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Gazbaba

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Gazbaba
Goddess of love
Major cult centerUruk (possibly)[1]
Equivalents
HittiteḪuwaššanna

Gazbaba, also known as Kazbaba[2] or Kazba,[3] was a Mesopotamian goddess closely associated with Inanna, Nanaya and Kanisurra. Like them, she was connected with love and eroticism.

Name and character

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Gazbaba's name is most likely derived from the Akkadian word kazbu, which can be translated as "sexual attraction."[4] A form ending in the hypocoristic suffix -īya/-āya/-ūya, dKa-az-ba-a-a,[5] is also attested, possibly representing an attempt at making the name more similar to Nanaya's, or resulting from confusion with a similar personal name.[6]

Little is known about Gazbaba's character, but she was associated with love and sex.[4] Šurpu describes her as ṣayyaḫatu, "the smiling one," which is likely a reference to the frequent mention of smiles in Akkadian erotic literature.[4] She belonged to a group of deities invoked in love incantations, which also included Inanna/Ishtar, Nanaya, Kanisurra and Išḫara.[7] For example, one such text contains the formula "Ishtar, Nanaya, Gazbaba help it!"[4]

Associations with other deities

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Two late texts, a theological explanatory tablet and a cultic calendar, address Gazbaba and Kanisurra as "Daughters of Ezida," the temple of Nabu in Borsippa, and additionally identify them as Nanaya's hairdressers.[8] Most pairs of deities referred to this way are known from northern Mesopotamia.[9] In addition to Daughters of Ezida, known pairs include the daughters of Esagil in Babylon (Katunna and Sillush-tab),[10] the daughters of Emeslam in Kutha (Tadmushtum, a daughter of Nergal in the god list An = Anum,[11] and Belet-ili),[12] daughters of Edubba in Kish (Iqbi-damiq, "she said 'it is fine!'," and Hussinni, "Remember me!"),[13] daughters of Ebabbar in Sippar (Mami and Ninegina), daughters of E-ibbi-Anum in Dilbat (Ipte-bita and Belet-eanni), and a further similar dyad associated with a temple of Ningublaga in an unknown location, possibly Larsa (Mannu-shanishu and Larsam-iti).[9][10] Nameless pairs of such "Divine Daughters" are also known from Uruk, Nippur and Eridu in Babylonia and Arbela in Assyria.[14] Additionally, some researchers, like Julia M. Asher-Greve and Joan Goodnick Westenholz, place the Ningublaga temple in the south, in Larsa,[10] though according to Andrew R. George its location should be considered unknown.[9] It has been suggested that these pairs of goddesses were imagined as maidservants in the household of the major deity or deities venerated in the corresponding temple.[9] In the case of Gazbaba and Kanisurra, as well as the daughters of Esagil, there is direct evidence that they were viewed as the hairdressers of, respectively, Nanaya and Sarpanit.[9]

It is commonly presumed in modern scholarship that Gazbaba might have additionally been regarded as a daughter of Nanaya, but as pointed out by Gioele Zisa in a recent study, direct evidence in favor of this view is lacking.[15] While both Gazbaba and Kanisurra were connected with Nanaya, Gazbaba's link with this goddess appears to be stronger in known texts.[16][8] Most notably, she never appears alone in love incantations, but rather always alongside Nanaya.[4]

Worship

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Gazbaba was most likely worshiped in Uruk, and appears among other deities associated with this city, such as Kanisurra, Nanaya and Mes-sanga-Unug, in an exercise text from Babylon.[1] She is also present in the Old Babylonian god lists from Nippur and Isin.[3] A further attestation is known from Mari, though the text appears to simply list deities belonging to the southern Mesopotamian pantheon.[17]

It is possible that a temple of Gazbaba was mentioned in a destroyed passage of the so-called Canonical Temple List, but this assumption is presently purely speculative and relies entirely on the assumption that as a deity closely linked with Nanaya she would likely be mentioned shortly after her.[16]

In Hittite sources

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In Hittite texts, the logogram GAZ.BA.BA or GAZ.BA.YA represented Ḫuwaššanna, the tutelary goddess of Ḫupišna.[18] Little is known about her character, but rites dedicated to her seemingly involved a bed.[19] It has been proposed that she belonged to the sphere of household worship of the royal family.[20] There is however no direct indication in known texts that she was a love goddess like Gazbaba.[21]

References

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  1. ^ a b Krebernik 1997, p. 94.
  2. ^ Peterson 2009, p. 72.
  3. ^ a b Peterson 2009, p. 71.
  4. ^ a b c d e Zisa 2021, p. 141.
  5. ^ Peterson 2009, p. 44.
  6. ^ Peterson 2009, pp. 71–72.
  7. ^ Zisa 2021, p. 139.
  8. ^ a b Zisa 2021, p. 142.
  9. ^ a b c d e George 2000, p. 295.
  10. ^ a b c Asher-Greve & Westenholz 2013, p. 113.
  11. ^ Wiggermann 1998, p. 220.
  12. ^ Krebernik 2013, p. 398.
  13. ^ George 2000, p. 298.
  14. ^ MacGinnis 2020, p. 109.
  15. ^ Zisa 2021, pp. 141–142.
  16. ^ a b George 1993, p. 34.
  17. ^ Polvani 2010, p. 254.
  18. ^ Polvani 2010, p. 246.
  19. ^ Polvani 2010, p. 252.
  20. ^ Polvani 2010, p. 253.
  21. ^ Polvani 2010, pp. 253–254.

Bibliography

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  • Asher-Greve, Julia M.; Westenholz, Joan G. (2013). Goddesses in Context: On Divine Powers, Roles, Relationships and Gender in Mesopotamian Textual and Visual Sources (PDF). Academic Press Fribourg. ISBN 978-3-7278-1738-0.
  • George, Andrew R. (1993). House most high: the temples of ancient Mesopotamia. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. ISBN 0-931464-80-3. OCLC 27813103.
  • George, Andrew R. (2000). "Four Temple Rituals from Babylon". Wisdom, Gods and Literature: Studies in Assyriology in Honour of W. G. Lambert. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-004-0. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  • Krebernik, Manfred (1997), "Mes-sanga-Unug", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-04-24
  • Krebernik, Manfred (2013), "Tadmuštum", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-04-24
  • MacGinnis, John (2020). "The gods of Arbail". In Context: the Reade Festschrift. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. doi:10.2307/j.ctv1ddckv5.12. S2CID 234551379. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  • Peterson, Jeremiah (2009). God lists from Old Babylonian Nippur in the University Museum, Philadelphia. Münster: Ugarit Verlag. ISBN 978-3-86835-019-7. OCLC 460044951.
  • Polvani, Anna Maria (2010). "Identification of the goddess Ḫuwaššanna with the goddess GAZ.BA.YA". Orientalia. 79 (2). GBPress - Gregorian Biblical Press: 246–254. ISSN 0030-5367. JSTOR 43077914. Retrieved 2022-04-24.
  • Wiggermann, Frans A. M. (1998), "Nergal A. Philological", Reallexikon der Assyriologie, retrieved 2022-04-24
  • Zisa, Gioele (2021). The Loss of Male Sexual Desire in Ancient Mesopotamia. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110757262. ISBN 978-3-11-075726-2. S2CID 243923454.
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