Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian

Minor: in YazIlIkaya Pirinkir belongs to a group of male gods according to Laroche and
Güterbock (n.31). 160 In her female form she may be harmful 161 (related to sorcery and
to the “curse”—Hittite ßurtiyaÍ, K Bo XXI 41 + Ro 69) and is connected to the temple of
the Black Goddess. 162 Her identification with a lion(ess) seen from the Meskene lists
cited above was used by Laroche to explain the origin of her name. He suggested a
phonetic change PIRIG.GAL > Hurrian Piringir 163 ; Haas links the name to the highest
goddess of the Elamite pantheon of the III mil. B.C. (known also in Neo-Elamite
inscriptions) Pinikir. 164
As suggested by Laroche, the temple that had been built by Tish-atal was dedicated
to the deity PIRIG.GAL, the Hurrian interpretation of which is given by the list from
Meskene/Emar. His inscription cited above after introducing his title says according to
Laroche's reading: pu-ur-li D PIRIG.GAL pá-’à-àÍ-tum “he built a house = temple of the
god(ess) Great Lion(ess)” 165 , where the interpretation of the last verbal form as a
transitive perfect (< participle) is confirmed by the equivalence Hurrian pa-aÍ-tu-u-um =
160 Güterbock 1982, 35, fig. A and C.
161 Cf. Langdon 1926, 26, line 16.
162 Kronasser 1963, 241 ; Haas 1982, 180; Beckman 1983, 169, 182, 187-188.
163 On the synchronic identity of the Sumerian logogram and the Hurrian name of the deity, see Laroche
1980, 201; that identification was also accepted by Güterbock, ib. On variants of the name, see Haas and
Wilhelm 1974, 179. For Laroche’s diachronic explanation of the origin of the Hurrian name as a
reshaping of the Sumerian one, the only possible difficulty consists of the final part of the word
following the name of the lion(ess). Perhaps one may also think about a possible morphological
adaptation, see the type of Hurrian names like Fazanigar, Neu 1996, 364, cf. also Pizikarra (ib., 592:
index s.v.) reminiscent of Piringar (*firiMa/ir may be an interpretation in the old Hurrian period, cf.
the variants Pi-ri-ki-ir/Pi-ri-kir).
164 Haas 1994, 415 (with references). For a plausible semantic comparison to the Hurrian-Hittite
Pirinkar the connection to the sky is important, cf. in a Neo-Elamite inscription: D Pi-ni-gir ki-ik-ki gili-ir-ra
“the goddess Pinigir who governs this sky”, König 1965-77, 71 A+B; Grillot-Susini and Roche
1987, 62. Having in mind the possible Elamite-Dravidian relationship (cf. Diakonoff 1967, 108-112;
Macalpin 1981) one may also cite Tamil pir=an&kal “greatness, height” from the root of per=r=am
“greatness”, Burrow and Emenau 1986, 392, N 4425. But there are other possible etymologies for the
Hurrian name of this goddess. As another plausible interpretation one might have considered a
combination of Pirig with Na-gar mentioned in the following part of the same inscription of Tish-atal
(see Wilhelm 1998): Pirig + Nagar > Piringar?
165 Cf. Parrot and Nougayrol 1948, 14; Diakonoff 1967, 444; Xachikian 1985a, 90; Nozadze 1978, 28, n.44;
before the Meskene/Emar discoveries (Laroche ib.) all the scholars followed the Hurrian reading of
the divine name as Ner(i)gal as Haas 1994, 542 (on the same name in the Araphe region, see ib., 544)