Gazbaba

Gazbaba's name is most likely derived from the Akkadian word kazbu, which can be translated as "sexual attraction."[3] A form ending in the hypocoristic suffix -īya/-āya/-ūya, ^dKa-az-ba-a-a,[4] is also attested, possibly representing an attempt at making the name more similar to Nanaya's, or simply resulting from confusion with a similar personal name.[5]

Little is known about Gazbaba's character, but she was associated with love and sex.[3] Šurpu describes her as ṣayyaḫatu, "the smiling one," which is likely a reference to the frequent mention of smiles in Akkadian erotic literature.[3] She belonged to a group of deities invoked in love incantations, which also included Inanna/Ishtar, Nanaya, Kanisurra and Ishara.[6] For example, one such texts contains the formula "Ishtar, Nanaya, Gazbaba help it!"[3]

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.[7] Most pairs of deities referred to this way are known from northern Mesopotamia.[8] In addition to Daughters of Ezida, known pairs were associated with Esagil in Babylon (Katunna and Sillush-tab),[9] Emeslam in Kutha (Tadmushtum, labeled as a daughter of Nergal in the god list An = Anum,[10] and Belet-ili),[11] Edubba in Kish (Iqbi-damiq, whose name means "she said 'it is fine!'," and Hussinni, "Remember me!")[12]), Ebabbar in Sippar (Mami and Ninegina}), Eibbi-Anum in Dilbat (Ipte-bita and Belet-eanni), and with an unnamed temple of Ningubalaga (Mannu-shanishu and Larsam-iti).[8][9] Further examples are however also known from Uruk, Nippur, Eridu and even Arbela in Assyria.[13] Additionally, some researchers, like Julia M. Asher-Greve and Joan Goodnick Westenholz, place the Ningublaga temple in the south, in Larsa.[9] Based on the fact that daughters of Esagil and of Ezida are identified as members of courts of Sarpanit and of Nanaya respectively, specifically as their hairdressers, it has been proposed by Andrew R. George that these pairs of goddesses were imagined as maidservants in the household of the major deity or deities of a given temple.[8]

It is commonly presumed in modern scholarship that Gazbaba might have 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.[14] It has been pointed out that while both Gazbaba and Kanisurra were connected with Nanaya, Gazbaba's link with this goddess appears to be stronger in known texts.[15][7] For example, she never appears alone in love incantations, always alongside Nanaya.[3]

Gazbaba was most likely worshiped in Uruk, and appears among other deities associated with this city, such as Kanisurra and Nanaya, in an exercise text from Babylon.[16] She is also present in the Old Babylonian god lists from Nippur and Isin.[2] She is also attested in Mari, though only in a single text listing deities belonging to the 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 fact that as a deity closely linked with Nanaya she would likely be mentioned shortly after her.[15]