The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— The role and function of goddesses in Mesopotamia —
She is also known by the name Nanaya, which probably means ‘little Inanna’, when
her aspect as loving goddess is being stressed (Selz 2000). Nanaya’s cult suddenly
emerged in the city of Uruk during the Old Babylonian period and was maintained
there until the end of the first millennium BC. But her cult flourished also in other
towns, such as the ancient cities of Ur, Babylon and Kazallu and in the more recent
Borsippa, Assur and Usbassu (George 1993: Nos. 540, 1147, 1195, 1015, 1361).
Only in the cities of Babylon and Uruk are the names Inanna-Ishtar and Nanaya found
next to one another, indicating that her Nanaya-aspect must have been rather special
there. In Ur III-Nippur we have the earliest attestations of some offerings to her in
Ninlil’s sanctuary Tummal, and she is once mentioned journeying (from Uruk?) to
Nippur. Although there is no indication of a distinctive cult of Nanaya (or of
Anunitum, or of Ninsiana) in Ur III-Nippur it is remarkable that her statue was
placed in the local temple of the chief god Enlil when she was carried to Nippur
(Such-Gutiérrez 2003: 344–345).
The name Ninsiana, ‘Dilbat-star’, evokes her astral aspect as the planet Venus and
in Old Babylonian times she was at the centre of some very important royal ceremonies
(Römer 1965: 128ff.; Heimpel 2001: 487–488). Yet as Ninsiana the great goddess
Inanna-Ishtar is still missing in Ur III-Nippur. However, it is suspected that the
goddess with the epithet Nin-é-gal, ‘Mistress of the Palace’, was none other than
Ishtar, as well as the later Belet-ekallim, ‘Lady of the Palace’, in the towns of Qatna,
Dilbat and Assur (George 1993: Nos. 949, 604, 1031, 1119). In Nippur there was
also the cult of Ningirgilum, ‘Mistress of Girgilum’, which relates to a particular
image of Ishtar that originated from the town Girgilum near Nippur (Cavigneaux
and Krebernik 2003: 362).
Much property in Nippur was assigned to Inanna-Ishtar. She had her own temple
Eduranki ‘Place of the Link between Heaven and Earth’ with an Apsû ‘water-cleansingbasin’
and also owned cattle and store houses outside this temple complex. In her
temple there was a room for the symbol of royal power: the tiara. In addition there
was a room for her musical instruments, a special room for her own image, a bathroom,
a ‘clean room’ (its purpose not clear to us), a room for the gate-keeper, a living room,
storerooms, as well as storehouses for various types of grain, a cattlepen, a sheepfold,
looms, a room for the women working at the mills and one for the men. In addition
there is mention of a special ‘sheepfold of the king’. Her servants include an administrator,
a supervisor, a lumahhu-purification priest who has two servants and a cook
of his own, someone who looked after the harps, a gala-lamentation priest, a snake
charmer, various male and female singers (among them one especially trained to
accompany the harp), musicians playing wind instruments and drums (Such-Gutiérrez
2003: 191–213, 213–221 and 221–224). The goddess Inanna apparently was at least
as well endowed with property as the chief god Enlil.
Interestingly some new Ishtar temples were integrated in the empire’s regions.
The persons who introduced this cult were high-ranking local women from the outer
borders of the empire who had become wives of the king of Ur. Thus was born the
cult of Belet-Daraban ‘Lady of Daraban’, Belet-Shunir ‘Lady of Shunir’, Inanna-
Haburitum ‘Haburitic Inanna’, and the worship of Ishhara (Sallaberger 1993: 18–20).
This movement of cults from the periphery to the centre must have been closely
linked with the person of the king’s wife, for the cult comes to an end when they
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