Ishara

Two interesting snippets, from:

van Wyk, Susandra J. The concealed crime of the naditu priestess in §110 of the Laws of Hammurabi. Journal for Semitics 24/1 (2015) 109-145.

"I translate MÍ.É.GAL as 'consort' or 'wife' rather than 'queen' because it is clear that the Assyrians themselves conceived of a 'queen' (šarratu) as either a goddess, or a woman (always foreign) who actually ruled, such as the queen of the Arabs mentioned in Esarhaddon's annals."

"Another emblem associated with MÍ.É.GAL as the scorpion, a motif that has been found in both official and private contexts on numerous items from the women's quarters of various palaces. The scorpion symbol is associated with Išhara (the goddess representing Ištar in her married state) and is usually found only on items related to women."
 

In pursuit of Išḫara the married Ishtar, I followed van Wyk's reference about the scorpions to three articles:

Herbordt, Susan. "Neo-Assyrian Royal and Administrative Seals and Their Use." in H. Waetzoldt and H. Hauptmann (eds), Assyrien im Wandel der Zeiten, 39 RAI Heidelberg July 1992, HSAO 6 (1997) 279-283.

"... there is good reason to assume the scorpion to be a symbol associated with the administration of the queen -- at least in the reign of Sennacherib. A symbolic meaning of the scorpion in this context is not clear. Since late Kassite times, it was used as a symbol for the goddess Išḫara, who shows a variety of characteristics from being a goddess of love, mother goddess and goddess of extispicy to being war goddess."
 

(Herbordt's references are in German, alas.)

Stol, Marten and F. A. M. Wiggermann. Birth in Babylonia and the Bible: Its Mediterranean Setting. Styx, Groningen, 2000.

This book quotes a passage from Atrahasis:

"At the moment of (their) marriage,

let Ištar rejoice in the House of ....

Nine days let there be made merry,

let them name Ištar 'Išḫara'."

And remarks: "We know from other texts that Ištar, the goddess of love, in marriage has the name Išḫara. Incantations show that she was a married goddess under this name: 'What Ištar does for Dumuzi, what Nananja does for her mate, what Išḫara does for her husband.' In a number of 'bed-scenes' we also see a scorpion; we assume that in these scenes the couple thus indicated is to be married. Her temple has the name 'House of the womb (šassuru)."

(Curse my inability to read German, or I'd be able to further pursue the references...)

Ishara again

OK, but is the Mesopotamian goddess Išḫara (apparently the name given to Ishtar on her marriage) the same as the Hittite goddess Išḫara? Why, yes:

Išḫara "was the main goddess of Ebla during the third millennium" (Kura was its main god), where she was the personal goddess of some kings. Her worship was more widespread than that of Ishtar; she had temples in the city of Ebla and throughout the kingdom. After the "first destruction" of the kingdom, however, she was replaced as main goddess and royal goddess by Ishtar, who was assimilated with Šauwuška.
 

Aha. "The cult of Išḫara spread from the region of Ebla as far as the Babylonia of the Akkadian period." She appears there in personal names, alongside Išḫara in a love spell, and "plays the role of Ištar" in the Epic of Gilgamesh and in Atrahasis. She had temples at Ur and Nippur, and also became part of pantheons elsewhere in Syria and in eastern Anatolia.
 

Išḫara has an important role in the Hurrian "Epic of Freeing", which describes her as "skillful in speaking, a goddess renowned for (her) wisdom. She "was the tutelary goddess of oath taking... This was the Išḫara the Hittites knew."

ETA: Here's Išḫara at Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East.

__

 

Yener, K. Aslihan and Harry A. Hoffner Jr. Recent developments in Hittite archaeology and history: papers in memory of Hans G. Güterbock. Winona Lake, IN, Eisenbrauns, 2002.