Tishpak

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tishpak
Warrior god associated with snakes
Major cult centerEshnunna
Symbolmushussu
Personal information
ConsortKulla
ChildrenNanshak, Pappasanu, Me-SUḪUR, possibly Inshushinak and Ishtaran
Equivalents
Sumerian equivalentNinazu

Tishpak (Tišpak) was a Mesopotamian god associated with the ancient city Eshnunna and its sphere of influence, located in the Diyala area of Iraq. He was primarily a war deity, but he was also associated with snakes, including the mythical mushussu and bashmu, and with kingship.

Tishpak was of neither Sumerian nor Akkadian origin and displaced Eshnunna's original tutelary god, Ninazu. Their iconography and character were similar, though they were not formally regarded as identical in most Mesopotamian sources.

Origin[]

Originally the tutelary deity of Eshnunna was Ninazu, worshiped in the temple Esikil.[1] From the Akkadian period onward, Tishpak competed with Ninazu in that location, and the latter finally ceased to be mentioned in documents from it after Hammurabi’s conquest.[1] While similar in character, Ninazu and Tishpak were not fully conflated, and unlike Inanna and Ishtar or Enki and Ea were kept apart in god lists.[1]

It is generally agreed by scholars that Tishpak had neither Sumerian nor Akkadian origin.[2]

Fritz Hommel suggested in 1904 that he was analogous to the Hurrian weather god Teshub.[3] This theory was also supported by Thorkild Jacobsen at first,[4] though he later abandoned it and proposed that Tishpak’s name had Akkadian origin, which is now regarded as implausible[5] Jacobsen’s second theory relied on the assumption that Tishpak’s name, which he argued meant "downpour," would have similar meaning to an etymology he proposed for the name of Ninazu, "The Water-Pouring Lord," according to him an indication he was the god of spring rains.[6] However, it is now agreed that Ninazu's name means "Lord Healer,"[7] and that he was considered a god of the underworld and vegetation and sometimes a divine warrior, not a weather deity.[8]

Elam has also been proposed as Tishpak's point of origin.[9] Modern authors who support this view include Martin Stol, who considers it a possibility that Tishpak's name has Elamite origin,[5] and Manfred Krebernik, who classifies the names of both Tishpak and his son Nanshak as Elamite.[10]

In 1965 Dietz-Otto Edzard combined both theories, arguing that Tishpak was an Elamite form of Teshub.[11]

Frans Wiggermann proposes that Tishpak was one of the deities he describes as "transtigridian snake gods,"[12] a group which he assumes developed on the boundary between Sumero-Akkadian and Elamite culture to which he also assigns gods such as Ninazu, Ningishzida, Ishtaran and the Elamite Inshushinak from Susa.[13] In the god list An-Anum all of them appears in sequence, following Ereshkigal, indicating they were regarded as underworld deities.[13]

Functions and iconography[]

Tishpak's character was similar to that of Ninazu.[14] He was a war god, known as "the warrior of the gods," ursag ili.[15] The incantation series Šurpu highlights this feature, calling him "lord of the troops" and placing him in a sequence with Ningirsu and Zababa.[16] An Akkadian text from Eshnunna characterizes him as "steward of the sea" (abarak ti’āmtim) and "fierce hero" (qurādum ezzum).[14]

An inscription of king Dadusha of Eshnunna indicates that he was seen as one of the great gods at the head of the pantheon in that area, as he occurs right after Anu, Enlil, Sin and Shamash, and before Adad.[17]

In the poorly preserved Labbu myth Tishpak's divine weapon is a seal, and he is described as capable of causing storms; it is however possible that he was ever regarded as a weather god, as Ninurta and Marduk, who weren't weather gods, also use atmospheric phenomena as weapons in myths.[18]

Tishpak's name was represented logographically by the sign MUŠ,[19][20] which however could also designate other deities, including Inshushinak.[14]

Tishpak's attributes overlapped with these of Ninazu and included two maces and various snakes and serpentine monsters, especially the dragon mushussu.[21] A year name from Eshnunna additionally indicates a bronze plough was one of the sacred objects held in his main temple.[22]

On cylinder seals Tishpak could be described riding on a mushussu.[15][23] References to visual representations of him "treading on a dragon" are also known from Mesopotamian texts.[24] Additionally, while Mesopotamians generally imagined the gods as fully anthropomorphic, he was on occasion described as green in color, possibly indicating he was assumed to have snake-like skin.[25] A scaled god occurs on seals from Eshnunna, but according to Frans Wiggermann he might be Ninazu rather than Tishpak.[25]

As noted by Theodore J. Lewis, art from Eshnunna, likely to depict Tishpak and monsters associated with him, is often incorrectly labeled as Canaanite even in professional publication, "bypassing any reference to Tishpak."[24]

Association with other deities[]

Tishpak's wife was the goddess Kulla,[2] known as the "Queen of Eshnunna."[16] Their sons were Nanshak, Pappasanu and Me-SUḪUR (reading of the name uncertain).[16] Martin Stol additionally assumes that Inshushinak and Ishtaran were regarded as sons of Tishpak by the compiler of the god list An-Anum.[16]

His sukkal was the serpentine creature bashmu.[22]

On the seal of Shu-Iliya, a king of Eshnunna, Tishpak appears alongside the goddesses Belet Shuhnir and Belet Terraban.[26][27] It is assumed that they has their origin north of Eshnunna, where the corresponding cities, Shuhnir and Terraban, were most likely located.[26]

While Tishpak's epithet, "steward of the sea," is generally regarded as a sign that he was viewed as the enemy of a marine monster as described in the Labbu myth,[28] Wilfred G. Lambert proposes that it might instead be a rare occurrence of Tiamat outside the Enuma Elish, rather than a mention of ordinary non-personified sea.[29]

A neo-Babylonian god list identifies Tishpak with Marduk, referring to him as "Marduk of the troops."[30] Frans Wiggermann notes that the mushussu started to be associated with Marduk after Hammurabi's conquest of Eshnunna and suggests that it was a result of influence of the image of Tishpak on that of Marduk.[31] Texts equating Tishpak with another god prominent in the pantheon of Babylon, Nabu, are also known.[32]

While most Mesopotamian sources do not treat Ninazu and Tishpak as equivalents,[1] and they appear separately in the prologue of Laws of Hammurabi,[33] a bilingual inscription from the reign of Shulgi of Ur lists Tishpak in the Akkadian version and Ninazu in Sumerian as the god worshiped in Esikil.[34]

In an Ugaritic trilingual god list Tishpak is identified with an obscure figure named gaš[aru] and with Milku,[16] a Hurro-Hittite god whose name had its origin in a Semitic language.[35]

Worship[]

Tishpak was chiefly worshiped as the tutelary god of Eshnunna (Tell Asmar[24]), first appearing there in the Akkadian period.[19] His cult retained a degree of importance through most of the Old Babylonian period, much like his city.[19] His main temple was the Esikil, "pure house," originally the temple of Ninazu.[16] Only one reference to a festival of Tishpak, kinkum (the twelfth month of the calendar used in Eshnunna) isin Tishpak, is known.[16]

After Eshnunna gained independence after the fall of Third Dynasty of Ur, a royal ideology in which the king was a representative of Tishpak developed.[27] Beate Pongratz-Leisten compares it to the position of the god Ashur in his city Assur.[27] One of the kings of Eshnunna was named Iquish-Tishpak.[36] Another, Dadusha, called himself "beloved of Tishpak"[14] and most likely placed two statues of himself in his temple.[37] Multiple year names of various rulers of the city mention Tishpak too.[16]

According to Martin Stol, Tishpak was generally not worshiped outside the kingdom of Eshnunna.[14]

Personal names with Tishpak as a theophoric names are known from Shaduppum (Tell Harmal), a city which was located within the borders of the kingdom of Eshnunna.[24] Another site other than Eshnunna itself, though most likely affiliated with it, from which personal names with Tishpak as a theophoric element are known from is the Chogha Gavaneh site in western Iran, which in the early second millennium BCE was a predominantly Akkadian settlement.[38] Kamyar Abdi and Gary Beckman note that the locally used calendar shows affinity with that known from sites in the Diyala area, and on this basis link it with Eshnunna.[38]

While the number of personal names invoking gods from the Diyala area, especially Tishpak (Ibni-Tishpak, Lipit-Tishpak, Tishpak-Gamil, Tishpak-nasi, Tishpak-iddinam, Warad-Tishpak), is higher in documents from Sippar than from any other place in Babylonia proper,[20] the people bearing them were likely not native inhabitants of the city, but rather individuals who arrived from the kingdom of Eshnunna.[14][39] There is evidence that Sippar was closely linked to Eshnunna, including economic texts, letters and the existence of greeting formulas invoking Shamash alongside Tishpak, rather than the tutelary god of neaby Babylon, Marduk.[40]

Tishpak is also mentioned in a letter addressed by the official Shamash-nasir to the king Zimri-Lim of Mari, relaying an oracle of Terqa's tutelary god Dagan to him.[41] The text was most likely an allegorical representation of Eshnunna’s encroachment of territory within the sphere of influence of Mari, with the mentioned gods - Dagan, Tishpak and the western goddess Hanat (whose words were relayed by the god Yakrub-El) - representing respectively Mari, Eshnunna and the Suhum area, which was under the control of Mari, but presumably endangered by the eastern kingdom's forces.[42] While the text recognizes Tishpak as a high ranking god, it ultimately considers Dagan a higher authority.[43]

A brief mention of Tishpak occurs in the prologue of Laws of Hammurabi, in which the eponymous king is addressed as "the one who brightens Tishpak's face." [33] This section additionally mentions Ninazu, indicating it refers to Eshnunna, most likely showing that Hammurabi after his conquest of said city presented himself as fulfilling obligations associated with local gods to legitimize his rule.[33]

A reference to Esikil occurs on a boundary stone (kudurru) of Nazi-Maruttash.[44] Another Kassite period reference to Tishpak can be found in a curse formula from an inscription of either Kurigalzu I or Kurigalzu II from Der.[45]

Tishpak appears in a ritual from the Utukku Lemnutu incantation series as one of the deities meant to protect a doorway, alongside the Sebitti, Lulal, Latarak, Mashtabba and Ishtar.[46]

Myths[]

One of the tablets from the library of Ashurbanipal narrates Tishpak's triumph over the monster Labbu, described as created by the sea, but designed by Enlil, seemingly to serve as punishment similar to the flood in the Atrahasis myth.[47] Frans Wiggermann argues that the narrative shows a number of similarities to the myth of Anzu and to Enuma Elish.[48] As pointed out by Wilfred G. Lambert, the most similar composition is however a fragmentary myth seemingly casting Nergal as the hero, confronting a sea monster on the behalf of Enlil.[49]

Wiggermann proposes that the myth served as an explanation for Tishpak's associations with serpentine creatures such as mushussu,[50] and as a justification for his installation as the tutelary god of Eshnunna.[51] Lambert regards Wiggermann's theories about the myth as speculations due to the poor state of preservation of its only source making it impossible to interpret fully.[52]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Wiggermann 1998, p. 333.
  2. ^ a b Wiggermann 1989, p. 120.
  3. ^ Gelb 1944, p. 55.
  4. ^ Jacobsen 1932, p. 52.
  5. ^ a b Stol 2014, p. 64.
  6. ^ Wiggermann 1998, p. 330.
  7. ^ Wiggermann 1998, pp. 329–330.
  8. ^ Wiggermann 1998, pp. 331–333.
  9. ^ Jacobsen 1932, p. 51.
  10. ^ Krebernik 1998, p. 152.
  11. ^ Westenholz 2010, p. 381.
  12. ^ Wiggermann 1997, pp. 47–48.
  13. ^ a b Wiggermann 1997, p. 34.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Stol 2014, p. 65.
  15. ^ a b Lambert 1986, p. 794.
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h Stol 2014, p. 66.
  17. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 362.
  18. ^ Wiggermann 1989, pp. 119–123.
  19. ^ a b c Stol 2014, pp. 64–65.
  20. ^ a b Koppen & Lacambre 2020, p. 153.
  21. ^ Wiggermann 1997, pp. 37–38.
  22. ^ a b Wiggermann 1997, p. 39.
  23. ^ Lewis 1996, p. 29.
  24. ^ a b c d Lewis 1996, p. 30.
  25. ^ a b Wiggermann 1992, p. 151.
  26. ^ a b Sharlach 2002, p. 102.
  27. ^ a b c Pongratz-Leisten 2018, p. 352.
  28. ^ Pongratz-Leisten 2011, p. 123.
  29. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 237.
  30. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 264.
  31. ^ Wiggermann 1992, p. 162.
  32. ^ Pomponio 1998, p. 21.
  33. ^ a b c Rutz & Michalowski 2016, p. 25.
  34. ^ Reichel 2003, p. 357.
  35. ^ Frantz-Szabó 1997, p. 207.
  36. ^ Koppen & Lacambre 2020, p. 171.
  37. ^ Koppen & Lacambre 2020, p. 164.
  38. ^ a b Abdi & Beckman 2007, p. 48.
  39. ^ Koppen & Lacambre 2020, pp. 153–154.
  40. ^ Koppen & Lacambre 2020, p. 154.
  41. ^ Feliu 2003, p. 115.
  42. ^ Feliu 2003, pp. 115–116.
  43. ^ Feliu 2003, p. 116.
  44. ^ George 1993, p. 141.
  45. ^ Lambert 2013, p. 267.
  46. ^ Wiggermann 1992, p. 117.
  47. ^ Wiggermann 1989, pp. 117–118.
  48. ^ Wiggermann 1989, p. 119.
  49. ^ Lambert 2013, pp. 384–385.
  50. ^ Wiggermann 1992, p. 154.
  51. ^ Wiggermann 1992, p. 159.
  52. ^ Lambert 2013, pp. 361–363.

Bibliography[]

Retrieved from ""