Shaushka , Shausha , Shavushka [1] - the Hurrian goddess of fertility, war and healing, later also adopted into the Hittite pantheon.
| Shavushka | |
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 Relief in Yazykaya near the ruins of Hattusi, depicting Shavushka | |
| Mythology | |
| Floor | |
As a result of the marriage of the Hittite king Khattusili III (1420-1400 BC) with Puduhepa , the daughter of the high priest Shavushki, this goddess also became the patron goddess of the king, in connection with which the texts that have come down to us were created.
Image
In the Hurrian iconography (prints of seals), the typical image of Shavushki is a woman exposing herself, opening the veil [2] .
In Hittite iconography, she is depicted as a woman with wings, standing together with a lion, accompanied by two satellites. According to its status, it was equivalent to the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar and is sometimes identified with her in the records by the Hittite cuneiform [1] .
Cult
The cult center was the Temple of Lavanzantia in Kitzzuvadna [3] .
The texts describe Shavushka as Ishtar -like, a goddess with an ambiguous reputation who promotes conjugal love, but sometimes can turn love into a dangerous ordeal. Reliefs in the Yazylaykaya portray the goddess twice: on one she is depicted together with male deities, and on the other - along with the goddesses. According to Hittite texts, she dresses as a man and as a woman, has such typically male attributes as an ax and other weapons that a number of researchers interpreted in the key of her androgyny [4] .
On behalf of Shavushki, in the opinion of biblical scholar L. Neselowski-Spano, the name of the biblical heroine of the Hittite origin Bat Shua / Bat Sheba (in the Russian program Bathsheba ), later reinterpreted by Jews in the framework of Jewish etymology as the “daughter of the oath” [5] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Beckman, Gary. “Ištar of Nineveh Reconsidered.” JCS 50 (1998).
- ↑ Dyakonov I. M. Prehistory of the Armenian people (history of the Armenian Highland from 1500 to 500 BC: Hurrians, Luvians, Proto-Armenians)
- ↑ Sirkeli Höyük - Exploring an Ancient Hittite City in Cilicia Archived January 5, 2009. . Accessed 11 Dec 2010.
- ↑ Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible . - Brill, 1999. - p. 758-759.
- ↑ Nesiołowski-Spanò, Łukasz. (2012). Dziedzictwo Goliata. Filistyni i Hebrajczycy W czasach biblijnych , s. 393–394.
Literature
- Moran, William L. The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. (softcover, ISBN 0-8018-6715-0 )
- History of the Ancient East, part 2. M. 1987.
Links
- EA 23- (Reverse) , Article - ( British Museum )
- For a collection of Amarna letters photographs, see: Pirissi and Tulubri links, (Tushratta letters, and others).