release (translation) [in:] C. López-Ruiz (ed.), Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: A Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Myths in Translation, 2nd ed., 2013, p. 303
  8. ^ G. Wilhelm, The Hurrians, 1989, p. 55
  9. ^ L. Murat, Goddess Išhara, Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Tarih Bölümü Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi 45, 2009, p. 170
  10. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 124
  11. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 128
  12. ^ J. L. Miller, Setting Up the Goddess of the Night Separately [in] M. R. Bachvarova, B. J. Collins, I. C. Rutherford (eds), Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and Their Neighbours, 2008, p. 68
  13. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 138
  14. ^ V. Haas, Geschichte der hethitischen Religion, 2015, p. 849
  15. ^ L. E. Monti, A Systematic Approach to the Hurrian Pantheon: the Onomastic Evidence (dissertation), 2017, p. 205-206; 328
  16. ^ T. Sharlach, Shulgi-simti and the Representation of Women in Historical Sources [in:] M. Feldman, J. Cheng (eds.), Ancient Near Eastern Art in Context: Studies in Honor of Irene Winter, 2007, p. 365
  17. ^ V. Sazonov, Some Notes on the Evolution of the Hittite Royal Annals [in:] R. Da Riva, M. Lang, S. Fink (eds.), Literary Change in Mesopotamia and Beyond and Routes and Travellers between East and West. Proceedings of the 2nd and 3rd Melammu Workshops, 2019, p. 68
  18. ^ G. Beckman, The Pantheon of Emar [in:] P. Taracha (ed.), Silva Anatolica: Anatolian Studies Presented to Maciej Popko on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, 2002, p. 40
  19. ^ H. A. Hoffner, Hittite myths (2nd ed.), 1998, p. 67
  20. ^ G. Wilhelm, The Dispute on Manumission at Ebla: Why does the Stormgod descend to the Netherworld?, Revue d'Assyriologie 107, 2013, p. 188
  21. ^ H. A. Hoffner, Hittite myths (2nd ed.), 1998, p. 73
  22. ^ G. Wilhelm, The Dispute on Manumission at Ebla: Why does the Stormgod descend to the Netherworld?, Revue d'Assyriologie 107, 2013, p. 188-191
  23. ^ M. R. Bacharova, Song of Release (translation) [in:] C. López-Ruiz (ed.), Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: A Sourcebook of Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern Myths in Translation, 2nd ed., 2013, p. 304
  24. ^ V. Haas, Geschichte der hethitischen Religion, 2015, p. 849
  25. ^ A. Archi, The Anatolian Fate-goddesses and their different traditions [in] E. Cancik-Kirschbaum, J. Klinger, G. G. W. Müller (eds.), Diversity and Standardization. Perspectives on ancient Near Eastern cultural history, 2013, p. 4
  26. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 124
  27. ^ P. Taracha, Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia, 2009, p. 124
  28. ^ G. Wilhelm, Unterwelt, Unterweltsgottheiten. C. In Anatolien [in] Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie vol. 14, 2014, p. 345
  29. ^ L. Murat, Goddess Išhara, Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Tarih Bölümü Tarih Araştırmaları Dergisi 45, 2009, p. 169
  30. ^ R. L. Litke, A Reconstruction of the Assyro-Babylonian God-lists, AN:dA-nu-um and AN:Anu Ŝá Amēli, 1998, p. 188
  31. ^ The Underworld Vision of an Assyrian Prince, line 30
  32. ^ S. A. Wiggins, Pidray, Tallay and Arsay in the Baal Cycle, Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 2(29), 2003, p. 96-97
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